Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts: L'Jarius Sneed Saga Adds Drama to Stagnant Offseason
Episode Date: March 20, 2024The Indianapolis Colts-L'Jarius Sneed saga has taken another turn. Meanwhile, the Colts continue to make minor moves. What could be next? The Indy Draft Guide's Pre-Orders are now open! For $8.99 wit...h code DRAFTMAS, you get access to 225+ in-depth scouting reports, features, and much more. Click the link to Pre-Order today: https://draftguide.gumroad.com/l/indy24 Find and follow Locked On Colts on your favorite podcast platforms:🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOColts?sid=YouTube📺YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLdpxJspi1hMh5HL7ExpWOQLocked On NFL League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Draft & More🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnNFL Follow Jake and Zach's written work on HorseshoeHuddle.com, and give them a follow on Twitter @JakeArthurNFL, @ZachHicks2, @LockedOnColts, and @ColtsOnFN! Today's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!eBay MotorsFor parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit at eBayMotos.com. Let’s ride. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.RobinhoodRobinhood has the only IRA that gives you a 3% boost on every dollar you contribute when you subscribe to Robinhood Gold. Now through April 30th, Robinhood is even boosting every single dollar you transfer in from other retirement accounts with a 3% match. Available to U.S. customers in good standing. Robinhood Financial LLC (member SIPC), is a registered broker dealer.BetterHelpThis episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Make your brain your friend, with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com/LOCKEDON today to get 10% off your first month.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelNew customers, join today and you’ll get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS if your first bet of FIVE DOLLARS or more wins. Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)
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surprise surprise Indianapolis Colts have brought back more of their internal free agents let's get
to it you are locked on Colts your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast part of the
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Hello, everyone.
My name is Zach Hicks.
I'm your favorite co-host here of the Locked On Colts podcast and also your favorite film
guy over at HorseshoeHuddle.com.
Now, today we have a fun show for you.
We're going to be diving into the latest transactions that the Indianapolis Colts have made.
It's not a ton, but you know, there's something to kick this show off with that.
Then we're going to dive into this crazy, crazy, legerious sneeze saga.
If you guys have been following along with Colts, you know, reporters, Colts people on
social medias, especially on Twitter.
It's been kind of crazy, so we're going to get into that.
And then we're going to talk about where the Colts go from here.
Are they just running it back with the exact same team going into next season?
We're going to discuss all that on today's show.
But first, let's kick it off with the news and the reactions to that news.
Obviously, we got the re-signing of defensive tackle Taven Bryan
and re-signing of backup center Danny Pinter.
Now, for Taven Bryan, guys, if you guys listened to the show at all throughout last season,
it was a tough year.
It was a tough year to watch Taven Bryan trying to play one tech for the Indianapolis Colts.
When Grover Stewart went down with his suspension for six games,
it really fell on Taven Bryan's shoulders to be that guy, to be their third defensive tackle when Stewart was out
there, to be their starting one tech when Stewart was suspended. And look, Taven Bryan is a fine
three tech. He's a perfectly adequate, perfectly fine three technique defensive tackle. If you're
putting him at one tech, you're going to have the
worst run defense in football. And that's basically what happened when Grover Stewart was out for
those six games, the Colts were allowing nearly five yards to carry one of the worst run defenses
in the entire league. And I mean, it's not like they were playing against superstar running backs
in those games. They were playing against, you know, the saints and Taysom Hill ran all over
them. They were playing against the Browns without Nick Chubb, and their backup, I think it was Ford, ran all over them in that game.
A lot of games where it's like, man, they just need another one tech in here.
So, yes, while this signing brings back PTSD
and horrible memories of last season, just seeing him out there as a one tech,
when you actually take a mature step back and look at this signing,
it's a one-year deal, likely a near minimum type deal
to actually play three technique
because Raekwon Davis was signed earlier this off season.
So it's not as bad a deal as what it seems.
Like, look, I get it.
I understand the concerns and being frustrated
seeing the name Taven Bryant coming back.
But if he's actually playing three tech,
it's not that big a deal.
I know it's more fun and games on social media is to joke about it. But Taven Bryant, if he's actually playing three tech, it's not that big a deal. I know it's, it's more fun and games on social media is a joke about it,
but Taven,
Brian,
he's actually playing his natural position of three tech and maybe playing
just more passing downs rather than rundowns.
He's a perfectly adequate backup three tech.
He's super explosive.
He's powerful.
He gets out the line.
Well,
I had 12 tackles last year,
had two sacks and a forced fumble.
So it really wasn't like this
horrendous season in that regard. It was just, man, when he had to fill in for Grover Stewart
at one tech, it was just not pretty whatsoever, but I'm not too upset about it. I know I made
more of a fuss on social medias there, but you know, it's all fun and games over there.
The other signing here, Danny Pinter, the backup center. Pinter has had a very up and down career with the Indianapolis Colts.
Came in as a rookie fifth round pick a couple of years back.
Was a really good rotational backup center for the team.
Did a lot of good things anytime he had to start a game or come in for the injured Ryan Kelly.
And then the Colts try to promote him to starter in 2022 and give him the right guard spot.
I mean, he went through all training camp really uncontested for that right guard spot, started the season at right guard, and it just
was not good. It was just not a good experience for the Colts, not a good experience for Danny
Pinter. He really struggled in that right guard job, and he eventually lost it to Will Fries,
who's held that job ever since. But Danny Pinter was in line to be the team's backup center yet
again last season, was injured in training camp, so now he gets probably a one-year deal. I'm going to assume
it's near the veteran minimum to come back, compete for a spot in camp and try to solidify himself
as a team's backup center again. Wesley French did some good things last year as a team's backup
center. So that should be a good contest there in camp. And we'll see if the Colts decide to add
another center in this upcoming draft.
That's just very, very loaded with center talent.
So yeah, Taven Bryan, Danny Pinter, both back.
Look, I think that's 10 re-signings for the Colts
on their own internal free agents.
So great to see.
We're bringing the boys back.
All the boys are coming back.
You know, whenever you can bring back
everybody from a nine-win team,
I really think you have to go out there and do it.
Some other news and notes with the Indianapolis Colts.
Yesterday they worked out safety Mike Edwards from the Kansas City Chiefs.
Now Edwards had 70 tackles, one sack, one interception,
two fumble recoveries, and five pass breakups last year for the Chiefs.
He's mostly a box-type safety, but he doesn't really have the size
that you want for a guy that's going to be in the box. You know, it's not this guy who's going to be able to take on blocks or, or even
have the quickness to go around blocks. He kind of has to be kept very clean. But he's a big hitter.
He's an aggressive player, very smart player. You just don't really see the athleticism in him. You
don't really see the power in him, but he's the type of guy, you know, he's like that junkyard
dog type guy. He's kind of that guy who just does all the right things that he can within the best of his ability.
So when people have been asking me about him, like, oh, what would he bring if the Colts did
sign him? It's like, look, you're going to get a solid player, a good third safety, a guy you
probably don't want to start. But if he is out there, you're not like screaming and crying about
him being on the field. Like he's a perfectly adequate player. So the Colts were to sign him and go into next season with him as their safety
three. I think that would be perfectly fine. Now, if he was their de facto starter going into the
season and then behind him, there were guys that were just not up to his quality, even behind him.
That's when you get a little bit concerned there. So Mike Edwards, I wouldn't hate it whatsoever.
If the Colts brought him in and signed him.
Again, Super Bowl winner last year
with the Kansas City Chiefs, good, solid player.
Just probably not a starter at this point
or just in general, but a good rotational guy,
a good backup player that you can put some faith into.
So I like Mike Edwards for what he is.
And then some more safety news here.
Julian Blackman is visiting the Buffalo Bills, which
actually, funny enough, Mike Edwards also left the Colts visit to go visit the Bills as well. So
we got multiple safeties there visiting the Buffalo Bills. But Julian Blackman, one of the
very, very few internal free agents that the Indianapolis Colts had this offseason that did
not resign with the team. He is out there visiting the Buffalo Bills.
Now, again, there could still be a reunion for the Colts and Julian Blackman down the line,
but as of right now, he's starting to take visits with other teams. We'll see what happens there.
We'll see if he gets an offer from the Bills or some other team out there, but Blackman enjoyed a really, really nice breakout season last year, had four interceptions, was one of the better
players in the secondary that really struggled, and the Colts lose him and they end up going to his backups for all of next
season. We could see a pretty bad pass defense get even worse in 2024. So we'll see what happens
there with that situation if Blackman does ultimately leave the Colts or if he does
ultimately resign with the Colts by the end of the offseason. I think that's all we have for news and notes, though, guys.
Not too much has happened with the Indianapolis Colts, but don't worry.
Coming up, we're going to talk about the saga that captivated all of us last week
and was very, you know, snip, snap, snip, snap.
We have no clue what's actually going on with this situation,
but we're going to talk all about LeJarrius Sneed and that entire saga that happened last week.
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Alrighty, Locked On Colts listeners, let's try to break down this LeJarius Sneed craziness.
Let's start at the beginning.
LeJarius Sneed, very, very good outside cornerback who plays a little bit in the slot with the Kansas City Chiefs.
He has won back-to-back Super Bowls with the Chiefs.
Fantastic player.
He doesn't have any All-Pros or Pro Bowls to his name, but really, he is a fantastic player. I really, really recommend go watch his film. He does some great any all pros or pro bowls to his name, but really he is a
fantastic player. I really, really recommend go watch his film. He does some great things there
for the Chiefs. And he was franchise tagged by the Chiefs this off season. And they're pretty
far apart in their contract negotiations. The Chiefs have a lot of contracts coming up
in Creed Humphrey and Nick Bolton, just to name two of them. So it's in their best interest to
sense need to a different team and get some draft capital back and kind of replenish the youth that
they have there at that team. And while they've been shopping LeJarius Snead, we know one team
that has come up as being interested is the Indianapolis Colts. So Stephen Holder of ESPN
covering the Colts reported, I think right before free agency started or around the time free agency started,
he reported the Colts have inquired about LeJarrius Sneed, that they were one of the teams that has contacted the Kansas City Chiefs,
which I know riled all of us up. We all got really excited. Was this going to be the big Chris Ballard move?
And then after free agency started, we got these, these tons of reports from different people
saying that the Snead trade to Indy was done. It was happening. We got Destin Adams from A to Z
sports. One of my colleagues, one of my former colleagues here at horseshoehuddle.com. And then
we got two other guys, Captain Colt and this guy named Ricky all on Twitter. Again, I can't speak
to the veracity of Captain Colt or even Ricky, even though that Ricky guy seems to get a lot of free agent stuff correct.
So I don't know what's going on with that.
But all of them were reporting that the Snead trade was done, that it was happening.
It was pending paperwork and contract negotiations with Snead's camp.
And LeJarrius Snead was going to be an Indianapolis Colt for 2024. Then later that same day, Stephen Holder, again
of ESPN.com, shoots that report down. And then he says that he leans toward the trade not happening
at all. Nothing was close to finalized and it wasn't likely that it was going to happen.
So then a couple of days go by and we're still not really hearing much on what's happening.
I know Destin and Captain Colt and those guys did say that a snag came up in the contract negotiations and they still expected the deal to get done.
But it was, you know, a snag came up and it's not really going the way they expected.
Diana Rossini was on the Athletic podcast and she reported that the Colts and Titans were both very, very close on deals with the Chiefs for LeJarrius Sneed.
But Sneed's contract demands were really the hold up there.
I know I saw at some places that LeJarrius Sneed was asking for a four-year contract
up to $22 million plus per year to reset the cornerback market,
which, again, we've talked about here on this podcast.
That's kind of crazy for a guy who has never made a Pro Bowl,
never been an All-Pro, and has a knee issue. I know that there have been some people with
the Chiefs finally talking about that knee injury that is scaring some teams a little bit there. So
Rossini does, again, mention that the Colts and Titans were very close on deals, but again,
the contract was the holdup. And then, out of nowhere, Adam Schefter goes on the Pat McAfee
show on ESPN and reports that the Colts and Chiefs had no communication about LeJarrius Sneed, that there just wasn't any communication there.
And then Stephen Holder added to that by saying that the Colts never really got past the phase of inquiring about LeJarrius Sneed.
It was mostly just inquiring, and then they pivoted to Kenny Moore, and that was it.
They really didn't make an offer.
They never really talked with Snead's camp. So we have a whirlwind of reports coming here from done deal. It's happening.
The Colts are going to get LeJarrius Snead to no, no, no. They never talked whatsoever to,
you know, all these things here. How do we sort through this information to see what's correct?
I don't think many people here are outwardly lying. I mean, one of them probably is,
and I'm not going to say his name in particular, but one of these people is probably outwardly
lying, but the rest I think can be all true at the same time. For Stephen Holder, I think a lot
of his stuff is obviously true. I think a lot of what he was saying where the Colts did inquire,
I think they did call the chiefs and they did have some conversations, but I don't know how
far it actually went. I don't disagree with what Destin and all these other guys are saying,
that maybe they did agree to the rough outline of a trade deal. And it really came down to that
contract negotiation. I mean, Diana Rossini did basically confirm that on the athletic pod as
well by saying that the Colts were fairly close. So again, I don't think many people here are outwardly lying and saying contradicting things, but at the end of the day, we're at the
point where we're going into week two of free agency. We're in the middle of week two here,
free agency. The Colts don't have much cap space to work with. I know they have a little bit more
than what's being reported, but it's still not a ton. So if they were to make a trade for LeJarius
need, they'd have to move around a lot of money to make that work,
which the Colts typically don't do.
And I don't know.
I think at this point it's safe to say it's probably not going to happen.
Whether that is because of LeJarius Needs contract demands,
whether that's because the Chiefs are wanting too much,
whether that's because the Colts never contacted them at all,
I think it's safe to say it's probably not going to happen at this
point. I mean, for my two cents, again, I don't hear nearly as much and I'm not even trying to
say that I'm more of an insider than any of these guys at all. But I do know somebody who's close
with the Chiefs and they did say that the Titans were very close to acquiring Snead. But at the
end of the day, they didn't want to send Snead to the Titans. And the Colts tried to come in during
those conversations and offer a little bit lower of a deal to the Chiefs. The Chiefs didn't want to send Snead to the Titans, and the Colts tried to come in during those conversations and offer a little bit lower of a deal to the Chiefs.
The Chiefs didn't really go for that at all, and then the Colts pivoted to Kenny Moore.
That is what I heard early in the process, and I didn't really hear much more after that.
I just heard that the Colts, immediately after making that offer for Snead, did sign Kenny
Moore back to the team, and then I hadn't heard anything else about them talking to LeJarrius Snead.
So that's my two cents.
That's what I heard.
I'm not even trying to contradict anything else that anybody else said
or how much further it got from there.
But I do know that they signed Kenny Moore soon after reaching out
for their first offer to the Kansas City Chiefs for LeJarrius Snead.
So take that for what you will with that.
But now what? What happens with LeJarriarius Sneed? I don't know, man. I really don't know because it
doesn't seem like he's going to play on the tag with the Chiefs this year. A trade still seems
like the most likely thing for him, but I don't think there's a team out there that's going to
pay him that $22 million plus per year. It's a hefty, hefty contract over four years, probably once, you know,
the most guarantees at the cornerback position as well. And look, if we're talking like, like,
if we're comparing him to Jalen Jones or Jalen Johnson, Jalen Johnson was a free agent this
off season, 24 years old coming off an all pro season, the Chicago bears. And regardless of what
you think, like who you think is the better player
between Snead and Johnson Johnson has the accolades and accolades and the youth over
LeJarrius Snead and he got paid what like an average of 19 to 20 million dollars per year
with very good guarantees so now you have a player like Snead who's a little bit older
who has lingering injury issues that that hampered him all last season I know he played through pretty much all of them, but he still has those injury issues.
It's part of the reason why the Chiefs don't want to pay him.
And he wants more than that and more guarantees.
It's a very tough negotiation.
And I understand a team like the Colts or somebody else not wanting to give that kind of contract to a guy like Snead.
Now, am I saying that means the Colts shouldn't make a big splash this offseason? No, I'm not saying that at all. And I know a lot of you guys are
going to comment on here and be frustrated that the Colts somehow didn't get it done with Jerry
Snead. I totally get it because, look, you have the rookie quarterback contract, you have a big
need at corner, and Snead seemed like a really great addition for this team. So I understand
all sides of it here. I understand the frustration.
I understand the craziness with the reporting and just, again,
the snip-snap of the whole week we just had last week.
But I think the best way I can speculate right now is that it's probably not going to happen.
The Colts, if they make any other moves the rest of this offseason,
it's going to be more minor-type deals.
Like, they still could bring in a veteran corner and a veteran safety, but it's not going to be at the top of the market, guys.
Like I don't think it's going to be Justin Simmons.
I don't even think Quandre Diggs is probably likely at this point because those are just going to be expensive options.
Steven Nelson might be an expensive option at corner two.
I think it's going to be more league minimum-ish deals to get them to the draft,
and then they're going to rely on the draft to replenish the youth on defense and try to just
get younger and faster and more athletic there on defense. I don't think we're going to get the
veteran signings on defense that we all wanted this offseason, and instead they're kind of
resorting to running it back with a lot of the guys they had last year. So whatever you really
think about that is up to you. I'm not here to put an opinion in your head about that one way or another in this segment. The next segment, I will. I'll
put a little bit of an opinion there. But that's kind of my take on the LeGarrius Needs stuff. I
don't think any reporter here was outwardly lying to us. I don't think anybody was being very
disingenuous here. Well, one person maybe, but the rest, I don't think were being very disingenuous here. Well, one person maybe, but the rest, I don't think we're being very
disingenuous. I don't think Destin was saying anything harmful or trying to do things. I think
he genuinely did believe that the deal was close to being finished. I also believe Holder in saying
that it was maybe even more inquiry with that. I believe Diana Rossini that the Colts got it
closed. I don't think anyone here is outwardly lying to us. I just Diana Rossini that the Colts got to close. Like, I don't think anyone here is
outwardly lying to us. I just think that there's very different takes on this situation to get us
to the same place we're at now where, look, it's probably not going to happen. But we'll see. I
mean, look, LeJarrius Sneed is still part of the Chiefs. A trade could still happen. I firmly
believe the Colts will still have that open line of communication about it if Sneed's price ever
drops. But we'll see. We will see what happens with that scenario, but that's where we're at
right now with the LeJarrius Snead saga. And yeah, we'll see where it goes from now,
goes from this point now. But coming up, we're going to talk about where the Colts go from here.
You know, they're basically running it back with all the same guys. Is that good enough to get it
done in the AFC in 2024?
We're going to talk about that here in just a second. But first, this show is sponsored by
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All righty, my beautiful everydayers.
We are back with our final segment on today's show talking about where the Colts go from
here.
Like, again, let's assume they have missed out on LeJus Sneed. They've missed out on Kendall Fuller at corner. They've missed out on a handful
of safeties as well. So where do the Colts go from here in free agency? Where do they go from here
the rest of the off season? And what are we really looking at with this team? Now I could sit here
and I could list off all the veteran free agents that I still like at corner and safety, like we've
been doing on this show for the past, you know, two weeks, you know, oh, you know, whatever.
Kendall Fuller signed, but don't worry, this guy's out here.
Oh, Cam Curl signed at safety, but don't worry, this guy's out here.
I could sit here and do that, but I think we all kind of know what direction this is going in with the Indianapolis Colts.
They're probably not going to sign many more free agents. If anything, they will maybe sign again, like a veteran corner, like in a killer Witherspoon
type, or maybe a veteran safety, like a Mike Edwards type, like we talked about earlier.
Like we might get that, but I don't really, like I really wouldn't hold my breath for
any of those types of signings.
I do think ultimately the Colts are trying to kind of run it back with what they did last year. I think they firmly believe on the inside, like, hey, as long as we can get our core guys back, our Kenny Moore, our Michael Pittman Jr., our Grover Stewart, get those type of guys back and have a healthy Anthony Richardson and have more health at corner, more health at running back, this team can be a playoff team. And we can see where they're going from here. We can really evaluate where Anthony Richardson is
going from here. I don't think that's necessarily a bad plan, but I don't necessarily think it's a
great plan either. Because when you're looking at this team, the defensive backfield is still
a complete mess. Projected starters right now are Juju Brents, Kenny Moore, who's outstanding. I'm
not trying to say anything bad about Kenny Moore, Jalen Jones, Rodney Thomas II, and Nick Cross.
You know, for Juju Brents, obviously you can't close the book on him. Very injury-plagued rookie
season, but showed some good things. Jalen Jones, again, like a former seventh round pick last year,
did a lot of good things in his rookie season, but at the end of the day, kind of showed that
it was a little early to be starting him. Maybe he makes a big jump in year
two, but again, we haven't seen enough on film to say that he's going to make that big jump in year
two. And then looking at the safeties, Nick Cross is going into his third season. He's only started
a handful of games, and it was really a struggle towards the end of last season when he did start.
Rodney Thomas was benched in the final couple weeks.
He actually was splitting a lot of time with Cross late in the season. And then when Julian
Blackman went down and there was an opportunity to start both Cross and Thomas, they gave it to
Ronnie Harrison, who was a linebacker convert. They put him back at safety instead of starting
Rodney Thomas. So that kind of speaks to the you know, the Colts trust in Rodney Thomas right now. So again, when you're looking at this quarterback room, this is just not an NFL ready
cornerback room. It's very similar to last year. And last year's past defense was really bad
because of their, their, their defensive backfield. So I do think there's a lot of issues with the
defensive backs. And again, for people saying like, Oh, look, they're not going to win the
Superbowl this year. You know, veteran doesn't really do too much. Yeah, but if your goal is playoffs, if your
ultimate goal is playoffs, this defensive backfield is just not good enough. It's not good enough.
Even if you add a young guy to this group, it's probably not good enough to get to, I don't know
if to even get you to the playoffs, but certainly not to do much when you get into the playoffs.
Unless these guys make big jumps, and maybe they do make big jumps.
Maybe Chris Ballard's, you know, his go-to catchphrase of,
we like our guys.
We like our guys.
We like what we have in that group.
Maybe it'll finally pay off this time.
But we see this way too often with Chris Ballard,
where we go into drafts with big holes at certain positions,
and they get addressed in the draft.
And then we're asking these super young players to come in and be the answer from day one. I mean, we saw it with Quiddie Paye in his draft.
We saw it with Michael Pittman Jr. in his draft, and even he wasn't ready in year one to be the
savior of that position. We saw it last year with, I mean, Richardson is one obviously,
but Juju Brents. We saw it even with Jalen Jones last year where it's like, hey, seventh round pick,
come out here and play some significant snaps for us and save our cornerback room. It's just too much like this. We get this all the time. So now instead of being
able to go into this draft and sitting at 15, which is a premium pick, a very, very good pick
to have in this class, very top heavy class, a lot of good players early on, especially if a lot
of quarterbacks go in front of the Colts, they're going to have a lot of guys they can take there at
15. But when your cornerback room and your safety room looks like they do right now, you're
kind of pigeonholing yourself to taking a corner at 15.
So like, again, Quinion Mitchell is great.
I love Quinion Mitchell.
And I would be over the moon to take him at 15.
Same with Terryon Arnold.
I'd be over the moon to take him at 15.
I think they're fantastic players.
But if it ultimately comes down to where those guys are sitting there and a Brock Bowers is
sitting there, and if you actually addressed it, the cornerback position going into this,
you know, going into the draft, you could be comfortable to take that, that blue player in
Brock Bowers and really make your offense, you know, go crazy with him because you just don't
have the talent at corner, it becomes drafting for
need and for talent. And, and you're going to, you're going to push that need up a little bit
higher than just the talent. And you're going to, you know, you could potentially be passing
on a better player because you have to take a corner early in this class. Or maybe you think,
oh, we have to trade back now because our top two corners are gone. Even if a Brock Bowers is there,
we have to move back because corner has to be our first pick because we need a corner in this draft. And I know I'm speaking a lot of hypotheticals here,
but I just, me personally, I hate going to the draft, being forced to select something early.
And it feels like that's where we're going with corner. It feels like we'd be going that way with
safety as well. If this were even a remotely good safety class, it's not a good safety class at all,
but we'll see what happens
there. But yeah, that's my little rant about this offseason, but I do want to take a slight step
back as well. Breathe a little bit. We're going to do some meditation here at the end of this
episode and put things in perspective. This was a fine offseason. They got back a lot of their
big free agents that they potentially could have lost that would have led to this team downgrading and being much worse next year. They got a lot of
those guys back. They kind of stayed the course. Hopefully Richardson comes back healthy.
And outside of defensive backs, you know, there's not many issues with this team. They have
hopefully their quarterback of the future. They have a superstar running back. They have their
number one wide receiver locked up and another young player in Josh Downs who they like. Jelani Woods is hopefully coming back.
Their offensive line is in a good spot. Defensive line was pretty solid last year and those guys
are still doing good things. Their linebacker group is pretty good. This is not a bad team on
paper. It's just it felt like there was a chance to go above and beyond with this team and not
roll into the draft with a big need at some position. Now they're rolling to the draft saying, okay, we need corners and safeties early,
get more youth at those positions. And if it causes us to bypass players like
Brian Thomas Jr. or Brock Bowers or Adanae Mitchell, you know, any of those type of guys,
so be it. We're going to take corner. We're going to take safety. That's where really I draw the
line with this off season and get a little frustrated.
But overall, it is what it is. It's not, you know, it's not a bad offseason by any means. It's just
very, it's a very stagnant offseason for a team that feels like it should be ascending. They're
kind of staying in the same pace and just hoping for development instead of taking the initiative
and trying to push it a little bit higher than what it is. But you guys can let me know in the comment section,
do you feel like this was a bad off season, a great off season, a terrible,
you know, a very average one? Like I think,
what do you think about this off season?
Also let me know what you think about the luxurious needs stuff,
because that was just a crazy, crazy week last week.
That was, that was really insane to watch there.
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