Colts offseason discussion / Ballard Grievances (merge)

[Superman]

3 minutes ago, John Waylon said:

There’s no reason for the passive aggressiveness that a thread about Colts FA has also included criticism of Chris Ballard and an assessment of his job. Of course it would. It was always going to. And you somehow can’t participate because of that? 
 
Whatever.
 

I’ve never treated you with anything but respect, but that was lame and I’m blunt enough to tell you that. No disrespect intended, but no nonsense intended either. I shoot as straight as it gets, and that’s lame. 
 

This FA period is just another example of why Ballard is doing a bad job with this team overall. It should not matter what thread that is discussed in when it’s the same darn thing. 

 

What if there are factors you haven't stopped to consider, that influenced my desire to withdraw from this discussion in this thread? Why do you think there's a pinned Ballard grievance thread in the first place?

 

You're so worked up, guns drawn, bullets flying, that it doesn't matter. And if you can't see how rude and unnecessary that little exchange was, then so be it. But it was incredibly rude, and I'm blunt enough to call you on it.

[jvan1973]

2 minutes ago, John Waylon said:

There’s no reason for the passive aggressiveness that a thread about Colts FA has also included criticism of Chris Ballard and an assessment of his job. Of course it would. It was always going to. And you somehow can’t participate because of that? 
 
Whatever.
 

I’ve never treated you with anything but respect, but that was lame and I’m blunt enough to tell you that. No disrespect intended, but no nonsense intended either. I shoot as straight as it gets, and that’s lame. 
 

This FA period is just another example of why Ballard is doing a bad job with this team overall. It should not matter what thread that is discussed in when it’s the same darn thing. 

That's an opinion. And free agency isn't over.  My goodness.   

[JediXMan]

2 minutes ago, Colt Overseas said:

Think that’s everyone from the 2023 roster that’s either re-signed or signed somewhere else.

Not Safety which is this team most pressing need 😆 

[Zoltan]

3 minutes ago, Colt Overseas said:

Think that’s everyone from the 2023 roster that’s either re-signed or signed somewhere else.

I’m really glad to see that we resigned him, Pinter is a fantastic backup Center and while Kelly was pretty healthy this year it’s good to have Pinter as depth. 

[smittywerb]

Looking back, I wish we had went with what I hoped we did.  Would’ve turned out much better:

 

- Resign our major players (which we did outside of Blackmon)

 

- sign McKinney.  I know, Ballard said he doesn’t like to pay safties a lot, but I think McKinney would’ve been worth it.  He’s an all-pro, 24, and top 5 at his position.  The money we were thinking of giving sneed could’ve went to McKinney and it wouldn’t have taken any draft compensation.

 

- sign a vet CB.  Look at Kendall fuller.  Went for $8mill/yr and can play both nickel and outside.  Wouldn’t have costed what sneed was going to cost us and would’ve solidified our CB room.

 

this would’ve set us to take the best offensive player with our first pick.  Or maybe even grab Arnold if he was still there and just load our cb room up even more.  
 

But nope, we resigned our players, which I love, but what did we do to get better?  We came close to the playoffs last year but teams in our division made moves to get better.  We made moves to stay pat.  If AR doesn’t come in and play like he’s a top 10 QB next year, we’re done.  And I’ve been a supporter of Ballard, but if we fail yet again he needs to go.  Get a GM in here who will do what’s needed to build a winner.  The foundation is here, just needs to be built upon, not sustained.

 

i know, it’s the second week of FA and it’s still players we can get but I can’t look at our team and say “we’re doing what we need to do to get better”.

[Zoltan]

As for Mike Edwards, I don’t know much about him. Anyone know if he is more of a SS or FS?

[w87r]

5 minutes ago, Colt Overseas said:

Think that’s everyone from the 2023 roster that’s either re-signed or signed somewhere else.

Blackmon and Henry Black.

[John Waylon]

1 minute ago, Superman said:

 

What if there are factors you haven't stopped to consider, that influenced my desire to withdraw from this discussion in this thread?

 

You're so worked up, guns drawn, bullets flying, that it doesn't matter. And if you can't see how rude and unnecessary that little exchange was, then so be it. But it was incredibly rude, and I'm blunt enough to call you on it.

Then just walk away. Why make the edit to add? If you don’t want to participate in something any longer, don’t. You had to try to act like you were taking the high road by letting everyone know you were walking away. 
 

Or just say “agree to disagree” and move on. 
 

“It’s not an airport, no need for departure announcements”

[BlackTiger]

1 minute ago, JediXMan said:

Not Safety which is this team most pressing need 😆 

We can start Cross and Harrison, who is even left that would be an upgrade over them?  

 

I think our starting outside Corners are Flowers and Brents?  To me thats worse

[w87r]

1 minute ago, Zoltan said:

As for Mike Edwards, I don’t know much about him. Anyone know if he is more of a SS or FS?

Both

[csmopar]

1 hour ago, John Waylon said:

If Richardson is a bust there’s a 0% chance he keeps his job. What owner in the league would keep a GM for 10 years with no division titles, who obviously can’t land a QB to do what he wants? 
 

We’ve sat around for over a year now and talked about how tied to Richardson Ballard is with absolutely no dispute, and now all the sudden he’s magically not?!

 

No. If Richardson is a bust Ballard is going to be someone else’s problem. There is a 100% chance. 

Oh I agree. I’m just saying it’s not hot right now. 

[w87r]

3 minutes ago, BlackTiger said:

We can start Cross and Harrison, who is even left that would be an upgrade over them?  

 

I think our starting outside Corners are Flowers and Brents?  To me thats worse

S:

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/free-agents/all/safety/all/

CB:

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/free-agents/all/cornerback/all/

 

 

These links have FAs that were signed and remaining FAs.

[Superman]

4 minutes ago, John Waylon said:

You had to try to act like you were taking the high road by letting everyone know you were walking away. 

 

That's how you see it. You're completely wrong about that, though.

[Yoshinator]

9 minutes ago, Colt Overseas said:

Think that’s everyone from the 2023 roster that’s either re-signed or signed somewhere else.

I'm fine with this honestly. Pinter is a good backup that's a decent starter. Saves us a day 3 pick we'd have to develop at C with someone who is good to decent already and knows the system. Absolutely fine with this signing.

[John Waylon]

2 minutes ago, csmopar said:

Oh I agree. I’m just saying it’s not hot right now. 

No, not at this moment. Even if the wheels fall off and Richardson looks every bit a rookie this season he’s safe. The third year is when the heat would start to rise. 

[Zoltan]

Everyone acting like Free Agency is over while there are still great players available. Yeah the big names are gone but there are still great players available at positions of need, will we sign them who knows but it’s not like our Front office has been taking the last 2weeks off. I do think Steven Nelson could be a great addition at CB because all he does is sign 1 year deals as depth then steals a starting position. It just screams like a Ballard type of signing. 

6 minutes ago, John Waylon said:

Then just walk away. Why make the edit to add? If you don’t want to participate in something any longer, don’t. You had to try to act like you were taking the high road by letting everyone know you were walking away. 
 

Or just say “agree to disagree” and move on. 
 

“It’s not an airport, no need for departure announcements”

Can you take the is back and forth into a private chat

[BlackTiger]

3 minutes ago, w87r said:

S:

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/free-agents/all/safety/all/

CB:

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/free-agents/all/cornerback/all/

 

 

These link have FAs that were signed and remaining FAs.

Good to know, the safeties on there look kind of old, im not seeing many that i think are much of an upgrade but we do need depth.

 

I think there are some corners that would be an upgrade

[John Waylon]

1 minute ago, Superman said:

 

That's how you see it. You're completely wrong about that, though.

That is absolutely how I took it and I don’t expect that from you, so if I took it wrong then I apologize, but it came across that way to me in real time. 
 

No hard feelings, it’s just football. We’re passionate in our own ways. 

[Zoltan]

5 minutes ago, w87r said:

Both

Not gonna lie, I’m hoping we would go with a pure FS. As I feel they have better coverage instincts vs the type of safety that plays both positions 

[Yoshinator]

Just now, Zoltan said:

Everyone acting like Free Agency is over while there are still great players available. Yeah the big names are gone but there are still great players available at positions of need, will we sign them who knows but it’s not like our Front office has been taking the last 2weeks off. I do think Steven Nelson could be a great addition at CB because all he does is sign 1 year deals as depth then steals a starting position. It just screams like a Ballard type of signing. 

The issue is Ballard almost never spends in FA. This has been going on for 7 going on 8 years now. It's no longer a wait and see thing where we might do something. It's just we aren't doing anything.

 

At the beginning there was the thought we may do something with Richardson as the possible franchise QB now. It continued when we were supposedly in talks for Sneed. There were some talks for Danielle Hunter. Like usual though, it turned into nothing because of a possible combination of money and/or draft capital where Ballard didn't want to spend or give draft capital up.

 

We may sign someone decent still, but overall, we basically have the same team with a worse secondary and we are paying the same players more money. The AFC is the tougher conference and we really aren't any better now than last year at this point with most of the top FAs signed. Our history says we won't sign someone big or make a big trade either (just one with Buckner). 

 

So we're headed into the draft without any improvement and now we have to depend on rookies in year 1 as the improvement along with improvements from our own. It hasn't worked under Ballard for 7 years, and unless AR has an insane breakout season, I doubt it works this year.

[w87r]

I don't think either of these deals did much to the cap.

 

Have us sitting around $18.4m-$18.9m

 

 

Colts are also up to (75) players.

(7) draft picks, likely more

 

Gets us to (82) at a minimum more than likely

 

 

Leaves (8-9*) spots for FAs and UDFA after the draft.

 

 

*9 if Marcel Dabo is still a free roster spot. I believe he still is 

 

 

Not much going to happen. I do anticipate the vet CB and S and maybe RB, might not even be till after the draft though.

 

 

As far as the draft. With Sneed looking off the board, CB comes back into play in round 1.

 

Round 1 CB/WR/Edge

Round 2 WR/S/LB

Round 3 S/CB/WR

Round 4 CB/RB/OL

 

 

Something like that, really narrows it down doesn't it.

[ADnum1]

Why are Colts fans so angry?

[ColtStrong2013]

Just now, PRnum1 said:

Why are Colts fans so angry?

It’s not colts fans, it’s just society in general… We take our anger out on something we are passionate about. I’d rather it be the colts than families and children though… 

[Superman]

2 minutes ago, John Waylon said:

That is absolutely how I took it and I don’t expect that from you, so if I took it wrong then I apologize, but it came across that way to me in real time. 
 

No hard feelings, it’s just football. We’re passionate in our own ways. 

 

Fair enough. You said earlier that you've never treated me with anything but respect. I assume there's a reason for that. So I would just hope to be given the benefit of the doubt in that kind of situation.

 

Looking back, my wording in that edit wasn't carefully considered, but I didn't really anticipate anyone to take issue with me withdrawing from that part of the conversation. If I had, I probably would have worded it differently.

[Yoshinator]

2 minutes ago, PRnum1 said:

Why are Colts fans so angry?

Read my post above like 5 posts.

[Colt Overseas]

2 minutes ago, Zoltan said:

Not gonna lie, I’m hoping we would go with a pure FS. As I feel they have better coverage instincts vs the type of safety that plays both positions 

I’m really interested in seeing what Ballard does with the FS position, given how important the position is in Bradley’s defense. That’s under the assumption that he won’t want to have Thomas as the starter given Thomas’ struggles and subsequent benching last season. And also Cross then struggling too, who is more of a SS imo anyway. 

 

Just wonder, or maybe hoping, that we might be seeing Justin Simmons calling in for a visit in the coming weeks. To see if he still is moving well enough at 30. I reckon there is enough cap space to sign him by the looks of things. Diggs could be another option. I don’t know do I see a solution in the draft to be honest, there are not many FS options and the good ones are split and not single high.

[NewColtsFan]

20 minutes ago, BlackTiger said:

We can start Cross and Harrison, who is even left that would be an upgrade over them?  

 

I think our starting outside Corners are Flowers and Brents?  To me thats worse

If you think k that’s worse, then you missed the entire point of last season.  The point was to play the kids, let them learn the hard way, and gain experience.  Doing that would make them better prepared for 2024.   
 

Replacing them with other players defeats the whole point of last year.  How can they show improvement if we replace them now?  

[NewColtsFan]

5 minutes ago, Colt Overseas said:

I’m really interested in seeing what Ballard does with the FS position, given how important the position is in Bradley’s defense. That’s under the assumption that he won’t want to have Thomas as the starter given Thomas’ struggles and subsequent benching last season. And also Cross then struggling too, who is more of a SS imo anyway. 

 

Just wonder, or maybe hoping, that we might be seeing Justin Simmons calling in for a visit in the coming weeks. To see if he still is moving well enough at 30. I reckon there is enough cap space to sign him by the looks of things. Diggs could be another option. I don’t know do I see a solution in the draft to be honest, there are not many FS options and the good ones are split and not single high.

Curious?   When was it revealed that FS is more important in Bradley’s defense than any other DC’s defense.  Honestly, I missed that.  

[BlackTiger]

9 minutes ago, NewColtsFan said:

If you think k that’s worse, then you missed the entire point of last season.  

Those two are ok but they wont scare the best WRs in the league.  I know we are not all in this year and I personally am ok with that but I think this group needs an upgrade still.

 

They can guard average players but the better QBs and WRs are going to put up a lot on these guys and I think we should do better.   We dont have much depth either, one injury and we are starting guys that people have barely heard of.

 

If we dont sign anyone then the chances of drafting one are probably pretty high but thats adding a rookie to an already young group.  

[richard pallo]

6 minutes ago, PRnum1 said:

Why are Colts fans so angry?

Ballard not moving fast enough on outside FA I would say.  It’s clear his first priority was to bring back his own.  The Pinter signing pretty much finished the job with the exception of Blackmon.  So now the focus will be addressing the needs and holes on the roster.  And we are only just starting the second week of FA.  I have no complaints with the exception of the Sneed rumors.  And I’m still not convinced it won’t happen.  I’m now expecting an outside FA or two in the not too distant future.

[Blueblood23]

19 minutes ago, PRnum1 said:

Why are Colts fans so angry?

Maybe they are mad that they have the same team as last year paying them more money. I guess we’re all in with this roster. Very disappointed they sighed almost everyone. I hope they don’t sign Blackman. 

[smittywerb]

13 minutes ago, NewColtsFan said:

Curious?   When was it revealed that FS is more important in Bradley’s defense than any other DC’s defense.  Honestly, I missed that.  

in a cover 2 or any variation of it, the safeties are probably the second most important position group.  With the MLB and DEs probably being the most important.  If you can’t defend deep in the cover 2, then it pretty much defeats the point of playing the cover 2 

[ADnum1]

32 minutes ago, Yoshinator said:

The issue is Ballard almost never spends in FA. This has been going on for 7 going on 8 years now. It's no longer a wait and see thing where we might do something. It's just we aren't doing anything.

 

At the beginning there was the thought we may do something with Richardson as the possible franchise QB now. It continued when we were supposedly in talks for Sneed. There were some talks for Danielle Hunter. Like usual though, it turned into nothing because of a possible combination of money and/or draft capital where Ballard didn't want to spend or give draft capital up.

 

We may sign someone decent still, but overall, we basically have the same team with a worse secondary and we are paying the same players more money. The AFC is the tougher conference and we really aren't any better now than last year at this point with most of the top FAs signed. Our history says we won't sign someone big or make a big trade either (just one with Buckner). 

 

So we're headed into the draft without any improvement and now we have to depend on rookies in year 1 as the improvement along with improvements from our own. It hasn't worked under Ballard for 7 years, and unless AR has an insane breakout season, I doubt it works this year.

[csmopar]

32 minutes ago, PRnum1 said:

Why are Colts fans so angry?

Cause there’s just whole thread about Ballard that apparently is too complicated for the majority to understand how to use it to whine about Ballard

[ChuggaBeer]

18 minutes ago, smittywerb said:

in a cover 2 or any variation of it, the safeties are probably the second most important position group.  With the MLB and DEs probably being the most important.  If you can’t defend deep in the cover 2, then it pretty much defeats the point of playing the cover 2 

3tech, DE, SS, MLB   Those were Dungy's choices

 

[1959Colts]

 

[GoColts8818]

43 minutes ago, PRnum1 said:

Why are Colts fans so angry?

Not all of us are.  I’ve accepted I have no control over this and I know who Ballard is so all I can do is watch and hope for the best and not be shocked when Ballard does Ballard things even if it’s not how I would run the team.

[Zoltan]

37 minutes ago, Yoshinator said:

The issue is Ballard almost never spends in FA. This has been going on for 7 going on 8 years now. It's no longer a wait and see thing where we might do something. It's just we aren't doing anything.

 

At the beginning there was the thought we may do something with Richardson as the possible franchise QB now. It continued when we were supposedly in talks for Sneed. There were some talks for Danielle Hunter. Like usual though, it turned into nothing because of a possible combination of money and/or draft capital where Ballard didn't want to spend or give draft capital up.

 

We may sign someone decent still, but overall, we basically have the same team with a worse secondary and we are paying the same players more money. The AFC is the tougher conference and we really aren't any better now than last year at this point with most of the top FAs signed. Our history says we won't sign someone big or make a big trade either (just one with Buckner). 

 

So we're headed into the draft without any improvement and now we have to depend on rookies in year 1 as the improvement along with improvements from our own. It hasn't worked under Ballard for 7 years, and unless AR has an insane breakout season, I doubt it works this year.

Like I said FA isn’t over, just because some fans had unrealistic expectations, doesn’t mean we don’t make good FA signings. We talked with Hunter but he decided to go to his home state. The Sneed talk turned out to be not real. The one thing we do know is Ballard usually signs low risk high reward FAs like Gilmore or players that may excel with more snaps like Ebukam, both were very underrated signings. They weren’t big names but were more effective than many big name signings. (Not to mention the steal of Kenny Moore off waivers)
 

Frankly I don’t care about “big” signings because they mostly aren’t worth it and the one thing the Colts do is find hidden gems that play better than there FA contracts. 

[1959Colts]

 

[Zoltan]

41 minutes ago, Colt Overseas said:

I’m really interested in seeing what Ballard does with the FS position, given how important the position is in Bradley’s defense. That’s under the assumption that he won’t want to have Thomas as the starter given Thomas’ struggles and subsequent benching last season. And also Cross then struggling too, who is more of a SS imo anyway. 

 

Just wonder, or maybe hoping, that we might be seeing Justin Simmons calling in for a visit in the coming weeks. To see if he still is moving well enough at 30. I reckon there is enough cap space to sign him by the looks of things. Diggs could be another option. I don’t know do I see a solution in the draft to be honest, there are not many FS options and the good ones are split and not single high.

Yeah Cross really shouldn’t be playing FS, he’s a SS and nickel, last year he was really an emergency FS. I remember I think Bradley saying that Cross wasn’t getting playing time early because he only practiced at the SS and Nickel position, which Blackmon and Moore were healthy making it hard for him to play.