Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - INDIANAPOLIS COLTS: Is Daniel Jones Getting Closer to Deal? Braden Smith Goes to Houston Texans

Starting point is 00:00:01 We are officially in the final countdown of the Daniel Jones contract extension watch. 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. Welcome to Locked On Colts, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Now, the number one sports podcast network around, hello, everyone. My name is Zach Hickshaw, resident film nerd of horseshoe huddle.com. And I'm joined, as always, by Jake Arthur of Roundtable Sports.

Starting point is 00:00:40 Your boots on the ground over at Roundtable Sports. Today, we are still talking Free Agency. It's been a very quiet day two and free agency, not many signings to go around, especially with the Colts. The Colts haven't made any moves. But recently, before we hit record on this show, there was a bit of a contract scare on social medias. I don't know how many of you guys have notifications on for insider Jordan Schultz.

Starting point is 00:01:03 but Jordan Schultz put out a tweet saying that the Colts had an agreement with Daniel Jones. This happened around 3 o'clock today on Tuesday. And we were all ready for the details and everything to be locked in. And then Jordan Schultz deleted the tweet and said they're closing in on a contractor. They're still talking about it. So it's not officially agreed to yet. James Boyd over at the athletic covering the Indianapolis Colts said the two sides are still working out a long-term deal. and also CHAP over,

Starting point is 00:01:36 where's CHAP work at, Jake, right now? CBS 4 and Fox 59. Perfect, Chap, I want to make sure we got that right. Chap over at CBS4 said that they're continuing to work to a long-term deal. So it's not official yet, but it does feel like we are getting pretty close to a final deal with Daniel Jones and the Inapolis Colts. So we're going to start out today's show talking about that,

Starting point is 00:01:58 talk about the departure of Braden Smith. We're also going to get into how recent signings in Departes departure changes the Colts draft strategy as of right now and also who's left on the board and who we would like to see in a Colts uniform. But Jake, let's talk about this because we briefly touched on it yesterday. I think whoever leaked that report to Albert Breer about Daniel Jones wanting $50 million and his agency asking for that did a lot of damage to Jones's I guess credibility with the fan base. Although, again, why are we leaking out the initial ask? It's never, contract negotiations never start at the initial, like they start there and then they come together.

Starting point is 00:02:36 So I don't know why we're leaking that out whatsoever. But Colts fans have been upset with him recently. There hasn't been a contract extension. I do think ultimately this gets done at the very latest by 4 o'clock tomorrow at the very latest. But I expect the deal to get done here pretty soon as early as when we're recording this. And I think Daniel Jones will be the Colts starting quarterback for at least his next. season, but probably for a couple years after that as well. Yeah, it's, so what?

Starting point is 00:03:06 The Colts initial offer and the Sam Darnold money, that's 33, and then they start high at 50. So you meet somewhere in the middle, around 40 or so. Basically how it does, like how that works, right? A normal negotiation. Yeah. So obviously, yeah, I think everyone was really taken back by that like 50 million, no way. And it's making its rounds on ESPN and everything.

Starting point is 00:03:27 So it's not going to be 50 million. and we should also put out there that whenever the steel does get done, the sticker shock of it is there's, it's going to be very real. But the reality of it, it's probably going to be an up to X amount contract because there's going to be escalators and incentives in there for Jones, who's only played one full season in his career.

Starting point is 00:03:52 So he had the Achilles, obviously. That's going to play a big part in this. And I think that's the reason why it's not done now, is the Achilles and his past with injuries play a big role in this. If they're going to make a substantial financial commitment to him, then they need to protect themselves a little bit as well, especially with Jones, whose representation, very good, very diligent and hard-nosed as well.

Starting point is 00:04:20 So both sides are kind of stubborn, I think, kind of sticking into this thing. Something will get done, like you mentioned, at least by tomorrow at 4, I feel like it's going to be even sooner. You know what I mean? You're starting to get the buzzard circle in here where everyone is kind of tweeting out getting close.

Starting point is 00:04:37 You know, they're continuing talks, blah, blah, blah. It just seems like they're kind of trying to hammer out those final details, you know, the offset language,

Starting point is 00:04:45 if you will. But yeah, I expect something to get done pretty soon. Again, I was surprised that there wasn't already framework in place entering pre-agency, you know? Yeah, I'm sure they're pretty close.

Starting point is 00:04:58 it just comes down to the incentives that are going to be part of the deal. I expect this, you know, the base contract to be in the upper 30s per year. And I think that there's going to be incentives that could get it to climb up to the mid-40s. And that's probably where they're going to end up. They're just hammering out what those incentives are going to be. In terms of cap space, though, I think the Colts are going to be pretty good with it. The second they signed Daniel Jones, you got to think about it this way. The second that they sign him, they can actually manipulate the cap a little bit

Starting point is 00:05:24 because when he's on that $37 million transition tag, that's just what. hit your cap book. You can't do anything about it. The second you extend him, though, you could free upwards of 20 to 30, even 30 million dollars in cap space if you want with that signing. And I even think they're currently close to the green anyway after shipping out Michael Pittman Jr. I don't expect Alec Pierce's year one cap to be over 20 million. So they're going to have plenty of space to work with still the rest of this off season. And I expect Daniel Jones to get under contract within the next 24 hours and they'll be able to hit the free agent market yet again with a plethora of cap space.

Starting point is 00:05:59 But I'm not too concerned about them getting him under contract. Obviously, we have a whole offseason to talk about, you know, talk about what this means and the revocations of it. But yeah, I do expect them to get that deal done before the start of free agency and being a good place cap space-wise. The other big news, though, that hit today in terms of just being related to the Colts. And Jake, you can obviously go more into this because as you kind of went into it with Michael Pittman Jr. yesterday, you have gotten to see these players up.

Starting point is 00:06:27 close and know these players over the years. But Braden Smith, one of Chris Ballard's first draft picks, one of his better draft picks in the early era of his career. He is now officially leaving the Colts. He's going to the Houston Texans and a really interesting aspect of it. Lance Zerlien, who has some connections down in Houston, has indicated that Smith will compete for a starting tackle job, but also could be in play for one of their guard jobs, but most notably a left guard down in Houston. So Smith, I think, has one career start in the NFL at Guard, and that happened in 2022. So we'll see if he ends up being a guard down there in Houston. But Braden Smith, one of the longest tenured Colts heading to the Houston Texans next season.

Starting point is 00:07:09 Yeah, no, that's great for Braden. I think we all kind of thought it was more than likely that the Colts would move on towards Jalen Travis. You know, they drafted him to at minimum be the swing tackle last year in the mid-round's, potentially be the new starting right tackle. and Braden unfortunately was hurt again, ended the season on IR, which opened the door for Jaylon Travis to get a little bit of an extended look at him. And I think he showed enough for the Colts to be comfortable with that. I did think it was maybe a little less than 50-50 on Smith coming back. I thought maybe for the right price.

Starting point is 00:07:43 But the deal he's getting in Houston's really good for him. Up to $25 million with $13.5 million guaranteed. That's obviously a bump from the $10 million figure that he had. with the Colts last year. So good for Braden, good for the Colts. You know, we can move on and have a rookie contract at right tackle now, which I think that's a big deal. Because look at centers now.

Starting point is 00:08:05 All five positions are being paid handsomely at the top of their game. So to have multiple, God, well, they have three rookie contracts on their offensive line right now. That's awesome. Got to take advantage of that. So, yeah, that's really good news. Smith, just in general, great story. he wasn't really the most popular pick either.

Starting point is 00:08:26 So the Colts got Quentin Nelson first. Darius Leonard, a lot of people hated that pick, but then they went and take another guard with their third pick, you know. So a lot of people didn't like that. And the Colts kind of lucked into Braden Smith being the right tackle. They were so decimated with injury in that game that he debuted at right tackle, that they just had to throw him out there. And the rest of this history, he performed really well.

Starting point is 00:08:50 So when he's on the field, he's still a really good player. But that's just kind of the thing. I just, I hope for him that his mental and physical health just stays as intact as possible as he goes down to Houston. Yeah, no, I think he's from the South too. So it's kind of getting back into the region of the country where he grew up and played a lot of his college football as well. But when it comes to Brayn Smith, you know, I don't know if he's going to be able to play a full season again in the NFL. his body has kind of been quitting on him in recent years. But when he's on the field, still an above average run blocker,

Starting point is 00:09:23 average to below average pass blocker. And he'll give you a good amount of time when he's on the field. So I hope for the best down in Houston, hopefully not in those two games against Indianapolis, but against everyone else, I hope the best for for Brandon Smith. And it was a joy covering him and his story since 2018. We are now entering the Jalen Travis era. And I guess they'll draft multiple offensive linemen as well in this draft,

Starting point is 00:09:46 for sure. You should always draft multiple offensive linemen every single year. But coming up, guys, speaking of the draft, we're going to talk about how these latest free agent moves by the Colts and by other teams taking Colts players has impacted the Colts draft strategy. Do they take a wide receiver early? Is the need for a linebacker going to stay this big a need heading into the draft? We'll talk about all of it in segment two. It's tax time, but for a lot of us, the old way of doing taxes is a lot. trying to book an appointment that's not the most convenient, sitting in a waiting room with a big little stack of papers that just keep falling out all over the place, emailing back and

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Starting point is 00:11:21 Our group over in that Discord stays on top of everything, even the craziest stuff. They bring to the table there. So join the conversation, join the club at locked on colts. com to join or even get a subscription today. All right. So let's talk about what's transpired for the Colts Infra agency so far and how that maybe changes the approach entering the draft. So I got some position groups here, Zach.

Starting point is 00:11:47 Edge is still in need. QuitiPay is out the door to the Raiders. Samson Ebukam and Taekwon Lewis were going to assume those guys are out the door as well. They did sign Arden Key, who you did some significant work on yesterday. Nice as a rotation piece. Nice as kind of a one-for-one replacement for like Samson Ebukon. But that's it. Like you don't want him starting because right now he would probably be penciled in as the starter opposite of Laiatu-Latu.

Starting point is 00:12:13 to. So you need, you still need a starter opposite a lot too and you need more, more firepower in those second and third waves of pass rush on the outside. So the move for Ardenki is nice on the surface if it's just a rotational move, but you need more. Yeah, I think when you look at the front seven in general for the Colts, I mean, I put this tweet out earlier that if you're going to the Colts base defensive front, which is a three, four, five, two, however you want to classify it, right. Their starting defensive ends or outside linebackers are Laotou, Latu, and Arden-K. Their interior defensive line looks solid, right? With DeForest Buckner, Grover Stewart, and Colby or Atatoma Adibore, but then when you get to the linebackers as well, it's a little bit

Starting point is 00:12:55 concerning with Shegou Alubi, Austin Ajika, and Jalen Carlis are like your three guys working for those two spots. So I think just the front seven in general, as at this point in free agency, which is negative one days old currently, right? Because free agency officially kicks off tomorrow. The Colts really still need to add a lot in the front seven. I mean, I'm fine with their interior defensive line rotation. I think they got some good players there.

Starting point is 00:13:20 We'll see what Buckner's neck looks like. But as long as that's at least decent, you feel fine there. But at edge rusher, you know, Arden Key, I think is better as a backup at this point in his career. He got backup money, essentially from the Colts.

Starting point is 00:13:31 Two by 11 is backup money in the NFL. And then at linebacker, they don't even have, they have practice squad guys or special teamers in there at linebacker. Hey, I have high hopes for my guy, Devon Verusuk from the CFL. That's my, that is my dark horse right there. I saw some fear in your eyes, as you said, Devin, because I think you were forgetting his last name for a second.

Starting point is 00:13:51 It's not one I've said a lot so far. Yeah. We are seeing what they could do at linebacker, but a lot more moves that need to be made between now and the draft, but I still fully expect them in the draft one to two linebackers in this upcoming draft. And they also need edge. I mean, it's a lot of needs for the draft. with only seven draft picks and only two top 100 picks.

Starting point is 00:14:13 So they're going to have to be more active here in Frangy about getting other talent in the door because the way this front seven is looking currently, like, look, I'm happy that that pay and Ebukom and Lewis and even to a degrees, Iyer Franklin and Jermaine Pratt are not going to be back here this year, right? But you still need something to replace them, right? It can't just be rookies. And again, you have two top 100 draft picks. You don't have enough draft picks to fully replace those guys.

Starting point is 00:14:39 So it's going to have to be a couple more signings as well. But I do think Edge and Linebacker at this point are still very much in play for the draft and for those early picks in the draft. Yeah. And speaking of the draft, I don't want to – let's go ahead and throw this out there before it gets too far down the road. The draft order did come out today. So let's go ahead and just throw that in, but also the terms of the Michael Pittman

Starting point is 00:15:01 Jr. trade. So the Colts are sending Pittman in a seventh to Pittsburgh for just a six. They have 214 and 216. we don't know which one it's going to be. But basically the Colts now have, since we're talking about the draft, I think, okay, so they're going to wind up with two seventh round picks. And they have a six rounder now, two, three, four, five. So they have basically ample ammo minus a first rounder, of course,

Starting point is 00:15:30 which we all know and we all load. So yeah, I think luckily for them at linebacker, we have seen in recent years, some rookies can really splash right away. And I'm thinking if you come together with some sort of combo of like Jake Goldie or Jacob Rodriguez is your mic and kind of a run and chase guy like a Kyle Lewis or I don't know, someone else who's just like clearly a will linebacker like that. Because I'm cool with drafting your two starting linebackers. I know that's very, very risky. Yeah. Maybe if it doesn't happen, you see what's out there and free agency after.

Starting point is 00:16:10 But I'm, I'm super down with getting two young linebackers, man. I don't know. That's, that's kind of how I lean. I like it in theory. I just, in actuality, I think it's tough for me, especially in a defense that wants to be so diverse. You know, this defense, they want to have so many different, like, they want to throw so many different things at offenses, right?

Starting point is 00:16:27 If we were doing this with Gus Bradley's defense where, hey, you're going to be in a spot drop cover three for most of the game. You're going to be in a little bit. There's going to be some matching here and there, but you're going to be in cover three most of the game. I feel fine just throwing out two rookies as the starters, right? Because they'll just play fast and loose. In this scheme, though, I think you at least need one veteran out there, preferably with the green dot to kind of line everything up and be on the same page with the defensive staff, the defensive players. So I think, like, I'm still fine with drafting two linebackers, right?

Starting point is 00:16:56 Like you throw out two rookie linebackers and you have that veteran in there. And that the two rookies beat them out in camp. Perfect. That's awesome. That's the best case scenario, right? You'd rather have the cheaper guy beat out the more expensive guy in camp. But I do think you got at least add some sort of veteran. It doesn't have to even be like a Bobby O'Caricay or, you know, Leo Chanel or someone. It can be a smaller one, like Akeem Davis Gaither, who just has that connection with Lou

Starting point is 00:17:21 and played some decent football last year. So I just think getting a veteran that could start in here would make the most sense. But two other positions you have on here are just getting away from front seven. wide receiver. Another big need right now. I think the Colts have been sniffing around the wide receiver market. The market's pretty bare right now, though. I don't know if there's many guys capable of starting.

Starting point is 00:17:43 Like maybe you keep an eye on potential cuts down the road. Like, I don't know, Calvin Ridley gets cut. You can get him cheap or something just because he started in the NFL before. But that's not going to inspire much, you know, if you got him in here. But again, it's a situation where at the moment, they have so many needs and only so many draft picks. Where are you taking a receiver when Shagu, Alubi and Alu Kha are starting linebackers at the moment, you know?

Starting point is 00:18:09 Honestly, I think Alubi is still a free agent, too. So they have to tender him. Yeah, but he's restricted, I think. But yeah. But I don't think they've tendered him yet. So we'll see. But now, wide receiver, obviously, the footnote of this all is we obviously know Pitman's out,

Starting point is 00:18:24 but they still have to replace AD Mitchell as well. So Mitchell was going to factor into the future. So right now you're missing a whole starter and like a promising developmental player behind them. So you got to get at least one, maybe two, like as much as I hate to say it. I think maybe you go sign a veteran and then draft somebody and just let everybody duke it out and let the cards fall as they may. But no, I definitely think you got to get a receiver by third or fourth round. We've talked about struggling is honestly like probably best case scenario just because height, weight, speed, contested catchability.

Starting point is 00:19:04 Like, he makes a whole lot of sense there. And then we talk about swing tackle here, obviously, as well. Yeah, Jack Wilson and Byron Matos and Blake Breeland are your offensive tackles behind Jalen Travis and Berenhardt, Ryman. So you got to add one. Didn't they extend Luke Tanuda for like a one-year deal, I thought? Because he was, like, restricted. He was exclusive rights restricted.

Starting point is 00:19:27 I thought they extended it. They might have brought that. But, yeah, like, that's still. That's still. Yeah, it's still. Not great. Yeah, as I say, you're shoving him just below Blake Freeland maybe. I don't know. But yeah, they've got work to do to get that second level of the offensive line done. And then you've got to get one, maybe two more guys in a receiver. Yeah, and then one more position that we have to throw out there too is safety, right?

Starting point is 00:19:51 We still don't know who the starting strong safety is alongside Cameron Bynum. Nick Cross is still a free agent. there's still some veterans like Kyle Dugger that could make some sense. But I mean, unless it's going to be Hunter Woller, which we keep, I keep fear mongering about in the last couple weeks. We'll see. So a lot of needs on this Colts team. Another dark, a dark horse though, RB2.

Starting point is 00:20:15 We saw them try and get it done last year. They desperately want a tough inside runner. They want Zach Moss, but like a new version of Zach Moss because they can't do that again. But they want. They want that compliment to Jonathan Taylor that can get the tough, gritty inside yards. Yeah. Well, as of right now, they have too many needs and not enough guys on the market, not enough draft picks. So how do they address all this going forward?

Starting point is 00:20:39 That would be the big question. But coming up, guys, we're still going to talk some free agency. There are still quite a few notable names out on the market. So Jake and I will go through some of our favorites and how they could possibly fit this Colts team. College basketball is nonstop. Big games, tight spreads, momentum swings every single night. From early tip-offs to late-night West Coast shootouts, there's always action on the board. And now Fandall is giving you a way to turn that energy into even bigger potential wins

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Starting point is 00:21:44 It is Colts free agency frenzy. Not so much frenzy today. We're kind of just waiting on like shoes to drop here. Daniel Jones, are they getting closer to your contract? Certainly feels that way. Braden Smith exited the door today for the Houston Texans. We also talked talked about how the additions and subtractions for the Colts and free agency has probably affected their approach in the draft. But now we're going to talk about kind of still the free agency big board and who remains out there at some of the Colts most prominent positions in need. So let's go ahead and just talk about the Edge Class, Zach. Trey Hendrickson, until something happens with him, he will be connected to Indy, obviously. Arnold Avicitti, K. Levin Chason, who pairing Caleb on Chase on with Arden Key,

Starting point is 00:22:31 would bring back my old LSU days. I love both of them coming out of LSU. That would really do something for me. And then AJ Epinessa, just a big dude out of Iowa from back in the day. Yeah, it's really interesting. I kind of talked about this during the Argonquit mini video I did yesterday, where Luann Rumo, the lightest player he's ever played over 400 snaps

Starting point is 00:22:51 at defensive end in his career as a defensive coordinator was actually Samson-Ebukom last year, was the only player under 260 pounds. So part of me was saying, oh, they're going to go above, 260 and get lewd those type of guys. But he did run his defense very similar to like a Brian Flores style defense with this hybrid defensive end approach. Guys who are lighter, faster can stunt a lot.

Starting point is 00:23:12 They can drop into coverage. And they went out and signed Arden Key, a 6'5 240 pound edge rusher that is more speed and finesse than he is power. So part of me still thinks like, hey, you do need like another 260 plus pound guy in here to eat some running downs. So like an AJ Epinessa or even like a Trey Hendrickson, even though Hendrickson's not a good run defender at all, just more bulk on the edge, I think does make sense. But if they want to get younger and faster, Ebikidi or Chison or Chison make a lot of sense, you know, it kind of goes with that mold that they went with Arden Key. So I'm curious to see what the next edge rusher signing or acquisition, what body type they are.

Starting point is 00:23:55 I know that's such a Zach Hicks thing more so than other people. like I'm more curious about the height, weight speed of the guy more so than the, like the actual play. But that can give us a little bit of insight into the direction they want to go. And it could even give us some insight into what they do in the draft, right? Like, again, if I'm basing this off of Luce history as a defensive coordinator in the draft, I think that they would take, you know, a bigger, like Zion Young, right, a bigger defensive end. But with what they've done recently and signing Arden Key, maybe like a Romello height type player makes some sense.

Starting point is 00:24:27 all of this to say, I like all four of these defense vends as fits for the Colts, but for very different reasons. And I could see them going any direction with this because Lou is kind of breaking his mold of the past and adapting to more of this aggressive, blitz-heavy, stunt-heavy, sim pressure-heavy type of system. So it's really hard to project what he wants in his front seven going forward. Yeah, without question. And like with Battler, too.

Starting point is 00:24:53 Like we have now seen a shift in the type of edge class he brings in. So that's, I think it's certainly something worth monitoring both in free agency and the draft. Behind those guys at linebacker, there's some names out there. There's really only two that I'm interested in, though, I'll be honest. But that's me being picky. I don't really necessarily want to go through free agency for linebackers. Bobby O'Caricay and Leo Chenal O'Caricke, formerly of the Colts and then Giants, one of the better coverage linebackers in the league, still an explosive guy.

Starting point is 00:25:25 and then Chanel is kind of a, he's kind of been kind of a do-it-all type of player there in Kansas City from linebacker. Yeah, I'm not too big on Chanel as a fit for the Colts. He's more of a run-staffer, right? Right. When you say do-it-all, I think part of the all he doesn't do is cover very well at all. So it's kind of. I'm talking about from within the box now, from within the box. Again, I don't love the free agent class.

Starting point is 00:25:50 Right, right. He's kind of like a do-it-all in base defense. And the Colts don't really run that much base defense. fence. So he's kind of a really wonky fit with the Colts. You know, you would have to use him as like a hybrid edge line and linebacker type, which I, you know, I could be down with. Like, don't get me wrong. But Bobby O'Carke, more of your traditional green dot guy who could bring stability to the room. With him still being out there and him getting paid still by the Giants with that roster cut, I do think the reunion makes a lot of sense for both sides if he would be interested in, if the

Starting point is 00:26:21 Colts would be interested in going that way. Like, again, you can still sign O'Carich. and then draft two rookies, and then you can have this room of three capable players that could be on the field. And I think that would be better than last year where it was like 0.5 capable players being on the field, that linebacker. So I think just throwing more resources over fewer resources

Starting point is 00:26:43 makes more sense for the Colts. I think Bobby O'Caric though is probably the player out there that makes the most sense for me in terms of decent cover guy, it can be a green dot, probably doesn't cost you a ton. I think he makes a ton of sense. And I'm not even just doing that for the nostalgic purposes. I think it just makes a ton of sense for this Colts team.

Starting point is 00:27:02 Yeah, without a doubt. All right, let's look at safety now. We're going all three levels of the D. And we've kind of gotten to the point where corner seems to be like the least position of worry, even though we said that going into last season. So knock on all the wood, cross all your fingers. I'm still into Nick Cross if the market is reasonable for. We've kind of talked about just don't go above 10.

Starting point is 00:27:26 If it's something like six or eight even better. So Nick Cross still being out there, I'm fine with it. If he signs for that price, Kyle Dugger as well, if you can keep that guy in the box and you don't do anything with him downfield, please. I'm in to Kyle Dugger as well. Yeah, no, strong safety. I think you're just looking for more of a box safety,

Starting point is 00:27:46 a guy who can play around the line of scrimmage, play some man coverage, be more in the phone booth. Nick Cross, I thought it was fine in it last year. If you can get him back for eight or fewer, I think that one works. And then Dugger, I think would be even cheaper than what Cross got. I think he played on the transition tag last year, weirdly enough. Dugger did while, and he was traded at the trade line while on the transition tag. I don't think he's going to make that much because he just didn't have that great season.

Starting point is 00:28:12 But I think he can fit in this style of defense that they're going for. So still kind of holding out hope for like a, you know, Nick Cross's market isn't very good. the Colts can somehow get him back. That would be awesome, I think, because, look, I was out earlier in the off season, I resigning him, but that was when I thought he was going to get 10 plus or like up to 15 even. I don't think he's going to get that anymore. So if it is around like $7 or $8 million per year, like all four Nick Cross coming back. Yeah, without a question.

Starting point is 00:28:41 So we're talking about receivers now. Again, I'm trying to find veterans who you're not pouring a ton of targets into at a reasonable price. Nick Westbrook, Akina and Gabe Davis are about the only ones. And Gabe Davis still doesn't do much for me. But again, you're talking about a much smaller role than what they'd be used to. So those two guys, if you're going to go the veteran route for another rotational outside receiver and then draft someone as well, that's kind of the level of veteran receiver I'm looking at. That would be kind of dirt cheap, I would think. Yeah. The reminder with receivers is typically when they're hitting the market. There's a reason they're hitting the market. I mean, you even saw,

Starting point is 00:29:24 like, it got really close there with Pierce, and Pierce's prop was the best of the bunch, and he hit the market for all of five minutes, you know, like receivers, if you're good enough, you typically don't hit the, yeah, I don't, I don't know. I think just draft receivers. Like, ideally, ideally just keep throwing in, keep throwing money at Edge and linebacker, and just don't really bring in a veteran receiver. You know, like, receiver's a tough position, too, because once you hit 30,

Starting point is 00:29:55 like, it's kind of like running back in a lot of ways, right? Like, you fall off a cliff. And it's like one of those positions. So, yeah,

Starting point is 00:30:05 I don't know about receiver. Like, if you're going to, like, keep the price as low as possible if you're going to sign a veteran receiver is kind of where I met. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:30:14 Yeah. Those, in Westbrook, Akeena, I think he would be perfect for it because, like, you don't have to play him very much at all. And he does have some home run hitting ability. It's the whole reason Miami brought him in a couple years ago. Well, we sign him for the Kiki Kuti effect, right? You know what the Kiki Kuti is a effect is?

Starting point is 00:30:32 He goes hard against you. So, like, you can't beat him. Right. Right. Where Kiki Kuti had like, I think it was like 70% of his career production came against the colds. And the Colts tried to sign him. It didn't work. But, you know, that was part of it.

Starting point is 00:30:45 But Westbrook of Kee. they had so many red zone touchdowns against the Colts. Maybe he can become a red zone beast for you as well. So yeah, I don't hate him. He's a player that can also just fall back into a special teams role. So I guess that one would be fine, I suppose. Yeah, and people brought up Laquan Treadwell as well. I wish it worked better at receiver.

Starting point is 00:31:05 I'd bring him back to be a special team's ace. That dude was awesome. Yeah. I have one more dark horse to add in here, kind of just peg above the Kululah Herbert class last year. Brian Robinson, who was with the commanders, got traded to the 49ers last year. Again, not an exotic imaginative runner, but he's going to get those tough inside yards, which, you know, if, I don't know what the Colts temperature is on DJ Giddens anymore,

Starting point is 00:31:33 but obviously since he doesn't play special teams, he had almost no role last year. He got in in week 18 last year as it doesn't matter bowl. so I still think they try and add a veteran running back and Brian Robinson makes sense to me. Yeah, I mean, just that bulk and just the size to get the tough yards. So yeah, he can make a lot of sense there as well. But you guys let us know in the comment section below

Starting point is 00:31:58 who you'd like to see the Colts target with, again, I expected to be a good amount of cap space going into tomorrow once they get a deal done with Daniel Jones. So don't fret Colts fans. They will have enough space to get some things done. And we'll see what they're ultimately able to do the rest of the off season. but thanks again for tuning in today to Lockdown Colts.

Starting point is 00:32:15 We'll be back yet again tonight with the Colts squad show at the latest. Again, if there's any breaking news, we will be back on this channel later today as well. About the latest, you'll see us on the Colts show with Derek Schultz and Alan Pinkett later tonight. So make sure you subscribe to our show and get all the latest episodes. And if you don't already, make sure you're following at Lockdown Colts, at Jack Hicks 2, all on socials. And if you never miss an episode, then remember the Every Day or Club is built for you. Get Lockdown Colts audio ad free plus members, only Discord access and much more.

Starting point is 00:32:45 As Jake said, the chat over there is going crazy lately. It's hard for me to keep up. And a big shout to the couple guys that are sending so many more Facebook rumors that I've ever seen in my life in those chats. I say that with all the love in the world to those guys. Head to Lock onColtz.com to join the club. And remember to use code free agency or follow the link in our show notes right now. Thank you guys for tuning in.

Starting point is 00:33:07 And we'll catch you guys back here later this evening.

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