The official home for audio programming from Stampede Blue, SB Nation's community for fans of the Indianapolis Colts.
The running backs and tight ends for the Indianapolis Colts couldn’t be looked at more differently heading into the 2018 NFL season. The backfield looks to be almost completely composed of pieces with very little NFL experience while the tight ends have some established leadership from multiple veteran presences at the position, and have a nice mix of skill sets as well. Many are excited about both positions, recognizing that if the potential can be realized from both units, the offense could be quite a show this year. Jack Doyle and Eric Ebron will hold the most prominent roles among the tight ends, but Erik Swoope and Darrell Daniels have had some experience and adding Ross Travis to the mix makes for a very interesting training camp to see how the skill sets will mesh together. Nyheim Hines and Jordan Wilkins are adding a lot of intrigue to the Colts backfield which is currently believed to be led by second-year firecracker Marlon Mack. We don’t know yet about the future of Robert Turbin, but Christine Michael and Josh Ferguson will be in the mix this year as well. Any fan has to love the big-play ability with this group, but there are many aspects of the position that will require some real improvement in order for this year’s compilation to succeed.
The Indianapolis Colts are set to kick off the 2018 training camp today. But, before they do, they created a ton of news surrounding the team. The Colts placed 3 offensive linemen on the active/NFI list, signed some depth at a key position, gave us some interesting news about the franchise quarterback and much more. Many questions surround this roster and with an offensive line with some improved depth, is this a good or bad thing for the unit to begin with so many sitting out early on in camp? What does Andrew Luck being back and unhinged mean for the Colts right off the jump? Can this secondary be a significant upgrade over a year ago? Are the Colts on track to sign the best available free agent cornerback? We look into all of that and more on today's show.
Our position by position break down of the Indianapolis Colts roster has come to its finale. Today we look at the receiver position that has some top-end talent, but isn't getting much love after you get past T.Y. Hilton. But, as you can imagine, I disagree with that notion. This receiver corps has the length, speed, physicality and youth that makes their collective star shine at this point in the process. Chester Rogers isn't being seen as a legit No. 2 or 3, until he comes through with an entire season in that role. Ryan Grant isn't seen as a shiny new toy, but may be the consistency and fundamental piece that can act as the glue to hold the unit together. Guys like Krishawn Hogan, Kasen Williams, K.J. Brent, Deon Cain and Daurice Fountain will be so fun to watch within the throes of training camp to see who can be that possession/speed/route-running addition to get this unit some notariety throughout the season. This group is being slept on, and I go in to why as we wrap up the positional previews for the 2018 Indianapolis Colt
Today we have the interviews from Day 2 of Colts training camp. We get coach Frank Reich first getting in on how Andrew Luck has bounced back from his first days of practice. What he expects from him going forward. We also get Chester Rogers at the mic talking about how his role has changed from a year ago, what his approach is to this season for him and what the receiver unit needs to do to become a group that is on everyone's radar heading into the 2018 season. Last, and certainly not least, we get to hear from Deon Cain. Cain has been the lightning rod thus far in training camp. Mind you, that some guy named Andrew Luck has just returned from being out for a year, and Cain is the headline. Cain isn't just doing these great, flashy catches either. There's a much more inclusive reason for the excitement that follows him right now.
We had some interesting interviews on Day 4 of Indianapolis Colts training camp, and we are again going to give that to you uncut. We spoke with coach Frank Reich again, Andrew Luck made his way to the podium and gave some good updates on his process and his road back to where he is at this point. We also spoke to defensive end John Simon, trying to gauge where he is within the transition to a 4-man front, and some input on how he sees this rookie bunch at the position. Matt Slauson also joins us, and in the process we hear from him what we've been hearing from others along the Colts front line of protection. Slauson stresses a feature that most Colts fans should be quite excited about. We haven't seen an O-line eith this much depth in several year, and the rotation between players and positions is one to keep a close eye on as camp moves forward and the preseason kicks off.
The Indianapolis Colts have finally got a week of practice in the books for the 2018 season. We knew that this season was going to be an interesting one with all of the youth, a new head coach, coordinators and position coaches and the return of Andrew Luck. Thus far there's been quite a bit to take in. We're seeing a very interesting backfield develop, the play on interior of the offensive line has been quite a pleasant discovery, Luck has been very accurate lately and is pleased with how his body is responding, the tight end group is a fun watch and the coaching has been a nice surprise as well. However, we've also noticed that the back end of the receiver position, as well as the receivers, is very touch and go. The tackles have been forced to have Jack Mewhort, Braden Smith and others in the rotation while Le' Raven Clark and Denzelle Good are the only bits of familiarity. This has taken snaps away from those guys at other positions while Anthony Castonzo and Austin Howard remain on the active/NFI list. The safeties are thin right now, and the linebackers are a fun bunch to watch with all of their youth, but actually have become a group of quick learners. Today our friend George Bremer joins me to dig in to everything that we've seen thus far. We go in a bit deeper on the positional aspect of camp, talk about some surprises that we've noticed, and how important this coaching staff is to the development and creation of the culture Chris Ballard is hoping to install in Indianapolis. The Colts go inside today for practice at 9am ET, and player availability will follow shortly after. We'll also be putting up the Day 5 audio a bit later in the day for you to catch up on.
The Indianapolis Colts moved practice indoors for their first time of the training camp season. Today we'll talk about some of my observations from Day 5 and play you the audio from player-coach media availability. Andrew Luck has been drawing a lot of attention in the first week of practices,and rightly so. He's been excellent to this point with everything considered. He's got the arm strength that we've seen in the past, he's as accurate, he looks comfortable in the pocket and seems to be as sharp as ever at reading defenses. Frank Reich talks about Luck's Day 5 performance in which he increased his workload yet again. As I spoke about in my camp notes for the day, the cornerback and receiver positions are in desperate need of someone stepping up. The Colts have a pretty solid top-4 at each, but the competition after that gets pretty dicey. Reich responded about each unit saying that they needed to be playmakers. I give some of my thoughts on Tyquan lewis and Kemoko Turay and how they're likely to be used, how Anthony Castonzo and Clayton Geathers alone bring quite a bit more normalcy with their return (expected to be soon) and why this coaching staff will be worth a game or two just among the position coaches and coordinators. Additionally, I put up the audio from Day 5, taking you in to player-coach availability to listen to the interviews for yourself. Colts running backs Marlon Mack and Nyheim Hines talk, followed by head coach Frank Reich. Enjoy
Today we’re going to take a look inside the Indianapolis Colts training camp thus far through 9 practices. We’ll dig in to the standouts and disappointments from both sides of the ball up to this point, who resides on the bubble and who is either on the 53 right now — by my estimation — or who is off the roster. We’ll take a look at the Colts initial depth chart and discuss who deserves their vote of confidence and who may be getting a message sent to them from the coaching staff. Some names that you may not have heard quite yet are Steve Ishmael, K.J. Brent, Zach Pascal, Robert Jackson. Here you're going to find out why you'll want to begin to pay attention to them. Some other names you've definitely heard before are Ryan Grant, Kenny Moore, Christine Michael, Tarell Basham, Quincy Wilson, Brad Kaaya and Jabaal Sheard. We're going to talk about them too, and it won't be for the same reasons. We also go through the Colts latest news (from the past several days) and discuss how two situations in particular are putting one position in limbo for the next few weeks and maybe longer. We also talk about the significance of Malik Hooker and Clayton Geathers coming back, and what their road to a full practice and then a game will look like.
Before training camp I had some opinions on what I might see through practices as camp progressed. In the practices I've attended, I have come away with some confirmations of those expectations, but there have also been some surprises and concerns arise as well. This scheme is a completely different animal, at least defensively, and the offense has a new structure as well as playcaller with Frank Reich. Trying to look at the positions which have immediate roles for rookies and other young players, is interesting because we don't have a lot to compare them to. Some of these rookies have stepped up immediately, some are still in the thick of a process to getting into a rotation and others are largely camp bodies at this point. Even more importantly, how are the few legitimate veteran guys on this roster going to affect the rest of the team and its success or failure? Which positions, players should we worry about when it comes to an all-inclusive look at the potential of the roster itself? Who has us excited, and where do we see real improvements on the horizon? We'll likely have different opinions of most of these examples I lay out today, but that's the beauty of the preseason performances following training camp. Who's learning? Who's a ways behind the rest? And who can we count on to make an immediate impact on this team? Today I look at several positions and players as the official start to the Colts preseason awaits us.
Finally the Indianapolis Colts have officially kicked off the preseason last night in Seattle. And just as we will during the regular season, we’re going to go through what we saw on the field from the 2018 roster. We talk early takeaways from Andrew Luck and how he looked in his first action in forever, how the offensive line protected him, how Luck looked getting his first hit of the season, the running game and more from the offense. Additionally, many are already down on the Colts defense due to the first bit of a sample that we have from them. But, I’m here to tell you to calm down about it. Why it’s not that bad, how this defense was approaching the game, but also what could keep this defense from growing if it’s not any better come the regular season. We saw some very good play out of some of these defenders. John Simon proved once again that he belongs, Jabaal Sheard was very solid, Najee Goode has more speed than I presumed and some of the young guys — such as Nate Hairston — played well too. Some of the largest problems with the defense might just be that this preseason version of the scheme was very, very vanilla out of the gate. However, I think it might be time to consider the cornerbacks need to be significantly better at closing windows in those zones much more effectively. Who were the best of the Colts’ backfield, which receivers showed up, who was possibly showing a little stage fright and who was completely uncharacteristic of what we have seen to this point in training camp. I touch on all of my initial thoughts on the Colts 19-17 preseason win against the Seattle Seahawks. For now, enjoy the offensive design and the calm approach of Frank Reich. Be optimistic about the defense’s energy and understand that refinement will come. Just hope that it comes sooner rather than later.
