Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - INDIANAPOLIS COLTS: Evaluating Daniel Jones, Lou Anarumo (w/ Shawn Syed)
Episode Date: February 5, 2026The Indianapolis Colts have a loaded decision to make regarding free-agent quarterback Daniel Jones, how much to offer him, and for how long, given his season-ending Achilles injury.Shawn Syed (@SyedS...chemes) of Sumer Sports joins Zach live from Radio Row at the Super Bowl to discuss Jones as well as the Colts' defense under Lou Anarumo. EVERYDAYER CLUBIf you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans.Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclub Find and follow Locked On Colts on your favorite podcast platforms:🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/podcasts/locked-on-colts/📺YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLdpxJspi1hMh5HL7ExpWOQLocked On NFL League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Draft & More🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/podcasts/locked-on-nfl/ Follow Jake's written work on roundtable.io/sports/nfl/colts/ and Zach's on si.com/nfl/colts/, and give them a follow on Twitter @JakeArthurNFL, @ZachHicks2, and @LockedOnColts! Today's episode is sponsored by PrizePicks. Download the PrizePicks app today and use code LOCKEDONNFL to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!TurboTaxFor a limited time, you can have your taxes done by a local TurboTax expert for just $150 — all in, if a TurboTax expert didn’t file for you last year. Just file by February 28. Visit http://TurboTax.com/local to book your appointment today.FanDuelIf you’re a new customer, bet just $5 and get $200 in Bonus Bets if you win. Make it count — because after the Super Bowl, the season is over. Last call for football on FanDuel, an Official Sportsbook Partner of Super Bowl Sixty.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as non-withdrawable free bets that expire in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)PrizePicksDownload the PrizePicks app today and use code LOCKEDONNFL to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup.Click Here: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONNFLGametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.RobinhoodTrade Every Play with Robinhood. Now available across the U.S. Download the Robinhood app now to begin.Futures and cleared swaps trading involve significant risk and are not appropriate for everyone. Event contracts are offered by Robinhood Derivatives, LLC., a registered futures commission merchant and swap firmIndeedListeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/lockedonnfl.GustoTry Gusto today at http://gusto.com/lockedonNFL and get three months free when you run your first payroll.QuoMake this the year where no opportunity — and no customer — slips away. Try Quo for free, plus get 20% off your first 6 months when you go to http://Quo.com/lockedonnfl.BetterhelpThis episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. BetterHelp makes it easy to get matched online with a qualified therapist. Sign up and get 10% off at http://BetterHelp.com/LOCKEDON. DripDropRight now, DripDrop is offering podcast listeners 20% off their first order. Go to http://dripdrop.com and use promo code lockedonnfl. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Should the Indianapolis Colt break the bank for Daniel Jones this off season?
Let's get to it.
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lineup. Hello everyone, my name is Zach Hicks,
your resident film, nerd, of horseshoe huddle.com.
And I'm joined today by Sean Syed of Sumer Sports,
one of my favorite go-to-analytic sites out there.
And if you guys are a big fan of Sumer Sports like I am,
Sumer Sports is set to launch the evaluation draft show
on their YouTube show that will blend data and analytics
along with interviews with NFL great.
So follow WWE Star.
Big E, he'll host, and the show is set to run for 10 weeks.
so definitely check that out.
I know I'm going to be checking that out for sure during the draft season.
But we have Sean today to take a break away from the Super Bowl instead of these two teams that
have been great all year and about to face off on Sunday.
He wanted to take a little break to talk about the Indianapolis Colts, some Daniel Jones,
some defense with Luana Rumo.
So Sean, I appreciate you taking the break away from your busy week here to talk about
a team that had Super Bowl aspirations at the trade deadline, but then lost seven down the
stretch to, you know, finish the year missing the playoffs again.
Zach, I'm excited.
I don't need to talk about JASN anymore.
I don't need to talk about the Patriots defensive line.
No, Daniel Jones, let's talk about it.
It's going to be such an important thing to look forward to this offseason.
Yeah, no, and I think this coincided perfectly because I was preparing just kind of, you know,
an offseason video talking about Daniel Jones and just the pros and cons, how he performed
this past season.
I used a lot of things on your guy's site for getting my numbers to go with that.
And just on paper, like analytics-wise, it seems like Jones had a very strong year for the Colts this past season.
I mean, ranking top five EPA play overall in terms of under pressure was rated pretty high as well and performed fairly well and a lot of metrics.
But how did you guys view this season from Daniel Jones, obviously prior to that devastating injury late in the year?
Yeah, I think you can't just say, okay, Jones played like a top five quarterback by EPA.
Like that can't ever be the end of the evaluation.
that's not what you're saying either, but we should acknowledge that you had a very,
very productive offense with Daniel Jones there. Now, how much of it was driven by Daniel Jones?
I do think parts of it in terms of some of the deep ball accuracy was pretty impressive for me.
I do think he's effective off play action. We think back to when Jones was with the Giants in the
year that they made the playoffs, you know, Brian Daibble, hey, we're going to move the pocket.
We're going to make Jones the life a little bit easier. So I do think you can, you know,
when you have a positive situation around Jones, like you did, you can win a bunch of games.
after the injury, you know, you're not able to move as much.
We saw that Chiefs game where things get to be really difficult.
And I think there is a realistic maybe ceiling overall for Jones in this offense.
I do love, though, I really enjoy Stan Steakin as a play caller, as a play designer.
I think that the Eagles would wish to be able to have impact.
That's something that Eagles fans are always telling me about.
I'm curious if you're able to retain Alex Pierce, you have a strong receiving court.
You have obviously a running back that you really trust.
You had multiple parts along the offensive line that you should.
be extremely happy. Tyler Warren has that chest fee. So it feels like, hey, I've just talked about
10 other guys that I feel really good about. And because of that, I think it just raises the
floor of what you have for Daniel Jones. Yeah. And I think that was the big part of the equation last
year was we knew this Colts offense was talented. Even with Anthony Richardson, they were still
getting 7, 8, 9 wins with Richardson, with Joe Flacco, with Gardner Minchu the year before
that. So it was all about how can you raise that floor even more with a capable NFL quarterback.
And Jones felt like kind of that missing piece in a sense.
And I'm curious how you guys kind of view that where I'm not trying to make this one-to-one comparison because we have multiple years of these other guys.
But, you know, how quarterbacks are performed in like the Kyle Shanahan offense or Jared Golf in Detroit, for instance, like that type of tier of quarterback where we know they're not Josh Allen, but they can be this like beneficiary of a good offense, but still not be like a deterrent to their offense at all.
Yeah, the way that I think about it, it feels like there are a lot of quarterbacks in that kind of.
tier. Like, you know, we want to have good audio and good visual. We need things that support us too, right?
I think similar for that quarterback spot where, yeah, to call Daniel Jones, even though he performed,
like, his numbers were like getting close to kind of MVP levels. I'm not going to put him in that
tier. I do like that comparison. It's funny because, of course, Stuyken is going to run a quite
of a different offense than Chanahan. But I think Stuyken is, he's the rare one that really
understands like this kind of power spread type of offense. He's able to actually create real run-pass
conflict where the Eagles weren't able to do that last year. Sorry to bring up the Eagles again,
just thinking about psyching with them. But I still, I think because of that,
Zach, I get so afraid of quarterback purgatory. It just scares me. Like, like, what do you do?
I assume that you probably don't feel great about having Anthony Richardson in that spot.
I mean, do you want to trade for, for Tua? Do you want to trade? Like, how much more of a ceiling
are you going to get where not that you necessarily are able to get a hometown discount, but
where I do think Sam Donald has certainly ascended above a level of where Daniel Jones is,
maybe that's your team building process, where we have a quarterback that, hey, it's not the $60 million a guy,
you're a guy, but, you know, if you have that guy that's 30 and then we have expensive places elsewhere,
maybe you get that defense to rise up as well.
And now, hey, we're going to be a competitive team in Congress that you should be able to win.
Yeah, no, I love that comparison.
And we'll talk more about this Colts defense in segment two and how the Colts can build up that defense to be kind of this Seattle mold here.
but but keeping with the Colts offense you know I you mentioned Shane Steichen how it comes from that Philadelphia tree where you know with Jalen Hertz they were running these they were at the forefront of the RPO trend in the NFL right all the RPO's all the this everything out of the gun and barely under center we saw with Gardner Minchu a couple years ago they were like 92% in the gun with Minchu Daniel Jones comes in here and they kind of changed their offense a good bit like I'm not saying that they became Shanahan or they became Ben Johnson but they're
definitely started to lean into that a little bit more, which I want to give you the floor to kind of speak on this too.
But like to me that kind of speaks to Shane Sikin as a play caller as well, right?
Absolutely.
And that I'm glad you mentioned that because when you have a running back like Jonathan Taylor, who look, he can run from the gun.
But when you're running outside zone, when you're running it specifically, I feel like to that left side, he's able to kind of get that foot in the ground, get up field really quick.
I'm glad you mentioned that because it is psyching growing and continuing to grow because whatever your offensive structures are, it is, hey, these are my players.
and these are what the players are really good at.
So I think that Stuyken does a really good job with that stuff,
specifically to make his offensive line's life just a little bit easier.
It feels like that is the name of the game, right?
Like we don't want to have situations where you're dropping back to pass 40, 50 times.
Now the Colts' offensive line may be able to actually be able to deal with that,
but if you're making their life a little bit easier,
that just helps your offense so much.
Yeah, no, especially when we're looking at this Colts offensive line,
like going into next year, they might have three rookie contract guys
is starting with Gonzávez, Portolini, and Jalen Travis potentially starting your right tackle.
You've got to make life as easy as possible, making sure your dropbacks are in the 20s,
maybe instead of being in the 30s and 40s, and especially true dropbacks.
You know, with the uses of play action under center, you can really limit the true
dropbacks you have.
So defenses aren't just teeing off, especially in a division with Will Anderson,
DeNeal Hunter, Jeffrey Simmons.
Those are what, what, three of like the 10 best pass rushers in football this past year,
probably?
Yeah, it's just a stressful situation to think like when I get excited to think about the Texas Devens,
I'm sure it stresses everyone else that thinking about it because you got to face it twice here,
that they can just play you kind of straight up over and over and they can just beat you on the edge.
It feels like every single snap.
So I'm glad that Stuyken and think he has a clear understanding of how to mitigate,
like I think about you need to make your quarterbacks like VZ.
You need to make your offensive lines like VEZ.
Not everyone can do that from these sort of different systems,
but Stikin is not running that full-on kind of Shanahan-type stuff.
but you still get to that in different ways.
Yeah, no, absolutely.
And while we're talking offense here,
the big question on everyone's mind is Alec Pierce this offseason.
We know how market can drive up contracts
and a guy who's only had one 1,000-yard season, his career,
and it kind of came with this monster game against the Texans backups in Week 18
that got him to that thousand yards.
We could see this number get into like the mid-20 millions per year.
But he is a pretty good player.
Like what are your kind of overall thoughts on like Pierce is a player?
I know he just did something that,
Deshawn Jackson was the last receiver to do like under 50 receptions to hit a thousand yards.
Great deep threat, but like what do you think of Alec Pierce and potential contract for him?
Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned that, I mean, his price is going to get driven up because it feels like every single person I talked to.
They're like, oh, yeah, we're just going to add Alec Pierce to our team.
He's going to be a free agent and we're going to be able to build around that.
It's like, well, like let's let Indianapolis make the first offer here.
It's, I do think, though, I, of course, you look at Pierce as a deep type threat.
I do think he has more to his game than that.
see that a little bit on some of those kind of deeper outbreaking routes. I think he can he can run
across to feel a little bit too. So I would love Indianapolis to be able to resign him just because
it feels like hey, you have this kind of piece where you now you have like multiple receivers
that are really able to play at all three levels. Then I mean, Zach, do we need to start a bake sale?
Like the salary gap is rising to you're hopefully able to kind of fit that there. And it feels
like if you have those, that young talent on the offensive line, that's a cheat code.
Like that is huge. That quarterback on that maybe that mid-level.
level-ish contract. That can also be a building block that now allows you to say, okay, we're
going to sign Pierce, maybe this number looks high. We're going to front load it a little bit.
It's going to give us some capital leaf down the road. Yeah, and another part of that equation,
which we won't get to in too much here, but Michael Pittman Jr. due to make $29 million
against the salary cap this year, only $5 million of that is guaranteed. There's a potential
way to move that contract and, you know, open up some space for Pierce. And real quick, I mean,
who do you think is more valuable going forward for the Colts, 25-year-old Pierce, or
what 28 year old 29 year old Michael Pittman Jr.
It feels to me like Pittman, but that may just be me being about like anchored into like
what how I kind of rank them.
Not that you can build an entire offense I think around Pittman, but I do think he he does more
overall.
I'm thinking of some of those in those in breaking routes at that kind of 15 yard range where
Pittman can really really eat.
I feel like I you know I still lean towards Pittman right now.
Awesome. Awesome.
Coming up guys though, we're going to talk about the defense, how this coach defense took a
step forward this past year, but if you want to succeed with this brand of team building,
the step forward needs to be in that top 10 range, not in that middle of the road.
We're going to talk about them in just a second.
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All righty. Lockdown Colts everydayers. We are back. Sean Syed of Sumer Sports is
joining us to talk all about this Colts team for 2025.
We talked Daniel Jones, Alex Pierce, Shane Steichen.
Now let's get to the defense.
And the Colts made the big change to go from, you know, the whole time under Chris Ballard, right?
They're under Matt Iber Fluse's defense and Gus Bradley's defense, which is that cover two and Seattle cover three, very static defenses.
Relics of the past in a lot of ways, not really what the rest of the NFL is doing.
Shane Steichen takes over and says, no, I'm getting a more aggressive defensive coach.
They get Lou and Rumo in here.
Their blitz rates skyrockets to one of the best,
one of the highest in the league.
Part of that's because they didn't have any corners.
They need to get pressure,
or not any corners and not any past rushers,
so they had to get more pressure.
But Lou gets them more middle of the road defense.
So, Sean, what did you see from the Colts defense this past season?
And, you know, do you think that with a couple more pieces,
they had the potential to be better,
or this is kind of where the ceiling gets right now?
Yeah, you know, I have a big heart for Nick Cross.
I just feel like his versatility.
I understand.
He's not the best player.
the league by any means, but how Lou can use him kind of in a few different ways.
I think that is a fun thing to watch on a week-to-week basis.
Can't bind him.
I think, like, one, celebrations, as we all know, they're great, but it does feel like
he's a player that really, like he meant for the modern NFL to me.
Like a lot of defensive coordinators would love to have him at safety where he saw it with
the Vikings, where he has so much flexibility.
I think he understands what you want to do as a kind of more too high coverage type
looks overall.
And then, of course, you know, we talk about you get.
get sauce gardener in there you love the idea of it as it happens you we need them healthy like
like you really have to be able to have a healthy i think of course uh with ward on the outside
that that's another situation where on paper if everyone's healthy i do really like because you talk
about the pastures a little bit i mean i like i like where a lot of growth is i understand hey
maybe doesn't feel like uh like a number one number one like top like tier a edge rusher with guys
like garret varson for example but i do think you can build a pass rush plan around him i do think
you know, on the inside, you get, you get a little bit more of a boost.
So I think they have a higher ceiling than what they've shown.
It doesn't feel like, like the offense to me showed for a few weeks.
We're a top three unit like that feels like the ceiling.
I still think though, the defense where you have Lou that is able to continue to build things.
And you saw in Cincinnati where when he kind of lost some of those guys that he was comfortable with,
that could communicate a system, things really dropped off.
And so you're hoping, hey, we can build on this from year one and year two.
Yeah.
And I'm kind of curious on your thoughts with this kind of evolution we're seeing in NFL defenses.
Like we are seeing this Ravens system take over the NFL.
And it's kind of topical, right?
Because you're there covering the Super Bowl and the Seattle Seahawks, right?
That my McDonald's system that has, you know, getting no base defense basically because they have Nick Em and Worry that's down there in the box, right?
They don't have to play any base defense, essentially.
But like this kind of defense is taking over the league.
What are your kind of thoughts, though, unlike the differences, I guess, between like, you know, we still have the Robert Sala.
We still have the Birx in Houston where they like that staticy kind of old cover three style,
but we are seeing more teams lean into the style that Luana Rumo incorporates,
which is disguise, changing up coverages and making that picture as muddy as possible.
Yeah, I think the ideal way that a defensive coordinator probably wants to live is for rushers.
Like if all of us can get pressure on every single play without a blitz, that is fantastic.
Like talking to some of the Seahx coaches, talking to some of the Seahawks players this week,
they say, you know what, we take pride in that, that we are going to win.
up front over and over.
But I do think that not every team has for just killers up front.
So we need to send someone from the second level while keeping those seven in coverage.
And that is such an important thing that I think Lou understands and is able to show kind
of over and over.
So in the modern NFL where quarterbacks reads, they're not that they're made easier,
but you have this progression passing of one to two to three to four.
I think the muddier that you can make it, maybe you know, you can make them feel there's
a little bit uneasy in the pocket.
and every tap they have on the ball,
they're holding onto it, just a tick longer.
That's going to help out our defensive line.
If you don't have that for a dominant front over and over,
you hope it can have mixing up on the back end
that your coverage is able to kind of take out that quarterback spot.
Yeah, no, and especially when you have a sauce gardener on the back end,
you potentially can bring back Nick Cross.
Cameron Bynum is back there.
Like if Moody Ward comes back,
we don't know if he's going to come back at this point,
but if he doesn't retire,
like you have the guys on the back end.
and that helps, you know, the ability to bring more guys,
the ability to disguise and change things up front.
But the big question for Colts fans, I guess,
all offseason really is how to upgrade this pass rush.
Because like you mentioned, Leotu Latu,
I think that there's a good trajectory there.
Like if you look at everything past just the surface numbers,
everything took a big step forward in year two,
and it's trending towards a bigger step forward in year three.
But that's one of four guys.
You know, DeForest Buckner is coming off a major neck injury.
We don't know what he's going to look like this next year.
saw some flashes from Atatomi Wada Bore,
but probably not enough to where you go, like, that's our guy.
And the only other edge rusher under contract
is JT2 and a lowout who barely played this past season.
So, you know, I don't know how much you're into the draft
or this upcoming free agency,
but are there avenues to kind of improve this edge rush
for the Colts this year?
I mean, I know that you certainly hope so, right?
Right, right.
The edge group, also like that's a premium position.
Really into our defensive line,
I feel like it's a premium position as well now.
So you're going to have to take that spot early in the draft.
And I mean, we talk about Alex Pierce's free agency.
It feels like every season there is just like fewer and fewer free agents because teams are smart.
And they understand like, hey, this is a big money guy.
We're just going to have to resign him early.
So it does, you know, give me a little bit of pause.
Just kind of what you're kind of seeing from it.
But I mean, we have our draft got out.
You can look at just pressure numbers and different players.
Like, hey, the colds, I'm sure we'll take a flyer in round three.
You're hopefully able to get an athletic guy that you can kind of put on that edge spot.
I do agree with you, though, with Latu, where, like,
You definitely see it in spurts, right?
Like you see it a little bit, you see it a little bit.
You're hoping that that kind of build on.
And I guess you're hoping that one day you can kind of build around,
build that whole rush around him.
Yeah, no, for sure.
He's kind of an interesting player because I don't know if he has like that pure like
gamer ability yet where he's like beating one-on-one tackles, right?
And like creating this constant pressure.
But he almost has this like Andrew Van Gingold type of style of play
where he gets these past breakups.
The three interceptions this past year.
Oh, my gosh. Oh, my God.
You want to get two, I think, remember, yeah.
Like, that's a good sign.
Like, Andrew Runo trusts him to put, like, you put a lot on his plate,
a smart player where you're able to tie it drop back in that car.
I like, like, like, a lot too.
When you see him win inside, like, that always feels really good.
I do think on a consistent basis, like, you're hopefully able to get to that point,
like, our, we're beating tackles to the edge over and over.
But I do think he's a guy where it feels like, hey, I'm going to set up a lot of my moves
kind of early on.
And then I'm going to take that inside move when, you know, you're down by seven.
It's third quarter.
like I really need to kind of stop you on that third down.
Yeah, no, definitely.
If we look at the Colts defense this past year,
just to kind of close up this conversation.
Again, more middle of the road, EPA per play.
Like most stats kind of say middle of the road for this defense overall.
They didn't play the best quarterbacks,
but, you know, they played starting quarterbacks all year.
So there are some good pros and cons there.
But what are we seeing from like these top 10 defense?
Is there really like one way that we are seeing top 10 defenses succeed league-wide?
And is, you know, like how can we get the Colts there, I guess?
But what is like the one consistent thing that we're seeing from these top 10 defenses?
I mean, when I look at the Texans and the Seahawks, it's like they just have four absolute mallers up front.
Like, Zach, I wish it was more fun and more complicated.
Like it's just, it's such a bummer that like you, it feels like you need to have four, but really more than that.
Because Seattle's rotating guys out constantly.
Like even seeing New England, like they're here.
I don't think they're here necessarily because of their defense, but they're going to have multiple guys that they're able to rotate.
So, you know, in April, when the Colts draft, like, if they drop 40 events of Lyman,
you put a thumbs up. Like it has to be a full rotation. Like guys aren't taking 60 stamps every single
every single game and able to kind of have that full motor the entire way. Having four,
having six, having like feels like eight guys sometimes. So like to be to me, I think a one of
one on a consistent basis, I wish it didn't, but it really feels like it starts and ends with
that defensive line. Yeah, no, absolutely. Even, even though you mentioned Houston there, right?
Like Will Anderson and Deal Hunter are just these superhuman players, but we're seeing what
Barnett was rotating into winters, was getting in there.
And they were getting those early down snaps.
And then you get Will Anderson getting out there on third down.
And it's just game over there.
I think it was the game against Buffalo.
I saw them do that quite a bit.
So, yeah, it's about rushing in phases and having multiple guys.
And as of right now, the Colts have two edge rushers under contract going into next season.
So we shall see what they can do.
They'll have more by the middle of the summer, right?
Right.
They'll get one of us signed under contract.
if not, you know, we'll definitely throw it on the line.
But Sean, I appreciate you joining us today, talking all about this Colts team.
Have fun here at the Super Bowl.
Are you pulling for either team in this game or are you just kind of there?
It was for the spectacle.
No, yeah, just pulling for fun.
I just wanted to be a good quality football game.
Like, that's the only thing that matters to me.
Give me some good tape.
I know you love grinding that too and just give us some fun stuff and talk about as we get
through this off season.
Awesome, man.
Thanks for joining, Sean.
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We are back with one final segment before we close out today's show.
And I kind of wanted to build off that conversation with Sean.
And again, great shout out to Sean for joining us today.
some excellent analysis there from Sumer Sports.
And I always love talking to guys from Sumer Sports.
They know their stuff.
They really blend analytics and film study very, very well over at that site.
But I kind of wanted to build off that conversation and talk about this Colts team in
relation to these two teams in the Super Bowl and talk about how I don't think the Colts are
that far away, but also the margin for error is just so, so thin when it comes to the NFL.
I mean, you look at these two teams, and they've been two of the healthiest teams in football
all this entire season.
That is a major aspect of all this.
And when you look at the Colts,
their quarterback tour is Achilles late in the season.
That's obviously a big one.
Mooney War of missing most of the years.
Sauce Gardner missing a lot of time.
So staying healthy is going to be a big part of the future success for the Colts.
But if we specifically look at the way that this Colts team wants to win,
how they are building this thing for the present and for the near future,
it is a lot like that Seattle Seahawks mold.
It is a lot like the Detroit Lions mold,
like the San Francisco 49ers mold,
where we have an offense with a distributor at quarterback who can get the job done with what we need him to do.
We have talented offense around him.
The one last step that you really need with all that is a top 10 defense.
We see that with the Seahawks getting to the Super Bowl this year.
We saw it in the best years of Detroit with Aaron Glenn when they had a very good defense there when healthy.
With the 49ers, when Robert Sala was there a couple years ago, they were getting to the Super Bowl.
Tomico Ryan's was a defense coordinator as well.
They were able to get to the Super Bowl with a very good defense.
pit like had those superstars that they had on that side of the ball.
So for the Colts to take this next step, obviously step one is getting Daniel Jones back,
getting him back in the fold, and making sure that last year wasn't a fluke.
I think a lot of the advanced stats say that it wasn't.
Part of it is the environment he was in in this offense, but also Daniel Jones played
some good football for the Colts.
And I think he can sustain that as long as he can get back right from this Achilles injury.
So the first step is just getting him back on the field, getting him back under contract,
and hoping that last year was not a flu.
But then it's about upgrading this defense.
As Sean said at the end there, what's the number one thing that we see with these top 10 defenses?
A consistent pass rush.
The ability to win with four.
And as of right now, we don't even know if the Colts have two, two or three guys that can even be out there on the field on third down.
So the Colts entire emphasis is offseason.
He needs to be continuing to bolster that front seven, get as many bodies, young, old, whatever it is that can bolster that front seven to take them from this.
middling defense. Again, the EPA per play, they were more middle of the road. Can they get into
that top 10 range? We see with the Seahawks, the second ranked defense in EPA for play.
We see with the Patriots, they weren't as high in EPA per play, but they had the elite
offense on the other side, which kind of carried them as well. I don't think the Colts are
going to have that consistent like MVP level offense. So the defense needs to be this way that
can carry them throughout the tough games, especially late in the season. So it's about just
continually bolstering that defensive line, bolstering that edge group and get it.
them where they need to go at the end of the day. And that's kind of what we alluded to at the end
there with Sam. There are some good players on this defense. I think Laotu Latu is on the right path
where you need him to be. I think they have some good pieces in the secondary. If they can get
Nick Crossback, hopefully under $10 million per year, that would be a big boost to the defense.
The getting Soss Gardner back healthy, getting Cameron buying him back. Hopefully DeForest
Buckner can give them some boost on pass rushing downs. They have talent on defense, but it's about
continually getting better as a past rushing team and also getting another linebacker in here as well.
But again, if we look at how the Colts performed last year, Daniel Jones was a very good quarterback
for most of his starts. The Colts were having a historically great offense.
I don't think that's fluky. They played four top 10 defenses in that stretch and they performed
very well. They had three games with positive EPA. They had only one game with the negative EPA.
And that was one against the Rams that they nearly won still. So I do think there are a lot of pieces in place for
this Colts team. But the margin for error is, again, just so small. If you have one or two major
injuries that the Seahawks and Patriots were able to avoid this year, that can throw a wrench in all
the plans. If you, you know, miss on a pass rusher here or there, you have a bad draft like the
Colts have had at times that can really just disrupt the young, the young players on the roster
and the ability to rush the passer on defense. So the Colts need to be perfect these next
couple years to really capitalize on this potential window that they are building.
And that's how hard it is to win in this league is kind of showing all that right there.
But I think there is an avenue for this gold team.
All that to say, I think there is an avenue for this gold team.
We saw them take the Seattle Seahawks team to the wire late in the season with Philip
Rivers as their quarterback, you know, like that's a team that's going to be playing this Sunday
in the biggest game of the season.
The Colts did exchange punches with them and play a good football game against them.
So I do think this Colts team can be in this discussion going forward.
They just really need to nail this offseason.
Revamp the entire edge rush room, get younger, get faster, get more effective off the edge,
get Daniel Jones back healthy and under contract and roll from there.
But let me know what you think in the comment section below.
And again, a big shout to Sean Syed of Sumer Sports.
We're joining this show and talking all things, Indianapolis Colts.
Thanks again, though, for tuning in to Lockdown Colts today.
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