SB Nation User Blog: DoTheMathis98

DeAngelo Hall?

DoTheMathis98 — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 03:19:22 -0000

ESPN is reporting that the Raiders plan to release Pro Bowl CB DeAngelo Hall this Wednesday in another move by Weird Al Davis. Davis has reportedly asked his staff to analyze the team's current roster and make suggest for players that could potentially be released by the end of the week.

Would picking up DeAngelo Hall be a good move for the Colts? The CB unit has been a little weak this year (with the exception of the Pats game), Marlin Jackson is IR'd for the year, and Kelvin Hayden has missed the past few games with an injury. Hall definitely has a history of being a hothead with his inexcusible unnecessary roughness calls and showing up of his head coach.

I personally think it would be a great move if the Colts could pull it off and if the price was right. Although, I doubt Polian would make a move like this after the Corey Simon saga.

Jags 2008 Draft Gets Worse

DoTheMathis98 — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 20:24:57 -0000

It looks like the draft decisions of Jacksonville this year have continued to look terrible.

When the Jags traded away a handful of picks to get Derrick Harvey, most of the sports community frowned upon the move. Then, when Harvey turned out to be the longest contract holdout in the NFL, the decision looked even more questionable.

Now, their lack of draft intelligence is showing again. Today they cut 5th round draft choice Trae Williams, DB from South Florida. The move leaves Jax with only 4 players on their opening day roster from this year's draft. The front office of the Jags looks incredibly ignorant right now if you ask me. The Colts will have more players on their roster from the draft without a first round pick. It's good that we don't have to worry about Jax catching us now...or in the future.

Monday (7/28) Training Camp

DoTheMathis98 — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 00:30:23 -0000

Here's some observations and pictures of mine from training camp:

- Unlike Irsay and others have said in the past, Pierre Garcon will be getting some looks at returning kicks. Today, he and TJ Rushing practiced receiving punts for about 15 minutes.

- Brannon Condren got alot of time with the first team defense today, even with Bethea and Giordano in full pads. Looks like he's definitely making this roster.

- Dan Federkeil appears to be the backup to Ryan Lilja as the left side guard. He's one big dude (6'6" 290).

- Dwight Freeney did a few drills with the D-Line towards the end of the morning practice, he looked to be in good health and in good spirits.

- Sam Giguere was near terrible. He had difficulty running routes correctly and holding onto the ball. Wide Receivers Coach Clyde Christensen was on him most the day. Looks like he won't be making the team unless the Colts see huge upside in him.

- With the absence of Peyton Manning, Tom Moore actually had to coach. He wasn't very happy about that and often took out his frustration on Quinn Gray and Jared Lorenzen, who called out audibles like they were guessing Battleship numbers. Lorenzen has a slow delivery and Gray has trouble throwing spirals

- Marvin Harrison was there looking fresh. He also looked like he had ninja hands.

- D-Line coach John Teerlinck prefers not to leave his golf cart...ever.

- I didn't see anything impressive from Mike Hart or Kenton Keith. Mike Hart was in on some special teams drills, though.

- Assuming Raheem Brock moves to DT eventually, Marcus Howard is definitely the #3 DE on the team. He played at the left side DE while Mathis played right side today.

- During scrimmages on offense, both Mike Pollak and Charlie Johnson were seeing time with the first unit at right guard. Pollak is much bigger than I pictured and seemed to get more reps than Johns with the first team.

- Ryan Lilja has grey hair.

- Robert Mathis is totally committed to coming back 100 percent this year. As someone reported earlier, he spent time after practice again today running more sprints.

- Quinn Pitcock was nowhere to be found.

- Gijon Robinson saw about as much time as Jacob Tamme did with the first team. Tamme had more passes thrown his direction however, which he had trouble holding onto sometimes.

- Roy Hall is a little inconsistent at this point. He made a tremendous catch in morning practice with TJ Rushing all over him, but dropped a few balls in the afternoon.

- I really think Courtney Roby has a shot at making this roster.

- Sorgi looked good with the exception of his decision making. He held onto the ball too long in scrimmages.

- Maybe the person I was most impressed with was Philip Wheeler. He was hitting hard, deflecting passes, moving fast, and is a large athlete of a linebacker. Compared to Gary Brackett (a generous 5-11), Wheeler (6-2 at least) was a towering figure in the linebacking corps.

- Phil B from the Indy Star is a real creepster.

- Is there a way to post our own photos?

Peyton Having Knee Surgery

DoTheMathis98 — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 03:10:42 -0000

I heard this story on the TV in the other room and almost crapped my pants.

http://www.wthr.com/global/story.asp?s=8674587

Looks like we're without yet another key player for the duration, or a majority of the duration, of training camp.Peyton will undoubtedly still be prepared for the regular season opener, but the development of people like Tom Santi, Jacom Tamme, Roy Hall, and others on the offense will definitely be slowed by Peyton's absense in the huddle for 4-6 weeks.

Colvin Close To Landing With a Team

DoTheMathis98 — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 14:44:42 -0000

This from NFL. Com's Adam Schefter:

Now that former Patriots linebacker Rosevelt Colvin has passed his physicals and demonstrated he could play in a game tomorrow, Indianapolis and Houston each are pushing to sign him. And each has a selling point. Colvin played high school football in Indianapolis, and it would be nice to return. But the Texans have their general manager Rick Smith, who once successfully recruited Colvin to Purdue. Now Smith is trying to successfully recruit Colvin again.

I don't know why Colvin would want to sign with a cellar dweller like the Texans over a perennial contender like the Colts. The Texans are most likely offering Colving more playing time, and perhaps a starting role as a linebacker on the team. The Colts probably aren't offering much more than a situational pass rusher job.

There's no way the Colts are going to offer more money than the Texans, either. And with comments like this from Bill Polian,

Polian also said while the team hadn’t ruled out acquiring free-agent linebacker Rosevelt Colvin, he said, “There’s nothing imminent there."

, it looks the Colts are playing the "I'm going to really act like I don't want you so that you'll want me more" card. It totally works on chicks, but we'll see if it works on Rosey Colvin.

Spygate Hits Home

DoTheMathis98 — Fri, 16 May 2008 13:46:55 -0000

After Matt Walsh sent tapes to the league office, six or so specific teams were revealed to have been videotaped by Walsh himself for the Patriots. One of the teams that I expected to see come out was the Colts, the Patriots' biggest competitor of the last 6 years. Well, expect it to come out tonight during Andrea Kremer's interview with Walsh tonight on HBO.

Yesterday evening, on 1070 The Fan (Indy's ESPN radio) with Eddie Whtie and Bob Kravitz, Kremer went into details about her interview with Walsh. I won't be able to directly quote her here but she said something like this:

"When the Patriots would play the Colts, Walsh was instructed to tape the offense. He was clearly instructed to first tape the offensive coordinator and then Peyton Manning until the play."

This has got me fired up. You can't tell me the taping of Tom Moore and Peyton Manning's signals didn't directly affect the outcome of games in 2001-present. Especially the games in 2001-2004.

I'd encourage everyone to listen to the podcast of the interview here: http://www.1070thefan.com/kravitzandeddie/podcast.aspx

The link is at the top of the page. You can skip to about the 8:30 minute mark of the interview. Also, she talks directly about the Colts about the 16:00 mark if you only want to hear that.

Prepare to be pissed off.

No DB in the Draft?

DoTheMathis98 — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:52:45 -0000

After happily going to Bed, Bath, and Beyond and Crate & Barrel all day on Sunday after church with my wife, I came back to check on the draft and was surprised by what I saw when the picks from the Colts scrolled across the bottom of the TV screen.

No cornerback selected. No safety selected. No defensive back at all.

The Colts had their 7th pick left to go, so I assumed that would be where they take their customary DB in the draft. Instead, we drafted our 3rd center of the weekend.

I was very surprised to come out of the weekend without having drafted a DB, so I looked into our secondary situation a little closer:

We clearly have the best starting safety tandem in the NFL right now, with both of our starters (Bob Sanders and Antoine Bethea) being named to the Prow Bowl this past season. Matt Giordano is also a solid backup at safety. We also carry two very underrated, hard-hitting starting corners on our roster in Marlin Jackson and Kelvin Hayden.

After those 5, the Colts have 8 other DBs listed on their roster, including 5 that they picked up in 2007 through the draft and free agency. With so many fresh DBs on their roster, I'm assuming Polian and company thought they were set as far as depth goes for their secondary.

Hopefully Dante Hughes pans out as the future at Cornerback and Nickelback for now. It was disappointing to see him as well as Michael Coe go down last season, both of whom were showing alot of improvement as the season progressed. I know some people liked Tim Jennings last season, but I felt like Jennings and the other guys who filled in at corner were not effective. Of course, most of the other guys are only 2nd year players this year and most likely have alot of room to grow.

All in all I can see Polian's logic in not going with a DB in this year's draft. We're obviously set when it comes to the starting 4, and show alot of promise with the guys behind them.

Here's to hopefully some great coaching in our secondary this offseason.

Design a Horse

DoTheMathis98 — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 18:44:04 -0000

Following up on the post I made a few weeks ago, the finalits have been announced for the Colts Design a Horse competition. The competition was created to have a secondary logo for our team. Go over to www.colts.com/designahorse and you can vote for your favorite. I'm lobbying for #2, as it is my favorite and was designed by a friend here at work. Anyone from Stampede Blue make the finals?

ESPN the Mag Confirms: Indianapolis Colts are the best franchise in ALL of sports

DoTheMathis98 — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:23:12 -0000

Note: Promoted from the FanPosts and edited slightly by BBS.

ESPN the mag confirms... the Indianapolis Colts have the greatest franchise in the history of sports.

Well, maybe they didn't go that far. But, the Colts top this year's annual ranking of franchises based upon what they give back to the fans. All teams from the 4 "major" sports are ranked (NBA, NFL, NHL, and MLB) based upon things like player effort and likability, coach leadership, and ticket prices. The only category the Colts didn't rank in the top 25 out of 122 was Stadium Experience. I think we all know that will change after this season at Lucas Oil.

The article (linked below) highlights other Colts fan sites like this one and MyColts.net

Article link

Link to ESPN franchise ranking chart

Meeting the Fletch

DoTheMathis98 — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 14:49:20 -0000

I always think it's fun when people post about running into various Colts players, so I thought I'd tell my brief story about meeting Bryan Fletcher.

So, I was downtown Indy last Thursday night (the 10th). It was probably 3am and I was leaving the Red Eye Cafe.

As I get up I spot a tall, bald, black guy and turn to my friend and say, "Hey, I think that's Bryan Fletcher." There was no validation from my friend as he probably only knows 5 or 6 Colts players. So, I decided to investigate for myself. I used the cunning tactic of walking right up to him and saying, "Is your name Bryan Fletcher?". Only being up that late and drinking could have given me that amazing idea.

He kinda laughed at me and said, "Ya, that's me. What's your name?". He was a gracious guy (I mean, how many people are going to recognize Bryan Fletcher) and we got to chatting about Ben Utecht leaving, when/if the Colts would draft another TE, and where he lives in Indy when I started the sense the conversation might be lagging. I started to search my brain for things I know about Brayn Fletcher, when it hit me. I'll try and describe the rest the best that I can, as it was told to me later:

Me: "Hey!....I know your nickname..." (my right index finger firmly pressed into his shoulder)

Bryan: (silent, looking curiously at me)

Me: "You're the suggestion box...that's what they call you..." (finger pressing harder into his shoulder, followed by what my friends described as a honking laugh)

Bryan (visibly annoyed): "Ya...I've heard that before...you take it easy man, good luck"

Now, while I thought it was totally appropriate to call him "the suggestion box" and point (anyone who has seen the NFL network special on the Colts Super Bowl season knows what I'm talking about here), my friends later informed me that that might have been a bad idea. And when I replied, "But Peyton Manning calls him that!". One friend reminded me that "You're not Peyton Manning." Oh, shoot...right.

I've got a new appreciation for The Fletch and the 18 receptions a season he contributes. I hope you do, too.