Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - LOCKED ON COLTS 3/3/20: Talking Combine, QB scenarios, and more with Kevin Bowen

Episode Date: March 3, 2020

On today's episode, 1070 The Fan's Kevin Bowen joins to walk us through what exactly happened last week at the NFL Scouting Combine. What did we learn from the Colts' brass that spoke? What does GM Chris Ballard mean by locker room friction, and who could help in that area?Also, we talk QBs and lots of them. If Jordan Love or Justin Herbert is there at No. 13, do they pull the trigger? Bowen believes Love's stock is high enough now where the Colts will have to trade up.What's up with Philip Rivers, too? Lots of buzz around this rumor. Is there anyway Ballard and Co. have somehow talked themselves into a 2-year Super Bowl window with Rivers? What happens to Brissett in this scenario?All of this, plus so much more, with the host of Kevin's Corner on 1070 The Fan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, everybody. Welcome back into your latest episode of Locked On Colts, probably Locked On Podcast Network. Today's guest is Evan Setter. He's usually on throughout the office in here. He does great work over at 107.5, 107.5 The Fan. He has his own podcast as well, Kevin's Corner. The man, the myth, the legend, Kevin Bowen. How are you doing today, Kevin? What's up, Evan? How are you doing, man? Nothing much. I'm really glad to have you on again, Kevin, and especially after this combine, because, boy, we've heard an awful lot about – if there's a free agent quarterback,

Kevin, obviously it's the game that agents play, but I feel like we've heard if there's a free agent quarterback available, for some reason, somehow, the Colts can link to every single one. So my main conclusion to this so far has been I know there's been a lot of Phillip Rivers buzz, been a lot of different buzz around corex with the Colts, but it seems like people were just guessing this point, Chris Bowden is for obviously really keep a tight look about what's going to happen here. Yeah. And honestly,

I think it's just part of the Colts due diligence and gauging the entire quarterback market, not at least for their own good, but they need to know what the NFL is thinking about these quarterbacks. Yeah. I think it's something when, when you start like listing the amount of quarterbacks that could hit the open market here, you know, in two weeks, there's not enough chairs for all these guys to be sitting in and have a, you know, a starting sort of competition available. So again,

I think it's a cult looking into some of these guys and yes, are they interested in some of them? Certainly. Do they need to have options plan A, B, C, D without a doubt. And then I also think it's more so again, just to see, okay, you think your value is here. Okay. We, you know, and internally, you know, we think it's maybe here, like things like that. So I think that's what a lot of this time of the off season is about. And as you mentioned, you know,

agents are going to want the Colts to still see with their clients all throughout the month of March because they know how much cap space is available. Kevin, you were there live at the Combine this week, doing some awesome coverage. What did you learn from speaking with Frank Wright, Chris Bauer, and also Jim Ursa on the impromptu press conference on Sunday? What was your biggest takeaway from that?

I know you covered that on your podcast, but it seemed like it's a rare occasion we hear from Jim Ursa held an impromptu press conference on Sunday. What was your biggest takeaway from that? I know you covered that on your podcast, but it seemed like it's a rare occasion we hear from Jim Ursa this time of year. Yeah, it is. I would say the Ursa-specific stuff, you know, his involvement in the quarterback decision, I think it's notable. You know, is that just a straight, simple majority vote? Like, you know, him, Frank Wright, Chris Ballard, whoever votes two to one, does it take a unanimous vote to make that decision?

Does Jim Irsay have veto power? Does Chris Bauer have veto power? That was interesting to me. I think that can go multiple directions how you look at that. He was very outspoken that, you know, an extension for Marlon Mack was not likely this offseason. I can't recall many times he's been that outspoken about a contract extension with a player and willing to share that

publicly. So again, I thought that was notable. I'm trying to think what else he said. You know, I mean, from the Brissette stuff, I think it's pretty status quo. The Colts like Jacoby Brissette, we know that, but in no way, shape, or form have they ever mentioned this offseason that they feel like their quarterback position is secure and is exactly what they want and things like that. They are exploring all options. So I think that was some of the biggest takeaways with Ursae. As far as Ballard and Reich was concerned, obviously, the Anthony Costanzo news is vital. I've said it. I think Costanzo's worth a win or two.

I think he's that important to this football team, and I think that's just a huge deal having him back. The big-name free agent comment I thought was interesting from Ballard. Again, a lot of hurdles still to clear before that actually leads to that happening. But, again, Ballard's willingness to share that and believe that the locker room is ready, that's something he definitely did not say publicly at all and certainly hasn't showed with his actions very often

in his previous years as general manager. Yeah, really interesting. Glad you brought that up, Kevin, for your last client, Ballard, because right away when he asked about that, he said the locker room was ready for a big name free agent. He also mentioned that key word again that he mentioned at the end of December, early January, which is friction in the locker room. He said he needed more of that.

What's your thoughts on that friction point that Ballard keeps bringing up here? Because I find that really interesting. Yeah, it's definitely not a word that I'm used to hearing from general managers and coaches, but Ballard has mentioned that. Frank Reich has mentioned that. So it's definitely a hot-button word. And I think when he says friction, it's competition, but take it a step or two further.

Competition, yes. But, you know, every GM says that. When Ballard means friction, he was not pleased with the in-house locker room accountability that the Colts had in 2019. Now, you know, I would argue that their handling of Adam and Terry didn't show a whole lot of accountability, but I think more so he is pointing towards that locker room and that if guys maybe aren't working out as hard or, you know, they're not carrying themselves as much of a professional as they should be, whatever that is, is it

nutritional based? Is it preparation based? You know, whatever that is. Is it nutritional-based? Is it preparation-based? You know, is it workout? Is it practice intensity? All those things. When your teammates aren't holding guys accountable to that level, that's an issue. And I think this team started to read their press clippings a little bit too

early when they started five and two, and that was an issue. And they have now made that very clear that there needs to be more friction they need guys that are just willing to I think disrupt things a little bit more and I know that's a slippery slope and probably doesn't sound maybe the maybe the greatest but again you know when when you know stuff starts to hit the fan the guy that's going to be a little bit more verbally outspoken and not afraid to call guys out, knowing full well that the full intention of it is to win, you know? And if that player has that sort of leadership element and accountability,

I think that can go a long way in that locker room. Because we know full well, Bowen always says that locker room things and all that. And while I think he likes a lot of elements of his locker room, I think that friction, that accountability, that was lacking from this team this past season. Yeah, and I wanted to ask you about that a little bit more, Kevin, because obviously you and the rest of the crew that cover the Colts

are there almost every day in the locker room during the season and sometimes the offseason as well. What was your takeaway from being in the locker room this year? Like, who's shot to you as far as those vocal leaders in the locker room? I don't know if you could was your takeaway from being in the locker room this year? Like who stood out to you as far as those vocal leaders in the locker room? I don't know if you could take that away from being in the locker room for a few minutes at a time talking to players, but who seemed like the guys that really gravitated and had that aura in the locker room?

Because, you know, Andrew Luck was really never a guy we thought was vocal, but he had that commanding presence in the locker room where if you walked in the room and had something to say, I had the players would stop and really listen. And we remember that point about the Giants game last year, Kevin, where he had that speech in the locker room at halftime and galvanized that team and helped them win that game. So I'm just curious from your standpoint,

who do you think those new leaders are this time last year? Well, I think you look at guys like T.Y. Hilton, Justin Houston, Anthony Costanzo, those guys can lead a lot more with their play on the field. I don't think they're the most vocal leaders, and they are in that, you know, seven, eight, nine-year age gap from experience in the NFL that, you know, I think a lot of times we equate those guys to being leaders, but again, from a vocal standpoint, I don't think they're very big in that category. Jacoby Brissett, I think, certainly is a leader and tries to be a vocal leader. I think he does a lot of things well in that leadership element. And I think Frank Reich

has been pretty outspoken about that. Now, again, I come back to the point that I just think inevitably, some of your best players have to be great leaders. And I think it's difficult for guys that aren't the best player on the team or best players have to be great leaders. And I think it's difficult for guys that aren't the best player on the team or best players in the team to consistently lead. And I think maybe that's a little bit where Bursette, you know, his message doesn't resonate as frequent or as enough as maybe an Andrew Luck would or Peyton Manning would or something like that. You know, other guys that I think of leaders, you know, Leonard for sure.

You know, I think Quentin Nelson is a very accountable guy, you know, to a degree. Again, I don't know if he's the most verbal outside of that offensive line room. Him and Chris Ballard, I know, have some passionate conversations about kind of the shape of the franchise, and Nelson certainly spearheads a lot of that. But outside of that, I don't have a great grasp of, like, the verbal leaders. Kenny Moore, I wouldn't say, falls into that category, but he certainly leads by example.

But I think he's just getting more of that vocal voice. I think if you looked at the top 10 Colts players, you wouldn't say more than about two or three of them are big time voices from a leadership standpoint or want to do that on a consistent basis. And I think that's something to where you've got to try and mesh that together a little bit more. If you've been a listener to this podcast, I'm where you've got to try and mesh that together a little bit more. If you've been a listener to this podcast, I'm sure you've heard all the great advertisers recommend Locked On to reach sports fans. But you may not know that Locked On Colts is great for your local business to reach passionate Colts fans just like you. Unlike any other podcast, Locked On gives your local company a unique ability to reach local podcast listeners. Not just any listener, but a Locked On podcast listener.

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slash advertising. We look forward to hearing from you soon. Yeah, that's a really good point you bring up there, Kevin. And pivoting over a second to the combine, we had Zach Keeper on the show last week, and he wrote a story about Jordan Love on The Athletic. He mentioned to me, at least, that from talking to all the quarterbacks there, it seemed like Love had a personality, and the other guys were kind of boring, so to say.

What was your takeaways from not only Jordan Love, but also the other quarterbacks there? Because I've seen a lot of buzz recently about Jordan Love moving up into the top 10. Maybe Justin Herbert slips a little bit. What's your thoughts on this kind of quarterback situation and what you heard from those guys at the combine? Yeah, I was impressed not only by Jordan Love, but I thought Tua, you know,

I thought he was an engaging personality. And you can kind of see a little bit, you know, Nick Saban has not been very shy in saying what, you know, I thought he was an engaging personality, and you can kind of see a little bit, you know, Nick Saban has not been very shy in saying what, you know, Tua meant to that program. Herbert, I actually thought, I found a little bit more engaging than kind of the biggest knock on him draft-wise. He was really candid, you know, describing his leadership and how that has grown over his time at Oregon, which I think is a big, big piece to his puzzle.

Jake Fromm certainly checks that box, and that's by far his greatest strength, greatest draft quality, along with kind of what he can do from a cognitive standpoint pre-snap. You know, Anthony Gordon I didn't catch a whole lot of, but it sounded like some guys really, really enjoyed listening to him and just kind of his leadership. You know, and again, it's only 15 minutes. I thought at times Jacob Easton and Jalen Hurts, just a little bit too cool for school sort of feel to them.

So those are kind of my takeaways from the quarterback I was listening to. Yeah, it's really interesting just because this Cole situation with the quarterbacks is so in flux right now, Leo, to the draft. But I imagine, Kevin, you watched the drills. You probably watched the quarterbacks on that Saturday night when the first night in primetime – or excuse me, Friday night. What was your takeaways watching guys like Kerber and Luff throw? Because obviously it's against air. They're not going to have any defenders.

But it seemed like the arm talent on both those guys really pops off on TV. Yeah, and to be honest honest I don't put a whole lot of stock into combine workouts for quarterbacks and to me it's it's very it's glorified layup line you know sort of thing Jordan Love should look good Jacob Eason should look good you know these are guys thrown in in shorts and spandex or whatever you want to call it. To me, I think that's what makes the evaluation so difficult is, you know, yes, other positions you can get more of a feel on kind of athleticism. You know, there's a couple elements of the process that, you know, from a leadership standpoint, you could look at quarterback and maybe seeing a guy's motion in person is great for an assistant coach to see. Those things matter to a degree but you know I think when you're talking about Love and you're talking about Eason you know those two guys

specifically great arm talent for sure but the ultimate factor on Jordan Love is going to be all right we're going to get you in an X and O's environment how do you look on the whiteboard how can you transition to a pro style offense what's's your footwork look like? Okay, maybe you can do some of that during the combine. But, you know, private workouts, something like that is really where you can tap into more of that. And I think Frank Reich was pretty adamant, you know, what was it? Maybe it's 18 minutes, I think this year on the interviews. I mean, when you have those prospects in there, that time, you blink and that time's over. And if you're going to make a monumental decision like quarterback and you're going to draft one, you got to make sure that you go visit that guy and have a full day sort of setting with that player.

So, yeah, I mean, you know, there are several quarterbacks that threw the ball great. Some of them maybe didn't throw it as great as others, but I don't put too much stock into the on-field stuff with quarterbacks. Yeah, valid point there. And I think just looking ahead here for a second, having this because we're still a few months away from the draft, but where would you land as far as if a guy Jordan loves there at 13 or Justin Herbert, whichever one of those top four quarterbacks there,

do you think there's any chance that Colts pass on one of those guys for like a best player available? Because I just feel like you've been hammering this point in your podcast, like franchise quarterbacks are so important that if he's there for you, if you really believe in that guy, you can't pass up on him. Yeah. I mean, if, if to me, if Love or Herbert was there at 13, that'd be really, really difficult for me to pass on.

Really difficult. You know, because I still think in the back of my mind, you're probably going to have to trade up to get one of those guys. And, you know, I hear people out that are saying, oh, you know, what about Rivers on a short term? And then, you know, then you draft that stud wide out at 13, you come back in the second round and you get one of those, you know, then you draft that stud wide out at 13. You come back in the second round and you get one of those, you know, number five, six, seven type quarterbacks on a board

and you get a defensive tackle. And, okay, that's fine and well. There's a drop off in ceiling when you get to the second round that would worry me. I think there's a few more kind of unteachable traits that those quarterbacks, you know, love Herbert to specifically possess that will go early. And I just don't know if you can, you know, truly develop the amount of traits you would need to develop there, you know, to get those guys,

you know, in the second round or wherever, you end up drafting a quarterback. So that's how I look at things. You know, I've probably grown a little bit more to the Rivers talk, not a whole lot more. You know, I still am not sold on how much of a difference it would be. But, you know, if it improves you by a little bit and you can still pass the torch in a more kind of a seamless manner, then that might be a wise route to go.

If you have not already, I want to remind you listeners, as you guys are joining this podcast with Kevin Bono of 1070 The Fan, to subscribe to Locked On Colts, the only daily Colts podcast out there where we give you guys A-plus information every single day throughout the offseason during a busy time. So make sure to get in on the action with Locked On Colts. We're with you guys with A plus guests, A plus analysis, in my opinion. We're going to be with you guys all throughout this important stretch and the most important

offseason for the Colts in, I think, a very, very long time. So on whatever streaming platform you're listening to, whether it's Out Podcast, Google Play, wherever you are, we're on every single streaming platform. Make sure to subscribe to Locked On Colts and leave us a five star review if you like what we're listening to. Yeah, that Rivers talk, of course, has been really buzzing for the last few weeks. And I wanted to ask you about Phillip Rivers for a little bit, Kevin,

because I crunched numbers on over the cap. And if you draft a guy like Jordan Love at 13, you have Jacoby Brissett on the roster and Phillip Rivers. That's over $50 million in one position. I don't see Chris Bauer doing that at all. What do you think is the scenario here if they do sign a guy like Phillip Rivers or any veteran high-priced veteran quarterback at 3A&C? Is Bursette on the move or not going to draft a quarterback? It has to be one of those two things, I imagine.

Yeah, I mean, if you're going to sign Rivers and draft a quarterback, I would assume that means Bursette is done here in Indy. Now, I don't know why you would draft a quarterback round one or round two, and that guy wouldn't be your backup. I mean, to me, that would seem like way too many resources to invest. And, yeah, I just – I don't see the need for all of that capital invested in the quarterback position. So there's a bunch of dominoes. What does it mean for Hoyer?

What does it mean for Chad Kelly? Obviously, Jacoby with one more year left in the deal. But I can't see a – I mean, maybe if you just elected not to draft a quarterback at all until round five or round six, maybe that would be different. And you would want to keep whatever you decide to do with them, that's going to tip the colt hand or show it a little bit that they're going to have to make some notable draft pick at the quarterback position. But I can't see a day one or day two quarterback all of a sudden be your third stringer where you keep Bursette behind Rivers.

That just seems like a whole lot. Yeah, definitely agree with you there. I would expect either Bursette gone or to not direct the quarterback in that scenario. But I wanted to ask you as well, under this assumption that the Colts are a little more aggressive for A&C, Kevin, do you think there's any chance that they do go out and sign on Phillip Rivers? Because that buzz, obviously, of course,

has been really rumbling the last few weeks at Indianapolis. Do you believe, like, there's any chance that they do go out and sign Phillip Rivers? Because that buzz, obviously, of course, has been really rumbling the last few weeks at Indianapolis. Do you believe there's any chance that the Colts think, Rivers is such an upgrade over Jacoby Brissetti, has such familiarity, let's go make a two-year Super Bowl run with Phillip Rivers? I think that's flawed thinking. I think that's a really bad idea to really put all your investment in the Rivers, draft playmakers, go sign big name free-ins and really make a run next two years.

But do you think there's any chance that happens that Chris Bauer and co think rivers is our guy for two years. Let's go make a cerebral runner. I can't see it. You know, I can't see it. You know, do I think you could build a very intriguing team if you invested all those

resources into that? Possibly, but you hear sustained success. You hear homegrown talent. You hear build from within all those things out of chris ballard that doesn't achieve any of that and that seems very quick short-term cited so i can't see that happening now again maybe you only need to you know put one element into the quarterback maybe you

sit there at pick 44 and that's the only pick you invest into a long-term answer quarterback, and you're spending the rest of your money in free agency on other positions. You're spending 13 overall and 34 overall and 75 overall and all that on other positions. But I just think you still have to have that long-term view. So the passing of the torch is somewhat seamless. You know, Kansas City went from making the playoffs with Alex Smith to, boom, making the playoffs with Patrick Mahomes. You know, Houston had a, although it was kind of a rocky ride to end it, you know, Deshaun Watson

came in and they were making the playoffs, you know, when he was healthy right away. So I think you want to have as much of a seamless transition and not another window like you're in right now where you are missing the playoffs four out of five years. Yeah, I think it's definitely going to be an interesting offseason for sure, Kevin. But last question I have for you, appreciate the time as always, Kevin. What do you think, just looking ahead here to free agency, we're still kind of in this dead period now, next couple weeks between the combine ending and free agency. What are you going to be working on, Kevin, and what should Colts fans look forward to the next couple weeks from now?

Well, obviously a lot of free agency preview stuff. You know, as we're recording this, we're only two weeks away, you know, from it officially getting underway. So, you know, ranking some of prospective free agents, kind of an ideal offseason plan for the Colts. You know, guys you need to re-sign, probably something we haven't talked about a whole lot. And I know there's not a lot of obvious names, but there's still a few that I think you'd be wise to keep in mind. And then once kind of free agency winds down and you have a clear picture at the end of March and April, I think that's where you can get into some draft elements and take a little bit of a closer look at what the needs are and how that'll impact the Colts, because they have great, great draft capital that I think if you're able to use it, you know,

in a way of, you know, 2018 was such a lofty goal with what you did with the draft, but, you know, if you can even get half of that, that would be a huge, huge deal to further building what the next five to ten years looks like for the Colts. Yeah, this offseason has really endless possibilities. It could go either way. If one domino goes, and a lot of domino effects are really in place for this Colts team

over the next couple weeks. So, Kevin, appreciate your time. Thanks for joining us today on Locked on Colts. You can follow Kevin on Twitter at KBowen1070. Also, subscribe to his podcast, Kevin's Corner. Appreciate your time, Kevin. Yeah, thanks, Evan.