Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Colts Offseason Mailbag

Episode Date: June 5, 2021

On today's episode, Evan is joined by Stampede Blue's Stephen Reed to go over our latest round of questions from our listeners in a mailbag! This time, all are exclusively from Colts Reddit. Thanks to r/colts for all the questions!From the potential playbook changes with Carson Wentz under center to potential lineup rotations and surprise cuts come preseason, all of these, plus so much more, go under the microscope!Colts fans, you won't want to miss out on this one! 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 Sattery, joined by Steven Reed, a fellow now co-worker over at Stampede Blue, because if you guys have not known, I tweeted on the Locked On Colts page. I am now the lead deputy editor and lead team writer for SB Nation's Indianapolis Colts

website, Stampede Blue, ironically where actually I first started about eight or so years ago in the journalism field. And I'm coming home, so to say. I am back in the saddle here at Stampede Blue. And Stephen, you're now my coworker, man. Excited to have myself join the Stampede Blue family and kind of help steer the ship over there. Yeah, we're excited to have you back. I was going to say congratulations on coming back to St. Pete Blue.

Like I said, we're really excited to see how much you've grown over the past eight years. So, yeah, we're really excited to have you. Yeah, absolutely, man. As you guys know, Steve and I, we are frequent on this podcast. He's almost pretty much on my pseudo-coast at this point. He's on at least once or twice a week. And with today's episode, I wanted to get into a mailbag because we are kind of getting into the

doldrums of the off season here. OTAs for rookies are starting to wrap up a little bit for the Colts. Veterans are pretty much gone, but we had the chance today to speak to Matt DeBafluse and Marcus Brady. I'll post that as a bonus episode here later this week on the podcast. But Steven, we're going to go with a Reddit mailbag today over at our Colts. They have some great members over there.

They asked some really good over there. They ask some really good questions. And we got about 10 plus questions here we're going to sort through on tonight's episode, Steven. So let's go ahead and fire away here. And we have four questions actually from Shlomo, the user over at Colts Reddit. And he has a couple interesting ones here for us. And first one here is how has Paris Campbell looked in OTA so far? And I'll start off here first with that, Stephen, because from all indications, I mean, Paris Campbell's actually been staying back and working with the rookies as well. We knew Carson Wentz has stayed back with rookies as well. Michael Pimmitt Jr. was actually at practice yesterday as well after the birth of his child.

But Paris Campbell, from all indications, is fully cleared, medically healthy. Campbell mentioned it to the media as well as did Frank Reich that he has been cleared for a while now with his knee injury. He looks almost like he did in week one of the 2020 season, very explosive out of his route tree. And what got me really excited about Paris Campbell today, speaking to Marcus Brady, was that they're expanding Paris Campbell's route tree, so to say, here in 2021. Obviously, hopefully with a healthy season, Campbell will be able to showcase his true talents. We've kind of been robbed of that the last two years due to all the injuries he's had.

But hopefully, knock on wood here, that he's fully healthy. I think Campbell is poised to have a really big season from all indications, Stephen. Marcus Brady is going to bring more of a vertical RPO set offense into this Colts system. And he mentioned that Paris Campbell and T.Y. Hilton are the Colts' deep threats. He did not mention Michael Freeman Jr. in that sentence. He mentioned MPJ more as the move-the-chains guy, possession player.

Not that surprisingly, MPJ also had a strong deep shot focus at USC. Paris Campbell really never a shunner throughout his career, more of a gadget guy at Ohio State. But Frank Reich actually was on with Kevin Bowen as well earlier today on the Dan Dockett show as he filled in for him. And Reich mentioned they believe that Paris Campbell is a complete receiver, one who can run the full route tree. And I think the Colts internally, one, have to be super excited about how Campbell has

recovered from his injury, and two, how he's looked so far entering year three because Frank Reich's saying that Paris is a complete wide receiver, and he hasn't really played that much yet. And also Marcus Brady alluding to him being more of a deep shot threat and kind of opening up his route tree more in 2021 I think we're poised for a really really really big year from Paris Campbell if all goes well yeah I think the same thing it seems like they're really trying to work him more than what they just did with the Phillip Rivers of quarterback. If Carson Wentz really opens up this offense and really opens up what they can do,

you really like seeing the talk of him being a vertical threat because he's – I think you mentioned he's got 4-3-1 speed. He's a burner. You put him in the slot and you have him go at the seam between the safety in that corner or between the two safeties. And you've got safeties that are having to commit far earlier than what they would normally want to commit. Because if you take even a half a second, he's gone.

And Carson Wentz has the arm to get it to him. And the offensive line is going to give Carson Wentz the time that he needs to just wing it. I'm really excited to see what they do with Paris Campbell and the fact that they're expanding his route tree makes a lot of sense. I'm expecting huge things from him now that he's gotten off that number 15. Now he's back to that slim, sleek number one. I feel like he's going to be just such a huge contribution to this offense and I think he's going to be just such a huge contribution to this offense, and I think he's going to be a huge contributor. Yeah, and mentioning him going down the seam with

his 4-3-1 speed, that's going to take even more pressure off of T.Y. Hilton because we saw in week one they usually stack Paris on the same side as T.Y. Hilton in the slot, and if you have people committing more to Paris Campbell on the inside, T.Y. Hilton's going going to have less pressure on the outside so it could be in for a bounce back year as well if campbell takes some of that pressure off of him but let's go on to our second question here also like i mentioned from shlomo over our colts and he mentioned what do you think is the weakest spot on the roster not including left tackle before eric fisher is ready. What would you say there, Steven? That's a good question. That's a really good question. I'd probably say corner or defensive back,

but that's not even really a weakness. I mean, maybe right guard because I'm not a huge fan of Mark Lulinski. I think he's steadily regressed over the past couple of years, but the running group is solid. The quarterback group is solid. Wide receivers are pretty good. Defensive line is probably the best in football. Linebackers I feel pretty confident about.

You know what? I'll say linebackers just because you've got darius leonard and bobby okariki as proven guys and then you've got a lot of unknowns after that um and so at least with corners and dbs you've got you know xavier rhodes and kenny moore there at your one two corner with you know a competition rocky scene margaret tell um and tj carry over for that third spot. And then you've got Kari Willis and Julian Blackman there locking down a safety position. So I'd say linebacker just because I don't know what they have past Darius Leonard and Bobby Okereke. If you're talking about just straight starters on the roster, I'd probably say right guard.

But if you're looking at an entire position group, the thing that worries about me is the depth there at the linebacker position. Yeah, that's a really good one for the depth, especially. We actually have a question on linebacker depth here in a moment. But I think for me, honestly, I'd probably go with the cornerback two spot, just if we want to generalize it that way. Because we actually heard from Matt Eberflus today multiple times that that outside boundary spot opposite of Xavier Rhodes, next to Kenny Moore in the slot, is an open competition in the camp.

And that's not a good sign for Rakia Sen, who was their second-round pick in 2019, their top pick and number 34 overall in 2019. It's going to be between Rakia Sen, TJ Carey, who kind of took his job in the latter parts of 2020, and then Marvell Tell, who opted out this past year, and Ibra Flu said he actually looks really good physically. He looks like he's actually picking back up the playbook pretty seamlessly.

And then also Isaiah Rogers, who flashed a little bit in that playoff game, probably more so of a nickel guy, but it would not shock me at all if Rogers with his athleticism does kind of make a run for the CB2 job. How do you think that's going to play out, Stephen? I mean, I would probably lean towards CB2 as the weak spot on this team as far as starters go. I really think, honestly, with the way that Ibrahimoose is talking about Marvell Tell today, I would not be shocked at all if Tell,

with his physicality, he's a Chris Ballard prospect through and through. If you go on his spiderweb on mockdraftworld.com as a corner, he maxes everything out. He's like a true freak athlete and one that kind of flashed in his rookie year before he opted out this past year. Would have loved to see Tell in 2020, but unfortunately did not have the opportunity to do so. 2021, though, Tell's true second year in the NFL now. He could be in for a really big year if he is able to beat out Rocky Asin, and maybe it's a bold prediction here on my part, Stephen, but I think Marvell Tell will beat out Rocky Asin for that CB2 job. I think it's going to be one of those two. I tend to

lean more towards Rocky Asin in this kind of battle, just because Marvell Tell's had the year off and Rock has had that extra year under his belt. Now, was it a great year? Not really that you had ups and downs last year. You had a lot of really ill timed penalties, um, that I, I think it's going to be a scene who ends up getting that quarterback too, but honestly tell taking it away or even TJ Gary, um, wouldn't surprise me. So it really is

up in the air. I'll put my money on UC for right now, but I want to really kind of see how they start to shake out in training camp. Last one here from Shlomo. He's asking about a really intriguing, you just mentioned linebacker depth, Steven. This guy really would fit right into a starting role as our Sam linebacker. We've seen Zaire Franklin get those reps really throughout OTAs, and he's slotted in as our current starting Sam linebacker, the former 2018 draft pick out of Syracuse. But when you see this player on the open market still,

he's a long-term starter in Seattle, K.J. Wright. He's been kind of getting more buzz around the NFL recently with some teams that are interested in him. I believe the Colts were kind of linked to him at one point during this offseason. We haven't heard anything since, but Shlomo's asking here, Stephen, what's your thoughts on a potential KJ Wright visit and signing if that were to happen? I would have a hard time with it. I feel like Chris Ballard really wants to play some of these young guys, and with how

they're really kind of transitioning to more nickel defense, you're usually only playing two linebackers. So I think they feel pretty comfortable with Zaire Franklin. You know, Sky Moore is coming back. E.J. Speed's really kind of stepped up from what we've heard in OTAs. Matthew Adams is still there. So I think they feel pretty confident in what they would get from those players. I think K.J. Wright, to me, would be kind of an expensive

addition for a position that you don't really have on the field as often. I mean, if you look at Anthony Walker's snaps last season and you saw how much they dwindled as Bobby Okereke kind of took that rollover. I think that the Colts just typically run more with the Darius Leonard, Bobby Okereke and then add that fifth defensive back in there versus having that more traditional base defense with the three linebackers. Colts fans, rockauto.com is a place to go if you want to save money on your next car purchase.

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They feel pretty confident, I think, about their roster right now. And with how Matt Iberflue is talking about Bobby Okereke today, mentioning he expects a huge jump in performance from Okereke in 2021 without having to really split those snaps anymore with Anthony Walker. This is really Okereke's first true year as a starter entering year three. Before we hit the next question, Steve, I mean, what's your thoughts on Okereke heading into year three? It seems like he could be a player where he could, if he's fully healthy, he could be a hundred tackle kind of guy in the system. I think he's going to take a huge

jump and he's going to get a lot of opportunities playing next to Darius Leonard. You could literally have two Pro Bowl linebackers here for the Colts. I think Bobby Okereke is that good. He makes those plays Those splash plays that you need When you need them And he's going to get a lot more playing time In terms of snaps And he showed as the year went on

When he started to take over that role More and more from Anthony Walker He showed that he could play And he could make big plays when he needed to He can run with anybody He's got that speed, that physicality. He's got that hustle. He's everything that Matt Eberflus and the Colts want in a linebacker,

and I feel like he's got just a massive opportunity this year to put up some really eye-popping numbers in terms of tackles, in terms of potential interceptions, even at the linebacker position. I know Darius Leonard gets a lot of those, but don't sleep on Bobby Okereke this year. Yeah, I'm really excited to see what Okereke does here in 2021. We have a couple of the same questions

here, so I'm going to combine both our Colts Ready users here on the same question. One from Dredis, and then another one here is from the Dude Official, and they're asking about just how much different the playbook's going to be with a larger offseason but also going from Rivers to Wentz. What's your thoughts on that?

I mean, we've expanded on this before on the show, but I think we're going to be seeing a lot more RPOs. Pretty much what we saw in 2017 and 2018 with Frank Reich, with Carson Wentz, the Eagles, and in 2018 with Andrew Luck in the second half of the 2018 season where a heavy run-based focus but really can take the top off the defense at any time with a strong-armed quarterback who can also escape out of the pocket when need be. I feel like Frank Reich, I mean,

I actually looked this up before we started the show, Stephen, but the Colts in 2018 averaged almost 40 passes per game under Andrew Luck. It dropped to 29 with Jacoby Brissett in 2019. And this past year, Phillip Rivers rose back up a little bit to 33. I feel like with Carson Wentz, if we get the bounce back from Wentz that we expect as a top 14, top 12, top 10 quarterback, we could probably get in that 35 attempt passes per game because we know Frank Reich loves Carson Wentz and he trusts him a lot.

If he does bounce back in that kind of way and he's more efficient, I think we see more of those RPOs and those 2017 Eagles, 2018 Colts type of playbook than what we saw the last couple of years. Yeah, I think that's definitely going to expand the playbook. You're going to see a lot more verticality with the passes than what you saw with Phillip Rivers. Phillip Rivers was a lot of crossers, a lot of drags, a lot of wheel routes to the running back. I think you're going to see a lot of crossers, a lot of drags, a lot of, you know, wheel routes, the running back.

I think you're going to see a lot more aggressive play calling with Carson Wentz and what you saw with Phillip Rivers. I think it's going to be a lot more, you're going to see a lot more chances taken because Frank Reich is going to feel more comfortable with that. It's pretty obvious, you know, going over the passing attempts per game, like how he felt about Jacoby Brissett as a passer versus how he felt about, you know, Andrew Luck, Phillip Rivers. And I think that you're going to see the same kind of trajectory

with Carson Wentz because he's going to put the ball in his hands when he needs to. But I do think that the team itself wants to focus on the running game because you've got arguably the best running back group in the NFL. They're in that backfield with Jonathan Taylor, Naeem Hines, Marlon Mack, Jordan Wilkins. And so I feel pretty confident that they're going to try to run the ball and they're going to do a lot more play action than what they did with Philip Rivers. And I think you're going to see a lot more verticality to their routes. And so you're going to see a lot more explosive plays, I think,

from this Colts offense than what you saw with Philip Rivers or what you saw the year prior. Yeah, that's a really good point there. When Marcus Brady actually mentioned today, he's going to add some of those CFL elements into the offense. Like you just mentioned, verticality, Paris Campbell being more of a deep threat. I think we're going to see Campbell in that kind of role. T.Y. Hilton kind of returned to his old former role.

We've kind of disappeared the last couple of years due to Bursette, his inability to throw downfield, and then Rivers, his arm strength at that point of his career was not there. But I think quite honestly, I could be seeing a really fun offense here in 2021 for the Indianapolis Colts. But the last part of the question here from the dude official about the expanded playbook, he wants to see more of Jonathan Taylor and Naeem Hines in the field together.

We actually didn't see it much last year. I believe we saw it against the Vegas Raiders for a play where Naeem Hines took a snap and Wildcat handed off to Jonathan Taylor and they scored a touchdown. But what do you think about Hines and Taylor being on the field with Carson Wentz in 2021 where he mentioned the Eagles in 2017 with Jay Ajayi and Corey Clement actually ran multiple two RB sets with Frank Reich under the helm as a pass catcher and as a run threat.

What's your thoughts on those guys being on the field together more often? I think that's a cool concept. And it's one of those where Naeem Hines is such a good receiver. And Jonathan Taylor is a really good receiver. Like people forget about that, like because he's such a good running back and then he wasn't used that way at Wisconsin. After the draft, I know that a lot of people were taking a knock on his hands and I sat there and defended him.

I said, look, this guy's got good hands. He just wasn't asked to catch the ball. So I think, you know, running in with Jonathan Taylor and Naeem Hines in the same backfield, you know, or at least on the field at the same time, I think would be really interesting because not only could you have them in the backfield at the same time, but you could split nine pints out, feel comfortable with him in the slot, or you use nine pints on that jet sweep or that jet motion.

And you're able to give some misdirection because you've got a guy that you feel really confident running the ball that if he needs to make that cut inside versus a wide receiver who gets the ball in that jet sweep and they want to take it outside no matter what, because they just don't, they don't feel comfortable going and making that cut inside and taking on those big defensive tackles. Naeem Hines doesn't have that issue. And so if he sees that cut right outside the tackle, once he gets outside of him, he'll just make it and go.

I think it'd be a really interesting wrinkle to add to the offense, and I think they'll probably use it because it really kind of fits what they're trying to do is get more dynamic plays, get more chunk yardage is what they really want to do. So I could see them being a possible option for them. Next question here is also on the running backs from Force Engage, and he's asking about how he thinks the running back snap distribution is going to play out between jonathan taylor marlin

mack and nike hines and it's an interesting question because if you would have said this a year ago before the season started steven marlin mack was set to be that lead running back before he tore his achilles in week one but after that happened jonathan taylor had a rough start but from there he turned into a superstar running back over the last six weeks of the season. And now it's – Marcus Brady even mentioned today this in the media that he is that feature running back. He is going to be the number one running back this year, and Mack and Hines will come in whenever they need to.

But this is something I brought up with Hayden Winks of Underdog Fantasy on our podcast today when I recorded with him, and he had the same thoughts as well. Like, Jonathan Taylor is going to be that bell cow running back, an elite fantasy running back this year. And Naheem Hines is going to be that change of pace guy on passing downs. And I have a hard time – I know I love Marlon Mack, but I just have a hard time seeing him cracking the field that much,

honestly, Stephen, because Jonathan Taylor's going to get around 15 to 17 carries per game, probably a couple of receptions here too. So around 18 to 19 touches per game. Naheem Hines probably around three to four touches per game marlin mack just might maybe maybe get five carries per game like i just don't see him much being much of a role here in 2021 with the emergence of jonathan taylor and also the emergence of nine hines last year as well if you want to say percentage wise probably like taylor on the field about 70 of of the time, Hines about 15, and Marlon Mack around like maybe 5% to 10%. It just seems like to me, I love Marlon Mack,

but I just don't see much of a role for him in 2021 with Taylor and Hines in front of him. Yeah, that's the tough part is Taylor's going to take the ball to the snaps. I mean, it's a given there. He's going to be the guy based on how he ended last season. Marlon Mack. Yeah. Well, you want to see what he's got. And I think they're going to give him a pretty good amount of snaps. Now, I don't know how many touches he's going to get out of it,

just because he's got such experience. And it seems like he was pretty much full go for this OTA kind of style stuff they were doing this week. And so I'm excited for him to get back into it. And hopefully, I think they're going to give him every chance he can to be able to get his big contract that he deserves. And so I think you're probably going to see, I think you're going to see Taylor worth like 70% of the snaps.

I think you're going to see name Heinz going to get quite a few in there. But I think you're going to see a little bit more of them, especially early in the season, giving Marlon Max and carries that normally you think would go to Jonathan Taylor because you've got that 17-game season. So I think you're going to see Marlon Mack give Taylor a little bit more rest than what you normally would when you've got that top-tier running back like Derek Henry, somebody like that, who is going to carry the load

every single game. The Colts could do that with Jonathan Taylor, but I see them trying to save him for the end of the season. So I think you're probably going to see a little bit more of a split than what you would normally see in a normal 16-game season. Bilt Bar is the best-tasting protein bar ever. With Bilt Bar, there's nine delicious flavors plus the occasional limit-time flavor as well.

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and use promo code LOCKED15 one more time for you for 15% off at BiltBar.com. Yeah, that's a great point. I was just going to bring up there, Stephen, before you mention it. I think we're going to see maybe Marlon Mack have more of an even split with Taylor in the first month or six weeks,

and like we saw in 2020 with Taylor, not so much performance-wise, but more so to preserve his body with the extra game this year, plus hopefully a playoff run for the Colts, where we're going to probably see him in the last two months of the season really get back on that 18 to 20 carries. And then from there, maybe Marlon Mack sort of phased out if Taylor is back from what we saw in the last part of his rookie year.

But a couple more questions here before we end today's show, and we have a couple more to combine here about the roster and one is from super vanilla bear and the other one is from carlos the creator and they're asking about any potential surprise cuts by the end of training camp at the end of preseason who do you say is on the hot seats team and i think one obvious one to me and we touched on this last week on the show is ben banigou i think it's a huge camp for him because if he doesn't show up, like if he doesn't have the attitude to really improve and show up, he's going to be gone by the end of preseason.

Yeah. Yeah, that's the one. I mean, it's definitely going to be Ben Banigou and whether he can come up and make it work, I don't know. That would be the primary, but not surprise cut, um, out of all the guys. Uh, yeah, beyond that, it's pretty, I mean, it's pretty up in the air, um, in terms of surprise cuts, maybe you see something at the wide receiver position, depending on what they do, um do over the next couple of weeks.

You know, you, you might see, you know, really, I, I just can't, I just don't see it. Maybe a corner, maybe, maybe, you know, Rocky scene gets absolutely beat out and he gets cut. But beyond that, I don't, I don't see any massive surprise cuts. Maybe Jordan Wilkins could be a surprise cut there at the running back position. I know they just signed a pretty hefty unrestricted free agent or undrafted free agent contract to a running back whose name slips my mind right now. But they were really high on him.

And maybe he beats out Jordan Wilkins. But honestly, that's not necessarily a huge surprise. So that's – if we're going surprise cuts, Ben Banigou would be the number one option for me. Yeah, Ben Banigou is an the number one option for me. Yeah, Ben Banigou is the obvious number one for me. Maybe like an Ashton Doolin, if we can see like Mike Strawn or Desmond Patton play special teams. I think they're going to carry six wide receivers this year with the depth they have on their roster right now.

And Doolin's going to have to really prove himself as a true special teams ace. Like we saw Chris Milton a couple years ago where you can't cut me just because I'm so good at special teams. Like that's what's going to have to take, I think, for Doolin to stay on this roster with the way that Mike Strawn has performed in OTAs and Desmond Patman the Colts are very high on him and his potential long term but outside of that I agree with you like maybe like maybe a stunner so to say like almost like a John Simon type of one from a couple years ago could be like a TJ Carey if an Isaiah

Rodgers and Marvell Tell really show up in training camp preseason and prove like hey like, hey, like, T.J. Carey's kind of expendable at this point and we don't need him, but I think they need that veteran leadership alongside Xavier Rhodes in that DB room. So that could be maybe my surprise cut is T.J. Carey. I mean, what's your thoughts on that? Like, let's say Tell and Rodgers really come into play in preseason and training camp. Rocky Asin looks more consistent.

Do you think Carey's kind of expendable? I don't know because that veteran depth that he gives and the fact that he was able to step in pretty seamlessly for Rakia Sin when he was having issues, it makes me think that they're really, really high on T.J. Kerry and the fact that they brought him back versus other players who were solid contributors, on TJ Carey and the fact that they brought him back versus, you know, other players who were solid contributors, but they just decided not to bring back for instance, they just let him walk. And so I'm not,

I don't know. The fact that they brought TJ Carey back makes me know that they, they really like him. I feel like that would be a surprise cut to me because I think that he's done enough to show that he deserves to be on the roster. That's why I kind of hedged on my answer and threw in Rak Yassin as well. If there's going to be one of those guys that's cut, I don't know whether it'd be Carey or Yassin as well because I just if there's going to be one of those guys that's cut I don't know whether it'd be Kerry or Yassin in that group um to be a surprise one and but yeah it just yeah it's there's a couple that that it wouldn't surprise me but it wouldn't surprise me um so yeah it's just just an interesting interesting group it kind of shows

you honestly steven here after chris bowers been at the helm for four years now like we're talking about maybe their sixth or seventh string defensive end as a surprise cut as the headliner like this roster top to bottom is looking really really good and compared to years past under ryan brixon i know the wins have not come up yet just because Andrew Luck retired. I think we've been in a whole different discussion right now if Andrew Luck was still the quarterback with the wins and losses column and their playoff success. But looking at the way that Ballard's built this roster top to bottom, Ben Banigou being the potential top surprise cap for us

really says a lot about the roster construction. Yeah. Like the fact that it's a – he's going into his third year. It's a second-round pick, but he really hasn't gotten a chance to play. And so the fact that – yeah, the fact that he's the – he's our kind of consensus surprise cut, if that ends up being the case, really kind of says something about the rest of the roster and how everybody feels about it.

We're actually at our last question here, Stephen. So I appreciate the time tonight and to all the people over on Colts Reddit, r slash Colts for the great questions we've had today. The last one here is talking about the coaching staff. Actually it's from D Jigazuski. I just apologize if I'd mispronounced that if you're listening to this, but he asked what coaching change excites the most? What do you, where do you see the most improvement? Likewise, does any of the new coaches worry that there could be potentially

a drop-off in production? I'll start here, Steven. I mean, I think it's an easy answer to say Marcus Brady, because I think we're actually going to see a little bit of new elements to this Colts offense. Nick Sirianni and Frank Reich were really step in step. I think Marcus Brady brings a little bit more of an edge, a little bit more of like a voice to the room where he could really say like, hey, I want to add more of this vertical concept. I want to make some some CFL stuff in there as well. And we've heard that we've seen obviously a lot of RPO concepts added in through OTAs. Carson Wentz is a big fan of those as well. I'd say Marcus Brady is probably my favorite one so far. But outside of that, like he asked here, any of the new coaching changes possibly worry you

I don't really see any that worry me at all maybe the the most that could really bother me could be like losing Tom Rathman who retired the historic player for the San Francisco 49ers a great running back coach as well Scotty Montgomery comes in there from the college ranks to take over for Rathman it's big shoes to fill there I'm not really worried about that room with how great those running backs are. So I'd probably say the easy answer here is Marcus Brady's because I think we're going to actually see a little bit of tweaks here and there to the offense. Yeah, I think Marcus Brady is kind of the obvious choice there.

I'm interested to see what Kevin Mawai brings as the assistant offensive line coach. I know he's an assistant offensive line coach, so he's not going to be, but he's a Hall of Fame player, and so he's going to bring a very different perspective, which I think will be interesting, especially to the interior of the offensive line. I guess if I'm gonna pick one who worries me your point on on rathman retiring is is great um that's the one i hadn't really considered until you brought it up um one i i'd probably throw out there is james rowe the cornerbacks coach coming from uh app state like it's um it's a big jump uh in terms of the types of players you're coaching um so you know it's a big jump in terms of the types of players you're coaching. So, you know, it's one of those things where Chris Binder,

Chris Ballard has the binder and that he knows basically he's got an idea. And it's that like when we, he took a hit from a lot of people talking about Matt Rule when he did his initial coaching search and the fact that he brought him in for a couple times and it looks like Chris Ballard again was ahead of the curve so my guess is he's had his eye on all of these coaches for a long long time and when they became available or a position became available that he could put them in he went for it and so I don't have a lot of of question marks I think he said Scotty Montgomery is probably Scotty Montgomery James

Rowe are probably my two big question marks Marcus Brady is the one that's probably going to be the most influential just because he's coming and he's going to be a little bit more aggressive in terms of his play calling and if Frank Reich really does kind of hand the keys over a little bit to Marcus Brady to come up with a game plan, then I think you're going to see a lot more dynamic, like I mentioned earlier, verticality on this offense, which I think will be good. And it'll really fit the players that the Colts have.

Steven, hey, I always enjoy having you on, man. That's going to conclude tonight's episode here, going over our mailbag via Colts Reddit. Colts fans, go ahead and follow Steven on Twitter if you're not already at NiceReadSteve. And go listen to his podcast as well over on Stampede Blue. And like I mentioned at the top of the show, I'll be over on Stampede Blue and contributing as well on a daily basis.

Steven, appreciate the time today, man. Thanks, Evan. Have a great one.