Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts: How to Move Forward with Gus Bradley (Or Not)

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Colts have got an enormous problem on defense, and there are a lot of layers to peel back on this one. So let's get to it. You are Locked On Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. All right, thanks for tuning in and making us your, your team every day. All right. Thanks 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.

Starting point is 00:00:35 And today's show is brought to you by PrizePix. Go to prizepix.com slash locked on NFL and use code all lowercase locked on NFL to win 50 bucks instantly when you play just five. What's up, everybody? This is Jake Arthur and Zach Hicks of HorseshoeHuddle.com. I'm your resident media member for the site, and Zach is your resident film expert for the site. And God, I tell you what, the film is not kind to Zach lately. It's not at all. Yeah, you know, he asked Zaire Franklin today in the locker room, you know, what the Monday film session was like, he agreed it was not good. And that's what we're here to talk about today is the defense. You know, when we were turning over ideas for what, you know,

Starting point is 00:01:13 this discuss for this week, we just kept coming back to the defense and Gus Bradley and everything. And, you know, that's, that's the big topic of conversation online as well. It seems to be what everybody really wants to discuss. So, you know, the defense has got a lot of problems right now. They're obviously 32nd overall comfortably, over 400 yards per game, 25th in scoring. And, I mean, that's what defenses are supposed to do, prevent points and, you know, not give up huge amounts of yardage, and they're not really performing well in either area. There are a lot of yeah, buts though. You know, there's been a ton of injuries, like some of their most important players have all had to miss time. You know, you're dealing with

Starting point is 00:01:54 roster construction. So it's like, what's Gus Bradley really supposed to do? And then you do have Gus Bradley, who is really the number one target. Sometimes that's worthy and sometimes not. So that's what we're going to kind of discuss today. But Zach, let's go ahead and talk about some of these injuries. You just look at guys who are on IR right now. DeForest Buckner, who since 2020, you could say that's their most important defensive player. Juju Brintz, that's your top outside cornerback. Samson Ebicom, that was your top defensive end last year. And Tyquan Lewis, who was probably your, he was your third or fourth defensive end, really. So that has forced a really deep defensive line

Starting point is 00:02:39 to, you know, it's not, it's just not deep anymore because the guys who are supposed to be playing in waves now have to play this huge amount of snaps and there's not many people behind them. You look at guys like Quiddy Paye has missed time, Laiatu Latu has missed time, Kenny Moore, Julian Blackman, they've all missed time. And the vast majority of these guys are players who the Colts really can't afford to have missing time. But, you know, that's where they are. So at a certain point, it is what it is. And, you know, injuries have really decimated them.

Starting point is 00:03:21 But, I mean, do you think that should really still be the product given that much issues with their health? You know, this kind of question goes kind of twofold and it kind of lumps into our second segment. So I won't go too far into that aspect of it, but the way this defense was constructed coming into the year was we're going to have this supercharged pass rush that has waves of pass rushers that can get after the quarterback. We, you know, we already have our defensive tackles and our linebackers that can stop the run so we'll stop the run early and then throw these waves of pass rushers at teams and they'll be able to kind of hide our inexperience in the back half with with secondary you know so regardless of who's back there whether it's Jalen Jones Juju Brents Sam Womack I guess is who it

Starting point is 00:04:00 ended up being but regardless of who it was back there, you know, they were able to hide that with this really deep pass rush group. And I do think that plan got derailed quite a bit by all the injuries to the pass rush group. And we're not, we're a little over a month into the season and they've lost Quiddy Paye for multiple games. They've lost Samson Abucon for most of the season or for all the season to Fororest Buckner for most of the season. I mean, he's played, what, half of a healthy game at this point. He played the first half of the Texans game healthy. And, you know, they've had a lot of injuries up there. Tyquan Lewis is about to miss a lot of time.

Starting point is 00:04:35 So to a degree, you know, you have a plan and you had, you know, you had things in place. They're still throwing out Laatu, Latu, and Dayo Dangbo and some decent players that can rush the passer because they were so deep there. But maybe the plan itself was kind of flawed. Relying so much on that pass rush who didn't really have a super... DeForest Buckner is a star player, but not like a superstar player. And besides that, relying a lot on a rookie, relying on some good pass rushers

Starting point is 00:05:05 that weren't great in Quidipe, Dayo, Dangbo, Samson, Ebukom. So like maybe the plan itself was very flawed. Maybe the depth and other spots of the team was very flawed, which we'll talk about, especially in the second segment. But yeah, I mean, if we're really just kind of looking at the injuries because it isn't an excuse, it's more of just a contextual addition to this whole conversation. It's a layer to this conversation is yes, this defense is atrocious right now, but again, they've missed a lot of players.

Starting point is 00:05:35 I mean, there's very few teams in the NFL who are as banged up as the Colts are right now. Maybe, you know, I see a lot of people saying the strength and conditioning staff needs to get better, but like,

Starting point is 00:05:43 unless they're magicians, like I don't really know how you make guys not get injured like you don't just heal someone's busted knee or butt you know and stuff like that um but yeah like i do think they went into the season with a very distinct plan and that was their plan and we're seeing a little over a month into the year that plan has already fallen apart it's already broken like and now we're at a point where it's like, is this even salvageable with his defense? I mean, Ben Boris and I talked a lot yesterday about it. So you guys have heard a lot of this, like a lot of some parts of this conversation already, but it's like, you're at the point now where no matter who's on the field, they're struggling with the fundamentals. They're struggling with the easy stuff.

Starting point is 00:06:22 They're struggling with, you know, things that go away from coaching. And is that because of injuries, because the players out there kind of like, yeah, Dallas flowers doesn't get toasted for two touchdowns on Sunday if he's not out there because of the injuries in front of him. But also like he's an NFL, like he's a 27 year old NFL player. Like these are things that he should be able to do, whether that's on the coach or whether that's on the player there. it's like I don't know like yes injuries play a part into this is it is it a difference having a Taven Bryan on the field or a DeForest Buckner yes obviously but it still shouldn't be this bad you know like the injury conversation is a big part of this but is it the whole conversation no it's a layer of it that certainly factors in but

Starting point is 00:07:05 again you shouldn't be allowing 37 points to a bad offense in a quarterback who is struggling in every game prior to playing against you so it still is a new low regardless of the injuries you know yeah i would agree with that and i mean you the depth becomes a question and you know next man up and everything but we've seen a lack of execution from some of the guys who are supposed to be the starters and you know they're not filling in for someone ahead of them you know there there's been so many issues with you know not getting off blocks getting you know blown off the line of scrimmage outright missing tackles you know it feels like the lack of communication and everything from last year, that hasn't been as bad.

Starting point is 00:07:50 It's still reared its head a couple times. But just like the fundamentals from the players is breaking down and becoming a huge issue as well. I mean, we've had to applaud a lot of the next men up for doing their jobs. But part of the reason this defense is failing is you know you're you're just seeing such sloppy play from some of these guys who aren't supposed to they're supposed to be guys you lean on and you know between the injuries and then the guys who are out there just not cutting it like it's become an absolute mess like yeah uh mike chapel i think it

Starting point is 00:08:22 was yesterday tweeted that you know if if things continue on this path, this is going to be like the second worst Colts defense in perhaps franchise history, I think, if not just Indianapolis era. That's crazy. Like the Colts are a blue blood team. They've been around pretty much since the beginning. And this is on pace to be one of their worst defenses ever. And I will say this. It's not a franchise known for their defense either. Like it's not a franchise that plays a lot of good defense.

Starting point is 00:08:48 So to be the worst or second worst in this franchise's history, a long history franchise that does not play good defense, typically like we're talking about the bottom of the barrel here. And, and again, yes, Gus Bradley is going to bear the brunt of it. Like he's going to be the guy who probably gets fired after the year for this and gets a lot of the blame. But it's not just him.

Starting point is 00:09:09 It's also on the general manager who maybe either didn't bring in the players that he needed to bring in or the best players needed to bring in or was just not aligned whatsoever with what Bradley needed. And it's also on the players who are on the field. Again, we ignore this conversation a lot of it. It's not the sam womax that are making mistakes it's not the the jaylen carlis that are making mistakes heck i will say this right now it's not the tavin bryan's making mistakes tavin bryan's been fine

Starting point is 00:09:35 like he's been absolutely fine i'm not going further than that but he's been fine the issues have been like look the jaylen jones at times for the vertical passes getting beat on the Julian Blackman's, the Zyra Franklin's EJ speeds, like Dio Dango and layout to lots who not winning an edge rush whatsoever in this path. Like, I'm not saying it's only on those guys,

Starting point is 00:09:56 but like you expect them to be better, you know? And I don't even know if you get like a new coach in here, let me get some rah, rah coach who yells at them. These are grown men like yelling at their face.'t all of a sudden like oh wait yes now i remember how to make a tackle like that's not really how this works so something needs to change i mean whether it's players coaching gm whatever something needs to change because this is

Starting point is 00:10:20 unacceptable and it's been like this for three years now like there was a good first half in 2022 and some good moments here and there but it's at the point now where we're three years here and they haven't really changed the personnel and defense much at all in terms of coaching in terms of the players out there and we have no results so like it's almost at the point where you need to just tear it all down and start over again and that brings us to the next topic which is you know a big fat reason for all of this. And that's the person picking these players and bringing them in. You can now win up to a hundred times your money on price picks with as little as four correct picks. Price picks is

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Starting point is 00:12:29 favorite punching bag is Chris Ballard. And, you know, we really don't talk to Chris until the end of the season. And he's going to have to be dealing with a doozy on this one because this thing just has kind of predictably blown up. You know, you look at cornerback and safety, that's the groups we yelled about all offseason. Now, safety hasn't necessarily been a problem yet. Not a huge one. Cornerback, everyone's hurt. Everyone's gotten banged up.

Starting point is 00:12:58 There wasn't really depth brought in. And, you know, that's blowing up in their face right now. It's become a problem um you know you look at the defensive line it's that was what they really really leaned into uh linebacker i don't really know you know there they're looking at you know they poured a lot of money in desire franklin but he did earn that um you know that i think is probably underperforming versus what everyone probably would have thought. So there is some give and take there. But you led into it kind of at the beginning.

Starting point is 00:13:37 When you have Gus Bradley as your defensive coordinator, there are certain types of players that need to be poured into this group. And, I mean, I don't know, but do you think that he's been getting the kind of players that normally succeed in his system? One thing I will say about August Bradley system is it's kind of like a Matt Eberfluss system to a degree. It's like a, it's a variation of it. They're from the same family tree. It's like a cousin of Matt Eberfluss system in terms of they preach the same type of philosophy. We're going to win up front with four-man rushes.

Starting point is 00:14:05 So it does make sense to pour a lot of resources into the pass rush room. But then the next aspect is, this is where I think Chris Ballard has really failed Gus Bradley over the last couple of years, is you need smart, capable coverage guys who can do the fundamentals. You know, again, it doesn't need to be superstar players. It's nice if it's superstar players, don't get me wrong, but you need guys who are capable of communicating, guys who are capable of doing the basics in terms of coverage. And again, if you get beat deep

Starting point is 00:14:35 because a guy out-muscles you down the sideline, that's fine. Honestly, Jalen Jones gets a little bit less heat from me because when he gets beat beat he's just getting beat you know like outside of the Christian Kirk play which I again I don't know what happened on that one um he usually just gets beat because he gets out muscled like he's usually in the right spot though but what we've seen under this Gus Bradley tenure especially with all the young guys in the secondary is so many times just guys wide open from lack of communication from again the Dallas Flowers play on on Sunday where it's like, this is a simple cover three call that any corner has been running since high school. You know, you are getting back into your cover three drop, you're spotting the vertical route, and you're not attacking that

Starting point is 00:15:16 hitch. Why are you attacking the hitch in front of you? Like, that's not even a coaching thing. That's just, this is a player thing right there. So for me, when you look at, again, a Gus Bradley thing, it's win with four up front, be good in the run game, and have, you know, we're going to run the same thing over and over again. But we're so good at that one thing that we're going to funnel things to the sideline. We're going to funnel things short. And you are going to be stuck kind of having to, you know, bend, don't break, march your way down the field. And we're not going to give you the explosives. We're not going to give you those intermediate plays because we're so good in our one coverage that we do, you know, and that has merit.

Starting point is 00:15:51 That can succeed. Look at the Chicago Bears right now with Matt Iberflues. They're not this crazy disguised defense. It's Matt Iberflues. He's running his Tampa 2, his cover 2 stuff. He's, you know, like he throws some variations in there. But what are they good at? They're good at getting you to third and down, third and long, and just staying good in their

Starting point is 00:16:08 coverage and coming up and tackling you. What we're seeing with this system though, is a lot of communication mistakes. We're seeing guys not passing off routes correctly, guys not getting to the right spot and guys missing tackles. And yes, ultimately look, Gus Bradley is the manager of this defense. When your your employees fail it's on you as a manager this is true in any profession right here and we'll talk about that in the last segment but to constantly give him guys who look jake you're there talking to gus bradley in the off seasons or whatever has he ever come out here and felt a mate like has it ever sounded amazingly confident in the safety room he's had here has he ever felt

Starting point is 00:16:45 super super confident in the corner like coming out here like oh yeah Dallas Flowers the next Richard Sherman like I'm not saying it needs to be that that level but like we talked about in the offseason like every time they talked about the safety rotation now Nick Cross is impressed this year but like they were very half-hearted about the safeties that they were rolling into the camp with yeah they were pretty half-hearted about the corners behind juju brents and jalen jones which again behind juju brents you probably needed someone who could actually play football because he hasn't been healthy since high school so like i do think to a degree it's like look good job ballard in terms of investing in the trenches that is what this system needs and unfortunately those guys have

Starting point is 00:17:23 been hurt but to continually give you know like like ju Juju Brents was a top 50 pick or whatever. But then it's 27 year old former undrafted corner Dallas Flowers coming off an Achilles injury. Daryl Baker Jr., who was not a good corner last year, was was going to, you know, who made your opening day roster. Former seventh round pick Jalen Jones, who's a nice competitive player. But like to give him the starting position with no competition, come on. Like, what are we doing? Julian Blackman, a near minimum signing free agent. I know you brought him back and he knows the system, but like, again, a near minimum signing. Nick Cross, his third year hasn't really played. Like Rodney Thomas, who was benched last year. Like,

Starting point is 00:18:02 we're not really putting a lot of effort into who we're getting out there and it's just running back the same group that clearly did not gel with this system clearly not work with this system and you're bringing back the same guys who helped you be bottom five bottom ten in in defense the last couple years so to a degree yes like Bradley has to own up to this defense but also like you keep giving him the same pieces that are like broken, like you're giving him broken, broken tools and saying, okay, keep a fix it.

Starting point is 00:18:31 And it's like, how am I supposed to, I've shown you, I can't fix this for years, like either fire me or give me real tools. Like, so yes, again,

Starting point is 00:18:41 it comes on Bradley and we're going to talk about in the last segment, but at some point, just keep ramming your head into a wall here and saying, like, don't worry, I'll get through it eventually. No, you're concussed. Get out of there. Come on. You know, that's kind of what we're seeing with this defense. Like they keep running it back so much. And it's like, yes, it's on the defense coordinator, but it's also on the person giving him the same weapons just like you know i lost the knife fight versus the i brought a knife to a gun fight multiple times and i keep losing but don't worry this next time i bring the knife i will win it's like

Starting point is 00:19:13 no you're not gonna win that fight you know i'm throwing a lot of weird analogies at you guys here but it's just like this is how frustrated i am it's like come on man like it doesn't have to be legerius knee doesn't have to be justin sim Knee. It doesn't have to be Justin Simmons. Quandre Diggs was out there. Kendall Fuller was out there. I'm not even saying these guys are playing great football this year, but like, they at least have been on the field in the NFL for a long time and know what they're doing. If that burns you, fine. You at least had some effort into it. But if Dallas Flowers burns you on the field, a 27-year-old former on draft sheet free agent corner coming off an Achilles injury, that's on you. Who else believed in that? That's on you. I don't even

Starting point is 00:19:52 think Gus Bradley believed in that. Come on. Yeah. And some of the players, they just haven't really used valuable resources on those type of players. Some of the guys they've gotten good returns on, they lucked into it. Jalen Jones was a seventh round pick. That wasn't the plan to make him a long-term starter corner. He lucked into that. Rodney Thomas, same story. That only lasted a year,

Starting point is 00:20:14 but seventh round rookie becomes a startable player at safety. Dallas Flowers, undrafted. You know, he was on a decent trajectory before the Achilles, but, you know, you have to pour better resources into that. You know, Juju Brent's great, Mully Cooker. Those guys were good investments, but they got injured. You know, that happens sometimes. But you just have to be able to give adequate talent to guys, like you're saying. And, you know, all offseason, when everyone was complaining about,

Starting point is 00:20:50 you know, the corners and the safeties and everything, how many times did we hear Daniel Scott and Dallas Flowers? Dallas Flowers was – Daniel Simpson, Micah Abraham, like, come on. Dallas Flowers was used as an excuse all offseason. Every time we talked to Chris, and now he's not even on the team anymore. Right. Daniel Scott, two season-ending injuries in in a row hasn't even played a snap. So it's like,

Starting point is 00:21:08 it kind of goes to the free agency thing as well. Like they don't have to be world beaters. Sometimes it just has to be TJ carry or Rodney McLeod. There's nothing wrong with that. Just get smart veterans who know how to play and won't blow the game for you. Yeah. Those guys are vet minimum

Starting point is 00:21:25 players who you just have for a year or two and that's fine Rodney Tom or Rodney McLeod signing perfect perfect example 2022 comes down with Gus Bradley Nick Cross is not ready McLeod comes out there has a career best season and it's the best we've seen Gus Bradley's defense when he had a good safety like that along with Stephon Gilmore who you know it's more of a luxury signing but like Rodney McLeod's a great example that was a minimum signing added competition to the room put a veteran next to nick cross so he could learn a little bit and also stabilized your defense like come on like those are obvious answers like it's frustrating man i'm frustrated obviously yeah so this all leads us to you know know, will Gus survive this thing? I mean,

Starting point is 00:22:05 I think we're both in the camp that he'll survive this year, but will he make it into 2025? NFL fans, you can start the season with a big return on FanDuel, America's number one sports book. So when you get a hunch in the middle of the game, you can check out the latest stats, view live play-by-play and so much more on the same page where you place your bets. Just think of it as your central betting hub. You'll get started with $200 in bonus bets guaranteed when you place your first $5 bet. So this week, FanDuel has the Colts as one and a half point favorites with a total point over under 43 and a half. That's been the same story for weeks now. You know, Steelers, Bears, I think the Jaguars was like that as well. No confidence in the Colts to win anything by a wide margin and not a really high

Starting point is 00:22:50 scoring affair either. So what do you think on this one? Go to fanduel.com. All right. So we've talked about short-term stuff, you know, recent stuff with Gus. We've talked about some long-term stuff. This is a results-based business. And the fact of the matter is the Colts going into the third you know part of the way quarter of the way through their third season with Gus Bradley really haven't had a standout defense yet 2022 15th overall 29th in scoring 2023 they were 24th overall, 28th in scoring. Right now, 32nd overall, comfortably the worst defense, and 25th in scoring. So you are what your record says, and Gus Bradley has not had a good defense. I mean, he's probably not getting the right players in the right depth, sure, but you've got to be able to do something with that.

Starting point is 00:23:52 I mean, it doesn't cover up the fact that we've seen late game comebacks given up. We've seen backup quarterbacks be awesome. It seems like there's someone setting new career highs every week. Kevin Bowen had a great thing where the three best games of Trevor Lawrence's career were all against the Colts. You've seen Joe Mixon turn back the clock. Josh Jacobs had his best game in a couple of years. Malik Willis was, this is going to sound really rude, but Malik Willis was a nobody coming into that game and he performed efficiently enough to beat the Colts and look great. Caleb Williams, people were tarnishing him just a couple weeks in. He goes, him and Roman Dunzay kind of thrashed the Colts.

Starting point is 00:24:31 You're just seeing every week where guys are just absolute studs because they're seeing what the Colts are doing defensively. They know how to attack it, and their plan succeeds. Yeah. Look, again, when it comes to this defense, it's it preaches simplicity. You know, again, we're going to do our same thing. We're not going to disguise much pre-snap. We're not going to have too many crazy communication things. You know, it's not like Brian Flores where you're bringing everybody up and and simulating pressure on every single play and then diving out into new coverages. It's not what this defense does. We're going to show you cover three or cover two pre-snap,

Starting point is 00:25:06 and that's what we're going to do. So you have to execute. And as a coaching staff, you have to get these guys executing, like on the same page, ready to go, perfectly executing if you're going to do a simplistic scheme. And like what we saw in India under Matt Iraflus, where it wasn't always perfect, but look, those guys were coming out and executing.

Starting point is 00:25:24 You know, like it was cover two a lot. It was some cover three, but a lot of cover two. And teams knew that, but they were still like a fringe top 10 scoring defense every year with Matt Eberflus because they had guys that can make some plays and knew their assignments and knew their roles. Here, for whatever reason, whether again, players or whatever, they're simply not doing the fundamentals. They're not tackling well.

Starting point is 00:25:45 They're, like, this year I think they're one of three or four teams that have 60 missed tackles this season. And for a defense that has been on the field a lot, and, again, it has not really given up too many explosives in the passing game until, like, the last, like, two weeks. So they're forcing a lot of things short. You should not be missing that many tackles. Like, that's the whole basis of your defense is don't miss tackles.

Starting point is 00:26:08 Don't miss tackles, you know, force them short. Bend, don't break, make a lot of tackles and maybe punch the ball out. You know, like that's the whole basis of your defense. So when you're, when you're failing at the fundamentals as a coaching staff, like, again, I know I always say these guys are like 30 years old on their third contracts, whatever, like they need to do it. But like, you ultimately bear the bear the blunt of the blame of the blame for that. A lot of bees there. You really just just bear that because it's your job to get these guys ready. And if they're not ready on Sundays, which we we've seen multiple times where players have come out being like, yeah, we had a bad week of

Starting point is 00:26:42 practice and it really carried over. We weren't ready for this or all the film was ugly or all this is a new low for us. It can't be a new low every other week. You know, like we can't just keep going lower and lower and lower. This is not limbo. We can't keep pushing the bar to the ground

Starting point is 00:26:56 and then you still keep running into it. And like, oh, we're going to keep going lower. Like this is not what we should be doing. So yes, it does fall on Gus Bradley. And he's going to be the one who bears all the blame after the season because he will be fired after the season. He's not coming back after this. It was questionable to bring him back last year after being 28th in scoring and 24th

Starting point is 00:27:16 overall in defense. But another year like this, it's just unacceptable, regardless of who he was given at corner. He could be given me at corner, but you still got to make it work. You know, like it's part of your job as a defensive coordinator. And the real, the real shame in this is again, it's a, it's a blemish to, to a guy like Shane Steichen where like, yes, he has to keep stepping up for his friend. And what more are you going to do? You're not going to come out here and say, Gus Bradley sucks, but I can't fire him because mid season, it won't do anything. But like Shane Steichen is getting a top 10 offense or near top

Starting point is 00:27:48 10 offense with Gardner Minshew at quarterback last year, the corpse of Joe Flacco, who's playing some good ball and baby Anthony Richardson, you know, baby dear Anthony Richardson right now. He's getting near top 10 play and it's overshadowed by how awful this defense has been the last couple of years. You know, we can't even talk about how fantastic that has been on offense where the Colts are one of the most explosive offenses over the last two seasons with what Shane Steichen's doing with not the best quarterback play he's been doing that on the other side but we can't talk about it because Gus Bradley's defense has been such travesty so yeah Gus Bradley will be fired after the season I don't know if that will change

Starting point is 00:28:25 anything though like it it could it very much could maybe they just need that rah-rah gotta yell at them maybe they do maybe they need just an a-hole type coach coming here and spit in their face and say you're not good enough unless you make a tackle i mean just saturday fixed he fixed the o-line for all of his flaws just saturday helped fix the O-line. Look, whatever it is, I don't know what the solution is here. And I don't know if the Colts are going to bring in the solution. But like, this will be the final straw. Gus Bradley will be fired after this season.

Starting point is 00:28:54 There's no chance he survives this. And if he does, we might have to devote, we might have to change locked on, why is Gus Bradley here, you know, is the name of our show. Because there's no excuse for it. But yeah, like we can make excuses and even bring up layers to this. But at the end of the day, the buck stops there with the defensive coordinator. It is your unit. And if your

Starting point is 00:29:15 unit is continually letting down the team, it is on you and it's on your staff. You know, as much as I like Richard Smith and Ron Milas and Charlie Partridge, I think they're good veteran coaches. If these guys are not producing, regardless of who's on the field, it is on you and you all will get fired for it. So they got to turn this around. It's not looking great. Again, five weeks in, we've hit two new all-time lows for this defense with the week, this

Starting point is 00:29:40 week five game against Jacksonville and the week two game against Green Bay was a travesty as well. But yeah, it's on them, man. I mean, it's on the players, but it's on them ultimately at the end of the day. Yeah. I mean, they could even slow the bleeding a little bit, but if they finish still with a bottom tier defense, even if Shane wants to keep him for continuity, I cannot imagine Jim Ursae allowing them to, to keep Bradley on board. So, yeah, you know, unless some miracle happens,

Starting point is 00:30:11 I mean, they are getting to Forrest Buckner and Tyquan Lewis back at some point. I don't think that's going to be some big fix all, but unless a miracle happens, it feels like a foregone conclusion. But with that said, let's say they don't bring him back coming into next year. It looks like you've got some candidates for us. Yeah. One, one thing I do want to preface with

Starting point is 00:30:30 this is the comments are going to kill me or going to go crazy. Not going to kill me, but they're just going to be mad about this. I don't think a Gus or I don't think a Chris Ballard team or a Shane Steichen team, even if you look at Shane Steichen's history, working with defensive coordin coordinators I don't think they're ever going to go the Brian Flores route and by that I mean a very innovative blitz heavy defensive coach if you look at what Ballard has always done in his career it has been four man like we are going to invest into the four man rush we're going to win with four play fundamental defense on the back end, and come up and tackle. Ballard believes that. I think Steichen believes that. And you can yell at me all you want. I'm not the one who hired Chris Ballard. I don't care. You guys can yell at me all you want for saying that. But I think it's going to be a similar type of trend. Like, I don't think they're going to

Starting point is 00:31:15 bring someone from the Minnesota coaching staff and say, oh, go all Pat Narduzzi on us and blitz 70% of the time. I don't think that's happening if and when they fire Gus Bradley. The staffs I'm really looking at are like Tennessee's coaching staff. They're like a 20% blitz rate right now. They talk specifically about Denard Wilson a lot. Right, and I think Denard Wilson would have been a good candidate if he didn't get hired by Tennessee. Chris Harris would have been an interesting one,

Starting point is 00:31:40 but apparently he's been away from the Titans with personal reasons for like a month now, and I don't want to touch touch that i don't really know what's going on with that but ben bloom from tennessee i think makes a lot of sense he has history with matt eberflus back in in in dallas so again if they want to go back to the good old days there with maddie reflux they have ben bloom blooms also work with jim schwartz and now with denard wilson uh aubrey pleasant if you want more that rah-rah guy from the Rams, he's their assistant head coach and pass game specialist. Unpleasant, if you will.

Starting point is 00:32:10 Yeah, yeah. Sorry you handed that to me. He worked with Shane Steichen years ago, I think, on Brown's coaching staff a long time ago. But also, again, more of a rah-rah guy in the Raheem Morris type of mold. Maybe that's what they need. And then, look, a guy who just got promoted the other day, but we don't know how long that promotion will last,

Starting point is 00:32:29 Jeff Ulbrich from the Jets, interim head coach right now. Very much a no-nonsense, kind of rah-rah, but in-your-face type of rah-rah guy from the Jets. And the Jets coaching staff is very similar to what I think Ballard and Steichen like, which is,, that, that Vic Fangio ish, like adjacent type scheme where we win with four play good fundamental coverage on the back end. Like maybe it's a little bit more diverse than what Gus Bradley does, but it's still that win with four upfront is what they like. So Olbert can make a lot of sense there. There's lot of other guys i've just started my base research right now uh because it's look it's a foregone conclusion gus bradley won't be

Starting point is 00:33:10 won't be here in 2025 unless they drastically turn this around then you give him assistant coach of the year honors or whatever if they turn this around but um those are a couple guys who stand out to me ben bloom in particular and aubasant. Pleasant seems to be on the fast track for a head coaching job in the NFL, too. Ulbricht, too. Yeah. And being interim head coach right now was just a matter of time. Like, he's incredibly highly respected as a one-day prospective head coach. But, you know, Robert Sala is a name obviously fired yesterday.

Starting point is 00:33:42 That name is already on a lot of fans minds right now yeah yeah so we will see which which route this there's a lot of time this season and next offseason to talk about new defensive coordinators but right now this Colts defense is an ugly place and look I remember what I was saying after that week two game being like I can never pick the Colts in a game going forward because I don't trust this defense. I feel even worse about the defense right now. I at least was kind of optimistic about the past defense back then, but not not anymore. So I don't know, guys. I don't know.

Starting point is 00:34:12 You guys can let us know in the comment section what you think. We're exasperated here on the show. We do want to thank you guys for making Locked on Colts your first listen today, though. And now for your second listen, go find the new Locked on NFL now with two shows every day. First, the madman tyler roland kicks off your morning with a double shot of nfl espresso and then stop by the barber shop with tony wiggins for some real nfl talk find locked on nfl on youtube wherever you listen to your podcast and if you guys don't already make sure you're following at locked on colts at jake

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Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts: How to Move Forward with Gus Bradley (Or Not)

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