Quote:
Originally Posted by Pez
I got you, and I'm not going to say that the Phillip Rivers season was not fantastic.
Jacoby Brissett
Carson Wentz
Matt Ryan
Sam Ehlinger
Nick Foles
Gardner Minshew
Anthony Richardson
Joe Flacco have all started for us since 2020. None of those guys were the guy, but Daniel Jones is the guy that Ballard was just waiting for?
Were having a "my steak is too juicy" discussion. But I think Ballard lucked into Daniel Jones and you are trying to make it sound like Ballard (and only Ballard) scouted this out and shrewdly found this massive value buried on the Vikings practice squad.
Ballard had a lot of good planning and a lot of good luck that paid off for all of us.
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o
For starters, your citation of Jacoby Brissett is nonsense in the context of what we are talking about. Brissett was not brought here to be the Colts' long-term franchise quarterback, he was brought here to hold the fort for the injured Andrew Luck in September of 2017. Luck retired suddenly and abruptly just before the start of the 2019 season, so Ballard was left with what he had (Brissett) for that 2019 season.
That brings us to the 2020. In his first bona-fide attempt to bring in a solid quarterback to complement an otherwise largely complete team, Ballard brough in 39 year-old Philip Rivers ...... and it worked well. Unfortunately, Rivers retired after that 2020 season.
That brings us to the 2021 season. Carson Wentz on the whole was a fail, but his and that 2022 team's failure has been exaggerated. Wentz was not as good as his raw figures would indicate (27 TD, 7 INT's, and a QB rating of 94.6), but he was far from awful. If you recall, that 2021 team had a record of 9-6 after 15 games, and were riding a 3-game winning streak. Even Chopped Wood stated that he was wrong about his critique of Ballard and Wentz after that big win over the Arizona Cardinals on national television. And then, Wentz shit the bed over the last 2 games against the Raiders and a horrible Jaguars team. The entire team shit the bed against the Jaguars, but Wentz was the leader as the QB, so that's on him ....... Carson Wentz FAILED, and shit the bed at the worst time, but the failure on the season as a whole was far from disastrous.
That brings us to Ballard's biggest failure of all ...... the 2022 season. Matt Ryan was not the answer, but the biggest failure of all was the offensive line, which was the worst Colts offensive line in recent memory. In fact, I had stated that if Philip Rivers, who was very well protected in his lone season as the Colts' QB had had that offensive line "blocking" for him he would not have last 8 games, let alone led the team to an 11-5 record and a playoff berth. BALLARD'S BIGGEST FAILURE was that 2022 season, for the reasons that I just stated.
I explained Anthony Richardson, which covers the mediocre 2023 and 2024 seasons. Richardson was not necessarily what Ballard wanted, but he was all that there was left in the draft after C.J. Stroud was already taken.
So since the sudden and abrupt retirement of Andrew Luck just prior to the 2019 season, Ballard had one absolutely disastrous fail (the 2022 season with Matt Ryan and the horrible offensive line), one moderate failure (Carson Wentz and the excruciatingly painful end to the 2021 season), 2 successes (Philip Rivers and the 2020 Colts seasons, and Daniel Jones and the current 2025 season), and 2 more seasons of mediocrity in 2023 and 2024 with Anthony Richardson and his mentor/helper quarterbacks.
Finally, in addition to Jacoby Brissett, the names that you listed such as Sam Ehlinger, Nick Foles Gardner Minshew, and Joe Flacco are also red-herrings in the context of the discussion ...... like Brissett, none of those quarterbacks were brought here in hopes of being the next franchise quarterback to complement an otherwise largely complete team, like Carson Wentz and Daniel Jones were. Minshew and Flacco, for example, were brought here as QB's to mentor and/or be there in case of Anthony Richardson sustaining injuries. Minshew signed a one-year, $3.5 Million contract prior to the 2023 season, and Joe Flacco was 39 years-old, and signed a one-year guaranteed $4.5 Million contract in 2024.
So Ballard didn't luck into Daniel Jones ....... he built largely complete teams (save for the disastrous 2022 season) that needed a franchise quarterback (or at least a very good quarterback, like Philip Rivers) to be a bona-fide contender. He remained calm in the eye of the storm and in the face of harsh criticism, and now his patience and his resolve are paying off.
o