Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - CAMP CONFIDENTIAL: Indianapolis Colts QB Battle, Lou Anarumo's Impact, and PLAYOFFS?! (w/ Ben Solak)

Starting point is 00:00:00 Colts training camp starts this week. Who's going to win QB one? How much difference will Lou Anarumo make and will the Colts make the playoffs? Ben Solek from ESPN joins today to tell us what he thinks. Let's get to it. You are locked on Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. All right. Thanks for tuning in and making us your first listen of the day. This is your daily podcast covering your Indianapolis Colts, part of the

Starting point is 00:00:40 Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. And today's show is brought to you by Fandual. Right now, new customers can get $150 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. What is up friends and family? We got a special guest with us here today. I am Jake Arthur, he is Zach Hicks, you know us from horseshoehuddle.com.

Starting point is 00:01:01 And we have got our boy Ben so lack f us today. It's been quite was on here to help us pr coming to the cults. And a couple years in, we're with Shane Stike and Ben I think we may have all m I think you coming back m in what we need in order for the

Starting point is 00:01:26 Colts to get kind of this thing rolling because it hasn't gone smoothly so far. I'd say was was my appearance did Harold good times for the Colts? I'm not sure you could say the last two years have been like a success. I'm hoping I can get a little more coming. I mean it was better than it was better than 2022. I mean with Jeff Saturday and that. So it did lead to somewhat better times, just not great times for the Colts. Yeah. The tagline of the Chris Ballard era, somewhat better times. Right, exactly.

Starting point is 00:01:55 Exactly. Tripping in water with Chris Ballard. Now we've got Ben here today to kind of give us a pretty, you know, overhead view of the Colts right now. We're about to start training camp here. Tuesday, they report Wednesday, they hit the field for the first practice. And all off season, everything has been,

Starting point is 00:02:12 yeah, the Colts can do this if the quarterback situation is adequate enough. So Ben, when you look at, I've seen you've written about this and it's just kind of a mystery to everybody. When you look at Anthony Richardson going into year three, feels like kind of a do or die thing. Daniel Jones getting kind of a second chance at life

Starting point is 00:02:32 in the NFL, it seems, after kind of fading out with the Giants. What's your gauge on this Colts quarterback situation? And I mean, do you have a guess at what you think might happen? Yeah, so firstly, we should say it's, there's a quarterback competition and it's pretty rare that we see a quarterback competition, like an actual one, usually it's rookie versus vet quarterback competition.

Starting point is 00:02:54 Like we'll see if the young guy coming in, Richardson's obviously in year three, right? And, and from the amount of football he's played, you could say this still reads as rookie versus vet. That'd be very fair. Um, but in general, like it's rare to see third year guy versus six, seven, eight year guy Daniel Jones, right? And seven, yeah, yeah. Seven year guy Daniel Jones and say, hey, like, you know, like, you know, kind of joker pool stick, snap it, toss in the middle and say, somebody come out of this room,

Starting point is 00:03:18 you know, like that's how they're gonna do it. My, you know, I think if the story on Anthony Richardson over the last two years were inconsistent play when he played, super injured, and now he's fighting with Daniel Jones, I would say, oh, you know, whatever, 50-50, and if Richardson's healthy, and obviously he has the guy who might actually be the future of the team,

Starting point is 00:03:35 and they probably still want him to win it. When you fold in some of the off-field, it's the wrong word, like next to the field, sideline stuff, which is when you talk about the tap in the head and the benching and whatever, you do wonder the degree to which they have continued faith in Anthony Richardson, such that I think it's probably early-edge Daniel Jones in camp. It's silly because Jones is not going to do anything to lose a job in camp. He's Daniel

Starting point is 00:04:00 Jones. He will behave. He will obey. He will do what he's supposed to do in this game, and he will throw accurate footballs five to 12 yards down the field. And Richardson is not going to do anything in camp to win the job other than what you already know, right? He's going to hit like four insane throws, right? So he can still going to have some bad accuracy sprays. Yes. Like obviously the number one thing he can do to win it is like just be healthy for the entirety of camp. So it's hard to figure out like what's going to move the needle on them between now and and September 1st But my guess is gonna be that Daniel Jones is the starter and that we see both of them for a decent amount of games

Starting point is 00:04:30 Over the course of the year. Yeah No, I completely agree and I really wanted to pick your brain here about Daniel Jones because you know when a player becomes part Of your team your favorite team as a fan No matter what they did before they become very good all of a sudden in your head, you know They could be the biggest bust in the world. The second they joined my team. Don't worry. Things are different now They're gonna be better and I kind of want to pick your brain on Daniel Jones in general because we have seen Some quarterbacks in a new destination look better Baker Mayfield has found a new groove with Tampa Bay Then what he did I guess his rookie year in Cleveland was like that. And then it went downhill and then he became what he is now.

Starting point is 00:05:06 We saw Alex Smith continue his high end play at the end of his San Fran tenure, carry that into Kansas City and look good. Do you think Daniel Jones could be a quarterback that could revitalize his career? Or when you were watching him in New York, it's like, man, this is kind of just who he is. Yeah. So it's a hundred percent within his range of outcomes, right? Where Jones joins who I think is the best offensive play caller he's ever had in Shane Steichen.

Starting point is 00:05:29 I know people rate Brian Dable, and Dable I think traded a lot, unlike the, I helped Josh Allen get good, but the more years we get away from that, more it feels like, hey, maybe Josh Allen just got good. And so to me, like Steichen is the best offensive play caller that Jones has been around. This, these weapons better than getting me started, started right the second best player that Daniel Jones ever

Starting point is 00:05:46 Tell me football to his Darius Slayton You know like this is like it's like the one year of Darren Waller the one year of Golden Tate Like it's it's probably actually Malik neighbors like us neighbors. You know here gets better and then establishes himself, but in general It's been a very very thin Pass catching options for Jones there in New York It's now he gets a room with Josh Downs and Michael Pimmons and Tyler Warren in at an. It might like not be amazing, but it's been really hard that going to be bad, right?

Starting point is 00:06:10 That's a pretty good room. The office of line, which again, like there are question marks, there is uncertainty, but it's probably going to be a good offensive line again. Yeah. This is the best offensive nucleus that he's enjoyed. And so there's, there's worlds where you get that resurgent year from Daniel Jones. Now when we talk about the names, we're talking about Baker Mayfield who what the the Jeremy Fowler's less free SP

Starting point is 00:06:29 I had Mayfield's the 10th best quarterback in football coming off like a 45 touchdown season You know like this is kind of the peak for Mayfield other than that the names are kind of Gino, right? He's done in their Seattle. You can argue Sam Donald with what he pulled off this past season with Minnesota So we're talking about guys who are outside of the top 10 of quarterbacks. So you still need to be like really, really, really good everywhere else, offensive weaponry and then on the defensive side of the ball to make a run with that guy. Now, if you can pull it off, great. It means Shane's like, it's a dude, it means Josh Jones is a dude.

Starting point is 00:06:56 It means you have guys, but again, you have to, you have to understand the hard cap on that. Like even if Jones bounces back in a way that excites Colts fans, you're probably still going gonna have the same problem that you've had in Indianapolis for a while, which is, okay, how do we get through the AFC here? How do we actually make playoff noise? Yeah, and so I think that's kind of the balance

Starting point is 00:07:13 Colts fans are kind of struggling with right now is wanting the season to not just be so ugly and clunky like it has been, but also getting a quarterback that you can ride with for multiple years next offseason. I really don't know how that all winds up working out, but we'll see. Otherwise outside of Daniel Jones, you know, the biggest thing to Colts did offensively this off season was add Tyler Warren. So you were familiar with Shane Steichen before he got here to Indy. And this is really like the first time he hasn't really had much going on at tight end, but now he does. So how much can this kind of help unlock Shane Stikin a little bit?

Starting point is 00:07:50 Because he has shown that he's a good play caller with the Colts, but it feels a little hamstrung at the same time. Yeah, I really, really don't know. I would love to have a good answer for that. That's fair. There's two reasons why. And the first is because when Stikin was at his best, right, and going back to the 22 season with the Eagles with Jaylen Hurtson and with Dallas Goddard, the way that they kind of weaponized Goddard was they had the little like Chris Collinsworth famously called it the run past

Starting point is 00:08:14 run option, right, which is like more complex of a description than you need. But that little play action boot concept or Dallas Goddard would be like the the split zone block, the slide block, then you leak out to the route and throw it to him. That was like 65% of his usage and it was just awesome. Like it was just it was like the easiest play and they just bang bang bang bang bang press the big red button. And defenses are gonna be a lot better against that than they were that year. Other than that, like, I don't have great strong memories of like, oh, this Shane Stike in tight end usage was

Starting point is 00:08:40 like mind boggling, right? It's not like, you know, you look at like Clint Kubiak in Seattle and like this Kyle Shan entry and you're like, Oh, these guys tight ends, like, it's gonna be some stuff, you know, with with with second, it's, you know, you can't think of him weaponizing the tight end position as much. So you have that over here. On the other side, you have Tyler Warren, Penn State was like, they did some weird stuff. You know, he, I personally liked Colston Loveland more than Tyler

Starting point is 00:09:06 Warren coming out of the drafts. I thought Loveland was very plug and chug Warren is very like if you're going to get juice out of this guy, you need to have a whole chapter of the playbook that's called Tyler Warren weird stuff, right? Like he'd like he is a very yak dependent player, you want to get the ball in his hands in a lot of space behind the line of scrimmage and let him rumble and jumble right now he can make contested catch down the field. But a lot of that stuff is like ghost screens and like RPO switch up plays and

Starting point is 00:09:28 like play action pass goofy stuff. Right. He wasn't at Penn State like ripping off posts routes. Like that's just not, that's not his, his style of game. Then obviously there's the backfield stuff as well. And so you have a guy in Stiken who I like, we haven't really seen him be like a tight end centric dude in terms of his play calling. And maybe it was like a Chargers offense. I'm, I'm not remembering well, but in general, like that's't really seen him be like a tight end centric dude in terms of his play calling and maybe there's like a charger's offense I'm not remembering well

Starting point is 00:09:47 But in general like that's my understanding of him and then there's Warren who like very much you want to sculpt a big part Of the playbook around him. So what's it gonna look like? I Will be reading every training camp update you guys have try to figure that out because there's a lot of worlds We're like Tyler Warren It's like an 1112 touchdown player because they have like a huge red zone package for him There's a lot of worlds where he's the eighth best you know pass catcher in football on third downs. He's got a huge third down package for him but you don't exactly know what his usage is going to be. The fact that they invested this highly in him implies it's going to

Starting point is 00:10:13 be something it's going to be valuable. We're going to find out more as we go along. Yeah and I love that you mentioned there about how Tyler Warren you kind of need to have this like wonky usage of him in a way. It's kind of how it is. And I think when I think of like, when I really look at Shane Stike, and he's the best in my opinion, at just looking at what a player does well, and just we're gonna spam that with that guy. Josh Downs, we're gonna ISO you backside,

Starting point is 00:10:35 and you're gonna get a linebacker or a safety one-on-one, and just run a little choice route. That's what you're gonna do 15 times a game, 20 times a game, and you're gonna get like six catches on that. You know, when you look at A.D. Mitchell last year, A.D. Mitchell, very raw wide receiver, wasn't really exactly where, you know, he needed to be as a full time guy. But when he got on the field backside through by one's a ball by himself and press man coverage against a corner and he's going to win that matchup.

Starting point is 00:11:00 And then they had him throw in some passes last year, too. Maybe hopefully Tyler Warren can do those or something maybe this year But yeah, I think those Colts are kind of uniquely situated to where they will probably do something like that with Warren But I'm with what you said They don't really have that in Shane Stikens past in terms of just this kind of tight end because Tyler Warren's so weird as a tight end Yeah, which is what I should make this clear I was conflating it. The fact that I haven't seen in the past

Starting point is 00:11:27 of a Stike can make it hard for me to predict what it will be. I'm confident it will exist because Shane's good at what he does, right? It's not like, oh, like they're gonna just, you know, throw them three passes a game and use them like Johnny Munt. Like that's not gonna happen because Shane's good at what he does.

Starting point is 00:11:38 And so I'm curious to see it. Yeah. Yeah, Shane's kind of a, will fit the scheme around the players type of guy, which I think luckily, you know, you give him a good player. He's not going to find a way to overcomplicate it. I don't think. Uh, but coming up guys, the offense obviously was pretty clunky last year,

Starting point is 00:11:54 but the defense was not a saving grace either, but they got a new coordinator and Lou Anna Rummo and we are going to talk to Ben all about. Summer sports are in full swing and whether you're going to talk to Ben all about. Summer sports are in full swing and whether you're all about baseball under the lights, golf on the green, or high stake soccer action, Fandl is the best way to make every game even more exciting. Plus you're already following all the action so why not make it a little more thrilling. With Fandl you can get in on the game while your friends are getting sunburned at the beach. It's easy to use, it's fast to pay out and it makes even regular season games feel like

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Starting point is 00:13:53 BetterHelp can provide access to mental health professionals with a diverse variety of expertise. Unwind from work with BetterHelp. Our listeners get 10% off of your first month at betterhelp.com slash locked on. That's better help. H e l p.com slash locked on. Alright guys, so Colts got a new defensive coordinator this off season out goes Gus Bradley with what we can probably consider a relatively predictable defense, a little static, if you will. And then in comes a guy, Lou Anarumo, who is known for versatility, you know, multiplicity. We've heard a lot of those words thrown around whenever people talk about Lou Anarumo. So a lot of the

Starting point is 00:14:39 same personnel then, but I mean, you add in a Tra sporting cam, can't buy them, which are obviously big additions. But this defense is also really, it seems like reliant on a second year jump from like a layout to lot. Two there are some concerning parts there that didn't really do much with linebacker other than lose guys, really, but kind of sounds like they're

Starting point is 00:15:00 hoping for addition by subtraction. If we're being real about it. So what's your gauge on this defense this year? Because obviously a lot like they're hoping for addition by subtraction if we're being real about it. So what's your gauge on this defense this year? Cuz obviously a lot of focus on the offensive side of the ball. But there's some changes defensively as well. It's gonna be a solid defense. I think it's gonna be better than it's been.

Starting point is 00:15:17 They continue to have the depth that I treasure, right? It angles out of the building, to him allows in the building, right? They're gonna continue to have lines there. They're hoping to get I will come back right? I think that you're gonna see like you don't know how what is effectiveness is gonna be but they're gonna horses right and they're Gonna have the ability to brush through the pocket like you say like a jump from lots who yeah like he right now you have a lot of guys who Disrupt and you'd like to have a primary sack at her and the ability to actually get the quarterback down

Starting point is 00:15:40 I think that that's the big expectation for lots of when you speak there in the first round So that's obviously a key difference I'm really interested to see how the run defense ends up working just because You know with Gus it was like we're gonna be gapped out We're gonna be plus one in the box Lou is gonna be a lot more willing to play with neutral boxes than that and from a personnel perspective like obviously they have the the defensive tackle duo but Those guys are getting up there and linebacker wise. They're not big at all Right, and so I think they do there

Starting point is 00:16:05 I don't know what a lot of their solutions are gonna be yet For the questions of when they run into the heavy personnel teams that want to be too backs They want to be too tight ends. I want to get under center and run the football That's something that remains a an uncertainty but in the secondary I've always been a big fan of what Lou does in the defensive backfield I think he coaches extremely well against the elite offenses against the best quarterbacks. He makes them hold on to football. He makes them hesitate. And a lot of the issues that the Bengals have is just, they did not have the horses to pull that off in the defensive backfield over the last couple of years. Talked about Shane adjusting your personnel.

Starting point is 00:16:35 Lou could have done a little better job adjusting to personnel. Lou's pretty my way or the highway when it comes to his defense. Um, but they went out and they got camped on them. They got to our various war. They have the dudes such that they should be Able to pull this off And have a good back seven when they get into those long and lay downs run defense is the question mark But I think moving on from Bradley and getting ideas coordinator like Lou is in improvement I think it's a step up independent of some of the personnel changes Yeah, I very much agree with you on run defense, especially if one of those defensive tackles were to go down this year

Starting point is 00:17:01 They're real fit. Yeah, it's uh, it's not great It's what Neville Gallimore is their next man up on the interior. And that's not really a guy you want playing like a nose position or a guy who's going to be too gapping or anything like that. That's not really a guy that you want as like your primary focal point, the run defense. So I do think run defense will be a bit of an issue. I think, you know, Nick Cross being in the box will help. But again, that's a smaller defender who's good tackler,

Starting point is 00:17:26 but he's not going to stack and shed. Are they going to give the Mazzucchi a thousand snaps? Is that the plan? Next? They might. They might. Is it Carly's or Carlize? Carlize. I always want to call him Carly's, but it's Carlize. He's got to be healthy though. He missed half the year last year on IR and then he had to get surgery on the shoulder that was injured and he hasn't he and Zyra Franklin were unable to participate in the offseason program and that's not great guys that's what I'm saying I I complain

Starting point is 00:17:57 about it every episode on here but wait then I gotta I gotta throw out my because we did a bold prediction the other day and I gotta throw this out you. I said on my bold predictions the other day that whether it's due to injury or just due to Lou love and his veterans, I said Joe Bocci is going to get the second most snaps in that room. Yeah, just because you're watching if Joe Bocci is getting the second most snaps to all the linebackers on the cold Steve. I'd like to redact my statement about the past defense too. Well, because there's a very limited range of influence for the young man Bashi, unfortunately.

Starting point is 00:18:27 No, for sure. I'm trying to look and see who's the available off-ball linebacker. Joanne Bentley is still around. I feel like Kezier White would be a good solution to that problem. Overlapped in Philly a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, the other solutions there

Starting point is 00:18:45 But I did want to look at this defensive backfield again with you because adding a charvarius ward adding a Cameron Bynum I mean this was a secondary the last couple years where Chris Ballard was rolling out like rookies and former undrafted free agents Out there and the secondary now you have a starting five of you know You know when you're in nickel Kenny Moore Charvarius Ward, Jaylen Jones Then you have Nick cross and Cameron Bynum Plus you got you know a third round pick and Justin Wally who I know a lot of people liked more than most media members There you have juju Brents could just give you anything that's good there So it's like when you're looking at this Luan Rumo defense in general

Starting point is 00:19:22 How important is it to have the dogs in the defensive backfield like the Colts have? So the number one stressor on a Luan Rumo defense is communication. It's formation snap recognition. They're going to break the defensive huddle with a lot called, right? And when they want to play as much zone and they play zone with vision, with eyes, right? This is like, you know, we are dropping into zone coverage, we are covering an area of the field, they're going to meld those zones and change those responsibilities very heavily on who's lined up where is the fast guy at the three easy in the slides, you have the one okay, they overloaded, okay, what's the route distribution

Starting point is 00:19:55 look like there's a lot. This is a complex defense for the defensive backs seven. So if you do not have good safeties, if you do not have guys at the back end to get everybody's head screwed on straight, then you end up in a really bad way. And that's why I think Bynum is a very, very important player to them. The absolute best thing that Bynum did during his time with Minnesota is that he was smart cookie and he understood how to play his zones where they're sending a lot of blitzes. And so it's a lot of like, okay, you have to be able to take one guy away and then take a second guy away.

Starting point is 00:20:22 He has a great field sense. Those guys who play deep middle all the time, they just see everything develop. They're constantly getting more and more information. So there's watching routes over and over and over again. They see so much. So I think Bynum is a very important player. And then with Ward, I think you needed to have a corner one because he clarifies Jalen Jones,

Starting point is 00:20:38 who you like a lot better as a corner two than you like as a corner one. He clarifies Kenny Moore, who you like a lot better in the slot than you like on the outside, right? And so like if they had walked into this year with Jones and with Moore and with Juju, or like, in Ballantine, you'd be like, okay, like there are please are playable guys,

Starting point is 00:20:52 they're fine. But like, you're going to lose to like Brian Thomas Jr. Because he's just better than anybody you're going to get across from him, which are various where you actually have a puncher's chance there. And so that the the additions are good. The big thing about the additions is how well they communicate how well they gel, how they clarify the other roles, if you get five guys in secondary, seven guys in the defensive back seven, you include the linebackers all row in the boat in the same

Starting point is 00:21:13 direction, this can be a really good defense. It's just it's a big, it's a big menu, like would not be surprised if they're shaking in September, right? And there's coverage bust, there's mistakes, there's big games, and I get better October, November, December. Yeah, that was actually what I was gonna ask you next was do you think this is a defense where we see kind of the peak Of them being in like December and you kind of answered it there because that's kind of what I've been saying too recently It's like September this might be a bit of an issue

Starting point is 00:21:35 Especially coming from the defense there a lot of these guys are coming from and Gus Bradley where it's pretty static get to your zone Drops come up and tackle here You're asked to read a lot of different things and change a lot of coverages, like you said, based off of what you're seeing from the offense. Yeah, and lose defense, it took lose defense a couple of years in Cincinnati to get off the ground. But also, there was like COVID time,

Starting point is 00:21:57 and so it's a little bit hard to be like, oh, so that's a thing, like that will happen again. You don't really know the extent of that, and you don't know how much better Lou's gotten at like teaching stuff and changing stuff and whatever. And he has like, very established veteran guys in ward and in Biden who are very good at what they do. And obviously Kenny Moore has been doing this for a long time too. So he has like, guys who are ready to kind of get the full plate. So I do

Starting point is 00:22:18 think it'll be better in December than it will be in September, which is kind of stupid. Like it's always like that's everybody in the league. But specifically for this defense and for how big of a change this is versus Gus Bradley, which is very like, you know, you're seeing the game through a straw a little bit. This is going to be an adjustment. So I wouldn't be surprised if some of those early September games are a lot of, you know, finger pointing after 80 yard

Starting point is 00:22:37 touchdown sort of stuff. It's going to happen. Unfortunate nature of it, but all right, every dayers, we have talked both sides of the ball, but next we're talking playoffs. Will they make it? We'll see. Alright guys, you've obviously probably heard of Viagra or Cialis. Maybe you've even tried them, but if you're looking for something beyond the usual pill, then it's time to meet Rougiette Ready. Rougiette Ready is a next-gen prescription

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Starting point is 00:24:04 Please visit the Rouge Yet website for full safety information. All right, guys, we're talking playoffs. Can the Colts end this four year drought? I mean, I think around here we're pretty over it. We got very spoiled to be making the playoffs pretty much every year. I mean, even Andrew Luck drugged the worst of rosters to three straight playoff appearances in his first years. And yeah, it's not been great since it's been like two appearances in the last decade, it seems like not one in the AFC South.

Starting point is 00:24:39 Everybody else has won it at least twice since the Colts last one. And so not great vibes all the time. And it seems to kind of center on the quarterback position. But then what do you think? Like is there an avenue here for the Colts to make the playoffs? They don't play in the most competitive division. Yeah, heck yeah. They absolutely can. You got to win 10 games.

Starting point is 00:25:00 There's seven of the 16 teams in the conference make it. You got to be a little bit above average and a little bit above Average is a hundred percent in the range of outcome for this Colts team They've pretty aggressively added talent because I think for Chris Ballard and Shane Stike and they understand that it's you know We got to get some playoff appearances up here like you say it's not even a Guaranteed like alright We'll have to be shooting for the wild card the way you might be feeling if you're in like the NFC

Starting point is 00:25:21 AFC East with Buffalo like no you know, like there's depending on how Houston shakes out this year with a new offensive coordinator, like there's worlds where you're still competing for the divisional titles begin to December. So absolutely. I mean, market wise, you're not making it a favorite. You're not making them likely to make the playoffs. I think it's still below 50% chance, but it's in the range of outcomes for sure. Yeah, no. And I think that's certainly the the part of this is like this they can make the playoffs But the more important thing is will they make the playoffs and I think that's where it gets a little bit more dicey is Because when you have a quarterback situation like this and this is what I've been saying the last couple shows is like when you have A quarterback situation like this you could be anywhere from a wild-card team

Starting point is 00:26:03 To picking first overall like we saw with the Tennessee Titans last year. Like when your quarterback position is this volatile, the the floor could get so low. I don't think it's going to get that low with the Colts because we saw what they did last year with Flacco and Richardson get a couple games within the playoffs. We saw with Gardner-Mintchew them get one game away from the playoffs. We've seen them get close with suboptimal quarterback play. But how important do you think this quarterback situation is? I mean, obviously, quarterbacks important, but I mean, just for this Colts team to get over the hump this year. Yeah, no, I agree where I'd be surprised if it's like atrociously bad because they have

Starting point is 00:26:39 Richardson, they have Jones and you can make something out of either one of those guys for a 17 game season. So I don't think it's it I would be surprised if there are five and 12 teams that would that would really surprise me. Yeah, obviously quarterbacks gonna be your number one driving signal between whether or not you're able to get over that hump. You know, it's worth noting like this is a good offensive incubator we talked about how is the best for Daniel Jones at the point of his career. It not like you know the Vikings last year, right? We're not at the point where we're like, you know This is like so plug-and-chug that right now minnesota's expect their favor to make the playoffs

Starting point is 00:27:12 We haven't seen j.j. mccarthy take a snap, right? But it's just jefferson and kevin o'connell in that office line is so good that we we we have such faith in their ability to be Quarterback agnostic to be quarterback independent the colts have not gotten there yet You tell me tyler warren hits you tell me like Adonai Mitchell figures it out, because Mitchell's a big player, they need like that field stretcher, that big play guy to be a little bit more present. Like we might be underestimating just how good the offensive incubator is, and then we get to a point midway through the season where it's, hey, it just doesn't matter who's playing

Starting point is 00:27:41 quarterback for the Colts. They're still going to be able to be offensively competitive, and then it goes back to that defense and how quickly they can get good And so it's definitely quarterback dependent. There are a lot of enough worlds. There are a few worlds in which I'm sitting there on my you know Do my ESPN work the Colts are making the 17 and I'm like They have just the 25th best quarterback in the league right now and they made it just on the back of how good the roster is So there there are some back doors to sneak in as well Yeah in the league right now and they made it just on the back of how good the roster is. So there are some back doors to sneak in as well. Yeah, I mean, look, 25th best quarterback in the league might be the best thing the

Starting point is 00:28:08 Colts have had at quarterback in three, in four years. You know, like if we're looking- What a wonderful sentence. That feels great. Gardner Minchew was a pro bowler in 2023, but he was what? The 22nd best quarterback in football, maybe 23rd, 24th. You know, if Daniel Jones can just repeat Gardner-Menschew in this Colts roster we think is probably better

Starting point is 00:28:29 than that 2023 team. They certainly have better corners and safeties. Then yeah. Why was Gardner-Menschew a problem while they're in 2023? I can't believe this is real. Everybody pulled out. An alternate alternate. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:28:41 That's crazy. So Ben, if you're Shane Steichen, let's say the Colts make the playoffs. How big a part of this was Jonathan Taylor, Khalil Herbert, DJ Giddens? Because if I'm Shane, I am running the ball disproportionately. I appreciate you including Khalil Herbert and DJ Giddens in there. That's not really going to move the needle for me there at all. I mean, Jonathan does miss like three games a year. So yeah, you got to factor those guys in. And an enormous part, right. And it's probably more that we

Starting point is 00:29:10 didn't spend a healthy amount of the time talking about it. I think that one of the things you can expect you one of the things you expect Warren to bring right is a little bit more versatility and how they run the football. They obviously they had the change on the interior. But we saw you know, a lot of what things would look like without ryan kelly Without real fries last year We got tastes at that and I think we can still expect this reasonably to be a pretty good running game

Starting point is 00:29:30 Because of the strength of their top guys right because the strength of ryan and nelson and smith and then also because of the talent of taylor, I don't know if they'll be able to achieve a Derek henry like josh jacob's like, you know, taekwondo park Josh Jacobs like, you know, take on partly like, oh, you know, this is just the engine of the offense sort of an approach because they've yet to be able to find the mobile quarterback aspect of that to find the 11 on 11 aspect of that, because Richardson hasn't been healthy for long enough and then when they play and they blame in the gun and they're still spread out because that's how they want to be with the receivers and so so, yeah, it's going to be a big part of it. But I don't think the running game alone can be good enough to save the quarterback spot. I think it's going to have to be like Shane and manufacturing a lot of passing game, right? Talking about screens and RPOs and the stuff you can do through the air.

Starting point is 00:30:14 I don't think they can do it on the running game alone. Yeah, no, the running game is going to be a big part of it. And it was like in the last month of the season last year. Now they played some cupcakes at the end of last year, but averaging almost 200 yards rushing per game in the past, in the last month of the year last year another plate some cupcakes at the end of last year but averaging almost 200 yards rushing per game in the past in the last month of the year last year without fries without brain smith they were still running the ball pretty well so they found something that worked late um and i do think the daniel jones edition was kind of to have a little bit more of that plus one in there but you know it's a very different plus one than the it's like a plus point five i think when you have jones i mean i think if they i think if they play jones for majority of the games i think jones is going to run the ball a lot it one than the, it's like a plus 0.5, I think, when you have Jones in there.

Starting point is 00:30:45 I mean, I think if they play Jones for majority of the games, I think Jones is going to run the ball a lot. It's just that, yeah, it's not as scary of a run as you might get from a Jalen Hertz or Lamar Jackson. Right, right. Exactly. Like he can do enough to scare you, but it's not scary like the Jalen Hertz or Lamar, or even like Richardson when Richardson's healthy and doing it.

Starting point is 00:31:02 But one more thing I want to ask, because we did talk about the running game and just this quarterback situation and the offense in general, and we didn't get to in the first segment, is just how drastically different these two quarterbacks are in their approach to the game the last couple years. Richardson, it is I'm going to hold it in here and I'm going to throw the deep ball. I'm going to hang in here. I'm not going to get to my check down. I'm not going to get to my second option even because I need to hit that deep shot there.

Starting point is 00:31:26 Even if it kills me in the pocket or Daniel Jones, we've seen the yards per attempt just drop and drop and drop. We've seen just the aggressiveness from him drop and drop. Do you think that was kind of like part of the process, I guess, in bringing Jones in? Like the coaches wanting to get more to the quick game or what do you think kind of went into? You think it was just looking at the plus one aspect with Jones? What are your thoughts on that there? I think it was he's the best guy available. I think there was there was little to no stylistic choice made besides we want a one year veteran deal. We want to take a Sam Donald swing a Gino Smith swing a Baker Mayfield swing who's around to do that and Daniel Jones was around. And I say that with confidence because

Starting point is 00:32:03 as we went into the Daniel Jones agency, I was very firmly of the mind that he was going to be back in the Vikings on a one-year deal to be the QB2 to J.J. McCarthy. Like who is going to make a market for Daniel Jones? Who is, you got to remember, was released mid-season from the Giants. And that was contract finagling, I understand, but still like that's the caliber of talent we're talking about. And the call to like, no, no, no, we so desperately need a one year veteran quarterback that we're gonna pay Daniel Jones $14 million. And so to me, like, I don't think stylistically was oh,

Starting point is 00:32:32 we want to go a certain direction, Daniel Jones takes us there. It was okay, we got Daniel Jones in the building. What stylistic direction is he going to take us? The whole a dot thing is like, I don't know how that's tricky, man, to figure out from like a playbook perspective. And from how do we want to be a team? And how do we do that? And I Mitchell and how do we use Josh Downs? And what do we look like in training camp? Like, the ideal offense for Daniel Jones, probably looks

Starting point is 00:32:57 a lot like the offense that they've run for Anthony Richardson over the last couple of years. And then you'll have to find the Richardson. Now Tyler Warren in the building probably looks different than the one for Daniel Jones, the one he's run previously, and they got some figuring out to do. Yeah, no, it's a fascinating addition, in my opinion. Just because I've been seeing the way

Starting point is 00:33:15 that it's all just transpired for Daniel Jones the last couple years, and I'm like, this is not at all how Richardson plays. So how do you match the playbooks there with those two guys? They're so different. You probably don't worry about it. You probably joker pool stick and chuck it into the middle

Starting point is 00:33:30 and say somebody would be better than somebody else, right? And then once you get there, you say, all right, well, this Howard Libet, we're gonna buy it. But it's very important to note, like, this is not, you know, Richardson has previously thrown the ball downfield a lot. But what can we make of him? Oh, Daniel Joseph really checked the ball down a lot.

Starting point is 00:33:43 Can we get him to throw it further down the field? No, like Jones is allergic to being aggressive. Because I think he's a better deep ball that people realize he just hates throwing it. He's very scary throwing it right and Richardson is allergic to throwing short because he is terrified of the idea of having to make five good plays in a row. He'd rather just try to make one good play in a row and then we score seven points. I don't have to go back out here. And so there is no like, let's

Starting point is 00:34:04 elicit from this guy the thing that he's not doing. So like, hopefully there is. But at this point, I would say I don't think either one of them is going to suddenly emerge from a shell or the chrysalis and be like, No, I've heard all three levels of the field. Now. That's just not that has not been either one of the dudes DNA for the last couple years. Completely agree. Completely agree. What what I fear is I feel like OTA minicamp practices

Starting point is 00:34:25 is like the most misleading highlights of the entire NFL calendar. I mean, it's where A.D. Mitchell burst on the scene last year. I remember he was- I'm watching Quinton Johnson highlights out of the charge right now. Exactly.

Starting point is 00:34:36 It's a sioge, dude. Yeah, so A.D. Mitchell was mossing everybody last year and we saw the rookie year he had. I mean, I saw a handful of Daniel Jones practices during the off season program and he was aggressive. He was going deep and it looked good. He found Alec Pierce multiple times, like it looked deliberate. And then what I worry about is that we get into training camp or like end of the regular season if he's the starter, and that all just goes

Starting point is 00:35:01 away. So I'm holding onto that false hope if he is the starter that, you know, he at least likes a guy in Alec Pierce that goes downfield. But Zach, you got anything else for Ben today? We've dripped the pan dry as I kind of expected us to. I'm just happy Ben came on here and just validated my concerns with Daniel Jones about the attacking downfield

Starting point is 00:35:24 because what was the number one concern all Colts fans had about Gardner Mentschew in 2023? validated my concerns with Daniel Jones about the attacking downfield because what was the number one concern all Colts fans had about Gardner Mentschew in twenty twenty three? He will not throw the ball down the field ever. Terrified of the deep ball. Chris Ballard slamming things in the Colts press, press room or whatever about him not throwing the ball in in the Houston game at the end of the season. Like, yeah, this is probably what we're going to get again from Daniel Jones.

Starting point is 00:35:47 Hopefully he can be as good as Gardner, Mentsch. That'd be awesome. You know, if he can be like Pro Bowl or horrible, horrible. I know what a low, what a low ball. We have started mentioning you guys are in a dark place. Look, look, this Colts team, we might hit nine wins if if he's as good as Gardner Minchew and Pro Bowler Gardner Minchew. Let me remind you guys of that. So, yeah. We've said Pro Bowler Gardner Minchew

Starting point is 00:36:13 too many times. I'm taking us out now, guys. Okay. Thank you for making Locked on Culture First listen today. As you know, the Locked on NFL Top 100 is here. It was voted on by us NFL hosts of the Locked On Podcast Network. Our Top 100 was formed by all of us experts that cover the teams and the players every single day. So find the full list on Locked On Sports Today on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. If you guys wanna become a Locked On Colts insider,

Starting point is 00:36:40 again, camp starts this week. Why would you not take advantage of this? Go ahead and follow the link in our show notes follow us all on social media at Jake Arthur NFL at Zach Hicks to And at Benjamin's so lack of course at locked on Polts rate reviews subscribe find us everywhere and with that Thanks again for joining us and we will see you beautiful people tomorrow

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