Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - 53-Man Surprise Cuts and Keepers

Episode Date: September 6, 2016

Matt Danely (@MDanely_NFL) takes you through some of his likes, and dislikes, from the Indianapolis Colts 53-man roster, including some surprises on both ends of the spectrum. #Colts #LockedOnColts #NFL #53man Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Minimum purchase required, U.S. only. You are Locked On Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Welcome back to Locked On Colts. I'm your host, Matt Dainley. Glad to be here. Hope you're glad to be joining me. If you didn't catch my little intro piece the other day, go back and check that out.

I'll give you a little bit of a backstory on myself, some places to contact myself and the show. And we can get that out of the way and then come back on here and then we'll check this out. Today we're going to jump into some surprises with the 53-man roster, at least my surprises anyhow. Some guys that I thought may have not made the team or may should not have made the team that did and vice versa. Some guys that did make it that I'm not so impressed with and some guys that just needed to need to be talked about in general. As always, go check out the show on audioboom.com, on iTunes, Stitcher, wherever you get your podcasts, go rate and review. That always helps.

We'll get the show a little more noticed, a little more visible to everybody else who wants to come check it out. First, we're going to start with Eric Swoop at Tide In. He's a more athletic guy. And if you've watched any of the preseason or the past couple of preseasons, you've seen him as well. He looked a little bit out of place until now, but he is more athletic probably than the Chase Kaufman, who they cut, and possibly has a higher ceiling as well. I'm just not sure that he might be, I'm just not sure that he's the, I'm not just not sure that he's

the better tight end at this point. He looks a little off balance coming in and out of his breaks. Chase Kaufman's a little less of the playmaker type guy, but he's a big guy, good hands. I'm not so sure that I'd agree or disagree with it. I guess I was just a little surprised at that. I thought Chase Kaufman had the inside leg on that between those two, to be quite honest. Another guy who they kept that I think we could talk about for probably hours if we wanted to, quarterback Scott Tulzine. Was not a fan of him through camp. Got the opportunity to go down and watch him. Se seemed like about every time he'd throw anything further than 10 to 12 yards downfield and if it was uh outside of the

middle of the field it was going to get picked or tipped or was going to be disrupted in some way shape or form i just was never really impressed with him i think like a lot of us i had a predisposed notion of of him coming in thought that he may be a little better than he actually is. And probably, I would be probably just as guilty as anybody is thinking that maybe he was an upgrade over Hasselbeck. And he's clearly not. I'm not a big fan of him staying on there. And I'll tell you why. Mainly, it's because he costs only about $500,000 to release him. If you keep him, he costs $1.25 million. Stephen Morris, who had a fantastic preseason, looked accurate.

He was good. He's another option. He's not the statuesque guy in the backfield in the pocket who relies on a pocket to be perfect in order to be able to make plays. He needs a running game and everything else, whereas Stephen Morris, I don't necessarily believe that he needs that running game and everything else whereas Stephen Morris I don't necessarily believe that he needs that to to be successful like I said he was accurate in the pocket he can make plays out of the pocket he was accurate on the move real accurate on the sideline that to me when I'm watching quarterbacks it's always one of the things that I really like to see I want to see that they're able to hit a guy along the boundary while they're on the move accurately. He does that. I just think he brings a whole new aspect to

the backup quarterback position for the Colts, rather Tulzien. Tulzien, in my opinion, at this moment is, I don't want to say he's pointless, but I definitely am going Stephen Morris if I have the opportunity myself. Granted, he played, and I know what you're saying. You're saying, oh, he played against thirds and fourths. Yes, he did. That doesn't have anything to do with his accuracy, though. That doesn't have anything to do that he still delivered the ball on time while under pressure regardless.

It doesn't matter if it's a first or second string guy. If he's got a hand or a helmet in his face and he can deliver it on time and to the desired target, I'm not sure what else you're really wanting from a quarterback, especially a guy who's going to be a backup for the year. So I was definitely a bigger fan of Morris. I think a lot of people were too, but we'll move on here for the time being because I think we're going to come back to Morris in here in just a little bit. Now, Josh Ferguson had all of the hype coming into the preseason to Colts camp and everything else. Really, really electric feet, really fast guy. And if you've watched him

or if you've heard about him or seen articles about him where you've seen some vines or something else, you can see what I mean. He's really, really electric. He has really good lateral agility. He's able to move. He is effective in space. If I'm going to quit rumbling or mumbling and go on about it, that's where he's effective. He is the guy who needs space. He's absolutely, plain and simply, cannot run between the tackles. He just can't. There was one game, I think it was week three against, I can't remember. I'm drawing a blank now. It wasn't week four against the Bengals.

But he was getting some power in his step a little bit as he would move into inside the tackles and be able to run within the offense. He's a guy who needs a screen pass. He needs to be on the outside on some sort of a sweep or with their pulling guard or trap or something. If he's going to be able to get in there at all, he needs an extra blocker on that side. They're going to have to be really genius about how they move the wide receivers in that regard as well. They're going to have to

bring them in in motion of some sort to where they can kind of get a backside block on a linebacker or something like that because he needs space. He's not a guy who's going to be able to come in second string on second down, third down, non-passing situations or something like that. You're not going to want him in there. I'm not going to say he's pointless because he's definitely not. He's got his place. But for him to be there, I think that they're looking a little bit too far into it and may have a little bit higher expectations for Ferguson than I think they should. I think a real possibility for him would be kick return maybe, sit him back there with Quan Bray, let those two kind of be a dual weapon against teams. That's going to really keep the kickers on guard and make them really have to make a decision on

who they're going to kick the ball to. But all in all, as a running back, he really offers very little outside of the passing game, and his value is almost solely with him in space. Let's move on to another running back, Jordan Todman in camp. He had some fumble issues. He, he and Turbin both did, but Todman really just looked out of place, uh, in the backfield, uh, through camp. He has gotten better. He's done pretty decent. He, he too has that, uh, that give me, get him in space and great things can happen. He's got really good speed. I'm just not sure if I look for him to last on the roster,

even though he made it. I think they clearly have Ferguson in mind for that role. And if they're going to put Todman in there, then they've got themselves, I think, a little bit confused. If you're looking to get some stories and insight on the entire NFL in one show, be sure to check out Locked On NFL Podcast with Matt Williamson. And for all your fantasy diehards out there, Vinny I will give you everything you need to be successful in your leagues

with the Locked On Fantasy Football Podcast. And to get everybody up to date on some of the new team-centric shows on the network, in addition to this, the Locked On Colts Podcast, we now have Locked On Dolphins, hosted by Ray Kniff, sorry, Ron Kniff, as well as Locked On Seahawks with Vincent Verheer. So if you're a fan of mine, go there and check those guys out. And as always, subscribe to your favorite Lock locked on podcast and throw them a rating or review as well as locked on Colts and let, uh, let us know what you think about the shows. Okay. Jumping back in here, we're going to move to a linebacker that I really don't have

a whole lot of great, great thoughts about. Uh, he's a primarily a special teams guy when it comes to his effectiveness on the field, and that's Josh McNary. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and say that he had a pretty decent preseason for him, especially, I think. But I don't think that you're going to get that kind of production out of him on a weekly basis. In fact, I kind of find that I just don't see that there's the roster spot for him. And like I said, I'll get to this, who I think could be the guy or should have been the guy to take that spot. But we'll talk about

McNary for the moment. Outside of special teams, him being able to get downfield, cover his lane, he does a pretty good job of that. He's big body. He's not scared to hit. But when he's solely there as a linebacker, he doesn't cover well in space he's almost a mismatch for tight ends or any even slower wide receivers or anything like that even the slower tight ends you know he gets outmaneuvered and they can box him out pretty well he doesn't seem to get do well with that he lacks instincts primarily getting in in to fill a hole, to get himself outside. He allows himself to get hemmed up against the offensive linemen and even lead running backs at times. Doesn't shed blocks very well. Maybe he's on his upswing right now. I don't know. But I haven't seen anything that

tells me he's a great option as a backup at the position. As I mentioned, he has some good plays at times, and he even has had a couple of important ones in the past for the Colts. But he disappears far more often than he pulls his own weight, for my liking. I'm not a fan of him being there. I hope that, as always, when I'm talking negative about anybody, I honestly hope that they surprise me and make me look stupid. I have no problem with that. But that's all I can – I mean, when I look at him, that's what I see.

So we'll get into a couple of the surprise cuts here, some guys that I didn't really see coming or don't think that they should have been cut. And the first guy on that list, I think, for a lot of Colts fans is Nate Irving. Not, you know, Nate Irving's not one of the top five, ten linebackers in the NFL, don't get me wrong. He's not great by any means, but he's better than McNary. And in the end, he was cheap, and getting rid of him was easy. They had very few strings attached within his contract.

He wasn't hard for the Colts to let go. But in the same regard, leaving him in there, he's a guy who's been in the game for a long time. He's played on some good teams. He's had some good coaches. He's had really good experience in big games. But I think maybe they just weren't getting enough out of him. He's been hurt off and on. Didn't really pull his own weight for that matter as well. I just don't know that we saw it coming with Nate Irving. I'm not so upset with it. I guess it was just one of those things you just didn't expect to hear. One of the guys that I really liked in preseason,

also really liked him at camp, looks like a real natural pass rusher to me. I was a little surprised that they let him go. It was Trevor Bates. He did make the practice squad, but like I said, he has just such natural abilities for the position that I was a little surprised to see them even tempt it. They were lucky that he didn't get claimed off waivers, I suppose. But when you see where he's from, what college he went to, or something like that, I'm sure that it turned a lot of coaches off that weren't as familiar with him as most of us who have been watching him throughout the beginning of the season. Not in comparison to

what you would expect for his career arc, so to speak, to be, but he has a size comparison, a mathist, an undersized, huge motor guy with good technique, looks very natural at the position, can cover, does a good job in his back pedal. He reads well. You know, pending another team scooping him up at some point off the practice squad, I think it's more than just, you know, conceivable that he'll be on the roster at some point and probably sooner rather than later. Bates is a guy that is going to probably be around for a while, and I think he's going to take a lot of people by surprise, even though they've kind of expected it. They've heard a lot of hype on him, so he's either going to extremely disappoint or he's going to make everybody excited. And

they're just hoping that maybe he doesn't turn into the next Jonathan Newsom, not in stature by any means, but a guy who comes in and just blows up in one year and then the next year he's invisible. So let's hope that he's not that. Let's hope he's a guy that can learn and that they're actually teaching him something and that he has the natural ability to learn a lot of it on his own through experience and so on and so forth. But I really like Trevor Bates. Expect him to be on the roster at some point this year. Now here's the guy that I kind of thought should have taken the spot for McNary. Made no bones about my appeal for Junior Sylvester.

He was cut before these final cuts came through, so it wasn't something that happened last minute. But I don't understand the thought process on this. If you've watched any NFL, you know that old school techniques are out the door. They're not working. Running the ball 50 times a game with just a decent running back is out the door. It's not working. Anything that you can do to be up on the times, especially when you have an NFL right now that is completely devised almost of sub packages and stuff like that, where you have a guy, you have a guy like Junior Sylvester right there who fits that mold perfectly. Now he was, he was, like I said, he was let go before final cuts, but he's certainly worth

talking about. He's better than McNary in every way, better instincts than Morrison. Morrison does have good instincts, so I'm not trying to make it like it's a considerable difference. Morrison's issues are different than his instincts, but I think he's better than C.O. Moore, and he definitely was last preseason. The reason you're not hearing about him this year is he wasn't given a chance. Last year, he was a great preseason stud, got hurt. They IR'd him. They didn't want to lose him. Word is, that I've been told anyways, is that he didn't fit Monachino's old school mold

for the position. And that's kind of what we're going back to. Old school's out the door. These guys have to figure that out. You can't go back to the old school stuff. And that's kind of what Pagano has brought to Indianapolis. He's brought the old school stuff in almost every aspect. And it's in a lot of it is not working. I'd say a huge portion of it isn't look, isn't working. Uh, wasn't really given a chance this year. Uh,ester. Despite his lack of size, he was really, really good at filling the gaps, very instinctual guy for the position, and he was good in coverage.

So that's a guy that I really was a little bummed to see go. Was I completely shocked? No, not necessarily, but i just don't understand their their need to continue with the old school mentality it doesn't work it needs to go away and i was kind of hoping that monachino was a guy that was going to take us away from that to be quite honest with you but uh it appears that pagano's pulling the majority of the strings here or he brought in a guy in monachino that uh think a lot alike, and he wanted to keep those thoughts for the defense. So we'll see what happens with that, but I'm not a fan of it at the moment.

Go to the offensive line here for a couple guys. Kidd O'Brien, there's no secret, Again, another guy that I've been pretty high on. Not a guy that's ever talked about. He's been as consistent within the interior of the O-line as anyone, if not more. He doesn't give up pressures. He gets to the second level in the running game effectively and does his job. Has done great picking up and passing off rushers when he's in protection. I mean, his footwork is not elite. We're not playing games here, but he's good, and he's plenty good. I can't say that I expected him to make the 53 because he's a little undersized at guard.

Not huge, not small, just one of those guys that's kind of on the cusp there. But I wouldn't have been surprised at all if he had made the 53. On the other hand, his not making the practice squad is quite a bit of a surprise for me. He was last year for the majority of the time. And like I said, if you go back and you watch any of the preseason games this year or last year, he's one of those guys who just does not let anybody through. I'm sorry. The offensive line has been an issue for the Colts for quite a while now. That's something that needs to change. They've got something going on with their process of whittling down to the 53-man roster, and something's up with it, in my opinion.

Of course, there's always a conspiracy there. Another guy was Mitchell Van Dyke. I wouldn't say that I was so surprised about him not making the 53 either, but, again, don't really understand about his not being targeted for the practice squad. He's a big dude at 6'7". He's a tackle, and we've got some issues at the position, if you haven't noticed. He's in high demand. You know, his skill set and his position is pretty in high demand for the Colts current line and the Colts only have two offensive linemen on the practice squad

in Adam Redman and Jeremy Vunovic along with the injuries to Muhorc which in my opinion is a very presumptuous angle to expect him to be back in two to four weeks or whatever they're calling for I'm sorry knees hurt these guys are resisting while they're in their stances and still have to be agile enough to drop into protection and get to that second level within the running attack. And when you add inconsistent play out of Harrison, almost severe ineptitude out of the Raven Clark,

thus far I'd like to at least see another lineman available in-house, so to speak. I mean, they need one of those guys to be there, whether it's a guard or tackle. Those guys, one of them two, Kit O'Brien or Mitch Van Dyke, one of those guys should have made it, in my opinion. That's something that you really just can't have enough, I don't think, on the practice squad, and that's typically what the practice squad is for, is for a good percentage of the guys, at least three to four guys, especially with it ballooning up to 10 people for the practice squad. You need those guys on there that can come in and fill. Offensive linemen get hurt a lot, and we've got some of our guys banged up,

especially one of our better ones. The other guy on the defensive side of the ball was Earl O'Kine, or O'Keen. I'm not sure how you say it. I say it both ways often. But he flashed some great ability rushing the passer. And he changed from positions from last year to this year. May have been better suited in general as a 4-3-D end in the end, but the Colts scheme may be a bit too reliant on a 3-4 base front. And kind of like I said, the NFL is full

of sub packages nowadays, and that's the way it's going. They're forgetting that, in my opinion. And he's proved that he's at a minimum of being one of the more versatile options within the front seven who has a high ceiling. He's a big dude. I'm just not sure what's going to happen. Some of these changes might come back. They may flip-flop a little bit. There's a lot to be done still with the 53, probably even before the first week against Detroit. But it's going to be interesting to see if any of these guys get pulled back in. I think they need to at least pull a couple of them back in. There's a couple that are gone. They're just not coming back to the practice squad. They don't really have any ties to the team. The team and coaching staff are not interested in them,

and they're not going to be here. So this is an interesting year for the Colts roster. To be optimistic about this team is fan-worthy, but it's also sometimes you feel a little bit like you're not being objective about it. But we'll see what happens. Some of these guys could really impress, and we'll just have to see how it works out. The Colts hosted Detroit Lions Sunday at Lucas Oil Stadium in the 425 slot locally, which will be interesting having Jim Caldwell back in the building as well. Last time they met, Colts beat the Lions in Detroit 35-33 on a last-minute pass to Donny Avery after a really serious comeback from Andrew Luck and the Colts in week 13 of his rookie season. We've got episode one in the books, Colts fans.

Let's come back tomorrow. We'll talk about some more things. We'll see how the Colts back seven could be in real trouble this year with some of the injuries, some of the older guys there, some of the guys that they've pulled in in some of those positions. So stay tuned, come back, and we'll see you tomorrow on Locked on Colts.