I don’t think anyone is going to be swayed either way by subjective opinion supported by subjective opinion.

Just the fact he picked Peyton over Ryan Leaf, and Edge over Ricky Williams, (as Mel I’m an Idiot Kiper said he should have) gives him a pass for life, in my humble opinion

he gets 3 good players (Freeney, Tripplett and Thornton) out of 8 picks and gets a A+? Why is that class so much better than the more recent drafts?

I think you had you just wrote this to fit your conclusion.

I know you can find quality players all throughout the draft/undrafted free agents-aka Jeff Saturday, but when we picked people such as Wayne and Freeny(some Manning guy) we had much lower draft picks at the time. Who knows-it might be a non-issue. Just a thought

It seems like you’re sour on every draft where Polian didn’t draft a Pro Bowler. I think we can agree that Indianapolis, New England and Pittsburg are pretty much the gold standard for the NFL this decade. So let’s look at those teams’ drafts and see how well they’ve done over the same span.

New England-Richard Seymore and Matt Light from ‘01, Vince Wilfork from ’04 and Logan Mankins from ’05 remain the best players this franchise has drafted this decade. Jerrod Mayo may make that list, but other than that, the Pats’ draft history has included just as many busts as the Colts’, just as many wasted picks and a kicker in the 4th round three years ago. Say all the nice things you want about the great players the Pats have drafted in the past decade, they don’t compare to the ones the Colts have. Freeney (a former sacks leader), Sanders (DPOY), Bethea (Pro Bowler), Addai (starter, compared to Maroney drafted the same year he’s been a success), Mathis, Clark, etc… as you can see, there’s no comparison.

Pittsburg-Hampton in ‘01, Foote in ’02, Polamalu in ’03, Roethlisberger in ’04 and Santonio Holmes in ’06 again don’t stack up to the stars that Indy has drafted in this span.

So what I’m trying to illustrate here is that every NFL team has good and bad drafts, and just because you have a bad one it doesn’t mean you can’t score on undrafted free agents (as we should all well know, given the UDFAs that have made an impact here). Also, we have to remember Polian is not just a drafter, but he’s a personnel expert. Sometimes it’s hard to determine how well a college player’s skills translate to the NFL until you see them in practice and pre-season. So that’s why you see guys like Terrance Taylor, Marcus Howard and Dante Hughes get cut in favor of undrafted guys like Keyunta Dawson, Eric Foster and Jacob Lacey.

I am a little worried about the pass rush behind Freeney and Mathis this year. I always assumed they’d give Curtis Johnson and Marcus Howard one more year to improve, but you can only improve size so much, and while both were fast, neither were as fast as Mathis who makes up his lack of size with incredible speed and decent run pursuit.

The thing I find amazing about Polian is that he has NEVER MISSED in the first round. All of his first-rounders have played up to or better than their draft slot. Not a single Steve Emtman or Jeff George.

Unless you count Ugoh, but that trade was a semi-desperation move that is tough to argue with because of what happened with Tarik Glenn. And when you’re always picking in the high twenties, it gets a lot tougher.

First, I disagree that Polian has lost his edge. Part of the issue that we are facing now is a transition between coaches which includes a transition from one vision to another. Some of Dungy’s players are not going to fit into the mold that Caldwell wants in a player. Polian continues to get 3-4 out of 8 draft picks that end up being quality starters if not better.

Second, I disagree with your grades. To me, they are all about a B+ but almost every year has produced at least 1 star player and 2-3 other quality players. If you add 3 quality players to a 53 man roster every year, you are bound to have some salary cap casualties or replacements at a position.

Most NFL players are only in the league for about 3 seasons. Going back to 2001 and grading them in relation to the current year, 8 years later, is a little bit of a stretch in my opinion because only the best of the best are going to still be in the league after all that time. I don’t expect him to go 8/8 every year, but I am happy with what he has done.

for our drafting our starting secondary? Plus what about the undrafted free agents? Had a little luck there from time to time.

If Polian and the Colts continue to use players that they drafted/UDFA while still winning at least 12 games a year and avoids signing other players from different teams, I think he’s doing alright when it comes down to his evaluation.

On the grades, especially. It’s a good writeup, but I disagree with what it’s telling me. Especially in grading the 2001 and 2002 drafts A+’s, when within the context of the descriptions, only two or three players from each class panned out (though of course, Wayne and Freeney are all world NFL players).

And then there’s the argument for the overall depth of the 2006 class, where despite a lack of Wayne or Freeney (even though Addai was a Pro Bowler), we got general contributions from nearly every player drafted, even though I do not care for Tim Jennings at all.

Not to mention the 2005 draft was better than the 2002 draft. I understand the wish to make a point, but I don’t see enough to support the idea. Ultimately, what I see is a lack of huge names like Reggie or Dwight in recent years, but that’s about all I can see that supports that Polian is losing his edge.

So Polian has lost his edge in finding All-Pro players at the end of the first round, guys we’d be lucky to get in the first place. We got Freeney high in the first round, so in that context, Polian would still have his edge if we sucked every year and were drafting that high annually. It’d be like grading Pacers drafts and giving the 2005 draft an A+ because they got lucky in landing Danny Granger while blasting later drafts in not landing Granger-like talent in the same general area consistently.

What I think this illustrates is the crap shoot the draft is, that even Polian can only expect to get quality contribution from two or three picks a year. If our 2006 draft is a C+, I hate to see what the average NFL team’s 2006 draft looks like now.

I am expecting another player coming in to the team with Shane Andrus leaving. No no way is he staying on the team. Not sure which player or position though.

Show me the facts. Not trying to call out one of or own writers but how many times have you sir been hit or miss on your articles. The more I loook back on the articles That Mr. MasterRWayne has written the more I say what the hell man? Lets look at the quality of his recent articles. I wont back up my facts just stating the opinion. I will not include fan post because this guy has the ability post on the front page(stating the obvious).

Oct 1, 2008 “Tony Mandarich: one of the best”- shows homerism to a washed up O-line men that had a decent career chasing down ints for the Colts. Don’t know how you would call him “one of the best”.

wait for it

Dec 7, 2008 “Just to Rub It In”- A post that has 7 words. “How about those Cowboys”. couldn’t put that in the fan post.

What takes this guy so long to write articles

March 30, 2009 " Who The Hell Will We Draft 2009: Oklahoma OG Duke Robinson"- A decent article that is backed up by facts. Even though the Colts didn’t draft Robinson it was some what informing. But why so long for a post?

one month later

April 26, 2009 “At first Glance: This draft was VERY Good” – Holy Shit, i’ll keep that in mind when your critizing this years draft next year. AND I QUOTE “It has often been said that you have to wait 2-3 years to judge a teams draft class and I think that is fair. Sometimes guys struggle early or maybe they spend a year or two on the bench before they see significant playing time. We therefore, don’t know how good this draft was but we do know a few things thus far.”-LOL the ship is sinking.

May 15, 2009 " Jim Finn is the Man"- lol, he does have a hot wife. But thats not front page material. Thats like us saying in the fan post to resign Luke Lawton.

May 20, 2009 “The Bob Sanders Beat Down Defense is Dead” – Solid post about the cover 3. What the guy has one solid article in a year. BBS and Shake have on every week. MY OPINION.

one month later

June 22, 2009"Lets Be real: The O- Line"- I’ve heard it sucks for the past 3 years. Care to tell me something different?

June 29, 2009 “The Stretch Play”- Yeah we know Addai can’t do it. As posted in thousands of comments during the 07 and 08 Colts seasons.

one month later

July 31, 2009"Vinatieri:End of a lengend" usualy when football players get into their upper 30s they retire with Farve as the exception. Even the most accurate kicker ever “Mike you know who” couldn’t make it to 40.

and one month from that you produce this. idk

I wish I could ignore MasterRWayne’s posts the same way you can ignore people on facebook. It seems like every time he writes something, I become embarrassed to be a Colts fan. I really think he ought to be a Philly fan.

man u 4get polian is also a master of bringing other people in and nows his chance!

For one thing, with our years and years of so many regular season wins, it put’s us up so late in the day during the draft. By the time it’s our turn, there’s only so much you can do.

STUPID question.

Receives a D-.
It only avoids failing due to it’s lack of spelling errors.
It seems like you’re trying to present editorial opinion in the form of analytical fact by applying some sort of pseudo-scientific metric like this arbitrary grading system. It’s misleading, not to mention sophomoric.

now plays for the Seahawks