Quote:
Originally Posted by RealSNR
Ballard has been great for them, but he's also been quite conservative and tight with the money.
It's probably the responsible and best approach, sure, but I can't help but think that some of those years could have ended differently for them if he had just been a little more aggressive in free agency.
It's one thing to not make any sudden moves when you're not sure about the health of your QB, but it's another to be among the top handful of teams in available cap space year after year after year.
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I think he got caught in between.
Early on in his tenure there, they had a ton of cap space but hadn't built a foundation around Luck. Then Ballard steps in and gets that foundation built damn near overnight....and Luck walks away.
He was tip-toeing forward last season w/ stuff like the Houston deal and then got more aggressive this season w/ a move like Buckner. But I think if he had Luck still you'd have seen a similar off-season in 2020 to what Veach did in 2019.
Where I give a slight edge to Ballard is that I think he's the best pure eye for talent around right now. I look at that 2018 draft and am just in awe of the thing. And I think Turay is just scratching the surface and could be a force this year if he has recovered from his injury against us.
DeCosta is another guy who deserves a nod here, but the track record is still too short. He ran that scouting department before he took over last year as GM in Baltimore and I think he's been the driving force behind their success for about a decade now. We'll see if he can continue that run with all the additional administrative burdens, but he's a damn good front office guy.