ColtsAuthority on Costa

[The Peytonator]

NO PROMOTIONAL POSTING ON THE SITE2014-articles/march/ca-charting-project-reviewing-phil-costa.html

 

 

I really respect the guys at CA. They charted every single snap for every single lineman that took one as a Colt last year. The fact that the writer of this article loves the Phil Costa signing is enough for me to feel decently optimistic about it. They charted his last game as a starter before his injury in 2012. It was against the Ravens and according to them he had 7 pancakes, and according to PFF he had an overall grade of +6.3. Mind you, this is the team that won the Super Bowl in 2012, and a defense with Haloti Ngata in the middle.

 

 

They admit that this game was an outlier for him compared to his 2011 effort. That might be true, although you have to take into account that 2011 was his first year as a starter, he was 24, undrafted, and thrown straight into the fire to protect a scrambling QB. He started out very poorly, but he got a LOT better as the year went along. Olinemen typically take a couple years to develop into NFL caliber players....especially undrafted ones. Evan Dietrich-Smith comes from similar circumstances, but his first year as a starter was 2013. Had he been thrown to the fire 3 years ago I would strongly doubt he grades as highly as he did last year.

 

 

I know most aren't high on the signing because they wanted EDS, and I did too. Hell I still would have rather gotten him because he's more proven, but I don't think it would be the end of the world for Costa to be our starter next year. At the very worst he'll be a slight improvement over Satele at a fourth of the cost.

[1yrdandacloudofdust]

Undrafted and he was replaced by a rookie. What could go wrong?

[Naptown Lifer]

what do you mean? he doesnt even have a youtube highlight video? he sucks

 

in all seriousness the guy is complete trash though. just another overpaid grigson free agent. aw well center isnt an important position. its not like peps offense's has 80 percent of the runs straight up the middle with 3 tes

[GoColts8818]

I have no clue how good or bad Costa will be but I would find it hard to believe he would be worse than Satele last year.  Still with a good chunk of the posters here he had one major strike against him from the moment he was signed.  His name wasn't Alex Mack and a lot of people here had their hearts set on him and who knows maybe the Colts will land Mack or maybe Costa will end up being as bad as some have made him out to be but I wouldn't cast a judgment on him till he at least suits up for the Colts.  Till then I would try to stay optimistic.  If he stinks there will be plenty of time to point that out. 

[The Peytonator]

Undrafted and he was replaced by a rookie. What could go wrong?

 

 

If an Olineman is drafted in the first round, he better be able to start day one. Travis Frederick was pretty damn solid.

[ColtJ82]

I still don't think he was signed with the intention of being our starter. He is simply a versatile interior lineman. 

[The Peytonator]

what do you mean? he doesnt even have a youtube highlight video? he sucks

 

in all seriousness the guy is complete trash though. just another overpaid grigson free agent. aw well center isnt an important position. its not like peps offense's has 80 percent of the runs straight up the middle with 3 tes

 

 

Overpaid? Lol the guy is making a shade more than vet minimum.

[BlueCollarColts]

what do you mean? he doesnt even have a youtube highlight video? he sucks

 

in all seriousness the guy is complete trash though. just another overpaid grigson free agent. aw well center isnt an important position. its not like peps offense's has 80 percent of the runs straight up the middle with 3 tes

overpaid...? He's making like what? 1 million per year? smh some people man

[csmopar]

what do you mean? he doesnt even have a youtube highlight video? he sucks

in all seriousness the guy is complete trash though. just another overpaid grigson free agent. aw well center isnt an important position. its not like peps offense's has 80 percent of the runs straight up the middle with 3 tes

Do you do anything else besides complain??

[Gavin]

I watched that game Gundy charted (and many others Costa started in) and Gundy is definitly right Costa had a good game vs the Ravens.....Though Costa did have plenty of help from his Guards, That was by far and away his best game....He didn't play great but he looked a little more then serviceable. To me some of what I see from Costa reminds me of Satele......For the record Costa is a slight upgrade....But I see short arms (like Satele.....30 3/4ths), Gets caught leaning to far forward at times , Has short area quickness but ask him to consistently to get to the 2nd level and your just wasting your time, Very poor leg drive

[COLTS449]

Lets just hope we sign another center. Yeah sure, Costa could turn into a good center, but that's not likely. I want a sure thing. Someone who we know what their going to give us week in and week out. We could sign Montgomery and have a solid O-Line. He wouldn't cost much either. If another center isn't brought in we'll most likely have another terrible line. We're putting a band aid on a bullet wound by signing guys like Costa. If he is just for depth that's fine, but I'll believe that when we bring in someone else.

[akcolt]

FYI the top FA centers except Mack and Goodwin all went undrafted. Dietrich Smith, La Puente,Cook from Cinny and Wendell from NE and yes Costa all undrafted FA. If you haven't figured it out Grigs knows a little more about football than you pull your head it we are having a pretty good off season so far, Costa is a 3 position back at a spot that killed us last year. Interior line play. He is a capable C if it comes to it. Simply dismissing someone because they went undrafted shows a real genius. I guess Freeman was a mistake and that settles the dilema at WR Rogers and Whalen are garbage they were not drafted.

[C0LT5]

Lets just hope we sign another center. Yeah sure, Costa could turn into a good center, but that's not likely. I want a sure thing. Someone who we know what their going to give us week in and week out. We could sign Montgomery and have a solid O-Line. He wouldn't cost much either. If another center isn't brought in we'll most likely have another terrible line. We're putting a band aid on a bullet wound by signing guys like Costa. If he is just for depth that's fine, but I'll believe that when we bring in someone else.

 

This is free agency, Mack isn't even a sure thing. He could come here and be just as bad as Satele. There is a long list of free agent busts that were "sure things".

[Gavin]

This is free agency, Mack isn't even a sure thing. He could come here and be just as bad as Satele. There is a long list of free agent busts that were "sure things".

This isn't realistic

[NewColtsFan]

This is free agency, Mack isn't even a sure thing. He could come here and be just as bad as Satele. There is a long list of free agent busts that were "sure things".

 

Yes....   Mack coming to Indy is not a sure thing.

 

But, no....    there is zero chance he could come here and be just as bad as Satele.    In fact, is there any such thing as less than zero chance?

 

Could he be a free agent bust?    Sure.    DHB was last season.     Mack could be disappointing....   but there's no chance he'd be as bad as Satele.    You can sleep well on that one.

[Naptown Lifer]

Overpaid? Lol the guy is making a shade more than vet minimum.

 

 

overpaid...? He's making like what? 1 million per year? smh some people man

 

 

Do you do anything else besides complain??

paying even one dollar for a player worse than satele is over paying 

 

i talk about how great the colts are and how great the FAs have been all the time. whats wrong with you

[adamthyst]

I never said whether or not that I disliked Costa so I'll give him a chance since I've never seen him play, plus he can't get worse than Satele, right? 

 

If we happen to not land a starting center or Alex Mack in FA, I hope he and Holmes are/become solid centers for us that way we know that this was a steal. 

[jvan1973]

Undrafted and he was replaced by a rookie. What could go wrong?

Yeah, undrafted centers never amount to anything.

Jeff Saturday

[LetsRockIt]

wow you haters are way over the top. Way to have faith in our organization. Oh he doesn't have a youtube highlight video cause that directly refers to how good he is at football. You realize the cowboys, who make 10 terrible decisions a year replaced him. Jerry Jones blames every stupid thing he does on his players so he doesn't look bad. Have a little more faith as a fan than that people

[NewEra]

Yeah jones is getting al Davis bad. That team is a joke

[YOUR GM]

Yeah, undrafted centers never amount to anything.

Jeff Saturday

 

It's safer to call Saturday more an aberration than a norm. To basically bank on Costa being the next Jeff Saturday would be a monumental mistake, in my opinion

[#12]

At the very worst he'll be a slight improvement over Satele at a fourth of the cost.

 

But a slight improvement over Satele gets you nowhere. 

 

If they're not going to invest heavily in the C position, which would be understandable, I hope they at least bring in some more competition.  No, you may not need to pay a Mack to have a good O-line, but you need better C play than you've had. 

[NewEra]

If our guards play better than thy did last year if our center is slightly better that's a huge improvement.

[coltsblue1844]

FYI the top FA centers except Mack and Goodwin all went undrafted. Dietrich Smith, La Puente,Cook from Cinny and Wendell from NE and yes Costa all undrafted FA. If you haven't figured it out Grigs knows a little more about football than you pull your head it we are having a pretty good off season so far, Costa is a 3 position back at a spot that killed us last year. Interior line play. He is a capable C if it comes to it. Simply dismissing someone because they went undrafted shows a real genius. I guess Freeman was a mistake and that settles the dilema at WR Rogers and Whalen are garbage they were not drafted.

Personally, I'm not dismissing Costa because he was undrafted...I'm dismissing him *as our starter* because he's not very good. So much so, that Dallas felt the need to reach, drafting a center in the 1st round last year.

[YOUR GM]

If our guards play better than thy did last year if our center is slightly better that's a huge improvement.

 

Until an injury, which we can pretty much pencil in at this point, given our recent history. We still have no depth paired with a shaky starting core. If we don't find a solid starter in free agency soon, we're basically putting all our eggs into the draft to acquire depth and starters. That's not an ideal situation, at all

[TMPHBITEU]

Do you do anything else besides complain??

If your house was on fire, would you throw more fire at it in order to extinguish it?

[dgambill]

We all know the offensive line is the most important unit on the team but imo as far as the blocking goes center is the least important. They do call the blocking scheme out and that is big but to me we don't have to have a dominant center...I would much rather have two really good guards...who do most of the pulling and picking up the stunts etc. I'm not a line guru so maybe I'm TOTALLY wrong and I know everybody is important but there is a reason center is the cheapest paid player on the OL. I would love to have Mack but I don't think he is worth the money it likely would require to sign him. I much prefer upgrading our guards. That may happen with Thorton getting another years experience and Thomas getting healthy but to me the biggest issue was not that Satele was terrible...but all three on the interior were very inconsistant last year and he wasn't able to help. I think Costa and Hughes should be fine although I wouldn't have been opposed to adding another guard.

[NewEra]

Until an injury, which we can pretty much pencil in at this point, given our recent history. We still have no depth paired with a shaky starting core. If we don't find a solid starter in free agency soon, we're basically putting all our eggs into the draft to acquire depth and starters. That's not an ideal situation, at all

True. I would like to see us pick up the center from the skins. Would improve our run game and give us costa and Holmes as back ups

[#12]

If your house was on fire, would you throw more fire at it in order to extinguish it?

 

Depends on the insurance policy. 

[bluebambi]

If your house was on fire, would you throw more fire at it in order to extinguish it?

yes because the quicker you burn the oxygen out of the air the quicker the fire goes out !!!! O wait...

[throwing BBZ]

Until an injury, which we can pretty much pencil in at this point, given our recent history. We still have no depth paired with a shaky starting core. If we don't find a solid starter in free agency soon, we're basically putting all our eggs into the draft to acquire depth and starters. That's not an ideal situation, at all

 

  Oh ye of little Faith. We are Already in good shape with the Build. I expect we will draft our 2015 starting Center from USC.

 

 They addressed Center last draft with Holmes, have DThomas, Austin, and Costa as Depth.

 LT Castonzo, Reitz, Nixon

 LG DThomas, Reitz, Thornton, Nixon, Holmes

 RG Thornton, Nixon, Holmes, Costa, Austin

 RT Cherilus, Nixon, Reitz

[YOUR GM]

Oh ye of little Faith. We are Already in good shape with the Build. I expect we will draft our 2015 starting Center from USC.

They addressed Center last draft with Holmes, have DThomas, Austin, and Costa as Depth.

LT Castonzo, Reitz, Nixon

LG DThomas, Reitz, Thornton, Nixon, Holmes

RG Thornton, Nixon, Holmes, Costa, Austin

RT Cherilus, Nixon, Reitz

I'm sorry, but that lineup looks like a bunch of hot garbage, outside of the bookend tackles. Doesn't inspire confidence at all, to me

[csmopar]

If your house was on fire, would you throw more fire at it in order to extinguish it?

Yep I would.

[lennymoore24]

what do you mean? he doesnt even have a youtube highlight video? he sucks

 

in all seriousness the guy is complete trash though. just another overpaid grigson free agent. aw well center isnt an important position. its not like peps offense's has 80 percent of the runs straight up the middle with 3 tes

 

Yeah, what a scrum.  Undrafted free agent center already cut by one team.  Wait...didn't Jeff Saturday do that??  John Unitas???

[NewEra]

What's funny is someone already posted that all those guys but Mack I think were all udfa's

[Ken S.]

I wonder why the Colts won't sign some of you guys to be scouts for us...lol. Some of you guys know how this guy will perform for this team, even before he suited up...smh. Let's just give these guys a chance to play ONE DOWN WITH US before we start putting them in these "he sucks" categories. 

[Jim H.]

According to many of you, Costa is a bum who should find work selling cars or insurance.  Give the guy a chance to contribute before you bad mouth him.  Jeez.

[ColtJ82]

According to many of you, Costa is a bum who should find work selling cars or insurance.  Give the guy a chance to contribute before you bad mouth him.  Jeez.

There are a lot of people on this board that are freaking out because we haven't signed every available free agent......no patience. It is a long offseason. I personally don't think that Costa is anything other than an insurance policy. He is a versatile interior lineman. I don't believe our opening day starter at Center is on the roster currently. I also don't think it will be Alex Mack.

[Landon]

Management always talks about being a power running team yet they spend very little money upgrading our line so that we can be a 49'ers type pound the ball attack. Maybe they have a lot of faith that we do not have.

[Gavin]

Management always talks about being a power running team yet they spend very little money upgrading our line so that we can be a 49'ers type pound the ball attack. Maybe they have a lot of faith that we do not have.

Seems like it at this point, Unfortunately faith without action is to set onesself up for failure very often