Colts Practice Squad Signings

[Chromeburn]

Originally Posted by IndyNorm

As stated in the other post I'm sure they'll be better. Until the injuries hit and then they'll probably be really bad again. Also, hate to brake the news to you guys but this improvement by the OL in the 2nd half of the season really wasn't all that great. At least from a pass blocking standpoint. Our OL gave up 25 sacks in the final 8 games after Pryor was benched, which prorates to 53 for a 17 game season. That would have ranked them as the 4th worst in the league instead of 2nd.

Because we were starting a rookie on the left side and Q was injured. Kelly didn't help things with whatever was up with him. The rookie was going to make rookie mistakes. However, Smith returned to form as a top ten RT. And by the end of the year, Raimannn was in the top three of rookie LT's.

Originally Posted by IndyNorm

Ebron was a good pickup, and Hines and Doyle were good that year too. I recall that the offense struggled until Inman came in and gave Luck at least a dependable WR2. Either way, the fact that Ballard ignored WR early on and royally fucked up by passing on all 3 of Samuel, AJ Brown, and Metcalf in the 2nd round in 2019 are 2 big contributors as to why we have such an underwhelming and thin WR group.

I'm sure 29 other GM's have regrets about players they should have taken. Draft is a numbers game. You are not going to hit on every player. But Ballard has already proven to be one of the best drafters in the league.

Originally Posted by IndyNorm

I agree, which is why IMO we should have drafted Darrisaw in '21, or at least kept Fisher on until Raimann was ready.

No one is expecting Ballard to be perfect, but we should expect him to learn from his mistakes. And while he may have admitted he fucked up on the OL last offseason his complete lack of investment in the OL this offseason shows he hasn't learned from those mistakes.

Maybe, of course everyone would be complaining about DE then. Paye had six sacks last year and looked like he was going to take a step till injury. I hope he turns the corner this year, he is already a great run defender. What I do like is they had Darisaw and Paye even with each other on their board, just DE won out with positional value. But they seem to be targeting the right players. So if Raimann turns out as he is trending, they found a LT and a DE with both picks.

[rm1369]

Originally Posted by Chromeburn

Because we were starting a rookie on the left side and Q was injured. Kelly didn't help things with whatever was up with him. The rookie was going to make rookie mistakes. However, Smith returned to form as a top ten RT. And by the end of the year, Raimannn was in the top three of rookie LT's.

They were starting a rookie LT because of Ballard’s previous “kick the can down the road” mentality.

Originally Posted by Chromeburn

Maybe, of course everyone would be complaining about DE then. Paye had six sacks last year and looked like he was going to take a step till injury. I hope he turns the corner this year, he is already a great run defender. What I do like is they had Darisaw and Paye even with each other on their board, just DE won out with positional value. But they seem to be targeting the right players. So if Raimann turns out as he is trending, they found a LT and a DE with both picks.

Considering his previous inability to address DE and his handling of Denico Autry you are likely right. He put the team in a position where they had nothing at DE going into that draft. It’s a consequence of Ballard’s methods.

Ballard has drafted individual players fairly well, what he hasn’t done is assemble good teams. His major hits are almost all at positions that are devalued in the current NFL. And he leaves gaping holes to be addressed later. He also gifts positions to his players and is also nearly allergic to mid level vets. We’ll see how Paye and Raimann turn out and that may change the dynamic some. No matter how you slice it though Ballard has been in charge of the Colts for 6 years the team currently has no proven top end players at the most important positions in football - QB, LT, DE, WR, CB. Some decent players. Some players with potential. No one you can bank on. It’s hard for me to agree that’s the product of a good GM.

[ChoppedWood]

Originally Posted by rm1369

They were starting a rookie LT because of Ballard’s previous “kick the can down the road” mentality.




Considering his previous inability to address DE and his handling of Denico Autry you are likely right. He put the team in a position where they had nothing at DE going into that draft. It’s a consequence of Ballard’s methods.

Ballard has drafted individual players fairly well, what he hasn’t done is assemble good teams. His major hits are almost all at positions that are devalued in the current NFL. And he leaves gaping holes to be addressed later. He also gifts positions to his players and is also nearly allergic to mid level vets. We’ll see how Paye and Raimann turn out and that may change the dynamic some. No matter how you slice it though Ballard has been in charge of the Colts for 6 years the team currently has no proven top end players at the most important positions in football - QB, LT, DE, WR, CB. Some decent players. Some players with potential. No one you can bank on. It’s hard for me to agree that’s the product of a good GM.

Good shit

[Racehorse]

Originally Posted by ChoppedWood

Good shit

Well, you got it right that it was shit.

[ChoppedWood]

Originally Posted by Racehorse

Well, you got it right that it was shit.

No, it's true. He has hit on some individual players but in total his model to build a team, has not produced results that translate to team success.

This isn't just some 1070 The Fan thing. I was just driving and one of the national shows was on (think it was the Spain and Fitz show), doing their run down of team predictions. They predicted us with 3 wins saying the roster is filled with holes and we may challenge AZ for the worst record this year. The summary statement- how can a GM be allowed to blame the retirement of a QB for the rest of the team being bad 5 years later and that's just acceptable as an excuse, and they laughed as they moved on. It's true. This team is not bad because Andrew Luck retired, this team is bad because the GM has not built a roster to compete in the modern day NFL.

AR and Steichen likely represent a transition into modern day football, which is great, but going into this season, this roster is not good and Ballard, via draft and FA, is the one that is responsible for that.

[Racehorse]

Originally Posted by ChoppedWood

No, it's true. He has hit on some individual players but in total his model to build a team, has not produced results that translate to team success.

This isn't just some 1070 The Fan thing. I was just driving and one of the national shows was on (think it was the Spain and Fitz show), doing their run down of team predictions. They predicted us with 3 wins saying the roster is filled with holes and we may challenge AZ for the worst record this year. The summary statement- how can a GM be allowed to blame the retirement of a QB for the rest of the team being bad 5 years later and that's just acceptable as an excuse, and they laughed as they moved on. It's true. This team is not bad because Andrew Luck retired, this team is bad because the GM has not built a roster to compete in the modern day NFL.

AR and Steichen likely represent a transition into modern day football, which is great, but going into this season, this roster is not good and Ballard, via draft and FA, is the one that is responsible for that.

Well, if you think we will get the second pick in the draft, then you would agree with those guys. I think we are going to do much better than that.

[ukcolt]

We have a lot of young guys, who may very well flourish this year with the added experience. Are they unproven, or lacking experience sure, but the likes of Pierce, Woods, Ogletree, Gransen, Raimann on offense will hopefully grow together and form a potent nucleus on offense. If you then add in Richardson, Downs and who knows, Taylor, then suddenly in a years time, we might be thinking very differently about the quality of this roster.

On defense as has been said, Paye, Dayo have shown flashes, our LB's are already proven to have some ability, and experience. The DB's are what scare me, especially at CB. Outside of Kenny Moore, there is literally no experience at all of any note. The safeties, are young, but have some experience and room to continue to develop.

I don't think that this roster is devoid of talent by any stretch of the imagination, are they young and experienced, yeah they are, but there are a lot of high round selections, that most have generally been happy with over the last two or three years in the draft.

Biggest areas of concern for the 23 season for me are, the protection of our QB, is Raimann going to make the sophomore leap, and will the rest of the line come to play at the levels their talents have previously shown them to be capable of? Depth is of huge concern. How rough are the bumps in the road going to be for the rookie QB? I am reasonably content we will be ok in the passing game and in stopping the run, Richardson should help our own running game to at least appear to get a lot of yards, even if not through the RB's necessarily. It is the back end coverage i am most worried about and i can see us giving up a ton of passing yardage with long TD's due to broken coverages, because the guys just aren't experienced enough, and maybe in some instances, are not talented enough to match up with the starting WR's of the NFL.

[rm1369]

Originally Posted by Racehorse

Well, if you think we will get the second pick in the draft, then you would agree with those guys. I think we are going to do much better than that.

If things go well in a couple areas then you could be right. Wouldn’t that make what the team has at CB and OL depth that much worse? I don’t understand how you can believe this will be a decent team AND be happy with some of the roster decisions.

[IndyNorm]

Originally Posted by rm1369

They were starting a rookie LT because of Ballard’s previous “kick the can down the road” mentality.




Considering his previous inability to address DE and his handling of Denico Autry you are likely right. He put the team in a position where they had nothing at DE going into that draft. It’s a consequence of Ballard’s methods.

Ballard has drafted individual players fairly well, what he hasn’t done is assemble good teams. His major hits are almost all at positions that are devalued in the current NFL. And he leaves gaping holes to be addressed later. He also gifts positions to his players and is also nearly allergic to mid level vets. We’ll see how Paye and Raimann turn out and that may change the dynamic some. No matter how you slice it though Ballard has been in charge of the Colts for 6 years the team currently has no proven top end players at the most important positions in football - QB, LT, DE, WR, CB. Some decent players. Some players with potential. No one you can bank on. It’s hard for me to agree that’s the product of a good GM.

Well said. What is just as concerning as Ballard's lackluster roster building skills is that he hasn't shown that he has learned from his mistakes. Something his homers on the board here not surprisingly fail to reply to when I bring it up.

[Oldcolt]

I agree with the sentiment that Ballard has done a lousy job of building a team, so far. I add so far because there are a ton of high upside guys that are starting their 2-4th year. If he hits on Dayo and Paye (a distinct possibility still-Dayo is 3 years from Achilles and should have his explosion back and Paye started to come on last year before his injury), hits on Raiman and AR then my ragging on Ballard would be bullshit (and I hope I get to eat that crow). As we sit here at this moment those players just have potential. I think this is a huge year for Ballard, some of these guys need to live up to their potential or Irsay will have some tough decisions to make.