Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts Reaction: Jim Irsay Throws Support to Chris Ballard, Shane Steichen

Episode Date: January 6, 2025

Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay committed to GM Chris Ballard and HC Shane Steichen for 2025. With that being the case, what big changes can the Colts make to have a productive offseason? The playe...rs also cleaned out their lockers on "Black Monday." What did they have to say about their disappointing 2024 season? Become a Locked On Colts insider! Ask your burning questions and get prompt answers from someone who's around the team every day! Get special access from the locker room, practice field, and press box! JOIN HERE! Find and follow Locked On Colts on your favorite podcast platforms:🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/podcasts/locked-on-colts/📺YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLdpxJspi1hMh5HL7ExpWOQLocked On NFL League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Draft & More🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/podcasts/locked-on-nfl/ Follow Jake and Zach's written work on HorseshoeHuddle.com, and give them a follow on Twitter @JakeArthurNFL, @ZachHicks2, @LockedOnColts, and @ColtsOn_SI, as well on TikTok and Instagram! LinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn Dot Com slash LOCKEDONNFL. Terms and conditions apply. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Turbo TaxReady for stress-free taxes and the most money back, guaranteed? Head over to TurboTax.com today and get matched with your Expert—who’s ready to take your taxes off your plate, so you can focus on your day.LinkedInLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONNFL. Terms and conditions apply.PrizePicksDownload the app and use code lockedonnfl to win $50 instantly when you play $5. You don't even need to win to receive your $50 bonus, it's guaranteed! Prizepicks. Run Your Game.Click Here: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONNFLGametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms Apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelYou can start the season with a big return on FanDuel. New customers can place a FIVE DOLLAR bet, and you’ll get started with TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS - if you win your first FIVE DOLLAR BET! Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as non-withdrawable free bets that expire in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)

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Starting point is 00:00:00 The Indianapolis Colts settle for mediocrity by keeping Shane Steichen and Chris Ballard for yet another season. Let's get to it. You are locked on Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast, part of the Lockdown 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. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Today's episode is brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs, which helps you find the qualified candidates that you want to talk to faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn..com slash locked on NFL terms and
Starting point is 00:00:48 conditions apply. Hello, everyone. My name is Zach Hickshire, resident film nerd over at horseshoehuddle.com. And my partner, Jake Arthur, is our snow boots on the ground out there. I mean, everyone is snow boots on the ground across the country right now. Hope you guys are staying safe with all this snow. Even me out here in Virginia, we got, you know, a good six, seven, eight inches of snow here. So I hope you guys are all staying safe with that weather there and all cozied up listening to your favorite Locked On podcast.
Starting point is 00:01:17 We have a very fun episode for you guys because the Colts made some major announcements last night before Black Monday, which is today, that Chris Ballard and Shane Steichen will be back for another season. So we'll get our reactions on that. We're going to talk about some of the players that Jake Arthur talked to today, talked to DeForest Buckner, talked to Julian Blackman, Alec Pierce, some really good stuff from the players out there. And then we're going to talk about some big, big changes coming to the Colts this offseason. Do we think they're going to make any big changes? And I'll probably pour some water on anything optimistic that Jake wants to say in this episode, because I'm just
Starting point is 00:01:55 full doomer right now, I guess. But let's talk about Chris Ballard and Shane Steichen being back, Jake. I actually put out a tweet before the game on Sunday saying the most likely scenario that I could see is Ballard back Steichen back and then obviously Gus Bradley's the fall guy we've obviously explored that quite a bit on this show over the past month or so of the season now there was a little bit of heat before the game on Sunday with reports of maybe Dodds could become the general manager. Maybe the Colts could move on from Chris Ballard. But nah, man, ninth time is the charm. Chris Ballard is back for nine times, the ninth year for him. Shane Steichen gets his
Starting point is 00:02:35 third year. What was your immediate reaction, Jake, when you heard, I guess when you saw Jim Ursae's long tweet about both of them being back for next season. Well, I was a little surprised that it got squashed immediately, right away, like the night of the game. And luckily, I was home already to report on it. But no, we kind of expected that. game saying, you know, Jimmer said, I think would most like to have Steichen and Ballard together with one more year to evaluate Anthony. And if they would beat the Jaguars, then, okay, nothing is affected. But if they, you know, were to get embarrassed by the Jaguars, maybe that changes things. Now, obviously the note and everything was premeditated. It was
Starting point is 00:03:24 wrapped up in a pretty package, so it was probably going to be the plan for them all along, but we didn't expect a big change to happen. This is kind of what we thought. They would just keep rolling. We don't know why. Jamerse hasn't really spoken to us out for a while. I mean, that's one thing that no to the fans last night didn't really cover is why. Other than I believe in them, I think we're going in the right direction. But they got a lot of stuff to sort out that Shane can't answer because he doesn't. He keeps stuff so close to the vest. He doesn't really know how to answer these things directly.
Starting point is 00:04:05 We're going to talk to Chris Ballard sometime this week, and maybe we'll get some answers there. Because even if he might get a little fiery or combative with these end-of-season press conferences, he at least tries to answer things the best that he can. So there's a million questions to ask. We can't ask Chris Ballard why Jim Mercer has so much faith in him. But you and I, I think we're open to Shane Steichen returning. I'm not super ready to close the door on Steichen, but if they were going to get rid of Chris, you might as well clean the whole house. So we're going to see, like you said, ninth time's the charm ninth.
Starting point is 00:04:47 It's going to be different this time, you know? Uh, so what, what changes to his approach will Chris Ballard make likely none. Um, I think it's very telling that probably the biggest leader on the team to Forrest Buckner though, has become very outspoken the last five or six times we've, we've spoken to him. He, he wants change this off season. You're, you're wasting the prime of a guy who is a perennial pro bowl talent.
Starting point is 00:05:13 Quentin Nelson won't answer it, but you know, he's tired of this losing as well. These, these, you owe it to these older veterans who have believed in you, believed in the system, been patient. You owe it to these older veterans who have believed in you, believed in the system, been patient. You owe it to them to do something.
Starting point is 00:05:30 Clearly, what your belief system is does not work. The locker room has I don't want to say it's turned on each other, but they've laid each other's stuff out in the public now. They've you know, they've talked about guys being complacent, their egos being too big, guys not preparing the right way. This locker room you thought you were pampering the whole time, Chris Ballard, they're not into it anymore. They want to win. The locker room is watching thing, that's toast, that's done. By any means necessary, these guys want to win. They want to get in the playoffs. They don't want their careers wasted. And you're getting another chance, bud.
Starting point is 00:06:11 Do something with it. Yeah. And we will talk more about kind of that culture of complacency, which we talked about a lot on this show. But DeForest Buckner in our next segment, we'll talk about his exact comments on there and how he went into it really well today with your guys' media availability. But one thing i really want to add to this is chris
Starting point is 00:06:29 ballard was asked actually and shout out to the indianapolis colts uh beat guys so all of you guys jake who are are uh crocs all of our crocs on the ground there uh with the colts beat uh because chris ballard was asked in august of last. I can't remember who it, who asked him, probably James Boyd or someone like that or Nate Atkins, but asked him, you know, about his approach and how, you know, after all these years of it not working, does he, you know, foresee himself changing his approach? And I'm paraphrasing here, of course, but he essentially said, this is what he believes in. And if it gets him fired, so be it.
Starting point is 00:07:04 And I'm a big proponent of when someone tells you who they are, you got to believe them. You know, he's telling us who he is. You know, he's not, you know, he's not even mincing his words here. He's not even adding, you know, potential, you know, arbitrary things to it. He's telling us who he is. He's saying that this strategy that he deploys is what he believes in and he'll go down with this ship if he has to. So there's no real reason to think like even let's say that he is truly on the hot seat for the first time in his career. Let's say he goes into the season with the mindset that this is his last chance. He's more of the type of person
Starting point is 00:07:42 to go down with his philosophy than he is to change it all up for one last ride. You know, that's just not what he does. So for people expecting, like, I'm fine with Chris Ballard as long as he's maybe 30% more aggressive, or he's just a little bit more aggressive to fix this team. It's just not who he is, though. And I'll say one thing in particular before we get into segment two, because segment two is where we're really going to explore this, but his philosophy does not breed competitive culture in this organization. It's a lot of get my guys in the building. My guys are the starters. I'm not really going to bring in any real competition for
Starting point is 00:08:20 them. I mean, you got below average to average starters at, you know, free safety or at one of your linebacker spots or some of the defensive line spots and their biggest competitions are day three rookies or day three rookies from three years ago. And that's really their only competition. So when you mention things like the Buckner comments, which again, we're going to get to in a second, that's really where it comes from. These guys aren't getting pushed. If a guy underperforms as a starter, that's just an underperforming starter in a second. That's really where it comes from. These guys aren't getting pushed. If a guy underperforms as a starter, that's just an underperforming starter for the season. There's no real threat to the guy coming off the field.
Starting point is 00:08:52 The only time you really see it happen is when it's a guy that Ballard's not too attached to like a Dallas flowers early in the season. And who knows what happens behind the scenes there. It's that that led to his release and led to Sam Womack being put in the lineup. But even that one took like three weeks before Womack officially became the starter on the outside when it was very clear that Womack was the better player between the two of them. So it's just this culture. And again, we're going to get into it, but like,
Starting point is 00:09:19 I'm so tired of the Chris Ballard method here. And, and here's the thing I know I'm going on a long rant here and this is what I do on the show, but the draft and develop and not really use free agency method of being a general manager. It can work. It really can work. But the thing is you have to hit on your draft picks. So what we have right now is a guy who's missing on his draft picks, showing loyalty to his missed draft picks time and time again and you're breeding this culture of just complacency and guys who I mean
Starting point is 00:09:51 I'm not going to go into names here but you got guys that want contracts before their final year of play and then they throw hissy fits about it there are multiple guys that it's happened to I mean obviously the big one in the media was Jonathan Taylor, but there's other ones as well that have had the same situation. So, yeah, it's just a bad culture here. And I'm glad DeForest Buckner said something. I'm actually going to lead into our second segment here by leaving it right there, Jake. I know I'm not giving you a chance to respond right there, but coming up, guys, we're going to get into some of the Forrest Buckner's comments because probably the biggest leader on the team finally aired some dirty laundry. And honestly, it's something I needed to hear. So Jake's going to walk us through those comments here in just a second. Growing your small business in 2025 comes down to how well you can hire. And let's face it, better hires start with smarter insights. And that's where LinkedIn comes in. With the strongest hiring data available, LinkedIn helps you identify the right candidates, giving you the confidence to make the best decisions for your business. I've used LinkedIn Jobs myself, and I can tell you it's a game changer when it
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Starting point is 00:13:40 Yep. Yep. So Jake was there for locker clean out day. And one of the Colts biggest leaders, most vocal leaders, I guess, in recent weeks, all of a sudden he's the quiet DeForest Buckner has been talking quite a bit of late. But DeForest Buckner kind of laid it all out there to you guys. What were some of the things that DeForest Buckner said to y'all? Yeah, he's really been leading up to this all season for the most part, especially this back half. But, you know, obviously the defense is it's just a total mystery. They get up for competition against, you know, the Lions, the Bills, the Broncos.
Starting point is 00:14:17 They want those matchups. But then when it comes to the teams they think they can dominate, they're just totally aloof. And Buckner was asked like you know tackling aside you know we've we've heard for weeks now they suck at tackling it's true yes it's been a big problem on defense but like what's behind all this like these are veterans these are grown men like tackling is a fundamental you learn when you're in Little League. And Buckner basically said it's ego and complacency and a lack of guys being pushed from depth behind them. That's at the root of the problem.
Starting point is 00:14:58 Guys are playing as individuals rather than as a unit. Gus Bradley said that same thing last week. They saw on tape in that Giants game a bunch of instances of the ball going one place and defenders just not going to the ball because another defender was nearby and that they didn't need to swarm to the ball, basically passing the buck onto somebody else. And that's something the leaders of the team, DeForest, Kenny, they're seeing those things.
Starting point is 00:15:30 Guys are just out there on vibes, not really playing as a unit. And their starting positions have been bought or drafted, you know, just like you mentioned in the last segment. They don't, they're not getting pressure from depth behind them because there is none. Position groups are not being bolstered to create real competition. And it's just made guys change the way they view things. And Buckner said, we need more competition on this defense. Guys have to get pushed. And a great example he gave was Alec Pierce. That's a guy who plays a position that couldn't be any more different from defensive
Starting point is 00:16:12 tackle. And he used it as a great example. Alec Pierce was kind of on the rocks. This was a make or break year for him because he's underperformed because the Colts really haven't had quarterbacks that can accentuate his skill set. Butformed because the Colts really haven't had quarterbacks that can accentuate his skill set. But here are the Colts draft A.D. Mitchell at like 51, 52, whatever it was. And that obviously put a target on out Pierce's back and he responded in a great way. And Forrest Buckner shouted Pierce out for that. And he's like, we need more of that. You know, speaking about the defense, but the roster in whole, they need guys to not feel safe, and that's been a huge problem,
Starting point is 00:16:52 and it's showing up in practice. That's what Kenny Moore – Kenny Moore is kind of the one who blew the lid on this whole thing at midseason. Guys aren't preparing the right way. There's no sense of urgency, and Buckner just kind of stint at home today. You know, basically guys don't have to perform like they love this thing because their jobs are safe. And that's just a massive thing that has to change this offseason.
Starting point is 00:17:19 Buckner was on, you know, right after speaking to us, he said he had conversations to go have, I'm assuming, with Steichen, Ballard, and other coaches and, you know, right after speaking to us, he said he had conversations to go have, I'm assuming with Steichen, Ballard and other coaches and, you know, people in the organization. But Buckner, he said this after the game last night too, like he's going to be vocal in, in the way he wants changes made this off season. He's going to try and recruit guys in free agency.
Starting point is 00:17:43 Like Buckner wants real change for this team. Yeah, and I respect him for wanting that real change. Obviously, we have an offseason of podcasts to talk about how, look, we know who this general manager is. It's probably not going to happen. But I did want to highlight, again, the culture of complacency. I think Buckner really hits a nail on the head. And I love that he brought up the Alec Pierce thing,
Starting point is 00:18:04 because Alec Pierce was really pushed this offseason by a young, athletic, talented kid coming in. And even though Mitchell didn't have the season we kind of expected, it still pushed Pierce to be the best version of himself this season. Now, I'm not saying that every position you need to spend a top 50 pick to push everybody, you know, but think about the situations across the defense coming into this offseason, right? Let's look at the secondary in particular. Jalen Jones.
Starting point is 00:18:30 Who was pushing Jalen Jones in practice this offseason? Dallas Flowers. I can't even think of. Who else? Who else was on the roster pushing him? Nobody. Who was pushing Juju Brents in the offseason? Nobody.
Starting point is 00:18:42 Who was pushing Nick Cross in the offseason? Nobody. Who was pushing Nick Cross in the offseason? Nobody. Who was pushing Julian Patman? Yeah, they had every position locked in place before this. I mean, we tried to do camp battles for starting spots, and all of our camp battle episodes prior to the season were talking about backup spots or depth spots because all the starters were locked in place.
Starting point is 00:19:02 And the Colts have had the same starters essentially locked in place since 2022. Oh, and let me remind you what happened in 2022. They were one of the worst teams in football. So essentially you're saying, oh, besides quarterback, we were a fine football team. We're going to keep running it back with everybody since then. And this is what happens. You get this, this air of complacency where you get these guys who have been a part of losing football teams. And I'm not saying these are bad players. You know, I'm not saying that all these players are bad and they need to be replaced and benched.
Starting point is 00:19:30 But when you have guys who are associated with a losing culture and constantly on losing teams, we can't just be resting on our laurels and running the same guys back out there every year. Oh, don't worry. With time, they'll get better. You got to push them a little bit. You know, you constantly see teams like, you know, the Buffalo Bills are a draft and develop type team. They are very much draft and develop, but that doesn't stop them from going out there and adding low level free agents to push guys. I mean, they added what Taylor wrapped
Starting point is 00:19:59 the last couple of seasons at safety, who was supposed to be like a, maybe a fill-in starter or a replacement level guy essentially becomes a starter for them and a really good player. DeMar Hamlin was a player who started off as like a day three guy, worked his way up on the roster, and then they eventually felt good enough to move on from Jordan Poirier and Micah Hyde because they had, you know, a young player ascending behind him in Hamlin. And that's just their safety position group. They have obviously other position groups doing the same. But it's about adding legit competition to your roster. It can't just be, you know, oh, you know, EJ Speed is having a bad season this year.
Starting point is 00:20:36 Who's going to replace him? Day three rookie in Jalen Carlisle, who missed most of the year with injury. Saguna Luby, who's an undrafted free agent who bounced around a little bit. So what do you do when one of these guys struggles? You't do anything you just leave them out there to struggle right uh this team has a real issue with you know it commits too much to people even even dalton tucker this year it was like a month of really bad play of just killing the colts offense before they finally made it move at right guard it's just the culture of this team right now. It's like, once you're in, you're set, you're established.
Starting point is 00:21:07 You're now you're owed a contract all of a sudden, if you're even like a baseline player and it needs to change. Like, I'm not saying you give up on these guys after one day or anything like you can take time with them. But aside from a couple of cases, like Nick Cross had was pulled quick in his rookie season and eventually worked his way back to the starting lineup, and he got better because of it. So maybe there needs to be some of these like – They had Rodney McCloud there.
Starting point is 00:21:33 Right. Don't put so much on these rookies. Right. So there are some cases where bringing in the vet to push them actually makes these kids better in the long run. But when they ask so much of these guys from day one, and then they're constantly starters no matter what, and they're never pushed aside from a couple cases here, you get this air of complacency. So again, we have a whole offseason to talk about this
Starting point is 00:21:56 because I don't expect much to change with the Colts. But I guess that will lead into our final segment here, Jake, where what are the big changes that are going to happen? Shane Steichen's back. Chris Ballard's back. Most of this roster will be back. I mean, they already have like 40 contracts set in place. So most of this roster will be back.
Starting point is 00:22:15 What's going to change this offseason? We'll talk about it here in just a second. All right, the NFL playoffs are here, but it's not too late to get in on the regular season action with FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook. Because right now, new customers can finish the season strong with $250 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins.
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Starting point is 00:23:37 it literally could happen while we're talking. We imagine Gus Bradley is not going to be brought back. Now, I don't want to say he could be fired because this is year three. He could have signed a three-year deal and they're just not going to re-sign it. But regardless, parting ways with Gus Bradley. So that's the easy one. But like, what realistic things that I guess aren't too far out of the realm of possibility and comfort zone for Chris Ballard, do you think they can do to to get some positive momentum going into the year yeah so the Colts have to sell the fan base on some sort of change so there has to be some semblance of fall guys for this season we know Chris Ballard doesn't get held accountable for bad seasons Shane Steichen's not being held
Starting point is 00:24:23 accountable and by all intents and purposes, I don't think Anthony Richardson, for the most part, will be held accountable either because I'm assuming he will be the starting quarterback next season as well. So with those big three not being held accountable for the Colts missing the playoffs, you have to find other fall guys. And Gus Bradley is just the easiest one. He is so easy. And don't get me wrong, he is certainly worth getting fired or not getting his contract renewed. When you allow 45 points to the New York Giants, when you allow 37 points to the Jacksonville Jaguars, 30 points to the Tennessee Titans. I mean, the writing was on the wall for Gus Bradley. So we anticipate that coming here
Starting point is 00:24:59 soon. I'm assuming it's going to be done during Chris Ballard's press conference, where he will update us that they won't be bringing him back or something like that. Now, when it comes to the next defensive coordinator, they're in an interesting spot because it could be seen around the league that this is more of a lame duck situation with Steichen and Ballard. Like, you know, some people might see they only have one year left. I'm personally, I don't know if Ballard only has one year left because look, the guy can't die. So why would I anticipate that he would, you know, he'd be gone after next season, like regardless of what happens, but we'll see, I guess.
Starting point is 00:25:34 So that could hurt some of their, you know, perspective candidates right there in terms of finding like a high quality guy, like the Bengals defense coordinator who was just fired, like that's going to be one of the more sought after names. Robert Sala, I don't think the Colts are going to be big players for him because he's going to have a lot of offers. But you could see maybe like a veteran coach on his last legs, like a Dennis Allen type or someone who's friends with a Steichen or a Ballard like Chris Harris, or maybe a guy with Wisconsin ties
Starting point is 00:26:04 like a Jim Leonard could be a dark horse. Like there are some names that like, look, there's only 32 defensive coordinator positions in the NFL. You're going to get somebody decent, but I don't think they're going to be big players for the giant names there. So that again, me kind of pouring water on big changes there. In terms of the roster, I wouldn't expect Ryan Kelly and Dio Dangbo to come back this season this offseason I do think it feels pretty obvious those guys are going to walk outside of that though again this is Chris Ballard we're talking about he might re-sign everybody else because that's just what he does and they don't have a lot of salary cap to play with this
Starting point is 00:26:41 offseason they have about 28 million I, is what it's going to be. Now, they could open up some more space if they end up releasing Braden Smith, because we don't really know what's going on with that situation. Again, we're not going to speculate on what's going on with Braden Smith, but if the Colts opt to move on from Braden Smith, they could save quite a bit of money on that contract, get into the 40 ish million dollar range for cap space but then again i don't really expect much change like like jake you can jump in here but like it's chris ballard we're talking about like he's gonna go down with his ship man like we're gonna get you know another draft class in here that's gonna to be relied to be starters uh we're going to get a lot of re-signed players maybe one or two free agents that they can really push on us
Starting point is 00:27:31 and be like look we made a big move for you guys and it'll be like a samson ebucom type contract and and that'll be it i i don't really anticipate many big changes outside of them just just praying that anthony richardson figures it out this offseason? Yeah, I'll just go through some quick roster ones real quick before I want to get at the biggest roster pieces that I think they should adjust. So Tanner Bortolini and Matt Gonsalves becoming new starters on the offensive line, certainly a possibility. Again, we don't know what's going on with Braden Smith. Maybe we'll figure out something in terms of his status with the team when Chris Ballard speaks.
Starting point is 00:28:08 I think they've got to get real competition for Anthony Richardson, and not in the form of an over-the-hill quarterback or anything like that. I'm talking like a Justin Fields or something, like someone capable of being started throughout the year, if need be. If Anthony's just not cutting it or what have you. They got to get a real running back too. Trey Sermon got so much equity off of that Steelers game last year. Him and Tyler Goodson, that was not an adequate backup situation behind Taylor.
Starting point is 00:28:41 And it allowed for Taylor to really never leave the field. And when he did, it was very noticeable because people weren't productive. So the big things we ought to get to. So they need to go into 2025 with some mix and or of significant players at tight end, linebacker, cornerback, and or safety. Those things have got to be addressed. Tight end, obviously. You list a handful of other positions, too. Running back, offensive line could use some more.
Starting point is 00:29:12 Bottom of the roster, wide receiver, quarterback. Like, man, I feel like there's like 22 positions here. Yeah, there's a lot. But, no, some of the biggest issues I saw this year, obviously nothing coming from the tight end department whatsoever. It once was a group we thought might be the deepest group on the roster, but couldn't be further from the truth. Linebacker, that's been not great this year.
Starting point is 00:29:38 Yes, I know Zyre Franklin made the Pro Bowl. Yes, I know he's top three in franchise tackles again, blah, blah, blah, blah. But him and EJ Speed have the same strengths and weaknesses, and it created a big problem. If Jalen Carlisle and Zaire are your two starters at linebacker next year, it's probably a stabilization maybe, but I think there's more that can be done. And then cornerback and safety, which is going to lead me into a quick mini rant real quick, because it's something that kind of fired me up today. So Julian Blackman, by all stretches, had a disappointing season. He's one
Starting point is 00:30:17 of those players that we get yelled at every week that they need to cut him. He's a bum, get him off the team, yada, yada, yada. I have always held him in very high regard. I, he had a great summer. He was the defensive MVP of the summer. He was awesome. Had an incredibly disappointing season and suddenly was unable to tackle. Well, we learned today he suffered a torn labrum week one and kind of had to adjust the way he was attempting to tackle for risk of further injury to that shoulder basically and it led to a guy just being a total shell of himself now why was he forced to play like this when he so clearly was not himself and was perhaps a liability
Starting point is 00:31:02 it's because they didn't do anything at safety. The reason Blackman had to get moved back to free safety is because nobody else could do it. Nick Cross was the other de facto starter as the second safety, and he had to be played at strong safety. You didn't have anyone else that could do it because you neglected the position, and now you got this dude playing on one arm and it looks like he's playing on one arm all season and that's just how do you let that happen and it's not an all shucks i should have fixed it no that everyone yelled at you about the secondary all off season long like to me that that was mind blowing, but also not surprising.
Starting point is 00:31:48 I was like, how do you let this happen? So yeah, something, something nice in the veteran department at cornerback and safety, I think would be very helpful for them. Are you going to go after Chris Ballard and his press conference? Because you know, he's going to take victory laps about the cornerback position and his press conference.
Starting point is 00:32:04 I don't think, I don't think any of us want to let that happen oh man the end of season press conferences are usually the the uh most sassy toned talks we have with chris each year it's it's all done with respect, but we have tough questions and he is going to try to defend himself. I think. I mean, look, he's got, we've got eight years of evidence on you now at this point, man, I don't know how much more defending he can do, but we'll see. We'll see. Yeah. I guess maybe,
Starting point is 00:32:39 maybe next year or something he'll finally take accountability for. I don't know. We'll see. We do want to appreciate you guys for sticking with us. I know it's a tough time. I know a lot of people aren't renewing their season tickets. A lot of people are upset right now. We do appreciate you guys sticking with us here at Locked on Colts. And we're going to try to make your offseason as entertaining as possible
Starting point is 00:32:57 despite everything going on with this Colts team. So thank you guys, as always, 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 talk. If you guys want to become a Locked on Colts insider and chat with us directly
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