Unfortunately ChoppedWood is right

[Chaka]

Originally Posted by IndyNorm

Why? What the fuck has Ballard done to make this team better.? He had the most cap space in the league and a shit ton of draft picks to work with coming off an underachieving season and we're worse at OL, WR, TE, CB, and no better at QB and DL.

Well, let's see, we had 7 pro bowlers just last year so there's that. He drafted Taylor, Pittman, Stewart, Nelson, Smith, Leonard, Hines, and Blackmon (I'm probably forgetting a few) as well as several other recent/good role players. Sure, he's had some misfires (particularly at DE, where he's invested several high picks), but his batting average has been much better than most - and way better than the years that preceded him. And with the notable exception of Nelson, all without any picks in the top half of the first round. What team in the second half of the draft has done better?

In free agency/trades, he's been fairly restrained - he resisted the temptation to sign some of the big names that some here have passionately advocated (I recall Le'Veon Bell, Landon Collins and Andrew Norwall off the top of my head), but he's added a limited number that seem pretty good - Buckner, Ryan, Gilmore. Who are the other players he should have added?

At LT, Castanzo just retired in January of last year. He signed Fisher at first, an injury gamble that didn't work out as hoped. Maybe he could have gone after Trent Williams, so I guess that's not an unreasonable criticism. This year, not sure why he thought Pryor was the answer, but he also drafted a well-regarded guy and its early so we'll see. But I get the LT criticism, though most of you are saying that the established players are a big part of the problem on the rest of the line, so why is that Ballard's fault?

At WR, take away any teams' top two WRs and you'll have a thin receiving corps and some less than recognizable names. Pittman appears to be growing into the role the team envisioned for him but got hurt, jury's not back on Pierce yet. As much as I like TY, I don't think he would be making a material difference at this point in his career. Maybe Julio Jones? The guy hasn't played well in recent years and gets hurt. Again, I think some criticism of Ballard is certainly warranted, but certainly not as vicious as many are being. If his faith in Pittman and Pierce proves to be misguided, then I'd see the the criticism more clearly.

At QB, I don't really see much reason for criticism at all. He hasn't had a super high draft pick where most of the top QBs are found, so what have been his options? He's brought in well-regarded, experienced guys - exactly what everyone seems to think he should do at these other positions - but none so far (save perhaps Rivers, who he tried to re-sign) have performed to the level which would warrant keeping them for more than one season. I continue to maintain that although the Wentz trade didn't turn out great in retrospect, it was a worthwhile gamble under the circumstances - and Ballard cut his losses immediately to minimize the damages.

The rest of the criticisms focus on underperforming veteran guys who have shown they are capable of much better play in prior seasons. That, to me, is on the coaching staff and the players themselves. Ballard provides the talent, Reich should develop it (though overpaying these players would be on Ballard). I like Reich and want him to succeed, but ultimately getting the players to perform is his job. Incidentally, it's funny to look back at the list of guys that Ballard interviewed at the time he "hired" McDaniel and then hired Reich - several were unproven/unknown at the time but other teams have since identified and hired some of these guys as head coaches (including Dan Campbell, Matt Ruhle, Mike Vrabel if I recall correctly).