Colts add center Samson Satele
The Colts continue their offensive line makeover by signing free agent center Samson Satele:
On Wednesday, the Colts signed Samson Satele, who started 74 career games with the Miami Dolphins and Oakland Raiders. A person with knowledge of the deal says it's a three-year contract worth $10.8 million, with $5 million guaranteed. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the team did not announce the terms.
Of course, they do so at a risk. Tony Dungy hated character issues but Ryan Grigson and Chuck Pagano aren't that concerned:
Satele, 27, was arrested at 4 a.m. at the Westridge Shopping Center, an area in which several late-night restaurants and bars are located according to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
The newspaper reported he was released after posting $500 bail at 4:50 a.m. and is scheduled to appear in Ewa District Court on April 18.
Disorderly conduct is a petty misdemeanor.
Satele (6-3, 300) has started 74 of the 78 games in which he has appeared over five NFL seasons. He played his first two seasons with the Miami Dolphins and the past three with the Oakland Raiders.
Petty misdemeanor? No biggie but it's not the kind of thing we're generally accustomed to seeing in Indianapolis. There have been examples but in prior years the Colts have largely avoided players with off-the-field issues.
I don't understand the expectation the Colts will be bad next year. They were a better then 2-14 last year. There was several games they would have won with better QB play. Other than Manning, they cut some players who were either going to be a backup or were getting older. They have added some line help and a solid safety. Why would they be bad? If Dan O can win two games, I would expect Luck with a better running attack to win 6-7 games.
I just looked it up. THe Colts were NOT better than 2-14. They were precisely 2-14. The cut guys who were getting older? EVERY player is getting older. Andrew Luck is getting older. The germane point is that old or young, they havent replaced those players they cut. I like the signing of Satele but he is not as good as Jeff in our system. We have not replaced Garcon or Brackett. Clark or Tamme. I think they did the right thing but I dont think McGlynn and Justice are any more than good risk/reward signings for depth. If Justice and McGlynn start, it is not a good thing. Zbikowski is a special teamer and backup safety not as good as Sanders or even a healthy Bullitt but maybe better than Newton or Caldwell . Not sure if he is better than Lefeged. I like your optimism but disagree strongly.
@19>18 I just looked it up. "The" is not spelled "THe". Why the knit picking? Satele is not better than Saturday in our system. What is our system? For all we know, our system may be completely different next year. Maybe we are a zone blocking line. Who knows. I don't feel Saturday has been a top center for the last two years. He was completely manhandled in games last year. Brown played better than Ad dai. Tamme, who isn't signed, put up statistically better numbers than Clark. Garcon is gone and that is a loss. But I feel a better offensive line will more than make up for the losses at WR. And I do not agree with you on Bullitt being better than Tommy Z.
My point is the Colts had better talent than a typical 2-14 team. When Dan O provided mediocre QB play, they won games or were competitive. Normally, teams that are 2-14 are bad across the board. Had Dan O played all year, I think they would have won 6-7 games. So this is not a team that is just horrible across the board.
I love what Grigson is doing. As much as I love the Colts, I hated the lack of running attack and stopping the run every year. I would rather have a better line and mediocre WRs and NE does. Sure, lets have both,but I like the direction.
I think the Colts go 7-9 and surprise next year.
that is all i ever said. You said you didnt understand why people hold the opinion I hold. I tried to explain why I believe it. That is all.
@19>18 My whole point is I don't think the Colts will be bad next year. You think they will be bad, apparently. They are both just opinions. We will see how it turns out. I expect a 7-9 team. I think they are better than what is being said. NFL network was talking about 2 wins. I strongly disagree with that.
it isnt nit picking. We WERE a 2-14 team last year. That is the starting point. I disagree with where you started from so I explained why I started where I did. At 2-14. I believe Orlovsky is a bad backup. Better than Painter maybe but you wouldnt want to live on the difference.
I am not sure we have an average NFL running back on the team. I think Costanzo has an upside of steady but unspectacular. I like Satele but he isnt an all pro. My reference to Jeff was in the system he played in. He is not back so how he fits this year is a non issue. We have no idea what we have in Ijalana due to injury. Our OL Is unsettled, under construction and apparently coached by a guy who has never been hands on, his background is film work from what I have read. I think we have a decent blocking TE but no dynamic TE for the passing game. I think a WR crew of Reggie, Collie and Blair White are below league average and is missing the deep threat that Arians' philosophy demands.We will have a rookie QB. Put it all together and IMO this is a bad offense, at or near the bottom of the league.
On defense we apparently are in transition and missing pieces necessary to even run the hybrid D Pagano and Manusky are likely to want instlaled. We have no NT unless Mookie totally surprises. While I love Free: he is my favorite Colt player of recent vintage, I dont know how he fits what the team wants to do. I feel better about Mathis. I like Moala and Anderson as 3-4 DE who can slide inside in a 4-3. No idea if Nevis has a position in the 3-4. No idea who starts at inside LB next to Angerer or if Angerer is stout enough inside or can rush enough outside. I like Mathis at rush OLB but he still has to prove he can do it. I love Bethea but dont think we have another starting caliber safety. I live in Md and have seen our new safety signing play. He is a weak starter at safety but a great ST pickup. Same situation at CB. One starter and a bunch of dime a dozen guys. Our D is a total work in progress and we dont even have the materials in hand to build with. This is just a total mystery and I dont see how you can be optimistic about what little we know at this point.
Both sides of the ball will probably see more free agents signed. I am sure we will sign a WR and a NT before the draft, but cant take that into account until we know those names. We will have a full draft but the big plum pick is already priced into the market. If for no other reasons than a rookie QB, a new defensive scheme being installed and a 100% turnover in coaches . . . oops forgot Clyde . . . ALMOST a 100% turnover in coaches, the outflow of talent which I back but still think you underestimate, I find it hard to predict anything but a BAD record
You said you dont understand this thinking. I have tried twice now to explain my thinking. If you still dont understand . . . so be it.
Colts players have been arrested for petty misdemeanors essentially every off season for a decade. Colts fans like to think their players are different, but they aren't.
That said, I'm not worried about this one any more than I was the previous ones.
want to be on record that THIS signing is definitely evidence of emphasizing the running game as Nate fears and I rejected. Satele is MUCH better in the run game than the passing game and is too good a player to be signed as depth or merely a risk/reward signing. I am not panicked as I like the signing but it is clearly a signing that is oriented to the power run game.
@19>18 Tell me why the big worry of the Colts buildling up a running game this off season? With a rookie QB and less talent on the recieving side, isn't that what they should be doing? They didn't have the cap space to retool WR and they don't have enough draft picks to pull up every position.
Look at the success the last few young QB's have in the league, then look at their respective running games early in their career: Matt Ryan, Mark Sanchez, Joe Flacco, Ben Rothlesberger, Eli Manning.
Its setting Luck or Griffin up for failure to believe they can jump in against NFL defenses and win games throwing the ball. Let alone build confidence to yeild a long career. The Colts aren't a good team anymore, the defense is down and the offense will be to. The only chance they have to win next year and develop their QB is w/ the aid of a solid running game.
2-3 yrs down the road, if they're still pushing the run game and aren't buidling up WR or TE, that's when I get worried. Note the contract length of all the linemen they've signed, these are short term fixes. 3 yrs may not seem like it but consider we're drafting a QB after Peyton and we want him around for 14 yrs.
@Westhoff @19>18 I won't speak for Nate either, but I agree with him and became very concerned when virtually the first words out of our new coach's mouth were "run the ball, stop the run".
The Colts are going to be bad next year no matter what. A good run game will not help that. If the FO is not preparing to be a good passing team, and aren't drafting a QB capable of being a good passer, in years 2 & 3 it is a major mistake. You are essentially just wasting time, and maybe worse, the cheap years of your young QBs contract. If you can't build the team to be successful (my definition is playoff bound) by the 3rd year there is virtually no evidence that you ever will. I for one, think being successful in the NFL means passing the ball and stopping the pass, so any move that isn't geared towards those goals is further evidence that we have the wrong plan.
That said, this particular signing doesn't cause me concern either way. He isn't a signing that is just getting bigger for size sake, and while he's mostly played in run heavy offenses, his college pedigree is in a passing system. With this pick, I just hope they got the talent eval right.
My guess is that he has been watching film of our pathetic bend but dont breaaaaaaaak passive defense and finesse offense and is just so sick to his stomache that his first reaction is a knee jerk reaction to what the film shows. If you are gonna stop listening after his first comment about run the ball stop the run, you miss the comment about passing the ball 40 to 45 times when necessary. I dont want to duplicate that argument on this thread but I just know that there is more than one way to build a winning team, not every opinion that disagrees with Nate is wrong and just because Mudd runs a ZBS doesnt mean every team running a power man blocking scheme is wrong.
@kasey_junk @19>18 I absolutely agree w/ the stop run part of the statement... that is definitely the wrong direction. Offenses are using short passing routes and screens in place of runs and we need to develop a scheme around that, which means press corners or using quick, strong LB to press at the line and CB in zone behind them, NOT just run stuffing DL and block shedding LB.
I certainly see the point of building towards a pass offense, no matter what. This is where I'd hope we'd draft a big play potential WR in the 2nd or 3rd and maintaining great pass blocking OT. The cheap years are only cheap because the QB hasn't reached his potential, and agree the team should do everything in its capabilies to optimize that.
This is where I would have loved to see Saturday back to help the new QB with pre-snap blitz reads. Perhaps Saturday wasn't interested in coming back which is why this signing occurred. Your point about this guy from Hawaii's pass heavy offense is a great point and should be somewhat of deterant of the "run the ball" concern.
I guess I see more value in improving the run game than most. The OC needs to have something to go to when defenses are expoliting the offense's weakness. Disguising coverages and blitzes (pre-snap reads by a rookie QB), and press the WR to take away the short passes (our slow/unathletic WR).
@WesthoffThe whole worry of the run game is Nate's not mine and I dont want to speak for him but I believe there is a valid point that the rules for 20 years have moved in the favor of the passing game and under Goodell, under the threat of lawsuits from ex players and concern over concussions, that movement is accelerating. It is clear that the league is going to try to move to force defensive football players to learn the lost art of tackling and make them stop substituting blunt force trauma for tackling. To try and build a winner by ignoring the advantages that the rules give the passing game is silly. That said, I do think he is being a chicken little in that he is reading way too much into the very early signs and comments we have so far. I thought the two previous OL signings were risk/reward picks so should not be seen as indicating anything so dire. But this pick was clearly signing a starting caliber center to replace Jeff so it means more than the McGlynn signing for sure and even the Justice signing, IMO. Hope that clears up the issue for you and hope I was fair regarding Nate's position.
@19>18 I don't think thats true... I am pretty sure he's finesse guy, but to be honest thats probably wrong and my internet connection is to slow to even want to bother. If I am wrong, I am sorry, but I think Satele has been thought of as a strong run blocker because of his heritage.. again, this might be a misremembering on my part.
