Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts: Could Will Levis Be The Guy At Pick 4?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Could Will Levis be the answer to the Colts quarterback woes? We're going to talk about that today on Locked On Colts. 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. This episode is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook,

Starting point is 00:00:49 official sportsbook partner of the NFL. Make every moment more with visit fanduel.com slash locked on to get started. I'm Zach Hicks. I'm joined by the one and the only Jonathan Hagler here to talk about yet another quarterback in this draft process. Now, I know I think two weeks ago when we were talking about this, I in this draft process. Now, I know,

Starting point is 00:01:05 I think two weeks ago when we were talking about this, I said Bryce Young would be the next guy up, but something changed since then. The Carolina Panthers traded up to the number one spot, and it doesn't appear as though Bryce Young will be there at four. Now, we will probably still do one on Bryce Young because you know who knows maybe the Panthers are enamored by CJ Stroud and then the Texans go Anthony Richardson and the Colts can get a guy like Bryce Young there sitting at four so we'll still talk about Bryce Young for sure in the future but today's quarterback feels a lot more realistic and that is Will Levis out of Kentucky now we're going to attack this the same way we've attacked the other ones where

Starting point is 00:01:44 first segment we talk about the positives what where first segment, we talk about the positives, what we like. Second segment, we talk about concerns. And then the final segment, we talked about how he could fit in the NFL. We want to be up front with you. I'm much higher on Will Levis than Hagg is. Hagg is not the biggest Will Levis fan, but we're going to be fair and honest with this. Again, I'm much higher on Will Levis than Hagg is, but let's start with the positives here, Hagg. And even as someone who is not a huge will levis fan the one thing that obviously stands out is just that quick release and that arm talent uh personally i mean outside of like john like josh allen i think it might be the best arm i've seen at the college level like the way that he is able to generate so much power with his hip torque and

Starting point is 00:02:26 just the way he gets the ball out of his hand it's unreal like i remember flipping on the film last year when he was a junior there kentucky being like oh my gosh like if he ever figures it out like this is top level arm talent so that's just the first thing obviously anyone wants to talk about, but like it's insane. Yeah. Oh, no, 100%. I mean, Will Evans prototypically, you know, has the great build, has, like you said, the cannon. But it's not just he has a strong arm. It's what type of strong arm it is. It's like if I had a twitchy comes to mind.

Starting point is 00:03:01 Yeah. You know, like when I think about corners and receivers and I want them to be twitchy. If I'm thinking about a passer, I'm thinking of things like I want a whip-like release. I want a laser. I want twitchy. Those things do come to mind

Starting point is 00:03:16 when you talk about strength. He's physically gifted not just from a throwing aspect, but from a mobility aspect. I don't think it gets brought up enough because his arm is so strong but it's easy to make the josh allen comp because it's easy like it's just just to put it like it's it's when you put them next to each other big athletic strong arm mobile willing to run you know that in college they showed a lot of the same things as far as

Starting point is 00:03:43 like well where are the question marks? Why aren't y'all in love with him? And, you know, it's fair to point out. But like you said, I like his – I like how he throws the ball. I like what he has attached to his shoulder. Obviously, we saw the video. It was crazy. The video of him that went viral a couple years ago, I didn't know that was him.

Starting point is 00:04:03 Yeah. I didn't know that. I saw it circulating again, and I didn't know that was him yeah i didn't know that circulating again and i was like that was will levis like when i watched that video a couple years ago i was like that that's like a middle school ball like it's fake or something like there's no way you're throwing that ball with so much velocity and like it's just whipping through the air like that but it's easy to see if you go watch him throw i mean there's no way you don't come away in president like oh that's a first round pick right right do it obviously but i mean he has he has the stuff yeah putting

Starting point is 00:04:30 it all together he does and and i love that you mentioned that video from a couple years back because i think the one of the most impressive things about will levis and why i feel more comfortable with him super high than you know i see so many people saying another zach wilson or another mitch trubisky the way the reason why i'm so much higher on will levis than those type of guys is because one you know those guys mentally just did not have it whatsoever to succeed in the nfl will levis we saw this past year obviously he played through an injury all year and played admirably stood in the pocket and took some hits behind a really bad offensive line played well but one thing that you know we keep mentioning through this draft draft process with someone

Starting point is 00:05:08 like anthony richardson for instance is oh yeah fix his mechanics and you're gonna have a superstar right will levis is a guy where his mechanics aren't perfect right now yeah but he's a guy where if you watch him throw as a freshman at penn state and then you watch him throw now it's completely different he He went up to Canada. He worked with a biometrics guy or something like that to fix his upper half and how he releases the ball and how he generates torque with his hips to get the ball out of his hands. And you see a difference.

Starting point is 00:05:36 And that's something you don't see in any young guys. You don't see young guys drastically change the way they throw or drastically change their ability as a passer so seeing that makes me confident like yeah you can look at footwork issues right now but like we have example of this kid getting better you know and looking better article about him yeah i remember i remember reading the article two two years ago three years ago i remember reading and thinking it was so cool because I would nerd out about stuff like that. I remember taking

Starting point is 00:06:07 biomechanics in college and applying to football and me and my professor would go back and forth about it. I didn't know that was Will Levis. That was him. Yep, that was him. He went up to Canada and worked with that guy. Yep. That just blew my mind. When you said Canada, I said, hold on, that was Will Levis. But then I think about it, he transferred and now it's him.

Starting point is 00:06:23 I remember them saying a penn state quarterback like blah blah oh that's crazy like the fact that i just pieced that two to two together like i've been paying attention to will levis way longer than i thought i had so yeah well as soon as you've said it i was like wait wait wait wait wait right right and that's just again it's part of this where yes i see the bus potential with willvis, and I see the scariness with it. The stats are not good. He didn't perform well this past season as a senior in SEC. But that one thing that all bus quarterbacks have, that mind, that toughness,

Starting point is 00:06:55 that inability to continually improve, I've heard it with guys like Drew Locke, Mitch Trubisky, Zach Wilson, Blaine Gabbert. I've heard it with all those guys. You don't hear that with will levis you know you and i know it just sounds like something you that you'll hear like a mel kuyper say on tv like oh this kid's smart and tough whatever but like we have evidence of it we have evidence of a kid getting better every every year improving his mechanics uh making himself more of a pro prospect when he really wasn't that early on and And I think that there's a lot of merit to that, you know, and that's not something we can just overlook because I big white quarterback

Starting point is 00:07:30 that throws far, like he, the mentally, the mental side of it, maybe not anticipation, all that stuff, but like mentally with his toughness and his ability to improve, we have tangible evidence of that with Will Levis. Well, I mean, that's a major asset. Like, you know, you talk about guys who are you look at Jalen Hurts. You want to talk about guys. Obviously,

Starting point is 00:07:50 he went to a more QB-friendly system with Lincoln Riley, and he had some great play callers in college. Jalen Hurts, the reason why he's successful is because he's a great learner. He's able to adjust to multiple OCs at Alabama, going to Lincoln Riley's offense and just picking things up and rolling through able to adjust to different multiple OCs at Alabama,

Starting point is 00:08:05 going to Lincoln Riley's offense and just picking things up and rolling through it, going to the NFL and being willing to learn. If you're hardheaded, like some of those guys you mentioned, may or may not be, but it appears as if they push back on the things that they were trying to teach them and allow them to do, it tends to not work out very well for you. And that's one thing I do like about Will Evans. The confidence never wavered. His play wasn't as consistent as you would love it to be,

Starting point is 00:08:33 but he showed a grit about himself. It looks like he has that dog in him. So if I'm going to like a guy, it'll definitely be him. You know what I'm saying? When we're talking about projects, I just don't love project quarterbacks. When we're talking, you know, take them in the top five. And when we talk about outside, you know, that range, yeah, I'm cool with it. Top five, you know, I feel like you should probably take the best player available. You're kind of putting your job on the line for a project. But if you're going to take a

Starting point is 00:08:56 guy project wise, take the guy that, like you said, has improved, who will continue to improve, who's willing to improve, who has the tools to improve yeah and one more thing i want to throw in here before we move to our our negatives here which i know is going to be the part that's clipped out and throw it onto social media and stuff because that's always what it is but uh one more thing i want to say positive is he is a really good middle of the field passer so to kind of push back on the carson wentz comps because we get so many of those carson wentz comps with him. Carson Wentz hates the middle of the field, loves it outside the numbers.

Starting point is 00:09:30 Will Levis this past season was near 70% passer throwing over the middle of the field. And that's because it was quick release because of how he gets the ball in his hand and how he's fearless over the middle. Yes, there's some more turnover worthy plays in there, but he is fearless attacking the middle of the field. And that's what you need in an NFL quarterback. Guys like Carson Wentz who just only want to throw it outside because there's no interception risk, that's not what you need.

Starting point is 00:09:52 You need a guy who wants to attack more places in the field, and I like that about Will Levis. So if he's the pick at four, yes, I have my concerns, but I can see betting on this type of person to continually get better with you well and that's that's then you know when you brought it up i thought about answers if there's a place where i consistently will levis win uh it's in the middle or deep middle you know it's like he because he can drive the ball down the field he's the type of quarterback that makes like all the other big the the good big on quarterbacks not the ones who just chunk it

Starting point is 00:10:24 but it's a little extra fear into a safety's mind. What happens if I come up a little too fast, if I false step here, this quarterback can put this ball behind me. And like you said, he's comfortable throwing to the middle and deep parts of the field. It's another reason to like his game. You give him the right weapon, he could flourish early. Yeah, definitely.

Starting point is 00:10:41 So, guys, we're going to talk about the negative reasons and why we don't love him as a top five pick coming up next. But first, the NCAA tournament is heating up, and now is the perfect time to download FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook, because new customers get a no-sweat first bet up to $1,000. That's bonus bets back if your first bet doesn't win. Just download the FanDuel sportsbook app.

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Starting point is 00:11:19 to FanDuel.com slash locked on. That's FanDuel.com slash locked on. Learn more. Make every moment more with FanDuel, an official sports betting partner of the NBA. All right, Hag. So I'll probably let you take it off the top here because I know you're not as big on Will Levis. And again, I'm not saying I'm a huge fan of his,

Starting point is 00:11:39 but I remember you told me a couple weeks ago, you said there's always one of those top guys every class that you're just not super in on. And you said Levis is that for you this year. What are your biggest concerns when you watch him? It's inconsistency and it's how he's inconsistent. It's the type of inconsistency, you know, because we can point out line, weapons, things like that. Well, you can be bad, but in a good way.

Starting point is 00:12:02 You know what I mean? And I feel like too many times he did it to himself. And it may be a forced thing. It may be I have all these physical tools, right? And I'm going to try to will us to win. But it's the breaking from the pocket too soon and then doing something crazy like all the young guys like to do now. Oh, I have this crazy arm.

Starting point is 00:12:22 I'm going to throw this ball, ball sidearm and whip it downfield it's those types of things it's the interceptions that didn't have to be intercepted you know sometimes you'll have like the the justin fields interceptions where the receiver runs the wrong route throws a pick it may be a timing thing it may be a tip ball thing will levis it looked like he would panic at times yeah and like i said it may be because of the things around him, but it looked like he panicked at times, and that's the thing that terrifies me about him. Because he has the right tools.

Starting point is 00:12:51 It's the type – because the NFL, it's only going to get worse. The coordinators are going to get smarter. The people coming at you are more athletic. They're bigger. They're faster. They're stronger. What happens when you're picking in the top five? And some of these teams are in a little bit different situation the Colts aren't that bad of a situation no but what happens when you do get

Starting point is 00:13:11 in that slot and if everything isn't perfect you can't play like that in the NFL like you're going to end up throwing 25 interceptions and find yourself out the league or on the bench in two years right and we can praise Will Levis for his mental aptitude and being a tough guy but eventually it stacks up and you start to lose confidence in yourself and and i do love his confidence but like you said it this is where the kind of carson wentz stuff does come in because carson wentz has that arm arrogance without the it's like his arm arrogance without the confidence to back it up so it becomes a lot of things i got this thing now i got it and he's trying to tell everybody he has it but then after he's like man i hope they believe me like you know

Starting point is 00:13:50 right where i don't think will levis has that i think he has so much confidence in himself and so much arm arrogance that you see some pretty poor decisions and you see just decisions that didn't need to be made at bad times in the game. I remember his Georgia game, I think, was one of the best examples. First snap of the game, first throw of the game, he throws a beautiful deep shot down the sideline against Georgia from his own goal line. Beautiful pass, gets them down the field. Then they get in the red zone.

Starting point is 00:14:17 He tries a whole shot against cover two and throws it straight to the dropping corner. It was just a poor mistake that shouldn't have been made, and he kind of forced it. I think it was like a second poor, poor mistake that shouldn't have been made. And he kind of forced it. I think it was like a second and long too. Like he shouldn't have forced it. And it's like, come on,

Starting point is 00:14:30 well, like, I know it's a bad team and you're trying to will them to victory. Like I get it. But at some point you got to make the right decisions. And I think he did do a lot of good things. It's just those bad decisions would rear their ugly head at really bad times. Well, I think kind of hurt them in general. Yeah yeah and i think when you just said that like it made me think he doesn't let

Starting point is 00:14:51 the game just come to him yeah i feel like i feel like patrick mahomes does it better than anybody you know it's right and he's the perfect example because he's more talented or you know he's that he's that tier of physical ability right he does a great job of letting the game come to him oh we're down 14 oh we're down 17 oh we're down 21 okay cool watch this and he lets the game happen he's gonna take his short throws gonna take his short throws but when he lets it rip he's gonna let it rip and he's gonna make it count and that's that it's learned behavior because patrick holmes was not perfect you know uh the like like you talked about his pre-draft stuff wasn't perfect,

Starting point is 00:15:26 the footwork, the mechanics. Things were a little off, and he was a bit of a project, and he had that year to grow. But I feel like that's one of the things that Will Levis needs to do, let the game come to him more, not force it as much, and just play ball. Because I think if he does that, he'll be a lot better than people expect him to be. Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Starting point is 00:15:43 And then talking about a couple other things, you know, I do like that he's been more of an NFL offense these last couple years, but it's never been super smooth operating with him there. Like, obviously, again, last year, Scarrangelo, just a bad coach, and they did not have a ton of talent. But even looking at the year before that in 2021, his first year as a starter where he had some pretty productive games, it never looked smooth. Like, you would see see the flashes and you would see some good moments where you're like

Starting point is 00:16:10 okay will lemmis here we go but it never looked smooth everything kind of looked jumbled and disjointed and he would have really good series and really bad series and then obviously again poor situation this past season but he still wasn't able to find that consistency from game to game to snap to snap to series series and a lot of that goes with you know bad decision making like we said it comes with the anticipation issues i don't think he reads the defense as well as a 24 year old should no uh and and again it's only two year starter so there is some reasoning for that but that does concern me uh some other issues i had thrown down here and i think this is one of the bigger ones this whole draft cycle is you know there's a lot of numbers going around

Starting point is 00:16:48 saying how accurate he is under pressure and stuff which is true like he's like a 65 percent uh passer under under pressure which is really good but i did see last year i think it was like a 28 pressure to sack ratio so if he was pressured like 28 of the time he was being sacked and some of that had to do with his turf toe but like he's not like a bryce young or an anthony richardson where he's going to get out of those sacks yeah if you're getting that pressure he'll either stand that in there and get punched in the mouth or he's going to go down and get sacked you know and that and then today's game where everything is about creativity at quarterback that's pretty concerning to me yeah and he and he should be great because he is a good athlete,

Starting point is 00:17:27 but he's more of a downhill runner. When we talk about mobility, he's more north and south, the way he moves around as opposed to east and west. Like Bryce Young and CJ Stroud, even CJ Stroud, when they move, they're like, okay, I'm moving the pass. Will Levinson is more to run. And I think one of the reasons why maybe he was productive, do you remember when Wondell Robinson was in that offense?

Starting point is 00:17:49 Yeah. He got fed screens after screens after screens after screens. And I feel like that may be one of the reasons, because it never looked like he got in rhythm, because they were just trying to feed the ball to these playmakers, feed the ball to these playmakers. So we never got to see him develop a short to deep passing game and it was all mid to deep and it was like it was weird because i was such a big wandell robson fan

Starting point is 00:18:10 so i noticed i watched a lot of will but i watched a lot of the offense they had some really creative screens and some really creative plays behind a lot of scrimmage but i didn't see that same creativity down the field right right i agree i agree completely so it's just it's not like any of these are not fixable it's just he's raw and he's 24 that's concerning you know that's kind of concerning right there a couple more notes i had here and this is actually going to go back to something i talked about with carson wentz again i don't think he's like carson wentz but i just it's just easy for comparison's sake here i talked with dub maddox who's a quarterback expert and he talked about how quarterbacks struggle to throw outside the numbers is

Starting point is 00:18:48 because their brain tells them to underset certain ways and overset other ways or whatever. And it leads to a lot of inaccuracy because you're throwing against your body one way, and then you're opening too much the other way and you're just throwing it over guys' heads. And we see with Will Levis, you know,

Starting point is 00:19:01 outside the numbers last year, he's a 50% passer. Like he struggles outside the numbers, like he's a 50% passer like he struggles outside the numbers like really bad now for all the love I give him throwing over the middle of the field you don't get the whole field to work with with him as of right now because he's a bad outside the numbers passer and a lot of that has to do with just his mechanics his footwork and just getting that right brain left brain stuff down which can be cured with a good quarterback coaching and stuff like that. But from year one,

Starting point is 00:19:25 the year that you have to start them when you don't have time to work them with the QB coach, that's going to be an issue. You're not going to have outside the numbers much in your playbook. And that's pretty concerning to me, especially when we know how players confidence can go down and GMs can be called to get fired. If you have one bad year with a quarterback. Oh yeah. Well, not even just from a QB play type of deal. When people start game planning for you,

Starting point is 00:19:50 think about it. When we're going to cover three, we're rolling safeties down, we're adding extra defenders in the box. Now you're making the offense one-dimensional because, oh, you like throwing to the middle of the field? What if I close it? So now you can get a lot of middle field close looks.

Starting point is 00:20:04 And God forbid you have some corners on the outside that can bump and run because now i can walk those guys up i'm gonna stack the box now i'm gonna force you i'm gonna force you to throw outside the numbers where you're super inconsistent where you're not confident and now me as a play caller i'm playing with one arm now that's that's not ideal and then that will attribute to him having a bad season that gm having pressure put on him and we sit this guy down for a vet who can win us a couple games because i don't need to get fired and those are all they have to you have to bring up and put into play because while you were saying that i was just like well as a d coordinator in my head i'm already

Starting point is 00:20:39 the wheels already turned like oh he can't throw outside the numbers like i got two dudes out on the outside like if i'm playing the dolphins it's easy work you know what i'm saying it's easy work i got jay lorenz i got howard out there i can let those guys sag off you know i you know force you to throw you know wide and outside i know you got tyreek and waddle but they do they're dirt crossing the field and running across things like that i can close that off right you're making it really really hard on offense coordinator so that's that's a very interesting like you know tad that you threw in there yeah yeah so in the end kind of the way we view him positive and negative here is i like the mindset i like the traits it's just for an older player that needs to play right away he's

Starting point is 00:21:17 pretty raw and i don't know how much time he's going to be given to reach his full potential that's my biggest concern with him right now if you promise me that you're going to give him three years no matter what, and you're going to get him a good QB coach, and you're going to give him a good offense that can work with his ability, and you can gradually build him up, I'm good with him. I'm feeling great. But just knowing how NFL offenses and NFL teams are run, there's a lot of risk here in the top five.

Starting point is 00:21:41 But next up, guys, we're going to talk about what kind of offense best suits this quarterback. We're going to talk about what kind of offense best suits this quarterback. We're going to talk about that here in segment three coming up right now. All right, Hag. So when you're talking about type of offense for a guy like this, I think here's my three letters I want to throw out there. And I think a lot of people associate this with running quarterbacks. And Will Levis is a running quarterback. But I'm going to go RPO.

Starting point is 00:22:04 Yes. RPO. You don't need to be a running quarterback to operate the rpo but when you have a guy with will levis's quickness and his arm speed like his arm talent and then you add in that he could be like a tasem hill type of runner when he's healthy this is a this could be a dominant rpo guy like i know that i know teams don't do rpo like 50 times a game or anything like that, but if you have a good rushing attack and then you can mix in these RPOs and stuff with him, I could see a pretty good quick passing offense with him. Yeah. Well, you mean like a running back like Jonathan Taylor and guys like, things like that. But the thing about the RPO, the rules are a little different

Starting point is 00:22:42 in the NFL than college. So you can't do how Georgia does it when they have linemen running downfield. Yes. And things like that. You're telling the safety to commit to Brock Bowers or go get our type of Macintosh, whoever. But you do get a lot of really good looks from RPOs. It cleans up the picture for quarterbacks if they make their read. Right. You make the defense pick, choose. If you have a decent line, a good running game and a receiver that can make plays. It simplifies the game for quarterbacks. It makes it easy for young quarterbacks. You get to see guys play to their strengths more. Oh, he's athletic and has a good arm. He likes going to the middle of the field. Well, that's perfect. That's a perfect scenario for a guy like Will Levis, because we saw the success that Jalen Hurts had.

Starting point is 00:23:21 Right. All the good Jalen Hurts had. And the coach happened to get the guy behind all of it. So it makes a lot of sense, right? It makes a lot of sense. But that's what type of offense you want him in. Don't force him to go out there and, well, I want him to diagnose this way and read this way. No, no, no, no. Tailor it to him. Put him on the Josh Allen plan.

Starting point is 00:23:42 Put him on Jalen Hurts plan. Put him on the Lamar plan. All right? We're going to tailor this entire offense around your strengths. Take out the weaknesses. We're going to run the ball. OK. And then we're going to we're going to slowly give you weapons. Then we're going to get you an elite receiver and we're going to get this thing rolling. If you don't do that, you're asked to get fired. Yeah. Yeah. And I love the point you made about Lamar and Jalen, all them. So we're going to get to that in a second. But the why i love rpo for a quarterback like will levis outside of just

Starting point is 00:24:08 the arm speed and all that is when you have a talented quarterback that has some anticipation issues has some trouble reading a defense rpo is a great way to get them more confident because you're reading one thing you are finding that conflict defender and you're watching what their first step is that's all you're doing you're watching that first step how they react to your offensive line run blocking if they step up you're throwing it right behind them if they drift back you're hanging the ball off to Jonathan Taylor that is as easy as it gets for a quarterback like Will Levis and when you have his arm speed his arm talent to where that defender even pretends like he's going to step up he He can whip it behind them for,

Starting point is 00:24:45 for a nice little game. I love him in RPO. I love him in middle of the field offenses where he can just attack it with triangle reads and quick hitters. Even like the wide receiver screens, like he did in 2021, just get that ball out of his hand. And then obviously heavy play action.

Starting point is 00:24:58 I think he's more comfortable with his mechanics when he's on the move and getting that ball out of his hands where he doesn't have to think about his mechanics where it's all just natural baseball throwing I think that's really good but let's go to your Lamar point that you made like the Lamar and Jalen Hertz plan and stuff like that because the biggest part about that is these guys they show their potential in year one but they stunk and yeah people were not sold year one with either one of them. No, Jalen Hurts, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, these guys stunk year one. They were all under 60% passers. Super Bowls, MVPs, and things like that. You would not have bet that after watching those guys year one.

Starting point is 00:25:36 No, no. Jalen Hurts, I think, was under 60% passer. Lamar Jackson was under 60% passer, but he showed some good things. They won some games. Josh Allen was was under 60 percent passer but he showed some good things they won some games josh allen was certainly under 60 passing like these guys struggled year one and it's gonna be more concerning with like levis because he's older you know because he's 24 you're like because you're drafting this guy coming out of two nfl often like he was in two nfl offenses there in college you know back-to-back years, at least NFL somewhat adjacent offenses.

Starting point is 00:26:08 And you're expecting him to be more ready than that. If you were giving him the time, though, to go on that same curve as those guys and you're going into year one being like, look, this kid's probably going to suck. He's probably going to suck this first year. But we have a plan. Then Will Levis can be really good like i i feel comfortable saying that i don't think he's a mitch travisky i don't think he's a zach wilson i don't think he's a drew lock yeah but if you if you bail on him after one year he is

Starting point is 00:26:37 what it is so it's it's like i i love i love that point because those guys stunk in year one but look what they became after that. Yeah, you have to be patient. You know, that's one of the things that drives me nuts about these teams, right? They're not patient with guys that weren't sure things. You know, you look at Trubisky. He was a one-year one. They're too easy, but everybody's kind of shocked, like,

Starting point is 00:27:00 you're going to take him at two? Okay, you know what I'm saying? Like Zach Wilson, he was the popular pick. He was the fun pick. But nothing about Zach Wilson, nobody was like, hey, that is the guy 100%. It was like competition was weak. When he played good comp, his play kind of went down. What are we doing?

Starting point is 00:27:17 And I think the one thing that Will does have going for him is he's used to not having success. And that's okay because you know he can battle through adversity, still have that confidence. Why are you throwing at the combine? Because I got a cannon. He still believes in himself, you know, 100%. And what was the point?

Starting point is 00:27:33 I lost it. We were talking about not year one. Oh, yeah, when you mentioned stinking, right? If I'm a Colts fan, if I'm a Colts fan and, you know, we get Will Levis and he stinks. Right. He stinks for this year. Your team's probably going to be picking in a good spot next year. There's a receiver that had that may be in play. You know, if you think two years in a row that you may be able to grab inside the top 10 that I think the Colts fans would love. And you would probably need to stink pretty good to go get him because he's looking like a generational type prospect. I'm just saying, I wouldn't be too mad about drafting Will Levis

Starting point is 00:28:14 if it gets me that guy. Hag, you're coming on my show and you're saying, and you're saying, and you're coming on here as the non-Will Levis guy, but you're going to sell all of Colts Nation on Will Levis with that one little statement that you said there. Hey, because, look, you draft Bryce Young, C.J. Stroud. I don't think you're winning – I don't think you're going to win under – I mean, win less than four or five games. You know what I'm saying? Like, you need to be a three, four-win team to draft Marvin Harrison.

Starting point is 00:28:42 That's all I'm saying. That's all I'm saying because the the kid's gonna light it up and and you know i can i can make myself like will levis if i get that that prize next hey look if you show some signs in year one and you end up getting marvin harrison jr you're looking pretty good you're feeling pretty good i don't got digs you know you know jaylen hurts got aj brown smitty you know he needs you need a you need a true a true one you know hopefully i've got some good weapons but you need a a alpha number one receiver yeah yeah so i'll joke and decide here at all talking about the future even more into the future i don't hate will levis and i know there are times on social media where

Starting point is 00:29:22 i come off as someone who doesn't like will Levis. I actually come off the other way, too. Sometimes it's someone who likes him too much. But at the end of the day, we're talking about a player who has the right mindset, has the right talent, has the right ability to be a star quarterback in the NFL. Will he ever get there is the biggest thing. Will he have the time to get there? Whether his age is a factor, whether the teams give up on him too early, because I don't think it's going to be super pretty year one. I think this is a guy who can get there whether his age is a factor whether the teams give up on him too early because i don't think it's going to be super pretty year one yeah um i think this is a guy who can get there and i do trust him as a person and trust his ability to get there it's just oh and another thing i want

Starting point is 00:29:54 to throw out there too is uh if you're looking at like talent profile and looking at his stat profile and stuff and being scared ryan tannahill matt stafford daniel jones like these guys all had similar statistical profiles uh josh allen too like these guys all had statistical profiles extremely similar to this i don't think his like his profile is not anthony richardson bad so i don't have an anomaly as far as yeah if you if you if somebody told me hey well levis is gonna go in first round okay i think i think personally i think he's a lot closer to Hendon Hooker than he is to C.J. Stratton and Bryce Young, but

Starting point is 00:30:29 I think Hendon Hooker and him are both going to be solid NFL players. I don't think they're going to be out of the league in three or four years, even though they are older. I think they're both intelligent. I think they're both physically capable. I think they have the tools to be successful. That's why I'm not completely out on Will Levis.

Starting point is 00:30:46 I just, like you said, when I talk on social media, I don't know if he's top five for me personally. He's just not that for me personally. But he has all the tools. So if you do take him, I'm not going to scoff at you. I'm going to be like, you better make it work. If you take him, you better make it work because he has the stuff to make it possible. It's, you take him, you better make it work because he has the stuff to, to, to make it possible.

Starting point is 00:31:07 It's all about that front office in that team and being willing to get behind a guy like Will Levis and bring out his strengths, block out the weaknesses, be willing to take a couple of lumps that year one and then move forward. Yep. Yep. Well said Hagen. I think that's all we have for today, guys. So make sure you tune in tomorrow as Jake and I talk about his time at the Ohio State Pro Day that he was at today, which was, I'm sure, a fun time for everybody. I know it's kind of weird that we're talking Will Levis when the Ohio State

Starting point is 00:31:32 Pro Day just happened. Hey, man, they're just lining up. It's meant to be. But we'll see what happens. Right, right. So, Hag, next week we'll either talk Bryce Young or maybe we'll jump into some Hendon Hooker because our comment sections love some Hendon Hooker on here. So we'll see.

Starting point is 00:31:47 We'll see if we'll talk some Hendon Hooker. Make sure you guys are following at LockedOnColts, at JakeArthurNFL, at Zach Hicks 2, and at JohnHaglerCR. Jeez, man, I was struggling. At JohnHaglerCR. All on Twitter. Also subscribe to LockedOnColts podcast on YouTube

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Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts: Could Will Levis Be The Guy At Pick 4?

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