Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts: Reaction to Chris Ballard, Jeff Saturday Pressers

Episode Date: January 11, 2023

Indianapolis Colts general manager Chris Ballard had his end-of-season presser yesterday and interim head coach Jeff Saturday had his on Monday. Zach and special guest Derek Schultz react to some of t...he comments in those pressers on today's show.Find and follow Locked On Colts on your favorite podcast platforms:🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOColts?sid=YouTube📺YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLdpxJspi1hMh5HL7ExpWOQLocked On NFL League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Draft & More🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnNFLFollow Jake and Zach's written work on HorseshoeHuddle.com (@ColtsOnFN), and give them a follow on Twitter @JakeArthurNFL, @ZachHicks2, and @LockedOnColts!Today’s episode is presented by PrizePicks. PrizePicks is daily fantasy made easy. Pick 2-5 players and if they score more or less than their PrizePicks projection you can win up to 10x your money on your entry. First-time users can receive a 100% instant deposit match up to $100 with promo code LOCKEDON. That’s PrizePicks.com – promo code; LOCKEDONSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!LinkedInLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONNFLBuilt BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!PrizePicksFirst time users can receive a 100% instant deposit match up to $100 with promo code LOCKEDON. That’s PrizePicks.com – promo code; LOCKEDONUltimate Football GMTo download the game just visit Ultimate-GM.com or look it up on the app stores. Our listeners get a 100% free boost to their franchise when using the promo LOCKEDON (ALL CAPS) in the game store.TurboTaxCome to TurboTax and don’t do your taxes. Visit TurboTax.com to learn more.Tommy JohnWinter mornings are brutal. So here’s my tip for tackling the day in comfort: Grab new Tommy John Loungewear and take cozy wherever you go. Get TWENTY PERCENT OFF YOUR FIRST ORDER at TommyJohn.com/LOCKEDON. BetterHelpThis episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at Betterhelp.com/LockedOn and get on your way to being your best self.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:00 The Indianapolis Colts offseason has begun, and we've heard from the key figures involved as they've tried to explain what went wrong this past season, but some are more willing to shoulder the blame than others. We'll dive into it all today in this episode of Locked on Colts. Let's get to it. You are Locked on Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your, every day. Thank you all for tuning in and making us your first listen of the day.
Starting point is 00:00:49 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 PrizePix. PrizePix is daily fantasy made easy. Pick two to five players. If they score more or less than their PrizePix projection, then you can win up to 10 times your money on any entry. First time users can receive a 100% instant deposit match up to $100 with promo code LOCKEDON.
Starting point is 00:01:13 That's prizepicks.com, promo code LOCKEDON. I'm Zach Hicks, and I'm joined by Derek Schultz of Curie and Schultz. Curie and Schultz. How do I say his name? It's tough, right? There aren't a lot of last names to say. Let's start with Q. Query. Query. Query and Schultz.
Starting point is 00:01:30 All you guys, listen to us. I know you're a fan of Query and Schultz, so you're probably going to kill me in the comments, but Jake Arthur, my normal co-host, he's going to be back tomorrow, so it's just me and Derek. Derek, we had a lot of press conference the last couple days, and you can correct me if I'm wrong.
Starting point is 00:01:45 I don't think you or I are either of those kind of guys who are going to sit in those press conferences and ask all those questions like all the beat reporters will, right? No, I just the way that I always treated press conferences. And I know, Zach, you don't like crowds and all that. I'm cool with crowds. Like, I'm cool being around other humans. But I'm kind of like the fly in when stuff is important guy. So I always try to let the people that are there in the trenches every day,
Starting point is 00:02:14 ask the questions. I don't want to step on any toes. You know what I mean? Like I'm not there to like make my voice heard or anything like that. So I've always been really kind of standoffish when it comes to those press. Yep. So the Colts had a bunch of press conferences and they had those mosh pits
Starting point is 00:02:30 going with all the beat reporters throwing as many questions as possible at head coach Jeff Saturday, general manager, Chris Ballard was today. Chris Ballard actually spoke for 40 minutes today. You guys are listening to this on Wednesday. So Tuesday he spoke and he answered around 35 questions in those 40 minutes. We're going to talk a lot about those press conferences here. And then we're going to talk about some head coach candidates that the Colts reached out. But first let's talk about Chris Ballard. Chris Ballard is a guy where we've kind of soured on him quite a
Starting point is 00:03:01 bit this season. And I think that's rightfully so I mean it's what his sixth seventh year here with the Colts and this team has gone from you know they've been in the playoffs a couple times but this year you just how many GMs can come back after a season where you drop to a four-win team in your sixth year in your seventh year whatever it is it's really kind of inexcusable that this season happened. But honestly, Chris Ballard kind of stepped up and said all the right things. Like, I'm not saying I'm not upset with him anymore. I'm back on the Chris Ballard train. But like, you know what?
Starting point is 00:03:35 He took the fall for it all. Yeah, this is Ballard in his element, right? When he gets in front of the camera and it's got that kind of endearing southern drawl texas type vibe going on like you want to like chris ballard right he's he's an easy guy to want to like um i'm torn man because i'm kind of like you i am a process over results guy, but I also understand that the league, eventually you have to produce the results. So the process can be good, but if the process doesn't actually produce anything tangible, then you have to eventually move on from that person. I was just kind of worried that things were so broken over on West 56th street that they just needed a clean break. But if we're operating under the assumption that Ballard
Starting point is 00:04:28 is going to continue, which I think for all intents and purposes, that's the way that it looks like, maybe he can kind of reclaim that footing and get back on that trajectory that we saw in 1920, where the arrow was pointing up for the Colts um now unfortunately it's pointing directly down yeah yeah and I think uh the the biggest thing that we saw from Chris Ballard which we'll we'll come back to this when we talk about a certain other person's press conference is uh Chris Ballard stepped up in the first things he said he sat down he said I failed you know I failed you guys I failed what you guys expected from me I failed this team I failed. I failed you guys. I failed what you guys expected from me. I failed this team. I failed everything. I need to step forward from here. It's a dark era. We get stepped forward,
Starting point is 00:05:10 coach speak and all that kind of stuff. But no, the first thing he did is he sat down and he took accountability for it. He didn't start blaming outside factors. He didn't blame specific players. He mostly held off on blaming the former head coach. Yeah, Chris Ballard sat down and he, you know, he took all the bullets that he could and he opened himself up to it at the beginning of that press conference, which honestly was a breath of fresh air to me from what we've seen from other people in leadership positions with the Colts lately. It's just that accountability was great to see. Yeah. And I think it further hammered home for me that he was safe, at least for now, because I don't think you fall on the sword as much as he did, unless you feel like your spot is okay. You know, Jeff Saturday,
Starting point is 00:05:54 who I know that we're going to talk about, wasn't accountable for anything at all. And I think a reason why he wasn't accountable for anything is because he's still fighting for a job. He wants to go ahead and continue. But yeah, I do think that he said some of the right things. And I think he tried to be as honest as he possibly could be. Look, he's not going to sit there and publicly dump on an interim head coach that was not his selection, that was his boss's pick you're just not going to do that you're not going to come out and say yeah he was a failure and the guy that picked him was wrong you know i i don't know what fans want so i i know there was a lot of negative reaction to um or there was like reading of tea leaves if you will when it came to what boward
Starting point is 00:06:42 said and and what was left unsaid about Saturday. But I didn't expect him to come in and say anything different when it came from that. I think, Zach, you've brought up good points in this process that if the Colts are going to continue with Bauer, you can talk me into that. But Bauer is going to have to have, if he hasn't had it already, he's going to have to very quickly have the quote unquote come to Jesus moment where he realizes, okay, this process needs tweaking. Maybe it doesn't need wholesale change. Maybe I don't throw out everything that I do when it comes to cap management and how I approach free agency and all of that. But clearly
Starting point is 00:07:18 my team building philosophy needs some changes. And, and if he can proceed that way, he's a smart guy. He's a respected guy still. Even with, I mean, we're still talking about a guy that has a job and seems to be safe after six years and, what, 45 and 52 and one playoff win? You know, how many guys in the NFL would you say that about? Most guys would be out of a job by now. So I think that that speaks to the faith that, uh, that better
Starting point is 00:07:45 say still has in Chris Ballard. So, you know, I know I'm kind of talking out of both sides of my mouth here because I, like you kind of wanted them to make a change and just rip the bandaid off and do a little soft reset here. But now that we know that they're proceeding this way, you can talk me into this working as long as Ballard looks at himself in the mirror and understands that there are some significant changes that are going to be need to be made in his thinking. Yeah, Chris Ballard did address that in the press conference. He did say something along the lines of, you know, he can get stubborn in his way of thinking and he can get stuck in kind of stuck in the mud with what he typically does. And that has hurt in other positions. I mean, one thing
Starting point is 00:08:23 that he did address was the Colts offensive line. know the two guys that he thought could just step in and kind of be starter level players matt prior and danny pinter he didn't think they would be as poor as they were you know because they had those other three players around him uh and he even he owned up to that he said that he calculated and that was on him. So he did acknowledge some mistakes, some misses, some things he could have done. And he did say he needs to take a hard look at his process. Now we haven't seen too much of a process change from day one to now.
Starting point is 00:08:55 You know, Chris Ballard has kind of been the same guy from that first day. Recently, he has started to draft a couple more premium positions with those higher picks. But for the most part, he has been crisp out. He's going to sit out most of free agency. He's going to just take best player available in the draft. He's not going to get too aggressive with quarterback.
Starting point is 00:09:13 Yes, some of that has to change. Because the Colts just don't have the talent or the roster anymore to where you can survive passing up on certain things. So yeah, I do think he needs a little bit of change of his philosophy. But I do think his process is fine. Like, again, process, not giving up the biggest contracts in free agency. That's a good process. Not overpaying and having bad contracts.
Starting point is 00:09:36 That's a good process. Not trading up just to trade up and get, you know, a Mitch Strabisky-type quarterback. That's a good process. But you still have to be aggressive within that process. And I do think he's going to change everything that he said today. It seemed like every indication that he was going to at least change a little bit going forward.
Starting point is 00:09:54 Yeah. I just, I guess my argument would be that you can't just sit around and wait for the perfect situation and Andrew Luck and Peyton Manning to fall on your lap. I mean, I think Colts fans are, you talk to them every day, you know, they're falling into that trap. Well, I don't like anybody in this draft class because this guy does this poorly and this guy, look guys, there is no perfect draft prospect. There just isn't. Even Trevor Lawrence, which probably recently is the closest thing that we've had that. I mean, you saw the struggles that he went through
Starting point is 00:10:22 up until really the final six, eight weeks of of this year where it appeared that the light bulb started to go on with him so um I think Bowerd maybe if he could do it all over again the offseason that I still point to is kind of the turning point for this whole thing was after they squeezed that one good year out of Philip Rivers and they they either you, you know, depending on who you listen to, they either decided they were moving on or he, you know, who knows what, what ended up happening regardless. Rivers ended up moving on. And I think that was the time to say, okay, time to go for it here. And they chose to go another way and get cute with it and find,
Starting point is 00:11:00 I think another stop gap who I think they hoped was going to have a long-term future. And once, of course that didn't end up happening. And, I think, another stopgap who I think they hoped was going to have a long-term future and went. So, of course, that didn't end up happening. And, you know, I think that was the time to kind of be aggressive and put themselves out there. That's not just a hindsight is 2020 thing. I think a lot of people at the time felt that way, too. He knows now that he has no choice. They're taking a quarterback, and this is when the proverbial clock, I guess, starts for Ballard. What I think is interesting about this whole situation, Zach, is that let's say the Colts draft a rookie. He ends up starting most of the season, if not all 17 games,
Starting point is 00:11:34 and the Colts go 5-12 next year. Ballard's back, right? Because if you're committing to him right now to pick your quarterback and pick your head coach, then you're not going to gas him out after one year and then bring in another general manager who doesn't have his quarterback and doesn't have his coach. Am I right? Yeah. Yeah. Derek. And honestly, I think we're getting a little too ahead of ourselves with the Chris. We will definitely start talking. Yeah. No, no, no. If this were a show that we're not constrained to 30 minutes, we would 100%
Starting point is 00:12:04 go into this right now. But we have some more press conferences to talk about. But make sure, guys, you are keeping tuning in to the Locked On Colts and to the Kieran Schultz Show because Derek is going to go in more detail in the future for sure. But first, dealing with the Colts this year has been painful, arguably more painful than doing your taxes. Just kidding.
Starting point is 00:12:23 But still, it's been pretty painful. Don't worry about that, though, because TurboTax has got you covered. Go to TurboTax and don't do your taxes. Meet with an expert who will do them for you. TurboTax experts can relieve you from the stress of taxes and file for you so you can do so. Just not do your taxes. Me as a contractor the last couple of years, TurboTax has been a lifesaver for me. So make sure you guys are going to TurboTax and you don't do your taxes. You have somebody else doing that for you. Visit TurboTax.com to learn more. TurboTax.com.
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Starting point is 00:13:24 and lead your team to glory. I like to make fun of Jake. He got fun there. So he was just an absolute mess. I have not been fired yet, but give me a couple more seasons. Maybe I'll be Chris Ballen. I'll just survive forever and forever. But Locked On Colts, let's just get a 100% free boost to their franchise
Starting point is 00:13:41 when using promo code LOCKEDON in all caps in the game store. That's LOCKEDON in all caps. Make sure that you check it out today. To download the game, just visit ultimate-gm.com or look it up on app stores. That's ultimate-gm.com. Ultimate Football GM, start your dynasty today. All right, Derek, so we're going to go from the constant professional, the all-shucks media guy in Chris Ballard talking about the interim head coach Jeff Saturday.
Starting point is 00:14:11 Now, before we get into saying anything about Jeff Saturday, we we can acknowledge that this was an impossible situation. There was zero chance for success for him. Like I don't get me wrong. This is a guy who's never coached before outside of a high school team you know he's never coached in the NFL at any level close to this ever he had to step in and be a head coach without Frank Reich without Marcus Brady so two big-time play callers and then he had two legit not legit but two guys who have called plays before both turned him down so he had to go to you knowyear-old Parks Frazier to call plays for his offense. This was a really tough situation that he had zero chance of success with.
Starting point is 00:14:52 However, the last thing you want to hear from a guy who's interviewing to be your head coach and for a guy who is going to have to deal with media scrums like this daily if he were a head coach and a guy who's going to be a leader of men is to have no accountability whatsoever we can acknowledge that a lot of this is not him you know I guess a lot of this not him but we can't ignore that this team was three five and one when he came in and they beat two playoff teams in the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Kansas City Chiefs and they did it you know of those five games two of those losses came with Sam Allen Girtz not like they were all matt ryan games jeff saturday comes in and he goes one and seven with a below average
Starting point is 00:15:31 team drives them into the ground and they're just getting blown out down the stretch i mean this team got worse and worse every single week uh now it was just capped off by that hail mary loss or whatever in week uh in week 18 but like yes, Jeff Saturday, you have a lot of excuses, but take some accountability. Even if you're lying to the media, you have to take some accountability and be that bullet shield that, that Chris Ballard was. Yeah. The most disingenuous thing a leader or a boss can do is demand accountability from everybody around him and not be accountable for himself. Right. I think we'd all agree. Jeff Saturday, again, we're talking about guys that are easy to like. He's real easy to like, right? Smart guy, good guy, great family, you know, nice blue eyes.
Starting point is 00:16:20 Like Jeff Saturday's got a lot going for him.'s a handsome dude he was a great player um I'm just disappointed Zach I'm disappointed that this is the way this thing has gone um because it goes opposite with that that surreal press conference from back in early November where Ursae was basically pounding the table with his fist talking about how this was going to work and change things and and Saturday was saying look if if it's not for me then I'm going to work and change things. And, and Saturday was saying, look, if, if it's not for me, then I'm going to walk out the door and then they come back eight weeks later and it's a completely, they're singing a completely different tune. So it's it's frustrating.
Starting point is 00:16:52 It's frustrating that this is the way that it's worked out. I don't think anybody was asking Jeff Saturday to come in and lead the Colts to a wildcard berth. I don't think anybody was asking him to come in and lead them to seven wins. Well, one, one person was, well, yeah, sure. And we're going to talk about that person. I know. I don't think the fans or media realistically expected that. What I didn't expect was that things would get a bad situation would get considerably worse. Right. And that's what happened. You know, yes, they won in they competed against philadelphia and that was the
Starting point is 00:17:25 second game and you thought okay maybe things are turning around here slightly but then really kind of the bottom fell out after that it's difficult in the nfl to lose by 17 20 24 30 points consistently um and the giants game for me i mean you could point to the chargers game too because the chargers were like we don't even have to try here. We've got six points. We're good. We're going to win this game already. But the Giants game was one that really jumped out to me as a –
Starting point is 00:17:51 you know, people want to talk about the Vikings game and the Cowboys game. The Giants are a real meh team, and the Giants just did whatever the hell they wanted in that game, and that was the one that really kind of jumped out to me. So I'm disappointed. I'm not particularly surprised that he didn't fall on the sword, but I am disappointed that he couldn't hold himself a little bit more accountable. Right. Right. And I think, you know, we got to separate the quote unquote head coach or whatever we're going to call interim head coach from the
Starting point is 00:18:18 player, from the person, because I still like Jeff Saturday. I cannot dislike Jeff Saturday. I really do think he was just in over his head with this. Like Derek, I just, he was not ready for this. And it's unfortunate that we're still kind of continuing this charade at this point. Like, sure. What is he supposed to say? He wants the job and stuff like that, but why do we even have to pretend like he did anything positive? Maybe behind closed doors, he brought some accountability and he yelled at the offensive line and everyone liked it.
Starting point is 00:18:49 But like there was like, they were an embarrassing team for the last like month, month and a half. Like again, they had more losses by three or more scores in a, in a month than the Texans had all season. Like it's bad. It was that bad. And you point to things like
Starting point is 00:19:07 the clock management at the end of the Steelers game, like a 10 year old playing Madden knows the call timeout in that situation. I mean, the fact that he was booed into going for it on Sunday, come on, man. Like, I think there are some things that you can excuse and there are some things that you just can't excuse. So I would love for Jeff Saturday to have a role with this organization, a position coach, an ambassador for the franchise, somebody involved in the front. Great, wonderful.
Starting point is 00:19:37 He's a great representation of the Indianapolis Colts when this was a winning, competent, great place to be. But I just don't think that role for him moving forward is as head coach. Yep. Well said. Well said. I really would love him back as a line coach. Like whoever, whoever it gets this head coaching job, I would love him back as the offensive
Starting point is 00:19:55 line coach. But I think there is a real concern that he might be the head coach next season with the guy who might be calling the shots over Chris Valley. But again, that's a conversation for another day. Overall, though, Jeff Saturday's press conference left a lot to be desired for me. And if I even had an ounce of it in my body that I wanted Jeff Saturday to be the head coach next season,
Starting point is 00:20:16 that press conference kind of took it all out. I was 100% done with the Jeff Saturday era as head coach at Indy. And I'm sure you felt the same way, Derek. Yeah, I just don't like the insinuation that being an interim coach automatically means that things can improve. Because we just saw it improve. We saw it this year in Carolina, and we saw it last year in Vegas.
Starting point is 00:20:35 Right. So, yeah, actually, it can improve. You can make a bad situation slightly better, and Saturday fell well short of that bar. Yeah, yeah, I put it out there on Twitter last week, but of all the interim head coaches since 2010 to have coached eight or more games with the interim tag, Jeff Saturday is the only one who had the team get worse under him.
Starting point is 00:20:55 The only one given is the only one to come from ESPN to coach the team. So maybe, maybe it's just the ESPN curse or something, but that's just what happened with him as interim coach you know that's just it's not a good resume builder it's not a good thing to build on and say you know what this could be our head coach next season so I think we've said enough on Jeff Saturday coming up we're going to talk about guys who are qualified to be head coaches and who the Colts are seeking out as potential play or potential guys to hire for the next head coach but first we want to tell you about our friends over at PrizePix,
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Starting point is 00:22:16 Don't forget to enter promo code LOCKEDON at signup for instant deposit match up to $100. All right, Derek, so we've got four head coaching candidates to talk about. I think they just – I have to pull off – I have to get away from the script here if I were to look at it. I think I just saw George Bremmer tweeting about how they have another one lined up. Can you get on Twitter there, Derek? Do they have somebody else lined up?
Starting point is 00:22:38 Sure, let me look here. I'll just – I'll stall the crowd here while you're looking up. But the four guys that I am looking at that the Colts have requested interviews with is Shane Steichen, offensive coordinator from the Philadelphia Eagles, Raheem Morris, defensive coordinator with the Los Angeles Rams, Ben Johnson, offensive coordinator with the Detroit Lions, and Aaron Glenn, defensive coordinator with the Detroit Lions. So all pretty good candidates who have been around the league for a long time were you able to pull up who the other guy is the Broncos defensive
Starting point is 00:23:08 coordinator is your own zero yes Jiro Vero that's another great candidate there so we can talk a little bit about him as well but of those five guys there Derek which of those guys kind of intrigues you the most well I think the the most intriguing one usually is going to be kind of the young hotshot breakout guy. And I think that's Ben Johnson, right? Yeah. He's younger than me. Only one year as an offensive coordinator. But you saw what Detroit did this year and particularly what Jared Goff did this year. And I think that has Johnson's fingerprints all over it. So, you know, those guys are generally the riskiest guys too, the wonderkins, if you will.
Starting point is 00:23:48 I mean, every once in a while you have a McVay sort of situation, but I would love to see the Colts just really put themselves out there, not only with the quarterback, but also with this hire. You know, part of me is also feeling like anybody but Jeff Saturday. So I feel like that poisons the well a little bit when it comes to the other head coaching candidates. But, you know, to me, Zach, I fall into two camps. One, take a chance on a young guy who can come in here and really kind of change how they've been doing things. Two, err on the side of stability.
Starting point is 00:24:22 It's been a very unstable place lately with this franchise. Get somebody that's not learning on the job, that knows what they're doing. And that's where I kind of look at Raheem Morris or somebody like that. I'm like, okay, yeah, he's very experienced. He's been a head coach before. Maybe you can kind of talk me to going down that road. Yeah, yeah, for sure. And to just add more credence to shane steichen and ben johnson like those are two up-and-comers uh both coaching top five offenses this year in the nfl steichen over in philly ben johnson with the lions uh that's kind of the archetype that's been hitting a lot with these new head coaching hires i mean you said sean mcveigh that's obviously the big one
Starting point is 00:25:01 but kyle shanahan was the same way back in the day. And if you want to go more recent, Mike LaFleur in Green Bay has constantly got the Packers into the playoffs. Not this year, but every other year. Kevin O'Connell with the Vikings, another offense coordinator, young offense coordinator that becomes the head coach. Zach Taylor with the Bengals went to the Super Bowl last year. It is kind of the archetype that is hitting here recently in the NFL so I love go that way but honestly outside of Ben Johnson and Shane Steichen because I do think those are 1A and 1B right there Raheem Morris man I do like Raheem Morris a lot and you know just to kind of keep going back in circles with our interim head coach thing here he took over for an 0-5
Starting point is 00:25:40 Falcons team a couple years ago when Dan Quinn was fired. And he led them to four wins down the stretch, which is not anything special or amazing. But that team was playing really hard and really strong football. And he didn't get that job. He goes out to the Rams, becomes their defensive coordinator, and he is told to kind of insert – he's basically told to take over Brandon Staley's scheme. He is told he can't do his scheme there.
Starting point is 00:26:04 That is one of the craziest things. He replaced Brandon Staley's scheme. Like he is told he can't do his scheme there. Like that is one of the craziest things. He replaced Brandon Staley and they said, oh yeah, keep doing what Brandon Staley was doing. Don't do your cover two stuff. And he goes there, he keeps what they're doing and they win the Super Bowl. Like Raheem Morris, I think is a really strong candidate. Yes, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers thing happened,
Starting point is 00:26:20 but that was a long time ago. And he went from a, I think he went from a secondary coach up to head coach back then. It was a really weird hiring process. Now he's a guy who's been a defensive coordinator for years. He's been with Sean McVay. He's been with other really successful coaches. I think Raheem Morris deserves another shot. So I know there is talk that if Sean McVay steps away, he could get the head coaching job out there, but yeah, I really, really like Raheem Morris. I do wonder wonder do you usually see this with coaching changes that they end up doing like the hard correct where the personality of the
Starting point is 00:26:51 previous coach you jerk the wheel and it goes the complete opposite way so um i don't know all of these guys inside and out personality wise are they rah-rah guys? Are they old school football guys? Rah, you know, analytics suck. You know, we heard kind of Ursae sort of allude to that. And they'll go through the interview process. But I wonder if some people that check certain boxes personality-wise might have a leg up because Ursae wants to move away from the all is well kind of calm demeanor of the Reich era. Yeah, you know, it's funny. I think when you're looking at some of these guys
Starting point is 00:27:27 that they're requesting interviews with, especially with Steichen, Ben Johnson, even Ishiro Evra, who they're here, I think that's very much a, those look like very Chris Ballard candidates, you know, where analytics are going to be important and someone who's just mastering their scheme and mastering their craft and stuff like that.
Starting point is 00:27:47 You know, Evro is the top of the new age of defensive football, you know, that Vic Fangio style. He's basically taken that and improved it in Denver. Ben Johnson runs this very complex rushing attack with the vertical passing game. It's beautiful. Shane Steichen using a mobile quarterback to kind of kill defenses and spread them out. These are very analytically driven coaches who are also in the forefront of the
Starting point is 00:28:09 new age of football. None of that screams rah-rah, except for Aaron Glenn. Aaron Glenn's very rah-rah. Aaron Glenn is very Dan Campbell. So maybe if Aaron Glenn gets it, maybe we'll say they went to rah-rah. But I do think, again, this kind of comes back to just kind of a little bit of praise for Chris Ballard, where it seems like he's not course correcting too much, you know, where yes, there is a little bit of a course correction and stuff like that. But for the most part, he's still sticking with analytics are important, being the forefront of the new trends in the NFL is important. And he's kind of showing that with the guys that he's requesting to interview right now. Yeah, which is good because I think most
Starting point is 00:28:45 people want Bauer to be involved in this process, not only to guard against Saturday, but to guard against perhaps an overcorrection. Because look, from 2018 through 2021, I think a lot of that time Frank Reich did a good job maximizing the hand that he was dealt. And it wasn't until the first eight games, seven, eight games of this year where you're like, oh boy, not even he can fix this, that things kind of really went south. So I don't think the Colts necessarily need wholesale change from the process that Bowerd and Reich had. I really don't. I just think that they need some tweaks and have to move forward and change some things. And again, the theme of this whole podcast has been accountability. Be accountable for where things have gone wrong for this team.
Starting point is 00:29:31 Definitely, definitely. So yeah, I'm really intrigued by those guys there. And who knows, by the time this podcast releases tomorrow morning, we might have 10 more candidates that we didn't cover. But of those guys there, yes, Staken and Ben Johnson, my top two for sure. Raheem Morris, I like. Aaron Glenn, I top two for sure. Raheem Morris I like. Aaron Glenn, I could be talked into it because he's not just Saturday. And then Adjira Evero as well.
Starting point is 00:29:50 I'm a very, very big fan of that. I'm going to definitely look more into that one there. But, yeah, Derek, I think that's all we have for today. Again, unfortunately, I had to constrain you to a 30-minute episode here. I know you wanted to keep going and going and going. I know, I know. I appreciate you jumping on, going and going and going. Sorry. But I do appreciate you jumping on, man, and talking about these pressers. Make sure you guys
Starting point is 00:30:10 are following Derek at Schultz975 on Twitter. Also at LockedOnColts on Twitter, at JakeArthurNFL on Twitter, at ZachHicks2 on Twitter. And also subscribe to wherever you listen to LockedOnColts and also the Curious Query and Schultz show. Make sure you guys are making those your first couple of listens of the day.
Starting point is 00:30:27 And thank you for making us right now your first listen of the day. For your next listen, check out the Locked On NFL podcast, bringing you the local insights you love to the national spotlight with daily conversations on the biggest NFL stories. Locked On NFL, available on YouTube wherever you get your podcast. We'll see you guys tomorrow.

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