ColtsSpeak: Thomas Royal
PhilB: How are you feeling about your Indianapolis Colts today?
Thomas: I feel good about ‘em. I’m still a little iffy on the whole (quarterback) Philip Rivers thing. I kind of feel like it’s a short-term solution, so you never know how it’s going to turn out. I’m excited because he’s a good quarterback, and you never know, he might be the right piece. I don’t think he’s a long-term piece, he’s not the long-term answer, but I think we have a good enough team that he might finish over the top in the next year or two.
PhilB: I don’t think he’s going to play more than two years. If he plays well enough this year, he’s get paid one more year.
Thomas: Yeah, I’m kind of thinking the same thing. He’s already got his future set up with coaching high school down South.
PhilB: He turns 39 in December. Any particular move or change in the offseason that you really liked?
Thomas: Well, of course, everybody likes (defensive tackle) DeForest Buckner, right? It was more of a shock, something I never thought would have happened. I personally thought with the way (Jacoby) Brissett played last year, we would target a quarterback earlier in the draft, but that didn’t again. But then again, Tom Brady was drafted in what, the sixth round? Look how he turned out. Maybe Jacob Eason, even though he’s raw, he might end up being a lot better than we think, right?
PhilB: Yeah, Tom Brady started his final year at Michigan, so people weren’t that familiar with him. New England didn’t even know what it had with him. That was about as lucky a pick as anybody has ever made in the NFL.
Thomas: (GM) Chris Ballard has made some good moves, no doubt. I’m still on the fence about Jacob Eason. He’s definitely got the arm strength, the stuff that everybody talks about. He can make the throws. But I was a little concerned when I heard about you would say his attitude or his maturity.
PhilB: I wrote about that a while back. There’s a reason he fell from late first round to the fourth round. Some NFL teams he talked to at the combine thought he was too full of himself.
Thomas: And he might be.
PhilB: And they questioned his work ethic.
Thomas: The good part is with the whole Philip Rivers deal, I’m not so much concerned with Eason sitting back and learning, it is a good thing, and at the same time it might give him the motivation to be a little more modest and maybe gives him some time to mature. Everybody matures at a different pace than others. Even though you’d think somebody at his age would be mature, not necessarily.
PhilB: By everybody’s account, Rivers is a good teammate. He gets along with his quarterbacks and would set a good example for him. I thought the drafting of Eason was probably the biggest surprise of the offseason for me. I didn’t expect that. They always talk about blue-collar, horseshoe guys, and character guys. Ballard gushed about all of these other players that he picked, then when we asked him about Eason, he said, ‘Well, he’s got to prove that he can earn a spot on the team.’ We were like, ‘Geez, you don’t sound really thrilled about him. Why did you pick him?’
Thomas: I think he was just one of those guys that Ballard is going to take a chance on. He’s not going anywhere. He’ll sit on the bench, and get some time in preseason the next couple of years. You don’t know what you’re getting.
PhilB: You don’t. It’s a crapshoot, you’re right. And Ballard has earned the right to take a shot here and there. I don’t have a problem with that.
Thomas: He’s done really well drafting since he’s been here. I don’t think everything has been a 100 percent success story.
PhilB: No, his first year was awful.
Thomas: It wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t great.
PhilB: You go back and look at it now, he missed a lot. Then the next year, he hit home runs with Quenton Nelson and Darius Leonard.
Thomas: I still want to see how (linebackers) Bobby Okereke and E.J. Speed are going to turn out.
PhilB: Those guys are good, too.
Thomas: I don’t feel like we got a chance to see them play enough last year. They like to play linebackers up on the line a lot. It just depends on the play.
PhilB: Okereke came on as the year went on, he got better and better. Now they’re talking about him pushing Anthony Walker in the middle, that he could be the future middle linebacker on this defense. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised.
Thomas: No, I wouldn’t be surprised. Anthony Walker has been pretty good, considering the circumstances. He’s been a good player. He has some faults. I don’t think he’s great in coverage. He is a good linebacker, especially for drafting him in the seventh round.
PhilB: You got a great return on that.
Thomas: I’m really excited to see Kemoko Turay come out and show us something. I feel like that guy has everything it takes to be good on the defensive line. We got short-changed last year.
PhilB: Yeah, he was coming on and busted his ankle. That was bad luck.
Thomas: I am the type of person I’m not going to get overly excited because we saw some good play, but there’s like that little thing in the back of my head that’s telling me he might end up shocking everybody. Another one of those diamond picks, everybody kind of scratches their heads, ‘What about this guy,’ then he turns out being great. That’s what I feel like with him.
PhilB: He was doing really well. He was coming on. He was getting consistent edge pressure. It was just unfortunate that injury happened at Kansas City.
Thomas: Yeah, that was unfortunate, just like (wide receiver) Parris Campbell. That was horrible. I feel like we didn’t see anything out of him, but what are you going to do?
PhilB: Yeah, three surgeries in one year.
Thomas: Yeah, that’s a lot for right in the beginning.
PhilB: Sports hernia, fractured hand, fractured foot, thank you for playing.
Thomas: I feel like Ballard tried to put together some receivers last year, but with all the injuries, with Devin Funchess and all that, I would have liked to have seen him come back this year.
PhilB: I thought they were going to do it. You knew he was going to be cheap and he was going to be motivated. He only cost Green Bay $3 million for one year. But maybe the Colts were convinced he wouldn’t heal enough to be good.
Thomas: That’s always a possibility. Even though I’m a Colts fan, I like to watch all football. It doesn’t matter what game it is, I’ll watch any game. But I don’t want to be watching Funchess over there with Green Bay killing it and thinking, ‘Man, he could be with us and Rivers.’
PhilB: Yeah, the Packers didn’t do hardly anything to help Aaron Rodgers out, except they signed Devin Funchess. It would be ridiculous if he turned out to be a star there and had a great year. Kind of like, ‘Come on, guys. You could have had this guy back.’ I really think they should have brought him back. But whatever, that’s the way it is.
Thomas: That’s the business end of it.
PhilB: How did you feel about the draft class other than Eason?
Thomas: I thought we did pretty good. Like everyone else, I was surprised by the (running back) Jonathan Taylor pick. I feel like (running back) Marlon Mack has had some injuries, but even with the injuries, he’s always been around the 1,000-yard mark. If you go back and look at his runs, the due has got great vision and he’s fast. I felt like with him, Nyheim Hines, and Jordan Wilkins, I thought we were fine running. What did we end up running, seventh?
PhilB: Yeah, seventh in rushing.
Thomas: So I don’t know that we necessarily needed to draft him. We could have used that pick on something else. We got a receiver, I love the Michael Pittman Jr. pick. Maybe we could have got a different quarterback. I don’t know. (Taylor) is a good long-term investment, that’s for sure. But I just hate to see it because I feel like we’re going to have two guys who can be your No. 1 back on the roster and I’m not sure that’s a good thing.
PhilB: I hear you. I’ve written about how Mack has got hurt a lot and is entering a contract year, so the Colts are covering their bets a bit.
Thomas: They could be, or they could have just signed him (for more years). Yes, he’s had some injuries. Even when he broke his hand last year, what was he out, a few games, and he was right back and still had 1,000 years.
PhilB: I think he’s missed eight games in the last three years.
Thomas: Not great, but it’s not horrible, either.
PhilB: No, it’s not the worst thing in the world, but I think that’s what the problem is when it comes contract time. That’s going to be brought up and it’s going to cost him money. Sometimes, guys get ticked off about that and take it personally. The Colts will try to keep him fresh. I think Mack will be the starter, and Jonathan Taylor is going to fill in. I’m sold on Taylor. I like him a lot. I’m a Big Ten guy, I watch Ohio State a lot, and I’ve seen Taylor against the Buckeyes for three years, and he’s a badass. He’s the real deal.
Thomas: What other running backs came out of Wisconsin?
PhilB: Melvin Gordon. The Badgers have had running backs who have been so-so in the NFL. Melvin Gordon can still be good. It seems like the Chargers are wearing everybody out.
Thomas: I seem to remember reading an article specifically about Badgers running backs, they’re great in that system, then they get to the NFL and they’re not that good. I’m not saying that’s going to be Taylor.
PhilB: Everybody mentions Ron Dayne, all-time leading NCAA rusher, then he didn’t get it done in the NFL.
Thomas: He didn’t amount to anything really. He was horrible. Gordon, that was probably the most recent Wisconsin pick. I don’t know. I don’t think he’s really that great.
PhilB: He had some good games early, then he got hurt, then he held out for more money and ticked everybody off out there because he probably overestimated his value. The Chargers said, ‘You’re more trouble than you’re worth,’ and they allowed him to become a free agent and sign with Denver.
Thomas: I didn’t even know that.
PhilB: There’s a reason guys are available and go to other teams. I should probably ask you about a season prediction for the Colts.
Thomas: I will say I think we’ll definitely win the AFC South, which obviously means we’ll be in the playoffs and host a game. Beyond that, I’m not sure. I don’t want to be unrealistic and say we’re going to win it all. You just never know. You see these teams, minus New England, they don’t have a good defense or they don’t have something else, but then they go win the Super Bowl. As long as it’s not New England. Until now, New England seemed like a shoo-in every year. Back in 2006 when we won it, we were good, but I wasn’t overly confident we were going to make it all the way there. I remember being at my brother’s house, sitting there and watching every playoff game with him and just cheering them on. It just felt like everything was right. We actually went to the AFC Championship Game with New England that year. We were hoping we would end up playing the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI, because we thought those were the better odds. And we won. I don’t like to be an overly confident person about it. Anything can happen. It’s the NFL. I do think Ballard has done a great job in the last few years and we have a lot of great building blocks. I don’t see any reason with a quarterback, to me, is going to be in the Hall of Fame, we don’t have a good shot. I really think we do, as long as all of these other guys work out, Parris Campbell, T.Y. Hilton not getting hurt, Michael Pittman Jr. comes out.
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