Music to my ears......music to my ears
 

From the Twitter feed from TC today:

This team needed to get more physical. Sounds like that is what Reich and the rest of the coaches are preaching.

I LOVE IT!

Walk Worthy,

Probably doesn't take much to look more physical after the cream puff coaches we had before. Still great to hear.

Glad the softness is gone, but I'm concerned about the defense. They'll need to score a lot of points this year.

Indeed.

In both the "Good" and "Bad" categories; Andrew Luck's complete percentages for the 11-on-11 drills for the first 5 days in camp:

Day 1 = 11 of 19 (57.9%)
Day 2 = 15 of 19 (78.9%)
Day 3 = 19 of 22 (86.4%)
Day 4 = 24 of 33 (72.8%)
Day 5 = 16 of 19 (84.2%)

Total = 85 of 112 (75.9%)

Yeah for Andrew Luck being back! :)

Bad on a defense allowing that completion percentage against them early in camp where the defense is supposed to have the advantage.

Oh, yeah, BTW, today was the first day our starting OTs were practicing. Early days (and the associated quick throws or pressures) were against 2nd team O-Linemen whom the defense should be eating up.

Yeah Andrew, (shudder) for defense.

Walk Worthy,

Physical is good, but the Colts don't need fratricide in pre season. Everyone is on the same team. You don't want a Buddy Ryan situation where the D is trying to hurt their teammates.

Heard Venturi on the radio, said this was true "getting after it"- said he hasn't seen this type of hitting since his time.

I love it, come Sunday's the other side is not playing touch football.

A little concerning that Luck dropped down to 19 attempts again. Reps are important.

Not sky is falling or anything but just something that caught my eye.

I am under the impression they are keeping him on a "pitch" count starting off. Hopefully the further in cap he will be seeing more and more reps.

Reps are important when you don't have a torn body part. He's going to get a ton of reps over a 16 game season. And this is institutional thinking, that they want him for next year.

Think of this as a marathon. It's almost 27 miles. It's a long way to go, he's got time to be ready for the ENTIRE season. For NEXT season. And the season AFTER that.

Does anyone want to be in the running for the next franchise quarterback in the next 5 years? This is done in the best interest of the player, thank God

Probably not, but I’d still take Buddy Ryan-style over Pagano’s Carebear approach to coaching.

I think today was run-heavy in terms of play selection.

Might not be rest related, just needed to emphasize running plays today.

Could be

But wouldn’t that be better served on non throwing days for him? Again it may just simply be part of the plan. Just doesn’t sound like “full go” to me.

I don't doubt that it is not "Full go" like it would be had he not be coming back from a massive injury and not participated in much for the better part of the year. I think they are clearly trying to ease him in and it will likely lead to the first part of the season being a bit rough.

I agree. The Colts even in the Manning era rarely dedicated themselves to running the ball in camp.

The Reich regime just seems to have a much different approach, and I for one like it.

I have hope this year; I didn't really last year. And I want to see Andrew Luck on the field, getting back into it. And I really want to see Nelson pancake somebody. I want more things, but I'll be brief.

Agree with the two but I think we deserve a third..... I really want to see what competent coaching looks like on game day......Yippy!!

He hasn’t taken as many days off as they were calling for before camp started. Better to throw 19 than 0.

Start evaluating this team for 2019. It’ll be a much better lens through which to view this team’s progress.

Can’t fix everything. We knew the defense might be the weak link this year. Too much youth, and still need more talent.

Agreed.

However, in the past two seasons, Ballard has used SIX of EIGHT first/second/third round draft picks on defense (with the other two used on OG). You cannot fault his effort at trying to find defensive playmakers!

- Two secondary pieces (Hooker, Wilson)
- One Linebacker piece (Leonard)
- Three Defensive Line pieces (Basham, Lewis, Turay)

I guess we can complain about how much free cap space Ballard has and that he did not sign any high priced free agents this off-season for the defense but the off-season is not over yet and the cut down to 53 guys per team will put A LOT of talent on the street. We are not a finished package yet.

Heck, think of it this way as well. Between Hooker's injury, Wilson's doghouse of last year and Basham playing out of position, it is almost like getting 3 additional high round rookies added to the defense to join Leonard, Lewis and Turay.

I am not saying that they are going to be good; but they might jel and surprise some folks in the second half of the year.

Walk Worthy,

I can also still complain about cutting Henry Anderson and Johnathan Hankins. I bet the defense would be a lot better with them up front.

Still don't understand how Hankins doesn't have a job right now. He must be holding out for money.

They didn't cut Henry Anderson. They traded him for Zaire Franklin (originally pick #235 in the draft).

Hankins not getting signed makes me wonder if there’s a “something that the NFL knows but the fans don’t and the media may or may not” out there.

What that is, I have no idea. Could be some scandal that’s buried beneath the surface. Could be that he’s a complete asshole in the locker room. Could be that his play is detrimental in a way that’s not evident to the casual naked eye (for the record, I don’t buy that one).

So yeah, I have to assume something else is afoot here, because I agree that it doesn’t add up and I think he’s an idiot if he’s holding out for more money and think a team that’s already into training camp is gonna hand him some big money deal.

Functionally they cut him. Got nothing for a promising player and made the team worse.

I would still like a dominate dline added to that mix, specifically a penetrating DT. Next draft should have quite a few to choose from. Need more secondary help as well. I think it usually takes a couple years for defenders to develop. I think next year we will see a better defense, but I anticipate a lot of growing pains this year. I’m still not sold on the Tampa 2, I think it is too dated, but with the right players it can still be an effective defense.

Right, I still see us getting guys before cut down day. There will be some good players let go this year.

Don’t forget Walker and the two LBs chosen this year. I can see them contributing.

NFL coaches and GMs are worse than an old lady knitting circle when it comes to gossip. Makes me wonder if there is something not being said also.

It takes a lot of players 2-3 years to really show up and consistently make a difference. The fair expectation this year is to see flashes of potential and a lot of growing pains. We'll see if they're ready to take a big step forward in 2019.