Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - COLTS SQUAD SHOW: DEEP DIVE on Daniel | What Jones' Return and Free Agency Moves Mean for 2026
Episode Date: March 13, 2026Daniel Jones is back - have you seen this/heard about this? - and The Squad convenes to discuss what it means for the Colts in 2026. Also, they parse through what Jones and his No. 1 target, Alec Pier...ce, had to say to the media today, analyze the signing of a multi-time Super Bowl champion and new defensive end (it's not as good as it sounds, guys), and Chris Ballard's one clear skill as a general manager. 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/lockedoncolts Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! TurboTax This year you’re getting a major upgrade — Intuit TurboTax now has in-person locations nationwide. Visit http://TurboTax.com/local to book your appointment today. 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. Gametime Today's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply. FanDuel FanDuel is giving you a way to turn that energy into even bigger potential wins with a College Basketball Parlay Profit Boost. Visit https://FANDUEL.COM to get started — Play Your Game. 5-Hour ENERGY Have your cake & drink it too. Birthday cake-flavor is back, no fork needed. Vanilla-y cakey flavor, caffeinated kick, and no sugar. It's party time. Order Now at 5-hourENERGY.com or Amazon. 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.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Welcome to the Colts Squad Show.
I'm your host, Derek Schultz,
and I wish every week of the offseason was as fun as this one's been.
I'm Jake Arthur, and the Colts have done the two biggest things they needed to do this off season,
but we need to see him do some more stuff.
Come on.
And I'm Zach Hicks, and yeah, looking at this Colts defense of the depth chart is giving me some night terror so far.
Colts Nation rise up.
It's the Colts Squad.
Everything Indianapolis Colts, every week.
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 into the Colts Squad Show. Today's episode brought you by Fanduel. Fan duel is giving you a way to turn that energy into an even bigger potential win with a college basketball parlay profit boost. Head to FanDuel.com to get started. I'm Derek Schultz, longtime indie sports talker and columnist for the Indianapolis Business Journal. I am joined.
joined by the incomparable locked on Colts duo, Jake Arthur, Zach Hicks, your first list, and every day.
Our pal, Alan Pinkett, he's a rare absentee tonight.
I want to say he's only missed like a show, maybe two.
I don't even know if he's missed that many.
He was double-booked.
He had a speaking engagement tonight, so Alan will rejoin the squad next week.
So you guys are stuck with us, combined zero NFL snaps among the trio tonight on the squad show,
but we're still going to have some fun with it.
NFL Free Agency Fire continuing to burn here in Indianapolis with a rash of signings,
mostly on the defensive side of the ball.
But, of course, we heard from the biggest fish that they locked up over the last two days with
Daniel Jones and Alec Pierce.
We'll talk about Jones because we were sort of in between, right?
You know, we alluded to this on Tuesday's show.
This felt like it was not a matter of if, but a matter of when the Coltson Jones are going to hammer out a deal.
Of course, they did yesterday.
And I know that, you know, obviously, Zach and Jake have already reacted to that in full,
but we'll talk more about just what it all means.
with Daniel Jones in 2026 for the Colts.
We'll talk about what Jones and Alec Pierce had to say.
Jake, you dove into this earlier today.
And those are two guys that, you know, right, nice guys, good players.
They don't say a whole heck of a lot normally,
but we will react to what they had to say about coming back to D.D.
I do think that there were some interesting tidbits in there, as there always are.
The Colts signed a three-time Super Bowl champ.
Little tease there.
We'll talk about that coming up.
And then Chris Bowers, one elite skill.
guys on Twitter, every time Bauer does anything and you're even like somewhat complimentary of him,
I know you guys are the same way. People just come after me and they say, oh my God, what are you talking about?
He's terrible. He has one elite skill that I want to mention on this show and we'll do so at the very end of it.
But let's get into the Daniel Jones contract and just the signing and what it means for the Colts.
And I think, Zach, you sort of alluded to this, how it's structured.
It seems to make a lot of sense. But I do think overall, and people may not.
want to hear this because it's an Achilles tear and, you know, we're talking about eight games.
It's a small sample size.
There is definitely a downside to this, right?
I don't think it's any guarantee that Daniel Jones is the same player that he was in September
and October.
But this is the vision that the Colts sold.
And I do think that it was really important for them to come through on this.
And of course, they ended up doing that.
Yeah, I mean, look, did they feasibly have other options that they could have explored
a quarterback?
Yes, they could have gone for Kyler Murray.
They could have gone for Tua.
they could have gone for all these like cheap options than Daniel Jones who maybe in some people's minds
it could be a comparable style of play.
This isn't madden.
You know, you can't just keep flipping out quarterbacks left and right and expect everything
to go smoothly as we've seen with the cults the last half decade here, right?
Where they've gone with a new quarterback every single season and it's led to pretty poor
results overall.
They wanted some continuity.
They wanted to get back to the way it looked early last season before.
Jones was hurt. I mean, what, he was 8 and 3 as a starter. Eight and three as a starter for the
cold last year. And they pretty much lost everything without him last season. So like he was a very
effective player for them. I guess eight and four started because that jacking game where now after
one quarter. But still, he was a very effective quarterback for them last season. And I think that
it's feasible to want to lock that up. I think they did a good job with this contract too,
where yes, they are buying in on Daniel Jones,
a quarterback who has been banged up a lot in his career
and has been very up and down with his play.
But they protected themselves against that, right?
They didn't give him the New York Giants,
Daniel Jones contract, right?
The four-year commitment with a heavy amount of dead cap
if they were to cut him and be left putting that bill
for years and years to come.
It's a two-year contract.
Yes, they added some void years at the end of it,
but it's not like anything like egregious.
Like if they were to cut him after this season, they wouldn't be stuck with the two of the two of that debt cap, right, of $100 million worth of dead cap.
They have a way out of this that still sets up well for the future.
So I think they found a really good middle ground of, hey, we believe what happened early last season.
We think this can work.
We think that he's the best quarterback we've had since Philip Rivers the first time or Andrew Luck.
And we're willing to commit to that.
But we want to still live ourselves some wiggle room here.
So I think they did as well as you could in the situation.
I'm not going to say it's a perfect situation,
a perfect situation having Pat Mahomes or Josh Allen.
But I think that they did as well as they could, given the circumstances.
And we're just going to see how much that Achilles really limits him early next season.
Yeah, I think this was perfect for both sides.
The length for the Colts two years, being able to get that cap hit down from what the transition
tag was to something a lot more reasonable, gives you a lot more wiggle room to play with whatever
you need elsewhere on the roster for the Colts. And then if you're Daniel Jones, if you actually
make it through healthy this two years, well, you're still young enough to cash in on a major,
even bigger deal than this one, a couple years down the road, whether it's with the Colts or
somewhere else. So both sides, I think, should be more than pleased with how this worked out.
For the Colts, they also needed to get this done to appease Alec Pierce as well.
And let Alec Pierce know that, you know, we're going to get your guy here for more than just this one year on the transition tag.
So I'm definitely pro this contract.
I know, like we kind of mentioned, Zach, the sticker shock of it was probably going to throw some people off, especially when you see up to $100 million.
But my view on it is this.
let's say it does get up to $100 million.
That's probably good for everybody.
That means Jones is around.
He's playing and he's probably playing well and the Colts are doing well.
So you kind of want to see it get to the $100 million, I would think.
Because you kind of want a quarterback that's $50 million a year and deserves it.
You know what I mean?
Like Daniel Jones may not be sexy,
but like if you're getting something comparable to what you got early last year,
then shoot, who'd have?
doesn't want that. You're getting winning football out of your quarterback. The,
the only thing now you kind of have to worry about the injury, obviously. So he says his goal is,
you know, week one, he's confident that can be the case. The Colts have said that as well.
You know, they, I think Chris Ballard even said without firmly committing to it, that they'd
like him to be around for training camp, which if you go to like the nine, 10 month target of,
of it all, he could be ready for week one to play football,
but be in training camp doing something leading up to it.
Like in my eyes, in my eyes, the week one of it all
doesn't mean that he can't be participating,
at least in training camp to some degree ahead of that.
So I think as long as he's like around for camp, it's fine.
I think that's probably, other than it being Daniel Jones
is probably the most significant thing
that gives a lot of fan skepticism is the account.
of course, which it should.
But again, the Colts have all offseason to figure this out and understand that they're
going to have a quarterback with limited mobility and who doesn't quite look the same as he
did before the last time we saw him.
So take that for what it is.
But circling back to the contract, I think it's even a friendly contract for a quarterback
coming off of an Achilles if you're the team and for him.
So it seems like a win-win all around.
I mean, two things I just want to add to that.
One, like again, if he's hitting $50 million, the incentives to get up there are winning games, appearing games, and winning playoff games, right?
I hope he made $100 million of the next two seasons because that means the Colts won a Super Bowl.
That's the only way he's getting there is because it's based off of winning playoff games and winning major games and being like an all pro is in there as well.
So I hope he makes every cent that he can possibly make on that because that means the Colts are one of the best teams in football.
And one more thing I really want to comment on.
I know this is more big picture stuff than just Daniel Jones,
but we have a comment here that I've seen this as a commonly held sentiment
between a lot of Colts fans is that Daniel Jones held the Colts, like hotage or whatever.
They couldn't spend on all the free agents because they had that $37 million cap hit on Daniel Jones.
Here's the thing.
Daniel Jones was never going to play on that transition tag.
They were going to get a deal done no matter what.
The Colts could have agreed to 100 contracts by the start.
of the new league year, they just had to be cap compliant by five o'clock on Tuesday or Wednesday
or whatever it was to start of the new league year, right? So they could have agreed to a thousand
contracts by then. They just would have had to restructure them all by that big new league year.
Jones is only making $14 million against the cap. Even at most, he would have made $37 million
against it, and that wasn't going to happen. So Jones didn't hold the Colts hostage this
offseason with the contract he made. All lack of signing and lack of big sports.
flashes. That's just Chris Allard. Don't give him an out by saying this is all on Daniel Jones.
If you want to blame anybody, blame the general manager who typically doesn't sign the guys.
So yeah, no, it's Daniel Jones's contract. It was going to be hammered out. It was going to be
factored into the equation regardless here. We don't need to say that it's his, he's the reason
why we're not building up this team. The cold had plenty of space. And they've had plenty of space
since the beginning of free agency. It, like them signing or not signing guys is ultimately on
them, not on the quarterback, because this was a deal that they knew they had to get done.
They accounted for, and it was part of the process this offseason, and they had a perfect
amount of space to do it.
So, Daniel Jones contract, very team friendly, very player friendly.
All systems go, and now it's about building up the roster because defensive depth chart
right now is like one injury away from Eric Schultz playing linebacker.
And you guys don't want that, trust me.
Is there something to be said to, and I understand that this technically was the case in 23 into 24 because Jones did not finish the season healthy this year.
But is there something to just also having the continuity of, how about phrasing it this way, a veteran quarterback for the first time since the Andrew Luckera.
So we're talking 10 years where you're bringing somebody else back again that was just here in bringing back Jones.
Yeah, I mean, think about the leadership void that's been left at quarterback since Philip Rivers, right?
Like Rivers in 2020, they haven't really had a true leader at quarterback.
And like Matt Ryan, I know it was, but like he was in the twilight of his career.
We had a whole mess of things going on that season.
But you look at like Carson Wentz, there was always a disconnect between him in the locker room.
Gardner, Minchu and Joe Flacco, very aloof quarterbacks were kind of just journing in stopgap types.
and Richardson was just a young, like the youngest player on the team.
It's hard for you to take up that leadership mantle unless you're having this immense success on the field.
So with Daniel Jones, they all kind of saw this like veteran stable quarterback that was a leader at the position against.
Just having that kind of continuity, I think, is huge for the locker room.
So, yeah, I think it does help this team quite a bit.
And we saw how they revolved around Phillip Rivers.
We saw how they revolved early this season around Daniel Jones.
We saw how they revolved around Andrew.
I'm not saying he's comparable to those two players.
But I think there is something to be said about, like, this is a true NFL quarterback,
like a starting NFL quarterback.
Whatever your thoughts are on Daniel Jones, he's a starting NFL quarterback.
And I think that does mean something to people in the locker room who have not been around
that very often in the Chris Ballot tenure.
Yeah, and I think just that continuity is key in having one voice in knowing what to expect from people.
I think of that and I look at how much more Daniel Jones and Tanner Bordellini can strengthen their chemistry with like protection calls and how Alec Pierce is going to have to expand his role even more and be, you know, level up and become this evolved receiver while having this quarterback that he's very close to and speaks the same language.
And who is quite literally an extension of your head coach and play caller as well, that is.
that you if you're alec pierce you couldn't ask for any better recipe to get to where you need to be
and then you know tyler warren as well like you you're looking for that guy to take a jump
well he's going to be with the same quarterback that's good so everyone being on the same page
speaking the same language having expectations but also like zach said having a true
like field general at quarterback who again is setting expectations holding guys accountable
because that's another thing. He's very soft, not soft spoken, but just he's very under the radar in the media.
And you just don't hear a lot out of Daniel Jones. I mean, we speak to him all the time, but you still don't, he's not very revealing.
But behind closed doors and in the locker room and everything, everyone knows that like you listen to Daniel.
Daniel is going to get people where they need to be. And again, set expectations and tell
people what they need to be doing.
Like, he is, he is demanding as a quarterback.
And again, very much an extension of Shane Steichen, the play caller and head coach.
So I think that's very, very valuable having that going in again to year two.
Because the only other time they've had consecutive quarterbacks starting in week,
in week ones are Anthony Richardson.
And that's just not Anthony Richardson's bag.
You know what I mean?
so having someone like Daniel Jones continue to be your starting quarterback, that's big.
And I think Riley Leonard works well with him too, which is going to be important because
Riley's going to get all of the offseason work.
So all of these like relationships and the way that these guys have chemistry, I think it does matter.
Yeah, and we'll see if that chemistry ends up paying off.
When we come back on the cold squad show, Alec Pierce might have other things tying him to Indiana
besides $30 million and his relationship with Daniel Jones.
We'll tell you what he alluded to earlier today.
That was interesting when the squad show returns next.
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And we're back on the Locked On Colts squad show alongside Zach Hicks and Jake Arthur of Lockedon Colts.
I'm Derek Schultz.
Alan Pinkett will rejoin us next week.
He's at a speaking engagement tonight.
You know, when you're formally set in NERDAM's all-time rushing record,
you get asked to speak at things and you're still relevant and all of that.
And we understand that Alan has other things besides this show going on.
So I mentioned.
And Jake, you, of course, were there covering the Colts as you do as our credentialed boots on the ground at the complex over on the west side, Alec Pierce and then Daniel Jones, both giving their press availabilities to the local media.
And look, obviously I'm joking around a little bit right because Alec Pierce has 114 million or, you know, 29 million plus reasons to stay here in Indianapolis.
But he did give a shout out to his little brother.
I thought that that was kind of cool.
You know, you talk about the things that are tying you to a place besides the obvious report that he's built with Daniel Jones, besides the money, besides the fact that the Colts have crowned him now their number one receiver.
Caden Pierce is going to be playing his final year of college basketball up the road at Purdue, not too far from here, about an hour up I-65.
And he mentioned that in today's press conference.
Here's from Pierce quote, shout out to my little brother going to Purdue.
That's a big thing.
I can't leave the state when I've got my little brother down the road.
It's going to be his last year at college basketball.
so that's going to be pretty special.
And it's cool to see stuff like that.
You know, the family ties.
I know it's cheeseball and corny and, you know,
kind of Midwest, but Jake, am I right in saying it?
It is kind of important here in Indiana,
you know, kind of like the Midwestern vibes,
the Midwestern values.
You get that from the Pierce clan.
And I think that's why fans have embraced him
besides just how he's played on the field.
Yeah, no, he comes from a Midwestern, you know,
salt to the earth family.
They're all very normal people
other than being terrific athletes.
But no, he did shout him his little brother out.
And I think when you're already leaning a certain way,
you're just looking for all these tiebreakers or like reasons why you should do something.
And he wanted to be an indie.
So of course, having his little brother coming to Purdue, of course, that's one of those
tiebreakers.
You know what I mean?
I think we all kind of look for excuses and reasons to do things like that all the time.
But pretty funny enough, both of his brothers, his younger one and his
older one, Alec is the middle. They're both like in Thailand or something right now playing in
playing for team USA for something. I don't know. I'm probably not a good enough American to know what
they're playing for, but both of his brothers are overseas playing basketball right now.
And his dad, I think, was actually the only one at his presser on yesterday. But it's this is pretty
cool. That family full of good athletes. Yeah, I don't have too much to comment on the overall
family vibe here. My brother lives in a different state, so I don't really
do the same thing, unfortunately. I guess if I had 114 million
reasons to live in the same state as my brother, I would. But I thought,
I still think the most important aspect of all of Pierce's
presser stuff, or I guess the most interesting to me is just how much he has
talked about being involved in the offense at like such a higher level,
right? Being a true wide receiver one, being a guy.
with 130 targets and how like I'm signing back like to be that guy.
I'm not signing back to be the 80 target guy who only gets targeted 20, 30, 40 yards
down the field, right?
So it's a little bit of a projection.
He's never done it.
I mean, I think what last year he had like 11 catches under 10 yards, I think, last season.
It was like 14.
It was low.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And look, by all accounts, he was one of the best receivers in football past 10 yards.
but you have to be able to do stuff under 10 yards as well to be a true wide receiver one.
I think it's easier to project that than easier than it is to project by pan yard being successful.
It still is a bit of a projection.
So I think it's going to be a fascinating thing to watch.
I think he's fully capable of it.
I mean, he's one of the best receivers in football at beating press coverage,
in breaking routes, vertically down the field.
He makes high leverage clutch moment plays like we've seen the last couple of years, like in 2024 against the Patriots.
game winning touchdown.
Like game winning touchdowns his rookie year against the Jaguar.
Like he's done it before.
Now we just need to see it as a true wide receiver one when other teams know that he's
the wide receiver one.
So I'm really excited.
That's not probably the most excited I am about this contract.
It's just the fact that like he's going to be the guy because how many times are we sitting
there on Sundays looking at the screen?
I don't know if you guys are, but me in particular.
And I see a zero blitz on and I'm like, just throw a jump ball to Pierce.
I don't like, why are we trying to run all this mesh stuff against like zero blitz or try to run these like option routes with downs?
He's a one-on-one with a corner with no safety with top.
Just throw a jump ball to him.
Treat him like a wide receiver one.
Now there's money incentive to actually treat him that way.
And I think that there's going to be really good results.
As long as you can stay healthy, I think there's going to be some great results with him.
Yeah.
And one big key about Shane Steichen is a play caller is he will hammer something if it's working.
And if you're kind of forced into having Alec Pierce be this high volume target guy,
if he's just killing guys, then he's going to wind up with like 10, 12 catch games for 200 yards.
I'm like Zach, I'm pretty excited to see him in this expanded role because you're going to naturally get more targets.
But he's someone who could do more with them.
Like he's not always been a big guy before, but I think like he's fast.
like he can make, I think make a play with the ball in his hands.
Maybe not like from a shifty perspective, but you get him the ball with momentum and room to run and he's going to add extra yards to it.
You know, speed is his thing.
So I think that's exciting to see.
I'm curious how he's going to hold up over the middle, though, because naturally he's just going to be brought over the middle a little bit.
He has had a couple concussions before.
and like he's he's very he's very densely muscled now but like there's some slenderness to him as
well so like I'd hate to see him get too battered over the middle because like we know Michael
Pittman Jr. used to do that like Pittman was just a crash test on me a lot of the time
which it's going to come with its natural consequences but overall I'm excited to see
Pierce just with this bigger role and he wants that you know I
I mean, he's someone who already works hard at it.
He's got good chemistry with the quarterback.
So I think it's going to work.
And something that was boring that he said, but I thought it was kind of exciting was like, you know, naturally my yards per catch are going to come down.
But like, if I get, if I convert a slant on third or a six yard slant on third and three, he's like, well, that's a huge play.
I was like, that's right.
Yeah, like we don't see a lot of that from him.
but I'm eager to see him get plays like that.
So it's cool.
We're going to see the next evolution in Alec Pierce,
and he drew comparisons to himself and Reggie Wayne
and their kind of developmental timelines
at the same point of their careers,
which is somewhat comparable.
They're very different players,
but I see where he was coming from with that.
Daniel Jones-wise also talking to the media too,
and Jake, you had mentioned what he had said.
said about timetables and things like that. And I think that was the most interesting. But I did find
it interesting as well that he opened up about just his injury history, too. And this is what Jones had
to say, quote, I've had my fair share of injuries throughout my career, but I work hard to keep my body
in a good place. Unfortunately, at times you get tough breaks here and there, but I'm confident
that I can stay healthy and can protect myself. And I do think that there is something to that. I think
Some people think that injuries are just luck.
And while certainly luck is part of it or bad luck is part of it,
there is such thing as injury prevention and doing all that you can to, you know,
things like protecting yourself.
Remember, we had that conversation with Andrew Luck for all those years here in Indianapolis about,
you know, get out of bounds or slide or whatever else and don't take the hits that he,
that he ended up keeping hitting, keep getting, I guess.
But, you know, Zach, that's the other thing that's kind of part of this equation here is that,
you know, we know that Jones can be a good place.
but can he be relied upon to stay out there because this constantly comes up over and over and over
again whether it's his fault or not yeah i mean look there's so much that goes into a guy getting
hurt like sometimes there are guys who don't take care of their body sometimes there are players who
take care of their body perfectly and do everything they can't injury prevention wise and just every
time they go on the field they take an unlucky hit like it truly is a game of inches in every regard in the
NFL. The helmet hits you one inch further to the south instead of like where it hits you right
on the knee. That's a difference between a torn ACL and a bone bruise. You know, like it's such a
just a game of inches type of sport. And, you know, when it comes to Daniel Jones, I wouldn't say like
injury prone, but it's kind of like that Paris camp type situation where maybe you're not
injury prone, but every time you just take these bad injuries and they keep you out for a long time,
they compile and they wear down your body.
You don't really come back from injuries better than what you were before, right?
That it wears down on your body over time.
So we'll have to see it's really not something that you can like,
like I don't even know how he is supposed to answer that question, right?
Like if you're asking about like injuries that you take, it's like, yeah,
I mean, I hit playing football.
It's what happens, you know?
Like it's part of the game and you just got to hope that the luck kind of swings back
your side after that.
we've seen with some guys that they've just never been able to shake that bug off
and seen with other guys where they've had the bug for a long time
and then all of a sudden they're able to stay healthy for a super long time.
I think a lot of it really just does come down to luck.
Do everything you can take care of your body and stay as healthy as you possibly can.
But you're going to take hits in the NFL, whether you're in the pocket,
whether you're on the move, whatever it's going to be.
You're going to take hits and just got to hope that you don't take bad hits.
You know, do your best you can to fall with the hit and try to avoid it.
But, you know, it comes for us all eventually, you know.
I do think when certain players just refuse to acknowledge they have a history of injuries
or that they are injury prone or anything along those lines,
I feel like when a player finally, like, comes to that realization and acknowledges what everyone,
why everyone is always asking them about injuries and stuff,
it gives them good juju.
And it's like a good way to get past that, you know?
And I think the most frustrating thing for Jones in this situation last year is like,
it just like shouldn't happen.
Like the fibula thing came out of kind of nowhere.
And the Colts were never going to sit him as long as he could play.
But they also didn't really know how good Riley Leonard could be on the field,
which, of course, like he didn't get the reps in practice to do so, and he didn't really look like that in practice.
I don't think anyone knew it to expect when he actually got out there in a game.
So in hindsight, maybe they could have sat Jones a couple weeks just to let that calm down
because I think we all feel relatively comfortable saying overcompensation in the other leg helped lead to the Achilles.
So it just shouldn't happen.
But it's not like he got hit in the knee like Paris Campbell did when he had that knee injury that derailed his strong 2020 or something.
You know, like, it's, it just was kind of a freak thing.
And I don't think it was that his, his body is any more fragile than anybody else's that led to that.
I just think he kind of got the hell start to get beat out of him for a couple weeks against, you know, the Steelers and the Falcons.
And he just came out of that with, with something that caused him problems.
and I don't think anyone really understood at the time how to deal with it because it was just kind of a pain tolerance thing.
So that was just really unfortunate.
But I mean, I would like to rehab my injuries with, you know, $88 million as well.
I think that would help me feel a lot better.
Yeah, I think soften the blow a little bit.
Right.
Right. I mean, look, the question here, though, really isn't the torn Achilles in terms of like,
Like, yes, the tornikillas is early this next season, right?
But the big question is how many injuries he's had, right?
So, again, we could write off one or two as a freak injury.
But when it's, it's been like eight injuries now, like nine injuries.
Well, he's only played one full season.
Yeah.
Right.
So there is reason to be concerned about all this.
And I completely understand everyone who's concerned about it.
It's just, it's just what else you're going to go?
You're going to go Kyler Murray, who's had a similar injury history in the NFL.
You're going to go to Tua, who's had a war.
injury history in the NFL, like it's the nature of the sport.
Everybody has a big injury history in the sport.
If you want to see a, I know this is a guy who's been in a league for a long time,
so that's why.
But if you want to see the longest injury history in sports, look at Aaron Rogers
throughout his career.
It is like 10 CVS lists long or whatever.
It's just the nature of playing the sport.
You get injuries.
And unfortunately, Jones had some major ones.
So hopefully you can avoid it this next season and we'll see what happens.
Well, the good news, guys, is the Colts signed a three-time Super Bowl champ as well as a new defensive end.
Yay, but we'll tell you why that's not as exciting as it sounds when the Colt Squad Show returns next.
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Rolling right along here on the Locked on Colts squad show.
Thanks so much for joining us alongside Zach Hicks and Jake Arthur of Locked on Colts.
I'm Derek Schultz.
Alan Pinkett out on assignment.
He'll be back with us next week.
So, yeah, guys, look, the Colts signings,
depth is important and you need other guys to fill out the roster.
We knew this defensive line room was going to.
change. And I know that it sounds exciting to say, yay, three-time Super Bowl champion, Derek Nottie,
or, yay, Michael Clemens, because he technically is kind of sort of defensive end, edge guy, but he can
also go inside. Okay, so he's, you know, versatile and all of that. But, you know, those probably
aren't the guys that you want to be leaning on, certainly not as frontline players. You know,
Nottie's a guy that is in the twilight of his career now, spent his entire career with the chiefs,
nearly 100 starts, which is great.
And I do think, you know, there's something to like a winning pedigree and all of that,
but you come essentially on like a vet minimum deal, one-year deal.
And you got to make the team, right, before we talk about what you're adding to the locker room.
And then with Clemens, 65 games in four years with the Jets, also on a cheap deal,
only $7 million guaranteed.
So as of right now, Zach, you're swapping out Quitty Pay, Samson, Ebecom, Neville Gallimore,
and you're bringing in Kobe Wooden, Arning Key.
Derek Nottie Michael Clemens.
Good, bad, 50, 50.
Do you feel like they improved at the very least with that?
And do you feel like they checked some of those boxes of getting perhaps at the very
least younger at that position?
Technically not much younger, actually.
These guys are also like around 30.
They're technically all like a little bit younger than like Taekwana Lois is like 31, I think.
So they are like slightly younger.
but in terms of just what they added,
I think it just comes down to the context
and the role they're going to play.
Because as of right now,
we can look at Arden Key being a starting defensive end
and be like, oh, no, that's not good, right?
That's probably even worse than what you got,
a quitty past year to run and clean up some sacks, right?
And Michael Clemens, if he's going to be your third defensive end,
oh, no, that's not good at all.
He's got more penalties than sacks in his career in the NFL.
But if you are moving them down a peg, if they're going to be, like if, if Arden Key is a replacement for
Samson-Ebecom, I think he's better than Samson-Ebacom at this point in his career.
I think he's a much better fit for this defense too and I actually really like the Arden-Kee
Key sign if that is what he's going to be.
Michael Clemens, I think if he's your replacement for Taekwon Lewis, I think he's an
upgrade there.
I think he's a lot stronger than Taekwon Lewis.
I think he's a lot more explosive than Taekwon-Lewis at this point in his career.
and yeah, he's a bit of a nutcase on the field at times.
But I think he can just bring more to the game than Taekle and Lewis brought last year.
And I think he can be healthier than Lewis as well.
And Kobe Wooden even, I think he's not ever now, Neville Gallimore.
I like Neville Gallimore last year.
But he was very hit or miss and not that great a run defender.
Kobe Wooden's a much better run defender.
And I think he's got some upside too as a three tech and a guy can move all around the defensive line.
So I do like these guys for those roles.
But if Arden Key has to be your starter, then this is a disaster for sure, right?
So it's kind of like if they have their Ebukam, Taekwon Lewis, and Neville Gallamore replacements,
I think these are good signings.
But if you throw the quitty pay replacement in there as well as these guys being that,
then I think we are missing out for sure.
And this is not an upgrade.
So, yeah, I like Arden Key as a signing.
I think Clemens is fine in that Taekwon Lewis role.
He's actually making less than Taekwon Lewis made last year on a pretty year basis.
Tycoon Lewis made $7.1 million last year, by the way,
to just be a train wreck when he was on the field.
Clemens is making $4.47 million this season.
So, yeah, I think that these are upgrades for those roles,
but it all hinges on getting like a legit starter that's better than Quitty Pay was last year.
They're running out of time to get one of those.
And to have a whole day where they didn't sign anybody is kind of weird to me right now when you have Hunter Woler, Austin, Adjke, Jalen Carlis, and RT as projected starters at the moment.
So we'll see.
I'm giving time still.
I don't think these guys are bad players by any – well, one of them is a bad player that they sign.
It's the one that you put in this – Derek is a really bad football player.
Three-time Super Bowl champion, Zach.
Come on.
No, here's the thing.
The best thing about signing Derek Nottie is that Andy Reid loves him to death.
And the second that they lose a defensive tackle to an injury midseason,
the Colts will gain a seventh round pick trading him back to the Chiefs.
So that will be the best thing that that comes out of signing him.
But if you want to see some truly dreadful defensive tackle play,
like Tave and Brian better knows tackle guys.
Like I am, it is some dreadful.
it is some dreadful play.
I could watch any more than like 20 plays.
And I was like, this is not rosterable.
So that's a vet minimum.
I don't know why we had to get him in here, you know,
the second day of free agency.
But again, it would be nice to get that seventh round pick back from the chiefs.
Whatever.
It would be nice to get that seventh round pick back from the chiefs
when we trade him back in week three.
So I guess that's the one plus of Derek Nottie signing.
Yeah.
Now, the thing of this all is,
are all supposed to be role players, which sometimes that does get lost in it when role
players get taken before starters and free agency.
So noddy at the vet minimum, I don't hate it.
If, big if here, I see a guy like that who is longer in the tooth and he has all of the
postseason success and experience in the world.
To me, I say how beneficial can he be for Tim Smith, at Tomiwa, at a bore.
what is the impact he can have on the younger players?
I don't care about him as a player because he's probably, like Zach said,
it's probably he may not even make the roster.
But like, what is there a lasting impact he can have on the younger guys?
Like, if they can get anything out of Tim Smith, that would be fantastic.
You know what I mean?
They're going to need some more backup nose help.
Shifting to Colby Wooden, him and Key are the two I'm most intrigued by.
So Key as like your third pass rusher, he was he was an athletic long freak coming out of LSU.
And I really enjoy talking to him today because he was, he kept it real.
He was asked like essentially like why, you know, why did it take you a little bit to kind of start hitting in the NFL?
And he said when he was with the Raiders with his first stop in the NFL, he was immature.
And when they released him, it was kind of a wake up call.
and he he kind of learned and realized how to become a professional.
He had some elite edge players around him throughout his career that helped him become like a better player, a better professional.
And he's interested in passing that down and kind of taking other guys under his wing.
So it sounds like he, you know, very mature now and has a big air of leadership to him.
but also as a player, like, if your third edge rusher can get you like six or seven sacks or something,
I guess, you're in a pretty good spot there.
And he likes this defense.
He said he's been paying attention to it since Lou is with Cincinnati and Q is in San Francisco.
He likes that the defensive ends can get out and move a little bit.
He thinks that kind of fits his skill set.
So I think him being in that role certainly is better than EbbyCon.
being in that role. And then Clemens
is interesting too. He's been a bit
of a train wreck like in the NFL.
And I think we all learn
just how much Jets fans were pleased to be
rid of him after we
were reporting on his
acquisition yesterday.
Which is usually a bad sign, right?
Yeah, no, that's not good.
Here's my thing. I think my
comparison for him
is how we all felt about EJ. Speed
when EJ. Speed left the Colts.
Right? Yeah. So remember when
Jay Speed was leaving the Colts.
That last season,
there was like four late hit penalties that he had.
There were like these dumb pass interference,
like off sides.
It's like,
you're not the worst player ever,
but oh my gosh,
can you please stop committing these bonehead penalties?
Yeah.
And then it just wears on you as a fan.
You're like,
I think this guy sucks.
Get him off the field no matter what.
In all honesty,
they're not really that bad,
you know,
like it's what you get so frustrated.
I think that's kind of where he was,
honestly.
with the Jets.
They were starting him for some reason.
I don't know why he was starting for so many games.
Injuries, I think.
Right, but if you can get him down to like two to 300 snaps,
I think he's fine.
But yeah, I think it was kind of,
because look at EJ's been fine with Houston, right?
In like, 200.
He got a new deal in Houston too.
Yeah.
So, like, yeah, it's fine.
Like, it's just don't play him 800 snaps,
and you'll be fine, I think, out there.
Yeah.
And my thing is, like, I remember him coming out of Texas.
Texas A&M, like height weight speed guy who worked out really well when you took his combine and pro day measurements together.
And I am a little bit weary of guys that play with that kind of passion, I guess you could say, and reckless abandon.
But again, he's supposed to be a role player.
Like, he's not supposed to be out there playing a ton.
Like, if you can limit him to like 300 snaps or something, like you've probably got a good little concentration of play.
and you showed a clip where he absolutely bowled this guy over.
Like, the guy's got power.
Like, there's intriguing traits to his game.
I just don't want to see it 50 snaps a game, you know?
Yeah.
Well, the thing about it like this, right?
Everyone's saying, oh, it's not good when a player leaves
and the whole team is popping champagne bottles, right?
We were doing that way Al-Qaeda Muhammad left us.
And Al-Qaeda Mohammed last season had more sack than a single season
than any Colts past rusher since, what, Dwight Freeney, I guess, right?
Eric Walden, get it right.
Yeah, Eric Walden, whatever.
He had 11 and a half sacks last year at the Detroit line.
Sometimes a guy just figures it out somewhere else and needs a new news place.
I'm not saying that Michael Clemens is going to do that by any means.
But I do think that he can be a better Taiquant Lewis.
I think that he's going to be better than what Taquan Lewis brought last year,
which was zero, brought absolutely nothing.
A 7% pass-fresh win rate.
At least Clemens is closer to 10%.
And even in true past sets, Clemens is like a top 50 edge rusher.
It's 16.6% pass rush win rate.
So there's a little bit there to like with him.
It's better than what we got out of Taekwon Lewis.
I'll take that as a win.
As long as he's the Taekwon Lewis replacement, I've got to be as clear as possible.
If he's the Taekwuan Lewis replacement, awesome.
If he's getting like 6 or 800 snaps next year, something went wrong.
Something went wrong.
And we won't have to be worrying about Chris Ballard the next time.
offseason, I guess, if that happens.
By the way, because we have two minutes left in this segment, wanted to ask you guys,
I know this isn't a move that the Colts made, but they were reported to be strongly interested.
What did you make of the Trey Hendrickson deal?
And knowing what that was, are you happy that the Colts didn't make that deal under those terms?
Look, I know a lot of Colts fans are mad about not landing Hendrickson, but a 31-year-old
pass rush who played seven games last year.
who's been a dreadful run defender his entire career.
Like, I don't think I would have been a big fan of it.
So I'm kind of perfectly fine with not getting Trey Hedrickton,
especially what was the, it was four years, like,
almost $30 million per year all there.
Like, oh, absolutely not.
So. Yeah, the total value is like, yeah, like Pierce Steel, right?
I think it was right in that, was it, was it $416 or something?
Yeah.
Like, look, if you guys are, if any of you guys are thinking like, hey, I want to blow this up after this year because I don't think anything's going to work out, you're really happy that we did not land Tray Hendrickson because that contract would have been tough to get off of after this season.
I'm just not a Trey Hendrickson fan at this point in his career.
And I'm kind of glad they didn't land that.
Yeah.
So number one, an unfortunate development.
Arnold Ava Kiti is off to Philadelphia.
So cross that one off the list as well.
So I don't, I just don't know what they're going to be doing.
I think Chris Ballard was sleeping in today or something for the all 24 hours.
Because like, again, when you have Austin Ajika and Jalen Carlize, who I'm not convinced that Lou would probably start Verasuk over Jalen Carlis at this point.
As you should.
He does not like Jalen Carlis at all.
So I don't know who they're going to start linebacker or safety.
And again, you've got to find another starting defensive end.
We have two top 100 picks guys.
we don't have much space here to do anything.
So I don't know.
I think Chris Bowdo's got to wake up a little bit here.
To answer your question, Derek, yeah, I was out on the Hendrickson thing as soon as I saw the compensation as well.
I would have wanted Hendrickson for the right price.
I thought 21 to 25 per year was what I would have wanted him for.
So he earned $29 million with the Bengals last year.
how are you going to give a guy a year older who his season was over by Halloween and he had to have surgery one million less per year and make it for four years?
You don't give non-quarterbacks, 31-year-old non-quarterbacks four-year deals.
When I saw that, I was like, oh, okay, goodbye.
That's fine.
I'm good not having that.
That was crazy.
Like now the Ravens are in a better position to play reckless like that and the Colts are.
They're closer to a Super Bowl.
So if you feel like you need to do that, go ahead.
But the Colts, that would have been reckless for them to do.
It would not have been a good idea.
Yeah, maybe over Peg is just saying, well, we're keeping our picks with this deal, right?
But still, it's a, if I'm the Ravens, I don't like, if you feel like you're a couple moves away from a Super Bowl, then who cares?
Like if you put yourself in Capel or you have a couple bad contracts or you give up like first round picks for something like that would have been the Crosby deal.
But like you can give up that kind of stuff if it's going to get you a Super Bowl.
The Colts aren't quite there.
Kind of a weird segue as we were just talking about Chris Bauer being asleep at the wheel.
But I think we can say with confidence he has this one great skill as a general manager.
We'll tell you what that is when we wrap up the Colts Squad show next.
Back for final time, Colts Squad Show.
Thanks so much for being here on this lovely Thursday night alongside Zach Hicks and Jake Arthur,
blocked on Colts. I'm Derek Schultz. Alan Pinkett, part of the squad as well. He will be rejoining
us for Tuesday's show next week. So, you know, I mentioned the one skill that I think Chris Bauer has,
and I think this was shown in the Daniel Joe's contract, but there are some others here that
sort of come to mind. I really have always appreciated the way that he structures deals.
and I get that, you know, a lot of these teams have capologists guys.
Like there's a lot that goes into it.
It's not just Chris Bauer.
You know, my dad's a retired CPA and he used to have like one of those like handheld
calculator things.
It's not like Chris Bauer's just there, right?
Like doing the numbers himself, like the Colts, I'm sure, have a team and they meet
about this and they kind of go over.
Okay, how do we account for every dollars and cents and where are we going to put the void,
you know, void years and moving money here and moving money there?
that said, like the way this Jones deal is structured,
I think, Zach, you put it best,
you know, about 14.5 million for this year, right?
And then you put the big chunk, right?
50 million of it essentially for next year, 46.8,
and then you tack on the void year too.
But at that point, yeah, you know, look,
a 46.8 million dollar cap number sucks.
I'm not going to say that that doesn't suck.
And, you know, a huge void year sucks too.
But at that point, if it doesn't work out,
you're screwed anyway.
Whereas if it does work out,
out, that's probably market value for a top half NFL quarterback. So I think the way that he
structured that deal makes a lot of sense. But I, you know, you think back to some of the smaller
Fitzdeals, the Stefan Gilmore deal, you know, taking the fly, the flyers that he's taken like
Eric Ebron, the one good NFL season that Eric Ebron had, you know, that came under a really team
friendly deal for the Colts as well. I think Chris Bauer has been good in that area and not really,
you know, he's made the wrong moves. He's made bad trades. I, I, I, I,
I'm not going to forgive.
He's made bad draft picks, right?
All general managers do.
But I do think that he has structured free agent contracts pretty well and not really hamstrung the Colts with these deals if they went wrong.
I actually think Ballard plus me and Jake would all disagree with you giving him credit for this.
I think even Chris Ballard would not say that he deserves credit for this.
Mike Bloom is the guy that he would give all the credit to.
Anytime he's even asked about, yeah, anytime he's even asked about the way a contract is structured,
He's just like, Mike Bloom's great.
He's got it.
Like, that's all he says, right?
I don't know how into the grid he gets with that stuff.
But you have to give him credit for having Mike Bloom on staff, right?
It's part of his staff that he's put together.
And yeah, the Colts usually do it.
I mean, I think they're in the bottom quarter of the NFL and dead cap right now.
Because given they should have had a little bit of dead cap when they made,
when they should have cut Samson Ebukon last year.
So maybe part of it is because he's not cutting guys that he should be cutting.
But also it's because they do avoid a lot of that debt cap.
And then typically if they do add dead cap at the end of contracts,
it's guys that they know are going to be here for a long time.
So I think they do manage things really well,
but I think a lot of it is like Bloom does a really good job with that.
And just to really put it on, like Bloom, like the credit that he gets here,
it is tough to be in that role with the small market team.
Like ask the capologist guys for the Bengals and for the Colts,
how difficult it is to be in that role compared to being.
like in the Saints role for that or being in the Eagles or the Cowboys role for that, right?
Like he's the one he is the Colts, all these benefits with all these contracts because he has
to navigate this way like a small business owner has to save every single penny that they can.
So it might be frustrating sometimes, but being able to, you know, structure these contracts
like this does set up well for the future.
And again, if you think this is all going to blow up and everything's going to suck,
thank Mike Bloom for not giving the Colts a horrible cap situation after this season
because they kind of had to go all in on Daniel Jones and Pierce and all these guys.
And because of Bloom, they have a way to get out of it.
And if they have to pivot to a new GM, a new head coach next year,
it'll be because of the way that Bloom allows them to pivot.
Yeah, I think this feels like the first offseason where I have noticed a lot of like bloated contracts
or like ones where they really had a lot of,
reason to get out of. They almost never carry any bad contracts. And I won't even say that these
ones now are bad. It's just like the players are older and the gap between dead cap and cap hit
is so large for some of them. I mean, a lot of these guys are really more eligible for extensions
than they already be cut. You know what I mean? Like we've talked about it this year. Like guys like
Quentin and Jonathan Taylor and Kenny Moore and Grover Stewart, like they all have the opportunity
for big cap savings to Forrest Buckner as well.
Now, some of those guys have different scenarios, but like for the most part, I would,
I would consider Grover, Jonathan Taylor, Quentin.
I would consider those guys like extension candidates.
So their contracts are all pretty good.
And especially when they stay on top of them and they extend guys a year ahead of time and stuff
like that.
So, yeah, the financial wizardry of Mike Bloom is definitely beneficial to allowing
the Colts to kind of hit on some of these free agent deals.
But they've also had to be more aggressive.
So they've kind of pivoted a little bit since last year the ability to close and the ability
to use more guaranteed money, more upfront money.
Because like, my God, the amount of money they just gave like Pearson Jones right away is like
the amount they would give for guys for entire off seasons for like whole free agent classes,
even beyond that.
I'm impressed by the way
they've been able to manage this
while still getting more aggressive.
But yeah, the way they've been
able to handle kind of the lower to mid-range
for agent deals has been pretty impressive.
I thought, Eric, when you were going to lead this segment,
I thought you were going to lead this segment by really coping
with the low-tier free agent signings,
because he's actually been pretty good with low-tier for agent signings
in his career.
I mean, getting immense value out of,
of Neville Gallimore funds. I mean, Neville Gallimore parlayed a vet minimum deal with the Colts last
year into a pretty big two year, like big for his role. Yeah, two year, 12 million with Chicago Bears.
We look at other guys that he's been able to get a lot, T.J. Carey, Xavier Roads, buying so low on
Xavier Roads and building up his career again. Chris Reed, I think of was a big one as well.
Obviously, like, Eviecom. Well, Eviecom was more of a mid mid-high.
tier. Bluinsky, though, was like a claim, I think. I would give credit for that one.
Yeah. So he does usually get on like the lower deal guys. Now, this is not Derek Nettley
propaganda because no chance that one turning into that. But he has been able to find those
lower tier deals. I thought you were really going to make that selling point there, Derek,
and say like he can just spend 10 of these deals and we'll be great next year because he hits on
them pretty well. Yeah, I was just going to spend a whole segment on how great DeNico Autry was
because they just keep seeming. Everybody keeps seeming to bring that up, even though that was now years ago that it was DeNico Autry. But I do think that there is something to that. You know, people use bargain bin Bowerd as a derisive term. And I actually think bargain bin Bowerd's been pretty good. I think non-aggressive Bowered is what I have the gripe with or just, you know, blind spot Bowered, if you will, where there are these positions like linebacker last year or I guess linebacker again this year.
or wide receiver a couple of years ago where you're like,
what are we doing here?
And I guess, Jake, it goes to,
even though the Colts have brought in a decent amount of names here
and we just praised Bauer and his team for some of the salary structures
and things like that, are they being aggressive enough?
You know, essentially with, you know, these two holes right now,
particularly a linebacker and really you're going to have to put some bodies at safety.
I would say no.
And you can hear Ben in the background.
belly aching about it too right now so apologies there but no i would say no i mean i know they
have these two huge things to get out of the way with alec pierce and daniel jones but this was an offseason
where you couldn't go through with any huge holes and right now the defense has been
completely remade outside of this well you could include the secondary because
they have to replace their second third safeties with nick cross and rodney thomas
so they've lost those two they've lost neville gallimore quiddy pey samson ebucombe
You can go ahead and count Typhon Lewis out as well.
They traded away Zyre Franklin.
Jermaine Pratt's probably going to be gone.
So I just named, I don't know, seven, eight guys that they have to replace and they haven't
done enough of it.
They've brought in backups like second and third tier guys, but we need to see some new starters
in here.
It can't just be through the draft because you need, like number one, you don't have a first
round pick.
It's irrational to put it on second.
third and fourth round guys to be starters and compete right away for 800 snaps.
That's not that's unreasonable.
So free agency needed to be heavily involved this year.
And that's not to say it still won't be, but, you know, we just had to mourn the loss of
Arnold D.B. Kiti being one of like the last decent pass rushers off of, off of the free agent
board.
Because it's like, you need edge help.
where the hell are you getting it now?
You kind of have to trade for it now.
Who's just out there that you can get to make an impact?
Ibikidi was one of the very last ones.
And we need to see more of a plan here.
We can't keep seeing 29-year-old rotational pieces on the defensive line.
To me, that doesn't scream, remake the front seven, get younger and faster.
That makes no sense.
Yeah, well, and here's the thing.
You're talking about how they remade the defense, but, like, is it really remake?
like if you're going to redo your walls, right?
If you just tear down.
They've done the tear down.
Right. If you tear down the entire wall, right?
And then you have $10.
Because like really, if we look at the assets they have, right?
They have decent on a cap space still to spend this all season so they can still do some things.
They don't have draft capital.
Like anyone who thinks like, oh, we can address the wide receiver need and safety
and a linebacker need and edge need in the draft.
They have two top 100 picks.
And I know a lot of people are saying, like, if you want to.
to get a starting edge, you can trade for a Josh Sweat or trade for a Jonathan Grenard.
Then you're going to have fewer top 100 picks if you trade for one of those guys.
So they can't fill all these needs in the draft.
They can barely, I don't even know if they can fill any of these needs in the draft
because the way that Ballard's been drafting in recent years, I mean, to be completely
honest.
I'm back on safety or like the only two I can confidently say they could get because of
the depth of the draft.
Everything else.
I'm like, you've got to figure this out.
Yeah.
Even then, like, you're putting a rookie in a major role in a must-win season and saying,
hey, this rookie, you got to go beat.
Like, again, you, you, John, you went out of the spot here, Jake, but you loved your boy,
Demetrius Knight last year.
And look how he looked as a rookie.
Poorly.
Yeah, it's just, it's just, it's the nature of being a rookie in the NFL.
It takes time.
And don't get me started.
If they were to take an edge rusher to be the answer because rookie edge rushers just struggle,
man.
They, they do.
Like, even the best ones struggle in their first.
year. So I don't know, man. I'll see. I'm still in a wait and see them, though, because they still
have cap space and the Colts always spend all their cap space every offseason. They rarely sit on it,
so they will be spending this money. What they're going to spend it on at this point? I don't know.
I have no clue what the plan is for Eddruscher right now.
Here's what they do.
I have a-no, no, no, no, no. I have a new idea. Better than anyone they had last year.
So you send Anthony Richardson in a fourth or fifth Minnesota to be a part of that crazy quarterback
room. You get Dallas Turner back in return.
No, man.
Look at those madden trades right there.
Or just legitimately Anthony Richardson for Josh Sweat.
Perfect.
Yeah, just get in a time machine, bring back AQM and have him have the same launch that he just had in Detroit.
He's in Tampa.
We're fine.
He went to Tampa today.
We can't even get ACU.
Another pass rest of the board.
Time machine would solve a lot of things
if we just went through the time machine idea.
But moving forward, that's what we're going to do
here on the Colts Squad Show.
Thanks so much for joining us on this latest edition.
We'll be back with you on Tuesday, 9 o'clock,
and the Colts hopefully we'll have some starting linebackers
and perhaps even a safety or two by then.
Who knows?
As always, the Colts news cycle never ends.
So keep it locked on Jake and Zach every day on Locked on Colts.
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and we'll see you next time right here on the squad show.
