Ballard
 

i like him. i don't want him replaced


that said, his winning the salary cap battle every year has been a detriment to this team. we had the means to add talent. and we don't

i'm not asking for crazy contracts. just asking for improvement. we have a lot of holes

I like him too. Do you think it's always about money? I'm thinking that certain players don't see Indianapolis as a living destination, so unless the money is a lot higher than say, LA or NY or some other major citiy, they're not signing here.

I'm going to wait to see what kind of roster he puts together this year. Back when he started out he said that the reason he didn't want free agents was the locker room. He also doesn't seem to want to 'overpay', although that is something I do not understand. The going rate for a free agent is the going rate. You can call it overpaying but it is what the market is. So of course we have won the salary cap championship year after year. We should wait and see what happens once he knows what the next QB is going to cost. Hopefully he does what omaha wants fills a hole or two with free agents that come to play

Most people seem to think the Colts are quality organization and a good employer to the players. Honesty is one of Ballards nice qualities. It has a good all around roster. Lots of reasons to choose Indiana besides its cultural attractions.

We could do much, much worse for a GM. Indy is a big city. Not all the glitz and glamor of NY, or Vegas and lack ocean front property, but plenty to do here, so I don't think that is a deterrent from coming here.

Not sure what it is. The salary cap levels the playing field for the small market teams to compete with the large market teams.

About half of the guys who get big contracts get cut within three seasons because they dont play up to their salary. Adams will get big money, will he play as well without Rogers?. We will see.

I think he is always looking for value. I think he inquires about a lot of free agents but the price goes over his valuation.

I agreed with his premise of build through the draft, build a culture ,and manage cap. but at some point you need to move beyond that to really compete. I also dont want to see him go on a spending spree but he could have afforded to add some talent without killing the cap, one FA could make a huge difference.

The base, core has been set. There is a culture. Its time, past time, to try to move to the next level.

But the other problem is he got fucked when luck retired. His plan didn’t account for obtaining a franchise QB when he was hired. He tried to apply the same concepts towards replacing luck and has been dicking around with constant stopgaps ever since.


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While I don’t have a direct line into Ballard’s thinking, I can guess. And my guess is that, without knowing who’s going to line up under Center, Ballard doesn’t have much freedom to sign free agents.

Right now, he doesn’t know if he’ll get a rookie making next to nothing, a bargain basement free agent, or a veteran like Matt Ryan, who’ll carry a cap hit north of $25 Million.

WR after WR after WR off the board, and el' Cheapo continues to sit on his hands. Don't give a F who your QB is, if you don't have weapons you can't win.

HE SUCKS!

Kinda tough to talk a wr to come here when they dont know who will be throwing them the ball.

That’s a valid argument - for WR this off-season. It is not a defense for what they entered the season with at DE last year. Or the other holes Ballard has left on the roster over the last few years. It’s clear it’s his MO at this point.

Or they just didn't want to play here

WE have all the cash in the world- money talks, Ballard balks.

Like Autry?

Possible- but Coop went to the Browns (you want to live in Cleveland over Indy???) knowing they had a disgrunted injured little guy as their current QB. Granted there was probably enough whispers to understand they were going to upgrade (and in turn probably screw the Colts because Ballard has talked to Reich who is confident he can win with the disgruntled injured little guy so don't be an ass and sign there).

Chark- shiiiiit he went to Detroit and who the F knows what will happen there for QB.

Hell St. Brown left Green Bay to go to Chicago. Yeah, Chicago is cooler than Indy but man you are gonna leave Rogers to go to that mess?

If I am not mistaken Julio, Landry, Fuller, Crowder, Sanders, and Green are still out there- yeah there are some tires with heavy tread on them for sure, but our # 2 WR right now is Dulin!

F---K Ballard!

I am not sure why everyone was so up in arms about Autry. He only had 7.5 sacks for Indy on a contract yr, The yr before he had 3.5

He got a 3 yr 21m contract.

They had faith in Turay coming on. Unfortunately he got hurt again.

Besides the Coaches do talk with Ballard. It's not all on him, Just the final decision.

Could be that those players are not as good as you think they are.... or they would have ended up on better teams too. Goes both ways

That's the problem- I don't think most of them, minus Coop, are all that but I do BELIEVE ANY of them are better than what we have at # 2 at present.

I believe Ballard really believes that all you have to do is be stout inside and you'll win. Uhhhh we were really stout inside last year, we watched the playoffs.

I just despise the way he does this, and 1 playoff win in 5 years proves there is a reason to despise his approach.

Yet, those 7.5 sacks would have led the team this season. Instead they went into the season with no DE on the roster with double digit sacks - cumulative for their career. How many competitive teams do you think do that? Am I supposed to be surprised they had pass rush issues? You say it like nobody could have predicted the outcome. But I guess they maintained flexibility and saved a couple million again.

By the way - Autry had 9 sacks for Tenn this year, and had previously had 9 for the Colts. The 3.5 appears to be the aberration - not the 7.5 as you tried to insinuate.

In Ballard we trust.

Ballard has kept the Colts afloat, competitive, and somewhat relevant since Luck up and quit 2.5 years ago. He's done a great job in preventing us from becoming the Jets. Without a franchise QB, your team is going to be mediocre. That's just how it is. We get really frustrated and angry as fans, the team has holes everywhere, we get Dollar Tree talent often times in free agency...but so do all the other mediocre NFL teams. I've been salty and angry this off-season, but I don't want Ballard to be fired or anything. I remember the 80s and 90s before Polian and Peyton. I definitely don't want to go back to that. Anger sells, is addictive, and is very popular these days. This is a snowball effect. It's just how it is. But we could always get worse. Pretty much all Indiana teams are in the same boat. Even Notre Dame football is irrelevant. Their fans just don't realize it.

Who do we sign after Baker? He’s really going to wait now.

A left tackle and wide receiver, hopefully.

Only Cooper was worth getting from the group of signings you listed.

Baker

Still drunk, still Baker.

Race, you've looked at the Colts current WR depth chart correct?

He is kind of iffy with that contract.

I think this is part of it. Ebron left as soon as Luck did. If you don’t have a QB it’s harder to win. We just tried to sign a DT, and Eberflus called him up and talked him into signing with the Bears. It’s harder for small market teams to compete. Look at the Pacers.

Part of me wonders if he is waiting for us to get that QB in place. He wants the financial freedom in case a Watson pops up. Which seems to happen a lot more often than it used to. Used to be franchise QBs never left. Now it seems to be the standard to leave for another team after the first contract.

This has to be exactly what he is doing. The QBs we are talking about have cap hits form around 5 million all the way to 36 million. Makes a hell of a lot of difference in how much cap space he has left. Having said that, doesn't it put some pressure on Ballard to get this QB situation addressed like now? I recognize that more than one team is involved here, but if Ballard has not made up his mind yet then when? And if he likes someone WTF doesn't he just go get him? If they all are the same get the cheap guy. Sign who you want so we can get out of this limbo and start putting this team together.

Well Ebron turned into a giant douche after Luck retired as well, which gave the Colts little incentive to re-sign him.

Agreed that having uncertainty at QB probably has something to do with it. When we had Peyton and Luck it was probably pretty easy to sell the Colts to FAs since they knew they'd be on a winning team unless the QB went down to injury.

But you can still land good FAs in smaller markets when uncertain at QB if the FO is willing to spend a little bit. For instance look at the Bungles last year. They, like us, were in dire need of pass rush. They were coming off a 4 win season and had plenty of uncertainty at QB with Burrow having had his knee blown up in Nov. '20. They had plenty of cap room, so they overspent a little to bring in Trey Hendrickson, who went on to have 14 sacks and 27 QB hits in '21. Imagine what that kind of production would have meant to the shit show that was our pass rush this past season.

When I was an elementary school/junior high kid, the Pacers were so bad that free tickets would be available in the school office for anyone who wanted them. We'd go to Market Square Arena and sit wherever we wanted and watch Waymon Tisdale and the Pacers try to win games. Then later they started getting good and we couldn't afford to attend games. I don't watch them anymore because they're never going to win a championship. I doubt the Colts will also within my lifetime. So it goes

I’m similar on the Pacers. I quit watching due to their refusal to rebuild. It was obvious they were content being middle of the road. I have no interest in that. I’ve started to pay attention a little more since the Sabonis / Haliburton trade.

Ballard’s Colts are starting to remind me a little of those Pacers teams I hated. The risk aversion is maddening to me. I enjoy following and rooting for rebuilding teams as well as top level teams. Swing and miss and I’m fine. Strike out and never take a swing and I’m pissed. It’s the mediocre teams where I see little future that frustrate me. And that’s what the Colts are right now. Irsay is the saving grace though. I believe he wants titles not just “good” teams. That was not the case with the Simons.

Yes, but why pay a premium for JAGs at WR?

o


As I said in the other thread, I like Ballard ...... as disappointing as the 2021 season was overall (particularly the 2-game losing streak which ended the season), I believe that the fact that the Colts were 9-6 with 2 games left to play in spite of some bad gaffes at crucial times from their quarterback is an indication that he is indeed in the process of building a complete team, as opposed to an extremely quarterback-dependent team (as were many of the teams that were lead by Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck between 1999 and 2018.)

I also like the acquisition of Matt Ryan.

o

https://twitter.com/AndrewBrandt/sta...hWagLx6aIAytfA

Andrew Brandt
@AndrewBrandt
·
4h
Chris Ballard has now foisted almost $75 million of dead money charges on the Eagles ($34M for trading Wentz) and the Falcons ($40.5M for trading Ryan).
Cap managers: run for the hills when he calls your team.

Ballard is doing an interview on the Pat McAfee show. Just started like 10 mins ago (around 1pm central) if you want to rewind and watch/listen on YouTube.

Thanks, going to check it out.

well shit.

Kevin Bowen
@KBowen1070
Chris Ballard tells @PatMcAfeeShow that Matt Pryor will get the first look at left tackle this season

Yeah. Mostly PR answers but he did say he likes Pryor a lot. Either that's genuine or he doesn't want to come off as desperate in negotiations. I tend to lean towards the former.

Was hoping they'd talk more about Ryan specifically. And holy shit McAfee cannot spit a fucking question out. It's like 90 seconds a piece and 5 "because's". Matt Ryan press conference at 3pm.