Coach Jon Gruden is singing a far different tune after three games without Brown Darius Leonard Color Rush Jersey , who was cut at his request eight days before the start of the regular season.“We were good in the preseason without him,” Gruden said after the Raiders won their first game of the regular season without Brown. “We’re going to be fine without him.”Two games — both losses by 18 or more points– later, Gruden now blames a sluggish offense on the departure of Brown.“It’s caused us a little bit of . . . rethinking,” Gruden said Wednesday regarding the decision to cut Brown, via Paul Gutierrez of ESPN.com. “When you lose your starting ‘Z,’ who arguably is a great player, I don’t think anyone’s going to dispute that you have to replace him. And we’re making an effort to move Tyrell [Williams] around, we’re bringing on some younger guys. J.J. Nelson also got hurt, don’t forget that. He was hurt. Dwayne Harris got hurt, so we’ve had some multiple things to deal with, and we’re dealing with them.”They’re also dealing with the fact that quarterback Derek Carr isn’t getting the ball down the field the way that Gruden would like, but Gruden continues to love the one he’s with.“I think he’s done some good things,” Gruden said regarding Carr’s performance this season. “I’m not going to put it all on Derek. We take responsibility as a playcaller. I’m calling the plays and designing some of this stuff https://www.coltsfanshop.com/Denzelle-Good-Jersey , so I put it on myself. He’s done a good job.“Getting stuffed on fourth and a foot isn’t his fault. He didn’t miss the blitz pickup in the red zone. We had a ball that could have been caught, could have set up points at the end of the half. He’s doing some good things. I’m not going to sit here and say that we’re a finished product yet. We’ve gone through a lot of change through the first three weeks, and we played two really good teams, actually, three really good defenses in back-to-back weeks.”Carr has completed 73.5-percent of his passes, but he has three interceptions against four touchdown passes. He’s averaging 233 yards per game, putting him 24th among all quarterbacks.It gets no easier this week with a trip to Indianapolis, but Gruden surely will continue to have excuses and explanations if things continue to go not as well as expected, defending his starting quarterback right up until the point when Gruden can find a potentially better one in the offseason. It’s no longer a secret that the Indianapolis Colts feel that they’ve hit the lottery with a couple of their recent draft picks. Rookies Darius Leonard and Quenton Nelson have been major contributors for the team in a season that was seen as just another step in the rebuild of the roster.To some extent that’s still true. However, neither Leonard or Nelson have played like rookies. Not even good rookies. They’ve been putting together some seriously impressive performances worthy of being very good NFL pros regardless of tenure.It’s not an ‘award’ but Jeff Legwold — senior writer for ESPN — has recognized the duo as being two of the top 10 rookies in the league to this point in the season. Sportscenter on FacebookLeonard has missed a game this season, but still leads the league in total tackles with 122, and has a nice little cushion over the next highest total of 106 tackles which is shared by, both Clayton Geathers Jersey , Miami’s Kiko Alonso and Green Bay’s Blake Martinez. Leonard is also tied for the team lead in sacks (6), has forced 4 fumbles (team high), and is third on the team in tackles for loss as well.Nelson has also taken the league by storm. As an interior lineman, Nelson has been a key cog in the Colts’ offensive line seeing a much improved season, and has undoubtedly assisted in Andrew Luck’s impressive season.Nelson was seen as a ‘can’t miss’ lineman in the 2018 NFL draft, but many struggled to give him the credit for being the right pick for Chris Ballard simply due to his positional value. Within Ballard’s vision of constructing this roster, though, it appears to have been a no-brainer on his part. Nelson has been very good in protection, and is often the first player down the field on running plays. His draw comes from his nature of being a bully in the trenches as well as his athletic ability to pull and open up running lanes on the perimeter. So far, Nelson has proved to be a fantastic pick for the second-year Colts’ GM.Leonard was seen in another light, though, after he was selected by the Colts. He wasn’t seen as a good pick — at all. He was often reviewed as one of the worst picks, not just by the Colts Nate Hairston Color Rush Jersey , but by any team in the entire draft. His being selected in the second round was the main reason for this blowback, but Leonard has more than quieted the critics with his all-around play in his rookie campaign.As Leonard sits at second on Legwold’s list, this is pretty par for the course among NFL analysts right now and he has a very legitimate possibility for taking home defensive rookie of the year honors. For Nelson, only Baker Mayfield, Saquon Barkley and Phillip Lindsay sit above him on this rookie list on the offensive side of the ball, thus, it appears equally possible for him to be heavily in the mix for the offensive rookie of the year award as well. Any way you choose to look at it, the Colts have a very productive rookie class this year, and Leonard and Nelson are the clear front-runners at positions in which the Colts desperately needed difference making players on their respective sides of the ball. It looks like Ballard may know what he’s doing.