[Chromeburn]

Originally Posted by Ironshaft

In the end, Ballard's QB decisions have been:

Year 1 - 2019 - Roll with Jacoby Biscuit because his superstar QB retired 2 weeks before the season.

Year 2 - 2020 - Sign an effective but aged Phillip Rivers. Turned out Phil could still be effective and we made the playoffs. Lots of warts but he played well in his twilight season.

Year 3 - 2021 - Trade for wonderkid potential in Carson Wentz. Thought it would be effective but was shown that it was not.

Year 4 - 2022 - ???

For as much as I want to rail at Andrew Luck for retiring, I cannot. These guys are modern day gladiators out here selling their health for our entertainment. I could argue that the HOW he did it sucked but the why? Yeah, not me to judge.

JB had every chance to show that he deserved the starting job and flubbed his season long audition.

PR was an aging wonder who did well but at the end, was on his last tank of gas. Solid move by Ballard that gave us a great chance to win but not a deep playoff run.

CW? Yeah, miss. He has it all except the most important 6 inches between his ears. I saw multiple young QBs in the playoffs WILL their teams to scores in the waning seconds of their games. They said "put the team on my shoulders" and they delivered time and again. I saw that and knew that CW is not that guy.

In the end, do I blame Ballard and Reich for the loss of resources we traded away for an ineffective player? Yeah, but I don't blame them much. It was a good gamble to take and it just did not pay off.

But I don't blame Ballard for trying. He has been trying to fix QB ever since Luck retired and has tried to do it pretty well. He just rolled snake eyes on Wentz.

It’s really been two years. Just feels like forever. Rivers was a stopgap who decided to hang it up. Wentz was a gamble the coach pushed for.

Stuff I more blame Ballard for is not drafting a LT after Castonzo was even hinting at retirement. Or keeping so much cap room with obvious holes that need filling.