Any news on Kelly?
 

I'm too lazy and incompetent to look for articles.

It would be nice to have him back in place against that Dallas d-line.

Last I heard he was hoping to be back to practice this week

In last week's Wednesday press conference, there was this update from Reich:

Ryan Kelly missed his seventh straight practice on Wednesday. The center was off doing some rehab work while the Colts had their first practice of the week. “He’s doing great and making progress,” was Reich’s Wednesday update on Kelly. Reich did say on Wednesday the Colts want to be smart about how they handle their young center in putting him back on the practice/playing field.

When Kelly was ruled OUT for the Houston game on Friday, the team indicated Kelly is day-to-day.


https://www.1070thefan.com/blogs/kev...third-straight

What about Glowinsky?

He came back into the game yesterday, so that's a good sign.

Kelly misses a lot of time too. If he wasn't playing at a probowl level.

Let him get healthy. The online looked fine without him. Not having Kelly was not the reason Mack couldn’t get any yards. The reason is because Mack is the most over rated colt ever. He needs to be replaced.

It should be noted that the last two games but Colton played against two pretty good defenses good defenses against the run

Most overrated colt ever?

Not even close

Well there was mike doss. So maybe your right

Griff Whalen

Possibly, but I was never a fan....

But as far as Mack goes..... Old Man Gore would have made this offense a lot better than what Mack does

Probably, I miss his always get 3 yards grit. Mack has the ability to get much more, or much less. I was hoping Turbin could fill that wear them down roll, but then the Peds thing and post peds sucked.

Not the most overrated, but certainly not the solution for RB.

Ask not for whom the Bell tolls, it tolls for the Colts.

I am very concerned about his attitude and devoting that much of the salary cap to RB....

...but there is no denying how much he could make this offense click. His threat out of the backfield is incredible, he is a great blocker and he is one of the top five RBs in the league rushing.

It would be THE big free agent splash this year but it could be huge for the Colts in 2019 and beyond.

I am not begging for him but if he comes, I will not be disappointed. We have an O-line now that can both pass block and run block. We are ahead of where I thought we would be so adding an elite RB is now a good time to do so.

Hilton, Inman, Cain, Fountain along with two drafted rookie WRs, our TE group (Doyle, Ebron, Swoope, Allie-Cox) along with Bell, Mack, Hines, Wilkins at RB? Use one low round pick on depth O-Line and the offense is set.

Use the other 5 draft picks on defense along with perhaps one defensive free agent stud.

See, I could be a GM! :)

Walk Worthy,

And, just as an update to those of you who do not mind seeing the PFF scores on players:

OC:
74.0 = Ryan Kelly = 7th highest rated OC in league
67.8 = Evan Boehm = 14th highest rated OC in league

OG:
72.1 = Quinton Nelson = 12th highest rated OG in league
71.8 = Mark Glowinski = 14th highest rated OG in league

OT:
69.4 = Anthony Castonzo = 30th highest rated OT in league
69.0 = Braden Smith = 31st highest rated OT in league
68.0 = Le'Raven Clark = 39th highest rated OT in league

Neither Joe Haeg nor Josh Andrews have played enough snaps to be ranked but both of their scores (62.1 / 60.5 respectively) are NFL average scores.

Whatever we are paying our O-Line coach, we should double it for 2019!

What a change.....what an improvement.


Walk Worthy,

I'm don't get why everyone thinks Bell's attitude is so bad. What about the attitude of the team? Keeping franchising a player who is one play away from making zilch next year shows that they don't give a crap about him as a person yet we all think he should be willing to sacrifice his physical and financial well being for the team. It's a business and when you cannot play the NFL doesn't give a crap. We traded Unitas for 'future considerations' after all he did for this team. Worse look at how much 'help' the Steelers gave Mike Webster whose brain was destroyed playing for these guys with what probably was the perfect attitude at the time. On the field Bell gives his all. He is a great blocking back not afraid to due the dirty work, he doesn't drop passes and most importantly he can read blocks and get what the defense will give you. We are going to need that when we play good defenses in the cold. I agree that the money he wants is ridiculous, but it might just be worth it for this particular team at this particular time.

I have zero information about Bell's attitude and I have no problem with his holdout. He has every right to try and maximize his earnings.

My concern is the reaction of his Steelers teammates. It isn't a good view of how the player is respected by teammates when they glory in stealing his property and posting it all over social media.

So...it's wait and see on Kelly then?

Maybe his teammates are just assholes? I mean, we are talking about the Steelers, here.

This is the business side of things. Steelers trapped him with the tag but won't pay him what he wants. He played under it for several years.

From everything I have read Bell was great in the locker room and everyone loved him. Saying he was a great teammate.

Fans seem to take this stuff personally, but players know it is for a short time and they have a right to get as much money as they can. He believes he was outplaying what they were giving him. If he was underperforming no one would have a problem cutting him I bet.

I can see both sides of it. I certainly don’t begrudge Bell trying to get all he can while he can, especially as a running back. Those guys just get beat to hell.

At the same time, if the Steelers overpay him at the expense paying other worthy guys, that hurts them long term. They have to watch out for their bottom line and try to remain competitive.

I’m guessing this will be an unpopular opinion, but I see no problem with the team repeatedly franchising the guy. Bell is part of a very powerful labor union which negotiated this arrangement with the teams, and the players then signed off on it. Nobody is taking advantage of anybody here. The team can keep its best player, but at a cost that is something close to a premium. And the cost of repeatedly tagging someone can be astronomical – look at what happened with Kurt Cousins in Washington.

Is it the same as the player would get from unrestricted free agency? No, probably not, but it’s still a lot of guaranteed cash. Most importantly for fans like us, it gives us some degree of assurance that our favorite players will be sticking around for the long term. How comfortable would you be if Luck could just up and leave the Colts once his contract expired? Even the mere prospect of the franchise tag can bring everyone to the negotiating table and often a long term deal gets done in the shadow of this possibility. I think the system currently in place has worked out well for everyone, all things considered.

As for Bell himself, I don’t like that he’s bashing his former team and celebrating their losses – it just doesn’t sound like he’d be a good influence. And on a more fundamental level, I’m concerned about paying so much for a 28-year old running back. As I mentioned in another post, his stats from last year are not as impressive as the Steelers’ current running back (James Conner), so is it the system or the player? Furthermore, RBs tend to peak in their mid-20s, so I don't like the risk that we would be buying into a guy on the downside of his career.

I haven’t heard anything he said against the team. I did hear about some of his teammates bashing him when he wouldn’t sign and join the team.

What other industry forces someone to work for their organization after a contract expires and to do it for multiple years? I feel the Steelers are violating the spirit of the tag. It isn’t meant to be used over and over again. If you can’t come to an agreement then let him go to a team that will. QB money and RB are not the same, I think they are an apples to oranges comparison. The Steelers can keep tagging him and work it in to the budget. Bell is a huge part of that offense generating a large amount of yards and points. Pay him or don’t pay him, that is their decision. But by slapping a one year deal on him every year they are costing him the security of a long term deal. If he gets hurt one of these seasons he won’t have a team the next year. Also, the franchise tag may not even equal what he could earn in free agency. I think the damage has already been done. As you said you don’t want to sign a 28 year old RB. They could have cost him the security of his second contract. That is a large chunk of change.

And I don’t want to sign him either.

I think bell is dumb for holding out.

My main concerns for him are the amount of money he is asking for and his past drug issues.

It was reported today that he liked a tweet trolling the steelers for losing to the raiders on Sunday. I didn't see it so can't comment re how bad it was. But it was used to justify claims that he's turned his back on his tempamates. I just think he's too expensive and the money would be better used on defense and to get another top receiver. Quality running backs aren't tough to find and he will be n the downside of his career soon.

By the way it was reported today at The owners meeting that the cap will go up around 10 million next year.

You are looking at this like its baseball-type free agency, but it isn't. The NFL system allows a team to use the franchise tag to keep one player a year. Those are the rules everyone agreed to. The downside for the team is that it is costly to do so - in Bell's case, because it was the second year in a row he was tagged, he was entitled to a 20% increase over his prior year's $12 million+ salary (or $14.5 million). What's more, this salary is fully guaranteed once the tag is signed. Because it's a one-year, fully guaranteed contract, the team can't do any of the financial engineering that it would otherwise be able to do with a longer contract containing up front bonuses and guarantee limits. So it's not a perfect solution for the team either.

As to your point that it was not intended to be used over multiple years, that is simply not correct. The NFL and the player's union anticipated this exact scenario, and agreed to allow the tag to be used repeatedly if a team desires to do so. The catch is that it will cost the team dearly to do so, because in the second tag year (like Bell this year), the team has to increase the player's salary by 20%. The third tag year is even more expensive, as the player gets another 44% salary bump.

Kirk Cousins is a great illustration of this, and how a player with enough guts can use this situation to their advantage. In the first year he was tagged (2016), he received the normal initial tag price - the average of the top five salaries at his position (something like $20 million for QBs). He signed the tag and played out the season. In 2017, he made aggressive contract demands and the Redskins tagged him again, but by doing so under the above rules they were forced to increase his salary by 20% to $24 million . Again, he refused to accept a contract offer he felt was too low, signed the tag and played out the year. The third year (this last offseason), he maintained his aggressive demands and put the Redskins in the unenviable position of either tagging him a third time at the astronomical cost of a fully guaranteed $34 million (a 44% increase over the prior year), or to finally wave the white flag and let him become a free agent. He became a free agent.

Bell was just one year from putting the Steelers in a similar financial predicament (though if my calculations are correct, Bell's tag price would have been $21 million this coming off season - still a massive guaranteed amount for a RB).

I don't want to sign him either, and I cannot feel sorry for a guy who would have made 14.5mil guaranteed but opted not to sign.

Le'Veon Bell, 27 years old, 0 yards rushing / 0 yards receiving

Tevin Coleman, ATL, 26 years old, 559 yards rushing / 267 yards receiving
Latavius Murray, MIN, 28 years old, 415 yards rushing / 135 yards receiving
Alfred Blue, HOU, 28 years old, 367 yards rushing / 107 yards receiving
Mike Davis, SEA, 26 years old, 418 yards rushing / 139 yards receiving
T.J. Yeldon, JAX, 25 years old, 408 yards rushing / 482 yards receiving
Spencer Ware, KC, 27 years old, 246 yards rushing / 224 yards receiving
Jay Ajayi, PHI, 26 years old, 184 yards rushing / 20 yards receiving
Ty Montgomery, 26 years old, 175 yards rushing / 226 yards receiving

Other than Bell, there are no RBs hitting free agency that will be more than "one more body" in the Colts RB stable. Bell is the only guy whom would take over the room:

2017: 1,291 rushing / 4.0 ypc / 086.1 ypg / 655 receiving / 07.7 ypc / 43.7 ypg
2016: 1,268 rushing / 4.9 ypc / 105.7 ypg / 616 receiving / 08.2 ypc / 51.3 ypg
2015: 0,556 rushing / 4.9 ypc / 092.7 ypg / 136 receiving / 05.7 ypc / 22.7 ypg
2014: 1,361 rushing / 4.7 ypc / 092.7 ypg / 854 receiving / 10.3 ypc / 53.4 ypg
2013: 0,860 rushing / 3.5 ypc / 066.2 ypg / 399 receiving / 08.9 ypc / 30.7 ypg

For Comparision:

Mack:
2018: 0,616 rushing / 4.7 ypc / 068.4 ypg / 090 receiving / 07.5 ypc / 10.0 ypg

Wilkins:
2018: 0,318 rushing / 5.6 ypc / 024.5 ypg / 074 receiving / 05.3 ypc / 05.7 ypg

Hines:
2018: 0,289 rushing / 3.8 ypc / 022.2 ypg / 314 receiving / 06.0 ypc / 24.2 ypg

Bell's numbers are not as impressive as I would have thought. If Mack averages his game average for the next 3 games, then he will end up with 821 yards rushing with Wilkins chipping in 392 yards for a total of 1,213 between the two. At a lot lower cost.

Sure, having all that production rolled into one body is a HUGE advantage but is it worth the $14m per year in cap space that it would take to buy it?

Now that I am looking at the numbers, I would:

A. Not sign Bell to any contract for more than $13m a year (which means we will not sign him).
B. Kick the tires on a different veteran free agent RB to see if something fits but not wedded to the idea that we need to sign someone.
C. Draft another low round rookie to add to the RB stable.
D. Spend that other $13m - $15m in cap space on a free agent defender.

Walk Worthy,

I was actually shocked when I looked at numbers the other day and saw Mack averaging 4.7 ypc. Man, that Jets-Bills-Raiders stretch did a number for him!

I've been anti-Bell signing for the entire time and I am still such. But if we Low balled him a bit it might make more sense. I'm sure you are correct that he would not sign with us as there are 3-4 other teams that will likely pay him what he wants (ARI, ATL, OAK).

So if choice A is unlikely if not impossible, I agree with B, C, D. But I would Not look too hard on B unless there is something out there that is a no brainer.

On colts.com they posted the "unofficial" depth chart for week 15:


— C: Ryan Kelly, Evan Boehm, Josh Andrews


They also have Swoope listed, so who know what this means really.

We need playmakers. Bell is one. He was also considered one of the best if not the best pass protecting back in the league. He was a great pass option out of the backfield. I think Reich could do a hell of a lot with him. I completely agree with Omaha that the amount of money and his past drug use are huge issues. If you can structure his contract that we can financially live with that doesn't strap us going forward (maybe front loaded) and protects us from any loss due to drug issues it could work out. If not put the resources somewhere else, but lets use them (ie spend some of Irsay's money)

Ballard, so far, has structured all of his veteran contracts as:

1. No signing bonus
2. First year guaranteed salary
3. First year guaranteed roster bonus
4. No guaranteed money otherwise

Every contract Ballard has signed, except high round rookie contracts, has been structured so that the team actaully saves cap space by year two if the player needed to be cut (i.e. no guaranteed money left).

For example:

Jonathan Hankins, 3-years, $27.5m total, zero signing bonus.

Year 1, $3m salary (guaranteed), $7.5m roster bonus (guaranteed), $10.5m guaranteed and paid in year one.
Year 2, $8m salary, $500k roster bonus, neither guaranteed
Year 3, $8m salary, $500k roster bonus, neither guaranteed

All guranteed money was paid year one, no pro-rated amount so he was a cap gain of $8.5m when cut in year two of his time with the Colts.

Jabaal Sheard, 3-years, $25.5m total, zero signing bonus.

Year 1, $2.5m salary (guaranteed), $7.5m roster bonus (guaranteed), $9.5m guaranteed and paid in year one.
Year 2, $7m salary, $500k roster bonus, neither guaranteed
Year 3, $7.5m salary, $500k roster bonus, neither guaranteed

All guaranteed money paid in year one. Net cap gain if cut afterwards.

John Simon's contract followed the same pattern.

Denico Autry's contract from 2018 follows the same pattern.

Eric Ebron's contract from 2018 also follows the same pattern (but only a 2 year contract).

Those are all of the free agents that Ballard has signed to a total contract size of $10m or more (spread out over 2 or 3 years). Same pattern in every one.

I would expect most of Ballard's contract to work the same way going forward. If he needs to sign a mega-star contract (Luck, Bell, Hilton), then he I suspect that he will have to guarantee perhaps the 2nd year salary as well in order to hit the right ratio of guaranteed money to total money that players expect but I don't think he will turn to the signing bonus route and push that money cap hit out 3/4/5 years. That just does not seem to be his MO.

Walk Worthy,

I know it will likely come off as crazy, but I think Hines could supplant Mack as our RB1 next year and produce just as well, maybe even better. He seems a bit faster and is a better receiving option.

On a side note, I would like to see Hines in the slot as long as Inman is out, and maybe even after his return.

That's not crazy; Mack is not a RB1.

Reich opened today's presser by saying Ryan Kelly IS practicing today - although on a limited basis.


https://twitter.com/HolderStephen/st...96688757637121

Cox is practicing today also.

Sherck That is the line of reasoning I was thinking. We could pay someone 21 million and still have more cap space than most if not all teams. I’m not advocating this but we can afford him. He is not going to get the money he is asking for and I have to believe he knows this. He’s asking for the moon which is what he should do as a negotiating ploy. My guess is that he does not end up a Colt. It will be interesting how Ballard fills this roster out. These discussions are so much more fun this year. It’s wonderful

Did not want to do threat necro so I will throw this in here:

I love watching him just maul folks when we run....but his pass blocking has come a long way this season as well.

Nelson / Smith / Glowinski, a three headed Colts MVP for this season! :)


Walk Worthy,