Colts Thread

davyjose

Colts sign Veteran DT Aubrayo Franklin to play NT. Never heard of him, but he's clearly a roster guy for depth. No way is he a starter. If anything, this is probably an indication that Indy are going to stick with Chapman, and therefore he must be making some kind of progress.

At least I fcuking hope it is :pac:

Phoenix Park

davyjose wrote: »

Colts sign Veteran DT Aubrayo Franklin to play NT. Never heard of him, but he's clearly a roster guy for depth. No way is he a starter. If anything, this is probably an indication that Indy are going to stick with Chapman, and therefore he must be making some kind of progress.

At least I fcuking hope it is :pac:

Some good vibes coming out about Chapman

http://www.colts.com/news/article-1/2012-ROOKIE-REVIEW--JOSH-CHAPMAN/f347e298-230e-43c4-b1b4-b25cf448ba19

Chapman: "Stop the run = have some fun. Then dial up the pass rushers. They go rush the passer then everyone has some fun."

Noice :cool:

Alfred Borden

Martin Tevaseu has signed his tender. We are absolutely loaded at NT. I wonder is someone going to be released or used as trade bait?

taidghbaby

Raf32 wrote: »

Martin Tevaseu has signed his tender. We are absolutely loaded at NT. I wonder is someone going to be released or used as trade bait?

Mckinney, Franklin, Tevaseu, Chapman & Johnson! Think that's all?

With McKinney and Chapman both coming back from ACL injuries I'd say they're keeping some cover! Can't see anyone wanting to trade for any of the above so two will be released I'd say!

Alfred Borden

taidghbaby wrote: »

Mckinney, Franklin, Tevaseu, Chapman & Johnson! Think that's all?

With McKinney and Chapman both coming back from ACL injuries I'd say they're keeping some cover! Can't see anyone wanting to trade for any of the above so two will be released I'd say!

Francois can play there too. Yup agreed should free up cap room for one more signing I think by releasing a few.

Alfred Borden

Anyone think we should try Shipley at RG?

davyjose

Anyone else feel unthreatened by the Ed Reed signing in Houston.

Will be interesting to see what they do in the draft, but I feel we'll be the strongest team in the South next season. Their O is virtually toothless, and although they undoubtedly have the strongest D (maybe in the AFC), I feel Luck and the boys can put up more points on them, than they can on us,

mikemac1

davyjose wrote: »

Anyone else feel unthreatened by the Ed Reed signing in Houston.

Shell of the player he once was, can't tackle
Just wait to see a running back brush off a weak arm tackle next season.

Will be missed in Baltimore but it was definitely time to move on

davyjose

mikemac1 wrote: »

Shell of the player he once was, can't tackle
Just wait to see a running back brush off a weak arm tackle next season.

Will be missed in Baltimore but it was definitely time to move on

That's what I thought. Of course with Cushing back, they're already an elite D, and maybe he's in there just to disrupt the QB. I'm still not overly concerned.

Nice interview on total access with Arians and Pagano. A lot of mutual respect. And we meet this season.

Kinda ruined when the idiot pundits questioned if Luck would have chemistry with his new OC and fit into his scheme. Y'know, the guy he played under his senior year at Stanford, and was Receivers coach the year before. Face palm!

taidghbaby

Raf32 wrote: »

Anyone think we should try Shipley at RG?

I see him getting a lot of time at centre this year if Satele has the injuries and poor play he had last year!

taidghbaby

mikemac1 wrote: »

Shell of the player he once was, can't tackle
Just wait to see a running back brush off a weak arm tackle next season.

Will be missed in Baltimore but it was definitely time to move on

I watched most of the broncos / ravens regular season game yesterday and Moreno jumped over Reid who was standing pretty much upright! Good athleticism from Moreno but Reid looked like he wanted no part of it!

taidghbaby

Just watching Favres return to Lambeau with the Vikings!! A lot of hate from the Packer fans!

Of course we have a certain Mr Manning coming back this year! I expect him to get a good reception, but what if he had gone to the Titans? Would it be the same?

frostie500

taidghbaby wrote: »

Just watching Favres return to Lambeau with the Vikings!! A lot of hate from the Packer fans!

Of course we have a certain Mr Manning coming back this year! I expect him to get a good reception, but what if he had gone to the Titans? Would it be the same?

Manning would likely get a good reception wherever he went because it was the teams decision to cut him rather than him actively saying "i want out of here." Also given the fact that the Colts have Luck I be shocked if there's any kind of ill-feeling against Manning

taidghbaby

frostie500 wrote: »

Manning would likely get a good reception wherever he went because it was the teams decision to cut him rather than him actively saying "i want out of here." Also given the fact that the Colts have Luck I be shocked if there's any kind of ill-feeling against Manning

Did the packers not effectively cut Favre too by saying they were going with Rodgers? I know Favre kept arseing about talking about retirement, but I thought the packers made the decision in the end?

Alfred Borden

What does everyone make of Darrius Heyward-Bey?

davyjose

Raf32 wrote: »

What does everyone make of Darrius Heyward-Bey?

Great athlete, Teflon hands. He's certainly not a 'whopper' as Irsay put it.

Alfred Borden

I suppose at least it fills another need and we can go BPA in the draft. I definitely think we should trade down.

kmart6

Well he did me a few favours in FF last year so I'll welcome him with open arms!

davyjose

Hasn't been mentioned much, mainly due to Irsay's crazy wopper talk, but Hasselbeck is a great acquisition who'll be a great mentor to Luck, and will be a great voice in Chucks ear about some of Tennessee's tactics.

taidghbaby

Well DHB has come and gone! I'd love to know who Jim had in mind when he was talking about a whopper!!

I'm looking forward to seeing what Griff Whalen can do in training camp! From what I've heard he was going very well until he broke his foot in a preseason game, albeit against mostly seconds! Might go back and have a look at some of the preseason games if I get a chance!

taidghbaby

Right, stuck in work with nothing to do, so I'm going to finish off my take on our draft picks from last year (started with Luck about 2 months ago and got no further!!)

Pick 2 (33 overall) : Coby Fleener TE
Games: 12
Receptions: 26
Yards: 281
TD's: 2
Y/R: 10.8

The Pick:
Just before the draft I thought we should take Janoris Jenkins with this pick! This was mostly because I thought Fleener would be gone in the first round! It's easy to look at some of the players taken after Fleener (Jenkins, Upshaw even Jonathon Martin would have been a huge upgrade over what we had at RT for the year and a damn sight cheaper than Cherilius this year) and say they would have been better picks, but at the time we had no TE's on the roster and Luck and Fleener had played together and been very productive at Stanford! IMO it was the obvious pick!

Production:
The stats aren't good! They aren't good at all! He was hit by injury during the season but Dwayne Allen (taken in the next round) had almost double the yards and receptions, whilst being better in the run game! IMO it looked like the game was too fast and also physical for Fleener! I can remember a few occasions where he was knocked out of his routes by LB's! He also didn't look as fast on the field as I thought he would be, and his hands weren't as good as I thought, although I hope that was just an aberration! The offence was obviously a vertical one which doesn't really suit a TE but I don't think that is an excuse - again Allen who is shorter and slower had almost double his yards and receptions!

Low Point: none in particular but he did have some poor drops during the season!

High point:
http://youtu.be/hBTCbp_-3_c

His TD catch against the Lions (about 1:30 on the video)! It's a great catch and he shows the skills and athleticism that coulda me him a very good TE.

Needs to work on this season:

Strength and Power! As I said before I thought he was getting shoved around by LB's at times! That simply wouldn't happen with a Gronk, or a Jimmy Graham or a Hernandez! Ok I'm comparing him to the best TE's in the NFL but he has the size (height), speed and skills to be very good! He also needs to work on his consistency! 26 receptions in 12 games isn't good enough! Expect him to get more targets this year with the new offensive style (even if I still believe there will be a vertical element to it!)

taidghbaby

Pick 3 (64) Dwayne Allen TE
Games: 16
Receptions: 45
Yards: 521
TD's: 3
Y/R: 11.6

The pick:
Picking TE's back to back certainly came as a surprise to me but as said previously we had no other TE's left, and the Arians offence is 2 TE dependant! He was also the reigning Mackey award winner, having beat Coby Fleener to the title! Trumaine Johnson was taken with the next pick (he has potential if a lot of red flags and the Colts secondary at the time was terrible!) along with a few RB's which was also a big area of need (ronnie Hilman 3 picks later, but also Bernard Pierce who was taken later in the round by the Ravens and had a good playoffs!). I thought we might take Ta'amu here but in hindsight this was a much better pick!

Production:
His receiving stats if not altogether eye opening were quite good (21st overall amongst TE's) for a supposed no. 2 TE who was looked upon primarily as a blocker in the NFL! His hands were solid and he showed some good aggression (unlike Fleener IMO) in the run game! He's wasn't (or isn't) ever going to be Tony Gonzalez but I really think he's going to be a very valuable weapon for us in the next few years! Have to say I was very impressed with him this year!

Low point:
None really stand out to me! A couple of drops but in comparison to some of the other receivers (see Donnie Avery) his hands were good!

High point:
Either his first NFL TD against the Vikings or the TD against the Packers that started the comeback! Probably the latter! He showed good speed to get around the outside, but even had the defender got to him he wasn't going to be stopped!

Needs to work on:

His number of TD's! He's such a physical receiver I would have thought he would have picked up a few more TD's especially with our struggles in the red zone! This may be knit picking though in fairness! Our "new" scheme may benefit him even more than Fleeer though as Fleener is the more down the field type of player of the two!

davyjose

Great posts, Taidgh. I really think Pep Hamilton's offense will help Fleener a lot considering they've worked together before. I think we were all surprised by Fleener's lack of production, but being thrown into a vertical Offense might have been a part of it. He was quite physical in College, so maybe there were some health issues. Next season is an important one for him.

Alfred Borden

Yup the WCO will suit the TEs and our new FB!

taidghbaby

Pick 4 (92): TY Hilton - WR

Games: 15
Receptions: 50
Yards: 861
TD's: 7
Y/R: 17.2
Rush Atts: 5
Rush Yards: 29
Kick Returns: 34
Yards: 418
TD's: 1
Y/ Return: 12
Fumbles: 1

The pick:
We traded up 5 places with the 49ers to get Hilton for a 5th round pick this year! The Rams took Chris Givens with the pick before the one we were due to have so they also could have been looking at Hilton. WR was a big need for us, especially one with a lot of pace to stretch defences. We also needed a kick returner so this pick covered two needs!

Production:
Phenomenal! Justin Blackmon was the only Rookie receiver with more yards (only 4 more to be precise) an he was taken 5th overall (yes having Andrew Luck throwing the passes did help)! He had the 5th highest yards / catch number last year and was joint 22nd in the league for receiving TD's with 7 - Reggie had 5! He also returned a punt for a TD (the first in living memory for the Colts!)! People keep telling me he's a slot receiver! He's not! He's much closer to a Mike ($60 million) Wallace than to a Wes Welker! I'm not saying he's Mike Wallace but he has speed to burn and is building up a good relationship with Luck for the future!

High Point:
This is a tie between his punt return against the Bills and his 81 yard TD against the Texans! As I said he's got speed to burn!

Low point:
again none in particular but his drop rate was second only to Donnie Avery!

Needs to work on:
His drop rate - pure and simple! I'm not too concerned about the change in system (just yet!)! Yes the Arians offence is suited to deep speed, but Pep Hamilton never had a player of Hiltons speed and ability at Stanford so I'd be extremely surprised if he doesn't utilise him! Plus the WCO might open up more space down the field for him!

taidghbaby

Pick 6 (170): Vick Ballard - RB

Games: 16
Carries: 211
Yards: 814
TD's: 2
Y/C: 3.9
Receptions: 17
Yards: 152
TD's: 1
Y/Reception: 8.9
Fumbles: 3

The Pick:
Having released Joeseph Addai we were looking very thin at running back (Donald Brown & Delone Carter). We badly needed some help at running back and Ballard certainly provided this especially when he took over as the number one back. Alfred Morris was taken 3 picks later and went on to have a great year. We may have missed out on Morris, but he wouldn't have had the same numbers in the Colts offence as he did with the Redskins.

Production:

Solid. It's the best way to describe Ballard. He's good at everything if not great at anything. His yards / carry was around 30th in the league. In a lot of ways he reminds me of Addai. He runs hard but doesn't have the speed to break off big runs. His TD total was low but in fairnedd he didn't get very many redzone carries. For a 5th round pick he did a good job.

High Point:

The leaping TD against the Titans:

nothing else needs to be said!

Low point:

The playoff game. We struggled badly in the red zone as a team and Ballard was part of this.

Needs to improve on:

Everything! And I don't mean that in a bad way. As I said he's good at everything and great at nothing. He also needs to improve the number of TD's although I think if he gets more help between the 20's he'll probably get more carries in the redzone.

taidghbaby

davyjose wrote: »

Great posts, Taidgh. I really think Pep Hamilton's offense will help Fleener a lot considering they've worked together before. I think we were all surprised by Fleener's lack of production, but being thrown into a vertical Offense might have been a part of it. He was quite physical in College, so maybe there were some health issues. Next season is an important one for him.

Did Fleener not have long hair in college? It might be just a coincedence!!

This is a big year fo him. I remember him saying at one stage that he was feeling tired around week 13, because he was used to 12 game seasons in college! That's not really an excuse IMO but the leap from college to NFL is huge and it can take some players longer than others to adjust!

Syferus

It really was a brilliant draft by the Colts. Even Fleener has obvious potential and now has his old coach to help his deliver on it. There may well be a bit of a drip next season but the Colts would be smart to stay the course with their 2012 draft picks, and I don't mean Luck.

kmart6

Well that's DHB signed, 1 year and up to €3million...happy enough with that to be honest, although might have preferred another year or two now instead of it costing huge money after next year if he has a good season!

helimachoptor

Good signing for the colts IMO