Bill Polian....Lousy GM

[bobblehead]

I been thinking. Without Peyton Manning (who was a no brainer pick) The colts are incapable of winning a single game.

I can only draw one of 2 conclusions.

1) Polian is a horseshit GM who got lucky to draft manning

or

2) The colts are tanking games

Opinions?

[mraynrand]

The Colts shut down their season, but the drop off without Peyton was real. Trying hard, they would have struggled to win four. It's a QB driven league and Peyton was top three.

[Deputy Nutz]

The Packers have always invested and groomed their backup QBs to make them viable starters in the league for other teams, but that is not saying that if Favre had gone down, or if Rodgers had gone down for an entire year that the Packers would go to the playoffs. The Packers like any team under the salary cap can't afford to have 2 starting caliber qbs on the roster, this isn't the 1980s 49ers. But to lose one player and to go 0-13 I think you have become complacent and relied to heavily on one player.

[Smidgeon]

I been thinking. Without Peyton Manning (who was a no brainer pick) The colts are incapable of winning a single game.

I can only draw one of 2 conclusions.

1) Polian is a horseshit GM who got lucky to draft manning

or

2) The colts are tanking games

Opinions?

They passed on Orton and didn't try Orlovsky until Painter and a washed up 40 year old QB had secured the #1 overall pick. I know it's Orlovsky, but he did put a little more juice in the offense. That suggests #2.

However, Polian invested in starters and not so much in backups. So his talent depth eroded. That suggests #1.

I say both.

[rdanomly]

I been thinking. Without Peyton Manning (who was a no brainer pick) The colts are incapable of winning a single game.

I can only draw one of 2 conclusions.

1) Polian is a horseshit GM who got lucky to draft manning

or

2) The colts are tanking games

Opinions?

http://www.indystar.com/article/2011...S15/111060364/

The article is old, but the gist is that a Polian a part of the problem, just not so much Bill. His son, Chris has been doing a great job of running off scouts & other staff. So Bill might be sharp, except for the blind spot towards his son that is slowly hollowing out the Colts. Ah, nepotism.

[Bretsky]

http://www.indystar.com/article/2011...S15/111060364/

The article is old, but the gist is that a Polian a part of the problem, just not so much Bill. His son, Chris has been doing a great job of running off scouts & other staff. So Bill might be sharp, except for the blind spot towards his son that is slowly hollowing out the Colts. Ah, nepotism.

The Colts have done a bad job drafing the past few years.
Jerry Hughes (who I really liked), Anthony Gonzalez....they've had plenty of ducks

[King Friday]

I'm with Bretsky. The Colts have really tanked in the drafting department the last 3-4 years. Not exactly sure why that is the case...but I wouldn't put the blame exclusively on Polian or think about claiming he just "got lucky".

Do you forget that Bill Polian took over an awful Buffalo Bills team and only built them into a team that reached the SB 4 consecutive years? While they never won one, I still consider just getting there 4 straight times to be one of the more remarkable feats in NFL history. He also guided the Carolina Panthers to the NFC conference game in their second year of existence in addition to the juggernaut he built in Indy.

Was he also lucky when he drafted guys like Dwight Freeney or Reggie Wayne?

Polian is a top shelf evaluator of NFL talent. Perhaps age is getting the best of him after almost 2 decades of accomplishment in the NFL, or he just let his guard down a little after the ridiculous success Indy has had over the last 5-6 years. I'm guessing he's going to be sure to bring his "A" game this year. 0-16 has to be keeping the guy up at night.

[Tarlam!]

Perhaps age is getting the best of him after almost 2 decades of accomplishment in the NFL

Lots of info in that post that a "new" fan like me did not know. Thanks, I'm an eager learner!

I cut this part of your quote out, because it kinda reminds me of what I've heard about Ron Wolf. Not saying Wolf left the team in bad shape! Just, the decades had taken there toll. Dunno.

[Pugger]

I think when Wolf left the roster was in decent shape. It eventually was depleted by Sherman after Harlan foolishly gave him the GM job. I don't think Wolf was as good a drafter as TT is. Wolf did better in FA and making trades - of course FA was different back then compared to now.

[Smeefers]

I think it's really difficult for a team to stay on top for decades. No one would say that Bill Belichek and Scott Pioli are poor GM's, but his defense is atrocious this year. All it takes it a couple years of only getting medicore players and your team gets decimated. I don't think you could compare Bill Polian and Matt Millen, even though they both ran thier teams into the ground. That makes me think that the Colts are tanking it this year. Maybe they didn't really do it on purpose, they just sort of gave up. Once you give up, it's hard to fight to win a game, espcially against other teams who seem to give a crap.

[Joemailman]

Caldwell is definitely the wrong guy for their situation. If your boat is sinking, you need someone to convince you that if you row like hell, you can make it to shore. Caldwell ain't that guy.