Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Shaquille Leonard's Season Over, but Indianapolis Colts Will Be Fine

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Indianapolis Colts defense might be a little less maniacal the rest of this season, but they're going to be just fine. We'll tell you why and much more on today's episode of Locked on 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. Thank you all for tuning in and making us your first listen of the day. This is your daily podcast covering your Indianapolis Colts, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Today's episode is brought to you by our friends at BetOnline.

Starting point is 00:00:56 BetOnline has you covered this season with more props, odds, and lines than ever before. BetOnline, where the game starts. This is Jake Arthur alongside the lovely Zach Hicks and you know the two of us from HorseshoeHuddle.com. Today we're going to talk all about Shaquille Leonard, the maniac reportedly having season-ending surgery to repair his back once again, but why the performance of guys like Bobby Okereke, Zaire Franklin, and EJ Speed, we'll keep the defense running just fine. Plus, after grinding the tape from Jeff Saturday's first W, Zach is going to tell us what stuck out on film on both sides of the football. So first and most importantly, it's been a real rocky season for Shaquille Leonard. He's only appeared in a few games for the Colts and was on a pitch count for the first

Starting point is 00:01:45 few, really. Left his first game with a concussion. It's just been, it's been tough. He had the back surgery in June, which kept him out until week four, I think, of the regular season for him to regain his strength and everything and his feeling.'s a lot of there's nerve issues when you have surgery and things like that especially with the back um but basically um you know so how he's spoken with some of the guys in the locker room and everything he just hasn't really felt himself totally and then i think it was last week he re-aggravated the the injury during practice came off the practice field and said he felt different. Just didn't really have total strength in his leg or anything like that, I think he said. So he got a second opinion, went out to California, met with some surgeons,

Starting point is 00:02:36 got new information out there. And Ian Rappaport, I think it was today, reported that Leonard did have surgery, which is going to knock him out for the remainder of the season. Yeah, it's, it sucks, man. I know there's going to be a lot of people that are going to try to paint this as like, oh, he gave up on the, you know, it's, it's a lot of fans. Typically it's not really many writers or people who cover the team that are saying like,

Starting point is 00:02:59 he got that big contract and he cashed it in and something like that. And now he has no interest in playing. We have seen a lot of that in our comments on here, even a couple people saying that. That's absolutely true, sir. This is a guy who has given his heart and soul to the team for years, a guy who has played through injuries the last couple of seasons, and he finally decided to get taken care of this year.

Starting point is 00:03:21 It's one of those injuries, man, man that it's so so hard to overcome um there is this guy who uh follows us and who is a doctor at indy who said that he would happily come on a show or do something like that uh in the future so maybe we'll have him on here uh one of these times he's actually worked a lot of that stuff but nerve injuries are so hard to overcome you know know, we're talking about a nerve injury. A nerve injury in his back that affected him all the way down to his ankle and his feet and stuff like that. I think he said something about being numb and not being able to move at times. Like, this is a very, very, very serious injury. So I'm glad that he was able to kind of step back and say, look,

Starting point is 00:04:03 I know I had a lot of work done in the offseason. I want to be out there with my guys. I just don't feel like me. And if I'm not being 100%, then I don't want to be here and something like that. Like really wants to take care of himself and be right for his team, not just for him. You know,

Starting point is 00:04:14 he wants to be the best Shaquille Leonard that he can be and go out there and perform with this guy. So props, props to him for taking that step back and saying, you know, like I need to shut this down and I need to, to get perfectly right. Because a lot of players wouldn't do that. They would stick with their pride and say, like, I need to play through this.

Starting point is 00:04:31 But I believe the Colts are in a pretty good spot with their linebacker group to where, you know, it does miss having that playmaking ability, that million turnovers a game it feels like, or every time there's a turnover worthy play, it's going to go right in his hands somehow. It does not hurt having that. Again, what's right. What really matters is getting your body right and, and, and, you know,

Starting point is 00:04:53 being your best self. So many players in this league throughout the history of football have put their bodies at risk and even more at risk because they play through injuries or because coaching staffs, you know, tell players to play through injuries. So this is a good thing that he is taking that step back and trying to get his body right, because I'd rather have to kill Leonard next 10 years than one more year. And then his whole body breaks down.

Starting point is 00:05:16 Yeah. I, I can't lend too much time to the people who say, you know, he, he was better when he was Darius or like Shaquille, Shaquille Leonard is a quitter, like things like, like I've been around him in the locker room since 2018, since he got in the league, no one is more enthusiastic about playing football than he is. Like, I don't know that I've, I've met anyone more jubilant and outwardly loving of the sport and literally being a maniac on the field than him. So those things, I mean, I know it's frustrating for him not to be on the field, but don't be that guy. It's just, it's not true.

Starting point is 00:05:54 But luckily something for the Colts that is working out in their favor is in this new defensive system under Gus Bradley, linebacker duties are a great deal different than they were previously under Matt Eberflus. Colts have got some good ones. It was a rocky start to the season, pretty shaky for some of these guys not being in the right spots, not being at the right depths at certain times. But Bobby Okereke is playing out of his mind. Zaire Franklin, I thought, has been really good. He's playing the best football of his career. EJ Speed has been a really good run defender. I know you've mentioned that as well.

Starting point is 00:06:29 You do the film breakdown of these guys every week. I mean, what's something that maybe the casual eye doesn't see that these guys are really doing well? Yeah, it's really a lot of the route recognition at the second level. Now, we're talking about a Colts team where, yes, they've played against a lot of bad passing offenses. You know, the Titans, the Broncos, the Raiders this past week. You know, passing offenses that aren't like top five or top ten in the league.

Starting point is 00:06:54 So we will see them kind of tested down the stretch against teams like the Eagles and the Kings, the Chargers when Carson Herbert comes to town. But what I can say when you're looking at this defense, these linebackers are playing really well. They're recognizing routes. They're roboting to spots that need to. They're getting the correct depth. It all kind of changed there in that week three game

Starting point is 00:07:14 against the Kansas City Chiefs. And like I just said, they have kind of been racking up good games against bad offenses, but that was a great offense that they just locked up that entire game. So we are seeing really good play from this Colts defense, and a lot of it starts and ends at that linebacker position. Bobby Okereke looks like a Pro Bowl-caliber player in this defense. He's moving so well.

Starting point is 00:07:35 He's covering so well. And then, you know, he's had some plays that he's lost, but for the most part, he's been a really, really good linebacker. He's been tasked with some of the hardest coverage assignments that a linebacker can be given this scheme is not really forgiven on linebackers and he's been playing really well zyra franklin you know ups and downs for sure but he just plays with his hair on fire he comes downhill on everything he's looking to kill players every single time he's out there obviously he hits people safely but it's with some pop so zyra franklin obviously having a career year. And then EJ Speeds, you know, I'd argue one of the best

Starting point is 00:08:08 run defending linebackers in all of football, you know, and that's not from a biased point of view. I think you can ask anyone who really evaluates the game, you know, if you're just looking at Sam linebackers and linebackers that are defending the run, he's up there with all the best in football. So yeah, the Colts are in a good spot with their linebacker group even without Shaquille Leonard and honestly we talked about this the other day in our post game Joe it's not a good thing that Shaquille Leonard's out for the year but it kind of helps the chemistry keep building because you have the players that have been doing this all offseason and all season maintaining you know that play they're going to keep playing together where Shaquille Leonard every time he was out there the communication just looked a little off and it looked a little

Starting point is 00:08:46 clunky because it was a guy who was being inserted in there without having that comfortable you know feel for this scheme so in a way this is this is a good thing without me saying you know this is a great thing that Shaquille learns out but in a way this kind of helps these other three guys who are all playing really good football right now yeah it does it it's a little disruptive to try and fit a guy into the defense and like i think they were doing it correctly with the snap count and everything like that so he's not overwhelmingly playing over someone else but like eating into okara k snaps and stuff that's just a real bummer because okara k has been playing at a high level so just a bittersweet thing long story short hopefully this all gets cleared up and he can

Starting point is 00:09:28 have a healthy offseason hit the ground running in the spring and look like himself because i mean at the end of the day like you just want you want him to be healthy number one and if he's gonna play football be pain-free and things like that. Because, I mean, he hopefully can have a long, productive playing career for the Colts. But playing through serious stuff like this, back, neck, everything, stuff involving nerves, that's a quick way to get yourself out of the NFL. So you definitely don't want to see that. Like you had said, kudos to him for kind of stepping aside and saying this needs to get fixed permanently. Right, for sure.

Starting point is 00:10:04 Yeah, yeah. stepping aside and saying this needs to get fixed permanently. So right. For sure. Yeah. Yeah. And before we move on and kind of grind the film, as we say, and look at the offensive side of the ball under Jeff Saturday's new group and parks Frazier, we're going to talk to you about one of our sponsors. Turo Turo is the world's largest car sharing marketplace.

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Starting point is 00:11:00 Many Turo hosts can even deliver the car right to you. Every trip is backed by liability insurance. Terms, conditions, and exclusions apply. Forget boring rental cars and find your drive at Turo.com. All right, Zach. So looking at the Colts win over the Raiders 25-20, they look pretty good. The offense, everything always comes back around to the offensive line and how they perform. Because without their positive performance, the unit as a whole just usually sucks if the line is not doing well.

Starting point is 00:11:33 And it was one of the line's better performances. Taking advantage of kind of a weak Raiders defensive line. They hadn't had a sack in like, I think it was 17 quarters up until Max Crosby got one. So not a great unit it was a good get right game i guess for the colts offensive line uh we'll get to it in a minute but will fry's being kind of permanently inserted at right guard is is definitely helpful uh but looking at things schematically under parks frazier uh it didn't look totally different offensively as far as concepts go but I thought especially given a short week you know not you don't have a whole lot of game planning you can do because Parks

Starting point is 00:12:12 Frazier was the new play caller I felt they kind of leaned into the things they did well which of course is running the ball when you can get it established which they were able to do they did a lot of the shorter middle of the field stuff, gave guys opportunities to pick up yards after the catch. What did you think about the game that Frazier put together? Well, before I talk about Parks Frazier, I got to say this is easily the worst defense team is going to face this year. This was just an abysmal defense. I am so shocked because I think Patrick Graham,

Starting point is 00:12:46 I believe his name is their defensive coordinator, and he had a lot of success with the Giants before going to the Raiders. But I'm watching this game and, like, the Colts really only called a couple route combinations. It was very, very, very similar to Tom Moore with Peyton Manning, except obviously you didn't have all the talent that Tom Moore had with Peyton Manning. You didn't have Peyton Manning, except obviously you didn't have all the talent that Tom Moore had with Peyton Manning. You didn't have Peyton Manning, a quarterback. But when I say that, I mean like it was really just a couple of play calls.

Starting point is 00:13:10 It was not very different. Like every play kind of looked the same and every play was pretty similar, but it was just kind of a couple adjustments here and there and, and just kind of doing the simplistic things and making your offense as simple as possible and then building off of that and finding success that way and i think parks rager did a good job of that and he did get a job of using those couple play calls i mean again these were very very simple play calls uh to a lot of success because this raiders defense is so so bad like they're so bad they cannot rush the passer they can't cover i mean game it was spacing routes. It was sticks routes. It was just like, you know, all slants across the board.

Starting point is 00:13:47 It was a couple of mesh and, you know, a little bit of levels that were like eight yards down the field at best. Like, I mean, these are, these are plays where if you're a defense, if they keep hitting you with sticks and spacing, you got to get impressed, man, you got to get impressed, man. You got to get in their face and you got to hope that, you know, they can't beat you over the top because again the Colts have not beat anyone over the top this year outside of a couple Alec Pierce throws the Colts have not had any deep element

Starting point is 00:14:11 in their game whatsoever so for the Raiders to continually sit back and just let Matt Ryan feast underneath and let Parks Frazier call these again sticks spacings levels concepts that just attack that underneath middle of uh it was horrible defense but I don't want to take away from Mark's phrase because, again, he recognized that this defense was vulnerable in these areas. He recognized that the Raiders were rolling out undrafted free agent linebackers, guys who would typically be on a practice squad on other teams across the league. These are not top linebackers, so he kept attacking that middle of the field with those couple route combinations at the tapping that inside off coverage that,

Starting point is 00:14:49 that the Raiders were calling and it worked to, you know, keep the Colts ahead of the sticks and it kept the Colts moving on the field. And, and so, yeah, I want to say that a lot of this was the Raiders are just terrible, but Parks Frazier knew what to call to attack, how terrible that Raiders defense is. So I don't want to take away anything from parks frazier i think he did a good job of keeping things simple and calling a game plan that attacked the defense's weaknesses the the only

Starting point is 00:15:14 issue i have is if we're thinking this is going to keep translating because of the success in this game i think it's a little bit outlierish because this was an awful awful defense and i don't know if they're going to see this again going forward. Again, the true test comes this week against the Eagles. I was impressed that Parks did a great job attacking this defense, but we're not going to see many defenses this bad going forward. Yeah, and of course, remember the Eagles staff, Jonathan Gannon, defensive coordinator,

Starting point is 00:15:43 he was the secondary coach with the Colts for for a bit that's Nick Sirianni's defensive coordinator now so very familiar with the Frank Reich offense that Parks Frazier still runs so Parks is probably gonna have to get a little creative you know that these teams know each other's schemes a bit so it'll be it'll be a good coaching matchup regardless now looking at Matt Ryan inserted back into the starting lineup, other than his just gallop for the gold, what did you think of the game that he put together? It was the game you expected from a veteran quarterback with time to throw

Starting point is 00:16:19 and very simple reads. I mean, again, it was just sticks, spacing concepts, where he just had to read the leverage of corners. He had to identify pre-snap where he wanted to go, read the leverage of the corner, read the leverage of the linebacker, and then attack that area. He did it really well. He was very savvy in this one.

Starting point is 00:16:36 He was barely touched, which was the best thing about this whole game. He got sacked once. I think he was hit once in the backfield in general. I think it was only like a handful of hurries allowed in this game. Like he was clean. The game plan kept clean, all the quick throws. And also he kept himself clean by getting that ball out of his hand. So, yeah, I think it was a good game for Matt Ryan.

Starting point is 00:16:56 Nothing spectacular. You know, a couple of moments we'd probably like to have back, especially on those two-point conversion tries that were a little bit messy there. But outside of that, yeah, I thought it was a good game for Matt Ryan. It was something that you would expect during quarterback against a defense that's going to keep giving you the same thing over and over again. So, yeah, Matt Ryan came out after two weeks out and looked pretty good. Yeah, and of course, the last time he was in there,

Starting point is 00:17:21 just getting pummeled by the defensive front constantly over and over so he probably was praying to god that the line would perform well which they generally did bernard ryman at left tackle will fries at right guard uh tell me about the performance of the line i know you just put something out about will fries literally right before we started recording yeah is this the correct starting five moving forward through the season? Yeah, I think it is, even for better or worse. Again, I think I said this after the post-game show. Like, even if they come out this next week against the Eagles

Starting point is 00:17:53 and they just look terrible, this is the most beneficial group of guys that you can start all year because it's your youngest lineup. You know, Will Fries is a young player. It's his senior in the NFL. Bernard Ryman is a rookie. You know, I know he's a 25-year-old rookie, but he's a rookie. You want to get these guys playing time because you have them on cheap deals

Starting point is 00:18:09 and you have these higher-paying offensive linemen around them that you're already paying. So you want to keep these young, cheap-deal linemen playing out there and building that chemistry. And who knows? If they both keep playing as well as they did this past weekend, that's great going forward because then you have two cheap starters with your

Starting point is 00:18:26 three highly paid offensive linemen. If they, if they aren't great, if they aren't the answer, then you can address that in the off season. But I think for the rest of the year, it's best to keep these guys out there, keep them building that chemistry with Quinton Nelson, Ryan Kelly, and Brayden Smith, because what we saw this past weekend is they all played really well together. You know, Will Fries and, and Brayden Smith looked really comfortable passing off stunts,

Starting point is 00:18:46 performing on duo runs on the inside, and getting that vertical displacement. And then on the left side, you know, Bernard Ryman was really helped out by the elite play of Quinton Nelson, which was awesome to say for the first time this year, because, you know, again, I said it a couple times on here, Quinton Nelson's been playing at like a Pro Bowl

Starting point is 00:19:02 level there, but you're paying him to be playing at a Hall of Fame level. know he's getting paid hall of fame level money uh and he looked like that on sunday you know he looked like quentin nelson i don't know what changed i don't know if just saturday just uh really got into his head all week or something like that but quentin nelson looked like quentin nelson and the rest of the offensive line played really well so hopefully that can carry forward against a really good defensive line that the Philadelphia Eagles had this next week. But yeah, I was really impressed by Ryman and fries, but also, you know,

Starting point is 00:19:30 the three veterans and Ryan Kelly, Brandon Smith and Quentin Nelson, I thought they all played really well. And that of course helped catapult Jonathan Taylor to his, his first big game really since week one, I had about 150 yards rushing and his first touchdown since week one. Again, I tweeted this during the game, but like, it seems crazy that it took until week 10 to get him his second touchdown or yeah, we tend to get him his second touchdown of the year. He had nine at that point last year. So yeah. Yeah. Really kind of nuts, but hopefully the line keeps it up a little bit.

Starting point is 00:20:02 He can, this was a get right game for everybody, hopefully. But then, you know, before we move on to the defense real quick, what'd you think of the pass catchers and the tight ends? It wasn't a real gaudy game for this group, but Paris Campbell did have a pretty nice performance as did Kylan Granson. Yeah. Campbell and Granson were the stars. Pittman Jr.

Starting point is 00:20:19 Had a pretty good game outside of that fumble that will cost them the game. I like Pierce had, you you know the one kind of drop you know it's kind of a great play by rocky's then on the other side uh and then he didn't make that deep ball catch down the sideline but yeah i think it was a fine game from the past catchers nothing special you know it's a game that you can win with and that's what they did so they won with this group and i thought they all played pretty well but yeah guys coming up next we are going to talk about this colts defense and how they performed against the Las Vegas Raiders.

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Starting point is 00:21:58 BetOnline, where the game starts. All right, getting to this defense, Jake. You know, I think I have to talk about it, man. Grover Stewart and DeForest Buckner are pretty good. I don't know. I feel like that's been one of the hidden secrets. Yeah, it's been a very hidden secret across the league, but those two are pretty darn good, man. I don't know if it's something that I've just seen. I watched all the film, but those are some good players. You found a way to talk about rocky sin and now grover stewart within the last few minutes i'm very shocked but no it was again right away it

Starting point is 00:22:34 was it was another instance where i dang like grover stewart is just an absolute monster so yeah he just lit he lives in the backfield. He took advantage of a pretty bad offensive line, so that was great. DeForest Buckner again. These two just play at such a high level when they're both on their game, and they both are right now,

Starting point is 00:22:55 and it's showing on both of them. Yeah, they're so fun to watch on film. They make up for some other weaknesses that I think the Colts defense might have, but those two, having the linebackers doing well and having the corners play at a really high level is really propelling this defense to being, you know, one of those top defenses statistically in the season. So yeah, I'm really, really impressed with how this defense is playing under Gus Bradley. And, you know, again, outside of a couple of big plays that they allowed

Starting point is 00:23:22 to a superstar receiver in Devontae Adams, this defense really held its own against an offense that hasn't been playing super well, but it is an offensive offense. Oh, yeah. We've seen this offense just last year. They came out and they beat the Colts at the end of the game. Derek Carr and Hunter Renfro put something together and killed the Colts right there at the end. And I mean, Carr didn't have Renfro in this one.

Starting point is 00:23:44 We had Devontae freaking Adams. Like, that's perfectly fine. And we said this on game day. You know, if the Raiders come out and Devontae Adams and Josh Jacobs have good games, you can live with that because you expect it. And they did, but the Colts didn't let Mac Hollins kill them. And Fabian Moreau had an okay game, but he didn't come out and be the big difference maker.

Starting point is 00:24:07 So they held their own. They were fine. One area to address, though, is Quidipe re-aggravated his ankle injury. And this one, I don't know, I mean, maybe he's a fast healer, but this one kind of seems like maybe they need to set him a week or two just to get it totally right. Because he missed a couple games. It happened at the end of the Broncos game, and then he just came back last week, I think. He came back against the Patriots, right? Yeah, he looked great against the Patriots. Looked fast and aggressive.

Starting point is 00:24:36 And then he came out and won, and I think he played like 18 snaps, but it did not look like what he played. Like, that ankle was not right. And then he left halfway through the game with that ankle injury injury he re-aggravated it in practice right right and then he was active for the game and played like 18 snaps and then at halftime i think they were like no we're gonna pull him from this game so yeah he did not look like himself so i i make this why they pulled him from the game yeah that makes a lot of sense. And then, so of course, Taekwon Lewis had been filling in for Quiddy. While Quiddy was out, Lewis injured his other patella injury out for the year.

Starting point is 00:25:14 So today, Tuesday, defensive coordinator Gus Bradley spoke with the media and basically said, you know, they're going to start morphing Dayo Odenigbo into that role. We've also seen a lot of Ifyedi Odengbo, so I would expect to continue seeing plenty of those two guys. They've been productive. They've been getting better. Odengbo is just like kind of a cheap veteran minimum type of deal, but I feel like they've gotten all their money's worth out of that one. it's not huge stats but he's given consistent pressure he's been decent in spurts so i'm fine with that move definitely interested to see dio get some more run because we've been talking all year back to the summer that's a guy who just all the snaps

Starting point is 00:25:58 you can give him he needs the development so you hate to see quitty not out there and we don't i mean we don't even know if he's going to be out there or not this week but if it means more dio i think we can live with it yeah the last thing i'll say about evens the line before we get to these corners because i really want to talk about these corners they're awesome uh it'd be really nice if the colts got their money's worth on a certain pass rusher up front but on a certain other pass rusher. He's great for the community, but Yannick Ngakwe is just, man, I really want to see more production from him in the passing game. It's just not been there, man. It's not been there.

Starting point is 00:26:34 I don't know what it is, but yeah, the Yannick Ngakwe trade has really not worked out for the Colts. But anyway, switching focus, let's talk about these corners. These corners are awesome. These corners are awesome. These corners are great. I love them. Stephon Gilmore locked down on that final play. I love that play so much because watching it on film,

Starting point is 00:26:53 I believe it was a three-by-one set. Stephon Gilmore was backside. The Colts called their standard cover three match, their week three match. And what the Colts do with their week three match is they have Stephon Gilmore or whoever that backside corner is they're going to be in man coverage in like this man against whoever they're covering

Starting point is 00:27:10 and if you look at that play the Raiders came out and they were like you know what we're putting Adams by himself on the other side and we're going to throw him a jump ball that's our game plan because it makes sense I mean he's your best player it's easily your best player you're going to throw him a jump ball backside and the Colts knew that was coming too they put Stephon Gilmore there and it was basically a money we monitor,

Starting point is 00:27:28 like the best players going at it. And, yeah, Stephon Gilmore won. I love it. I love that. I just love the confidence on both teams there to say, you know what, we're going to give it up to these best two players and see what happens. And, yeah, Stephon Gilmore outside of that Washington game has just been phenomenal at the end of games.

Starting point is 00:27:45 And this was just another one where, you know, again, one-on-one backside and that weak cover three call and got that pass breakup. Yeah, of the Colts' four wins, he has iced the game in three of them. And I honestly don't even hold that commander's game against him. It was just a jump ball, 50- and terry mclaurin wrestled it away from him he was right there he he could have he could have finished it no biggie i mean you're gonna win some lose some but he's again he's been worth every single cent uh i know another guy you're gonna want to talk about isaiah rogers we talked a little bit on game day but yeah this this dude's it he's really good he's so good man and remember

Starting point is 00:28:26 the two things i said all off season that i really want to see him take steps and if he did these two things he could really become like a pro bowl or an all pro tech corner i don't think it's going to happen this year because he just doesn't have the interception numbers for it but the two things were playing stronger through the hands and playing stronger through contact and the other one was trusting his speed and trying his speed to overcome basically anything i think on that devontae adams pass breakup he had which i post on my twitter if you guys want to see that it is just a phenomenal play you saw him open up to devontae adams let devontae adams have the sideline and even when adams did a great job of selling a vertical route rogers did not you know turn and

Starting point is 00:29:04 start running with it he He didn't freak out. He didn't go with that because he trusted his speed. He trusted his speed against Vontae Adams, you know, one of the best receivers in football. He trusted his speed to be able to just stay with him. And then he came back on that comeback route, and he played through the hands and broke that ball up. And I think that was everything that you wanted to see from Isaiah Rodgers.

Starting point is 00:29:21 Every time he's been tested this season, he's been phenomenal. He's been targeted 10 times in coverage this year, has two pass breakups. Both the pass breakups came on his only two targets past 10 yards. All the other targets have been under 10 yards against him. He's just been phenomenal for the Colts. And honestly, I was texting his agent the other day. I was like, I really wish that teams would just try to throw

Starting point is 00:29:41 some vertical balls on him just because I want to see what happens because I really don't think they're going to come away with it. I think it's going to be a pick or a pass breakup because he's playing that well right now. So, you know, I really hope in these next couple games, teams try to test him a little bit more because he's playing some outstanding football. He is a really, really good young corner and I only think he's going to get better. Yeah, testing him vertically from what we've seen in training camp. And I mean, really throughout his career has not gone, gone well for quarterbacks, because that's I feel like that's when he makes his best plays on the ball. I mean, he gave up a couple last year there. But some of

Starting point is 00:30:18 the best plays I've seen him make in practice or on on the field on game days, test them vertically, it's going to be an issue, and that's probably why it's not happening very much at all. You had mentioned, you know, real quick, just before we hop off, you had mentioned the safety play is kind of petering out a little bit. It's just kind of met its level. Is that about right? Yeah, the one thing I'll say about safety is real quick, and we can probably talk about this more on a future show,

Starting point is 00:30:48 is I think Ronnie Thomas has been fine when he's been out there, nothing special. And then Julian Blackman has kind of been a little bit of a tough adjustment for him in this scheme. I do think they're like a really good free safety away from being a top tier defense. And I know they've been a top tier defense statistically this year, but I'm talking about like a smug defense. They're a really good free safety away from that. And hopefully Blackman or Ryan Thomas can take that next step the rest of the season and become that for the Colts. But if not, I think that's the number one need for this defense in the future. Yeah, definitely something to keep an eye on now that Blackman is kind of

Starting point is 00:31:16 seeing the lion's share of the snaps at free safety again, that bears monitoring because he was a star in the summer. So we'll see if that kind of gets turned around a little bit. That is it for us for today. We'll be back with you on Thursday for a crossover with the dudes from Locked On Eagles. And we'll also have our final dive into this matchup on Friday with another special guest.

Starting point is 00:31:37 Make sure you guys are following us on social media at JakeArthurNFL, at ZachTakes2, and at LockedOnCold. Also subscribe to our shows on YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcasts. And thanks again for making LockedOnColts your first listen of the day. For your next listen, check out LockedOnSports Today podcast. The biggest stories of the day, plus instant reactions, big game recaps, and the take

Starting point is 00:31:56 of the day. Available on the Odyssey app, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. We'll see you guys tomorrow.

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