Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts' Kenny Moore II is Back for More Lightning in a Bottle

Starting point is 00:00:00 Lightning in a bottle is back. Kenny Moore is reportedly set to report for Colts training camp this week, and we're going to talk about all of that and more with a special guest on today's show. 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.

Starting point is 00:00:43 Colts fans, thanks so much for tuning in and making us your number one listen of the day. This is your daily podcast covering your Indianapolis Colts, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. I am Jake Arthur, joined as always by my partner, Zach Hicks. And today's episode is brought to you by BetOnline. BetOnline has you covered this season with more props, odds, and lines than ever before. BetOnline, where the game starts. Today, Zach and I are joined by Derek Schultz of Quarian Schultz on the ISC Sports Network to talk all about Colts Pro Bowl cornerback Kenny Moore, the players that the Colts placed on their injured list ahead of the start of

Starting point is 00:01:18 training camp, and a new kind of modest waiver pickup that the Colts made in Byron Cowher, and they claimed him off of waivers from the Patriots this weekend. So that's good. Yeah, without further ado, let's introduce you to one of Indy's true media darlings. That's Derek Schultz. You know him and love him from the Query and Schultz Show. But he also has the Schultz Star Show podcast through the Indy Star. And he does a great job of contributing his written work on Indy Monthly.

Starting point is 00:01:47 Thanks for joining us, brother. Stormer to the podcast like my name was El Nino. What's up, guys? He was written for it. As you can tell, he's going to fit in quite well with our jokes. I had that locked and loaded in the chamber all day. Just real quick, I know you guys want to talk cults all kill or no filler came out when i was a senior in high school and i was heavy into like enema of the state like and then into some 41 suicide machines like all that stuff anything off tony hawk pro skater basically

Starting point is 00:02:16 i got basically so when you guys were talking about that on the show and inserting those references i was like oh my god like this this is totally my window of relevance here, my peak window. We knew we had the smallest niche that we were going for there, but we feel like we hit it pretty well with that niche. Absolutely. Yeah. Zach's young, but he listens to music about 15 years ahead of his time. He's got an offspring shirt for those of you who are listening

Starting point is 00:02:40 and not watching today. If you guys were on Twitter at all, you know why I'm wearing the shirt. Exactly. I saw that the shirt. Exactly. I saw that too with us. Yeah, with Nickelback and whatever. Brent usually has very solid takes. That was a miss for me. That was a major miss. Nickelback and all those

Starting point is 00:03:00 bands that sing like that. Yeah, Butt Rock. What was it? Butt rock is what you call it. Butt rock. Nice. Yep, that's what it was. That's a new phrase for me.

Starting point is 00:03:11 I like it. I like it. Anyways, Kenny Moore, guys. Apparently, according to a report from Joel Erickson today, and Joel has kind of been the point man on all this reporting on Kenny Moore's situation all offseason, today. And Joel has kind of been the point man on all this reporting on Kenny Moore's situation all offseason. He said that Kenny is planning to report to training camp for the Colts here coming up in a couple days. So I don't know that any of us really thought otherwise,

Starting point is 00:03:37 you know, the situation was there where he's got some dissatisfaction with his contract. Basically, back in 2019, signed a fouryear $36 million deal. And that made him the highest paid slot defender in the league at the time. But now it's been a couple of years, that position group, there's been a lot of high profile guys getting extensions. And he's just really kind of shuffled down the list. He's the 27th overall paid corner now based on average per year. And of course, just on paper, not looking at guarantees and roster bonuses. That's pretty low for him, for a guy that can be a game changer at any time. You know, he was here. He kind of had a hold in. He didn't perform in the voluntary stuff in OTAs,

Starting point is 00:04:22 but he was back in the building for mandatory camp, spoke to the media, you know, answered questions there, took a physical, so on and so forth. So a not so hold out, if you will. Now that you guys know he's back and it doesn't look like there's going to be any interruption to his role in the defense there, we'll start with you. What does that mean for the Colts defense now that they can kind of breathe that sigh of relief, I guess? Yeah, I think it's a sigh of relief in that he's going to be there and be part of it and what they're building towards. But I think we'd be lying to ourselves if we said that this isn't going to kind of continue to hang over because it's not like suddenly he's just going to be happy with where his contract is. It reminds me a little bit of, and I don't remember what year

Starting point is 00:05:05 this was. And Jake, maybe, maybe you would know. There was one of, one of these years in training camp. I want to say it was like maybe 07 or 08. Reggie Wayne had signed a contract extension a couple of years before. And then suddenly like Andre Johnson and TJ Houshmandzada, like a bunch of other of his peers signed contracts right after him. And the scale started going up. And Reggie going into camp was like, hey, this contract that I signed doesn't line up with what I should be making now. Because he was really ascending at that time into like a pro bowl, all pro player. And the Colts were kind of like, look, man, you got whatever it was, three years left on your deal. You got no leverage here.

Starting point is 00:05:41 And then eventually, I think, you know, that was a long time ago. I'm trying to think of how it all played out, but clearly they made good because Reggie spent several more seasons here and was a really productive hall of fame caliber player. But more with the two years left, you know, what stinks about it is that I think the Colts put themselves out there and really rewarded him with where he was a couple of years ago and said, Hey, see, we, we believe in you. We're going to take care of you here. And then obviously the market ended up changing. And, and I can understand Bauer and the Colts saying, look, we, we took care of you the first time around. Now you want us to rip that up and do it again. I kind of understand both sides, but

Starting point is 00:06:16 you know, clearly he's an impact player. I think he's become a leader for them defensively as well. So having him in the mix and mix and at least there and not constantly worrying about when's Kenny going to show up, when's Kenny going to show up, I think is obviously an overwhelmingly positive thing. Yeah. Yeah. No, I don't think it was ever a question that he's going to hold out training camp. I have this article I was reading before we jumped on. So I do want to just shout it out here. Agent Joelel cory who used to be an nfl agent i think he does just more a lot of written work stuff uh but he wrote an article last year about how with the 2020 nfl cba uh you could be fined if you're on a rookie contract up to forty thousand dollars per missed day of training camp uh if you're on your veteran

Starting point is 00:06:59 contract you can be fined up to fifty thousand,000 a day for missing training camp. So that new CBA back in 2020 kind of eliminated any real reason to hold out. I think the last guy we really seen just not care about that was Le'Veon Bell back in the day. And that was when the training camp stuff was a lot more, a lot lesser. You know, it wasn't $50,000 a day. So I don't think there was ever a question of Kenny holding out. But I do like that comparison to the Reggie Wayne situation because it's not really Kenny kind of coming out and being like, oh, my pay sucks or anything like that. You know, it's more of he just had his best career season. He's going to make the lowest he's made in a couple of years. And it's right when

Starting point is 00:07:39 they just signed someone else at the same position to a bigger contract. Now, again, Stephon Gilmore, great player. I don't think Kenny would even say that, that Stefan Gilmore is not, but that is kind of for someone, you know, I'm not saying I know anything about Kenny's ego or anything like that, but if you're a confident player, a player who believes in yourself, who's looking at what you just did this past season as your best career season, it's like, look,

Starting point is 00:08:01 I should probably be the number one guy or I should be the highest paid guy at the position. It's just how players look at it. It's how agents look at it too. So I should probably be the number one guy or I should be the highest paid guy at the position it's just how players look at it it's how agents look at it too so I don't I don't think it's a major thing where Kenny's being like look I need to get paid right now but I think it was more of a it was kind of like a warning shot sort of being like look I'm not super happy with what I'm getting paid I'm not holding out I'm not stepping away from the team or anything like that but it's just me letting you guys know like hey i want to get paid more uh and and we saw it with terry mclaurin too with washington where that whole situation the way that that was going was like hey you're not giving me good offers so i'm going to threaten holding out just more as a warning shot and they were able to

Starting point is 00:08:37 get that done i don't think kenny's will get done just because when you have multiple years left on a contract it's a really hard precedent to set really hard precedent to set for a team when dealing with agents because then every player when they're two, three years away from free agency are going to ask for more contract or a longer contract. So it's kind of a hard thing for a team to do, but I do think we'll see, you know, probably next year we'll see some contract stuff come up between the two sides and try to iron that out before his free agency really begins in a couple seasons. Yeah, of course.

Starting point is 00:09:09 I think there's probably got to – I'm sure there's been a line of communication back and forth. I think both sides really appreciate the other, and there's not really animosity there. I think they both can acknowledge each other's situation, like Derek said. But, yeah, two years years left that's tough it's hard to it's hard to acknowledge he's not he's underpaid now of course but that just is what it is it was a long-term deal that's kind of the risk but you know it's good that he's he's not planning to be

Starting point is 00:09:38 a distraction he's always been a very team first guy um some other good news is we'll talk to we're supposed to talk to Chris Ballard on Tuesday. I'm sure Kenny will talk to him as well. He's kind of become the new Reggie where he makes the special introductions into camp. He came in an IndyCar last year. So we may talk to both guys on Tuesday, maybe get a little more clarity on what's to come there. But before we get into the next portion of the players that the Colts placed on the injured list, let's talk about some bets.

Starting point is 00:10:09 You know it. We always love to talk about this. This is Zach's forte here. BetOnline.net is the fastest and easiest way to check in on all your betting needs. Find all your favorite sports and events at the number one online source for odds, lines, and games. For reviews and news of every league, major league baseball nfl nba nhl combat sports esports and

Starting point is 00:10:33 even golf recently we did a whole entire episode on bet online's over unders for the stats on matt ryan jonathan taylor michael pitman jr we told you which ways we would probably bet. So if you haven't checked that out yet, please do so. That's the best knowledge we can gleam on betting because we're not frequent bettors. But BetOnline continues to be the top online resource for all your sports wagering information from live in-game betting, scores, and podcasts.

Starting point is 00:11:03 They have you covered. Head to BetOnline today or use your mobile device to learn more about the action happening today bet online where the game starts so we touched on this briefly last week but the colts made some injury designations official on sunday on the active and physically unable to perform list, they put linebacker Darius Leonard, defensive lineman Tyquan Lewis, safety Rodney McLeod, and wide receiver Mike Strawn. And then on the active non-football injury list is rookie defensive tackle Eric Johnson. So all of these guys being part of the active list, they can be activated from it anytime and just hit the ground running. That all just kind of means they're not quite ready yet. We spoke about Darius Leonard. He had a procedure to clean up. It's like a back issue and a lower leg thing. They kind of play off each

Starting point is 00:11:57 other. He's not quite ready. They said he was going to miss some time. We already knew that was coming. Tyquan Lewis, of course, had a really tough knee injury midway through last year. Rodney McLeod, I think he was out of part of minicamp. So this has been going on a little bit as well. I don't know if it's the same one, but he just so happened, you know, last time they were practicing, he wasn't fully there either. And then Mike Strawn, I wrote Sunday morning. Charlie Clifford came out with that. It's an undisclosed injury, but it's going to keep him out of the start of camp. He, too, was not fully there for the spring workouts as well. Eric Johnson, I can't recall if I saw him during the rookie minicamp. I think he was there.

Starting point is 00:12:39 But being on the non-football injury list essentially means for rookies that they either got hurt before they were drafted or they got hurt while away from team activities. So, again, we don't know the severity of all of these. They could be activated any time. But, Derek, again, we'll start with you. You know, some of these main guys, who do you expect to have to kind of jump in and perform well during camp with some of these guys gone yeah it's it's going to be tough notably with with Darius Leonard because if this just it feels like it just keeps happening or the same thing is the one that keeps nagging him I'm not sure maybe it's a a combination of those two things but you wish they could just

Starting point is 00:13:23 figure out and get right whatever this is so he wouldn't have to fight through it. Maybe it's a combination of those two things, but you wish they could just figure out and get right whatever this is so he wouldn't have to fight through it. I mean, it's incredible that he had the season that he had last year knowing that at least something was zapped from him with what was going on with him injury-wise. I'm really interested to see what happens with Tyquan Lewis kind of on a bit of a prove-it sort of deal. And we all remember you could pinpoint the injury last year

Starting point is 00:13:46 because it felt like that entire game against Tennessee turned on that play where he goes down with the injury after the turnover and then turns it right back over, if memory serves, to Tennessee and the Colts ultimately go on to lose that game. And it kind of changed the whole kind of perplexion of their season, at least as far as the division was concerned um but i know we're going to talk about defensive line depth coming up later on the conversation so maybe we can we can table that until then but i'm interested there

Starting point is 00:14:13 i was happy to see blackman didn't start on the pup list and and you know even though i'm assuming he'll be limited or they'll take it kind of easy with him but the fact that he's not starting on Pup is good considering where that safety room is right now. But, you know, just overall speaking, kind of from a depth standpoint and some of the moves that they made in the offseason, I feel pretty good about where they are. I just think the big headline of all of this is Leonard, because if this is something that is just going to continue or, you know, God forbid, this is something that's going to get worse. That really changes the whole dynamic of, of what this defense is going to be. Yeah. Yeah, no, I agree. I think we talked about that. I think that length a little bit on our last show too, was, was Darius Leonard's injury is definitely something that to keep an eye on because it's not like we've only seen him injured this past season.

Starting point is 00:15:02 You know, he's, he missed games in 2020. He missed games in 2019. I don't think he missed any in 2018, if memory serves. Maybe he missed the first week or something in 2018. But I don't think he missed any in his rookie season. But since then, he hasn't played a full season, whether that's just the same injury, this back and calf stuff, or I think it was a concussion issue in 2019 as well.

Starting point is 00:15:24 So he's had some some injury scares over the past couple years so this one hopefully this is just a big one they caught early and or they caught at a good enough time where they can get to get that cleaned up but uh as someone who like me who I like the bottom of the roster guys I like seeing guys have a chance to make the team Ronnie McLeLeod, Darius Leonard, I'm cool personally with not seeing them at all in training camp because we already know what those guys are going to bring. You know, Ronnie McLeod is a guy who's been in the league for a decade now. Like, what's he going to show you in training camp that you're not already going to see? Like, you want him out there,

Starting point is 00:15:59 obviously you want him working with the defense. But personally, I think this is so big for a guy like Nick Cross, who I think is going to take that strong safety job pretty early this season. Now if you give him a good run in camp where he's going to be the number one guy out there at strong safety, I think it even heightens that chance of him taking that job pretty early. So I'm excited to see that. And then our young linebackers that we talk about a lot on here,

Starting point is 00:16:22 Sterling Weatherford, JoJo Doman, those two players are probably going to be fighting for that backup spot behind Darius Leonard. So with Darius Leonard out, you're going to see both those guys probably getting some run with the first team or with the second team and stuff. So big, big opportunity for those two guys. And then also a defensive tackle. You know, Chris Williams has a shot now with their fourth round pick pick uh Eric Johnson being out for we don't know how long uh Chris Williams gonna get even more run with that second team you know Curtis Brooks will get some run here obviously with three tech and and maybe a little bit the one tech uh in some in some looks uh so yeah I mean there's a lot of open spaces for these guys but like Derek said I'm not I'm not too concerned right now outside of

Starting point is 00:17:03 Darius Leonard uh, you know, McLeod and we already knew about Tyquan Lewis and all that. And the Colts have some decent depth at most of these positions. So I'm not terribly concerned, and I'm excited to see some of these young guys get some run. Yeah, one guy that kind of benefits from the Darius stuff, and it's been – unfortunately, he's been able to do this for the last couple years years as EJ Speed gets a lot more snaps in training camp now, which is good because there were times when he played defense last year where you could see he needed more live reps. So that's definitely a benefit.

Starting point is 00:17:37 Dayo, Dangbo, of course, we kind of figured Taekwon might start on Pup and then Dayo would. We assume they're going to be in kind of similar roles. So that, that helps for sure. Nick Cross, exactly like you mentioned, you know, shoot now you, you probably have to bring him and, and Julian Blackman along a little slowly, especially Blackman. But if, if McLeod's not out there, you're really, you're really pouring snaps into Nick Cross. And if we assume that he's going to take that spot anyways at some point in the season, why not start now? So that'll definitely be a big benefit for him.

Starting point is 00:18:17 So guys, we know that those guys are going to be out for training camp. But you know who is not out for you guys is Dave. Jake wrote that joke, everybody, I promise. So let's talk some Dave, guys. Hindsight is 2020 and you can't change the past, but what if you get a little help from your future self? Maybe you'd ask to borrow a little cash. Now you can with Dave. Dave is the banking app that can help you get up to $500 instantly with extra cash. That's more money to fill your tank, buy a wedding gift, or catch up on bills. You can finally tackle those expenses that have been stressing you out without any hangups. There's no interest and no credit check needed. Millions of people have already downloaded the

Starting point is 00:18:52 Dave app to get the financial relief they need with extra cash. So if you're in a pinch and need some extra cash, go to dave.com slash legal. Instant transfer fees apply banking provided by evolve member fdic future you will thank you all right so guys the colts have made a couple modest roster moves over the past weekend claiming defensive tackle byron cowart uh i know this was a guy who wasn't drafted super high in the draft but he was a guy who was super highly touted out of high school. I don't know if any of you guys or people listening at all are into high school recruiting or into that side of football, but I believe back in the day he was the number one overall recruit in the entire country out of, I want to say he was in Alabama State is where he was. Goes to Auburn, transfers to

Starting point is 00:19:44 Maryland because he wasn't getting plenty of time at Auburn. And then he started, you know, picking up at Maryland, was a fourth-round pick after having a – or a fifth-round pick. Which one was it? Fifth, I think, yeah. Fifth round, yep. Fifth-round pick out of Maryland. Had a strong senior bowl that year as well.

Starting point is 00:20:00 And then played some snaps here for the Patriots. So what do you guys think of this? Derek, do you have any insight on Byron Cowart? Were you a huge Byron Cowart fan back in the day? I remember the name from recruiting circles because I follow 24-7 sports a lot and they do. I'm not as into the recruiting stuff as I used to be and I'm much more heavy into it on the basketball side because of how much we talk about IU and Purdue Hoops. But I do remember that name at or near the top of most of those lists. In fact, I'm looking at him right now and his recruit as a profile, and his offer list is just – it's exactly what you would expect it to be for somebody like that. But yeah, I would be lying to you if I said that I knew much about him from his time in

Starting point is 00:20:47 New England or even going back to his college years because playing in the SEC and kind of bouncing around a little bit, I didn't follow too much about what he has going on. So a lot of times when the Colts make a transaction like this, I look the player up. I'll go to the bio. I'll go on Twitter and even search their name and try to read as much as I can about them. But, um, I I'm honestly in the first like 48 to 72 hours after they make a transaction, a lot of times it's like, I'm cramming for a test. Like I'm trying to figure out, okay, who is this guy? What's he about? And how does he fit? Yeah. Yeah. That's how I've always been to watch it like Tavon Wilson or something like that. And

Starting point is 00:21:22 I was like, who was this guy? You're the king of like, if the Colts claimed a punter from the CFL, you'd have a film room up on him the next day. All right. Okay. Let's not go too crazy here. You could have used any other position here. And I think we would have been good. In the draft, man, it was like weird. It was like eerie how much you had in the can for guys that ended up ultimately being Colts. Like you locked and loaded and ready to go. Yeah, yeah. The Colts fit pieces were interesting because I had heard like a couple guys that they liked.

Starting point is 00:21:53 Like Nick Cross was one I had heard throughout the whole process that they really liked. So he was like the only safety I did for that whole series. But it was still like when it came to the third round, I was like, oh gosh, and stuff like that. But, yeah, no, I don't have anything ready on Byron Cowart. I don't know, Jake, did you have, are you a big Byron Cowart fan? I know you were big in the draft.

Starting point is 00:22:12 Yeah. I've heard the name. I, again, I, I think I remember hearing something about it, the senior bowl. But just looking at him now, six, three, 300. So you've got to think he's a rotational guy behind Grover Stewart. That's a little big for their three-tech spot. So I think he played in five games as a rookie in New England, but he must have made a strong enough impression the next year because he came in as one of their starting defensive tackles selection in 14 games

Starting point is 00:22:41 and started all of them that year. He was out all of last year with a back injury though, from what I see. So that's, I mean, those are always tough, but you don't know the severity. But the Colts obviously did their due diligence. They think that back looks good enough to bring him in. And especially if Eric Johnson's going to be on the NFI list, that gives Cower a slightly larger role, plus being a veteran that helps. Because you and I have talked about Chris Williams being the only true – he's not even really a veteran, really, because he hasn't played a ton.

Starting point is 00:23:14 Their defensive tackle depth was just really weird behind Grover and DeForest Buckner because R.J. McIntosh hasn't played in like two years, and then you've got the two rookies behind them. So getting Cowher, who himself hasn't played much, but two years ago he played 14 games, that helps. It looks like he had one sack and three tackles for loss in that season. So pretty typical nose tackle stats, I guess. But that's about all I know on Byron Cowart,

Starting point is 00:23:45 but should be a helpful move for their defensive tackle rotation. Considering like we said, Chris Williams, your boy, Curtis Brooks, it's Curtis Brooks month. We had to find a way to get him in here featuring Kylan Granson. Yes. And Eric Johnson is going to be on an FI. So yeah. And with that, I think we've exhausted all the defensive line rotation talk. We can muster at least for the interior guys.

Starting point is 00:24:10 We'll be back with you tomorrow with the latest Colts info. Cause I think it's probably going to come quick. All these small little nuggets here. Players are going to report on Tuesday and they'll begin practicing on Wednesday. I'll be out there every day. So I'll, I'll have you guys plugged in as much as I can. Thanks again for,

Starting point is 00:24:30 to Derek for joining us, everyone. Make sure to follow him on Twitter at Schultz nine, seven, five. That's S C H U L T Z nine, seven, five.

Starting point is 00:24:40 And you probably are already, but make sure to keep up to date on the query and Schultz show. Yep. And while you guys are out there following Derek, make sure you're following us on Twitter and stuff as well. At Jake Arthur, NFL at Zach Hicks to not add Zach Hicks one at Zach Hicks two. That's the better one.

Starting point is 00:24:57 You can find our show here on YouTube locked on Colts. We're almost at 500 subscribers, which means we're nearly halfway to getting paid for this. Jake can finally feed his family if you guys can get us to 1,000 subscribers. It's a huge incentive for you guys. Make sure you rate, review, subscribe anywhere that you get your podcasts, Spotify,

Starting point is 00:25:16 Apple Podcasts, or on YouTube. Again, leave some comments. We'd love to interact with you guys. We appreciate all the support so far. Keep it up and make sure you're following us, our work over at Horseshoe Huddle and Locked On Colts on all your social media platforms. Yeah, thanks again, guys, for making Locked On Colts your first listen today. Now make your second listen to Locked On NFL podcast. That's our national NFL experts and insiders keeping fans dialed in with the biggest stories

Starting point is 00:25:42 and the latest news from around the league because an off season doesn't equal a break in the action. And it's also not even much of the off season anymore. Things probably get heavy. We'll see you guys tomorrow.

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Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts' Kenny Moore II is Back for More Lightning in a Bottle

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