Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - LOCKED ON COLTS -5/9- New Insight On Colts Draft Picks & Colts FO Gets Intriguing Addition W/@NFLDrafter

Episode Date: May 9, 2017

Ethan Young (FanRag Sports, Inside The Pylon, B/R) joins the show to add another perspective to analyzing the #Colts 2017 draft class and offers insight on the reported hiring of Brian Decker to the Colts front office as the organization moves into a new era under Chris Ballard. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Visit Cintas.com. No, I'm not for sale. You are Locked on Colts, your daily indianapolis whole podcast part of the locked on podcast network your team every day welcome back to locked on colts ladies and gentlemen i'm your host matt dainley and we've got a great show for you guys tonight if you guys have been paying any attention at all to whether it's on Twitter or just the Colts news in general, the Indianapolis Colts, at least reportedly at this point in time, have hired Brian Decker to be their new player personnel strategist. Now, this is somewhere along the lines of analytics and looking a little deeper, a little outside of the box type of

approach for the Indianapolis Colts. Not something that I can speak of, at least that I noticed that they've done in the past. And who else better to help us kind of understand this and to kind of give us some of his own thoughts and some of what he gets into on a daily basis than Ethan Young. Ethan, thank you for joining us today, man. Yeah, no problem. Thanks for having me, man. Absolutely. So tell everybody what you're doing right now, who you're writing for, and kind of give us a quick breakdown of what you do with your Slatex and so on and so forth.

Yeah, I'm all over the place right now. I'm writing for a few sites. You can find my work at FanRag, Inside the Pylon. I did some work for Bleacher this last year with NFL 1000. Basically, go to my Twitter page at NFLDraft. If you want to see any of my content, that's where it's going to be the hub of it, so to speak. And yeah, I can sort of get back into sort of the programs and the projects I do. Talk about Slitics, which is something, you know, as we go through the prospects, I can bring up, you know, individually. But basically, what Slitics is, is we're looking at sort of measurable profiles for players,

looking at their athleticism in terms of spark, football spark, and looking at size and length with sort of macro measurable profiles. I'm looking at hand size, arm length, height, weight, all that, and building these profiles for players. And that's sort of the core of SLICS. We have what we call freak rating, which is size and length, and then the spark, which is athleticism and SLA, size, length, and athleticism is sort of the whole pie there. And that's Solitics itself, the base.

And where I think it offers the most value is with threshold testing. We have upper and lower bound thresholds at each position to determine prospects with the highest and lowest chances of success at each position based on their measurables. Which is all just absolutely mind explosion for the majority of us to try to understand. But it's really, really cool stuff. It is very interesting. And it really requires you to sit down in a quiet room and read your work to really gather it all, to kind of really bring it all in. And it's really cool, like I said, very intriguing work. And this is something that we're seeing as a trend among NFL teams now,

I think, most notably with Sashi Brown and those guys in Cleveland. And then now with this, you know, being, you know, Brian Decker coming to the Colts, at least reportedly, like I said, it hasn't been necessarily confirmed by the team or anything like that. But this is a totally new aspect on developing and understanding players and which players to have in your locker room and so on and so forth. So let's first go through the Colts draft picks and kind of look through what you think that you see with your measurables and everything that you put together

on what kind of a draft haul the Indianapolis Colts had. Let's start with Malik Hooker, obviously. First-round pick. On the surface, my thoughts are that the Colts got great value at 15 for him, but I know that you've got kind of your own thoughts. I remember your thoughts on Jamal Adams and kind of that, but I didn't necessarily hear anything about Hooker, so I'm kind of curious as to where you feel that he fell in regards to what you do.

Yeah, yeah. So everything I do on the individual player level is tape first and then measurables and production, mainly at quarterback. That's the main thing I've looked at production-wise with my Semtex project for each prospect. So Hooker, the guy, didn't really complete full testing with the injury, but the guy I just loved on tape was my second overall prospect in the whole class. So obviously loved the value where they got him in the mid-first. You know, he's a guy I think is an ideal cover one topper, exceptional single high guy, crazy range and closing ability, big and rangy. You know, the mental processing ability coming downhill is impressive. And, you know, he doesn't get repped as a tackler, but I really like how he can sort through trash and bring down ball carriers by himself for a cover one guy. You know, the medical is the big question there.

But if you check that off, I think that's a slam dunk pick in the first round for them. Yeah, I think so too. And let me preface this real quick as well. People, he's not just like analytics and all this. This dude won the move the sticks with Daniel Jeremiah, the scouting competition. So this guy knows what he's talking about. Great NFL mind here. Great football mind just in general.

So it's really an all-encompassing package with you, Ethan. So let's move on to Quincy Wilson here. Again, I thought this was great value being a second-round pick. I know that a lot of people had him as a first-round type corner. I can't lie and say that I watched a ton of film on him previous to the draft, but I liked what I did see. What were your thoughts on him? Yeah, Wilson was an interesting one.

I had him 59th overall on the board. I think he's a good fit in that press man sort of scheme, which I think you'll have to tell me a little bit more about what the Colts are doing schematically this year. But I would imagine he's a good fit for what they look for in Kansas City before with the GM there. You know, he's got great redirect on his initial press, loose hips and can match receivers out of the breaks on their stems.

You know, heavy feet in a straight line, not going to be, you know, a deep, you know, vertical defending guy. You know, Deshaun Jackson, guys like that might give him some fits. He does lack discipline um you know if he's in zone assignment he'll run right out of it chasing guys sometimes but in terms of you know press man scheme great fit there guy that can come in you know i i sort of compare him to uh william jackson last year from houston yeah sort of on tape, sort of a similar comp. A little bit slower than Jackson in a straight line,

but a lot of the same strengths. A little bit more weaknesses. I had Jackson graded much higher because he didn't have some of those same discipline flaws. But I really like Wilson for them. And with the way the quarterback board was falling, I think they got very good value there too. They were sort of a cliff after Wilson, I think. And they sort of got one of the last of that second tier. In terms of his testing, so, you know, the size and length pops up the

screen. He's got 85th percentile size and length of the position. All in all, the SLA is 62nd percentile. So, you know, not an upper-round player in the athletics threshold work I do, but, you know, above-average measurables across the board and a guy that, you know, the Colts talk about, you know, they value youth and unique traits, and he's a young corner in both football experience and age, and a guy that, you know, has a special trait in terms of, you know, 85th percentile side and like something unique on an individual player level. And his ball skills are good.

And like you said, that is ultimately what the Colts are doing with their corners. They're outside. They're a lot of press man. But at least in the past, from what I see with what Quincy Wilson brings, is that he brings the ability for both corners to be able to be impressed at the same time whereas in the past with some of the you know less uh less efficient corners that the Colts had opposite Vontae Davis they would always have at least one of them an off man whereas they couldn't really you know uh trust both of them to be able to go

on an island with a receiver well I think that now now, like you said, Quincy may not be quite the vertical defender that a lot of us assume that he's going to be, but that's ultimately, I think, why they drafted him. Whether we see that or not, I think that that's what they want from him. They want both those guys impressed because they want to be able to also utilize Hooker in that regard as well. Right. If he's going to be that center fielder guy that can roll coverage both sides then that's what they're going to you know attempt to at least use him as

so we'll have to see how that works out and it can hide wilson's efficiency a little bit as well and when you have a guy that's unique and ranging his hooker it ties in very well schematically and and looking at like positional need for the team and value they got him, I think it was a great pick and fit for him. Yeah, I agree. It's kind of funny you said that they could hide him, but I think they're going to end up, because of what you spoke about as far as the physicality that Hooker lacks a little bit in the run support and stuff like that,

I think that they're going to end up having to try to hide him a little bit with Gethers too. So it's kind of funny that a lot of these guys are just going to be feeding off of each other. This is going to have to be a very good chemistry-laden defense in order to work. It's going to take some time, but I'm excited to see if it can work. It could be really nice, at least on the back end. So the Colts went in the third round with an edge guy,

Terrell Basham out of Ohio. I love this guy. I watched a ton of tape on him, but I want to hear what your thoughts are on him, both from the scouting point of view, but also on the other hand, I want to hear on your SLA. Yeah, so Basham was a guy who was a little bit lower on the consensus on tape. Ended up being my 14th ranked edge rusher.

On tape, I thought he was kind of a stiff, limited athlete that just kind of overpowered lower level comp. The thing you do love on tape is the violent and active hands. They're just explosive. And he's got a good assortment of moves and counters. But the lack of explosiveness around the edge for tackles, they don't really need to defend the outside hit that much, and they can sort of be prepared for those inside counters at the next level.

The slow reaction time to snap is something that kind of stood out too, but he is as strong as an ox. There's no question if you slide him in at five tech, he's going to be able to hold it on in the run game. Big question is, can he win with just power at the NFL level and inside counters? I'm not sure. Without that speed trait

to keep people on their toes, I don't know if it plays well. It will be something interesting to watch. He does have a clearly defined trait, you know, powerful, violent hands, strong lower body, but sort of a guy. Senior Bowl wasn't really impressed with him in Mobile. I know some others were. Just sort of guy wasn't really my taste. Saw how he won, didn't love it on the measurable side

he tested very well from a length perspective as well the Colts prioritized it seems based on this draft class these guys were very good size and length and Bastian was 80th percentile size and length and a 53rd percentile athlete so all in all the SLA was in the 64th percentile

again a very above average athlete there with a clearly defined size and length trait. And there was, you know, when you look at what he brings, that size, it was something that I talked about probably a couple months ago as far as what I thought that they might be targeting in that new edge guy because a lot of the guys that Kansas city had been bringing in at that edge, you know, as far as whether it's a defensive end or an absolute, or a true outside linebacker within the three, four scheme, they were going to be prioritizing size. And, and, you know, with that,

the speed kind of those not freakish athletes necessary, but the guys who had both the size and some good athletic traits to be able to not only overpower, but to be able to set that line and be able to get both the interior pressure as well as have these guys who can kind of bully on the outside. Yeah, it would be interesting to see where he slides in schematically for them. I could see him sort of sliding in and out, being that sort of versatile base-in, outside guy based on the down.

It will be interesting to see. I mean, he's a guy that the leverage ability is clear in the measurables. I didn't see it as much on tape as being able to keep defenders or offensive linemen away from his frames. That's a trait he can develop and sort of win across the outside hip with that. And all of a sudden you've got powerful inside hands, counter moves, leverage ability. That's a very unique player.

But I like him. You know, he's got the tools to develop it. You just got to see it happen now. Right. Now there's a guy here that I'm not very impressed with, at least the pick. I didn't mind that the Colts went offensive tackle, or we'll just put, say, offensive line. But I wasn't mind that the Colts went offensive tackle or we'll just put say offensive line, but I wasn't impressed with Zach Banner, the offensive tackle out of USC, 6'8", 353.

It just didn't make a ton of sense to me to go your first pick in the fourth round to get a guy that's so slow and really has an uphill battle as far as I'm concerned to being a quality offensive lineman in the NFL. Yeah, no argument for me there. He's a guy lower bound in athletics, which if you're not familiar, those guys' offensive tackles below the lower bound flick threshold have a 5.9% success rate. And we define success as outperforming your draft capital. So that means he has a 5% chance of outperforming outperforming your draft capital. So that means he has a 5% chance of outperforming his fourth round pick draft capital. So basically the Colts punted their fourth round pick is how you can look at that. I mean, you're talking about

comps like, you know, successful comps, you know, out of that 5.9%, you're looking at guys like Michael Bowie and Anthony Collins. I mean, these guys are not world beaters by any stretch. So, you know, low upside pick there. He hasn't got a low chance of panning out, and a guy that tested like crap. You know, 13th percentile size and length, even with an athleticism, you know, the SLAs and the 13th percentile,

the size and length by itself is actually pretty impressive. Again, over an 80th percentile, something the Colts really seem to prioritize looking at these picks, pick by pick, is they like these guys with size and length. And, you know, something the Colts really seem to prioritize looking at these picks, pick by pick, because they like these guys with size and length. But the athleticism is just so poor. He fell below the slid threshold.

And on tape, that's clear, too. He's a mauling type on tape and was at the point of the attack, but he's so slow out of his stance and not explosive all out of the drive phase. He opens up his hips way too often for a guy that can't recover. I think he has to play guard at the next level, and he's only really going to fit in a gap scheme,

which maybe the Colts are going to change what they do on offensively a little bit, but in terms of what they did last year, don't really like to fit there. All in all, horrible pick. Yeah, I pretty much agree exactly. Finding somebody, like you said, he's vulnerable, and when he opens his hips, he's vulnerable to both ends

because he's so slow that he can't close off the edge, and he's so slow that, like you said, he can't recover. So you have anybody who is any kind of a unique edge rusher in any way, shape, or form who can change their path to the quarterback is going to beat him to either side. And not only does that make it difficult to put him at tackle, but that really puts the emphasis on the guards inside of him to help him more than they should. And that's just not something that the Colts can really afford to do right now. So let's move on to Marlon Mack, a guy that I think, you know, I think that a lot of people would assume that in the fourth round

that that was a good spot for him to go. They probably should have just grabbed him in the first pick of the fourth round. But what are your thoughts on Marlon Mack and kind of describe what you saw from him on tape? A great fit, I think, with sort of changing that running back room. The Colts don't really have that sort of outside zone runner. And if Chris Ballard wants to bring that in from Kansas City, something you've seen in the past with Jamal Charles and Tarkandrick West,

Marlon Mack's the perfect guy to do that. Great lateral acceleration, open field anticipation. Can create that thin air on times on tape, and not just in the big play sense in terms of broken play. All right, I'm going to roll it back across the field and find a four-yard gain. The ball skills are nice. You know, he's going to be an asset in the passing game.

You know, ball security might be the issue there. You know, you see him running down the field and his arms swinging like LaShawn McCoy. But I don't think that's something you'll be able to fix. It's just sort of how he runs. And I don't think you really want to change that because, like McCoy, it's sort of part of his style in terms of how he's deceptive as a runner. It sort of lacks that elite long speed that maybe McCoy has,

maybe a little bit slower. And at times it does try to get too cute. It's really nice sometimes when there's nothing there and he gets four yards, but other times there's three yards and he loses seven, right? So, you know, there are some big losses that are ugly on tape, but I think as he starts to learn more, as he ages and gets more developed

in terms of what works, what doesn't inside of an NFL scheme, I think that sort of goes away a little bit. USF was a little gimmicky of an offense. So I think as he sort of gets into a more pro style, more conservative of a game, the NFL is a little bit more conservative in general. I think those sort of go away.

You know, he didn't complete testing. Again, another guy with very good size and length didn't complete the athleticism portion. But I love the fit. Had him 85th overall on my board, so good value there. And does it bother you that kind of his lack of carries? Or do you think it was more just a product of what USF's offense was? Yeah, that doesn't really bother me because, you know, people bring up the Kersing a lot.

The Kersing only bothers me when I can't determine if a guy has translatable traits on tape or not. And he had enough touches for me to figure that out. It makes sense. You know, how he wins, where he's deficient. So it doesn't bother me at all. Right. Okay.

Well, now the Colts with their third, fourth round pick took up Grover Stewart. Now, this is a guy that's probably going to do well with your athletic measurements and everything else. But I just, I mean, first and foremost, there's limited tape on this guy too. So, I mean, it's not like there's a lot to work with, but I just didn't see a guy who had any kind of technical skills whatsoever. And really, I mean, and my listeners have heard me say this about him several times already, that he really relied on just strength and power, you know, or strength and length, basically. And it was just very non-technical.

It was almost like the inside version of uh passanone or whatever you know the right not uber athletic but athletic enough to be you know d2 competition you know what i mean and right there just wasn't much that i understood about this pick either i mean if he turns out to be something that's great but like i said with the limited amount of tape that was out there for him i watched as much as i possibly could. And I just don't, uh, I just don't see how that he can be considered already. People are already talking about him. He could be the next nose tackle or, you know, the, the, the backup or even possibly being three tech, uh, within a year. And I just don't understand why they could say that with, with such limited resources to find, to see what he can actually do

on the field. Yeah, so I've never watched Grover Stork play football. Let me preface it with that. What I will say is basically what you've described to me, that worries me because he didn't test through the roof in my stuff. So for a guy that's, you know, as you say, guys that are raw technically and don't test up to their hype, so to speak, always sort of worry me. You have a guy like Tack McKinley in this class was somebody that did that, didn't really test up to the raw, tool-y nature they were described as.

Those guys rarely pan out. I will say Grover Short plays a position at nose where, you know, measurables don't really matter at all, regardless. Right. So, you know, he had 64th percentile athleticism, which is, you know, above average, but the size and length is only 28th percentile for nose tackles. So, you know, only 55th percentile overall measurables. So you're talking about a guy with very average measurables and, you know, low level guy that's raw, that doesn't really sound like a great package to me. Obviously obviously we need to dig into the tape to really give you anything finite but that's sort of my opinion on that right and i'm okay with the thought that you know they think

basically that he's going to have a red shirt year or something like that that's totally fine and i think that they i just don't understand why you i mean again why do you do that in the fourth round it's not a six round pick you know i. Yeah, his pro day numbers did not match the pro day hype he got either. I mean, his pro day numbers were hyped like they were the Messiah, and they were, like I said, 64th percentile. So I really wasn't sure where that was coming from. It was all based off his 40-yard sprint. Yeah, so that's unfortunate.

Yeah, because he's a defensive lineman. I don't understand why that has anything to do with it. Single drills like that, too, is people get excited about a 40 and stuff like that. For a guy that works with measurables all the time, individual drills are not important. It's more about the entire profile of describing an athlete in multiple drills. Determining athleticism that way, in terms of the whole profile, looking at size, length,

athleticism, the whole thing. That's where it matters. And looking through threshold testing, where that matters with past precedent. Not just, oh, this guy's a good 40, this guy's a bad 40, right? I mean, that's sort of where measurables get a bad pass sometimes, but that's not how they're used optimally. So you see stuff like this happen with a good 40,

and it's just frustrating to watch. Right. And kind of the thing is, if you look at his 10 split, it's not bad. It's not phenomenal. It's good. But the thing is, is that 10-yard split, the explosion doesn't show up on tape. And that's the point.

That's not exciting. You're scaring me, Matt. Right. And that's the thing. Yes, he has the ability to do it. But I think it's one of those things where you know, like you see high schoolers do this all the time. You have the uber athlete on the high school team or even the small-time college team, you know, for that matter. And they know that

they're just flat out stronger and better than everybody else. So they don't have to put their best foot forward. And that's the thing. Okay. When you're running 40 to go into the, to the draft, yeah, you're going to, you know, zip through as much as you can and improve that 10 yard split because that's important to teams. But when they look at your tape, they see that you didn't put that effort into it, especially as a D2. You should be a D2. If you're going to go pro, you should be absolutely dominating your competition, hands down. Whether you're technical or not, you should be just flattening people.

And I didn't – I mean, like I said, I didn't really see that. So let's move on to somebody I'm a little more hype about, Nate Hairston, six-foot corner out of Temple, a guy who played wide receiver his first couple years in college. And to me, he's exciting because to me, he represents a nice nickel spot there in the cornerback core. And that's something that the Colts really need for the future. They need another guy that can come in and lock it down. And with Darius Butler moving to safety, who I think has a solid shot at probably starting the season at nickel. This is good for the Colts, I think. And I'm kind of surprised that they found somebody who kind of fit them with ball skills and a decent 40, 4.5, not terrible. But you like the

ball skills, you like the hunger that this guy shows on tape, and as far as what you hear from coaching staff and other scouts, that this guy is just an absolute workout warrior and shows it on the field as well, you know what I mean? So what are your thoughts on this guy? Yeah, I didn't get into a full tape eval, but watched a couple games here and there when I was watching Temple. He seemed like a fiery ball skill know, ball-skilled nickel,

and I think he hit right on the head with that. And that's how he tested, too. You know, 38th percentile, I thought it was for a corner, not great, but doesn't really matter when you're in the nickel. More about, you know, route diagnostics and reading reactability and ball skills and things like that. You know, toughness, physicality when defending the run. And I think Nate Harrison's going to do a lot of those things based on what I

saw live and a couple other times. You know, I think that's a fine pick. You know, it wasn't going to, you know, in terms of value, that's sort of right where he was at. So didn't love it or hate it. Thought it was a good fit, solid pitch. I agree. Let's move on to a guy, and I'm not going to tell you what I think about him.

I want your upfront opinion on Anthony Walker, Jr., the 6'1 linebacker out of Northwestern. Are you not telling me because you're a homer and you're going to homer him? No, no. I'll just let you go first, and then I'll either agree or disagree with you. You know, he didn't fail to the X or anything like that, but didn't really fit the profile the Colts have looked for with their other picks in terms of the lead size and length. He actually has only 10th percentile size and length for linebackers, so pretty stout, limited guy in that regard.

The athleticism in the 40th percentile was a guy that, you know, cerebral type program leader there, a guy that was sort of the face of their defense for several years. Production was very good, I think. You know, people look for that in a mic sometimes. They really value the between-the-ears aspect, and that makes a lot of sense for him because, you know, that coach's son, face of the program type for several years,

don't hate the value there either um was a thin linebacker class in the in terms of true mics um in the later rounds not really a guy i would target because of the limited measurable profile only 17th percentile sla um but again didn't fail solidics uh historical precedent says that's not a deal breaker by any stretch um so yeah fine with it don't love it don't hate it yeah i i'm i'll just say i'm indecisive about it because uh like i said what i've seen on tape i wasn't impressed with again uh that much uh they they keep talking about you know what what he's got between the ears but as far as his read and react ability, to me, that comes with having the ability to be able to make a decision on a dime and not have to think about it and to be able to make the right decision. And I didn't necessarily see that with him.

They've talked about a lot of his tape being almost night and day from each other. So maybe I just watched the wrong games, you know what I mean? Well, there's a lot of tape to dig through there too. I mean, he's got a lot of experience. Yeah, yeah. And that's quite possible too. So I just can't tell people that I love the pick when I don't because I didn't, you know, I just didn't see what other people were seeing. I hope that I'm wrong about him because the Colts do need another guy to be able to come in there to be intelligent because of where they're at with their linebacking core right now as it is. So, uh, yeah, I just hope that he grows. I'll be honest

with you. I just hope that this guy grows. I hope that I hope that he does enough in camp to make the team though. I fear that he's going to be a practice squad guy who kind of never really pans out. Wow. All right. You're here first. Yeah. Not going to make the team. No, I just don't know, man. It's just one of those guys that has me worried, you know what I'm saying? But then again, they're talking about Grover Stewart, the Colts' fourth round pick, being a guy who redshirts too. And I mean, why wouldn't a fourth round or why wouldn't a fifth round, which is ultimately almost a sixth-round pick to begin with, why would he make the team over a fourth-round pick? You know what I mean?

Well, and Chris Ballard is going to be a GM that's not going to care about that at all. He wants competition. He doesn't care what you're paid, where you've been drafted, and that's something I've listened to him speak a lot recently in some of those videos and stuff, and that's something I've listened to him speak a lot recently in some of those videos and stuff, and that's something he hammers. He doesn't care. He comes from a culture where competition is everything,

and he's not just saying that. He wants to back that up. We've seen fourth-rounders cut before, and so getting a fifth- or sixth-round guy cut is not ridiculous by any stretch of the mean. But obviously more fifth- and sixth- rounders make the team than don't. You only see two or three cut a year, so a bold prediction there. But knowing the situation, if he doesn't perform, there's no question it's going to be tough.

Yeah, but the thing is that you've got the four guys that are there in Bostick, Spence, Morrison, and Jackson. Those guys are almost locks for the team, you would think. And then you've got Walker and just maybe a couple guys that were brought in on drafted free agent and Luke Rhodes. And, I mean, that's it. You know what I mean? So he might make the team, but it's just kind of, you know, fifth and sixth guys are going to be relegated at most to special teams duties,

and it'll just be interesting. That's something he'll do well as well as special teams. That's a place he does good as well. I agree. I agree. So let's kind of finish the show where we started here with the talks of Brian Decker coming to the Colts. What does a guy like him, as far as what he brings to a franchise or an organization, mixed with a guy like Ballard, who is all about the tape and all about the scouting, what does Brian Decker bring to the

Colts? Yeah, so I've talked a lot about measurables and a little bit with production with Centex earlier. I've never met Brian. I'm very familiar with his work. We've talked a little bit online. And he's going to do it a completely different way. He has an army background, a military background, and things he's testing for and looking for in the data standpoint are all between the years. So he does something, he performs tests on players at the Combine. This is my basic understanding of what he does. Performs tests on players at the Combine, mental tests, scores them based on how they perform and react. And determines sort of their, I don't want to say work ethic, but it's along that line, sort of their mental ceiling, so to speak.

Guys that sort of have that special trait that everyone's chasing. I don't know if it works over a macro sample. I haven't seen his data. I do know it likes Jimmy Garoppolo a lot back in the day when he was with Cleveland. He had a chance to go in with the Michael Lombardi Cleveland era. They all got fired after a year and he was gone. So his work never really got to stand the test of time and really be applied. And again, I have not seen it on a macro scale.

But it comes from a military-army background of vetting army guys that way between the years in terms of do they have what it takes. And that's what he's looking for in football players. Guys that are tough.

And that kind of fits in with what Ballard, I think, wants as well. He wants guys that are tough. And, you know, that kind of fits in with what Ballard I think wants as well. You know, he wants guys that are tough and physical and, and, and, and scrappy. Right. And I think that's sort of what Decker's looking for in his, in his testing. So it'll be interesting to see, you know, the marriage of those two sort of a different look, you know, not a lot of people because of you need the access on these players to do this sort of testing, right. It's not something I can do sitting at my laptop.

You need to be there with the players. So it will be interesting to see how it looks. You know, the data set is going to be limited because of that limited exposure. I do know some other people are doing similar things inside the leak already. But, again, that's something that's not at all published, so we don't know how it works. But we'll be interested to see, you know, as we get limited information, how it plays out. Yeah, it was really interesting reading Seth Wickersham's piece on this guy.

Like, honestly, I'd never heard his name before, ever. I knew you would. Yeah. Or I knew you would have. So, I mean, that's – but, you know, ultimately it says that – I mean, in kind of what you said just in reiteration, that he was basically trying to crack the NFL character code as far as, you know, and this is what he was doing with Green Berets.

He apparently was trying to reinvent or did reinvent ultimately the process for picking them basically by going inside their head and trying to find out what kind of a person they were, what kind of a worker and teammate and everything else that they were for that. And with he goes into this, apparently what he had done throughout the process, at least with the Green Berets or whatever it is, he dropped the drop rate of Green Berets down 30% from where it had been. So that tells you that something that he was doing was, you know, correct.

And that's really interesting when you look at, I mean, because he really impressed apparently Bill Belichick in Indianapolis, you know, when those two talked. But that's how he got into Cleveland as well. Lombardi was a Belichick guy. Right. And that was kind of something that, you know, he had brought him to New England as well and had him, you know,

wanted to talk to him and stuff like that. And that's just really interesting, especially when you can get that kind, that's, isn't that what we're trying to do is everybody's trying to get inside Belichick's head and try to find out how, you know, he takes a sixth round pick that nobody's heard of and turns him into an all pro or takes the guy that is a cast off from another team and turns him into a vital part of the defense or an offensive line somewhere. Whereas he's giving away top picks, you know, for that. And everybody's kind of looking at each other like what's going on and it ends up being successful. This, I think, is what is Ballard's version of trying to figure that out. And if he can come in and even make an

impact and actually have a slight dent in the ability to bring in these character guys, that's going to be a big help for the Indianapolis Colts, not only to find the right guys to fit the system and to fit the scheme, but to also find the guys who not only want to be there, but want to win there and win not just on the field, but in the locker room and as a person. And those are the guys that stick around. No question. Really interested with this guy. This is something that is coming on. And a lot of the talks now are also involving some of the other scouting department guys that the Colts are going to be

in. So it's going to be exciting over the next week probably, I would say, as far as some of the changes in the front office and the personnel. It's going to be a whole new crew in Indianapolis, and I think that Colts fans have a right to be excited. So, Ethan, thank you so much, man, for coming on the show tonight, man. It was really a blast to hear your takes on the draft picks and to give us a little bit of your takes on the draft picks and to give us a little bit of a background on what Brian Decker can do for the Colts and kind of what

he's here for. Yeah, well, thank you, Matt. I appreciate it. Have fun. Absolutely. Tell everybody where they can catch you on Twitter. Yeah, at NFLDrafter, just like it sounds. And that's where all my work will be and all my takes and all my tweets. Excellent. Thank you guys for listening. Get to iTunes and give me a rating and review. You guys have been fantastic about that so far. Like I said, that's helping the show grow immensely, and you guys have no idea. But keep doing that. Keep it up. Make sure that you guys, if you want to utilize the call-in line, it's 574-516-2881 you want your question answered on the show call in we'll put your voice on the show and i'll answer your call on the show every single time so

utilize that call-in line if not hit me up on twitter at mdainley underscore nfl you can also catch the show at locked on colts as well so thank you guys all for listening and we'll talk to you tomorrow right here on lockeded 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. We'll be right back. or call 1-800-SPRINT-1 today.