Indianapolis Colts must factor in highs and lows of team management
By Evan Reller
Ryan Grigson’s Biggest Misses
We’ll break down the draft and free agency, but let’s get the big one out of the way first. Ryan Grigson traded a first round pick for Trent Richardson.
That move was an unbelievable failure but was compounded by the fact that Grigson forced Pagano to keep him in the starting lineup. The Colts donated plays and possessions to opponents every time he trotted onto the field, which might have been his fastest speed. It was a horrid move, and massive overreaction to losing Ballard, that made it clear in 2013 that Grigson had no idea what he was doing. Grigson effectively got fleeced by the Browns. Let that sink in.
Drafting
Grigson has had 37 draft picks while in Indy (38 counting the one he blew on T-Rich). 16 of those players are still on the roster. Far less than half.
While the 2013 draft class was mediocre across the league, the Colts don’t have a single player on their roster still from that year. You can’t whiff on seven picks like that and build a successful franchise. The Colts lacking depth has been a huge problem which is only magnified by the plethora of injuries they seem to suffer from annually.
We’re not going to pick on every single bad player Grigson has drafted, but it is clear he whiffs far more often than hits and that seems to go double for top picks.
Free Agency
Where to start? Maybe with the annual bad wide receiver pick up? Donnie Avery, Darrius Heyward-Bey, Hakeem Nicks, and Andre Johnson kept up a four year streak of awful WR pickups for the Colts.
There was the Todd Herremans signing last season, picking up a player who Grigson had affinity for from his Philadelphia days. Same goes for Trent Cole who has barely produced while in a Colts uniform.
D’Qwell Jackson hasn’t given the team much either. He bounces between being mediocre and a liability, but the players behind him on the depth chart are even worse. And with a PED suspension, it just adds to the Colts list of problems. He’s not that dissimilar from safety LaRon Landry.
Greg Toler was a disaster at corner and lasted on the roster much longer than he should have. Patrick Robinson has bounced between serviceable and too injury prone in 2016 to make a determination on the success of this move.
The biggest failing of Grigson, a former offensive lineman, is his inability to protect Luck. He’s spent 10 draft picks and signed multiple free agents to keep Luck upright and he is still among the most sacked and hit quarterbacks in the NFL. It led to him missing most of last season and is a bigger concern now that Luck demands so much of the cap space.