Quote:
Originally Posted by rcubed
similarly you dont seem to take into account that ballard has been in on many FAs that eventually went to another team. ballard has a value for a player and once the price goes beyond that he is out. that shows diligence in sticking to his process. I guess you could say that maybe his threshold is too low, but its not like he does nothing, and in the mean time he hasn't strapped the team with bad players with bad contracts.
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However, Ballard has entered each season with glaring holes that end up hurting the team. Reserving spots for developmental players because your draft method values top athletes that need coaching and skill technique. Now we missed a window because he doesn't have any sense of urgency. Dynasties are very rare and just assuming you are going to build one with your prescribed method is a little arrogant. How many dynasties has everyone seen just in their lifetime?
Whatever your prescribed method for acquiring talent (FA, draft, trades), you have to hit on it. He helps mitigate the failure rate of the draft by using a volume approach, which is smart, but he also picks a lot of projects. Turay, Banagu, Ya-Sin, Cambell, Lewis, Fountain, Cain, etc. He could get resonable FA's to fill those spots, but he doesn't want FA guys taking snaps from his picks which could hurt their potential. We missed out on several rookie WR's that could have contributed NOW, not in three years of coaching; Brown, Metcalf, Samuel, McLaurin. You can't tell me they didn't have those guys scouted. They chose Ya-sin because he was the only guy that was able to slow down Samuel and McLaurin at the senior bowl. They were torching everyone! Still we drafted a guy that had great physical traits and worked out of the slot, but also had just a few catches past 10 yards the entire year. Last year was a strong DT draft and he ignores the position, passes on a DE due to health concerns who ended up having a great year. Now we need a DT more than ever in a weaker DT draft, but QB, LT, and DE are still sitting there.
Ballard doesn't have to sign every huge FA out there, but he shuts down too early for his bargain shopping method. That is the nature of FA, you over spend some. Does he think his own upcoming FA's will be bargain signings as well? Some of his best talent acquisitions have been FA signings.
Also dynasties start at the QB position. Unless you have that, you aren't building anything.
And yes the Luck retirement was out of the blue, but his injury history was not. His career was in danger from an lengthy injury history which was kinda ignored. Plenty of careers have been cut short by injury. Maybe we thought he would be fine bc Peyton was an iron man. But we spent the lowest amount of capital on the QB postion of just about any team in the league since we drafted Luck. Other teams were investing in the position, we acquired Brisset and that was it. Bad foresight. Now the writing is on the wall with Hilton, will they pay attention?