Stampede Blue
Let me start by saying that much of what you read from here on will be more fan based, than journalistically based. It is not as if anyone was getting me confused with Frank Deford anyway, but I always hope that at the end of an article, you feel like responding. It doesn’t matter whether you agree or not, I simply hope it puts you in a place where you feel like expressing yourself. It is hard for me to write negative, or sometimes even neutral material, for a team that I’ve let into my fabric. Brace yourself, here comes some negativity.
I’ve have been a loyal supporter (apologist to some) of Ballard for longer than most and from what is written in your responses, longer than many of you care to hear about. I believe he has assembled a good roster and while never quite solving the QB situation, I thought each attempt had merit. Where I find myself at a breaking point, is that in my opinion, he has now failed multiple times to find the right leader of those rosters. My first complaint could be unfair, because I don’t know if he was even allowed to fire Pagano, but McDermott, Shanahan, and McVay did start prosperous careers that year. Could the Colts have had one of them? Well, Luck was here, so I’m thinking Indy might have been a destination.
When he did have free reign, he somehow fell for the banana in the tailpipe and selected McDaniels. We all know how that evolved into getting Reich as a crushingly bad consolation prize. While he was at it, he added one of the least aggressive DCs that the NFL has ever seen. I know that Ballard had to bite his tongue when Jimmy went, well, Jimmy and brought in Saturday, but not having a divisional crown to your name makes it more difficult to go against your boss. This brings us to Steichen, who I have supported…until now.
He was hired in large part to develop a rookie QB, even though that QB was yet to be determined. There are different opinions on why Richardson has not developed to this point and they have been debated enough, but I do think it is fair to say that we don’t know much more about our 1st round pick than we did in 2023. I actually am not putting all the blame on the coach for this, but he should be considered a factor. If a QB is unable, or possibly unworthy of being on the field, they have to bear some of the burden for their lack of development as well.
There have been head scratching decisions when it comes to when to go for it, when to take points, and some would add, when to take the ball. I think we all watched the last drive against Denver and said “What the?” I, like most, was willing to forgive/forget some of those decisions, because what I was...
