Colts' Ryan Grigson 9-8 Over Elway for Sporting News' Executive of the Year

[TheReverend]

Originally Posted by TonyR

Not that it bolsters his case much, but both Warren and Hunter were penciled in as starters until they were injured. And Kuper and McGahee missed pretty good chunks of the season. But such is life in the NFL.

More poor examples that illustrate more negatives than positives:

Shoveling millions of dollars at Warren and what we have gotten to show for it? ONE regular season tackle.

And Hunter wasn't an Elway guy and Wolfe wouldn't have had the same on-field opportunities... you could make a case that without the Hunter injury, this past year's draft would've been completely ineffective making an impact in their rookie campaign.

[Requiem]

i got a knock knock joke for you guys

[BroncoInferno]

I have no problem with Grigson winning over Elway. In one offseason, he totally rebuilt a 2-14 team into an 11-5 playoff team. Even removing Luck from the equation, he killed the draft, getting immediate impact from multiple picks (Dwayne Allen, T.Y. Hilton, Vick Ballard, Coby Fleener). Elway's draft looks solid, but outside of Wolfe there wasn't that kind of instant impact that Grigson's draft had. Grigson didn't win just because he picked Luck, Khan.

[Kaylore]

Originally Posted by TheReverend

More poor examples that illustrate more negatives than positives:

Shoveling millions of dollars at Warren and what we have gotten to show for it? ONE regular season tackle.

And Hunter wasn't an Elway guy and Wolfe wouldn't have had the same on-field opportunities... you could make a case that without the Hunter injury, this past year's draft would've been completely ineffective making an impact in their rookie campaign.

Wolfe was rotating in as a starter in camp.

[TheReverend]

Originally Posted by Kaylore

Wolfe was rotating in as a starter in camp.

Not before Hunter went down. Which was part of the argument he was presenting.

[Kaylore]

In his defense we never got to see Hunter to play. And they got Warren to restructure and take a pay cut, which actually save a crap ton of money over the bloated contract that McDaniels saddled the organization with. I personally believe Wolfe was going to play regardless since Del Rio was on record suggesting as much as early as the second week of camp. Also, Wolfe is exhibit A in his favor. Where Mediator is insisting we give Girgson credit for the "best defensive lineman" who never played a down in Chapman, then Elway gets credit for trading back and picking the second best (and probably will play longer than the best) DT prospect that actually DID play in the second round.

And the rookies not playing is more to do with Fox's MO going back to Carolina than Elway's and CO's drafts.

I think letting Garcon go and then seeing him do amazing until he got a foot injury and having Andrew Luck land in your lap doesn't = greatest GM'ing this season. Sorry.

Personally, I am very curious to see how this next draft class develops against the last since the much maligned Xanders will have had zero impact on it.

[Play2win]

So if Manning gives us 3 or 4 more great years, and 2 Superbowl Championships— How ridiculous would this award be then.

The Exec of the Year just gave away a guy that goes on to 2 more Superbowl Championships (MVP of at least one )

[Tombstone RJ]

Originally Posted by Kaylore

I can't believe they're giving him credit for Luck. Like anyone anywhere wouldn't have taken Luck. And honestly, if he decided to go with RGIII it would have been not that bad. He happened into a draft with good players and the first pick and suddenly he's "Executive of the year." What a bunch of crap.

Yep. So what if Grigson drafted Luck. It's as close to a no brainer as you'll ever get. On the flip side, Elway gets no credit for signing Manning when in fact it took a brilliant executive to get Manning in the first place. Also, Elway's FA acquistions are solid, not to mention solid drafting.

Yes, Grigson did well but getting Luck was luck. The rest of the draft would mean jack diddly squat without a whole lotta luck.

screw thesportingnewsasscans. That website is trash anyway. I like their magazine, but their website is a class A crapfest IMHO.

[Tombstone RJ]

Originally Posted by Mediator12

Dude, you are missing half the boat. He let Manning go and then drafted a rookie QB to replace him, instead of just drafting "Luck" and having him sit and learn behind Manning like Rodgers did with Favre.

He also made some damn good FA moves, decided to Keep Wayne but cut half the underperforming roster Polian's idiocy left behind including Saturday, Clark, Let Garcon go in FA, Gary Brackett, and Melvin Bullet. He made an in season trade for Vontae Davis to finally get one legit CB on the roster and then signed Darius Butler off waivers to replace an injured Jerraud Powers. He signed A new Starting Center in Satele, beefed up the DL with Cory redding, and helped Antoine Bethea with getting Tom Zbikowski at Safety. Then, he got an UDFA LB to come in third in the NFL in tackles this year in Jerrel Freeman.

The key though is he did not make any headscratcher moves or miss really on any thing he did this year. Heck, he even drafted the hands down Best NT in last years draft KNOWING he would have to sit the year in Alabama's Josh Chapman.

The Colts still have some roster Holes, but nothing like Bill Polian left them. He does deserve to be in the mix and even win.

Meh, face it. Grigson was forced to rebuild and by definition that's what he did, he rebuilt the team. Yes, he did a good job but if you for one second deny that drafting Luck was not the best thing to do all things considered then you are kidding yourself. Luck is the key to all of it.

Luck is the reason why Manning was let go. Luck is the main reason why the team made the playoffs, he threw the damn ball like what, 40-50 times a game?

Yes, I will give Grigson some much deserved credit. But I'm in no way a homer by saying Elway did it better and deserves this accolade.

[Play2win]

Exactly, Elway created an environment that was very appealing and had a great comfort-level to Manning. JDR was definitely part of that. Elway created something that Manning wanted to be part of. If thats not what being a great Exec is, I don't know what is.

[SonOfLe-loLang]

Originally Posted by Tombstone RJ

Meh, face it. Grigson was forced to rebuild and by definition that's what he did, he rebuilt the team. Yes, he did a good job but if you for one second deny that drafting Luck was not the best thing to do all things considered then you are kidding yourself. Luck is the key to all of it.

Luck is the reason why Manning was let go. Luck is the main reason why the team made the playoffs, he threw the damn ball like what, 40-50 times a game?

Yes, I will give Grigson some much deserved credit. But I'm in no way a homer by saying Elway did it better and deserves this accolade.

Actually Luck and "luck" are probably the main reason the team won 11 games. They are an anomoly...but such is a 16 game sample size

[SonOfLe-loLang]

Saturday signed with Green Bay, didnt he?

[SonOfLe-loLang]

Where did that post go?

[Tombstone RJ]

oops, lol, it um, disappeared.

[Mediator12]

Originally Posted by Kaylore

In his defense we never got to see Hunter to play. And they got Warren to restructure and take a pay cut, which actually save a crap ton of money over the bloated contract that McDaniels saddled the organization with. I personally believe Wolfe was going to play regardless since Del Rio was on record suggesting as much as early as the second week of camp. Also, Wolfe is exhibit A in his favor. Where Mediator is insisting we give Girgson credit for the "best defensive lineman" who never played a down in Chapman, then Elway gets credit for trading back and picking the second best (and probably will play longer than the best) DT prospect that actually DID play in the second round.

And the rookies not playing is more to do with Fox's MO going back to Carolina than Elway's and CO's drafts.

I think letting Garcon go and then seeing him do amazing until he got a foot injury and having Andrew Luck land in your lap doesn't = greatest GM'ing this season. Sorry.

Personally, I am very curious to see how this next draft class develops against the last since the much maligned Xanders will have had zero impact on it.

I can not believe you of all people are being so Myopic here. Is there anyone here who is more qualified than me to evaluate both of these teams having lived and breathed both the whole year?

Grigson won 9-8 in a very deserving way. Elway would have won if one of those votes were switched! It is not like he was snubbed here at all! Both of them did tremendous Jobs this last season and both teams improved dramatically, kudos to both guys.

I just hate the Elway was snubbed crap. He was one vote changing hands from winning.

As for the draft though, its a no brainer Grigson killed it this year better than anyone else with first year production from the rookie class. 6 of his first 7 selections started or played meaningful minutes this season. The only one who did not, was Josh Chapman who played 5 games without an ACL for Alabama in order to secure the NCAA title. And, he selected him in the fifth round in order to basically redshirt him when he NEEDED DL help this season. That was a ballsy move, but since only 2 other 5th rounders did anything for their teams THIS year and Grigson drafted one of those 2 in Vick Ballard as well, I call that a pretty damn shrewd move.

While I loved DEN's draft overall, it was nowhere close to being in the same breath with its first year effectiveness. Only 2 of the guys played meaningful minutes this year out of the 7, 3 saw spot duty, and 2 never saw the field basically.

Did Grigson inherit the first round pick of the decade with Luck being there, yes. However, that was not all he did at all. Just like signing Manning was not all Elway did at all. However, you are also kidding yourself if you think this team would have made the playoffs if Manning did not work out or got hurt. I could have easily replaced Tombstone's "Luck" post with "Manning" and made the EXACT same argument he did. Without Manning, Elway is not up for executive of the year either.

[fontaine]

Originally Posted by Mediator12

However, you are also kidding yourself if you think this team would have made the playoffs if Manning did not work out or got hurt. I could have easily replaced Tombstone's "Luck" post with "Manning" and made the EXACT same argument he did. Without Manning, Elway is not up for executinve of the year either.

Uh, like we did last year with a gimmick QB?

Without Manning we still have a damn good defense and plenty of capable players on offense that were brought in this year not to mention the new QB that would have been brought in that still would have been an improvement over tebow.

Not to leave out bringing in Jack Del Rio.

[That One Guy]

I still think the Colts intentionally sucked for Luck last year. They had better QB options available but continued to start terrible QBs instead. That softens Grigson's accomplishments a bit but he did draft solid players.

That said, the Broncos were overrated this year and Elway's major accomplishment was signing Manning. I think people are still trying to give Elway credit for the first two years rather than this year alone.

[Tombstone RJ]

Originally Posted by Mediator12

I can not believe you of all people are being so Myopic here. Is there anyone here who is more qualified than me to evaluate both of these teams having lived and breathed both the whole year?

Grigson won 9-8 in a very deserving way. Elway would have won if one of those votes were switched! It is not like he was snubbed here at all! Both of them did tremendous Jobs this last season and both teams improved dramatically, kudos to both guys.

I just hate the Elway was snubbed crap. He was one vote changing hands from winning.

As for the draft though, its a no brainer Grigson killed it this year better than anyone else with first year production from the rookie class. 6 of his first 7 selections started or played meaningful minutes this season. The only one who did not, was Josh Chapman who played 5 games without an ACL for Alabama in order to secure the NCAA title. And, he selected him in the fifth round in order to basically redshirt him when he NEEDED DL help this season. That was a ballsy move, but since only 2 other 5th rounders did anything for their teams THIS year and Grigson drafted one of those 2 in Vick Ballard as well, I call that a pretty damn shrewd move.

While I loved DEN's draft overall, it was nowhere close to being in the same breath with its first year effectiveness. Only 2 of the guys played meaningful minutes this year out of the 7, 3 saw spot duty, and 2 never saw the field basically.

Did Grigson inherit the first round pick of the decade with Luck being there, yes. However, that was not all he did at all. Just like signing Manning was not all Elway did at all. However, you are also kidding yourself if you think this team would have made the playoffs if Manning did not work out or got hurt. I could have easily replaced Tombstone's "Luck" post with "Manning" and made the EXACT same argument he did. Without Manning, Elway is not up for executive of the year either.

As for Elway and Manning, here's the deal. Manning had choices. As for Luck, Luck had no choice, he was going to the Colts. Manning had choices and he chose the Broncos. Again, I think Elway gets dissed a little because people are all like "Well the Broncos had Manning so that's why they were so good" and completely forget that Elway had to go and get Manning.

All in all I think Grigson is getting the votes because no one expected the Colts to make the playoffs and they did. On the other hand people can look at Elway and say "he got Manning" which is a tad disingenuous IMHO.