Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - LOCKED ON COLTS -7/14- The Time For Answers Is Almost Here W/@gmbremer

Episode Date: July 14, 2017

George Bremer returns to join Matt in talking about anything and everything that gives us a reason to love the offseason. Also the two ask the question about future training camp destinations, other analysis that makes little sense about the Colts new look roster and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Welcome back to Locked On Colts, ladies and gentlemen. I'm your host, Matt Dainley. Thank you guys for joining me to end up the week here on a Friday. As typical, we've got great guests this week. It was really nice to get a couple guys on and really have a solid conversation with them. It was also real nice to be able to get my man George back on the line with us here to end the week. So, George, thanks for coming by, man.

No problem. Glad to be here. I'm also glad that I can see the end of the tunnel now. Football's almost back. Almost. Almost. It's getting close there. Just threw in my credential requests for training camp.

Excited to kind of see how everything goes through. With that process, I mean, it's just a new spot, new people, just ultimately a whole new, I think, experience for, you know, media. But I think the the issue with the two fan days kind of is rubbing me the wrong way. Does that make sense to you? I mean, from what they go from Anderson University and then they go into twice for the entire camp actually having fans be able to come in and enjoy that. That, to me, seems a little strange. Offer any insight to that, I mean, as far as what maybe a reasoning was or anything like that?

Yeah, you know, it's logistics. And it's tough because I understand the fan situation completely. I mean, you're looking at a team that since, 1984 every training and practice has been open you know that's 33 years worth of training game practices and now there's two you know right so uh but it has to do with you know as long as they're going to be at the at the complex there's really just not room there uh for parking there's there's just no way really to to open it up to the fan base at large and then the logistics of moving to somewhere else you know for those one day practices there's so much involved with that to get those things together that I think ultimately

too is is what they're going to be able to to manage and you know it is it's disappointing and it's sad and and i i wonder honestly how long term this whole plan is because i know jim ursae has made a point of saying you know we're doing this this year but they really haven't committed to anything past that so i don't know maybe maybe they'll be somewhere where there's more open practices down the line or or maybe this is a way of the future do you see that as something that they'll be doing? Do you actually see them maybe going back to Anderson, or do you think that if they were to go somewhere in the future that there would be a different landing spot for them in the future?

I'd be surprised if they came back to Anderson. I think that, at least for the next few years, I think that's probably off the table. You never say never. It's happened before where they left and came back to Anderson. But I don't think if they go back to campus somewhere next year, I'd be surprised if Anderson is the place. But at the same time, I wouldn't be surprised if they found someplace, maybe even within Indianapolis.

I'm just throwing stuff out there. I don't know anything as far as any deals or discussions or anything else but it wouldn't shock me if a place like marion university or maybe even you know university of indianapolis could host even a week or two you know even if it's not a full quote-unquote training camp schedule uh at least host a week or two and get out there. I do think it's important to Jim Irsay. I think he enjoys being able to put the team out there and let fans get, you know, close to the product.

I think that this year it was just a matter of once they had determined that they weren't going to go back to Anderson, you know, some dominoes fell into place and decided to go home. And once that happened, their hands were kind of tied a little bit. Yeah, I mean, that makes sense. I would like – I mean, I think Anderson or Indianapolis University makes perfect sense. U of I is a perfect spot for it. It's located well in the city.

I mean, it just – I would just like to see the fans be able to see more of what's going on. Because, I mean, even as much as you and I know, and everybody else who's ever been to camp for that matter, you know that people are getting bored throughout the very camp that they're sitting through. But they still enjoy it. They still come back. Heck, they'll be like, man, I am so bored today. But they'll be back three days later for the, for their, you know, second or third time of the summer. And I just think that it's, I think it's,

I mean, it's not critical to any success by any means, but you know what? I think the players enjoy seeing the fans around there too. I mean, that's a lot of fun for them, not only while they're doing instruction, but you know, just, I mean, there are several guys in the past. Corey Redding was one of them that sticks out to me about how he would try to come up over to the crowd and fire them up during a certain drill or something. You know, I mean, that's just, that's exciting. I think the players enjoy it, and I know that the fans enjoy it at least for about 80% of the practice. Yeah, well, I think, you know,

I think for the players obviously breaks up the monotony. They've been working all spring. They're going to go into the season where their practices are closed to have fans at practice and have them reacting you know it gives them some juice there's no doubt it gives us some energy i feel bad from the fan standpoint just because i think it was an opportunity for a lot of people who can't afford to go down to lucas oil stadium or just can't get there for whatever reason to go and see the team up close live in person you know here's the opportunity to do that and now those opportunities are greatly diminished this year uh and it's sad but you know there's been a lot of factors that way uh in terms of you were you were at camp last year and you were at camp years before and the

attendance last year took a major dip yeah it was noticeably smaller i think there's a lot of reasons for that some of it the team was coming off of a less successful season and some of it you know as early as some of the schools are going back i know when yeah that's true i first came back to training camp there was like a week and a half you know where where kids were out and i think last year there were like three days and started going back. So there's a lot of different factors that play into it. But I think ultimately it is sad because I think there's a lot of kids out there,

a lot of families out there that this is their chance. This is how they get up close and personal with the team. And now maybe that's going to be a much lower percentage chance for them to do that this year. Yeah. So we'll be interested to see kind of how that progresses over the next few years. I think that they will, if nothing else, I think they're going to offer at least more fan days. I mean, I think two is about as bottom barrel as you can get.

Yeah. I think they're going to try to find some ways to open up some more practices i won't say this i think the two that are open are going to be interesting as a result of this i mean normally the the open house quote unquote at lucas oil stadium happens during mini camp and you know not that it being the first practice of training camp there aren't going to be pads or anything so it's not going to be that much more intense than it would have been during minicamp. But it is at a later point in the year,

a little more important point in the preseason. I think that'll be fun. It's always kind of a fun day anyway because it's the first time they've been in the stadium for the rookies, for the new guys to come into the team. You know, it's kind of neat. And then I really think the night practice at Warren Central could be a lot of fun just because the night practices are always interesting, and that's going to be a really interesting environment for that kind of situation.

Yeah, you can be sure that just about every student has any care in the world about football or the Colts or just in general probably, regardless whether they care about sports or not, they're going to want to be able to be in attendance for that. That's a pretty cool thing for a school to host. Yeah, and I think that'll be a really neat situation. So I would expect at the very least that they might move around some of the schools that are doing that.

But you know what I would like to see, and this is completely taking the conversation in a totally different direction, I would like to see more preseason games at neutral sites. You know, back in the day when the Colts would play the Bears, say at Purdue, you know, or something like that, I think it would be more fun to kind of take at least one of the preseason home games and put it at a neutral site and let, you know, some fans maybe get to an area they wouldn't normally get to see in an NFL game.

And kind of keep it similar to maybe a training camp environment. Yeah, exactly. That'd be cool. And there have been some suggestions out there by people, nobody within the league office, nothing imminent, but there have been suggestions of, hey, if you want to shorten the preseason, how about making

three games, every team gets one home game, every team plays one neutral game, and you cut down a week from the preseason and you add some more interesting kind of aspects. Who knows how any of that's going to go, but I just think any time the NFL can do something to kind of put their product somewhere where it's not always available as a live event it can only be good

for the sport and for the league yeah i absolutely agree well let's uh kind of switch gears george it's been a while since we've really had anything of note pop up i mean there's there's some articles out you know about people with their pre-season power rankings and all that stuff already but i mean uh i don't really find those that interesting. I did, however, just for the simple sake of the fact that the pro football talk ranked the Colts 26th. I think that's a little low. Just what are your thoughts on that?

I was surprised to see that. I mean, obviously, it's not college football, so there's no impact on anything you know from these polls but uh i was really surprised to see him that well i think somewhere between 15 and 20 is probably where i would put him on a preseason thing um but to see him that low with a at least as far as we know most of the season they're going to have a healthy Andrew Luck. It's hard for me to imagine. 26 in a league, you're thinking 4-12, 3-13 kind of level of play.

And I just don't see that from this team. I think this is maybe at worst a 7-9 team, maybe a best-in-6 team right now. I don't think any of those numbers get you anywhere near 26th overall in the league. Right. No, I don't either. It just doesn't make any sense. And not only that, but I mean, and then keeping that same line of not-so-nice rankings, I guess, Nate Davis of USA Today ranked the Colts' defensive line 32nd in the league. That, to me, was really surprising because I thought when you look at last year,

it's almost a blessing in disguise kind of a situation because you had so many injuries and you had a lot of guys who were kind of forced into action or who got more snaps than they might have gotten otherwise. You've got guys like T.Y. McGill in particular, and Hassan Ridgway, who've got a lot of experience. And now you're dealing with defensive line, but depending on how you define defensive line for this group, you've got definitely the addition of Jonathan Hankins. You've got a healthier, better mindset for Henry Anderson.

And really, when you look at some of the numbers, some of the more analytical numbers, like TFF, he probably had a better year last year than a lot of people give him credit for. He had more impact than necessarily. And that was while he was coming back, while he was maybe 70% at best. You know, who knows what they'll get from Kendall Langford this year, but you would think it's going to be more than last year. And then you throw in Al Woods, some of these other additions. And then if you consider Jabal Sheard and John Simon to be defensive linemen for the time that their hands are in the ground, to me it's a greatly improved defensive line over where it was a year ago.

And last year, given what they had to work with, the defensive line to me was one of the parts of the defense that I guess they didn't overachieve, but they probably accomplished some things at times more than you would have expected them to do. Just because guys like Hassan Ridgway and T.Y. McGill were making plays, at the beginning of the year, you may not have been sure what you were going to get from them.

Yeah, exactly. And when it comes down to it, as much as I honestly like T.Y. McGill, I thought, you know, I don't know much about Grover Stewart, but I like Tasson Ridgeway. Obviously, we like Henry Anderson. We want him to return to his rookie year's form. But when you look at any of the guys that the Colts had on their defensive line last year, at all, any of them, Jonathan Hankins is far and away the best defensive lineman at any of those positions I mean I would almost venture out to say that he might be even possibly the best five tech if they put him out there he was so active from the three tech and such a clean fill-in at nose tackle for uh Snacks Harrison it was just not even, I mean, none of, I did a YouTube video for just basically

getting all of his snaps in and stuff like that. And I put it up, it's like 10 and a half minutes long. And that was quite an editing process. Let me tell you. I mean, it just, there wasn't anybody on the Colts defensive line last year that I watched that was even remotely close to being able to do what Jonathan Hankins could do at multiple positions. We've talked about this, George, and I've talked about it with other people too, and it's a question, you know, where does Jonathan Hankins line up? I am to the point now where I don't care where he lines up. As long as he's on the field, we're good. Wherever he wants to, right? Yeah, yes. That's kind of the answer now.

To me, that's the great benefit of this line this year. Last year, there were guys who were stuck in places because they're either kind of the answer by default, or they were literally the only healthy guy out there who could play that spot. And this year, I feel like there's

a lot more versatility. There's a lot of chances to rotate guys around, move guys around. Like I said, from what we saw during the spring, and granted, Kenna Langford didn't work at all. Hassan Ridgway didn't really work. You know, guys coming back from some injury weren't in the mix. But what we saw in the spring, you had Henry Anderson and Jonathan Hankins out there most of the time

with Al Woods at the no-sackle spot spot but who was playing on which side of Al Woods would change from snap to snap and I think they've got a lot of ability to do that this year to kind of match up to what they want to do against each individual week's opponent and they never had any anywhere close that kind of flexibility last season yeah it Yeah, it doesn't even resemble the same squad. And just the simple fact that he basically says, nah, they're the dead last. To me, that doesn't compute. I mean, if you want to put them, like you said,

somewhere in the mid-range, 15 to 20, that's acceptable because we just don't know how a lot of stuff's going to gel. But if you're going on pure talent and ability, come on. I mean, get real. They weren't the 32nd-ranked defensive line last year. They were darn close, really darn close. They were down in the bottom. They were like 31st and a half, but they weren't quite 32.

You know what I mean? There's just no sense in ranking them at 32 this year. And this kind of goes in line with, you know, there's a lot of questions about the pass rush, a lot of questions about coverage this year in the secondary, in the back end. We don't know how a lot of that's going to turn out just on raw ability from them. I mean, look, if the camp practices, the training, all that stuff that you see them

go through in secondary drills and pass rush drills, we're going to see raw ability. We're going to see all that. We don't know how that will actually mesh with competition, with an actual wide receiver or an actual offensive tackle and all that stuff right now. But when you look at all of the stuff included, when you look at the run stopping ability that this team has improved upon, I mean, Jabal Sheard is a heck of a run stopper. John Simon can do anything, I think. I'm not saying he's like the best guy in the league or anything, but I'm saying he is very multifaceted, can do both. And you've got Jonathan Hankins, who is a humongous help against the run. Not only that, but then you look at the possibilities of the other guys on the defensive

line, what they can add to the group and so on. This is a unit now as opposed to kind of just people standing out here, 11 guys on the field, because you didn't have any group, whether it was the pass rush, the run-stopping ability, the coverage, or any of that stuff. None of that worked in tandem with anything. They were all separate entities last year. This year we actually have some meshing from the first, second, to third levels of the defense. And I just can't, for the life of me, I mean, I understand that we maybe look at people and think,

you guys are a little too hype about this defense. It's a brand new group, blah, blah, blah. But you also can't look completely at the other end of the spectrum and just say they're terrible just because of how they were last year. It's not the same team i would be significantly surprised if this defense has not improved this season now to what extent we can argue you know you know how far up they go but i don't think this is a 30th ranked defense in the league anymore and like you said i think there's so many pieces that there's just so much more they can do from a design standpoint now because the guys that they brought in and

yeah you know how's that all ultimately going to play out i don't know uh but it's going to be a much clearer view of what ted monachino can do as a defense coordinator i think you know a year ago he was very very hamstrung as far as what kind of coverages he could even call. I know that there were times that he made poor decisions even within his limited options, but let's be honest. Week one against Detroit, that secondary, there were guys who came in on Tuesday who were starting and playing a large portion of that game that weekend. That's not obviously an ideal spot to be.

And really, all year long, the defense, even when it was healthy, there were deficiencies. But it seemed like there was always somebody out or somebody suspended, somebody missing that was a key contributor. And this year, I think they're better prepared to lose a guy like that. You know, not that they're a top five defense or anything crazy like that. Right. But they've got better depth. And they can fill in.

They can change what they're doing a little bit more and react to a loss of a player. Whereas last year it was almost like, uh-oh, you know, there's two starters down, and now the defense is not able to function. Right. And I can't remember exactly how many. I did do a sheet for air yards last year throughout the season to kind of determine what quarterbacks were throwing the ball downfield a little further. And I don't remember the exact number, but I remember breaking down this first week's game with Luck and Stafford.

And I think, I mean, all the defense, the defense for the Colts was terrible. He didn't have to throw downfield. He had like, I'm pretty certain it was under 100 air yards for the entire game. And I think he had 27 to 30 uh attempts maybe more than that even I the attempts I'm probably way off but there was like no downfield passing whatsoever the Colts just could not tackle anything that night and that was what cost them the game and you know we talked about this I think a couple weeks ago as well. I watched a little bit more of that game and the Jacksonville game, and there are literally two or three plays in those games,

just a couple of them. If they get made, the Colts win ten games last year. Yeah, well, and, you know, the game at Houston. Yeah. There's another one. And, you know, during that situation. But, you know, we were talking about this with somebody else today, earlier today, and I thought one of those interesting things about that, though,

is that they could have been an 11-5 team, but all those weaknesses would still have been there. And I think it's almost better that they didn't. You know, because it did force them to kind of – because if they were 11-5 and they had gone back to the playoffs, the narrative this offseason would have been significantly different. And I don't think, I don't know that you would have seen the kind of overhaul that this team has undergone, and I think it was necessary.

That defense had become very old and very unathletic, and I can't think of two worse things to be in the National Football League. Yeah, you're exactly right, George. I mean, if they did go 11th, you are 100% right. I don't even need to expound on it. You are 100% right. That is exactly the case. They would not be in the position they are right now.

Chris Ballard would not be in Indianapolis. And the Colts would still have for all, you know, and not to drop bombs on, but a bunch of scrubs around here, more than likely. They may have gone heavy into free agency, but there would be a lot more 30-year-olds than just a couple guys. You couldn't have said it more perfect, and I think that was the biggest, probably godsend, if you want to call it that uh to happen to the colts last year to actually end up eight and eight and you know maybe another loss wouldn't even have hurt

just to put it in the you know we hey if they win seven games and i'm not trying to root for anything and certainly not for anybody to lose their jobs but if the colts win seven games last year maybe chuck's not the head coach right now either i mean just for possibility sake yeah you never know you know the last two years really if they don't win the week 17 game who knows what changes the following monday and you know i just know that there's a lot of things there's a whole different atmosphere down there right now um we talked about it before um it's just a completely different environment and that's because ballard has come in and and he's made it clear you know guys are gonna have to earn their spots they're going to have to

compete no one's gonna be handed a job no one's to be you know well you were drafted here so you're getting this spot none of that's happening and it just i think the players embrace that i think that's the kind of atmosphere they want you know they want to be in a situation where they feel like they need to fight every day because you don't get to this level without having that kind of competitive competitive nature and that kind of ego you, wanting to measure yourself against the other man. And you just kind of feel the whole excitement from the team of, hey, this is going to be real. And now you add in probably the one talking point that has changed this summer.

I know we were talking about that off the air a little bit. Maybe the one thing that has changed is Chris Ballard basically coming out and saying, confirming, you know, in an interview with the website, it's going to be a physical camp. There's going to be hitting. And I think there's a lot of people, fans, media, probably coaches, a lot of people who have witnessed training in the last few years who think that's a welcome change, you know, something that this team needs. Totally agree.

I'm one of those. I want to see it. I know you do. And, you know, I don't know that I've heard anybody say that they thought it was a bad idea. As many times as people would think, you know, there's always somebody, you know, whether it's at work, you're talking to someone and say, oh, you know, they need to hit.

Oh, you don't want to hit. You'll get injured or something. I don't know that I've heard anybody say that. Not even the guy at work that doesn't really know much about the Colts, but he tells everybody how much he knows. You know what I'm saying? That guy. I haven't even heard him say that.

And there's a couple where I work. So I like to listen to those. They're always fun to chuckle at when I'm sitting there at work when I first get in to kind of listen to what those guys have to say. But it's such a need for this team. Like we've talked about in the past, injuries happen. I mean, you can get injuries by doing simple drills, backpedal drills, running routes, you know, taking five-step drops.

You can do it by, you know it by a lot of the offensive line drills where you're just putting your hands up on a dummy, or even at the tackling dummies, or the sled, or anything. Things happen like that. But this Colts team in 2017 has to be a quality tackling team. And in order for them to be ready to go week one, and if not significantly better in week two, they have to be more physical in camp. It's necessity. I mean, there's just no

way around it. You can't not have that this year. And not only that, and here's something that I want to see from Pagano. Not just that this stuff takes place in camp, in the offseason. I want him to embrace it. I want him to be, this is what I want. You know what I mean? Because we kind of see, I don't want to say, I don't want to put words in anybody's mouth. So I'll just say, I kind of see him as, you know, he's a good, he's a player's coach. People love him. I also think that he is a tag along as far as what's asked of him, that he's just going to do it without much, you know, much disdain, I guess. I don't see him keeping personal issues with how he's instructed to do things. And I think that this should be right up his alley.

So, I mean, when you see Pagano in his press conferences, you don't see him animated very often. You know, sometimes you do, he'll chuckle or just whatever he's going to do. But I think this year you're going to actually see some excitement from him in his little pressers after practice and stuff like

that. Because I think this is really what he wants to be a part of. Yeah, I think you're right and he hinted you know throughout the spring that it might be more physical when you hear that from ballard it becomes like okay that's what's going to happen and chuck never came out and said it the way that ballard did but you know he kept saying it might be more physical because i think you know he's a defensive guy that's and he's also an old-school guy. You think about his dad coached high school football in Colorado for decades. He comes from that era.

You know what I mean? Right. So I would think that he really would embrace this. I think to an extent the players will too because, again, it's part of that competition. If you're a defensive player and you're going to earn a spot how are you going to do that without tackling yeah and as much as we talk about how the the competition mantra is going to get guys fired up to play hard in camp being physical in camp is going to weed out those guys who aren't really ready to be there

yeah absolutely and you know are there going to be maybe some more injuries? I thought it was interesting earlier today. I was listening to NFL radio, and I heard Doug Peterson on there, and he had come over from Kansas City as well, you know, last year to take over the head job in Philadelphia, and he had a really physical camp, and I think some people were kind of caught off guard by it, and there were quite a few injuries during that training camp.

But they were talking to him. Now they said, hey, it's your second year. You've got to back off a little bit. What's your plan? And he basically said, look, injuries are part of the game. It's something you're going to have to deal with. We don't want them. We're going to do everything we can to be as cautious as we can,

to protect as many players as we can. But at the same time, this is how you have to become a good, tough physical football team. This is where that happens. And so, no, I'm not going to back off. And I thought that's basically the message that's being sent here is, look, if you're going to preach being a good tackling team, you're going to preach being a tough team,

which has happened the last few years here, you're going to have to go out and build that in the summer at training camp. That doesn't mean it's going to happen every day. It doesn't mean it's going to happen, you know, for every minute of every practice when it does happen. But there are going to have to be live periods, and there are going to have to be chances for players to separate themselves, especially with how young this team is.

You know, so many guys who are either just coming into the league or who are accepting roles that are going to be expanded, different, you know, more, just more than what they've done before, you need, they need to be able to go out and tackle. And I think the offense, too. You know, I i mean a guy like marlon mack we've talked before about pass pro live hitting is going to help him in that regard tremendously yep absolutely yeah i mean half speed's not going to help him a bit for in any

aspect in any aspect whatsoever i mean yeah exactly you know i don't want these guys taking you know de-cleating each other but at the same time, you know, two hand touch. Give me a little more than that. You know, even on the even in the walkthrough stuff, give me a little shove or something, you know, just something because these guys need to actually have a reason to change their angle. They need a reason to cut hard. They need a reason to follow their alignment. You know, I mean, stuff like that. These guys, a lot of these young guys, especially are really going to have to understand that everything that they do has to be deliberate. It has to be a physical part of their, their daily routine, but they also have to understand that they're wanting, they are being brought in to play football, not to follow a specific script of what their title is or how they are supposed to react in each game. These guys were brought in because they were good football players. That's something that we continually hear from Pagano, from Ballard, from all these guys. What do you know about him? I know he's a hell of a football player. It seems like I hear that a hundred different times.

That's what they want from them. They don't want everything they're doing to be scripted. Here's what you need to do. This is what this is going to look like. Try to get into these, you know, that type of stuff. But they want these guys ultimately just to be football players and to go out and make plays. Absolutely.

And, you know, with that in mind, a guy like Frank Gore probably doesn't need a whole lot of work in these situations. guys ultimately just to be football players and to go out and make plays. Absolutely. And, you know, and with that in mind, a guy like Frank Gore probably doesn't need a whole lot of work in these situations. We know what he can do. He's been doing it in the league. I can see resting him and keeping him out of some of that. But a guy like Marlon Mack definitely needs it. Some other guys fighting for positions, you know, fighting in battles, they definitely need it.

And I'll tell you, and you saw this firsthand, look at a guy like Deron Carter. You know, in training camp practices, he looked like a world beater. You know, here was a guy that had Pro Bowl written all over him. But the second they got into the preseason games and the action went live, he disappeared. Yep. And, you know, I think more live periods, and again, it's not going to be the whole camp.

It's not going to be every day of every camp. But I think more live periods are going to help to kind of show that before maybe you get into a preseason game. Yeah, I was really excited about Jerron Carter too. You weren't alone. I thought that guy was going to be a hell of a running back man. He had the shot, you know. But you see things and the shot, you know.

But you see things, and it changes. And there's a list of my line. We can call it one guy or another, but there's a long, long list of guys who, in shorts, look like all pros. And as soon as the game went live it changes you know and that's the the players will tell you that the coaches will tell you that all the time that's where the separation happens yeah and you know again it's it's not going to happen to a hundred percent but i think i see a lot more good happening than bad and that's not to say that you know the first time an injury happens especially if it's somebody who's a bigger name or somebody, you know, who's of

importance to this team, that there isn't going to suddenly be a lot of second guessing about it. But I'm going to say just going in, you know, that's the risk you take. But I think right now with this team and this season and all the new pieces, I think it's a risk worth taking. Yep. And you know what? I just realized you said De'Ron Carter, and I was thinking De'Lon Carter. Well, him too. Yeah.

It was very similar. Yeah, very similar comparisons there. Looked great in training camp. You thought, this dude's going to be a great running back. But, yeah, De'Ron Carter, man, just nothing, nothing. training camp you thought this dude's gonna be a great running back but yeah Daron Carter man just nothing nothing I spent that entire offseason uh you know basically not just talking him up but looking into him trying to find out is this guy just all nothing I mean is there just nothing to this guy because everybody's talk about once he does this, you know, he's done. This and that and the other.

I mean, a lot of people were saying I was one guy backing him up and saying, no, you know what? I mean, you look at him. He's running quality routes. He's got good hands. He's doing what he needs to do. He's practicing hard and everything. Man, I just don't see how a guy like this can turn down.

He looked like crap. He didn't even look good right now in the CFL. I mean, he's a practice guy. I in the cfl i mean is he he's a practice guy i mean that's what he is he's not a gamer and it was funny because i think a lot of people kind of got on pep hamilton because they were you know he had that comment about well he makes a play every day out here he did yeah you know that wasn't that wasn't hyperbole at the time anybody who was watching those practices and who were out there, DeLon Carter, DeLon Carter, now I just did it. DeLon Carter was making plays every day, you know,

and he was going over the middle and he was making, he was a huge guy with a lot of athleticism and there was a lot of excitement and a lot of reason to believe, Hey, maybe there's something here, but it didn't happen. And he's not alone. I think there was a guy a few years before him named Chris Adams, who I can recall, who was another big receiver, who at training camp was really getting things done. And I'm not calling out players here individually because I know I couldn't even look that good in shorts. Right, right.

It's not that. It's just when your job is talent evaluation and you're taking away such a hugely important part of the game, it's tough to really get those decisions right and to really know what you're seeing. And I think that's been kind of Ballard's point. You know, he used the boxing analogy, which I thought was really good. You know, boxers spar.

They don't go between fights, just shadow boxing. You know, they go out and they spar and they get hit and they react to that and you in a physical sport that's what you have to do you know it would be like a nascar driver just just using a video game all off season you know not testing it tracks um you just can't do that. You don't get the physical activity in there. I just think it hurts every aspect of it, the evaluation, the players themselves. You're just making it a harder job than it needs to be. I absolutely agree 100%. So this is pretty fair to say that a lot of us agree with that.

Now, kind of an offshoot of this conversation is, you know, a lot of people because of the Colts injuries in the past have brought up their training staff. You know, I don't know any of them personally. So, I mean, I'm not assuming or anything like that. But with all that injury and stuff like that, do you make anything of that? I mean, is there any reason to believe that the training staff would be less than good

because people are getting injured? You know, you never know because there's a bunch of, like, you know, what's going on here moments there, and you don't have a whole lot of information. But I think it's funny is last year they changed all of that. You know, they had a new strength and conditioning guy. They changed the way that they were even preparing. And they've done it again this year. You'll see early on in practice, the beginning of practice is a little bit different.

What they do right after stretches is a little bit different. Every strength coach, every conditioning coach has a different idea of how they want to handle that. And it's not a massive thing, but you'll see it pretty quickly. There's a little bit different drill kind of right after stretching, and stretching itself looks a little bit different than it did. So I don't know. They went and they made some massive changes last year, and they still had the injuries. So they're an unavoidable part of the game, truth be told. And I know every team, I think, feels like... I know the numbers bear out that the Colts have been more injured than some other teams, but I think every fan base feels like their team has too many injuries. It's a part of the nature of the game. The question is, can the hitting in some way actually help that? There's a theory out there

that says, hey, you go and you get yourself ready, you survive training camp, the guys that do make it through may be healthier during the season as a result of that. We'll see. Yeah. It's hard to tell. Like I said, I don't know really. I could never make really heads or tails of that type of a situation. I see a lot of people complaining about it, but it's like, I just don't know. I mean, you can only nurse a guy back to health however his body wants to heal.

So it's kind of an odd situation with all that. But I am excited to see these guys and see them kind of knock each other around a little bit. Especially as this defense, we hear all the time, this defense needs an identity. This defense really needs an identity. It's a group of guys who have never really played together i mean you might have four maybe is the most optimistic uh returning starters on this on this team you know there's 20 i saw a stat the other day there's 22 new defensive players on this roster 22 guys who weren't here last year um They do. They need an identity because they don't have one,

and I don't think you can build that without some physicality. Yeah, I agree. Let's switch gears kind of here for our final topic of the day. Is there a position coach that you think will grow by leaps and bounds, their unit, like whether it be Ted Monachino, whether it be the offensive line there with Philbin or Sanjay Lau, a lot of people talking about him, loving him for the wide receiver group. Which group do you think would see the most significant change due to their coach

having a little more chemistry in a second or third year with them? Yeah, I really think it's going to be Sanjay Lau, just from everything that we've heard. And you see it continuing. I mean, I don't know if you're paying attention to some of the Instagrams and things that are coming out, but the receivers are working their butts off right now. Yeah, yeah.

And they've been out there and they've been vocal about it, and I think they all – it's not just that they like this guy or that they believe it you know they've all bought into whatever it is he's selling uh 100 and i think that's going to change and you see it in places he came from i mean their receivers last year in buffalo you know sammy watkins in particular but i think even robert wood said something about it you it on his way out to the Rams. They miss him. They think that's going to be a big loss to the Bills' core.

And I just don't see how it can do anything but good things for this group. And you imagine a guy like T.Y. Hilton, who has already reached some pretty impressive plateaus, if he can get even better you know what can that mean right if a guy you know if sanjay lauk can unlock and that's part of it too is is what you know look brian schottenheimer could be the best quarterbacks coach in the history of mankind but how much more room is there for andrew luck to go up right you know what i mean yeah i think that receiving group especially behind ty hilton there's a lot of unlocked potential in there a lot of untapped we talked about philip dorsett

the last time i was on and you know what how his physical skills have not translated to the field you know if sandre lao can get something to click guys like kamar aching guys like dante moncrief guys like philip dorsett we've seen flashes from all of them if he can get something to click and be you know the consistent productive receivers that they can be i just think there's so much potential there and when you hear that they're all bought in they're all 100 behind behind them, it's tough to imagine that that's not going to be the group that you see the most growth with. And you know, who was it? Somebody on NFL.com had the Colts ranked as like the 16th. Oh, I think it was Nate Burleson. He put their tandem, the wide receiver tandems as the 16th in the league. I think that's pretty accurate. I mean, just because of the unknown pieces about it.

But like you say, man, the potential is through the roof. You know, and then what a couple of days earlier in that one of the around the NFL writers basically wrote that he thought they were one of the most underrated groups in the league. Nobody's going to believe anything about this group, whether it's great or bad, until we see something on the field with these guys. But you're right. Chester Rogers has done a social media campaign since the season ended last year. And, man, you know what? He might be the one guy that I fell in love with right away when i saw him that actually is going to do well you know yeah there's we've had a couple in the past like i i wasn't super

high on levon brazil but i was really impressed with him thought he could actually really turn into be something decent decent you know derrick rogers uh i mean we've had some really talented wide receivers come through that were either drafted mid to late rounds or undrafted. And I think that we are really seeing Chester Rogers is going to rise as a number two, number three type guy in the league over the next couple years. I mean, you cannot mistake his work ethic at all, not to mention his skill, his ability to break out and make plays after the catch. We've talked about him a little bit, but I'm still so excited for this guy.

He reminds me a lot of Jack Doyle in the sense of his attention to his assignment and his ability to be where he's supposed to be. Now, athletically, he's far superior to Jack Doyle. The things that he can do physically they're not really comparable but i think that that's going to carry him a long ways too you know the fact that he because that ultimately when you look at you know why did andrew look look for for jack doyle so much in the red zone why did he look for him so much on third down it's that trust it's that you know the fact that Andrew Luck felt like

I know 84 is going to be where he's supposed to be and I think that's starting to grow with Chester Rogers you know and and that's hugely important obviously uh not just the quarterback but the coaching staff you know the guy who you can count on it's how Griff Whalen played in the league as long as he did. Go and be where you're supposed to be. I think when you combine that with Chester's work ethic, which is natural talent, there's a lot of reason to be excited about him. But I also think what's great about that, not just for him but everybody around him, is the competition there's going to be in that room.

We've talked about it all spring long. Every time I think I've been on, we've mentioned it because it's so exciting and it's something that you want to talk about. That competition amongst the receivers group should be outstanding all preseason long. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I'm excited for it. I think they've got a little too many of them in camp, but I'm excited to see the top five or six. I was talking to Kevin Bowen the other day, and I've just always kind of put corners and wide receivers always carrying six. The Colts always carrying six on their roster. He said that he thought that with Chester Rogers in the return game, that he thought the Colts could afford to just carry five.

Yeah, there's going to be some interesting roster mechanics, too, as we get down into the cuts. Now, we talked about this before, too, as we get down, you know, into, into the cuts. Now we talked about this before too, and a big factor in this is one cut this year, you know, not two. So they're going to go into week four with the preseason with 90 guys. And,

uh, there's going to be some interesting mechanics there just in terms of, do you keep maybe an extra running back instead of an extra receiver? Do you keep, you know, an extra defensive lineman because there are so many versatile guys? There's going to be a lot of decisions to be made. And I still think when you see how active Chris Ballard's been, how much he loves the scouting aspect of his job,

I think there's little doubt they're going to be active on the waiver wire after cuts. I think there's at least – I'm not going to sit there and say there's at least one starter who's not on this roster, although I wouldn't be surprised if that's the case. But I think there's at least one guy who's going to make an impact for the Colts in 2017 who isn't here yet. Yeah, that's what's fun. That's what's fun to think about. But crazy at the same time, you know, you start scouring other teams' rosters and stuff and other teams' articles,

guys writing stuff about who could be on the edge of, you know, being let go or just whatever, man. And that's what's like, okay, if he's let go, they got to, you know, make a move on that guy, you know, because there's going to be a few of those. Whether the Colts nail them or not, that's a different story. But there's going to be a few guys that are out there. I mean, God, what did we talk about? What, 37 guys are going to be, is that right? 90-53 is 37?

Yeah, 37 guys are going to be released per team all in one day. I mean, well, upcoming, you know, by the end of a certain day, they're all going to be gone. I mean, 32 times 37, that's a crap load of people out on the waiver wire right there. So you can imagine that if the waiver wire was an actual real thing that somebody had to control, can you imagine that guy's job? He's like, I need an need an assistant uh oh we're fine yeah i've got a few other guys but you know there's been there's been a history there t.y mcgill was a pickup at that time of year yeah for this team jack doyle came at that time of year

yeah tennessee let him go those are two of the better moves probably that ryan grigson made you know bring those guys in at that time of year. And, you know, Matthias Farley is starting to show. So the, if nothing else, he's a key special teams contributor.

He came after Arizona, let him go. Um, I think that there's always a way, you know, and I would keep my eyes specifically on inside linebackers and tight ends because it seems like they keep bringing guys in as tryouts there. And I'm not saying they don't trust the guys they have,

but you can tell that I think they're open to adding depth at those two spots. And I think if there's a guy that pops out that they like in either one of those two spots, then I don't think they'll hesitate to go and bring him on board absolutely unquestionably uh george thanks for jumping on here again man we've got a couple announcements though before we uh kind of wrap it up you're starting a little venture of your own in the podcast world you want to tell everybody about that yeah not sure yet when it's going to drop but we have already done the first episode. It's going to be called Horseshoes and Hand Grenades. I'm not 100% sure where it's going to appear, but it's something to keep an eye out for.

And I can tell you that I will put the link out as soon as I can, as soon as I know, at my Twitter account at GMBremmer. And it's something I'm really excited about. I mean, I always have fun coming on with you, and I'm going to continue to do that. But it's fun, as well as anyone, to do it. It's a fun way to kind of engage the fans and the audience. This can be a really interactive medium, and that's one thing that I really want to do, get a lot of questions, get a lot of a chance for fans to be a part of it and uh yeah I'm looking forward to it it's going to

happen all season long and hopefully we'll be able to get some players on from time to time and uh it should be a really fun format and and something that hopefully listeners will really enjoy yeah absolutely I think you'll have better luck with players than I will hopefully I'm really really hoping to get to nab a few of them at camp because that's about my best opportunity to do that. As you well know, for the most part, Colts aren't real open to allowing players to talk to the media outside of, you know, an actual press conference or whatever. So, yeah, that's a little difficult for me, but I'm trying. I'm trying. I'll get denied 20 times,

but don't mistake that. I'm not trying. I'm not sending in my requests. Keep knocking on the door. Yeah, right. Somebody's got to answer sooner or later. But I've also got a little bit of an announcement. I've kind of been teasing this to you guys

over the past week or so, but I will be starting up a new podcast for Stampede Blue. It'll be called the Stampede Blue Colts Cast, and we'll be doing that. We haven't gotten all of the stuff ironed out yet, but I'm excited to drop that. We'll be doing that for Stampede Blue. That'll be something we're doing multiple times a week there as well, and I'm really excited about that. I hope that you guys will follow me over there and listen to that and catch me on Stampede Blue Colts cast. So I'm excited to start that up. That'll be another fun little adventure as I've taken on a little bit larger of a role at Stampede Blue,

helping out our guy Brett Mock and bringing in some more contributors and stuff to make that site as good as it can be. So I hope you guys will follow me over there. I'll be obviously tweeting out the links as well to get you guys a little more acclimated to that, and we'll go from there. But, George, thank you for joining me again today. Always a blast to lean back and shoot it with you. So thanks for coming on, man, and good luck with your podcasting adventure on your own.

No problem. Thanks a lot. Like I said, I'm going to stay a regular guest as long as you have me. So no changes there. It'll just be if people want to put up with me, they'll have a little bit longer each week to do that. Yep, absolutely. You guys hear that?

George is following me. You guys have to too. So we're going week to do that. Yep, absolutely. You guys hear that? George is following me. You guys have to too. So we're going to keep doing that. So thank you guys all for joining me. I'll talk to you next week right here on Locked on Colts. You are Locked on Colts, your daily podcast on the Indianapolis Colts, part of the Locked on Podcast Network,

your team every day.