08-04-26 Hour 1 of Broncos Country Tonight

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to a Brocos Country tonight short show post Rockies addition,

(00:03):
Benjamin all Bright, Nick Ferguson here with you. I appreciate
you all be along. After the game. Nick, we had
the day after today, the day after padded practice, and
I would say that there's been over the first few
days of camp a lot of media attention focused on
the offense looking maybe a little bit better than normal.

(00:24):
But today the I feel like the defense roared back.
I want to get your thoughts on that. It felt
like it was a wholeheartedly an defensive day. Now, we
did have the Nick Benito thing. We don't have an
update on that right yet as we are recording this,
but you know, Nick sort of walked off on his
own power, a little little hitching as gidea up as
he was walking off, but certainly looked like he he
was under his own power. So some tentative optimism there.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
We'll see.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
Luke Wattenberg who was injured yesterday, saw him on the
bikes on walking around. He looked he looked like he's
probably going to be back in practice tomorrow. We'll see.
So that's the injury update. But did you feel the
same way, did you feel like, this was definitely a
defensive day at practice.

Speaker 3 (01:03):
Yeah, I did, and I knew this was this was coming,
and this is what I tried to tell Ryan Edwards
and so many others, but nope, they.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Didn't want to listen. They didn't want to listen because
once you put the pads on, it changes the tempo.
It changes everything.

Speaker 3 (01:20):
From going from the T shirt short Olympics because now
proper body position, hand placement, get off, all of those
things come into play. And also a benefit the offensive
line too as well, because now where they couldn't grab,
now they can really grab because they have something to
hold on to. But yeah, the defense dominated today and

(01:41):
it was more competitive and as coach Payton tried to
describe it, they had some competitive peerersts and that's what
you want to do. You want to make some game
like situations into your practice. And so far the defense
were you know, we're winning a lot of those plays
because early on we saw a lot of shots down
the field, right, exposive plays, and some of those plays

(02:05):
came after the quarterback would have been sacked. And we'll
get into that because there was a lot of that
taking place today. But you saw some guys man you know,
some some birds, some first hand quickness get in their
hips even with offensive linemen blown pass guys like on
the first two plays, been the first two plays out

(02:26):
of the gate. When it came down to like the
team drill dominated by Zach Allen, yep. And I would
say this practice dominated by defense. But it was a
Zach Allen type of day because man, he may not
look like look the part right, the quickness, the speed
or whatever, but I can tell you, man, he plays
with his hands. He knows how to properly position himself.

(02:50):
And he had a sack on bow knicks and then
he would have blown up the running back in the backfield.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
Yeah, and it wasn't just it wasn't just penetration on
the back end. You had guys making plays. Riley Moss
had a great pass breakup on a ball that was
probably under thrown.

Speaker 3 (03:06):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
The receiver I believe was Troy Franklin had a step
and probably you know, if the ball had been thrown
beyond him and stayed in stayed in stride, would have
been able to make a catch. But it was it
was underthrown I think by Stidham. And uh, you know,
we got to see Riley Moss come in there and
making make a great pass break up. Riley's playing pretty
well in camp so far. You know, I've seen There's

(03:27):
been a few plays. You know, Mills got behind him
the other day on one. But for the most part,
I think Riley's played pretty well.

Speaker 2 (03:36):
You know, Can I can I bit for just a
second here, please? Yeah? Because at practice I try not
to say anything. Ben.

Speaker 3 (03:44):
I tried to be as cold as I can, and
I have to tell you, man, it takes a lot
of me not to correct people at practice because everyone's
got their no pads writing things down, and I'm like,
you're writing the wrong damn thing down, like when you
talk about Mons and you know he's giving up a
couple of plays and that's gonna happen, right, But here's

(04:06):
the most important thing.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
It's the bounce back.

Speaker 3 (04:10):
And you want to see Raleigh Moss in these situations
where he is struggling because we all know I guess
the mo and the brings about penalties and explosives. You
want to put him in stressful situations to watch to
see how he adapts to him in practice. And I
have to say, man, he's done a hell of a

(04:31):
good job. Now, you mentioned Martin mems card cup passes
over this past weekend, but Raley's balance back that it
passes interceptions against Courtland sudden the play that you're talking
about that Troy Franklin had to step on it. If
Bow lets it go right now, that that's an explosive Yeah,
probably a touchdown. Probably, No, not probably it is a touchdown.

(04:55):
But here's a couple of things for Bow, throw it
right now. Don't wait, trust in your wide receiver to
know he's going to get himself even. And you know
how they say if he's even, he's leaving. But here's
the other coaching point for Riley Moss win at the
line of scrimmen, that's where he gets himself in trouble
and that that's when he really has to rely on

(05:16):
his foot quickness. But because the ball was a little
on the throw, he was able to get back in
phase and and make a pass reflection.

Speaker 1 (05:22):
Yeah, and that's I mean, we saw a couple of
those today. I didn't think it was a particularly strong
day from bowl. There was some even some easy, some gimmes.
He had a swing pass to tar J Harvey that
he just like put right at his ankles, and it was.
It was a little bit weird. I don't know if
someone was bugging Bow or if he was just off
the bowl. Well they had, we'll get into that they had.
And you mentioned this as we were getting ready to

(05:42):
come to Dare here. You were talking about the center
quarterback exchange was off today. Very much was off today.

Speaker 2 (05:49):
Yeah, it was definitely off.

Speaker 3 (05:51):
And I mean this lets you know if you, if
you Luke Wadenberg, how much you mean to the team
and how much that quarter center exchange is so valuable.
I mean, we always talk about the quarterback and everyone
uplifts the quarterback, but they forget about all these intricate
pieces around the quarterback that makes his job easier because

(06:14):
you can't hand it off to the running back. You
can't throw a dime down the field on explosive if
you don't get the quarterback center exchange. That, in my opinion,
is by far the most important relationship. Now, the next
one to that would be quarterback coach quarterback. But in
this case, I know that Davids Webb is no longer

(06:36):
the quarterback coach. He's now in the officer coordinator that
is going to help Bow knicks. What is it who's
the quarterbacks coach? I'm drawing the blog.

Speaker 2 (06:46):
Okay, so kil Gore is.

Speaker 3 (06:49):
Not really there with Bowl like you really need to
because this is his first time who's coaching an as
system with tight ends, but that relationship is going to
be so important.

Speaker 2 (06:57):
I'll be watching to see how that blossoms during the season.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
Yeah, Logan is a former quarterback as well, so there's that. Yeah,
it's it's just I mean, as you look at this,
and it was funny because I was standing you were
over on one end, and I you know, when I
got there, I kind of hung out in the.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
I was standing in the in the crow's nests.

Speaker 1 (07:14):
Yes, and then I drifted over to because I like to,
you know, sort of have my ear to the ground
see what other people are saying. And it was it
was sort of fascinating because, yeah, a lot of the
assembled media, it almost feels like, has a rooting interest
for the offense to be good because some of the phrases,
some of the things that they were saying. As I
was standing there with Steve Atwater and I'm We're both
looking at each other as we're listening to some of
the comments that are coming around and I'm like, that

(07:35):
is not what just happened. That has not what just
occurred on the field.

Speaker 3 (07:37):
But see individuals watching practice, they're trying to manifest stuff
and I get it.

Speaker 2 (07:43):
I totally understand it.

Speaker 3 (07:45):
And the reason is starting to happen or people are
doing that because of what we saw last season. We
did not see the best of the best of the
offense when it early on in the game and put
it that way, first, second, third quarter. Now we saw
it late in the fourth quarter when a sense of
desperation kicked in and luckily the Broncos defense kept them in.

Speaker 2 (08:08):
But to see the offense.

Speaker 3 (08:10):
Have a little early spark, have those early explosive plays,
that helps.

Speaker 2 (08:15):
That helps build confidence.

Speaker 3 (08:16):
It's like when I think Bo took a shot down
Phil and so did Sam Ellinger take a shot down
Phield and it was celebrated by the fans right when
there was a past breakup.

Speaker 2 (08:29):
I didn't hear anything from the fans.

Speaker 3 (08:30):
Yeah, So I understand why the situation is what it is.
But we all know that the bread is buttered on
the side of the defense.

Speaker 1 (08:40):
Yeah, And that's that's sort of the thing. I think
there's an anticipation that the offense is going to start
carrying its own weight, and so I think people are
invested in that. A couple of notes that are of
my own that I will say through a few days
of practice, Jamie Wadels is advertised. He's every bit is advertised,
and I'm looking forward to to seeing that he he

(09:00):
there was a square in It was a regular square
end that he caught, but then he put a move
on Certan hit him with the ankle breaker and uh,
and I was like, okay, all right, he's got the
gear down, he's got to start stop, you know, on
top of on top of this other stuff. He's not
just a three route deep, you know, deep threat guy.
This guy can work routes over the middle.

Speaker 2 (09:16):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (09:17):
And he's got that uh, that quick twitch ability to
gear down and gear it right back up. That that's
gonna put people on skates and he's gonna be fun
to watch. Little Jordan Humphrey continues to be very involved
in this offense. So that looks like a thing that's
still gonna be happening for whatever reason. And then uh uh,

(09:37):
we saw a couple of good catches out of Lucas Croll.
For as much as I bagged the guy like, I
want to give him flowers when i'm you know, I
want to give if I'm if I'm a guy who
bags all a guy, I want to give you flowers
when you deserve it. Kroll had a couple of catches
today that that I thought were pretty nice. So I'm gonna,
you know, I'm gonna give him his flowers on that.
I the the the defensive side of things. That defense
didn't miss a beat when Nick Benito went down.

Speaker 2 (09:56):
No, it did not.

Speaker 3 (09:58):
But I want to since she up Lucas crow I
had to. I have to bring up something that I
saw in practice. The Broncos kind of ran someone of
a boot play and Lucas Crowe came out quarterback dropped
it off to him in the flat. He ran down
the field and Reeese Taylor was the corner, yep, and
he ran him over. Right Now, I would say to hey,

(10:22):
Reee Taylor, keep your hands up at all the time. Right,
But at the same time, I couldn't have happened to
but reflect on my time with the Denver Broncos and
if we were in the period where it was suggested
that we are not doing that and something like that, happens.
I'm like, you know what, either Al Wilson or John
Lynch would have sayd you know what the truth is,

(10:43):
the truce.

Speaker 2 (10:44):
Is off now.

Speaker 3 (10:45):
Now we're going full contact because sometimes defender is not
wanting to hurt their teammates may lower their guard and
then maybe one guy who now wants to make a
name for himself, which obviously Lucas Crowe, when the coaches
go back and look at and they're gonna say, hey,
that was a tough physical play. But this is where
from a defensive standpoint, anytime you're out there, anytime you

(11:06):
have on pants, you have to protect yourself and you
have to always put your body on players. But Lucas
crow nice catch out of the flat. But yeah, we
would have had taught conversation afterwards because.

Speaker 2 (11:18):
I need to understand what drill this is? Is this live?
What is his memory? Yeah, and this is the difference
between the two.

Speaker 1 (11:25):
Yeah, that was that was fun as far as you know,
as far as things go, what are or what do
you think are some of the highlights of today? Because
one other thing I wanted to point out. I keep
talking about Brent Austin. Every day he goes out there
on third team. It just kind of puts one on
the board. He gets a PBu keeps putting his name
on the board, all that kind of stuff. And that's

(11:46):
another one. I'm kind of eyeball and like, I don't
know if he makes a fifty three, but that's probably
a guy if he continues this throughout camp that you're
going to have to put on the practice squad.

Speaker 3 (11:53):
Well, the idea is you got to continue to make plays.
At the moment, you can't anything about where you are
on the depth chart. Meaning if it's threes against threes,
you have to show up. Twos against twos, ones against ones,
you usually have to continue to show up, and you
hope that you show up enough that someone in that

(12:15):
room when they go back and evaluate practice, say, you
know what, I want to.

Speaker 2 (12:19):
Bump this guy up.

Speaker 3 (12:20):
See if he can handle the pressure of playing with
the twos or even the ones.

Speaker 2 (12:24):
Just give him a couple of reps. Let's see what
he does.

Speaker 3 (12:27):
Sometimes guys take their game to a whole different level
because the confidence goes up. Sometimes the guys fall back
because they're not ready for that moment. So there are
a couple of guys that stood out to me today
in practice. Obviously we talked about Zach Allen, but Jonah
Ellis Q Robinson.

Speaker 2 (12:44):
Those dudes were humming off the edge.

Speaker 3 (12:47):
And even though we've seen some of the quarterbacks scramble
out of the pocket throw the ball down the field
to open wide receiver. I said, you know what, that's
a false play. That's false reality because guess what, this
was the live game that quarterback is sacked.

Speaker 1 (13:02):
And there were a few of those. I know that,
you know, the Broncos and Sean Payton tend to let
those plays go like they want to finish them out
because they you know, those kinds of things. But there
are there are plays that get reported in media is huge,
huge gains and that kind of stuff that I'm like, right,
this would have absolutely been a sack in the real world.
You can't sit back there for eight seconds and expect
not to be you know, destroyed and that kind of stuff.

(13:24):
So there's you know that there are there's context to
some of the reporting. And I'm not trying to call
anybody else specifically or anything, but there's context to some
of these comments that are out there on on some
of this stuff. You know, overall, I still think I
think this team's going to be a good team. But
the injury stuff lately has got you know, on eyebrow raise,
because that's the first thing that I said when we
get when we started this, I was like, the you know,

(13:46):
the biggest opponent the Broncos mayhaf this year might be
injury luck, as they've they've had incredible luck the last
few years.

Speaker 3 (13:53):
Yeah, the injuries definitely can derow your team. Just look
around the league of so far, there have been some
guys who've been carted off, and some of those guys
have been key to their team's offense or defensive side
of the ball. But being able to avoid turn I
mean not turnovers, but injuries. You want to do that,

(14:15):
but then there's no guarantee. There's no guarantee every time
you touch the field, whether it's pads and no pads,
whether it's in a team period or it's seven on
seven on air, whatever, a guy can go down. I
mean I've seen guys Jen McKinnon when that was in
San Francisco on air.

Speaker 2 (14:35):
He's running the f angle.

Speaker 3 (14:36):
Route where he goes like he's gonna run to the
flat and he breaks back across what would be linebacker's
face all of a sudden he shreds his knee. No
one touches him. So we know these things are part
of the game. And all you can do, man is
hope and wish and maybe maybe you have a serrano
and he's got Jobu with him to help you out.
But other than that, man, you only hope, and you

(15:00):
can't go at practice half speed.

Speaker 2 (15:05):
You can't. You have to in order to get better.

Speaker 3 (15:07):
At football, you have to do it at a football tempo,
and that's at full speed. If injuries happened, God for
God forbid, you can just hope that you have adequate
depth to kind of dig you out of that hole.

Speaker 1 (15:19):
And that's I mean, I think that that's a function
of what George Payton has brought to the table, is
that they do have adequate depths. Now, these these next
man up situations. You know, we talked about Nick Benito
going down the quarterback center exchange was rough. That part
as far as next man up is going to be
a problem. But on the defensive side of things, I

(15:40):
mean that the heat was still coming with ke Robinson
and with Joana Ellis, the heat was still there. The
heat is yeah, the hot sauce was.

Speaker 2 (15:48):
And I'm not talking about the Denver temperature, which was
you know.

Speaker 1 (15:51):
Much more dude today, Yes, it was. It was cool
to the welcomer spite.

Speaker 3 (15:54):
Thank you Lord Almighty for that cool breazon that uh,
that light temperature today. But the Broncos pass rush man, Hey,
they're gonna cause a lot of problems. I mean, they've
led the league in sacks of the past two years
and there's no stopping them. I mean, their frame of
mind is that they want to push that number up.
They wanted to try to get into that. I think

(16:16):
it was the what's ninety five Bears and eighty nine
whatever it is that the Bears as far as the
number of eighty five Bears, as far as the number
of sacks. This is where you put in the work, man.
You do it here in the preseason. You show that
you still got that birth, that quickness, that aggressive this
to beat tackles, and more importantly, man, you're not sacking

(16:38):
the damn quarterback, right, You're not sacking the damn quarterback.
You are sacking the ball. So it's good to see
those guys go out there and compete that it is.
We got to hit a break, we come back. We'll
get back into more camp news and notes, news around
the league, all that kind of stuff. Broncos Country Night
back inter this King back to the Broncos Country Tonight,

(16:59):
Georg chip Rockies. Addition, but wan All Bright, Ny Ferguson
here with you. A lot of stuff going on in
the league real quick. B Jehn Robinson got paid. I know,
we had that conversation the other night about him, Gibbs
and Taylor. Bijeon's the first one to get paid, and
Gibbs is sitting there going to change ching as.

Speaker 1 (17:17):
We look at the deal that they put together there,
Dan Campbell came out and said that his extension won't
hurt their talks with Gibbs, so they're prepared to pay him.
One of the other things that got done today, the
extensions that got done today that was I think surprising
to people, is a Flowers got a four year, one
hundred and forty million dollar contract. One hundred and eight

(17:38):
of that guarantee thirty five million dollars a year. That
ties Flowers with Justin Jefferson for the fourth highest earning
contract among whiteouts in terms of new money average per
year in history. Zay Flowers, I don't think is somebody
that if you were listing the top five receivers in
the league. I don't think people would necessarily put him

(17:58):
in that conversation. I think he's a very very good
wide receiver, but you know, you're five to nine wide
out that fell short of the uh the thousand yard mark.

Speaker 2 (18:11):
I don't. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (18:14):
Last year, I think he had what twelve twelve hundred
and five touchdowns If I remember correctly, I'd have to
go back and look. I think it's close to that,
but his first season didn't quite get there. The one
thing I will say is that he had the third
most receiving yards from receptions of twenty plus air yards
of anybody in the league. That's, according to the Next
Gen stats called eleven passes at that depth, with three

(18:36):
of them going for touchdowns. So he's been an explosive option.
But is Zay Flowers worth justin Jefferson money?

Speaker 2 (18:43):
Look?

Speaker 3 (18:44):
Man, look, no he's not. And I'm not trying to
count anyone his pockets, but no he's not. But when
you're looking at the Ravens offense and you look at
their wide receivers and you say, well, who of those
wire receivers would you can say to be a bona
fide one and the only person is Jay Flowers. Now,

(19:05):
could they have waited on this deal, absolutely, they could
have waited on this deal. But we know last year
the numbers for Lamar Jackson wasn't like most people thought
heading into the season, and they had a lot to
deal with the inability to be productive and consistent at
the wide receiver position.

Speaker 2 (19:23):
You know, it's a problem when your every down.

Speaker 3 (19:27):
Or you say your go to guy is your tight
end right before it was, you know, Mark Andrews, and
then Isaiah likely came into the mix.

Speaker 2 (19:36):
He's now with the New York Giants. But for me, no,
Zay is not that guy.

Speaker 3 (19:42):
And you're only doing this out of default, right, You're
only doing it out of default because if you were
to looked statistically at some of the top wide receivers,
they Zay Flowers was probably number seven as far as
yards he had a little were twelve hundred yards and

(20:02):
he had about only had five touchdowns. Five touchdowns, dude,
that is that's ridiculous, and usually you reward guys who
have multiple touchdowns, but he wasn't. Well, that tells you
a lot about the Ravens offense as a whole. But
the figures though, you're going to do that. I don't

(20:24):
know which one is more ridiculous, the Zay Flowers or
the Chris Olave, right, because now with Zay Flowers inching
this deal, you know what happens, The pressure only goes up. Yeah,
and everyone's talking about Lamar Jackson. I think on the
NFL top one hundred, I think he was sixty nine

(20:45):
or fifty nine or something like that. Why was that
the case because you had a lack of production at
the wide receiver position.

Speaker 1 (20:52):
Yeah, it's fascinating to me because he did have the
twelve hundred yards, right, but man, they just did He
did not get in the end zone at all. You know,
five touchdowns. I think that's the least. Uh, it's either
the it's the least of anybody who had over eleven
hundred yards receiving. And there were I think ten or
eleven guys that had that. There were a few guys

(21:13):
like Ceedee Lamb and and Justin Jefferson who got over
one thousand yards that had fewer touchdowns last year, But
Ceede Lamb and Justin Jefferson had different situations with the
quarterback problems that they had, you know, and so that
that that kind of kind of throws me, you know
a little bit. You look at you look at those numbers,
I just wow, that is a huge monster extension se

(21:34):
Flowers and congrats young man for secure in the bag.
I just I'm not sure I would have like what
you were talking about. The tight end is how that
offense runs. That's one of those things.

Speaker 3 (21:43):
Know, those are kind of Jackson Smith and Jigba type
of payday type numbers. Right, and Zay Flowers hasn't proven
to be that guy. And I'm not going to talk
about his size because the size is what it is now.
He's a very very speedy wide receiver. But when it
comes to getting in the endze because usually that's what
you get paid for it from, you know, from a

(22:04):
wyviceven standpoint, Right, how many touchdowns?

Speaker 2 (22:06):
You don't have a lot to.

Speaker 1 (22:07):
Put that in perspective, Alec Pierce last year right for
the Colts, had half the receptions. He had forty seven
receptions versus a Flowers eighty six, one thousand three yards,
only two hundred fewer yards and had an additional touchdown.
He had six touchdowns that he was he was hurt
part of the area and played fourteen games. So there's
you know, it just fascinating to me how that came out,

(22:28):
how that went around. Bijon steal that we talked about
a minute ago could reach seventy five million. That would
be the largest he does need to hit multiple in
sand It was the Real deals a three year, sixty
six point seventy five million dollar contract with fifty one
million guaranteed, and that makes him the highest paid running
back in the league, ahead of Saquon Barkley by almost
two point two million dollars per year. So if the

(22:49):
running back position is being devalued, Bijon certainly ain't.

Speaker 3 (22:53):
Well, you know what, that conversation is a much larger conversation.
So I'm gonna hold off on that one, but I
will say good job by Bijon, good job by the Falcons,
because with the Falcons situation, they have injuries at the
quarterback position and then you have to a tongue of

(23:15):
a law had who's been inconsistent. So in order to
help this team out and make the run defense even better,
is keeping Bijon on the field. And the whole idea
of holding in I remember there was a time where
it was just hold out. I'm not showing up at all.

(23:36):
Now I'm gonna show up, but sore backs so so
I'm gonna hold in. And then all of a sudden,
I get that bread. Oh man, miraculously, my back is
feeling good.

Speaker 1 (23:50):
Yes, it's funny, it's funny. It's funny how fast the
healing begins. Uh, when the when the financial listen tell me.

Speaker 3 (24:00):
This, let's be for it's fully transparent. Both you and
I would do the same thing. Absolutely would do the
same thing that Migrain that I was dyling right, being
frustrated with the team is all of a sudden it's
gone away.

Speaker 1 (24:14):
Like I would remix Marvin Gaye's sexual healing as financial healing.
I would record that song and that would be up
on my Instagram. I'm just saying, like it's it's one
of those like you know, everybody knows what's going on,
Like say, do with Vita there right now, right like
all the sudden vitas a little thing. Not no, he's
just trying to you know, nothing hurt. But that's signing army.

Speaker 2 (24:35):
Because I get it.

Speaker 3 (24:36):
Because if you hold out one, you're not around the team,
You're not building any chemistry. Then two, the team can
now start to find you for that. And the years past,
there have been guys who have held out, have taken
the fine and eventually got their money, but guess what,
you still end up losing money. You don't make that
money back. So the art of holding in and that's

(24:59):
what it is. I'm gonna all of that. It is
the art of holding in where they cannot find you.

Speaker 2 (25:04):
You can't say I didn't report. I reported. I'm just
not on the field and the way in a manner
of which you want me to.

Speaker 1 (25:11):
Yeah, I'm here, but you're not getting my contribution.

Speaker 2 (25:13):
Exactly, so you can't find me.

Speaker 1 (25:15):
Right And like I said, I'm I am. I would
absolutely do the same thing. Like that's that's exactly the
tactic that I would take in a lot of ways.
And so I'm not mad at them for that. Getting
back to you know, news and notes and everything else,
excuse me, everything else, Broncos. The backup quarterback competition. You know,
Alinger and Stidham, we talked about this a little bit before.

(25:35):
To me, I mean, if it's close, you got to
go with a linger, and I think Kalinger is winning.

Speaker 3 (25:41):
Well, it was interesting being the conversation at practice what
should just otherwise because there are some individuals who are
saying that, you know, Stidham is the backup quarterback, and
the conversation.

Speaker 2 (25:56):
If Bo were to go down, who do you have.

Speaker 3 (25:58):
More belief in a guy like Jerry Stidham or a
guy like Sam Ellinger. I said, well, you know what
I'm gonna say, Sam, And he was like, oh, no,
you didn't just say that.

Speaker 2 (26:08):
I said, hear me out. Here's why.

Speaker 3 (26:11):
Because Stidham has been in the league for what seven
maybe eight years now, something like that, something like that.

Speaker 1 (26:18):
Yeah, it's been a while. He's been in the league
since whenever the draft was in Tennessee, right.

Speaker 3 (26:23):
So, so he hasn't taken that step forward to be
a starter quarterback. And he's been with the Broncos. He's
been with the.

Speaker 1 (26:30):
Patriots, Patriots, Raiders, Broncos, remember the Raiders.

Speaker 3 (26:33):
So he's been with three teams but hasn't really taken
that step forward. And then also too, he had an
opportunity and when I brought this up to the individuals
I was talking about, it was like, wow, we can't
really count that because he hadn't started all year. And
then he was thrust it into the Patriots game. I'm like,
wait a minute, So you're using an argument that he
has experienced, so that experienced Trump's Sam anything that Sam

(26:55):
ellen could do. But when I say that that experience
did not help him in an all important game for
the Denver Broncos for him to put himself in a
position where he can get paid as a starter, and
he didn't do anything right.

Speaker 2 (27:07):
So I said, you can't use you can't use both
of them, one as one or the other.

Speaker 3 (27:10):
And as we were talking saying that Sam Ellinger threw
a pass to I think it was Cameron Ross right
for for a completion, and the conversation turned into, well,
you know, Sam loved the deep ball. He's going to
go downtown. And I think, once again, if all things
are even, you have to give Sam an opportunity to

(27:31):
seize that backup quarterback. Wrote and this is why these
preseason games are so important.

Speaker 2 (27:37):
We don't really need to see bow. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (27:40):
I mean, we need to see Bo in the sense
that the ankles recovered. But we've I think we've already
seen enough of that we can tell. But as far
as that competition goes, yeah, I mean and We're going
to get some of that in these preseason games. You're
going to get a competition between Sam Ailinger and Jared Stidham.
And you know, I'm gonna be honest, I Ailinger, to me,
he's looked a little bit better out there.

Speaker 2 (27:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (27:58):
I think he's a little bit more decisive. I think
he gets a lot quicker. He does like the deep shot,
he does like to you know, to play yolo ball.
But to me, he's just been more decisive and where
he wants to go with the ball and he gets
it out quicker. These things that would count as sacks
increasingly happened with Jared Stidham, and by far the largest
proportion of them happened with Jared stidem Well.

Speaker 3 (28:18):
One of the negative knocks that was said about Sam
was the fact that when he was with the Colts
he had an opportunity to start a couple of games,
play a couple of games, and he didn't look that great.
And I said, well, for a guy to be the
third team quarterback and then thrust in that row, he's
going to struggle, because every player struggles when they finally

(28:39):
go from the back seat to being a starter and
being a driver.

Speaker 2 (28:43):
Everything is not going to look that great.

Speaker 3 (28:45):
But looking at where Sam has somewhat advanced and developed
to this point, to me, it's like, give him a chance.
Let's see what he can actually do. Because we already
know what Jared Stitham can do, we know what he
what he can't do. So why not I give the
the other guy, the younger guy, an opportunity. Because if

(29:07):
I were to ask you, who do you feel is
more athletic of the two, Stidham or Ailinger?

Speaker 2 (29:14):
Who would you say?

Speaker 1 (29:16):
If I was going to say, between Stidham and Ellinger
that which one I would take?

Speaker 2 (29:19):
Which I would take? I would take Allen? You know,
what would you say? From from an athletic standpoint?

Speaker 1 (29:24):
They're both a little more athletic than you think, but
Ailinger is more athletic?

Speaker 2 (29:28):
Right? And then when you.

Speaker 3 (29:28):
Say, well, which ability fits well with what the Broncos
are doing now and what we're seeing with bow.

Speaker 2 (29:36):
Knicks, Ailinger?

Speaker 1 (29:37):
Yes, so you know that. I mean, yeah, it's just
one of those things where and I'm not the biggest
Ailinger fan, don't even me wrong. I'm not saying he's
a starter in this league or whatever else. But I'm
just saying, look, at between the two. Is Siam still
hangs onto the ball too long? All those things that
plagued him when he came to the league are still there.
Hangs onto the ball too long, He's indecisive at times.
We saw in that AFC Championship game what he is

(29:58):
and what he isn't right. It doesn't matter that he
didn't a year. The dude who's been in the offense
all year, He's been in the offense for several years.

Speaker 3 (30:03):
And that was my argument at practice, like, here's a
guy who's been in the league for a long time.
He has been in several systems, but more importantly, he's
been in this system for a while. And what happened
in practice last year, Like, sometimes practice can give you
a false sense of hope, right, And that's what it
did for Stidham. You know, Okay, he's throwing passes against

(30:25):
the first team defense. Yeah, but they're not trying to
sack it.

Speaker 2 (30:29):
Right.

Speaker 3 (30:29):
And I'm not saying that I'm pushing all my cars
to the center from Sam Ellinger, But I'm just saying,
let's give him an opportunity to actually see.

Speaker 2 (30:36):
What he is.

Speaker 3 (30:37):
Right, And we don't really know, but if I'm Sam
or I'm anyone in his camp. I'm saying that this
is the perfect opportunity for you. This is the perfect
opportunity for you. Said you wanted the opportunity here.

Speaker 2 (30:50):
It is.

Speaker 3 (30:51):
You had an opportunity to go to other teams and
maybe be their starting quarterback for maybe the three weeks
or whatever, but you opted to stay here in Denver.
Why don't you make it work for yourself. Start developing
a chemistry with one or two wide receivers who may
be on that third team, because you know, once you
get in the preseason, yes who you're gonna be in
the game with those same guy.

Speaker 2 (31:12):
So it's helped me help you.

Speaker 1 (31:15):
And the Broncos would be helped by the amount of
cap savings that they would get. As we've noticed, they've
accumulated a bunch of cap savings all that some people
speculate that could be used a little bit of it
on Taysom Hill, a guy you've been adamant that they
could bring in Sean Paton happened. Sean Payton says, no
rush on that, which is good because they he knows
the offense, they don't need to rush that. But the
other part of that is they need to get him

(31:35):
and get the medicals and see where he's at, you know,
if they're going to do that kind of thing. And
so we'll see how that that part of it, how
that part of the shakes out. Anything else you wanted
to you want to get to or touched on there?

Speaker 3 (31:46):
Man, Well, you know, I want to go back to
something really quickly, talk about uh, Roddy Mass and Jotty Baron,
because that's been a topic of conversation.

Speaker 2 (31:57):
Who's going to win that battle?

Speaker 3 (31:58):
And I have to say this particular point, it seems
like Raley Moss is starting to take a step in
a different direction, and Jaddy Baron still looks like, you know,
hey he's a rookie. He's still figuring some things out.
But I still think he's a hell of a corner.
He has a lot of versatility, gives Vanas Joseph a
lot of opportunity to move around and play different positions.

(32:20):
And I know Chris Peyton shot down the idea based
on what someone saw a practice about Ja Day playing
maybe the safety position. When you have versatility, you utilize
that versatility. Yes, what everyone loved to see Ja Day
playing the corner position. Yeah, we would, but you're not
removing ps two and right now and Cam so far

(32:42):
Roley Moss is playing his best ball since he's been here.
So now you're playing you in that backup role. And
if they want to find ways to get you on
the field, now it's nickel and now it's done. Maybe
it's a little you know, safety or whatever. But the
idea is are you progressing? Are you getting better? And
there's some things that me watching him that if I

(33:04):
can talk to him, I would say that he needs
to find too. And one of the bigger things, man,
is him finishing plays.

Speaker 1 (33:11):
Yeah, I totally agree.

Speaker 2 (33:13):
I think.

Speaker 1 (33:13):
Yeah, there's this there's this conversation, this weird sort of
meta narrative about uh Jeadne Barrett. Is he a bust
because the first router? Didn't you known? But he played
last year? I mean, he played a healthy amount of
snaps last year. The rookies typically don't play a lot
in advanced Joseph defense. But he played a decent amount
of snaps and he's gonna play snaps this year. There
was Sean Payton yesterday pushing back against somebody claiming and

(33:35):
I don't know who wrote that article or whatever, that
he was playing safety, but he's playing nickel and dime.
He's playing you know that that's where they've got him,
and uh, they give him opportunities out there, you know
where Moss is. But I think Moss, McMillan and certain
are probably gonna be the starters here. Uh, and Baron is.
You know, he's looked like he's a guy that's gonna
start working his way into the rotation and they'll figure
out what they've got and go from there. I don't

(33:56):
think that's a bust man. I just don't. And this
commonversation about a guy being a bust after one season
where he didn't he hasn't really had a chance and
he's go by the way he got to unseat guys
like McMillan and Certan, I don't understand that.

Speaker 2 (34:09):
Well.

Speaker 3 (34:09):
It goes back to being drafted in the first round,
and when you're drafted in the first round, there's a
lot of expectations, lofty expectations, especially when some in the
media media here the fan base would have liked for
the Broncos to go in a different direction.

Speaker 2 (34:28):
They opted for a corner.

Speaker 3 (34:29):
So the conversation immediately goes how quickly can we get
that guy on the field, and how quickly can that
guy lives up to that billing of being drafted and
selected in the first round. It's not as easy as
most people think. There is a transitional period. And the
great thing for Jade is he has all the twos

(34:50):
in the two box and he's been in this defense
for a while for a year, but also he's had
to learn different positions, been focusing in my opinion, solely
on their corner position. And then also when you look
at practice and certain things that take place, guys catching
the ball here and there, listen to Broncos play a

(35:10):
lot of.

Speaker 2 (35:11):
Man covers offman, but I think he'll be.

Speaker 1 (35:14):
Okay, appreciate it, you guys being along for a Broncos
country tonight.

Speaker 2 (35:18):
Back up to this