ColtsSpeak: David Pearman

PhilB: How are you feeling about the Colts draft?

David: Very excited. When you look at the Colts draft, you have to take into consideration the player that we traded for (defensive tackle DeForest Buckner), who is going to be amazing, just what we needed on our defensive line. I thought the draft was great. I thought it was interesting with the fourth pick that (QB Jacob) Eason was there, and we still grabbed him. And the third pick, the defensive back (Utah safety Julian Blackmon) that was injured and probably won’t even help us this year, he must be really good or caught somebody’s eye, to use a third-round pick on somebody who probably won’t help us at all this year. I don’t know if I like the last three picks of the draft. I don’t know if I would have tried to maybe get future picks instead of those last three. The kid from Michigan (Jordan Glasgow), the linebacker/special teams player might be kind of fun. I was a little confused by that, but I don’t question anything (GM) Chris Ballard does. I have complete faith in him. He’s done such a nice job with all the adversity that he’s gone through since he’s been here.

PhilB: Jordan’s brothers played in the NFL. He’s got this confidence to him. There’s something about him. I won’t be a bit surprised if he has a cult following as a special-teams leader, as long as he doesn’t get hurt. I always worry about guys. They all come in every year and there going to make their money and set the world on fire. But this game is so hard on bodies. You just never know.

David: What’s interesting about this kid, I was reading that he was a walk-on and had to earn his spot on the team (at Michigan), then had to earn everything. I think it’s a really great character pick.

PhilB: Same with his brothers, all three walked on at Michigan. I’ve got his story and video on AllColts.com. I’ll be kind of rooting for this guy. He’s got a little crazy in him.

David: I love it.

PhilB: But not a bad crazy. A bio refers to his fearlessness, and that’s what it takes to play in this league. You’ve got to be a little crazy and you can’t be afraid of what’s going to happen. His brothers have been helping him prepare for the NFL. The common thread with guys like him, they’re educated guesses. (Second-round pick USC wide receiver) Michael Pittman Jr.’s dad played running back in the NFL. Pittman gets on a call with us, one quick sentence thanking the Colts, owner Jim Irsay, head coach Frank Reich, then, ‘I’m just ready to get to work.’

David: I went to UCLA, so I’m not supposed to like anyone from USC, but I love this kid. That was my pick all along. I do. I think he’s going to be a great player. He doesn’t have blazing speed, but that’s OK. He’s got really good hands and he looks he’s just a gamer. It should be a lot of fun to watch.

PhilB: I’ve watched clips of him, and I see him next to cornerbacks, and he high-points balls instinctively. He sees where they’re coming and goes up and gets ‘em. His positioning, his leverage, his strength, he absolutely abuses corners. I was looking for photos of him and found one where he burns Julian Blackmon, the Colts’ third-round pick from Utah.

David: (Laughs.) There will be some trash-talking there.

PhilB: Then I saw the clip of it. It was in 2018, he’s behind two defenders who leap to get the high pass. He leaps higher and grabs it. And there’s no way he should make this catch. No way. And he just rips it away from them, and it’s a deep throw. The Colts scout said that in every practice or game, he never saw Pittman lose a one-on-one matchup.

David: That’s fun. He’s going to be great. And the running back (Jonathan Taylor) we took with the second, second-round pick, I think it’s hard with running backs that play so many years and get so many touches, you always worry about that position because you kind of get beat up or burned out. What a stud that guy is. I think he’s going to give us a fine 1-2 punch. And you’ve got to remember our running back last year, Marlon Mack, he missed a lot of time. Now maybe we don’t have to use him as much. We can use them both as a tandem. Plus everybody is kind of forgetting we got that fullback from Pittsburgh (Roosevelt Nix), that guy is a stud. And we haven’t had a fullback since we won the Super Bowl. It just opens up the running game. He’s a great blocker. The only downfall to the draft is I wish they got another tight end. But we can’t have it all.

PhilB: You know they did sign tight end Trey Burton from Chicago.

David: Yeah, I hope he’s OK. What a solid player he is. He threw that (Super Bowl) pass for Philly. He’s obviously known for that. But he’s really a solid player. Yeah, I’m excited. I think the offense should be a lot of fun with (QB) Philip Rivers. They’ve kind of geared it around him a little bit, which is good because we needed to. And I love our defense with Buckner, who we acquired for that first-round pick, you can’t go wrong with that. He’s just a fun guy to watch play. I don’t know if the Colts are done, either. They do have some salary cap room, I guess. It would be nice for them to add one more defensive lineman. There’s one that I love that’s still out there. He’s going to cost a lot of money. I don’t think we’ll get him.

PhilB: Don’t say Jadeveon Clowney.

David: Yeah, that’s who I’m saying. He is hurt a lot.

PhilB: He can wreck a game, but he’s hurt half the time.

David: It’s a lot of money.

PhilB: I remember Andrew Luck getting Clowney to jump offside for a first down to finish a game in Houston one year. Andrew got him to jump.

David: I have so much respect for Andrew Luck. I miss him so much as a player, watching him play. But I have so much respect for him making that decision (to retire last year). There’s still a little hope in all of us that some day that he goes, ‘God, I miss this. I want to come back.’ And I don’t know if that’s good or bad because I don’t know if the time has been too long. What a special guy he was. If (former GM Ryan) Grigson would have just got Luck an offensive line to protect him, he’d still be playing today. It’s all the Colts’ fault that he retired. I believe that with my whole heart and soul.

PhilB: It sounds like you’ve been reading everything I’ve been writing.

David: Yeah, well, I believe that games are won with an offensive and defensive line and you’ve got to protect your players.

PhilB: I wrote about protecting Andrew in December of his rookie year. I asked him how he was holding up and he insisted he was fine. I mentioned how he took too much punishment, the hits add up. (Hall of Fame running back) Edgerrin James used to say the body can only take so much punishment. Sure enough, it happened. When it happened, when Andrew retired unexpectedly, I wrote a scathing column blaming the Colts for wasting his talent.

David: It was a waste. This kid was fantastic. He had such talent and heart, he always kept being himself. That’s what I loved about Andrew Luck, and what I still love about him.

PhilB: I know Peyton Manning is gospel, but Andrew had all the tools to be as good as Peyton. People said I was crazy, but I’ve always believed that.

David: We were never out of a game with either one of those guys. We’ve been very spoiled. Now we’re going to get Philip Rivers, which concerns me a little. I saw a lot of his play with the Chargers. His mobility concerns me. Like you said, age takes a toll on a body. You make so many throws and your arm gets tired. I hope our offensive line protects him. We’ve got a great offensive line, (but) we’re a little thin on backups. I hated to see a couple of backups leave. But hopefully Philip Rivers has a fun year, comes back, and does a great job for us. Hopefully they don’t put him in the spot where he has to be Superman. If he’s just Philip Rivers, he’s a game manager and he’s intense like Andrew was, we’ll see.

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