Episode 542 | Chris Ballard Training Camp Presser Recap

Intro – 0:00

Chris Ballard Training Camp Presser Recap – 0:55

Twitter Questions – 15:00

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We're back another edition of Colts Corner with myself. That
would be Kevin Bowen. Thank you so much for tuning in.
Training Camp is officially here, recording this on Tuesday afternoon,
just a couple hours after Chris Baller got done with
his annual pre training camp presser practices. We'll commence in
a hurry Wednesday through Saturday four straight here to start camp.

(00:22):
Plenty of coverage up on one O seven five thefan
dot Com. Eddie and I will certainly continue our podcast
here throughout camp. Cadence will be weird today. It's just
kind of an odd that I felt like, hey, let's
get this up as quick as possible, so we'll see
how just the normal schedule looks. It'll be a little
different here over the next month or so, but nonetheless,

(00:42):
we appreciate you tuning in. We'll get to Twitter questions eventually,
but you know, as is typical with this sort of pod,
it's just kind of a lot of news items to
react to, and honestly, it doesn't seem like the newsiest
report day. You know, Chris Bauer mentioned and we haven't
seen anything official yet, but doesn't expect any on the
physically unable to perform list. I know occasionally there can

(01:03):
be a guy or to trickle out, but nothing too major.
It seems like on that front, Ziara Franklin will miss
a little bit of time to start camp. That is
not surprising news, although it, you know, is a tad significant.
You know, I think the thought was he could miss
a week or two when the surgery first happened in
early May. And this is the unfortunate nature when you

(01:23):
have such a late offseason surgery like Zaya had. But
we'll see how long his absence will be. Ballad said
he doesn't expect him to be on the pup list,
so you know, he is doing some running and everything,
so you would think his return would be, you know,
sooner rather than later. But still, anytime you're on a
new defense, you want the quarterback of your linebacker crew,

(01:44):
or I should say, of your defense as a whole,
to be out there as soon as possible. So Jalen
Carlis is good to go. And again now we start
getting into the Joe batchies, the camera groans, the Chaguna lubi's,
you know, those sorts of names. But I think it's
really important for his are to get out there as
soon as possible, get in to the eleven on eleven
portion as soon as possible, more so from just an
installation standpoint than anything, So that would be one to watch,

(02:08):
you know, as far as quarterback is concerned. The Anthony
Richardson restriction is volume versus participation. You know, back at
the end of the spring, it was missing those final
and what was it, seven of the nine practices, Whereas
it sounds like early on he will participate, but maybe
the volume won't be you know, as immense as it

(02:29):
would be for Daniel Jones for example. So I think
I exit on the Richardson quarterback front from today's news
and we'll probably focus on this when do we get
back to the fifty to fifty split between him and
Daniel Jones. I will continue to think Daniel Jones is
a starter until we get back to that point. Then
once we're back there, Okay, how much can Anthony Richardson,

(02:51):
you know, recreate a competition? So it sounds like they
will limit some volume. Ballert I think mentioned like day
two three here in this four day stretch to start camp,
which again this is the only one of the entire
training camp that's longer than two days in a row.
So that's good news for Richardson. You wouldn't think there'd
be much restriction at all once you get through these

(03:13):
four days here, which again is vital. You know, when
does fifty to fifty occur? Does it occur at the
Saturday practice? Does it occur at Monday's practice? Tuesday's practice again?
You know how far along, you know, do we get
before we get back to kind of a true competition.
You know, Ballad wasn't really in the mood to take
de bait on the make or break year. For Anthony Richardson,

(03:34):
I wouldn't expect him to, you know, take that. You know,
he quickly mentioned Baker Mayfield and Sam Darnold as examples,
and you know, obviously those guys move teams in both
of their cases, they move conferences. And you guys have
heard me say this quite often. I don't think band
aids work in the AFC at quarterback, I just don't.

(03:54):
I think the position is way too high end, way
too much depth in this conference for band aids to
really really work. And even in the NFC, if you
look at Baker, you look at Darnold, or you look
at Geno Smith whoever you want to throw in that category.
A resurrections in other places, A they had to move organizations,
and then B it's not like they've had a ton

(04:15):
of playoff success. I mean, what's their playoff record if
you want to look at you know, all those guys there,
you know Ballard. I thought it was a great follow
up from James Boyd and asking him, you know, trajectory wise,
what is it in Richardson's game where you feel like
there is still the arrow pointing up? And you know
he pointed to the late game moments, which you know
have certainly been there. I mean he has delivered quite

(04:37):
often really in the fourth quarter two minute situations. You know,
last year of the Jets and the Patriots are the
two you know, obvious examples of that. I don't know
if I've seen the stretches of accuracy that maybe Ballard has,
or at least that he says he has publicly, you know,
in terms of Richardson and like when do you pull

(04:57):
the plug? I'm much more of a if you're going
to draft the project, at least attempt the project. And
I think part of that attempt is at least getting
to the healthy offseason. You know, if you're not even
going to get to the healthy offseason, then why believe
in it? Why you know, draft and develop? Why I

(05:17):
believe in your coaching staff. Why I believe in the
character of the player. And you know, all of those
are in question right now with Richardson, and I'm talking,
you know, football character of that player. So to me,
you know, I've kind of always viewed this in a
three year window. Well you know, now we're at year three.
Here comes the financial decision after the season and all
of that. So you know, I know there was a

(05:38):
I don't know, maybe a tad of tension brewing with
that question. You know, for the most part, I didn't
think Ballad was in too much of a you know,
acknowledge the pressure or the hot seed. You know, he
definitely played kind of philosophical hat person, you know when
asked that question. I think Nate Atkins from The Star
asked him about pressure, and you know, he quickly, you know,

(05:59):
went to the well, you know, pressure is going paycheck
to paycheck and putting food on the table. Well, yeah,
I mean I like to think when you getting these
press converse stings, it's kind of a given that we're
living in an NFL football bubble. We're not living in
a life bubble. We're not asking questions that are you know,
life or death and that aspect to it. It's more
of a hey, you have a resume that's unusual to

(06:20):
beginning of the ninth year. Go ahead. I don't know
if every question ever needs to be prefaced by that,
but you know, certainly I thought that answer was you know,
I don't know. I just thought that was kind of
an easy cop out. Yeah, we could cop out with
a whole you know, life answer for a lot of
sports related questions. But we live in a sports world,

(06:40):
so let's go there. You know, he used the word
to describe Daniel Jones, as you know, he's very centered,
and the Daniel Jones experiment will be interesting to watch.
You know, I think one thing about these retread quarterbacks,
there's a fine balance between how much did they grow
up and and how much scar tissue is impossible to

(07:03):
get rid of. And being in New York City is
one of those. You know, Sam Darnold, at least for
a year in Minnesota, proved that just because he was
seeing ghosts in New York doesn't mean that he sees
ghost everywhere. Now will that continue? You know, again, how
much of the change of scenery really really healthy? Baker
Mayfield went to four different teams before he you know,
really found kind of that that second home, So how

(07:24):
much of that is needed? So I think the Jones
thing will be obviously a huge storyline to this camp.
You know, positions of interest for Ballard outside of quarterback
and center. You know, Danny Pinser versus Tanna Bordolini's a competition.
He seems optimistic on the swing tackle and that is
a huge position to watch. You know, Jalen Travis, you

(07:46):
know he mentions high ceiling. Well, if he's needed for
twenty twenty five, how much of that does it look
like Bernard Ryman's rookie season. You know, those are some
of the questions you have when you ask young tackles
to be thrust into that duty. And again, Travis only
played college football at the high level for one season.
You know, he was at Princeton before that. They continue

(08:08):
to speak highly of Blake Freeland. Last year was I
would say disaster really for Freeland in camp in the preseason, Bigger, stronger,
they point to. So, you know, again, what does year
three look like for him. They really like the defensive
tackle depth and teri wise. I've mentioned Neville Gallamer a
few times here in the podcast. He continued to be
a name and talks about the third cornerback, which I

(08:31):
know Eddie and I hit on last week. How much
of that is a position battle? How much of Jalen
Jones versus Justin Wally is real? It sounds very real.
And he threw in the name of Juju Brent's so
insert all your health caveats with that, but that was
a name that Ballard threw in there. You know, he
kind of talked about some of the unknown at linebacker

(08:54):
as well. You know, I feel like we've heard this before,
but you know, they do expect a much more or
physical training camp. I try to kind of follow up
there at the end of exactly what can that look like?
You know, I totally understand NFL teams have a bit
of you know, a hands tie behind their back when
it comes to the physicality and camp, but you know,
what does that exactly look like? Is it more trench drills,

(09:16):
is it tackling increasing? You know what exactly is that?
And you know, Ballot was a little vague on that,
so be curious. But you know, you kind of said
you know you will know, so I guess you know,
my eyes will be the one that will decide some
of that. So I'll be curious. You know exactly what
that looks like, because you know they were a awful
tackling team last season. You know, it's something Ballad pointed

(09:38):
to in the press conference, and you know when you
look at it, it losses and in additions defensively, you know,
they've lost j Speed, they lost Julian Blackman, they lost
Io Dangbo. You know you added certainly cam buying them
in Mooney Ward and then I guess J T two
Malowau and justin Wally you would point you from a
draft picks standpoint, so you know what's a given to

(10:00):
there of subtractions versus additions. Obviously schematically there's a big
change there. You know the forest Buckner mentioned how last
year was the worst year defensively, he felt like they've
had here and but you know, a really big fan
of the bluntness of lou An Arumo. Yeah, I thought
it was interesting. Kind of late in the press conference,
Ballard mentioned how he has they have organizationally and he

(10:25):
there's been some change, and so you know, I kind
of asked them to follow up, Okay, what are those changes?
Like they might seem obvious to Ballard, but I'm kind
of curious, like what what would be different in his eyes?
Certainly the spending on the onset of free agencies what
he mentioned, and yes, obviously I think we all can
look at cam Binham and Mooney Ward, But you know
what else is it just going from Gus Bradley to

(10:47):
an Arumo. Does he felt like, you know, did he
feel like draft wise they did anything to too differently?
So I didn't necessarily he didn't really expand on that,
but that's something that you know, on the surface, yes,
free agency has changed, but outside of that, defensively, yeah,
I'm not sure if I see a lot that's again

(11:10):
crystal clear. Is it a more increased you know, physicality
to training camp. Is that going to help the end
of the season struggles which Ballard pointed to on a
couple different occasions during today's press conference. Does you know
he pointed the Week one struggles as a lack of physicality?
Had all there Probably the last thing Ballard wise I

(11:31):
would point to would be just Bernard Ryman, what's that extension?
You know, he certainly echoed the line that I get
that he, you know, is kind of mastered about good
players with contract extensions of you know, not going to
talk about that publicly, but really good player who they're
high on. So we'll wait and see. Ryman is again,
Eddie and I touched on this a little bit of
an older second contract guy, so you know, we'll see

(11:56):
if that has any impact grand and he plays a
position that I think age is fairly well on that.
So yeah, those are a couple of things. Two, you know,
I guess point to player wise. You know, we had
Kenny Moore the second on our show, and at some

(12:16):
point I think we'll probably throw in the canny pod
maybe on a on a future one. I think a
lot of it is not super time sensitive, so even
though there might be a few practices into camp, you know,
some of the stuff will still resonate. But you know,
he used the word and talking about the defense proactive,
and when he heard he said that in the media

(12:37):
scrum we had him after the media scrum on our show.
I thought the words stood out to me because I
think at times I've even used the opposite of that
word reactive quite often with the Colts defense, and again
for me, it's a little bit more in a negative connotation.
I think it's really hard to be reactive and survive.

(12:58):
I think, honestly, that's all you're doing is you're trying
to survive, and that's just not I think the way
that NFL defenses need a play in twenty twenty five.
I get it might be a little safer, but to me,
you've got to try and dictate a little bit more. So,
you know, when he said that, I thought more of, okay, whatever,
disguising coverage and being more attacking and playing some more

(13:20):
man and you know, pressing on the outside and things
like that. But he actually, you know, because I asked
him in the in the follow up once we got
him on our radio show, you know, okay, what do
you mean by that? And he went with, you know
a word that we've talked about, and it's a Shane
Stekeen pillar and that's a preparation knowing who you're going against.

(13:40):
And I thought that was interesting that that's where Kenny
went to. And again I think you guys have heard
me say this, What is really confusing about Shane Steiken's
acceptance of Gus Bradley's approach defensively was in a way
Bradley was going to against one of Steichen's true pillars.

(14:03):
Stich In stresses preparation and stresses doing that to weekly opponents.
And so when you have a defense that chooses to
be on the vanilla side, then you're not practicing one
of your kind of core habits. Now again, Luianna Roumo,
it's a little different. It's week to week that I

(14:25):
think is needed. And again it might cause some confusion
at times, but to me, that's a balance that you
really have to strike. And so for you know, Kenny
to use the word proactive, but use it more in
the Monday through Saturday form of it, I thought was
something that stood out to me. So you know, we
can we can play that at a later date. I

(14:47):
think that covers mostly everything Ballad related again one O
seventy five. The fan dot com has a full notebook
recap on everything Chris Boward said in any lingering from
a health standpoint, but let's give it in Twitter questions.
I know we got a couple here that I want

(15:07):
to get to before we start to kind of shift
some things from a reaction to practices moving forward. This
one from Brett Harr. We've heard a lot about the
new lou Anarroumo defense being exotic and him being called
a mad scientist. Compared to us Bradley's scheme, what you
expect to see. It's different on a given Sunday, both
good and bad. Also maybe a winner loser in terms

(15:29):
of defensive players in the new scheme. Well, you know,
on the first part of it again, just more disguise,
more week to week planning, more man coverage, more pressing
and up ticking, blitzeeing. And you know, it's probably worth
pointing out, Brett that like there's a bar that you're
going from that is rather low in a lot of

(15:49):
those areas. So I'm not talking like you've never tried
hot sauce in your life or whatever, and you're going
to like sant Elmo to have that cocktail sauce. Like,
I'm not acting like you're going, you know, from that
to that, you know whatever, you know, pick your sauces
that are a little bit more on the mild side.
You're increasing it. I don't think you're Brian Flores on

(16:10):
the scheme scale of it, but again you are increasing that.
Now again, where can that be poor? Well, you know,
obviously it's not like Cincinnati was great recently, and you
know there's personnel questions among that. There are some risk
in it in that your bust might be really big,
and so that's something to keep in mind when you're
looking at it. I you know, I think just to generally,

(16:32):
I think anytime you bring in a new defensive coordinator,
the winners often can be you know, just those new bodies.
So those draft picks, you know, Juju Brents is one
that has singled them out as someone that he thinks
is a real big winner in this scheme, and his
frame and body definitely looks like a guy that can
kind of swallow some people in press coverage. So you know,

(16:53):
how much is he a winner in this? You know,
d line wise, they've mentioned they're gonna have to scout differently,
So then that brings up Okay, you know what do
got you know, Quitty pay Taekwon Lewis. You know, guys
that were drafted for the previous scheme, what exactly do
they look like in this scheme? Here a claude, do
you think this is going to be a real quarterback battle.

(17:14):
It's just Daniel Jones is to lose. I don't want
to look at Danny Jones all season. Ballard in the
organization handled Richardson wrong from the first day. Well, boys,
a lot you can go to. I do think there's
some merit there on the back half of that. But
do I think it's a real quarterback battle? Again? How
early is the fifty to fifty split? Once we get there,

(17:38):
Once that becomes the norm, then I think the battles
back on again. Do we get their Saturday? Do we
get their Monday? I think you creep any further into
next week and the days start to get shorter. But
let's say Monday, for example, Monday the twenty eighth, it's
back to fifty to fifty. That means you've got Monday
the twenty eighth, Tuesday the twenty ninth, the night practice
the final day, July the thirty first. Then you've got

(18:00):
back to back Saturday Sunday. That's five practices before you
go to Baltimore for the joint session, because that first
full week of August you only have one practice, and
then the preseason game being the opener on the seventh.
Then nothing until the weekend, so again it starts to
get real choppy. So I would look towards, you know

(18:24):
that aspect of it, of you know, Monday, that's kind
of the big date. No, Saturday is one that I'm circling,
but Monday is kind of the big, big one, you know,
as far as organizationally. Yeah, it's the question of you know,
have you missed more on the field y'or off the field?
With him? Tony says he's from London. I love it
coming to Indy to watch the Colts after following them

(18:44):
for over twenty years. It's Colts Titans game on October
twenty six. Any suggestions for a good bar to watch
the Thursday night game when we arrive and then pregame
spots Sunday also gonna watch i U UCLA Saturday, you're
gonna watch seven person. I'd go down to Bloomington Fall Saturday,
late late October and Bloomington, Yes, go down there, and

(19:06):
even if you don't want to go to the game,
just post up Kilroy's Yogi's snicks upstairs wherever. I think
that's a great experience and I think colleges are just
it's fun to see a College Town if you're not
super familiar with it from over in London. You know,
as far as Indie's concerned, I've heard a lot of
good things about Tom's watch bar. I love the dugout

(19:27):
in Fountain Square. I love the tap in on mass At.
The problem is just I got a bad back. I
need some seatbacks. Man. Those bar stools just don't don't
do it for me. The side room at the Eagle,
I think it's got a good vibe right next door
to the tap, you know, if you can post up there,
you know, kind of a smaller atmosphere, not super sports barry,
but I think a nice vibe for a Thursday night.

(19:48):
You know. As far as pregame, I definitely hit Touchdowntown.
It just kind of hit the tailgate area in general,
bar wise, and think Slipper Noodle, just the history there
close to Lucas Oil. I'd stop there, but yeah, Georgia
Street and all that. That's right. Go and then last
last one from Jamie here over under on Riley Leonard
games started due to injury at one and a half. Boy,

(20:10):
it's definitely got it to the under Boy, I would hope.
I mean, first time many teams start a third quarterback
in a season, let alone a six round rookie that
I mean, he he's just a project. I would think
if you get to that third quarterback again, if an
injury cursor Jones or Richardson, I think they look into

(20:30):
the veteran route. But if you're going, I mean, you
imagine Riley Leonards starting multiple games for this team. Boy,
I can't imagine that that happening. All right, we'll be back, Eddie,
and I'll be back at some point here I don't know.
Probably early next week is where I would target to

(20:50):
come back with another podcast, and at that point we'll
be recapping a good amount of training camp. So again,
one of Sudden five thefan dot com has got all
of your camp coverage. Kevin bon and signing off, thanks
for listening.