Colts: Darius Leonard has harsh words for 2021 NFL Draft class
By Jerry Trotta
With the NFL Draft just three weeks away, the Indianapolis Colts are presumably working around the clock to determine what they should do in the first round.
Based on their pro day activity over the last few weeks, the stars appear to be aligning for them to address their left tackle vacancy with the No. 21 overall pick.
For as much as the Colts will consider their talent evaluations when rattling through potential selections, you better believe character will be just as important.
That’s why the media portion of the combine, which was canceled due to COVID-19 pandemic, will be sorely missed this year.
It wasn’t difficult for Darius Leonard to identify one major character flaw with the 2021 class, though, in case Chris Ballard was wondering.
On Wednesday, the All-Pro linebacker took to social media with some harsh words for the incoming pool of players.
This draft class talks too much for me! Let your work do the talking cause if you’re doing all this talking to the media or in social media and you don’t perform like you expect yourself to these media guys going to use it against ya! Keep ya mouth closed and grind! That’s it!
— Darius Shaquille Leonard (@dsleon45) April 7, 2021
Colts star Darius Leonard offered up some tough love for the incoming 2021 Draft class.
If you follow Leonard on social media, you know he doesn’t shy away from speaking his mind and this latest tweet proves that. Just last week, he put ESPN on blast in a fiery post citing its supposed hypocritical coverage of Deshaun Watson’s sexual assault allegations.
Getting back to the matter at hand, Leonard makes an excellent point here. We can’t speak for everyone, but almost every day we’re seeing a new prospect from the 2021 class gassing themselves up in response to a question about the type of player they are.
While we fully understand the draw to a player that exudes confidence, there’s a distinct difference between confidence and arrogance, and some of these young prospects are clearly trying too hard to sell themselves as a potential perfect fit.
Look no further than Oklahoma State tackle Teven Jenkins’ latest string of quotes. Not that it necessarily drew red flags. It just fully encapsulates the point Leonard was trying to make in his tweet — and this guy’s theoretically on the Colts’ radar.
More from Jenkins. On being physical in pass pro.
— Alex Kozora (@Alex_Kozora) April 1, 2021
“I like to use a trap technique. jump sets. A pass set doesn’t have to be passive. You can be as aggressive as you want to. You can attack the motherfucker anytime you want. It’s about how you want to go at it with your set.”
Leonard, who’s been overlooked throughout his football career, knows this as well as anybody in the league. The two-time Pro Bowler wasn’t heavily recruited coming out of high school and ultimately landed at South Carolina State, where he played for four years.
Despite putting together a fantastic career for the Bulldogs, he continued to be glossed over throughout the pre-draft process and ended up falling to the Colts in the second round in 2018.
Leonard has since established himself as one of the most complete defensive players in the league and is somehow more humble and motivated than ever, going as far as to search his name on Twitter before games to read criticism as a means to intensify his fervor.
Taking that into account, if the 2021 class had any sense of mind, it would take Leonard’s advice to heart and let their play do the talking. After all, there’s no point in giving the media an excuse to circle back on comments that were likely uttered entirely based on emotion.
