Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - LOCKED ON COLTS 5/8/20: Crossover Special with Locked On Vikings

Episode Date: May 8, 2020

On today's episode, Luke Braun of Locked On Vikings stops by to continue on with our Crossover Specials diving into this year's intra-conference matchups between AFC South and NFC North squads.Starting off in Minnesota, how will their impactful draft class make an impact in 2020? How will Justin Jefferson and Jeff Glandey replace the on-field production from Stefon Diggs and Trae Waynes? Also, how much pressure remains on Kirk Cousins after his latest contract extension?Is Minnesota a sleeper contender brewing, even with their big losses on paper?Flipping over to the Colts, we talk through the Philip Rivers signing and much more. What should be the realistic expectations be for Indy after all of their big moves? Is double-digit wins and a clear AFC South title in the cards?This was a fun one as we continue on in our listener favorite Crossover Specials! Stay tuned for our final one with Detroit as well! 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 channel. My name is Evan Sutter of Locked On Colts. I'm joined by Luke Braun of Locked On Vikings. How are you doing today, Luke? Doing good, man. How are you? This whole crossover thing has been kind of fun, huh? Yeah, it definitely has, and I'm enjoying it so far. And if the rumors are true that I've been reading about the NFC North maybe being the first team to play this year, this could be the first week of matchup between the Vikings and the Colts. So this could be a very early on matchup we could see early on this season.

But let's kick things off here with our cross-series special. I'm going to ask you some Vikings questions, Luke, then we'll dive in next segment with you asking me some Colts questions, if you'd like. So let's dive into the Minnesota Vikings, this offseason, Luke, because I think, to be honest, we talked before the draft. I had you on as well. But after the Xavier Rhodes signing, but just based off the Vikings draft,

I think you guys hit it out of the park. Yeah. It's been quite a turnaround since the last time we talked, which is about 600 years ago. No, yeah. The, the draft, I'm really happy with the draft personally. I think Justin Jefferson, I mean, he's not going to replace Stefan Diggs. No rookie is going to replace Stefan Diggs. So considering, you know, what they had available to them, I think Justin Jefferson will come in and be able to produce it at a high level.

And by high level, I mean, you know, contribute, be part of the offense. They actually have a wide receiver room again with Tajay Sharp and BC Johnson competing for wide receiver three, totally game for that. And then on the other side of the ball, getting Jeff Gladney. I think he's a really good replacement for Trey Waynes I still think they kind of need to bring another corner into the building right now they have probably Cameron Dantzler a third round pick and Holton Hill who is undrafted a couple years ago for off-field issues and it was a weird thing so maybe not as big a deal anymore but that's going to be a competition for a starting job and I think I kind of want to inject them an older veteran presence into that

competition. So it's almost a complete room. And I mean, yeah, you could go down the list. They picked 15 guys. So somewhere in there, something's going to work out. Yeah. The total record for the Vikings last year, 11 and seven, they obviously shocked the world, went to new Orleans and won the wild card round and then lost in San Francisco. How do you feel like the Vikings, maybe, I know they lost LaFon Diggs here, and Everson Griffin walked out of the building, and as Xavier Rhodes.

How do you feel like the Vikings have gone about just retooling this roster on a flyer? Because they're still in a win-now window, of course, when you have Kirk Cousins as quarterback. Yeah, I think they've probably recouped about two-thirds of the value that they lost. And in one offseason, I think that's about as much as you can expect. but you know the idea that kind of like all the light bulbs kind of went out at the same time so it was it was really difficult headed into this offseason to foresee it you know foresee the team coming out better than they went in um so you know I guess my expectations for the team are really tempered but I also think it's like it's understandable you know Xavier Rhodes was getting old and expensive.

I think the contract you guys have him on is way more reasonable. The same thing with Limbaugh Joseph, one of the chargers, they're paying him what he's worth. The Vikings replaced Joseph with Michael Pierce, which could actually end up being an upgrade. And if you just kind of go through each of the positions, there's still some that aren't quite quite uh addressed perfectly like i don't think that they've replaced like cb1 xavier rhodes right now their two best corners are mike hughes

and jeff gladney neither of them are six feet tall uh and then you know they have cam danzler and holton hill but like there's still some holes around the roster that that they are gonna have to figure out a way to address lest they enter the season, you know, trotting out something unacceptable, like Pat Elfline starting at left guard. They kind of have to figure out what they're going to do there. And it could be, you know, move Ebs or Cleveland or Riley Reif inside, have the other one start at left tackle, but they have to answer that question and gather that information. Yeah. And speaking of Kirk Cousins, I know you're in a win now mode of when you have him a quarterback, just signing this past offseason had 26 touchdowns six interceptions last year for the Vikings had

a really good year honestly for Kirk Cousins and compared to years past in his first year in Minnesota but what should the expectations be for Vikings fans with entering year three of Kirk Cousins? I think that their expectation should be that he has to do 2019 again and 2019 was a good year for Kirk Cousins. They put out a top 10 offense. He was, he threw deep. He was aggressive. He, you know, led some pretty big moments, which is something that Kirk Cousins isn't typically associated with, you know, coming back 20 points in a game against the vaunted Broncos defense. Of course, the big win at the Superdome. Those are things that you typically don't think Kirk Cousins is capable of. And he did it in 2019. And I think for fans' expectations, they should expect him to continue to be capable of that.

You know, you lost Stefan Diggs, you replaced him with Justin Jefferson, so your weapons got just a little bit worse. Your protection probably gets a little better if you can get Elfline off the field, replace him with somebody like Ezra Cleveland, who probably won't be that good right away. He's going to take a little bit of time to kind of cook and develop but you know I still think that the protection is also being mitigated by the Gary Kubiak scheme and the whole Shanahan the wide zone all that stuff you guys are familiar with it playing Tennessee all the time that does a really good job of kind of

hiding bad pass protection with play action passes and, you know, bootleg zone fake one way, quarterback goes the other way, and then suddenly it doesn't matter if you get put on your butt in pass protection. So I think they're set up really well to foster Kirk Cousins, and I don't think fans should be satisfied with anything less than another season like 2019. Yeah, I think with the Vikings overall, you look at the NFC North, especially with what's going on in Chicago, Mitch Trubisky, his fifth-year option decline, Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay, they just drafted maybe the future replacement for him in Jordan Love, and who knows what's going to happen in that dynamic in the next couple

of years. Detroit obviously is Detroit right now with the way they're going about things. Detroit is Detroit. How do you see it going right now, Luke, with Minnesota and the NFC North? Because it seems like even though you've lost a lot of ammunition, if the Packers slightly regress a little bit,

I think they did a – looking at Aaron Rodgers in their window right now, I'm really shocked by what they did in the draft this year, really looking towards the long term instead of the short term. I think the Vikings have a chance if Justin Jefferson's an immediate contributor as WR2 next to Adam Thielen and in some other pieces improve a little bit. I think the Vikings can make some noise. Yeah. This like moment right now, this kind of post draft bliss is the easiest time to say that.

Cause you just got a bunch of rookies that are really exciting. And part of why they're exciting is because of the long-term prospect that they are. Ezra Cleveland in, I mean, especially like for you guys, if it's true that we're all going to play, you know, weeks one through four, Ezra Cleveland's not going to have a huge impact on that. And if he is, it's probably going to be a negative one because he's not, he wasn't really supposed to be day one ready. He might just have to be, you know, talk to me week 13, there might be a little difference or talk to me in 2021. Now I'm really excited. But I think with all these rookies,

especially if training camp's going to be weird, you know, the immediate impact of a good draft is going to be, I think, like delayed a little bit, you know, drafts don't really kick in until a year later. So I'm not that optimistic about anybody in the NFC North. I actually think it's kind of a wide open division. I think, you know, Aaron Rodgers, I guess his play regressed enough for Green Bay to do something about it. Of course, I think the Bears are a total mess, but they still have a defense. The Vikings have plenty of things going for them, but plenty of flaws.

And the Lions, I think they're going to be in just about any game with Matt Stafford. And it's just kind of a matter of variance at that point and what kind of things they also mess up. So everybody has their flaws and their chinks in the armor. It could be anybody here. So I don't think the NFC North is going to be like they were last year where you saw, you know, the,

the 2018 bears were coming off of their division eight division winning campaign. And then you had both the Vikings and Packers making the playoffs and it was this juggernaut division. No, I, I kind of think that everybody's going to be hovering around that nine win mark and, and somebody's going to sneak in as the third or fourth seat. Yeah. And I think the last bit I want to talk to you about Luke, as far as the Viking side of things goes,

this is the fine dig saga that happened over the last year in Minnesota. It was just a lot of, it's not from outside looking at a lot of drama, a lot of sideline antics. I don't know what was going on. Kirk Cudden, Stefan digs at times. The end of an era came, of course, when they sent him off to Buffalo, got a first-round pick out of it, as well as a fifth-round pick and a sixth-round pick, as well as a 2021 fourth-round pick. I think really good value for the Vikings to get Stephon Diggs, and he also added, like I mentioned, Justin Jefferson to eventually be a replacement for Stephon Diggs. What was that relationship like at the very end there between Diggs and the Vikings yeah so all right I'm getting real good at this story because this is like the first thing everybody asks so here's

the story with Stefan Diggs so I think that he was never that into Kirk Cousins and a big reason for that is is Kirk Cousins missed him open all the time down the field he would be breaking away on a deep post that would have been a touchdown and Cousins never looks his way and he got upset about that and I think rightfully so and that happened way too often and it's totally a knock on Cousins so that was a big deal in the middle of the season the thing you probably heard about where he it was like October and there were trade rumors and he said there's truth to all rumors and all that stuff that ends up getting diffused pretty easily after he misses a practice they find him and that was kind of the end of it. They rattled off four wins after that. So obviously it didn't affect the locker room too bad.

And I think that throughout the rest of the season, Diggs's energy was really infectious in a positive way. He was hyping everybody up. You know, I go back to that Broncos game, that 20 point comeback, that game was channeled through Stefan Diggs's energy. And if you talk to any of the beat reporters, anybody in the locker room afterwards, you know, Diggs would feel a way and it would just spread, you know, and he got excited and he started to smell blood in the

water for the comeback than the rest of the team did too. So I think that his presence in the locker room, his relationship with the Vikings down the stretch was really, really positive. And I think what changed is the Vikings extended Kirk Cousins. And that means this problem is going to happen for me. Oh my goodness, three more years of this. And so then he goes out and he tweets something along the lines of it's time for a new beginning. And that tweet, then all the other teams start smelling blood in the water. Buffalo calls up the Vikings and says, Hey, we've got a huge offer for you.

We know Diggs wants out, you know, what do you think? And the Vikings say, all right, fine, we'll do it. And so at that point, you know, I think the real impetus for Diggs wanting out was the Kirk Cousins extension. I think if you don't extend Kirk Cousins, you let him play on a contract here, I think Stefan Diggs is still a Viking. Good stuff there, Luke.

And I hope Colts fans definitely enjoyed that. And I imagine, like you said, the rumors are true about week one through four, the NFC North, AFC South playing. We'll be seeing the Vikings pretty soon. But we're going to dive into the second and final part of our CrossFit special in the segment two of our show, talking about the Colts side of things. Before we do that, I just want to remind you guys,

if you have not already subscribed to Locked on Vikings and Locked on Colts, Luke and I bring you guys awesome content Monday through Friday, all throughout the Locked on Podcast Network and wherever streaming platform you're listening to. Just search Locked on Vikings or Locked on Colts. We're I bring you guys awesome content, money through Friday, all throughout the Locked On Podcast Network and wherever streaming platform you're listening to. Just search Locked On Vikings or Locked On Colts right there with you guys. So appreciate everyone listening in. We'll be back with you guys in just a second for segment two of our show. Alrighty, Luke. And I'll give you the floor here if you have any questions as far as the Annapolis Colts, because I know it's just like the Vikings, another interesting option for Indy.

Yeah, I would absolutely love to. So I think the thing I'm most curious about when it comes to the Colts is the quarterback situation. Obviously, you know, there was a lot of talk of the Colts wanting to be the guys to go up and get Jordan Love. He ends up in the NFC North, but I guess what's the vibe like in Indianapolis about that quarterback situation? You have Phillip Rivers. That's going to, I guess, tide you over for as long as it does. But his arm died down the stretch in 2019. Are you worried about that? Who takes over? Is Jacob Eason going to be ready? How do you feel about the way that

the... Is the future on the roster? Personally, I do not think the future is on the roster right now. I think Jacob Eason was a shot at the dartboard, so to say, in the fourth round. Just too good a value to pass up there. Former five-star number one recruit in the country. Might as well see what you have there in Eason. If it doesn't work, you just use the fourth round pick. He's a future back quarterback.

But I think with Phillip Rivers, I've warmed up to it more and more, Luke, because the Colts have built an infrastructure this offseason around really hiding the weaknesses of Phillip Rivers again that we saw last year as far as the Colts now have a power running game with Jonathan Taylor and Marlon Mack. They have the offensive line. They have the playmakers too now with Michael Pittman Jr. now alongside T.Y. Hilton and Paris Campbell with Jack Doyle and Trey Burton at tight end. I really think there's not going to be a lot of pressure on Phillip Rivers this year to produce at an elite level. He can just be an above-average, top-notch game manager,

which we saw Jimmy Garoppolo at times do for the 49ers in the playoff run. If Phillip Rose can do something like that and rely on the power running game, play-action passing game, I think this move makes a lot of sense in the win-now mode. But looking long-term, I'd be shocked if Jacob Beeson was the first-round pick because I don't think it checks a lot of the box that Colts really prioritize in their quarterbacks. But I would love to be surprised and shocked and proven wrong on that eventually but I don't think the future on the roster but I think right now in the short term going from Jacoby Brissett to Phil Burrows is a big upgrade.

I can definitely see that working out and you have a little bit of time now you have however long Rivers lasts to kind of work it out. There was also some news recently with the Colts declining the first-year option of Malik Hooker, which as an outside observer to me was really surprising, and maybe there's something I don't know, because I always thought of Malik Hooker as a what-could-have-been-for-the-Vikings. In 2016, when Teddy Bridgewater blew out his leg, Vikings traded for Sam Bradford. They traded away a first-round pick that ended up being 14th overall in that draft, and Malik Hooker was on the board at 14 when the Eagles picked Derek Barnett. And I always thought that Malik Hooker would have been the guy that the Vikings take at 14 if they actually were

selecting at that spot. So my question is, what's the deal with not picking up Malik Hooker's fifth year option? Was it a health thing? Was he secretly worse than I thought? Am I wrong about him? Or is it just some other kind of 4D chess team building thing that I just don't have the context to understand? Yeah, it's a blend. I think of everything you mentioned there, Luke, because they drafted Julian Black on the third round. A really surprising pick, honestly, at the spot they did it at.

And Chris Fowler mentioned there with the next pick video series put out on their Colts website, that DC's Blackman is a legitimate free safety in the league which perked my ears up as far as Malik Hooker goes in his long-term future there because his fifth year option was looming at that point and then eventually as we all know it was declined this past week and it just goes to show you I just saw the Hooker's injury history he was very injury prone Ohio State and we also saw his first year in the NFL he tore his ACL with thets, really set him back as far as his positive impact was going. But this past year, fully healthy for the first time in a little bit. He hurts his knee once more, missed a couple games,

but then down the stretch when he's fully healthy again, post-meniscus injury. The Colts' second year was getting sliced and diced by the likes of Jameis Winston, Gardner Minshew. It just wasn't a good look. And Malik Hooker, if he's an elite impact player, I feel like they should have impacted the game more. And we saw some flashes here and there, but just very inconsistent and injury prone. And I just think the Colts were ready to move on here

because they probably know he's only 24 years old. He'll be 25 years old by the time next year's free and he comes around. He's going to cash in. I don't think the Colts think he's worth a top-notch dollar. So broadening out to that whole defense, this Colts defense has always been fascinating to me because there's a lot of guys that I think have gone really under the radar. And it's, I think, a really underrated defense.

I mean, Kamoko Ture, Darius Leonard, I don't think is underrated. I think people are properly hyped on him. Rakia Sin, of course, now you have Xavier Rhodes. I guess, was Justin Blackman going to be a day one starter as a third round pick? That's really interesting. I think people are properly hyped on him. Rak Yassin, of course, now you have Xavier Rhodes. I guess, was Justin Blackman going to be a day one starter as a third round pick? That's really interesting. But, you know, I really like the construction of this Colts defense. Do you think that in a division now with, you know, Deshaun Watson and that offense,

obviously New Hopkins is gone. You know, you have the Titans and this like like, rejuvenated Tannehill. You have up-and-coming Minshew. Is the Colts' defense the way that the Colts can win this very, like, weird AFC South? Yeah, honestly, I think so. I think the biggest impact on this Colts' defense is going to be DeForest Buckner. He traded their first overall pick for him, number 13, for the first round. And talk about Buckner for a second. I mean, you get the long-term extension done at $21 million per year. The impact he's going to have on all three levels of defense is going to be huge for

them. And I think acquiring Buckner to go Xavier Rhodes, as well as Sheldon Day from the 49ers as a rotational defensive line piece, added in also more development for guys like Rakia Singh, Kamoko Ture, Ben Bannego up front. if those guys can all develop at a higher rate, I think this Colts team, on paper at least, adding in Buckner and Rhodes to the equation of Rhodes that at least can return to form and get out of his mental hiccups like you mentioned in our show in March, Luke. I think this team has the capabilities of being the best defense in the AFC South and surprised people this year because I think DeForest Buckner,

the Colts have never had a dominant three technique before that impacts the interior pass rush. And it's going to be fun to see because I think he'sorest Buckner, the Colts have never had a dominant three technique before that impacts the interior pass rush. And it's going to be fun to see because I think he's going to help out guys like Kimoko Ture, Justin Houston, and Ben Banigal really help improve them this year. Yeah, it's a very weird landscape of this division where you have, you know, the Jaguars are going through their 903 build. You know, Tennessee overachieved in 2019. They might regress. You know, you might see Houston regress defensively because that's the kind of thing that always happens. And they lost nuke and all this stuff. It does seem like there is this moment where if Philip Rivers can pull

one last rabbit out of his hat, the Colts kind of have a path into the playoffs. And, and, you know, from there, chip in a chair, whatever happens happens. So I guess one more thing you mentioned the skill players uh and you know marlon mack to ty hilton to uh paris campbell and all those guys um tell me about i mean how excited should i be about that core because that sounds like a lot of really fun and interesting guys is is jack doyle somebody that can be a top 10 tight end is this going to be this like crazy skill core that's going to arrive you know that that should be mentioned in the same breath as like Kansas City and stuff uh or is this just kind of a lot of b plus kind of guys I think it's just a slight tier below Kansas City but I think it's definitely in the top three or four in the AFC as far as offensive firepower goes right now

you add in Jonathan Taylor much pivoted the mix of what you mentioned there with T.Y. Hilton, Paris Campbell, Jack Dua I think is a very underrated tight in the mix of what you mentioned there with T.Y. Hilton, Paris Campbell. Jack Doyle, I think, is a very underrated tight end in the league, never drops any passes, very good run blocker too. Zach Paschal as well did well for the Colts last year when he had to come in with injuries. I think this team is actually very loaded with depth pieces, very reliable pieces that they should be able to really put a lot of points to Phil Brewers and his arm come back to form like we saw in 2018. If that happens, I think, especially guys like Michael Pittman Jr., I think he's going to have a huge impact on this Colts offense because they never had this big body before,

and Phillip Rivers loves using those types of weapons. And I think Pittman's going to take so much pressure off T.Y. Hilton and the likes of others that this offense should be a lot more fun to watch this year because far too often last year, whether it's due to injuries or due to Jacoby Brissett and his lack of aggressiveness down the field, the Colts offense was more reminiscent of like 1975 football, just power run game over and over and over again, and just really lacked creativity. But now you have rivers aboard with all these new playmakers. I think it should be a lot of fun. It should be a really fun

and interesting. This is a fun chapter. The Colts are kind of in this weird flux, but still kind of competitive. It's a very fluid situation. And I feel like, you know, in five years, wherever the Colts end up, we'll kind of look back on this moment as a pretty pivotal one for that team. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I think this is going to be a very interesting year, not only for the Colts, but the Vikings, because I feel like both teams are in a win now mode and it's going to be really intriguing to see what happens to move forward for not only Minnesota, but Indianapolis.

So appreciate everyone listening in on our episodes crossover special with locked on Vikings and locked on Colts. Luke, appreciate the time, man. Yeah. Thank you so much for answering my questions.