Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - EXPLOSIVE: Indianapolis Colts Use Josh Downs to Find Downfield Mojo | Edge Group is Underwhelming
Episode Date: September 29, 2026The Indianapolis Colts' passing game found its explosiveness again in Week 3. What went into it, and how can they keep it up?Fourth-year defensive tackle Adetomiwa Adebawore had a great game in an exp...anded role last week.The edge group has been as underwhelming as feared, including Laiatu Latu as a pass rusher.Photo Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images EVERYDAYER CLUBIf you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans.Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclub 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 and Zach's written work on ColtsRoundtable.com, and give them a follow on Twitter: @JakeArthurNFL, @ZachHicks2, and @LockedOnColts! Today's episode is brought to you by Kalshi. For a limited time, download Kalshi and use code Locked On to get $25 when you trade $25. Kalshi. Trade what’s next. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!HomeChefFor a limited time, Home Chef is offering my listeners FIFTY PERCENT OFF and free shipping for your first box PLUS free dessert for life! Go to http://HomeChef.com/LOCKEDONNFL. GustoTry Gusto today at http://gusto.com/LOCKEDONNFL, and get three months free when you run your first payroll.Gameday Men's HealthBook your complimentary test and consult at https://join.gamedaymenshealth.com/reasons_to_choose_gameday-1201?utm_source=lockedon&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=NFL&utm_network=lockedon&utm_adgroup=corp&ghl_tag=national,corpButcher BoxIf you're looking for an easier way to get great meals on the table, give ButcherBox a try. Go to https://ButcherBox.com/LOCKEDONNFL to get $20 off your first box, plus your choice of free ribeye, new york strip, or filet mignon in every box for a year — with free shipping always.AppleYou can earn up to 3% unlimited Daily Cash back on every purchase you make with Apple Card using Apple Pay. Apply in the Wallet app on your iPhone today. Subject to credit approval. Apple Card issued by Goldman Sachs Bank, USA. Salt Lake City Branch. Terms and more at apple-card-dot-com.https://learn.applecard.apple/unlimited-daily-cash?cid=apy-318-2000008800000-400000000000039&itscg=2030032&itsct=srvs-crd-P3004756-C3004897&mttnagencyid=c1a&mttnsiteid=133087&mttnpid=LockedOn%20%28Audio%29&mttnsubad=srvs-crd-P3004756-C3004897&mttnsubplmnt=&mttncc=USIndeedListeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/podcast.PrizePicksVisit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONNFL and use code LOCKEDONNFL and get $150 if you win your first $5 lineup!KALSHIToday's episode is brought to you by Kalshi. For a limited time, Download Kalshi and use code Locked On to get $25 when you trade $25. Kalshi. Trade what’s next.GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelGet three hundred fifty dollars in Bonus Bets — GUARANTEED — when you bet five dollars every day for seven days. Join all the action at https://FANDUEL.COMFANDUEL 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.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
The Indianapolis Colts passing game finally found some life against the Houston Texans.
Can it continue going forward?
Let's get to it.
You are Locked-on Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast.
Part of the Locked-On Podcast Network, your team every day.
Welcome to Locked-on Colts.
I'm Zach Hicks.
That's Jake Arthur, and today's episode is brought to you by Kalshi.
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How she, trade what's next.
On today's episode, we're going to be diving into some, like, film-related topics, really getting into the nitty-gritty today.
We're going to talk a lot about this Colts pass rush, some good and bad with it.
To close out today's show, we're going to talk about the edge rush room and how, as a pass-rushing unit, it has been dreadful off the edge for the Colts this year.
But we're going to talk about something positive as well, which has been the breakout of Atatamio-A-Dabore and how this can hopefully continue going forward for the team.
But our main topic for this show is the Colts passing game and how it has been a kind of weird this season, Jake.
It's been a really weird passing attack.
The average depth of target and overall yards per attempt for Daniel Jones and the offense has come tumbling all the way down from being in the top 10 for most of last season.
It is now near the bottom of the NFL outside the top like 25, I think, is where they're at right now in terms of yards per attempt.
But we did see a little bit of a bounce back against the Houston Texans, which weird.
was their first full game without Alec Pierce in the lineup.
So for some statistical input here, in weeks one through two, the Colts only had five of
their 67 dropbacks for Daniel Jones result in a passing play of over 15 yards.
That's just 7.4%.
But in week three against the Houston Texans, no Alec Pierce.
That number climbed up to 19.5%, eight of their 41 dropbacks in that game.
So we did see a big improvement in this past game, but we do need to see that continue going forward for the team.
Yeah, without a doubt.
And I think it's been fairly obvious.
Like when you just look at kind of the game plan, some of the concepts they've been trying to work on.
I think they've been really trying to get the yak working and it hasn't been.
Like defenses are prepared for it.
And then so this last week, they were actively pushing things downfield a little bit more and not relying on
screens to develop downfield and this and that.
And I felt like even the screens that they were kind of instituting,
there wasn't like a lot of room to run ahead of time.
Like the defenders were just right there and there weren't free blockers waiting for it.
I feel like the only guy who really gets home on those screens is Jonathan Taylor.
I mean, we saw some success, obviously, with Tyler Warren early last year,
but it's been a while since that's really been a successful statement.
of their offense.
And they've been trying to get that going.
But I think really, you know, things over the middle to Josh Downs have been really,
really successful.
We saw it a couple weeks ago as well that a couple really productive plays with him
on like the first drive.
And then obviously he was very, you know, very much involved last week as well.
And Keenan Allen, it seems like they're figuring that out a little bit,
although he's not obviously going to be your explosive guy.
He's more of a chain mover.
But I definitely think we've seen an improvement.
Like just because Alec Pierce isn't out there doesn't mean you can't push the ball down the field a little bit.
Those downfield and breaking shots, like the one to tread well, for example, they got the coverage they wanted.
And they just got exactly what they were looking for on that play.
So I think there's avenues for them to remain successful.
obviously as you've got on here Darius Slayton hopefully by this point you know next week
we'll have played his first game with the Colts I think they're only getting like two true
practices out of this week I think the rest of it is going to be walk through because they're
leaving for London on Thursday night so I think he was probably relatively close to playing last
week but I think him being out there gives them an extra downfield option ashtadoulin eventually will
be out there, hopefully, you know, within a week or two. But, you know, reinforcements are on the way.
I think Tyler Warren, there's probably ways you can use him as well, like, as well, like corner
routes for him, going up the seam for him. I think he certainly could be a difference maker when
it comes to that. Yeah, for sure. I think the Colts really had to self-scout after the first two weeks.
They were trying to run a lot of the things that worked last year, which was, you know,
you have Alec Pierce more on the vertical and intermediate plane, and he's just going to be your
dominant guy there where everyone else works in the underneath game, occasionally get that other
receiver running some bang eights and some dig routes. But by and large, it was all Alec Pierce
working on the vertical plane. And a lot of everything else was run after the catch, especially
with Tyler Warren in the flats. And through the first two weeks this season, that just wasn't a
viable option, especially when Pierce went down in week two. They didn't really have that player
that could work on the vertical plane, aside from that one Laquan Treadwell bond that they hit in
overtime. So they didn't have anything over the top. And then the intermediate game,
was so clogged up and congested.
So that wasn't really working.
The Tyler Warren Flats have not been working at all.
So we saw this big change in identity, I think, in week three against the Houston Texans,
where it was a lot of inbreakers.
It was a lot of testing up the seams and testing the middle of the field and making sure
that they are pulling these matched zone concepts apart and then finding a guy right in the
middle of those zones to really work up field and create explosives that way.
It's not really relying on the yak so much this past week, as much as reliance.
on the depth of target being more so down the field.
So we did see a bit of a change.
I would say it was a lot more similar to like what the Lions and the 49ers have done in
recent years in terms of just, again, tacking the middle of the field zones against
a team like the Houston Texans who likes to run more zone coverage than man.
And then we saw the Colts find some success that way.
I do think that needs to be the trend going forward.
Like when you look at Daniel Jones, he seems much more comfortable just ripping balls
over the middle of the field, then he does throwing them outside the numbers. When you get outside
the numbers, he's a little bit late sometimes, hesitates a little bit. And that's when we saw,
like, the long interception was throwing it outside the numbers and just a bad decision
throwing it outside the numbers there, where I think he feels a little bit more comfortable throwing
it to the middle of the field. And he's shown good aggressiveness this year at testing those middle
of the field windows. So I think with Alec Pierce out, testing more of the middle of the field
is going to be where you want to go with this team. And also just having more of those max
protect shot plays. Like take out a lot of the play action slide because it's just not working right now.
It can come back on occasion, but it's not going to work. But those max protection like shot plays
where it's like seven guys are in there blocking and you only have two to three receivers out
in the like out there running routes, I think those can work like they did last year just to attack
space in zone coverage. So there are ways to generate explosives without Alec Pierce. It's going to be
difficult for this offense. But we saw on Sunday that there were ways to move the ball down the
field in some chunks at least. Again, like 19% explosive pass rate is good. I'd want to see even more
going forward. But I do think that, like, we saw a step in the right direction. And as you mentioned,
like, Darius Slagin needs to be more active and involved next week. Like, he needs to be activated
and on the field a good bit. And just adding that the guy with some gravity on the field will help
open up that middle of field even more. So I think we're going to see more positive trends this way.
If you look at any chart right now, the Colts explosive pass rate is like near the bottom because those first two weeks were so awful.
But they did start to find a way against the Houston Texans.
And I think they have a good answer to generate explosives against zone coverage as of right now, attacking the middle of the field.
The next step is how can we generate explosives against man coverage?
They're going to get a test this week against the Minnesota Vikings because they blitz a lot in play.
Or sorry, the commanders who come from that Minnesota Vikings tree.
who blitz a lot and drop into man and aggressive zone coverage as well.
So how can they generate explosives versus man?
Maybe that's Darius Slayton.
That's going to be the big test this week for the Colts.
Exactly.
I was just about to say the same thing.
It's funny because we're talking about what just worked against Houston,
but that's not necessarily going to be what we think might happen this Sunday.
Very blitz heavy.
And there's secondary.
Washington secondary is kind of dreadful.
Am I right?
Yeah, my boy, Mike, he's had a rough time.
My boy Mikey Sandor Stills had a rough time.
The regression of San Rostil is crazy.
But like, think about, like, I've seen some low lights of him, like, up against, like, good
route runners out of the slot.
Josh Downs is, like, unbelievable creating separation so far this year.
He might get San Rostil benched.
Well, Mike, he plays outside there.
He actually plays outside corner.
Yeah, he's an outside corner for the commanders.
Okay.
So he started as their nickel, though, yeah?
Nickel in his first year and he moved at outside corner of the last.
two years. So the Colts will find ways to try to get him on downs, like moving downs in motion
and getting him outside the numbers, because I'm sure that's the matchup to exploit. But yeah,
no, for some reason, Sanders still is still an outside corner, I believe, for them.
Well, that's the whole problem right there. I didn't even know that. And I could tell you,
that's exactly what the problem is. But no, yeah, but continue buying all of the Josh downstock
this week, I would say. Yeah, definitely, especially if we're going to get the splits-heavy approach.
But yeah, generating explosives versus man is going to be the next step for the Colts.
but I think they are finding solutions against zone coverage like they did against the Houston Texans.
Coming up, though, we're going to transition this talk to the past rush.
We're going to start positive with the breakout of our boy at Atomioa, Atabore, before we go into the negatives with the edge rush to close out today's show.
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All righty, Locked on Colts,
everydayers, we are back talking about a subject that is near and dear to Jake and
his hearts.
But before we do that, don't forget to check out the Everydayer Club for ad-free
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All right, Jake, so this is something that we've, I think we have a subject,
like a part of our show talk about him all the time, right?
We love this player to death.
We've been pounding the table for him to get more snaps the last like three
seasons, and it seems like we are finally getting like the full Atatomio, Atabore experience this year.
Like, it took a minute last year for him to get in the lineup, it took an injury to DeForest Buckner
for him to get some serious run.
It took an injury to Michael Clemens early this year for him to get back into the role
that he deserved.
But we are finally seeing Tommy get into that role next to Buckner that he so deserves and the
Colts desperately need him to be.
So far, per Sumer Sports this season, he has an 18.8% preference.
rate, which is fifth among all defensive tackles in the league.
His 12.5% pass rush win rate is top 25 among defensive tackles with a minimum of 30
pass rushing reps.
One and a half sacks, six pressures as well.
And just, again, there's just those 32 pass rushing snaps this year for the Colts.
His sack rate of 4.7% also is in the top three among defensive tackles.
So it's a very, very small sample size.
So I don't want to just say like, okay, this is what he's going to be all year.
but in this small sample size, we've seen some really good things from Tommy.
The Colts third down defense is exponentially better with him on the field next to the Forrest Buckner,
especially in four-man rushing opportunities where we just let them go to work.
And this is, again, this is something that needed to be happening early in the year.
We're not going to complain too much right now about the fact that it didn't happen in the first two weeks,
but the fact that the Colts rolled it out, he was basically a designated pass rusher against the Houston Texans.
In 15 pass rushing snaps, he had the one and a half sat.
and multiple pressures.
It really worked for the team.
And from what Luann Rumo said today, Jake,
and you can elaborate on this,
it seems like that's going to be the plan going forward.
Yeah, I think they kind of dumb lucked their way into this really working out.
And now with Michael Clemens' injury,
they can kind of conveniently packages this is the plan all along.
But no, to our credit, you and me,
when we did our predictions, like our last minute predictions before the season started,
we said this could be a sneaky guy.
It gets like seven or eight sacks.
Just kind of randomly pops up there like Dio did.
And I mean, so far the guy has been unquestionably their next best pass rusher with DeForest Buckner.
As we'll get to shortly, you're not really getting it out of the edge group.
So if you're getting, like DeForest Buckner is playing like as often as he ever has.
So if you're getting that guy who's like always on the field and there's really only one other guy that's just
generating consistent pressure, you got to bring him in.
You got to find ways to keep him involved.
And I guess partly good news is that it's from the interior.
If you got two guys who can line up together, both providing interior pressure, that's
unbelievable.
Any defensive coordinator will tell you, yes, I will take interior pressure all day
long, bother the quarterback by getting upright in their face.
Most quarterbacks, that's a huge problem.
You could get with guys like Lamar Jackson, and they can just bounce out.
outside, whatever, but most players who aren't just like unbelievable on their feet, like a
CJ Stroud or most pocket passers, that's going to be a big, big problem for them.
So if the Colts are not going to have a lot of success off the edges, at least they've got
two guys that can line up simultaneously that can just quickly defeat even pretty good
interior offensive linemen.
I feel like last year we saw Tommy get some really impressive wins against high end.
interior offensive line guys. Yeah, no, for sure. He's been developing a lot the last couple of years,
and his two-hand swipe and then bend around the corner is one of the best in football. Like, when he
wins with that two-hand swipe, it is hard to keep him in front of you because he is so fast. But
the value of having two really good pass rushers rushing next to each other on the interior is so,
so high. I mean, because just to be very like in layman's terms with this, when you have a five-man
protection, right, five offensive linemen versus four defensive linemen, right, just
just your upright, upright five versus four rush, you're going to slide the offensive line one direction, right?
And sometimes you slide that to the biggest threat.
So if it's DeForest Buccner, we're going to slide towards DeForest Bulkner.
But also, depending on alignment up front, you'll slide it to more of like the one tech or the guy in the A gap instead of the guy to the B gap.
But when you have two guys up there and one of them is much, much better than the other, you will try to slide it towards that guy more often than not, right?
So if you want to slide it towards DeForest Buckner, you need to have another threat on the other side who is going to make them pay for leaving that block one-on-one-on-one.
And when you had Michael Clemens in there, or the last couple of years, Taekwon Lewis being in there, I mean, Dio on occasion could make guys, could get that pressure there.
But I don't think we really have it to the, like, what out of Tommy Wadabori can do in terms of how fast he can win that one-on-one matchup, right?
He is the fastest pass rush winner the Colts have,
even more so than DeForest Buckner on some of these occasions, right?
So I think having that next to Buckner is so valuable because if you want to slide your protection
to Buckner and take Buckner away on these four-man rushes, Tommy is so fast and so quick
that he can disrupt what you want to do in the backfield.
Now, there's still areas for him to get better.
Like he still needs to throttle down and finish some of these sacks.
But having him next to Buckner, I think, is so valuable for this team.
And to answer the final question here, where everyone is everyone,
one's like, why don't we just put him at edge?
Like, let's put him at edge rusher.
He is way too linear of a player to play edge rusher.
He's also like 285 pounds, and he's a straight line player.
He would not be very good rushing the passer off the edge.
So I think they have him in the perfect spot where rush him inside next to Buckner on these
third downs, on these second and longs, end of half, end of game situations,
and make the opposing team pick which guy they want to double.
And the other guy gets that one-on-one.
Like, we all hope they just double Tommy all the time because then Buckner gets the one to one.
But if they want to double Buckner, you have the chance for a quick winner with Tommy on the other side.
So I think this is a match made in heaven.
I think these two guys work so well next to each other as pass rushers.
And if Tommy's going to get 15 snaps a week, I'm fine with that as long as all 15 of them are rushing the passer.
Right.
I was frustrated the first two weeks where he was getting like 14 snaps, but they were as Buckner's backup, you know?
like he would come in when Buckner was off the field, and we only got like five snaps of them together,
six snaps of them together. This last week, we got 14 of them together in pass rushing situations,
and it led to great success for the Colts. So continue this going forward, and the Colts can have
some semblance of a pass rush this season. Yeah, I think one thing that makes him, Tommy, so successful,
is he's linearly explosive, yes, but his frame is very unique. Like, he's sure, he's six foot two.
So, I mean, we're seeing more and more now guys who were tackles in college.
Maybe they had the height, but they don't translate to tackles in the NFL to get kicked inside.
So, like, the size discrepancy, you know, low man wins.
And Tommy is usually going to be the low man, just already by height.
Do you remember what we compared him to after the Colts drafted him?
Oh, man.
It's a Pokemon.
on.
Is it Gio dude?
We compared him to Gio dude.
Do you remember that?
Now I do.
He's exactly like that.
These real long arms, but he's a ball.
He's so compact in the middle, but he's got these super long arms and he's explosive.
So Atatamiwa is Gio dude, and it's getting better all the time.
Well, he was a grappler last year, and now he's a Gallum this year.
Going back to my old Gen 1 or Gen 2, whatever it was.
Pokemon knowledge, but yeah, no, I think he's evolving this year from that geo dude even further.
That was great.
Yeah, so Tommy is taking a big step forward, but what about the edge rush room?
So for every positive, there is a negative, and this cult edge rush room has been just as bad against the pass as we expected.
And we're going to talk about that here in just a moment.
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All righty, Locked on Colts Every Dayers.
We are back for a final time.
And I'm going to start this segment here with a question, Jake.
What was our biggest concern coming into the year, Jake?
Edge.
And what has been the biggest concern through three weeks?
Besides Daniel Jones' turnovers, besides Daniel Jones turnovers, what's been the biggest concern so far?
Edge.
Wow, you're two for two on this quiz here.
Sweet.
Yeah, it has been rough when it comes to the pass rush off the edge for the Colts.
We just talked about how Atatomo Atabore has an 18.8% pressure rate and 12.5% pass rush win rate.
None of the edge rushers have met that total so far this season.
Arden Key has been their best pass rusher this year.
This is all according to Sumer Sports.
Again, check them out.
They do a great job over there.
12.8% pressure rate and 11.5% pass rush win rate for Arden Key.
Perfectly fine if that's your fourth pass rusher, but he's kind of been their third best pass rusher this season.
not the best look.
The more concerning one here is Laotu Latu with only a 9.3% pressure rate and a 6.7% pass rush win rate.
Now, there are some, you know, he is their, like, strong edge rusher, right?
So he has to take on more, like, run defense assignments and more.
He's doing more contain rushing.
So that is a little bit to the numbers there, but you still want to see that closer to at least 10%.
6.7% pass rush win rate is brutal.
And then Jalen 2M a lowout, 9.1% pressure rate and 6.1% pass rush win rate as well.
But I think even the bigger number here, Jake, on all late down snaps,
I think they've combined for like 70-something late-down pass-rushing snaps altogether.
Only four pressures between this trio on late-down pass rushes.
So really the Colts pass rush this year has come down to can they get home with the Blitz
or can Tommy and Buckner get there?
Because these edge rushers, especially on money downs, like third down, fourth down,
they are not getting it done.
No.
And I think there's some context to it, but it's not an excuse because it still needs to be better.
But when you're looking at this being against like Lamar Jackson and Patrick Mahomes
and those offenses being in control and the run games being the engine for those offenses
throughout those matchups, I guess it's not going to lend itself to a ton of, like,
opportunities as much as it would like Sunday against Houston when they had to pass.
They could not run.
They had to pass.
They were playing from behind the entire game.
I think the shame of it is I was starting to have a good feeling about LAT to how he would
look against Houston.
I thought he looked explosive early, especially going into that play where he ultimately
got that chest contusion and got hurt.
hurt. And then obviously I think that limited him from out. He obviously did not play as much.
Really only came in on like critical downs after that. Hopefully he's good, you know, starting this
week in Washington and moving forward. But I'm still, I'm still hopeful that it will be fine. But it
doesn't negate the fact that it has not even been remotely good enough. I'll then pass this to you.
Is this yet another example of someone not being used to the best of their abilities?
Because when you get a Laiatu, Latu, you kind of want him to be your primary pass rush,
or not necessarily your strong side end, right?
Yes, but I would argue this.
He's the better option than Arden Key, I understand.
But I would argue that this is probably the best role for Lottu.
I really think, like, again, this is why I didn't like taking him at 15 back when the Colts
took him that high.
I think the best role for him is to be the Robin to another edge rusher's Batman, right?
To be the secondary guy, be the strong side rusher.
Because I will say this, his run defense this year has been the best I've ever seen it.
When teams are trying to pull tight ends out in front, he sets such a hard edge.
I think he does an outstanding job with that.
His overall awareness and his feel for like what an opposing team is doing is at very high level.
Like if a play action rolls to his side, you are seeing some really good things from him.
I think the play he got hurt was him getting in the way of like a play.
to his side and stuff, and I think we see some good moments there. I think he's a quality
football player. I don't think he's a one-on-one edge rush winner because he just doesn't have
that athleticism that you need, and he never has. Like, he won in college because he was a 25-year-old
guy, 24-year-old guy with really good hands and just the ability to beat bad college tackles.
But when you get to the NFL, you need a little bit more than just the hands. You need to have
some kind of bend or some kind of power. And I think he's developed the power.
a good bit, and he's a good contain rusher and a guy who can win late and finish sacks if they're
on his side. But I don't think he's going to be a guy where it's like, okay, go out and get a wide
nine against this tackle and just beat him all day like you're seeing with Will Anderson on the
other side, right? He's just nowhere near that caliber of player. And I don't know if he'll ever be
that because he has limitations. So if they would have got Trey Hendricks in this offseason,
I think this four-man rush would have worked really well. And again, I'm not saying I wanted them to sign
entry,
Hendrickson, I think long term, that's going to be a bad deal for the Ravens.
But I think in terms of this year, that would have been a great signing for the Colts
because it would have made Latu more of the Robin.
And now he's still kind of the Robin, but he's the Robin to Arden Key, you know, where,
like, he's been a fine pass rusher, but he's a dreadful run defender.
And, you know, giving him all these snaps is maybe a net negative for the Colts,
maybe like a net neutral for the Colts in general.
Like, he's been all right.
like he's a fine player to have, but it's not the same.
And it makes you have to expect more out of lot too, which, again, he was taking
15th overall.
You should be expecting more, but I just don't think he's ever going to live up to that in the NFL.
He's a fine football player.
And, you know, as your third or fourth best rusher in the group, perfectly fine.
And maybe he can be your third best guy going forward now because you have Tommy and Buckner
being your one-two punch.
But, you know, you probably want more because of the drafts.
I actually think he's being used in a good way.
It's just this is kind of what the role calls for with him.
I think the bigger question is just to him a lowow is just kind of a run defender.
You're not really getting anything as a pass rusher.
And then Arden Key, a fine pass rusher in a bad run defender.
So the room in general is just so underwhelming for a team that needs to win this season.
Yeah, that's a tough pill to swallow because there's a lot writing on Latsu's development
and success as a pass rusher.
So if they don't have that, that's just going to be.
a big miss.
I don't know the likelihood of it happening,
especially the latter portion here.
But with Clemens' injury,
and, I mean,
Tua Molo out isn't,
I don't think he's, like, necessarily locked
into this significant third-edge role.
Like, I think if a Caden Curry
keeps getting better and better,
I think he could even find his way into being
that guy that gets, like, the third-most snaps at edge,
which I would be very much in,
favor for. I really see good things in his future. I just think he's always around the ball.
But I want to know what it's going to take to get George Gums active. I thought we would get it
on Sunday with Clemens out and them just needing an extra edge. But then they activated
Ajikay, even though he was a healthy scratch the week before. So I don't really know what they're going to, you know,
it's maybe just a week by week basis. But I would like to at least see what Gumbs can do because he's kind of
lightning in a bottle, it seems. Like he's an athletic.
explosive player and sometimes just being the better athlete if you've got the get-off can put you
in the right place at the right time yeah no i agree i'd like to see him out there at some point this
year too but we'll see how this develops going forward i just think this edge room is probably
maxed out at what it's going to be at this point and we complained about it going into the year i don't
like i don't know like we kind of figured this is how it was going to be so hopefully tommy and buckner
can carry us to the promised land if you guys don't
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