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Getting it wrong and not prioritizing it are two different things. You mentioned it, but I'll emphasize... taking Nelson at 6 overall and Smith at 37 overall when we already had two first-rounders (Castonzo, Kelly) cannot happen with a GM that doesn't prioritize the OL.
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Agree Ballard certainly prioritized OL early in his tenure here, but since 2018 he's essentially rested on his laurels. And his attempts to replace AC at by far most important position on the OL (a 1 year show me contract to a guy coming off an Achilles and a 3rd rounder on a long term project) sure make it look like he's change his priorities towards the OL or doesn't value the LT position as much as he should.
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I think everybody acknowledges that Matt Pryor was a bad decision. Even if he was always planned to be temporary, which is evidenced by the rotation with Raimann from the first game. And I'll be the broken record that says we don't know if he tried to bring in a more established guy or who that might have been.
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That's somewhat fair. It's possible that Ballard did try to do more at LT and it didn't work out. With how quickly we re-signed Pryor and that there weren't any reports of Ballard meeting w/ any other LT prospects other than Fisher, sure makes it seem like he really didn't try to do more. He certainly could have done more after '20.
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However, nobody saw the OL unit performing like this. Anybody that says they did is lying. Even guys like me and you who were talking back in April about Glow and Reed leaving... we were concerned, but not because we thought career back-up Chris Reed leaving will suddenly make Quenton Nelson have his worst season and we'll give up more sacks in 9 games than we did in 17 games with ball-holding Wentz and we'll be 30th in rushing after producing the rushing champ last year. It's one of the weirdest things we've seen in football.
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Totally fair. A lot of us (including myself) thought Pryor at LT might go bad, but no one thought it would go anywhere near this bad. But it fucking did though and Ballard should feel the heat for this since it's ultimately his responsibility to put the roster together.