Yes, I'm alive. Thanks to all those who sent me emails and tweets asking me if I was OK. Sinus infection that brought on migraine headaches made me feel about as useful as, I'm certain, Austin Collie did last year after the Eagles game. Though, if I took the migraines I had and multiplied their intensity five fold, I probably would have experienced something close to what Collie went through in 2010.
While I was out of action, the always marvelous Matt 'mgrex03' Grecco captained the ship both here and at SB Nation Indiana. Special thanks to all our writers here (Eric, David) and the guys at Indiana (Travis, Joe, Bill) for doing great work while I was out.
For those of you who emailed and tweeted, yes, I followed Justin Tryon's Twitter saga quite closely, and yes, just as Phil Wilson and Paul Kuharsky suggested, the way the Colts handled the situation makes Jim Caldwell look utterly clueless. After being released, Tryon used Twitter to stick up for his now-former coach (Caldwell), who has been getting killed in the Internets in recent weeks. But, in defending his coach, he made the Polian front office look bad, prompting Colts owner Jim Irsay himself to jump on Twitter and actually defend Bill Polian.
Two things come out of this little controversy:
1) Justin Tryon can forget about ever playing on a team run by Bill or Chris Polian ever again, and
2) The Colts organization looks completely out-of-sync internally.
Tryon had no reason to lie when he defended Caldwell from fans who were tweeting that he (Tryon) had been given a raw deal. There was nothing bitter, angry, or malicious about Tryon's tweets. He was simply defending his coach who, right now, probably hates Tryon's guts because Tryon did the one thing the Colts absolutely despise: He told the truth to fans.
The entire thing exposed the very real notion that Jim Caldwell does not have control of his starting roster; that it is pretty clearly determined by the Polians, and Caldwell just accepts their 'suggestions' instead of doing what he feels is right. It doesn't matter if Tony Dungy comes out and tries to help his old buddies in Indy do some damage control. The cat is out of the bag.
Jim Caldwell is a puppet.
Lost in all this is the fact that Indy stupidly dumped a pretty decent corner. Indy traded a late round draft pick in the 2011 NFL Draft for Tryon last year. Roughly one year later, they cut him even though the defensive coordinator (Larry Coyer) is on record saying he wanted to play Tryon more. Tryon himself stated quite clearly that his now-former head coach agreed with Coyer, yet was overruled.
The front office, the coaches, and the players are not all on the same page. This, more than Peyton Manning being out, is why the Colts are 0-3.
Now, Tryon is gone. The Colts secondary is worse than the one that ended Sunday night last week ranked 18th in the NFL. And for those of you who suggest he was dumped because he was a 'locker room cancer,' please shut up because you don't know what you are tlaking about. Tryon's best friend on the team is Jerraud Powers, and the coaches on defense loved Tryon's effort and competitiveness. Tryon should have been starting over Jacob Lacey, and with Melvin Bullitt's shoulder going kaput (gee, didn't see that one coming), even if No. 18 were happy, healthy, and under center this year, this team isn't Super Bowl caliber.
Too many screw-ups. Too much incompetence by the front office.
At what point did Al Davis or Jerry Jones take over the Colts football operations? When did this organization turn into Chargers Midwest, with Jim Caldwell playing the part of Norv Turner?
Based on Caldwell's reaction to Tryon's tweets, and based on how quickly Jim Irsay jumped on Twitter to defend Bill Polian, I get the strong sense that 2011 is Jim Caldwell's last season as Colts head coach, and he already knows it. Thus, he's coaching hard so that, when the college football season ends, he can get a job lined up there (maybe back in the ACC). This way, the Colts don't have to 'fire' him. He can just walk away to a 'better' job, taking most of his coaching staff with him.
This will pave the way for Jeff Fisher to take over as head coach.
Again, that's speculation on my part. But, I don't see Caldwell coaching in Indy after 2011. 2012 is the final year of his contract, and if the Colts extend him (especially if the 2011 Colts go 3-13), they will be rewarding failure. And coaching as a 'lame duck' in 2012 is out of the question. Never works. Ask the Carolina Panthers.
So, there. For those of you that demanded it, that is my Tryon rant. Maybe it was the stupidity of Bill Polian and his bumbling son that caused my migraines last week and not the sinus infection.
We'll post open threads for the games later today. Thank you for reading, and for your continued support of SB Nation and Stampede Blue.