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INDIANAPOLIS – The Colts still have belief that Jacoby Brissett can play quarterback at a higher, more consistent, level.
But they aren’t ready to fully commit to Brissett as their locked in franchise QB moving forward.
Chris Ballard’s season recap press conference on Thursday saw the GM field an abundance of questions on Brissett and the future at quarterback.
And Ballard made it clear that they think Brissett has a higher ceiling, while also not ruling out the opportunity to upgrade at QB, if that sort of situation presents itself.
“Jacoby did a lot of good things,” Ballard said on several occasions. “But he also did some things that he would tell you he needs to get better at. But it’s a constant evaluation. And, everybody has to be better. Not only Jacoby, but we have to help him. I’ve got to help him with better weapons at times. And Frank (Reich) has to help him schematically and then Jacoby has to help himself by playing better in specific spots. But I don’t want to sit here and act like Jacoby (didn’t do anything). He did some really good things this year. It’s almost like the tale of two seasons. At one point, the world is talking about him as an MVP, and then the next moment, they are talking about wanting to run the kid out of town. It’s never as good as it seems. It’s never as bad.
“The jury is still out (on Brissett). That’s why we did the short-term deal with Jacoby. Both from a standpoint of wanting to give us some security that we knew we had a player we liked and could go forward with. But also to see, and time for us to figure out if he is the guy or not.”
For now, Ballard says that Brissett is the Colts starting quarterback for 2020.
Of course, the GM knows how quickly such plans can change.
“Well, I thought Andrew was going to be our starting quarterback going into last season, so, I’ll says this, ‘Yes, right now, Jacoby is our starting quarterback,’” the third-year GM said.
If Brissett is indeed the starter come September 2020, Ballard was adamant on Thursday that he must provide the QB with better talent around him.
While some think Brissett has peaked as a player, the Colts do not see that.
“He’s a young quarterback that’s played two seasons,” Ballard says of Brissett, who is heading for the final year of his contract in 2020. “I’m taking that one out in ‘17 when he got the crap beat out of him. This is really his first season. I know we want guys to come in and light the league up right away. But sometimes they have to go through it and continue to rep it and see it. One or two years does not make a successful quarterback in this league. I think you can just look at the history of the position. Some guys have early struggles. Lets not forget, at one point, I want to say he finished the season 18 (touchdowns) and 6 (interceptions). It wasn’t a total wash away like people are trying to make it. He had a good start, good first half of the season. And did some good things in the second half of the season too. We just need more consistency out of him. He knows that. One thing about Jacoby that I like, he’s honest with himself about things he needs to fix and work on. That’s what makes him pretty cool to be around.”
Like Frank Reich, Ballard doesn’t want to point to Brissett’s sprained MCL as a major excuse for the really poor numbers to end the season.
“Injuries happen and you got to be able to still produce,” Ballard said. “I’ll tell you this, I think when the season starts, everybody starts out at 100 percent and they hit the first practice and they’re never 100 percent again the rest of the season. You’ve got to be able to still produce when you’re not 100 percent. Do I think it affected him some for a couple of weeks? Yes, I do. Long-term, did it affect some of his mechanical issues? Maybe. Did he fall back into some old habits?
“He knows he’s got some things to work on this offseason. But you still have to be able to produce at the end of the day.”
On more than one occasion during Ballard’s presser, you could hear the GM sound like a guy wanting to give Brissett another chance to lead this franchise, and not pushing the ‘draft a quarterback early’ storyline as a guarantee.
“If all of a sudden, things go a little bit differently here, we make a couple catches, the Chargers, Miami, maybe we make a kick or two in a couple of games, and we’re sitting here at 10-6, is the narrative different?” Ballard said about Brissett and the future at QB in Indy.
“I’ve asked myself that. Jacoby has to play better. He knows that. We do think Jacoby has talent. We do think he’s a great teammate, and he’s a great leader. But like I said with any position, we’ll continue to evaluate, and if we’ve got a chance to upgrade at any position, we’ll do that.”
That brings us to the draft, which will take place April 23-25 in Las Vegas.
With the 13th overall pick, the Colts are in a position to make a significant move at the quarterback position, knowing that they have the draft capital to climb into the top-10 or top-5.
We know the Colts really like Brissett, but will they fall in love with a college quarterback in the next few months?
“These are my thoughts on this, I think one of the biggest mistakes teams make is they force it,” Ballard said when asked about drafting a quarterback early. “You can’t force the evaluation of a quarterback, can’t do it. Because then what you do is talk yourself into a guy, and then you set your organization back 4-5 years.
“We’re going to continue to evaluate the position. We would’ve done this no matter who the quarterback was. And if we felt like we found the guy we liked, who was a good fit for the Colts, we would’ve taken him. and we’ll do the same thing moving forward.”
So—as of the first week of January 2020—the Colts still view Jacoby Brissett as their starting quarterback.
Will that change in the next few months?
