Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - LOCKED ON COLTS -5/16- 2017 AFC South Look Ahead: Jacksonville Jaguars W/@ryaneatscake

Episode Date: May 16, 2017

As we carry on into a look ahead into the #AFCS for 2017 after their offseasons, the Jacksonville Jaguars are next on the docket. How will the Jaguars' draft and free agency affect what the #Colts are able to achieve in 2017? 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 thank you guys here for joining me on a Tuesday. Yesterday, we went through the Titans with Terry Lambert, and tonight, we got another guest on us.

We're going to go into the Jaguars tonight with Ryan Day. Ryan, what's going on, my man? Nothing much. Ready to talk about some Jaguars and ruin my Monday night. Yes, it is Monday night when we record these, so I don't think that anybody doesn't understand that. My bad. I broke the fourth wall. No, no. I think

I've told my listeners plenty of times that we record the night before as to get it out at midnight so that everybody that lives with Australia and all these other countries and stuff, they're the ones that usually get the first listens on here. So, uh, that's not an issue at all, but, uh, needless to say, as we get going, we're definitely got a lot to talk about with

the Jaguars big off season, uh, as, as per the past few years or whatever. And you know, what, what's your immediate thought after everything that's already been done? What's your very first thought that comes to your mind about the potential for this upcoming season? Back-to-back off-season champs, baby. This is our year. It's actually more like back-to-back to back-to-back to back-off-season champs. So pretty pumped about that. Yeah. Well, I mean, you guys did plenty to earn that too. I mean, signing AJ Boye, which was a guy that everybody wanted, like you said earlier, Calais Campbell, Barry Church. I mean, there's a few guys, even Roy Miller, and he was

released, but you guys ended up, hey, you guys got Josh McNary. So that was my personal favorite, to be quite honest with you. I wasn't real high on him to begin with. And then you also have the Albert issue, which is something that we may need to step into. What are they planning to do with him? Or maybe, you know what, let's do that after we go through your draft. So obviously the free agency situation there in Jacksonville has been huge. I mean, does this year seem different than any other year? I mean, does it seem like this is the actual step that needed to be had

with the current roster to actually kind of put you guys over the edge? Because the defense was solid last year. It was the offense, obviously, that we know with the quarterback situation and the running backs and stuff like that, the offensive line. So it really was the offense. We weren't even really able to get the playmakers involved all that much, it seemed like, last year. Would you agree? Right. And I think that's the most puzzling thing to Jaguars fans is our offense obviously I mean if you break down the losses game by game the offense lost more than twice as many games as the defense um and when you go through free agency and I mean Brandon Albert was our free agency addition on offense and he

may not even play it down for the jaguars right um so i think it's puzzling and it's frustrating something something we've talked about on on the jaguars podcast keep chopping wood uh is that this team has just been built really weirdly like there's we we bring in chris ivory last year who's a power bat, and we pair him with Blake Bortles, Alan Hearns, Alan Robinson, Marquise Lee, Julius Thomas, and that seems like a pretty downfield passing game. So it's just this mishmash of like, you know, you have, and you don't have a dominant offensive line either.

You don't have a power running game offensive line. You don't have a good offensive line, period. But you can get away with, I think, some – you can get away with like some shorter passes, like a quicker tempo offense with this offensive line, maybe some zone blocking and stuff like that but now we bring in um uh you know not to get ahead of ourselves but leonard fernette kent robinson it just it seems like the team's in transition still after four or five years of

rebuilding and even adding defensive superstars like aj boye. Boye, Kalyas Campbell's a good piece. He's a two-year guy. He's not a long-term guy. But adding guys like that, it's like, well, okay, we can see where the defense is going. The offense is still a huge question mark, and I wouldn't be surprised if they were just as dysfunctional next year as they were this year.

Yeah, I mean, and I think that's where the people get, you know, the issue with winning the offseason and stuff like that. I don't know that they could be that dysfunctional. I think that they've got – I mean, and I don't think that you – I'm not telling you anything you don't already know. But with a 3-13 season last year, and Blake Bortles supposedly was supposed to be making a jump last year, regressed, went back to poor mechanics and stuff.

And that's not just national mishmash. That's real. I mean, that was exactly what he did. He went back to being lazy as far as his mechanically. And he gets himself back into the situation where he was two years ago where he had no choice but to go back and get some help on his uh on mechanics his throwing motion and everything else and now he's in the same boat again but can you realistically expect him to kind of take that jump next year when he's already been in this situation before no i mean how can you right like it's like i think a lot of jaguars fans rightfully so they look through rose-colored glasses because they're Jaguars fans.

And they're like, well, Blake Bortles can turn it around. But when you look at it objectively, when you look at it from a 30,000-foot view, what other quarterback does that? What other quarterback regresses as hard as he did in his third year and then comes back in his fourth year and just kills it? I'm still looking for that guy because I want some objective hope, but I don't see that guy in the record books. Is there a quarterback on the roster that you think legitimately could overtake the starting position this year if all just falls through the floor? Will they just revert back to Chad Henney,

or does Allen, you think, have an opportunity maybe to push for that starting spot if all goes downhill? Well, and that's the frustrating thing is no. I mean, the team has given – you have Bean in Buffalo kind of talking about Tyrod Taylor as if he still needs to earn that starting quarterback spot. And Tom Coughlin and Dave Caldwell have given Blake Bortles as much job security as Tom Brady. You know what I mean? There's no quarterback competition. We're not even carrying a fourth quarterback, I think, into training camp. We barely brought in any workout players.

It's those three guys, B portal henny and alan you know what you have in henny you have a you know you have a guy who's going to go one-to-one in touchdowns and interceptions you know for a 50 completion um and brandon allen is a sixth round kid from arkansas right like that's that you have the three freaking stooges as the Jaguars quarterback. It's like super frustrating that we didn't take, you know, a flyer on a guy in the second or third round. I guess I logically understand why you did it. But, yeah, Michael Lombardi brought this up on the ringer, that giving this much confidence to Blakeake portals is just a real it's a real bad way to treat the locker room right you have guys going into their contract year right and they're

like oh okay we're going to pick up blake portals with your options but you other you quarterbacks you white receivers you offensive linemen y'all have to earn it but blake portals who's literally worth probably a third of the backups in the league, you know, gets that vote of confidence. I don't like it. And I'm frustrated. A lot of other Jaguars fans are frustrated. And the thing I think that is also kind of mind-numbing a little bit is that they're not putting the, I mean, if you want to call it the coaching staff or whatever, but you've seen the way that they've allowed Bortles to fall from grace. Who's to say that Allen is even getting that attention that he needs to improve himself or develop himself? Exactly. He's not.

And it's so frustrating that when you're, you know, with four games to go, you're 2-10. Why aren't you putting Brandon Allen in there yeah you know why are you still putting Paul Poslesny at middle linebacker instead of Miles Jack yeah um why isn't Corey Grant starting instead of T.J. you know T.J. Yeldon you know what you have in T.J. Yeldon you know you have an ivory why why are we still trying to win games at two and ten um So that was super frustrating, especially the quarterback position. Why are the last four regular season games just preseason games to look at what you have for next year? And it's because coaches and GMs are snakes, and they're trying to get as many wins as possible to land that job next year. But as a fan, I'm frustrated.

Yeah, and you should be. Let's talk about that for a second, the move of Paz away from middle linebacker and allowing Miles Jack to take that. Are you in favor of that, I would assume, then? No, because he should be on the sidelines. Paz Lesney? I don't think Paz Lesney has it anymore. But isn't it worth at least trying to begin in the beginning of the year? Cause I mean, you have to, sure. I mean, put, but put, here's the thing. He's going to be put at Sam linebacker. He's going to be put at a 20

snap a game position. Um, and it's frustrating that, you know, we, we've built this team. We still don't have a guy who can get Paz off the field. Um, and you're taking Paz, honestly, Paz's strength is on the inside. Like, i think the best thing he brings to the team that miles jack fails at is stopping the inside run so you're going to put him at sam linebacker um you're going to put him out in space that's where pause struggles um i do like the move of miles jack to middle linebacker um i think that's the future when you you get a top-five guy, you need to put him in as soon as possible. I'm just frustrated that we didn't spend the last four or five games of 2016 doing it. Right. That makes sense.

Yeah. And like you said, when you take the guy away from his strengths, that kind of just really makes not so much the move of Jack into that role, but that makes the move of Paz Lesney out of that role kind of mind-numbing just a little bit for sure. Right. I mean, Paz looks – I think he's serviceable at middle linebacker. Put him in space, I don't think he's going to be serviceable.

Fans like Paz Lesney because he's in that 80s middle linebacker mold. But in terms of how he fits in today's game, like, no, I don't want him. I don't want him starting. Right. And that makes sense. I mean, when you look at all of it as a whole, it just, you know, it kind of screams out that it's something that Marone will only try. I mean, in my opinion, you would assume that Marone will try it,

and if it doesn't work, there will be some reshuffling, I guess, to kind of put it mildly. Right, and that's why, I mean, we – I'm trying to think. No, I mean, because we drafted a guy, Blair Brown, but Dave Caldwell said he is – you know, he's a will linebacker, a middle linebacker. He's Telvin and Miles' backup. Like, I'm still trying to

think of who who if pause fails who do you go to i don't think we have that guy on the roster i think it's you know they want to kind of frame it as um they want to kind of frame it as this is what we're we're going to try to do but then when you look at the depth chart you're like well what if that doesn't work? Right. Yeah, well, I mean, and you've got some options there. You've got a lot of talent on that defense, especially in the front seven now.

And, well, not even just especially, but you've got a nice secondary as well. So, I mean, I think defense is going to be the least of the problems, though. You know, that's something that I think that the Jaguars can risk a couple games trying to figure out what's going to go what you know how the chemistry is going to work out there uh as opposed to i agree offense better get their crap together right away so uh yeah i mean let's talk about that i mean right the the first pick leonard fournette what were you i mean were you in favor of that No? Because you don't pick running backs in the top five. Yeah. You can find serviceable running backs in the mid-round,

and it was a deep running back class. Right. Do I think Leonard Frenette's a bad player? No, I think he's a great player. I think he – I like Dalvin more. I thought he was a little bit more balanced, and I thought he was better for where the Jaguars' offense is now. Gotcha.

But Leonard Fournette's a great player. I'm glad he's on the team. I'm just not glad that we took him fourth overall. Now, here's the funny thing, though, is we found Cam at the top of the second round. So I'm kind of playing mind games with myself. This is what Jaguars fans do. They play mind games with themselves to keep hope alive. So I just pretend that Cam Robinson was the fourth overall pick

and Leonard Fournette just fell to the second round. And that makes me feel really good about the draft. Yeah, it should make you feel a little better. I mean, I think that Fournette adds to that. I mean, Yeldon is a guy that when you guys drafted him, I just thought, I don't understand how he can be the guy that they wanted to take as highly as they did when he was never that, whatever you want to call it, the main back in Alabama. Yeah, he wasn't the bell cow back. Right, but they wanted to make him that

in Jacksonville, and it just didn't add up to me. At least that they've got the idea of making a bell cow back, like you said, the guy, I mean, Fournette's ultimately the guy. I mean, so that's, I mean, that's a positive notion in the way that they're wanting to run their offense. And like, I mean, he is that guy, but when you look at where LSU struggled, like it was when the quarterback couldn't do anything and when the offensive line could not create. And those are the two things that the Jaguars' offense has been plagued by since Blake Bortles started taking snaps under center. Like, Blake Bortles is not going to give defensive coordinators, you know,

any lost sleep at all. And that offensive line is not going to create for him. That's another reason I thought Dalvin was going to be the better pick at number four. He wasn't going to be. He was always going to be for net because Tom Copeland has a type. We all have types, and Fournette is his type. So I get it.

Leonard Fournette is a belt cow back. I think behind a better offensive line, he could produce in the same tier as an Ezekiel Elliott. But that offensive line is not in Jacksonville. Right. And not only that, but if you do have a better quarterback situation, you've got three backs that are more than serviceable back there to work in some sort of a mix and match of, you know, I mean, running back by committee almost,

but you've got the main guy in four net. When you've got Yeldon who can do some things, he is a guy who can play well, and that's basically his role as a backup anyways, in my opinion. And then if you have a better quarterback, that obviously gives that backfield a little more legitimacy. But you did, like you said, you guys did land Cam Robinson in the second round. Your thoughts on that were obviously positive, correct? Yeah. I mean, I'm, I'm,

the thing I'm most excited about, I mean, Cam Robinson's a great lineman and he'll be great for a decade. The thing I'm most excited about is we don't have to go into an off season thinking who's going to be our left tackle. Right. Like ever since 2013, it's been like, who's our left tackle? Who's our left tackle? Because before we got Jokul, it was like, are we going to go that way? And then with Jokul, it was like, can he be that? Cam Robinson, it's like, he is that. He's strong.

I mean, he's a good dude. I mean, he's got his downsides too, but that's, like you said, that's holding down a position that hasn't been held down there in a while. So he's going to get better, for sure. One of the picks that I was very curious about, overall, for the most part, I like the Jaguars draft, but I didn't understand the two picks in Dwayne Smoot and DeeDee Westbrook. I get it. I kind of get it because Dante Fowler is not a good NFL player.

I think that they saw something in Dwayne Smoot that they saw in Yannick and Gokoe last year. They're just hoping that Dwayne can take over that edge rush position opposite Yannick, or at least spell Dante to where Dante can somehow, you know, Dante Fowler turned into a decent run-stopping defensive end. I don't know how that happened, but somehow he became that. So maybe Dwayne Smoot is the third down pass rushing specialist, and Dante plays first and second down. If that's what comes out of a third round pick, that's awesome.

And D.D. Westbrook, I mean, right and dd westbrook i mean yeah i mean dd westbrook is like not a good human being um and you know it he was a fringe he was a bubble first second rounder i think without those off the field issues right but tom coughlin tom coughlin has a history of taking chances on those types of guys. Like it was rumored that during his first stint with the Jaguars, he was thinking about Lawrence Phillips, I think in the 96 draft. And he took RJ soured, you know, seven years later, eight years later, however long it was in the first round. You know, he brought on Jimmy Smith as, as a,

as a free agent from the Dallas Cowboys who had a checkered path. And, um, he has a, you know, Tom Coughlin, I think is, is fine as long as, as long as the, the fit is there. Um, and Diddy Westbrook, honestly, this wide receiving core is good. It's not great. And we're going to lose one of those three guys next offseason well that's what everyone says but i'm like why would hearns go like hearns just signed an

extension um i like him i really like him i just i just can see that happening because of his injury history i just yeah i i guess so but when you look at the three of them like i just think you can replace what marquis Lee does more easily than Alan Hearns or Alan Robinson, and I think that's what they're trying to do with Didi. I think they're trying to say, all right, Didi is our slot guy. Marquise is like a hybrid. I think Marquise is going to play a lot of outside this year

because that's what he was supposed to do before Alan Hearns just decided to play like a first or second rounder himself. But I just think that Marquise, the only reason Marquise shines so brightly last year is because Alan Hearns and Alan Robinson just played like crap. And I think this year they're going to normalize, and you're going to see Marquise Lee just kind of fade into the background. I think he's the one that goes. Yeah, it's possible. He's just outplayed Hearns in the better portion of the last half of the season. He was our best offensive skill player for most of the season, which is the most damning critique you could have of any NFL team. Marquise Lee is your best skill

position player. But he was. He was. He was the only one catching anything thrown to him. You know, he was the only one making guys miss. He was, you know, he was, he was, God, he's so fast, too, man. Like, which is something that, like, Alan Hearns and Alan Robinson are fast, but Marquise Lee just, like, has another level to him. And, like, that, I think, is the one thing you can't replace.

But when you look at the wide receivers as a whole, who would you rather have as the whole package? A-Rob, Alan Hearns, or Marquise Lee? And I think Marquise Lee is the odd man out. Yeah, that's quite possible. You know them better than I do. I just assumed as soon as I saw the Westbrook pick, I thought Hearns could be on his way out.

It just kind of depends. Maybe. as I saw the Westbrook pick, I thought Hearns could be on his way out. It just kind of depends. But, you know... Maybe. I mean, if Hearns... They're going to put Hearns at slot quite a bit. And if Hearns is not able to play that well, I mean, maybe you can start having that conversation.

But, I mean, the mood around Jacksonville is like, A-Rob and Hearns are the guys. And Marquis is the one having to kind of prove himself. So we'll see. Yeah, it'll be interesting to watch as the season starts and gets kind of moving forward, see where everybody kind of finds their niche within that offense again. Blair Brown out of Ohio, a lot of guys, including myself, were really high on him. He's a guy that I think that you guys should all be excited about, even though, like you said, he's going to be backing up one of those guys immediately and

probably won't see a ton of snaps in his rookie year. But that's a guy that's going to grow with this team really nicely and is going to complement a lot of these free agent moves in that he could be a guy who grows into a starter. And him and Jack there in the middle, that could be a very nice middle linebacking crew for sure. Yeah, I think more than middle linebacker, I think Blair was brought in as Telvin insurance. Because I think Telvin Smith is, I mean, he was better last year, but he's not as good, I think, as people make him out to be. He's certainly good.

I mean, he's certainly good. But if he has a down year, I think you could see make him out to be. Um, he's certainly good. I mean, he's certainly good, but if he has a down year, I think you could see Blair Brown come out. And I mean, Blair Brown, when you look at his like measurables, I mean, he's just like a freak athlete. Like he's just, he's just like off the charts with some of this stuff. And so, you know, I, and I didn't know that, I mean, who knew Blair Brown coming out of what was was it, Ohio? I'm not like a draft Twitter guy at all. So when they were like, Blair Brown, I was like, okay. Like, you know. Google.

Awesome. And I would have said the same thing about Telden if he didn't go to FSU. You know what I mean? Right. So, like, if, I mean, if Blair can play the way that his body is built and his athleticism has shown in measurables and pro days and all that sort of stuff, then I'll be really excited to see him. Yeah, I think that he's not a big dude. I mean, he's not even I don't think he's quite six foot. No, he's like 5'10", 5'11".

Yeah, I think he's going to be I just think he's going to be a good football player all the way around. You know, you can't force a guy to grow in height, but I think that he's going to be a guy that they can move in and out and could be a starter one day and could be one of those guys that kind of outperforms even what, like you said, draft Twitter even had for him because a lot of people were getting real high on him come the draft, and I think that he's going to be a guy who's going to impress a lot of people.

I think people will forget about him over the course of the next 12 months until he gets a lot of starter reps. And then I think people will remember, oh, yeah, I forgot about him. Well, and not to make this too much about – this is not a Blair Brown podcast, listeners, we promise. But Tom Coughlin really, like, he loves building special teams, more so than we saw Dave Caldwell do over the last few years. And special teams has been awful for the Jaguars.

Like, special teams has been awful. So when Tom Coughlin sees a guy who he can say, you know what, he can plug into special teams from day one, and he can compete at multiple positions, like That's who Tom Coughlin just gets from the fourth round on. It makes sense if you've got that need on your team. Special teams are a lot more important, I think, than people understand. Until you're in a position where you're in the position now

where you've gotten a large part of your defense in free agency and you've got the offense that still needs remade, but you've also got that third aspect of the game, and special teams are as important as anything, especially when you start giving up touchdowns or fumbles or poor coverage or just whatever. That can really make a difference in a lot of games. Well, I mean, we lost – there were several games last year,

like at least two, I'm thinking like the Buffalo game, and then – I forget the other game. But, like, we had just had muffed punts, and part of that's Rashad Green's fault. But another part is there's just not – if he's got an extra second, that punt might not be muffed or he's able to recover, but instead the bills recover. That's true.

I think you're right. Special teams is more important than a lot of people let on. Yeah, absolutely. Your two seventh-round picks were Jalen Myrick and Marquez Williams, the fullback out of Miami. Did you see that coming? I thought we would take a cornerback higher, honestly. But corner was another deep position in this draft.

So I think what you find in the seventh round, you might have found in the fifth or sixth last year. And Jalen Myrick, he's a fast dude. I don't believe in Aaron Colvin being a long-term fixture on this team. I think Jalen Myrick is inevitably, you know, trying to be groomed to see, like, can he, you know, can he play, can he play backup? Can he be, because we, that's who we had off that corner was Jalen and AJ, who's, you know, that's the best one-two that you can find in the league. But then after that, it's like a cliff.

You've got Aaron Colvin and I could make up some names. You wouldn't know if they were on the Jaguars roster or not. So, I mean, Jalen Myrick, he's fast. He was, he was athletic at Minnesota. Like he went to Minnesota, right? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, he was,

he, I think he was a good all around guy. I think, um, I think he'll take that fourth corner spot this year. And, um, he's another special teams guy. I think, I think Tom Coughlin saw more of a special teams player than he saw. Oh, he can be our, our dime back or something like that. And then Marquez Williams, like I am super pumped to have a fullback again but when you look at when you look at and tom coughlin is too i mean like that was one of the first signings uh you know uh in free agency like you know we went to go get tommy bohannon who was uh played with marone in the you know in buffalo and and now we drafted a guy in the seventh round. When you look around the NFL, though, and you look at how often are some of these teams employing a fullback,

it's like even the teams at the very top are doing it like one-third of their offensive plays, if that, anywhere between 25% to 30%. So is a fullback important? The difference is that some people are doing it with tight ends and others are doing it with true fullbacks. And it just kind of depends on, you know, offensive scheme and how they plan to utilize those guys for the most part. Right, right, right. Yeah. When I was saying the 25, 30 percent, like I put up an article on Big Tech Country about a week ago where I looked at how often teams were employing formations that used a fullback type player. So whether that's a third type and kind of coming in motion or a true fullback or what have you. It's only being done like 25 to 30 percent of the time.

So it's like, is a fullback important? Sure. Like a fullback is important. But like, and especially with a Fournette. Like Fournette, unfortunately, I think kind of needs that. I wish we had a running back that could run out of a single back set or do some shotgun stuff, but I don't think that's Fournette's, you know, I don't think that's really his style right now.

If he can learn to do that, that's awesome. But yeah, I mean, Marquez Williams is like a big physical, like, dude who actually catches the ball well out of the backfield. So, you know, he's what you want in a fullback. He'll make the roster, I think, because when you invest draft capital in a guy, he's going to make it over some, you know, random free agent signing. So I'm excited to have him. Is there any undrafted free agent guys that you think maybe can find a spot on this offensive line or anything like that to help out the offense? We signed quite a few offensive linemen

in undrafted free agency. We got one guy named Parker Collins collins he's a he's an interior guy i think he's a center out of appalachia state um let's see avery genesee i forget where he's from but he was a guard um i think i think he can certainly make it uh there's a guy who played with duane smooth um his name's philip Carroll. He's like a linebacker, defensive end hybrid that I think – Oh, Carroll Phillips. I think he has a chance. Oh, Carroll, yeah, I'm sorry, not Phillip Carroll.

Yep. Carroll Phillips. Yeah, that's a nice pick, though. That's a nice grab, though. It was. And Mel Kiper, I mean, I looked it up. Mel Kiper had him in the sixth round, I think. So, you know, he's a good player,

and I think he stands a chance to make it. And then there's a wide receiver out of Syracuse, Amba Eta-Tawu. Amba Eta-Tawu? Yeah, that's a mouthful. Yeah, I'm sorry. Amba. Well, that's what we'll call him.

Amba. And he played. So Keenan McCardell, our old receiver, he coached up in Syracuse. And, you know, Amba played under him.

And, you know, I think, I think he has the best chance to make it if we keep six receivers on the roster. So, you know, I'm excited to, I'm excited to see some of these undrafted guys.

It'll be fun. Me too. I mean, a couple of the guys that I thought may had a chance to actually move on into training camp with the team got cut today. I was kind of surprised about a couple of them, but you know, that happens. I mean, it just happens. So, uh, so who was your favorite, uh, off season free agent guy? I think Bouye. Yeah. Because my favorite player, my favorite player on the job was Jalen Ramsey.

I think Jalen Ramsey plays the most, like, I mean, you just saw it last year. The guy was just so angry. He's like a, he's like Deion Sanders Light, you know?

He really is. Except he can, well, except he can tackle. He doesn't catch the ball like Deion does well except he can tackle he doesn't catch the ball like dion does but he can tackle better than dion um but uh jaylen was like hype about getting aj opposite him and so i'm like whatever you do as a team that makes jaylen ramsey happy is the best thing you can do for your team right so you know which is why i was like i want deshaun watson because coming up to the draft you you look at Jalen Ramsey's like Twitter feed and every single story that came out where they were talking about like Blake Bortles is not, you know, Blake Bortles might, you know, have to compete in camp with a veteran quarterback or they're thinking about Deshaun Watson in the first round. Jalen Ramsey was favoriting those tweets over and over and over.

And so I was like, hey, Jalen Ramsey for Jaguars GM. Just do what Jalen wants, and we'll have a good team. Yeah, and I'll tell you, that bouillé was a massive pickup, too. Yeah, it was. And I thought, you know, I think it was between us and the Titans to get him. And, I mean, God, how just depressing that would have been if Bouye, who's the marquee guy we've been talking about going after since the season ended, if he goes to the Titans.

And luckily, you know, Caldwell was able able to uh to to snatch him up yeah he did something yeah well and that's the funny thing is like everyone was asking like tom coughlin like you know what did you do to to kind of help land bouye and stuff like that and they were and tom coughlin just said dave caldwell handled that i didn't talk to bouye you know i didn't i didn't go and get him like that was um gene isek and and dave caldwell handled that. I didn't talk to Bouye. I didn't go and get him. That was Gene Izzik and Dave Caldwell. Props to them. I don't know what they did except just keep offering him more money. It was interesting, too, because everybody in the AFC South ultimately wanted him.

All four teams wanted to sign him this offseason. I remember right before the Jaguars. Yeah, well, rumors were the Colts were in on it. I don't know how heavy they were. I wish they were heavier because that was obviously somebody that Colts Twitter was really wanting to sign this offseason. I was too. I was all in favor of that.

But there was a lot of – and right even before the Jaguars actually signed him, I think maybe 24, 48 hours before that, there were stories coming out that the Titans thought for sure that they had landed Bouye. They thought that they had him. So, I mean, it was really interesting how that went down. And, man, that is – and not only that, but if you look at the safeties, like you've got Church now and Gibson, is that a safety duo back there that can, you know, complement those two on the outside,

I mean, in the secondary? Yeah, I mean, I think Gibson and Church are obviously penciled in as the starters. I mean, they're going to play 2017 as the starters. I don't know how much longer they are for the Jaguar secondary, but this year, I think that they're good enough to, you know, I mean, how good do you really have to be to be good enough with Bouye and Ramsey in front of you? But like Gibson and Church, I think are good enough to, you know, compliment those two at corner. That'll be interesting. It'll be Church, I think, are good enough to complement those two at corner. That'll be interesting.

I mean, for you guys, that'll be a fun defense to watch, a real fun secondary, a fun front seven. Man, I'm a lot of tongue twisters tonight. But the Colts are in a situation where you guys bolstered your defense quite a bit. Titans, they bolstered theirs quite a bit. The Texans already had a really good defense, and so did you guys forstered your defense quite a bit. Titans, they bolstered theirs quite a bit. The Texans already had a really good defense, and so did you guys for the most part. But this is a year for the Colts where it's a really strange situation going into this with three teams now in the division that, on paper anyways,

and at this moment in time, have really strong defenses that the Colts' offense, which is highly ranked as well, is going to have to just explode to beat these guys. The division games are no longer pushovers. Yeah, I mean, and I don't mean to upset you or the listeners, but is the Colts' offense really highly ranked? I mean, I know Andrew Luck is, I mean, I'd put him at like, just outside of the top 10, you know, maybe at the very bottom of that, but like, other than Andrew Luck, like, I mean, who's there? Well, I mean, no, you got T.Y. He didn't do much,

but the league and receiving yards last year. I ultimately, I think that you've got a stable back in Gore. You've got some youth now behind him. You've got an offensive line that actually created more yards for Gore than Gore created himself. You've got a defense that's getting built the right way, not there yet. But as far as the offense goes, I mean, you've got some, you know, Moncrief's been hampered by injuries. A lot of that stuff has come in waves or at different times to where it seems like they never really have their whole crew, but they were eighth in points last year, points scored per game. I mean, they were, man, I know that they were in the top 10 in a handful of other categories as well, and they were really good on third down. They were phenomenal inside the red zone.

I mean, they had, Luck didn't throw a single pick in the red zone at all. And it was a lot of their production, in fact, came inside the 25-yard line. I do know that. That's why the running back was so necessary this offseason in some way, shape, or form to find a youthful running back with some skills and some open field ability to break them. Because a lot of their offense in between the 20s was not any, you know, a lot of it wasn't big playability outside of T.Y. Hilton for the most part. But I mean, like, my question is more, do you think that's sustainable going into this

year? Because, I mean, I love Frank Gore. Frank Gore won me multiple fantasy games last year. I think I got him in the 13th or 14th round. The guy would just score a random touchdown here or there, win the game by four. I love Frank Gore. Andrew Luck's a great quarterback. Obviously, Hilton is one of the best receivers in the division, in the league the league but that offensive line like i mean i understand about creating yards for gore but they also allowed what five or six sacks to a very very poor jaguars defensive line last year in london um you know i i just and and and who is there other

than hilton at receiver so i mean, that's more the question. It's like 2016, I get that, but the production was there. But 2017, do you think that that is still there? And see, that's the major question with the Colts offense going forward. The ability's there for sure. Dorsett has a ton of ability. He just hasn't put it on the field yet with any kind of consistency. Moncrief's been injured way too much, and they've kind of shifted his roles.

He was a guy that was running a lot of deep ends and deep sideline routes in the past couple years. And then last year he was almost – every single one of his touchdowns came within the 25-yard line last year. He was almost relegated to strictly a red zone threat last year. The loss of Dwayne Allen, is that an issue or not? I don't really know. I think that that could have some effects,

not having two really locked down tight ends in there. But you've got Doyle who can be multiple as far as what he gives the team. I really like Chester Rogers, another up-and-coming wide receiver. As far as everything else goes, I think that, you know, Kamar Aitken coming in there now, he adds, you know, quite a bit to that offense, I think, to be quite honest with you. I mean, at least the potential's there. As far as saying, is it sustainable? That's really hard to figure out, to be honest with you, because there are so many aspects

that have to come together for it to really, you know, get to its, uh, its ceiling and its potential as an offense. But I think the offense will be a top 15 offense, no matter what, as far as I'm concerned, because of Andrew Luck and because of the, the, some of the playmaking ability that some of those guys have. Um, I'm, I'm really actually, I know, I understand that the offensive line kind of ate crow last year, but I'm really high on them coming into this year. I really am because I just thought that they're just young and they need some time to develop. If they don't develop, then you need to start adding more and more pieces.

But I think Chris Ballard said it really well that you've got to give Grigson some credit for putting four of those linemen together out of last year's draft because, you know, Hague got a ton of starts as a rookie. Good played in his rookie year towards the end of the season but started almost every game last year. LaRaven Clark was a guy who was awful, dude, in camp, terrible. Awful in camp, awful in preseason, and came in our last three or four games of the season last year

and really did a phenomenal job at right tackle. So the, the big issue right now is finding a backup for, uh, uh, Costanzo and to, uh, keep Muhor healthy and, you know, just kind of continue to build that offensive line with, uh, with backup competition. And then, you know, if you find a starter in the draft or you find a starter in free agency, that's young enough to sustain his health and stuff like that, then you pull on it. So I'm really high on those guys this year. I'm probably higher than I should be, but, um, I'm really looking forward to see what that offensive line can do. And honestly, I'm probably lower on the, on the Jag. I've been pretty pessimistic this podcast. I am probably lower on the Jaguars than I should be because I love them. It's easy to do, man.

It's easy to do. I know, dude. It's easy to do. I mean, you've had down years, but at least you've had a good quarterback. A good quarterback just stabilizes. A good quarterback covers a multitude of sin. And we haven't had it in years. Right. Years. Since David Garrard. like a good quarterback covers a multitude of sin. Like it's just, it's, and we haven't had it in years,

years since David Gerrard, you know, they haven't had it in 10 years. So I think that might be why I'm a little more pessimistic is because I know everything runs through the quarterback. And that might be why you're a little more optimistic is because you know that everything runs through the quarterback. So, right.

And it's possible. Cause I mean, I'm, I, I, you know, I, I give my two cents on luck plenty I'm I I, you know, I give

my two cents on luck plenty as far as, you know, what I feel like that he does sometimes that that kind of is not helping the offense, you know, and stuff like that. But I mean, all in all, it's probably a little more easy, like you said, a little easier to be optimistic when you know that you've got at least a quarterback who can be a top five quarterback in this league, can get you as far as a Super Bowl, depending on the rest of the pieces coming into place. And he has to have a really good season. There's no doubt about it. But you know that the potential is there for him to do that without question. And I think that's an obvious thing. Right now, if we were flip-flopping teams and the Jags were in Indianapolis and the Colts were in Jacksonville, as far as my outlook of it, I would be probably just as excited, uh, because of the defense

and stuff like that. But ultimately this league is all about offense and can you score and right you know three don't cut it anymore you got to get six you got to get into the end zone and so there's there's a real i wish that we had your defense i'll definitely tell you that i wish that our defense was as sound uh and and coming together like the jacksonville jaguars is currently but you it's hard to say, yeah, I'll give away our offense because our offense has a ton of ability as well. As you know, and this isn't just the Colts or the Jaguars, this is every team in the league. Everything has to come together to have such a successful season because a lot of these teams, a lot of these divisions, their competition is really tightening up over the past couple years. Right. Well, and speaking of division, I was looking at the over-unders because I'm a

degenerate. I gamble every now and then. I was looking at the over-unders for the win totals, and I saw Colts at 8.5, I think it was. They had the most... Oh, no, no, no. They had... I think it was 9. I think they had 9 or 9.5. And then the Texans Oh, no, no, no. They had... I think it was nine. I think they had nine or 9.5. And then the Texans and Titans had eight or 8.5. And then the Jaguars had six or something like that. So 9.5. Are you over or under on that for the Colts?

I'm going to go under because I think it's a nine-win season right now. Okay. Do you think nine and seven wins the AFC South? No. No, I don't. No. You think the AFC South is going to churn out a 10 and 16? Yeah.

Wow. Yeah. It's the Texans, right? I don't know who it's going to be. I really don't. I think that it could. I mean, I'm guessing. I mean, I think that they're. I think.

I don't know, man. I mean, I think that they're – I think – I don't know, man. I mean, I think the Titans – I mean, I think the Titans have – are building the best team in the division. I love Marcus Mariota. I love that offensive line. That offensive line is so good. Yeah. That defense is young.

They're going to be good in a year or two. That running game is beautiful. It's a Mike Malarkey, two tight end, two running back, one receiver offense. That offense is going to suck. It's going to suck to play against. I think you're right. I really think the AFC South is a three horse race at this, at this point. Yeah. And you guys do something about that quarterback. I agree.

Yeah. I think, well, and here's the thing is I don't think we will. I think, I think we've sent a clear message to Blake, picking up his fifth year option. I don't, I don't think we draft a guy next year because I think Blake will play marginally better next year. I think we go 5-11. But I think he gets extended next year, and I think it's just three or four more years of this.

Man, that's just brutal. That's brutal to the fan base. That's brutal, like you said earlier, that's brutal to the locker room, man. I mean, that's how you ultimately, you do all this work in free agency, all this work in the draft. That's how you get Cleveland Brown-esque losing people in free agency every single year after that by being stupid about your quarterback.

And if you haven't heard Michael Lombardi's rant, I implore you to Google it after this. He was on with Rich Eisen. So it might not have been the ringer, but Michael Lombardi was talking to Rich Eisen just about this. And he hit the nail on the head with so many points. You know, like the guys in that locker room, this is something Lombardi said I thought was really poignant.

The guys in that locker room are not reading the sports page. They're reading the finance page. Like they know how much every single other guy in that locker room are not reading the sports page. They're reading the finance page. Like, they know how much every single other guy in that room is making. And they're, you know, they're, like, you think those guys are happy that Blake Borles walks in the room and that's a $19 million man? Like, no. Like, they are not happy about that. And they're frustrated.

And that's how you lose guys like Jalen Ramsey. Yeah, that that's exactly what i'm saying you've got some top-end talent in here uh that you've been able to uh assist it with some good free agency and you're going to lose some of your draft picks if you don't make a smart business decision for the roster for sure um i don't think that there's any question about that. So who was your favorite draft pick then? Favorite, probably for the value, it'd be Cam Robinson or D.D. Westbrook. I think those two, when you look strictly at on the field, and I mean, you can look at football players however you want. I'm not going to fault you if you're like,

D.D. Westbrook shouldn't be in the league, or Joe Nixon shouldn't be in the league, or whatever. I don't fault you for that opinion, but when you look at the value of getting a guy like Westbrook in the fourth round, when you look at the value of getting a guy like Cam in the second round, I think those two are, you know, they should have been drafted higher and they weren't, and we got them. So I'd say those two were it. I would have to agree.

I mean, I liked Cam Robinson not as much as I liked a couple of the other guys. But, man, I mean, you got yourself an offensive lineman, a left tackle. I don't know what else you could want. Like you said, that's been a clear need for so long. Ryan, thanks for joining me tonight, man. I had a good time chatting it up with you again. Never ceases to be a good time, that's for sure. So tell everybody where they can get you on Twitter

and where they can catch your work. Sure. Um, you can find me on Twitter at Ryan eats cake, love cake. I eat it at Ryan eats cake. Um, and you can find me on big cat country.com. Uh, I'm one of the managing editors alongside, uh, Alfie Crow. You can find Alfie at Alfie BCC, follow both of us and, us and fill our mentions with Jaguars hate. Absolutely. That's what we do. It was good talking to you, man. It was a good time. Good luck to you this year and not really though. You too. Let's do this in training camp for the preseason and let's share a few burdens. Oh, we we will we will do that we'll have us a bar night here on the podcast and we'll do that for sure very good absolutely thank you guys for listening uh ryan again thank you for joining us and make sure you guys are going out

to the podcast on apple podcasts and giving it a rating and review you guys have been fantastic so far we're going to come back with the Texans tomorrow and round out this around the AFC South here that we've been kind of doing to get perspective on what's going on in the offseason and what the Colts can look forward to this upcoming season. Thank you guys all for listening and we'll check you all out tomorrow right here

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