L'Jarius Sneed

[Dam8610]

Originally Posted by rm1369

I mostly agree with the second statement. However you are saying he can draft replacements and I largely agree. So why isn’t that the team’s philosophy? Why over his 8 years has he almost exclusively relied upon his drafting ability? He should be bringing in vets for the rookies to learn from, compete with, and to bring an acceptable level of play until the young guys develop. That is not the philosophy or strategy - unless he gets a huge bargain, then maybe. They used to claim it was because of the “culture” they wanted to develop and that has shown to be a failure The team has not developed some great winning culture. It’s been much closer to dysfunctional than good.



Sure I could buy that for last year. Makes sense. Now explain lack of WR to me with Rivers. Explain the OL choices with Ryan. Explain having no DE on the roster with double digit sacks for their entire career with Wentz. Last year was not some situationally specific decision by Ballard, it was a continuation of the philosophy we’ve seen pretty much every year. That’s a big part of my issue with him. I’d love to see some larger, year specific decisions that make sense. We don’t see them. For lack of a better saying he “does what he does”. Every year. Whether the QB is Luck, Rivers, Wentz, or Ryan his words and actions have been the same. So far, no difference with AR. Pretty much every year. You can look at them in isolation and try to explain them away but the trend is obvious. And largely matches his words and stated philosophy.

Ballard manages a team in a very similar way to Polian. A lot of people didn't like Polian's style, but it proved successful. Further, it's not only been proven successful with the Colts, it's been proven successful across the league. The Chiefs will be going for a third consecutive Super Bowl in the 2024 season, and the biggest reason for that in my opinion was trading away Tyreek Hill. That trade allowed them to draft Trent McDuffie and gave them the cap space to retain Chris Jones. That was a tough trade to make, but the Chiefs have definitely reaped the rewards of making a difficult decision. A decision that if Ballard made, I'm certain most people here, certainly the ones upset with Ballard now, would be calling for his head over. Can I explain every bad decision Ballard has made? Not at all, the Matt Pryor decision was the most baffling decision I've seen a GM not named Ryan Grigson make. That said, Ballard gets more right than he gets wrong, and his draft record is incredible. Replacing him risks getting another Grigson. I'd be very hesitant to replace someone with Ballard's track record knowing that possibility exists.

Originally Posted by ChoppedWood

Ummm I hate Grigson, total douchebag, at the same time one cannot ever claim he didn't lay it all out there going for it.

Ballard never does. Sits on cash that isn't his and thumbs his nose at positions which are critical to winning in the NFL today. He sucks.

Cry more about Ballard not blowing tons of cash in free agency. I hope you do for the next decade.

Originally Posted by ChaosTheory

I wouldn't go as far as to say he's better, but I think there's definitely a discussion. It's hard to compare a finished HOF career with a relatively young, active one.

Ballard's '18 stands out and he lands guys all over the mid- and late-rounds. We'll see how it looks.

What puts Polian over the top is his ridiculous run of #1 picks in his first 9 seasons with the Colts (Manning, James, Morris, Wayne, Freeney, Clark, Sanders, Jackson, Addai).

4 HOF'ers, 2 All-Pros (Sanders would've been HOF), and a Pro Bowl RB that averaged 140yds in two Super Bowls (could've been XLI MVP). The two unimpressive picks were still at least a SB starter and SB contributor.

It took me 7 drafts to make the claim out loud, I wanted to see enough production to justify it. But the results are there. You just said Polian had 2 All-Pros in his whole drafting career here, Ballard did that in 1 draft, and they both made All-Pro as rookies. I don't think Ballard has had a single class that has produced less than 2 quality starters, and several classes have produced 4 starters and that doesn't even count contributing role players, such as rotational DLs and 2nd and 3rd TEs, and I'm not counting DeForest Buckner in his draft history despite the fact that the Colts traded their 2020 1st round pick for him. Polian was better at UDFA than Ballard, but you don't have to be good at UDFA if you pull 4 starters per class from your draft picks. That's an incredible, historically unprecedented hit rate.