Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts' WINNERS and LOSERS from Daniel Jones Being Named QB1

Episode Date: August 21, 2025

Which Indianapolis Colts stand to benefit and hurt the most from Daniel Jones being named the starting quarterback over Anthony Richardson? Become a Locked On Colts insider! Ask your burning question...s and get prompt answers from someone who's around the team every day! Get special access from the locker room, practice field, and press box! JOIN HERE! Find and follow Locked On Colts on your favorite podcast platforms:🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/podcasts/locked-on-colts/📺YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLdpxJspi1hMh5HL7ExpWOQLocked On NFL League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Draft & More🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/podcasts/locked-on-nfl/ Follow Jake and Zach's written work on HorseshoeHuddle.com, and give them a follow on Twitter @JakeArthurNFL, @ZachHicks2, @LockedOnColts, and @ColtsOn_SI, as well on TikTok and Instagram! Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Football season is around the corner. Visit the FanDuel App today and start planning your futures bets now. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Yahoo FantasyPresented by YahooFantasy #YahooPartner. Play Now at https://yahoofantasy.com/lockedonnfl.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Football season is around the corner. Visit the FanDuel App today and start planning your futures bets now.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as non-withdrawable free bets that expire in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNFL at monarchmoney.com/lockedonnfl for 50% off your first year.BetterhelpThis episode is brought to you by Betterhelp. Talk it out, with BetterHelp. Our listeners get 10% off their first month at BetterHelp.com/lockedon. 

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Indianapolis Colts past catchers, Josh Downs, and Tyler Warren are set to feast with Daniel Jones this season. 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. Thank you all for tuning in and making us your first listen of the day. daily podcast covering your Indianapolis Colts part of the locked on podcast network your team every single day today's episode is brought to you by fan duel football season is right around the corner so visit the fan duel app today and start planning your future bets right now hello everyone my name is zach hickshaw resident film nerd of horseshoe huddle dot com and my partner
Starting point is 00:00:49 jake arthur is our credentialed boots on the ground for the site uh yes you guys on audio just had to hear that instead of actually seeing what jake was doing so i'm sorry to all of you guys Just a big wet kiss to everybody out there. Today, guys, we are still dealing with the fallout of the Daniel Jones decision to start this season. So today we're going to deal with the winners. And this isn't just the winners in the past catching room. It's just the overall macro winners of this decision. We're going to talk about the losers.
Starting point is 00:01:18 And then Jake and I are going to talk about who we think could lead this Colts team in receiving this year. We actually haven't talked about this before the show. So we're going to really just have a live conversation, maybe debate. about who we think could lead this team and receiving this upcoming season. So stay tuned for that at the end of the show. But Jake, I think the biggest winner in all of this
Starting point is 00:01:38 that we really have to talk about is Josh Downs. And it's not that Josh Downs didn't have rapport with Anthony Richardson. It's just for like a slot receiver, he was very much a vertical threat with Anthony Richardson because everybody was with Anthony Richardson. So for Downs, going to a player like Daniel Jones where the ball is going to be out a lot more
Starting point is 00:01:57 in the shorter plane, the Colts are probably going to run a lot more RPO, like RPO bubbles and stuff like that to him and just more ISO routes that are going to be targeted to downs. I think he has a good chance to hit his career high and catches this season, maybe career high in yards, maybe touchdowns as well. And if we look at what Daniel Jones did with the New York Giants, while there was never really a receiver that went crazy with Daniel Jones, he did develop a really good rapport with Wondell Robinson,
Starting point is 00:02:26 with Richie James back in that 2022 season. I know these aren't the biggest names ever, but those were the slot guys that Jones did really build a good rapport with. And personally, for my money, I think Downs is the upgraded version of both of those players, especially over Richie James, but I think he's even an upgraded version over Wendell Robinson. So I think Josh Downs can have a really good season this year,
Starting point is 00:02:48 and him and Jones are probably going to hook up on a lot of really good, short, intermediate routes. And I wouldn't be shocked to see Downs, finish a lot of games with like those six catches for like 50 yards type stat lines and just be you know in ppr fantasy beast this year for people yeah and we saw it last year with flaco what was it downs had like at least seven catches with with flacco and in each of those games where flaco was like the primary quarterback so yeah i think a veteran quarterback is going to wisely look that way to almost use downs as like an extension of the run game and just keep the chains moving
Starting point is 00:03:22 but you know you mentioned downs you know i did a lot of vertical stuff with anthony and he can do that he did it at unc as well but he's much more natural and like shows a lot of you know progress when he is doing the shorter to intermediate stuff like the very quick hits especially like out of shotgun and everything i just like he's going to clean up so much like just in those those quick outlets like we saw look at the the raven's practice for example when Jones needed completions in that two-minute drill, it was Downs, Warren, Downs, Warren, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And it's like, okay, so this is going to be his natural,
Starting point is 00:04:03 just plan in his DNA when he needs to get completions. And I mean, we're not projecting much for Downs because he already has the most receptions by Colts player in their first two seasons. So it's not like we're putting him on some big pedestal. He's already a high-volume receiver, and now he's going to get a quarterback where the short game and intermediate stuff, that is the strength of his game.
Starting point is 00:04:27 That was one of the weaknesses of Anthony's game. And now, like, if you get Jones for 17 games, like, the dude's probably going to get 90 catches. So, yeah, I think, I think Downs should be the first person you think of when you think who really benefits from Daniel Jones being a quarterback. Yeah, no, for sure. And the next guy we're going to go to is Tyler Warren. And what's interesting with us saying Tyler Warren is there's not really a precedent for this with Daniel Jones where like in New York Jones really didn't have a good connection with tight ends. But the Giants didn't really have much in terms of tight ends outside of like early Evan Ingram before he left go to the Jaguars.
Starting point is 00:05:07 So a lot of this projection just in terms of what Warren's role is going to be in this offense, what Shane Steichen wants to do with Warren and that connection that we've seen between Warren and Jones in the preseason. and in training camp. So again, even though we're not really going off of the Giants years here much when we're projecting Warren to have much success with Jones, I still think we saw enough of that connection here in camp and enough of that trust being built and enough of that trust between Stuyken and Warren to where I think Warren's going to get a healthy dose of targets from Jones this year.
Starting point is 00:05:37 Yeah, and I think Warren would have done well with either quarterback. I mean, just the same as Josh Downs, but I think Warren, especially with Jones, is going to really work because we've kind of talked about, you know, those five-yard slants. If you want to hit a five-yard slant, do it. Well, I think Warren is going to be one of those guys that gets some of those tough catches over the middle. And even those like kind of longer drags, like the 15 or so yard drags over the middle, I think that's going to be something they really, they really look for.
Starting point is 00:06:08 Now, Anthony did some really good things over the middle. So, again, that could have been a really good match. And again, another reason why I think Warren would have been productive with either guys. but the yards after catchability for both downs and Warren, I think it's just going to be so huge. And if they really lean into that, like if Daniel Jones being a brainiac or just being a smart quarterback is part of the reason why he was selected,
Starting point is 00:06:34 then that means you've got to be a distributor and use those receivers to their strengths. And that is getting those guys, you know, in stride on the outside a lot of the times as well. but with room to run after the catch. And I think Warren is going to be kind of that battering ram where, you know, if you get him on kind of like a screen with a blocker in front of him and you need like four or five yards, he's going to get six or seven.
Starting point is 00:07:00 Like Downs is going to get taken down as soon as there's contact made if he can't make that guy miss. But Warren is going to be able to bowl ahead. And yeah, we've just already seen it with Jones targeting those guys in practice and preseason games. I mean, not Downs necessarily, but like the proof is already kind of in the pudding from what we've seen all summer. And those guys, both of them should really be in consideration to lead the team interceptions. Obviously Downs, but they're both going to get quite a bit of attention.
Starting point is 00:07:30 Yeah, especially too when you factor in. I think the Colts are going to be among the league leaders in play action and screen usage this season. I think that's going to be a big part of their offense. And the tight end really benefits in those two things because, again, these lineback are run fitting against the run, and you're going to have that tight end being able to slip behind them. We saw a couple of completions here in the preseason off of play action concepts where the Colts did exactly that with war. And so, yeah, I think him and Jones are going to have a good connection. This next one is a player that you and I slightly disagreed on
Starting point is 00:08:00 before we started recording, and then I won you over to my side pretty quick. My argument skills were just too good, I guess, for that one. Beautiful. But I had Tanner Bordellini as a big win. And there's a couple factors here. One, we know Anthony Richardson struggles with past protections and just knowing where the blitz is coming from, the free rushers, and pairing that with a first year starting center could have been a recipe for disaster for the Colts. And traditionally, when you're looking at what you do at center and quarterback, you typically don't want to match like a young center and a young quarterback or an inexperienced quarterback in inexperienced center. You want to have one of those guys be the veteran in the room.
Starting point is 00:08:39 when it comes to identifying pressure looks, identifying pass protection, and adjusting on the fly. So when you have a young guy like Bordolini who, I mean, look, through two preseason games, there's been a couple of free rushers that have gotten through when him and Anthony were on the field together. When him and Jones were on the field, we didn't really see those issues. So I think having just a veteran quarterback who, again, we can talk all about Jones's limitations all we want, but just having a veteran quarterback who has what started the last nine years of his life in some degree of football, he probably knows protections a little bit better than the other guy that he was competing with all camps. So I think that's going to be very helpful for Tanner Bordolini
Starting point is 00:09:19 and really just sure up any kind of communication issues that we could see on the offensive line. So ultimately, I think this is going to make Bordellini's job easier and just make him look a little bit better as a first year starter. Yeah. And your beautiful persuasion skills, one me over there. I'll get to, you know, the rebuttal portion of it in the next section because he was part of a package deal. But no, that makes all the sense in the world. And it will help Bordolini, I think, immensely integrate into being a starting center. One area we've heard of, especially from Tony Sperano, where, you know, this was technically a competition for Bordalini, but it never really wound up being.
Starting point is 00:09:58 Part of that is Danny Pinter being injured a lot. But, like, they quickly found out there was going to be not much to worry about with Bordorne because he picked up that mental aspect so well. diagnosing where things were coming from and just those blitz protections and everything. It's something they've been pleasantly surprised with. And I think it would be naive to think that Anthony is someone who could really help push him along in that because Anthony needs help in that area too. So from that logic where you need a veteran to help you identify what you're seeing, the center and quarterback are, they should very much be in concert and they're kind of a tandem deal. So I totally agree. um yeah that that just makes like so much more difficult as a young center i think
Starting point is 00:10:44 where you're only really able to get a lot of feedback from your coach i mean your line mates can help you a little bit of course as well but like you really need those eyes behind you at quarterback to really be able to tell you what's coming yeah no exactly it always helps to just have different levels of experience of those two positions and that's what the courts are going to be doing this season but coming up guys it's not all sunshine and rainbows with a decision to start, Daniel Jones. There are a few players and just few aspects of this team that lose out in the long term, or in the short term, because of this.
Starting point is 00:11:17 So we're going to talk about those guys in just a second. August 26th, that's next week. It's officially Fandall Futures Day. It's a brand new holiday for football fans who live for bold predictions and preseason hunches. For just 24 hours, Fandle is giving you deals on NFL season predictions. So whether you're calling your MVP, I'm a long-shot division winner, or you're ready to crown your Super Bowl chant before a week one even kicks off. This is your moment.
Starting point is 00:11:45 So take a flyer on that MVP race, crown your champion in August, or parlay your division winner, Dark Horses. But whatever you do, just visit Fandul, the Fandul app today and start planning your future bets now, because Futures Day is one day and one day only, Fandul. Play your game. All right, Zach, I didn't even realize how late we were into the show. We were just spiritedly flying through it. So, some stuff hit the, hit the cutting room for the director's cap might be having to come to you guys later. But let's talk about the losers of Daniel Jones being named QB1 here in Indianapolis. And first one, this is just me being tongue and cheek, but lovers of big plays.
Starting point is 00:12:30 You guys are not in the winners category in this one. if you are a fan of just methodical football and being played from the coach's lens, you're probably going to love it. But if you love those explosive plays once every few drives, I don't think you're in for a great ride. But, Zach, who else do we have? Yeah, I think we can lump three aspects of this together. One is the love for big plays, like your snarky quip that you're making there,
Starting point is 00:12:55 Jake. The other is just high octane passing numbers. If you look, I mean, again, there's a lot of reasons for this, but Daniel Jones has started the last nine years of his. life at quarterback at college and then in the pros and he's really never led high octane passing offense ever in his life again we go back to college his most passing yards in season was 2800 yards with the giants i think what the 22 or no his rookie season he had over 4,000 i don't think he came back to that that peak ever again uh in and with the giants so he's never
Starting point is 00:13:27 really led this this crazy high volume passing offense like you said jake it's it's much more methodical get the ball out quick we're going to lean on our running game and that's how we're going to find success. And then because of those two factors, the number one guy who hurts from Daniel Jones starting is Alec Pierce. And maybe this can be a good thing for Pierce because pretty much his entire game last year was like, you know, what's that game of 500 that all the kids, they used to play as kids or whatever, just go down, you with 500 dead or alive and you just throw it up and whoever catches it is the one. Jackpot. Yeah, jackpot. I think that's what it's called. That's pretty much what Alec Pierce's game was last year. It's like
Starting point is 00:14:01 when in doubt, we're just going to throw a jump ball down the field to you. And, I guess for Pierce's best interest, you want to prove that you're more than that in the NFL. So this could end up being a beneficial thing for him. But in terms of replicating a career best season last year that he had, I don't think that that's really much in the cards this year. The Colts are not going to have this super high volume passing offense. Like, in the best case scenario, we're probably throwing for like 3,500 yards, 3,800 yards.
Starting point is 00:14:27 It can be a run heavy team this year, led by the RPO's and led by, again, just the ground game with the quarterbacks and the running backs. So I just don't think we're going to have much in the cards for like the vertical ball, the go ball. I don't think it's going to happen very often this year. And as a result, I think Pierce's number is going to take a step back from where they were last season. I don't know if it's going to fall as far as it did like with Matt Ryan and with what, Gardner Minchu, where those guys were just like, well, one of those guys just couldn't throw the ball down the field. The other guy was allergic to it. I'm not sure Jones is much like that.
Starting point is 00:14:59 But I certainly think there is going to be a step back for Pierce where it's not going to be the 22 yards per target. or whatever it was last year and the leading the team and receiving yards. I don't think that's in the cards for Pierce this season. Yeah. And so we've kind of viewed this as a second chance for Shane Steichen to redo 2023 with a veteran quarterback who's just going to kind of do what he needs to. With that said, I don't think Shane is going to tolerate a quarterback again that will not push the ball downfield.
Starting point is 00:15:29 And I think enough of us have kind of asked about it and shined a light on the fact that he was not one to test the ball deep very often in New York. And maybe that the excuse is just what was around him, blah, blah, blah. Like he did occasionally go to Darius Slayton downfield. But I think it would be absolutely wild to see what Alec Pierce did, getting over 800 receiving yards on what, 37 catches, like crazy. Leading the NFL in yards perception, you cannot get the output from a guy like that and then let him disappear from the offense.
Starting point is 00:16:03 Yeah, I don't think he's going to disappear. I just think it's going to be trimmed a little bit, especially with Pittman healthy again, with Downs and Warren being more involved. I think just overall, though, Pierce, like Pierce in an ideal world would have loved to hit free agency after last season, instead of after this upcoming season. But another player I wanted,
Starting point is 00:16:23 another two players I wanted to get to real quick because I just can't stop talking about offensive line. I think McAnsovis and Braden Smith are kind of losers. of this and my rationale with this is essentially look if richardson is your starting quarterback you could you could have with blocks you could have misassignments and mistakes but richards just barely ever got sacked with the colts you know it there he had a lot of issues with the colts don't get me wrong but he rarely took sacks and it made you look a little bit better as an offensive lineman because you're not giving up those sacks now the margin of error for gonzalves
Starting point is 00:16:54 and for brayden smith is much higher or much much lower lower margin of error i guess there's a higher chance that your mistakes are going to look like mistakes because Jones is not going to get away from as many sacks as Richardson. You know, he's not completely immobile like Flacco was last year, but he's not going to be a guy who can just throw the ball away when he's got two guys hanging off of him. So I think that this rate, this makes the pressure on Consolves and Smith to perform early in the season much higher. And we'll see if those guys can step up to the task.
Starting point is 00:17:24 I think Consolves is going to be a work in progress. Hopefully Smith hasn't regressed too much, although you guys have said some of the days in camp have been pretty rough on that right side. So I do think that that right side of the offensive line are kind of losers in this just because they have to be better from the jump. And I don't know if they're ready for that, especially Gonzalez, I don't know if he's completely ready for that yet. Yeah, I just think it's much more obvious when the offensive line is performing poorly
Starting point is 00:17:51 when you have, Daniel's not a statue quarterback, but he's not going to avoid sacks the way that Anthony does. So it's just going to put a spotlight on you specific. specifically if you're out here giving up sacks because your quarterback isn't able to escape them as well. So that one's just kind of like on the nose, but it's a very real thing. This next one, I really want your take on this because it's something we talked about a lot last year. Jonathan Taylor, I've got on the losers list. Now, I still think he's going to be heavily involved and he's still going to have a good year.
Starting point is 00:18:22 But I think his job becomes a little more difficult. So with Anthony, defenses had to pick their poison. we talked about the fact that them being in the backfield together opened up things so much and had to kind of keep defenses honest a bit more. There's going to be, you know, an added, you know, an added influence on the RPO and everything this year still. But at the same time, do you think that makes defense's key in on Taylor a little bit more now? Like they're not going to view Jones as much of a threat in the run game like they would, Anthony, obviously. Yeah, I went back and forth on where I would put Taylor.
Starting point is 00:19:01 I think I probably lean slight loser, but it's not like crazy loser by any chance. Like he's still going to get his yards as long as he's healthy. I just think a big part of this for me is they're going to do a lot of scat protections this year in terms of like they're not going to keep the running back into block very often. I think they're going to have that running back getting out in the flats and to catch the ball. And it's just not really what Taylor's ever been good at, you know, which could. to more snaps for get-ins on third downs, leads to more snaps-for-get-ins in certain packages, which could lead to more snaps-for-get-ins
Starting point is 00:19:35 when the culture trailing in games. So I think that could hurt Taylor, whereas with Richardson at all times, it's probably better to keep a player like Taylor out there because the rushing a threat is always so prominent. I think the rushing threat is still going to be pretty good with Jones and Taylor. I just think it's a slight step back
Starting point is 00:19:52 because Jones doesn't scare you as much as a Richardson, because Richardson is a full-back play. playing quarterback, essentially, when he's running with the ball. So, yeah, I do think it's slightly down for Taylor, but I'm glad you put that on there, because I did want to address that where it was like, I don't think it's too crazy either way with him. I could hear the arguments for either way with Taylor on this. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:20:15 Like, I still think he'll probably finish top five rushing again, but I just, it's going to be harder for him. Like, I think defenses are going to be expecting him a bit more than they were before. And you mentioned the passing element of it. You know, if you look at Daniel Jones and his success, like Sequin Barclay, well, to me, one of the biggest differences is Saquan is awesome in the passing game, whereas Jonathan, that's not really his bread and butter. But, yeah, there's obviously kind of more residual winners and losers from this whole thing,
Starting point is 00:20:42 guys. But coming up next, we're actually going to have our little discussion about who we think is going to be the leading receiver here with Daniel, because he's a guy that's going to spread the ball around, but who is actually going to lead the team in receiving? Most people can't name all their financial accounts or even whether it's 401Ks, properties, or investments. When you don't have the full picture in front of you, you can end up leaving money on the table. But that's why there's Monarch money. It's an all-in-one personal finance tool that brings your entire financial life together
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Starting point is 00:21:57 com with code blocked on anFL. Welcome back, everybody. We are talking winners and losers of the Colts quarterback decision, Daniel Jonesman, QB1, who benefits, who is not going to have such a great time. But now we're talking about who's going to be the leading receiver. And so, Zach, let's first lay the ground rules. Were you talking about yards, receptions, what were we talking? You're on mute.
Starting point is 00:22:24 You're pulling to me. I'm pulling a dick. We can have the full conversation here, Jay. Okay. Because I'm a very gray area person, so I wanted all these categories. All right. So I think receptions were both going to agree downs there, I believe. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:22:37 Now, the yards is probably going to be the closer. Who would you go with for yards here, Jake? I'm bringing Michael Pittman back for yards. Okay. Okay. So he is the best of everything. Like, you know what I mean? Like, he is the biggest blend of everybody on the roster, essentially.
Starting point is 00:22:53 And I do think that back injury greatly affected. how effective he was able to be last year he had to be used sparingly and in pockets and when they really needed him he was not the michael pitman junior we've seen a few years past he does the short stuff yes he does the intermediate stuff as well but i'm also just going off of like how i've seen danio jones target him throughout practice and stuff and i think jones is really going to rely on pitman to be a guy that kind of bails him out of some things yeah i think I agree with you. I went back and forth between him and Josh Downs because, again, if I'm thinking Downs are going to have the most catches, he has the easiest track, obviously, to lead
Starting point is 00:23:35 the team in receiving yards. But when I look at how I anticipate this, like, target share to go across this receiver room, like, I think Down's going to get a lot in the short game, and I think there's going to be an occasional deep shot here or there with a few intermediate balls. But I think a lot of those intermediate, and then even the occasional deep ball will be, like, targets that can go to Michael Pittman Jr. So I think just by like pure target share, it might be Pittman Jr. over downs and I think he's going to be productive again. Now, I don't think he's going to hit like 1,500 yards, 1,400 yards or anything like that.
Starting point is 00:24:09 But I could see him leading this team with like 900, 910 or something this year with, again, like a more scaled back passing offense because the Colts are going to want to run the ball this year. But yeah, I think I would go downs receiving receptions leader for the team. and then yeah probably slight pitman for receiving yards but i think downs be pretty close with him like i think they'll both be around that like 900 yard mark um which i think would be the two most receiving yard seasons by a receiver with daniel jones if jones plays all 17 games so uh they would they would be pretty good metrics for both those guys to hit all things considered
Starting point is 00:24:47 uh but then i guess the other conversation here jake is receiving touchdowns and i'm sure you want to go with the promising rookie for this one one one one one yeah like red zone alone like number one i don't think the red zone is going to be as predicated on the run game anymore like john and the taylor's going to get his looks but i think they're going to view daniel jones as an opportunity to kind of pull some strings in the passing game to like they love the pick plays they they love you know mesh they love to try and find good ways to get these guys open in short quarters and so i think they'll be passing the ball a decent a bit there but the red zone is also like one of the biggest areas why they drafted tyler warren in the first place like the guy is going to eat in the red zone so i think
Starting point is 00:25:32 he'll lead them in receiving touchdowns and i'm not coming off my bold prediction from whenever we did it in july or whatever where he's going double-digit touchdowns and i'm not going to come off of my correction i threw at you when you said that where i think that's going to be maybe total touchdowns from him because I think, especially with Richardson not being the starting quarterback, I think this more so opens up the avenue to do the fun Wildcat stuff with Tyler Warren that we saw them do at Penn State because like you're putting the bigger athlete now back at quarterback where with Richardson it's like the same size athlete, obviously back there. So I think in the red zone is where we're going to see some unique packages where Warren's back there at quarterback and
Starting point is 00:26:11 we're going to see him, you know, be like a bulldozer at like the two yard line and try to run over some guys and and I think I could see a season where he has like five receiving touchdowns like two or three rushing touchdowns and maybe one passing touchdown this year because I think when you take a guy like as high as the Colts took him based off what he did in college I think all those things are on the table of using him in the similar way but when it comes to receiving touchdowns this is probably just me more manifesting it because I've always wanted them to really lean on this guy in the red zone but I think Josh Downs can be a fantastic red zone player because like theoretically we always think red zone receivers are the big body guys
Starting point is 00:26:51 because back in the day when we all grew up watching football late 90s early 2000s whatever it was we were watching these jump balls in the red zone you know just just go run a goal line fade we're going to toss it up and you're andre johnson's calvin johnson those guys are going to come down with it right brandon marshals all those guys but the nfo game is so much more predicated on speed and separation and downs is still your best separator on the roster until ady mitchell figures out his timing stuff but downs is your best separator on the roster and I just think with like the RPO game coming back and so heavy just RPO bubbles and stuff in the red zone just doing like little whip routes when you get isolated routes with him in the red zone having him just
Starting point is 00:27:32 find the zone beaters over the middle I think downs could go for like six seven eight receiving touchdowns if he becomes a focal point in the red zone when they do want to throw the ball it's just about him becoming that focal point because we've seen some really good moments of him in the red zone it's just never been consistent because this offense hasn't been consistent in the red zone. And quite frankly, even with Jones in the preseason, I know we only got two examples of it, but they didn't convert their two red zone chances with Jones in the preseason either. So that's going to be one thing to really watch this year. But really overall, I want to see Downs be just more of a focal point there.
Starting point is 00:28:05 I probably agree with you that's going to be worn, but I want to see Downs just more involved in the red zone when it comes to the passing game. I completely agree. If you're looking for a guy where you're, giving him only a phone booth to get open and create a little bit of separation, it's easily downs. I think they have a handful of guys that could do really well in the red zone. Pierce has shown that ability to be that guy. Like if you run in a fade, he could do it. You can get the jump off, but also like dragging across the end zone and being able to beat
Starting point is 00:28:34 man and get a little separation, he could do that too. Yeah. AD, obviously, that's just going to be a big asterisk, like until he can earn some red zone reps. And then Pittman is a guy, like, if you need a guy to make a tough catch where he's going to get blasted at the goal line, he could do that too. Yeah. Well, Pierce is a sneaky one in all this, too, because we saw last year, I mean, when they needed big conversions last year, like, especially in the red zone, like, we saw Flacco, yeah, Flacco threw two jump balls to him and two of his starts in the red zone
Starting point is 00:29:04 that Pierce went up and got. And then obviously, the biggest catch of the entire season by anybody in the receiver room was that Patriots game catch by Pierce, caught it in traffic in the back of the end zone. so yeah i mean especially if pierce is trying to prove he's more than just a vertical threat guy come out here and be a dominant red zone option with daniel jones and get jones over the 20 passing touchdown mark i think either for the first time his career or the first time since his rookie season it was rookie season it was pretty i think he had 24 touchdowns that year so since his rookie season uh that would be pretty big for a guy like alick pierce trying to cash in and free agency
Starting point is 00:29:37 after the year totally agree but we'll see i i think we've gotten into the dangerous waters of wishful thinking right now and I mean we need to we might need to return to being sour and skeptical until we see something well at the end of the day Jake look we cover the colts here we don't cover anthony Richardson we were wrong about them picking anthony richardson but there is an avenue for this to work with daniel jones and that's why the colts obviously picked him to be their starter and that's how we're going to approach it until more data is presented to us in the regular season and we either have to change or stick by with any kind of optimism or pessimism we have.
Starting point is 00:30:14 But as of right now, I think this could be an effective offense. I would love to have the data in front of me after the first couple weeks to say this could be an even more than effective offense. But as of right now, I still think it'll be a fine, effective offense. And they got the weapons out there to really prove it. So I think this thing can kind of work here for the Colts in 2025. But that's all we have for today, guys.
Starting point is 00:30:35 We want to thank you for making Lockdown Coach your first listen today. And every day NFL fantasy draft season is here. So for your second listen, go find Lockdown Fantasy Football Podcasts with the host Vinnie Iyer and Michelle Madgew. Listen every day to prep for your fantasy draft and become the most informed manager so you can take you home your league's trophy this season. Find Locked on Fantasy Football on YouTube or wherever list to your podcast. If you guys want to become a Lockdown Colts insider and chat list directly and get that insider scoop, follow the link in our show notes. If you don't already, make sure that you're following at Lockdown Colts at Jake Arthur, NFL, at Zach Hicks, too, all on socials. Also subscribe to the YouTube channel or every list of your podcast.
Starting point is 00:31:11 We love your guys, ratings reviews. And then a quick shout out for my own stuff here real quick, Jake. Go follow my personal YouTube channel as well. If you like some film related breakdowns tomorrow, I have like a 20-minute long video on Matt Gonzalez's game against the Green Bay Packers in week two of the preseason. So definitely check that out if you want more visual stuff coming your way on Colts content. But that's all we have for today. We'll get back to you guys on Saturday after the Colts final preseason game, the Bean game.
Starting point is 00:31:38 coming up here on Saturday.

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