08-11-25 Hour 1 of Broncos Country Tonight

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to it Broncos Country Tonight. Benjamin Albright here short
show post Rockies. Addition, appreciate you guys being along for
the ride. We had one preseason football game under our belts,
and I don't think it showed exactly what the fans
were hoping to see. We'll get into some of that
as well as news and notes from around the league.

(00:21):
The Broncos, of course, did win their preseason game against
the San Francisco forty nine Ers on Saturday, thirty to
nine with the final score. However, it was not exactly
I think what fans were sort of looking for. The
first team offense didn't exactly look sharp. In fact, they

(00:43):
didn't look sharp at all. The defense came out and
gave up. It's really just one big play to Mac
Jones and the forty nine ers first team offense, a
fifty yard reception to Jordan Watkins that led to their
only score of the game. J Quon mcmillion just just
sort of a make million, you know, get get beat

(01:04):
by somebody who's who's pretty good for the Niners and
had a really good camp at Watkins and so you
know that happened, and I think fans were a little
unsettled by what they saw out of the first team
offense in the first team defense, although I tend to
say that the defense played a little bit better outside
that one play. You know, they didn't allow the Niners

(01:26):
to do anything. The only other score they got was
the offense giving up a safety when bo Nick's got
an intentional grounding in the end zone, and pretty clearly
a good call. You know, the ball did not even
get close to the line of scrimmage, and I don't
think he was outside the pocket. There was some quibble
about that, but overall, not exactly a stellar start for

(01:46):
the Broncos first team offense, who didn't score until Will
Lutz kicked a forty two yard field goal with thirteen
forty three left in the second quarter. By then, the
Niners had scored all nine of the points that they
were going to score, all nine of which they scored
in the first quarter. Dever led at the half twenty
to nine, and then Will Lutz capt packed another field
goal in the third quarter, and Sam Ahlinger made a

(02:09):
pass to Caden Priestcorn for a seven yard touchdown, which
the final score of the game. With twenty one remaining
in the game, Denver wins thirty to nine. Bo Nicks
was six of eleven passing for only thirty one yards,
no touchdowns, no interceptions, and a sixty quarterback rating, by
far the worst of the Broncos three. However, that number

(02:29):
would have been better than any of the three numbers
that the Niners quarterbacks put up. Sam Ailinger six of
ten to fifty five yards, one touchdown, no pick, a
one to eight point three rating, and Jared Stidham, who
was near perfect fourteen to fifteen passing one hundred and
thirty six yards, two touchdowns, no picks, a one hundred
and forty four quarterback rating. On the Niner side, Mac
Johns four seven seventy four yards, no touchdowns, one interception,

(02:49):
and a fifty four point two rating. Carter Bradley, the
son of NFL coach Gus Bradley, six of fourteen thirty
two yards, no touchdowns, one interception, a twenty points to
five rating, and Tanner Morcai three of six twenty one yards,
no touchdowns and interception and eighteen point eight rating for
the Niners. We had a lot of fun out there
at the burned down, getting a chance to do our

(03:11):
away game watch parties we'll be doing all year. Thanks
to everybody showed up. Ronick cap Hill, you know, Brian
obviously profit his wife, and there were there was tons
of people out there. Big Dave was celebrating his fortieth birthday.
It was quite a bit of people out there, and
we always love you guys coming out for those kinds
of things. So again, we'll be at the Burndown for
every away game, you know, this season, So that look

(03:37):
forward to seeing you guys out there for that. Continuing
on with the statistical accomplishments, before we start weeding into
what happened here, Jared Stidham let all rushers on the
team three carries thirty six yards, including eighteen yards Scamper
Tyler Batty today, I guess it is now led all
rushers for the Broncos five rushes thirty two yards six

(04:01):
point four average. Blake Watson four carries twenty eight yards,
although eighteen of those came on one carry. R J.
Harvey seven carries twenty five yards a three point six average.
Ndrick Estimy eight carries twenty one yards are two point
six average. Sam Allinger four carries six yards eight one
point five average, and Julia McLoughlin three carries four five
yards one point seven average. Interestingly, he had one carry

(04:23):
for six yards and two carries for negative yards and
that as well. On the uniter side of things, krey
Kiner led all of their rushers ten carries forty five yards.
A Mirabdollah four for twenty Tenor Mordecai won for fifteen,
Patrick Taylor five for seven, Keyshan Vaughn won for four,
Jordan Watkins won for three, and Mac Jones won for two.
On the receiving side of the house, a lot of
Broncos receivers got involved. Trent Sherfield led all receivers three

(04:48):
catches seventy three yards at a touchdown, thirty six of
which came on one play. Blake Watson three catches for
twenty one yards. Pat Bryant two for twenty one estimate
caught a ball for twenty yards. Troy Franklin three catches
eighteen yards, Joaquin Davis one for fourteen, Tyler Bday two
for nine, Courtey Jackson two for nine, Lucas Croll won
for eight in a touchdown where he was wide opening
the end zone. Caden Preescorn one for seven, caught the

(05:12):
other Broncos touchdown that didn't go to Sheffield. Veyle had
one catch for six yards, McLoughlin one for five, Dobbins
one for four, Harvey won for four, Mims one for three,
Sutton one for two, and I think that was it.
Juwan Newton, Kyrie f Rowan, and Michael Bandy all got targeted.
Bandy caught one for negative two yards. Courtney Jackson was

(05:34):
the most targeted on the day with four targets. Also,
Troy Franklin, who played on mostly second team, had four
targets as well. Jordan Watkins let all receivers for the
Niners three catches fifty six yards, including that fifty yarder
that sent up the only touchdown that they got. He
had six targets on the day. Jake Tongas had two
catches for thirty three, Robinson two for twenty, Russell Gage

(05:55):
two for three. No other Niners receiver caught more than
when Ball, Hodgens, Patrick Taylor kind of Robbie chosen all
one catch a piece. Kicking Will Lutz got over his
practice shanks. He went three for three in the game
from field gold longest to forty five and three for
three on extra points. Jake Moody of the Niners only
had the opportunity to kick the one extra point, which
he did make. On returns, Michael Bandy had a punt

(06:19):
return for six yards. Courdy Jackson had a kick return
for twenty eight two punt returns for thirty one. It
appears to be making some noise in terms of being
considered for the practice squad from the Niner side of
the house, and Mirabdullah had a twenty two yard kick return.
Dallas Flowers three kick returns for seventy three yards, Junior
Bergan two for forty, Corey Kiner one for seventeen. Burgan
also had a punt return for twenty eight yards as well.

(06:40):
On the punting side of things, Jeremy Crosshaw got his
first action to Broncos uniform. Had three punts only a
thirty seven average a long point of fifty, but one
of those was he was inside the fifty and had
to try to short punt. It wasn't very well done
and it messed with the average a little bit. Tomas
Morstead of the Niners five punts forty point four average,
two inside the twenty, no touchbacks forty four long. On

(07:01):
the defensive side of things, John Franklin Myers got a sack.
Benito got a sack. Benito had two near sacks and
four pressures in only five snaps. I mean he was
he was everywhere. He's a menace on the few snaps
that he had. The Broncos had three interceptions, Tai Kwa
McMillan getting one, redeeming himself for the long passage's picket

(07:27):
given up earlier in the game. Kareem Reid had one
as well, and then Josh Pickett, the guy who was
mistaken for Patzertan and covering Watkins during practice, had an
interception as well. Leading tackler for the Broncos was Jordan Jackson,
who had six. Nobody else, i'd believe had more than
three that I remember. I think Jordan Turner had three.

(07:48):
I don't remember. Hutern Smith had three as well. Nobody
else had more than that. On the niner side of
the house, Chase Lucas leading tackle with eight. They had
several people getting involved. Siegel had seven, Thune had five.
Excuse we had six there, a looter had five, and
several players had had four on down. All in all,

(08:08):
I did not think that this was a great performance
for the starters for the Broncos. But I do believe
that there's confidence to be had from what the backups
were able to do. I do believe that you look
at the floor of this roster, you look at the backups,
and you're saying, Okay, there's not a big drop off here.
The floor of this roster has been raised, and the
backups on this team or are quite good, And I

(08:31):
think that's something to give you confidence in the offense.
I'll say the same thing that I said after the
after Bonis went out there and sort of lit it up.
You know, for a game last year in preseason, it's
one game. You know, in the same way that you
shouldn't put Bonix in the All Pro category after one
preseason game last year, you shouldn't put the Broncos in

(08:51):
the bust category after one preseason game this year, especially
with most of the drag on that being on the
first team offense, Give it time, give it time to
to you know, to get it together and go from there.
Several of those plays there was pressure in Nixon's face
that you know, they've got to clean up. There were
a couple of throws that were off target. There were

(09:12):
a couple of targets that probably should have been caught.
You know, it wasn't just any one thing. I think
the things that jumped out at me and I went
back and I looked when they came out at the
PFF grades and just kind of shook my head to me,
Ben Powers and Luke Wattenberg look like there's some sort
of issue going on there. We've seen a little bit

(09:34):
in camp where you know, the Broncos have been able
to get pressure there, but watching this game and I'm
seeing the Niners get pressure in that area again sort
of seems to to set off alarm bells in the
sense that that this offensive line is highly touted and
as highly paid as it is outside of Wandenberg, it

(09:57):
seems to maybe have a little bit of an issue
going on there. And we'll see if that continues to
linger on into the season. I don't, you know, I'm
not going to do anything based off one game. I'm
not going to sit there. I'm sure you've got plenty
of hot take artists around town with all kinds of
hot take opinions about all this, But the reality is,

(10:18):
you know, in the preseason everything matters, but the final
score in the regular season, nothing matters but the final score.
And I think that in this particular case, that were
quality reps to look at. You know, I think we
finally see that, you know, r J. Harvey does have
some explosiveness, but he also does have a pensiont for
bouncing the ball outside and doesn't pass protect particularly well.
They kind of put Dobbins and Bubble Rap in that game,

(10:40):
didn't really give him a lot of a lot of run,
but he's he's running back one right now. He saw
who the starting receiving corps trio was going to be,
and that was Courtland Sutton, Marvin Memson, Davon Vale, Troy Franklin.
Looks like he has cemented himself as wide receiver for
Pat Bryant as wide receiver five, and Surefield continues to

(11:01):
have a great camp, had a great day as wide
receiver six, with some special team's ability as well. I
think that, you know, in the next preseason game, you'll
see a little bit more of what what will more
closely resemble the actual offense this year. In this particular game,
this this what they were doing doesn't really resemble what

(11:22):
it is that they want to be doing on offense.
You know, Evan Ingram, No, No, JK. Dobbins, you're not
seeing them use you know, the spacing concepts that they
want to be using, and that stuff will come right now.
I just think you're you're trying to get the timing down.
You're trying to shake off a little bit of the
offseason rust. They they certainly have their plans for how
they plan on doing that, but I I don't. I

(11:45):
don't like the chicken little sky is falling mentality I
sort of saw out of a lot of Broncos country
after this game. Was it confidence inspiring? Not exactly, but
you know, I did kind of warn that last year
they'd be better than what people thought, and that this
year that Sean Payton probably shouldn't be shooting his mouth
off about Super Bowls for a young team that hasn't

(12:07):
arrived yet. And that's that's sort of where I'm at
with this. Still, Like, yeah, I believe this team will
be good. I do believe they'll challenge for a wild card.
If ball bounces their way, they could challenge for the division.
What I don't think we need to be doing is
setting unrealistic expectations on a unit that has hasn't arrived.
They haven't done anything. They back toward their way to

(12:28):
the playoffs last year and got troused in the opening round.
They haven't done anything yet. And so I, you know,
on the one hand, I sort of understand, and I've
mentioned this several times. I understand Sean Payton's setting a standard.
I like setting a standard. I like setting a standard high,
you know, and setting the challenge to meet that. I
do like those aspects of it. What I don't like
is shooting your mouth off to every national media outlet

(12:50):
you can find while simultaneously treating the local media like
dirt and and and suggesting that the Broncos should be
at the forefront of the Super Bowl comsation. Because what
did that do? It did microwave those takes. It did
have national media for a week sitting there talking about
the Broncos is a national Super Bowl contender. And I
guess maybe after a decade, it's nice to be involved

(13:13):
in those conversations to a degree. But at the same time,
you know, I'd rather everybody be underestimating and be slept
on and not have to worry about the criticism that
comes from having those conversations and then watching a team
not meet them because national anchors or people get embarrassed,
and then what happens, Well, then they retaliate against that
by by lampooning the team for failing to live up

(13:35):
to the expectations that they had set forth because some
coach had arbitrarily decided to say that's where he viewed
this team. I think his team. I think this Broncos
team is good. I don't think it's great. I think
the defense is great as a potential to be great.
The problem with defense is one little thing goes wrong
and your cooked. And we saw that happen in that game.
One little thing went wrong with a Qui McMillan, just

(13:57):
just you know, being a step out of phase there,
and he had fifty yard completion on it, which was
thrown when the Broncos even should have gotten the uniers
off the field, and it ultimately set up a touchdown
for the forty nine ers. One in which I believe
on that play where the running back round outside of
the pylon and Moss got caught on a bad angle,
I believe Nick Benito was held on that play. It

(14:20):
looks to me like he was held on that play.
But he doesn't have enough wattage yet to sort of
get those calls, especially in the preseason. You know, he's
not t J. Watt or Miles Garrett or Michael Parsons,
where he's just kind of getting those calls, you know,
the way some superstars do do. I believe Nick could
could launch himself into that stratosphere this year, absolutely, but

(14:41):
again not there yet. And if you go back and
look at the play, I think you'll see it look
like it looked to me like he was held I
you know, all I can say for the people that
are hmming and hauling at Pearl clutching and dogging this
football team is it's one game. It's in the preseason.
You still didn't see you know, I think half by

(15:03):
the time of Cat defense off, it's like half your
starters didn't play in this one. Like, maybe take a
breath and relax. We have two more preseason games for
them to kind of iron out some of the kinks.
We know. We have Arizona coming in this week to practice.
That's gonna be fun. They have a very good defense.
They've made a real commitment to defense this offseason. The

(15:26):
players that they've added, they have a really good defense.
It'll be it'll be a good opportunity to sort of
test this offense and see where it is, you know,
against another against another good defense. And I think having
with all due respect to the forty nine ers media,
having the Denver media out there on the ground able
to see it every day, versus some of these weird

(15:48):
and bizarre Niners takes that came out, like misidentifying Sirtan
as Josh Piggott, you know, those kinds of things I
think will be beneficial to the coverage that we'll see
on this team. So to recap, you know, my thoughts
on the opening preseason game. I thought there were some
some offensive line issues with the first team offensive line.

(16:08):
Love the way the second team played, though, second team
offensive line played really well, and so I think those
need to be looked at. I think there's some running
running back stuff that you know, I mean, obviously there's
a symbiosis in that relationship. So but R. J. Harvey,
I thought it looked okay, but again, bouncing balls outside
and uh, maybe you shouldn't have won for sure, and

(16:29):
and maybe you know, I had some gripes with with
one of the other runs. But you know, there there
are there are things to get cleaned up, and we'll
see in practice this week if what the focus is,
if they're able to do that, and where things go
from there. Uh we come back. I want to get into,
uh go around the league a little bit. There's plenty
to get into with some of the other things we
saw from preseason. It was in a Broncos Country tonight

(16:51):
right here on KOA Welcome back to it Broncos Country Tonight,
Benjamin Albright here with you short show post Rockies. Addition,
have another one of these tomorrow, full live shows on
Wednesday and Thursday, you guys want to tune into K
Sports Tomorrow gonna have a special guest in there who's
gonna be around for a little bit. I don't want

(17:13):
to give it away in case it's not out there,
but former Bronco U gonna be on and he's a
funny guy and it'll be it'll be a lot of fun,
So you guys will definitely want to tune in for
that Friday. It'll think it'll be myself and Nick on
K Sports filling in for Ryan and Dave. I don't
know if Fran's gonna be there or not. I'm still
working that up, but Nick and I will definitely be

(17:34):
in there for sure. So programming notes for the week
for you guys, we're talking a little bit about the
the Broncos preseason debut against the Niners and how the
first team was a little lackluster but the subsequent teams
were absolute dominance on the Niners. Then I'll get into
more of that throughout the week. Sean Payton said he
had a bunch of stuff that bugged him that wasn't

(17:55):
even involved in the game, which you know, sort of
was frustrating. I think for fans, you know, nobody wants
Sean Payton complaining about the logistics and support staff and
in a postgame presser when the offense came out was
sort of lackluster. So I think, uh, I several comments
from fans that are like, you know, wondering why that is.

(18:16):
I can't answer that. I want to answer for somebody.
But uh, you know, as far as addressing the expectations
that he set up for everybody, you know, I think, uh,
I think he should have I think he should have
focused on that and rather than airing laundry about you know, uh,
internal mechanisms, you know, as far as that kind of stuff, goes,

(18:39):
so we'll see. I want to get into stuff around
the league a little bit here. I think a lot
of people here locally, especially interested in Travis Hunter, and
the Jags certainly aren't gonna he's Hunter in the NFL,
not even in the preseason. The in JAG's camp reports
have said that Hunter's practice taking extensively on both sides

(19:00):
of the ball, and that you know, shouldn't be a
surprise considering one of heisman for playing both receiver and corner,
and the Jags then made that huge trade up to
draft him second overall with plans to play in both ways.
The Jags made sure Hunter made his NFL preseason debut
on offense and defense on Saturday Night, using him as
a full time starter on offense. On their first drive,

(19:22):
he went with the starting defense for its only series
of the game, but the next time the Steelers got
the ball, he was in at corner, and so begins
one of the NFL's grand experiments. Hunter started the game,
which Pittsburgh won thirty one to twenty five, along with
the rest of the jags regular starting offense, including quarterback
Trevor Lawrence. Hunter was in on eleven of the twelve

(19:45):
snaps on the first drive, including a play wiped out
dude to penalty. Ran seven routes and they got him
involved early. I mean he caught a pass on a
short option route on third down, he was a little
short of the sticks, Jags went forward converted. Later in
the drive, got a cat on a receiver screen but
the play was erased due to an offensive penalty, and

(20:06):
then he caught another third down pass later in the
drive short first out again, and then the Jaguars kicked
a field goal, so as night ended with two catches
for nine yards, but definitely definitely was involved there on
that first drive. Jags usual their starting defense, but he
didn't see the action on that side of the ball,
although he did warm up on both sides before the game.

(20:26):
The Steelers attempted seven passes on nine downs on their
opening drive. Hunter was not a corner on any of them,
but you know, fans didn't have to wait long. Hunter
was in on the second team for Pittsburgh second drive.
He missed a tackle on a seven yard run by
Caleb Johnson the Steelers, and then the rest of his
snaps on defense over two drives, basically eight snaps on

(20:47):
defense overall were uneventful. Obviously one of the most intriguing
prospects in the history of the NFL. It's going to
be interesting to see exactly how much this usage continues
once the once the season starts actually starts. For the
Jacksonville Jaguars, Tennessee Titans the Broncos Week one a regular

(21:09):
season Week one opponent drafted cam Ward to the first
pick of the twenty twenty five draft and had to
wait a long time for his first NFL preseason completion.
The Bucks, which just wouldn't let him, had the ball.
Bucks had two long drives to start the game, of course,
won that game twenty nine to seven, while Ward and
the Titans went three and out on their first possession,

(21:31):
and the Bucks had the ball for fourteen minutes of
possession early in the second quarter while the Titans were
stuck on fifty eight seconds. But eventually Ward gave the
Titans fans what they wanted. His first completion after two
completions on the short first possession was It was a
downfield throw to Calvin Ridley for twenty seven yards. Ward

(21:51):
was looking Ridley's way a lot early on really caught
past ten and thirteen yards after that, I would say
he threw it with relative He's in his first NFL action.
He almost threw an inception on nil Advi's pass bucks corner.
Josh Hayes got his hands on it but couldn't break
it in. The drive kept going. Tony Pollard got in

(22:11):
on a rushing touchdown, So Awards sure to make his
share of rookie mistakes, but the the Titans are probably
gonna have some exciting moments this year with him. I mean,
he does have some some juice to that arm. He
was done after that touchdown. Drive total was five of
eight for sixty seven yards and what was a pretty
strong debut overall Tennessee of course three or fourteen last season.

(22:35):
But there are some reasons for optimism. It starts with
the award. It's got a soft division, Titans, a plenty
of holes on the roster, and getting them week one
I think is big for Denver because I just don't
think Ward's going to be ready for that kind of
defense in week one. So you know, obviously I've had
my eye on that my watching that because that's an
early season opponent for the Broncos. But I you know,
I saw cam Ward's got some things there to get

(22:56):
excited about. I didn't see anything in that that had
me worried about that game. One of my favorite targets
on this show, punching bag targets on this show, justin fields.
It was probably never going to be a great NFL thrower,
but you know, he did enough as a dual threat
to sort of keep the offense moving in that Jets
Packers game. Fields, whose performances in training camp to date

(23:19):
have not been good and have drawn some attention, looked
more or less fine in preseason game action against the Packers.
Jets won that game thirty to ten. First drive of
the preseason he went three or four forty two yards
and what would be basically his only series of the game.
Biggest pass was twenty four yard gain by fullback Andrew Beck.

(23:41):
Jets finished it with a thirteen yard touchdown run in
which the running back sold that he was throwing in
the ball by throwing his hands up and keeping the
corner engaged. You know, or the corner would have made
a play on Fields running it in field. He wasn't
bad as a runner or passer, but you know, obviously

(24:02):
played for the Steelers earlier last season, when Russ was
injured and Jets needed quarterback and signed him. They didn't
draft or sign anyone who really could compete with him
outside of Torod Taylor is already there. Uh, so he'll
he'll probably get a season to show what he can do,
unless he gets benched for poor performance. Before that, Giants

(24:22):
beat the Bills thirty four to twenty five. And that
that preseason game, you know, Russ looks pretty good, uh
coming out there. Uh, they were missing their starting top receivers.
But why he and Wandell Robinson had a connection. I
think the big story was his backup Jackson Dart and
having a pretty you know, impressive debut. Bills backup Mitch

(24:46):
Trubisky played fairly well nine to thirteen one eight at touchdown.
The Bills obviously hoping Trubisky doesn't play any meaningful football
because they have the MVP and Josh Allen, but that
should give him a comfort level, you know, if he does.
And again, I thought Russ played pretty well for the
you know, for the Giants out there, learned to really

(25:07):
play within himself a little bit more less trying to
make you a little ball throws downfield. So you know,
we'll see he will start the season as the as
the giant starter vikings in Houston, Texans. JJ McCarthy played
just one series and it might be his only action
of the preseason, but Sam Howell played fairly well in
relief levit at thirteen to one oh five in that

(25:27):
one Rams Cowboys Rams thirty one Dallas twenty one. Again,
final scores don't really matter in the preseason. Last year,
the Rams drafted running back Blake Korham in the third round,
didn't use him much as Kien Williams took almost all
the work. Then the Rams drafted Jarquist Hunter in the
fourth front this year, and Corum sort of made his

(25:48):
statement for some more playing time with two touchdowns in
the first quarter of Saturday's preseason game. Corum had nine
carries for thirty two yards in the first half, while
Hunter played behind him. He had eleven carries on it.
Let's give me eleven yards on four carries before halftime.
The Rams is per their usuals at their starters. A
team that I think could be very good and obviously

(26:11):
one the Broncos will have their eye on because they're
coming to town this week. Arizona Cardinals beat the Kansas
City Chiefs twenty seventeen. It's one of the benefits of
Andy Reid being an old school coach is that we
get to see one of the old time great quarterbacks play,
you know, in August Reid believes him playing his starters
in the preseason and Pat Mahomes started the Chiefs preseason opener.

(26:33):
Cardinals fumbled away the first kickoff of the game. Chiefs
had a short drive cap by Mahomes one yard touchdown pass.
It was a pretty nice catch by Jason Brownly and
that was enough. His night was over. Arizona came back
and when the game twenty to seventeen, you know, a
couple other things Broncos obviously we've talked about that. It's

(26:58):
just I don't know. It wasn't a very good day
for the first team for the brown because I'll leave
it at that. I don't want to believe for that.
Turn the page and get onto the Arizona stuff. Bill's
running back James Cook is holding in while he seeks
a new contract, but he wasn't a uniform and warmed
up with the team before their game against the Giants.
McDermott said he wanted to Cook to play, but he
of course didn't because of his contract situation. Many of
the bill starters did play, other than Josh Allen. Second

(27:21):
year running back Ray Davis got most of the work
early with Cook not playing. Davis had just seven yards
up four carries, but did kick a point after after
their kicker got hurt. Mason Rudolph, who not Aaron Rodgers,
started a quarterback for the Steelers, not a big surprise.
Rogers' only preseason action since twenty eighteen was a brief

(27:42):
outing for the Jets two years ago. Possible Rodgers won't
play at all this preseason, even though he's with a
new team. Rudolph completed nine to ten passes eighty four
yards on a touchdown, and a fairly successful start for him.
The Buccaneers didn't use their starting offense, though first round
pick and Mecca Bookba did play at receiver with the starters,
which included quarterback Kyle Trask. Buku has been getting a

(28:05):
lot of praise in camp, made a nice jumping catch
for twenty one yards on his second snap after second
year receiver Jalen McMillan made a brilliant cash for twenty
five yards on the first play of the game. Packers
QB Jordan Love didn't have a great night, completing only
one of five passes for seven yards. Good news is,
aside from the fact that its preseason loves to be

(28:27):
fine when the receiver regular season gets going. The one completion, though,
was to first round rookie Matt Golden on a slant route.
They have high hopes for the rookie receiver out of Texas.
Tama Bay Buck's already dealing with a knee injury to
stand out left tackle Tristan Wurst that could cause him
to miss the start of the regular season. Saw Rashad White,
their backup running back, go down with a groin injury.

(28:48):
Bucks are set up to with stand that injury if
White misses time, you Bucky Irving as the starter obviously,
and Sean Tucker is a pretty good third string back.
But it's still not what Tampa wants to see while
we're here. In in August, Tennessee Titans had a potentially
disruptive injury when running back ty J. Spears suffered a
lower leg injury while being tackled. Spears was carted off

(29:09):
to the locker room. He used the primary backup to
Tony Pollard was expected to have a significant role, but
that might depend on the severity of the injury and
how long it takes for him to come back. There
was an interception from Kyler Murray. It was a pretty
bad one in that Arizona and Chiefs game. Murray was

(29:32):
rolling his left through it to Chief safety Jayden Hicks,
who is a pretty good breakout candidate. Is he likely
replaces Justin Reid in the in the defensive line up
for Kansas City. But other than that interception, Murray played
pretty well seven of eight passing ninety six yards in
the Arizona offense trying to take a step forward this year.

(29:54):
They'll need to if they have plans on winning that division. Obviously,
just preseason, but Cam Little had a heck of a highlight.
The Jacks kicker nailed a seventy yard field goal, and
that was at sea level in Jacksonville. The record for
the regular season is sixty six yards by Justin Tucker.

(30:15):
Little cleared that by four yards, again and only a
preseason so does not actually count for the record books
and coaches generally don't like to attempt field goals close
to that long in the regular season the fear being
blocked or giving away field position. But at least the
Jags know that Cam Little's capable of it, So that's,
you know, that's something to take away from there as

(30:36):
you get the opportunity to try that out, you know,
in the preseason. The biggest story I think was Friday
night when Brown's fifth rounder rookie Shdor Sanders looked solid
in his pro debut. He went fourteen to twenty three,
one hundred and thirty eight yards to touchdowns, and it
sort of puts the Browns into question mark territory, I

(30:57):
think in terms of what they're going to do at
quarterback this year. It was probably going to be Joe
Flacco the whole time, and it probably still will be
to start the season. But that does give you, you know,
it does give you a little bit of pause in
terms of maybe we undervalued this guy. Kevin Stevanski came
out today and said, I'm not there on the game itself.

(31:17):
By Wednesday Thursday, I'll a better feel for the game
and how we're going to handle that update you guys,
But I'm not there yet in terms of whether shoot
or would start this week as well. Today's practice for
what it's worth to not shed much new light on
the pecking order. Flacco, who sat out the preseason opener,
did goal to go with the starters. A third round
rookie Dylan Gabriel was next for the second team. Federally,

(31:39):
Kenny Picktt was up first in red zone seven on sevens,
So this situation will be one to watch all week.
As the Browns sort of continue to create a bit
of drama with their quarterback situation. Things are hopeless between
Washington and wide receiver Terrer McLaurin, who's seeking a new contract,

(31:59):
but they're not great. The Commanders are firmly tucked into
their negotiating trench on one side, McLarney his agent firmly
on the other, and right now those trenches are not close.
It's fair to consider the standoff as capable of making
it all the way to the first week of the
regular season without McLaren stepping foot into the practice field
and borring Jade Daniels injecting himself directly into someone else's

(32:22):
situation which is never known to be his persona, his
ability to hit the ground running in a season of
high expectations for the franchise might be a little bit
in danger. I do expect them to get something done there,
but this one might be one that pushes itself closer
to the deadline. Saints' rookie quarterback Tyler Shuck outplayed Spencer Rattler.

(32:42):
I don't know if you watched the disaster that was
the Saints offense at all, but Ratler started the opener.
Rattler is a fifth round pick last year. Fifty three
yards on seven to eleven passing. The offense scored zero
points in nearly a full first half of him at quarterback.
He exited the game with one thirty eight left in
the second quartershot came on with his first snaps, completed

(33:03):
fifteen to twenty two four one sixty five with a
fifty forty yard touchdown. Else had an interception, took two sacks.
Not perfect, but showed some signs of life there for
an offense that appears to be one of the absolute
worst in the NFL this coming season. Eagles Landon Dickerson
was carted off with the leg injury and practice he
had to be helped off the field carter back to

(33:24):
locker room. He went down with a right leg injury
on Sunday. He fell to the ground awkwardly on a
pass play late during the team's open practice at Lincoln Financial.
He remained down for several minutes, eventually helped up on
the cart taking off the field. Was not able to
place much weight on his leg at all as he left,
and is not expected to be healthy for quite some
time for the Philadelphia Eagles. For the Broncos, you know escaped,

(33:47):
have escaped preseason thus far without you know, much injury.
Green Law had you know, a little setback with the
soft tissue obviously, Alex Singleton with the thumb, although both
those guys are expected to be fine for Week one.
In facts, both of them were out there light stuff
during practice this week. Drew Sanders, uh, you know, was
obviously hurt. That's that's a blow. But then you look
at this thing, and I mean that's all contained of

(34:08):
the inside back or position outside of that at Perry
has not gotten healthy, but he's almost an afterthought in
the receiver room at this point, and Matt Henningson, who's
going to be done for the season at defensive end,
probably opens that competition up for that, uh you know,
that fourth defensive end spot, fifth defensive end spot whatever
for the Broncos. So that's going to be interesting to
see us as we keep our eye going forward and

(34:30):
continue to focus on on various camp battles that are
going on. Uh, it's going to be interesting to see
where where that sort of ends up with the backup
defensive ends, because we know who the top you know,
four defensive linemen are. After that, we really don't. So
obviously we've got practice with the cards this week and
that'll be fun. We'll be keeping an eye on it
right here on Koa