Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - INDIANAPOLIS COLTS: Josh Downs, Nick Cross, Grover Stewart Headline Week 9 Injury Report

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Indianapolis Colts kick off week nine with the CVS report injury report. 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 making Locked-on Colch your first listen. today and everyday part of the locked on podcast network your team every single day today's episode is brought to you by game time download the game time app create an account and use code locked on NFL for $20 off of your first purchase hello everyone my name is Zach hickshaw resident film nerd of horseshoe huddle dot com and my partner jake arthur is a credentialed boots on the ground for round table sports today we have our action-packed Wednesday episode for you guys we're going to talk about news notes the again the cvs receipt of injury report here for the indianapolis cold to kick off Steelers week. And then we're going to dive into some Q&As. You guys sent Jake a ton of questions.

Starting point is 00:01:06 He's going to throw them at me rapid fire style, and we're going to just dive through a bunch of them. But to kick it off, Jake, yeah, a lot of injuries here on do not practice list here just for Wednesday. Again, this is Wednesday practice. A lot can change from Wednesday to Thursday and especially from Wednesday to Friday. So nobody freak out too much from this, but it is a bit concerning. Nick Cross didn't practice with a shoulder. Josh Downs was out with a hip.

Starting point is 00:01:32 Samson Ebukom still dealing with that knee injury. Mack and Solvis was out with a personal issue, which I think it was announced that his father passed away earlier today. So thoughts are out with him. Hopefully him and his family are doing well as well as they can be in this tough time for them. Anthony Gould is out with a knee. We heard about that one in the game. He left the game early with that knee injury.

Starting point is 00:01:55 Tyquon Lewis is still dealing with his groin injury. Kenny Moore the second, still dealing with his Achilles injury. Brain Smith was a rest day and Grover Stewart out with a foot. So yeah, that's like half your team right there, Jake. I probably could have listed off the healthy players first instead of the injured ones. And it might have been a little bit quicker. But a bit concerning for a Wednesday practice, even if it is just a Wednesday practice. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:02:19 I mean, I'm kind of looking at it as thank God it's Wednesday because hopefully some of these guys start to trickle in a little bit, at least as limited participants. There's a couple guys on here where you maybe don't love the replacements if they do have to miss this game. Nick Cross, I mean, he's been playing really, really well. One of the best, like, seek and destroy safeties that we've had on this team in a while, somebody who's a very good run defender and could kind of sniff out those screen passes and everything.

Starting point is 00:02:49 So if he were to miss time, you're, I don't know, you're looking at them throwing Rodney Thomas in there and then moving Cam Byam around a little bit, probably. uh downs with a very recent example of him not being out there but anthony gould is who stepped up to replace him primarily and both of those guys are not out there um now brian mason did express some optimism that they'll they'll have him out there but we'll see how the week goes um ebcom and lewis we already knew uh the good news i mean you're you're very very short-handed there because it's your third and fourth ends uh but j t two um a low out looked like he could handle uh some more reps there. So that's a good sign of things to come. Kenny Moore, not really concerned with that

Starting point is 00:03:31 one. I think that's just going to be part of his maintenance. He's keeping an open line of communication with the team, telling them when he needs to rest in a little bit. Since he's returned, he's had like at least one day off during this process. So Grover Stewart foot. Yikes, you know, not great, but that one's a foot. So you never know how that'll go. He played through the biceps thing um but yeah a foot is something that sometimes you're not in control of whether or not you can play through that or not yeah for sure i think you you nailed on the big three there being josh downs nick cross and grover stewart it feels like a lot of the other guys who are out are either like backup rotational guys or guys like mackensaw this and brayden smith and kenny more that we

Starting point is 00:04:14 expect to play this weekend even if they missed today but those other three downs cross and stewart big parts to this team that they if they're out this week that could be really concerning, especially Cross and Stewart going into a game against this Pittsburgh Steelers team that, you know, look, Arthur Smith is their offensive coordinator. They want to run the football. They want to run the football out of 13 personnel. If they could go to 14 personnel, I'm sure they would because that's how Arthur Smith rolls.

Starting point is 00:04:40 And you're going to need two of your better run defenders out there to control this offense. So that is a big thing to monitor throughout this week. We'll see if they are good to go. And other injury news, though, a little bit more positive, Jalen Jones. everyone's savior at the cornerback position longed his first full practice since week one for the team. He is still currently on injured reserve, but we'll see if maybe he gets the activation this week. That could be some help needed there at the cornerback room, right, Jake? Yeah, for sure. I mean, if not this week, then next week. I mean, the 21-day window, we're already a week down.

Starting point is 00:05:16 He is now upgraded to being able to practice fully. I haven't heard anyone, now again, it's only Wednesday. I haven't heard anyone really hint to me, though, that they think he's playing this weekend yet. Shane Steichen was pretty noncommittal, but I've got to think, you know, he practiced every day last week, limited. If he practices every day this week full, then that feels like he should be able to go. Because I have to think the hamstring is, like, healed and healthy at this point. It's just about getting him back up to, like, whatever they can simulate to be football

Starting point is 00:05:53 shape at this point um so i mean fingers crossed because they don't really have anyone right now that matches up exceptionally well with dk matcalf i mean yeah i don't know jalen jones really changes that either but not a little bit bigger yeah yeah a little bit bigger uh maybe you can throw him and edwards at him and just make life a little bit more tough for for dk matcalf but i agree uh just getting a bigger corner on that because macaa blackman even though i think He's played fairly well in recent weeks. He's very small, very skinny out there on the outside. So maybe that's not the best fit for a guy who plays similar to like Alec Pierce,

Starting point is 00:06:31 you know, and D.K. Metcalf, probably the, you know, the early days of Alec Pierce there with D.K. Metcalfe. So, yeah, that's certainly a matchup to watch this week. In other news, not injury news, though, the Colts have a lot of help coming at edge. They made a huge move, guys. They signed to know Capacignon to the practice squad. Now, this is a guy who I've been a fan of for a long time because the last name is just amazing. That was very French how you delivered that. That's how you say it. I've been practicing this for years because here's the thing, man.

Starting point is 00:07:01 He started off his career with Kansas City. I knew eventually he was going to end up here with the Colts. I didn't know it was going to be this late into Chris Ballard's tenure. But I knew Tanoka Passignan was going to be here at some point. So I've been practicing this name for years. But yeah, Tanoka Passaniel is on the Colts practice squad. and I could see him getting the call up as early as this week with all the injuries they have at edge rusher. Maybe instead of Dorel and Chami, they get K-pass up here and he's able to at least hold down like a run-defending job against, you know,

Starting point is 00:07:33 a Steelers offense that likes to run the football. It might be better to have a guy like K-pass up over Dorel and Chami who has his struggles in the run game. Yeah, I'm embarrassed. That's not at all how I have been saying his name in my head forever. I'll just call him TK until I can get that right. But no, I do agree that in this matchup specifically, he's probably a better suited to go in there rather than Enchami. And Chami's a big dude, but he's kind of slender and is more of a fastball pass rusher.

Starting point is 00:08:06 TK, though, is he's almost got like the size of DeForest Buckner. Like he's huge. Was he like 6-7-290 as a defensive end? So that's a pretty big dude. Looking at his history, he's only got 17 and a half career sacks. So he's more of a run defender edge setting type of guy. And if you don't have Ebbecom, if you don't have Type 1 on the list, you're going to need someone who can step up and do that.

Starting point is 00:08:33 So specifically for this matchup, I would think that that fits pretty well. Yeah, I just think that's going to be the big part of this. Again, with the way that the Steelers run the ball, you want guys who can set the edge, who can extend their arms and just kind of hold offensive tackles at bay and prevent, you know, guards from getting to that second level against your linebackers. So getting a guy like K-pass in there, getting, you know, JT2MLO out there who's got those super long arms.

Starting point is 00:08:59 That could certainly help this defense, maybe more so than what it would even be like with Taekwon Lewis out there, with Samson Abukon out there. So we'll see. We'll see if he gets the call up. He's been on the market all season. So it's not like we're saying that this is, you know, a game-changing addition to the practice squad but he's been around a bit he played for the chiefs i think he was with the he was with the bears he played in four games this this year okay so he was with the bears a little bit this year um he

Starting point is 00:09:25 i don't know if he won a super bowl with the chiefs he might have left before he did win one with the 2019 2021 i know all this because i wrote it up yesterday okay so my boy can pass and y'all has won a super bowl he's been with the saints you know he's been around the block quite a bit so so opposite of winning a super bowl on now opposite For sure, for sure. But now he's back in that Super Bowl chase with the Colts organization number one team in the NFL. But coming up, guys, we're going to transition out of this talk of injury reports and news and notes and get into some of your questions. We've been having a lot of fun with these Wednesday Q&A sessions, and Jay's going to throw some my way here coming up in just a second.

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Starting point is 00:12:50 We send you in with the injury report, and then you guys kind of take us home with all your questions. Zach usually doesn't see these ahead of time, so I'm going to lightning quick, rapid fire these at him, and he's going to tell us what he thinks. All right. So first up, we're heavy hitting right off the bat, Zach. If a trade is going to happen, should we expect it at any time? Because there have been some trades already starting to trickle.

Starting point is 00:13:11 or will it be right at the deadline? And should we expect to get We Like Our Guys approach from Chris Ballard? That is from Little Jeff Saturday on Twitter. Yeah, I will say I don't expect to get the We Like Our Guys approach from Ballard just in the sense of, I certainly think they're trying the phones, guys. I think they're making calls. I think they are making offers. It's just about finding the right offer that makes sense.

Starting point is 00:13:38 And if there is one that is kind of the perfect fit for what the Colts are going for, because the last thing you want to do at the NFL trade deadline is make a trade just for the sake of making one that could hurt your future prospects down the line because, look, I want to keep this train going this year as much as possible, but the Colts are going to live in a world where they're going to lose some players this off season. They are going to lose some guys off this roster, and they can't really afford to replace them with high dollar guys. They just don't have a ton of money after they lock up Daniel Jones and a couple other players. So they're going to need some draft picks, obviously, in this next class. And it's going to be hard if you were to, like, say, trade all of them for a Band-Aid for the last, you know, eight games of this year, last nine games of this season. So it's about finding a deal that makes them those sense for this cold team. I certainly think they're out to look for it.

Starting point is 00:14:28 But, yeah, I don't think we're going to get the we like our guys from Ballard because we haven't got that whatsoever at Linebacker, Corner. We've got that a little bit, I guess, at edge of this year. But Linebacker and Corner, we haven't got that whatsoever this season. from Chris Bowler. Look how many different linebackers they're bringing in every single week. Look at many different corners they brought in every single week. Like, clearly they don't like their guys there, those spots. But we'll see. They have, what, six days to make a deal if they're going to?

Starting point is 00:14:56 The deadline is next Tuesday, I believe. So they'll make their calls and we'll see if there's a deal out there that makes the most sense for this Colts team. Yeah, my two cents real quick, you know, they are looking into things. I don't think they're going to be making any small hits, though. If they're going to do something, it's going to be something quite meaningful. They're not going to waste, like Zach said, draft picks, even like small day three draft picks on just guys. Like, this needs to be a difference maker to make it all worth it because we don't know.

Starting point is 00:15:30 If they make a trade, they might have to send someone with it or they might have to do something like a mid-round pick or more valuable with it. So they want to make it work with that said, the more valuable the player you go for, the harder it is to pull off. So while behind the scenes, they're looking into it, but I can't say that something is actually going to happen. It's just very difficult to pull off end season. So next up, Zach, JT, to him a low-wow, the rookie looked good on Sunday. What are your thoughts on what he brings to the D-line?

Starting point is 00:16:04 That's from Zachary Miller. Yeah, I think he had a pretty good game. On Sunday, some ups and downs for sure, some learning moments, but we saw the flashes in like that third and fourth quarter, a really nice spin move for a pressure, a couple of our long arms and bull rushes that got back there. And, you know, it looked promising. It looked promising. And I'm hoping that he can build it on that yet again this week and parlay that into more planning time going forward. But in terms of what he brings, I think he's got a nice little bull rush. I think he's got some power on the outside, which I think the Colts have been lacking at their edge room all season. you know, with Abucom and even Quidipay, you kind of have finesse rushers that aren't really winning at the point of attack, which is kind of tough to collapse the pocket. With J.T. Toomelo, he does kind of collapse the pocket a little bit more, which is promising.

Starting point is 00:16:51 So the key for him is just staying upright, making sure that he is staying sturdy and powerful at the point of attack and continually driving offensive tackles back into the pocket. So, you know, I think it was a good start for him, and hopefully this will lead to more trust going forward and more of Lou Aniruma wanting to get him out on the field, even when these other guys come back from injury. Yeah, the more he plays, the more he's going to pick up the defense and know all the little nuances and all the little idiosyncrasies that Anuromo's got kind of involved in that. I liked it.

Starting point is 00:17:24 I love that inside spin move that he got the QB hit on. I thought that was really good, you know, a half second earlier or if Ward holds onto the ball, half second later, and that's a sack. So it was a really good play there. This next one, it's about the same player, so I'm going to kind of combine them together. Dev and Price, who I think might be in our comments right now, mentioned if Jalen Jones is able to play on Sunday, do you see that one of the biggest matchups should be between him and D.K. Metcalf?

Starting point is 00:17:56 And then what's the hope slash expectation as far as D.K. Metcalf goes if Jones is not able to play. And then we'll roll that into, will Jalen Jones immediately be a starter for the defense when Ward returns or will he need to win back the role over Mackay Blackman and Jonathan Edwards? Yeah, I'm not sure he's going to win the role over Mackay Blackman when Charvarius Ward is back. The Colts are very, very high on Blackman. And I get the feeling that Lou Ann Remote likes Blackman a lot more than Jalen Jones, but at least until Charverius Ward is back, which is a minimum these next two games and it could be even further. we don't know exactly as of right now. Jalen Jones has an opportunity to maybe get on the field and make some things happen because it's clear that Anuromo is not very high on Cameron Mitchell and Jonathan

Starting point is 00:18:44 Edwards playing at this moment. So I think we will see if Jones is able to go this week, we'll see him out there on Sunday as one of the outside corners. When it comes to D.K. Metcalf, though, he's a tough cover. You know, he does a lot of what Alec Pierce does in terms of he doesn't run many routes, but the couple routes he does run. He's very difficult to corral with his physicality, with his speed, with his explosiveness.

Starting point is 00:19:09 I think the key really when you're a defense looking at a guy like that is you just want to limit his two-way goes. You know, if he has the ability to go inside or out on you and, you know, you give him, like say he runs four routes, right? Slant, vertical, post, or comeback, right? Like those are his four routes that he runs. Well, if you can limit the two of them by having help to the inside, you know, with safety over the top or with a linebacker kind of pinching outside a little bit,

Starting point is 00:19:37 then it's just vertical or comeback, you know, or another way. You know, if you have the guy playing outside leverage, you can take away things there. So just limit the two-way goes as much as possible, get physical with him and make sure that the timing is off because with Aaron Rogers, so much of everything he does comes down to timing. That's where Aaron Rogers has been great in his entire career. So if you could be a little bit more physical at the line and throw off that timing and throw off some of those fades and those vertical balls. But yeah, D.K. Metcalf is a very tough player to corral, and the Colts corner room is a little bit tiny right now. I would say just get bodies to his side

Starting point is 00:20:11 of the field and make sure when you're a corner, if you are lined up with D.K. Metcalf, get your head ready to turn around on some of those fade balls because Rogers loves to throw those fades on the outside. Yeah. So if Jones can play this week, I think he's out there. but when Charverius Ward gets back, I'm with you. I don't think he starts over Blackman. I think Blackman is like entrenched as the guy opposite of Ward by now. Again, Anuromo seems to really like him. He's playing a lot of snaps.

Starting point is 00:20:44 And he's been playing a lot of snaps all year, really. So I don't think they're just going to yank that away at this point. So I think it'll be Ward and Blackman, you know, when he's back. But, yeah, if he can't play, it's Jonathan Edwards. I mean, it's a height, weight speed guy. And Edwards isn't getting dusted. He's normally in the right spot. It's just about, it's a kind of a game of inches.

Starting point is 00:21:09 You know what I mean? So he's not getting beaten badly, but he's getting beaten occasionally. But, yeah, when Jones gets back, I don't know, because there's really been no point in the offseason in the summer, you know, or even week one when Jones was here that I thought he. was like in the plan to be one of the starters like it's always been somebody else able to come in and compete for those snaps and he's never been like the guy or one of the guys locked in there so i do think he'll play but i think he'll be behind blackman in the packing order yeah no i completely agree but coming up guys we're going to continue this q and a segment by talking about some big picture stuff there's some resigning questions in here there's some benching questions in here

Starting point is 00:21:51 a lot of stuff we're going to get to in our final segment to close out today's show I'm Cody Rourke from Lockdown Broncos, and this episode is brought to you by Peloton. Peloton is shaping the future of fitness with the brand new Peloton, cross-training, tread plus powered by Peloton IQ. This is Peloton's most advanced equipment yet, giving you real-time guidance and endless ways to move, whether you're running, lifting, or you're cross-training with your favorite instructors like Alex Toussaint. It's training reimagined to make your workout more personal. Peloton is built for breakthrough. With features that help you plan, stay motivated, and hit peak performance, you can let yourself run, lift, flex, and go while Peloton handles all the rest. Plus, Peloton IQ provides real-time strength coaching, tracking your progress and suggesting weights that challenge you so you can get stronger. Plus, the new movement tracking camera, it counts your reps and correct your form in real time, making sure every rep is safer and smarter. So let yourself run, lift, flex, push, and go. the new Peloton cross-training, treadplus, at one peloton.com. All right, y'all, welcome back to the show.

Starting point is 00:23:05 We are still fifted through some Q&A here, throwing your questions at Zach, and we're going to see what comes out the other side here. All right, so another big picture one to start off this segment. Is it at all possible for the Colts to retain all of Daniel Jones, Alec Pierce, Nick Cross, and Braden Smith? it's possible. Is it plausible? Probably not.

Starting point is 00:23:30 I think that, you know, when you're a market like the Colts, I just don't think you're going to get too crazy with the void years and all that. Like, don't get me wrong. They have done a little bit of that in recent memory, but, you know, the amount of void years and stuff they'd have to tack on or other players that'd have to cut and go into some dead cap just to make room for those four. I think you're realistically looking at two to three, to three of those guys coming back and Jones is certainly going to be one of them so then it's

Starting point is 00:24:00 one to two of Pierce, Cross, and Smith coming back. But maybe there's an avenue where like Braden Smith doesn't want to really cash in on the open market. He'd rather just come back for a cheaper deal to come back to Indy. But realistically, if we're looking at this, I mean, Jones is going to get 40 plus million dollars per year. Pierce is going to get 20 to 25 million per year with how he's playing cross could get up to 15 to 20 per year and honestly in my opinion i think smith could probably get 20 plus million per year on the open market as well just because the nature of what tackles get paid out there there's just not going to be that much money for the colts to go around not many teams are going to have that much money to throw around but i think you're looking at

Starting point is 00:24:45 jones for sure one of one maybe maybe both across and pierce and then i think smith unless he comes back at a much cheaper deal i i think he's probably leaving this off season yeah jones is obviously coming back because like if you find a way to lose daniel jones if i'm shane stuyken i say i'm out of here like after after all that patience yeah you can't take that from shame yeah so jones ain't going anywhere it's it's god it's it's hard for me to imagine them losing alec pierce at this point because basically this season has gone how we said it would need to go go in order for them to lock in, Pierce. A.D. Mitchell has not been a replacement for him at this point.

Starting point is 00:25:28 Really, no one has. Because they could have been like a thing where Ashton Doolan comes in as like a star too. No one has come in and been like a no doubt replacement. And shoot, even Josh has been really banged up. So it's like, do you really want to enter next year with that questionable of a receiver room? And I think something that we haven't really factored in yet is there There's a lot of contract situations that are going to have to get figured out next year.

Starting point is 00:25:57 There's just like a real lack of guaranteed money that I think players are going to want to rectify. I see things getting shaken up a bit as far as contracts goes and restructuring things. And there's so much we don't know yet. That's probably going to transpire. I don't think they've got the roster anything. There's no reason to do that. But there's just so many resources that we aren't. aren't aware yet that are probably going to get enacted that will dictate if any of this

Starting point is 00:26:26 happens. But just for the sake of answering this, Smith is the one for me where I'm really not sure if he comes back just because, you know, they drafted Jalen Travis. And we spoke with Braden Smith today. He sounds like really at peace with his, you know, himself and like he wanted to come back and prove to himself that he could play and play with this group of guys. And he's now done that we asked about his future today and he was kind of non-committal about he's like i just kind of take things one day at a time i can't really get into that right now so um the the future is really you know you just don't know when it comes to braden smith but yeah i found i found a way to drag that one out a little bit uh let's get to these next ones here uh was

Starting point is 00:27:11 dj giddens being a healthy scratch uh in the last game maybe two is it being healthy two two games scratches or one last game healthy scratch but two games ago i don't think he played a snap didn't play that's right uh so has he essentially been not playing recently uh as a reflection of his play or is it more telling of the asset of amir abdula think of it more as the colts going with daniel jones before the season over anthony richardson or the colts going with ashton d mitchell in recent weeks or you know early in the season going with tyquan lewis over jt two and a low out a lot of the coaching decisions this season for the Colts have been about who's ready to do everything I need that's asked to them rather than who has the upside, who's the young guy

Starting point is 00:27:55 that with the flashy traits and stuff like that. Like, it's about just getting the high floor guys on the field that are ready to win now. So when you look at how Abdullah and even Tyler Goodson have been able to do that throughout their careers, get-ins with his struggles and past protection, with some of his issues as a runner, he's just falling behind those guys for this season. And luckily, rookie contracts are four years. It's not the end of the world for him. Look how long it took Alec Pierce to get where he is.

Starting point is 00:28:20 Look at Atatamiwa this year after barely playing his first two seasons. So I don't know if Giddins will really get in the rotation much the rest of this season. But he's got a chance to really just develop the rest of his game, become a more complete running back, and maybe hit the ground running in year two, year three of the Colts. Yeah, he had a couple kind of ugly reps in the passing game that I think contributed to that a little bit. And again, you've got vets like Abdullah and Goods and who you just can kind of, you know, you don't have to show that patience otherwise. How much of the playbook on offense do you think Shane still has waiting in the wings?

Starting point is 00:28:56 This is kind of a layered question. Yeah, I don't think that there's really like, okay, we've only used half our playbook this season or anything with it. But I think the way Shane Seichen does is they have like their core plays and their core personnel sets that like to lean on. but he does do like through his advanced scouting has some installs where he's like hey this design might be good for this type of defense this look that we studied in the off season might be good to install for this week or to rep this week so I don't know if

Starting point is 00:29:25 it's like he's got this extra playbook like under his desk like ready to pull out whenever but I do think there are the occasional plays where it's like okay we haven't rep these much let's get some reps this week in practice because we're going against a man coverage defense because we're going against a blitz heavy defense and stuff like that. They draw inspiration from everywhere, though. I've heard in the past of them watching Liberty University college tape to get QB run stuff. I've heard of them watching high school tape to get QB run stuff. I've heard of them watching a lot of big 12 football to get some of these 12 and 13 personnel looks that they want and get certain motion packages they want in there.

Starting point is 00:29:59 So they have a lot of inspiration from a lot of different areas with this offense. And I think it really just comes down to like which opponent specific thing they want to pull out on a week to week basis. Yeah, they're very open to new ideas at all times. It's the playbook's always kind of evolving. And there's also things that they wait to get like very specific looks at. Like, there is stuff just still sitting there. They haven't used yet. But it's, it just hasn't really been the opportune time yet. So, I mean, you'll see some new stuff as the season goes on. But I wouldn't say it's like a wealth of stuff that we haven't seen yet. And then this last one here, is it getting too predictable that the Colts are starting with a lot of past plays?

Starting point is 00:30:39 are the defense is going to be more focused on the past at the start? Is it time for a change a little bit? I dare defense is to be focused on the past to start games. Look, at this point, it's working, you know? So maybe you change it up if it's not working. But as of right now, coming out in the heavy personnel sets, throwing a lot of play action to start the games is working exceptionally well. But, yeah, if defenses want to come out in nickel or dime defense,

Starting point is 00:31:09 with six men in the box against 12 personnel, I dare them to do that against this Colts team because then it's just one quick audible away from a Jonathan Taylor explosive run. So that's the beauty of this Colts offense. They do have their core tenets of like, we want to pass early to set up the run, but if you're already doing that work for us,

Starting point is 00:31:27 because again, they throw early to do the heavy lifting to get you into past-centric defense so they can run on those past-centric looks later in the game. If you're just going to come out in those, looks to start the game, easier for us, you know, we'll work you back into a run defense and then we'll throw again, you know, so much of it's just dictated on what they think the defense is going to do or how the defense reacts. If a defense is coming out and dying personnel against

Starting point is 00:31:52 12 or 13 to start the game, they'll run power right up, right up your throat all early in the game as well. So a lot of it right now is just how defenses are reacting, and that's what the Colts are doing, and it leads to a lot of passing early. Yeah, no, the Colts just want to get points on the board quickly and that obviously comes with the passing game and again you have got to pick your poison like if you're going to stall out to stop jonathan taylor okay well that's going to leave an empty your secondary and vice versa so yeah it's the the the colts are very aware of the firepower they have and it's like here's what we want to do if you're not going to plan accordingly sure you know we'll do our thing but yeah they i think they're very confident in their approach right now

Starting point is 00:32:36 because it's working at a historic level. Yeah, you know, it's one thing to be like, oh, we know they want to come out in passing, but when you see three tight ends on the field in the first quarter, you're like, well, we can't just ignore our run fits against Jonathan Taylor in the most efficient run offense in the history of football to start the season. So we do have to kind of respect that,

Starting point is 00:32:56 and that's what leads to a lot of these play action shots. So really fun stuff right now with this Colts offense. We want to thank you guys, though, for making Lockdown Colts your first listen today and every single day. the NFL season is finally here. So if your next listen, get a double dose of the Locked-on NFL podcast.

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