Colts add vet depth to the DL - sign Al-Quadin Muhammad to 1 year deal

[Racehorse]

Originally Posted by rm1369

I have nothing against this signing, I simply hate the teams OL depth and Ballard’s lack of transactions to shore it up. I see almost nothing more important to a QBs development than OL play. They finally have a young QB to groom and in my view Ballard is taking a hell of a gamble with the teams future.

List the available players you think he should go after.

[ChaosTheory]

Another interesting question would be...

If the vets do in fact return to form and Raimann/Fries are worth-a-shit starters, and our OL is more along the lines of the caliber it was from '18-'21... how do we then look at the 2022 OL decision?

Then 2022 would be the freak, outlying aberration (that nobody saw coming) in an otherwise successful run as a unit.

[rm1369]

Originally Posted by Racehorse

List the available players you think he should go after.

I don’t play those games. I say a name and you tell me how much he sucks or why he was impossible to get. Ultimately that’s Ballard’s job and he’s had all offseason to shore up the depth with something besides rookies. He hasn’t. It’s bit the team in the ass several times at different positions. Unfortunately if it happens again with OL this year you are risking the health and development of the franchise. Let’s hope he’s right this time.

[rm1369]

Originally Posted by ChaosTheory

Another interesting question would be...

If the vets do in fact return to form and Raimann/Fries are worth-a-shit starters, and our OL is more along the lines of the caliber it was from '18-'21... how do we then look at the 2022 OL decision?

Then 2022 would be the freak, outlying aberration (that nobody saw coming) in an otherwise successful run as a unit.

It wasn’t a freak aberration, it was classic Ballard. He counted on a career backup guard and a 3rd round rookie (who had only played OT for 2 years) to man LT and protect one of the oldest, least mobile QBs in the league. It was a bad decision then and it will still be a bad decision even if Raimann ends up in the HOF.

[ChaosTheory]

Originally Posted by rm1369

It wasn’t a freak aberration, it was classic Ballard. He counted on a career backup guard and a 3rd round rookie (who had only played OT for 2 years) to man LT and protect one of the oldest, least mobile QBs in the league. It was a bad decision then and it will still be a bad decision even if Raimann ends up in the HOF.

Sure. But back to hypothetical-land... if the OL straightens up and we have, say, another four-year stretch of great OL production... what's the sum?

We'd have had four years of great OL, a weird/shitty year, and then another four great years. What would that tell us about the philosophy?

I remember a while back looking up the Eagles' OL rankings for the past 10 years or so and they were consistently really good (top 1, 2, 5) for several years with a couple random years where they were like 19th or 23rd or whatever with largely the same personnel.

Just pointing out that it's possible we look back at '22 as a true WTF season. It's also possible that we never have it as good as we did from '18-'21.

[IndyNorm]

Originally Posted by rm1369

I don’t play those games. I say a name and you tell me how much he sucks or why he was impossible to get. Ultimately that’s Ballard’s job and he’s had all offseason to shore up the depth with something besides rookies. He hasn’t. It’s bit the team in the ass several times at different positions. Unfortunately if it happens again with OL this year you are risking the health and development of the franchise. Let’s hope he’s right this time.

Well said. It's not our job the make the Colts better. It's Ballard's. If the OL is a complete shit show again this year then he needs to be shown the door.

[Racehorse]

Originally Posted by rm1369

I don’t play those games. I say a name and you tell me how much he sucks or why he was impossible to get. Ultimately that’s Ballard’s job and he’s had all offseason to shore up the depth with something besides rookies. He hasn’t. It’s bit the team in the ass several times at different positions. Unfortunately if it happens again with OL this year you are risking the health and development of the franchise. Let’s hope he’s right this time.

Translation: There are none, but I like to whine like a little girl.

[Oldcolt]

Originally Posted by Racehorse

Translation: There are none, but I like to whine like a little girl.

Well apparently I also like to whine like a little girl. It seems to me that somewhere during this past post season we could have found one or two guards and an offensive tackle with some experience to, if nothing else,push these guys just a little. We have zero depth in any position except center, if an injury occurs (what is the chance of that happening?) we are fucked, may be fucked even without an injury at guard and left tackle with no backup plan-just like last year. And I don't know their freaking names, not my job to know lineman at this depth. Maybe there is no one available now but there was in March.

[rm1369]

Originally Posted by Oldcolt

Well apparently I also like to whine like a little girl. It seems to me that somewhere during this past post season we could have found one or two guards and an offensive tackle with some experience to, if nothing else,push these guys just a little. We have zero depth in any position except center, if an injury occurs (what is the chance of that happening?) we are fucked, may be fucked even without an injury at guard and left tackle with no backup plan-just like last year. And I don't know their freaking names, not my job to know lineman at this depth. Maybe there is no one available now but there was in March.

Nah man - the roster is constructed in the only way possible. Anyone not signed was awful and wouldn’t have came here anyway. And if the line sucks or an injury occurs that we can’t adequately fill in season, it was impossible to foresee and any criticism will be deemed hindsight.

Ballard’s the greatest, most bestest GM ever and this is surely a SB winning season. Right Racehorse?

[YDFL Commish]

Originally Posted by rm1369

Nah man - the roster is constructed in the only way possible. Anyone not signed was awful and wouldn’t have came here anyway. And if the line sucks or an injury occurs that we can’t adequately fill in season, it was impossible to foresee and any criticism will be deemed hindsight.

Ballard’s the greatest, most bestest GM ever and this is surely a SB winning season. Right Racehorse?

I don't know how any of can know what is going on behind the scenes. Ballard could've reached out to multiple vet O-Linemen, but either couldn't come to terms on a contract, wanted to be guaranteed a starting position, didn't want to go through the rigors of training camp or any multitude of reasons.

I'm not going to sweat it until Ballard makes the fateful mistake of not going into the regular season w/o vet depth.