Venturi assessment of Day 1
 

Just listened to Rick Venturi's assessment of Day 1....I always enjoy and mostly agree with his analysis so fwiw here are my notes. Sorry for the quality of the writing.....no time to pretty it up. He strongly caveats this is just Day 1.....not enough data but just initial impressions

1.Assessment of what he saw from Luck: Physically he saw that his arm strength, explosiveness, and accuracy were all very good. He said his throwing motion was as it was before injury. Saw 3 plays to TY that would have resulted in big gains downfield (combo of Luck/TY executing and good play design by Frank). Mentally, he's focused and is seeing the field well. Already on day 1 he saw him being a force multiplier in the huddle. He had all the reasonable cautions of needing to wait and see what repeated days of practice and then games will do to his ability to sustain this level of work.......but he said he came away believing that Andrew is really ready to go.

2.Assessment of oline from day 1: Talent level (both from draft and free agents) vastly improved. We are now playing with 4 number 1's (in terms of talent) across the board. Right Tackle really his only concern. With only 1 weakness you can live with that. Pretty excited with the skill set/talent level and thinks that Frank's scheme will complement the talent level to multiply the improvement we will get from the talent alone.

3. Defense and perimeter offense are his biggest question marks. Not a great fan of the Tampa scheme but does think we will get more aggressiveness out of the 4-3. Thinks T. Basham will be the biggest beneficiary of this scheme change. Looking for him to make a big step up this year in a system that suits his talent more. The corners were off to a pretty good start and they will have to perform well in order to have any success with this unit.

4. On receiving core outside TY Hilton.......Doyle = reliable, Ebron has been an underachiever but he has talent and he liked what he saw from him yesterday....He is a match up problem but its a big wait and see on him. He liked that Frank had him lined up all over the field just on Day 1....bodes well for creative use of a potential play-maker. Grant, like Doyle, won't create his own opportunities, but he is reliable. The scheme has to get him open...he's not an explosive big play guy. Deion Cane is interesting to him....liked him in draft. He can fly...hasn't seen the inconsistent hands that was his rap in the draft. Looked quick coming out of break........Rodgers = big wait and see if he will stay healthy.

5. On running game = wait and see

6. Thoughts on TY not going to Stanford to work out with Andrew, only Chester Rodgers: Not what you would like (raises work ethic question) but we don't know all the details so reserve judgement.


I neglected to mention that he sees Frank's offensive scheme as state of the art progressive design. Across the board he believes we will see a massive improvement in coaching and talent development.

If Howard is the weakest link, I will take that.

PFF scores for Howard last 6 years. Scores in the 60s are replacement level, scores in the 70s are NFL average, scores in the 80s are NFL good.

2012 = 77.4 (16 games started; 16 games played)
2013 = 74.9 (16 games started; 16 games played)
2014 = 53.1 (16 games started; 16 games played)
2015 = 82.6 (13 games started; 13 games played)
2016 = 66.9 (10 games started; 11 games played)
2017 = 71.6 (16 games started; 16 games played)

He is an average NFL starting OT whom has had some good years (2012, 2015), some bad years (2014) and some average years (2013, 2016, 2017).

In an intelligence scheme, with an intelligence QB, with quality line play next to him, I think he will be average which will be a hugh step up from what we have observed recently.

Walk Worthy,

Agreed, if your worst O Lineman is average, you have a decent line.

Why does he have to say it raises a work ethic question if he doesn't know the details? Maybe he had other plans already. Maybe he was out of the country or on vacation with his family.

About the only thing you can scout in a day is how strong and accurate an arm is. To hear that he felt Luck's arm strength, explosiveness and accuracy were good is the best news I could have gotten out of the first day. I don't give a shit about the other stuff, fun to read but (as you said) way to early.

I agree. It is awesome when players do extra work together in the offseason, but not doing so should not be an indication of "Lack of Work ethic" It is amazing how much criticism TY gets for having performed as well as he has over the years and while producing no drama.

I saw TY's interview with the NFL Network....Michael Irvin and the other host (forget his name)......He said all the right things and seemed genuinely happy to get back to work and to be connecting with Andrew again. He spoke about how much Reggie Wayne helped him in his transition and spoke of taking the same role in helping the new guys to be successful. He said, if they do well, I do well........He seems to be in a good place.

Yeah that quote makes no sense since all off season TY has been getting rave reviews about how hard he is working.

If not for the fact that most journalists claim to not be racist, I would say they are saying that because of a racial stereotype that is pervasive here.

I do think people look for any reason to try to push the diva label on Hilton.

There is nothing I have seen to make me question Hilton’s work ethic

Since I posted this I have heard at least a half dozen other local Colts analysts (Keefer, Holder, Chappel, etc.) share their thoughts on the first few days of camp. They have all said that they came away positively impressed with what they saw from Deion Cain (sp??). Not sure if it's just that expectations were low since he was a 6th??? rounder but they are saying things like: he catches everything thrown his way, he flashes, he handles tight coverage very well, he's making big chunk plays.........All the same caveats.....early days yet....let's see where he is in September.....blah, blah, blah. Still, it's nice to have something to look forward to for a change. Anybody else ready for some football?? Go Colts!!!!

I hope this isn't the case. But remember when Duron Carter was lighting it up in camp a few years ago and did absolutely nothing in the actual games?

That probably had more to do with what was between his ears than his physical ability.

It is camp. Remember how everyone was saying how good Whalen was? Dude was trash. People covering camp overreact. Every year

Always some overachieving white dude in camp these homos want to see succeed.

Most draft boards had Cain as a Day 2 talent, getting him in the 6th was very lucky, and I saw several articles that listed him as a "sleeper" who could break out. Hopefully he's tapping into the immense potential people saw in him prior to the draft.

If he can play, I don't care if he's purple but I thought Deon was black......my bad....I haven't spent much time learning this new roster yet.......I just hope he continues to impress on the field when the lights are bright and it matters.

Deon Cain is black. I think the person you quoted was just complaining about Whalen as an example of how people overdo it in their camp hype.

Gotcha. Thanks.

He got him confused with Dean Cain.

Colts fans have always liked those fringe big athletic receivers. Carter wasn't the first. There were a couple guys under Polian who got too much hype.

That said, Deon Cain was underdrafted. He should have gone in rounds 2-4. He is from a big time program and when he had a decent QB to throw him the ball he had very good numbers. So I wouldn't say this is a oranges to oranges situation with Carter.

I am totally onboard with what you're saying. I'm just waiting to see him in real games before jumping on the hype train.

Listening to Venturi on Dakich's show and while it's mostly a repeat I picked up a couple of new nuggets I found interesting....

1. Today was the first day of padded practice and he said it's the first time in years that he saw the Colts really hitting the way they would at game time. He said it really looked like a practice from the "good ole days". When you really practiced as hard as you play in a game. He was really juiced about the real-ness of the padded practice.

2. Regarding how practice is designed / what's different from camp under old leadership......he said there is a lot less 1x1 drills and more practice in the actual sets you are going to run in the game. He thinks it's a better simulation of game time reps then what they did in previous camps.

3. He was giddy about the fact they were working on stack, bunch, and rubs today. All last year he was vocal about the fact that chud's kindergarten design didn't use those high percentage approaches to get the receivers open.


#coachingmatters


4. Best new quote....I don't want to go to Afghanistan with a bunch of peacemakers.....responding to question about whether this "nasty" mindset is important or just hyperbole.