Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - PROSPECT SPOTLIGHT: Kyle Louis Could Fill MULTIPLE Needs for Indianapolis Colts

Starting point is 00:00:01 Welcome back to the Prospect Spotlight series as Jake dives into a Senior Bowl superstar that would fit the Indianapolis Colts. 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 Locked On Podcast Network. Now the number one sports podcast network around. Hello, everyone. My name is Zach Hickshaw, Resident Film Nerd of Horseshoe Huddle.com. And I'm joined by the irreverent Jake Arthur of Roundtable Sports. We're going to keep throwing big names before our stuff, test our thesaurus knowledge on these prospect spotlight videos.

Starting point is 00:00:52 But I'm joined by Jake Arthur of Roundtable Sports, our boots on the ground over there to talk about another prospect in this draft class. And lo and behold, we're talking about another linebacker. I wonder what the Colts need in this upcoming draft. But Jake has identified one of the Senior Bull standouts from this offseason. And because Jake was, again, our boots on the ground down there, he and everyone else in attendance fell in love with pit linebacker Kyle Lewis. 511, 224 pounds, turns 22 in March. And yeah, Jake, I mean, sell me on this player.

Starting point is 00:01:26 I don't even know if you have to sell me or sell our viewers because everyone came away from Mobile saying, oh, Kyle Lewis, put him on my team. Yeah, I don't think I was able. to keep him a secret for longer than like five minutes. But get ready to be smitten, Zach. Here we go. All right. So this is number one, you and I really value versatility. And that's what Kyle Lewis is. So when you look at his background at Pitt, he's a two-year starter there, redshirted his first year, and then got, you know, got action in a handful of games. A couple starts in 2023. First starting in the scene as a first team All-American in 2024. And then continued strong play. maybe, you know, 2024 is probably a little more action-packed for him.

Starting point is 00:02:06 But this guy is a stat sheet stuffer, the likes that we haven't really seen since like Shack Leonard, dare I say, around Coltsland. So just in the last two years, mind you, this is a guy that lines up, not traditionally in the secondary, but like, play some box safety stuff. You see him in the slot. You see him lined up on the line as a pass rusher as a classic offball linebackers. while they move them around a lot inside the sticks, essentially. So 182 tackles with 24 tackles for loss, 10 sacks.

Starting point is 00:02:40 He's also got six interceptions as well. You know, he's got all the fumbles forced and recovered and past breakups as well. There's nothing he does that you don't love. You know, he can affect the game in so many different ways. In each of the last two years, he's lined up in the slot or like around the safety spot, two hundred and forty four times again in each year. And then 500 plus snaps on the box or on the line in 2024 and over 400 last year. So they move him around a lot.

Starting point is 00:03:11 He's effective from every area. But you know, you've, you see him on the field against, you know, that competition. That's major college football. So that's one thing. But then you elevate when you go to the senior bowl. You know, that's the best of the best. And all three days, he's shone. and was arguably the best player in the field every day.

Starting point is 00:03:32 You know what I mean? And it started in just positional work as well. You can tell when guys are just moving different, who's going to be kind of on one that day. And just from positional work and then like kind of some one-on-one stuff and coverage, whether it was getting downfield on wheel routes against running backs or moving with them laterally,

Starting point is 00:03:54 he just was not to be beat. You know, he covers so much ground, has quick feet, real fluid hips as well. And he's just so hard to be. He's kind of, in the NFL, I don't think one thing that will ever go out of style is having that kind of chess piece that you can, whatever the offense throws at you, you've got this guy. Who's the answer?

Starting point is 00:04:17 And, you know, trends come and go in the NFL, but that never will go away. And he's, he's it for whatever team takes him. the only question is it's going to depend whether wherever he goes is he going to be a safety linebacker is he going to be like this year's nick mn worry he's not necessarily like the physical freak with all the size that mn worry was but he's got all the skill set so you have a guy like this who's really been passing every test so far the film is really good uh the all star game the biggest all star game was really good and now you got the combine coming up here and a couple weeks what's that going to look like so you got this kid and kyle lewis who

Starting point is 00:05:01 maybe you don't you're not in love with the size at 511 224 but you know don't if your team don't outsmart yourself by wondering where he's going to fit because you'll find a place for him if you're smart enough de coordinator yeah it's so fascinating we talk about the star linebacker position because it's such a college thing that hasn't really translated super well to the nfl in terms of it being a prominent position until we saw Nick Edmond Worry play it this past year on such a big stage and win the Super Bowl with Seattle Seahawks where when I talk about Star, it's a player who plays linebacker and nickel corner essentially. Yeah. It's been a big thing. It's been called the spur player in West Virginia's 335 over the years. Alabama and Nick Sabin have used it quite a bit. I want to say Brian Branch played a little bit of it with Saban. And then Kaiser White back in the day played the spur position, with West Virginia. And I've always fallen in love with these players.

Starting point is 00:06:00 I think my big concern is always tweener players can sometimes get lost in the shuffle, but the traits that they can pick up, if they are able to fully adjust, or maybe they can just be special players like Nickyman Worry and just make it relevant in the NFL, then they can be like truly impactful players. Like we saw White B early in his career, like we've seen Brian Branch B,

Starting point is 00:06:21 and like we've obviously seen with M&Wari. So I'm always so intrigued. by players like this. But coming up, Jake is going to dive into the draft projection for a player like Kyle Lewis, who I think is all over the board right now in terms of he could be a top 50 player. He could be outside the top 100 with the tweener status. I think we're going to have Jake dive into that. And then also how he could fit this Colts team that needs a playmaker at the linebacker position. Hey, it's Matt Derry from the Lockdown Lions podcast. The people I love depend on me. If I'm gone, the financial responsibilities don't disappear.

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Starting point is 00:09:27 I'm moving on to pit linebacker Kyle Lewis today. Senior Bowl standout, arguably the star of the week. Now we're going to talk about how the Colts can get him and how he fits. So he is interesting, Kyle Lewis is. You look at his tape, you look at what he did at the Senior Bowl, what he might do with the Combine, and that's a first round player all day. But you look at his size, and you're going to have some coordinators

Starting point is 00:09:55 who just have such rigid guy, lines for how each position needs to fit. You know what I mean? And I just have a feeling because they always do. Some teams are probably going to outsmart themselves or they're going to say, you know, I already have this position filled. I don't know what to do with them, blah, blah, blah. And that's a bad way going about it, Zach.

Starting point is 00:10:18 But luckily with the Colts, I could think of many different ways that they can use them. Do you need to fill Jermaine Pratt's will spot? Here you go. did Nick Cross leave in free agency and you need a new strong safety or a guy who's kind of a maestro in the box? Because Cross is not just a strong safety. He's kind of that star player that you had mentioned in the first segment. There's just a lot you could do with him. Hunter Woller was supposed to be the dime linebacker.

Starting point is 00:10:43 Kyle Lewis could absolutely do that. So a guy like Lou Anirumo who values versatility and throwing different looks and keeping offenses guessing, well, this is a player that can do just about anything for you and can wear so many different hats and keep offenses guessing like you intend to. So yeah, I think classically for me, I'm just going to have him listed as a linebacker throughout the process. I know like Bucky Brooks, for example, has him as a safety.

Starting point is 00:11:13 So some people are going to have him in either spot. It doesn't really matter. What matters is where he's going to go, like which defensive system. but for me, if I'm forecasting the Colts, I think he would just be absolutely perfect as a will. Just that run and chase, let him fly around sideline to sideline, let him use his instincts more than calling the offense and stuff. I don't see him as a Mike anywhere.

Starting point is 00:11:38 But specifically for the Colts, it just depends, number one. I think the Colts would, let's say cross goes, and you have Will open and you have strong safety open. I still think they would go with him at Will. just to get him closer to the ball and be able to impact things a little more. But yeah, he's just someone, no matter what you need, I think he would be able to provide it. Yeah. And if we look at historically when it comes to the NFL, they like to punish guys who are not like fit into their mold.

Starting point is 00:12:10 I mean, again, I keep bringing these guys up, but we look at Brian Branch and that was a top 15 player on film all day, every day in that draft class. And he felt what to mid second round, I believe, because teams didn't know what to do with them. him. I bring back Kaiser White. I think he felt like day three in that draft, despite having a really good profile, but because he played that spur position at West Virginia, it led to him slipping a little bit. So we do see players like this pedalyzed typically by the NFL, but we'll see if the Emin Worry ascension this past season leads to some teams rethinking that. And heck, there's so many Baltimore Ravens Tree guys around the NFL right now that you could see all these guys being like, I need my Kyle Hamilton.

Starting point is 00:12:50 I need my Nick Emmond Worry. Maybe Kyle Lewis could be that despite, I know he's not going to test like those guys. Well, he might test like Hamilton because Hamilton didn't test super well, but he's not going to test like him and Warwick. It's not with the size, yeah. Right, right. So we'll see. I really could see his range being anywhere from early day two to early day three. Like anywhere in that range is kind of where I'm at with him.

Starting point is 00:13:13 But I think for the Colts, you know, even if he doesn't have a clear role on. run downs early because the Colts, unlike what we see with some other teams where when they go to their base defense, they put three linebackers on the field. The Colts don't do that. They go to 5-2 or three-four, however you want to classify that. And they prefer more defensive linemen on the field than linebackers. So I don't know if Lewis would really factor in much on base stuff, but any kind of passing down situation, like we saw when the Colts put Austin Ajikah out there on a lot of situations for certain blitz looks, for certain passing down looks, or also when they went to three safety sets last year with Nick Cross in the box,

Starting point is 00:13:54 you could potentially put Lewis in that cross role, and then you only have to fill the one safety position this offseason, which would be that third safety that comes in on those passing down. So he might not be like this every down starter that plays every single snap for the Colts if you take a player like Lewis, but say you take him in like round three, he would still be a significant role player on this team that could get a ton of snaps on passing downs, passing looks with his ability to make plays in the ball. So I think it's a good fit.

Starting point is 00:14:23 I don't think it's a poor fit by any means. Maybe his best fit is probably, again, with those like Ravens defensive coaches around the league. But I think in terms of how Lou likes to play, like having a coverage guy who can be this kind of versatile chest piece that can send pressure and match off of that and make plays in the ball, I think would be a very important aspect to this team. So I like Lewis's fit a lot with the Colts. Maybe not as high as Trotter like we talked about earlier this week because of the exact style. But in terms of what the Colts need and type of coverage they could get from Lewis,

Starting point is 00:14:55 I'm not going to play, especially the way he was locking up running backs in man coverage at the Senior Bowl. Like the Colts play more man than most teams in the NFL. Getting a linebacker who can cover in man coverage like that would be massive. So I do like his fit a lot with Louanerumo. Yeah, one area, obviously, you know, with him being smaller, if you're going to play him at will, you know, he's not got elite strength and he obviously lacks elite length. So you're not going to get like he, he gets into your body into a blocker's body. He's not always going to be able to disengage from that. So that's one area why you have to have him at will, a guy who probably is able to get a little more space. But that could also be a reason some teams see him more at safety. Let him. Let him. get more of a running head start to where he's going and you keep him in space, you try and hide him away from the line of scrimmage a little bit more. I can imagine coaches might try and do just to keep him clean and have a better pursuit

Starting point is 00:15:52 towards the ball. But that's my big question mark, I think, with the Colts, because I do think Lou Anorimo likes a bigger linebacker. So personally, I think I'd put him at will as long as he's not just crumbling against the block all the time. but I can imagine why a team would want to keep him there just to keep him as clean as possible. Yeah, I mean, and also just to close this out real quick, I could see the Colts viewing him as a safety. Nick Cross was five, or no, Nick Cross was six foot two 12 to 215, I think is where his weight typically was.

Starting point is 00:16:24 Kyle Lewis, 511, 224. So it's not like it's that big a difference. If he can run, you know, a good time, I could see the Colts value, valuing him as a safety. It might limit versatility a little bit, but the Colts, predominantly play single high anyway with Cameron Bindam over the top. So I could see him playing safety. I could see a lot of roles for him in this defense. Maybe we should just fix this entire defense, Jake,

Starting point is 00:16:46 by going Trotter in round two and Lewis in round three. It just go full speed. It would be incredible. That's all we have for today's prospect spotlight. Thanks again for tuning in to today's bonus episode of Lockdown Colts. We'll be back yet again tomorrow afternoon. 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 Locked on Colts,

Starting point is 00:17:07 at Jake Arthur, NFL, and at Zach Hicks, too, all on socials. And if you never miss an episode, then remember the Everydayer Club is built for you. Get Locked on Colts, audio, ad free. So without those ads, plus members only, Discord access, and much more. Head to LockdownColts.com to join today or follow the link in our show notes. And we'll catch you guys back here yet again tomorrow afternoon.

Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - PROSPECT SPOTLIGHT: Kyle Louis Could Fill MULTIPLE Needs for Indianapolis Colts

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