05-30-25 Hour 1 of Broncos Country Tonight with Ryan Edwards

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We've been doing Broncos Country. Tonight, Ben's with Old Brian
here with the You Short Show Post Rockies Edition, joined
by the OG Triple OG. Ryan Edwards snuck into the studio.
They let you pass the security out there. Actually he
just big timed them all. He just looked at him
and they cowered out of the way as he walked in. Here.
You know what we record this is next to Studio
C right. So it's actually kind of cool because I

(00:20):
don't get down in this area very often because we
were upstairs with Banquished to the down here. Yeah, but
but it's it's cool because you just never know who
you're going to kind of run into. So it was,
you know, I'm walking by, I'm like, did I know
a musician? Like like, hey, well what band is this?
You know he kind of was because it's just I'm
a former musician. Right. They bring in some unbelievable names. Yeah,

(00:43):
clay Would here a couple of weeks ago is great, incredible.
I love Clayoanta. Actually you're you got me into Clayo
all people. But anyways, Yeah, so I I was walking
by as we're getting ready to do this, I was like, oh,
do it like you know, kind of rubber necking a
little bit like I do what wait that kind Dad
kind of looks like and but you know, Tana, No,
he's kidding. You don't want to be that guy. You know,
you don't want to be that person that's like gawking. Yeah,

(01:05):
I mean that because we're supposed to be cool, We're
supposed to be good. But that's what I did. I
kind of put my head down. I said hi to
Susie Warrigon and then walked on past it. Everybody's like,
you know, So that's why I tried to play the
too cool for school. Oh you did? Yeah? Nobody inquired
who I was? No, wow, I mean no one you
were in swim promotions did inquire? Like I said, guy
does he work here? Yeah? Yeah, you roll out of bed.
You clearly roll out of bed initiallyn like a shower.

(01:27):
I did. I wouldn't. I wouldn't worked out today. I
had a jog. Maybe she yocks soft jay, I don't know,
but yeah, I apparently you just run for an extended
period of time. I'll never forget. And I think I
brought it up a couple of times. But the opening
day we were down, uh for course field and this
is when you used to live in a different part
h downtown. Yeah, and so you you jogged, You are

(01:47):
yogged over to are where we were set up and
you're like out of breath at everything that We're like
what are you doing? And you're like, I just jogged
over here, and we're like, yeah, you're sure you did.
You were all jogpath. You were on the jog path.
I do that to jog past for you know, single
guy reason the flex. There are single guy reasons. It
was clearly a flex, but it was just funny because
it was kind of like rod Burgandy. I don't know

(02:08):
if you heard it, just a thousand You're like we're
all getting ready to do the show and you're like,
I'm just pouring sweat and stuff like that. Just jogged
like three miles to get over here. Our former program director,
who was, I don't know, averse to exercise, was like,
what is what is this year doing here? So he
used to get winded walking down the hall and yeah,
I remember, Yeah, it was that was it sund like

(02:30):
I could really brag about being in great shape. Well
you've lost it weight, I've lost weight, but I'm not
in great shape. There is a difference, right, I lost
a bunch of weight. I cheated if you will, but
I mean you lost the weight. Doesn't matter how you
lost it. To you you look get there behind me
siting and if I had to go run right now,
that's a block altitude. We've been going to the gym

(02:52):
actually a couple of times a week, and I overdid it.
So right now I am walking with a pronounced limp
because I over did it. Like press, I'm recently and
all that kind of stuff. I'd lifted some heavy furniture
and after all that working out, I tweaked my back.
I had to go and see Mario to get my
get my back worked on, because I was like, I'm
laying there in pain. Shout out to Mario. I just
came from Mario's What okay, But there you go. We've

(03:13):
all been to the new office. We're all bragging about forties,
you know, so we're all bragging about our chiropractical appointments.
At this age, that's what happens. So they're gonna send
this segment into like a men's health like something back problems.
Go see her vitalist health clinic. You feel it, feel
a little out of shape, you get you're pulling muscles.
You know, one of those people and wants to spend
your sponsorship dollars right here at away. We were open

(03:33):
to this country, Broncos middle aged men tonight speaking of
you guys that are in shape. The Denver Broncos organized
training activity. See what I did there, because that's what
you call that in the biz. You were down there
the practice yesterday, I was catting the breaks of my
car worked on because I rolled into an intersection and
had no breaks. Fantastic stuff. Yeah, if you drove your
car more often, I don't have to do that now

(03:54):
that I literally live next to Yeah, no, no, no,
but yeah, yes, I was out of practice and yeah
I was good. It was It was every People have
different opinions about OTAs and what you're actually learning from OTA.
So I will acknowledge that, Hey, no pads and we're talking,
you know, May twenty ninth, when training camp doesn't start

(04:14):
for another month and a half plus. I respect how
there will be some people that would say, well, not
really learning lot, But I do think that there's some
things to learn. And one of the biggest ones that
I took away and we talked about it yesterday with Orlando.
The operation, especially on the offensive side of the ball,
was clean, like it didn't look disjointed. He disjointed. It

(04:36):
didn't look as though Bo Nixon and the guys out
there running it were learning it like that, And that
is a stark contrast from not only last year, but
even in previous season. So for the different things we
could take away, like I thought Davon Veley looked really
good out there, and I thought Kad Chris abram Strain
had really nice PBu on the sideline. Like Evan Ingram

(04:57):
a lot. I think that he is going to be
kind of the easy button for the offense. I think
that they're going to use him minimal two ways. But
more than anything I was I was really struck by
bone Nicks and the confidence of the offense overall. I
think familiarity breeds confidence. And if you go back, you
mentioned that it Looke didn't look just joint, didn't look
like people who were learning it. Well, let's go back
and evaluate that real quick, because last year had Bonick

(05:19):
learning this offense. Here before that, you had Russell Wilson
learning this offense. Here before that, you had Russell Wilson
learning the had Hackett offense here before that you had.
I mean, you can go back and get these quarterbacks,
they were all learning a new offense every year as
we were going back. I mean, this is it has
been going on for a while, and that's part of
the reason that we have like continuity things. You know,
we talk about continuity. That's what we mean by continuity

(05:39):
is you know, I think the best example this is
to go back and you look at Derek Carr. In
year one of whatever offense he was in, he was abysmal,
and then by year two, year three, all of a
sudden he was putting up decent numbers. You know, in
those offenses. It's the same thing with most quarterbacks. Most
quarterbacks don't get it instantly. Most quarterbacks there's a familiarity
that comes with that, and the machine sort of as
the quarterback go kind of oils the rest of the process,

(06:01):
you know. So having bo being year two in the NFL,
being your two in this offense, I think that's going
to be a boon for him. I think the offense
will run smoother. The question really is now about this regression.
Sure not that Bow himself is going to regress, but
that the offense could be less productive because defenses have
a year tape on Bow and now they they've sort
of they've got ideas on how to attack him and

(06:23):
had to game plan for him. Some of those works,
I won't We saw that with CJ. Stroud last year.
They changed nothing on the offense in Houston Texans year two,
and we saw everybody attacked it the same way. They
understand that, you know, they like to slide for have
one guy protected on the backside, so they send two
guys on the backside, and CG was getting sacked a
lot because they had one tackle out there to defend
two guys. I don't think you're going to have that
same problem with Sean Payton, who's been coordinating offenses for

(06:45):
the better part of a decade and a half in
the NFL, well longer than that, but as a head
coach for a decade and a half in the NFL.
But what do we what do we look at? What
do we expect out of Bow this season? I mean,
I don't expect it to be rocky, but I am
curious to how teams attack him and take away some
of that underneath on first down stuff, which is where
he feasted last year. Sure, and listen, I'm not going

(07:06):
to sit here and try to sell that there won't
be some bumpy moments because it's just it's just going
to be that way, and he is not an arrived quarterback.
I even liked that he said that yesterday, like he
went out of his way because he talked about raised
expectations and he said, we haven't done anything yet. In fact,
I have people on the team telling me you haven't
done anything yet, and that's that's great. Sean, by the way,
well sure, sure, but a teammate done it yet. Yeah,

(07:31):
but it's important to repeat because bon Nicks is already
a king in town, Like he gets royalty treatment already
just for taking this team to the postseason and showing
any glimpse whatsoever of stability at the quarterback position, something
we have not seen here in over a decade. So

(07:52):
bo Nicks has already arrived in that sense. But you're right,
it can change. It's a fickle situation, especially in the NFL.
We see too many examples of guys that flash and
then can never really recreate the magic. I'd say for him,
and I think you nailed it right there. Having Sean
Payton as part of this process. And I'd say that
the coaching staff in general on the offensive side of

(08:12):
the ball, including Joel Lombardi, including his quarterbacks. Can Carmichael
I think yeah, pe Carmichael too. I'd say all of
that matters, and all of those guys will be there
and have seen the experience of what it looks like.
Drew Brees was the same quarterback relatively speaking, for most
of his career out there with the Saints. But he
was good every year. There's a reason for that, and

(08:33):
plenty of tape on him, plenty of tape on the
New Orleans Saints offense, yet they still found ways to
attack you, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady. I mean these goods.
I'm not saying he's in that category. I'm just saying,
like quarterbacks have found ways to survive the regression, survive
the sophomore slump, and I do think the teachers in
the room will help him with that. Let's let's deconstruct
a little bit of that for a second, though, bo Nicks,

(08:54):
what are the benchmarks for this season? Because we think
we found the guy. We don't know it yet, but
we think we found the guy. What are the best
for him, you know, in terms of pass fail for
this season, Like is what are we saying, Oh no,
this was a one year flash in the plan pan
deal four, And what are we saying? Okay, we got
we got, ladies and gentlemen, we got him. Well, I'd say, first,
you know, without saying like, oh, he's got to pass for

(09:15):
forty five hundred yards and you know, forty touchdowns or
anything like that. I mean, that would be obviously nice.
I want to see the sack numbers stay low. You know,
I think that if you're Sean Payton in this offense,
I mean, one of the reasons why you moved on
from Russell Wilson is you wanted a quarterback that had
a better functional understanding of being in the pocket and
not taking unnecessary sacks that killed drives. So for bon Nicks,

(09:36):
continue to do that, continue to be that guy, continue
to show why Sean Payton believed in you, and honestly,
you'll stay on the field longer. The offense will be
more productive just if you do that. Honestly, if he's
just that, I think the rest of it will sort
of fall into place. I mean, there are other external factors,
like what was the run game going to look like,
because that is a big piece to this puzzle. Whatever

(09:58):
expectations we have of him and the offense does have
to include the run game. I do think Evan Ingram
is going to make some things easier for the offense overall,
especially on third down. But yeah, if he can just
take what's in front of him. Like, I don't even
hate the checkdown stuff, right, I mean, like sometimes he
gets killed for that and people talking about it, you know,

(10:18):
as a checkdown Verchanon and all that. I don't even
care about that. Keep the offense going forward, right, get productive,
give yourself productive plays and complete able or easy completion
opportunities in third down to keep the chains moving. And honestly,
you do that enough and I think the successes will come.
Only five quarterbacks had better sack percentage on dropbacks than him,

(10:41):
but it's not exactly a who's who of great quarterbacking.
Derek Carr led the NFL two point seven to nine
sacked percentage last year. Josh Allen was second at two
point a two, Jordan Love three point one nine. Then
you had eight no Connley, Cooper Rush, Mason Rudolph, and
then you start getting behind him. You know, with Lamar Jackson,
it's not exactly a murderer's row. They're a good couple
of quarterbacks on there a couple of good quarterbacks in there.

(11:03):
But I think, and I want to go back to
something I said earlier, I think the thing for bow
is not necessarily not taking sacks. I mean, he takes
a low number of sacks, and that's that's a good thing.
But I think it's the And I retweeted something that
Josh Norris had said the other day the first day.
You know, but nobody was a bigger checkdown merchant on
first downs than bow Knicks. But you want that, Uh,
this was a larger part of the conversation you and

(11:24):
Dave and I were having the other day about checkdowns
and that kind of thing. Checkdowns on third down or
a problem. Checkdowns on first down is what you want.
You want him to take what they give you. You want
him to put you in first and whatever or second
whatever instead of second and ten. And both feasted on
first first down check mart had they had the highest
yards per yards per gain on first down on what

(11:44):
would be perceived checkdown type throws. It's six yards. Let's
putting you in second and four. The air offensive coordinator
is absolutely like, is elated if your quarterback is doing that.
So my you know, my observation is going to be
how teams attack bo Knicks on first down to try
to take away that short arge and force deeper throws
out of bow on early downs. Not that he can't

(12:05):
complete them. And we saw big time throws to you know,
to Marvin Mims and stuff like that late in the season,
But I question the the what it is the defensive
coordinators are going to do to sort of take that
away and put him in second and third and long
and then see what he can do. I think that's
completely fair. And then this is where you're hoping year
two with Troy Franklin, Devon Vley, Evan Ingram and what

(12:25):
his skill set represents, even Corland Sutton, who continues to
be a guy that can be reliable out there to
make contested catches. I think this is where you're gonna
need those guys to all take a step forward, right,
I mean, specifically Franklin and Veley, and then i'd even
say whatever running back out of the backfield. I mean,
so so much of the Sean Payton offense I mean

(12:46):
historically has been about that, and you know, you had
fifty one catches I think it was or fifty two
catches with Javonte Williams last year, and that's that's pretty good.
So are all those going to R J. Harvey? Can
he even do better than that? Whether it's R. J.
Harvey or Jalil McLoughlin or whatever it ends up being.
I just I want to see as teams adjust to
bow the Broncos adjust to them. And I do think

(13:09):
it starts with something he said yesterday where he says,
right now, I'm not thinking about all the footwork stuff.
I'm not thinking about the process of playing quarterback. I'm
reading defenses. And that is a significant jump forward from
where we were a year ago at this time. And
so to think like, okay, well if you can build
off that specifically where you're not going through all right,
am I seeing the right things? Or am I doing

(13:30):
the right things with my feet? Am I getting through
my progressions correctly? It's like, no, now I see what
the defense is doing, and from that I'm going to
be able to find some more success. Yeah. I think
you know, in an ideal Sean Payton offense, you would
throw on first down. Remember when Mike Thomas was the
slant God, you're throwing for that six yard slant, so
then you're second four and then you're running the ball
on those kinds of scenarios. I think R. J. Harvey

(13:52):
can have fewer receptions and more yardage than Jamonte offered
you nothing after the catch last year, and I think
hard it gives you a little bit of something after
the catch, littlejuice after the catch, so it's all yesterday. Yeah,
they want Harvey to be that sort of that Alvin
Kamara type, not necessarily a bell cow, but that guy
that can be on the field do anything. He may
be a little a little small for the pass pro,

(14:13):
but there are ways around that you can run gun
two back with it with an Adkins back there or
somebody you know as an h back and and be
a blocker if you need one. And I honestly I'd
love to see a backfield that that has him and
Julia McLoughlin and at times where you can you can
run gun two back, you can have you know, McLoughlin
with sort of that orbit motion and you can run.
You can run out of that right, You've got both
those guys back there, and you figure you looking at that,

(14:35):
that could be a pass or run. You can run
an angle route with Harvey and a wheel with UH
with McLoughlin, or you can run an orbit and then
a read option play with Nixon, you know, and and
Harvey to get things going. And I think there's there's
creative options this year with those kinds of things. I
don't expect McLoughlin have a big footprint in the offense,
but I'd love to see some packages like that. I'm
with you, and I mean again, we saw Marvin Mims
at times running those routes and being in the backfield

(14:56):
and putting him in motion. And I mean, I don't
necessarily want to Marvin Mims be back in a gadget role. No,
I don't want him in the back but you know,
but you know that you can give that look every
so often and and anything else. Like I said, if
you build a more traditional route tree for him, including
obviously some of the deep work which he really shined
late in the season, and then once in a while
and you're moving back there, I think it's just gonna

(15:17):
confuse some defenses because then they're gonna have to watch
the last year's film, they're gonna have to watch some
of the stuff you're doing this year. I think you're
just you're adding more quote unquote wrinkles. You're adding more
things for them to have to pay attention to. Yeah,
I'd love to see, you know, Mims maybe on some
jet sweep or bump pass type stuff. But I really
don't want him lined up in the backfield because you
know what's happening in that. You know, he's not running
the ball and he's not blocking, so you know what's

(15:37):
happening back there, and that's that's a big time alert,
you know for defenses on that kind of stuff. I
would like to see him develop the ratory and then Franklin,
if he can't learn to catch the ball over the shoulder,
which appeared to be his biggest problem last year, then
you got to have him flash on the numbers. Then
you could put him in sort of that trey Quon
Smith role that Sean Payton had where he's running the
mid you know, in cuts numbers back to the quarterback
where he can at least you know that's how he

(15:58):
catches it. It's a last moment's doing that last year.
I'd like to see more of that and less of
him on the fly pattern, which is not understanding how
to catch up, but even just get him, get him
in rhythm early, you know, I mean, if his only
target is going to be the fly pattern, that is
that's on you as a coaching staff to do a
better job of getting him in rhythm of the game
rather than just relying on him to go cold all

(16:18):
of a sudden, like all right, get down there in
a hurry, and he was open, but yeah, you gotta
do it. Wasn't what he did in Oregon either though,
but he had the numbers back toward the quarterback. We
got a whole other segment we're going to to get
to you here on Broncos Country tonight with the og
Ryan Edwards. We'll be back right here on fifty ninety
four on FM News Talk Sports put him back to

(16:41):
it Broncos Country Today, Amendment Old Brian here where you
post Rockies Edition Short show edition joined by Ryan Edwards,
KIOI Sports. If he of the being famous in Afternoon Drive,
thank you sir, Thank you for filling in earlier today
by the way, doing double duty. Yeah, you know, I mean,
it's just if anybody it was out there describing me.

(17:01):
It was really just a hard charger working as much
as possible. Those those kinds of adjectives would would definitely
be used for someone else, but I was there, so
they used me. You know, I have some other things
I'd say to that. I'm just gonna goe and let
you have. It's like you're waiting for you to invert
the joke there. Just I'm just gonna let you you know,
that's that's one of those things. You were out of
practice today. A couple of other things I wanted to get to,

(17:24):
you know, in there, Jade Baron was getting rave reviews
from maybe it's Yade soft Ja, I don't know, you know,
getting getting rave reviews from everybody. You say. You mentioned
Abram Strain and made a point to mention him somebody
who you know probably occupies that dime role quarter roll
this year with Moss and and certain obviously on the
outside and Baron in the slot, and then you know,

(17:46):
Jaqui mcmillion maybe be in the backup slot if he's
on this roster. Is is Abram's drained, do you think
he has a chance to maybe push for play time
on the outside with Moss or that's so tough, right,
I mean, that would take Moss taking a step back.
But the coaching staff really believes in him, and I
think he showed enough last year that he gets first
crack easy, gets first cracked. He was good last year.

(18:07):
He's like he was better than good. He was really
good up until up until the ankle injury. And so
I guess if the coaching staff has that in their mind,
maybe they might want more competition there. I think Abrams
Drain is gonna be a good player in this league.
I don't hemas just seeing you know what that looks
like if he gets more opportunity. He had some flashes
last year. He also had some struggles, but he as

(18:28):
a rookie. So I don't think that you you chalk
anything up other than that you saw some of the
instincts the athleticism show out. When I saw him the
practice with that PBu on the sideline, it was great.
I mean, he had to close a big distance in
a hurry, and he got there and he made a
clean play on the ball that honestly probably had no
business even being in the vicinity, but it was. It

(18:49):
was a great play by him, and I also liked
that in an OTA practice and a relatively meaning meaningless
OTA practice, it's not meaningless for those guys. It's not
meanless for a guy like Kad who's out there trying
to continue to earn a roster spot. He's not guaranteed anything,
and I think we all know that. So you know,
I put him right now in my top six corners
pretty easily. But once again, a couple guys here and

(19:10):
there could flash to Marty Mathis obviously has some stuff
to prove. You talked about Jaquan. He's another guy that
has some things to prove. But I really just I
like his profile. I like to watch him in college,
and he was one of the guys we talked about
a ton a training camp last year. Remember, I mean
he was one of the guys that taught, was discussed
a lot, He got a lot of PBUs during the
training camp practices. He'll play a special teams role assuming

(19:32):
he makes the roster, and then yeah, then it's just
an opportunity whenever it presents itself to go out there,
and he's going to be oppositie passer tan, which means
you're gonna get a lot of looks and what does
he do with him? Yeah? Uh, The one area I
think of concern I have with this team's the inside
back or spot. You got Alex Singleton coming back off
a big time injury, Drake Greenlaw who's coming back off
injury and then retweaked that injury. Jrew Sanders who has

(19:55):
not exactly looked like he's developed a feel for that position,
although they've got a specific role for him as sort
of the that Todd Davis downhill. You know he's got
inside back or they've got that carved out for him.
But I mean that that that inside backer position does
look because otherwise the front seven looks lethal, but that
inside backer position looks like a health question mark. You know,
is there anybody that you think is a let's assume

(20:18):
health here. Is there anybody on this defense we think
is a surprise cut or maybe trade? Does ja Qui
McMillan fall into the surprise at this point with the
drafting a baron? I mean, is there you know, math
issue you mentioned could be a guy that's on the
on the bubble. The other part of that is with
expanded practice squads, some of these guys might be guys
that get cut and brought back, you know, his practice squad,
and then call up and it's like they never left anyway. Yeah, PJ. Locke,

(20:39):
I mean that that's that's you know, you're talking about
all those guys there are already bubble guys. I don't
know there's some surprises there. I don't think he gets cut.
I think he's the third safety in the rotation. I
do too, but I'm saying you have surprised. Yeah, okay,
that would be a surprise because I think he's in
the rotation. I think he's on the roster right now.
So that would have to be one of those like, hey,
well we think Jade actually can play some safety if
we need him to. So we're gonna go ahead and

(21:01):
keep an extra position here and then go a little
light there. I think, Well, I think because Jale Skinner's
on here too. He wasn't out there yesterday, but he's
right here. To my gut feeling from some conversations I've
had is that if Baron, Baron won't play a lot
of safety. But if he's moved his safety it's to
put it's to get heavy up front. So you're going
to bring a heavier body up front, like you you
know mission skinner there, bring your body up front for

(21:22):
for a run fit situation to Baron, you want to
keep him on the field, so you'd move him back there.
My understanding is he's the slot corner and there's there
is some versatility there, but really, uh, they expect him
to sort of be the slot corner and be a
version of Kareem Jackson in but in the slot there's
going to be so many fun things that VJ is

(21:43):
going to get to do with the secondary And we
got to see a little bit of a OTAs. It
can't really go into too many details, but the way
that he's going to be able to move guys around
and and you really don't know who might be coming,
and I'll just kind of leave it at that a
little bit. I mean, tell hi know who fanan Gas
super smart like and obviously very physical player as well.
But we saw even some of that out of OTAs.

(22:04):
I mean, he's he looks the part. He looks like
he's going to fit in very nicely into what they're
trying to do. And in the fact, you have some
versatility with the safeties. They can both play with the box,
they both can play deep. You have versatility now at
your slot, corner, your nickel, you can you can also
play him on the outside if you want to. They
all can come downhill. I'm just I'm trying to paint

(22:27):
a picture here. Then where for Van Jon, I'm just
saying like, like you're wease, let's get home. I'm gonna
be doing some exotic dancing. No, that's not This isn't
gonna be like a Miba defense here with Brian Flores, right,
I'm just blowing right past that reference. No huh. But
the thing is is you're going to be able to
move guys up and they can all stand at the
line and then you drop however many of them back,

(22:49):
and then you send others. There's just so many different variations.
I think VJ is gonna have a lot of fun
with this. Yere. So the secondary for me, which we
already knew was gonna be good, it's once you added
Hufanga and Barren, it kind of takes on a different
life because now you not only do you have some
incredible depth with the defensive player of the year as

(23:12):
well back there in the secondary, but you also have
a lot of versatility too. So it's just a it's
a very fun unit to watch. Yeah, and I expect again.
I mean last year, you know, I was trying to
tell people, hey, this defense is going to be really good,
and they were. They have a chance to be the
defense in the NFL. I mean there, they're already a
top five unit, but they have a chance to be
the defense. And there'ld probably be the Broncos in the vikings.

(23:32):
So probably he mentioned Flores would probably be the two
best defenses in the league, assuming health, you know, as
far as that stuff goes. Pivoting back to the offensive
side of the ball, here somebody that I think is
a surprise that he managed to hang around. I mean,
you're talking about a guy who was a healthy scratch
for the playoff game and now is a pole position
for the short yardage RB two, you know, kind of
role OBJCT estimates. As things wore aw through the draft

(23:56):
process and through free agency, the Broncos kind of felt
like they needed to get a playmaker there. They talked
to estimates people and it felt more and more like he
was actually gonna stick around. So I know they're out
there saying they give him what an incomplete I think
is what they is. John Sewn said at the presser.
But reality is they're hoping that he can grow into
what they'd originally envisioned for him. That's it. I mean,
the moves you made so far, unless you bring in

(24:18):
another running back, is to say that Audric Customey is
going to have a big role of this year. And
I mean again, I we've talked about it quite a bit,
the object estimate being inactive for the Bills game. It's
it's easy to read into that because it's it's it's
an action, right, It's more than a word. It's its action.
But as far as what we learned out there in
Indianapolis at the combine, we're told maybe not to read

(24:40):
into that so much that because he was a rookie,
because they just had some matchups in mind. And sometimes
I do think, my opinion, coaches can overthink things. I
don't think a lot of that happened in that game.
Just say a lot of that happened in that game,
and based on the way things played out, I think
that that you can kind of know where that was
going to go. I mean, you you're bringing a guy
off ir who hadn't played in months, and then now

(25:03):
he's going to be a focal point and he gave
him what four care. It's like, yeah, as much is
barely in the game. But like that's that's the definition
of overthinking it. And it's not to say that Dodri
Guestimate would have done much better. It's just to say
that under the circumstances, you're you're like, wow, we get
this matchup, and it's like, okay, you got this matchup.
But come on, dude, like he's he hasn't even been
out there. He's barely practiced, right, So anyway, I do

(25:27):
think Adre Gasta is going to be in the mix.
I you obviously need a short yardage guy. I think R. J.
Harvey can can still be that. But I just don't
think you want to do that over the course of
a seventeen game schedule. I don't think his body is
necessarily designed. I mean again, he's stocky, right, and he's
got that burst. But you want to you want to
really you don't always want to try to get him
in space, but you don't not want to miss opportunities

(25:48):
to do that too. Well. Yeah, and you know rookies,
rookie running necks tend to wear down over the course
of the NFL season that used to seventeen games, and
he's already got a lot, a lot of carries. Yeah,
I mean, they just they wear that. They're not used
to seasons that are that long and then and that
sort of stuff. So there's, you know, there's there's a
there's a component to that as well. We're talking about
was talking with Steve Attwater and Nick last night about H. R.
Harvey's legs, which remind me of like those are those

(26:10):
giant turkey legs you get at a renaissance. He's got
the quad, it's just a huge and then he's got
the lower leg below the needs the size on my leg,
the calves and the in the lower leg or not.
It's it's just funny to look at, I think, And
I can't until you guys get out there and see
it or they get more pictures of it. I can't
do it justice. It's it's pretty funny to look at though.
But I do believe he's capable of doing some of

(26:32):
those things. But I think they want to make sure that, uh,
they believe they're gonna be a playoff team next year.
They want to make sure they don't wear down the
guy that they you know, plan on being a focal
point of the offense. I mean, Sean Payton offense is
usually a three feature offense. It's it features the X receiver,
the tight end, and the UH and the running back,
you know, and and that's those are the three features.
And then there's a supporting cast about the guys and
so you know, I don't I think they want to

(26:53):
make sure that that they don't wear him down. So
I think estimate is gonna have a bigger role than
last year in terms of running the ball, especially in
short yardage type you know, those just obvious situations. But
that said, I do expect Harvey to be the fantasy
option I guess this year if you're looking at that.
Although I do have a weird bet for a weird
bet for the first quarter of the season with with

(27:14):
with Steve and Nick who are non betters, that the
leading receiver for touchdowns will be Nate Adkins at that
point in the season. Well, I mean that would be
such a Sean Payton, yeah, exactly, Like everybody keeps saying, oh,
everyth Ingram's gonna be yeah, yeah, yeah, every ringhams up.
He caught six touchdowns in his rookie season. He's not
even approach that sense. He's a four touchdown a year

(27:35):
guys between the twenties guy. I did hear that segment,
by the way, and the one thing I would push
back with, and I agree with Steve on this is
where where he has been used in the past doesn't
always dictate how another coach might see him. So another
coach brings him in to say, you know what, I
see the way they've been using you, and I you
did fine at that, but I have this other idea.

(27:55):
Now again, we talked about overthinking things that absolutely could
be the case, but it's it's to say that, well,
and now he can't be a red zone guy just
because he wasn't a red zone guy with a terrible
team in the Giants and Trevor Lawrence, they couldn't get
him the ball in the end zone. Bro, are you
really going to try to make an argument that Jacksonville
is the team that we're gonna We're gonna bap things

(28:16):
out from him? Peterson got Carson Wentz and Dallas Goddard
neien Zoni Kid getting zach Ertzy. He's still like one
of the top tight ends and receptions he just wasn't
a big red zone guy. But I'm just saying, like
your expectation could be different than what Sean Payton's expectation,
isn't that So I agree with Steve in the sense
of what a guy was one stop or a couple
of stops doesn't necessarily dictate what he's going to be here. Now.

(28:38):
That also doesn't mean he's going to recreate a you know,
one hundred catch season or anything like that, because I don't.
I don't necessarily think that's gonna happen. I think he's
more likely to get one hundred receptions than ten touchdowns. Okay,
that's interesting. You know, if you were, if you were
playing either or don't. I think that'd be an interesting
question to ask Broncos fans if you could have one
or the other out of Evan Ingram, which would you take.
I just he's and we keep saying tight end, but

(28:58):
he's not a tight end. He's a heavy slot. I
mean he is. By the way, I have a drinking
game every single time you say heavy slot. And by
the way, Broncos Country Tonight fans, it's not so good
for their livers. No, you say heavy slot a lot
getting drunk tonight. You say you see heavy slot way
too much. Every time you say it, I texted forty
years that's I mean, that's what he is, like, that's
he's a big slot like that's you know, yeah, I know, yes,

(29:20):
you like your ear phrases. But anyways, the point, the
point of it is, it'd be interesting to see what
Broncos fans if you could take a hundred catch season
from Evan Ingram or ten touchdowns, which one would you take? Well,
I think most people could take the points because yardist
doesn't necessarily take one hundred catch. But I'm taking the
receptions because that means the offense is moving. I would
take the hundred catches. I would take the hundred catches.
I would assume that the rest of it will sort
of work itself out, you hope. If not, I mean, well,

(29:41):
let's is going to be busy. Fair point. Just say,
by the way, speaking of specialties very quickly, Jerry krosshow
everybody keeps raving about cross Oh my goodness. Although Nick
was pretty funny because he kept whining, if you will,
about out kicking your coverage. He's like he's out, he's
out kicking his coverage. You look it, and I'm like,
they played special teams a lot. That's one thing I

(30:02):
was worried about. A chance to talk to him about
it that a little bit. I'm like, well, wait a minute,
just because you're booming the ball and now you're at altitude,
now you have to change things. You have to directionally
punt higher to give yourself more hangtime because the ball
is going to go further. Yeah, so you know, it
does change the way that you punt at altitude. That
only happened like a couple of times, like May twenty ninth.
I'm not even freaking out about that. You're freaking out

(30:22):
where Darren Rizzy is going to be fined. He's gonna
get it. You know, he Australian, so he'll he just
fight like Brian Kelly speaks Louisiana or whatever, fake Katie.
Oh my god. He had been in Louisiana for two
days and all of a sudden he had a drawl.
I was like, you gotta be kidding me. So Darren
Rizzy will be just fine. He'll figure out Ricky Rizzy's

(30:44):
going to be throwing a shrimp on the barbie or whatever.
You know, That's what I doesn't go my baby, so
but yeah, Jerry Crosshaw and Dave said it earlier this
week when you got to watch practice on Tuesday, the
ball flies off his foot. I I can see why
because you know, I'll tid you dropped a special teams
player a kicker up. You know, you're like, okay, all right,

(31:06):
he's got better be that, you know, but he's better
revolutionized punting. But not only is he going to be
cost effective for four years, but he's also really good. Yeah.
I'm yeah, and I'm looking forward to bring the mustache back.
I think we talked back. Okay, well we talked. I
think we talked him into that on the when we
interviewed him after that, I was like, you know you
got to bring that thing. Yeah, you can't. You can't

(31:27):
pull a Garjulio and show up here with the shaved head. No,
you know, after after having that profile photo that that
broke my heart. Yeah, that profile photo is Nick Arjulia
was that glorious Maine that he was at Mullet and
Mustache Combo he was riding. He showed up with a
shaved head and the clean shaven face, and I'm like,
what were you trying to avoid rookie haircuts. What do
you do those? Look what happened to his rookie year.
We don't even do those here. So that's uh, that's
one of those things. This team is possibly going to

(31:50):
be better than last year and not have uh necessarily
a better record. You've got a brutal schedule you got
to play this year. It's one of those things where
I'm trying to cast of people ahead of time, like
it's possible there'll be a wet blanket. I don't want
to thirtieth. I'm just saying, if we look back on
this thing and they and they only a ten win
you know team or whatever with a wild card, I

(32:10):
wouldn't be disappointed, especially if it's a better team that
just happened to have that. You know, you didn't get
the breaks like you got at the end of the
Jets game last year where you had missed field goals
all over. You get missed a break against Kansas City.
You didn't get the break in the second Kansas City
game where you're playing backups and padding the totals and
you know, and all that kind of stuff. And there's
some other you know, there were some other games in
there that and there were some that bounced both ways.

(32:31):
You know, look the Charger Chargers game, you know that
kind of stuff. So there's there's possibilities for you know,
the football gods given and they take it away. But
are you if they get a ten win season and
a wild card are you disappointed in that? Because I'm
not not at all. Like to me, that's showing consistency
and that continues to be something that you could build up. Yeah, no,
not at all. I mean you want to be contention.
Maybe if you can for the AFC West at the end,

(32:52):
that would be great. I think you know, you set
that as a goal. The Broncos have set that as
a goal. They want to win the SUS So you
want to be in contention for that. If you follow
your short but you still make the postseason and you're
going to travel Week one in the wildcard round, I
think that's all right. I think the disappointment at this
point would be missing the playoffs, which is a great
place to be. Honestly, the fact is the Broncos haven't
had that kind of expectation. We've been like, hey, would

(33:14):
it be nical? Well No, I don't think so. I
think I think you put that pressure on and you
believe that you can be that team because you're gonna
have that kind of defense. As you laid out, the
offense ostensibly should be better. So if you factor in
all those things with the continuity piece, eighty six percent
of your roster is returning. That's significant. So all those
reasons why ten wins is, in my opinion, the floor

(33:38):
the floor. Okay, I think the nine to eleven is
kind of the range because other teams in the division
did get better. You were guyliner, not that the Raiders
are going to be a threat to anybody, or you
wear guylinered. I mean, look lindicated. It's a great song.
My hair was everywhere. I appreciate you stepping Inte's brother.
It's always always good. Thanks for actually asking this time.

(33:58):
Oh you know, I mean it's sometimes I just demand,
that's what I do. No. You usually you just say, yeah,
I'm gonna go record. You wanna come in, I'm gonna
go record. You don't even ask me that. That's why.
That's why that's my invitation to the bar. I'm gonna,
I'm gonna what are you gonna, I'll be there at
this time. That's my invitation peeding. Nobody wants to hear
about Ed Broncos country, and I appreciate you guys listening
right here on KIOW