Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - MOCK DRAFT: Indianapolis Colts Go DEFENSE ONLY, Get Dream Scenario with First Two Picks

Starting point is 00:00:00 It is mock draft Monday, and today we are only giving the Colts defensive players. Let's get to it. You are Locked on Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. All right, welcome to Locked on Colts, part of the Locked On Podcast Network. I am your host, Jake Arthur, the Indianapolis Colts beat writer for Roundtable Sports. and it is Monday. And so for the rest of this little home stretch

Starting point is 00:00:38 until the NFL draft begins on April 23rd, every Monday will be devoted to a mock draft. And we'll give you little wrinkles maybe each time up until the final one where we want to give our best guess, our best feelings on what the Colts might do. So today, we're throwing in the caveat that it's defensive players only for the Colts.

Starting point is 00:01:00 And I think that's fine. I think a lot of us would be okay with that. defenses at a premium for this team. They need edge rush help. They need linebackers. They could use another backup nose tackle. I think they still want to do something at safety as well. So lots of, lots to stock on the covered of the defensive side of the ball for this team.

Starting point is 00:01:22 So it makes a lot of sense. Again, I don't think anyone is going to really shoe away the fact that they might pull in an entire defense of all here. So with the first, the Colts first selection here, 47 overall second round. We're going with Missouri edge defender Zion Young. Now, this is not the first time you have heard us mention this guy. If you listened to last week when Zach spoke with Corey Kennan of Daffed on draft, he mentioned Zion Young is one of the best fits for the Colts at edge rusher on day two.

Starting point is 00:01:55 And again, that echoes something we've been talking about for a while. And when you're looking at edge rushers and you're having to fill a need, you know, and you're, you're not going to get one of these guys. You just pop in and they're 10-sat guys. They're all gone by the first half of the first round. So you kind of have to look at specifics. Who fits in best to the defense? Because you're not just going to get these unicorns that you could put into any system. So who fits the defense best compared to what you need? And who has the traits that really translate to being able to play quickly? And then so when you look at Zion Young, power is his game. He does have some pass rushing juice and he's kind of developing

Starting point is 00:02:39 some moves here and there. But generally, he wins with speed to power, running through a blocker, bull rushing. He's just hardly ever going to be overpowered. And it's hard for blockers to really deal with the ferocity that he brings. He's a very high effort guy. He's very strong. Six foot six, 262 pounds, decent length as well. I think he's got about 33, 34 inch arm. So like the guy is well built as well. Like his size and his power, that mixture translates. So I have zero worries there. I think he immediately is going to have something that gets him onto the field and makes him somewhat productive. Statistically, he is ascending. He had 16 and a half tackles for loss and six and a half sacks last year. I mentioned he doesn't really have a whole lot yet in

Starting point is 00:03:30 his pass rushing bag. You know, he's got a good rip. He's got some stuff where he can kind of, you know, bend the outside shoulder of the blocker a little bit. I saw him use a spin move a time or two, which was kind of a pleasant surprise. As far as like timelines for this guy, he could be a star within a couple years, but I think he can be a starter for you within a year or so. I don't think he's going to come in and like totally replace.

Starting point is 00:04:00 Quitty pay for the Colts, which is what they're looking for. You know, I do think they probably need like just a speedball guy off the edge at some point as well. They don't really have that. But what you're vacating is Quitty Pay, who for five years has been your base in, your strong side in, your run defending edge rusher. You know, that's a hard guy to replace. And that's not something they've done yet.

Starting point is 00:04:24 You know, the added Arden Key, who's kind of a direct replacement for Samson-Ebacom. and is kind of more of a layoutu-outu type. Michael Clemens is someone who you don't want on the field a ton. He's not someone you want to directly replace Quity Pay. I think he's more of a Taekwon Lewis replacement. So you're missing that guy who's been there forever and has played countless snaps for you. So while it may take kind of a group effort to replace Quidipay initially, I see Zion Young.

Starting point is 00:04:57 So I make sure Zion Young and J.T. to a Malowal, hopefully replacing him kind of as a tandem. You could throw some other guys in there occasionally as well. But it might be a little bit of a team effort to replace that guy. But Zion Young, I think outside of the first round guys, has a real chance to be a stud player within a year or so. And again, you need edge rush help. There's no one you're just going to go fine.

Starting point is 00:05:23 That's a star right away. That's just, that's hardly realistic unless you get super lucky. and if anyone knew who that player was, he would probably not even be available in the second round. So moving on to the Colts pick in the third round, number 78 overall. It's a player who've heard me talk a ton about. And I'm finally coming around to the fact that he might be available in the third round.

Starting point is 00:05:45 That's pit linebacker Kyle Lewis. So Kyle, call him a linebacker, call him a safety, someone in the star position, whatever you want to say, he's a playmaker. And I want him on my team no matter where you want to put him. In college, he played 875 snaps, just that classic offball linebacker, 559 snaps in the slot slash kind of strong safety, 247 on the edge or at like an outside linebacker spot.

Starting point is 00:06:14 So the guy moves around a bit and plays at a high level everywhere. Very productive, just in the last two years alone, 24 tackles for lost 10 sacks, six interceptions, two force fumbles, two fumbles recovered, six past breakups and a defensive touchdown. I've seen him in person. I've seen him on tape. There's nothing that you see that you don't love. Now, he is a little bit undersized, which is the whole reason I think he would be available in the third round. About 5-11, 220-ish, if he was 6'1, 225, 230, I don't think there's any question that he wouldn't fall out of the top 50. The dude is an absolute playmaker.

Starting point is 00:06:55 Just the fluidity at which he moves, the sudden start, stop, the oily hips, all of it. Like, there's nothing about this guy on film that you don't like. I really just think it's people being picky about where do you play him because of his size. Now, that brings us to an important question about the Colts. Where would the Colts play him? it's weird because they've made a couple modest moves in free agency that might impact it a little bit. And maybe the role he plays as a rookie isn't necessarily what he would play in year two, year three.

Starting point is 00:07:29 Right now I kind of see him as that Hunter Wooler type where he's some sort of mix of strong safety and like dime linebacker. But, you know, the Colts did go sign Akeem Davis Gaither, who Zach and I kind of project him mostly as a will. but for Loua and Aruma, he can play Mike. He's got experience doing both. The way to probably get the most productivity out of having both of those guys is moving Davis Gaither into Mike and then having Kyle Lewis play your will. I wonder how Louana Ruma would feel about that because I think he likes bigger linebackers, which Kyle Lewis is not.

Starting point is 00:08:05 But he's played plenty of linebacker in college. That's been his most prominent position. Or, you know, you could replace. Nick Cross with him. They're not exactly the same style of player. Cross has always really been a box safety where Kyle Lewis has been, you know, primarily a linebacker who can play some stuff off in the slot, off in the box. So a little bit of the inverse players there, but can do some of the same things.

Starting point is 00:08:33 But, you know, that's where the Colts got Wanya Thomas to kind of play that role. So the bottom line is I think the Colts want good, versatile players. and that's what Kyle Lewis is. Just give Lou Anirumo all these guys with multiple skill sets and just let him figure it out from there. I think is the goal. If you just throw the Colts a bunch of guys where you don't really know what their home position is,

Starting point is 00:08:57 but they make plays and get on the field, I don't care. Let Lou Aniromo figure that out. Just give them good players and figure out the rest from there. So I think that's kind of a dream scenario for me, getting Zion Young and Kai Lewis with your first. two picks. I don't think that there's any better scenario for the Colts for that to play out. It's hardly possible for you to get more productive, more playmaking right there, and early playmaking as well, because the name of the game here in this win now season

Starting point is 00:09:29 is early contributors. So with my first two picks for the Colts at number 47, Zion Young, and then number 78, Kyle Lewis. All right, coming up, guys, we are continuing on with rounds four in rounds five. Are we going to keep hammering the front seven? Or we're going to maybe bring a defensive back into the full. We'll find out in just a moment. What if sports were traded like markets? Now you can put your sports IQ to work in real time with Robin Hood prediction markets. It's not just you against the house. It's you participating in a live market. You could buy or sell your positions live all game long. Use your sports knowledge in the moments that matter. Robin Hood prediction markets changes the game. It's people moving the action.

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Starting point is 00:10:39 Event contracts are offered by Robin Hood derivatives LLC, a registered futures commission merchant and swap firm. All right, welcome back, everybody. But first, don't forget to check out the Everydayer Club for ad-free episodes and access to a group chat with Zach me and other listeners of the show. It has gotten quite active, of course, with all the speculation surrounding the draft, free agency, all that good stuff. To join in on the fun, just tap the link in our show notes or go to Lockedoncultz.com. All right, everybody, it is mock draft Monday, and the rule today is defense only, which again, I don't think anyone is complaining about when it comes to this Colts defense. On the second round, I went with edge defender Zion Young out of Missouri, third round, linebacker Kyle Lewis out of pit.

Starting point is 00:11:29 So now let's go ahead to the fourth round. This is another guy I've seen in person, really liked him down at the Senior Bowl. It is defensive back VJ Payne out of Kansas State. So this guy is very, very intriguing here. with the 113th overall pick. 6'3, 206 pounds. He's got almost 34-inch arms. Tested really well at the combine as well, 4.440, 35-inch vertical, 10-foot-7 broad.

Starting point is 00:11:57 He's very interesting. So you see him lined up in the slot and free safety, strong safety. But Chris Ballard, since joining the Colts, has tried to find this tall, lengthy safety. really athletic guy that he can convert into a boundary corner. We saw him try it with T.J. Green, but T.J. Green just did not have the football pedigree to grasp it. You know, really athletic guy, big guy, just not, not with it. Tried it with Marvell Tell, and it was going well up until TEL opted out during the COVID season. And he hasn't really tried it again yet, but VJ Payne just really kind of screams for that opportunity.

Starting point is 00:12:40 Now, the Colts don't need a boundary corner right now, but that kind of lines up with the timeline. It's almost like a red shirt season for pain where you develop him going from, you know, that free safety, that strong safety mold over to just being a boundary corner. You develop him a bit. You got Mooney War. You have Sauce Gardner, Justin Wally. So your needed corner will increase after this year. But right now you can just like let this guy develop in practice. You could throw him out there in, like, dime in certain situations,

Starting point is 00:13:13 play him on special teams so that you get something out of him. But he is really intriguing. Not a ton of ball production. But again, you look at the size, 6 foot 3, 206 pounds, the long arms, the really good athleticism. I think you want a guy like that at the boundary corner rather than further away from the ball at safety, where they're not, like, directly in mandibus.

Starting point is 00:13:40 man coverage. You know what I mean? So this is a very, very intriguing guy. He's not like, he's not violently aggressive, but he's more than willing to mix it up and get physical. He'll lay a big hit when it is there. I think he's got really good instincts when he sees things in front of him, takes good angles to the ball in pursuit, outside runs, bubble screens. It just screens in general as well. So he, there's a lot to like about a guy like VJ Payne. And again, it seems like the Colts every year draft a guy who, they convert from their college position into something else. So I think VJ Payne is a very good candidate for that this year.

Starting point is 00:14:18 Moving on to the fifth round, 156 overall pick. We've already gotten one linebacker for the Colts, but I think they might want to get two because don't forget, they did move on from Zaira Franklin and traded him away. Germain Pratt is for agent, but Shagoo-Aluv, they also let him walk in for agency as well. So they've lost some special teams prowess too. So they've got kind of a lot to replace on in the linebacker court here.

Starting point is 00:14:44 Kishon Elliott, probably not a guy you want giving you a thousand snaps at Mike linebacker, but he's a capable player there. I think he could start for you in a pinch eventually at Mike linebacker, but you're really getting him for his special team's prowess. It's a productive player. You know, last year, 98 tackles, 14 for loss and 7 sacks. So he's a guy you could do some things with. Lou Aniruma does like to bring those linebackers on flitz.

Starting point is 00:15:09 did that a lot with Zyre Franklin. So I think Elliot fits that quite well. Not Uber athletic, but he's just, he just knows how to play football. He's always around the ball. He's kind of, honestly, he's kind of like Zyre Franklin a little bit. I just like him a bit more as a sure tackler. He's not going to slip off as much. Doesn't get himself caught up in the wash as much as Zyre Franklin did.

Starting point is 00:15:36 But, I mean, let's not act like we didn't see Zyre Franklin. or Franklin play some good football at times. Of course he did. And I think Elliot is, you know, kind of a player cut from that same cloth. Just a really productive player. Adequate athleticism. But you really want him like as a core special team or first and foremost. So Kishon Elliott, I really like him.

Starting point is 00:15:57 I think yet again another senior bowl player. I'm not intending to make these all senior bowl guys. But these are just guys I've seen up close and personal playing the game of football. I'm doing it well against high competition. So moving on next, guys, we're going to look at the final couple rounds, round six and seven. The Colts have three picks in this range, and we will get to all three of them in just a moment. All right, let's move on to round six. The Colts did not have around six pick.

Starting point is 00:16:26 Initially, they traded that from Mackay Blackman. But as a result, is their trade of Michael Pittman Jr. to the Steelers. They now have the 214th overall pick. So I want to go back to the well on edge rushers and going with Maxx. Lou Ellen out of Iowa on this one. This guy is just a solid all-around player. You're looking at like 6566, 260 pounds. A somewhat similar height and weight profile to Zion Young.

Starting point is 00:16:54 Not as powerful as young, but he's, I don't really know what his defining traits are. He's not overly athletic. He's not overly powerful. He just kind of gets the job done, just a football player, I guess, kind of along the same lines of what I just said about Keishon Elliott. I really like when I'm studying guys in the draft, I really like to see that there are stats increased each year. Your playing time gets higher. Your statistical output gets higher. I like to see that you are becoming more productive as your career goes on and you're hopefully developing more. Max Llewellyn did that for Iowa.

Starting point is 00:17:35 Nine and a half tackles for loss in six and a half sacks last year. If you're getting that out of a six-round guy who is a good rotational player who plays well against the run and can get you something, you know, put himself in the right position as a pass rusher. I think that's perfectly fine. He's going to be more of an effort rusher. Just, you know, when the play's breaking down, you know, he's the one making the sack in the back field after it's been four or five seconds. You know what I mean? He's not going to, he's not going to dominate the offensive tackles with all these versatile moves or like this big bull rush or anything like he's just a perfectly well-rounded adequate rotational edge player and you need those again you're getting into the sixth round and you're

Starting point is 00:18:18 just looking for guys that you're able to play beyond just special teams and i think we're well and it's certainly that type of player now we haven't really done anything on the interior of the line yet uh so with our second to last pick here we are going with tennessee defensive tackle bryson Esen. He is 6-2-3-23 pounds, kind of squat, 33-inch arms, though. He's interesting. He's got an interesting frame, you know, kind of a, again, like I said, squat, maybe nose tackle one-tech frame. He is stout, but he's kind of twitchy as well. You see his feet move a bit quick, his hands move quick, and that kind of gets him into advantageous situations, you know, can get sideways pass a blocker and get into the backfield, productive player.

Starting point is 00:19:05 So I like a guy like that who, again, is not, he's not overly athletic. He's not got great size. Again, that's six foot two. That's generally really poor size. But he does use kind of his low center of gravity to be the low man, the low man wins. So Bryson, if you're looking for a guy who can push Tim Smith and push. push Derek Nottie to be the primary backup nose tackle behind Grover Stewart. I like Bryson Easton here.

Starting point is 00:19:38 I think I would probably like Easton more than Tim Smith last year. So I like throwing him into there, into the mix to compete with Smith and Noddy to be that backup nose tackle. And then our final pick here, seventh round pick 254. I wanted to throw up another nickel in there, corner Toriano Pride Jr. out of Missouri. So 5'10, 185 pounds. Really athletic guy, though, ran a 4-3-2-40, 37-5-inch vertical with a 10-foot-8 broad jump. So he's got some explosive scores despite being a little undersized. I think in the seventh round, that doesn't really matter as much.

Starting point is 00:20:17 I mean, the Colts went and got Justin Wally, who had somewhat similar size in the third round last year. So a guy like Pride could play special teams for you. you look at down the road what the nickel position might look like for the Colts. Kenny Moore isn't going to be here forever. Justin Wally may replace Kenny Moore whenever Moore moves on. He might replace Charvarius Ward when Ward moves on. So I think initially the plan for Wally was to be the heir apparent for Kenny Moore. But then, you know, there were injuries at Corner and Wally was probably going to start it outside Corner.

Starting point is 00:20:54 So I don't really know where his future is anymore. And I know that you don't really have much at nickel outside of Kenny and Wally. I mean, Chris Lamonts was a decent player, but he's a free agent. He hasn't been brought back yet to this point. So I do think it would be wise with all the corner depth you have to probably develop someone for the long term in the nickel. Because you just don't, you don't have anyone that really stands out. you have that Rob Carter Jr. from the CFL, but like I'm not going to pretend like I know a ton about a CFL prospect. But this guy, Toriano Pride Jr., you know, diminutive stature, yes,

Starting point is 00:21:35 but really good athleticism. He's a tryhard. You know, that's some of the good things they said about Justin Wally. He's always going to have the effort. He's always going to be doing the right things. I mean, sometimes just being the smaller man is going to make him on the wrong end of a matchup, sure. But in the seventh round, if you can get a guy who is always trying and always has a high motor, you're going to get some special teams work out of him. Sure, like, you lost your gunner. You know, Tyler Goodson went and signed with the falcons. So you need another gunner opposite of Ashton Doolin. So I see use for this guy here. I see a long term on special teams. And I see a long-term vision for him in the nickel, either as the second nickel or maybe even a starter once

Starting point is 00:22:21 Kenny Moore is gone and if Justin Wally is playing on the outside. So I think I found a good way to find use with every pick, not just on special teams, but to have some utility on defense as well. Again, this seven-round slate for the Colts was with the rule of defense only. I think that is perfectly fine because they obviously need quite a bit on defense. So thank you guys for tuning in today to Locked on Colts. We will be back with you tomorrow. Make sure to subscribe and follow Locked on Colts so that you get all of our latest episodes. If you don't already, follow at Locked on Colts at Jake Arthur, NFL, and at Zach X2 on social media. If you never miss an episode, then the Everydayer Club is built just for you. Get our audio ad-free plus members-only discord

Starting point is 00:23:06 access and more. Just head to Lockedoncultz.com to join the club. And again, for those of you on video, we're going to send you to the first ever 24-7 national NBA YouTube channel on audio. Make sure you make your next list in the Lockdown NFL Draft show with our guys Damien and Keith. And with that, you guys have a great day and we will see you again tomorrow.

Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - MOCK DRAFT: Indianapolis Colts Go DEFENSE ONLY, Get Dream Scenario with First Two Picks

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