Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - LOCKED ON COLTS - 9/7/16 - Is Colts back seven in real trouble this year considering age, injuries and inexperience?

Episode Date: September 7, 2016

Is #Colts back-seven in real trouble this season? Why the hill for the young and inexperienced, as well as aging and injury issues could be a tall one to climb this year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Visit Cintas.com. You are Locked On Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Welcome back Colts fans to the Locked On Colts podcast for Wednesday, September 6th on Audioboom.com. Thank you for joining me yet again. I'm your host, Matt Dainley. Today and yesterday we went through some of the roster cuts and the keepers, those who I felt shouldn't have made the roster and some who I felt probably should have. So if you haven't checked that out yet, go back and peep that

and let me know what you think about my suggestions and maybe give me some of your own. You can follow myself and the show at mdainley underscore NFL and the show at LockedOnColts on Twitter. But let's get right into today's show. And today we're going to talk about kind of the Colts' back seven and why they could be in real trouble this year. First of all, the linebackers in here.

We'll get into these guys first and talk about it. There's one commonality with a lot of the guys in the Colts' secondary and the linebacking core. They're either real young, inexperienced, or they're getting quite on back back nine of their career so to speak uh we'll start with trent cole uh he's 33 that's that's pretty old for an outside linebacker especially a guy who's who's come to be a little bit ineffective uh was last year wasn't really noticing him a bunch at camp this year. I don't think he's really stuck

out during the preseason. You can kind of take that with a grain of salt naturally, but he lacks the ability to pressure consistently like he used to in his heyday. He's just one of those guys that just doesn't seem, he seems like he's almost now reserved to a strong sidebacker role as opposed to getting pressure on the quarterback. And that's obviously one of the Colts downfalls in the past couple of years is being able to consistently get to the quarterback. And on the other side of that, you've got Robert Mathis. Mathis is obviously 35 now. The big thing about Mathis is not so much do we think he can do it, we know we can do it, but the thing about Mathis is we haven't seen him this year at all. We have no clue

basically how he feels, how he's working, you know, is he explosive this year? We don't know. We've seen him a little bit at camp and such. We haven't seen him in game action though, you know, nothing in the preseason. That's not necessarily new for him, but it is something that you kind of would like to see. You want to kind of see where he's at. Being hands down the defensive leader and especially the vocal leader amongst those guys and probably one of the better leaders and the bigger leaders on the team, you want that guy to stand out just a touch and be able to to show us a little bit of what he's made of this year especially when he's creeping into 35 year old range that's not old

by any means but it's getting it's getting there in football and especially for an outside linebacker where you need your quickness and your explosiveness and your athleticism to carry you quite a bit especially with like I said the Colts are kind of struggling in that area. And it's just kind of questionable what he can provide after his big year a couple of seasons ago. You know, we haven't seen much. Some of that's been from injury naturally, but he's kind of a big question mark, even with him being the unquestioned leader of the defense. And we get to a younger guy with Edwin Jackson. He's been showing real good signs. He looked really tough in camp. He's looked good in the preseason. He's been getting a lot of snaps. They've definitely kept him in there. They

definitely wanted him to be a part of this defense, and it shows. He's got very good reaction time. Really enjoy watching him. He's somebody that you don't really notice until he makes a really good play, but he does well filling gaps. He does pretty well in coverage. He's not bad. Like I said, he's young. I think it's the second year in the league, but this is going to be his first shot at the big time. So he's going to have plenty of reps in special teams. He's going to get used in and out in a rotation in the middle of the linebacking core. So more than anything, he's just unknown. We just don't know how he's going to react in the middle of a game. Moving on down, we get to DeQuell Jackson.

I think we all kind of know what he's made of and what he is. He is absolutely a run-stop stopping linebacker and that's pretty much it he's very susceptible to just about any kind of coverage are very susceptible in any kind of coverage that he's in whether he's just dropping into a zone he's certainly a liability when he's covering man whether it's a line or whether it's running back or a tight end or anything really. He's just a liability on passing downs. So it's going to be interesting to see how the Colts kind of move their linebacking core around accordingly in running downs and late downs when it's going to be an obvious passing situation.

Kurt Majit, he's a rookie. He has obviously shown that he is more than just a rookie. He's a big guy. He's definitely got the mobility. He's got the hands. He's got the footwork. He's got just about everything you want in a big-time guy. He's 6'3", 250, out of Tennessee.

He's a little shaky at some points, but overall, I mean, he's definitely not consistent at this point, nor would you expect him to be, but he's going to be a guy who's coming in to fill in just sub package stuff here and there. And he's going to be a guy who's going to be a majority special teams guy. So he's going to be somebody you really want to watch. He's somebody you think that could have a high ceiling and that could really break out, but he's also somebody that you're just not real sure about, like most rookies anyways. So as we head on down to McNary, I think I've made my displeasure with him fairly well known. I'm not a fan of him. He can't cover. He's decent in the run, but we've got a lot of that. We need guys who can cover, And as we'll get to

shortly, our secondary is struggling right now. So with our secondary struggling, we need guys who can get out into the flats and cover effectively, whether it's a running back or a tight end. We need those guys to be able to be extremely versatile there. And we just don't have a lot of versatility in the linebacking core so we need guys who can do a little bit more than what he can offer and I'm not a fan of what he's going to bring us he's just a liability in that same regard so I mean if you can kind of see a trend here we need uh what we don't have uh C.O. Moore very questionable just because he's injured he's been injured in the past already.

He hasn't been in Indianapolis very long, and he definitely has some issues with staying healthy. So the coaching staff really likes him. He fits their mold. He's exactly who they want. We're just going to hope that he can cover similar to how he was projected to us to be that versatile linebacker. But that's very unknown as well. And Antonio Morrison, his biggest thing in camp, at least from what I was hearing from some people down there, especially guys who were also down there covering the team,

it had been rumored to have been spoken about by some coaching staff that he doesn't stay focused enough. When he is focused, he's really good. And I think we've seen that in the preseason. The guy is definitely a ball hawk. He's definitely got a nose for the football. But can he stay focused enough? And if that's one of his downfalls, then we're probably going to be in a similar situation as we are pretty consistently with the rest of the guys.

I want to stop right there for just a second. And if you're looking to get your stories on the NFL on one show, be sure to check out the Locked On NFL podcast with Matt Williamson. And for all your fantasy diehards out there, Vinny Iyer will give you everything you need to be successful in your leagues with the Locked On Fantasy Football Podcast and to update you on team-centric shows on the network. In addition to Locked On Colts, we now have Locked On Dolphins and we also have Locked On Seahawks. So make sure you're checking those out. Give ours as well as any other podcast that you listen to a review and a rating and let us know what you think about them.

Back with the linebackers here, and we're going to kind of wrap it up with a couple guys. Eric Walden, he's also 31 years old. You see the trend, a lot of either new, two years in the league, or first year actually playing on the 53-man roster, or they're in their 30s. So Walton, solid against the run, brings that mean that the Colts defense so badly needs, but is really limited in what he can do consistently. At times, he's looked like one of the best passing pass rush options that the Colts have, which has been pretty sad considering he was brought in to do exactly the opposite of that and to hold the edge and to be a run stopper he's a pretty decent at both so um surprisingly a guy that i think that we all talked down about when the deal was made and when he was brought in has been one of the brighter side of the ryan grigson chuck pagano air to be quite honest with you and another guy that they brought in just today was Akeem Ayers.

I'll give you a little bit of background on him. He's got 13 and a half career sacks. His season high is six sacks. He had a half sack last year in 11 games. That's kind of a red flag, considering that his games played went back up, but his production went down considerably. Despite 27 years of age, it's possible that he's on a career downswing, or maybe he was misused in the last places he was at.

It's really hard to tell without watching a lot of tape from each of the teams he's been with. He's been with Tennessee, New England, and the Rams. So when you consider those teams, and you would really have to go check him out in each setting to try to figure out where his strengths and weaknesses are. And I guess if we're going to trust in Chuck, we're going to try and hope that Ayers can come in and be a helpful hand there on the defense because they certainly need it. Is this a great signing that can revitalize the defense or is it another signing of a guy who is thought to have great upside and just isn't effective anymore and the

Colts are getting the guy on his downswing? We don't know. Time will tell. So we're going to move now to the secondary and first we start with Mike Adams. Now Mike Adams, since he came in from Denver and we signed him, he's 35 years old. That's old. But he's consistently been one of the best cover guys in the Colts secondary. He seems to be very opportunistic. He seems to get a lot of tip ball interceptions, or he seems to be in the right place at the right time. And that's okay. There's nothing wrong with that.

But we need a guy also who can be durable. And at 35, you just don't know if the guy's durable anymore. But there's not much you can say bad about Mike Adams he's definitely been more than what we could have expected from a guy that came in when he was what 32 so Darius Butler he's also been injured nicked up back and forth starting to get a little injury prone in his late age. He's 30, not old again, but he's declining just a little bit. And he's a guy, like I said, when I spoke to Matt Derry on the Locked On Lions podcast earlier today, is that he's often put outside when you have injuries on the outside corners, the left or right corner.

And his bread and butter is clearly in the slot. He is not an outside corner that can go with a one or a two receiver. So you've got to watch that. They do have Patrick Robinson. You can just hope that his groin injury isn't too bad because if it is, they could be in real trouble. He's another guy is that is that a short-term injury or is a long-term because things can linger all season I've said that before I'm sure you've heard me say it but it's it's reality so you don't know how

how dependable he's going to be as far as being in the game consistently how many weeks he's going to play you just don't know. The secondary is really scary. You're hopeful that Vontae can come back, but it's a scary thought to think that he's going to be gone for at least four weeks, and the rest of it seems pretty banged up and old. Or they're brand new and we've never heard of them. We don't have a whole lot to gauge these guys on.

So hopefully somebody can surprise, but you just don't know. Cromartie, again, 32 years old. Didn't look real good last year. Came on a little bit later in the year and looked pretty decent. What's he going to bring to the Colts? He's got good ball skills. He's got good cover instincts. So we know that he has the athletic ability and the skills and the knowledge in between the ears to do it, but we don't know if his body can hold up and if he's actually going to be able to fulfill it. So that's a question mark as well. Matthias Farley, new, he's an absolute complete unknown to us. We don't know what to expect from the guy. Will he play? We don't know. He may have to eventually with some of these injuries,

but he's a guy out of Notre Dame, so you know that with their defense, he's been taught to cover man-to-man, but he's 5'11". Not so undersized. I think he's about 205. That's still something that we're going to have to find out. And if you haven't caught on yet, this is a little scary. There's a lot of unknowns on this secondary, a lot of unknowns in the linebacking core.

I'm moving on to Clayton Gethers. He's been injured, been out the entire summer. They're talking about that he's a possibility for this week. I doubt it. I think that they doubt it too. I don't think that anybody's necessarily leading us on about it, but I don't think he's going to be there Sunday. So they're going to have to use TJ Green in that role. And speaking of TJ

Green, another rookie, he's shown spurts of being able to cover. He's done well in run support thus far. When he was at Clemson, he was a little susceptible to double moves, looking in the backfield, and things of that nature. So he's going to be – he's got lightning speed. So they're going to really have to depend on him to cover a lot of different options as far as like maybe some tight ends in the slot. And the good thing about this is that there's – and I think that it's fairly accurate that Eric Eberron will not be playing this Sunday. At least they're talking about that as of now.

But they do have Golden Tate and Marvin Jones, Anquan Bolden, the rookie tight end Cole Wick, who's a big guy at 6'6", over 250. They've still got plenty of options. How are they going to be able to use them? We already know that our defense is susceptible. We can all be optimistic, but we also have to be realistic. So we have to understand that this is going to probably come with some issues. Winston Guy, another safety. This guy's primarily a special teamer, but he looked good in camp. I was impressed with him. He had a few interceptions. I don't think he was quite as out front in the preseason, but he's done a pretty good job. He's a pretty consistent guy. He's not great, but he's consistent at what he does bring, for sure.

Also, Darrell Morris. He started one game while he was in Houston. He has 46 total tackles and just one interception in his career. So still, again, unknown, but he's got a little bit of experience. So we need to hope that he can step up and that he's got the skills that they need. So are they in trouble? They could be. They look old, they're hurt, and they are widely inexperienced in the other areas. The Colts secondary, they're back seven. They could be in real trouble this year. The Colts need to get healthy. They really are going to be dependent

upon the front four. The front four is pretty good. They need Henry Anderson healthy. They really are going to be dependent upon the front four. The front four is pretty good. They need Henry Anderson back. They need Kendall Langford back. They need T.Y. McGill to show what he's been showing. And if they can do that, that's going to help that secondary out a lot. Not have to cover as long. Hopefully they'll be a little more opportunistic and force some turnovers, especially this week when you are facing Matthew Stafford. He's susceptible to the interceptions, especially the silly passes. We're going to hope that they can do something like that. And that about wraps up our show for today.

But I want to get some listener questions to answer for you guys on the air. So if you ask me some questions on Twitter, use the hashtag LockedOnColts. If you do it on Facebook, either message me on the podcast page or email the show at LockedOnColtsPod at gmail.com and we'll get those answered for you. We're going to go through this together, Colts fans, and in several areas,

it looks like the odds could be stacked against us, but this is how we're going to do it. We're going to have to get through it. We're going to have to talk through it. We're going to have to be realistic about all of this is how we're going to do it. We're going to have to get through it. We're going to have to talk through it. We're going to have to be realistic about all of this. And we're going to do that here. I'm not going to blow smoke. We're going to be realistic about our opportunities and our chances each week.

And we're going to be excited when we can be excited. And we're going to be honest all the time. But we're going to understand that every week's not going to be great. I'll also have Matt Derry of Locked On Lions on later this week, and we'll see what he has to say about the Lions and what he feels about their chances at giving the Colts some trouble this weekend and how they may go about attacking the Colts and much more. So be on the lookout for that later in the week. But when it comes down to it, we have Colts football coming up this Sunday at 425. It's finally football season. It's finally Colts regular season. We've got a lot to be excited about. Let's hope that the team can put

it all together. Let's hope that we can get some decent coaching performances out of Pagano and the rest of the staff. Let's hope these guys can naysay what the national suggestions are about the team. It's gone anywhere from 8-8 to 6-10 to you just never know. So let's hope that these guys can all put it together, get healthy, give us a good show every week. We'll start this week, and it's about to get exciting because we're about to get into previews. We're about to get into postgame stuff. We're about to break down different matchups how the Colts did

what they did well what they didn't do well we'll have guests from other teams here so we're going to have a lot to bring to you this season I appreciate you joining me on Locked On Colts make sure you stay tuned for tomorrow's show and we'll see you next time on Locked on Colts.

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