With the NFL having decided to move the trade deadline back two weeks to Week 8 next season, Colts fans are left wondering if that would have been a good thing or a bad thing for their team last season. When asked about the rule change recently, former Colts vice chairman Bill Polian seemed fairly certain that the Colts would have had a different look last season if the deadline was Week 8. More specifically, he feels they would have had a chance to land a legitimate starting quarterback.
“I think the deadline being moved last year would have made a difference for us,” Polian told Sports Illustrated’s Peter King. “We would have rekindled our interest in Orton. In Week 6, we knew our quarterback situation wasn’t great, but after a couple more weeks, we realized the situation was bad. We probably would have called Denver, who’d gone to (Tim) Tebow by then, and said, ‘Hey, we’ll give you a three (a third-round draft choice) for Orton.'”
That may be, but that would have also likely led to the Colts not landing the No. 1 overall pick and thus not drafting Andrew Luck. As we know, that would have made Indy fans like these ones quite upset.
Trading for Orton last season would probably have led to a few more wins, but it certainly wasn’t going to make the Colts a playoff contender. Not only that, but Orton isn’t exactly a quarterback you would want to build the future of your team around. Indy’s abysmal season may have ultimately cost Polian his job, but at the moment Colts fans should be pleased with the way everything turned out.
H/T Pro Football Talk
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