AFC South Preview with Trevor Sikkema

23:23Trevor Sikkema:So to me, I think that this will allow Salah, who is one of those defensive coordinators and head coaches, I guess I should just say defensive minds, that likes to win with four, kind of the way that we talked about with the Texans. And he hasn't always had the defensive line to not blitz as much as he doesn't want to blitz. But I think for Tennessee, it's a nice year one group for him to stay true to the scheme that he wants to be able to run. Because I think that that's pretty big for first year head coaches coming in when the roster doesn't really fit exactly what they want to do schematically yet.

23:53Trevor Sikkema:Sometimes you see like a lot of head butting in terms of like what guys are good at versus what they're being asked to do. I think it's going to be a little bit more streamlined than it normally is for a first year head coach because of what Sal has been able to do acquiring those defensive line talent. Yeah, it's a good group. it's a deep group they they've added a lot it was clearly a priority I still do wonder if it there's enough one-on-one juice like is Keldrick fault that guy as a rookie Jermaine Johnson's a good player like does he have that juice you have Jeffrey Simmons who is going to be a force multiplier and help everyone else out but it does feel like a lot of good depth and a lot of like Bs versus a lot of like blue chip talent.

24:40I'm going to flip to my most non-important non-quarterback on the team and mention JC Latham, who, oh yeah. Like, look, they drafted him as a top 10 pick and now they're just hoping he can be a decent starter. It's not even a lock. I don't think that he's going to keep that starting job, but they don't really have great options. There was some buzz of like, he might've been available in a trade. and this is, I think, the weakness of the team. When you give that much money to Dan Moore at left tackle and you have a high pick at right tackle and you're one of the more lackluster tackle duos last year, that really needs to change or it's not going to matter.

25:21And even the interior, other than Peter Skaransky, on paper doesn't look like an amazing group. And so you're hoping the coaching helps here, but they could really use J.C. Latham to develop into a plus starter.

25:36Trevor Sikkema:No, I'm with you. That's my things go wrong if with this team is they have to figure out the offensive line. And as a draft guy, I was so shocked that we weren't talking about O-line for the Tennessee Titans more at number four overall. I think Cam, or I think Carnell Tate is going to be great for them for what they want to do. Again, getting more vertical in their offense. But Peter Skronsky is the only offensive lineman that I could tell you with full confidence is going to be there two years from now, right? I think that all four other starters, you have no idea. And that's J.C. Latham included.

26:07Trevor Sikkema:And anytime that's the case, man, I just have a hard time really passing over offensive linemen in the draft, especially when you've got a high pick. So I'm with you. That goes into my things definitely go wrong for this team if this offensive line can't be a lot better than what they were last year. And their fans will point out they're excited about Carmen Briscilla, who's with Dable, who did a pretty good job, I thought, with the Giants last year. And he's replacing Bill Callahan, who's one of the goats as an offensive line coach, but it didn't really make it happen. Didn't work in Tennessee for whatever reason.

26:37My things go wrong if the big ticket items in the secondary, which we haven't mentioned, don't work. And you just see this happen over the years. More bad money, I think, is spent in the secondary and free agency than anywhere else. Good players pop up for one good year, two good years, and then they get signed for big money, and then they're just not difference makers. So they give Alante Taylor a huge contract to be one of the highest paid slots, essentially, in the league. And then Cordell Flott, who had a good year in New York last year. The front can make up for it, but like I said, I'm not sure about whether there's enough juice.

27:15And then you look at the safety position, if those cornerbacks don't get pan out as well as they played last year, as well as the Titans hope, then they could get picked on a little bit in the back end.

27:26Trevor Sikkema:I'm a big Kevin Winston Jr. believer. So with, with him, young safety, second year player. So when he, with him being healthy, man, I hope, uh, I hope we see the best of him. Cause his stuff was special at Penn state when he was coming up as an underclassman. And here's the thing. Salah can coach defense. Nobody doubts that like what he did with the 49ers last year was great, but everything he did with the 49ers before, more importantly, what he did with the tight, uh, with the jets when he took over for the jets, that was one of the best defenses in the league. And I think this is a good enough group.

27:58Maybe not a great group, but it can be a better than average top 10 to 12 defense if everything goes right. And that kind of leads us to the ceiling floor of the team. To me, if the defense hits, like this can be a competitive team. Cam Ward taking like a next step. The talent is there for them to win seven, eight games. Like I think that is probably the ceiling of the team. The floor is obvious. It's more of the same. I think they'd be a little better than they were a year ago, but they could still be one of the worst teams in the NFL if things don't go well. But I think they could hang around 500, make some noise.

28:36Potentially, I don't see them as a potential playoff team.

28:39Trevor Sikkema:Yeah, we have the same thinking, right? They're 3-14 last year. I think the ceiling is 8-9, still missing the playoffs. And I don't mind how their schedule starts. You know, it's not too bad. And I think that having a Week 9 bye is nice because it gives you a little bit of a reset moment right in the middle of the season. decently easy schedule if there is such a thing in the NFL but floor yeah I think it's a little better than that you know uh three and 14 mark but um five and 12 is where I had for the floor so five and 12 for the floor for this team and then eight and nine for the ceiling that week one game and they start with two home games they're always trying to help out the teams that struggled the year before and the Jets and Titans that these week one games to me like that's one of the most important games of the season for these two teams.

29:24I will be watching because there's so much unknown about those two teams. And both teams are looking at that matchup and thinking like, oh, we can get one in week one. We can start out one and oh. And then they're at the Giants week three. That's a winnable road game. That's what I'm saying. There's a path here for two and one and you're feeling yourself. I'm feeling myself today talking about this division. Let's take a quick break. Trevor Sikama is with us for the first time on NFL Daily. Won't be the last. That's my bold prediction. But we'll be back in just a minute to hit the rest of the division.

30:06Back on NFL Daily. Liam Cohen, not happy with the lack of attention on the Jaguars. So we gave him a lot of pop earlier this week. It just happens to be AFC South week. We'll give them their fair share of pop here. Trevor Sykema, give me what's bringing you joy about this program.

30:27Trevor Sikkema:We didn't talk about this before we came back from the break. It's literally Liam Cohen. That's actually what gets me excited and what brings me joy with this team. I grew up a Bucs fan, and so followed the Tampa Bay Buccaneers very closely even still to this day. You got the Mike Allstott jersey in the background for everyone watching on YouTube. If you like Trevor and this show, like and subscribe. But yeah, I love the Allstott jersey back there. That's a good plug to get people to come over to the YouTube channel. It's good. It's good. I see what you're doing there. That's why you're a pro.

30:58Trevor Sikkema:But Cohen, I mean, I enjoyed what he did when he was in college. I enjoyed what he did when he was the Buccaneers offensive coordinator. The Bucs were kind of running through a couple of different offensive coordinators, some one-year guys here, here, here. and then when Liam Cohen came along it just felt as though like he just had this confidence about what he was going to set up and the acclimation period for him was okay training camp and then the first four or five weeks of the season but other than that like you got to establish your identity and I think that's sometimes an issue with offensive coordinators is they go well we don't know exactly what these guys are good at yet and then you get into week 12 week 13 and you still don't feel like you have an identity of the team Cohen was able to recognize that so quickly with the Buccaneers where the second half of the season there was so much confidence with every single player because they knew exactly what they were going to do because they were put in the positions to succeed you obviously saw that again last year with him uh with the Jags winning 13 games and so I just the way that he thinks about the game of football the the personality that he is to instill confidence in his players you know whether it's them being doubted or whether it's you know him just telling them hey yeah if we do this it will work and i think that we saw that so early on last year i think that's something that's going to continue and he's one of the best coaches in the nfl and so he is somebody who gives me joy because i'm so excited to always see what he is cooking up uh now with this jags team obviously so you're a tampa guy trey um i can't call you that now um i'm a math and and so is liam cohen spiritually he went it's true he went he went to umass he grew up in rhode island which is essentially the same idea sorry rhode island it is i mean the same types of personality and i think it really comes out in those sound bites that people latch on to because he's just like kind of always looking for a fight but that's his love language.

32:53That's mine too. Like that. I, I can't get it out of me. That's just who he is. And I had, I had the same idea of just, he's, he's gonna be great at the podium, but more importantly, he is going to be great on the field. And I think that one year he had with the Rams, where he was the offensive coordinator and it was their nightmare season. He just got caught. And I fell victim to this from a public image standpoint of getting blamed a little for that when that wasn't about him. He wasn't even calling the plays. It was just a nightmare season for them. And yet when he got back into the NFL and the Bucs season and now with the Jags, like he's the one, like he's that guy.

33:31He is the guy everyone is searching for. The Bucs should have kept him. I know that's a sore spot there in Tampa. Like he is right there with Sean McVay and Ben Johnson at the very forefront of play calling and what it takes in offense. And I don't know if that leads you, if you go offense or defense, with your scheme dream, which, which way do you want to go?

33:52Trevor Sikkema:So the scheme dream for me is it is on the offensive side of the ball. And when I was kind of like looking up some numbers of, Hey, what could this team do to be a little bit different this year? I think that this goes into a little bit of them wanting to lean more into heavier personnel. We'll talk about Nick Borker here, uh, here in a second, but when it comes to the scheme dream specifically getting heavier personnel when they go under center. So this team is not afraid to go under center. Liam Cohen was not afraid to go under center. Trevor Lawrence, not afraid to go under center. This team had the ninth highest percentage of snaps under center last year, but just 24th in the NFL in overall two tight end or three tight end sets.

34:32Trevor Sikkema:So heavier personnel sets. When you think about being able to get under center, the things that you can do when it comes to formations and play action and just everything, it gets so advantageous when you have multiple tight ends that you could put on the field. Because if you have a quarterback and an offense that's very comfortable getting under center, whether it's to hand the ball off and to actually execute your run game or to execute play action, and you do so with multiple tight ends on the field, the defense has to respect where those tight ends are. They have to respect wherever they think the strong side of the line of scrimmage is going to be.

35:07Trevor Sikkema:And I think that the Jags, when you look at how often they wanted to get under center last year, and they did get under center last year, and then some of the offseason emphasis to get more tight ends and prioritize that tight end position, I think we're going to see heavier personnel for them when they're going under center. And I just think it's going to unlock another level of what Liam Cohn wants to do to say to stay mysterious with what the play call is going to be, where the ball is going to go. And I think that's going to unlock that. Wait, so are you going Nate Borker as your most important non quarterback?

35:43Trevor Sikkema:I am. And I'm a little reluctant to do this. Second round rookie. Where did he go to school? He went to Texas A &M. One of the most surprising picks of the draft. he was and he is your most important non-quarterback he is and i'm almost a little reluctant to do this because my my face was all over social media with my reaction for when this pick came in i was floored my jaw hit the floor i could not believe that he and it's not because i've said this multiple times it's not because i don't like the player it's not because i don't think he's going to be a difference maker i just couldn't believe he got picked and number uh was It was a 54 overall in the second round there.

36:22Trevor Sikkema:Started the run. But it did indeed start the run. And James Gladstone, when they revealed the behind-the-scenes footage, he's like, hey, let's go shock the world here with this pick. And they absolutely did. But the reason why I think he's the most important, one, it ties into sort of what I said about how I think that their scheme can change a little bit there. They didn't draft him in the second round to be a bystander. And I don't mean to put too much on a rookie's plate. However, I do think they want to get heavier in their personnel, whether it's under center or not. and when you look at Brenton Strange, Brenton Strange was a key part of this offense last year.

36:55Trevor Sikkema:They wanted to run a lot of what they did, whether it was the run game or the pass game, through Brenton Strange. He missed a little bit of time due to injury, only played 75 % of the snaps, the offensive snaps last year, didn't play a full season, and it was different when he was hurt and when he was not out there. So not only to expand how often and how confident they can be putting two tight ends on the field, also a little bit of insurance of, hey, if Brenton Strange gets hurt again, we still want to be able to run an offense that has tight ends heavily involved. And I think the answer to both of those questions is Nate Borker.

37:30Trevor Sikkema:Borker. Again, I don't want to put too much on a rookie's plate because as Ian Beckles, a former offensive lineman for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, used to tell me, hey, Trevor, rookies suck. It's just the way it is. And he would always hear me get excited about these young guys. And so he's always trying to put a little bit of cold water on it. But I think that however quickly Borker can adapt to what they want to put on his plate, that could hold the key for how perhaps unstoppable even this offense can be this season. I know you mentioned Liam Cohen's time with the Rams. He came in with the Rams for the first time in 2018.

38:05Trevor Sikkema:That was when, you know, those condensed sets were sort of in vogue. And I think that we could, especially with Parker Washington, who gives his all as a blocker, Jacoby Myers, who gives his all as a blocker. I think you're going to start to see more of these condensed, heavy sets from this team. And I think that it's really just going to change how Liam Cohen's going to be able to really put a lot of stress on defense coordinators with everything that he could do. Yeah, you mentioned two of the really versatile wide receiving weapons that they have who can both block. And I noticed, you know, you didn't mention Brian Thomas Jr., who maybe his fit in the system was a little awkward at first, but now they've kind of figured out what he can do.

38:40And so for him, he's not a role player because I still think he might lead the team in receiving yards. I think Parker Washington would be more likely receptions, but either way, they're kind of figured out what he can do, what he can't do. And it's a crazy deep group of weapons with Travis Hunter also in the mix. And I'll never say that running backs don't matter, but on this team, I think with Liam Cohen's playing calling the questions about the running backs and the offensive line relatively is lessened. Not that they aren't important, but they're lessened by the play calling and the amount of weapons.

39:15Uh, we haven't talked defense, so I'll go there with my scheme dream. And Anthony Campanile is the defensive coordinator. Second year, they lose Devin Lloyd in the off season, lost some depth. Uh, they just forced a lot of turnovers last year. I think there are absolutely questions in the secondary. They are very reliant on Trayvon Walker and Josh Heinz Allen, who wouldn't be, but like it, there's not a lot of great depth behind them. I don't think the defensive tackle spot is great. Even the cornerback spot behind Hunter, like they probably feel a little more confident in it than I do, which is why Travis Hunter is my most non-important, you know, my most important non-quarterback because.

39:56Sure, sure. He's been out there hooping this week. And I think he will add, you mentioned the rookies suck. I mean, Travis Hunter didn't suck, but he wasn't the Travis Hunter I was expecting. His rookie season, his head was swimming a little. He is a young player. I think he's going to take a step on both sides of the ball, add on both sides of the ball. But the important part here to me is that he's a difference making cornerback. And I absolutely expect him to be. And that will maybe make up for, you know, some of the turnover luck that they had. And some of it was luck. Like they had one of the highest percentage of recovering fumbles in the last like 10, 15 years.

40:33And that's just, you know, you can't count on that happening year after year. But I think Travis Hunter gives them another blue chip talent, especially on the defense, that they need to kind of maintain where they were at. because it was a surprisingly good defense a year ago.

40:46Trevor Sikkema:Yeah, and that sort of goes into my, you know, things go wrong. If there's a couple of areas that you kind of mentioned that you could potentially point to here, but I'm going to talk about the safety play. Like if the safeties can't hold up, I get a little bit worried about this defense. They gave up the ninth most completions of 20 or more yards last year and had the fourth most deep passes against them as a team. Still have Eric Murray, still have Antonio Johnson, who was coming off of a good year. But I think that you've got a lot of young guys around him. The secondary's got to limit those explosives and those big plays because if there's an area where you can really attack down the field, hey, Josh Hines-Allen, Trayvon Walker, and even if the defensive line plays really well, if you don't have safeties in the secondary that can really defend deep, I think you're still going to struggle.

41:30Trevor Sikkema:So they've got to be better than they were last year in that area. Yeah, Jordan Lewis was good for them at nickel, and he's going to play corner for them. Caleb Rantzoff, we had all the time in the world, the two-lane legend. we'll see if he can come back from an injury he was a third round pick for them last year and make an impact before we get to the ceiling floor things go wrong if Lawrence Fritz is out if Lawrence is more like the guy we've seen for most of his career and I found it interesting in Mike Sandoz QB tears that the coaches GM's kind of aren't totally buying in on Lawrence finally getting it late last season to me it's partly that he got Liam Cohen.

42:09And that's why I think it can be steady, but I've never really been a Lawrence guy versus consensus because once he gets past his first read, sometimes I just don't understand the decision-making process and he's not always been crazy accurate. So like the athleticism, everything else hasn't been enough to make up for it. But if he's that guy in the second half of the season where it was, you kind of knew who you were getting week after week, including the playoff game. I thought he played well in the playoff game. They're just a different team. So that's the things go wrong if, for me, it's just that if he fritzes out a little bit mentally and he's not the guy.

42:43I don't know if you've ever been a Lawrence guy overall.

42:47Trevor Sikkema:No, obviously, like when he was coming out of Clemson, I thought he was incredible. But Lawrence was actually a really good case study for me when it came to going back and seeing maybe how you could scout things a little bit better and a little bit more accurately. I just didn't take into account how much of his success at Clemson was a lot of the first read stuff and how talented Clemson was and how much more talented they were than a lot of other teams. When teams really started to rotate their coverages or have different looks in the secondary, like he would struggle there back in college.

43:16Trevor Sikkema:And I just didn't really give, I don't think, enough weight to that when talking about him to the NFL, which kind of goes into sort of where he is, right? This is year six for Trevor Lawrence. The first year was an absolute, I mean, you like that on fire was the Urban Meyer year with him. So it's like, OK, well, is he is he sort of where he should be? I would have liked for him to take a little bit more of a definitive step a little bit earlier. But there's reason to believe the best version of Trevor Lawrence and the most consistent, I think, is probably the better way to say it. Version of Trevor Lawrence does actually show up this year in year two of Liam Cohen.

43:49Trevor Sikkema:So I think that I've probably been right around sort of like the middle of like what people think with with Lawrence. But I really do think that this could be a really strong year with him, with Liam going. And you hate to pick on a guy for like how he's reading the game and coverage. And we're kind of talking around it when it's talking about getting past your first read. But there are there is a certain type of player. And I think of Ben Roethlisberger, even though he's very different than Lawrence, I think of like peak Russell Wilson in a little way that. sometimes like the men, you know, the mental peak of your career is going to be more like year six, seven, eight, nine, obviously keeps getting better, but it takes some quarterbacks longer to develop that part of the game than others.

44:32And then when that starts hitting the athleticism that everyone's so excited about, uh, really comes out ceiling floor of this team. I think they are one of the teams that can win the super bowl. I'm a, I'm a championship bigamist on this show. I probably have a list of like 11, 12 teams. Like, I don't think it's that short, but I think the Jaguars are one of them. I do think they have more of a variance though than the Texans for instance, or than some of the other AFC teams between the offensive line. Some of the things I talked about, the overall talent in the secondary between Trevor Lawrence, I love Liam Cohen.

45:05And even he, like if something went wrong, is it like they're going to get stuck in a rut? I, I don't, I don't know yet. And so to me, they have more of a floor where things could go really wrong and it could be more of a seven win team, But ultimately, I think they're more, you know, leaning towards that playoff championship contender. And it's going to be really important to win this division because it's just so hard to win the Super Bowl as a wildcard team. And so them versus the Texans. And we'll see. Maybe the Colts is just a big deal.

45:33Trevor Sikkema:You know, if we're talking about teams that like have the ability to potentially win a Super Bowl, I suppose the Jaguars should be on that list. the ceiling that I had for them though is 12 and 5 so not quite as good as last year but I think there's around that mark but I think like conference championship feels like a ceiling for this team where I like him and I like what the ceiling could be I'm just not sure it's the whole team yet for them to make that Super Bowl jump so that's where I have them as more of a conference championship type of a team with that ceiling and then the floor is like hey yeah if lawrence doesn't progress if the defense takes a couple steps back if the offensive line ends up being a little bit more of an issue than we thought uh eight nine feels like the floor for this team missing the playoffs but i think it's much more likely you get closer to that um nine to eleven win range for them is something that's uh more realistic yeah good and bad for jags fans out there uh the good like we blew over that that 12 minute buzzer thanks to eric for not you know enforcing it so i think the jags got more time on this show than any team i'm gonna get yelled at You guys aren't going to invite me back.

46:37Trevor Sikkema:We're blowing past the time every single time. It's just a way to speak. I'm going to get fined. I'm going to get fined from you guys. You guys are doing like two and a half hour redrafts on the NFL Stock Exchange, and that's great content. I love that stuff, but we're daily, so we try to keep it moving sometimes. The bad, though, that's the good for the Jack. The bad is that Trevor kind of convinced me that, in my heart, I think conference championship as the ceiling feels more right this year. Sometimes in year two with a good new coach, like even if the record's not as good, you are taking a step forward.

47:09You just see it a lot. So that actually makes more sense. I'm now lowering my ceiling. Sorry. Let's talk about the Colts, a team that I believe has quite a high variance too when we get to the ceiling floor. I think the ceiling is sneaky high and the floor is, you know, is the basement to kind of parapherase Michael Jordan. What is bringing you joy when it comes to the Colts? the floor is the floor is the basement the floor is like a top five pick and who has their pick don't the jets have their pick this year so the jets are just like rooting it on every everybody's

47:43Trevor Sikkema:pick yes if you have a question of who has their pick you've got a good chance if you just say that it's the the new york chats um what brings me joy for this team the potential jumps i think whether it's year two year three year two in the system there's a lot of guys that you can get excited about on this team. Tyler Warren is one of them. Tanner Bordellini, who had a really great year last year, stepping into that starting role. Jalen Travis getting a good, getting a crack at being a starting offensive tackle for them. Leatu Latu. Okay. What can the potential jump that he could have this year?

48:15Trevor Sikkema:I think Sauce Gardner, if with this team now, hopefully healthy, you know, his second year jump here for them. Like there's just a lot of, I couldn't say like second year jump. Cause sometimes it's guys who are in year two, year three, and even maybe a little bit longer than that but it's these potential jumps for a lot of players at some really important positions on this roster uh that give me a lot of joy because for as much as it has not come together for this Colts team the way that that obviously like the front office and the coaching staff would have liked um Chris Ballard is a draft guy at heart and and so I I love sort of always watching his process and how how serious they take the draft and player development and getting guys who are good fits for them and everything.

48:59Trevor Sikkema:And I think there's just a handful of players that you look at and you can go, man, I could realistically see a world where you're really taking a next step up. You're really improving your consistency, the efficiency in how you play, the impact of how you play, whatever that is. And I just feel as though we're sort of littered around this roster of guys who could potentially do that. And so it's a roster that does get me excited going a little bit towards your point of sort of the variance and the potential high ceiling. Some people might hear a high ceiling with the Colts and roll their eyes.

49:29Trevor Sikkema:But I look at this roster and I look at a lot of guys that have the potential to take that jump. And if they do, yeah, we're talking about hitting maybe a ceiling that's a little bit higher than people would expect for this team. I'll never forget because I was in New Orleans for a wedding of a friend. And at that moment in time, last season, the Indianapolis Colts were the number one team in the AFC. They were the number one offense in the NFL. They were eight and two and they were like setting records. I mean, that's the ceiling. And you're right when you talk about the development. I think it's something that people should know about this roster.

50:01We talked about them, that they were a sneaky win-now team last year, despite the uncertainty at quarterback going into the year, because they have so many guys that have been there for a while and could be taking that step up. So I'm going to jump all the way ahead to most important non-quarterback before I get to my joy, because you mentioned Leotu Latu, and I do think that is emblematic of the team in general. I think he took a really good step as a difference-making pass rusher, was my favorite pass rusher in that draft, was clearly their favorite pass rusher. He was the first defensive player taken.

50:32And he's so important because I do think they need a little bit of that development and juice. But the ceiling for me is him as a top 10 edge, you know, is him making, you know, getting into the all pro mix. And he's had such a deep bag of moves that sometimes it takes you a little while to figure it all out. but I think he took an important step forward. And if he can take another big step forward, that's why I put him as my most important non-quarterback.

50:57Trevor Sikkema:No, I feel you. That goes right into sort of my like, if things go wrong, if the things go wrong, if to me is if they don't have a finisher on defense, that's the statement there, because I looked up some other numbers from NGS here without blitzing. Okay. The Colts were fourth in total pressures with 160 last year, and they were seventh in pressure percentage with just over 33. It's pretty dang good. If you're top 10 in both those marks, when it comes to pressures. However, they were just 20th in sacks with 24, and they were 25th in sack percentage at just 5%. You're getting a lot of guys that are collapsing the pocket.

51:32Trevor Sikkema:Hey, they're making a difference. They're beating their guy. You're just not doing it soon enough, and you're not enough of a finisher. And when you look at this team, Greg, almost a fourth of their salary cap is tied up in their secondary. And if you don't have a defensive line that can complement the money and the talent that you've spent in the secondary, that's not going to be good because a lot of your chips are on the table on that defensive side of the football, especially in the secondary there. So you've got to have a finisher. You have to have somebody that puts fear in the heart of a quarterback to get rid of the ball just a fraction of a second, maybe before they want to.

52:08Trevor Sikkema:And that's where that expensive and talented secondary has to be able to capitalize with creating some turnover. So to me, Latu is by far the top candidate to be that finisher on defense. and they absolutely need one this year. Well, you know who agrees with you? Chris Ballard. And he agreed with you so much, he was ready to sign Trey Hendrickson to a big deal. I always think about the sliding doors moments of the offseason. And the reports were that they had the best offer in on Trey Hendrickson before everything fell apart with the Max Crosby trade, which caused the Ravens, who might have been a more attractive destination for him, to raise their offer, get to the spot, and then they kind of settle for Arden Key.

52:52And yeah, it's just not as exciting. They do have DeForest Buckner back. You mentioned the defensive line. He had a neck injury that we weren't sure, a back injury that if he was going to come back, Grover Stewart's been there forever. But yeah, you're right to think about that juice. That leads me into my schematic talk, which is what's Lou Anarumo going to do? I think the average fan probably forgets Lou Anarumo who was with Cincinnati, got a lot of credit for how creative his defense was. Good coach, kind of changing what he wants to do week after week. And I think he struggled to do that last year with the Colts because they were just so banged up, especially in the secondary.

53:30You thought Charverius Ward was going to be a difference maker. He was never on the field. He is back for this team next year. You trade for Sauce Gardner and you think, OK, maybe that can unlock us being a little more creative week after week. He gets hurt immediately. Lee. And so with a little more health up front, you didn't have Buckner really either last year. You have a young player in CJ Allen as your middle linebacker. Can these guys learn what Lou wants to do enough for him to change the plan week after week? Because I think that's the best version of the Colts defense. Maybe it's not the first section of the season, but he does not want to be like D 'Amico Ryans and just rushing for.

54:12He wants to change what

54:14Trevor Sikkema:he's going to do on a week-to-week basis yeah and it is tough with with leaning on a lot of younger guys to be able to do that albeit i like the younger guys right i like cj allen i like aj halsey these are guys who are gonna be a part of the mix for them but um you're right there should it go on to my my scheme dream is on the offensive side of the ball go to that next please okay so this kind of ties into my most important non-qb for this team as well and that's just the emphasis that Tyler Warren could be for this offense. Tyler Warren was everything for them. It felt like last year. He led the team in open target percentage last year.

54:49Trevor Sikkema:He also had the highest snap count of anybody on offense that didn't play quarterback or offensive line. So they had this guy on the field all the time. If Alec Pierce is limited at all whatsoever, okay, we're looking at a receiving group that is Josh Downs, Ashton Doolin, Laquan Treadwell, Anthony Gould, and then you get the tight ends into the mix. And I think Warren's just going to be the biggest part of that, right? Not only would Warren like take that next step there anyways, now you don't have Michael Pittman Jr. So a lot of, I think those like red zone X type of like plays, like you could put him on the line of scrimmage.

55:28Trevor Sikkema:That's exactly what he was. And the scheme dream for me with Warren is go watch the Penn State tape and just do a lot of that stuff because that stuff was so much fun. Warren was at Penn State. Warren was an inline tight end. He was a wingback tight end. He played in the slot. They play him as an X. They play him as part of the top of the triangle. Whenever there was a bunch formation, they'd put him in at fullback. He played wildcat quarterback for them at the goal line and on short yardage situations. He played 59 snaps in the backfield last season. He played three snaps at quarterback last season as well.

56:01Trevor Sikkema:I just hope that there is a world where they look at Tyler Warren and just say, Hey, Swiss army knife. We can do so many different things with this player. He's built like it. He's got the athleticism for it. He could take the hits. He could dish out hits like he could just truly do it all. I love Tyler Warren when he was coming out. I love this spot for him in Shane Steichen's offense. And I just hope that they continue to lean into that creativity of all of the different ways that you could utilize a player who has his skill set. I'm a big Tyler Warren guy. And so I really hope to see more from him this year.

56:31He landed in the right spot. I'm so confident that that can happen because I think we saw it the first five or six weeks of last season. At some point, you know, whether it was physically, he took on a little water. There was injuries around him. Then the Daniel Jones injury happens. The creativity kind of started dimming as the season went along. But we saw a lot of that Penn State type of usage early. I think he landed in the perfect spot. And I do wonder without, you know, Alec Pierce practicing at training camp. And you mentioned the lack of depth at wide receiver in general. So you have Josh Downs playing outside at training camp a little bit more than you want.

57:09Like, they're probably working on a lot of Tyler Warren stuff, which is what was bringing me joy. And it's all connected to me. This is a team where the things go wrong if and bringing me joy is connected because what's bringing me joy is just the pure speed and explosiveness from the skill guys, if it all goes right. Pierce, Josh Downs, who I love, Tyler Warren and Jonathan Taylor with a really good offensive line and a really creative play caller. I mean, that's cooking with gas. That is enough. I know you lost Pittman, but Pittman, not really an explosive player. That is going to keep defensive coordinators up at night, but it connects to my things go wrong if like the injuries and just the variance of this team is off the charts.

57:54Downs is a variance player. Daniel Jones, who's looked very good in training camp based on what the expectations would be for his Achilles, is an extreme variance player, even if he's healthy. And he's coming off an Achilles. Pierce is now coming off a serious injury. I don't think he's a variance player, but he is like not a every down, I'm going to just like catch an eight yard slant type of player. And then Buckner with the injury, Ward coming off an injury on the defense. CJ Allen, who I loved, is a little bit of an up and down player. It's just like, man, I can see how you and Chris Ballard could see the best case scenario of this team.

58:31and yet like there's a lot of downside for a lot of their key players too. So I almost don't know what to think about the team but it makes them exciting to watch.

58:39Trevor Sikkema:That makes me curious as to it. I'm wondering what your ceiling is for them when you talked about like the variance and everything. Like what's the ceiling that you see for the gold? It's tough in this division, but we saw it last year. I think it's last year. Them taking that step forward. It's like them winning the division. It's them having a home playoff game or two. I don't see them in the Super Bowl. like eventually they get picked off by a better team. But I do think they're a conference championship game type of ceiling because we kind of saw it. I think we saw it last year. And yet the floor to me is like, you're one of the worst six or eight teams in the league.

59:11I think they might be the highest variance team in the entire NFL.

59:15Trevor Sikkema:So I have the floor for this team is five and 12. And I feel like you get like a whole regime change type of thing going on here with them at five and 12. The ceiling, I think, cause they were eight and nine last year. I think the ceiling for this team, I have 10 and 7 and a wild card. And I don't totally disagree with if they make it to the postseason, winning a game or two there. I could potentially see that because obviously if they make it to the postseason, if they're winning double-digit games, things are panning out for them. The tough thing for them is I hate their schedule. Their schedule starts out Baltimore, at Kansas City, Houston Texans, international game against Washington and then at Pittsburgh like those are the first five games that they have which I think is I think that that's not I think that's pretty not ideal for them and then they also don't have a bye week until week 13 okay so that's and then and then wait wait I forgot this part of it so you go Baltimore at Kansas City home versus the Texans international so you got an international game against Washington and then you go on the road against Pittsburgh.

1:00:27Trevor Sikkema:Yeah. Hosting the Tennessee Titans. Yeah. On the road at Minnesota, on the road at Jacksonville. Okay. That is a brutal first eight weeks of the season. All right. For argument's sake, that is about as hard a three-team parlay you can play against in the first three games of the season, including Sunday night football on week two is interesting that the Colts are there. Yeah. That's tough. Ravens, Chiefs, Texans. The bright side, two or three of those are at home. So if you're ever going to beat one, can you win one of those? game. Let's even put them at one and two there. Look, the Commanders game, yeah, it's overseas, but that's a road game, so you kind of like playing, you know, that's a neutral game that is sneaky, a road game, so that actually, you could look at it as a positive, where one of your road games is overseas, when it's really like a neutral.

1:01:13And then, you know, at Pittsburgh, Tennessee, that's three winnable games, Commanders, Steelers, Titans in a row, and at Minnesota, they're all in the same tier. It's fine. It's fine. But to our overall point, a circle back around the AFC South is a much tougher in division schedule. I even think the Titans will be better this year. And then the out of competitive for sure. Yeah. The out of division schedule, I would say is average. You know, you, you face the NFC East, which I actually think is, is a decent division play. You face the AFC North, which is a relatively tough division to play. It's somewhere in the middle.

1:01:53So the schedule, which usually the AFC South could kind of dying on easy schedules. But now that it's better as a division and out of the division overall, I think it's like an average schedule overall and maybe particularly hard to your point for the Indianapolis Colts. I think I,

1:02:08Trevor Sikkema:you're not buying it. I think I'm, I think, I think I believe in Jaden Daniels and Kyler Murray a little bit more on those first eight games than you do. I'm scared. I'm scared, Greg. I'm scared of the first eight games. That's fair. They're scaring me. I do get scared about a situation where people could get fired and it's just bad vibes. We've kind of been, you know, with the position with Jordan Rodriguez, you know, being a big influence on this take that, yeah, maybe Steichen would be a little safer long-term as like, I would certainly hope so. Then Chris Ballard, but you know, you start out one and six, everything's on the, on the board.

1:02:45Look, I'm not, I'm not going to say that it was like an undefeated start for us, but I think we put out like a five and two. If that was our first, you know, seven games of the schedule, we went five and two. Okay. Racking up Ws. I'm cool with that. I'm cool with 5 and 2. What a first-time guest. As I said, Trevor Sykema. You can check him out. Tell him, like, are you back now with the shows, with the Stock Exchange? You're doing it. Yes.

1:03:09Trevor Sikkema:Yes. So I had a little bit of a vacation hiatus there for myself. My co-host, Connor Rogers, him and his wife had their first baby. They had a son. So there's, you know. It happens. A little less time for podcasting, as any parent out there would understand. But yes, we're finishing up previewing all of the positions for the 2026 college football season, mainly for the 2027 NFL Draft. And look, I know a lot of people say the grass is greener, right? Everybody's like, oh, just wait till next year. I'll just wait till next year's class. 2027 rules. I mean, there's so many quarterbacks and skilled position players, And like, there's just so many good players in that 2027 class.

1:03:51Trevor Sikkema:So, uh, it is so far with my summer scouting study of it, it is as advertised. So yes, come hang out with us on the NFL stock exchange channel on YouTube. I should have mentioned. Yeah. I I'm not a draft Nick, but, uh, I do love your program. One of the best out there of just going to school early, kind of putting in that early work before the NFL season starts to like know about this college class. So that that's what they're doing over there here. and yeah, I don't think I'm speaking out of school to say this will not be the last appearance on NFL Daily. Knocked it out of the park. Thank you to Trevor.

1:04:25Big week on the show. We are going to be coming to you from Rams training camp. We have some big time guests. Sean McVay, you cannot back out now at this point. I'm saying Sean McVay has agreed to come on the show. So that'll be our next show. You'll hear from us at Rams training camp with Sean McVay. See you then.

1:04:49Trevor Sikkema:This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.