Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts' Anthony Richardson, Offense Shaky Before Late TD on Day 7

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Colts offense just slogged its way through today's scorching padded practice, but a pair of receivers salvaged the day's performance. 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. at FanDuel. Make every moment more. As playoffs wind down, the sports stop sporting like we want them to, but this summer, FanDuel is hooking up all customers with a boost or a bonus daily. That's right. There's something for everyone, every day, all summer long. So visit FanDuel.com to get started. What is up, friends and family? This is Jake Arthur and Noah Jaber of Horseshoe

Starting point is 00:01:02 Huddle.com. We are coming to you live after day seven of Indianapolis Colts camp practice. It was their third padded practice of camp and probably the hottest. It was not friendly out there. So hot with pads on, obviously tempers flare. They've been hitting the same guys for over a week. So we saw probably like our third or fourth fight of camp practice today. So, uh, I think everyone's ready for it to either get cooler or for the Cardinals to get in here for joint practices.

Starting point is 00:01:33 Uh, but the intensity is ramping up nonetheless. Uh, before we get started, if you guys want to be plugged into what's going on here at camp or during the season, what we're hearing in the locker room and everything. Become a Locked on Colts insider and chat with us directly and get the inside scoop. Follow the link in our show notes for more, and you will get to talk to me whenever you want. You'll get to talk to Zach, pick his brain about nerdy stuff if you want, and we will be right there for you. But today we're going to go over the offense, how they look, not great.

Starting point is 00:02:03 The defense, which oddly enough, with the offense looking not great, it's not like the defense dominated them in any way. And then we're kind of gifted something by the football gods right before going on today. In segment three, we're going to talk a bit about the Titans signing Quandre Diggs, what that means, how upset you guys are, give our takes on it. But we're just going to kind of riff a little bit on the third segment because it's a good day around the league to talk about that. So first let's go ahead and talk about the offense. Anthony Richardson was 8 of 13 today.

Starting point is 00:02:37 You know, that's over 60% completion, but it was a little scattershot. Yeah, I mean, you see that 8 of 13 number initially. You just put that up there. I didn't realize he was even 8 of 13. It looks better than it looked, right? Yeah, I mean, you have some messy, a lot of high misses from Anthony and from Joe. Yeah, just a lot of miscommunication along the offense and the defensive side. So, yeah, I mean, the numbers look good, but, yeah, overall pretty sloppy,

Starting point is 00:03:02 pretty sloppy performance. Yeah, Anthonyony you know he had the five incompletions and you know he had some some big plays but the incompletions there were a handful of them that just you know they were either way too high or just generally off the mark uh flacco mostly dealt with what seemed like timing and drop issues um but i mean anthony's completions look nice. There were a few big ones out there. A couple of the biggest ones, he had about a 30-yard gain to A.D. Mitchell

Starting point is 00:03:32 down the right sideline. Now, kind of a backhanded compliment, the ball was underthrown, and had he led A.D., I think he had cooked Jalen Jones, and he probably would have taken off for a long touchdown. But a big play, nonetheless, in a game that is still 30 yards. It still moves you down the field. And then something that hopefully helped the offense in the day on a high note a little bit, the final 11 on 11 session of the day for the first team offense, Richardson finds Pittman for about a 25 yard touchdown down the right side, back shoulder again over Jones.

Starting point is 00:04:06 So, you know, we're, we're, we're the highlights enough to balance out the lows for today. It depends kind of what you're looking for. I mean, the hot day training camp has been like about halfway through at this point. So you're going to get some lulls here and there. I'm sweating right now. I know they were. This was the only day you invited me out and it's 90 degrees and beaming no shade. You're welcome.

Starting point is 00:04:25 I'm happy to be here. But yeah, I mean, overall practice, I mean, not the kind of fireworks that you were kind of hoping for, you know, when you see most of these guys healthy on offense and you're hoping everybody's clicking at this point, being two weeks into training camp. So is it balancing it out? I wouldn't say so, but I just feel like we're fortunate that we did get some of those big highlights to,

Starting point is 00:04:47 to not completely just kind of throw the state on. Oh yeah. That really kind of saved the day. You know, some of the guys you wanted to see a big place from did deliver. I do think 80 Mitchell, you know, this can't,

Starting point is 00:04:58 this really his whole off season coming into today still has been kind of some peaks and valleys had a really high spring you know up to the point about this time last week when Alec Pierce had his really big day we were like you know AD has had some nice moments since he's been drafted but Pierce really looks ahead of him in 11 on 11s which is still true but ever since then we have seen Mitchell pick it up a little bit and make a few more plays during the 11s. And not just like the normal ho-hum catches. Like he had that big play.

Starting point is 00:05:30 Joe Flacco hit him for like a 15-yard comeback today. So he's moving the chains when he's making plays. So it's good to see that rookie, you know, really picking up steam. Yeah, and I think as far as like the snap split between those two, I think it was pretty even today between Pierce and Mitchell. Pierce definitely got a lot of work with the second team, really. And Pierce was out there making those plays. Go ahead.

Starting point is 00:05:54 Yeah, no, it's big for them. I will say I think Mitchell has probably had – he's probably seen more of the first team reps recently. But, yeah, it's always good to see. And another rookie who we keep saying his name, Joe Flacco, and his connection with Anthony Gould really seems to be strong. They've done a lot of stuff deep downfield since the spring. You know, they connected on, like, a 30-yard post route today.

Starting point is 00:06:22 But we saw Gould, you know, finally start to get some of the gadgety stuff that we expected at first. So he's come out here and proved that he can win the deep ball. But we saw it was a little like halfback pitch type of – end-around halfback pitch type of situation. So it's good to see that. Yeah, you said that when that play happened, that was like the first time you'd actually seen him.

Starting point is 00:06:40 He'd been used in kind of that Paris Campbell role that you were kind of hoping getting more of the gadget stuff instead of just being that pure deep threat that you were kind of hoping, getting more of the gadget stuff instead of just being that pure deep threat that he's kind of been, even though that's not really what we expected coming in. Yeah, and so we'll see how he gets used. I don't think he's going to get a huge amount of snaps. He's probably going to be a huge part of the offense, but kind of one of those guys that gives you a spark a little bit.

Starting point is 00:07:00 He's probably going to have a couple plays drawn up for him throughout the week. And Joe Flacco and Ashton dueling that continues to be a pretty solid connection as well um no like big plays from dueling today that they had a couple yeah they had a couple good hookups in the indoor practice a couple days ago um but you know flacco finds dueling two or three times a practice at minimum which for a guy coming off the ACL, that's got to be a confidence booster. You're like, I'm still a part of this thing. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:07:30 And then so there's a couple offensive linemen as well. So these are like with the offensive line, it can be hard to tell like what's a direct competition between guys and what's like part of being the group and being moved around. Blake Freeland and Matt Consalves, those guys, I think they're legitimately competing for swing tackle. It seems like every day, you know, they're switching left and right side to get both of them that cross training.

Starting point is 00:07:58 But Danny Pinter and Tanner Bordellini, they pretty consistently throughout camp. One of them gets the second team reps at center the other gets the third and then they switch the next day um i'm fairly confident saying bordellini's gonna make the roster but it feels like this is pinter kind of fighting for his job here because wesley french has gotten a handful of center snaps but he gets moved around at guard a lot which i don't know if that means they're comfortable with having him. If he doesn't make the roster, I feel like he'll be one of the really tough offensive line cuts.

Starting point is 00:08:32 But it does definitely seem like there's a direct competition between Pinter and Bortolini. Yeah, you were talking about how Pinter and Bortolini going back and forth and they've kind of only taken those snaps at center. Yeah. So, yeah, not really room to keep both of those guys unless you're willing to play one of those at guard. We know last season they were willing to put Penner at guard, but it wasn't the result that you wanted out of that kind of experiment.

Starting point is 00:08:54 So, I mean, maybe we see later on in the preseason, Bortolini gets some snaps at guard just to prove that he can play that position, give him that position flex when it comes to making those decisions at roster cuts. I would think they'd do that at some point because a lot of these young guys, they haven't really pigeonholed them just into one role. When they drafted Bortolini, I imagine

Starting point is 00:09:14 it was in mind to have him be the center of the future, but it would be pretty wise to get him some training at guard as well. Stuff to keep an eye on later on. Here coming up in a moment, we're going to talk about the defensive side of the ball. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp.

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Starting point is 00:10:50 And thank you guys for making Locked On Culture your first listen today. For your second listen after this, enjoy Locked On Fantasy Football. Get daily insight to the best fantasy draft strategies so you can win your league this season. It's part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. All right, Noah, so I thought it was kind of weird that the offense was real shaky today, but it's not like the defense killed them. Like, normally on a day when the offense is terrible, you can have a hundred things to say about the defense.

Starting point is 00:11:21 That just really wasn't the case today. Like, there were a handful of sacks here and there, there was some good pass breakups, but overall it just like, it was a practice where it just seemed like it was super hot and everyone, like everyone was just not on their game. So a couple of standout things though, for the first team there,

Starting point is 00:11:39 so there was some pass rush there. EJ speed DeForest Buckner, Quitty pay. I, I clocked all of them with some sacks uh for the second team saguna luby and titus leo came together for a sack uh so that's always good to see i mean especially leo coming back when you weren't sure where he was going to be wet after that injury and after him getting carted off that scary incident of course so yeah i've

Starting point is 00:12:02 seen him come on come back and wait what is his second practice back yeah from that injury already kind of getting in there and making an impact yeah and it also was with the second team defense which is another good thing because samson nebucam's injury it's gonna have a trickle down effect on the rest of these guys so to see him get some second team reps is great um it was also with the first team good to talk about pass rush coming from guys not only named lao to lao to like it's it's great to to trumpet up the the rookie and tell you guys when he's doing great but that can't be the only guy stepping up and he hasn't been the only one stepping up through camp but ej speed getting there means you know the blitz got home uh buckner you know the old guy's still cranking out the production.

Starting point is 00:12:46 And then Quidipe continues a really strong offseason that began when last season ended. So good to see kind of a well-rounded attack. I mentioned kind of the trickle-down effect of these defensive ends who all need to kind of step it up in Samson Ebicom's absence. Number one, the bottom of the roster guys to hopefully grab a spot. Jannard Avery had a terrific series. There was one play where he stopped the tackle for loss right there in the backfield.

Starting point is 00:13:14 Like one or two plays later. I think it was back to back. Yeah, it might've been right after. He had a strip sack on Joe Flacco, which to be honest, I'm not sure he was allowed to do that. I don't think you're supposed to touch the quarterback. I didn't touch the quarterback. Yeah, but he did the old, you know,

Starting point is 00:13:29 empty hand routine with Flacco and knocked the ball out of his hand as he bent the edge. So super productive series for a guy on the, on the second team defense who that's a line that's got a lot of experience on it. I mean, you've got talent and experience with Freeland. Gonzalez is new, but he's a really talented player. You've got, obviously, Penter and some quality guys out there.

Starting point is 00:13:54 So that's definitely good to see. Well, no first-team interceptions to speak of today. But Julian Blackman, he broke his streak of interceptions he did have a pass breakup today though um so you watch the safeties kind of like a hawk today yeah what were your observations including blackman but how do you think they divvied things up today yeah so i think there was kind of a big reaction on online just based off of shane steichen's comments and yeah blackman kind of shifting back towards free safety and getting some free safety snaps uh which i mean he had

Starting point is 00:14:29 a great year at strong safety last year i'm not going to pretend that he didn't but i think he has that versatility he can make that switch and i don't think that's going to be a detriment to the defense if he's able to play both spots and that's kind of what i saw today is he's not just playing free safety he's not making that permanent move to free safety at least not at this point uh he is taking some snaps back there. I noticed a lot of time when Nick Cross was in there with him as that second pairing, that Nick Cross was the guy up in the box and Blackman was stepping back. Rodney Thomas was in there with the first team for a couple of snaps with Blackman, and Thomas was the deep guy in that situation, so Blackman was staying up.

Starting point is 00:15:01 So I guess kind of it depends on who they're feeling out for that other safety spot on how they're going to handle Blackman. I feel like Cross has mainly been up there in the box, regardless of who he's been paired up with. Because even when he was paired up with Ronnie Harrison in the second team unit, Harrison, the former linebacker, is the guy playing in the deep third instead of him. Yeah, it seems to be skewing that way. Like, I think they know and trust that Harrison and Cross are best.

Starting point is 00:15:30 They're just in the box with stuff in front of them. This puts so much on Julian Blackburn, man. Like, you are betting on his health so much because, I mean, let's say he starts to skew more towards free safety throughout the season. You're relying on him to be really your only dependable safety, your only veteran who you're confident in his communication and his confidence and you can trust. But then he's the only one that does that,

Starting point is 00:15:56 but then he's also your last line of defense in the secondary to not blow coverages. If he gets hurt, it melts the whole thing yeah like it's just not great and then so that's going to kind of segue us into this um this next topic we're going to lead off talking about quandary digs to the to the titans um everybody if you have questions or comments on that specifically go ahead and throw it in i'm sure they do oh yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. And so we're going to head and get to that here in a minute. I love sports. I love them so much that I never want them to stop.

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Starting point is 00:17:01 All right, guys. So everyone's favorite AFC South rival, the Tennessee Titans. It was just announced, I don't know, like 20 minutes ago. They are signing safety Quandre Diggs, multiple-time pro bowler. To a one-year deal worth a base of like $3 million, it's up to only $5 million. That, obviously, is going to make everyone pretty unhappy who thinks and knows that the Colts need to add more reliable help at safety because the Colts have like 20 million plus in salary cap space.

Starting point is 00:17:35 So they could afford it. But I think at this point with this move, it just tells us like it's not going to happen. Either that or they just weren't too high on quandary digs and like the only guy out there for them is justin simmons you know i don't i don't know man like this this one i don't know if they're gonna make a move they gotta do it you would think soon like this was practice number seven i feel like you know what you have at safety by this point. Yeah, it's kind of strange that, I mean, not necessarily strange, but you wouldn't be expecting a move at this point

Starting point is 00:18:10 just because if you're this far into it and you know what you have and you haven't made the move, then you're comfortable with what you have. It's kind of what logic would tell you at that point. Yeah. And at one year, $3 million up to $5 million is such a small price tag. The Colts have that room. There's guys available that could be cheaper than that that would probably be an upgrade to what they have on the roster.

Starting point is 00:18:31 Maybe Simmons would command quite a bit more than that, but they would have the room for that if they needed to also. Maybe there's people out there still holding on to that hope of they're sold on one guy. They're sold on getting Justin Simmons in here, and that's the guy they're holding out for. But at this point, I'm kind of willing to let that pipe dream kind of fly, because I feel like it would have happened by now if it was going to

Starting point is 00:18:52 happen. Yeah, I've been saying that for a long time now. I'm not going to discount anything happening still at this point. There's time to get a new guy in here and ready for the season, but if it was going to happen, you would think it would have happened by now because what's the holdup? Other than the Colts or the player, whether it's Simmons or not, looking for the perfect situation

Starting point is 00:19:12 or the exact details they want in an agreement. So I don't know, man. Like, I've not seen enough out of the safety group out here. Again, it's been seven practices to say that they shouldn't make an outside move um it is hard like in the nfl you don't want to look at what other teams are doing and overreact to that and say that we have to do this to keep up with other teams it also doesn't work that way teams don't do that i mean sometimes you tailor your roster to the division that you have to face. But fans are not going to be happy with this sort of complacency.

Starting point is 00:19:56 It's not hard to see that safety is a pretty big need still. And everyone's been screaming it all offseason. So if they go through the season and safety does not wind up being a problem, great. But if it does, it's going to blow up in their face and everyone will be able to say, I told you so. And this is just a small detail, but something that happened out there on the field today, I think it was the second team defense. So it's not your starters, but enough of these guys will be on the roster. And it was, it was right before the offense came up to the line of scrimmage and you know it was pretty quiet out there and gus bradley enough so both fields could hear it shouted colorfully for the defense to start talking and communicating because and that i think that is probably their

Starting point is 00:20:40 biggest problem why they're not confident and giving some of these guys the starting job outright, because all of them are physically gifted. Rodney Thomas, he's a big guy. He's physically gifted. Nick cross had a terrific RAS score coming into the draft. Athleticism is not a problem. Ronnie Harrison also isn't a bad player either.

Starting point is 00:21:01 And he, he's the veteran. He probably does communicate more than anybody else, but like, i think they want one of the other guys to take it so they don't have to give it to the older veteran by default but it's like i have always felt like the communication and the maybe not the mental aspect but just like the non-physical things that go into playing the position is what is holding them back from declaring a guy like a winner outright. Yeah, and you have that kind of situation. I guess maybe on the second team defense, you're not really expecting this. But where the corners could be, you don't really have that veteran presence outside of Kenny Moore and the secondary really with anybody that's going to step up and kind of be that vocal leader to kind of help supplement what a safety would give you if they

Starting point is 00:21:48 were going to be more, more talkative back there. So you kind of really need somebody to be that guy. Uh, and you're not really getting that on the outside or the inside at this point. Sure. Cause like the, the depth is a problem too. And you do have some veterans there, but like, if something happens to, to Julian Blackman or kenny more as well it's not just safety like cornerback is pretty young too like if anything happens to kenny and or julian that's your two communicator that's your two quarterbacks in the secondary like these young guys talk a lot about watching the older vets and like emulating them and seeing what they do these coaches are dying for guys to step up and and communicate and get on the same be on the same page like it is so

Starting point is 00:22:33 critical like last week i asked gus bradley i was like you know everyone out here is physically gifted and plenty athletic that's not the problem like what is the biggest other factor you guys are looking for in giving someone the starting free safety job and they said like consistency and the trust from the guys ahead of them like the cornerbacks and everything and like i don't i don't want to say i know what's going on behind the scenes i'm not going to say guys aren't doing the job but it's day seven for your defensive coordinator to be screaming at you guys to talk. That's not good. And if you're looking to add kind of that veteran presence to come in and be

Starting point is 00:23:11 that communicator, I feel like you would have wanted that earlier. So they had more time to gel with these guys and kind of get that communication flow back there. So yeah, just being this late into a kind of one more point towards I'm not really expecting a move. I feel like every

Starting point is 00:23:26 year that we've been dealing with it with chris ballard here there's one position group where he's dead set on playing his young guys and seeing what he has in the young guys uh some i feel like it's kind of hit or miss on whether that works out in the season or not because last year it was the offensive line uh and he stuck through and i feel like coming out will fries showed himself to be a be a good starter, and Bernard Ryman really kind of surprised everybody and was an above-average to solid starter. So that worked out.

Starting point is 00:23:51 I think the year before that, they were dealing with wide receiver issues where he wanted to play with the young wide receivers, and that kind of burned him at the end of the season. So you just kind of have to wait and see whether safety is going to be what it was with the offensive line last year or something like the receivers two years ago. Yeah, you're right. Every year there is that position.

Starting point is 00:24:10 And if it blows up, they almost over – it's like killing a spider with a hammer the next offseason. But it tracks he's been stubborn about it every season, that that's the position group we're staying young at and we're watching these young guys. I mean, he'll own it after the season if it blows up. He'll own it and he'll be upset with himself about it. But I mean,

Starting point is 00:24:27 we may be totally wrong and they're more confident about this group than, than all of us are. I mean, we, they're, they haven't even gotten to joint practices yet. I mean, maybe when that happens, they turn a big corner. I don't know, but we're sweaty enough. Noah, let's get out of here before we do. Now that you guys have made us your first list, your first Colts list another day, go check out locked on fantasy football, get daily insight to the best draft strategy.

Starting point is 00:24:53 So you can win your league this season. And again, don't forget tomorrow, Monday, five 30. Those of us at horseshoe huddle me, Noah, Andrew Drake, the guys, we're going to be out at urban Apples Cidery there on Spring Mill Road, just outside here of Grand Park. Again, that's tomorrow, Monday, August 5th at 530. We really hope to see you guys. Remember, if you want to become a Locked on Colts insider

Starting point is 00:25:17 and chat with us directly and get the inside scoop, follow the link in our show notes. And if you don't already, follow at Locked on Colts, at JakeArthurNFL, at ZachHicks2, and at Noah Jabir right there. For those of you listening on audio, that's where it is. On Twitter, also subscribe on YouTube and wherever you listen to podcasts. We would also love your ratings and reviews as well because that helps us get up the charts. We had a rooster earlier.

Starting point is 00:25:44 Now we got a fly that's touching our faces. So we're going to go ahead and get out of here right now. We'll see you guys tomorrow afternoon.

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Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts' Anthony Richardson, Offense Shaky Before Late TD on Day 7

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