Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - LOCKED ON COLTS - 7/5- Breaking Down Offseason 53-Man Roster Projection

Episode Date: July 5, 2017

The #Colts 53 man roster projections will be coming out hot and heavy over the next several weeks. Matt drops his extremely early prediction and gives some players who may, or may not make the roster who would normally be expected to. 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 again this week here on Locked On Colts, and I hope that all of you have had a safe and fun happy 4th of July. It's always great to be able to, you know, it's another reason for us to all get together with family and stuff. Fireworks are just a little bit of the icing on

the cake and stuff. Of course, I had to wait a little bit to record today's show. And as you guys, most of you know that I record the night before and I had to kind of babysit my dogs for the neighborhood lighting off fireworks. They were not too enthused, nor are they ever. So I had to wait a little bit to get down here in my office, better known as the bar in my basement, to get this recorded for you guys tonight, but I wanted to go through a 53-man roster that I threw together the other day and kind of explain a little bit of why I chose the people that I did and who I left out and the reasons why and so forth. So let's kind of start at the core. We've gone through the depth charts and stuff in the past and just like real quick to touch on them. And, you know, some of that's going to hold forward.

But this right now, I'm actually throwing, you know, what I think if I'm the coach or the GM right now, this is the team that I want on the field at the moment. And just as a disclaimer as well, we know that, or we expect anyways, at least I do, I expect a lot of this to change as it gets down to that 53-man cut towards the end of the preseason because I think that there's going to be some guys that are going to be waived or released from other teams who are most certainly going to be better options than some of the guys that are on the Colts roster at this point. That's just my assumption right now. So let's start at quarterback. Andrew Luck, obviously no need to talk about him. We know exactly what he is. He is the Colts. So we are going to keep that to a minimum.

But at the backup, I've talked to you guys about this in the past before, and I think Stephen Morris is the better option right now. I don't think Scott Tolzien really adds much to the backup spot. I don't think that he adds to helping Andrew Luck dissect any plays. I think Stephen Morris has got enough experience in that regard, and I think Stephen Morris is just a better option as the backup, offering more in and out of the pocket, more accuracy, bigger arm, so on and so forth. I just don't see that Scott Tolzien really adds that much. Of course, we'll see what happens in training camp. But for right now, Stephen Morris is my backup. And for that matter, he was last year as well. Right now, running back, got four guys, Frank Gore, Robert Turbin, Marlon Mack, and Troy

Mayne Pope. You know, a lot of people that had seen this before assumed that I would put in maybe Dalton Crosson or even Josh Ferguson. I think you guys understand that I'm not a fan of Ferguson. So I left him completely off. And Dalton Crossan, I just don't know anything about him yet. I don't know anything necessarily about Troy Mayne Pope either. But for experience, for being in the NFL already, I'm giving him the nod.

And maybe that's a little presumptuous, but that's what I'm going with right now. I think Crossan is a nice option, but I don't think that he really has enough to offer. I think Pope offers a little bit of return game as well as another legit running back option at that four spot. But, and you know, Ferguson offers a little bit in return, but he offers almost nothing as a running back. So that's where I went with Pope. I just thought that that was the better option. Obviously, Mack, Turbin, and Gore are going to be the one, two, and three, not in that order, but those are the guys that are going to hold it down for sure above that. And I think that that number four spot could be something where we see an entrance

from another guy in camp. The Colts have been active with the running back position, so I would assume that unless one of these guys really piqued their interest and really show up in camp and look like they've got the complete package and the ability to step into a third or a second role with injuries coming about or something like that, that they'll probably go elsewhere. That's just my assumption at this point. Wide receivers kept six.

T.Y. Hilton, Moncrief, Kamar Aiken, Chester Rogers, Phillip Dorsett, Quan Bray, in that order. Bray offers the most return possibilities. He did a nice job last year before he went on IR. I thought that he would look good in camp as far as a wide receiver. I thought that he could step in and play, and he did every so often. And I thought he was a good option there. I don't think that there's really any way getting around those top five.

I mean, here's the thing, though. Dorsett, I find him a guy as a guy who could really hurt himself a lot going forward. One of these guys, Bug Howard, Tavon Smith, JoJo Natz, any of these guys down here on the bottom end of the depth chart there at wide receiver could outplay Dorsett. I think Rodgers has already done that in the offseason. Quan Bray could possibly even do that, and that could put Dorsett at the bottom of the barrel and put him at number six on this roster. But we you know, we just don't know much about how this is going to shake out. At the moment, that's my six. And I think Dorsett might

be the guy who's closest to being off of that six. I think Quan Bray offers too much to the team, pending, you know, that he comes back and just looks terrible or something like that as a receiver and doesn't do well in the return game. Otherwise, I think he's as good a guy as any to offer that sixth spot for the wide receiver. They know what they've got in him, and he can produce, and he did well in return. So at the tight end position, kept three, Jack Doyle, Brandon Williams, Eric Swoop. I don't think there's a whole lot that you can really jump around here. I think that Williams is pretty solidified as the blocking guy. Doyle is the all-around guy,

and Swoop is the receiver. Unless Daryl Daniels comes in and blows the doors off of this roster, or blows the doors off of this coaching staff and Chris Ballard, I just don't know if they can keep four guys on the roster because they've got so many needs. And you'll see this as the roster, as I continue to go, as the roster really kind of shapes itself out, that there's special teams needs, both in the kick return, in the kickoff game. I mean, just everything involved. So you've got to think about that as well. Does Daryl Daniels or Colin Jeter or Mo Alleycox provide anything for special teams at the number four position? I don't know that. They have to be a top three tight end in camp and probably significantly beating somebody else out

in order to make this roster. I don't think that the Colts will keep four tight ends. I just don't, at least not right now. So that's where I've got for right now. Jack Doyle, I'm real excited about his year. I think he's going to come out and just really play well. I think that we'll see a little more from Brandon Williams if he actually does make this roster as far as in the receiving game. And Eric Swoop, I think that they're going to use him a little more outside the way they started to Kobe Fleener

and hope that he can actually haul in more passes than Fleener did at a little more outside the way they started to Kobe Fleener and hope that he can actually haul in more passes than Fleener did at a little more consistent rate and to be able to kind of break some of these long plays. He showed a little bit of that last year, so I'm excited for that. The offensive line only kept eight, and like I said, referring back to the special teams issues that the Colts are going to have. They're going to have needs for tacklers, for crazy guys on that special teams kickoff team. They're going to have return needs. They're going to have needs for guys who can block and take out headhunters basically on the other team's kickoff team and punt team for that matter. So right now I've got Costanzo, Muhort, Kelly, Haig, Raven Clark, Brian Schwenke,

Vujnovic, and Denzel Good. Now, obviously we've got the starters there, Costanzo, Muhort, Kelly, Haig, and Clark. That's my starters anyways. Schwenke offers a little bit of versatility going between center and guard. He's been doing that in OTAs. Vujnovic, he is actually a tackle, has played tackle in the past, has been like the second or third that in OTAs. Vujnovic, he is actually a tackle, has played tackle in the past, has been like the second or third guy in previous training camps. And he's been playing the guard a little bit. You guys have heard this. I think I've talked about this with George. George has talked to us about this, how when Schwenke's been out, obviously Muhor has been, you know, touch and go this offseason. So when they've been both out, Vujnovic has been the guy to step in

and play that left guard spot. So he's got some versatility as well. Whether he can play center or not, I don't really know. But to be able to have a guy play tackle, play left tackle, and then also play some guard, I mean, that's a guy who's making himself necessary in air quotes, guys. That's what these guys expect out of some of these guys. So you've got some versatility with both Schwenke and Vujnovic. Denzel Good, again, versatility. Played tackle in his rookie season, moved to right guard last year. I think that he can play either position. I think personally, from what I saw both last year and his rookie year, I thought he was better suited at tackle. Maybe not. Maybe so. I don't really know yet. But I do know that those three guys can play at least two

and possibly three positions. And Denzel Good may be even a guy that they try to use as backup center as well, depending on how Schwenke works out. You know, and it just could be – I mean, I'm just spitballing here with his possibility and availability at other positions. But those three guys are definitely versatile. Now, you look at the rest of the guys that I don't have. Zach Banner, draft pick.

I thought he was awful. I don't understand the intrigue behind him. I think he's got so much work to do. And not only that, but you've got guys like Fawn Cooper, Jerry Ugokwe, Deshaun Bond, who I don't know much about that, but you've got guys like Fawn Cooper, Jerry Ugokwe, Deshaun Bond, who I don't know much about him, but Adam Redman, he looked pretty decent last year at times in camp and stuff like that. I heard some things about him in practices last year. So there's, I mean, I don't know anything about Andrew Wiley. I'm not going to pretend to, but I think that there's enough competition on there that, and I know at least two of those guys are

nowhere near as slow and heavy-footed as Zach Banner they're not as I mean he's a big big dude don't get me wrong but these guys are pretty good size too I mean six six what's the difference in an inch or two and like legitimately 40 pounds lighter if you are far better getting your pass fits you're able to get to the second level. Because Banner's, what's Banner going to block at the second level? He's too slow to get there. I just don't understand. First of all, I didn't understand the draft pick. I mean, he's got to really look good. In my opinion, if the mantra of getting these guys, the competition has to be right. The competition has to be there. This

guy's got to earn his spot on the roster. And if he actually earns his spot on the roster, so be it. If he doesn't and then gets a spot on the roster, I think that that's going to throw a wrench in what we're thinking about Chris Bauer. We don't want him to be that Grigson-esque type guy. We don't want him to be a guy that already has a predisposition on who he wants on the roster. Obviously, he saw something in Banner in order to draft him. I mean, the first fourth round pick the Colts had, they drafted him, and that was extremely high in my opinion. There were other guys on the board that I thought, if you wanted linemen, that's fine. I wasn't against the lineman pick. I was against who they picked.

So this is a really interesting group. So we've got eight, three guys with versatility on the back end there. I think that a couple other guys here that I don't have on the roster also offer more versatility than Banner. He's too slow to be a guard. He's too slow to get into his pass fits and to be able to get drops. And basically, you know, a lot of people say he's so big that it takes so long for people to get into his pass fits and to be able to get drops he and and basically you know a lot of people say he's so big that it takes so long for people to get around him well they better hope so because if they if he doesn't then he's a wasted draft pick and he may never see the

field as a 53 man participant I just I don't understand it um he's a guy that I don't think is going to make the roster I'll kind of stop that there because I could rant all day about him for the most part I hope that I'm wrong there. You guys have heard me say this in the past. I hope I'm wrong about some of these guys that I'm kind of passionate about disliking their game. I don't want to be right that these guys are terrible. I just don't, you know, me from my eyes and what I'm looking for, I just don't see it. So now let's head over to the defense, get to the defensive line. Jonathan Hankins, Henry Anderson, Hassan Ridgway, hoping he can get healthy. Al Woods, Kendall Lankford,

T.Y. McGill, and Grover Stewart. This is an interesting group, guys. I mean, we have a lot of defense in this group that, a lot of guys in this defensive tackle group that could like legitimately fall off of the 53-man roster. T.Y. McGill, you guys know my, you know, my, how much, how I feel about him. He's one of my favorite guys on this roster because of what he does that doesn't still show up on the stat sheet. That takes a special kind of player, in my opinion. Everybody knows these guys in different sports, the guys that do the little thing just to get the team to win, to help out, and to, you know, him in particular, he can puncture the pocket from the inside of the interior.

That's what you want from an interior defensive lineman. But he's got Grover Stewart, a guy who had a lot of fanfare going through rookie camp OTAs and so on. They really liked him out of, I think it was Albany State. There's a lot to, you know, apparently that they like about Grover Stewart. Al Woods, he's definitely going to make the roster as far as I'm concerned. Jonathan Hankins is a forethought. Hassan Ridgway, he really has to be healthy, I think. I don't think that he's going to be too much of an issue health-wise, but I'm really excited about his next

year. But Anderson and Langford, pending Langford not being, you know, pending Langford's injury history being like a really big kick in the butt, I think he makes a squad. I don't think that he gets cut, you know. T.Y. McGill, Grover Stewart, Hassan Ridgway, you know, even Al Woods. I mean, all those guys kind of can roll around in that three tech. T.Y. McGill and Grover Stewart both are seen as a three tech, nose tech, or hybrid. And, I mean, I think I have David Perry off the list right now. But there's another guy, a defensive end at five tech, Margus Hunt, that, you know, the Colts just brought in. Do they leave him off? I have him off because he's not, he's not good enough from what I've seen in the past to make this roster. Jostin Thomas, a guy from Iowa, uh, state that I think

is, uh, you know, he has some, quite a bit of upside, whether he's got enough upside to, to battle out for another five tech position on this defensive line is going to be, you know, interesting to watch. I mean, this is the best defensive line grouping that the Colts have had in a while, which makes this competition even more. But who am I going to add to this? And then when you get done listening to the rest of this roster, then you're going to see there's not really a whole lot of room for anybody else. I mean, you've got some guys there with Hankins, Ridgeway, Woods, Langford, or McGill and Stewart. Those guys can all kind of roam around that three tech, one tech, and a couple of them are true

zeros. But Woods has been starting at the zero in the offseason. Hankins has been the three tech. So what does that do? Is that just because of injuries like to Ridgeway or what? McGill is another guy. You know, this is a good group here. I can only keep seven. I mean, per the rest of the roster and what we have to cut it to 53, that's all I could keep.

So some of these guys may be on the roster bubble. I think McGill and Stewart, depending on who really shows out there, that could be interesting, depending on if the Colts want to keep another five tech. You know, do they keep Marcus Hunt and then take off McGill or Stewart? That's going to be something that we have to keep an eye on. It'll be interesting to see during camp, like how they're going about all that. So that's what I've got for the defensive line. Inside linebackers, I kept five. Sean Spence, Bostic, Antonio Morrison, Edwin Jackson, and Anthony Walker. This is another group. Nice competition here.

But when it gets past Anthony Walker, you know, Luke Rhodes, a guy who had received a little bit of talk, he's a guy who could battle for the roster. But Jeremiah George, you don't know anything about him. I don't think that anybody knows anything about him. So when you get past these guys, there's not a lot of competition here because they're probably going to keep for the rotation, and one is going to be primarily a special teams guy,

which, in my opinion, would be Walker. So, you know, Edwin Jackson's a guy who can be beat out, but do they, they have to add somebody to that, uh, inside linebacking core in order to beat him out. Cause I don't think necessarily that Luke Rhodes or Jeremiah George or that guy, or Luke Rhodes could be, he got a lot of looks in the off season program. We're going to have to see how that goes forward. But I think that inside linebacker core is pretty basic. Moving to the outside linebackers, we got Jabal Sheard, John Simon, Akeem Ayers, Terrell Basham, Barkevious Mingo. This is another group where you look at kind of who is going to be, you know, who's the next guy after Mingo. I mean, there isn't a lot, okay? So Akeem Ayers,

been injured in the offseason. Is he going to be there? We don't know. But if he's not and nothing changes or they don't bring another guy in who can realistically compete, you've got LeVar Edwards, DeAndres Mount, and Garrett Sickles. That's your outside linebacking depth past Sheard, Basham, Mingo, Simon. I mean, that's not a lot. That's not a lot of depth.

I've got a piece going up on Stampede Blue tomorrow, or today rather, that will kind of give you guys an idea who I think maybe the Colts might want to bring in in this kind of a situation. I think this is one of the Colts' weakest by depth positions on the roster right now. I think Ballard's done a great job running through this defense, retooling several positions, getting younger, getting faster. Um, but this is, you know, this, he did that with the outside linebackers, but there's still more work that needs to be done. I think, unless you think that LeVar Edwards or Mount or Sickles is going to be your guy here. I mean, I don't know. Ayers was one of the most productive guys last year. Uh, when, you know, when Mathis and several others just didn't perform. Ayers was a guy that

came through. So I think Simons, Sheard, Bashup, and Mingo, I don't know. Mingo is a guy that you need for special teams, I think. I think he did really good in New England last year on special teams, and I think he's another guy that you end up bringing in to do that. So he's taking a roster spot from a rotational guy. He might even be rotational. They're wanting him to be, but they don't know if he is yet. So that's where it starts to get interesting. You're bringing more guys in. You've got 27 guys on this defense that are going to be on the 53-man roster.

You've got 23 on the offense. So a lot of the special teams guys are going to be coming from the defensive side of the ball. So, I mean, you know, this is interesting too, because you got Sheard and Basham. Sheard is an outside linebacker per the roster, but Basham's not. Basham's a defensive end. Do they keep him a defensive end? If so, I mean, you're going to use him at five tech. Then what do you do with that defensive line grouping? And where does your fifth linebacker come on the outside? Or do you only keep four?

That seems risky to me. So I don't know what we're going to do here, but that's what I've got thus far. Go to cornerback. Kept six of them as well. Vontae Davis, Rashawn Melvin, Quincy Wilson, Daryl Morris, Nate Hairston, and Christopher Milton. The Colts typically keep six corners. Vontae and Rashawn and Wilson, those guys will be the one and two and two A corners, right? And Daryl Morris, I think he's got the lock on the nickel spot. I really do. He played really well last year for the Colts in that spot. I think that that's his to lose. But Nate Hairston's a guy that they drafted largely in order to take over

that nickel spot. I don't think Butler is a starter at nickel. I know a lot of national places have been talking about Butler's going to start in the nickel. I don't see that. He lost a step to be an outside corner a couple years ago, and even last year when he did come into the nickel, he had lost a spot. That's why they moved him to safety. So I think Hairston is a backup there for Morris, or maybe even a second

backup behind maybe Melvin if they decide to put him in the slot at times. I don't think he's a true slot corner at all by any means. I think he's definitely a number two corner. But, you know, Hairston's going to be one of those guys who are special teams. And Christopher Milton, he's going to be a guy who they're going to expect to be versatile, to be able to move from all three positions. You know, he may be a guy that they have in there during, in dime situations, you just don't know. So that's the six that I've got right now. I think the majority of those are at least the top four are pretty cut and dry. I think Harrison's a guy they like for special teams and a guy that they think they can really develop. Christopher Milton, right now, he's number six.

This is another guy that I – or another spot in the roster that I expect to be filled by somebody else on another roster currently. So we'll have to see how that goes as well. Safety, Kep4, Malik Hooker, Clayton Gethers, Darius Butler, TJ Green. We all know that this could change drastically depending on Clayton Gethers' health. Malik Hooker is definitely going to make the roster. This is not even an option. However, we want to see what he looks like in camp.

We haven't seen anything from him. He did have off-season surgery. So we really want to see him healthy, and we want to see him come back 100% right at the start of camp. We do not want to see him sitting on the sidelines like Gethers was last year. That was scary with his foot injury, but that's what happened. Now you've got Gethers with neck surgery in the off-season. Darius Butler is a guy who got banged up last year in the secondary, coming up from the safety position trying to lay some wood.

I mean, he does it nice, but, man, he's a guy who can just get injured too easily. So we've got basically three guys right there who were injured last year or this offseason, and TJ Green, that's our guy. So, I mean, you've got Matthias Farley. I think we've discussed this a little bit. Farley was a guy who got a lot of first team snaps in the offseason, but that also meant was because Clayton Gethers wasn't there, Malik Hooker wasn't there, and Darius Butler was the number one safety, you know, for the Colts in the offseason. So Farley was a guy that got those snaps. Yes, he offered the leadership role, which a lot of people were talking about, myself included, which I thought was notable.

However, I think that was more of a, you know, hey, TJ Green, get it together or this guy's going to take your spot on the roster. Not so much that, hey, Farley is a fantastic safety. He's a smart guy. He is that strong safety type guy to come up and hit people, but he's also not as gifted as TJ Green. TJ Green just has to be coachable. He has to be able to put all this stuff together, and if he does that, then we may see some of the fruits of TJ Green's labor. This is what we hope anyways. We at least want him to be able to cover tight ends.

We at least want him to be able to run the flats with some running backs and to be able to cut them off across the middle. These are things that should be absolutely simple as pie for TJ Green. But we've got some interesting guys. Like I said, Farley. We don't know. Maybe he will make the team. But we've got Tyvus Powell.

He's got a background with Ed Dobbs, who was just brought in for the vice president of player personnel. They've got a past together. What's Tyvus Powell bring that T.J. Green doesn't bring? We don't know yet. We haven't seen him do much. But they brought him in and you know what Ballard wants. Ballard wants guys that he feels he can trust to bring in top talent to

compete. So what's he going to do? He's going to bring in top talent to compete. And if Tyvus Powell can take that role, guys, I don't know, TJ Green could be on the back burner for this. He could be a guy who doesn't make the roster. I don't, I mean, that seems, as much as it seems like, man, we complain about TJ Green, that would be really crazy, I think, for him to not make the roster. But you never know. If Tyvus Powell's that guy, he may make the roster anyways if Gethers isn't back. Gethers could be put on, you know, the pup list or just whatever, non-football injury or whatever the case may be with what his role is going to be at the beginning of the season. But Tybus Powell could be that guy that makes the roster right off the jump and could actually end up being possibly a starter at some point

or could at least be one of those nickel guys like TJ Green was used in a little bit last year. So the safety position is a very scary position, if you ask me. We got guys on there we don't think we can trust in Green. Darius Butler is injury prone. Clayton Gethers is starting to become injury prone. Malik Hooker just had off-season surgery. We haven't seen anything from him yet. We know he's not a hitter. He can tackle guys. He's a better tackler than a lot of people give him credit for, so don't sweat that. I'm not falling onto that line of thinking, but he's a great guy for coverage, so that's good. But the safety group, this is a group, again, where you may see somebody get added late, and if there's a guy that's in his mid-20s or early 20s who they feel is better

than T.J. Green, that would be a position or a spot where I don't think that they'd hesitate to pull the trigger and cut T.J. Green. We just don't know. We'll have to see. A lot of fun, though, going through these right now. And, you know, for whatever it's worth, Adam Vinatieri, Tom Hennessey, and Jeff Locke are my three special teams guys who, you know, will be on the roster as well. Obviously, Vinny, he's a legend. We're going to keep him. Jeff Locke, he's got a little bit of competition coming up in camp with Rigoberto Sanchez. God only knows. You guys have as good an idea as I do about what the punting competition is going to end up being. So that's what we've got for the 53

man roster. I do have some voicemails that I'm going to play on the next episode. I'm going to get those ran down. Again, hope that you guys were all safe and sound on your 4th of July celebrations. Hope you guys ate some good food, played some games, a little bit of cornhole or just whatever. I do have some interesting information coming up probably pretty soon. I think that you guys will be more than interested in and I'll be excited to talk to you guys about that when that all squares itself out. But make sure you guys are getting on Apple Podcasts and getting a rating and review. Let's get that up to about 50 or 60 reviews. We're getting there right now, but let's get that popped up.

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