Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - LOCKED ON COLTS -4/4- Team Trade Down and Colts' First-Round Exceptions W/@_madonline

Episode Date: April 4, 2017

Brian Krosky (@draftindy - @stampedeblue) joins Matt to drop some knowledge on who should be the #Colts exceptions to the trade down philosophy, as well as his favorite options at multiple positions of need. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Learn more about our healthy benefits at fepblue.org slash getmore. No, I'm not for sale. You are lockeded On Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back to Locked On Colts, ladies and gentlemen. I'm your host, Matt Dainley. And tonight, we've got Brian Kroski on the line with us. He's going to be doing some draft stuff, some other content for Stampede Blue,

the SB Nation site of the Indianapolis Colts. Brian, what's going on, man? Thanks for joining me. No problem, Matt. I've been listening to this pod for a long time. Got to give you credit where credit's due for being able to do this as much as you can and putting out as much content as you are. So, yeah, thanks for having me on. Absolutely, and I appreciate it.

It's definitely a task trying to get as many posts up as possible, especially with a daily pod. But, you know, it makes it interesting. You find yourself researching stuff that you don't really, you know, at the time you just don't think that it is that enticing, and then you find a little wrinkle in something and it gives you something to talk about. So it's all about that content. Absolutely. Absolutely. So tonight, I just kind of wanted to talk to you about, you know, I want a different viewpoint on some of these prospects for the Colts at 15, even maybe second and some third round guys. And I just wanted to kind of pick your brain on who you were looking at

and who most entices you for the Colts there in the first round. Yeah. I mean, if you want to just get right into it, just first things first, I'm team trade down. And I think if you're listening to this podcast or you're a fan of the Indianapolis Colts, you should be team trade down. Absolutely. You know, you should be team Trey down. Absolutely. You like those three fourth-round picks,

but the only thing that can make that sweeter is maybe another extra second or extra third. You kind of think about the draft position. Right now, pretty much you can set that there's four quarterbacks going in the first round. You've got Kaiser, Mahomes, Trubisky, and Watson. And that's the best thing that could happen to the Colts. Yeah, absolutely. You get Davis Webb, maybe a flyer in that, or Nate Peter,

or someone jumping on boards, absolutely is the best thing that can happen for the Colts. But you think about teams above them like the Cardinals, the Browns at 12, definitely going to be looking in the Jets and stuff like that. But it's definitely interesting to look for the Chiefs, which is Chris Ballard's former team, and then the Texans, which is an AFC, I guess you could say rival, division rival. Those teams are both in the 20s, and they may be looking to jump up and grab one of those quarterbacks. So the opportunities are probably going to be there.

Yeah. This draft, anything that you do in this draft between the first 100 picks, you should definitely be picking, you should definitely be able to get yourself at least two to three super quality players out of this, and you would hope to at least get a Pro Bowl or two. I mean, of course, that's always best case scenario, but I mean, just in general, I mean, this is an absurd draft, I think,

and I mean, there's so many things I've weighed on this pod and just everything. When you get, okay, do the Colts actually need a tight end? No. But would you really be ticked off if they drafted O.J. Howard? I mean, that's just so hard to get. It's not a Philip Dorsett type of situation with this draft. There's a lot of quality in a lot of different positions.

And it seems all those positions are what the Colts needts need when you're talking about edge you're talking about not really safety but overall secondary I mean this cornerback class is loaded I mean absolutely loaded on day two and potentially even the day three with how many guys there are talking about maybe a first round tight end running backs and day two and day three are absolutely loaded and even uh ballard and pagano they pretty much come out and said we're gonna take a running back at some point in the draft they said later now that's all relative but they pretty much made it clear there's gonna be a running back taken in this class if they don't if they don't drop one in the first two rounds who's your who's your uh who's your target in round three aside from uh who you're uh rocking on your Twitter handle?

All right, well, yeah, I was going to say I am Marlon Mack fan account. I love him in round three. But Deontay Foreman from Texas, running back, who led the FBS in rushing last year, I mean, he's been testing off the charts. I think he went in the combine at 233 and then at his pro day I think was 237, or like at his combine he was 237 ran mid four fours i mean this guy's got breakaway speed he's pretty much as close to like laguerre blunt in this draft as you're gonna get you know still he's a big guy and he doesn't break tackles which is kind of weird he almost doesn't play to his body type man he's got

breakaway speeds and yeah you can say you know he's playing in the Big 12, but, like, it doesn't matter. Like, he's out running safeties and cornerbacks in the Big 12. Like, I don't care who you are. If you're a 235-pound running back and you're out running, you know, players who should be running 4-4, then you're good enough. I'm a big fan of Jamal Williams out of BYU. You know, doesn't do anything great, but, I don't know, man, his film was just awesome.

Like, he was just absolutely dominating dudes and then uh i mean going not really going to focus on you know the four nets and mccaffrey's just later down um kind of like jeremy mcnichols from boise state but i would kind of just go into talking to some of the guys uh draft and you were thinking we think he really really might be a possibility because he we think he's one of those pagano guys and our comp for him was josh robinson he's shorter he's got a wide gate didn't really test that well can kind of do a lot but you wonder how high his healing is in the fumble issues it almost seems like pagano's almost attracted to those guys for some reason

so i would actually definitely keep a look. One of those three fourth-round picks or that fifth-round pick, Jeremy McNichols out of Boise State, that's someone to look for. Because, you know, Pagano really likes those shorter, stockier running backs. So I think that's what you've got to give a look to. Absolutely. Not only that, but the guy from Wyoming now, his name's escaping me for some reason. Brian Hill.

There you go. And they were talking about him a few weeks ago, or well, several weeks ago now. But they all kind of fit that mold. That's a great call with you and the guys at DraftIndy as well. That makes a lot of sense. Now let's just hope that he is absolutely nothing like, you know. He tested better than Josh Robinson, which I mean, gives you a little hope. I mean,

we kind of all did have some expectations at least, but you hope, you know, things moving forward a little bit, maybe of an easement into a starting role, offensive line. You know, we've seen that run blocking improve,

you know, week by week moving forward. And all those guys are having another year under their belt. But right now, I, so far pretty much running backs, like one of the only positions I've watched, you know, out and i've i've watched 25 running backs and i have 15 graded up to round five and that's the colts last pick so i've i have 10 players who are graded

either uh a sixth seventh or uh undrafted and so pretty much i'm only comfortable with the colts taking 15 guys because it's not that i feel like they'd be overdrafting you get much i'm only comfortable with the colts taking 15 guys because if not i feel like they'd be overdrafting you get what i'm saying overdrafting for one of those guys so right now that that last tier i have is as you mentioned brian hill from wyoming matt days from north carolina state a guy i really like he's a really elusive guy he's he's gonna struggle getting with that contact but he can catch out of the backfield and then wayne gallman from clemson he's kind of got a weird body type but we've seen him produce uh with watson and company and clemson and talk about threat out of the backfield i think i think one thing about this class looking at all the all just all these great players is i think what's going to determine who's

really good in this class is uh who can do the best on third down i know justice mosqueda bleacher report and setting edge podcast and everything else you guys probably all know who he is he said when he starts grading running backs first thing he's doing is what do they do on third down and then he grades everything else so i mean that's kind of i've kind of taken that to my evaluation you know what can these guys do out of the backfield and stuff like that because gore really wasn't doing anything turban had a nice couple plays here he almost kind of shocked me with his elusiveness at time but his ceiling really isn't much so you got to get a pass catcher out of that backfield yeah absolutely and and you know if and this was kind of like uh my issue with first round

running back deal if they were to go with a guy like Fournette uh you know because Cook had been mocked to the Colts so many stinking times and if it if it was I'd much rather had it been Fournette um I am more of a line out now I like Jamal Williams because of the the zone uh running ability that he presents to allow that offense to kind of uh evolve into something a little more uh dynamic as far as I'm concerned and then you get like a guy like Fournette who can actually pass protect and I kind of evolve into something a little more dynamic as far as I'm concerned. And then you get like a guy like Fournette who can actually pass protect, and I didn't ever see Dalvin Cook do any of that.

And that, to me, is an issue, especially at the running back position. You know, if you want a guy in there, you at least have to put the effort in. I didn't even see him put any effort in there. Now, Fournette, on the other hand, I enjoyed or liked his. But I'm definitely off. I like Mack, by the way, just to, you know, plug that for sure. him put any effort in there now for for net on the other hand i enjoyed or liked his but i'm definitely off i like mac by the way just you know plug that for sure that dude's a downhill guy and i and i really enjoyed watching him but jamal williams is a guy that i'm almost like i feel like there's like a strange infatuation with this guy i just love his game uh inside and out so

let's let's move over to uh defensive Now, something that a lot of people aren't talking about, everybody's going edge corner, uh, you know, inside linebacker that we're all talking about, uh, among Colts, Twitter and Colts, uh, you know, just fan base in general, but who's, who's the D D line guys that you're really liking? Are you that high on Malik McDowell or, uh, somebody that's kind of, you know, you've softened on. Yeah, I haven't seen a lot of McDowell. Probably just watched one or two clips. I said, now that the draft's coming up, I'm really going to try and get farther into these guys.

I know some people are really high or really low on McDowell. I like his testing. I like some of the aggressiveness that he plays. Sometimes people see him as a tweener, and it almost took up to this far in the draft process for people to figure out whether or not he's an edge or D lineman. And so I think everyone's pretty much fit into that mold that, you know, he's going to be playing with his hands in the dirt. So I wouldn't mind him round one, obviously, depending on the board.

But now the player I want to get to, Jonathan Allen, who recently has been falling in mocks. I mean, you talk about some people talk about a scheme fit. Some people talk about his athletic testing. He's got that arthritis in mocks. I mean, you talk about, some people talk about his scheme fit. Some people talk about his athletic testing. He's got that arthritis in his shoulder. So he's been falling a little bit. And you see him going in the mid-teens right now. And I said I was team trade down, but he's one of those players where if you were on the board and Colts still had an offer for a trade down,

I would almost think about it because I think he would be a perfect fit for the Colts at that five tech where kendall langford and art jones currently are because then moving forward you got probably ridgeway and anderson at the three which absolutely fine with and right now five techs look like looks like you got aforementioned jones langford and hunt and they're not good or excuse me our drones got cut So let me get rid of that. Yeah, but right now you got pretty much Lankford. The position he was supposed to be doing, though. Yeah. So, like, and with all these contracts that Ballard's signing,

pretty much everyone's seen. They're all just pretty much one-year guarantees moving forward. And then he can cut anyone after he wants to after a year. So I really like Jonathan Allen because getting him, Henry Anderson, T.Y. McGcgill ridgeway on that line that i think that could be something really well right me too and the thing is with jonathan allen is he presents that a little bit of i mean most of these guys do among the defensive line but there's some guys that it just there's a wall there with them moving into a three tech or something like that that's not there for jonathan allen i didn't i didn't feel that there's a couple guys like like that. Um, but he, especially he, he has a wide range of possibilities.

He's, he's one of those bad dudes in this draft. Like you said, I still think he's a top 15 player without any doubt. I mean, if he, if he's lower than 15 on a lot of people's big boards, then I'd be surprised. I mean, but you know, when you get into an arthritic shoulder or just whatever the case may be, it a lot depends on where that goes in the future or, or what could be in the future. But I mean, if you're getting a guy like that in the first round, that's talent over, over worries, you know, I mean, you just don't, you don't, I don't know that, that that's, that'd be a hard place to be.

Yeah. And when you're taking these guys, especially in the first round, you get that extra year option on their rookie deal. I mean, you're really just taking them for their first contract. Like, yeah, it would be nice to get a second contract, but you're trying to get those four or five years where they're at a cheap salary and you hope you can get production out of them, especially with Colts with how they kind of structure some of their contracts, especially with that Luck contract, even though a lot of it's front loaded but you're really just playing for

that first contract with that rookie so listen if that's a long-term issue then it may be but if i can get five years of jonathan allen on this line then yeah you're gonna take that on the deal he's gonna get right i totally agree another guy that i really kind of like along now if it's not a first round option is chris worm i just wrote a piece about him. I was more impressed with him. The more I've watched him. Uh, I like him in the second round, possibly. I don't, I don't really know, uh, exactly where he's going to fall or where he should fall in some mocks and stuff. But in my opinion, looking at him, I think he's a second round player, but he has a similar versatility as far as being able to get inside and outside, but he also can double, as far as I'm concerned,

he is a nice pass rush option out of that 5-tech as well. And he really brings quite a bit to his team. He uses his arm length wisely. I'm not real sure how long his arms are as far as in comparison to a lot of these guys, but he uses every inch to his advantage, and that's something that you really need when once you get to the NFL, you know, all these athletic offensive tackles are going to be able to, you know, stymie a lot of your pass rush if you're just not with it,

if you don't got it. If you have any kind of hand technique whatsoever, you're going to be able to be successful. And if you've got the speed to match it, then you're going to have, you know, quite possibly a really good career. Just going back to Jonathan Allen, I mean, his hand usage is absolutely phenomenal. You know, he's not an edge guy. He doesn't really bend the edge.

I mean, his power is good, but his hand usage, he does that push-pull amazing where, you know, he gets that lineman engaged, pulls him, and then beats him. And then just one more guy. Well, you mentioned Chris Wormley. People are saying he might actually end up being the best prospect on that Michigan defense that's eligible this year because people are kind of cooling on Taco Charlton. I'm not a big fan whatsoever of Jabril Peppers. No, I'm not either.

So, yeah, Wormley might actually be the best one. And then one other guy I wanted to throw out there because I think he might be a possibility day two, day three for the Colts. It's Eddie Vanderdose from UCLA. I mean, we've seen these UCLA guys come out. Kenny Clark played great last year. I mean, Miles Jackets, you know, that's something. But we've seen Anthony Barr. We've seen Eric Hendricks.

Like, this UCLA team has been pumping out defensive players like crazy. And he suffered, I think it was season ending injury last year or two. It was two years ago. Came back strong this year. And I really like him. And I think those tackles are really underrated need because I'm not a big fan of David Perry and Al Woods. I don't know what he offers either. Let's let's switch over to linebacker real quick where are you at like in if we were to uh to pump up rayquan mcmillan and zach cunningham uh in a in a in a draft off who who are you taking first probably mcmillan just because i like i think he just is a more complete

linebacker i know zach cunningham can kind of go sideline to sideline a little better but mcmillan i really like what he did at ohio state he's been a little bit of a thumper at times but you see some plays i think uh my colts account put out some vines of him you know going uh step by step with some running backs on wheel routes on the red zone so he didn't he's not overall the best athlete but i like mcmillan just probably a little more but yeah the right now there's a lot of those uh second round linebackers that they're all available for the colts they're gonna have to figure out which one they think fits best right now you said uh off air that you were talking about reuben foster's being in that jonathan allen category whereas if he's there you snatch

him regardless uh if there's a trade down opportunity opportunity or not. Yeah, I mean, what was it, a month ago, you had three Alabama front seven players mocked in top tens with Tim Williams, Reuben Foster, and then Jonathan Allen. Now all of them pretty much, you can't really find them in the top. I mean, you can still see Foster and Allen a little bit in the top ten, but they've been mocked in the teens. And Reuben Foster at 15, that's the new Dalvin Cook pick. Everyone had Dalvin Cook going to the Colts.

Now these last couple of mocks, I know Josh Norris of Roto World today put out his mock. We had Reuben Foster going to the Colts. And, oh, man, I mean, I don't know how I could pass Reuben Foster up at 15. I mean, that guy's just an absolute beast. And just I know you think about all these edge signings that Chris Ballard had over offseason. I think inside linebacker still actually might be the biggest need on this team at all. Yeah, I agree. Are you big on Hassan Reddick?

I was cool on him at first, but I'm starting to really warm up to him. Yeah, I mean, you got to think he's your, like, Sam linebacker in a 4-3. You know, because he played outside or he was a pass rusher in college at Temple. Then he moves off ball at the senior bowl. People like them there, but you got to wonder how well he can play inside because he's more of a space guy. You know, you put him out kind of outside the hash marks. And if you put him inside linebacker at Mike, he's going to be playing, you know,

how does he do with run fits, taking on shedding blocks tackling guys at the middle so that's going to be a little bit interesting but i mean you got a guy that's an athlete like that if you get him at the right value if he if he falls i'm not comfortable with him at 15 but if he falls or even the colts trade down or trade back up into the first round, you've got to maybe wonder if his value can then be worth more. Now let's run this for instance. Let's say the Colts have an offer to trade completely out of the first round. You still on board with trade down? Absolutely.

Yeah, I think that would be – I think whoever is offering to get way out of that first round, you're actually going to get a lot in return for that. Right. Like we've said, this draft class is insanely deep pretty much all across the board on day two, day three. Any more picks for the Colts would be great. Even if

you get out of the first round, maybe work your way back up into the back end of the first round with some of those extra picks you got. If someone falls or there's a player they really really liked and you know what and as i'm the more i look at these guys as far as like the draft order there's only really one team like i would say before 25 that stands out to me as a team that may want to trade up and that's the giants i mean i can't see miami detroit uh denver tampa bay tennessee they're not trading with us that's the Giants. I mean, I can't see Miami, Detroit, Denver, Tampa Bay, Tennessee.

They're not trading with us, that's for sure. Washington or really Baltimore, for that matter, wanting to come up. No reason. Yeah, no reason they'd trade up two picks. I mean, I can see Giants especially, you know, that window's closing. You talk about, yeah, with Eli and that defense. They need to tight end, and that makes me wonder if they may try to hunt for Njoku or O.J. Howard if he's still available. Yeah, I could see that. about yeah well they need to tie it in and that makes me wonder if they they may try to hunt for

njoku or oj howard if he's still available yeah i could see that but like but as i said before you got the chiefs at 27 and the texans at 25 if mahomes or kaiser or even watson or someone like that is still there they want to come back up i mean it doesn't really seem like the ravens redskins or titans would one, but if they're assuming that someone else is going to trade up and they want to trade up even higher and get their quarterback when they know they can, yeah, I'm all for that. Yeah, that would even be better if there's a slight run on quarterbacks in the top 10, and then all of a sudden the Browns decide to go defense again or something with their 12th overall pick, and then they want to come back into the first round at 15.

That would be fantastic. We would take that all day long. Yeah, they got the picks to do it. Yeah, and they owe us for that Trent Richardson crap anyway. So, I mean, I think that's a possibility. We need to try to work our magic with that and see if Ballard can do anything. Yeah, Trent Richardson ran for like – Trent Richardson got like four yards of carry carrying 13 touchdowns was rookie year and no one told us

he was actually bad everyone still thought he was good yeah yeah and i don't think he ran for that in the next three years in indianapolis no way it was so bad so what's your overall what's your best case scenario let me put it this way what's your best case scenario? Let me put it this way. What's your best case scenario if the Colts have to draft at 15? No Reuben Foster, no Jonathan Allen. You told me those are your guys that you definitely take on the board for sure without having to trade down. So who's your third guy that you're drafting at 15 with there's no trade down possibility? Would probably be Gary and Conley. The other cornerback from Ohio State, Lattimore, is definitely going pretty much team's top 10.

And right now, you know, you think about Tease Tabor running a 4-7. He can kiss day one, pretty much day two goodbye now with that. Quincy Wilson's falling off a little bit. I know Marlon Humphrey's getting a little bit of hype. Sidney Jones tore that Achilles. So, I mean, right now that cornerback two spot really is just up in arms and i think conley's that second guy i mean he was part of that just loaded uh that loaded secondary ohio state so wouldn't mind getting him but then that also comes to

question now i mean i would like to have him but if if there's that many questions about who's cornerback two then is there really much of a difference between cornerback two and cornerback six? What's the opportunity cost of getting cornerback two versus cornerback six? It's probably, what, 20, 30 picks? Right. Yeah, yeah. There's definitely going to be a run for sure. Yeah, but he's probably my third guy right now.

Not sure I really would be happy with anyone else. Maybe you could convince me and Marlon Humphrey, but then it kind of just seems like a stretch at that point. But I think that's pretty much those are my top three targets at 15 for the Colts. I'm a big fan of Humphrey. I like Conley as well quite a bit, actually. He's got the right size, the right build and everything Just right play in general

But I don't think the Colts are going to go safety obviously in the first round I don't think they probably would even go in the first two rounds But if the Colts were to at least look at safeties coming out of college Let me put it that way There's a guy who I think can probably fit their nickel corner role who's actually a safety right now, and that's Xavier Woods. I don't know if you watch much of him or not. I've heard of him.

Where is he out of? Louisiana Tech. Louisiana Tech. I've heard just a little bit about him. He's about 5'11 Not a huge guy or anything But he was He would be back in single high He'd be up in the nickel slot

For In three wide out cover I mean just He was all over the field And it seemed like they used him in the box They liked to send him on blitzes as well He may You know that top end wide receiver He's not a guy who could cover wide receiver one.

But he can definitely cover two and three and actually do it real effectively. He's got really good mechanics with his drops and his back pedal and everything else. I really was watching him as a safety and just thought, man, this guy could possibly just go to the nickel spot. Yeah, I mean, safety right now. I mean, I'm kind of – I'm not big on Malafonu. Malafonu, are you? Not really.

I mean, sometimes at one point or another, a guy that tests like that at the combine, you got to take a chance on. But, I mean, the whole thing with safety in the Colts is, all right, so they draft Clayton Gathers. We all expected him to be that box linebacker and then they move him to free and then you know we saw some progression of of him he's got good instincts his man coverage still is a little subpar but i mean pff really liked him last year and so we saw year one to year two improvement from him but i mean it's kind of weird that we all thought he was in the box guy and he was out and then get rid of mike adams which i i really didn't have a problem with i liked what he did for the team but he was getting up there in age i like the

resigning of darius butler for you know keep him around for a year or two but then tj green you know that four three speed coming out of clemson we all expected him to be the cover guy but then they had him playing in the run so a guy we expected to play the running gethers is playing deep and then guy we expected to play deep and tj green is playing up against the run tj green struggled mightily last year had some nice plays against the run don't really know to expect with him moving forward we got butler uncovered so i think this year is going to be huge if if gathers can take another step and solidify himself as a good nfl starter that gets

rid of one positions but you hope butler can still play well especially if he's going to be asked to play against run more whether tj green can make some improvements in coverage so yeah i don't think the colts would take anyone if latimore is there at 15 you'd maybe or excuse me millie coker is there at 15 you'd maybe think about it if the board falls a specific way. Obviously, it would have to for Hooker to fall there. You would have to think about elite center field safety that could just improve your secondary miles. But I think that's pretty much it.

I wouldn't want Jamal Adams or Buda Baker. I don't even know when I would think about taking Jabril Peppers. Yeah, no way. When you look at the Colts' safety position right now, like you've mentioned, when Gethers is back – I mean, last year he came in and resembled Bob Sanders as far as body build. I was like, wow, that dude is huge now. And then you see a guy like T.J. Green who comes out of Clemson, played cornerback in the –

I think it's junior year and maybe half of his senior or whatever it was that he came out, half of his last year there. And then, you know, he gets moved to safety because he can't cover. And the Colts move him to safety or say that he's a safety. And it just doesn't make any sense to me. The pick made no sense to me when it happened. That was one of my biggest issues with him after going back. Now, I didn't watch the tape on him pre-draft,

so I'm not going to act like I called it or some stupid stuff like that. Yeah. What I'm saying is after they pick him, you go and you look, and you're just like, I don't get it. I don't understand the pick here. Second round, and this guy can't cover anybody, even as a safety. I didn't understand. It didn't fit their long-term approach as far as I was concerned

about being a good cover team on the back end when you've already got a guy who can be a thumper, like you said, gethers, who they ended up having to pull back, and then they had Mike Adams back there who can kind of do both or could kind of do both. He was good in run support, but good in coverage too. Butler is the one that scares me a little bit, and it's not because of his coverage skills.

He's fantastic back there. I was really impressed with him in camp. But the thing that worries me about him is how is he going to hold up as far as durability? Yep. He comes in and makes a couple pops last year, and he stays on the ground. I mean, he's not going to – I don't think he's going to gain a ton of weight, you know, for this.

And if he does – And not at that age. No. I mean, if he gains five pounds, it's going to slow him down tremendously. Yeah, exactly. That would adversely affect his coverage ability. And then you really have just a subpar guy on your team. I mean, and that's just not the – that's not the vision.

That's not the point. And then the other parts of this is the Colts don't have athletic linebackers to even put really i mean they're most morrison's a terrible athlete he can't cover for anything i've demonstrated that on vine as many times as i can uh edwin jackson yeah and then sam spence really don't know much about him but i mean i'm not trusting him you know putting him on a tight end and uh and cover. So like I said before, it kind of just seems like we're at a crossroad. I think next year is going to be a big step. We could see if it seems like Butler, you know, he's not going to be around long.

We don't know what to get at TJ Green. You could see safety being a priority next year. But for this year, unless it's Malik Hooker falling, really not looking for one in the first two or three rounds yeah that that makes i mean it makes sense but at the same time like you said if you got a guy like hooker there man it's gonna be hard not to pull the trigger on him uh who's who's a guy that you're looking at in this uh draft class that uh maybe you feel is being underappreciated uh and it doesn't make a difference which position it is,

but one of those guys that maybe could be a day two pick or something like that who's a little underappreciated, not getting the hype that he deserves probably, and that maybe you think that would be a good scheme fit for the Colts. I'm kind of really starting to like Cordrea Tankersley, the cornerback from Clemson. I mean, he was part – I'm blanking on it. There was another – it wasn't TJ Green last year. I feel like there was another corner from Clemson last year that came out.

I'm not sure exactly what I'm thinking of. But you like Tankersley. He's tall, lengthy, really plays outside well. He kind of almost reminds me a little bit of Vontae. You like the way that he plays outside well. He kind of almost reminds me a little bit of Vontae. You like the way that he plays the ball. I know Garrett Stallins at Draft Indy, he's a big fan of Tankersley, just the way he plays. That's definitely a round two guy that I'm looking at for.

In terms of trying to go to edge, but, man, I'm kind of meh. I'm like all these edge guys because, you know, I was high in Tim Williams, but I don't know. I rewatched the tape and they're just some I've kind of conformed to what I guess at least big draft is starting to think of Williams, you know, falling out of the first round. Barnett, he's a he's not an athletic guy. Barnett's weird because he's an SEC production guy who didn't test well, but he's an edge bender. So he's kind of like a trio of weird things. And sometimes you see these, if there's a guy in the SEC that gets production,

there's a chance he just goes top 10. Like if Carolina at eight or Cincinnati at nine took him, I wouldn't be surprised. But if teams are starting to value how these players test at the combine more for edge prospects and he falls to pick 40 pick 50 i'm not surprised either so i don't really know exactly how to think of barnett and you think about guys like charles harris who has been reported is a fan of um fan of the colts get guys like carl lawson derrick rivers so like i said there's so many players i like on day two, but not one that I can put my stamp on

besides just less than a handful on day one. That's why I'm really, if I can get a trade down and get an extra one of these guys, I'd love it. Oh, absolutely. I think that obviously, like I said off the air, we've been talking about it. Colts Nation and

Colts Twitter and colts fan base is really pretty smart this is all stuff that we've all been talking about all the time uh you see that they're gonna take a late round core or a running back they're definitely looking corner they know that the linebacker core is awful and they need edge rushers and they need some guys up front i mean this is and it's not like it's real hard. So, I mean, it's not like we had to be Einsteins here of Colts Twitter here to figure it out. But some people are still thinking Jack Buhart's a tackle. Exactly. You never know.

I mean, sometimes you deal with that. Sometimes you don't. It just kind of depends on who does their research and how well they – because I've got to give a lot of these guys, though, that do these mock drafts credit. But, man, I appreciate their ability to go to all 32 teams and say this is a good fit for the team. But it's those extra paragraphs in there where they tell you something like that, for example, you know, uh, that just doesn't fit. That doesn't make sense for the team. And that's, they kind of should just stop, uh, right where they say this is a good fit and then go on to the next pick. Um, because that, that would, you know,

probably save them a lot of grief and stuff. But like I said, I'm mad respect for him. I couldn't do it, nor would I. And, uh, I think that they do a pretty good job all in all, but sometimes they need to, you know, cut their word count down a couple hundred for certain picks and stuff like that. Yeah, we can get the analysis once you make the pick. Don't worry. Just make the pick. That's right.

That's right. So let me ask you this. The Colts decide to go Joe Mixon in the second round. What's your thoughts? Oh, I knew you were going to ask me that. Okay. Well, yeah. I hadn't planned to. It just kind of popped up. uh in the second round what's your uh what's your thoughts oh i knew you were gonna ask me that okay well yeah um i hadn't planned to it just kind of popped up um so let's just go through this so joe mixon we obviously all know what happened with him there's reports coming out you know he's a

high character guy you know stuff happens yeah okay i'm not excusing him for that but you know we've we've seen people make mistakes. And obviously the reason why you think about this in round two is because pretty much with what he did, he's off the board round one, at least at 15. Maybe a team in the 30s or something like that, but for the Colts, no way. The thing with Joe Mixon for me is he's my running back one. I think Joe Mixon's the best running back in this class yeah i think mcafree is a better receiver i think cook you know turns the corners better agility for net he plays between the tackles better but all in all i think joe mixon has the best build of any

running back in this class i think he kind of just does it all i love the way he cuts i think he can be the best running back in this class so um you know i'm not i think i'd be overall not relieved but i'd be like all right i think you know we've seen what chris ballard can do with these types of players with the marcus peters with the tyree kills it almost just kind of seems cliche that he'd be one to take it but listen that's what he does you know as soon as he was hired there was people went and dug into chris ballard's own past and talked about how he would go and spend you know hours at a time visiting all these people you know trying to figure out every story and he did not make a pick on a player like this unless he

knows absolutely 100 that it won't happen again and that's what it seems to be around joe mixon you know the whole thing still kind of scares me with what he did and you know we've seen players like alden smith who just you know sometimes these off-the-field issues get the best of him. But like I said, this seems to be a terrible isolated incident, but it is an isolated incident itself. Round two, it would take me a couple minutes, more than a couple minutes, but to accept it and think about it. But I think Joe Mixon is the best running back in this class. And, you know, he's getting dug up more than anyone. You know, there's some whispers about Dalvin Cook off the field

and stuff like that. But, you know, everything's on the table for Joe Mixon. And Ballard we trust. That's my motto going forward. And Ballard we trust. You like the locker room that the Colts have. Pagano, you know, I don't like his coaching decisions. But, I mean, he's a player's kind of coach.

I think they have a good locker room and kind of build with some veterans. Luck, the team kind of seems to conform to his personality at times. So round two, I think it's a possibility with the type of evaluator that Chris Ballard is. It will take me a little bit to get to it, but I mean, he's a talented player and you got to put talent on the field. Yep. You basically took about everything that I could have said or would have said. It's exactly the same way. We've talked about it ad nauseum as far as his situation, especially, you know, on the other side like that, that you mentioned as far as Ballard being kind of the mediary between guys like this and a successful roster.

And so it just kind of depends on what the situation brings. And if they bring it, I mean, you know what, one way or another, if it does happen, we're going to have to accept it as a fan base as far as that he's going to be on the team. I mean, we still got – I mean, not to compare these in any ways, but I mean, David Perry, I mean, we know the off-field issues that he dealt with. I mean, NFL players have off-the-field issues. And if you can, you know, subside those to a certain degree,

and obviously it almost seems like something as dramatic as what Joe Mixon did to that college girl, you almost wonder, like, it would take something really just to trigger him to do that again with everything that he has going for him. And I think, you know, Ballard's the type of person to control that situation as well as anyone in the entire National Football League. Yeah, and for all the issues that we have with Pagano's coaching style, he's definitely that father figure type guy to his players, and they seem to respond to him well as far as the family environment, so to speak.

And when you've got a guy like Ballard in the office who's got a past, then you've got Pagano on a guy who's adored basically by his players. And we've got a fairly decent leadership structure, I think, in Indianapolis locker room as far as that goes. I wouldn't call it a strong one, but I wouldn't call it a weak one either. I mean, I think it would be good enough. And, you know, for the most part, these guys eventually have to grow up. He's going to get drafted by somebody.

He's going in the second round. Yeah. He doesn't fall out of the second round he's an elite talent i mean they're just he just is and you know one way or another you can complain about the fact that you don't want him to play in the nfl you can complain about this or that but a it's going to happen and b if the colts can get the most talent out of him and get his life turned around i don't see too many negatives with now. Don't get me wrong. I'm just as disgusted with everything that happened as anybody. Um, uh,

I mean the, the, I have three girls of my own. Yeah. I mean, I'm a, I'm a 20, not, you know, I'm a 20 year old. I mean, you see bar fights, but like you, I mean, you as a father, like, I know you can connect with that. I mean. No one is immune to looking at something like that and just turning a blind cheek to it. Yeah, it's just something that you kind of wish you were in that same spot and could either light a fire under the guys who were sitting at the table that did nothing about it or do something about it yourself. Like I said, it's going to happen.

He's going to get drafted. He's going to play in the NFL, and it's going to be up to him to get his stuff together. And I think that as far as the coach and the GM, the Colts are well set there as far as to have, uh, what do you want to call it? A support system, a nice structure. Yeah. Yep. Yep. And I think that it, I don't think that it would work bad. I think that it would work well. Uh, and you know, Colts could, uh, could use an elite talent at run back running back second round. I'd rather they didn't use it in the second round. But, you know, like I said, this is one of

those situations just like anything else. You get an elite talent. You're going to just you know, you're going to have to let it roll off your back. That's for sure. Yeah. I mean, this incident is pretty much dropping him a whole round. Like you would think that like if none of this happens, he would be in the conversation of being one of the top 10 picks in the first round so exactly yeah in terms of value it's uh it's there that's the 15th pick on the second round absolutely brian uh wanted to thank you for coming on tonight man especially short notice appreciate your analysis and everything man and congratulations congratulations on coming aboard Stampede Blue. He also does work at Draft Indy. Tell anybody else anything else that you're wanting to pub, my guy.

Yeah, I mean, if you want to, you can follow my amazing Twitter handle, at underscore MattOnline, just because you should never take Twitter too serious. You like to have fun on the Internet. So, like I said, yeah, happy to join uh josh and the rest of the guys uh at sam p blue we're gonna try and get out some content soon not crazy amount of content because we all have real lives and stuff that gets in the way but some draft stuff especially during the summer look out for a lot of you know just analyzing the roster it's kind of like my favorite part of being a colts fan yeah draft indie pod we're probably going to come back this

week uh evaluate some of these cornerbacks that we mentioned. It's an insanely deep class, so we won't be able to get to all of them. But we're going to have hopefully some fire cornerback takes this week. Absolutely. I'm looking forward to it. And like I said, thank you for coming on, man. It was great stuff. All right, thanks, Matt.

I'll be back sometime soon. Absolutely. Thank you guys all for listening. Go out and rate and review the podcast. Make sure you guys are following Brian on Twitter. Great knowledge, great tweets, great diversity in his tweets as well. So you guys will appreciate his Twitter game most definitely. So thank you guys all for listening,

and I'll check you guys all out on Thursday right here on Locked on Colts. You are 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.