Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts' Matt Ryan, Michael Pittman Jr. Make Splash in First Padded Practice

Episode Date: August 3, 2022

The Indianapolis Colts threw the pads on for the first time of training camp on Tuesday, and the intensity cranked up. Matt Ryan and Michael Pittman Jr. connected for a huge touchdown while the defense ultimately won the day.Listen as Jake goes over his news and notes from Day 4 of #ColtsCamp. Also, check out the full notebook below from Horseshoe Huddle.Colts Training Camp Journal, Day 4: Matt Ryan Airs it Out, Defense Wins the Finale: https://www.si.com/nfl/colts/news/colts-training-camp-journal-day-4-matt-ryan-airs-defense-wins-finaleFind 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, and give them a follow on Twitter @JakeArthurNFL, @ZachHicks2, and @LockedOnColts!Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!DaveDownload the Dave app from the App store right now for an Extra Cash account and get up to 500 dollars instantly. For terms and conditions go to dave.com/legal. Instant transfer fees apply. Banking provided by Evolve. Member FDIC.BetterHelpIt’s not a crisis line, it’s not self-help, it’s professional therapy done securely online, available to people worldwide. And they have a special offer for my listeners: get 10% off your first month at Betterhelp.com/LockedOnBuilt BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” 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! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tuesday was the closest thing we've gotten to real football in months as the Colts finally put the pads on for the first time during training camp and the physicality came with it. We'll tell you all about that coming up. 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, Colts fans. Thanks so much 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. I'm Jake Arthur, joined as always by my partner Zach Hicks over here.

Tuesday brought the first day of full pads for the Colts, which along with it brought legitimate one-on-one drills and a more accurate scope of how this football team is doing currently. I was back at it at practice today and finally unloaded my daily notebook over at horseshoehuddle.com. If you guys haven't checked that out yet, please do a much, a much better at getting out on my thoughts there than I am on here. So that we'll go ahead and just kind of, before we get into the meat of things, we'll touch on some of the little newsier pieces of the day.

First, the team announced that they placed wide receiver John Hurst and offensive lineman Carter O'Donnell on IR, which ends both their seasons. I think I read John Hurst had ankle surgery, and that's something he already had previously. So that's something he's still got to work on. And the team also signed offensive lineman Alex Millette as a corresponding move there. Now, Hurst was kind of just hanging out at the lower end of the depth chart, but Carter O'Donnell had been the left guard, second team

left guard so far through the first few days. So that's, it's not a significant loss, but it's notable for sure. Yeah, no, he was, he was probably a likely practice squad guy. Again, I know the Colts do like him. I mean, they kept him around for all of last season. I think he was called up for maybe a game last year. It was, he wasn't really up much or anything. Like we never really saw him last season, but he was with the organization all last year.

I think he was actually a highly, not recruited, but highly touted Canadian Football League prospect too. I think he went in the first round. Yeah, he was one of the better Canadian prospects that year. Yep, yep. I think he went in the first round of the CFL draft the same year that the Colts signed him.

So yeah, this does set him back a little bit, but again, probably a guy who wasn't going to make the roster, get another year of development. I'm assuming it's not going to be like a massive injury that's setting him back. The bit, but again, probably a guy who wasn't going to make the roster get another year development. I'm assuming it's not going to be like a massive injury that's setting him back. The Colts probably were like, you know what, we'll put them on IR and, and let him recover while we still have some control over him.

So we'll, we'll see if there's an injury settlement that comes out of that. That's always interesting to see, you know, they could injury settle with him and then still bring him back to the practice squad. They did that with Marcus Johnson a couple years ago. He was injured in camp. They put him on IR. Then the injury settled with him. And then they brought him back for the practice squad, I think, halfway through the year back in 2020.

So we could see something like that with him. But it's just something to watch. I mean, again, a guy who probably wasn't making the roster, but he was running with the second team. And the Colts definitely liked him. Yeah, for sure. He was, just like you said, he had stuck around all last year. Now he wasn't the only guy from that second unit offensive line missing. Dennis Kelly also was not out there on Tuesday. And so with that, it brought a lot of shuffling with that group because two, two of the five out, you got to do something. So today it was still Bernard Ryman at left tackle. Didn't see him out there with the ones quite yet.

Will Fries, your boy Fries, kicked over to left guard. Wesley French was at center. Jason Spriggs stayed at right guard. And then Jordan Murray kicked up to right tackle with the second unit. So that's a big dude also. Yeah, yeah. No, I think they said Kelly was going to be out for a couple weeks or miss some time with his knee injury, I believe is what it was, right?

Yeah. Coach Reich, I think, let's see. He said, I think you're exactly right. He said he's going to be out a little bit, which that could be a couple weeks probably. Who knows if you're reading between the lines. Big opportunity for Jordan Murray, for Jason Spriggs, for Ryan Vandemark. I mean, these guys are going to get more run than probably what they would, even though it looks like Spriggs is mostly running with the guards this offseason, which is interesting.

I don't think he's had I don't think he's had a lot of run with guards in the NFL. So that's really interesting. But Jordan Murray, which we'll talk about, we'll get to the offensive line group I'm pretty sure or for the offensive group today uh that's it's a huge opportunity for him like you said big boy big boy who uh yeah you know I'm not saying he has a good chance to make the team but if Kelly's gonna be out you know this is your time to shine yep and that's that's absolutely true I really liked what I saw from Jordan Murray actually I'll probably get to that here shortly as well uh but the only other injury really of note, Mo Alleycox was back, you know, had a little knee thing Saturday, but Chris Williams is still out. Saw him with a boot on his right foot today. So he remains out. He left the first practice. Last little,

last little bit here that we're going to get to something making some more noise in Colts land today. And, you know, the only reason we felt compared compelled to share this is because it came from a couple of guys we trust. Rashad McGinnis and Jason Spears. They've both been killing the killing their source game the last couple of years. They've they both said today that they've heard a little something about Odell Beckham Jr. And the Colts heating up a little bit. So we've got to take it with a grain of salt.

I've, I've heard rebuttals today as well from other people with sources. So who knows? Again, we, we had like a whole episode about this recently. So you guys know, we're not going to full on dive into this.

No, no, no, no. Jake, we're going to click farm. That was our best episode. I'm going to put this, I'm going to put this in the thumbnail, Odell Beckham to the Colts done deal question mark. You know, that's what we got to do. But seriously guys, Rashad McGinnis is a guy who I trust. He definitely is connected. I know from personal experience from talking with him behind closed doors, you know, he definitely is connected league-wide. I'm not saying this is 100% going to happen because he's saying that, because, you know, he did do a lot of hinting with the Honey Badger and Jarvis Landry. And although, you know, I'm not saying that he was

wrong or that he lied or anything like that, you know, things change in the insider game. That's why you'll never see me and Jake dip our our toes in that like well i'm fully out on the insider game you guys can get little draft nuggets from me every now and then but that's the most you'll get from me i do not have any interest in the insider game but like you said some rebuttals like greg doyle uh i think also said that uh he reached out to a source who said it's not happening. Zach Kiefer and JMV to, you know, Zach Kiefer obviously with the athletic and JMV is a popular radio host.

They also kind of refuted and said, it's probably not going to happen. So we'll see, you know, again, with, with the insider game, it's a, it's a bloodbath. So we'll see what comes out on top, but yeah, if you guys want to see our opinion on Odell Beckham to the Colts, we did have a whole podcast about it a couple weeks back. Again, it did great views. So you guys can go check it. It's on our most viewed one on there. And I think the Blue Stable guys, Rashad McGinnis, Destin Adams,

the two guys who were both pushing that today, I believe they're going to have a podcast up either tonight or tomorrow. Go listen to their show if you want to have more info on all the stuff Odell Beckham, because we really don't have much insight there. We said our piece a couple weeks ago. We're not insiders, so we'll just leave it at that. We're just going to put it out there for you guys. You guys can run with that information however you want to.

Yeah, that is absolutely true. I think both of us gun to our head, probably not going to happen. Not to mention he's not going to be ready right away. And if they need a receiver right away, that doesn't quite help. Regardless, adding someone like OBJ would obviously give the Colts a boost. But let's talk about something that could give each of us a boost individually. This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. I don't know about you guys, but when it seems like there's too much to do and not enough time in the day to accomplish it all, it's easy to get overwhelmed and shut down. It's happened to me many, many times before

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All right, Zach, you know who's been locked in so far through campus? Ben Matt, right? No, but for real, him and Michael Pittman Jr., it looks like they're clicking like we all hoped they would. They had one of the biggest plays of the day today. It was during 11-on-11, so like real legit play. Pittman was lined up on the right outside against Brandon Faison, put a nice little double move on

him running the go route there uh Matt Ryan pumped hitting about 45 yard touchdown beautiful chef kiss yep yeah it's it's the type of stuff we've been waiting to see um you know Matt Ryan is not afraid to uncork it deep and Pittman is not even the guy that you consider to be like the deep threat, even though he can do it. So that kind of checked off a couple boxes for me. I really liked that play today. Yeah, and obviously this is us talking about the offense. But if anyone who watched Brandon Faison last year,

one of your biggest concerns was how susceptible he is to double moves. So that's a little bit of a concern there. But talking offense, I actually saw that clip online, So I can actually speak as someone who saw this clip rather than just talking blindly out of my butt here, but Michael Pittman Jr. looked smooth as ever. He's honestly, it's again, it's always rare to see a player of his size with how smooth he is. I mean, just such nimble and quick and efficient feet. And that's how he sets up those double moves like that. And then again, just a perfect ball from Matt Ryan. The things that you expect from your 14-year quarterback who has been an MVP and from your thousand-yard young receiver who's ascending. So it's great to see those guys kicking it in camp. And even when the pads come

on, they're both still starring out there. Yep. Tiny little bit of former Colts news here that just came through while we're talking Chester Rogers going to the Texans guys. Oh, he's who is it? Was it Derek Schultz or whatever that said that he's like one, one team away from being the whole AFC South. So I always loved Chester Rogers.

I thought he got a little bit of a bad rep. So I always love Chester Rogers. I thought he got a little bit of a bad rep. So I always loved Chester Rogers. Totally agree. He was an adequate slot guy who could create yards after the catch. You know, what else could you ask for? We're not going to spend a lot of time on Chester Rogers though, guys. I wanted to get your thoughts on the Colts throwing more in the red zone today. Pretty much all the 11 on 11 stuff today was first and second down in red zone today uh pretty much every pretty much all the 11 on 11 stuff today was first and

second down in red zone and obviously you want to get a guy like jonathan taylor heavily involved but ryan had four touchdowns i think three of them were in the red zone today naheem had one pittman had another one in the red zone i think taylor is the fourth one we were counting just kind of a scurry to hit the pylon. Nearly had another one to Mo Alleycox in the back of the end zone. Mo jumped up to catch it, but Bobby Okereke just had a tremendous punch out to get it away. But throwing in the red zone is almost completely about accuracy,

and that's Matt Ryan's forte. So what's your openness to throwing more often in the red zone this year? Honestly, anything to get the red zone numbers up. And honestly, I don't have the numbers in front of me, but as someone who has covered this team since 2018, you know, 2018 with Frank Reich and Andrew Luck, they were one of the most efficient red zone teams in the league. I think Andrew Luck had a majority hit of his 35 touchdown passes in the red zone. He was super efficient in there and they were one

of the best, you know, red zone offenses league wide. And then 2019, they were one of the worst. 2020 with Phillip Rivers, they were shockingly in the bottom 10 as well. Last season as well, they were not that great of a red zone team. I think Jonathan Taylor's absurd touchdown number within the red zone kind of propelled it up a little bit, but they didn't, you know, they were not that great of a red zone team. I think Jonathan Taylor's absurd touchdown number within the red zone kind of propelled it up a little bit, but they didn't, you know, they were not an efficient red zone team last year either. So any way to get that efficiency up, because anytime that you can avoid taking the three and getting seven, I mean, obviously I'm just speaking very common sense here and anyone

listening would just be like, duh, but it's a huge difference in the game you know four four points here or there throughout the course of a game is huge and and think about maybe like that Ravens game last year how many times the Colts settled for three in the red zone and the kicker ended up missing or the even even if they did make it uh you're losing points every time you're settling for three when you're in the red zone so the Colts know that uh and and they got to be better I mean just talking about other games here I know I'm going points every time you're settling for three when you're in the red zone so the colts know that uh and and they got to be better i mean just talking about other games here i know i'm going a little bit of a ramble here but talking other games look at the the rams game then they have two turnovers

on the one yard line in the rams game last year and they lost by a score i mean you have to be more efficient in the red zone you have to score touchdowns instead of field goals or touchdowns instead of nothing uh so you can throw the ball with your, with your, you know, Miley Cox and Jelani Woods and Michael Pittman Jr. That's great. You know, if you can throw the ball out to Naeem Hines or Jonathan Taylor, that's great as well. And you have an accurate quarterback who knows where to go with the football. The red zone offense should be better this season,

but that's definitely one of the biggest things to watch on the year because the last three years, the red zone offense has not been great. No. And you would think Frank Reich would, what we saw with Andrew Luck, they'd be able to get that turned in the right direction. You forced my hand mentioning kickers. No. With kicks for the first time today,

both Rodrigo Blankenship and Jake Barady made all four of their kicks each. Those were from 32, 40, 46, and 52 yards. It was funny because someone responded to my tweet today and said, I don't believe you, with the Ron Burgundy gif about the 52-yarder. But it was true. All right, I'm not going to put Zach through that anymore. Something I know he'll want to talk about, though,

I'm really liking what I'm seeing from Kiki QT this summer. He's just playing a lot more. He looks comfortable and like he's just playing free. And I think you know what I mean by this. Like when guys are still learning or they're just trying to fit in whatever, it just looks like they're, they're just out there doing what they're being coached to do. It's not like you don't see them making a lot of really athletic plays where they're using their natural abilities to do special things.

And I'm just noticing he's just moving totally differently. He had a really good play in the end zone today in one-on-ones against Kenny Moore. I think it was probably either Ryan or Foles was the quarterback, but they threw him a little back shoulder thing. He had a nice adjustment and twisted in the air to shield it away from Kenny and came down with it. And it was just like stuff like that.

It's like when you're all up in your head, you're not doing those kinds of things physically. And he's been involved with the return game like every day. He's making a lot of catches during the 11 on 11s and 7s i just am really i'm starting to make more mental notes about qt yeah you know when it comes to our roster prediction time that's something to keep in mind because you know he's in that fight for that fifth wide receiver spot with des patman you know the colts could keep five and that fifth spot could be the final spot or the keep six.

And and he's kind of fighting for that sixth spot with maybe a guy like Michael Strahan, who's not practicing. But Kiki Kuti just moves at a different speed. And and, you know, again, when you look at this wide receiver group in Indy, he's the second most productive for his career compared to all the guys they have in that group. He's the second most productive in terms of yards, in terms of catches. Heck, if you just take his yards and catches that he has against the Colts in his career, he has more than the next, you know, than any other Colts receiver besides Michael Pittman Jr. So he's been a productive guy in his career. The thing has always just been consistency and injuries with him. Kind of a little bit like Paris Campbell, except Paris Campbell's injuries have been a lot more major.

So, you know, if the Colts want to add more speed and they want to add more experience, Kiki Cutie could make a lot of sense as that fifth or sixth receiver. I mean, I'm always on board with adding more speed, so I would never say no to adding Kiki Cutie. I know, that's right. That's the Paris Campbell insurance right there, even though, like you said, they kind of have some similar issues. Last little thing I wanted to touch on offensively was I'd kind of tease Jordan Murray.

Now, he did get a beat a couple times in the one-on-ones that I saw. You know, Dio got him once. Actually, Dio got him twice, and then they kind of had a little bit of a skirmish after the second one. It was the first skirmish I saw a little dust up. But then he kind of stonewalled Ben Banigou twice later in the drills. Ben wins a lot better when he uses his bend and his speed around the edge. As you know, when he tries to bull rush or gets right up in the tackles grill, it doesn't always go as well.

But, you know, he's just got kind of an edge to him. He's, again, 6'9", So he's obviously got a ton of length. He's got the power. I'm just kind of, I'm kind of getting intrigued and Ryan Vandermark, nothing against him, but Vandermark hasn't really been like popping yet. Like I anticipated.

And, and with a guy like Dennis Kelly hurt and Sprague's playing guard, there's a, there's a window here for Jordan Murray to kind of show what he's doing. And he played with both the second and third units today, right tackle with the second and left tackle with the third, I believe still. So yeah,

I'm, I'm kind of, he's another guy I'm making a little note about. All right. So you guys can bet on Jake making some mental notes about Jordan Murray, but now speaking of bets, you know, let's talk about some BetOnline 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. Find reviews and news of every league, including Major League Baseball, NFL, NBA, NHL, combat sports, esports, and even golf. BetOnline continues to be the top online resource for all your sports wagering information from live in-game betting, scores, and podcasts. They have you covered. If you guys go to BetOnline right now, you will see under Defensive Player of the Year odds, I think it's like plus 2,500, you can bet on Darius Leonard winning defensive player of the year.

I don't know how confident you guys could be in that, but he's currently at the seventh best odds among all defenders tied with Max Crosby, Joey Bosa, and Chase Young. That's an interesting one right there. Head to BetOnline today or use your mobile device to learn more about the action happening. BetOnline, where the game starts. All right, Jake. So I love talking offense.

Offense is great. Jordan Murray, awesome player. But you know why I'm really here. I'm here for the Ben Banigou hype. I'm here for, you know, locked on Curtis Brooks. That's all I'm here for. So tell me about this defense. You know, what'd you see from the defensive linemen?

Because we were talking pretty high about them yesterday saying, you know, when the pads come on, we you see from the defensive linemen? Because we were talking pretty high about them yesterday saying, you know, when the pads come on, we've got to see these defensive linemen kind of stand out. So who caught your eye today? It sounds like Dio did. Yeah, Dio had some nice rushes. His was more so in the one-on-ones that I noticed him. He did a couple nice things, of course, in the live drills.

I really noticed Yannick Ngakwe today. He had a couple, a couple of times where he really got after Matt Ryan had one probably would be sack from a game. Ben Banigou, of course, as I know you saw Taylor Tannenbaum's tweet, who friend of the show,

by the way, she might be listening right now. So hello, Taylor. Ben Banigou got on the sack counter again um yeah you know the the guys i really wanted to to point out to you today were the linebackers the pads were on so this this was a linebacker show today uh bobby okarake and zyre franklin really stood out uh even in past coverage, you know, you could say that with Franklin, O'Kerrick, that's an area he, you know, somewhat excels at on occasion. He had a couple of really

nice pass breakups. He flew in and blocked one away from Kylan Granson in the flat early on. And then he had that one I talked about with Mo Alley-Cox in the back of the end zone. That was a really good play because Mo probably comes down with it in the back and scores the touchdown. But Okereke just punched it right out. Franklin was really physical. Without knocking guys out, he really just let them know he was there. He had one where he kind of out-bodied Paris Campbell during the seven-on-sevens out in space and coverage. And during seven-on-sevens, that's like a lot of space, and Paris Campbell is one of the fastest guys on the team.

So I was pretty impressed with that one. Yeah, you know, and I want to get back to D-line here in a second. But, you know, talking just about this linebacker group, obviously we've talked a lot about Forrest Ryan, JoJo Doman, who I saw had a really good day today as well from your notebook and from other tweets and stuff like that. Sterling Weatherford, you know, we've talked about these depth guys, but it's good to see that the top guys, even without Darius Leonard, are still performing here in camp. And I don't think people realize, and obviously I'm going to shed a little more light on here when I go to the linebackers with my Gus Bradley

series I'm doing. I think I'll be talking linebackers either on Wednesday, which is tonight when you guys are listening or Thursday, but in coverage, the linebackers in this scheme are going to be doing so many different things than what they're doing with Matt Eberflus. You know, under Matt Eberflus, the linebackers were very much, you know, sit back and attack, you know, we're going to kind of spot drop. You know, they'll occasionally run in some match man type stuff under Eberflus. But a lot of it was sitting in those like underneath shorter zones and attacking the ball. That's why Darius Leonard was able to read quarterbacks so much.

You know, he's spying. He was attacking receivers underneath. And this one, they're going to be playing a lot more with their back to the ball. You know, it's a lot more man match. It's a lot more roboting down the field. It's a lot more turning and running with maybe a slot receiver to carry them to that single high safety. So these linebackers can be asked to do so much more in coverage. So seeing a guy like Bobby O'Kara,

who's in a big year in a contract year, seeing him being able to stand out in this new scheme where, you know, as the Mike in a cover three, you know, a Gus Bradley type defense, he has a lot of responsibility coming his way. You know, we look across the league guys like Bobby Wagner and Jordan Brooks with Seattle, you know, those guys are asked to do so much in coverage. And Bobby O'Kerrick is going to ask, we're going to be asked to do a lot of that this year as well.

So seeing him stand out in camp already in the coverage aspect, that that's huge for him because, again, this is a very, very different defense with a lot more on his plate. He's going to need to excel in it if he wants to get that next contract. Yeah, he's one of the most intriguing players to see in this new scheme without a doubt because there's just so much possibility with what they could ask him to do. Kind of piggybacking off that into a couple more linemen, linebacker

notes here. So Curtis Brooks couldn't go a show without mentioning him. Him and JoJo Doman, like you talked about. Have to mention this because that's very on brand for us. They converged on a really nice tackle stuff. I think they maybe gave it a yard. The very next play, Doman nearly picks the ball off. Another note I think you'll be interested in, I noticed Brooks getting some run at the big end, the left defensive end there near the end of practice. So not just the defensive tackle. And in a battle here where we're looking at

what does this defensive tackle depth look like? And, you know, there's Dio and Taekwon, guys who can play inside and out. He's putting his name in there as well. That's going to really give him a leg up when it comes time to cuts. Yeah, yeah, no, that's really cool. And that kind of goes in line with a lot of stuff we've been talking about lately is, you know, I held a whole article for Horseshoe Huddle that went up today, which is Tuesday when I'm saying this. I know I'm saying today a lot when, because we record the night before. But Tuesday night, the night before you guys are listening

to this, I had an article go up about, you know, that second wave of pass rushes for the Colts. We know who that first wave is. Yannick Ngakwe, Quidipe, DeForest Buckner, Grover Stewart, and then obviously Dio Dingbo will be probably rotating in for Grover. But behind those guys is going to be just as important because Gus Bradley has always been a coach that wants to rush in waves. You know, he wants to have a first wave that gets the majority of the snaps, but that second wave has to be effective too. And the Colts in camp have so many guys fighting for spots in that second wave.

It could be Yafeti Odenikbo, it could be Ben Banigou, Taequann Lewis, Curtis Brooks, Eric Johnson, Byron Cowart. You know, there's a lot of guys here in camp that are fighting for that second role. And obviously we have Ben Banigou, Taequann Lewis, the guys we want to win those battles. But if these guys can stand out in camp, you know, they can make plays against, you know, the first or second team offensive line in camp. They can earn those spots because Gus Bradley's a new coach it doesn't matter what your pedigree was before this year it matters what you're doing now in this scheme so this camp is huge for all those second wave guys because they're going to need a second wave to keep Yannick and and Quidipe fresh on. Yeah, that's without a doubt because you just mentioned recently

those guys can't be playing 800, 900, whatever snaps. There has to be a lot more evenness to it. So that's some guys in the front seven, but in the back end, so Nick Cross has been getting the most run at strong safety with the ones, but as Rodney McCloud gets a little healthier and back from his knee thing that he had in the spring, he's been getting a little more run with the ones. I don't, I mean, I think it's still a competition. And as you've said before,

you kind of expect McLeod to be more of a contributor in the depth at free safety. Part of it, I think could be, you know, just giving cross an example to look at so it's not all on him. You know, Rodney McCloud is someone who can do both things. So watching him with the same personnel that Cross will be playing with, that's a good example to set. But still, I would think it's Cross's job to lose.

But who knows? It's still very early. It's the start of week two of camp. Yeah, and McLeod, even if, you know, McLeod is going to be the backup at both spots. He's experienced at both spots. He has the ability to play both, and also in Gus Bradley's system, you know, there's a lot of looks where you have three safeties on the field at the same time, so he'll be playing a lot this year, even if he doesn't win the strong safety job. I mean, we'll see Rodney McLeod probably playing a good 20, 25,

maybe 30 snaps a game. So having him get some run with the first team at strong safety or even free safety can only do wonders for this defense. And also he's just brings that veteran leadership, that veteran poise. Like he knows what he's doing out there. So get him as much run out there as possible without giving him too much. Cause he is a 30 something year old vet and when I'm running around too much in training camp. But, yeah, I'm not worried about seeing him out there

because he's going to play a lot come regular season. Yeah, he'll be taking over that Andrew Sandejo Memorial backup safety role. Yes, yes. My apologies. We've got to leave strong on that one. We'll be back with you guys tomorrow. The Colts have another practice on Wednesday as well as Thursday. And then up to Sunday, the rest of this week,

we'll bring you all the good stuff from all those sessions. Make sure you guys are following Jake on Twitter at JakeArthurNFL. I know I have the tweet notifications on for him this time of year because I don't want to miss anything here at camp. I'm going to take a screenshot of that face you just made there. You want me to do it again. There we go. There we go. When Zach talks about Curtis Brooks, that's what it's going to be. Also Andrew Moore, NFL,

our coworker there at horseshoehuddle.com. He's going to be on boots on the ground, you know, quite a bit there at camp. So get some tweet notifications on for him. Follow all of our written work over at horseshoehuddle.com. Jake puts his camp notes up. I do a Gus Bradley series. Whatever is your cup of tea, you can go that way. Follow us here on YouTube. Subscribe to the channel. I think we just hit 600 subscribers. So we're closing in on that thousand mark pretty quickly. And lastly, rate, review, subscribe wherever you listen to the show

over on Spotify, Stitcher, Apple, wherever. We appreciate all the reviews and subscriptions and everything so far, and just keep it up, guys. Yeah, absolutely. And thank you 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 and the latest news from around the league. We'll see you tomorrow.