Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - LOCKED ON COLTS -3/27- Colts Early Round Draft Targets W/@DrafttekColts

Episode Date: March 27, 2017

Today Rick McGlothlin joins Matt again to focus in on where the #Colts should be looking in the early rounds of the upcoming draft. Free agency has given us an idea, now Chris Ballard will go execute, and we think we have a good idea where he might take a gander. 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 am your host, Matt Dainley, and we are back and we are discussing tonight what the Colts will probably look to do early in the draft. We're looking at maybe first and second round guys again. And none other than Rick McLaughlin, my man out of draft tech, is with me tonight.

Rick, what's going on, brother? Thanks for joining me. Hey, great to be back again, Matt. Looking forward to it. We're down to about a month away now. We are. It's getting close. And it looks like the objective of the Colts is starting to come into focus after free agency. The Colts have kind of touched on a little bit here and there. I mean, they've gotten Simon, they've gotten Jabal Sheard, who I will touch on this later, but I really like his diversity and his ability to – a possible ability to be a four-down – one of the four-down linemen, too, at defensive end in certain packages.

So I think that also keeps not an edge role open as far as that goes, but will definitely allow them to fill that strong side backer role and allow them to move forward with some more with some more picks in this draft. But they've also kind of touched on inside linebacker just a little bit with Spence gotten some at minimum. They've gotten depth with just see how, you know, he develops within that role. See if he can maybe be a stud there. Um, but other than that, I mean, we're basically cutting down right now. We've got cornerback is, is a, is a high priority. They still need to get that pure edge rusher in the building and they still probably need another strong side guy, like we said before. And, uh And we're going to have to look at some inside linebackers here out of this group too. So let's touch on first and foremost, what you did to the Colts. What I did to them? Yeah. Well, again, this week I've got Hassan Redick as the pick for

the first round. And I just think that that right now, I mean right now, as it stands right now, we don't have the kid from Alabama, Reuben Foster, ahead of Redick in this particular cycle. Last time we did. I'm going to double-check that real quick. But if Reuben Foster was there ahead, in fact, he is. He came off at 13th, yeah. Yeah.

But I'm saying if he's still there with Redick, I'm still not sure that we wouldn't go Redick because of the speed difference. I mean, Redick, I think, is a lot faster side to side than Foster is, although Foster's got that bigger physique, the stronger physique, I think, overall. But I like Redick's game. And I'm not so sure that we could move Reddick back and forth from inside linebacker to the outside linebacker once in a while, just to give that diversity that we might want in the lineup. So I would take Reddick or Foster, either one.

Do you really think they're that interchangeable though? Yeah, I think, well, of course, it's always going to be up to the defensive coordinator to scheme your players in certain packages. I think Spence can go to the outside linebacker slot at times, right, rather than just strictly an inside guy. I think he can go out on the right-hand side, opposite of Simon, and do it that way with Shepard on the three or five tech up front. So, I mean, there's all kinds of scheme changes, I think, that the D.C. should look at, and hopefully they're going to show a variety of those options to the offense to keep them off balance.

But, yeah, I think Foster and Redick are close neck and neck, depending on which big board you're looking at. Either one of them, I think, could be available for the Colts there. I would, I guess, I think obviously could be available for the Colts there. I would, I guess, I think obviously Ruben's a little more of a thumper just because of his aggressiveness, I mean, and his physicality in general. But I think that when you, I don't know, I won't say that Foster's fantastic in coverage, but he's really pretty good. I really think that they would go for the upside in Foster on that.

That'd just be my opinion. I think they would go for the higher upside with him as opposed to looking at Redick. Now, I think Redick's really good. I like him a lot. You know who he reminds me of? And I say this, and I don't know if it's lazy or if it's just that that's what struck a chord in my brain when I started watching him and seeing a guy that come from outside linebacker to go to inside linebacker. But the guy that I'm thinking of wasn't so successful with the Colts, and they had him on the roster last year. You know who I'm thinking of?

Not off the top of my head. Junior Sylvester. Oh, well, there's a name that we've forgotten really easily. See, I'm the only one that hasn't forgotten him because I was hardcore on him and nobody else listened to me. Yeah, I loved him. He's a little – I mean, Riddick's a bigger guy, taller, slightly heavier, but same style. I mean, can go sideline to sideline, can be plus coverage, and also can run defend in between the edges there.

And I just thought that, man, I thought that that was a waste last year because they now are talking about how they want those guys who are plus coverage guys or who can drop coverage and be fast and strong and tackle and go side to side. not this past year, two years ago, who was the best guy in preseason on the roster. And now that they, then they let him go after, you know, keeping him there on IR. It just didn't make any sense to me because they brought the Monachino in. Monachino wanted to go old school and they did. And now what happens? All the old school guys that he kept are not even on the roster anymore. One thing I'm keeping in mind here for this draft and for this offseason, I'm looking really closely at what Ballard's doing,

because I'm of the opinion that something's going to change defensively, head coaching-wise, somewhere in that grouping of coaches for this particular season, it's going to change next year. Yeah. Right. And so if Monachino is not back, Ballard may be looking at something down the road that Monachino is not even going to be, be doing,

or he might be against doing, or there might be some kind of, you know, a little bit of a friction. I won't say that there's going to be friction off the, off the top of the top of my head, but I mean it just seems to me that you have a chance to to field now a very versatile very fast very tough hard-hitting defense which andy hasn't had the last few years and

oh you've seen that you've seen the changes they've made to the roster in the last couple weeks right i i just have to think that the defense isn't going to be exactly the same as we've seen in the past few years. No, I totally agree. I don't think it'll even resemble the past couple years, to be honest with you. Not only in people on the roster, but the way that the defense functions. I don't see it being anything alike.

I mean, I think they'll have a lot of the same base packages, but I think, I mean, look, you go across the NFL, you've only got a few base packages to begin with. So, I mean, that's not going to change much. What is going to use, intelligent or just smart with how that they go about bringing this crew together. Because it's just not going to be the same. It's not going to be the same at all. They don't want the same mentality.

They don't want anything like that coming from this past year when they've had like historically terrible defenses in the first four years, five years of Pagano. They don't want nothing to do with that. Right. I'm just, I'm a cynical person by nature. So I'm looking down the road at something, whatever Chris Ballard is doing this year is, is a stepping stone to what's going to happen maybe a year or two down the, down

the line. And that may not necessarily include any of the coaches or some of the coaches that we're seeing right now with Indianapolis. That's just me being a cynic, but that's for another show. Let me ask you this. Was the reason you didn't go corner at 15 because Marlon Humphrey had just come off the board? Yeah, he would have been really tough to pass by at that position, but if he's available, I think he is a consideration. I really do. Oh, God, I hope so.

And he's in my tier one along with, I even have Quincy Wilson in my tier one too. And Jabril Peppers, even though he's not really. Don't you do it. He's not what we want and what we need. But depending on who comes off in front of him, if we don't have an edge guy, if we don't have either Foster or Redick and Humphrey's gone, are we going to, are we going to reach down? We just, are we going to go offensive line?

That would be my, that would be our next selection order would be offensive line, depending on who we have available at our selection of 15. Now, I think it might be a little high for Gary on Conley there at 15. Oh yeah. But that would, I tell you what, that wouldn't surprise me. He's impressive.

Yeah. Well, that's, that's a, well, in that case, I'll, I'll throw in, it'll be a mellow fondling then. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I mean, that'd be a, you know, a little bit of a reach, but if we're going to reach down for, for Conley, I'd, I'd throw him in there as well.

And that's possible. I just, I just don't see that peppers brings to the team what they need. And I don't even want to call it a vanity pick. It's not a vanity pick. No, it's not. I would think that it would be – I would think that would be a hard sell in the war room, to be honest with you. Right.

I just – but, you know, again, we don't know what's in their mind for down the road. He's a versatile player in the secondary, plus he's a returner. He could do kicker returns, punt returns. I know we have Rodgers for that right now, but that's not a reason to draft anybody at 15 because, like we said before, we discussed this before about, hey, he can do special teams too. No, that's not what we're looking for in a first-round pick. No, no, no.

It has to be a difference maker at 15, and I agree. Peppers is probably not the difference maker. But when you're looking at who's available on our draft board for this round in draft tech, Peppers is at 17. Right. He's not that far off the number 15 mark. So he's not in the discussion, but he's in that area. And if you guys don't know exactly what we're doing here, we're kind of looking through Draft Tech's most recent mock,

where Rick, if you guys don't remember from previous shows, covers the Colts there for them and makes the picks. Now, a lot of what they do is they take these guys and try to get them within a certain range of where they've got them on their big board. That way, it's a little more realistic to what they have at their big board in their own personal rankings. So if you're wondering why they are the way they are, that's why. And not only that, we have an analyst for every team. And so each analyst is going based on what their individual team is looking for and where that

need meets that value. And so what we think it would fall as, it may not equate to somebody two or three or four picks ahead of us. They're picking our same type of team needs as well. And there's a lot of people, there's a lot of teams this year that are looking for those edge rushers, cornerbacks, and linebackers. So it just happens to be one of those years where that's our basics needs, that those are our priority needs for the colts but it also is the same for other teams around the league okay let me ask you about taco charlton and uh malik mcdowell what would keep you from getting those two at 15 uh mcdowell he's just he's he's his size his potential is is fantastic everything about him is fantastic potential wise it's just that off and on switch.

You're afraid when it goes off, how long is it going to stay off? When is it going to come on? Where's the fire? There's not enough consistency there. And Taco, he looks the part. He's,

he's perfect size, perfect specimen, you know, body type, everything. The only thing I'm worried about with him is the, the speed. And I'm not talking just like

the 40-yard speed. I'm talking about the explosion off the line of scrimmage, getting to the quarterback and that first step quickness. I don't see that with him, at least not consistently enough to use the 15 pick on him. He might get better. He might show that explosiveness on a more consistent basis after he gets some coaching at the next level. I don't know. But right now you kind of worry. And plus, he doesn't have very many moves. I think you see him every once in a while do a spin move

or more than often, more than anything else, do a spin move. And that's about it. And then also, he's not using his hands. He doesn't use his hands like a lot of the past rushers that are really good use their hands. So I'm hesitant on him. Some people like him and some people are not so thrilled with him. And I just wouldn't put him up there at the number 15 pick for me. Right.

So what do you got on guys like Charles Harris just while we're on the subject right now of edge guys, before we get to the corners. But Charles Harris and Carl Lawson are the next two guys that come off to me that really matter, I guess you want to say. What are your thoughts on those guys? Well, the funny thing about Lawson is I don't even have him as a consideration. Right. Definitely not in the first round, and not even so much in the second round, but some people, again, some people do. I just don't see it myself. Charles Harris, though, I think he's a potential picket. Will he go 15? Who knows what the Colts see in him that

other people don't. I don't think he's close enough to that 15 pick to go over two cornerbacks, a guard, a tackle that are in that top 10, top 15 area, and even really a good safety. So I'm hesitant. I think he's got potential. I think he's a lot faster with more explosion, obviously, off the ball at the quarterback than the taco. And, you know, taco is good against the run.

And I think Charles Harris is okay against the run. I think he's a better pass rusher than taco. So I would pick him before I would pick Charlton. Yeah. Okay, keep your eyes closed. Okay. I want to show you my first ever painting. All right. Okay. Open your eyes closed. Okay. I want to show you my first ever painting. All right.

Okay. Open your eyes. Oh, that's a lot of colors and shapes. So be honest. What do you think? Well, I like how if you switch to Geico, you could save hundreds of dollars on car insurance. Oh, yeah, that's true. Yeah. Here, why don't I hold your paintbrush while you call them?

GEICO, because saving 15% or more on car insurance is always a great answer. This past week, I did an article for FanRag that was basically going through somebody that they considered to be late first, early second round guy at cornerback. And for that specific exercise, I used Cordrea Tankersley and another guy out of Houston that I really liked was Howard Wilson. Now for this week, I'm doing edge guys. And I'll just say that Harris is one of my guys for the early rounds. And the second and third round guy or somewhere thereabouts is another guy out of Houston. So I'm, you know, kind of enjoying Tyus Bowser quite a bit. And it was basically the whole thought process behind it was, you know, is it worth taking the guy here?

Or do you see better value for a guy who could be as good or better around round and a half late or something like that? So when we get down to business here, I like Harris. But I think there is a lot to be desired still in his game to be a first-round pick. That's just – I mean, I would consider him more of a second-round pick. There's some other guys that I like. Now, see, I like Lawson better than you. And it's just because of pure athleticism as far as strength and everything else like that. I'm just not big on, you know, Harris for some reason. And although, you know, everybody sees something different in

a lot, all these guys, and that's the beauty of all this conversation to begin with. So let me ask you about Chidobe Awuze real quick because I've kind of been harping on him a little bit because he's getting a lot of pub right now as one of the guys rising up people's depth charts. He's up on your guys' too quite considerably. But have you seen much of him? No, I haven't.

In fact, he was up towards the top in, I want to say, October, November for us last year. And then he kind of slid down once we started looking closer at the Marlon Humphreys, the Quincy Wilsons, the Dory Jacksons. And then after that grouping, then we started looking, you know, hey, look at this film on Tease DeBoer and Kevin King, which you and I have talked about before, moving him to a safety rather than keeping me on a cornerback. And then all of a sudden here comes Fabian Moreau out of nowhere who has slid up. And then the injury to Sidney Jones, it drops him back down. And earlier we had Howard Wilson up there a lot higher than what he's at right now out of Houston.

So there's been a lot of movement. And again, I hearken back to the look at the tape comparing a year ago, what have they improved on, what's the same, what remains to be improved upon for his NFL career, and maybe some of the incidentals either off the field or within earshot of what's happened in the locker room. I mean, a lot of those things can sway some some personnel decisions so why they've jumped up as quickly as they have in the

past few weeks i you know i really can't put a single finger on it other than okay we watched tape he was up higher he dropped back but i think now he's back up where he should be you know personally i haven't watched a lot of tape on a Woozie. I've watched more on Marlon Humphrey and Quincy Wilson than I have anybody. And I think that's why I agree with the number two, number three selections for positional rankings on the cornerback for Humphrey and Wilson. I'd love to take Wilson with our first round pick if I wasn't so afraid of his effort in tackling. That's the scary thing for me about Quincy Wilson. Otherwise, I think he'd be a top five, top ten consideration.

You know what? That's funny that you say that because that's exactly what I was seeing out of Cordrea Tankersley. Yeah, that could be. I thought as far as where he's at in coverage when he's in man-to-man coverage he's fantastic he just doesn't get any punch at the line and when he's carrying the receiver up the field i mean there's no physicality when it comes to run support or anything like that i mean it just it was almost high school tackle attempt from what i saw so and that's kind of why I like Conley.

Uh, I like some of these other guys. I like Humphrey real physical, obviously Lattimore, uh, falls into that. He's tabled. Now I like T's tabers film.

I really did. Uh, his combine should scare people, but in my opinion, he's one of those guys that just seems like a playmaker period. Yeah. He's, he's so confident about his abilities and himself.

I love that about him as well. And I wouldn't be surprised if he goes higher than what a lot of people are mocking him at in the last couple, three weeks. He's slid down a few notches from where he was before, but it wouldn't surprise me if he goes much higher than that come draft day. Yeah, I totally agree. That's almost exactly where I'm at with him. He just looks like one of those guys.

It's okay. Is he going to be the best man cover corner you've ever seen? Probably not. Does he lack the speed for recovery? Yes, absolutely. But, man, that dude is uber physical everywhere he goes. And he just, like you said, the only thing that gets me about him is his guessing, right. You know, guessing,

instead of relying on what he sees body language and type and stuff, he guesses a lot. He likes to look into the backfield and see what the corner or the quarterback's looking at. And that's, that's dangerous if it doesn't get coached out of you right away. Right. I agree. I agree. So we both agree that edge slash cornerback slash linebacker primarily are going to be one of those three areas that are going to be picked with selection number 15. I have to agree. I mean, there's an outside chance that we go tackle, guard.

I'm not quite as confident about. But to me, I think it's got to be a defensive pick. It really has to be. Yeah, I think so too. There's just, man, they can't go. Now, I was talking about this the other day. I had seen a mock where they had the Colts taken two offensive linemen in the same draft. And that didn't make a bit of sense to me at all.

They've already added depth of the offensive line. This is an awful offensive line draft for the most part. And if you're going to add a guy, you add a guy, either an impact guy immediately that you think is going to be plug and play, step in and start, or you go the other route and you go for a guy that you think can immediately be depth, but has the potential over the next couple of years, almost like your, uh, you know, your, your, your pick that is going to be a guy, your project, you know, that's what you want to do later in the draft possibly, but you don't do both. No, not, not in this draft,

not in this draft with their needs and their inability to play against the run. You don't do that. I'm sorry. That's unforgivable. If that was to happen, it just doesn't work like that. I'm sorry. And if it does, it does work like that. I'm going to throw a absolute hissy fit and stomp around my house as it's happening. There's no two ways about it. I'm going to throw a fit. I have two tackles and a guard that could possibly be at 15.

And then after that, Deion Dawkins in the second round. And on the very outside of that is Freeney, the guard from Indiana. Yeah. And then you have a group of guards in the third round that we could possibly play around and look at. But like you said, I don't see two offensive linemen in the first however many picks we have up to round four. Could there be that last offensive lineman in the fifth round with our last pick? Maybe, but I don't know. it'd be hard to see. Yeah. Their scouts are looking at Julian Davenport. I know that now how well that turns out or if that turns out at all, I would actually

prefer, and I don't want to say Davenport in particular, but I would be in favor of something that late in the fourth or that fifth round pick is okay because I just have no doubt in my mind that the Colts are going to pick up at least another pick in this draft by trading back some point or another in the first couple rounds. And I just, they're just too much talent. There's too many people who have too much of a defined idea of who they want specifically in these, in this type of draft. So I just, there's no way that somebody is not going to be like, I want him and him only at this position right here. I'm, I'm trading up. So they're going to have a partner, no doubt.

And how shocked would you be if the Colts traded that first pick in the first round? Not a bit traded back. I wouldn't either. Oh no, no. Some people are, you know, are hell bent on saying, do not trade out of the first round at all. Nobody's going to trade with us to drop down two or four notches, so don't even bother, which to an extent I agree with. Why would you drop back two if you can trade back further? That's what I'm saying.

And that's what I'm saying. Some of these teams have very defined players that they want, and if they think that somebody's going to step in front of them, they're going to go crazy trying to get him. I mean, now two or three spots, maybe not, but five or six spots. Sure. Yeah. You look at those twenties, those early twenties, and you look at what their needs are and you look at the Colts needs and you see if the Colts feel like they got five or six guys still on their board that they want to take in the first round, you bet you they'll, they'll trade back in a heartbeat.

Right. I agree. I'm good with them trading that back a little bit. But I'm not good with them changing their focus on what they want out of the draft. If their trade back changes their focus, I'm not for it. We're in an area now where we really don't know that much about the draft strategy of Chris Ballard because we can't really go by what he did with KC because he wasn't the only one calling the shots. Now this is his time. We're going to get an idea of what he looks at.

Is he going to go primarily with the need versus the talent available, or will he go best player available no matter what? And then that would bring back into the discussion a running back or an offensive lineman or something like that. Even though he needs defense the most, will he go BPA or not? We'll see. And I'm just not of the belief that at any point in the first 20 picks that BPA will ever be an offensive lineman in this draft?

Probably not in this one. It could be some teams. Yeah, I just, I don't see it that way. Yeah, me personally, I do not see it that way. So if somebody says BPA and they say get a lineman because of BPA, I say no, because that's, in my opinion, after the 20th pick, maybe you could throw one in there. Maybe Cam Robinson, maybe Bowles, maybe whoever. It depends. It's a style thing with those guys. But in the first 20 picks, no. There is no BPA with an offensive lineman attached to it, in my opinion. Not over the defensive players that could be available. Not in my book. No, I don't think so.

So who is your number one corner that you want, period? The number one corner on my board is obviously Marlon Humphrey if he's available. And then after that it's going to be Quincy Wilson and then Garyon Conley. Now, are you not saying Lattimore because you don't think he'll be available? Yeah, he's gone. There's no way we're going to get Lattimore. Right, right. I agree with that.

If he were there, yeah, sure. I'd be for that. Yeah, okay. I just don't think he's going to be there. Now give me your edge guy that you think, let's say, because it's traveled so much, these rankings have. So let's say anybody who's just outside of the top 10 and beyond. Who's your top edge?

Well, it's going to be Derek Barnett. He's not going to be Derek Barnett. He's not going to be available. He'll be gone before 15. If he's there, wow. You're killing me. You're breaking my heart here. Why won't he be available? I just think he's going to be picked up by somebody before he gets to Indy. I mean, Saints would be all over Barnett. In fact, I have him mocked to the Saints in draft tech because that's my other team that I'm an analyst for, and I've got him going to the Saints. Yeah. I just don't think he's going to be available at 15.

And outside of him, then you have to look at maybe doing a bigger reach for a guy like Charles Harris over some of these other talented cornerbacks, a couple more offensive linemen. Even though we said we wouldn't go 15 with an offensive lineman, even though we said we wouldn't go 15 with an offensive lineman, I'd have a hard time skipping over a guy like Lamp or Bowles and reaching for a hope on Charles Harris. That's just my personal opinion. I don't think that Charles Harris stacks up to Tim Williams, though, period. Right, but Tim Williams, to me, is a one-trick pony.

Yeah, well, that's fine though because they need that. But if you have a person closer to him that has some more versatility, you can move him around the line a little bit and bring him in for the inside. Why not go for that? I don't know. We'll see. This is what's fun about it. You just don't know what Bauer thinks

about certain players in comparison to what a lot of us in the mock draft world think. Right. And like I said, that's fine. For me, if they think that he's a one-trick pony, and maybe that's not worth their first-round pick to them, or maybe it is, and maybe they just want to go with a guy, a strong side guy later on in the draft because, you know, I mean, typical strong side backers aren't going to

be, you know, top 25 picks or anything like that. I mean, sometimes they are, sometimes they're not, but very rarely do you get a guy that can be both, uh, at that, at that draft. I mean, that's worth it as far as I'm concerned. So I think a lot of these edge rushers are either one or the other. They're either a slack on their rush or they're, uh their run stoppage. And very seldom do you get a guy that's really, really good at both. And those guys are going to be gone in we can get to him. So I just think he has enough good effort at the run stoppage, and he's one of the pure pass rushers. If he ever gets to where he improves his hand usage

and develops even more moves than what he has now, I mean, he was a leading SEC sacker. I mean, that's some good talent to go up against. So you know he's at least good enough against that quality of talent that if he develops any other part of his game more so than he has it right now,

Lord have mercy, that kid could be good. Yeah, that's true. Well, folks, you've heard it first round. He's got Hasan Reddick going to the Colts, and now we've got his idea of the top corner that's available with Humphrey. I tend to agree with that most definitely.

And his top edge guy is Barnett, that he would say, but he doesn't think that the Colts will get him. I respect that. I'm hoping, I'm hopeful that he does fall to the Colts because I think the Colts will be foolish to pass up on him. That would be a phenomenal pick. So, Rick, thanks for dropping by again tonight, man, just to talk shop and hang out for a little bit.

I know you've got to go watch your Boilermakers. It's about that time. So good luck to Purdue. I appreciate it. Boiler up, baby. Yeah, that's right. Thanks for having me, man. It's always a pleasure.

We'll do it again whenever you want. Absolutely, man absolutely man great having you and thank you guys for listening make sure you guys go right and review the show uh give me a shout out on twitter either myself m dainley underscore nfl locked on colts or rick where can i get you i'm colts at draft tech.com if you want to hit me up with an email there or on, on the Twitter, same, same thing. Or you guys go make sure you guys check out draft tech and check out Rick's

work there and kind of see their standings and their mocks and see kind of how they fluctuate from week to week, month to month. One thing I do want to add to that on, on the draft weekend, we will be live throughout the entire draft updating. As we go pick by pick. We redo the entire simulation after every pick.

That's awesome. We'll have analysis of the pick, then we'll reshuffle the deck and see who we think is going to come up next for the next series of picks all the way through round seven through the entire draft. Sweet. That'll be something to take hold of for sure. I'll be checking that out. And I implore you guys to do that too.

That's pretty cool. I don't know that too many places do that. So thank you again, Rick, man. I'll talk to you soon. Thank you all for listening. I'll talk to you guys all 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.