Grantland: Colts Have Sucked At Drafting Since 2007

Bill Barnwell writes a hit piece (never forget that Grantland’s founding editor is a notorious Patriots partisan) and he’s a genius. Nate Dunlevy researches the issue to reach a rational conclusion and he’s the crazy one?

You can call a player a bust if they underachieve as a result of injuries, I get it. But to say that it’s a shitty job of drafting because a player got injured down the road doesn’t makes shit’s worth of sense. This article is complete hindsight. I am not really sure how you can blame Gonzo’s injuries on bad drafting. Call him a bust, but I wouldn’t say he was a shitty pick. If healthy, he’s a great player. You can’t scout for freak circumstance and unpredicatable scenarios. I suppose the Redskins did a terrible job of drafting wen they picked Sean Taylor because he was killed. If Andrew Luck gets drafted and then dies or gets injured is that the FO’s fault? Is that shitty drafting? If Edge doesn’t regain his form after his ACL, I guess the Colts did a terrible job of drafting with him too.

And, no, it’s impossible to argue that the Colts have drafted as well in the first round as they did from 1998 to 2006. But that doesn’t mean that the drafts have been “terrible.” It means they are finally regressing to the mean in the first round. Do you realize how unlikely it is to get a player like Reggie Wayne at the 30th pick? The Colts run was amazing! Just because there’s been a drop off doesn’t mean that it’s terrible. The “it’s either great or it’s awful” method of analyzing drafts is incredibly naive and stupid.

But the article, and BBS’s analysis forgets all about the later picks, as well as comparing the Colts drafts to other teams. People like Nate Dunleavy and others have done that work. And it turns out well for the Colts. Comparing the 2007-2010 first rounders to the 1998-2006 first rounders will definitely show a drop off. But that doesn’t mean that the whole drafts are “terrible.” That’s just lazy.

to figure out Colts have missed on a lot of picks lately

I have to preface the meat of my comment with the fact that I think 18to88 is absolute garbage and merely the ramblings of a pompous tool who has never played a down of organized football or possibly any team sport. He spends most of his time hocking his crappy books these days. He’s actually convinced his readers that Don Brown is not a mediocre player but an elite playmaker, that line play is irrelevant, and that playoff success is roll of the dice luck. All 3 of those things make my brain hurt with their idiocy. However he’s right about drafting being a crapshoot. We really haven’t done worse or better than I expect. The only inexcusable choice was Hughes when scouting reports said he was useless in our defensive scheme.

Some people refuse to accept it, or just don’t want to even look at any other alternative that doesn’t include Manning. Get used to it folks!!!!! Colts need to make a clean break of anything related to Polian, Caldwell, or Manning. I don’t think anyone will be knocking down Caldwell or Polian’s door. Manning, that is another story. He will certainly find somewhere else to play, IF, and that is a HUGE if, if he is able to play. If he is, I still don’t think it makes much business sense to pay all that money to a 36 year old QB off of 3 neck surgeries. Go with Luck, hire a new head coach, bring in Norv Turner to run the offense, Mike Singletary to run the defense, then go from there. I’ve said a lot of the same things some of these articles have said but whatever, I’m going to keep posting. I love the Colts and I’m going to keep voicing my concerns or ways to improve, even if some are just a “wish list”. I haven’t read too many suggestions that was any better than mine or any less outlandish. Some of you need to get over yourselves and be a fan and stop acting like you are better or “smarter” than the rest of the posters. We all have different ideas and opinions, doesn’t make it wrong or any less plausible than the next person.