Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - LOCKED ON COLTS -3/5- Colts Combine Thursday's Story Line Recap W/@JakeArthurPFS

Episode Date: March 5, 2017

At the #NFLScoutingCombine, Matt brings on Jake Arthur to recap some of the more prominant #Colts story lines. How the coin toss will, or won't effect the Colts drafting strategy and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Talkspace.com slash BOOM. B-O-O-M. 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. Today we are live at the Combine, and we are here with my man, Jake Arthur.

We're trying to go through some things here for you guys and kind of decide on what we wanted to talk about today. But there's a couple things, most notably the coin flip, the Colts lost the coin flip, or won, whichever you want to look at it when you consider that they're now going to be picking 15th overall as opposed to 14th. Jake, what are your first thoughts as far as the significance of the coin toss, if anything? The biggest takeaway I've got from that is, I mean, first it means the Eagles will be picking ahead of the Colts, directly in front of them. And one of the most popular topics with Colts fans and the draft in the first round is,

can they get Dalvin Cook, should they take Dalvin Cook, if he's available? And honestly, with the Eagles hopping ahead of the Colts other than the Colts the Eagles are Cook's most popular destination when you look at mock drafts and things like that and there's just a fit there and I've got to say I think with the results of the coin flip today you could probably kiss Dalvin Cook goodbye. Is that is that an issue for you are you you all right with, I mean, look, the running back class is historically deep. Everybody's been talking about it for weeks now. Cook without, I mean, out of the game, like you said,

pretty much anybody who was wanting a running back is going to be ahead of the Colts now. There's still a lot of guys that are there on the board that are going to be plenty good within the system. They're going to be able to do the outside zone reads without any problem. The inside zone, there's plenty of guys who can run between the tackles that have the girth and the strength to do that. They've also got the leg strength and everything else. Does anybody, I mean, is this, is this, was that any sort of an issue to you whatsoever? No, it's really not that big of a deal. To be honest with you, if it does mean that cook is gone by the time the colts hit the clock at 15

it's kind of a relief because it means basically that there's no pressure to have to pick up a running back in the first round if one of those potentially elite guys like leonard fournette or cook is available it just kind of takes that option off the board. And now the Colts can focus on defense first and foremost, like they really need to be doing. And that's really the issue. I mean, the Colts absolutely need to be defensive minded going into this draft. And like you said, that kind of gives them the ability to just go ahead and do it. There's no longer a need to pick and choose between these backs. I think it's pretty obvious that these two backs are the top two in this draft. But when you look at some of their times from the combine today,

is there any of them that kind of jump out to you, somebody that you thought maybe on tape was a little slower that actually kind of pushed through in the 40-yard and looked like they could do some, you know, straight-line speed isn't the way the game is played typically until you get past the second level. So, I mean, is there anybody on there that changed anything, any of your views about them, just in most simplistic form at all with their speed?

Not entirely. I think Leonard Fournette's time was pretty suitable for him. I think people wanted to see him run in that range. I know he weighed in at 240, which isn't as big of a deal as it kind of sounded initially. I think Dalvin Cook's time is pretty appropriate there in the 4.4s. Jamal Williams, he kind of, you know, he's kind of knocked for not being fast. He's one of, you know, Draft Twitter's favorite guys, but he's kind of got a knock for not having great breakaway speed,

and I thought his time kind of matched that. That's about it. Not a lot of people jumping off the page so far. No, not for me either, but there's a couple guys that jumped off the page for the wrong reasons, but nobody that anybody's going to be considering in the early to the mid portion of the draft to begin with. So, I mean, some of these guys, Alvin Kamara ran a 4.53.

I didn't have any issues with that. He also ran a 4.65, so he's got a bit of a window there. But some of the guys, I mean, some of the lesser-known guys, such as Devin Redding out of IU, ran a 4.78. I mean, that's awful. Also, Freddie Stevenson, somebody that you and I both, neither one of us knew about, but a guy who's gotten a lot of scrutiny like Joe Williams ran a 4-4-2, a 4-5-4 as well. Is there any of these guys on here that now that we know that there is a pretty slim chance if the Colts were planning to get a running back in the first round at all,

is there any of these guys here that maybe you like better than some of the second or third round guys later on in the draft? Yeah, but I can't say that today's results really changed much of that for me. I don't really think there was any big losers today. There was a lot of confirmations from what you've already seen on game tape. Christian McCaffrey is, I told you earlier, I just don't know what to do with him, but he had a pretty good day. I think he locked his status as a first-round guy.

We've already kind of talked about Fournette and Cook, but if you look at these guys that are later on, you know, some of the popular picks, Jamal Williams ran kind of a pedestrian time. Same with Kareem Hunt. I don't really have any reservations about them as a result of today's performance, though. If you look at McCaffrey, though, McCaffrey is yoked. I was not expecting that. I don't know why, whether I should have or shouldn't.

It didn't really make much of a difference, but I wasn't expecting that. Let's kind of move on. Now, the O-line group is kind of, you know, like we said, this has been historically kind of weak, at least considered, it seems to be through most of not only Draft Twitter, but it seems like through a lot of the major networks and whatnot. But, you know, like I told you earlier today, some of the people that I was talking to over the week so far were kind of impressed with some of the guys that you might think of mid to late round. Now, we had a small conversation about this as far as what we'd rather do, do this through the draft or do this through free agency.

And you and I both agree that you'd rather do any old line work or additions through free agency that it's not really worth messing with a draft pick in this go into detail a little bit more about that and why you say that my thinking there is first and foremost you just used four draft picks last year on offensive linemen it was half of your picks I mean they got some good returns from those draft picks in Joe Haag and LaRaven Clark. And another thing about draft picks is you don't know how they're going to translate to the NFL. If you're going to keep working on your offensive line, get someone who you're almost guaranteed that they're going to perform well. You have plenty

of money. You got about 55 to 60 million. If you're going to address the offensive line, go get you someone who you know is going to start and be a standout performer for you. If you're going to keep working on it, quit messing around and just get someone who is going to be a no-doubt starter. Who do you like? There is, let's see, there's Kevin Zeitler. I think he's probably going to be pretty expensive.

But to be honest with you, with some of these guys, some of these big important free agents that have already been tagged by their team or are probably going to return to their team otherwise, they have the money to spend. Why not do it? Guys like Ronald Leary and Larry Warford are our options as well Warford was a guy that I kind of spoke about that I thought that in my little simulation of both re-signing our own free agents going out into the field and then the draft Warford was

one of the guys that I spoke up about saying that I thought that he may be a solid guy to help this offensive line depth grow a little bit, get a little more familiar with playing in the NFL, Hagan, those guys. And then you've still got the depth with Harrison and so on and so forth. And we really don't know what's going to end up going out at right tackle, whether it's going to be Clark or Hagan or maybe know maybe even good at this point we just don't know so there's a lot left to be determined along this offensive line is there anybody that stands out to you as far as one of the top free agent possibilities that that you may be interested in as far as aside from Warford and those guys like maybe a TJ Ling yeah I think I would just kind of stick to the top of the free agent pile, to be honest,

because those are the guys who you know are probably going to be successful starters for you. I would weed out some of the older guys like Chris Chester from the Falcons. Not to say he wouldn't be successful, but for how long is he going to be successful for you? You know, you stick with guys who are maybe in their mid to high 20s, like your Kevin Zeitler's TJ Lang's. I would also kind of stay away from someone like Ronald Leary, just because that Dallas line is so good that you don't know how much of it is he is a product of his surroundings or if he's just individually good on his own. So for me, I would just kind of stick to guys who kind of still have a long career path ahead of them. They may be more expensive, but you're probably going to get your better return on investment in those guys. Serious question here, Jake.

Do you also think Chris Bauer is uncontrollably handsome? Oh, yeah. He rises above his – I don't think his voice fits the handsome. It's odd, but it's grown on me after a couple press conferences but yeah dude hits the the handsome rating hard as the boys over at draft indy would say so so where's his what did you catch from it because everything that i saw whether it be on twitter or just anybody talking in person uh constantly we're saying that he is impressive. What about him is impressive to you as far as how he commands the room

during a press conference? He's confident, but he's not cocky. At the same time, he seems to have humility. He knows he's not always going to have the right answer. He seems like he wants to depend on his team that he's kind of building around him. I don't know. I just get so much of a better feel for him. Now, there's almost nobody of work for us to go off of as far as him with the Colts and with him not being in complete charge with the Chiefs and Bears. You don't know how much of it was him. But I just get a totally different

feel with him so far than with Ryan Grigson. I do like the two personnel moves that he's made so far. Getting rid of Dequil Jackson had to be done. Who knows if that would have even been done if Grigson was still here. And they brought in a likely backup lineman in Fawn Cooper, but it's something. He gets me fired up and looking forward to seeing the team play again. As before, I was just kind of done with it and ready for the offseason. I agree because that's the main thing that he does for me. It gives you almost hope, whereas it feels like we didn't have any uh previously looking at it but you know i i think that we're a spoiled fan base and spoiled analysts

when we look at it uh realistically we're not covering the browns we're not covering you know some of these other organizations that even haven't haven't even sniffed a five-win season in several years so i mean we obviously are acting like little pampered babies, and we need to probably stop that. But nonetheless, that doesn't change how much Chris Ballard throws up the impressive meter. I mean, he absolutely is one of those guys that everybody wants to go all in on, and you see what he expects not only out of his staff but his team alike.

But the best part about it to me, the thing that's most notable and probably most akin to what kind of a person he is, a genuine guy, is that he expects them to hold him accountable as well for his job. That's one of the things that I don't think that you could ever even – not only would you not hear him say that being gregson but you definitely wouldn't ever assume that that's uh the way he would would feel about his subordinates i mean that just would never ever cross my mind yeah i've i've got to agree uh the previous regime just kind of had this i'm right in your stupid attitude and it was really insulting. You know, even to watch a press conference, you're just like, Jesus, this guy just thinks everyone is stupid. All right, so let's get into the other real conversation now. Where are we going to eat tonight? What are we going to eat?

I mean, what's on the docket here? We've got all kinds of stuff around us. This is part of the experience being down here in Indy, being able to mingle with people, being able to eat at the restaurants you want to eat at. Interesting, lots of variety, definitely a lot of good food, a lot of good people. What's your call for tonight? Well, I don't know about you, man, but I don't have St. Elmo's money. So let's go ahead and just scratch that one off the list.

You know, we've got some good Italian here. there's buca di beppo that's a good one yeah we uh we talked about possibly the colts grill which somehow i've never been to even though i've lived in central indiana for over 20 years um weber grill right next to it is very very good uh there's a new restaurant here though yard house that has i if i recall correctly something like 200 taps of beer uh which just sounds like a great time been there once good food so it does sound good in fact my man mike who's going to go out with us tonight uh actually suggested that yard house so i've got a pine for uhucca di Beppo. That's an absolute favorite of mine. Every time I come to Indianapolis downtown, at least, that's the very first place that I want to eat.

We'll either go, I mean, we can go to the Yard House. We can go to the Ram. We can go just about any of those places. A lot of those places, good food, good beer, good people are going to be around. So that's what we're doing, guys, which is about nothing. But we're just walking around and we're trying to talk to as many people as possible, have the football conversations that everybody loves to have with a lot of great football minds, and we're going to keep that up.

So if we bored you today, we'll come back with something better for you tomorrow, but we'll have all kinds of stuff to talk about, whether it's how we did at dinner or who we almost met and didn't get to talk to, like Adam Schefter about 20 minutes ago. That would have been a solid, I guess, pickup for the podcast. I mean, try not to let anybody down. I wasn't going to tell him no, but that's where we're at tonight, guys, and we'll talk to you 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.