Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - T.Y. Hilton returns + Colts offseason overview with IndyStar's Joel Erickson

Episode Date: March 25, 2021

On today's episode, first time guest Joel A. Erickson of the Indianapolis Star stops by to chat with Evan about the huge news surrounding T.Y. Hilton. The Indianapolis Colts brought Hilton back home on a 1-year, $10 million deal. Joel provides his analysis on Hilton re-signing. What will Hilton's role be in the offense, and can he still be a WR1 talent in 2021?Then, we dive into the Carson Wentz trade. Joel goes over his thoughts on how the Wentz deal went down. Also, how will the offense look now with Wentz under center? Will we finally see the offense open back up with more deep shots like we saw in 2018 with Andrew Luck?Closing out the show, Evan and Joel go over the Colts' relatively quiet offseason thus far. Outside of re-signing a key pieces like Hilton, Xavier Rhodes, and Marlon Mack, Indy hasn't done much to move up a rung in the AFC hierarchy. What is next on the docket for the Colts to address their key remaining needs?This is a loaded episode with excellent analysis from Joel. You won't want to miss this, Colts fans! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are Locked On Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello everybody, welcome back to the latest episode of Locked On Colts, part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Today's always your host, Evan Sattery, joined by Joel A. Erickson, the Colts Insider over at the Indianapolis Star. He does great work over for the Indy Star. Joel, how are you doing today?

I am doing pretty good. Glad to have you on, and congrats on WTHR. No, hey, I really appreciate that, Joel. I really do. I really want to hit on this with you first off because I haven't had a chance to cover it just yet on the podcast. I'm glad to actually have you on for this episode because, I mean, I imagine your mentions have been a buzz

over the last couple weeks just waiting on T.Y. Hilton. That's kind of the elephant in the room since the Carson Wentz trade happened. That's off the table now. He has officially signed back the Indianapolis Colts on a one-year $10 million deal, $8 million of of that guaranteed when you saw it come across your ticker yesterday on Twitter Joel what was your instant reaction that was that surprising you at all um I I not really I had kind of felt he would end up back here um after the first couple of days of free agency. And I had kind of lost track of the, I couldn't make sense of the wide receiver money market anymore.

It had kind of been up and down and then up again. And it was just really hard for me to tell what was going to be. So I was kind of expecting him to be back at some point. And the money figure with the receivers, I think when Galladay got the $40 million guaranteed a couple days in, I just sort of threw up my hands on what I thought receivers were going to get because guys I thought would get a lot of money didn't and guys that I didn't think would get a lot of money did.

And, you know, kind of a weird market and who knows. And ultimately I think it comes in a pretty good deal for the Colts and a pretty good deal for T.Y. Let's hit on T.Y. himself for a minute here, Joel, because over the last couple of years, post-Andrew Luck, T.Y. hasn't been the same as far as stats go. He hasn't – he's only had one 100-yard game over the last two years. You look at the last two years in numbers, 501 yards in 2019,

which is marred by injuries. 2020 at Phillip Rivers, 762 yards, 56 receptions, five touchdowns each season. What's been your opinion of T. White Hilton post-Andrew Luck? I mean, it's fair to say he has lost a step or two over the last couple of years, but do you think T. White still has that WR1 capability in him for the next year or so?

I think that I don't necessarily know that he's like a classic number one anymore. I don't know if we're going to see. So I got here in 2018. I got here right before he went on his big run with the sprained ankle at the end of the 2018 season. I don't necessarily know if we're going to see that from him. I don't know if he's like a classic number one anymore. I think we might be moving into more of a time where he's – him and Michael Pittman are kind of sharing that role. But he's clearly still very, very capable. And I think some of the deep ball stuff has to do with, first,

Jacoby Brissett's reluctance to throw that pass, and then I think last year, I think Phillip Rivers and him just had some trouble connecting on it. So some of it dealing with Rivers throwing the ball downfield, some of it dealing with issues Hilton had, but I think that there's still a chance that he could – T.Y. is so savvy that even if he's lost a step, I think he can still get open deep for those sort of classic T.Y. Hilton catches. I just don't know if we're going to see him maybe going off

for like 90 catches in 1,000 yards or something like that. I think it's reasonable to expect it to be a little bit less production. Yeah, it's a fair assessment there. And let me ask you this as well, just looking at the offense now, you bring back T.Y. Hilton, Michael Pittman Jr., of course, Frank Reich, and the Colts staff is very high on him as a future, I mean, number one wide receiver in this system. Paris Campbell, if he stays healthy, is a new element we haven't seen

to this offense as well. Jonathan Taylor at running back is a big boost from what we saw in the last second half of the season. It feels like to me, Joel, I've been saying this on the podcast for a while, with Carson Wentz and his arm strength, his gunslinger mentality to go deep, and obviously he's a decade younger than Phillip Rivers with how his arm strength is. Do you think we're going to see closer to 2018 Colts offense

with Andrew Luck where we're going to see a lot of play-action concepts, a lot of deep shots for T.Y. Hilton to take advantage of? I think you're going to see definitely more of them than you saw last year. Rivers, for all of the good things he did for the Colts, it was pretty clear that his deep ball wasn't the same anymore. And Wentz kind of has this like, it's like an easy looking motion and I don't know how to uh describe the way the ball looks when it comes out but it's I don't know it almost like

doesn't look like it's going to go as far as it does which is kind of like an indicator of easy arm strength he can definitely do that and some of that, like, I went back and I've been watching some of the 2019 season, and the first game when he had Deshaun Jackson healthy, I think Deshaun Jackson is kind of a good – Deshaun's probably a little bit faster than T.Y., but T.Y. I think is a better receiver than Deshaun, and so I think they're kind of an interesting little combination there. And to compare those two, and Wentz could throw Jackson open when he got even

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Get all the sports news you need in under 20 minutes with the Locked On Today podcast. Host Peter Bukowski updates you on the latest news in every major sport with the help of our local experts. Follow the Locked On Today podcast, where to get your podcasts. Let's go to Carson Wentz now, Joel. Like we just mentioned, going over him and maybe how the offense could look similar stylistically to what it was in 2018 with Andrew Luck.

When that trade went through in February, the conditional second-round pick, more likely than not, Joel, will turn to a first-round pick in 2022. And also the third-round pick this year, the Colts gave up. What was your opinion of the compensation they gave after what, it's to say was a historically bad year for Carson Wentz I it's about where I thought it would be I the there's not really a compare a historical comparison for Carson Wentz um in terms of in terms of a trade where you can really go with like three good seasons and then one terrible season it doesn't really work like that. I had kind of always thought that like maybe he would fit with the first Alex Smith trade.

Alex Smith at that point in his career was really far from a sure thing. He'd had some good playoff runs, but there were questions about whether or not he was really starting caliber. And Chiefs got him for two seconds. So I was kind of always thinking like that was probably the closest one historically to what, to what they'd be looking for with Wentz. And honestly, a third and a second, that'll probably turn into a first it's pretty much two seconds,

a little bit less than that. So I think that's pretty fair. That's the best way to try to figure out what compensation is going to be is to look historically at what, what trades been and you can you can argue whether or not he fits the the smith thing perfectly but i was kind of thinking guy at 28 had some success starting but people weren't sure injury concerns it felt like it was the same thing So it's about where I thought it would end up. With the Wentz trade, I mean, you have to imagine that, obviously, internally, Frank Wright believes he can get Wentz back at least close to what we saw during when they were together in 2016-2017. The connection of the coaching staff with Mike Groh, Cress Taylor, our new hire on board as a senior offensive quality analyst there. I think here from the Colts' perspective, Joel,

I mean, we've heard about the Matthew Stafford stuff, the draft, if they were going to trade up for one, getting Wentz. Where did you land when looking at possible quarterback options this offseason for the Colts and most realistic ones? Were you on the Stafford train, the draft one, or did you think all along maybe Carson Wentz connecting those dots made the most sense?

I really like Stafford. I thought, but I didn't – I'll say this. I liked Stafford, but not at what the Lions got for him. I've never really thought the Colts had a really good shot to trade up in the draft to get one of the top four. One of the top four quarterbacks. And right or wrong, I kind of have a bias against alabama quarterbacks because they haven't done very much in the nfl um so i didn't really think

the draft was was feasible just considering the colts pick at 21 and there's a ton of teams in front of them that need quarterbacks um so i was kind of thinking like where you know where can they go free agency trade market pretty clear to clear to me that they had to go trade. I liked Stafford. But I didn't – I just don't think the Colts – the Rams had something – they had a weapon in their back pocket that the Colts couldn't match and not a lot of teams could match i mean yes they they they had to pay the lions to take the the contract but the lions couldn't have done that with another team they couldn't have gotten the colts to to they couldn't have bought a pick

necessarily from the colts because the colts don't have bad contracts um and also the lions seem to like j Goff, at least as a starting option for a certain amount of time. I don't know how long, but the way they've been talking since that trade went down, it sounds like they view him as a viable starting option. That's another thing the Colts just couldn't do. The Rams kind of took advantage of their bad positioning with the golf contract to be able to offer the Lions stuff that other teams couldn't give. So once that happened, it was like, okay, Colts couldn't match this. And then I've kind of always liked the idea of Wentz. I liked it in the beginning. I liked it in mid-season. I didn't like it as much as Stafford, but I still liked it. The thing with Wentz is we've seen him play really well in the NFL.

And, like, I know there are a lot of people on Sam Darnold. We haven't seen Sam Darnold play well for an entire season in the NFL. We just haven't. We haven't seen Sam Darnold come anywhere close. I'm not even going to throw out 17. We haven't seen Sam Darnold come close to playing the way Wentz did in 19. All of the issues that you'd worry about with Wentz too, like interceptions, inaccuracy, injuries.

That's all been problems for Sam Darnold. So you're trying to fix all the same things without any history of success. There's success with Wentz. I know some people don't like the 18 or 19 seasons and think they weren't that good. I think they were better than people think, especially the 19 season. And I think the other thing is just there's a lot of reason to bet on Frank Reich here. I think after three years now, and if you go back even further than that to his time with the Eagles,

his time with Rivers before, I think that Frank Reich gets the most out of a quarterback if it's there. So I thought that really all the Colts needed to do was see if it's there with Wentz. And if it's there, it's pretty reasonable to expect Frank Wright to get it out of him. We saw from 2017 to 2019, Joel, a 4-1 touchdown-interception ratio for Carson Wentz. 2020, as Frank Wright mentioned, Albert Breer in that story he put out on Sports Illustrated earlier this week, he thought maybe that was sort of the mirage, the aberration there for 2020 being really what Carson Wentz wasn't. From what you've dove in on film, I imagine, Joel, over the last month or so since the Wentz trade officially was announced, what have you seen strengths and weaknesses-wise

that can make Wentz a fit into the Frank Reich offense again in Indianapolis? Well, I mean, he's got all the skills. It's he, he's got all the skills. It's, it's all there. I mean, the, the escapability, the arm strength, uh, there are times, especially in the 2019 season, I've kind of focused on 2019 and 2020, um, just because I don't want to go back to 17. Cause so many people have said, this doesn't matter. Um, but, but all that stuff, the big arm, uh, the ability to, to get stuff out,, to run, read option stuff and make good decisions, that's all there. I feel like it was kind of a snowball effect with the worst the offensive line got. And they didn't give him receivers that he really felt like he was.

I think it just kind of snowballed on him. And it got worse and worse and worse. And the other thing is a lot of his biggest issues are things that we've seen Frank Wright fix before with other quarterbacks. You mentioned, you know, is this a chance for them to return to more of the 2018 offense? One of the things I think that people don't necessarily talk about with Andrew Luck is that before Frank got here, he was not a terribly accurate passer.

His best completion percentage was around 63 for an entire season. And Frank got him to 67. He was a guy who held onto the ball too long and took bad hits. There's been another problem with Wentz. With Frank, he got the ball out in 2.53 seconds and finished ninth in the NFL. He kind of got him to stop taking those chances. Now, he never really got the interceptions out of Andrew, but he did get him out of Phillip Rivers this season. And Wentz, unlike Rivers or Luck, has a history of protecting the ball from an interception standpoint. He'd thrown seven in each of the three years previous to last year. So we've seen Frank Wright do, do like help guys like that.

And with Wentz, you've kind of seen him do some of this stuff before. So I think that it's a good match for each other just because we've seen Frank fix some of the things that Wentz needs fixed most going forward. And once that happens, then that allows the talent to take over. You mentioned this before, Joel, but I just wanted to hammer this home for the audience out there. But do you think Frank Reich should be given the benefit of the doubt with what we've seen?

Even now, Jacoby Bursette in 2019, a career best year for Jacoby, even though we did see the apprehension in a lot of games, it really seemed like a free to take deep shots. He was pretty accurate from what we saw before the injury happened. And you also see just the way he constructed the offense around Jacoby to play to his strengths with a lot of rollouts, a heavy run emphasis, of course, to get out of his hands a little bit. But then with Phillip Rivers last year, a lot of quick game,

letting him kind of take control of the line of scrimmage. It seems like at this point, I mean, it's fair to say Chris Bauer is going all in on betting with Frank Wright to get Carson Wentz back to form to be like a top 12 quarterback in the NFL. And if that I mean that's a huge success for this team oh if it does then then what they gave up in the draft and what they gave up in terms of draft picks just isn't going to matter no one's going to care if they get him back to that level but like it won't matter next year if he if he throws like say he's around his 2019 season 4,000 yards and 27 touchdowns and seven picks something like that no one's going to care that it's a first round pick at that point they just won't um

and the thing with reich is i i think and i've made this argument before i think it can be argued but i think that frank we've seen frank reich get the best out of three straight quarterbacks out of what they had i think that was probably pretty close to the best version of Andrew Luck you were going to see. I think that the first half of the 2019 season is probably the best Jacoby Brissett can play in the NFL. They always kind of say with backup quarterbacks, like it's a guy who can help you out for a short amount of time,

but if he has to play for a long amount of time but if he has to play for a long amount of time you're gonna you're gonna run into stuff I think that's what happened um and then I think Philip Rivers people forget now I think that that last year when they got Philip Rivers everyone was like this is just not gonna work this guy's washed up he can't play anymore he can't lead an offense um he can't hold back on his gunslinging and taking too many chances. And Rivers had a very, very good final season in Indianapolis. So from my perspective, I think in three seasons with three different starters, I think he's gotten the most out of those quarterbacks. And I know the Colts, Brass, Ballard, and Ursae both believe deeply in Frank Reich's ability to work with quarterbacks.

I think it's been proven now until we see him struggle with somebody. But we haven't seen it yet. Bet Online is the fastest and easiest way to bet on all your sports action. Football might be over, but NBA, college basketball, and the NHL are in full swing. Bet Online even covers awards, TV shows, and reality TV. Real-time data, odds, and props, almost anything you can imagine. BetOnline is careful for the news, scores, and odds, and it's the best way to place your bets, and it's free to sign up.

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with team-centered guest mocks right around the corner. Follow the LockedOn NFL Draft podcast on the Radio.com app or wherever you get your podcasts. Let's dive in now, Drew. That was great stuff there on Carson Wentz. Let's go over now to free agency for the Colts. It's been very quiet so far outside of a couple re-signings. Of course, we talked about T.Y. Hilton at the start of the show on a one-year $10 million deal, but

re-signing Xavier Rhodes for $6.5 million on a one-year deal, Marlon Mack on a one-year $2 million deal, and then bringing in depth guys like Isaac Rochelle and Sam Tevey. What's been your thoughts on how the Colts have done this offseason so far in free agency? Because a lot of Colts fans are a little impatient out there as to why they're not spending, but it seems like they're kind of preparing here very soon to really give Darius Leonard, Braden Smith, and Quentin Nelson the contracts they deserve.

Well, they are. If they wanted to, they could extend those guys and sign some people. It wouldn't be that hard, honestly, from a cap standpoint. The flip side of it is I think that Colts fans – I think DeForest Buckner kind of threw everybody off a little bit. He traded for DeForest Buckner. Ballard traded for DeForest Buckner and gave him $21 million per year. I think after that, I think maybe, definitely as a Colts writer, you're starting to think, well, you know, he'll take a swing

if he needs to at the right position. But I think the thing that we missed in terms of thinking that maybe Ballard was going to make a bigger move for somebody in free agency is that DeForest Buckner is a bona fide top two, three, at the most top five defensive tackle in the NFL. He's an A player. And Ballard has always said he doesn't want to give A contracts to B players. Well, he gave an A contract to an A player with Buckner. I think if you, I haven't asked him this directly, but I think if you look at what happened, I think that he probably

just didn't value some of these guys at the levels they got paid at and wasn't willing to stay in. That's where he's been in the past with free agents. And is there a chance that that could hurt them at some point? It absolutely has. It absolutely can. It hurt them with wide receiver a couple times. It hurt them when they ran it back with most of their guys in 2019 before Lux retirement. A lot of those guys didn't play the way they played in 18.

I think only Glowinski and Houston would have lived up to their contracts, I think, that they signed that offseason. So it could bite them, but we just don't know it yet because there's also been times that same 19 offseason, we were sitting here this point in the second week after free agency going, oh, he missed out on all these pass rushers, and then he signed Justin Houston, and Justin Houston ended up having more sex over the

two seasons of his deal than anybody else who moved either in free agency or trade other than Zedaria Smith. And Zedaria Smith got paid like, I think, $6 million more per year. So we kind of have to wait and see how it plays out. I think this is probably more of what we should expect from Ballard going forward than the, than the big bull butler moves. This is, this is, this is the way he's going to operate and we'll find out,

we'll find out if this leaves them in a bad position at defensive end, which is really defensive end is really the only spot I'm, I'm really worried about right now. If I'm a, if I'm a Colts person, that's, that's the only spot I'm I'm really worried about right now if I'm if I'm a Colts person that's that's the only spot I think that I would be nervous about I I think there's reason to feel if not if not hyper confident I think there's reason to feel optimistic about most of the rest of the needs yeah and you look at pass rush I'm glad you brought that up Joel as I was about to ask you there about pass rush right now you see the current starters if they were to start next tomorrow for the 2021 season you have tyquan lewis as a strong set defensive end kamoko terry likely has a three

down starter at this point at the left end to replace justin houston i i kind of feel a little uncomfortable at that point just betting on those two guys especially terry off the ankle injury didn't see a lot of flashes last year. Maybe a year out after that could really change things. Tyquan Lewis saw some flashes here and there as well. Van Banig, it was almost a zero last year, Joel. It seems like to me, like you see the free agent market right now, it's a lot of 30-plus guys as far as veterans go. It wouldn't shock me at all if they resun Justin Houston again

on a one-year deal, run it back for a year, Joel, or go after a guy like an Olivier Vernon or a Ryan Kerrigan just to add some more veteran leadership to that defensive line group on the edge. How would you address this need? Because I would be very surprised, Joel, or maybe that's just Ballard being so confident in the draft at this point and how he can draft players, that they have Ture and Lewis as their starters heading into the draft. um i don't i don't think that i don't think that we're going to see that being the projected starters i think

we're going to end up with a veteran i don't know if it's a guy like kerrigan i don't or kerrigan and vernon i don't know if you can really count on them to be starters in terms of snap percentage maybe not houston either but it's been a couple of years since Kerrigan played that much. Vernon is coming off a really bad injury. That's a really tough thing with him. I honestly sort of feel like Justin Houston is the best option available left in terms of having somebody. I'm not saying that Justin Houston is going to be like a Pro Bowl level player,

but I think in terms of having somebody who can'm not saying that Justin Houston is going to be like a Pro Bowl-level player, but I think in terms of having somebody who can start in that position or can play a significant amount of snaps, you feel like he's got – he's obviously got a big leadership role on the team. I think he's fine if you're only playing him half the snaps or whatever. But I do think they need to get somebody. Taequann Lewis, I think you could make the argument that if you give Taequann Lewis 215 or 213 or whatever more snaps to get to the level of snaps that Danico Autry played last year,

his production, four sacks, eight quarterback hits, if he has the same production over an extra 200 snaps, you're in Danico Autry range. I can see the Colts saying, we're happy with the way Taekwon developed last year. We think he's going to keep getting better. We're going to roll with him, and maybe have Isaac Rochelle backing up.

It's the rush end spot, that blindside spot that concerns me a lot right now. If they don't sign anybody, I love Kamoko Ture. I love the way he thinks. I love the way he's learned under Robert Mathis. I just don't know where his ankle is. And Ben Banigou is another guy that we just haven't seen him do much. And if you go into the draft and those are the only two, I think you're feeling – I think I feel pretty concerned.

I think most of my questions to Ballard would be about defensive end is maybe a good way to put it. Like I would be going into Ballard press conferences thinking, I've got to ask about defensive end. What's going on with defensive end? Why are you confident there? But I think they're probably going to add a veteran at some point just to feel like they've got another option there. Another intriguing position to follow here, Joel, heading into the draft is tight end. I know

they have Jack Doyle and Molly Cox under contract, but Trey Burton is still a free agent. I can't imagine they re-sign him at this point. I feel like kind of the obvious fit here is Zach Ertz in Philadelphia. I know Frank Reich has mentioned they want to add a more vertical tight end threat to this offense. It's also a good draft class of tight ends as well early on. Do you feel like tight end is kind of a sneaky, underrated need for this team where if they were to add a different dimension to that tight end room, this offense, spring back T.Y. and then maybe Pittman takes a leap and Campbell stays healthy

with Carson once they're on the ball. They could take like a slight little leap next year in terms of production explosiveness. Yeah, they'd really like to have the explosive F. The 2018 Ebron is something they'd really, really like to have. Finding that with immediate impact in the draft is, is dicey sometimes. Um, I think even if you just look at like the top tight ends in the league and

look at where they were drafted, sometimes it's really hard to figure out who those guys are going to be. Um, I mean, other than Kyle Pitts, but Kyle Pitts is going to be way off the board by the time the Colts pick. Um, but yeah, that, that, that, that, that tight end that it's an interesting position for the Colts because when they had Ebron going well, he was only playing 35% of the snaps or so when they had everybody healthy,

but it was an impactful 35% of the snaps. And I think they still want that guy. I think they still need that guy. It adds a dimension to this offense that kind of opens everything up for everybody else. Wentz, obviously, in the time he's worked with Ertz and Dalf Scottard, has had tight ends like that who can stretch the field. They want that guy.

I don't know what's going on with Zach Ertz because I don't really trust information coming out of Philadelphia anymore after the infamous two first-rounders plus stuff with the Wentz trade. Honestly, the Ertz trade has been the same way. Oh, they're going to get a third round pick. Oh, they're going to get a fourth round pick. He's still on the team because they can't get that. So it's hard to know what's going on with Zach Ertz,

but obviously Ertz is a guy that I'm sure both Wentz and Reich would like to have. If not, I think that there are a couple people in the draft who could fit that. I will admit to not being an incredible draft nick where I'm really watching a lot of guys. I usually kind of fall in love with one guy for the Colts early in the college football season, and that player is never anywhere near available for the Colts. But I'm sure there are options there. I haven't looked at the tight end market

to see who else might be out there, but they do want that. Frank Reich really, really values that position in the offense. If Ertz is released, I think that's when you see the Colts get involved. I don't think they're going to trade. I don't think anybody's giving them a third or fourth round pick, but Chris Ballard's not going to give that up because for Chris Ballard, a third or fourth round pick is like a foundational starter. That's a Bobby Okereke. It's a Julian Blackman. It's a Kari Willis.

It's a Naheem Hines. These are important players for the Colts who you have under contract on rookie deals for four years as opposed to a guy like Ertz who's under contract I think for one year and you have to and he's older it's there's no reason for Ballard to give that up I don't necessarily know if he would do like a sixth or seventh round pick but I don't think the Eagles want that I think if if Ertz does get released I think then the Colts are heavily involved yeah I think my I can't can't imagine, if they got Kyle pits into this offense,

man, that would be a show to watch. I mean, that's this year's that's this year's draft obsession. I had it. I watched a Florida game very early in the sec season. I actually said this on our podcast this week too. I,

I, I watched a Florida game really early. It was like, man, Kyle pits is like everything you could possibly want in an F-tight end. And since then, it's just become more and more clear that there's absolutely no shot that he's going to be around when the Colts pick.

But, yeah, that was the guy that I – like I said, I always fall in love with one guy. That's who it was this year. Yeah, man, Pitts would be so fun to see in this offense, but unfortunately, he's probably even going to go maybe top five at this point. Just shows you how – I know. I saw somebody say he was going to go like four, and I was like, well –

Yeah, it does. Hey, Joel, at least you got an eye for talent there. I mean, Pitts – He's going to be one of those guys that's going to shoot up the boards here, and he might honestly be pick number four overall in this draft. Maybe even number five at Cincinnati if Panay Stuhl goes before then but let's move the left tackle real quick Joel because that's obviously the big question mark right now with them with the starters Sam Tevies is the depth guy Julian Davenport they officially signed him as a depth

guy Will Holden did well in his start spot start in Pittsburgh last year he could be maybe in a competition with those other two guys you just mentioned it feels feels like to me, Joel, that the draft, and kind of Jim Mercy outlined this in his media Zoom with you guys earlier this week, that it really seems like to me that left tackle, whether it be a 21 or 54 or wherever they pick and they're the first pick in the draft, it's going to be left tackle. Yeah, I think that's true. Yeah, I think it's – and the other thing is that I'm not a draft pick,

but I read a lot of the guys who are, and it sounds like it's a pretty deep class. I think you might be able to get that guy either at 21 or 54, or honestly, whichever combination of number of picks it ends up being after Ballard makes a trade. I think there's, you can get some guys in the first two rounds who can do that. And, you know, it's, it's I think, I think it's reasonable to expect that they can get a guy to play left tackle

or that they, that they think can play left tackle and start at left tackle in the draft. That's, that's why I'm not super concerned about that right now. I don't think Sam Tevey is an answer. I don't think anybody that they have on the roster is an answer as a starter. But I think they're – I mean, like you said, Ursa said it. They're thinking about the draft, and I think it's really possible. Yeah, left tackle is definitely something to watch out for, Joel,

when we get closer to the draft. We're around five weeks away exactly from today on Thursday will be the first round in late April. But last one I have for you, Joel, really appreciate the time today and getting you on the podcast. I know it's a lot before the draft because obviously the Colts, the way they've drafted over the years, they add at least an impact guy or two just based off Chris Bowers' draft history over the last couple of years.

But pre-draft and assuming they don't do much other else in free agency, Joel, what's your overall potential ceiling for this Colts team in 2021 if all goes well as far as health? Well, I think there's still a contender for the AFC South. I have my skepticism about whether or not the Titans' moves are going to work out the way they think they're going to. Houston's a mess. Houston's just an unbelievable mess. And Jacksonville is at the beginning of a rebuild.

So I think that they should be in play for the AFC South title again, provided that Wentz plays well. I mean, if Wentz plays well, I think that you expect I went with Wentz plays well I think that they're they're in the mix for that AFC South title now for them to be considered a real AFC contender they've got to have options at at pass rush beside DeForest Buckner and I got to know we got to know what they're like so I don't necessarily know that I go that far but I think they're still in the mix uh for the AFC South. Even with the Titans, I know the Titans made some moves. I don't know.

I have my doubts on some of the Titans' moves. Joel, this is awesome stuff. I'm so glad to have you on for the first time on the podcast, hopefully more in the future because you do some awesome stuff over at the Indianapolis Star with fellow Colts beat writer Jim Aiello. Go listen to their podcast as well. I'm a loyal listener to that. They do great stuff every week on the Colts Cover 2

podcast. Joel, really appreciate the time and hopefully we can get you back on here within the next month or two as we get closer to the draft. Yeah, thanks for having me on. I appreciate it.