They also supposedly liked the DE group on the team last year a lot. Same for WR the prior year. I’m sure they’ll draft someone as well so Pryor won’t be the only option, but to me it’s to important of a position to be wrong on.

McAfee is good, but sometimes he can get annoying as hell.

It was a good interview. Pat asks him straight up questions.

I'm not against Pryor getting a shot. When you let players pay that work hard it attracts other players and it also makes younger guys work for those starting spots.

Ballard know he let the team down by not adding enough talent.

IMO TY will be back and I hope he is. He can still be a good asset to this team. Not the #1 or #2. But he can still have a roll.

QB is signed and now it will be easier to attract talent.

They specifically talked about that, too. How it's hard to convince a guy to come when QB is in flux and that he understands. Obvious point, but I thought him bringing it up made it sound like he may have took a shot at a guy (or guys).

Not enough talent? They had a winning record with a knucklehead Qb.

yep, and l like seeing ballard let lose a bit. they have a good rapport and its fun to watch.

DE in particular cost this team games. WR became an issue again and LT was a big issue early while waiting for Fischer to get healthy enough. The knucklehead QB was definitely the biggest issue, but they’d have made the playoffs despite Wentz if Ballard had done more last offseason. Especially at DE.

That’s not to say they aren’t talented, just that there were obvious issues they could have done more to address.

Probably not enough to legit contend for the SB in the stacked AFC. Good chance to contend in our division, but I wouldn't bet on us over the Bills or Chefs right now and probably not the Bengals or Chargers. Browns, Ravens, Tits, and Pats are also pretty strong. AFC is really competitive right now.

I like Pryor too. He's a really good and versatile backup. Glad we re-signed him. But after trading for Ryan we are or at least should be in win now mode. LT is too important of a position to leave it in the hands of a swing backup or a rookie unless he's a sure fire top of the 1st round talent.

Ballard really needs to bring in a good veteran LT as well as at least 1 if not 2 WRs.

If Ballard's even admitting that he did a shitty job last year then you probably should too.

Their teams are pretty well complete. Ours isn't. I am not worried about LT, I have total confidence in Ballard filling that. If Ballard can find a WR or two (I have not given up at Campbell like most have. He is do to have an injury free season) then I think we have the only complete team in the AFC; defense/offense/special teams. I feel so much better about our defense now that we have a pass rusher, not to mention the jump I expect from last years draft choices. We are not there yet but you can see how we can get there. Couldn't say that for the last 2-3 months. Pretty damn good two weeks Ballard has had.

I am not sure Ballard admitted he did a shitty job last year. He admitted he didn't do enough. He missed on Wentz and I may be alone on this but I believe COVID cost us in the end also. We didn't have a pass rush, Ballard gambled on rookies and lost. But damn man, he didn't double down but saw that he hadn't done enough and went about rectifying it, both Wentz and the pass rush. I'm falling back in love with the guy as a GM. It is special to make mistakes and learn from them, especially when you have such a public job.

I don't believe covid had anything to do with costing us in the end. Personally, that's just an excuse I can't and won't buy. We had a shitty QB and it killed us, plain and simple. But you are not alone on this covid excuse, there are many others.

We had a bunch of dipshits including leaders who are anti-vax, it costs us.

I totally agree that it is no excuse. I would really only say this to fellow Colt fans as it strikes me of whining to say it to other teams fans. I think studies in Europe with footballers have born out that even mild infection can adversely affect performance for quite some time. It was reckless of our guys to take that chance, whether it ended up costing us or not in my view.

Relied on the draft and some younger guys already on the team who either hadn't produced or couldn't stay healthy. Hopefully Ballard learned his lesson from this and doesn't do that anymore if at all possible going fwd. WR in particular worries me after reading some of his comments and knowing that our entire WR group outside of MPJ consists of either unproven guys or guys who can't stay healthy.

Didn't Ballard say the exact sort of thing about Tevi right before he signed Fisher last year?

Nope it didn't! Wentz was shit and that is what cost us.

Yep. I work with some younger guys that got covid. They recovered quickly but had the foggy brain for several weeks after. They eventually got over that but it took a bit of time. If wentz got covid I could see it affecting his already not so great mental processing of the game.

Spike I agree. I think COVID may have had something to do with it but COVID or no COVID Wentz was a POS even before he got COVID. That left handed bullshit girlie throw made me sick and he didn't have any COVID then. Glad he is gone.

I'm not sure how we'll do with getting quality WRs, but I sure as hell hope there are more receiving opportunities for Hines. He is IMO a game changer if used correctly. A modern Lenny Moore.

Getting Hines involved will help, no doubt. But we have 0 WRs on the team outside of MPJ who have 200 yds receiving in their careers. Ballard needs to bring at least 1 vet in and probably 2, and the pickings are getting pretty damn slim. We should be in win now mode and not rely on raw late round draft picks making hug leaps in the offseason. Even if we just bring TY back (saw where he was talking to the Cowboys) that will help.

Hines was actually tied for #2 on the team in receptions. He and JT both had 40. JT blowing up ate up a lot of his touches. He went from 156 touches to 96 touches the last two years. His per-touch averages were actually better last year which surprised me.

I'm trying to remember off hand... did Hines ever just play straight up slot-receiver at all last year? I know he would line up there, but they would do the motion-sweep/misdirection run. But did he ever run routes from the slot?

Hines is a RB. He does not run the whole WR route tree. Not saying he can't learn it. But he is not a slot receiver

Not the worst idea, put him outthere with JT and put Hines in motion

No, I know. And far be it from me to compare him to Marshall Faulk or even pretend like I'm thinking of something his coaches haven't considered... But I just started wondering after seeing how his touches went down...

He's super fast both straight-line and short-area quickness. He mostly catches out of the backfield, but they also line him up at wide-out and I know I've seen him catch like 10yd digs and stuff like that. I don't remember much out of the slot, though.

I'm sure JT blowing up had everything to do w/ Hines rushes being down. It also probably had some effect on Hines' reduction in targets, but I'm sure Wentz ignoring him out of the backfield had a lot to do with it too. Either way, I think we can all agree that Hines needs to be more involved in the passing game this year, and he probably will be with Ryan at QB instead of Wentz.

When Ballard says “ make the layups” he is talking about Wentz not checking down to Hines or the TEs. The offense production changed when wentz wouldnt take a 7 yard gain on a flair to Hines and screw up a pass down field into coverage

something seemed off the last couple weeks and that was when they all got hit with covid. i can see where the dots are connected


i just chalk it up to piss poor leadership of the players

I think a ton of blame for Hines last year is on Wentz. The best thing I heard from Ryan in his press conference is that he sees himself as a facilitator for his teammates. I took it to be like a point guard, seeing your teammates success as yours. I think he gets the ball into the hands of playmakers like Hines, makes it a priority. I’m hoping for a much more complete offense with this guy leading. Rose colored glasses in March, I know.

o


A year and-a-half after this heavily-posted thread was started, the author of this article ponders what the Kansas City Chiefs would look like today had Chris Ballard remained on-board there and been hired as their GM instead of taking over the Colts' job in January of 2017.



The Alternate Reality of Chris Ballard as Chiefs General Manager

(By Price Carter)

https://www.arrowheadpride.com/2022/...nager#comments

o

Interesting that the author of that article makes a lot of similar observations that those of us who have been critical of Ballard have made:

Ballard's pecs though, man puttin' in the work at the gym.

Can't stand him, think he should have been shit canned a couple years ago.

The author of that article hasn't watched the Colts. Holes at WR and LT? Pittman and Downs are both starting caliber, and Pierce is a viable deep threat, and the Colts are one of a very few teams in the league that have 2 players capable of starting at LT. I'd even argue they have the players at CB, they've just been hit by the injury bug.

we clearly need help at wr.


having only 2 good ones and just bodies after that is not ideal

Check the date on the article - it’s from Sept ‘22. At that time very, very valid observations. The question is does Ballard have the aggressiveness in him to ever put together a top tier roster and not push everything to 1-2 years down the road. We’ve seen it time after time. So often it’s hard to argue it’s not what he does. The question is: is that because he’s “rebuilding” still? Or is it just his philosophy. Unfortunately I think it’s the latter. He’s already had longer to “rebuild” that any GM I can remember. QB is in place, no more excuses.

rn beat me to it on the date of the article. You might be right on LT, although they've both taken a step back the past couple of weeks. Downs looks like he might something special. Pittman is ok, but nothing great. Everyone is JAGS. And the jury is out on CB. At the very least clearly our dept there is a big issue.

Anyway, I'm not beating the fire Ballard drum. Just pointing out that someone who covers the Chiefs has noticed the same shortcomings that a lot of us on here have.

I think that was what he was waiting for. No sense wasting cap dollars when the QB is not going to be good enough to win against 660% of the teams in the league. Now if he doesn't push in a few more chips to the middle of the table, I will question his overall plan.

It's not a weak enough position to be called a hole. Pittman and Downs are better than just good (Downs looks like one of the steals of the 2023 draft class), and Pierce is more than a body. You could add talent there, sure, but DE needs talent more, and you could say the same thing about RB, TE, OL, CB, and DT.

I question the logic in acquiring two old vet QBs and not trying to fill out the rest of the roster. Regardless if Ballard has managed the roster the way he has because he didn’t have confidence in the QB, I can accept that. If he still doesn’t or this is really just his philosophy then I’m ready to move on to someone else. That doesn’t mean he needs to sign every big name FA this off season. It’s the constant gifting of spots to rookies and the disregard for mid level vets that I’m tired of.

Agreed. You don't build your roster and go for it, until you know you have the QB. After 16 games from Manning, BP knew what he had and began building the roster.

We what, 8 qtrs of play from AR? Do we know what we have?

I think if you add either an elite pass rusher or CB in FA and MHJ, this team could go along way though.