look at his qb

Exactly. The idea that you are only going to draft and develop guys long term is about 20-30 years antiquated. Yes that needs to be your primary source of talent, but even the best drafting GMs miss as many (or more) as they hit. Ballard is always playing for flexibility and next year. He leaves glaring holes in the roster. He prioritizes young guys over proven vets. He’s used free agency a little but pretty much only when he has an extremely low risk option with maximum team flexibility. Sounds great - until Zach Pascal is your number one receiver or you have a team talking super bowl with no pass rusher with double digit sacks CUMULATIVE FOR THEIR CAREER! He preached paying “our own” but let Autry walk to a division rival because he refused to pay him. Instead he went into the season with all of his unproven “athletes” at DE. You guys can spare me the story of how he tried to match the Titans offer. You don’t preach what he’s preached and then be surprised a guy doesn’t want to let you match. Ballard pinched his pennies and got burned. Playing for next year has a cost. The Colts have paid that cost pretty much every year Ballard has been GM and I still don’t see the promised dynasty on the horizon. Hell, I’d settle for beating a playoff level team.

We can’t stop the pass. It would be nice if every team ran the ball. But we have no pass rush nor dominant corners in a passing league.

Also we are about to have no cap room because we will have the most expensive oline in the league.

I don’t necessarily knock Ballard for not signing “difference makers”. I knock him for not making sufficient attempts at shoring up glaring weaknesses year after year. If he does anything he goes cheap (and flexible) with the idea he’ll fix it next year. You don’t have to turn a major weakness into a major strength for it to help the team. Competence and experience can make a world of difference, but they come at a price that Ballard is not willing to pay.

I do think Ballard has made sufficient attempts to find a pass rusher. We have spent a fortune in draft capital on defensive ends. The issue is all he has done, so far anyway, is swing and miss. To early to say on some (Paye, Dayo) but it isn't encouraging so far. Takes time to develop but you would expect to see some development in some of these guys by now.

They entered the season with no pass rusher on the roster having double digit sacks for their career. They banked on a depth guy (Muhammad), a guy who flashed for like two games two seasons ago but can’t stay healthy (Turay), a guy in danger of being cut (Banogu), a disappointment (Lewis), a rookie that had 11.5 sacks in 4 years of college (Paye), and a guy who tore his Achilles before the draft (Dayo). Oh yeah, and Isaac Rochelle. That is what Ballard banked this season on. That isn’t sufficient attempts at creating a pass rush. That’s just a hope and a prayer.