And that's the question that John Harbaugh and all the guys in that offensive staff room have to answer now.
All right.
Welcome in to the Brewer Report presented by State Farm for Monday, October 19th.
We are almost all the way through week 6, got one game left.
That's tonight, the Commanders and the 49ers.
We have a lot to get to and not all of it is connected to the games, and that's where we're starting with big news Monday morning, the Colts have fired 10th-year general manager, Chris Ballard .
He finishes his 9-plus seasons in charge of the Colts at 72, 82, and 1.
They made the playoffs just twice in his 9+ seasons.
They only won one playoff game and that one playoff win, believe it or not, came with Andrew Luck as the quarterback and Frank Reich as a first-year coach.
That was in Ballard.
Second year.
And at that point, it looked like the arrow was pointing up on the Colts organization.
They had had a fantastic draft class in 2018, headlined by Quentin Nelson, maybe a Hall of Famer, Shaq Leonard, who was a first-team All-Pro as a rookie, Braden Smith, an offensive tackle who's still in the NFL, um, and then, They lose the next week, and Andrew Luck would never play for the Colts again.
He retired the following summer.
And if you want to look at the root cause of Chris Ballard's demise in Indianapolis, you can point right there.
Jacoby Brissett is the quarterback in 19.
Uh, Philip Rivers is the quarterback in 20, Carson Wentz in 21, Matt Ryan in 22, Anthony Richardson in 23 and 24, and of course, Daniel Jones, the last two years.
It's a lot of instability, that's a lot of time to fix it.
And that's uh a question now.
Still hasn't been answered.
You know, who's the Colts' long-term answer at the quarterback position for a franchise that had Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck running, running the, running their offense for more, for over two decades.
So, we look at that, we look at that and like where they're at and, and, and, and why it happened, that's why it happened.
The roster also has its holes, it's thin in spots, and that's a factor as well.
And now the question becomes where they go next.
And so, it's a little unpredictable cause you've got Carly Irsay Gordon now in charge.
This will be the first time that she's ran any sort of search in charge of the Colts.
Um, and so to me, there are really 222 things to look at here.
One, long-term, the other short-term.
We'll start with the long term, which is whether or not this is a part of a bigger reimagination of the organization for Irsay Gordon.
That, of course, would be where the, the, the fate of head coach Shane Steinhe would lie.
And just looking forward to this now, you can look at what happened in the last couple of years with other organizations, in particular, last year, where the Dolphins fired Chris Greer in mid-season.
Um, part of that was elevating a family member in the son-in-law of Stephen Ross.
They went through a process with consultants, and they wound up blowing the whole thing up and starting over and going to a larger reorganization.
And they wind up with John Eric Sullivan and Jeff Hafley as general manager and head coach, both those guys coming from Green Bay.
Atlanta would be the other one that you could look at.
They brought in consultants midway through last year.
That, of course, also wound up becoming part of a bigger reimagination of the organization.
At the end of that year, they wound up firing Raheem Morris and Terry Fontneau.
They put Matt Ryan in charge as the president of football.
They hired Ian.
Cunningham as their general manager.
And of course, they hired Kevin Stefansky as their head coach.
So, is this just the general manager getting the ax and they're going forward with Shane Stein?
Is this part of a larger reimagination?
That would be a big question.
You could also look at the idea that you bring in an ex-player to help set the, set the vision for the organization, which is what Jacksonville did with Tony Boselli, which is what Atlanta did.
Again, with Matt Ryan, which to some degree is what is happening in Vegas with Tom Brady is a minority owner there.
And of course, the name that everybody would have to ask about if that's what they're doing would be Peyton Manning, and whether or not they could get Peyton Manning back in some capacity in the organization.
We're putting the cart way before the horse with that.
But those are some of the bigger picture questions that I think we're gonna be asking with the Colts going forward.
Um, as for the smaller picture, Does this mean the Colts now start selling off pieces?
They don't have a first-round pick next year.
It does look like they're gonna have to retool the organization through the draft over the next couple of years.
And so do they view this as an opportunity?
To start moving some of the older pricier pieces on the roster.
Is De Forest Buckner there, um, at the end of the month?
Is Jonathan Taylor there at the end of the month on the block?
You know, you, could you look at a guy like Sauce Gardner being offloaded?
There are a ton of questions.
Alec Pierce, when he gets back to health.
Um, there are guys in that roster that are, are valuable players that still have a lot of gas left in the tank.
That the Colts could flip for draft pick capital, and if you remember last year, that's sort of what Miami did, they fired Chris Greer.
Right around Halloween, a few days before the trade deadline, they had Champ Kelly come in as the interim GM and he wound up trading Jalen Phillips in the days to follow.
So, the idea that there could be at least some pieces sold off here actually does make some logical sense.
So that'd be what I'd look, be looking at with the Colts going forward.
But of course, just for right now, the Colts have fired 10th-year general manager, uh , Chris Ballard.
So our second topic, and this was, and I want to read the team statement, the statement that was, that was put out by the team and the agent jointly.
Um, Jalen Hurts' situation, the scenario that we had talked about over the course of the last few days, where if this is a deeper blood clot, he would wind, this could wind up being a 3-month absence.
Well, that's where we are right now.
And so, because I, I'm not a doctor , and I don't want to screw up.
The medical terms.
I will read the statement from the Eagles on the status of Jalen Hurts.
Over the last few days, Jalen Hurts has has received comprehensive medical evaluations by physician experts.
In the interest of transparency, we're providing additional information on the diagnosis and treatment plan related to his condition.
Jalen was initially diagnosed by specialists in London.
With a left calf superficial vein thrombosis.
After further testing and monitoring, the current diagnosis is a deep vein thrombosis as well as a bilateral pulmonary emboli.
He is clinically stable and has no significant functional limitations.
His treatment should only involve anti-collagen.
I, I screwed that up, i.e., blood thinners.
Uh, during this time, he will not be allowed to participate in any contact activities, including football.
Jalen's prognosis is very good and we expect a full recovery.
We anticipate that he will have the opportunity to resume contact football activities when off the blood thinners.
In the meantime, he will remain active around the team and continue the condition.
More importantly, we anticipate that he will have no long-term effects.
We're thinking of Jalen and looking forward to a strong recovery.
First, the good news, which is the Eagles and Nicole Lynn, the agent.
Um, reference there, which is that they caught it.
And they caught it and it's being treated, and he's gonna get great, great treatment, and the likelihood is that he's going to be OK long-term.
Um, I think everybody can be very, very thankful for that.
Looking forward now, and what this means for the Eagles going forward.
This is another brick in the wall in the place the Eagles are right now.
And the retirement of Lane Johnson, the injury to Landon Dickerson, who, of course, had a ton of injury history coming out of college, and could be breaking down physically a little bit, the trade of Cam Jergens, um, you know, the departure, if you want to go further back of AJ Brown in the offseason.
And all the cap debt that they've accumulated over the last few years and competing for championships, and, you know, over the last decade, winning 2 Super Bowls, going to 3, And building the best roster in football over the last half decade.
The Bills are coming due on some of that.
And the question I think coming out of this Jalen Hurts situation is, where's the team gonna be in 6 months?
And what does this look like in 6 months?
Um, and are they going to retool around some of the younger players in their team?
Now, the good news is there are players there that you can build around that are younger and in the prime of their careers.
Jordan Mootta, uh, you know, left tackle, could wind up playing another 5 or 10 years based on the history we've seen with some left tackles in the league.
Devonta Smith is still relatively young.
Um, they have on the, on the, on the defensive line, Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis' foundation pieces.
In the secondary, Quinnon Mitchell, Cooper Dejean, those guys are gonna be looking for contracts after the year.
Those guys are just in year 3.
So you do have some pieces there.
But do you look at the bigger picture of all of this and say, Yes.
This is a time to get younger.
This is, uh, in, in some ways analogous to where we were in 2020 and 2021, when Doug Peterson was fired, when they offloaded Carson Wentz, when they went to Nick Siriani and Jalen Hurts.
Um, is this the time to get younger, to invest in, in , in, in younger players across the board to maybe Trade some of our older pieces away to get some, some, some draft pick capital in here.
And really over the next 2 or 3 years, try to do what we did 5 or 6 years ago.
Now, of course, you know, I think a lot of people will ask, is Jalen Hurts a part of that?
Is Nick Siriani a part of that fair.
But I think the first decision they have to make is whether or not they want to go through with that.
And so, does a Saquon Barkley become available before the trade deadline?
Does a Dallas Goddardt become available before the trade deadline?
They do have some older guys on that roster that you can look at and say, yeah, maybe it's time for them to move this guy or that guy.
So , um, obviously, first, our thoughts are with Jalen Hurts and his family, and so glad that they were able to catch the blood clots.
That's great news.
And he'll great, he'll get, you know, great medical care, I'm sure, um, you know, in Philadelphia.
And, and, and from the Eagles staff.
Um, but again, there are bigger picture questions that you have to ask here.
Finally, our third topic, and this is my personal plan for the week, which relates to the Giants' plan for JJ McCarthy and what they do going forward.
And just, I mean, after what had been a dreadful performance all the way around by the, by the, the, the, the Giants early in their game against the Saints, Jameis Winston is picked off twice.
Um , they fall behind 34 to 10.
JJ McCarthy led a furious rally and got them in position to throw into the end zone, um.
Like at a at a reasonable distance at the very end of that game, and JJ McCarthy winds up finishing 11 of 21 for 243 yards, a touchdown and a pick.
Um, he also has a 28 yard run as part of all of that.
And I think what everyone sees is, well, they have to go with McCarthy now.
He's younger, he's got, you know, more of a future than Jameis Winston.
Let's see what they've got.
I would pump the brakes on that.
I think the situation that JJ McCarthy was in on Sunday is not necessarily something you can just project over sixty-minute games for the rest of the year.
The the the the Giants were able to, to use his mobility and leverage his mobility against the defense that had been playing to stop Jameis Winston all week.
And that's not to take anything away from what JJ McCarthy was able to accomplish in that field because he looked confident, he looked really good.
They've got an offense that I think can work for JJ McCarthy.
Um, all the RPO stuff that they put in for Jackson Dart, that should translate right over to JJ McCarthy.
He is, he, he can play quarterback that way.
It's a lot of what he did in college.
But can, but, but, but are you at a point now where he's got enough of the offense, where it's fair to the other 10 guys in the huddle to have him in there as a starter right now.
And that's the question that John Harbaugh and Matt Naggy.
And Greg Roman and all the guys in that offensive staff room have to answer now.
And I don't know the answer to it.
I think the, the, the, the, the, the worst thing you can do, and I don't think John Harbaugh is gonna do this, is to react to somebody on WFAN saying like they have no choice, they have to throw McCarthy in there.
Um, there will be pressure to play McCarthy, of course.
Um, you will hear it from the stands if Jameis Winston's put back out there and isn't in a position.
And, and, and, and, and, and things don't go well.
Um, but you're not putting JJ McCarthy in a position to succeed, and you're not putting the Giants in a position to succeed.
If he's not in a position to run the offense the way it needs to be run yet.
And again, maybe he's there, maybe he's not.
That's the decision the Giants have to have to make here.
But this cannot be just, hey, like he's given us some hope and like, let's throw him out there.
You can't make decisions like that.
So, um, I'd say a lot of this is gonna depend on where he's at, just as far as Where Matt Naggy has been has been in, in teaching him the offense, how much of it he has, and, and whether or not you can be fair to the other 10 guys in that huddle on a consistent basis, and allowing them to do the things that they spent the spring and summer preparing to do, um, with the quarterback that you've got in there.
Obviously, Jameis Winston, having been part of all of that, has a more full version of the offense and he is able to run a more full version of the offense.
The the question again to me is how much of the offense does JJ McCarthy have?
I think that'll determine whether or not he plays now, whether or not he plays in 2 weeks, whether or not he plays later in the season, however the Giants choose to do it.
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