Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - LOCKED ON COLTS -2/14- Draft Talk Tuesday With Shane Alexander (@Alexander1Great)

Episode Date: February 14, 2017

Shane Alexander of Inside the Pylon runs Matt through his Elite-11 prospects to this point, discusses his first mock draft of the season and explains who he mocked to the #Colts and why. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Learn more about our healthy benefits at fepblue.org slash getmore. No, I'm not for sale. You are lockeded On Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back to Locked On Colts, ladies and gentlemen. I'm your host, Matt Dainley. And today we are going to get right back into the draft stuff. We're on the line here with Shane Alexander.

He is a draft analyst from inside the pylon. Shane, how you doing, my man? Man, it's good to be on. I'm doing great. I'm glad we finally got together. We're going to talk a little draft shop. Absolutely. I'm excited to see what you've got for us.

And I definitely, as just a front note here, I definitely enjoyed your most recent mock. It was your first mock, actually, on the season so far. But I really enjoyed it, a lot of the picks I went through. And from everything that I've seen and just kind of what I read on your article there, it seemed like a very realistic mock, whereas a lot of them are kind of shock mocks, you know, to get people interested to come back for the second one and so on. I, on the other hand, really enjoy reading one and seeing picks that I feel would be realistic for those teams also, not just to drive the conversation necessarily, but the top of this draft is top-heavy.

We've talked about that. What are some of the biggest names in your elite group that you've got maybe there for that top half of the draft? Sure. Based on everything I've got so far, I've highlighted 11 names for you. I was telling you off-air, got my my um my draft chart broken down positionally but i don't have it structured in a big board format yet uh but i've got 11 names that i think are the upper tier of this draft it starts with miles garrett from texas a&m

um in mobile for the senior bowl a couple weeks ago you know anybody i could talk to about the browns they all said they thought miles was going number one i think most people agree if he's not the best he's in the top two um john allen from alabama the strides that he made from his junior to senior year becoming maybe the most complete defensive player in college football i think he's scheme versatile you could play him at three five or even like a six tech um you know i think his best fit is probably three tech in the nfl but i think he's an elite player the two safeties everybody likes jamal adams malik cooker um one strong one free and then there's a lot of edge players solomon thomas from michigan state

malik mcdowell from uh michigan state although he may have some red flags off the field tim williams from alabama very high end player he may have some red flags off the field um and then you've got reuben foster from bama oj howard from bama uh marshall latimore the cornerback from ohio state and then cory davis is my top wide receiver from from western michigan so those are the 11 players that i think if you had to go in and say we want to we're picking the top 10 we got to get an elite guy any of those guys you're going to feel good about getting that top half of the first round. One of those guys that you brought up, Malik McDowell, has been a guy that I've heard a lot about a lot lately.

Yeah. When you went through your mock and you got to the Colts there at 15, you got Tim Williams out of Alabama going there. What kept you from sending Malik McDowell to the Colts I just thought Williams was a a little bit more of an explosive type edge rusher that the Colts have traditionally drafted and I realize the regime now is different than when the Freeneys and the Mathis is played there uh but I still think what they're trying to do schematically Williams fits better I think he's more of a I think he's a little bit better

overall player but really it comes down to scheme fit I just think Tim Williams fits better. I think he's a little bit better overall player, but really it comes down to scheme fit. I just think Tim Williams fits what the Colts are, what I think the Colts are going to be looking to do going forward. Chris Ballard coming over, he knows how to assemble edge players. He's been around some good teams. I think Williams is the type of guy that can be a 34 outside linebacker and then sub packages can be that edge rusher off the corner. So Malik is a heck of a player.

Like I said, my mock was trying to be predictive, and from everything I'm hearing, there's some flags coming up heavy about Malik, so I had him sliding a little bit. And Tony Poling, who's a guy that I trust a lot, he's sort of an insider, he thinks Williamsiams's red flags are going to be alleviated by draft time and i think in the the 10 to 15 range is where he'll fall so that's where i that's where i went now there's a ton of options here for the colts early in the first couple rounds i mean they've really got a lot of uh glaring holes and when you

look at uh kind of what we were talking about off air briefly when you look at even a guy like arthur jones who now that the colts have released dequell jackson freed up five and a half million in cap space arthur jones is a guy that you can see he's going to free up another 5.2 or so um if they were to let him go and by all accounts i just don't see a reason why they would keep him okay so they're really not only on their edges and in the line, and I mean, basically their entire front seven needs a complete facelift after this point, a lot of additions are going to have to be made, whether it be free agency and, uh, and, and through the draft. So it's hard for me to kind of see them going offensive line or running back early in the first round there.

But what are a couple guys in that front seven that you think outside of Williams and maybe even McDowell, like you said, who would be that kind of a game changer? What kind of another player in that front seven as a whole might be somebody that they would get in the first round or even possibly would be able to be on the board still in round two? Yeah, I'll start with the round two question. I think Chris Warmly from Michigan is the type of player that would replace Arthur Jones really nicely if they're looking for that guy that can be a 5-tech-3 type of hybrid that plays on the inside of their edge. He had a really nice senior bowl.

I was extremely impressed with him down here in Mobile. So he's a kid that I think is going to be a day two pick. And this defensive tackle class is not as deep as years past. I think it's kind of high end. If you pass on him early day two, I think early day three, Isaac Rochelle from Notre Dame is another kid who earned himself money in Mobile, five tech type, type of three-tech hybrid that would fit that Arthur Jones role if they get rid of him. So there's a couple of kids that would be cheaper and allow you to go to the more premier position like Ed Rusher.

Let's just say that Tim Williams doesn't check out the red flags. We never know exactly how a kid is. We're not privy to that information to the full extent let's say they pass on a tim williams and they want a more traditional 34 outside linebacker tack mckinley from ucla i think is going to be there as well and the more i watch him the more i'm a big fan i've currently got him as my sixth rated edge player right now which is still like a mid first round grade this class is so top heavy um tack would be a good option as well and let's say that they let's say they go cornerback or they go defensive tackle

or something like that in round one, and they get to round two and want to address an edge rusher. Derek Rivers from Youngstown State made himself a ton of money in Mobile. And if he's there in round two, he's not a bargain. He's not a knockoff, an off-brand. He's not something to be disappointed about. He is a potential stud player that could fall to the second round, and that would be a heck of a pick for the Colts.

I love him. Actually, I just put up an article the other day. In fact, today it just went up, and I added Derek Rivers in there to some of the guys they could get past the first round depending on what they did, or even regardless of what they did really, whether it was the opportunity for them to double dip at this point on edge guys or whatever.

But Rivers was a guy that I really liked. And just, you know, I'm not you. I'm not a scout. I don't see the finer points a lot of times in a lot of these guys during draft season. But I'll read you real quick a paragraph of what I wrote about him, that he's another exceptional guy with exceptional length who possesses enough power to barrel through his first assignment at times,

but also has really good explosion. Rivers does well with waiting for the last moment to show his hands, gives his initial move quality potential to succeed. Similar to Willis, which was another guy that I had put on this list out of Kansas State that I liked, his power and stuff. Rivers is well-versed, keeping his eyes on the ball while attacking the passer initially, and does well when disengaging to pursue the ball carrier. Overall, I felt like he was just a really interesting guy. When you watch these pass rushers a lot of times, you're seeing their run snaps as well.

At times, it can be less than impressive because you're seeing them eyeball the ball carrier a lot of times. But when you see these guys explode off the line when they're in a pure pass rush opportunity, man, Rivers jumps off the screen, I think. Yeah, that's a good point I think he made about waiting until the last minute to get his hands up. That was a trait he showed in Mobile. And the tackles that were there were average, I'll say that. But they were overwhelmed by that aspect of his game. I know that there's a couple of guys I was watching practices with in the All-22 perspective, and we noticed that.

So that's a good point by you. And Jordan Willis is another guy that I think is a more of a third round guy I think probably for me but in that second round range if you have a guy you go pick a guy you know that that would be a nice pick as well and then the Eric Walden role you know we were talking off there you said they may bring him back even if they did bring him back or maybe they decided they didn't. T.J. Watt from Wisconsin, he's not a true edge, I don't think. I think he's more of a Sam player. But if they want a 34 outside linebacker that plays smart,

plays hard, aggressive in their run game, T.J. Watt would be another guy that I think in that round two or three range that would be good. So they're going to have options. I hope they go edge in the first round prior to free agency, not knowing what we don't know. But if they i hope they go edge in the first round prior to free agency not knowing what we don't know but uh if they decide to go elsewhere they're gonna get a there's guys available around two and three uh worth their while now tj watt was a guy that uh for all

intents and purposes maybe it was because of limited film and i he was just a slim guy. I saw a slim guy playing edge that I didn't think would be able to attack the middle when asked to do so. He does have a lot of length, and I think he's a good player. But I guess just from some of the other guys that I saw that had so much power and had similar speed, I guess, with bigger body types, I felt like that he was maybe down a notch or so for me. Just instant analysis, I guess, is what I'm getting at here. Sure, sure. From where, like you said, Jordan Willis was a guy that I felt was just,

man, I don't know. I really liked him. I liked him a lot. And another guy was Terrell Basham, maybe later on in the draft, and even Keontae Davis out of Chattanooga a little bit later in the draft. But those guys, I thought they had a good combination of speed and power and size, whereas Watt, like I said, it was more than likely with limited film that I was able to get a hold of. But he just seemed a little slight to me, although very good attacking skills.

It's in his blood for sure. No, that's a good point. He's not the Williams or the McKinley or even the Rivers. He's a different style of linebacker. And I would definitely look at the other names we talked about first in rounds one or two over him. I view him more as a mid-round guy. I know some people in the community like him early, but Watts more of a mid-round. He's a team-building type of player.

He's not going to be a cornerstone player under defense. Right. Now, if you could throw out a couple names there that you think might even be first-round opportunities, let's say a cornerback for the Colts there in the middle of the first i really like marshawn latimore i don't think he's going to be available by the time the colts pick so i don't even want to start a pipe dream there's the one guy that i think would would fit right where they pick is sydney jones from washington i'm a huge fan of him he's probably my number two cornerback. You could do a lot worse than Sidney in a really deep cornerback class. I just think he's a future Pro Bowl-type talent. And the Colts, we talked about it off air.

God knows they need a guy that's young, that's got a high ceiling, and that can stay healthy. And for all we know, Sidney Jones has been that guy at Washington, and I don't see a reason to think he won't continue to develop that. So if he's not there, Quincy Wilson or Tease Tabor, the two Florida guys, and then let's just say they don't go cornerback in round one. Garyon Conley is probably my favorite round two corner from Ohio State. He's no slouch at all.

He's not getting talked about in that mid-first range, but where the Colts are picking in round two, him or Tredavious White are the two quarterbacks that I think are going to make some team very happy by waiting because of the depth of this quarterback class and picking them up in round two. Yeah, just to backtrack just a touch on that, or not on that, but on the other one, and I forgot to ask this. That's the only reason I'm cutting through. But with the possibility of Arthur Jones being gone, and I've heard people, in my opinion, project Solomon Thomas in a role that he's really not that guy. Would he be a good opportunity there at defensive end with, I mean, almost an Arthur Jones type or to at least take over that role, do you think,

if the Colts were to go that route? I think you could play him there, but I really think he's an undersized, as far as height goes, edge player. But with so much of sub-package being played in the NFL today, you could do a lot worse than Solomon Thomas. I talked with Mike Kay. He's the Jacksonville Jaguars beat writer. He was on our podcast this past week.

He mocked Solomon Thomas to the Jaguars at four. I mocked him at 17. If Thomas may not make it to the Colts pick, he's one of the risers of this class. But I think if you're wanting to look at it in base, and if you played base 80% of the time, which you don't, I don't know if Thomas would be – he'd be more of a square and a round hole in my opinion. But sub-package-wise, yeah, I think he'd make a lot of teams a lot better.

I don't know if he's really going to be the more Arthur Jones style. I think Chris Wormley, the guy that I mentioned originally, I think he fits that more traditional role. But again, with sub-package play, positions are sort of a construct. They're very fluid. But yeah, Solomon Thomas, high in talent. Him and Malik McDowell are both very similar to me. McDowell's a bigger player, but Thomas doesn't have any red flags.

He's the second youngest player in the draft, I believe. And so there's a lot to be appealing. There's a lot appealing about him. You know, kind of we talked a little bit off the air, and we did compare, you know, the first year of T.J. Green to that of, you know, a certain defensive player of the year candidate in New York at safety. Yeah. There was – I think that, like you mentioned,

I think the casual Colts fan just thinks he's garbage. And I'm not a fan of TJ Green, and I'll even preface that by saying yet. Yeah. My problem with him was not so much where he was when he was on a too high situation. My problem with him was when he was coming down playing a nickel coverage role on a tight end or just whoever, and he couldn't stay in coverage while shadowing even a tight end and stuff like that. That, to me, is the bigger issue as opposed to how he rolls in coverage to help out one of the corners or something of that sort is there is maybe a lot of people may not want to give up on him yet and i understand that as well too because he does a fine job coming up and run support but the colts

definitely depending on what they do with darius butler if they bring him back in this year as a safety and then they still have possibly pop adams back there the the un the guy who never ages you know uh they they still need a safety i think no matter what in this draft where do you find value versus the pick uh in this draft with the safeties uh lorenzo jerome from saint francis would be a guy that i would love the Colts to draft if they want to add a safety to either pair with T.J. Green or to be insurance policy in case he doesn't work out. I thought Jerome was one of the more under-the-radar players at the Senior Bowl. He had a spectacular game with two picks, but he's a ball hawk. He plays center field well, and he did well in coverage in mandrills, seven-on-seven and such during the practice.

And I think he is going to be the steel of the mid-rounds at safety. Everybody knows about the top-heavy guys. After that, it kind of falls off. And if you're trying to find value, he would be the guy. So if you're a Colts fan wanting safety in the mid-rounds, Lorenzo Jerome from St. Francis would be where I'd go. Interesting, because they're going to still have Clayton Gethers, but I think they're similar to how they're talking about moving Butler to safety from corner, that there's been some whispers about Clayton Gethers possibly moving up into a more

traditional linebacker role for the Colts there. So it's kind of seemed like they're playing a little bit of musical chairs with their positions, and and their guys that they feel that are a little more able to branch out into another position. But, you know, if they do keep Gathers in their safety, then they really have to stack up on linebackers and vice versa. If they bring him up into linebackers, that eliminates a need there, but they're going to have to go to the top of the defense there in the secondary and try to figure out somebody in the middle of the field that can really make a difference as well. These guys have so many holes, but we haven't even talked about the running back position. Dalvin Cook has been mocked to the Colts multiple times in the past

couple weeks. I try to reserve, kind of like what we talked about earlier, I tried to reserve my anger if they were to do something that I felt wasn't defensive related that early in the draft. But Cook has some special features, and it would be hard to get upset about that. It's not a Philip Dorsett first round pick where it's like, whoa, that guy's like, you know, maybe sixth in his class, even though he was actually drafted sixth amongst the wide receivers. You know, he was drafted exactly where he was expected to be in relation to other wide receivers in that class. But this isn't that kind of a pick. Cook is a phenomenal running back in this position, but you don't have him in your top, that top little 11 elite group yet where do you have well he's right there below it i mean he's absolutely going to have a first round grade from me i think he's a spectacular talent uh he's probably going to finish as my

top graded running back um joe mixon's off field is is so toxic that it's it you feel uncomfortable putting him as the top running back and of course i've asked some questions about fournette's lateral ability and i think he's maybe a little bit more lumbering Adrian Peterson. I don't mean that as a negative. I just mean you've got to try to check marks and make a hierarchy, and you've got to ding players for stuff, and Cook has the least amount of dings. He's a special talent.

I think he catches out of the backfield. I think he can pass block. He's shifty. He's got incredible patience. He's shifty. He's got incredible patience. He's got bursts. It's everything, right? And so if the Colts were going to take a running back in the first round, and I hope they don't and maybe you hope they don't,

but let's just say they do, take the right one. And the right one, I think, would be Dalvin Cook for what that offense wants to do. He's a special guy. He's a special player. The only thing that I've heard on him outside of the off-field stuff, which seems to be cleared up, is he does have some concern about his shoulder. I think that a lot of high-end scouts and teams are going to look forward to the combine and see how healthy that shoulder is

because you want your running back to be probably the healthiest player on the team considering the wear and tear on their body so that'd be the only thing I think that would bring him down quickly and you maybe we're going to go to this but let's say they don't draft running back in the first round I've highlighted two running backs for you that I think in the mid rounds would be there and be a great running back too for Gore maybe even overtake him at the end of the year Jamal Williams from BYU and Marlon Mack from South Florida. I think both of those guys are aggressive runners. I think they have exceptional vision.

They're both going to be in my top seven unless the combine changes things. So I should say heading into the combine, they're both in my top seven running backs. And this class is deep, and there's incredible value to be mined. Some guys are going to fall because of um and this class is deep and there's incredible value to be mined and some guys are going to fall because of how deep this class is those two could be among the several that do and so if the Colts are trying to find value at the position Jamal Williams and Marlon Mack would be uh would be incredible values that's kind of it's so interesting with this uh class like you say you know uh deep running back deep edge rush, deep defensive line, and deep at the corner position.

And those are all needs for the Colts. So they're really going to have to figure out what they consider to be good value for not an early round pick for several positions. It's going to be real interesting to see where they decide to go. But one of the things you were talking about there with Cook's shoulder, once he does get to the combine, if any red flags go up over that, that's going to drop him almost immediately, at least on – and let me put it this way, at least the way that teams talk about him in the public, they're going to want to point those out

because if they're going to take a risk on him, they want to be the one to take a risk on him sure um and that could you know that could that could have him fall to maybe the second round early day too um i know it seems like the nfl really likes kristen mccaffrey which i'm a huge fan of and it seems like they they are very high on four net so any red flag could could drop cook down um and maybe that he's maybe he's there um in the second round something were to happen but as far as i know just based on what we know today you know i think he's going to go somewhere between uh carolina at eight and i would say the giants at 23 i know that's a

big gap but i think he fits into the middle of the first round somewhere yeah i like i said i i think that i'd have to reserve uh being too upset about them bringing cook in and you know what one of the first round somewhere. Yeah, like I said, I think that I'd have to reserve being too upset about them bringing Cook in. And you know what? One of the things that they did for Peyton Manning early in his career was bring in Edrin James. Correct. And that worked out pretty well for them.

So it's hard to really tell because you never really know who's going to stay healthy, who's going to actually turn into that kind of a player once they get into the league. And if they find that they feel Dalvin Cook is that much of a home run, then, you know, I'm just going to have to roll with it at the beginning of Chris Ballard's tenure here in Indianapolis, because instantly, without even doing anything other than cutting DeQuell Jackson, he has basically all the trust from Colts fans in the world. And I guess that's kind of the

natural progression when you go from Ryan Grigson to a guy who's talked about so highly in league circles in Chris Ballard. So, Shane, thank you so much for joining me, man. This was fantastic stuff. Really, really enjoyed your first mock. Can't wait to see the second one. Can you tell everybody where they can catch you on Facebook? I mean, if you've got a page on Facebook, you can tell them that too.

Or Twitter. And tell them about your podcast on Facebook, you can tell them that too. Or Twitter. Tell them about your podcast over there at Inside the Pylon as well. Yeah, so you can find my work at InsideThePylon.com. You can follow me on Twitter at Alexander1Great. You can listen to our podcast, Pylon U, the letter U, on iTunes and SoundCloud. We do one or two a week. My co-host, Chef Fair, is a heck of a guy. We do college football in season.

We transitioned to entire draft now. And so it was fun, man. I appreciate you having me on. And closer to the draft or after the draft, I'll be happy to come back. Absolutely. We'd love to have you. Thank you guys all for listening.

I appreciate your kind words, your comments, and all of your ratings and reviews on iTunes. They're just filling up, and I couldn't be more excited to see them. So thank you all for listening. We'll check you guys all out tomorrow right here on Locked on Colts. You are Locked on Colts, your daily podcast on the Indianapolis Colts, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day.

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