Chris Ballard shows us his biggest flaw once again with the JuJu Brents injury

I I have to open with Chris Ballard Juju Brent we find out yesterday is potentially out for the year he has been placed on IR with a knee injury and this is where Chris Ballard is the worst I think being an NFL general manager really a general manager of any sport is difficult there are a lot of things that happen outside of a general manager's control a lot of your success is directly tied to your quarterback the only way to get a good quarterback is to be terrible and then draft them high and here's the thing if you're terrible everyone's going to be mad at you hiring a coach isn't easy to do drafting players is hard a third of the NFL is undrafted it is hard to be a general manager in the NFL there are just a lot of things that happen outside of your control but there are specific things that happen every single year in the NFL okay depth is incredibly important for roster building in the NFL because injuries happen to every team every single year in the NFL it's part of why we've never seen an NFL team three repeat as a Super Bowl champion because usually someone in important gets hurt over the course of that three-year span part of why half of the NFL playoff field changes every year is because injuries happen over 60 different players started a game at quarterback last year that's insane injuries happen and you have to be ready for them part of roster building is creating depth and Chris Balor has completely ignored the idea of building depth in the secondary for years he hasn't used premium draft picks to to take players in the secondary I went back through his drafts okay in 2017 he drafted a safety in a in a corner in the first two rounds for context I would I would Define premium draft picks is picks in the first and second round one of the first 64 players off the board when you look at the success rate of players drafted most of the players that get drafted that stay in the league for a long time are drafted in either the first or the second round now that you have that context in 2017 Chris Balor took a safety and a corner in the first two rounds 2018 he didn't take a single defensive back 2019 he took a corner in the second round two safeties in the fourth and fifth round 2020 he took a safety in the third round and a corner in the sixth 2021 he took a defensive back in the fifth round 2022 he took a defensive back in the third round 2023 he took a defensive back in the second Fifth and seventh rounds then this year he took a defensive back in the fifth and sixth round it's a lot of fifth rounders and fourth rounders and sixth rounders and seventh rounders he rarely uses premium draft picks on secondary players meanwhile this year he had the 15th overall pick in the draft and if you don't remember the first 14 selections of this year's NFL Draft were all on the offensive side of the football that means that with the 15th pick Chris Ballard could have taken whoever he wanted on the defensive side of the ball and instead of addressing the secondary instead of addressing the positional group that the Colts needed the most help at both talent-wise and depthwise instead of drafting quinan Mitchell the best corner in the draft who I'm on record saying Chris Ballard should take instead of taking that guy who's now starting for the Philadelphia Eagles and played pretty well on Friday night instead he decided to take Leu another defensive lineman why take another defensive lineman the Colts have plenty of them you know what they didn't have at the time don't don't have right now a good secondary they didn't have very much talent in the secondary quinan Mitchell is starting for the Eagles right now and he's a good player played really well week one against a good Packers receiving core in eight drafts during Chris Ballard's tenure here in Indianapolis he is used only four premium picks once again that is a first or second round Draft pick on defensive backs no wonder the CT secondary lacks both depth and Talent two of those premium picks where all the way back in 2017 neither one of those guys are still are even on the roster anymore no wonder this Colt secondary lacks depth and look I don't mind that he doesn't want to draft defensive backs the issue is he doesn't use free agency like you have to do one or the other you can't ignore free agency and then not prioritize the position in the draft if he doesn't want to prioritize drafting cornerbacks and safeties in the draft that's fine that's totally okay with me okay and look like I feel like when you're drafting players because you know there's 22 you know there's 22 starters on every team and you're going to have you know probably somewhere around seven picks a year it's hard to address every single position group with these premium picks because you're usually only going to have one two maybe three a year so that means that the positions that you don't prioritize during the draft you have to go to free agency to bolster the depth and Chris Ballard has completely ignored the entire secondary portion of the Colts roster it is malpractice to do that okay it is simply Mal practice to just I I just I I really can't believe it okay anytime you're the manager of anything if you ignore an entire portion of whatever your job is to manage then usually you wind up getting fired okay and it's total malpractice from Chris Balor to have ignored that secondary room for the past eight years in addition to that the Colts have been 28th in defense the last two years and large part of that has been because the secondary hasn't been very good and he still just continues to ignore it why in the world would Chris ballor want to sign you know or draft secondary guys yeah like it just it doesn't make sense he should just go out sign some more horseshoe guys go nine and eight and then resign the players that went nine and eight because that has been the story for the most part under Chris Ballard the Colts being a 9 and8 football team okay and that's probably where they're headed towards now because this defense isn't going to stop anybody the front seven got ran over against the Texans and now the best corner In This Very Thin Colts cornerback room is going to be out for a while but here's the thing Chris Ballard can still fix this Chris Ballard can still fix this debacle with Juju Bren getting hurt he can do more than just sign Chris lamman an NFL journeyman who started his career in Miami and then ended up in Kansas City he was in Indie last year barely played and now he just got pulled up from the practice squad he he can do more than just call up Chris lamens okay there are still good veteran cornerbacks on the market that are available to come in and play for the Colts players that would walk in to the Colts cornerback room and immed mediately be the best player in the room xaven Howard still on the market Patrick Peterson little older played pretty well in Minnesota last year still on the market Marcus Peters a guy that had quite the career playing for the Baltimore Ravens a dude who's physical he is the best corner definitely best you know defensive back definitely that I've ever seen at stripping guys like that guy is just a turnover machine Marcus Peters would be awesome on this Indianapolis Colts defense Jerry Jacobs a guy who started for the Detroit Lions last year he's still on the market there are older proven veteran cornerbacks available for the Colts to go get okay there is absolutely no excuse for Chris balard to not go out and sign one of these guys they would any one of them any one of the four guys that I just mentioned would step onto the Colts you know you know facilities practice field whatever real field and they would immediately be the best cornerback on this Colts roster and this is the issue with Chris Ballard he's not he's not going to go out into free agency and sign any of these guys because he is simply too stubborn he is too stuck in his ways and look we already knew this we we already knew that he was too stuck in his ways to go out and do anything about it Chris Bor told us not that long ago I've never want I guess maybe because my DNA is not I've always had a strong belief in myself and those around me strong belief in what we do um and if you just kind of look through the first few years and you know we made the playoffs two of the first four had to overcome a you know quarterback retiring on us still found a way I thought 20 I thought our 20 team was excellent we just lost a tough game to Buffalo that end up being a really good team and I thought in 21 was another really good football team and it all kind of fell apart uh the last three years not making the playoffs it's a disappointment I'm not going to sit and say it wasn't um but I still have a very strong belief in what we're doing how we're doing it and how we're going to get there and that will not either you believe for something or you believe nothing like it's easy to vacillate easy to vacillate and go with what the world wants you to do you either believe in something or you don't it's what we believe it gets me fired so be it it's gonna get you fired Chris that was Chris Ballard waxing poetic about something I don't even I don't even know about his philosophy and his DNA and how he's a real believer and what they do there and what they do in that Indianapolis Colts building is going n and eight every year look I I understand wanting to believe in something every general manager in every sport has a different philosophy on how teams should be built here's the thing though if everyone is telling you to do something and you don't listen at some point you're just obstinate obstinate people cannot lead the best leaders listen to the people around them and the best leaders have people in their ear in their Inner Circle that don't agree in Pander to everything that they say it's why Michael Jordan was a terrible owner no one ever told Michael Jordan no no one ever told him that he was wrong and that's why the Hornets sucked the entire time that Michael Jordan owned them there's one of two issues going on in the in the Indianapolis Colts building one of two issues going on with Chris Ballard one Chris Balor doesn't have anyone in that building none of his Scouts nobody in that building disagreeing with him that is an issue or he has people pushing back against how he's building the team he has people pushing back on the lack of depth in the secondary and he's simply not listening either way whether it's him refusing to surround himself with people that challenge his opinions or it's him just being obstinate once again obstinate people are terrible leaders because you have to be able to Pivot in the correct direction if you're going in the wrong direction okay the Colts have been going the wrong way for what F five years now that they haven't made the playoffs in five years and Chris Ballard will not pivot he will not change his ways and that's the issue with Chris Ballard he refuses to change and look change sucks change isn't Fun for anybody especially when you've been doing something one way for eight years change is not fun but it is necessary having people challenge you and your opinions is necessary okay look I've I've been hosting this radio show for like eight months F first radio show I've I've got host I'm having a blast I hope you're having a blast tuning in if you're new every day from 10 to noon right here on on on 14:30 and so because I'm new at this I meet with my boss often very often Wednesdays I go in we're pulling audio we're listening to Clips we're running stuff back we're trying to figure out changes that I need to make to get better and and I run ideas by him and if I have an idea that sucks he tells me and it's a blessing it really is I hate hearing it I hate being excited about an idea that I have and him being like yeah you can't do that because this this this this and this right it's it stinks it's terrible when people tell you that you're wrong but you have to understand that they're telling you that in your best interest the only other way to find out if an idea is bad is to try it and see the result and when I look at Chris Ballard it's what he's been doing for the last eight years he's like I have this idea let's completely neglect the secondary for eight years only focus on the defensive line and that's all that he's focused on remember the Colts starting linebackers are a sixth round pick in EJ speed and a seventh round pick in zier Franklin translation Chris Ballard got lucky because usually sixth and seventh round picks are not starting caliber players the only thing that Chris Ballard has prioritized in the draft is offensive and defensive linemen that is it and that is a terrible way to run a football team if you don't believe me just look at the eight years under Chris Ballard the Colt secondary is going to be horrendously bad this year and if the Colts give up a million passing yards a game which that kind of feels like where we're headed Gus Bradley is not at fault okay we can talk about coaching and how you know coach can make players better and all those things but ultimately when you're playing a professional sport it's incredibly helpful when you have I don't know the better players and the Colts are going to walk into every single game that they play this year and their secondary talent wise is going to be worse than whoever the receivers are on the opposing team okay so I'm gonna have a really hard time holding Gus Bradley at fault for anything this year this is all squarely on Chris Ballard's shoulders it's tough to have a good defense it's tough to not be 28th in the NFL and defense when your general manager doesn't prioritize it it's a major major issue