People talk about lack of effort and professionalism with the playoffs on the line but...

2021: off to a bad 1-4 start, the Colts run off to an 8-2 stretch and have a shot at the playoffs, they just need 1 more W to get the spot, and can do it with a home win vs Raiders, or a road win at Jax. They lost a tight one to the Raiders, and completely no-showed 26-11 vs Jags

2022: bad team goes up 33-0 vs Minnesota at halftime. Loses 36-33

2023: Up and down season, 8-6 record with a slim shot at playoffs, get blown out on Christmas eve by the Falcons, 29-10.

When the pressure's on, this team melts and has done so 4 years in a row.

Everyone is talking a lot of about this past game, but this is a trend that predates Steichen, it predates AR. There is something else with this team that STINKS.

Some of these guys are mentally weak and have a loser mentality.

Flat Bill Fucko doesn't focus on finding football players, he is convinced all you have to do is run fast and jump high and it's all good!

FUCK FLAT BILL FUCKO!

So I hadn’t really paid any attention to that Franklin podcast thing but I just read about it.

No big deal he was trash talking the giants imo, that’s a nothing burger. What really gets me is the claim “I’m tired of battling good teams, tired of battling Houston, give me a bad team so I can get my rating up”

Seriously? What the actual fuck? If that’s the attitude these guys have they can’t be cut fast enough. No nfl team benefits from players who think like that.

The Patty Mac rant about how few players he would keep- is DEAD ON!

Gut this piece of shit! Keep ONLY those players that care about being a good football team, any of the ME>WE fuckers, send them packing!

Yea I watched that this morning, he listed Nelson, Pittman, Pierce, DeFo, Kenny Moore.
I'd list a few more, like Josh Downs, Grover Stewart, and maybe even Kwity Paye and Latu (neither produced much this year, but I think they can be good, but I don't know if they have this same loser mentality that Pat is talking about)

Of course I like some of the other guys on the oline, many are injured like the French Fries combo, I think they're good, we just didn't have them all season. Raimann is workable. I'm OK with Glowinski being back but he's 32. The depth from guys like Bortolini and Goncalves and Pinter, they can stay if they have the right mindset.

What a total douche.

And I hate to break it to Franklin, but the Colts schedule this year has been super soft - which certainly includes our opponents offenses. We had a tough stretch w/ Minn, Det, and Buff over 4 games, but aside from those 3 the only other top 10 scoring Os we've played is the Donks who are 10th (technically GB is 9th but not counting them since they had Willis at QB instead of Love when we played them).

On the flip side we've had 7 games against bottom 10 Os and it'll be 8 when we play the Jagoffs Sunday. We also played the Fins w/out Tua, which is a bottom 5 O (they're 22nd overall this season).

Someone should also point out to Franklin that our worst D performances have come against the worst Os that we've played, which clearly ponits to a lack of effort on our Ds part.

o


3 Colts Make Pro Bowl Despite Disappointing Season, Missing Playoffs

(By Joel A. Erickson)

https://www.indystar.com/story/sport...r/77398680007/



1) l Quenton Nelson, the team’s stalwart left guard, made his 7th Pro Bowl in 7 seasons, a remarkable pace for any offensive lineman and a reflection of Nelson’s dominance over the years.

Nelson is the 20th player to make the Pro Bowl in his first seven seasons in the league, 13 of those players are in the Hall of Fame -- Jim Brown, Dick Butkus, Lou Creekmur, Joe Greene, Franco Harris, Merlin Olsen, Mel Renfro, Les Richter, Barry Sanders, Lawrence Taylor, Derrick Thomas, Joe Thomas and Patrick Willis. Of the other six, four aren't eligible yet (Aaron Donald, A.J. Green, Tyreke Hill and Patrick Peterson.)


2) l Jonathan Taylor, the team’s best offensive weapon, made his second Pro Bowl for a season in which he’s rushed for 1,254 yards, currently 7th in the NFL, and scored 10 touchdowns. Taylor’s season has also been marred by a couple of high-profile mistakes, notably fumbling before crossing the goal line in Denver, but he has also been the driving force for the offense down the stretch.


3) l Middle linebacker Zaire Franklin was named to the first Pro Bowl of his career. Franklin leads the NFL with 165 tackles, and he’s added 2.5 sacks, 2 interceptions and 4 forced fumbles despite struggling in coverage at times.



ALTERNATES: l Indianapolis defensive tackle l DeForest Buckner, lwho ranks second on the team in both sacks (6.5) and quarterback hits (13) despite missing essentially 6 games due to a high ankle sprain, and veteran center l Ryan Kelly, lwho has 4 previous Pro Bowl nods but missed 7 games this year, are alternates.

o

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The Colts and Jim Irsay Could Have Made Major Changes ...... Here’s Why They Chose Continuity Instead

(By James Boyd)

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/604...chris-ballard/

o

I don’t have a subscription. Can you paraphrase?

Nothing really insightful. Ballard was kept because GM job isn’t as attractive when you are forced to keep a HC and QB you may not believe in. Even if a candidate takes it it likely means it’s a wasted year and HC and QB may not really get full support they need. Steichen is kept because as much as AR has struggled you don’t want him having to learn a new system. AR is basically in what is likely a make or break year. General tone on Ballard was negative, mentions him having 9 lives and AR likely won’t get the same number of chances.

o


Indianapolis Colts fans who expected sweeping changes were left disappointed. Team owner Jim Irsay ensured that continuity would be the path forward when he announced Sunday night via social media that GM Chris Ballard and head coach Shane Steichen would be retained in 2025.

“It’s huge, obviously, to have the support of the owner moving forward,” Steichen said Monday. “Got a lot of respect for Mr. Irsay and what he stands for and the person he is, and it means a lot.”

Ballard and Steichen’s contracts run through 2026 and 2028, respectively, but Irsay’s public vote of confidence was revealing. His stance seems to indicate that he views Ballard, Steichen and quarterback Anthony Richardson — whom team sources have said will be the starter again in 2025 — as a package deal that he’s not ready to break up, even after a frustrating 8-9 finish in 2024 that included several lowlights.

The Colts failed to win their season opener for an 11th straight year, lost their 10th straight road game against the Jaguars and haven’t won the AFC South title in 10 years. Oh, and Richardson got benched halfway through the season because of poor preparation and then reintroduced questions about his ability to stay healthy by missing the final two games of the season — one of which was a Week 17 loss to the lowly Giants that eliminated Indianapolis from postseason contention for a fourth straight season — with a back injury.

The outrage among the team’s fan base over what many supporters view as Irsay’s complacency with mediocrity has been prevalent and justified. Steichen, Ballard and Richardson suffered through disappointing seasons, and pitchforks were brought out for all three. The frustration with Ballard is perhaps the most warranted among the three. The GM is now 62-69-1 through eight seasons in Indianapolis. He has just two playoff appearances, one postseason win and zero AFC South titles, yet he appears to have nine lives, as he’ll be brought back for a ninth campaign.

It’s hard to argue that retaining Ballard was the right decision given his middling résumé, but for the “Get Ballard out of here!” crowd or even the “Get everyone out of here!” crowd, this is the bed Irsay and the Colts have made for themselves, and regardless of which side of the fence you fall on, they weren’t interested in the alternatives.

Why ??? Frankly, the alternatives aren’t all that appealing — unless the team was ready to completely start over at QB, coach and GM.

But let’s start with the idea of firing Ballard and keeping Steichen and Richardson. The new GM would inherit a coach and quarterback he didn’t choose. How compelling would that job be if the new boss can’t choose his two most important coworkers? And on the other side, how fair of a shake would Steichen and Richardson get in Year 3 under a GM who didn’t hire the coach or draft the QB? How invested would that new GM be in making that tandem work? It almost feels like burning a season before the new GM decides to move in a different direction.

If the Colts moved on from Steichen, whose poor messaging created two significant PR messes for Richardson regarding his two-game benching and his latest back injury, Richardson would have to learn an entire new offense as he enters a critical third year. Richardson has enough troubles as he tries to develop into an NFL-caliber quarterback, let alone the face of a franchise. Asking him to learn a new playbook, too, now feels like asking him to fail.

Finally, if the Colts moved on from Richardson, they’d either be forced to draft a quarterback in a few months, sign one in free agency or trade for one. Well, the draft doesn’t seem realistic, as Indianapolis has the No. 14 pick in what’s believed to be a weak quarterback class. Maybe Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold makes it to the open market, but the Colts don’t have a long history of winning bidding wars, and there would surely be one with other QB-desperate teams. Again, that’s only if the Vikings let Darnold hit the open market and don’t sign him to a long-term deal or franchise tag him.

After Darnold, there aren’t many appealing options left unless the likes of Jameis Winston or Justin Fields excite you.

Add it all together, and you can understand — frustrating though it may be — why Indianapolis chose to stick with Richardson, as well as the GM and coach who brought him to Indianapolis, for at least one more year before, perhaps, wiping the slate clean.

“It’s like driving your car down an expressway,” Irsay said at the NFL owners’ meetings in 2023, describing what it means to draft a QB in the first round months before selecting Richardson. “Once you make this choice, there’s not going to be an exit ramp for a while.”

That’s not to say the clock isn’t ticking on Richardson, who’s been injured and inaccurate for most of his two years in the NFL. He’s missed 17 of 34 games due to various injuries, and his completion percentage dropped from 59.5 as a rookie to a league-worst and Colts franchise-worst 47.7 this season.

Next year feels like it will be a make-or-break year for Richardson — though that statement feels ironic given how many chances Ballard has received — if he isn’t more available and more accurate. Asked about the pressure and expectations that lie ahead, Richardson said Monday it was natural for people to expect more from him as he flips the page to Year 3.

“I guess every day could be a make-it or break-it day for me. I try not to think about it like that,” he said. “ … I just gotta make sure I’m on point, doing my job, doing everything I can to help this organization go in the right direction.”

Richardson added that he has a lot of faith in Ballard and Steichen as the three of them forge ahead to what he hopes are better days. But the 22-year-old would be wise to remember that if he doesn’t improve, he may not receive the elongated grace Ballard has. After all, as Richardson found out when he was benched just 10 starts into his career for 39-year-old Joe Flacco, the 2023 No. 4 pick can still lose his job — even if it seems like his GM can’t.

Asked how he would feel if the Colts signed another starting-caliber QB this offseason to challenge him for the top spot, Richardson didn’t shy away from the idea.

“I’m a natural competitor. I’ve been competing all my life. I love competing,” he said. “So, if the team feels like that’s the right direction that we want to go in, then I’m all for it, I’m competing. If not, I’m still here competing, working my tail off to be the best version (of myself) that I can for this team.”

o

Thanks for the article.

IMO, this decision was to give Richardson one more year to prove that he can be an NFL quality QB. Keep everything in place; hopefully add key folks (top flight TE and CB would be my hope) and see what you have in year three of the AR experiment.

Alas, I don't think AR will prove to be a NFL quality QB. I think we will get more of the same that we got this year; poor completion percentages, overthrows, missed games due to injury and about ten plays that he will make that, perhaps, no one else in the NFL can make that make your eyes pop out.

So, I predict that 12 monthes from now, in early Jan 2026, we will be in virtually the same position we are in now having won almost half our games, having missed out on the playoffs, still not have confidence in our QB and asking the questions of "when are they going to start over."

Sigh....

If your first 2 paragraphs are correct, then your conclusion is off. If in 12 months, AR proves not to be the guy, I think Irsay cleans house, and I think it's the right call at that point. This front office selected AR, they could've gotten Stroud or Young if they wanted them, they just would've had to trade up to do it. That means they felt that AR was good enough that they could work with him and build a quality offense around him. That involves the scouting of the GM and his scouting team and the player development of the Head Coach and his offensive staff. So if AR isn't the guy, then the front office has shown they can't find the QB, and the coaching staff has shown they can't develop the QB, so all of them, including the QB, would need to be replaced.

Yeah, the feeling I got from the article is that Irsay sees QB, GM and Coach as a package deal and that he was willing to give them a little more rope in hopes that they don’t use it to hang themselves.

J

Jesus, if AR isn't the guy ( and I think he's not), and next year they blow it all up, we'll be in worse shape than we were when Luck quit on us !!!!!!!! What a house of horrors. Who's going to want to be our DC for 1 year ?????

FBF has done this organization not a single favor!

FUCK YOU CHRIS BALLARD!

That’s why firing the Dc was risky. But it likely had to be done.

I do agree that next year he will have to progress if this ship stays afloat.

o


Now, they are in the NFC Championship game for the first time in 33 years.

o

I bet if you take the entire colts roster and swap it with the Washington roster, the colts roster under Washington mgmt and coaching would be in the NFC championship game, and the team under the colts mgmt and coaching would be 6-11.

Washington has a QB the Colts don't.

That’s my point. Put RG with some real coaches and maybe you have something. Put Daniels under Shane and company, he probably gets benched. lol

Watching the games this weekend just makes me thing how bad all of our coaches are.

You put AR in his current form on WAS, they're a bubble team like us and like they have been for the past few years.

Put JD on this team, and think about all the one score games we had...

That's why it is so important that Anthony work with a top QB coach in the off season. He can be so much better if he is willing to put in the work and learn as much as he can! We have seen him make all the throws, he just isn't consistent enough. He is a powerful runner and if he can become a more consistent passer and learn to read defenses better we can win a lot of those close games next season!

Alas, all his years in college and, so far, his two years in the NFL point to the probability that this will never happen.

His reading the defenses is not typically the issue. He knows he has open receivers. His issue is that his passing mechanics can be terrible and that he rarely places the ball with enough accuracy for it to be caught in stride.

The maddening thing is that he will hit one or three passes a game where he happens into perfect ball placement.....followed by three easy check down passes that the receiver has to make an incredible effort to catch by breaking stride and controrting their body in order to catch the inaccurate pass or not be able to catch it at all.

AR is not it. We will tread water for at least 2025 with all the same pieces in place and, again, finish middle of the pack.

At that point, either we blow it up or continue to limp along year after year with cosmetic changes but until we find a real QB....

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The state of another AFC team ......


http://www.coltfreaks.com/forum/show...541#post319541

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I wanted to put Stroud and JD on this team, got shouted down quite a bit around here for it.

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Who Was the Colts’ 2024 Team MVP ??? One NFL Analyst Weighs In

(By Paul Bretl)

https://sports.yahoo.com/colts-2024-...123451712.html

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The Pro Bowl means almost next to nothing anymore. Nelson definitely deserves any accolades he receives.

The other two are stat padders, nothing more. Most knowledge Colts fans, who actually watch the games barely even want Franklin and Taylor to be on the team anymore.

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In the 1960's the Green Bay Packers won 5 World Championships, and made it to 6 World Championship games ...... I would rather be the Packers of the 60's or the Chiefs of today than be a richer team that was less successful on the field.



http://www.coltfreaks.com/forum/show...111#post320111

o

C&O Always carries what we spit. I saw our Pacers in Phoenix. Gonna see them close in Denver.

Boys.. this is a team...

Remember the real 44 who beat Shaque

That's our 33

Yes, I was there when JT "dropped" it...and, yes, it was a td.

But both interceptions in Denver were apparent.

As dumb as I am, I was the first to hear my own voice say, "Oh, shit!"

As far as limping, we've been doing exactly that since Luck retired.