Speaker 1: We're back another edition of Colts Corner with myself. That
Speaker 1: would be Kevin Bowen. Thank you so much for tuning in.
Speaker 1: Training Camp is officially here, recording this on Tuesday afternoon,
Speaker 1: just a couple hours after Chris Baller got done with
Speaker 1: his annual pre training camp presser practices. We'll commence in
Speaker 1: a hurry Wednesday through Saturday four straight here to start camp.
Speaker 1: Plenty of coverage up on one O seven five thefan
Speaker 1: dot Com. Eddie and I will certainly continue our podcast
Speaker 1: here throughout camp. Cadence will be weird today. It's just
Speaker 1: kind of an odd that I felt like, hey, let's
Speaker 1: get this up as quick as possible, so we'll see
Speaker 1: how just the normal schedule looks. It'll be a little
Speaker 1: different here over the next month or so, but nonetheless,
Speaker 1: we appreciate you tuning in. We'll get to Twitter questions eventually,
Speaker 1: but you know, as is typical with this sort of pod,
Speaker 1: it's just kind of a lot of news items to
Speaker 1: react to, and honestly, it doesn't seem like the newsiest
Speaker 1: report day. You know, Chris Bauer mentioned and we haven't
Speaker 1: seen anything official yet, but doesn't expect any on the
Speaker 1: physically unable to perform list. I know occasionally there can
Speaker 1: be a guy or to trickle out, but nothing too major.
Speaker 1: It seems like on that front, Ziara Franklin will miss
Speaker 1: a little bit of time to start camp. That is
Speaker 1: not surprising news, although it, you know, is a tad significant.
Speaker 1: You know, I think the thought was he could miss
Speaker 1: a week or two when the surgery first happened in
Speaker 1: early May. And this is the unfortunate nature when you
Speaker 1: have such a late offseason surgery like Zaya had. But
Speaker 1: we'll see how long his absence will be. Ballad said
Speaker 1: he doesn't expect him to be on the pup list,
Speaker 1: so you know, he is doing some running and everything,
Speaker 1: so you would think his return would be, you know,
Speaker 1: sooner rather than later. But still, anytime you're on a
Speaker 1: new defense, you want the quarterback of your linebacker crew,
Speaker 1: or I should say, of your defense as a whole,
Speaker 1: to be out there as soon as possible. So Jalen
Speaker 1: Carlis is good to go. And again now we start
Speaker 1: getting into the Joe batchies, the camera groans, the Chaguna lubi's,
Speaker 1: you know, those sorts of names. But I think it's
Speaker 1: really important for his are to get out there as
Speaker 1: soon as possible, get in to the eleven on eleven
Speaker 1: portion as soon as possible, more so from just an
Speaker 1: installation standpoint than anything, So that would be one to watch,
Speaker 1: you know, as far as quarterback is concerned. The Anthony
Speaker 1: Richardson restriction is volume versus participation. You know, back at
Speaker 1: the end of the spring, it was missing those final
Speaker 1: and what was it, seven of the nine practices, Whereas
Speaker 1: it sounds like early on he will participate, but maybe
Speaker 1: the volume won't be you know, as immense as it
Speaker 1: would be for Daniel Jones for example. So I think
Speaker 1: I exit on the Richardson quarterback front from today's news
Speaker 1: and we'll probably focus on this when do we get
Speaker 1: back to the fifty to fifty split between him and
Speaker 1: Daniel Jones. I will continue to think Daniel Jones is
Speaker 1: a starter until we get back to that point. Then
Speaker 1: once we're back there, Okay, how much can Anthony Richardson,
Speaker 1: you know, recreate a competition? So it sounds like they
Speaker 1: will limit some volume. Ballert I think mentioned like day
Speaker 1: two three here in this four day stretch to start camp,
Speaker 1: which again this is the only one of the entire
Speaker 1: training camp that's longer than two days in a row.
Speaker 1: So that's good news for Richardson. You wouldn't think there'd
Speaker 1: be much restriction at all once you get through these
Speaker 1: four days here, which again is vital. You know, when
Speaker 1: does fifty to fifty occur? Does it occur at the
Speaker 1: Saturday practice? Does it occur at Monday's practice? Tuesday's practice again?
Speaker 1: You know how far along, you know, do we get
Speaker 1: before we get back to kind of a true competition.
Speaker 1: You know, Ballad wasn't really in the mood to take
Speaker 1: de bait on the make or break year. For Anthony Richardson,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't expect him to, you know, take that. You know,
Speaker 1: he quickly mentioned Baker Mayfield and Sam Darnold as examples,
Speaker 1: and you know, obviously those guys move teams in both
Speaker 1: of their cases, they move conferences. And you guys have
Speaker 1: heard me say this quite often. I don't think band
Speaker 1: aids work in the AFC at quarterback, I just don't.
Speaker 1: I think the position is way too high end, way
Speaker 1: too much depth in this conference for band aids to
Speaker 1: really really work. And even in the NFC, if you
Speaker 1: look at Baker, you look at Darnold, or you look
Speaker 1: at Geno Smith whoever you want to throw in that category.
Speaker 1: A resurrections in other places, A they had to move organizations,
Speaker 1: and then B it's not like they've had a ton
Speaker 1: of playoff success. I mean, what's their playoff record if
Speaker 1: you want to look at you know, all those guys there,
Speaker 1: you know Ballard. I thought it was a great follow
Speaker 1: up from James Boyd and asking him, you know, trajectory wise,
Speaker 1: what is it in Richardson's game where you feel like
Speaker 1: there is still the arrow pointing up? And you know
Speaker 1: he pointed to the late game moments, which you know
Speaker 1: have certainly been there. I mean he has delivered quite
Speaker 1: often really in the fourth quarter two minute situations. You know,
Speaker 1: last year of the Jets and the Patriots are the
Speaker 1: two you know, obvious examples of that. I don't know
Speaker 1: if I've seen the stretches of accuracy that maybe Ballard has,
Speaker 1: or at least that he says he has publicly, you know,
Speaker 1: in terms of Richardson and like when do you pull
Speaker 1: the plug? I'm much more of a if you're going
Speaker 1: to draft the project, at least attempt the project. And
Speaker 1: I think part of that attempt is at least getting
Speaker 1: to the healthy offseason. You know, if you're not even
Speaker 1: going to get to the healthy offseason, then why believe
Speaker 1: in it? Why you know, draft and develop? Why I
Speaker 1: believe in your coaching staff. Why I believe in the
Speaker 1: character of the player. And you know, all of those
Speaker 1: are in question right now with Richardson, and I'm talking,
Speaker 1: you know, football character of that player. So to me,
Speaker 1: you know, I've kind of always viewed this in a
Speaker 1: three year window. Well you know, now we're at year three.
Speaker 1: Here comes the financial decision after the season and all
Speaker 1: of that. So you know, I know there was a
Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe a tad of tension brewing with
Speaker 1: that question. You know, for the most part, I didn't
Speaker 1: think Ballad was in too much of a you know,
Speaker 1: acknowledge the pressure or the hot seed. You know, he
Speaker 1: definitely played kind of philosophical hat person, you know when
Speaker 1: asked that question. I think Nate Atkins from The Star
Speaker 1: asked him about pressure, and you know, he quickly, you know,
Speaker 1: went to the well, you know, pressure is going paycheck
Speaker 1: to paycheck and putting food on the table. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I like to think when you getting these
Speaker 1: press converse stings, it's kind of a given that we're
Speaker 1: living in an NFL football bubble. We're not living in
Speaker 1: a life bubble. We're not asking questions that are you know,
Speaker 1: life or death and that aspect to it. It's more
Speaker 1: of a hey, you have a resume that's unusual to
Speaker 1: beginning of the ninth year. Go ahead. I don't know
Speaker 1: if every question ever needs to be prefaced by that,
Speaker 1: but you know, certainly I thought that answer was you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I just thought that was kind of
Speaker 1: an easy cop out. Yeah, we could cop out with
Speaker 1: a whole you know, life answer for a lot of
Speaker 1: sports related questions. But we live in a sports world,
Speaker 1: so let's go there. You know, he used the word
Speaker 1: to describe Daniel Jones, as you know, he's very centered,
Speaker 1: and the Daniel Jones experiment will be interesting to watch.
Speaker 1: You know, I think one thing about these retread quarterbacks,
Speaker 1: there's a fine balance between how much did they grow
Speaker 1: up and and how much scar tissue is impossible to
Speaker 1: get rid of. And being in New York City is
Speaker 1: one of those. You know, Sam Darnold, at least for
Speaker 1: a year in Minnesota, proved that just because he was
Speaker 1: seeing ghosts in New York doesn't mean that he sees
Speaker 1: ghost everywhere. Now will that continue? You know, again, how
Speaker 1: much of the change of scenery really really healthy? Baker
Speaker 1: Mayfield went to four different teams before he you know,
Speaker 1: really found kind of that that second home, So how
Speaker 1: much of that is needed? So I think the Jones
Speaker 1: thing will be obviously a huge storyline to this camp.
Speaker 1: You know, positions of interest for Ballard outside of quarterback
Speaker 1: and center. You know, Danny Pinser versus Tanna Bordolini's a competition.
Speaker 1: He seems optimistic on the swing tackle and that is
Speaker 1: a huge position to watch. You know, Jalen Travis, you
Speaker 1: know he mentions high ceiling. Well, if he's needed for
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five, how much of that does it look
Speaker 1: like Bernard Ryman's rookie season. You know, those are some
Speaker 1: of the questions you have when you ask young tackles
Speaker 1: to be thrust into that duty. And again, Travis only
Speaker 1: played college football at the high level for one season.
Speaker 1: You know, he was at Princeton before that. They continue
Speaker 1: to speak highly of Blake Freeland. Last year was I
Speaker 1: would say disaster really for Freeland in camp in the preseason, Bigger, stronger,
Speaker 1: they point to. So, you know, again, what does year
Speaker 1: three look like for him. They really like the defensive
Speaker 1: tackle depth and teri wise. I've mentioned Neville Gallamer a
Speaker 1: few times here in the podcast. He continued to be
Speaker 1: a name and talks about the third cornerback, which I
Speaker 1: know Eddie and I hit on last week. How much
Speaker 1: of that is a position battle? How much of Jalen
Speaker 1: Jones versus Justin Wally is real? It sounds very real.
Speaker 1: And he threw in the name of Juju Brent's so
Speaker 1: insert all your health caveats with that, but that was
Speaker 1: a name that Ballard threw in there. You know, he
Speaker 1: kind of talked about some of the unknown at linebacker
Speaker 1: as well. You know, I feel like we've heard this before,
Speaker 1: but you know, they do expect a much more or
Speaker 1: physical training camp. I try to kind of follow up
Speaker 1: there at the end of exactly what can that look like?
Speaker 1: You know, I totally understand NFL teams have a bit
Speaker 1: of you know, a hands tie behind their back when
Speaker 1: it comes to the physicality and camp, but you know,
Speaker 1: what does that exactly look like? Is it more trench drills,
Speaker 1: is it tackling increasing? You know what exactly is that?
Speaker 1: And you know, Ballot was a little vague on that,
Speaker 1: so be curious. But you know, you kind of said
Speaker 1: you know you will know, so I guess you know,
Speaker 1: my eyes will be the one that will decide some
Speaker 1: of that. So I'll be curious. You know exactly what
Speaker 1: that looks like, because you know they were a awful
Speaker 1: tackling team last season. You know, it's something Ballad pointed
Speaker 1: to in the press conference, and you know when you
Speaker 1: look at it, it losses and in additions defensively, you know,
Speaker 1: they've lost j Speed, they lost Julian Blackman, they lost
Speaker 1: Io Dangbo. You know you added certainly cam buying them
Speaker 1: in Mooney Ward and then I guess J T two
Speaker 1: Malowau and justin Wally you would point you from a
Speaker 1: draft picks standpoint, so you know what's a given to
Speaker 1: there of subtractions versus additions. Obviously schematically there's a big
Speaker 1: change there. You know the forest Buckner mentioned how last
Speaker 1: year was the worst year defensively, he felt like they've
Speaker 1: had here and but you know, a really big fan
Speaker 1: of the bluntness of lou An Arumo. Yeah, I thought
Speaker 1: it was interesting. Kind of late in the press conference,
Speaker 1: Ballard mentioned how he has they have organizationally and he
Speaker 1: there's been some change, and so you know, I kind
Speaker 1: of asked them to follow up, Okay, what are those changes?
Speaker 1: Like they might seem obvious to Ballard, but I'm kind
Speaker 1: of curious, like what what would be different in his eyes?
Speaker 1: Certainly the spending on the onset of free agencies what
Speaker 1: he mentioned, and yes, obviously I think we all can
Speaker 1: look at cam Binham and Mooney Ward, But you know
Speaker 1: what else is it just going from Gus Bradley to
Speaker 1: an Arumo. Does he felt like, you know, did he
Speaker 1: feel like draft wise they did anything to too differently?
Speaker 1: So I didn't necessarily he didn't really expand on that,
Speaker 1: but that's something that you know, on the surface, yes,
Speaker 1: free agency has changed, but outside of that, defensively, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if I see a lot that's again
Speaker 1: crystal clear. Is it a more increased you know, physicality
Speaker 1: to training camp. Is that going to help the end
Speaker 1: of the season struggles which Ballard pointed to on a
Speaker 1: couple different occasions during today's press conference. Does you know
Speaker 1: he pointed the Week one struggles as a lack of physicality?
Speaker 1: Had all there Probably the last thing Ballard wise I
Speaker 1: would point to would be just Bernard Ryman, what's that extension?
Speaker 1: You know, he certainly echoed the line that I get
Speaker 1: that he, you know, is kind of mastered about good
Speaker 1: players with contract extensions of you know, not going to
Speaker 1: talk about that publicly, but really good player who they're
Speaker 1: high on. So we'll wait and see. Ryman is again,
Speaker 1: Eddie and I touched on this a little bit of
Speaker 1: an older second contract guy, so you know, we'll see
Speaker 1: if that has any impact grand and he plays a
Speaker 1: position that I think age is fairly well on that.
Speaker 1: So yeah, those are a couple of things. Two, you know,
Speaker 1: I guess point to player wise. You know, we had
Speaker 1: Kenny Moore the second on our show, and at some
Speaker 1: point I think we'll probably throw in the canny pod
Speaker 1: maybe on a on a future one. I think a
Speaker 1: lot of it is not super time sensitive, so even
Speaker 1: though there might be a few practices into camp, you know,
Speaker 1: some of the stuff will still resonate. But you know,
Speaker 1: he used the word and talking about the defense proactive,
Speaker 1: and when he heard he said that in the media
Speaker 1: scrum we had him after the media scrum on our show.
Speaker 1: I thought the words stood out to me because I
Speaker 1: think at times I've even used the opposite of that
Speaker 1: word reactive quite often with the Colts defense, and again
Speaker 1: for me, it's a little bit more in a negative connotation.
Speaker 1: I think it's really hard to be reactive and survive.
Speaker 1: I think, honestly, that's all you're doing is you're trying
Speaker 1: to survive, and that's just not I think the way
Speaker 1: that NFL defenses need a play in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: I get it might be a little safer, but to me,
Speaker 1: you've got to try and dictate a little bit more. So,
Speaker 1: you know, when he said that, I thought more of, okay, whatever,
Speaker 1: disguising coverage and being more attacking and playing some more
Speaker 1: man and you know, pressing on the outside and things
Speaker 1: like that. But he actually, you know, because I asked
Speaker 1: him in the in the follow up once we got
Speaker 1: him on our radio show, you know, okay, what do
Speaker 1: you mean by that? And he went with, you know
Speaker 1: a word that we've talked about, and it's a Shane
Speaker 1: Stekeen pillar and that's a preparation knowing who you're going against.
Speaker 1: And I thought that was interesting that that's where Kenny
Speaker 1: went to. And again I think you guys have heard
Speaker 1: me say this, What is really confusing about Shane Steiken's
Speaker 1: acceptance of Gus Bradley's approach defensively was in a way
Speaker 1: Bradley was going to against one of Steichen's true pillars.
Speaker 1: Stich In stresses preparation and stresses doing that to weekly opponents.
Speaker 1: And so when you have a defense that chooses to
Speaker 1: be on the vanilla side, then you're not practicing one
Speaker 1: of your kind of core habits. Now again, Luianna Roumo,
Speaker 1: it's a little different. It's week to week that I
Speaker 1: think is needed. And again it might cause some confusion
Speaker 1: at times, but to me, that's a balance that you
Speaker 1: really have to strike. And so for you know, Kenny
Speaker 1: to use the word proactive, but use it more in
Speaker 1: the Monday through Saturday form of it, I thought was
Speaker 1: something that stood out to me. So you know, we
Speaker 1: can we can play that at a later date. I
Speaker 1: think that covers mostly everything Ballad related again one O
Speaker 1: seventy five. The fan dot com has a full notebook
Speaker 1: recap on everything Chris Boward said in any lingering from
Speaker 1: a health standpoint, but let's give it in Twitter questions.
Speaker 1: I know we got a couple here that I want
Speaker 1: to get to before we start to kind of shift
Speaker 1: some things from a reaction to practices moving forward. This
Speaker 1: one from Brett Harr. We've heard a lot about the
Speaker 1: new lou Anarroumo defense being exotic and him being called
Speaker 1: a mad scientist. Compared to us Bradley's scheme, what you
Speaker 1: expect to see. It's different on a given Sunday, both
Speaker 1: good and bad. Also maybe a winner loser in terms
Speaker 1: of defensive players in the new scheme. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: on the first part of it again, just more disguise,
Speaker 1: more week to week planning, more man coverage, more pressing
Speaker 1: and up ticking, blitzeeing. And you know, it's probably worth
Speaker 1: pointing out, Brett that like there's a bar that you're
Speaker 1: going from that is rather low in a lot of
Speaker 1: those areas. So I'm not talking like you've never tried
Speaker 1: hot sauce in your life or whatever, and you're going
Speaker 1: to like sant Elmo to have that cocktail sauce. Like,
Speaker 1: I'm not acting like you're going, you know, from that
Speaker 1: to that, you know whatever, you know, pick your sauces
Speaker 1: that are a little bit more on the mild side.
Speaker 1: You're increasing it. I don't think you're Brian Flores on
Speaker 1: the scheme scale of it, but again you are increasing that.
Speaker 1: Now again, where can that be poor? Well, you know,
Speaker 1: obviously it's not like Cincinnati was great recently, and you
Speaker 1: know there's personnel questions among that. There are some risk
Speaker 1: in it in that your bust might be really big,
Speaker 1: and so that's something to keep in mind when you're
Speaker 1: looking at it. I you know, I think just to generally,
Speaker 1: I think anytime you bring in a new defensive coordinator,
Speaker 1: the winners often can be you know, just those new bodies.
Speaker 1: So those draft picks, you know, Juju Brents is one
Speaker 1: that has singled them out as someone that he thinks
Speaker 1: is a real big winner in this scheme, and his
Speaker 1: frame and body definitely looks like a guy that can
Speaker 1: kind of swallow some people in press coverage. So you know,
Speaker 1: how much is he a winner in this? You know,
Speaker 1: d line wise, they've mentioned they're gonna have to scout differently,
Speaker 1: So then that brings up Okay, you know what do
Speaker 1: got you know, Quitty pay Taekwon Lewis. You know, guys
Speaker 1: that were drafted for the previous scheme, what exactly do
Speaker 1: they look like in this scheme? Here a claude, do
Speaker 1: you think this is going to be a real quarterback battle.
Speaker 1: It's just Daniel Jones is to lose. I don't want
Speaker 1: to look at Danny Jones all season. Ballard in the
Speaker 1: organization handled Richardson wrong from the first day. Well, boys,
Speaker 1: a lot you can go to. I do think there's
Speaker 1: some merit there on the back half of that. But
Speaker 1: do I think it's a real quarterback battle? Again? How
Speaker 1: early is the fifty to fifty split? Once we get there,
Speaker 1: Once that becomes the norm, then I think the battles
Speaker 1: back on again. Do we get their Saturday? Do we
Speaker 1: get their Monday? I think you creep any further into
Speaker 1: next week and the days start to get shorter. But
Speaker 1: let's say Monday, for example, Monday the twenty eighth, it's
Speaker 1: back to fifty to fifty. That means you've got Monday
Speaker 1: the twenty eighth, Tuesday the twenty ninth, the night practice
Speaker 1: the final day, July the thirty first. Then you've got
Speaker 1: back to back Saturday Sunday. That's five practices before you
Speaker 1: go to Baltimore for the joint session, because that first
Speaker 1: full week of August you only have one practice, and
Speaker 1: then the preseason game being the opener on the seventh.
Speaker 1: Then nothing until the weekend, so again it starts to
Speaker 1: get real choppy. So I would look towards, you know
Speaker 1: that aspect of it, of you know, Monday, that's kind
Speaker 1: of the big date. No, Saturday is one that I'm circling,
Speaker 1: but Monday is kind of the big, big one, you know,
Speaker 1: as far as organizationally. Yeah, it's the question of you know,
Speaker 1: have you missed more on the field y'or off the field?
Speaker 1: With him? Tony says he's from London. I love it
Speaker 1: coming to Indy to watch the Colts after following them
Speaker 1: for over twenty years. It's Colts Titans game on October
Speaker 1: twenty six. Any suggestions for a good bar to watch
Speaker 1: the Thursday night game when we arrive and then pregame
Speaker 1: spots Sunday also gonna watch i U UCLA Saturday, you're
Speaker 1: gonna watch seven person. I'd go down to Bloomington Fall Saturday,
Speaker 1: late late October and Bloomington, Yes, go down there, and
Speaker 1: even if you don't want to go to the game,
Speaker 1: just post up Kilroy's Yogi's snicks upstairs wherever. I think
Speaker 1: that's a great experience and I think colleges are just
Speaker 1: it's fun to see a College Town if you're not
Speaker 1: super familiar with it from over in London. You know,
Speaker 1: as far as Indie's concerned, I've heard a lot of
Speaker 1: good things about Tom's watch bar. I love the dugout
Speaker 1: in Fountain Square. I love the tap in on mass At.
Speaker 1: The problem is just I got a bad back. I
Speaker 1: need some seatbacks. Man. Those bar stools just don't don't
Speaker 1: do it for me. The side room at the Eagle,
Speaker 1: I think it's got a good vibe right next door
Speaker 1: to the tap, you know, if you can post up there,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of a smaller atmosphere, not super sports barry,
Speaker 1: but I think a nice vibe for a Thursday night.
Speaker 1: You know. As far as pregame, I definitely hit Touchdowntown.
Speaker 1: It just kind of hit the tailgate area in general,
Speaker 1: bar wise, and think Slipper Noodle, just the history there
Speaker 1: close to Lucas Oil. I'd stop there, but yeah, Georgia
Speaker 1: Street and all that. That's right. Go and then last
Speaker 1: last one from Jamie here over under on Riley Leonard
Speaker 1: games started due to injury at one and a half. Boy,
Speaker 1: it's definitely got it to the under Boy, I would hope.
Speaker 1: I mean, first time many teams start a third quarterback
Speaker 1: in a season, let alone a six round rookie that
Speaker 1: I mean, he he's just a project. I would think
Speaker 1: if you get to that third quarterback again, if an
Speaker 1: injury cursor Jones or Richardson, I think they look into
Speaker 1: the veteran route. But if you're going, I mean, you
Speaker 1: imagine Riley Leonards starting multiple games for this team. Boy,
Speaker 1: I can't imagine that that happening. All right, we'll be back, Eddie,
Speaker 1: and I'll be back at some point here I don't know.
Speaker 1: Probably early next week is where I would target to
Speaker 1: come back with another podcast, and at that point we'll
Speaker 1: be recapping a good amount of training camp. So again,
Speaker 1: one of Sudden five thefan dot com has got all
Speaker 1: of your camp coverage. Kevin bon and signing off, thanks
Speaker 1: for listening.