Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Analyzing GM Chris Ballard's season-ending press conference

Episode Date: January 14, 2022

On today's episode, Evan is joined by Stephen Reed to go over Indianapolis Colts GM Chris Ballard's season-ending press conference. What were the biggest takeaways from Ballard's hour-long press conference with the local media?What Ballard didn't say about Carson Wentz might've been the most eye-opening. What is Wentz's future in Indy?We also go over Ballard's comments on wide receiver, pass rush, coaching staff, and so much more!This is a must-listen, Colts fans, so tune in! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are Locked On Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello everybody, welcome into your latest episode of Locked on Colts. I am your host, Evan Sidery. I'm joined today by Stephen Reed of Stampede Blue. Again, we promised you guys we'd be back with you guys together on Tuesday night to go over what happened on Thursday today, which was the Chris Ballard press conference, the annual season-ending press conference from Chris Ballard.

It went around an hour or so. I watched it live, as did you, Stephen. How are you doing today? No, no, no worries. No, I appreciate it live as did you, Steven. How are you doing today? Oh, no, no, no worries. No, I appreciate it. As always, you coming on. And today, like I mentioned, Steven, we're just gonna be going over the Chris Bauer press conference. And you might as well start off here at the biggest domino that now we're hearing from all three levels of the organization, the same tune. And that means I think the top three in the organization is aligned on it, which might give you a clue into what's going on here with Carson Wentz.

And if you would have said this about two weeks ago, you would be lying to yourself, I think, if you would have thought there's a 50-50 chance or more that Carson Wentz gets replaced this offseason. But, I mean, Jim Irsay, in his story with Mike Chappell a couple days ago, comes out and says that they're going to make a big change and it's going to be happening, guaranteed. Obviously, we heard today from Chris Ballard. was non-committal to Carson Wentz Frank Bauer's non-committal to

Carson Wentz Chris Ballard even at the time of the trade he someone asked him right away he said at that time I thought it was a good trade and just a lot of like past tense stuff about Carson Wentz that made me think this I think it's a lot more serious than people are probably thinking right now Steven because I know people are saying oh like getting rid of Carson Wentz you're gonna eat that dead cap and oh Carson Wentz is an average quarterback and just running back into more weapons but I mean the tune we're hearing over the last 72 hours of the three most important people in the organization who run the team and pay the checks who get the roster in place for a guy who's currently under contract for three more years

and at least under contract guaranteed half of his salary for next year, if you're Carson Wentz, Steven, I mean, you have to be worried right now pretty badly because I just see none, like no support for Carson Wentz at this point. And I think it's to me, it makes me think back to that meeting that Jim Ursa had with Chris Fowler and Frank Wright at the end of the, where maybe at that point it was, hey, we have to move on from quarterback. He just lost us to the playoffs. We've got to move on because some of the quotes from Chris Bauer, hold on just a second, Stephen, but the quotes that Bauer had today about Wentz were pretty damning.

Yeah, and like you mentioned, it's the conditions that he put on it, more so than anything he necessarily said. He wasn't, like, hyper supportive about it. He didn't appear super excited. I watched live on Colts.com the video stream of it. And so you got to see his facial expressions. I think it's always important, especially with Chris Ballard, is to be able to to see his facial expressions is kind of how he reacts to different questions and with respect to carson went they went through

and every single time it was you know like like you mentioned the at the time of the decision we felt good about it and then he qualifies that and, and we still don't regret the decision at the time. Like that, that to me is saying, okay, well, you wouldn't say, you know, at the time we felt good. If right now you didn't feel good about it, you know, you sit there in that situation and you go, I felt good about the decision. I think we made a good trade. We felt good about it. Versus at the time we felt good about it. Versus at the time, we felt good about it. Already puts that thing in there. You know, that question about, you know, whether the team will look at different avenues for the quarterback position. And he says, I think we will look at everything. There's always a solution. Sometimes they aren't ideal,

but they are solutions. Sometimes they're long-term, sometimes they aren't ideal but they are solutions sometimes they're long-term sometimes they're not but i'll look at everything and then he talks about how the fifth the the possibility of having the fifth straight different starting quarterback an opening day and car and chris ballard straight up says i'd like to quit band-aiding it i'd like for carson to be the long-term answer or find somebody that's going to be here for the next 10 to 12 years. It didn't work out that way. I can dream about it, wish about it, and do everything I can to figure out the solution, but you do your best. You can't do what you can at the time, and then you have to make the decision. That's how you do it. To me, none of those comments or re-endorsements of Carson went. and add on the fact that you had Frank Reich earlier in the week you had the discussions that Mike Chappell's had about his his talks with Jim

Ursae none of these things sound like ringing endorsements given you know what we already know and the frustration that fans feel about it and I think one of the the other parts about this is the Colts as an organization as a gift and a curse you have a lot of fans that really know football um and so like we don't sit there and just kind of take it and be like all right well whatever it is what it is you know we trust right no we're going to be critical of them uh when it's deserved but Chris Ballard even straight up said that the loss to Jacksonville was embarrassing and they've got to do better. So it's not like we're saying anything on the outside that they aren't,

you know, echoing on the inside. So, you know, none of the things that Chris Ballard said was a ringing endorsement of Carson Wentz. So you've got to think that they're probably going to be moving on from him this offseason. Just a stunning turn of events, quite honestly, Stephen, because you say that. And, I mean, he was playing okay.

And now just the way it ended, I mean, Jim Mercy said big changes are going to be made. And Chris Bauer did confirm today at his season in the press conference there's going to be no staff changes. So you kind of keep dotting those I's and crossing those T's and you get to the main point of quarterback. And I think that's where it's going to be, whether it's quarterback or roster overhaul.

I think the roster is going to look a lot different next year. Here's the viral quote that went around on Twitter today about Carson Wentz with Chris Ballard. And I just want to get your thoughts on this because this is the entire quote of it. When we made the decision to make a move on Carson, at the time of the decision, we felt good about it. And I still don't regret it.

I won't make a comment on who's going to be here and who's not going to be here. That's not fair. That was the full first quote I heard from Carson Wentz on Chris Ballard. Or, excuse me, Chris Ballard on Carson Wentz. And I know some people saying, like, because Mike Wells forgot to put that and I still don't regret it part in there. But even with that point still in there about I still don't regret it,

it kind of gives the tune, like the way he spoke about it, like at the time I didn't regret it, but now I kind of do. Like some are saying, oh, if you throw that little sentence in there, it makes a difference. But honestly, I think it sounds a little worse, right, Steve? I mean, you think about it, like, and I still don't regret it, but with the way he started off that point, talking about at the time of the decision,

I think at the time he felt good about it, but now he rolled the dice, he took the risk, he point talking about at the time of the decision, I think at the time he felt good about it, but now he, he rolled the dice. He took, he took the risk. He has to look at the consequences. That's what I took from that. Yeah. And I'm on the same boat. I think that at the time he felt good about the decision and he thought that he was probably going to get the better end of that trade. Now I don't like, like I mentioned before it,

when he puts those conditional qualifiers in there, it makes you think that he doesn't like what happened now or what happened since that trade. Because when you think about it, after you make the trade, you get what you hope is going to be a quarterback that works with Frank Reich, that had his best years with Frank Reich as his offensive coordinator and you hope that he's going to become at least go back to like 2018 2018 Carson Wentz and unfortunately like there were stretches of the season where he did but it was the times where he

was like not mobile and he could hardly get around and he had to stay in the pocket and he had to actually throw to the reads that he got. So he had to throw a first read and when you think about it, Carson Wentz had some good games there in the middle of the season. One of them was Baltimore where he just kind of tossed the ball to Jonathan Taylor on little wheel routes and he had huge one of them was you know baltimore where he just kind of tossed the ball to jonathan taylor on little wheel routes and he had huge the jonathan taylor had a huge game it was wild um but yeah you see that these quotes from chris ballard the fact that he he actually said at the time twice

um in that within those first two sentences i i was pulling the the quotes um from kevin bowen um who has like the full quotes on it um and he said like you said when we made them made the move on carson at the time of the decision we felt good about it and i still don't regret the decision at the time like those two at the time in there makes you just, it just throws up red flashers. You're like warning, warning, warning. All right. This, he doesn't feel great about it now. And I think that that's, I don't think anybody in the organization feels great about it now because

they thought he'd be better. They thought that he would learn from it. They thought that his mechanics wouldn't just completely crumble when the game was on the line, when they had an opportunity to make the playoffs. Of course, I mean, Wentz's mechanics just fell off a cliff. And there's no rhyme or reason as to why it happened. And so, you know, you have the quote of him talking about trying to talk to Wentz yesterday and saying, hey, man, you just got to take the layups. Like just take the easy ones. You got to make the

layups. That's all you got to do. Um, and it doesn't sound like that conversation went well. Cause otherwise like Chris Ballard was, he was fiery today about it. And like Chris Ballard is one of the reasons why I love Chris Ballard as a general manager. One of the reasons why I think he's one of the best general managers in the NFL is that he cares. He has that passion and he wears it on his sleeve. So like if you, that's why I like watching the video of it because you get to see that passion in his eyes and you get to see the frustration and you get to see how much he

cares about certain topics. And it was pretty clear that he was trying to avoid just outright criticizing Wentz. But it was also pretty clear that he was trying to couch what he was saying and trying to be as kind of diplomatic as possible. Colts fans, we're all looking for an edge these days. And I'd like to thank OnlineGambling.com for sponsoring today's podcast. If you don't know already, OnlineGambling.com for sponsoring today's podcast. If you don't know already, OnlineGambling.com is a website dedicated to giving bettors the edge. Throughout the

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where it'd be like a Marcus Mariota or Teddy Bridgewater or someone along those lines or Jimmy Garoppolo via trade. Maybe you do that and let Wentz go and if you cut him, but I'm pretty certain whether it's a huge move of quarterback because there's really not many out there except Russell Wilson Aaron Rodgers which are I would say unrealistic at this point but the other ones like we talked about on the podcast before Steven like a Jimmy G or a Kirk Cousins or if you go out and get a veteran that compete with Wentz like a like a Mariota or a Teddy Bridgewater I feel like something's

going to happen there because I just from the tone we've gotten from Ballard, from Reich about Wentz, his own guy, from Ursa to Mike Chappell, I think they're at least going to bring in some competition to see if Carson Wentz will fold or not. Yeah, I definitely think they could bring in competition. I don't think that's going to be... I don't think they're going to let it just sit now at this point. There's no way that I think that Carson Wentz just comes in

and is handed the starting gig next year. I think he's going to have to earn it if he's even on the roster. I wouldn't be surprised if the Colts went ahead and straight up cut him because, again, you get $13 million in cap space back. And, yeah, okay, that $15 million in dead cap, that stinks. But when somebody directly asked that question at the press conference today, said whether the $15 million is going to be an influence on what what they do next season chris ballard said and a quote that's always an influence but we've done a really good job in that area mike bloom has done a great job with our cap end quote that's you know

it's telling me that they're weighing all their options and they're not afraid to just cut them and eat that, that year salary that 15 million and say, all right, I'd rather, I'd rather just eat 15 million than be forced to pay you 28. Um, so I think that, you know, I don't think the cap's going to play much of an influence on it. And I think they're going to look at potentially bringing in, like you said, somebody that, from the list that we talked about on Tuesday, somebody around there that makes sense. I don't know if San Francisco will trade Jimmy G

because they've still got a guy on a rookie deal there with Trey Lance. So they could effectively keep both of them and still only pay like 33 million dollars to the quarterback position and so I'm not sure that the Jimmy G might be available for if he doesn't get cut I'm not sure the Colts will trade for him I do think that they're going to swing big if they can and try to go get Aaron Rodgers or Russell Wilson. I know that it's going to be tough, but, you know, you pair them. You try to send them Carson Wentz and send them two first-round picks and hope that they take that and see what you can do. I know Seattle is pretty known to make some moves.

The one thing that I would say in terms of going and getting Russell Wilson or Aaron Rodgers is that Chris Ballard did say he'd like to get somebody here for the next 10 to 12 years. That's not Aaron Rodgers. Aaron Rodgers is what, 38, 39 years old. So that's probably not going to be him. Russell Wilson is 33, I believe. So it could be Russell Wilson. But realistically, you're looking at probably going and trying to get somebody young. Who knows? Maybe Green Bay might swallow their pride and trade Jordan Love.

Who knows? Trade Jordan Love for cheap and see what the Colts can do there. Because that would be a guy that could be around for 10 years. And if Green Bay wants to placate Aaron Rodgers and get rid of Jordan Love, who might work um but I just don't see the Colts sticking with Carson Wentz and I don't see them just handing the keys over to him next year yeah one last point here on Wentz for you some other stuff we found interest from the press conference I just found it ironic and funny at the same time that Chris Bauer mentioned on that quote that about Wentz I'm not going to comment on who will be here next year,

but then about 10 minutes later says Quentin's a cult for life and I want Molly Cox back. He's openly talking about other guys who might or might not be on the roster next year in a way where he wants them back on the roster. So I feel that's kind of an interesting little thing I wanted to add on there is because he's being very vague about Carson Wentz, but like we mentioned before with these Bauer press conferences, if you follow the breadcrumb trail,

more often than not, you get to the right answer. And honestly, at this point, I'm more 60-40 that he's gone after these comments today from Ballard. Yeah, I mean, I was – I think I was already at 60-40 when we talked earlier in the week. I'm probably – I'm probably close to like 80% sure that he's going to be gone. So one way or another, I just don't think he's going to be here because that's a really good point, what you talked about,

is that Chris Ballard mentioning he doesn't want to talk about who's going to be here next year or not, and then making the comments with Mo Alleycox and Clinton Nelson, and then like Michael Strawn and the different guys on the team. So it's really interesting that that you you caught that let's hit on the wide receivers real quick because this is kind of the part that was very concerning to me but also if i remember correctly we had the same conversation last year and this could be a thing where if you know chris ballard you can again follow that breadcrumb trail

back to his former comments and really find his answer. If I'm not mistaken, because Chris Ballard today was very adamant, very positive about his wide receivers. Oh, we have legit wide receivers. Like, you guys doubted me on Michael Pittman. And like, I think Pass is a good wide receiver. We have some young guys in the development trail as well. But if I remember correctly, Steven, I'm like 90% sure.

I haven't had a chance to look at this before we started recording, but I'm like 90% sure he said the exact same thing last year about the edge rush, and he did the exact opposite of what he said. So that's something to watch out for, because he was very gloving about the wideouts today that we all know is a huge issue. And I think, quite honestly, looking back at his press conference from last year with the pass rush, I think it might be just him saying the opposite so he can cover his bases

and kind of do the opposite thing in free agency or the draft. Yeah, I wondered where you're going with that, to be honest, because I was like, once you started into that and you mentioned last year, I was going, I think he said the opposite, because he talked about the pass rush and the defensive end, and then he drafted two in the draft. So, yeah, I don't know where you're going with this. But then you said that.

I was like, ah, okay, I got you. Yeah, I think that that's exactly what he's doing here. To be honest, he talked up a couple of players that are going to be let go or going to be free agents. You know, Zach Pascoe is probably going to be gone at this point. T.Y. is probably going to retire. You know, he likes Desmond Patmanman, Doolin and Michael Strawn. Um, so you've got those four guys plus, or those three guys plus, uh, Michael Pittman.

It, I want to throw something out here real quick. Cause I don't know what Colt fan was saying that they didn't think Pittman was going to be pretty good. Cause if, if, and all of you can go back and check the tape. I was screaming for them to get Michael Pittman because I thought he was going to be a star receiver back in like December or January of that year's draft. So I was beyond excited for them to go get Michael Pittman.

And most of us Colts fans, or at least the ones that you guys all probably follow on Twitter that know a little bit about football, were ecstatic about the Michael Pittman pick. So I don't know who Chris Ballard or his burner account's following, but he should follow some of us that are better suited to talk about football. Because apparently some fans just don't know football. But yeah, I thought it was interesting, like you said, that he brought up the wide receiver position and spoke so glowingly of it when he did the exact same thing about the defensive end position last year and then went out and drafted two defensive ends really early. Now, again, I don't know if Quidipe is not there at 21.

I mean, the Colts don't take a defensive end in the first round. Quidipe is not there, then they're probably looking at left tackle there and, you know, look at it. Barrymore there, who is the tackle that I think Minnesota took right after? Christian. Derisaw. Yeah, Derisaw. Derisaw. Darisaw.

Darisaw. I think he would have probably been the pick there at 21, but that's really beside the point. The fact is they went out and did some things and mind you, they talked about the defensive end position last year and then let Justin Houston and let Nico Autry walk. He let some veterans walk talking about how, how good he felt about it. I think they'll probably do that again this year and let Zach Pas Autry walk. He let some veterans walk, talking about how good he felt about it. I think they'll probably do that again this year

and letting Zach Paschal walk, letting T.Y. retire, because I just don't see T.Y. coming back at this point. And so T.Y. might go back. Who knows? Chris Bell has spoke glowingly of him, saying that he was one of the smartest football players he's ever been around. And at times, T.Y. was pretty good this year um in certain situations and flashes but he had a lot of injuries this year too um and some scary ones so my hope is um T.Y. does what's best for him

I think he's probably going to retire though yeah I agree on your assessment there just to hit on really quickly about T.Y. and Doyle. I think we kind of found out Ballard's answer, what he thinks is going to happen there, because him mentioning Molly Cox as a priority re-signing in free agency, he plays the exact same role as Jack Doyle. He's not a field vertical speed stretch tight end. He's not a guy who's going to go down and get you 10, 12 touchdowns per year.

He plays the exact same role as Jack Doyle. So if they're already saying that internally, like we're looking at Molly Cox, one of the guys we need to re-sign, I think they already know the answer about Doyle and Hilton, to be quite honest. I think both those guys are going to be retiring and probably be in the ring of honor in the next couple of years. Yeah, I think Doyle's – the one positive part about Doyle retiring is to ultimately get $5 million back in their cap.

They probably use that just to sign Zach Ertz, to be honest. I think Zach Ertz, once his season in Arizona is done, he'll be coming here to Indianapolis. Well, maybe. I don't know. If Wentz isn't here, I'm not sure about that now that I think about it because back after the Arizona game, you could see them talking about it and there is rumors that they were saying that Wentz and Ertz talked about them playing together in Indianapolis. And so they, I, yeah, if Ertz isn't here, or if Wentz isn't here,

I'm not sure Ertz would come, although Ertz does have, I believe he has ties to the Indianapolis area. But yeah, so yeah, that's, yeah, hurts does have, I believe he has ties to the Indianapolis area. Um, but yeah, so, um, yeah, that's, yeah,

maybe he doesn't, I don't know. No, no, I didn't think about that. He might not. Yeah. Honestly.

Yeah. Unless they keep once around, I think hurts, um, stay, hurts will come here, but if they don't, if once is gone,

I think they'll probably go in a different direction. They'd probably go at Dalton Schultz, to be honest, and then either an O.J. Howard or a Mike Kisecki, somebody like that. That's another podcast for March. Hey, Colts fans. This is Evan Sire with an incredible app everyone who buys gas needs to know about, GetUpside. My list is going to make up to $0.25 for every gallon of gas every time I fill up.

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Yeah, let's hit on free agency real quick, because Ballard did mention that, but I also think it's probably him playing it close to the vest. But I think if Chris Ballard doesn't spend a little bit in free agency, with how ticked off Jim Irsay has been the last 72 hours, I think Chris Bauer's seat might be a little warm because I know he was saying, oh, we'll spend it when it's the right amount. It's got to be the right player.

But this class of weapons for free agency, I know some won't make the open market, but a lot of them I think will. This is a loaded class of wide receiver at tight end. Also getting some veteran pass, which is a couple of that should make the market there that could play a Justin Houston role. I think this team is set up well.

Like you mentioned, you'll get $5 million more for Jack DeLisle retiring. You get $15 million more potentially if you cut Carson Wentz. So this should be around $60, $65, $70 million they could have if they do some roster maneuvering. They can go out and make at least two splashes for A&C

and still re-sign Quentin Nelson to his extension if you want to pay him a year early and still have enough flexibility to make some other moves later on. I think Chris Bowers is playing close to the vest there in the media. He's not going to give out his intentions to the other NFL teams six weeks in advance there. So I think the Colts are going to spend in free agency and make at least one, one big move.

But what's your thoughts on that? Yeah, I think they're going to spend a little bit in free agency and make at least one one big move but what's your thoughts on that yeah i think i think they're gonna spend a little bit in free agency i still don't think that he's gonna go and go on like a what new england did last year and like a massive free agent spending spree um you know although you know they they did it and they won um you know if the colts look at potentially a rookie quarterback or a young quarterback, it would behoove them to get some high quality weapons, specifically tight ends, because tight ends are very valuable in Frank Reich's system. And they're security blankets for all of the young quarterbacks.

Quite honestly, pretty much all quarterbacks are security blankets for. But if you're looking at the wide receiver position, I've talked about it before. Chris Godwin, Michael Gallup are my two top options for the Colts. Mike Williams would also be a guy that they could look at, you know, as well as Christian Kirk. Mike Williams from the Los Angeles Chargers and then Christian Kirk from the Arizona Cardinals would be a couple guys that they could also look at. Allen Robinson is a guy that I've loved to be with the Colts for years, but I just don't know anymore how he's going to continue to play.

When you look at the tight end position, I mentioned before we've got Zach Ertz there. I think you're probably more so looking at somebody like an O.J. maybe a David Njoku or Mike Kisecki or even maybe a Dalton Schultz there. I could see him. I can honestly see Chris Ballard double dipping at the tight end position to pair Moali Cox with Dalton Schultz, Mike KSecchi, and Kellen Granson. I just feel like that could be a really potent mix at the tight end position. It gives you a lot of variables to work your offense out of. So I just see that potentially being an option there for the Colts

that they might look at. Yeah, I am totally lockstep with you on that as well. And last point here before we wrap up today's show, appreciate the time as always, Stephen. Was there any other big takeaways from the presser today that you want to hit on? Because a lot of it was obviously around Carson Wentz and his future. Now it's even more cloudier and murkier than we first thought 24 hours ago

after hearing Chris Ballard speak on the situation. But he went over a couple other things as well. We hit on wide receiver, hit on free agency, some other things too. Was there anything else you wanted to hit on here on the podcast about the Ballard press? Because you go around an hour or so on a lot of topics. Yeah, a couple things. One, Frank Ray is not going anywhere anytime soon.

Chris Ballard loves him. The organization loves him. And it's easy to see why. He's a very good coach. And he's been put in some tough situations. And Chris Ballard owned it, which I thought was really good. The other thing is there's always discussions as free agency rolls around, and especially with the Colts having left tackle issues,

whether they want to move Quentin Nelson out to left tackle. Chris Ballard shot that down and said, basically, hell no. You're not moving him over there. It makes no sense to do that. Then there was a little bit of talk about the pass rush. He talks about how he needs to get better at it. So I think that they're, again, I think that they might look at the pass rush and free agency and try to work at that because it just makes a lot of sense for them to go in that direction. So I think that he's going to be a little bit more aggressive. It was pretty clear that Jim Irsay wants to get a little bit of a change in there because he needs to

make a point to get more pressure on the coaching staff on Chris Ballard that they need to start winning. There's also an interesting discussion with people were asking about maybe a switch to a 3-4. And Chris Ballard made a comment about how it really doesn't matter because ultimately you always have four down linemen anyway no matter we were playing a 3-4 or 4-3 so I thought that was just just kind of interesting you know that he said it like that so I look for them to to potentially look at a a young defensive end I don't really really know what the class has in terms of top quality free agents. At the defensive end position, you've got older guys like Von Miller and Chandler Jones. Chandler Jones is a beast, by the way. But then Hassan Redick is more of an outside linebacker.

So I don't know whether they're going to change the scheme and things like that but I don't think Chris Ballard is going to make any kind of massive change like you said earlier about to the coaching staff so nobody's going to get fired necessarily um but I wouldn't be surprised if somebody like Matt Eberflus gets hired away to be a head coach somewhere um and the Colts make that transition to a different defensive coordinator um and there's a couple guys I could see you know coaches that just not have their contracts renewed so those are some some other things but it's not anything from Chris Ballard's press conference um but yeah those are the the two big takeaways is is Reich's not going to work. Chris Bowdard loves him and understandably so.

And then that Quentin Nelson's not moving from that left guard spot. One last thing here I want to throw on top of that is I actually found Kevin Bowen's story from last year about the exact same conversation with Chris Bowdard at the season end press conference about the edge rush we talked about earlier. He did mention that edge was a need. He did talk about Houston and Autry. So I wanted to step that back a little bit just because it seemed like he was actually

very intrigued about improving the edge rush. He bet big on Ture and Banigou. Obviously, that didn't work out, but he did go out and get pay and Dio. So maybe it's the same thing with wide receiver that I think, honestly, at this point, I think wide receiver in the draft is probably the way they go on that, just knowing how Chris Bowers spends that position, and I wouldn't be shocked by that. But one more thing on the quarterback as well,

because here's the exact thing that he said about Phillip Rivers. He wants Phillip Rivers back in 2021. This makes it even more damning, in my opinion, to Carson Wentz. Do I think Phillip Rivers is a winning quarterback that he can win and go to the Super Bowl with? Absolutely, I do. And then we just hit on for 30 minutes about what he said about Carson Wentz, winning quarterback that he can win and go to the Super Bowl with? Absolutely, I do. And then we just hit on for 30 minutes about what he said about Carson Wentz saying, oh, like pretty much just saying,

at the time I thought it was the right decision, not going to make a comment who is going to be next year and who is not. That is the polar opposite answer of a guy who sounds confident as quarterback with Rivers if he came back for one more year at age 39, compared to a guy at age 29, 10 years younger than Carson Wentz, who it's not he's completely sour I'm just looking at those quotes head-to-head there that is a polar opposite difference yeah the quotes from from Carson Wentz is a lot more like what they said about Jacoby

Brissett before they let him walk um to be totally honest it's it's a lot more like that and it's the like you said the polar opposite of what they said about Phillip Rivers last year. Yeah, definitely says a lot without saying much, so to say, with what Chris Bauer said today. We covered every angle for you guys here. Appreciate you coming on, Stephen, as you always do on the podcast. We'll have you back on here in a little bit. I know we're going to be covering now into the office. We're going to be having some combine and draft talks and free A&T's talk.

So we'll hit on that in the meantime. Steve, we'll probably have you back on here next month to talk about a lot of stuff when we get closer to the combine. But in the meantime, man, appreciate you having, having you on throughout the season as a regular guest. And,

uh, it was a lot of fun. I know a lot of our listeners enjoyed our conversations too. So appreciate the time. All right. Thanks Evan. Have a good one and have a safe off season. Everybody.