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Speaker 1: This is the Colts Free Agent Tracker, a look at

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Speaker 1: some key in house free agents this offseason in the

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Speaker 1: Indiana Union Construction Industry Radio studio. Here's the voice of

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Speaker 1: the Colts, Matt Taylor. That's right, we're back again. We're

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Speaker 1: firing up the Free Agents Tracker, our podcast series leading

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Speaker 1: into free agency for the Indianapolis Colts. Hi, everybody, I'm

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Speaker 1: Matt Taylor, indeed in studio with JJ Stangovitz and Casey

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Speaker 1: valle A NFL Free Agents A free agency, I should say,

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Speaker 1: it's right around the corner. It starts March the fifteenth,

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Speaker 1: and it's gonna be here before you know. The Colts

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Speaker 1: have seventeen either unrestricted or restricted free agents unless they're

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Speaker 1: resigned by the Colts in the next couple of weeks

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Speaker 1: before then. So far in our Free Agent Tracker series,

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Speaker 1: we've examined Ashton Dulin, We've taken a look at Bobby o'kake,

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Speaker 1: Dennis Kelly, Matt Pryor, Taekwon Lewis, Ben Banigou, and Paris Campbell.

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Speaker 1: Coming up later in this week, we're going full boar

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Speaker 1: on special teams. We're gonna I sec punter Matt Hawk

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Speaker 1: and also kicker Chase McLaughlin who just had a fantastic

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Speaker 1: season in terms of consistency. So that's coming up a

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Speaker 1: little bit later this week. But today it's all about

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Speaker 1: fellas the defensive secondary. We're taking a look at Brandon

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Speaker 1: Facon at the cornerback position and Rodney McLeod who turned

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Speaker 1: in a really again you talk about consistent, very consistent

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Speaker 1: season from his safety spot. So we'll talk about all

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Speaker 1: of that coming up, but later this week. We're taping

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Speaker 1: this on Monday, but later this week, Case and JJ,

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Speaker 1: it's all about combine. This is the busiest, one of

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Speaker 1: the busiest offseason weeks of the year, is it not.

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Speaker 1: I mean, outside of the I think your rankings go

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Speaker 1: the week of the draft, the week of free agency

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Speaker 1: are probably one two and then it's it's combined. Yeah, no, absolutely,

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Speaker 1: I mean it's I mean it has As we all know,

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Speaker 1: we've covered this for a long time. It is a

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Speaker 1: busy time. But it's always pretty cool seeing it highlighted

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Speaker 1: right here in the city we live in. I mean,

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Speaker 1: everybody here, it's always great and it gets bigger. I

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Speaker 1: don't know how it gets big here every year more

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Speaker 1: and more people, I mean, my, my number is four thousand.

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Speaker 1: I think that's going to be the number of credentialed media,

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Speaker 1: which is I don't know where we all go. I

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Speaker 1: mean we're all sort of just elbow to elbow and

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Speaker 1: fighting over turkey sandwiches up in them in the beam room. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and there's getting in line at Starbucks. Yeah, with the

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Speaker 1: mornums and coaches. Yeah. Uh, it's great. I love it.

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Speaker 1: Like mattay see in the rundown of podcasts that we're

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Speaker 1: going to have the people that we're going to talk

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Speaker 1: to here on the Colts Audio Network over the next

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Speaker 1: couple of weeks and months. Um, it's awesome. It's such

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Speaker 1: a convention for the NFL. It's not just media members

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Speaker 1: getting together. It's gms, it's coaches, it's scouts and the

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Speaker 1: information that gets passed around, and the late nights at

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Speaker 1: Prime where an agent maybe says a little bit more

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Speaker 1: than he or she thought they should have all of

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Speaker 1: a sudden heard this at the Combine pops up on ESPNN,

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Speaker 1: So essentially jjing this is like the gen con of

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Speaker 1: the NFL. Yeah, Combine, Okay, Yeah, it is right. It's

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Speaker 1: the biggest NFL convention there is. Yeah, takes over basically,

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Speaker 1: I mean the two block radius of downtown Indianapolis from

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Speaker 1: South Street up until about Washington Street. That's the epicenter

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Speaker 1: of the NFL for at least you know, six seven days.

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Speaker 1: All right, let's get to Brandon Facon. First off, here

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Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about Faston and Rodney McLeod. Last season,

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Speaker 1: Brandon Facon signed a one year deal in free agency.

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Speaker 1: Of course, reunited with defensive coordinator Gus Bradley after spending

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Speaker 1: time with him both on the Chargers and the Raiders

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Speaker 1: in prior stops played in sixteen games last year, four

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Speaker 1: starts inactive for one game that was against the Minnesota

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Speaker 1: Vikings late in the year in week number or I

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Speaker 1: believe that was fifteen twenty eight tackles, six passes defence.

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Speaker 1: Down the year, his defensive snap count harved around forty

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Speaker 1: percent after the first few weeks of the season. Did

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Speaker 1: play one hundred percent of the snaps though in the

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Speaker 1: regular season finale against the Texans due to some injuries

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Speaker 1: in the secondary for the colt So, Casey, I'll start

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Speaker 1: with you, than JJ, how would you classify the season

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Speaker 1: for Brandon facing last year kind of up and down

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Speaker 1: again in terms of overall, Snapcat, That's exactly what I

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Speaker 1: was gonna say. It's kind of up and down. I mean,

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Speaker 1: he showed some good things. He also had some stuff

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Speaker 1: that I'm sure when he watches the tape back he

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Speaker 1: would like to change. But I think that's kind of

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Speaker 1: what you were expecting. You didn't sign this guy to

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Speaker 1: a lucrative free agency deal. It was a one year

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Speaker 1: deal for a guy who going into camp, everybody was

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Speaker 1: talking about the battle between he and Isaiah Rodgers for

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Speaker 1: a lot of that snapcaut. I mean, you knew what

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Speaker 1: you got in ste find Gilmore, you knew you had

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Speaker 1: Kenny Moore, so it was kind of a battle. So

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Speaker 1: I didn't think you expected too much out of facing

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Speaker 1: and it was definitely up and down is probably the

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Speaker 1: way you describe it. There were some injuries that forced

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Speaker 1: him to play a little bit more later after kind

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Speaker 1: of having that lull in the middle of the season

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Speaker 1: where it was more of Isaiah Rodgers. But definitely up

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Speaker 1: and down in his first season here with the NPS Colts. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I think you know, when the Colts signed him, like

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Speaker 1: you said, Casey, it wasn't too a lucrative contract, and

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Speaker 1: you know he's a guy who came over. He's only

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Speaker 1: played with Gus Bradley, with Ron Mileash. He's a guy

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Speaker 1: who they trust to be assignment sound technique, sound with

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Speaker 1: the way that they wanted to play. But you look

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Speaker 1: at some of his numbers, they weren't all that far

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Speaker 1: off from where he was in two thousand and twenty

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Speaker 1: one with the Raiders. Obviously the PBUs that year he

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Speaker 1: had ten PBUs. That dropped a little bit in two

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Speaker 1: thousand and twenty two, but passer rating aloud two twenty

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Speaker 1: one was at one one o seven point one last

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Speaker 1: year at one to one point five with the Colts,

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Speaker 1: reception percentage, completion percentage allowed when targeted sixty one percent

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Speaker 1: in two thousand twenty one, sixty eight percent in two

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Speaker 1: thousand and twenty two, yards perception in two thousand twenty two,

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Speaker 1: twelve point one. In two thousand and twenty one it

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Speaker 1: was at twelve point eight. So I don't want to

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Speaker 1: say Brandon Facon had a bad season. I think what

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Speaker 1: we saw from Brandon Facon is probably what the Colts

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Speaker 1: should have expected out of he was. It was the

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Speaker 1: back of the playing card right right in turn in

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Speaker 1: terms of what his production, so that that begs the

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Speaker 1: question though again does does he have the potential to

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Speaker 1: turn into a starting corner in the NFL? I mean,

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Speaker 1: or is that he's been in the NFL for five years?

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Speaker 1: Is that in the cards for him? And also, to

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Speaker 1: take this a step further, we're also again as we

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Speaker 1: sit here and take this on Monday, right before we

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Speaker 1: spend a lot of time with the combine for the

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Speaker 1: rest of the week, we're we're getting hints that Gus

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Speaker 1: Bradley is coming back. He's going to be potentially the

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Speaker 1: defensive coordinator on this staff under Shane Steiken And as

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Speaker 1: JJ said, for Brandon Face and that's all he knows

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Speaker 1: in the NFL as spending time in the Gus Bradley system.

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Speaker 1: How much does that factor into his free agency capsule

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Speaker 1: in terms of coming back with the Colts and can

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Speaker 1: he be a starting cornerback in the future. It's definitely

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Speaker 1: one of those things that you know, you've got a

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Speaker 1: five year sample size and it's hard to say that

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Speaker 1: you can just pencil him in as an everyday starter.

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Speaker 1: I think he has shown glimpses that if you need

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Speaker 1: him as a spot starter, you know, every you know,

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Speaker 1: once every couple of weeks. If you need him, he

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Speaker 1: can step in. But definitely that Gus Bradley relationship, it

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Speaker 1: is all he knows to this point and it's definitely

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Speaker 1: something that he can continue to gain that familiarity and

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Speaker 1: be in enthralled in that defense. So there's kind of

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Speaker 1: two sides of the coin. I would say that he's

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Speaker 1: probably not in every week starter, but he's a guy

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Speaker 1: that has shown glimpses that if you need to in

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Speaker 1: a pinch, you kind of know what to expect if

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Speaker 1: he's in the line. And JJ. By by starter, I

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Speaker 1: mean sub package, third third, consistent, third corner contributor, But

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Speaker 1: I mean you're you're in sub packages eighty percent of

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Speaker 1: the time. You know, you look at what EJ speed

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Speaker 1: snapcount one was, and when EJ was on the field,

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Speaker 1: Brandon came off, and you know Facon's going to be

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Speaker 1: on the field a whole lot more. I think you

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Speaker 1: know if you if you view Brandon Facon, you know

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Speaker 1: we talk about like bridge quarterbacks, like you sign a

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Speaker 1: guy for a year because you just kind of need

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Speaker 1: to you need to advance it. You need a guy

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Speaker 1: who's you can rely on to just not blow an assignment,

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Speaker 1: which Brandon Facon did not blow assignments. You can view

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Speaker 1: him sort of that way of like, all right, Isaiah

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Speaker 1: Rodgers Senior started to come on during the year and

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Speaker 1: he started to take some of that snapshot or away

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Speaker 1: from Brandon Facon as sort of a bridge between the

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Speaker 1: previous defense and now the current defense. You get facing

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Speaker 1: in there for a year, maybe he comes back for

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Speaker 1: year two as more of the depth piece. I think

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Speaker 1: that's probably a fine role for him. Solid player, true,

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Speaker 1: you know, definitely a pro out there, you know, good

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Speaker 1: guy to have around in the locker room. But also

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Speaker 1: if the Colts say, all right, you know, we feel

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Speaker 1: like we can you know, go forward with Isaiah or

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Speaker 1: maybe we can make an upgrade there at cornerback, I

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Speaker 1: wouldn't be shocked at that either. Yeah, all right, good

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Speaker 1: stuff right there. Let's shift over talk about the safety

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Speaker 1: position for the Colts. Rodney McLeod and like Facing last year,

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Speaker 1: McLeod also signed a one year deal with the Colts.

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Speaker 1: I think that was in mid April of last offseason.

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Speaker 1: Was in camp, was in a preseason battle if you

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Speaker 1: remember with Nick Cross. It was actually probably the most

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Speaker 1: heated or down down to the wire camp battle. If

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Speaker 1: you will between Cross and McLeod actually would end up Cross,

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Speaker 1: that is, would end up playing and starting the first

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Speaker 1: couple of games of the season, and then it was

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Speaker 1: McLeod taken over in Week three against the Chiefs, and

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Speaker 1: then he didn't look back. He was in the starting

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Speaker 1: lineup the entire rest of the way. Played in seventeen

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Speaker 1: games in his eleventh season, racked up career high ninety

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Speaker 1: six tackles, career high eight tackles for loss, career high

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Speaker 1: eight passes the fenced. He had two picks, first career

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Speaker 1: house call against the Texans in Week eighteen, had one

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Speaker 1: fumble recovery on the season. Casey, how under the radar

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Speaker 1: underrated season did Rodney McLoud have last year for the Colts.

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Speaker 1: I mean, pretty much a career year in all those categories.

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Speaker 1: It's very very underrated. I mean he did so much

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Speaker 1: on the field and in the locker room. I mean,

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Speaker 1: Rodney McLeod, I mean, when you talk about a professional,

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Speaker 1: he is literally the definition of what you're going to find.

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Speaker 1: I mean, this is a guy who coming into last year,

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Speaker 1: as we talked about with the Nick Cross battle, he

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Speaker 1: was a guy who essentially was a starter throughout the

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Speaker 1: last handful of years in the NFL, So the first time,

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Speaker 1: you know, really being a backup role in a handful

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Speaker 1: of years. He took it in stride and just do

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Speaker 1: everything he could to get on the field. And then

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Speaker 1: when he got on the field, he did not leave it.

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Speaker 1: As you mentioned, I mean he was a I mean

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Speaker 1: you just knew what to expect with Roddy McCloud back there.

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Speaker 1: He made everybody in that secondary it just you could

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Speaker 1: breathe a little bit. I feel like that was one

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Speaker 1: of the things that you saw. Julian Blackman looked very comfortable.

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Speaker 1: And then when Rodney Thomas was inserted, he was able

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Speaker 1: to kind of help him along, to help him along.

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Speaker 1: I mean he made that rookie curve you know, pretty

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Speaker 1: quick is able to get him into speed. So Rodney

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Speaker 1: mcclouds he was very, very important and very underrated to

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Speaker 1: this defense for sure. Yeah, I mean the season he had,

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Speaker 1: it's it's underrated and that I think the only people

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Speaker 1: around the league outside of Indianapolis who might have noticed

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Speaker 1: it are like the real intense film watchers who might

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Speaker 1: have been watching the way the Colts defended the run

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Speaker 1: against the Eagles in Week eleven and go man, Roddy

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Speaker 1: McCloud's really good. And then you start looking at it

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Speaker 1: and you see the way that you know he played,

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Speaker 1: especially against the run. I mean that was to me,

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Speaker 1: that was so impressive because in this Gus Bradley defense,

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Speaker 1: as a strong safety, you're kind of walked up a

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Speaker 1: lot and you are you are gonna have to thumpet

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Speaker 1: in the run game. And Rodney mcleoud did that. He

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Speaker 1: was so good defending the run, especially against some of

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Speaker 1: these teams like the Eagles, like the Titans, who are

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Speaker 1: going to be run oriented when the Colts played them,

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Speaker 1: that to me just so much respect for him. And

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Speaker 1: then Casey just to kind of piggyback off what you

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Speaker 1: said about the locker room in a season where things

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Speaker 1: were not going well, Yeah, to have a guy like

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Speaker 1: Rodney McLeod and Stefind Gilmore in that dB room, guys

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Speaker 1: who didn't let the results on Sundays impact their preparation,

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Speaker 1: their professionalism. I think if you're a guy like Rodney Thomas,

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Speaker 1: a guy like Isaiah Rodgers Julian Blackman, to see that

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Speaker 1: and to see how professional those two guys are, two

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Speaker 1: Super Bowl winners, I think that has a tremendous impact

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Speaker 1: on those guys going forward. Whether or not Rodney McLeod

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Speaker 1: is back in two twenty three, I go back to

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Speaker 1: even before that with training camp. I mean again, Nick

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Speaker 1: Cross is getting all the run or most of the

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Speaker 1: run with the first team defense. Nick Cross isn't even

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Speaker 1: twenty one years old at the time. Meanwhile, Rodney McLeod

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Speaker 1: has played in a Super Bowls. He literally went to

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Speaker 1: Rodney McLeod's football camp. That Cross was like a junior.

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Speaker 1: He was in like junior high. He went to Rodney

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Speaker 1: mcloud's football camp. Yeah, if it was me, I'd be like,

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Speaker 1: get this guy out of here right. Been in the

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Speaker 1: NFL for ten years. He hasn't even played in a

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Speaker 1: preseason game. I played in a Super Bowl. But you

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Speaker 1: didn't hear that. There was no squawking. Again, that just

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Speaker 1: speaks to his professionalism and the way that he carries

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Speaker 1: his business and he lets his play on the field

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Speaker 1: do the talking. And that's why he you know, in

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Speaker 1: short order by week three got into the starting lineup

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Speaker 1: and there was no reason to take him out. But

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Speaker 1: Casey to take things a little bit of a step forward.

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Speaker 1: It will be year number twelve for Rodney McLeod, and

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Speaker 1: that's that's a great season that he just had in

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty two. As he hits free agency here again

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Speaker 1: for the second consecutive offseason, tell me about how much

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Speaker 1: left he's got in the tank? Can he duplicate that

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Speaker 1: next year? I mean, age is undefeated. I mean, that

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Speaker 1: is the father time is all he's going to win.

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Speaker 1: But I mean you look at the year he had.

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Speaker 1: I mean you mentioned career highs and a handful of

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Speaker 1: statistical categories, which tells me that he's still got He's

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Speaker 1: still got that left in the tank. I would not

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Speaker 1: be surprised to see him play a couple more years,

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Speaker 1: especially next year, at a pretty high level, just like

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Speaker 1: we saw here in twenty twenty two. I mean, it's

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Speaker 1: not like Roddy McLeod. You know, we're sitting here being like, yeah,

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Speaker 1: he's pretty good. We're talking about him setting career highs

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Speaker 1: in like five statistical categories. I think that tells you alone, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: he's still got some something left in the tank, and

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Speaker 1: he absolutely can continue to perform at a high level

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Speaker 1: going forward. And doing so not starting every game too,

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Speaker 1: I mean that's what I mean. He I mean, he

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Speaker 1: played a little bit in those first week fifteen games.

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Speaker 1: But I mean, yeah, I mean, this isn't a oh

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Speaker 1: there were seventeen games, so of course he's set corrects.

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Speaker 1: It's like he started fifteen. He didn't really play until

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Speaker 1: the second half of the Jacksonville game. Yeah, I mean

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Speaker 1: the season, I mean to I almost have one hundred

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Speaker 1: tackles from the safety position. That's not always what you want.

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Speaker 1: Just usually if you're safety's having about one hundred tackles,

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Speaker 1: you're probably not having that good of a season as

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Speaker 1: a team, right, um. But Ronnie mcleode did not miss

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Speaker 1: a lot of tackles. When he had opportunities to make tackles,

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Speaker 1: he made him and and that is a credit to him.

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Speaker 1: One final thing on Nick Cross. I mean, obviously just

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Speaker 1: because he was primarily a special teams player after you know,

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Speaker 1: in the middle of September last year, doesn't mean the

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Speaker 1: Colts are giving up on him. I mean, it's it's

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Speaker 1: quite the opposite, right. They mean, they moved up high

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Speaker 1: in the draft, traded up in the third round to

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Speaker 1: get him, so they believe very much in Nick Cross

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Speaker 1: and what his upside can be and what his future

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Speaker 1: here is probably in the in the starting lineup on defense.

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Speaker 1: So with that JJ I mean is if if McLeod

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Speaker 1: comes back in free agency, does that at all potentially

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Speaker 1: stunt the growth and the experience Nick Cross can get

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Speaker 1: as a guy that's going into year number two obviously

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Speaker 1: still on his rookie contract. But I think you wipe

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Speaker 1: this slight clean for for both of those guys, and

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Speaker 1: you probably put him in a competition again and and

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Speaker 1: see what they can do. Um. You know, Nick Cross,

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Speaker 1: I think we kind of forgot about him almost just

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Speaker 1: because the other rookies did make such an impact. Yeah

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Speaker 1: it was Rodney Thomas. Nick Cross had a good season

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Speaker 1: on special teams, Like he came in I remember talking

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Speaker 1: above a Ventrone about this last year and he said,

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Speaker 1: you know, Nick came in, he didn't really know the

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Speaker 1: techniques because he wasn't working on it, and he picked

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Speaker 1: him up really quick and he led the colts and

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Speaker 1: special teams tackles. So he's still a really talented player.

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Speaker 1: And you know, look, even if Rodney McLoud comes back,

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Speaker 1: I think you can see some more opportunities for Nick

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Speaker 1: Cross going forward in this defense. Maybe you get a

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Speaker 1: little creative with how you use him, how you use

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Speaker 1: your safeties. But by no means did Nick Cross. I mean,

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Speaker 1: the biggest reason why Nick Cross wasn't playing on defense

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Speaker 1: towards you know, the majority of the season was because

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Speaker 1: Rodney McLoud was playing so well. Yeah, that's I think

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Speaker 1: the biggest point here, Like, you couldn't take Rodney McCloud

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Speaker 1: off the field because he was playing so well. There

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Speaker 1: wasn't an opportunity for the Colts to be like, all right,

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Speaker 1: you know, we got a couple weeks of you know,

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Speaker 1: having a pro back there, getting things settled. It's just

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Speaker 1: that rust, right, that that trust and that experience for

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Speaker 1: ten years. I mean not that Nick Nick Cross couldn't

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Speaker 1: gain that, but you have that. You have that in

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Speaker 1: a year where you're trying to scratch and claw all

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Speaker 1: those division games right out of the gate, trying to

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Speaker 1: stay in the mix. To your point, there was no

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Speaker 1: reason to take Rodney McLeod off the field, both mentally

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Speaker 1: and physically last year because the trust of him being

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Speaker 1: a veteran was then bolstered by the trust of him

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Speaker 1: making plays. It wasn't just all right, yeah, we trust

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Speaker 1: this guy, but he's not really doing a whole lot.

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Speaker 1: We can go back to Cross, It was no, we

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Speaker 1: trust this guy and he's doing a lot, so there's

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Speaker 1: no opportunity to go back to Cross. It's one of

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Speaker 1: those things too that it might have surprised the staff

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Speaker 1: as well, because I kind of thought that Rodney McLeod

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Speaker 1: was kind of brought in to be you talk about

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Speaker 1: the bridge, kind of that Bridge touched the middle of

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Speaker 1: the season and say hey, we're gonna let you just

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Speaker 1: kind of pass over the reins. And he never hit

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Speaker 1: that wall, essentially like all right, you're at this age

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Speaker 1: at some point it's going to hit you. He just

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Speaker 1: never hit that wall. And the biggest thing about Nick Cross,

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Speaker 1: I mean you mentioned it earlier, Matt. I mean, this

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Speaker 1: guy wasn't even twenty one at the time of training camp,

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Speaker 1: so he has got a long future here still right

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Speaker 1: there in front of him. He's just trying to learn

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Speaker 1: the NFL game and sometimes it takes a little bit

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Speaker 1: to really get up to speed. Yeah. JJ, if I'm

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Speaker 1: not mistaken, he was the youngest player in the NFL

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Speaker 1: last year. Yeah, crossing the Cross correct. Yeah, Wow, that's amazing. Well,

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Speaker 1: we'll see what happens in free agency as it pertains

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Speaker 1: to Brandon Fason, Rodney mclown and so on and so forth. Fellas,

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Speaker 1: get off the tracks because the offseason trains coming here.

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Speaker 1: I'm here to tell you free agency is on its way.

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Speaker 1: We got to combine the rest of the week, so

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Speaker 1: looking forward to it. Fella's great breakdown for usual, and

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Speaker 1: we'll do it again soon with Unique and Gockway and

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Speaker 1: also some other in house free agents for the Indianapolis Colts.

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Speaker 1: Again for JJ Stangovitz, Casey Vallee. I'm Matt Taylor. This

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Speaker 1: is the Free Agent Tracker podcast series. We'll do it

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Speaker 1: again later this week, but until then, stay right here

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Speaker 1: on the Colts Audio Network. So long,