Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - LOCKED ON COLTS - 9/8 - Despite Injuries, Colts Are Ready To Hit The Ground Running

Episode Date: September 8, 2016

Andrew Luck looks great, Robert Mathis is ready to go and Chuck Pagano is in mid-season form when it comes to dropping metaphors. Also, newly acquired OLB Akeem Ayers finally joins a scheme that best suits his skill set. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

That's for my crazy day. My packed commute. All those unread emails in my inbox. But I'm getting stronger, faster, and pushing myself further every day. I don't care if I'm not like everyone else. This punching bag is the best way to end my day. Fearless is knowing yoga isn't your style. That's the power of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Federal Employee Program.

Learn more about our healthy benefits at fepblue.org slash getmore. You are Locked On Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network. We are back, Colts Nation. Welcome into Locked On Colts on Audioboom.com. And as always, I'm your host, Matt Dainley, five times a week. And can you smell that? That's right.

That is Colts football right around the corner. We have a lot to talk about today, but first, you need to get your questions to me for our final show of the week so I can get those read on the air. Use LockedOnColts, the hashtag, on Twitter. Send me an email, LockedOnColtsPod at gmail.com or hit me up on the show's Facebook page. However you want to do it, let's get them in. Also, please go to iTunes and remember to rate and review the show for us. Mad appreciation right there. Now, as you well know, the Colts host the Detroit Lions this Sunday at Lucas Oil Stadium, and we're hopefully going to have Matt Derry from the Locked On Lions podcast tomorrow.

I can't wait to chat with him some more and get his thoughts on the matchup as we inch closer every day and the picture becomes a little clear on who we're going to see suited up for each team. A little bit about that line I dropped you earlier today about Stephen Morris being released. I thought it was kind of funny as I started to think about it and it wouldn't even be brought up had Luck not been hurt last season. Third string quarterback being waived, not typically an issue. Nobody really cares. But we all know that we can't really afford to have a less than suitable backup if luck were ever to go down again. We'll put it that way.

We know what kind of situation we were in last year. We all remember the 2011 season. And when you don't have a good backup, you really don't have much else. The Colts aren't desperate for that three-quarters of a million dollars that they would save, but the point is that it's a waste. So I just wanted to clarify that just a little bit. And, you know, we're lucky to go down again. Colts, our Tulzine puts the Colts in a situation very similar

to what they were facing last year and likely quite a bit worse. If Morris were there, he's a bigger weapon and a more versatile weapon than Tolzien. I think that's something that needs to be explained. I'll get off the Stephen Morris bandwagon just for a little bit. What's done is done, and we'll move on to this week. I wanted to give you guys a little note on Akeem Ayers, the outside linebacker that the Colts picked up.

He was asked today, what is it about Indianapolis that made you want to come here? And he said, I felt like this was the perfect fit for me with my skill set since I've come out of the draft. I've always considered myself to be a 3-4 type of player, and I've only been a 4-3 base defenses the whole time, so I haven't really had a chance to play to my skill set now who's that remind you of Hughes right when he was here we were playing him out of ordinary we were playing him the opposite of the way that he was more

comfortable playing when he came out and now we're getting a guy who was in a similar situation used to being in a 4-3 base now he's coming to the 3-4 scheme. It's kind of interesting thinking that he could possibly lead a little bit or that he could probably add a little bit to the pass rush and we all know that that's an absolute must for the Colts this year. As we get a little closer to kickoff, the injuries have been obviously a huge part of the talk the past few weeks, but at the moment it's become real. Today, as far as their practice and limitations and so on, Butler, Davis, Gethers, Haig, they were all out today at practice, and Anderson, Langford, Muhort, Moore, and Reitz, they were all limited. So in a couple notes here,

Pagano says that Butler is day-to-day. We all know that Davis won't be back until probably October. Anderson will not play Sunday, he did say. He said he wasn't going to play games. He said Anderson's not going to play. So I think they're looking forward to Langford playing, though. Muhor apparently today was out. He had a brace on his knee, but he was out there. And Pagano says he has no idea at the moment on his status day-to-day, week-to-week, whatever you want to call it, were pretty much his exact words. So we'll move on from that, and I'll get you into what the Lions injury report looks like, and guess who's on that. Now, this is kind of the kicker for the Colts because we all know that they struggle with the tight ends. We all know that they struggle in coverage, especially with how bad or how far down the depth chart we are in the secondary. Golden Tate was limited today. Eric Ebron was a

full participant, however, though. So that's something that we need to keep an eye on. I think the word out yesterday was that he was not looking to be available for week one. So that's something that we're going to have to keep an eye on as well. But it looks like that the Colts are going to be facing the Lions number one tight end. And we all know what kind of skill set those guys at the receiver position have. So the game is going to be on Fox. Play-by-play is going to be Kenny Albert with Daryl Johnson sidelined and Lorica Oakman.

Thursday, the coordinators are going to be talking. That's going to be interesting because I'm interested to hear a little bit about what Monachino has to say and so on and so forth. And then Friday, we're going to hear from Chuck again at one o'clock. So keep that in mind. Now, speaking of the coordinators, Jim Bob Cooter, who was the quarterback coach at the beginning of the 2015 season for the Lions, held the offensive coordinator title the last half of the season or so after the Lions started out one and six with Joe Lombardi leading the offense. Stafford threw 19 touchdowns and only two picks, and the Lions started out 1-6 with Joe Lombardi leading the offense.

Stafford threw 19 touchdowns and only two picks, and the Lions went 6-3 while Cooter was their offensive coordinator. Now, they've dropped the interim tag, obviously, but the offense is certainly going to be less predictable without Megatron there. You've got Cooter who appears to be working very well with the weapons that he has in this offense. But look, we still know who their playmakers are. Golden Tate, Eric Ebron, Marvin Jones, Amir Abdullah, and those guys are still going to be a handful.

Earlier, Pagano was talking about the injuries and was referring to Luck going through his injury process last season, and he got all Pagano-ismic as expected, saying some other things among, or among other things like, keep swinging the axe, keep chopping wood, if you will, and eventually the tree will fail, and blah, blah, blah, and Pagano-ism, Pagano-ism, over and over and over again. So nothing interesting there out of Chuck, you know, some good smiles that he's going to give you when you start seeing what he said. There was something that Pagano did say that I really liked today.

And that was, he was basically asked about, you know, how he felt watching the playoffs last season. He said a couple different things. He said, do we have a chip on our shoulder? Are we angry? Are we playing mad? We're not the hunted. Basically saying that, you saying that they're done. They didn't win the division last year,

so they're no longer the team that everybody's gunning for. That's the Texans. So he's got the guys in the right mind frame, at least. At least he seems to be in the right mind frame. And he almost sounded like he took offense to the question. He said, I guess I'm just different than you and everybody else. I don't know. You know, with the typical disgusted look on his face.

It is what it is. We fell short. We all understand that. You know, quick three and four word sentences after that. He was kind of done talking after that. And he said that they don't talk about it either. The other day I mentioned that we hadn't seen Mathis this preseason in game action either. The other day I mentioned that we hadn't seen Mathis this preseason in game action either. And when asked about that today, Pagano simply like just said, come to the game,

come check it out. So I think we'll, you know, it kind of leaves the interest level high, but at the same time, you know, we're still kind of, come on, Chuck, you know, we need to see, we need to see a little something. But I'm sure we will. If he's younger, even if he was just 30, then that might be valid. And we could trust that a little bit more. But we want to see what he can do. And hopefully he shines. And hopefully him sitting out the preseason doesn't lead to any silly little nagging injuries throughout the season or anything like that. I'm sure that he's in shape and so on and so forth, but the Colts really need him to be.

Another thing that I've talked about in the past was the QB coach Schottenheimer and how they've worked with Luck and more specifically his footwork and so on. And Chuck said this because it's been noticeable. Like I said, when I was at camp, I noticed it. It was very apparent that they were doing something with his mechanics or his footwork, and they were just really concentrating on it. And he said, I sit there and I watch the individual and the drill work with Brian Schottenheimer that he puts him through. I've watched it in the past. It's just attention to detail, being very deliberate and intentional about where his feet are, how he sets himself up and how he takes his hitch and his seven foot drop or a seven step drop. So it's something that

they've definitely been working on. It's something that they are making sure that they're hammering home with him. But Luck's a grown man. He's a heck of a quarterback and this isn't going to do anything but help him. So real quick, if you're looking to get stories and insight on the entire NFL all-in-one show, be sure to check out the Locked On NFL podcast with Matt Williamson. And for all of you 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 an update on some of the other team-centric shows. We also have just launched Locked On Dolphins,

hosted by Ron Kniff, as well as Locked On Seahawks with Vincent Verhey. So if you're fan-amized there, go check those out. And as always, subscribe to your favorite Locked On podcasts and throw them a rating and a review and let them know what you think about them. Also, if your target audience is men in the age range of 18 to 50 and you want to advertise on the show, then this is where you want to do it.

Email the show at lockedoncultspot at gmail.com, and we'll get that ball rolling for you. Okay, now the other guy that they picked up today when they let go of Stephen Morris was the cornerback Rashawn Melvin. And now I've talked in the past past as I went through some of the roster guys in the past couple shows about the unknowns. Melvin to Pagano is not one of those unknowns. He's basically said he's got the length, he's played before, that they've seen his tape, he's got speed toughness, and they apparently feel that he's got some special team's value.

And he says that he's not one of the unknowns. You know, they can get him up to speed, or how they can get him up to speed is the real issue, and getting acclimated to the scheme and how he can do with the communication and so on and so forth with the other guys who have been there. So another thing that the Colts' offense has been harping on is maximizing yards after the catch.

We all know how the Kobe Fleener two and some odd yards per yards after the catch was just kind of ridiculous. They're working on getting Andrew Luck to get the ball to his playmakers in some space, get them the ball in the holes to where they've got some room to turn up field and go, got some room to make moves. Not getting them in between the zones when the linebackers are already sitting in the middle of the field and they've got help and they've got coverage rolling over to them. But, you know, the openings don't get that big in the NFL, so they're going to have to deal with what they've got.

But they've got some plays up their sleeve, it sounds like, to where they want to get some of these guys like T.Y. and Moncrief, Dorsett, and probably even Dwayne Allen out in the open and get these guys some premier real estate to run with. We all know, like I said, it's been an issue in the past, but they really need to get those guys going in that regard. Luck's also talking about Chudzinski's offense and how comfortable he is in it. He appears and basically says that he's worked with a bunch of different offensive coordinators and this is as good as any of them, or Chudzinski's as good as any of them, and that he demands perfection out of them or demands the best work ethic out of them and that they all appreciate that finally we come back to Mathis and he says that he feels good and that it helps

his age not to play in the preseason he says basically the older you get the less stuff you need and that he's ready to go so when we take all that in we see how close we are to Colts football everything's coming together We're just a few days away. We're less than about 24 hours at the time of this recording from just some NFL football in general, and we're only a few days away from the Colts running out at Lucas Oil Stadium. So everybody get their jerseys all cleaned up, get them fresh and pressed, get them ready for Sunday, watch the first set of games and then at 425 be ready for the Colts to kick off and show us what some of these young guys can do some of

these veterans that have put in the time and the work we've talked about their age and so on but there's a lot of guys on this team that are hungry to prove that they can do it and that they can bounce back and that they can be the leaders both physically in the game as well as on the sidelines and in the locker room. Thank you again for joining me on Locked on Colts and be ready for tomorrow's episode as well. Like I said, we're going to try and get Matt Derry in here and see what he has to say. I can't wait to talk to him, get his point of view.

He's telling me the other day how the fans in Detroit just feel that their team doesn't have a chance. I feel like that's pretty common among fans, and I feel that that's probably something that most of us go through. We all break the team down so much and see their ins and outs and their positives and negatives and their pluses and minuses, and when you add injuries and such into it, it makes it a little difficult to be too positive. But we're going to keep doing it. So get your questions to me. Use the hashtag LockedOnColts on Twitter.

If you don't want to do it on Twitter, you don't want to do it on Facebook, email me LockedOnColtsPod at gmail.com. I'm Matt Dainley. Follow me on Twitter, mdainley underscore NFL. Follow the show on Twitter at LockedOnColts. I'll see you next time.