Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - COLTS SQUAD SHOW: The IMPORTANCE of Alec Pierce | Colts' Critical 2026 Free Agents & Bye Week Fixes

Episode Date: November 13, 2025

In the midst of the bye week, the Squad discusses the importance of Alec Pierce, who headlines the 2026 free agent class alongside Daniel Jones. Also, the guys talk about potential bye week fixes for the Colts, give their over and underreactions after Week 10, and project the AFC South finish past the season's halfway mark. Become a Locked On Colts insider! Ask your burning questions and get prompt answers from someone who's around the team every day! Get special access from the locker room, practice field, and press box! JOIN HERE! Find and follow Locked On Colts on your favorite podcast platforms:🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/podcasts/locked-on-colts/📺YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLdpxJspi1hMh5HL7ExpWOQLocked On NFL League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Draft & More🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/podcasts/locked-on-nfl/ Follow Jake's written work on roundtable.io/sports/nfl/colts/ and Zach's on si.com/nfl/colts/, and give them a follow on Twitter @JakeArthurNFL, @ZachHicks2, and @LockedOnColts! Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just FIVE dollars, and if your bet wins, you’ll get THREE HUNDRED dollars in bonus bets to use across the app. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!BetterhelpThis episode is sponsored by Betterhelp. Our listeners get 10% off their first month at https://BetterHelp.com/lockedon.RipplingGet Rippling FREE for 6 months. Terms and conditions apply. See site for details: https://app.rippling.com/legal/promotermsSupply HouseJoin the free TradeMaster program today and score serious perks like priority shipping, lower prices, and a dedicated support line. Visit https://SupplyHouse.com to sign up for free and use promo code SHNFL5 for 5% off your first order.PelotonLet yourself run, lift, flex, and push forward. Explore the new Peloton Cross Training Tread+ today at https://www.onepeloton.com.PrizePicksDownload the PrizePicks app today and use code LOCKEDONNFL to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup.Click Here: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONNFLGametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelRight now, new customers can bet just FIVE dollars, and if your bet wins, you’ll get THREE HUNDRED dollars in bonus bets to use across the app.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as non-withdrawable free bets that expire 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 Byweek, squad show is always grinding. And I'm Zach Hicks, and my favorite thing about the Buy Week is another week without a Colts loss. It's been great this season. I'm Jake Arthur. Now that it's the Buy Week, I don't know what to do with my hands. I'm Alan Pinkett, former Oiler, and Zach, you stole my opening. Best thing about a Buy Week is you can't lose.

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. Happy Wednesday. Welcome in every dayers to the Colt Squad Show. Today's episode brought you by Fandul. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you'll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. I'm Derek Schultz. Indy Sports Talker, Cominist for the Indianapolis Business Journal, and I'm joined by a man that set rushing records at Notre Dame,

and he had a great pro career as a Houston Euler as well, and Alan Pinkett, and you every day, or as of course, no Zach Hicks and Jake Arthur, the dynamic duo from Lockdown Culture, your first listen every day. The Colts are taking a break, but there is no break for the squad. We're still here to talk football on this Wednesday night.

On tonight's show, we'll go through a host of topics, including the importance of wide receiver, Alex Pierce, who highlights Indie's free agent, class this off scene. There was an interesting article earlier on Wednesday by, I think it was the ESPN.com listing some of the league-wide free agents. And Pierce and Braden Smith and Daniel Jones and a couple of others crack the top 10 for the Colts. So that class looking even more important considering how well those guys have been playing so far this season. We'll discuss that. The things the Colts need to clean up in the by week as they enter a very difficult stretch,

we all know what looms ahead as Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs at Arrowhead are the Colts re-entry into the 2025 season. We'll play overreactions and underreactions from week 10, like we always do each and every Wednesday on this show. And we will project the AFC South finish and handicap the chances that the Colts could actually not win the division. That's not to be pessimistic. That's more to just kind of show everybody how advantageous of a position the Colts

sit in right now, especially with Houston's crazy comeback win and rally in the fourth quarter over Jacksonville last week. But guys, let's start with Alec Pierce. And I feel like we talk a lot. lot about Jonathan Taylor. We talk a lot about Daniel Jones. We talk a lot about DeForest Buckner. We talked last week about sauce gardener, right? And even though I feel like he's mentioned every week because he does something that is noteworthy that deserves to be mentioned, I don't know if we're still, even at this point, fully appreciating how good Alec Pierce has become. And for a while,

you know, just be personally, I sort of viewed him as a one-trick pony, a guy that was a deep ball threat and nothing else. But he's rounded into this really excellent receiving. in multiple areas and really what has become a critical piece for this offense. And dare I say, Zach, and this is not a knock on Michael Pittman Jr., but just of praise of 14, maybe the Colts best receiver pound for pound. I mean, this year, I would say that he's been their best wide receiver. He just does so much for the offense. And it is kind of hard to, like, distinctly say their best receiver just because it's like

picking like the best role player on the Pacers last year during their championship run, right? It could change on a game-to-game basis. You had no clue which guy was going to go for 30, which guy was going to, you know, hit the clutch shot. And it's kind of like that with this Colts offense, aside from Jonathan Taylor, who's like the Tyrese Halliburton of it all on this team. But, yeah, I think by and large it has been Pierce this season,

who's been the most consistent and explosive and has been so dynamic, too, at the second and third level of defenses. And I think the most important part of what he's done is that he's just gotten better and better, every single year in the NFL. We saw in his first year where, you know, his very first chance to make a big play in the NFL,

he dropped that touchdown in the back of the end zone for Matt Ryan. And that kind of defined his rookie season in a way. It was a lot of missed opportunities and just unfortunate bounces and bad luck. And we were like, okay, this is like a slow starting young receiver. And then while the Colts had their issues, you know, Gardner Minshu not really being a downfield throwing quarterback, we were thinking through two seasons with this guy, like what could he really become? in the NFL and then he exploded last season last season he was led the NFL in yards per

catch yards per target uh was this top tier deep threat arguably arguably the best deep threat in football and to your to what you were saying derrick we were all like okay he's a one trick pony but the one trick is so good that it doesn't even matter like you can survive and thrive in the NFL as in the elite one trick pony and like that's perfectly fine being that now he's kind have just like gone past that now he's more than a one trick pony he's like a legitimate like legit wide receiver one in the NFL he's on pace for 1100 yards uh he's doing all the things right that you want to see uh from a wide receiver i mean gosh some of the best hustle plays in the NFL this year in terms of blocking uh and coming down with contested catch opportunities so he goes from like

last year being like okay cool he's like in that Gabe davis like marquez valdez scantling like he's just a beautiful, like big, wide receiver that can run down the field and make these outstanding vertical playing catches, where now I think you're kind of putting him in that conversation with like the T. Higgins and the D.K. Metcalfs of the world where it's like, yes, this is a vertical plane wide receiver who has some limitations, but he can do so much more than just run vertical. And he can be this like dominant 50-50 guy. I mean, that catch in Germany this past weekend, you know, safety closing in a corner hanging on its back, that any of us here watching the game think that he wasn't coming down with that catch, though?

When I heard Alec Pierce deep, I was like, okay, cool, like put some points on the board as long as it's like in his reach. And arguably, I'd say, you know what? The Colts answer to their blitz problems we'll get to in the second segment is we see one-on-one to Alec Pierce just throw a jump ball to him at this point. So yeah, he's playing some great football. He's taken a step past what I even thought could have been his peak last year. And now he looks like a legit number one wide receivers. So Derek, I think you're justified in saying that he's been their top receiver this year just because he's done so many things at a higher level and further improved his game from the breakout he had last year. Yeah, I would think he's a guy that when we've talked to

him, he does not want to be considered just that one trick pony deep threat, which of course not. He wants to be known for more. But he's also showing it. Like he's a guy that wins at the sticks. He's winning over the middle now. He always was a good blocker. That's one reason you can never take him off the field before. I think he's taken his abilities deep to another level. Like you said, Zach, if it's going deep and it's in his area and it's not overthrown, I assume it's going to be a big play because he just keeps cashing in more and more and more. And I think you do have to consider him in a new kind of echelon of his tier of receiver. has gone up, Zach, I haven't really considered him among that T. Higgins tier, but I like that

now that you say that, because before he was like a souped up, Marquez Valdez Scantling, one who could catch a Gabe Davis version with the bills. Like, that was him. But he is doing just a whole lot more now. And he's, you know, in terms of like who's the best receiver on the Colts, they just do different things and the kind of different abilities like josh downs and michael pitman junior i probably trust them to like work through the little intricate areas and short traffic a little better probably a little better short area movement than than pierce but still he's showing the ability to get open quickly in like we're seeing you know third down conversions like third and six third and eight or whatever he was never involved in those before but now he is

And, you know, when they're dialing up, it's been like at least two or three times this season. It's like third and 12, third and 17 or whatever. They're just taking deep shots and it's working, you know. So everything with Alec is kind of coming up golden. And I think I do need to see more of it just than beyond this season to declare him like the Colts top receiver. But whatever he's doing new, like this evolution of Alec Pierce, I'm digging it. it's mandatory that they have to bring him back. They can't not resign him.

Obviously, he's become arguably the top priority and free agency for them other than Daniel Jones. But yeah, like, he's just a true draft and developed success story for Chris Ballard and the Colts. Well, there's something about a contract year that makes you step your game up. You know, and I can say that for every player at every position. And I can say it from personal experience. because the one thing you don't want to do is be a bust and then get kicked out of the league.

That's why we say NFL stands for not for long. You know, so you do consciously play better in a contract year. And I guess that would maybe be a reason to do a one-year contract every year, huh? But then you want that stability, too, of knowing that you've got some money there. if you perform. But the thing, you know, I like about Alec Pierce's, his stats are nice. The one stat that really stands out to me is he's averaging 20.9 per catch, which, I mean, that's damn good.

But the things that you can't measure with stats are his value to this offense, you know, his ability to stretch the field because, you know, there are still people that look at Daniel Jones as dink and dunk and, you know, throw to five-yard past the downs. But Alec Pierce has this ability to stretch the field out so that you can't really key on anybody. And the reason this office works is because you've got so many valuable weapons that you can, you can diversify the office. And, you know, Zach, like you said, you don't know week to week who's going to be shining in the wide receiver room,

and I guess you include the tight end in that. You just don't know who's going to step up that game, but he has definitely proven that he has value to this team. And you can't imagine this offense without him. And I guess he missed the total of what? Two games or one? I think he missed two games. And here's, you know, you never want this to happen.

But if you don't play, you don't feel so bad when the team loses because when you play, they win. You still feel bad. But, you know, you can say that if there was an Alec Pierce in that Rams game, maybe they don't lose. So it's, I think that he will rank up there as well. one of those types of signings, and I really like the aggressiveness of Ballard and the ownership. You know, I think by going and getting Sauce Gardner, they're saying to you that we have our quarterback, you know, so now let's shore up everything. And I like the fact that they stepped on the gas to say, we got a shot to go all the way this year. Let's take advantage of it. Now,

Hopefully, there's not a long, drawn-out Hendrickson type of holdout like Cincinnati had. If they can sign them during the year, that'd be great. I don't anticipate it. But he has definitely enhanced his value to the team. Another thing I want to say about Pierce real quick is the phrase, no pressure, no diamonds, kind of comes to mind when I think about him as well. I think you've got to have clutch ice-fane players on your team. I think about just the career, you know, the career pressure he's faced.

The Colts drafting, A.D. Mitchell, who they buttered him up the entire time, talked him up saying he's the most talented receiver on the roster. Nobody runs routes and gets open like he does, which, oh, you know, it was true. But ultimately, you know, in Westfield. Yeah, in Westfield. And ultimately, you know, Alec Piers. took that personally, the Jordan meme, and he got as good as ever last year going into the summer. And then this year, in a contract year, like Alan was saying,

he's been as good as ever. You know, like he just makes himself better. And then even if you're looking at it in a smaller sense in games, the guy has caught game-winning touchdowns before. I think of the Patriots game last year. He's caught one against the Jaguars as a rookie. Like, that's just a guy, like we talk about, quarterback's having the clutch gene and things like that you need more guys than that like you you have

guys that you have to be able to depend on in any situation i think pierce has proven that he's someone no matter the situation you can rely on and he's earned a title labrador receiver we haven't said that in a couple of weeks now it was about time we brought that baby back ESPN.com today had a ranking of the top 25 free agents and three Colts, in fact, made the top 10. No surprise, Daniel Jones was the top quarterback and he was at number three. Now, they had Braden Smith at five and Alec Pierce at seven. And where I would disagree with that is that I think if we're looking at this from a Colts lens, and you guys tell me if you disagree, we'd put, I think unanimously put Pierce in front of Smith as far as importance to retain.

right i think on the open market you could argue that smith maybe commands some more value perhaps i don't know maybe maybe it's just a maybe we're splitting hairs a little bit there um but thought that was interesting and jake you're actually the one that pointed out you got to follow jake arthur nfl on on x and that's where you get everything that you need um three top seven free agents i don't think going into the season you would have necessarily thought that league wide that class would have three because the jury was kind of not jury was very much out but um you know Braden Smith, we didn't know how he was going to bounce back from last year and, you know, Pierce making another leap. And certainly we didn't know about Daniel Jones.

And here we are 10 weeks into the season. And the Colts have three guys that feel like you'd be better off retaining than not. Yeah, I thought the odd thing was they had quiddy pay as an honorable mention on there. And Nick Cross wasn't on it at all, which was interesting because Cross should pretty much, what's that? I love good, right? Let's get them back here for the cheaper price. That's awesome. Sounds great to me.

the volume on Nick Cross, of course. No, but yeah, Braden Smith was obviously the big X factor and all this. I think we were all, we're just hoping that he came back mentally and physically healthy and proved that he could play ball. Now, it seems like he has earned a new contract somewhere for probably more money than the Colts would be willing to spend because they have been kind of grooming Jalen Travis to be that guy. And I think they did want to give Braden the opportunity to come back and prove himself.

this season and just see what it looked like i just he's he's probably outpriced himself from the colts i mean 10 million this year i mean good right tackles good starting right tackles in the nfl they make much more than that so yeah i i would imagine to answer your first pay right i mean it's smith is the offensive equivalent of pay am i wrong like he's a guy that's a good player that's going to get paid somewhere else and probably the colts somewhere else aren't in a position to retain somebody like that because they got, you know, there's not enough money to go around, I wouldn't think. Yeah, I mean, technically there is enough money to go around technically.

It's just you need physical money in a lot of these cases to make it work. And that's a tough thing for a smaller organization like the Colts compared to, you know, like the Cowboys, for instance, if the Cowboys wanted to do something like that, they have a lot more equity coming in. And a big thing with this Colts team this offseason is they're going to have to pay the signing bonus to Daniel Jones when they sign him, which is going to be a ton of money. They have a $20 million roster bonus to Sauce Gardner that's not cap money.

That's like true cash coming out. So it does make it a little bit harder to give out like this big contract and make all these other contracts work unless you're willing just to give out more money like that, you know, like more hard cash in year one to lower that cap hit. That's going to be the big thing. But Derek, to dive into like, why Barry and Smith so high, look at all the offensive tackles that have been signed on the open market in the last 10 years. Look at the guys who have gotten the monster contracts.

There's not a single one of them with the quality of play of Brayton Smith over his career. Braden Smith might arguably be the best offensive tackle to hit the market in a decade in the NFL. Look at Dan Moore, $20 million with Tennessee and he's butt. Dan Moore got $20 million a year in Tennessee and he was like half benched half the time in like Pittsburgh. Jalen Moore got that, what, $15 million contract with the Chiefs and he was a backup for the 49ers and a lot of times. Like, teams are overpaying so much for offensive tackles. A player, Brian Smith caliber, who'd been like a fringe pro bowler for most of his career, came back this year.

And even with the pay cut has kind of returned to what his career form has always been, he's going to get like $25 million a year on the open market. And I just don't, I don't see the Colts being able to match that out there. I think the goal right now is to get Jalen Travis ready for next season, while also probably spending another top 100, top 150 pick on an offensive tackle, have two to three guys battle it out in camp. And then whatever Tony Sparano Jr. says, we go with that because he's working magic still with the offensive line.

But yeah, I think Bray and Smith's the odd man out. The two big ones where the Colts are Jones and Pierce. I think they will get those two done. I'm not sure we see much else from the Colts this offseason aside from getting those two deals done because they're going to eat up a ton of cap space. And well, worth it. They're both very good players, and the Colts will just have to kind of fill out the roster in other ways after that. Well, whoever made that list, I think they're looking at a few things that give Brady Smith some value.

You've got the number one total offense. You've got the number one rusher, the number one passer, you know, and they're looking for reasons why. Why are the Colts this offensive juggernaut? Well, it must be the offensive line. you know so a little bit of coattails right there so you know it's one of those situations where when one guy or a couple of guys are having success everybody can eat yeah no question about that and it's a it's i guess you put in the good problem to have category is that you have too many good players that and you like to bring everybody back right i mean a lot it's a

there are probably a lot of NFL teams that are like oh my god thank god this guy's going to come off the books. And you look at the Colts free agents and you're like, no, I mean, these are all useful and not only useful players, but front line players as well. Colts get thrown into their toughest stretch of the season starting next Sunday at Arrowhead coming out of the by. We'll talk about what Indy needs to clean up as they hit the home stretch when the squad show returns. Colt Squad Show is sponsored by our friends at BetterHelp as the days get shorter and the nights come earlier. It can start to feel a little heavier, especially when life is already packed with work, family, and everything else.

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Thanks so much for joining us on this Wednesday alongside former NFLer and their name legend Alan Pinkett and the locked on Colts duo of Jake Arthur and Zach Hicks. I'm Derek Schultz. So guys, Colts 8 and 2 sitting in a great spot. They've played really good football. We've had far fewer complaints than we've had praiseworthy things happen on our recap shows on Sunday. But when talking about what the Colts need to clean up before this big stretch here, maybe some recency bias, Zach, but clearly some.

protection issues the last two weeks. The pressure rates, the sack rates have gone way up, skyrocketed, really, from what we saw in the first eight games. Yeah, for sure. And look, the way that they were playing in those first eight games was not sustainable over the course of a full 17 game NFL season. You're not going to have two turnovers, three turnovers over the course of a season, and you're not going to keep the sacks as low. I mean, yes, there are some teams that do that. But for the most part, there's ebbs and flows to this thing. Things do regress in positive and negative ways. And your goal is just to keep the trends positive by the end of the season.

So, yeah, there was bound to be some negative regression in some areas, especially when it came to turnovers. Now, it kind of came to a head in a big way against the Pittsburgh Steelers, and it went too far the other way. So then you get regression back to the mean a little bit after a game like that with the Steelers. Six turnovers isn't the norm by any means. But we've seen more, you know, more typical like downturn of NFL play, basically, from

the Colts, these last two games. I think there are some positive signs in there, but like you mentioned, Derek, some some concerning issues there in there, especially when it comes to how the Colts have responded to the Blitz, how Daniel Jones has responded to the blitz, and how it's kind of kind of grinded their offense to a halt in some ways. You know, this offense that early in the season was so good at staying ahead of the sticks, getting in the third and manageable, getting that ball out quick, converting on third downs, converting on fourth downs and getting points on the board no matter what. We've seen a lot of drives these last two games where they've gotten past the 50

and whether not converting on fourth down, whether turnovers, whether miss kicks, they have not come away with points. And they've put their defense kind of behind the eight ball in a sense that way. When I think the defense where the Colts has played very well the last two weeks because they've had to kind of pick up the slack a little bit from the offense. So really the biggest thing that you really want to see them clean up coming out of the buy is the turnovers. The turnovers just can't sustain at this level.

Notably at quarterback, you know, Daniel Jones has lost three fumbles. He's had, I think, six or five or six over these last two games. But he's lost three fumbles, six fumbles, yes, six fumbles, lost three. A couple of them have been very much on him that just can't happen. The one along the sideline that luckily bounced out in this past game. There's no excuse for that ball to hit the turf. The fumble on the screen just can't happen from your quarterback. You've got to know in that situation, if the screen is covered up, you get down or you throw that ball at the running back's feet because there's going to be guys in your face.

There's going to be guys coming from behind. So those are the things they really need to clean up. And then from a protection standpoint, just getting everyone back on the same page, finding your answers and your hot reads. And more than anything, making sure that you're avoiding the third and eights and third and tens because when you are in those third and tens, it's harder to get hot against the blitz because you don't want to throw the ball nine yards short of the sticks. on third and 10 and force your guy to go get it. So if you can get into third and two, third and three, third and four, and then you are throwing the ball. If you're taking those blitzes there,

you can get that ball out hot to Josh Downs and get that first down quickly, and you feel more comfortable that way. Instead, again, on third and 10, you're sitting in the pocket waiting for this blitz to come because you need a route to develop 10 yards down the field. So overall, the offense needs to be a little bit cleaner on first and second down, avoid pre-snap penalty so they can get in those situations.

But at the end of the day, they got to figure out something with this blitz community. and getting everyone back on the same page so they can avoid those turnovers. Yeah, there's just a little bit of everything going on. I don't know if defenses have heed into something that they viewed as a weakness for the Colts or if the Colts are just not defending from the offensive line perspective the way that they were before.

But yeah, it just seems like they're getting very overwhelmed. The free blitzers are getting through. You look at like Jonathan Taylor, kind of getting Stonewold there. Like, he's getting pushed back. He's getting, you know, they're getting beyond him. There's not always, it doesn't seem like the Colts are always prepared with an extra blocker either. And then Jones himself, I just feel like, is not adjusting well to the pressure that's clearly coming. Because there's been instances where we've all seen a clear blitz coming.

And maybe they disguised it earlier in the game. and it's kind of throwing them off a little bit. But it's just a lot of things I have to pick up. The execution of the blocking has to be better, not only from the offensive line, but like the extra blockers, the peripheral blockers. And then Jones himself just has to be willing to throw the ball.

You know, get rid of it, ground it, just do something other than taking like eight, nine, 10 yard loss sacks. Like that's just obviously not sustainable. But like you mentioned, Zach, like getting ahead in the sticks is something they were so, good at earlier in the year like it was only like a few weeks ago we were talking about daniel doing like the boring things so well in it making a huge difference the four five yard

completions early in a series to get them to second and five second and four things like that and so i i just you know it's good they have this reflection point right now they can self scout and kind of get back to things but the truth of the matter is defenses now see a way that they can absolutely smother this offense and force them into mistakes. So it's going to continue. It's just about how the Colts respond to it. You know, some pressure is going to get through because they're going to be bringing a ton of dudes. But like you said, Zach, you have to have like those hots and those things available to Josh Downs. And you have to have all those things available. And you have to have your trigger man and Daniel Jones willing to execute those things

as well. You know, I think one of the harder things to do in the NFL is scout yourself because the focus is always on the other team and finding their tendencies in their weak spots. And it's hard to look at yourself and say, oh, we're kind of weak right there. You know, how do we repair that? But it's so important to do the self-scouting. And that's, I think, probably the most important thing that you can do in a bye week. The other thing you can do in a buy week is just chill a little bit. You know, sometimes the routine on Wednesday and Thursday and Friday gets stale. So you need to break it up a little bit.

And, you know, I don't even remember any of my bye weeks when I played for the six years in Houston. But what I see guys doing now is they go back to their alma mater. watch a game or they'll take a little trip somewhere, just an opportunity to exhale. That's so important in a buy week is to break up that routine so that when you come back, you come back with some urgency and you come back with some purpose of, okay, we got to grind it out now for these remaining seven weeks, you know, but we're we're recharged now because we had a buy and we can go ahead and get after it. And, you know, it's just like rechargeing your battery from a vacation.

And then to me, the best thing about it by, maybe second or third best thing about a buy is everybody at this time of year has little nicks and bruises and nagging type injuries. the ones that don't show up on the injury report, you know, but they continue to nag you and they inhibit your performance. So just being able to have one week off, it's amazing how your body can heal on that level, the way those guys playing with all the training and nutrition and all stuff. One week of not getting hit, you know, it is amazing in terms of how fresh they're,

will come back. And the only thing I can compare it to, I've got to go back a hundred years to, you know, 1984. I had a little ankle injury when I was playing at Notre Dame. And, you know, I'd gotten it to a spot where, okay, I can play like this. I'm going to be okay. But I kept re-injuring the damn thing week after week after week. All I needed was one week where I didn't re-injured an ankle. And it finally came. Unfortunately, it came in a loss. But after that one week where I didn't get it re-injured, I went 160, 162, 187, 99.

And it made all the difference in the world. So that just not getting hit for a week means so much. And I think the buy comes at a right time because they'll be fresh when they step on the field. I can't call it Arrowhead anymore because it's got a different name and different sponsor name but when they play the Chiefs they'll be really fresh and ready to go

I'd still call it Arrowhead I had no clue it wasn't called Arrowhead I didn't actually so I'm learning something here it's like Geha Field or something like that oh gosh I don't even know why this is a very Indianapolis thing so if you're listening to this and you're not in Indianapolis you have no idea what I'm talking about

but it's kind of like Deer Creek the music center here which has been several different things including I think it's named by a mortgage center now and people still call it Deer Creek and I don't know why anybody spends money to name that thing because Arrowhead will always be Arrowhead. I don't care what corporate

name that you put on there. Conceco Fieldhouse. They've renamed it too many times. You know what, but at least like those have, bankers' life was a little weird, right? Gamebridge feels okay. I'm better. Cambridge. I mean, even Lucas Oil, I remember when Lucas Oil Stadium and they first said it and they were going to call it

the oil slick or the oil drum and it's just Lucas Oil Stadium, whatever. It's been fine. It's been in money talks. That's right. Daniel Jones regression season, sauce with a better game than people thought. Fire the kicker into the sun. That's probably going to be one of Zach's tanks, actually. But we'll talk under and overreactions next when we come back right here on the Colt Squad Show.

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5% off your first order at Supplyhouse.com. That's supplyhouse.com, real people, real service. And we're back on the locked on Colts squad show. Thanks so much for joining us alongside former NFL or Alan Pinkett, locked on Colts duo, Zach Hitch, Jake Arthur. I am Derek Schultz. I really appreciate you being here on a hump day Wednesday or maybe you're listening on Thursday Friday.

Who knows? It's the by week. None of this is time sensitive. This is all, these are all takes that are fresh and can carry you through the entire week all the way to whatever stadium the Colts are playing in next in Kansas City. Guys, let's talk overreactions and underreactions. You know, I feel like the Daniel James. own stuff. We sort of alluded to because that's directly connected to the pass rush and pressure

rate and some of the things that we just talked about. So let's table that for now. Something that I think you pointed out, Zach, and I wanted to hear from your film analysis actually going back to watch. And you kind of said this on Sunday where because Sauce Gardner had a couple of high profile plays, including one where he fell down that went, didn't go his way. Some people thought, he didn't play very well. But then he kind of looked statistically at some of it. And the times that he got thrown to, the Falcons weren't very effective. I wanted to know if the tape bore that out as well.

Did Sauce's debut actually go a little bit better than you would think with the two-point conversion and the touchdown of Drake London kind of bat bat like that consecutive that he caught a lot of hell for? Oh, yeah. You know what's funny is I don't have like notifications or anything on social medias and on anymore. it's been a great like refreshing thing in my life so i don't even know what the conversations are surrounding things like this uh so when you told me after the game people were talking about sauce that way i was like really like i didn't notice anything bad from him and then i'm watching film and i'm like oh this is like a legit good number one corner playing a good number one corner uh game so i don't

really i don't really know what the conversation was around sauce gardener just because i avoided that uh honestly maybe i'm under a rock at this point but uh when i was watching the game i thought he played fairly well like yeah he slipped on the two-point conversion uh and the the falcons kind of called the perfect play in the red zone that that picked on them a bit for that touchdown of drake london i wouldn't even really call that 100% on sauce gardener uh so it's kind of it's just a tough one as a defense it happens perfect call for the perfect defense uh they did some good things there but outside of that i thought he played some really good football i mean jake you're not allowed to answer this because you already know the answer i said it on the show

this week, but the Colts held the Falcons at 0 for 8 on third down in this game, right? Do you guys want to guess on how many yards the Falcons got on those third down plays? Across eight plays, how many yards did the falcons get? None. Negative 31.

Negative 31. And they had a fumble. They had three sacks. They went backwards for 31 yards on eight third down plays. And this was the Achilles heel of the Colts defense all season long was their third down defense. How times we see against the Rams early in the season where Pooka Nakua had a 10-yard gain on a third and nine on so-and-so getting a 16-yard gain on third and 15. It's like, come on, guys.

Like, we got to get off the field here. But when Saus Gardner gets in here, and yes, I'm not saying the Falcons are some perfect offense that they just shut down. Like, the Falcons have had their issues, but they still have Drake London, Bejohn Robinson, Tyler Algier, Darnell Mooney was a big free agent signing Kyle Pitts, a top 10 pick. Like, they have guys out there. and for the most part, I thought they were really solid in coverage. They really measured the pressure alongside the coverage extremely well. And then there were a couple times where they, like, brought five guys and they played man coverage on the back end. And when the Falcons weren't able to move Drake London away from Sauce Gardner, he was locked up.

Gardner had him, like, complete clamps on him. There was no avenue there for the pass. And I thought he played exceptionally well. So look, the Colts went out there and they were aggressive in getting a player like Sauce Gardner so they could play more man, so they could be more aggressive on third down, and so they could be more comfortable with how they defend number one targets or just top targets in general. And again, as a result, they held a team to 0 for 8 on third down in this game.

So I don't know what the overall conversation was, but if the overall conversation was negative about Suss Gardner this week, I'm certainly going to stamp that with overreaction, because from what I saw, I thought it was a really solid game from him. And, you know, I don't always give this credit, but pro football focus, I think had him is like the third or fourth highest rated Colts defender in this past game. And I completely agree with that. Honestly, I think there may be even a little low on him myself. Like, they probably, he should have been like number one or two.

I thought he was one of the best defenders on the team for the Colts in this game. And he did some great things. Should have had a pick six as well. I'm going to get on him for not finishing that play. But outstanding read on that third down play that I've not seen the Colts corner do in years. So I thought he had a great debut for. the Colts, especially given the five-day turnaround that he had during the week. I thought it was a really strong debut.

Alan, how difficult would it be if you got traded on Tuesday after you already began preparing for your opponent with your original team? You get traded on Tuesday. Wednesday, you're with your new team, several states away. And then the day after, you have to fly from that new location all the way to Germany. And then play what was exact, 60, 65 snap. How difficult would that be? It would be incredibly difficult.

You don't know anybody's name that you're playing with, number one. Shoot, you don't even, and they played in Berlin, so you didn't even know where the locker room is. Good thing they had a walk-through day before so they could know the route from the locker room to the field. But to me, and that was my sentiment after the game is, You know, if you just throw the dude in, and I know the justification is you're paying him millions of dollars and he's a professional and all he's got to do is cover somebody. But, you know, if that was the case, he'd be the only one out there if he was if he was that good.

You know, so I didn't think it was fair to throw him in, but I know the expectation in the NFL is when you get traded and you use. You're expected to go in right away, make splash plays right away. And I think he did okay, but yes, I disagree with, you know, how they did it. But, you know, that's the business of the NFL. And they did a good job, too, protecting him where, like, again, a big thing is communication on those, like, when you're getting those cheat motions to the inside, where how is he going to communicate with guys who he'd only say. seen for a couple days. The Colts didn't really ask him to do that. You know, like, oh, you know, you're going to have to figure out the communication here. They just basically were like, if he's going to motion inside, stay to the outside, we'll zone it off. Don't worry about

that. Just be good in your coverage assignment. So they did kind of limit his overall role in this one. I think it's going to expand going forward. But for what they asked him to do in this game, he had a great game. Like, he really had a great game. I thought he played really well. So I just, I don't know what, like, why there would be any negative conversation. just because he fell down on a two-point play. All right, cool. Like, whatever. That happens all corners.

That's happened to the best corners. I saw Pat Sertan get beat by Alec Pierce a couple times earlier this year. We're going to get on him for that. He's still a great corner. Like, come on. Like, it's part of the game. But I thought he had a really strong game in that one. Well, I'll say that I was going to say there was probably an underreaction

and it should be an overreaction to the missed extra point by Badgley. Yes. That is, that's an area that it's like, okay, I know that they got him off the street. He wasn't kicking for another NFL team when they signed him, so you're going to have some of that. But that's one of those things. That's, you cannot miss extra points. Each point is too valuable in the NFL. You know, in a league where most games are decided about three points, you know, that one point means a hell of a lot.

So I hope that this week they're taking an opportunity to get that operation down. You know, it's one thing to miss a field goal, you know, but to miss an extra point, no, that's, that needs to be automatic. No, Alan, we've got to go one step further. One step further. It's not okay to miss a field goal either. We've got no more misses. You're supposed to make everything. He was so short, too.

That's terrible. He pushed it right, then whatever. But like in 2025, you really can't be. dramatically short on a 53-yard field bowl in today's NFL, right? Because they juice the balls now. Like, you can pre-treat the balls to make them like soccer balls at this time. You're right? This is how the NFL is now.

So this is why we're seeing kickers make it from like 70, 75 yards in practice and stuff. Cam Little is out there trying 70-something-yard kicks because they're cheating. They're using these juiced up footballs to make kickers seem like they're better than what they actually are. Well, that'll be the most important person is the ball boy to make. right ball right there in the right situation so missing a 50 what a 52 yard kick short in the juice ball this is like this is like hitting a deep fly ball uh you know in a stadium that in a baseball stadium that has like a 200 yard fence like come on they're begging you for you for you to hit home

runs and you can't do it it's probably humid in berlin yeah this is just me hitting kickers but yeah it just can't happen i really wish jake could have got the opportunity to talk to brian Mason this week because we could have talked about the leg trajectory and the wind circumference, I don't know, like just math numbers in there and how, you know, if he would have come in with a 45 degree ankle, he could have knocked it through the uprights. But speaking of Brian Mason, actually, this is, I know Alan and I are taking over this segment. I'll let Jake and Derek get something here, but I think we are under reacting still to how good the special teams unit has been this year.

Oh, God. Despite the kicker there. I know the kicker missed. He did hit the game time. He'll go late, so we'll give the kicker some credit there. But the special teams, like Michigan's saying here in the comment section, like, dude, the special team's been so good this year. The return game in this past one is arguably what saved them the game in a lot of situations.

The way that they were able to get the ball starting at the 40, the 45, the other 40 at times in this game was massive. And then Laquan Treadwell, shout out to the former first round pick, coming up here, getting signed to the active roster. after years and years of being like a guy that people wanted to be like a legit wide receiver accepting his role as a special teamer coming with what three special teams tackles in this game on kick coverage holding the falcons back to the average starting field position of like the 23 24 25 yard line like he played some great football so shout out to brian mason in general

this year i think his special teams units have been great let's clean up the kicking operation a little bit so i don't have to talk about a kicker ever again but brian mason i think has been awesome for the Colts this season. They even had two, a punt return and a kickoff return called back, like really positive ones called back for penalties as well. So they would have had an even, an even better day. But yeah, it's special teams has been really, really good. And keep in mind, that's been without Anthony Gould.

I'm very conflicted because Anthony Gould started to turn it on after I started to challenge him. Keep doing it. But Amir Abdullah and Ashton Doolan have been stud. as kick returners every time the ball's in their hands. I don't think either of them have a bad return this year. And then Josh Downs, I'm still iffy on, but he had a couple great returns in this one.

I mean, he's still, I think he's got to work some things out about where he's out on the field when he elects two or not two field punts. But yeah, God, the return game has been so, so good. And that was a really silent X factor in this, giving them awesome field position to an offense that needed it. I mean, they were productive offense, but their drives were ending in turnovers or turnovers on downs rather than points.

And so just to give them that field position, to give them an even better shot at getting points, incredibly invaluable in this one. The teams that win do these types of things, teams that win are more detail-oriented, teams that win understand how important one special team's play is, how it can affect the outcome of the game. So credit to Brian Mason, but credit to the overall team knowing that, hey, if we can have success in this little area, it's going to make it easier for the offense or it's going to make it easier for the defense.

And we're going to get the outcome that we want. I do think Badgley is going to be an ongoing thing for the remainder of the season. But if I'm making a list of the things, especially in past seasons, that give me the most indigestion when watching the Colts, I'll happily take just a kicker that kind of stinks as opposed to a defense that stinks or gives up 45 points. And he's better than some of the kickers we've had to watch the last couple years. Like the last legs of Venetary out there and Rodrigo Blankenship, like Matt Gay, the last couple of weeks. years like i probably trust him a little bit more than those guys at least like he made the game tie and kick at least you know i can't i was i did my part i asked shane on monday if they were going to evaluate the kicking position this week and he said no so don't shoot the messenger i did

brian mason will evaluate it he'll evaluate it in so many different ways right he has not stopped evaluating it we are going to evaluate the afc south the colts have a commanding lead in the division, but how realistic is the threat from Jacksonville or Houston will project the division over the final half of the season when we return next on the cold squad show. This portion of the show brought you by our friends at Fandul. The NBA is back and there's no better place to get in on the action than Fanduel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Even if you miss the start of the game or you want to ride the hot hand, Fanduel has live bets on everything from who will score next to the fourth quarter comebacks. Hopefully the Pacers

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Fandle.com, sign up today, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. And we're back for a final time here on the Colts Squad Show, Alan Pinkett, Jake Arthur, Zach Hicks, and Derek Schultz, projecting the AMC South. This is a much more fun exercise when you're actually leading the division instead of trying to figure out a way, okay, how do we make up three games here on Houston with eight to play? Colts sitting here at eight and two, as we know, heading into the by. So after this week, the records will even back up again. The bye week has already come for the Texans and the Jaguars.

Houston is four and five. Jacksonville is five and four. And I was just kind of looking at it, guys, because I am, I'm usually not this way, but my wife is this way where she's always thinking about what's the worst that could happen. And I think normally, you know, when you're married to me, maybe that is something that pops into your head. She's thinking of the worst case scenario. So I was trying to think of, okay, what's the worst case scenario here for the Colts and the AFC South, and how realistic is it for Houston or Jacksonville to make a run?

Because some people are saying, oh, no, that's actually bad that Houston came back in one, because if they lost, they'd be dead. But I'm thinking, no, I mean, of course you want the three-game lead, right? So you look at what they, the Colts have a very challenging closing stretch left at KC, both games against Houston, both games against Jacksonville. You've got to go to Seattle, San Francisco, as well that are in that mix. And then you look at Houston, they do have a game left against Tennessee. Jacksonville has both of their games left against Tennessee, important to point out.

But Houston still has Buffalo. They have to go at KC. They've got a tricky game at L.A. against the Chargers, whereas Jacksonville has to go at Denver. Jacksonville has to go at Arizona, who I know has struggled a little bit, but still, that's a tough trip to make. I'll go around the room. It would take either of those teams sweeping the Colts and then going on a huge closing kick. I mean, Houston would have to go seven and one at this point, probably. even if the Colts went three and four,

which is maybe being even overly pessimistic and Jackson would have to go six and two. Zach, I don't want to jinx it or anything like that, but to me it would take an awful lot at this point for the Colts to blow this division lead. Yeah, and the most important part of this is the Colts control their own destiny, not just in the sense where like,

oh, when now you have it, because like obviously that's the case, but in terms of those four divisional games with the two games against Jacksonville and the two games against Houston, if they take care of business in those games, and you know, you at least split, them. Ideally, you want to go three out of the four or four out of the four for sure,

but if you at least split them, you're basically locking in the division at that point. It would be extremely hard for them to come back from that. So as long as you don't just blow all four of those games, you should be okay from the divisional perspective. But yeah, it's the number one thing that you could ask for in the NFL is controlling your own destiny at this point. The Colts know for a fact that they can win this division if they win those couple divisional games and they have four more chances to prove that they're the best team in the

AFC South against those teams. So I don't even really need to look at who those two teams play the rest of the way or who the Colts play outside of the divisional games. I'm circling those four games and saying take care of business here and you win the AFC South for the first time under Chris Ballard and for the first time in what 10 plus years, I'm assuming is what it's been, has to be over 10 years. 2014. Yeah, over 10 years. So just take care of business. New math. Yeah. Yeah. Control your own destiny here, take care of the business and those divisional games. And honestly, I think both those teams look extremely beatable right now. Houston, I think, is the better of the two

teams, like, not just because of the result from this past week, but they have the number one defense in the NFL. It's a very, very good defense. And they've kind of been on the bad side of bad luck in terms of one score games this year and, like, weird red zone efficiency. That'll probably regress back to the mean. And I think there'll be, you know, a fringe playoff team by the end of it. where Jacksonville, I think, is on the other end of the luck spectrum. They've been getting a lot of good luck this year. It kind of came back to Earth this past week against the Texans and we'll see how it trends for them the rest of the way.

But yeah, for the Colts, I think just take care of business in those four games and we're golden. I don't really even need to look at who, you know, like Jacksonville playing Tennessee twice doesn't matter for me if I beat them twice if I beat Jacksonville twice because then I have the division pretty much locked in at that point. So just take care of business against those two teams and I think they'll be good to go. So you agree the Jacksonville curse falls this year. I knew you would be on my side.

It would be nice. It would be nice to see that ball this year, for sure. So I feel like it's crazy to have your four toughest division games remaining in your final seven game slate. I think they're going to go three and one in that one. I think Houston's defense is just very, very good. They're doing a lot of the things that have caused the Colts problems in the last two weeks. So I'm going to say Houston wins one of them. preferably not week 18 just for you never know what you're playing for position-wise they're

wrestling their starters because they have the one seed locked up at that point let houston have that one they can sneak into the playoffs it's fine no you you know with new england's kindergarten schedule that it's going to be a battle to week 18 with with new england for that's true no i think they'll go three and one they'll they'll sweep jacksonville um but i think they'll lose one of them to houston CJ Stroud will be back at that point. The defense will be playing really well for Houston. And it'll just be a bad game for the Colts, probably. But yeah, it's crazy to have, they have games with such weight remaining in the seven-game stretch

while also having some that carry no weight whatsoever, like the 49ers and the Seahawks. Like they're barometer games. And like if they lose badly, teams will, or people nationally will. be quite ill of them. But at the same time, the weaker games on their schedule are the ones that mean the most. So we'll see how it goes. But I do think they'll mostly take care of business in those ones. So it goes without saying every game is important.

In every game, you try to weight it equal. But the division games are an emergency. Right? because I go back to remember how I say you win your first game, when your home games, win your division. And if you do that, now they're in a position to win a division. How about home field for the rest of the playoffs? You know, so there is a lot to play for.

And the only thing is there has to be so much more urgency in your division games. But you don't want to beat yourself up if you lose. As long as you split, as long as you split those division games, the goals you have in front of you are still attainable. You want to win them all, but you got to think about how urgent the Texans and the Jaguars are going to play. I mean, it's going to be like a Super Bowl for them. I mean, they're going to be fighting and scratching and clawing. And, I mean, the Colts will do the same, but it's going to be a Herculane effort on the part of the teams that are trailing you in division.

I know how that is when you're looking up at another team. And it's like you're going to go have your best performance against that team that is up on top right now. So I think that the Colts just need to accept that challenge. I know they will accept that challenge. They're having too much fun. eating that ass, you know, so they will gladly accept, you know, playing these teams in the division. But if I had to, they're going to have focus. Every game's a Super Bowl, you know, but those division games take on much more importance to get them to where they need to be. Yeah, kind of two

different things, right? If we're talking about just winning the division, Alan's right. all they really have to do is split those games, and there's really not much of a conceivable way that Houston or Jacksonville are going to win the division. But if you went home field for more than just a game, because we're suddenly, you know, if you go 11 and 6th with the way Denver and New England and New England schedule is you're suddenly talking about

maybe only getting one home game in the playoffs. And that's a problem too. And not only mentioning, you know, not finishing as the top seating, getting the buy and all of those things as well. But man, it's just been so long. since they've won this division guys that I started handicapping it trying to think okay can they actually win something tangible this year because

they haven't won it in 11 seasons now yeah yeah and I'm selfish I want to I want the undefeated home record this year I because I think they have a real chance at that I mean if you're it's kind of funny if you're looking at the remaining schedule here and this could come back to bite me here but like the worst teams they play are probably the Texans Jaguars and 49ers right like the Seahawks and Chiefs are on a different level from those teams in my opinion and you get the those are your three home games left i want that undefeated home record so for me at the very least down the stretch here i want those three wins i want those three wins at home take care of business your two divisional games at home uh get that

49ers went at home in prime time and then the rest is just cake after that like get get me some more wins for sure but like when those home games show that you are just this unbeatable force at home like they have shown all season long i want to see them take care of business in those games. You know, every other team in the division has won it twice since the Colts last won it at all. But Colts are going to win it by so many games this year that it's like winning it twice. It's perfectly. Exactly.

And Jake, not to bring up bad memories, but remember there were consecutive december's where Brandon Whedon and Brock Osweiler came in here with the Texans. And all the Colts had to do was beat the Texans at home and they lost both of those games. And the only year, there's a little bit of an asterisk. right because 2018 the Colts by the end of the year were clearly the best team in the division they went and smacked Houston in Houston and that was a team that just got off to a slow start and whatever else so yes they weren't division champs but they went and smacked the division chair or can I say beat that ass Alan already said it right I was 21 nothing or 21 7 or whatever he was so that that felt like a division championship year even though it wasn't technically a division championship year but I know it's just kind of been a black mark on the Colts the last 10 years that largely it's been the NFL's worst division and you haven't found a way to win it. Yeah.

Well, the rel on their pace on their way this year, just win your home games and we're good to go this season. You know, I would love for the Colts to be in a position where they say on the very last game, we're going to rest our starters. But I don't know if that's good for you or not. I mean, I look at the Lions and the Lions are like, no, we're going to play because you got to keep that rhythm, you know. But then it didn't work out for them in the playoffs.

You know, so I would just love to be in that predicament where you say, you know what, I might rest the starters. You guys can go ahead and win if you want, but you know you're going to be home for Christmas. You're saying that to the wrong fan base right now. The conversation throughout all the early 2000s was should we have actually wrested our starter? Should we have gone for undefeated?

Should we have kept them going? I wasn't even a Colts fan back then, but I remember all those conversations back then. there may have been a game against the Jets one of those years and there may have been a player named Curtis Painter who the Colts put in in the shadow of his own end zone and it may have gone poorly and fans may still be a little bit upset about it.

But we won't get into that. Thanks for joining us on the Colts squad show. Lock us in for your midweek show every Wednesday night at 9 p.m. But don't forget that we are your place for live game recaps following each and every Colts game this season. But what do you mean, Schultz? There's no game on Sunday. Well, yeah, there's no game on Sunday.

We're still going to be with you later that evening to recap the relevant NFL action. There's an interesting Chiefs Chargers game that night and how it impacts the Colts as they head into that really tough stretch that we talked about on tonight's show. So that'll be right around 8 o'clock right here on the Locked On Colts network. But until then, keep it locked on Jake and Zach every single day on Locked on Colts. Be sure to follow at Lockdown Colts on socials and check out our other great content on YouTube and TikTok. And we'll see you next time right here on the Colts Squad show.