Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Why the Colts' 5-2 start is legit with IndyStar's Jim Ayello

Episode Date: November 5, 2020

On today's episode, IndyStar's Jim Ayello joins the show to go over the Colts' 5-2 start. Just like 2019, Indy is in the same spot. However, it's a lot different this time and Jim helps explain why. Across the board, the Colts are better and it shows up in their point differential.Evan and Jim go over all of these players as well: DeForest Buckner, Philip Rivers, Jonathan Taylor, T.Y. Hilton, plus so much more!With the gauntlet coming up for Indy, we will truly know over the next month if they are for real or not.This is a jam-packed episode, so make sure to tune in 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 audience is Evan Seder and I'm joined by Jim Aiello of the Indianapolis Star. Jim, how are you doing today as we are approaching arguably the biggest game of the year for the Colts on Sunday against the Baltimore Ravens? Yeah, I'm excited. I feel like this is a game that we can, you know, there's been some games where you can kind of gauge where the Colts are. I guess the Browns are one, the Bears are another that you kind of could feel like you maybe understood

who this team was, but because of how good the Ravens are on both sides of the ball, I really do feel like this is a perfect gauge for where the Colts will be in terms of, you know, are they AFC contenders? Are they pretenders? Are they not in the playoff mix? I think we'll have a pretty good idea after Sunday. Colts are five and two this year, Jim, just like they were last year at this point.

And a lot of differences though, over that, over over that standpoint as far as just the quarterback play, the overall play of the team. But before we get into that, though, I just want to get your overall assessment of the Colts over this year. They're sitting at 5-2, that really ugly loss we won in Jacksonville, the only win for the Jaguars so far this year. Is it really going into tank mode now for the rest of the year? That loss in Cleveland as well was a little bit ugly. Phillip Rivers having a couple of really bad mental errors.

But really, like Phillip Rivers mentioned last week, Jim, a couple of different ball bounces here and there. I think the Colts might be 7-0 at this point. I mean, what's your assessment of the Colts so far this year through seven weeks? No doubt. I mean, I think he's not wrong to point that out. I think a lot of teams could say things like that too, though.

So, you know, you never know. Like 5-2, you know, I hate to resort to the old cliche, but you are what your record says you are. And what the record says the Colts are is a really good team, five and two. And I think there's been a lot of talk this week just because of the kind of the symmetry of being five and two this week, or this year, I should say, versus, you know, being five and two last year. And okay, are they about to fall off a cliff the way they did last year? And I just don't think so. I put on Twitter kind of facetiously, but I do feel this way.

Like, why do I feel like the 5-2 team that the Colts are now, why is it so different than last year? Well, their offense is better, their defense is better, and the special teams is better. I mean, you could just go up and down. They're more talented at so many spots. This is a defense that didn't have DeForest Buckner or Julian Blackman or Xavier Rhodes. I mean, Xavier Rhodes replaced a guy like Pierre Desir who wasn't playing that well.

Julian Blackman replaced a guy like Malik Hooker who wasn't playing that well last year. DeForest Buckner has been a game changer for the Colts. And then offensively, Phillip Rivers has been an upgrade on Jacoby Grissett. You can go down the line. I mean, Rodrigo Blankenship has been better than Adam Benetary. Like everywhere you look, the Colts have gotten better. So I do, I feel a lot better about this 5- uh start than I did about the five and two start last season yeah and it's really fair to say just the improvements across the board you get Phillip Rivers a quarterback instead of Jacoby Bursette a lot more aggressiveness as we've seen so far from Rivers he's really catching fire now

at the perfect time six touchdowns to one pick over his last two games of course against the Bengals and the Lions here so we'll know a lot more about Rivers next month against this Gauntlet they're going to be playing up against with the Ravens on Sunday and the Packers and the Titans twice as well. But also, I think you have to look at the defense here. DeForest Buckner's really changed everything for this defense. That pressure, even if he's not putting up the stats, like the gaudy stats we expected, he's still helping guys like Grover Stewart.

He's on pace for a massive contract extension, I imagine, this year, playing next to Buckner. Guys like Justin Houston is really benefiting. Tyquan Lewis, that breakout's happening. Julian Blackman, the revelation back there at free safety with Malik Hooker going down. Really no drop-off there with Blackman back there. Argument may be an improvement as far as they cover two techniques

and the tackling goes there for Blackman. And even Xavier Rhodes, Jim, he's having a great year in the cold zone scheme, really reviving his career right now in Indianapolis. What's been your thoughts on this defense so far? Of course, it's been seven games, really not much tough competition so far. But do you think this defense is still jib-jib? I do. I do.

And I think, I mean, again, we'll get the test against the Ravens, and they're kind of a very unique running style and running game, and you'll get that test, and you'll see, you know, further tests against Tennessee and Green Bay coming up this month. But I do buy into this defense, and I do buy into the fact that this exactly like you pointed out the force buckner might not have the stats even though he's got you know he's got a bunch of pressures he's got he's getting to the quarterback he's he's having the exact kind of effect that we thought he might have on this team you you mentioned the guys in the defensive line i don't think it's a coincidence

that a guy like uh taekwon lewis is having a bit of a breakout season next to next to deforest buckner again you want to credit taekwon for doing his own thing and for working hard and he has he's A guy like Tyquan Lewis is having a bit of a breakout season next to DeForest Buckner. Again, you want to credit Tyquan for doing his own thing and for working hard, and he has. He's worked so hard to get to where he is. But again, when you get one-on-one matchups and teams are so focused on not letting DeForest Buckner beat them, I think that's having a positive effect on not just those guys on the D-line, though, but the linebackers, too. And I think we might have talked about it on this podcast, but, like, one of the guys I thought expected to have a really good season because of DeForest Buckner wasn't really Cooker. And that was because I thought he might be able to ball hawk a little bit more

because the pressure's just going to be getting the quarterbacks a split second faster. Well, it turned out it was Julian Blackman. It turned out it was Xavier Rhodes. Those guys are able to ball hawk a little bit more, and this team has 11 interceptions this year. And, again, I think a lot of that has been pressure related and pressure related because of DeForest Buckner again you don't want to give them all the credit in the world for doing that

because they have playmakers at different levels I think you know they had a really slow start and we should point this out for sure they had a really slow start against Cincinnati and against Cleveland this defense common factor there was they didn't have Darius Leonard Darius Leonard comes out against Detroit. And again, I know they scored 20, 21 points. Matthew Stafford's going to do that. But I just thought they played incredibly well from start to finish. And I think that has a lot to do with having Darius Leonard on the field.

So as a defense, yeah, I'm buying where they are. Again, are they a top five defense? That I still want to see a little bit more out of them. But they're easily a top 10 defense. And again, it's almost not a compliment because I think there's so many bad defenses around the NFL. This is not a bad defense. This is a good, an above average to good. And again, bordering on great defense, they have, they have put up some great performances. Now we need to see if now to know if they're elite, if they're one of the best in the NFL. Now we have to see them perform against some of the

best teams in the NFL, some of the most diverse offenses in the NFL. But I like their odds. I like their chances. They do things that you have to do to win. And again, what they did against Detroit was so impressive. You mentioned Grover Stewart. That's a guy who's been so key to what they've done is stopping the run. You pretty much can't run on the Colts at this point. And again, I'm boldly saying that before they play the Ravens, but you pretty much can't run against the Colts right now. And they're turning teams into, they're kind of taking one hand behind or cutting off one hand and saying, okay,

if you're going to beat us, you're gonna have to be as throwing. And then, then they get to pin their ears back and rush. And that's what they did. That's what they did to Matthew Stafford. They even blitz them a bunch more, which is rare for Matt Ibraflues,

but he did it. And it was, it was fun to watch. And so I really liked the, what they're doing. The team is taking away the run game, making these quarterbacks beat them. And most quarterbacks can't play perfect perfect games all game long well enough to beat these Colts yeah and it really goes to show you I think just finally

Maddie Rickless might have the pieces in place I mean outside that week one debacle in Jackson where he's like flat out prepared in that game and Gardner Minshew tore up that secondary nickel in 19 of 20 I've seen a lot more just – I think some fans should know this, Jim, that they're not really running a lot of cover two as much as they used to. They're running a lot of cover three, cover one, even some man at some points. Matt Iberflew is really starting to mix up a little bit this year. It might be just due to more personnel, having Buckner on board there, having a couple other pieces to add on to that defense as well.

But it's not the same old defense we saw the last couple years with Iberflew. He's finally starting to mix up a little bit. I think he's doing a lot of cover three, and I think that's a lot. In some ways, I think that has a lot to do with almost simplifying it for Julian Blackman and Xavier Rhodes because Rhodes is the guy who loves to peek at the quarterback, loves to look back, and you also want him to be able to take advantage of his coverage skills. So if he's the deep corner dropping in that cover three,

a lot of times what you can do is have him stick with the receiver all the way down, but also make reads. I mean, against the Jets, he was in his own coverage, and he kind of just dropped off of his, I'm sorry, he was in man, but still, he was able to use his, like, I think he's got really, really great instincts, and he made an interception. But again, I think you can capitalize on those things. Like you said, you have the personnel to use the guys that, you put them in position to say, okay, what does he do really well? He looks back at the quarterback really well. He diagnoses plays really well. Let's put them in position to say, okay, what does he do really well? He looks back at the quarterback really well. He, he died, uh, diagnosis plays really well.

Let's put him in position to succeed. And for Blackman, again, you have him that cover three, you just say, Hey, like this is your side of the field. Like just take this. And essentially not even side and cover three, he's just got the center of the field and allows him to kind of do that. Even though I think, again, I think they have played plenty of cover two as well, just like to your point, not as much as they did last year and they're mixing it up and and against

detroit i thought that was the best um that was the most they've kind of mixed things up they've done they did a lot of man blitzing they did some zone blitzing but again it was just a very diverse defense many people who showed hey i have this in my back pocket i can do this if i need to which maybe brings me to the point against um the ravens this. If you look at Lamar Jackson, he has not been very good against the Blitz at all. His passer rating plummets by about 40 points. His accuracy drops six or seven points. He's thrown a couple of picks against the Blitz. The Chiefs blitzed the hell out of him, and he really kind of just turned into a mess in that game in week three. And so I want to know, is that something that Matt Iberflues is going to try to expose?

And I think he might. I mean, if you look at the Chiefs game from last year, I think we all remember it. That was kind of Matt Iberflues' masterpiece. They played up until that point. I was just doing the research today or yesterday. Up until that point, they had played zone 80% of the time going into that game against the

Chiefs. And they ended up playing man about 73 or 74%. And again, that was because they knew that was the way they were going to have to attack Patrick Mahomes, who didn't have Tyreek Hill or Sammy Watkins that game. It ended up working out perfectly. So Matt Iberflues has proved that he will change his stripes in order to fit the personnel and also to try to expose the weakness of another team. So I love that he's shown that versatility.

Yeah, this could be the game, honestly. We saw it in the 2018 wild card game against Deshaun Watson, Ibrafusa's masterpiece last year. Like I mentioned, Jim against Kansas City. This could be this one this time around with Lamar Jackson and the Ravens because, like you mentioned, Lamar just drove against this blitz, and I think Ibrafusa's really going to start dialing it up to see what they can do here on Sunday at Lucasola Stadium.

But let's turn on the offense real quick, and especially the quarterback position here. Phillip Rivers, who's done really well for himself the last couple weeks, Jim. Overall, though, throughout the year, 1,800 yards, 10 touchdowns and six interceptions. I think he's only really had one bad game, especially against the Cleveland Browns, where he had two interceptions that saved him in the end zone.

Those nine points cost him as a loss by nine in that game. But outside of that, though, really being safe with the football, really catching fire, like I mentioned, against Detroit and Cincinnati. I don't think Jacoby Brissett brings them back from 20-0 or nothing like we saw a couple weeks ago against the Bengals. What's been your assessment of Rivers so far this year? I think right here, right now, with no preases, no OTAs, a really truncated training camp, I think he's really starting to gain his groove now

and getting really familiar with his offense and the receivers. Absolutely. And the one thing I'll say about Phillip Rivers is that I think we all maybe reacted to those interceptions against Jacksonville, against Cleveland, and kind of went, oh, God god this is what we saw in San Diego or Los Angeles over the years and this like he's lost it and it's all gone and I think there was some instinct to go there where the real where the real I mean again if we were looking back maybe we should have said yeah it's gonna be a bit of a roller coaster ride with Philip Rivers he's gonna

have he's gonna make some boneheaded decisions I actually just talked to a guy who used to play with for almost a decade, Eric Weddle, who said, yeah, it's weird. Like, Philip Rivers is one of the smartest people he's ever been around and played with, but sometimes he's just going to make bad decisions that happen sometimes. So you move past that, you accept that, because what Frank Reich has said and what Eric Weddle said was he does enough good to more than offset the bad.

And I think the things that he is you made a great point about kind of developing a rhythm with the receivers and getting into it without having a preseason he's finally starting to get that there's a couple things that I think he has been incredibly good at that I don't think he maybe that's gets enough credit for one is is throwing downfield he is averaging I think it's 8.1 yards per attempt right now this is not something we saw the Colts offense do with Jacoby Brissett it was only something we saw in the Frank Reich offense with Andrew Luck. He's top 10 in that right now. They're creating explosive plays. Right now, probably percentage of their pass plays, they're better than the Chiefs. They're better than the Packers. They're producing 11% of their

passing plays are going for 20 yards or more. So they're producing tons of explosive plays with Phillip Rivers. The other thing I really like about what he's done, he's not getting sacked. And again, he is incredibly good at the line of scrimmage. One is whether it's either directing his offense or changing the protection plan so he doesn't get hit. He's only getting sacked on about 2.9% of his dropbacks, which again leads the league hardest quarterback to sack in the NFL. But he's also audible to some, just like checking to plays that are open.

I mean, the Jonathan Taylor play against Cincinnati, where he just completely confused the Bengals defense with that, uh, with the change and found him open for about 25 yards. He's doing a lot of that at the line of scrimmage. That's something I just learned from Eric Weddle too. He's like, he's doing things that you don't, you might not even notice cause you can't tell. Um, but, but he's doing a ton of that. And again, he's using his brain. I, one of the, my colleague, Joel Erickson wrote a good story this week about, uh, about the way he performed in Detroit, about taking a couple ofacks as opposed to throwing the ball up in the air, up for grabs, or throwing the ball away.

There were times in his career where he's led the league in throwing the ball away. So he's playing very, very intelligent football. There are going to be a couple of those boneheaded throws. You're just going to have to live with them. But he's doing so many other good things right now in terms of explosive plays, in terms of avoiding negative plays, that the Colts have to be thrilled with the guy so far build go makes you the best you at whatever you do break through your wall whether it's a mental or physical wall break through it with go every day it's easy to take in one and a half ounce

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again, they did great against the Bengals, did great against the Lions and now if he catches this rhythm of momentum and keeps it going, I'd be stunned. I mean, honestly, if Rivers plays on an average level, he's not bad next year, right? Absolutely. I mean, if this is what we're looking at, and I don't mean just like these two games.

I mean like his seven games right now. You combine them all. If this is the quarterback he maintains and, you know, a couple more games where you're like, well, what was he thinking? But mostly what you saw in the last couple games, I think, yeah, I think he's back next year. I still think the Colts maybe do something to address the quarterback situation. It'll depend on what their evaluation is of Jacob Eason at the end of the year and saying, okay, is this the guy we want to groom to be the heir apparent, or do we need to go out and address in a different way via the draft or via trade? But no, again, if he continues he continues to play at this level and again I don't mean this level of just these last two games

which have obviously been great but this level for the whole season um good with the bad I do think he'll be back next season for sure yeah definitely agree to there Jim let's tell them the running game here for a moment because honestly I probably spoke a little too soon in week one when Marlon Mack went down thinking to myself okay they have Jonathan Taylor the workhorse in Wisconsin they had Jordan Wilkins as, who really had a great game on Sunday. We'll talk more about him in a moment. That this running game won't fall off like it did. That we saw 2018, 2019, really Mack and those guys up front really creating a great chemistry

and being able to be one of the top running offensives in the NFL. But ever since Mack's injury, it hasn't been the case. Jonathan Taylor's really been struggling to find those holes. Of course, the rookie adjustment. Same thing we said about Marlon Mack in 2017 as well, Jim. But the Colts are lasting yards per carry as well. This isn't just a Jonathan Taylor thing. This is an offensive line thing going on right now with the rushing attack.

What's been your assessment? What's going on there? Yeah, I think it's a mix. I think you're right. Because the other part we talked about with Phillip Rivers, I think he does a great job of putting the Colts in position to succeed. So, to me, it has nothing to do with the play calling or, you know, the type of run plays that they're running.

At least that's my assessment. For me, it's been the failures of the offensive line in the run game and the failures occasionally of Jonathan Taylor and of Jordan Wilkins and of Naeem Hines. They just haven't really meshed very well. I think the offensive line, if you look at any, like, football outsiders grades offensive lines, I think the offensive line, if you look at any like football outsiders, grades,

offensive lines, football, football focus, grades, offensive lines, football outsiders, just not thrilled at all with the way the Colts offensive line has blocked this season.

I, you can just tell, I mean, again, it's, you don't even need the numbers. A lot of times there's eye test stuff where they're not moving. They're not,

they're not kind of imposing their will on a defense the way they had in so many games last year. I don't think that's going to change against Baltimore, by the way, their front is too good for that. So I just, it's been, it's been confusing, I guess is a better way to put it because this was a team that did run for 2000 yards that did, was able to impose its will against a lot of good run defenses last year and

just hasn't been able to do that. And it's a lot of the same cast of characters. So you're wondering why, but again, I can't tell you why that's happening. It could have something to do with no preseason. It could have something to do with maybe some guys are playing a little hurt. We know Ryan Kelly's dealing with some stuff and Alcastanza's dealing with some stuff. So that could be part of it too. And then again, I think there's always been a, it's one of those things that's, again, hard to quantify, but I asked Frank Reich about it.

I've asked offensive line about it before. There is a chemistry between your offensive line and your running back about knowing how a guy's going to block, how a guy's going to block it and how long it's going to take to set up and when to hit the hole and when not to, when to be patient. Like Marlon Mack had that with this offensive line last year. He was so good about knowing exactly when to hit the hole and burst through it and shake off a couple of tackles, use that stiff arm he has to create extra yards. We haven't seen that with Jonathan Taylor.

We started to see it a little bit with Jordan Wilkins this week. He's had a couple of good games before this year. So I don't want to say it like act like a Lions game was his first good one, but I thought it was, it was clearly his best one where he was breaking tackles, hitting the holes hard. One of the biggest differences between the two I thought was, was Wilkins just kind of seemed to be hitting the holes a lot faster.

If you look at the next gen stats, he was hitting this hole almost a half second faster than Jonathan Taylor, who seemed to be a little bit indecisive during that game. Again, you don't want that to rattle the rookie's confidence. He's still an immense talent. It's just that, I don't know. I guess the one thing that's been disappointing about Jonathan Taylor is his inability to make guys miss, especially in the hole.

He just doesn't have – again, when he's running somebody over and he's got a head of speed, he's great. But there's that wiggle that he doesn't see. I don't think he doesn't have, but he hasn't shown. And again, he hasn't kind of made guys miss in the hole or made guys miss an open field very often. Those are some of the things I'd like to see him start doing in the second half of the season. We've seen them at Wisconsin. We've seen them, again, early in the year with the Colts.

You know he can do it. I just think there's maybe a confidence issue with him in terms of knowing when to hit the hole, knowing when to make a move and dance behind the line of scrimmage or stall just for a second before hitting the hole. I think there's some of that there. And so if that continues to be an issue, I think we might see more Jordan Wilkins going forward. Yeah, like you mentioned, Wilkins finally had his big game on Sunday. As Taylor went out in the second half of that game, they set an ankle injury,

but I think it was more so just the benching where Taylor had 11 carries for 22 yards. Wilkins really doubled him in yards per carry in that and that manner really helped him gain momentum on the ground game hopefully that continues the rest of the season for the Colts who desperately need to get this running game going what do you think the rest of the year is going to look like for this rushing group do you think it's going to be more of a 50-50 split between Wilkins and Taylor maybe sprinkle nine hines as well in a scat back row like we've seen the last couple weeks or do you think maybe Taylor's going to be back in that that that bell cow rolling pretty soon? No,

I think at this point going forward, we're like, we asked Frank, right. That, and he says, this is going to be, you know, Jordan Wilkins is going to start eating into Jonathan Taylor's carries.

I think we all kind of expect him to say, no, it's just a bad game for Taylor. And it's his job. He didn't say that. He kind of said, we'll see. We have to watch the film.

And then we asked Nick Sirianni that, and he said, Jordan Wilkins has earned more opportunities and he'll get more opportunities. So I definitely think, well, I don't even know who's going to start this week but again like Frank Rekha said it doesn't really matter who starts like he kind of schemes up runs for all three of his backs and when he's doing it especially when he's doing his game script the first 15-20 plays he schemes up runs for for all three of them so all three of them probably see time early and then I think he's gonna I guess to answer your I think he's going to go hot hand more often than not. I think Taylor might get the first crack at it most of the time, again, because I think the

ceiling is probably a little higher with him than it is with Wilkins. And again, we know the Colts feel that way. They wouldn't spend a high second round pick on Taylor if they thought that Wilkins was going to be able to be that one-one punch, as I like to say, with Marlon Mack. So we know they think the ceiling is higher with Jonathan Taylor. So I think he's going to continue to get the early work and then it'll say, okay, what's he doing with it? Let's see what Wilkins does with it. And we'll go from there. So I, and again, and the Heinz stuff,

I know people get frustrated with a lot of Naheem Heinz runs. I similarly, I understand where the frustration comes from. He hasn't not done very well with the runs, but the problem is you can't put them in the game as the alone running back, at least, and then have NFL or teams just go, okay, well, they're not running with him, so we know it's passed. So they got to at least try. You like to see them or Naeem, you know, maybe, again,

make a little more space outside, make guys miss. He hasn't done so well going up the middle this year. But, again, they have to continue to run the ball with Naeem Hines because it just makes him more effective as a pass catcher later on. Let's hit on the receiving core real quick, Jim, before we dive into just your general thoughts on the Colts and just looking ahead to this gauntlet of a schedule claim, but it's really going to decide the Colts season,

whether they're truly contenders or pretenders. We're looking into January football here, but how worried are you about T.Y. Hilton this year? I mean, of course, the grand injury happened last week in Detroit, still questionable for this upcoming Sunday against Baltimore. But no touchdowns over a calendar year, not for T.Y. Just the chemistry, I think, has been there with Rivers. I mean, of course, like you mentioned before, no preseason.

A shortened training camp is going to do that for you with a new quarterback. But I really believe just – I'm a little bit worried as far as maybe T.Y. is taking a step back. I mean, it's not surprising, so to say. He's reaching that age 30 level. He's probably going to take a step or two back athletically. But it's been a hot topic, of course, on Colts Twitter, as you've seen, Jim. Probably got a lot of questions yourself about T.Y. Hilton's future with the Colts. What's been your thoughts on T.Y. this year

and what his future could look like here? Yeah, it's tough. It's hard because, again, you watch T.Y. I did. A couple of weeks ago, I decided I was going to watch T.Y. Hilton, watch the tape, and say, hey, can you tell on the tape that he's lost a step? And I couldn't, I honestly couldn't against, I was watching the tape against Cleveland. He had six catches, 69 yards on 10 targets. It's probably the best game of the year. He would have had bigger numbers against Cincinnati, having not been a couple of penalties, but yeah, it's hard. It's again,

it's really hard to tell that to see if he's lost a step. If you ask Frank Wright and the coaches, they say, absolutely not. He's still the same guy. T.Y. Hilton says it, Phillip Rivers says it. But again, that's what they would say. Right. So I think it's, it's just, it's fascinating to kind of dive into it and see, is he, is it just bad luck? And he has had bad luck with, with some drops, with some, with some penalties, with all that kind of stuff. But I do think he's

going to have a better second half of the season, if only because I still think he's the most talented receiver on the Colts. I mean, I know they have guys, Marcus Johnson's been great deep ball guy. Zach Paschal has been reliably excellent everywhere he goes and does. He's played in the slot a bunch this year, whereas last year he filled in a lot for T.Y. Hilton on the outsides. You just got to be really happy with what you get out of Zach Paschal. They have obviously great tight ends. And the other thing about this is he might not have the typical T.Y. season because Frank Reich has seemed to turn this offense, this passing offense at least, into a spread it out. I mean, they have eight guys with more than 100 yards receiving this year, but nobody with more than 251, which is T.Y. Hilton. It's kind of crazy.

There aren't many teams that are like that. I think only the Eagles have nine guys with over 100 yards. I was just going through, I was looking through the numbers too. They've had guys that, Paris Campbell, T.Y. Hilton, Moelle Cox, Michael Pittman, Naeem Hines, Zach Paschal, and Marcus Johnson are all different guys who have led the team in targets this year in different games. So he just likes spreading the ball around a lot. And I think that might be what we continue to see the Colts do. But as for Hilton, yeah yeah it's going to be tough because he's not going to be the featured guy that the way that I think he was previously in his career it's gonna be hard for him to get the contract that he wants because of that but I still think he's going to have better games ahead

of him coming up for the rest of the year we saw the Colts and then move with the trade deadline Jim because I mean Chris Bowers never done it we haven't seen the Colts do it since Tremors in the beginning of the 2013 season we We all know how that went. But I really think internally, I have to imagine, Jim, that getting Paris Campbell hopefully back in December, Kamoko Ture possibly back Sunday, or even the Tennessee Gunners in that football next week, if those two guys come back and they're at full health

and they're how they used to play, let's say Ture's back at his form that we saw last year, Campbell's like we saw in week one, maybe a little rough set to knock off here and there for a couple weeks, how key are those guys, if they both come back at full strength later in the year for the Colts make a January push yeah so to address the part about the trade deadline Chris Ballard has been pretty clear about he just doesn't the prices tend to go way up on guys that are not worth it so that that's kind of where he is on the trade deadline I can tell you that I don't think

he spent a lot of time worrying about the trade deadline this year obviously he's got he always has lines in the water they always do the Colts but I just don't think he spent a lot of time worrying about the trade deadline this year. Obviously, he's got, he always has lines in the water. They always do, the Colts, but I just don't think this is the time of year he likes to make major changes to his team. So that's probably what happened there. And again, and then I guess also to your point, they're getting two very key players back. I think Paris Campbell, I think I predicted him to lead the league. It was kind of my bold prediction story before the season. And I predicted him to lead the Colts in receiving yards. And after watching the way they were going to use him in that first game and second game, I think I was right.

I think they had huge plans for him. I think that's part of the reason the passing game maybe started off a little bit slow is they had to kind of adjust to not having Paris Campbell back or there. If they do get him back, which I know is not necessarily a guarantee just yet, but if they do get him back, it just makes them so much more dynamic. They don't have a receiver like him, somebody with his explosiveness and speed. Again, there's a difference between having just like straight line speed

and then just being so quick out of your brakes, and that's what Paris Campbell is. He's so fast out of his brakes. Incredible acceleration along with having incredible speed. So if they get him back, they just become that much more dangerous in the passing game does too. And again, we're talking about a team that is producing a lot of explosive plays

already. I mean, just in terms of total explosive plays, they have 27 in the passing game without, and most of them are without Paris Campbell. So they can't, just adding him to that will make them that much more dynamic and that much more explosive. And then I actually think that, yeah, Kamoko Ture on the other end, I still don't know what to think about Kimoko Ture. Obviously I think the talent is immense.

We all saw what he did in the first five games last year. I just, I don't know if he's going to be the same Kimoko Ture once he returns. Colts are working them back slowly. He's already, he's already about a week and a half back into his, into his, you know, practicing with the Colts again after being on up. And so I think he's going to start off slow in terms of not only practice so i don't know if he plays this week against the ravens he might but i don't know if he plays this week against the ravens but they're

going to return him slow and i don't think he's going to get a lot of snaps once he gets back so i think you're probably right to say december is when you maybe would start to see full strength kamoko ture and then we'll see what that is. What is full-strength Kimoko Ture now that he's coming off major surgery on that angle? If he is what he was before the injury last year, it's huge for the Colts because they don't have a pass. Again, it's almost like the same thing, like Paris Campbell. They don't have anybody like him.

Nobody with his speed. Nobody with his bend around the edge. Again, all credit to Justin Houston. That's not the way he gets it done. Taequann Lewis, Danico Autry, Al-Khadi Muhammad. That's not the way those guys get it done on the edge. They do it with a lot more power and, yeah, power. That's the way they get their bull rushes a lot of the time for those guys.

Kimoko is a speed guy, and they just don't have a speed guy quite like him being as effective. I know Ben Banigou was supposed to be that guy. He hasn't quite been that guy this year. So, Kimoko would be huge in terms of adding versatility to the way they get to the quarterback and just having more bodies you can throw at the pass rush is always a good thing because you can keep guys fresh when they're on the field. Last one I have for you, Jim. Appreciate the time as always.

Looking at the cold schedule, not in the next month, also the next two months here, Week 17 against Jacksonville, I feel like, I don't want to say it's a guaranteed win, but that team looks like they're trying their best to get into Trevor Lawrence, Justin Gilchrist, Garner Minch, who's not sitting out games. We'll see how that goes down there in Jacksonville. But we have the Ravens on Sunday, then quick week, Thursday night football at Tennessee, home against the Packers, home against the Titans again on a two-week stretch,

then at Houston, at Vegas, home against the Texans, and at the Steelers, who are currently undefeated, the best team at the law right now. How do you feel these next eight weeks are going to go for this Colts team? This is truly going to be a situation where we're going to find out who exactly they are yeah that's a dangerous question to ask who are they going to be in two months I don't know I mean I didn't get it again I didn't have them pegged at at like what they are now I think I had them at five and two weirdly through the first seven weeks I'd have to look but I think

I did but I'm not sure I don't think I had them getting there you know this way the way that they did so we know a little bit more about this team. We're going to learn a lot more this weekend. I don't think there's any reason why this team shouldn't finish with 10 to 11 wins. You give them one against, like you said, Jacksonville, it gives them six. I think they're, you know, you give them the rate, hope, you know, the Raiders should be seven. I would think, I think they're a better team than the Raiders. I think the Raiders are better than some people might expect, but, and then if you say you split with the Titans, that's eight.

And then again, yeah, I split with the Titans, that's eight. And then, again, yeah, I still think they can take Baltimore. They could maybe split with the Texans and split with the Titans. And then, like I said, that gets you to nine or ten. And if you play a little bit better than that, you can maybe get to 11. I don't know about the Pittsburgh game yet. Right now Pittsburgh looks really hard to beat. But looking at – just kind of doing the math that way,

and you get – I like the way you did it. You kind of give them six and two, given what the Jacksonville game looks like in January. So can you pull out four to five more games? I definitely think they can. So I'm expecting them to get to 10 or 11 wins for sure and be in the playoffs. I don't know where the Titans will be at that point, but 10 or 11 wins to me puts you in the thick of the AFC South playoff push and definitely in a wild card spot.

Really quick one, Jim, before I let you go here. Just the Ravens on Sunday. I've been predicting all week I think this Colts team matches up very well. I think Chris Bowers kind of built this team to go into guys like Lamar Jackson on defense, especially you have Buckner, you have Leonard Okereke, a linebacker. Those guys can spy on them. They have the aggressive defensive backs as well. I'm predicting on Colts week.

I've been doing so all week on the podcast, Jim. I'm going 24-16. I think it's going to be a slugfest game. But what do you think is going to happen on Sunday? I really think they match up very well with Baltimore. I actually think they do too. I actually think they do too. The offense – defensively, I totally agree with you.

Offensively, I'm not totally sure yet. Without Marlon Humphrey, though, that's going to be a big loss for the Ravens. Depends what – you know, all those guys are out on the close contact COVID list. If they don't have any of those guys, I definitely think the Colts win. But if they get most of them back, I still, it's going to be an interesting challenge for Phillip Rivers. Because if, again, Colts haven't run the ball well this year, I don't expect them to change that against the Ravens.

So it's going to be on Phillip Rivers' shoulder to go win that game. And we've seen that can be a good thing. That can be a bad thing. So I think that's where it's going to get interesting. I think he plays smart. I think he plays, I don't think he turns the ball over a bunch this week. And I'm going to where it's going to get interesting. I think he plays smart. I think he plays, I don't think he turns the ball over a bunch this week and I'm going to, I'm going to agree with you. I'm going to go a little bit lower.

I'm going to do Colts win, but 2017. Yeah. I like that. I think this is going to be a very fun one Sunday, Jim, of course you'll have you cover on the, over on the Indy stories or Colts insider and go listen to their podcast as well with him and Joel Erickson at the Colts cover to podcast and go follow Jim on Twitter at Jim. I love Jim. Appreciate the time, man. Thanks. Anytime, man. This is a lot of fun.