Quote:
Originally Posted by Chromeburn
I don’t feel like going through every year picking out every move. And I don’t have time to do it. Although I’m thinking of doing a year by year analysis if I can. But that is part of the problem, he is only bargain shopping. Which is ok if you are rebuilding or close to the cap. We had to trade for Buckner and gave up a lot for him plus a huge contract, wasn’t FA. I’ll disagree on Houston, good signing but older, I don’t see him as top of the market. We’ve had a lot of cap space in the past and had a considerable amount last offseason. I don’t need every high priced free agent, but he could shore up our weaknesses with something involved a little better than what we have been fielding. Most of his signings have been good, I don’t think he has gone far enough in some areas. WR has been crap for several years. The one guy he did sign got hurt last year. Then it’s all a bunch of dudes or rookies. We could have gone after one of the pass rushers GB signed a couple years ago. We just missed another window and I don’t feel like the team is maximizing its assets. Do they want a SB or do they want to be competitive while saving lots of money? Could we have invested in a decent swing tackle? The stats were already out there, we don’t do well when Castonzo goes down. Reminds me of the baseball parable of the hitter waiting for the perfect pitch.
I think we do have good evaluators at the top, I wonder how many scouts we have still from the Grigson days. I’m also sure those owners are seeming the team be competitive while saving lots of money.
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If you picked Za'Darius Smith, you'd've gotten more production than Houston, but Preston Smith fell off in Year 2 of his contract and only got 4 sacks and 11 QB hits.
Since 2019:
Z. Smith: 26 sacks 85 pressures
Houston: 19 sacks 52 pressures
P. Smith: 16 sacks 50 pressures
Obviously Za'Darius Smith would've been the best choice with the benefit of hindsight, but you'd be rightfully upset if the Colts handed Preston Smith well over double the money of Justin Houston to give them less production. You could've guessed that Za'Darius Smith would become what he's been the past two years, but you would've paid him nearly three times the money of Houston to find out, and it would've been at best an educated guess. You could use hindsight to criticize a lot of any GM's moves (for Ballard, just about every pick of the 2017 draft except rounds 4 and 5), but I don't think there are many GMs in this league even on par with Ballard's ability to find and evaluate talent and assemble the best possible roster, especially given the circumstances he's had to deal with.