Chris Ballard’s busy offseason has already begun and with that comes loads of scouting, player meetings, and tough decisions moving forward.
After an illness forced him to miss Senior Bowl practices this week, he spoke with Dan Dakich of 107.5 The Fan on Friday to recap the season.
One point that Ballard made was that there are so many unknowns at the quarterback position. He said, “I said this in my press conference, ‘I thought Andrew Luck was going to be our quarterback starting Week 1 this season,’ so I won’t make that prediction.”
He also called Jacoby’s disappointing 2019, “the tale of two seasons” and talked about how he really struggled in the second half of the year. “…We just hit a stretch in the second half of the season where he didn’t play as well. Jacoby knows he’s got to play better. We’ve got to help him. I’ve got to help him. Frank has got to help him. And he’s got to help himself with better play.”
One interesting question was whether Ballard would be more inclined to take a quarterback in free agency rather than develop one through the draft.
He responded, “We look at everybody. Always. Every year. I think you have to go through the process every year, at every position, but especially quarterback. Not only in the draft, but also in free agency.”
Ballard has never splashed on big free agent signings during his time in Indy but with over $90 million to work with this offseason, there might have to be a change of pace. Granted, Ballard is a great drafter who always gets value picks in later rounds, but you can only draft so many projects before you acquire some actual, proven talent.
“It just depends on how it falls. You never know what’s going to happen in free agency. You never know what’s going to happen in the draft. It’s an unknown every year. If we have a chance to get better, we’ll get better.”
With free-agent quarterbacks like Teddy Bridgewater, Jameis Winston, Philip Rivers, and yes even Tom Brady, there are certainly options out there. Whether any of these players have the ability to make this team truly better in the long run will be a crucial decision that the Colts scouts and front office personnel will have to evaluate.
The Colts front office will certainly be packed with decisions before and after the NFL draft but one thing is for sure, Chris Ballard has this team heading in the right direction. Even Ballard might not know what the Colts will do with the 13th overall pick until they are on the clock.