Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - INDIANAPOLIS COLTS: Anthony Richardson Sr. Named QB2 | Team Captains Named

Starting point is 00:00:00 Colts QB2 race is over. While they're going with Anthony Richardson over Riley Leonard, 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, welcome to Locked on Colts on the Locked On Podcast Network. I am your host, Jake Arthur, the Indianapolis Colts beatwriter for Roundtable Sports. And on today's episode, it's brought to you by, Game Time. Download the GameTime app, create an account and use code locked on for $20 off of your first purchase. Good morning, beautiful people, what is going on. Today we're going to talk a bit about some developments out of Colts practice this week. We're going to talk about Anthony Richardson being officially named the QB2 finally, which is kind of what we expected, what that means for the Colts offense, if anything. The Colts also named their five team captains.

Starting point is 00:01:06 for the season. And then there's just a little bit of an injury update here. We also opened the floor to the Every Dare's Club for a little Q&A session. We'll fill out the last two segments with your questions as well. So let's go ahead and get started with the biggest news of the day. Shane Steichen came out on Thursday and announced that Anthony Richardson had been named the team's quarterback to, the direct backup to Daniel Jones, basically just citing that. that he just looked better and it made some more plays in the preseason, which is true.

Starting point is 00:01:42 You know, I watched all of the training camp practices. We obviously all saw all of preseason, and I think Anthony was the right choice to go with. I do think Riley Leonard can still be like a quality backup in this league. I think he probably, it just seemed like he was too much in his head. the just free-flowing kind of player that we saw late last year who was aggressive, making big plays, scrambling around. I think that's a different guy that we're seeing presently. I think he's probably a little bit too much in his head,

Starting point is 00:02:21 perhaps trying too hard or just thinking too much about doing the right thing. Anthony, this is going into year four. And he just, I think he showed a lot of what we saw. from him the good parts, you know, 2023, 2024 version of Anthony. Now, neither player, I think, took like a huge step forward in their development. If you're Anthony, I think you're still doing kind of a lot of the same stuff where your footwork is a bit undisciplined, which leads to some lapses and accuracy.

Starting point is 00:02:58 And I think both him and Leonard have a tendency to probably hold onto the ball a little too long. with Leonard. I felt like he in camp was a little too reliant on the boring play. And then when you got into preseason games, it looked like he was really trying to look for the kill shot and the stuff that was downfield a little bit more.

Starting point is 00:03:19 And then kind of trying to return to the shorter routes. But by then, the pass rush was in his face and it was too late. And he was making mistakes. So Leonard, I felt like kind of got in his own way. the table was really set for him to take a big leap forward. I have no doubt that he's probably got a better grasp mentally of the system. But even he admitted, I think after the second preseason game, he's having trouble translating what he has learned mentally into the physical

Starting point is 00:03:51 and making his actual physical actions reflect what he now knows about the offense, if that makes sense. But with Anthony, we saw him do. a lot of the really unique stuff, you know, physically escaping pressure, avoiding sacks really well, you know, picking up some really big runs. He, I think, made a good impression on them when he responded really well in the New England game. Really rough start there, a couple turnovers. But then he rebounded well and led some scoring drives and his like late, I think it was really the final four minutes of the first half there against New England was really good

Starting point is 00:04:33 and kind of turned things around and ultimately wound up having a really good game. Again, after a pretty atrocious start where we thought it was going to kind of roll into a train wreck there. So yeah, the Colts are rolling with Anthony Richardson as QB2 this season. There's been a lot of talk about whether the Colts will kind of figure out some sort of special package of place for him to come in and be like a red zone weapon. I think it's a good idea. I think you have a player that's certainly capable of that. So why not exploit that against defenses? But from what we saw last year, the Colts never did that.

Starting point is 00:05:11 And Anthony was the quarterback, too, going into like the first six weeks. I think the Cardinals game was week six. So through those first five, six weeks, Anthony was the backup, and they never did that. Anthony did come in and play when they were blowing teams out. but he was not brought in to like do something cool and fourth and one and third and two, anything like that. Shane has been asked about that more this summer and hasn't totally squashed it. So maybe they do.

Starting point is 00:05:45 But I'm not going to count on it just because history has told us just from last year that they aren't. It's just not something that they've really incorporated. So moving along, the Colts named. five captains on Thursday as well. DeForest Buckner, it is his sixth time being named captain with the Colts, his eighth overall in his career. Cam Bynum is a first timer. Daniel Jones, this is his second time with the Colts, an eighth overall in his career. Quentin Nelson, he has been a captain in the last six years. And then Jonathan Taylor, this is his third time. Taylor's interesting because he's named captain like every other year for the last six years.

Starting point is 00:06:28 So this year, two years ago, two years before that, I don't really know what's up with the pattern there, but this was voted on by the Colts peers, their teammates. Obviously, you expect to see Buckner, Jones, Nelson, Taylor out there, but I think it's really cool to get bind him in there as a first time captain. You know, the Colts lost a little bit of defensive leadership with Zyre Franklin and Kenny Moore finding new home, or just not being around anymore,

Starting point is 00:06:58 of this offseason. And Bynum just is a natural guy to step into that next thing. He's the on-field defensive play caller, the green dot. Communicates really well with his teammates. So I think that's pretty logical. As far as injuries go, just kind of some minor updates here. Alec Pierce was a full participant in practice for the first time of the entire offseason.

Starting point is 00:07:23 So it certainly looks encouraging for him to go into this next week of practice. if he's able to maintain full status, they might be ready to go for week one. Because this was their penultimate week of practice before the regular season begins. They have Wednesday, Thursday, Friday next week. And if he's a full participant in those, then I don't see why he wouldn't return to practice

Starting point is 00:07:45 or return to game status. So encouraging for Alec Pierce, A.J. Halsey remains out with his ankle. It's been a couple weeks for him now. We'll see if he's able to get out on the field next Wednesday. Jaylen Jones has been out. We don't know what's up with that yet. Cedric Van Brand Granger has been out.

Starting point is 00:08:04 He hasn't practiced since the Colts traded for him. We need to figure out what's going on with that. We'll talk with Shane Stuyken next on Monday. We have a Zoom with him, the normal Monday post-game Zoom call there. So we'll figure out what's going on with that because if that's their backup center, we also need to know that he's prepared to go as well behind him. Tanner Bordellini, especially being so new to the team. So that is it for kind of the news and notes of the day.

Starting point is 00:08:35 Obviously, Anthony being officially named the QB2 is the big news. Coming up here in a moment, we're going to move on to the Q&A session that we opened up to the Everydayers Club. There's more live events than ever before worth seeing right now. Games, concerts, comedy shows, festivals, what have you. The hard part usually isn't deciding what you want to attend because there are so many options. It's actually getting to buy the tickets and doing it in kind of a stress-free manner. Between long wait times, confusing checkout processes and surprise fees,

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Starting point is 00:09:58 All right, welcome back, everybody. Before we move on to the Q&A, don't forget to check out the everyday or code for ad-free audio episodes and access to a group chat with other listeners of the show as well as Zach myself. You can also get a direct text line to Zach in me, plus perks like being able to do these Q&A episodes. Just tap the link in the show notes or go to locked on colts.supercast.com to join today. All right. So this first one is from the insider club. That's that direct text line. they ask what will be the most pleasant surprise of the season. So there could be a few, if you're looking optimistically, there could be a few. But I'm going to say that the pleasant surprise of the season,

Starting point is 00:10:41 I know there's a lot writing on like health of certain guys. And they're kind of, the margin for air for the Colts this year is like razor thin. I'm going to say that the season ends with the vibes being high. So for me, that means they'll make. the playoffs. It could mean a first round loss, but I will say they make the playoffs. And then that they have several young players on their roster that look like they're going to be really good. So vibes will be high entering the offseason, even though they won't have another first round pick again. The team will be coming off a playoff appearance. The young players will

Starting point is 00:11:20 look really good, which means it looks like they're going to maintain their success and keep building on it. You know, C.J. Allen looks quality. A.J. Halsey comes down with a few interceptions and, like, 90 tackles or something. The young guys just look good. You know, Seth McGowan finally is a good compliment to Jonathan Taylor. Taylor's still running well going into his contract extension. You could say the defense remained relatively healthy, like Soss Gardner looks like he was worth the investment they made with the trade. the receiver room looks as good as it should on paper you know alec pierce takes that step into being wide receiver one josh downs rebounds from a really disappointing 2025 season just overall you know

Starting point is 00:12:12 tyler warn looking apart again getting another pro bowl uh i think it's been a while since the colts have had a season like that where it's like really optimistic going into the next year even after they drafted Anthony Richardson and the vibes were kind of high and there was optimism. You know, he got injured that first year. And then the second year was a train wreck. And it's like there was optimism, but expectations for success were low because you had to be patient having a young quarterback. I think there will be genuine expectations of following success. I think will be how the season ends this time.

Starting point is 00:12:51 This next one is from our friend Melvin over in the Everdairs Club. outside of the obvious ones to pick in fantasy leagues, which to me would be Alec Pierce, Jonathan Taylor, and Tyler Warren. Who else do you think would be worth drafting on your team to be competitive for points again in fantasy? So right now I think Josh Downs is probably the obvious answer there. In any draft I've done,

Starting point is 00:13:16 he's very much in the later middle rounds available to pick up their, you know, probably like the seventh, eighth round or so. And I think if you're looking to just maintain a decent baseline of points each week, especially if you're in a PPR format, half PAPR, whatever, most league should be in that format by about now. I think Josh Downs makes a whole lot of sense after those big three guys. Daniel Jones, too. Like if Jones strings together what he did in the first half of last year, well, that's a decent volume passer. It's a guy who's running for touchdowns as well. So Josh Downs for sure.

Starting point is 00:13:57 And then if you're in a league where it makes sense to have more than one quarterback, you could take a late round flyer on John or Daniel Jones just to kind of fill out your roster. This next one, how hard or how much would practice squad players have to show to move up the roster? So this one's interesting. I feel like it's much more the case that practice squad players. get their opportunity out of necessity rather than necessarily merit. So at least how the Colts operate. If they have someone who is going to actually play reasonably on offense or defense

Starting point is 00:14:41 and they're going to be out, they'll call, you know, you get your two practice squad call-ups each week. They'll call up a guy to replace them in that position group, not necessarily replace them, but just, like, add depth to the spot going into the game. It's more of that being the case where someone will get their opportunity. Now, we see plenty of instances like that where the guy gets called up to the practice squad and ultimately sticks and doesn't, you know, they permanently sign them to the active roster. We see instances like that a lot, but just like a guy doing well in practice and then being called up

Starting point is 00:15:18 just because he's doing well is not as common of an occurrence. if that was the case, then they probably would have made the roster in the first place. Now, that's not to say that that never happens. Just, again, based on merit, they're doing so well in practice that they get called up. Because, again, you do have two call-ups per week. So that can happen. But if you're looking at guys like Gray Washington, you know, that makes sense. Cam Ball, perhaps, if, like, Jerry Tilleri goes down or something.

Starting point is 00:15:48 I think those makes sense. You're probably going to see, like, Anthony Gould or Nick Westbrook, Keene, I've got to imagine those guys get called up at least at some point. With no Willowellie, if anything happens to Drew Ogletree or Moellee, really Tyler Warren too, Farrow Brown could get called up. So I do definitely think you're going to see some guys on there who aren't just practice squad projects. They're actually going to play this year or at least be activated.

Starting point is 00:16:14 So each guy on the practice squad can be activated a maximum of three times during the before the team has to make a decision to either keep them on the active roster or just not be able to activate them anymore in the season. Last one for this segment. Do we know whether Brian Mason will be coaching from the booth or the sideline? I know that Shane Stuyken made him go to the booth for the preseason games, but Mason prefers to be on the sideline. I think as of now, the regular season, he's going to be down there on the sideline.

Starting point is 00:16:47 I know there's enough evidence now from this small sample side. that the Colts really value him being on the sideline, just his energy and his communication and just his ability to see what's going on on the field. They really want him on the sideline. I think they'll obviously take precautions to make sure he's safe out there on the sideline, but I do think Mason is going to be returning to the sideline for this season.

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Starting point is 00:18:43 All right, welcome back, everybody. We are finishing up this Q&A session that we had with the Everydayer Club. So this next one is from, I believe in new member, Snodgrass, what do you think will be the most interesting thing to watch for on defense? So my theory with the defense, if all the right guys, stay healthy, which is basically, you know, Soss Gardner and Justin Wally. I have, we're optimistic about, you know, Mooney Ward or we're hopeful about Mooney Ward. I've been trying to stay realistic in that, you know, he's had the back injury that he says he'll have to maintain. and he's had the concussions.

Starting point is 00:19:23 So they get more likely that sauce at Wally stay healthy. But if you're getting good coverage out of those guys, you know, Kambinum is healthy, Lyatu Atatur is healthy. I think that amount of man coverage will allow Luanarumo to be pretty exotic in how he dials up blitzes. And if that's the case, then I think they're going to force quarterbacks

Starting point is 00:19:47 into a lot of errant throws, a lot of mistakes. And with that, I think the, Colts will be one of the defenses near the top of the league in in takeaways. That's kind of my theory on the defense. That'll be like the defining thing about them since they won't have probably a consistent four man pass rush. I think they're going to do a fair amount of blitzing. It will be successful and that there'll be a team that ranks near the top of the league

Starting point is 00:20:12 and takeaways. That's that's kind of my optimistic view about the defense. This next one, again from Melvin with Anthony Richardson being named the backup. up does that secure the possibility of special packages or plays built specifically for him with short yardage or late quarter deep ball plays so again like i mentioned kind of at the beginning i don't necessarily think it means they're going to do that i think with him being the qb two it certainly opens the door a bit more i've always thought it was a good idea just because you know shane stuyken's a smart guy he's he's good at figuring out mismatches or like kind of hitting

Starting point is 00:20:48 defenses where they're least expecting it so like it makes sense since we've seen it with the Colts before, you know, when Philip Rivers in 2020 was out there, they brought in Jacoby Brissette all the time to run all those short yardage sneaks. We'll see. I do think it's a good idea, but I'm yet to believe that Shane will do it. But we'll see. Next one, what kind of defense should we be looking for primarily from Lulian Arumo this week with the roster and what kind of offense are the Colts facing with the Ravens and how they statistically

Starting point is 00:21:23 run their games. So this will be an interesting one because Baltimore as a new offensive coordinator, Declan Doyle, who I believe is going to be a first-time play caller. He was most recently with the Bears. So philosophically, you might see that he picked up a good bit from Ben Johnson with the Bears last year. So obviously with Ben Johnson and the Bears, not just the Bears, but the lines before when they really had everything at their disposal. You could see a really dynamic, unique run game. You know, how much that includes Lamar Jackson, I imagine it would. You didn't really, I mean, Caleb Williams could run, obviously, with the Bears,

Starting point is 00:22:10 but it's not like a Lamar Jackson type of situation. And certainly, you don't really do that with Jared Gough before in Detroit. You know, Doyle does also have a tight. in's background. He was a couple years tight ends coach as well with the Broncos before. So this is all a guessing game because we don't have much to go off of when it comes to Declan Doyle, the Ravens new OC. I've got to imagine they're going to try and do a fair amount of they're probably going to throw bevy a look at the Colts front with both Lamar Jackson and Derek Henry. I would certainly try to exploit the Colts run game if I were any.

Starting point is 00:22:52 opponent. I think that's certainly something that's going to be questionable for the Colts. And then maybe a good dose of Mark Andrews. I think that makes sense just given what we do know about Declan Doyle. So we'll see. And then if Ben Johnson rubbed off on him at all, then you'll probably see a fair amount of exotic plays, trick plays type of things. You might see one or two of those crop up as well. And then this last one here. So rank these scenarios from most likely to happen to least likely to happen. So let's run through the scenarios real quick. Shane Stuyken and Chris Ballard are fired at the end of the regular season.

Starting point is 00:23:31 Shane Stuyken and Chris Ballard are fired midseason. The Colts make the playoffs and Stuyken and Ballard are retained. Daniel Jones plays 17 games. Anthony Richardson starts eight plus games. That one's, okay, that one's tough. There's a degree of unlikeliness to all of them, I would say. We'll go ahead and start with most likely. Hmm.

Starting point is 00:23:59 Let's say most likely is that the Colts make the playoffs and Shane Steichen and Chris Ballard are retained. Because like I said, I certainly think they can make the playoffs if all the right people stay healthy. And if they just make the playoffs, like even a first round exit, you know, Shane Steichen probably will be retained. He's still in the midst of his contract.

Starting point is 00:24:21 Chris Ballard has an expiring contract. but perhaps that gets renewed with, I know no one wants to hear that, but perhaps that gets renewed with a playoff berth. So I'll say that one's most likely, which is weird because I think the next most likely is probably that they're both fired at the end of the regular season. Because obviously the season can go one or two ways.

Starting point is 00:24:46 They make the playoffs, vibes are high going into the off season, or like it's gone since 2021, they missed the playoffs for a sixth strike. for a sixth straight year. And in that instance, I think there's a very good chance that everyone gets ousted in a clean house.

Starting point is 00:25:02 I think next is that Daniel Jones plays 17 games. He never has before, but I mean, he's come close. You know, he's had a couple times when he was with the Giants where he missed for more minor things. I'll say Daniel Jones playing 17 games is next. And if he does, then I think the Colts

Starting point is 00:25:23 probably make the playoffs because a lot hinges on him. And then next I'll say that Anthony Richardson starts eight plus games, again, because Jones does have that injury history. If Anthony starts eight plus games, I think it would be because Daniel got some sort of serious injury, which you never want to project or anything. But, you know, history says he's had a few big ones. He's had the Achilles, the ACL, a neck injury.

Starting point is 00:25:50 So I'll put Anthony Richardson starting eight plus games. as the second to last. And then the last one I would put as Stuyken and Bauer to fired midseason. Because, I mean, we've seen a lot of times where either a GM or a coach is fired in the season, but not necessarily both. And I also don't think Carly Ers say Gordon would do that. I think she certainly would probably wait until the end of the year.

Starting point is 00:26:17 She's more measured and calculated. And with Ballard, like his contract is expiring anyway. So there's no need to, if you were going to fire and you probably would have already done it at this point, regardless of what happens. His contract's expiring, so you probably just let that play out and then don't renew it. Shane would have to be fired in that instance. But I think, again, I think that's less likely. I don't think they would pull the trigger during the season. All right, guys.

Starting point is 00:26:46 So thanks for joining me early this morning. Thank you for making Lockdown Colts, your first lesson of the day. Now on video, we're going to send you to the first ever 24-7 YouTube channel for the NFL. And on audio, check out Locked on Fantasy Football with Fabs and Marcus for your second lesson. If you don't already, follow at Locked on Colts at Jake Arthur, NFL, and at Zach X2 on social media. If you never miss an episode, then remember that the everyday club is built just for you. It's going to give you perks like us opening the floor for these Q&A episodes as well. Again, you also get the direct line to Zach and myself through text.

Starting point is 00:27:19 if you sign up for the higher tier. So get us ad-free audio, plus a member's only Discord access, and more. Just head to lock on Colts.com to join the club today. And with that, thanks again for joining us, and you guys have a great day and a great Labor Day weekend.

Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - INDIANAPOLIS COLTS: Anthony Richardson Sr. Named QB2 | Team Captains Named

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