Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts Reaction: Chris Ballard Breaks Silence On Disappointing 2024 Season

Starting point is 00:00:01 Indianapolis Colts General Manager Chris Ballard said all the right things in his postseason press conference. But do we believe him? 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. New customers can place a $5 bet, and you'll get started with $200 in bonus bets if you win or lose your first $5 bet. Visit FanDuel.com to get started. Hello, everyone. My name is Zach Hicks, your resident film nerd over at HorseshoeHuddle.com, and I'm joined, as always, by our Crocs on the ground, Jake Arthur.

Starting point is 00:01:00 Yes, we're putting Crocs back in there because the snow's starting to melt. We're going to eventually get back into this Crocs. No, no. We're getting to eventually get back into this Crocs. No, no. We're getting like four more inches as we speak. Today is hell on earth. Never mind. Snow boots on the ground. Never mind.

Starting point is 00:01:11 Snow boots on the ground yet again. We're going to keep that for the rest of the winter here. But, guys, we are reacting fully to Chris Ballard's end-of-season press conference. All, what, 58 minutes, you said, Jake, is on our YouTube channel. You guys can go check that out. 49 minutes. Okay, 49 is on our YouTube channel. You guys can go check that out. 49 minutes. Okay, 49 minutes on the YouTube channel. That's a beast of an episode, but make sure you guys check that

Starting point is 00:01:31 so you can get everything that we're talking about in today's episode. But, yeah, we're going to be talking all about Chris Ballard's press conference. We're going to talk about can we actually expect him to make the changes that he kind of alluded to. We're going to talk about what he said went wrong with this past season. But first, let's start with our instant reaction, Jake. And I'm not gonna lie, man, I caught myself a couple times being like, all right, Chris. All right. I'm like, no, no, no, this is nine times that I've been lied to and not lied to. I really don't think Chris Bow is like a liar or anything like that.

Starting point is 00:02:03 I do think he makes promises and then falls back into stubborn habits afterwards. But yeah, I found myself a couple times being like, okay, yeah, he's saying the right things and I'm feeling pretty good. But again, he actually said this in his press conference too. It's like, he can say all this stuff, but there's got to be actions behind his words for the first time this year. So again, it might sound good right now. And I do think some of the sound bites were good to hear for all of us a little bit, you know, you feel a little bit more happy and more optimistic going to the offseason hearing some of the things he said.

Starting point is 00:02:37 But ultimately, man, he's got to show it. He's got to actually show some things he said. Yeah, I agree. I will say just right off the cuff i i do think this had a different tone than normal normally chris is trying to sell optimism for the coming year and like what they already have in house like very much like a couple bad bounces went our way and we were real close we're real close you know, we've got the right guys. We like our guys, which is one of the favorite bingo checkoffs,

Starting point is 00:03:08 which I don't think he said it all today. But he's always trying to sell optimism for growth because of what they have. And I think finally we're kind of hearing him come to a realization that number one, in his own words, they're not close. He's like eight and nine's not close um so they're not close and they have big time changes to make he admitted a lot of mistakes which he normally does but he didn't then counter them with like yeah butts and like victory laps like you and i were talking about earlier um so this did feel like there was some, some optimism only not

Starting point is 00:03:48 because of what he was selling, but you hope he's coming to the realization that real changes need to be made. There was a lot of discussion about player acquisition and the fact that what we've been yelling about for a while, yes, guys were complacent and they didn't have any threat behind them. So, you know, they were like, yeah, I earned this, I earned this spot. And basically their play showed that they stopped attempting to earn it. Uh, guys were just out there, you know, I, I can't remember the word I'm trying to think of, but yeah, just basic complacency um basically he he confirmed a lot of the concerns that we all had without you know giving a bunch of excuses and yeah buts which is good to see um there's been a lot of elephants in the room as well that i i feel kind of got addressed uh

Starting point is 00:04:42 you know we asked about anthony a good bit you know, we asked about some things with Jim Ursae in regards to like player acquisition and stuff like that. So I came away feeling rather optimistic just because it felt like, it felt like all the cards went on the table this time. There, there weren't really any elephants left in the room to address. I feel like everything got relatively put out in the open. Yeah, I do think he hedged his bets a little bit. He did put a little bit in there saying,

Starting point is 00:05:14 we're not going to go crazy in free agency still. We're not going to just spend just to spend. He said, I'm not going to commit to how many free agents I'm going to bring in. But aside from those couple little hedges, he did kind of commit to being more active in free agency to acknowledging that last year and the year before even the way he approached free agency was a mistake. And the one thing that really stood out to me probably the most is he didn't directly call out many players by name or any players by name really in this. I mean, he got asked directly about a couple of players that he, again, didn't really go too crazy on. But outside of a couple of names,

Starting point is 00:05:49 like outside of dishing out praise to DeForest Buckner, Michael Pittman Jr. and Alec Pierce, he kind of called out a lot of the team and a lot of players without directly saying their name. Anthony Richardson, I don't think he was very like praising of Anthony Richardson in this press conference think he was very like praising of Anthony Richardson in this press conference. He did mention a couple of good things here and there, but it was a pretty like curt and honest response to a lot of stuff with Richardson. And he didn't

Starting point is 00:06:15 shy away from saying, bringing in competition and how Richardson needs to be better and more consistent. And I like that. Like it's really what it should be. He did address a lot of the free agent guys that he brought back last off season that with the new contracts comes a higher expectation. And those guys didn't live up to those higher expectations. And that was the mistake that he made was putting, you know, all his chips in on those guys coming back and being the leaders and being guys on those second and third contracts that can take that step and really propel the locker room. And he kind of said in his press conference it didn't really work. And that's his ultimate mistake he made.

Starting point is 00:06:54 And those guys got complacent when they got paid. And I didn't expect him to have that much honesty about that. I expected some defense of that strategy while also acknowledging the bad season. But I expected a defense of that. I expected some defense of that strategy while also acknowledging the bad season, but I expected a defense of that. Instead, it was pretty brutally honest. He was also brutally honest about a couple other players and things too. I mean, the way that he talked about the player who anonymously went to the athletic, calling it something we can't even say on this show because we're not allowed to curse on this show. Chicken poop is what he called it about that player. Whoever that player is, I'm assuming they're not going to be back with the Colts next season. So because Chris Ballard did not mince his words regarding that player.

Starting point is 00:07:34 And then also just discussing other things. He talked about Zyra Franklin's podcast stuff and was very curt about that as well. I mean, I do think he was pretty upset in this and it didn't really seem like, like he was upset with himself and there was a lot of blaming himself and yada, yada, yada, like whatever. Like you made the mistakes. I don't need to hear the blaming yourself,

Starting point is 00:07:55 but he did call out a lot of the players on this team, which is kind of something new for him. He typically like minces like good things with bad, bad things with good things and like makes everything kind of sound optimistic and positive. Like you mentioned Jake, but this one, like outside of like Pittman and Buckner,

Starting point is 00:08:14 it felt like a lot of subtle shout, like shots at players he brought back and team captains and guys who didn't step up. And I thought that was the thing that spoke the most volumes in this press conference, to me, at least. Yeah, there was one thing he said where I could, it felt like he had just watched one of our episodes or something. But he said, you know, I'm emotional. I'm paraphrasing here, but I'm emotional and I get really attached and care about these players. And I've allowed that to bleed into how I shape the roster. Meaning, you know, you've got some

Starting point is 00:08:52 nice stories on this roster, some guys you've hit on in the middle rounds, and you care a lot about them as players to the point where you won't let them walk out the door. And then you shell out all of this money to all your in-house guys, guys who are just average players. And then you don't, you know, you sign five or six of your own in-house guys who are just whatever, rather than being able to maybe go get one or two difference makers in free agency. And, you know, he said basically while he was laying at home sick all week that, you know,

Starting point is 00:09:23 he did some, some self-reflecting and, and came to some hard conclusion and hard conclusions and hard truths in that it sounds to me like he knows he's got to rattle some cages a little bit. It's kind of like when a parent comes to the realization that you have to be their parent first before their friend like you're their GM and you care about them you brought them into the building yes but at a certain point are are all these guys going to be contributing to winning and it felt like the first time he's really acknowledged that that homegrown aspect works for a lot of guys if it's the right guys

Starting point is 00:10:02 but you can't just bring back everybody. Yeah. Yeah. And coming up, we're going to really talk about some of the specifics of what he said about like what went wrong this season and where he made those mistakes. And also we're going to talk about on the show, like, yes, a lot of these words sound nice from Chris Ballard, but actions speak louder than words. So will he actually follow through on a lot of the right things that he said on his press conference? We'll talk about that here coming up in a second. This is a message from our sponsor Intuit TurboTax. Are you tired of the endless waiting, wondering and worrying about your taxes? Well, now that's the thing of the past. You see,

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Starting point is 00:12:53 Download the app today and use code LOCKEDONNFL to get $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup. Again, PrizePix. Run your game. All right. Locked On Colts Everydayers, we are back talking Chris Ballard press conference and just to clarify with one of the comments here, we're not

Starting point is 00:13:14 falling for it. We're not falling for it. Look, we're going to start off this segment by talking right here how a lot of the words were right. Again, a lot of the words were right. We'll start with what went wrong with this past season, how Chris Ballard said he made the mistake of bringing back only his own guys, trusting those guys to be the leaders, but not bringing in any development or bringing in any competition in camp. I mean, there are specific positions we can look at here. He actually mentioned cornerback.

Starting point is 00:13:43 Not directly, but he mentioned putting the faith in Dallas Flowers off an Achilles injury, putting in the faith in Juju Brents, who ended up getting hurt yet again. He mentioned cornerback, how that was one of the issues. And we, you and I thought he was fully going to take credit for corner being better than what we expected. He didn't, he mentioned that as one of the ones without the competition. I know he, he didn't directly say these two positions, but safety and linebacker, I'm sure are in there as well. So when he talks about what went wrong this past season, I think, you know, quarterback was something that was kind of the undertone in a lot of it. Quarterback was certainly an undertone with it. Talking about poor play from

Starting point is 00:14:19 Joe Flacco at times, talking about Anthony Richardson struggles at times, but really when it came to the defense, they mentioned the defense need to be better and he needed more competition on defense and with the offensive line too. He mentioned competition with the offensive line. So he went into quite a bit of detail. What went wrong this past season and really, you know, really put it on himself for the things that he didn't do last off season.

Starting point is 00:14:44 Yeah. It was odd because like the offensive line thing, I really didn't have a problem with the Colts offensive line depth this year. Like they drafted Bortolini and Gonzalez, who we think were hits. And yes, they put Dalton Tucker in there, but you know, Will Fries broke his ankle and you know, Wesley French had a severe injury, season ending injury as well like there was some players there they just managed to get hurt and for the most part the guys who went in there played relatively well Dalton Tucker that probably shouldn't have happened because he was a rookie UDFA it didn't ruin it didn't ruin them basically but yeah that was one thing i don't didn't really know

Starting point is 00:15:27 if i agreed on but he mentioned the defensive line uh he was asked about the defensive line and you know why the regression at least in sacks and he's like you know i know everyone wants to point at sacks but i think the defensive line did really well which then led into he was asked about defensive issues and he's like, we were not a good tackling team. So if you kind of read between the lines, you know, the defensive line did its job opening things up, but the guys behind them tasked with cleaning everything up and making the tackles didn't do their jobs. Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead. I could see it. I just wanted to add one thing. Cause I did see some people pushing back on this where, yes, I do disagree with him a little

Starting point is 00:16:04 bit where he said the defensive line was pretty good this year. I don't think the defensive line was pretty good. I think they were fine. I don't think they were pretty good. But the things that he did mention as things that held back the defensive line were tackling behind them, which obviously was a big thing. Coverage behind them. Teams going into seven, eight eight man protections and still completing passes and getting rid of the ball quick and getting rid of the ball quickly and I don't

Starting point is 00:16:30 disagree with that assessment again I think he's praising the defensive line a little bit too much but when you look at a lot of the issues with the defensive line it really was teams going into six seven man protections and then drawing up plays where a receiver was just going to the flag. You're not really going to get many sacks that way, rushing four people and leaving the flats wide open. The ball's coming out quick. I think the Colts were, I think it was like they were like top five and like average throw time against them or time to throw against them. Teams were getting the ball out really quick against them. It is hard to get sacks that way. I do think he let the defensive line off the hook a little bit there, but the insinuation though

Starting point is 00:17:09 is obviously the defensive system, which with Gus Bradley being out kind of shows that there is that accountability there and the guys behind the defensive line, the seven guys behind the defensive line. I do think that comment in a way kind of did call out those seven guys about being better with their tackling, being better with their coverage, being better in, you know, blitz, whatever it is. Like, I do think, like, I'm not saying he took the pressure off the defensive line completely, but he did point a lot of fingers as the defensive struggles being the seven guys behind the defensive line this past year, which I thought was interesting. What were your thoughts on that, Jake? Yeah. I mean, I, I, I reading between the lines,

Starting point is 00:17:50 I kind of felt the same way. Like he was more so pointing towards what was going on behind the defensive line, but some real quick before we run out of this, this segment, something I did want to mention in terms of the, what went wrong category was when you're talking about quarterback speaking of you know kind of letting people off the hook a little bit I do wonder now I think they they are trying to work on how they message things about Anthony I do wonder if they get the reality of like, yes, this is a young kid and everything.

Starting point is 00:18:25 He's got some learning to do, but quarterback has to be held to a different standard. Like when, when Chris was asked about like Anthony's preparation, basically like how did it get to the point where he got benched when he was a team captain, if he wasn't preparing well, all that. And then he made he made the comparison to your kids not cleaning their room when you tell them to and it's like that is that's

Starting point is 00:18:53 not that's not the same if your kid doesn't clean the room when they're supposed to that's not going to cost people their jobs they're not the face of a billion dollar sports franchise and it's like we shouldn't we shouldn't really be asking about holding this kid's hand through the offseason but it was a legitimate question about like how are you guys gonna like make sure he's on his p's and q's now the season's over and he's away from the facility like it's your franchise quarterback man and we just had an episode about there's really nothing they can do about the position other than him in 2025. Nothing at least long-term.

Starting point is 00:19:32 So I do still question if they get the gravity of that position. It's definitely still something I have a lingering question about after that. I didn't have a lot of unanswered questions beyond that, but I do still wonder about the Anthony Richardson of it all. Yeah. And one more thing I want to add to this. I know we're kind of disjointed in how we're talking about what he said, but he said a lot.

Starting point is 00:19:55 It was 49 minutes. We're trying to get this into 10 minutes of a segment here. He did specifically mention the lack of a receiving threat at tight end as a big issue this past season. So all of you, Tyler Warren to indie people out there okay make make make the make the jersey edits make the jersey edits make all that send it to chris ballard's address you know do do all the stuff you need to do don't be too creepy with it but be a little creepy with it if you really want to make it happen uh so yeah tyler warren to indie completely confirmed obviously in this

Starting point is 00:20:23 press conference here uh but coming up guys we're going to completely confirmed, obviously, in this press conference here. But coming up, guys, we're going to talk about the final aspect of this press conference. Again, all the right words were said. They mentioned what went wrong this past season. What can we expect this offseason? Does he actually change? Is the ninth time the charm? Do we see a new Chris Ballard in year nine? We'll talk about it here in just a second from big upsets to game winning drives the nfl playoffs are better with fanduel because right

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Starting point is 00:21:41 an official sportsbook partner of the NFL. All right, Zach. So we've digested all this. Again, there's 50 minutes of talk from this whole thing. Some good, some bad, but overall a different tone than normal in his State of the Union address. So realistic expectations, knowing he's not just going to turn over a whole new leaf and change the way he does everything. What do you get the vibe that we might see done differently or something to fix this mess? Yeah. So I don't think we're going to see a massive spending spree from Chris Ballard. Like ultimately that's just not in his DNA. And I'm not going to come out of this press conference being like the man has finally completely changed.

Starting point is 00:22:29 He's going to go full Ryan Grixen, Andre Johnson coming out of retirement to play for the Colts again. I'm not really coming to that realization from this press conference, but I do think he backed himself into a corner a little bit in terms of having to be somewhat

Starting point is 00:22:45 more active in free agency. What he did last year in free agency, only bringing in two outside free agents, Raekwon Davis and Joe Flacco, he backed himself into a corner today, basically not being able to do that again this offseason. So in a sense, I do think we see a more active Chris Ballard. And I think it's going to trend towards the more active that we've all wanted, which the thing that we've all this been begging for him to do since like 2020, essentially, because 2020, he had a good offseason and 2021,

Starting point is 00:23:16 he had a good offseason, I think, too, where he brought in guys like like Stephon Gilmore, I think was 2021 going into 2022. Justin Houston signing was in there. We had the Phillip Rivers signing in there. Like these were pretty solid signings, but then they were also sprinkled in, you know, the Chris Reed signing was in there, which was awesome back in the day. We had, what was it?

Starting point is 00:23:39 The TJ Carey signing was in there. Rodney McLeod signing was in there. Like these were good signings from from mid-level guys like a couple mid-level guys like the gilmore's and the justin houston's rivers you can call like a high level but for a quarterback that was like a mid-level contract and then you have the tj carries the chris reeds the ron mcclouds it was like those were just good free agency periods like it was just like four or five signings of free agency but you were making your team better. You're bringing veteran guys, leadership guys to make your team better. And we saw, I mean, 2022 Colts were brutal on offense,

Starting point is 00:24:17 especially, but we saw like better performance from the defense in 2022. We saw better teams in 2021 and 2020 with this approach. I like, I don't need him to go get the number one free agent at every position and say, there we go. This team is set, but like you use free agency. That's the only thing we've ever been begging for him to do. Just use it. I don't know if that's going to change because he is who he is at this point. Like, again, we're in year nine of this and more often than not, he's not used free agency,

Starting point is 00:24:41 but if he could just get back to like 2020, 2021 style free agency where it's like four or five, or maybe even goes crazy and goes to 2018 route with free agency where it's like 10 free agents brought in along with a D'Amico Autry and a couple other like really solid, like mid-level guys. I'd be very happy with that. Like he has shown outside of a couple free agency misses here and there, but he has shown the ability to scout free agents and identify which guys are good fits for his team. He just doesn't use it enough.

Starting point is 00:25:13 I mean, Samson Aboukham was a recent one who, I mean, I know he didn't play this past year, but the year before he played, he was awesome. A great signing, really good signing for the team. Even like a Samuel Womack they found on waivers. Great find. Like he is good at identifying which guys out there fit the team and make the team better. Just be more aggressive.

Starting point is 00:25:31 And he mentioned this, like they are like he trusts his process to identify the free agents, but they need to close out these deals. Close out the deals. Just close out the deals. We need more talent in here. We need better players in here. I know he's got the ability to scout it and the ability to bring these guys in. Just close out the deals. Be more aggressive. I don't need 12 free agents. I don't need 20 free and sign, but

Starting point is 00:25:54 like give me four or five, six, like guys that you really believe in, uh, you know, some mid-level deals in there. Like, and I'm happy. That's all I want. I don't know if we get it, but this press conference, if you are someone who wants what I just was ranting about there, I think this press conference kind of backed him into a corner where he does need to do that at least a little bit this offseason, especially compared to last offseason. like the fact that he mentioned, they don't, it's not like they don't try to get guys. They just don't finish. They don't close. It's like, don't be the team that loses out on player X. Cause you won't give them a bag of fun size Milky ways or something like close the deal. He said,

Starting point is 00:26:34 Jim or say is willing to like, you know, spend and make sure they can close those deals. That's great to hear. But one reason I think it's realistic that we see an uptick in outside additions is they're gonna have a new defensive coordinator yeah they need to give this guy some of what he wants whoever it is it's going to be some variation of the system they've been running they're not going to do anything drastic you know they there's not a ton of like 3-4 stuff anymore, but you're a nickel or some sort of other sub most of the time anyway.

Starting point is 00:27:09 So it's going to be something similar to what they already run, but maybe more aggressive perhaps what it sounds like. But this new guy is going to want some guys that fit what he does, maybe even from his old team. So that alone I think is going to be good for at least a couple of additions. But no, just quit, quit being the guys who on principle, you have this hard line. I'm not going to go above and that's final.

Starting point is 00:27:34 Like that is not going to get you anywhere. Like these guys in the locker room, sure that may threaten their spot, like on the depth chart or whatever, but they want to win. They want other good guys on their team i mean the deforest buckners of the world said he's going to be recruiting the this offseason so that's kind of the big thing for me like close those deals i i believe them when they say they've tried to make deals before they just don't close because like the drafting they tried to get into the the top 10 and get up to where the giants were.

Starting point is 00:28:07 And then they just said no. And then for some reason it's like, well, that was a nice try. We're done. Like you were going to be so aggressive to go up and try and get like a Brock Bowers or Malik neighbors, but then you got denied. And it's like, well, we're not going to try and do anything like that anymore. Like finish and like, don't, don't be deterred if you're denied the first time, like just keep going. And if it's two or three quality free agents versus five or six of your

Starting point is 00:28:33 own in-house guys, but you're going to upgrade over them and they're more expensive, do it, man. Like you got to try, like, you're not going to get anywhere if you just keep relying on the lowest level free agents and then you hope your draft class saves you every year. That clearly has not worked. Yeah, and I firmly believe in his philosophy of don't pay C players A money. I fully believe that. I am 100% on board with that.

Starting point is 00:29:00 Don't pay C players A money, but you can pay C players C plus money. You know, you don't have to pay C players C money. You can pay C players B minus money. Like you can pay a little bit more than what you value these guys at because ultimately having them versus not having them is worth the extra million dollars per year, you know, to make your team better. So I do think he needs to be at least a little bit more aggressive in closing these deals. Will it happen? Again, we'll see. I do think they will be looking for like leadership type guys though, and like veteran players on the market this off season, because again, reading between the lines, I don't think there are many veteran like leaders on this team that the Colts fully trusted anymore anymore. Like, again, he specifically called out Pittman and Buckner as two captain guys that he wants

Starting point is 00:29:49 the rest of the team to emulate. But aside from that, I don't know if he calls out the other captains as being like leadership guys that he wants the team to emulate. So we'll see. We'll see if anything changes with Chris Ballard. This was at least a good step in terms of backing himself into a corner to at least come out a little bit more aggressive this free agency but now he's got to back it up and i will say this jake the first domino that i think needs to change to show that he's serious to uh admitting his mistake of last offseason of only

Starting point is 00:30:19 resigning his own guys and then backing off a lot of these in-house guys can't come back correct that i think that is the first because i swear man if i see a big contract extension for ej speed and julian blackman and dio dangbo and i'm not saying you don't bring back any of these guys but if i see those things like the day before free agency all of a sudden all those guys coming back and the colts only have like five million in cap space then these were a lot of empty words that he said today you know so I think that's ultimately the biggest will be the biggest showing prior to free agency if he's going to change is what happens with these in-house guys because personally especially when he called out a lot of the back seven if you see EJ Speed and Julian Blackman come back I think a lot of this was empty words

Starting point is 00:31:03 he said they need to get better at safety. And for what it's worth, Nick Cross was the better safety this year. The guy who they've invested in, they've invested the time in that they can see him getting better. That's the clear choice to me. Yep. Yep. And one thing I will say before we get out of here, though, shout out to all the indie

Starting point is 00:31:20 beat guys. They're not only our boots on the ground or our crocs on the ground, Jake Arthur, but every single person that was there asking questions today. I thought they were really professional, really aggressive in a professional way today. And I really liked how you guys held him accountable on a lot of things. I think it was a great press conference from the Indie Beat guys. And I really wanted to shout those guys out. My colleagues, Jake's direct colleagues that he sees every day, my colleagues I see over the internet. I do appreciate all those guys for all their work they did today and every day.

Starting point is 00:31:49 I think they're great all the time, but especially today. They knocked it out of the park today. We want to thank all of you guys for making Locked on Colts your first listen today. Next, go find Locked on NFL. 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

Starting point is 00:32:06 talk. And if you guys want to become a locked on Colts insider and chat with us directly and get that insider scoop, follow the link in our show notes. And if you don't already make sure you're following at locked on Colts at Jake Arthur, NFL and at Zach Hicks too on Twitter. We're also on Tik TOK for what the next two days that it's a real thing.

Starting point is 00:32:22 And Instagram also subscribe to us on YouTube where we list your podcasts. We'd love your guys' ratings or views as well. And we'll catch you guys back here, maybe tomorrow afternoon. We have a lot of stuff coming, maybe tomorrow afternoon, if not early next week.

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