Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - COLTS SQUAD SHOW: Daniel Jones = SUPER BOWL QB? | Redefining QBs After Darnold/Seahawks Victory

Episode Date: February 11, 2026

If the Colts bring back Daniel Jones, is he good enough to win a Super Bowl with? In the wake of the Sam Darnold and Seattle Seahawks triumph, the Squad discusses whether or not we are defining "Super Bowl quarterback" in today's NFL. Plus, a look at the quarterback market that Indianapolis hopefully doesn't have to dive too deeply into and we catch up on the latest Colts news of the past week.Find and follow Locked On Colts on your favorite podcast platforms: 🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/podcasts/locked-on-colts/ 📺YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLdpxJspi1hMh5HL7ExpWOQ Give the squad a follow on X/Twitter @Schultz975, @JakeArthurNFL, @ZachHicks2, @allenpinkett, @LockedOnColts, and @ColtsOn_SI, as well on TikTok and Instagram! Locked On NFL League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Draft & More 🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/podcasts/lockedoncoltsSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! TurboTaxFor a limited time, you can have your taxes done by a local TurboTax expert for just $150 — all in, if a TurboTax expert didn’t file for you last year. Just file by February 28. Visit http://TurboTax.com/local to book your appointment today.FanDuelThe Winter Games are on. And there’s no better way to follow them than with a bet on FanDuel. FanDuel - Play your game.IndeedListeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/lockedonnfl.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 I can't believe I wasn't invited to be a Bush in Bad Bunny's halftime show. And I'm Zach Hicks, and I had a fun time watching the team that deserved it all year win the Super Bowl. I'm Jake Arthur,

and now everybody has joined the Colts in off-season mode. And I'm Alupickett, former Euler, and I'm getting ready for the Riley Leonard's show next year. 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. Today's episode brought you by Fandul. The winter games are on and there's no better way to

follow them than with a bet on Fandual. Fan Duel, play your game. I'm Derek Schultz, long-time indie sports soccer and columnist for the Indianapolis business. I'm joined by a Notre Dame legend and the former Houston Euler and long time NFL running back, Alan Pinkett and our locked on Colts duo of Jake Arthur and Zach Hicks are here too, your first listen every day, and we are fully squatted up for tonight's show. The NFL season has, as Jake mentioned, officially come to a close, and now we can talk about what we learn from the season, which is always fun, right? No overreactions or anything like that.

But with Sam Darnold, now being able to call himself a Super Bowl winning quarterback, yes, the Sam Darnold. Do you believe Daniel Jones can be one too? We're going to try to give you some hope, I think, in the first time of this show and we have that discussion with the squad. Speaking of Darnold, you know, just this overall, is this an aberration or a trend to have a quarterback

who is, don't get me wrong, a good quarterback, too, very good quarterback, but not an elite level, franchise level quarterback, which for so long we saw with the Manning, Brady, you know, those type of teams, that era. We'll talk about that in the second. segment if we're seeing maybe a sea change as far as the NFL is concerned when it comes to winning a ring. We'll talk about the ugly quarterback market this offseason, which hopefully

won't be an issue for the Colts. Yes, they have to bring back Daniel Jones, but hopefully they do that quickly so they don't have to dive into these very choppy waters when it comes to not only free agency, which we've talked about, but also the draft is very light on quarterbacks for this year. We'll talk about that in segment three. And then as always, with our Tuesday offseason shows, we will run down some of the latest Colts news and notes over the last. last week or so. But guys, let's, let's start with, you know, Daniel Jones, Super Bowl quarterback. It's our little YouTube thumbnail, right? And as much as people might roll their eyes at that, I don't think we're that far removed from a world where if you were tearing out a lot of

these quarterbacks, you would have had Daniel Jones, at least within shouting distance of the Sam Darnold's here. No, I think everybody would agree that Sam Darnold has become a more established player. And he took the Minnesota season and then he did it again this year. He was even better this year in Seattle, right? Whereas Jones sort of had the 2022 season with New York and then he sort of had the first half of this season, but hasn't really done that over a sustained period of time. But Zach, I'll start with you. I mean, are we in a situation and we'll kind of bridge this into segment two, too, where maybe you don't need that top end, high end franchise elite level quarterback and you can win with it firmly with an upper half level quarterback. And does

Daniel Jones at the very least categorized there. Yeah, I mean, I guess I'll start it off by saying of the two veteran quarterbacks that left Minnesota and became starters elsewhere this past season, which one do you guys think ranked higher in QBR from ESPN, ranked higher in EPA per play? So in terms of efficiency, like who was the quarterback who ranked higher in these very telling metrics? And it was Daniel Jones.

And Daniel Jones is the top five quarterback according to both those metrics this year. Sam Darnold was more in that 18th to 19th the 20th tier. Now, a lot of that was Darnold led the NFL in turnovers at the quarterback position. It brought down his efficiency and his effectiveness quite a bit. But they were able to kind of rally around Darnold because of the explosive play percentage that he had. And because they had such a great defense there in Seattle, they had arguably the second best defense in football.

I would even argue the best defense in football throughout the course of the season. So it kind of shows. you that I think, like, look, Sam Darnold had a good season. Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to downplay what Sam Darnold did. And I thought he had a really good playoffs as well. The Super Bowl was kind of tough for him, but he had a pretty good two playoff games before that Super Bowl. But that can be enough when you have superstars around him on offense, when you have a running back that can break off 170 total yards in the final game, when you have a defense that can just shut the door on anybody. Like that has 11 starters out there. And honestly, you can go to

some of their death players has 18, 19 caliber, like starting caliber players that can make plays and just get the job done. So to answer your question here, Derek, like, yeah, I certainly think the average to above average quarterback can win a Super Bowl. We've seen this for a long time in this league. We've seen it from, I mean, Trent, Differ, Jillfer is on the lower end of all that. But even if you want to go to more like the average quarterback, right, like the Brad Johnsons, the Joe Flackos, the Eli Man.

You know, guys like that in this league, right? Like the average quarterback to above average quarterback has been able to win the Super Bowl in the NFL and in NFL history. The thing is, what's more, what's like the more sustainable route to continually competing for Super Bowls having that top five quarterback? That's how you're going to be in the dance every single year. That's how you have a chance to get to the Super Bowl every year. Whereas if you build this great team with an above average quarterback, you might get one or two shots. But if you capitalize on those one or two shots, who cares? Who cares if you only got there once or twice?

You know, like how close were we to saying that Jimmy Garoppolo was a Super Bowl winning quarterback? The Brock Purdy being a Super Bowl winning quarterback, Jake Delome in the early 2000s, right? They were able to get to the Super Bowl with that average to above average quarterback. Now, they didn't get the job done. But if you're getting there, if you're getting your one or two chances with it, as long as you capitalize, nobody remembers that you only had your one or two chances. So all this is say, like, yes, it can absolutely be done. It's just about the sustainability,

I guess. But as long as you get the one, who cares about the sustainability, you can talk about the one for 30 years. We still talk about the one in Indy for the last 20 years, right? And that was with Peyton Manning. So, you know, Seattle's going to be able to talk about this one for a long, long time. And honestly, you can even go back to their other Super Bowl championship with Russell Wilson. And like Russell Wilson is probably like, what, a Hall of Very Good quarterback, maybe a Hall of Famer one day. And they won that Super Bowl with the Legion of Boom, you know. And as long as you capitalize that one time, nobody remembers, you know, how you got it done. So, yeah, it can absolutely be done with an above average quarterback.

You just need to have a lot of the pieces around it be perfect. And I don't know if the Colts are there yet. Well, I have to say that I was very happy for Daniel Jones. this year. And I think one of the things he showed, which Sam Darnel also showed, is experience matters so much. You know, your first couple years in the league, you're dropping back and nobody's open. And you just have to have so many reps and see so many snaps and be able to see so many different coverages until you can finally, finally feel comfortable. And then also be in sync with your receivers in such a way that you learn their little

secret moves or their little idiosyncrasies, I guess I should say, to know that they're going to break a route in or break her out out so that you can deliver the ball. But I think the experience matters most when you can get rid of the ball. quick. You know, you can identify and process and get rid of the ball. And I think that's what Daniel Jones benefited from. That's what Sam Darnel benefited from. They, you know, they both had to go through horrendous offensive lines, you know, where they learned, okay, I'm going to get hit. So I might as well complete the pass and get hit. And then above average offensive. lines, both of them, and they've both benefited from having a strong running game.

You know, and there's no better friend to a quarterback than a good running back. And would Daniel Jones have, what, the NFL second leading wrestler? You know, that helps a bunch, too, you know, where you don't have to carry the burden of the offense all on your shoulders. And that's what elite quarterbacks can do. But again, you can be a damn good quarterback, but the only problem is you can't throw it to yourself. You know, so it takes a team.

But when you look at some of the, like Zach referenced, some of those stats, you know, I was actually surprised. I mean, I knew Daniel Jones was doing good. But then when I looked and I saw 67.9% completion percentage. You know, that's pretty good. A hundred point two passer rating. Anytime you get three digits for a passer rating, then you're bawling. You know, so it was a shame to see him get injured because I think all the hopes

and dreams that Colts Nation had just went away because. because he was the one that made this office really work. You know, he was the one responsible for Jonathan Taylor being able to get all those yards because, you know, the Colts would do this game where, you know, you could tell where folks didn't really pay attention to the Colts because they come in saying, we got to stop Jonathan Taylor, we got to stop Jonathan Taylor. But on first down, most of the time, they were throwing the football. So, you know, he would, the Colts kept defenses off balance by how they, they utilized the run and the past.

But it sure did help to have a quarterback who got that ball out quick, knew where he was going, and knew the offense. And that's why I go back to, I think with this season really showed, is a quarterback with experience. and I'll use your phrase that has been in there when the bullets are flying, it is invaluable, especially when you get in the playoffs in the Super Bowl. Yeah. Yeah, and I think that maybe there's something to the fact that it's not just about, you know, just from a skill level, really just from a fit level. Like this is probably a bad example because they were forced to play him because of the injury.

But I think to like how well Nick Fools seem to fit with what the Eagles wanted. wanted to do when they made their run. And just with how well, like, as you were saying, Alan Jones fit with what the Colts wanted to do. You know, like, they were just unable, they were able to basically accentuate the best things about him. And it also helped Zach that he covered up a lot of the worst things about him. Like all these things that we thought about Daniel Jones going into the season,

actually through the first eight, nine weeks of the season were positive points, even for him with the way that he played. Yeah, no, for sure. I mean, you guys remember this past off season. and I was not a fan of Daniel Jones whatsoever. And now recently I'm someone who's coming out here to defend him. Like I, like one of the commenters saying here where it's like, you know, people saying that Jones couldn't throw the ball deep and that he was going to be this checkdown,

like underneath guy. That was me. I was the one saying that, you know, and I was going off of his past history with the New York Giants. But he came in here. He settled into this system really well. He took the answers that the Colts staff was giving him pre-snap. And he made the most out of them.

And he really delivered for this Colts. team. So look, if the Colts can get him playing the way he did and the for all of his starts this past season, even taking some of the bad starts into account, then the Colts can certainly win with that style of offense. They need the defense to compliment it. They need to improve against the Blitz. I think that's the one big Achilles heel when it comes to Jones and Stuyken at this point. They really struggled against the Blitz. Nice fun. Yeah. After the outlier, though, of the Denver game, that's where they really did struggle against the Blitz, so they need to get better there.

But, yeah, Jones can recover from this Achilles injury, which is a big, big if, they can certainly feel the top five, top ten offense again. It's just that wasn't the whole reason why Seattle won a Super Bowl. So I do want to remind people, though, when it comes to, like, Seattle winning the Super Bowl, it's not just that because Darnell got in there, that the offense is what carried into the Super Bowl. The defense is what carried them to the Super Bowl. The offense was very complimentary and explosive and had Jackson Smith and Jigba and Kenneth Walker that were awesome players.

And Darnold did his thing to be explosive in the passing game. But that defense was a top tier unit all season long and one of the best units of the 20, you know, since going back to 2010, this is like one of the five to seven best defenses we've seen. So if you can have that paired with a smart quarterback like a Jones or a Darnold, then you can win a Super Bowl. But yeah, I think this colds offense can be very competitive with Daniel Jones, given that he gets back from that Achilles injury. And we at least see him get back to 80, 90, hopefully 100%, that where he was pre-injury. And yeah, they can be very competitive on that side of the football. Well, keep talking quarterbacks and whether we're seeing a seed change in the NFL,

but is this what just happened with Seattle winning a cause for frustration for where the Colts are? if this is indeed the new era that we're in with the NFL. Or like Zach said, maybe this has just been going on for many years and he notices on film and, you know, people like me don't. We're going to discuss that next when the Colt Squad Show returns. This portion of the Colt Squad Show brought you by our friends at Fandul. The Winter Games are officially here. And if you're anything like us, you're locking in for events.

You only get to see on the biggest stage every four years. And that's why following the Winter Games on Fandul, just makes sense. From metal counts to individual events to finding your angle on the sports you care about most, Fandul gives you more ways to stay connected to the action. We actually just went to a Winter Olympics opening night watch party at our friend's house because we're all super cool and that's what we like to do together. And it was awesome.

We took in some intense curling action. We watched some ski events. We ate a bunch of international foods. My last name is Schultz. So we were Germany and I brought in like pretzels and this German cake and it was awesome. And Fandul kept the entire Olympic experience engaging from start to finish. I love the Olympics. So winter games are on.

There's no better way. to follow them than with Fandual. Fan duel, play your game. And we're back on the Colts squad show alongside former NFL or Alan Pinkett and the Locked on Colts daily duo of Jake Arthur and Zach Hicks. I'm Derek Schultz.

So we're talking quarterbacks with this show, which I always feel like draws attention and eyeballs and draws discussion as well. But, you know, for a long time. And, you know, I hate to keep bringing this up, but it's constantly the position that the Colts are in, right? Where they're just sort of sitting here,

spinning their wheels, and neutral and they're trying to push themselves forward and get back to the playoffs and then get back to the contention and they just kind of hover around the NFL's middle. But for a long time, we excused that in this town because the prevailing thought was, well, they don't have the franchise quarterback, right? They're still looking for the franchise quarterback. And as we mentioned, you know, now in today's NFL, maybe you don't need that tier level of quarterback. But Jake, does that lend us some more, does that increase the frustration for Colts fans that, hey, if we don't need the top five or six quarterback anymore, we just need a top 15 one,

then what the hell are we doing? Why aren't we contending now? Yeah, the Colts have, if you look at a team like Seattle and even New England, really, being the other Super Bowl participant, they have a lot of really positive things going all together for them that the Colts have never done altogether. They've sprinkled it throughout this era of post-Andrew luck, whether it's drafting well, whether it's being aggressive and free agency, you're getting adequate quarterback play. The Colts have never had all those ingredients together at once.

But what Chris Ballard has done, whether they've received adequate quarterback play that year or not, is built a roster that can tread water. They're not outstanding in any one area, usually, but they're good enough to be competitive, you know, most weeks. But if you're going to have a non-elite quarterback, you have to be dominant and better than your opponent every week in some area. So you look at Seattle, they've got a pass rush.

They've got a really good defense that fits everything they're trying to accomplish. You know, their defense very much takes on the identity of Mike McDonald and his ability to be versatile. You look at guys like Nick Amin Worry and Devin Witherspoon. Even Ernest Jones is not like a traditional linebacker, you wouldn't say. but they're able to be versatile and do a lot of different things. So it would have been one thing if the Colts would have had, you know, Carson Wentz doing what he was doing, Daniel Jones, whatever, if they would have absolutely loaded up, like in the defensive front seven, for example,

and deliberately created this like elite unit. But they haven't done that. They've added some nice players, some fringe pro bowl level players and starters here and there. like peppered throughout the roster, but that's all they are. They, they, their misses in the draft, I think, have hurt them mightily because they haven't been aggressive enough in free agency with the exceptional last year. But if you get, if you hit on your top 100 draft picks, not just have them be startable players, but stars like they're supposed to be.

Then you have those guys in place. And then you can fortify the rest of the roster with some high instant impact free agents. And then that's how you get to see. Hawks. That's how you get the Patriots to immediately turn around. The Colts just haven't done that. They've either not been aggressive enough in free agency or they've missed on these early draft picks. Again, maybe not missed, but they haven't been stars and good enough to get them over the hump. And that's where it falls down to it for me. Like I think Jones could be that type of guy like played good enough to get them there if they were hell bent on like creating an elite defense.

for example. But you have to have multiple factors come together. You have to try to do it. And you have to have some luck go your way as well. Like the Colts injury issues this year was about the polar opposite of what Seattle and New England experienced. So that was a huge part of it as well. But if you're going to just be fine at quarterback,

you've got to be very, very intentional about doing something else incredibly right. Yeah. Well, I will say it. like the Colts haven't tried, I guess, fixing the defense. Like they've had their big swings. It's just they haven't hit them. You know, it's hard to find a Will Anderson. It's hard to find or to convince Daniel Hunter to sign with you, right?

Because they finished second in the Daniel Hunter sweepstakes behind Houston because Daniel Hunter wasn't from Indy. He was from Houston. That was the whole deciding factor there. So, you know, you do have to have some things break your way. But when you look at like the Philly and Seattle models of the last two years, right, it wasn't one thing that broke their way it wasn't two things it wasn't even three things it was like a dozen things that broke their way in this absurdly perfect way i mean is jalen carter an eagle right now if it weren't for the trouble he got into in college you know like that's part of a thing that broke their way and then he ended up being a great piece for them i'm not saying go out of your way to draft guys who get into trouble in college or anything but it just kind of speaks to just the margin for error is so it's so thin and And this is why ultimately we get to this overall conversation about is the non-elite quarterback winning it more of a new trend like Derek titled this segment?

I don't know because I kind of go back and forth of this. On one end, there was for the longest time like a quarterback can't exceed X amount of the salary cap percentage or else you won't win a Super Bowl. There was like nobody in history because Tom Brady kept winning every Super Bowl while making $10 an hour essentially. That's kind of what it was, right? because he broke all those metrics, and then they kept moving the Overton window a little bit every time somebody got to like 13% at the cap, then they moved it up to like the 14% and stuff like that.

But for the longest time, it was, if you're paying a quarterback a ton of money, it's difficult to win a Super Bowl, so win it on their rookie contracts, right? So essentially it came down to getting a superstar quarterback on a rookie contract and winning it all there, which is very difficult to do. I think what's really fascinating right now, though,

with this era of football we're in, I still think you have the best chance possible by having a star quarterback, right? I don't think anyone's going to argue with that because you consistently get into the dance. And as long as you can keep getting into the playoffs, like we saw with the Chiefs last year, we would argue that was like the weakest Chief's team since Mahomes became their starting quarterback. I would even say last year's team that lost in the Super Bowl was weaker than this year's chief's team before Mahomes got hurt because it just wasn't a very good chief's team. But they have Mahomes.

So they're able to get to the Super Bowl before they ran into a juggernaut. like the Eagles, right? But the thing is when it comes to like this formula is, if you don't have a home, right, the rookie quarterback and the young quarterback, but we're seeing so many young quarterbacks coming to the league that are just not ready for it, right? And that's part. And I know Alan's got some thoughts on this because all former NFL players have thoughts on this,

but because of the offseason scheduling and because of how much you can work with these players, Tom Brady talks about this all the time. It's tough to develop these young quarterbacks. on those rookie contracts to be where they need to be mentally. So now we're seeing the rise of the retread quarterback, right? The Baker Mayfields, the Danny Dimes, the Sam Darnolds, where these guys on their rookie contracts didn't get it, right? They didn't understand it.

They weren't hitting their potential. But the second, they moved to their second, third, fourth team, and they really were like working through some things with smart offensive coaches and getting more time on the field. It finally clicked. And now you got Daniel Jones and Sam Darnold. playing like the quarterbacks of the early 2010s of the late 2000s, right? Those smart quarterbacks who got the ball out quick,

where these young guys, like Drake May, who I think was awesome this year, are taking really dumb sacks when they really can't be taking, not getting the ball out of their hands. I know his O-line was getting killed in that game, but he was taking some horrible sacks in that Super Bowl where the older quarterback, the more experienced quarterback, who's been through the bullets a little bit more, they are getting that ball out of their hands.

they know to get that ball out quick and get it to their playmakers and do their things. So I don't know what the answer is. All this to say when it comes to is this the new trend? Because we are kind of seeing the resurgence of these quarterbacks. But I still think you need to have like the perfect situation around them in order to succeed, you know, because they can give you a top 10, top 12 offense, but you still need to have that top tier defense to overcome the Pat Mahomes's and the Josh Allen's and the Lamar Jackson's who are going to be there every single year. Even in their worst years, they're going to be in the playoffs because

they're that good a quarterback, their Hall of Fame quarterbacks. But yeah, I think that there is a way to have a very good shot with quarterbacks like this. But like Jake said, you have to be on it with your team building, with your drafting, with your free agent. And, you know, this is the route you want to go. I mean, even if you have the star quarterback, you want to go with this route too, right? you get every single move correct. But it's especially big. Like the margin for error is so much slimmer when you're going with like a top 15 quarterback instead of that top five quarterback.

But certainly seems like you can win nowadays like this. It's just these smarter quarterbacks are come or just out there now because they're these retread guys because they're finally getting that experience that guys were getting on their rookie contracts back in the early 2000s when you could actually work with them in the offseason. You know, I kind of feel bad for a quarter. that are drafted in the first round because there's such high and unrealistic expectations that are put on their plate.

And, you know, I look at Anthony Richardson who, how many games did he start? What, 18? 13. 13 games. And now he's going up to the NFL. I mean, it's just not fair. and some teams do get lucky where if you can get that quarterback and he's manageable and you can build around him while on that rookie contract, you know, that's the best of both worlds.

But I think more quarterbacks bust than make it, you know. But I give a lot of credit to a Sam Garnel to a Daniel Jones for sticking with it and knowing that they are pro-caliber quarterbacks. And I got to go back to what I said in the first segment about just having that experience and knowing what it's like to play. I think sometimes about the Colts and where can improvement come on the offense? Because I think they have solid pieces all over the place. But I look at Seattle and they had solid pieces, but they had a number one receiver. I don't know who you would call on the Colts a number one receiver,

although the Colts have very good receivers. You know, I think the receiving crew is such that you can't figure out who you're going to double. And they're all effective. But Seattle had a good crew receivers, but they had a number one. You know, so that's just, I was just thinking off the top of my head, how could the Colts improve, you know, because they definitely came with improvement at the quarterback position. And if they can keep Daniel Jones healthy, you know, and I think a second year of Tyler Warren, where he doesn't hit the rookie wall, could mean a lot for this offense.

And I've got to say, it was an enjoyable offense to watch, you know, when those first eight, nine games, you know, just to see them pick teams apart. And, you know, I think about the San Diego game where you've got Herbert, who is, you know, some would say is the next great quarterback. But Daniel Jones just made him look like a rookie. And I know he's not a rookie, but made him look bad because the system that they had, he basically mastered that system. and then you mix into running with Jonathan Taylor. And it was just a beautiful thing to watch. So I guess the answer to this question is,

you need every damn thing. You need good running back. You need a number one receiver and a good crop of receivers, a strong offensive line, in a defense that's going to continue to give you opportunities. And, you know, I hate to say it because I don't like the defense. In fact, we've got this bar at Notre Dame called the linebacker, which I never went in the thing when I was a student there, number one, because it wasn't old enough. I don't say you were too young, Alan.

Yeah, like you're in there. Yeah, but when I became old enough, I wouldn't go in the damn thing because it represented the defense. I'm not going into a linebacker. It's called the linebacker. That's generational hating right there. I love it. Yeah, wow. But, you know, I hate to say a defense does win championships.

And, you know, if the defense can frustrate the offense enough and slow them down enough, a good offense is eventually going to find this way. And I'll give you one good example of that. Chicago Bears in 1985. I mean, that defense was just unbelievable. And the offense, I mean, Matt Suey scoring touchdowns. You did have Walter Payton. And you had good, solid pieces.

But the defense just wore the offense down so much to where the bear's offense had so many chances that they were eventually going to get it right and get a touchdown. Yeah, and really quick before we got out of this segment, I think one thing that gets overlooked a lot with these top quarterbacks is when guys like Josh Allen and Pat Mahomes, when they were these super flashy, like younger players, Mahomes was so good, obviously early on in his career, winning MVP in his first full year as a starter. But really when they took that next step to being consistent winners in a lot of ways is when they became more efficient quarterbacks. Got the ball out quick, understood how to move the chains, have high success rate, have high EPA per play. That was how they're able to string together these big things. And I think a big thing that I'm kind of coming away with quarterback play in the NFL these last couple of years is you can kind of manufacture explosive plays, especially like here and there as an offense in general.

But it's hard to manufacture efficiency unless your quarterback is fully there. And I think that's where we're seeing the difference between like, like yes, Mahomes and Burrough and Allen are very good at the efficient quarterbacking. but why guys who were like these star young players like, like CJ Stroud after his rookie season, he can never really get the efficiency. Justin Herbert, why can he never win the big game? It's because the efficiency is not there.

Really fun moments, really big explosive plays. Caleb Williams this past season, some really fun explosive plays, but the efficiency needs to be there. And I think we are kind of seeing that like this efficiency is becoming so important when we're seeing guys like, again,

Darnold and Hertz, who are not these most super efficient quarterbacks, but they can manage that offense and then when they get into those like short yard situation especially hurts with the tush push last year darn old with the way that offense was run that was what they was able to put them over the top

that's why Purdy and the 49ers are always able to go deep in the playoffs right because he's a very efficient quarterback so I think that is a big thing and that's why we're seeing these second and third chance quarterbacks find success is because they have the smarts to be efficient and for these young explosive athletic quarterbacks like the Herberts and the Caleb Williams, the Drake Mays, once they figure out

those efficiency things, then they can be in that same tier and compete like a Mahomes and like some of these other quarterbacks that are able to win. But that's going to be the big if for those players, like Jones and Darnold and kind of Baker. Baker's all over the place all the time, but they were able to figure it out through trial and error over the times. Can guys like Herbert and Williams and all of them, can they figure it out when they were having a lot of success in their young parts of their career. We know the Colts will technically have to jump into the quarterback market, but hopefully they toss Daniel Jones in the car and just get right back in the car because those grocery aisles are pretty barren. We'll talk about a depressing QB market when the Colts

Squad Show returns next. This portion of the Colts Squad Show brought to you by our friends at TurboTax. Tax season doesn't have to take over your life. This year, TurboTax is making it easier than ever to just hand things off and move on with your day. With TurboTax full service, you can have your tax is done for you by a trusted local expert, start to finish without the stress or guesswork. Things are, as I mentioned before, especially complicated for me. I have an LLC for all my freelance sports media business things. And instead of, you know, going through all of my W-2s and categorizing everything and looking for deductions and all of that, I just literally have a Manola folder right here in my desk drawer and I stuff them all in there. I scan them in. I put them into

digital files. I can email them and you meet with your turbo tax local expert in person or connect online and they handle everything from W2s to self-employed forms and they work to get you every deduction. So a super unqualified person like me isn't doing it. And it's a huge stress reliever and time saver. For limited time, you can have all your taxes done by a local turbo tax expert for just $150 all in. If a turbo tax expert didn't file for you last year, just filed by February 28th, take taxes off your plate and get back to your life. Visit turbotax.com slash local to book your appointment with TurboTax today. And we're back on the Locked on Cold Squad Show, a little over halfway through.

Thanks so much for joining us alongside Alan Pinkett, Jake Arthur, Zach Hicks. I'm Derek Schultz, and we are the Colt Squad. So as I mentioned, you know, you're kind of pushing your shopping cart there through the aisles. I still like to do that, by the way. A lot of people do like Instacart or they do like the Kroger pickup or whatever. I love going grocery shopping. I don't know if that's weird or not. And I know we're in the trustry here,

and you guys would never dare make fun of me for anything. But you know, you're going through those aisles and you're looking around. And it's a lot of kind of the same products that you've seen, right? I mean, Daniel Jones was just on the aisles last year. And the Colts ended up getting him. Aaron Rogers was just on the aisle last year. Now, they're expected to return to their teams.

But you have some others that are out there, Malik Willis, Kyler Murray, Kirk Cousins, who's now 38 years, old that are on that list. And then you kind of get to the guys that you have to call because they're not on the free agent market. So you have to call the teams like Houston for Davis Mills or I guess you throw maybe

Jalen Milrow in there with Seattle with with Donald's success or the Colts are certainly going to be manning the phone lines for Anthony Richardson, right, and just kind of seeing what's out there. In fact, I think they're going to proactively try to move him. the Saints with Spencer Rattler, who wasn't terrible. He wasn't a grease fire in the couple of games that he started this year. And then, you know, if you're really super duper desperate, there's a like $58 million contract sitting on Tua if you want to go ahead and bite the bullet and go down that road as well.

So, you know, kind of like I mentioned, Zach, these are all options. A lot of them not good options right now. So hopefully, look, look, again, we know the Colts are going to. have to do some shopping. Hopefully it's just Daniel Jones and they get this taken care of because they do not want to be looking for ulterior options here. Yeah, well, I will say, I learned my lesson last off season. I'm not going to say any of these quarterbacks out there can't play because I, you know, I got burned a little bit last year with a guy who I, who I didn't believe in coming to Indy and being a pretty good player. But I don't think there is kind of that

intriguing next man up quarterback that like, oh, this guy can can get back to what he was or get back to his former top 10 pick glory, I don't really think there's that this offseason, right? Like, Malik Willis is very interesting, a player who had a lot of success in Green Bay the last couple years in those little spot starts that he had. We actually saw one of those spot starts in, what, week two of 2024,

was not pretty for the Colts in that game whatsoever. So he's going to get his chance somewhere else. But outside of that, like, the thing that was so great about darned, Arnold and Baker and Daniel Jones is you could sign them, right? When they hit the market. They were guys that you could sign for these teams. And that's what made them these really interesting projects, right?

Kyler Murray and Tua, you're going to have to trade for them. I mean, maybe the dolphins are trading you picks to take that contract. I don't know how all the contracts work with, too. I haven't really looked into it because I'm convinced we already got Daniel Jones coming back. But, you know, a project is a lot more fun when it's like a free, you know, like on the side of the road. when someone's like, hey, this TV's broken, but it could be fun to fix it, you know, and you can just scoop that up and go. It's not as fun when someone's like, hey, pay 50 bucks for this TV and go fix it.

That's not as fun whatsoever, right? So, like, yeah, these guys are out in the open market, like, if they were to get cut or something, then sure, I don't know how much these teams saved by cutting. I mean, honestly, with a desperation at quarterback, I'm sure somebody's trading for Kyler Murray this all season. I'm not even convinced that somebody won't trade for Tua this all season because teams are so desperate when it comes to getting a quarterback. And I think all this comes back to your overall point, Derek, where it's like, look, again,

the Achilles terrifies me. I hate that A word. It's the worst word ever in when it comes to football. But I just don't know if there's a better option. He fits so well in this system. He's not terribly old. Yeah, I just think bring him back. And, you know, go get like a veteran who has thrown the football in the NFL a couple times to be,

you know, a guy who could maybe start a game or two if you need him to or a guy who can mentor Riley Leonard behind the scenes, you know, someone that everybody likes to have around, like all good backup quarterbacks. I think go that route makes the most sense for the Colts. I wouldn't be looking too much into, you know, even if like Gino Smith were cut or something. Like, I don't have much interest there. I think they have a good player in Daniel Jones. Even if he can get to like 70% of what he was last year, which is a lower bar,

it's probably better than what a lot of these guys out there, going to give them. Yeah, this is not the quarterback market of the last couple years. It's Daniel Jones is, you could say some of these younger guys have upside, but it's very untapped. Jones is the only one of these guys available that we've seen play really good ball as recently as last year. And Aaron Rogers, like he did some nice things, like the Steelers weren't terrible. But again, he's probably going back with Mike McCarthy to the Steelers. And like, no, we're not going through the Aaron Rogers thing of it all again. But like Russell Wilson, no, Marcus Mariotta, Tarad Taylor.

Zach Wilson is like a retread option that people might say, but not really. I don't think he's got it. Flacco's old. You could say Kenny Pickett is maybe a retread Mitchell Trubiskey. The only one that intrigues me even a little bit, other than, Malik Willis because we've seen him play good football is Tray Lance. Jim Harbaugh has been able to turn some of those guys totally around. And anytime Tray Lance was given an opportunity to show anything since joining Jim Harbaugh,

it's not been bad. It's looked better. So otherwise, it's just, it's all really bad. So even Daniel Jones on the one hoof, I think, is much better. But also thank you for bringing up the shopping of it all, Derek. because I have very strong opinions on what I call proxy shopping. We won't get into it, but if you guys would like to talk about it sometime,

clear an hour off of your schedule. Well, I was pushing a cart tonight in the damn supermarket, so I'm familiar with shopping. But when you look at the landscape of quarterbacks that are out there, I'm not interested in any of them. And that's why I think you need to prepare Riley Leonard as if he's going to be the week one starter and just have that in your mind. Drill them. So just in case, Daniel Jones isn't ready.

And, you know, who's to say he's going to make a complete recovery? And look, the mental part of that rehab is going to be tougher than the physical part. of the rehab. So I think you just need to look at Riley Leonard and you got him into building. He's seen the system, seen and been through the system for one year. Usually you make a big jump your second year, you know, and just you got to lean on him until you can get Daniel Jones back.

I don't think Anthony Richardson will ever play another down here. I'm sure that surprises you guys when I say that. But I don't. That's how I felt for months, Alan. Yeah, I don't think he's ever going to play it down here. Maybe they can get something for him. But, you know, I think the Colts got lucky bringing Daniel Jones in and someone who could pick up the system so fast and master it,

even though, remember in preseason when we were talking about his struggles in the red zone and, you know, they weren't necessarily completing a lot of passes. But Daniel Jones was just waiting for game time, daggone it, because there's something about game time. There are some players that can't practice well, but they get under those lights, and boy, they're sharp as a tech. And I think that's what Daniel Jones did. And just having to the time and effort to invest in somebody to teach them a new system

and new timing and new receivers, you got a guy in the building who actually did pretty decent, but he probably needs a little more experience. I would be happy to see Riley Leonard take most of the preseason snaps just to preserve Daniel Jones, maybe give Daniel Jones a quarter. But get that guy ready just in case, because what else is out there is not worth having. I will say one thing, though,

like if the Colts aren't completely sold on Riley Leonard, which I know Jake when he was back at the Notre Dame Pro Day last year, Shane seemed very enamored by Leonard and they drafted him. And clearly there is some interest and intrigue there. But I will say that Stuyken has built up this reputation, I think league wide, especially after this past year with what he was able to do with Daniel Jones, right? Where Daniel Jones only had two suitors last offseason. And he was viewed as to kind of damage goods. And now he's viewed as a quarterback who could get, what, 30 plus up to maybe $40 million

on this open market, right? So clearly the Colts and Stuyken did something well. I'm curious when all the dust settles, right? When all the starters are divvied out to all these locations and maybe there's a player who has started in this league that is left without a starting job. And I'm just throwing this name out there. This is just an example, like a Kirk Cousins when he's cut, right? older player who has started in this league,

who knows that there's interest in him even getting the potential chance of starting the next season, right? If I'm Kirk Cousins and I'm looking at these situations, like, hey, Daniel Jones might not be ready to go and we see what Stuyken was able to do for him and make life easier for Jones and, you know, kind of refurbish that career there. Like, I could maybe go there, work with them this off season.

It doesn't even have to be Kirk Cousins. It could be a younger quarterback who has more runway for the rest of their career. Cousins is in the twilight of his career at this. point, but, you know, a younger player even, guys there mentioned in the comments, like, you know Connell if he's cut or out of here or something like that, right? Like, a guy who's played a little bit in the NFL and wants to just benefit from being around Stuyken and Jones and picking their brains and can be a guy who maybe has more experience

than Leonard that could start week one if it comes down to that. I think the Colts would be a very intriguing spot for a quarterback because of what Stuyken's done, not only with Jones, but with Minchu being a pro bowler in 2020. I know it was one of those fake Pro Bowls, but still, good enough to even get, you know, second alternate or whatever it was that year. The best season of Jalen Hertz's career, one of the best seasons of Justin Herbert's career, probably his first or second best season of his career, that rookie year. So Stuyken has this reputation.

And I think if there is, like, I wish I knew enough of this quarterback class to say, like a certain name, particularly maybe a Tray Lance, like Jake was saying, right? Like a younger player who just maybe wants to be in a more advanced. tage a spot, that could be one that makes some sense to be like a high-end backup for your team. But I like Leonard. I think Stuyken likes Leonard. We'll see if he ends up being that guy. But I do think the Colts would be a prime destination for someone to sit and learn and kind of,

you know, kind of like what O'Connell was with Jones and Darnold the year before. I'll throw all one more name. That could be a possibility. I don't know his contract situation. I don't know if he's locked up. But the guy who backed up purdy, Matt Jones. I mean, I thought he did very well with the 49ers. It left me thinking, is it him or is it the system?

You know, but he was fairly sharp throwing that football. So he might be a guy that, depending upon his situation you look at. Yeah, I think he would have to trade for him would be the problem. And Purdy missed what nine games this past year. I don't know why they would want to trade him away when he missed somebody. Yeah. But I do agree with you, Alan. Like a good backup's hard to find.

So Mac Jones played pretty well last year. If I'm throwing anything against the wall, seeing Frank Wright go to New York, I want to see Mac Jones go to New York now. There are not a lot of quarterbacks that make sense for Frank Reich, but I like that. It might not happen, but I would like to see it. And let me respond to this comment real quick. I do like Riley Leonard. I do like Riley Leonard. I was just saying that could be what happens.

I would personally probably have Leonard as the backup next season. Don't say I don't like Leonard right now. I like him. I like him. He played well at that. That was a fun week 18 game. He gave me joy in week 18. I can't say I don't like him after that joy. We can ask for. He's trying to save his, you know what here, Alan. That's all he's trying to do.

A veteran backup quarterback on the way for the Colts and fan surveys reflect kindly upon Lucas Loyal Stadium. We'll talk news and notes as we wrap up the Colts Squad show next. And we're back for a final time here on the Locked on Cold Squad show. Zach Hicks and Jake Arthur, your first listen every day, the Daily Duo on Locked on Colts, Alan Pinkett, former NFLer. Left Nerdame is the program's all-time leading rusher.

He's here too. And so am I. I'm Derek Schultz, sports columnist for the Indianapolis Business Journal as we wrap up this Tuesday edition of the show. So I think I remember Zach bring this up, and maybe even you, Jake, are friends with this person, but Ben Solac from way back in the day on ESPN, floated the idea of the Colts.

And he's not the only person to do this, but he did it today. So I thought it was at least timeworthy to talk about here. The Colts adding a veteran backup. So, you know, even if they bring back Daniel Jones, if somebody needs to start in case that the Achilles and the rehab and all that, and Riley Leonard's not ready to do so, much of the chagrin of Alan Pinkett, should they bring in a veteran quarterback?

And he mentioned two names that I thought were interesting. This from Solek, assuming the Colts signed Daniel Jones, I could see them looking at a veteran option to start over Riley Leonard while Jones comes back from the Achilles. No, not Philip Rivers. That's a little too veteran. This seems like the right team for Marcus Marriota or the return of Joe Flacco. What's your response to that, Zach?

I feel like Mariotta's been a pretty polarizing figure that. We've talked about him in this market for a while about him coming in as a starter. But I think I'm a little more open to him being the QB2 for a team. He's at least shown himself to be somewhat capable doing that. Yeah, I think Solek is 100% in the right ballpark of type of name. they go for. I think in a perfect world, the Colts wouldn't want one of those two guys

because of their change more to under center play last year. Like, I'm not saying the Colts were like number one and under center play this last season. But, you know, I think they want more of that traditional type quarterback where Mariotta has operated most of his career out of the gun going back to Oregon. And then with Cliff Kingsbury the last couple of years as well, it's kind of more of a gun related.

And then Flacco at his age, like, you're not going to have him play much under center. of the issue they got into with Philip Rivers last season where it's like the mind was great the smarts were great but like we just lost our entire under center playbook by having Philip Rivers in here and it killed our running game uh so yeah i think that similar tier of where so lack is aiming i think is right on the money uh it just comes down to the the name that works uh i do i mean ben in the comments keeps saying a don't o'connell if o'connell's you know a low end trade i don't hate it uh but that's that's that's kind of one I think I'd be fine with.

He's young, but is he that much better than Riley Leonard? I'm not too sure. They're both like day three pick guys. So I don't know how much I'd be into that. But yeah, I think like that type of quarterback, like the Marriota tier of quarterback, makes a lot of sense for the Colts. Yeah, they're not going to get caught in the Joe Flacco Bear Trap again. I don't think they're they're not salty about it, but like this is exactly what bit them last time was he goes and

balls out with the Browns and they're like, cool, we're going to get that. And they didn't. And so he goes and balls out on short notice with the Bengals. So they would be like, cool, we're going to get that. And then they wouldn't. So they're not going to do that again. Mario, I totally agree with Zach. I do think now I am like chopping my options in half when it comes to Shane Stike and now knowing him better.

It's got to be a very wise. I've seen it all type of veteran quarterback that's going to make good decisions. That is the type of quarterback Shane Stuyken will try and tie himself to for the rest of time, unless someone with a really sharp mind from the draft comes in at some point in his career, whatever. But like that's the kind it'll be, Mariotta doesn't really do it for me. I don't really think that's the type of fit.

But that kind of veteran who has started a million games or played a, you know, played throughout and has seen just about everything, that would be the, type for me i'm with alan though like just go with riley leonard and and pour a lot into him like you're going to have to already through the offseason program because let's just say daniel jones is ready week one he's probably coming back early in training camp but you have all of the offseason program o t a's uh mandatory and and uh not mandatory mini camp like you've got a lot of opportunities to to pour into Riley Leonard. And he's already shown you some pretty good stuff.

If you just need them to last you two, three weeks, you can figure it out. Like, you can make it happen. You've played with him in two games extensively before. So, like, if you don't have a game plan for him, then who are you going to craft a game plan for? So, yeah, I'm a Riley Leonard apologist here now. third quarterback i don't really know like you were saying set hen again earlier jake that was going to be their third quarterback i did because when i think of that stuff i try and be realistic with it like a marcus marriota is not going to come in and be a qb3 behind like a rio littered but like what

veteran other than like a josh johnson is going to come in and be qb3 you know what i mean it doesn't happen a lot like even sam ellinger at this point is being super picky and choosy about where he's going even though he's never been thrown into the freight even there in Denver. But that's what we're dealing with now. You know, like you're either going to have to, if you're going to bring in a veteran, he's going to have to be the second guy or it's going to have to be like a Hennigan type that you just kind of roll with. Or Kate Kino, right, with the Bears this past season, he was just chilling at QB3.

Nick Fools was doing that at one point, but like Nick Fools is perhaps the most passive quarterback I've ever seen in my life. Like when he was here, he didn't want to play. He just wanted to come hang out. Be one of the guys. Yeah. He didn't want to play either. Like, trust me, we didn't want him to play.

No, no, no, yeah. But like, that's pretty rare, though. Like, Foles just wanted to, like, torch the Bears' third team defense and just, like, hang out. And then it's kind of the same thing here when he was an indie. But that's pretty rare. Like, if I had to bet, I think it's going to resemble a lot, like, what it does now. But you just swap out Daniel Jones. for Anthony Richardson in terms of guys under contract.

I'm going to say it again, though. I'm going to keep an eye on Kurt Cousins this offseason after he gets cut. I will say I think that one makes sense. I do think Shane would like Kirk Cousins. Yeah. Now, I keep talking myself into it more about in like in the back of my mind here, especially with Shane going more Shanahan style this past season, under center stuff, outside zone stuff.

I'm like, well, it depends on like, because Minnesota might get Kirk to start. this season, given their quarterback situation. But if he doesn't get a starting job, I could totally see Kirk Cousins making sense. Well, well, Jake, I'm going to agree with you on the flacko proposition. You're not going there again. That's not going to happen. You know, there's only one old guy that they'll go to and that's Phillip Rivers. So they're not going to go there again.

And I also agree with you in terms of the type of quarterback that would, fit a Shane Steichen system. And I see Marcus Marriota is not one that would go through all the progressions to get to the past. I feel like he would be one if option one, it didn't open, option two, and open. I'm tucking it and running it. And, you know, that might work for a little while. But then, you know, all these defenses watch a ton of film and they'll just know, we'll just make sure his first two options aren't open. and then we're going to go crush him when he comes out to run. So I just don't, he's not the type or the style of quarterback, I think,

that he's very good, very, very good. But I just, it's, you know, I can't come up with an analogy. He's in. I mean, I can come up with an analogy that really talks about how I feel. I just, it wouldn't work. So, again, it just goes back to pour everything in to the guy that's already in the building. Daniel Jones. All the drugs into that.

If he needs to start for the first month, take your lumps with him, and you'll be fine. And I think the word that you're struggling to find, to define Marcus Marriota's NFL career is, Yeah. I mean, he's the most like, quarterback in NFL history, I feel like. He's fine. He's not good. He's not bad. He's just kind of there. And I think you could do worse. I will say that for a backup quarterback. He's one of the best backups in football. It's just I would like, I think he needs to go to more of a gun run type team. And don't get me wrong,

Siking could develop a gun system for him. Like he's done it for most of his career with Hertz and Minchu and Richardson as well. also he could just have that game plan lying there, but it helps more to have that symmetry with your backup and your starter. So if Daniel Jones is going to be your starter, it's easier to have a Leonard or a Philip Rivers or Kirk Cousins be the backup. Maybe not Philip Rivers because Rivers couldn't play under center. But you know what I mean? Like having a type of guy who can play under center.

Who knows if cousins can even play under center at this point too. So I don't know. It's tough to find a quarterback in this league. Yeah. And the Colts have had some weird one-two combos, like what they had to do with Richard. in the Minshu a couple of years ago, and it's nice to have a little bit more of a connection.

And I think pretty much only half of the show can speak to this, because Alan, I'm not sure you've been to a game at Lucas Loyal Stadium. Zach, I know you've been to a Colts game at the stadium recently here? No, I've not been to a game. I've been to the Combine at Lucas Oil. I haven't been to the game, though, at Lucas Oil. Because the Colts finished in the top five in several categories in the NFL's annual voice of the fan survey for basically it centers around game day experience. at Lucas Lois Stadium, which is great for the Colts to be able to see that.

Number one in family-oriented entertainment, which I would, I get, you know, they do C-Bicam and here's blue throwing the T-shirt into the thing. Okay, like, you know, it's family, family fun. Number three, an overall game day satisfaction. Number four, an overall arrival, number five in departure, number five in security. I can't stress this enough. It's amazing to live in Indianapolis, where I live 10 minutes from downtown and I can go to a Colts game and I can get there in probably about a half an hour and get to my seat and in a half an hour I'm home.

Whereas in, you know, I know from growing up out there in New York, it was like a three hour experience. To get back on the Jersey turnpike, you get back over the bridge. And, you know, part of that is traffic, but it's just getting out of those vast stadium lots and you don't have to worry about that as much here in Indianapolis. Number five and halftime entertainment, I'm guessing that's weighted, Jake, because of the blue playing the peewee football kids. and going, you know, clotheslining them. I think that probably up the grade a little bit. And then number five in food and beverage value, you know, I think the concessions are all pretty much overpriced.

But Lucas Oil, I think, does a good job. I mean, they don't have a, I saw the Super Bowl had an $170 an hour burger. Did you guys see that? Somebody apparently bought that thing. I don't know how you buy an $120s a dollar burger. I have a rule about eating in crowds. It's not a big fan of that. Okay.

Yeah. Yeah, I will say to your point about Indy, though, like, I've been to a couple cities, obviously, and India is such a great city, especially with Lucas Oil, like how easy it is to navigate around there. Now, it has its potholes and its road under construction, like all cities do and all that. But it, like, I remember when as a kid going to Landover to watch Washington, and man, that would be such a journey to get out there. It is. My grandfather would park at the very edge of the parking lot so we could barely, and it would still, like, we'd have to walk like three miles to get through our car and still with like half an hour to get out. Indy just streamlines everything so well and such a, it's the perfect city in my opinion,

just and this is not even being biased here. I did not grow up in India. I've been indie only a handful of times. It's such that perfect city where it has like, it has a city vibe, obviously, but it's not that big, it crowded, you know, like it's the best thing. So I can imagine just how great that game day experience is, just getting in and out of there and enjoying it. So I'm glad Indie rated very. high even when the product wasn't perfect this season.

Two years ago, I went to see Joe Flacco beat the Pittsburgh Steelers. And I left there. I was at that game, yeah. Yeah, I left there thinking, man, I would love to bring my family back. Yeah. It was such a great experience, you know. There's so many interactive things and stuff to keep you busy during the game. and to me it was just, it was so much fun.

And I would encourage anyone to go see a cult game at Lucas Oil. It is absolutely gorgeous. Like seeing the view like when the window is, even when the window is closed, like just that view, especially like during the one o'clock games, like it can be pretty breathtaking. But I got the bird's eye view in there. So like I don't really get the end stadium experience.

I do hate the elevators more than I hate. anything. Oh my God. But the food has gotten much, much, much, much better. And over the last few years. Like, I, my understanding, like, I've started to travel a little bit more to different stadiums now for games. But my understanding is the Colts now have among the best food experience now as well. So, yeah, I went to the Monday night game, Jake. I got fired from the radio in 2020. And they used to just bring out like this really mediocre half time pizza and that was it and I went back for the Niners game and they had like an ice cream bar. These people came and they made ice cream for you at halftime and then they had this huge spread and

I was like, what the hell? What happened? I was up here for 12 years and I got mediocre pizza and now this is where you get. So thanks so much for joining us here on the latest edition of the Colts squad show. I'll leave my complaints to another time. We'll be back with you Thursday night at 9 o'clock as our offseason schedule continues. But as always, the Colts news cycle never really goes quiet. So keep It's locked on Jake and Zach every day on Locked on Colts. Be sure to follow at Lockdown Colts on socials and check out our other great content on YouTube and TikTok. And we will see you next time right here on the screen.