1st & Goal: Dwight Freeney, Former Indianapolis Colts Defensive End

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You'll be glad you did. The NFL season is inching closer and closer. Who are the contenders and who are the pretenders? We have four downs to figure out your team's future. It's time now for First and Goal on the Zach Gelb Show. Alrighty, a lot's going on in the world of the Indianapolis Colts, so let's preview their season right now with the man that should be going into the Pro Football Hall of Fame very soon.

Unfortunately, the writer screwed him for this upcoming class, but we'll see if he gets it next year. And that's the legendary Dwight Frini. Dwight, always appreciate the time. How you been? I've been good. What about yourself?

Well, I'm doing okay. My producer, though, Hatte Kickey, he's a Colts fan, so he's doing miserable after all that did transpire in the last week. Jonathan Taylor wants to trade.

The Colts aren't even talking contract extension with him. And then Jim Irsay keeps on tweeting all these crazy things. How do you react to all that's transpired in the last week?

I mean, you know what? It is crazy. I will say I just don't really understand what Jonathan and his agent is really thinking. You know, with this market, you know, if this was early 2000s, let's call it our 90s or something like that, you have a lot of leverage as a running man. You know, but because of the NFL and how things are right now, it's such a pass heavy type of league. And you see what's going on with the running backs where they're not getting, quote unquote, their value of what they think they are.

You go into that type of market demanding a trade after you just came off an injury. So I don't know. I don't know what he's thinking. Maybe there's something that I don't know that's happening internally.

Maybe he has a rift with somebody or something. I don't know. Scheme wise, I don't know. But if I was him, this would be a perfect place for me to stay. You know, when the market is kind of in flux and you don't stay home, stay where people know you and people love you. Especially with this new system that they're going to be putting in, all these RPOs, it's going to be a run heavy offense. You have an opportunity to put up big, big numbers. This is where you need to be. I don't know where you think you're going to go.

I don't know. The only thing that I will say to defend Jonathan Taylor, and I understand what you're saying with the state of the position, is he is on the final year of his deal. But the Colts aren't even willing to talk contract extension with them right now. According to the reports and people close to Jim Irsay, it's like, what else are you supposed to do? I mean, look, everybody, you know, not everybody, but a lot of guys play out their contracts.

A lot of guys. I had to play out my contract. Other guys had to play out their contract. Unless you're a quarterback or something like that, you know, you can go banging on the door and say, hey, I want to renegotiate. Jonathan, awesome talent, but he didn't come off a great year last year.

He had a bad ankle injury and had to get surgery. You're not in a position of leverage to negotiate and ask for an extension coming off an injury. It just normally doesn't happen, especially at that position where, you know, you can get hurt tomorrow. And I get it.

Maybe from his side, maybe he's thinking that way. You know, I think, you know, maybe from a strategy standpoint, you go out there and roll the dice, Jonathan, and say, hey, you know what? I want to get an extension and I'll hold out until I get it or something like that.

And you want to hold out throughout camp until you get it until the last day. You know what? I was just joking.

You know, I'm coming out and I'm doing what I normally do, but the demand of trade, I think is extreme. And it really creates a foul, foul taste and sense throughout the organization. I get it that it's a business, Dwight Freeney, but when you have the owner saying, hey, if he dies tomorrow or if Jonathan Taylor is out of the league tomorrow, the NFL rolls on. He's not wrong with that, but as a player, you can't be happy to hear that from an owner, right?

Yeah. I mean, the truth is you don't want to hear it, but the truth is he's 100% right. He's not wrong when he said that. Do I wish he didn't say it?

Sure. You know, there's better ways to communicate and sugarcoat or whatever you want to call, you know, laying somebody down gently, not slamming the door in somebody's face. So, yes, from Jim's perspective and the owner, this is his team, you can do what he wants, but if I were him, I would have been handling it with care just a little bit more because of the talent that he does have in his room or in the building. You don't want to kind of piss him off.

But then again, this is not the 90s and this is not 2001. You know, they'll be okay without Jonathan. They would be a lot better with him. Do you think since where we are right now, where they're not talking contract extension, he wants to trade, just because a player wants to trade doesn't mean he got traded and Jim Mersey made that clear. He's not trading him now or a few weeks into the season when the trade deadline rolls around. If you were running the team, would you just say, hey, Colts are a few years away, let's just move on from now and get back what we can for him? Well, if he came off the 1800 yard season, maybe. And maybe if the market was really high for running backs, maybe. But what are you going to get for him right now? And I don't know. You know, it's just the market is high for running backs.

And you know what, if he wants to sit for a year, then hey, maybe you sit for a year and then you can figure it out after that. I don't judge it doesn't want to do that. I don't think anybody wants him to do that. I sure don't. The organization sure doesn't. But the wheels are rolling.

This truck is moving with or without you. And you know, I get it. You know, you want to demand a trade, but this isn't basketball. You see more of that stuff in basketball, but you have guys demanding trades and you're going to get that, that trade to happen, happen. You know, it's just football is just kind of operates a lot differently, especially in training camp.

I don't know. I don't know any guy, you know, you could, you know, maybe fill me in. I don't know any guy that demanded a trade and training camp and got it. And we'll see if it's going to happen in the NFL. Let's get to the next down.

Dwight Freeney here with us. Anthony Richardson, you talk about the other pieces, no piece bigger than Anthony Richardson, just because of the state of the league that we're in right now with the quarterback position. What do you expect out of him in year one? You know what?

I think he might be okay. Now, you know, as a first year quarterback, you're going to have to be protected pretty well. All right. You know what?

You have to, from a scheme standpoint, you got to make sure that scheme is in there to where as though it doesn't expose you from a passing standpoint, because usually throwing the rock and passing, you know, defense can get really creative and give you different looks and shells. And for you to recognize that you have to have some experience. All right. You got to have some to play at that top level.

All right. And if you don't have that experience, then your system that you're in has to cover that up or give you the best opportunity to succeed. Now, what his best opportunity to succeed is his legs. And that's why you have that RPO type of system where he can use his best attribute and use it as a weapon and not necessarily have to worry about so many coverages and different looks like a traditional pocket passer would. So I think looking at all that, I think he does well. You know, I don't know what the expectations for rookie is anymore, but, you know, I think, you know, you know how they protected Russell Wilson in Seattle his first year. You know, he wasn't throwing 30 times a game, you know, he was throwing maybe 20 18 to 20, you know, and making the right decisions, you know, maybe it's one of those types of things.

But the thing is the X factors is likes, you never know. I understand everything you just said when it comes to the running back position with who they have on the roster for now and then how you're gonna have to run the ball a lot with the quarterback and Anthony Richardson. I'll even throw out the Ravens for a while up until this year, we've questioned their wide receivers and if they do have enough, but you look at this receiving room for the Colts, do you think they have enough to put Richardson in somewhere of a year at the end of the season where you go, okay, I was satisfied with that?

Well, once again, it just depends on what their game plan is. If their game plan is to throw the ball 30 to 40 times a game, absolutely not. You're putting too much on this receiving core, you're putting too much on him. You know, I think if you're asking, you know, you're running game to run the ball 30 35 times, you know, and kind of play bully ball in a way, I think you have an opportunity to have a good year. Okay, now it's just based on what someone would consider a good year for him, you know, more touchdowns and interceptions. I think for sure he'll have that, you know, with the Russian touchdowns as well combination. Does he have more than 10 picks? You know, if he has maybe 14, 14 picks, maybe it's a bad year.

You know, I don't know. I don't think you're gonna be throwing the ball that often for him to really be exposed that way. Let's get to the next down. Dwight Freeney here with us. I think he had some crossover with the Chargers with Shane Steichen. What was your thoughts about the move by the Colts to hire Steichen?

No, I like it. You know, he's had success with these young quarterbacks, you know, obviously what you see the charges of in Philly and now here with Anthony, you know, he knows how to use their mobility as a strength, you know, and as you saw in Philly. So I think if they kind of mimic that type of game plan, I think he has an opportunity to be better as a head coach knowing he has a guy that can use his legs and make people miss. And more importantly, when a play breaks down, you know, people kind of don't look at that as such a big thing. There's many times where, you know, that offensive line may get exposed as you saw last year. You know, you got Matt Ryan in the pocket and, you know, he didn't have a chance half the time because the rush on the other side was getting there so fast and Mattie is not a mobile guy.

So he couldn't make anybody miss. So basically you just beat your offensive tackle guard or what have you. It's an automatic sack, cause fumble potentially. When you have somebody like Anthony back there, not so fast, he can make plays with his legs. So as bad as the offense will be or might be or whatever, you want to look at it because he's a first year guy. It's a little bit different because he has feet, legs, that mobility, the opportunity to make a guy miss that is an X factor that you don't know what's going to happen each and every play when a play breaks down.

And let's get to the final down. Dwight Freeney here with us. On the defensive side of the ball, cause I know that's your bread and butter, Shaq Leonard has had a really good career so far but last season did not have his best season cause he was barely on the field. Are you expecting a big bounce back season from him? Yeah, I hope so.

I definitely hope so. I know his mind's in it and sometimes when you have injuries compounded on injuries, it kind of takes away your sting a little bit cause you're worried about getting hurt again. Hopefully he's feeling as good as he needs to whereas though Shaq can be Shaq and go out there and make plays and be the most dominant guy on defense causing all types of turnovers left and right like he did the year before. I'm a big fan of him and how he plays the game and he plays it like you're supposed to play it. A hundred miles per hour, reckless abandon and he's a big time leader for that defense. So hopefully he's healthy enough to where as though he can be that guy and not be a shadow of himself. So I'm really rooting on Shaq this year.

I hope he plays great. And Dwight, last thing I'll ask you, I know I started you off talking about the Hall of Fame and how you should be in and you had your first year of eligibility. That class goes in this weekend. Is it a little bittersweet for you cause you know you want to be in but you just haven't got the call of the hall yet. Yeah you know it's something that you just have to deal with. You don't have any control over this stuff. So when you put your body of work out there and you feel like you should have been first ballot and you weren't.

Yeah of course it stinks. But like I said there's a lot of great players who weren't first ballot and are in and you just have to deal with it. You know what you can do unfortunately is out of your control. You know you try not to get your hopes up. You know and last year I tried my hardest not to get my hopes up just because things happen.

And of course I was a finalist and oh here you go you get your hopes up. People keep talking in. Bruce Smith is talking to me.

Michael Strahan you're a shoe-in you're a shoe-in you're golden. And it doesn't happen it's just like oh good lord what has happened here. So this year is going to be the same thing. I'm going to try to put my tunnel vision on. Try not to worry about it.

It's not under my control. Whatever happens is going to happen and that's that. Dwight always appreciate the time.

We're hoping that call does come this year. Thanks so much for doing this today. No problem. Thanks for having me. Take care.