Surely, it’s dawned on you that the only reason that Ballard signed Ryan was because Reich “watched ever throw by Ryan in 2021,” and didn’t see any decline?

The problem that Ballard, or any GM, has is that it’s almost impossible to find a bookend LT in free agency. Teams just don’t let those guys walk. He probably should have taken Darrisaw in the 1st round of 2031, but Darrisaw fell to the bottom third of the draft based on doubts about his dedication and desire.

Finally someone who's not looking through a narrow lens.

I’m not sure what this means. I’ll state again - I haven’t really criticized Ballard for his decisions at QB. The team could have been competitive with Ryan and a top tier OL. I felt they should have drafted one earlier, but I understand going the vet route. What I don’t understand is going the vet route (especially with Rivers and Ryan) without pushing in on the rest of the roster. To me that’s fucking stupid and a waste.

There is little question that Ballard will EVENTUALLY fill a hole - when he gets around to drafting enough people.

You guys can continue to defend every move he makes. In 6 years Ballard is 45-52-1. His teams have made the playoffs twice, winning a single playoff game. And he has never won a bad AFC South division. But keep telling me how great a GM he is. So good he can’t even be questioned.

When are we hoping for that elusive second playoff win? Year 8? 9 maybe? Maybe a division title by year 10? I’m serious, please someone give me some fucking expectations. Because in year fucking two when I said his methods would lead to mediocrity all of the same people said I was nuts and defended the methods. Here we are drafting 4th after year 6 and you guys are saying the same shit. Please one of you give me some god damn expectations of when Ballard runs out of excuses and is expected to win. After 6 years this is 100% his team. Well, unless you believe Reich was calling all the shots I guess.

Bc the Eagles got lucky and found a QB that no one, not even them, thought would be anything better than a Taysom Hill type. They also build through the lines and spend a lot of capital on them. They have a stacked team. They actually have a very similar build theory to the Colts. Probably why they liked Steichen bc he comes from that theory. I think Reich liked it. Lots of teams have been crap during this period and have stayed crap. Broncos gave their left nut for a short QB who bombed spectacularly.

The past 2 out of 3 drafts the top pick has been a WR. The last 3 out of 4 they have used high picks on receivers. The team hasn’t been a disaster. They’ve been competitive and have battled for the division several times with no QB. Usually when you have no QB you’re the Texans. Even this year they could have easily had better record with some luck, likely would have if they hadn’t fired Reich. But Irsay wanted to break the cycle and now they are finally in position for a young QB.

No that is not how I think of Reich. I think of him as passive and letting others call the shots.

Wtf are you talking about? People criticize him all the time. Every time I turn on the radio the 1070 guys are picking apart every single decision with hindsight. But they just do it bc they think he is snobby or some other personal bullshit they have with him. As if Polian wasn’t a flaming asshole. Grigson was a prick too, which hurts when you suck at your job as well.

A weird fanatical contingent on Twitter wants him fired and does nothing but talk about him even when the subject is something else. So much so I almost suspect they are hired trolls. The guy gets a little too much criticism lately imo bc not everything he does is bad. This is mostly a reversal from a few years ago when what you said above could be true, but not now. The guy gets a lot of flack.

As rm pointed out it's impossible to answer this, but I'd be willing to bet that Reich would have much rather have had Fisher back at LT than that complete turd Pryor. The OL would have been better from the start and barring injury Raimann would have been given time to develop rather than be thrown to the wolves way too early.

As he should. He's the one who put together that dumpster fire shit storm of a team we had to watch this year.