Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - COLTS SQUAD SHOW: Biggest IMPACT Rookie | Which New Colt Will Be a Difference Maker in 2026?

Episode Date: April 29, 2026

Which Colts' draftee will have the biggest impact as a rookie in 2026? The Squad convenes to discuss that, plus worst-case scenarios for this year's draft class, The One That Got Away (the prospect that you really wanted to see the Colts land they they didn't), and the guys go over Indy's draft class grades from around the country.  Everydayer Club  If you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclub Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel.Right now new customers can bet just five dollars and get one-hundred and fifty dollars in bonus bets if your first bet wins. Visit https://FANDUEL.COMto get started — Play Your Game. Indeed Listeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/podcast. Rugiet Get 15% off your treatment → https://rugiet.com/lockedonnfl Rugiet. Performance medicine for men. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to the Colts Squad Show. I'm your host Derek Schultz, and draft season is over, but mustache growing season has just begun. And I'm Zach Hicks, and I pay on a comparison to at least two of the people on this panel when it comes to mustaches. I'm Jake Arthur, and you know what? I'm just out here, obviously not shaving much, but you know what? We pull it off. I'm Allen Pickett, former orler. No mustache because mine got gray.

I got tired of plucking it. But no first. First round pick, no problem. We'll discuss. Colts Nation rise up. It's the Colt Squad, everything Indianapolis Colts every week. Covering all the big hits and game changing plays from the Circle City, the way only the locked on podcast network can.

It's time to squad up. The Colt Squad Joe starts now. Welcome to the Colts Squad Show. Glad to have you here. I'm Derek Shultz, longtime indie sports talker and columnist for the Indianapolis Business Journal. I'm joined by a nerd name legend and longtime NFL running back who was very productive on the field, even if his mustache growing is no longer productive.

It's Alan Pinkett, along with the dynamic Locked on Colts Daily Duo, your first listen every day, Jake Arthur and Zach Hicks. We're still talking draft this week on the show, guys. Of course, not only our squad show, but Locked on Colts as well. And on this addition to show, we will share our thoughts on which rookie can make the biggest impact in the 2026 class. Now, there are some obvious candidates for that, right? But we'll kind of give a mention to everybody and discuss how all of these players can make some sort of an impact with Chris Bowers' latest draft hall here in year nine, at the end of year nine, year 10 with his draft hall here in 2026. Worst case scenarios for this year's class.

We'll mix in some pessimism with the optimism. How about that? The yin and yang, duality of man, right? Worst case scenarios for this year's class. Obviously, we've seen worst cases play out in draft classes. You don't have to look that far. I mean, 2023 is a pretty prime example of that, at least with the first two picks.

We'll talk about that in second number two. The one that got away. So I hear gripes about this all the time. Well, Colts did this, but I wish they would have done this. Or if they had only done that, we'll talk about that in segment number three as we continue to kind of tie a bow on the 2026 NFL draft. And then we'll go over the Colts draft grades now. nationally, largely positive.

We'll talk about that coming up here in segment number four. So, Zach, I think I know who you're going to say here. And for all intents and purposes, just because of the position that he's playing and because I think you can not only pencil him in, you can permanent marker him in as a starter for day one. When we're talking just biggest impact, just because of how much he's going to play, knock on wood, that he's healthy. I think C.J. Allen is probably the obvious answer.

So let's just kind of start there about if it is C. J. Allen, what kind of impact can C.J. Allen have on this year's Colts as a rookie. Yeah, I think he's going to have a pretty big impact. And we've seen in recent draft classes, like rookie linebackers hitting the ground running. I mean, last year, Carson Swessinger, going to the Cleveland Browns and becoming their second best defender last year, or top three defender. Obviously, that first place is taken there in Cleveland. But, you know, top three defender on that team last year. And he was everything that they were looking for. And I think the big thing with with C.J. Allen is that he's going to offer.

a rare amount of stability for a 21-year-old rookie when it comes to his play, because as we've talked about a lot on The Daily Show, and we've even talked about a couple times on here, now that we've talked about him, is that he's such a, like, reliable player for a young guy, right? The way that he plays the game is not this, like, I'm going to take the most aggressive angle and try to get this running back down for three yards in the backfield. And this aggressive angle could lead to a miss, which leads to a 20-yard run. it's more so I'm going to move with the running back. I'm going to play linebacker like I know what's going on in the running back's head.

And I'm going to get him down for a one or two yard game, right, and keep us ahead of the sticks defensively. So he's just a really smart player who stays within his zone, stays within his assignment, sets up guys pre-snap and calls the defense. It's going to be a pretty tall task for a young player, but I think he's well equipped to do this. He's been doing it at Georgia the last couple years. And that's as close as you get to the NFL.

NFL when it comes to playing at the college level. So, yeah, I think that he's going to be a huge impact for this team. It's going to be very different from what we saw out of Zyre Franklin the last couple of years where Franklin was a little bit more boom or bust, but he also did all the Mike linebacker stuff of setting the defense and getting everybody ready and pumping them up pregame and all that stuff. But I think CJ Allen is well equipped for it. And I think he's going to be a really big impact.

And again, for the couple negatives we got with Franklin, where it was. was very highs and lows in his game. I think Alan's just going to be a very stable force at that linebacker spot. So I think his impact is going to be huge, even if it's not like, you know, a Shaquille Leonard rookie season, right? We're getting like the crazy turnover numbers because I don't think Alan is that type of player. But I do think that he's going to be a guy who starts for a long time in this league and just puts together a really solid career.

And I think that's going to start in 2026. Yeah, I kind of have a bold take that if if some things break Alan's way and he's able to get some turnovers, you know, gets a couple interceptions, makes a couple, like, forced fumbles in big moments, what have you. I already think he's going to have, like, 150 tackles. I mean, he might compete for defensive rookie of the year. If you look at, if you look at that around the league, there are very few, like, runaway candidates. Like, the winner is not always someone who just absolutely throttled the competition.

And, I mean, there's going to be some good candidates here. here, but as far as guys who will be relied upon as much as Alan will be, it's going to be kind of hard to see that around the league. So I do like that pick, obviously, but I'll go with the next guy, AJ Halsey. So the Colts haven't really had a safety with this blend of like instincts and toughness and like the ability to make these highlight worthy plays. They haven't had very many of those over the years. you could probably draw a comparison like Antoine Bethay.

I'm not going to go as far as Bob Sanders, obviously. But when you get a guy who plays as confidently as Halsey does because of how smart and just comfortable he is out there, it's a big impact. I think Zach and I actually, Zach and I actually talked about this earlier on the Daily Show, but if you have a healthy Mooney Ward and Sauce Gardner on the boundary and they stay out there and are playing to a level,

level, we know that they can. Teams aren't going to test the Colts on the boundary as much, which is going to leave the middle of the field for what they're testing. And if you have a guy like really both Cam Bynum and A.J. Halsey, who are comfortable enough to take risks and go make big plays, well, then that's going to open up a lot of things because now teams can't throw on the boundary, but they're also being made to pay when they test things over the middle as well. So I think we'll see as long as he starts, which I think he should.

I don't know why he wouldn't because, I mean, Hunter Roller, Juanier Thomas, are those really better prospects than Halsey? They're not. I think it's going to be Halsey that gets the nod there at the strong safety, even though both him and Bynum will be counted on to kind of play up and down. But I think Halsey will have a huge impact. Obviously, Alan will have the biggest. But if Halsey is out there, I expect him to play a ton.

and he's already, there's no question about like his ball skills or anything like that. I think he's going to make a ton of highlight worthy plays. Well, I think it comes down to, and for me, it's C.J. Allen, do you want a highlight real player or do you want reliability? And I think from the Mike Lionback position in a Lou Anarumo system, you want reliability. just, you know, I am good with him making stops. He doesn't have to come through and blow a guy up in the back field, but make stops. You know, have some good pass coverage on tight ends and backs coming out of the backfield.

But make stops. And, you know, the other thing I'll say, around the league, they talk about this being a steel. getting them at 53. How good a player this was at 53 sort of lets you know about how many linebackers, great, not great, good linebackers there were to pick from in this draft that the Colts could trade down and get this guy who fits just from all the stuff you talk about, fits their system. And, you know, he is coming to a job, you know.

And I think with, you know, him coming to a job, the veterans know it too. And a lot of times you got veterans that want to indoctrinate the rookies, razz them a little bit. But when a guy's going to be counted on from day one, they sort of know where they're drafting, the vets tend to be a little more welcoming because, you know, they want to get him feeling as comfortable as possible with the vets that he can be so he can relax and go make plays. You don't want him worrying about saying the wrong thing or, you know, if he's a hype guy, you know, you don't want to tell, hey, rookie, shut up. You're just a rookie. You don't want any of that type of negative stuff. This guy is coming in here sort of as a savior.

So I think it's going to be a welcoming reception among the vets because they know that, you know, they need some, their dire need of someone reliable in that position. And this guy just based on what he did in college, will fit perfectly. You know, so it's sort of like, I remember we used to raz rookies. I was never a big, you know, razzer of rookies because, you know, once you're on the team, hey, we got games to win.

We don't have time to play around, you know, making fun of a rookie, having them carry our pads and bringing the water and going out and buying us all dinner when they don't even have money yet. You know, so I think the reception is going to, going to be good for him, which is going to be a thing that's going to make him feel even more comfortable. And hopefully, that comfortableness will help him execute better on the field. Yeah, I'll take Alan as well and echo some of the same sentiments that all of you ended up having.

But I just think when you look at where the Colts were last year at that spot, where you basically had, remember they started the year with Zaire Franklin and essentially like practice squad bodies at linebacker, right? And then they, they, they, they, they cycled through that and they, they were kind of fortunate to get Jermaine Pratt. I know Jermaine Pratt's nothing to write home about, but, you know, just the fact that he came in and at the very least solidified, like, belonged on the field, unlike, you know, some of the other players that they, they had at that position. And, and we saw even through the faults of Zaire Franklin, that was not Zaire Franklin at his best in an Indianapolis Colts uniform. And whereas, I,

I think expecting Alan to come in and just be a, you know, a great player right away might be asking a lot. But I do think that there's some upside there that he can be a real playmaker at that position where the Colts have sort of lacked that. I think certainly last year or, you know, given Franklin's limitations maybe longer than that, just because the valleys were sometimes as deep as the peaks were high for him during his career. So it may be convenient. and maybe easy to say that it's C.J. Allen, but just because of the amount of snaps that he's going to get because of what he's going to be relied upon to do, I think that's the best answer.

But again, Zach, you know, the beauty of this draft class is that, and we sort of touched on this with our draft recap show on Sunday night, you can talk me into most of these players playing some sort of a role, whether it be rotational role, special teams role, or something like that. You know, even somebody like Jalen Farmer, you know, if you're taking a deep, cut or a long shot bet, if you will, on, hey, this guy's going to impact the team in 26, just with the sheer chance of injury or the fact maybe he has an incredible camp and

they realize, hey, we got to play this guy right now. I know he's a guard, but I think, you know, offensive line has injuries, has issues. It's always good to have bodies at that spot. And he could be a guy that steps up and fills a role. And then Betcher as well, who I'm a little bit lukewarm on, but another guy that certainly there is reps available at linebacker for this team. That's going to be an open job. Yeah, no, Betcher and Farmer are going to see the field at some point this year.

Betcher is going to be the third guy up at linebacker as long as he stays healthy through training camp. And heck, he's one injury away in training camp from being a potential starter for this team. And then when we're talking about Jalen Farmer, you know, even if he doesn't win out a starting job right out the gate, as a sixth offensive lineman in the NFL, you're guaranteed to play at least a month of snaps. And like, that's the nature of the NFL when it comes to offensive line play. It's insanely, like, think about in Chris Ballard's time as general manager.

They've only had one season where the same five guys have started every single game. And unfortunately, it was the season where Andrew Luck retired right before the year. So Jacoby Brissette got the same offensive line all year. But every other year, whatever, there's been a hodgepodge of guys starting games. You know, you know that Quentin Nelson's probably going to be out there for most games, no matter what. But all these other guys have missed time. Right? It's just normally what happens. So your sixth offensive lineman, like we saw with Jalen Travis, starting, I think, five games last year.

Like we've seen with Bordellini and his rookie season started two to three games. And he saw this and his rookie season started a month of play. Like you're going to start games if you're a backup offensive lineman, Dalton Tucker as well as started a lot of games. So Jalen Farmer is going to have a big role in this team just because as a sixth offensive lineman, they all have giant roles on football teams. You know what's funny is the guy who would be the best case scenario, like if the Colts got the biggest impact out of this guy, it would be the best case scenario is George Gumbs.

It won't happen because there's just so much in between. But that's the guy where that would be the biggest difference maker if he is the one that makes the biggest impact. But I digress. And I'll just add in here. The wild card for me is going to be Dionne Burks. I mean, usually you wouldn't say that about. a seventh round pick, but looking at the skill set that he has, you know, especially maybe putting him

in the slot, putting Josh Downs outside, you may have, you know, a good enough package where they won't be able to isolate on one receiver because all of them will be able to do their part and getting the ball down the field. We gave some optimistic outlooks on the Colts rookie class. What about the other side of the coin? We'll talk concerns and worst case scenarios. Oh, boy. Next, when the cold squad show returns. This portion of the cold squad show brought you by Ruggiet.

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squad show. Thanks so much for making us a part of your Tuesday, back to our regularly scheduled offseason programming here with the Tuesday, Thursday shows at 930, alongside former NFLer and her name Legend Alan Pinkett, Jake Arthur and Zach Hicks of the Locked-on Colts duo. I'm Derek Schultz. We're still talking Colts draft and talking Colts rookie class. And I wanted to get into, I don't usually like doing this because I like to think that I'm a happy, positive, go lucky guy, positive thinker, glass half full, the whole deal. but if we are going glass half empty, you know, that's the risk of the NFL draft, right?

I would assume that all of the other locked on NFL squad shows right now we're talking about, hey, this guy's going to come in and start right away and here's why he's going to be really good and, man, I really like this pick and he's going to be great. And then three years from now, 90% of those guys aren't on the team, right? You know, there is always the risk that that happens. We just went through that here with the Colts and a class from a couple of years ago and even the 24 class kind of gave some limited returns as well.

Zach, I wanted to start with you. Maybe some, not red flags, that's probably the wrong word, concerns that you have, especially with the first two picks because largely those have been applauded in C.J. Allen and A.J. Halsey, but as we see, you know, things can go wrong with those two guys. So is there something that jumps out to you about either of them that, hey, if this happens or that happens, is if this limitation shows up that I saw on their film from college, that's probably not a good thing for the Colts. That's probably not what they want,

if we're just talking about sort of the other side of the coin from what we discussed in segment one. Yeah, I mean, before we get to the negative aspects of both their games that could hamper them in year one, I think obviously the biggest thing that can make this draft class a bust for 2026 and beyond, it's just the injuries that have been in training game. The injuries that, like last year's draft class,

we can't say it's a bus because Tyler Warren was so good, right? Like you at least got that much production at one player, but literally every other group, every other player got hurt at some point. I mean, Jalen Travis stayed healthy, but Woller was on IR, Justin Wally was on the IR, Jalen 2a-law, I got getting the J-T-T off my head here. Jalen to him a low-ow missed some time as well with an injury.

So, like, guys got hurt, and that's the one way a rookie class can really just get derailed early on and not live up to their potential. But in terms of the top two guys, some of the issues that really pop up, I mean, I think with C.J. Allen, like, he's a very good athlete, but you don't want to put them on an island with, like, running backs and tight ends very often. So the Colts are going to run this, like, heavy man coverage where we're asking CJ Allen to be, like, a man coverage linebacker.

I think they're going to get burned quite a bit. I think they're going to have some issues with that and stuff like that. And then also, you know, I had a commenter that told me to stop talking about it, but it's a real thing. Shorter arms at linebacker do typically lead to more mistackles and more missed opportunities, right? The reason why people want linebackers with 33-inch arms is you have more range. You have more range and you have more control when you're wrapping up ball carriers. So we usually see mistackle rate generally coincide with like shorter arm guys or shorter frame guys.

So I do think that there could be more mistackles for Allen in the NFL if he's not meeting guys in the hole like he wasn't college, right? A lot of the reason why for a shorter arm linebacker that he had such a low miss tackle rate is because he wasn't chasing guys down. He wasn't a tick behind guys. He was meeting them in the hole. So it wasn't his arms reaching for a guy. It was his shoulder onto their chest and driving them into the ground. So if he's a step behind, we could see the mistackles go up a little bit for him. But overall, it's kind of hard to see his rookie year not going well, in my opinion. Now, AJ Halsey is more on the other end of the spectrum where he is kind of a feaster fan player, right? He is very boomer bust in everything he does where he kind of has a little bit

that Shaquille Leonard aspect to him where it's like, hey, I'm the low hole player here, but I think they're running this certain concept. Let me show that I'm actually staying in my low hole, but I'm going to abandon my assignment to jump this route that I think they're throwing to. And if you're wrong on that read, it could give up a long touchdown. You know, like it can give up a huge gain against you. So also does have a little bit more risk taking in his game. And I could see that backfiring if you're not fully adept to the NFL game yet. Also, his, his tendency to just throw his entire body in tackling at players. Like, it's why he misses a lot of tackles, but also I could see that leading to like an injury, right? Because he does, like, he's,

I don't want to say he's reckless, but he's aggressive, he's very aggressive in the way that he tackles, right? Like Jake and I talked about this earlier, it's not that he throws his head first at any guys like that, but it is like throwing. his entire weight behind his hits. And there are a couple times where it's like, I'm not trying to tell a guy to like lessen up, but you know, you can be a little,

you don't want to be as reckless with your body in the NFL. You have to sustain yourself over 17 games and potentially into the playoffs over 20 games, right? So you want to be able to sustain yourself a little bit better and just throwing your whole reckless abandon your body at players could, could hinder that ability. So, you know, with Halsey, though, I think he's going to be a pretty good guy that can play on the back end.

but I could see a potential, like a thing where, like, hey, he's taking a lot of risk and he's missing a lot of tackles. In a Luan Rumo defense, it's like, hey, we need a guy who can consistently do it we need them to do, and you're taking too many risk and not getting the benefits there. So I do think with Halsey, there could be more Evan Flo in his game. Like, you could see, like, a game where he's one of the best players on the team, and then a game where he's the worst player on the team. Or with Allen, it's going to be a very steady type of player as long as he's still what he was in college. Yeah, when I think of worst case scenarios with this rookie class,

I actually think there's two guys where if they were to get injured for like an extended period of time to where like the team had to make some sort of plan about it or react to it, it would be a big issue. And that would be C.J. Allen because you lose your mic linebacker, you're probably screwed there. Like that means you're either going to have to put betcher there, which I don't think he translates well to a mic in the NFL or you're going to have to move. team Davis Gather there to Mike and then Betcher or a GK will have to be at your will.

I think that would be a big problem for what they have, which probably means they don't quite have enough depth right there. They probably need like a true Mike backup as well. And then oddly enough, this guy's probably not even a starter, but Jalen Farmer. We've kind of talked about it a bit where, yes, this is a day three pick, but we've seen that these day three picks specifically for offensive linemen with Tony Spirano, they actually are kind of important. So Farmer, just if I'm being optimistic and he does well when he gets in there, he's at worst going to be like you're probably third guard. You know, I've talked about him being there

maybe gives you the flexibility to make Dalton Tucker the backup center. And then, you know, maybe he could be the swing tackle. Chris Ballard has mentioned that's a possibility once you get to training camp. If he gets into the starting lineup, then it puts either Matt Gonzalez or Jalen Travis as the new swing tackle and then the other is the right tackle. So like if Farmer does well, it's very consequential, either positively or negatively for the rest of the offensive line, at least the interior to the right side. So I think if you lose that potential quality depth there, they haven't quite done enough otherwise outside of him right now because you don't have a true backup center yet and you

don't have a true swing tackle yet because you have Luke Tanuta and Blake Freeland and that if you take Farmer out of the equation because Farmer's the only guy they really added and we knew they had those offensive line depth needs going into the draft. So I think if anything happens to C.J. Allen or anything happens to Jalen Farmer, it could be a kind of a big problem. So I think it goes without saying injury is the worst case scenario. Yeah. And the worst time to get injured is in training camp, especially for the rookies where they've got so much to learn. And they've got to get used to the pace and speed of the game. And sometimes practice just gets boring, doing the same damn thing over and over again.

So it's really important. And I can recall back to a couple of my training camps. where I was just, you know, we're only going to be out here for a couple hours. I can lock in for a couple hours and treat this like a game and use it as a learning experience. And usually when you're locked in and you're focused on what you're supposed to do, less injuries occur. Now, you're never going to stop the freak injury, you know, Office of Blahman getting rolled up on or a collision where, you know, know, you didn't see the guy. And, you know, some of the injuries that happened last year, you just, they couldn't be helped. But there's something to be said about being, you know,

laser focus on what you're doing for the amount of time you have to do it. You know, practice might be two and a half hours, but your actual runtime might be 30 minutes, you know. So each drill you're in, make sure, you know, you're locked in. Yeah. And, you, you're, you're, If it's in a scrimmage, you know, you treat that like a game. And you always look at it like if you're going to be good in this league, you only got, what, 17 games, all right? So how do you perfect your craft? You got to treat practice like a game. You know, you got to practice with a purpose.

And if you practice with a purpose, not only do you. help your chances on game day, but you reduce the likelihood of injury. Yeah, I mean, this class largely, guys, I think we would all agree, is going to be evaluated based on how Allen and Halsey do for the most part, because those are the guys that they really need to hit on, right? That happens every year with the draft class and notably your first couple of picks, but there are certain positions or certain players that you really need to hit on and I think the Colts really need to hit on those two guys. And I think where, you know, this, this class could have some issues is that, you know, and Zach and Jake, you guys have mentioned

this, you know, you have to be right on those picks more often than you've been wrong. And if you kind of go back, I think the cutoff would probably be like the 2020 draft because, you know, obviously if you go back to the first couple of Chris Bauer draft classes, yeah, Emily Hooker didn't really work out here. but like, you know, Quint Nelson and Shaq Leonard were the first two, right, that ended up being in 2018, both home run picks. Michael Pittman, Jr. and Jonathan Taylor in 2020. But then you start kind of going through and you're like, okay, Quitty Pay turned into a decent NFL player. But then Dio, you know, it never really came together necessarily for him here. You know, Alec Pierce you feel good about, but maybe not so much Jelani Woods.

23, we've already talked about. You just throw that right in the garbage disposal. Latu and A.D. Mitchell in 24, you know, one guy's already out the door. It doesn't even matter if A.D. Mitchell becomes a great player for the Jets because he did nothing here, right? And Latu, the jury is still a little bit out on. And we won't get into 25 yet, even if to him, well, I'll have had somewhat of a disappointing 20, 25 season with what he showed so far, even if it's offset a little bit by Warren. So I just think so much of it's going to be what Alan and Halsey do because, you know, the rest of the guys are just sort of draft pieces, right? I mean, you know, anything that you get from. especially the two edges, it's kind of like found money, right? When you're talking about a fifth round and a six round guy in Gumbs and Curry. And even Dionne Burks, Alan, who I know you mentioned, like, if he turns into a rosterable, decent NFL player, then great. But that's all you're looking for with that, whereas they need CJ Allen to come in and

be a leader and a green dot and a key player in the middle of their defense. They need Halsey to come in and be a key player as a second safety. They need Farmer to come in and be at the very least key depth, if not even can get snaps. So if those guys at the top fail, then it just, it kind of trickles down to everything else. Yeah, for sure. I will throw in Bryce Betcher, though. I think Betcher is going to have a pretty adequate sized role on this team.

Like, even if he doesn't win a starting job, he's going to have a, you know, I think up until like the fourth round, those are the guys that you truly count as like, all right, we, we are taking you here to be a valuable piece going forward. But once you get past that, yeah, you're kind of an early undrafted free agency range, especially in this draft from all things that we heard about this draft, is it basically like, yeah, like once you get to like round five, it was, it was that. So, yeah, I think those top four rounds for sure.

They expect those guys to contribute and be big pieces. After that, it's kind of just free money. When we come back on the Colt Squad show, the one that got away. And no, we're not talking about Allen's high school girlfriends or anything like that. We're talking about the NFL draft. We'll come back with that next here on the Colt Squad show. show. Welcome back. Locked on Colts Squad show Tuesday night edition. Appreciate you guys being here. Alan Pinkett, Jake Arthur, Zach Hicks, Derek Schultz. We are fully squatted up for the show.

So again, like I mentioned, and we're going to talk about the Colts draft grades from the national pundits coming up in segment number four. But for the most part, I saw pretty positive reviews, both locally and nationally for the Colts draft class. But there's always the yeah, but there's always, you know, you could be happy with the pick, but you can think to yourself, man, well, I like this guy, but I would have like this guy more or maybe he didn't like a pick in a certain spot and you felt like this guy was still on the board could have ended up getting him. That happens every single year in the draft. And, you know, sometimes that works out or sometimes you're you're screaming to the clouds about it. And then other times you're like, no, I didn't really say that.

And you kind of try to hide because that player ends up busting out or not being the player that you thought he was going to be. But Zach, who comes to mind for you? If you had to choose one where you were like, man, I really like this guy. I thought he would have fit the Colts very well. He was right there for the taking, and for whatever reason, it didn't materialize. Yeah, I would say Skyler Bell probably in round four over Bryce Betcher or over Jalen Farmer even. Like, I'm fine with giving Tony his guy. We talked about that earlier on the show, on the earlier day show.

But yeah, like, I think that Skylar Bell is just everything they probably could have used at that Z wide receiver spot. I think the bill's got a really good steal with him. but yeah, I mean, it's trenches. I'm not going to be too complaining about trenches there. But Skylar Bell, I would have liked. And if I had to throw one more in there, just not getting me a one tech. I don't even, like, you could go any round with this. Like, get me a one tech defensive tackle.

I mean, there were plenty of guys available throughout the entire draft that I would have gone with. So I can't even say like one name when it comes to one tech because there was just so many on like day three where it's like, do we need a second edge? Like give me a 330 pound guy to back up Grover Stewart. Like why do we need a sixth edge? I need a second one tech. That's what I'm going for there. But yeah, I think a one tech for sure.

But yeah, Skylar Bell was probably the big one in like round four. Like I know we talked a lot about deny Dennis Sutton, obviously with the edge rusher in the fourth round that was still there out of Penn State. But honestly, I had like a fourth round grade on him. I was only taking him higher. mock draft because I thought he go higher with his athleticism and stuff. But he ended up being there in the fourth and like, yeah, I would have taken him there. But it's kind of a wash with Farmer over him where Skylar Bell, I had like a late second round

grade on him. I would have taken Skylar Bell for sure. He was probably the best player on the board for me in round four. So that's probably the one that got away for me, but also the position that got away is still one tech, like it is every single year with Chris Ballard. Yeah, for me, I think there was a couple guys that went like really early, like maybe earlier than they were expected to where I was like, I wanted the Colts to get them at a more appropriate time. Like Deshaun Struggling jumps off the page to me going at the top of the second round, just like with Carson, Carson, Creshinger last year. So Stribling going as early as he did kind of took a lot of people by surprise.

Kieran Crawford too, went to the Raiders. that was a guy about the fourth round if he was there. I really wanted the Colts to maybe get, maybe even third, if they felt appropriate. But as far as like the moment something happened where I was like, oh, that really hurts. And this one's tough because I like Bryce Betcher. Like that's been one of my favorite like mid-round linebacker guys, like the entire process. But Kyle Lewis was my favorite player in the entire draft.

And the Dolphins took him three picks after the Colts took back. Betcher. And not, again, I really like veteran. I think he'll be perfectly fine. I think there's even an avenue for him to start at Will for the Colts and look good doing it. But I think Kyle Lewis is special. I think he has a really uncanny knack for taking the ball away. I think he's ultra-athletic. He flies around the field. I just think he's going to be an absolute star. The fact he was there in the fourth round is just a joke to me. I don't think it makes any sense whatsoever. Well, the Colts already had their safety, though, Jake. They didn't need another one.

Well, see, that's the thing. Betcher and Lewis are not all that far off in size. Betcher is like an inch taller and like 10 pounds heavier. And even he, I think, is a little light to be playing like Mike. I think he could be fine at Will. But if the Colts like specifically only see Kai Lewis as a safety or whatever and they already got Halsey, I think that's probably what happened. Right.

Because Kyle Lewis was probably more of like a strong safety type to them. him just I don't know like make him a will and let him I don't know like the dolphins the dolphins got Jacob Rodriguez and Kyle Lewis no one's talking about that but that's mind blowing I mean they're not going to be able to defend the run with those two but their past defense will be pretty good they got the two best ball hawking linebackers in the entire draft one in the second one in the fourth like what the dolphins did is crazy it's one of those things where it's like God I've seen what you've done for others and I want you to do it for me. You know what I mean? But again, I really, I do like Bryce Betcher and it's fine.

This is not a Bryce Betcher tweet. This is about my issues with people not liking Kylois as much as they should. I understand, man. But like, look, you got to have some thump at linebacker. You got a little bit of thumpet linebacker. They got the thump in the second round. Now you can go get the razzle-dazzle-do-do-it. That's true.

But for me, it was. Malachi Fields. And I just was hoping that he would be around. I was hoping he would be around in the fourth round. But he got picked at number 10 in the third round. Colts picked at number 14. So they probably weren't going to be able to get him anyway. But I just think that's such a good picked for the Giants. And I really, really wanted to have him on the Colts because, look, the Colts are putting most of their assets on offense. They're making a decision that, yeah, we need to have a reliable defense, but we're going

to outscore everybody. And to outscore everybody, you need weapons on offense. And I just thank Malachi Fields, whose comp, whose perfect comp was Michael Pittman's Jr. Why not have the clone of Michael Pittman Jr. out there, a big target, a short-handed target, a guy that can catch the slant, go over the middle, and get you a lot of first downs. You know, I was hoping that I know that the Colts really needed defense in the second and third round, but there was a little bit of hope inside that when that run started on the receivers, that the Colts might get in on that run on receivers.

And I think Malachi Fields just would have been perfect right here. But I'm not going to complain about AJ Halsey and the 3rd. Yeah, just because we have a little time in this before we get back to Derek here, I will say, I don't know if Shane Steakin would have been a big Malachi Field's fan. This is pure speculation here. but with the limited routes he gave Michael Pittman Jr., I think he always wanted somebody more explosive in that role, but it's hard to find the production that you get out of Pittman Jr.

So I think he wanted more speed at that, which I think is why, like, Doolin's probably going to get a shot. Berks was a guy they drafted late. And even some other guys that they were, like, interested in, like I think they liked Chris Bell a lot, right? The guy coming off of the ACL injury, I probably would have run like the four-threes out if he was, if he was healthy at that 20020 pounds.

So I think they wanted more juice to that. I agree, Alan, that like it's valuable to have a player like Fields. I just don't know if the Colts would have been super intrigued by him. Although, again, we could say this about my guy with Skylar Bell. They probably weren't intrigued by him because he was an old guy producing. Like, he was 23 during the first time he produced at college. And they don't like Jake's guy because he's a toothpick playing linebacker. They also went and got 25-year-old Seth McGowan at running back, though,

who I think is going to be 26 by the end of. He only has like 30 carries in his career, though. It's fine. That's true. A lot of tread on those tires. No tread. Jake, my pick was stribling too, but it's almost like he can't be mad about it because. Yeah.

It was like a dozen picks before the Colts were going to go, right? If he went 46th and then they had to trade down, you know what I mean? Like that and then that's kind of a different situation. I got an I you buddy who's all beat up about DeAngelo Pons because he thought they were going to get Ponds and Pons ended up going 50. I don't really have a specific one, but I brought this up on Sunday show. And look, the Colts have had far worse wide receiver rooms

in the Chris Bowerd era than what they have right now. But I still just, I think that's one thing that they're really missing. You know, they found the Zaire Franklin replacement. They found the Nick Cross replacement. And maybe, you know, you can't replace everybody, right,

in a single draft class, but they still haven't gotten that Michael Pittman, Jr. one. And maybe if they had, then they wouldn't have, the Franklin replacement or they wouldn't have them, you know what I mean? So, you know, Robin Peter to pay Paul a little bit in that situation, but in a perfect world, I really would have liked them to come away with a receiver better than a seventh rounder in

Burks. That's just kind of a flyer. Yeah, that's perfectly fair. I think anyone they would have taken on day three kind of would have been a flyer too, though, for the rookie season. Remember, Anthony Gould was a fifth round pick in a better draft class a couple years ago. And he's never got any receiver snaps on offense, like hardly any at this point. So I do think it just, I don't know, I don't know if you're really going to find that much production outside of the top 100 at wide receiver in this draft. And, you know, they made their choice to go defense early, which I think is perfectly fine, considering where the defense was.

But yeah, there were a couple of receivers for sure. I will say I drastically underestimated how high a guy like Stribling would go. I know the NFL values. X wide receivers that can beat press because it's such a rare trait to have. It's like, you know, bringing a hockey reference in here. It's like a right-handed defenseman in hockey or or in baseball. It's like a left-handed pitcher, right? It's just something that people overpay for is an X receiver that can that can win against press coverage. But with stribling, man, I like stribling a lot. But a guy who bounced to a bunch of different colleges and was like the

leading receiver at one of those locations. And it was kind of the second fiddle to, and most of those other spots never was a big time producer, didn't separate at a high level in college. Like, man, stribling was my guy in this draft, but 33rd overall was kind of crazy for me. So when he went off the board,

it was like, I kind of wanted stribling, but I don't know about all that. I don't know about going that. Like, I wouldn't have taken him at 47 or at 53. That would have been too early for me. So for him to go 33.

I mean, I hope he's great because I loved him as a prospect, but I didn't love him that much. Yeah, it's like Derek said, it's really hard to be mad about that when they go so much earlier than your team is able to do. You know, like, this Schwester thing, I was like, oh, I feel really good about the Colts getting him. And then he goes so much further in front of them last year. And then stripling, it's like, well, what can you do? Like, you obviously never had a shot at them if that's when they're going.

Well, it makes you wonder, you know, if continuing to transfer, you know, to one's school to the next school to the next school. Does it really, really help your draft status? I can think of one situation where a guy staying truly improved his draft status, you know, and, you know, I got to go back to Notre Dame, you know, because they had two running backs drafted in the first round. But Judarian Price was offered lots of money to go somewhere else. In fact, he talked about how Bill Belichick made him an offer to go to North Carolina, where he would have been a Belcal running back. But instead, he decided to stay in the system he had been in at Notre Dame, split time with Jeremiah Love. And both of them ended up benefiting because neither one got beat up.

Both were able to showcase their skills. And they're both going to be very rich men. Jeremiah Love's dad actually said that Georgia tampered with love and tried to pull him away. It didn't work. It did not work. Shout out to Nournardame for two first round running backs. That's quite the feat to do something like that and had to make Alan very, very proud. We come back on the Colts Squad Show.

You every day or know how we feel about the Colts draft class, but what about the people who don't cover the Colts for a living? We'll tell you what they had to say when we return for a final time next. rolling right along here in this locked on cold squad show edition Tuesday show. Thanks so much for joining us. We've got the full squad here with Zach Hicks, Jake, Arthur, and Alan Pinkett. I'm one with myself, Derek Schultz. Well, he's pulled a Batman on us, Derek.

I just looked up at the screen. I was like, wait a minute. Alan's face in the exact space looks a lot larger. So I turned around and he was gone, man. Like Batman, I'm sure he'll be back in a second. Probably something. I'm fully squatted up. We're talking about bedtime for Todd.

and maybe something popped up there, Alan. Either that or he went to get his IU t-shirts so he could wear and show me who won a national champion. That's right. Always the trash talk going around too. Take these with the required grain of salt because draft grades, you know, 24, 48 hours after the draft, it's always kind of silly, right, to grade a draft class. I mean, we're not even grading the 2025 Colts draft class yet or the 2020.

24 draft class yet. You know, you have to have a proper sample size to really go on. But it is fun just to kind of see. I think a lot of this, and Zach, you chime in if you disagree here. A lot of this is just, you know, did you get good value, right? If you get, if you get a good draft grade, a lot of times it's because you didn't feel like you reached for draft pundits. And say what you want about Chris Bauer, for the most part, he's done pretty well in that category of getting value. And certainly that happened with, with Allen and with Halsey, who were both projected as being higher-end draft picks than where they ultimately ended up going to the Colts. But number three, speaking of value in Sharp Football's best value draft classes, pretty good, right,

considering that they didn't even have a first round pick. They got an A from Pearl Football Focus. I have an interesting relationship with PFF. ESPN, SI, and Belichie report gave them Bs, largely based on the fact they didn't have a first round pick. One of the only poor grades was from USA Today. which is still around. They gave them a C, but again, that was based more on the sauce trade than anything else.

So it's sort of like, okay, like, you know, I understand that the trade of the first round pick for sauce gardener is part of the draft class, right? That is what you used your first round pick on. But still, I kind of want to see the group be evaluated. So I didn't like all the talk about sauce. I wanted to talk about, you know, Halsey and Allen and the rest of the class. But pretty good overall.

You know, Bill Pulling used to make the joke, you know, we'll take our draft grade C and we'll see you in the playoffs, right? All those years ago with those Colts teams. But I think the Colts draft class was pretty well received, which aligns, Zach, with, I think what you and Jacob said about this class. Yeah, one thing with Bill Pollan here, they could have just abstained from the draft and still made the playoffs. They had Peyton Manning. Like, they didn't even need to do the draft. Like, come on, Polian. Like, it wasn't.

Get defensive about it, though. Yeah, come on, man. But yeah, like, I don't hate draft grades. I actually like draft grades in terms of like just saying like, here's how I value this player and this is why I don't like this fit for the team. Or just saying like, hey, like looking at the Jaguar's draft, for instance, right? I thought there was a dude with a Sumer Sports who did a really good breakdown of them taking a tight end in round two. They took a big blocking tight end that had very little pass catching production in college,

took him in round two. and this guy did this whole analysis basically being like when the Jaguars didn't have two tight end passing threats on the field they became this really bad running team out of 12 personnel so when they're justifying that pick by saying oh we the whole league's in 12 personnel so this is why we took this guy yeah but this guy is not a pass catcher so it's not making your team better so then when your analysis is based off of that by not liking the fit for what they're going for then i think that draft grades can be valuable but yeah if you're just saying like you know, oh, they trade it for sauce gardener.

I don't like sauce gardener. What are you giving me here? You're not giving me any of you're giving me a one liner that you could have tweeted. Why are you putting a whole article together here? So yeah, I don't know. When it comes to draft grades, they are kind of what they are. I like if there was like full analysis of them. But I think it's relatively fair.

I mean, you would say the aggregate. They're probably what? Like a mid-B, high B is what you're going for? It's kind of where I'd probably go with this draft class as well. Absolutely love the first two-pings. talking myself more into like Farmer and Betcher in their kind of roles for the team. My biggest thing is I don't like the double dip at defensive end. And I've been very vocal about that all offseason that I didn't want a double

dip at the end. Heck, I didn't even want a defensive end on day three in general. I just don't believe in taking defensive ends on day three of the NFL draft, especially like when you get into like the round six reins. Like is that guy really noticeably more important than a undrafted free agent pass rusher at that point? like they're still going to play the same, which is barely any this next season. So I don't know.

I still would have taken like a corner that can play some special teams or heck maybe even another linebacker, more offensive tackle who you know is going to play in year one. I think that those would have been more valuable. But yeah, I think it was a good draft class. I think they did some good things. And those first two picks, I think, were just such great fits for what they needed. That's hard to be like upset with this draft class, regardless of what you think of sauce carders.

So, yeah, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, a fan of this draft class overall. Well, I find myself to have more than the usual amount of reliance on draft grades because these folks that are grading the drafts know a hell of a lot more than me, I would think, although now I feel like I don't know a damn thing about football after seeing Ty Simpson go number 13 to the Rams. And I hope I'm proven wrong on that. But I think what they're saying is go ahead.

We're going to give you a lot of money. Sit on the bench for three years and then we'll see you in 2030 or something like that. But I do think that it would be unfair to grade the Colts based on the fact that, you include sauce gardener as, you know, part of the draft class. If that's the case, then the cult really aren't done because we fully expect them to go get another edge rusher with the cap space they have left. So you can't, you would have to give them an incomplete. If you're going to include sauce, then you got to also include what they do with the rest of that money for the cap. But, you know, I think that most pundits can see that the Colts had specific needs,

and they filled those needs, and they were able to fill them with players that most people thought would have gone earlier in the draft. So it gets back to that term you had already mentioned, that value. You got good value for your pick. But then it's all based on potential. and you don't really know if a guy's going to come in and light this thing on fire or be a bust. And so that's why there's so much scrutiny given to every aspect of the player, you know, both physically and mentally to see if they can hold up and withstand to the rigors of going through an NFL season. because it ain't college anymore, daggone.

I remember, and Zach, you've talked about it, hitting that rookie wall where after about 11 games, because that's all they were used to playing in college, of course now you make the playoffs. You'll play like 14 to 16 games. But it usually is 11 games in seasons over. And the pros, 11 games, you still got six more games. You still got a month and a half to go.

Yeah. Hey, you're not even at Thanksgiving yet, right? That's right. You know, so it's, you know, can these guys endure the rigors of an NFL season where each week, each week you're playing against the best competition in the world? And you guys have heard me say it plenty of times. There's no bad teams in the NFL. There's just teams with bad records because I remember plenty of times.

playing against a team that had lost more than they won, and you looked at the depth chart and the roster, and you'd be like, damn, they got that dude, and they got that dude. I mean, they got stars, and they steady getting their butt kicked. You know, so it's just, it's one hell of a challenge that you got to be up for because each week,

each week can be like a Super Bowl. Yeah, no, for sure. And one thing I wanted to bring up here because, you know, we have a couple minutes left here and it's still about the draft. There's been a lot of debate the last couple of days about the consensus draft board. So I don't know if you guys have seen that out there. The consensus draft board is put together by a good friend of, I guess, Jake and I's at least, friend of our show, at least, Arifahson over at wide left sports. He does a really great job of getting the consensus of all the draft boards of like 150 plus media guys every year. and he puts it all together and makes the top 300 consensus. And then every year he evaluates how that consensus plays out on the draft and which teams draft above consensus typically,

which teams draft below consensus. To bring it back to the Colts, I think the Colts are one of a few teams that were above consensus generally in this draft, one of like four or five teams, I think that were above the consensus, where teams like the Jaguars, for instance, like 700 value points out. Yeah, they were drafting guys who weren't even on the board,

like drafting number 700 on the consensus board, right? And we've had a lot of like football guys come out the last couple of days saying, oh, what is the consensus board? Like, who cares? Like, we have our own thing. And yes, I think that that is part of it, right? But so much of the debate has been so disingenuous to me when it comes the consensus board because it's just the like the industry standard that you compare against, right?

That's all that is, right? You're not taking this as gospel. You're taking it as the industry standard. So if you're looking at it from the Colts, it's like, yeah, we drafted above industry standard for all this, but they still have to see how this all plays out, right? Like, obviously you'd prefer to be above that. But if you're not, it's all about how it plays out later. Like, it's just one data point. It's nothing crazy.

But I'm curious your guys' thoughts on some of the debate that's been going on with the consensus war, because I saw like Kyle Shanahan and Gladstone and all them from Jacksonville being very defensive about it. and it's just one data point. Like we don't need to be all defensive about it. It's one data point. Yeah, and it largely evaluates process more than result because the result can't be evaluated, right? Right. Not now.

I mean, we can't evaluate the result because we haven't seen these guys play yet, but I just find it so interesting with how we evaluate Chris Bower in this town because I've always said, you know, the one defense that I've had at Bowerd has been, I think the process, has largely been defensible. Not spending gobs of money in free agency,

generally is the right thing to do. Drafting premium players at high positions is definitely, it is generally the right thing to do, right? They've missed, unfortunately, on a lot of those, particularly at Edge, and I guess a quarterback when you take into account Richardson, but that was the right decision. That was the right process, I think,

for them to take a quarterback with that spot. It's just that, you know, at some point, you have to produce the result. and the Colts haven't been able to produce the results. But generally speaking, when people get angry about those things, Alan, I think it's because they know that those folks are right. I don't know. That's how I've always felt like if you get super defensive about something, you know,

like my nine-year-old, when I accuse him of doing something, he gets super defensive about I'm like, if you're this mad about it, that means that you did it or you were at least thinking about doing it. Yeah, I don't think if I were a coach or a GM, the last thing I'm worried about is what some consensus draft pick board says, because I know that the people that are speaking, I guess, for me, have no control over my job. They can't get me fired, you know, and they damn sure it can't get me hired,

you know, and, you know, I've got a lot more on my plate than having to worry about a draft board. But, you know, coaches are human and they have egos and they like to be stroked sometimes too. And when you acknowledge, you know, a pick as being above average and that's what I would call the Colst draft is above average, you know, irregardless of what the consensus board said or Kuiper said or anybody else said, I would consider it. And above average, I really don't want to give it a letter grade, although. I think B is appropriate. But I think it was above average draft. And you can tell that this staff did its homework in terms of finding guys, the right guys, to fit into their system.

And, you know, for them to do that, I don't know if that shows up in the consensus group as being the pick that they wanted to be at that position. but the coach has to think about, you know, I've got to win games. I need this type of player and the hell with what everybody else is. You know, and then at the end of the season, they're either proven right or proven wrong. Yeah, I will say one more thing about the consensus board thing is teams do use it. Not in any, like, meaningful way in terms of like, oh, consensus board says take this guy, let's take him here. Like, that's not how they do their process.

but they do use it to see what the general layout of the draft could be. Now, there are some surprises against it, like the run on Y tight ends that happened around the league was not expected by the consensus board, right? So that was a bit of a surprise. But, you know, when you're looking at it from like the Colts, for instance, right? I'm not saying that they use the consensus board only for this, but it was part of the equation for them to realize, like, hey, we can get our linebacker here in round two, even if we trade back. And also, Halsey might be there in round three, so we don't have to take him.

him at 53 because we might be able to get him at 78. So it's more so used for that kind of stuff, you know, and I think that is a valuable aspect that it is. But I think at the end of the day, like it's a tool, right? It's a tool where the Colts graded fairly well. But at the end of the day, it talks about the process, not the results. And that's the big thing with the Colts is results are next. And that's where they've been hit or miss because the process is usually been pretty good. But now it's on to the results, as Derek said. So that's something we'll have to wait about four to five years. to grade on, but we'll see what the results look like for this class. Yeah, and the draft is like playing chess, but you've got some teams that are playing craps.

Yeah. Let's just hope that those results come. Let's hope and pray that they do. Thanks so much for joining us on the latest edition of the Colt Squad Show. We'll be back with you Thursday night at 930. Like I said, back to our regularly scheduled programming this week, Tuesday, Thursday, cadence. As always, the Colts new cycle never end.

So keep it locked on Jake and Zach every day on Locked on Colts. Be sure to follow at Lockdown, Lockdown, on socials and check out our other great content on YouTube and TikTok. And we'll see you next time right here on the squad show.