John Schneider, NFL Executive of the Year (ESPN panel)

Schneider had a great draft. His first round pick was widely panned, but Bruce Irvin has eight sacks. Second-rounder Bobby Wagner is a legit candidate for defensive rookie of the year as the every-down middle linebacker for top defense. Third-rounder Russell Wilson has been a revelation and could upset Luck and Robert Griffin III for offensive rookie of the year. The rest of the draft is filled with contributors.

Schneider has made unconventional and even unpopular moves throughout his three-year tenure.

“He has repeatedly made fools of draft-day critics, however, and that is happening in a big way this year,” NFC West blogger Mike Sando wrote in his division wrap-up.

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Congrats, John. You earned it, brother!

http://espn.go.com/blog/nflnation/post/ ... f-the-year

Hooray!

Great to see JS being recognized by others outside the franchise.

I bet Uncle Jesse is stoked!

Well, that's nice. Not the official award, but nice to see some recognition finally.

Elway? Talking Manning into taking millions of your dollars shouldn't make you a genius GM.

Keep Tebow or sign Manning? OMG Genius decision John!

from the article "37 of the Colts’ 53 players were not on the team he inherited"

That is pretty amazing definately cudos to the front office and coaching staff for pulling that together.

it does also raise a point about Luck (or two points)

1) Many here have said Indy sucked for Luck. I have disagreed and changing out 37 players kind of proves the point that they simply sucked

2) Luck is being handed the ROY award by many for turning around this horrible team.........well you can't give the front office an award for completely changing the team and then award the qb for doing so much with a team that was horrible last year. It either is the same team or it is not. In this case not - you could argue that he doees a lot with unknown players except some came from Stanford as well.....

mikeak":1aw86gfo said:

from the article "37 of the Colts’ 53 players were not on the team he inherited"

That is pretty amazing definately cudos to the front office and coaching staff for pulling that together.

it does also raise a point about Luck (or two points)

1) Many here have said Indy sucked for Luck. I have disagreed and changing out 37 players kind of proves the point that they simply sucked

2) Luck is being handed the ROY award by many for turning around this horrible team.........well you can't give the front office an award for completely changing the team and then award the qb for doing so much with a team that was horrible last year. It either is the same team or it is not. In this case not - you could argue that he doees a lot with unknown players except some came from Stanford as well.....

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Disagree. That same team went 10-6 the season before their 2-14 suck for luck campaign. Yes, Peyton Manning is one of the greatest QB's of all time, but an even half way decent backup would have taken that team to 6-8 wins. If anything, all that record proves is how bad Curtis Painter really was, and that the Colts organization as a whole, tossed in the towel last year. It's honestly one of the most disgraceful and selfish things I've seen an NFL franchise do in a long time (arguably since the Ravens' birth). It honestly would be incredible if Peyton and the Bronco's knocked the Colts out of the playoffs, I would be giddy, and I'm sure so would Peyton.

The 37 players doesn't prove anything. Any franchise that wins only 2 games in a season, whether or not the players are good or have potential, is going to see major roster turnover the next season. Look at the Seahawks when Pete Carroll came in. I realize PC was a little on the extreme side, but it's the same idea. Clean house, try and find a different, more cohesive unit to represent the franchise.

Let this be a lesson to our local media and some local fans, including some posters to this board, who take the national media's condemnation of our draft every year as a cue to trash the front office and coaching staff for having "horrible" drafts. I suspect that in the next draft, like the previous three drafts, Mel Kiper, et al, will give as our annual grade of D, and they'll look like fools yet again.

Really? Elway? How can anybody in their right mind think he's a better executive than JS?

GoHawks1212":17dhsxxy said:

Disagree. That same team went 10-6 the season before their 2-14 suck for luck campaign. Yes, Peyton Manning is one of the greatest QB's of all time, but an even half way decent backup would have taken that team to 6-8 wins. If anything, all that record proves is how bad Curtis Painter really was, and that the Colts organization as a whole, tossed in the towel last year. It's honestly one of the most disgraceful and selfish things I've seen an NFL franchise do in a long time (arguably since the Ravens' birth). It honestly would be incredible if Peyton and the Bronco's knocked the Colts out of the playoffs, I would be giddy, and I'm sure so would Peyton.

The 37 players doesn't prove anything. Any franchise that wins only 2 games in a season, whether or not the players are good or have potential, is going to see major roster turnover the next season. Look at the Seahawks when Pete Carroll came in. I realize PC was a little on the extreme side, but it's the same idea. Clean house, try and find a different, more cohesive unit to represent the franchise.

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Don't understand your point - sorry. It seems like you are saying that last years team was good because they were similiar to a 10-6 team the year before but getting rid of 37 players from that team makes sense because the team sucked......I think Excel calls this circular reasoning and I would need to correct the formula

I firmly do not think they threw in the towel. THe people that would have done so are all fired or let go from the team. From players to coaches it would make no sense to do so. In addition to this they won in week 16 putting the first pick at risk in week 17......

Regardless this year had 37 new players. It is pretty remarkable that they did this and are winning this year. I get the whole weak schedule etc etc and I do put Schneider above their office but I sure as heck put Indy ahead of Denver in turning things around. Hiring Fox then Del Rio and signing Manning really doesn't take a genious.

Pstark3":1jchoa3l said:

Really? Elway? How can anybody in their right mind think he's a better executive than JS?

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Well, he did get Peyton Manning.

“He has repeatedly made fools of draft-day critics, however, and that is happening in a big way this year”

love that line.

I do wonder if this award is or should be "this year and also the stuff you did in the last few years that we didn't realize at the time was great." I think Schneider gets the award based on this year alone. But does it/should it also account for drafting Sherman? He was a 5th rounder and could have been defensive player of the year. Arguably an even better decision than drafting Wilson.

So, in other words, I say give the award to Schneider, not just for this year, but for the stuff that is showing up this year that he did in previous years.

Tim Ruskell had a good start as well. Let us hope it continues.

AirForceSeahawk":2dkf9xpo said:

Tim Ruskell had a good start as well. Let us hope it continues.

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Seriously, you had to go there? Going to give me nightmares! A big difference is JS is trying to win. Ruskell just wanted to avoid losing, and failed miserably.

I thought it was Jim Irsay that made the decision to drop Manning. Not that everyone in the world didn't know it was happening. They couldn't afford him anymore. As far as Elway goes, he inherited a damn good team. They were 8-8 with Tebow at the helm.

"I’ll leave Wingo with the final word. I told him he was part of non-winning support for Grigson, who was behind Elway and Schneider.

“I get both of those, truly I do,” Wingo said. “But can anyone honestly say they did more with less? Elway was really about one move, a pivotal move for sure, but how hard is it to go after arguably the greatest regular-season QB the league has ever seen?

“Grigson had to be the guy to get rid of him, replace him with the right choice, and gut the roster. His decisions to me by far are the most significant.”

If Grigson's team is destroying maybe the NFL's best team 42-13 two years from now, I could buy him as a Exec of the year. But right now, his team actually sucks and has been one of the most fortunate 10 win teams in history statistically. Seriously, the Colts DVOA this year is almost identical to Seattle's in 2010 when they made the playoffs at 7-9, and JS didn't have a #1 pick to use on a superstar QB that year. Nobody was racing to crown JS exec of the year either. Only one of Grigson's draft picks is in consideration for a rookie of the year award, and that one player is only the most hyped prospect to come out in the last 14 years (and wouldn't even be a candidate if not for the hype).

Compare that to Schneider who has 3 rookie of the year candidates among several other team contributors in his draft, and has a team that has been one of the best teams in NFL history down the stretch.

Kind of funny that Elway got so many votes. I have nothing against Elway, but seriously, what did he do to earn the award other than being very fortunate to get the one player that half the league would have sold their left nut for?

Elway does walk funny now that you think about it.....

chris98251":20v91853 said:

Elway does walk funny now that you think about it.....

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Think John Wayne.