Colts Practice Squad Signings

[IndyNorm]

Originally Posted by Chromeburn

What is the correct way to build a team?

For starters you make damn sure you don't have a shitty OL when you're trying to develop a young QB.

[Chromeburn]

Originally Posted by IndyNorm

For starters you make damn sure you don't have a shitty OL when you're trying to develop a young QB.

So Ballard can’t build an offensive line now?

[IndyNorm]

Originally Posted by Chromeburn

So Ballard can’t build an offensive line now?

Easy to argue based off of his decisions over the past 2 off seasons that if he once knew he's forgotten it.

[Chromeburn]

Originally Posted by IndyNorm

Easy to argue based off of his decisions over the past 2 off seasons that if he once knew he's forgotten it.

But you said a rookie QB, they haven't played a down yet.

Also the oline has been good a lot more than it has been bad, and it was really just one season.

2018 - 3rd
2019 - 3rd
2020 - 7th
2021 - 12th
2022 - 20th (weeks 1-8 ranked 25th, weeks 9-18 ranked 16th)

[IndyNorm]

Originally Posted by Chromeburn

But you said a rookie QB, they haven't played a down yet.

Also the oline has been good a lot more than it has been bad, and it was really just one season.

2018 - 3rd
2019 - 3rd
2020 - 7th
2021 - 12th
2022 - 20th (weeks 1-8 ranked 25th, weeks 9-18 ranked 16th)

First off where's that ranking coming from for 2022 b/c it's complete BS:

https://www.statmuse.com/nfl/ask/mos...d-2022-by-team

Secondly here's Ballards OL decisions over the past 2 seasons:

- Pryor at LT, which is one of the worst OL decisions in the history of the league.

- Letting Glow walk and backfilling with Pinter. How the fuck do they get 2 years to evaluate someone and not figure out that he's in no way capable of playing a position?

- Admits he royally fucked up with the above 2 decisions.

- Does basically nothing to fix the problems he caused from the above 2 decisions. This is IMO the biggest problem of the bunch, and one you keep failing to respond to when I bring it up. Maybe your head is so far up Ballard's ass that you keep missing it?

[ChoppedWood]

Originally Posted by IndyNorm

- Pryor at LT, which is one of the worst OL decisions in the history of the league.

Terminable offense, period, end of message.

[Chromeburn]

Originally Posted by rm1369

They were starting a rookie LT because of Ballard’s previous “kick the can down the road” mentality.

How did he kick the can down the road? Teams start rookies, there isn’t enough depth or roster space to not start rookies. How is this different than any other team?

Originally Posted by rm1369

Considering his previous inability to address DE and his handling of Denico Autry you are likely right. He put the team in a position where they had nothing at DE going into that draft. It’s a consequence of Ballard’s methods.

Who plucked Autry out of his team and gave him a contract in the first place? Yeah, it happens, they knew they were going to draft several at the position. Same with CB this year. Bradley wanted his type of CBs, so they brought in a bunch of young guys that fit the mold. You have to do that at position groups. Not every position group is going to be perfect every year. It’s impossible with the cap today.

Originally Posted by rm1369

Ballard has drafted individual players fairly well, what he hasn’t done is assemble good teams. His major hits are almost all at positions that are devalued in the current NFL. And he leaves gaping holes to be addressed later. He also gifts positions to his players and is also nearly allergic to mid level vets. We’ll see how Paye and Raimann turn out and that may change the dynamic some. No matter how you slice it though Ballard has been in charge of the Colts for 6 years the team currently has no proven top end players at the most important positions in football - QB, LT, DE, WR, CB. Some decent players. Some players with potential. No one you can bank on. It’s hard for me to agree that’s the product of a good GM.

How do you assemble a good team?

So you must not be in favor of resigning Quinton, Leonard, or JT. It’s like you want to punish him for drafting all-pros but not at the positions you prefer. How dare he draft JT, why couldn’t he just draft a mediocre RB. That sounds so incredibly petulant. Most GMs don’t even draft multiple all-pros. And Leonard impacts games with turnovers which is the most valuable thing you can do on defense.

The GM doesn’t set the depth chart, the coach does.

When he got here we had a QB and a LT. Since then he has drafted replacements at those positions.
He’s drafted multiple DEs and signed a few more. Unless you have a top ten pick, great DEs are hard to find.
He’s drafted multiple receivers. But until you have good QB play it’s never going to be great.
CB is a de-emphasized position of importance in Eberflus’ scheme. We will see how it goes with Bradley’s guys.

[IndyNorm]

Originally Posted by Chromeburn

How did he kick the can down the road? Teams start rookies, there isn’t enough depth or roster space to not start rookies. How is this different than any other team?



Who plucked Autry out of his team and gave him a contract in the first place? Yeah, it happens, they knew they were going to draft several at the position. Same with CB this year. Bradley wanted his type of CBs, so they brought in a bunch of young guys that fit the mold. You have to do that at position groups. Not every position group is going to be perfect every year. It’s impossible with the cap today.



How do you assemble a good team?

So you must not be in favor of resigning Quinton, Leonard, or JT. It’s like you want to punish him for drafting all-pros but not at the positions you prefer. How dare he draft JT, why couldn’t he just draft a mediocre RB. That sounds so incredibly petulant. Most GMs don’t even draft multiple all-pros. And Leonard impacts games with turnovers which is the most valuable thing you can do on defense.

The GM doesn’t set the depth chart, the coach does.

When he got here we had a QB and a LT. Since then he has drafted replacements at those positions.
He’s drafted multiple DEs and signed a few more. Unless you have a top ten pick, great DEs are hard to find.
He’s drafted multiple receivers. But until you have good QB play it’s never going to be great.
CB is a de-emphasized position of importance in Eberflus’ scheme. We will see how it goes with Bradley’s guys.

If Ballard's so fucking great then why didn't he learn from his fuck ups and actually fucking do something to improve the OL in the offseason? He had 12 fucking draft picks. How the fuck does he not upgrade and add depth to shit show of an OL that he created?

[ChaosTheory]

Originally Posted by IndyNorm

First off where's that ranking coming from for 2022 b/c it's complete BS:

https://www.statmuse.com/nfl/ask/mos...d-2022-by-team

Where I think you're messing up is trying to use a single stat to indicate/imply overall performance. The Eagles O-line ranked 22nd in your link. But their O-line wasn't bottom-10, wasn't bottom-half, wasn't outside the top-10, wasn't even outside the top-5. They were widely considered the best O-line in the entire NFL.

Sacks in particular are a stat that has a ton of factors. You've cited 25 sacks when claiming our O-line didn't improve much after Pryor was benched. Look at the overall turmoil of the team at that time... Firing Reich, benching and unbenching Ryan, Ehlinger experiment, Saturday experiment, IR'ing and trading guys, Foles gets no playing time at all until week 16 and eats 7 sacks... the rest of that 8-game stretch was 2.5 sacks/game.

Just like with the Eagles' 22nd ranked O-line... the number is meaningless without context. The eyeball test shows you something different, not dissimilar to our DEF rankings vs. what we saw our D do with no aid from the O (in fact, our O directly made our D stats worse).

----

As for the Ballard learning from his mistake argument... I just don't buy the premise. I don't buy that the better explanation for '22 was that Ballard "forgot" how to evaluate O-line. I can't thumb through history and say 2018-great, 2019-great, 2020-great, 2021-good, 2022-bad... and say, OK moral of this 5-year story is "bad", Ballard needs a complete change of mindset. That's nonsense.

Especially considering we haven't even seen the '23 product yet. How absurd is this current discussion going to seem if the '23 and beyond O-line gets back closer (even if not all the way) to the quality it had prior to '22? Then we'll be looking at one black sheep in the middle of an otherwise nice stretch.

To reference the Eagles again... for the past decade they've ranked Top-1, Top-3, Top-5, Top-10 every year... except that one year they ranked 17th... and that one other year they ranked 23rd... Largely with the same personnel. Point being, it happens.

Now, if the O-line shits the bed again for the second year in a row, ok, we've got something to talk about. But that hasn't happened yet. It could. But I think you're blowing your load too early.

[Chromeburn]

Originally Posted by IndyNorm

First off where's that ranking coming from for 2022 b/c it's complete BS:

https://www.statmuse.com/nfl/ask/mos...d-2022-by-team

All rankings are from PFF. No one else does that amount of work and compiles it except team analytics departments.

https://www.pff.com/news/nfl-final-2...-line-rankings

"Pro Football Focus attributed 41 of those 60 sacks to the O-line – that total is third-highest in the NFL. And, notably, 14 of those sacks came in the fourth quarter, tied for the most allowed in the NFL."

Once the Colts landed on a consistent Raimann-Nelson-Kelly-Fries-Smith starting five, their offensive line played better. From Weeks 9-18, the Colts earned a 70.4 Pro Football Focus pass block grade, 16th in the NFL and a significant improvement from Weeks 1-8 (55.3, 5th-lowest). The offensive line was not the reason they were losing in the second half. It was lack of effective gameplans and a burnt out defense.

Originally Posted by IndyNorm

Secondly here's Ballards OL decisions over the past 2 seasons:

- Pryor at LT, which is one of the worst OL decisions in the history of the league.

Pryor was a huge mistake, but there was a precedent to play him there. Matt Pryor was impressive in limited playing time, posting a 76.5 overall grade on 438 snaps at mostly right tackle in 2021. Pryor was athletic enough to play LT, but he came into camp heavy, couldn't deal, lost his confidence, so they had to put the rookie out there. He was never the long term plan anyway.

Originally Posted by IndyNorm

- Letting Glow walk and backfilling with Pinter. How the fuck do they get 2 years to evaluate someone and not figure out that he's in no way capable of playing a position?

- Admits he royally fucked up with the above 2 decisions.

Danny Pinter earned a 74.7 overall grade on 226 snaps at mostly center in 2021. Again, there was precedent for the move.

You know what was also a Ballard o-line decision in the past two years. Drafting Raimann.

There were nine rookie tackles who were primary starters in 2022. Here's how they ranked by PFF pass block grade:

• Jamaree Salyer (LAC): 76.4
• Bernhard Raimann (IND): 71.4
• Braxton Jones (CHI): 70.5
• Abraham Lucas (SEA): 69.0
• Ikem Ekwonu (CAR): 67.5
• Tyler Smith (DAL): 65.4
• Charles Cross (SEA): 64.8
• Nicholas Petit-Frere (TEN): 50.0
• Evan Neal (NYG): 42.1

From 2017-2021, there were eight rookie tackles who had a pass block grade of 70 or higher – and on average, their career pass block grades have increased by 3.7 points.

Originally Posted by IndyNorm

- Does basically nothing to fix the problems he caused from the above 2 decisions. This is IMO the biggest problem of the bunch, and one you keep failing to respond to when I bring it up. Maybe your head is so far up Ballard's ass that you keep missing it?

I have responded. You guys just don't like the answer. It's addition by subtraction. They got Pryor out of the lineup, Raimann improves, the line solidifies. The evidence to believe this will work is already above in the improvement they made in the second half of the season. We all witnessed the improvement too.

Here's the problem. You have a lot of money tied up in the offensive line. You have to find cheaper options to put in there when possible so you can spend money in other areas. Hence the LT and RG on rookie contracts. And when you see Raimann's turn to get paid, they will likely bring in a rookie center and maybe RT. You can't just throw FA's at it, you have to draft guys to fill spots to keep costs low.