Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts Release Kenyan Drake, Make Several Roster Cuts

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Colts have begun cutting their roster down to 90 players, but were any of the moves that they made this weekend surprising? Let's get to it. You are Locked On Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast 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. And today's show is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase.

Starting point is 00:00:53 Last-minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the show. I am Jake Arthur, and he is Zach Hicks. You know the two of us from HorseshoeHuddle.com. I am your daily on-site credentialed media member for the site, bringing you all the latest news and notes from the team facility. And Zach is just the roughest and tumble film guy that we've got out there. Roughest and tumble?

Starting point is 00:01:20 Am I rolling around? Well, rough and tumble, you've heard that before, surely. Man, I was born in the late 90s. I don't know if that's some early 90s slang there, Jake. Well, I say things that are far older than what I actually am. So we're going with it today. We're going to tell you guys about some of the roster moves that the Colts have started making in terms of getting that roster down to 53 players from 90. And then we're also going to continue kind of wrapping up our coverage from the preseason

Starting point is 00:01:50 and training camp. I'll tell you some of the, you know, who are the most outstanding players, biggest surprises, things like that on both sides of the ball. But most importantly, let's go ahead and start out with some of these roster moves. Now, this one is not official yet, Zach, but it has been announced that Danny Pinter broke his ankle in that preseason finale. So he will go on IR. That will be one of the, you know,

Starting point is 00:02:14 that's going to be one of the chop downs from 90 to 53 is him going on IR because he's expected to miss the season, I would presume. So, yeah, that'll be one of them. The rest, you know, nothing too crazy. You know, they released running back Kenyon Drake and safety Tease Tabor. They also waived a handful of guys, wide receivers Tyler Adams and Cody Case, offensive linemen Emile Ekior and Matthew Vanderslice, tight ends Michael Jacobson and Nick Eubanks,

Starting point is 00:02:44 and then kicker Lucas Havrisick. So, again, nothing earth-shattering yet. A couple of those veterans, it's probably, you know, go ahead and let's get you out on the market soon so you can beat the rush, you know, of the rest of the league. Anything on here kind of moving the needle for you? Yeah, well, before we get into the roster moves and stuff like that, just Danny Pinter being out for the season,

Starting point is 00:03:06 that that's kind of a big blow to this team because now don't get me wrong. Danny Pinter really, really rough at right guard, really, really rough at right guard last season. Obviously putting the faith in him as a starter last year, just did not work for this team. When he did move back to center,

Starting point is 00:03:24 it wasn't that bad. Like it wasn't amazing. I'm not going to sit here and lie about it and say that he was incredible back at center, but it was what we kind of expected, you know, a good backup center to have behind Ryan Kelly, who Ryan Kelly's dealing with injuries on his own right now. He's missed the last, what, two weeks of training camp,

Starting point is 00:03:41 last week and a half of training camp. And he's not been the most healthy player the last couple of seasons. So Danny Pinter as the backup center was probably going to see some playing time this year, you know, whether we want to see it or not. And now losing that player, I made a joke about this or a quip about it on X the other day, slash Twitter, whatever the heck you want to call that app now. I made a joke about it though,

Starting point is 00:04:03 being like the Colts are now down to six rosterable offensive linemen on this entire team. Like they had seven, but now with Danny Pinter out, like you have your starting five, you have Blake Freeland. I'm not sure you have another one on this roster right now. I mean, Arlington Hambright and Carter O'Donnell certainly made a case, but with Danny Pinter being out for the season now, the Colts are going to have to go so heavy on offensive line claims or offensive line trades or maybe signing a veteran. I know you guys are going to put that veteran's name in all of our

Starting point is 00:04:33 comments section to this show, but, you know, there's a lot of ways the Colts could go here, but I think they need to do a lot to upgrade this backup offensive line group because losing Danny Pinter, you really don't have any depth on this team when it comes to the offensive line group that you actually have any faith in. Even Blake Freeland, you don't really have that much faith in him right now because he still has a ways to go. So losing Danny Pinter, you just lose all that faith

Starting point is 00:04:57 in your depth on the offensive line. Yeah, your only other true backup centers right now are Dakota Shepley and Wesley French. So the rest of the guys, the rest of your backups aren't really guys who have experienced much with center. And so it's going to be a critical need now because, like you mentioned, Ryan Kelly has not had the cleanest bill of health. So that definitely that's something they're going to have to address. And Pinter didn't just back up center like they kept cross-training him all summer him and french would bounce back and forth between

Starting point is 00:05:31 guard and center i know i don't want to see that yeah we only want to see him at center i would say that's a net win then if you're going to mention that i'm just kidding i'm just saying that that in their plans he wasn't just a backup center so So you got to have a backup interior lineman in there somewhere. Yeah. Yeah. Looking at some of these other moves, though, one thing I did want to mention, and I'm glad that you actually separated the two when you said release these two players and then waive the other players. So if you guys listening are not super familiar with how release works versus being waived, when you're waived by an NFL team, that means you haven't accrued four seasons yet in the NFL, or you haven't been in the NFL for four seasons. So you

Starting point is 00:06:11 are subject to waivers upon being released by a team. So those players that you mentioned, Tyler Adams, Cody Case, Emile Akiyor, all those type of players, they have to go through waivers and all 31 other teams have a chance to claim them. If they're unclaimed, then they become free agents. Players like Kenyon Drake and Tease Tabor immediately become free agents. There's no waiver process. They don't have to wait to see if they're getting grabbed by another team. And one thing I wanted to mention with Kenyon Drake here is sometimes when you release these players early, like you mentioned here, Jake, with Kenyon Drake, giving him that chance to,

Starting point is 00:06:49 before the whole rush, he can go out there and find another team but also it kind of can be like a hint hint wink wink like don't go too far if there's any injuries here in house we'd love to bring you back and stuff like that so it's kind of more like uh hey we'll release you early you can go see if there's a market for you elsewhere but if you know evan hole goes down with an injury this season, if Zach Moss is not fully healthy, after we make some roster moves, we could bring you back to be part of the team again. He doesn't have to go through waivers and get claimed by someone else like these other players.

Starting point is 00:07:15 So, you know, with veterans, there's a little more flexibility there, and you might see the Colts go this route with a Tony Brown as well in the next couple of days. But Kenyon Drake's just one of those guys where, you know, you kind of know what you have there. You don't really need to stash him on the roster. And if there are injuries, then you just bring him right back. Yeah, and we got children piping in here.

Starting point is 00:07:39 But no, when it happens that early as well, especially with these younger guys, it's also an indicator that, you know, they just are probably not going to make the practice squad either. Like the wave guys this early, you're probably not bringing them back. Like if you're releasing a Kenyan Drake early, like again, it might be like, hey, we got a good look at you for like a month. We feel pretty good about you but we just have other guys we like more right now but these other guys which I'm assuming you were going to transition us into like a meal like you're for instance a guy who coming into training camp we were all saying this is a guy who compete for a roster spot should have been draftable but

Starting point is 00:08:18 he had a I think it was like a heart condition at the combine is one of the main reasons why he went undrafted. And he just did not grab a spot on this roster. He just did not do enough. The first preseason game in particular against the Buffalo Bills was just very, very brutal for him. And he just didn't look like he belonged on an NFL roster at all. And I know some people are going to say, oh, you release them early, get them on that practice squad. But you don't release them early if you really plan on bringing them around.

Starting point is 00:08:46 You try to sneak them through with the hundreds of waivers that happen on Tuesday. So I think this is more of a, you know, we gave the local kid a shot. It didn't really work. It's kind of the same as Tyler Adams, too. Tyler Adams is a local kid. They gave a shot to Cody Case, I believe, is pretty local as well. I think he was Illinois or something like that. So it's kind of like all these local kids that they were giving a shot to

Starting point is 00:09:07 and they liked, but, you know, it's not going to work out. They're going to probably be somewhere else or, you know, waiting for a call next camp for the Colts to bring them in. Yeah, as I say, they at least got on the active roster with that. You know, they made it through training camp and everything. None of those, I mean, the timing of none of these is super surprising. I mean, a lot of people, myself included, thought Emil Ekior could compete for a depth spot at right guard, you know, probably practice squad.

Starting point is 00:09:35 And so to see him go out already, like you said, he just never really landed here. Cody Case did some really nice things early in training camp with someone I was watching a lot the first week or so. Um, but that receiver group just had so many quality contributors to it that he just kind of fell into the mix a little bit. So really nothing surprising here. The Colts, I feel like they tend to make a random thing, like hold onto that second kicker for a while for some reason, but they did get rid of the extra weight with Lucas Haversick.

Starting point is 00:10:08 So there's really nothing too surprising here. No, nothing too crazy, guys. But coming up, we're going to continue our training camp talk and just our review of training camp and everything while talking about some of our awards for the Colts offense this summer. But first, let's hear from our friends over at Underdog Fantasy. August is here, and you know what that means, the official start of Fantasy Football Drafting Month.

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Starting point is 00:11:33 starting tomorrow, obviously on Wednesday's morning show and everything like that. So make sure you guys are tuning in to Locked On Colts. All right, Jake. So to kick off our offensive awards throughout training camp just the offseason in general we're talking most outstanding player Jake I'm going to throw this ball to you and the ball is in your court here who is your most outstanding player of the entire offseason oh there are a few different options you know there are some guys who are consistent day in and day out and what have you but the most outstanding part from a player's player perspective of this is

Starting point is 00:12:07 that Anthony Richardson earned the QB one tag. He was clearly the better option, moved the offense better throughout the summer. Anthony Richardson, rookie top five pick. That's gotta be the guy because he's so far, I mean, there's been no games yet,

Starting point is 00:12:25 no official regular season games, but so far he's perhaps exceeding expectations because I think a lot of people didn't think he would already be ready for that. As a passer, he's a little better than a lot of people thought already as well. So most outstanding player, Anthony Richardson, already getting QB one. Yeah, you know, it's going to be a rough year at times. It's not going to be pretty whatsoever. We saw in the two preseason games he played, it was really fun moments, but it was not really that pretty overall. That's going to be a lot of his rookie season.

Starting point is 00:12:57 But like you mentioned, the fact that he was able to come in, secure that starting quarterback spot, I do just enough to where Shane Steichen said, you know what? Let's go with him. Let's do this from day one. For him to enough to where Shane Steichen said, you know what, let's go with him. Let's do this from day one. For him to show that much there, I mean, that's where you have to really put all your hype and all your praise for this young player. So I'm excited for Anthony Richardson.

Starting point is 00:13:15 I'm hoping that he can continue this into the season. And I'm hoping to keep his head high through the bad moments because there's going to be some bad moments. And we're not trying to puff some smoke up some butts here by saying that there's not going to be any bad moments because there's going to be some bad moments and we're not trying to to puff some smoke up some butts here by saying that there's not going to be any bad moments but switching to another player here who I think had a great just an outstanding offseason here on the offense that's going to be veteran tight end Kylan Granson now the Colts tight end group was hampered by

Starting point is 00:13:41 injuries like from top to bottom every single player who came into this tight end group or was coming back into this tight end group was just hurt at some point this offseason. The one guy who stayed healthy through it all is Kylan Granson. And despite, I mean, on top of just staying healthy, he was able to just put together a great camp. He showed great hands. He was the player who's consistently hauling in passes from Anthony Richardson in the games, in the preseason games.

Starting point is 00:14:08 Had a really good connection with the young quarterback. Showed that ability to run after the catch. Was getting open throughout all of training camp from everything that you've reported to us here on Locked on Colts, Jake. So, Kyland Grant, I know every offseason it feels like we get really excited about his preseason, his training camp, and then it kind of carries into the regular season, but not fully.

Starting point is 00:14:28 I think this is really the time for him, though. Tight ends take a little bit to develop in this league. They're not a position that comes in from day one and just dominates. And we're seeing here like a year three tight end is when they really break out. I think this is going to be a good year for Kylan Granson, especially with Jelani Woods. You know, we just don't really know his status with that hamstring injury. So if Jelani Woods is missing some time, Kylan Granson's tight end one, and he's proven it here in training camp. So Kylan Granson's my most outstanding player on offense throughout training camp. I thought he just had a really, really great off season. For sure. And I mean, he's a tight end

Starting point is 00:15:04 that you can move around. He's best known for pass catching, obviously. But talking to tight ends coach Tom Manning, like I was surprised to see him go out of his way to compliment Granson's blocking as well. Now he's by no means a finished product. He's not even a standout blocker, you would say. But the fact that the Colts like his blocking ability

Starting point is 00:15:23 lends itself to show his playing time could be this year uh the you know what his role in the depth chart could be if they let go of mo alley cox and they think you know kylan can hold his own as a blocker while you know jelani woods has not been out there uh drew ogletree has been in and out as well um so the only constant in the tight end room has been Kylan Granson. And of the guys that we think will make the roster, Kylan Granson is your de facto tight end one. He's been healthy. He's been consistent. He's shown great hands. His biggest issues previously were his inconsistent hands and his abilities as a blocker for the most part.

Starting point is 00:16:02 And those things have kind of been checked off for the most part. I mean, again, he's not a standout blocker. He's not the guy that you're going to put out there helping against a TJ water or something essentially, but I mean, enough to where he's not going to be such a singular focused tight end. You know what I mean? Like I think they'll find ways to keep him more involved. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:16:24 And he'll be there H back slash fullback as well in some sets so it's going to be really nice to see that with him a newcomer of the year again this could be a rookie this could be someone who maybe was with the team last year but was on the practice squad so never really got a chance we're going to go with two rookies because I think they're the obvious ones the one I'm going to go with is Josh Downs wide receiver in in the third round pick. Josh Downs was kind of just everything as advertised coming into this offseason. You know, it took him a minute to surpass Isaiah McKenzie as the slot receiver, but I think we can definitively say that he's kind of surpassed him at this point. Yeah, mostly catches everything. Again, the third preseason game, he did have that drop,

Starting point is 00:17:03 but for the most part, he's caught everything this entire offseason great hands really good build for a smaller receiver great after the catch I'm really excited for Josh Downs with Anthony Richardson as offense this year yeah he's been a bright spot throughout camp and it's just been one of those things where it's like all right when is he gonna get in over McKenzie in the lineup and it finally started happening and you know both Gardner Minshew and Anthony Richardson have fed this guy in practice. Like they commonly look his way. And again, he pretty much catches everything most of the time. So he's been a real standout and that guy he's going to be catching passes from. We also have to mention here, of course, in the newcomer of the year, Anthony Richardson. So it's a lot of expectations for a rookie quarterback top five pick to come in and earn that QB one role. But

Starting point is 00:17:51 he wasn't even really gifted it. You know, I mean, they signed Gardner Minshew to be the starter if their rookie wasn't ready. And Richardson showed enough to to be ready. So we want to make sure we get in this next group here before we move on to defense. Biggest surprise. Now, this doesn't necessarily have to be a player. It could just be a subject of the whole thing. So no resolution to the Jonathan Taylor situation, I think, is one of the biggest surprises. I think everyone figured, OK, he's disgruntled with the contract.

Starting point is 00:18:23 He's on PUP. This whole thing is going to work itself out at some point before training camp is over. And we'll know one way or the other, how it's, how it's going to work out. We don't know that right now. The trade stuff is heated up. He's been given a deadline of Tuesday afternoon, you know, that 4 p.m. deadline to, well, probably not even the 4 p.m. They want to know if he's going to get traded or not,

Starting point is 00:18:46 so they know whether to keep him on any injured lists or what to do with him in relation to the roster. So there has been no resolution, and you could say the situation is just as murky as it was the day it all started. Yeah, we won't get an update until like noon ish from anywhere between noon and four ish on Tuesday is when we'll get an update, whether the Colts are going to keep him, whether they're going to trade him and trade him to the dolphins is probably

Starting point is 00:19:16 the one that it would be. And if they keep him, I don't assume he's going to play a snap for the Colts anymore. At this point, I assume he would be on the pop list the entire year and just not play. But we're going to get more, more info on that here on Tuesday. I don't expect anything on Monday. You guys are listening to this on Monday. I do not expect anything on Monday in terms of just news on this front. The Colts are going to take this to the wire, see what deals they get, evaluate all the deals, and then pick which one they like the best

Starting point is 00:19:44 if they're going to trade him. But, yeah, I think that has to be the biggest overall surprise of just the entire offseason for this entire team is Jonathan Taylor back in April saying, I've got to honor this contract. I'm on a contract. I want to be an Indy forever. I love Indy.

Starting point is 00:20:00 Just changes out his agent, goes to Malki Kawa, and it turns into this whole mess here. Again, I'm not blaming it all on Taylor and Kawa. I'm not blaming it all on the Colts either, but it's just become a mess that none of us could have feasibly just envisioned whatsoever a couple months ago. Who would have thought that Jonathan Taylor would be the player in this situation with the Colts? I mean, the guy that we all know and love is the humble running back that was breaking records for the Colts and stuff like that. Again,

Starting point is 00:20:29 I'm not saying he's not that guy. Still. I just, from the surface, there's no way you could have predicted that this would be the player having a contract dispute and pretty much demanding his way out of Indy. I just never would have seen it happening.

Starting point is 00:20:41 And it's by far and away, one of the biggest overall surprises, not only this off season, but just in my time covering the Colts. Yeah. And with the caveat that he's still got the ankle, I think another big surprise within all of it is that the Colts hadn't even made him any offers. We all assumed, I think, behind the scenes that they were jostling back and forth and negotiating, but no, the Colts never really had even come to the table. Not that they were never going to, but it was not on, on Taylor's timeline that they were.

Starting point is 00:21:14 So we're going to have more on that later in the week, once we know what's going on with Taylor. So we'll table that discussion for now. We're going to toss some awards over to the defensive side of the ball here in a minute, but first it's game time. Buying tickets to your favorite events shouldn't be stressful. Game time is the fastest and easiest way to buy tickets for all the sports, music, comedy, and theater near you. With killer deals on last minute tickets and their best price guarantee, you can stop stressing over the tickets and start getting hyped for the fun that you'll actually have with those tickets. I personally love game time because if I feel like being spontaneous and, you know, going out on a whim on a weekend when I had no plans,

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Starting point is 00:23:02 redeem code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off. Download GameTime today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. apply again create an account and redeem code locked on nfl for 20 off download game time today last minute tickets lowest price guaranteed all right so i feel like other than jonathan taylor or jonathan taylor and anthony richardson there's been more to talk about with the defense this summer um so most outstanding player there we don't have any obvious ones. So this one's a little more fun. I'm going to be honest. The guy I'm going with is Nick Cross. So this is the guy that needed to have, I say he needed to have a pretty good summer. He had a great summer. Preseason was pretty good. Training camp practices even better better and that includes joint practices which

Starting point is 00:23:45 that's that's outstanding to see uh this guy the coaches have said all the right things about him which is not what they were saying last year i mean we could see him making some plays on the field but the coaches were like yeah yeah looking for some consistency uh but he's gotten even better on the field and now his coaches are kind of raving about his work ethic and things like that and where he's caught up to mentally. So a guy like this, he's going to force the Colts to make some difficult decisions when it comes to game day personnel and stuff. He's created a good problem for his coaches.

Starting point is 00:24:19 Yeah, no, we've talked Nick Cross stuff to death, but extremely excited for this guy, and I'm happy that he's able to kind of turn it around. So far, so far turned around after a pretty tough rookie season. The guy I'm going to go with is Dio Adangbo, the pass rusher that we all know and love, obviously on the Colts defensive front. I wasn't at every single training camp practice,

Starting point is 00:24:39 so it's hard for me to determine what he was doing every day in camp, but I was able to watch all the preseason games, just like all you guys were. And the Colts kind of went out of their way to give Dio Danbo a lot of snaps in the preseason. They really want to get this young player, some reps against some offensive linemen. Again,

Starting point is 00:24:55 maybe not NFL starter caliber offensive lineman, but just against NFL offensive lineman. And throughout the preseason, I mean, he had three sacks. He had another one that was waved off with an offsides penalty. So technically four sacks. And the one that got waved off might have been his prettiest sack of the entire offseason.

Starting point is 00:25:11 It was that cross chop on the outside, which was gorgeous. Looked good rushing from the inside. The outside was constantly having quarterbacks under duress. I thought Dio Dambo looked fantastic in the preseason. And I'm really excited for him going into the season because, you know, when you look at this Colts defensive front, he's kind of like the fourth defensive lineman. You know, he's the guy that you're not really going to be thinking about because, oh, you had DeForest Buckner next to him on the interior. You're going to have

Starting point is 00:25:38 Quidipe and Samson Abukam, two solid rushers on the outside. You're not going to think about Dio D'Ambo. So he's going to have so many one-on-one opportunities. And if he's coming to the season, just energetic, fresh, coming off a really positive off season, we can, we could see a really big year for Dio Dangbo. So I know again, every off season we say Dio Dangbo and Quiddipay are breaking out, but I'm really excited about that duo and Dio Dangbo, especially just had a really, really good offseason by my count.

Starting point is 00:26:05 And I'm excited for him going into this year for sure. Yeah, this is a big one for him. You know, year three, it's the second year off of the Achilles, you know, past the Achilles. So that's what you hope to see from him. And it's really big for the Colts. You hope you have two pass rushers. I feel like it's been a while since they've had a third one. And, you know, teams want more than that, obviously, but the Colts have not had that luxury.

Starting point is 00:26:29 They're obviously not a team that gets a ton of sacks off the edge. But if you can count on Quidipe and Samson Aboukham to be consistent, and then you've got this guy as your next one in there, like rushing from the inside and outside, I think that's going to be really, really big for Gus Bradley's defense. defense so I like that selection yeah yeah now we're jumping the newcomer of the year and I feel like for most of this we're going to stick with the cornerback room because that's obviously the most notable thing here so I'm going to go with a rookie at cornerback but it's not with the two or high the two higher drafted ones I'm going to go with seventh round pick Jalen

Starting point is 00:27:02 Jones I thought he's had a really good camp, looked really solid and just technically sound in every phase. Really good impressed man. I know Gus Bradley shouted him out on Sunday about that when talking with reporters about how good he looked, impressed man in college and how he's brought that to the NFL. And all the tape's been really good on Jalen Jones. So again, I expect Juju Brents and Darius Rush to get there.

Starting point is 00:27:24 Eventually they've had up and down camps. But as of right now, Jalen Jones has shown to be the most NFL ready and just the most, again, up for the task going into the season. So Jalen Jones, really, really great camp, and I'm hoping he can carry that into the season as well. I know it pained you to not select Darryl Baker Jr. on this one because that's your guy. We'll talk more about Baker here in a minute.

Starting point is 00:27:50 But no, just again, we've talked about the fact that this was a guy who was like the opposite of a household name, even to Colts fans. Like no one knew who Daryl Baker Jr. was before this, the summer started. Like I knew he was on the roster, but I figured he was a camp body essentially. And now here he is as your top outside corner. So that's going to bring us over to the biggest surprise of the summer defensively. And that includes Baker again. And it's going to be that Dallas Flowers and Darryl Baker Jr. have held off this young group. You know, the Colts drafted three corners.

Starting point is 00:28:22 Those two guys who had all odds stacked against them they have fended off the young guys now the young guys have had some injuries but even if the young guys had been healthy the whole time i i think dallas flowers and daryl baker have had really really solid summers yeah yeah no it's one of the biggest surprises because we all kind of assume that juju brents would be a starter going into the season. And it's not like he's been like atrocious in camp. Like he's been he's been solid. Like it hasn't been perfect.

Starting point is 00:28:51 I'm not going to I'm not going to lie about that. But like he's had a fine camp with these two other players are just having really strong camps. Daryl Baker Jr. has been outstanding. Dallas Flowers has been a little up and down, but the team loves his athleticism and loves what he's been able to do. And he put together a really good preseason game against the Eagles. So like they've earned this opportunity that they're both going to get.

Starting point is 00:29:11 You know, I think it's really, really unlikely that two undrafted free agent corners become starters for this team. Two undrafted free agent corners from last season. But you know what? If anyone can beat the odds, it's these two guys. I'm really excited about both of them. And even if it's a disaster, I'm excited to watch the disaster unfurl. But I really do like both these players. They've earned this job that they're going to have.

Starting point is 00:29:31 And I hope they can keep it as long as possible. I know Juju Brents is coming, but these guys have earned this shot. And I'm excited for both of them. Yeah, without a doubt. I'm curious to see how long they're going to hold on to that. And of course, we can't sign off without talking about this. One of the biggest pleasant surprises of the whole team, Shaquille Leonard's presence.

Starting point is 00:29:50 This guy has been around all training camp. You know, he was there from the beginning of training camp, ramped up his activity level steadily. Before you knew it, he was playing in a preseason. I think he played against the Bills in that first preseason game. So it did not take that guy long to get back to i'm he's not back at like maniac level yet but like he's back on the field and i think you know once he's back from this concussion uh they'll be ready to you know let him play full time again once they once he feels like it's cool. But the fact that he's been in gameplay

Starting point is 00:30:25 and this hasn't been some big Andrew Luck thing looming over the team, like what's wrong with his leg? Is he coming back? That's not a thing. And can you imagine if we had the Jonathan Taylor thing and this going on at the same time? That would have been a mess. So thank you, Shaquille Laird,

Starting point is 00:30:43 for saving us from that storyline this summer as well yeah just one of the most pleasant surprise we just didn't know the status of him whatsoever coming into camp to see him out there he participated in pretty much every single practice this entire offseason did all of them until the last one yeah until the last one did all the joint practice stuff with both the Eagles and with the Bears did unfortunately suffer a concussion at the very end against the Eagles. And I'm not going to sit here and say that's great. Like concussions are awful. And I think this is like his fourth one in the NFL.

Starting point is 00:31:11 So that's scary on its own, right? But the fact that it wasn't the back injury that has been worked on multiple times by surgeons, the fact that that hasn't really come up too much at all this offseason is such a pleasant surprise. But every day is, you know, we're going to transition out of talking about just the Colts training camp and looking back at everything. The next couple of days, we're going to be looking forward at this team coming up, what we expect for the season, and also breaking down all the news and updates that we get these next couple of days. So every day is again, tune into our show early in the mornings when we're going to be posting on audio and visual platforms.

Starting point is 00:31:48 And if you don't already, follow at LockedOnColts, at JakeArthurNFL, and at ZachKiggs2 all on Twitter slash X. Also subscribe to LockedOnColts podcast on YouTube or wherever you list your podcasts. We love your guys' ratings and reviews. And we'll see you guys back here bright and early tomorrow morning.

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