The Colts Goals this year?

[Patrick Miller]

Would you agree that the Colts have chosen to give AR reps/experience and keep Bradley in effect giving us a top 5 draft pick?……over starting Flacco and trying to improve the defense (jettisoning Bradley) so we can win NOW and have a chance in the playoffs? I mean, if Richardson DOESNT pan out and we do have a top five draft pick I guess we can draft his replacement. Or if he DOES improve his accuracy/decision making and it looks like he may pan out we could use that top five draft pick to improve the defense. Steichen said yesterday “ we are trying to win football games. That is the bottom line.” . I don’t buy it. what say u?

[Smonroe]

26 minutes ago, Patrick Miller said:

Would you agree that the Colts have chosen to give AR reps/experience and keep Bradley in effect giving us a top 5 draft pick?……over starting Flacco and trying to improve the defense (jettisoning Bradley) so we can win NOW and have a chance in the playoffs? I mean, if Richardson DOESNT pan out and we do have a top five draft pick I guess we can draft his replacement. Or if he DOES improve his accuracy/decision making and it looks like he may pan out we could use that top five draft pick to improve the defense. Steichen said yesterday “ we are trying to win football games. That is the bottom line.” . I don’t buy it. what say u?

They are always trying to win football games.  When we used to rest players at the end of the season (in the Manning years), they always said they were trying to win.  
 

But they weren’t doing everything they could to win.  Same here.  Shane is trying to win.  
 

I dont know what the H Gus and Ballard are trying to do.  So you may be 100% right for ll I know.  

[RollerColt]

1 hour ago, Patrick Miller said:

Would you agree that the Colts have chosen to give AR reps/experience and keep Bradley in effect giving us a top 5 draft pick?……over starting Flacco and trying to improve the defense (jettisoning Bradley) so we can win NOW and have a chance in the playoffs? I mean, if Richardson DOESNT pan out and we do have a top five draft pick I guess we can draft his replacement. Or if he DOES improve his accuracy/decision making and it looks like he may pan out we could use that top five draft pick to improve the defense. Steichen said yesterday “ we are trying to win football games. That is the bottom line.” . I don’t buy it. what say u?

If they’re intentionally tanking basically, that would mean their jobs are safe for next year. Unless Ballard and Bradley just want to get fired on purpose. That seems extremely unlikely to me. 
 

So the real goal of this season? The same goal we were supposed to have last year before the stupid Titans game: figure out if AR is the guy. And if he’s not then we have to start the search all over again. 
 

I’ve got a bad feeling about this game. Here we are in week 6 facing the Titans (week 5 last year). 

[coltsfan_canada]

Colts goal is always to win and entertain their fans. Unfortunately, they are not succeeding with it. Injuries, Personnel, you pick the poison. 

[John Waylon]

Finish anywhere between 7 and 10 and 9 and 8, hear a few “that’s on me’s” after the season and get ready to do it all again next year. Trust that binder!

[Solid84]

[DoubleE Colt]

You would think the main goals are to win as many games as possible and hopefully find out if they have anything in AR by season's end and fingers crossed we don't end up with a middle of the road draft pick and the realisation AR isn't progressing as hoped! 

[NewColtsFan]

7 hours ago, Patrick Miller said:

Would you agree that the Colts have chosen to give AR reps/experience and keep Bradley in effect giving us a top 5 draft pick?……over starting Flacco and trying to improve the defense (jettisoning Bradley) so we can win NOW and have a chance in the playoffs? I mean, if Richardson DOESNT pan out and we do have a top five draft pick I guess we can draft his replacement. Or if he DOES improve his accuracy/decision making and it looks like he may pan out we could use that top five draft pick to improve the defense. Steichen said yesterday “ we are trying to win football games. That is the bottom line.” . I don’t buy it. what say u?

Steichen is trying to win every game he can.   It was only a year ago he had all the excuses to try to tank and give the team a top 10 pick.  Maybe even top 5.   But the Colts almost went 10-7 and finished with the 15th overall pick.   
 

I’ll predict this….  Even if AR plays every game the rest of the way,  the Colts will NOT finish with a top-5 pick.   Maybe top-10,  but not top-5.   

[Patrick Miller]

57 minutes ago, NewColtsFan said:

Steichen is trying to win every game he can.   It was only a year ago he had all the excuses to try to tank and give the team a top 10 pick.  Maybe even top 5.   But the Colts almost went 10-7 and finished with the 15th overall pick.   
 

I’ll predict this….  Even if AR plays every game the rest of the way,  the Colts will NOT finish with a top-5 pick.   Maybe top-10,  but not top-5.   

Should be interesting to see. I just don’t see us winning more than 4 or 5 games.

[jemack]

If they wanted to tank, they'd start Ehlinger over Flacco. Or AR over Flacco.... 😁

[cdgacoltsfan]

10 hours ago, Patrick Miller said:

Would you agree that the Colts have chosen to give AR reps/experience and keep Bradley in effect giving us a top 5 draft pick?……over starting Flacco and trying to improve the defense (jettisoning Bradley) so we can win NOW and have a chance in the playoffs? I mean, if Richardson DOESNT pan out and we do have a top five draft pick I guess we can draft his replacement. Or if he DOES improve his accuracy/decision making and it looks like he may pan out we could use that top five draft pick to improve the defense. Steichen said yesterday “ we are trying to win football games. That is the bottom line.” . I don’t buy it. what say u?

[Restinpeacesweetchloe]

No. We can win with AR. AR will not be the reason we lose games. 

[Flash7]

1. They are trying to win games.

 

2. They are also invested in AR and his progress. Ballard's career is tied to AR.

 

3. If it's not Gus, Ballard will go out and find another soft cover-2, cover-3 defensive coordinator. This is Ballard's vision for his ideal defense. We know this because he's hired 2 defensive coordinators that run a soft, zone defense. He drafts specifically for this defense.

[2006Coltsbestever]

4 hours ago, Patrick Miller said:

Should be interesting to see. I just don’t see us winning more than 4 or 5 games.

With AR we will still win 9 or 10 games. We have some real weapons on offense finally. No way we pick in the top 5. We will sweep the Titans, beat the Jags here, and beat teams like the Pats, Giants, Dolphins, Jets, etc.. That is 9 wins right there alone. If we somehow and go to Houston and win, we could win the division. 

[shasta519]

19 minutes ago, Flash7 said:

1. They are trying to wind games.

 

2. They are also invested in AR and his progress. Ballard's career is tied to AR.

 

3. If it's not Gus, Ballard will go out and find another soft cover-2, cover-3 defensive coordinator. This is Ballard's vision for his ideal defense. We know this because he's hired 2 defensive coordinators that run a soft, zone defense. He drafts specifically for this defense.

Saw a lot of the Colts Twitter heads clamoring for Saleh to be DC after he was fired by the NYJ. 

It could happen I suppose, but it would mean Ballard is gone. And logistically, it would take at least a couple years to build that type of defense. Not sure any of the front 7, beyond DeFo and maybe Dayo, could translate. Speed and Franklin are too small. Paye and Latu in coverage?  

 

Not to mention that half of the current starting defense is under contract through 2026. 
 

Nothing will change for a while without Ballard and a rebuild.

[Patrick Miller]

2 hours ago, cdgacoltsfan said:

Dude seriously. 

[Patrick Miller]

1 hour ago, Restinpeacesweetchloe said:

No. We can win with AR. AR will not be the reason we lose games. 

U sure about that? The defense is the biggest factor but AR will have his fair share of the blame if he continues to overthrow wide open receivers and/or continues to turn the ball over.

[Restinpeacesweetchloe]

5 minutes ago, Patrick Miller said:

U sure about that? The defense is the biggest factor but AR will have his fair share of the blame if he continues to overthrow wide open receivers and/or continues to turn the ball over.

Some of you don’t realize that this is a good offense whether it’s Flacco or AR. We just run a different  offense with each of them. Steichen has already proven even with Minshew last year he knows how to generate points.

[shasta519]

18 minutes ago, 2006Coltsbestever said:

With AR we will still win 9 or 10 games. We have some real weapons on offense finally. No way we pick in the top 5. We will sweep the Titans, beat the Jags here, and beat teams like the Pats, Giants, Dolphins, Jets, etc.. That is 9 wins right there alone. If we somehow and go to Houston and win, we could win the division. 

 

Appreciate the optimism, but going 7-5 or 8-4 over the next 12 games seems like a huge ask, especially with this defense.

 

7 of those 12 games are on the road, including the Pats, Giants and Broncos, which are 3 of the more winnable games.

 

We will see what happens against TEN, but the Colts have not really played well on the road so far. Both wins are at home. 

 

I think a lot would have to go right, like it did against the Steelers. I think they finish more in the 6-7 win range with AR or Flacco.

[twfish]

The goal undoubtedly is to see what we have in AR and get him meaningful snaps. Winning games along the way is clearly always what is hoped, but at the end of the day we have to see what we have in our #4 overall QB. We all have complained about Ballard and using band aid QB's and now the same people who have been screaming about that have been yelling for Flacco to start. It's quite baffling to me. 

 

Richardson is either going to be superstar or  a massive bust. I don't feel like there is a in between with him but being as young as he is and with as much potential as he has we have no choice but to be patient with him and hope that it all continues to come together. We wanted Ballard to take a swing on a guy and he did so now we have to see how its going to pan out.

 

I hate Gus, I've posted many times about my hatred of him and created topics about it. I don't know why we brought him in aside from needing leadership under Reich. Shane believes in him or else he would have been gone this past offseason. I do believe he will be gone this coming offseason.

 

The team as a whole is not nearly as bad as you are leading it out to be though. We still go +.500 on the year, we got our curses done and over with. Now is when we should get in a good grove.

[Restinpeacesweetchloe]

14 minutes ago, shasta519 said:

 

Appreciate the optimism, but going 7-5 or 8-4 over the next 12 games seems like a huge ask, especially with this defense.

 

7 of those 12 games are on the road, including the Pats, Giants and Broncos, which are 3 of the more winnable games.

 

We will see what happens against TEN, but the Colts have not really played well on the road so far. Both wins are at home. 

 

I think a lot would have to go right, like it did against the Steelers. I think they finish more in the 6-7 win range with AR or Flacco.

If colts can stay at around .500 until that last stretch of the season they could be in good shape. The last stretch isn’t difficult and you would hope colts would be healthier. 

[John Hammonds]

13 hours ago, Patrick Miller said:

Would you agree that the Colts have chosen to give AR reps/experience and keep Bradley in effect giving us a top 5 draft pick?……over starting Flacco and trying to improve the defense (jettisoning Bradley) so we can win NOW and have a chance in the playoffs? I mean, if Richardson DOESNT pan out and we do have a top five draft pick I guess we can draft his replacement. Or if he DOES improve his accuracy/decision making and it looks like he may pan out we could use that top five draft pick to improve the defense. Steichen said yesterday “ we are trying to win football games. That is the bottom line.” . I don’t buy it. what say u?

I do not think the plan was to tank intentionally.  Nor to try to get a high draft pick.

 

I think that Ballard and the coaching staff understood that the overarching goal of this season was to give AR the reps he needed to grow.  Yes, they would like to win.  But he's a young guy with very little experience.  And he needs that experience.

 

SO! -- If our young QB needs the experience, we also have a bunch of other young players.  Who also need the experience.  Let's have this year be all about "getting the young guys the experience they need".

 

Thus -- QB Richardson, SS Nick Cross, CB JuJu Brents, CB Jaylon Jones, TE Jelani Woods, DE Laiatu Latu -- all these young guys are supposed to play.

(It's the only explanation that makes sense for why Ballard didn't go get a veteran corner.)

 

However, half of that list is already experiencing injury issues.  Woods and Brents are out.  Richardson is hurt.  Again.  The plan isn't working as well as we'd like because we can't get the guys on the field.

[shasta519]

10 minutes ago, Restinpeacesweetchloe said:

Some of you don’t realize that this is a good offense whether it’s Flacco or AR. We just run a different  offense with each of them. Steichen has already proven even with Minshew last year he knows how to generate points.

 

I would disagree. 

 

In Weeks 1-3 (with AR starting full-time), they were #24 in EPA/play. Then two good drives to start Week 4 against PIT (before AR got hurt), it was good. So maybe it was trending that way, but that is an incredibly small sample. And outside of those two drives against PIT, this has not been a good offense with AR. 

 

Then in Week 5 (with Flacco), they were #2 in EPA/play. That's a massive leap with Flacco. But this game was against JAC, arguably the worst defense in the NFL, who managed to surrender 24 pts in the 4Q, including 14 in the course of less than 2:00.

 

I do think the offense is better right now with Flacco because he can make the passes, but I fear teams will adjust eventually. I have far less confidence it's a good offense with AR until he can show he can make those short/intermediate passes.

 

If we dig a bit deeper, the Colts offensive metrics and rankings are sort of propped up by 3 great quarters of football (out of 20 total):

• 4Q against HOU (14 pts)
• 1Q against PIT (14 pts)
• 4Q against JAC (24 pts)

Those 3 quarters account 15% of their quarters played, yet make up 40% of their pts scored. 

 

And in the case of HOU and JAC, Colts were down by multiple scores for most of that time playing catchup, which is not really sustainable or necessarily a good thing. Where's that offense been in the other 17 quarters of football.

 

I really like Steichen and some of the pieces on the offense, so this isn't me saying the Colts offense is bad or can't be good. But right now, it's been more inconsistent than good. And I think we need to resist the recency bias after one game against a bottom 2 defense. 

 

That's why I am in favor of AR starting regardless...because it's what best for this team long-term. But I don't agree it's a good offense with him, at least not until he can consistently show it.

[Solid84]

1 hour ago, shasta519 said:

Saw a lot of the Colts Twitter heads clamoring for Saleh to be DC after he was fired by the NYJ. 

It could happen I suppose, but it would mean Ballard is gone. And logistically, it would take at least a couple years to build that type of defense. Not sure any of the front 7, beyond DeFo and maybe Dayo, could translate. Speed and Franklin are too small. Paye and Latu in coverage?  

 

Not to mention that half of the current starting defense is under contract through 2026. 
 

Nothing will change for a while without Ballard and a rebuild.

I do believe Saleh runs a scheme very similar to Gus actually. What Saleh likes though are good DBs and Ballard has generally not valued those positions much.

[shasta519]

48 minutes ago, Restinpeacesweetchloe said:

If colts can stay at around .500 until that last stretch of the season they could be in good shape. The last stretch isn’t difficult and you would hope colts would be healthier. 

 

To be .500 when, they would have to go 4-3 against TEN (road), MIA (home), HOU (road), MIN (road), BUF (home), NYJ (road) and DET (home). Getting 4 wins out of that seems very optimistic.

 

To do it, they better win the next two. But they are only -1 on the road against TEN, so that's a coin flip. And then they get the post-bye MIA team, which is a bit of a wildcard.

 

If they beat TEN and MIA, they would still have to beat 2 of HOU/MIN/BUF/NYJ/DET, which is possible I guess, but seems like a lot to ask. 

 

If they can get to 5-7 after that run of games, which I think is probably the most likely best case case scenario...then they have 3 of the final 5 "winnable" games on the road too. They would have to go 4-1 or 5-0 to get to 9-10 wins at that point. 

 

Just seems like a stretch. I do think people will get back healthy, but I think the road game aspect is the biggest factor. I was at 6-9 wins before the season. Now I see it as more on the bottom of that range at 6-7 wins. But there's a lot of season left.

 

 

[Restinpeacesweetchloe]

AR has also faced much harder defenses than Flacco. Jags are horrible on defense. Let’s not forget that the offense struggled against Steelers when Flacco came in and that’s why Steelers were able to come back.