General off-season news thread
 

Thought I would start a thread for general offseason news/discussions and get out the the last weekly game thread.


3 signed to 1 year contract extensions:
TE Mo Alie-Cox
K Chase McLaughlin
WR Zach Pascal

good to have all of them back IMO.

Fully agree there.

Hoping Vinny retires and Chase picks up the slack. I love the GOAT but I would bet Vinny cost us at lest 2 if not 3 games this year.

Sure hope we can get Castanzo a new contract agreed to. Sure hoping we don't get another Luck type last minute retirement kick in the arse from Castanzo if he does decide to bail out.

It will be interesting to see how Ballard/Reich handle this off season. Are they done with Brissett? How do they evaluate this mess of a season, which players do they keep and build around? Do they finally use some cap space? We are in a shitty situation, needing play makers (including qb) big time and drafting 13th. On the good side, I hate being the team with all the expectations on them like last year- we certainly ain't that this year.

I see the needs below. Not all can be filled I know.

Offense
QB - Can go with Brissett another year but draft successor
WR- Hilton is getting up there in age and injuries are mounting. Hopefully, Parris Campbell can stay healthy and help. Still need to draft someone.
Offensive guard or tackle. I prefer moving Braden Smith to his natural position guard and drafting or signing a free agent right tackle.
Left tackle is Castonzo retires. Not an easy task finding a LT. Usually none available worth signing in free agency. Maybe with Washingtons #2 pick, snag one.
Tight end- draft one

Defense. where do I start?
DT- Draft one with the first pick.
Defensive end- Sign the edge rusher from Jags Yannick Ngakoue
Linebackers are fine if they can get enough beef up front so they can flow to the ball.
Secondary- Need to draft a CB and maybe even safety. Not sure Hooker can stay healthy.

Ballard needs to spend some cap money and bring in some players. 9 draft picks so should get some talent there.

Well, I typed out a long response and somehow lost it by hitting the wrong button, so let me type something shorter.

Top priorities are Pass rusher and QB. Fix those two and a lot of the rest falls into place. I think a quality pass rusher and the return of Turay will make our DBs better.

WR is not as big of a need as some claim because we get about six back from injusy by next year.

Beyond those two, I see TE and LT as top priorities. Even if AC doesn't retire,we need to find someone to replace him in the future.

The rest is solid, but can be exposed by the lack of the top two priorities that I mentioned.

It will be interesting to see how the Colts handle the quarter back situation. I have no clue what Ballard/Reich are thinking.

Agree it will be interesting. My initial thoughts are they will see who is available to draft at 13, no trading up. If someone they like is there then they draft him. If not they roll with brissett and wait a year to draft. Brissett starts next seasons regardless.


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I think, their thinking , that Brissett is next years QB.

Why not trade up? They have the extra picks

Re-sign:
LT Anthony Castanzo (Franchise Tag if necessary)
WR Chester Rogers
SS Clayton Geathers
OL Joe Haeg

Tender:
None

Sign:
DT Chris Jones (if available, likely to be tagged)
DE Yannick Ngakoue
DE/DT Arik Armstead (if Jones is not available)
QB Teddy Bridgewater
TE Austin Hooper

Draft BPA

That would be a competitive team in 2020 IMO.

I like this list minus Geathers and Rodgers

1. ballard likes his picks
2. I am not sure there is anyone really worth trading up for

Why not Geathers?

Tagging castonzo sounds good, if he doesnt retire first.

Tagging him might make him retire.

Why would you tag someone who wants to leave? Maybe to control his rights and trade him and get something for him I would guess.

Its not as if the Colts (Irsay) wouldnt pay him. If hes really thinking about retiring, they need to leave him alone.

Khari Willis.

I would take Bridgewater over Brissett any day, any week, 100 out of a 100 times. Unlike JB, Bridgewater is a pretty damn accurate QB. That and the fact that Bridgewater doesn't throw every fucking ball 100 miles an hour. Since I doubt that Ballard will move up to draft a really good QB such as Burrow or Tua this year, hell yes I would try and get Bridgewater. I seriously doubt the Saints would let him go though because of Brees's age.

I do believe the Colts will be just good enough this up coming season that we won't have a shot in hell of getting Trevor Lawrence next year, and I am not sold on anyone else yet.

Just sick and tired of watching JB suck so damn much.

I wouldnt take Tua. Too many leg injuries in a short college career

Willis has the starting spot, then you can draft a backup and worst case scenario re sign geathers if the position gets bad due to injury because I doubt anyone signs him

So good backups aren't a thing?

I think Bridgewater has a fairly decent shot of being a franchise QB. He'd certainly do better than Briskett.

Geathers is a good backup, and won't command much money in free agency. He is also quality replacement when one of the other two misses a game or two.

I'm all in on Armstead & Ngakoue. Doubt that Ballard is.

There's gotta be an Australian Rules Football player that projects to be an impactful d-lineman three years from now. That's more Ballard's style.

I thought that was grigson

Right so draft one or sign an undrafted FA whatever Geathers will be around if you need him hopefully we don’t no need to overpay a backup

Yea preferably thru the draft

Ballard prefers value versus paying market rate for proven results.

Like drafting a guard early in the first round?

Who said anything about overpaying?

I wouldn't overpay him. I'd resign him if he's willing to sign a team friendly deal.

Ballards comments today are encouraging. Not exactly a glowing endorsement of Brisket, while conceding he will be our starter going into next season.

Per Florio.

two quotes I pulled from articles covering ballard's presser:

“Look, Jacoby did some good things. I think as a whole, our passing game has to improve, unequivocally. You have to be able to throw the football to win in this league,”

“The jury is still out.”

Ballard is not dumb or blind. He knows we need a QB upgrade, question is can we find one?


Edit:
One more that was interesting:

“One of the biggest mistakes teams make is they force it. You can’t force the evaluation of a QB. Then what you do is you talk yourself into a guy and you set your organization back 4-5 years.”

I'm listening to the press conference on FB right now and that's an accurate assessment. You don't have to read between the lines too much to understand that he has learned that JB is not going to take us to the promised land. That said, it's a process and he's not going to make a change unless he can find a better talent that can get us there. He was very pointed in his criticism of himself for not stacking the roster with enough proven talent/depth to weather the injury/retirement issues that plagued this team. He also was candid that the locker room read their own press clippings too much when they were 5-2 rather than staying focused on the improvement needed to be a winning team.

Holy fuck....Ballard just admitted that he over estimated being able to let proven veterans like Al Woods and Mike Michell go and expect a bunch of young pups get you where you need to go................Me thinky Ballard may be going shopping for some veteran free agents!!!! I love a leader that learns from his mistakes!!!!

He was very short in his answer re: status of Ebron....."we'll be moving on". RE: AC he was glowing in his praise....no time-frame for retirement decision but if he continues to play football he will remain a Colt. RE: Tampa 2 defensive scheme.....acknowledges that we are not solid enough up front to generate sufficient pressure on QB......and that he is pissed we gave up too many chunk explosive plays......Eberflus priority is to be better in those 2 areas. He committed to improve the players to fix that.

Good he recognizes it, but some of us were saying it last year. Bodes well for Sheard though.

That was another interesting tidbit, the quote about Ebron. Clearly, that bridge has been burned, for whatever reason.

Probably just as well, as we don’t currently have the quarterback to make him good enough to keep.

Sheard plays his ass off every game.