Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - LOCKED ON COLTS -1/06- Researching Draft Eligible Edge Defenders With Ollie Connolly (@OllieConnolly)

Episode Date: January 6, 2017

Today Matt brings on Ollie Connolly of All-22.com to break down if there are any realistic options in free agency at the #EDGE position for the #Colts, and who are the big draft eligible names to look at as the #draft approaches. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Learn more about our healthy benefits at fepblue.org slash getmore. No, I'm not for sale. You are lockeded On Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back to Locked On Colts, ladies and gentlemen. I'm your host, Matt Dainley. And as promised, we are here. We are going to start our looking into free agency, the draft,

try to find some stopgaps or some holes, you know, to fill with the draft process. Looking forward, trying to find who is going to be on the Colts roster come draft time, whether it's through free agency early or whether it's some seven- round stud that we can find and uh none other than ollie connelly is joining me today ollie thank you so much for coming by man thanks for having me man ollie is the senior football analyst at all 22 also runs the all 22 podcast and the moore and connelly football show one of my absolute favorite podcasts if you guys haven't seen listen to that you need to that's uh fantastic work by Ollie and Tom Moore. So Ollie, what can the Colts fans look for? Should we be looking

to find at least one, maybe one answer in free agency, or is it better served for the Colts to look in the draft for this edge class? Well, just before I started here, I looked through the free agent class, and man, is it slim picking. It's like, let's get ourselves some Chad Greenway. How about 37-year-old Julius Peppers? I'm like, good Lord. They list Robert Mathis as a top 10 edge free agent. It's like he's retiring from the Colts.

So that's what you're looking at. You want to try and sneak chandler jones's agent to not franchise tag them in arizona that's about what it is and i really feel like what this draft class offers from the edge point of view is supreme depth and top talent in terms of first round all the way through you can find i think a immediate impact player all the way through and what's interesting is there's a bunch of different guys in terms of scheme and position versatility, which you often don't find these days, right?

It's these dip and rip. Oh, we have Randy Gregor, we have Shane Ray in the same glass. It's all one gap and go. Edge guys who don't provide much else. I think you look through the class of a guy like even a Charles Harris or a Carl Lawson, who's maybe named reputations have outgrown their production somewhat, really scheme-versatile guys who make your front more hybrid,

and I think that's what the Colts need. They need guys who can do multiple things because the depth is so poor, the top-end talent is so poor. You've got to try and find guys who can kind of cover both bases. Yeah, and if it's Eric Walden that gets re-signed in free agency, he's certainly the edge-setter guy for this Colts defense. But he also led the team in sacks this year, which is just ridiculous, even when thinking about it.

But like you said, we're losing Robert Mathis to free agency. It's not like he provided a whole lot this year anyways. And other than that, it's very slim pickings. It's free agent guys that they brought in in the middle of the season. There's just nothing there. So the Colts need every bit of at least one edge guy and possibly two at least. And if you say, like you say, if this free agency class is that slim, then they're going to have to do quite a bit of it through the draft. So it's good to hear that the draft is going to be deep in that position this year. So who would the Colts legitimately there in the 13th to 15th pick range be able to get if they were to try to search one

out in the first round? It's interesting. I think after Miles Garrett, who will go first or second overall or wherever he ends up up I really feel like any of the next group of guys could be in play you look at a guy like a Tim Williams from Alabama who's a big name big production there's no reason why he may not be available at 14 there's this group of guys where you have Williams and Barnett and Lawson and Harris and those are kind of the top guys that taking away more of the the d-end kind of guys who play a little bit of inside as well and it's going to come down i think to personal preference and as i said before some of them are more scheme fits where it's going to be the one gap and go stuff some of them are more of two gap

type players who can play all three downs i'm not sure if tim williams can play all three downs and so he may well fall to that 14 spot so the cults got a guy where okay he doesn't play all three downs but he's an elite edge rusher. God, we need an elite edge rusher. I think it will be a personal preference thing for the teams above them who slide to them. I think they're going to be in range to get

a really good one. The Colts' defense, at least, it's considered by Pagano to be a 3-4 hybrid, but the Colts really just need a bevy of different skill sets to come out of this position. I mean, they need a guy who can flat out bull rush a guy. They also need a guy who's got quick hands and can get his way in there, not in a finesse type way, but in a technique type of way, just as much as he can with the physicality. Who's a guy that stands out in

the physicality range here that's just going to be an absolute detriment to anybody that lines up across from him at a tackle on the offensive line? Tack McKinley out of UCLA is a complete freak show. He's just remarkable. Both the first step quickness and then as you mentioned the ability to convert the speed to power and just destroy people and i think he's going to be a guy where as you get through the testing type stuff and you hit the baseline measurements he's just going to crush it and you know people are going to get really excited there's some technical flaws but he i think 14 is that kind of right range where people start thinking well this could be a ziggy answer type guy so maybe we just go and take him and maybe we take you know

derrick barnett for instance is really a refined player with a little less explosiveness than a tim williams or a tap mckinley maybe it comes that thing of do we kind of you know shoot for the moon or whatever and take one of these freak show type athletes and i kind of feel like looking at the cult's depth shot they need a guy who is just outrageously athletic coming off the edge so he's one of those spark guys that's going to jump off the page i believe so yeah he's going to be everybody's uh darling come uh combine time i would assume yeah and he'll get picked apart and they'll talk about leverage and all this stuff. I watched Shane Ray and I remember him coming out and he was all over the place.

I used to call him Bambi because his legs would move all over the shop and he didn't really know how to move. But he had the best first step and he timed everything so perfectly. And you think, well, he can't get away with that in the pros because he's going to face Drew Brees and he's just going to figure him out and he's going to catch him out.

And now you watch Shane Ray. He's in the backfield every week, like five times a week. So, yeah, he's not as thin and light as Shane Ray. McKinley's more of a bigger guy, but in terms of power combined with the explosiveness, then, yeah, he's a pretty impressive guy. And as you know, like I said, I'm not great at dissecting a lot of different positions so much, but I can compare guys and I can understand what I see as far as how they play football. When Shane Ray came out and Randy Gregory both came out,

I didn't even think that Randy Gregory was on Shane Ray's level, to be quite honest with you. I saw him get inside too often and just get manhandled by interior linemen. Is there a guy that stands out to you that, you know, like you mentioned, that gets off the snap quick? You know, he times everything. And in college, that's super easy to do. The clap or just the monotony of a certain quarterback doing the same thing over and over and over again. People can time that extremely well, especially defenders in the NCAA, especially in the big five schools. Who's a guy that doesn't need to do that to make a huge impact? Like a guy that,

whether he's timing the snap or not, if there's a guy that sticks out to you, that he doesn't have to get the upfield burst off the snap, he can get it regardless. Yeah, Derek Barnett's that guy. And's a guy when um the coaches get involved like they're not even looking at players right now I mean they'll just be start to it this phase teams who didn't make the playoffs obviously I think once they get involved they're going to be just in love with the guy um and you see his production is just incredible he's playing in the SEC he had like 23 tackles for losses um and just to come, you know, they call Trey Flowers in New England now technique because the coaches are using him as film tape to show the players. And that's just what Derek Barnett is.

It's teaching tape every time you watch him play. And what you're talking about is the ability to keep guys off your own pads, right? And then be able to control them. And a lot of these guys are so quick and they don't really need it. They can play half a man and they can dip around them and that type of stuff. Barnett can do some of that. I think he has a bit more dip than people give him credit for, more so a year ago than this year.

And that's probably a weight thing that a team will have to decide what they want to do with. Yeah, I think Barnett's a teaching tape and can play inside, outside, and stood up, so you have kind of some versatility there as well. So he's got it both in the physicality standpoint and upstairs and he just screams to me might have won those guys who ends up going going in like the 22 phase and we're in the years like why did derrick bonnet again going that you look at back at his production people go the production doesn't translate to the nfl and you go yeah every time them you know it was pretty

well he's a teaching tape and then we're like how did that happen how did he end up going in the 20s i think that's how you see that year in and year out i mean we see that every year i mean shane ray now i mean he had legitimate things we're talking about is that he didn't he just gave up his past the entire time he was he was selling out every play to decapitate a quarterback so his sole job in life was go and kill a quarterback in the back field so he sold out for it but that skill is pretty valuable when we look back now like oh to decapitate a quarterback. His sole job in life was to go and kill a quarterback in the backfield. So he sold out for it. But that skill is pretty valuable. When we look back now, like, oh, yeah, why didn't he go in the top 10?

People want that. Yeah, oh, absolutely. Now there's another area here where the edge guys here can survive and flourish within this Colts defense. And the Colts really need this. Aside from needing it from an inside linebacker position, they definitely need a guy who can cover from the outside linebacker position or some sort of a hybrid defensive end. Who's a guy that can drop in coverage and be effective?

That's interesting. I think Ryan Anderson, who's the guy opposite Tim Williams, isn't as quick. He usually stays on the field as their three-down player. And what they've done a lot more, he actually had to pick six the other day. People who listen to this might remember in the national semifinal. They've done a lot more zone blitz stuff, which you don't see out of Alabama an awful lot. And that can only be because they trust these guys to drop. It would be my assumption.

And I'm sure when coaches talk to these guys and Saban, he'll say, yeah, we just trust them more. So I think Anderson's a guy who he can do a bit of everything. I think vastly underrated because of how much people like Williams' athletic skill set. I think you mentioned it before. Let's just go find football players. Sounds like a cliche. Just a football player.

Just makes plays all the time. And I think, as you were asking about, dropping into coverage is a big thing. Devontae Fields from Louisville has the athletic profile, I think, to do some of that. Really, really big. I don't know how big he'll measure and stuff, but he just looks huge when you watch him play.

But I think he's athletic enough and willing enough to drop back out as well. Nice. And that's going to be a huge part of the Colts. That's one of the things that they're just terrible at last couple of years. Their defensive coverage has been terrible. Um, and it hasn't always been because of bad corner or safety play. It's a lot of that's been because they just don't have guys in the front seven on the back end of that that can cover. How much, how much they drop the outside guys to cover and how much is it just the inside guys get exposed in space? Well, they haven't dropped them a lot them a lot it's it's a lot more of an inside linebacker issue but they do need that like

Akeem Ayers came in this year and he was effective dropping so they dropped him a little bit more whereas they had a guy like Robert Mathis who just was almost incapable of doing it uh it with effective you know and being effective anyways uh they can all drop into a zone but what I mean if they're just going to stand there it doesn't really do a lot for the defense. There just wasn't a lot of guys that could do it. Eric Walden, I think, is that guy who brings, and I've said this so many times, I feel like an idiot continuing to say it, but he brings the mean to this defense. He's not the best football player at his position by any means. But this dude just constantly, he reminds me to a little lesser degree of a guy like Cavell Connor, who used to play for the Colts now in San Diego,

I believe, just always is around the football. Whether he's actually making the tackle or not, the guy always is around the football. And you need guys like that on your team, whether they're considered to be one of the top defenders on your squad or not. You gave me an underrated guy. Give me an overrated guy. Give me a guy who everybody's just drooling over right now that maybe teams who are thinking about taking him may want to reconsider their love affair.

That's a really tough one. I try not to read much for the people's things because I hate groupthink and I don't really feel the need to read their stuff. And I also haven't spoke to many teams at this point of the year. Let me think. Overrated. There is an argument to be made, I think,

if people view Carl Lawson, who's the Auburn player, he was one of the top high school recruits in the nation and he had some nasty injuries whilst he was at Auburn. He lost some of the physical freakness to him. I think he's a really good two-gap player who does the little things. People don't notice. But if he's drafted, he will be sold as, here comes your elite edge rusher to fans and so on.

I just don't think he's that guy, and I think he's going to be critiqued. You can follow this through the draft season. They'll go, here's the top edge rushes miles garrett tim williams carl lawson and people critique carl lawson's production and they'll say he doesn't get in the backfield enough and i'd tell you to watch the little things that actually matter um in terms of the early down situations that get us to third and long um and i think he's an excellent player there doesn't get the credit for it but he's not the elitethe-edge speed merchant that he once could have been. I think they're going to critique kind of the wrong elements of his game.

So if you want to get that elite edge rusher, I just don't think he's that type of player. I think he's really good, but he's just a different guy now. Give me one guy here that people don't know about that you think could be a mid-to-late round guy that could really make an impact on somebody's team? Eugene Price out of Pittsburgh is tiny. And so I admit that.

And I have this kind of love affair with tiny players for some reason who are really good in college. Like I look back through my profile now, I'm like Victor Ochi was like as thin as me. And I was like, I think he can be effective. And he keeps bouncing from practice squad to practice squad. But yeah, I think he, I don't know whether the teams will eventually move from inside.

The arm length is going to be an issue, clearly, in take-on situations, so maybe they'll keep him outside. But yeah, I think Price from Pittsburgh is a talented player with a great athletic profile. Obviously, that's why he's on the field. And if you are looking for, oh, we're going to do some more of that 4-2-5 stuff, 3-3-5, where our linebackers have to spend some more time in space.

That's when I think he would make more sense for those type of teams if you're talking about Colts doing some hybrid things. But yeah, the size will be an issue, and he could end up going really, really late because of that. Because teams have all these baseline profiles they get invested in, and so yeah, he's going to probably fall short of those. Interesting. Now I'm curious, just for, I guess, curiosity's sake,

there always seems to be a couple guys that will come into the draft process, either inside or outside linebacker, edge or interior guy. Is there anybody in this class that you see maybe being billed as an outside guy right now that could be transitioned to an inside linebacker after the draft? Yeah, I think what's happening is because you have these four, three guys and they still call them outside linebackers, but their responsibilities are just they're an inside linebacker regardless, right? So Jared Davis at Florida, I just call him an inside linebacker. I think he's going to be a superstar. But teams keep calling him, and he's being listed everywhere as an outside linebacker.

He just isn't. That's never been his role. I guess they put right down the depth shot. But like I said, when you're playing with four down linemen, now everyone's a nickel the entire time. Their responsibility becomes an inside guy. And his teammate, Alex Anzalone, who was a huge high school prospect, he just declared for the draft, I believe, yesterday.

I haven't heard anyone talk about him. I think he's fabulous as well. So Anzalone and Davis, I think, are two players like that. And I really think Zach Cunningham, who has this weird, he's out of Vanderbilt, he has this weird persona of being underrated, even though everyone writes that, and therefore he becomes properly rated.

Like, he's just great. But people feel the need, just because he went to vanderbilt to call him underrated um he's in the he's in everyone's first round so how's he in the rated um i think he's fantastic i think he's a carbon copy of jamie collins which is kind of positionless and we can put him on the line he can play inside we can rush him off the edge um not quite at that level but probably comparable to when collins came out and he went early second round. So that's how I kind of use Zach Cunningham, which I think is more positionless than just, oh, he's an outside, he's an inside guy. That's really interesting.

I always like that because it seems like there's always some guy like that in the draft where he's constantly being evaluated as an edge guy or vice versa. And you just see them completely all over the field in multiple positions in their career. And it's just really interesting. I was glad that you had a couple of guys to throw at me with that. There's a guy, by the way, and I don't know if he's going to declare or not, but I would tell people to check if he does, called Oren Burks, who plays for Vanderbilt as well. He's lined up this year at midfield safety box safety

nickel back outside linebacker inside linebacker and defensive end with his hand in the dirt he plays every single position on their defense I think that's the future of the game where you have like three guys you can move around like that and uh I hope he comes out it'd be interesting experiment to see who would like to have him I think someone like Belichick would fall in love with having a piece like that. Oh, I can see it now. The next Deion Buchanan. Everybody will say it because it's just the narrative. Any guy that can play a couple different positions secondary and back into the front seven constantly. Forgetting that Deion Buchanan stunk as a safety. That's why it was moved.

Same thing with Mark Barron. Mark Barron stunk so bad that he strayed it from Tampa Bay. Just because they played two positions does not mean that, A, that they're good at either position, and B, it doesn't mean they actually played them. It means that they once played one, and they were so bad, they had to move them to a different position. But, yeah, Burks actually lines up. In one game, he played South Carolina.

I think he played six different positions, which is pretty incredible. It's almost like a high school kid. We're not taking're not taking him off the field he's just gonna play everywhere yeah and Vanderbilt does have like 13 defensive players who should be in college football so they probably have to play him all over the place that's nuts I'm gonna have to check him out for sure give me your top three right now with the position as we get ready to close up. Pure H players? Miles Garrett. Your best overall talent. Well, and let me do this. Sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off, but let's exclude Garrett.

Let's go two through four because everybody knows he's gone in the first five picks. I need to give you a chance to wax about him, which is sad because I think he's a special player. Hey, imagine what Judeffy and Clowney would be like with great technique. Oh, my God. Miles Garrett's playing football. It's really fun. It's really fun to watch. I'm going to use that as my radio thing forever about Clowney.

People love that line. My top guys, I really love Charles Harris out of Missouri for the simple fact that they used to be a one-gap team, and that's how they'd send all those used to be a one gap team and that's how they'd send all those guys to the NFL Marcus Gold and Shane Ray and we mentioned before sell out and just go and kill the quarterback new coach comes in this year he says we're going to two gap and it kind of messed him around a bit um with his just sack production but it made him completely scheme and positionally versatile because he plays every spot on the on the line and stood up and

then now can do both techniques which is rare to find in college these days so anyone can get him and you can use him in multiple ways so i think he is an exceptional player that coaches will love for that fact and then yeah i love williams as a just a pure pass rusher and then probably lawson because i appreciate the things he does where he may not be an elite pure edge guy but i really appreciate the thing that mangy do i like derrick barn does. Mind you, do I like Derek Barnett more? Yeah, I think I like Derek Barnett more. So I'll put Barnett just there also. Interesting.

Ollie, thank you so much for your time, man. That's some great stuff for us to chew on because I know that Colts fans are going to be going crazy for an edge guy the moment the draft starts. And, you know, the first round is so long and so taxing that I don't know that their draft order could come any quicker than it's going to. It's a shame to hear how many poor free agents there are available at the position, even just to bring in to help.

Not to be the next guy for the next five to ten years, but just to help. Ollie, thank you for stopping by, man. Always fantastic stuff, as always. Tell everybody where they can find you. They can go to at Ollie Connolly on Twitter, C-O-N-N-O-L-L-Y. That's my hope for tweeting out everything I write. I like 10 different places at this point,

so they can find it all there. It's easy to just go to that one spot. Excellent. That's great. Ollie does fantastic work everywhere that he's done he's he's a superstar in the making so if you guys go check him out check his work out at all 22 and do all of that make sure you guys are subscribing to the podcast always give us a review and a rating those help tremendously even if you don't like it just tell me why you don't

like it i don't care uh get with us on Locked on Colts on Twitter, the Facebook page. You can get me at LockedOnColtsPod at gmail.com. And as always, we'll bring on some more great guests and get you guys caught up on all the positions in need for the Indianapolis Colts going into the 2017 season. We've got a lot of stuff to talk about this offseason, so it'll be great. Ollie, thank you again. Thanks, man. Anytime.

We will check you guys all out tomorrow right here on Locked on Colts. You are Locked on Colts, your daily podcast on the Indianapolis Colts, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Is that the new iPhone? Yeah, got it on T-Mobile. Fastest iPhone deserves America's fastest LTE network. Introducing the amazing iPhone 8.

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