Honestly, Colts having a ~4-win season where Anthony Richardson does exciting things -- but not enough consistently to overcome a surrounding blah roster -- all to be in position to draft Marvin Harrison Jr ... that might actually be the ideal Colts season.
This DeForest Buckner "controversy" is among the dumbest Colts conversations I've heard. We can argue the positional value all we want, but dude has only done the right things as a Colt, is an unquestioned leader and has constantly played hurt. And now we're questioning his will?
Each thing is true:
1. Luck was absolutely entitled to decide to retire and protect his physical and mental health.
2. Luck choosing to retire after a draft + preseason crippled Colts' options.
3. 4 years is still enough time for Ballard to have figured out SOMETHING.
Seahawks Twitter: RUSSELL WILSON IS BETTER THAN ANDREW LUCK.
Everyone: Okay.
Seahawks Twitter: NO SERIOUSLY, HERE IS A 20-HOUR DISSERTATION ON THE SUBJECT.
Everyone: Cool bro.
Seahawks Twitter: YOU AREN'T LISTENING!
Jonathan Taylor very politely but succinctly trash-talking Lawrence Guy for his after-the-whistle ball rip was the best moment of this week's Hard Knocks.
"That ain't gonna help you." 🤣🤣
On Romo predicting plays: "He’s only right like 30% of the time. Those are usually pretty obvious, I mean. Nobody talks about the times when he’s wrong, but when he’s right, 'Holy cow, he’s a genius.' Oh, come on, man. Sure, it’s a run. Nope, it’s a pass. Sorry, I was wrong."
If my count is right, the Colts have seen Andrew Luck, Matt Hasselbeck, Charlie Whitehurst & Jacoby Brissett all notably injured behind that offensive line over the past 3 years.
But AM radio will tell you TY Hilton is the problem.
Chris Ballard really needs to meet with the media this week. Don't think there's any point in Reich having to answer the same questions about why the roster is so godawful at all the important positions.
[Tom Brady sneezes]
Cris Collinsworth: I mean, just look at the way this guy sneezes. Are you kidding me? Heh heh. His mucous is just so much more consistent than everyone else's. You just don't see that shade of green every day, but this is Tom Brady's nose.
Frank Reich:
-Has Luck retire 2 weeks before season begins
-Has 🎢 kicking game that has missed 5 XPs
-Loses Hilton for a month
-Sees Brissett injured vs PIT
And has rarely missed a beat. Dude is stone cold.
Seems a good day to remind: no, COVID vaccines do not prevent you from testing positive for COVID, but that's missing the point. They *do* prevent serious illness and hospitalization, decreasing chances of you dying or us rolling back to shutdowns.
Every time Chris Ballard is asked why the Colts have faith in their existing receivers, his answer sounds an awful like "no really, guys, Carson Wentz was *really* bad last year."
Hot take: at some point in his playcalling tenure, Parks Frazier is going to have to call a pass play where the ball travels more than 10 yards in the air.
People are writing off Alec Pierce as WR2 waaaaaay too casually. AD Mitchell is gonna have to work for those snaps. Maybe he eats them up ultimately, but the only reason Alec Pierce underwhelmed in 2023 was Gardner Minshew.
I'll maintain that Reich can still be a +++ asset to the NFL. His blind loyalty (especially to Wentz) ultimately cost him in Indy, alongside an OL implosion for the history books, but he's a smart, creative offensive mind who subscribes to analytics. He has a place in football.
A lot of veteran players would dodge the media after a mistake like that. Props to Marcus Williams. Dude has guts; hard to imagine not rooting for him going forward.
Frank Reich schemes fourth-string receivers open.
Jacoby Brissett can't hit them.
But somehow, this is going to change if the Colts get healthy at WR, per a good chunk of Colts Twitter.
Blankenship will get all the blame for that loss. Which, fine, he should be cut and was always a deeply un-serious roster spot.
But tying THAT Texans team is an indictment of Colts leadership across the board. Ballard. Reich. Locker room leaders. All of them.
I feel bad for the vaccinated Colts players who chose to receive an FDA-approved vaccine to keep themselves and their team at a competitive advantage.
They are being put in a bad spot by teammates who voluntarily opted for a competitive disadvantage.
Summarizing Colts press conference:
🐴 Irsay doesn't know how to make sausage
🐴 Ballard is good because Michael Jordan missed shots
🐴 Because the media kicked the shit outta Ballard for not drafting wideouts, the OL is underperforming?
🐴 Plz help. SOS.
To put in context, for non-soccer fans, what Dunn did this tourney: imagine a WR is asked "hey, can you switch to CB for the playoffs?" And he does, and locks his side down while returning a few INTs for the offense to make quick work of.
I don't think people outside of Indiana or motorsports circles understand there are more people in Speedway, IN during (good weather!) Indy 500 race days than the populations of Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Orlando or Newark.
Pacers had experienced almost nothing but bad luck since the Brawl (some good Paul George years aside) ... and then just walked into a Haliburton x Mathurin pairing in less than a year. So much fun to watch.
Colts are
#4
in NFL in PPG and I imagine Offensive DVOA will rank them kindly by midweek. But yes, Frank Reich totally needs to pass the sticks on playcalling 🙄
Zero reason for Blankenship to be on the roster next week. Absolutely zero. They knew this guy was a dud last year and replaced him, and gave him no meaningful challenge this year. Just lazy roster-building.
I think you have to fire Chris Strausser after this game. It may not ultimately mean anything, but Colts OL is just technically bankrupt. You can't be the coach of a unit that's THAT fundamentally poor.
I really don't see Frank Reich being fired (nor do I believe he should be; I think he's a very good coach!), but some things he *has* to clean up next season:
1. Blind, unrequited loyalty to players like Wentz
2. Home record
3. Division record
I was in a hipster coffee shop this morning surrounded by Jaguars fans taking a break from Cyber Monday shopping. A group of them next to me were whispering about how grateful they are that the team fired their OC, now allowing Blake Bortles to operate unhindered.
USMNT thoughts:
-Maybe seriously search for a manager & don't just hire your brother to coach.
-Maybe don't start & play 362-year-old Michael Bradley 90'
-Maybe don't call up bad players (Roldan, Lovitz) & be surprised they're bad
-Maybe embrace the fight US was once known for
Colts thoughts:
1. Steichen's worst game yet.
2. Raimann's worst game since @ NE rookie year.
3. Refs did swing 14 points against Colts, but...
4. Colts only have themselves to blame for this loss. Sloppy, dumb, scared football all around.
Idea for NFL teams: play the long game with your top-10 draft pick franchise QBS and stop burning them up by encouraging them to play through serious injuries.
Signed, someone who watched the Andrew Luck era.
Let Rodrigo Blankenship be a lesson to GMs: if you're going to have an offseason roster spot competition, have a real competition. Don't sign a scrub as competition and call him competition. Your team suffers when you have insincere, self-fulfilling roster competition.
Russell Wilson is no doubt the best QB in NFL this season. Still would love to see Wilson vs Mahomes when Mahomes has a healthy and rust-free offense around him, though. In a fun world, that's the Super Bowl.
Chris Ballard remains Chris Ballard:
• Refused to mortgage franchise in FA arms race
• Still signed a top available player at position of need
• Returns all but 1 starter from '18
• Still has league-leading cap space
• Still has 9 draft picks, incl. 6 picks in top 150
If I were at Chris Ballard's post-season presser (I'm not), I would ask one question:
You've said all along it's not just about one guy, but you returned 21 of 22 starters, save Andrew Luck, and your team fell apart. How do you now assess the worth of the QB position?
I get that a lot of Colts fans aren't conditioned to trust the GM. But Chris Ballard:
• Does exactly what he says he's going to do
• Values, and excels in, the draft
• Has more FA hits than misses
• Has stockpiled draft & cap capital
Maybe trusting him is common sense.
WELL IT'S ANOTHER TOUGH LOSS COLTS FANS BUT REMEMBER LUCK RETIRED 3 YEARS AGO AND [inaudible over jet engines] I EXPECT IT TO BE LOUD FOR YOUR
#16
DVOA COLTS [inaudible] ROOF WILL BE OPEN!
I may be rooting against Jeff Saturday's success because Irsay is a loon on a power trip, but it genuinely sucks that a franchise icon like Saturday has found himself in a position to wear something like this. Irsay is ruining so much right now.
"Make the layups. Just make the layups." - Chris Ballard on Wentz
"He's not missing the layups." - Nyheim Hines on Ryan
That language feels ... intentional.
Nyheim Hines' first impressions of Matt Ryan:
“He makes the tight throws when he needs to. He’s not missing the layups. Sometimes you can get excited and not make the easy throws. He’s not missing those. He's deadly accurate."
I won't be credentialed to Chris Ballard's end-of-season press conference this week. If I were credentialed, these are the kinds of questions I would ask, doing my best to balance directness, runway and role as informational conduit to fans.
Reminder: NFL players choosing not to receive an FDA-approved vaccine are voluntarily putting their teams at a competitive disadvantage.
That is a statement of fact. We need to acknowledge it more often.
Indianapolis doesn't boast a long list of electric defensive stars. Shaq Leonard was responsible for a significant percentage of what made the high points of 2018-21 the high points. I'll always treasure those moments. Spine/nerve injuries suck, man.
I may be completely wrong. I don't know all of the details.
But Matt Ryan's time in Indy really rubbed me the wrong way. I found it to be far, far short of a $25M effort. And no, I don't think it was all just on the offensive line.
Matt Ryan is eager to get his new career as a game analyst for CBS started — while still trying to process how his playing career (may have) ended.
Is Ryan retiring? More, with
@JoshTheAthletic
.
I will say, though I believe Irsay is prone to buffoonery and an inflated sense of football acumen without a Bill Polian around, I do think it's telling that he said no team treats their players better and I haven't seen a single current or former Colts player challenge that.
I realize history suggests Colts will rebound and find a winning streak this season that puts them in some kinda postseason contention, but bigger picture, I just can't see how anyone can be confident in Chris Ballard's franchise vision.
Day-after Colts thought: Paye & Ebukam have to be thanking their lucky stars Tony Brown is taking so much heat. IMO, the story is far less "billionth-string corner special teams ace is predictably bad" and far more "Colts' pass rush is still just Buckner for the zillionth year."
You do have to give Shane Steichen credit for essentially running two entirely different offenses, interchangeably, for the first quarter season. No small feat for a rookie head coach slash coordinator.
Some personal news: first day I can officially call myself Director
@brgridiron
! Usually shy from spotlight, but damn, a lotta tough miles to get here, so I'll allow it today.
Doesn't happen w/o the best team in the biz. So proud of them ... and we're still building!
Hard Knocks takeaways:
* Darius Leonard is putting in an all-time franchise gutty performance this season.
* God bless the editing job to make that JAX-IND game remotely interesting.
* I don't think Quenton Nelson has any interest in participating in Hard Knocks 🤣
If nothing else, this Colts season is a seminar on what NFL positions absolutely do not matter.
Hint: they're the positions Colts have built around most.
Honestly, if the Colts invest a few more top-10 picks in the OL, trade their next six drafts for a WR opposite Hilton and sign a few 14-foot tall tight ends, they should be just fine with Brissett at QB.