Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts Add Joe Flacco As Insurance Behind Anthony Richardson
Episode Date: March 15, 2024The Indianapolis Colts signed veteran QB Joe Flacco as insurance behind young star Anthony Richardson. They also re-signed Ronnie Harrison, Trey Sermon, and Genard Avery. Last, the guys plead for Colt...s GM Chris Ballard to make a move for a defensive back. The Indy Draft Guide's Pre-Orders are now open! For $8.99 with code DRAFTMAS, you get access to 225+ in-depth scouting reports, features, and much more. Click the link to Pre-Order today: https://draftguide.gumroad.com/l/indy24 Find and follow Locked On Colts on your favorite podcast platforms:🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOColts?sid=YouTube📺YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLdpxJspi1hMh5HL7ExpWOQLocked On NFL League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Draft & More🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnNFL Follow Jake and Zach's written work on HorseshoeHuddle.com, and give them a follow on Twitter @JakeArthurNFL, @ZachHicks2, @LockedOnColts, and @ColtsOnFN! Today'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. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!eBay MotorsFor parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit at eBayMotos.com. Let’s ride. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.NissanOur friends at Nissan have a lineup of SUV’s with the capabilities to take your adventure to the next level. Take the Nissan Rogue, Nissan Pathfinder, or Nissan Armada and go find your next big adventure. Shop NissanUSA.com.RobinhoodRobinhood has the only IRA that gives you a 3% boost on every dollar you contribute when you subscribe to Robinhood Gold. Now through April 30th, Robinhood is even boosting every single dollar you transfer in from other retirement accounts with a 3% match. Available to U.S. customers in good standing. Robinhood Financial LLC (member SIPC), is a registered broker dealer.BetterHelpThis episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Make your brain your friend, with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com/LOCKEDON today to get 10% off your first month.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelGet buckets with your first bet on FanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook. Right now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS with any winning FIVE DOLLAR BET! That’s A HUNDRED AND FIFTY BUCKS – if your bet wins! Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)
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NFL pre-agency is slowing down a little bit, but the Colts are staying extremely on brand,
including adding a new very veteran quarterback.
Let's get to it.
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What up, what up, y'all?
This is Jake Arthur and Zach Hicks from HorseshoeHuddle.com. And we are still talking free agency because the buzz
is still going. Now, overall, the deals aren't flying off the shelves like they were on Monday
and Tuesday necessarily. Around the league, things are slowing down a little bit, but the Colts
continue to add their own. There's a little bit of buzz still about some outside players.
But, you know, with Gardner Minshew leaving for the
Raiders the Colts now have their backup quarterback and that's going to lead us into our first segment
today Joe freaking Flacco Zach I I don't know a lot of people saw my uh my tweet that I put out
I think last night but just the random assortment of quarterbacks that the Colts have had since the Jim Harbaugh era,
really, it's just incredible. Like, did you ever picture that like Joe Flacco would be on the
Colts after Phillip Rivers and Matt Ryan? And like, it's, it's incredibly random. Like
our football fandom of like 10, 15 years ago, you could have, you could have never pictured what
the Colts are doing now. Yeah. I think what's really funny about this is I, you know, I can't really speak for like 10 to
15 years ago, obviously with the Colts, I wasn't, you know, a big Colts fan during the Peyton Manning
era and stuff. I unfortunately joined after the Peyton Manning era. But just these last couple
years, the backups that the Colts have had, had just not been normal quarterbacks whatsoever.
They have been the craziest quarterbacks, either the quarterbacks are the craziest storylines the craziest media
personalities just you know the craziest Cinderella run quarterbacks I mean look we're looking at Nick
Foles a couple years or the the dusted remains of Nick Foles whatever that was a couple seasons ago
because it really wasn't Nick Foles anymore but we we had Nick Foles in here. We had Gardner Minshew last year, which obviously is beloved by media and fans alike. And, you know,
he did Gardner Minshew things on the field. And now we get Joe Flacco, who's been a part of two
Cinderella runs. I mean, the one obviously with the Ravens, which won the Super Bowl and the one
last year, which unfortunately came up short in the playoffs. And it definitely hit midnight there
against the Houston Texans. But yeah, no, it's really fun. I mean, my time in the playoffs and, and it definitely hit midnight there against the Houston Texans.
But yeah,
no,
it's really fun.
I mean,
my time covering the Colts,
I can always say we've had a lot of really,
really fun backup quarterbacks.
I mean,
when I first came to covering the Colts,
we had Jacoby Brissett,
who was just a very lovable,
fun backup quarterback who was running to the end zone and celebrating
defensive turnovers and stuff.
And then you obviously go on to these guys.
So, yeah, I really enjoyed the backup quarterbacks we've had in Indy.
And Joe Flacco has just added to that long list of really fun, crazy, not normal backup quarterbacks.
But look, you know what?
When it comes to the backup, it's not going to be a good time when that backup's in there.
So might as well have somebody who can sling it around a little bit and give us, you know,
some anxiety and some craziness when he's on the field.
Right. This the Colts, basically, if they're getting what Joe Flacco was doing in 2023, they basically have, you know, sarcophagus Carson Wentz, essentially.
But the dude still has an absolute laser like Like he's, he's still getting the ball out.
He's ripping it.
But I just love the fact that like this dude,
he,
he's got like his Murtaugh list.
I don't know for you guys who watch how I met your mother or lethal weapon.
Let's cross it over.
But he's too old for this.
He's too old for,
for all the simple stuff.
He went out and was just hooking it around.
Like Amari Cooper appreciated
it. David Njoku appreciated it. He went on a dream run. The guy in six games, number one,
got them to the playoffs, but he averaged over 320 passing yards per game at 38 years old.
He threw 14 touchdowns, but also 10 picks like this guy was just yolo i do not care
and that's the energy i'm trying to bring to the colts because gardner minshu he was careful
but like joe's gonna let's hope we never have to see him but i think joe's just gonna pepper it
around but he has that watchdog of Shane Stike in there to kind of
rein in the most reckless parts of it maybe I don't know but I overall am fine with this move
I think Joe Flacco is what everybody thought Gardner Minchu was when the Colts signed because
I think that the moxie that Gardner Minchu has you think of this gunslinger quarterback who's
just going to be reckless and throw it all over the place.
But then when you actually watch Gardner Minshew, he's terrified of the pocket.
He's skittish.
You know, he's he doesn't have the biggest arm.
And it's kind of just like a you know, it's like a game manager with Moxie is what Gardner Minshew is.
Joe Flacco is me playing Madden.
Like it's me playing Madden on the hardest difficulty because, look, I'll throw for 300 something yards because I just get frustrated and spam four verts, but I'll also
throw like 20 interceptions a game. I'll throw 20 touchdowns game as well. And I'll lose games
in the forties or fifties to, to the forties and fifties. You know, it's kind of like me playing
Madden here where look at the end of the season, my, my touchdown interception ratio is not going
to be great, but I'm going to throw for the NFL record in yards uh that's kind of what Joe Flacco is what
he got in the field last year where you know it was it was just slinging it uh doing a lot of
crazy things I mean some of the throws he made last year when I was watching some of the film
I you could probably put them up there with like the best throws in the NFL last season
and you're saying yeah like these are NFL quarterback.
These are elite NFL quarterback throws. But then when you look at some of the interceptions, it's like, why were you not setting your feet? Why were you throwing to the triple covered receiver down
the field when your check down was wide open? Why are you doing these things? And it's a reason why
he's not a starting quarterback still, even, even though he was throwing for 320 yards game last
year in the six games he played the reason
why nobody wanted to give him a starting offer besides you know the fact that he's 39 years old
is because he wasn't really operating like a legit quarterback it was it was really just reckless
abandoned throwing the ball but look when we're talking about backup quarterbacks it's fun to have
that it's fun to have a guy who can give you a chance if he ever steps on the field and look at
the end of the day I'm not going to say he's going to come in and be like a perfect
mentor to Anthony Richardson, because Flacco has made it very clear in the past that he's not
really looking to be a mentor. He's just there to play football. But just being somebody where
when Richardson shows up in the morning, he sees a guy who is an NFL guy who's been in the NFL for
a long time just going about his business. or even if you're in the film room,
just something that Flacco points out and sees on the film.
I think that's a valuable aspect of what he brings to the room.
It doesn't have to be like a pure mentorship type thing
where I'm going to take you under the wing and show you everything I know,
but just being around a guy who's been in the NFL since I was in elementary school,
I do think there is value
to having that kind of guy in the room and having another person who, look, he's older than the head
coach. He's older than our head coach here in Indy. So just having a guy with that much NFL
experience just brings a lot of value to the room. So for a team that has a coaching staff that's so
young, for a team that has an offense that's so young, having a veteran who has more
years in the NFL than some of these guys, you know, even have alive, it feels like it's, it's
nice to have that kind of veteran in the room, even if he's not going to be like the quote unquote
mentor that everybody's looking for. And I'm glad you mentioned that because so Joe was on the Pat
McAfee show today, Thursday. And so I watched the segment that he was on and Pat asked him about that.
Cause Joe's caught a bad rap before.
Like when the Ravens drafted Lamar Jackson, he was like, I'm not here to show him the ropes, blah, blah, blah.
And he's like, he's like, just to kind of clarify, it's not that I refuse to help anybody or anything.
Right.
Just not necessarily going out of my way and taking them under my wing.
Now I'll lead by example.
And like,
we spend a ton of time together in the quarterback room.
Like I'll talk about what I'm seeing in this and that,
but like,
I'm not going to have them on my hip 24 seven.
It's up to Anthony,
which we all know his work ethic is second to none.
It's up to Anthony to observe what Joe's going to be doing.
And you know, that Shane is going to, I don't even think he's up to Anthony to observe what Joe's going to be doing. And you know that Shane is going to,
I don't even think he's going to have to nudge him,
but like they will know very well that they want Anthony to watch what Joe's
doing.
Cause shoot.
How,
when did he come in the league?
Like,
uh,
20,
2009 or something like he's been,
I want to say it was 2008 out of Delaware.
I want to say it was like what? Second round pick third round pick or something like he's been eight i want to say it's 2008 out of delaware i want to say
it's like what second round pick third round pick or something so a guy who's quite literally seen
everything he's played with the best like the the wealth of knowledge that's in him i mean that's up
to anthony to kind of tap on that and i have i have no doubts that he will yeah yeah no i completely
agree i think this is a good pairing and it gives Saigon a quarterback. He trusts behind the starter, gives them the veteran experience.
And look, if he gets on the field, which I hope he never takes a snap for the Indianapolis Colts,
but if he does, you know what, we'll have some fun with it. We'll have a lot of fun with it.
Like the Browns did last year. So I like the signing and it's not really that expensive,
either 4.5 guaranteed, not, not a bad signing signing at all I really like this one yeah and it's only up
to 8.7 based on you know factors that the Colts hope don't come into play but they just saw their
back at play most of the season so 4.5 guaranteed it's it's probably not going to get anywhere near
the 8.7 that it's up to maximize but yeah I think it's a very team friendly deal um unfortunately for him he he kind
of made it sound like there wasn't a huge market out there for him um but this was a good situation
for him having played with shane and you know the the colts are kind of a young up-and-coming team
uh so coming up here in a minute we're going to talk about some of the other moves that the colts
have made because as we know they just want to keep bringing their own guys back and running it back and they've done it a few times. We'll kind of check in and see
where are they roster wise, where are they cap space wise.
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All right, so let's get back to the Colts here. So in the past day or so,
they have made a few more moves internally, brought back Ronnie Harrison, the safety linebacker
hybrid. Still don't know what their plan for him is. He was still listed as a safety on the press
release. But Jannard Avery, edge defender who unfortunately never made it into the season. He suffered a knee injury during
the summer that caused him to go on IR. And then running back Trey Sermon, another one-year deal.
All three of those guys were one-year deals. Decent season, you know, came in for relief.
You know, Jonathan Taylor got banged up. Zach Moss got banged up. Average 4.6 yards per carry
on the season. Obviously, him and Tyler Goodson had that
big week against the Steelers. So that's a nice little move. I mean, we know the Colts aren't
going to do a whole lot behind Jonathan Taylor. He's their workhorse. But Sermon's a nice player
to have. Yeah, yeah. Sermon's going into a really big offseason for himself here because regardless
of what the Colts do at backup running back,
if they draft another guy, if they bring in an undrafted free agent,
or even if they sign an outside guy to compete with him in camp,
he has a chance to really solidify himself as RB2 in training camp.
So if he comes out maybe a little bit slimmed down,
a little bit quicker and stuff like that,
and really takes that position, it, you know, takes down,
takes that position.
It could be a really big year for him.
We saw what,
what Zach Moss was able to do last year as the RB two going into camp,
he had over 700 yards and turn that into a starting role with the Cincinnati
Bengals for this next season.
So really,
really big off season coming up for him.
He looked good in limited time last year and,
and we could see some good things from him.
Ronnie Harrison.
Yeah,
there was a lot of confusion with whatever the heck he was in the press release.
Safety linebacker.
I know Adam Schefter put out their safety linebacker hybrid when he when he put his
thing out there.
Hopefully it stays at linebacker.
I'd prefer him at linebacker than safety.
I think he would probably prefer it at linebacker, too that he played better at linebacker yeah last year so if he's come back for past coverage linebacker depth i
think that's a really good sign and then genard avery was a guy we talked about a lot during the
preseason last year because it was really looking like he was going to be there they're like off the
bench speed rusher and when he went down with his injury injury, it ended up being Jacob Martin who came in and became that role and as well as Isaiah land. So it seems like to me going into camp
this year, we're going to have Avery, Isaiah land, Titus Leo, and then maybe if they bring
somebody else in all of those guys competing for those reserve speed rusher roles that are,
you know, they're kind of game day and active sometimes, but also against past heavy teams,
they come out there and, and get a couple of snaps. So, you know, A're kind of game day and active sometimes, but also against pass heavy teams, they come out there and get a couple snaps.
So, you know, Avery's got another big camp coming up.
Hopefully he can stay healthy.
But I mean, you were out there at all those practices last year.
Avery looked pretty good in the time that you saw him, right?
Yeah, if I remember correctly, there was more than a few times that I mentioned, you know,
he was roughing up the 13-0 line and getting would-be sacks and things like that.
I remember jotting his name down quite a few times.
So I was excited about him playing because I remember liking him coming into the draft.
He was a guy that when he came into the NFL, he was one of those,
am I a linebacker, am I an edge guy?
He finally settled in as an edge guy in the NFL.
And so we thought it was going to be a nice little role for him with the Colts,
but just unfortunately wasn't able to do it.
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that, because they didn't, they didn't have to,
like they could have just moved right on. You know, they got Isaiah land,
they got Jacob Martin, they could have gone that way.
So the Colts are clearly excited about what he could offer too.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah,
for sure.
One thing we did want to touch on though,
in this segment to you guys,
before we moved on to our final segment today is where the Colts roster is
at right now and what they can really do the rest of the off season.
So by Jake's roster count,
by going to the Colts site,
he has them at 71 players,
72.
If you count drew Ogletree,
we'll say 71 with 72,
because we don't really know exactly how he factors in there.
Over the cap has them with $31 million in cap space,
but we want to remind you guys they don't have the Flacco deal in there yet.
They don't have the Kenny Moore deal in there,
and they also don't have the cap savings by putting in the Michael Pittman Jr. extension.
So there's a lot of ways that can move.
I would guess there's still maybe a touch over 20 million in cap space.
It could be anywhere from, you know, 18 million to 30 million still,
depending on what they want to do.
And obviously there's still a lot of room with making more space.
It could extend to Forrest Buckner,
which would give them a ton of space the rest of this year.
They could restructure Quentin Nelson.
They could cut Moelle Cox. Like those are some ways they could really save some space so if you're banking
on them making another big move and you're kind of concerned about the salary cap they have plenty
of space to do it but the one thing i do want to talk about is with the roster count being at
71 slash 72 whatever the heck it is with that there's not many roster spots available this offseason you know
their draft class is going to be seven at a minimum it might you mean maybe they move up but
probably not it'll be seven at a minimum could be up to like 10 or 12 like we've seen and then they
usually add a good 10 plus undrafted free agents if they were to do that like their normal thing
they'd be at their roster roster cap of 90 just by doing that. So I could see maybe one to
two, maybe three outside free agents brought in still until the draft, but it's not going to be
many more outside free agent moves by the Colts. I think a big part of this off season was just
retaining their own and not really adding too much, you know? Yeah. It's it's created an interesting
scenario going into the draft, which again, there's a month interesting scenario going into the draft which again there's a month
and a half until the draft but i mean by this point you kind of get the vibe of what they're
they're trying to do for agency i do imagine we could see a couple of their positions of need
addressed uh which we'll get more in depth to with in the next segment. But yeah, I'm not expecting any flurry,
even of the bargain bin stuff
that I think a lot of people are expecting.
I think they'll probably make a couple more impactful moves
and that's probably about it.
Yeah, yeah, I could see, you know,
we're going to talk about in our final segment coming up,
you know, I could see a safety move or a cornerback move,
but I don't really see much more than that. But yeah, coming up, guys, we're going to make our plea to Chris Ballard to
look. I get it. You don't have much more roster space and you want to go into the draft with the
guys you have. But please sign us a corner and or a safety before the draft. Please, Chris,
we need to do it. We're going to talk about that here in our last segment.
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is a registered broker dealer. All right, guys. So to close out today's show, we're going to make
our plea to Chris Ballard. We can't go into this next season with the cornerback and safety room
looking the way they are.
And look, the one solution is not just sign Julian Blackman and go into the next season
with that, because we saw last year the Colts were the 28th ranked defense in total yards
allowed and points allowed was not great either.
And you can't go into this this next season with the same exact secondary.
Like, yes, there is the draft.
There is the draft for sure but if you go into the draft with the current cornerback room that you have
you are essentially forcing the pick at 15 to be a cornerback no matter what and you're not adding
more explosiveness you're not adding another young player to your offense because you're forcing
corner at 15 and then you might be forcing safety in the second round if you're not signing a safety
as well. So I'm not again, I'm not trying to get all doom and gloom. I'm not trying to say that
the Colts are having this horrendous offseason because retaining Grover Stewart and Kenny Moore
and Michael Pittman Jr. Those are massive wins. And I think that that's a good thing for the Colts.
But if they don't make that one more move, which is bringing in a veteran safety or signing a veteran corner and,
or signing a veteran veteran corner or making that big move for luxurious
need,
whatever it's going to be.
If they don't make those extra moves,
you're just going to be carrying the exact same team from last year into
next year.
And you're going to have the exact same problems.
Even if you take a corner at 15,
like you could take a legit pro bowl caliber player at 15 who,
you know,
who's on their rookie contract and who's a rookie.
But again,
that,
that youth and inexperience is going to show up quite a bit.
And you're not really going to make that big of a push.
You need to get a veteran in here,
especially a corner,
but also at safety and the industry need more talent on,
on the backend,
on your defense.
There's still plenty of time,
but like,
I don't know,
Jake, every time I see like a Kendall Fuller come off the board, every time I see,
you know, uh, Dane Jackson off the board, again, not a great corner or anything like that,
but every time I see these corners just coming off the board and I see these safeties coming
off the board, you know, I start whittling down my nails a little bit to the point where I'm,
you know, my bandaged up finger again, because I'm biting my nails so much, but
you know, it's a little, it's a little concerning. Don't you think Jake?
Yeah. And I think the reason we have kind of conditioned ourselves to stay concerned about it
is every off season, there is at least one position group that is clearly weak and needs
to be addressed and it doesn't get adequately addressed and they go into
the season chris and or shane whoever is the head coach at the time like you know what we like what
we've got and then we're all like i don't know and then at the end of the season press conference
chris is like yeah i wish i would have done something about that. And then he overcorrects the next year. So, you know, last year, I think often I forget what I think was offensive line.
Depth was one area we screamed about and they were right about it.
But I think the secondary is very clearly what everyone is screaming for right now.
And I think people are right to be concerned about it.
You know, depth purposes.
And again, like the defense was not great last year.
It was not productive.
And so you can't just say, you know, we're counting on the guys who got hurt to come back healthy and then we'll be fine.
Because that's not going to fix everything.
And you know that pass rush and coverage work hand in hand. You have to help each of those out because the Colts know, despite having those 51 sacks,
something was missing.
There was some inconsistency.
The inconsistency was likely caused by the issues in the secondary.
You know, if you are locking up receivers and pass catchers a little better, that's
probably how your pass rushers get to the backfield better.
So you just got to do something about it.
Like, and you don't, it doesn't have to be a luxurious need,
huge splash trade.
Like it just has to be somebody capable of playing starting reps.
Yeah. Yeah.
You know, like years ago they brought in Rodney McLeod, you know,
that was a good veteran safety who you got for a very low deal.
And he came in and solidified your safety role.
Or you could also, again, they wait until April to stefan gilmore a couple years ago as well and
gus bradley's first season and that drastically changed the course of the entire defense and look
gilmore's back out there like you can still make that april type move and again i'm saying all this
because i'm not trying to freak out right now i really am not i'm just trying to make sure that
my stance on this is out there which is there needs to be something at these positions i get i don't care how great
the player is it doesn't have to be this elite superstar play it doesn't have to be a luxurious
need like you said it can be a steven nelson it can be you know a cap that caliber of player just
a starting caliber player but it just can't be a whole season of daryl baker jr again at corner
or even jalen jones i like jalen jones a lot but it just can't be a whole season of Daryl Baker Jr. again at corner or even Jalen
Jones. I like Jalen Jones a lot, but it just can't be another season of Jalen Jones or even
Dallas Flowers. I think there's some positive things with him, but again, coming off an
Achilles injury, there's some fear there. I can't be Rodney Thomas at safety again.
All these things concern me. And another thing that concerns me with Chris Ballard is we've
seen this in past drafts where he feels really good about a position group going into the draft, so much so that he will neglect any free agent or outside addition at that position group going into the draft, and it pigeon think the Colts had a first round pick that year. And,
but they didn't really do anything at wide receiver too.
It was just T.Y. Hilton.
And there was no other wide receivers and it forced their hand to take Michael Pittman Jr.
At 34.
Now Pittman Jr.
Turned out great.
It's awesome.
So it worked,
but it put a lot on his shoulders there in year one.
Then you go to 2021,
the edge rush depth that the Colts had going into the draft was like Ben
Banigou and Kamoko Ture,
like two guys who are not in the NFL anymore. And they were going to be the starters for the Colts
and it pigeonholed them to take Quidipe and Dayo Dangbo super early in that draft.
Last year at cornerback, it pigeonholed them to take three corners in that draft
because if they didn't, it would have been Kevin Tolliver and Daryl Baker Jr. starting the entire
season. So again, like the point of free agency isn't to go out there
and get the Super A signing top tier guys
and pay them $30 million a year.
But for me, free agency needs to be used as a way
to plug every hole with at least something.
So when you go into the draft,
you can take stuff for the long term.
You can take players that you don't need
to put out there from day one and say,
hey, you have to be a starting caliber player right now or else our season's not going to look
very good. That's putting a lot on a young player and that's putting a lot on a Juju Brents when he
gets out there. It's putting a lot on a Quiddie Paye his rookie season, putting a lot on a lot
of these guys. And I just don't want it to be that situation again, where say they take Quinion
Mitchell at 15. Hey, Quinion, you have to go be our number one corner out the gate,
because if you're not, it comes down to Jalen Jones and Daryl Baker Jr. again. And again,
look, I know, I know it's early. We're a couple of days in the free agency and I'm not, I'm not
getting too freaked out because there's a lot of veteran corners and a lot of veteran safety still
out there and they could still make a move by draft time by mid-april even uh but it is something that i want to put out
there where it's like look there has to be something at defensive back it really can't be
we liked our guys and we like these guys we got in the draft it can't just be a bunch of
you know 22 23 24 year olds leading the way, because it hasn't worked in recent seasons.
Yeah.
And just like you said,
you know,
it's not that you shouldn't enter the draft with any needs. Cause like,
if you need a quarterback or like a left tackle or a top edge or
something like those don't,
you can't always address that in free agency.
Right.
But like the needs they have right now are very addressable to where
maybe you need some long
term solutions, but make it to where you don't need anything this year. And that's to me, that's
exactly what you're saying. Like, you don't want to put too, you know, too much of an onus on these
young players, you know, let there be competition, you know, make it so they don't have to be the
guy right away. So I'm right there with you. And with that said, like you mentioned,
the safety and cornerback groups are still pretty good.
You know, safety, it's not moving very much at all.
Like it's still very top heavy.
You know, Jordan Whitehead is about the only bigger guy
that's really come off the board recently
in terms of safeties or one of them.
Cornerbacks still, I mean, Kendall Fuller went off the board today to Miami
after they released Sabian Howard.
But cornerback is still pretty decent.
Steven Nelson, I think, is probably my top get for them,
a guy that can kind of move around and kind of a consolation prize
if you're not going to get a Kendall Fuller.
So there's still some guys out there.
And there's really not many
of these guys that you add that you have to guarantee their role. Like if you draft Terry
and Arnold or Quinnian Mitchell and they win outright that role, you're not like that's,
they're not replacing Xavier and Howard or LeJarrius need or something like they're beating
out a respectable veteran because like
in free agency sometimes you have to guarantee types of roles or you know very much lean into
the fact that yeah you're probably going to be the starter and you know there are kind of
guarantees and nudges that come along with those things yeah yeah the last thing I'll say before
we get out here though is I'm all on board with taking like a Quinn,
John Mitchell or a Terran Arnold at 15.
I just don't want to have to take them.
That's my big thing.
Or I'm okay with taking a Tyler Newbin in round two at safety.
I just don't want to have to take it in round two at safety.
You know,
don't make it.
So we have to take these guys early,
make it.
So when we take them,
it's because they're the best player there.
That's the biggest thing for me.
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