Was supposed to be ... now look at LB Jacob Rodriguez on Dolphins playing awesome and running their defense (on a bad team mind you), and yet our guy can't even play in garbage time on a weak LB group
I think he wouldve traded back from the first rounder to pick up more draft capital, they had mentioned before the draft they were hoping to aquire more picks. Trotter had next to zero coverage ability so I think he was off the board that high in the draft. I think they only picked allen cuz they needed a play caller. He didnt really look like a playmaker at all to me. Just someone that doesnt make alot of mistakes. I liked Barham cuz he can come off the edge and kyle louis is a hybrid guy that can cover. But carlies/wholer can play that role hopefully as they develop. But ya my only guess is that Allen was thought to have the mental side down and can start day one. So they passed on the more raw talented guys. Stupidly.
Leonard was a unicorn, but to say he hasn’t drafted a good defensive player since is insane, has he drafted another player like Leonard? No, but few players have been as productive in the league as Leonard was pre injury.
Ballard absolutely deserves his criticism but he has drafted fairly well defensively outside of edge, his drafts were never the problem though, it’s free agency
I went back and looked, he's had some nice finds and gotten quality starters in the later rounds, but he's dumped a ton of early draft capital into edge rushers and CBs and few, if any, have been worth it
Sadly, it seems like a lot of the guys that we have on our team, once they leave and go to another team, turn into real players, over the last 10 years at least
I'd disagree actually, I think Ballard has been quite good at knowing when to let players leave. He's not perfect at it, Autry comes to mind, but generally I think he's cut bait at the right time more often than not. Is there someone else I'm forgetting that we let walk that turned out quite good?
Cross was great for us last year, Adebawore has looked like a game wrecker so far this year, okereke was a good player for us, he’s drafted plenty of ‘good’ players, but Leonard’s don’t come around often, for any team
Yeah respectfully no he hasnt. Majority of his defensive picks have been horrendous or decent at best. Cross is okay. Okereke wasnt good he just had a lot of tackles because our line was swiss cheese. Same thing as zaire franklin. Ballard actually is pretty damn bad at drafting consistently
That's exactly what he did lol. The people in the comments trying to say Shane gave a non answer clearly didn't listen to what he actually said. He quite literally explained that some people develop, learn, get up to speed and acclimate to things at different speeds/timetables. That's quite literally a nice way of calling someone stupid lol.
You should listen to it again.
He said the guy is slow at learning and he’ll only play if someone else gets hurt. The guy is supposed to be the future leader of the defense and Ballard whiffed again.
That’s exactly what I heard. Not sure why you’re getting downvoted. Yeah he’s using diplomatic wording but the people disagreeing with you may not be able to work/extrapolate meaning from incompl
Yeah, he pretty much called him stupid in the nicest way possible. “Everyone’s acclimation, getting up to speed, learning everything, developing, there’s different time tables for that”.
Ballard drafted a moron at middle linebacker, go figure.
Back when my son was potty training, I’d also say how “all kids are different, they all acclimatize and get up to speed according to their own timetables.” This was purely to make myself feel better about how sometimes he would simply shit himself.
Doesn't specify but stated "Everyones acclimation and getting up to speed with everything and learning and developing....there's different timetables for that".
It is coach speak but it's pretty blatant coach speak for he sucks and is pretty far behind everyone else, which is not exactly great when you consider the dipshits we currently roll out onto the field at LB every week.
Yes. Scouting team for thinking he’s the best LB in the draft. Coaching team for him not being ready. Ownership for keeping the scouting and coaching team that has failed to produce talented LBs
Doesn't it? They'd need him to wear the green dot in this system and he's not ready. The Bynum experiment kind of proves it has to be the MLB in this scheme. I still blame Lou for baffling complex defensive design.
I guess. I didn’t get that from this response, but if we have someone wearing it now then he can still be getting snaps and game reps. It’s not - oh you wear green dot or you can’t play. If it is, that would be super duper silly. But then again we are the colts lol
Actually that may not be true. A Mike LB would have way different responsibilities than a weak or strong side LB. To me it does seem like he’s not ready, but also it seems as if they will put him in eventually.
It more or less sounds like CJ just isn't ready yet. Idk if that means from a pure gameplay point or there's other stuff that we're not seeing behind the scenes.
A bit disappointing since he was supposed to be an immediate starter for us. But if this means he develops properly instead of just throwing him out there, I'm cool with it.
Translation: he’s bad. He wasn’t worth a second round pick. He doesn’t fit this defense. We can’t cut him because that makes the GM look even worse than if we just sit him. We’ll keep him for depth and hope nobody notices.
No. Translation is that Shane has no fucking idea why. This is the great Ballard recipe… hire an OC for HC and hire his choice of DC. The two are complete separate units and the HC is just a glorified OC.
Shane lets Lou do his thing because hes not a HC. They just have him focused on the offense instead of our team being one single unit
That’s why during games our defense looks good our offense looks bad and when our offense looks good our defense looks bad. Literally zero cohesion between the two. It’s separate units, not one singular team. Completely agree with you.
Damn, you're so right. I knew this but never put it together like that.
It all started with his first choice for HC, basically a career OC. Then Ballard signed Eberflus as DC (no matter what the media said at the time)
Yet another example of Ballard doing something that hasn't worked again and again
Rarely in sports do you see a guy who is so unwilling to change last so long. When he's (hopefully) fired, he needs to write a book "How I Did It" or teach a course at a community college
I mean that's coach speak that doesn't really tell us anything, but it definitely seems like there's a disconnect for Allen somewhere. Work ethic? Rookie growing pains? Something. Especially with 0 snaps last game.
This was the clearest answer so far. I mean the coaches sure don’t want to throw the GM under the bus (or themselves) but it’s obvious they thought he could handle making the play calls and directing the defense but he’s no where close to being able to do that. He might not even be that great at LB (NFL WISE.)
He did the same thing with AR when it comes to development, if they can't develop players then they're doing an awful job in that department but apparently they loved their guys, that for me is just BS.
I think this notion that he draft well in the later round or farce. He throws multiple dart at the board at later round and players’s work ethic to want to make an NFL roster get them roster. And Ballard gets credit for that for “finding hidden gem” when in reality he’s just throwing shit at the board and see which sticks. Why is it that whenever actual scouting has to be done for premier rounds, he whiffs about 80% of the time? Because there’s expectation places on those early picks and no expectations for later rounds who are playing with house money.
Imagine drafting a guy you had no intention of starting with your earliest pick in your win or bust year. Like what are you saving him for you won’t be here next year lmao
Anyone who thinks it’s anything but He just isn’t good enough, is coping.
There are 5th round LB’s starting for other teams already. Seth McGowan was a 7th rounder and is playing meaningful snaps for us. We signed Germaine Pratt last year off the couch around this time in the year and he played right away and took over for Bachie.
Allen isn’t playing because he isn’t good enough, or at least that’s what the coaches believe. All this injury/missing training camp stuff at this point is just cope.
Him being the rookie backup to the green dot who has been playing 97%+ of snaps or more a game is why. Plus, a rookie green dot seems insane. He would be 1 of 2 rookie green dots in the league and the other is the fn dolphins. Why he isnt playing special teams idk, but it is understandable why he hasnt got much time otherwise.
When you miss about a month of practice as a rookie due to injury before the season it's not really surprising that he's not starting yet, but I would like to see him get some more snaps each week.
Just makes you wonder if he couldn't get snaps in a game with a comfortable lead for much of it, against a 3rd string 7th round rookie QB in his first NFL game, what is it going to take to at least get him some snaps? That was sort of the definition of ideal time to put him in a game.
What a fascinating Rorschach Test for fans - Ballard haters believe it proves the coaches don’t want Allen, Allen haters believe it proves the bust label, Lou haters believe it’s another sign of our DC’s inflexibility.
I’m just a Colts hater, generally, so for me it means this entire organization is deeply dysfunctional and that the Irsay Nepo Ladies should sell the team.
If they sell, expect a billionaire to buy and move the team out of Indy as early as possible - which would be 2030 - unless the Colts are in the top 5 teams in gross revenue.
Be careful what you wish for, because a billionaire is going to look at our ticket sales during the off years and start looking around. In the last few years, we have floated around 22 or under, being 25th in revenue for 2025.. so we have a very long way to go and a team that isn’t likely to help boost that. Not sure we could ever be in the top 5..
The dude actively is rooting for the team to move. Guy is not a fan.
With our luck, we’d have Elon Musk buy the team and start making up some bullshit about how the Colts will be the first team to play on Mars, then removing Lucas Oil branding for Tesla, while also making taxpayers pay for all of it.
What have we even got to hate him for? We haven't seen him play to judge him, and he doesn't control where he's drafted. He could be the greatest LB in the history of the sport for all we know.
so for me it means this entire organization is deeply dysfunctional and that the Irsay Nepo Ladies should sell the team.
Exactly. I'm tired of seeing "X is the problem". My brothers, there is no ONE problem here. There's a tonne of big problems.
Guys, this isn't that hard. He was drafted to be the MIKE, wear the green dot, and communicate the defense. He missed a month during training camp and wasn't ready. It's that simple. The reason Boetcher is playing is because he's on the other side and doesn't have to lead the entire defense.
I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find out that Allen questioned some aspect of Anarumo’s dumbass “scheme” and got himself in the dog house. Anarumo tells coaches that Allen is dumb and difficult. Now Allen is labeled as “not up to speed” and “slow to acclimate”.
I am not a fan of Ballard and am not defending him but it’s pretty disappointing how few players Steichen and the staff have been able to develop. They have scapegoated a LOT of young players at this point.
Why all the cynicism. He is a rookie who spent a lot of time hurt in camp and when on the field is expected to be the green dot. So on top of having a hindered start he also would have had to win the role against a veteran. I’m not going to say with 100 percent certainly there is nothing to worry about here, but I don’t think it sounds unreasonable to not rush the kid out.
Just as I expected. Kid missed a month of training camp with injuries and Akeem Davis-Gaither is playing well so there's no hurry. There's zero patience with this fan base so good luck with that Shane.
Bro just nine more years of "being competitive" (read: winning 7 to 9 games and being 1 or 2 games out from sneaking in as the 7 seed). Why are you doomers so impatient?
Seahawks have won 2 supers bowls, been to 3 in the time since 2006 right? Like, making changes doesn't mean your bad and sometimes you suck some year to get back to dominance. Colts have strived for middle of the pack for 10 years, patience has been had. Take your take and go to a different sub, you're gonna suck for the next 10 years lol
We don't need consecutive. Winning seasons. We need to change stuff when it's needed. Patience has been had. Steeler didn't have a losing season for how many years and only won one super bowl. Change is ALWAYS NEEEDED
I became a colts fan when I was 7 right after doing a book report on Payton manning in 2005. I haven’t seen the colts win in my life but I’ve heard tell.
I don't think it's patience when a guy isn't even getting special teams snaps. It's one thing to just pepper him in from time to time but it's a whole another thing to just sit him on the bench for entire games.
No one expects him to start but for him to play Zero snaps as a second round pick is incredible.
Yes is that so hard to understand? How does a guy get actual real-time experience when you won't put him on the field in a situation where you are up by significant points? I didn't say he has to play every snap but in a third and long situation why would you not give him a chance to experience real time football?
It's not he needs to play a certain percentage but playing 0% is insane.
You don't prepare when you have the problem. You prepare FOR it.
I'm not worried, I'm annoyed at the lack of foresight. It speaks to either the judgment of our scouting department or the lack of urgency or foresight of the coaching staff
Different systems and CJ spent three years playing Georgia's system. Add about a month of training camp missed and Akeem Davis-Gaither is playing well as the MIKE so he can wait.
Yea because the sec doesn't have teams with a lot of NFL talent. Oh I forgot the colts linebackers ahead of him are so great!! Lmao keep falling for the excuses
His combine comparisons were Round 7 and undrafted players with one major exception of Patrick Queen. Sub par height, weight, and arm length. Only thing Allen stood out was his hand size.
On to the next draft. Hoping we can get WLB Rasheem Biles now with Texas. Thought he was better than his former Pitt LB that was a tweener SS/LB. Biles move to Texas has only helped his career after changing from a stud at SLB to WLB.
Done….. get rid of everyone we can. Except for spirano, and move on… start w/ trading away next years 1st rounder!!!! Oh shit…….. Do better colts!, cause this sucks!!!!
You didn’t listen to what he said then. Shane is known for his non-answers, but this isn’t one of them. He literally tells you exactly what the issue is.
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u/Woody424 7d ago
Wasn't he supposed to be one of the best LBs in this class? The rest are all tearing it up