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Quote:

Originally Posted by Racehorse (Post 247619)

What Ehlinger brings to the table is that he is a winner. Yes, he has some drawbacks, but being a winner can mask a ton of them if the coaches know how to put together a game plan.

o

There were a number of Colts teams in which Peyton Manning masked otherwise noticeably flawed teams ...... and in his case, he didn't even need the coaches to put together a game plan, they (the offensive coaches) just shut the hell up and let Manning run the show. Jim Caldwell was a lousy head coach, but the one thing that I give him credit for was staying out of Peyton Manning's way in regard to running the offense for 2 full seasons in 2009 and 2010 before the neck injury forced him out of the 2011 season.

o

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hoopsdoc (Post 247628)

I feel like personal politics played more of a role in these moves than anything else. If a shakeup was needed, it should have been made at the source of the problem.

My guess is that they didn't like the alternatives for interim offensive line coach.

Kevin Mawae is the assistant line coach and is still relatively new to coaching.

One option that jumps out to me would have been to temporarily name TE Coach Klayton Adams as the Offensive Line + Tight Ends coach. But maybe they thought that would be too much for Klayton.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlwaysSunnyinIndy (Post 247635)

I've said this before, but the passing of Howard Mudd has been the downfall of this line.

Strausser is a Mudd disciple, Mawae is not. I sense that creates some conflict within the OL room.

Reich says he has confidence in Chris Strausser, says OL needs to play better but says he believes the OL is improving.

https://media.tenor.com/rdmU3NM3avcA...rphy-laugh.gif

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oldcolt (Post 247622)

I don’t know Racehorse. That may be why they are not good at pass blocking (I don’t buy that though, these guys are getting their asses handed to them one on one) but what is your theory on why they cannot run block for shit? There used to be not only holes to run through but every week I looked forward to watching Nelson flatten someone. Baldy made it something you didn’t want to miss. Now Nelson is getting flattened. The thing that makes the most sense is injury to his back but my god why would you give that contract to a guard with a back injury?

Maybe we are tipping run plays. No creativity in fooling the defense. Reich is almost as predictable as a Pornhub plot, but not quite as predictable as Pagano was.

Quote:

How so? If they wanted to do so, the Colts could sign virtually any available player at this point.

You know damn well that Ballard will use how much he's invested in the OL as an excuse not to invest in FA to fill team needs. He certainly won't invest any more in the OL even thought that's the unit that obviously needs to be fixed. In fact he already did that by letting Glow, Reed, and Fisher walk and going cheap w/ Pryor and Pinter :mad:

Quote:

I don't disagree that the LT and RG positions have been a mess, and that Ballard has a large amount of responsibility for this. All I was saying is that you need to judge the decision based upon info available at the time, not in retrospect now that it hasn't worked out. Is Ballard making rational and logical decisions, and is he taking worthwhile gambles? I agree it's questionable on the positions you pointed out, but its not nearly as obvious as every is saying. A good part of this is on Ballard, no doubt.

You don't judge a decision by the outcome it creates? What kind of dumbass thinking is that? And BTW handing over the starting LT position to a journeyman backup who made a whopping 1 start there is not a reasonable and logical decision. This was pretty obvious to a lot of us on the board here. Pinter wasn't as obvious to us fans, but it should have been obvious to Ballard and his staff. They had 2 years worth of practices and workouts to evaluate him, and the fact that they were so far off on his evaluation as well as Pryor's should say something.

Quote:

How do you know what AC was discussing with the Colts? I know it was reported in the media that AC might retire in 2019, but he signed a two-year contract shortly thereafter. And who should the Colts have signed/drafted in 2019 or 2020 that would have satisfied you?

AC seemed like a really standup guy. Do you think he'd tell the media that he was considering retiring and not talk to Ballard, Reich, etc. about it?

Off the top of my head I would have either signed Leno instead of Fisher and/or drafted Darrisaw instead of Paye. And as I already mentioned re-signing Fisher would have been a much better move than handing the job over to Pryor. But my opinion doesn't really matter as I don't get paid to make the Colts better. Ballard does, and that's something he's failed at big fucking time over the past couple of off seasons. Fucking Matt Broken Down Turnstyle Pryor at LT. What a fucking joke.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rm1369 (Post 247590)

Chaka you and I have been having this discussion for 3-4 years. And guess what? We are exactly where I have been saying we would end up - mediocre.

I’m not so sure what is hard to understand. Ballard has never fielded a complete team. Never. Yes every team has some degree of weakness. It’s a matter of magnitude. And Ballard has repeatedly left several major areas extremely weak while waiting on player development or next years draft. LT, WR, and DE primarily. Ballard refuses to “overspend” on average NFL talent. Great, except that means the team has repeatedly put out below average players at critical positions each and every year. Having a few great players that carry the bad players works in the NBA, it doesn’t in the NFL. You get exposed. If you have bottom 5 pass rush it doesn’t matter how great your LBs and secondary are. Oline can’t block? Doesn’t matter much you have the best RB in the league or have maybe finally solved the WR issue. We’ve seen it year after year - an obvious issue the team says is fine, then it costs them games and they spend half the season trying to find a solution.

Where this intersects with Ballard’s approach to the cap is that other teams do mortgage some of the future for today. Instead of filling holes with rookies and vet minimum guys they shoot their shot and shore up areas with over paid average players. It doesn’t always work, but it sure as fuck beats what Ballard does. Do the colts have a brighter future than the rams? Maybe. But the Rams have something to show for prioritizing a window. I guess Ballard’s is yet to come

That doesn’t even touch how he’s been fucking up at QB. I mostly give him a pass there. It’s an unbelievable difficult task, but one he makes more difficult by his “building a dynasty” philosophy.

Let me ask you - how many more years does Ballard need to prove what you and him believe? I said it was at best a 4 year plan before competitiveness using his method. Most on here, especially you, told me I was nuts. So I’ll ask - how much longer until the genius reveals itself?

Well said, only I disagree on us being mediocre. We're a complete and utter shit show.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oldcolt (Post 247617)

And I will say that there is a chance that he hit on Ehlingher which if he did counts for a ton. And I think it is 60-40 that he did.

That would be such a luxury if he was hiding on our roster the whole time. Maybe I shouldn't hold my breath.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oldcolt (Post 247622)

but what is your theory on why they cannot run block for shit?

Nelson's back and other surgeries are more plausible to me than other suggestions I've heard. Whatever it is, if you remember when he came in in 2018, he made Kelly, Castonzo, and the ultimately the whole line better by nature of the unit. When one guy does worse, the next guy does worse, and so on.

Also, not to excuse the OL at all... but if you watched the JT O'Sullivan breakdown on Ehlinger, he pointed out some RPO runs. Pittman, Granson, Woods, etc. were getting beat on several blocking assignments. They're more dynamic as receivers, but that's an underrated element we used to get from guys like Doyle and Pascal that hurts our run game and quick passing game.

Quote:

Originally Posted by IndyNorm (Post 247644)

Well said, only I disagree on us being mediocre. We're a complete and utter shit show.

To me that's a team like the Raiders or the Packers now.

But it feels like a slight argument at best.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChaosTheory (Post 247589)

The elephant is QB which is it's own long discussion. Here's your Rorschach, I'll just put it like this: Assume these Ballard teams are healthy and stick Luck at QB. Now compare to those 11-5 teams Luck played on under Pagano. Are we better?

No one is saying that Ballard isn't a better GM than Grigson. He obviously is, but who isn't? Seeing that Grigson in one of the worst GMs in NFL history the comparison bar for Ballard should be much higher than Grigson. At least Tobin level.