Colts/Bears/NFL Game Thread

[OliviaPope40]

Should of gotten rid of Chris Ballard when we had the chance.

[jermhoosierfan]

6 hours ago, OliviaPope40 said:

Should of gotten rid of Chris Ballard when we had the chance.

I am not sure how he has kept his job these last 2 years outside of Irsay dying and his daughter getting to know the team and how it works.

[Lebowski]

8 hours ago, jermhoosierfan said:

I am not sure how he has kept his job these last 2 years outside of Irsay dying and his daughter getting to know the team and how it works.

It's malpractice if Carlie didn't know the team and day to day workings prior to her father's death and scares the poop out of me if that's the case. She has been walking the sidelines and has had a heavy heavy pulse on the organization for years.

Looking back to the GM history of the Indianapolis Colts, Ballard has the 3rd worse overall win percentage (47.3%) behind Jim Irsay (36.2%) and Bill Tobin (43.8%). Grigson had a better record than him. 

I get that Ballard has been behind the 8 ball when it comes to QBs but man, his drafting and trades have been pretty dismal. And here we are on year 10 going through the same poop. 

But whatever, for the shoe. 

[jermhoosierfan]

46 minutes ago, Lebowski said:

It's malpractice if Carlie didn't know the team and day to day workings prior to her father's death and scares the poop out of me if that's the case. She has been walking the sidelines and has had a heavy heavy pulse on the organization for years.

Looking back to the GM history of the Indianapolis Colts, Ballard has the 3rd worse overall win percentage (47.3%) behind Jim Irsay (36.2%) and Bill Tobin (43.8%). Grigson had a better record than him. 

I get that Ballard has been behind the 8 ball when it comes to QBs but man, his drafting and trades have been pretty dismal. And here we are on year 10 going through the same poop. 

But whatever, for the shoe. 

AmericanFootball

 

I am not a Colts fan, but I pay attention.  I just don't know how he can whiff on QBs like he has done.  He is kinda getting lucky with Jones, but I am not sure if he is a long term solution.  I never thought Richardson was the answer, but the 2 best QBs were off the board before they picked at 4.  They would've been better with Robinson or Carter, but hindsight is 20/20.

[Lebowski]

1 hour ago, jermhoosierfan said:

I am not a Colts fan, but I pay attention.  I just don't know how he can whiff on QBs like he has done.  He is kinda getting lucky with Jones, but I am not sure if he is a long term solution.  I never thought Richardson was the answer, but the 2 best QBs were off the board before they picked at 4.  They would've been better with Robinson or Carter, but hindsight is 20/20.

Colts fan here. Who knows the Chris Ballard thought process of post Luck QB decisions. So many unknowns. Was it all of Ballard's decisions? Did Jim Irsay play a role? Did Frank Reich dictate a lot of the decisions?

Bottom line, Andrew Luck put the franchise back for years and as a Colts fan, I blame a lot of our problems on him. To be fair, Luck's been gone for what 7 years now? So at this point, it's an organizational problem from top to bottom. We could be worse though. At least we're not in the same shoes as the Cleveland Browns. 

Regarding Jones, he won't stay healthy. 

Personally, I think Ballard's leash has been long enough. I was surprised Carlie didn't clean house at the end of last season. I'm ready for a shaking of the trees. 

But whatever, for the shoe. 

[str8baller]

3 hours ago, Lebowski said:

It's malpractice if Carlie didn't know the team and day to day workings prior to her father's death and scares the poop out of me if that's the case. She has been walking the sidelines and has had a heavy heavy pulse on the organization for years.

Looking back to the GM history of the Indianapolis Colts, Ballard has the 3rd worse overall win percentage (47.3%) behind Jim Irsay (36.2%) and Bill Tobin (43.8%). Grigson had a better record than him. 

I get that Ballard has been behind the 8 ball when it comes to QBs but man, his drafting and trades have been pretty dismal. And here we are on year 10 going through the same poop. 

But whatever, for the shoe. 

I don’t think Carlie has a clue, sadly. I have no idea how you let Ballard trade two first round picks last year, especially after idiot Grigsons Trent Richardson debacle.  
 

Ballard should’ve have been fired when he tried to hire McDaniel as coach. Then fired again when he botched that hiring. Everything since then has been equally as dumb. 
 

Outside of turning the franchise over to Bill Polian one time, pretty much everything else Jim Irsay did was a failure. I’m hopeful Carlie is better but we’re not off to a good start. 

[Lebowski]

2 hours ago, str8baller said:

I don’t think Carlie has a clue, sadly. I have no idea how you let Ballard trade two first round picks last year, especially after idiot Grigsons Trent Richardson debacle.  
 

Ballard should’ve have been fired when he tried to hire McDaniel as coach. Then fired again when he botched that hiring. Everything since then has been equally as dumb. 
 

Outside of turning the franchise over to Bill Polian one time, pretty much everything else Jim Irsay did was a failure. I’m hopeful Carlie is better but we’re not off to a good start. 

I'm a Colts fan so I'm probably a little biased. But I disagree with Carlie not having a clue. She literally grew up in Indianapolis and I would consider her the 1st gen of actual Indianapolis ownership. She understands what her product provides to the city. She knows things about the organization that you and I can't possibly imagine. During games, she's literally the only owner in the league to know what play is being called and why it's being called in real time on every single down. Again, I'm biased and could be wrong and she just might not give an eff about her role. 

During that Sauce trade the Colts were 7-2 and in need of DB help in a bad way with sights on a deep playoff run to win the whole freakin' thing. I tipped a hat to Ballard for taking the chance because that's not his M.O.. The benefit of hindsight explains just how dumb that trade was but I recall a lot of folks being really excited about the trade, regardless of the cost. 

In my opinion, Jim Irsay as an owner was not a failure. From 1997-2024 the Colts had a grand total of 8 losing seasons. One of those being dealt a hand of bad LUCK. The vast majority of his teams were always in the playoff run, that's including Ballard. I mean, it's not like he owned the Cleveland Browns. 

We fans were so spoiled to have two generational HOF QB drafted back to back. We're now dealing with what the vast majority of NFL teams deal with. 

[str8baller]

1. Disagree on the Sauce trade. It was dumb in the moment. Same as the Buckner trade (Ballard) and Richardson trade (Grigson). You can’t get ahead in the NFL trading draft assets.  As ownership you’re the biggest sucker in the world if you let your GM on the hot seat massively mortgage the future to try and save his job. 
 

2. Irsays entire legacy depends on handing over complete control to Polian. Outside of that he was a train wreck. I’m a Colts fan too and remember the 90s well. Drafting Luck covered up how bad that latter era was. The Colts have had the most luck in the draft with QBs of any team in the NFL having landed Elway, Manning, and Luck, and under the Irsays they’ve managed 1 SB total. That group has won 3 more…outside of Indy.  

[Lebowski]

15 hours ago, str8baller said:

1. Disagree on the Sauce trade. It was dumb in the moment. Same as the Buckner trade (Ballard) and Richardson trade (Grigson). You can’t get ahead in the NFL trading draft assets.  As ownership you’re the biggest sucker in the world if you let your GM on the hot seat massively mortgage the future to try and save his job. 
 

2. Irsays entire legacy depends on handing over complete control to Polian. Outside of that he was a train wreck. I’m a Colts fan too and remember the 90s well. Drafting Luck covered up how bad that latter era was. The Colts have had the most luck in the draft with QBs of any team in the NFL having landed Elway, Manning, and Luck, and under the Irsays they’ve managed 1 SB total. That group has won 3 more…outside of Indy.  

I think you and I are on par with the angst we have with our beloved Colts we just don't agree on all aspects. 

Hindsight tells all of us the Sauce trade was probably bad. But again, at the time, ownership pushed Ballard to make the major move and the Colts were 7-2. Sauce is still a Colt and has remaining contractual obligations. For the sake of argument, if, and it's a really big if, the Colts win the division, qualify for the playoffs and Sauce has an All-Pro year, multiple times, is that a bad trade? Ownership asked Ballard, "Do you want to Band-Aid it or fix it for the long term?" I think we can agree prior to the trade Sauce Gardner was one of top cornerbacks in the league? I'm not defending Ballard because I don't think he's any good at this GM stuff but I'm fair enough to realize this might not be all him. We agree to disagree regarding D Buck. I think he's a valuable asset to the team, when healthy.  

My biggest issue, but not exclusive, with Ballard is his draft picks. They've been duds. I think we can count on one hand the good picks. That's not good. 'His guys' aren't any good. 

Regarding Jim Irsay, he had to of learn some how to relinquish control of certain aspects of his enterprise. And knowing this is a legacy itself. Knowing to fire Tobin (1 drop away from a Super Bowl appearance) to hire Polian doesn't happen. With Polian calling the shots, Peyton Manning doesn't pull an Elway. The Colts don't pick somewhere in the top 3 every single year, etc. etc. Again, we're not the Cleveland Browns. Remember when he was GM (3 winning seasons out of 10, 1 playoff appearance) and we were picking the top 3 every year? Brutal. 

The most concerning issue I have is ownership. Are we getting ready to go through a 'learning' process of letting go of some control, much like their father did? Because it seems like Carlie might be micro-managing some things. I don't have a clue and hope that's not the case but bottom line, it's her show and she can do whatever the hell she wants. 

For the Shoe.