Fact is that Polian was negligent in his duties for the fact that he didn’t have a viable back up QB in place TO BEGIN WITH. To have to scramble after the fact to get one was a clear screw up by Polian. Irsay regonized this, was less than pleased about it, and fired Polian for it. I think Mr. Polian became complacent from all the winning and delegated too many of his responsibilities and discretions to his son Chris.

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More revisionist history.

The storybook on the Colts has always read that Peyton inhibited the development of his backup QBs by blocking their ability and access to practice.

Granted, they could have had better option in place….but who would want to go there to back up someone who undercuts their ability to prepare? Answer….players with marginal or raw talent who need….what?….practice to develop.
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Are you kidding me! So the ownership/management is going to allow the starting QB to DICTATE to them that the back up QB must suck??? Really???…..Really??? If this is actually true, then Irsay/Polian are complete tools and the entire organization deserves to go right straight down the toilet.

I take it you’ve never actually seen Jim Sorgi play and are only going by his over inflated lifetime QB rating.

Sorgi has a high QB rating due to years worth of games in which Manning would go out for 1 play, Sorgi would come in complete a pass and get pulled right after, thus leaving him with a near perfect rating for that YEAR.

Ask a fan of any of the countless teams the Colts prevented from going to the playoffs by pulling their starters and watching Sorgi complete passes to the yard marker 5 yards in front of his intended target about how prepared Sorgi was as a starter.

I am fully on board with the theory that Irsay squashed any chance of improving the squad because HE was the one trying to Suck for Luck, not Polian.

You should have stuck with the point about how ridiculous the idea of sending a third round pick for a mediocre QB with an expiring contract was.

That was a better point.

Because the Chiefs were the only team in the league with backup QBs worse than Indy’s.

As for Polian – this isn’t unexpected. He has such a charming personality that he managed to get a relatively well-liked owner (Jerry Richardson) so POed at him that he hasn’t spoken to Polian in 15 years. Which made him perfectly at home with the Irsays. No one else is going to put up with him.

Colts fans are irritated at Polian for making that decision based on the thought that, “but Manning always plays”

Everyone. Let me repeat, EVERYONE, who watches Colts closely knew that Jim Sorgi could play and Curtis Painter could not. Polian made the call to go with Painter over Sorgi…

It also should be noted that the coaching staff cut Orlovsky and kept Painter and then later in the year picked Orlovsky off the street to replace Painter after Kerry Collins “got hurt” … read, played so poorly the Colts couldn’t justify paying him $4m and then cutting him so they placed him on IR… also a Polian decision.

THIS is why the Colts fired Polian and Caldwell. The above is indicitive of decisions that had been occuring for the past several years and Manning covered up with stellar play. His play in 2009 taking that team to the Super Bowl and his play in 2010 making the playoffs with a terrible team may have been the two best quarterbacking seasons ever. The team in 2011 didn’t play worse than the team in 2010, Manning really was responsible for that many wins.

While it’s obviously true that Polian didn’t have a decent backup behind Manning for years, you have to remember that not only did Manning’s contract eat up a huge chunk of cap space, but Manning had played injury free for many years too.

That was a calculated gamble that looked good for years before blowing up.

The Chiefs claimed Orton because they were still technically in playoff contention and Tyler Palko was clearly not going to pan out. They also must have felt that Ricky Stanzi wasn’t ready. It was a move that made sense and ended up working out relatively well.

Fact is that Polian was negligent in his duties for the fact that he didn’t have a viable back up QB in place TO BEGIN WITH. To have to scramble after the fact to get one was a clear screw up by Polian. Irsay regonized this, was less than pleased about it, and fired Polian for it. I think Mr. Polian became complacent from all the winning and delegated too many of his responsibilities and discretions to his son Chris.

—————————————–

More revisionist history.

The storybook on the Colts has always read that Peyton inhibited the development of his backup QBs by blocking their ability and access to practice.

Granted, they could have had better option in place….but who would want to go there to back up someone who undercuts their ability to prepare? Answer….players with marginal or raw talent who need….what?….practice to develop.

No such luck.

The Colts #1 issue was they let Payton Manning run the team.

Because of this, they created bad backup QB’s because Payton got 100% of the reps in practice. His backups were basically practice squad guys who were completely unprepared when they did get put in games because the team wanted it that way.

While I doubt Irsay was smart enough to come to this conclusion on his own (Since he could have done it years ago). He finally smarted up and realized that Bill Polian had done nothing to make that team better in years and banked his whole time their on Manning.

It’s ok though, the Colts might surprise a lot of people this season with Andrew Luck being nothing more than a smoke screen. While no one was looking they’ve picked up many of the best coaching minds from the AFC North which is arguably the toughest division in the NFL. They might learn how to spell DEFENSE in Indianapolis after all.

Everyone knows it.

This also proves Manning was gone even if Polian stayed.