Playoffs

[Racehorse]

Originally Posted by sherck

The two positions that Bill Polian said you never pass on.....passer and pass rusher.

Passer: Tolzine, Brissett, Hoyer, Luck, Rivers, Wentz, Easton, Ellinger, Ryan, Foles, Richardson, Minshew, Flacco, Daniel Jones and Leonard.

He has tried; I will give him all the credit in the world that he has tried. Through the draft, through inherited players, through free agency. Headliners and no names.
He has tried and he has failed. Two playoff appearances, one with Luck and one with Rivers with MASSIVE inconsistent quarterback play through the years.

Pass Rushers: Sheard, Simon, Anderson, Woods, Hankins, Autry, Hunt, Basham, Mingo, Houston, Steward, Bucker, Ward, Muhammad, Paye, Odeyingeo, Lewis, Turey, Banagu, Ngakoue, Ebukam, Latu, Davis, Bryant.

Again, he has tried. He has used high draft picks (2024 first defensive player picked in the draft...), he has used mid draft picks, he has signed free agents to big contracts and small contracts. He has tried...and failed.

Since 2017 and the start of Ballard's time as GM, we have had ONE player with a double digit sack season. Houston in 2019 with 11.0 sacks. That's it.



So, two REALLY important positions on any NFL team and while Ballard has devoted a TON of draft and cap resources to them, he has failed to find guys who can do it at high levels of NFL skill.

Honest assessment.

To be fair, most teams without "the guy" at QB have been on the same carousel as we are on. For every team with a Mahomes for a decade of excellent QB play, there is a team like Cleveland that has been looking for two decades or more. The same could be said for pass rusher. Teams with a TJ Watt have great success, but there as many without that type of stud as there are with one.