Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts' Outlook After Trading Nyheim Hines, Firing Marcus Brady

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Colts had just about as eventful of a day as a team could have without actually stepping foot on a field. And we're going to tell you all about it on today's episode of Locked on Colts. Let's get to it. You are Locked on Colts. Your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network. Your team, every day. Thank you all for tuning in and making us your first listen of the day.

Starting point is 00:00:46 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 Zach Hicks, and you know the two of us from HorseshoeHuddle.com, of course. So, Zach, what did you find yourself getting into today, man? Well, I didn't have as busy a day as you did with everything going on with the Colts, but I think I got into the same stuff that everybody else did. It was kind of an insane day. Yeah, yeah, absolutely insane is one way to put it.

Starting point is 00:01:15 So the Colts got their day started by firing offensive coordinator Marcus Brady, which of course raised plenty of eyebrows, which we'll get into. And then they ended it by trading running back Naheem Hines, which wasn't really a surprise given the last 24 hours, but still a bit of a surprise overall nonetheless. We're going to dissect all of that and more, and then we'll look into what all of it means for the Colts moving forward. So starting out, of course, with the biggest news, Naheem Hines gets traded to the Buffalo Bills. In exchange, the Colts receive running back Zach Moss, who is, you know, he's the third down back in his own right out of Buffalo as well, kind of. But the Colts also get a conditional 2023 sixth round pick out of it that can become a fifth round pick.

Starting point is 00:02:05 We're assuming if playing time incentives are hit and things like that. The Colts now have eight picks in this next draft. A first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and then two sevenths. So they're represented in every round so far. So the reload, we won't call it a rebuild. The reload for next offseason has some ammo to it. Naheem Hines, his contract runs through 2024. It has no guaranteed money left after this year's $3.3 million, and it's got $12.3 million total remaining between now and the end of 2024. Moss is a whole lot cheaper. He is signed just through next season, and he has no more dead money or guarantees remaining, from what I could see. The total remaining on his deal left is $1.7 million. So, Zach, I mean, Naheem, that's been our guy for the whole time. I mean, I put out a tweet today, you know, he's

Starting point is 00:02:58 probably been my favorite guy to talk to in the locker room since he came into the league in 2018. Big time team leader. So what do you think about his departure? Yeah, honestly, I feel like we should start this segment by just talking about Naeem Hines and not even just what he was doing on the field. Because, look, I think we can all kind of agree, even if you're not the biggest Naeem Hines fan, he just wasn't utilized the way that he could have been utilized.

Starting point is 00:03:21 You know, like even if you just think he's a terrible running back and he can't run the ball very well, he should have been used more in the passing game. He should have been used more at wide receiver, more on the slot, more on gadget plays. They have done a little bit with it over the years, but it just never got to the point where he could have been really effective.

Starting point is 00:03:38 And I think in Buffalo, he's going to be able to do a lot of that. But speaking away from the field right now, just taking it away from the field, Naeem Hines, man, one of my favorite players on this entire team. I'm not like you. I haven't been blessed enough to talk to every single Colts player or a lot of Colts players in that locker room setting.

Starting point is 00:03:57 But I have interviewed a couple Colts players. And Naeem Hines is one guy that I did a film interview with a couple years ago. And just one heck of a guy, just a really down to earth guy, really pleasant to talk to. Honestly, I think one of the nicest human beings I've ever talked to. Like he saw a picture of my like engagement pictures or whatever with my now wife, wished us many blessings on our future marriage and our long life together. And, you know, since that day, he's been my wife's favorite player. You know, my, my wife was a little bummed when, when I said that he got traded. Um, so yeah, it's, it's tough, man. Nine

Starting point is 00:04:34 lines. That's a glue guy. When you talk glue guys in a locker room, like this is not even just on the field because again, third down running back a guy who maybe sees 20, 30, maybe 40% of the snaps. Uh, but in that locker room, he is a glue guy. You know, you're glue guys with this team field because again third down running back a guy who maybe sees 20 30 maybe 40 of the snaps but in that locker room he is a glue guy you know your glue guys with this team under under frank reich have been like him zire franklin shaquille leonard like those guys the vocal guys that the players in that locker room look up to and they go to and they're kind of like that big brother to everybody in the locker room uh naeem hines has been that guy since day one the second that he stepped in that locker room even as a rookie in uh 2018 he's been a glue guy in that locker room you can attest to that more than i can jake because you've been

Starting point is 00:05:13 so much closer to the team than i have but you could just see in the way guys talk about him like it's never a bad thing it's never a bad thing about his his personality about his work ethic about what he is in that locker room so uh you know when we got the news from from Adam Schefter there on ESPN that he requested this trade uh and the Colts were you know the Colts granted it and sent him to Buffalo uh that's a tough blow to a locker room like even even if you sit down with all the guys and say like look I requested this and I want to move on to Buffalo. That's a tough loss, man, especially because, like, where do you sit as a locker room and as a lot of players in that locker room when one of your leaders, one of your vocal guys, one of the guys you've looked up to for years says, hey, I requested out. You know, like, that's a tough blow.

Starting point is 00:06:03 So I think the Colts are going to feel this trade on the field. I think they're going to feel this trade on the field i think they're going to feel this trade off the field and you know you and i were talking before we recorded like that just felt like a guy who was kind of untouchable because of just because of who he was in that locker room you know just just a huge huge uh face of that locker room since 2018 and uh for him to kind of request a trade and get granted that trade, that's insane. Like if you told him before the year that Naeem Hines would not be on the Colts at the end of the season, I would think that's absolutely insane. But it's the nature of where we are with this 2022 Colts team and you have to move on from it.

Starting point is 00:06:37 But yeah, man, Naeem Hines before the season, I would have said, is like a core glue guy and now he's in buffalo for table scraps yeah and you know initially i i said you know i don't disagree with him getting traded or anything like that this is before we knew the deep more a little more the details and everything i'm not a big fan of the compensation uh for my money zach moss is just about a wash with deon jackson like deon jackson's not great but like they can do some of the same things zach moss is probably better pass protector um but like to me the differences are just kind of negligible like i'd be totally fine with jackson remaining the next man behind jonathan taylor throughout the season so and and a six rounder being the other part of it, I just thought they could probably

Starting point is 00:07:28 get more, but it's almost like the Matt Ryan Atlanta thing. Atlanta would have loved to get more for dealing Matt Ryan, but by his request and a certain destination, you just kind of give the player, you know, what, what they're asking for. So I get that. As far as on the field goes, and you're exactly right with everything you said off the field, it's going to be weird stepping into a locker room without him in it. It just, again, he seemed untouchable, very much a leader in there. It's going to be weird uh but as far as on the field goes

Starting point is 00:08:05 this can be interesting um you know they throughout his entire career it wasn't just this year we always had times where we're like why are they not using him enough you know he'd go off for he'd go off for two insane games in a row and then it's like he just was barely used for four or five straight games after that and you know they'll say you know that's just not what the game plan was this or that but it's like okay tough he's in he's one of your best playmakers you just have to find a way to get him involved every week and so i don't i don't blame him if he wanted to go somewhere else it makes a lot of sense. Yeah, yeah.

Starting point is 00:08:48 The last thing I'll say about this is, again, this is just a tough trade. It's a tough, tough trade. And I get it. Again, the table scraps coming back are because when a player requests a trade and he has that kind of contract and he's not a starting running back, what are you really going to get back for him? You know, there's not really a market for the 12th highest paid running back who's maybe going to see the field 30 percent of the time but um yeah he felt like a glue guy on his team maybe

Starting point is 00:09:11 it's a turning of page now with the the frank reich and chris ballard era and who knows what is on the other page here but it definitely felt like you know this feels like if they would have let uh they would have let zire franklin leave this off season or something like that like it feels like a similar thing where maybe on the field it's not as huge but in that locker room that's tough that's a tough one but uh yeah quick thoughts on zach moss really good pass protector uh kind of a bigger bruising back uh you know decent hands but i think he's more of a jordan wilkins type he's a guy who's going to play some special teams like in special teams i mean like the protector on punt team or something like that, not like a gunner or anything like that.

Starting point is 00:09:50 He'll play a little bit of that. He's a good pass blocker, decent pass catcher. He's been okay running the ball, but nothing special. Yeah, it's just like a Jordan Wilkins type, so it's nothing huge coming back. But yeah, it's done. At least we had time to prepare we had a whole day to prepare uh with steven holder and zach heifer kind of putting

Starting point is 00:10:10 the news out there that uh nine hines would likely to be traded um but yeah yeah this is a tough one i mean again i can only imagine what that locker room's thinking right now because just us as reporters and writers and stuff like that cover the team and you who's been in that locker room. It's like that presence being gone is insane. Like, imagine what that locker room is thinking right now. Yeah, I can't wait to get in there tomorrow and find out all about it, because there's a lot of stuff we need some more context on. We need to find out more details on.

Starting point is 00:10:42 But before we get into that and the next big news story of the day, did you guys know that over the holidays, property crimes like burglaries and package thefts spike nationally? That's why our friends at Simply Safe Home Security are offering 50% off their award-winning security system so that more families can feel safe and secure this holiday season. Order your Simplyafe system for half off today and enjoy advanced security and greater peace of mind this holiday season. I love it first of all because I do have a family to protect and I can't always be there,

Starting point is 00:11:15 but I also have a dream of one day catching a porch pirate in the act and I think that's something that SimpliSafe might be able to help me out with. Whether it's being able to monitor things from my home or their monitoring team giving a heads up if a natural disaster were to smoke my house, they've got my back. In an emergency, their 24-7 professional monitoring agents use Fast Protect technology exclusively from SimpliSafe to capture critical evidence and verify that a threat is real so that you can get a priority police response. Don't miss your chance to save big on the only security system I recommend. Get 50% off any SimpliSafe system at simplisafe.com slash locked on NFL today. This is their biggest

Starting point is 00:12:00 discount of the year, so don't wait. That's simplisafe.com slash locked on NFL. There's no safe like SimpliSafe. All right, Zach. So obviously the Colts had a really big news story to start the day, and it gets shuffled down to topic number two, because they had to top themselves. Right. So this one, I don't know.

Starting point is 00:12:22 If you're like me, this one is even a bigger head scratcher. So the Colts fire offensive coordinator Marcus Brady and immediately people are like, hey, Frank, right. Wait a second, man. That's pretty much you. You're the one out there calling plays this and that. So I I haven't heard much detail on what Marcus Brady provided weekly, but the last we all heard in the media was about Nick Sirianni, very heavily involved in game planning throughout the week, helping with things schematically, things like that. Basically, Frank Reich's right-hand man as an offensive mind, essentially.

Starting point is 00:13:01 If you're not going to call the plays, it's basically what your job is. So Marcus Brady being fired mid-season seemed very suspect, very questionable, because Frank also released a statement that just didn't really give much detail either. Colts coordinators normally speak to the media on Tuesdays. Obviously, that was not going to happen this Tuesday. So they shuffled it to Thursday. Frank's going to take over offensive coordinator duties for the rest of the season. So, you know, just for me at face value,

Starting point is 00:13:35 it seemed like a panic move who knows where it's coming from. Is it coming from the top is a suggestion. Is there a difference in philosophy? Did Brady want out? Like there's just, we need more context because right now all there is to do is speculate. Right, right. So a little bit of clarification from what I have been able to gather about just offense coordinators who aren't play callers in the NFL and how a lot of this kind of stuff works. A lot that goes into being office coordinator is that game planning.

Starting point is 00:14:09 It is the advanced scouting. It's, you know, preparing for an upcoming opponent because look, Frank Reich was the head coach. He is the head coach. He doesn't have time to be the advanced scout for the team. He doesn't have time to be the, you know, the game planner for that opening script or for, for other scripts and stuff like that in the game. So that's where a guy like Marcus Brady comes in. And so in a way, I can see the rationale because the Colts have just been atrocious on their opening scripts this year.

Starting point is 00:14:35 They've been atrocious early in games and they kind of pick up later on in games once they're doing kind of their in-game scouting rather than their pre-game scouting. But the one thing I will say that kind of is funny to me is I think the last thing I would ever suggest with all the struggles the Colts have been having this year is put more responsibility on Frank Reich's plate. Throw more at Frank Reich. He looks overwhelmed as it is. He looks kind of in over his head as it is because he doesn't have quality assistance like he had early on in his tenure. You know, a guy like Nick Sirianni, who was kind of like him in the in the you know, in the in the film room and stuff like that. Like Frank Reich felt comfortable with Nick Sirianni because Nick Sirianni was going to see the same things that he could see. They were guys who worked together for a long time. And that's where that comfort level and where that that cohesion really worked.

Starting point is 00:15:24 But Marcus Brady just never was there. And so I kind that comfort level and where that, that cohesion really worked with Marcus Brady. It just never was there. And so I kind of understand making this move, but again, it does feel like a scapegoat. It does feel like a fall guy. I totally see where people are coming from with that, because at the end of the day, Frank Reich's one, make the play calls. Yes. It might be Marcus Brady saying like, look, attack the defense this way. And then Frank Reich calls that play and it doesn't work. And it's like, look, Brady, your, your game plan was not the way that, you know, we expected.

Starting point is 00:15:49 But again, it just does feel like kind of deflecting the blame a little bit. Now, something I said earlier on social media is like, look, if Frank Reich is kind of a lame duck coach and he's gone at the end of the year, this firing is just getting ahead of the curve. It's really nothing notable. But, you know, you can't help but thinking right now it's really nothing notable uh but you know you can't help but thinking right now it's kind of a scapegoat scapegoat even though there is some evidence for it again this colts offense has been putrid uh but yeah i mean the failures on offense

Starting point is 00:16:16 go a lot further than just marcus brady even if it was just marcus brady doing that opening script because it's not like they're only a bad offense in the first quarter they're bad pretty much the whole game so yeah it's it's a weird timing thing and it's it's kind of a weird look but I do get it in some ways uh but yeah you can't help the optics of it it does look very scapegoat very fall guy but I think you have some stats here to talk about the Colts offense that yeah this, this Colts offense hasn't been good. And, you know, he is the offense coordinator. So I get it in some ways. It's weird. It's a weird one. Yeah. Like if I was someone who paid attention to a different team, then on face value, this makes sense. The Colts offense currently ranks 15th on third downs. They're 18th overall, 30th in scoring.

Starting point is 00:17:08 But then again, you start to think, you know, Frank's the play caller. And then all of us here, we're like, hey, wait a minute. There's another offensive coach leading a unit that has done poorly and kind of leads to trickle down of the rest of the offense failing. And that's the offensive line. Chris Drosser has been here since 2019. His unit is, these guys are extremely expensive. You got Quentin Nelson, Ryan Kelly, Braden Smith.

Starting point is 00:17:35 Everyone seems to be underperforming somehow. You know, you've been with these guys multiple years now. You know, the Colts ranked 29th in rushing despite having the league's reigning rushing champion, which is unheard of. And they are tied for 29th in sacks allowed with 26. Pro Football Focus ranks the Colts as 28th out of 32 in pass blocking and 30th in run blocking. So no matter how you look at it, it's really not great. And a lot of people are asking this today is why is Brady taking the fall for this when, you know, Frank is calling the plays and Chris Strasser's unit has been atrocious despite this being like his

Starting point is 00:18:18 third or fourth year here. Again, I think there's a lot of things going on in there. We just don't know, which is why we're going to need more context I know Frank doesn't really like to pull the curtain back much but I think we're gonna need to know more details or this is just gonna kind of as people and we're included in this you know it's hard not to just start assuming things um but man it's uh it's curious for sure. Yeah. Again, me just putting some rationale behind it. I'm not saying this is what I think it's just,

Starting point is 00:18:50 this is what could be happening behind the scenes. The advanced scouting just hasn't been there. The game plans just haven't been there. And that's a lot of what Marcus Brady's doing as an offensive coordinator to kind of take some of that pressure off of Frank Breck as the head coach and play caller. And their opening scripts have been terrible. They haven't scored on a first drive. They have more three and outs than positive drives to start games this year

Starting point is 00:19:12 and also to start halves and stuff like that. Given, again, their offense has been bad all game long, but it has been notably worse in the first quarter than it has been in the fourth quarter, for instance, where the in-game scouting is more important than the pre-game scouting. So I could see Marcus Brady being the fall guy for that because that is something that kind of falls under his jurisdiction. And then the thing with Chris Strasser, just to hit on this real quick, I think more of an issue with the Chris Strasser stuff is you need someone to take over coaching that offensive line. And I don't think they have anybody in organization that they kind

Starting point is 00:19:45 of trust taking over that like it would probably have to go to Clayton Adams or Kevin Mawai would have to be the two options yeah and I don't I don't know I don't know how much they trust that so for as bad as you might think Chris Drosser is they might think that they have worse options in-house whereas you know with Marcus Brady, they could say, look, Frank has been an offense coordinator before. We'll just have him take more on his plate as maybe the potential lame duck coach. So I think that's some rationale behind it. But again, like you said, it'd be nice if they pulled back the curtain just a little bit.

Starting point is 00:20:19 I don't even want them to just go up there and start throwing, you know, shots at Marcus Brady because that's not productive whatsoever. But like, yeah a couple this is a couple weeks in a row now just crazy moves you know benching your quarterback that you trade a third round pick for a former mvp uh firing offense coordinator trading away your locker room guy like it's just a lot of just throwing stuff at a wall and hoping it sticks and hopefully it turns the season around where it's kind of coming off more like hail Mary's at this point than anything else that are just really low percentage to actually work. So I don't know what we're going to get to our next segment here, guys,

Starting point is 00:20:53 we're going to talk about kind of the future of this team and what we think about the Colts going forward. But first I want to talk to you guys about prize picks. Prize picks has Sam Ellinger as a, at more or less than 210.5 passing yards and Jonathan Taylor at 76.5 rushing yards this week in New England. Now, I'm pretty tempted to go ahead

Starting point is 00:21:13 and place a couple of these picks, but I want to make sure that, you know, I want to see what happens without Naeem Hines first. So I don't know. I don't know. You guys can pick those at your own pleasure there. Regardless of who I pick, though, prizePix makes it crazy easy to earn some cash by just throwing caution into the wind and making these picks on their mobile app.

Starting point is 00:21:33 I love how quick and easy it is, guys. You just pick two to five players. If they score more or less than their projection, you can win up to 10 times your money on any entry. There's no competing against other people. It's just you versus the projections available. PrizePix offers projections on any sport that you watch, which is key right now with the World Series and the new NBA season and the new NHL season.

Starting point is 00:21:53 I mean, come on, guys. We all love NHL. That's my jam right there. Download the PrizePix app or go to prizepix.com to sign up and play daily fantasy sports. First time users can receive 100% instant deposit match up to $100 with promo code LOCKEDON. If you deposit $100, prize picks will give you $100.

Starting point is 00:22:13 If you deposit $50, prize picks will give you $50. Don't forget to enter promo code LOCKEDON at sign up for instant deposit match up to $100. All right, Jake. Now the bombastic hot takey. You know, like, look, I have fun on social media. I have a lot of fun on social media. It's not serious.

Starting point is 00:22:37 Twitter is a goofball place. So I throw a lot of memes and say crazy stuff on there. But pulling it back, scaling back, being serious for a moment. I have no clue the direction of this Colts team right now. I think they are in a really dangerous and weird spot where they made that disastrous trade for Carson Wentz. And they tried to rectify it by just saying, Oh, all we need to do is get Matt Ryan, go back to the Phillip river season and it'll fix everything.

Starting point is 00:23:04 And what we've seen is it's compounded into something worse. All we need to do is get Matt Ryan, go back to the Phillip River season, and it'll fix everything. And what we've seen is it's compounded into something worse, and now you have a potential lame duck coach, a potential lame duck GM, with a roster that probably needs – I'm not even going to say they need to be blown up, but you probably need a retooling. You need to sell off some guys that are not going to be here for the next year or two. I'm not saying you need to do it at the trade deadline, but maybe in the offseason. You need to make some moves at some point in the near future and kind of refresh this roster a little bit because this roster, again, it's like a stain right now. It's just very mediocre and you have a lot of things kind of blowing up in your face

Starting point is 00:23:39 right now. Again, benching a former MVP quarterback that you just traded for after seven weeks is not normal. Firing your offensive coordinator, you know, right after making that bench is not normal. Trading away a locker room guy because he's requesting a trade halfway through the season is not normal for good teams. You know, this is something that you see in bad teams. But I do think they're in this really weird limbo stage right now where you have a GM and a head coach that want to keep their job and want to keep winning, but you kind of have a team in the locker room that probably isn't capable

Starting point is 00:24:14 of that right now. It's, it's a really weird limbo spot. And for me, I don't know what the future of the Colts are right now. Like do, do they even move on from these two after the season? We've seen Jim Irsay have commitment to coaches and GMs for a little bit longer than their expiration date for

Starting point is 00:24:30 a while now. We saw that with Pagano and Grigson. So, you know, this isn't me just coming on here and being hot takey and saying, fire Ballard right now, fire Frank Reich right now, blow it up, get rid of everybody. But like, what is this team going forward? They're not a good team, but they're not like a train wreck team. They have talent. They have young players that are, that are interesting and fun. They have star power, you know, DeForest Buckner, Shaquille Leonard. But what is this team?

Starting point is 00:24:58 You know, I just don't know. I can't get a feel on what this team is. And I think the disasters at quarterback these last two seasons just kind of shown that right in our face, like, what is this team? What are they trying to accomplish? And I just don't see any vision for this team going forward. Yeah, it's, it's, this team feels like uncharted territory for what we've seen from Ballard and

Starting point is 00:25:21 Reich, you know, they're, they're just kind of doing thing, uncharacteristic things that we're just not used to seeing. Like, we wouldn't have thought that, and I'll say this, we didn't necessarily disagree with switching quarterbacks, but we wouldn't have thought they would have done that, at least not that early, switching from Matt Ryan after seven weeks, what was it, and then firing the offensive coordinator the week after. This is just

Starting point is 00:25:45 new territory that we're not used to from them and now i have no idea what an offseason looks like if if these guys are still here what do they try to accomplish because something i always find myself going back to and i don't want to pin a guy to this like years later but at chris ballard's introductory press conference he said we're never going to make it about just one guy referencing andrew luck and it's like that's great they have built a well-rounded roster that's been able to stay alive and tread water without a marquee quarterback but it very clearly cannot take the next step without one. So they're going to be in a new boat for quarterback yet again. So far, the track record's not great,

Starting point is 00:26:34 whether it's a veteran or a young guy, like so far they just haven't found the guy. I think that does have to be priority number one after this season, you know assuming this season isn't going to just totally flip and everything is going to do some 180 and it's going to look totally different I think that's a little unrealistic um but yeah I like I don't know whether to have confidence in them because this this year has damaged my confidence in them i used to be very confident in what they would do in the direction they were going i understood why they

Starting point is 00:27:10 were doing things even if i didn't agree with the specific moves themselves uh but dude i have no idea what this looks like what they're gonna do don't know yeah yeah and let me level with you guys all you guys listening all you guys watching yes i know i've seen the comments i see the comments where it's like you guys are doomers you guys joke around about the team being bad when they're not that bad so let me be straight up this team is not the worst team in football it's not it's not that bad however there's no clear direction for this roster going forward this team going forward I mean, you guys can be the most optimistic fans ever saying, oh, look at the last two years, how we always turned it around after a bad start. But look at this team compared to those teams.

Starting point is 00:27:53 Their wins are them barely squeaking by on last second touchdowns or last second field goals. The years before, when they were losing games early, they were losing because they had injuries or they were losing because um they they made mistakes in games that they were leading you know this one they're not even coming close to in these games and then they're pulling off some magic at the end that's not sustainable this team is not a great team and we are seeing it in press conferences we're seeing it throughout the week that this team is just you know we're seeing really snarky comments from players and stuff we're seeing it's just it's a very different feel with this team is just, you know, we're seeing really snarky comments from players and stuff. We're seeing, it's just a very different feel with this team compared to the last couple. I can say without a doubt, this is different. Right.

Starting point is 00:28:34 And don't get me wrong. I think that there is potential with this roster. I love Alec Pierce. I love Michael Pittman Jr. I love Jonathan Taylor when he's healthy. Jaquil Leonard, DeForest Buckner, Grover Stewart. Like these are legit players, really good players. And also really good young players too.

Starting point is 00:28:50 You have some young guys like, again, like Alec Pierce, Jelani Woods looks good. Sam Ellinger looks like he could be a really good backup going forward. I don't know. I don't know. Like he could even be more than that. Who knows? But there's just no cohesion between the top and the bottom of this organization and where this team wants to go and where this team can be. And you're seeing it just trickle down to Hail Mary throws at firing an offensive coordinator, benching a former MVP quarterback that you just traded for, trading with Knight and Hines.

Starting point is 00:29:18 Like, it's just this team doesn't know what it wants to be. And I just don't know what they're going to be after this season. So again, I'm not trying to be all doom. I'm not trying to say that they're going to be, you know, the Washington commanders and not make the playoffs for 20 straight years or something, or, you know, not get past, not win a playoff game in 20 years. You know, I'm not saying it's going to be anything like that, but like this team right now, you know,

Starting point is 00:29:41 they were treading water with Ballard and Reich and they were doing well for what they were doing, you know, they were treading water with Ballard and Reich, and they were doing well for what they were doing. You know, for a team that was coming back from a crazy retirement that nobody bounces back from, they were still treading water after that. But it's kind of running out of time right now. And we're seeing it kind of all fall apart and all crumble in their faces. And you see this at the end of all regimes in the NFL. I think an example I always throw out there is Mike Zimmer's time with the Vikings. You know, very, very good coach.

Starting point is 00:30:10 And Rick Spielman was a good GM, but it just didn't work, and it fell apart at the end. We're kind of seeing that with the Indianapolis Colts right now. So I don't know. Again, I'm not saying fire everybody right now. I'm not saying it's the worst team in football, but there's no direction for this team right now. You're seeing the locker room is in a very different place than what it was

Starting point is 00:30:29 in years past. And I don't really know what the future holds for this Colts team. You know, that's just me leveling with you guys and being straight up. Like I'm not trying to be doomer or upset or anything like that. It's just like, man, I don't know what there is to be excited about outside of a couple of young players that are showing out.

Starting point is 00:30:49 Yeah, we don't think the destination is some long, drawn-out purgatory. This is still a mediocre team that the arrow can go up any time. They can fix things in an off season it's not like i mean they they can build things in a better direction in an off season um but yeah and i think the reason we've had to kind of take this tone lately is because if you've been with us since july when we started the show uh expectations were high like internally externally we had high expectations and it's it's just disappointing with how things have gone and so we're gonna we're gonna shoot it to you straight how we feel about things you know we're we're not gonna try

Starting point is 00:31:36 and sugarcoat things and make things sound fake optimistic and you know our doubts aren't aren't manufactured either. Like, we want to tell you guys how we're feeling. And honestly, we wouldn't put a lot of this out there if it's not the conversations we're having with fans every single day. Right, right. Yeah, last thing I'll say about this, and then I know we've got to close this out because we're going a little long. But, like, look, not all hope is lost. But, like, you know, we came into the season expecting something different than what we'd seen the last couple of years. And we did get something very different.

Starting point is 00:32:08 It's just not in the way that we expected it instead of there, this being this upward climb and a different year from last year, where they're going to take that next step with, with a veteran quarterback, it's kind of a big old decline. And it's not a good trend for a coach that's been here for what this is fifth year and a GM who's been here for this is 60 year. Like it's not good. So yeah,

Starting point is 00:32:31 we're trying to be straight with you guys. We're not trying to make you guys tune in to hate listens every time, but like, I don't know what else to say about this team right now. It's, it's a weird place. Yeah, no,

Starting point is 00:32:41 we want, we want things to look good as well. But on that note, we'll, we'll wrap this one up. Stay tuned with us this week. We're going to cross over with Locked On Patriots to find out a little bit more about Bill Belichick's group because believe it or not, there is a game to play this week.

Starting point is 00:32:56 All this noise aside, the Colts do have a game on Sunday. We're also going to do our own digging and give you guys our predictions on the game from there. Definitely. Make sure you guys are following us on social media, at JakeArthurNFL, at ZachHicks2, and at LockedOnColts on Twitter. Also, subscribe to our show on YouTube and wherever you listen to your podcasts. And thanks again for making LockedOnColts your first listen every day. For your second listen, check out LockedOnSports today.

Starting point is 00:33:22 From the games that matter the most to the biggest stories in sports. Go beyond the scoreboard and behind the scenes of local experts and insights that only Locked On can provide. Locked On Sports today. Available on this app, YouTube, and wherever you get your podcasts. We'll see you guys tomorrow.

Your Ad Here

Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts' Outlook After Trading Nyheim Hines, Firing Marcus Brady

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.