Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts: How Sam Ehlinger Can Spark the Offense

Starting point is 00:00:00 It's the season of change for the Indianapolis Colts as we usher in the era of Sling and Sammy Ellinger. We dive in on that and more on today's episode of 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 number one 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 is Jake Arthur alongside Zach Hicks. You know the two of us from HorseshoeHuddle.com, that's right. Today we're going to fully immerse ourselves in the Sam Ellinger era of Indianapolis Colts football. If you guys haven't checked it out yet, Zach did a piece.

Starting point is 00:01:08 Today's Tuesday. He did a piece today. Kind of just looking at what the Colts offense might look like now that they've got an inexperienced quarterback in Sam Ellinger, but one who's obviously much more mobile than his predecessor in Matt Ryan. So, Zach, why don't you go ahead and kind of break it down. What do you think are the main things we're going to see this offense resemble or what at least we think makes sense? Yeah, it's actually really interesting that, by the way, I mean, moving from Matt Ryan to Sam Ellinger after trading a third round pick for him, after spending all that money on Matt

Starting point is 00:01:42 Ryan, after saying all offseason, like this is the leader we need. This is the guy we need. And preparing for playing with a pocket passer, a guy who's been in the league for 15 years, it is absolutely absurd that they did this after seven games. But we have to kind of adjust. And you guys could see in our reaction episode yesterday that we were kind of a little bit more lively because this is just a different era of Colts football now that it's not just that mediocrity

Starting point is 00:02:08 and settling for being boring. It's going to be some fun. So one thing that I want to stipulate with a lot of things I'm going to say is it is tough when you go into the season with the game plan and the mindset of installing an offense for a pocket passer and then you're just inserting a scrambler you know or a guy who survives in chaos you know that's kind of what Sam Ellinger is like yes he can operate within structure but the reason why you're starting him is because he

Starting point is 00:02:37 can find success outside of structure or hopefully find success outside of structure so I don't know how much of a playbook they're really going to have ready for Sam Ellinger unless they were kind of always prepared for something like this. So I don't know. But one thing I feel very confident in saying is going to be coming back to this offense in a very – there's going to be a lot of this in the offense is the return of RPOs.

Starting point is 00:03:00 There's going to be a lot of RPOs coming back. And we've seen every time that Frank Reich has had a, you know, quasi-athletic quarterback back there, you know, Andrew Luck was a great athlete. They did a lot of RPOs with Andrew Luck back in 2018, like tons and tons of that, especially in the red zone and why that offense is one of the best red zone offenses in all of football. And then Jacoby Brissett in 2019, they did keep a lot of that RPO game. Now, Jacoby Brissett's not really much of a running threat and he's not the quickest decision maker, but he can move a little bit and

Starting point is 00:03:30 he can run through some contact. And then again, with Carson Wentz in 2021, when he came to Indy, they did a lot of RPOs because that's what Frank Reich did with him in Philly a lot. So we'll see a lot of RPOs with Sam Allinger, which I think is really good for him. You're a young quarterback. You're going to get a lot of kind of with Sam Allinger, which I think is really good for him. You know, you're a young quarterback. You're going to get a lot of kind of the one read RPO where you're just kind of watching that one linebacker or that one slot corner and see exactly what their reaction is to you, you know, showing the ball like a handoff. And then that determines your entire read on that play. You know, there's not reading middle of the field closed or middle of the field open or reading, you know,

Starting point is 00:04:04 what kind of drops the corners or anything like that. It's just the one read and then you either throw or hand it off. So I think that's something that a first-time starter in the NFL can survive with. And, you know, we've always seen their RPO game with Frank Reich's offense. So if I had to bet on one thing 100% coming back and coming back in a very heavy way, it's going to be the RPO. It is 100% coming back to this Colts offense. Do you think that opens up things and finally makes, maybe makes the field more operable for Jonathan Taylor now that he's going to have a somewhat similar

Starting point is 00:04:40 plan to what he had last year when he absolutely exploded. Yeah, and I actually think that goes to my next point of what I was saying, and this is more of a I'm hoping rather than what I think will happen, but I want to see more design QB runs. We've never really seen that in the Frank Reich era. I can count maybe on one hand the amount of times that they called a design QB run for Andrew Luck, or they definitely called more for Jacoby Brissett than any other quarterback but you know Jacoby Brissett's still like he's not that great an athlete I'm not saying Sam Ellinger is going to be this otherworldly athlete but he

Starting point is 00:05:14 can move a little bit better than than Jacoby Brissett can but I want to see some more design runs and some guys I've looked at in the past you know Taylor Heineke in Washington when he came in last year he got some design runs Tyler Huntleyley in Baltimore, a lot of design runs, because they've kept that offense kind of the same as Lamar Jackson. And then obviously, the one that you really want to talk about is Daniel Jones this season. Daniel Jones, the bust of a pick for the New York Giants, a guy that nobody really knew what to do with out there is turnover prone, struggling, Brian Dabble gets out there and makes him the Walmart version of Josh Allen. It's a lot of designed runs.

Starting point is 00:05:52 And for all the hate Daniel Jones gets, and I'm not even saying he's a franchise quarterback, but he's playing pretty well this year. He has 58 runs this season, seven games. And I would wager a good 30 of them are designed. Lots and lots of just QB reads, you know, read options. You know, I'm not saying that he's, that they're going fully back to the 2012 Washington Redskins,

Starting point is 00:06:13 you know, with the read option every other play. But they're doing a lot of read options. They're doing some actual QB power and QB draws and stuff like that, where Daniel Jones is picking up 9, 10, 11 yards and then sliding down and avoiding hits. I'm not saying that Sam Ellinger can be as effective as Daniel Jones, but when I watch that, I see potential not only for Sam Ellinger to get those free yards and stay ahead of the sticks, but also this can help the Colts running game because every time they have

Starting point is 00:06:41 to account for another person, they have to account for that quarterback running or that quarterback throwing on these on these read options or RPOs that makes your linebackers have to you know if the linebackers have to sit there and think for even half a second they're already losing the battle so I think when you when you insert a guy like Sam Ellinger into an offense that has been just putrid this season just adding an RPO aspect or adding a quarterback run aspect it kind of loosens up those those tight defenses that the colts have been seeing so i don't know if they're going to draw up a lot of designed runs for sam ellinger but look you have a six round quarterback coming in a six round guy in his second year the odds of him ever being anything the nfl are so low

Starting point is 00:07:22 why not just throw the most creative things you can with him you know like if he takes some hits he takes some hits uh this is probably his best way of succeeding though and it's the best way of this offense succeeding so just throw the whole kitchen sink at it and I think a lot of design QB runs uh is the way to do it and I really really hope that again this whole offseason you're planning for a pocket passer, so it's really tough to kind of install that right now. But I hope they can get some QB runs in, like read options and stuff, with Sam Ellinger because I think that can be an area where he and the Colts offense can really succeed in.

Starting point is 00:07:56 Yeah, yeah, that definitely sounds good. And I think another area I was hoping or thinking that might open up is just the downfield passing game. I think he's shown himself to be a little aggressive, but also when plays break down, he's better equipped to keep those plays alive, and that's often in the NFL when downfield shots are taken. But I also, I'd have to guess defenses are probably going to blitz the heck out of him, at least until they see how he responds. And so if you take away an extra defensive back out of the secondary or something,

Starting point is 00:08:29 you know, that maybe leaves Pittman or Pierce, especially Pierce, you know, one-on-one downfield. So that's something I really want to see is, is there going to be more deep shots? Because when you mix this quarterback change with Michael Pittman, his comments after the game, and then Marcus Brady as well on Tuesday said, you know, we intended on having more downfield action, and it just didn't happen that way.

Starting point is 00:08:52 I would expect to see Ellinger test this Washington second, or it seems like they probably want it to happen. Yeah, honestly, what I would really tell Ellinger, because again, six- guy who is probably not going to be much of anything in the NFL. Statistically speaking, I'm not saying anything bad about Sam Ellinger here. I know you guys are really high on him right now and I'm excited for him too. I would honestly tell him if a defense is showing blitz or you're seeing single coverage on the outside, just throw a fade to Pittman, Pittman Jr. or Alec Pierce. I don't care if it's incomplete. I don't care if it's intercepted. Give your guys a chance.

Starting point is 00:09:28 You know, I just want to see those balls go down the field to those guys. So I think that's a huge thing. And then obviously, again, the broken plays, the extended plays. For all the things that Matt Ryan is better at at quarterback than Sam Ellinger, the one thing that Ellinger, I feel really confident saying, is going to be better than Matt Ryan at is when he gets contacted in the pocket, there's a better chance of Sam Ellinger getting away from that contact and creating some magic afterwards.

Starting point is 00:09:51 I'm not saying that there's always going to be magic or it's going to be something great, but Matt Ryan, it just looked like a struggle every time he had to move around outside of that pocket where Sam Ellinger is more comfortable in that area. And you know, I mean, broken plays and extended pockets and scrambles are some of the highest EPA per plays that you can have. So having a mobile quarterback that can do that or has the potential to do something like that,

Starting point is 00:10:14 especially with this offensive line where those are going to be like almost every single pass play, you want to have a mobile quarterback who can do that. So again, I'm not saying Sam Ellinger is going to be an upgrade by any means over Matt Ryan. For all we know, the Colts offense can go from averaging 11 points per game to four points per game. We don't know where, you know, what this is going to go, but I do think we're going to see a drastically different offense. And you know, it is something that you have to experiment with when your offense has been this putrid. Yeah, it can't get, I mean, it can get

Starting point is 00:10:42 worse, but like not a lot. Not much. It can look bad in a different way, but I mean, let it rip, Sam. You're right. Like what, what do you have to lose there? There's obviously plenty to like about this quarterback move that the Colts made. And there's also plenty to like about our next sponsor as well. These days, every new potential hire can feel like a high stakes wager for your small business. You want to be 100% certain that

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Starting point is 00:12:45 take these things off i promise you not even to wash them not even to wash them you'll be like oh i just realized i wear the same shirt as yesterday's show jake let's let's tell all the people that we just recorded we just recorded shows right after each other okay let's just say we sure sure you change shirts in between i didn't feel like it. That's what we'll say. But anyway, let's talk about this next segment here. Because after Monday, we went into this week being like, okay, we're going to do a whole week's worth of just blow it up. Blow it up. That's going to be our entire week of podcasts is us going scorched earth and blowing up everything with this Indianapolis Colts team. Because we were just tired and we were done.

Starting point is 00:13:25 And then Sam Ellinger obviously had to take over our show and become everything going forward. But we are still kind of in that blowing up mindset where, look, I'm not saying that they need to trade every single player that's above 25. I'm not saying this is a full-on rebuild where you tear everything down. But I do think the Colts at next week's deadline need to consider being sellers because they need to undergo a little bit of a retooling. You know, they have some good players.

Starting point is 00:13:51 And I'm not saying just dump every single good player. But if there's a player on this team that you don't see being here within, like, the next year or the next two years, it's time to retool and get what you can for these guys. So I'm not saying fire sell, but I'm saying kind of close to it. You know, I think that you do need to consider being sellers at this deadline, especially, you know, you're rolling young at quarterback. You should probably roll young at some other positions and just see what you got. Yeah, I'd agree. I think there's plenty of guys

Starting point is 00:14:21 who could get you some draft capital because, number one, quarterback, you cannot mess around with this anymore. The leash doesn't exist anymore. It does not. I'm sure Ursae has said the exact same thing. You have to go into this offseason or prepared to accomplish in the offseason having the necessary assets to go get your long-term quarterback. If you think it's Sam after this second half of the season, sweet, but that cannot be the plan. Like, Sam Ellinger cannot, no. Like, that's a great bonus if it happens, but they have to be prepared to find their

Starting point is 00:14:59 guy. And that means shelling out some players, possibly for draft picks. You know, you had done a piece on this. I think it was Monday. You circled some guys who could probably have some trade value. Yannick Ngakwe is an example. Yeah, that's the most obvious one. I think if Indy drops this next game to Washington,

Starting point is 00:15:24 I think either way I think, I mean, either way, I think I would trade Yannick Ngakwe, but I think if they drop this game to Washington, I do think they need to sell him pretty quick after that game. Because look, I was excited about Yannick Ngakwe coming into the season. I think all of us were.

Starting point is 00:15:38 You know, he was supposed to be the savior at pass rush, but what we've kind of got this season is a guy on a one-year contract so he's probably not going to be here next year uh who is currently the fourth lowest graded run defending edge according to pro football focus so one of the worst run defending edges in the entire league and then he's also 50th and pass rush win rate like so you kind of have a below average pass rusher and a putrid run defender is kind of what you're looking at. Now, I'm not saying that you're going to be able to sell that for high.

Starting point is 00:16:08 You know, there's not going to be teams lining up for that. But I do think on name value alone, you probably could get, you know, an early day three or midday three pick for him. And honestly, again, if you're rolling with Sam Ellinger and you want to roll young, I mean, what's the benefit for Yannick Ngakwe taking all of Dayo Dangbo or Taekwon Lewis snaps? You know, I'm not saying either of those guys are the answer, but get them snaps. I don't really care for Yannick Ngakwe snaps if he's not going to be here going forward. So, you know, when I'm talking sell at the deadline, I think that's one move that almost certainly has to be made. I don't really, these other ones I'm not as sure about, and i don't really care as much if they make those moves but i do think personally selling yannick and gawkway would make the most sense for this team here at the deadline yeah and i also want to preface this before we get

Starting point is 00:16:53 through the rest of them that i think it's uncharacteristic of chris ballard to be like a big seller at trade deadlines number one or big buyer you know yeah yeah he he's not he's not a guy where like deadlines spur panicked actions. He's very calculated in everything he does. He obviously sticks to his plan. But we also don't know what was conveyed from that last conversation with Jim Irsay. But yeah, this next guy we're going to talk about, tight end Moe Alleycox. Now, he's been almost non-existent in the passing game.

Starting point is 00:17:24 He had one really good game, but Kylan Granson and Jelani Woods have been much more effective in how they've been used. The thought was that Moe, I guess, would take over the Jack Doyle role, but as we last examined when we talked about him, it hasn't really gone to plan as far as blocking goes. So, when you factor in that, as a blocker, he hasn't really met the mark, and these two other guys have really far surpassed him in the passing game, another team could salvage something from Mo'Ally Cox, and you could probably get a late mid-round pick for him.

Starting point is 00:18:00 Yeah, that's the only question mark. $6 million per for for the next two years uh for a tight end who really hasn't been productive this season i think that could be a tough sell for other teams but you know there is potential there molly cox is a fine player he has struggled a little bit this season but i do think there is some value for other teams but yeah my main mention of him in that article was look the future is now at tight end the future is now it is kyle andanson and jelani woods uh they i mean this all season they need to go out of their way to get a blocking tight end to go

Starting point is 00:18:29 with those two uh but the future is those two players i don't like molly cox isn't in my future plans personally so that's why i would throw molly cox in that yeah and then these next two you had on here were pretty interesting to me i'll start that with that linebacker with Bobby O'Kerrick because they have options. All these guys have flashed this year. Leonard is not going to happen. He's too expensive, and he really hasn't played this year. So teams at that price probably aren't begging for a guy who we don't know what his injury risk is moving forward. But you have Bobby O'Kerrick there.

Starting point is 00:19:04 You know, Zaire Franklin is another option, even though he's a strong leader in the, in the locker room and EJ speed as well. But O'Kerrick is the guy we're circling here. Yeah. And this one was mostly due to the fact that Bobby O'Kerrick is a free agent after the season. You know,

Starting point is 00:19:18 they have money tied up in Zyre Franklin now and in Shaquille Leonard and EJ speeds, their young guy that they've been bringing along. And I think EJ speeds also free agent, but I think he's restricted if I remember or maybe it's something like that but EJ Speed I think is also a free agent that they you know could probably lock up for a lot cheaper than Bobby O'Kerrick but yeah it was it was mostly a money thing you know the Colts have a lot of money tied up at linebacker going into the next season they have a lot of money tied up you know and elsewhere that aren't great contracts so you know money might be a little tight and uh bobby okereke you know again i don't i very much

Starting point is 00:19:50 doubt that they would sell him at the deadline like that's that's a move that really kills a locker room if your locker room is already in trouble right now like that's one that really kills it uh but i do think bobby okereke is a phenomenal player i just don't know if it makes the most sense for like a retooling team to give him you know he might be looking at you know 14 15 million dollar a year contractor you know i mean it's definitely 10 plus uh on the open market so you know it might be like a rocky sins situation where yeah rocky sins a good player but the reason why they dealt him is because they didn't plan on paying him after this upcoming season so that's why they dealt him is because they didn't plan on paying him after this upcoming season.

Starting point is 00:20:28 So that's why they dealt him. And obviously it was not a great deal, but you know, it's why they dealt him. So, you know, I don't think they tried Bobby O'Kara. Okay. I personally wouldn't trade Bobby O'Kara. Okay. But it's something that I kind of had to throw out there because it's definitely a possibility. Yeah. The ingredients are there. Like, I don't think they personally would want to, but financially that's a lot of money to sock into one linebacker group, which is considered a non-essential group, linebackers. This last one you had here I think is the most interesting. This guy's been worth every penny they paid this offseason, but long-term plans, he's probably not there.

Starting point is 00:21:00 And he has kind of revived interest around the league, I would think, is Stephon Gilmore. Yeah, and again, this is another one where personally I would not trade Stephon Gilmore. But when you're looking at a guy on the other side of 30, a team that's rolling with a very unknown young quarterback, he was signing on to be with a team that was going to push for the playoffs and maybe push for a deep playoff run. This is more of doing a favor to a player who probably deserves to be on a championship caliber team at this point in his career so I you know I could see him being shopped around or even dealt but I don't know I do think that's a tough one to do there too because you do have him for next year on contract and if you are just doing like a mini

Starting point is 00:21:40 retooling you'd love to have a cornerback one on that deal so i think this is one where like yeah stefan gilmore comes to ballard and says like i'd like to be moved to you know a contender type team i think you do it for him but otherwise no i would not do that one but i did add that because again the ingredients are there it's just you know we don't know again it's hard to be a seller in the nfl trades rarely happen uh mid-season unless you're the the los angeles rands or the San Francisco 49ers. But yeah, those are just some guys to keep an eye on who I think maybe

Starting point is 00:22:10 if the Colts wanted to be sellers, they could sell those guys. Yeah, yeah. And we'll also reiterate that we have no knowledge of Gilmore being involved in that. That's just a total hypothetical. But yeah, the Colts made a wise pickup with him.

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Starting point is 00:23:55 If you follow Zach on Twitter, which I'm sure you do if you listen to our show, he throws out a lot of what-ifs and, you know and things he would look at if this happens. So obviously Frank Reich has to be considered on the hot seat. I think a lot of people at this point think he might be on the outs after this season if things don't improve drastically. So in the event if Frank is let go and the Colts are on the lookout for another new head coach, you know, there's some intriguing young options out there. Zach has already,

Starting point is 00:24:31 he's already been hitting up his binder of secrets and guys that he would like to look at. So Zach, you know, what type of coach are you looking for and what, what are some of the candidates for you? Well, you know, obviously I'm going to be like everyone in Colts Nation. I'm going to trade all the picks for Sean Payton. Don't say Sean Payton.

Starting point is 00:24:51 That's what everyone keeps messaging me. Oh, throw all the money and the picks at Sean Payton. I'm like, look, guys, look. They need all the picks they can for a potential quarterback. I mean, again, perfect world, Sam Ellinger is awesome. But outside of that, yeah, Sean Payton is not going to want to come to Indy anyway. He'd rather go to L.A. with Justin Herbert. But there are, like you said, a lot of very intriguing, you know, offensive coordinators around the league. You know, let's let's go down crazy hypothetical world. Let's do it. OK, let's let's get really weird with it sam ellinger plays really well and the colts are say the colts are picking 15th or 16th in the draft so you're kind of out of quarterback range like you still could take a quarterback uh but say you're like okay probably next year we're gonna just work on

Starting point is 00:25:36 this retool and sam ellinger is going to be our quarterback for the next season uh even if we do have a rookie kind of behind him like ready to to take over whenever. I think the two guys that you'd want to pair with that type of mobile quarterback are Shane Steichen, the offensive coordinator in Philly, or Mike Kafka, the offensive coordinator with the New York Giants. You know, those two have been phenomenal with their mobile quarterbacks and kind of drawing up offenses for them. So I think those are some innovative young guys who really could bring that extra edge to that quarterback position. And then another one, obviously the guy who's going to be getting every single head coaching all for this off season is Ken Dorsey with Buffalo. He's going to get every single one. So, you know, I, you know,

Starting point is 00:26:15 for everyone who wants Sean Payton, I think those are three guys that I would rather look at. And then if you're looking at defensive guys, you know, D'Amico Ryans and San Fran, I think that's, you know, if you guys want like the inverse of Frank Reich, if you want like a hard nose football guy who's also is, you know, crafts is a really innovative defense, you know, you really want a D'Amico Ryans type there. So those are guys that I would really like. I think Chris Ballard might go a different way if I had to wager, but those are some guys I really like. Again, Shane Steichen, Mike Kafka, then obviously Kent Dorsey

Starting point is 00:26:47 would probably be my top three. Yeah, these aren't younger guys by any means, but I would also be interested to see if Leslie Frazier would get another interview. He interviewed when Frank Reich was up for the job and Jim Caldwell as well. Caldwell's been in the shadows. He hasn't been getting as much attention as he probably should around the league again. But I think in this instance, the Colts would be interested in looking at it, especially if they're trying to keep at it with an offensive-minded head coach.

Starting point is 00:27:19 I think Caldwell makes a lot of sense. Yeah, I like Caldwell a lot. He's had success everywhere he's gone. So yeah, I'd be a huge fan of Jim Caldwell makes a lot of sense. Yeah. Yeah. I like Caldwell a lot. He's, he's had success everywhere he's gone. So yeah, I'd be a huge fan of Jim Caldwell coming back. But you know, I think when you look at like Chris Ballard and I think if you look at everything that this Colts team has kind of done since the retirement of

Starting point is 00:27:36 Andrew Luck, it's kind of like they've been wanting, they wanted to be the Titans. That's they've always wanted to be the Titans ever since Andrew Luck retired. You know, they, they want to win by running the ball, controlling the football,

Starting point is 00:27:47 and having a dominant defense. And I think part of that was, you know, Chris Ballard kind of having fear of missing out when he took Josh McDaniel. You know, he picked Josh McDaniels over Mike Vrabel. You know, those were his final two in the first time around, and he chose Josh McDaniels over Mike Vrabel. Mike Vrabel obviously is a Coach of the Year candidate every single season final two in the first time around and he chose josh mcdaniel's over mike grable mike grable obviously is a coach of the year candidate every single season and gets the tendency titan somehow

Starting point is 00:28:09 to the one seed every year uh but you know i think that he's going to kind of overcorrect and try to go back to what he missed in in mike grable so i think a leslie frazier makes a lot of sense for what he's going to look at you know leslie frazier is a similar type of guy you know a guy who's been around who's coached a really innovative defense there in Buffalo. So we could see that. I think another one that I kind of joked about on Twitter, but I legit think that there could be some smoke there

Starting point is 00:28:34 if he doesn't get the Carolina job after the year is Steve Wilks. You know, Steve Wilks has had one chance at it in the NFL. He went three and 13 with Josh Rosen as his quarterback. But if you look at his history, too, he overlapped with Chris Ballard in Chicago. He's a defensive-minded guy who's been fine

Starting point is 00:28:52 in Carolina, nothing crazy. Then you saw their huge win over the Buccaneers this past week that was kind of that big rah-rah, huge win, motivator. I don't know. I think those are ways that Ballard could go. I'm not saying he's obviously 100% going to go a defensive coordinator type. I'm also not saying 100% that Frank Reich is fired.

Starting point is 00:29:09 But I do think Frank Reich is on the lava seat right now. I think he's currently disintegrating into the lava on how hot that seat is that he is sitting on. And outside of Sam Ellinger just being the second coming of Tom Brady, I don't think Frank Reich will be safe. But I'm really curious to see what Chris Ballard's approach would be to hiring a next head coach if he is the guy who is hiring him because we saw from Chris Ballard's first time around, the list was kind of very hit or miss. Mike Vrabel, Leslie Frazier, I think were fine.

Starting point is 00:29:41 Frank Reich, obviously, was fine for most of his tenure. But then you had Josh McDaniels, Matt Rule, Matt Nagzier, I think, were fine. Frank Reich, obviously, was fine for most of his tenure. But then you had Josh McDaniels, Matt Rule, Matt Nagy, I think, was on there. Dan Campbell. Dan Campbell. I actually like Dan Campbell. I'd put him in the pros column. Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, I don't know.

Starting point is 00:29:56 I think you'd go either way. I don't know if you could really find too much of a trend in those guys that he picked. But if he gets a second chance at this uh it'll be tough because you have to convince a head coach of who people want to come to indy where you might have a lame duck gm and yeah and a smaller market so i don't know if chris ballard will get the chance to hire the next head coach but uh it could be a little it could be a very interesting uh off season if he does yeah if if anything, if we've learned anything this week, it's that the rest of the season will be very interesting.

Starting point is 00:30:29 As you say, it seems like with, with Ryan being pulled after seven weeks, no one's job is no one's job. Security really exists anymore. So, right. But I will say the positive though,

Starting point is 00:30:40 real quick, again, I interrupt you. The comments are going to come after me, but I will say the positive is we went from it being a very boring season to now it's a very interesting season so i'll take it i'll take it i'm into it yeah because there's nothing worse than just sitting there like there's been so many times where i've just sat here watching whether it's in the press box or here in my home office where i'm like, this is the worst thing I've ever experienced in my life.

Starting point is 00:31:05 You know, like at least it's going to be chaotic fun. I think we can both agree with that. We're just going to be blasting some MCR. I'm not okay in the background while we're watching. Now, now we can blast some really, you know, some really fun music because it's just going to be a blast the rest of

Starting point is 00:31:20 the year. Good or bad. I'll beat emo this. I'll beat emo music this time. There we go. So there you have it. We talked about what this offense might look like with Sam Ellinger. Some guys the Colts might be able

Starting point is 00:31:31 to ship out of town to accrue assets for the next quarterback. And then, in the hypothetical situation that Frank Reich is no longer the head coach after the season, who might be good candidates to replace him? So, again, that's it for us. We'll be back with you guys on Thursday for Crossover Thursday

Starting point is 00:31:48 with the crew covering the Washington Commanders. Make sure you guys are following us on social media at JakeArthurNFL, at ZachHicks2, and at LockedOnColts all on Twitter. Also subscribe to our shows on YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcasts. And thanks again for making LockedOn On Colts your first listen every day. For your second listen today, check out Locked On Sports today. They just had Jake on there Tuesday morning talking about Ellinger and Ryan.

Starting point is 00:32:14 So if you want to see that lovely mug right there, I mean, that's what you got to check out right there. From the games that matter most to the biggest stories in sports, go beyond the scoreboard and behind the scenes with local experts and insights. Only on Locked On. Only that Locked On can provide. Locked On Sports Today. Available on this app, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts.

Starting point is 00:32:34 We will see you guys on Thursday.

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