Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - LOCKED ON COLTS -5/02- Colts Fire Jimmy Raye III/Scouting Staff, Release Several Players

Episode Date: May 2, 2017

It has been a bad 36 hours for a lot of horseshoe guys as the #Colts released 10 players, fired their VP of player personnel as well as the entire scouting staff. Who will fill the role of Jimmy Raye III, and which UDFA's have a leg up on the competition? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Welcome back to Locked On Colts, ladies and gentlemen. I'm your host, Matt Dainley, and thank you guys here for joining me on Tuesday, May 2nd. It's kind of a strange day today. I mean, just recently we learned that the Colts were releasing a bunch of players, basically including Matt Overton, the long snapper, which everybody has a personal connection with because he's done so much for the city. But there was a lot of other guys that were released too. And we kind of hinted at this upon all the undrafted free agent guys getting signed or at least getting invites to come. So here's a quick rundown of the guys who've been released. Linebacker Alex Bazzie, not really surprised. Punter Devon Bell, long snapper Joe Fortunato, inside linebacker Deion King, a little surprised at that only because he's looked like he had a little bit of something to him as far as, you know, possibly some depth. But

I mean, they've got some depth now at inside linebacker. So that kind of makes him a little null and void. Charles James, cornerback, we talked about him. He had played pretty well last year when he was able to get in, but ultimately he's probably not going to be there this year. I think some of the undrafted guys probably are naturally more skilled than he is. Safety, Stephan McClure, cornerback Larry Scott, wide receiver Devin Street. That's not a loss as far as Street goes. Again, Matt Overton and safety Duke Williams. None of these guys really were going to be, in my opinion, fighting for a roster spot. That's ultimately why they're out of there.

Possibly Overton, but long snapper is a position where ultimately he's wanting to get younger. I mean, Overton isn't an older guy or anything like that, but he's wanting to basically revamp this entire offense and defense and special teams and everything. And I'll be honest with you, when we started this venture with Chris Ballard, I did not expect it to be this overdrawn as far as he doesn't want anybody on the roster coming close to 30, it seems like.

Naturally, there were a couple additions in free agency who were 28, 29. But this is really a full revamping of, and I don't think that he has any intentions of, you know, look, we're doing whatever. We're going to have this guy sign here who's 30 or 30 plus, this veteran here, because we think that he might be able to get us or help us get into the playoffs. This is a project. This is a long haul approach, long-term effects that he wants to build this roster super young and super talented so that it can have that chance to be, uh, you know, something special for a three, four year span. And even, I mean, that sounds like nothing, right. But three, four years in the NFL, uh, in any sort of dominance is, you know, ages almost, you know, so, uh, this isn't much of a

surprise at all. We knew that a lot of these guys were going to get let go. I don't think that Overton was necessarily a guy that I expected to be gone because he's a long snapper. He snaps extra points, field goals, punts, stuff like that. I can't really say that I thought that he would go. I can't recall seeing a bad snap or him being bad, at least in that regard. Now, as far as his coverage abilities and stuff like that, I'm not even going to attempt to say that I know that he's good at this or that because I don't watch him. He's a long snapper.

So a lot of people, like I said, have a personal connection to him. He's a great guy for Indianapolis, did a lot of stuff. He and Pat McAfee obviously were buddies and did a lot for Indianapolis. And of course that touches a personal tone and gets to the heart of a lot of Colts fans. The other big news was the firing of Jimmy Ray III and basically the entire scouting staff over the past 24 hours or so. Jimmy is the VP of Football Operations, and this is a guy who was interviewing for the GM job when Bauer did as well. Ray also interviewed for San Francisco. I believe he actually took the interview. I know that he was supposed to.

And then, you know, he's very highly looked upon around the league, despite the fact that he was Ryan Grigson's, you know, ultimately his first lieutenant. And the two don't necessarily get tied together. There's a lot of stories in the NFL that if you talk to people who are big NFL personnel people, Ryan Grigson getting the shot at the Colts GM was mind-blowing to them. I mean, not just a lot of people. I'm talking big-time people who were probably having some cocktails and getting a good laugh out of it. But ultimately, Jimmy Ray is very respected among league circles, and he's a guy that they consider to be a rising star. And by they, I mean the NFL in general. And his firing is somewhat surprising to me. I mean,

there's notably a lot of respect inside the Colts organization from him, especially from Merce. I know that he and Pagano were tight. I think that Pagano felt a sense of ease with Ray being around. I think that's obvious. I think that's been discussed for months. But Ray in general was the guy who had been so good and so effective at not only finding some midseason guys off of other rosters who he felt could play, but he was very good at the undrafted free agency issue. And this is a situation this year where you kind of see the last of him and ultimately Ryan Grigson's scouts that are going to be around in Indianapolis. And Chris Ballard is really focusing on all of this, as in this is going to be his group, his scouts, his VP, more than likely. I'm certain that some of that will come with Ursae's okay as well. Ballard wants to have this, and it doesn't seem like, it's not the same thing as it was

with Grigson. Grigson was very power hungry almost, wanted people to know that he had the button on their pink slip if they didn't really kind of, I don't know. It's hard to explain, but there was a very much a sense of Grigson wanted everyone to know he was in charge. And not only that, but that he kind of controlled their fate. Not so much that he threatened anybody with being fired or anything like that. It was just the common, the unspoken stuff, the mental issue of it all. And I don't think Bauer is like that.

Bauer just knows what he wants. He's plugged in. He's been hired to do a job and win and do it well. And I think that he's just kind of, you know, this is something that's common as far as that goes. GMs come in. They want their scouting department, their guys, their head of scouting, and, youer, he appears to believe that Ed Dodds of Seattle would be the prime candidate to end up being Chris Ballard's VP. So where does that leave the Colts? And how was that situation?

How did that go down? I mean, did he do it because he has somebody else in mind? More than likely. I mean, I don't think that there's, you know, it seems that it was amicable and that there wasn't, you know, a big infighting or anything. And in fact, I think that you can really point to, I mean, such a cool transition in this way. When Grigson came in, there was a pulling pictures off the wall. I mean, and I'm, I'm dramatizing this obviously, uh, but almost like an ex-girlfriend or something like that. When a new one walks in, no pictures on the nightstand of the ex, no, no hint of the ex in the house or the room or anything like that. Grigson wanted everybody to know that he was there and that he was going to be the next Hall of Fame GM to be here for the Colts.

Obviously, that didn't turn out to be true. But Ballard, as he comes in, granted, I think that Ursa had a lot to do with Pagano staying on as coach, which isn't something that typically happens. And then Ballard takes on Grigson's scouting department, takes on Jimmy Ray, which could have quite possibly also had something to do with her. Say, we don't know that, but I would assume so. Because Jimmy, like I said, Jimmy Ray, very well respected, was a serious actual candidate for the GM spot to begin with. But now you've got the dismissal of the scouting department. But what's so cool about

this is that Ballard let these guys who, after the draft, had specifically scouted these drafted players, allowed them to sit down with the media and talk to them about what they saw in these players. That's such a kick-ass move by Ballard. I mean, he allowed the scouts, who people don't even know put faces to these guys. These are the grunt work guys that nobody knows, nobody gives any credit to. The GM drafts the players. The scouts are ultimately the go-between between the player and the GM for the most part or the front office in general. And then you have a guy who allows these guys to talk to everybody and, you know, what did he's allowing the scout that actually watched him a lot and that had a lot to do with his recruitment as far as putting him on the Colts board, you know, to discuss what

he saw in him, what were his strengths and weaknesses, what did he like about him, and so on. They did that for the rest of them as well. I thought that was so cool because that allows these guys who people don't know, I mean, for by and large, I mean, nobody talks about the Colts scouting department or any team's scouting department for the most part, unless it's the head scout. And even then those guys aren't very well known, but he allowed these guys to have a face and a voice. And these guys, knowing that these guys are going to be interviewing for other teams to be able to get their voices heard and to have a look at them so that these guys can go on such a classy move by Chris Ballard, in my opinion. He didn't have to do that.

Those are Grigson's guys. Those are the guys he came to replace. Ballard's just not a vindictive dude, man. I mean, and that's cool. He is a I-know-what want. I know what I expect. This is what we're going to do while I'm here, but he's not a vindictive guy. He's not a guy who's going to go out and try to go out of his way to basically, you know, put his hand on top of the other hand, just so that his hands on, on, on top last, you know what I'm saying?

That's just something that you don't see very often. And not only that, but he had Jimmy Ray there. Were his plans to get rid of Jimmy Ray altogether? Possibly. I mean, who says that Jimmy Ray necessarily wanted to stick around after not getting the GM spot to begin with? I mean, we don't know any of that to be true, but I'm just saying that's a possibility. I mean, all this stuff plays into it. And it can it's a, it can be a sticky situation at times, but it sounds like the front office, the guys who were all involved really had a good, a good relationship for the time that they were together. And not only that, but you've got like Grixen hired those guys as far as the scout and, and, and Jimmy Ray, as far as I know. But you have to imagine that they felt important

and valuable to Ballard. They did the work. These guys went out and did all the scouting. Ballard allowed them to give him his two cents. He wanted their input. He didn't shun them. You know, like you guys don't know what you're talking about. I don't know any of you. He listened to them. He took their information. Obviously he, and probably one or two other guys that he had already brought with him to the process or that he respects and went through his own personal process with, uh, with watching these scouts, uh, these prospects that, you know, along with Pagano, they made their decision and that's how it is a lot of times, but you don't hear about these guys. And I just thought that was really cool for him to allow these scouts

and these guys to have a voice and a face before they left town because not only is that not typical as far as for media to get access to these guys, but people don't see them or hear about them or know their names. And I just thought that was really cool for Chris Ballard to do. I just thought that was a real super classy move. And with all these, you know, undrafted free agent guys coming in as well, you know, the, the, the guys who were released now there's, I mean, you, you have to look at these guys. I mean, Chris Lyles is a DB. Justin Gibbons is a cornerback out of Aurora. Reggie Porter, a corner out of Utah. So as far as like Charles James being released,

Stephen McClure, Larry Scott, those guys are all replaced by undrafted free agents already before the hats even drop. They brought in Rigoberto Sanchez, a kicker from Hawaii. He apparently, I think Stephen Holder reported that he got the highest amount of guarantee, well, you know, a signing bonus or whatever, $12,000 or something like that. And that's notable because that's a guy who's probably going to have to supersede Vinatieri next year or this year, or somebody's going to, and you know, why not be a good kicker?

If he's a good kicker, I don't know. I don't know anything about kickers. Deshaun Bonds, an offensive lineman out of Cincinnati. Brandon Radcliffe, a running back out of Louisville. I don't think that he's going to last. That's just a personal opinion, nothing personal or anything. Only watched a little bit on him, but I'm not too impressed with him. Joston Thomas, defensive end out of Iowa State. Big dude, 6'6", doesn't look to Iowa state, big dude, six, six, um,

doesn't look to be Uber athletic or anything like that, but definitely takes up a lot of space. He has good speed, uh, on the edge, but he is, uh, like I said, he doesn't have a ton of bend or anything like that. It's not like he's an ultimate athlete here, but that's a big dude. I mean, that is ultimate. He very much resembles Kendall Lankford as far as his style. Uh, but I think this, uh, Justin Thomas actually takes up a little bit more space, uh, with his movement, Phillip Walker at a temple. Uh, you guys, uh, I don't know a ton about him, but he's done pretty well for himself there at temple. You guys could check out some of his videos as well. Bug Howard, really intrigued by

this guy's size. I said something to you guys about that last night. Dalton Crosson, the running back out of New Hampshire. I've heard a lot of interesting things about him. Watched a couple highlight tapes on him. He's interesting. I'm going to have to keep my eye on him, and I suggest that you guys do the same. Chris Moeller, another offensive lineman out of Rutgers. Big, mean guy. Colin Jeter, tight end out of LSU, don't know a ton about him. Trey Griffey, not much about him either. But, you know, ultimately they've got a lot. You know, Thomas Hennessey's a long snapper out of Duke.

Maybe he's the heir apparent and it's just over with, you know. But a lot of these guys, a lot of other teams, undrafted free agents, are going to come free and ultimately be people that the Colts will look at come the end of rookie camp and then again in training camp and at the end of camp, at the end of preseason on the cuts. So this roster, even the way it looks right now, is going to change, and I would probably guess pretty dramatically, before camp. So you can look at it now, you're just going to make your head hurt if you try to decide who's going to be on the roster and stuff, because there's probably still 10 guys on this roster. I mean, even, let's say you put all the undrafted free agent guys on there, there's still probably with them

included, there's probably, you know, 20 guys that won't be on this roster come the end of the preseason. So this is not something that, you know, you want to get too wrapped up in, but it is interesting. It definitely is interesting. And, you know, a lot of these guys have a lot to prove. A lot of these guys have the lot to prove. A lot of these guys have the requisite size. A lot of these guys have the requisite speed. They're very interesting. I mean, uh, you know, as much as even I use the word versatility with a lot of these prospects, you pretty much have to be a versatile, uh, player to play in the NFL. I don't care what position you are in. I mean, unless you are a dominant

number one receiver or on the outside, you need to be able to have some slot experience. You need to be able to run the entire route tree for the most part, or at least have the knowledge to do it. I mean, and that works the same way for every position. If you're a running back and you can't run between the tackles, then you not only have a very limited role if you are to make it in the league, but you're easily kicked to the curb because there's going to be another guy who's either as good as you at that one single role that you're good at, or they're going to find another three down back. And with the way that running backs are coming into the league right now, the way DBs are coming into the league right now, tight ends, it's almost like a whole

new breed of athleticism at those positions, which is really cool because that adds for exciting football. The best part about this is that we hope that we can see more athletic offensive linemen. I think that will kind of maybe even out the playing field in the trenches a little bit to see some athletic, strong guys take part in that and really kind of, you know, anchor themselves down. I think that would be really cool to see because it would add, like I said, just so much more excitement to the game, watching those guys go at it and have some offensive linemen actually not get beat by the over-athletic defensive ends or linebackers stunning or twisting or even some of the three

techs who are just crazy strong and not only are holding the point of attack but are also able to disengage and get past and push the pocket from the interior. That's a lot of things that are happening right now with the new breed of football player. And it's really interesting. So I'm interested to see a little more of these UDFAs. Not only that, but I think it's reasonable to assume that there's a healthy amount of them that have a real good chance of going through the entirety of camp. So we'll have to see how all that goes. But the big news for the day, obviously, was Jimmy Ray and the 10 players being cut and or fired from the Colts.

So that is interesting. Like I said, Albert Breer says Ed Dodds is a frontrunner for that position. And that makes sense. So he's going to bring in his own scouts as well. And I think there's probably some guys that he feels that he can pull from, uh, his past to come in there and run that. Cause those are people that he's been, um, running, you know, working very, very closely to for years now. So, uh, something that we can look forward to for sure. Uh, thank you guys for, for stopping in today. Just a little bit of chit chat for this day, uh, kind of took the day off, but we've got a lot of good stuff coming in the next few days. So,

uh, kind of wanted to just get a general show in here, get some information and some personal thoughts on the situation at hand. And then, uh, we've got Elliot, Chris is going to be on the show, uh, tomorrow. Uh, Jake Arthur's going to be on this week again for bar talk. You know, we've got great shows for you guys. Uh, I just can't thank you all enough for, uh, everything that you guys are doing. Again, if you haven't given a review or rating on iTunes, I know I say it a lot, but it helps so much. You just see the interactions and the listenership. It just starts to steadily take that step up to the next level, and it's really fantastic.

But I thank you all very much for everything that you guys are doing to help keep this podcast growing and reaching more Colts fans each and every day. So thank you guys all for listening. I will definitely 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, every day.