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Originally Posted by Chaka
Why won't it result in anything significant? Just because the Colts have hit some rough territory doesn't mean that the underlying strategy is wrong. What's wrong with a plan to use your funds to invest in the guys you know best - your own players - and to be skeptical of guys coming from other teams whose own teams won't pay them what you think Ballard should pay them? If you can identify talent - and Ballard can do that - it seems like a perfectly logical and solid plan to me.
It's nice to say in the abstract that the Colts should spend more money in free agency, but on who?
You can say that he's overpaid his own players, and that may be true in some cases, but nothing he's done has hampered the Colts financially in any meaningful way. The bottom line is the lack of a QB is the real issue. Criticize the Colts all you want for going the veteran route instead of trying to draft a guy, but my guess is that the batting average is far better on veteran QBs than mid-1st round QBs or later. I don't buy all the claims that the Colts could have traded up higher into the first round to get someone like Herbert - why would the Chargers do that? And further, the Colts were ready to compete and a veteran QB makes more sense in that context than an rookie.
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Chaka you and I have been having this discussion for 3-4 years. And guess what? We are exactly where I have been saying we would end up - mediocre.
I’m not so sure what is hard to understand. Ballard has never fielded a complete team. Never. Yes every team has some degree of weakness. It’s a matter of magnitude. And Ballard has repeatedly left several major areas extremely weak while waiting on player development or next years draft. LT, WR, and DE primarily. Ballard refuses to “overspend” on average NFL talent. Great, except that means the team has repeatedly put out below average players at critical positions each and every year. Having a few great players that carry the bad players works in the NBA, it doesn’t in the NFL. You get exposed. If you have bottom 5 pass rush it doesn’t matter how great your LBs and secondary are. Oline can’t block? Doesn’t matter much you have the best RB in the league or have maybe finally solved the WR issue. We’ve seen it year after year - an obvious issue the team says is fine, then it costs them games and they spend half the season trying to find a solution.
Where this intersects with Ballard’s approach to the cap is that other teams do mortgage some of the future for today. Instead of filling holes with rookies and vet minimum guys they shoot their shot and shore up areas with over paid average players. It doesn’t always work, but it sure as fuck beats what Ballard does. Do the colts have a brighter future than the rams? Maybe. But the Rams have something to show for prioritizing a window. I guess Ballard’s is yet to come
That doesn’t even touch how he’s been fucking up at QB. I mostly give him a pass there. It’s an unbelievable difficult task, but one he makes more difficult by his “building a dynasty” philosophy.
Let me ask you - how many more years does Ballard need to prove what you and him believe? I said it was at best a 4 year plan before competitiveness using his method. Most on here, especially you, told me I was nuts. So I’ll ask - how much longer until the genius reveals itself?