Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - LOCKED ON COLTS -8/4- First Week Rundown of Colts Training Camp

Episode Date: August 4, 2017

Today we take a look at who is impressing in camp and who isn't. There is also a group on the #Colts roster who are simply not getting noticed for either good or bad of their game. Also a hot take on who may be a surprise roster cut nobody is talking about. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Learn more about our healthy benefits at fepblue.org slash get more. Welcome back to Locked on Colts, ladies and gentlemen. I'm your host, Matt Dainley. Thank you guys for joining me again here today. Let's jump right into it and get into what we've seen from camp so far. A lot of interesting stuff going on in camp. A lot of dust- going on in camp, a lot of dust-ups. This is something I think that is a byproduct of everything they've been preaching as far as the competition.

And I think that since the original scuffle in camp with Vontae and T.Y. Hilton, I think that a lot of these guys are starting to see that maybe, hey, this is showing something to everybody. People enjoy this. But Pagano apparently got sick of it today and sent Bug Howard, and I can't remember who he got into it with, but sent them both out of camp. Actually, I believe it was Dante Blackman, and sent them out saying that if you guys do that in a game, you get ejected. And he's right to a point. And, you know, sometimes when you have one dust up or scuffle in camp, that's not a bad thing, but when it continues to happen, you've got to bring everybody in and get them on the same page. Really, I'm going to run through position groups here real quick and tell

you guys what I've seen as far as who I'm impressed with, and we'll go from there. Quarterback group, I'm not impressed with any of them. Scott Tolzien doesn't look good. Stephen Morris doesn't look good. Phillip Walker's got the best arm in the group, and that's about as good as it gets. I don't think that there's been a lot of good play in there. I would expect Scott Tolzien to play better when it comes to actual game time, but I would also expect Stephen Morris to be a superstar in the preseason like it was last year, because both of these guys look similar to the way they did last year in the preseason which a isn't good for their long-term effectiveness in the league but is also you know kind of par for the course so to speak at the running back position gore and turban

both look good gore is getting kind of limited reps turban looks uh more explosive than last year he looks uh shiftier but the one that really caught my eye at camp was Marlon Mack. I've been saying this for a few days now. Very fast, very shifty back and forth, one-cut ability, is able to take the edge and beat defenders to it, but he's also able to run inside the tackles, which is absolutely paramount to this running back position, especially now with as much as the Colts throw the ball. The other end of that is that Pagano also praised him for his ability to learn in the pass protection. That's something that people thought he may have to learn to improve his game and to be effective in the NFL, and apparently

he's done at least that. I know he's been aggressive in it. I just couldn't really see from my vantage point at camp whether he was effective or not, so I know he's sticking his nose in there and stuff. The wide receiver group, Hilton and Moncrief have been pretty good. Rogers has been good as well, looking really sharp. And Moncrief obviously out with his shoulder injury right now. But the guy that I'm not impressed with this year is Aitken. Dorsett has even stepped up to the plate the past couple days at practice. Quan Bray is getting a lot of work in special teams as the return, the number one return guy. So that tells you that if they're going to keep five or six, Quan Bray may be the sixth guy in

or whatever. But if they go to five, that presents an interesting situation for Aitken. If Quan Bray is better receiver than Kamar Aitken, then Aitken's going to get cut. I think that that might be one of the surprise cuts of the year, just as far as for all of the excitement that people had with him coming in. I think Aitken's really on the roster bubble there. Tight end, Doyle, Williams, and Swoop all look very good. I'm very impressed with all of them. Williams is a very good blocker from what I've seen.

Swoop is bigger, stronger, and faster than last year. Doyle is Doyle. He's Mr. Reliable, ultimately. Krieger-Cobble, a new guy that they claimed off waivers. He's a guy that I think is a very good possibility if they keep four. If they don't keep four, it's going to be Doyle, Williams, and Swoop, but if they keep four, Krieger-Cobble is my pick there. He's got good hands. He can block and has even been able to be physical with guys like John Simon and Jabal Sheard when necessary. And he's won a few of those.

So he's not a solid, bulky guy. But he is big enough and strong enough to impose his will if it's necessary. Offensive line. Costanzo, Muhort, Kelly, Haig, and Clark all have looked pretty good. Clark has struggled a couple times against some of the more physical and the speedier pass rushers of the group, but he has also been able to regain form and keep them out of the pocket. And that's what's important. If he's struggling, but he's still keeping the guys out of the pocket, that's okay, because that's learning. That's progression at the

position. So I'm impressed with that. But when you get to some of the pocket, that's okay because that's learning. That's progression at the position. So I'm impressed with that. But when you get to some of the depth guys, Vunovic has been okay. Adam Redman actually was one of the only guys who could stand up to Jonathan Hankins on Tuesday. And he kind of regressed a little bit Thursday, but he still looked pretty solid. So those two depth guys are doing pretty good. When you get to Denzel Good, he's been very hit or miss.

I've not been impressed with him at guard. He moved out to tackle at one point during the drills and looked better. And it was actually something that I argued for a while that I didn't understand why they moved him to guard last year because he was so promising from his few games, five, six games, whatever he played at tackle in 2015. So I didn't understand that, but good does not look very good, uh, per se at guard right now. Banner has been okay. He's a, he's very much a liability in, in pass protection. That's just the reality of it all. He is a moose though, when in, in run. And now if he can actually get a piece of those guys at the second level, then he's effective. But if he's too slow to get a hand on him or an arm, or to be able to, uh, you know, actually get ahold of them, then he's effective. But if he's too slow to get a hand on him or an arm, or to be able to, you know, actually get ahold of him, then he's useless. He is however, one of those guys that,

you know, you, you know who it is. You get into a fight against a big, strong guy. You don't want to let him get ahold of you because you're done with, if he does, that's how good is, or I'm sorry, that's how a banner is, but he's not going to get ahold of you very often. That that's the problem about it. So just a little bit, there's a little bit of work there in the depth end that those guys need to work on. Hankins, Woods, McGill, and Stewart have all looked fantastic running in the interior, whether it's nose tackle or running a three tech, they've all done good in 11 on 11s, and they've done good in the one-on-one pass drills, pass protection drills, and the

pass rush drills. So I mean, that's important that there's that much diversity right there. David Perry is an afterthought. Forget about him. As far as I'm concerned, he's gone unless one of these guys get injured. And even if they do get injured, he could still be outplayed because I still think Margus Hunt is a guy who is going to end up taking his roster spot if there's an injury along this defensive line or something unfortunate happens like that. Hassan Ridgway only got to see really one day out of him. He looked pretty decent, nothing too major out of him, but it was promising what I saw from him in the little bit of time that he was able to get out on the field, get busy in pads and so on. Henry Anderson's been a little bit quiet,

and I don't want to say that he's been quiet, that he has been not good quiet, but he's just one of those guys that falls into this group in camp where you don't see anything spectacular out of him, but you certainly don't see him not holding up his end of the bargain. He's strong, he's physical, he's quick, he's done good. And I'll tell you, the three, when you put them together in 11-on-11s, you see Hankins and Woods and Anderson all work together, and that's fun to watch. Hankins or Anderson has been able to rush the edge a little bit, too, in certain packages, which is kind of interesting. It's something that he's not going to do a lot of, I don't think, but it's also something that he can do if necessary, especially when they go into those subs and they potentially run to a four-man

line. I think that's interesting to think about. Margasant, like I said, pretty impressed with him. Jostin Thomas is a strong dude. Josh Boyd, I'm just not sure what to expect from him. I just, I don't see that he's probably got any place on this line. It's just too deep right now, and he's just not going to do it. Before we get to anything further, I want to tell you guys about SeatGeek. Buying tickets to sports and concerts can be complicated, but there is a better, simpler way to buy, and that's with SeatGeek. SeatGeek is the smartest, easiest way to get tickets to live events. With SeatGeek's seamless mobile experience, you can buy and sell tickets in just two taps. SeatGeek helps you find the best seats at the best prices fully guaranteed.

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any way you slice it in any package. Antonio Morrison's been running the ones in base. Edwin Jackson's been running the number one in the sub packages. Anthony Walker has been the two in base, and they've been flip-flopping some sub package stuff with the twos, but everybody's working kind of in a move. And Sean Spence has actually been getting work with both the ones and the twos. He's just not the one in either one of those groups or as far as the ones, whether it's the subs or the base packages. The outside linebacker group, I'm not so sure that we're going to see a

ton of our pass rush from this group. Not not initially at least. Jabal Sheard and John Simon have both been good, both very good against the run, but I think that they're going to offer some pass rush efficiency. I just don't know how much. Terrell Basham is good against the run again. He's got a good bowl rush. He's not got a good secondary move, pass rush move. Barkevious Mingo has been solid. Okay. Not, not been great. Not been bad by any means, but he's not a guy who's going to be a backup.

I don't think he might be a rotational guy at some point for certain packages because he can cover. So that's interesting. Akeem Ayers has been pretty good. Deontrez Mount has been really good. I've been really impressed with him as well. Garrett Sickles had a nice day Tuesday. Thursday didn't get a whole lot from him, and I was expecting to.

Going to the cornerbacks, Vontae's been tough. Rashawn Melvin's been tough. Quincy Wilson's been pretty good when he moves in. He's been in with the twos, a little bit of work with the ones. Darrell Morris is unquestionably the number one nickel guy. Nate Hairston actually has been working outside as a boundary corner as opposed to in the slot where we probably thought that he was going to be working primarily. Tevin Mitchell's been pretty solid. A lot of these guys, Dante Blackman's been decent as well. A lot of these corners have been pretty good. Chris Milton, I haven't seen a whole lot

from him. That doesn't mean necessarily that it was bad. It's just that I can't recall anything specific with him. I've seen interceptions or good passes defended from the others, and I can't recall that I've seen anything like that from Milton. Going to the safeties, Malik Hooker will be the number one safety. He's not right now. Right now, it's Darius Butler and Matthias Farley. I think that in running situations, Farley's your number one as far as when they want to bring somebody down into the box a little bit. Again, TJ Green can't recall a single thing out of two practices that I saw him do, positive or negative. So maybe he's just flying under the radar, but he's certainly not impressing. So Tyson Graham, not too bad. Lee Hightower ended up

batting a ball down the other day. Andrew Williamson tipped ball and somebody else intercepted it. Tyvus Powell's got a lot of length. He's been working a lot at corner, but he also is in there periodically with the safeties. And ultimately, the safety group is, I think, pretty impressive, to be honest with you. Malik Hooker, in the time that he's been in there and been able to go, he's very cognizant of everything that's going on, very easily recognizes what's going on around him and can diagnose everything with quick and efficient movement. So Darius Butler is going to be your guy that you rely on as the veteran back there.

He's certainly not that big, but the guy has all the heart in the world. And it's, you know, without Clayton Gethers back there, we don't really have an enforcer. And that's something that Matthias Farley is going to have to be, I think, for now. And TJ Green, he has some packages, I would assume, but I have not seen him anywhere near the first group unless he's been in the back with a one where they've had an extremely diverse group working on the defensive end where they've had ones, twos, and threes all kind of intermixed. So that's basically what I've gotten from camp. There's been some good play. There's been some spotty play as well. But in the end, it's been a pretty good day, Tuesday and Thursday. Today,

a lot of it was Marlon Mack, a lot of that hype, really enjoying him. He's a guy who's going to grow on me for sure. I think that you're going to see a lot of these guys, and it's going to start weeding itself out. We're going to start seeing some minor moves, I think, pretty soon. Some of the guys that just aren't around or shouldn't be around or not going to be around that aren't at least in the first two or three subs at maybe wide receiver or anything else. I think anybody who doesn't legitimately have a shot to be a practice squad player is on the block. And I think that's just about with any team. But just to reinforce that,

that's where I see it. So thank you guys all for joining me. I'll talk to you guys all next week right here on Locked on Colts.