It's Done! Frank is gone!

[YDFL Commish]

Originally Posted by Hoopsdoc

The Colts will regret firing Frank.

No they won't.

[Hoopsdoc]

Originally Posted by YDFL Commish

No they won't.

Do you have any response to the article? What in it is wrong?

[IndyNorm]

Getting it wrong and not prioritizing it are two different things. You mentioned it, but I'll emphasize... taking Nelson at 6 overall and Smith at 37 overall when we already had two first-rounders (Castonzo, Kelly) cannot happen with a GM that doesn't prioritize the OL.

Agree Ballard certainly prioritized OL early in his tenure here, but since 2018 he's essentially rested on his laurels. And his attempts to replace AC at by far most important position on the OL (a 1 year show me contract to a guy coming off an Achilles and a 3rd rounder on a long term project) sure make it look like he's change his priorities towards the OL or doesn't value the LT position as much as he should.

I think everybody acknowledges that Matt Pryor was a bad decision. Even if he was always planned to be temporary, which is evidenced by the rotation with Raimann from the first game. And I'll be the broken record that says we don't know if he tried to bring in a more established guy or who that might have been.

That's somewhat fair. It's possible that Ballard did try to do more at LT and it didn't work out. With how quickly we re-signed Pryor and that there weren't any reports of Ballard meeting w/ any other LT prospects other than Fisher, sure makes it seem like he really didn't try to do more. He certainly could have done more after '20.

However, nobody saw the OL unit performing like this. Anybody that says they did is lying. Even guys like me and you who were talking back in April about Glow and Reed leaving... we were concerned, but not because we thought career back-up Chris Reed leaving will suddenly make Quenton Nelson have his worst season and we'll give up more sacks in 9 games than we did in 17 games with ball-holding Wentz and we'll be 30th in rushing after producing the rushing champ last year. It's one of the weirdest things we've seen in football.

Totally fair. A lot of us (including myself) thought Pryor at LT might go bad, but no one thought it would go anywhere near this bad. But it fucking did though and Ballard should feel the heat for this since it's ultimately his responsibility to put the roster together.

[IndyNorm]

Pryor regressed, he was the best performer at tackle last year. That is what the analytics came back as. I said it was the most important move in the offseason and I was right. I also pointed out the lack of high investment through the draft since Nelson/Smith just a couple weeks ago.

I find that hard to believe that Pryor was our top OT last year, but either way he only had 1 start at LT in his entire career. That's a damn small dataset to go off of when making a decision at arguably the 2nd more important position in football.

You're comment on the lack of high investment is what I was getting at. He certainly prioritized OL early on, but after fixing the unit Ballard pretty much rested on his laurels w/ the group. For the most part I think that's understandable, but it's obvious he should have done more and sooner to replace AC at LT.

[IndyNorm]

Originally Posted by Chromeburn

I mean two HOF'ers, that is great; but if you get out of the first round it's not good. It's like he was only good at picking in the first. I'm kinda split on him, its an interesting argument.

Yeah, been a fun discussion, and it actually drove me to look up our drafts during the Tobin years to see if there was anyone of note drafted in the later rounds.

I can say that Tobin batted .500 in the 2nd round w/ Dilger in '95 and Adam Meadows in '97 being his hits and Eric Mahlum in '94 and Dedric Mathis in '96 his misses. Mathis was a complete bust only lasting 2 years w/ the Colts. I think Mahlum would have been ok, nothing great, but got hurt in '95 and then had a knee injury in '96 that ended his NFL career. The worst thing about the Mahlum pick was who we passed on to get him: Isaac Bruce, Kevin Mawae, and (get this) 11 time Pro Bowler and HOFer Larry Allen. To be fair Allen was 14 picks after Mahlum, so we weren't the only team who foolishly passed on him.

Other than that the only other players I recognized were 2 3rd rounders: OT Jason Mathews in '94 and DE Bertrand Berry in '97. Berry ended up being a pretty good player, just not for the Colts. He had 65 career sacks, which included 11.5 for DEN in '03 and 14.5 for AZ in '04. Mathews started 31 games for us in '95 and '96 then looks like he was benched in '97. After that he went to Tenn as a backup until '04.

But yeah, not much to write about with all of the other picks.

Edit: Forgot to mention Zack Crockett in the 3rd round in '95. He didn't rush for a ton of yards, but he did stick around in the league for 13 years and had a playoff game for the ages for us at the Chargers in '95.

[YDFL Commish]

Originally Posted by Hoopsdoc

Do you have any response to the article? What in it is wrong?

This is a now league, not a wow look what you did for us the last 4 years league.

For 11 straight games Reich has been the main architect of an offense that has been arguably the worst in the NFL. For those 11 games, I saw no coaching, no emotion, no fight from Reich. He kept burying his head in his play call sheet thinking that he could scheme and out smart the opponent.

People want to say that starting Matt Pryor at LT was on Ballard. No that was on Frank, because he had to options in Kelly and Raimann. Then Frank moves Pryor to RG, watches him not block anybody game after game, yet keeps trotting him out there.

Frank had to go because he failed to realize it's not the X's and O's it's Johnny's and Joe's.

[rm1369]

Originally Posted by IndyNorm

Your comment on the lack of high investment is what I was getting at. He certainly prioritized OL early on, but after fixing the unit Ballard pretty much rested on his laurels w/ the group. For the most part I think that's understandable, but it's obvious he should have done more and sooner to replace AC at LT.

I don’t think his priorities have changed, I think it is simply a symptom of his philosophy. It’s been said a million times on this board - you can’t fill every hole through the draft. He low balled Autry and lost him. Would they have drafted Darrisaw if they didn’t have such a hole at both DE spots going into that draft. I don’t know. He will not “overpay” mid level talent and in theory that sounds good, but it means you go into each season with major holes that the team sees and simply lies about. They simply are waiting until next year and can’t say it.

I’m getting tired of going into seasons knowing they aren’t really trying to win. That’s why the Pacers comparison. That shit erodes your fan base and you damn well know the players see it too. Do you think letting Autry walk for two rookies, one of which was coming off an achilles tear tells the team this is our year? Hell no it doesn’t. Neither does gifting LT to a journeyman guard or a raw 3rd rd rookie who has only played the position for two years. Those moves don’t say “NOW”, they say “EVENTUALLY”. And then when shit falls apart the fans turn on the coach instead of the architect of the “maybe next year culture”. And the team listens. Fuck that.

I understand the value of consistency. I also see the value in Ballard’s talent evaluation. However, unless he changes, Ballard’s “next year” philosophy will continue to drag down this franchise. It will continue to be less than its individual talent suggests. And the anger will quickly turn to apathy.

[Brylok]

I'll be stunned if Ballard is here next year, but he's on a long term contract so who knows. Some other team will snatch him up quickly if/when he leaves.

[rm1369]

Originally Posted by Brylok

I'll be stunned if Ballard is here next year, but he's on a long term contract so who knows. Some other team will snatch him up quickly if/when he leaves.

I think he could be a great GM with some tweaks to his philosophy. I’d love to think he is capable of looking around at what’s going on and realizing his responsibility in it, but his BS comment at the press conference says otherwise.

[Hoopsdoc]

Originally Posted by YDFL Commish

This is a now league, not a wow look what you did for us the last 4 years league.

For 11 straight games Reich has been the main architect of an offense that has been arguably the worst in the NFL. For those 11 games, I saw no coaching, no emotion, no fight from Reich. He kept burying his head in his play call sheet thinking that he could scheme and out smart the opponent.

People want to say that starting Matt Pryor at LT was on Ballard. No that was on Frank, because he had to options in Kelly and Raimann. Then Frank moves Pryor to RG, watches him not block anybody game after game, yet keeps trotting him out there.

Frank had to go because he failed to realize it's not the X's and O's it's Johnny's and Joe's.

Lol. Frank didn’t have Kelly until week 5, when he got healthy. And Raimann was obviously not ready because he was almost as bad as Pryor.

Pryor got moved to guard because Pinter was just as bad and that’s Pryors natural position.

Frank didn’t suddenly forget how to coach offenses, which is essentially what you are arguing. He didn’t go through 4 seasons with 4 different qbs and always field a competent, if not good offense, and then suddenly forget everything he knew this year. That’s ridiculous.

He failed this year because Ballard failed miserably on the offensive line and Frank got scapegoated. Along with Brady, and to a lesser extent, Matt Ryan.