Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - LOCKED ON COLTS 5/7/20: Crossover Special with Locked On Bears

Episode Date: May 7, 2020

On today's episode, Lorin Cox of Locked On Bears joins for our latest Crossover Special between AFC South and NFC North squads.Starting off in Chicago, what's going on at quarterback? After the Bears declined Mitchell Trubisky's 5th-year option and traded for Nick Foles, it's put up or shut up time for the former top-5 selection. Also, what's been the changes on defense like going from Vic Fangio to former Colts head coach Chuck Pagano?Honestly, Chicago is one of the more intriguing NFC teams as they're on the hot seat in 2020. Especially with an early season matchup on tap, Colts could take advantage.Speaking of Indy, we dive deep into the Colts' loaded offseason. What are the new expectations for the new and improved roster? All of this, plus so much more, as we go all-in on the Bears and Colts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, everybody. Welcome back into your latest crossover special here on the Locked On NFL Podcast Network. Today, as always, we're with Evan Sutter at Locked On Colts, and I'm joined by Lauren Cox of Locked On Bears. I think two of the more intriguing teams this offseason with the Colts and the Bears, neighboring states with Illinois and Indiana here. But, Lauren, let me ask you real quick about this Bears team overall. What's been your thoughts over the last couple years here where they go all in with the Khalil Mack trade,

the Mitch Trubisky draft pick doesn't work out in the end. Just a tumultuous time there in Chicago. Yeah, so it seemed like everything leading up to last season was all about building around Mitchell Trubisky. When the general manager, Ryan Pace, came in, he had a couple of seasons early on. The first year was with Jay Cutler, and then they went and got Mike Glenn Mike Glennon and of course Mitchell Trubisky all in the same offseason and everything from then was like okay presumably the Bears were supposed to have had their young

quarterback of the future and it's about surrounding him with as much talent as possible which is why they eventually go out and make the Khalil Mack trade give up two first round picks and some others in the process to say okay we are all in on supporting this young quarterback. And that led them to a fun, what was it, a 13-3 2018 season where the team was in the wildcard game and really feeling like this team was on the cusp of something when Cody Parkey missed the last second field goal against the Philadelphia Eagles.

But then they came back in 2019 with again pretty high expectations excuse me they were 12 and 4 in 2018 not 13 and 3 but they come back into 2019 and fall pretty flat they go eight and eight a lot of injuries on defense Trubisky not making the progress that they wanted to and so now they're left unsure of what the future is going to hold at the quarterback position. Not a lot of confidence in Trubisky in Chicago right now. They traded for Nick Foles this offseason. They're calling it an open quarterback competition and they declined Mitchell Trubisky's fifth year option. So this is it for him. This is his last opportunity to prove something more than we've seen through these first, what, three and a half seasons of his NFL

career here. So it's really time to put up or shut up. And I have a feeling there's going to be even more dramatic quarterback changing in the very near future in Chicago. Yeah. Speaking of that quarterback competition there with Trubisky versus Foles, was it surprising at all to you to bring in a quarterback like Foles? I know he had his struggles in Jacksonville, but a championship pedigree, he has the playoff game experience, the ice in his veins, so to say, in the fourth quarter and those late-game situations when it's absolutely needed. Who do you think you're leaning towards

in this quarterback competition once camp starts, Lauren? Because I think right now I'd go more towards Foles because especially after a decline, Trubisky's fifth-year option, I think Foles, I think, should have the lead unless Trubisky really impresses. Yeah, I think pretty much everyone around the organization in terms of, you know, the media and the fans are expecting Nick Foles to win the quarterback competition for a lot of the reasons

that you mentioned there. And in terms of, you know, the decision to bring him in, I certainly see the logic behind it. And this is part of the speculation is that sort of the COVID-19 situation is actually part of this decision making in the sense that Nick Foles worked with the Bears head coach Matt Nagy in Kansas City for one season and they were also together in Andy Reed's offense in Philadelphia prior to that so they've had some experience together and Nick Foles comes into Chicago knowing this offense fairly well certainly knowing it a lot better than any other quarterback they could have gotten this offseason.

So I don't think Nick Foles was certainly the most talented quarterback that was available this year, but the Bears seem to prioritize his experience in this offense and perhaps getting more of a true competition for Trubisky rather than just outright replacing him. I would like to see the Bears go after Phillip Rivers, for example, who, of course, went to the Indianapolis Colts, or even Tom Brady, Cam Newton, Jameis Winston, some of these other more clear-cut,

every-week starting quarterbacks compared to somebody like Foles who's had a little bit more up and down in his career. But his ups and downs have still shown you more than Trubisky has at this point and I would fully expect if Nick Foles is not starting by week one he will certainly be starting by the end of the season you speak you spoke of like put up or shut up time with Mitchell Trubisky but I feel like the same way already for Matt Nagy and for Ryan Pace in Chicago just how important is this 2020 season for this Bears organization Warren because I feel like if all doesn't go well

let's say they miss the playoffs, I think we could see a widespread change here if the ownership does get impatient. It's a little bit hard to tell where ownership is on this. And I certainly think a bad, like a really bad season would lead to a fired coach and general manager. If they're well below 500, if we're talking four, five, maybe even six wins, that might be enough to say, okay, let's pull the plug. But I think if they can even hover around 500, certainly, or better, I think that would be enough. I think ownership has expressed enough confidence in Ryan Pace and Matt Nagy in terms of their

ability to run the rest of the team outside of the quarterback position. I mean, it hasn't looked good for pace in terms of that spot, in particular with Glennon and Trubisky, both significant investments that didn't work out. And I'm not super confident that Foles is going to be the Super Bowl MVP for a full 16-game season. So it remains to be seen whether this one is a swing or a miss just yet. But I think we've seen them build a strong defense

that's been consistent for multiple seasons. And we've seen them acquire talented players around the quarterback it just hasn't quite all come together with that main position and not that quarterback has been the only problem certainly the other players have needed to be better too but you wonder you know a quarterback is hard enough to find and it's a small sample size of quarterback so how many more opportunities do you give Ryan Pace and Matt Nagy? Like I said, I think if it's not a drastically bad season, I think they'll get another shot. But certainly if they're hovering around 500 at all,

that's when the seat will really, I think, start to feel pretty hot and anything could happen. Yeah, I think it's going to be really interesting how it all shakes out. And I think the defense I wanted to ask you about here for a second, Warren, because Vic Fangio obviously goes to Denver becomes the head coach there but you acquired Chuck Pagano the former Colts head coach to be the defensive coordinator how do you feel like the change from Fangio to Pagano went and how the defense can still mold around Kulimak? So I think if you look at some of the production you'll see a drop off of course in the Sparrow's

defense in 2018 they were the number one ranked group in the NFL they had just a massive amount of turnovers and were able to get after the quarterback and did a lot of things that were great and probably not sustainable for multiple seasons even if Vic Fangio has stayed so I don't think Chuck Pagano came in and I don't think he was the reason they got worse and he mixed things up a little bit but tried to pick up on a lot of what Fangio did and I think a lot of what Fangio did and I think a lot of the Bears struggles defensively last year really came back down to injuries they were so healthy in 2018 perhaps in an unsustainable way and last year Khalil Mack

even though he played all 16 games was injured for a good stretch of the season to just not 100% didn't look like himself for the whole year they had both of their inside linebackers miss a handful of games, sometimes at the same time. So they were on their third and fourth string players on the inside. And Keem Hicks on the defensive line missed quite a bit of the season. It just felt like at every level throughout the season, they were missing some of their more talented players. And so they still had a pretty good season.

I think they finished fourth in points allowed and eighth in yards. So it wasn't a bad defense by any means, but they just weren't quite as dominant as they were the year before. But by all means, I think Chuck Pagano has been about as good as the Bears could have expected. I know some of his Colts defense weren't that talented and didn't produce at the level they would have liked. But I think so far, Pagano hasn't lost any fans in chicago when you look at this offense to lauren how do you see david montgomery alan robinson the pieces around foals or trubisky because they didn't really add much so to say in direction they got darnell mooney and a couple other pieces but that often still is a little questionable me outside of alan robinson i think the big change is going to be the tight end spot.

And the names maybe aren't as sexy as you'd like, but that was what was so critically missing last season. And just to be able to have anything a little bit more consistent, I think will make a big difference. So last season, the bears did not have a tight end that finished the season with more than a hundred yards on the year. I think T end that finished the season with more than 100 yards on the year i think trey burton led the way with 14 catches and someone no colts fan will ever

heard of jp holtz had 91 yards as the leading receiving tight end and this matt nagy andy reed offense has always sort of revolved around at least having a big threat in the middle and travis kelsey in kansas city is an obvious one and zach ertz in philadelphia before that they like to have sort of that space eater in the middle of the field that can open up more space for the receivers on the outside and create some more opportunities for the running backs as well. And, you know, like you mentioned with David Montgomery, he, he wasn't nearly as productive as a rookie as the team would have liked the

offensive line took a big step back from one year to the next, despite having the same five starters from 2018 to 2019. So they've made some subtle changes here and there, but I think they're mostly banking on their younger guys taking that next step. You know, Anthony Miller, a recent second round pick at wide receiver, they've invested three draft picks in the last couple of drafts, plus Darnell Mooney this year at wide receiver. They need those younger guys to step up. They need David Montgomery to be a better running back.

They need their younger offensive linemen to play more consistently, and they hope that the combination of Jimmy Graham and then second-round pick Cole Komet at tight end can make that position consistent enough to open the offense back up a little more. Yeah, Cole Komet was a really good acquisition. I think more people hire on him than most for Colts fans as far as acquiring a tight end. I know they didn't do so because they actually went and got the former Bears tight end, Trey Burton.

This is my last question for you here in this segment, Lauren, before we dive into some Colts stuff. What do you think about Trey Burton and his tenure with Chicago? Because Colts fans are expecting him to step into that Eric Ebron role, that versatile tight end where he can spread them out wide. He's a good route runner. Really good hands, which I think might be a reliable piece and of course the relationship with frank reich in the past the philly special

how do you see burton going in indy but also how his tenure went in chicago i think burton got a bad rap in chicago he was fairly i don't want to say despised because i mean i don't know if it's that far but he he really lost a lot of bears fans i think by the end purely because of the injury situation it really lost a lot of Bears fans, I think, by the end, purely because of the injury situation. It really popped up out of nowhere at the end of 2018. It was right after the regular season, before their playoff game against his former team, the Eagles. He sort of developed some mysterious groin injury that kept him out of the wildcard game. They tried to treat it with

surgery over the offseason. We didn't find out until this year that Burton said he was misdiagnosed and led to his 2019 season more or less being lost because he was really injured from the start and never really 100% healthy. So I wouldn't look to 2019 as much of anything to be projected based off of. overall he's he's not a dynamic playmaker at the tight end position but he's a guy that if you scheme him open he'll get open he'll catch the ball and he'll move your offense he's not gonna run over guys and be a huge yards after catch guy he's not gonna be a dominant weapon but if if you give him the ball he'll produce and i think he's he's sort of in that you know that second or third tier of tight ends where he's a starting quality player when he's healthy. He's just not a huge difference maker for your offense. But if he's your number two, number three, or number four sort of threat out of all the receivers on the field,

I think he's a guy who's well worth the investment. I think it's a smart pickup by the Colts if he can get healthy and stay healthy. Yeah, that's a really good point to bring up there on Burton. And before we move on to our next segment, diving into some Colts discussion, I want to remind you guys if you haven't already to subscribe to Locked on Bears and Locked on Colts. I know Lauren and I bring you guys daily Monday through Friday content. So if you're not already, make sure to subscribe to our shows.

And we'll be back with you guys in just a second for more word from our sponsors. Alrighty, Lauren, let's dive in now to our colts i'm going to today's show and our crossover special and what questions you have for me as far as the colts because i know there's a lot of changes off season yeah could you take me through sort of how the colts approached this quarterback situation because i think it's an interesting dynamic to compare to the chicago bears in the sense that the colts had joby Bursette under contract and coming back. And he could have been the incumbent. They could have chosen to bring in somebody like Nick Foles to compete with Bursette.

But instead, they made sure that they got Phillip Rivers. And by all means, it is Phillip Rivers is the starter and Bursette and Jacob Eason and et cetera are the backups. How did they sort of handle that with Brissette from the start? Did they make it clear right away that they wanted to make an upgrade? Or how did they handle not wanting to necessarily hurt Brissette's feelings, but also make the team as good as possible? Yeah, it seemed just like from the very beginning, going back to Andrew Luck's retirement,

Jacoby Brissette was only making $3 million that season. And once they signed Brian Hoyer to a $4 million per year annual contract before he was released this offseason, there was an extension obviously coming with bigger money for Bursette. And to motivate the locker room, they had to give him, I think, a bigger deal. And having a two-year deal, of course, was really risky. And of course, Bursette did not work out. And it definitely did in the first six weeks of the season, Lauren.

But once the injury happened and once teams started getting more feel in Bursette, it just was a steep decline from there. Bursette was one of the bottom three quarterbacks in the NFL over the last two months of the season. Just wildly inaccurate. He wasn't getting his reads. And it came to a point where the Colts were just a lethargic run first team offense in the final months of the season and very predictable. And that's not what a Frank Reich offense is. And going and getting a Phillip Rivers typetype quarterback, it was ruined from the very beginning as far as the offseason goes. The Rivers and Wright connection. Also Nick Sirianni with the offensive coordinator there, also in San Diego there. I think from that standpoint, it makes sense to really go after, if you're in win-now mode, to go after Phillip Rivers because it's a bigger upgrade or a Jacobus that many people realize,

going from maybe a below-a average quarterback to an average quarterback for, I think an above average roster. It makes sense for the Colts to really push the chips on at this point with how many, how much young talent they have. And I think rivers in this right situation, how they built this offense. I think it's a huge upgrade. Yeah. It seems like they really did go all in across the board. I look even on that defense,

you trade a first round pick for DeForest Buckner. I know they brought in Xavier Rhodes and even Justin Houston's in there now. This defense, it seems like over the last couple of years, has been trying to retool with some big veterans and try and pick up maybe some of the deficiency that was there when Chuck Pagano, of all people, was still in Indianapolis. But how would you sort of characterize the defense in terms of like going all in? Like what's sort of the window for really the whole roster, but especially with some of the bigger veterans that they've added on the defensive side of the ball? Yeah, DeForest Buckner for the 13th overall pick in the draft, or excuse me, yeah, 13th

overall pick in the draft really seemed steep at the point. But when you dive into it, Buckner's an all-pro talent and a three technique who, in this Tampa 2 cover 2 scheme, it makes so much sense to go after a player like Buckner. Overall, when you see that type of talent, you have to pounce on it. The Colts did, and Buckner's right in the middle of his prime pair with Darius Leonard. It's the first time in 15 years that the Colts have had two all-pros in the same defense. You add in, as well, Xavier Rhodes, a cornerback, replacing him with Pierre Desir, who I think is a slight upgrade.

Desir was bothered by a hamstring for most of the year. But if you have Xavier Rhodes back to his 2017 form, I think this move makes an awful lot of sense. And you see why this Colts team, you have Darius Leonard, you have Mokotare, who was breaking out before his ankle injury last year. Kenny Moore as well, one of the more underrated cornerbacks in the NFL. This team is, I think, for the next two years, if they want it to, and long term, they're already set for sustainable success.

And you see on both sides of the ball already how Chris Fowler has already built up the infrastructure. How would you sort of describe, while we're on this defense, how would you sort of describe what things were like when Chuck Pagano was running this team I know it's a few years ago but for Chicago Bears fans wanting a little bit more background on what Pagano's progression was like in Indianapolis because it felt like things started off pretty well and then trended obviously in a downward direction until they ended up moving on from him and for the Bears fans I think so far so good with Chuck Pagano but what sort of led to the decline in Indianapolis that you know maybe Bears fans want to try and avoid in Chicago yeah it seemed

like from the very beginning there was so much inconsistencies with Pagano's defense of course with Ryan Griggs and a general manager there wasn't much talent available to Pagano as you'd like to have but the scheme at the end just tailed off because you saw just, it seemed like just a lack of creativity at points with Blitzes and with Ted Monachino, the former defensive coordinator under Pagano. They tried to run like a Baltimore blend defense, and for some reason, just teams were able to slice through them on passing downs and on run downs, be able to just run counters left and right on them. At the very end, I think they were close to allowing 28 points per game and definitely wasn't going to fly in another 8-8 season for the Colts.

And you see why Pagano and them moved on, because consistency-wise on both sides, I don't know why, it just was really lacking at points. Now as we move back to these modern Indianapolis Colts, a lot of changes literally on both sides of the ball, but this offense feels like it's going to have a pretty different look, not only with Phillip Rivers, but some new weapons around him. How would you sort of assess the strength of this supporting cast now,

given Rivers' age and perhaps a need for a little bit more of a propping up they used early draft picks at running back and wide receiver they've got invested in trey burton at tight end to go with jack doyle and that offensive line has had a lot of recent draft picks pretty early used in there too well is there a particular weakness that stands out there or how would you assess assess how prepared they are to support their veteran quarterback? Yeah, honestly, when you look across the board here, I love the Colts draft of the first two picks from Jonathan Taylor at 41, Michael Pittman at 34. I think two of the more NFL-ready prospects in this entire draft

and instant-impact playmakers for this offense. That was really lacking explosiveness last year, and both those guys will definitely bring the juice in that category. And you see Burton, you add him in, I think is a more reliable option to Eric Ebron because Ebron, of course, had his dropped issues. And Burton actually had reliable hands at Philadelphia and Chicago up until the injury situation, like you mentioned the last time with Lauren.

Jack Doyle, of course, is reliable. T.Y. Hilton, I think, is a very easily number one receiver in the NFL, and I think one of the more underrated ones overall because he definitely produces when he has an elite quarterback. And with Phillip Rivers, he has the offensive line. He has the power of running back, Marlon Mack, and Jonathan Taylor, and these reliable playmakers who don't really drop the ball at all much. Michael Pittman was number one in college football last year with drop rate at 2.4%. And I think that just goes to show you that rivers is going to i think have one of his better years if all goes well because there's not gonna be

much pressure on them they have a power run again they can go for 200 yards per game if they want to and they have a player like a ty hill and michael pitman and all these other options that can help diversify their attack so with all of these moves like you said to sort of go all in both, both young and veteran and old on winning now and trying to maximize this window. What, what is sort of the expectation? I mean, obviously the goal is to win a Superbowl, I'm sure, but like, if do they have to win the division or else it's a disappointment or they have

to hit, you know, 11, 12 wins. I mean, there's with seven and nine last year, all things considered with, it feels like it was much longer ago than that that Andrew Luck, surprise, retired in the preseason. During the Bears-Colts preseason game, it feels like so much longer ago than what, almost 10 months now. But what's sort of reasonable for expectations, and what are you expecting? I think personally the division should be attainable,

especially with what Houston did trading away DeAndre Hopkins for pennies on the dollar. That's going to, I think personally the division should be attainable, especially with what Houston did, trading away DeAndre Hopkins for pennies on the dollar. That's going to, I think, regress them a little bit. And the AFC South, Tennessee didn't really do much to add to their defense. They lost more than they added. So I think they could be in for a slight regression. And the Colts adding in DeForest Buckner, Phillip Rivers, Xavier Rhodes, Jonathan Taylor, Michael Pittman, Trey Burton,

all these playmakers on both sides of the ball to their defense. I think it's enough to vault them up into a 10-11 win team if all goes well. I could realistically say I think maybe 9-7 win to the AFC South this year. So I think they definitely cleared that hole and I think 10-6 should be an attainable goal this year. Hosting a playoff game I think is

very attainable for this team because I think they are the most talented team overall in the AFC South now with the moves they've made made. Well it'll be fun to kind of see how you know the Colts all-in strategy ends up comparing to the Bears different quarterback strategy in terms of competition versus going for the pure veteran upgrade and we'll see depending on when the schedule release comes out and tells us when these two teams are going to play whether it's going to be early in the season or late because that may determine which quarterback the Bears are actually using. But I think this is going to be a fun matchup.

And I think both of these teams are going to have some interesting things to throw at each other. Oh, absolutely. It's going to be, I think, a really good matchup, because whoever it is, Foles or Trubisky, they're going to be going against a new and improved defense. And also the new quarterback of the Colts, Fulber, is going to go against one of the best defense in the NFL,

the Chicago Bears. So it's going to be a fun one in Chicago when it comes out and with the schedule releasing tomorrow night. So I appreciate you coming on more. I know our listeners definitely are going to enjoy this stateside rivalry. Definitely. I always appreciate getting the opportunity to mix it up with the other hosts on the lockdown podcast network and kind of take advantage of our strengths here with some, you know, some more localized expertise from each individual.

So really appreciate you taking the time. Yeah, no worries. And thanks everybody for listening in and we'll be back with you guys tomorrow for our next episodes.