Like it or loathe it, this is how they’re doing it. The Indianapolis Colts are sticking to their plan, even it means (mostly) sitting on the sideline during free agency and eschewing obvious needs, even if it means cutting one of the best defensive playmakers on this mediocre-at-best roster, John Simon, which they did Saturday.
They are heeding patience, building meticulously, believing the payoff will come down the line.
Whether it does or not will determine whether this front office stays or goes.
“Nobody said it was going to be easy,” second-year General Manager Chris Ballard said Sunday.
Internally, the Colts know this roster isn’t there yet, isn’t close to there. It might be the least talented in the AFC South. And the decisions the Colts have made over the last several months indicate this build isn’t about 2018. They’re not one or two players away. They’re a dozen players away. Maybe more.
Ballard has routinely stated his desire to watch young players grow and develop in the Colts’ system. In this vein, it’s obvious why the Colts were so quiet during last spring’s free agency. Take their shaky secondary. The Colts had loads of cash to spend, and for the most part, they didn’t. Why? Ballard wants a young talent such as Quincy Wilson to play, to make mistakes, to develop. Signing a veteran cornerback that would’ve taken those snaps from Wilson wouldn’t have allowed that.
Is it a gamble? Absolutely. Wilson was hot-and-cold this preseason, and still has a long way to go if he’s going to prove he’s the Colts’ No. 1 corner of the future. The bumps will come.
Same goes for an extremely unproven group at linebacker, one that will start two rookies – Darius Leonard and Skai Moore – in next Sunday’s regular season opener against Cincinnati.
“I like their talent,” Ballard said of the group. “They need to play. They need to get live game action and that’s how they’re going to get better.”
But the biggest gamble, unquestionably, was the move to released Simon. The Colts have lauded Simon’s throwback, gritty physicality for months, all the while knowing he would be limited at the defensive end spot. So instead of giving those defensive end snaps to Simon, easily the more polished player, the Colts want to see what they can get from younger, rawer talents like Kemoko Turay and Tarell Basham.
It’s about upside. It’s about the future. Simon makes the Colts better in 2018. Turay and Basham could make them better in 2019, and 2020, and 2021. Indy is willing to take the lumps, live with the mistakes, and wait for the growth. That didn’t mean it was easy for Ballard to tell Simon the news.
“I’m close to John Simon,” Ballard said. “He’s one of my favorite guys and one of my favorite players, and he knows it. That was tough. You can point the finger directly at me ... it just didn’t work.”
“Don’t sit there for a second and think that one doesn’t stick with me.”
“I’m close to John Simon,” Colts GM Ballard said Sunday of his most notable cut over the weekend. “He’s one of my favorite guys and one of my favorite players, and he knows it. That was tough."
“I’m close to John Simon,” Colts GM Ballard said Sunday of his most notable cut over the weekend. “He’s one of my favorite guys and one of my favorite players, and he knows it. That was tough." (Photo: Matt Kryger/IndyStar)
The context behind the Simon move is important. In this team’s ambitious shift to coordinator Matt Eberflus’ 4-3 defense, the Colts are chasing players who fit their prototype. The way the team saw it, with Jabaal Sheard entrenched at the left defensive end spot, Simon was fighting an uphill battle on the opposite side. At right DE, the Colts want size, speed and get-off. They want the physical traits the scheme is designed to capitalize on.
They like what they’ve seen in the rookie Turay, albeit in a small sample size this preseason, and believe second-year player Basham has the tools to grow into a menacing pass-rusher down the line.
That made Simon, who does a million things well on the football field but was never going to be an alpha dog pass-rusher, suddenly expendable.
“John Simon is a pro, he’s a pro,” Ballard continued. “John Simon is going to go play and play for somebody and play his butt off ... but sometimes you gotta move forward, sometimes you gotta make those tough decisions.”
Tough as it was, Ballard noted, it wasn’t as if the Colts cut “Freeney or Mathis,” he said, referring to the franchise greats. Simon has just 13 sacks in his five-year career.
As for Basham, the GM described the second-year product as “inconsistent right now, but he’s got the body type and the get-off and the things we want (at the right defensive end spot). He’s just gotta continue to develop and get better.”The shift to the 4-3 defensive scheme has been, and will continue to be, a painful one. It won’t happen in a year. It’ll require several drafts, and very likely multiple seasons, for Ballard to populate this defense with the young, speedy players the system craves. He liked Jon Hankins, the hulking defensive tackle the Colts let go in March because his skillset didn’t align with this new scheme. He liked Henry Anderson, too, the defensive end he traded in May for similar reasons.
And he really liked John Simon – what general manager wouldn’t? By any objective measure, the Colts aren’t as good of a football team without John Simon on the roster.
Nearly 20 months into Ballard’s roster overhaul, the Colts are nearly a brand new team. Just 16 players are left from the Ryan Grigson era, and that number will trickle down in the months to come.
Asked Sunday for his expectations for the season, Ballard resisted any bold proclamations. He knows this roster has a ways to go.
“That we work our butts off and continue to stay the course of where we’re going,” Ballard said of what he wants to see. “And compete. And get better. When you’re young, and you have a young football team, it’s not going to happen overnight. I wanna watch them compete and get better every week.”
Colts claim two players
A year after finding two future defensive starters on the waiver wire, the Colts added two players to the roster at positions of need.
The Colts claimed defensive end Al-Quadin Muhammad, most recently of the New Orleans Saints, and safety Corey Moore, waived by Houston over the weekend.
It was last season when the Colts scooped up two cornerbacks – Pierre Desir and Kenny Moore – on the waiver wire. Both are expected to start for the team next Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals.
Muhammad, whom the Colts liked during the scouting process ahead of the 2017 draft, will fight for snaps at a defensive end spot with major questions, while Moore joins a safety room that already has two entrenched starters in Clayton Geathers and Malik Hooker, plus a capable backup in Matthias Farley.
Muhammad was a sixth-round pick last season but saw just four games with the Saints as a rookie. Moore has more experience, seeing action in 31 games, 11 of which were starts.
The Colts released defensive end Ryan Delaire and cornerback Lenzy Pipkins to make room for the additions.
Colts add five to practice squad
The Colts signed the following players, each waived Saturday, to the practice squad: wide receivers Reece Fountain and Steve Ishmael, tight end Mo Alie-Cox, quarterback Phillip Walker and cornerback D.J. White.
Lewis to IR
The Colts also sent rookie defensive lineman Tyquan Lewis, whom they were impressed with through the early stages of training camp, to the injured reserve list. Lewis has been battling a toe injury that hasn’t improved in recent weeks.
Lewis could return from the IR list later in the season.
“Kid’s really talented,” Ballard said. “Stinks."
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09-02-2018, 07:48 PM
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