I've been out-of-town for a few days working on some things. So now I get to catch you (and myself) up on all the wild and crazy Colts news that has happened. Actually, in all honesty, not much has happened in that last few days, aside from the Colts secondary bolting from the team via free agency or restricted offer sheets. Bob Kravitz managed to come out of his self-imposed gag order and bash the Colts for letting Harper and David go. As I stated before, both Tennessee and New Orleans overpaid for Harper and David, respectively. They are both good players that I like very much, but they are not people you build your franchise around. The Saints defense is putrid, but David doesn't help their system. I really have no idea why they offered him what they did. Tennessee has gotten their butts handed to them by Indy for so long that the management has the "if we can't beat them, sign them" mentality.
When it is all said and done, Marlin Jackson was not drafted to play nickel and Kelvin Hayden has been highly touted for some time. Tim Jennings was a second round pick last year, so I assume he is good. This year, expect to see another CB taken early. I'm not worried about the secondary. Here's the rest of the wild and crazy Colts news.
- The Colts visit to the White House was uneventful. Unlike last year, which featured Joey "Hi I'm a dumbass" Porter making (shock!) and ass of himself, the Colts showed up, handed President Bush a #43 jersey, laughed at his jokes, and left. I guess that's what these things are supposed to be like.
- As promised, Joel at Rocky Top Talk did a write-up of potential Colts first round pick Justin Harrell. Many thanks to Joel and his co-blogger, CFAJ.
- The SB Nation Mock Draft is wrapping up the third and final round. I will FINALLY get to pick again soon. The Colts have no second round picks but have two third round picks. To view the third round of the mock draft, go here.
- So, it seems the Bucs are interested in trading for Chicago's Lance Briggs. That's interesting considering they just signed former-Colts backer Cato June and they have, arguably, the best linebacker in football (Derrick Brooks) on their roster. The funny thing about this is Briggs, June, and Brooks are all linebackers that play the WILL position (weakside), which is the most important LB position in a Cover 2. PFT thinks this is Gruden trying to push Brooks out the door. Jon Gruden is an incompetent GM and a very over-rated coach. He won a Super bowl with Tony Dungy's team, and then promptly destroyed a once great franchise with his antics and incompetence. Longtime players like Brooks have often questioned Gruden's coaching, and fans like me continue to wonder if this guy really belongs coaching professional athletes. If Gruden is dumb enough to try and get rid of Derrick Brooks, my answer is this: We'll take him! Derrick Brooks, at age 34, is still a better WILL than Briggs or June. If Gruden is trying to push Brooks out, Tony Dungy and the Colts should jump at the chance to sign him.
- We have now done three shows for the SBNSR at NowLive.com. We are looking into doing an NFL Draft Special for SBNSR on Satuday. Stay tuned.
Update [2007-4-24 15:55:30 by BigBlueShoe]: JScott, our Bucs blogger, emailed me regarding the Brooks story and had this to say: