Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - LOCKED ON COLTS -5/29- Who Will The Colts Standouts Be At Each Position?

Episode Date: May 29, 2017

Some easy listening for your ears on our holiday show. Matt goes through each position on both sides of the ball to discuss who he thinks the "way too early" candidates are for the #Colts most productive at their respective positions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

That's for my crazy day. My packed commute. All those unread emails in my inbox. But I'm getting stronger, faster, and pushing myself further every day. I don't care if I'm not like everyone else. This punching bag is the best way to end my day. Fearless is knowing yoga isn't your style. That's the power of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Federal Employee Program.

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. Thank you guys for joining me here on a Monday. I hope that everybody, if you went to the race, that you enjoyed yourselves. If you simply were able to catch the race on tape delay or if you were able to find a way to watch it live.

I hope that you guys enjoyed it. I hope that you guys enjoyed some time with family, some good cookout, whatever you did, barbecue. It's all to the good. I hope that you guys had a good day, and I hope that you guys, if you are lucky enough to have today off, that you're enjoying that as well. So today, what we're going to do is I'm going to go through each position group on the Colts offense and defense, and I'm just going to give you guys an idea of who I expect to have the best season in 2017. Totally way, way, way, way too early. But look, this is interesting stuff. It's fun for me to kind of try to guess this stuff out and just see where we are. And I'll probably do it again before the season starts just to kind of see

where we're at right now and just where my head's at. And we'll see like during camp or something like that where it transfers to. So I'm sure there will be some differing views between now and then. But for now, let's go to the tackles. I'm not going to go right tackle, left tackle, but we're going to go tackles. I think that Anthony Costanzo will have the better all-around season, the most consistent season. But I really, really expect LaRaven Clark to have a great season in 2017.

It may seem far-fetched. It may seem a little bit extravagant. But I definitely see LeRaven Clark growing significantly under Joe Philbin. He did last year. I mean, he already had a great season of growth, whereas you guys have heard me talk about it several times. He looked really poor in training camp and in the early preseason and late preseason even for that matter.

But then by the time he came in to start, he was ready to go and looked really good doing it. And I expect him to have a good season. I'm sure that he'll have some growing pains. It will be ultimately his rookie year, only having a couple games of starting under his belt at that point, but I think that he's going to do really well, and I think that Colts are going to be really excited about his future. I really do. To the guards, I would expect Joe Muhort to have the best season for sure, but at the same time, I think he's limited because I

don't think that he's going to have any serious injuries or anything like that. I just think that the way he has had some of the nicks and stuff throughout his short career already, I think that's going to hamper him a bit, and I think Joe Haig's going to end up having the better season out of the guard positions. I think that Joe Hague's another guy that can really grow into that position. I think he needs to maybe bulk up a touch, but I think he's going to be a big dude, and I think he's going to be a big help for that offensive line as well. Obviously, Ryan Kelly's going to be the best center. He might be the only center this year, so that one's not real hard to gauge. When we get into the pass catchers, we'll start at the tight ends. I expect Doyle to catch more passes than any of the other

guys, but I also expect Swoop to have a really nice season. I expect him to be used differently. Obviously, these two guys are not Dwayne Allen and Jack Doyle from last year. They're Jack Doyle and Eric Swoop of 2017. So I think that you're going to see Doyle used a lot near the line of scrimmage. I think he's going to be used to block as well a lot more, obviously, because they're really struggling with blockers. I mean, they've got Brandon Williams, but I don't think that he's going to be much of a pass catcher. I think when he's in, he's blocking, period. I don't think he's going to be out running routes very often at all. Swoop, on the other hand, he's going to be a guy that I think they're going to try to split out a little bit from the line of scrimmage. I think that they're going to try to use him similar to how they used Allen and Doyle at times last year, but they're going to get

a little more speed out of Swoop, and I think he's on an upward tick as well. But all in all, I think you've got the consistency from Doyle. You've got the sure hands, the solid blocking. All in all, Doyle's going to be the best tight end on the roster next year without question. Wide receivers, I'm going to go with the top two here because I think that there's going to be a bit of a surprise. I think that Hilton's going to have a fantastic season. I don't think he's going to have the season that he had this past year where he led the NFL in receiving yards. But I think that he's going to have another great year. Hopefully, the injury bug doesn't creep up on him or anything with his size.

And he's kind of had some of those nicks and stuff as well along the way. Hopefully, none of those get serious or anything like that and would cause him to miss a game at all, to be honest, but definitely not more than a couple games throughout the season. I really think that we're going to see Philip Dorsett break out this year. I really do. I think that, you know, we've talked about this during the season, I think last year, and when you look at how he runs his routes, Hilton rounds his off a little bit. And I'm comparing him to Hilton because of their size, not much else. And speed for that matter as well, I guess. But Hilton rounds his off a little bit more, but he's got the speed and he's got the

surety with his route running and he knows where he's going. It seems a little more crisp than it is, but he's nevertheless extremely hard to cover. Dorsett, on the other hand, runs really crisp routes, I think. I think that that's something that people aren't giving him enough credit for. He's not the best route runner, but he does run very good routes. He's able to do a bevy of things as well, like Hilton, although I think he's a little more apt to be able to be used closer to the line of scrimmage, a little more yard after the catch type stuff. And I think that Dorsett's going to have himself a really, really good season. I think this is going to make both Aitken and Moncrief a couple guys that the Colts really have to look at next offseason as to what can we expect out of these guys. I think Dorsett's going to live up to the billing this year.

Not only do I hope he does, but I really do think he does. I think he knows that the pressure's on. I think that he knows if he wants a second contract, especially with the Colts, he's going to have to produce. And I think he does it. I really think he does. Running back, I think that we can expect Gore to play as good as Gore can at his age. I think he's going to have fewer carries than last year. I don't think he's going to have quite the yardage or the production in general.

I think Marlon Mack's going to be a very, very close second. I mean, I think that Mack's going to have a really good year. I think that he's going to have 600, 700 yards maybe total, both receiving and running. And that's a fantastic year, actually, when everything's considered. But I do think that Mack is going to break out, have a really good rookie year. I think a lot of people are going to be singing his praises quite a bit, especially looking forward to the 2018 season. But I think all in all, Gore is going to have the better year.

I just think that Gore is going to be winding down. And winding down. And I think that that's, it's about right. It's about time. But in the, in the end, I think we're going to see that the Colts, you know, are going to say, man, we've got two good backs this year and we've got a good third down back with Turbin. And I think the Colts running back core is going to be something that's talked about nationally after this year. And, you know, maybe they'll have to draft another guy or they'll have to get another young guy in free agency but I think this running back core is going to come together and I think it's going to pray obviously I'm pretty excited about the Colts offense so you should be able to tell that just from what I've said but I think that we're going to have some standouts at each position

I really do obviously I think Luck's going to have a good year. He's definitely going to be bouncing back off of his best statistical and just in a holistic year of his career so far. Best completion percentage. And, you know, he was right there with his touchdown to interception ratio as far as anybody or as far as anywhere that he's been already in his career. So I'm definitely looking forward to him continuing his prowess. And, you know, I think another year with the same quarterback coach will do him a lot of good as well. Let's switch over to the defense. When we get to the defensive line,

obviously you guys know that I've talked this group up quite a bit. When we say best, I'm not sure what we're going to say when we say best. Some of this group, you know, they don't get noticed a lot in the statistical categories. Like a guy like T.Y. McGill doesn't have a ton of tackles, doesn't have a ton of sacks, but he's really disruptive. Henry Anderson, I think, is due for a big year. Jonathan Hankins is going to be doing a lot. Apparently, they've been moving him around a lot from the zero to the three to the five. I mean, they're putting him everywhere.

And I think that's really interesting going forward. And with all of this, with everything that they're doing, and as far as them moving everybody around, I think this really opens up the year for Henry Anderson. I think Henry Anderson is going to end up being considered one of the best defensive linemen, probably in the AFC South for sure. But I think that they're going to be talking about him as one of the best defensive linemen probably in the AFC South for sure, but I think that they're going to be talking about him as one of the big guys this year. I think Hankins is going to do a lot to elevate Henry Anderson, so I'm excited for that. I think Hankins actually is going to elevate a lot of people on this team, especially on the defensive line,

but I think we're going to see improvement out of Hassan Ridgway. I think Kendall Lankford, you know, who knows what he's going to really prove this year. But I think that Hankins, adding him with Anderson and McGill, and I think Ridgway is going to have a good year. But I think Anderson's really going to explode this year, especially coming back off of kind of a down year last year. Didn't really really start the year even when he came back from injury very hot so I'm excited for that now when we go to the inside linebackers this is a weird group because you know we we've heard also you know when we talk with George George was saying that they were basically running everybody here with the first unit that was there Luke Rhodes is a guy who's impressing down at OTAs, but they've got some new faces. They've got a couple guys that were returning from starting last year,

Antonio Morrison and Edwin Jackson. Bostick's going to be somewhat of the enforcer there in the middle, and I think Sean Spence is really going to be a mixture of the brains and the brawn all together. Now, this may surprise a lot of you, but I think the guy who is going to, now this may surprise a lot of you, but I think the guy who's going to have the real season is Antonio Morrison. Now, I was not a fan of his last year. I've made that widely known. Although they continue to talk about him. They keep talking about how well he's doing, especially in coverage. He's reading his keys better.

He's able to dip in and out between the flats and the crossing routes apparently a little better. He has a little more awareness of what's going on around him. That's good. That's huge because the guy's got a ton of talent. That's something I've never taken away from him. The guy is a hitter. He's a pretty athletic inside linebacker. I'm going to go with Antonio Morrison as a breakout year. I don't think that he's going to get a ton of attention necessarily nationally, but I think that Colts fans are going to be excited about his growth for sure. I think Edwin Jackson's got a noticeable ceiling, and I don't think that his ceiling is anywhere near Antonio Morrison's. I think Morrison's is significantly higher. I think Sean Spence can

help a lot because of, like I said, his mixture of brains and brawn. Bostic will be in there used on running downs especially sometimes, but I think, his mixture of brains and brawn. Bostic will be in there used on running downs, especially sometimes. But I think Antonio Morrison is going to shine this year, guys, as far as this group goes. I think he's going to be the guy. And from all accounts, don't be surprised if you see Luke Rhodes getting in the mix a little bit. So let's go to the outside linebackers. I'm not going to go strong or rush. I'm not going to kind of differentiate between these guys. There's a lot of guys to choose from here. Simon Sheard, Basham Ayers, there's a lot.

But if we're going to go one guy or the other, I'm going to have to go with John Simon. I think John Simon's going to have a phenomenal year when they're looking at pro football focus the way that they were looking at him and how efficient he is when he's on the field at getting pressure on the quarterback. It's just something you can't deny. I think Jabal Sheard's going to be really good too, although I think that he's going to be used in a position where he's kind of almost like an additional defensive lineman to where he's not able to really to get in the backfield as much. He's not able to really get in the backfield as much. He's not able to do a whole lot as far as stat line goes.

I think Simons is going to be much more noticeable, and I think that he's going to be one of those guys that really stands out. So I'm going to go with John Simon this year, and I'm really, really looking forward to what he can do, especially if they move him in and out, and to kind of see where all he's at as far as where they line him up in specific packages and so on and so forth. Cornerbacks. I think that Rashawn Melvin's going to be the guy to stand out, guys. I think Vontae Davis is going to be good this year. I think Quincy Wilson is going to be good for a rookie. I'm looking forward to seeing how Nate Harrison can move in and out and to see if he is able to start at any point in time this year.

I think he's going to be good too. But I just really think Rashawn Melvin, with his size and his strength, that he is a guy who is, let's see, I don't know that he'll have the best statistical year, but he is going to be a guy who is really counted on from this Colts secondary to make plays, whether that be knock down balls, intercept. I don't know what exactly, but I really feel like Rashawn Melvin is here for a big season. So I hope that I'm not

putting the hex on any of these guys. I mean, some of these guys may not make it to the 53 man cut or something like that, but I really think Rashawn Melvin is going to be the guy to put it on wax this year for this secondary, and I think that he's going to be a guy that's depended on, and I think you may even see him emerge as a leader in this secondary. Going to the safeties, Clayton Gethers is a big question mark right now, obviously, with his health. Darius Butler, he's a question mark for me only because of the possibility of him getting hurt and injured and moving in and out of different positions. TJ Green, I'm not sure what to think about him yet. I think, like I said before,

I think he's going to be a guy used very specifically to get some pressure on the quarterback when he's in the box. He's going to be a guy relied on run support and that's about it. I don't think they're going to try to use him any more than they absolutely have to in coverage, just because of his skills from last season being shown that, you know, he's got limitations unless he can significantly get better between now and camp and, and the season, to be quite honest, I think Malik hooker is going to be the guy in the safety core.

I really do. I think that his inability to tackle has been way overplayed. I think that the guy can tackle. He's not a hitter. Jake and I have talked about this in the past, and I've meant every word that I've said about it. Malik Hooker is a drag tackler or a leg tackler or whatever you want to call it, but the guy is not a hitter. He's not a guy who's going to come across the middle and lay anybody out. That's just not his style. He wasn't drafted to be that guy either, guys. He's a guy who's back there for coverage, to knock balls down, to intercept balls, to increase and better the turnover ratio for the Colts, the turnover differential, I guess. I think Malik Hooker is going to be a guy who gets two or three interceptions, maybe more this year. I think

he's going to be a guy that a lot of Colts fans, those who think he's a great tackler, are going to tell everybody they told him so. And those who said that he was a terrible tackler and they hated the pick, they're going to start to raise their eyebrows a bit because I think the guy's going to be just fine as far as tackling. And let's be honest, if this front seven is as much improved as I think it is just in run stopping, I don't think that we're going to see a ton of tackles from Malik Hooker. I don't think that his good or bad season is going to be gauged on tackles.

It's going to be all dedicated to pass coverage, and I think that that's something that we desperately need in the secondary, and I think that that's something that we desperately need in the secondary. And I think that it's something that we desperately are looking to see as far as from him specifically. I think that we know that Hooker was here, was brought here to do that. And I think that he will do that. And I think that he's going to be the guy next year. So that about rounds it out for going through positions. If there's anything you think I missed, you know, let me know or whatever.

Thank you, guys. A couple of you have called in on the call-in line, but the calls were really kind of scratchy and fuzzy and stuff, so I was unable to use them. A couple of them got cut off about mid-sentence, so we never really got the question or anything that you guys wanted to hear. So if you did call in and your call didn't go through or you haven't heard it on the show, call back in, leave a message, make sure you pay attention to whether it goes through all the way or not.

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LockedOnColts on Twitter. And if you guys ever need anything, if you guys want to advertise on the show, if you need a question, you want a question read on the air or anything like that, you can get me on the email at LockedOnColtsPod at gmail.com. And we've got a pretty good rest of the week lined up for you guys. We've got a couple good people coming on. I'm excited for you guys to check it out. I'm excited for the conversation myself. So I hope that you guys are all having a great holiday.

I hope that you guys all take care of yourselves, love your family, think of that, and I'll talk to you guys all on Wednesday 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 team every day.