Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Colts interested in Jadeveon Clowney + Draft traits GM Chris Ballard values most

Episode Date: April 13, 2021

On today's episode, Evan is joined by Stampede Blue's Stephen Reed to go over the latest Indianapolis Colts news. First up, the Colts are "keeping tabs" on Jadeveon Clowney, according to ESPN's Jeremy Fowler. The Browns and Ravens have also shown interest in Clowney, but it's notable that Indy is seemingly one of the finalists for his services. How would Clowney fit within the Colts' defense?Closing out the show, we go over traits in draft prospects GM Chris Ballard has shown to covet. Analyzing offensive tackles and pass rushers, what stands out most after diving into the numbers? Who are some good fits for Indy who check these important boxes at key positions of need?All of this, plus so much more, in a loaded Monday night episode! 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 back into your latest episode of Locked On Colts, part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Today's always your host, Evan Sutter. You're joined by Stephen Reed today of Stampede Blue to go over some Colts news. We finally have some Colts related news outside the draft right now. We're about two weeks away from the NFL draft here, Stephen.

Very exciting times. Before we get into the news and also talk about the last part of the show, about some athletic profiles, what Chris Bauer, we talked about this before, Stephen, but what the profile is that Chris Bauer likes at certain positions. But how are you doing on this Monday night? I'm doing well, Evan. How are you doing today? Doing good, doing good. And we were just talking about this off the air before we started. I've actually been putting in some grunt work with the spiderwebs, so to say, for athletic profiles. Because Mock Draftable, the website, you go out to check out the webs for some to say for athletic profiles because mock draftable the website you go out to check out the uh the webs for some athletic profiles for players i was actually

doing some um of my own work on now and some wide outs and edge rushes and left tackles the past few days and they finally updated most of their sites that i think there's still missing some pass rushes on there but it looks like wide wide receivers and tackles are on there so you guys want to go check it out go ahead and do so. It's a really great resource. But before we get into the draft, though, Stephen, I wouldn't say it's a bombshell type of news, but I think it's very interesting. The news we got today from ESPN is Jeremy Fowler,

who tweeted out this morning, we've heard a lot about Jadeveon Clowney and the link with the Cleveland Browns. He rescheduled his visit, I believe. He's going to be on Tuesday night, Wednesday afternoon in Cleveland. There's mutual interest on both sides there. It could be a deal happening here very soon. But if Kline does not sign it to Brown, Stephen, Jeremy Fowler, VSPN, who's been really one of the more, I think, honestly,

one of the more plugged-in people with the Colts over the last year or so. He hit the nail on the head with the Phillip Rivers news. He was one of the first people to link Carson Wentz with them as well. So I trust Jeremy Fowler and what he says here. I think he's pretty plugged into the Colts organization. He said that the Indianapolis Colts and the Baltimore Ravens are two teams checking in on Jadeveon Clowney as well, which really perked my ears up a little bit, Stephen,

because, I mean, I know Clowney. I think it's fair to say, Stephen, that Clowney's probably one of the more overrated edge rushers in the NFL. But for the role he would play in Indianapolis, in that Danico Autry-type role as a strong side defensive end and maybe kick inside next to DeForest Buckner on pass downs, this is a guy we talked about a lot last year in the offseason, too, and he was a free agent and eventually signed the division rival Tennessee Titans.

But in this Colts defense, Stephen, Clowney, I think, is a really good fit. Yeah, Evan, I think Clowney's a really good fit in the Colts defense, just in terms of, like, what he brings to the defense, just because he's long, and he's got that athleticism, he'd be able to fill in, like you said, that Tanika Autry role, so it makes a lot of sense for them to bring him in. The question for me with with jayven clowny has always been um with with production like in the past i think lance erline today put out um the last 21 games he's had three sacks oh and that's over a two-year span and so the the issue with withowney has always been that production thing because he's never had a double digit sack season.

He's supposed to be this elite address. I mean, shoot, like Tanika Watry got, got pretty, got more sacks than he has over the past couple of years. So now is that a matter of Javon Clowney not really playing next to anybody? Like when you put him next to DeForest Buckner, like if he can't make it there he can't make it anywhere like that's

any defensive end coming in and want that wants to really put up big sack numbers they want to play next to Aaron Donald they want to play next to DeForest Buckner they want to play next to Chris Jones they want to play next to a defensive tackle that's going to pull the offensive line's attention away from the defensive end. That's why you saw that big year this past year for Fowler in Los Angeles. I mean, you saw Dee Ford have a great year. You saw Frank Clark have a great year with Kansas City playing next to Chris Jones. I mean, you saw Danico Autry play really well here in Indianapolis. You saw Justin Houston play well.

And so today, Van Clowney, it's just such an interesting case because he's got the talent, but he's never really kind of put it all together. And the question always will be with him is drive and desire. Like once he gets paid, like, is he still going to be there? Like mentally, because, you know, he hasn't, he kind of feels like he's checked out a lot. And the fact is he's been injured the past. I don't know if he's had one year out of his seven

year career that he's actually played 16 games like he's that's the tough part for for jd van clowney is is he going to be available and if he is is he going to be available? And if he is, is he going to put up the production? Now, again, I said to start this, I think he's a great fit for the Colts because of what he offers in terms of his athletic profile and what he can do as a press rusher next to DeForest Buckner. That said, I wouldn't be super shocked if the Colts passed on him, but I thought it was interesting, like you said, that the cults are keeping an ear like keeping an eye out on him keeping keeping an ear open to see you know if he doesn't sign with cleveland you know the cults are cults are around and they were rumored to be around last year now whether is that an agent thing because the cults have 26 million dollars in cap space i want

to say like top three or four in the league right now. And the agents are putting that out to, to these NFL riders, or is it really Colts interest? You never know. I don't think the Colts are going to be looking to sign him. If the Colts do look to sign Jadavion Clowney, it won't be after, it won't be until after the draft. It won't be until after that first Sunday in May or the first or second Sunday in May, when compensatory pick calculation gets wiped clean and you can basically sign whoever you want and not have to worry about it counting

against you. I wouldn't expect them to make a move before that. I think what's interesting too with Clowney and he's only 28 years old he just turned 28 a couple months ago but I think the athletic prime of Clowney is already over I think it was from like age 22 to 25 he was fully healthy for one year in 2017 put up 10 sacks that season and really looked like a dominant force but then in 2018 had nine sacks for the last two years after leaving Houston going to Seattle in that trade then last year before training camp selling a one-year 13 million dollar deal at the Tennessee Titans he really has not looked like the same guy like the juice is not there he gets pressure but more so just a guy who,

I think in the Colts' role, honestly, as far as the depth they have, I imagine they'll at least draft another one or two guys on the defensive line as well. Maybe Indianapolis is one of the best ecosystems for a guy like Jadavion Clowney. I think you could say the same for Cleveland. That's why they're interested too, because they have a lot of depth on the defensive line.

Obviously, Myles Garrett is a plus there as well but from the Colts standpoint I could imagine them like like we saw Justin Houston second half of last season Steven who looks like he lost a little bit of gas in the tank as well where he could probably be on the pitch count like 60 to 50 percent of the snaps and really being a optimized big strength role for this team on rundowns, kick inside on pass downs. I can imagine a third down along with Kamoko Ture, DeForest Buckner on one side. Then you have Jadeveon Clowney inside with Tyquan Lewis

or maybe Ben Banigou if he develops on the outside or a rookie next to him on the other strong side defensive end on pass downs. I think in this role, I'm looking at his contract value as well on spot track. Spot track has him valued around one year, $6.5 million. So it would not really break the bank at all. The Colts could easily afford Clowney. Like you mentioned, they have close to $30 million in cap space. And they could be able to also still do the extensions for guys like Braden Smith, Darius Leonard, and whoever else they want to do.

But I think for, honestly, from their standpoint, from the Colts, you have to wonder if maybe the Colts are checking on Clowney because they think he could be like a more optimized version of Danico Autry and maybe more so just like a better version of Justin Houston I know there's a lot that's on the table with Houston as far as sack production goes but I think Clowney I mean if he played a full 16 games last year would have had the same amount of quarterback hits as Justin Houston over that same span so I think rolling the dice on a six$7 million deal with Jadavion Clowney on a pitch count roll with a defensive line with a lot of depth, Stephen, I think Indy does make sense for not only the team,

but also from Clowney's point of view, too, to really possibly play a full 16-game season with all the depth they have. Yeah, I mean, the interesting thing, one of the interesting things you said in there was, was talking about the contract and it's like, you know, spot track puts it at like one, six and a half. And they're usually pretty, pretty on target with that stuff. I think Chris Ballard might be willing to make a roll of the dice.

And remember in Chris Ballard's end of the year press conference, he mentioned he got a question. I don't remember who it was from, but he got a question about whether Lachlan was ready for maybe a more difficult personality or something like that, where they feel like they could bring in anybody and they'd be able to assimilate talking about Kalani in that situation, because it's definitely one where if you're not motivated by DeForest Buckner and Darius Leonard and Kenny Moore and that whole crew, then you're not going to get any more from him. He's not going to be more than what he is. And if he's able to come in and get motivated by those guys, the Colts, remember the Colts play on turf. They play on a fast track. So guys that are athletic, that are,

that are able to get to the quarterback, they're, they're able to play faster. If he's going to put up those numbers that he wants to get that big deal, cause he's still really looking for that second contract like even you know he had that fifth year option he got traded to to seattle i think off the franchise tag or something like that and then he signed like a lesser deal for tennessee and now he's looking at like six and a half mil he really wants that big payday and if he's not motivated to come in and and really show out and he'd get that opportunity in Indianapolis then you know you took a swing and if it's a miss it's a six and a half million dollar miss and you got the cap space to eat it and it's you could

have a worse situation um but you've got the locker room to be able to move on from him if he flames out and you don't feel bad about it. Last one here for you, Stephen, for Devin, to the second part of our show, talking about the NFL draft, Morris, we're about two weeks away from it. On Clowney here, what's your prediction on what happens with J.B. on Clowney? I personally still think that the Browns have been linked to Clowney, I think, for almost two years now. I mean, it seems like they've been really interested in him, just the price hasn't been right. Maybe with the money going down for a bad year in tennessee they both make a deal happen there but what's your prediction with clowning

i think he ends up in cleveland baltimore india or somewhere else and what do you think of the possibility now the colts going still being the veteran market for edge rushers seems like we've heard justin houston here and there judea beyond clowning for the first time It seems like to me maybe they're playing the waiting game to see if a guy, Quitty Pay or Jillian Phillips, if they're at 21, they might not need a guy like this anymore. But they're still keeping feelers out for the veteran market in case they don't get a guy they want early on in the draft and they can go sign a Clowney or Houston or somewhere else.

Honestly, I think Jadeveon Clowney probably ends up in Cleveland or Baltimore. I don't think he comes to Indianapolis. That said, you mentioned the veteran free agent market. I think the Colts still will end up signing a veteran free agent no matter what happens in the draft. Because even if you get a guy, the Colts luck into a quitty pay falling to them at 21, or they take a Jalen Phillips

or somebody like that, those guys are not finished products. And so you really want to have that veteran presence in there at the defensive end position. Like Justin Houston would be a great mentor for these guys. Like Quiddie Paye is like a twitched up version of Justin Houston. Like he's so good and would be able to fill that role as a run defender and a pass rusher. Like, to have Quidipe, if he drops 21, the Colts go ahead and take him,

to learn from somebody like Justin Houston for a year, I think it would be just incredibly beneficial for his development long term. And so I wouldn't be surprised if the Colts end up drafting a young edge rusher, but still signing a veteran free agent. Bet online is the fastest and easiest way to balance all your sports action. Football might be over, but NBA and the NHL are in full swing. Bet online even covers awards, TV shows, reality TV, real time data odds and props on anything you can imagine.

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Get all the sports news you need in under 20 minutes of the Locked On Today podcast. Host Peter Bukowski updates you on the latest news in every major sport with the help of our local experts. Follow the Locked On Today podcast. Host Peter Bukowski updates you on the latest news in every major sport with the help of our local experts. Follow the Locked On Today podcast on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. Yeah, that wouldn't shock me at all. It's really something to watch out for there with the Colts as we get closer to the draft.

Edge rush is still a massive question, whether it be they addressing the draft free agency or both. I think both are probably the most logical route at the moment, Stephen. But let's dive in to the second part of our show. Just talk about the athletic profiles the Colts seem to value at their most important needs coming up here in the draft. Let's start off with left tackle because we were just talking about this with mockdraftable.com.

They just updated some of their spider graphs today. And to me, like the biggest standout to me that this is super athletic class, Stephen. We were just talking about this off the air that this is a perfect year to replace Andy Costanzo for Costanzo to retire because a lot of these guys, even like a Liam Eikenberg who put together a pretty solid relative athletic score around an 8.5

but guys like Alex Leatherwood, Walker Little as a kind of a day two flyer there, Tevin Jenkins, and also guys like Dylan Radin, Samuel Cosme who really blew up his pro day, like Taylor LeJuan-esque numbers from him, almost maxed out on every athletic profile. I think he's one of my favorite guys as far as a Colts-type pick goes,

but Brady Christensen, too, on day two. This class is very athletic, but it's also one that maybe outside of Alex Leatherwood and Christian Derusaw, a class that's really – you can balance it out with the elite athleticism, but outside of one or two guys, it's a very short arm class for left tackles. It's very interesting to me. Yeah, we talked about that before the podcast. It just seems just really awkward how short this whole class's arms are because you look at these graphs and

normally you see the the web the spider web graphs um that they put out on mock draftable and and evan you did you know everybody's such a service today of putting them out um for for some of the players as well um yeah it's really you look at these webs and you're going oh okay what's that measurement that's way off like and then you look and you're like oh it's really, you look at these webs and you're going, oh, okay, what's that measurement that's way off? And then you look and you're like, oh, it's arm length. And then you're like, go to the next one. And you're like, whoa, it's another arm length issue. What's going on here?

Yeah, this whole class, it's very short armed, which is super awkward. Even in Penae Sewell is like 17th percentile in arm length at 33 and a quarter. It's really, really funny how short their arms are. But that said, we mentioned this on the podcast last week. Sometimes you look at the athletic profile and you look, can these guys get in front of a guy? Can they keep them from hitting the athletic profile and you look, can these guys get in front of a guy? Can they keep him from hitting the quarterback? And you've got guys like Alex Leatherwood, Brady Christensen, Rashawn Slater has got a huge spider web that really kind of surprises me to a point. And then Sam Cosme is the same thing. Tevin Jenkins. There are so many guys in this class that really fit what Chris Ballard looks for in an offensive line prospect.

So if there ever were a year to really need to replace your left tackle, the Colts lucked into it, especially given how kind of dry the well has been for college left tackles coming into the NFL. Yeah, they've been, you don't see this kind of depth of guys that you feel like could come in and start immediately. I mean, shoot, you've probably got eight to 10 guys right now that you feel very comfortable putting in there next to Quentin Nelson on day one. And you feel like you're in a good spot. I mean, in other drafts, you're looking at like the third tackle and you're going, well, maybe we need to give them a year to develop.

Last year was an aberration and they had four at the top. But outside of that, like you get to the end of round one and you're going, man, I don't know whether this guy can even play left tackle if he's athletic enough to do it or whether I feel comfortable putting him in there. This year, you go to round three and you feel confident. You've got Walker Little. You've got, you know, Liam Eikenberg might fall. I mean, Brady Christensen is another guy that's a little bit should be in probably late round two, early round three range. And you feel very comfortable putting them in at left tackle

and going and letting them start from day one, which is kind of shocking because that just doesn't happen. No, it really doesn't. And it just goes to show you how strong this class is and why I'm kind of leaning more towards the Colts addressing edge rush or maybe adding another long-term weapon with T.O. Hilton on a one-year deal over left tackle in the first round. Obviously I would not be opposed to go getting a guy like a Sam Cosme,

Tevin Jenkins, even Liam Eikenberg, because honestly, I mean, I heard an interview today on one of 75, the fan Kevin Bowen was filling in actually for JMV and they had Mike Renner on a PFF and you're talking about Liam Eikenberg and his arm length. And the interesting stat that Renner brought up on the show, and one I went and dove in myself to double-check and make sure, and Renner was totally correct on this. The Colt, there's only one offense tackle that started in the NFL last year,

left or right side, with sub-33-inch arms, Stephen. And that was Braden Smith with 32-and-a-quarter-inch arms. And with the way Braden Smith has played over the last couple of years at right tackle, I think maybe the Colts are one of those teams that doesn't really value arm length that much anymore, which is something we brought before on the show, Stephen. I just want to go in a little bit more in depth here because Renner brought up a good point to Bowen on the show

because maybe the Colts are one of those teams like we saw at Notre Dame's Pro Day. They brought out Chris Ballard, Frank Reich, Kevin Rogers, their player personnel. I believe another scout was there as well. Maybe they, maybe they view Liam Eikenberg like a left tackle because I know a lot of teams will view him as a guard now with his short arms, but maybe the Colts are the outlier team now, Stephen, where they see how good Braden Smith is with his feet and his hands.

Eikenberg's really good with his feet and his hands. It doesn't really matter with his arm length just because he's so good at mirroring guys and keeping in front of them, not really making much pressure. Maybe Braden Smith and that just case study with him over the last couple of years maybe shows the Colts and Ballard that, hey, maybe we don't have to be on this threshold. A lot of NFL teams are at 33-inch arms. Maybe we do view a Liam Eikenberg or even a player looking at the arm length list here, like a Tevin Jenkins, who's just above the threshold, or Sam Cosme, who just barely reaches it there. They could be like OT3 on the Colts board just because they don't view arm length like that anymore. Yeah, it's interesting because when you go to Mock Draftable and you kind of take a look at what they've got there you see the web and you

definitely see the arm link being a pretty major issue uh for um for brayden smith specifically um but if you go and you look at for example his razz score um his explosion grade is elite but and you look at his web on mock draftable and his web for broad jump vertical jump 40 yard dash like it's his broad jump is the 96th percentile vertical jump 95th percentile like and the short shuttle or the the 20-yard shuttle is 48 so he's like average there um but when you go through and look at the raf scores like that's what i was saying earlier is sometimes if you've got a a trait that allows you to to be able to get in front of a guy and keep him from getting to the quarterback it's's like what Zach Hicks for Sanford Blue wrote an article about the mud method and Howard Mudd and his kind of ideology about just getting a guy.

If you hit him with your butt, you hit him with your butt. You make sure he doesn't hit the quarterback. That's what the purpose is of it. And so it's really interesting. Now, I will counter what they said today on 10-7 at the fan because Braden Smith wasn't drafted to be a right tackle for the Colts. He was drafted to be a guard, and that was kind of their intent with it. They even said as much when going into the New England game that year that where he got his first start, they put him in there and they were like, we don't know what's

going to happen, but we've got nobody else. So we put him in, he played really well and he just stuck. So I would go ahead and kind of throw that caveat in there was I don't think Braden Smith was initially drafted to be a right tackle. So, but at the same time, he has those elite scores in terms of his athletic ability that allowed him to compensate for the lack of arm length there. So not to throw like cold water on that whole idea with Mike Renner in PFF, but it is one of those things where he wasn't initially meant to be the right tackle. He just happened to kind of fall into that place, and he's just developed every single year. You couldn't ask for a better player there. I don't think he's going to get paid, and he's going to deserve it.

Yeah, that's a totally valid point there. I went ahead and put actually Brian Smith's mock draftable profile into offense tackles. And like you mentioned there, his arm length is only fourth percentile, but even still for tackles, they agreed that with vertical jump, 94th percentile, broad jump, 93rd percentile. And interestingly enough, he put Braden Smith to the left tackles. His top two comparables on this list, as far as being great as a tackle, Tevin Jenkins and Liam Eikenberg. So those could maybe be two to watch out for there that kind of fit that Braden Smith mold, shorter arms, but still very athletic there. But looking at the list here, guys,

because one more thing on the left tackle stand before we dive over to edge rushers as well is that, like you mentioned, they really value explosiveness out of their offensive linemen. Excuse me. The RAS scores for guys, they have not drafted a guy in the fifth round or earlier with a RAS below nine and the guys on that list who who make it are Spencer Brown Samuel Cosme, Brady Christensen, Tevin Jenkins, Alex Leatherwood and Dylan Radins but the guys on this list that grade out really

well in broad jump and vertical jump it's really show the explosiveness of guys on this list Alex Leatherwood was the best in both of them at It looks like he was second in broad jump. Ray Christian was first. In vertical jump, Leatherwood was first. Christian was second. I think Leatherwood makes a lot of sense here at 21 on the tradeback. Brady Christensen makes a lot of sense to fit the athletic mold for them. Samuel Cosney of Texas is one of my favorite guys to watch so far on tape. He's one of those guys to me too that really can make a lot of sense for them. He really exploded on his pro day scene and maybe Dylan Radins could be one of those other guys to watch out for. I feel like those four guys, Steven, in that 21 to 54 range really make

a lot of sense to check really almost all the boxes for the Colts. Absolutely, Evan. And that's one of those big kind of traits that the Colts look for in all their offensive linemen is that explosion score. So they're looking a lot at the jumps. They're looking at agility drills to a point. But their big thing so far, it seems like, at least from an outside perspective, has been those explosion scores, the broad jump, the vertical jump.

Because if you get those guys that have that explosive ability, they're going to be able to get to that second level faster. They're going to be able to, you know, be able to get in the way to, to block their guy. And so, yeah, Alex Leatherwood, Brady Christensen, you know, Dylan Radins and Sam Cosme all in there and Tevin Jenkins I mean shoot you got you got a whole list of them there that that will be available from 21 to 54 and so if for example like we've mentioned before if somebody like a Quitty Pay falls at 21 I feel very comfortable that the

Colts will take Quitty Pay at 21 and then be able to get a guy like an Alex Leatherwood of Brady, Christensen, you know, even a Liam Eikenberg there at, at 54. And if they want to trade back from 21, if say their pass rusher or somebody who's not there, they want to pick up another,

another draft pick in that late second, early third round range. Then you got a guy like Alex Leatherwood. That's going to be there at the top of round two. Probably you've got a guy like Alex Leatherwood that's going to be there at the top of round two, probably. You've got a guy like Sam Cosme or Tevin Jenkins that are probably going to be around there. And so you feel really comfortable being able to draft a guy early to step in and play left tackle. And that, again, is pretty rare to be able to get a guy late round one, early round two, even mid round two, and feel very comfortable with him coming in and starting right away.

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Let's go over Edge real quick. MockDraftBull.com, unfortunately, has not had their Edge rushes up just yet, but thankfully, I was able to really go in there the last couple days and do it on my own before MockDraftBull uploaded because I got guys in here such as Quiddy Pay, Jalen Phillips, Aziz Ojolari, Peyton Turner. There's a lot here on this list for the Colts. And the thing to me, I think Ben Banigou is probably the case study to look out for here on his mock draft pool page because he's 6'3.5", 250.

His arm length is 33 5-8 inches. So there's a 33 arm length for guys on defense, especially a pass rush. Chris Bowne, I just held true to that. I don't think he's ever drafted a guy with Indianapolis on the edge with sub-33-inch arms, but outside the arm length, Banigou, for example, 99th percentile broad jump, 97th percentile vertical jump, 90th percentile 40-yard dash.

The arm length and explosiveness, Stephen, if you want to go out and look for traits for some of these guys, the edge rush class this year has a couple of them. Quiddy Pays is one of them out of Michigan. jalen phillips fits his bill as well even aziz ojalari who had a really poor vertical jump did really well in the broad jump as someone like him peyton turner as well did very well even with turf toe he was able to put some monster numbers as pro day houston unfortunately did not run his 40-yard dash but his spider web is looking really good from the one i did and then there's a couple other guys on the list we'll go over as well, next Colton Mattson.

But just looking at Ben Bandy as a case study here, even Tyquan Lewis, Kamoko Torre, and even Terrell Basham back in the day, Chris Bauer loves lengthy pass rushers and guys that are super explosive. Yeah, absolutely. It's been his kind of M.O. He likes length on defense because it makes those windows smaller for quarterbacks. And he likes those explosive traits because if you're able to explode off the line fast, you're going to put the offensive tackle in a really tough position.

And when the offensive tackle is in a really tough position, you know, there's three things that really happen, happen. They either block you, they get called for holding or you get a sack. So two of those three things are pretty good for you. And then the other one obviously isn't so great. But, you know, they look at offensive or they look at that explosiveness, just being able to get off the snap and being able to kind of accelerate very quickly um and then they look at the arm length that i mean it's been like you're really after now four drafts like we do kind of and three drafts really of drafting for what chris ballard's defensive system is, you really kind of

get a pretty good idea of the types of players that he likes. And so you see guys that are, like, you've come up with the metric blue star prospect. You know, you see guys that if they go to the senior bowl, if they're team captains, you've got all these other, like, these off the field things that are very important to Chris Ballard. But then you've got all these off-the-field things that are very important to Chris Fowler. But then you've got some really evident on-field things in terms of testing, in terms of minimum requirements. And Chris Fowler has been very forthright with this, saying that if you don't meet certain time thresholds, if you don't meet certain length thresholds, then they're probably not going to put you really high on their board unless you do something extremely well. And even then, I think they're probably really questionable to have you on their board anyway.

It's one of those when they bring in somebody that's from the outside that they've seen can do it in the NFL, or you get like Ed Dodds pounding the table for a guy Chris Ballard will make an exception but you know I imagine those are few and far between so when it comes to the address or position yeah arm length and and those explosiveness numbers are key for Chris Ballard going over some guys here on the list even that I was able to pull up here while you're speaking just from the homemade graphs that i made the last couple of days who really checked the billing we just whenever a guy here one of our favorite guys on the show quitty payout in michigan i think he's one of my favorite ops for the colts he's there at 21 really checks all the boxes too unfortunately

couldn't run his his three cone drill but reportedly it was gonna be a 6373 cone which is absolutely insane for a guy that's 260 pounds. So he would have broke the threshold there. As far as a super athletic goes, Quidipe is one of those. Jason Owe out of Penn State certainly fits that bill as well. Has the arm length almost 95th and above percentile in everything from three cones, short shuttle, broad jump, vertical jump, and 40-yard dash. 4'3", 740, that's 260 pounds. Just freakish numbers on his part there.

And then Jalen Phillips out of Miami, 40-yard dash in the 96th percentile, broad jump, vertical jump, short shuttle all in the 90th-plus percentile. One of your guys here, as far as sleepers go, we're talking about guys outside of round one. Ellerson Smith grayed out really well on this too, Stephen. He was around pretty much 100th percentile in vertical jump, broad jump 95th percentile, 10-yard split, which is very important, guys, for explosiveness, was in the 90th percentile. So he's one guy to watch for a sleeper pick. And then Joseph

Osai out of Texas was in 95th percentile and above for everything from broad jump, vertical jump, and 40-yard dash. And then Aziz Ojolari of Georgia, like I mentioned, did very poorly on his vertical jump, was around 30th percentile. But broad jump and everything else was pretty above average, I would say. So out of those names there, Stephen, which ones do you like the most? I feel like, honestly, at this point, Ojolari with his poor vertical jump, I like his tape, but I just don't know if he's on the same stratosphere as guys like Quidipe or Jillian Phillips. It feels like, to me, maybe guys like Pee, Phillips, Jason Owe out of Penn State

could be a sleeper guy to watch out for in the first round there. And then some of those guys I mentioned on day two, like Joseph Osai, Ellerson Smith could sneak his way into late day two as well. There's a lot of names here on this list to really do check a lot of the Colts boxes. Yeah, absolutely. The names that – I mean, we've talked about Quidipe already, and I think we're all in agreement that he'd be the ideal selection at 21 if he's available. Jalen Phillips, like I mentioned before, he's got some injury history that's really pretty concerning on it jason oa is the interesting thing with jason oa is he's he is this

absolute elite athlete like he's unbelievable in terms of a physical specimen but then you go why didn't you produce you know why did you where is where are your numbers? What happened there? Guys that I love in day two, like, I mean, we talked about Peyton Turner and Ellerson Smith. I've snuck him in this show a couple times when we do our mock drafts. Peyton Turner is a guy that I've been on for a while now. I just think that he's kind of a perfect fit to put in that Danico Autry role in the Colts defense.

Ellerson Smith, he's got that elite athleticism, that explosiveness that you really, really want. And so he'd be more of a developmental guy, I still think. You know, Boogie Basham is interesting. He's related to Terrell Basham, the former Colts pick. So there's that. And I think you would put out that Joe Tryon from Washington, the Colts were at his pro day as well. So it's really interesting to see.

I think we can agree that if they're going to draft a defensive end, it's got to be in that elite level for that relative athletic scoring. Because he, and not saying it's an end-all be-all, but it just seems like every time they look or go after a defensive end, they happen to be, you know, in that above nine for your relative athletics or for your RAS score. And that just seems to be Chris Ballard's MO. And that's, so I look at that list and I'd go, okay, well,

we've got something along as like 12 to 15 guys that really kind of fall into that. So my guess is it's going to be one of those guys. And if they go defensive and early, like we mentioned before, Jalen Phillips or Quitty Payne make a lot of sense. I do wonder about Jason Owe and putting it all together, but I'm sure some team, it might even be the Colts, take a stab at him just saying, hey, look, I think that we can develop him. The Colts have Brian Baker there as the defensive line coach now.

That's a guy that I would feel very comfortable giving him just a great piece of clay like Jason Owe and saying, hey, mold this into something fantastic, and I'd have belief that he could do it. You know, all these guys need to develop. So like I mentioned to start this show, I think they're going to still sign a veteran pass rusher to kind of give these

guys some time to develop. But you've got a lot of guys that you're going to look at explosion. You're going to look at these RAS scores. You're going to look at these spider webs, and you're going to see guys that are really, really high in terms of those explosive traits and really, really long arms. And that's what Chris Bauer likes on defense. It's just, that's his M.O. Steven, always enjoy having you on, man. I'm going to be back on here late this week to do our live mock draft 5.0. I know our listeners always enjoy when we do those live mock drafts. But in the meantime, Colton's not already gone. Follow Steven on Twitter if you've not already done so.

And go listen to his podcast as well over on Stampede Blue. Steven, appreciate your time tonight. Thanks, Evan. Have a great one.