Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - LOCKED ON COLTS -6/14- News And Notes From Day 1 Of Colts Mini-Camp

Episode Date: June 14, 2017

Matt takes a look at Day 1 of #Colts mini-camp; how is Andrew Luck feeling? Who has the team lost along the d-line already? Who's impressing in the WR corps? - and much more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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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 Wednesday. I hope that you guys were all able to beat the heat, at least those locally here in Indiana.

Muggy and hot, and I hope that you guys either had a pool or a nice cool house to get into because there was just no good reason for anybody to be outside today unless they absolutely had to. So hope everybody stayed cool. Hope everybody's air conditioners are working. And we got a lot more of that to look forward to in the summer. We know how Indiana summers are. But the Colts started their mini camp yesterday. And obviously, we got to hear a little bit from Pagano and a couple other people to kind of gauge what they're doing. You know, there's three days here. The Colts, actually, when they get on the field for these practices, they have NFL referees here. So that's

something that they spoke about that would help them kind of gauge where everybody's at, you know, to get people used to it, to get the NFL referees actually on the field so that the guys feel like when they're in practice, when they're doing some seven-on-seven work or just whatever, that the guys actually feel like they have somebody watching them, keeping them inside the rules of the game. Obviously, one of the major topics of the presser was Andrew Luck. They asked how he was going to be doing, what would he be doing. Basically, Pagano put a pin in it right away saying that he was going to be doing, what would he be doing there? You know, basically Pagano put like kind of a, a pin in it right away saying that he was going to do nothing but observe. And a lot of it was, you know, where do you think he's going to be at at this time and that time? And, you know,

and to Pagano's credit, he did give a little more information on some of the other stuff that was going on. You know, like I said, he was talking about Luck's procedure and basically how they hope that he's back by training camp. They don't know if he's going to be. But basically talking about how he's going to have to rebuild himself. And this is a good thing. And actually this is something that should be up tomorrow on Stampede Blue from me. If you guys are not one of the new listeners, you guys have been listening kind of from the beginning or at least somewhere near the beginning of this show. I've talked very highly about Brian Schottenheimer.

I'm a big fan of his and how he helped Andrew Luck, you know, work on his footwork in training camp last year. The way that he helped him, you know, concentrate on going through his progressions and kind of a little bit better arm angles, you know, the simple motion to be able to throw the ball a little bit harder with a little bit more angst on it. And one of the things that we are going to see from Andrew Luck having this surgery is he's going to have to rebuild it from the bottom up. And I kind of likened it to Major League Baseball pitchers, how when they have Tommy John surgery,

they basically have to rework themselves all the way from the beginning. They're allowed to work themselves out of bad habits easier because they're basically starting over. They can't throw because it hurts and because there's something in there that's just been surgically repaired. So they have to go at it slowly. They'll start their throwing motion all over. They have to go through the correct mechanics and stuff like that as to not re-injure whatever's wrong. And the same thing kind of goes for Andrew Luck. He's going to have to go through

all this process, start slow, throw the ball soft, to throwing it a little bit harder, to be able to unleash and stuff like that and for him to just continually before he can even throw go through his foot mechanics and going through eye discipline and all that other stuff first is going to help him once he comes back be significantly uh more ready you know than he would be obviously if he hadn't been doing that but once he does come back and he is able to throw, he's going to have, like I said, Brian Schottenheimer did really good work with him last year. You could definitely notice it in training camp and in practices afterwards, is that

there was a very real dynamic of focusing on the little things, the fundamentals of his game. And another year with Brian Schottenheimer, Luck starting out from kind of square one with all the mechanical issues that he's had in the past. And there hasn't been a lot, not with his throwing motion, but I just mean the fundamental work for the most part. Going through all that from the start is going to show that that luck can be as good or better than he was last year and I think that that's nothing can do nothing but good for for luck and the Colts I think that's something that is very real I think that once you have to it's kind of like being blind you know you you hear better you you rely on your other senses and I think that luck once he if because

he can't throw deep initially he's going to have to throw a lot short. So he's going to have to work the rest of that stuff and build that stuff up. It'll be like second nature to him once he's able to throw the ball deep. And I just think that he'll be able to consistently go after those short passes as opposed to bypassing them without even giving them a second look or an initial look in a lot of cases. That was one of the issues I've always had with Luck is that he would bypass the six-yard route on first down to go for the 12-yard route on first down. And a lot of times those aren't successful. So take that six yards on first down because he's so good and so active and so athletic that those first downs are going to come.

I mean, you've got to take chunk yardage when you get an opportunity for it. And a lot of the guys with those six-yard routes, they can break those open and everything, so on and so forth. But I just think that that's going to help Luck really kind of start from square one. I think he's going to be more fundamental this year. And I think that after you get his confidence up from last year and what a good season he had and his being more comfortable with Brian Schottenheimer going into this year.

I think that, I mean, watch out. I really believe that. I don't think that this surgery is going to hamper him at all. It might make him start a little slower than typical just because of his limitations physically. But I definitely think that you're going to see a resurgent Andrew Luck. Hopefully he can stay healthy throughout the season and doesn't take too many hits and any monstrous

ones at all, but I really am excited to see that. I think that those two working together are going to bring big things for Andrew Luck's 2017 season. They also talked about Christine Michael. Obviously you guys have heard this since he's been brought in. They're real excited about his explosiveness and kind of what he brings in here. I'm not so sure how excited I am about Christine Michaels' explosiveness. I think that a lot of his issues were his vision that I've seen anyways. His explosiveness has never been an issue as far as I could tell, but he would ultimately be a little bit like Gurley was last year

and to a much lesser degree like Trent Richardson was, is instead of finding the hole and trying to escape through that hole, a lot of times he would embrace the contact when it wasn't necessary. If there's no hole, then take the contact and go forward. But he would embrace that a little bit too much for my liking when there was still yards to be gained outside of the contact. So I think that he's a nice addition when you're looking to round out that backfield. I think that's something that the Colts have needed, obviously.

I mean, four deep in that backfield is very possible. And it'll be interesting to see how that all shakes out. We'll have to see at training camp. I'm excited to see him at training camp just to see if he actually brings anything. But, you know, they're happy with him. They're excited about him. And so that's, you know, that's nice to see. But you're never going to hear the Colts coaching staff, especially Pagano, talk down about anybody on their team. So, you know, you take it with a grain of salt, but you're still hopeful that that's actually what's being seen.

Hassan Ridgway also, they explained that he had had a shoulder surgery in the offseason, and that was something that they were a little more up front with. You know, he hadn't really gone through a lot. He's not a big guy on injuries. He just says so-and-so has this, so-and-so has that. Similar to what he said about T.Y. Hilton, he said that he's got a hamstring issue. It's not that big of a deal. He'll be fine.

It's just something that's hampering him right now. But they asked about Hassan Ridgway being on the mend, and he basically said that he had shoulder surgery, that he's fine, and that there was a procedure done. So it was something that apparently had been bothering him last season, but they found out that it was something that needed corrected, so they went ahead and got it done. But that's a little more upfront than Pagano typically is about it. When they got to Andrew Luck, he said that he was feeling good. He said that he's, you know, been seeing progress through his rehab process and he's been active with a lot of the trainers and stuff like that. You can see that, you know, he's a little lighter, so he's not able to lift very much. That's something else, you know,

strength is something that's going to come last with his rehab. And once he's able to lift very much. That's something else. Strength is something that's going to come last with his rehab. And once he's able to lift a little bit and stuff like that, right now he's just able to keep himself in shape. So it'll be interesting to see how that kind of turns about. Will he not be kind of the strong-armed quarterback for the 2017 season? I think that's more than possible. I think it's more than realistic as well. Uh, so, you know, that's something that we're just going to have to wait and see as time progresses. And I don't think that, uh, you can question Andrew Lux wanting to be on the field at all, obviously, but this is something that's just going to be a process and something that we're going to have to worry about. You know, he's lost about 10 to 12 pounds, he said, throughout this or somewhere around 10 to 15 pounds. And, you know, that's

noticeable. And not only that, but it's notable because for a guy that's got his size, they obviously know that that's, you know, something that he's going to have to regain. And that's not something that he's going to be able to do while he's still unable to physically use the shoulder, kind of in a brute kind of way. So Chester Rogers, again, continues to get some mentions today. And that's something that we've heard from George. We've heard from others. It's a guy that I've really liked going through the process

and that a lot of the coaches have liked as well. You know, they talk about how well he's been getting in there and that he's just kind of, you know, now it's all second nature to him and that he's flashing his ability to get the ball. He's a natural hands catcher. He's a guy that people really need to watch out for. I mean, if, you know. There's so much with the wide receiver core right now that you really wonder what the end result's going to be. You think that T.Y. Hilton's the guy. He is the guy, ultimately.

You never know about injuries. That's basically the only thing. You see what he offers. He's good at getting off the line of scrimmage despite his size. He's very quick downfield. He's definitely a guy that can take the top off of a defense. But you obviously naturally wonder and hope that he doesn't get injured. But you know that it's a possibility.

Then you look at a guy like Moncrief. He was injured last year. He's kind of yet to really stride forward and take the reins as the clear number two guy. Then you've got Kamar Aiken, a guy who's coming into battle for those positions. He's only a guy who's had one solid year as a pro. The rest of his years have either been nothing or just very average, as in 2016 was very average. Philip Dorsett, very average. In fact, below average. I did another piece for FanRag talking about him going through looking at his. I did a YouTube video that kind of shows all his targets throughout the 2016 season.

There was a lot of bad passes towards Dorsett. So, I mean, you kind of had to understand that as well. I think I counted 11 that were absolutely uncatchable. And when you broke down his catch percentage, I think his catch percentage just in general off all of his targets was somewhere around 55%. But when you take those 11 absolutely uncatchable balls out of the way, then I think that boosted it up to around 68%. I mean, so he made a lot of catches too on passes that were bad. You know, he had to dive for, he had to lay out, he had to go up

against multiple defenders and come down with the ball. So he's a quality receiver. He just hasn't broke out yet. And I think there's confidence from him and this team that he can do that. I see the upside with him. But then again, if he doesn't present that upside, you know, then what do you have? You've got a spot open on that depth chart. So for a guy like Chester Rogers, a guy who actually outplayed Dorsett last year, he's a guy who could be on the come up. He's a nice tall dude. He's a little light, but you know, another year in the NFL is going to get his weight up. He's going to be more acclimated to the physicality of the game. And I'm real excited about him. I really am.

I think that Chester Rogers has complete breakout ability this coming season. If there's anybody on this wide receiver core that falters, Chester Rogers is going to step up and he's going to be a major role player for this team this year. And I think that he's going to get a lot of enjoyment out of that. And I think that the Colts fans, more or less, are going to get a lot of enjoyment out of that and I think that the Colts fans more or less are going to get a ton of enjoyment out of that as well. There was also something interesting that Pagano brought up about the team and the turnover ratio and how they do that. He said that they're 27 and 2 when they're plus one or better which obviously means they win the turnover battle and that's pretty simple to grasp and to cling on to.

It's just that one stat. If we can take care of the ball, we certainly know that we have to take away the ball more this offseason if we're going to have success. And that's been basically their idea. You know, you add Quincy Wilson, a tall, long, fast corner with ball skills, and you bring in Malik Hooker, another guy with ball skills on the back end of the defense. You have Darius Butler that you re-ser, another guy with ball skills on the back end of the defense. You have Darius Butler that you re-sign, a guy with really good ball skills, ball hawk ability back there at safety. And you've basically designed a lot of it that that's one of your deals.

I mean, you've got big dudes like John Bostick, who Pagano is really high on. It's a good thing because he was high on a few people. And the best part about it is that he hasn't given any of them a nickname, no rolling balls of this or, or game changers or none of that other stuff, wrecking balls or nothing, you know, so that's a good thing. If as long as he doesn't do that, he doesn't put a big hex on, you know, like the scarlet letter on these guys careers or anything like that. But a lot of them have come in to be those guys, have come in to be the guys to turn the ball over a little more. And to Andrew Luck's credit with only 13 interceptions last year, that's not that big a deal. 31 touchdowns. I mean, there's a lot of what Andrew Luck does on his side of the ball that a lot of people... He has those, what the heck was

that type of throw almost once a game it seems. Sometimes it gets picked off, sometimes it doesn't. But those are the scary parts of Andrew Luck. The biggest problem on the other side of the ball is that the defense was terrible at turning the ball over last year. Eight interceptions on the entire season. That's just something that absolutely cannot happen. I mean, these guys have to turn the ball over more than they have in the past. They've got that defensive line that I think is absolutely loaded. I think that these guys feel that defensive line is loaded now. They feel like they're getting a lot of contributions from guys that they've brought in, obviously Hankins and

stuff. They've talked up Margus Hunt a little bit more. You know, they're happy about Sheard and Simon. And these guys are all gamers. I mean, these guys are guys who are going to come in, put a hat on a ball, and that's really what they need. I mean, we need to see the ball on the ground a ton when our defense is on the field this year, because given Andrew Luck, all those extra possessions. So when all these guys are brought in, this defense is reworked. It looks like to some on the outside that, oh, they're moving towards, you know, what they need to be, but they really have to be effective at turning the ball over this year. If they do that, that defense ultimately becomes, you know, significantly better. I mean, you don't have to get as many tackles if you're turning

the ball over more you don't have to worry about uh how you are on third down if you turn them over on second down you know and that was one of the biggest issues with last year's team as well on the other side uh not on the other hand of of not turning the ball over very much at all you know the the Colts defense was awful on first and second down. Early downs, you know, led to significantly opportunities for opposing offenses against the Colts. And that was something that the Colts really could not shake. Their third down percentage wasn't terrible, but when you were just so bad, I mean, giving up tons of yard on first and second down, a lot of first downs on first and second down.

That's how you wear a defense down. That's how you just disintegrate anything that you hope to build out of that defense. And we've got, you know, the nose tackle. They're high on Al Woods as well as a backup there or maybe a starter. We don't really know yet. I mean, a lot of these position battles and stuff are going to go down in camp and they're going to be super interesting. But this is what this defense was built to do.

They're built now. They're excited about the guys that have come in feeling that they are scheme fits and they want guys who can get to the quarterback, whether it's from the nose tackle like they've talked about with Al Woods. they said that he can push the pocket. You know, we know what Hankins can do. They somehow they like Margus Hunt. I think that's extremely, you know, high praise for a guy that hasn't really done anything in his career to this point. But you know, you've got Henry Anderson, you've got some guys along this defensive line, you know, we hope that Hassan Ridgway gets healthy, because he's he's a potential big time player for this D line. And then you've, some guys along this defensive line. You know, we hope that Hassan Ridgway gets healthy because he's a potential big-time player for this D line.

And then, you know, they talked up Bostic. They've talked up Spence a ton in the past. They like how Morrison is moving. This front seven here is a group that they're really trying to push the narrative almost with them that, hey, it's up to you guys. You know, you guys are the ones that are going to stop this. And ultimately, they are, because what that front seven does completely dictates what happens on the back end in pass coverage. If they can get to the quarterback, then the pass coverage is going to be significantly better. It's just a matter of fact. I mean,

there's just no way you can, even if the coverage was bad, the quarterback can't throw as well when he's consistently pressured. It's a fact. There's nothing else to prove. But you've still got to have guys on that back end that can make plays on the ball. So it'll be really interesting. It's a lot of fun getting excited for this group, too. And I think that you can tell when they ask, uh, Pagano or anybody else, basically, you know, is this the most competitive group that you've seen?

Uh, that, that, you know, that that's unquestionable that they don't even hesitate. You know, it's absolutely, this is, this, it's not even close. These guys are absolutely the most competitive group that we've had in camp since 2012. And that's something that you can't, I mean, even if you don't have the highest level of talent, competition breeds success. I mean, this is something else. You can have guys fighting for position, and we've talked about this on the show, and I don't remember who the guest was at the time, but we've talked about this is a very real thing. You've got guys who are scraping and clawing not only to make the 53-man roster, but you've got guys scraping and clawing in-game who are actually on the roster to get more playing

time when you have a natural competitive atmosphere around the team and around the roster. So, I mean, you look at the comments that Ursae said about plural Lombardis, you know, with Andrew Luck, not just with Andrew Luck, with a roster like that. That's how you do that. You do that with a competitive roster all the way through, and then you hope to get some of the standout talent. You hope that some of these guys like Terrell Basham actually show what they're worth or that they are what we all think they are. You hope that some of these young free agents that were signed actually produce. A guy like Sean Spence, you want

a guy like Sean Spence who was brought in when he was drafted by the Steelers. They thought he was going to be a phenomenal player. His injury set him back. He went to Tennessee last year, was pretty good in coverage. And he's a guy that has a ton of potential. If he can stay healthy, that's a guy that can really regain his worth in the NFL. And there's a few guys on this roster like that. What does Vontae Davis bring this year? I'm excited to see that.

He appears to be trying to take on a little bit more of a leadership role, which we haven't really noticed from him in the past. We think that obviously we know what Vontae Davis is when he's healthy and good, and he's as good as anybody. There's a couple guys that have his number for sure in the league, but if we can get a more solid secondary around him, then that puts a little less weight on his shoulders to be the absolute man-to-man guy in this defense.

Rashawn Melvin, the Colts brought in another defensive back, a guy from Ohio State as well who played at Seattle. I cannot think of his name right now, but they're bolstering this secondary. That is the idea. Now they got rid of a guy like Reggie Porter who they've been talking up this whole time. So for them to bring him in, Tyvus, I can't remember his last name, but for them to get rid of that Reggie Porter, that's a guy that, like I said, they've talked up a ton since the beginning and thought he might be a guy that could make the roster as an undrafted free agent. So for them to get rid of him, I mean, it's not like he's a guy who was established,

but for them to get rid of him shows that this is a guy that they also believe in. So there's a lot of exciting things going on. I really hate the fact that we are only a few days away from going into the dead period because I just want this stuff. I want these guys to get a little break. That's fine. A few weeks. Get a few weeks off. But come back.

I mean, we need football bad. We've waited a long time. We've had some, you know, the draft, free agency, and some of these camps that kind of hold us over. But, man, we need some football. It's been a long time. It seems like since late January, early February. And I mean, we're only into June right now. And, you know, four months removed from football seems like a long time. But we're really going to be, you know, kicking the dirt here pretty soon because there's going to be nothing going on other than guys getting released, guys getting hurt, offseason stuff. Just hope that the Colts and the roster

and everybody else plays it safe and doesn't do anything stupid in the offseason to kind of ruin their opportunity to play for a team that, in my opinion, is really surging up, not growing. I think these guys are surging already, and it's not because of what they're showing in OTAs or not what they're showing in minicamp. It's the group, and I think this is going to be a very good chemistry-based group. I think these guys all have one goal, and you like that you've got some of the confidence coming in with these guys some outlandish remarks but man that's what you got right you've got the belief in the goal and a lot of guys who can accomplish that goal if everything goes right so uh very exciting

we've got another day or two or we've got another two days of mini camp we will have george in here later the week we'll have jake in here in the later in the week we've got some guests lined up already for next week so we've got a lot of good shows lined up for you guys make sure you're using the call-in line 574-516-2881 you can catch that number on the colt locked on colts twitter page at locked on colts if you can't remember uh, think you guys continue to put in those ratings and reviews on iTunes. We need those to build the show, to, to reach out to more, uh, listeners and to get this ball, uh, to keep this ball rolling the way that we have so far, make sure that you guys

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Don't just know the call-in number. Use it. You have a question, you want to ask something, call in and do it. We'll get to it on the show for sure. You may luck out and it may be a great topic and we may spend a good portion of the show on it like we did this past week. So thank you guys all for listening. I'll catch you all on Friday right here on Locked on Colts.

You are 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. We'll see you next time.