Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - SHORTHANDED: Indianapolis Colts May Be Without Charvarius Ward vs. Denver Broncos

Episode Date: September 10, 2025

The Indianapolis Colts' top cornerback, Charvarius Ward, is sidelined with a concussion and will not practice to start the week of preparation vs. the Denver Broncos. The Colts could be without both Ward and Jaylon Jones (hamstring).ESPN's power rankings opened Week 2 with the Colts at No. 23, climbing just three spots from the week before, when they were No. 26.The Colts face the Broncos this week in a rematch of last season, when Denver outmatched Indy. What were the biggest issues for the Colts, and what can be corrected? Become a Locked On Colts insider! Ask your burning questions and get prompt answers from someone who's around the team every day! Get special access from the locker room, practice field, and press box! JOIN HERE! Find and follow Locked On Colts on your favorite podcast platforms:🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/podcasts/locked-on-colts/📺YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLdpxJspi1hMh5HL7ExpWOQLocked On NFL League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Draft & More🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/podcasts/locked-on-nfl/ Follow Jake and Zach's written work on HorseshoeHuddle.com, and give them a follow on Twitter @JakeArthurNFL, @ZachHicks2, @LockedOnColts, and @ColtsOn_SI, as well on TikTok and Instagram! Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just FIVE dollars, and if your bet wins—you’ll get THREE HUNDRED dollars in bonus bets to use across the app. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!5-Hour ENERGYTee up that trip! Enter for a chance to win a dream golf trip for two to any golf tournament* in the USA. Visit https://5HEWIN.com for full rules and entry. No purchase necessary. Excludes the Master’s tournament. Ends October 31, 2025.DoorDashWith DoorDash Streaks, you save every Saturday you order — stack it up all season, and you could save up to $250. Order this Saturday. Keep the streak alive. Fuel your gameday — only with DoorDash. Terms apply. Promo period through 11/18.Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNFL at monarchmoney.com/lockedonnfl for 50% off your first year.UpsideDon’t let this offer drive on by, download the free Upside app now using my limited time promo code TOUCHDOWN for a limited time 25 cent per gallon bonus! Offers vary by user and location. Go to upside.com for terms and conditions.Click Here to download the app: https://getupside.onelink.me/zlLr?af_xp=custom&pid=barrington&c=barrington_lockedon25&deep_link_value=promo&deep_link_sub1=lockedon25&af_dp=upsideapp%3A%2F%2FYahoo FantasyPresented by YahooFantasy #YahooPartner. Draft now at https://yahoofantasy.com/lockedonnfl.PrizePicksDownload the PrizePicks app today and use code LOCKEDONNFL to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelRight now, new customers can bet just FIVE dollars, and if your bet wins—you’ll get THREE HUNDRED dollars in bonus bets to use across the app.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as non-withdrawable free bets that expire in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)

The Colts have a huge AFC matchup this weekend at home against the Broncos, but they might be missing some incredible value. 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, thanks for tuning in and making us your first. listen of the day. This is your daily podcast covering your Indianapolis Colts, part of the Lock On Podcast Network, your team every day. And today's show is brought to you by Fandu. Right

now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you're going to get $300 back in bonus bets to use across the app. What is up, everybody? This is Jake Arthur from roundtable sports.com. I'm at a horseshoe huddle.com. That is my new digs. If you haven't checked it out already, that's where all my written work can be found again over at roundtable sports and today we are kind of catching you up on some on some colts news here at the beginning of the week they hit the practice field today in preparation for the Denver Broncos so we're going to kind of do just like a quick catch-up quick catch-up episode today kind of set in the table for a longer form hour-long discussion on the colt squad show tonight at 9 p.m. Eastern so today real quick we're going to go

ahead and discuss some of the big themes I noticed from the 2024 matchup between the Colts and Broncos, kind of what went right for the Colts, what went wrong, and where they might look to kind of clean things up a little bit. We're also going to catch up on the ESPN power rankings. I had some thoughts on that. So they brought those out today. The Colts, they moved up in the rankings, but marginally, and I definitely want to see what you guys think about where the Colts play, if you think it's fair or not. But first, let's catch you up on the injury report because that is always the most important thing to kick off the week. And it's not quite as good as it was to start out last week for the Colts.

So the practice report did just come out. Dalen Jones and Charvererese were both cornerbacks. Both of them did not practice today. Now, Ward, that was to be expected. Obviously, he's in the concussion protocol. You would have hoped to see him get the limited participation today so that he could ramp up and that there would be plenty of time to get, you know, cleared by the independent neurologist.

He still could feasibly play this week. There's still a little bit of time. But nonetheless, of course, if he's not practicing today, that certainly makes his status for Sunday against the Broncos a little murky. Jalen Jones, he's going to be out for a bit. So Shane Steichen said today during media availability that he's going to be out a while. We followed up and asked if he is a candidate for IR and he didn't have a timetable for it and didn't really want to commit to whether or not Jones is a candidate for IR,

considering it's the same hamstring that he injured earlier in the summer, and it kept him out like at least three weeks or so. I think that's a fair question. That's definitely one we still want to keep an eye on. Jones has been had been kind of relegated to a special team's role in this new defense, but nonetheless, if he were to have to play defense, we know the guy can play. He started for the Colts for two years now. So, yeah, Ward is still in the concussion protocol.

obviously, but not practicing Wednesday. Jones, obviously not practicing and could feasibly still go on IR. Shane Steichen, again, not really committing one way or another. Limited participation today. Running back Tyler Goodson, he had the dislocated elbow in the preseason. Didn't require surgery, but just a bit of rest. So he was a limited participant all last week. He has still got to kind of get used to introducing some contact and kind of,

the violence of football to that elbow to test it out a little bit. So they'll perhaps ramp him up a little bit as the week continues. Lyotu Lati, that's a new one that popped up on the injury report today. He was limited with a hamstring. Now, when we were out there in the early portion that the media was able to see, he was out there. So to me, I'm not sure if this was, they already knew about the hamstring coming out of Sunday's game and they're just taking it easy with him, or he could have, this hamstring could have popped up during practice and like he started as a full participant, but the hamstring maybe pushed him out. So we'll have to follow up with Shane Steichen. We don't talk to him tomorrow, but we do talk to him Friday. So Latu is

obviously a huge one that we need to keep an eye on on the injury report. Because if you're without Charverayas forward and you're out without Liatsu Latu, that is two of your most important defenders, again, in a huge AFC matchup against the Denver Broncos. So you obviously would love to have yourselves at full power there. Full participants, wide receiver, Alec Pierce. I think they said his was a knee. I forgot to jot that one down, but I think it was a knee. And then Michael Pittman, Jr. with a glute.

Both of those guys would be new additions to the injury report, but with them being full participants, it looks like they should be okay. The Colts also made some practice squad moves, on Monday evening. They added cornerback, Kedron Callaghan. That's a rookie undrafted for Asia. I think he was from maybe southeast Louisiana, I believe. And then veteran Derek Forrest.

He's been in a league a handful of years. I think he's going into like second contract area. He has primarily spent his career, at least the most recently, with the commanders. He started 17 games for them. So Callaghan, I'm curious to see what that one's all about. He played some special teams for the Seahawks in the preseason, so that could be mostly a special team's move for the Colts, although they obviously need a little insurance at Corner. I think that's primarily what it would be for, but in the instance, they had to call him up. I think that role probably would start with special teams.

Derek Forrest is, I was having an interaction with a fan on Twitter, and he kind of made a good point. that feels like the defensive Ashton Doolin a little bit, and that seems fair. Forrest has been a core special teamer throughout his career. But again, I mentioned that he has started 17 games in the NFL. He came into the league in 2021. So a lot of the time he's been in the league, he has been counter on to actually play defense, much like Ashton Doolan has been counter on to play offense occasionally. So that one with Forrest, I could see him getting his way onto the active roster.

and being a core special teams player and being kind of a primary backup on defense. Now, he's another interesting one because he came from the University of Cincinnati. He is yet another guy who played special teams for Colts special teams coach Brian Mason when they all were at Cincinnati back in the day. Mason, of course, now has ties to Alec Pearson College.

Tyler Scott, the receivers on the practice squad now in college. He's got Derek Forrest. He recruited Spencer Short. grader from UCF to Notre Dame when he was the special teams coordinator briefly at Notre Dame. So the Colts are throwing a lot of resources at Brian Mason for him to get guys he's familiar with and bring them into the fold. So Mason and Mason and Louana Rumo, I don't think I can recall any Colts assistant coaches ever getting this many guys that, you know, they either have ties to already

or that are like handpicked particularly for the side of the ball like. Both these guys are definitely getting, it seems like, just about anyone they want. So to make room on the practice squad for Calligan and Forrest, the Colts released interior offensive linemen, Mosea Vavio, and safety Trey Washington from the practice squad. That one was tough because those are two guys that I thought would be ones that would last on the practice squad as long as the team didn't get really pinched to have to force a couple moves. Vovio is a guy who at Fresno State and college had three position flexibility at both guard spots and center. And then Trey Washington, he was able to really get a lot better throughout the summer at safety,

particularly in the preseason you saw him kind of make some progress. So you factor in those moves. Are the insurance for the cornerback position or just the special teams that? you're leaving in the rearview mirror with the injured guys i think so a little bit um but if you know in the immediate if you see charbary's ward uh and jalen jones of course not out there that's going to kind of kick mackay blackman up the list a little bit we'll probably see jonathan edwards uh no longer a healthy scratch as well also apologies my dog is just fighting for her life back here very good timing as she coughs and hacks uh as i'm speaking and cannot pause anything so

very good work by her everybody so apologies for that we're going to go ahead and move along to the next segment talking about ESPN's power rankings and where they have the colts slotted the NFL season is here and Fandle is making sure you're ready for kickoff with a can't miss offer again I'm so sorry that she's just hacking it up behind me here she's not allowed in here anymore right now new customers can bet just $5 and if your bet wins you'll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. I love using Fandul because it fits however you like to bet, player props, building a same game parlay,

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Visit supplyhouse.com to sign it for free and use promo code SHNFL5 for 5% off of your first order. That's supplyhouse.com, real people, real service. All right, let's get back to it as we all fight through what we're listening to here on the airwaves. All right, so ESPN, as they always do after a week on the football slate, comes out with their power rankings across the NFL. So the Colts entered this week prior to their dolphins beat down, rank number 26, which I thought was pretty low. I'll be honest with you guys. It's a team that's in the middle of the pack. They're always kind of fighting for a playoff spot within the last couple weeks of the year.

They're just kind of one of those teams where they get the poor bounces. It doesn't really go their way. And then they find themselves on the outside looking in. Not that they're a great team or even really a good condition. consistent team. But I think they're better than being seller dwellers considered among the bottom five or six weeks. I think that is a little strong. I think the national perception of them sometimes is a bit harsher than it needs to be. So they go out. They beat the dolphins on Sunday, 33 to 8, just an absolute beat down, arguably the most lopsided game of the entire

slate. Now, the dolphins are, they seem like they might be a little bit of a dumpster fire this year. The signs were there in the summer that things maybe weren't going well. And then Sunday's game was just really, it just kind of put things under a microscope. And so the Colts beating a bad team that shouldn't vault them up the rankings at all, but they were only pushed up to number 23, which still makes them a bottom 10 team in the NFL, which in general, when you look at it, it leaves them just, you know, kind of slightly on the outside looking in of playoff contention. I'm just, I don't know. You guys will have to let me know what you think. I still think it's a little low. The Colts in their rankings are the lowest ranked team with a win,

and there are seven O and one teams ahead of them in the rankings. And I'm not naive to the fact that, like, yes, there are good teams that lose. And then so just because your record is better does not make you better or worse than certain teams, there's so much gray area involved in that. But at the same time, I still think the Colts are being a little slept on. A lot of the questions we had about them, they're not fully answered yet, but like they look better than when we were initially questioning him in the first place. at Daniel Jones. That's the biggest one. I mean, how many times here on our show or

anywhere else, anyone nationally or locally talking about the Colts, Rick, and they have a pretty good roster, they look like a pretty good team. And the yeah, but the quarterback position has to be playing well. Well, Daniel Jones, orchestrated by Shane Steichen, had an awesome performance against the Dolphins. Stuyken kept things very simple and efficient for Jones, and Jones pretty much mastered that. I mean, he had a few blips here and there that weren't great. But overall, it was one of the better games of Jones' career. And so, again, this matchup against the Broncos is going to be very telling.

But at the same time, I think they could be a little more generous with the Colts. They have some more winning to do before they're going to start getting more kudos. But, you know, Daniel Jones looked good. The run game looked pretty good. receiver-wise, they weren't super reliant on Josh Downs, like we thought they would be. Michael Pittman had 80 yards. Tyler Warren was great, you know, led the entire game and past targets, had seven catches. The Colts offensive line, which was a big mystery.

They looked better. Matt Gonzalez had a really good game. Tanner Bordellini showed out. The concerns I had about Braden Smith were quieted, at least for this game, because that was a good pass rush that Miami had. A very good group of pass rushers. And then, you know, you flip it over to the defense. And Lou Anirumo had to a Tonga Viloa in a complete bind.

Just very uncharacteristic, made him second guess and weight on things, and just turned him into a mess. And so I think against quarterbacks that aren't like just the most incredibly cerebral players, I think Lou is going to make life pretty difficult for them throughout the season. And so I like where I saw. We know the Colts are going to be able to beat a lot of bad teams. I think from the looks of it, they should be able to be competitive with most teams. If I'm being optimistic, I don't think they're going to have many of those no-shows that we've seen from them over the last few years. The Giants game is won.

You know, there were several in the Frank Reich era. There was one or two in Shane's first year as well. But this team does feel different, and they've constructed it that way. bringing in a lot of dependable veterans who've been there and done that. There are some exciting young players. And again, the coaching was phenomenal in the first week, which, again, optimistically leads me to believe all of these players that they've been bringing in that the coaching should work most weeks because they're getting so many players

that they feel fit very, very well into what they want to do. So moving forward, definitely going to keep that. and eye on the power rankings. It's not like it matters in the grand scheme of things, but I like to keep you guys informed of what nationally people are saying about them. And so right now, number 23, again, that's still the top of the bottom 10, if you want to,

if you want to look at it that way. But I still think they're better than what that ranking is. I don't think it's egregious. Like, they're not far off from that. I think they're probably closer around the 20-ish range, maybe a little higher than that. But, yeah, there's definitely room to grow.

I think if they beat the Broncos on Sunday afternoon, they definitely will get into the top 20, and they'll start to be a team that people are talking about a bit more, especially if Daniel Jones has a big performance. So, yeah, you guys, if you didn't already, go ahead and let me know what you think about that. Number 23, is it too high for the Colts? Is it too low?

You know, only moving up three spots from number 26 last week. Was that enough? So let me know here in a moment. We're going to take a look back at that 2024 Colts Broncos matchup. Talk about some of the big takeaways and themes from that game, what went right, what went wrong, and what the Colts might look to change moving. Mazda crafts cars for those who do more than simply move.

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possible becomes irrelevant. Mazda, move, and be moved. All right, guys, so I was watching back this Colts Broncos game from last year, Week 15. A lot of differences in this one. The Broncos were pretty banged up, but the Colts were as well. You know, they had Mark Lewinsky in there, at right guard. They had Danny Pinter in there, Anthony Richardson quarterback to that game.

But this was a game where you start out pretty good in the second or in the first half. The Colts held a lead going into halftime, and it felt like they had much more of the momentum than what the score actually was. it was only one score game going into halftime. But the Colts defense was doing really, really well, which made it feel like a bigger gap than what it was. Offensively, what I noticed, the Colts were doing really, really well early on. Their runs and throws over the middle of the field

and the right side in particular were very fruitful, especially Anthony was dealing over the middle of the field a couple times. Had Josh Downs early for a big conversion. Michael Pittman Jr. had a big one over. the middle and then especially their runs uh they're they're designed like rpo and misdirection runs to the right side did very well uh with anthony richardson in particular jonathan taylor ran the ball well over the middle they approached denver's defense with a lot of shotgun pistol again misdirection and rpo stuff and i don't i i haven't studied defenses to the

degree that zach has obviously but i'm getting the feeling obviously this is a defense with Vance Joseph that if you spread it out and make it exotic and confusing for them, that is the best way to counter it because that's a defense that brings heat. They get kind of exotic as well. They're very, very aggressive. That's kind of the name of the game and something we've been hearing throughout the early week so far is how aggressive this defense is. On the defensive side of the ball for the Colts, now again, this is completely different.

It's Gus Bradley last year versus Lou Anna Rumo this year. But there was some stuff early on that Gus was throwing at Bo Nix and Sean Payton in the Broncos offense that looked kind of Lou Anarumo-ish, resulted in Bo Nix having three interceptions is one of his first bad games in a while because he had really been turning it up and getting involved in the rookie of the year conversation and all that. He had three picks. They had some really exotic fronts. Like there was one where they had a couple guys standing up.

They had DeForest Buckner, you know, stunt in from the, well, lined up outside in, and they dropped one or two guys back in coverage. It was very, it was very interesting for Gus Bradley, but stuff that was kind of all over the tape from Lou Aniromo last week against the Dolphins. You heard Zach mentioned the other day, those hook defenders. I think that's got to be the plan of attack again, because that's already stuff Lou Aniromo does a lot of, and it's all over the tape last year from what Gus Bradley did that really, really worked and confused Bo Necks.

So I would imagine the Colts are going to try that. So what went wrong for the Colts? Now, the Broncos are a good team and they wound up out playing them in the second half, but the Broncos are not a team that you can make a bunch of stupid mistakes against because they'll capitalize on that. So the Colts shot themselves in the foot a lot in the second half of that game. And again, Denver is good. so they're going to make you pay for that.

The one that really blew it open was the Jonathan Taylor 41-yard touchdown run that they reviewed, and it turned out that he dropped the ball right before the goal line. So that became a turnover. You had five turnovers in total. Anthony Richardson had two interceptions. Pittman had a fumble, and then there was a fumble somewhere else, but Taylor also had one. So he had three fumbles, two interceptions.

Denver was able to score points off turnovers. They had a 61-yard punt return as well from Marvin Mims that they were able to score off of just a couple of plays later as well. So this was so much a game of making critical, sometimes stupid little errors, and then a team like Denver is going to capitalize that and score and get points off of that. So I think if you keep things interesting and exotic,

Like you did last year, like Shane Steichen, it's the same play color, obviously. You can't be quite as exotic with Daniel Jones as you will be with Anthony Richardson, because obviously you're going to try and create as much confusion and belief from the defense that Anthony is going to factor into the run game. So it's going to be a little different, but we saw some interesting things last week against the Dolphins. So keep them guessing defensively. Again, I think they could still do a lot of RPO and, you know, all the stuff. that we've seen before.

Lots of misdirection. You can still do pistol and shotgun with Daniel Jones also. And then defensively, just Loua and Rumo, go nuts, do your thing, man. Like, similar, similar to what you did against Miami

without being too predictable on tape, keep it up because you confused two it last week. Gus Bradley confused Bow Nix last year and kind of turned him into a pumpkin. As long as you're not making all these crazy mistakes and turning the ball over five times and, you know, losing contain on punk coverage and letting someone get a 61-yard return,

I think you'll be all right. Like, I don't want to necessarily pick the Colts to win this one quite yet. I haven't, I haven't, I don't know enough about this matchup quite yet. There's still some things that need to transpire in the next couple days, but the Colts certainly have a chance. It's at home. I don't know if they'll wind up being favored. They probably shouldn't, but I'm not going to count them out.

They certainly could win this game. so yeah what do you guys think what do you if you think back to other than the jonathan taylor thing to last year and let's say ad mitchell's pick six fumble recovery nick benito 50 yard touchdown thing those absolutely boneheaded things if you take those out of it what would you change or is it just eliminating this stupid stuff because again you could say the difference in that game was ad mitchell's fumble fumble backwards past nick bennie thing and Jonathan Taylor's drop before the end zone that really did them in so if you think it's just stupid stuff they got to eliminate and they can win I don't super disagree and I would love to

hear from you about it so that's it for us today we're going to be on Colts squad later at 9 p.m. Derek Schultz Alan Pinkett Zach Hicks and myself will be bringing you everything again hour long special we'll be talking everything Colts Broncos and just kind of catching everything back up and much more in-depth conversation. Again, thank you for making me your first listen to the day and listening to my dog fight for her life in the background throughout the early portion of this thing. The NFL season is finally here.

So for your next listen now, get a double dose of Locked on NFL podcast. Tyler Madman Roland gives you a shot of espresso to start your football day while Tony Wiggins takes you into the barbershop for the smoothest breakdowns to end your day. Find locked on NFL on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. if you guys want to become a locked on Colts insider and chat with us directly get the inside scoop from the facility from inside the locker room and everything please follow the link in our

show notes we would love to chat with you guys and answer your questions if you don't already please follow at Lockdown Colts at Jake Arthur NFL and at Zach Hicks 2 on Twitter we're also on TikTok and Instagram as well please also subscribe on YouTube and wherever you listen to podcasts and we would love those ratings and reviews as well and with that you guys Have a great day. We'll see you guys later tonight for Cold Squad. And then tomorrow for crossover Thursday with Zach and Sarah Beninger of Locked on Broncos.