Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - LOCKED ON COLTS -3/13- Colts Taking Responsible, Patient Approach To Free Agency

Episode Date: March 13, 2017

After sitting back on the opening day of free agency, the #Colts bring in two high value additions in Jabaal Sheard and John Simon. What does their decision to allow Dontari Poe leave the building mean? Will they make any headline grabbing signings from here on out? Are Dwayne Allen's recent comments a big deal, or nothing at all? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

No, I'm not for sale. You are Locked On Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back to Locked On Colts, ladies and gentlemen. I'm your host, Matt Dainley, and the Colts have now signed Jabal Sheard and John Simon, two really good signings for the Indianapolis Colts. This is fantastic news for us. Reportedly, Simon's deal is three for $17 million. There's also been some conflicting

ones around $14, somewhere around there. So we'll have to wait on the actual contract details for all that. But the majority of the feedback on the Jabal Sheard contract is three years for $25 million. So ultimately, the Colts, depending upon how you break it down per year, the Colts spent about what it would have cost just to sign Nick Perry. Two really good signings. I mean, I wrote about this this past week on FanRag Sports. And you can, man, I tell you, if you guys have heard kind of me talk about or maybe seen on Twitter about me talk about Jordan Willis, he's one of the guys that I really like coming out of this draft class.

But he's in a four-point stance quite a bit. You can see in Sheard's early days when he was in Cleveland especially that he was in that four-point stance quite a bit. Man, he fires out. I'm talking shot out of a cannon. Same way with Simon, although he's not much of a four-point stance guy or anything like that, but he can stand up just as well as Sheard can. Sheard has a lot of versatility too, can kind of move down along the line. He can step out, he can stand up. It's really two very, very good signings. When we look at these signings, I mean, you have to give them A's, okay, on these. I don't know that Simon and Sheard are going to be like 10 sack a year guys or anything like that, or be the best outside linebacker duo or anything like that in the league. But what they are, are they are premier

foundational pieces to put some of these, hopefully that they get superstars of some sort, at least a superstar out of this draft coming up at the position that can be that 10-sack guy. That way, these guys are all complementary of each other, and they really put a total package defense together. Another move that the Colts made was releasing or cutting Patrick Robinson. That is interesting because of a couple things now the Colts do not have. I mean, unless you look at some of the smaller names on the roster, the Colts don't have a number two corner right now. So Vontae Davis is going to be coming back, presumably, and is the number one corner.

He's been injury prone as of the past couple years. Played through it, but he's been injury prone. So the Colts now have a number two cornerback they absolutely have to get either through free agency or they need to get one in the draft. Both would be, I think, accessible. I'm not so sure how much a shutdown number two is left in free agency available, but I think there's definitely some really top-end corners that are available in this draft, probably in the first and second round. So that's the good news.

The other side of that is that the Colts now have still an injury-prone corner number one, and they've got to fight through this and try to really bolster this secondary between now and the end of the draft, which is feasible. It's not that they can't do it. It's just something that is definitely an even bigger need now. So as we look forward, two fantastic signings, really exciting. I was on John Simon as long as I can think about it since free agency, you know, since the end of the season really. And Sheard was a guy that I just probably, I mean,

anytime you hear that there's, same thing with Dante Hightower. I just don't really feel, just because of the combination of the way that any of the Colts and the Patriots have intermixed in the past, I just didn't feel that a lot of Patriots free agents, or that it would be common, or even assumed that Patriots free agents would want to come to Indianapolis. There is definitely a thought process with that the Colts organization in general is substandard to the Patriots amongst the players. That's a fact. I mean, so when you consider all that, I mean, I think that the fact that Ballard is here and Grigson is gone may quell that just a little bit, but the fact of the matter is that it's there. So when thinking of Sheard coming, he wasn't one that I thought would probably be attainable. Not that, you know, guys in free agency don't go where the money's at, but

you know, I would have to assume that there was some quality conversation and that there was an obvious change in the stance of the organization through Sheard's eyes and probably his agent as well and you know it turned him on so that's nice and Simon coming is I mean I just can't these guys are both really good run stoppers too so this is something that's a need for everything there's a very well-rounded players the Colts get them for good prices and the Colts have been doing pretty well in free agency. Now, the Colts did meet with Dontari Poe, which would be today because I'm recording this on Sunday night, and he left without a deal.

I don't think that anybody should get all up in arms about this. I don't recall either writing or talking about Dontari Poe as one of the guys that I thought would be my favorite pick at the position from there. It made sense because of the familiarity that he has with Ballard and vice versa. But he just wasn't a guy that I mean, I think that Hankins is far better at the position. I've heard a lot of people floating Benny Logan around from the Eagles, and I can't really speak on Logan quite as much, but I love Hankins. I don't think that Poe should have been the number one target at the position there. I think Hankins should have. But there's familiarity there.

They know what Poe's upside is, which is very, very good, and so that would probably have led to that being, you know, the first real contact between the two sides. So that made sense. Everything that we'd heard in the past, man, I don't know, 48 hours, 72 hours, was that Poe was looking for a one-year deal. I was not on board. I wouldn't have been on board with that either. And it sounds like if that's the case, that it would make sense that that's why the Colts didn't agree to it. Because I've kind of said this ever since I if I'm the Colts, I can't see without getting some sort of a second year team option. I can't see bringing him in on that

because you ultimately are saying we're going to take this guy at nose tackle right now. And the next year, we got to go find another one. I mean, that's senseless, in my opinion. Maybe not to you guys, but to me it is, and it didn't make any sense. If we're going to get a guy at the position, first and foremost, he needs to sign at least a multi-year deal. It doesn't have to be a five-year deal or nothing crazy like that, but there at least needs to be a team option on top of a one-year deal. If there's not, no bones. I mean, Hankins is a younger version.

He's, in my opinion, quicker. He is as or more effective in just about every area of the game. Poe is really good. I'm not discounting his abilities. However, I just think Hankins is just better. And like I said, he is younger. And I think Hankins will – I'm surprised Hankins hasn't been scooped up yet, to be quite honest with you. There are – I've not heard of anything negative on Hankins, either as a person, locker room, anything like that. So I don't know why.

Maybe it's that these guys are kind of waiting for each other to set the market. But I haven't even heard of any conversations about Hankins as far as who he's talking to or nothing. There's been really nothing leaked out about that. So that's interesting to me. I think that they need to start pursuing some other areas here. If you're not going to go after Hankins and you're just kind of still talking to Poe and kind of seeing what he wants or seeing if he'll come back depending on how whatever goes on tomorrow which would be Monday in Jacksonville you know that's something that they need to move

on they need to start looking at inside linebacker they could get some really good help through the draft in that area but they also in my opinion they need a an unquestioned starter mentor Hodges even Zach Brown I'm not as high on Brown because I think he's more expensive. He's not old or anything like that, but he's a little bit older than Mentor and Hodges, I think, maybe a year or two. I'm trying to price out, get the value, the total package value, price and athleticism and ability and stuff like that. To keep in mind the process here, guys, this isn't a process where they are trying to completely revamp the entire defense all in one year. They want to make substantial steps in the right direction, get the focus in the right areas and stuff like that,

and then they want to get this draft thing rolling. And as that goes, then you fill with draft more often from then. Like if they do a little bit more in free agency here, say get another inside linebacker, maybe another even outside linebacker, they end up getting a nose tackle and or a corner, something along those lines. Now I don't think they're going to get all of them, but you know what I'm getting at.

If they were to do most of that, they would have very few needs next year in free agency or possibly the year after that, depending upon all this. And I think that would be a little more along the lines of why Bauer isn't stoked about a one-year deal. He doesn't want to redo another position through free agency or have to the very next year. It doesn't make sense. It's not smart. I'm great on him for letting Poe leave, as as I'm concerned because that doesn't make rational sense as far as when you're building your roster. If you're going to bring in a guy that you think can dominate the position, you want him for more than one year. He's had injury

concerns in the past. That's another reason. You don't want to throw 100% of the guaranteed money in a guy's contract all in the first year. You have to spread it out just a little bit. Now you do want to front load it a little bit so that if he does become less effective or something like that, then you can ship him out if it becomes an issue for less of a cap hit or a dead cap hit. Like I said, with Robinson and Allen, just those two deals and the cut alone added another five million in dead cap space. Not that big a deal when you look at it in the big picture, but you can't do that every year. I mean, that's just not functional financial sense.

That doesn't make for good fiscal priorities. That just doesn't work that way. So, I mean, when you look at everything that's happened, you know, they still haven't announced the official deals on Barquevious Mingo or anything like that, but being that it was announced at two and a half million, I would assume that maybe less than half of that is guaranteed, if any, really. Like I said, I really honestly think that he's probably going to be more of a special teams player and a deeper rotational

guy, but somebody that they wanted in the mix, you know, just to have another warm body, honestly, to be quite honest with you. And he's a guy that's super athletic. He's a guy that, you know, if for some reason something snaps with him or clicks, then he may turn into be a better player than what most think he could be. On the other hand, you have to look at the realistic spot, and probably when thinking of special teams or, like I said, another rotational type guy or a certain down, you know, he could be one of those guys that just fills in in a little bit of everywhere, and that's a smart, I mean, athletic guy is what you want in that position. Like I told you guys the other day, they picked up the punter, Locke, Jeff Locke. So that's, you know, more out of necessity.

I wouldn't say that he's guaranteed to be the punter next year. He could be. I mean, that makes logical sense. But at this point, they're just trying to kind of cover bases as much as possible with a body. So we'll see what happens. They may end up drafting a guy in late rounds. Let's hope not because that would, you know, we're limited on picks now a little bit.

I mean, we've got a lot of picks in the first five rounds. We don't have anything after that. So that, you know, late round would be, you know, if they were to pick a punter up in the fifth round, that would almost seem in this draft to be a wasted pick. So we'll have to see that could probably come with the undrafted class and stuff like that. On the other hand, there's a little bit of news coming out that Dwayne Allen basically stating that he was taught or that the team was taught basically to hate the Patriots and that he always secretly admired them. He didn't secretly admire them. I mean, come on. First, this is BS. I think this is blown up stuff out on the East Coast, stuff that they like to do out there to kind of take their pokes and prods at real issue is here is it was Grigson, more or less. Okay, Grigson had his issues with it.

I think that was more aimed at him than anything, and the whole situation with Deflategate and all that other crap. So when you look at it, I don't think that there's anybody on the Colts roster that doesn't admire the Patriots. There are always those rivalries. There are always those guys, those teams that you play against that you either, you could hate. Rivalries are hatred. You know, there's a lot of games that we see Browns, Steelers, you know, Ravens, Patriots, all that stuff. That's personal stuff to an extent, but it's more of the game. It's not that deep, guys.

I mean, these guys admire each other for success. The Patriots have had a lot of success. Brady's had a lot of success. Belichick's had a lot of success. None of these people hate them on a personal level. The people who did are the people who have grudges and pokes and stuff, and they were made to look like fools, more or less like Grigson. He was made to look like a fool because of the whole Deflategate situation, and that was probably what filtered into it.

If you listen to a lot of the way it goes, Grigson stuck his nose in a lot of personnel issues as far as who's playing, who's not, game plan issues for that matter. So there's no doubt that the guy came around and tried to kind of push his weight around and tried to kind of get people to group think what he was on and forget about all that. If Allen's being a jerk, he's gone. Forget about it. It's not an issue. I'm sure that he didn't just come out and say that. A lot of this stuff is questions on questions on questions, and they may have not even been simultaneous questions. You know, there was, you know, is there an issue with Grixen or

this or that? Yeah. You know, we were kind of taught to hate him, you know, to speak. And then, you know, five minutes later in the conversation, he said, but did you admire the Patriots? Yeah, I secretly admired him. I didn't want to tell anybody or something, you know later in the conversation he said, but did you admire the Patriots? Yeah, I secretly admired them. I didn't want to tell anybody or something in the building because Grigson was around or just whatever. And that's how interviews often go. If you don't see it live and in real time, then just chill out a little bit on it.

Don't absolutely hate on Dwayne Allen all right now all at once. But, yeah, that's annoying to see stuff like that when a player goes to another team and then it appears as though he's running his mouth right off the jump. So take it for what you want. Obviously, I'm nobody's parent that's listening to this. So, you know, if you guys are upset at Allen or not, but this is just the way stuff goes, guys. I mean, Sheard is going to come into the building and nobody's going to ask him if he hates

the Patriots now or anything like that. But he may say something that may rub some Patriots fans or something the wrong way. And we may not even know what any of that means or anything like that. So don't, like I said, don't take it too personal. It's not that big a deal. And this is bound to happen anytime players change teams. So on Twitter, I'd gone through some teams and I'd been looking for some familiarity, maybe to Ballard for some additional free agency pickups or something. I was talking about Marcus Cooper and Jonathan Banks, and both of those guys signed with Chicago while I was out with my wife the other night. So that kind of stinks because I felt that Cooper would have been a great acquisition,

his size and length and his ability to play within the scheme that's in Indianapolis. But there's a couple other guys that I think are out there. We've floated around Morris Claiborne a little bit. He's very injury-prone, but he would be very cheap, and he had a really good season last year when he was healthy. So he's one of those guys that gets injured and nicked up a lot. So that's not a great idea, but if you think about spending a million five or something

like that on a guy, that's a pretty good deal for at least the way he plays and how good he is. He had a pretty good man year last year as far as in man coverage and stuff like that. I think that's something worth kicking the tires on possibly later on down the road, not as a big time signing or anything like that. But then you get to some guys like Ross Cockrell, who actually have a, I can't remember what it's actually called, but it's a tender is what you get for when you were drafted, which for him was a fourth-round draft pick. So basically, if the Colts wanted to throw an offer at him, if the Steelers didn't match it, then the Colts would have to give up a fourth-round pick for it.

My opinion is that Cockrell's young, good, and wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to spend a fourth-round draft pick on a really good starting corner. I mean, really good. He's a good starting corner. It would be a heck of a good spot for a transition, and he's young. This is all helpful to get these young bodies in. I mean, maybe the Steelers match it, maybe they don't,

but that would be worth it to me. A little bit of money, a fourth-round draft pick, and that would be good. There's some other guys, like White from Buffalo. He was pretty solid, nothing spectacular. Just looking for guys to fill roster spots who are used to man coverage and can play and are long have the stretch and be able to run with the wide receivers and you can basically mix and match in there I mean the Colts have Rashawn Melvin still is on the roster I believe Daryl Morris is unless he's a free agent but I a free agent, but I think he actually is a free agent.

He's 26 still, showed some signs last year of being good. I think they could probably bring him back. This secondary needs one more guy, and then I think that they can kind of fill out, get one through the draft, and re-sign some of the guys like possibly Morris or something like that to kind of round it out, do what you're going to do in the draft, undrafted and all that. But this roster is going to start taking place. Now the Colts, a lot of people are used to the way that Grigson did things, not letting people leave. And I think I touched on this earlier in the show, but don't get all fired up about people leaving if they come in for a visit. We have to trust the process right now.

Ballard is a smart guy. He has a plan, which is something that we never really felt like the Colts had before. It was just get this, get that, and then we'll see what happens in the end of it. And people wanted to control outside of the coaching staff. So just allow it to play itself out. It is exciting, I know, and that gets the best of us because it gets me too. But if Poe didn't sign, there's a reason for it, and the Colts can't be stupid about their money.

Like I said, they already were smart with Simon and Sheard, paying them what they would have paid Perry alone, just a million dollars difference or so. That's smart negotiating. That's intelligent signings, you know, getting two quality players. Almost, I mean, it's not moneyball, but it is a moneyball example. Two players for the same amount of money as one, and you're getting more than likely, I mean,

because I don't think there's any doubt that Sheard and Simon are going to collectively outplay Perry and probably substantially. So when you look at it in that regard, just sit back and relax. Allow the whole free agency process to work itself out. This is going to be interesting. It's going to be fun. There's going to be more to come. There's just not going to be probably too many big signings, I don't think. I do think the Colts need to go after Hankins, though.

I want him bad, and you should too, because he's very good at stopping the run. He can pressure the quarterback. We have another guy with T.Y. McGill who could work just off to the side of him who is very good at both taking up extra blockers, can fight through double teams, and is an absolute stud at getting into the backfield. Those two guys up front, and then you add Henry Anderson and whoever on the other side of him, Sheard and Simon, depending on how they move Sheard around, because Sheard can actually play on the line a little bit, and that would be interesting too to see wherever they fill gaps in the outside linebacking core of how they do that in their sub packages. That's a heck of a front four,

front three, however you want to look at it. At nose tackle, if they were to go out and get Hankins, he and McGill would be two of the better up front linemen, in my opinion, in the league, as far as working together, working off of each other, complementing each other. That would be exciting. I think that would be fantastic, and it would be a huge step in the right direction of stopping the run finally because the Colts have not been able to do that under Pagano at all or been able to stop the pass.

I mean, it's just they have so many needs, and that would be a huge step in the right direction in my opinion. If they do end up signing Poe he's a good signing too he just has a little bit more risk to him that doesn't mean he's bad that means that it's just uh for my money that wouldn't may not get quite the results that you would get with a guy like Hankins or something like that now Logan I'm gonna have to watch him because like I said I don't I can't really speak on that guy. I'm not going to just float BS out here and tell you I know something when I don't. But it does look like the Colts are going and moving in the right direction.

They're being frugal. They are filling some holes. They're also letting some dead weight go. We all kind of understand that Arthur Jones is probably on the chopping block. My man Jake Arthur did say something the other day on Twitter. He said that he thinks that after June 1st that it's cheaper to cut Jones, which makes sense. So that is something that we need to keep our eyes on too. He may stay on the roster for a little bit just to be able to be less of a direct cap hit for the Colts if they were to let him go.

Lankford is another guy to keep your eye on. I think that he should stay on the team personally because I felt he was underrated last year. I felt he was pretty good. And he's still a possibility, though. I mean, none of these guys are Grigson's guys. We've talked about it. I'm sorry, all these guys are Grigson's guys for the most part.

None of them are Ballard's guys. So he's beholden to none of them. Whether they stay or go, it doesn't really make much of a difference. Just have to trust the process. I mean, just because we like a guy or a guy played pretty good last year does not mean that they are going to fit with the vision for the future here, and we have to trust Ballard because we all think that Ballard's a smart guy. We all think that Ballard's going to do the best he can to improve this roster. And it's going to take some time, guys. It's a process.

It is not an overnight thing. So keep your eyes open, keep your ears open, and be excited because the Colts are going to be doing some things here. And a lot of them fly under the radar. Some of them may be headline catching. But one way or another, there's still a lot of work to do in this offseason. So there's going to be quite a bit going on. So thank you guys for listening.

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