Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - LOCKED ON COLTS 4/18/19: Ole Miss Playmakers with Zach Berry of Red Cup Rebellion

Episode Date: April 18, 2019

You've heard about the hype surrounding Ole Miss' four offensive playmakers with three wide receivers (D.K. Metcalf, A.J. Brown and DaMarkus Lodge) and their tight end (Dawson Knox). Zach Berry of SB Nation's Red Cup Rebellion has watched every snap of these players, so we invited him on to discuss Metcalf, Brown, Lodge and Knox.Kicking things off with a discussion on Metcalf, who Mel Kiper Jr. has going to the Colts at No. 26 in his latest mock draft, Berry believes too many holes are being poked in his game. If he ends up with a coach like Frank Reich, he could be an All-Pro.Brown has all the swagger you need from a wideout with the production to back it up as well. If he's on the board at No. 34, don't be surprised if Brown ends up in Indianapolis..Lodge is being slept on, but is arguably the best scheme fit for the Colts. Likely to be selected on Day 3, Lodge could be a bargain for Indianapolis. Berry actually compared Lodge to T.Y. Hilton, and an ideal partner alongside him.Knox is a name at tight end who has generated plenty of steam lately with his stock now in Round 2-3. Could he be the eventual replacement to Jack Doyle or Eric Ebron if one isn't re-signed. It's a possibility if a tight end is selected by the Colts early, and Knox definitely would be a solid selection.Familiarize yourself with this group before Thursday's draft. Odds are high one could end up with the Colts, in my opinion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello everybody, welcome to the Locked On Colts Party, Locked On Podcast Network. Today's guest is my host Evan Sutter, enjoyed by a very special guest today. I am joined by Zach over at Red Cup Rebellion. Zach Berry, how are you doing today? Doing well, Evan, how are you? Doing good, doing good. I'm glad to get going here on another episode here of Locked On Colts. I'm glad to have you on here, Zach, because interestingly enough, I saw on Mel Kuyper's mock draft today,

slipping to 26 overall. His stock is kind of slipping as of late. DK Metcalf wound up at 26 going to the Indianapolis Colts. So might as well dive into starting off with him. And also we're going to get into AJ Brown, Dawson Knox, DeMarcus Lodge, the four pass catches for Ole Miss who could definitely make a lot of sense for the Indianapolis Colts. But since Mel Kuyper, I'm going 26, let's just dive into DK Metcalf what do you think about his prospect and um because when you watch him on tape he's a freak overall but there's just some concerns about his lateral movement yeah I mean I think getting him at 26 is a ridiculously good value um and I'll preface it by saying I know I could sound a bit biased because

I am an Ole Miss fan, but the guy is an explosive athlete. He's a freak. His straight line speed was obviously put on display at the combine, you know, running a ridiculous time at that size. They have him listed in a lot of places at 225 but i i would probably beg to differ there but yeah the lateral movement was something that that scouts talked about a lot uh he you know didn't run a great three cone at the combine but um you know we've we've talked with uh several scouts and we had one uh brad kelly from the draft network on our show um over at red cup rebellion and asked him about it you know he brought up guys like you know anquan bolden even jarvis landry uh you know a little more recent guy you know they also ran pretty bad

three cones so the lateral movement to me is not too much of a concern because he does show that he has good footwork, especially at the line of scrimmage. You're not going to be able to press him. And he can run routes still very well. It's just not going to be, you know, your typical, you know, he's not going to be running anything from the slot. I mean, he's going to be an outside wide receiver.

He's still going to be explosive in and out of his breaks, and he's going to be able to create separation, especially because of that size. Yeah, I'm right there with you. You see his size there. He's a freak when you see him in person, 6'4", 225. But like you said, I think he's probably more like 230, 235, just the way he's built. In person, Zach, what is DK Metcalf like as an athlete?

Because it just seems like on the field, I know the usage really wasn't there. He only had 67 catches in his three years there at Ole Miss and looks like around 20 games. But what intrigues me is just how freakish he is. I know that's the main word to use with DK Metcalf there, but I feel like if you got with him like a smart coach like Frank Reich, I feel like you can make him into an all-pro. For sure.

He only had two receptions as a freshman, and they were both for touchdowns. His first one was in the season opener against Florida State. I'm trying to remember the guy's name. I think it might have been Tavares McFadden. I mean, a four-, five-star corner experienced guy, and as a true freshman, goes up and over him for a touchdown. He had 39 receptions as a true freshman goes up and over him for a touchdown he had 39 receptions as a sophomore and seven touchdowns and then last year before the neck injury 26 for five touchdowns

so he's very productive and very explosive I swear it felt like every game the the first play from from the last scrimmage was just running a go route with DK, and it worked out. I do remember he had a go route for a touchdown against Texas Tech in the season opener, and then I guess it was the first play from scrimmage. It might have been the second play from scrimmage against Alabama. Just absolutely torches the DB from the Crimson Tide for a huge touchdown catch there. So just extremely explosive. He's going to make big plays. And then, yeah, I mean, he's a freak. I think he power cleaned well over 300 pounds last year in the offseason, which was up there with a lot of the defensive linemen. I mean, he's just,

you know, his father was an offensive lineman in the NFL, and then his uncle played wide receiver in the NFL. So he's definitely got the DNA and that genetics working for him, but just a monster in the weight room. And then, I mean, if you ever see him with his shirt off, you're definitely not going to peel yours off and stand next to him. Yeah, that's for sure. I think it went viral with that picture with him and A.J. Brown on Twitter. And when you see that, just my goodness, like a wide receiver shouldn't look like that. But when you look at his redshirt sophomore numbers here,

like you mentioned, 26 catches, 569 yards, five touchdowns in seven games, do you feel like that neck injury robbed him of a season where he could have had at least maybe 10 or 11 touchdowns? For sure. It was a big bummer, and I know that he certainly was pretty mad about it. I mean, he sustained the injury in the Arkansas win, had a phenomenal catch on the sideline, just falling back, catching it with the defender in his face face and just came down real hard on the

artificial turf there and little rock and, you know, had to wear a neck brace for a little bit and then started working out again. But yeah, I thought that he was definitely going to be on track to really have, you could probably argue a first team all American type season. I mean, he had 26 catches for 569 yards. He was averaging close to 22 yards a catch. And then the five touchdowns, I mean, just phenomenal numbers.

And I thought every year at Ole Miss he got better at the little things. Receivers coach Jacob Peeler talks about that a lot. You know, in high school, a lot of these guys that are four and five stars, they're just better than everybody in high school. So they can just kind of, you know, just better, you know, just out athlete people. Now, you're playing in, you know, Power Five football, everybody is good. So you've got to really fine tune and tweak, you know, and work on your craft. And I think that he really did that. And he really busted his tail this off season working out, out West. And I think it, it paid off. I mean, you saw the huge afternoon he had at the combine and yeah,

going back to Mel Kiper, if he falls to 26 and the Colts are able to snag him, I mean, that's a potential, you know, best value in the draft, I think, this year. Before we move on here to A.J. Brown, our next prospect, I just wanted to ask you, you've probably seen DK and all the rest of these guys more than anyone else. I know some of these drafts got that they watch so many prospects, they only watch maybe three or four games and they give their opinions about him, but you've watched every single game of these guys.

I wanted to ask you, do you feel like too many holes are being plucked at DK Metcalf right now for a really no odd reason? That's, that's a, that's a great question. And I feel like with the draft that that happens every year, there's always a couple of guys that really blow up at either the combine or their pro day or just people are in love with them. And I just feel like that's kind of an NFL draft thing

where people are like just playing devil's advocate or just wanting to talk out of both sides of their mouth. And, you know, oh, there's no way that this guy can be that big of an impact guy. You know, he only did this. Or look at what he did at the combine in this drill and things like that. And, you know, I go back to what I said. I mean, it's crazy to try to point out a three-cone drill being a detriment to his game when arguably one of the best receivers in the NFL right now, Jarvis Landry,

was terrible in that drill. And so, I mean, he's a big guy. I mean, he's going to be a little rigid. I mean, he's huge. He's muscular. But you're not asking him to run a three-cone drill in a game. You're asking him to win one-on-one balls, to create separation on third and longs and get, you know,

catch the football, get to the sticks. I mean, that's the type of things that you want from DK Metcalf. And he checked all those boxes at the combine. So yeah, I mean, it is kind of silly to try to find holes in people's games, but I mean, that's kind of what, you know, some of these draft analysts job is is to, you know, let's try to figure out why he wouldn't be such a big, you know, big time prospect.

Yeah, I'm right there with you. I feel like I actually posted a question on our Twitter account at Locked on Colts earlier this week when I mentioned DK Metcalf's stock going to be slipping a little bit. A lot of Colts fans were not really fans of the idea, I think, just because of that notion of him not really having the lateral speed and just the route running. But I'm there with you. I feel like if he's there at 26, that's some really great value there for the Annapolis Colts.

And he'd be a great weapon with Andrew Luck for sure. But let's move on here to our next prospect on the list here. And that's A.J. Brown. He had a great season last year for Ole Miss as a junior, 85 receptions for 1,320 yards and six touchdowns. If we're talking about a guy with production, I think D.K. Metcalf definitely had that. But if we're talking about even more than that, A.J. Brown was definitely the bell cow of

this Ole Miss offense. For sure. He was the go-to guy for Jordan Tiamu last year. 1,320 yards receiving, that speaks for itself right there. I mean, he was 85 receptions, 20 more than the next guy into Marcus Lodge, 15 and a half a catch, and six touchdowns. He does a lot of things really well, and he gets overshadowed at times by DK just because of the pure stature and, you know, like you said, going viral with, you know, the muscles and all that, and, but AJ is one of a, I would say a very well-rounded receiver, not particularly saying he's better than DK. I think they're just different and I don't think you can compare them, but he's done it all. He's been on the outside. He's played the inside. Um, you know, I actually saw a, uh, uh, one of the most recent mock drafts I saw had him going to the Patriots,

and I just shuddered at the fact of thinking that he and Julian Edelman could be in the slot at the same time. He was in that picture that went viral with DK, and AJ is no slouch when it comes to the physique. So he's just another guy that's just going to be very productive about six, one, two 20 to 25. His route running is what's going to separate him. And then he's got some strong hands. He's probably one of the better receivers that I've seen. Not, not just at Ole Miss, but just in general, he, there's a difference between catching

the football and, and, and plucking the football. And he's one of those guys, he goes up, snags it out of the air. He's going to win those one-on-one battles. And there's so many cliches and metaphors and sayings that everybody has with the NFL draft. But for him, for me, the one cliche is he plays bigger than he is. There's a lot of times in games when he you know, he was out muscling people, you know, out jumping, you know, corners that might have been longer, might have been taller, bigger. He's just a, he's just a gamer. I was actually in person when they played Vanderbilt here in Nashville, and

he went, you know, on a quick little hitch route and took it 84 yards, outran the entire defense like it was nothing. I mean, he pulled up at probably the 25 and started jogging. Just a guy that I think is going to work his tail off if he gets into a system. He's going to be a sponge and want to learn. He was recently out west working out with Jerry Rice. I mean, I think he's just a guy. He's going to do whatever it takes to really be successful. And, you know, people may not know, you know,

he's been in a professional organization and environment before, you know, playing baseball for the San Diego Padres in the offseason in the summer while he was at Ole Miss. So he's very businesslike, and I think he would be a huge get for the Colts or for anybody. Yeah, that's for sure. I love A.J. Brown the more I watch watched him and we actually had Dane Burglar, the athletic on yesterday's show.

And he threw out the comp of Juju Smith Schuster for AJ Brown. Thinking of comps here for a second. What do you think about that? You love that Juju comp? What would be yours? Yeah. I mean, that's, that's the guy that, that jumps to mind. A big physical guy that plays in the slot can really be a, you know,

take one, you know, 80 yards. For me, I'm trying to think. Hmm. Antonio Brown comes to mind. I know he's a little bit smaller than AJ, but, you know, very, very shifty in the open field. I think AJ, you know, he ran a pretty good 40 at the combine. I don't know if I can beat that Juju Smith-Schuster comp. That's pretty good right there. I mean, he's definitely got that attitude as well. I love Juju. He's got that swagger. You know, I'm the best receiver in the NFL if you ask him type thing. So, yeah, I mean, just I think that that's probably the best that you could do, in my opinion, especially just recently. I like that comp. I like that comp. Yeah, I love it too.

And I think the more I think about it, I think he's going to be an elite number two receiver. He could probably even be a number one receiver in the NFL. Do you feel like when you look at other wide receiver prospects, even DK, do you feel like he's the most well-rounded receiver in this draft? You're saying DK or AJ? As far as between DK, AJ, and every every other receiver in this 2019 draft class, pretty much, do you feel like, I mean, from what I've seen, I feel like AJ Brown's pretty much rated as the most versatile guy in this receiver class. Yeah, I would say so. I think, you know,

DK is going to be limited to staying on the outside just because of his stature. And I think that that's just not necessarily a slight to his game. I think that's just going to better suit him in terms of matchups. But A.J. is definitely probably the more well-rounded receiver out of the three from Ole Miss. And we'll talk about Lodge here, I'm assuming, here in a second. And I really like his game, too. But, yeah, A.J., like I said, he's been on the outside. He's been on the inside. He can go for the home run or he can be a possession receiver,

get those tough third down catches over the middle. You know, he's a lot of scouts, like using the term, you know, he's a bully. He's going to fight for balls in traffic. He's going to really work you off the line of scrimmage. He's going to create separation. So, yeah, without a doubt, A.J. Brown is probably the most well-rounded receiver in this draft, in my opinion. Yeah, I'm right there with you.

I think A.J. Brown, if he's there at – I think 26 might be an interesting selection for him, but I think 34 if he's there on the board for the Colts. I think they snatch him up pretty quickly, depending on what's left on the rest of the board here. But let's go on here to our next wide receiver here, Zach, and that is DeMarcus Lodge, like you mentioned there. 6'2", 200-pound receiver. He had 65 catches, 877 yards, and four touchdowns last year

for Ole Miss in his senior season. This is a guy who I think if he's there in round four, he seems like that could be a guy who the Colts could snatch up as well if they don't go one earlier. What do you like about Dearcus Lodge's game? He gets overshadowed big time by these two guys. You know, for good reason. They were both, you know, very good at Ole Miss

and have had outstanding off-seasons preparing for the NFL draft. But, man, DeMarcus Lodge is, is, is good as a prospect as you can find. He's got a pro body type for an outside receiver. He's got elite hands, in my opinion, he's got really good speed, but he's just a, just a guy that just made a lot of tough catches at Ole Miss I mean I mentioned that that Vanderbilt game earlier when talking about AJ and in that game DeMarcus had a hamstring issue he basically played the whole second half on one leg and dominated

Jawan Williams who's an NFL draft prospect from from Vanderbilt. And, I mean, just absolutely manhandled him in press coverage. And, you know, he's another guy who, you know, he's a little – he appears slight of build, but he's pretty solid. I mean, probably 6'1", 200. But, yeah, man, he's just got – he can really run routes extremely. I'd probably call him the best route runner out of the three. And I've seen him play a lot, so people might think that that sounds crazy, but man, he can get in and out of breaks extremely well. One of his better games was when we played

at Texas A&M. He probably runs one of the best comeback routes that I've seen in recent years. I mean, just an elite route runner, really good hands. He goes out and catches the football. He's not going to let it come to him. And I think once he gets into a system and learns a more elaborate route tree, I think he's going to just continue to get better. But yeah, if he, if he falls to the fourth and, and Indy can snag him, I mean, I think that that would be – you know, he kind of reminds me of T.Y. a little bit, but a little bit bigger,

but just a guy that can take the top off the defense but also really run some elite routes. Yeah, he is a guy who I think is getting slept on a little bit in this draft process, a guy who I like more as well when I watch film with him because he's just, like you said, a great route runner. It kind of fits what the Colts are looking for as far as great tacticians go on the outside. And he definitely checks a lot of those boxes.

And what is this one DeMarcus Lodge moment you remember? I know you mentioned that comeback route that he had. He's probably one of the better route runners in this draft class. But if there's one DeMarcus Lodge game you can remember, I know there's some big DK games, there's some big A.J. Brown games, but what's one that stands out to you from DeMarcus Lodge game you can remember, I know there's some big DK games, there's some big A.J. Brown games, but what's one that stands out to you from DeMarcus Lodge? I mean, recently I would probably have to go with the Vanderbilt game. It was an overtime loss.

He had nine receptions for 117 yards in that game. But the one touchdown catch he had, like I said, going up against Juwan williams on the goal line and it was to the short side of the field and beat the press coverage and got to basically the back pylon and then it was almost like a back shoulder um and quarterback tiama threw a bullet and just plucked it one-handed and then didn't even bring it into the body, just absolutely just snagged it with probably three to four fingers and came up with the touchdown. So I was actually in that end zone, and when the ball was thrown,

you know, it disappeared, you know, behind the wall. It was down there, and, you know, we look up at the Jumbotron, and Blah just jumps up, still hasn't brought it in with two hands and just holding it one-handed and just, you know, touchdown. I mean, just made it look so easy. And that's kind of him though. He's just very, very smooth, you know, very, you know, silky athlete. He glides running through defenses. I mean, just a long athlete. He's listed around 6'2". I think he plays bigger than that. He's really long.

His wingspan is probably one of the better wingspans in this draft. But, yeah, I mentioned the A&M game. He had a really good game against them. He had six catches for over 120 yards. He had a, I think it was 44-yard touchdown catch in that game. In the second quarter, I mean, just tightrope in the sideline, keeping his feet in bounds, beating the defender, and then getting into the end zone.

I mean, that's just kind of the type of guy he is. He's going to make those tough catches look easy, and then he's going to get upfield and separate. Yeah, DeMarcus Lodge, if he's there on day three, I love the possibility of him going to the Colts, that's for sure. And I wanted to ask this before we go into our last prospect here in Dawson Knox, and we'll get into a couple questions on him, but some Colts fans, if they don't watch Ole Miss football,

will definitely ask this. When you have the guys at DeMarcus Lodge, A.J. Brown and D.K. Metcalf, why wasn't Ole Miss better on the field? Well, the easy answer is their defense was absolutely atrocious. They were probably close to fourth or fifth to last in the country in S&P and total defense. They were just abysmal.

You know, also I think a lot of it was the offensive scheme. The former offensive coordinator, Phil Longo, ran. When he was hired, I really liked the, you know, air-read disciple learned under Mike Leach. I love that background, but honestly, man, it was against lesser opponents or not as good athletes. I mean, they, the offense was just cooking people. I mean, it was unstoppable. They were getting open. Defenses couldn't stop them, couldn't figure it out. But against, you know, just as good or better athletes, you know, the Alabamas, the LSUs, the, you know, Texas A&Ms, the second level, they're going to shut it down. And, I mean, the offense was fairly simple.

DeLongo, I think at one point, said that he only had about 20 to 23 plays in his playbook. And I think people caught on and watched film and saw tendencies and were able to shut them down. So that was the long answer for how there are so many NFL prospects on an offense, and they couldn't get it done. Yeah, when I watched Ole Miss film, you could just tell how abysmal the defense was, and kind of vanilla play calling at times. I feel like they could have been a little bit more aggressive

to guys like DK and AJ and DeMarcus Lodge. But let's go on to our final prospect here, and that is Dawson Knox, who is getting a lot of hype lately, 6'4", 250. He only had 39 catches for Ole Miss in his career, zero touchdowns as well. But he's a guy who might be going off the board here in round two when we get closer to the draft. So what's the deal about Dawson Knox? I know the production wasn't there, but overall he's just a freak athlete,

and he was kind of underutilized a little too much and they got Ole Miss I think he might have led the country in uh catches and uh getting to the one yard line um he never had a touchdown at Ole Miss but I swear he had so many catching runs where he was tackled just short of the goal line but But, yeah, like you said, phenomenal athlete, played quarterback in high school, and then came to Ole Miss and then just basically really hit the weight room hard and really took care of his body. And then just basically they found a place for him at tight end, just a really good route runner, has good hands. You know, whether he's at the line of scrimmage or, you know,

flexed out in the slot or, you know, he can get open. I think he'll need to work a little bit more on expanding that route tree. Like I said, with Lodge and DK and AJ, I mean, they played in that Phil Longo system. They weren't really necessarily running actual routes. It was just kind of a read the defense, kind of find the space and get open type offense. So they're going to need to evolve their game in that aspect, but there's a lot to like with Dawson. 6'4", 250, runs extremely well.

He's very athletic. I'm pretty sure he can dunk a basketball very easily. I mean, just an explosive athlete with good hands and good route running and just another guy who's really taken this draft process serious. I think this Ole Miss team will be well represented in this draft because every single one of these guys has really worked their butts off and taken care of themselves, whether it be nutrition, whether it be in the weight room, or whether it be, you know, working with individual trainers, coaches. I think that he's going to be a guy that can get into a professional organization and really absorb everything they throw at him. One interesting aspect, I know, like we said,

the touchdowns were on the stat sheet there, and this wasn't on the stat sheet there either, but how good of a blocker was Dawson Knox? I know there really wasn't situations where he blocked that much, but what did you see when he was actually helping out on the line? Yeah, he's a strong guy. I think he benched pretty well at the Combine or at the Pro Day. But, you know, there's some mixed results there.

I think he's still getting used to the position. But he's got a large frame, and I think that, you know, he could benefit from working on that. But he's definitely a willing blocker. And I think a lot of times, you know, blocking is a lot of effort and a lot of want to, a lot of receivers don't want to block and, and so therefore, they're going to be bad blockers. But he can get bumped around a little bit, I think he'll definitely have to work on some technique. And once he gets into a professional organization, they'll get that nipped in the bud real quick at OTAs and things like that. But, you know, I think that's probably one of the weaker spots of his

game. But with today's NFL basically shifting more to spread offenses, you see guys like Gronk and, you know, these bigger, faster tight ends, more athletic tight ends that get out there more in the slot, and they're not really asked to block as much as they might have been asked to five years ago. So, yeah, he's definitely going to need to work on that, but I don't think that that's something that would be too much of a problem not to draft him if he's available. Yeah, and the Colts scheme especially, if he's there at 59 or 89,

I wouldn't mind taking him because they use the tight end so much with Jack Doyle and Eric Ebron. They can pretty much be like an Eric Ebron type of tight end in my opinion. And if he's there on the board, I would definitely snatch him up on day two if I was the Annapolis Colts. But thanks again for listening, everybody. We'll talk to you guys tomorrow.