Hell Freezes Over, Patriots Writer Praises Colts

by mgrex03 on Apr 9, 2008 10:53 AM EDT in Colts News

I was skimming through some Colts-related articles, and saw a headline "Indy can pick'em." I had a feeling it was about the upcoming draft, and how Polian makes all other GM's look like us throwing about mock draft after mock draft. I clicked on the link, and it took me to the Boston Herald. I found that quite odd, seeing as I've never seen one word of praise coming from any where in New England relating to the Colts. Sure enough, here is an article, penned by John Tomase (and he is of no relation to that guy we all know whose name is very close to that). John clearly lays out why the Colts are the best, by far, in the NFL when it comes to the NFL Draft, especially in the first round. Yes, I'm floored as well.

His first piece of evidence is pretty spectacular (emphasis mine):

There are hundreds of ways to grade first-round picks, but here's a good one: Pro Bowls.

By that measure, it's hard to imagine anyone has drafted better than the Indianapolis Colts over the past 12 years. In that time, the 12 players Indy has selected with its first pick have made 31 Pro Bowls. The Patriots - no draft slouches themselves - have just nine berths to show over the same period, with five coming from Richard Seymour alone.

I'll take out Anthony Gonzalez, since rookie WRs making the Pro Bowl are extremely rare. Eleven players, 31 Pro Bowls. I'd never seen it written down before, but it truly is amazing. He also talks about how the Colts make the best of players other teams want no part of:

Just as the Patriots are masters of finding players suited for their system (leverage over strength, quickness over speed, intelligence and character over undisciplined athleticism), the Colts tailor their draft board to their style of play. Irsay uses cornerback as an example.

"We want our corners to be great tacklers that play a lot of zone," he said. "We only rush four and don't blitz a lot, so our corners need to be outstanding physical players, but running a 4.4 is not essential."

Many teams will discount slower corners. The Colts consider that an inefficiency to be exploited. Another example is the bias rivals have against short players.

I think every fan in New England was ready to blow their stack until he finally spoon fed them the line about finding players that will play "the Patriot way." He later points out Dwight Freeney and Bob Sanders were two such players that were "undersized", so other teams did not see them as valuable. Bill Polian and Tony Dungy, on the other hand, knew how great they would be, and made them stars.

I finished the article, and sat their amazed that a paper in Boston could write such a glowing article about the Colts. It had to have been pretty easy to write, though, since everything in there is fact and not much opinion. Nobody can really argue that the Colts have had the best record of drafting in the first round of anyone else. Except Patriot Fans.

I had a feeling the Comments from the article would supply me some great nuggets to share, and they did not disappoint. A little background on Tomase: He was the writer who broke the Matt Walsh story the night before the Super Bowl.

John, John, John...I don't know what is more pathetic - your stories or the fact that a Boston newspaper even pays you to write this crap. Who cares about Indy's picks over the last 12 years!!! Hello!!! How many Super Bowl wins vs. the Pats have they had? How many undefeated regular seasons? God you are a blow-hard...

Oh yes, going into detail the most successful team in the NFL which happens to be the local team is a great idea. But wait a minute, he's concentrating on the COLTS! They just happen to be the Patriots most hated rival. Great insight there buddy boy - go get 'em and make the Herald proud. And then maybe consider it might be a good idea to stop reading US and People and read some books on football.

And to top it all off...

The Pro-Bowl is a farce anyway. But perhaps Indy has ma(n)y over 12 years because the(y) sucked for so long that they've had numberous(sic) high first round picks. What a dumbass story.

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Business as usual.

Great article, dumbass fans. I think it's safe to say that with 31 pro bowls among twelve players, the Colts are the best drafting team in the NFL. Oh yeah, and 22 of 22 starters never played a regular season down for another team.

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by MonkeyBusiness on Apr 9, 2008 2:34 PM EDT reply actions

Yeah the Colts have Pro Bowlers

because they pick high in the draft. It's not like they drafted the reining DPOY in the middle of the second round.

1,4,11,19,19,24,28,29,30,30,32,44

Those are the pick numbers of the 12 players from the article. 3 out of 12 are in the top half of the draft. 1/4th of the time the Colts picked in the top 1/2 of the round. It was definitely all those very early picks the Colts got that gave them the pro bowlers.

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by shake n bake on Apr 9, 2008 4:51 PM EDT reply actions