Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - LOCKED ON COLTS -10/7- Colts Fan Friday

Episode Date: October 7, 2016

Matt brings on Colts fan, and listener, Cody Felger for #ColtsFanFriday diving into a fan's point of view of the #Colts current state, and how the remainder of the season could shake out for the team. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, where are you going, Jim? The elevator's over here. Taking the stairs. But our meeting's up on 8. Yeah, I know. But that's 8 floors up. That's like 8 times... I don't... a lot of stairs. That's the point. I've already lost a few pounds and earned almost $100 in wellness incentives. Whoa, you're getting rewarded for working out? Yeah, I know. I'm just as surprised as you are, Bob.

Fearless is full of surprises. That's the power of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Federal Employee Program. Learn more about our healthy benefits and sign up at fepblue.org slash choose blue by December 11th. You are Locked On Colts, your daily podcast on the Indianapolis Colts, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back to Locked On Colts, ladies and gentlemen. I am your host, Matt Dainley, and we are here on Colts Fan Friday, and we had narrowed it down. We had a couple people who wanted to be or who did not want to be on the show and would rather send an email. So I told them they could do that at their

convenience. So we're going to let them do that. But I did end up bringing on Cody Felger to talk with me and chat me up. And we're going to talk about a little bit of everything. I think we're going to go from the roster to Chuck and Ryan, and we are going to go through just about everything, I would assume so. So we're going to see what his issues are with the Colts. Obviously, I'm going to give my commentary as well, just because I can't ever keep my mouth shut. We're going to talk about this week's game with the Bears.

We're going to talk about the future leading up into the bye week. And we're going to talk about a little bit about post bye week and where we think the Colts will be at that point in the season. I want to remind you all to subscribe to the Locked on Colts podcast. And whether you are on iTunes or Stitcher or Audio Boom, wherever you're listening to this podcast. Give us a rating or review as those help tremendously in getting the show a little more attention. And attention is what we are wanting as Colts fans, right? But before we get on to that, let's go through the Colts injury report for Thursday. Darius Butler, Denzel Good, Andrew Luck was back on the injury report. All were limited. Frank Gore and Eric Walden, who did not practice yesterday,

or did not practice Wednesday, excuse me, were full participants today, while Jonathan Harrison, DeQuell Jackson, Kendall Langford, and Moncrief, obviously, they did not practice. Jackson and Langford were both not injury-related. They were both for rest. And while we're at it, we'll also touch briefly on today's media availability.

Most of it was Chudzinski for the most part. They were asking him about what he thought about the hurry-up offense, whether he had second thoughts on that fourth down call, and also kind of when he felt that they were getting the success out of the hurry up. And obviously, you know, Chudzinski kind of sees it as towards the end of the games or when they're going to get those solid play out of the hurry up because the defense is a little cushioned and are going to allow some yards in front of him and so on and so forth. And for the most part, he's right. However, I think what he's failing to admit is that what

it does, and we've spoken about this, I'm going to repeat it, but it is the way it is. It gives defenses less time to adjust, less time to be exotic, if you want to use that as a word. And it also keeps their defense on their toes along with their defensive coordinator because their coordinator knows that he's got to end up shooing in at least a couple different looks to their middle and or their inside linebacker whoever's captaining their defense and telling them what they see is what they need you see this call this that doesn't give guys on defense a whole lot of room to maneuver, and that's a good thing. Granted, I've also said they can't play 60 minutes of hurry-up offense. It doesn't work that way.

If you need any refresher courses on that, go watch Chip Kelly a couple years ago, and that'll show you everything you need to know about running 60 minutes of hurry-up offense. It does not work that way. But more than that, a large part of what Chudzinski had to offer was that the team, the offense, is dealing with a solid lack of execution. And, you know, guys, we talk about how the Colts coaching staff and all these guys don't have them prepared. Sometimes you can tell that they're not ready. You know, they come out and they're soft or they're not paying attention or just whatever it is. Some of that stuff is preparedness on their part, which kind of falls on coaching staffs. But a large percentage of it at

all is that they're not executing a play. And every single person who's played high school football to college football or anything else will tell you that coaches aren't blowing smoke when they say it doesn't matter if the other team knows what you're doing if you execute because you have these blocking schemes and you have these packages and everything else set up to play against a defense that is playing against your offense your offensive set in that regard so that that's that's right mean, execution overplays what you've been basically how to be ready throughout the week from your coaching staff. It ultimately does boil down to this team, this roster and the players on it. But there's a lot of things also that is out of the players' hands that are inexcusable. And we always talk about that, and we're probably always going to talk about that.

But at the same time, we have to hold the players accountable too, not being jerks or trolls on Twitter or anything like that. That's ridiculous. Don't do that. Grow up. But on the other hand, you can conversate with somebody else about what the team's lacking or who didn't play right. Just don't approach the team or the

players. That's kind of a no-no and kind of childish. So let's not do that. But on the other hand, think about what these Colts players need to do to win this game Sunday. They've got an offense that they're going to be playing against that's going to be quarterbacked by Brian Hoyer. Alshon Jeffries kind of dinged up a little bit. Their backfield is basically Howard and Joyke Bell. They've got a pretty bad offensive line. Eddie Royal hasn't practiced the last two days. So there's a lot of things that are going to go into this game.

Like I said, I don't think that Cutler is going to play so additionally they've got several guys on their injury report right now that aren't going to be playing this is going to be about the weakest offense that the Colts are going to play and quite possibly all year their defense is a little underrated and I only say that because people are acting like they're the worst in the league, and they're not. They're right around the middle of the pack in just about every category or close to it. So they're playing a solid defense. We all know that Jarrell Freeman's going to be anchoring the middle of that defense, and we can expect Freeman to play pretty well, I think. But they've got a secondary that's young that's been playing pretty solid.

They're nothing special. And Andrew Luck and these wide receivers can torch them. But will they? We don't know. We've got to hope that the offensive line can stop their depleted pass rush because at the moment they don't have much of one either. So we're going to be seeing a few different things here this Sunday, and it really is going to come down to execution. And the Colts need this game. They're going to have to find some sort of

building block with this game to get themselves on the run for the bye. And like we've spoken before, they could be anywhere between four and five, six and three. We just don't know. They could be three and six, people. We don't know where they're going to be. But if they can win this game, that's going to give them that confidence going into the next few games. They come up with the last two games before the bye against the Chiefs and the Packers, and those two games are going to be rough sledding. But they've got three games here right off the bat where they can win and get themselves right back up to a winning record. And the Colts desperately need that. When a lot of people have them pegged as a 500 team,

and some of them are getting them at six wins, the majority of us have them, I think, at nine wins. And I am one of those. But they need, in my opinion, three to four of these next five games to get to that nine wins. If not, we're looking at a pretty scary season, folks, and one that kind of puts us in purgatory for the draft. You know, that's way too far ahead. I don't even know why I said that, but it's the truth. So what we're going to do is I am going to get on the phone here with Cody Felger, and we are going to talk for a little while. And I thank you guys for taking part in the retweets and the follows and everything. And stay tuned next week because we are going to have a giveaway,

and I think you're going to like it. So thank you for listening, and Cody Felger is next. And we are here with Cody Felger on Colts Fan Friday here on Locked On Colts. And, Cody, how you doing, man? Thanks for joining me tonight. Yeah. Hey, thanks for having me. Yeah, it's been pretty good.

Colts haven't been too good. But other than that, man, life's been terrific. And I'm really, really happy to be here. Thanks for having me. Good. Absolutely. Glad to have you. Cody also writes for Horseshoe Heroes.

Is that right? Yep. Horseshoe Heroes. Is that right? Yep, Horseshoe Heroes. I'm a contributor there. I write every so often when I have time. So it's a good gig. I love it. Good.

It's always good to be able to put your own thoughts on, so to speak, on paper, I suppose. It's nice to be able to get it out. It helps kind of the process, especially when we're in a situation like we are right now with the Colts and how they're playing. Oh, yeah. Yeah, definitely. It's good to just get, you know, some of those frustrations out because, yeah, you see a lot of stuff going down that you're just really frustrated with. And sometimes, you know, after the game, if they lose, for example, I have to take a step back and then come back and do it objectively

a couple minutes, a couple hours later or so. But, yeah, it's just a good process, though, and I really enjoyed riding for them, kind of seeing how they can improve, kind of seeing what they need to improve on, and the positives. They can go through positives because there's always positives in the games. But, yeah, there's really not a lot to be positive about right now. I mean, it's been a rough start at 1-3,

but I'm hoping for a win this coming Sunday against the Bears. So I'm excited. Yeah, I am too. And the Colts' defense is kind of my sticking point. What's yours? Yeah, well, the offensive line, for sure. Right. It's majorly underperformed.

I actually wrote an article before. I try to look at the positives for the thing. I try to see how good this group could be. And I thought they could be, honestly, I thought they could be a really good group. Um, it's all went well. And, uh,

unfortunately it hasn't gone well. I thought that Costanza would play a lot better than he has. He's, he's been really below average, really disappointed this year. Um, he seems like he's constantly letting that pressure on left. And no,

it's not what you want from a guy you drafted in the first round. You know, you want a guy that can protect your franchise quarterback. He doesn't allow hurries. He doesn't allow sacks. And he's just been a major disappointment the past two years after signing that huge, you know, contract extension. New Hort, I'd say New Hort and Kelly are the two that I'm really just,

I expected good things of them, and they've performed really well. Kelly more so. I mean, he's just solid. He looks like a five-year veteran already. He looks like he's already in his prime, and, man, he looks like he knows what he's doing, commanding that offensive line. And then the right side gets a little more messy.

Started two rookies last week, and they actually didn't play too bad. It was actually the left side that wasn't playing that great um you know and and i'll be honest with you i i thought the same thing on first watch i really did and i had bob kravitz on and he said well let me let me kind of correct you on here he said the left side of the line only gave up a couple sacks and and a few here and there and he said that the right side can or uh gave up like somewhere in the teens pressure wise and i said i said that surprised me because just on my first watch you know it just didn't seem that way um yeah i watched through it it looked like a lot of the the holes were coming on the left side and you know it didn't help a couple times gore uh had missed his protective assignment

as well but you know after i went back through and watched it, honestly, I didn't feel a whole lot different about it. I tracked the pressures, and while the numbers were pretty close on what he said that pro football focus had for the pressures on the right side, what I did notice is that Luck was holding the ball, and I talked to the listeners earlier in the week and told them I'd watch it,

and I hadn't been able to tell them about it yet, but I noticed that a lot of the pressures were done after about three and a half seconds of Luck having the ball. And I didn't notice that Luck was holding onto the ball so long as far as that he was just not making a decision with the ball. Rather, it was because the receivers weren't getting open downfield. So I don't really feel a whole lot different about it. I really did.

You know, they didn't grade out well, but pro football focus isn't everything, especially when you can see certain things for your eyes and, you know, you get a little stopwatch, and that will tell you that a lot of these guys, especially as rookies, you can't really expect them to protect more than three, three-and-a-half seconds. I mean, you've got to be deliberate with your play calling and with your plays, and the wide receivers have to have their routes adjusted to who's on the line, more or less, and the play call's got to come from Chudzinski accordingly

in that regard. Absolutely, yeah. It definitely is really not – it's been kind of negative for their offense with Moncrief out the next couple weeks because they don't really have a huge possession receiver, like a really tall receiver, except for Moncrief. He's like the biggest one I think they have. And with him out, it's so hard, I guess, to just throw those passes up higher because the defenders are so big, the receivers aren't much bigger.

They might be even smaller. So it's definitely hard, I think, for Luck to find those guys, you know, because they have speed and they try to go deep. And, you know, if you have these rookies trying to protect and they can't protect for that long, then you're going to have trouble. Especially, you know, I don't know, Dwayne Allen's been kind of off and on this year also. Yeah, he's been pretty inconsistent.

Yeah, I expected more out of him, honestly. Me too. But, I mean, it's only four games in. We'll see how it goes. We'll see how they adjust. I'm really hoping that Monk can come back in the next couple weeks. They really need him.

It's evident. Even though they've had some good offense, they still just can't finish drives. It's a killer, I think. If they would have finished a couple drives, it was only a couple points. That could be the difference between 1-3 and 4-0. Right. Very much. It's such a fine line in that regard.

But going back to the offensive line, like you said, as rookies, for rookies, just thrown kind of in there, I was actually impressed at how they held their own, even though they may have given up some pressures at times. I thought that they, you know, they played pretty well for, you know, just kind of thrown into the fire against, you know, an underrated Jacksonville defensive line, I'd say. Right.

So, yeah. And, you know, someone that I had kind of been like, hey, where is he at? Like, where is little Raven Clark even at? Like, I haven't heard, like, anything from him. Yeah, there's a reason. He's awful. Is he?

Yes. I saw him in the preseason a little bit, and he looked like he was lost. Oh, he's so behind, I think. I haven't seen him in practice or anything like that, but I just don't think he's the last-ditch effort, I think, that they want to put on the line this year. I think he's somebody that we've seen reincarnated of past linemen that they think is a project,

and if he can kind of mold himself into a solid lineman, then they'll keep him. But you know what? It's that year two, and how does he play, and then do we keep him for year three type of thing? Has he progressed enough? He's a scary guy. He's definitely a guy who could possibly not be on the roster in the next two years. But he also has just the innate ability and athleticism and natural skill

to where he could be a solid lineman. And he actually has more than enough to be a pretty good lineman. But his footwork is so slow. His hands are sloppy. He really has a hard time anchoring against guys who have better technique, you know, where you have to be more physical with the guy and be the brute in the thing. And he really struggles in a couple different key areas, I think. He's somebody that's going to be just, man, a coin flip, I think,

over the next couple years. He could definitely be in that group, that soup of people that we've drafted or brought in as free agents that are no longer with the team after a couple years. He's definitely a possibility for that. Yeah, it's unfortunate. You think that Ryan Griggs would learn after last year with Luck just getting destroyed. And even if there wasn't a lineman available besides Clark, I would think he'd – there's so many other holes in his team.

He could surely find a position that was available. I don't know. I just thought that it wasn't a great pick for him in the third round. For a project player that's not going to play much this year, getting beat out by fifth and seventh rounders,

that's not a positive sign for a guy that you drafted kind of high. So, man, I don't know. Ryan Grigson, he just frustrates me, man. He's just so blind to how terrible he's been, I feel like. He doesn't learn from his mistakes. Yeah, I think so too.

And I just wrote a piece on today's pigskin yesterday, and it kind of outlined how I feel like his just smug blindness is, and not just him, but the collection of people making the direction or making the decisions on player personnel. You know, guys like the fact that they basically gave C.O. Moore the de facto position opposite DeQuell Jackson at the middle linebacker and they ultimately just screwed away anything with Nate Irving. People will constantly kind of be like, who?

But every time, Sylvester was a guy that I had high hopes for and I thought really, for being an undersized guy as middle linebacker he plugged every hole and he was solid in coverage and for them to just kind of like nah we don't want you anymore you know I thought that was just so stupid I just thought it was so short-sighted that you're not going to give a guy who's really played well I mean I already him last year after the preseason for a reason you don't do that to a guy who's an undrafted free agent

that's just kind of wishy-washy. You just cut him and be done with him. And he certainly was not a guy that you wanted to just let go of. But then they did it again this year with Nate Irving. Like, you know, if you can't beat out C.O. Moore, we're not going to have you on the team. And I just – I mean, now we're stuck with Antonio Morrison who can't pay attention, has like a –, has like the attention span of a gnat.

And then, you know, we have DeQuell Jackson, who's obviously not a coverage guy, but he's, you know, he's a solid run defender. And that's what we have in McNary and, you know. Edwin Jackson. Edwin Jackson, right. Edwin Jackson's not bad. I don't think he's bad.

I just don't think that he's got enough time right now to really see what he is. Yeah. At least in a game. You know, he looked solid in camp and all that, but I mean, in a game, you know, people play different in game than they do in practice and in camp. And, uh, yeah, I think we just have overall, we have a lot of run defenders, but you know what? I don't see anybody running the ball 50 times a game in the NFL. Yeah. I mean. That's true.

And we don't have any pass rushers. No. We can't get to the quarterback. We can't, you know, besides speaking Eric Walden, who was the one free agent, even though I think he's still overpaid, he was the one guy that stuck. And he's not even that great. But to have him leading the team in sacks that says something about just how just terrible you know it's been yeah so even like last year when he was getting uh a minimal amount of sacks four maybe

five i think so and maybe it was one or more too um but he, the thing I like about him, aside from his couple brain, you know, just brain farts that he has a couple times a season, like headbutting the guy from Tennessee or taking someone's helmet off and throwing it or something stupid. You know, he brings the mean to that defense that it so badly needs. Yeah. And that's definitely one thing that he does and now he's the pass rush too i just i just can't wrap my head around it yeah

it's come to that point where it's like you have nobody else to have to have him step up um it's it's a bad place to be at and uh yeah i think that man i i was tweeting about just thinking about in my mind just what the Colts need to do next offseason. They just didn't completely take a restart on their linebacking core. It's just so depleted right now. I'd say, man, like, you know, Walden's in his last contract, like last year of his contract.

So, I mean, kind of decide, let the season play out, see, hey, if you get double-digit sacks, bring him back for like a year or so. Right, right. Yeah, he's not going to hurt anything bringing him back. I mean, who are they going to have as their edge guy if they weren't to bring Walden back? You know, I mean, Kurt Majit or what? Because their edge-setting guys, you know, there's not a ton of them either.

And there's a pretty good chance that Mathis isn't going to be there this year. He's obviously a rush backer. But they're going to have – I mean, I'm excited to see Trevor Bates on the 53. I'm not going to throw any wild guarantees out there and try to say he's going to be the next thing. But you have to – when you don't have a pass rush, man, you've got to bring guys up and find out what they're made of. Right.

Yeah. And I heard that, man. The middle linebacker spot is still wide open right now. The heck, he's even running to start. That's kind of crazy to have a guy that's on the practice squad one week be starting the next week. Right. And the thing that scares me about them, too, is you know how they do this where they want to mold guys into a certain position

where they weren't actually comfortable in to begin with they're yeah they're gonna try and put they're gonna try and see what he can do at middle linebacker i'm telling you and it just yeah it scares me to think about that maybe he's really good and maybe it works but you know what the colts don't have a huge uh history of doing stuff like that it's not they're not a belichickian uh group they're just not you know they they tried and failed with bjorn warner they've they've tried and failed with so many other guys and the guys that they do actually have uh that end up playing well or doing something solid, they end up screwing them up. I mean, doing something with them where they don't want to –

all of a sudden they get them playing well and they don't want to play them anymore. And so, you know, and TJ Green, when they brought him in, when they drafted him, I thought, man, what is going on? They hadn't, you know, he was kind of a biped as a, a cornerback and a safety. And I was a little worried that because he looked terrible at both on tape a lot of times. And I was just like, this guy can't cover. Why are they bringing him in a second round? I mean, this is awful risky, but I have been extremely impressed with his ability to play against the run.

And I'm not going to say he's great in coverage, but he's not bad. He's not near as bad as he was even just last year in college. So I think that was a lucky break, to be honest with you. And listen to these numbers. The Colts' defense right now is 30th in points allowed, 24th in yards per game allowed, 26th in first downs allowed, 15th in third down percentage. Not bad. It has its ups and downs per game, but, you know,

that's pretty good, middle of the pack of the NFL. But they're 26th in yards per play as well. So this defense is largely a bottom third defense at best, and there are just so many categories where they are just in the bottom of the heap, and this is a real issue. Something's got to change. Yeah, definitely. The thing I don't understand is, you know, they thought it was the coordinator.

They brought a new coordinator. Now, Pagano's a defensive-minded coach, and I haven't seen any improvement in the defensive back. I think it's gotten worse almost. Yeah. And I don't understand, like, how can you bring in all these defensive-minded guys and, like, not have a defense?

I mean, do you think it falls more on Pagano or Grickson not bringing in the talent? Man, you know what? It's hard to say because I feel like they've wasted so many drafts and draft picks on not bringing in pass-rushing specialists. They drafted Werner, who was supposed to be the next guy. Now, let's be honest. They had him here for, what, four years,

but they knew after two years that he was not going to be the guy. Okay? So let's not – a lot of people want to say that, man, you know, he just left the team this past year, so now you've got to start over. No, they should have started over then because they knew he wasn't the guy. Yeah. And then Jonathan Newsome, he was drafted, and then they drafted Trevor Bates. That's the only three pass rushers they've drafted since 2012. Yeah, and man.

Everything else has been a free agent blow-up. Yeah, the draft, man. The 2013 draft just gives me headaches every time I think about it. Yeah, just one off the board. It's not even existent anymore. No, no draft picks from that year are still in the board. It's not even existent anymore. No, no draft picks from that year are still in the roster. That's not good. That's so bad.

It is. I don't understand how one person can screw a team over so bad. The only good pick he's really had is in the 2012 draft, let's be honest. It seems.

Who doesn't pick Andrewrew luck overall right overall right and then you know he got lucky i think with t.y hilton uh well i believe he made i believe he made a trade to go up and get him yeah i'll give him credit he had a good draft in 2012 yeah we'll give him that right but yeah but he you know he had alan in there both uh and uh uh fleener and let's you know what we know if we're looking back on fleener we obviously know that he didn't turn out to be all that great but when they when they drafted him i think it was man not only were they thinking this but colts fans were thinking this too. Oh, he's from Stanford. He has a great rapport with Andrew Luck. He's got speed.

And I don't know how much anybody was necessarily dogging him for his hands, but we all thought that he had pretty solid hands because he was a big-time guy with some speed. So, I mean, in hindsight, it was a good draft, even including some of the guys who haven't worked out. You know, Vic Bauer didn't work out, and that's too bad because he looked like he could be a solid backup in Indianapolis for a long time. The poor guy just couldn't stay healthy, you know, so that was kind of a pooper.

But when you go through some of the other drafts, it's like, what was this all about? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I think that they had the right mindset but they just didn't have the eye for talent or for the right talent um i don't know what happened exactly but yeah like with the with the verner bjorn verner it was just they tried to convert him into something he wasn't i think and it just didn't work out in their favor. And maybe it was on him a little bit. Maybe it was on them. I'm not sure, but I just can't believe it.

Like, their last draft pick this year just got cut because he couldn't stay healthy. And I'm just like, man, are you serious? Right. And he wasn't all that great either. So we got no starters from there. No, and it's been a pretty sad deal, to be honest with you, at times. back foot either. We've got no starters from that. It's been a pretty sad deal, to be honest with you, at times. Again, I'm talking to Cody Felger.

You can catch him on Twitter at Hoosiersportfan. Cody, what's your thoughts this year as we move forward? We've gotten through a quarter of the season thus far, the Colts are 1-3. They start off here with the Bears this coming Sunday and they've got a doable schedule coming up up through

their bye week. What are your thoughts? Where are they going to end up by the bye week? They've got the Bears and Texans and Titans the next three weeks. Then they go or they'll host thes, and then they'll be at the Packers in week nine. Their bye week is week 10. Now, I think that they've got a solid chance of beating the Bears. I think more than a solid chance, kind of the lesser of two evils type deal.

The Bears are considered a pretty bad team with a couple of solid players, but they're pretty banged up this week too. I mean, I think that the Colts are going to have a pretty – I think they've got a good, good chance of winning and pretty soundly as well. The Texans, regardless of how well their defense is right now, they're beatable. The Titans are most certainly beatable.

But then they've got the Chiefs and Packers before the bye. So, I mean, you know, theoretically, they could be, you know, anywhere from 4-6 or 4-5 to 7-3 or 6-3. I'm sorry. Yeah, it's so tough to say because you don't know which team you're going to get. You know, one week you might have, you know, amazing offense like Detroit and terrible defense. You know, next week you might have great defense, you know, turnover offense.

Right. Or you might stop both one week. You know, you might just drop an egg in one week. You never know with this team. And that's something I think that Pagano needs to address, man, just staying consistent because they have not done that at all. And it's just been frustrating as a fan. You know, he says, hey, we need to have a fast start.

And they never do, it seems like. It seems like he just keeps saying the same thing and it doesn't happen. So I think, hey, if they, you know, going into the bye week, if they're still on the losing record, you know, he might be, you know, I don't know if he'll still be gone, but he'll really be on the hot seat, I feel like. Especially if they lose this week to Chicago, I'd say. Yeah.

And really, really on the hot seat. And here's the thing. They, obviously they're at home against the Bears. And then they got back-to-back away games. My guess is if they aren't proving that they can win, because they've had close games. I don't think that a lot of people are taking that into context either. They were definitely in the game against the Lions,

probably should have won that. Definitely in the game against the Broncos until just over a minute to go in the game. They had a shot to win that and then yeah they did beat the chargers and they lost by three to the jaguars which in itself is pathetic but they still were in the game and should have won the game so they could so easily be four and oh right now and playing like crap yeah it really could be and man it again, just finishing games. Like, that's something that you do.

You know, like, with finishing drives, they just need to emphasize finishing things because they just have been bad about that this year, especially for what's the reason. And I think Lugano just, you know, he needs to, you know, he's fighting for his job right now. He needs to act like it. He needs to stop being so, you know, passive.

He needs to, like, you know, show that passion that we saw, that we see before in him, and just be like, guys, I'm fighting for my job. You're fighting for your jobs. We need to go out there and we need to prove that we belong here, that we belong on this team. We belong in the NFL. We belong, I don't know, we belong as winners. And, man, this team just hasn't played like winners.

No, they haven't. And I really hope that, you know, with all these – it's been a lot of comments this week on just criticizing, you know, Grigson and Pagano for good reason. Like, I mean, Reggie Wade even called him out. Right. And I don't know. I hope this serves as, like, a kick in the butt.

Like, hey, let's get things going, you know? You know, regardless of what happens, I still hope that Rickson is fired because I think he's just done a terrible job. I hope he's wised up a little bit. I mean, I think this draft was pretty solid for him. I mean, besides like maybe Clark, who's to be determined at this point. But, yeah, I think overall it's been a think overall it was a pretty solid draft for him.

He did what he needed to do. He's trying to protect Luck now, which is good. I think I really like Joe Hagel, so I think that he's going to develop into a really solid player. He kind of reminds me of some of the cool fans I remember of Jake Scott. You know, he's a fifth-round pick. He actually has the same number and everything. I just think that he could be just a physical guy on that line

that could really help that line go forward. I mean, I really like his playing. So we'll see. We'll see what happens. I like Hague, too. And, you know, to be fair, I like Blythe as the backup for Kelly and somebody who can go back and forth between guard positions if necessary as depth. I think he's solid.

But I really – I honestly think that they're playing Denzel good out of position. I think he was really good last year at the end at right tackle. And, you know, granted, last year Wright's played pretty well. But I really think the future for this colts offensive line on the right side is good at right tackle and hey get right guard um yeah and it's they're young uh eventually they're gonna have to do something about left tackle when costanzo either goes somewhere else doesn't get called back or you know gets too old himself. But I really think that this offensive line,

and I'll probably be kicking myself for this in a couple years, but I truly, honestly, in my heart and my brain right now, trying to think logically, I really do think that this offensive line is going to be one of the top eight to ten lines in football for the next few years at least i really do pending they can all stay healthy of course but where's yeah where's your thought process on the colts where do you think they're at after nine games oh man yeah it's so hard to determine but i'll say that for chicago'd say that's a win. Houston, that could be tough at Houston especially.

Man, that could be a loss, honestly, because Houston did a lot better than last year. And it is at Houston. They never have great success at Houston. I mean, they have okay success. Sometimes they'll flip up at Houston. Tennessee, I'd say that's a win. Honestly, I can see them beating Kansas City because

Kansas City has a good defense, but if they can shut down Jamal Charles, Alex Smith's more of a game manager anyways, so shut him down, get pressure on Smith. I think they could actually win that game and it's at home, which helps. Green Bay, I think that's going to be a tough game, especially at Lambeau.

That's a really tough place to play. I'd say they might get beat kind of handily at that game, kind of depending on what Aaron Rodgers we see also. Depending on how they handle Jordy Nelson or Randall Cobb and company. And, yeah, I mean, they win some, they lose some. But let's see here. One and three right now. That puts them at four and five.

Four and five, yeah. And I don't know. It'll be kind of interesting to see what happens in the buy if they have that record, kind of see what happens with Chuck and with Ryan. And the scary thing about it, though, is they come back off the bye against the Titans. Then they've got, listen to these games, Steelers, Jets, Texans, Vikings. Raiders' defense is not fantastic, obviously, right now. But then they finish the season at home against the Jaguars.

They could legitimately lose five of those last seven games. I mean, I don't know what they're going to do. I pegged them at nine wins at the beginning of the season, but sometimes I think it's solid pick depending on what they can scrape out here before the bye, but other times I look at that schedule and depending on what they can scrape out here before the bye. But other times I look at that schedule and think, man, that could just be an absolute disaster. Exactly. And there's not even a whole bunch of top-shelf teams either. And that's the even part that drives me nuts even more.

Absolutely, yeah. That's it to get top 10 draft pick. Heck, go get our passers-by. Absolutely, yeah. I'd say if they get top ten draft pick, heck, go get our passers for certainly. Like, please. I'm begging you, get any kind of linebacker you can because we need them desperately. Yeah. I'm guessing three or four draft picks are going to be on that front seven. Heck, first couple draft picks, I'd be fine if they just took all defense,

all linebackers. Yeah. I think a lot of people would be happy with that, to be honest with you. I think, at least in theory, they've got their offensive line of the future in-house. And, man, they've really got to make some serious strides on defense. Yeah. It wouldn't bother me, hurt my feelings at all, if they used every draft pick on defense. I wouldn't be mad.

No. If they can actually nail the picks, I'd be fine with it. Yeah, nail half of them. Yeah. But also you've got to start thinking about, you know, Gore's replacing him eventually. Yeah, sure, and probably in the next year too, to be honest with you. He's good here, and we can keep rotating in and out backup guys,

and that's just fine for the backfield because let's be honest in the second half games the colts don't care about the running back anyways yeah it's all about them trying to establish this or that and then the second half they forget about the backfield altogether so yeah and rightly so because they're usually down a touchdown or two yeah that's for's for sure. So it doesn't help. Cody, thank you for joining me here on Colts Fan Friday, my man. I appreciate your time, and let's do this again. Yeah, absolutely.

Thanks for having me. It was great to talk to you, man. Hey, good to talk to you too. And what's your prediction for this Sunday, the Colts hosting the Bears? Well, the Bears' defense is not very good. So I'm saying the Colts put up 28. The Bears, let's see, Bears get 20. 28-20.

That's funny. I made the exact same prediction today talking to the Bears guy, Arthur Arkish. Yeah, I sure did. 2820 is what I've got it to. We'll be able to give each other a high five on Twitter

when that happens. I'm looking forward to it. Thanks, man. I appreciate it. Good to have you on. Thanks a lot. It was a good time talking to Cody. I'm looking forward to it. Hey, thanks, man. I appreciate it, and good to have you on. Hey, thanks a lot. It was a good time talking to Cody. I wasn't aware before the call that he was a writer, but that was a lot of fun. That's the kind of stuff we like to do, and I tell you guys,

we might be doing this a little more often because I want to hear what you guys have to say, and it's nice to be in conversation and bring you guys on occasionally and have our little conversation to see where the Colts are at and kind of just bounce ideas and thoughts off each other. So thank you for listening once again. Make sure you guys are subscribing to the podcast,

the Locked On Network, in general, the NFL channel. Make sure you guys are giving us a five-star rating. Give us a little review, you know, something nice nice you like my hair I don't have any hair and follow the twitter account at LockedOnColts

the facebook page and send me emails if you guys have something you want to talk about or you want me to read it on the air have a little conversation and talk about it at LockedOnColtsPod at gmail.com thank you guys for listening it's been another great week.

Thank you all for sharing the show, being a part of it now. And we will talk to you Monday. You are Locked On Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Your team every day.