He isn’t scary back there. He does his job but he isn’t doing anything special.

Fair question. I don't know. I think he covers a lot of ground and teams aren't going deep for a reason. But systemically, yes, there are easier throws conceded, and you could argue Hooker's position doesn't require a ballhawking centerfielder to play it.

It seems to me, especially after today, that Eberflus knows his personnel aren't the group who will smother and force 3-and-outs the majority of the time against competent offenses. I think he runs a deep zone cover scheme to force offenses into longer drives, increasing the opportunities for them to make mistakes, so the handful of playmakers we do have out there can take advantage.

Of course I could also be inventing a rationale behind what's really just a team that lacks talent in the defensive backfield and is soft in coverage.

To me it seemed like the Colts offense was just toying with the Dallas D, it
felt like they could do whatever they wanted to whenever they wanted to.
Amazing. I remember that a lot of us were pining for that Cowboys O line.
well now we have it, and then some.
Amazing how this defense has jelled and become a force. Just add a couple
of free agents and draft primarily for D and I don't see why they can't replicate what
Chicago has done.
The officiating was atrocious. This team never seems to get a fair shake and
I'm getting sick and tired of that.

I'd give Hooker another year. I suspect he's not been 100% all season. Also, the Colts have played a soft zone all year because their corners aren't that good and would get beat often in man to man. If they can get a quality shut down corner next year and Hooker gets healthy, then, if he still doesn't live up to his expectations, it's time to move on.

Ahem. I see what you did there.

Who do you have in mind for a replacement? Use the draft pick for a rookie or is there a free agent? I don't think much money needs to be spent on safeties compared to a play-maker at some other position.

Something needs to be done about the officiating. It almost makes the games unwatchable. The officials were trying to keep the Cowboys in the game, but the Colts overcame that bullshit.

Gets worse every year

Trust me. It's not as bad as some of the officiating in college.

$189.000m = Estimated 2019 NFL Salary Cap
$049.594m = Roll-Over of unused portion from 2018 Colts Cap
=========
$238.594m = Colts 2019 Salary Cap

$114.512m = Current 2019 Colts Obligations
$001.125m = 2019 Dead Money (Basham, Green, Morrison most of it)
$002.145m = Estimated Draft Class (8 picks)
$003.000m = In-Season "Churn" Space
$001.300m = Practice Squad
=========
$122.082m = Colts 2019 Obligations

$116.512m = Cap Space Available to Sign Free Agents (our own and others)


2019 Colts Unrestricted Free Agents:

PK Adam Vinatieri, 45 years old
OG Matt Slauson, 33 years old
DE Marqus Hunt, 32 years old
NT Al Woods, 32 years old
FS Mike Mitchell, 32 years old
OT J'Marcus Webb, 31 years old
LB Najee Goode, 30 years old
WR Dontrelle Inman, 30 years old
WR Ryan Grant, 28 years old
CB Pierre Desir, 28 years old
TE Ryan Hewitt, 28 years old
SS Clayton Geathers, 27 years old
OG Mark Glowinski, 27 years old
DE Jihad Ward, 25 years old

I was going to go into a LONG explination of whom I think needed to be re-signed before free agency starts and how much but I decided that was a conversation for later.

Right now, I am hanging a price tag to re-sign: Glowinski, Desir, Geathers and Vinatieri to starter level contracts and Hunt, Inman and Ward to depth level contracts for a total of around $28m cap hit for 2019.

Restricted Free Agents = CB Chris Milton, LB Luke Rhodes, SS Corey Moore, OC Evan Boehm, OC Josh Andrews, RB Jonathan Williams, WR Chester Rogers, SS Matthias Farley and TE Ross Travis. The RFA tag for 2019 will range somewhere from $1.6m - $1.8m and my guess that a few of those guys will get the RFA tag. Call it $5m for 3 of them.

Total we can spend on other teams free agents = $83.5m

As for Ryan Kelly, he has, thus far, been paid $8.575m over the first 3 years of his career including his signing bonus. Year 4 of his rookie contract (2019) will pay him an additional $1.875m for a total of $10.450m.

If the Colts exercise the 5th year option on him for 2020 (which they should), that will pay him the average of the 3rd - 25th paid players at his position which for 2018 would be $5.78m.

$10.45m for his first four years in the league. Around $6m for year five alone. That sound pretty darn fair in my book.

In year six (2021), he will probably start making north of $10m a year but that is how the contracts are structured; both the NFL and players union wanted to stop paying so much to rookies and more to seasoned veterans who have shown they have earned it.

NO NEED to re-sign Kelly two years early.

Walk Worthy,

"Malik Hooker tore the ACL and MCL in his right knee and missed the final 9 games of the season."

Usually take a full season to recover such a big injury....can we wait for next season to see a fully recover ??

Personally, I would. The injury also robbed him of an NFL offseason. In games played he just finished his rookie season. He is on his rookie contract. If someone wants to beat him out let them beat him out for the position.

The more I think about it (because trading Hooker wasn't something that was on my radar until Omaha mentioned it), the more I agree with you.

If it's true that any old JAG back deep would have a similar effect to the way we're utilizing Hooker, I don't see much reason to not continue to let him be that JAG. He's on a rookie contract, and I'm unaware of anyone likely to be sitting at whatever round of the draft we'd get for him that would address any of the pressing needs we have.

Might as well wait and see.

Yeah pretty much. It's a weak DB draft. I think waiting to see if his talent emerges at the position has a better payoff. We won't see a value return if we trade him. And people will be pissed if it becomes a Tim Jennings situation.

I think Hooker is a case of great being the enemy of good. Hooker is not the problem of this team. He's good now and will be much better next year with a full year under his belt since the injury and Eberflus having an offseason to put him in better situations.

On another not how about those hands on Hines? Reich continues to find ways to use guys to their best ability.

My thoughts on Hooker. Yes he has been schemed out a little, but I think that is likely to change. I think early in the season, Flus et al knew they had a lot of young/new guys and they played it conservatively: a lot of soft zone and cover 2. But as the season has progressed, the zone is tightening up, we blitz a little more, and overl the defensive play calling has got more aggressive as the players have learned the system. This may end up making Hooker relevant again.

Yes it is. The 2nd quarter was as brutal as I have ever seen in a football game. Just fucking terrible officiating. Goodhell has to fix this shit ASAP.

Which, of course, they won't do.

I think with Tyquan's 2 sacks, that brings the total up to 13 sacks for the Colts rookies this season so far. That's pretty damn impressive.

Someone posted on Twitter that PFF gave Darius Leonard a 49 rating for this week's game. If so, that pretty much says it all about PFF. What did Vander Esch get?

Wild, 40 bucks a year...

Ed Reed he is not, but I don't want to get rid of the kid yet. Maybe he'll flourish in a different system after Eberflus takes a head coach job somewhere.

Yeah fuck PFF

A dude on twitter thought I was an idiot because I said a pff ranking wasn’t a stat.

He seriously thought it was the same as say number of yards or catches. Moral of the story, people are stupid.

Have no idea why shrek thinks a pff ranking means something

But what would that change how he is used? He still won’t want to play run support.

Pancaked by Big Q!

Well, you ARE an idiot, but not for that reason.

Right. At least be honest about the reasons I am an idiot.

That’s funny. For me, it’s the lack of transparency that bugs me about PFF, as well as the presentation of their grades in decimalized format (as if it’s the product of some sophisticated mathematical analysis).

Obviously, there’s nothing wrong with expressing an opinion about a player’s skills and assigning rankings based upon those opinions. We read those types of analyses all the time and decide whether we agree or disagree based upon the information used to support the opinion and our belief about the author’s knowledge and experience.

But I feel like PFF is pretty deceptive in this way. Their rankings are really no different from any other subjective opinion, but unlike most opinions they don’t let you know who is doing the rankings, or how the rankings are achieved. It’s just a giant black box which spits out a numerical grade (always with that extra decimal to trick you into thinking its more objective than it is). So essentially you have no reliable way of judging the merits of their analysis, other than to simply compare it with what you see yourself. But then why do I need PFF? Why would I ever be convinced by anything PFF says if they don't tell me why they are saying it? It’s just a marketing gimmick.

Inbreeding perhaps ? Just a theory ... :cool:

Exactly. Smart man.

I heard several of the national analysts yesterday proclaim Leonard as the top candidate for drpoy , including Willie McCheater. His profile is on the rise!