Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts: Anthony Richardson Ready to Start?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Anthony Richardson appears to be taking a lead in the Colts quarterback battle. Let's get to it. You are Locked On Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast 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 show is brought to you by Bird Dogs. Go to birddogs.com slash locked on NFL or enter promo code locked on NFL for a white tech hat with any order. You

Starting point is 00:00:51 won't want to take your bird dogs off. We promise you. I am Zach Hickson joining me right next to me from his office as my guy, Jake Arthur, the Colts boots on the ground for horseshoehuddle.com. Actually, I was boots on the ground the last two days. It's true. New boot good for both of us. Yeah, boots on the ground. Now, the Colts did not have practice today, guys, so I guess our boots were just here at your house where they were all day. But don't worry, guys.

Starting point is 00:01:16 We have a good show for you. We're going to talk about the best storylines of Colts training camp so far. Then we're going to dive into a couple players that we're going to see just a little bit more from in camp. And then we're going to close it out with talking about some assistant coaches that we talked to today, as well as getting some of your questions. So if you guys are here joining us live on YouTube, drop some questions in the comments. We will throw them up at the very end of the show. But Jake, obviously the main topic of this whole off season, the whole topic of all of training camp is young quarterback,

Starting point is 00:01:45 Anthony Richardson. That is the absolute biggest thing that we've been looking forward to coming into camp and really, you know, kind of what we said with this quarterback battle is it's not really Gardner Minshew versus Anthony Richardson. It's Anthony Richardson versus Anthony Richardson. And so far Anthony Richardson's winning the battle against himself. He is. Yeah. I mean, he's kind of ascending while Gardner is just kind of sputtering a little bit,

Starting point is 00:02:10 staying status quo. He's being Gardner Minshew, which is an adequate player. But no, Anthony Richardson, he's improving every day, erasing mistakes, which is obviously great. And the best we've seen him so far was in a quick reaction situation. You know, we talked to Jim Bob Cooter today, and he mentioned that, you know, the two-minute drill that the Colts did yesterday that Richardson did so well in, they were calling all those plays at the line. That was not scripted.

Starting point is 00:02:39 So that was literally the Colts' offense adapting to what the Colts' defense was doing, which was probably the closest to a real game scenario we've seen so far. And he passed with flying colors. Yeah, and I think the biggest thing we have to talk about right now is, like you just said at the very top of this, you know, Gardner Minshew is kind of just being Gardner Minshew. He's being like a backup level quarterback as of right now in camp. You know, he's getting the ball out underneath.

Starting point is 00:03:03 He's not really taking shots. The arm isn't really there. The mobility is not really there but that's kind of what we expected when Gardner Minchu was coming in but with Anthony Richardson stacking days with us being able to see the like little inklings of an offense that Shane Steichen could run with Anthony Richardson we almost have to just like talk about you know is he ready to start like like I know week one's still a while out we still have the preseason talk about you know is he ready to start like like I know week one's still a while out we still have the preseason and stuff like that but from what I saw the other day from what you guys have been telling me and all the other media guys been telling me it's like

Starting point is 00:03:33 why not you know why not just get him out there yeah exactly that's that's where I'm at right now too is it seems like a waste of time to start Minshew at this point. Cause if Richardson was sputtering or was super clunky or is tripping over himself or like all the issues you thought he had in college were like rearing their ugly head and he wasn't getting over him. I would understand that he would need time to iron out. But it's just the inexperience that was the biggest problem. And so far he's growing and adapting on the fly.

Starting point is 00:04:05 Yeah. So he's, he's doing exactly what they want him to do and showing that he can grow. And so I don't, at this point, I mean, again, there,

Starting point is 00:04:14 like you said, there's still, there's still stuff to see, like maybe the joint practices don't go well or the preseason, whatever. But at this point, this looks like the perfect scenario to go ahead and get him in yeah especially you know again we're seeing a lot of pistol formation a lot of

Starting point is 00:04:29 read options a lot of rpos when we've seen richardson out there so it looks like that they are getting some install in for a richardson-led offense again it's just like at this point why not just get him out there for week one but we have two other major positives that i really wanted to touch on in this, and it's the play of Nick Cross and the return of Shaquille Leonard. Talking Leonard first, again, we did a whole Doomer's Podcast episode about not really us saying he's never going to play again, but us just being concerned about the future of Shaquille Leonard

Starting point is 00:04:59 because it was concerning. He didn't really play last year. He had a lot of injuries in his career at this point, and we were terrified that it could be something that just keeps him off the field for the rest of his career. But he's been out there. He's been running around with the 11s. He's been getting some contact in.

Starting point is 00:05:17 You know, it hasn't always been perfect. He doesn't look 100% like Shaquille Leonard of old, but just seeing him out there is like the biggest win outside of Anthony Richardson's development that you could really ask for this offseason yeah he's he's kind of ascending at the same time Richardson is as well you know we we talked to the assistants and Gus Bradley today and everyone both Gus Bradley and Richard Smith just said today that this was Shaquille's best practice so far yesterday uh the most recent one we saw him in and, you know, they were evaluating, they said within just a matter of like three or four plays,

Starting point is 00:05:52 there were some physical things they wanted to see from him in terms of like cutting and planting and like changing direction that he checked off each box just in rapid succession. Yeah. Again, it wasn't a perfect day. Like he gave up that touchdown pass to Kylan Granson. He kind of, you know, hobbled off at one point before returning a little bit later. But,

Starting point is 00:06:11 you know, I, I really like that type of stuff. Cause to us, it didn't seem like the best practice in the world, but to, to the coaching staff that he did exactly what they were looking for. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:06:21 So, I mean, there's, there's so much room to go up, but there's a lot of optimism right now. Yeah. So, I mean, there's, there's so much room to go up, but there's a lot of optimism right now. Yeah. And then again, talking to Nick Cross, we talked about him a lot yesterday. We talked about him a lot recently. Nick Cross is really stepping up and from everything I've heard, you know, we talked to Ron Milas today, me and Nate Atkins and Joel Erickson,

Starting point is 00:06:38 we're talking to Ron Milas and Milas was like, oh yeah, Nick Cross is in the other room right now talking with an assistant coach, watching his film from yesterday to see where he could be better or where he could do things that those are things we did not hear about with Nick Cross last year. You know, last year he was a young player who got in his head too much and wanted to play, but wasn't out there. So it resulted in some, you know, things behind the scenes. And it's like, now he seems like a much more matured 21 year old-old, much more matured 21-year-old, 22-year-old getting out there and really coming into his own in the back end. So that's been big.

Starting point is 00:07:11 And then Daryl Baker Jr. too is the other guy we got to keep mentioning. I know he got beat the other day by Alec Pierce for a touchdown, but the coaching staff loves him. He's doing a lot of things right out there. And this is a guy where even someone on the coaching staff were like, I didn't know who this guy was coming into this offseason, but he's making a name for himself and he's playing really well. So yeah, Daryl Baker Jr.

Starting point is 00:07:32 Nick Cross are making this young safety or this young secondary groups not look that scary as of right now. We still have the preseason, you know? Yeah. No, both guys, their athleticism and size was never a concern. It was something we always knew about. Or, I mean, with Baker, when you do your research on a guy like, who is this? You find the athleticism and size is there.

Starting point is 00:07:52 But the coaches really rave about these guys' approach to getting better and their mental acumen out on the field. So, I mean, that's the best part about it is like, we've seen so many guys not do anything in the league who are the most talented guys in the world, but don't have that mental edge to them. And it seems like these guys are really coming along in that department. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And one more thing I wanted to touch on was just this tight end group. You know, we, we had a lot of questions going into this off season about the Colts tight end group. You know, it was do they have that alpha guy in there? Do they have the depth required to actually be effective in the scheme?

Starting point is 00:08:30 And do they have the blocking tight end on the roster? That was the most concerning thing from last season. And so far, I mean, again, just from what I saw yesterday and what you've seen throughout training camp, you know, I'm not going to say this tight end group's the greatest in the league or anything, but they have the recipe for success this year they have jelani woods who is nursing an injury right now but jelani woods is jelani woods tylen granton's having a phenomenal camp in the past catching department drew ogletree looks like drew ogletree from last year especially in like the

Starting point is 00:08:58 blocking and just being like an inline tight end which that that's massive that's like the biggest that's another big win right there because you just didn't know what he was going to be. And then you guys got guys like a Farrell Brown, Will Mallory, Molly Cox competing for that last spot. I, you know, it, again, it's not amazing, but I think it's a pretty sturdy group. It really is. It's, it's chock full of young talent that we knew could do some things, but they, I mean, it's a lot of athletic guys

Starting point is 00:09:25 but they still have a diversity of skill sets a guy like kylan granson really good before the catch it's separating and then again after the catch with with the ball in his hands ogletree and jelani woods are just the type of tight ends that can make catches that a lot of the other guys cannot they're a mismatch problem uh so that's really good to see and we have heard so much from the coaches and chris ballard included and everything on how impressed they are with this group and so i mean i've heard i'm gonna even exclude mo alley cox out of that because that's that's a guy we've seen start before but they're young guys that they want to step up they're seeing that yeah yeah for sure, guys, we're going to talk about a few players that we just want to see a little bit more from in camp.

Starting point is 00:10:08 It could be injury-related. It could be performance-related. We're going to talk about that all here in a second. Fellas, it's summer, so it means shorts every day, and that means it's time to break out the bird dogs. Bird dogs make you look good, and their stretch khaki shorts are designed to fit slimmer through the thigh and leg giving you a truly sculpted look bird dog short to the exact same thing as lulu lemon plus they fit way better than regular shorts that are made of stiff

Starting point is 00:10:34 restricting cotton bird dogs also uses anti-stink sweat wicking fabric that keeps you cool and dry all day long i wear my bird dogs when i'm working out i know i don't look like someone who works out but when i get on the treadmill and run for my you know 10 minutes a wear my bird dogs when I'm working out. I know I don't look like someone who works out, but when I get on the treadmill and run for my 10 minutes a day, my bird dogs look great on me. I look truly sculpted. He looks great, guys. Yeah, Jake is seeing it right here. Except he doesn't have a treadmill. I'm running circles around his house.

Starting point is 00:10:56 I do. Just don't use it. There it is. Go to birddogs.com slash locked on NFL or enter promo code locked on nfl for a free yeti style tumblr with your order that's birddogs.com slash locked on nfl or promo code locked on nfl for yeti style tumblr you won't want to take your bird dogs off we promise you and every day is again we're gonna be back here every single day talking colts training camp um i think

Starting point is 00:11:24 tomorrow's practice we'll be back on here i think we'll be back in like this area here we're back at jake's house because it's an early practice wednesday we will be off because there's no practice that day but then the rest of the week uh thursday friday and saturday we will be back on here so every day is make sure you're tuning in to our youtube channel or wherever you listen to our podcast all right diving into our second segment here jake and talking about players that we want to see step up again this could be injury related so it's not really like oh this guy sucks right now we just need him to get out there there are some guys on this list where it's like we just haven't seen enough because of the injuries or because they've been out but you have two defensive

Starting point is 00:12:04 tackles that you really wanted to talk about first. Yeah. And take this with a grain of salt because we haven't really been watching one-on-ones yet with offensive versus defensive linemen. But I'm going to say Adetome Adebare and Eric Johnson, rookie defensive tackle, second year defensive tackle, both super athletic guys who you hope contribute to the

Starting point is 00:12:26 depth pretty and pretty quickly I mean you like what you have in mctelvin a game and Taven Brian luckily it's a couple veterans but they drafted these guys to be impact players yeah and the coaches have spoke positively about them um you know particularly i think gus today said uh ade ade was doing some nice things it's i haven't noticed it yet i haven't been like spying it out but like he hasn't done anything that's jumped out to me yet and i'm just kind of waiting on that yeah no i i definitely didn't notice either one of them the other day when i was watching now given it's hard to watch the trench play from where we are on the sidelines so that could just be you know tough for us to really watch them there but the coaching staff says they're up they're doing well you know these

Starting point is 00:13:08 are two players that are going to most likely make the roster so you want to see them kind of step up to their draft billing and stuff like that another player I wanted to list here and it's actually a weird one because I only saw one practice and I'm like oh my gosh he's so boring and it's actually Gardner Minshew. I don't know, talking to a bunch of other beat guys too, it's just like in the seven on seven stuff, in the 11 on 11 stuff, Gardner Minshew will only throw to the running back in the flat. So mostly what I'm saying needs to step up. I'm like, Gardner, let your guys actually get some practice by throwing the ball down the field. Test the corners down the field, test the seams over the middle of the field because you're not really helping anybody

Starting point is 00:13:48 by showing that you can get down to evan hole like evan hole's getting some practice he's also getting i mean i got some work he had like five catches just from minji yesterday yeah so i i don't know i don't know if this is like a big problem with him or anything like he again he can operate this offense perfectly fine when he gets out there, but it's like, please Gardner, like get the ball down the field. Let these guys actually get some valuable reps. Let's stop just giving the ball to Evan hole and letting him get killed by Saguna Luby. Like for all of us to see, uh, if someone's actually keeping track of catches, I, I, I just bet that like Evan hole has like 30 catches from Gardner Minshew.

Starting point is 00:14:22 I'm sure I can go back and look at it, but no, no, when he does go downfield, it's always at the boundary. It's safe. You know, he doesn't go down the middle of the field for big plays or anything. It's to a big guy like Mike Strawn on the outside, where you know it's going to be caught or not picked off, basically. He did do a couple. He threw the Mike Strawn ones down the field the other day, like three-by-one sets, throwing it backside to Strawn.

Starting point is 00:14:46 But it's just like, there's so many where it's just Evan Holt, just Evan Holt. Come on. He's a safe quarterback. In practice. In practice. Yeah. In a vertical offense, oddly enough.

Starting point is 00:14:59 Oh man. Yeah. Yeah. So, so another guy we can move on to here is, is another veteran who's underwhelming a bit with an opportunity to shine. Mo Alleycox. Yeah. So I think we saw and this isn't a pile on the guy because we've we've done that before. I mean, you know, last year we saw that. I just don't think he was going to be that dominant pass catching tight end. Like he had that opportunity with Jack Doyle out and didn't really grab the

Starting point is 00:15:28 bull by the horns there, but he didn't really excel as a blocker either. And he didn't need to be Jack Doyle. He just needed to be a capable lead blocking tight end. And he just kind of fell short there, which has really opened the door this summer for not really all of these, all these guys, let's just say Ogletree woods,

Starting point is 00:15:48 you know, Mallory Granson, these guys, we know they're good pass catchers, but if any of them prove to be a capable blocker, then that could be all she wrote. Yeah. And he's missing time right now.

Starting point is 00:16:00 Again, veteran, he's been banged up with an ankle as well. Right. Veteran tight end on a team that is embracing the youth movement and you're missing time with injury when guys like pharaoh brown are out there and they're playing really well guys like drew ogletree out there playing really well will mallory another guy who's missed time but when he's been out there sparingly he's been he's been pretty good and had a good spring yeah so if you're already not up to like playing

Starting point is 00:16:23 really well you did not have a good season last year, and you're missing time with injury, it's like, I know that the front office loves him. I know Tom Manning loves him. But there was one person that really matters in this decision-making who has no tie to Mo Alleycox, and that's Shane Steichen. Shane Steichen doesn't have the tie to Mo Alleycox. If Farrell Brown proves to be a better fit for his offense,

Starting point is 00:16:42 or Drew Obletree can be the blocking tight end, there's no real tie to a Mo Alley Cox. So, you know, I want to see more from him. I'm not ready to give up on him completely, but it's like at this point when you're embracing the youth movement, might as well just go with like an Ogletree as your blocker and just,

Starting point is 00:16:58 you know, let it roll out like that. But he's got a long way to go. Another player I do want to mention, and this is again, just due to injury issues because he's just been out a lot. Now he's gotten back out there a little bit, but he's still trying to get his legs under him.

Starting point is 00:17:10 That's going to be cornerback Darius Rush. Rush is a guy that we all anticipated this offseason, maybe getting out there with the first team. But guys like Dallas Flowers, guys like Daryl Baker Jr. have ascended up to that position partly because Darius Rush has been out. Now he has to make up ground on, especially like a Daryl Baker Jr., have ascended up to that position partly because Darius Rush has been out. Now he has to make up ground on, especially like a Daryl Baker Jr., he has to make up ground on him if he wants playing time this year. So it's not like we are saying that he's been bad when he's out there.

Starting point is 00:17:36 He's been fine. Nothing crazy bad or anything, but it's like he now has more ground to make up because he's been missing time with injury because Daryl Baker Jr. Has been taken the bull by the horns. Like you just said, he's actually taking over that role. And you have a guy like rush where, you know,

Starting point is 00:17:51 it's not a Juju Brent situation where you're a second round pick and you're going to get those opportunities. He's a fifth round pick. We could have all said he should have been a second round pick, but he's a fifth round pick still trying to earn his spot. And having a guy like Baker Jr. Send up the depth chart, you know, he needs to catch up now.

Starting point is 00:18:07 So that's really a big thing with him is he just needs to catch up to where Baker Jr. has now climbed up to. Yeah, and he's, unfortunately for him, he's kind of created this environment where there's really high expectations because he had an awesome spring. Yeah. People could not speak highly enough of him. I was there on hand for

Starting point is 00:18:25 a rookie mini camp and he looked great. He wasn't out there for OTAs and stuff. He had the hamstring, but you know, he, he got out there at the start of camp before having a shoulder injury that kept him out a little bit. But yeah, he's, he's been fine. But at this point, Daryl Baker Jr. has established himself as a guy who might be a starter throughout the year. That is a legitimate thing. And yeah, Rush just has a little catching up to do. We haven't seen those big-time plays yet that he did in the spring. I think Chris Ballard told us he had four interceptions during rookie camp and the voluntary minicamp as well.

Starting point is 00:19:04 So we're waiting on those big plays but it's not like it's not like everyone around him is leaving him behind there are just a couple guys standing out above him right now yeah but he's still got the opportunity to i like i think he'll probably be the brandon face on this year or something you know that's probably his role like i think he'll still carve something out yeah he is running with the twos right now with with jujus. I know Jalen Jones is getting in there a little bit too, but he is getting his opportunities. It's just like

Starting point is 00:19:30 you got to catch up now. Nothing's guaranteed when he's a fifth round pick. He's got some work to do. Coming up, we're going to actually go over to your guys' questions because you have a lot there in the chat. We're going to dive into those questions here in just a second. All right, everyone. Football season is about to

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Starting point is 00:20:11 America's number one sports book. That's fanduel.com slash locked on. That's pretty good. Should I bet on Colts to win the Superbowl, Jake? That's pretty bold. Pretty bold. But Hey, yeah, I mean, every win during the regular season you get

Starting point is 00:20:28 bonus bets oh i'd get like four or five bonus bets oh give them six seven eight six seven eight okay okay we got nathan here with our first question what do you expect the rep split at quarterback to be for the preseason games see my thing is i don't think that you really benefit much from having gardner minchu play in the preseason games like right i mean thing is, I don't think that you really benefit much from having Gardner Minshew play in the preseason games. Like, I mean, Evan Hull might benefit a little bit, but to be serious about it, you know, I just don't like he's a veteran, you know, you're getting with him. Maybe you get him out there just to run the, run the offense a little bit there, but I don't know how much you're really going to benefit from him being out there. But

Starting point is 00:21:02 then on the other side with Anthony Richardson, it's a really fascinating conversation because you want to get him out there to get more field experience, but you don't want him to get hurt. So like we were actually talking about this the other day, like I would think maybe a couple drives each game just to, just to get his feet under him. But I wouldn't do too much more than that. Yeah. I think they're going to try and get the feet under him but i wouldn't do too much more than that yeah i think they're gonna try and get the bulk of what they want to accomplish done in joint practices yeah

Starting point is 00:21:30 i mean they of course have the bills coming up this weekend um but i think i would give him like a quarter each well for at least the first two games maybe yeah yeah because i mean you want to get him out there but you also want to get him in like you want to get him in different situations like hurry up two minute stuff like that you want to expose him to a lot of different like realistic in-game situations right so maybe you give him like the first quarter one game in the second quarter or the fourth quarter or something another like in the fourth quarter against the force yeah let's do it right yeah let's see what it goes but like yeah fourth quarter throw into like joan winfrey and and malik turner probably not the you know the the best thing but you just want to expose them to different things but at the end of

Starting point is 00:22:17 the day i think they're going to try and do that in the joint practices yeah i think you would put him in like quarter two and then have him treat it like a fourth quarter right it's kind of like hey we're down a score in the second quarter here go out there get us some points treat the end of the half as the end of the game and stuff like that yeah that way you're still playing with real players that are gonna make team that could make a team yeah and stuff like that we got john davis here asking if i was on nfl network yesterday i was i was walking around behind michael pitman jr and I looked massive right over his shoulder. So you guys can go see that. Go to Stacey Dale's Twitter account. You can see me

Starting point is 00:22:48 in like minute four talking to Rick Venturi behind Michael Pittman Jr. That was hilarious branding for the podcast there. Our boy DSG Goodbar is asking about this new coaching staff and have they had a positive effect on the team and in what ways and i love this because we did talk to assistant coaches today so there's a way we can kind of talk a little bit about the assistant coaches in this final segment like we we thought we were going to um for for me personally you can see the energy out there with them uh very very energetic group especially you know the move from chris drosser to to Tony Sperano Jr. is just so much more energy and more fiery passion and stuff a lot of younger guys compared to the last staff where you know you had Reich running in a little bit older a little bit church pastory you know and stuff like that really that's not saying it was bad by any means but like you can feel a little

Starting point is 00:23:40 more energy overall from the coaching staff to the players all around this thing. And I think it starts obviously with the head coach and the quarterback, two very young people there. So just for me personally, seeing this coaching staff, very smart, young group of guys that are really energetic. You can definitely feel that on the sideline and when you talk to them. Yeah. And I talked to Mike Mitchell today, for example, that was a guy who, when he was briefly here as a player, had such a strong impact on younger players around him in the secondary. And that continues today. I kind of asked him about that. I was like, you had a really big impact on some guys.

Starting point is 00:24:14 Are you noticing guys gravitate towards you now? And, you know, since, I mean, he only left the league like four years ago. So guys are really gravitating to guys like him and Cato June, who've been there and done that for this organization as well. So the young energy is definitely something. You mentioned Tony Sperano. That's great. Every time we talk to the offensive linemen,

Starting point is 00:24:36 they seem to really dig what he's selling. Tom Manning is a younger guy too at tight end. Very successful tight end coach with his previous stint with the Colts as well. So I think the players are really, really enjoying this new coaching staff. And obviously last year something had gone stale. And then in the second half of the season, it was chaos. So, like, I think they're enjoying some stability with guys who are probably going to be around a little while. Yeah, for sure.

Starting point is 00:25:07 We got a good one from Technogamer here talking about the debate between starting and sitting, Anthony Richardson. And what are your guys' thoughts on the overall debate between sitting a rookie quarterback or not? I would honestly say it really goes – you really got to look at the situation. If you have a Pat Mahomes type situation where the starting quarterback is a pretty darn good court like like alex smith was a good quarterback at that point and you trust kind of your coaching staff behind the scenes to develop him better off the field that first year while the team is still getting wins with that alex smith out there i think that that works really well but we are kind of seeing a this kind of newer modern thinking when it comes to young quarterbacks,

Starting point is 00:25:45 where it's like, learn on the fly, you know, sink or swim. And I, and part of me loves that because if you're a young quarterback doesn't have the mental capacity, I guess,

Starting point is 00:25:54 or like the mental, like fortitude to overcome those struggles as a rookie and get better in the process, then they're already not going to overcome any mental hurdles throughout their career to become that starting quarterback. Like you can't protect them forever. You can shelter them a little bit like Anthony Richardson. You can have them throw the ball like 16, 17, 18 times a game to start off just to kind of ease them into it. So you can shelter them, but you can't protect them forever. You can't hide them on the bench until they're,

Starting point is 00:26:20 until they're ready to face adversity. You know, you kind of have to throw adversity in their face and see how they react. So personally, I'm more on the side of starting them early, especially when it comes to a mobile quarterback where life is a little bit easier when you're a mobile guy like Anthony Richardson. So for me personally, I'm big on the start them right away, get them out there, let them learn, especially when someone like Richardson who is mobile and only had 13 career starts like I want to get them out there yeah just like you said I think it's totally dependent on the situation the coaching staff the quarterback that's already there you know how how much is the quarterback able to handle because you don't want to make it like they didn't intend us to get Malik Willis all this playing time, but last year with the Titans, it was just so clunky and messy with the Malik Willis situation.

Starting point is 00:27:08 So you, you want to create an environment where the quarterback can succeed, even if it's like a dumbed down offense. Like, I just think it, it totally depends on the situation, but I'm, I lean more pro start them right away.

Starting point is 00:27:19 Anyways. Yeah. Now we have like a hundred questions here about Nick cross. I'm actually going to just throw up a bunch of them. If you guys are watching on YouTube but uh most of them are about like where to play Nick Cross free safety strong safety uh do we start him over um someone like Julian Blackman since he's playing so well like what's kind of the plan with Nick Cross and I think the best way I can really say what I what I've been hearing what I've who I've talked to

Starting point is 00:27:43 and stuff like that is really like, you know, he can kind of do both. They're kind of preparing him to be both a strong safety and a free safety. Now, I do think their overall plan is to start Rodney Thomas and Julian Blackman, but as we've seen with this Colts team, injuries happen. So to have a player like Nick Cross with his superb athleticism, to have the ability to play both free and strong and be that reserve player and then when they want to go to three safety sets and maybe have a safety come in for a linebacker like a Julian Blackman come down in the slot I think they have that personnel now so the the rise of Nick Cross doesn't mean like we necessarily need a bench Julian Blackman it's really just hey now we have three young safeties

Starting point is 00:28:24 we really like instead of two which is, the biggest positive sign outside of Anthony Richardson and Shaquille Leonard coming back, I think, for this whole team. So yeah, I think it's a lot of great questions about that. Like, could he be the starter over a guy like Julian Blackman? You know, maybe he could be. But the overall positive part you got to talk about with this is now they have a third safety that they feel good about rather than two and then oh this young guy that we hope figures it out yeah i think they're at the point now where they know what they can do with them just like you said the julian blackman situation last year kind of unlocked a lot of possibilities i've tried to pay a lot of attention this summer on what guys are playing in the nickel and more often than not, other than Kenny and Tony Brown,

Starting point is 00:29:05 it's a safety. And then, so I, I think the easiest thing to do to get all three guys on the field when healthy Julian Blackman down the slot, depending on who is, who he's covering. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:29:16 And then, and then put Nick back there at safety as well with Rodney. So there's things they can do again. There there's a lot of things to balance because what do you do with Kenny? What do you do with a certain linebacker? Like, is it Shaq that you take out? There's moving parts to it, but I definitely, I think he'll get an opportunity at some point this season. And I don't think he'll get yanked out of the lineup like he did last year. I think they're eager for him to play now. Like, I think they really want to see him play they just have these other guys they also really like

Starting point is 00:29:49 yep and then absolute last one that i'll just touch on real quick how much is having ron myles as your positional coach influence the decision to go young at corner yeah i don't think it really influences as in like oh ron myles is some miracle worker so he's going to make these young guys work but i think it's more of we've had some typings here, like Kenny Moore and Isaiah Rogers and even Brandon Faison, a little bit older of a player, where it's like they're either set in their ways or they're not really the archetype that Milas and Gus Bradley look for. Now, when you're getting a bunch of young guys who fit exactly what they want in terms of size, length, speed, physicality, now it's like, hey, Ron Mil milas we have this archetype for you now

Starting point is 00:30:27 you have a lot of them to pick through just pick your favorites go with them and and let's go you know so i think giving a really experienced well-versed coach like ron milas that that versatility with young players to where like outside of juju brins like they're not really fully committed to any of these guys you know so if aryl Baker Jr. is your top corner, cool. Let's get him out there. If it ends up being a Jalen Jones, cool. Get him out there. It's really all about what he wants with these young guys,

Starting point is 00:30:53 how much these guys pick up his system, his way of doing things. So, yeah, I think it's a great thing for a really experienced coach like Ron Myles. But every day, again, we'll be back tomorrow after Colts training camp practice to keep dishing on Anthony Richardson and going super pumped about the young quarterback. And if you guys don't already follow at Lockdown Colts at Jake Arthur, NFL and at Zach Hicks to all on X slash Twitter. Also subscribe to Lockdown Colts podcast on YouTube or every list of your podcasts.

Starting point is 00:31:20 We'd love your guys ratings and reviews and we'll see you guys nice and early ish tomorrow afternoon.

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