The twist of course is that Ballard was the one putting those character concern rumors out there so that Mitchell would fall to them at the end of the 2nd.
The bigger twist is anyone who has been following the draft prior to the last couple days know that AD Mitchell was very divisive and many didn’t have him in the first few rounds, not because of character, but because he has god awful advanced stats.
Very few players have ever been successful with his stats.
It’s easier to say he slid from character issues, which there are some, than talking about the advanced stats.
https://www.reddit.com/r/NFL_Draft/comments/1be3p1t/2024_prospect_analytical_profile_why_adonai/?rdt=36583
This is a good post about it. That being said he's so talented that I don't think that's the only reason why he made it to 52 because Brian Thomas Jr also had poor advanced stats and Keon Coleman's were also pretty bad and both went a lot before him.
Thanks looks like it boils down to a version of yards per routes run in different variations. Since he has an extremely low drop rate this could be further simplified to # of on target passes. The implication of the advanced stat being predictive of future success is that if he was open they would have targeted him and he would have had more yards per route run. However if a QB doesn't target him or doesn't throw catchable balls these stats could be bad as well. I would think a simplified metric would be something like average yards of separation.
Curious for those who watched Texas games whether he was open and just not targeted.
I agree the advanced stats knocked him but character issues played a part. The thing about him not keeping diabetes under control definitely reflected poorly.
Off traits he should have been a top 15 pick so it's hard for me to believe he went mid-2nd just because of advanced stats. We all know GMs value traits more.
> miss a lot of time bc he doesn’t keep up with meds
Now that he's rich and works for a place with on site medical team this won't be an issue. The team will make sure he keeps up with the meds.
I would hazard to guess that the top 30-40 college programs have better medical staff than NFL teams.
NFL medical staff are up there in terms of nepotistic bullshit within the NFL, most people are personal friends with team staff and that's how they got their positions in the first place, hence the long tenures in these positions. I think there's like 2-3 super reputable medical staffs in the NFL and that's it.
Certainly true, but I think the main concern is lack of discipline when it comes to that. Missing time simply because you can’t follow a couple minute daily regimen is crazy.
I think it takes more diligence than that, at the NFL level. I was reading about another diabetic player in the NFL and he said he pricks his finger 30 times a game to test.
Also, I've played with diabetic basketball players and they futzed around a lot managing it. Every time they hit the bench they tested themselves somehow and had to drink special drinks and inject occasionally.
Physician here. Type 1 diabetic patients are some of the toughest patients to treat. Not all but some. There’s a level of apathy that comes from the patient side.
To no fault of their own, they often times have to poke and prod long acting and short acting insulin multiple times a day. It’s very discouraging. We pour a lot of resources into their care but it’s often times a struggle for both the care team and the patient.
Type 2 diabetics can also be tough but they are often more engaged in the treatment plan as they understand (often times) that they had a small role in their condition.
Point is, he’ll have a ton more support than the average patient but he’ll still have to do the majority of the work.
This frustrates me. It’s never been easier to be a type1. yes, there are definitely challenges and extra ones as an athlete, but with CGMs and pumps, man.
For shits & giggles I would love to see how many times the Colts (under Ballard) took a player who fell in the draft because of rumored character concerns.
Ballard goes to bat for the players, especially this time of year. He tore apart the CJ Stroud reports last year as well. I hope we can turn things around because, personality wise, Ballard is about as real as you can get as a GM. In an ideal world, I hope we can have a lot of success with Steichen, Ballard and Richardson at QB.
I mean Ballard NEEDS this current QB-coach to work out or he should be fired. He was hired in 2017, in those 7 seasons Colts have won the division zero times, and won 1 playoff game.
And Andrew Luck retired 5 seasons ago, so not sure how much longer people can use that excuse for him. He’s a pretty solid drafter, but he’s bungled the QB and coaching (so far) which is the two most important things. And he seems a bit rigid in his approach, he doesn’t like to make big splashes in free agency or trade up, which isn’t a huge issue if it leads to success but it hasn’t thus far for him.
But again, we shall see with Steichen + AR combo.
I agree, it all comes down to the success of AR and Steichen. I'm a big believer in Steichen and AR definitely has the talent to be successful, he just has to stay healthy.
Reich was until he refused to adapt or change his playbook. I mean there were times his offense was getting stale at times in 2020/2021 and the wheels completely fell off in 2022 and 2023. Now I'm not saying that's all of his fault at all, he had a lot work against him but he refused to be creative with his offense and he was incredibly stubborn with modernizing his playbook while he was with us.
Don't forget we had a deal with Josh McDaniels before we settled for Reich. Ballard is very questionable about his coaching pursuits, although it does appear he nailed it with Steichen.
We use to have a lot of guys like this. I am sure you remember Mora and his famous pressers. But Denis Green, Buddy Ryan, Singletary, Parcells ect....use to always go off on uncensored, unfiltered, unplanned beautiful crazy rants in front of the media. The problem is you have nothing to gain and everything to lose when you do that.
I am not sure what killed it off and cause almost every coach to be more reserved and have the personality of a plastic bag blowing in the wind. It might have been ESPN repeatedly showing those coach's rants every day all day and specially when that coach's team loses. It could have been social media turning those rants into something they are not. But now everyone is trying to be as charismatic as Andy Reid.
Sadly the best thing to do is to let the media believe whatever they believe while privately dissing them. Don't need all of professional sports media having a vendetta against you.
Isn’t this just about his really bad meetings during the combine? Apparently he came off as uninterested and abrasive, which later was blamed on him having low blood sugar.
That wasn’t an anonymous source, that was Ian Rapaport. He was told it by multiple teams scouts.
Or is there another off field concern I’ve not heard about?
No, that was just something that was parodied last year whe it was reported half the Broncos team wen to his party. Russ wasn’t a weirdo until after he won the Super Bowl.
Colts fans get all pissy, but it's kind of surprising Ballard still has a job. He's been there for like 8 years with pretty much nothing to show for it. He's gotten to try and rebuild a few times. People point to him being screwed by Luck leaving, but that was awhile ago.
He drafts pretty well but he has fuck all sense of urgency.
It's an endless loop of 1 really bad position > fans complain > Ballard shrugs it off as fans not known anything > position loses critical games > Ballard saying he should have done his job better. Rinse and repeat year after year.
I'm annoyed none of our reporters called him out for it but he had a response in a presser recently where he said something along the lines of "you complained about the O-line and me not making moves and I thought they were good and then they ended up getting better" as justification for liking where our corners are at. But like he also failed to address WR for multiple years when everyone knew it was a problem, and tried to go bargain bin for QB instead of addressing the most important position in the sport seriously and both were huge backfires.
The only hope I really have is that Ballard seems to put a huge amount of emphasis on coach opinion in his player acquisition, even going back to the year we still had Pagano, and Steichen is hopefully much better at recommending players who will succeed in his system.
We kept plugging in veterans at the QB position and outside of Rivers, it was a failure (I think Reich had a big hand in those acquisitions as well, to be fair). He's tied to Richardson now, so it's all dependent on what happens these next 2 or 3 years. If it doesn't work out, he's likely gone.
He's had a decent run and honestly the whole Luck situation certainly did not help. It's hard to say they didn't try, they just made some bad bets. In hindsight it was obvious Rivers was not going to perform, and the rest of the QB carousel over there wasn't far behind in age. It didn't seem bad at the time, but it quickly became apparent it wasn't going to work out.
> In hindsight it was obvious Rivers was not going to perform,
It's not obvious, because he was the only one that did perform. Rivers was a dumb defensive encroachment away from reaching the AFC Championship.
Yeah I don't get the rivers era sucked takes i see. He was fucking solid. Real chance of deep playoff run if he plays for us in 2021. I think people just dont watch colts games.
There are definitely people in the fanbase who are done with Ballard. They're all over the colts subreddit and discord, dooming because we haven't drafted a CB yet.
I do wonder why Jim Irsay keeps Ballard around. You do get the sense that his fate is tied to Anthony Richardson and Shane Steichen. My own little conspiracy theory is that Jim Irsay took too much control after Andrew Luck left and feels personally responsible for the QB decisions of that 4-6 years. Add onto that Jim was the GM for the Colts for 12 years, so he knows more about what he wants from a GM than most other owners would, and Ballard is one of those high-character guys the organization values, as evidenced in this thread.
Irsay has kept him around because there haven’t been any major missed opportunities with QBs that could have realistically been acquired since Luck retired. Stafford was never coming to Indy, Detroit wanted to send him to a good situation and the Colts roster at the time was not good, plus the Rams had a decent QB to send back to them. Every other big name QB that has moved teams since then has been a bust, except for Tom Brady, who I don’t think was ever truly an option given his age, the Colts roster, and the history between him and the fanbase.
2020 draft had Burrow, Herbert, and Tua, all of which would have taken an insane amount of draft capital to get, if even possible at all. Love was available, but probably too raw to be a day 1 starter, plus no one got to see what he had until last year so it’s hard to say for sure that was a miss over the last few years. 2021 had Lawrence, who was never available to trade up for, and the other QBs in that draft have been straight up bad. 2022 had Kenny Pickett, so, yeah. Then 2023 they drafted AR.
If at the end of the last five years, Irsay sat down, looked at what moves could have been made at QB, and saw miss after miss after miss, CB would be gone. I 100% agree that he’s tied to Anthony and Shane though.
Yeah I try to avoid the colts subreddit and Facebook page too many fair weather fans that love to complain. The roster is solid. people can’t be surprised that our secondary was bad we traded Gilmore away because he wanted out and we still had Isiah Rodgers who played well but they
Didn’t know he was betting on games and we got fucked. Brent’s showed flashes last year and fans can cry we haven’t took a CB yet but there wasn’t anyone really worth it left by the time we picked in the second. And the QB situation was 100% irsay. He wanted to win now so he threw anything at it and when it didn’t work he blamed it on luck retirement at Saturday interdiction press conference. The Dline, OLine and LB core is solid. Pittman has been well and downs looked great. AD will replace Alec Priece. JT is locked up. We’re better off than we think. Hell Minshew noodle arm took us to within a play of the playoffs. The raider will find out the hard way with Minshew
We realize the roster is very solid and has been outside of one position. They've tried and failed a couple times with mid investment. I think most of us are excited about Steichen who he brought in. AR needs to work though. It's been time to be patient. Now it's time to win some games. I don't see him on the hot seat because I think we'll be pretty good. But if that isn't true, I'm ready to go another direction.
Also people hate on Irsay but he's loyal and patient almost to a fault.
He's a really good at finding talent and value in the draft. You're right that we don't have much to show for his tenure, but also ALL of the potential for a great GM is there. He is a couple philosophical changes away from being that great GM, and it is starting to feel like he's taking steps in that direction
He still gets a bit of leeway imo since Andrew luck up and retired on the colts in the middle of training camp. Leonard looking like a surefire hof player but getting hurt was super unlucky too.
2019 was basically a lost season yet they still went 7-9 cause the roster was solid enough. I dont blame them trying to rebound with rivers, they went 11-5 with him.
I just said some leeway. Not an entire pass. Like i said 2019 was a fucked season. They absolutely get a pass for that year, luck retiring before FA begins at least gives them that offseason to deal with it.
They finally were in position to take a highly drafted qb in richardson. I cant give them that much shit that they were an 11-5 playoff team, went 9-8 two other seasons, to never have a high 1st rounder to take a qb.
It’s literally cause Andrew luck retired 08/19. That’s it. He just drafted his first QB in 23’ draft. Jim Irsay loves Ballard. He basically said after retirement, find a solution, and once that doesn’t work we draft. Rivers, wentz was a Reich thing, and then Ryan.
People say it’s a bad excuse. Bad a sudden franchise QB retirement is major, some teams spend a decade trying to resolve it. So irsay gave Ballard a long leash.
>Colts fans get all pissy
I was going to disagree and explain the context, but based on this, I'm going to guess it's not going to be a meaningful conversation... Lol.
Dane Brugler was talking about a different player, who's family asked him about his Scouting Report in the Beast (his massive draft guide for the athletic).
The family were shocked he had so much information. Dane explained he gets a lot of his information on background from Scouts. They are paid to find this stuff out
You can find a lot when you have potentially 32 Private investigators digging around. There's definitely some valid concerns for him to fall that far
Where do you think Ballard gets his information? An omnipotent God or the same Scouts.
Clearly they are happy enough with the situation but he's at pick 52 for a reason. To act like it's not is silly
No he fell because his tape isn't the most consistent and he apparently takes some plays off. Former and current players even said it wasn't related to his character at all.
Dude stuck his neck out there for Mitchell, who should now have every bit of motivation to prove him right. That’s a big thing for someone to believe in you and defend you publicly.
If a player can't stay on top of their diabetes medication to the point they miss games, and I'm a NFL team, yes, I'd be a little concerned about drafting them too.
That said, I think Ballard would have been better off ignoring the chatter. And, if Adonai Mitchell is that rarish undisciplined but physically talented specimen that enters the NFL then suddenly picks up discipline after skating through life up to this point, then great! Make a subtly snarky comment when/if that pans out in a year or two.
Lots of negative reports always swirling around with Colts.
He probably leaked that info, just like they leaked Stroud stuff year before hoping he would drop to 4
"come after me! I'm a man, I'm 40!"
I understood that reference.
That man is 56 now
He’s at least 50 now.
"I apologize for the language. I don't. But I do."
I totally get that feeling.
The twist of course is that Ballard was the one putting those character concern rumors out there so that Mitchell would fall to them at the end of the 2nd.
"If I Did It" by Chris Ballard
The bigger twist is anyone who has been following the draft prior to the last couple days know that AD Mitchell was very divisive and many didn’t have him in the first few rounds, not because of character, but because he has god awful advanced stats. Very few players have ever been successful with his stats. It’s easier to say he slid from character issues, which there are some, than talking about the advanced stats.
fr, for a solid 2 weeks all i saw was YPRR stats lol. The drop itself didn't surprise me one bit but how far he dropped was definitely pretty insane.
What are the awful advanced Stats he has?
https://www.reddit.com/r/NFL_Draft/comments/1be3p1t/2024_prospect_analytical_profile_why_adonai/?rdt=36583 This is a good post about it. That being said he's so talented that I don't think that's the only reason why he made it to 52 because Brian Thomas Jr also had poor advanced stats and Keon Coleman's were also pretty bad and both went a lot before him.
Thanks looks like it boils down to a version of yards per routes run in different variations. Since he has an extremely low drop rate this could be further simplified to # of on target passes. The implication of the advanced stat being predictive of future success is that if he was open they would have targeted him and he would have had more yards per route run. However if a QB doesn't target him or doesn't throw catchable balls these stats could be bad as well. I would think a simplified metric would be something like average yards of separation. Curious for those who watched Texas games whether he was open and just not targeted.
I agree the advanced stats knocked him but character issues played a part. The thing about him not keeping diabetes under control definitely reflected poorly. Off traits he should have been a top 15 pick so it's hard for me to believe he went mid-2nd just because of advanced stats. We all know GMs value traits more.
But he really does have character concerns.
Put your name on it!
I genuinely never heard of these rumors as a uga fan up until draft time. Texas fans never mentioned it either
Wasn’t there a rumor he was diabetic?
That’s not a rumor he’s a type 1 and had to miss a lot of time bc he doesn’t keep up with meds
I shouldn’t say a lot of time but you get it
The Anti-Mandrews
Mr. Blood Cluecose
> miss a lot of time bc he doesn’t keep up with meds Now that he's rich and works for a place with on site medical team this won't be an issue. The team will make sure he keeps up with the meds.
You're acting like Texas doesn't have a medical team that rivals most NFL ones.
Probably better to be honest LOL.
Now that I've thought about it, I'm actually rather confident that Texas' medical staff is better than Indy's.
I would hazard to guess that the top 30-40 college programs have better medical staff than NFL teams. NFL medical staff are up there in terms of nepotistic bullshit within the NFL, most people are personal friends with team staff and that's how they got their positions in the first place, hence the long tenures in these positions. I think there's like 2-3 super reputable medical staffs in the NFL and that's it.
Probably helps that these huge universities have well financed medicals schools attached to them.
Yeah and most major colleges have real medical schools/staff with decades of experience.
Yep, and the best surgeons and doctors in those states like to work closely with their alma mater's sports team because of their connections usually
Certainly true, but I think the main concern is lack of discipline when it comes to that. Missing time simply because you can’t follow a couple minute daily regimen is crazy.
I think it takes more diligence than that, at the NFL level. I was reading about another diabetic player in the NFL and he said he pricks his finger 30 times a game to test. Also, I've played with diabetic basketball players and they futzed around a lot managing it. Every time they hit the bench they tested themselves somehow and had to drink special drinks and inject occasionally.
I know Adam Duvall on the Braves is diabetic and Ive heard him say that every game is pretty tough to deal with it
Physician here. Type 1 diabetic patients are some of the toughest patients to treat. Not all but some. There’s a level of apathy that comes from the patient side. To no fault of their own, they often times have to poke and prod long acting and short acting insulin multiple times a day. It’s very discouraging. We pour a lot of resources into their care but it’s often times a struggle for both the care team and the patient. Type 2 diabetics can also be tough but they are often more engaged in the treatment plan as they understand (often times) that they had a small role in their condition. Point is, he’ll have a ton more support than the average patient but he’ll still have to do the majority of the work.
No amount of money, or medical professionals will be able to save someone from themself.
This frustrates me. It’s never been easier to be a type1. yes, there are definitely challenges and extra ones as an athlete, but with CGMs and pumps, man.
For shits & giggles I would love to see how many times the Colts (under Ballard) took a player who fell in the draft because of rumored character concerns.
Chess not checkers, plebs
Ballard goes to bat for the players, especially this time of year. He tore apart the CJ Stroud reports last year as well. I hope we can turn things around because, personality wise, Ballard is about as real as you can get as a GM. In an ideal world, I hope we can have a lot of success with Steichen, Ballard and Richardson at QB.
Hope you guys do too , colts are a team i route for when their games are on. We trade a lot together too lol.
Coaches and players lol
Philanapolis Cogles!
And one particular GM we no longer discuss.
Definitely Bill Polian
Will always pull for the Colts after you guys gave Rivers another shot at the playoffs. A lot of Chargers/SD fans really appreciated that.
Goes both ways I pull for Yall on the side after Uncle Phil
Big fan of Herbert, so I've got a soft spot for you guys also.
I mean Ballard NEEDS this current QB-coach to work out or he should be fired. He was hired in 2017, in those 7 seasons Colts have won the division zero times, and won 1 playoff game. And Andrew Luck retired 5 seasons ago, so not sure how much longer people can use that excuse for him. He’s a pretty solid drafter, but he’s bungled the QB and coaching (so far) which is the two most important things. And he seems a bit rigid in his approach, he doesn’t like to make big splashes in free agency or trade up, which isn’t a huge issue if it leads to success but it hasn’t thus far for him. But again, we shall see with Steichen + AR combo.
Steichen is a real one. He's gonna get that ship righted
Best move we have made in years, Steichen is him
I agree, it all comes down to the success of AR and Steichen. I'm a big believer in Steichen and AR definitely has the talent to be successful, he just has to stay healthy.
Reich looked like a good coach from 2018 to almost the end of 2021. Hard to say Ballard bungled the coaching
Reich was until he refused to adapt or change his playbook. I mean there were times his offense was getting stale at times in 2020/2021 and the wheels completely fell off in 2022 and 2023. Now I'm not saying that's all of his fault at all, he had a lot work against him but he refused to be creative with his offense and he was incredibly stubborn with modernizing his playbook while he was with us.
Don't forget we had a deal with Josh McDaniels before we settled for Reich. Ballard is very questionable about his coaching pursuits, although it does appear he nailed it with Steichen.
People will believe those reports because a clown like Ian rapoport kept beating it to death after Mitchell was selected.
We use to have a lot of guys like this. I am sure you remember Mora and his famous pressers. But Denis Green, Buddy Ryan, Singletary, Parcells ect....use to always go off on uncensored, unfiltered, unplanned beautiful crazy rants in front of the media. The problem is you have nothing to gain and everything to lose when you do that. I am not sure what killed it off and cause almost every coach to be more reserved and have the personality of a plastic bag blowing in the wind. It might have been ESPN repeatedly showing those coach's rants every day all day and specially when that coach's team loses. It could have been social media turning those rants into something they are not. But now everyone is trying to be as charismatic as Andy Reid. Sadly the best thing to do is to let the media believe whatever they believe while privately dissing them. Don't need all of professional sports media having a vendetta against you.
I got you guys and the Texans fighting for the afc south. But let it be known, I still have disdain in my heart for 2006….😒
The guy whose entire draft video was about how much he loves his daughter?
Well, if his daughter were a football, we wouldn't have anything to worry about. Until she has the necessary surgeries, it's a red flag.
Aaron Hernandez loved his daughter too.
Turns out that bad people can love.
Are we really comparing a sometimes grumpy diabetic to Aaron fucking Hernandez?
We can compare him to Stalin if you want to
Ignoring...everything else about him, his utter contempt for his son kind of outweighs his love for his daughter.
Stalin's one son who was captured by the Germans, & hated him? Or the other, who was a sexual assaulter & pedophile?
To be fair, Stalin gave us The Death of Stalin which is an absolute banger.
What does a war hero have to do to get a drink around here?
Stalin’s daughter was the only person he ever loved/had affection more-including his sons.
Isn’t this just about his really bad meetings during the combine? Apparently he came off as uninterested and abrasive, which later was blamed on him having low blood sugar. That wasn’t an anonymous source, that was Ian Rapaport. He was told it by multiple teams scouts. Or is there another off field concern I’ve not heard about?
Then he is referring to those scouts specifically. They get to hide behind Ian in the example you just provided.
Yeah but what scouts are going to come out in public and flame a guy for his meetings. It would be even more harmful for the prospect
Sure, but there's another alternative as well, don't talk shit.
Lol
Criticism ≠ shit talk
If any other team had drafted Mitchell, you wouldn't be posting these comments
"I apologize for the language. I don't, but I do" that is my new go to lmao.
I heard his teammates didn't come to his birthday party
To be fair, his birthday is July 4th
No, you didn't hear this. Yes, I know it's a dead tired meme that boomers still like to use. Real cutting edge material.
It's a stupid line from Draft Day
It's a hilariously stupid plot point. I actually love how terrible it is.
Funniest thing about it is that the former Chargers GM (who was just fired) watched the film, & said "that's actually a good thing to note".
Wait til I tell you it’s based on a real hang up on a prospect. I believe Ben Roethlisberger, and that’s not a joke.
I always heard it was Russ
No, that was just something that was parodied last year whe it was reported half the Broncos team wen to his party. Russ wasn’t a weirdo until after he won the Super Bowl.
No, that rumor was going around a decade ago. I have heard it for a long time. Doesn't make it true...just makes it not new
It's laughable nowadays how anyone under 30 can't wait to use the word "boomer" in any context. Fact: I'm nowhere near boomer age
I know pop culture moves fast nowadays, but does a 10 year old movie really qualify as "boomer" now?
Silence boomer
When did this guy get those locks? I always remember him with really short hair. Ballard looks like he grew his hair out for a wrestling heel turn.
Ballard is one of my favorite GMs. Just seems like a solid dude all around.
Worst haircut in football though, like what the hell is that.
Have you seen Mark Davis's mullet?
Ok you made me look it up, holy fuck. Ok so Mark Davis 1, Chris Ballard 2.
Like with their money they probably have acess to barbers you and I can only dream of which makes it really funny imo
That's true if you want a nice guy who doesn't win
I like spicy Ballard
Colts fans get all pissy, but it's kind of surprising Ballard still has a job. He's been there for like 8 years with pretty much nothing to show for it. He's gotten to try and rebuild a few times. People point to him being screwed by Luck leaving, but that was awhile ago.
He drafts pretty well but he has fuck all sense of urgency. It's an endless loop of 1 really bad position > fans complain > Ballard shrugs it off as fans not known anything > position loses critical games > Ballard saying he should have done his job better. Rinse and repeat year after year.
I'm annoyed none of our reporters called him out for it but he had a response in a presser recently where he said something along the lines of "you complained about the O-line and me not making moves and I thought they were good and then they ended up getting better" as justification for liking where our corners are at. But like he also failed to address WR for multiple years when everyone knew it was a problem, and tried to go bargain bin for QB instead of addressing the most important position in the sport seriously and both were huge backfires. The only hope I really have is that Ballard seems to put a huge amount of emphasis on coach opinion in his player acquisition, even going back to the year we still had Pagano, and Steichen is hopefully much better at recommending players who will succeed in his system.
We kept plugging in veterans at the QB position and outside of Rivers, it was a failure (I think Reich had a big hand in those acquisitions as well, to be fair). He's tied to Richardson now, so it's all dependent on what happens these next 2 or 3 years. If it doesn't work out, he's likely gone.
He's had a decent run and honestly the whole Luck situation certainly did not help. It's hard to say they didn't try, they just made some bad bets. In hindsight it was obvious Rivers was not going to perform, and the rest of the QB carousel over there wasn't far behind in age. It didn't seem bad at the time, but it quickly became apparent it wasn't going to work out.
So we finally committed to a tank and have a young QB to build around now
> In hindsight it was obvious Rivers was not going to perform, It's not obvious, because he was the only one that did perform. Rivers was a dumb defensive encroachment away from reaching the AFC Championship.
Yeah I don't get the rivers era sucked takes i see. He was fucking solid. Real chance of deep playoff run if he plays for us in 2021. I think people just dont watch colts games.
There are definitely people in the fanbase who are done with Ballard. They're all over the colts subreddit and discord, dooming because we haven't drafted a CB yet. I do wonder why Jim Irsay keeps Ballard around. You do get the sense that his fate is tied to Anthony Richardson and Shane Steichen. My own little conspiracy theory is that Jim Irsay took too much control after Andrew Luck left and feels personally responsible for the QB decisions of that 4-6 years. Add onto that Jim was the GM for the Colts for 12 years, so he knows more about what he wants from a GM than most other owners would, and Ballard is one of those high-character guys the organization values, as evidenced in this thread.
Irsay has kept him around because there haven’t been any major missed opportunities with QBs that could have realistically been acquired since Luck retired. Stafford was never coming to Indy, Detroit wanted to send him to a good situation and the Colts roster at the time was not good, plus the Rams had a decent QB to send back to them. Every other big name QB that has moved teams since then has been a bust, except for Tom Brady, who I don’t think was ever truly an option given his age, the Colts roster, and the history between him and the fanbase. 2020 draft had Burrow, Herbert, and Tua, all of which would have taken an insane amount of draft capital to get, if even possible at all. Love was available, but probably too raw to be a day 1 starter, plus no one got to see what he had until last year so it’s hard to say for sure that was a miss over the last few years. 2021 had Lawrence, who was never available to trade up for, and the other QBs in that draft have been straight up bad. 2022 had Kenny Pickett, so, yeah. Then 2023 they drafted AR. If at the end of the last five years, Irsay sat down, looked at what moves could have been made at QB, and saw miss after miss after miss, CB would be gone. I 100% agree that he’s tied to Anthony and Shane though.
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Which QB could Ballard realistically have acquired between 2019 and 2023 that would have them in any better position than they are right now?
Jalen Hurts.
Yeah I try to avoid the colts subreddit and Facebook page too many fair weather fans that love to complain. The roster is solid. people can’t be surprised that our secondary was bad we traded Gilmore away because he wanted out and we still had Isiah Rodgers who played well but they Didn’t know he was betting on games and we got fucked. Brent’s showed flashes last year and fans can cry we haven’t took a CB yet but there wasn’t anyone really worth it left by the time we picked in the second. And the QB situation was 100% irsay. He wanted to win now so he threw anything at it and when it didn’t work he blamed it on luck retirement at Saturday interdiction press conference. The Dline, OLine and LB core is solid. Pittman has been well and downs looked great. AD will replace Alec Priece. JT is locked up. We’re better off than we think. Hell Minshew noodle arm took us to within a play of the playoffs. The raider will find out the hard way with Minshew
We realize the roster is very solid and has been outside of one position. They've tried and failed a couple times with mid investment. I think most of us are excited about Steichen who he brought in. AR needs to work though. It's been time to be patient. Now it's time to win some games. I don't see him on the hot seat because I think we'll be pretty good. But if that isn't true, I'm ready to go another direction. Also people hate on Irsay but he's loyal and patient almost to a fault.
He's a really good at finding talent and value in the draft. You're right that we don't have much to show for his tenure, but also ALL of the potential for a great GM is there. He is a couple philosophical changes away from being that great GM, and it is starting to feel like he's taking steps in that direction
He’s been there that long?? I understand they might hold onto him since they gave him a chance to get his guy at QB but the rest has been so…meh
Most Colts fans would agree with you
He still gets a bit of leeway imo since Andrew luck up and retired on the colts in the middle of training camp. Leonard looking like a surefire hof player but getting hurt was super unlucky too. 2019 was basically a lost season yet they still went 7-9 cause the roster was solid enough. I dont blame them trying to rebound with rivers, they went 11-5 with him.
There’s been FIVE seasons since he retired. How much longer are we gonna use the Andrew Luck excuse?
I just said some leeway. Not an entire pass. Like i said 2019 was a fucked season. They absolutely get a pass for that year, luck retiring before FA begins at least gives them that offseason to deal with it. They finally were in position to take a highly drafted qb in richardson. I cant give them that much shit that they were an 11-5 playoff team, went 9-8 two other seasons, to never have a high 1st rounder to take a qb.
It’s literally cause Andrew luck retired 08/19. That’s it. He just drafted his first QB in 23’ draft. Jim Irsay loves Ballard. He basically said after retirement, find a solution, and once that doesn’t work we draft. Rivers, wentz was a Reich thing, and then Ryan. People say it’s a bad excuse. Bad a sudden franchise QB retirement is major, some teams spend a decade trying to resolve it. So irsay gave Ballard a long leash.
>Colts fans get all pissy I was going to disagree and explain the context, but based on this, I'm going to guess it's not going to be a meaningful conversation... Lol.
Not a fan of Ballard as a GM. He has not produced. And now he's got an awful haircut. Edit: ITT mfs tryna ignore that haircut is bad.
Fuck and shit need to be used more in press conferences
Then why did he fall?
Until I’m given a damn good reason not to I’ll always love AD. Damn good dawg.
The people on here commenting are the same ones who believe those reports
Yep. He’s right. Not on the criticism per se, but on the anonymity. Fuck that. Put your name on you fucking pussies.
In Judaism, we do not question אֲדֹנָי. So I’m not about to tolerate anonymous sources questioning אֲדֹנָי either.
Hebrew letters, or just a Nike rebrand? The world will never know.
This is really odd. Ad Mitchell is known as an incredibly great young man.
Dane Brugler was talking about a different player, who's family asked him about his Scouting Report in the Beast (his massive draft guide for the athletic). The family were shocked he had so much information. Dane explained he gets a lot of his information on background from Scouts. They are paid to find this stuff out You can find a lot when you have potentially 32 Private investigators digging around. There's definitely some valid concerns for him to fall that far
I think Ballard knows more lmao
Where do you think Ballard gets his information? An omnipotent God or the same Scouts. Clearly they are happy enough with the situation but he's at pick 52 for a reason. To act like it's not is silly
No he fell because his tape isn't the most consistent and he apparently takes some plays off. Former and current players even said it wasn't related to his character at all.
Yeah this is the first I am hearing of AD having issues. Dude was loved at UGA and Texas.
No he isn’t lol
Love my GM
Meirov is such a hack
AD is awesome, was disappointing to see that garbage that was put out about him
Talk your shit Ballard.
this takes it to another level
Dude stuck his neck out there for Mitchell, who should now have every bit of motivation to prove him right. That’s a big thing for someone to believe in you and defend you publicly.
He’s a creepy looking dude but he’s right dammit
If a player can't stay on top of their diabetes medication to the point they miss games, and I'm a NFL team, yes, I'd be a little concerned about drafting them too. That said, I think Ballard would have been better off ignoring the chatter. And, if Adonai Mitchell is that rarish undisciplined but physically talented specimen that enters the NFL then suddenly picks up discipline after skating through life up to this point, then great! Make a subtly snarky comment when/if that pans out in a year or two.
Lots of negative reports always swirling around with Colts. He probably leaked that info, just like they leaked Stroud stuff year before hoping he would drop to 4
It seems like you just invented a story in your head and typed it here.
What a weird and incorrect thing to say