Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - PROSPECT SPOTLIGHT: Indianapolis Colts Could Use Malachi Fields to Replace Lost Receiver Help

Starting point is 00:00:00 Jake gives the Colts a big time wide receiver in today's prospect spotlight. 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. Welcome to Locked on Colts, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, now the number one sports podcast network around. Hello, everyone. My name is Zach Hickshaw Resident Film Nerd of Horseshoehuddle.com.

Starting point is 00:00:34 I'm joined as always by the Breesortons. boots on the ground for roundtable sports. Jake Arthur, you know him, you love him. And today he is bringing us an offensive player for today's prospect spotlight. Not many of those so far. I know I squeaked in an offensive tackle last week, but we are going more flashy today, and that is Malachi Fields, the wide receiver from Notre Dame. A big dude that Jake has talked about quite a bit. I believe in our mock draft Monday last week, Jake, you did give the Colts Malachi high field. So this is a guy that you've been in on for a while, transfer from UVA to Notre Dame performed exceptionally well last year.

Starting point is 00:01:13 What are your thoughts on him as a fit for the Colts and just his overall thoughts as a prospect? Yeah. So on the surface, I don't love the idea of the Colts going receiver early because they just need so much on defense. But the reality of the situation is anything could happen this offseason. And the Colts already kind of have a needed receiver now. and I just think that can grow as the offseason goes. Now Michael Pittman Jr., we know being a $29 million cap hit, you know, that's not really realistic. So we don't know what's going to happen with him.

Starting point is 00:01:46 Alec Pierce is one of the most coveted free agents on the entire market, let alone a receiver. So the need could be there for the Colts. So that's the only reason why we're even discussing this as a possibility. But when it comes to Malachi Fields, I think he really fits what Chris Ballard looks for really historically in receivers and like all the way up to like what he's done in the last couple years. So Fields is a guy, 6-4-220. I absolutely love that frame.

Starting point is 00:02:17 His skill set is it reminds me of like, you know, prime Michael Pittman Jr. To be honest with you, he's not like a burner, but he's got enough speed to get down field like we saw with Pittman in 2021 with Carson Wentz. he's a 50-50 ball jump ball dominant type of guy he's always going to win those matchups again something we've always seen michael pitman junior do when he goes up high he gets it uh kind of that classic big bodied ex receiver that was talked about pitman being uh earlier in his career uh but with with fields i think he flies a little bit under the radar because noterdame is about jeremiah love and jadari and price you know what i mean they're a run first team So field deficiency has been very good as a receiver, but he's never been a high volume pass target.

Starting point is 00:03:07 And again, he comes from Virginia and then just played at Notre Dame this last year. But with the exception of, I think it's second season in college, he's always average yards per catch in the teens. It's odd because touchdowns, he's never been a big touchdown score just like Michael Pittman, Jr. either. But generally, this is a guy who, again, I love that 6-4-2. 120 pound frame. I think it moves a lot better than a lot of the bigger receivers. You know, we talked in our most recent full-length episode about how taller receivers,

Starting point is 00:03:41 they often have issues with their hips. They're very rigid. They don't turn very well. They're not very fluid. Mike Strawn, for instance. Mike's strong, yeah. A one-speed straight-line guy. Right.

Starting point is 00:03:51 I don't think Fields is that type of guy. I think he's got a bit of wiggle to him. his route tree is not broad right now i would say it was in between pitmans and pierces when they were both coming into the league he's not a guy who could fall into your lap and probably even catch 60 or 70 balls as a rookie i think you'd probably take a little bit of time but when you're looking at second round third round at receivers you're not always going to hit on like a bona fide number one but i think he's the type of guy who could ascend to number like you could get by with him is your number one receiver, but he's not going to stack up against the rest of the leagues.

Starting point is 00:04:29 Number one is like an elite guy. But I think he could be your top weapon in a passing game because big bodied sure hands can be a possession receiver, but has that ability to stretch the field and win contested catches. He can win in all areas of the field. It's never going to be the sexiest thing, but it's efficient and it's effective. And he's just, he's someone I think Chris Ballard would be really interested in. Yeah, you kind of alluded to this a couple of times.

Starting point is 00:04:55 times in what you were saying there in terms of like in the NFL everything comes down to cost right no matter how much you like a player the cost is going to be the deciding factor and there's 29 million reasons why we're talking about michael pitman junior the way we are this off season so do you view fields as a like legit one-to-one replacement for not not in terms of production but in terms of like hey we're going to get this guy in 20-something million dollars cheaper which helps us get navigate our cap situation. Do you see that as like, this is just our way of getting a cheaper Michael Pittman Jr. in this draft? Yes. And I look at it not just for this year, because we've talked about this too. It would probably be easier to, let's say you lose Pittman. It's probably

Starting point is 00:05:41 easier of piecemeal that role together. Yeah. Give some to Ashton Doolin. You give some to Josh Downs and Tyler Warren. Well, and get some to Fields too, though. Yeah. In this scenario, you bring in another guy. And because, you know, you also have to fill the whole of A. D. Mitchell. Yeah. Like, that's something I anticipate they'll want to do this offseason as well. So rather than going out and getting a one-for-one replacement, you kind of piece, again, you just kind of pull your resources together. And a guy like Fields has a very similar skill set. I think he could go in and fill a lot of that initially. Like a lot of rookies catch 30, 40, 50 balls, tops if they're heavily used. I could see that in this scenario. But you're going to

Starting point is 00:06:22 get the other guys involved like Ashton Doolin and the other guys that are already there. Yeah, no, for sure. And coming up, guys, we're going to talk about his overall fit with the Colts and how Chris Ballard's trends at wide receiver have been very fascinating in recent years. We're going to talk about that here in just a second. But first, welcome to the five-hour energy flavor draft. We're looking at every aspect of the draft to let you know which tasty flavors are the best in which might be sleepers. The board is set. The flavors are ready and only one is going to take the top spot. Five hour energy shots gives you a boost with zero sugar. Jake personally has been telling me every single day about peach mango. It's one of his favorite

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Starting point is 00:10:27 because if we look at the early draft history of Chris Ballard, when it was with Frank Reich, when it was with all those offensive coordinators under Frank Reich, this would scream, build a Ballard number one, the next Alec Pierce, the next Michael Pittman Jr. Because size was a premium in those early days with everything the culture we're looking for, right? Again, Pittman Jr., Pierce, Strawn, Deree's Fountain, like all these guys were

Starting point is 00:10:52 Dionne Kane. These guys were all above 6-2, all above 200 pounds. And then at at its best, you know, you were looking at Pittman and Pierce, these guys who were like 6-4, 6-5, 2-15 plus huge wide receivers. But we have seen a change a little bit. in recent years with Shane Siken. A.D. Mitchell, still 6-2, 200 pounds, but more of a route runner, more of a separator. Anthony Gould, pure separator under those thresholds.

Starting point is 00:11:18 And Josh Downs, one of the smaller players on the roster, great separator, great slot player for the Colts. So I'm not saying that you're wrong by saying that Fields could be a fit for the Colts, because if you lose Pittman, you would think you want another size type of player to come in here and fit there. So I think it is a really interesting dynamic there with the Colts and what type of receiver they would want if they do move Pitman because they have changed their type recently, but you might want to match Pittman's type to fit kind of your offense. Yeah, and I do know they still kind of view that receiver room is the basketball team. You have everyone in their specialized role.

Starting point is 00:11:56 So I always think you want someone with Juice who can win quickly and get that separation and beat me in coverage. not that Fields can't do that. He's the kind of guy. I think it's going to take some deep film research on their part, again, because he's just never been a high volume targeted guy. But I do agree. I think, I don't know if it's Chris just relying on what his coaches want or if he's just becoming more diverse in how he evaluates talent.

Starting point is 00:12:26 But we've seen that with Eddressor. We've seen that with receiver. Receiver was always kind of a joke where if you didn't look Mike Strawn, you had no chance. Like never in a million years where we have thought Anthony Gould or Josh Downs would become Colts. Now there's slot receivers, sure,

Starting point is 00:12:41 but still the point remains that he had a type. And this is definitely more of the old guard, the old Ballard type. So Stuyken obviously wants the quick winners and everything, but I think they are willing to make exceptions for guys who have feel and like know how to use their bodies to like box guys out and use their frames to win because I don't think like a Michael Pittman Jr. would have necessarily been like a high

Starting point is 00:13:08 Shane Steichen draft pick. But again, you need these guys who you need a possession receiver number one. You do need to be able to threaten deep, which I think Fields can do. He by no means is he like a slow guy because he can win deep and like I watched him burn a guy for like a 50 yard game and in Mobile. He torched him and he had to dive for it. Like he made a very athletic explosive play. So he's got that in him. And that's why, you know, we mentioned on our combine pregame show. I really want to see how he works out. Because he's someone who I think his testing scores could really open some eyes for people to be like,

Starting point is 00:13:48 okay, maybe this guy's capable of a little bit more. You know, if his jumps are 38 plus inches, his broad is, God, I don't know, what's it? Over 10, 10 feet is what you're looking for running. Like 10. 10, maybe 10, 9, yeah. And then if he's running under four or five, I think would be great for a guy that size. Like that would be outstanding. But I think he could surprise.

Starting point is 00:14:10 I see more capability on tape. I see a guy who, again, not a dominating wide receiver one, but like enough to be your top outside receiver on your team. Yeah. Another interesting aspect in this is with guys like Pierce and Tyler Warren who are good contested catch guys, not really true separators. I wonder if you still want to go for more of a true separator on that other side. But Fields could have that ability as well. So, you know, it's all about mixing types, like you said, building that basketball team.

Starting point is 00:14:40 But real quick, before we closed it out here, Jake, you've mentioned round two a little bit with Malachi Fields. Again, height weight speed guys typically go pretty early, like we saw with Pierce during his draft year, heightweight speed guy went in the middle of round two. Do we think that's where he goes, like top 50, or do you think there's a world where he could fall maybe to their third round? pick. Yeah, I think it's possible he's third. I've seen mostly second round. And again, I think the combine's probably a big deal because it's not like, it's not like you've got a guy who's targeted 80, 90 times a season and you've got all the tape you could ever want to pick his game apart. So I do think athletic testing and like workouts with teams is going to be big for a guy like this.

Starting point is 00:15:22 We've seen that before with, you know, Demarius Thomas is a guy that comes to mine from Georgia had like no receiving volume whatsoever coming at Georgia Tech because when they ran like the wishbone stuff, you know? Yeah. So the workouts and the combine and stuff like that were so important. So yeah, like with Fields, a lot of his evaluation of stuff, we are yet to see and it's going to come up in the next few weeks. So projects over getting guys who are ready to go right now.

Starting point is 00:15:51 Okay, Jake, I can see the comments below already. But thanks again for tuning in today for this bonus episode. of Locked on Colts. We'll be back yet again tomorrow. So make sure you subscribe to our show to get all the latest episodes. And if you don't already, make sure you're following at Lockedon Colts

Starting point is 00:16:06 at Jake Arthur NFL and at Zach Hicks 2 all on social media. And if you never miss an episode, then remember the Everydayer Club is built for you. Get Locked on Colts audio ad free plus members-only Discord access and much more. Head to Lockdowncults.com to join the club or follow the link in our show notes right now. Thanks again.

Starting point is 00:16:25 We're back here yet again tomorrow after noon.

Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - PROSPECT SPOTLIGHT: Indianapolis Colts Could Use Malachi Fields to Replace Lost Receiver Help

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