Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts Mailbag: Is it Time for Nick Foles?

Episode Date: November 30, 2022

The guys turn it over to the listeners in today's episode as they answer the burning Indianapolis Colts questions, such as if it's time to see Nick Foles at quarterback, if Bernhard Raimann is at home at left tackle, and whether Chris Ballard or Frank Reich is more responsible for the team's current state.Find and follow Locked On Colts on your favorite podcast platforms:📺YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLdpxJspi1hMh5HL7ExpWOQ🎧 Apple https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/id1151621306🎧 Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/6meP450baAtjX4rTENZ5ij🎧 Audacy https://www.audacy.com/podcasts/locked-on-colts-daily-podcast-on-the-indianapolis-colts-21701🎧 Google https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vUFBZODk1ODUyODkyNQ🎧 Megaphone https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/lockedoncoltsFollow Jake and Zach's written work on HorseshoeHuddle.com (@ColtsOnFN), and give them a follow on Twitter @JakeArthurNFL, @ZachHicks2, and @LockedOnColts!Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!LinkedInLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONNFLBuilt BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds, and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!PrizePicksFirst-time users can receive a 100% instant deposit match up to $100 with promo code LOCKEDON. That’s PrizePicks.com – promo code; LOCKEDONSimpliSafeWith Fast Protect™️ Technology, exclusively from SimpliSafe, 24/7 monitoring agents capture evidence to accurately verify a threat for faster police response. There’s No Safe Like SimpliSafe. Visit SimpliSafe.com/LockedOnNFL to learn more.TuroForget boring rental cars and find your drive at Turo.comAudibleHead over to Locked On NFL for a sneak peak of Block Forever or catch the full series available anywhere you get your podcast. Available everywhere now! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Colts fans have some burning questions and we've got answers to, I guess, either cool them off or stoke the flames further. Let's get to it. You are locked on Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast, part of the locked on podcast network, your team every day. All right.

Thank you for tuning in and making us your first listen of the day. This is your daily podcast covering your Indianapolis Colts, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. This is Jake Arthur alongside the lovely Zach Hicks, and you know the two of us from HorseshoeHuddle.com. Today we want to talk about what you guys want to talk about. So we put out the call on Twitter for you guys to shoot us some questions, and you guys delivered in a pretty big way. We'll go over our three favorite topics here, or at least the ones that were most widely asked for you guys. And it's going to be an interesting one for sure.

First up, where do the Colts stand at the quarterback position immediately and in the long term? And you know what some of the moves they've made there in the recent years, how they've kind of put them in the position they're in now next is bernard ryman is he at home at left tackle and last who is more to blame for the colts current demise frank reich or chris ballard because one guy's gone but the issues still continue uh first up of course we got a handful of questions about the quarterback position. It's the most popular position in sports. Glover, Jeff Q, and Money Colts, just to name a few of you guys.

So let's start with one I've been asked a couple times, but I don't think you and I probably put a whole lot of stock in it. That is Nick Foles. He's the one of the three quarterbacks we haven't seen yet this year. We know what it looks like with Matt Ryan, with Sam Ellinger. What about Nick Foles? He's got the experience of Matt Ryan, maybe a touch more mobility, obviously more experience than Sam Ellinger. He's a little more aggressive downfield from what we've seen, but he's a backup in this league for a reason. Yeah, and again, the whole reason why he was here is because his relationship with frank reich and now with frank reich no longer in the picture there's really no there's like nobody really tied to starting him and and honestly if you look at it there's not really any good reason to put him

out there matt ryan is probably the better quarterback than him and and like i know matt r Ryan has not been very good this year. He has not been at all what we expected, but he's still probably the better quarterback at this point in their careers. And that's why, you know, if the team wants to keep winning, you're going to keep putting Matt Ryan out there. Now, on the other hand, say they want to go younger, say they want to see what they have in a younger player. Sam Ellinger is much younger and more athletic, I guess, is the only thing I can really say there. More athletic than Nick Foles. So if they wanted to go the younger route and just kind of go like see what we have route, that doesn't really go for Nick Foles to start. Plus there's not really a good reason for, because he's not, you know, the better option to win. He's not the young option to see what you have. There really isn't any reason why he would factor into the quarterback discussion. So, uh, yeah, I mean, look, Nick Foles is there. I don't think they really, there's not really a reason to cut him because if there's an injury, I guess, you know, you still want to have him, but, uh, yeah, I don't

think he's going to start anytime soon yeah i don't necessarily see a scenario where it happens um mostly again because they're going to keep rolling with matt ryan until they feel like they absolutely can't and if they make a move it's going to be to go young with sam ellinger you know if if ryan gets injured or what have you i just don't see a real realistic path for them to go to Foles. Like I just, maybe he'll become active on some game days. You know, he'll, he'll become the backup if one of these other guys gets thrown in there or something, but I just don't think he's going to become the plan. Now I can't say I wouldn't be interested at some point to see,

you know, I wouldn't hate it if they did. It's like, just why not? Like, let's see what it looks like. At the very least, he has a strong arm and is probably more aggressive downfield just from what we've seen in camp in the preseason. But I just don't think it's actually going to happen. So I will say the biggest benefit, if they did want to start Nick Foles, is he's probably not that big of a far drop-off from Matt Ryan. And if he gets hurt, there's no injury guarantees. If Matt Ryan gets hurt in these last five games,

I believe the Colts owe him all of that contract. They have a little bit of an out this offseason that they want to release him, which we're going to talk about a little bit later in this segment. But with Nick Foles, he's not making that much money. So if you want kind of similar play for a're he's not making that much money so if you know if you want kind of similar play for a guy who's not as risky to start for your overall future uh yeah throw Nick Foles out there but that's really the only way I see it and I really don't think they're going to go through the PR nightmare of benching Matt Ryan yet again after what happened the first time and

Matt Ryan even said he was frustrated I know you know again who cares about feelings and stuff for this but I really really doubt they're going to go through the whole thing of of benching Matt Ryan again unless he he suffers an injury here yeah exactly so kind of moving on from that moot point I would say we got another question from Darren which I think you and I were both pretty intrigued by what set the Colts further? Andrew Luck's sudden retirement in 2019, just a couple weeks before the season began, or the subsequent choices they've made at the position since then? Jacoby Brissett doesn't count in this because he was Luck's immediate backup.

They had to do it. But Phillip Rivers, Carson Wentz, Matt Ryan, they've been taking older guys. Carson Wentz isn't necessarily older, but he was here because of his history with Frank Reich. I think that's an interesting question. So what's your thoughts on that? What set them back further? I mean, they go hand in hand.

You can't talk about one without the other, especially when it comes to mistakes and issues and kind of where we are today as a franchise. But, you know, obviously none of this would happen without the Andrew Luck retirement. So that obviously set them back a little bit more. But I really think the thing that just the thing that really sunk this whole this whole build, this whole build was broken with that Carson Wentz miss. It's just when that Carson Wentz miss happened, you know, giving up that first committing to, again, not an old quarterback, but an older quarterback thinking he's going to be your franchise guy. And then it being such a disaster that you're moving on after one season and not getting great return on investment whatsoever. You know,

you don't get playoffs, you lose draft capital and, you know, they lost draft capital. You know, again, they had Carson Wentz. They decided not to go quarterback in that draft. they could have moved up for a guy like justin fields you know we could we could do this should have could have what a stuff all the time but you know it took them out of a young quarterback that year and the next year because they didn't have a first round pick the next year and obviously that was a weak quarterback class but i digress um yeah i think the carson wentz trade was definitely the biggest blunder within all of this here but it all starts and ends with that Andrew Luck retirement.

This whole regime and this whole build kind of broke down the second that retirement happened, and they were kind of just trying to tread water ever since. And eventually they drowned, and that's what we're at right now. They couldn't tread water this season with yet another veteran quarterback and they drowned. But, yeah, no, it's it's it all goes back to the Andrew Luck retirement. I mean, that you can't have these other things without that retirement. Yeah, that was enormous. I mean, that's obviously the biggest thing, because I feel pretty comfortable saying the Colts would be flirting with the Super Bowl each season with a guy like Andrew Luck. Like they may have even been in one by now in these last few years. would be flirting with the Super Bowl each season with a guy like Andrew Luck.

They may have even been in one by now in these last few years. That was huge. The Carson Wentz won specifically, especially because of what they had to give up, and they missed out on such a talented team that year, basically. Those two were definitely the biggest hits. Let's say Luck retires before the draft that year it was not a good year for the draft the colts had the 26th pick the next quarterback taken after that pick was drew lock in the second round that was your kyler murray went number one and then like daniel jones was in the top 10 as well so it was not a good quarterback draft that year so it's

not like it's not like okay okay, we know Luck's retiring. We're going to go get our guy this year because that probably wouldn't have worked out either. So the whole thing is just, you know, they've kind of tumbled into a little assortment of issues throughout that. But then the biggest question now facing them, what do they do with Matt Ryan this offseason? You know, he's still under contract for another year. Do they roll with him or do they cut ties and go for their young guy? I know what we both think. You've got to just eat the dead cap and get that money back.

I mean, I think I saw on Spotrack, and again, Spotrack's a little hit or miss how accurate they are, but I believe it's like a $17 million dead cap if they release him this offseason. But they get $18 million in cap relief because his total cap next year is going to be for $35 million. Yes, that's a ton of dead cap that you just don't want. But to bring that money back, you can re-sign some guys, maybe build up the rest of the roster for a rookie quarterback. I think that's the move you got to make because Matt Ryan is just not the guy for this franchise.

I only know if he has another year left in the league. So we'll have to see what happens if he ends up, you know, hanging it up after the season. But yeah, I think either way, I don't really see any way for Matt Ryan to be on this team next year with that $35 million cap hit. Like it's better just to eat that dead cap than have him kind of take up that

kind of space. Cause that's a ton of money for a guy who's just not getting it done and probably not your starter next year. Yeah, totally agree. And I was asked about that before the game yesterday and someone brought up a really good point that so he could, he could obviously retire, which would be in the best interest because none of that

money for next year is owed but he's obviously if he wants to keep playing he's going to want to go to a contender but no contender is probably going to want him as their guy so the Colts are in a kind of an advantageous spot there but yeah I agree I think it's they've got to cut ties because he's not going to look better physically. And we've seen what it looks like right now. And unless you can absolutely guarantee a Hall of Fame performance from your offensive line every week,

you're probably not getting very far. So yeah, again, the $35 million cap hit, that could be moved around in a ton of different areas. So that's definitely what I would do. I moved around in a ton of different areas so that's that's definitely what i would do i'm definitely in the boat of pool your assets together and look for someone in the draft like i think that's what they absolutely have to do you're their next quarterback or the quarterback who they plan to be their future guy can't have been on another n team before. It's time to draft someone. Yes, agreed.

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Block Forever series available wherever you get your podcasts. Available everywhere now. Audible. Get in the game. So jumping into our next set of questions here, you know, we did get quite a few questions about Bernard Ryman. You know, the rookie left The rookie left tackle, again, 25-year-old rookie, barely played left tackle in college. And we knew this was going to be a bit of a struggle for him. We knew that he was a raw player coming in and it wasn't going to look pretty. And our boy, Matt Memringer, Stats Matt, who's in our comments on all of the live streams that we do, he asked, is left tackle Bernard Ryman's home? You know, can he be that left tackle going forward?

And I think through a couple of starts, I'm scared. I'm a little bit scared. Yes, he's super raw. Yes, I still believe in the physical gifts. Yes, I do think that he can get better and maybe even become a Garrett Bowles type guy with some more development and the proper coaching. But I do think that he can get better and maybe even become a Garrett Bowles type guy with some more development and the proper coaching. But I do think there are a lot of issues that we've seen so far this season where I don't know how easy it's going to be to clean this stuff up.

Because, you know, the biggest one right now that we can see every single week is that anchor. You know, anytime that he's facing any kind of power, any kind of of bull rush it just doesn't look pretty right now uh and and you know he probably had his best game in the NFL uh this past you know on Monday night whenever you guys listen so a couple days ago uh he probably had his best game against a really good pass rusher and Alex Highsmith Jr. but we still saw in that final drive when when the stakes mattered the most Highsmith beat him for a strip sack fumble, beat him for pressure on the fourth down play. You know, there were a couple moments on that fourth round for, you know, that that final drive in the fourth quarter where you needed your left tackle to lock it down.

He just couldn't get it done. Given again, he is a rookie. I'm not burying him. But I think we need to see more before we can say that he's a left tackle of the future, because so far, I think there's a lot of work that's needed. And I, as of right now, I wouldn't be comfortable going into next season, just giving him that left tackle job.

Totally agree. And something I think we obviously know has to be avoided is just crowning guys, the starters, you know, guys you're not sure about crowning them as starters without adequate competition. Like we saw entering this season with Matt Pryor and Danny Pinter that being said I'd be totally fine with Ryman entering training camp in the mix to be the guy like you said I think there are gifts there teams know though if they're going to dial up something and get pressure Brandon Graham did it late in the game with the Eagles, Alex Highsmith.

So we've seen it two weeks in a row. And there was also the one, the other guy from the Eagles who, Hassan Redick. Josh Sweat. No, and Hassan Redick and Josh Sweat. I mean, the Eagles game was a rough one for Bernard Brown. I just knew, we just all knew kind of going into that game that that was a matchup where the Eagles

were just going to feast on the Colts offensive line. Because Bernard Ryman, you know, again, there have been some good moments. He's had some flashes here and there, but he was not ready whatsoever for that talented Eagles defensive front. I mean, again, we're talking about Josh Sweat, who's one of the

brightest up and comers in the league. Hassan Reddick is a multiple 10 sack guy. Robert Quinn played a little bit too, who, you know, is probably a Hall of Famer off the edge. They just don't, he just doesn't have the technique, the savvy or the strength to kind of win any of those matchups there. But again, I'm not sinking him. I do think there is an avenue to success for him, but he needs a lot of work, like a lot of work. And, and unfortunately, you know, he's 25, he's gonna be 26 going into next season. We're not talking about some 21 year old who declared for the draft. We're not talking about some 20 year old or something like that. We're talking about a guy who's, you know, around my age, you know, or we're talking about a guy in his mid 20s here where, yes, he's still football young, but he's not young in age, you know, like he's young relatively, but not football age.

So it is kind of tough when how do you factor that into the into the future? Because they didn't spend a premium pick on him. Yes, they spent a third round pick on him. But you don't, you know, unless you spend that first round pick like Garrett Bowles a couple of years ago, your lifespan is typically not that long in the NFL. You need to produce right away or you're really not going to get many chances. So I think this is a great audition, you know, at the end of the season that hopefully he continues to get all those starts the rest of the year. But you want to see him take more strides. And I do think again, Monday night against the Steelers was probably his best game of the year.

If he can keep building on that, you know, and look decent against Michael Parsons this next week, or at least adequate against Parsons, I'll feel a lot better. But I do think there are a lot of concerning areas right now in his game where, you know, you probably need to get a really good O-line coach in here next year. You need to get some really good off-season work for him because he needs to take a lot of positive steps forward

before we say, okay, yeah, this is our franchise left tackle. Yeah, I think them continuing to start him shows that they're going to put time and resources into helping him get to be the guy. But at the same time, if someone falls in their lap, whether it's a free agent or someone who comes upon them in the draft, I do think they would go ahead and make that move. He's not the type of player who you bypass elite talent for. So I guess it's a two-part thing that I'll get into here. we hear all the time, like coming into, into the draft that a certain guy, maybe he'd be decent at tackle,

but maybe doesn't have all the intangibles and would be really good inside at guard. Right. Guard is, I mean, Will Fries is, is decent and he's getting better, but is right.

Guard an option for Ryman moving forward. I would feel, I'd be terrified of the guy with his anchor being at right. Guard. Cause I don't think he has the lack of power is something we saw. That was an enormous issue with Danny Pinter. Right. And I think if, you know, Bernard Ryman is struggling to counter power from Josh sweat, who again, very, very powerful guy.

Like he is one of the more powerful defense bends in the league. So I'm not trying to discount him, but you know, he's struggling with power from Josh sweat. If you're struggling with power from Hassan Reddick, you know, he's struggling with power from Josh Sweat. He's struggling with power from Hasan Reddick. You know, what's he going to do against the Jeffreysons? What's he going to do against the Chris Jones? What's he going to do against, you know, these type of defensive tackles where, you know, they are athletic, they're quick, they're fast,

but they are immensely powerful. You know, Janiko Autry. You know, Janiko Autry would be salivating over having, you know, a Danny Pinter type guy in there at right guard or a Bernard Ryman type guy at right guard. So no, I think they need to stay the course with him at tackle. I do think he's ultimately a tackle. Again, he has the athleticism, he has the footwork. It's just, he doesn't have the technique and the savvy to overcome his poor anchor and overcome his lack of arm length right now. So I do think with a good off season, you know, and kind of building up that anchor, he can be a lot better. It's just, you know,

the Colts right now, they need someone there. They need someone, you know, a legit option, a legit answer at left tackle. And right now, you know, he's, he's probably not that he's not that right now at the moment. So it is kind of tough and frustrating, but again, I'm not ready to bury him. I do think he's got plenty of time ahead of him, but yeah, I'm a little bit concerned. I'm a little bit concerned. Yeah. And you certainly know better than I on this because of, of the guys in the draft, but you know, the Colts currently, as it sits, they'd be picking 14th. I think we're both pretty confident.

They'll be picking at least around 10th, you know, by the time the actual draft gets here. So you can find a really good left tackle around that range. But this specific draft class, is there, I mean, I know that kid from Penn State is going back to school apparently. Do you think in this specific draft class of who you expect to declare that there might be an option out there? Yeah, there'll be at least two or three guys that probably go in that top 10 range.

Paris Johnson Jr. from Ohio State is probably going to go that high. He's a younger guy, super athletic. I think Broderick Johnson, I believe his name is Broderick Johnson from Georgia, their left tackle, redshirt sophomore, big guy with just very nimble feet. He's like a dancing bear out there a phenomenal player and I think he might be the first tackle taken in this class and then Peter Skronsky I think it's Skronsky's how you say his last name forgive me guys if I'm mispronouncing these names I haven't really done too much draft work yet I haven't read up on the names and stuff

like that yet but Skronsky is another guy from from Northwestern he's a bit of a tweener because again the short arms and I know Colts fans are of a tweener because, again, the short arms. And I know Colts fans are going to be a little scarred from the short arms. So who knows if Colts fans will love that there. But there are a lot of good tackles in this class. Darnell Wright from Tennessee, even though he's more of just a right tackle, I'm a huge, huge fan of his game as well. So there are a lot of options, I think, in this class, even with the Penn State dude going back to school. But, yeah, I don't – well, this is the conversation for another day.

I left tackle when you still don't have a quarterback in the draft would still concern me a little bit. It'd be very Chris Ballard. Well, is it Chris Ballard? That's even going to be addressing that. We're actually going to get that in our, our final segment who kind of shares the most blame in this. But lastly, today's show is also brought to you by our friends at LinkedIn. These days, every new potential hire can feel like a high

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in delivering quality hires versus the leading competitors. LinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to faster. Post your job for free at linkedin.com slash locked on NFL. That's linkedin.com slash locked on NFL to post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. All right, Zach. So we love to get spicy here. There's no one spicier than our dear friend, Felipe Costa, who on Twitter posed this, this one to us, uh, who is more to

blame for the current Colts situation? Is it Frank Reich or Chris Ballard? Now, obviously one of those men is still here. The other one is not. Frank Reich was fired a few weeks ago in favor for Jeff Saturday. Chris Ballard awkwardly sitting there alongside Jim Irsay and Jeff Saturday, a move he definitely wanted to make. Just looking all over his face. From top to bottom, the whole organization was all for this move here. We all loved it. Everyone on board.

So that's loaded. That's a loaded question. But is it more Frank Reich or Chris Ballard that you would put this all on? Yeah, so the reason we put this for our third segment in this show is just we've already talked about this a lot. We've had whole segments talking about Frank Reich's failures with the team and Chris Ballard's failures and stuff like that. So it kind of felt redundant to make this our top, our, you know, our top topic of the show. You guys can go back to some of our older episodes and really see where we

really dove into these topics in detail. But, you know, if I had, you know, gun to my head, I'd probably say more on Chris Ballard, but I think both obviously needed to go, you know, but I think at the end of the day, if you're looking at this team, bringing in a new coach, bringing in Jeff Saturday, making all these changes to who's calling the plays making all these personnel changes at quarterback and stuff like that at the end of the day this has been the same team all year you know from from day one to yesterday's game or two days ago game wherever you guys are listening to this podcast they have been the exact same team you know they've had some energetic wins you know

they beat the Jaguars on the last second win. They beat the mighty Kansas City Chiefs. They had that energetic game after, after Frank Reich's firing and they won against the Las Vegas Raiders, but they just have struggled to finish games. They've been just overmanned and are overmatched and outmanned in a lot of games as well. And they just have not looked like a good football team. I think that goes down to roster construction, you know, both from a leadership standpoint within the locker room, a leadership standpoint from the front office,

from a talent evaluation standpoint, because again, we've looked at these issues for years where the Colts' pass rush has been a major concern for a while. And we can't just, I guess we can't sit here and say honestly that Chris Ballard hasn't tried to address it. He spent a first round pick on Quiddie Paye, traded a first round pick for DeForest Buckner, spent numerous second round picks on Taequann Lewis, Kamoko Ture, Ben Banigou, and traded for Yannick Ngakwe.

But the result has always been the same. You know, the pass rush has not been there. The offensive line was supposed to be, you know, the beacon of hope for this team this year. And it's fallen apart because of two poor decisions to bring in, know to have Matt Pryor and Danny Pinter start the quarterback moves have been just major misses the last two years and yes you could throw all that at Frank Reich if you want but Chris Ballard still signed off on those moves and made them so yeah I do think Chris Ballard is a little bit more to blame and I think it's been evident that even since this the coaching change the head coaching change,

and, you know, moving around some of the staff, the Colts are the same exact team. You know, they're a 4-7-1 team, probably closer to 4-12-1 at the end of the season, or whatever, 4-11-1, whatever that, whatever the 17th game, I think it's 4-12-1 is what they could be if they lost out. They're closer to being that than they are a playoff team, is what I'm trying to say here.

So, yeah, this team is in a bad place. I think they have a lot of bad contracts all of a sudden. They have a lot of talent that's not performing up to par. And overall, again, they're just a bad team. And I think it's from that roster construction. It's from the not taking chances in the draft at quarterbacks to missing on the veteran guys that they brought in, and then not supplanting, you know, the young talent on this roster with quality free agents and kind of ignoring free agency altogether. I think there's

a lot of issues we can look at with Chris Ballard and also say, you know, he's done a decent job of building up this roster. It just, it's a build that fell apart. You know, it's a build that just didn't work. And that obviously goes to one of our first segment questions about Andrew Luck's retirement and stuff like that. But it's just, it's a roster build that just did not work. Frank Reich and Chris Ballard both had a hand in that, but yeah, I'd probably point the finger a little bit more at Chris Ballard. I agree. I don't think anyone's blameless. And, you know, the issues with Frank Reich were pretty evident as well. Like when a team routinely comes unprepared to play, makes predictable mistakes, and you just keep seeing the same issues over and over and over that seem correctable. That's that's an indictment on coaching. And I mean, the a lot of times things got stale. And you just kind of have to work with the roster you're given. Like, you can't just fit square pegs in around holes and such. Now, with that said, you know, with Ballard, there's been a few pretty big things that I've looked at.

So, at his introductory press conference, he said it would never be about one guy, meaning Andrew Luck. Which, of course, but we've seen the quarterback position influx like his entire tenure. So with that being said, that roster should be able to withstand not having an elite quarterback. And it hasn't, they've been more mediocre than they've been anything else. They made the playoffs with Phillip Rivers and with that one year with Andrew Luck. Otherwise, they've been a disaster or just a totally bland team. So that mission was not successful. Every year, it seems like there's a couple areas that are glaring needs. And you and I have given the benefit of the doubt.

Like maybe this can work here. You know, the offensive line this year, there's been quarterback issues, depth issues in certain areas. And we've gotten really reassuring answers when, you know, he's asked about it. And it doesn't wind up working. Like the issues that everyone says are going to be issues come true. They wind up biting them in the butt and, you know, there's, we're left saying, well, coulda, woulda, shoulda. And then last, you know, we know his philosophy on certain players. He wants to build from the inside out. He wants pass rush, like eight pass rushers who can get,

get to the quarterback. The offensive line should always be ironclad. Those are areas, you know, if that's the case and that's what you want to do every year, why are those, I mean, the offensive line has been good for most of his tenure, I will say that, but there's really never been a consistent pass rush. You know, part of the positive part of the pass rush is when you got an established guy like DeForest Buckner, who you already knew who he was as an NFL player. Gokwe has provided some of that this year, but otherwise the young guys largely haven't. So whether that's just, you kind of talked about it, just a miss in talent evaluation or whatever. I don't know.

But the areas you want to knock out of the park, you really haven't been able to. Which, I mean, that's, that's obviously not good. That's a, that's a red mark on, on the record there. So not, not to say he's not a good talent talent evaluator at all, because like I love a lot of the moves he's made in the draft and a lot of these mid to late round guys are still with the team. So I don't think that part of it's an issue, but it's, I guess it's just the whole philosophy on

how to build a team because we've seen eagle or teams like the Eagles they've they've been able to kind of rebuild things twice since Ballard's been around a team like the Rams got really good really fast now they're bad all of a sudden but like it's possible to get really good and then just worry about rebuilding later like if you just set yourself up to be adequate for 10 years or whatever you're that's where you're going to stop is adequate you're not going to reach the next level so at some point you gotta you gotta swing and take some chances and they just haven't really done that and that's kind of how they went from treading water to now they're just bad the drowning the drowning that's that's kind of how they went from treading water to now they're just bad to drowning the

drowning that's that's the that's the phrase there with it they are they were treading water and now they finally drown they ran out of energy and they drown but yeah again i just think you know this would be what six years with chris ballard right i think this is his sixth year with the colts 18 or 2017 was his first year. I just think it's time. I just think it's time. I think we've seen enough. There was a grace period where after the Andrew Luck retirement, there was a grace period where it's not that you had to make the Super Bowl within two years after that, but there had to be some kind of direction with this team

since then you know this has been three years now since Andrew Luck's retirement and we have not seen any positive signs of a direction that this franchise is going in we've seen them again treading water until they drowned uh and and now we're probably at the worst point of the franchise in as bad a place now as it was back in 2017 when he took over. I'm not saying that this roster is like, like this roster is much more talented than 2017 team, but they have a lot of bad contracts. They have a quarterback that definitely is, is over the hill and they're going to have to pay a lot to next season that they're stuck with. And a lot of other just, just bad things with this

roster. So I do think that this roster is in a bad place this team has no direction and a lot of that falls on the general manager yep without a doubt well i think that's all i've got on on that one i mean again like you said we've we've talked about that one ad nauseum but it's it's interesting you know we're a few weeks now into the jeff saturday era and we've seen a lot of the same issues creep up. We had that fast start against the Raiders. They should have beat the Eagles, but now they are just the same old blah team that we saw through a lot of the early season. Yep, same exact team. Same exact team, but I think that's all we have for today.

That is it for us hang with us throughout the week as we bring you the up-to-date scoop on the colts and what to expect next in this big sunday night matchup against the dallas cowboys this week that's right your colts are about to be on national tv once again folks oh they got national tv in two of their next three games guys so we get to see this team on prime time quite a bit again on the road i think in both games but still make sure you guys are following us here on locked on colts at jake arthur nfl on We get to see this team on primetime quite a bit. Again, on the road, I think, in both games. But still, make sure you guys are following us here on Locked On Colts, at JakeArthurNFL on Twitter, and at ZachHicks2 on Twitter.

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