Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts Panic Meter for AD Mitchell, Cornerback Room, and Gus Bradley's Defens

Starting point is 00:00:00 Is it time to hit the panic button on a couple Colts topics? A.D. Mitchell, this cornerback room, and Gus Bradley's defense. We talk about the panic meter today on 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. This is your daily podcast covering your Indianapolis Colts,

Starting point is 00:00:36 part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Today's episode is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Hello, everyone. I am Zach Hicks, your favorite film nerd over at HorseshoeHuddle.com. I'm joined, as always, by Ben Boris at Colts Film Room. We pushed our episode to Tuesday this week because we were too busy crying yesterday on Monday over the At Jacksonville game because it is always a brutal, brutal weekend when the Colts

Starting point is 00:01:05 play in Jacksonville. So we needed like an extra day of recovery basically on Monday. So we're back here today. We are talking Indianapolis Colts panic meter. Now, typically on this episode, like the early episode of the week, Ben and I sit down and we talk about the Colts quarterback play. And we were really set on doing that in this episode. But look, I love Joe Flacco. He had a good game. Like he's not the future of the Colts. He's barely the present of the Colts.

Starting point is 00:01:34 He's the present while Richardson's injured right now. So here's the full breakdown of Joe Flacco's performance. Really good, really good job. Like awesome job, Joe, coming in there, looking like, you know, 39-year-old, 40-year-old quarterback, ripping the ball down playing great ball i love watching them play yeah playing some great ball it was fun to see the colts be competitive in a game where they only fielded you know an offense that didn't even feel the defense in this game and they were still kind

Starting point is 00:01:56 of competitive late in this one so yeah you know joe great job out there he's not going to be the topic of today's show though because a whole show on Joe Flacco when, you know, he might be retired in a year from now, it just feels irrelevant. But getting away from my monologue here, we're going on the panic meter button on a couple of hot button issues for the Colts. We're talking wide receiver A.D. Mitchell. We're talking the Colts cornerback room, specifically Chris Ballard's plan in the offseason for corner and how a little over a month into the season, it's already broken. And then also speaking of broken, we're talking about this defense in general and how five weeks into the season, man, like, is it broken beyond repair? Like, this doesn't feel like just a defensive coordinator thing or just a player's thing. This feels like a process, like a whole process that

Starting point is 00:02:45 is just bad right now. So we're going to talk about all that. But first, we're going to start with the offense. We're going to talk A.D. Mitchell because, man, the tweets were going off about A.D. Mitchell on Sunday. And I don't think it was necessarily a terrible game for A.D. Mitchell. I think it was one of his better games. Actually, I think he had four catches in this one. They were trying to get him the ball. Yeah. Yeah. had what like 19 snaps and like eight targets in this game or seven targets because this kid's always open he's always open so he gets a lot of targets now with that with him getting a lot of targets and always being open and stuff like that him only having six catches on 20 targets this season for 20 for 70 yards is not super prominent. It's a little weird.

Starting point is 00:03:25 You know, it's a little bit weird. And a lot of that, a lot of disdain in this fan base right now is targeting or just kind of looking at A.D. Mitchell for these miscues and seeing a guy who is not going after the ball in the air, who is being a little bit timid out there, who is just not winning 50-50 balls or just not really competing on 50-50 balls. And as a result, you know, especially when you see a guy like Alec Pierce, who is playing the way he's playing, it's made a lot of people turn on A.D. Mitchell,

Starting point is 00:03:54 you know, having the uncomfortable conversation about A.D. Mitchell, so to speak. I've seen that from a couple people. So, Ben, you were a big A.D. Mitchell supporter in this past draft. I know you're a huge fan of him in general. What are your thoughts on the A.D. Mitchell discourse right now among this fan base and even writers and stuff? And is he a bust? Is he broken beyond repair? Is there high panic level for A.D. Mitchell right now, five games into his NFL career. Well, that was a beautiful monologue that broke down the Colts. Yes. So it's an issue. I won't, I'm not blind. I see the same things that you're seeing. I also want to just invite context into some of this because you're right.

Starting point is 00:04:38 No doubt. Reggie Wayne and Shane Steichen are giving this constructive criticism and feedback to Anthony Richardson. All true. I don't think that like we need to make these sweeping takes over and AD Mitchell right now, because he's doing the hard part of being a wide receiver, but he's getting open. That's not a problem for him. The Colts struggled with separation last year.

Starting point is 00:04:59 He's came in and maybe not the stats certainly don't back it up, but when you go watch the film and you see A.D. Mitchell run routes he is a high level route runner in the National Football League and probably one of the better on the team it just comes down to that that second part of it which is true and I'm not saying that he doesn't avoid the contact I think you can make those arguments I think you could also make the argument just adding context into all of this, that on those targets, very few of them were actually accurate balls. The one to Joe Flacco, yes. Should he have gone after that ball? Absolutely.

Starting point is 00:05:32 Would Michael Pittman have gone after that ball? Absolutely. Is that a good ball from Joe Flacco? No. I think you can make the same argument in the quarterback room. They're like, that's a short in route where kyle and granson has kind of the inside dig or or larger in route to try and clear out that curl defender he doesn't carry and he just sits right there if that ball's a couple inches inside like that's a huge hit that ad mitchell's taking so like it's a little rich for me to sometimes

Starting point is 00:06:01 sit here and say that like he players we saying Anthony Richardson should protect himself, but A.D. Mitchell can't. So I understand they're two different positions. I also would say that of things about A.D. Mitchell and the narratives maybe around him, I think the bigger story is the fact that he's gotten very little help with quarterback accuracy. You go look at the – really the Houston game was really where the start, the beginning of all these narratives where he continues to win on double moves and different series of routes that Jim Bob Cooter basically said

Starting point is 00:06:36 when they drafted him that that's why they drafted him because they know that they can use him on these series of routes. And he's executing that part. It comes down to at the catch point, which has been a problem. I don't think that that's where we need to make these sweeping takes or capitalize on a really rough game for the entire team and then make this an A.D. Mitchell thing. So that's why I'm saying it's a little bit overblown.

Starting point is 00:07:00 I wasn't meant to go at an individual person or just trying to really just give my thoughts in terms of, hey, I agree that these are issues. They have manifested. I also would say that it's not worth making any sort of sweeping take because they're going to look silly, potentially. Yeah, my overall thing on A.D. Mitchell, and I think I'm a little, like, slightly more pessimistic than you when it comes to Mitchell, and that's because I come from someone who— Well, you were pessimistic at the draft. I remember this was my first episode. Yeah. Right. I had some issues with when it comes to Mitchell. And that's because I come from someone who. You were pessimistic at the draft.

Starting point is 00:07:26 I remember my first episode. Yeah, right. I had some issues with A.D. Mitchell, mainly on his film in college, where it was like, this is a kid who can do everything. He can get open. He does all it. But like the pacing on some of his routes, the effort on some of his routes, the overall like lack of run after catch, lack of like I had issues on his film, so I do have some pessimism in my bones

Starting point is 00:07:48 when it comes to A.D. Mitchell that I try to push out every now and then. But the overall point that I come to with A.D. Mitchell is, one, this kid just turned 22 today. He just turned 22. I mean, we're seeing what Alec Pierce is having his breakout season at age 24. Pittman's breakout season didn't come until his second year at age 24. You give these kids some time, like give them some time. And like Anthony Richardson at quarterback, where Richardson has the extremely hard part down of playing quarterback of creating explosives. Like he has that down perfectly. Like Anthony Richardson is a great quarterback at creating explosives. That's the hardest part of playing quarterback, especially in today's NFL with two high defenses,

Starting point is 00:08:33 right? But he has the little things or struggles, which is hitting underneath passes and hitting the layups and keeping sustained drives. AD Mitchell has the hardest part of wide receiver down. He is always open like this. Like if you really just go to film and watch him throughout the entire course of game and i've i've done that after a couple of these games just because i'm curious like how is he looking anytime he's got a press coverage assignment he's killing that dude off the line like he is and they he's given that like there was a play in a backed up scenario uh that i tweeted out where joe placo basically found him versus some sort of cover one pressure potentially would have been zero probably was cover one. I think. And he was,

Starting point is 00:09:11 it was three by one. He was isolated. He wins his route and gets him out of a backed up scenario, which could have been a bad situation when you're thinking on second down on the two yard line or whatever it was. And you can't run the ball because I think Jonathan Taylor might've been out. So that's there. It's not like he's been non-existent.

Starting point is 00:09:30 I also want to make it clear. He has to be like at the catch point. Like that's, I know that like, I tend to be a little bit more optimistic on dudes because I'm not quick to make these kinds of sweeping takes. Cause I've seen myself just be wrong and wrong and wrong about these guys. Cause I know it's too early to judge.

Starting point is 00:09:46 And I'm not saying that people aren't allowed to do that. Just kind of my style of things. I also think that I just remember back to like 2014, when people were saying Devante Adams, like could not catch the ball. He was winning the routes and he could not catch the ball. And now look, he's on the trade market and everybody and their mother wants him.

Starting point is 00:10:03 So like, and he's been a multiple time all pro and one of the best receivers in football so like does ad mitchell need to be better yes absolutely is am i ready to say that we need to like sit down and say he isn't the guy that we thought he was no because he's doing the things that he was brought here to do really he just can't seem to catch the ball or get an accurate pass from a quarterback that's my opinion yeah no and look he has issues i'm not even trying to just whisk away the issues or say anything but like there is some fear in his game right now there is some struggles at the catch point there are um just just overall things like the pacing

Starting point is 00:10:39 could be better just being on time with his quarterbacks i think there is some miscommunication between him and the quarterbacks right now and And, and yeah, there, there's some issues with that right now. Like, and, and I'm not going to just, again, whiz that away, but like, like you mentioned, I think Devontae Adams is a great call. I mean, my buddy and I in high school, when Adams was a rookie and even his second year, we made a joke like, oh my God, this is the worst receiver in football. Like because he really was brutal. Like he was terrible those first two years he had like 800 total yards but like he was getting so many targets so when you're a kid who doesn't really understand a ton of football it's like this guy stinks like he cannot catch

Starting point is 00:11:15 the football and then once i'm watching him yeah yeah no once he figured it out like he becomes this superstar i'm not saying ad mitchell is like davante adams either in that way where like all receivers are different obviously but i'm just using that as an example to say that like he is not the first receiver in history to struggle at the catch point but when off the line of scrimmage beat press coverage understand how to get open he knows how to do that he's been he's been a great route runner since he basically got to georgia like he is and he continued to even get better better at texas and he walked in week one and was burning derrick stingley and some of these other guys on double moves like he knows how to get open yeah that's

Starting point is 00:11:54 something that the colts don't necessarily they have guys that can make plays obviously deep down the field with alec pierce and then maybe in the intermediate contested catches with michael pitman but they've never had outside of on the outside that guy that can just torch press coverage when that time comes yeah so like at the end of the day my panic meter with A.D. Mitchell maybe for the rest of this season is high because it's like we'll see if he puts it together this year rookie seasons for for receivers or you know can be hit or miss but like long term man I'm I'm really not too concerned and maybe that's because I'm someone who stuck with Alec Pierce throughout all of his struggles his

Starting point is 00:12:29 first two years and was saying like look this kid it can be pretty good and now we're seeing it finally come to fruition this year I really do think A.D. Mitchell is maybe not like Pierce it's a very different situation but I think this is a kid who can put it together like I I believe in it just it comes down to his his own. It comes down to how he improves from here and where he goes with his next steps. But my panic level for a 22 year old wide receiver who's played five games in the NFL is so low right now. So AD Mitchell conversations in the bag. We have that on record right now, Ben, now it's time to cry about the defense because we're not going to be as optimistic the rest of this show but first nfl fans you can start the season with a big return on fan duel america's number one sportsbook so when you get a hunch in the middle

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Starting point is 00:15:04 Locked on Colts every day. We are back talking Indianapolis Colts panic meter. And we are going to talk about the defense as a whole in our final segment. But this segment is specifically to the cornerback room. Chris Ballard came into this season very confident in his young. We like our guys. We like them. We like our guys.

Starting point is 00:15:23 And he was putting a lot of faith in former seventh round pick jalen jones um let's see who else we got here we got juju brentz who hasn't been healthy since high school we have daryl baker jr daryl flowers yeah who else was on that initial there was five guys in the initial 53 i believe chris lawan's like them kenny i mean kenny moore we have we have some faith in they just paid him at least so that's cool but like yeah all that kind of stuff there like they came into this season with a lot of guys like you know do we believe in these guys and the result is five weeks into the season we have just Jalen Jones left and yes, I know the injuries to Juju Brents for,

Starting point is 00:16:06 even if you could predict that an injury probably was going to happen with him, you don't want to, so maybe you ignore that a little bit. But like, to a degree, I think going into this season with the depth behind those guys, because again, I'm fine with you starting the young kids, like I get it. But it was egregious at the time to go into the season with Dallas Flowers and Daryl Baker Jr. as your main backups and again they had a couple of day three rookies coming in and competing as well and Jalen Simpson and Mike Abraham Mike Abraham who's still not on the roster by the way right now um so that was their plan at corner and now we're looking at I mean they're lucky that Sam Womack, who they claimed is,

Starting point is 00:16:47 is pretty darn good. Like they're really lucky that he came in and played well, but this plan was disastrous when they made that plan. And I don't like, I don't know what, like, I don't know, man. It, what, what, what are your thoughts? Like, what are your thoughts in this cornerback room and just that overall plan that Ballard had even coming into this season? Yeah, so it was kind of like perplexing because I think we all left the year. And you kind of look at the overall trajectory of the year,

Starting point is 00:17:17 not just week 18 where it really ended on a terrible note. But like you saw, you know, Dallas Flowers played pretty well up until that Rams game where he unfortunately got injured. Jalen Jones had came in and played competitive football. I wouldn't say he played elite or good or high quality football, but he played competitive football. When he was put into a position like welcome to the NFL, he had to play Jamar Chase, Mike Evans, Devontae Adams. People could talk about the quarterbacks and the offense from last year and who the Colts played, but no doubt Jalen Jones went through a gauntlet of receivers.

Starting point is 00:17:53 Nico Collins to add it in in week 18. And I guess I couldn't say like, oh, it's – what was more egregious to me is it never had to be Snead. It never had to be Simmons. It should have been someone. We are seeing Alec Pierce absolutely ball out. And it's hard to say that a motivating factor isn't looking and seeing a second-round wide receiver there to take your snaps.

Starting point is 00:18:19 He said it all training camp. High tides raises all ships, I think. That that – whatever he said, and I loved it. He's basically like competition is really important. They brought in AD to go compete. It's my job to earn that role. And I understand that you saw what it did with Alec Pierce. Why is that – why was that never applied to the cornerback? Like did it have to be the sweeping free agent?

Starting point is 00:18:44 No, I didn't necessarily think so but we basically the colts basically walked in with the same defensive back room that they did last year and there was no one to compete with so like there's no pressure to hey like i'm into them i'm finally back for otas like ready for a good year oh wait there's a guy next to me that's here to take my job like there wasn't that same sort of pressure i do think that like jalen jones has been a pleasant surprise this year for the most part um he's he's made some plays and he made some plays in that jacksonville game made some plays in the pittsburgh game has he been like this dominant tarik woolen seventh round shutdown oh my god guy no not necessarily but he's made a lot of football

Starting point is 00:19:25 plays early in this year and he stepped up uh Nick Cross has been a pleasant surprise I know we're talking corners but like the overall DB room was the exact same uh it's hard to say that that this is this is work though it's been an absolute failure like uh and from an injury perspective that I know you can't necessarily predict but again you started with five corners i mean you can and you can't uh the plan for addressing said injury because you didn't try and bring it in any sort of depth left them with what they have now where you know david long jr is getting called up from the practice squad to hopefully come in and now play split time maybe with Sam Womack, if that's what they still want to do.

Starting point is 00:20:09 I don't understand where it's going. And I think ultimately, and I tweeted this out just to put kind of a bow on my initial thoughts, is like to put a bow on all of this, Chris Ballard and Gus Bradley have competing philosophies because the only time Gus has had a quality defenses, he's had great cornerback. He's a guy who preaches execution and a guy that runs a lot of cover three where you're going to need really good cornerback play.

Starting point is 00:20:39 Chris Ballard has not made significant investments in the defensive back room outside of potentially Juju Brents. and then a bunch of guys that have never stuck around, including Mike Abraham, which was the second, and Jalen Simpson, who were the two corners. And here we are. So Chris Ballard has repeatedly failed a corner. And something that, like, I know that people have pegged me as a Ballard apologist.

Starting point is 00:21:02 I will absolutely tell it how it is. I'm sure he's there. Like, why can I not figure out the cornerback position on in the draft uh he passed on that whole thing and it's just competing philosophies because it's going to be who's going to outlast each other is gus bradley's execution based philosophy gonna turn like he can't sprinkle magic fairy dust and make these guys execute his scheme and play really good football when he's given basically nothing yeah yeah and that's that's kind of where i come down with it too like i don't really care for the sneed like for the luxurious need like yes it would have been cool i would have been fun yeah great corner would have been really cool luxurious need here but like it

Starting point is 00:21:40 didn't have to be luxurious need like it really didn't have to be Legereus Sneed. Like it really didn't have to be. And I'm not even talking about the draft, like in free agency, like, and these guys are not even stud corners. Like they're, they're not stud corner, but like Kendall Fuller was out there signed for a very cheap deal. A Keller Witherspoon is experienced in a Gus Bradley defense was out there.

Starting point is 00:21:58 I think he's on a practice squad right now, but he was brought in throughout the season by other teams, like just veteran type guys who know how to play in this system, you know, and can actually move, you know. Let's say you're sitting there in April and like you sign a guy like, well, I don't know, like Tredavious White or something like that. And you know what? He isn't the guy that you thought he was.

Starting point is 00:22:20 Well, at least he came in there and started to push guys for their job and gave you quality depth. And that was my whole thing with alec pierce is like okay right now like kind of going back to the previous segment where it's like ad mitchell doesn't necessarily need to be anything the same way that a veteran corner wouldn't have to be anything as long as you're pushing the competition and holding guys to the standard of play there's nobody doing that especially when kenny moore isn't on the field so like where is the standard in that room because you know right now like the only guy that i guess you have two corners but you have zero deck yeah and the overall thing i want to really come back to with this cornerback room is like they're now in a mad dash or like a mad scramble the rest of the season where when it

Starting point is 00:23:04 comes to outside corners like they have two guys that are probably going to stick on the roster all year, which is Jalen Jones and Sam Womack. Behind that, like it's a revolt. Like it is a mad scramble just to find bodies who can play. And that's one person's fault. Yeah. And you had a whole offseason. You had a whole offseason. And you decided to put all your faith in Daryl Baker Jr.,

Starting point is 00:23:26 who you cut after final cutdowns. Dallas Flowers, who, look, Achilles injuries take a long time to recover. The odds are he was not going to get back to form a year after. It's pretty common knowledge when it comes to Achilles injuries. And then, obviously, they were counting on Juju Brents being a starter, but like Juju Brents has not been healthy since high school. Like odds are he was going to miss some time and you were gonna have to turn to Daryl Baker Jr.

Starting point is 00:23:52 Turn to Dallas flowers. So like there is one person to blame for this. Now they're in a match scramble to find just evil bodies to throw out their corner the rest of the season. And look, I'm glad I'm glad Womack is getting a chance and playing some good football right now. But like... Yeah, it was a great...

Starting point is 00:24:08 And that was to give a little bit of credit. Like that was a good thing, but to give him off waivers because he was clearly highly touted on the waivers after that cut down day. But that's still way too little, way too late. You got him what, a waiver 15 too? Like that was your plan?

Starting point is 00:24:23 Your big plan was to grab the corner a waiver pick 15 and there we go now we're good so we we do have to get to our final segment here and talk about the defense in general so i don't want to spend too much time on this but yeah man corner it's an ugly place it's going to be an ugly place the rest of the season and like you said ben it's one man's fault and we can't dance around that too much but coming up we're going to talk about this defense kind of quickly. And just, is it broken? Because it might be, man.

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Starting point is 00:26:16 we appreciate you bearing with us on this very pessimistic and negative episode that we are throwing in your face. We are pretty late on time right now, so we're going to talk about this as much as we can here in the remaining time we have. But this Colts defense in general, like we just talked about the cornerback room and that is part of it this colts defense in general though is in a really bad place and i know a lot of people want to point fingers at gus bradley and we are among those people like gus bradley is is very much absolved of blame yeah gus bradley is very much at fault like when you are a manager in any any line of career and your employees are failing it is on you as a manager to right the ship or you

Starting point is 00:26:53 will be fired and then the employees will be fired too because like you can't you can't suck at your job but anyway this right now this whole process on defense is really broken and I know they are very battered, very injured. They are missing a lot of their best players. I'm just adding that for context. I'm not giving that an excuse because at the end of the day, they still had several players on second and third contracts out there on Sunday. And they let one of the worst offenses in football,

Starting point is 00:27:20 like just beat the crap out of them. Like it was. And it wasn't because like oh wow that was a amazing play call or like oh my god Doug Peterson schemed up the game of his life and we can get into that but it was they beat themselves way before the the Jaguars had a chance to really beat that yeah and and one thing I want to throw at you Ben because we were talking about this before we recorded it's like yes Gus Bradley a lot of this falls on him it It does. And and look, at the end of the year, it will fall on him because he will be the guy who's fired at the end of the season. Almost certainly. Like I put like

Starting point is 00:27:52 a 99 percent chance of him not coming back after the season. So he will be fired at the end of the season. But I don't care what scheme you put out there. I don't care if it is the most innovative, blitz heavy, whatever type of scheme, which I don't even know if you put out there. I don't care if it is the most innovative blitz heavy, whatever type of scheme, which I don't even know if Ballard would hire that, but like you could put anything out there. If these guys are, if guys are missing tackles like this,

Starting point is 00:28:14 if guys are not getting off their blocks when rushing the passer like this, if guys are simply not communicating in a, in a basic cover three call and you're biting on a, on a hitch route when you should not be biting on a hitch route, if a basic cover three call. And you're biting on a, on a hitch route when you should not be biting on a hitch route. If a typical quarter quarter half route, and you can't communicate that Christian Kirk is over the top on a second and 24, like, I don't care who your defensive coordinator is. If these are things that you're messing up with, with Gus Bradley, you're going to mess these things up with whoever like what what happened on Sunday was

Starting point is 00:28:45 not just Gus Bradley getting his butt kicked by Press Taylor come on sorry Press Taylor like it's one thing if Matt LaFleur kicks your butt but Press Taylor is not out scheming you like come on like it wasn't just Press Taylor running circles around Gus Bradley it was just an utter beatdown like it was like it wasn't like the Packers beatdown where they were just losing at the line of scrimmage and then also missing tackles. They were simply just not making play. Like they were missing tackles left and right. They were not passing things off in coverage.

Starting point is 00:29:14 They were allowing guys to get behind them, even on downs where nobody should be getting behind you. And it's like, this is basic 101 stuff. So like, yes, Gus Bradley deserves a lot of blame, but like we can't absolve the players in this either there's a lot of guys who are on that field in second and third contracts who are just not getting their job done so fundamentally man like yes when you get these guys back from injury it'll help a lot of it right it will like i fully believe that

Starting point is 00:29:41 but will it fix it probably not like Like there's something fundamentally wrong with these, with this defense right now. So we talk a lot about Brian Flores, a scheme and I should tweet this out on Friday in a reply to someone. The reason Brian Flores has the right to run all these exotic looks. It isn't like he's doing things that nobody else is necessarily doing, but he's doing it like everyone in the league has an exotic look here and there. The reason he can do it is because his guys can do the fundamentals

Starting point is 00:30:11 better than literally anyone else. They can tackle. They are sounding coverage. They know where the offense is likely to hurt them and where the weak spots are in coverage. And then they can run all these exotic looks. They can do it at the rate because they're so well coached. The scheme to me is irrelevant when I watch this film.

Starting point is 00:30:29 I don't – putting the – they could be in cover three or cover two on some of these plays. At the end of the day, the running backs had seven catches for 71 yards. That's abysmal. They gave up the most yards after contact in week four and the most yards after catch. Or is there like the second most yards after contact in week four and the most yards after catch, or is there like the second most yards after catch? So like, what are we doing here?

Starting point is 00:30:51 This is all on fundamentals before it's, and that is a direct reflection of Gus Bradley, but it's not, but I don't want to hear anyone say that, oh, the Colts lost because they called too much cover three. Well, that's not, that wasn't even a remote factor. They need better linebacker play consistently. They've had it in some games. And then there's other games like, for me,

Starting point is 00:31:13 this is probably the equivalent to the Green Bay game. I mean, it was bad for me, J. Speed, and Zyra Franklin. There is no doubt about it. I'm sure they're not happy with themselves. I certainly was not having fun watching the film because I know that those guys can play better than that. And they're out here with so many missed assignments, blown tackles, honestly, just looking defeated on some plays, to be honest with you. And there's going to have to be serious changes. I mean, we already saw it with Dallas Flowers

Starting point is 00:31:42 getting waved after the blown touchdown. Like, that's just the start for this because we love these household names on defense. And believe me, they are beyond beat up on the defensive line. And that was like the whole core of their team was we have this awesome defensive line that can come in waves. And very quickly, it has turned into Liatu Latu basically having to do it all on his own. And Dayo Odengbo having some good performances here and there, and then also some abysmal reps. So this is where they wanted to win up front, and when they

Starting point is 00:32:16 can't do that, this is what we're looking at, where the whole team just looks completely defeated. They need to get healthy first and foremost. That's step one. Getting DeForest Buckner and Kenny Moore back on the football field, I think will at least make them not the 32nd-ranked defense. They cannot have the linebacker play that they have. They cannot have the screen defense, which continues to be an issue. The Tank Bisbee screen was terrible. There was a third and eight, a third and nine, where Brian Thomas catches the screen immediately blocked up.

Starting point is 00:32:47 They should have the numbers for it. And he takes it to the one yard line and they sneak it to get the first down. So in my eyes, that's a converted third and nine. He just lost. The second and 24 play wasn't good. Like it's basic fundamentals. It's a direct reflection on your coach who preaches execution. And when that's not getting done, this is where the, this is where like it's unfortunate,

Starting point is 00:33:07 but jobs could potentially be lost from players and coaches. If it continues this way. I don't, I don't want to see that. I think there's a lot of people that are frankly more talented than how they're playing right now. But if the green Bay game wasn't a wake up call and this, this doesn't prove to be a wake up call. I'm not sure how many

Starting point is 00:33:25 people will survive this roster next year because there could then we then we start talking regression um for a lot of these guys so it'll be very interesting to see how it all plays out um at the end of the day the colts aren't winning anything with the 32nd ranked defense no nfl team and they have to play better than that especially with guys that earned deserve and now have to live up to the contracts they just signed yep and and some final points I'll add here before we get out of here um is again Chris Ballard really doubled down since since 2022 doubled down on a defense that ranked in the bottom five in a lot of categories and brought back majority of those starters from 2022 over the last couple of seasons with Gus Bradley

Starting point is 00:34:04 and this defense has been really bad like Bradley. And this defense has been really bad. Like under Gus Bradley, this defense has been really bad outside of the first half of 2022. This defense has been really bad. And, and regardless of what we want to say about individual players, I are Franklin EJ speed to Forrest Buckner, like all this, this defense has not been good enough for the last three years now. And, and this is maybe the precipice of it because of all the injuries and so many like just bad performances. But the reality of the situation is we're five games into the season of 2024. We've had two performances

Starting point is 00:34:34 that are like fireable performances against Green Bay and against Jacksonville now. And the other three haven't particularly been good. Like the other three, they got killed by Joe Mixon in week one. And then you got Caleb Williams andin fields combining for almost 800 yards passing in two games like over 800 yards total offense in those two games so it has not been good enough whatsoever on the defensive side of the football this year and they need to get healthy that's got

Starting point is 00:35:00 to be step one first of all and that's all. They can't get pressure on the quarterback, period, right now. Like, period. And that's a huge problem. And that'll make everything else. But we just hope it can't end at 32. Because, again, everyone's better than how they're playing right now. Everyone is better. And one thing I want to add real quick before we get out of here, though,

Starting point is 00:35:20 is I know some people are saying, get rid of Gus Bradley. And look, yes, you will fire Gus Bradley at the end of the end of the season heck you could fire him right now i don't care like whatever like i'm i get it i'm with you like if it finishes this way cool fire him whatever but here's my thing right and and i know some people push on gus bradley like he's a very soft-spoken guy pushes fundament but like maybe they need someone like a raw raw guy coming in here and pushing them and doing all this. But here's my thing, right? These guys are mid-20s, late-20s, early-30s for some of these players. They've been playing football since they were 10.

Starting point is 00:35:53 You know, and the things that they are messing up right now and struggling with are the fundamentals. So at the end of the day for me, like getting in some rah-rah guy to yell at them, is that all of a sudden going to make them remember? Like does a 30 the 30 year old man need someone to yell at them and all of a sudden they figure this stuff out like no i don't think it's ever been about a culture thing i don't know but here's the thing like but like if these guys can't get it done then you gotta go somewhere else like this is this standard right now on defense is unacceptable for three years and and frankly shane steichen continues to back his guy, and that's fine. You do whatever your friends, however you want to handle it.

Starting point is 00:36:31 I've seen it happen before where the defensive coordinator is your friend. Joe Barry. You hold on to a guy for a long period of time, and fans are wondering why that's the answer. At the end of the day, I don't necessarily see Gus Bradley going until it forces a hand for Shane Steichen where it's basically becoming you have to fire him because you need results. We'll see where that line in the sand is

Starting point is 00:37:00 drawn. I think we're already getting there. I don't necessarily think an in-season firing is really going to help anything at a 2-3 football team. I just don't think that Richard Smith doesn't fix it. Richard Smith won't fix it. Richard Smith will just do the same thing. It just keeps the vibes that you're tearing down a team.

Starting point is 00:37:21 It won't happen this season. After this season, Gus Bradley will probably be fired because, again, the standard is just not to them. not but again the one thing I want to push again we're running really high on time right now but one thing I want to push again is like it's not just firing the defense corner doesn't fix everything like these guys need to perform and these guys are getting paid actually makes it worse it makes it worse it makes it worse it does it does so that's that's our long-winded episode our our long winded rants here on the panic meter, panic meter for 80 Mitchell,

Starting point is 00:37:48 not super high, but it's still kind of their cornerbacks. Very, very high defense. Very, very high. There's a lot of, I mean,

Starting point is 00:37:55 look, when you give 37 to one of the worst offenses in football, yeah, you're going to be panicking. So we want to thank you guys for making locked on culture. First, listen today. Now for your second, listen, go finded on Colts your first listen today.

Starting point is 00:38:08 Now for your second listen, go find Locked on NFL with two shows every day. First, the Madman Tyler Rowland kicks off your morning with a double shot of NFL espresso and then stop by the barbershop with Tony Wiggins for some real NFL talk. Find Locked on NFL on YouTube, wherever you list your podcast. And if you guys don't already, make sure you're following at Locked on Colts, at Jake Arthur, NFL and at Zach Hicks too, and at ColtsFilmRoom, all on Twitter. We're also on TikTok and Instagram, which is a fun thing there. Check that out. Also, subscribe to us on YouTube and wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Starting point is 00:38:32 We love your guys' ratings as well. And we'll see you guys back here tomorrow afternoon.

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Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts Panic Meter for AD Mitchell, Cornerback Room, and Gus Bradley's Defens

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