NFL Stock Exchange: An NFL Draft Podcast - 289. Fix Your Franchise: Indianapolis Colts

Episode Date: November 27, 2024

0:00 - Intro 4:50 - How we got here 8:30 - Should Ballard stay? 37:20 - Roster overview 45:10 - Free agency plan 47:50 - 3-round mock

Welcome to the opening bell of the NFL Stock Exchange podcast. I'm Trevor Sycamore, that is Connor Rogers joining you guys for another Fix Your Franchise episode. Today we're talking about the Indianapolis Colts. Now Connor, we could get old takes exposed with this one because the Colts are only two games out of the division title with the Houston Texans. And so we have had that in the past. We've had a couple of fixture franchises that we have done previously where we do the episode. And then obviously to spite us personally, the team then starts to play well. They show the episode, you know, on the big screen in the locker room and they go, look at these assholes. And then they actually start playing really well.

So that could absolutely happen with the Indianapolis Colts. They could go on a run here. The Texans aren't exactly the most steady franchise. So who knows? Maybe the Colts are going to end up making the playoffs. But still, it is an organization that is not playing as well as they want to be at this point in time, even with a young quarterback, even with a second-year head coach.

Really, it's about the general manager and the organizational structure. Do they have the right players in place? And then what can finally get them over the top? That's what we're here to do. It's not a true from-the-studs type of a picture franchise. It is more of a what can we do to get the Colts to get over the top. How are you doing, my friend? I'm good, man. of a picture franchise it is more of a what can we do to get the colts to get over the top how you doing my friend i'm good man this definitely feels like to kind of piggyback off your point

a what comes next for the colts because they they feel like a team that they're kind of floating in the sea right now where it's you know they had the weird feeling during the season where it was okay we think we might be a playoff team. And there was a lot of reasons behind the Richardson benching or a lot of thoughts behind the Richardson benching. I should say not a lot of reasons. I know they have their own. Let's get Flacco in there and see if we can go on a run. And that doesn't work. And now we're committing back to Anthony Richardson for the rest of the year. And they are a strange team because you look at them and you go, I like their head coach in Shane Steichen a lot.

Chris Ballard is one of the most respected scouts across the NFL, although he's been, he's been given a long leash here with the Colts and it's going to be, it's gotta be winning time sooner or later. We're going to have that discussion as well. And you want to answer the ultimate question of if Anthony Richardson can be the guy going forward. So if this isn't a team,

this isn't an organization where you go, how do we build this roster? And who are the people we are putting in charge to build it the right way? This is a team where you feel like a lot of those questions are answered. Now, what kind of roster do I want to build to make their previous decisions look like the right ones? I think the Colts are a fascinating study and a different type of study here on Fix Your Franchise. They're 5-7 so far this season. They're coming off a loss to the Detroit Lions when, honestly, the 24-6 final score, the game was a lot closer than 24-6.

They had some blunders that the Colts had, especially with penalties. They had 91 penalty yards just taken away. Not even the penalty yardage against them. Yeah, they had 91 yards of completions and just plays that were taken off the board because of that. They also didn't capitalize in the red zone. So they were closer in that game than I think the scoreboard would have indicated.

But it's sort of where we're at here in this combo with the Indianapolis Colts because Chris Ballard you mentioned has been their general manager since 2017 Shane Steichen's been the head coach for two years and Anthony Richard in his sort of in year like one and a half because he really didn't get much of a rookie season you know you've had Anthony Richard get benched and now he's back in the lineup and you go okay well how much is Shane Steichen actually making that decision? Is the Ballard decision? Is it an Ursa decision? There's a lot of things that I think we get to talk about here with the Colts because, you know, on paper, it's not a bad football team. It's really not. They've just been waiting to get over the top. And I think that we'll talk about that a little

bit more when we fully dig into Chris Ballard's resume here. But really how we got to this point, they are 5-7. If you turn back the clock a little bit, I would say before the Steichen years, the Frank Reich hiring was really the one after Chuck Pagano that I think was supposed to be the staple on Chris Ballard as the general manager. Reich was there for, I believe, four seasons, had three years where they were above 500. No, he might have been five seasons, had three years where he was above 500, two years where they ended up making the playoffs, but they were four and 12 in the last year of Frank Reich slash, you know, like Jeff Saturday.

They were nine and eight last year with Shane Steichen, so they felt like, okay, we're slingshotting, we're in the right direction. It was just the coaching staff that was bad. We're still going in the right spot. They've only had one playoff victory in two playoff appearances since Bauer took over in 2017, and that one playoff victory was with Andrew Luck.

And so without Andrew Luck, this is a team that sort of has not had very much success, and it feels like that's been the story that sort of has not had very much success. And it feels like that's been the story of sort of how we get to this point. Yeah, I mean, I just, I'll open the floor up to you. And before we really dig into Chris Ballard, or maybe you sort of want to get into him now yourself, that's sort of how the Colts are where they are, which is it's mediocrity, it feels like is where the Colts are. They're like not bad enough to have a high draft pick. They're not good enough to really be contenders when it comes to the playoff. They're in pretty much the most frustrating spot that you can be as a franchise. And I think that's a reason why a lot of people

are pointing the finger at Chris Ballard, who, you know, I'll just give a little hint to you guys. I think people might be a little bit too harsh on when it comes to the criticism, but what do you think of the situation? Right. It weird you're right they are in this mediocrity state but it's also been interesting how they've gotten there because they were 4 12 and 1 in 2022 they come into 2023 with low expectations and a rookie quarterback and a rookie head coach and they go nine and eight and quite frankly if tyler goodson doesn't drop that fourth down pass when he was open to or i don't want to say just drop that pass that they don't execute the play on any side on fourth and one against the texans they make the playoffs last year despite having low expectations coming into the year and

it's it feels totally different, but they don't, they finished nine and eight. They finished third in the division. They don't make the playoffs in heartbreaking fashion. They come into this year, Anthony Richardson's back. And now it's the growing pains of a very raw, but talented young quarterback with a roster that has a lot of wind.

Now pieces in place. And that's the hardest line to walk in the NFL, especially for a GM that's been there for a while that Chris Ballard called his shot with Anthony Richardson. But he's also been building this roster since 2017, where in a division that doesn't really scare you any here, honestly, especially this year, this division is underachieved in a wild way. Even the Texans who were supposed to take a huge leap this year, they've had struggles lately. Jacksonville has been horrible when they were

not supposed to be horrible. Tennessee's actually been plucky out of the division. And I know they're not good, but they're a feisty defense and they have their moments. So that's, what's frustrating for colts fans probably is that man like we've built the roster which should be good enough we've had the guy here long enough we like the coach why can't we get over this hump and i think we're going to get into some of those little decisions today that might have cost them or things that they just have to be patient with and kind of supplement so let's sort of get into the background of the general manager chris ballard which i think is of get into the background of the general manager, Chris Ballard,

which I think is going to dominate a lot of the conversation here as we talk about the Indianapolis Colts. Because the big thing is, I don't think they're going to make a decision. I don't think they're going to make a change of quarterback. I really don't. I think that certainly since Richardson has come back from being benched, he has been able to play well. I think he's a very inexperienced quarterback who is very, very talented,

who if you give up on at this point in his career, even if the next five games aren't what you want them to be, I do think that that's kind of crazy. And you're looking at a head coach in Shane Steichen that I don't think anybody's looking to move on from at all. And I think a lot of people respect, you know, independent of what happened with this benching situation, which we'll get into. The change, as we often talk about here on this Fakeship fake ship franchise series, would come in the form of their general manager. And in 2017, Chris Ballard was hired as their general manager. Chris Ballard currently is only 55 years old still, so he's a relatively young general manager here in the NFL. He was a scout with the Chicago Bears from 2001 to 2011, so for 10 years. Then he got hired as the director of pro scouting for the Bears for one season before being elevated to the director of player personnel for the Kansas City Chiefs for

two seasons after that. He was promoted to the director of football ops in Kansas City from 2015 to 2016, and then from 2017 up until right now, he's been the general manager for Indianapolis. Jim Irsay had this to say about Chris Ballard when he hired him. He said, quote, I was thinking about this and I think I can say this with some expertise and wisdom. I really feel to me that Chris is the best candidate for general manager that has come about so far in the 21st century, which 17 years into it from 2000 to 2017, that obviously means a lot. And it goes to show you you know ursa i don't think was you know blowing smoke like he or talking out of his ass like chris ballard was a very highly respected

talent evaluator yes from his time with the chicago bears through his time uh in the kansas city chief's front office he was extremely well respected and i'm gonna be honest guys if you're looking to uh hear me bash chris ballard i'm i quote nick saban i'm not gonna do it i'm not gonna do it stop asking and in fact like they're they're i'm going to build an argument of the fact that just because it has been frustrating does not mean that you should move on from somebody when you know he is right for the job. And I still do actually believe that Chris Ballard is right for the job. Now, I think, Connor, something that really worked against Chris Ballard is actually his hype and the belief in him because it was like the first couple of years that Chris Ballard was a general manager,

he was already getting ranked as like a top 10, top five, top three general manager in the NFL. And I think that has really worked against him because if people would have just appropriately given him time and probably just ranked him like, yeah, okay. Like I like Chris Bauer, but let's see what he could do with this roster. I think the perception of him is very, very different right now because in reality, yeah, there have been some swings and misses, but as a whole, he knows how to evaluate talent. He knows how to get talent on this football team. This is a decent Colts roster.

It really is. And as you would expect from him being there since 2017, his fingerprints are all over how they have built this thing, whether it's been in the draft or in free agency or things like that. But I will get into a little bit more of sort of why I am a Chris Ballard defender, I would guess, say at this point. But where do you fall with him and when he was hired in 2017 and just your thoughts on him overall right now?

Chris Ballard is somebody that I followed his career very closely as somebody trying to get into this business, evaluating talent for the NFL draft, because he's one of those guys that he was that on the road, kind of grinded out life with the Bears for a decade as a scout, which you hinted at, Trevor. He finally gets elevated to director. He does that for a year.

He's the Chiefs DPP, which is a big role for two years. He's the director of football ops for another two years. And then he gets promoted to GM. And when he was in Kansas City, everybody knew that this guy was going to be a GM because he had an eye for talent. He was scouting in the Southeast for a while, which is a big responsibility, obviously notoriously in an nfl organization and somebody that you know he can make the hard decisions and have the hard conversations he's not afraid to i think he really people really like being around chris ballard and they really believe in chris ballard and obviously jim jim ursae falls into that so i think jim ball i think chris ballard is a good

evaluator, and Jim Ursae is aware of that to the point where the grass isn't always greener on the other side. While a lot of Colts fans, I'm sure, and every fan of a team feels this way about a GM when things aren't going right. This guy's had a really long leash. He's had a really long time to get it right.

It hasn't gone right. But I think there has been some instances that obviously were out of his hands that went against him. Of course, the Andrew Luck situation is just like, who could have kind of seen that coming? And that environment wasn't built by Chris Ballard. That was a Ryan Gregson problem that led to Andrew Luck's retirement. And Ballard kind of inherited it. So there are, I get the people that are wondering,

like, why is he at this kind of rope in a league that often doesn't give that to people? But I think at the same time, you could say, this guy knows how to evaluate talent coming out of the college ranks, and he's really good at it. And it feels like they're on the right path. But of course, the golden question is,

it's going to come down to Anthony Richardson. So I'm a Ballard fan. I'm glad they've given him this kind of leash I hope it works out I I supported the Richardson pick I do think it'll work out and I think he's the kind of guy that's so respected around the NFL that if the Colts let him go anytime soon I think he'd have he'd be the rare like Tom Telesco type that gets a second chance as a GM very quickly I really do again if Tom Telesco gets a general manager job immediately, Chris Bauer gets a general manager job immediately. And I do agree with you.

I think that Ursae knows that. And it's a big part of why he is still employed within Indianapolis Colts. And I think it's an interesting scenario going back to the hype. I think that the way that he talks to the media, the way that he respects the media, how the way that he is so personable to fans and the media members and to players and everything he's like that with players by the way like not to jump in with you but i've talked to like a few players about their interactions with

him before they were ever drafted just when you're going through the process and he is very hands-on he is a very um like people person that's genuine like he's not just like he treats players like people yeah and i think that is something that's been really respected by him throughout the process and i think people look at that and i it's it's a good thing but when there's not success in the win-loss column i think fans maybe look at that and they go okay well why are you giving this guy a pass like because he's nice to you like write about how he has not had success as general manager and write about his whiffs at quarterback because i think that's where we have to start with all of this and and i think that it's fair on both sides i think that i don't think the media is just being

like choosing to turn a blind eye to chris Ballard's maybe shortcomings uh just because he's nice to them I think there's something to the fact that like they also understand that like he's going about this the right way and even when you go about things the right way the tough part to accept is that sometimes it's just not going to bounce your way. Right. And Ballard's fired three coaches now, right? He has fired Frank Reich. I guess you could, I mean, you could technically like say that he's fired like Jeff Saturday as well. Like that would be.

Yeah, not really. That would be the third one. Shoot. No. Has he only fired two? Would that have been two? Because he didn't fire Chuck Pagano. Because then Steichen was right after that,

and he hasn't fired Steichen. Am I missing somebody? No, if his first year there, he was with Pagano. He was? That was 17. Okay. They were four and 12. Okay, okay.

So he did have that right. So he's fired Pagano. So he's fired Reich. And he's fired Jeff Saturday, if you want to technically call that a firing. Not really. Jeff Saturday was never going to get hired. He's hired two head coaches now at this point.

And to not have the postseason success that you want, like even that in and of itself, like that part of the resume, you don't get to do that a lot. No, you don't. You don't get to fire two slash three head coaches. You don't get to hire two coaches and still not have this sort of success and you still be in the seat right now that we're talking about it normally your time is up and especially when we go into how he's evaluated the quarterback position Andrew Luck's situation you're right it's unfair because he was sort of inherited that situation uh luck was already

broken physically uh when bauer took over his general manager and even though the retirement for luck was sort of out of nowhere how he has navigated it since he could obviously it could have been better you know you get philip rivers in there i didn't hate the philip rivers move i went like okay like this is a bridge quarterback situation. You're trying to save the roster as it is. You're trying to be competitive. You're going to get Phillip Rivers. All right. I don't hate this. I did not hate the Phillip Rivers move at all whatsoever. So if you want to start that conversation with Phillip Rivers coming in and thinking that that's a negative, I don't think it's a negative. I'm not going to be hindsight about it. I thought that it

was the best that they could do in the moment with everything that was going on with Andrew Luck, post-Andrew Luck. They went 11-5. Right. Now, what's not great was trading a first and a third round pick for Carson Wentz. Abomination is essentially how it ended. And it makes it tougher because we'll get to this in a second. Ballard is known as a general manager who, you know, he'll hit the singles and doubles for you, but he won't hit the home runs for you. That was a pointing to the fence, swinging for the fence, and you struck out on three pitches. Like, that could not have been worse, the Carson Wentz experience.

And then after that, then you go out and you get Matt Ryan, and that was also not a good decision for you. Now, again, I don't want to play too hindsight with it, but to then have Phillip Rivers, bridge quarterback, you took a swing and a miss, massive miss with Carson Wentz. And then you did the same with Matt Ryan, and it did not work out for you there. Now, all of a sudden you have on your resume, damn, buddy, you've had three, you've now had, you've had now have chances to hire head coaches. You've had chances to go get quarterbacks and you have whiffed on the two most important signings that you have. He's so good. I'm going to get to the successes. He's so good at the rest of it. But the two most

important signings, he has whiffed on multiple times for this team. So they finally decide to take a chance at a quarterback early in the draft because, well, they don't pick early in the draft. And they do so with Anthony Richardson and they go get Shane Steichen. And I think both of those decisions were the right decisions. I really do. So it's hard for me to fault them. Have they manifested yet into like playoff destiny for them? No, but I thought they were the right decisions at the time. So I actually think that he kind of got this one right, or at least that it was the risk worth taking. Cause you got to remember that football is like investments. There's always risk involved. No matter what you can sit here and you say, Oh, this is a surefire stock. It's going through the roof.

Just put all your money in it. It's always a risk. There's always some sort of risk with it. But for the coaching and the quarterback part of this conversation with Ballard, because we'll get to the draft history, because I do think that that's important here for the full picture. But what have you thought about how he's handled the quarterback situation since Locke?

It's been a mix of bad luck and, pun intended and and mistakes right like at the end of the day mistakes and the problem is when you are when you have a team that's good enough that you don't pick at the top like you said trevor it's hard to fix this like they so the two after the luck retirement year right this is the best way to do it like go year by year yeah and i'll even go further back in a second but 2019 they go seven and nine jacoby persett by the way get a great start to most of the year for them and he's fine there's 18 touchdowns six picks yeah yeah eat jacoby they go seven and nine though where it's the roster is good enough that they're not going to bottom out and be picking in the top five in 2019 so can you argue that ballard at some point should have found

a way up in one of those earlier drafts and just given up the house to go up and take a quarterback okay that's a different combo but yeah hard when you're as good as he is it's really hard to do he's jason light him and and Jason Light are like the same. They've had different paths, but they're the same GM. They're the same like archetype. You're playing in a different market every year. Because then after that, he gets Phillip Rivers as a bridge guy. They win 11 games.

So once again, you're not picking high in 2020. So then 2021, where the decisions start to kind of fall apart a little bit but even after getting carson wentz they're nine and eight they're nine and eight so 2022 this is the uh matt ryan season with appearance at cameos by sam ellinger and nick foals they're four and twelve bad they are they are yeah it's they are it's yeah it's tough it's a tough one for sure and um that's obviously when they finally are picking up at the top and they make their bet with anthony richardson and why i had a feeling they would take richardson and we made a lot of jokes leading up to this draft about Will Levis and my final mock and I think our final mock we did together even we had Richardson going there is this is where I give Ballard a little grace as much as he's made quarterback mistakes

he I know for a fact he loved Josh Allen but that year they had Andrew Luck like he was playing with house money but they do all the quarterback evaluations and I had talked to a team that had talked to him throughout the process and they used to like to pick Ballard's brain because he did all the quarterbacks anyway right and he was like one of the Josh Allen guys that pre-draft but I remember everybody was like well you know like it's easy for Chris to say that because he's got Andrew Luck and they don't have to worry about what they're doing for the next 10 years right and then obviously things go the way they go in the 2018 draft and Andrew Luck retires after that. You're out of nowhere. And that's where the spiral, and I'm not saying he would have got it at Josh Allen or anything like that, but I'm making the

point that the guy values physical traits at the quarterback position. And sometimes you'll hit on an eval like a josh allen and sometimes you'll take a jacob eason and he'll do nothing in his nfl career even if it wasn't great like it's you're gonna have a different kind of hit rate and that's why we're all walking on eggshells watching watching anthony richardson but right now which by the way played really good against the jets and played much better than the numbers would tell you against the lions especially thanks to some awful drops, by the way. So that's the conundrum with Ballard is this guy knows how to evaluate quarterbacks,

but he swings big when he swings. He just didn't need to at first because he had luck. Then he was too good to be picking in that range where he's going bridge guy after bridge guy. Then that ran out really, really ugly. And then they swung big for Anthony Richardson. And we're going to see how that goes. I think it's beautifully put because when I was doing research for this show

and when I was like, okay, what side of the fence am I on here about Ballard? Do I think that he should go or not? I'm looking at all of his drafts and we can go through him right now yeah we can go through his drafts so you take uh hold on here scrolling down scrolling down quentin nelson was his first pick no right oh no malik hooker no malik hooker was that's right that was 17 god damn i love malik cooker coming out of the draft man oh i love malik cooker coming out of ohio state so so they go with malik cooker in the first round quincy wilson gator great unfortunately not yeah i missed on that one uh missed on that one terrell

basham okay not great zach banner not great marlon mack unfortunately gets hurt grover stewart was good before the achilles marlon mack right Right, right. Grover Stewart, good. Still around, obviously. But, let's face it, you know, like, okay, not the best first draft. But, first drafts for general managers, it's tough. I mean, it's just always tough. There's barely any general managers who their first drafts are great, okay?

So, you got Malik Hooker out of it, who is playing for Dallas now. He's not playing for you anymore, but I think the injuries went into that. You at least got Grover Stewart out of it. The next year, Quentin Nelson, stud. Shaq Leonard, who is great. I now. He's not playing for you anymore, but I think the injuries went into that. Yeah, at least got Grover Stewart out of it. The next year, Quentin Nelson, stud. Shaq Leonard, who is great. I didn't love the extension that they gave him. I didn't feel like they needed to give him

that much money with any extension, but still, was a starter for you and a high-impact player for you. Braden Smith, still the right tackle of this team. And then, like, okay, Kimoka Ture, Taequann Lewis still there. Naheem Hines, who I think is a good football player. And, like, that's all the way up to the fourth round.

So that's a good draft. That's a very good draft in 2018. Darius Leonard was an all-pro for his back gave out. Right, exactly. Darius Leonard, he was good. But again, I didn't love making him the highest paid linebacker in the NFL. But it's whatever. You nailed the draft pick.

2019, okay. Admittedly, but it's whatever. You nailed the draft pick. 2019, okay, admittedly not a great year. Rocky Sin, Ben Banigou, Paris Campbell, Bobby O'Kara, Kyrie Wilson. All right, so 2017, not so great. 2018 looked really good. 2019, not so great. But then we got 2020. You don't have a first-round pick. One, you didn't have a first-round pick in 2019.

It was Rocky Sin who was the first pick, And I think you traded out of that one. I think they traded down from that one. So they didn't have a first round pick there. They traded from, I think, 26 to 34 in the first round. So 2020. Michael Pittman Jr. in the second round. Jonathan Taylor in the second round. Julian Blackman in the third round.

Love him. Great picks. Great picks for you. Jacob Easton in the fourth. Like you said, you're taking a flyer on a quarterback. Isaiah Rogers you get in the sixth, so I think he's a good player. The next year, 2021, Quidi Pei,

Diana Odeyingbo. Okay, round one, round two, as impact as you want. Maybe not, but still, not bad. You end up getting Will Fries in the seventh round, who's been not great the first three years of his career. Friggin' awesome this year. The light came on, yeah.

And that brings us into 2022. Alec Pierce, good player. Jelani Woods, fine. Bernard Ryman, stud. Nick Cross, good player. Andrew Ogletree, good player for you. 2023, Anthony Richardson, I like the flyer. Juju Brents, great.

Josh Downs, great. Blake Freeland and Adetumibo Adebore, you're just taking a chance on the athleticism with both those guys in the trenches. Don't hate it. You get Jalen Jones in the seventh round. Good. Stud. Love that. And then this past draft.

Love Liatu Latu. Love Dadey Mitchell. Matt Goncaus, Tanner Bortolini, they've already had to play this season. Jalen Carlisle has already moved on from center to the linebacker level. He's been great. This dude can draft, man, especially in rounds two through four.

He finds depth that a lot of guys that sink a lot of other GMs. He's a talent evaluator. And all of that to bring it back to what you were saying initially. This guy does not pick high in the draft he's never had the opportunity to if you take out Malik Hooker or shoot you can even leave Malik Hooker all right so one two uh three four he has picked four times in the top 15 of drafts. Not even like the top 10, not even top five. He's picked top 15 four times since 2017. And his picks were Malik Hooker. So all right, a good football player though, when he was healthy. Now he's not on your team anymore.

Now he's starting for Dallas, whatever. Quentin Nelson, stud. Anthony Richardson, who you took a flyer on, an extremely talented quarterback. And Latu Latu, who I think is going to be a stud at the NFL level. Those are the four players that he has drafted when he has picked in the top 15. And Connor, he just has not picked in the top 15 outside of that. Right.

So we talk about, all right, this Colts roster, it's got a lot of like good players doesn't have a ton of stars where the stars are going to come from he's picked in the top six twice ever one of them's anthony richardson one of them is quentin nelson one of them you certainly nailed two richardson the jury's out but he could be incredible we'll see and things look better right now. Yeah, absolutely. What I try to remind people with Richardson is,

and this is something I asked Sims this, because I was like, I had to ask an actual quarterback this. Someone like Richardson goes into the offseason with a season-ending shoulder surgery. It's really hard to go into the offseason and get better at things when you're rehabbing an injury that impacts everything you do at the position. So Richardson came into the year without a normal offseason, not to make excuses for the guy, but a season-ending shoulder injury.

So it's not shocking that he looked really out of whack in preseason and had a slow start to the regular season. This guy needs time. I mean, you know it as a Florida guy, Trevor. He didn't play a lot of football even in college no so nope it's it's frustrating probably as a fan but you can you see the flashes and i think that's less glimpses now and actually more consistency the last two games of the kind of talent he has and if you have the right infrastructure around him of what he can do and be the place he can make that not a lot of other guys can and i respect taking a guy like that honestly i really sure i do too you've got it you've got to have the guts to be able to

take a player that can take you to a super bowl and i think anthony richardson has that type of talent and i don't mean i don't mean for this fixture franchise to just like sound like a giant like keeping for the colts problem yeah i'm not trying to do that but like we all sit here and we want this change we want things to be better man i i don't really know how much better you get than chris ballard well your your perspective is this is we've done a lot of fixer franchises the last two years and especially this year and each time when you and i go into our personal research labs and lay out what we want to talk about you get perspective on like what's a shit show and what's not yeah and the colts are not a shit show no compared to other teams outside of the anthony richardson benching roller coaster like this is a good

organization they draft very very well i think they have the right, again, like, I think that it is worth noting how good I think this 2023 NFL draft class can be and how much Ballard has hit on players in the second through fourth round. And I just feel like, I mean, you talk about, okay, they also added DeForest Buckner. They got DeForest Buckner to come over, right? And so that addition, I mean, they had Stephon Gilmore for a little bit to play on the outside.

They built the offensive line into one of the best offensive lines in the NFL when everybody was healthy. All this stuff matters to me. The development of the offensive lines, the development of Bernard Ryman and Braden Smith and Will Fries. And obviously, like with Ryan Kelly is at center. And now you even have these two young interior offensive linemen who are being able to play in Mack on Cavs and Tanner Bordellini. Like, that stuff matters, man. And I feel as though the Colts have been unlucky in a lot of ways. And I understand that that's very, very frustrating.

And it hasn't been perfect. But like we've said many times on this show, perfect can't be the bar. If perfect's the bar, you're going to let a lot of really good people out of your front office, whether that's players, coaches, or front office people. You've got to allow them to fail and you got to understand that the process is right. Sometimes there will come a time where it's like, hey, you know, like we just, we just kind of got to move on here. Like we talked about in the last episode with Brian Dable maybe becoming available. You might get to a point where the locker room

just becomes very apathetic. Like it's just, there's no motivation. There's not a lot there. You're not getting it back. Doesn't feel like that's the case with the Indianapolis Colts. And instead you just look at how they've gone about things, how they process things,

the marriage between the coaching staff and the general manager group. And I feel as though that Ballard has been a little bit gun shy to not maybe trade a draft pick for a player here or maybe trade up and move up but again I can't sit here and praise Jason Light the Bucks general manager for having that exact mentality and then also like want more from Ballard it's just the fact that it's it's it's worked out in better ways for Jason Light than it has for Chris Ballard but I think certainly the fact that you had the right roster and if Tom Brady chose to go to the Indianapolis Colts guess what they would have been right there winning double-digit games and contending for Super Bowls

and in fact it just was the opposite which we love to to see, of course. But to me, it's just the fact that they've got to be able to nail it at quarterback. And if Anthony Richardson can continue to look good at the end of this season, have a fully healthy offseason, get into that offseason program and come in next year hitting the ground running, man, I really do think that we could have a totally different tune about Chris Ballard and about this Indianapolis Colts organization. They're close, and they're close because they draft really well. The health of the roster is where it needs to be. Now, it doesn't mean that it's not perfect, and I think they need to add more stars to the team,

which we'll kind of get to as we get into the team building part of this episode but um i think ballard should stay man i know a lot of people i i was i was reading some colts forums and things and people are like ballard can leave and all his players can leave with him and it's like man uh i'm not saying it's impossible but the odds of you finding a better g than Chris Ballard are lower than the odds that Chris Ballard's just going to figure it out. And when that's the case, I'm not moving on from a guy like that. I stand in lockstep with you on that. Sure wish we would have disagreed. We could have fought about it.

But no, not today, partner. We've talked about GM candidates for other teams before in previous fiction franchises. Like I love John Spitek for the Buccaneers. They're director of scouting. Jason Leight's right-hand man. If you're moving on from Chris Ballard, he's an option. Ian Cunningham from the Bears, I think, is somebody who's interviewed for general manager positions before. He's somebody who would come up.

Ed Dodds is funny because he's in the Colts organization, but you're not going to move on from Chris Ballard just to hire Ed Dodds. It goes to show you the front office they've built. I agree. Their assistant GM will be a GM candidate again this offseason. Yeah. Yeah. So. So.

Time to think about. Shane Steichen's not going anywhere. No. Why? If he was fired, he'd be hired tomorrow by somebody else. Yeah, tomorrow. Any other coaching candidates like OC or DC? I didn't really look up OC or DCc for this team i think i think that they're i don't i don't think

they i think they're stable right now and i think they want they need stability around the quarter oh gus bradley's to dc they're probably gonna move on from him you think so maybe not but you could you could i know it hasn't been i know it hasn't been perfect but i also know they've dealt with a lot of injuries on that side of the ball yeah i think the secondary is really struggling for them but they don't they don't really have an impact player in the secondary like i think when we get to the draft we'll talk about well maybe some free agent additions too here's a corner go a dc i actually love it yeah okay all right there's our change there's our change folks think of bob sala gus came through like his come up and bob sala's come up it's the same identity at heart, but it changes the voice in the room.

I like this. I like this. If you're going to make a change at all whatsoever, I don't think it's a GM, I don't think it's a head coach, it'd be a DC, and I do like Robert Sala as the pick there. It's a good shout-out. Good call-out, Connor. You're pretty good at this, man.

A little love for Robert Sala after i i said he was not not a good head coach in new york unfortunately well i mean he's a hell of a dc yeah he is a hell of a dc so i actually i i do i like that move a lot so we're gonna get into the roster we're gonna break down the roster a little bit more we'll get into a free agency plan and then we'll get in the mock trap before we do that there's some things that school doesn't teach you right how to handle the financial world it felt like it was one of them. We're learning those pointless math classes. Why weren't we learning more about practical financial solutions? How about how to plan for your successful future for you and your family? That includes your kids, right? Fabric by Gerber Life makes it very easy to set up an

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Learn more at MeFabric. M-E-E-T-E Fabric.com. So the Indianapolis Colts. Free agents coming up. Ryan Kelly, Mo'Allyx, Joe Flacco, Julian Blackman, Will Fries, those guys are free agents. Capspace, not a ton projected to have $35 million in Capspace and effective cap stage, which is the 17th most in the NFL. Let's look at some key pieces on the offensive and defensive side of the ball before we dig into some of their free agents

and then anybody that might be out there that could be a decent target for the Colts. Key pieces on offense? I'm not going to lie, Connor. There's a lot, right? Hell yeah, there are. I mean, Anthony Richardson, Jonathan Taylor, Braden Smith, Quentin Nelson, Bernard Ryman. I would tell you that Will Fries,

bringing him back for the great year that he had this past year, he'd be a key piece to keep this offensive line, one of the best offensive lines in the NFL, afloat. Michael Pittman Jr., you just signed to a deal. Josh Downs has been fantastic. Josh Downs, absolutely. Yeah, A.D. Mitchell looks great. The only wide receiver is Alec Pierce,

but Alec Pierce is even great with the style of play that Anthony Richardson wants to play. This entire offense is almost like key pieces. It's everybody on the offense. Except what position did we not name? Tight end. Yep. Stay tuned.

Stay tuned. Stay tuned, folks. They're well-coached offense and they have the pieces in place. I agree. I like a lot of what I see, and they have the pieces in place. I agree. I like a lot of what I see there. I love Josh Downs. I think he's their best receiver far and away.

He's on the defensive side of things. DeForest Buckner, Grover Stewart. Not moving on from those guys. Stallwarts in the middle. Right. Laatu Laatu, who they just drafted. Love. Quidi Pei, Taekwon Lewis, Diane Ode-Ingbo.

They're not, you know, cornerstone pieces, but I think you got three key pieces along the defensive line. And then those three names I just mentioned as rotational players, pretty decent defensive line. Not going to lie, especially when you got added to me, we'll add a bar.

A, you know, as a rotational guy to be a speed guy, uh, on the interior, you got to say a land, you know, the super fast edge rusher who's there. You maybe develop into something linebacker level. Okay.

Zaire Franklin. It's I think that this is the group they need upgrades. EJ Speed, Grant Stewart, Jalen Carlisle. Okay. You could definitely use a star linebacker. This to me, though, is the group where I would say they really need help at. Cornerback. Jalen Jones, Sam Womack, okay.

You have Juju Brands, who is out for the year with injury. You have Kenny Moore on the slot. Sam Womack and Jalen Jones have been good this year, but I still think they need a stud corner. Like a stud number one corner. corner. Like a number one. Like a stud number one corner. Yes. I could see that.

It's more of a committee than a star group. And then Nick Cross and Julian Blackman. Julian Blackman's a free agent. I'd bring him back. Yeah, he's got good range. Nick Cross is already on a rookie contract for you. And again, if you get a star as a safety would love that like i think the mock draft variation between either whoever tight end

one is or whoever safety one is for them in the first round like that is a that's a that's sort of where we're going here do you how do you see the roster the same i see it very similar to you yeah i i could argue for one more edge rusher in that group i would like to find upgrades at linebacker even if it's just one more off ball guy and i would if it's easier said than done finding a number one corner like literally there aren't a lot of number one corners in this league anymore with how the rules have changed yeah when you like there's just not there's not a lot of number one corners left this league anymore with how the rules have changed. Yeah. There's just not. There's not a lot of number one corners left in football anymore. Yeah, and it's hard because I was having this conversation

with Dalton Washington the other day when we were on the PFF NFL show. Corners also just so up and down, like the high variance. Remember, Patrick Chartan's year in 2023 wasn't very good. And look at Sauce this year. And now he's defensive player of the year. And Sauce was defensive player of the year candidate last year and sauce now is not playing defensive rookie of the year and was all pro his first two years and his third year he has hit like a bad not a wall like a slump and it's just it's because it's confidence position that's

why it's a confidence-based position that's what happens to these guys where they get it they can have a bad year on it it's like a reliever you can have a bad year on it. It's like a reliever. You can have a bad year on any given day. That's a really good parallel. I think like closers, relievers, and corners in the NFL, it's very much. When it goes up here, it goes down here. I got to be careful. I was going to say.

Your legs. I mean, look, it is a confidence thing. It is. It kind of works. The parallels, they still work, folks. They still work. Viagra ain't going to help you cover anyone in the NFL. It might.

Hey, it's sauce, you know. I was going to say. Start taking Viagra. Back to our advice. I like whenever we run into a problem, we find some kind of substance that can get us out of it. Yeah. Oh, you're a 280-pound tackle prospect?

Steroids. Oh, you forgot how to cover? Viagra. Viagra. Yeah, yeah. Slippery slope. Viagra. It's the gateway performance-enhancing drug.

All right. I don't know how to get back to where we were. We're never back. Number one corner for the Colts. We're never back. So look, I'm bringing back Will Fries. I'm bringing back Julian Blackman. I'd like to bring back Ryan Kelly.

Although Ryan Kelly's getting a little bit older. He is. He's one of those guys where it'll be like, he'll stay with the Colts or he'll hang up the gloves. Yeah, I would still. He's not just going to jump somewhere else. else man i would like him though well yeah continuity on the lines would be great he would come back and play i do i think so too so i mean if we're bringing back all those guys that's a lot of your free agent money you really may be like targeting

i don't i don't even know if you do you have a free agent target in mind? Like, is there a tight end or a... Not necessarily. There's like a tight end two market I'd play in. When you look at the linebacker free agency, you're kind of throwing darts at guys, right? Like, Levante David is going to stay with the Bucs. Yeah, he's 35. He'll stay or he'll retire.

Yeah. Right. Like, Zach Bond is having this amazing year with the Eagles. Like, what do you even do with that? Yeah. It's weird, right? It's a really weird one. You could play with, I mean,

Jamie and Sherwood has had a nice breakout year for the Jets, and he gives you the speed element. I don't, he's not a guy I'm paying big money to. So, yeah, linebacker's tough. I'm going to look at the tight ends here. So we brought up this player before, Javon Holland. If you have an opportunity to go get Javon Holland, if you're the Colts, I would do so.

I would agree with that. I think Javon Holland fits anywhere, but you're looking at their, like at a playmaker in their secondary that also plays tough up front. Yeah. I like that idea. If you're going to pay big and they don't, if you're going to a playmaker in their secondary that also plays tough up front. Yeah. I like that idea. If you're going to pay big and they don't throw around money like that,

Ron Holland is like, go get guys that are actual stars. Or honestly, Buda. Those are the two. Yeah, I like Holland's age better. That's the difference. For sure. I think that those are the two players that I would actually go after in free agency.

I would bring back those guys that you have this year. You're getting Juju Brandts back. He's hopefully your CB1, CB2. Womack and Jones are getting some good playing time. They're having some good reps, some good games, but it's been up and down for them. You're okay with the corner group,

but you would like to get better at corner. I just don't know. Man, who are the corners that are available? Traveris Ward, DJ Reed. I guess DJ Reed. i just don't know like man who are the corners that are available it's it's very very forward dj yes dj reed i i don't love paying 28 corners corners approaching 30. yeah it's just like kind of a personal it's hard to go out there and get a corner it is that you could really invest in long term yeah i mean you try to go do you like go the razul douglas route as a stop gap i don't think you need to because you have right you have three

corners that you're okay with right so then i would rather just get the money i'd rather pool the money and get holland or baker i agree so we're bringing it all right so the free agency strategy we're we're keep we're keeping most of our guys and then we're going to let's say we go after a big safety let's say we're able to get holland or baker go to baker yeah does that sound good going into the mock draft and we brought back blackman yes so that's that's the duo yes yes i can both play and obviously nick cross is in there as well for your you know three safety rotation in there yep you like that yep okay let, three safety rotation in there. Yep. You like that? Yep.

Okay, let's do it. Let's fire up the mock draft simulator. Here we go. As always, if you guys don't have a PFF Plus subscription, go over to pff.com. Get yourself a PFF Plus subscription. You can do all seven rounds of a mock draft over at the mock draft simulator. We've got almost 300 players on there. I got 290 players in there right now. We'll probably be over 300 a week from now.

So very, very excited about that. We continue to add new players and re-rank them and all that good stuff. Colts currently picking number 13 at five and seven. This will be interesting. Three round mock draft. All right, let's do it. All right, so who's off the board? Going all the way back up to the very top.

Travis Hunter's off the board. Mason Graham, Tetraone McMillan, Abdul Carter, Ashton Gentry. The Panthers, again, incredible. They can't help themselves. No, they can't. Jalen Milrow. Never too much help for Bryce, you know.

Jalen Milrow, Malachi Starks. Oh, Starks went early. Starks went to the Jets. At seven. Look at that. Will Campbell, Will Johnson, Luther Burden, Nick Skorton, Kelvin Banks, all those guys off the board. Top players on the Jets. At seven. Look at that. Will Campbell, Will Johnson, Luther Burden, Nick Skorton, Kelvin Banks, all those guys off the board.

Top players on the board here at number 13. Jalen Walker, the edge rusher from Georgia. Cam War, the quarterback from Miami. Josh Simmons and Emeka Igbuka from Ohio State. Ariante Ursery, Wyatt Milam. Benjamin Morrison, intriguing at the corner spot. We going tight end? What are we going here?

We got both of them on the board. We got Colson Loveland. We got Tyler Warren on the board. I know. I like Warren. I know you like Loveland. This is tricky because it feels a hair early. But Warren is such a good fit, man.

It's only a hair early for now. Will it be that way come draft time? Will it be that way come draft time? I would agree. I think Warren, I mean, I put Warren to them in the one mock draft I wrote for NBC. At 13, you did? Yeah.

Although, I don't remember if they were at 13. they were around there the thing is though is it's such a good year to get a tight end i don't this is gonna be interesting when we do that episode i i'm not gonna say i'm gonna disagree with you i'm not it's early you're a hater i'm not as hot on the the class dude like I I think there's a gap between the two guys at the top I don't disagree with you yeah but if you're talking about draft strategy and drafting a tight end at 13 or drafting one at 45 sure you could get one at 45 is what I'm saying yeah but i think they'd have one third of the impact that loveland or warren would have one third maybe less less here's a good exit i know

i know god damn dude that's too much viagra what are you doing blood it is going on a long. It's going right to the brain. It is funny when you have that combo specifically with the Colts, because Trey McBride in 2022 went 55th overall, and they took Jelani Woods at 73. And that combo is not even close. Yeah, but they took, where did Trey McBride go? 55th.

Fifth. Yeah. What you saying? Trey McBride was better than the 55th overall player in that draft. And I have the rankings to back it up. Yeah, obviously that's true. Okay. So talk to me through your non-tight end scenario is what I'm more interested in right now.

I'm probably I'm looking at corner to be honest. Me too. And I don't love it. I wanted Will Johnson. I like Savan Ravel a lot, a real lot, honestly. Morrison, let's talk. I want to say something about Morrison before people are like, why don't you bring up Morrison a lot?

It's hard for me to talk about Morrison in the first round until I get any information on his season-ending hip injury. Hip is tough. Hip is like one of the scariest words you can hear for a prospect, especially a corner. Yeah. So I want to be clear with people, I'm not ignoring Morrison, who I really liked on tape this summer.

Yeah. I would really like some more information on that than the late winter. I like Trey Amos a good amount. Okay. I'm a Trey the late winter. I like Trey Amos a good amount. Okay. I'm a Trey Amos guy. I like Trey Amos. You like Trey Amos in the first round. I think he's sort of like a late first,

early second. Honestly, his place is top 40 corner. His play style reminds me a lot of like Terry and Arnold. Like he's that build of a player. He's really aggressive. He likes to stay hip to hip to hip he's pretty good he's got great ball skills he's got a ton of forced incompletions i think he's a stud i do i think he's a really good player do you think we can get amos with our second round pick uh maybe yeah probably not okay all right can we just

i know we said we weren't going to do this but can we can we do two yeah let's run through two okay let's run through two let's do um well we know what we're gonna do we're gonna take the tight end in one so let's take the tight end in this one yeah um do we want to take the tight end in this one well because they're on the board now so you can't risk it for the net well but what i would like to do is what I would like to do is I would like to take a corner that's not Will Johnson for them and to see how it looks. OK, so let's take Siobhan Revell. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yep. So, all right, we're going to take Revell.

So we're going to give them the outside corner there, which, by the way, like people worried about Revell, Siobhan Revell tearing his ACL. He's going in the first round still. Probably. Yeah, yeah, I think. Yeah, I think so. So, Savant Rivelle on one side, Juju Brents on the other. Incredibly athletic duo on the outside. With length.

With length, absolutely. So, at 45 now, I don't want to force anything too much. You know, I mean, we could go Ashton Jalati. We could go Landon Jackson. But I think we're too deep at edge rusher already for this group. Now we get into tight ends. Like Mason Taylor, Gunnar Helm.

Yeah, I don't know. Maybe Gunnar, but... Now I would go tight end here. I would go one of these three players. I would go Mason Taylor, I would go Gunnar Helm, or I would go Eli Stowers. Which one do you like the best in this scenario? I think Mason Taylor.

Okay. He's ranked higher for me. Yeah. All right, so go Taylor. Yeah, I think I like Mason Taylor. Think more traditional tight end. Yeah, I like to go Taylor. Yeah, I, I think I like more traditional tight end. Yeah, I like Mason Taylor more. So let's go Taylor. So we're going Taylor here at 45.

And then this is sort of Dion Walker. Wow. Yeah, Dion Walker will probably go higher than this. I just. It's not a great, it's not a great, just there's not much on the table. Oh, can we go Jeff Bossa here? Sure. We talked about the need,

we talked about the need for the middle of their defense. I like Jeff Bossa. So Jeff Bossa played wide receiver and safety when he was in high school. Yeah. He comes to Oregon, they move him to off-ball linebacker. He's gotten better every single year.

And Dan Lanning, I don't, it might just be coach speak, but he speaks so highly of jeff bassa he's like dude has grown every single year that he's played he is truly my coach on the field like he's getting more uh comfortable being a leader like vocal leader in the middle like and the thing is that he's a little bit smaller he is six foot two 235 but he's where the game is going right that's not the sideline to sideline speed for bossa he's a senior bowl guy so we're gonna get to see him in mobile i say we should draft okay no i like

that we solved our needs with that yes yes timing up in the third round yes okay so this mock draft here was siobhan revel mason taylor jeff bossa all right now let's see what it looks like when we take tight end early. So loading up another mock draft, three-round mock, starting it. Okay, so tight end. You want to take Warren? Let's take Warren.

Yeah, I want Warren. Okay, all right we're taking warren at 13 tyler warren who has been having an unbelievable year as a tight end for penn state if you guys haven't watched him yet you absolutely should what was the game where he caught like 20 receptions what was the game where he was they just like force fed him a billion times that's the well they run the wildcat with him game to watch he threw a touchdown oh man darian porter see this this is what i kind of had a feeling of i like the value how it shapes up here porter is their kind of corner by the way yeah i mean same same thing man you know he's not quite six foot four he's under six foot four

iowa state's line he is every bit a ballard corner. He's super athletic track background. Ah, man. Okay. We're going to go with Darian Porter here. Yep. I know we just picked him for the fixing the Patriots episode, but he is absolutely a Ballard corner.

There's no doubt about it. And then 77. You can pick me. We can pick even more. Even worry from South Carolina and make him like a pseudo linebacker you kind of play in the box anyway yeah you can make him like a box defender i think that's the move i could be yeah like a chess piece defender for your front i like your boy charles grant i do too because grant gives you interior offensive line depth that you're gonna

need with some of the injuries they had he. And he could potentially play center for you. You know, like however long. Well, no, no, no, hold on. They just drafted Tanner Bortolini and Matt Goncaves. I forgot. Yeah, Bortolini is that like, you know, chess piece offensive lineman. Yeah.

I don't think we need an O-lineman. Okay, so we'll go back to the well of defense. Okay, so. I'm going to go linebacker as well. See if we can get a linebacker here. of defense. Okay, so... Emmanuel Wary. Emmanuel Wary, and I'm going to go linebacker as well, see if we can get a linebacker here. That kind of fell off, huh? No, yeah.

Barrett Carter's the next linebacker. I like Barrett Carter in this range more than what he was originally projected as. I really don't mind Barrett Carter. I like Deontay lawson as well he unfortunately uh just suffered an injury and he's gonna miss the rest of the season which sucks but i think that he could be in this range as well or again we could just draft emin warren i'm curious if he comes out it's gonna be interesting

who emin warren. I think he will. Okay. He's just having that kind of year, right? He's going to capitalize off this kind of year. Yeah, I don't blame him. In my opinion. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't blame him because I thought he was, yeah, he's only 20. Yeah, Ballard would like that too. Yeah, he

yeah, he's 20. All right, you want to take him? Yeah. I like the idea. Especially Bob Sala's, the DC. Yeah, it's his kind of player. Look what Bob Sala did off the scrap heap for Quincy Williams. That's true. From a cut by Jacksonville to an all-pro.

Man, honestly, though, you know, Barrett Carter's closer to Quincy Williams. I know, because he has the speed. And they're both the same size, I think. You're going to see a lot of that pre-draft. Do you want to go Barrett Carter's closer to Quincy Williams. I know, because he has the speed. And they're both the same size, I think. You're going to see a lot of that pre-draft. Do you want to go Barrett Carter here instead? They're both sub-six-foot linebackers that weigh 225. Yeah.

Because it fits our whole identity. Yes. Like our plan. Yeah. Like, let's play a big front and just have this absolute lunatic run around like a missile. And they already had Jalen Carlisle playing at the linebacker level too. So they've already got that safety linebacker hybrid type of a player. All right, we're going Bear Carter.

We're going Bear Carter. Okay. Okay, so first draft was, god damn it. Not again. Siobhan Ravel. Siobhan Ravel. Yep. And then it was Mason Taylor.

And then it was Jeffrey Bossa. And this draft is Tyler Warren, Darian Porter, Barrett Carter. Good drafts, Connor. They are. I have a special attachment to this one. Especially when you're throwing in a Javon Holland. And when Bob Sala's coaching the defense. I don't know which one I'd pick. I like this one a lot.

I think I might pick the other one. Okay, that's the beauty of it. I might pick the other one. We would love to hear what you guys think as well. So a little bit of a recap for what we did here. We're keeping Chris Ballard. We're keeping Shane Steichen. The only change we're making on the coaching staff

is we are getting Bob Salas in to be the defensive coordinator. If we look at the depth chart after what we did, not a ton of changes. The offensive side of things really stayed the same. We're bringing back Ryan Kelly. We're bringing back Will Fries. Everything's going to stay the same there. The only difference is, depending on which mock drafts you like better, either Tyler Warren or Mason Taylor at that tight end spot. And then we go to the defensive side of things.

Everything was pretty much the same there, except for either Barrett Carter or Jeffrey Bassa going into the linebacker spot and either Siobhan Revell or Darian Porter starting at the corner spot, along with Siobhan Holland, a new addition to the safety spot there for the Indianapolis Colts.

We'd love to hear from you guys. A lot of flexibility here on what you can do with the Indianapolis Colts because they are not that far away. So that's what made this episode a lot of fun to do. Give us your thoughts on Ballard. We know you got takes on Chris Ballard. We would love to hear from you. What'd you think of our assessment of Chris Ballard? Are we being too easy on him? Are people out there being too hard on him? We would love to hear from you what you think about the Anthony Richardson situation, all that good stuff. And then of course, what we

did with the roster there. If you have a cold three round mock draft that you would like to fire off, hit us up in the comment section, youtube.com backslash at NFL stock exchange. That is the best way to do that. If you're audio only at Tampa Bay tray at Connor J Rogers, best way to make sure that you get in on the program. Connor, you got anything else before we get out of here,

my friend? No, I'm really happy with our results. And I know I often say that. But I think there's some wrinkles for this team that there's rumors that the Colts could be running the South. The NFC South. There are rumors of that. I won't confirm them, though.

Okay. No, we would never. We would never do that on the show. But they're certainly back in town. Appreciate y'all watching and listening to the program. Please, however you are celebrating this holidays, have a happy Thanksgiving.

We love you guys. We love you for being loyal listeners of the show, addicts, if you will. And we just, we hope that you guys have a great holiday. We wanted to make sure that we gave you two episodes in time for the holiday season.

But of course, we will be back next week as well. For Connor Rogers, I'm Trevor Sikama saying happy holidays, happy Thanksgiving. And we'll see you guys next week on the nfl stock exchange podcast Thank you.