I have been reading all of the comments and fan posts and have tried to look at things through my blue shaded glasses with my pom-poms in hand but in my gut I keep coming back to one thing- the colts got taken to the cleaners. I love Grigs and am excited to have an outstanding GM for the next decade—that is a huge advantage for a franchise. However, living in New England I have had to put up with the Patriot fans and Bill F’n Belichick; while I hate them and him, I admire their business plan. Any time Belichick goes to the negotiating table he knows two things 1) the max value of the player in front of him relative to his team needs and the market and 2) he will get up and walk away from the table the moment it exceeds either. Belichick’s discipline in following this probably took him some years to develop but he now exercises it in an unbending fashion. As a consequence, the Patriots have what we had for a brief moment- financial flexibility. They continue to do this even though they are loaded and compete for a SB each year. A team's payroll pie is only so large . Belichick places an unbelievable amount of focus on financial flexibility and gathering assets (draft picks). We all know that in the NFL the team you start in week 1 with will not look the same in week 16, so he uses his flexibility and assets to create depth at every position and make pre and midseason moves. We had a chance to follow this model but, IMO, did not have a sense of the market or were not willing to walk away from the table from our plan A players when finances got out of line. Grigs will learn this side of the business, but the template was already out there for him to copy—no harm in copying a winner even if he is an Ahole.

I do agree that the team that takes the field for the colts will be better in 2013, but to get it we gave away short term (2 years) financial flexibility when we did not have to and when you look below the surface, our depth is questionable and we have limited avenues to address. When I look at our roster compared to the Pats, Broncos, Niners, and Seahawks, I see a huge gap. We are hoping we hit on unproven FA’s to make it to the next level but those teams have talent, depth and financial dicipline to make it more of a certainty.

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