Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - LOCKED ON COLTS -2/07- Colts Web Mock Draft Round Up

Episode Date: February 7, 2017

Matt brings back Rick McGlothlin (@DrafttekColts) to the show to run through various mock drafts to discuss who each have the #Colts selecting in the early rounds of the 2017 NFL draft. #MockTalk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

That's for my crazy day. My packed commute. All those unread emails in my inbox. But I'm getting stronger, faster, and pushing myself further every day. I don't care if I'm not like everyone else. This punching bag is the best way to end my day. Fearless is knowing yoga isn't your style. That's the power of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Federal Employee Program.

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 back with us in the mix is Rick McLaughlin, my guy from Draft Tech. He takes care of the Colts for them. Rick, thanks for joining me, my man.

What's up? Hey, Matt. Glad to be back. Hope you're having a good one. Oh, having a good one. Having a rough time getting all my takes, apparently. I found myself with some crazy little lingo, and apparently now I've got a draw in my speech. It's an awesome accent.

I like it. It seems like it's been a long day, although my Monday at work was pretty good. How about yours? Yeah, I didn't have any work, so I was glad, especially after staying up to watch the Super Bowl. That's right. Let's touch on that real quick. Do we have to?

Yeah, just real fast. Okay. All right. Nothing major, but what was your take on it all? Pretty much what everybody's already said. Yeah, I was really surprised that Atlanta didn't try to run that punt formation that the Colts did a couple years against the Patriots. That's about the only thing I didn't see in that game that I was expecting to see yeah especially in the fourth quarter I figured you know why not line up in that that

formation after they decided not to go for the field goal and get sacked and fumble and all that other stuff I mean what they had to lose at that point, other than the Super Bowl, it was sad. It was really sad. It was. The 25-point lead just seemed insurmountable, and for the most part, if they stick to their guns and do what got them there within that game. I know they tried to rationalize that that's what they were doing, was sticking with their guns and not going completely conservative, but there's a difference between going conservative and then not taking the obvious route to a victory.

Yeah. Well, conservative to me in that position is if you're not a great running team and you're trying to run just a waste clock. That's conservative. But they were just running down their throats. That's not conservative. That's sticking with your strength in that game. I think I read they ran the ball five or six times total in the second half.

Yeah, five. Yeah, that's incredible. That is incredible. And down to Freeman. I know Coleman got hurt, and Freeman was the only one. And maybe his psyche was shook when he missed that block that Ryan killed in the fumble. But even so, just if they didn't gain any yards whatsoever

on two consecutive runs, they had a field goal. Game's over. Yeah, even if you lose two or three, at least you're not losing 12 and 15. 20 and whatever it was, yeah. Gee, many Christmas. So it was the biggest, most epic loss of all time in any championship game, as far as I'm concerned. Yeah, me too.

It was terrible. And like I said, I kind of told the listeners last night, I felt pretty bad for Falcons fans. Colts have had some epic fails like that and stuff. But, yeah, it was just bad. But I did tell my sister at halftime, it's 21-3, it's not over. And even when they went up to 28-3, I thought, well, if they make any mistakes, New England's going to make them pay for it.

But at the end, when it was down to two and a half minutes left in the third quarter and they were up 28-3, I thought, man, they will really have to fold badly to lose this one. And they did. They did. Oh, well. Yeah. I felt bad for them, but well, we won't run that in the ground anymore tonight. But today we are going to go through some of the NFL mocks around the web and kind of go back and forth and kind of see what we like, what we dislike, and talk a little bit just about everything. So let's start with what you did on your last draft tech draft. Not the one that you guys haven't quite got up yet, but in the first round,

you took Jabril Peppers at 14. You had an alternate pick of Quincy Wilson and your number two was Jordan Lewis describe your pick why did you take Peppers there? Well what's been happening with draft tech is you know we're in late January February mode still and we're just now seeing a lot of the tape that's on on these guys and we're still kind of getting a feel for where everybody's going to end up. And it kind of shuffles. In fact, we've had anywhere from 10 to 15 of our players in the top 50 that have shuffled between the last two big boards. And then you have the coaches, new coaches hired, new staff hirings,

and then you have the uncertainty about what free agency is going to bring when you know you have, especially with the Colts, huge defensive deficiencies. So how are we going to do this? And I'm not too concerned right now with being absolutely spot on, dead on with who we're going to get. Right. But looking at who goes ahead of us in these mock drafts,

which on this particular one we're talking about now, Reuben Foster, the inside linebacker from Alabama, he was a guy I had for the Colts for quite some time until the last two weeks. And this time Reuben was taken by the Saints in the mock draft we're talking about for this particular time. So I was left with a choice between Peppers, Ryan Ramsey, in the mock draft we're talking about for this particular time. So I was left with a choice between Peppers, Ryan Ramsey from Wisconsin, Cook, of course, the running back that everybody seems to think would be the best choice for the Colts anyhow for some odd reason,

and then Quincy Wilson, the corner from Florida. I'd have to reach probably, oh gosh, 25, 25, 30. Go ahead. Real quick before you get into that, kind of tell our listeners what you guys do, because you guys do one of these every week. Yeah. Every week we have all of our team analysts submit a list of what our priorities are for team needs. We go the offensive side of the ball, the defensive side of the ball. So we assign priority codes to those particular team needs. We break those up, and then we have what we call a grab list

where the analyst, if he feels very strongly about a particular player at a certain selection point, he can take that name and insert it. And so long as no team prior to that selection picks that person, that's the, that's the player that's going to go for that particular team at that particular selection. So the last, like I said,

the last couple of weeks I've had Ruben Foster slated to go at that selection, but he's been taken ahead of me. That's, and that's why Jabril Preppers and Quincy Wilson will be my second and third choice based on our big board and the best available player that's next. And then you match that against the Colts team needs that I have, and that brings us up to Peppers, Quincy Wilson, and Garrett Bowles,

the offensive tackle from Utah. Now, obviously, the Colts don't necessarily need an offensive tackle, but if we're listing best available players as it comes up, he'd be one of the four or five that would be next. Now, tell me about since you got hit, Wilson is your first alternate. Correct. Okay, so go ahead. Yeah, he's a really raw corner in terms of run support.

That's the biggest knock that's going to be on him coming into the NFL. He likes to stay away, it seems like, from contact, or maybe he's just unsure of his tackling capability, and he doesn't want to get involved unless he has to. That's the big knock on him is staying away from a lot of tackling. He'll come up for the round support, but if there's two or three others starting to make the tackle, he's more than happy to let them finish it off. But as far as a cover corner with speed and he's able to high point, he's got great length. He's about six foot, six foot one, very quick. And, uh, you know, as far as staying with the speed receivers in the NFL, he can do that as well. Got great, uh, hip movement,

a good footwork, and he knows, uh, instinctively what he's doing. So I like him as a, as a corner for the Colts opposite of Vontae Davis. Not that Vontae is anywhere near what he was a couple years ago, and he's had a couple injuries now. So we're going to need corners no matter what, whether Vontae's healthy this year or not. Eventually, we're probably going to look to replace him after his contract expires. So I like Quincy Wilson. And, in fact, for this coming round of our mock draft,

Quincy Wilson will be my selection for the Colts at number 14. Okay. Now with your pick of Peppers on this, at least from the last one that you guys did, do you really see him as the third best safety in this class? Well, yeah. Because you've got Hooker went ahead of him and Adams went ahead of him in this one. Do you see Peppers legitimately as the third best safety? Well, again, it's going to depend on the team he would be selected by. Obviously, some teams will not think at all that he's fit for

their particular scheme. So we have him rated as the third overall, and that's why I'm taking him at that selection. Because if we're looking for safeties and corners in that secondary to help offset some of those critical problems that the Colts have faced in that area, he's the next man up for us on our big board at draft tech. Now, I could reach down and ask to make a big reach on another player, but this early I don't think that would be the right thing to do because the next guy down is Budda Baker from Washington, and he's a big reach. We're going from the 10th overall ranked safety to a guy that's at the 46th position.

So he's in the second round level on our big board as far as safeties are concerned. So that's why Jabril Preppers is third overall for me is because he's on our big board listed that way at that position. Gotcha. So in the second round, you went with Chris Wormley out of Michigan State. Right. Tell me a little bit about him. Well, I haven't been able to do a lot of research on Wormley other than to look and see how he fits into the overall defensive line for the Colts. I mean, obviously, he'd be a rotational player, I think, fitting in there with the rest of the Colts we have coming back.

I don't think he's going to be somebody that steps in immediately and takes over and becomes the man on that offensive line. And he's got some problems too. It's really strange. He's got the physique. He's got the big, wide, thick body. He beats the hell out of somebody when he goes up against them. He's like a brick wall.

The thing about him is you never see that killer instinct from him. He has no sense of urgency. He doesn't play with his hair on fire or that high motor that a lot of the analysts like to talk about. He's just there and people can't really move him. And he does, he does, he does well, but he could do so much better if he just, I can't remember the analyst that said, if somebody had punched him in the face to get him mad, it'd be incredible what that guy could do because he's big, he's strong, he's thick, and he's powerful, but he just doesn't seem to be mad at anybody. Can't get the dude to hurt nobody.

Right. He's 6'5 and 300 pounds, and he's got pretty decent speed. I mean, he's not a burner, but he's got good speed for his size, but he just doesn't seem to want to really smash the hell out of anyone. But as far as a prototype defensive line at that position, especially at the three tech, I think he'd be fantastic if somebody could light a fire under him and get that tenacity going. Right. And now see, this is kind of where we go when we skip over to Matt Miller's seven round draft that he put out just recently for the Colts, not for the Colts, but the seven, his seven round draft. But in the first round he put in out of Michigan, the edge player, Taco Charlton. Right. That's kind of what we talked about, about these two. He's a guy who's inconsistent and basically needs that extra push or whatever from coaching, you think. I mean,

you would assume anyways. Right. But this is, I mean, let's be honest. This is not a coaching staff that I think a lot of people would feel comfortable with that. I mean, Jonathan Newsome was a guy similar to that, had a lot of ability, kind of was definitely was under the radar. I'll put it that way. But they got, I think Colts got him at a fourth round and, you know, he played really well for one year and then he just went down the drain. And for the Colts to bring in a guy who needs to be, have a fire lit under him, I don't think that the Colts coaching staff is built for that. I mean, the guy that they pick, if they're going to bring a guy in who's going to be a game changer on the edge, and I mean, the Colts need some pass

rush. No, I mean, let me rephrase that. They need a ton of pass rush, but we can't afford to have them bring guys in who need to be pampered. They got to bring guys in who want to just kill people. And if they can bring those guys in, that's the people that the Colts need. Because if we're going to have to rely on the coaching for it, we might as well just piss the draft picks away. Well, that's what Grigson kind of did the last few years. Good point. What's your thought on Taco then? Well, I understand what you're saying. And the thing about it is when you get around that 14th and 15th pick and you look at the Colts needs, you've got linebacking and you've

got the edge guys. Those are the top two. and I throw in corner as well. Those three areas are the top needs for the Colts. I mean, really, really desperately need some top-level playmakers at those positions right now. And like you said, and like I was talking a minute ago about Wormley, those guys aren't that player, not in the first round and not in the second round. But right now, depending on how these mocks fall with the picks in the front, that's who's available. And that's scary because when we now turn to what you said about the coaching,

there's the dilemma. Ballard's the new GM, but he's sticking with the coaches that are already here. And other than Philbin, I don't trust a one of them. I mean, maybe the new special teams coach or maybe the new wide receivers coach is going to turn out to be fantastic. I don't trust a one of them. Right. You know, I mean, maybe the new special teams coach or maybe the new wide receivers coach is going to turn out to be fantastic. I don't know. But that uncertainty, I think, now limits the Colts to just playing it safe all across the board, up and down the draft this particular year for Ballard because you can't go out on a limb and pick a guy with potential in a certain scheme because next year that scheme might not be the same.

Is the same defensive coordinator for the Colts going to be back next year? Who knows? Same head coach? Who knows? So this year, Ballard, is he going to play it safe and get, like he's talked about before, the trench guys on both sides of the line and try to help some defensive problems with a free agent or two, don't know yet. But to go ahead and pin your hopes on a first-round player of the caliber

of the two we were just talking about, damn, yeah, I don't know. But then again, unless you get a guy like Hooker or a guy like Jonathan Allen or Miles Garrett, which you're not really going to do unless you jump up and trade away a bunch of picks for, who's the edge rusher that just bounces off the board to you? Harris McKinley's okay, but he's got that shoulder question. Are we going to risk a first-round pick on McKinley out of UCLA when we don't know completely about his shoulder? Now, he might know by April when the draft rolls around. If so, he's a pretty good prospect on the edge.

And kind of what you bring that up, there doesn't really seem to be any sort of a consensus edge guy at that middle point in the first round that everybody agrees on. Other than Garrett. Yeah. I mean, look what's happened to Ryan Anderson. He was up in the top 30 back in December, November. He's all the way down almost to the third round now.

And out of nowhere, the inside linebacker for Vanderbilt shot up into the 30s for us, Zach Cunningham. Now, he wouldn't be bad, but are you going to reach from the 14th and 15th slot down to 30 or 31 or 32 with your first pick for the Colts as a new GM? I don't think so unless the Colts have him rated at the top of their board to begin with because of inside knowledge and of scouting and all the things that they know about him that none of us do. So it's interesting. There's not a lot of wild players at picks 14 and 15. If the draft falls like it has at draft tech for us, all those big wild players go in the first 10 or 11, 12 picks. Yeah. And, you know, George Bremer was on here and we were kind of talking about something you said a few seconds ago about, you know,

you can't guarantee that that scheme is going to be the same, same coaching staff, so on and so forth. But he made a good point, you know, that it seems like anymore, aside from, you know, just a small handful of coaches, it seems like the entire league's working on one-year contracts almost anymore, you know. But, I mean, look, getting whatever kind of talent you can get out of this defensive class is going to be critical. I mean, just in general, like you said, if it's not the edge guy that you feel you can go with, then you go to the corners or the safeties or the inside. Now, one of the guys I want to ask you about, I mean, legitimately, could you see it fall into where the Colts would grab Solomon Thomas? Well, there's a problem with Solomon only in the fact that it would be like,

I'm not equating him to the Bjorn Warner from before, but it would be that kind of a dilemma. Are you trying to fit the square peg in the round hole? Is he better at a base 4-3 than a 3-4? And if he has the potential to be able to be molded into the 3-4, can he be? We don't have him listed as a pure 4-3. We have him as the edge at draft tech, and a lot of people have asked me about that.

I haven't watched enough tape of him being in a setting to do a 3-4 only to decide one way or the other, could we use him? Now, obviously the defensive coordinators around the NFL and in college you've had a lot more experiences looking at that. They can tell right away whether he can make that leap or not. But from a lot of the folks that I've talked with and a lot of the tape that I've watched quickly on him, he looks like he's going to be better at the 4-3 than the 3-4. That doesn't mean the Colts won't take him and can't convert him, but that's a big question.

And in arm locks, he's always gone in the first eight picks. Yeah. I kind of wonder if the Colts are just going to start using the mentality that you get the talent, you mold your scheme around the talent. Granted, that's hard to do. I understand that. But you've got to put those guys in the position to be successful. I mean, if he's better in a base 4-3,

I mean, then you've got at least half of your packages, especially with the entire NFL running so much, a high percentage of sub packages anymore. You've got room for him to be in there or a guy like him, you know, not necessarily him, but, and, you know, one of the things with, you know, Monachino in camp last year, you know, I won't say he had me duped, but I was really impressed with him the

way he coached because he was constantly coaching all practice. You know, really, I was like, man, this guy might be a really good coach just because of how he's coaching. Not so much of his, you know, what's upstairs necessarily, but he's constantly getting these guys to roll through everything. And, you know, when it came to the games, I mean, it was almost like – you've seen the gif there with Homer Simpson where he disappears backwards into the bushes, right? Yeah. That's kind of what Monachino reminded me of this year.

You'd see him up front, and then the next thing you know, you just kind of see him start filtering back into the players. I'm not involved in this. And it just kind of seemed like he just, he kind of looked like a first year D coordinator who was kind of, you know, coaching above his pay grade almost. And that, and he's probably realizing, oh my Lord, what do we get to work with out here? That's possible too.

So there's a lot of options then in the first round for the Colts. Yeah, Thomas, just to go back to Thomas really quick, I doubt very much he'll be anywhere near 14 or 15 by the time we get to pick. Yeah. But the other thing about Thomas was, as an edge rusher, is he's around, I don't's around 270, 275 or so. So even though he has that good quick explosion off the ball and he can do a few things to some linemen,

I don't know if he's going to end up in the NFL to be fast enough to be coming off the edge. But I guess they can move him around. They can put him up front as a nose at one point and over at the five technique on the next. And then the three, they can move him around. They can put him up front as a nose at one point and over at the five technique on the next. Then the three, they can move him around a little bit. That was the biggest question was the speed off the edge, not so much his power or his potential with some good moves,

but that speed at 270, 275 might be a question. I would assume that the Colts would want to, theoretically, use him to replace Arthur Jones. I mean, oh, totally. That's who I see him. For Thomas, yeah. That's possible. I mean, because you've got Kendall Langford, who's getting older, but he's underrated still, in my opinion. He did a lot for the Colts line henry anderson hopefully he can really come back and get the full potential of who he is and you know uh perry uh ty mcgill those kind of guys running the nose tackle with uh uh kerr right and stuff like that i think that's a pretty good front four to be quite i mean you know right so let's go a little bit the thing about those guys though

there's no there's no difference maker. I think they're pretty steady, I agree. And rotationally, it's not a bad grouping, but there's no Vince Woolfolk. There's no guy that just blasts the front line of the offensive line and creates chaos. And that's really what I think Ballard and the Colts are going to end up looking for, whether it comes this year or next year. I don't think there's that guy out there in the draft this year. There might be a couple close,

but I don't think there's that guy available this year in the draft, no. Reel in Don Terry Poe from in free agent. Exactly, yeah. And Ballard has familiarity with him from out of KC. So I'm sure that's the kind of guy he's looking for. But there is a possibility with Nick Fairley being a free agent from New Orleans. I really like him. Yeah, I do too.

And he did well at Detroit. Oh, man, he did really well. He had more quarterback hits than the entire front four for the Colts all year. Exactly. If we can lure him away, he said he'd prefer to stay with the Saints because that's the area he's from anyhow. But if we can lure him away with some of that free agent money, that might be at least a short-term fix for the front line.

And then you have a huge, solid rotation up front for the Colts at that point. Yeah, and he would cost some money, but he wouldn't be that expensive. $6.8 million a eight million probably in that range. The most would be, if it was Grigson, he'd get 13. So just cut half of that off, and there's probably where he should be. That's right. So let's follow down a little bit further on Matt Miller's mock here. In the second, he had the Colts grabbing Alvin Kamara,

the running back out of Tennessee. In the third, Howard Wilson, the corner from Houston. And in the fourth round, Dalvin Tomlinson, the D-lineman from Alabama. Who's the worst pick out of those three in your opinion? Well, as far as where they're going and why they would be picked, I think the running back is the obvious one. I'm not saying that Kamara will be a horrible running back. I'm just saying why would Indianapolis pick a running back in the second round?

They'll need some type of running back eventually, but there's going to be so many really solid running backs that are left over from the seven rounds that they could get two or three as an undrafted free agent and provide enough rotational support for frank gore for one more year to to be to not even worry about anybody in the first or second round i mean other than cook what running back just blows you away in the first or second round that makes you want to spend that kind of of of an asset on a running back cook's the only one that I can think of,

and he might be available at 14 or 15. Would it shock me if we took him? Yeah, but. I was going to say it would shock me. It really would. Yeah, it probably would. But would it be a horrible pick? No, because he's a hell of a pick.

That's where I fall in, man. I mean, I really don't think it's a wise decision, but then it's like. It's a good back. I mean. What if he runs for 1,500 yards? And not only that, he's a good blocking back. He's a really good blocking back. And he catches out of the backfield.

I think they think that Fournette fits the mold better in Indy. But I think that personally, I would think that Cook would with his ability to receive. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he's the Marshall Falk prototype for us, a little bit bigger than him, obviously. And then I think Fournette would be more like Joseph Adai, you know, a little bit. Interesting. Yeah, kind of.

I mean, not smack dab exact, but I mean, in those molds a little bit. Interesting. Yeah, kind of. I mean, not smack dab exact, but I mean in those molds a little bit. Right, as far as running style. Running style. Situational style and what they're utilized for in our offense. Fournette's so good to be Joseph. I know. But, I mean, you go down the list for the running backs, and you look in the later rounds,

there's a couple of guys there that stand out that are, I mean, I can't think of the guy's name off the top, but he's like 6'1", 249, and he's a third round, roughly a third round back in terms of potential draft area right now. I'm missing his name, and I apologize for that. Oh, Deonta Foreman from texas 61249 i mean we haven't rated right now in the 70s and so that's close to the slot for ferrari naples in the third round so i i could see a third round running back i wouldn't wouldn't want to do it but at 249 depending on what his speed is and and what they think he can do out of the backfield with catching the rock, that wouldn't be a horrible pick either.

But there's so many of those types of backs later in the draft that I think they'll be available, even in, like I said, after the seven rounds are over. I think there's quite a few backs that will be left over that they can pick up and turn into good situational running backs. Yeah, I do too. My only fear is that they wait. I mean, it's weird too because where's that happy medium on a running back this year?

I know that this is considered one of the more talented classes in a while. I don't want to see them spend high draft capital for it, but at the same time, I don't want to wait too long and have it just be another wasted pick. I mean, in the end be like look good you know had good film did this did that but now he sucks so uh you know or just whoever it is you know fourth fifth round guy just whatever but um so what do you think about howard wilson in the third and dalvin thomason in the fourth well i have no idea about dalvin i haven't seen

anything or read anything on him. But I know the corner is a corner from Houston, right? We're talking about for this. Yeah, I've read some good things on him, and I haven't seen any tape of him whatsoever. But I know people have touted him as one of the early sleepers back in, I think it was early part of January when he started to run up our board a little bit, there's some folks that are pretty high on him

and think that he'll be a good sleeper for the third or fourth round area. I'm going to look through our list right now and try to pick him out, but we got him at 153 overall. So that's down, that's probably fifth or sixth round period. But he's moved up 14 slots since the last mid-board that we did. Sutton's way, Cameron Sutton out of Tennessee is still far ahead of Desmond King. Interesting on Desmond King, I'm going to watch some tape on him this next few days. Desmond King, the corner out of Iowa.

I think he would make a good safety for the Colts. Not on a corner. Well, oh, thank you for saying that. Thank you. Okay. Now I'm with you because I was going to say, you can't say that he's a good pick in the corner because he has so many vines and just videos from the senior Bowl, him just getting rusted.

I was going to say, he's not quick enough to play press man or even regular man. And even in the zone, he could be lost. But at safety. I'm with you. I'm with you on that. Think of – well, a good example would be – this is horrible. Purdue guy,

and I just watched him last night. Oh, my God. The safety for Atlanta is from Purdue, and nobody had their eye on him, and he wasn't even supposed to make the Falcons team, and I just lost his name. It's incredible. But anyhow, he's the starting safety for the Falcons. He was not going to be drafted by anybody, and Atlanta took a chance on him late. But anyhow, he's the safety for the Atlanta starting safety for the Falcons in this rule.

And he was not going to be drafted by anybody. Atlanta took a chance on him late. That's who they run single high with Keanu Neal on the box. And they took a chance on him, and he's a starter for them now. So that's what I see Desmond King at, only a little bit better potential at the safety position size wise. Uh, so, you know, you just never know, but that's one of the guys that I think he's, he's labeled as a quarterback. I don't think he's going to be a good corner in the NFL moving the safety full of their story. Right. Well, as we move to another, uh, mock here, I'm, uh, this one's on fan rag sports and you know uh i i think that this guy kind of went with names more than he did with uh fit and pick and stuff uh overall but you know he

he's he's doing a lot of these for uh lot of different teams, these seven-round mocks and stuff. He did have Solomon Thomas get into the Colts in the first round. We've already talked about him. But the one that gives me pause, and it's basically because several people that I trust are telling me that Adoree Jackson is not that for the Colt for anybody really. And they've got in, this guy has him going in round two to the Colts you know, huge upside as far as in athleticism and all that stuff.

But when somebody mentions athleticism and special teams, sorry, we already did that and made that mistake in TJ green. I don't want to do that again. Cross him off my board. We have our prospect that we want to mold. That was in last year's pick. We can't afford to be doing that any longer. Yep, I remember you and I were texting during that,

and you said, good special teams guy, and I just wanted to reach through my phone and strangle you. Yeah, because that's the only place he would start. Lo and behold, little did we know that injuries and other things would cause him to be thrust into quite a big playing role for the Colts, and we saw the results of that. Yeah, and you know something else that we're really not taking into consideration right now is whether they actually push Clayton Gethers down into a linebacker role. Right, yeah. They could legit go safety first round.

Right. And maybe try to trade up a little bit, but they don't have a ton of capital. And if Jabril Peppers was a lot bigger than he was, that would be the kind of guy that they could take a chance on doing that with. Not necessarily in the first round. I don't think I'd want to take that kind of a chance. But that would be a kind of a move that would be smart for a second or a third round shot with a guy that could be a tweener that can move back and save people. I doubt either one of these

guys will make it anywhere near this. But Hooker and Adams, would those two guys both be first round oh yeah absolutely yeah as it as it stands right now for the last month or so those two guys have been in the top six or seven on our drafts so we have last year last year when i was writing for draft wire adams stuck out to me like a sore thumb. And at that time, he wasn't even considered the best safety on the LSU football team. And so I was watching him and really liked him, wrote a piece about him, like watch out for this dude next year because he's a killer. And then I forgot that I wrote it and then kind of read through it, you know, maybe a month or so ago,

and I thought, man, I didn't even give him – and I praised the hell out of him on the article, and I thought I didn't even give him as much credit as he probably deserved. So I was happy about that. Yeah, good call. Picking out random talent, you know. So at round three, this guy's gotwis neal d line out of lsu at pick 80 for the colts i have no idea no i don't i don't i don't i mean ballard wants defensive

defensive guys that work in the trenches and and he probably has his mind focused on what he wants now and here's the other thing that goes along with that he talked about having a you know uh i don't want to kumbaya thing but he wants to make sure that the coach and the defensive coordinator and the offensive coordinator on the offensive side they're all on the same sheet of music how far does that extend you know when does ballard put his foot down over the coach and over the offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, to make sure that his guy is the one that comes to Indy because he thinks he's got a better feel? Where's that line going to be drawn? We don't know yet, and we won't know

for this year, the next year, and the year after, because we'll never know until all those stories come out after the fact, like they are on Bill Poyan and Ryan Grigson, you know, in recent days. So, so who knows? He may say that he wants to build in the trenches through the draft and then he may not get the chance to the first year or two because of trying to get along with the coaches. Is that, is that really going to be the case? I don't know. I don't think so. I don't think so either. I mean, but that's what he makes it sound like in the press initially,

and you've got to kind of wonder, well, how serious is this guy? Right. Well, and I believe that he's a teamer, but I also believe that when it comes down to it, it's like, yeah, this is still my job to get fired for, and I'm going to do what I think is going to win football games and bring in the best. And especially with a coach who was on the brink the last couple years anyhow.

Right, exactly. I'm not trusting him to tell me who he stood on the table apparently for one of them was T.J. Green apparently, but I think the other one was DeJune Smith. Right. Yeah, and for all you Colts fans that really wanted John Gruden, he stood on the table for DeJune Smith too. He ain't any smarter than Pagano, so get off of Gruden already for God's sake. Well, we can't go around pointing at the misses because we've all had them.

Yeah, but I didn't see it with him anyways. I mean, not like I'm the elite talent evaluator. I'm just simply saying I didn't understand the pick because I actually watched a lot of tape on Smith, and it didn't make any sense to me, nor could I figure out why they wanted to bring in a guy who's primarily a zone corner and bringing him in into a press man scheme. You know, that just made no sense to me.

And I didn't see it on tape either, I mean, as far as skill-wise. But here's your running back here, and I've seen him a lot too. In round four, this guy grabs Wayne Gallman out of Clemson. Gallman? Yep, I've heard a lot about him. I've watched little to no tape on any running backs simply because I don't really think that it's going to be wise, nor do I think Bauer's going to make a move before round three or four

on a running back anyhow. He might. I like it in this round. Yeah, it's not too bad. I personally wouldn't take any in all seven rounds, and people were laughing at me the other day about that because if you're going to go best available, at some point you think through seven rounds,

there's going to be a running back that's the best available talent. Why would you pass that over? Okay, so the best running back available in round six is, let's say, slot 167, and you have a defensive player that's probably going to be pretty good rotationally at 168. What's the higher need, defensive player or the running back? We've said all along defense is the main selection focus this year in this draft. So why would you take a running back in the sixth, one slot ahead of a defensive player

you know you could plug in rotationally and get some usage out of? So to take a running back because you need a running back somewhere along the line, that doesn't make much sense to me. Yep. All right. I'm looking at another one now. They got Dalvin Cook going to the Colts in the first, Desmond King, your boy, in the second. Wow. Really? Yeah. Yeah. I thought that was pretty high too. But we get to Marcus May out of Florida, six foot 207 safety. I think that's a little high for him as well. Let's see. Let's look at where Marcus is on our board.

We've got him at 58. Yeah. Now he's dropped a few knots. He's dropped down five between this big board and the last. But we still have Williams ahead of him as the fifth overall safety behind Hooker, Adams, Peppers, and Baker. But, yeah, Marcus May we currently have at sixth, so it's not too outlandish. And, again, he might be one of those guys that once you start looking at tape of him,

you can see why people are a little bit higher on him than, say, Josh Harvey Clemons, the 6'4 safety out of Louisville, which is an intriguing, a whole other intriguing story altogether, a 6'4 safety out of Louisville, which is an intriguing, a whole other intriguing story altogether, a 6'4 safety. Right. Yeah, 6'4, 230. I was thinking somebody like Belichick or somebody might take a chance on him and beef him up a little bit moving to linebacker.

Yeah, but, I mean, from what I understand, that dude's got some speed too. Yeah, situational edge rusher or something like that. Yeah, but I mean, from what I understand, that dude's got some speed, too. Yeah, situational edge rusher or something like that. Yeah, yeah. But not only that, but you've got that kind of a guy in the middle of your defense. Man, that just screams, depending on his angles and stuff like that, how polished he is as far as at the safety position. But that's a guy right there that can flat out be your enforcer where you can go single high quite a bit.

And I mean, that guy's going to cover a lot of ground, but he's got a lot of length and he's going to hurt people. You know, there's not much more you could ask for in the middle there. As long as his fundamentals are anything at all. So speaking of safeties, there's two that I've started hearing Chatter about for a later round

That are moving up a little bit Josh Jones from North Carolina State And what's the guy from Connecticut, Obi Melafonwu I think is his name I've heard some good stuff about those two Haven't watched anything on them I want to get to them and Harvey Clemens as well

I know that Kyle Krabs and Joe Marino from Locked On NFL Draft, and they also write at FanRag, they're really high on him. And John Johnson from Boston College has gotten a few mentions in the past week or two, and he moved up our board five spots in the last go-round. So there's some good safety players out there and, and those might be the guys in rounds four, five, six that you're, you're actually adding to your defense. And you don't know right now that they're going to be a, an impact player that could

turn out to be a difference maker down the, down the road once they get a feel for the NFL level football. Right. So let me ask you this. Perfect world, first round Indianapolis Colts. The draft can go any way you want it. Who's your pick? Miles Garrett. Okay.

You said any way I want it, right? I did. I'm an idiot. Let's go outside of the top five guys that seem to be fairly cemented into that top five draft slot. I mean, for the most part, they are. Let's go outside of the top five. Again, there's nobody that the Colts – there's several. I mean, if Reuben Foster, I would take him.

Solomon Thomas, I'd go ahead and take a chance on him as well. Probably would go ahead with – well, I'd definitely go with Marshawn Lattimore. We've got him as the sixth overall pick now, the corner out of Ohio State. And then Jamal Adams from LSU, the safety, he's at number seven. With all those safety guys in the latter part of our big board, the potential that they might have as a late pick and coming up and be a diamond in the rough, I don't know that I want to go first-round draft on a safety either.

Right. Who's the guy out of that bunch that you think could make the biggest impact, though, for the Colts? Oh, it's hard to say. I mean, the safe pick I would think would be Reuben Foster because we need linebackers. He's solid.

I think he'd be a good help for the Colts. I just don't see, other than him and Thomas, I just don't see other than him and Thomas I just don't see anybody and Lattimore like I said the corner those would be the three guys out of the four that we mentioned that would be pretty cool to have right off the bat

if we couldn't have anybody like a Myles Geer or a Jonathan Allen right and I wrote a piece that we kind of spoke about off the air about Colts going offensive line early. But let's say one of these offensive linemen are the best available, regardless of where we're at, first or second and third round, or whatever it is.

Which one do you take? Well, if we're talking about the first round, the only, I think, Robinson. And I ask this because there seems to be an issue with all of them. Yeah. Every single one of them has an issue. We can say that about any player in the draft, really. There's always going to be something about somebody that could be a red flag or has a potential red flag or used to have a red flag. I mean, we go back and talk about McKinley from UCLA

and what's the deal with his shoulder? Derek Barnett, what's his deal? You know, you just, I don't hear anything negative about the dude from Utah though. I don't know. Well, that we know of yet. I mean, there's two. Right. I mean, I'm talking health concerns off the field. And then, cause I mean, you've got Cam Robinson, who's got all the stuff off the field. You've got the injury with Ramsey. I mean, you've got, it seems like a lot of the bigger guys, better guys, uh, seem to have the more issues, uh, whether it's an injury or off the field. Now, do you think, uh, let's say maybe Forrest Lamp or Feeney, those interior linemen, those guards, would be worth drafting before tackle? Or would you rather go tackle to kind of solidify the off chance that something happens with Costanzo or basically none of the guys that the Colts currently have that can play tackle work out.

Yeah, well, we were talking earlier about that. Let's just say that there was nobody that the Colts could plug in and play immediately on the defense because they'd already been selected picks 1 through 13. So you're left with running back, wide receiver, and Cam Robinson. So you go Cam Robinson. That's not a bad pick because Cam Robinson is a starting right tackle immediately opposite Costanzo. So then maybe you go to the second round, and same thing happens again.

You've got defensive guys that are missing because people picked ahead of you, and now you're left with wide receiver, punter, which we need actually. And some other positions that aren't high on the priority list and now we're sitting there looking at a guy like deon dawkins the guard from temple this guy is tough man i mean he has a few technique flaws that i think philbin can help correct but otherwise dudes he's like a snowplow man he's nasty really yeah he's a road grader he plays offensive tackle in college but you move him inside to right guard, and now look what you have.

Costanzo, Newark, Kelly, Deion Dawkins, and then Cam Robinson on the right-hand side. Now you have a brand-new starting five for the next 10 years. Right. And look who you have at depth. You've got Good. You've got Clark. I mean, that would be pretty cool. Andrew Luck would be happy if they pan out.

Right. That's always the case. Now, that's why I ask about the guards, because you were the guy that got me turned on to Gabe Jackson a couple years ago when he came in the draft. And the more I watched the tape on him you know I was like okay this is the guy that the Colts should probably grab and then of course you know the Raiders get him Colts pass on him and you know stupidity reigns again when it

when it comes in because there was some talent you know obviously and this has kind of been the reoccurring effect is that there is, and then you see the guys drafted after them, and it's like, yeah, all pro, you know, pro bowl, you know, or just really good, or just good. And then the guy that the Colts pick, you know, typically, not typically, that's overshooting, but a good percentage of the time, more percentage of the time than we'd like to admit. They falter, they get hurt repetitively.

You know, something's wrong off the field that they can't deal with the stuff on the field. I mean, it's just been crazy. In fairness to Ryan Grigson, those dudes were being injured like every time they stepped onto the practice field, it seemed like. There was another three to an offensive lineman. So had they not been injured, would they have panned out? Who knows? But that's the NFL. You've got to deal with that.

I don't think his depth was good enough to help him out with the injuries of the guys that he picked to start. So that was part of the problem. But it just seemed like every time he turned around, another offensive lineman. And this isn't new to Ryan Grixen. Hell, it's happened with Bill Pullian for a lot of the times too. I mean, you go back 10, 15 years. Well, what was the lineman we lost before the season ever started? And he was a number one pick.

I can't think of the guy's name. I think he was out of – was it BYU or – Are you talking about Idgelaar? No, this was back in the – I can't think of his name. I think he was out of was it BYU? Are you talking about Idgela? No, this was back in the I can't think of his name. No, he was from Nebraska. He might have been a defensive lineman. I can't remember. He never got to play for the Colts. He retired before the season ever started and he was like a number one or number two

pick. I think he was a number one pick. But anyhow, that seems to be the kind of luck that the Colts have had with linemen for a long time, except when they finally settled down for Bill Pullian for a while. I mean, in that line, for a lot of the time, there were some questions about it at first. But they settled down and became pretty decent. I would like to see a little more of that outside zone running scheme that they used to do a little bit of, actually quite a bit of, when, like you said, they did a little bit of it with Edge as well,

and they did a little bit of it with Joseph Adai in there as well. That's effective, man. The biggest loss for the Colts when Pullen was let go, or fired, or whatever you want to say, was when we lost Mudd as the offensive line coach. Yeah. I mean, that was catastrophic as far as I'm concerned for the Colts because that guy had it wrapped up solid all the time for Indianapolis. And it helped him that Peyton was so dependable too, game in, game out,

week to week, year to year. That whole system, you know, being able to depend on those same guys over and over again, you don't get that very often. So that was kind of like, you know, heaven for most offensive line coaches to get that kind of dependability and consistency. Yeah, that's true. Well, let's wrap this up real quick. We're pushing into an hour or better right now. Yeah, we're just chatting. So yeah, this is good stuff. Of course it is. But you know, there's only so many seven round mocks out there right now.

So, I mean, we kind of got to go through and just look at them. I mean, as far – and it's not really so much important on who the player is once you get past the second or third round. It's more about position at this point and seeing who these guys are targeting. You know, and to be fair, don't get all bent out of shape uh guys about what guy is being mocked to the colts in the second round third round fourth round just understand that a lot of these guys are going with what they see and they don't watch our team as much as we do so and that doesn't necessarily mean that they're wrong or right.

It just simply means that they're definitely going to have a different perspective on the roster than we do. I think of any of the mocks that you see, as long as they're hitting on the basic top three needs, position-wise, that the Colts need, and we all know it's the edge rusher, the linebacker, and the corner, those are basically the three tops. And we can throw in a d lineman if you

want but i don't think that's as imperative as the other three and then maybe later in the draft a running back at some point late as long as you're doing that but to put a running back up with the first pick when the colts are in such disarray defensively i that's that's the folks that lose me and there's a lot doing that right now, but again, it's still very early and free agency hasn't kicked in. So we don't know which direction Chris Ballard is going to go in free agency. Yeah, that's right. And free agency is going to be huge in determining just about everything, to be honest with you. I mean, that's the part I can't wait for it because I've got the combine coming up at the end of the month, the beginning of next month. And then just a few days after that free agency just explodes. And that's when we're really

going to find out what holes that, uh, I mean, basically by process of elimination, we're going to find out what holes Ballard wants to fill with the draft by what he filled in free agency. So, uh, it should give us a little bit better of a gauge of where he's going to attack the draft by how he attacks the agency. I agree. That will be interesting to see. And with a guy like him, I just think everybody's interested to see what he does to begin with.

First-year guy, lots of praise about him and everything, lots of praise, you know, uh, about him and everything, uh, around the NFL. So it'll be good to see. Well, folks. Yep. A lot of excitement. Most definitely guys. We're going to check out for the evening. I will not be having shows, um, for the most part on Wednesdays. Sometimes I may surprise you and you may get one in your feed, uh, but otherwise just subscribe that way, you you know one way or the other whether you guys are going to get one or not. But I will be back Thursday. Make sure you guys are following Locked on Colts on Twitter. You can get me at mdanley__nfl.

You can always email me at lockedoncoltspod at gmail.com. Rick, where can everybody catch you on Twitter? Rick isn't the biggest Twitter presence, you guys, but he is criminally under-followed, though, as well. I pick and choose my moments. Unless the Colts in Purdue are melting down like usual, then you'll see me a lot. But I'm at drafttechcolts on Twitter.

And then if you go on the drafttech site, there's a listing of all the analysts there in the box that you can send an email to and tell me what you think of any of the picks or of any of the prospects that we haven't picked that you think ought to be in a certain position. Be loving to hear from any of you. Yeah. And if you guys haven't checked out Draft Tech, please do that. Really interesting. You can kind of see where each of these guys have jumped or fallen in the past few days or the week or or just everything there's uh bios on there and and just all sorts of stuff great website for you guys to go check out lots of information to digest and something that you guys like i said

these guys do this every week so uh there's going to be something new for you every single week you get on there. It's not just the mock draft. It's not just going to be copied and pasted on there every week. There's going to be a new one. And they're going to have the alternates, and that's great stuff. Rick, thanks for joining me, man. Great talk to you. Always fun, Matt.

Appreciate you having me. Look forward to doing it again. Absolutely. And we will do it again. And we will talk to you guys all on Thursday 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. game.