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Originally Posted by Colts And Orioles
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When Peyton Manning went down in 2011, the Colts went 2-14 without him.
When Andrew Luck suddenly and unexpectedly retired in 2019, the Colts went 7-9 with an average-at-best Jacoby Brissett at quarterback, and 6 out of those 9 losses were by 7 points or less.
https://www.jt-sw.com/football/pro/r...Teams/2019-ind
The very next year the Colts went out and got the least mobile quarterback in the NFL (a 39 year-old Philip Rivers), went 11-6 in the regular season, and took the Buffalo Bills right down to the wire in a playoff game on their homefield.
https://www.jt-sw.com/football/pro/r...Teams/2020-ind
And in that playoff game the statuesque, 39 year-old Rivers was literally untouched by the Bills' defense, let alone sacked.
https://www.jt-sw.com/football/boxes...ost-wc-ind-buf
Subsequently, in my rat's ass of an opinion, Ballard wasn't just us giving lip-service when he proclaimed that he was determined to build a complete team that was not extremely-reliant on an elite quarterback when he was first brought here in January of 2017.
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I keep hearing that the build strategy is old, mostly from young fans who grew up with the 2000 Colts. The problem with the “modern build” strategy is that it’s dependent on finding a generational QB which is the hardest thing to do in sports. You either have to have the number one pick in the draft with one available that year (Burrow, Lawrence) or get extremely lucky in a deep QB draft class (Allen, Mahomes). And there are more misses at QB than hits for sure. Also young people tend to leave out we didn’t win the SB till we finally solidified the defensive line with a DT, Booger. And the running game came alive to take pressure off the passing game. Those Colts teams consistently got beat by Pat and Steeler teams who were more complete with investment in their lines.
People think Ballard just wants to make a running team with strong guards and a defense with strong DTs. That’s not true. He just happened to hit on an all-pro guard and an all-pro LB wary in his tenure bc he is good at drafting. He wants a complete team bc he thinks you win championships that way, but you still need a QB and he’s trying to find one.
A lot of this anti Ballard stuff I hear out of the radio guys on 1075. They don’t like him and think he is “smug.” So they go on these rants about him, but it’s really because they just don’t get along with him. I personally didn’t think he was bad in the interviews I listened to, I felt like they were pushing their opinion as if they had some say in the matter. When you’re a sports reporter and think you know more than the people on the team. But news flash, Polian was a huge dick, Grigson was a huge dick, it doesn’t matter, as long as they do their job. Plus McAfree seems to think he’s ok so I tend to think it’s the radio guys being sensitive. Also Dakich is an dick.