Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - LOCKED ON COLTS 5/21/20: Crossover Special with Locked On Cardinals

Episode Date: May 21, 2020

On today's episode, Bo Brack of Locked On Cardinals joins for our latest Crossover Special diving into the NFL's biggest offseason winners.In Arizona, plenty of change has led to high optimism in the Valley. Will Kyler Murray take the leap to star in Year 2? Trading for DeAndre Hopkins not only helps the Colts, but it vaults Arizona's offense to a whole new level.Arizona also did a solid job in free agency + draft reloading their porous defense. How will Isaiah Simmons help transform the Cardinals?In Indianapolis, we go over their biggest moves and why plenty are pointing at them as AFC South favorites now. Also, who were some other big winners around the NFL?This was a really fun one, Colts fans, so make sure to tune in! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, everybody. Welcome back into your latest episode of Locked on Colts, probably Locked on Podcast Network. Today's audience is your host, Evan Sadrangelo. My base person for today's show, Bo Brock of Locked on Cardinals. The Cardinals, we were talking with Cody Rourke of Locked on Broncos yesterday. And just continuing on our series here, the biggest offseason winners so far because the Cardinals, Bo, definitely helped out Kyler Murray in a huge way this offseason. Yeah, they absolutely did there, Evan. They had DeAndre Hopkins, the biggest blockbuster, really to kick off the offseason for the NFL right before the beginning of the new league year. Somehow Steve Keim, general manager, who is kind of much maligned and hasn't had high praise spoken of him

for a long time, but the last two offseasons he's been pretty successful and he kicked this one off with a bang by getting DeAndre Hopkins and not only doing that but offloading the expensive David Johnson contract a player who'd kind of fallen out of favor in favor of running back Kenyon Drake who they've signed to a transition tag he'll be back in the fold for a full season with the Cardinals at the running back position and you know you couple DeAndre Hopkins with Kyler Murray poised for a big second year and a long line of quarterbacks who've been successful in their sophomore campaigns. It's exciting, especially when you saw what Murray and first-year head coach Cliff Kingsbury

were able to do to kind of take this offense from the doldrums, a horrible 14-point-per-game performance in 2018, and scored nearly 23 points per game in their first season together it's just absolutely incredible and then uh steve kime was it's been said that he's been consumed with fixing the defense which was at the bottom of the league as well and i think that he kind of got colorful in his way use of salary cap and doing so and then uh really didn't get to create i guess not creative but he didn't get too crazy as far as the NFL draft and kind of took the best players available

and really did himself a service and really kind of tied a bow on this really solid offseason for Steve Kime. Yeah, let me ask you, Bo, because my first reaction when I saw this news was utter shock and amusement on the Texas part. They would even do this trade with DeAndre Hopkins sending back David Johnson. I also live out in Arizona. I had the chance to watch the Cardinals a lot. And David Johnson definitely has lost at the last few years after injuries.

And it was just a shocking trade. Second round pick and David Johnson for DeAndre Hopkins. What was your reaction, Bo, when you saw that trade? Because like I said, I think that was the biggest one of the offs for any team pulling up that kind of heist.

Yeah, no doubt about it. It was kind of for Arizona Cardinals fans. It was kind of – for Arizona Cardinals fans, it was one of those moments you knew where you were, which is – it's kind of silly to say, but it was that big of a move for this organization that for the last two seasons, yeah, of course, you've been infused with the excitement of a franchise quarterback.

But to bring over, you know, a consensus top three wide receiver while being able to just – I mean, people were just ready to concede that you were going to kind of pull that, you know, Houston Texans to the Cleveland Browns, Brock Osweiler, offloading of that contract. And you kind of see that develop on social media and Twitter and you see kind of the Adam Schefters and the Ian Rappaports tweet out, you know, the details of these deals. I think it was a couple of Houston Texans reporters and you're see kind of the Adam Schefters and the Ian Rappaports tweet out you

know the details of these deals I think it was a couple of Houston Texans reporters and you're just kind of blown away and you're calling and you're texting your buddies and uh my colleagues my my co-host Alex Clancy and we're just overcome with excitement that uh you know that was a position of need for the Cardinals absolutely and for them to bolster the wide receivers uh core with a player the caliber of Nook Hopkins uh it just really got the ball rolling right out of the gates on what you know and I know you don't win any games in the offseason but I mean putting Kyler Murray in the position that Steve Keim has I mean that's all he can do at this point and that was just a you know a trans franchise kind of altering move, in my opinion. And for Steve Kime to be on the winning side of that and not be on kind of the

Bill O'Brien side of that. I mean, that was just a huge victory for the Cardinals. And, you know, Nook, I mean, you can look at the numbers and he's an unselfish wide receiver and he kind of is cut from the same cloth as Larry Fitzgerald kind of lets his game speak for itself but barely drops any passes very you don't hear him demanding the football uh doesn't have the diva qualities that you're used to seeing from NFL wide receivers um it's just so refreshing so exciting to see that caliber player come over to uh the Arizona Cardinals and help kind of change the narrative around here after things were just so bad after 2018 going three and 13 and having to kind of rip that,

that's kind of those pages out of the franchise encyclopedia. Yeah. And flipping over to the defense for a second, Bo, because what the Cardinals did this offseason was so impressive on that side. Obviously Isaiah Simmons, the number eight overall,

I think was one of the steals of the draft. He's going to be a day one impact franchise chasing player on the defensive side of things. But also signing linebackers Devon Kinnard, Devondre Campbell, Jordan Phillips to a three-year deal. This defense all of a sudden, like you mentioned at the top of the show, Bo, could be for a really big improvement this year. Yeah, bottom of the league as far as giving up pass yards.

It's 32nd out of 32nd, and then you see the points against. And Kyler Murray, the rookie quarterback, was coming out after the defense was on the field 43% of the time after they were giving up scores. So he's chasing points pretty much every time, and that's just too often. And this defense, I know that they were dealing with changing from the 43 defense under Steve Wilks and Al Holcomb back to the 34 defense which I think suited the personnel better and they were

dealing with Patrick Peterson for the first time in his career being taken off the playing field you know a self-inflicted wound on his own part he had the six game uh PED suspension but you know he comes off the field for six games Robert Alford who was supposed to solidify the corner position opposite Patrick Peterson he you know he has an injury he doesn't even see the playing field He comes off the field for six games. Robert Alford, who was supposed to solidify the corner position, opposite Patrick Peterson, he has an injury. He doesn't even see the playing field in 2019. A lot of things were going against the Arizona Cardinals in that defense, and a lot of those variables go into why it was so bad on the defensive side of the football.

I think that you saw them trending in the right direction at the end of the season, but at the end of the day, at the end of the 2019 campaign But at the end of the day, at the end of the 2019 campaign, I think Steve Kime saw that there were a lot of holes on the defensive side of the football. And they've, they did a little bit of the addition by subtraction guys who are just absolute target practice for opposing quarterbacks and DJ Swearinger and Tremaine Brock. They exited not even before the end of the season.

And then they started bringing in those guys that you mentioned. I mean, the production, you know, opposite Chandler Jones at the pass rush spot, it fell off a cliff. Even with the feel-good story of bringing home the hometown kid, Terrell Suggs, that kind of ended on a sour note. He ends up finishing the season with the Kansas City Chiefs. He plays himself into a title. Good for him, but not good for the Cardinals.

I mean, he was second on the team in sacks with five and a half. You need more pass rush production than the 19 sacks you were getting out of Chandler Jones. And I think Devon's good art, he supplements that. Who knows? I think that a guy like Hassan Reddick, this is his last-ditch effort to stay with this team. He's not getting his fifth-year option picked up.

Maybe he can have some success doing what he's doing at Temple and rushing the passer. And then that linebacker core, Jordan Hicks tackling machine. You had another tackling machine in Devondre Campbell. And then Isaiah Simmons is going to play linebacker primarily, according to Vance Joseph and Cliff Kingsbury. That's a pretty impressive linebacking core and really helps out where they really stunk in 2019 covering tight ends,

giving up 16 touchdowns to opposing tight ends over 1,000 yards receiving. That's going to be a big position to see how things change from 19 to 20. You got to kind of be curious about this defensive secondary. I mean, Patrick Peterson seemed to have kind of knocked the rust off

after coming back from the suspension. Alfred seems like he's going to be healthy. Second round pick from 2019, Byron Murphy is going to play the slot. That might be a place where he can be more comfortable instead of being thrown to the flames like he was at the beginning last year into a starting role. Then a couple intriguing players at the

safety position, Buda Baker is already a two-time pro bowler. Maybe he gets more opportunistic as far as trying to force turnovers. He certainly can tackle wide receivers and tight ends. So it is intriguing, but there are a lot of new parts here, Evan, that need to mesh together in a very unique offseason. If things don't go according to plan and those additions to the defense

don't come out of the gate strong, I think that there's going to be a big uproar for advanced Joseph, and the pressure is going to be on him. His seat's going to probably be the one that heats up the quickest. If things don't go according to plan for the Arizona Cardinals, but I think Steve Kime did a pretty good job. I mean, you look at the contracts for Campbell and Kennard, they're kind of intriguing just because they got creative in the way that they,

they brought them in and how they can fit the salary cap, not exactly team-friendly in the long run, but just so they could bring more talent on this defense, and that was key. Yeah, absolutely. I think this defense is really in line for a big improvement in 2020. But I'd be remiss not to ask you about this, Bo, because I'm so impressed with Kyler Murray and his rookie year and his development in the second half of the season. I think he's poised for a big 2020 and beyond.

But what do you think is the potential, the ceiling of Kyler Murr from what you saw in his rookie year? I think he can fall in line, as I said earlier, with a long line of second-year signal callers who have had a lot of success. And, you know, most recent history shows absurd numbers mvp seasons lamar jackson patrick mahomes i'm not i don't i i would be crazy to go out on a limb and say that they're gonna he's gonna have those types of seasons i don't think you can predict those types of seasons but if you look at you know jared goff if you look at carson wentz before he he fell to uh acl injury

he had 33 touchdowns seven interceptions on his way to a potential MVP caliber season. Even Mitchell Trubisky had success in his second season, all because their organizations bought in. They took all the chips and pushed them in the center of the table on their franchise quarterbacks and surround them with the talent. And they were able to do that because, of course, the team-friendly rookie contract.

And I think Steve Kime has done absolutely that. I think that a second year in this Cliff Kingsbury K-rate, air-rate offense that Kyler Murray is just poised to break out. You know, he had 20 touchdowns in his rookie year, plus four on the ground, 24 total touchdowns. I think that you can see those passing TDs absolutely rise. I was looking at projections just because it looks like the NFL season's on par or on pace to open up on time.

So I started kind of doing some fantasy football research, and I saw the projected stats for Kyler Murray, and they had a jump in a little bit uptick in passing yards from 3,700 to 3,800. You saw an uptick in touchdown passes from 20 to 26, which would be – but I didn't see big rushing numbers. I actually saw they predict him to come back in rushing numbers. And I think the complete opposite. I think the more comfortable he gets, he's kind of probably more apt to tuck it, run,

and you'll see some more of what we saw from him at Oklahoma getting out and flashing that athleticism. So I'm expecting big things. I'm still kind of a little hesitant to say, you know, MVP caliber, but I think that he shows enough as far as this team to this organization and this fan base that they're absolutely right in building around him, and it's going to show in wins for the team, and it's going to show an impressive uptick in numbers. I absolutely believe that. A quick prediction for me, Bo,

before we go on to segment two of our crossover today. I think this Cardinals team I mentioned on the show already to our audience, I think they're like a 7, 9, 8, and 8 team, maybe even higher than that. Kyler Murray does reach that ceiling we talk about. What do you think is your realistic goal for this Cardinals team in 2020 as far as the wins go? Yeah, I think this is a team that has an opportunity right out of the gates to get off to a strong start because, I mean, I know they're playing the Super Bowl champ, or I'm sorry, NFC champion San Francisco 49ers

game one, but then their next five games are against teams that missed the playoffs the previous season, including three last place teams in Washington, Detroit, and Carolina. So there is an opportunity for the Arizona Cardinals to really kind of pile up wins early on. You know, and then, you know, you might get a tough, some would say it's a tough draw with the AFC East as kind of a team that they could take on, you know, but why not take on the Patriots the first year they really don't have Tom Brady in the fold? I know the Cardinals are 0-2 against the Tom Brady-less Patriots team already,

but, I mean, I think you would take them. I mean, some would say this could be a down year for them. We'll see. That's later in the season. You've got the NFC East and outside of the Eagles and the Cowboys. I mean, there's an opportunity there to be up on some down teams as well and the Giants and the Redskins. I think that you're absolutely right.

And it's going to come down to Cliff Kingsbury and Kyler Murray in tight games making the right decisions, going through the right reads, making enough plays to separate themselves because there's not much of a difference between a team that goes 7-9 and a team that goes 9- seven or six and 10 and 10 and six. And it comes down to winning close and being able to put teams away. And we'll see if they can develop that.

I don't know if it's a killer instinct, but just the ability to win and that, that could set them aside and really kind of change how this season goes. And I think you're absolutely right. I think that that's the ballpark that they're going to live in between seven to nine wins. But in a tough stretch at the end of the season where they kind of have their own fate in their hands

going up against some tough divisional opponents, plus the Philadelphia Eagles in December, it's going to come down to that. And it could come down to, you know, do they hit those win totals? I think that this is going to be a team that's going to come out of the gates and then whether or not they can ride that momentum, develop that killer instinct, and put games away, that's going to be up to Kyler Murray and Cliff Kingsbury.

Yeah, this is going to be a really fun team to watch for those Colts fans out there listening to this. I think this is one of the more teams on the uprise in 2020 and beyond the Arizona Cardinals. Before we go on to segment two of our crossover today, where are you guys not already subscribed to Locked on Cardinals and Locked on Colts water stream platform listening to? We're going to give you guys

great analysis all throughout the week and make sure not to miss out on whatever you're listening to right now. So go and subscribe to Locked on Cardinals with Bo and Alice Clancy or subscribe and subscribe to Locked on Colts with myself, Evan Sattery. So we'll be back with you guys in just a second after a word from our sponsors. As we continue on with our crossover special here with Bo Brock of Locked on Cardinals, Diamond 2 really arguably one of the more interesting teams, I believe,

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If you want to, I think the Colts and Cardinals both fall into the same category as far as being big off season winners with what the Cardinals did. The Colts obviously go and get the forest Buckner from the 49ers. They get Phillip Brews, a quarterback to upgrade from Chicago reset and also added in John Taylor, Mike Pimmett Jr. To their offense.

But what other teams out there stand out to you, Bo, as far as being the biggest offseason winners? Yeah, I mean, it's a pretty crowded group, isn't it? I mean, we've seen the teams as far as in, what did they say, the last 20 seasons, like there's been teams that have gone from worst to first. And we're not talking about that with the Colts, but they were a sub-500 team. And they certainly, with the changes that they made this offseason have the opportunity to improve and

contend in the AFC South immediately uh but you know when you look at a couple of team Cleveland but they won the offseason a lot of perceive them as winning the offseason last year and they fell flat we'll see if Kevin Stefanski is one of those is the coach is the guy that can kind of tap back into that Baker Mayfield potential and all the you know the Austin Hooper and the upgrades on the offensive line if Odell Beckham Jr. can mesh with that unit they're another it's another intriguing team for me and then there was the team that was actually I think it was the Washington Post that said that the Los Angeles Chargers were actually the team most poised percentage-wise to make the jump from worst to forced in the NFL, which I thought was kind of silly considering they saw it as an addition

by kind of subtraction to kind of say goodbye to a potential Hall of Famer in Phillip Rivers, which is like in favor of a career backup in Terod Taylor. I don't know where i'm getting that what's the what's it what's the talk around colts uh i guess fans and in media members as far as phil rivers do they believe that he can kind of get rid of that turnover bug that he experienced last year and be the quarterback he was just a season ago uh for the chargers who were a playoff team yeah they were a hot team in 2018. Rivers was a dark horse MVP candidate that year. It was because he was protected. You're going behind

the offensive line he was last year. I believe he had Sam Tevey as his left tackle. That's not going to go over well. You just see how constantly he was under pressure, snap after snap. For a guy who's going to be 40 years old next year and a statue in the pocket like Rivers, he needs an offensive line to protect him. The Colts are arguably the best in the NFL with Quentin Nelson,

Ryan Kelly, Anthony Costanzo, and the rest of those guys up front there. They have really built a wall up front in Indianapolis from where it used to be with Andrew Luck and his career, which unfortunately led to his early retirement because of the lack of protection. But Phillip Burrs is stepping into a situation, Bo, where I think he has everything in place for them to have a huge bounce back year.

He has Frank Reich, his former offensive coordinator, in San Diego with him they had his career best completion percentage season which is 69.5 percent 2015 with Frank Reich coaching him so you have the offensive line you have the playmakers you have T.Y. Hilton outside Michael Freeman Jr. also the running game Marlon Mack and Jonathan Taylor from Wisconsin I think this team has a really good chance to bounce back like the Cardinals and really make a big hay in the wind column this year. Yeah, it's interesting. And I did this a couple weeks ago before we started our crossover series here on the Lockdown Podcast Network, Evan,

where I kind of did different tiers of sub-500 teams and who had the opportunity to do their off-season moves to make the jump. And I think that the Colts and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, with their acquisitions of some veteran quarterbacks that really just kind of change and evolve their each respective locker room, I think that that's tier one, where both the Bucs and the Colts have an opportunity to absolutely make the jump to not only an over 500 team, but right in the mix as a playoff contender.

And then I have the Cardinals kind of lumped in a group of maybe the Atlanta Falcons-type teams, maybe even like a Bears. Teams that could absolutely bounce back, maybe in the Cleveland Browns, that have the ingredients and the recipe to go above 500 and also maybe even change the conversation about their franchise as a whole and go from teams that are perennially under 500 to instant playoff contender do you see any teams that intrigue you like that as well I mean where would you kind of lump those those teams yeah honestly like you mentioned Tampa Bay but I think

obviously adding in Tom Brady there you have the weapons in place it's a huge upgrade from Jameis Winston I think Tampa Bay is right up there like you mentioned, Tampa Bay, Bo, I think obviously adding in Tom Brady there, you have the weapons in place. It's a huge upgrade from Jameis Winston. I think Tampa Bay is right up there, like you mentioned. Indianapolis, of course, is up there. And I still think – I mean, good teams like Baltimore, obviously they improved here. But I'm no bias here because they're doing a crossover, but I'm really, really bullish on the Arizona Cardinals this year.

I think they're going to be an 8-8, 9-7 team from where they were last year. And I think just what the Cardinals have done so far, Bo, I think they deserve to be in the top three or top five. Personally, on my rankings, I had the Denver Broncos as a team, almost like the Cardinals that added a lot of weapons this year on the offense for Drew Locke. They got Jerry Judy, KJ Hamler in the draft, and they also added in some key veterans in the offensive line there.

So there are points for a jump on the AFC side as far as a young team goes. But I think the Cardinals, it's fair to say, they're a top five team, at least for me on my list. I think they're one of the top-five most improved teams in 2020. I'm very high on Kyler Murray and the rest of that offense. Evan, in your opinion, what's the biggest obstacle for a team like the Indianapolis Colts to get back to where they were a couple seasons ago, to win in double digits, making themselves a contender?

Yeah, I think the biggest thing is consistency. Last year they were 7-9, of course. They fell back from 10-6, and obviously a lot of that was due to Andrew Luck and missing him and going from a top-five quarterback to arguably a bottom-five quarterback in Jacoby Brissett. But out of Vinatieri, he was on his last legs there. He is not with the team anymore. He missed a lot of clutch kicks last year.

They should have been, honestly, 9-7 if Vinatieri makes a few kicks here and there, so they could have been above our team with Jacoby Brissett, a quarterback. So I think just having above our team with Jacoby Brissett, a quarterback. So I think just having consistency on the kicking game, special teams, was really bad last year for some reason for this Colts team. But also just adding in these new pieces like Phillip Rivers, you add into Forsberg on the defensive side, and these NFL-ready prospects like Pittman and Taylor on the offensive side.

I think everything's in place for them to bounce back this year because when you lose Andrew Luck, you're going to have a down year. But I think, of course, Phillip Rivers won't be prime Andrew Luck this career, but he's going to be a serviceable player who I think could be a top 10 quarterback still in the NFL behind this offensive line. So I think the pieces are in place, but I've said on my show that I think this Colts team is a 10 or 11 win team this year just based off their prediction or their improvements on the roster but also the schedule. I think they have a really good chance to go 7-1 to start the season.

So it could be a really good separation time for teams like Colts and the Cardinals. Let me ask you one more question here, Evan Sattery, Bo Brock. Crossover here, locked on Cardinals, locked on Colts. Are San Francisco 49ers, are they overlooking the impact that DeForest Buckner made for them in their Super Bowl run last year? Because there's not much talk, at least where I'm mingling, I guess. There's not a lot of talk about it. I've got to imagine the Colts and their fans are excited about this addition

to the interior of that defensive line. Oh, absolutely. When I saw that news happen, I was in shock. I know my jaw literally dropped because you see a player like DeForest Buckner in the prime of his career, an all-pro defensive tackle, and what he did in the Super Bowl, like you mentioned, Bo, that playoff run they had, he was a dominant force every single game on almost every pass rush situation.

He was in the quarterback, the face of Kirk Cousins in the divisional round, Patrick Mahomes in the Super Bowl, just wreaking havoc everywhere. And the Colts have missed that element in their defense for years now. I don't think they've ever had this kind of interior presence. Of course, they have Robert Mathis, Dwight, who are on the outside of the defensive line, but never an inside presence. And Forrest Buckner at 6'6", 300-plus pounds,

he's definitely going to provide that nastiness and that versatility this defense desperately needed from the inside there. And when you see Darius Leonard, who was an all-pro his first year as a linebacker, roaming free now with DeForest Buckner helping clean up the garbage, so to say, I think this defense with DeForest Buckner, Colts fans are so giddy for because this piece has never existed in their defense before. I feel like Chris Bowers mentioned before that he feels like this piece could

be like the crown jewel as far as taking them from the average defense and making them an above average to an elite defense in 2020. I've been a big fan of Chris Ballard ever since he took over for, you know, general manager like Ryan Grigson, who made a head-scratching move after head-scratching move. But if you look at Ballard and what he's done in the draft, very impressive resume already in the last couple seasons for the Indianapolis Colts. But, yeah, it's going to be exciting.

I think this is going to be one of the two franchises that absolutely are going to be making some noise early on next season because of the moves that they made this offseason. It's been fun to kind of get some insight from the Indianapolis Colts in this 2020 offseason. Yeah, absolutely, Bo. I appreciate you coming on and doing this because I know our Colts fans love talking about these improved teams.

And I've been hyping up the Cardinals to my fans out here in Indianapolis, so I'm really excited to watch them this year in 2020. You guys can follow Bo on Twitter, at Bo Brock. And you can also follow the Locked on Cardinals Twitter account, at Locked on AZ Cards. Bo, appreciate the time as always.