Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts Crucial Cut Decisions Looming on Matt Ryan, Ryan Kelly, Kenny Moore II

Episode Date: January 3, 2023

The Indianapolis Colts have a lot of bad contracts that they need to get out of after the 2022 season. Should the team part ways with Matt Ryan, Ryan Kelly, and Kenny Moore II? We also discuss which players are must re-signs this offseason.***This episode was recorded before knowledge of the Damar Hamlin incident. Our thoughts, and those of the Locked On family, are with Hamlin, his loved ones, and the Buffalo Bills.Find and follow Locked On Colts on your favorite podcast platforms:🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOColts?sid=YouTube📺YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLdpxJspi1hMh5HL7ExpWOQLocked On NFL League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Draft & More🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnNFLFollow Jake and Zach's written work on HorseshoeHuddle.com (@ColtsOnFN), and give them a follow on Twitter @JakeArthurNFL, @ZachHicks2, and @LockedOnColts!Today’s episode is presented by PrizePicks. PrizePicks is daily fantasy made easy. Pick 2-5 players and if they score more or less than their PrizePicks projection you can win up to 10x your money on your entry. First-time users can receive a 100% instant deposit match up to $100 with promo code LOCKEDON. That’s PrizePicks.com – promo code; LOCKEDONSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!LinkedInLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONNFLBuilt BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds, and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!PrizePicksFirst-time users can receive a 100% instant deposit match up to $100 with promo code LOCKEDON. That’s PrizePicks.com – promo code; LOCKEDONUltimate Football GMTo download the game just visit Ultimate-GM.com or look it up on the app stores. Our listeners get a 100% free boost to their franchise when using the promo LOCKEDON (ALL CAPS) in the game store. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Indianapolis Colts season is almost finally over and one of the next chapters will be free agency. Which players are set to hit the open market in March and who's worth bringing back? We'll dive into all 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 Network, your team every day. Thank you all 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. I'm Jake Arthur and he is Zach Hicks. You know the two of us from HorseshoeHuddle.com, of course.

Today we're going to identify the Colts' most notable free agents and tell you which ones we would make sure that we resign, which ones we would let walk and test the open market, and which players we'd flat out cut either to create cap space now down the line or just to free up that position for someone newer and younger to take over. So first, Zach, we'll go with the heavy hitting topic, cuts. Some of these are kind of obvious. I mean, they're going to have to swallow some dead cap regardless. Some of these are pretty tough. Who knows? But let's go ahead and start out with probably the most obvious one. That's quarterback Matt Ryan. They may not have to cut him if he decides to retire, but basically they're on the hook for 35 million dollars if he's on the roster throughout next year so it's only going to cost them 18 million to just flat out cut him so only only gonna cost them yeah yeah in relation to 35 million though that's like literally almost half yeah no it's absolutely insane that though we're like we're

in this place now where the Indianapolis Colts under Chris Ballard almost every single year have been the lowest in dead cap across the entire league. Like they've traditionally never had like any dead cap under Chris Ballard. And now we're looking at, you know, these players we're going to look at, it probably makes sense to cut. And they're all going to like pretty much all of them are gonna cause dead cap you know they're gonna create dead cap for the colts so yeah matt ryan that's a tough one man that's what 17 or 18 million dollars in dead cap uh for cutting a quarterback that you expected to be here you know when they made that extension or that that contract reworking they expected matt ryan to be the starting quarterback going into next season but it makes just so much more sense to cut him if he if he continues playing you know

I do think there is a there's a realistic possibility that he retires after the season he has taken a beating and it's just not been the season that he expected but you know these old quarterbacks they like to keep going and going and you know someone's going to still pay you to play next year why retire so yeah the Col, if he ends up not retiring, even if he does retire, I do think there is going to be some dead cap with that. That's more of a Kyle Raposa type question right there. But, yeah, if they cut him, I think, before his roster bonus is due in, like, February, I think they can save, like, $17 million in that contract.

So it's a tough one. It's a tough pill to swallow. You could get, you know, kind of fancy with it and do a post June 1st cut, which I think would split that into the next two years, which would make it, you know, I think a dead cap of like 9 million next year, which that makes that a little bit more manageable, but either way, that's going to be a tough pill to swallow for a guy that you expected to be here for, you know, the next year or two.

Yeah, that's one that we kind of laughed at how much of an insane contract it was going to be for the Falcons to digest after they traded him away. But it's going to leave its impact on the Colts as well. Before we move on, I just want to mention I got these figures from Spotrack.com and verified them on Over the Cap as well. And yes, these are all going to create dead cap, but I kind of feel like this is a by any means necessary type of offseason where Jim Irsay is just like, yeah, we're going to have a lot of wasted money, but we just have to do what we have to do to move on to the next thing. So that's kind of why we have a list of names here. Next up, Nick Foles. It's going to cost him $1.5 million to just, you know, sell. Terrible deal. I mean, look, again, I get it. It's a two-year deal. You're expecting Frank Reich to be the head coach from last year and going into this next season as well. But, you know, he was here to play for Frank Reich. So

you gave him that two-year extension thinking Frank Reich was going to be here for those two years. And I have no clue why they guaranteed any money after year one. That doesn't make any sense to me for an older quarterback that, in a perfect world, is never seeing the field. Why are you guaranteeing money after year one? Because you never know where you could be, especially with a quarterback like Matt Ryan, where, say,

Matt Ryan worked out. Matt Ryan was perfectly fine. Nick Foles never saw the field this year. We're going into year two of Matt Ryan on his last year of his deal. You'd probably still be looking at draft a young quarterback and then you wouldn't really want Nick Foles

in that scenario either. So you probably want to release him anyway. So yeah, the fact that they're going to have to eat a $1.5 million debt cap on Nick Foles, that's just bad contract. I mean, again, Chris Ballard did a great job throughout most of his tenure of not giving out bad contracts. But you're going to see with a couple of these men, like bad contracts. And that's not even talking about the guys that we can't release or that have underperformed on contracts or something like that. Or guys, you know, like a Shaquille Leonard who is not playing right now on that giant contract.

You know, there's a lot of bad contracts or contracts that aren't looking so great right now. And yeah, the Nick Foles one's a minor one, but like, man, like to eat a dead cap on a quarterback that in a perfect world was never going to play for you. Like, come on, come on, man. Yeah. That's 20 million worth of of dead cap in two quarterbacks that you're probably going to move on from.

At the time I got it, I understood. They didn't want to have to entrust Sam Ellinger in case something happened to Matt Ryan. They probably legitimately thought they were a postseason contender, and in the event that something happened to Matt Ryan, they could just plug in another veteran that's played for Frank Reich before, but we've now seen, obviously obviously that was not going to work next up now this one is a little more tricky because you and i talked right before this ryan kelly has been a popular choice for this but he's got dead cap over the next two years that amounts to just under seven

million dollars um now he's he's a startable center he's just not playing up to the standard he'd set previously in his career yeah i think he's getting paid like a top six or seven center still like there have been a couple other guys who have moved ahead of him so i don't think it's you know the top overall center money that it was but it's still a pretty healthy contract i think it's what like nine or ten million dollars a year or no his was up to like 12 wasn't it wasn't up to 12 I think you were on I over the time earlier I'd have to look at it again but yeah it's yeah he he was paid pretty handsomely for a center for an interior lineman in general he was up there yeah and and yes his play has dropped off and yes early in the season it was bad. With Danny Pinter next to him, with the issues at left tackle as well,

his play was just really, really porous. And again, we have no clue inside the locker room what the issues are with these blitz pickups or these blitz calls. Is it Ryan Kelly making these calls? Because if it's Ryan Kelly making these calls, if we ever find that out, then my opinion drops even lower. But as of right now, you're looking at a guy who's probably the 15th, the 20th best center in football.

You know, maybe on good games or good days, he can get back into that fringe top 10 range. But we don't really see those good days as much anymore. So it's kind of tough. I don't think his cap hit is crazy high, but it's still an overpay. But to eat up two years of dead cap for a startable center, even if his play is not warranting what he's getting, that's a tough one. I could see either way with it. Maybe a trade, but how much could you really get for him right now? I don't

know. That's a tough one. I'd have to leave it to you guys in the comment section. Would you eat, I think, $7 million of dead cap over the next two seasons to to cut Ryan Kelly is it worth that I don't know I don't think you really save that I mean I think you save like it's like six or seven million this next year and then around the same year after that so you do get a little bit of saving but it's really not like it's not like you're getting like a 20 million dollar saving or anything like that exactly it doesn't it's not like it clears up so much space that it's like a slam dunk you definitely do it like that's a pretty manageable amount of cap i got two more here one more on offense mo alley cox only 2.4 million in dead cap you're paying him to be just a total non-contributor i'm guessing the hope was that he could fill some semblance of the jack doyle role but that really hasn't been the case uh you're

far and away relying on a rookie and jelani woods and kylan grants and second year guy to catch passes at tight end and if drew ogletree would have never got himself hurt this summer who knows maybe he factors into that as well so mo alley cox decent player but he he's just been surpassed like there's no reason uh and if it only costs you 2.4 million kind of like with ryan kelly it's almost a negligible amount but you got to make room for these other guys to to see some snaps yeah molly cox just doesn't factor into the near or present future for the Colts. So yeah, I think that's an easy one. You definitely make that move. And again, you eat the dead cap, another bad contract that we thought going into the season might've been okay, but

just another contract that ended up being bad and that you probably have to eat some dead cap on. Yeah, this last one may be a little more polarizing, but I was actually surprised to see that this guy represents no more dead cap. So you can get out of this contract without penalty. That's Kenny Moore. And I think this would be mutual. He had the contract dispute over the summer, still showed up and, you know, reported to camp and everything and has been playing. He's hurt now, of course, but man, I mean, if there's disgruntled players this year in the locker room, it seems at least earlier in the season when he was talking a little more,

he's probably among them. I don't know that either side would want this relationship to continue. I can't say that for sure, but like I can definitely imagine they probably want to mutually part ways. Yeah, I won't touch too much on this because we don't want to run this episode into a 50-minute thing like that for you guys. But yeah, I think it makes sense for a mutual departure here with these two sides. I mean, Kenny Moore, they can get out of it by just releasing him, or maybe they can get a day three pick for him because, look, Kenny fine player he didn't really fit this scheme you know maybe a

new defensive coordinator comes in with a brand new ideas for kenny more to unlock him again and they can kind of repair that relationship but they have an easy out in this contract they have teams around the league that would probably love to have them hint hint matt eberflus with the bears would probably love to have them over there. So, yeah, it probably makes some sense to either release or trade him this offseason. Yeah, and you've got guys like Julian Blackman's playing well. You would still look through free agency or the draft to upgrade the position if you did move on from Kenny. But there's guys there on the roster that can contribute and you can kind of groomed it to take over there. We're going to get into the players that we'd lock up to new deals here in a moment but first this episode is brought to you by prize picks with prize picks it's daily fantasy made fun

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Download the Price Picks app or go to PricePix.com to sign up and play daily fantasy sports. First time users can receive a 100% instant deposit match up to $100 with promo code LOCKEDON. That means if you deposit $100, PrizePix is going to give you $100. If you deposit $50, PrizePix will give you $100. If you deposit 50, prize picks will give you $50. Don't forget to enter promo code LOCKEDON at signup for an instant deposit match up to $100. Okay, Zach, so they got about 20 free agents, I think was my last count before they've made some modest roster moves. There's really only a handful that i would say you definitely bring back uh first up just looking at the offensive side of the ball of course paris campbell

he's revitalized his career this season and i would have to think he would look even better with any semblance of steady offensive play from quarterback to offensive line everything we've seen he could be used in multiple ways. I say, bring Paris Campbell back. Yeah. Yeah. I think as long as the money makes sense, cause I I'm very, very fascinated to see what his, his market's going to look like, because we're talking about, he's been fairly productive and just an abysmal offense this year.

I think he's what, like, isn't he like 400 or 500 yards receiving? He's, he's been healthy all season for the first time. He's shown some, some big playability at times. And we saw on Sunday, that big catch he had. And we've seen the wide receiver market in recent years just explode. You know, I'm not saying Paris Campbell is a guy who's going to get 20 million a year, but you know, Paris Campbell, a guy who just had his first healthy season in the NFL is probably looking at what's five, six, maybe seven million dollars a year just because because that's the nature of wide receiver. Like, is that too much for you, Jake? Do you think that's too much that you would pay for him? No, I would do it because he's not really a boom or bust type of player. I think he's reliable. He's the type of player you need in every offense, pretty much.

He can, of course, do things after the catch. He can make the short plays. He can extend those, but he can also win deep, obviously. Again, you mentioned that catch on Sunday. Man, I'd bring him back for under $10 million, for sure, especially if it's in that $5-6 million range. I think if Frank Brecker, it it's a hundred percent, he's coming back. But with the new coaching coming in, maybe a new GM, maybe, maybe, maybe there. I don't know. I think that's going to be a, that's going to be a call where I think it go either way,

but the next guy you have on the list, I think is almost 100% going to come back and that's Ashton Doolin at wide receiver. I can't think of any reason whatsoever that's Ashton Doolin at wide receiver. I can't think of any reason whatsoever to let Ashton Doolin go. You're getting a top tier special teams player whenever he's out there. He's shown that he can play some receiver in a pinch and play well. Like we're talking wide receiver five here, wide receiver four type guy. He has to be one of the better ones in the league. Not because he goes out there and puts up 200 yard games every time he gets a chance. But I mean, you're just getting a guy at the bottom

of the roster that can do it all. He can return kicks, he can cover kicks, and he can play some slot, he can play outside, you can do those little reverse plays to him, and we've seen him have some success in the past. So yeah, Ashton Doolin, that's a homegrown guy, a guy that you've developed in your system. He's gotten better and better every year. There's no reason to let Ashton Tilling go this offseason. I think that's the easy, easy resign right there. Yeah, that's my thing. Because I can't imagine the contract will be all that much either. So a guy that can contribute in that many different ways for it, I think you've got to do it. We're really getting into the murky water here on the defensive side of the ball. It's these linebackers

Bobby Okereke and EJ Speed and before anyone says well duh you bring them back the issue is that Shaquille Leonard makes like 20 million dollars a year Bobby O'Kerrick is going to get a big deal this year uh he's he's going to have like 150 tackles uh he can make plays in the passing game he's a pretty good um he's really well-rounded everywhere. He's a great linebacker for the modern NFL and the style of play that offenses are using nowadays. The problem is just going to be if the Colts can afford to have two linebackers making a lot – like a lot of money.

I don't know what his deal – like $12 million maybe. I don't know. $12 million to $15 million, I think. He's going to make a lot of money. I don't know what his deal, like 12 million, maybe. I don't know. He's going to make a lot. Yeah. I think a lot depends on the status of Shaquille Leonard going forward. If the Colts have any chance of bringing him back, I really don't think he's coming back at all. It's just, again, so much money going to Shaquille Leonard right now. Then you have Zyra Franklin who's having just a phenomenal season as a

starter. You have that. It's just kind of like a logical move to have zyra franklin kind of replace fabio caracay if shaquille leonard is going to be on the field next year because shaquille leonard's had major nerve surgery twice this season uh and among a lot of other injuries too in his career so who knows if shaquille leonard even plays next year or if he ever plays again you know that's not me trying to break any news here but it's just like nerve surgery is is massive so yeah you know if we see another surprise young retirement like a shaker leonard that opens the door for fabio carrie but outside that uh i think chicago is where he's gonna be i think i think that's gonna be one of the easier

ones i mean chicago is gonna go into this offseason with what like 130 million dollars in cap space and they just trade away their starting linebacker at the trade deadline this year. Like we should already pencil in Bobby O'Kara K to Chicago with Maddie with loose. Yeah. That that's another one. It seems like a layup,

almost just almost as easy as the Al-Kadim Muhammad move. Yeah. Well, that one, that one was more than a layup. That was like, if you're allowed to take a free throw from a layup line. That was so obvious.

Shoot, what was I going to say? Our next guy is EJ Speed, if you want to jump into that. Yeah, sorry. So I was going to say the Shaquille Leonard thing, Bears monitoring, because I guess he removed the Colts from his social media. We don't know what's what's to come. Some guys do that like every off season, but it's something worth looking into,

I guess. So he's, he's obviously outspoken on a lot of stuff, but yeah. So EJ speed that speed doesn't really factor into all this all that much. Cause he's not going to make as much money and he doesn't play the same spots that O'Kara K and, and Leonard do. But yeah, he's kind of like an Ashton Doolin of the defense for me. Go ahead and bring him back. He's gotten so much better defensively this year.

I would feel comfortable saying he's one of Bubba Ventrone's favorite special teams players. He's gotten really, really good there as well. That's an easy one for me. Yeah, I think you just offer him the same contract that you gave Zyra Franklin last year and you call it a day. You know, the three years, 10 million, or two years, like 8 million, or two years, 7 million, whatever that comes out to there. I think that's a pretty fair offer for him to be the third linebacker next year.

So as long as his relationship is fine in the locker room and he doesn't want to change the scenery, which, you know, a lot of players probably will uh i think you speed coming back for like a special teamer contract and then one more special teamer to mention here before we run out of time on this segment is you guys are gonna get the rare opportunity to hear me to hear me praise a kicker uh drum roll look here's the thing i hate kickers because they're so bad at their job. They are just traditionally so terrible at their job. But when a kicker is playing well, I will give them praise.

You know, I always say Justin Tucker is a great kicker, and he's great for what he does. I'm not saying that the Colts kicker Chase McLaughlin is at that level, but Chase McLaughlin has come in and just been awesome this year. And it's kind of hurt the tank effect. The Colts could be picking number one if they stuck with Rodrigo Blankenship all season. But as Jake and I were saying before we started recording, we know how bad it is here at Indy when you are missing on kicker. When you have Adam Vinatieri last season, when you have Rodrigo Blankenship early this season, that's cost the team gains.

Chase McLaughlin has come in. He's made, I think, 10 kicks over 50 yards this year, over 80% make on all of his kicks. I think he's made every extra point this year too. He's been a guy that you – that should be the number one guy that you're extending this offseason. I know it's a kicker, and I hate kickers, but the only thing I hate more than the kicker position

and kickers themselves is bad kickers. It's just bad kickers. Chase McLaughlin has not been a bad kicker position and kickers themselves is bad kickers it's just bad kickers chase mclaughlin has not been a bad kicker this year so i'm all for extending him and giving him you know a nice little pay raise yeah this one's easy for me we were just talking you know just get this one done and out of the way because like you said when you have bad kicking it sucks like 2019 they got they got stuck in the adam vinatieri stuff and then you know rodrigo blankenship not that he was always terrible but like you never knew kick to kick what was going to happen mclaughlin every extra point he's reliable from 50 yards uh yeah he's going to

have the occasional miss but every kicker does you just you just take care of that he's been overall really reliable like you said over 80 i'll take those odds kicker does. You just take care of that. He's been overall really reliable. Like you said, over 80%, I'll take those odds. Kicker's just not a position you want to worry about, and he allows you to just set it and forget it, kind of. So I'm down with that one for sure. You know, guys, and before we move on to tell you guys who we let walk in the market this offseason,

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on BetOnline.net. If you love sports podcasts, you can even find those at BetOnline as well. We're always the fastest and easiest way to get your betting info. Head to the website today or use your mobile device to learn more. BetOnline as well. We're always the fastest and easiest way to get your betting info. Head to the website today or use your mobile device to learn more. BetOnline, where the game starts. All right, Jake, so this first guy we're going to talk about here on,

you know, the guy that we are letting walk, you know, this offseason. The first guy we're going to talk about is probably a controversial one because the Colts made a trade for him this offseason, Yannick Ngakwe, pass rusher Yannick Ngakwe. And he came in, he delivered the sacks that he promised, you know, nine and a half sacks according to, I think, most major outlets. Pro Football Focus has him at 12 sacks this season. And he kind of delivered on that promise that we expected.

You know, the Colts had a double-digit sacker, but it just, it didn't feel like it, you know, to be completely honest. I think Brandon Thorne over at Establish the Run does a great job of charting quality sacks and charting, you know, sacks generated and stuff like that. And I believe Yannick Ngakwe was at like four this year. Like a lot of his sacks and his sack production

have been cleanup sacks, not very high quality sacks whatsoever. His pressure percentage is near the bottom of the league, especially if you look at pro football focus for that. And on top of all that, he's like the worst run defending edge in football by far. Like and that's been the case for like four years now. Like he's easily the worst run defending edge in the entire league. So for me, I wouldn't hate bringing him back because he does have some juice off the edge,

but you'd have to play him like 30% of the snaps. Like he can only be a pass rusher, which I don't know if, I think he's going to get starting opportunities other places. So why back here to be a sub rusher on a potentially bad team? So I just think it makes sense for both sides

to let him walk. Not a horrible player, good person, but just it's tough to have a player like that starting, a player who's so bad in the run game, and then he gets so worn down in the run game that he's not as effective as a pass rusher as what you'd like. I just don't think that that signing worked out or that trade worked out perfectly for the Colts,

and it really wasn't exactly what they needed. Yeah, you were right how it didn't, it didn't feel like a 10 sack season. Really. It felt like Eric Walden had like 11 sacks a handful of years ago. And it's like, where did all those come from? There were a lot of cleanup sacks and unblocked things like that. I, again, like you, I kind of have that same stance. I wouldn't hate it. Cause like he will give you some of those numbers, but there are several factors at play. I think those sack numbers are always going to get him a pretty healthy contract. Um, he's going to take, because he's not a good run defender, you're going to wind up playing him too much over guys like Dio Dangbo.

Um, which, you know, know, if you want to finally see this Quidipe Dayo Dangbo thing go forward, then you're not going to bring Ngakwe back. If Gus Bradley returns, then we obviously know he's going to play Yannick Ngakwe like as much as possible. It's pretty much Ibra Floos and Al-Kadim Mohamed. Let me say real quick, Gus Bradley's not coming back. No, I'm sure. Yeah. He's absolutely gone. Yeah. 100% gone. Like absolutely gone. Like there's better chance of parks Frazier returning than Gus Bradley. Like, like Gus Bradley's not coming back, but yeah,

I get your point there and that leads to our next guy, our next guy. I know I'm jumping one on your list here, but Brandon face on. We're absolutely not bringing Brandon Faison back. Gus Bradley is the only guy who would bring him back. I actually think he got a little too hated on this year. He actually didn't put together that awful of a season. Early in the year when we were pissed at everything that was going on with this team, he was at the butt of so many bad plays.

So it just seems so much worse. And then lumping in a couple other guys that we don't really need to talk about here because i think all of you guys listening completely agree matt prior absolutely not do not bring him back dennis kelly not that he was terrible it's just there's no point in bringing him back and then punter matt hawk if rigoberto sanchez is coming back there's there's really no reason to bring back Matt Hawk. Matt Hawk, man, I mean, so many shanked punts this year. I've never, I mean, we've all been watching football forever.

I can't remember seeing a season where one guy shanked so many punts. And it didn't matter. Granted, Colts fans are spoiled with punting, too, because they went from Hunter Smith to Pat McAfee, and that was awesome, to Rigoberto Sanchez. So they've had 20 years of awesome punting. But, again, I've just never seen a guy kick off the side of his foot. I don't understand how that happens so much. And he is not a kickoff specialist either. So it's,

there's just no point. Make Chase McLaughlin the punter as well. You know, that's the key. We're going to pay him a lot anyway. Let's make him the punter as well. But the toughest decision to make, I think in my opinion,

and I think your opinion as well, Jake is probably McLeod. Cause Ronnie McLeod, I put this on twitter the other day he has been phenomenal for the colts this year if you look at his numbers he's setting career highs and total tackles career highs and tackles for a loss career highs and run and stops and just overall stops uh career high and past deflections uh career high in um or like lowest missed tackle percentage of his entire career this year and

playing more around the box than he ever has and this is in his what 11th season age 32 yeah I was gonna I was gonna say he's been in the in the league for a decade so those those numbers mean something he's been around for a while right he and he didn't even start week one he you know kind of came in a little bit week two and week three is when he really became a starter and he's setting all these career best numbers for himself. He's a guy where. If this team were competitive,

if this team were a good team and a team that, you know, we had a high expectations for next year, I think it's an easy resign because you would talk about him as being a glue guy, a locker room guy who also performs on the field. That's who you want back. But maybe I'm just, like, thinking for his best interest here.

Like, go somewhere good, you know? Go play for a good team next year. Go win a ring. Go play for Buffalo. Buffalo needs a third safety so bad with those top two guys getting hurt so much. Go Buffalo and just rock out for them if someone goes down. Like, Rodney McLeod, man, I cannot say enough good things about him. two guys getting hurt so much, go Buffalo and just run out for them if someone goes down. Rodney McLeod, man, I cannot say enough good things about him. Just outstanding season,

career year, and he was everything the Colts needed on defense. The Colts let him down. He was great this year, though. I love Rodney McLeod. I wish he could come back, but I would let him walk purely for the sake of letting him go like get out of here buddy you go yeah no i i would have zero issue with him returning i think he was a great find for them it was kind of reminiscent of when the colts brought mike adams in at safety you know a 10 10 12 year guy who everyone assumed probably didn't have a whole lot left. You know, McLeod's been great. My thing is the Colts have just several young players in the position I want to see him play. I want to see Nick Cross. You know, Rodney Thomas has got to get out there.

Julian Blackman. I just want to see these young guys. That's my main thing. And if the Colts were in a position to win right now, I would say let the young guys sit and let mcleod take over because there's a reason he's out there he's it's not it's not just that he's playing really well it's that the secondary is better with him being in it because of communication like him and stefan gilmore have got everything on lock and it's a big reason is because how they can

communicate to the young guys as well. But yeah, I just really want to see the youth moving forward as well. Yeah. One quick thing I'll say about Ronnie McLeod before we, before we close that, I think he is pro football focuses. I want to say fifth highest graded safety and coverage of the season among all starting safeties in the NFL this year. I think he's our fifth high grade. I think he's an 80.4 grade which is a very good grade uh in coverage this season that's with only having i think one interception you know so it's not like he's getting those boosts from

from jumping routes and getting picks that's purely from his past breakups from his hits coming downhill uh yeah he's just a great player like i i wish him nothing but the best yeah absolutely and yeah i mean the colts have other free agents coming up, but just they're either not worth discussing cause it's an easy decision or, you know, they're just kind of bottom of the roster players. But, uh, I think that is it for us today. We'll be back with you guys tomorrow to keep looking into the off season cause we're all ready for it. Absolutely.

Maybe we'll begin to get you guys a little ready for this final game on Sunday against the Texans. But, yeah, we're about to totally morph into offseason mode, and I think you guys know we're excited for it, and we know you are. Yeah, make sure you guys are following along on Twitter, at LockedOnColts, at JakeArthurNFL, and at ZachHicks2. Also, subscribe to LockedOnColts podcast on YouTube. We're nearing 2,000 subscribers.

We'd like to get to that soon, so make sure you guys make that happen. And thank you for making us your first listen of the day. For your next listen, check out the Locked on Sports Today podcast, the biggest stories of the day plus instant reactions, big game recaps, and the take of the day. Available on the Odyssey app, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. We'll see you guys tomorrow.