Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - COLTS SQUAD SHOW: Steichen and Ballard SPEAK | Reacting to the Colts head coach & GM at the Combine

Episode Date: February 25, 2026

The Squad reacts to what Chris Ballard and Shane Steichen had to say about Michael Pittman Jr., Anthony Richardson, and contract talks with Daniel Jones and Alec Pierce. Also, the guys discuss the Colts' NFL Combine storylines and any bread crumbs left by the Colts brass when it comes to their strategy in the draft and free agency.  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 For a limited time, you can have your taxes done by a local TurboTax expert for just $150 — all in, if a TurboTax expert didn’t file for you last year. Just file by February 28. Visit http://TurboTax.com/local to book your appointment today. FanDuel Use your Profit Boost on an NBA future and get entered for your chance to win a trip to the NBA Finals. Play your game with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Visit https://FANDUEL.COMto get started. 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. 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. HomeChefFor a limited time, Home Chef is offering my listeners 50% off your first box, free shipping, and free dessert for life. Just go to https://HomeChef.com/LOCKEDON.   FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to the Colts Squad Show. I'm your host, Derek Schultz, and my 40-time cannot possibly be captured by your weak technology. And I'm Zach Hicks coming to you live from Indianapolis for the first time in a year. And I'm Jake Arthur, and as always with Chris Ballard, today we're going to read between the lines. And I'm Alan Pinkett, former Oiler. The Combine starting brings back lots of memories. 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 Squajo starts now. Welcome in Combine edition of the Colt Squad Show. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Derek Schultz, long-time indie sports talker and columnist for the

Indianapolis Business Journal. I'm joined by a nerd-name legend and long-time NFL running back, Alan Pinkett. And our lock. on Colts duo, your first listed every day, Jake Arthur, Zach Hicks in the same abode, lending their great insights to the squad as they were both covering the Combine earlier today at Lucas Loyal Stadium. It is, of course, Combine Week, and we just heard from Chris Bauer and Shane Stuyckin. If you're watching the live stream, that was about four, four and a half hours ago that we heard from the Colts 10th year. It's going to be weird to say that. I'm going to keep staying it over and over again, 10th year general manager and fourth year head coach. And that's what we're

going to do react to really what they said today and talk a lot of combine on tonight's show. So we'll react to what both Bauer and Stuyken had to say, nothing super earth-shattering. But I do think some tidbits here and there that I think raised some eyebrows and certainly drew some interest. We'll have more reaction to the hints slash breadcrumbs on the draft and the free agency approach for the Colts in what I think we would all agree as a critical offseason, even though it feels like we say that every offseason lately here. and what are the NFL combined storylines, particularly for Indianapolis, because you don't have a first round pick, right? Little anticlimactic,

but I still do think that, obviously, for all 32 NFL teams, there are some storylines and some prospects and things to watch out for, and we'll lean heavily into Zach for that, who obviously is boots on the ground here in Indy. And then our news and notes, as we always do with the Tuesday show,

as we talk about some of the NFL news that is related to the Colts that has come through over the past week or so. But guys, let's start with Chris Bauer. He talked about Charverius Ward. Obviously, he talked about Daniel Jones and Alex Pierce. He talked about Anthony Richardson. He talked about Michael Bittman Jr.

What stood out to you the most, Zach, though, about all the things that the general manager had to say? Yeah, first thing I want to say is I mistakenly, I don't even know if it was a mistake at this point, but had my trip out here on Tuesday when they were set to talk. So my options were either leave at, you know, three in the morning and hustle over to the convention center to hear the same old dribble from the two guys who have been in charge of the Colts for a while or sleep in a little bit and come out. a little later. So I wasn't there live for the press conference, but I was able to rely on Jake

in his episodes and his recording there. And yeah, you know, I think one thing with Chris Ballard when it comes to picking through what he's saying is he's a very, very honest man in these press conferences. You can go back to the last couple of years and look at how he's talked about certain subjects and how it's come to fruition later in the off season. But that being said, he doesn't get into very specific things. So you can get answers out of him. And Jake, and all the other indie beat reporters obviously know this. After working with him for 10 years, you have so much trial and error of picking this guy's brain

to where you understand how to get the truth out of him. It's just about how you ask the right questions. So there were a couple things today that were really enlightening, and I think he was just adamantly telling the truth on, one being the fact that how good the conversations have been with Alex Pearson, Daniel Jones's agents, and how it's a great thing when you have two sides that are committed to getting a deal done.

everything he kind of said about those two pending free agents leads me to believe that they will get a deal done here fairly soon with both of those guys. It might not be this week, but by next week, before free agency starts, I think they will get something done with those two free agents. His adamant defense of Michael Pittman Jr. and how any talk of him not being on the team is purely hypothetical. I think he was shouting out the Lockdown Colt Squad Show with that one there. He was watching our last squad show episode. But yeah, talking about how that's purely hypothetical and kind of hinting that they will probably do some things with that contract to make it all work. And then obviously the big one talking about Mooney Ward and how as of right now, Mooney Ward appears committed to play next season. But we'll see what that entails and if it is with the Colts.

But that is probably the newest development that we got today was that Mooney Ward, who seemed like he was leaning towards retirement. and the postseason media availability. Now it seems like he's leaning towards playing. The next question now is, is that with the Colts, what makes the most sense for him going forward? But yeah, you know, Chris Bowler, just to reiterate, very truthful person in these press conferences, he just won't come out here and tell you, like,

yeah, we're going to go sign Trey Hendrickson. We're going to go sign Arnold Ibekeety. Like, he's not going to tell you what they're going to do, but he's going to be pretty honest with you in general. And if he says, like, hey, we need to address the front seven, or hey, we want to get this guy under contract, that typically is what they're trying to do going forward. Yeah, and for me, it kind of reiterated the fact that they have obviously strong mutual interest

in Daniel Jones and Alec Pierce being their top priorities. As we've all said they should, that's it reflects how the team actually feels as well. And I guess I'm a little surprised that there maybe wasn't something more concrete in place for, at least like Jones, You know, like I felt like they probably knew Jones. They wanted him to be their 2026 quarterback months ago. But, you know, Deadlines for Actions. And Chris Ballard usually is a at the buzzer kind of GM. They don't get a lot of stuff done super early.

So, you know, with the March 3rd, I think, second or third deadline coming, I imagine they'll get something done soon. They don't want to use the franchise tag. Or, you know, it wasn't asked about the transition tag, but I don't think they want to use either tag for either player. I think they would prefer to get something multi-year in place for both players. They especially don't want to let Alec Pierce hit the open market. I've got to imagine the one player that both Shane Seichen and Chris Ballard has been asked about by their buddies around the league has been Alex Pierce.

So I don't think they want any part of that. I always find value in the players that Chris is somewhat non-committal on. he'll say positive things about everybody. The last player I remember him outright saying, peace out is Eric Ebron, like back in 2020 or whatever year that was. But he always has something nice to say about a player but won't really commit to their future.

Now, he sounded better about Anthony Richardson today than he did at the end of the season. I'm still not convinced that is much of a difference. I still think the two sides are going to. apart um but with michael pitman junior as dr mentioned uh i don't think they're going to cut him i think they're going to do everything they can to rework to track to make the figures work for everybody um because they don't they don't want to make him like outright take a pay cut but they want to find some way for it to be mutually beneficial for both sides um because i actually

asked chris i was like is it reasonable for michael putman junior to play at that cap hit while you also have to pay Alec Pierce. And he immediately spoke about Mike Bloom, who is their salary cap wizard essentially and runs all the finances for the salary cap. So they'll figure something out there. But Braden Smith, kind of noncommittal on that, I would say Mooney Ward,

while he acknowledged that Moody wants to play again and he's certain leaning into that way, he said, we're going to do what's best for the player. and while he said Moody wants to play, I kept listening back for it to be like, and we would love to have him back or whatever. We didn't really get that yet. So I'm still kind of staying tuned to see what that all means

because they could probably bring him back and make, and just adjust the contract if there's a way for them to do that. Because he still is like 40 million, over 40 million and cap hits the next two years. and over 20 million and dead cap the next two years. So if you've got a guy that's like that much on a tightrope, you have to figure out the contract to make it work. But yeah, that's kind of the heavy of it.

I guess DeForest Buckner seems like business as usual. Their timeline, they hope to have him back by training camp. But like I said, business as usual for Buckner, it sounds like other than just he's maybe not going to be right there at OTAs and minicamp and all that. Well, I'm sort of the outside looking in. This is my first year. Welcome to the show.

Yes, dealing with Chris Ballard. But I have to say he might be the most optimistic general manager I've ever listened to. And the Colts have got to be like the friendliest organization that I've seen just in my experience. You know, Ballard always has something positive to say about the player, which, you know, from a PR standpoint, I guess is pretty good.

And, you know, we haven't heard anything from Alec Pierce and Daniel Jones agents. We've only heard Chris Ballard's side, but it looks like that is progressing along, because usually you would hear from an agent making certain demands with this timeline coming up in the impending date for the guys to hit the market. But everything just seems so nice and amicable. And that's weird for me in a football organization. In regards to Mooney Ward, good things.

said again, I think that you have to lean on Mooney and thinking about, you know, at the time when he said he was contemplating retirement, he probably still had a headache. And he was still basically injured. But, you know, as a player, it's like, I'm not going out like that. You know, that year was probably devastating to him, and he doesn't want to remember that as his last time playing competitive football. You know, so the concussion could have been, you know, a blessing in disguise, and that it's going to make Mooney Ward want to work harder to ensure that he's back on the field. Now you can't control concussions. And, you know, the one he got in week 12 with that collision on the field,

that's just a freak accident. You know, sometimes you might think that's the good Lord telling you to take your ass home. But I think sometimes you get those injuries for a reason because it's meant to test, you know, how many guts you have, what your fortitude level is, you know, and sometimes you can come back better after an injury because, like I said before, you don't want to go out like that. You know, he's had a great career and you don't want to remember, you know, your last year as being one where you missed, what, 10 games, you know, that's just not how you want to go out. And that's just speaking from a, from a

players insight type of belief. So it could be a good year for him. Anthony Richardson still sounds positive, which it may be some false confidence. He's throwing out there. But I think the writing's on the wall. But I guess for Ballard, he doesn't want to say anything negative.

Like I said, most optimistic T.M. I've ever heard because you don't want to mess up any potential trade value you might have. I mean, he's in a position where he has to talk up Anthony Richardson like, you know what? This guy, you know, might come back and be the starter. He might be able to. You do want to, you may not believe it, but you talk them up because you want to. to prop up the value, his value so that you can get the most back for him. But they must have complete belief in these doctors because, you know, they're saying we're at the three-month mark for the Achilles and everything is on track. And I'm telling you, the hardest part of that rehab is going to be the mental part.

And the sooner he can overcome that, the sooner you'll see Daniel Jones be the player he was in the first 10 games last year. Yeah. And one quick thing I want to say, sorry, real quick, I want to say this about the Richardson front or whatever. Chris Ballard did have a comment about how they have seven draft picks projected coming into this. Currently, they have five. They're going to get two more with comp picks. And then when he was asked about draft picks, he anticipated them having more than seven come draft day. how are you going to get to more than seven?

Well, there is someone on the roster that you can move to get to more than seven. So look, I know he was trying to be all nice and cordial with Anthony Richardson, but I still think the writing's on the wall with that. And look, I know we can't ask him these really straightforward questions because you won't answer them in press conferences. But like, again, if you're committed this hard to Daniel Jones for the next two to three seasons, where does that leave Anthony Richardson? You know, it doesn't leave him with the future.

here. As much as you want to say it, oh, it could be a high level backup for the next year or so, then you're losing value on that. Get the value you can get now and move forward with your team. So, yeah, I don't see it happening with Richardson being on this team next year, no matter how, you know, Chris Ballard wants to church it up a little bit and press conferences. Yeah, I thought it was interesting. A mutual friend of all of ours, James Boyd of the athletic, asked him, does he have a future in Indy? And Chris Bauer goes, yeah, no, I think he has a future. you know what I mean and it's like you know he Chris knew that was coming from James too right

like Chris knows James well enough where he knew a question like that was coming from James because he was trying to avoid that a little bit so he he did add in the little scrum after the presser with the local media he was asked again like is the future in Indy

and you know he said yeah I could see a future but um you know you never know what's going to happen he left himself that little wiggle room at the end. You know, you never know what's going to happen, dot, da, dot. For the record, I feel like I've had conversations with every side of this thing, impartial, Anthony side, like cold side, like all over. And I just don't get the warm puzzies from this situation.

No, yeah, it appears the writing is on the wall. And if the draft picks need to be, you need to get more than Richardson's going to be moved because, you know, God forbid you would move on from a 750 yard level receiver. because, God, that would just be unthinkable to move on from one of these great veterans of the Colts have. Chris Bauer did drop a few breadcums when it comes to the Colts approach the draft and free agency.

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your first box. Free shipping, free dessert for life, must be an active subscriber to receive free dessert. And we're back on the locked on Colts squad show for dessert enthusiasts, including Alan Pink and Jake Arthur and Derek. I love home chefs. I mean, I love all of our sponsors here on locked on. But Home Chef, man, that is my jam for sure. So more breadcrumbs on the Colts offseason approach. And we kind of alluded to. some of these in the first segment of the show. I mean, Zach, you had mentioned the fact that he is projecting seven picks and also, you know, Chris Bauer had a quote, good chance we end up moving back. So that's another way, I guess, to add some more picks. The other one that he harped on again, and Jake, I kind of wanted to start with you with this one because this was part of the post game,

postseason press conference when they were kind of doing the year and review. Bauer again, banging the drum on Colts getting younger and faster on that defensive front seven. And that's going to have to happen through the draft and free agency because, you know, Ebucam and all those at Quiti Pay, we're assuming that they're just going to kind of overhaul that entire edge room, right? Yeah, to me, it sounds like they're going to let things happen naturally as like free agency has allowed them to kind of move on from those older guys, you know, EBCOM and Taekwon, both 30 plus.

It pains me to say, but Gallimore is getting a little up there as well. Now, he's not quite as old as those other guys, but it's an opportunity for them to blend the defense into having some key veterans with a bunch of youth. He referenced 2019 when they did that. Like they had some veterans there like Jeval Sheard and like a couple of the other guys. But they did a pretty drastic youth movement in those first couple of years that Ballard was there. And I do think that's something they're going to do, especially in the front seven. I don't want to say they're satisfied in the secondary, but I don't think they feel they need to overhaul anything.

they're very excited to get Justin Wally and Hunter Wollerback, both of them. As much as they talked about Wally, they talked about Woller as well, probably even more. So, and as a front seven, they know they don't have anything at Pass Rush outside of Lott, too, for the most part. They did say to them a lot. I was going to take another step, but it's like smart decision makers wouldn't bank on that. You know, you have to add more. I believe Chris was asked about adding veteran players while still trying to get younger and faster, which to me was a Trey Hendrickson coded question.

And Ballard has said before, you know, you can make exceptions for certain players. You just can't have a roster full of exceptions. So while I do think they're going to lean heavily in the draft to add young defensive players, we're probably going to see at least a couple veterans who are like meaningful, not just I keep harping back to like Cory Valentine from last year, but like meaningful, like veteran players who will actually play in free agency. So I do think they'll be pretty active in free agency,

but I also expect them in the draft to go pretty heavy on defense as well. Now, Jake, I want to put you on the spot here with how much they were talking of Hunter Woller. Are you thinking what I'm thinking with strong safety being the neglected Ballard position this this off season? Because we like this Hunter Woller guy coming back from Liz Frank injury to start the seventh round pick coming off Liss Frank injury starting at strong safety next year, baby. What do you think? That's exactly right. And Chris did also mention, you know, he was asked about linebackers having to participate in coverage. And he was like, well, yeah, I mean, Hunter Woller, that was going to be our guy. He's like, Nick Cross did a lot of that for us.

Nick Cross being the guy who might vacate a spot for Hunter Willer to come fill. Yeah, it's, I even had to ask about his recovery. I was like, you know, you guys were talking about him a lot. I was like, his foot even okay. And they expect him back and to be perfectly fine. So as much as I talk about Hunter Wooler on the show and on the daily show and everything, the cults are even more bullish on him if you can believe it.

Oh, yeah. Hunter Wooler starting strong safety next year with. Ruben Lowry as the backup. Did. Seriously, yeah. Once someone goes down, then we're back to where we were with Corner and all these other positions like last year. But yeah, I just want to reiterate what Jake said about the front seven, getting younger and faster up there.

Again, Ballard is typically pretty honest in his press conferences. Like, again, he won't talk bad about anybody unless it's Eric Ebron in 2020. But when he talks about what he wants to do going forward, like remember last offseason, and he talked about how he needs to finish the job in free agency. Like he sometimes gets close to the finish line, but can never get over that edge there because he's, for whatever reason it was. And then we saw him come out with three big contracts with Daniel Jones,

Mooney Ward, and Cameron Bynum in like the first week of free agency last year to show like, oh yeah, he is committed to closing the deal this year. So when he keeps mentioning Front Seven, he talked about the strength of the front seven in this draft class, and he didn't just say like defensive. or defense attack. We said the front seven in this draft is particularly strong. They want to get faster there.

And it's also a pretty good for agent class, especially on the edge. So I think that they are going to go hard and heavy at that front seven this offseason, whether it's a draft, whether it's free agency, whether it's both. I think they're going to go pretty hard at that to address that. And like Jake said, not that they're sitting here saying like, okay, the secondary is perfect. Now we got Mooney Ward coming back after three concussions and all his injuries and Wally coming back after a torn ACL, like obviously you still want to add to the secondary, but I think they realized a lot of their issues last year were the fact that they had to blitz so much to cover up

the fact that they could not get home with four and that their linebackers were kind of older, kind of slower guys. I think that's another part of this when they say when they want to get younger and faster on defense. Jermaine Pratt at this point of his career is a run-fitting Sam linebacker. Like you want to have like a young fast guy next to him. And Zire Franklin is kind of, again, more of like a. run fitting like Sam linebacker. You can run a chase a little bit better.

But, you know, these are more veteran type guys. They want to get some youth and some speed and explosion at that linebacker position as well. And again, the draft and free agency can give them some answers there. So I think he did lay out kind of what his offseason plans are for this team in terms of like, yeah, we're going to get back Daniel Jones. We're going to get back Alec Pierce. Like those are our big priorities.

And then after that, a lot of our focus is going to be that front seven. on defense because that's what needs to get better going into next season. So when he says front seven, he can keep everybody guessing when he says that so that he doesn't, you know, tip his hand in terms of what specific position that he wants. And I know that the allure of having this crazy edge rusher, you know, seems like something that you just got to have. But you don't want to do that at the expense of getting somebody who's really solid in the interior because those guys that play in the interior have as much to do with the edge being

dynamic as anything else. If you can get guys that can clog up the middle or can put pressure by just pushing the line back, you know, from the middle, it makes the edge rusher a lot more, effective. So we'll just have to see if that will be the case. And I don't know of someone coming out of the draft on the interior. Now, I know there's some badass defensive ends that will be coming out this year, but there's a chance that they may be gone by the time the Colts draft. and, you know, it's hard to find a mock draft outside of the first round. And just the, I guess there were like three I saw outside the first round, you know,

speculate the Colts either getting a defensive end, defensive tackle, or linebacker, you know. But that falls within the front seven, you know. So that's where the need is. You just got to be smart there. and Chris Ballard is accomplished enough. Everything I'm saying is not news. He realizes where the deficit is. But, you know, it's an opportunity to really impact that pass rush.

If you can get either a solid, you know, what, one or three technique guy or that, that, that edge rush, but you really need both. And it's just, it's hard to get them past the first round. In every draft, there's always, there was, there's always a run on a certain position. Each year is different. You know, it might be a run on the receivers one year, or it might be a run on the left tackles one year.

So I can't speculate what the run is going to be on this year, but, you know, you know, You know, a lot of teams like to emulate what the winner of the Super Bowl did the year before. I like to call it a copycat league. And Seattle definitely showed that when you have a strong defensive line, the havoc you can create. You don't have to have all kinds of studs on offense. If you can have just some, you know, you put your best athletes on defense. sometimes, and I think the Texans showed that, because I don't know where I would rank that offense for the Texans, but they had such a strong defense that, you know, this thing

goes in circles. You know, the offense improves, defense has to adjust. But what I'm seeing now is the defense has sort of taken a step to where now is dictating. what offenses are going to have to do. Yeah, yeah. No, the biggest thing with NFL teams, these trend-wise, and then Derek, I'll let you jump in here.

You get to the playoffs with offense, but you win your Super Bowl with great defense, along with that offense. So the top 10 offenses are almost always in the playoffs every year, but whoever has the better defenses out of those top 10 offenses is typically who wins the Super Bowl. So, yeah, I mean, I think we could all look at Seattle and say, let's just have the number one receiver in football, a top five offensive line.

The defense with 25 guys who could all start across the NFL and play at a high level. Mike McDonald, one of the best defensive coaches. Now, I get what you're saying, I'm just being positioned here. But yeah, I think one of the big takeaways a lot of teams are going to have from Seattle is, oh, it doesn't just need to be one or two guys off the edge. It can be eight guys off the edge to make your team work. It's hard to do, though. It's hard to do.

We'll talk about, I'm sure, in the next segment. Like it's hard to have quality edge rushers from top the bottom like that. I had one more thing just as we kind of tie the bow because a lot of what we talked about is what Chris Bellard had to say. Shane Steichen also spoke, but Shane Steichen never really says anything, right? I mean, I love Stichickin, but right, like there's never really anything interesting. But I did think that, you know, him gushing about Jalen Travis the way that he did. I did think that that was sort of interesting because Brayden Smith still floating out there as a free agent and we've kind of been on the fence of, yeah, he's probably not going to be back.

but just with as effusive as he was in his praise of Travis, did that jump out to you at all, Zach? Yeah, I think Shane lives and dies by what Tony Sparano Jr. tells them when it comes to the offensive line. If Tony Sparano Jr. said that, you know, Jake Arthur is going to be our starting right tackle next year. I think that they would be cool with it. They would give them a one-year contract and see what they can do with it.

So I think whatever Tony Sprano Jr. says, Shane goes along with, it appears that he has the full support of Tony there at right tackle, Jalen Travis, that is. and I think Shane Steikin's all on board with it. But yeah, Jay and Travis played some good football last year. So big, so explosive, so cheap as well, a huge part of all this. So, yeah, I fully expect him to be the starting right tackle next season. That's where I'm getting to.

I was going to say this, they're very confident in that, but as much of it's about Jalen Travis, it's about Tony Sparano. And having a starting offensive tackle on a day three salary does not hurt. No, that's for sure. In fact, J-1 Travis, part of the draft class last year, a fourth rounder for the Colts, and we'll look forward to NFL draft combined storylines for the Colts as an NFL combined storylines as they pertain to the draft with all these prospects in town and who the Colts could target and we'll lean on Zach for that when we come back to the Colts Squad Show. Don't go anywhere, guys. This portion of the Locked on Colts Squad Show brought you by our friends at Fandool.

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I'm Derek Schultz. Really appreciate you joining us about halfway through our NFL Combine show. And it is the Combine. I know the Colts don't have a first pick. They still have five picks. Chris Bauer alluded to the fact that maybe we'll have seven picks. Who knows? Maybe they make a couple of trades.

Maybe they trade back a few times. They get nine picks. They get 10 picks. I don't know. The point is they're going to make draft selections. So even though you don't have the number four pick in the draft, like they had a couple of years ago with Anthony Richardson and all the eyes were, you know, on the combine and all of that

and what the quarterbacks had to say, a lot less buzz around it this time, Zach, but still people want to hear what Zach has to say about the NFL draft and about who the Colts could target. I guess let's kind of just start 10,000-foot view here. Like what do you think about this class just overall as it, fits with some of the Colts needs. And I'm not even talking like front line starter

of needs. I'm talking depth needs too. Yeah, I think it lines up fairly well. I mean, if we look at what we think the Colts biggest needs are going into this draft, I think linebacker and Edge are two of the bigger ones. And I fully buy into this being one of the better lineback classes I've seen in years. And the NFL is needed this so bad because linebacker play has really teetered off a little bit in recent seasons because we haven't had this influx of like young.

athletic, savvy linebackers coming into the NFL. I think this class is just full of them. You got some young project players who project really well going forward. You have some older players who have just been uber productive like Jacob Rodriguez down at Texas Tech who won every award that you could possibly win at linebacker this past season. I think you had like eight turnovers force last year as well. Very good player who might be like a third round pick in this draft according to some people just because of measurables and stuff like that. But that's how deep this linebacker class is. Edge, I do think edge is fairly deep.

I do always kind of push back a little bit, though, when some people say like, oh, yeah, edge rusher is so deep. Like, you can get a good player on day two. I'm going to put this out there when it comes to edge rusher. You're never going to get a good prospect on day two when it comes to edge rusher. Because if they're a good prospect at edge rusher, they're going in round one. If they're a good prospect, there are super flawed, they're very flawed players when it comes to edge rushers on day two of the draft.

And we've seen that with the Colts, right? They've always spent these day two picks on edge rushers, and a lot of them haven't worked out. But I do think it's a good class, especially at the top of the board. There's a handful of really good players. And there are some, like, interesting day two, day three guys where in the right situation, they could develop for you.

Outside of that, though, like I think defensive tackle is pretty solid overall. And again, defense tackle is one of those spots where I think you can find talent later in the draft because teams tend to neglect, like, the run-stuffing defensive tackles. And you can find a really good rotational player later in the draft at that position. Wide receiver, if they have a need at wide receiver, I don't think it's like a star-studded wide receiver class, but I think it's a wide receiver class has a lot of good role players.

Like a lot of role players who, like, if you go into this draft saying, I need a possession receiver that can fight for yards after the catch, you can find a couple guys like that. I need a Z receiver who can just take the top off a, defense and win 50-50 balls. You can find guys like that. So I don't think you're going to find like the Jamar chases in this draft or anything like that, right?

Like this Uber talented superstar type player. But I think if you are a team like the Colts where if you're bringing back Pittman, if you have downs going into a contract year, you're bringing back Alec Pierce, you probably need a little bit of depth behind them. I think this is a good year to need that, you know, just identify what type of receiver you want to add to this room. And I think this is a good year. were on day two or day three, you could find a guy who could fit in, play some special

teams, play some offensive snaps here and there, and fill that role that was left by A.D. Mitchell being traded away in the middle of the season. So I think it's a pretty good draft. I don't think it's a very top-heavy draft, which actually lines up pretty well with the Colts, not having their first pick until pick 47. You know, I think when you have a draft that's like, yeah, our first round is like eight guys that we think can be like true, like, difference makers on day one. The rest of them are kind of projects. after that after like pick eight or nine you're looking at kind of projects in this draft um i think that bodes well for a team whose first pick isn't 47 because the guy who's taken at number 10 could have a pretty

small difference from a guy who's taken at number 60 in this draft and that's not even me like mincing my words there you look at big boards after prospect 10 in this draft you could be you know you could have guy like omar cooper junior right the wide receiver from indiana i've seen him as high as 19 on these big boards and I've seen them as low as like 110 on some of them because people don't know how to differentiate between like that middle tier in this draft class, which I think speaks to just how deep that part is, but also how weak it is at the very top of this draft. But I like the draft. I always like drafts like this because it's kind of like a pick your flavor type after

those first 10 guys. And it really comes down to how you can make it fit in your system and fit with your team. But to answer your overall question, looks to be a really good linebacker, class and Chris Bowd hasn't taken like a true linebacker in a couple of years. I think this is certainly the year though where like dip into that linebacker class, get one or two guys out of it and just really add some youth and speed to that vital position at the second level. Yeah, I think a couple areas of strength that I've seen that are not normally this strong.

Definitely linebacker. I've been very underwhelmed by linebacker the last year or so. I've had to fall in love with guys that wind up being late day three. three picks, you know what I mean, or just healthy scratches throughout the rookie year. But I feel really good about this linebacker class this year. I think you could find quality players, like guys you really like probably throughout the third round, I would say. Defensive tackle has guys that I like even later than normal to safety as well.

I'm not used to seeing this much depth of safety, but I think into round three, round four, you're looking good. But like Zach said, at edge rusher, you're not getting good prospects in the second round. You're getting promising guys. But yeah, they do all kind of have fatal flaws, which is unfortunate because Ballard has always kind of taken a traitsy project guy or like he's been known for that. The kind of falls flat. If he were to get one in the second round this year, I don't think they'd be like the Uber Toolsy guy. I just think they'd have something missing from their game.

like Zion Young is a guy we talk a lot about he's like a power rusher without a lot of finesse to his game yet like he he could be a little slippery but he's powerful he doesn't have a lot of counter moves yet and stuff like he's got still a ways to go to reach his ceiling but he's a productive pass rusher ish you could see a clear path there if he like you know rounds out some of the rough edges but yeah you're there's not a even many guys who were like, oh, this guy's really promising, but he's like got a huge rap sheet, like a big arrest record or anything like that. Like there, there's really no one out there like that, it seems like this year. So if the Colts take an edge rusher on day two, guys, they're probably not going to be a finished product. Like, there's probably a couple guys who could contribute quickly, but you're not going to get your next starter, I don't think.

They're going to have to be a rotational piece. But linebacker is really where. I think you can find someone who's going to contribute and start immediately. You could get good defensive tackles, I think, but no one's going to start over Buckner and Stewart. But I think your true difference makers, like immediate starter will be a linebacker. So maybe this will be a run on to linebackers this year. Maybe. I don't think it would be early in this job.

Linebackers don't ever really go. Like, you might see like two or three of them go in round one. Like you might see both Ohio State guys go round one, Reese and Sunny Stiles. But after that, like maybe one or more sneaks into that first round, maybe two more sneak into the first. But you won't see a big run of them on day one,

but like day two, like you said, Alan, I think we're going to get a lot of runs on linebackers because this is just a class where there's just so many of them. And again, the NFL needed this so bad. And when you talk about Edge, once you get past 10, Yeah, it really does.

There is a huge drop-off. You know, and I think about some of the dynamic airs rushers. They were drafted very high. One that really sticks out in my mind having to play against him, Bruce Smith. I mean, that one guy changed the total game plan you had on offense. Because if you couldn't protect, you had to just, you know, come up with, you know, a whole new set of plays. If you couldn't be, if you couldn't stop him, then you just, you know,

wanted to throw in the towel. So a true game changing edge player is going to be gone in the first 10 picks. And we could look over to history of NFL. I'm sure there's examples of third round, fourth round, where some edge regers came out and they surprised people. but most of the time doesn't happen. I'll also say that some of the more interesting mocks I saw had the Colts in the fourth round picking like,

it was Cade Clubnick from Clemson? No. Or how about this one? Drew Aller from Penn. Yeah. Let's go. Yeah. So that definitely wasn't insight that was passed on

from the Colts brass to these people making the mocks because I think they're pretty satisfied with Riley Leonard as the backup. And they've got much bigger needs on defense. They don't have to think about, you know, bringing it in another quarterback that, you know, I have some of my doubts. I don't ever want to talk bad about a kid.

But I have some doubts. I have some doubts about some of the quarterbacks that are projected to go into first round, you know, that I just don't see it. But maybe that's why I'm not a scout. I feel fairly confident saying if they add another quarterback this offseason, if they draft one, it won't be any earlier than seven. I think they like what they have in the building. But, yeah, anyone projecting them to go like Drew Aller and the third,

like I love PFF for some things, but I was like, I'm even a secret Drew Allard guy, and that's unbelievable. Like, that's insane. Well, and maybe I'm kind of playing devil's advocate here. Is there a chance that the national folks just don't realize how lockstock and barrel the Colts are for Daniel Jones? Is that what it is? The national people also think Quitty Pay is some huge priority for the Colts too. That's the first starter I'd let me.

walk out the door and pre-encies. It's crazy. Well, it might also be their one to be their own perception of Daniel Jones, right? They're like, oh, we don't like Daniel Jones. So let's give the Colts another quarterback where the Colts really like Daniel Jones. Whatever your

opinions are of that, right, if you like or dislike that the Colts like Daniel Jones. But at the end of the day, they like him. You know, so it's, you know, it doesn't matter what we think when it comes to what they're going to do or projecting them going forward. Like, in our dream mocks, we can give them a quarterback in round three or four,

but they like Daniel Jones enough where I don't think if you're predicting what they're going to do, I don't think that's something that's feasible for them. Well, the one thing I can count on, you can count on with the draft, you can never anticipate what's going to happen. That's true. You're right about that. Speaking of quarterbacks, this is not directly relate to the Colts, but we always kind of like to see what other teams are doing, right?

NFL Combine. There were press conferences all day in Indianapolis with general managers talking about their in battle quarterbacks, including Arizona in Miami. That and some Colts news as part of our news and notes as we wrap up this edition of the Locked on Colts Squad Show. Don't go anywhere. Back for a final time here on the Locked On Colts Squad show. We got the Locked on Colts daily crew, Jake Arthur, Zach Hicks in the same house right now. Usually Zach is several states away, but he's here in Indianapolis to cover the combine as he usually does come into town. Alan Pickett at the very least, is. in the same state, a region of the state that is about to have a second NFL team, perhaps. And I'm Derek Schultz. We appreciate you joining us today. So this is usually when we get into our news and notes portion, just kind of like the bullet point list outside of the NFL combine. And there's obviously going to be, there was a lot of news today and there will continue to be news throughout the week. The Colts did announce their finalized coaching staff on Monday. Not a lot of changes, but a new defensive line coach in Marion Hobby, 31 years of experience there.

and then some other lower level assistance, you know, defensive quality coaches, strength and condition assistant coach, and then a game management coordinator and Adida Krishna as well. But any of those names jump out to you? I mean, Zach and Jake, you live this more kind of every day or know some of these games. Names, I'm assuming the defensive line coach is somebody that is relevant or pertinent with three decades of experience. Yeah, I'll let Jake talk more about the more interesting topic.

but for like all the three people who are intrigued about this like I am. I'm very interested in Brent Stockstill moving to the offensive side. He was a defensive quality control coach last year, moving to the offensive side for offensive quality control, which is a similar thing to what Shane Steichen did early in his career. Shane Steichen's first time in the NFL, he started as defensive quality control coach and then moved over to offense. Stocksdale, if you guys don't remember, was a quarterback at Mill Tennessee State,

played under his dad there. Rick Stocksdill, very famous college coach at Middle Tennessee, state, a lot of success in his career. And then when Brent started getting into coaching, he worked under Lane Kiffin for a year at Florida Atlantic. And there are some similarities to some of the stuff that Stuyken's done over the years and some of Lane Kiffin stuff as well. And now, yeah, Stock still's here with the cold.

So I'm intrigued by that. Again, he's probably nothing more than just a high quality control coach or whatever. So it's more of getting coffee and cutting up some plays and stuff. But I'm still intrigued by where his career goes. Like we are seeing these former quarterbacks rise through the NFL ranks quickly. And Brent Stocksdale with his dad's coaching jeans with how he's, you know, some of the people he's learned from in his career. I'm very intrigued by where that goes. Even if it doesn't really apply too much to the Colts this next season, just me as a nerd and watching Stocksdale in college, I'm very intrigued to see where his career goes from here.

That was about peak nerddom from Zach on that one. I get to the two minutes. It gets into the two minutes. Well, no one gets into the coaching weeds like Zach does. But no, Marion Hobby, you know, there's obviously, you know, Lou gets his guy. Not that they didn't cast a net out there to find a new D-line coach to replace Charlie Partridge. But it does make logical sense to go forward with continuity and a guy that Lou has worked with for a few years before. They speak the same language.

They have expectations of each other. and, you know, lose defense working at its best with the Bengals. And, you know, that Super Bowl season, I guess you could say, you know what you want your coach to be doing. And it doesn't hurt to have that extra Trey Hendrickson connection of it all, you know. So, yeah, I'm interested to see what that says. Shane Steichen seems to be pretty fired up to get that move done as well. And then as far as Adida, Krishna,

a little bit of crossover with Shane there with the Chargers in 2020. Not a whole lot there, but I do know he held Charlie Gelman, who Krishna is taking his place. He held Charlie Galman in pretty high esteem. Very critical to the like game day logistics and like in game situational stuff. Very critical there. So I know Shane takes that very seriously. And he relies on those guys. So while that may be one of the moves that is most glossed over,

it's one of the more important ones. So it's definitely good for them to get, I guess, some familiarity there between Shane and a guy he's at least briefly worked with before. Yeah, and big shout out to Charlie, good friend of mine, Charlie Gellman. Big shout out for all his work he's going to do with the Ravens this next season as their game day specialist guy and also assistant DB coach next season. season as well with the Ravens. So big shout out to Charlie Gelman and the work he did last year, helped the Colts steal a couple points here and there with some of their adjustments and stuff

like that. Well, I'll apologize first because to me, the value of a coach is greater in college than it is in the pros because in the NFL, number one, these are grown-ass men. and I don't know how much more you can teach these guys, although I will say at certain positions, if you can help out with technique on the defensive line, if you can help out with different individual things. But I think mostly on the NFL level, it's, you know, talking about scheme and, you know, getting a game plan together than the individual coach helping a particular player. And I'm a little bit jaded because I think some of the sorriest coaches I had were when I was in the NFL, with the exception of when I was with the Saints, had a guy named Jim Skipper.

And, you know, he was somebody I actually learned from because one of the things we had to do was a running back with the Saints is come up and identify the defensive front. And I used to think I knew about football, but, you know, sometimes when the nose is over the center compared to when the nose is over to one of the guards, doesn't make a difference to me, but it does in terms of the scheme of how it's going to be blocked. So that was the one coach. But as far as what kind of technique, that's how I value a coach. Can you make me better?

And I don't know how many NFL coaches can make those particular players better because, you know, you're getting the best of the best when they come up to the league. So to have some with experience, I think is a good thing. I'll also say, and this is not an indictment on the coaches as much as maybe me. I didn't learn how to run an out route until my very last year in the NFL when I was with the Packers, where actually someone taught me how to accelerate on the turn where it didn't matter who was covering me. They weren't going to be able to keep up. But, you know, for six years, nobody could tell me that the cruise,

correct way to run an out route. So I don't want to make it seem like I'm down on coaches. But if you can bring in a coach with, you know, some credentials and some experience, to me, a coach is more valuable in college than they are in the NFL. Just like anything else, they're good ones and okay ones and bad ones, right? Just like any other walk of life that you run into. It doesn't help when the prior experience one of the running back coaches had that I had in the NFL was the food coordinator when he was at USC. I will say this real quick about coaching in the NFL compared to college. And from my experience, not from playing, but from talking to a lot of these guys, in the NFL, a lot of positional coaches is not the same as like development at the college level, right? Where at the college level, they're there to develop you. They're there to get you ready to go. at the NFL, you're expected, it's your job.

You know, like, I know at college now, it's actually your job too. But like when you're in the NFL, it's your job, right? They're not paid to develop you. They're paid to get the right guys on the field. And you're developing yourself in the offseason a lot of times with this. That's why you have your trainers for and your personal plans for. And that's why you have your exit meetings telling you what to work on and look like going into next summer when we meet back up.

A lot of positional coaches, their value is in the segmented aspects of the team. You know, when it comes to offense, you know, your play caller will call the plays, but hey, ex-coach that coaches tight ends or running backs, you're going to be in charge of handling our pre-snap motion. It's something that you've done in the past and making sure our pre-snap motion is tight. Offensive line coach, make sure our running game is tight. Overall, be our run-game coordinator. Our passing assistant coach or whatever, you're going to make sure our passing concepts are up to the league standard.

So it's a lot of segmented stuff like that. Yeah, more about game planning. Right. Everything is about game planning. That's why so much in the NFL is watching film and then getting ready for the next team. You know, you can't really harp on what went wrong because you got to get ready for the next opponent. You know, so we always say on here it's not a developmental league. A lot of this league is just winning games.

And if you're not performing, whether you're a first round pick or a second round pick, they're not going to hold your hand through it and say, don't worry, buddy. Like, you'll get them next time. We got to get somebody out there who can help us win. And some guys get left behind because of that. but it's just kind of the nature of this league. I always like quarterback drama, especially because we've had a lot of quarterback drama here in this town,

so I like to see it happen to other people. You guys, I don't know if you saw this. I know we've been focusing on the culture. The Cardman's GM, Monty Asford, said that he had talked with Kyler Murray to discuss how the season unfolded. And then ESPN was like, whoa, whoa. Kyler says you guys didn't talk at all.

So you haven't talked since the end of this season. So that seems like two sides that are heading for a divorce. Also, I don't think this is a surprise. The Dolphins general manager, John Eric Sullivan said, quote, anything is on the table when it comes to two-oh. But I think those are two sides that are going to have a split as well. But I'm just glad, you know, not our problem, right? Yeah, we just have to extend our Achilles torn quarterback.

That's right. One out of seven years and go from there. And the general manager that's won one playoff game. Right, right. But there were on our high horse. There was one announcement that I saw, I think a couple reporters saw as an unintended gift to the Colts, maybe, that, oh, what's his name down in Atlanta? Kirk Cousins, they were going to, they made it official. They were going to release him on the day he's allowed to be released.

So Kirk Cousins will be out there. And could that be potentially someone that the Colts could go after if Daniel Jones isn't ready? Yeah, if Daniel Jones isn't ready, I think anything's on the table for the Colts. But yeah, we'll see with a like Cousins just adds another quarterback to the market. Kyler adds another quarterback to the market. Tua adds another one to the market, which could make, you know, getting a deal done with Jones a little bit easier for the Colts. I don't think it has too much of an impact on it. But it could be, you know, these teams that are on the outside looking in,

looking at like, hey, at least Tua and Kyler, we know what we're getting in terms of like, they don't have torn Achilles. So it's more reasonable to go after those guys. So maybe it could play into the Jones market a little bit. But yeah, overall, Derek, it's just kind of funny looking at this. So it's the dangers of paying a quarterback so much that you took high, right? And to a degree, like, look, I'm not happy that Richardson, didn't work out here, right? The ultimate plan would have been him looking like Josh Allen by now, right?

Like, that's the goal. But if you're going to miss, at least miss big. Like, you know, from the team perspective, have multiple injuries or just not play well at all so that you're not forced into giving out this to or Kyler Murray contract for a guy who's not going to get you into the Super Bowl. You know, it sucks for the player. Like, I hope Richardson can figure it out somewhere and become a good player but at least the Colts only spent a fourth overall pick on Richardson, whereas the Cardinals spent a first overall pick on Kyler plus X amount of money. And the Dolphins spent, what, a top 10 pick on Tua plus X amount of money that's going to put them in this dead cap situation where they can't pay anybody in the next like two years

because of that dead cap they're going to have from Tua. So it could be worse, I guess, you know? It's that second contract that always kills you. Right, right. It is. And your goal as a player is let me get to my second contract because that's when I can really get my big payday. And if you're a quarterback, whoa, you know, you're talking about big, big bucks.

So, yeah, Tua and Murray, you know, at least did well enough to warrant that second contract. So for the Colts, it's really they should be somewhat happy. because they can just wash their hands and they didn't have to do that second contract. Yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, Richardson only really cost them two years, whereas some of these guys cost their teams like six. You know what I mean? Because you're waiting around and then you're extending them and then it still ends up being the same exact thing that happened with Richardson as well.

So, yeah, maybe a blessing in disguise, even though you did kind of light a number four overall pick on fire with that. Thanks so much. It's very like glass half full here with missing on a top five pick. But, like, yeah, it's just kind of how it is. If we want to look at it this way and let's say Anthony was gone and they had to take a quarterback, Will Levis would have flamed out just as bad. It's not like it was going to look much better unless they were going to trade up. With a much lower ceiling, too.

Like, I think even if you quote unquote hit with Levis, you were going to get like here, whereas if you hit with Richardson, you could have really gone far. We did. We did get to pick a couple commercials. Yeah. Well, let's hide this in our commercials. in the hour mark as well. Stroud and Young kind of look like they're heading towards the Kyler and Tua art as well.

I'm fascinated to see what happens with Stroud from here. Yeah, we'll see. We'll see there. Everybody crowned him pretty early. That's for sure. Right. Appreciate you guys joining us on the latest edition of the Colts Squad Show. Man, we've got insane, awesome.

You got to follow content all week long on the locked on Colts platforms. Zach is here. He's in town. He's in Indianapolis. if you see him on the street, give him a high five. He does autographs, no personalized greetings. Jake will do that as well, give you a big hug. We're going to be back with you on the squad.

9 p.m. as the offseason schedule continues talking more combine. And as always, that Colts news cycle. It never really goes quiet, especially this week. So keep it locked on Jake and Zach every day on Locked on Locked on Colts. Be sure to follow at Lockdown Colts on socials and check out the other great content on YouTube and TikTok. And we'll see it next time right here on the squad show.