Manti Te'o

[cmgww]

IF he comes out this year, I think the Colts should take him. Dude is a beast at MLB, and has been playing at a high level all season despite not practicing most weeks due to a lingering high ankle sprain. He hits like a ton of bricks, and though we have Angerer, we could use another LB. The problem is, he's probably a 1st rounder, so we only grab him if we trade away the Luck pick....he's a bit of a liability in pass coverage but that can be improved. If we want to be more physical on D, Te'o would be a good guy to grab. Thoughts?

[Jason_]

I'd love to get Teo or Luke Kuechly from Boston College...though I'd want to see Kuechly put on about 10 more lbs of muscle. Both are incredible MLBs and, as much as I like Angerer I'd still love to bring in a guy who's bigger/stronger and just as fast. In a perfect world I'd like to see a couple of trade backs and somehow work out a way to get 2 first round picks and take either Kuechly or Teo and either Claiborn, Kirkpatrick or Chase Minnifield to be the #1 CB.

[Andy]

He's a mid 1st round prospect, so I don't expect him to fall to the 2nd round and the Colts wont trade back to the teens, they may not even trade back at all. BTW, we have our beast MLB, and his name is Angerer. We dont need to take an LB, let alone taking one in the 1st round.

[Jason_]

He's a mid 1st round prospect, so I don't expect him to fall to the 2nd round and the Colts wont trade back to the teens, they may not even trade back at all. BTW, we have our beast MLB, and his name is Angerer. We dont need to take an LB, let alone taking one in the 1st round.

How far back the Colts are willing to trade will be determined by the player or players they choose to target.

And like I said, I like Angerer a lot but I wouldn't call him a beast....Urlacher is a beast. I also believe we will draft another LB in 2012 though that doesn't mean we'll draft one high. I certainly wouldn't be opposed to it though.

[cmgww]

It never hurts to have more than one good LB...and i said this would probably only happen if the Colts trade the Luck pick. Two stud MLBs would be nice to have. A guy can era

dream, cant he?

[Andy]

How far back the Colts are willing to trade will be determined by the player or players they choose to target.

Why would they draft a LB with their 1st round pick, when they have Angerer leading the NFL in tackles, and Conner proving he's a beast.

[Jason_]

Why would they draft a LB with their 1st round pick, when they have Angerer leading the NFL in tackles, and Conner proving he's a beast.

wow, you throw the term "beast" around way too easily. lol

[Andy]

wow, you throw the term "beast" around way too easily. lol

Angerer is the leader of the NFL in tackles, Conner is 6th in tackles, Gary Brackett, if he comes back, is very good. Why waste our 1st round pick on a position that is young and absolutely does not require anybody. Andrew Luck should be our pick as our future is going to be good with him.

[Jason_]

Angerer is the leader of the NFL in tackles, Conner is 6th in tackles, Gary Brackett, if he comes back, is very good. Why waste our 1st round pick on a position that is young and absolutely does not require anybody. Andrew Luck should be our pick as our future is going to be good with him.

Blah blah this thread is not about Luck. And no, i don't believe our LB core is set. I don't expect Brackett back at all but if he does come back it will, or at least should, be in a minimal role as a Nickel LB. I like both Conner and Angerer but neither do a particularly great job of fighting off blocks and Angerer especially has trouble bringing down RBs one on one. I would like to move Angerer to WILL, keep Wheeler at SAM and bring in either Kuechly or Teo at MIKE.

Even if the Colts feel set at the starting LBs, we don't have much depth. Moten hasn't done much of anything and neither has Edds. I'm not giving up on Edds yet though because he did play a few downs against Jax and did relatively well. Aside from that we have Brackett who may or may not be back next year, but even if he is he should be used pretty much on passing downs only. I am also going by my belief that Sims won't be brought back next year. If Sims is brought back then I could see not addressing LB at all in this draft.

However, I've also been paying close attention to some of the mid round LBs as well because I can't honestly say that I think the Colts WILL draft a LB high. I think it will be a 3rd-5th round pick. Here we could get Nigel Bradham, Keenan Robinson, Jerry Franklin, or James-Michael Johnson.

[doogansquest]

Angerer is the leader of the NFL in tackles, Conner is 6th in tackles, Gary Brackett, if he comes back, is very good. Why waste our 1st round pick on a position that is young and absolutely does not require anybody. Andrew Luck should be our pick as our future is going to be good with him.

No it won't. Our future will be uncertain with him. College QB's are the highest risk/lowest reward picks. Until he's playing and winning, our future is going to be nothing with him.

We are abysmal in many other areas, however. Tell me, how does drafting Luck help those areas? How will Luck perform with this team if Manning can't go? Seeing as how Manning is the only proven NFL QB capable of winning with this team, I would wager that Luck would look a lot like Painter.

By the way, you can't say that we have other draft picks to address those areas, when drafting those other areas in round 1 provides us with a much bigger boost than spending it on a bench-warmer, while taking developmental players in those other areas later.

Your posts =

[Andy]

Blah blah this thread is not about Luck. And no, i don't believe our LB core is set. I don't expect Brackett back at all but if he does come back it will, or at least should, be in a minimal role as a Nickel LB. I like both Conner and Angerer but neither do a particularly great job of fighting off blocks and Angerer especially has trouble bringing down RBs one on one. I would like to move Angerer to WILL, keep Wheeler at SAM and bring in either Kuechly or Teo at MIKE.

Even if the Colts feel set at the starting LBs, we don't have much depth. Moten hasn't done much of anything and neither has Edds. I'm not giving up on Edds yet though because he did play a few downs against Jax and did relatively well. Aside from that we have Brackett who may or may not be back next year, but even if he is he should be used pretty much on passing downs only. I am also going by my belief that Sims won't be brought back next year. If Sims is brought back then I could see not addressing LB at all in this draft.

However, I've also been paying close attention to some of the mid round LBs as well because I can't honestly say that I think the Colts WILL draft a LB high. I think it will be a 3rd-5th round pick. Here we could get Nigel Bradham, Keenan Robinson, Jerry Franklin, or James-Michael Johnson.

Im just saying why draft a player on a position that's arguably our strongest on D. Angerer is young, Conner is young. They're only going to get better with time. Why draft an unproven rookie linebacker who may not turn out well. He is sooo similar to Akeem Ayers it's scary, now look at Ayers. Im telling u, if u spend it on a defensive player, u spend it on Claibourne

[Andy]

No it won't. Our future will be uncertain with him. College QB's are the highest risk/lowest reward picks. Until he's playing and winning, our future is going to be nothing with him.

We are abysmal in many other areas, however. Tell me, how does drafting Luck help those areas? How will Luck perform with this team if Manning can't go? Seeing as how Manning is the only proven NFL QB capable of winning with this team, I would wager that Luck would look a lot like Painter.

By the way, you can't say that we have other draft picks to address those areas, when drafting those other areas in round 1 provides us with a much bigger boost than spending it on a bench-warmer, while taking developmental players in those other areas later.

Your posts =

The Colts will probably slowly change the team as they see that the only person who can perform in this offense is Manning. Let's not talk about Andrew Luck.

We have a 2nd round pick and 3rd round pick and with this draft being very good with cornerbacks, you're not drafting a benchwarmer. We don't need a linebacker right now, we need a cornerback and an O-lineman, and even a DT before a LB. Plus, you've seen in the past that some 6th rounders and UDFA's cna be very good and eventually start with the Colts. Conner, Bethea, Brackett, Mathis, Bullitt, Saturday, Garcon, Tamme. The list goes on and on.

Your posts are

[Jason_]

Im just saying why draft a player on a position that's arguably our strongest on D. Angerer is young, Conner is young. They're only going to get better with time. Why draft an unproven rookie linebacker who may not turn out well. He is sooo similar to Akeem Ayers it's scary, now look at Ayers. Im telling u, if u spend it on a defensive player, u spend it on Claibourne

To an extent I agree. However imo there are quite a few more solid, playmaking CBs at the top of the draft than there are LBs so that's the one reason I'd consider taking LB first and then taking the best available CB at the top of the 2nd. Considering how many QBs, OL and WRs that I expect to go early in the draft, there are going to be quite a few defensive players sliding further than they should. I wouldn't be surprised if a guy like Chase Minnifield or Teo slide out of the 1st into the top of the 2nd. You could always take Claiborn early and hope that Teo slides to the top of the 2nd but the point is there are more great options behind Claiborn than there are behind Kuechly and Teo.

[Andy]

To an extent I agree. However imo there are quite a few more solid, playmaking CBs at the top of the draft than there are LBs so that's the one reason I'd consider taking LB first and then taking the best available CB at the top of the 2nd. Considering how many QBs, OL and WRs that I expect to go early in the draft, there are going to be quite a few defensive players sliding further than they should. I wouldn't be surprised if a guy like Chase Minnifield or Teo slide out of the 1st into the top of the 2nd. You could always take Claiborn early and hope that Teo slides to the top of the 2nd but the point is there are more great options behind Claiborn than there are behind Kuechly and Teo.

Depends what you mean by top of the draft, but I kinda agree. I think that there are more LBs in the 1st round than CBs. You have 3 Cbs in the first round, compared to 4 LBs in the 1st. Claiborne is a top 10 pick, and Kuechly or Te'O is probably 12 or 13th.

[a06cc]

This is a good topic to discuss. We'll find out next season if we need linebackers or not. We have guys dropping back into coverage because we don't have a corner that can cover man to man. That's how teams attack us, they force us into to man coverage eliminating our zones. If or once we get a elite corner then everything can be found out. During the stretch of Nevis being out... We knew that the focus was going to be back on Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis. So once they got washed out why didn't we have a linebacker blitzing behind them? We honestly need to start blitzing more linebackers because the lines for blitzing are there. You can take a risk blitzing 5 and having 2 linebackers dropping back into coverage. We have the best DE's in the game today so I didn't understand.

[cmgww]

It never hurts to have more than one good LB...and i said this would probably only happen if the Colts trade the Luck pick. Two stud MLBs would be nice to have. A guy can era

dream, cant he?

[a06cc]

Yeah there's no question about have a corp of good linebackers man.

[CjMcGirt23]

lol When I seen Teo as the headline I was like "Jason's gonna be all in this" .

[BmoreColt]

The Colts really don't have a great set of linebackers. Angerer cleans up alot of plays, and Conner has his moments. With this said, the reason one leads the NFL in tackles and the other is in the top ten, is because of the lacking factor from the defensive front. Te'o makes any player on the field pay the ultimate price for stepping on the field! That is the guy I want playing MLB. Angerer has been great at MLB, but he is not on Te'o's level! Give me the guy who has bad intetions towards the guy with the ball, the guy who rocks anyones world he hits! But the Colts will fail to see this....

[Moncrief]

Blah blah this thread is not about Luck. And no, i don't believe our LB core is set. I don't expect Brackett back at all but if he does come back it will, or at least should, be in a minimal role as a Nickel LB. I like both Conner and Angerer but neither do a particularly great job of fighting off blocks and Angerer especially has trouble bringing down RBs one on one. I would like to move Angerer to WILL, keep Wheeler at SAM and bring in either Kuechly or Teo at MIKE.

Even if the Colts feel set at the starting LBs, we don't have much depth. Moten hasn't done much of anything and neither has Edds. I'm not giving up on Edds yet though because he did play a few downs against Jax and did relatively well. Aside from that we have Brackett who may or may not be back next year, but even if he is he should be used pretty much on passing downs only. I am also going by my belief that Sims won't be brought back next year. If Sims is brought back then I could see not addressing LB at all in this draft.

However, I've also been paying close attention to some of the mid round LBs as well because I can't honestly say that I think the Colts WILL draft a LB high. I think it will be a 3rd-5th round pick. Here we could get Nigel Bradham, Keenan Robinson, Jerry Franklin, or James-Michael Johnson.

I know Jason, I as you, are tired of all the Luck talk.

It has been a long time since i have posted anything on here.

Anyways I still prefer Vontaze Burfict. Or my boy Keenan Robinson. Go Horns.

[fvantagio]

Take a DB in the first and hope Te'o or Kuechly falls to the 2nd. I have a feeling one of them will. We are not set at LB and as good as Angerer is he allows alot of yards after he makes contact. He has a nose for the ball but i still believe that he is better suited for Will. If either Teo or Kuechly fall to the 2nd we take them simply because they would be the best available. If they dont we go to another position of need and grab a linebacker later in the draft. A solid NT and SS can make up for average LB play. I.e. Mark Barron and Dontari Poe, both of which will be available in the 2nd almost guaranteed.

[Jason_]

Take a DB in the first and hope Te'o or Kuechly falls to the 2nd. I have a feeling one of them will. We are not set at LB and as good as Angerer is he allows alot of yards after he makes contact. He has a nose for the ball but i still believe that he is better suited for Will. If either Teo or Kuechly fall to the 2nd we take them simply because they would be the best available. If they dont we go to another position of need and grab a linebacker later in the draft. A solid NT and SS can make up for average LB play. I.e. Mark Barron and Dontari Poe, both of which will be available in the 2nd almost guaranteed.

Agree all around except for the almost guarantee of Poe being in available in the 2nd round. I think a 3-4 team takes him in the 1st round. There are other options though if Poe is gone....Josh Chapman, Sylvester Ritter (really moved up the boards lately), Kawann Short and Kendall Reyes are other options that should be available in the 2nd or 3rd round.

[Ramblinwreck7]

Blah blah this thread is not about Luck. And no, i don't believe our LB core is set. I don't expect Brackett back at all but if he does come back it will, or at least should, be in a minimal role as a Nickel LB. I like both Conner and Angerer but neither do a particularly great job of fighting off blocks and Angerer especially has trouble bringing down RBs one on one. I would like to move Angerer to WILL, keep Wheeler at SAM and bring in either Kuechly or Teo at MIKE.

Even if the Colts feel set at the starting LBs, we don't have much depth. Moten hasn't done much of anything and neither has Edds. I'm not giving up on Edds yet though because he did play a few downs against Jax and did relatively well. Aside from that we have Brackett who may or may not be back next year, but even if he is he should be used pretty much on passing downs only. I am also going by my belief that Sims won't be brought back next year. If Sims is brought back then I could see not addressing LB at all in this draft.

However, I've also been paying close attention to some of the mid round LBs as well because I can't honestly say that I think the Colts WILL draft a LB high. I think it will be a 3rd-5th round pick. Here we could get Nigel Bradham, Keenan Robinson, Jerry Franklin, or James-Michael Johnson.

Seems like I've got you liking Philip Wheeler more than you used too, actually probably his play has convinced you hahah. The only real weaknesses I see from our linebackers are:

1. They aren't very good in coverage. From what I can tell, Wheeler has been playing well in coverage. I am disappointed that Angerer hasn't at least gotten one interception but I guess he is doing okay at best. It seems that Conner's weakness is coverage because he needs to improve there a lot.

2. Angerer sometimes has trouble tackling runningbacks, he isn't a very big player. Wheeler and Conner have done well in tackling from what I can tell.

I think adding a talented OLB in a guy like Sean Spence at around the 4th round would be good to bolster the depth there. We could draft a MLB like you say, but 2 things have to happen. Angerer has to prove that he can play WLB effectively, and we draft a MLB not too early.

Also, why don't you like Vontaize Burfict? From what I've read, he is very talented, but he just has personal foul issues. I think I remember reading that he was good in coverage and that he is also very physical. If we could draft him in the 2nd our 3rd round, then I'd think about it very hard. We have to get a top CB in the 1st round, a top NT in the 1st or 2nd round, and a top SS in the 2nd or 3rd round before we draft a LB though. LB is one of those minor needs to me like OG and WR. If we have enough picks in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd rounds, then we can address all of our needs with quality players.

[Bleedin Blue]

I don't see how you can put linebacker as a high draft pick for us in this draft. No way baby. Our greatest needs are clearly in other areas:

QB (if Manning proves to be a changed man for the worse)

CB (Nuff said)

SS (secondary is weak)

DE (Mathis and Freeney are not going to last forever)

OG (keep rebuilding that line)

RB (Can't get too many at this position)

[Ramblinwreck7]

I don't see how you can put linebacker as a high draft pick for us in this draft. No way baby. Our greatest needs are clearly in other areas:

QB (if Manning proves to be a changed man for the worse)

CB (Nuff said)

SS (secondary is weak)

DE (Mathis and Freeney are not going to last forever)

OG (keep rebuilding that line)

RB (Can't get too many at this position)

RB? DE? I don't see how those are major needs. How did you leave out DT though?

[Jason_]

I don't see how you can put linebacker as a high draft pick for us in this draft. No way baby. Our greatest needs are clearly in other areas:

QB (if Manning proves to be a changed man for the worse)

CB (Nuff said)

SS (secondary is weak)

DE (Mathis and Freeney are not going to last forever)

OG (keep rebuilding that line)

RB (Can't get too many at this position)

the only way I'd want to take LB that high is if we were able to pull off a couple of trade downs in the first round to get into the 8-12 area. This would allow us to acquire multiple additional picks in the 2nd-4th rounds and this is a deep draft in a lot of positions you mentioned (though I noticed you for some reason left out DT). However, imo this is going to be a relatively weak draft for pure LBs. Quite a few of the top "LBs" are Jack LBs that aren't really the mold of LB that the Colts would look for imo.