Colts cuts to 53

[rm1369]

Originally Posted by Chaka

I don't really think that's fair. Let's keep this in context. He signed a low cost free agent (Howard) and it didn't work out. He didn't compound the problem by keeping him on the roster and putting Luck in danger. He cut his losses. Yes, you can question his wisdom in signing him in the first place, but he was a low risk kind of signing who had a reasonably good track record, and most here applauded the signing at the time. There’s not a GM in the league who hasn’t made (multiple) similar mistakes, but most of them would have kept him to save face due to the sunk costs. Ballad doesn’t do that.

As far as Fountain is concerned, your implied expectation of a no-mistake draft is unrealistic. I’m certain you know this. Fountain was a fifth round pick, and most of those are out of the league in a year or two anyway. He was something of a reach to begin with, but my guess was that Ballard thought saw something in him that might be special and he took a chance. It didn’t work out and, again, he cut his losses and moved on to give someone else the reps. Same with Banner last year. While you can complain about picking Banner, there appears to be no question that getting rid of him was the right decision as the guy has since by cut by one (maybe two?) other teams. No wasted time on that guy.

I’ll give Ballard credit for cutting Howard. He’s also cut his two most productive free agent signings though so we shouldn’t be that impressed. However you slice it his record in free agency isn’t good. But yes he will move on from a free agent acquisition pretty damn quick - even if productive unfortunately.

For all his talk about it not being all about Luck the only thing keeping this roster from a top 3 pick again next year is Andrew Luck. No one is expecting Ballard to be perfect in free agency or the draft. But when you’ve had the resources available that Ballard has had over the last two years (draft picks and salary space) I certainly think it’s fair to criticize the state of the current roster. You can defend any individual mistake as “it happens to all GMs, nobody gets them all right.” And it would be accurate. However, when I look at the roster as a whole I’m not impressed with what Ballard has done with the resources available.