Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts: The Draft Starts Next Week at the Senior Bowl

Starting point is 00:00:00 The senior bowl arrives next week and the Colts have a long history of finding studs there. Let's get to it. You are locked on Colts. Your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Your team every day. All right. Thanks for tuning in and making us your first listen of the day. This is your daily podcast covering your Indianapolis Colts,

Starting point is 00:00:38 part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. And today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Make every moment more. Right now, new customers, you guys get $150 in bonus bets, guaranteed when you place a $5 bet. Just visit FanDuel.com slash locked on to get started. What up, everybody? This is Jake Arthur from HorseshoeHuddle.com.

Starting point is 00:01:01 And today, I am going to bring you guys a little bit of Senior Bowl content. We're going to kind of preview things a little bit, give you just kind of a brief rundown of the Colts and Chris Ballard's recent history with the Senior Bowl, and then as well as look at some offensive and defensive players to look at. Now, the reason this will be more important this year is I'll be back down there in Mobile all next week. I'll bring you guys daily content about it. That's both at horseshoehuddle.com and here on Locked on Colts. Probably a mix of full-length episodes as well as some quick Locked on Now updates as well.

Starting point is 00:01:36 So I might as well, you know, let's dip our toe into the Senior Bowl coverage because it's going to be coming fast and furious next week. So let's get into it. I think most of us know by now that Chris Ballard and the Colts, Chris Ballard, Ed Dodds, Morocco Brown, they are big senior bowl guys. Since 2017, when Chris Ballard got here to Indy, the Colts have drafted 27 players from the senior bowl that year. That comes out to be an average about four per year,

Starting point is 00:02:05 which is pretty significant. And that doesn't include rookie undrafted free agents that they scouted at the senior bowl that year. There have been numerous instances of them signing as free agents or waiver wire pickups guys that were at the senior bowl just a year or two beforehand. So they do an enormous amount of scouting at the senior bowl. It's their motto at the senior bowl, but it truly is where the draft begins because the amount of scouting and just behind the scenes, tire kicking and things like that, it's pretty significant. The Colts will have kind of an upper hand this year as well. They're going to have a couple of their assistant coaches they're acting as coaches for the American team Colts assistant offensive

Starting point is 00:02:51 line coach Chris Watt is going to co-coach the American team's offensive line and then Kato June who everybody knows and loves Colts assistant linebacker coach he is going to be co-coaching the American team, edge defenders and linebackers. The senior will kind of lumps things together. Linebackers is a huge conglomerate defensive lineman, defensive backs. So they kind of tool with different ways to use guys. Like when you have players coming into the draft who are tweeners, you don't know whether you want to play them at linebacker or edge, defensive tackle or end, whatever. This is kind of where the definition of their roles begins for pre-draft season. It's where you'll see them worked out a lot of the time at the combine, pre-draft visits, things like that.

Starting point is 00:03:38 So how the NFL views certain players kind of begins here as well. So I wanted to just kind of fly through some of the recent examples of Chris Ballard picking up senior bowl players, whether they be draft picks from that current year or undrafted for agents from that year. So you go all the way back to 2017 Ballard's first draft year with the Colts. They got Terrell Basham and Zach Banner going to the next year. 2018 was a big one. Shaquille Leonard, Tyquan Lewis, Kamoko Touré, they were all there.

Starting point is 00:04:10 Michael Badgley was someone they picked up as a UDFA kicker behind Adam Vinatieri. He was there. He didn't go on to be successful with the Colts, but he has gone on to kick for other teams and actually be a member of a roster, not just preseason stuff. Like Badgley is actually a guy that teams do call in frequently when they need kicking help. 2019 was another huge one.

Starting point is 00:04:33 Bobby Okereke, Rocky Sin, Kari Willis, Ben Banigou, Javon Patterson, and Gary Green. They also picked up Penny Hart as a UDFA that year. 2020, Michael Pittman Jr. and Rob Windsor, they drafted them. Rodrigo Blankenship, everyone knows and used to love Rodrigo Blankenship, the UDFA there. 2021, they drafted Kylan Granson, Sam Ellinger, and Sean Davis. Now, Dio Odengbo was supposed to be a senior bowl player that year, but he blew out his Achilles working out for the senior bowl. So I did include him in this.

Starting point is 00:05:08 Dio Odengbo, another senior bowl player. Over the next year, you have Alec Pierce, Bernard Ryman, Eric Johnson. And then as UDFAs, they had JoJo Doman, Sterling Weatherford, and running back Devontae Price. And lastly, last year was another huge one. Juju Brents, Blake Freeland, Will Mallory, Adetomi Adebare, Evan Hull, Darius Rush, Daniel Scott, and then UDFA's Emil Ekior and Isaiah Land were all there at the Senior Bowl. Isaiah Land technically wasn't,

Starting point is 00:05:42 his first stop wasn't with the Colts, but they did pick him up during preseason roster cuts. He was a rookie last year, so I'm counting it. So as you can see, it's plentiful. If I would have added the UDFA or the UDFA's free agents, waiver wire guys onto that 27 players when it was an average of about four per year, that's going to go up significantly. So take the senior bowl seriously. I mean, you're going to go up significantly. So take the Senior Bowl seriously.

Starting point is 00:06:05 I mean, you're going to get a lot of practice updates from everybody down there next week. That is really, really what matters. The game is nice. You know, there are standout players each week. But the three days of practice, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, are going to be huge. One-on-ones between offensive and defensive linemen and wide receivers and DBs. Those are always huge to watch. And then the game ultimately will be at 1 Eastern, I believe, on Saturday, the 3rd. So keep an eye out for that. It's kind of a brief rundown of how much the Colts really,

Starting point is 00:06:38 really are interested in the Senior Bowl. Again, I'll be down there. I'll bring you guys as much as I can. Hopefully, I can get to talk to Shane Steichen anyone from the scouting department Chris Ballard we'll see but yeah coming up we'll take a look at some of the offensive positions that are look to be pretty well stocked in the senior bowl this year as well as who the Colts who can make some sense for them to look at. Sometimes we all need the opportunity to get something off our chest, big or small. Everyone's got problems. Not everything has to be tragic for, you know, for you to seek help or want to talk about it. It's important that you let it out, especially to someone who's unbiased on your life. So today I'm going to quickly vent about the fact

Starting point is 00:07:21 that there's entirely too much adult chaos going on in my house. And it's not just us. You know, my wife and I have several other families and couples around us who are just feeling right now that like you cannot catch a break. Something new comes along every day, whether it's literally like a flat tire or you're constantly running late. You know, your kids are just being difficult in the morning. You can't get out the door on time.

Starting point is 00:07:47 We've had problems with our dog again lately. It's just like sometimes as an adult, it's just like, is this what it is? Like you cannot catch a break. There's always something to deal with. Unfortunately, I think that is probably the case. But, you know, when it comes to therapy, it can be different for everyone. Sure, you might have like some some traumas to work through. Sometimes you just need to vent about stupid stuff like me. Most of us have bigger problems than that. But again,

Starting point is 00:08:16 it's important to get stuff off your chest once in a while so you don't have all that pent up aggression. If you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It's entirely online designed to be flexible and suited to your schedule. Visit BetterHelp.com to get 10% off of your first month. That's BetterHelp.com. And the NFL season is wrapping up, but there is still time to get in on the action with FanDuel, America's number one sports book. Because after all, is there any better time to place your bets and do all your parlays and do all your over-unders, whatever you want to do in the NFL playoffs? That is addicting. Right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets, guaranteed when you place a $5 bet. That's $150

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Starting point is 00:09:39 Now, I think a lot of us, when it comes to this offseason, we'd like to see the Colts add some more explosion on offense. Luckily, quarterback is kind of settled. Anthony Richardson obviously is the guy you want to be the long-term solution, but at quarterback, you don't know who's going to be the backup. Gardner Minshew is a free agent. It makes all the sense in the world to re-sign him, sure. You know who he is. You know the Colts are a couple puzzle pieces outside of him making the playoffs, but whether or not you can actually make a legitimate run during the postseason with him is up for debate. So do you bring in either a free agent or draft a new quarterback to back up Anthony Richardson that is stylistically more like him so that you don't have to change the offense so drastically

Starting point is 00:10:28 because it's not just the quarterback that it affects like when you're going from an Anthony Richardson to a Gardner Minshew it affects everybody else on the offense as well offensive line everything like there's there is just a world of difference for everybody when you're having those big, big adjustments. So there's definitely going to be some big names in this one. Bo Nix and Michael Penix Jr., that's a couple really big names that are going to be getting first-round consideration. If they do well at the senior bowl here, I don't want to say they could lock themselves in there. But I would say, you know, top 50, top first two round, again, not going to say locks because we've seen some quarterbacks just plummet to the third, fourth round. But those guys will secure themselves among the hierarchy of the quarterback group.

Starting point is 00:11:21 I think if they have a pretty good senior bowl. Spencer Rattler, who is a guy who over the past couple of years, maybe two, three years ago was one of those guys who it's look for him to make a huge jump this season and then be one of the most highest regarded quarterbacks going in the draft. It hasn't exactly worked out that way for him, but he's got some, he's got some it factor to him. He's got some playmaking ability that will have some teams intrigued, no doubt. And then if you're looking for your raw project guy with all the tools and stuff,

Starting point is 00:11:58 Joe Milton III from Tennessee, that is someone who before the season, a lot of people were saying, okay, this is this year's Anthony Richardson, a big guy, huge arm. He throw it a mile, plenty athletic. His season, just, it didn't really take off like people assumed it would either. So he didn't, he didn't do what Richardson did in his final season to make everyone's jaws drop. But at the same time, that's a huge toolsy player that got that teams are gonna really be enamored by. So we'll see how it goes there at the, at the senior bowl, uh, wide receivers, another, uh, pretty good one. By the way, I have, I haven't even come close to finishing, uh, my preliminary draft stuff. So I, I did, uh So I read up Eric Edholm's piece on NFL.com previewing the Senior Bowl.

Starting point is 00:12:50 It was a really good resource for this. I know a lot of these players, but some of them, it's kind of shining a light on it, and I'm really looking forward to watching them as well. So definitely a hat tip to Eric for the help on this one. Xavier Leggett from South Carolina. That's a big one. He could arguably be the top receiver at the Senior Bowl.

Starting point is 00:13:09 If you look for someone who might have some familiarity with Richardson, Ricky Pearsall from Florida. That's a big play guy right there. Brendan Rice, Jerry Rice's son out at USC, was catching passes from Caleb Williams. Jotty Wilson, Florida State, and Malachi Corley from Western Kentucky. Those are some of the top receivers you're going to want to look for. Again, you're looking for maybe not all these guys are like explosive athletes,

Starting point is 00:13:35 but they've got great size. They can win 50-50 balls, and just generally they could generate big plays. So some of those guys are pretty good. And for the Colts, obviously more explosion is the name of the game, but Michael Pittman Jr. and Isaiah McKenzie are both free agents. So Pittman Jr. is obviously the biggest target on your team, but McKenzie had a moderate role as well early in the season. So you're probably not replacing Pittman. Like I think at worst, but probably get franchise tag. But you do need to lay the groundwork for a long-term plan at receiver,

Starting point is 00:14:10 regardless if Pittman is involved in that. So definitely some of those guys would be worth looking at. The offensive line, quite a few guys as well. So for the Colts right now, luckily you could go into a season fully confident in them. Now for the last season and a half, you know, 2022, the second half and all of 2023, the offensive line was pretty good. So it's, it's nothing to really be concerned about in terms of free agency. You know, every, everything seems pretty ironclad as well.

Starting point is 00:14:41 Danny Pinter and Jack Anderson are your only free agents that you're looking at on the offensive line right now. And obviously you could want to bring both those guys back for competition and camp, but they are expendable right now compared to your starting five and then the rest of the guys you've got competing for depth there. So you do still have to, regardless of whether Pinter or Anderson are back, though, you have to keep bringing guys in. You have got to make sure that your offensive line is never vulnerable because we saw how many guys were injured this year as well. So looking at offensive line, you've got it's pretty good with offensive tackles. Tyler Guyton from Oklahoma, Talese Fuaga from Oregon State Jordan Morgan out of Arizona

Starting point is 00:15:27 And Patrick Paul out of Houston Those are some guys that could be drafted to be starters When you're looking at Paul and Morgan You're probably looking at more of the Blake Freeland level Of draft pick But we saw no one expected Freeland to be used as much as he was last year, but you never know. You got to keep building that depth.

Starting point is 00:15:51 And then looking at interior guys, Cooper Beebe out of Kansas State, Jackson Powers Johnson out of Oregon. Again, you got to start looking at the long-term replacement for Ryan Kelly whenever he does decide to hang him up. Layden Robinson out of Texas A&M, Christian Haynes out of UConn, and then Cedric Van Panger from Georgia. That's a mouthful. But there are definitely interior and exterior offensive line candidates to keep an eye out for.

Starting point is 00:16:22 And again, like I mentioned, O-line versus D-line, one-on-ones during Senior Bowl. That's some of the stuff you see the most clips from. That's some of the most entertaining things to watch during the Senior Bowl. So I'll definitely have plenty to report on from there. So coming up next, the defensive side of the ball is what I think we all expect the Colts to really address during the offseason. So who at the Senior Bowl might be a good fit? Prize fix is the most fun that I've had winning

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Starting point is 00:18:15 We obviously love DFS platforms around here, whether it's FanDuel or PrizeFix. But yeah, let's turn our focus to the defensive side of the ball now. So defensive line, I think there's plenty of strength in this one. There's probably not much depth in terms of the edge group here at the Senior Bowl this year, but interior guys, there definitely is more, I would say. You're also looking at cornerback as well. We all know how it looked with the Colts last year. Very young group, but I certainly don't think they're done adding to it. And then safety. What happened here? So let's just look at the defensive line first. Obviously with the Colts, Grover Stewart, Taequann Lewis, Taven Bryan, Jake Martin,

Starting point is 00:19:00 and Jannard Avery are all free agents. I think we're all pretty comfortable saying Grover Stewart will be back. Tyquan Lewis kind of raised his value this year, but with his injury history, you know, these short one-term deals with the Colts could be what he just keeps hammering out throughout his career. Now, the veteran minimum is probably not, it's probably something he has excelled past beyond this point, having played a full season and basically having a career year. But your guys like Taven Bryant, Jake Martin, Jannard Avery, you could find replacements for guys like that at the Senior Bowl. I also think they need better run stoppers as well, because, you know, we saw, especially when Grover Stewart was taken off the field, DeForest Buckner can't do it all. So you need guys at the interior that can help stop the run.

Starting point is 00:19:49 Looking at this edge group, which I mentioned is kind of thin, you've got Liatu Latu from UCLA, who's probably going to be drafted pretty high. Perhaps not from the Colts because he's not like a real traits-y guy. He's more of a left, and he's more your power, and that guy. He's more of a left and he's more your power and that's going to be more of the edge setter. He wins with power more than he does athleticism. So while the Colts could covet something like that later in the draft, just knowing Chris Ballard's preferences, I really don't think they would go for someone like that early in the draft. You're also looking at some kind of high ceiling guys

Starting point is 00:20:25 like Christian Braswell out of Alabama and Adisa Isaac out of Penn State. Penn State's been churning out those kind of lengthy athletic edge guys over the last few years. Isaac could be the next guy in line. Now looking at the interior, you've got Tavondre Sweat from Texas, you know, the huge lovable interior defender. Darius Robinson out of Mizzou, who is another high-ceiling guy. Brandon Dorless out of Oregon. Justin Abobe out of Alabama. Michael Hall Jr. out of Ohio State.

Starting point is 00:20:58 Tyler Davis out of Clemson. And Byron Murphy II out of Texas as well. Sweat's running mate. So I think this definitely would be a good year to grab more interior guys because you like Adetome Adebore, I think. I think Eric Johnson, the clock needs to speed up a little bit for him. But, you know, Taven Bryan is a guy who I don't think did enough to make him irreplaceable by any means, especially like I

Starting point is 00:21:26 mentioned, you need more run stoppers. But their interior depth has just got to get better. A guy like Nick Telvin, a game couldn't really crack the lineup out of the practice squad this year, and they really needed interior help. So if they're not going to take advantage of some of those guys they already have, I do think they're going to look to add some help this spring, whether it's free agency or the draft. Looking at cornerbacks, so obviously the Colts had a very young, banged-up group. I think they went into the season well-intentioned because,

Starting point is 00:21:59 as Chris Ballard told us when training camp started last year, they knew as soon as last season ended that they wanted to get younger at cornerback. You know, Stephon Gilmore, he went out of there, Brandon Faison out of there. So you go into, after the draft, you go into the off season with Isaiah Rogers, Juju Brents, Dallas Flowers, Darius Rush. You know, you have some guys, Kenny Moore, obviously. You have some guys that you're obviously confident in. And then Dallas Flowers gets the Achilles injury.

Starting point is 00:22:34 Isaiah Rogers suspended for the sports betting. And then suddenly, you know, guys are kind of dropping like flies. Juju Brents barely was even in there in training camp. So he spent a lot of the time hurt. That's that those are things you can't plan or you can't control. You can plan for them, though. You obviously have to have insurance at those positions. But I think we could probably all agree that the Colts still need to add at

Starting point is 00:23:07 least one more corner who's capable of starting. Now you like their depth coming back. But you've got to have at least one more high level guy out there. Jalen Jones was a pleasant surprise. But I don't think he's a guy where you say he has to be a starter moving forward. Dallas Flowers, obviously talented player, but a cornerback on the outside coming back from an Achilles injury is tough. So you're basically looking at running it back with Juju Brinson, Jalen Jones as the starters on the outside. You got to have more competition in there to help.

Starting point is 00:23:40 So you're looking at Kalen King from Penn State, DJ James from Auburn. Those guys are probably the highest drafted. Quinian Mitchell from Toledo is a good one. Josh Newton out of TCU, someone who a lot of you might recognize out of Michigan. Mike Sanristil, that name always kind of blunders me. And then Chris Abrams-Drain out of Mizzou. So there's some decent cornerbacks in this group as well. Now, arguably the top safety in the entire draft, Cameron Kinchens, is there as well out of Miami. That'll be a big one. George has got Jovan Bullard there.

Starting point is 00:24:17 Jaden Hicks out of Washington State. Utah has two guys, Sione Vaki and Cole Bishop. Beau Braid from Maryland. And then Catan Oladapo from Oregon State. So some different decent safeties as well, because this with the Colts is a very interesting group. I mean, what happened there? Rodney Thomas takes a step back, and that's the guy who you probably hung your hat on as the top safety of the group coming into it.

Starting point is 00:24:43 Julian Blackman is a free agent. The only reason you wouldn't have necessarily been able to count on Julian Blackman as the top guy were injuries. And he's actually pretty healthy all year until he suffered a shoulder injury, I think at week 16, which unfortunately put him on the shelf. But that's a guy I think you have got to bring back. He's not totally irreplaceable, but he's easily your best safety, like by a long shot. So you want to bring a guy like Julian Blackman back. But also depth guys like Trevor Denbo and Henry Black are free agents.

Starting point is 00:25:15 Denbo is a key special teamer, so you don't want to necessarily lose that. But he is also capable of stepping in and, you know, maybe helping you tread water a little bit if there are injuries at safety. But this is definitely a group that I think they'll look to add to. You want to bring again, you want to bring back Julian Blackman, maybe to start next to Nick Cross going into next season. But you have to add more high-end talent. I think they need to draft a safety this year within the first four rounds, probably. It's just an important position. It's going to help with your issues at linebacker as well in coverage.

Starting point is 00:25:58 Now, they're definitely going to need to find some blood at linebacker that's capable of being more impactful in coverage. But having impactful safeties as well, I think will help. So we'll see how that all goes. That's going to put a bow on it for us today, everybody. Remember that Locked On has launched the first ever National Sports 24-7 streaming channel on YouTube. Locked On Sports Today is here for you 24-7

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Starting point is 00:26:43 and at Zach Hicks too on Twitter. Also, please be sure to subscribe on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts that helps get some more, get more eyes and ears on us and moves us up the charts. And with that, I will see you guys in mobile next week.

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Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts: The Draft Starts Next Week at the Senior Bowl

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