Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - COLTS SQUAD SHOW: Raimann on the MONEY | Why The Colts Should Still Feel Great About Their $100M LT

Episode Date: June 8, 2026

The Colts rewarded Bernhard Raimann with a $100 million extension last offseason - can he become an All-Pro left tackle in 2026? We discuss the rising fifth-year LT as part of our continuing Returnee Reviews series and take a look at the Colts O-Line depth chart from top to bottom. Also, can Indianapolis replicate the Knicks as a "sum of its part" championship-level team and the guys react to the Bears taking another step towards co-inhabiting the state with the Colts. 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  Everydayer Club  If you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclub Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. From the opening whistle to the final kick, Let There Be Goals on FanDuel.Visithttps://FANDUEL.COMto get started now. Square If you’re starting a business, or running one that deserves better tools, Square helps you sell, manage, and grow without slowing down. Right now, you can get up to $200 off Square hardware at https://square.com/go/LockedOnNFL. 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. 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 Cold Squad Show. We're going to talk tonight about someone who is handsome, successful, and German. Does that sound familiar to you guys? And I'm Zach Hicks, and after kicking and screaming for weeks about wanting to get an offensive line topic on here, I finally got my wish. I'm Jake Arthur, and it's about to be a weekend at Bernie's, baby. I'm Alan Pinkett, former Euler, and this particular group, Offensive Line, may be the best in the the football league 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 biggest stage in world soccer is here.

Let there be goals on Fandul. visit fandul.com to get started now. I'm Derek Schultz, long-time indie sports talker and sports columnist for the Indianapolis Business Journal. I'm joined by a Notre Dame legend, long-time NFL running back Alan Pinkett. And as always, the Locked on Colts Daily hosts are here. Jake Arthur and Zach Hicks, your first listen every day. We're humming along on our returning review series tonight. And we'll focus on the German that we just mentioned.

Bernard Reimann is going to be our focus tonight in segment number one. obviously last year at this time we were talking contract and that ended up coming to fruition. He became a $100 million man for the Colts and had a nice 2025 season. He continues to show out and have a good NFL career. But I know some fans feel like he could be doing more. I don't know, maybe he feels like he could be doing more, right? You always want to kind of keep climbing the rungs of those ladders to stardom because I think we would all agree while Ryman is solid to very good. he's not become a star left tackle, at least not yet.

So we'll talk about that in segment number one, how he projects out to the 2026 season, which is hard to believe will already be his fifth. How is that even possible? The offensive line situation heading into 2026, just in general, we'll talk about that too. I mean, Alan, with a juicy teaser there, I'm looking forward to that conversation coming up

in the second segment of the show. Can the Colts be like the Knicks? And you Pacers fans that happen to be Colts fans as well, listen, please don't shut us off. Just stay with us here, okay? We're going to compare this year's Colts to the Knicks. As far as the roster is concerned, we all know that this team, as of right now,

with where we sit today, is lacking in the superstar category, right? But do they have enough very good players and cohesion to become like the Knicks have become here up to well in the NBA finals and the favorites right now to win the NBA championship? Different sport, hated rival. I get all of that. We're going to talk about in segment three.

We'll have some fun with it. And then finally to round out the show. we'll catch up of what was sort of a busy news week. The Bears take another step towards becoming the second pro football team playing in the state of Indiana. We'll discuss that. Colts FPI released if you're into those things. We'll talk about that as well coming up to round out today's show. But let's start with Bernard Reimann.

And, Zach, I guess I could just say, well, take it away. And we could just have 20 minutes, right, on Bernard Ryman. But, you know, still, here's a guy who came in as a third round pick. and kind of was viewed as a steel for the Colts, right? Like people were surprised that they were able to secure him where they did. And I know he had some draft knocks. I'm thinking back, did he have short arms? Wasn't that one of the things for him, short arms?

But regardless, he's turned into a really good pro. He got his big payday. Yes, he's had some moments just like all offensive linemen too where you get beat. It happens. The other guys get paid a lot of money too. But I think all in all, a good start to the career for Bernard Ryman. I think B, the question now is, can he take the next step and become a pro bowl, all pro type level left tackle for this team? Yeah. And one thing I really like to make note about with Berenhart Reimann, is just how rare it is to have an offensive tackle, especially at the left tackle position, be like your franchise guy who has drafted outside of the top 50 in the NFL draft, right?

Typically, this is a position like edge rusher where if you're not drafting them early, you're probably not finding your guy in the draft. That's why you see like Chris Ballard at edge rusher position, for instance, take so many so high in the draft is because you just need to spend premium capital. I think offensive tackle is very much in the same vein where we see like what, five, six, seven, eight of these guys go in the first round every single year because teams are so desperate to find their franchise left tackle and you need to draft them as high as possible to get that player. Nicole's able to find their guy in round three of the draft. I think it was a phenomenal find and a real big credit to just how Ryman was able to take the lessons of his rookie season. His rookie season came in around 300 pounds was getting a run over left and right. I mean, we all remember the ugliest football game and the history of football, which was that Colts and Broncos primetime football game.

I remember it specifically because Jake missed that one and I made a couple of our listeners of the show come on during the week to break down like the film of that game torture them just to show how much I love the listeners out there. But yeah, like, Ryman was able to bounce back from that, put on about 15 to 20 pounds of just muscle and really build out his frame. And every single year, it's been better and better. He's become a fringe pro bowl left tackle in my eyes. I think he fits exactly what the Colts want, where he's an athletic player, one of the best athletes in the sport, an excellent run blocker, especially on these own runs,

the Colts want to run. He can hit angles that very few. you can hit, aggressive pass blocker that can jump in an angle set with anybody. And yeah, there are some gas and some poor moments on film. But overall, I think he's a very clean player, a player that you feel so comfortable putting him next to Quit and Nelson and saying, like, cool, we have our lynch pins of our offensive line. These are our top two players.

And they're going to perform like that on a weekly basis. So Berenhardt Ryman has become a very good player. Like last off season, when we're having this conversation, like Jake and I on the regular show. It was almost more of like a when do you pay him rather than if you pay him. Like you're going to pay this guy. Pay him sooner rather than later so you can cut that price down a little bit because the latest guy always gets paid the biggest contract. But Ryman is worth every bit of the money he is being paid in my opinion. And I think he's firmly in that like Anthony Costanzo role where, you know, Costanzo, I don't think he made a

pro bowl in his NFL career. I think he was an alternate a couple times. But by and large, like he was not a pro bowl caliber player maybe in the eyes of a lot of people, because the Colts didn't have a lot of team success. But I think that's exactly where Ryman's at, where he's in that, like, very good category. I think if the Colts were a contender every year, he'd be in the Pro Bowl. But I think that's still a great place to be in as a left tackle. Like, he is a very good football player and the Colts are rewarding him handsomely for it. Hopefully you can see, like, maybe another jump in play still.

Like, I think of Garrett Bowles, who has a very similar athletic profile and, like, just physical profile when he got into his 30s, all of a sudden hit the second year where now he's, like a pro bowl, like all pro level left tackle. I think rhyming can still get there because he was still late to playing the sport, you know, late to playing offensive tackle. So I still think he could have a later breakout than most, but he's still a very good football player. Like no complaints whatsoever.

This is arguably the best draft pick of Chris Ballard's career, is finding your franchise left tackle in round three. I mean, I didn't think anything was going to beat the Rover Stewart selection or even the Shaquille Leonard selections, right, just for the value they got at those picks. but I mean, getting your franchise left tackle in round three, it's hard to get better than that. So, yeah, I think it's easily one of their best picks that Ballard has made. Very good football player and I enjoy watching him on Sundays.

And one of those guys where you don't have to watch him, but me being such a big fan of offensive line play, I certainly hone in on him and just see the little nuances he's added to his game over the years. It's been really fun to see. So Berenhard Riemann, I'm happy that he's part of the Colts, and I'm happy they were able to find that kind of guy in round three of the NFL draft. Yeah, I'm really impressed with his transformation over the years. I was actually looking up pictures of him today because Zach and I discussed him on the daily show this week. We had him ranked as our number six most important player.

And so I clipped it up today. And pictures of him at the combine came up. And he looked like just a big tight end. And you look at him now when he's enormous. And it just goes to show like, oh, yeah, this guy, while he's already an above average offensive tackle, he's still a work in progress. He's still getting better. So it's just really impressive to see. And, you know, I kind of rewind the last year before he got that new deal.

This guy hits the open market. The Colts maybe have got him, maybe got him at a bargain. You know what I mean? This guy would have been one of the top five players on the open market. And it would just really open your eyes to see how the rest of the league values a player like him. And ascending left tackle who has proven he's still getting better all the time has really good chemistry with Quentin Nelson, like their combo blocks and everything that they're their tasks to do together is outstanding. But he's, he's just, it's really, it's such an

underappreciated checkmark when you get that left tackle, especially they didn't accomplish anything over this time, but to have a franchise left tackle on a rookie deal when they did was such a important thing to have. Now, of course, he's an expensive player now, but by this time you now have a player where you can set it and forget it. Now he does like give up Sacks occasionally and he has his matchups where he does get overmatched. But I think those dark moments are definitely becoming fewer and further between. At this point now, just like Zach said, he's very much like an Anthony Costanzo type

player where underappreciated, he's not sexy because he's not, you know, Jordan Myelotta or Trent Williams or anyone like that, but he is a left tackle where the offensive coordinator, the play call, or the offensive line coach, they sleep easier at night having this guy on the roster. So, yeah, it's offensive line play. Half of NFL fans, you know, kind of just let it go in one ear and out the other. But the Colts do have a real star here on the offensive line and it's not just Quentin Nelson. Well, I would first start out by giving props to the Colts scouting department and draft team for being able to find a franchise tackle outside of the first round. They did probably save a few dollars by getting them.

And last year was my first year with him. but, you know, for them to be able to groom him. And the other thing I'll say is for your quarterback to play with ultimate confidence, he's got to have faith in his left tackle. And that left tackle position is extremely hard because every single week he is facing the best pass rusher that the opponent has. And so, but by virtue of that, there's going to be some sacks given up because he's playing against the baddest player on the opposing team most of the time.

But I did go and look at PFF, which I'm not a big stat guy. And it just amazes me how many different members. that they come up with to rate an offensive lineman. But it was interesting. Some of the numbers were interesting in that he played 986 offensive snaps. 591 of those were pass blocking snaps. Did give up eight sacks, you know, but only gave up two hits on the quarterback. you know, and total pressure is allowed 31.

You know, he ranks, you know, pretty high. He's pretty much a top 20 offensive tackle in the NFL. And sitting next to Quentin Nelson, you have, you know, solidified that side of the line to where now defenses, they're going to have to try and game plan to come from the other side. But the problem with coming from the other side is now they're coming right to the quarterback's face. They can't really attack Daniel Jones blindside

because they have built a wall on that left side to where, you know, Daniel Jones doesn't have to worry about it. But I also think one of the things that helps burn hard and the rest of the offensive line is the Shane Stuyken system because the ball comes out right away. So there shouldn't be a lot of, you know, it shouldn't be a lot of sacks. But it's, it's, even though the ball comes out right away, it's not a dink and dunk system, you know. And these, these guys are required to hold their blocks, but they don't have to hold them as long as, you know, your typical seven, drop the football team that, you know, needs a lot of time.

So I just think that the Colts can go into the season, you know, feeling confident that that side is taken care of and will be taken care of, I would say, at a minimum for the next three, four years. So that's just, that just a quarterback all. kinds of confidence. When you know, you can count on somebody not, you know, swatting you from the back. So good job finding this guy and can't say enough about his development. And it's a guy who has definitely mastered his craft and learned year by year how to get better to where now, yeah, he may, he will be a pro bowler. Yeah. And one thing I want to add to when you're in a division where

one of your biggest rivals has Neil Hunter and Will Anderson, you better have some good offensive tackle play. And while he hasn't been perfect against those two players, because Trent Williams wouldn't be perfect against those two guys, I think he's been very good in those matchups against those players. And that's why I think the Colts have had a little bit more offensive success against Houston's defense than what you would think they would when they're throwing out Gardner Minchu and Riley Leonard

and injured Daniel Jones in those games. And I think a big part of that, is Berenhard Riemann's ability. So, yeah, he's a vital piece of this offense, vital piece of this team, and he's getting paid for it and well-deserved that he's getting paid like he is for it. Yeah, and, you know, the peace of mind that he grants,

like where he ranks, is he a top 10 tackle? Is he a top 15 tackle? I think he's worth more simply because the Colts can kind of set it and forget it with him, you know? We're not that far removed, guys. I mean, we don't, I think some people just mistakenly think they just went from Costanzo and just kind of walked right into Ryman. No, there was some wilderness time there.

They, you know, they tried out Eric Fisher and 21, right? 22 was a disaster, right? They tried them that prior experiment and that blew up. And Ryman took his lumps, but then once he kind of got past that rookie year, I mean, there's been steady improvement, I think, since then. And it's just you file it away into the, it's nice to not have the problem category. I mean, that's really what he allows them to, you know, the peace of mind, just like I mentioned. We come back on the show.

A Colts return four of their five starters, including Ryman, on that offensive line. But should we be concerned with what's behind that group? We'll dive into the OL depth next. This portion of the Colts Squad Show brought you by our friends at Square, the business platform that helps sellers become neighborhood favorites, whether you're gearing up for a busy season or just trying to keep up with everyday demand. Square helps your business keep running smoothly from payments to online orders, inventory, staff, and more all in one.

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and build a setup that works the way that you do. And we're back on the Locked on Colts Squad show. Thanks so much for joining us. We'll get back to our usual Tuesday, Thursday, cadence next week coming up here. I know this is a little odd to have a Sunday show. Some folks probably like, wait, there's a Colts game today. I wish there was.

There's no Colts game today for us to recap like we do during the season. but appreciate you being here anyway. Former NFL or Alan Pinka joins me. So do Zach Hicks and Jake Arthur of Locked on Colts your first listen every day. And if you're big Zach and Jake fans, I mean, why wouldn't you be your listening and watching this right now? Don't forget to check out the Every Day or Club. Add free episodes and access to a group chat with Jake, Zach, and other listeners of Lockedon Colts. Just tap the link in the show notes or go to Lockedonpod.

com slash Everydayer Club. So much is the same when we talk about the top of this depth chart for next year, guys, in the offensive line room. And even Jalen Travis, like, yes, Jalen Travis is a new starter, right? And, you know, you're moving on from Braden Smith after many years who held down the fort there on the right side. But a guy that is a known entity in the fact that he's a carryover from last year's team. I do worry a little bit, Zach, about the offensive line depth. But I will say that the caveat there is that you look around the other 31 NFL teams,

it's rare to have offensive line depth, right? It's really hard to find good offensive linemen. Jalen Farmer, I think there's maybe some promise there as a rookie. I know kind of how we feel about Blake Freeland and Dalton Tucker. Luke Tunut is fine. But overall, how do you view this room of starters and reserves, just the sum of its parts, if you will? Yeah, I mean, I think when I look at the starters,

I feel pretty good about it. They were a very solid offensive line last year. And if you really had to pick out probably the weakest starter was Brayden Smith. and that's the guy who isn't returning this year and the guy who replaced him down the stretch. So like you said, Derek, these guys got a whole month of play together. I know Ryman was a little banged up in there, but they did get like a whole month of practice together and play together down the stretch, which I think is going to be valuable for this next season. But yeah, they got that involved in the mix here.

And I think Jalen Travis played some good football in that final month of play, which is what led to the cold feeling comfortable about kind of handing him this right tackle job going into the season. So, yeah, I think there's a lot to like about this group. I mean, obviously you have your three guys that you feel really good about, right? I mean, Berenhardt, Ryman and Quentin Nelson are highly paid. They're very good players. We feel very good about two of them. And I think most of us, when it comes to Tanner Bordellini, I feel pretty good as well.

I mean, his first half of the year, he was playing at a Pro Bowl level. I mean, I've talked to some guys over at Sumer Sports who had him as like a Pro Bowl level center by pretty much every metric they had in the first half. half of the season. Did dip a little bit in the second half of the season, which is why he missed their overall Pro Bowl team, but by and large was a very good season for the young player. And also the youngest starter on the offensive line as well. So you can anticipate him just getting better and better as he puts more experience. The only two questions are Consolvis and Travis. And with Gonzalez, it was his first time in his life playing guard, like at a full time

capacity last year. And I thought it was really solid, you know, like it wasn't like out of this world spectacular, but he's a big physical player. I thought the past blocking was really solid. The Colts felt comfortable putting him on an island because essentially the way that defensive lines would approach the Colts O line is they would line up in a way where they were forcing Quentin Nelson's side to be the slide side. So you're going to be sliding left to Quentin Nelson's side so you can isolate Gonsalves on the backside because they didn't want to isolate themselves with Quintin Nelson because Quentin Nelson is Quentin Nelson, right? So they would isolate themselves with Gonzalez. So he got tested quite a bit. And I thought he really

stood up to those tests. Big physical player. If he got his hands on a player first, he was able to lock it down. Run blocking, I think he can get a little bit better with leverage, but again, this was his first time ever playing inside. He played tackle his whole life. You know, there's going to be some lumps and bruises there. And I thought he mostly survived a lot of what we saw in his first time as a full-time starter. So I'm expecting a jump from him this year. I think he's doing all the right things, saying all the right things as well. I think he's going to be a good player. And Travis, I've said this so many times, he's so big. so explosive and so physical that I don't see him failing.

At worst, I think he can be a league average starter. But I think there's just a lot of traits there to go with. So I feel really good about the starters, especially with Tony Sparano Jr. leading the charge. He could tell me that I can land a helicopter and I'd believe it, just because he's been that good with the Colts at this point. It does a lot with their run game as well. He's kind of taken on the same role that like Shane Stuyck and that same

relationships that I can had with his O-line coach in Philly. They kind of asked Brono Jr. to be the same thing here in Indy. and he's been fantastic with it. Now, when it comes to the depth, there are some concerns there. But for me, I mainly look at your six and your seventh guys. And the Colts are in this unique position where because they have who they have at number six, Jalen Farmer, right? And because of Gonzalves' is history playing tackle and guard,

they kind of have Gonzalves and Farmer as like your six and seven guys, right? Where if an injury were to happen inside, right, you would put Farmer in. If an injury would happen at tackle, though, you would put Farmer in at guard and kick Gonzalves, back out the tackle, right? So you have kind of like that, like now if there were two injuries, then obviously it would change some things. But you kind of have a backup tackle and a starting guard at Consolvich, which helps things a little bit. I still think the depth could be better. But like you said, Derek, every team says this about their offensive line. Having a player like Farmer kind of defines a lot of other things and makes it a little bit easier. Tucker moving

to center is intriguing to me. So I think that there could be some intrigue there. But overall, like I feel good about the O line. If injuries pile up, sure. they'll struggle because all offensive lines would struggle in that situation. But they have good players across the board. They have a great coach. They have a young, intriguing player behind them. I think you have all the ingredients that you're looking for to have good

offensive line play. So I feel pretty good. And maybe you don't project them to be the best offensive line in football. I know Alan does. And Alan's going to talk about that in a second. But I think they're comfortably a top 10, top seven. I can say top five even for me. I think that they're a really good unit across the board.

And I think that they'll show it again this year. Yeah, I think you said the key ingredient, which is Tony Sparano Jr. Jack, he is especially when it comes to the depth, what makes me hopeful that any one week, two week kind of thing can last. Because we've seen him do it before. Dalton Tucker, you had last year with, you know, San Francisco where I think they had Gonzalez kicked out to tackle. And then Tucker come in at guard, if I remember correctly, after Luke Tanuda filled in for Bernard. in the fourth quarter of that one game so yeah the depth i i wish there was like one more veteran in there who has started at least like five games before you know you're not looking for like

a stud but you're looking for a guy who has been a spot started before i don't think at this point that's going to happen so you're just kind of rolling with with what you got but to new to is is i don't know if i want to say intriguing but like he's been a long-term project where they finally got a little bit of action out of him last year and it wasn't awful. Freeland, we haven't really seen him since 24 and it was not good. As a rookie, he played like over 700 snaps and it was a mixed bag, but took a big step back in his second year and barely played because Gonzalez beat him for the swing tackle role. And then last summer, he broke his ankle and we didn't see him at all. So it's like, what does he look like now? Like, has he naturally been cooking and progressing because he understands

the system more or have all the reps that he's not been able to participate in set in so swing tackle we just have zero idea what that is going to look like but i will say the young guys jalen Travis and jalen farmer i'm i'm very interested in them i think especially Travis my guy that size he's very nimble he's got a basketball background played very high highly competitive a u ball again at that size you don't see that length, that size, that kind of foot quickness. You just don't see that very often. So I'm intrigued to see him in a full-time role, not just, you know, the last quarter of the season. And then Farmer, it's for me just kind of a matter of when do we see him, you know, when and in what role.

I know the Colts don't use like the jumbo formation too often, but do they get him in as the sixth offensive linemen sometimes? is he going to have to make his debut for someone else who's been injured? Like, when do we see Farmer? I don't want to, I'm not overly concerned about the depth again because I think Spirano can kind of turn anything into gold for at least a week. But I will say, I think anyone who is concerned is reasonable to have that concern. All right. Well, I'll just start out by saying that the,

the quarterback gets most of the attention on offense. And, you know, we always say you either have that guy or you don't have that guy. But when you speak about the offense, you're only going to go as far as your offensive line allows you to go. And when I look at this starting five, you know, it's kind of weird to me to realize that the elder statesman is, Quentin Nelson going into his ninth year. And a lot of times, ninth year is sort of, you know, an office of Lyman's prime, you know, but I look at the youth in the athleticism on this, of the

starting five. And I mean, it just, it's exciting to know that you've got a group up there that can, at least for the next three, four years, be a dominant group. What you got to, how many guys going into their third year on this line? I think it's like three or four going into a third year. And then when you look at the combination of size and athleticism, you know, it lets you know why Jonathan Taylor is, is coming out of his pocket, you know, to make sure he takes care of these guys at Christmas time because he will be close to another rushing title again next year.

And, you know, the diversity that they have on offense, you know, blending run and pass, you know, is going to give some longevity to this offensive line. And because look, what they really want to do is run block, you know, and fire forward, which, you know, if they have success early in the game like they did in the early part of last season, you know, just throwing up points on the board. And then they come and close with the run, you know, and I've, you heard me say it last segment, the system that Shane Steichen has, you know, I think creates longevity for them too because they. They don't have to pass block that long. Now, when we talk about depth, it's a little concerning, but I don't feel so bad for two reasons. Number one, you mentioned the coach. And I will say that in the NFL, coaching matters at certain positions.

At offensive line, it definitely matters. At running back, you can put anybody in there to coach. but definitely offensive line. And then secondly, when you got a guy like Quentin Nelson, if you're an understudy to him, just watch what he does. You know, you're being taught

by one of the greatest linemen to ever play. You know, how Quentin Nelson plays and now Raymond, you've sort of got two guys If you can mirror what they do, that offensive line is going to be fine. That depth is going to be fine. And the key is always going to be, can they stay healthy? But the system that they play in, I think, can contribute to them staying healthy.

But I will, you know, check with me. And who knows, maybe pro football focus will be able to verify that this will be one of the better offensive lines in football this upcoming season. And credit goes to as much as some people probably in the comments hate us giving credit to the Colts front office for anything. But the fact that we can pretty much have this conversation every July and say that you feel good about where the offensive line is, I think is good. They've done a really nice job. First half of 2022, then again, everything felt like all the pets heads were falling off, right? And for that entire season.

But remember that first half of 2022, you're like, wait a minute, is this offensive line? I'm like suck now. Like what happened? But really outside of that, ever since that Nelson class came in, I mean, 2018, 19, 20, this has been either anything from a rock solid to an elite level group. Like it's very rarely, I think, fallen below that level. And I think that's a credit to the drafting, the scouting, the acquisitions that they've made. Because some of the names and faces have changed here, but the Colts have been able to make it work.

And they've plugged in new guys. And you've hardly noticed the fact that the old guys have been gone. And yes, you've had mainstays like Quentin Nelson and Brayden Smith over the years, too, and that's helped. But the offensive line, we very rarely have a conversation where we're panicking about the offensive line. We come back next on the Colts Squad Show. JT. as Jalen Brunson, Alec Pierce's cat, sauce Gardner is OG. Okay, this may all sound ridiculous, right? But can the Colts collection of very good players gel into a championship level team?

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from each goal score, from the opening whistle to the final kick. Let there be goals on Fandual. Visit Fandul.com to get started now. Back on the Lockdown Cold Squad Show, thanks so much for joining us and making us a part of your Sunday nights. So if you are an NBA fan at all and you've been watching the NBA finals and maybe you're a Pacers fan and you're hate watching the NBA finals, I just kind of thought of not necessarily relating this directly to the cults, but we kind of do this in sports, right? And it doesn't matter what sport it is, major league baseball, hockey, you know, whatever else. You find a team that is a bit of a outlier type champion. And you say, can that be copied? And everybody kind of kind of. wants to do, replicate that blueprint, right? And I think in for a league like the NBA, which has been a dynasty league, which has been a superstar league for the Knicks to come in with a team, don't get me wrong. Jalen Brunson is a really good player, right? Like a top 10ish level NBA player. Carl Anthony Town is a really good player. There's no Jordan. There's no

peak shack. There's no LeBron here. There's no Jason Tatum even. And what the Knicks have done is they taken a collection of very good to great players, especially they're starting five. I mean, they're rock solid at all those positions. And they've turned it into a great team and maybe even a week or two from now, a championship level team. And I think that has to give you some hope as a Colts fan. And I understand it's a completely different sport. And I'm not going to, I'm not seriously going to compare Jonathan Taylor to Janeland Bronson,

right? Okay, we can't do that? But, Zach, can the Colts meld these good to very good pieces? because they're really, you know, Quentin Nelson, sure, you can say his elite level player, even though he doesn't play an impact level position, I think you can say Jonathan Taylor is an elite level player. The Colstone don't have a ton of those guys. It's not a team that's full of superstars, but what they do have at the top of their depth chart, I think is some very good, two even great players. Can you get away with that in the NFL, which normally you've been able to do much better or much

more easier than you have been in the NBA? Yeah, I mean, I think you can. I will say to start this, you might be downplaying the Knicks a little bit here, uh, because, Brunson and Kat are probably two like top 15 to 18 players in the sport. I mean, Brunson's top 10, I think, probably like in that. At this point, yeah, I think you have to sign. Yeah, nine to 11 range, eight to 11 range. Kat's going to go down as one of the most underrated players in the history of basketball. He just happened to be in the same era of the two greatest offensive big men in Yokic and M.

Bid, where he kind of got left behind in that thought process. But I think that they're outstanding basketball players. and then Ananubi and other players are just great as well. So I think that's a lot of really good players, like really good players. And it's kind of hard to make that translation with basketball and football because there's just so few players that play, right, compared to football where with football, like, everyone's playing, right? Like all 53 guys matter.

And basketball, like seven guys matter on your team. Eight guys matter. You know, but to get your overall point about can you win with like a sum of the parts thing. I think we saw it with Seattle last year, right? Yeah. Like Seattle at quarterback, by almost every single metric, had a not top 15 quarterback in football. Like, he had a lot of turnovers. He was not super efficient. He struggled a lot. Like, he was a good quarterback. Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to say Sam Darno was bad by any means. But it wasn't Tom Brady. It wasn't Peyton Manning. It wasn't Aaron Rogers. It wasn't

Pat Mahomes, right? It was, you know, an average quarterback. season from him. Now, they did have star players last year. Jackson Smith and Jigba emerged as one of the best players in all of football on defense. I mean, they have some dogs on that side of the football, right? But if you're talking about like pure star power on that Seattle team, outside of Smith and Jigba, I don't think they really had like that super, super star on their team, right? They didn't, again, they didn't have the patent homes. They didn't have on the defense side of the football. They're Chris Jones, right? A lot of their defensive success was, like, you know, having eight deep rushers, having linebackers who knew their assignment,

having a very good secondary, but not like, you know, they don't have four pets or tans back there, right? Like they had a good secondary. Um, so I just think that you kind of do see it more often in the NFL. And we saw it last year, uh, with the Cocks where they didn't build a super team. They didn't, I mean, they're not like the Rams, right, where the Rams are trading first round picks every single year to get the best players. Um, and then building their linebacker core through undrafted free agency. You know, they just built a. really solid, complete team that was some of their parts. And I think Seattle, in a lot of ways, was the blueprint that Indy was kind of going for.

It's just India's missed on a couple more draft picks here and there. And they dealt with some injuries, which kind of, you know, led to the defense not being as effective. And then the injuries on the offense side of the ball kind of hindered them a bit there. But yeah, I think if you're a team like Indy, you look at the Seahawks from last year and you're like, we can be that. You know, there's nothing about, you know, like when Mahomes wins a Super Bowl, it's like, okay, we can't just generate a pass.

Matt Mahomes, right? We can't just generate this generational quarterback who's going to go down as top five player in the history of the sport. But can we replicate Sam Darnold and a really well-built team that was able just to beat the crap out of the Patriots in the Super Bowl last year? I think you look at that as more feasible than finding a Pat Mahomes. So if anything, I think Seattle is like the team that really inspired other teams like the Colts where it's like, yeah, they're a really good football team. Like you have to still build a top five defense with really good pieces. But it's more attainable than like finding a generational quarterback in the draft, right? So I do think that in football, like if you're a team like the Colts, like certainly there's an avenue to be a sum of your parts type of team to win a championship.

Yeah, I do think the Colts, especially in the first half last year, they'd proven that he could go toe to toe with anyone. But some things went right for Seattle. You know, health was a big thing. And if you're not going to be loaded with superstars, you have to be healthy. And I think your team has to be complimentary. The Colts offense was unbelievable for the first half the year. The defense just, you know, it's everything they could do to hang in there because of the injuries.

So I think another ingredient to it also is it was kind of a down year. Like you didn't really have Lamar Jackson, the Ravens, because they were dealing with some injuries. Mahomes was tore his ACL, Borough was out for most of the year. Like it was a down year across the league, which kind of, I think, aided Seattle and even the Colts. Like the Colts for a while being as good as they were and being as high up in the rankings as they were. So you can control what you can control. And that's having a well-built team. That's complimentary, strong on special teams as well.

Because, I mean, Shahid was a huge X-Fact. in the return game. So, like, there weren't a ton of weak spots for Seattle. And so they were really solid across the board. And then it wasn't necessarily a gauntlet in the NFL this year. Kind of like when the Rams won in, like, 20, 21 against the Bengals, like, it was kind of a down year, whatever year that was. So a lot of things have to go right. But what you can try to do is build a contender at the very least, which, like, the Colts are probably not all that far off. from being if they can have even decent health. Like that's the thing is like they're going to be really reliant on some guys that have been hurt.

But offensively, we've seen they can do it. Defensively, if these got, you know, sauce gardener has to be even somewhat close to what they traded to get him. If Mooney Ward can stay on the field, if Latsu takes a step forward. Like I think when you're looking at star power for star power, the Colts really are not that far off from what Seattle was. But like Zach said, Seattle has hit on a lot of draft picks. They've got depth and they stayed healthy, which, I mean, that's impossible for us to know about the Colts. I mean, they invested some early capital in draft picks. So we got to see what C.J. Allen looks like.

AJ Halsey, some of the younger guys from last year, how they develop. but it's it's not far-fetched. I think teams can win that way. You just kind of have to get lucky along the way, again, with health. And if the rest of the league doesn't have some juggernaut that they're throwing out there. You have to get very good production from guys on rookie contracts as well. That's outside of health, I think that's the most important thing. Yeah.

And the Colts haven't really had that lately. No. So I think that was the biggest separator between the Colts and Seahawks last year was surplus value on rookie contracts because Alan, as we always say, the best thing you can have in the NFL is cheap talent, cheap talent outplaying their contract. I think that's the biggest thing for sure. Yeah. And I will preface my statement by saying that I really don't watch basketball until we get to the playoffs. But having said that the Knicks are doing what the Pacers did last year. And that was get contributions from every single person on a team.

You know, last year with the Knicks, and I'm not going to make this a basketball conversation, but just bear with me. It was Jalen Brunson, and that was about it, you know, where with the Pacers last year, everybody was getting into the fold. And that's the difference I see with the Knicks this year is, I mean, there's so much diversity in that offense, you know, they can go to a lot of different people to score the basketball, you know.

So when I look at the next office, I can feel you, Derek, in terms of how does that compare to the Colts offense? I would say it does compare to the Colts offense because the Colts have a lot of complimentary pieces. They may not have a number one. And, well, Alec Pierce is going to be your number one. but they got a lot of diversity in that offense in terms of how they can attack a defense. And I'll tell you this, if this Dionne Burks works out, outside, not in the slot, but outside, watch out. Because they're going to be a team that will threaten to put up 40 points every single game.

You know, Daniel Jones in his second year in the system, Tyler Warren, in his second year, you know, without hitting the rookie wall, you know, just what he learned from last year, this offensive line we talked about, this can be a special football team. I hadn't even got to Jonathan Taylor. You know, all he does is he keeps getting better, you know. So, yes, this, you can compare the next team to the Colts offense, not Colts defense yet. There's still some holes there. But the Colts offense, hell yeah.

because, you know, all they got to do in that change psychic system is find the weak spot because they will have a player who can exploit whatever that weak spot is. And until that defense corrects it, you know, they'll just, you know, ride that horse till they kill it. You know, so I think the fact that you have such diversity on that offense and above average talent at the skill positions where it's needed, plus an over average, above average, offensive line, hell yeah, you've got a team that can do some damage. Yeah, and the league's just shown itself to be more conducive to that over the years,

where, you know, the NFL has never been a superstar league. If it was, then, you know, the Jets or some of these teams that went huge in free agency probably would have more Super Bowls, right? or remember all those Eagles teams for all those years, the dream team and stuff like that. I'm not sure they even made the playoffs in a couple of those years. But it is, it gives you some hope, I think as a Colts fan that maybe they can, you know,

if God, if the Knicks can do it, then anybody in American professional sports can do it, right? I mean, that's what you have to be thinking. We come back. The Bears took a major step towards making the move over the border. We'll talk about the latest and the possibility of not one, but two NFL teams in the state of Indiana, when the cold squad show returns for a final time next welcome back for a final time it's the cold squad show uh really

appreciate you guys being here and hanging with us on a sunday we'll be back to our usual tuesday third thursday cadence starting uh this coming week uh so i know this one maybe popped up out of nowhere and you thought hey what's it what's that happening is this during the season but uh we appreciate you being here regardless and supporting the show so uh i don't remember if this was thursday or friday i I think it was maybe on Friday. The Bears Board of Directors officially voted to advance the stadium development in Hammond, Indiana, up in the region, up towards Allen. And while this is not a done, done deal, this is the most done that the deal has been

throughout this process. You know, so if you were thinking that the Bears were just using Indiana as leverage, maybe they were. And maybe in a way that they still are. But if you didn't think that this was serious, this is pretty serious because what this is now going to require is the Illinois State Legislature. I always messed that up. Legislation, easy for me to say, right, to come up with a last-minute counteroffer here

to keep Arlington Heights or whatever else sort of on the table for the Bears. But, Alan, I guess we can start with you, right? You're up that way. Not a ton of happening in Hammond, Indiana. There's a casino up there. I think there might be a golf course maybe in Hammond, Indiana, too. Yeah, yeah. But, you know, just optics-wise, look, I don't want to get into a conversation about public money going to stadiums.

And there have been studies done on this and there are always promises made and those promises are rarely kept. But I'll leave that conversation for a different show. If we're just talking optics-wise, I think this would be a big win for a region of the state that just, and I'm not trying to be mean here. It just doesn't have a lot going for it as far as attraction is concerned. Well, the major sentiment here in the region has been disappointment. Disappointment that the Bears could even think about leaving the state of Illinois. And even some of the people I talked to in Indiana, you know, can't believe that the bears would think about crossing the line and coming into Hammond, you know, and when, you know, the power of the press, When they show pictures of Hammond, all you see are like open fields or refineries or, you know, just there is nothing appealing about Hammond when you look at the pictures that have been shown.

And, you know, for me, it's like if you want to keep your fan base, you would try to do something to keep them in Chicago. You know, it's, I mean, would you ever think about moving the Cubs out of Wrigley? You know, and I understand, you know, the team trying to get a better deal and they can get a good deal. And look, Chicago fans are ultimately going to follow the Bears wherever they go. But it's just sad to see that the business aspect of the game has taken hold so much that they kind of, to forget about the fans a little bit. And, you know, all the traditions that have been established that, you know, have been passed down by generation after generation going to Bears games and, you know,

being by the lake and taking a train up to the game or tailgating in, you know, certain restaurants, you know, all that is going to be thrown to the wayside for what? So the team can make a little more money. You know, and so I'm kind of different about it. And one of my buddies actually I was talking to last night was like, well, I think we might want to start investing in some land around Hammond. Yeah. Because if they build a stadium, they're going to lead a lot more.

You know, I think about when the Cardinals moved out to Glendale. I don't know if you, after they built the stadium, they've built a, you know, there's a great seafood restaurant there now by that stadium. And they, I guess they have the hockey stadium there too. But that was an area that had nothing. And it just exploded. And now there's more to see than just going to the football game or seeing a hockey team play. There's great restaurants.

You know, there's entertainment. in that section of Glendale where nothing was. So that could potentially happen in Hammond. But in my mind, they will always be the Chicago Bears. But I guess what, the Giants and Jets playing New Jersey. So what's the difference? Yeah. And the Colts, you know, at least publicly, Zach,

have been supportive of the move. They can't be thrilled about having another team. But, you know, Alan, you know this or anybody. It's been, if you live in Indiana, you know that if you're up in the region, that's like Bulls, bears. There's not really a lot of connected tissue to Indian. Even when you go over like South Bend, there's not a lot of connected tissue to Indianapolis, but it would be quirky to have two NFL teams in the state of Indiana for sure.

Well, there's more Packers. There's more Packers fans in this region than our Colts fans. So, yeah, that too. Yeah. No, I mean, yeah, this overall mood doesn't do a ton for me just because, I mean, most teams aren't actually in the place that represents in their name, right? It's kind of a farce across the league, right? Where, like you said, the New York teams play New Jersey, Washington football team or Washington commanders. They're all over the place, right? They'll be in Maryland. They'll be in D.C.

They're maybe coming to Virginia now. They're basically the DMV commanders is what they are, essentially, right? I like that. Right. And here's what I think. I think we should make a rule where you have to, you have to be the city like the city that you're in has to be your new name just change it you know like i want the representation like you know i want the ham and bears like give them the ham and bears let's do it but the dmv commanders just because they keep moving all over the place let you know let i think that's what we should do at this point right because if we're i mean if we're going to talk about it all the time let's let's just move them around and and just keep uh changing the names but outside of that um you know i i i hope it does well for the local economy up there i hope people uh

you know, enjoy going to Bears games, get some kind of metro put in or something so people can get there without all the parking hassle. And that's my only complaint ever whenever I go to sports games is like, because whenever I go to D.C., being able to take the metro up there, it's nice. Like, I really enjoy that. Yeah, outside of that, that's really the only thing. So, yeah, I mean, good for good or bad for whoever, I don't know, whatever the opinions are of people, you know, but I think, we should just change all the names. I think it would just be funnier that way. Yeah, East Rutherford Giants and Jets. I think that's what we should go for here. That's my only big opinion there.

Yeah, the Leesburg commanders. Yeah, there we go. The Leesburg command. I would love it. A big time fan of that. No, I mean, that is great for the area for them to get some revitalization and everything. I mean, there's multiple sides to this. Like, how many teams? like the bears are a blue blood NFL team. They're synonymous with Chicago. You know, Soldier Field is right there on the lake. It's in Chicago. It's downtown Chicago.

How would you like to be part of the group or government, whoever it is that's basically fumbling the bag here and losing the bears to freaking Hammond, Indiana? You know what I mean? I'm going to break your rules, Derek. But, you know, anytime you can be paying for two stadiums as taxpayers and one of them is for a team that's not even your you got to do it you know what I mean you have to yeah look it's yeah I'm in the same boat it is cool I've I admit I've like almost never been up that way I haven't driven up to Chicago in years but I mean my understanding is you know that area could use a little pizzazz which certainly that would add to it if this goes through so like anything that benefits like

the Indiana economy and everything that's that's terrific and like like makes a whole community more relevant. Because obviously Northwest Indiana has needed a little attention for a while. But yeah, it's, it's interesting. I do want to hear from people who like are on the fence and not like committed Colts fans or Bears fans. Like I guess middle ground NFL fans like where where this moves for them within the state of Indiana. You know what I mean? Yeah.

Or it doesn't even register all. Yeah. one thing, just kind of, I could take or leave the Bears. I have friends that are Bears fans. I've always saw it, and I understand there's history there and all that. I always thought Soldier Field was a dumb.

I never like Soldier Field. And when they renovated, it looks like they basically placed a spaceship on top of the existing structure. Like it just. It looks odd. Yeah. I think they had years to kind of figure this out. And I'm just surprised that they didn't find a way to figure this out if this does go

where we think it's going to go. But yeah, here's part of the problem, though, because the legislature that's making the decisions are in Champaign. They're downstate. They already have animus against Chicago. See, the downstate, you know, legislature group, they always feel like we always have to send all this money to Chicago. Chicago's getting all the attention.

So in a sort of way, this is their way of sticking it to Chicago by saying, no, the bears can leave, you know, and that brings. more attention back down to Champagne, you know, in our legislative body. We're tired of support in Chicago. Everybody else talks about Chicago. They never talk about us downstate. So there is a little bit of stuff going on there where, you know, this is the legislature's way of sticking it to Chicago because the, you know, the ruling body in the Chicago air has no say. they can't, you know, make their case because everything's being decided way down south. Alan, are you trying to say that there are some politicians that want big cities to fail?

That can't be true, right? I don't know. Maybe we're getting a little too off the rails. Real quick. Before we get political, though, we're in the news and notes part of this show. We have a big shout out to former Indianapolis Colts quarterback Jason Bean, offseason superstar taking the D.C. defenders to the championship game in the U.S. He does this happen?

Yeah, I have it right here. He had 273 total yards in a touchdown in their playoff performance, the five and five defenders beating the eight and two, what Orlando Storm, I think is what they're called. But get this, right, when you look at the rushing leaders for the DC defenders, right? Fourth on that list was Dion Jackson, former Colts running back in training camp, and Jason Bean's number one wide receiver en route to the championship game, former Colts killer and Colts receiver as well,

Kiki Kootie out there. So some Colts roll over there. But Jason Bean, I remember if everyone remembers, he was the first overall pick in the U.S. The year the Colts brought him into camp. He elected to bypass playing at the U.FL to give a shot in the NFL. Spent two off seasons with the Colts, I think, before making his way over to the UFL and now taking them to the championship game there.

All right. Tell me if I'm wrong here. Didn't Dion Jackson fumble twice in a game and then immediately get cut? Dion Jackson was the cold starting running back against Jacksonville in one game. And I believe you guys. Am I making that up? I believe it was 10 rushes for nine yards and two fumbles. And he got cut immediately after the game.

Oh my God. Starting that game to start the year. I just remember him twice in a game and then like 48 hours later like, all right, bye. Yeah. No, he started. It was week one of Richardson's rookie season. Taylor was out, I believe. No, I don't think it was that year.

I think it was week one. Yeah, because that's when Taylor was holding out. Was it 2020? Okay, yeah, it was week one and Taylor was out. And yeah, it was like 10 rushes for nine yards and he had two fumbles and he got cut right after the game. He started, though, started an NFL game. So you will always have that. Don't look at the stats, though, of that game to start.

By the way, I have Colts FPI in the notes. So I want to make good on that 20th in the football power index for ESPN. They were the 28th rated defense, which I was like, that seems a little harsh. It's probably because rookies are hard to, because this is data driven, I think. Yeah. If rookies are going to have a big impact and they're not first round rookies, it's probably hard to project their overall impact being positive. So I think that probably has a lot to do with.

And also, Jalen Toemelow is starting at defensive end right now. So, I mean, I get it. I totally get it. Everything they had on there was like 19th to 12th, 21st in the NFL and about 10th to 11th in the AFC when it comes to making playoffs, making division around conference championship Super Bowl. It was all in that 20 range for weekwide. Plus two years ago on 8 and 9.

That has an impact. I'm just glad Jake's taking it well that they would treat AJ Halsey like that in Bristol. So that's good. Thanks for joining us on the latest edition of the Colts Squad show. We'll be back with you at the regularly scheduled time on Tuesday, 930. p.m. Eastern. As always, the Colts news cycle never truly ends. So keep it locked on Jake and Zach every day on Lockdown Colts. Be sure to follow at Lockdown Colts on socials and check out our other great content on YouTube and TikTok. And we'll see you next time right here on the squad

show.