Indianapolis Colts President Bill Polian on OT Tony Ugoh, the run defense and kickoff coverage

Indianapolis Colts President Bill Polian (Michael Conroy/AP Photo)

Indy Football Report Editor John Oehser examines what Indianapolis Colts President Bill Polian had to say on his weekly radio show Monday evening in the wake of a 31-9 victory over the Tennessee Titans at LP Field in Nashville, Tenn., Sunday (PART ONE OF TWO PARTS/PART TWO HERE) . . ..

He's one of the most discussed players on the Indianapolis Colts, and to some, left tackle Tony Ugoh is among the most disappointing.

Colts President Bill Polian said he's not among those people.

Polian, long considered one of the NFL's top evaluators of talent, not only drafted Ugoh in the second round of the 2007 NFL Draft, he traded the Colts' first-round selecion in the 2008 NFL Draft for the chance to do it. After starting 2007 and 2008, Ugoh this season is the top backup to fourth-year veteran Johnson. Ugoh started in place of Johnson -- out with a knee injury -- this past Sunday in a 31-9 victory over Tennessee. On his weekly radio show on 97.1 Hank FM in Indianapolis, Polian on Monday evening addressed Ugoh.

"It's a very interesting question," Polian said as the Colts prepared for a one-practice week on their bye week, "because it puts it really in three contexts. The first context is, 'Is Tony Ugoh a solid National Football League player?' The second is, 'If he is or isn't, how come Charlie Johnson has the job?' The third context is, 'Well, what did you pay for him?'"

Polian addressed the third context first.

"It doesn't matter what you paid for a player so long as the player performs," Polian said. "For every Tony Ugoh that may not end up being a bona fide, first-time-out-of-the-box starter, there's a (rookie CB) Jacob Lacey or a Jerraud Powers, so it all balances out. It's not about what you paid for a player. I've often told the scouts and I've said to everyone in the building, 'We're not out to win the draft. We're out to win football games. It's about the 53 players you put on the field. If you stop and think about it, I think that's one of the reasons we've had so much success in the draft. Because we're not out to win the draft. We get 'C's every year and we're proud of it and happy to get them. We want to get 'A's when it comes to performing on the field. So, it doesn't matter what we took him or what we paid for him. The only question is, 'How good a player is Tony Ugoh?'"

Polian said when Ugoh was blocking Titans DE Kyle Vanden Bosch on Sunday, the answer was that Ugoh wasn't bad at all.

"When you watch the tape, you find out that he really did a very credible job," Polian said. "Over the course of a 60-play game, Tony Ugoh played pretty darned well. If you said to me, 'Is Tony Ugoh as good a player as D'Brickashaw Ferguson?' I'd probably say, 'Yes.' Is he as good a player as maybe some people who have higher profiles in the media? The answer is probably yes. To Tony's credit, when he had to step in and play Sunday night, he played pretty darned well.And as one of our Pro Scouts, Kevin Rogers, said many weeks ago as we were discussing he formation of our roster, 'There are a lot worse players than Tony Ugoh starting for other teams in this league. That's for sure.' Don't get down on him. We're not. It's a work in progress.

"If I can point to one thing Tony doesn't have it's great lower body strength and therefore, he needs to be able to be pretty much technically perfect on every play. If he's not technically correct, then against a Vanden Bosch he's going to have a little difficulty from time to time. But he hung in last night and did a very, very credible job. There's no reason to worry about Tony Ugoh and there's no reason to point fingers at Tony Ugoh and we're very happy we have Tony Ugoh."

Also on the radio show, Polian discussed the play of the secondary -- which was playing without S Bob Sanders, CB Marlin Jackson and S Kelvin Hayden -- "pretty amazing."

"It's a credit to the players and to the coaches for adopting the 'Next Man Up' theory and to people like (S) Melvin Bullitt for stepping in and playing at a very, very high level," Polian said. "It's to their credit and we've had a great first five games. Now, we'll get a chance to kick back, take a deep breath and relax and get some rest, then get ready for the second half of the season."

Other news and notes from Polian's Monday show:

* Polian on the team playing more man coverage in the seconday than in past seasons: "We're doing things on defense this year that we haven't done in quite some time. One thing is covering in both three-deep zone, where essentially the corners are man to man if the route gets deep, and in man-to-man coverage like we've never covered here."

* On holding Tennessee RB Chris Johnson to 34 yards and the TItans to 90 yards rushing as a team: "That's the No. 1 rushing team in the National Football League, so that's a great tribute to our defensive players and defensive coaches. They did a great job getting ready and they executed."

* On improvement in kickoff coverage: "That's where we're so much improved, is on kickoff coverage. We're able to limit them. First of all, the kickoffs are magnificent and we're able to limit the opposition so that even when you get a run that breaks out, it's not going much past the 35 or 40. It's not going down to our 10 or our five or for a touchdown. In most cases, we're keeping the ball in there inside the 25, which is making the opposition go a long way, which is really a good thing. That has been a marked improvement."

*** READ COFFEE WITH THE COLTS: INDY FOOBALL REPORT EDITOR JOHN OEHSER'S NEXT-MORNING LOOK AT COLTS-TITANS. HERE.

*** PRE-GAME PRIMER. INDY FOOTBALL REPORT EDITOR JOHN OEHSER PREVIEWS TITANS-COLTS. HERE.

*** THE TOP FIVE SEASONS OF COLTS QB PEYTON MANNING. HERE

*** WR PIERRE GARCON AMONG FIVE KEY EARLY-SEASON DEVELOPMENTS FOR 3-0 INDIANAPOLIS COLTS HERE ***

MAGNIFICENT SEVENS: WEEKLY COLTS THOUGHTS . . .

Magnificent Seven I: Seven training camp thoughts and observations

Magnificent Seven II: On the Colts' defensive tackle position and WR Reggie Wayne

Magnificent Seven III: On the Colts' running backs and offensive line

Magnificent Seven IV: On the Colts' offense, OG Ryan Lilja and WR Anthony Gonzalez

Magnificent Seven V: On S Melvin Bullitt and QB Peyton Manning

Magnificent Seven VI: On RB Donald Brown and the start of the season . . . at last

Magnificent Seven VII: On WR Reggie Wayne, the OL and blitzing