How 'bout dem Polians?

[DE_Ramfan]

Wonder if they'd like a trip to the Lou?

"Colts vice chairman Bill Polian and general manager Chris Polian are out in Indianapolis, a source told ESPN senior NFL analyst Chris Mortensen."

[bradwill]

Like the Polians a LOT better than AJ Smith. We don't have to get Chris too but Bill Polian would be a great new GM/VP of everything Rams football related.

[DE_Ramfan]

Been living in Indy for a little over a year now. Some of the fans up here seem pretty spoiled. I've heard people blame the Polians for making a team that was so reliant on one player and not having enough talent.

[THOLTFAN81]

Bring him on over.

[fliptalianstallion]

Bill Polian has a bad track record these last 3 years Anthony Gonzalez (2008), Donald Brown (2009), and Jerry Hughes (2010) haven't lived up to their expectations thus far. But maybe you can't blame these guys for being busts yet due to the horrible coaching staff the Colts had under Caldwell.

[Sammy Ocho Bradford]

I'd look elsewhere, but we are desperate...

If anything, don't let him have full control a.k.a bringing his son in to run things.

[shower beers]

I mentioned in the NFL talk thread that I'd love to see them in for an interview. It's hard though, to ignore the state of the Colts team that is their current form.

Their drafts have not been good, to say the least. I'm looking over their draft history, and some classes have been downright terrible. It's going to take quite a while to turn their franchise around.

The one positive seems to be their ability to find late round values. I don't know enough about their track records at previous stops to make an informed opinion, but their past drafts in Indy look embarrassing at times. The 2007 draft is a prime example, where the only remaining pick on their roster is Anthony Gonzalez. I'm as big of an OSU fan as they come, and that still makes me cringe.

[RockinRam]

I would not be a big fan of this move.


The Polians have left the Colts with no real young talent, and the veteran talent isn't even good. The reason why the Colts won at the helm of Manning was because Manning was so good a lot of the team's problems were concealed. (Evidence on how a great QB can elevate a team's overall performance.)


Young talent is the key to a Ram's revival, because obviously Devaney and his "go cheap" mentality and going for cheap mediocre veterans did not work well.


I'd have to say no to the Polian(s).

[MoonJoe]

I would have to agree with the common thread here in that the minute "5 head" was out because of the neck injury, they had nothing left of a team.

[PARamfan]

Bill Polian built that team into the team that went to 2 Super Bowls winning 1. And don't forget as bad as there drafts may have been they have been picking at the BOTTOM of rounds for MANY years. I believe he also was the GM for the Bills in they 4 Super Bowl Appearance heyday. Who around here wouldn't like to go to Super Bowls???

[MoonJoe]

PA you'll probably get hit with "yeah but they lost all four Super Bowls".

I didn't realize Polian was involved in that almost dynasty. I would say that your points are very strong and would make me reconsider them...

[PARamfan]

PA you'll probably get hit with "yeah but they lost all four Super Bowls".

I didn't realize Polian was involved in that almost dynasty. I would say that your points are very strong and would make me reconsider them...

The kicker lost the first one and I don't think they ever got over that psychlogical "hump"in playing in the next three, as soon as something went wrong it just snowballed. Still the prospect of bringing in a guy that knows how to build Super Bowl contenders is alot better than what we've been stuck with these last many years. The last "builders" we have had were Dick Vermeil working with Charley Armey. And what has AJ Smith won??? To me he's the guy that gave up on the best QB in the game today, Drew Brees. Give me Bill Polian any day of the week.

[shower beers]

Bill Polian built that team into the team that went to 2 Super Bowls winning 1. And don't forget as bad as there drafts may have been they have been picking at the BOTTOM of rounds for MANY years. I believe he also was the GM for the Bills in they 4 Super Bowl Appearance heyday. Who around here wouldn't like to go to Super Bowls???

You're right. That's the perplexing thing. Going through the history, there was:

98 - Peyton Manning
99 - Edgerrin James, Mike Peterson (rd.2)
00 - Rob Morris
01 - Reggie Wayne, Ryan Diem (rd.4)
02 - Dwight Freeney
03 - Dallas Clark, Robert Mathis (rd.5)
04 - Bob Sanders

That's an outstanding streak of picks, excluding Rob Morris, who if I remember correctly was still serviceable, albeit not as recognizable of a name as the rest, for sure.

After that year, however, the list takes a somewhat dramatic turn:

05 - Marlin Jackson, Kelvin Hayden (rd.2) Vincent Burns (rd.3)-- first two on new teams, not starting, Burns out of football after 2 years.
06 - Joseph Addai, Tim Jennings (rd.2) Freddie Keiho (rd.3)Addai is floundering, Jennings plays for Bears, Keiho lasted 4 years in the NFL. *Antonie Bethea drafted in rd. 6 and is a solid talent.
07 - Anthony Gonzalez, Tony Ugoh (rd.2), Dante Hughes (rd.3), Quinn Pitcock (rd.3) --all can be considered busts, with only Gonzalez still on the team (for whatever reason, stubbornness maybe?)

Everything past this point continues on this trend, with two bright spots being Collie and Garcon, drafted in the 4th and 6th rounds, respectively.

What exactly happened in 2005? I'm not sure, but the eye for talent seemed to have disappear nearly completely.

[MoonJoe]

I remember all of those Super Bowls really well (especially since I "worked" the halftime show at the Rose bowl when they played the Cowboys and got rolled). It sure seemed like they were a lock to win each time, but bam, fate stepped in! I have always said they were the most under-appreciated team because they never won the big one, but to go four times in a row is a HUGE accomplishment!

And Beers I was reading about his FA acquisitions and the one name that stuck out to me was Saturday...how was his track record with FA's do you think?

[Harry S. Truman]

Shadow, there's a reoccuring pattern from 2004 on... The Colts started winning... Big.

Granted, you look at patterns of teams like Green Bay, New England and Pittsburgh who seem to pick horseshoes (no pun intended) out of their behind regularly and wind up with draft gems and wonder where Polian went wrong when Indy hit it big.

Will say this though... If were looking for someone to change the culture around here, this is the guy to do it. Buffalo really hasn't been the same since he left and his work with Carolina was perhaps his best indicator on his ability to build a roster from ground up. His work in Indianapolis speaks for itself, although Manning and Dungy certainly aided him in his success.