Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts' Anthony Richardson Receives Impressive Accolade from Teammates

Starting point is 00:00:00 Anthony Richardson has reached another impressive checkmark before his rookie season has even officially begun. 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. All right. Thanks for tuning in and making us your first listen of the day. This is your daily podcast covering your Indianapolis Colts, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. And today's show is presented by GameTime.

Starting point is 00:00:47 Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Hello, everybody. I am Jake Arthur, rolling solo today. You know me from horseshoehuddle.com. I'm your resident credentialed media member from the site, bringing you the latest scoop from the team facility, talking to the coaches, talking to the players, bringing you guys the latest. But on today's show,

Starting point is 00:01:16 I wanted to catch you guys up on a busy day of Colts news. That includes an announcement on the team captains that are now released. Several roster moves as well. We know they've been churning that thing for the past several days. And that continued on Thursday. I also caught up with Stephen Holder of ESPN to talk about the Jonathan Taylor stuff. The Chris Ballard press conference, which heavily discussed Jonathan Taylor. Because I thought it would be good for you guys to hear pretty much directly from the media member who has been closest to the situation all along,

Starting point is 00:01:51 at least since camp started, you know, last four or five, six weeks. So I thought that was important. And then last, I'm going to sift through some of the positive things that Chris Ballard pointed out, because again, it was pretty Jonathan Taylor dominated, but he did, there's always some little nuggets in there, some positives you can take away, some players he likes to highlight. And he saying, him saying that is usually a reflection of how the team in general has felt about several of these players. So I'll kind of put a spotlight on them as well. So starting out, the Colts announced seven permanent team captains for the 2023 season on Thursday.

Starting point is 00:02:35 And one of them is none other than rookie quarterback Anthony Richardson. It's just the latest little checkmark and an impressive offseason for this guy. You know, I wrote today in my article when I was, you know, when I wrote up the announcement. You know, his ever since people began scouting him as a draft prospect, his physical tools were all pretty much anything wrote about, you know, his physical tools and his inexperience, of course, that was obvious. But ever since he's got to Indy, really everything that his peers, you know, his coaches and his teammates talk about is the guy's work ethic. And that has already left a pretty lasting impression on all those guys. And it was enough for, you know, the, the team, it was all the players they voted and he was among, you know, the seven highest

Starting point is 00:03:32 vote getters, uh, for, for team captain. So you always miss your quarterback, get that, but it's typically understandable if a rookie quarterback doesn't get it. Uh, but still he's taking command of this team and is already showing off his leadership abilities. So that's really good to see. The other six captains, Quentin Nelson, Ryan Kelly, DeForest Buckner, Shaquille Leonard, Zaire Franklin, and Kenny Moore. Surprisingly, other than Richardson, Kelly is the only first-time team captain in here. You kind of would have assumed Kelly's been a captain by now, but he is now officially a team captain. The Colts also, again, like I mentioned, busy day of roster moves as well.

Starting point is 00:04:14 They signed defensive end Jake Martin, formerly of the Texans. That's a guy who always seems to make an impact against the Colts. Doesn't have big numbers to go with his career from a sack perspective. But for the purpose of basically being like your Al-Kadhi Mohammed this year, I think that's pretty decent. He can stop the run, set the edge a little bit. He's also a decent pass rusher. In a corresponding move, they then waived Arlington Hambright,

Starting point is 00:04:44 the guy who has seen a ton of snaps in the starting lineup at left tackle, right guard. He's been the second team left tackle most of camp. Saw snaps at right guard. Saw snaps with the second team at left guard, I think. So this guy has played all over the line this summer. Him, I would imagine he's going to bounce back with the practice squad. We'll see about that. But they've kind of made a few moves on the offensive line in terms of depth lately,

Starting point is 00:05:12 so it made him right expendable, I suppose. Lots of moves on the practice squad. A day after letting go of McTelvin Aguim, he is now back on the practice squad. That's a good one. You know, Zach and I have talked about him having a really solid summer. For my money, he's been the third best defensive tackle on the team throughout the summer. Obviously, DeForest Buckner and Grover Stewart,

Starting point is 00:05:35 but I've been impressed with Aguim and what he's produced, both as a run defender and a pass rusher. I think he's got a well-balanced game and is able to do both. They also brought in wide receiver, Racy McMath. He is from the Titans most recently. That's a, that's a bigger guy with some athleticism.

Starting point is 00:05:55 So we'll see if they can develop him into anything. Also Darren Hall, cornerback formerly of the Falcons. He has started some games for them in the defensive backfield, so that's a nice move. Johnny Lumpkin, formerly of the Patriots as well. Again, they love those athletic tight ends. He fits the bill right there as well. So those are some practice squad additions. Now guys who are on the chopping block in corresponding moves, rookie linebacker Donovan Mutin,

Starting point is 00:06:25 cornerback Kevin Tolliver II, and defensive tackle Caleb Sampson. All of those guys now find their way off of the practice squad as well. Man, this roster has been churning and churning, but I really don't think they're done because you look at a position like wide receiver, for example

Starting point is 00:06:45 only four active players right now Pittman Pierce Downs and McKenzie they got a bunch of guys on the practice squad but I mean that that doesn't really conjure much confidence because you know they let a lot of those guys go and they're back on the practice squad, but they obviously weren't, you know, ready enough to be on the active roster. So, you know, Chris Ballard was asked about that on Wednesday. I asked Shane Steichen about it today. You know, how much work do you guys have to do in order to get ready for the season? And he's, he said, Chris Ballard is still testing the waters out there. So kind of expect some more things to happen at wide receiver because I don't think they're done.

Starting point is 00:07:29 They really can't be done. I don't want to say the solution is just to promote one or two guys from the practice squad because I don't think they're done bringing in guys from the outside. Maybe they bring a guy in directly to the active roster and don't worry about the practice squad. We'll see. But in general,

Starting point is 00:07:48 this active four, I think they're still going to go into the season with five or six just personally, but coming up here soon, I'll bring you my conversation with Stephen Holder discussing the Jonathan Taylor saga. And of course what Chris Ballard had to say about it as well. But first up, I want to talk to you guys about our friends over at FanDuel.

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Starting point is 00:08:45 FanDuel.com slash locked on and kick off the NFL season with an offer that you won't want to miss. FanDuel, official partner of the NFL. And everydayers, don't forget, how could you? Next week is the start of the NFL season. Week one is next week. We're going to throw ourselves right into the mix. You know, practice reports. We're getting back to crossover Thursday, so we'll talk to our boy Tony Wiggins from the Jaguars. We're going to have, we're getting back to crossover Thursday. So we'll talk to our boy, Tony Wiggins from the Jaguars. It's going to be a great week. Not only

Starting point is 00:09:10 are we going to, you know, preview what's Anthony Richardson going to look like, but we get to digest an opponent soon, talking about the Jaguars a little bit. So we're really excited to get really in depth about a matchup again, because it's been a while. So we'll bring that to you here next week. But right now I will go ahead and play for you guys. My conversation with Stephen Holder of ESPN. All right, everybody here with Stephen Holder.

Starting point is 00:09:39 Now you've pretty much been the authority on this whole situation all summer. Very, very much in touch with what's going on. And we talked to Chris Ballard yesterday for the first time. Really the most revealing comments from either side of the whole thing. From my vantage point in there, it just kind of seemed like they are not offering the contract. Because, again, they were a four-win team last year, as Chris Ballard said. But it kind of read to me like we need this before we send big money for this.

Starting point is 00:10:11 We need to see if that's even worth it in this offense with this coaching staff. And, you know, the situation just is what it is. What was your kind of main takeaways from yesterday? The main thing, first of all, that I think is worth mentioning is that it was great to finally get some actual insight from somebody who's actually involved in the situation because Coach Shane Steichen has just been in this awkward position all along where he really couldn't talk about it, didn't want to talk about it, didn't want to inflame the situation. So he was in a very tough spot. He was trying to keep the focus on football throughout training camp,

Starting point is 00:10:49 even though he was getting questions every day. So I have no ill will toward him for not stepping into this minefield. And so it was finally good to hear from Chris Ballard. I don't think he answered all the questions, but my main takeaway, I think, is this. The overarching thing is that this isn't really solved, and I don't know that they have a path to truly solving it is the problem. And obviously, we know what can fix it, either a trade or money. And neither of those two things seem likely at this point, even though the trade can't

Starting point is 00:11:25 be ruled out. But we kind of are where we are. And I think what they have done is they got themselves a timeout here with the four weeks minimum on PUP. And then we'll go from there. But to your point about the rationale behind not extending his contract. I do think there's a grander point, and you alluded to it, that Chris Ballard is kind of touching on here. Number one, they are in kind of this transitional phase. That is true. I think they don't know what they are. And I think that's a little bit of a thorny subject, right? Because are they rebuilding?

Starting point is 00:12:04 Are they not rebuilding? Are they, you know, do they think they're a team that can be fixed on the fly? You know, I don't think that has truly been clarified. I think they recognize they might be a bad team this year. There seems to be a recognition of that. So it is an awkward time for all those reasons and and i get it i do get it um the only thing i would say is that you do box yourself in a little bit when you say hey we had a four-win season last year and we're not gonna do contract extensions

Starting point is 00:12:38 in part because of that because you could well have another bad season and so what does that mean for this time next year right so so that's where I think he opens himself up to a little bit of second guessing and are you really giving us your full rationale for this? But all those questions are bound to come up later. Yeah, and before we heard from him, the latest updates were, you know, without him being traded that there might be some ill will, potentially even a suspension. Chris kind of downplayed those things. It seems like he really wants to work on the relationship, make it better. He says the relationship is repairable. Um, but

Starting point is 00:13:17 without a trade, without a new contract, is it essentially just continuing dialogue, continuing good vibes essentially to try and make things better by the time Pup is over? I will say this for Chris Ballard. He has done a relatively good job of not inflaming things further, even behind the scenes from what I hear. Like, I don't think he's been the problem. Certainly, certainly, Jimim ursa's comments have been a problem yeah and and i mean that behind closed doors too right like jonathan taylor did not appreciate them i can tell you that yeah but that's obvious um what i would say is

Starting point is 00:13:57 i think for chris ballard right now he has i think the way he's governed himself throughout this thing is he has kind of continued to buy himself time to hopefully allow Jonathan Taylor to come around. And hopefully his better judgment takes over. I'm just using Chris Ballard's possible thought process here. Hopefully Jonathan Taylor comes to his senses, if you want to say that. using chris ballard's possible thought process here you know hopefully jonathan taylor you know comes to his senses if you want to say that and and comes around and and comes out in place but jonathan taylor has proven to be pretty i don't know if stubborn is the right word but persistent i guess is the right word you know and i don't know i don't know that there's any guarantee that that changes in four weeks.

Starting point is 00:14:45 But I do think there is a recognition on Jonathan Taylor's part that at some point he's going to have to play some football. Because it does put him in a pretty tough spot if nothing changes in terms of his performance or from the football perspective. If nothing changes between now and the end of the year, if we never see him this year, then I think that creates more problems for him, you know, to, to achieve the contract that he wants next year,

Starting point is 00:15:16 you know, which at this point, it doesn't seem like he's going to get it this year, but if he wants it next year, maybe that creates an impediment there. If you haven't played in a very long time or at least if there's doubts or anything like that about you. So I do think there's a point at which Jonathan Taylor

Starting point is 00:15:36 will just maybe fold his tent and say, I got to play. I do think that time will come because at some point, he can only earn more money at this point. Right. I mean, he's he's, you know, he'll probably get a franchise tag number at worst, I think. But but he can earn more money, you know, with a big season. So I think he has to still at some point recognize that. And that will probably be a driving force to getting him back on the field at some point yeah i think the whatever is the validity of the injury in order for him to get what he wants he's going to have to prove that he's healthy enough to play because that would you know the

Starting point is 00:16:15 colts would probably be more willing to play ball there other teams would be more willing to trade for him whatever uh but that that's going to be a next step for him that doesn't seem whatever is the validity again like that's just going to have to happen but if he's going to be the trailblazer you know whatever he's just kind of the last running back domino to fall the other guys have all changed teams returned to their team or you know signed new deals for a little more money than they were making so we'll see what comes next. Stephen, we appreciate you talking with us. Hey, you got it. All right.

Starting point is 00:16:48 Thanks again to Stephen for chatting with us. And next up, we're going to, again, dive into some of those things that Chris Ballard had to say during that press conference. Some of the more positive things take away some of the players that he kind of went out of his way to point out as well. But first, it's game time. Buying tickets to your favorite events shouldn't be stressful.

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Starting point is 00:19:02 the vast majority of it, like 75% of it was about Jonathan Taylor, uh, which for good reason, because, uh, we haven't really, there's so much left up to interpretation because he hasn't spoken at all since training camp. Uh, unfortunately there's a lot of people putting words in his mouth and I don't want to say he's letting it happen, but I mean, he could probably squash some things if he talked. You know, Shane Steichen, there's only so much he can say about it. Chris Ballard came out and gave us like the most detailed explanations of anything we've really heard to this point. Because even when Jim or say spoke,

Starting point is 00:19:45 it's almost like the Riddler, you kind of have to poke through and like, see what he's talking about in some of those statements. So it was nice to hear from Chris Ballard, the guy who most commonly makes the, you know, the day-to-day decisions for the team about this. So again,

Starting point is 00:20:03 if you haven't, we've talked all about, about this. Zach did an episode on it yesterday as well. I wanted to kind of pinpoint some of the more positive things to look forward to in the season here. So the first guy, it seemed like he kind of went out of his way to talk about was Bernard Ryman. Cause he did say the whole running back Jonathan Taylor situation is kind of overshadowed. A lot of the positive things that they're excited about. They really think Bernard Ryman has taken another step in his development and he just looks better and better all the time, which is true. Because if you watch his tape from the preseason, especially against a team like the Eagles, who Zach and I questioned just how badly the Colts

Starting point is 00:20:46 offensive line might get battered by the Eagles defensive line, even not being the starters. It's a deep group. But, you know, Bernard Ryman has held his own all throughout the summer. There's really only been about one day, whether it's preseason or camp or whatever, where I thought, you know, wow, Ryman had a couple rough reps and that was just some day without pads on against Dio Dango. So really for the most part, Bernard Ryman has had a great summer. The Colts feel really good about his development and so far fingers crossed for them. It seems like they might legitimately have their left tackle of the future,

Starting point is 00:21:27 who pairs really well with their quarterback of the future. Because as we've seen so far, not all the guys on the offense are used to blocking for a mobile quarterback. But Ryman is super athletic, and he gets out on the run pretty well. So he's a pretty ideal offensive tackle to have out there for Richardson. So Colts are happy about it. For fans, I think you guys should probably be pretty thrilled about it as well because, as we've seen, not having a left tackle can be a significant bummer. This guy is a good run blocker,

Starting point is 00:22:01 and he's getting better all the time in pass protection. So good stuff there. You know, he obviously talked about Anthony Richardson a little bit. You know, they're excited about him, excited about his development. Again, he's already commanded the locker room. He's a team captain already. The most trusted veterans on the team have nothing but positive things to say about his work ethic, how he takes command of a huddle, how he learns from his mistakes and everything. So obviously that's great. Nick Cross is someone I asked about as well. Just because, you know, last year physically, he showed some flashes in training camp in the preseason, but mentally he just wasn't all there

Starting point is 00:22:42 consistently. Like maybe things were a little overwhelming for him. And, you know, Chris Ballard came out and said, you know, he kind of took ownership for placing really high expectations on him and overwhelming cross a little bit. But he said, you know, this summer has been great. They've been able to do a lot with him. Free safety, strong safety, nickel. And not only has he performed admirably physically on the field, but he's done really well mentally. He can diagnose things in front of him. He's studying a lot more. He's taking a lot more mature approach to the game as well. So that's

Starting point is 00:23:19 obviously really good to see. But the person he probably gushed about the most other than Taylor was Jalen Jones, the rookie day three pick at cornerback. They had Juju Brinson in the second. They had Darius Rush in the fifth, but Jalen Jones in the seventh was someone they feel really strongly about, and he's been not only the most consistent of these three rookie cornerbacks since they got here in Indy, he's been one of the most consistent Colts defenders. He's been healthy. I can't recall him missing any time during OTA's training camp, any of it. I mean, he's probably given up a couple big plays here and there. None that really come to my mind initially but he's made a lot of big plays i remember back in otas there was two plays in a row or two series in a

Starting point is 00:24:13 row he intercepted sam ellinger on a little out route and then he dang near did the same exact thing on another little out route but broke up pass. So that was a veteran quarterback that he was doing that against. It's a really nice place. They're tenacious. You guys, I know you, you don't all get to see training camp, especially those of you who are from out of town, but the preseason games, especially this last one against the Eagles bears to really, again, just tenacious attacks, the ball fearless.

Starting point is 00:24:44 Like even if he gives up a pass, he's right there to either try and break it up right after it gets in there or make the tackle, what have you. They're really, really impressed with him. Great size, great athleticism. He's the youngest of those corners, but he had the most experience in college. And that's a guy who I wouldn't be surprised if we see him playing quite a few snaps this season, and not even just because of injury. Juju Brents is eventually going to get there, and they're thrilled about him too. But shoot, if there's one of these guys that could crack the starting lineup right away, it might be Jones.

Starting point is 00:25:30 Dallas Flowers, Darryl Baker, what have you. It's probably Flowers with the more vulnerable spot. But no, Jones, they really, really like what they've got there. It's not easy to get defensive backs coach Ron Miles' trust that quickly, but he certainly has. So we'll see that that's some of the guys that they've really highlighted, especially Ballard. I mean, he likes to speak kind of rosily about these players anyways, but he doesn't always go out of his way to like gush about particular players. And those are some guys that he feels really strong about after their summers. The good thing is those are all young guys, too. You know, rookie or second year guys.

Starting point is 00:26:09 So you want to build a foundation. You know, that goes to something the Colts believe in. You can't buy the team, you know, obviously. But, you know, draft and develop your own guys. And they feel really strongly about some of these young guys here. So every dayers, that is it for us today. Again, we shift focus to the Jaguars in week one come Monday. We're really pumped about that because it's just time to talk football at this point.

Starting point is 00:26:37 A lot of the big storylines, they got to get thrown in the rearview mirror because there's games coming right away. So, stay tuned to that. Again, Monday through mirror because there's games coming right away. So stay tuned to that again, Monday through Friday, we got these early releases coming. We'll do live stuff after games. And as like breaking news comes up and everything like that, but otherwise just plan to hear from us early in the mornings again,

Starting point is 00:26:59 like we have been all week. And if you don't already follow at locked on Colts at Jake Arthur, NFL, and as that kicks to on Twitter, also subscribe to locked on Colts and YouTube and wherever you listen to podcasts, we would also love your guys ratings and reviews as well. It helps us move up the charts.

Starting point is 00:27:18 And with that, we will see you guys on Monday.

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Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts' Anthony Richardson Receives Impressive Accolade from Teammates

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