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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. Let's fired up again. Welcome back

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Speaker 1: to the Free Agent Tracker podcast series here on Colts

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Speaker 1: dot Com, the Colts Mobile app, and the Colts Audio Network.

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Speaker 1: This is our offseason look at some of the in

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Speaker 1: house free agents for the Indianapolis Colts. Leading up to

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Speaker 1: mid March. Colts have seventeen players that will become either

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Speaker 1: unrestricted or restricted free agents unless they're signed resigned by

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Speaker 1: the Colts. First. Earlier this week, we dove into the

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Speaker 1: offensive lineman profiles of free agents Matt Pryor and Dennis Kelly.

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Speaker 1: Both those guys obviously played a part in the Colts

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Speaker 1: offensive line last season. And then last week we talked

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Speaker 1: about wide receiver Ashton Dulan and linebacker Bobby o'cac So

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Speaker 1: if you missed those, check them out right now on

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Speaker 1: demand on the Colts Audio Network. But today we're talking

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Speaker 1: all things defensive line and Tae Kwon Lewis with Casey

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Speaker 1: Valier and Ring of Honor wide receiver Bill Brooks, Bill,

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Speaker 1: how are we doing today? Doing well? Yourself? I'm good,

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Speaker 1: kind of in a post super Bowl hangover. Excited that

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Speaker 1: the Colts have a new head coach. But what's the countdown?

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Speaker 1: Like thirty more Sundays without boy, I have no idea

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Speaker 1: if that's accurate. Completely put that in perspective. Doesn't put

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Speaker 1: in perspective though, because after the Super Bowl, I mean,

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Speaker 1: there's nothing going on except if you want to watch

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Speaker 1: some other college tube college tube swing. Yes, it is

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Speaker 1: those things good, keep your attention for a little while. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: are you? Are you an XFL guy back in the day?

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Speaker 1: I know that's coming backboard. But USFL? Did you have

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Speaker 1: time for football in the spring? Uh? I actually I

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Speaker 1: did when USFL started. I was actually at Boston University

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Speaker 1: and they had the Boston Breakers were practicing and played,

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Speaker 1: yeah at Boston University Nukerson Field. So I did watch

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Speaker 1: it then when I was in college. So I did

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Speaker 1: watch a little bit of USFL. Watch the Boston Breakers

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Speaker 1: and New Jersey Generals. Yeah, those teams before Trump ruined everything. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: the Garden, Small Potatoes, the Birmingham Stallions, all those teams

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Speaker 1: back then. So yeah, I did enjoy watching it. All right, Well,

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Speaker 1: let's get down to brass tacks here. Let's talk about

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Speaker 1: the free agent profile Taekwon Lewis, who wrapped up his

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Speaker 1: fifth year in the NFL. Hard to believe you're number

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Speaker 1: five for Taekwon. He signed a one year deal in

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Speaker 1: free agency last off season, so he's doing the whole

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Speaker 1: song and dance again here this spring. Only played in

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Speaker 1: seven games last season because his season was over in

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Speaker 1: Week eight, suffered another torn pateller injury against the Washington

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Speaker 1: Washington Commanders in the fourth quarter of that game. Had

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Speaker 1: the same injury in two twenty one on Halloween against

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Speaker 1: the Tennessee Titans. Last season two twenty two, posted a sack,

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Speaker 1: fourteen tackles, two tackles for loss, two passes defense before

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Speaker 1: that injury, and was a solid rotational component and peace

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Speaker 1: to the Colts defensive line and started four of the

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Speaker 1: seven games that he appeared in last season. So, Casey,

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Speaker 1: I'll start with you, what did you make of Taekwon

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Speaker 1: Lewis's last season twenty twenty two and the production that

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Speaker 1: he was giving the Colts before that devastating injury, not

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Speaker 1: in terms of physical but just you know, psychologically having

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Speaker 1: to go through that again for the second straight year.

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Speaker 1: I mean, that's the biggest thing I thought prior to

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Speaker 1: his injury in twenty twenty one, he was really starting

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Speaker 1: to come into his own. He kind of was. It's

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Speaker 1: almost like, I mean, he's had a handful of injuries,

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Speaker 1: so it took him a while to kind of just

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Speaker 1: get into a rhythm, and it seemed like he was

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Speaker 1: getting there, and he had that injury on a Halloween

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Speaker 1: and then last year it's almost like he almost picked

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Speaker 1: up kind of right where he left off. It took

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Speaker 1: him a little while to kind of get into the

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Speaker 1: flow again because he was limited during the offseason, so

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Speaker 1: getting back into football shape and all of that. But

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Speaker 1: I thought leading up to the injury here in twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty two, it was kind of like we were picking

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Speaker 1: up right where he left off before that injury. And

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Speaker 1: I mean, you talk about devastation, you talk about this injury.

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Speaker 1: It rarely happens in football. This is an injury you

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Speaker 1: don't see too often, and for him to have it

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Speaker 1: in back to back years, it is just brutal and devastation.

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Speaker 1: It is probably the best way to put it. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it is devastating, and there happened from one knee until

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Speaker 1: the other kneed. And it's just so sad a young

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Speaker 1: man because he works so hard last offseason to come

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Speaker 1: back from that injury, and then in previous years he

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Speaker 1: was injured also different times, different seasons back you know,

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Speaker 1: before last year. So very tough for the young man

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Speaker 1: to go through that again this year to have that injury.

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Speaker 1: Because before the injury, I thought, as you said, Casey,

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Speaker 1: I thought he was playing pretty well, doing a nice

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Speaker 1: job as a rotational player for the defensive line, giving

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Speaker 1: them them some good play, having a few starts getting

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Speaker 1: in there, getting some playing time, doing some things good

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Speaker 1: for the team that will help them, or as they

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Speaker 1: can rotate the guys through and have some fresh guys

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Speaker 1: out there, especially late in the in the game where

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Speaker 1: you can get some good pass rush from some guys

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Speaker 1: that are real fresh going off the quarterback. So it

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Speaker 1: was tough for the young man. Hopefully he bounces back

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Speaker 1: musically with those injuries. It's I'm not worried about the

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Speaker 1: physical part. It's more of a mental part dealing with it.

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Speaker 1: Dealing with those injuries. Yeah, and Tae Kwon Lewis, if

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Speaker 1: you know him, if you're around his personality, if you know,

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Speaker 1: his presence at all and the head that he has

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Speaker 1: on his shoulders. There's nobody that can handle this adversity

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Speaker 1: better than Taekwon Lewis because of his level of optimism,

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Speaker 1: the way that he carries himself, the way that he

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Speaker 1: sort of sees things in the bigger picture for himself.

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Speaker 1: It's just such a shame that this happens once again

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Speaker 1: in a contract year for him, which is obviously going

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Speaker 1: to impact his NFL future with the Colts or somewhere

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Speaker 1: else in the NFL. Since we're talking about the injury bill,

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Speaker 1: what is your level of optimism that he can come

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Speaker 1: back fully healthy and be the player that we saw

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Speaker 1: in Halloween twenty twenty one or November of twenty twenty

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Speaker 1: two when he's when he's out there, he's making plays.

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Speaker 1: What's your level of optimism that from a health standpoint,

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Speaker 1: he can come back and be Taekwon Lewis of old. Well,

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Speaker 1: why I'm the one thing that encourages me about him

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Speaker 1: coming back is he's been through it before, so he

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Speaker 1: has an understanding of what it takes to get back

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Speaker 1: the benchmarks that he needs to be at exactly, so

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Speaker 1: he knows when he needs to be at a certain area.

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Speaker 1: He knows what he needs to do with the trainers,

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Speaker 1: with his rehab and his personality as you mentioned, you know, upbeat,

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Speaker 1: always upbeat, standing positive, because as I mentioned earlier, to me,

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Speaker 1: it's not so much the physical part of it, it's

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Speaker 1: the mental part of it. Because I never went through

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Speaker 1: an injury like that or anything close to it. But

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Speaker 1: from what I've talked to other individuals that have gone

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Speaker 1: through different types of injuries, is the mental part of it.

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Speaker 1: You rehab and you think you should be making progress,

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Speaker 1: but you actually don't make any progress. You actually kind

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Speaker 1: of regress a little bit, and it becomes mentally frustrating

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Speaker 1: where you think it should be ahead of your schedule,

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Speaker 1: what you thought you should be, and that makes it

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Speaker 1: very difficult for you to continue to go on. And

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Speaker 1: I think with his attitude, with his positive attitude, I

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Speaker 1: think he can overcome that and not worry about that

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Speaker 1: as far as getting depressed that he's not moving as

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Speaker 1: fast as he wants to move. So UM, I think

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Speaker 1: he'll be fine. I think he can get through it.

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Speaker 1: Like I said, he'd been through it before. I think

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Speaker 1: he'll be fine to be ready to go. Um, it's

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Speaker 1: just a matter of you know, if where he's going

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Speaker 1: to be next year. I know we're not doctors, and

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Speaker 1: we didn't sleep in a holiday and last night, but

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Speaker 1: what are the odds? I would love to know the

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Speaker 1: you know, statistical probability, if that's the right phrase, for

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Speaker 1: this injury to happen, but then to happen to the

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Speaker 1: same player in consecutive seasons. It's nuts wild and and

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Speaker 1: you know differently and almost to be honest with you,

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Speaker 1: almost the same time at the same time, you know,

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Speaker 1: I don't understand it. And uh, like I said, I

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Speaker 1: wouldn't know the probability that would happen or it wouldn't

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Speaker 1: or it shouldn't happen, right, no question about it. One

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Speaker 1: of the things I want to touch on it is,

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Speaker 1: briefly what Matt said, if you if you know Tae

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Speaker 1: Kwon lewis I mean, and Billy you are alluding to

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Speaker 1: it too. I mean, the way that this guy's mental

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Speaker 1: makeup is is bizarre. Remember last year, you know, after

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Speaker 1: he was coming out of rehab, were he I was

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Speaker 1: having a hard harder time dealing with the interviewing him

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Speaker 1: than right, Yeah, I remember he was sitting in here

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Speaker 1: after he resigned and him talking about it, he got hurt,

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Speaker 1: and he said the first thing he did is he

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Speaker 1: smiled and said, Okay, let's get over there. Like if me,

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Speaker 1: I'm thinking, I mean, it would be doomsday. It'd be like,

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Speaker 1: this is the worst thing. How could this happen to me?

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Speaker 1: Woe is me? And you listen to this guy and

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Speaker 1: you're like, wow, I mean he's just a completely different breed.

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Speaker 1: So that's one of the things that for me, I

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Speaker 1: look at it's a terrible injury, it's it's awful on

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Speaker 1: a whole bunch of levels, it's a contract year, all

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Speaker 1: of that, But you think about the person going through

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Speaker 1: this rehab, and that's what I am. I hate to

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Speaker 1: say this, I'm glad that it's Tae Kwon because he

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Speaker 1: is the kind of guy that his mental makeup and

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Speaker 1: the way he is just attacks life every day. He

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Speaker 1: is gonna get through this and he's gonna be out

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Speaker 1: on the other end kind of going, well, you know,

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Speaker 1: those two injuries led me to get here, and that

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Speaker 1: is one thing that I really hope that it's still

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Speaker 1: a part of this organization to watch that because Tae

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Speaker 1: Kwon is just a great success story. He's just gonna

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Speaker 1: making something positive for him. You know, he's gonna use

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Speaker 1: it as a stepping stone for himself. And that's a

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Speaker 1: great attitude to have. I mean, for a young man

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Speaker 1: to have that type of attitude, that's the type of

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Speaker 1: player you want on your team. Someone that's gonna look

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Speaker 1: at things positively. Hey, we'll get through this. I don't

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Speaker 1: know how, but we're gonna get to the other side

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Speaker 1: and it's gonna work out. Yeah, no question about that.

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Speaker 1: He's a unique, special type of player for sure. Let's

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Speaker 1: go back to the film though, when he was out there, Bill,

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Speaker 1: He's got the position flexibility. He's a rare type of

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Speaker 1: player because in certain situations and packages you want him

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Speaker 1: out there playing defensive end based on the opposing tackle.

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Speaker 1: Same thing. He can kick in and play inside. He

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Speaker 1: can play the three technique position. Where did he mostly

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Speaker 1: play in the Gus Bradley defense? And where do you

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Speaker 1: think his best fit is going forward as a player

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Speaker 1: in terms of having his fit within this scheme. You know,

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Speaker 1: when I looked at some of the film from last year,

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Speaker 1: you know, he played both inside and outside, and some

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Speaker 1: of the things I saw that he did, you know,

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Speaker 1: he took on some double teams a couple of times

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Speaker 1: being inside those big guys, and you know, one time

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Speaker 1: he was outside, he looped up back inside and helped

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Speaker 1: the end get up there and get some get some

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Speaker 1: pressure on the quarterback. So I look at him personally,

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Speaker 1: I like for him to play outside. I think because

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Speaker 1: of his size. I know he's he's around two seventy

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Speaker 1: two seventy five ish round there growing up against those

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Speaker 1: guys in the middle of the big guys, probably close

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Speaker 1: to three hundred pounds and take on the double teams

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Speaker 1: after a while. I think that can were on a

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Speaker 1: young man like that, especially coming off of two injuries

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Speaker 1: like that with his legs, his knees. I would like

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Speaker 1: to see him outside. That's me personally, get some pressure

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Speaker 1: from the outside on the quarterbacks getting up the field,

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Speaker 1: have a little bit more one on one battles against

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Speaker 1: the tackles, and also holding that edge there to keep

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Speaker 1: everyone everything inside. So I would like to see him

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Speaker 1: at out there on the end against those tackles. So

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Speaker 1: but in saying that he can do both, you know,

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Speaker 1: it's not like he has to be outside. Whatever. He

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Speaker 1: can do both, and I think that helps a defense

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Speaker 1: knowing that, hey, I can put this guy in inside

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Speaker 1: and not miss a beat. He can play the three technique,

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Speaker 1: or he can play outside and put some pressure on

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Speaker 1: the quarterback from outside and also hold the edge against

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Speaker 1: some runs. Yeah, you look at it too, and we

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Speaker 1: tend to do this on these podcast series. You know,

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Speaker 1: the devil's advocate angle of this, and that's I guess

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Speaker 1: what I'm good at. But if you look at just

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Speaker 1: you know, the whole, you know, transparent story on these players,

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Speaker 1: there's the concerns, there's the positive and if you look

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Speaker 1: at his career so far, he hasn't played a full

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Speaker 1: season more than just once, only one time as he

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Speaker 1: played a full season, And it's not on the player.

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Speaker 1: I mean, it's bad luck. I mean, we just sit

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Speaker 1: here and chronicled the statistical odds of Taekwon going through

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Speaker 1: what he's going through right now. But the fact remains

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Speaker 1: casey that he has been injured. He spent some decent

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Speaker 1: time in the training room trying to rehab a myriad

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Speaker 1: of different things. Is that a concern to possibly resigning

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Speaker 1: a player who's been often injured since being drafted at

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Speaker 1: of Ohio State in twenty eighteen, I mean, clearly, I

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Speaker 1: think It's one of those things that it's the elephant

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Speaker 1: in the room. You would be wrong to look at

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Speaker 1: it and say, oh, we can't look at the injury

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Speaker 1: history because it's just bad luck. Because it is part

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Speaker 1: of the resume, It is part of the tape that

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Speaker 1: he's out there where there's a handful of stuff where

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Speaker 1: he's not out there, and that is a concern and

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Speaker 1: that as we've talked about, you know, you play Devil's advocate.

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Speaker 1: We all love Taekwon Lewis, but it is one of

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Speaker 1: those things that does kind of hurt when it looks

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Speaker 1: at you know where you're going to, you know, put

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Speaker 1: him on your hierarchy of of you know, how important

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Speaker 1: he is to bring back or how much you can

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Speaker 1: even count on a player when that injury history is there.

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Speaker 1: It's one of those things we talked about the first

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Speaker 1: three years of Paris Campbell's career. I mean it was

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Speaker 1: you can't count on him, not because of the play

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Speaker 1: on the field, it's just because of everything else. And

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Speaker 1: this year you saw the Cults were able to count

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Speaker 1: on Paris to be able to It's very similar with

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Speaker 1: Tai Kwon. When he's out there, you're very comfortable with

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Speaker 1: what you're getting production wise, it's just how long can

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Speaker 1: he be out there? And that is the biggest question.

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Speaker 1: That is what's going to be when you know whether

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Speaker 1: it's here, whether it's somewhere else. That question is going

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Speaker 1: to continue to be asked until you can kind of

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Speaker 1: answer that bell with a clean bill of health. So

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Speaker 1: that is going to be the biggest thing when you

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Speaker 1: look at his free agency candidacy is where that health

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Speaker 1: kind of is on that hierarchy of of what's important.

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Speaker 1: What was that a pun towards bill his clean bill

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Speaker 1: of he It wasn't, but that I'll take it. Sure,

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Speaker 1: I'm sure I've missed some games. But anyway, but back

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Speaker 1: to Tai kwon um. But when you're talking about the

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Speaker 1: defense and you want the effect that it's of your defense,

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Speaker 1: especially the defensive line, you look at the rotation, you know,

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Speaker 1: having a rotation, and the bottom line with rotations is

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Speaker 1: having people available, right, You have to have people available

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Speaker 1: so you can have a good functional rotation of the

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Speaker 1: defensive line putting pressure on the quarterback, giving your guy

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Speaker 1: some rest so you can have guys fresh in the

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Speaker 1: fourth quarter to get after the quarterback. And that is

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Speaker 1: a question as Casey mentioned, you know, is he gonna

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Speaker 1: be healthy enough to play? Is he gonna be healthy

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Speaker 1: enough to get through a whole season? And when he's

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Speaker 1: tould come back, is it exactly You know last year

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Speaker 1: he came back and he was fine for the for

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Speaker 1: most of the season. But we don't know how he's

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Speaker 1: going to respond this time to the injury, So we

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Speaker 1: don't exactly know what's going to happen during the off season.

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Speaker 1: Tore his training and things of that nature. So you know,

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Speaker 1: it is a question. So I think who the decision

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Speaker 1: that's gonna be made, It has to take an account

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Speaker 1: his injury history and his available building possible availability for

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Speaker 1: the off season and for the season. Final thing doubling

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Speaker 1: back on position flexibility because another guy who has it

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Speaker 1: within that defensive line is Dio a Dangbo, and we

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Speaker 1: saw once Tae Kwon's injury occurred, Dio's involvement in his participation.

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Speaker 1: His playing time went way up. In fact, it was skyrocketing,

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Speaker 1: and Dio looked like a guy Casey towards the end

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Speaker 1: of the season that was really starting to come into

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Speaker 1: his He had a helpless sacks towards the end of

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Speaker 1: the season. He had that two SAC game against I

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Speaker 1: think it was the Minnesota Vikings late in the season.

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Speaker 1: So how much of a Dangbo's development because he's going

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Speaker 1: into year number three, he's still under contract and I think,

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Speaker 1: for lack of a better term than light bulb for

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Speaker 1: him is starting to go off and you feel really

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Speaker 1: comfortable while about what he's going to give you next

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Speaker 1: year and sort of breaking out. So how much of

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Speaker 1: Dangbo's development is going to impact how the Colts feel

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Speaker 1: about Tae Kwon Lewis in free agency coming off that injury.

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Speaker 1: I think that is a big part of it too,

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Speaker 1: because yeah, you want to have depth, You want to

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Speaker 1: have a lot of guys you can rotate in and out,

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Speaker 1: but you also want to have that core group and

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Speaker 1: I think Dio showed there late in the season after

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Speaker 1: we talk about the Taekwon Lewis injury, he really kind

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Speaker 1: of blossomed. And it was one of those things where

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Speaker 1: his rookie year was tough to judge because of coming

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Speaker 1: off the achilles in college, you know pretty it's really

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Speaker 1: fast for him to get onto the field and learn everything.

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Speaker 1: So his rookie year was kind of a wash and

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Speaker 1: it almost like, look almost played out to be. That

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Speaker 1: first part of his second year was kind of that

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Speaker 1: learning curve into the NFL, and he kind of had

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Speaker 1: the light bab as Matt said, kind of click on.

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Speaker 1: So he is one of those guys that you look

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Speaker 1: at you're hoping you can grow from where that second

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Speaker 1: half of last year can be where he is a one,

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Speaker 1: I mean, one of those guys you really rely heavily on.

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Speaker 1: You need depth, but you also want to have that

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Speaker 1: group where it's like, it doesn't matter what time of

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Speaker 1: the game, We've got to have those guys on the field,

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Speaker 1: and I think Tae Kwon early in the year was

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Speaker 1: one of those guys. But I think as you talked

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Speaker 1: about there, Matt, with Dio's kind of emergence, that is

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Speaker 1: one of the things that might hamper, you know, the

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Speaker 1: ability to bring back Tae Kwon here or so see

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Speaker 1: what that role is going to be. We talk about depth,

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Speaker 1: especially in the trenches, on the line, on both sides

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Speaker 1: of the line, you want to have a lot of

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Speaker 1: guys who you can play because injuries are just a

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Speaker 1: part of the game. But I think it's also one

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Speaker 1: of the things you look in and you don't want

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Speaker 1: to have too many guys to do the exact same thing.

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Speaker 1: And that's where Taekwon and Dio are. They're both very

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Speaker 1: similar in the way they play. And Dios Matt menshold,

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Speaker 1: he's under contract and he is kind of block something,

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Speaker 1: so that is gonna be an interesting factor. Yeah, and

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Speaker 1: you look at dio stats from last year. He played

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Speaker 1: seventeen games, five sacks, five tackles for losses, eleven QB

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Speaker 1: hits and thirty one tackles, And a lot of that

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Speaker 1: came once Tai Kwan went down with an injury, and

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Speaker 1: you start playing, getting more playing time, you start you

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Speaker 1: saw him start to grow as an individuals, as the

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Speaker 1: player on that defensive line as far as Dial is concerned,

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Speaker 1: and I think the more playing time he gets, the

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Speaker 1: better he's gonna feel, the better he's gonna be, and

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Speaker 1: then better he'll have a feel for going out there

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Speaker 1: playing on a regular basis. So I think as you

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Speaker 1: the questions you ask Matt in regards to how this's

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Speaker 1: gonna affect Taikwan, I think it's gonna affect Taikwon quite

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Speaker 1: a bit because I think Dial is growing, he's getting better,

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Speaker 1: and he you know, if he can stay healthy, he's

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Speaker 1: one of those guys that, as Casey mentioned, he's gonna

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Speaker 1: be consistently out there playing and giving some production for

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Speaker 1: the defense, and it's gonna have an effect on Taikwan

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Speaker 1: where you bring them back or not. And of course

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Speaker 1: we'll see what happens with Taikwon as far as his

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Speaker 1: rehab goes through this off season. Yer to Yang and

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Speaker 1: Yang to all of this. Yeah, we always hear next

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Speaker 1: man up. But you know, you just you have two

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Speaker 1: different conflicting ideas about this because Taekwon Lewis you feel

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Speaker 1: bad for him as a player, but at the same time,

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Speaker 1: it opened up the door for dio a Dangbo to

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Speaker 1: really come on. And you love that because the Colts,

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Speaker 1: as we know Chris Ballard has talked openly that they

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Speaker 1: were flirting with dioa Dangbo picking him in the first round,

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Speaker 1: had not been for his injury at the draft process

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Speaker 1: of what was that twenty twenty two, twenty one again

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Speaker 1: COVID's got me all screwed up. But you know he

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Speaker 1: was he was that good of a talent potential wise,

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Speaker 1: the Colts were thinking about picking him up at a

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Speaker 1: Vanderbilt in the first round. But yeah, that was the

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Speaker 1: Quiddy pay Year. They picked him up and then went

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Speaker 1: back to back edge rushers in the first and second round.

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Speaker 1: That's a breakdown of Tai Kwan Lewis on this installment

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Speaker 1: of the Free Agent Tracker Podcast with Bill Brooks and

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Speaker 1: his clean Bill of healthy says he's looking over there,

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Speaker 1: spry So I appreciate you guys. Fantastic job as always.

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Speaker 1: Then we'll do it again next week. All right, all right,

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Speaker 1: next week, by the way, we're breaking down and discussing

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Speaker 1: defensive end Ben Banigu and also wide receiver Paris Campbell.

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Speaker 1: And again earlier this week we talked about Matt Pryor

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Speaker 1: and Dennis Kelly on the offensive line Free Agent Tracker Podcast.

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Speaker 1: Last week we dove into Ashton Dulan and Bobbie o'cake.

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Speaker 1: All of those podcasts are available now on demand on

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Speaker 1: the Colts Audio Network. Again for Bill Brooks, Casey Valley,

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Speaker 1: I'm Matt Taylor. Thanks for listening to the Free Agency

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Speaker 1: Tracker Podcast. We'll talk to you next week. So on