Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - LOCKED ON COLTS 10/24/19: State of the Colts with Kevin Bowen

Episode Date: October 24, 2019

On today's episode, Kevin Bowen make his long-awaited return to the show to go in-depth on the Indianapolis Colts' season. Bowen will be on every two weeks through the regular season, so get ready listeners!We covered every topic you could possibly think of with the Colts through six games of the season. From Jacoby Brissett and Frank Reich to what holes might be on this team still, plenty of ground was covered in this must-listen show with Bowen.Do the Colts have the ingredients to go into Foxboro or Arrowhead again in the playoffs and make a deep run? How about the dominance on the offensive line as well? A lot of intriguing points in a season where many doubted Indianapolis after Andrew Luck's sudden retirement. Incredibly enough, a first round bye with 11 or 12 wins is a real possibility. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, everybody. Welcome back into Locked On Colts, probably Locked On Podcast Network. Today, as always, your host, Evan Seder. I'm joined by our special guest today, Kevin Bowen. How are you doing today, Kevin? Doing well. Thanks for having me on again, Evan. Yeah, no problem at all. Appreciate you coming on. And I want to talk to you about this because if I asked you this, let's say in August, Kevin, that no Andrew Luck for any of the games this year, Darius Leonard would be missing half of the games so far in a six-game stretch, as does Malik Hooker.

Would you be surprised if they'd be 4-2? Definitely. Yeah, I mean, if you're going to lay it out like that, especially. I mean, that's the thing. There have been some key injuries on the defensive side of the ball with Hooker and Leonard. And I guess you could even throw Kenny Moore in there and Jabal Sheard early in the season.

So, you know, I thought they'd be, I don't know, maybe three and three right now. And that, you know, wouldn't have been without, you know, knowing what those defensive injuries look like. So the ways that you've won those games to really stand out to me, especially the last two weeks and specifically, I guess, that Houston game, the fact that you've beaten Houston and Kansas City, that stands out to me as well. So I think to be 4-2 right now, to be a top alone in the AFC South, that is a surprise to me.

I thought they seemed to kind of hover around 500. I think I predicted 8-8. And clearly, they've been better than that so far. So yeah, I mean, to get through the toughest stretch of your schedule, in my opinion, some people might argue that last few games in December, but this first six games have been pretty difficult on paper from a quarterback standpoint. And to be 4-2, that's a major credit to Chris Bauer and Frank Reich.

How key is this next four-game stretch here for the Colts here, Kevin? They have the Broncos at home, and they're at the Steelers, homing it to the Dolphins and homing it to the Jaguars, who it sounds like at this point Nick Boldby coming back from his injury at that point. But if they can go four and over that period, and you see Houston over the stretch as well, they have to play Baltimore. So if they lose a game or two, the Colts can really create

some separation here atop the division and really maybe sit in pretty as far as when we get to late December. Oh, I think it's huge. I mean, it's a terrific opportunity. You look to be getting healthier as a football team. And then as you said, as you're going to be, you're gonna be favored in all four of these games. And some of the games you'll probably be favored by, you know, nearly a touchdown if not more than a touchdown when you see the dolphins.

So terrific opportunity for the Colts to not only maintain and possibly extend their AFC South lead, but certainly remain in the mix for that number two overall seed in the AFC. And to enter Thanksgiving or the month of December with a chance to potentially play for a bye, that would be just, again, something I definitely did not expect at the start of the season, this team possibly being eight and two, to throw it out there like that. And these are critical games. You're going to play four AFC games in this stretch.

You know, those are very important. You'll have a divisional game at the back end of this. And now it's time to, I think, kind of deviate from just playing to your competition. That might be an argument you could make for the Colts here early in the season is, yeah, you throw in the Oakland game, you could go to the Kansas City game. Both those games you've probably played to your competition. Now you've come out on the right side of a lot of these close affairs, and now I think it's time to start putting opponents away by multiple scores, and you'll have the opportunity to do that, I think, several times

here in the next few weeks. Yeah, this stretch certainly could be one where the Colts could easily go 4-0 and enter into Houston at 6-2, which would be a gigantic mark for this team. And I think overall, what have you learned so far, Kevin? What's your biggest impression through the first six weeks of the season? Boy, that's a good question. You know, I would say that the depth has certainly improved on this football team. You know, when you talk about some of the injuries that they've had,

especially on the defensive side of the ball, and for you to have played as well as you've played the last two weeks. I mean, against Kansas City, no hooker, no Leonard. Against Houston, no hooker, no Kenny Moore. And you have two just really solid defensive performances. Yes, it wasn't perfect against Houston, but you really delivered in some critical moments. So I thought that was really, really impressive to me

to finally see Matt Eberflus' defense evolving schematically and then relying on some of that depth as well. Offensively, Jacoby Versettis played better than I thought he would play. With what Frank Reich has asked him to do, I think he's handled that very, very well. And I've been asked several times this week, kind of like the whole, okay, what's the biggest difference in the Colts? You know, one and five this time last year, now they're four and two.

And, yes, you can talk about turnovers. I'd say that maybe is the biggest statistical difference. They haven't committed as many turnovers as they did last year. But I would say the health of the offensive line, you know, something I talked about on my podcast yesterday, the fact that you have had every single starter on your offensive line play every single snap this season, whereas this time last year, you had started 11 different offensive linemen. That's probably the position group you can point to the most of.

The old cliche of, you know, starts in the trenches. That's how you build a football team, all of that. We just look at the difference in that group personnel wise the last two years. And I think that's a huge, huge reason why you've been able to be, you know, a 4-2 football team here early in 2019. Let me ask you about the offensive line, Kevin, because I don't know about you, but in that Kansas City game, when they were just dominating up front, I feel like that was the first time in my lifetime that I just had like a whoa moment watching the offensive line.

They were physically dominating the Chiefs, and there was mauling them every single play in that game, having Marlon Mack have a huge game like that. And you see how they're doing for Jacobi Brissett so far. It just seemed like this offensive line is, for the first time, I think Colts franchise history, it's the best thing about this team and it's dominant it is and you know I thought it was trending in that direction last year you know with what you're able to do in Tennessee in week 17 and then follow that up against Houston in that wild card game with

Houston defensive front that was even more stout than the one we saw last week and obviously um you know one that I think was the top Russian defense if I'm not mistaken in the NFL going in that playoff game um and you know with with what they did in Kansas City that's honestly what they should have done and I don't want that to like undersell what they did but there's a Kansas City defensive line that is probably one of the weaknesses of that football team. And you were outplayed by that group in the playoff game last year. And so I think to do what you did to them and have the chip on your shoulder that you should have had and dominate the line of scrimmage, establish the blueprint that is needed against that opponent to play the game more at your pace place and keep away all of that that's what this Colts team should have their strength and then to

back it up the very next week and win a game with a much different offensive blueprint that's the involvement of this football team that I think is necessary to go on any sort of run, whether that be a run to the AFC title or whether that be a run in January. Those are some of the questions I had coming into this season. Offensively, could you beat teams in multiple ways? Defensively, could you do that as well? And so far through the first six games, we've seen them do that. So I think that's another part of this season that I think is even makes that four

and two record look even more impressive. I think the Kamoka Torre injury, Kevin, losing him for the season, just a critical blow to this defense long-term, just because you're going to have to go against these teams in the playoffs, possibly like Mahomes and Watson and Tom Brady as well, where you have to get in his face and get that pressure. I think Kamoka Torre was one of the best for the Colts organization doing that so far in the first few weeks of the season. So how big is it for Justin Houston? It seems like going back to Kansas City really woke him up.

He has three sacks in his last two games. He has to probably – I think, honestly, he has to probably have that kind of production the rest of the season to really go far and have a run. I couldn't agree more. I mean, you need that from Justin Houston. You need the Jabal Sheard. You've seen the past few weeks as well. You know, the Colts have really avoided the big kind of injured reserve injury. Yes, you've had Devin Funchess. You know, Ture wasn't a starter. So,

like, of your top, you know, 10 or 15 guys in this team, you pretty much avoided the season ending injury, which is something that I don't think a lot of teams can say so far, but I still think that Ture injury is very, very significant in that it definitely hinders what you can do in 2019 because from a skill set standpoint, we know he brings the speed, sort of bending, great get-off-the-ball element, and I don't know if you could replicate that with anyone else on your roster to the degree that Ture was doing that for you. And I think that the byproduct of that is it hinders kind of what Matty Rufus then can do from a package, game plan, sort of mismatch standpoint as well because, you know,

guys like Jabal Sheard and Danico Autry and Justin Houston are very very similar from that and how they get after the passer and that they're more of kind of just you know powerful rushers so I think that's where the Curry injury hurts you in 2019 is you don't have that speed compliment off the edge and then also I think if you want to have one eye looking forward it hurts you because it stunts his growth. You know, he's a guy that was really coming on. I felt like there was some, you know, he felt like, I guess, he was starting to be able to be a possible presence on three downs.

And now it's, you know, Jabal Sheard in a contract year, you know, this year. Justin Houston will be in a contract year next year. You really need to start developing guys like Kamoko Terry and Taequann Lewis into being three-down defensive linemen for you. So when that time comes that you have to pass the torch on the defensive line, you feel good about it. So it definitely hurts you here in the short term, and obviously I think when you have another eye looking ahead to 2020 and beyond,

it hurts you there as well. MyBookie is the premier place to bet on all your favorite pro and college football action every weekend. So if you're going to bet this season, do the smart thing and bet with the best at MyBookie. Visit MyBookie.edu today and use promo code LOCKEDON to activate the offer. So far, I wanted to pivot over to Jacoby Brissett for a minute, Kevin, because obviously he's been a very divisive topic amongst fans so far as far as what he could be for this team, not only this year but long-term. Fourteen touchdowns, three interceptions so far.

He certainly takes care of the ball, but what's been your main strengths and weaknesses you've seen in Jacoby's game so far, and what kind of confidence do you have in him maybe being the answer through six weeks of the season? Well, I would say strength definitely started with protecting the ball, like you said. You know, his toughness just continues to really impress me. Some of the throws he made against Houston, just hanging in the pocket,

taking some hits. The deep ball to T.Y. Hilton that Hilton dropped. I mean, Watt drilled Bursette on that play. So that has been impressive to me. I think in critical situations, red zone and third down, he's been there for you. Some questions I think that you still have is just consistently throwing the deep ball and I guess having more just in general success with the vertical passing game. I think the yards per attempt number is still too small for this offense to truly be kind of an elite unit this season.

So that's a question I would still have. I think another question we haven't seen yet, and really the Colts haven't been in this sort of opportunity, maybe outside of the Oakland game, is can you see Jacoby Brissett lead the big fourth quarter drive when your team is down? And he's got to throw the football a lot more than maybe that opening week when you were heavy run with the Chargers. So I think those are a couple questions that, you know, I would still have about him, certainly.

You know, six games into it, the evaluation is going to come down to this. And, you know, it's a debate I've had on so many podcasts here in 2019, and I will continue to have. You can be impressed by what Jacoby Brissett has done this season and still have questions about him being the franchise quarterback. I think it's a very fair, you know, sort of thought process to have. And that's kind of where I sit right now. It's, you know, to be the franchise quarterback,

I mean, that's a big undertaking. I mean, you've got to be a truly kind of top 10 elite quarterback in this league, and that's the evaluation the Colts are going to have the rest of this season. You know, I've mentioned it before. You know, Houston and Kansas City, you know, they had playoff teams in 2017 going into that 2017 draft. And yet they still felt like they needed to trade up big time, 15, 17 some spots, trade up and end up taking guys like Deshaun Watson and Patrick Mahomes.

So that's kind of where I sit right now. I think he has been better than I thought he would be. I probably had him like in the 20 to 25 range of a quarterback. I think he's been more of, you know, maybe a 12 to 15. I know there are some numbers that actually indicate, some might argue he's been better than that. There are, I would say, more numbers that indicate he's been in the kind of the 15 to 20 range of a quarterback when talking completion percentage, passer rating, yards per

attempt, those sorts of kind of efficiency numbers. But still, I think with the situation he's been thrown into, major hat tip to him, especially with what he did against the Texans, you know, to have that kind of thrown on him of, okay, can you beat us? We're going to load up. We're going to stop the run. They did that. You know, Marlon Mack, 2.4 yards per carry. And yet Jacoby Bursette delivered in a big way.

So the arrow right now to me is pointing up on where he's been the last couple weeks. This is kind of a forward-thinking question here for you, Kevin, but I imagine Chris Bauer and his staff are already doing this. What do you think as far as the draft goes? Because obviously you don't have to talk about prospects or anything, but from what you've seen on the Colts team so far, what kind of weaknesses do you think you've seen so far

and maybe pinpoint those with what they could do in the draft this year? Because at this point they're going to have – that Redskins pick is looking really good for this team. It's probably going to be top 35 at this point. And then you have probably three picks in the top 75. So this could be really another year where the Colts could capitalize and really fill their weaknesses with some cheap contracts for four to five years with the rookies.

Yeah, it's a great question, Evan. Let's put, I guess, quarterback to the side and not throw that in there. I would say defensive line and receiver are atop that list. I would say D-line, probably the more pressing, you know, throwing another interior defensive lineman. I mean, even throwing another edge, you know, I don't think you can have enough up front. And when you talk about the ages of, you know, Margot Hunt and Danico Autry and Justin Houston, Jabal Shear, I think that you need to keep on investing major draft capital into that group. Depending on what you do with Eric Ebron, I would say tight end falls into that mix as well.

Not, you know, one or two, but I would say after that, I think it's on your priority list. Maybe get more of an athletic compliment to a guy like Jack Doyle. You know, I would also throw offensive tackle somewhat high, even if you do re-sign Anthony Casanzo. I don't love the offensive line depth, which obviously hasn't been tested at all here in 2019. So that's a position that I would put on there.

You know, outside of that, I don't think anything is too glaring. I'm sure linebacker could use another body. Running back could probably use another body. You can never have enough corners. But, yeah, I still go back to the defensive line as that just being the definite number one position group in my mind. We're going to move on here to Frank Reich for a second, Kevin, because I think so far this season you had to pick one person within the organization who's been the MVP so far.

I think it's been Frank Reich pretty clearly, just the way he's been scheming open plays for Jacoby Brissett, making it really easy for him. And just the way this team battles for Frank Reich is super impressive, man. What have you learned about Frank Reich? I know we had a full season last year, and now through six games of the 2019 season, he's without Andrew Luck now for the foreseeable future, really forever.

He's retired now. What's it say about the way he's been able to persevere now in this team of four and two? You know, I mentioned, Evan, after Andrew Luck retired and kind of shocked the world on that Saturday night in August. It's a chaotic situation. It's such an unforeseen situation. But the temperaments and the personalities of Chris Fowler and Frank

Reich, they are the perfect people to handle this. Now, handling it from a chaotic standpoint is one thing. Handling it and then turning it into an immediate success is a whole nother situation. And clearly, those two guys have done that. and I just think Frank Reich is wired in a way that when you are thrown into these sorts of situations his playing career as a backup quarterback and just this even keeled nature a la Tony Dungy is perfect for a lot of these situations and so I just don't think Frank Reich really baddened an eye too too much I don't think you saw a whole lot of weeping from Frank Reich and feeling sorry for himself that you know Andrew Locke had just retired sure there's a bit of a grievance period if you will but once that came

and went it was time to move on and Jacoby Reset is a guy that Frank Reich can relate to in some ways as a former backup quarterback. I think that helps you out as well. And I just think always Frank Reich has been very wired of like, just show me the team I've got on Sunday, and I'm going to try and coach that team to victory. So I think that's what I've learned about him. He continues to be a terrific offensive mind,

has out chess matches pretty much every you know every opposing defensive coordinator that he plays on a weekly basis and this is a guy that should be on any sort of coach of the year list after six weeks. I think another interesting point about this Colts team so far I think it's incredible without the pieces they've had so far they're four and two but when you look ahead now to the playoff picture for this team, they're 4-2. They have the chance to control their own destiny for division. There's a chance that the Ravens slip up at some point. They could have a first

round bye if they really keep their momentum going. How would you rank the Colts and the AFC hierarchy so far, Kevin? Because at this point in time, the seeding is New England at 1, you have Baltimore at 2, Colts at 3, Kansas City at 4, and the wild cards would be Buffalo and Houston. How do you see that whole thing shaking out?

Where do you think the Colts land in that? Yeah, it's a really good question, Evan. Let's take the playoff picture, I guess, right now. If you're going to start the playoffs tomorrow, I would say New England is one. I'd give Baltimore maybe the slight edge at two. I know they haven't played a great, great schedule, but winning in Seattle,

but I think they won by multiple scores. That was really impressive to me. The Colts are right. I would put them just behind Baltimore. Yeah, I'd probably put Houston next. I still think they're a good football team, and they're just really potent with a lot of elite elite talents and that would worry me you know Kansas City Buffalo I guess you'd kind of throw into the into that group being next obviously have New England number one I don't know if I mentioned that or not but that seems like a no-brainer but again that's kind of current state of these teams. I think that when Patrick Mahomes is healthy, I still think Kansas City is probably the second best team in the AFC. But I really like what the Colts have done the last two weeks, again, in the ways they've won these games.

And by that, I mean this. You had Matt Ibraflux's defense evolve into more of the man look, and, you know know have been clamoring for it I think with you and certainly on my podcast for quite some time we finally saw that so that made me believe okay this defense can dictate a little bit more and can do it against the elite quarterback and then offensively what we saw on Sunday is even when your run game isn't flourishing or not even flourishing just being kind of competent when your run game isn't flourishing or not even flourishing, just being kind of competent, when your run game is shut down, you can still move the ball through the air and produce points and finish in the red zone and score 30 points in a game.

So I think that is why I have the Colts. And if you had told me that they're 4-2 after six weeks, I would have said okay that's pretty darn impressive but again the ways they've won the last two weeks that is what makes me believe all right there's there is evidence of this football team possibly being you know a serious contender when the month of January gets here and the AFC picture I think is just really cloudy until you know what Patrick Mahomes' health looks like and you kind of see Baltimore a little bit more and Houston as well.

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you play, you win and you get paid. I know Colts fans want to get paid this year. I'm glad you brought that up, Kevin. I was just about to ask you about that because do you feel like this team has shown you, I feel like to me it has, and especially the last two weeks like you mentioned there, they can go into Kansas City and just maul them up front

and win a slugfest, an ugly kind of game, and run the ball over them. And you see in Houston, you can win a shootout type of game with Jacoby Bursette in his arm and Frank Wright getting some really good play calls to get guys open as well. Do you feel like this team has the ingredients, at least on paper, to maybe go into Arrowhead again if they have to, or Foxborough in January and maybe make a huge, deep playoff run here?

Boy, that's tough. I mean, I think there's evidence that they can go in there and have a much better chance than maybe this time last year obviously more like january last year um you know if kansas city is at full strength the culture at full strength i'd probably still give the slight edge to the chiefs especially if if they were playing at home. But the Colts have shown that there are ingredients there. It's just can that all come together and win those types of games? I'm still confused a bit, I guess, on what New England's actually going to look like against really quality opponents and what they're going to look like even a couple months from now.

We see the Josh Gordon, Muhammad Sanu kind of saga play out here just in the past 72 hours so um you know this is a team right now that I I view them as being the favorite to win the AFC South I think they can win a playoff game and now I guess just comes down to maybe just seeing the consistency of this football team now do it. And I don't know how much we're going to learn in the next month about this team, but like, you know, at Houston or at new Orleans or depending on where Carolina is kind of late in the year, I think those will be kind of good barometers late season to see where this

team is at. You know, it's one thing to do it obviously in early October and, you know, health will dictate a lot. You know, it's one thing to do it obviously in early October and, you know, health will dictate a lot. You know, what does this offensive line look like when that inevitable injury comes? I mean, you have to think like it's going to come at some point. It's just crazy how healthy you've been. And, you know, what does this offense look like when Devin Funches gets back? You know, how do the rookies continue to evolve defensively? So it's tough for me to maybe give a great answer on that with a whole lot of confidence, you know, in two and a half months when those games could be played.

But, I mean, right now they've shown me something here early in the season that I didn't think they had. And that, I think, makes me believe that there is a possibility to make those games very, very interesting come January. Final few questions here for you, Kevin. Appreciate the time, as always. I wanted to ask you here about the rookie class so far, and especially the first few rounds here.

Guys like Rocky Haseen, Kari Willis, Bobby Okereke, Ben Banigou now stepping up into a big role after Kamoka Ture's injury. Harris Campbell now supposed to come back this week or the week after with his abdominal injury. What does the 2019 rookie class show you? I know it's probably unfair to compare to 2018 because that seems like a generational type of draft class with Quentin Nelson and Darius Leonard, what they did. How has the 2019 class seemed in your eyes so far?

Well, I think Willis has been a stud, and I would expect him, I guess, to start alongside Malik Hooker. I think he's too good to take off the field. You know, I think Kyrie Willis has been outstanding. You know, to make me pick on who's been the second-best rookie after that, I think there's a steep drop. Obviously, Campbell, it's been kind of disappointing. The seasons he's had from an injury standpoint, you know, battling the hamstring and now the abdominal.

And, you know, when he was on the field, from an injury standpoint, battling the hamstring and now the abdominal. When he was on the field, I want to say he was averaging like six yards per catch. I don't think he had a long – I think his long reception was like 15 yards. So it was kind of a struggle there for him to find the big plays when he was out there. Banigou a little bit disappointing as well. You'd like to see him kind of emerge right now without Ture. Bobby Okereke I thought was great against Kansas City. There's been some shaky moments around that,

but kind of just the ups and downs that you would expect from a rookie defender. Rakia Seen the same way. If you were going to look at the passer rating for Rakia Seen when quarterbacks have targeted him, it's probably not great at all, but I feel like it's not maybe truly indicative of this coverage. I think he's had better coverage than just kind of the flat, you know, passer rating sort of number would indicate. He's had some, you know, near misses, which some people might be like, well, that's just life in the NFL. Near misses don't count at all, but he doesn't look lost by any means or like the game is too big for him and he's playing a big role.

So, yeah, it's been kind of a mixed bag. I mean, Kari Willis, again, has been great. And I think, again, for this team to like to go back to your earlier point of, you know, do they have the ingredients to win in Foxborough or win in Arrowhead? If you start to see Campbell emerge, Banigou gives you a few more quality reps, that would make me feel, I think, better about this team, you know, winning, you know, major road games come playoff time. As far as, I know this season, they're very surprising, the team so far, as far as the I know this season they're they're very surprising the team so far as far as what's

going on with this Colts team four and two but I think that Oakland loss I know it's maybe weird to say it might be a blessing in disguise to lose in that kind of game early on but I feel like now coming up on Sunday and over this four-month stretch here I feel like Frank right now has some ammo in the locker room to say hey you guys messed up against an inferior team in Oakland and that maybe this is the kind of three or four-week stretch where we can really stomp on the inferior opponent here and really put up some big games and really make them – maybe some blowout wins in here, Kevin, because it's been all close games so far.

Do you think maybe that's a good thing that that happened early on? Maybe because we have an example now when the Colts were maybe overlooking a team? Yeah, maybe it is a bit of a wake-up call. We've talked about it before honestly you could probably go back to last year during that regular season stretch i think the colts have played largely to their competition um good good and bad i think over this 13 and 3 mark but obviously the kind of 50 50 games they've won more of those games i mean there were some really close games last year with the Giants

and with the Dolphins, you know, teams that you probably wouldn't have expected those home games for the Colts to be that close. So I think now it's, all right, take the next step. You know, it's an article I wrote on 1075thefan.com earlier this week. Only team in the NFL to have had all their games decided by one score. And that's part of this league, and parity defines it. But now it's like, okay, can you start to put some teams away earlier, finish games on both sides of the ball?

I think that's kind of the next step that you're going to see over the next month for this football team of getting away from that, jumping on the Oaklands of the world earlier like you didn't do back in week four. And I would hope that Frank Reich's football team will have learned from that. And I think we're going to find out, you know, about this team. I don't know how much maybe like January wise, we're going to find out, but if for some reason they would slip up in the stretch and only go two and two, you know, maybe that's where then we kind of reassess a little bit and be like, all right,

this team's going to be just scratching and calling to try and win the division for, you know, the next month and a half, you know, once you get through this four-game stretch, whereas right now, there's a great opportunity to seize control of the AFC South and play from ahead the rest of the season, so I do think that is the next step now that you are going to be these kind of, you know, opportunity to seize control of the AFC South and play from ahead the rest of the season. So I do think that is the next step. Now that you are going to be these kind of, you know, right around hovering a touchdown favorite, if not more in some of these games, it's time to kind of assert your dominance. Do that early in games and just be the superior opponent. And I do kind of what other contending teams in the AFC have done to other

teams whether that was you know Houston to Atlanta or New England seemingly to everybody that they played so far Kansas City has had some of those games especially in Patrick Mahomes was healthy Baltimore the same way I think it's time for the Colts to start doing that last one here for you Kevin and when we last talked right after Andrew Luck – when we talked after Andrew Luck first retired, I think we both agreed that probably around this would be a seven- to nine-win team through six weeks of the season. What would you say the ceiling of four is as far as wins and losses go? Yeah, that's a good question.

Right now they're four and two. You know, I'd say the ceiling for this team is probably right around 12 wins, you know, maybe 12. Maybe that's too high of a ceiling, but that's probably where I would go right now. I mean, the schedule is over here, I think, as daunting as maybe we thought it would be originally, you know, especially here in the next few weeks. Instead of Denver, they look like a top-ten drafting team. Miami is thrown in the tank towel. Pittsburgh's obviously missing their Hall of Fame quarterback.

We'll see if Nick Foles is ready for that Colts meeting. I think outside of that, you only play three winning teams with a winning record the rest of the year. At that, Houston, home to Carolina. Who knows what they will look like in two months, and then obviously at New Orleans on Monday night. So, you know, when you look at that, the fact that, you know, you only play three winning teams the rest of the season,

you'd think you'd be favored in the Carolina game, maybe the Houston game. Let's say you aren't favored in the Houston game. That means you'll be underdogs only twice the rest of the season. That would put you at 12-4. So, you know, obviously that's not how things will unfold. But, you know, if you're going to throw out a ceiling for this team right now, I'd say be in that 11-12 win range.

Yeah, that would certainly be a fun way. I think it must be a shocking placement after we – if you said in August Andrew Lowe could not play a game for this team, you wouldn't possibly win 11 or 12 games. I'd probably laugh in your face because I just wouldn't think that happened. But this team has really shown themselves so far. But this has been a fun episode, Kevin. Appreciate you coming on.

As always, you can follow Kevin on Twitter at KBowen1070. Also, follow his work over on 107.5thefan.com. And follow his podcast while subscribing on any platforms you want to listen to for the Kevin's Corner podcast. Kevin, appreciate your time. Yes, thanks for having me on, Evan. Appreciate it, man.