Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts: AD Mitchell has Potential to Be a Star

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Indianapolis Colts drafted A.D. Mitchell to be the starting ex-receiver of the future. Does he have what it takes to hold down that job? 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. Thank you all for tuning in and making us your first listen of the day. This is your daily podcast covering your Indianapolis Colts, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Today's episode is brought to you by Monopoly Go.

Starting point is 00:00:38 I admit it, I have a competitive side, and it is a big fan of Monopoly Go, the mobile hit twist on the classic Monopoly. So join your friends and download Monopoly Go, now free on the App Store or Google Play. Hello, everyone. I'm Zach Hicks of HorseshoeHuddle.com and your favorite co-host here over on the Locked On Colts podcast. Today, I am joined by a Twitter favorite here, ColtsFilmRoom, at ColtsFilmRoom, just a fast riser right now on Colts Twitter sphere. And we're doing a face reveal today. Ben Boris. So Ben Boris is the man behind Colts film room. And I brought him on here today to talk about A.D. Mitchell. We're going to go into everything A.D. Mitchell. We're going to

Starting point is 00:01:17 go into his ceiling and the upside with his game. We're going to talk about some of the concerns. And I want to talk about that day one role that he has in this Indianapolis offense. But first, Ben, man, welcome. Welcome to the podcast. Welcome to Indianapolis. Yeah, welcome to Indianapolis, and welcome to the face reveal here on the show. Yeah, I'm excited. I know this has been something we wanted to do for a while, and I feel like there's no better player than A.D. Mitchell. So I'm excited. Yeah. Yeah. So talking AD Mitchell, man. Now this is a player where you were a little bit higher on him than I was in the pre-draft process, but he was still a guy where I struggled with my pre-draft analysis because

Starting point is 00:01:56 the ceiling is just unmatched. Like aside from Malik neighbors and Marvin Harrison Jr. I don't know if there was a higher upside receiver in this class. So when you're watching film of a guy like Mitchell, what are you seeing? Like, what can this guy kind of like realistically turn into if you know, everything goes right? Yeah, that's a great question. I, I kind of think, and I don't blame a lot of people for not being as high on them. Cause I almost compare them a little bit to, to JJ McCarthy in the sense that, you know, people talked about how, you know, the more film you watch, the more you like. And I think that was a lot when it came to A.D. Mitchell because the production profile is kind of slim. So you have some like very little reps to go off of.

Starting point is 00:02:38 But man, like you could see him separate versus press, separate versus off coverage, separate versus outside technique, separate versus inside technique, separate on slants. And it just felt like he was winning routes and he was getting open. And for whatever reason, that didn't necessarily translate into production, but you just saw so much nuance to his game that you just didn't see from a lot of the receivers in this class. I think he's going to be able to bring a lot of that right away just because it's something that the Colts are missing. Yeah, I think that the main things I wrote down in his game, obviously, again, we're going to talk about the production profile and that when we talk about the concerns,

Starting point is 00:03:16 but the main things I wrote down as positives when I first evaluated him was the ability to beat press coverage, the ability to just be smooth at his size. I mean, he is a smooth mover, really smooth operator. And again, this is not like, you know, Xavier Worthy on the other side, who's five, you know, well, it feels like he's 5'8". He's actually six foot, 1'8", 165.

Starting point is 00:03:35 But, you know, you could tell how Worthy is smooth through his cuts, but Mitchell's almost smoother on the other side. Yeah, despite being 6'2", 210, 2-05 whatever it was that he played at last year so you see the smoothness you see the ability to deconstruct press coverage and then you see that red zone ability too something that the Colts have really lacked the last couple years so the upside man like what's where's the negative in that you know like where's the negative in everything I just said that That seems like a perfect X receiver.

Starting point is 00:04:09 Yeah, and I think, like you said, being 6'2", 205, and run a 4.38, that's no joke. That size-speed combination isn't something that the Colts have, and you can point to Alec Pierce, but I think what makes A.D. Mitchell so good is that he can get out of the breaks at 6'2", 205. And you'll see him run double moves. I mean, he had one versus Kansas State where, like, they had ran just like a three-step slant,

Starting point is 00:04:31 and then he turned that into a sluggo. And, I mean, Quinn Ewers, or it might not have been Quinn that game, but they missed him. But he got out of that double move like it was nothing. And I think a lot of receivers, when they get to that, you watch them on film and you see them run a lot of these double moves. They get so excited to put the move on the corner and then break out and expect to be just wide open. And a lot of the times they just run to coverage because they didn't take the time to actually sell it. I think that's where AD has so much nuance in his game, where he is patient and then he can stick his foot in the ground

Starting point is 00:05:05 and just plant and drive and accelerate out of the brakes. And I think that's something that obviously Jim Bob Cooter and Shane Steichen have alluded to it and something that I think the Colts need, especially with Anthony Richardson. It's so helpful to have a wide receiver that doesn't just win on a route, but separates. I mean, there's yards of distance between him and a corner, and that gives you so much confidence in what you're seeing as when you're going through your reads as a quarterback, when you see a guy that open. Yeah. And I think what's interesting about his ability as a separator too, is we saw last year with this Colts team, the two big separators on this team were Josh Downs and Kylan Granson. Those are the two separators in the Colts offense,

Starting point is 00:05:46 and they're facing very advantageous situations. You and I talk about it all the time on social media. We talk about Josh Downs as the weak side too in empty personnel. He's facing a linebacker the majority of the time. You look at Kylan Granson, he's facing linebackers when he's basically a wide receiver out there. So they're facing advantageous looks, whereas your other receivers, even Michael Pittman Jr., who's a fantastic player, fantastic player,

Starting point is 00:06:10 he's not a pure separator. You know, he can get open, but he's not this, you know, creating three yards of separation every single route or anything like that. When you have a guy like Mitchell who's going to be facing press at a high rate in the NFL because he's going to be that X, having a guy who can separate as that X wide receiver and be smooth out of those breaks. I mean, it's like what Jim Bob Cooter says, like the way that he can keep his speed while he's turning and coming out of his breaks. It's just a rare ability that an X receiver can have. Yeah. And I think when the

Starting point is 00:06:38 Colts had to have it, had to have that separation, needed that easy throw. I mean, a lot of the times it was a go route and then an option by downs. That was what they had. That and then kind of just banking on an RPO game on first and second down to give Pittman, whether it's a slim post or some sort of slant off some sort of inside zone from JT. So I think having a guy like Mitchell where it's like, we got to have it like it's third down. We need that.

Starting point is 00:07:09 We need you to win and we need you to separate. AD Mitchell can bring you that in the intermediate areas, which I think you're winning at the NFL right now. And then also, I mean, he still runs four, three, eight. You can still get a lot of those big play ability from them. And still be able to like, I know Anthony Richardson wanted someone with speed and I'm sure he got it between him and Anthony gold. So. Yeah. Yeah. Anthony gold's fun too. We'll talk about Anthony gold,

Starting point is 00:07:34 I'm sure in the future, but you know, one more thing I wanted to mention before we move out of this first segment too, is I saw a lot of overlap between what Sarkeesian was doing at Texas last year and a lot with what the Colts do this year, or did this past year with the offense. Now, again, a little bit different here and there, like not a perfect match there.

Starting point is 00:07:53 But did you kind of notice that too, watching that Texas offense where it's like, okay, like I can see like the RPO game was very similar. A lot of the way that they put stress on defenders, it seemed fairly similar to what the Colts were doing. I completely agree. And I think a lot of, I mean, credit to Steve Sarkeesian in that offense because they had some of the best wide receivers in the country last year. And they easily could have just lined up and just said, we're just going to out-talent you.

Starting point is 00:08:19 But he out-schemed a lot of people. He is a great sequential play caller. He was taking advantage of space, numbers, leverage. They were putting those wide receivers and then ultimately Quinn Ewers in advantageous spots. I think as we get into the next segment and talk about some of the concerns that can kind of result in an iffy production profile. But in terms of the carryover, I mean, he's going to be able to run

Starting point is 00:08:44 the same routes that he was running, same kind of reads to ask to be reading the coverages the same way. There's a lot of decision routes in that, in that offense, just as like there is in the Shane Steichen offense. So I think when you talk about how, you know, getting that pro style offense and then getting that in college, it's going to translate a lot better than some of these guys were man they were asked to run three routes and that was it and then now you keep coming you've ran the spray post you've ran the okies the drives all everything that you need to be successful in this offense yeah it's really funny like steichen and sarkisian both you know because

Starting point is 00:09:22 they've had experience at the nfl level and steichen's dove back into the college level a lot the last couple years especially when he had jalen hertz in philadelphia they're both kind of this hybrid style of offense that combines the best of big 12 offensive football and combines nfl concepts so that's why i think really stood out to me if you guys want to see more on te on Texas offense though, Logan Radke, who did a big study on Steichen's Eagles offense, for his random study this past offseason, he did the Texas offense. So you guys can check that out on Twitter. I'll put his Twitter thing in the comment section below so you guys can check that out. But Logan Radke does fantastic work there. Coming up though, guys, we're going to dive into the concerns in A.D. Mitchell's game. He has the upside.

Starting point is 00:10:05 He has the ability. Why didn't he produce at the college level? We're going to talk about the concerns coming up in just a second. All right, guys, game off. We got to pause here to talk more about Monopoly Go. I know what you're saying. Flag on the play. You already talked about that.

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Starting point is 00:11:00 something fun to discover in Monopoly Go, so Get Off the Bench and go download it for free on Google Play or the App Store. Game on. All righty. Locked on every day as we're here with Ben Boer. Still Colts Film Room, your guys' favorite there on Twitter as of right now. We'll see who becomes the favorite next week. But as of right now, you're still the favorite. Ben, that's what we're loving to see right now.

Starting point is 00:11:21 We're talking A.D. Mitchell, and we just hyped him up. You know, we did the fan thing where we talked about how great this player can be. He just fits this offense perfectly. His offense from college to the pros is a seamless transition. And this guy has the ability to be a superstar. But one thing we've noticed a lot, and I give credit to fantasy football people for this, because they're the ones who really noticed this. And you can't really ignore it at this point and it's such a simplistic thought process but it kind of works

Starting point is 00:11:50 where like guys who don't produce at the college level rarely produce at the NFL level it's a very simplistic thing and you know they put things on it like dominator rating you know how many how much percentage of your team's targets and catches you've had in college. They have breakout rate, which is, you know, how early you are when you do break out and emerge as that top target. And all of those metrics, including, you know, yards per route run in college, yards after catch in college, all of those have A.D. Mitchell at the very bottom tier of every single graph. It's like the lowest tier you could possibly go.

Starting point is 00:12:24 We're talking like Terry McLaurin level outlier here, which is a great comparison. But for every Terry McLaurin, there's a thousand other guys who don't work out. So when you look at this production profile for AD Mitchell, even though he's coming off an 800 yard season last year in Texas, it's quite concerning. I mean, we're talking about a pretty historic outlier if he does hit for the Colts in the NFL. Yeah, I think it's a lot like the money ball thing. Like if he's not good at hitting, then or if he's good at hitting, then why can't he hit or something like that? Yeah. For me, there's just so many confounding variables in something as simple as like, I know the yards per route run is something that I've been asked about a bunch. And there's a lot of, there's a lot of variables in all that. I think one,

Starting point is 00:13:10 you have to look at the, the offense. And the fact is they saw a lot of middle field open coverage that, I mean, you have to, when you're playing two guys that have legit four, three, and then four, two, one speed. And that led to a lot of RPO reads that just wasn't in the favor of A.D. Mitchell. I think he was the last read on a lot of plays, and I think he got criticized for maybe not running those as hard as maybe he could have. But I think when you combine kind of schematically what Texas was doing, I think it also is worth noting that in the biggest games of the season, it wasn't hard to find A.D. Mitchell. Like, you talk about the best teams in the Big 12 last year,

Starting point is 00:13:52 and when the lights were bright as you could find A.D., I mean, he had a monster Alabama game versus two corners that are going to be really good in the league. Played great versus Kansas State. Obviously scored that touchdown versus Washington in the playoffs. So I think that's the bet that you're kind of taking with A.D. Mitchell is like, we didn't see it on a down in, down out basis, a game in, game out basis. But when he had to make plays and be the guy at Texas, he showed that every time.

Starting point is 00:14:20 So there's a little bit of, you know, the concern there of like, why wasn't it happening? And I think there's more than one variable to kind of explain that. But when he absolutely needed to, he put his team on his back and made those plays. stuff. It's just, it's all hearsay at this point. It's just wrong. Yeah. It's just wrong for me to talk about it. Like I'm not the one who should be talking about it. So, you know, do the diabetes play into it? Probably. I don't know though. Like, I don't know. Do the other things that people are saying play into it? Sure. I'm sure there are some things that play into it. You know, a guy like that doesn't fall to 52 without some other things happening but again i can't really speak on it with any legitimacy so um yeah and the thing that i wrote about in my phone room is like i mean you can believe what you want say what you want hear all these reports but if you want you're a scout in the room and you go to chris ballard and you say yeah ad mitchell's got effort problems i can

Starting point is 00:15:18 promise you that chris ballard's gonna want cut ups's going to want a lot of information before he makes that call. So that's something that I didn't take lightly. And I definitely can't say I agree or disagree because I've never met A.D. Mitchell. So I can't be the one to say that. Yeah. So going to what I'm actually concerned on then when I watch film, because again, I can't really factor in the off-field stuff too much. But when I'm talking about what I'm concerned about on film is like you said, there were games last year where you could see him be that number one guy. Kansas state, I think is the perfect example where they had a game plan for AD Mitchell. That was all him in that game.

Starting point is 00:15:57 A lot of their concepts they're running were through him. But for me, when I watched his stuff at Texas and his stuff at Georgia, those games were very far. You know, like you were not really seeing many of those games. They needed to get the ball to Xavier Worthy every game. They felt like they needed to get the ball to him, whether it was getting him scheme touches, whether it was downfield shots. Worthy was the guy for that team.

Starting point is 00:16:19 And then you go back to Georgia and Brock Bowers, even as a freshman, they were like, you know what, we got to get the ball to Bowers. And it never really felt like that with Mitchell. So I guess my concern is not so much the dominator thing and the breakout age. Like, yes, those are concerning. I take note of metrics like that, but I'm wondering, you know, I guess I'm a little nervous of a player transitioning to the NFL where it's so much more difficult where the college team didn't really rely on him to be that that pace setter like like you know that that guy they go to all the time like like a worthy and a bowers they were going to a lot I know they were both just drafted higher than him but I'm a little concerned when I see that when I see that Mitchell

Starting point is 00:16:57 rarely got that in college you know what I mean yeah and I think I think it's worth noting especially with the behind the Colts thing it does sound like Ballard was trying to get up in the draft for some of those three guys that maybe didn't have that kind of production concern. But I think once you get outside of that, I mean, if you had to bet on someone who can translate, it's just the guy that could separate. And I think there were a lot of times where, I know, there were some times we went through some slumps where it just wasn't, for whatever reason, he just wasn't getting the ball. But I looked through some of those. And after watching all five hundred and eleven, like you can really see that he's still getting open.

Starting point is 00:17:33 He's still doing his job. And there's a I think that's something that they definitely worked through before they went through the process of drafting Eddie Mitchell. And I think there's probably more than one answer, whether you want to put that on the quarterback, the scheme, him. But honestly, it wasn't so much my concerns with him when it comes to the production that it was some of the little things around wide receiver. I think you look at some of what I charted as like a negative play. And I think when he had to block for screens and he's blocking MDM and for people at home most dangerous man a lot of that you can talk about effort and run blocking but another thing that people don't really talk about is just the technique where if you have a safety coming down and immediately fitting on that run or fitting in the screen like you got to go block that guy and

Starting point is 00:18:19 there were some times I think he was just a little indecisive out there and it led to some screens from Xavier Worthy that probably could have gone for more yards and the other thing times I think he was just a little indecisive out there and it led to some screens from Xavier Worthy that probably could have gone for more yards. And the other thing that I think, you know, we can talk about his drop rate and it's really not an issue just because he separated so much. But, you know, it's going to be interesting to see how, you know, I saw not exactly a hands catcher consistently. So we'll have to see how that transitions when you see the separation inevitably will not be as much when you're going against NFL corners, game in and game out. Right. No, exactly. For sure. Especially again, when he's going to be that X wide receiver. One more thing I did want to note too, is just the precision in his route running. I think physically he can run every single route that you ask, like physically speaking,

Starting point is 00:19:03 he's just so smooth and so fast and so athletic but i do think there were some routes where and i think this probably contributes to why he wasn't targeted as much on some of these rpos last year where there's some routes where this is you know this is a one stop like a one drop you know hitch we're gonna throw it like or there's gonna be these bang eight routes where it's like look you have to be there one two tick you know go you have to be you have to be at that location you have to be at that landmark and i think his some of his yards after catch did suffer because he was a little slow getting to those landmarks and when you're slow getting to the landmarks it looks like this terrible throw and then and look i'm not going to

Starting point is 00:19:37 be a quinn quinn ewers defender here it was rough at times last year and but here's the thing quinn ewers is probably one of the top, you know, 10 quarterbacks in college football, because college football quarterback play is just horrendous sometimes. So there's times where he's throwing to a specific landmark. And it looks like Mitchell's having to make this catch way out of his frame. And it's like, Ewers, what are you doing? Where it's like, he's throwing to the landmark, you know, sometimes the guy has to get there. So I do think there are some things with him, where, where you know he's like this raw piece of clay that you just need to chill chill like just chisel off some of the sides of and it's like you can be a little more precise here a little more exact your steps you know take out one of those false steps and you can be even better of a separator

Starting point is 00:20:17 so i think i had some concerns there but look when you're projecting guy to the next level those kind of concerns kind of take a back seat because it's more of what the guy can do you know yeah exactly and i think some of the things that i pointed out in my film room just was like okay kind of going back to those landmarks i think there was one play that i had versus wyoming where like they wyoming had this really funky rotation into quarters yeah well like if you're running uh lion which is double slants or just two slants a lot of the time that number one receiver that becomes an under route because you want to maximize the distance between you and the corner. And Quinn had that ball and it looked like he threw it right behind him, but he just wasn't ready for the ball. So I think there is some of that.

Starting point is 00:20:56 But I also think that it's worth noting when we talk about some of these is like he doesn't need to be anything right away. The Colts wide receiver room while definitely needed some pieces to add to is definitely put together and i know we'll talk about this more but i think that's where you really trust reggie and you trust the coaching staff to kind of take some of that you're right like take chisel it out a little bit refine it you don't have to start from scratch necessarily but there's just the little details of playing the position that i think you'll learn very quickly you need to have in the NFL to be successful. Right, exactly, exactly. Now coming up, guys, we're going to talk about his day one role in this Colts offense, his impact, and kind of what we expect from him in year one and hopefully going forward with this

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Starting point is 00:22:13 opportunities with FanDuel.com. Go to FanDuel.com slash locked on and make every playoff shot count. FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook. Alrighty, every day as we're here talking ad mitchell with colts film room ben boris again the face reveal here on today's episode the name and face reveal on today's episode we're talking about the day one impact though of ad mitchell now i do want to ask you this straight up because again you were very high on ad mitchell especially what he can be for this team and kind of him being the missing piece.

Starting point is 00:22:48 Do you think he supplants Alec Pierce as the starter from day one? Like you think the day one of the regular season, he's that starting X and Pierce is more of a, you know, Zach Paschal role in Philly where it's like a 200 snap player, or do you think this is more of an even split for majority of the rookie season? That's a great question. As sky high as I think I am on A.D. Mitchell, there's a lot that needs to happen before you do that. I mean, Alec Pierce has one year under the Steichen offense and all the terminology. Now, I don't know exactly what Sark's terminology and what that carryover is. I imagine a lot of the details will be similar because he does run that pro-style offense. But you have that advantage.

Starting point is 00:23:29 And then also Alec Pierce is an excellent run blocker. I mean, he had the most snaps out of any wide receiver last year for a reason. Like they didn't take him off the field on those rundowns and didn't really let him catch a breath either. So I think that'll be good for Alec Pierce, one, just not having to play that many snaps. That's just not ideal for anyone, any wide receiver. I do think it can happen.

Starting point is 00:23:52 I would also temper my own expectations in Colts fans, not thinking that AD Mitchell is automatically a bust week one because Alec Pierce beat him out. Because I think that that's very possible that it could happen. And I think it's something that he could, you know, be kind of that role player, that guy that gives Alec Pierce a rest. He definitely deserves one. And then once you get into October, you know,

Starting point is 00:24:16 maybe he starts to really take over those snaps as he earns the trust of the coaching staff. Kind of similar to the Jelani Woods situation where they haven't really seen him. They've seen a year Alec Pierce. They know what they're going to get with him. And it's really going to be a competition. So there's a lot that does need to happen between now and week one.

Starting point is 00:24:34 But I do think that he has the talent and definitely the chip on his shoulder after falling a little bit in the draft to maybe put in that extra work in the film room, in his detail and get to that point. Yeah, and I think it'll be interesting to see if the eventual role for like, or like the eventual switch, I guess, between the two is like Pierce is more out there for the heavy personnel sets, you know, for more of the, you know, the 12 personnel, 22 personnel, whatever you want to put out there with this with this offense. And you have Pierce is like the lone wide receiver on the outside or one of two wide receivers out there to where you can use them either on deep play

Starting point is 00:25:07 action over routes and stuff or you can use him as an extra blocker because he is that best blocker in the Colts wide receiver room and then one thing I was really interested I know this is an AD Mitchell thing but with Pierce like I do wonder if Pierce can get like some backup time behind Pittman as the Z as well and then that's a way to get both Pierce and Mitchell on the field, because I think Pierce could be fine in that like Z role facing off coverage. And then, you know, moving into that sniffer role at times in the backfield,

Starting point is 00:25:34 like I think Pierce can be pretty good at that. And now with Mitchell, you have the ability to move Pierce around a little bit more. Exactly. I think when you kind of look at all the success Pierce had Cincinnati, like he's a guy that's, he's a build up speed kind of guy. Like I don't view him as sudden or super quick or have this insane lateral agility. But he's the type of guy that when you get 10 to 15 yards down the field, he can build up that speed and kind of coming out of the bye week.

Starting point is 00:26:06 Actually, you saw them implement a little bit. I call it the two RPO that like post wheel stuff. I've heard other people call it the two rpo i don't know what the colts call it but that's where they got him in motion a little bit and i thought that that was really effective and it opened things up a little bit more for alec pierre or uh for michael pitman and i would really love to see him kind of switch in between the x and the z and not really be in one rigid position. So I think A.D. Mitchell gives you that flexibility as well as someone like when you get Alec Pierce, get his legs going one, one and a half, two seconds before the snap. And I think that's only good things for the Colts. Yeah, yeah, for sure. And we're talking about A.D. Mitchell's day one impact. You know, again, we both are in consent and in agreement that he's going to be the X in this team. He's going to be the X, you know, three by one sets. He's going to

Starting point is 00:26:47 be the backside wide receiver who's facing that press and has more of the one-on-one situations. A lot of what Shane Steichen was doing with Mike Williams and with the chargers. But I think when you're finding like a comp to a Steichen type of offense, he's very different from those type of receivers that Steichen's had like he's more sudden and quick than a Mike Williams he can win with separation more than Williams could and then when you go to more of like the AJ Brown Devonta Smith stuff he's not really in the mold of either of those guys maybe you could say like no because like Smith that's weird for his size yeah exactly like you can't find a like difference in size.

Starting point is 00:27:26 I guess you could, there's separation. There isn't really a comp for A.D. Mitchell. I think that's a good thing. Yeah. Yeah. It's really interesting. So I guess like I would say like a Mike Williams that's more sudden type. Because again, I think you're going to see a lot more trust in that backside three by one this next year.

Starting point is 00:27:43 Mainly because Anthony Richardson is coming back. So there will be more shots to that backside three by one this next year, mainly because Anthony Richardson's coming back. So there will be more shots to that backside three by one, but also with Mitchell's ability, just deconstruct press coverage so quickly at the line of scrimmage and get vertical, like just in an instant, I do think that there's going to be more shots to that backside three by one with him back there. And then again, more of like when you're running mesh concepts and you're going to have that, that backside dig with Mitchell going across the middle that's going to be more open with Mitchell than it was with Pierce even though Pierce was open on it last year don't get me wrong Pierce was open on those backside digs all the time but I think with Mitchell it's going to be

Starting point is 00:28:16 more present and more involved in the offense so I do think there is a role for him with that X and I think that his suddenness and his ability to beat press I think from day one is going to lead to quite a few targets when he's on the field. Yeah. And I'm glad you brought up the three by one because the Colts were just like, and I had talked about this before, but the Colts were shockingly 11 personnel from the gun two by two. Like that was just a lot of what they were doing. Um, and they had a lot of success that way. Um, but I think that, I mean, it's a three by one league, like it really is. And when you have that guy and you're, that can beat the press coverage can be, it feels like he's going to win versus any corner in the NFL. Not saying that AD Mitchell is that, but he maybe could be that. I think that just gives Anthony Richardson all the options in the world. When

Starting point is 00:29:02 you talk about this, the quarterback run is not going away. It's going to be the same kind of RPO all based off of the stuff that's happening in the box, especially because we're going to see Jonathan Taylor. And it's going to be really interesting to see how all these pieces fit together. But I think there's a lot to like with A.D. Mitchell as that backside X in three by one, especially with the concepts of the Colts already run. Yeah, yeah. So I'm excited for his day one impact again. I do want to temper expectations and say,

Starting point is 00:29:28 this is not going to be a thousand yard season for me to eventually. Now, again, I can't say it won't be because he's so freaky. He's so freaky. I can't say no chance, but I'm going to say most likely not. I do think he's going to settle somewhere around the Alec Pierce rookie season, the Michael Pittman Jr. rookie season, where it's around that 500-ish yard mark, and that'll be a good season for him. That'd be a good rotational X season where he maybe takes over some of the passing down roll stuff from Alec Pierce later in the year. I think that's a good projection for him, and I think it's only going to get better from here as long as he keeps his development up, as long as, again, whatever the off-field stuff is, cleans up.

Starting point is 00:30:06 I do love the potential here, and I really do think it can work out with this Colts. This seems like a great fit on paper for the team. Yeah, and it's really hard, I think, kind of like you mentioned, to like place some sort of prediction on this season because it could go so many different ways, obviously. But I think a successful season in my mind for A.D. Mitchell is where you kind of look at it and, you know, you're starting to get to the decision with Alec Pierce, like what are we going to do with him kind of coming up, you know, when he gets to his contract here? I think when you if you see those flashes from A.D. Mitchell where, you know, maybe we're not talking production or yards or whatever, but we're talking big key plays and key situations where he turned into the guy. I believe the production will then come.

Starting point is 00:30:51 So I think that's kind of what I'm looking for from A.D. Mitchell, not someone to come over. And I know the Colts have really wanted this like Justin Jefferson, Devontae Adams type that like they can brag about because nobody can cover them. I don't necessarily think A.D. Mitchell week one is going to be that doesn't mean he can't be at some point. So I think it's those little mini successes that I'm going to be looking for. Right.

Starting point is 00:31:14 Exactly. Exactly. Ben Boris, everybody. Colts film room there on Twitter. Also with doing some work over at the Blue Stable, you guys can check his film work. Did a really good piece on A.D. Mitchell over there. I'll put the link in the show notes

Starting point is 00:31:25 of today's episode. If you guys don't already, make sure you're following, again, at LockedOnColts, at JakeArthurNovell, at ZachKicks2, and yet again, at ColtsFilmRoom. Fantastic follow for you guys there. Also, subscribe to us on YouTube, wherever you list your podcasts. We love your guys' range of views, and we'll catch you guys back here tomorrow

Starting point is 00:31:41 afternoon.

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