Colts make their first free agent signing of 2019"WhiteFanposts Fanshots Colts StoriesScheduleRosterStatsYahoo Colts NewsYahoo Colts Team PageYahoo Colts ReportYahoo Colts Depth ChartYahoo Colts TransactionsYahoo Colts PhotosShop About Masthead Community Guidelines StubHub ✕NFL GeneralColts AnalysisScouting The NFLFilm Room: What does new Colts receiver Devin Funchess bring to the team?New Peyton Manning Jersey 2019 ,65commentsColts make their first free agent signing of 2019EDTShareTweetShareShareFilm Room: What does new Colts receiver Devin Funchess bring to the team?Bob Donnan-USA TODAY SportsThe Indianapolis Colts have made their first splash of free agency, agreeing to terms with former Carolina Panthers wide receiver Devin Funchess. The deal has a 10 million dollar base salary that can increase to 13 million with incentives over the course of one year. Whether Funchess is a quality player— which we will look at in this piece— the deal is a low-risk, high reward opportunity for the Colts.Let’s take a look at what Funchess brings to the table and where he will need to improve. BackgroundCollege:MichiganSize:6’4” 225 poundsMeasureables:40 Time: 4.70 / Bench Reps: 17 / Vertical Jump: 38.5 inches / Broad Jump: 122 inchesCareer Stats (NFL): 161 catches for 2,230 yards with a yards per catch of 13.9 and 21 touchdowns in four years in the NFL.StrengthsRoute RunningWho would have thought that the biggest positive in a 6’4” 225 pound receiver’s game is his route running? I was honestly shocked. Funchess breaks down his hips excellently and sets up routes with a great jab at the stems. His double move is deadly as he beat numerous good corners with head fakes and quick feet. When running ins and outs, he flattens well without rounding off his route and also fights back towards the quarterback.Our first clip shows how sudden and agile he is with his breaks. He is running an out-route with the defense in soft zone coverage. His priority is quickly getting to the zone between the corner and linebacker before the two can react to the ball. He gets up field with great quickness and uses an excellent jab to flatten his route to the sideline to make the catch. This is not a flashy or elite play but showcases the agility that pops on tape.The double move may be the most impressive route in his arsenal, especially the slant fade. Against the Eagles in this route, he sells the inside slant with a good head fake and quick steps. He then breaks down his hips quickly and changes direction before dusting Ronald Darby for the touchdown. Did I mention how well he jabs to create separation? Here is yet another example of it. He is working against Quinton Dunbar of the Redskins on this zig route. He sells the inside slant perfectly as Dunbar rolls with him. Once he gets good distance inside, he hits the brakes and changes direction quickly, leaving Dunbar far behind. This route is textbook and it is all because of Funchess’ superb change of direction ability.He can stop on a dime for a big receiver as well. With the Panthers trailing late, the Falcons know they have to keep the offense away from the sideline. The goal for Funchess is to sell the vertical route up field to open the sideline comeback. He sells it well with body language and a head fake, then puts on the brakes after about ten yards. The smaller corner (Robert Alford) struggles to stop and the result is a big catch. Great footwork along the sidelines as well.This last clip is just artwork. Matched up with one of the best corners in football on this route (Darius Slay), Funchess is able to beat him out of his break. The route is a simple deep in but the way that he changes direction and breaks down his hips allows him to be so open. The amount of space he creates on a relatively simple route concept against a top corner really shows his nuance and skill as a route runner. Catching Away from his FrameThe biggest knock on Funchess is his drops, and we will get to it. Surprisingly, though, Funchess displays strong hands. He just doesn’t have great technique when catching. When he is coming back to the ball and extends his arms away from his frame, he is often secures the ball without an issue.This first clip is a deep out that cornerback Quinton Dunbar does not bite on. He stays in Funchess’ hip pocket and rolls with him to the sideline. Funchess makes an excellent adjustment to the ball as it is thrown. He works to the sideline and then fights back towards the pass. While working back to the ball, he extends his arms and uses his long frame to shield the defender away White Johnny Unitas Jersey , making an impressive hands catch along the sidelines. Does this look like someone with poor hands?Again working against Dunbar (I swear he is a better corner than this article shows), Funchess makes an impressive hands catch. He goes to his patented double move to create separation on the outside. Once he reaches the endzone, the ball is a bit underthrown. He adjusts to the poorly thrown ball and catches it with his hands over the defenders back, while his facemask is getting grabbed. Big, strong hands on full display in traffic.NegativesWhile I believe his hands are better than stats suggest, drops are a big concern. His main issue is consistent use of proper technique, as he allows too many passes to hit his chest. This turns easy catches into incompletions. Other notable issues on film that I won’t highlight are his sub-par blocking skills and struggles to create after the catch.The first drop is a routine catch that he misses due to poor hand placement. He goes for a basket catch when he should extend to catch the ball away from his frame. The ball hits his arms and bounces away.Again just poor technique on this second drop. The ball is thrown a bit low on this slant route and instead of going low with his hands to catch the ball, he decides to slide down for the catch. The ball hits him in the chest and bounces away incomplete. If he is going to slide there, I’d still like to see him extend his hands. Don’t allow the ball into your chest.This next drop is poor timing along with poor technique. Funchess is slow to get his head back to the ball and struggles to shield his body away from the defender. He is late to get his hands up, allowing the ball to hit his chest and fall incomplete. To fix the drop problem, he must stop allowing balls to hit his chest. Last play may be hard to label as a drop but it is an example of a player that a receiver with his size and stature is expected to make. He fools Slay again with a double move to create separation. Then he mistimes his jump and lets the ball hit him in the chest, resulting in a dropped pass. Hopefully Nick Sirianni and Kevin Patullo can coach him out of these rather routine drops.ConclusionDevin Funchess is a good fit in the Colts offense as their number two receiver. His route running, strength, and ability to catch away from his frame are the perfect make up for what Coach Reich looks for in his offense. Add in that he can also be a valuable red zone threat and I really like the fit. He does struggle with smaller details such creating after the catch, drops, and run blocking but those are areas to work on as a role player. I honestly went into this film room expecting to see a big bodied receiver who catches tough passes but struggles with easy ones. I came away thoroughly impressed with the level of nuance and athleticism in his route running and see the potential for a big year with Andrew Luck and TY Hilton on offense.He may not be a star receiver but he is an excellent role player. This signing certainly could fail but on a one year deal it is essentially a no risk chance on an athletic, skilled 24 year old receiver.2018 Opponent Scouting Report: Texans defense is good but not perfect OverviewOn September 30 Johnny Unitas Jersey 2019 , 2018 the Indianapolis Colts will host the Houston Texans. In this week four match-up I sought to understand our opponent and get a better idea of how they may attack our new look Colts. The Texans finished 2017 with 4 wins and 12 losses, in what was only their third losing season in the last decade. The last time these two teams faced off the Texans and Colts were both missing their franchise quarterbacks. In the week of practice leading up to the two teams first matchup of 2017, rookie phenom quarterback Deshaun Watson went down with a torn ACL three days before the game, leaving no time for the coaches to adjust the gamplan. As a result, half of the 2017 Indianapolis Colts wins came against the Houston Texans. This year both starting quarterbacks are expected to play in this one, hopefully the results are the same as last season. Let’s figure out what we can expect in week four. Defensive SchemeThe 3-4 defense was created decades ago by Chuck Fairbanks and Hank Bullough and today their defensive innovation is used across the league. The Texans employ a 3-4 base defensive set. The 3-4 defense traditionally employs a system that requires its defensive linemen to protect not one, but two gaps along the line. In the Colts 4-3 the linemen are responsible for a single gap. For example a defensive tackle may be responsible for the area between the center and the guard (known as the “A” gap) and in a 3-4, two gap system a defensive tackle might be responsible for the gap between the guard and tackle (the “B” gap) and the gap between the guard and center. The 4-3 is traditionally a one gap system and the 3-4 is traditionally a two gap system and that’s just the way it was, until Wade Phillips did something no one else had successfully done before, he integrated a one gap system with the 3-4 defensive front. The “Phillips 3-4” has kept Wade Phillips employed as a highly sought after defensive coordinator since 1981. Phillips served as the Houston Texans defensive coordinator (and interim head coach for a while) from 2011 to 2013 and his impact can still be seen when watching the Texans defense. The 2018 Texans don’t exclusively use one or two gap concepts, instead they use both throughout the game depending on situation and personnel. Sometimes you’ll see J.J. Watt burst through the line at the snap, other times you’ll see him hold up, read and react to what the offense is doing. In 2018 it isn’t that unique to see a team employ both techniques but it is worth noting. On the back end of the Texans defense we should expect to see a lot of man to man coverage. At times I noticed the Texans disguising coverage before the snap by showing blitz and man coverage before dropping the would-be blitzers into coverage and dropping into a cover 3. Also if the Texans send a blitz they are almost always going to be in man coverage. Luckily I wont have to go into Dick LeBeau’s zone blitz system this week too because if they have zone blitz concepts in their playbook, they’ve yet to use them in a game. If they send extra rushers someone is going to have to beat man coverage. An interesting thing I noticed is how hard this team sells out to stop the run, they really are really committed to limiting the opponents ground game. As a result of this commitment they tend to bite hard on play action. If there were ever a time to work in play action passes and RPO’s it’s against these Texans.This is some of that disguised coverage I was talking about. Before the snap the Texans show a double a gap blitz before dropping both linebackers into a cover 3. The deep safety takes the deep middle while two of the corners play an underneath zone and the other two corners drop into a deep third. The Titans don’t run a great play for the coverage called and Blaine Gabbert drops a dangerous pass to his receiver who can’t come up with the catch, but this is something we can expect to see this Sunday.Here is an example of the Texans actually blitzing. You’ll notice they send six pass rushers and four defenders cover a single receiver complete with a single high safety in a deep zone. This is also known as cover 1. Had the Titans gotten their tight end out in space earlier in the play and bounced the running back out to the left for a dump off that could have turned into a huge gain. Instead they stayed in to block so that Gabbert can throw a deep incompletion. Here the Texans rush 3, drop a down lineman into a short zone White Marshall Faulk Jersey , something I’ve noticed the Colts doing this year as well. On the back end the Texans show a Tampa 2 coverage, dropping a linebacker in the middle of the zone while the safeties play deep halves and the corners each have an underneath zone on the outside. The Titans have the right idea attacking a weak point of the cover 2 but fail to execute. Deep in the redzone the Texans drop eight men into a zone, rushing only three. Really I included this play because JJ Watt is a cheat code and it doesn’t matter if you rush three or just Watt and drop 10 into coverage. The Texans scheme is diverse and modern, but it has to have horses to run. Defensive Line Stop me if you’ve heard this before but this defensive line is good. For the record the first defensive line that might be an easier task for our offensive line will come in week seven against the Buffalo Bills. Until then, it’s tough sledding.Jadeveon Clowney and Whitney Mercilus are listed as linebackers but for all practical purposes they are defensive linemen who sometimes drop into coverage. Mercilus will drop more often than Clowney.(insert general comment about the quality of these two)With those two coming off the edge the interior of the line could probably still produce, even if it were lacking in talent. Unfortunately for our Colts the Texans interior defensive line isn’t lacking for talent. Christian Covington isn’t the guy you probably expected me to go into after that introduction but here we are. We’re starting with him because despite the fact that most people who read this article probably don’t have any idea who he is, the dude is pretty good. He was a sixth round pick in the 2015 NFL draft out of Rice who has struggled with injuries during his young career. Last year Covington seemed to be coming into his own, shaking off the inconsistent play that followed him earlier in his career while filling in for an injured J.J. Watt, before tearing his biceps in week seven. Covington is a guy the Texans can count on, as is the massive man who lines up at nose tackle for the Texans; D.J. Reader. Reader is listed at 6’3” and 347 lbs and after watching him play, I believe those numbers to be accurate. Reader is a good space eater but not much more and he shouldn’t see many snaps on obvious passing downs. He will be a lot for Ryan Kelly to handle one on one in the run game but when either guard is available to help, Reader’s sub par athleticism will be on display. The problem with having either guard help out is J.J. Watt. Before his week three performance that saw him rack up three sacks all of the usual suspects of the national hot take media were writing Watt off saying that he looked washed up. I remember watching Rob Gronkowski’s first game back from multiple injuries and to me that’s more or less how Watt looked early in the season. They looked rusty and like they hadn’t played football in a while but like Gronkowski, a player as gifted as Watt isn’t going to stay down forever. Make no mistake Watt will be one of the best 2-3 defensive linemen the Colts will see all year.LinebackersZach Cunningham and Benardrick McKinney are the names you’ll see on the field on Sunday. Before last week I would have thrown Dylan Cole’s name into the ring but the talented second year former UDFA out of Missouri State dislocated his wrist and was placed on injured reserve. I don’t see what the big deal is, Shaquem Griffin is playing out of his mind with one usable wrist (small joke, but seriously, Griffin is killing it). Now that Cole is injured it’s going to be interesting to see what the Texans do at the third linebacker position. On their own, Cunningham is still a better athlete than he is a football player and Benardrick McKinney won’t be the best interior linebacker the Colts will see this season but he is very good and could end up having a big day. When you have a defensive line in front of you the way that Cunningham and McKinney do Marshall Faulk Jersey 2019 , life gets easier and flowing to ball carriers gets much less difficult. With that said I feel very good about challenging these linebackers in space with Eric Ebron and Nyheim Hines, both could have big days exploiting the coverage they will see on Sunday.Defensive BacksKareem Jackson and Tyrann Mathieu have both played more defensive snaps for the Texans than anyone else. Jackson, a long time cornerback, was moved to safety this off season and has looked very good in his new role. Both he and Mathieu have the ability to play deep at safety or as a slot corner. This versatility should be very useful as the season goes on for the Texans. Mathieu is no stranger to the Colts, this clip is from 2017 when he was with the Cardinals:During their week one game against the Patriots cornerback Kevin Johnson suffered a concussion that landed him on IR. Honestly he may have been the weak link in the Texans secondary but it is notable anytime a team will be without a former first round pick. In his place the Texans will send out Johnathan Joseph, Aaron Colvin, Shareece Wright and Justin Reed (a safety who has played some snaps at corner this year. Joseph is 34 years old, Wright is 31 and on his fourth team in five years. Neither is a bad player, but neither concerns me either. Aaron Colvin is a guy that has flown under the radar nationally but is a very good young corner who came to the Texans after leaving the Jaguars in the off season. Right now he is dealing with a chest injury and may not be able to play this week. I never want a guy to miss time due to injury but if Colvin doesn’t play I feel pretty good what the Colts offense might be able to do on Sunday. What to Expect from the Colts Offense:The Colts are going to need to get the ball out quickly this week, the Texans just have so many pass rush options and I’m not counting on seeing Anthony Castonzo on the field until I actually see him line up at left tackle. Until then I have to assume Le’Raven Clark is the answer at the position and as long as he’s there, the ball needs to come out quick. I think play action out of shotgun formations will yield effective results and if the Colts can ever execute, a few well timed-screen passes could be deadly in this one.