Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - LOCKED ON COLTS -2/16- Unconventional Options In Free Agency Still Make Sense During Rebuild W/@gmbremer

Episode Date: February 16, 2017

Our good friend George Bremer comes back to discuss who's possibly next on the chopping block, to talk unconventional additions to the roster in free agency and why a rebuild isn't a one-year project #Colts 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 tonight we welcome back George Bremer into the conversation and his dog. So we are going to have a three-way conversation here and see what his dog has to say about this as well.

But for right now, George and I are going to kick this off. And we got a couple different things we want to talk to you guys about. We're going to go over a couple key guys that we kind of think, not key necessarily as in the grand scheme of things, but a couple guys that may be the unconventional thought of bringing into the Indianapolis Colts. And we'll kind of see what George thinks about this. And I wrote an article about it yesterday. And I would assume that if the common thought is prevailing throughout that a lot of people are against this.

But I'm going to give you guys an argument as to why I think it's okay, and I think George might be on board here with a couple of these thoughts. So, George, first of all, how are you doing tonight, my man? Great. It's nice to finally kind of settle into the offseason, and I'm thinking it's probably going to last about two weeks, and we're going to really ramp up here as we start to get into the draft season proper. Yep.

I'm excited to get down to the Combine, eat down there at Buca di Beppo, get me some good eats, and kind of just mingle around and try to find people to talk to. It's always great to go into the hotel or to get people in and out and sit down and have dinner with some people and just kind of pick their brains down there. Really, you wouldn't think that the Combine would be that fun, but I really enjoy going down there every year

just because of the conversations, if nothing else. Oh, absolutely. There's everybody in one place. That doesn't happen very often. I mean, maybe the Senior Bowl to an extent, the Super Bowl definitely, and the Combine, and that's about it. You get pretty much the whole league, all the decision makers, everybody in the same place at the same time.

It always makes for some interesting conversations, some interesting moments. I absolutely agree. I had a really good time down there the last couple years. I can't wait to get down there again. So whether I'll be behind the closed doors and whatnot is still left to be determined, but I'm not so worried about that. The rest of the stuff is better when everybody is away from interviews and whatnot like that. So first thing I wanted to bring up with you is the Colts obviously are going to need some extra guys

on this team. And I think the common thought, George, is that because the Colts need to get younger and Chris Ballard is the GM, that we've all of a sudden got 15 draft picks and that every single free agent under 27 is going to come to the Colts. So therefore by proxy, the Colts are not going to have any 30 year olds on their roster. Well, I think probably if you could give Chris Ballard a lie detector test, you'd love that outcome. But I think he also understands that that's not necessarily reality.

It's one of the things I love about the off season, because I feel like people are just stunned any time the Colts don't sign a free agent. You know, how could this happen? How could they not be interested in this guy? Or how could he not want to come here? And, you know, the reality is not everybody's going to want to play in Indianapolis. Not everyone's going to be fit in Indianapolis.

And it's a limited number of guys anyway. I think you're going to see him be very selective in free agency. It's that old Green Bay model. You learn that from John Dorsey in Kansas City. They're going to dip their toe in where they need to, but I don't think they're going to be big-time players in free agency. It's not really kind of the model that he's going to follow. And the one thing that I think that might keep him away

from being able to be such a big player or the Colts to be a big player in free agency is the fact that a couple of their need areas, I think that Latavius Murray is a very good possibility. If the Colts decide to go that route, they may decide to go through the draft with a running back, which, and to be honest with you, as far as my state of mind goes, I don't care either way. Either way, it would be a good way to me. I both would be fine too, but I'm not too worried about how they decide to go about getting another running back in the building with that regard. But as an edge rusher, we've got some guys here that are free agents.

I think that there's going to be very slim pickings after all the tags are headed out and we actually find out who's hitting free agency. Some of the most notable guys, at least in my opinion, are Nick Perry, who's 26. I'm obviously targeting or have been targeting younger guys that you want to bring in that are available that are still a good player and productive. And Chandler Jones, I don't think there's any way in hell that the Colts get him. I just don't think – whether he gets tagged or otherwise, he's not coming to Indianapolis. There's just no way, shape, or form in my opinion with that. Melvin –

Anyway, Bruce Arians lets him out of Arizona. I think you said as much. Yeah. They'll tag him. They'll do whatever they need to do. They are absolutely strapped for cash there, but he's a guy I don't think they'd want to get rid of. But Melvin Ingram, he's currently available.

He's a guy that I think myself and everybody else would love. And another guy that I think is flying under the radar, and I think maybe you brought this up in one of the podcasts earlier, is John Simon out of Houston. I can't remember if you brought that up or not. But he's the guy that I like. He's definitely the guy I like. Yeah, he's definitely the guy I like.

I think he's one of those under-the-radar kind of guys that was really productive in college in the Big Ten at Ohio State. So you know that he can play against a high caliber of competition. And he's a guy that isn't going to cost you a lot of money and could get you some play. And we talked about this a little bit off the air. You know, more than anything, forget about even the position or the age or anything else.

More than anything, the Colts need some productivity. They need some guys who are going to come in and make plays wherever they are and in whatever way that they do it. Right. And that's the key, ultimately. Like I said, we don't got 15 draft picks. We're not going to get all of these guys signed. In my opinion, Melvin Ingram is going to get tagged one way or another,

whether it's the franchise tag or exclusive tag, just whatever the case is, I don't see him being let out of L.A. I just don't see it happening. Ingram will be interesting only because of Joey Bosa. It'll be interesting to see what they think long-term there. Obviously, you want to have both of them as much as you can and as long as you can, but that's the only part of that that sort of formula out there that makes me wonder you know are they worried about cap space in three or four years here and

how they're going to pay for joey bosa and if if ingram would pop out in a situation like that i think he should be an obvious target for the colts he would get a ton more than what he made in 2016 if they were to tag him. I mean, a ton more. But for them to have bookends there with Bosa and Ingram, I just don't see them wanting to give that up. I mean, that's ultimately the plan for everybody is to have one guy on each side that can play the run and can absolutely just destroy the guy across from him to get to the quarterback. And just my opinion is that they won't let him go. They might let him test free agency, but for now, I'm under the assumption that that's not going to happen. So other than that. You're right about the play-in, too, because, I mean,

we saw it in Indianapolis for years. Right. That's the way it works best, with Freeney and Mathis and trying to have those bookends. And I would think you're right, that the Chargers would. Obviously, Tom Telesco out there is very familiar with that setup and that formula here from Indy. And after Bosa came in and both got healthy

and they got rid of that contract dispute issues at the beginning of the year, he was out of control. I mean, they really had quite a bit of production out of those two guys. Now, the thing that is getting people kind of riled up, I wrote an article about whether the Colts should facilitate a one-year deal with Dwight Freeney for this year. And, you know, a lot of people were saying yes, but a lot of people that were saying yes were saying yes purely out of the love for Dwight Freeney. He is beloved in Indianapolis for what he did. He will always be beloved.

It doesn't matter what team he's on. And that's okay, but this isn't an emotional thing or a feel-good story type of thing for me. My thing for that is that he is, I mean, if you listen to Vic Beasley in Atlanta, he basically credited his ability to increase and get better each day and each week to Dwight Freeney and his being under his tutelage. Now you bring a guy in like that, he had 10 QB hits this past year, three sacks, but he played very little. I mean, he was a situational type pass rusher. He came in and did third down in obvious passing situations and got after the quarterback and looked pretty good doing it for a 36-year-old,

I would say. Made a couple plays and had the sack in the Super Bowl. Absolutely. And, you know, last year, two years ago, I guess I keep saying last year, thinking that I'm talking about 2015. But in 2015, he had eight sacks. He did dip down, but that was due in large part to his snap counts. You know, and like I said, he was a very,

they were very focused on what they wanted to do with him. But there's a guy like Freeney. I mean, you can look at him as a guy who's going to come in, tutor these young guys, because the Colts are definitely going to draft at least one pass rusher. I mean, there's just no way they can't do it. The cupboard is bare right now. They have to.

And they're not going to get more than one in free agency, I think. Is that fair to assume? I would think, yeah. The only way there'd be more than one is if you're looking at really, really inexpensive options. I think you're right. I can't see them going with more than one. But I will say, as far as the need for it, Jim Irsay was talking back as far as August and maybe even July last year about the need for that pass rusher about that being the one thing that they weren't able to bring in this offseason they really kind of had hope to and so I even the owner is really putting that at the very top of the list so I think that's definitely uh it may be like number one through

three on the on a list of needs as you start the offseason. Right. I mean, if they do bring in one in free agency, they're still going to draft at least one, and I would presume two. But then, you know, you've got a guy like Freeney. He was paid a million dollars last year. He wouldn't get paid any more than that if if he did it would be one and a half I mean it would be a purely incentive laced uh contract in my opinion and you bring him in to tutor those guys to to just bull rush and go after the passer on every down he's in the game and then you have him to like I said to tutor those guys and then you have he's cheap I said, to tutor those guys. And then you have he's cheap. He would bring – I mean, you know, this isn't from my perspective, but it is reality.

He would put butts in the seats, and Jim Irsay would like that. I mean, am I totally crazy here with talking about a possible one-year reunion with Vreeny? You know, I don't think it'll happen. It's not something that I'm sure that they would do, but I understand the logic behind it. And I really think the most important part of it to me is the tutelage factor. It's something that people kind of assumed Robert Mathis would fill that role.

Going into the offseason this past year thought that if he had maybe another 8-10 sack season and show that he still had something left that he would get a one year deal to come in and kind of bring that next generation along which is something he's still talking about

wanting to do in some role whether that is as an advisor in training camp or whatever the team can figure out, he's still interested in doing. But right now, you're looking at that position being literally barren of veterans. Everybody with experience is either retired, in Mathis' case, or is a pending free agent, be it Eric Walden, be it Trent Cole. There's nobody on that roster right now who's going to show these kids the ropes. And I think it's kind of, in a way, it could be a perfect marriage here at the end of his career

for Freeney to come back, serve that role, and get the benefit of finishing his career where he started it. Yep, and he talked about when he left out of Indianapolis, when they weren't going to bring him back, that he always thought he was going to retire a Colt. I mean, it brings the feel-good with the make- the make sense all in one if they would even consider it. Like you said, I don't consider it to be likely or anything like that. I just think it's a really thought-provoking argument to look at all of it. Don't look at just the fact that he's going to be 37 next year. Yes, he is, but you're only going to pay him a million dollars, maybe a million five, And if he gets hurt, I mean, he could give up – he could get five sacks next year, 10 to 12 QB hits,

and maybe a 20 to 25% pressure percentage on the plays that he's in the game. That, to me, is a fantastic year for a 37-year-old and just a guy who's not starting on the Indianapolis Colts as a pass rusher. I guarantee you this much. Opposing offenses will know where he's at. They will recognize him before play. They'll make sure that they are aware of when he's in the game and where he is.

And I don't know, at this point in time, I don't know who on that defense you could say that about in Indianapolis. Right. And then you look at some of the other guys that are up for free agency. I'll give you even some of the guys that were somewhat productive this past year. Lorenzo Alexander's 33 out of Buffalo. He had 13 sacks. Pretty productive year. Then you've got Eric Walden. What do you think? Do you think they bring him back? Before the GM change, I thought there was a really good chance of it because he's one of the guys that you could kind of point to

as on the success side for Ryan Gerson. There weren't many of those in free agency. He's a guy who proved to be productive, did his job the whole time he was here. He's definitely more of a run stopper, I think, in their mind. Last year he became the most productive pass rusher on the roster, but that was almost happenstance. It wasn't planned. It wasn't something that they went into the season expecting.

So with the GM change, I just tend to doubt it. The one thing that I've heard most consistently from Chris Ballard, whether it's the press conference or some of the radio hits he's done and things that he's been talking to the fans and to the media with, the one thing I hear over and over again is height, weight, speed. And I'm just not sure where particularly Eric Walden fits into that formula. Right. And then you get to guys like Mathis, James Harrison,

35 and 38 respectively, DeMarcus Ware, 34. And then after that, Dwight Freeney, 37. Well, he's 36 now. He will be 37 here in just a few days. But, I mean, there's only a few guys that are his age that were more productive than him last year on an overall scale when you consider sacks hits and pressures and stuff like that especially on his thing I think that it would make perfect sense just in my opinion you know he hadn't I mean I just don't

I don't see a negative look to it to be honest with. We know that we need to bring in young talent. We understand that. But there are going to be 30-somethings on this team. There's just no way to get around it. They have a roster to fill out. They're not going to fill it with 53, 27-year-olds and younger. It's impossible to do, especially in one year, and that's just not on the table so i just i'll tell you one guy i think would be on board as a quarterback and i know that back in 2012 you know it seems like so long ago now everything that's happened with this

franchise since then uh andrew luck could not have been more complimentary of dwight freeney from day one just because of the presence that he brought to the locker room, the leadership that he brought. 37, 38, however old he is, he's going to bring that to the table. If you want to look at the overall aspect of leadership, we don't know if Pop Adams is going to be back.

There's a lot of leadership that guys look to for leadership. Even a guy like DeQuell Jackson, guys liked him in the locker for leadership i mean even a guy like daquell jackson guys liked him in the locker room i mean he wasn't a guy that was hated or anything like that you know and then there's a lot of yeah there's a lot of leadership leaving uh either in retirement or just not getting re-signed so uh i mean the the colts offense and defense is going to be lacking a lot of leadership. You know, if we're going to depend on a corner to lead a defense,

I mean, you would think in Vontae Davis, that's not how it works. You know, you need a safety, an inside linebacker, a lineman. Those have to be your leaders. I mean, as far as the vocal guy on the field, they've got to be the quarterback to where everybody can hear them or see them with what they're doing. Frankly, I think that was some of the problem this year. When you saw games that weren't getting closed out,

I think they had lost so much over the past few years, whether it's a Reggie Wayne, whether you go back as far as Freeney and Antoine Bethea, so many guys who were voices in that locker room who are no longer there, even Corey Redding. I think that had an impact on this year's team and its inability to finish out some of these games. I absolutely agree. And now, like I said, the cupboard is bare, especially on defense.

And that's okay. I mean, there's going to be a transition on defense with them honestly making a valid attempt to bring in young talent. Somebody's going to have to step up as a leader. And, you know, I'm not saying that it's impossible, but right now I don't see an inside linebacker on this team that can do that. I don't see a safety who's currently on the roster that can necessarily do that unless you want to put Clayton Gethers in that role. And he might be. I just not heard anybody talk about him being exceptionally vocal or a leader necessarily. I'm not saying he's not

a good teammate or anything, you know. But other than that, I just don't really see it on the roster at this point. And maybe I'm wrong, maybe not. But there's another guy that I want to talk about too that may have a negative stigma throughout the league. He's been to a few different teams. But I think this guy could absolutely help solidify this front seven on the defensive line especially. And the Colts possibly will be drafting defensive

line as well, but Nick Fairley, a guy who's been on three different teams now. He was drafted and went in with Detroit, was spent 2015 with St. Louis, and last year in New Orleans, Farrelly had a fantastic year last year, had seven sacks, 22 QB hits, and just did a fantastic job, played all 16 games, started all 16 games. And a lot of people, like I said, want to kick back to what's wrong with him because he's been on three different teams. I understand that completely, but right now it's about talent and getting that transition in progress. And when we look at his stats, like I said, seven sacks and 22 QB hits, the Colts defensive line, everybody who had a sack, everybody who had QB hits, they totaled 10 sacks among four guys, and they had 31 total QB hits.

Nick Fairley basically takes all of them and just outplays the entire defensive line for the most part all by himself. What's your thoughts on bringing him in? I think those are the kind of guys you have to find. Whether it's him specifically, whether it's Freeney specifically, any team that's going to be successful that's going to make a deep playoff run, they find those kind of guys. Productive players who are going to come in that maybe aren't making money

that matches what they're bringing to the team. In Freeney's case, it would be off the field. It would be more leadership and then situational football. In Fairley's case, I think it would be right there on the field. Here's a guy who can come and bring you pressure and bring you things that this team needs, quite frankly, as those stats so clearly point out. But do it at a cost that's going to be less than a Pro Bowl level.

And I know they've got $60 million or so right now, probably about $56 million. They could definitely push that up into the $60 million area with some other moves. But like we said before, they're going to be very selective in how they deal with free agency, and they're not going to go out necessarily and spend that on maybe one big free agent somewhere. Maybe, maybe not. You look at the Patriots, you look at some of these other teams that are successful

year in, year out, Kansas City, where Chris Ballard comes from, they don't necessarily go make the big splash. They go and find a guy like you're talking about, Nick Fairley, who may be a little bit under the radar, who maybe is undervalued for whatever reason by the rest of the league, and bring him in at

a lower cost and get a higher production, and that's how your roster gets deep. That's how your roster becomes a playoff championship caliber roster. I could not agree more. He's just a guy, I think, that myself and Rick McLaughlin from Draft Tech, we've talked about that. We kind of have a little love affair with him. And then when I actually compared his individual stats to that of the defensive line for the Colts this past year, it just blew my mind that they were basically the same thing. He did as much work as four guys by himself. It just kind of blew my mind. Let's get into some of those possible moves here. I think that it's pretty much widespread assumption that the next guy to go is going to be Arthur Jones. At least He will be. He's due to make 7.35 next year, and he's a 2.2 in dead cap.

That's a savings of roughly $5.2 million. I don't think that the Colts can afford not to do that. Yeah, I think the only way he's back is sort of like last year, that there's a contract restructuring. And I'm not sure what the rationale would be behind that right now. You've seen injuries kind of slow him down when he's here. He got the suspension at the start of last year. He was a guy, when they made the signing, I was really high on.

I thought he was a guy that came out of that Baltimore system, who seemed to be on the rise a little bit. I thought he would really be a guy who could come in and help the run defense, kind of give a big boost to him. None of that's happened here in Indianapolis. He's definitely got to be at the top of the list when you're looking at potential cuts here on the roster bubble. So what are your thoughts on the rest of the roster?

I mean, there's a few guys that kind of stick out. I mean, people have brought up Patrick Robinson. I tend to believe that he's going to be back, even guys like Kendall Langford and a few others. I mean, what are your thoughts? Do you think that there's several guys that are gone, maybe just a couple more, maybe even just Jones? Yeah, you know, Robinson's a really interesting case

because obviously last year he struggled through some injuries. He also had a game or two in there where he looked pretty good. So it'll be interesting to see what they want to do, what role they want to put him in. He's not an older guy. He's not young, but he's not an older guy where you would worry about that. And it's not a long injury history with him like it is with Art Jones right now. So I think he's going to be the one guy to me that you kind of keep an eye on.

What's unpredictable here is the case with every, I'm not telling you anything you don't already know. Every time you have a GM change, you know, really none of these guys, this, this Chris Ballard have anything invested in. Right.

None of these guys are his picks. None of these guys are his contracts. So everybody to some extent is on the bubble i think he's going to come in and he's going to try to put his stamp on this roster with the salary cap space he has with the picks that he has especially being in the top 15 you know he's got a chance to do that right away and i think some of those things may play off of each other as far as the roster cuts go it may be a a matter of waiting through free agency a little bit maybe even waiting to the draft before you see some more veteran cuts just because of how the roster shaping up if that makes sense yeah absolutely uh It'll be certainly interesting. Like you said, he's really beholden to nobody on this roster. And it's not that he had anything to do with a lot of them. And I think the part that makes me very optimistic are things that we've talked about in the past. Clark does from this past year to 2017. I'm optimistic to see if Clayton Gethers can come

back, shake off an injury, and be something that we've seen him be, a physical guy who can cover one of the best tacklers on the team, if he can continue that role. I'm anxious to see if Henry Anderson can get back into his rookie form to where he just really started shaking up that defensive line and making some impact plays. One of the guys that kind of has me, I want him to move on, or I want the Colts to move on from him, I guess, but I'm not so sure how realistic it is, is Scott Tolzien. I'd like to see them drop him. He's not much in the way of getting a bunch of money or anything with releasing him. But I was really a fan of Stephen Morris in preseason and in camp and so on and so forth. I just really would like to see him be the backup because I think he does so much more out of the pocket than Tolzien.

If you remember at camp, it seemed like every time Tolzien would throw to the boundary, we were expecting a pick six. You know. Nate struggled there. Yeah. I mean, don't get me wrong. He played pretty well against the Steelers. The receivers let him down for sure.

That was not on Scott Tolzien. But good memories, huh? Yeah. They let him down in a major way. And I think Colesine's a guy who's a bit well in the locker room, so there's not an issue there, obviously. But I do think it's going to be interesting to see the way that Chris Ballard deals with the backup quarterback position.

The one thing that Green Bay did for years, and they still do, it started with Ron Wolfe, the idea of drafting a quarterback every year is somewhere in the draft obviously that's something they're probably not going to do this year there's so many other needs but i think it's going to be something you're going to see happen pretty commonly here it's something kansas city did while he was there i think in the four years that he was there they drafted two quarterbacks uh you see them taking a chance on a guy like Aaron Murray, who had a great career at Georgia. He was one of the guys that they picked with Kansas City.

I think he could end up being available. It'll be interesting to see how Ballard approaches those kind of things. But when you look at that Kansas City roster, they had a chance to go get Nick Foles. They did to back up Alex alex smith and really the game in indianapolis foals comes in when smith is hurt very early helps him get that win so yeah it's something i think ballard is very well aware of uh how important that is and i think as it evolved it'll be interesting how he does it this year though because there are so many other

needs but then it's going to be really interesting to see how that evolves because like i said that green bay formula has always been draft somebody every year and and build your own so in a way he may look at it even more as he's a younger guy who hasn't had any experience as that draft pick this year yeah it it interests me to think about last year it would have actually benefited the colts more to get rid of him than it would this coming year because they're just not going to get anything in the way of money on it. But like I said, I would like to see that Stephen Morris is the backup. I think that he would be a good enough backup. And I just, you know, maybe it's just me trying to split hairs.

And there's a lot of other things to talk about as far as who should stay, who should go. But your prediction on this Colts offensive line for 2017, I've got to hear it. Well, I think I heard Ballard say this, I believe, with JMV, that he really feels like the left side is pretty good and pretty solid. And I don't think they're going to tinker too much with that. I don't see why you'd make an issue for yourself if you don't need to. But the right side, I think, is wide open.

I think Joe Haig is a guy who, much like LaRaven Clark, you want to see more from. You want to see how he grows. He certainly had a very interesting rookie year playing all over the line. And there's some usefulness for him to continue doing that, even if it's in a backup role. You always need that utility guy who can kind of fill in wherever from week to week. We've obviously seen that in Indianapolis way too much over the past five years, the need to have that guy around.

But, you know, he and the Raven Clark are both very intriguing guys as the right guard and right tackle right now. But I would be surprised if through free agency and probably even the draft, Chris Ballard doesn't bring in some competition. That's the other thing besides height, weight, speed, that I kept hearing from him so far over and over and over. He wants competition on this roster. He wants guys fighting for jobs.

He wants training camp to be about that you know that competition and so i'll be shocked if he doesn't add some of the offensive line yeah i i agree i don't i i have a hard time deciding whether it's going to be free agency or draft and like you said maybe i'm wrong both ways maybe it's going to be both you know um i think there's a couple guys in this draft that could be quality guys to come in and would be very suitable depth at maybe two or three positions, to be quite honest with you, a couple different guard positions. I think that that Bulls kid out of Utah is better than a lot of people think he is. I've heard a lot of people talking about him in the second round, possibly as like the third or fourth best tackle.

And I think that he can go to both guard spots and maybe even right tackle if need be. They're going to have a lot of depth and a lot of competition on this offensive line next year. And I'm just hoping that Philbin can coach these guys up and get them to where they're hungry come regular season. It's going to be interesting to watch. I'm excited for it. And it's just one of those positions on the roster that you just really don't know what's going to happen. But it's certainly a position that the Colts cannot afford to be like,

okay, who's up next? We're going to put a tight end there at guard because we don't have any more linemen. They can't afford to have that be the case. I think that Ballard's really going to try to build both lines. I mean, he's really a guy who believes that that's where you win games in the NFL, and I'm with him on that. So I think he's going to do something on the offensive line, whether it be big, whether it be a little bit smaller move. It probably depends on how some other things fall into place. But, you know, I think he's going to do the same thing on the defensive front. I think you're going to see guys at it in both of those spots

because that's where he wants this team to be strong. That's going to be one of the first areas that he focuses on is the front lines on both sides of the ball so what is your just your your first guess and your first prediction on the Colts first round pick in the NFL draft this year I'm still right now I think it's going to be an edge rusher just because that need is so great. Unless they're able to go out and sign a Melvin Ingram, if he's able to pop out

somebody at that level, and even if they do, I think that the need is just so obvious and so glaring there. And it's a deep draft for defensive ends and outside linebackers, but I don't know that it's so deep that you can pass in the first round and,

and still get a guy who can start making impact later in the draft. So I think that that's an area that they're going to target. You look at, uh, I think it's Packers McKinley, uh, out of UCLA. I see him there in a lot of places,

Derek Barnett's all over the place in the first round, Tennessee. He's a guy who could the place in the first round from Tennessee. He's a guy who could end up in that spot. But somebody like that, I think they're going to target. To me, that's where they almost have to go right now. It's where everything's pointed since almost really last August, that this team needs that playmaker on the edge who's going to keep the

opposing offense coordinator up at night I I again I totally agree I think they have to go I I've tried to get myself leveled out to where I don't get upset if it go running back or offensive line or something like that in the first round because I just want to trust Ballard and what he's doing. But I still, like you, I think that you just simply have to go, because you can't afford to waste a first-round pick on some elite talent at the position that is the biggest position of need, and has probably got 7 to 10 of the top 25 players in that position, in my opinion. So that's something the Colts simply can't pass up. George, thank you for jumping on with us tonight, man. I really appreciate it. Always appreciate your insight. Love getting to chat with you for what seems to

be 25 to 35 minutes every so often. Thanks for coming on, and make sure you guys are following George on Twitter at GMBremmer. Make sure you guys are checking out his stuff, too. He tweets out a lot of his articles. And, George, where can everybody else find your work? At the Harrah Bolton, harrahbolton.com, and

really excited. We got our CNHI Sports Indiana Bureau up and running, so also covering IU and Purdue, and you can find a lot of that stuff with Terry Hutchins for IU and Mike DeFabo for Purdue there as well. Yeah, good. All right, everybody check all that out, and make sure you guys are getting a hold of me at LockedOnColtsPod at gmail.com.

Check out the show Locked On Colts on Twitter, myself at mdanley__nfl. And if you want to advertise on this show, this is a great place to do it. We have thousands of listeners around the state. We've had a lot of success with a couple of our local sponsors, some of our national sponsors as well. But

if you guys want to advertise in this space, it's a great way to do it. A great target audience for what you're wanting to do, especially if you're looking at men between the age of 18 and 35. So, George, again, thank you for your time. I appreciate it. And I'll check all of you guys out tomorrow right here on Locked on Colts.

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