How does this help that?

A Sportswriter or Bill Polian, who do I believe? Who knows more about what they were thinking with the pick?

This comment seems like a quick scribble of thoughts.. means absolutely nothing.. There is no doubt in my mind the Colts still like Addai but he clearly was nicked up bad last year… He has played in a shared system his whole life and is better in a committee as well. Look at Carolina or even Jacksonville when they still had Taylor for what the colts want to do with Addai and Brown..

I think the move is a great one.. the more tape I’ve watched of Brown the more I love him..

Can he replace Addai as the “MAIN” guy? Maybe next year if he has a fantastic year but to be honest it will still be a 2 man system regardless with one getting 60% the other guy 40% of the touches..

Just one more tid bit I wanted to talk about was the O-Line… The O-Line was the main problem with the run game last year. I thought that was quite obvious from my eyes and Caldwell actually tried to explain it in detail this weekend.

How u can just blame Addai I have no ideA?? We run as far as our line is.. every team does

(not that it matters) I believe our run problem was a combination of an injury riddled O Line and an oft-injured Addai.

My first thought with the drafting of Brown was “I wonder how Hart is doing” – you just never know with the injury he’s re-couping from.

That said, I also agree that if Addai doesn’t produce this year, that’s it. I think this (Addai, Brown and Hart) will work out great…we could use some fresh legs rotating during the game, yes?

Besides, a little competition in camp never hurt anyone, did it?

Everyone goes back the the 2nd down where addai didnt hit the hole against SD…. but in the grand scheme of things we still had a 3rd and 2 to ICE the game with Manning, Marvin, Reggie, Gonzo, Dallas and Addai on the field… guess what happened the line gave up a sack.

Basically what i’s saying is that the line is to blame because all of our running backs pretty much averaged the same and each one of our backs were stopped on a 3rd and 1 at least once in key situations….

Where Addai gets the blame is that he is not any other back, he is a FIRST ROUNDER (Rhodes, Simpson, Hart are all late round picks or UDFA)… Also keep in mind Addai is a lot younger than Rhodes and has a lot less carries. Finally i feel Addai is soft because Rhodes and him ran behind the same line, yet Addai is always injured… and trust me this is not because he is a more physical back.

Bottom line is both need to IMPROVE a lot for us to have a real chance at winning the SB this year. Its only fair to say the line was young and with time will improve and Addai is not a great back but a good back that will get it done behind a good line.

Its really simple; if Addai comes back healthy and runs well then we have two really good backs that can share the carries. If he continues to struggle then we have someone else in Brown. I really don’t see what is so controversial about that opinion. I think some people on this site are a little too loyal to players and they refuse to see when they make mistakes and by refusing to accept a problem then they only advocate the continuation of that problem.

The competition between Brown and Addai will only help the Colts and yes I do view it as a “wake up call” moment for Joseph Addai. The running game last year was as bad as I have ever seen for the Colts. I realize the O-Line struggled, but Addai also had the added advantage of playing with Peyton Manning whose skill forces teams to play their safeties deep. Addai never faced 8 guys in the box. In fact, he would often face Nickel defenses on first down and still we had no production.

The bottom line is that the drafting of Brown shows that Polian recognizes that at least a fair amount of the running problems last year were with the running backs. The case has been closes on that area of the debate.

Several times, with several different backs, the Colts have tried and failed to get that critical 3rd and short gain that would score a TD, clinch a game or simply sustain an important drive. Edge in 03 comes to mind first.

I think Addai’s style prevents him from getting more short yardage execution, although sometimes his style is exactly why he DOES make short yardage plays at other times (ex: 3rd and goal at end of 06 AFCCG).

IMO, it is a mixture of the type of back we have AND the type of O-Line players we draft and probably in some part due to the way they are coached. There is more of an emphasis on whether they can pass protect than run block and I am fine with that. It might just be something that we are all going to have to continue to deal with in the future too.

We started two rookies at center and right guard for a portion of the year, Marvin was not a feared receiver, Diem decided to suck, Ugoh was absent and Lilja was hurt. Looking back, we are lucky that we made the playoffs with the shit offensive line we had. That’s why Peyton Manning is the best QB in league history. 12 wins with that O-line is ridiculous. With Jamey Richard and Mike Pollak turning into experienced players and a small chance Lilja can play at some point next year, our running game would have improved whether or not we drafted Brown or not.

2007 showed how good Lilja and Scott are. It’s a shame we couldn’t resign Scott because he is one of the top guards in the AFC. The Ugoh-Lilja-Saturday-Scott-Diem line was amazing and of course the 2006 line with Glenn is historic. We should be back to the 2007 level next year, but I don’t trust the tackles. Robinson and Santi need to do a good job blocking this year to have continued success running.

A good running back will not produce behind a bad line. It’s as simple as that. A healthy Colts O-line will make Addai and Brown one of the most feared duos in the league. No matter what we drafted Brown for, the next two years are huge for Addai. Brown is a great back and Addai needs to perform to keep his job and to get a good paycheck when his rookie contract is up.