Irsay's fostering a losing mentality will backfire IMO

looking at what Irsay is doing to the colts, he is deliberately looking to make his team bad...he took any NFL talent that he had on his team and just gutted the roster on both sides of the ball...because his intention is to be just as bad next year as the colts were this year in hopes of landing another high pick..

I have to wonder, is fostering this losing mentality throughout the organization really going to be a positive?? How is Andrew Luck going to develop when the organization surrounds him with scrubs and basically forces him to lose games...who is he going to throw to?

i'm not sure any QB has been brought up positively in that system of rebuilding....meanwhile RGIII will be throwing to actual targets

We don't need 2 Colts threads and you already posted this in the existing one.

Free agency starts Tuesday. There are 600+ of them on the market. The Colts have about $22M to play with before they even trade Freeney...

RIpats88 said:

looking at what Irsay is doing to the colts, he is deliberately looking to make his team bad...he took any NFL talent that he had on his team and just gutted the roster on both sides of the ball...because his intention is to be just as bad next year as the colts were this year in hopes of landing another high pick..

I have to wonder, is fostering this losing mentality throughout the organization really going to be a positive?? How is Andrew Luck going to develop when the organization surrounds him with scrubs and basically forces him to lose games...who is he going to throw to?

i'm not sure any QB has been brought up positively in that system of rebuilding....meanwhile RGIII will be throwing to actual targets

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Its called rebuilding, and keeping aging injured and overpaid players in order to win 6 games instead of 4 is a great way to ****** the rebuilding process.
Who did they release that you think is a sign of giving up?

The Colts just got rid of a bunch of players who probably weren't going to be able to contribute in 2-3 years, when the Colts hope to be competitive again, anyways. If they hadn't been historically inept at drafting for the last 5+ years, maybe they could have rebuilt on the fly while remaining somewhat competitive, but that's simply not an option at this point. They're going to be a cellar dweller next season no matter what, so might as well take all of their medicine while they're at it.

It's a crap situation to be in, but given that they are, I'm not really sure what else they could be expected to do, given that the Luck/Manning decision is already made.

they're going to sign a FA, and everyone's going to go WTF. you can quote me on that.

yeah it seems like what they're really doing is cutting older guys to make room for FA

i predict VJ as a new toy for luck


i mean it makes sense, right?

RIpats88 said:

looking at what Irsay is doing to the colts, he is deliberately looking to make his team bad...he took any NFL talent that he had on his team and just gutted the roster on both sides of the ball...because his intention is to be just as bad next year as the colts were this year in hopes of landing another high pick..

I have to wonder, is fostering this losing mentality throughout the organization really going to be a positive?? How is Andrew Luck going to develop when the organization surrounds him with scrubs and basically forces him to lose games...who is he going to throw to?

i'm not sure any QB has been brought up positively in that system of rebuilding....meanwhile RGIII will be throwing to actual targets

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I am curious, if you were put in Irsay's shoes starting at the end of the 2011 regular season, what exactly would you have done?

Which players would you have kept, which would you have let go, and why? Keep in mind this is the NFL not MLB; all those decisions impact your salary cap.

If I have a fault with Irsay it is that he probably should have taken notice that Polian Jr was making bad decisions, and the scouts that helped make the Colts a good football team were all either leaving or being fired earlier than he did. However, even that is difficult to criticize; a good owner hires good football people and then steps aside, letting them handle the football operations. Considering where the team stood at the end of the 2010 season there was no reason for alarm, even though it is easy to spot now with the benefit of hindsight.

Isn't this the family that loaded up the trucks and scurried out of Baltimore in the middle of the night, alienating one of the most rabid fan-bases in NFL History?

Image is obviously not their primary concern...

All told, they're taking $38 million in dead money.

And they may have to absorb ALL of that in 2012.

ctpatsfan77 said:

All told, they're taking $38 million in dead money.

And they may have to absorb ALL of that in 2012.

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They SHOULD. Play this year with a 82mill cap, put a bunch of young guys out there and see what you've got. Next year that 38 mill is cleared away, and you own Free Agency while probably still drafting nea the top of each round.
Fold your new Free Agents and rookies in for year 2, see what you are missing and the cap blows open in 2014 and you can sign whoever you want.

Bertil said:

Isn't this the family that loaded up the trucks and scurried out of Baltimore in the middle of the night, alienating one of the most rabid fan-bases in NFL History?

Image is obviously not their primary concern...

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If I recall correctly.


It was after the City of Baltimore were threatening to take public ownership of the franchise.

I can see why they did it.

I applaud his intent to be honest to his customers but Irsay needs to sell this situation to the fan base.

I have this Patriots t-shirt from 1993 that says, "Its A Whole New Ballgame".

That might have been the better marketing approach.

ctpatsfan77 said:

All told, they're taking $38 million in dead money.

And they may have to absorb ALL of that in 2012.

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They don't have to. They can designate the highest two dead cap hits as June 1 hits and spread them over 2012 and 2013 if they choose to and save several million this season. The question would be, to what end? They will have as much as $35M in cap space if Freeney departs, have in excess of $20M already.

Back in 2000 and 2001 and even 2002 Bill took some hellacious dead cap hits just to get to the cap. The players he did retain while expensive were young and projected as potentially elite and fit his incoming scheme. Kraft didn't have to used a high first round draft pick to secure a QB, although he did to secure his HC. Lots of critics thought that approach was addle brained given the team had been to a superbowl just 4 years earlier and had a franchise QB in his prime. One reason Brady made the roster as the 4th QB in 2000 was there was no cap room for a higher paid position player. Worked out OK.

Fans need to come to grips with the fact that for the most part real change isn't easy, it's at times extremely painful. And paying lip service to change is just wasting time.

For a long time Polian overpaid to retain core talent that fit the system in Indy. Including some that was obviously sub elite. He did that because he was adverse to investing that money in UFA who might come in as a potential upgrade only to bomb or screw up and leave him reeling. Now Irsay is left to clean up that mess in anticipation of dramatic system and scheme and culture change. He's intending to build a more balanced team that can still compete on some level even in adversity. Retaining aging talent and talent that doesn't fit that profile is just counter productive in the long run.

robertweathers said:

I applaud his intent to be honest to his customers but Irsay needs to sell this situation to the fan base.

I have this Patriots t-shirt from 1993 that says, "Its A Whole New Ballgame".

That might have been the better marketing approach.

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Irsay's problem is he is hyper sensitive to his fanbase and he spent a lot of time over the course of the season trying to convince them that they could have their cake and eat it too. Then when he realized that wasn't realistic, he wasted more time trying to spin responsibility in a couple of other directions (Polian, coaching, the QB). What he really needs to do is man up and then shut up. But his biggest fear in life isn't failure, it's being viewed as his father's son. So he won't.

I actually think Irsay did the right thing. Contrary to popular belief, the Colts are devoid of any real talent. All last year we hear "this team is too talented to be this bad", but the reality is they weren't. They had a lot of names, but not a lot of talent.

Fact of the matter is Polian destroyed the Colts by giving big contracts to high injury risks (Bob Sanders, Peyton Manning, etc.) and overrated players. None of the players cut this week are any good anymore with possibly the exception of Dallas Clark (who has become too injury prone). Guys like Brackett and Bullitt might have been good two years ago, but both are also injury prone and not much going on. Addai has always been overrated because of his rookie season. He was a third down back posing as a starter.

The Colts are going to take a short term hit for these moves for sure, but they have a better chance of returning to glory by blowing it up than carrying bloated contracts for broken down players and underachievers. The Colts could suck for another decade, but they have a better chance to rebound this way.

Irsay's biggest mistake was not firing Polian five years ago because Polian wasted a lot of high picks on non-talented crap (Tony Ohoh, Donald Brown, Jerry Hughes, etc.). Irsay is an idiot, but this was his best move.

Rob0729 said:

I actually think Irsay did the right thing. Contrary to popular belief, the Colts are devoid of any real talent. All last year we hear "this team is too talented to be this bad", but the reality is they weren't. They had a lot of names, but not a lot of talent.

Fact of the matter is Polian destroyed the Colts by giving big contracts to high injury risks (Bob Sanders, Peyton Manning, etc.) and overrated players. None of the players cut this week are any good anymore with possibly the exception of Dallas Clark (who has become too injury prone). Guys like Brackett and Bullitt might have been good two years ago, but both are also injury prone and not much going on. Addai has always been overrated because of his rookie season. He was a third down back posing as a starter.

The Colts are going to take a short term hit for these moves for sure, but they have a better chance of returning to glory by blowing it up than carrying bloated contracts for broken down players and underachievers. The Colts could suck for another decade, but they have a better chance to rebound this way.

Irsay's biggest mistake was not firing Polian five years ago because Polian wasted a lot of high picks on non-talented crap (Tony Ohoh, Donald Brown, Jerry Hughes, etc.). Irsay is an idiot, but this was his best move.

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I dont think Addai is overrated. He was there for us when we needed him. He helped us beat the Pats in the 07 Championship then was pretty clutch in the 09 Super Bowl

He was injury prone during all those years. But i guess they just want to move on to an explosive runningback.

coltsfan09 said:

I dont think Addai is overrated. He was there for us when we needed him. He helped us beat the Pats in the 07 Championship then was pretty clutch in the 09 Super Bowl

He was injury prone during all those years. But i guess they just want to move on to an explosive runningback.

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If you rate him as a guy who isn't good enough to start in the NFL but made some plays in the past, then you haven't overrated him.
If you are trying to say he is a good RB well, lol to that.

I don't necessarily believe the Colts are approaching rebuilding improperly. Last year showed that the Colts were a team built around Manning, with an offense that does not function without Manning at the helm and a defense that functions only when protecting a lead. Even if Manning returns to health, his age represents a definitive endpoint to that strategy. They can limp toward rebuilding over two or three years, potentially missing the playoffs (especially with the Texans playing as they are now), or start now.

The design worked for a long time, but it cannot realistically hold together now, with age and contracts as they are, with any degree of success. This is the radical rebuild the Colts need. Will it work? Too many moving parts at this point to tell, but it won't be working this year and the hope should be that Luck does not get killed in the process if he is to be the future of the franchise.

MassPats38 said:

I don't necessarily believe the Colts are approaching rebuilding improperly. Last year showed that the Colts were a team built around Manning, with an offense that does not function without Manning at the helm and a defense that functions only when protecting a lead. Even if Manning returns to health, his age represents a definitive endpoint to that strategy. They can limp toward rebuilding over two or three years, potentially missing the playoffs (especially with the Texans playing as they are now), or start now.

The design worked for a long time, but it cannot realistically hold together now, with age and contracts as they are, with any degree of success. This is the radical rebuild the Colts need. Will it work? Too many moving parts at this point to tell, but it won't be working this year and the hope should be that Luck does not get killed in the process if he is to be the future of the franchise.

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The part above should read 'With and offense that can't function with a slug at QB".
I disagree with how Manning gets credit for being the whole offense when if you put Kerry Collins, Curtis Painter and Dan Orlovsly on ANY TEAM their offense would have sucked.
Conversely, if say, Matt Flynn were there to step in the Colts would have had a good offense.

They're rebuilding right now. They're about to get Andrew Luck and they have one of the best defensive coaches in the league. Irsay isn't stupid. He knows the time is up with this current regime. What he's doing is stacking draft picks in order to rebuild the team and, under Luck, it will rebuild faster than anybody thought. On top of that, the Indianapolis isn't exactly an ideal free agent destination so if they want to rebuild, they need draft picks.