General off-season news thread

[Chaka]

Originally Posted by Colt Classic

So the money has to be spent, but might as well dress it up like this is part of a carefully calculated plan.

You cannot be serious. What evidence do you have of any of this? Do you think Ballard is an idiot and has to be forced to spend the cap space? Of course he knows the money has to be spent, and he’s said as much multiple times over the last few years if you’d actually bother to listen and think about what he’s said and the plan he’s laid out for you.

Luck4Reich is absolutely correct that this plan is largely going as expected, with the exception of the Luck retirement that was out of the blue and would absolutely cripple almost any organization. Ballard has said several times that we needn’t worry about the cap space because it would be used up as the players he drafted began to develop. Guess what? That’s happening and sure enough that extra cap space now will prove very useful. However, because it will involve simply keeping our own players rather than bringing in new players, I’m sure it won’t seem to you like he’s done anything special since you won’t have to experience the frustration of being unable to pay for a Leonard, Nelson, Kelly, Castonzo, Mack or Moore (and yes, I know he's already signed) when they become eligible for free agency.

Furthermore, just as these younger players are maturing, we will have the needed cap space to supplement this with a some premium free agents. The plan was for Luck to be around for all of this too, which might have made us unstoppable, but now we have that additional curveball that we’ll have to adjust to – again, however, the cap space will help there as well.