Why Colts President Bill Polian Is A 'Genius'

This is no science; there is no secret code that will reveal who will be successful and who will be a bust. There is simply too much variability in skills, circumstances, systems, etc for anything to be a “sure thing”.

Therefore, everybody, everybody, EVERYBODY will pick a dud sometime.

The trick is to pick more winners than everybody else does, and that is where Polian shines.

Think of how rediculous it would be to chide the golf player because he fails to land a hole-in-one on every shot—that’s simply unrealistic. Rather, we marvel when the player has fewer bad shots than anybody else.

So why do we get upset if Polian has a couple of busts each draft—that is par for the course. As long as he is having more hits than anybody else, I’m buying his brand golf clubs and matching beer stein.

Basically your point is that writing more about Ted Williams’ six out of ten misses than his four hits isn’t bashing, it is “holding him accountable”?

Presumably you understand that God himself might miss on a pick or two, never mind a mere mortal? If so, then it IS bashing when you “hold him accountable” for being less than perfect no matter what self serving rationalization you use to deny bashing. If you understand that he is going to miss on some decisions, what is the point of using words like cowardly to describe his moves? It is the sign of a hack to micro-analyze individual moves without regard to the overall success of the body of work. In fact the very fact that you felt you had to come back and cover your tracks by writing this rationalization is pretty much prima facie evidence that you know your comments crossed over from analysis to bashing.

Of course nothing above should be construed as bashing. I merely find myself moved to “hold you” to the exceedingly high standard of all bloggers with delusions of journalism

Dafting is a very tough thing to do. The idea of the draft is to draft as many impact players as possible. To make your team better than it was before. Ideally to fill in as many holes as possible that you have on your roster. It would be impossible to make every pick be a good one. It is impossible to make every pick be a contributer. Polian is a genius because his first round picks are usually the best player left in the draft regardless of postion. Then in the later rounds he picks guys who can fit a certain need. He is a genius but so is the guys he hires to run the scouting department. Sure he might wiff on a few 3rd rounders but that I believe is just by dumb luck or chance. The fact is he has hit on every 1st rounder. The record might show bad 3rd round picks but look at his drafts over all as a whole and regardless of what round they were selected as a whole his drafts produce impact players. I could care less if a guy was selected in the 3rd or 6th or undrafted the point is he gets them and thats where his genius is.

Alphonso Smith is a zone corner, he would fit as a backup in our scheme just fine. If he works out, great. If not, the risk is minimal. He was one of those corners I wanted for the Colts, never knew why they were trying to work him in for the man-to-man that the Broncos play.

To me, Polian is a great manager and good drafter. He has his share of misses in the draft just like Ozzie with the Ravens, who I think are one of few teams that have drafted consistently well or better than the Colts over the last decade (Steelers, Pats, Cowboys are on par, I feel, just look at their LBs and front 7). Let us face it, it is not an exact science, the draft. The Colts’ golden egg in the draft was Peyton and we all know he has been a big difference maker the last decade – the two decisions of Peyton over Leaf and Edge over Ricky will go on Polian’ resume as the two best draft day decisions in Colts history. Buffalo, Carolina, Indianapolis – Polian’s resume speaks for itself.

Polian has shielded his coaches really well, as much as he gets alleged flak for dictating decisions to his coaches. Polian has never been unwilling to face the heat for a lot of things, whether his answers made sense or not. His draft board is rarely the same as those of most pundits, and thus he has had probably more perceived reaches than what fans expect in a certain round in the draft. He would pass up guys like Vincent Jackson or Darnell Dockett etc. if they had any kind of troubles in their past, no matter how much talent they had, that is how he operates. His friend from Buffalo, A.J.Smith however operates differently.

Polian knows to manage the salary cap well and normally knows when to let someone go (except for Thornton, in his own words) though he couldn’t help the Jake Scott case where Jake and his agent got the same money with hurt pride from the Titans and chose not to come back. He loves attention, it seems like :-), and knows to work the league’s attention to an issue if needed (and a lot of times, it helps the Colts). Let us not forget that the emphasis on enforcement of illegal contact rules are a big part of this league becoming a passing league after our 2003 AFCCG loss to the Pats, and Polian was a big part of it.

Polian is not a genius by any means in my book separating himself from the rest of the GMs in the league or anything like that; but he is as good as the best in the business around the league. You could make a case for other GMs (though Polian is president now) when Polian was a GM as well.

Heck, Mickey Loomis of the Saints, the last 5 years has done a phenomenal job – fires Haslett, hires Payton, signs Brees, drafts Reggie Bush, Jahri Evans and Marques Colston in the same draft, and has made a lot of free agent pickups like Jonathan Vilma, Randall Gay, Darren Sharper, Jabari Greer etc. that have made the Saints a rags-to-riches story with a SB in hand in an unprecedented 5 year turnaround.

I don’t mind the “bashing” of Polian but they aren’t too consistant. One moment I’m reading how you are “holding BP accountable” for trading a first round pick in an attempt to fix our LT spot. Two days later, during the draft, I’m reading you “bashing” BP for not trading up in this years draft to get a LT?? You’re just like me ex… that’s why she’s my ex

I’m not seeing how the ugoh trade was bad? You were bashing him for not doing the exact same thing this year.. now, in hindsight it didn’t work out well.. but that’s the nature of the beast right.. he’s obviously made up for it in other rounds..