Bill Polian built the Colts through draft. Can Ryan Grigson? – Indianapolis Star
IndyStar Colts Insider Zak Keefer joins Matt Glenesk to discuss the team’s draft options and a shift in organizational philosophy this offseason. (Clark Wade / IndyStar)
It wasn’t the $48 million deal they handed Peyton Manning before he ever took an NFL snap, or the $68 million they gave Marvin Harrison to catch 18’s passes, or even the $30 million they pledged to Tarik Glenn to protect 18’s backside. No. The contract that changed the way the Indianapolis Colts were built in the early 2000s?
It was the $15 million they gave to tight end Ken Dilger.
“Chump change now,” laughs Bill Polian, the former team president who signed off on all those deals. “But the Dilger deal is when we crossed the Rubicon. That’s when we decided we were going to commit our core dollars to offense. We figured out we were going to have to find less expensive, younger, more outside-the-box players on defense.”
So Polian did. He drafted a defensive end the pundits said was too small (Dwight Freeney), an unknown from Alabama A&M who couldn’t get an invite to the NFL Combine (Robert Mathis), a college safety he saw as a linebacker (Cato June), a former walk-on at Rutgers who became a team captain (Gary Brackett) and a torpedo of a safety who barely passed the team physical (Bob Sanders) but three years later was the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year. Those five players? They formed the backbone behind a Super Bowl champion defense.
Which brings us to 2016, and to Ryan Grigson, and to the way he has built this Colts roster. Grigson will always be irretrievably linked with Bill Polian, the shadow of his Hall of Fame predecessor hanging over his career. Andrew Luck knows. He followed Peyton Manning.
But there’s plenty Grigson and Polian have in common: Both used their first pick with the Colts on a quarterbacking prodigy. Both drafted a Pro Bowl receiver early on. Both eschewed expectations and pulled draft-day surprises. Both hit a crossroads in Indianapolis after their fourth season.
That’s when Polian went all in on offense, deciding to build around Manning and Co. He continued to thrive like few front-office wizards in history, deftly drafting the pieces that would enable the Colts to sustain success at obscene levels for years to come (see: seven straight 12-win seasons). The question now facing Ryan Grigson: Can he do the same?
The NFL draft is this week. And Grigson is on record saying he knows he has to hit it out of the park.
At least one man believes he can, and that happens to be the only opinion that matters. Colts owner Jim Irsay offered 1,869 words of explanation that bitterly cold night in January, the night Grigson sat to his left and Chuck Pagano to his right, grinning ear to ear after they’d hugged it out and earned extensions to stay with the team through 2019. Of those 1,869 words, these 11 from Irsay were most telling.
“Ryan has outdone him,” he said, comparing Grigson’s four-year start to that of Polian’s. “But it gets lost in the translation.”
Consider this the translation. And the Colts’ owner has a point. Grigson’s teams have made the playoffs three times in his first four seasons (compared to Polian’s two); they’ve won three playoff games (compared to Polian’s zero); they’ve won 41 regular season games (compared to Polian’s 32). Grigson has drafted two Pro Bowlers (Luck, T.Y. Hilton) while Polian picked three (Manning, Edgerrin James, Reggie Wayne). But consider what Polian did in the first round of the next few drafts: Hello, Dwight Freeney, Dallas Clark, Bob Sanders, Marlin Jackson and Joseph Addai. Not bad. Not bad at all.
Polian delivered top-end talent (usually from the back end of the first round) year after year. Irsay better hope Grigson can, too.
“We’re always competing against ourselves,” Irsay said that night. And in a sense, they are. The Luck Colts are competing against the Manning Colts. Grigson is always competing against Polian.
The rosters aren’t identical, and they were never going to be. Six of Grigson’s first 30 draft picks have been on the offensive line; only one (Jack Mewhort) has made him look good. Polian, meanwhile, loaded up in the secondary, taking six defensive backs (only three of which lasted four seasons in Indy.) Both inherited building blocks from the previous regime that played a vital role in bridging two eras: For Polian, it was Marvin Harrison, Tarik Glenn and Ken Dilger. For Grigson, it was Reggie Wayne, Robert Mathis and Anthony Castonzo.
Both have pulled stunners on draft day. Fans begged Polian to draft Heisman winner Ricky Williams in 1999; he went with James. Fans wanted defense in 2001. He went with Wayne.
Last spring, the Colts’ most glaring need rested on the defensive line. Grigson picked a wide receiver in Round 1.
“You learn with every draft,” Grigson said last week. “ I sure as heck have.”
Polian’s acknowledgement of the Colts “crossing the Rubicon” is significant. He looked at his roster, and he saw Manning, he saw James, he saw Harrison, he saw Wayne. He saw massive paydays coming if he was going to keep an elite offense together. The bulk of the team’s salary cap would fall on that side of the ball. They’d have to get creative on defense. They’d have to scout. They’d have to uncover gems right and left.
And they did. And they won a world championship because of it.
Grigson, meanwhile, has some work to do. Luck will be paid soon — “a shocking number,” Irsay has called it. Hilton got a $65 million deal last August. Castonzo got $43 million. Dwayne Allen got almost $30 million. Have Grigson’s Colts crossed the Rubicon? There’s still plenty of money invested in the defense, but it’s evident the face of this team is its offense. Which means Grigson and his staff will have to get creative on defense, scout well and uncover gems that can help this team win in January.
Sound familiar?
Colts’ Ryan Grigson discusses the NFL draft. Clark Wade/IndyStar
The style to which Grigson will build his team moving forward will run parallel with Polian’s longstanding mantra: Free agency — who needs it? Instead he leaned heavy on the draft. He found talent. He drafted talent. He paid that talent. Grigson’s team won so swiftly in 2012 that the rebuilding process was augmented. He and Irsay decided to go for it all, to swing for home runs in free agency while Luck was still playing on his meager rookie deal. Problem is, most of the time they struck out (see: LaRon Landry, Andre Johnson, Todd Herremans. The list goes on and on.)
“We were attacking things before because we were so close,” Grigson said last week. “I feel like we truly need to have some patience now because we don’t have the resources to plug and play.”
They don’t — those resources are going to their quarterback, and their receivers, and their tight end, and their left tackle. While there are some encouraging youngsters on the defense (Henry Anderson, Clayton Geathers) the unit remains unfinished. There’s work to be done. The draft is this week.
Now Grigson must adapt Polian’s motto. Most of all, he must hope for Polian-type success. His boss is counting on it.
Call IndyStar reporter Zak Keefer at (317) 444-6134 and follow him on Twitter: @zkeefer.
NFL draft: Round 1, Thursday; rounds 2-3, Friday; rounds 4-7, Saturday
