[Colts And Orioles]

Originally Posted by Colts And Orioles

o


In my rat's ass of an opinion, Chris Ballard has backed up what he asserted several years ago when he first took the job as GM of the Colts ...... he has built a complete team, as opposed to just a team that was extremely dependent on a great QB (such as Peyton Manning and/or Andrew Luck) that would be shit out of luck should that player go down with an injury (for the most extreme example of this, see the Colts' 2011 Manningless/Luckless season in which they went 2-14. For slightly less acute examples of this, see the 2015 Colts with Matt Hasselbeck and the 2017 Colts with Jacoby Brissett.)

I liked the signing of Philip Rivers, and I consider the 2020 season to have been a successful one for the Colts (both for Rivers as an individual, and for the Colts as a team.) I think that they showed that they were very capable of beating the elites of the league when they defeated the Packers in the regular season, and when they just barely lost to the Bills in the post-season. A slightly-past-his-prime Philip Rivers was still good more often than not, and I think that it was abundantly clear that a 39-year-old Rivers was still significantly better than a prime Jacoby Brissett.


All of that said, with the retirement of Philip Rivers, Ballard now faces one of the biggest decisions of his tenure as the team's GM ...... how to put a starting quarterback on the field for the 2021 season who will be at least as good (preferably a little better) as was a 39 year-old Philip Rivers in 2020. I don't envy his dilemma. I would have been OK with acquiring Matthew Stafford. I am not OK with Sam Darnold. I am on the fence about Carson Wentz. My opinion plus 13 dollars will get you a one-way ticket from Brewster, NY to Grand Central Station. My opinion plus 35 dollars will get you a Dwight Freeney jersey on eBay. Stay tuned for the decision that will be made by our GM, who so far has proven to be every bit the franchise builder that he asserted he would be when he first came on board in January of 2017.

o

o


Well, we didn't get Stafford, but we did get my second choice (out of those 3 quarterbacks.)

Wentz' sub-par TD-to-INT ratios in 2016 and 2020 bookended the 3 excellent seasons of TD-to-INT ratios in between.



2016: llllllllllllll)),,) 16 TD's llllll 14 INT's

2020: llllllllllllllllllll) 16 TD's llllll 15 INT's


2017-2019: ),.,. 81 TD's l,,,, 21 INT's

o