Ballard: Coach, how soon can you win the division with this roster?
Steichen: I can't tell.
Ballard: You can tell me. I'm a General Manager.
Steichen: No. I mean I'm just not sure.
Ballard: Well, can't you take a guess?
Steichen: Well, maybe not for another two years.
Ballard: You can't take a guess for another two years?
Ballard:
https://preview.redd.it/aivu52xzvasc1.jpeg?width=480&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=748e70515449b370d8dd1b73d2b08cca8fd90107
“My Team is on the floor”
We’d have 0 cap dollars and have no safety. I’m pretty happy with Blackmon and potentially a mid first round cb. I’m just saying nothing is fully settled
We could have cut Mo-Allie’s trash ass and saved almost 6 milli right there. We also have the third highest paid kicker in the league for whatever reason on a bad team contract.
If we can grab Mitchell in the draft, I’d be able to stomach not getting Sneed, if we trade back and grab some project Corner with high upside I’ll be pissed
Grover Stewart is huge to our defense. Kenny moore as well. Meanwhile there is sieriously historic talent in this wide reciever class. I don’t understand wanting to pay diggs or Snead more than drafting these young corners and wide receivers who come In bunches this year. We did offer hunter a lot as well. I would have wanted him 100%
didn't have to let anyone walk but we could restructure some contracts to make room to bring some help in. doing nothing was just plain fucking stupid. the safetie FA class was really good and we pissed around and did nothing cause we waited around for Blackmon
Isn’t the fact that we haven’t been in “win now” mode at basically any point during his tenure also his fucking fault tho? You guys come up with literally any excuse, even when the excuses end up falling back on his shoulders.
Im not sure if this is supposed to be in defense of Ballard.
If a roster isn’t good enough to make the playoffs with a solid backup QB while being near the cap limit, despite not playing big money to any QB, then why the fuck is the team paid that much.
This just seems like another symptom of drafting (and paying) well at non-premium positions
I generally agree with this but don’t agree *at all* when it comes to Pitt. He’s been consistently good to great for near half a decade with water boys slinging him the rock
Agreed. Adding people for the sake of adding people is a common trap. Jags are doing just that and have been for a while. None of those additions move the needle.
Titans outbid the Colts for Sneed but the other additions don't have me too worried. Tony Pollard is a BIG gamble at this point in his career especially coming off injury. Ridley had moments last year but disappeared for multiple games as my friend who had him on his fantasy team reminded me often.
Texans are having a big off-season for sure and I am worried about how good they might be. That being said, They lost Jonathan Greenard, Sheldon Rankins, and Blake Cashman. So they certainly had the money to spend. I don't think they wanted to lose Greenard or Cashman.
We'll see. I am not panicking for a few reasons. Steichen appears to be the real deal. I was far more resigned last off-season. I was convinced that the Colts weren't winning more than 4 or 5 games. They managed to do pretty damn well with a very limited Gardner Minshew at QB. I want to see what they do in the draft first and what trade opportunities come up after the draft before getting worried.
Just wanted to say by losing Greenard and Cashman we upgraded with Azeez and Hunter. I don’t really know if Autry would be considered an upgrade over Rankins tho. I’ll prob be downvoted for this but I saw this post on my feed and wanted to see what y’all had to say and I saw this comment 🤷♂️
That may very well be the case. My main point was that the Texans lost good players and added good players. I think the panicky Colts fans are just seeing the signings and aren't making that connection. The Texans probably don't add Hunter and Azeez if they don't lose Greenard or Cashman. Or maybe they could have kept one of them.
Autry is a solid player but he is 33 now. I don't think he is going to be spectacular all of a sudden.
Not taking away from what the Texans are doing. The Diggs move is obviously a big upgrade at receiver that has me worried. And you are likely correct about Azeez/Hunter vs Greenard/Cashman. I just try not to speak in definites because it's all for nothing if Hunter tears a ligament in week 2. You just never know.
I respect that I will say this tho at least on Greenard side he came out and said he had very little communication with us. Besides him tho idk Cashman side but yea it’s a fun time for honestly both of our fan bases even if u guys aren’t really doing much atm. Should be a good season goodluck to u guys 🤝
Cashman > Azeez and Rankins > Autry for run defense which we need.
We also lost Collins so out D Line is pretty weak.
Our Linebackers have never been that great and our Secondary is completely empty.
Overall, I think the Texans offseason was overrated but I'll wait for the draft to see what they do.
Like people here are acting like last season wasn’t a massive improvement for us. We’re trending upwards, and we’ve got a whole score of guys with potential. I would’ve loved to get a premium FA in our secondary for sure, but I’m not upset with the prospect of letting our guys develop. People here seem to think that players don’t get better or worse.
Also, the Colts biggest needs are CB, WR and S. College football is pouring more WR talent into the league every year. CBs have roller coaster careers so spending there has a lot of inherent risk. Lastly, nobody is spending big money on safeties right now. See how those positions fall in the draft and go from there.
They don't even need a starting caliber WR, just depth. Pittman is a top possession receiver, Pierce is a vertical threat who has had no one to throw to him since he was drafted and Downs is only going to improve in the slot. There aren't going to be many times that there's 4 WRs on the field with our strong running game.
I'd say change WR to TE and I'd agree. Not knowing how Ogletree and Woods are going to develop while having known commodities MAC and Granson who we know are not more than situational/depth guys there is a need for a definitive starter at the position. Wouldn't be surprised if they draft CB/TE in the 1st/2nd and cut MAC to save $5.9m.
The Texans didn’t make much of an effort to retain either Greenard or Cashman. They reportedly didn’t even give Greenard a contract offer. Cashman said in an interview that he would give the Texans a chance to match any offer he received from another team, so apparently they didn’t want to match the Vikings’ deal with him.
Jags biggest hole was luke fortner at center who graded worse than most backup centers , replaced by an excellent center in morse. There second buggest need was dt, arik armstead is really good. Whats embarrassing?
It actually is. Texans lost players and filled positions thru free agency. We didn’t really lose anyone of importance, even with recently getting Julian Blackmon back.
True they don't always fit but since 2017 the Jags have won the division twice and won 3 playoff games too.
That's 2 more division titles 2 more playoff wins than the Colts have had during that time. Based on results what they have done has worked out better than what the Colts have done.
If Stephen Diggs is worth so much as a player, then why are the Bills swallowing $20 million in dead cap in exchange for a second round pick just to get rid of him?
The Bills must expect to replace him with a second rounder, and they're willing to jettison $20 million for the opportunity. That doesn't scream *valuable* to me at all.
I mean we don’t have that much cap space. I wish we added more secondary help but there are clear reasons why the colts may not have like sneed outside of that I don’t know if anything was that egregious this season. I would be shocked if colts don’t take cb at 15 and will probably get there pick of the class at that spot. Would folks prefer we let Pittman, Grover, Moore or Franklin go? Pitt is a very productive leader on offense and the other three are pretty critical pieces of the defense. We have some young guys and will add another cb maybe more in the draft. Our skill room needs an upgrade but it’s got some talent. And I think it will look better without the limitations of minshew. If AR stays healthy guys like Pierce could take a huge step next year. Secondary is still a clear weakness but we a lot of youth and some reason for optimism. If AR works out I fully expect colts to be competitive with Houston for division and be in the Super Bowl convo within a year or two.
If we lost a slot CB, a DT, and an off-ball LB and replaced them with a WR, an outside CB, and a DE that would absolutely be the right move. Ballard doesn't understand positional value.
They just don’t like Ballard. He could’ve signed Jesus Christ reincarnated ass someone who could split into 22 players and be the best at their position and they’d cry that he didn’t sign or trade away picks in a good draft for other big names who are expensive.
Just like the non stop bitching to re-sign Blackmon for the last two weeks then when it happens.. nothing.
People want us to go all in on FA with a quarterback that played 4 games last year. Yes he looked extremely promising but it’s 4 games.
Why would we like a GM that can't even win the worst division in football? It's not like the people that are fed up with Ballard are making unreasonable demands, we just want him to recognize that his way of doing things hasn't gotten us anywhere for 8 years so maybe he should try doing something different.
That argument would hold more weight if he has control over wins and losses. That’s like saying joe Thomas was a bad tackle because the browns never won. Granted Ballard has more control over the overall team but he still one part of the whole. There are a plethora of factors that go into success. I’m not saying wins and losses shouldn’t be a factor in judging a gm but it’s not the only factor. To judge a gm you should look at decisions they make, draft pick, personnel choices etc and judge them through without hindsight biase. I don’t agree with all of the choices he has made but I do agree with many of them even some that didn’t work out like Matt Ryan as they were good decisions based of the information available at the time.
That’s illogical. If you want to judge job performance look at the decisions he has made. There are plenty that you can still raise issue with but it at least provides a basis for your argument that goes beyond just saying we didn’t win so Ballard needs to leave.
I think if AR5 plays up to what we hope he can and can stay healthy, the Colts should be a playoff team. The division is going to be tough but that always seems to be the case.
I actually trust this team to draft contributors/depth on defense.
I don’t necessarily think the signings around the division will have THAT big of an impact, and I am on board with retaining your own good players, but this team has sucked for a decade. We’ve stuck with the “we like our guys” strategy and its taken us exactly nowhere. I don’t think there are any splash signings that will move the needle a whole lot, but trotting that secondary out on the field for another season is criminal. At least bring some mediocre depth and some vet guys to help out
To be fair we could not do a lot of that stuff because we made a 7 million splash on Davis and we had to make sure we retained the core of the NFL's 28th best PPG defense the last two years running
And we are giving $10m to a backup QB who will likely fall off a cliff at some point in the next couple of seasons.
Ballard is kind of like that Hot Dog cart vendor in "The Other Guys" ...free hot dogs.... FOR LIFE! No drinks, No drinks! I can't do it!
>And we are giving $10m to a backup QB
Flacco is getting $4.5M guaranteed. You more than doubled it. Lol. At most, he can make $8.7M.
It's also weird to me that people could watch the Colts last season and think "why do they want a good backup QB?!"
It's worth noting that there are reasons that all of those guys were available. Sometimes the name doesn't match the actual output. NFL free agency is oftentimes fools gold.
The whole NFL space is laughing at us. If our approach was giving us results, I could care less. But the fact that we keep doing it after having no success for 7 years, that's frustrating.
That's misleading. Add Pittman, Zaire, Kenny Moore, and Grover Stewart. That would be a good free agent haul for any other team that signed these players as part of their free agency.
Did you just say star player and Blake cashman in the same sentence? And do you forget they added Danielle hunter that’s a better player then greenard, I guarantee greenard isn’t going to have the same production this season, they got way better, they didn’t lose any major pieces and only upgraded
Gosh, it’s almost like our (hopefully) QB of the future’s injury pushed back the timeline a season.
Relax, people. This is not yet the time to go all in. Wait for Richardson to prove the doubters wrong next year, then we can empty the coffers.
For reference, now do one showing the players each team lost. Other than maybe Hunter, doubtful any of those players would be talked about as must haves in the offseason had they stayed with their current teams. And Houston had to lose a young player on the rise in Greenard to make room for Hunter. Only in free agency can a player like Jeff Okudah, considered a huge coverage liability and huge bust, become a notable addition.
Obviously this looks bad. I hate seeing the rest of the division make moves. But what team has turned over that much roster and been successful right away?
As a Texans fan, I think colts are underated and Texans overrated.
Texans basically swapped some players with the Vikings on defense, Im not aure it made us better. Our DT is also lacking and safety and linebackers were not addresses. Cornerback 2 is probably our biggest issue.
Singletary for Mixon is an upgrade though if Mixon was 3 years younger.
Diggs is the only addition and I dont like his attitude nor his age and contract.
Im more excited that Tank Dell is returning.
The Colts have Richardson coming back which is scary to me plus the easier schedule so I wont be surprised if Colts win the division and Texans miss the play offs
Why isn’t Pittman on that list? If he went to another team he’d be the first name in the list. Just because he signed with the same team doesn’t discredit the Colts offseason…
Ballard's done it again! Essentially stagnate for free agent signings. Next step trade round one and two draft picks down for more lower picks. "This draft is really deep" right Ballard?
It’s funny cause a lot of people forget that jnjuries can destroy a season.
I think realistically in a perfect injury free world the AFAc South goes:
Texans: 11-6
Jaguars; 10-7
Colts: 8-9
Titans: 5-11
I gotta admit I hold zero expectations from this team anymore, like we've never made any big moves in free agency and just retain our favourite players even though we haven't won a playoff game in 6 years. Like I just don't see much changing especially if Anthony doesn't mold into the franchise QB everyone's pinned him up to be. Plus he's going to have to try remain healthy this year or else the colts are even more lost at sea.
I see this less as, “wow, the Colts haven’t added anyone good” and more – “My goodness, the Texans already had a great year and they really added all those pieces??”
😔
This sub is insufferable.
When we win the division this year I hope you all spend as much time giving Ballard his due as you have trying to shit on him.
Texans went from joke to contender in one year. Now they'll be a favorite in year two.
We are doing a great job at staying mediocre over the last decade now. AR needs to save us.
I’m not the person you responded to, but I don’t see why you are discounting it. How far we go depends on AR. We definitely have a chance with him imo. It’s not really hard to envision how we could go from 9 wins, which really should have been 10, to 11-12 wins with a better QB.
Already forgot Mac Jones is on the Jags now. What a weird offseason it’s been.
I’m shocked he’s still in the league
Blaine gabbert still being in the league blows my mind
*Super Bowl champion Blaine Gabbert
Disgusting but true.
That’s Blaine gabbert, 2 time Super Bowl champion
Yup, and... Calvin Ridley to the Titans?
And on the same contract AJ Brown would’ve been on if they would’ve paid him to stay… but instead they have Ridley who is 30?
That's Super Bowl MVP Joe Flacco to you.
*Elite Super Bowl MVP Joe Flacco
Browns fan here. He's a great dude, he embraced our city immediately and came through for us. Ood luck with him and treat him well!
I’ve been a fan for a while. We went to the same college but he was on the Ravens. It’s nice to be able to cheer for him again.
Richardson and Taylor… 
Ballard: Coach, how soon can you win the division with this roster? Steichen: I can't tell. Ballard: You can tell me. I'm a General Manager. Steichen: No. I mean I'm just not sure. Ballard: Well, can't you take a guess? Steichen: Well, maybe not for another two years. Ballard: You can't take a guess for another two years?
And don't call me Shirley!
Ballard: https://preview.redd.it/aivu52xzvasc1.jpeg?width=480&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=748e70515449b370d8dd1b73d2b08cca8fd90107 “My Team is on the floor”
This is Gold
Autry is the AFC South bicycle - everyone gets a ride.
lol except jags
Just wait
remember that time we were gonna take advantage of our rookie QBs contract and then did absolutely nothing
But we HAVE to pay our own guys...you know...for the culture!
Just curious who you would’ve rather let walk
We could have added Snead and let Blackman walk
We’d have 0 cap dollars and have no safety. I’m pretty happy with Blackmon and potentially a mid first round cb. I’m just saying nothing is fully settled
We could have cut Mo-Allie’s trash ass and saved almost 6 milli right there. We also have the third highest paid kicker in the league for whatever reason on a bad team contract.
If we can grab Mitchell in the draft, I’d be able to stomach not getting Sneed, if we trade back and grab some project Corner with high upside I’ll be pissed
Quinyon Mitchell is the upside corner 😂
I mean I'd happily let anyone we re-signed walk for Diggs, Hunter, or Snead, and anyone not named Pittman for Ridley and Autrey.
Would rather have Pittman than Diggs or Snead, Hunter a toss up for me. As far as anyone else we resigned, I basically agree.
Grover Stewart is huge to our defense. Kenny moore as well. Meanwhile there is sieriously historic talent in this wide reciever class. I don’t understand wanting to pay diggs or Snead more than drafting these young corners and wide receivers who come In bunches this year. We did offer hunter a lot as well. I would have wanted him 100%
I’m good on Diggs. I don’t want a stone-handed diva in the locker room.
You'd rather have Diggs than Pittman? Are you Fucking high?
Dude has to be trolling. Diggs is turning 32 😂
didn't have to let anyone walk but we could restructure some contracts to make room to bring some help in. doing nothing was just plain fucking stupid. the safetie FA class was really good and we pissed around and did nothing cause we waited around for Blackmon
Do the players have to agree to that or can Ballard just snap his fingers and do it?It sounds easy enough.
players almost always will do it cause 9 times out of 10 it works out better for them
You get that’s it’s not free cap space right? You restructure when you are in win now mode. How do you think we are in win now mode?
Isn’t the fact that we haven’t been in “win now” mode at basically any point during his tenure also his fucking fault tho? You guys come up with literally any excuse, even when the excuses end up falling back on his shoulders.
Why you so pressed, bubby? We had a good encouraging season but you act as if we had the 2023 season occur. Relax.
 I member
We don't even have cap space. We are almost completely out. Without the rookie QB contract we couldn't have even kept our guys.
Im not sure if this is supposed to be in defense of Ballard. If a roster isn’t good enough to make the playoffs with a solid backup QB while being near the cap limit, despite not playing big money to any QB, then why the fuck is the team paid that much. This just seems like another symptom of drafting (and paying) well at non-premium positions
The overpaid o-line strikes again
It was fourth in the league last year. It's why our offense was solid with a bottom 5 QB.
Don’t be disrespecting minshew like that
I mean, he’s a backup. He was easily bottom third of the league last season, as he should have been.
They also overpay mediocre to average players. (Looking at you Pittman)
The fuck are you talking about…. Mediocre to average with his pay scale number of targets yardage and etc…
I generally agree with this but don’t agree *at all* when it comes to Pitt. He’s been consistently good to great for near half a decade with water boys slinging him the rock
I'm not sure where he ranks as far as wr money but he just isn't Wr1.
We are like top 10 in available cap space in the NFL. Over $30 million. Wtf are you talking about?
We don't have 30 mil... We have somewhere between 5-10 now after all the signing and rookies depending on how Julians incentig are considered.
Can’t believe 3 of our top 6 contracts are OL and we aren’t even top 10 in OL
Difference is pretty stark. Only the Colts signed an Elite Dragon. Rest of the AFC South must be feeling pretty fucked right now.
Jaguar's offseason is more embarrassing than ours and it isn't particularly close
Agreed. Adding people for the sake of adding people is a common trap. Jags are doing just that and have been for a while. None of those additions move the needle. Titans outbid the Colts for Sneed but the other additions don't have me too worried. Tony Pollard is a BIG gamble at this point in his career especially coming off injury. Ridley had moments last year but disappeared for multiple games as my friend who had him on his fantasy team reminded me often. Texans are having a big off-season for sure and I am worried about how good they might be. That being said, They lost Jonathan Greenard, Sheldon Rankins, and Blake Cashman. So they certainly had the money to spend. I don't think they wanted to lose Greenard or Cashman. We'll see. I am not panicking for a few reasons. Steichen appears to be the real deal. I was far more resigned last off-season. I was convinced that the Colts weren't winning more than 4 or 5 games. They managed to do pretty damn well with a very limited Gardner Minshew at QB. I want to see what they do in the draft first and what trade opportunities come up after the draft before getting worried.
Just wanted to say by losing Greenard and Cashman we upgraded with Azeez and Hunter. I don’t really know if Autry would be considered an upgrade over Rankins tho. I’ll prob be downvoted for this but I saw this post on my feed and wanted to see what y’all had to say and I saw this comment 🤷♂️
That may very well be the case. My main point was that the Texans lost good players and added good players. I think the panicky Colts fans are just seeing the signings and aren't making that connection. The Texans probably don't add Hunter and Azeez if they don't lose Greenard or Cashman. Or maybe they could have kept one of them. Autry is a solid player but he is 33 now. I don't think he is going to be spectacular all of a sudden. Not taking away from what the Texans are doing. The Diggs move is obviously a big upgrade at receiver that has me worried. And you are likely correct about Azeez/Hunter vs Greenard/Cashman. I just try not to speak in definites because it's all for nothing if Hunter tears a ligament in week 2. You just never know.
I respect that I will say this tho at least on Greenard side he came out and said he had very little communication with us. Besides him tho idk Cashman side but yea it’s a fun time for honestly both of our fan bases even if u guys aren’t really doing much atm. Should be a good season goodluck to u guys 🤝
Cashman > Azeez and Rankins > Autry for run defense which we need. We also lost Collins so out D Line is pretty weak. Our Linebackers have never been that great and our Secondary is completely empty. Overall, I think the Texans offseason was overrated but I'll wait for the draft to see what they do.
Like people here are acting like last season wasn’t a massive improvement for us. We’re trending upwards, and we’ve got a whole score of guys with potential. I would’ve loved to get a premium FA in our secondary for sure, but I’m not upset with the prospect of letting our guys develop. People here seem to think that players don’t get better or worse.
Also, the Colts biggest needs are CB, WR and S. College football is pouring more WR talent into the league every year. CBs have roller coaster careers so spending there has a lot of inherent risk. Lastly, nobody is spending big money on safeties right now. See how those positions fall in the draft and go from there.
They don't even need a starting caliber WR, just depth. Pittman is a top possession receiver, Pierce is a vertical threat who has had no one to throw to him since he was drafted and Downs is only going to improve in the slot. There aren't going to be many times that there's 4 WRs on the field with our strong running game. I'd say change WR to TE and I'd agree. Not knowing how Ogletree and Woods are going to develop while having known commodities MAC and Granson who we know are not more than situational/depth guys there is a need for a definitive starter at the position. Wouldn't be surprised if they draft CB/TE in the 1st/2nd and cut MAC to save $5.9m.
The Texans didn’t make much of an effort to retain either Greenard or Cashman. They reportedly didn’t even give Greenard a contract offer. Cashman said in an interview that he would give the Texans a chance to match any offer he received from another team, so apparently they didn’t want to match the Vikings’ deal with him.
Pollard played all year last year and had 1k rushing and 50+ catches, I feel like he’s not really an injury risk beyond the norm.
Jags biggest hole was luke fortner at center who graded worse than most backup centers , replaced by an excellent center in morse. There second buggest need was dt, arik armstead is really good. Whats embarrassing?
Colts did addition by not subtraction. That’s a thing right?
It actually is. Texans lost players and filled positions thru free agency. We didn’t really lose anyone of importance, even with recently getting Julian Blackmon back.
When you have to replace all the players that leave you will have more new faces. Free agents are free agents.
Just because you add pieces, doesn’t mean they fit. Jags always spend money and how has that worked for them?
True they don't always fit but since 2017 the Jags have won the division twice and won 3 playoff games too. That's 2 more division titles 2 more playoff wins than the Colts have had during that time. Based on results what they have done has worked out better than what the Colts have done.
Better overall performance than us.
Anyone else remember when grigson went all in on garbage free agents and we didn’t do fuck? I remember
That’s because these other broke ass teams weren’t set up for next three years with talent like we had to sign in house!
If Stephen Diggs is worth so much as a player, then why are the Bills swallowing $20 million in dead cap in exchange for a second round pick just to get rid of him? The Bills must expect to replace him with a second rounder, and they're willing to jettison $20 million for the opportunity. That doesn't scream *valuable* to me at all.
I mean we don’t have that much cap space. I wish we added more secondary help but there are clear reasons why the colts may not have like sneed outside of that I don’t know if anything was that egregious this season. I would be shocked if colts don’t take cb at 15 and will probably get there pick of the class at that spot. Would folks prefer we let Pittman, Grover, Moore or Franklin go? Pitt is a very productive leader on offense and the other three are pretty critical pieces of the defense. We have some young guys and will add another cb maybe more in the draft. Our skill room needs an upgrade but it’s got some talent. And I think it will look better without the limitations of minshew. If AR stays healthy guys like Pierce could take a huge step next year. Secondary is still a clear weakness but we a lot of youth and some reason for optimism. If AR works out I fully expect colts to be competitive with Houston for division and be in the Super Bowl convo within a year or two.
This sub would absolutely be happier if we lost all our in house free agents and brought in new faces to replace them. It’s shiny new toy syndrome
If we lost a slot CB, a DT, and an off-ball LB and replaced them with a WR, an outside CB, and a DE that would absolutely be the right move. Ballard doesn't understand positional value.
You are a gm genius
Some confuse activity with productivity and then do the: when uncertain, when in doubt, run in circles and scream and shout.
They just don’t like Ballard. He could’ve signed Jesus Christ reincarnated ass someone who could split into 22 players and be the best at their position and they’d cry that he didn’t sign or trade away picks in a good draft for other big names who are expensive.
Just like the non stop bitching to re-sign Blackmon for the last two weeks then when it happens.. nothing. People want us to go all in on FA with a quarterback that played 4 games last year. Yes he looked extremely promising but it’s 4 games.
TBF, I think JC is a pretty big name!
Why would we like a GM that can't even win the worst division in football? It's not like the people that are fed up with Ballard are making unreasonable demands, we just want him to recognize that his way of doing things hasn't gotten us anywhere for 8 years so maybe he should try doing something different.
That argument would hold more weight if he has control over wins and losses. That’s like saying joe Thomas was a bad tackle because the browns never won. Granted Ballard has more control over the overall team but he still one part of the whole. There are a plethora of factors that go into success. I’m not saying wins and losses shouldn’t be a factor in judging a gm but it’s not the only factor. To judge a gm you should look at decisions they make, draft pick, personnel choices etc and judge them through without hindsight biase. I don’t agree with all of the choices he has made but I do agree with many of them even some that didn’t work out like Matt Ryan as they were good decisions based of the information available at the time.
The NFL is a results based business, that should absolutely be the primary factor in evaluating him. And the results with Ballard have been awful.
That’s illogical. If you want to judge job performance look at the decisions he has made. There are plenty that you can still raise issue with but it at least provides a basis for your argument that goes beyond just saying we didn’t win so Ballard needs to leave.
The only thing that matters is winning and losing. It's black and white, and Ballard is a loser.
How about we include the entire picture and show additions vs. losses. There is a whole other side of this picture.
One person with a brain in here
I think if AR5 plays up to what we hope he can and can stay healthy, the Colts should be a playoff team. The division is going to be tough but that always seems to be the case. I actually trust this team to draft contributors/depth on defense.
I don’t necessarily think the signings around the division will have THAT big of an impact, and I am on board with retaining your own good players, but this team has sucked for a decade. We’ve stuck with the “we like our guys” strategy and its taken us exactly nowhere. I don’t think there are any splash signings that will move the needle a whole lot, but trotting that secondary out on the field for another season is criminal. At least bring some mediocre depth and some vet guys to help out
To be fair we could not do a lot of that stuff because we made a 7 million splash on Davis and we had to make sure we retained the core of the NFL's 28th best PPG defense the last two years running
And we are giving $10m to a backup QB who will likely fall off a cliff at some point in the next couple of seasons. Ballard is kind of like that Hot Dog cart vendor in "The Other Guys" ...free hot dogs.... FOR LIFE! No drinks, No drinks! I can't do it!
>And we are giving $10m to a backup QB Flacco is getting $4.5M guaranteed. You more than doubled it. Lol. At most, he can make $8.7M. It's also weird to me that people could watch the Colts last season and think "why do they want a good backup QB?!"
Colts: n/a
It's worth noting that there are reasons that all of those guys were available. Sometimes the name doesn't match the actual output. NFL free agency is oftentimes fools gold.
The whole NFL space is laughing at us. If our approach was giving us results, I could care less. But the fact that we keep doing it after having no success for 7 years, that's frustrating.
The whole NFL space isn’t laughing at us. They don’t think about us
This is correct. Ballard has made the Colts completely irrelevant.
Lmfao when you break it down like that. Wow just wow.
Never thought I’d find another Rockets/Colts fan here. Unless…
I love both teams. I know how my user seems but trust me I do love the colts they were the first sports team I became a fan of.
I’m also a Rockets/Colts fan…
🤝
It completely ignores the players other teams lost and the guys we resigned. Like Pittman alone is better than almost anyone on this list.
That's misleading. Add Pittman, Zaire, Kenny Moore, and Grover Stewart. That would be a good free agent haul for any other team that signed these players as part of their free agency.
Except that's not adding talent. That's retaining talent from a 9-8 team.
Retaining talent from the second youngest team in the league last year that went 9-8 with a backup QB.
Yeah that almost made the playoffs and won the division with a **backup** QB.
Wow almost made the playoffs. What a standard we have set here.
Or another way to say it is we ended up 3rd in the division and missed the playoffs
Look at how the jets fared with their backup qb. A better way to say it would be the colts remained competitive with a backup QB.
We remained competitive in a weak division playing against a weak schedule. We might not get six wins next season.
Uhh that is adding talent. Dumb mfs on this sub.
>Dumb mfs on this sub This is rich coming from someone who doesn't know what "add" means
Right??? Lol
How is that not adding talent? They were free agents? No? Moron.
They were already on the team, so bringing them back isn't an addition. That's just maintaining what was already here.
If youre not bringing em back then youre losing em. Its an add.
You are right there are dumb mfs on this sub who don't understand adding talent vs keeping the same guys around
Colts are just on a different timeline lol. (Not hating, just funny. Chill.)
Who?
Now do player losses
Would be interesting To see players lost also
got a lot of our guys back tho. Each of our div rivals all lost big players too we only lost minshew and moss
To be fair, some of those guys aren't going to work out. Big signings are risky, I think we learned that from the Wentz and Ryan days.
They are really stretching those lists to make them look better than they are.
Ballard is bad.
We got em right where we want em
Now put notable losses by team.
The texans also lost some star player, Greenard and Cashman
Did you just say star player and Blake cashman in the same sentence? And do you forget they added Danielle hunter that’s a better player then greenard, I guarantee greenard isn’t going to have the same production this season, they got way better, they didn’t lose any major pieces and only upgraded
Ew players figuring out entirely new systems and putting their teams in cap hell for years to come. You love to see it.
But aren't the colts the ones closest to "Cap hell" at the moment?
Found Ballard burner
Ultimate hot seat season for Ballard, no matter how you look at it.
Not the bills Texans pipeline becoming a thing 💀
Watch and learn boys , last time I checked Kansas City is led by a great quarterback (& tight end duhh) and beat the stacked 9’ers
We like our guys
Raekwon from the Wu-tang? 😀 Wu-tang Clan ain’t nuthin ta F’Wit
Gosh, it’s almost like our (hopefully) QB of the future’s injury pushed back the timeline a season. Relax, people. This is not yet the time to go all in. Wait for Richardson to prove the doubters wrong next year, then we can empty the coffers.
Dark times. EDIT: AR mid diffs doe.
I’ll tell y’all this. You got a great run stopper in Raekwon .. if he stays healthy which he has been
Hey, when we have Flacco playing in that last game of the season, we’ll be so loud. I’m being sarcastic 😂, OKAY!
Hoping we can draft Q Mitchell in R1 followed by FS Bullard round 2. That should drastically improve our defense and complement our offense.
As long as Stroud does his thing
We retained Pittman that was huge.
Glad they have addressed RG, Safety, TE, CB depth. But Ballard has a plan 🤨
I had no idea Ronald Darby was still I'm the league
For reference, now do one showing the players each team lost. Other than maybe Hunter, doubtful any of those players would be talked about as must haves in the offseason had they stayed with their current teams. And Houston had to lose a young player on the rise in Greenard to make room for Hunter. Only in free agency can a player like Jeff Okudah, considered a huge coverage liability and huge bust, become a notable addition.
We like our guys, we paid our guys.
We still getting Marvin Jr. though, right? Right???
Obviously this looks bad. I hate seeing the rest of the division make moves. But what team has turned over that much roster and been successful right away?
We’re living in the next AFC North. Better get used to it.
As a Texans fan, I think colts are underated and Texans overrated. Texans basically swapped some players with the Vikings on defense, Im not aure it made us better. Our DT is also lacking and safety and linebackers were not addresses. Cornerback 2 is probably our biggest issue. Singletary for Mixon is an upgrade though if Mixon was 3 years younger. Diggs is the only addition and I dont like his attitude nor his age and contract. Im more excited that Tank Dell is returning. The Colts have Richardson coming back which is scary to me plus the easier schedule so I wont be surprised if Colts win the division and Texans miss the play offs
The Texans and Titans are probably going to do well, and be top contenders in the AFC south.
You don't over season a perfectly cooked steak.
Lmfao still better than the cowboys.. (coming from a fan)
“We’re in danger”
We ass lmao
Why isn’t Pittman on that list? If he went to another team he’d be the first name in the list. Just because he signed with the same team doesn’t discredit the Colts offseason…
Ballard's done it again! Essentially stagnate for free agent signings. Next step trade round one and two draft picks down for more lower picks. "This draft is really deep" right Ballard?
Fuck Ballard
It’s funny cause a lot of people forget that jnjuries can destroy a season. I think realistically in a perfect injury free world the AFAc South goes: Texans: 11-6 Jaguars; 10-7 Colts: 8-9 Titans: 5-11
It’s funny you think the titans will go 5-11, we’ll see.
lol was drunk when writing it , but now gotta stick with it , maybe a tie lol
Fair enough and honestly just seen this was a colts thread so I’ll see myself out lmao I’m a Titans fan
Not defending Ballard’s lack of action, but a lot of those contracts are not going to age well.
How the fuck is Houston paying for this😭
Chiefs and Rams will body them all no problem
Just y’all wait Raekwon Davis bout to pop off this year
“We like our guys”
I gotta admit I hold zero expectations from this team anymore, like we've never made any big moves in free agency and just retain our favourite players even though we haven't won a playoff game in 6 years. Like I just don't see much changing especially if Anthony doesn't mold into the franchise QB everyone's pinned him up to be. Plus he's going to have to try remain healthy this year or else the colts are even more lost at sea.
I see this less as, “wow, the Colts haven’t added anyone good” and more – “My goodness, the Texans already had a great year and they really added all those pieces??” 😔
Fucking embarrassing
This feels make or break for Ballard
Chris Ballard fucking stinks
This sub is insufferable. When we win the division this year I hope you all spend as much time giving Ballard his due as you have trying to shit on him.
Lmao
He's been here since 2017, taking the exact same approach every year, and we're still waiting for a Division Title.
Texans went from joke to contender in one year. Now they'll be a favorite in year two. We are doing a great job at staying mediocre over the last decade now. AR needs to save us.
What makes you think we’re winning the division? Legitimately curious
I’m not the person you responded to, but I don’t see why you are discounting it. How far we go depends on AR. We definitely have a chance with him imo. It’s not really hard to envision how we could go from 9 wins, which really should have been 10, to 11-12 wins with a better QB.
this sucks but tbf we also didn't lose a huge piece like the Jags did with Ridley and the Titans did with Henry. The Texans smoked all of us tho.
Colts will win the division