Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts: The Indy Draft Guide is HERE!

Starting point is 00:00:00 It is draft season Colts fans, which means it's time for the Indie Draft Guide 2023. Let's dive into this beautiful monster here on today's episode. 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. This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp, which connects you with a licensed therapist who can take you on that journey of self-discovery from wherever you are. Visit betterhelp.com slash locked on

Starting point is 00:00:58 today to get 10% off your first month. I'm Zach Hicks. Obviously, I'm half of the duo that you guys know and love here on Locked On Colts. And today, I decided to go solo with a little bit of a live stream today because we had a really exciting thing happen today. And that's the Indie Draft Guide. The Indie Draft Guide, which you guys have heard us talk about a couple times on the show. We've talked about it in the comment section, obviously. And also, it's been been the show notes for the last two months. But yeah, guys, the Indie Draft Guide 2023 edition did drop today. 225 plus prospect profiles, team fits with the Colts, mock drafts, interviews, all this fun stuff. Definitely some Build a Ballard stuff in there too. We've had a lot of really cool stuff in that

Starting point is 00:01:41 Indie Draft Guide. So today I'm going to walk you guys through what the indie draft guide is. If you guys are not familiar with it, uh, we know who, who's kind of contributing in it and, and kind of what went into the process of making this thing. And then in the second segment, we're going to talk about, uh, some of these guys that we wrote about in the article. I'll even show you guys some pages. I'll even do a quick picture right now. Look at that. That's, that's what each, uh right now. Look at that. That's what each prospect page looks like. That's what they look like there. So if you guys are obviously listening here on audio, you can go over to the YouTube channel and check out, read along as I'm talking through these pages. And if you guys are also listening on audio, I will do my best to explain what is

Starting point is 00:02:19 on the pages and what you guys are getting if you purchase the Indie Draft Guide. So I don't want this episode to come off like it's a big ad for the Indie Draft Guide, but it is something that me and a lot of other people with the Indianapolis market put a lot of work into over the last couple months, and I want to showcase it and bring it to you guys. If you guys haven't purchased the Indie Draft Guide yet, it is available for $9.99 on Gumroad. I will put the link in the description here. I don't think I've

Starting point is 00:02:45 done it so far, but I will after the show. I'll put the link in there. If you guys aren't familiar with it or haven't seen it yet, you can go over to my Twitter handle at Zach Hicks too, and I'm sure you guys can see it on there as well. But yeah, guys, Indie Draft Guide. So what is the Indie Draft Guide? Well, it is a draft guide. It's a typical draft guide that you guys will see that Dane Brugler does one for the athletic. You can see, I think, the Draft Network did a draft guide as well. So it's a very expansive book that covers a lot of prospects. We had over 225 prospect profiles. And on those profiles, you get things as background profiles on the guys, you get their strengths, their weaknesses, how they fit the specific team. So in this case,

Starting point is 00:03:30 it's the Colts. So how each, every single player, each and every player fits the Indianapolis Colts. And then we also do pro comps. We also do test scores in there as well, like verified test scores that we were able to get ahold of and, and a lot of stuff like that. So that's everything you get per page there in the Indie Draft Guide. This wasn't just me that did it. I know a lot of people have been putting it out there. It's the Zach Hicks Draft Guide and Zach Hicks' work on the Draft Guide. It's not just me. There's no way I could compile a 300-page book the way that some other people could do.

Starting point is 00:04:04 But it was a combination of a big team. That team includes Kent Swanson with the KC Sports Network, Maddie Lane from the KC Sports Network, Zach Eisen, really young upcomer in the draft industry, Jacob Morley. He actually covers the Packers and Ross Olgum, who also covers the Packers as well. So we had a kind of wide reach here of different people coming in and writing up the draft prospect reports and the scouting reports. And then when it comes to the team fits, so how we were able to kind of make this guide fit the Indianapolis Colts

Starting point is 00:04:36 and fit kind of how each and every single player would work on this Colts team. We had Destin Adams from HorseshoeHuddle.com and Andrew Moore from HorseshoeHuddle.com also came in and wrote about those fits for every single prospect. So for every player, whether it's CJ Stroud, whether it's Jonathan Mingo, whether it's Payne Durham, whoever, whatever player you want to look up in this class, every single player will have a specific way that they fit the Colts,

Starting point is 00:05:04 whether it's talking about their scheme, whether it's talking about what the Colts need at that position, how that player kind of plays into it. And then each player will also have a team fit grade. So basically they'll be labeled on a fit of high, low, or medium. And that will tell us, you know, you guys reading, if you're reading through these players and you see a player like, let's just say CJ Stroud or someone like that, that's the type of player the Colts need at quarterback. So he's going to be a high fit. Now, if we go to a quarterback lower on like a Tyson Bajent type guy or Clayton Toon, where the Colts don't really need a developmental late round guy, those are going to be more of the lower fits on there. So you guys can see all that in the

Starting point is 00:05:41 draft guide. Yeah, a lot of really cool stuff. I threw a couple of Build-A-Ballards in there as well. We have the Draft Trade Value Chart in there too. So if you guys are checking that out and want to see, you know, what it would cost for the Colts to move up to third overall in the draft, you guys can see that right there in your Draft Guide. You can print out the book and be watching alongside the draft. And you can actually see the players as they go off the board and read about them as they go. It's really expansive, really extensive here. And we're going to get into

Starting point is 00:06:08 kind of some specific players. I'm going to show you guys some of the specific reports. So if you guys haven't purchased it right now, you could see some of these reports for the first time. And maybe this could be something that you guys like. So we're going to talk about that here in a second. But first, I want to talk to you guys about our show sponsor, BetterHelp. I know Jake can say the same, but in the pursuit of making this whole Colts thing my full-time job, I've taken some drastic steps over the last decade to make it happen. One thing I've learned about myself is despite wanting less on my plate, I tend to be at my most effective when I just throw a million things out in front of me. But honestly, the momentum or

Starting point is 00:06:45 motivation, whatever it is, it does kind of wear me out. And I sometimes just need to get to know myself a little bit better. So getting to know yourself can be a lifelong process, especially when we're always growing and changing. Therapy is all about deepening your self-awareness and understanding because sometimes we don't know what we want or why we react the way that we do or, you know, what is going on inside of us until we talk through those things. BetterHelp connects you with a licensed therapist who can take you on that journey of self-discovery from wherever you are. I've not personally been in therapy, but I know that it's been helpful for learning positive coping skills and how to set boundaries.

Starting point is 00:07:19 It empowers you to be the best version of yourself. It isn't just for those who've experienced major trauma either. As for BetterHelp, it's entirely online, designed to be the best version of yourself isn't just for those who've experienced major trauma either. As for BetterHelp, it's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist today or switch therapists anytime for no additional cost. Discover your potential with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash locked on to get 10% off your first month. That's better help. H E L P.com slash locked on. All right, guys. So we're going to jump into a couple of the scouting reports from this draft guide. So you guys can just get a little bit of a taste of what, you know, what you're kind of getting. If you look in this draft guide and again, just a taste of the work

Starting point is 00:08:02 that we've been able to do these last couple months preparing to launch this here today on Monday so CJ Stroud is one that I want to throw up here first because I know you guys love CJ Stroud I know a lot of you guys have him as your first overall quarterback in this class and and who knows maybe the Colts have him as the first overall quarterback in this class as well and if he is there at pick four or at pick three, we could see the Colts move up and go get him or just take him there at four. But if you guys are looking at the page right now on YouTube or if you guys are listening to audio, you get the player's name at the very top. So CJ Stroud, you get their height, their weight.

Starting point is 00:08:37 You would get their workout numbers. But again, CJ Stroud didn't really do any workouts this offseason. We get the birthplace, the birth date, so you can see how old they are. And then in parentheses, you get the age of the prospect on draft day. You get their 2022 stats. So for C.J. Stroud, 66% completion percentage, 3,688 yards passing, 41 touchdowns, and six interceptions. Pretty darn good season for C.J. Stroud there.

Starting point is 00:09:03 On the top right corner, you get the round grade that we put on them uh so first round grade is what we have on cj stroud and you'll see with other players that i'm going to show you on some other pages you'll see like fourth round fifth round sixth to seventh round grades and stuff like that so it is kind of that that tier chart where it's going down uh the prospect counter there uh for background we got the early entrance in the 2023 nfl draft so you know that he's an early declaree not someone who played at the reesey the prospect counter there. For background, we got the early entrance in the 2023 NFL draft. So you know that he's an early declaree, not someone who played at the Reese's Senior Bowl or anything like that. You get his background in high school where he was an elite 11 MVP for top high school

Starting point is 00:09:34 QB competition. Two-year starter at Ohio State, two-time first team, all Big Ten in 2021 and 2022. Two-time Heisman Trophy finalist. So again, you just get all of that background right there for what this player was able to accomplish in college there and even in high school a little bit there. So after that, we go to the strengths. And again, these strengths are based off of our film review of these players. We try to at least watch two to three games of every single player here. Now, this wasn't me personally writing up CJ Stroud. This was Kent Swanson, our contributor, who does all the quarterback stuff. But I do agree with a lot of what he had to say here.

Starting point is 00:10:11 You know, Stroud is a well-built athletic quarterback because this is easy arm talent. All things don't need to be perfect for him to get the ball out. He doesn't need much space to operate. Stroud is capable of throwing the football accurately and with pace from a variety of platforms. So again, you can just see this is the type of player here that a team like the Colts might want to build around. He's the best outside the numbers passer in this class. So we even compare them to other prospects in the class. You can kind of get that gauge of where this player ranks within the class. And then we go into detail on the weaknesses as well. So Stroud needs to speed up his processing. He's often too comfortable in the pocket. Stroud doesn't throw with much

Starting point is 00:10:48 anticipation, which I honestly would disagree a little bit there. But Kent, I understand where he's coming from with that because of that Ohio State offense, you're sitting back in the pocket. You don't really have much pass rush and much pressure. And Kent even goes into more detail here with it. He needs to be ready at the top of his drop and he often takes that extra hitch before throwing which throws off the schedule and makes things a little inconsistent but these are just minor things obviously he's still got that first round grade but this is how we make this a Colts fit type of article here type of draft guide here where below we had Destin Adams and Andrew Moore come in and you know talk about how Stroud would be a home run selection for the Colts his ability to make any throw with incredible

Starting point is 00:11:28 touch and accuracy would allow him to shine in Shane Steichen's offense while he's not much of a runner at Ohio State he could be underrated in this area to create and extend plays when the pocket breaks down which again with Shane Steichen so again this kind of just fits towards the Colts there and then you get the player comp of Dak Prescott and the team fit of high with the Colts. You know, he's a high fit with the Colts because this is the type of quarterback that the Colts need. So again, every little thing you could look for in C.J. Stroud, outside of just having the film right in front of you, you're going to get all that info right here. So let's go to another player here.

Starting point is 00:12:01 We got Payne Durham. Payne Durham, obviously Purdue tight end. You can see right here his height, 6'6", weight, 253. Obviously out of Purdue, you get where he was born, obviously his birth date and all that stuff. 2022 stats, 56 catches, 560 yards, and eight touchdowns. Really good season there for Payne Durham this past season. We have a fourth-round grade on Payne Durham.

Starting point is 00:12:24 Again, very, very good player, but the athleticism brings him down just a little bit. Background, you get he played lacrosse in high school, only playing football during his senior season, became a three-star recruit despite of that, and committed to play at Purdue, the lovely local college that we all love there. He redshirted his first season and slowly worked his way up to the depth chart to getting more playing time in 2021. And then he had some breakout seasons participating in 2023 Reese's Senior Bowl,

Starting point is 00:12:51 where if I were to add anything to that, I'd say he was one of the best players at the Reese's Senior Bowl this past season. For strength, Sturm is a big body player who plays extremely physical in all aspects of the game. He's very powerful at the point of attack when run blocking. He'll explode off the line of scrimmage and engage with this man even even driving him backwards so

Starting point is 00:13:09 again Payne Durham best best run blocker in the entire class when it comes to tight ends and you can definitely see that on film here and then in the passing game you know Durham is best used in the short to intermediate areas he's a great safety valve for his quarterback with a big frame and safe hands so we love Payne Durham here, obviously. And I think this draft guy does a good job illuminating what his what his game is here. Obviously, weaknesses. He's not the lightest on his feet. He plods and moves around with very heavy steps.

Starting point is 00:13:35 Because, again, the biggest reason why Payne Durham is not going to be a first round pick in this is he's not this superb athlete. But, you know, you're getting with him. You're getting a guy who could be Jack Doyle 2.0. And that's how we identified him in the fits. That's how we got him in the player comp for Jack Doyle. And then team fit medium because the Colts just have so many tight ends already. But Durham could be Jack Doyle 2.0 for the Colts. This is what I think Destin Adams wrote here in the team fit. Could be Jack Doyle 2.0. The comp for Durham style is Doyle. He possesses set hands to make critical catches over the middle and can be a huge asset in the running game. The Colts kind of need

Starting point is 00:14:12 that. So maybe a Payne Durham in this class, guys. I don't know. I don't know. I'm pretty excited. This was written by Zach Eisen here, the young kid who helped us with the draft guide. He's phenomenal, really hard worker. And I really love some of his descriptions he put in a lot of his stuff here. Now going to another player who I think the Colts will really like in this class, and this is the one that I actually wrote up here, Cody Mauck from North Dakota State. You get his background. He's a former unranked recruit that elected to play college ball at North Dakota State. He was a walk-on at North Dakota State,

Starting point is 00:14:48 and had a slow start to his college career, redshirting his first year, and then being used as a scout team tight end in 2018. But then he kind of moved over to the offensive line, moved to offensive tackle, became a four-time FCS champion and a multiple-time all-MVFC performer. So Cody Mauck is one of those guys where they started a little slow, started at a different position at tight end, move to offensive line. And you know, the results kind of paid off there. So yeah, Cody Malk, a player that I really like here. I wrote up his game. I'm the one who did all the scouting reports here. And I did all the offensive line in this draft guide. So a lot of these words, if you guys have been reading my work for years, you know, like, oh, this sounds like Sack here. So Malk is one of the more athletically gifted players in this entire draft class.

Starting point is 00:15:28 He glides out in space as he possesses elite explosion and foot speed. He plays every single snap at a hundred miles per hour, which that, yeah, that sounds like me. I definitely wrote, I definitely wrote that. And it's not a rare sight to see him flying down the field to pick up extra blocks on long runs. In the run game, M a grinder a grinder that wears defenses down with energy and athleticism so again malk i think i i think i did my best to encapsulate how fun his film is there but again you guys can go watch his film he's a phenomenal player uh for weaknesses i put down that he's he's an extremely gifted athlete but he's a rain in some of the finer details playing position. He plays a little bit high. He slows down his feet a little bit, leads some rough patches, and getting beat by power on the outside.

Starting point is 00:16:12 But this is another guy who I think we all agree when we are writing up the fits that he just fits the Colts really well. I put a player comp, Joe Thune, of the Kansas City Chiefs, an all all pro offensive guard who I think Mal can be one day with the proper development. And we have him as a team fit as really high as well. So one more, one more page I'm going to throw out here for you guys is Julius Brents, cornerback from Kansas State, born an Indy local kid. He was actually at the local pro day today, which all reports said that he was very, very, I guess I'll say the Colts were talking to him for most of the day. Shane Steichen spent a lot of time with him. And this is just a corner that fits so well. 6'3", 198 pounds, born in Indianapolis. Again, that local kid that we all love. Four interceptions,

Starting point is 00:17:01 eight pass breakups last year. And if you look at his background, three-star recruit that actually attended Iowa to start his career, goes down to Kansas state, and then really breaks out this past season named coaches, all big 12 first team this past season for strengths. He's one of the biggest and longest corners in the entire draft class. And it shows in man coverage, he plays extremely patient for a player with so much length, but make sure to utilize his length to dictate the play tempo. report here was written by maddie lane again i love how he talks about quarterback play he really gets into it brentz excels at his own coverage cornerback showcasing a great feel when playing cover three bail technique there we go if we're talking fit cover three bail technique a lot of gus bradley type stuff there for weaknesses

Starting point is 00:17:43 brent's has significant athletic limitations and it's mostly just the hips and the long speed when it comes to Brent you know he struggles to turn and run vertically with wide receivers you could see that on film quite a bit Quinton Johnston got him a couple times there in that TCU game this puts him on his heels and it limits his athleticism he has no hope but to grab onto them to save face. Yeah, we did see those issues quite a few times there at Kansas State, but Brents has raised his stocks, his draft cycle more than any other prospect. This is how he fits with the Colts. Early on, he's getting mid day three projections. And as of late projected to hear his name on day two of the

Starting point is 00:18:20 NFL draft, great size, great length, great athleticism, but his play speed may not be telling off because of what pops on screen. Brents would be best suited in the heavy zone scheme that the Colts run, where he can kind of get into those cover three drops and stuff like that. So for player comp, we got Jeff Okuda. For team fit, we got High. So those are just a couple of the Indie Draft Guide pages I wanted to share with you guys there, just so you can get a little sneak peek of what you're getting if you do purchase this guide. So again, you get every little thing you're looking for in these players. You're getting in-depth stuff there, and you are getting just kind of everything, every single thing you need from each one of these players here.

Starting point is 00:19:00 So guys, I'm going to close them out here in a second, answer a couple of your questions that you have in the comments. But first, before we pop off for the day, I got to talk to you guys about FanDuel. Grand slams, no hitters, and double plays are back. There's no better place to get in on the MLB action than FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook app. That's because right now, new customers can step up to the plate with a no-sweat first bet up to $1,000. Just go to fanduel.com slash locked on, sign up, place your first bet, and then get up to $1,000 back in bonus bets if you don't win. So don't miss your chance to get a no-sweat first bet up to $1,000

Starting point is 00:19:38 when you join FanDuel today. Just go to fanduel.com slash locked on to sign up. FanDuel, official sports betting partner of Major League Baseball. All right, guys, so I've been doing a lot of talking here. Again, I just want to showcase the Indie Draft Guide and talk about how proud I am of this team and all the people who have helped make this thing a possibility. And also say thank you to all of you guys who have reached out and talked about the guide with me, who's pointed out some mistakes in the guide, obviously, and all of you guys who have purchased it and just, and really enjoyed the content so far. I'm, I'm happy to provide this stuff for you. And I really,

Starting point is 00:20:13 really appreciate you guys, you know, paying a couple bucks to see my work and the work of my awesome team there with the Indie Draft Guide. I did have a question here in the comments I wanted to answer. Love catching you live. Just download my guide. What did have a question here in the comments I wanted to answer. Love catching you live. Just download my guide. What would you think if the Colts traded with three, got that pass rusher, and then traded for Lamar? In a perfect world, I would be super happy with them doing this. Get a great pass rusher and then trade for, in my opinion, a top five, top six, top seven quarterback in the entire league. It's just not the most realistic thing because the Ravens have the ability to match. If the Ravens are looking at that and

Starting point is 00:20:51 the Colts are sending their 2024 and their 2025 first round picks for Lamar Jackson, then the Ravens are going to say, look, those are going to be late first round picks. It's really not worth it. We'll just match and try to figure something out here with Lamar. In that scenario, you would trade up to get number three and get like a Will Anderson but you could be left with no quarterback you could be left with a Gardner Minshew because nothing is really dictated by you if you're trying to do the Lamar Jackson route because the Ravens control all the power there uh so again Aliyah and I appreciate you buying the guide and I and I love that you jumped onto

Starting point is 00:21:25 the live here, but I just don't think this is realistic. I don't think Lamar Jackson will be coming to Indy. And I do think ultimately he's going to stay in Baltimore this next season. But guys, that's all I have for today. Again, Aaliyah, thank you for jumping in, asking a question and purchasing your draft guide. We appreciate it as much as always. That's all I have for today. We're going to keep it kind of short today and tomorrow we're going to be back at it with some fun stuff. I think Andrew Moore from horseshoehull.com, my colleague over there, we're going to do some mock draft stuff and talk about some options at the top of the draft. We might do like a mock draft where we do some trades

Starting point is 00:22:00 and try to move around a little bit just to give you guys another perspective on that. So make sure you guys are catching us tomorrow morning on Locked on Colts. You make sure you're following us at Locked on Colts on Twitter, at JakeArthurNFL, and at ZachKicks2. Again, all on Twitter. Also subscribe to Locked on Colts podcast on YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Thank you for making Locked on Colts your first listen every day.

Starting point is 00:22:20 Now make your second listen, Locked on NFL Scouting with the Draft Dudes. From free agency to the draft to salary cap management and more, join NFL experts Kyle Krabs and Joe Marino as they take you through what it's like to build a successful NFL franchise every Monday through Friday. Find Locked on NFL Scouting with the Draft Dudes wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. We'll see you guys bright and early tomorrow morning.

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