Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts' Chris Ballard, Ryan Kelly, Michael Pittman Dish Details as Team Reports for Camp

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Colts have reported for training camp and we learned some very interesting details from all of our chats with players and GM Chris Ballard. 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 final 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 brought to you by GameTime.

Starting point is 00:00:41 Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off of your first purchase. Terms apply. What's up everybody. I am Jake Arthur from horseshoehuddle.com, your resident media member for this site. And hopefully you're one stop shop for all things Colts training camp as I will be out there every day. So let's talk about today, report day. Again, first apologies for the late show.

Starting point is 00:01:05 Normally these camp wrap-up shows won't be this late. But if you've been hanging around locked on Colts at all today, you saw I put out an enormous amount of content earlier. Everyone we talked to from GM Chris Ballard to all the players, it's all out there. So catch yourself up on that after this if you haven't already. But otherwise, you know, again, we talked to GM Chris Ballard. We talked to several players on both sides of the football. So we'll just kind of get you updated on everything they had to say.

Starting point is 00:01:34 And there was also, you know, a couple small roster moves and some injury updates as well. So we'll go ahead and get talking about the offensive side of the ball first. They did have a roster move involved. They signed veteran wide receiver Laquan Treadwell. I believe he came out of the 2016 NFL draft. Big name out of Ole Miss, drafted by the Vikings. Never quite panned out how he was supposed to in the league. Big-bodied guy, athletic, 6'3", about 215.

Starting point is 00:02:02 But just kind of the old story of a guy who doesn't really separate, but he makes the contested catches. He can make some of the routine things look pretty spectacular, but he's bounced around the league quite a bit in his career and has just never really caught on. He kind of raised the floor in the receiver room with this move. The Colts did waive undrafted free agent receiver Xavier White as a result. So who knows what White could have done, but Treadwell is a talented player, probably not going to make the roster, but at least it raises competition a little bit out there

Starting point is 00:02:35 for the wide receiver room. As far as injuries go, no offensive player started out on any injury lists. However, Chris Fowler reported that offensive tackle Braden Smith, he's still a little banged up with the knee injury that caused him to miss all of the offseason. I think they're going to bring him along a little slowly. He might be out there in like a limited capacity initially, but he's probably not going to be full go just yet. Ashton Doolin, however, tore his ACL last summer during training camp. He is good to go. He hadn't been out there at all during the offseason program.

Starting point is 00:03:12 And then running back Tyler Goodson, who's battling for that RB2, RB3 spot. He has what Ballard called a little bit of a toe injury, and he will be limited to start out as well. So nothing really earth shattering there. It's good to see that Smith will be back sooner rather than later. And Doolin should be making his debut for the first time in about a year. So that's great. Some of the arguably the biggest injury news, I guess,

Starting point is 00:03:39 if you can even call it injury news. So I asked Ballard today, you know, given the fact that Richardson was held back from throwing and his final day of mandatory minicamp, are any of those maintenance days expected to happen during training camp? He said no. And you know, the only reason they did it that last time is because, you know, Richardson had the soreness. He had thrown a hundred balls the day before. There was just no need for him to throw,

Starting point is 00:04:12 but he's not expected to have any limitations as the Colts go through camp. So certainly if there are any days where Richardson is held back from throwing or doesn't practice at all, that's going to raise questions. I would imagine their answer will be, you know, he is still experiencing a little soreness. We'll see how it goes. I'm not going to, I'm not going to put hypotheticals out there unless it actually happens again. But I mean, fingers crossed that he's able to just get through training camp and no problems. That was kind of one of the big themes of the day, talking to everybody. Hopefully this dude can stay healthy throughout the year and that we get to see what

Starting point is 00:04:45 the Colts offense looks like with Richardson throughout the whole season. So Chris Ballard, some of his highlights talking about the offensive side of the ball. He was asked about which position battles that we should be keeping an eye on. He mentioned the swing tackle between Matt Gonsalves and Blake Freeland. Mentioned that Freeland had a really nice offseason and they expect a jump from him. He obviously had to start, I think it was nine games last year as a rookie. Didn't look all that great, but I also don't think they expected him to have to be thrust into that big of a role either. So we all know how rough Bernard Ryman's career started out in that

Starting point is 00:05:26 rookie year. I'm not going to say Freeland's going to take that kind of a jump into year two, but improvement would certainly be great. Matt Gonsalves seems like he is probably viewed as a long-term starter somewhere on the line, whether it's right guard for Will Fries, right tackle if anything happens to Braden Smith. Eventually, it seems like Gonsalves kind of factors into the long-term plan. Ballard mentioned RB2 as well. That basically seems like Trey Sermon, Evan Hull, and Tyler Goodson. We've talked about this quite a bit recently. We kind of think Trey Sermon is probably the backup early down back between Taylor and then Hull maybe has the inside track to win that passing down back duty behind Taylor. So we'll see how all that goes. They're probably only

Starting point is 00:06:13 going to keep three running backs if I had to imagine. It's not really a position they have the luxury of keeping a lot of bodies at. And I just don't really see the need for all four of those guys. Um, he, uh, Ballard did not mention wide receiver when discussing the, uh, camp battles, which may have just been an oversight. Uh, cause obviously Alec Pierce first 80 Mitchell is one of the big ones that everyone's kind of got circled. That may not even be a battle really. Um, that may just be something Alec Pierce is going to hang on to, you know, for a good chunk of the season until A.D. Mitchell's ready.

Starting point is 00:06:50 It may be completely role based and there's not really a wide receiver to necessarily. Honestly, if there's a top two receivers anyways, it's probably Pittman and Downs and then, you know, whatever roles they want Pierce and Mitchell to fill from there. So he didn't mention wide receiver. He did talk about tight end a bit, but I don't want to say it seemed a little uninspiring. It sounds like the Colts do like their group of tight ends, but they don't see like huge potential with it. Like some of us have talked about about like especially Jelani Woods I think everyone wants to pump the brakes on Woods and let him actually play before we anoint him as

Starting point is 00:07:32 like a huge playmaker I think the potential is certainly there but I think the Colts are very much seeing this as a prove it to us that you can be available before you become some kind of big playmaker. But otherwise, I think they like the group they have, and everyone is just going to kind of fill their roles, a lot like what Zach and I have discussed for the last few weeks. Something that was very telling, obviously the tone about Jonathan Taylor from the team has shifted dramatically from last year to this year. Number one, Taylor is healthy, and he's there, and he's talking.

Starting point is 00:08:08 So the whole thing is totally different. But Ballard, very convincingly today, you could tell he was holding back, giving details about something. But he said, Jonathan Taylor will have a big year. I swear I'll stop. He'll have a big year. And he said that with plenty will have a big year. I swear I'll stop. He'll have a big year. And he said that with plenty of pause in his voice. I don't know whether he was just restraining himself from overhyping Jonathan Taylor this year.

Starting point is 00:08:35 But it certainly seemed like Ballard is very, very bullish on a healthy Jonathan Taylor this year. It sounds to me like they're probably expecting something pretty close to the 2021 version. Taylor did talk to the media today. He had a lot of good things to say about, you know, his growing relationship with Anthony Richardson, Richardson's leadership and how they can play together and just kind of building that chemistry for a lot of things, you know, RPOs, handoffs,

Starting point is 00:09:07 audibles, just there's a lot that goes into it. And then one of the biggest stories of the day was Ryan Kelly. He has one year left on his contract. He's still a top three paid center in the NFL, but he wants that security, that multi-year extension really beyond this year. And he said that the Colts just have really not met him at the table and they're not really willing to discuss an extension, an early extension for him. He obviously didn't seem too happy about that, especially since the Colts gave early extensions to Zyra Franklin and DeForest Buckner this year.

Starting point is 00:09:43 But Kelly has to prove he can stay healthy. He's obviously got a long concussion history, and he's only played three full seasons in his eight-year career, so that's definitely something worth monitoring, but I imagine Kelly is going to play things out, and we'll just kind of see how things go by the end of the season. So, coming up here in a moment, we're going to talk about the defensive side of the ball. Here in Indy, a lot of us travel out to Chicago, Cincinnati, wherever to catch an MLB game. You can actually see good baseball in downtown Indy with the Indy Indians as well. But no matter where you're going to see pro baseball, get yourself settled first with GameTime. GameTime

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Starting point is 00:12:19 Locked On Sports Today brings you can't miss analysis, opinions, and news streaming 24-7 on YouTube or the free Amazon Fire TV channels app. It's part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. All right, so the injury designations that the Colts did have coming into camp were on the defensive side of the ball. So let's go into this first, the active non-football injury list, defensive tackle Raekwon Davis, who was only one of two free agents signed from the outside this year. And then they didn't, I don't really think they said what he's got going on, but that essentially means, you know,

Starting point is 00:12:51 you suffered some sort of injury or illness while working out on your own outside of a team activity. Ballard didn't mention Davis when he talked today. So I would imagine it's nothing, anything too big. Ballard did, however, mention Chris Lamont's, cornerback Chris Lamont's, who was put on active pup. He's still recovering from an ankle procedure that he had and is probably about a week or two out. In my eyes, Lamont's is battling for the backup nickel job behind Kenny Moore. I would imagine that's with Mike Abraham, but we'll see how it goes.

Starting point is 00:13:27 So Lamont was a member of the Colts secondary last year as a special teams player. So it's maybe a guy you're not familiar with, but he may very well be in the Knicks to make the roster. Cornerback Juju Brents, who, of course, spent much more time last year injured than healthy, spent the entire offseason in most of training camp coming back from injuries, had the quad injury during the season that cost him plenty of time. He had an ankle cleanup after the offseason program. I don't think he's expected to really miss much time, but he's going to be limited initially,

Starting point is 00:14:03 and they're going to bring him along a little slowly. And then defensive end, Jannard Avery, who I think he tore his ACL last summer. It was a knee injury, but he missed all of last year. He's back, but they're going to bring him back a little slowly as well. So that's the guy who should be in the mix at the bottom of the defensive end depth chart. Maybe not a name you're going to hear a ton of, but someone who has NFL experience and is battling for one of those final spots. Something that stuck out defensively today, talking to people,

Starting point is 00:14:35 EJ Speed was a common topic of discussion for sure. Chris Ballard, Zaire Franklin, and Kenny Moore all talked him up quite a bit um you know glowing about his story coming from tarleton state formerly playing wide receiver when he got there he played some edge when he got there linebacker in the nfl he worked his way up from that tiny school just popping up onto people's radar with this killer workout before the draft at i think it was like baylor's pro day or something. It wasn't even Tarleton's pro day.

Starting point is 00:15:09 Coming from that just tiny blip on the radar to now, you know, being the Colts starting will linebacker, everyone I've ever talked to in the last year or two about speed. Thanks. This guy is due to blow up anytime, whether it's Richard Smith, the linebackers coach, Cato June, obviously Ballard, Franklin, and Moore today. I'm expecting big things from Speed. And this seems like a backhanded thing. And I really don't mean to diminish anything about Shaquille Leonard. I mean, I think it's terrible how things wound up going for him with the injuries and everything.

Starting point is 00:15:49 But the Colts don't have to worry about what's going on at linebacker this summer. The last two summers, they have spent a lot of their time, you know, just fitting in guys around whatever they can do with Shaquille Leonard as he recovered from his, you know, his back procedures. They don't have that this year. It's Zyra Franklin and it's EJ Speed as their unquestioned top two linebackers. Those guys get to continue performing together and learning even more about each other as players, anticipating where the other one is going to be. I think that'll be really, really big for the middle of the Colts defense. Obviously, neither player is perfect. You're never going to accuse either of them being awesome in coverage or anything, but I think both of them

Starting point is 00:16:31 playing together definitely will help the Colts run defense at least even more, especially if you have Grover Stewart remaining out there, not being suspended, not being injured. So I'm expecting another big season from Zaire and EJ Speed. It certainly seems like everybody else is from EJ Speed, which this will officially be his first full-time season as a starter. So I look forward to that. You know, earlier I mentioned Ballard was talking about position battles. We talked offensively. As far as the defensive goes, he mentioned the defensive backs, corner and safety. Specifically at corner, he really only said Kenny Moore was the only no-doubt starter. Obviously, Juju Brents has the inside track, but the dudes got to stay healthy.

Starting point is 00:17:18 They really love Dallas Flowers and Jalen Jones as well. So, I mean, if I had to guess, I still think it's going to be Brents and Moore as the top two. And then when Moore has to kick inside, I think Jalen Jones has the inside track over Dallas Flowers, although Flowers maybe has a little bit more athletic upside. We'll see how that goes. And then as far as safety,

Starting point is 00:17:42 Ballard said that they expect really big things from Julian, that he's a Julian Blackman, that he's a playmaker, and he is the other entrenched player in the secondary. But other than that, I think they're really waiting for Nick Cross or Rodney Thomas to step up. Again, I think Cross probably has the inside track. He'll probably be the initial starter at free safety, or at least getting the first batch of first team reps at free safety but if he's not cutting it you can expect ronnie thomas to maybe take that back over uh backup mike as well um saguna luby is a guy that is has had that distinction before i think he started that carolina panthers game year at Mike, had an interception as well.

Starting point is 00:18:26 Cameron McGrone might factor into that. Jalen Carlisle, I would think, would be a Will linebacker, although I don't know if we're going to have to see. We haven't seen him yet. Maybe he does get the green dot and they play him at Mike. And then Liam Anderson is maybe a little bit of a dark horse there. Not a guy anyone really ever talks about, but certainly someone who has received second team reps at Mike before. So we'll see how that goes.

Starting point is 00:18:54 Other than that, you know, Ballard, a lot of we like our guys as to why they haven't signed someone in the secondary. We like our guys. They're young. Let's see how they do. That's one. They're going to let it roll. And, you know, if it comes back to bite them, we can all say, secondary we like our guys they're young let's see how they do um that's one they're they're going to let it roll and you know if it comes back to bite them we can all say i told you so

Starting point is 00:19:10 and then the last thing defensively sounds like layout to lot to had a big summer uh that guy is he's obsessed with his craft and it's constantly working uh but he went out to the sack summit summit in Las Vegas this year, which is, uh, basically the, the big group gathering of veteran pass rushers across the NFL that, you know, come together to teach each other, you know, skills and tricks of the trade.

Starting point is 00:19:34 Uh, you know, a lot to name drop to learning from guys like Vaughn Miller and Max Crosby, Cam Jordan and Khalil Mack. Uh, he trains with Khalil Mack out in LA as well, uh,

Starting point is 00:19:44 with our, our guy,, friend of the show. So Latu already was super, super polished coming into the league, but he's got mentors that are among the best defensive players of this last generation. So it seems like it's going to be, I don't, again, I don't want to annoy anyone, but I mean, health provided, let's say he stays healthy. I can't imagine this kid not panning out and being a really, really decent player. There's just nothing about him that says this isn't going to work out for the Colts. And again, famous last words, knock on all the wood, but I've just talked to this kid

Starting point is 00:20:21 too much. I've seen too much of his tape and talked to other people about him to think that this isn't going to be a pretty significant draft pick for them. So I'll quit yakking about individual players here in a minute. But first, I'm going to tell you what I'm going to be looking for tomorrow in the Colts' first official practice of training camp. Passion, drive, and patience. The formula for winning championships is also what keeps your ride or die alive. eBay Motors has everything that you need to maintain your vehicle and level it up to peak performance. Superchargers, roof racks, exhaust kits, LED headlights, and more. Whether you're into speed, power, or style, eBay Motors has got you

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Starting point is 00:21:50 throw a bunch during the off season already. Arm looks great. He's been away for six, seven weeks. So I imagine it'll look even better. Really just looking to see consistency from him. What's the accuracy like? What's the footwork like what is his um i mean it's gonna be the first practice so it's it's gonna be kind of soft stuff especially since they're off on friday i think it's gonna be kind of a light practice but i'm really wanting to see what his tenacity level is it going down field as well uh because i feel like I've seen a lot of him going to check downs and things like that, which is fine. He's still learning to become a consistent passer and a passer with a complete catalog

Starting point is 00:22:34 and not just going for the gusto the whole time. But I do want to see, you know, developing chemistry with Alec Pierce, because anytime we've talked about Alec Pierce, you know, he, he has been kind of a one trick pony in terms of receiving. Um, but that one trick has been kind of taken from him with the quarterbacks he's had. Okay. Well now he's got this quarterback that can pass deep. Is it going to pan out? Is Richardson going to start getting more comfortable looking deep? Or I don't, maybe not uncomfortable, but is he going to be more aggressive looking downfield? Which obviously Pierce would be a big benefactor of that. Something I mentioned every year at the start of training camp,

Starting point is 00:23:19 I do try and keep you guys updated about like who's running with the ones and twos and threes and this and that. About the first week, lineups and rotations are complete chaos. There's very little definition and uniformity to the lineups, especially on the defensive side of the ball. Gus does a ton of rotating. But what is telling for me is with the first and sometimes second team reps, whoever goes out first in those reps tends to be the guy that is kind of got the leg up in the competition. So I'll keep you guys updated on that. Again, I bring you guys my notes on horseshoehuddle.com every day after practice. I'll do an episode after every day. So I'll bring

Starting point is 00:24:05 context to everything I write out there and that you see tweeted out from me or any other reporter. I'll bring you as much context to these things that we're seeing as we can. And then some of the big rookies that I want to keep an eye on, A.D. Mitchell had a huge off-season program with the Colts, whether it was rookie minicamp, OTAs, mandatory minicamp. He was making plays. He was making plays against starting defensive backs from Anthony Richardson. I mean, there's no better way for him to show that he's arriving. You know, there's not much more he can do. It has to be done on an active live game field, sure.

Starting point is 00:24:54 But, you know, if the guy's checking off every box, then we're just going to have to see what that means in terms of his competition, if there even is one with Alec Pierce. So I really want to see A.D. Mitchell, of course, Latu. It can be hard without pads on to really tell how trench players are doing. But one thing you can see is from defensive linemen, how often are they getting through and getting penetration in the backfield? Latu, I think, is going to get run primarily with the twos initially, and then he'll get kicked up into, you know, pass rushing downs and NASCAR packages and stuff with the ones.

Starting point is 00:25:30 That's at least what we saw during the offseason. So how does he look out there? Because him crushing, you know, some left tackle and rookie minicamp is going to be different than Bernard Ryman. So we'll see how that goes. Jalen Carlisle, I've just been giddy to see what this guy can do pretty much all off season. Uh, he had an interception already during

Starting point is 00:25:52 OTAs. Um, he just, he's huge. Like he already had the linebacker build that he'd been playing safety at Mizzou, uh, out there at Mizzou, he led them in interceptions for a year, and then in two straight years, he led them in tackles. So I just am intrigued to see what is this guy's upside? How is he going to look when the bullets start flying and he's on an NFL practice field? And then the two young cornerbacks as well, Micah Abraham and Jalen Simpson, where are they lining up? Who does their main competition seem to be? Again, earlier I mentioned that I think Micah Abraham's primary competition is probably going to be against Chris Lamont's for the backup nickel role behind Kenny Moore. Abraham has great ball skills and really good ball production from his time at Marshall. So if you can get a guy out

Starting point is 00:26:43 there that could take the ball away, that's obviously very valuable. And then Simpson, a guy who initially when he got drafted by the Colts, I thought could factor in as the starting free safety. But it looks like they're going to try and corner pretty slender and not super physical, which is probably, you know, why they didn't want to play him at safety. That could be a detriment. Probably not a super strong tackler. That's at least what his Auburn film showed. These guys are in the NFL to get better and improve. We'll see what his role is in training camp. Initially, I think he could be in a battle with Daryl Baker for one of the outside cornerback spots. We'll see how that goes.

Starting point is 00:27:28 I will have content like crazy over these next few weeks. Like training camp is super, super busy for me. Video written stuff, short videos, long videos, whole podcasts. I try and bring everything I can to you guys. So stay tuned on there. And again, don't forget that Locked On has launched the first ever national sports 24-7 streaming channel on there. And again, don't forget that Locked On has launched the first ever national sports 24-7 streaming channel on YouTube. And now it is also available on Amazon Fire TV in the Fire TV channels app that is Locked On Sports Today. So check that out. Very cool new thing. If you didn't already see it this week, if you want to become a Locked On Colts insider and

Starting point is 00:28:00 chat with Zach and I directly and get the inside scoop. Follow the link in our show notes. It'll say, you know, come be a Locked on Colts insider. Basically, pretty regularly, we will answer your questions. We will give you a little inside information, maybe address some rumors that we're hearing as well. And again, if you don't already, follow at Locked on Colts, at JakeArthurNFL and at ZachX2 on social media. We're on Instagram and TikTok now as well.

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Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts' Chris Ballard, Ryan Kelly, Michael Pittman Dish Details as Team Reports for Camp

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