He drafted a LG at 6. A sure fire LG that everyone said was going to be good. He gets about as much credit for Nelson as Pioli does for drafting Berry. Not ****ing much.

LMAOLMAOLMAO This is how they'll protect Wentz? (Gone)

Indy lucks into getting Luck with the first overall draft pick in 2012 after Manning's injury... transitioning from one franchise QB to another... while the Chiefs do their usual "Because the Chiefs" and get the first overall draft pick a year later in arguably the weakest first round draft in modern history, taking Fisher #1 overall.

And fast forward about a decade later and the Chiefs are set with Mahomes/OBJ at left tackle, while the Colts are attempting a Wentz/Fisher broke dick combination.

Karma.

Fisher started 100/110 regular season games since his awful rookie season. That’s 91% availability.

Not sure I would call him a brokedick

Maybe calling him a broke dick is overly harsh, but his availability for most of the upcoming season will be uncertain.

Some players never really come back from that. They way overpaid.

Sorry, spending the #6 pick overall on a ****ing GUARD is not helping your QB, especially since starting guards in the NFL can be found on Day 3 or even as undrafted college free agents.

But hey, it seems as if you're invested in a shitty Colts team so you can do you.

Exactly.

If Ballard had even a standard size set of balls, he'd have turned that #6 overall into multiple picks to fill out their roster.

Instead, they're looking at paying a guard $16 million per year, if not more, or watching him walk in Free Agency.

Hoopsdoc should stick to hoops.

LMAO

You have NO idea what you’re talking about.

They originally had the 3rd pick. They traded it to the Jets for 6, 36, 49, and the Jets 2nd rounder in 2019. And took Nelson, who has been named all pro AND pro bowler in each of his first 3 seasons.

Nelson would have been a good pick at 3 and Ballard got him at 6, plus four more picks.

Also, he’s not walking and he’ll be worth every penny they pay him.

Dane should stick to Hollywood.

Hopefully this will finally end the dreams of some of the people here thinking Schwartz and Fisher would be coming back.

Michael Pittman's a quality starter?

Uhh, no. Look, you PROJECT him to be a quality starter because you like what you've seen, but no, thus far he's not.

It'd be like one of us thinking Mecole Hardman is going to take the next step with an expanded role in year 3, so he's now a quality starter whereas up to this point, he's lucky if he's been anything more than another Demarcus Robinson.

And you can add Jonathan Taylor onto that same "not quite there yet" list.

Exactly... Was never going to happen..

Long and hard.

I actually like Wentz in Indy. I think its a better fit for him than Philadelphia. A country boy from North Dakota will feel more at home in Indianapolis and he had success under Reich before. Now its going to be Trevor Lawrence's divison in the forseable future but there will be a little time to make some noise between them and Titans see who can control for the next couple seasons.

I mean, I guess technically, you’re right.

Pittman had 40 catches and 500 yards despite only starting 8 games in his rookie season. There’s no reason to think he won’t continue to improve.

Taylor had almost 1200 yards and 11 touchdowns as a rookie and came on incredibly strong to finish the season. If you can’t call him a quality starter, I’m not sure you can call ANYONE a quality starter.

I think Wentz is gonna be alright. He may take awhile to get going but I think he’ll be a good quarterback next year.

I think Jax is gonna be good but they may be a year away. Tennessee doesn’t scare me. They’re a one trick pony. Houston is an absolute dumpster fire.

I think the Colts can indeed make some noise next year.

If by noise you mean a 1st round playoff exit, then yes.

You’re probably right, but it’s not like they had a ton of options. Rivers was done. Eason is a complete unknown. They gave Brissett a whole year and he stunk.

They inquired about Stafford but LA was gonna outbid everyone from the start.

To move from 21 into the top 5 would have been insanely expensive, so getting one of the studs in the draft was out.

There just weren’t a lot of options.

I think Ballard made the move with the most chance for success.

There were options, but Ballard has small dick energy.

He gave up a likely 2022 first for Wentz, who looks broken.

I’d much rather trade up for Fields on a cheap contract than settle for a guy who can’t finish the season. And who is, by the way, a divisive locker room presence.

If the coach were anyone but Frank Reich, I'd agree with you. But presumably he has a better feel for Wentz than most others. From that perspective, you can at least understand the thought process behind the trade if Reich gave it the green light.

https://media.tenor.com/images/b4819...6ec8/tenor.gif
Cheers to you Big Fish! Thanks for the trophies.

I actually think Schwartz wants to come back based on things he's said but I don't expect it, I expect him to retire. He seems content and not interested in going elsewhere.

Nice to see. Hope it goes well ....... as long as it doesn’t impede the Chiefs from another SB win. :)

good for Fisher.

He didn't deserve the shit he got in KC. He had a decent LG next to him for maybe 2 yrs of his KC career. Those 2 years he was damn good.

Hopefully, he gets healthy and has a quality remaining career(except when facing us)

I wish Fish well in Indy. That is a bad injury for an LT hope he can overcome it. Very unpopular #1 draft pick for us but always went to war on the left side. Good luck on the comeback.

Ballard’s best pick in four drafts was a guard. The Colts are 32-32 under his tenure.

He could have had Lamar Jackson or Josh Allen.

He’s Carl Peterson.

And you don’t know dock about football.

I’d say Darius Leonard was his best pick, considering most people hated it at the time. Hell, some people had it as the worst pick of the entire draft.

Also, why in the hell would they have drafted Allen or Jackson? Luck didn’t retire until after the 2018 season.

Again, you have no clue what you’re talking about.

What was he doing the other 8 games? Sitting on the bench with his thumb up his ass?

Mecole Hardman started only FIVE games his rookie year and did the same 500 yards, but he also produced 6 TDs to Pittman's 1 TD.

There's no reason to think he won't improve, other than the history of the NFL is LITTERED with dudes like Pittman who end up never quite putting it all together, at least not consistently. Maybe he'll have a nice Derrick Alexander-like career and one day have a breakout season on a shitty team that forces him the ball. Maybe he'll be more than that. Who knows. It's just funny you put him on the list of BALLARD QUALITY STARTERZ!!!

But in any case, you're REALLY overrating your GM's draft prowess. Again, I didn't say Ballard was a piece of shit at drafting. My initial argument was people suck his dick way too much for how little he's actually done. He's far from an elite GM. He's not top 5, and I don't even think I'd rank him above somebody like Rick Spielman in Minnesota, who has drafts NFL stars far more frequently than somebody like Ballard.

There's nothing wrong with being early era Carl Peterson. You get to go to the playoffs a bunch, and many of those years you get people excited about your chances. It will all come crashing down until Ballard grows a pair and stops being a ****ing pussy in free agency, though.

Thanks helping the Chiefs become a SB winner. Good luck with your recovery.

Good for Fish. I’m a fisher fan even though like most of the rest of us I was like the angry guy in the GIF (who we all think was milkman RIP). But turned out to be a good player and a good pick in that garbage draft.

Ultimately I think Ballard is a “value” guy. He’s not going to overpay.

Well guess what, sometimes overpaying is ****ing worth it. I’ve preached forever production per unit salary cap. But on the aggregate you need to pay a team that will make the necessary plays to win. Sure if you have a guy that can make 75% of the plays a star can at 40% salary cap dollars that’s a good value. It is. But if you have no one on the roster that can make the other 25% of the plays, you’re mediocre.

The strict value thing only works if you can get playmakers somewhere at a value. Belicheat did it for years because He fell ass backwards into an elite QB. But pick like Belicheat and you’ll be out of a job in 3 years.

And to be fair they may have done it in Wentz. It it turns out it was all Pedersens fault, Ballard will have knocked a home run. But that seems .... unlikely.

Wrong. Karma would be Irsay sells their Lombardi all their players and staff for drug money and Lucas Oil Stadium is a crackhouse for the foreseeable future. Then after Irsay gets shanked because he blew all his money on drugs the NFL doesn’t put another franchise in the city.

Fish blew his ACL in January. Regardless if partial or complete tear, he won't be back until October. It might even be close to Halloween.

Hoping for a healthy future for him. Never heard a negative word from or about him. Thanks for the memories; will never forget the one where he took the fan's beer and poured it on himself.

Achilles tendon.

Which is worse than an ACL in many respects.

Oh, shit. Did I say possible October return?

I meant "day-to-day".

It is different for a partial tear... This article is from 2012 and procedures have improved since then...

https://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/...023-story.html

If he signed a 2 year deal, I would say a later return would be likely, but it's a one year deal for $9.5 million. I'm guessing the Colts MD's know a partial tear is a quicker return, most likely Aug. Sept.

Love Fish. Good luck in Indy.

Don't really see him helping out much this year, due to his injury but whatever.

Glad he got paid somewhere else. Wish him well.


(hoping for Indy's sake they have a backup plan)

I don’t blame him at all for 2018. Luck was still the QB and won comeback player of the year. I don’t think he really thought about retirement seriously until Spring 2019

Fisher was never coming back to play backup. Not sure why anyone would even think he would do that.

They could have gone from 21 to 11 and gotten Fields without giving up the farm. He probably would have been as productive if not more under Reich for far cheaper.

The Bears gave up their first this year, next year, and 2 other picks to get Fields.
The Colts gave up a 3rd this year and a 2nd/1st next year.

They gave up quite a bit less to get Wentz.

My God, man. It's an achilles, not a haglund. It's not a death sentence!

Wentz will count 10x against the cap as Fields will this year, and even more the next 2 years assuming the Colts can even afford to keep him at his ridiculous cap numbers.

This is how I feel also. Except, I hope they don't have a backup plan.

Exactly. Because of that contract, the deal is only great for the Colts if Wentz returns to his 2017 form (or whatever year it was where he was looking like runaway MVP).

It's probably still worth it if he just plays ok. Still too much, but then again, that's kind of the deal these days. Your veteran game manager these days is making $20+ million/season. The main negative to that is of course it turns into just another "solid but nothing spectacular" move that Ballard has come to be associated with.

And obviously, if he's worse than that, the deal is a giant dumpster fire. Won't get Ballard fired by any means, but it means he's back to the drawing board with even less to work with.

Colts fans deserve Ballard.

Your warped perception of value and winning trades matches his.

I'm thankful we picked Fish instead of Luke Joeckel, which appeared to be the big decision at the time. Joeckel quickly fell out of the league and is an underrated total bust for a #2 pick. The only QB in the first round was EJ Manuel. Awful draft.

LMAO

How is what I wrote “warped”?

Wentz has no guaranteed money remaining beyond the 25 million the Colts will pay him this upcoming season. If he sucks, they can walk away after that with no penalty.

If he works out, his cap hits are around 22 million for the remainder of his deal. That’s not a bad deal for a starting quarterback.

8-9

Very Ballard move. Hoopsdoc will approve.

“ ESPN's Michael Rothstein reports the Colts could be among potential trade partners for Julio Jones.

Rothstein said the 49ers, Patriots, and Raiders could also be in the mix for Julio if the Falcons make the agonizing decision to part ways with their longtime franchise cornerstone. Colts general manager Chris Ballard's willingness to engage in blockbuster trade talks and Indy's salary cap space -- around $21.5 million -- leave the Colts as a favorite to land Jones.”

God I hate the new 17 game schedule.

**** the owners for their rapacious greed and the players for going along with it.

Agreed...I was thinking the same thing as I typed my response.

How about when it goes to 18?

At least then we'll be able to say, "______ a .500 team" to mean any team that mediocrely hangs around the 7-9/8-8 area.

Now you'll have to say "They're a 8-9/9-8 team" which doesn't roll off the tongue very well.

:shrug: Depends on the cost.

I love the extended season. My only complaint is that they didn't build in a second bye week.

I think that'll happen too, 18 games also makes expansion easier..

I think the end game is:
18 games
2 byes
40 teams
Expanded playoffs

This could easily expand the season 4-6 weeks with more teams, more games, more playoffs the league revenue goes way up.

Shoot me now.

They did give up less, but did they get the better product? When I meant cheaper, I meant salary wise.

40 teams?

The NFL already has to wade through all those shitty players every offseason. Now we're going to further dilute the talent we have out there by throwing on a few more Nick Keizers to even the good teams? And if your team is terrible, it's going to be REALLY terrible if some of these training camp clods are now a part of your 53.

**** more teams. They need to expand roster sizes.

I watched a bit of The Spring League late last night on FS1.

I don’t know who I feel more sorry for: The players, the coaches or the viewers.

The players have to PAY $2,100 dollars to get a tryout. They’re not paid for their play and must provide their own health insurance. The league covers their room and board once on the team and that’s it.

The world does not need more NFL teams or leagues.

Getting rid of NFL Europe was a bad idea, IMO.

Bingo. They need to make sure teams have every opportunity to avoid situations like the Chiefs in the SB.

I hate their rules about IR returns. Every single player should be able to return to help their team if they are able.

Imagine the Chiefs first round pick being the 40th pick of the draft.

That's horrible. Who the **** is watching THAT?

Exactly this.

On the plus side, finishing 13-3 is no longer possible. LOL

When the UFL (United Football League) started like 10 years ago (and ended almost immediately) they had like 5 teams, brought in some has beens like Jeff Garcia (the Omaha Nighthawks quarterback) but there were some young guys that were trying to make NFL rosters.

The problem was, they played in the fall, so they competed against HS, College and the NFL. Idiots. I think if they would have partnered with the NFL, they could have had a Spring Football "feeder league" like NFL Europe and we could have had football year around. Get some smaller markets like Omaha, Savannah, Tucson, whatever, and get together like 12 teams for NFL teams to send players to, and cut their teeth that way. I dunno, I think it could work.

Remember- that Haglund's shit started with a Hobo Achilles tear.

Has Fish grown a beard? Does he look like a hippie?

Those secondary markets can't sustain it for whatever reason. AAA baseball does fine in a place like Des Moines but they couldn't keep an AFL team despite championship appearances and the rise of Kurt Warner. They eventually went AF2 and even that was a struggle.

Football just doesn't do well in the minors, for some reason.

Bad football is difficult to watch.

It's not like Minor League Baseball or even the NBA's G League, because those many of those players, especially the highly drafted guys, will go on to have a pro careers, which makes it fun to watch.

But only a very small percentage of players, especially these days with extensive scouting tools and metrics, will go from a semi-pro league to the NFL.

And, bad football is just hard to watch.

Roster size and career-length have to be some of the biggest issues.

Thank goodness!

LMAO

I had no idea we had a ****ing Colts fan on Chiefsplanet.

I hope they continue to draft guards with their Top 10 picks and they suck for eternity.

**** you and **** the Colts.

Of course. I wouldn’t expect anything less on a Chiefs board.

Future conversations would be helped considerably if you had any clue whatsoever about what we’re discussing, though.

LMAO

You're a butt****ing moron.

Dane called me a butt****ing moron. That’s like a CP rite of passage. :rockon:

I’m so emotional right now.

Frankly, I'm shocked the Colts didn't go 1-15 last year in an attempt to nab Lawrence. How else are you supposed to find a top QB if you don't suck on purpose to get the #1 pick?

These next 10 years of QB purgatory will be really good for you. I'm happy you're finally going develop some character as an NFL fan and experience numb pain of having to wander around the desert for years on end hoping some magical Tom Brady gets shat out with one of your midround picks.

Enjoy our hell!

LMAO

They didn’t “suck on purpose” to get Luck. We’ve been through this 100 times. Just because you keep saying it doesn’t make it true.

I’m not old enough to remember the Colts bad years in the 80’s and 90’s but they were really bad for a really long time.