I’ve been a Colts fan since I was 10 years old in 1988 and today was the most embarrassing loss I can remember. They gave up 45 points to Drew Lock and a Giants team that hadn’t won, or scored more than 14 points at home all year. With a potential playoff spot on the line. Just unbelievable.

Ballard assembles players. He has NO IDEA how to build a team.

His teams have zero leadership or character at all. It’s just a bunch of guys who ran the fastest 40 or had the highest RAS. No weight at ALL given to whether they can actually PLAY THE GAME.

Chris Ballard really is a stupid ****.

Yea. I figure today finally does Ballard in.

Which either makes him a great assistant GM, or a guy that needs to take a job where the franchise QB is already there.

Hey, I know a place like that!

Wow. That's a bad one. Yikes.

It's your owner that's the real problem.

At least your team’s cap is in good shape.

The dude simply had no ability to recover from the Andrew Luck sized hole that was left after 2018.

It made the Colts from a team who looked like they’d be our perennial rivals to an afterthought over night.

Hey Hoopsdoc, what do think of Steichen? I think he was vastly overrated coming off that Eagles SB.

Hurts, as limited as he is is 100 percent a good soldier. Of all the insanity floating around that building Hurts is a rock. Steichen drew up some good plays for an absolutely stacked roster. Doesn't mean he can coach young guys into leaders.

But I'm genuinely interested in your thoughts.

I will give him credit for drafting Richardson as high as he did. Most people thought he was raw, but I am not sure many saw him end up being this fragile.

One of the worst choke jobs Ive seen since... well... our playoff game against the Colts, leading by 4 TDs going into the 4th quarter.

Certainly helped Drew Lock get a new contract.

I think the jury is still out on Steichen. He got dealt a really shitty hand this year. I think the benching of AR was 100 percent his idea alone, because neither Ballard or Irsay would have ever done that. I’m actually impressed that he managed to pull it off.

But if the rumors are true that AR was showing up late to meetings, being the first one out the door, and just generally not putting the work in, then it’s completely understandable. What other option did he have?

AR did play a little better after the benching, but still not well enough.

I’d like to see Steichen get another year at least. Maybe with a defense that isn’t one of the worst in the league. And maybe with a general manager that will try to get players based on whether they can actually play instead of just based on their athletic profile.

I have serious doubts whether AR will ever amount to anything but he’s shown enough imo to warrant another year.

I’m completely done with Ballard though.

Nah, Jim wants to win more than anyone. I actually think he will fire Ballard after the season.

He just got suckered by Ballard’s BS.

"Let's hire that one guy from the Chiefs"

"Stop. Don't do it. The Chief Way is Mahomes. Stop trying to replicate it here!"

Ahhhh.... it's happening. I'll bet the Bears are already ripping themselves apart arguing about Ryan Poles, too :fire:

Borganzi is about to be hired this off season according to Veach.

Fair take. Thanks.

As a team that once suffered from the "want to win" syndrome I now laugh at being patient 0. We are typhoid Mary.

He had no other choice, he drafted Quinten Nelson ahead of Josh Allen.

There’s a lot you can blame Ballard for, but when he picked Nelson, he believed he had Andrew Luck locked down for the next decade and was drafting a surefire protector for his franchise quarterback. He, like the rest of the NFL (and even Andrew Luck, if you believe him), had zero way of knowing Luck was entering his final year.

Colts have a history of choking away games they need to have to make the playoffs

pathetc defensive effort yesterday against a team that by all reasoning should have mailed it in yesterday

I like our offense for the most part see what happens but next year last chance

Even if you wanna say that, you still shouldn't be taking guards in the top 10. With all his moves he pigeonholed himself into having to take AR.

With all of the issues they have they are going to have to clean house and hire a hardass coach, all the late to meetings and ho hum shit needs a serious change...also this is gonna sound so ****ed but AR may not even be an NFL QB and that staff can't make that call.

Yea that’s interesting. How much did Luck and that organization know
Ahead of time? Was it just a last minute bomb he dropped
On the team or not?

To me that was similar to us spending 5/80 on Thuney (which felt insane to some folks at the time) to signal to their franchise QB that they were moving on from Grigson and going to make sure they protected him.

It was a complete shock. Something the Colts have always maintained and Luck confirmed just a couple years ago. The Colts originally thought he was pranking them somehow.

And he responded by not giving a ****.

They traded pick 13 for DeForest Buckner knowing they needed a QB.

But where they really ****ed up and I know this sounds weird is the next year they got Pittman and Taylor which on paper looks great, until you see Jordan Love went 6 spots ahead of Pittman looking back on it they should have been all over that.

This is where the criticism becomes justified to me. He ****ed around with band-aid QB’s like Rivers and Wentz and didn’t prioritize finding a long term solution to the biggest need on his team.

He took a very 1990s Chiefs approach.

It was actually worse, they had 6 different QB's 6 straight years, 7 if you count Luck.

Luck
Brissett
Rivers
Wentz
Ryan
Minshew
Richardson

That is ****ing terrible.

The team had no idea he was considering retirement. They thought he was struggling mentally with his injuries, not with whether or not he even wanted to play anymore.

Luck is a different kind of dude. When he retired, a lot of people said he’d be back someday but I always suspected he wouldn’t.

He used the game to make generational wealth and then walked away. He NEVER played because he loved the game.

Yea. If that’s the god honest truth, that was a pretty sh*tty thing to do to the organization.

That may be but there’s a reason Jordan Love lasted to pick 26. He was ****ing horrible mentally and badly needed the time he had to actually learn the game. I don’t think the Colts could have afforded him that time or coaching.

I would still love to have the guy back. I firmly believe the Chiefs were so good so early in the draft bc they had so many smart people in the room.

Say what you will about Ballard but he’s done a great job setting up a team for a QB to be installed. A rock solid OL that he drafted except Ryan Kelly. Adding talent like Taylor, Pittman, Downs, Pierce. Also guys like Paye, Latu, Moore etc.

Said this the other day. I’d bring him back just for his thoughts on tackles since he drafted bookend solid Tackles that were o it side the first rd.

He failed as a GM. Not everyone can do that job, but he’s a hell of a scout. He’s gonna be like John Dorsey as a Sr Personnel executive and I hope it’s here.

The chatter from former Colts that he’s held the boos against the Indy crowd to this day always felt a bit crummy to me.

If you can’t take boos and criticism from fans, then maybe sports GM isnt for you.

But he does seem like a solid scout of talent.

Luck. Not Ballard.

"Your office is over there, Chris. Coffee is same place, so is the bathroom. Welcome back." /Veach

Ah ok. Gotcha.

I don't think he's a bad evaluator, the Colts do have some talent. I think he's just very risk adverse which means he works better as a voice in the room not THE voice.

Sounds like another guy named Dorsey.

Eye for talent, just missing that little thing that puts you over the top. Mahomes.

"Oh, and Chris, I'm the boss. For real. It's my call. I report to Clark, no one else. My ass is on the line here - don't ever forget that."

But lets be real, the Colts aren't going to fire anyone.

"Shit runs down hill, and lands directly in your lap."

Yup. And that’s okay. Not everyone is a GM.

His kids went to school here. He’s not gonna get another GM job. The QB is set for the next decade at least.

He could be a vital asset for scouting.

If Irsay gets some bad coke nobody is safe.

It'd surprise me if they fire anyone, I mean they might fire the DC But the GM or HC I doubt it.

Also seems like he doesn't have a holistic plan.

Some of that is Reid has a good relationship with Veach and they tackle the roster as a team, but ultimately, BPA is a thing and over the long term, the way to do it. But at some point you have to fill the holes in the roster. Seems like he struggled to see the big picture.

I don’t believe that. I actually think Jim will fire Ballard next week.

The list of former Colts who have spoken out after yesterday is pretty wild. It hasn’t just been McAfee.

Pokemon Cards, just got a shipment last night.

Whoa! Tonight I got something hard edge.

He's to scared to take the risk. The kind of guy that should have been paired with Chip Kelly. You know an upper and a downer, like Irsays coffee.

I think Ballard was going to do a good job but then Luck retired and f***** it up.

Not sure I've ever heard a coach say something like this.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Colts?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Colts</a> HC Shane Steichen, asked by <a href="https://twitter.com/bkravitz?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@bkravitz</a> about players being late, as Pat McAfee suggested:<br><br>“I think with any team, not everyone’s gonna be on time every time. But there is accountability … I think Pat, he’s a former alumni that wants to see the Colts do well. …” <a href="https://t.co/CUvMmDLIag">pic.twitter.com/CUvMmDLIag</a></p>&mdash; James Boyd (@RomeovilleKid) <a href="https://twitter.com/RomeovilleKid/status/1873820358924800169?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 30, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Probs partying late night with Jimmy and some whores.

Zactly.. sounds like a coach who had his balls cut off by the owner.

Do you want your garbage back?