ColtsSpeak: Joe Luparello
PhilB: What are you thinking about your Colts today?
Joe: Well, I like the direction. What I wanted to talk about is the kind of about-face that I feel (GM) Chris Ballard has done. For the three years he’s been the GM, I’ve really admired him, I drank his Kool-Aid, I loved how he’s put the team together, valued the draft, picked his spots in free agency. And then this year, I’m not so sure. I love having (defensive tackle) DeForest Buckner on our team, but I think that giving up the first-round pick and signing Buckner to a four-year, $84-million deal and his cap hit is $23 million, I think Ballard is the kind of GM that is building this for the long-term and not for, ‘Hey, we’re going to win now.’ I don’t even know what that means, win now. If you’re not trying to win now, then what are you doing? Especially when considering the team we traded with (San Francisco) picked up Javon Kinlaw. Now I think if Javon Kinlaw, we’re going to need a couple of years to find out, but if he turns out to be anything like DeForest Buckner, I think Chris Ballard is going to regret making that trade. In 2022, when we have a bunch of really good football players coming due (for contracts), that’s when we’re going to see the drop-off. I don’t know if this is a casualty of that trade, but I don’t like the fact we didn’t sign (offensive linemen) Joe Haeg and Josh Andrews, especially when Chris Ballard says, ‘I want 10 good offensive linemen,’ and we basically gave up our offensive line depth. And they didn’t sign for huge money. Joe Haeg, $2.3 million. Josh Andrews, $1.47 million. I think if we could have kept those two guys, we would have had a better all-around team. I think we would have been better set for the future. We have a few free agents coming next year that need to be paid: Ryan Kelly is the big one; T.Y. Hilton, we’ll continue with him if he can stay healthy this year; Marlon Mack also next year. I’d love to keep this running back one-two punch. It’s a long year. It’s hard to get through a year unscathed.
PhilB: Anthony Walker, Malik Hooker, contract years as well.
Joe: If Malik Hooker doesn’t turn it around, I think he’s going to have the big ‘B,’ he’s going to be a first-round bust. Yeah, I don’t get him. He has these spurts, and then just disappears.
PhilB: I can’t argue with you. I’m an Ohio State guy and I watched him absolutely shine at Ohio State, but he hasn’t been the same player.
Joe: That first game last year against the Chargers, he made that amazing interception in the end zone.
PhilB: Best play of his career.
Joe: I was like, ‘Oh, here we come. This is going to be his year.’ Then, where did he go?
PhilB: Interesting opinions. Thank you for being different than the status quo. I appreciate that.
Joe: (Laughs.)
PhilB: I like it. I think it’s great. That gets people to read and maybe engage in debate. I need Colts fans to go to the AllColts site. So I don’t want milquetoast. I want people to tell me what they think. That’s great. I’ve got to ask you about quarterback Philip Rivers.
Joe: At first, when everybody on NFL Network was saying, ‘He’s going to the Colts. Philip Rivers is going to the Colts,’ I was like, ‘No way.’ I just didn’t see it. I didn’t see them paying the money. I thought that he had deteriorated. I know the connections with Colts head coach Frank Reich, but what other people don’t realize is they had two bad years with Philip Rivers right after that really good year. And Frank Reich got fired in San Diego. I’m excited to see Philip Rivers. I personally would have been very happy to have Jacoby Brissett enter the season. I think he got a raw deal. I think it was obvious. He had the first good five or six games until he got hurt, and then what happened? All his receivers got hurt. T.Y. Hilton got hurt. Parris Campbell got hurt. Eric Ebron got hurt. And Brissett comes back to Zach Pascal, who had a great year in kind of his coming-out party, but he had little else. And Brissett obviously wasn’t right. He was favoring his knee. I really would have liked to have seen the rest of the movie. I don’t think we saw it all. I would have liked to have seen him healthy with a full complement, another year with Frank Reich’s tutelage, and I think Jacoby Brissett would have been fine. I don’t like the fact that we’re carrying $46 million at quarterback, but that will work itself out next year. Obviously we’re not going to carry both, one or the other.
PhilB: True.
Joe: If Philip Rivers has a good year and he wants to come back, I’m sure they will have him back. And Jacoby, unless he wants to re-sign for much, much less, but I’m sure they would like to see (rookie) Jacob Eason be the No. 2 guy until Philip Rivers decides to retire.
PhilB: I just think that Brissett is going to hold a bit of a grudge here. He won’t say it publicly, but you know, he’s got to feel like you feel, like, ‘Man, I could have been a lot better if the surroundings were better and I got blamed unfairly.’ Frank Reich even said he’s talked to Jacoby about hey, the head coach and quarterback take the most heat. The fact that Frank acknowledged he’s had to talk to Jacoby about it tells me Jacoby is probably a little bitter. He’ll be a good team player. He’s getting along with Rivers, from what I hear. He’ll get along in that locker room and won’t be a cancer. But when he becomes a free agent, he’s going to want to look for another opportunity. Unless Rivers stinks, Jacoby steps in and plays great and everybody loves him again.
Joe: Right, that definitely could happen. Philip Rivers gets hurt and does a great job.
PhilB: That’s why Ballard kept Brissett. He kept saying he believes in him. Well, if you really believe in him, why did you go get Rivers then?
Joe: (Laughs.) That’s true.
PhilB: I’m just asking. I’m not trying to be overly critical because I like the Rivers move. It’s set up for him to succeed. The offense, the way it’s set up with the line and the run game, and adding the fullback Roosevelt Nix and running back Jonathan Taylor, they want to ground and pound, and that lets Philip Rivers take shots if everybody is going to crowd the box against the run. If Rivers doesn’t do great, then you’re not going to pay him $25 million again. But, yeah, you went and got him, so you thought he was better than Brissett.
Joe: Absolutely. And he probably is at this point right now, just the knowledge and experience that he has. But the physical talent, Jacoby is one-up on him. He made some plays last year. I can’t remember, he made that sideline pass …
PhilB: Denver, to T.Y. Hilton, Brissett escaped Von Miller, it was going to be a safety, and he fired a dime for like 25 yards to T.Y.
Joe: That play, if he can do that, he can do a lot. I just think he needs more time. He needs more seasoning. He’s definitely got the weapons now, for sure.
PhilB: What do you expect for the Colts season? Do you have a prediction?
Joe: (Exhale.) Well, given the schedule, and the fact they have an advantage, they don’t have to travel as much as a lot of teams, I saw a stat where they were one of the least-traveling teams, I think 11-5 is doable, 10-6. They should win the AFC South. Tennessee is going to be right there. You can’t count them out. They were in the AFC Championship Game. They’re certainly a good team. Houston is going to take a step back. Jacksonville is still in rebuild mode. It’s Tennessee and Indy. Indy is a better-rounded team than Tennessee. I look for the Colts to win the AFC South.
PhilB: So do I.
Joe: Hey, we’re on the same page.
PhilB: Yeah, we are.
Joe: That’s if we have a season. I’m skeptical of that.
PhilB: That’s the next question I ask everybody. I’ve changed my take a little bit in that I’m pretty convinced now they’re going to get this started, based on how they’re handling things now. My fear is that there will be an outbreak or two like in baseball and it could jeopardize everybody. What is your level of confidence in the NFL pulling off an entire season?
Joe: Not much. I’d say maybe a four on a one-to-10 scale. I just don’t see how. They’re not in a bubble situation. The amount of contact in football. I think we’re going to see a lot of outbreaks once contact starts in camp, too, guys sweating on each other, bleeding on each other, spitting on each other. I don’t see how you’re going to stop the spread, especially when teams start playing each other and teams start going on the road, especially with the situation in our country, too. I think it’s just been a complete disaster.
PhilB: Well, Joe, you were outstanding, sir. I love the fact you gave me some different viewpoints. You didn’t just spit out Kool-Aid. Very good. My hat off to you. If there’s anything else you want to say, you can say it. I like to give one last shout-out, if there’s something else.
Joe: I’m not a big fan of our defensive scheme. And I don’t pretend to be an expert on the Tampa-2, I just don’t think we have the secondary to run it properly. I think we’re struggling. Hopefully, we’ll get increased pressure this year with DeForest Buckner and a healthy Kemoko Turay. It’s too bad that he got hurt last year because he was having his coming-out party in the Kansas City game. If we can get that increased pressure, it’s going to help our secondary, that’s for sure. I don’t know. Cornerback Xavier Rhodes is up in the air. Marvell Tell III, we lost him (to opting out). Cornerback Rock Ya-Sin is going to have a good year. Safeties, I don’t know. Malik Hooker is a question mark. Who’s the other safety?
PhilB: Khari Willis.
Joe: Khari Willis, I like him. I don’t like the dink and dunk. I don’t like the bend but don’t break. I read this article where Frank Reich said he would rather have a team dink and dunk against them and my head about exploded. I was like, ‘How is that better?’ I’d rather have a team throw a 60-yard bomb and you get the ball back. Bend but don’t break, you’re going to lose time of possession, your defense is going to get gassed, your offense is not on the field. I don’t see how that’s better. I just don’t think we have the personnel, the Tony Dungy personnel that he had in Tampa and in Indy in 2006. I don’t think we have it to run it. We also missed an opportunity to draft a couple of good tight ends. I like the Trey Burton deal. And, of course, Jack Doyle is solid. But, man, there were a couple of tight ends there in the draft.
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