Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - LOCKED ON COLTS -12/7- Indianapolis Colts Post Week 13 PFF Grades

Episode Date: December 7, 2016

Per the usual with subjective grading, some of the #Colts have shot up the charts, while some have remained in the basement. You'll never guess who failed to rise despite his recent play, and who's really the Colts best edge rush option per PFF? 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 Locked 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 am your host, Matt Dainley, and welcome back to the Lock on Colts, guys. We are still feeling pretty good after the Colts have a big win in New York with the 41-10 slaughtering of the New York Jets. I'm still feeling pretty good about it. I hope you guys are too, but we've got a short week this week. Got to prepare for the Houston Texans in less than a full week.

So we're going to get into our Wednesday show right here, and we're going to jump on some of these pro football focus grades. And I think that you'll be kind of pleasantly surprised as to where some of these guys have gone. If you guys remember last week, you know, the Colts had been off for a little bit. Andrew Luck was, I think, fifth at the time, and he popped right back up to number two among quarterbacks with a 91.4 grade. Andrew Luck's just absolutely been phenomenal this year. And there's been some talk recently about Andrew Luck playing at an MVP caliber,

and he truly is. I mean, he's got two games this season where he's been over 70%. He was almost 79% this past week, the other night in New York, and he was over 70% against Chicago. And he's at a 64% completion percentage right now. He's got 3,100 yards, 23 touchdowns, eight interceptions, just really playing at a fantastic level. And, you know, ironically enough, as much as we understand that Andrew Luck has to throw the ball for the Colts to be successful,

he isn't quite throwing the ball quite as much as he has in years past. Granted, you know, he's missed a game already this year. He's still on pace for 550 attempts this year. He's sitting at 403 right now. His lowest was his second season in the league with 570. And that's just, I mean, you would assume that with that one extra game, he'd have thrown the ball more than 20 times. So this is really kind of low for him.

I mean, when you consider that he was well over 600 attempts on his rookie season and in his third year, and then obviously last year was cut short, but it's kind of phenomenal how fantastic he's playing right now. He's already got, you know, he's tied his second most touchdowns uh in a season already uh with 23 eight interceptions is his lowest so far uh but that's you know he's not on pace for uh maintaining that level but he is at a 5.7 uh touchdown percentage he's second overall in the

pro football focus grades and rightly so i mean the guy is getting pressured like nobody's business. He's just standing in the face of adversity, delivering the ball downfield accurately on time for the most part. And we all know that he's going to have his situations where he's going to fall into, you know, a light throw, too much touch, not enough power, that type of thing, and some unlucky tips and stuff that are going to get picked off. But by and large, Andrew Luck is living up to the billing this year. There's no two ways about it. And he has thus far in his career. So it's kind of funny, though. I've been hearing a lot of the Cam Newton and Andrew Luck comparison stuff. They're really nothing alike. So I'm not saying one way or the other. I mean,

obviously, I'd take Andrew Luck 100 out of 100 times if it come down to those two. But I just don't think they're comparable. There's just not a lot of areas that you guys can, you can really compare those two together. I mean, if you want to look at just flat accuracy and stuff like that, sure, but they're not the same kind of player, not even close. So let's move on to halfbacks. And Frank Gore is sitting at 26th overall with 69.5. Funny that he's right above Ty Montgomery, who's just kind of a running back, you know. Giovanni Bernard's under him, and there's some guys above

him that he's clearly, in my opinion, better than. They're, you know, a mixture of lower attempts, a little more production because of their lines and stuff like that. I mean, I don't think that anybody here would argue that Matthew Jones is a better running back than Frank Gore. Christine Michael, not a chance. Isaiah Crowell, don't think so. There's a lot of those guys that are above him. Like I said, just a little more productive and a little more limited role. And quite honestly, they don't have this Indianapolis offensive line run blocking for them,

although that is kind of their strong suit to this point. So moving on to wide receivers, T.Y. Hilton is up to number six overall with an 86 overall grade, right above Larry Fitzgerald and right below Doug Baldwin. Just under two points lower than Antonio Brown. And T.Y. Hilton's having a phenomenal season this year too. He's beating all the odds. He's beating everybody off the line. If you guys haven't seen Matt Waldman's article on how T.Y. manages to get open despite his size and lack of brute force or just basically his size. But if you guys haven't seen that yet, go check out Matt Waldman on there. That's a really good post, really interesting, and he breaks it down really well.

Moving on to tight ends, Jack Doyle is 18th overall with a 72.6. That's up. His grade's up just a little bit. Not a bunch, but a little bit. Despite, you know, the two-touchdown game from Dwayne Allen, he's sitting at 45th overall with a 51.7. And like we talked about in the past, Dwayne Allen just isn't consistent, you know. Next game, he may legitimately only catch one or two balls. Hopefully, that's not the case. We'd like to see him in the offense,

but as we've spoken about many times, or I have, we definitely don't want them forcing him into the action. He was just wide open the other night, and Andrew Luck found him. It was really just kind of luck of the draw, terrible defense, and Dwayne did a really good job of sitting in the open spots in zones and did a good job on the one pass where he got quite a bit of yardage going up the field and just breaking the seam. So that was nice to see. That was the way you want to see Dwayne Allen play. That was the way that you want to see him explode.

You don't want to see him being forced in under double coverage or up next to the line of scrimmage. Those are just kind of pointless passes and stuff, and they did a good job, and he did a good job, and Andrew Luck did a good job finding him. So Anthony Costanzo among tackles is 23rd with an 80.9. I think that grades up, but I don't think he's up as far as where he's at in the pecking order there. I think he's down a little bit, but that's still pretty quality. He had a pretty good game the other night. Joe Haag is also up to 45th with a 68.6. That's considerably up. I think that's a few points up, actually, so that's nice to see. He did a pretty good job the other night, and a guy who we haven't been talking about much this year at

all, Joe Reitz, he had a pretty good game the other night and did really well jumping in there at tackle, I thought. I haven't really looked at the film, so I mean, let's not get into semantics here. But as far as from what I saw when he came in, the Colts O-line didn't skip a beat and possibly improved a little bit. Maybe he needs to get him a little more playing time and Joe Hague needs to take over that role at guard. Wouldn't hurt my feelings one bit and it's worth a look, you know. But he's 63rd with a 45.7. Not a great grade, but for him and where he was, definitely not getting a whole bunch of snaps this year.

That's a pretty good spot for him. Now, as we get into the guards, Jack Muhort, he's also down just a little bit. I think, it's hard for me to remember from where he was at last week, but it's right around the same area. He's 22nd overall in the pecking order, and he's 79.2. That grade is definitely up. I do know that. That's nice for Jack because he's had a really nice year this year, a really quality approach to the game. He did have some issues with, we talked about it on yesterday's show, about him not moving his feet enough, relying on his hands too much, getting kind of dragged around, which is an absolute gimme for the referees to throw a flag.

So that's just not, you know, that's not what we want to see out of him. But I'm not going to pick him apart too bad. He's been and was for a long stretch there the Colts' best offensive lineman. So, you know, everybody has a couple of bad snaps. There's no doubt about that. Jonathan Harrison and Denzel Good are 72nd and 73rd with 45.7 for Harrison and a 45.1 for Good. You're looking at a difference of about 375 snaps between the two. But Good, you know, Good, they have moved him into guard,

and we've talked about this a bunch, but it just never can escape my mind. I really think that they screwed up by bringing him into the guard. I mean, I think Haig has proven that he's quality enough there to start there, but, you know, if it isn't going to be rights at right tackle, then I think they need to try good back out there and see what he does. Maybe that's too much of a jump for him where he's at in his career as far as cutting back inside then going back out I don't really know but I just I liked I really liked the way he looked at guard last or at tackle last year

and I just thought when they moved him into guard you know he just looked out of his element a little bit so hopefully they can kind of figure out what's going on there and they can try to get him to where he's going to work out because I think he's a really good talent I just think he needs a little bit of work he's one of those guys I think maybe a two or three year project but I think we're going to see another massive set of improvement out of him next year so I'm not too worried about it but you know right now the Colts really need him to step up his game. There's no doubt about it. Ryan Kelly, he's kind of staying about where he's been throughout the season. His grade is up a little bit to a 78.2. He's 23rd overall right now among centers, right underneath Russell Bodine and right above Nick Mangold. So, but he, you know, he's been, I don't even know if inconsistent is quite the word.

There's just some games that he just gets out muscled. You know, there's just guys bigger and stronger than him. And I don't think that it's for necessarily a lack of effort or anything like that. But one, he's a rookie. He's easy to forget because he has been so solid up there. But they just, you know, the other night against the Jets, he got run over a few times. And that's going to happen, you know.

But, I mean, this guy's going to be great, guys. He really is. And, you know, just for my AQ Shipley fans and buddies out there, he's 12th overall with an 82.1. So that's nice. I was always a fan of AQ when he was in town. I liked him as a Colt. He seemed like he did a good job, and I thought he got kind of railroaded when they threw Jonathan Harrison in there over the top of him, but that's neither here nor there. That's ancient history. So on to the cornerbacks, Darius Butler, he's had a nice couple games.

You can see how much more comfortable he is in that safety role, that second or third safety role. And he plays it really well. He is, you know, we talked when we talked to George Bremer on the show last week or the week before, you know, he kind of mentioned how he adds a little bit of a ball hawking element to that safety core. And he is absolutely right. He certainly does because he does a good job. He's obviously not the fastest guy. You see that when they line him up outside at the corner, right or left corner.

And that's why he has lost a step. But him sitting in that safety role really allows him to kind of just scan the field and make plays. And I really like him there. I really do. I hope that they keep him there or at least rotate him in and out. But he's right below Josh Norman and right above Nevin Lawson. And he's sitting at 24th with an 81 grade. And that's a pretty good grade for him. I would say that's far above where he's been in the past.

Rashawn Melvin is at 66 with a 71.3. He's been asked to do a lot this year, guys, 480 snaps, and that's quite a bit for a guy who's come in. Like I said, he's done over half of his entire career already just this season. So he's done a really good job. I'm happy for him, but I'd like to see him play better. I really would, but he's done a pretty good job. Patrick Robinson, a guy everybody had high hopes for. He's a 92nd with a 51.1, and there's still no love for Vontae Davis from Pro Football Focus as he's sitting all the way down at 106 with a 47

grade. So not good for Vontae. He's always been in the top 10, you know, in past seasons and that's really disappointing for him, I think. I think it's really disappointing for us as his fans because he's just clearly not the same guy he's been. And I truly do hope that it's injury-related, but one gets to wondering if that's actually the case. Moving on to safeties, Mike Adams, he's at 17th with an 81.9 overall, right behind Glover Quinn, right above DJ Swearinger. I like him. I'm just really impressed with Mike Adams at his age,

how he's played in Indianapolis. And, you know, when he came in, a lot of people were saying he was a backup and that was all he was, or he was depth. You know, Mike Adams has clearly proved he's a starter and I'm just happy for him. I'm happy for him. I enjoy watching him play. He definitely does not get the credit that he deserves. He's a very physical guy for his age, and I don't know.

I love Mike Adams, one of the unsung heroes, I think, on this Colts defense, and he definitely deserves a little bit more of our praise at his age. Another guy, Clayton Gethers, he's sitting at 25th with an 81.3 overall grade. Obviously, we'd love to see him back this week. He's a huge part in there. And with the suspension of DeQuel Jackson, we kind of wonder what their role is going to be for Gathers. Are they going to maybe kind of take him out of that dime safety role,

roll him into maybe him and Hakeem Ayers into the middle linebacker role for certain packages and plays. You know, maybe I think those are two guys that they could use in there. You know, they're going to need somebody on the other side of Edwin Jackson, and there's not a lot of other guys that are worth it. I don't think McNary's worth bringing in there. He can spell a little bit at the position, but he's pretty bad. Antonio Morrison, he can only play on rundowns because he's a thumper, boys. And I think you've all seen that. He can tackle, he hits hard, but he's absolutely awful and he can't pay attention long enough and stay focused. That's been long talked about ever since training camp.

It was said to have come from some coaches, and it was definitely being talked about within the media circles around there. So, I mean, a lot of people that I was talking to, I heard the same thing over and over again. And, you know, it is what it is. Hopefully he corrects that because the dude's got talent there's no two ways about it but he's got a lot of stuff to shore up there's a big drop off down to TJ Green where he's at 88th overall with a 42.8 his coverage is the real issue and you know

that's never been anything that we didn't know or you know obvious. But I think he's going to be a quality player in the future. He's got a lot of work to do with his coverage skills, and hopefully we'll see him improve next year. But I don't think we're going to see a ton of him being an asset in the passing game this year. As we move on to the linebackers, Edwin Jackson is sitting at 74th with a 45.3. That's kind of bad.

And then DeQuell Jackson's at 79th with a 43. That's also kind of bad. I'm kind of surprised that they're down that far. I think it's really because they're so weak in coverage, and it just doesn't constitute a high grade or a quality grade and that's just kind of the way it is i think with them but edwin jackson's been pretty good he's definitely done a quality job uh in run support and uh he's he's decent in in coverage not great but he's decent uh we get to the interior defensive line ty mcgill is at 40

as 43rd overall with a 74.9 nice grade a lot of guys a lot of interior guys they're fighting for position there so uh like i said if you with his grade at a seven nearly a 75 even if you get up to a 78 you're 20 you know uh spots ahead so uh that's a big difference uh and in the where they're at ranked wise isn't something that's a a big issue they're great in this regard is far more telling hassan ridgeway he's down at 71st overall with a 47.7 again just a couple points below but uh he's uh i'm really excited for this guy's future as well I think this is a quality class I really do but there's a lot of guys who are going to have to improve quite a bit because if they level off and plateau not Hassan Ridgway necessarily but some of the guys we've

already talked about if they plateau the Colts are going to be in trouble with them and they're going to have to have another draft class get back on top. Then we have Zach Kerr at 113th with a 41.3, and David Perry at 117th with a 41 grade. Those guys are quality in there, and they kind of work off each other. Usually if it's not one guy, it's the other. And so they know that they're not dominant up there, but they kind of work as a team

which is okay by me as long as somebody's getting pressure at some point and disrupting in the backfield uh key mayor still the colts highest rated edge guy with a 69.9 grade at 60th overall i i'm happy for him because he's finally getting the playing time and he's proven that he's better than everybody else but that sucks because that that low and that kind of grade for the top guy you know and then it drops down to 97th with Eric Walden at a 43.1 and then Robert Mathis at 106 with a 40.5 this just not the year for getting any kind of pressure on the quarterback it's just just not happening very often. We saw a few of them the other night. We saw some sacks the week before or two weeks before, and that's got to improve.

They've really got to start hitting the quarterback in these last four games if they want to get to the playoffs for sure. And that's about what we're going to roll with for today's show. And then tomorrow, you know, we've got the Thursday show, and then we're going to have kind of a crossover with the host from Locked On Texans. That'll be fun. We've done that now. This will be the second time for doing it with him.

That'll be a lot of fun. And we'll have two more shows coming up this week. So, like I said, kind of a short week. At least it seems like it after we get the post-game, you know, show done. And it is what it is. But we'll move on and enjoy done. And it is what it is. But we'll move on and enjoy it, and we'll keep talking. And thank you guys also for giving me your input.

I appreciate it. Keep it coming. Like I said, whether it's on Twitter, email, LockedOnColtsPod at gmail.com, or whether it's message or just whatever, doesn't matter. Keep it coming. I absolutely enjoy your guys' input, so let's keep doing that. Subscribe to the podcast also. Twitter at LockedOnColts.

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Probably giving some people some shout outs on the show. So thank you guys for all that you're doing. The only place you're going to get Colts stuff five times a week. And you guys are great and I absolutely appreciate all the input and everything else that you guys do to keep this show going. So share it.

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