August 27, 2026 • 32 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
0-5-6-6-9-0, the text line. We talked about Nick Saban in
that Netflix documentary series that's coming out in October. A
series that's out now. You guys watch this one yet,
the Vince Young?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
No, I haven't watched that one yet.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Vince Young apparently sent an apology letter to former Titans
head coach Jeff Fisher saying, quote, I hope you can
forgive me for how I handle a lot of things.
Jeff Fisher never answered, saying, quote, He spelled my name wrong.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Wait a minute.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
What do you mean he spelled his name wrong?
Speaker 1 (00:34):
There was C in there, I think. Okay, okay.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
So there's a couple of ways to spell Jeff.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
J-E-F-F. Yeah, it could have been G-E-O-F-F. Any which way
he spelled it. That guy was his head coach and
he couldn't spell his name.
Speaker 4 (00:49):
Well, that would speak to this kind of the issues
that those two were actually having. Because if you look
at the situation, it wasn't... Jeff Fisher, who truly wanted
Vince Young.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Jeff Fisher didn't want Vince Young.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
It was the owner.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
The owner wanted Vince Young. The offensive coordinator wanted Matt Leinart.
And the head coach wanted Jay Cutler. Jeff Fisher wanted
Jay Cutler. Norm Chow had been the OC at USC
and wanted Matt Leinart. I think it was Leinart.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Yeah, it was Leinart.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
I couldn't remember which USC quarterback it was. Blank Olsen.
So anyway, yeah, Norm Chow wanted Matt Leinart. and the
owner wanted Vince Young, and the owner writes a check,
so he won and got Vince Young.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Think about it.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
With all three of those quarterbacks, what we know of
their NFL careers, right? If you can go back and
redo that, which one would you take?
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Would you take.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
The relationship between Chow and Liner from USC, and Young
had won the national title that year and beat USC,
or you take Vandy... Because at Vanderbilt, Jay Cutler went
to Vandy. So he was right there in the Nashville area.
So which of those three quarterbacks would you take, knowing
(02:03):
as though you know how their NFL careers ended up?
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Which one?
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Honestly, I probably would have taken... I mean, that quarterback
class was bad anyway. You remember the rest of the
quarterbacks in that class?
Speaker 2 (02:16):
No, I do not.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
I can tell you some of them. I don't think
I can do them all. But Brad Smith was in
there out of Missouri. Okay. Converted to wide receiver. Engel Martin.
Remember him out of Florida? He went to Green Bay.
Speaker 5 (02:27):
Nope.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Reggie McNeil, who was at A & M. And he,
I believe, also converted to receiver. Bruce Gradkowski.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
Yeah, because he played at Pittsburgh.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
He went to Toledo, though. That's where he went. Charlie
Whitehurst was in that class out of Clemson. Remember Touchdown Jesus?
Speaker 2 (02:48):
I remember Whitehurst.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Tavares Jackson. I don't know if you remember Tavares Jackson.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Remember Tavares?
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Tavares, of course, from the ancient Latin for he who
cannot throw the hunting spear accurate enough to kill the mammoth.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
That's not what that means.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Stop it.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Literal translation. Kellen Clemens was in that class. Remember Kellen Clemens?
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
And Brody Croyle, the glass.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
Alabama.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Kansas City.
Speaker 6 (03:10):
Alabama.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
The glass cannon is what they called him. He had
a howitzer of an arm, but if you sneezed on him,
he was instantly injured.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
So known as though that year the quarterback class wasn't
that great, which of the three quarterbacks that we're talking
about would you have taken as your quarterback?
Speaker 1 (03:25):
I'm looking back through my notes right now, and I
had them ranked Jay Cutler, Matt Leinart, Vince Young.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
You know what?
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Pre-draft, that was my ranking.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
Man.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Vince obviously had a better career than Matt Leinart. Young
threw for, I think, 46 touchdowns. You know what? I
would take the Smoke and Jay Cutler. Cutler obviously had
the best career.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
I would take the smoke at Jay Cutler.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Cutler by far had the best career out of the three.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
Yes, because at USC, Leiner was surrounded with talent. And
the same thing could be said about Vince Young at Texas.
But Jay playing at Vandy, obviously it may sound a
little biased because he was one of my teammates. But
for me, his skill set translated a little more.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Even though... He had what they call that.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
Gunslinger mentality, which is translated for me now as he's.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Going to take a lot of chances. And a lot
of chances Cutler did take. Take a lot of chances.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
He did.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
160 interceptions in his career. Who had the most out
of those three quarterbacks? Ray Cutler. He had 160. Vince
Young had 51, though.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
And, you know.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
I mean, that's a lot of interceptions for how few
passes he actually threw. And Vince was.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
When he was with Tennessee... Steve McNair was there.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Was he not?
Speaker 1 (04:47):
I think it was overlap between the two.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Yeah, just maybe a little overlap, maybe a year. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Vince Young threw 1,304 passes and had 51 interceptions. Jay Cutler,
who threw three times the interceptions, but also had 5,000
passing attempts.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
Well, obviously, I mean, he was more of a starter
than those other two guys, so the volume is going
to equate more to possible turnovers.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Honestly, here's something for you. Tavares Jackson and Bruce Gretkowski
both threw more interceptions than Matt Leiter did in his career. Jeez.
Tavares Jackson, man. That guy could throw the football a mile,
but he had no accuracy whatsoever.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Would you want to be like a guy that was drafted...
in the first round as a quarterback? Would you want that?
Speaker 4 (05:36):
I know it sounds great because there's a lot of
notoriety that comes with that.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
Mm-hm.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
But there's a lot of pressure that comes with that
to perform because the team that you're going to, obviously,
if they're drafting you in the top five, top ten,
that means they were terrible the year before.
Speaker 5 (05:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
And they're looking for you to be the savior. See,
I'm wired to want that. I want to take zeros
and turn them into heroes. Like, I want to. Even
when I play video games, right, when I play the college.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
But you run the ball, though. Hold on.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
But when I play the college video games, I find
the worst team in the game and try to turn
them into something. I don't shy from the challenge. That's
the challenge for me is taking the zeros down the edge.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
I don't know, Ben.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
I mean, see, that's great to say from, I guess,
maybe a video game standpoint, but in real life, knowing
the pressure to deal with it. Okay, think about with
Bo Nix, for instance, and the pressure that he was
dealing with coming into the Broncos. You have, obviously, John Elway.
(06:40):
You have Jake Plummer, Peyton Manning. These are all the
quarterbacks you're coming after. And then now, just think about it.
Where the Broncos were able to get to 14-3, think
about that added pressure now.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
I'm not saying that I.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
Don't expect Bo to be able to match the intensity
and be able to handle it, but just thinking about
the pressure associated with that.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Them dudes ain't here now. I'm here now. I don't know.
That part's never bothered me. I understand what you're talking about.
There are guys who have wilted under that pressure, but
that part never bothered me. Like, I love it. Put
that pressure on me.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
I think for me, watching Bo at practice and having
little conversations with him, I think he embraces that.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
He embraces that challenge.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
Because he knows what he's stepping into. It's not something
that's far. Like, There are a bunch of Broncos fans
that wanted J.J.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
McCarthy. But looking at what J.J.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
McCarthy is now, I don't think McCarthy possesses the same type.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Of mentality that Bo possessed.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Certainly didn't have the ability that Bo had to jump
into the league at the time. You know who else
likes to rise to the occasion?
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Who is that?
Speaker 1 (07:51):
That is the Broncos defense. Vance Joseph was talking about him, though,
and talked about the prep as leading into their game
last week and how it was inadequate.
Speaker 5 (08:01):
Two games, you know, what we've played here, we've seen
how offenses see us, right? So lots of boots, lots
of misdirection, outside runs more often than not, match protection passes,
quick game, you know, team.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
And that's exactly how teams will look to attack the Broncos'
defense because we know that they are aggressive style of defense.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
And sometimes when you.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
space of defense of that magnitude, you have to use
the best parts that they have against them. And with
the misdirection, you know guys get downhill. They fast flow.
They fill the gaps. But then if you look at
the Packers game, right, where the Packers, even though it
was a preseason game, and I know it was like, well,
you know, the offensive defense is going to be vanilla.
(08:48):
If you go back and watch that game, there's a
lot of nuances that, you know, Mike LaFleur and Adam Senevich,
their offensive coordinators, that they threw at.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
The Denver Broncos. So it was great. Having the Broncos.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
Defense see that and understand the ways that teams are
going to attack them, but you're going to see more
attacks like that of this Broncos defense.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Well, that's how you have to attack it. You're going
to see a lot of outside runs on first down
and quick game type stuff. Why? You want a chunk
play on first down, it's going to get you four yards, right?
Because you can't get behind the chains on this defense.
They will blow you up. So what you're going to
see is coaches and teams game planning to attack the
Broncos on first down. They've got to get that four
yards on first down. You've got to stay ahead of
(09:30):
the chains against this defense or you're skunked.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
Well, you know, it's interesting that Vance brought that up
because when I was listening to him talk about the defense,
how they have been attacked in these last two preseason games,
The first thing I thought about was what I was
witnessing at training camp. And you and I, we didn't
get a chance to really get into it the way
that I wanted to, but some of those problems started
(09:55):
at practice. We saw guys, when they would start to
rush the passers, you have to.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Put an edge on the defense.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
Someone always has to be contained on the defense, even
if that means you take one of your outside rushers,
loop them inside. Someone's got to come back and put
an edge on the defense. And I started noticing sometimes
guys who were responsible with staying on the outside, they
would have a tendency to, to peek back inside because
(10:21):
they're trying to make a play. And I know that
they're competing, but when they do that, they allow the
runner to get outside. They allow themselves to get out leveraged.
And I was thinking, okay, well, I'm going to take
a mental note of that in training camp. Let's see
what happens in some of the games. And it has
come to fruition. Those guys are not holding the point
(10:41):
because they're so concentrated on trying.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
To make a play.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
And you see all these outside perimeter runs. And the
Broncos definitely have to get better because, I mean, when
you look at the fact that who they're going to
face in the first couple of games, you're going to
face San Francisco.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
That's what they love to do.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
Sean McVay is one of the better coaches as far
as scheming and play calling and testing the edges of
your defense. So this is great that the Broncos are
sending it now so they can kind of remedy the
situation before they get out of hand.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
They're going to play both those coaches pretty early on.
Speaker 7 (11:14):
One of the best things we get to do here
at KOA is a little bit.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Of access, I guess, since we're the— That broadcast part
of the Broncos is our own Dave Logan gets to
sit down with head coach Sean Payton every week and
have a conversation. Here's this week's Coach's Corner.
Speaker 7 (11:32):
Packers rush four. Bowe in the pocket. Throws a deep ball.
Caught right in.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
The middle of the field.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
And this is going to be.
Speaker 7 (11:39):
Jalen Waddell and the speech for navigating his way across.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
The field gets up. He's excited.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
And so are all the fans here in Denver.
Speaker 7 (11:47):
So Sean, this was big play against the Packers and
an opportunity for, for home fans to see Jalen Waddell
talk a little bit about that play.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (11:55):
So look, it's a third down in five and in
our league, you know, that third and three, four and five,
you would tick up a little bit more man coverage.
So this play's got man answers and, which we're going
to get here, and it's got zone answers. And one
of the things we like to do if you're getting
man is to condense splits, bunch players together, and you
(12:19):
see a bunch here. You see Pat Bryant with his
initial release. He wins, and I initially... from my vantage point,
think he's going to get the throw. And then Waddle
comes off that stack release and catches a flat-footed nickel
and goes by him. And so, you know, Bo's got
that inside-out read and then a nudge shallow with Evan
(12:43):
coming across. So we get a good man-beater, and we
get a vertical man-beater.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
And a lot of times when it's third and.
Speaker 6 (12:51):
Five, defensively, you're taught to kind of sit at that
down in distance. And every once in a while, it's
important on those third and two to threes, four.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
To fives, that you go by them. Yep.
Speaker 6 (13:07):
And that helps you. the number of times that you
were going to be not going by him. And so
this is a three vertical play, a stacked release from
a bunch. We get the man-to-man look, and you get
to see Waddell's separation. I said to him after he
caught it, I said, shoot, you were bouncing around. I
(13:27):
almost felt like it was his first catch in the NFL,
but he was that excited.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
He really was, and so were the fans.
Speaker 7 (13:33):
What I liked most about his route was after the release–
almost at the top of the round, he gave just
enough of a shake.
Speaker 6 (13:41):
He's special with that. Enough of a shake to freeze
that defensive back. He just has a great way of
leverage leaning. And so he leverage leans, and it kind
of forces the defender to not stop But straighten up,
and then it just opens up this window. The throw's good.
The route was, it's one of his superpowers. You know,
(14:03):
his transition and understanding of leverage. And so, you know,
he gets this guy flat-footed. Leverage leans to the outside.
And then the space he creates... For the throw. Oh, boy.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
Is really good. I'll get you out of here on this.
Speaker 7 (14:18):
If you could pick only two things that impressed you
most about him when you were thinking about making.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
That deal, what would they be? The two things. So
let's start off the field.
Speaker 6 (14:28):
Because, you know, in free agency, my parents used to
love to go to garage sales. That was the one
thing they did together. Every Saturday and Sunday... They'd have
15 garage sales. And then they'd bring back a new
couch every other week. And I dreaded it because that
meant that I was lifting the old couch out. We
were excited about the new couch. And we sat in it.
(14:51):
And then Tuesday, all of a sudden, we noticed it
rocked a little in the left corner. And you're like, ah,
this is why this was at a garage sale. And
so if you're not careful, free agency can be that
a little bit.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
The information and insight, Nick Saban.
Speaker 6 (15:07):
All the people that have been around him unanimously spoke
about his competitive and love for football. And it's contagious. Like,
he endears himself to his teammates. He's not selfish. And, like,
you come out here, and there's nothing better than working
with players that.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
Don't have bad days. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
All right?
Speaker 6 (15:29):
And then, so, now that you can have all of
that and be an average player, all right, now you
have a guy who's... who's a unique player, extremely talented,
and I would say it's his speed, but then it's
his ability to stop transition and do the things that
we're discussing. So you're getting this from a makeup, and
(15:51):
then you're getting this from a talent, and you're probably
getting a couch that you're going.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
To keep that doesn't wobble. Good enough. Sounds good.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
All right.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
We'll see you.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
56690, the text line. Appreciate it. Steve Atwater and Phil
McGogan for joining us tonight. And with that, let's get
to the NFL Six Pack. It's time for the NFL
Six Pack.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
I'm going to drink a lot of beer tonight.
Speaker 5 (16:17):
Insight and inside information you can't find anywhere else.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Now, the top six NFL headlines.
Speaker 5 (16:25):
One.
Speaker 8 (16:28):
Starting off here with a check-in on the NFL's top
100 players list. So far in the top ten of
that list, Pat Sertan came in at number ten. Jameer
Gibbs ranked ninth, followed by, or I guess right behind,
Micah Parsons at eighth, and Puka Nakua at seventh. That
leaves Matthew Stafford, Josh Allen, Bijan Robinson, Christian McCaffrey, Jackson
(16:49):
Smith and Jigba, and Miles Garrett as the remaining players
in the top six. What do you make of that
top ten list so far, and who do you think
will be the number one, and who should be that
number one player?
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Um... Yeah, I mean, I just, I don't know. I
don't get into this stuff as much as some people do.
At the end of the day, I think number one
is going to wind up being Smith and Jigba or
Matt Stafford or Josh Allen. Should Bijan be in that conversation? Sure.
Should Miles Garrett be in that conversation? Sure. We'll see.
(17:24):
You know, I think if you were just basing it
on last year, Smith and Jigba or Miles Garrett to me,
you know, but, you know, quarterbacks get pushed up, so.
Speaker 4 (17:34):
Of course, there's always going to be a quarterback because
you can't put a defensive player at number one because
that changes somewhat of the narrative. But if you were
to twist my arm, I would say Miles Garrett should
be number one. I mean, he beat Michael Stranhan single
season sack record.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
So why not put him there?
Speaker 4 (17:55):
But since we're in a quarterback driven league, I would
dare to say Matthew Stafford. Because think about Matthew Stafford's
age and think about what he did coming into last season. Like,
he had a back issue that no one really thought
was going to play this season. He didn't start off
the preseason playing, but look at what he was able
to do. So that would be, you know, my number one.
(18:19):
Myles Garrett would be number two. Jackson Smith and Jigba
would be, you know, number three. So, yeah, let's see
how it shakes out.
Speaker 8 (18:26):
History of that number one honor since then, if I
started doing this in, 2011 it looks like almost all
quarterbacks to your point nick the the outliers we've got
a couple running backs with adrian peterson and saquon barkley
a wide receiver with tyree kill but you do have
two defensive players jj watt in 2015 and aaron donald
(18:47):
in 2019 i think miles garrett makes three we just
saw i think you could argue the greatest defensive season
ever when you look at him breaking the sack record
And the fact that he had so much, like he
had the extra game, but so much fewer pass rushing
opportunities than the guys who had set that record before
him because the Browns were so often trailing in those games.
(19:08):
Teams were so often running out the clock. He didn't
have those opportunities to just tee off, pin his ears back,
gather up those sacks, and he still set the record.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
I think he's going to be number one.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
And I think there's something that should be said about
the fact that he was.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Playing in Cleveland.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Oh, exactly.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
Yes.
Speaker 8 (19:27):
Nfl.com's lance zeerlein is projecting big seasons for the nfl's
top two pure pass rushers or edge rushers i should
say with ruben bain jr and david bailey jr both
being projected to tally nine and a half total sacks
this season what are your thoughts on that lofty projection
and which rookie between Bain and Bailey Jr. do you
(19:52):
think will be more productive in 2026?
Speaker 2 (19:54):
I'm going to go with Reuben Bain Jr.
Speaker 4 (19:56):
Because in camp, he's definitely been showcasing his ability.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
And here's the other part.
Speaker 4 (20:03):
Look at the division that he's in. And we know
that his quarterback, Baker Mayfield, is upset. He wants to
go scorch earth, not just on Tampa Bay, but everyone else.
So he is motivated. So you give Baker more opportunities.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
The Bucs are now scoring more points, and Bane.
Speaker 4 (20:19):
Has more opportunities to get after the quarterback because now
they're chasing points and they're in third and long situations.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
I'm with Nick completely here. I think just both these
players are going to be good, but I think Reuben
Bain is going to be a monster. I think the
over-under on him is like nine and a half sacks,
and I'd bet the over on that. He does have
the AC joint sprain, but he's going to be ready
for week one against the Bengals, and he's going to
have plenty of opportunity because you know they like to
throw the football with Joe Burrow back there and that
offensive line not being all that great. So I expect
(20:46):
him to be off to the races starting week one.
Speaker 8 (20:48):
I'm going with you guys too on Reuben Bain. I
think that Buccaneers defense looks to be a good bit
better this year. It seems like they've upgraded the talent there.
I think that will help him out. And, you know,
even if the Bucs offense comes back down to earth
a little bit without Mike Evans, I think it's a
heck of a lot better than what the Jets are
trotting out. You're probably going to be playing with a
lot more leads. Just everything about the Bucs is better.
(21:09):
Overall roster, overall coaching, whatever. So I think he's just
going to have much better situations to try and rack
those numbers up and He was incredibly pro-ready coming out.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
David Bailey was maybe.
Speaker 8 (21:21):
The higher upside pick for some, but man, Bain I
think is just a polished, ready-to-go pass rusher and should
be pretty productive from day one. Packers running back Josh
Jacobs is now facing misdemeanor charges of battery and of
criminal damage to property in relation to a domestic violence
(21:42):
incident this offseason. How will the NFL respond to this
latest development? And when will we get clarity on this situation?
It's coming soon. And I will tell you there's video.
I will tell you that video is horrible for Josh Jacobs.
And I would be stunned if Josh Jacobs does not
spend time in prison.
Speaker 6 (22:01):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
I will leave it at that. I've seen the video.
It will get leaked at some point. I'm not going
to leak it because it depicts domestic violence. It backs
the woman's assertion. And I will say that I would
be stunned if he manages to avoid prison after that.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (22:21):
Are you suggesting that it is kind of Ray Rice
type of video?
Speaker 1 (22:26):
There is violence committed on that video.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
Listen.
Speaker 5 (22:30):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
It's always he said, she said, and then there's the truth.
Speaker 4 (22:35):
When there is video that can document the situation itself,
it changes the narrative and how you look at any situations.
And what we've seen, anytime there's a domestic issue, it's like.
Speaker 8 (22:47):
A guaranteed six games right off the bat. And when
there's video, it oftentimes gets worse. I think of the
Kareem Hunt situation. I think of the Ray Rice situation.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
He's facing 18 months in prison already for the charges
that are on there. If this video gets out, I
don't know if he plays football again.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Wow, that's big.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
So I'll leave it at that. Again, I don't want to.
I'm trying to tell people what I know, but at
the same time, I don't want to comment on domestic
violence situations.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Yeah, makes sense.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
Four.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Sorry for stepping on you with the four there.
Speaker 8 (23:22):
The Colts have activated Alec Pierce off the pup list
as he eyes a week one return following that breakout
2025 campaign and lucrative contract extension he got. What are
your expectations, though, for Pierce this season and Do you
think the Colts will be able to refine that elite
offensive form they had early on in 2025?
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Well, the hope.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
Is that they can.
Speaker 4 (23:46):
As long as you have a healthy quarterback in Danny
Dimes and Jonathan Taylor is running the way that he
ran over the past couple of years, then the Colts
will always have an opportunity.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
And that means that you can take shots down the field.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
So with Alec Pierce being one of the faster receivers
in the league, I mean, he now has Josh Downs
and Keenan Allen, the veteran wide receiver, who runs excellent routes.
I think the Colts definitely have a chance. And the
interesting thing about Alex Pierce, once again, when people see him,
they kind of underestimate his ability and his speed. But
(24:21):
I tell you what, if you want to find out
from someone who saw it up close and personal, talk
to Riley Moss.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
He'll tell you it's real.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
I expect a resurgence from the Colts this year. You
know they lost every game after the bye week last year?
Every game? Yeah, they dropped seven straight. The game before
the bye week, they won in overtime. The game before that,
they lost. But prior to that, they had been on
a tear. When the injuries kicked in, all those injuries hit,
they fell off a cliff. But before the injuries, they
were rolling. So much so that even with that 0-7
(24:55):
after the bye week, they still finished eighth in the
NFL in points. They started a game with Riley Leonard.
They started how many games with Phil Rivers? And they
still finished eighth in the league in points.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
They could put up points.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
That's how much they were rolling.
Speaker 8 (25:07):
Through eight weeks, you know, you look at the offenses
they were up there with, and it was like the
07 Patriots, the 2013 Broncos.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
It was a historic, the greatest show on turf. It
was a historically great unit.
Speaker 8 (25:17):
My one thing, though, it started to come back down
to earth a little before the injuries. I remember the
Germany game. I think it was against the Falcons. Now, granted,
international travel. But that was ugly. There was a Steelers game.
I want to say right before the bye week.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Those are the two. The injuries had started to chip
in at those two games and then the bye week.
And then they just dropped. They felt the bottom fell out.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
But you still had Jones healthy. You still had some
pieces clicking.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
I wonder if.
Speaker 8 (25:40):
I think it's going to be somewhere between historically great
and the bottom of the barrel we saw down the
stretch last year.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Finds a healthy middle where it's a good offense.
Speaker 8 (25:48):
But maybe not elite or historically great.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
They did put up 29 on this Broncos defense last year.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
That they did. Five.
Speaker 8 (26:01):
Tristan worse told the media this week that one of
his goals for 2026 is for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
to have one of the NFL's very best offensive lines.
Do you think worse will be able to accomplish that
goal this season? And how far from the elite lines,
if you know, separated at all is Tampa's front?
Speaker 2 (26:19):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
I think you're middle of the road. Um, worse the
hell of a player, but I don't know about that
line overall being one of the best. Uh, it's going
to be interesting. Um, This season, is that coaching staff
desperately fighting for their jobs? Their offensive coordinator is Zach Robinson,
by the way. The new OC is Zach Robinson.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Colorado native, for what it's worth.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Right, but we saw what happened there, I think, with
the Falcons a little bit.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
It wasn't great.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Yeah, it really wasn't. I'm not expecting big things out
of that offense necessarily this year. Now, they don't have...
Mike Evans anymore so you've got Jalen McMillan stepping up
to a bigger role and of course Chris Godwin so
it's going to be interesting as far as the line
goes that's a good goal to have be one of
the best offensive lines I just don't see them as
being that talented.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Yeah, that's a great goal to have. And who's to
say that they cannot do it?
Speaker 4 (27:03):
Because even with Ben citing the fact of the wide
receivers that they don't have, they still have Emeka Obuka.
But the biggest thing that would help the offensive line
is the fact that the quarterback has no sacks. And
the thing that ensures that is getting the running game going.
So you're talking about Kenny Gainwell and Bucky Irvin. If
those guys can have, I mean, let's just say they're
(27:25):
splitting carries, One guy has about 800 yards. The other
has about 954. That's going to make the offensive line
look superiorly better than what they've looked before because guess what?
They don't have to worry about, you know, kick sliding
and those drop back passes because they get a chance
to fire off. So if things start to happen that way,
once again, you got an all-inspiring quarterback in Baker Mayfield
(27:47):
who's to say that it can't happen.
Speaker 8 (27:49):
The Zach Robinson thing, he really struggled in Atlanta. I'm
a little optimistic he might be able to bounce back
in Tampa because so much of that Atlanta tenure was
with Kirk Cousins off the Achilles at quarterback. And as
Nick knows, uh, playing against that Mike Shanahan offense, plenty, or,
you know, that, that West coast Shanahan wide zone, whatever
offense it's all about. The quarterback's got to run in
(28:10):
that system. It's all about angles. It's all about landmarks.
It's about that boot action. And Kirk Cousins could not
do it for Atlanta the past few seasons. So they
had to operate out of the pistol, which really hurts
the run game, changes the angles. Uh, It's kind of
the worst of both worlds.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
I like running out of the pistol, though, because you
can still dot the I on the pistol and keep
it balanced.
Speaker 8 (28:30):
You can, but I think it's like the worst of
both worlds where it's not quite as good. It's a
better run game than the shotgun, but the pass game's
not quite as good, and the run game's not as
good as it is under center, but the pass game's...
There's just a few things that are funky. It's not
the true Shanahan offense. Now that you're able to go
back to those roots with... I think better overall, or yeah,
better overall personnel, better fitting personnel. I really like that
(28:50):
Bucs offensive line with the pieces they've got. I think
that Bucs offense could make some noise this year.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
All right, I can dig it.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
Six.
Speaker 8 (28:59):
Today, the Miami Dolphins traded wide receiver 2-2 Atwell back
to the Los Angeles Rams in exchange for running back
Jarquez Hunter. You know, not superstar players, but this jumped
out to me because the Dolphins are trading away wide receivers.
Are you surprised to see that end? Will Tutu Atwell
make an impact for the Rams this season?
Speaker 4 (29:18):
Absolutely, Tutu Atwell will make an impact for the Rams.
I mean, when you look at Sean McVay, how he
likes to use his players and creatively kind of throw
them out and put them in a scheme to put
them in advantageous positions, absolutely. And you got to think
about that. You have Devontae Adams, Puga Nakua, and then
you have Kyron Williams running the ball. that's going to
(29:41):
give you opportunities in the pass game because not too
many people have teams have three good corners so this
is going to be excellent opportunity but it makes you
think about the Miami Dolphins Why are you trading away assets?
Speaker 2 (29:54):
And I said to Ben, are they starting to tank already?
Speaker 4 (29:58):
Because if you know that you in desperate need of
wide receivers to score points and make your hair coats
look good, why would you trade away adequate targets?
Speaker 2 (30:06):
Makes no sense.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
Yeah, I don't think they're starting to tank. I think
they're mid-tank before the season started. Signing Malik Willis and
this group of receivers is not serious football. The one
good thing I will say out of this is if
you trade Tutu Atwell, you're suggesting that one of Caleb
Douglas or Chris Bell, your third-round rookies that you both
run receivers that you draft, you think one of them
is going to be something. If you're trading because the
(30:28):
rest of their wide receiving core, they're starting wide receiving
core this year. Jalen Tolbert, Malik Washington, Jalen Rager, Kevin Coleman,
Chris Bell and Douglas. You got three rookies and you
got four, three other guys who have combined for almost
no production in their entire career. Like, I don't know
what we're even doing here. This this this is not serious.
This is not a serious offense. I feel bad for
(30:50):
Devon H.A. who's, you know, probably going to be.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
They're going to stack the box again.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
Javon A. Chain is going to have bad backs quite
a bit this week. You know what I mean? Coach,
I ain't feeling like I'm getting– I can do 10
carries and I'm good. Why don't you give Jalen Wright,
Ollie Gordon, and now Jarquez Hunter the fourth-string running back
they just traded for in this? This is almost malpractice.
Speaker 4 (31:08):
But this could end up being a good season for
former Broncos tight end Greg Dosage because– Man, he's going
to get a lot of targets.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
Yeah, and look, who's running this offense? Bobby Slowik, the
guy who couldn't get it done. He got one sort
of year out of the Houston Texans, and then he
got fired for that second year he came back.
Speaker 4 (31:25):
Now, Bobby did, after that first season, he got on
about five job interviews, head coaching interviews.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
Yeah, and then everybody saw the production. He didn't change anything.
He Cliff Kingsbury'd it up, and he came back and copied.
Everybody figured him out. His whole protection team was a
four-man slide with one guy isolated on the backside, and
they started taking advantage of that. Hopefully he's evolved. We
shall see.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
It's going to be an interesting year with Jeff Hathaway.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
Yeah, his dad was a great coach. I just don't
know about Junior. We'll see how he goes. Broncos country tonight.
Speaker 3 (31:55):
Back at this.
0-5-6-6-9-0, the text line. We talked about Nick Saban in
that Netflix documentary series that's coming out in October. A
series that's out now. You guys watch this one yet,
the Vince Young?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
No, I haven't watched that one yet.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Vince Young apparently sent an apology letter to former Titans
head coach Jeff Fisher saying, quote, I hope you can
forgive me for how I handle a lot of things.
Jeff Fisher never answered, saying, quote, He spelled my name wrong.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Wait a minute.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
What do you mean he spelled his name wrong?
Speaker 1 (00:34):
There was C in there, I think. Okay, okay.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
So there's a couple of ways to spell Jeff.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
J-E-F-F. Yeah, it could have been G-E-O-F-F. Any which way
he spelled it. That guy was his head coach and
he couldn't spell his name.
Speaker 4 (00:49):
Well, that would speak to this kind of the issues
that those two were actually having. Because if you look
at the situation, it wasn't... Jeff Fisher, who truly wanted
Vince Young.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Jeff Fisher didn't want Vince Young.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
It was the owner.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
The owner wanted Vince Young. The offensive coordinator wanted Matt Leinart.
And the head coach wanted Jay Cutler. Jeff Fisher wanted
Jay Cutler. Norm Chow had been the OC at USC
and wanted Matt Leinart. I think it was Leinart.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Yeah, it was Leinart.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
I couldn't remember which USC quarterback it was. Blank Olsen.
So anyway, yeah, Norm Chow wanted Matt Leinart. and the
owner wanted Vince Young, and the owner writes a check,
so he won and got Vince Young.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Think about it.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
With all three of those quarterbacks, what we know of
their NFL careers, right? If you can go back and
redo that, which one would you take?
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Would you take.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
The relationship between Chow and Liner from USC, and Young
had won the national title that year and beat USC,
or you take Vandy... Because at Vanderbilt, Jay Cutler went
to Vandy. So he was right there in the Nashville area.
So which of those three quarterbacks would you take, knowing
(02:03):
as though you know how their NFL careers ended up?
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Which one?
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Honestly, I probably would have taken... I mean, that quarterback
class was bad anyway. You remember the rest of the
quarterbacks in that class?
Speaker 2 (02:16):
No, I do not.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
I can tell you some of them. I don't think
I can do them all. But Brad Smith was in
there out of Missouri. Okay. Converted to wide receiver. Engel Martin.
Remember him out of Florida? He went to Green Bay.
Speaker 5 (02:27):
Nope.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Reggie McNeil, who was at A & M. And he,
I believe, also converted to receiver. Bruce Gradkowski.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
Yeah, because he played at Pittsburgh.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
He went to Toledo, though. That's where he went. Charlie
Whitehurst was in that class out of Clemson. Remember Touchdown Jesus?
Speaker 2 (02:48):
I remember Whitehurst.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Tavares Jackson. I don't know if you remember Tavares Jackson.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Remember Tavares?
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Tavares, of course, from the ancient Latin for he who
cannot throw the hunting spear accurate enough to kill the mammoth.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
That's not what that means.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Stop it.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Literal translation. Kellen Clemens was in that class. Remember Kellen Clemens?
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
And Brody Croyle, the glass.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
Alabama.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Kansas City.
Speaker 6 (03:10):
Alabama.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
The glass cannon is what they called him. He had
a howitzer of an arm, but if you sneezed on him,
he was instantly injured.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
So known as though that year the quarterback class wasn't
that great, which of the three quarterbacks that we're talking
about would you have taken as your quarterback?
Speaker 1 (03:25):
I'm looking back through my notes right now, and I
had them ranked Jay Cutler, Matt Leinart, Vince Young.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
You know what?
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Pre-draft, that was my ranking.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
Man.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Vince obviously had a better career than Matt Leinart. Young
threw for, I think, 46 touchdowns. You know what? I
would take the Smoke and Jay Cutler. Cutler obviously had
the best career.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
I would take the smoke at Jay Cutler.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Cutler by far had the best career out of the three.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
Yes, because at USC, Leiner was surrounded with talent. And
the same thing could be said about Vince Young at Texas.
But Jay playing at Vandy, obviously it may sound a
little biased because he was one of my teammates. But
for me, his skill set translated a little more.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Even though... He had what they call that.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
Gunslinger mentality, which is translated for me now as he's.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Going to take a lot of chances. And a lot
of chances Cutler did take. Take a lot of chances.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
He did.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
160 interceptions in his career. Who had the most out
of those three quarterbacks? Ray Cutler. He had 160. Vince
Young had 51, though.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
And, you know.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
I mean, that's a lot of interceptions for how few
passes he actually threw. And Vince was.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
When he was with Tennessee... Steve McNair was there.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Was he not?
Speaker 1 (04:47):
I think it was overlap between the two.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Yeah, just maybe a little overlap, maybe a year. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Vince Young threw 1,304 passes and had 51 interceptions. Jay Cutler,
who threw three times the interceptions, but also had 5,000
passing attempts.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
Well, obviously, I mean, he was more of a starter
than those other two guys, so the volume is going
to equate more to possible turnovers.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Honestly, here's something for you. Tavares Jackson and Bruce Gretkowski
both threw more interceptions than Matt Leiter did in his career. Jeez.
Tavares Jackson, man. That guy could throw the football a mile,
but he had no accuracy whatsoever.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Would you want to be like a guy that was drafted...
in the first round as a quarterback? Would you want that?
Speaker 4 (05:36):
I know it sounds great because there's a lot of
notoriety that comes with that.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
Mm-hm.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
But there's a lot of pressure that comes with that
to perform because the team that you're going to, obviously,
if they're drafting you in the top five, top ten,
that means they were terrible the year before.
Speaker 5 (05:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
And they're looking for you to be the savior. See,
I'm wired to want that. I want to take zeros
and turn them into heroes. Like, I want to. Even
when I play video games, right, when I play the college.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
But you run the ball, though. Hold on.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
But when I play the college video games, I find
the worst team in the game and try to turn
them into something. I don't shy from the challenge. That's
the challenge for me is taking the zeros down the edge.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
I don't know, Ben.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
I mean, see, that's great to say from, I guess,
maybe a video game standpoint, but in real life, knowing
the pressure to deal with it. Okay, think about with
Bo Nix, for instance, and the pressure that he was
dealing with coming into the Broncos. You have, obviously, John Elway.
(06:40):
You have Jake Plummer, Peyton Manning. These are all the
quarterbacks you're coming after. And then now, just think about it.
Where the Broncos were able to get to 14-3, think
about that added pressure now.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
I'm not saying that I.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
Don't expect Bo to be able to match the intensity
and be able to handle it, but just thinking about
the pressure associated with that.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Them dudes ain't here now. I'm here now. I don't know.
That part's never bothered me. I understand what you're talking about.
There are guys who have wilted under that pressure, but
that part never bothered me. Like, I love it. Put
that pressure on me.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
I think for me, watching Bo at practice and having
little conversations with him, I think he embraces that.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
He embraces that challenge.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
Because he knows what he's stepping into. It's not something
that's far. Like, There are a bunch of Broncos fans
that wanted J.J.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
McCarthy. But looking at what J.J.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
McCarthy is now, I don't think McCarthy possesses the same type.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Of mentality that Bo possessed.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Certainly didn't have the ability that Bo had to jump
into the league at the time. You know who else
likes to rise to the occasion?
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Who is that?
Speaker 1 (07:51):
That is the Broncos defense. Vance Joseph was talking about him, though,
and talked about the prep as leading into their game
last week and how it was inadequate.
Speaker 5 (08:01):
Two games, you know, what we've played here, we've seen
how offenses see us, right? So lots of boots, lots
of misdirection, outside runs more often than not, match protection passes,
quick game, you know, team.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
And that's exactly how teams will look to attack the Broncos'
defense because we know that they are aggressive style of defense.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
And sometimes when you.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
space of defense of that magnitude, you have to use
the best parts that they have against them. And with
the misdirection, you know guys get downhill. They fast flow.
They fill the gaps. But then if you look at
the Packers game, right, where the Packers, even though it
was a preseason game, and I know it was like, well,
you know, the offensive defense is going to be vanilla.
(08:48):
If you go back and watch that game, there's a
lot of nuances that, you know, Mike LaFleur and Adam Senevich,
their offensive coordinators, that they threw at.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
The Denver Broncos. So it was great. Having the Broncos.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
Defense see that and understand the ways that teams are
going to attack them, but you're going to see more
attacks like that of this Broncos defense.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Well, that's how you have to attack it. You're going
to see a lot of outside runs on first down
and quick game type stuff. Why? You want a chunk
play on first down, it's going to get you four yards, right?
Because you can't get behind the chains on this defense.
They will blow you up. So what you're going to
see is coaches and teams game planning to attack the
Broncos on first down. They've got to get that four
yards on first down. You've got to stay ahead of
(09:30):
the chains against this defense or you're skunked.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
Well, you know, it's interesting that Vance brought that up
because when I was listening to him talk about the defense,
how they have been attacked in these last two preseason games,
The first thing I thought about was what I was
witnessing at training camp. And you and I, we didn't
get a chance to really get into it the way
that I wanted to, but some of those problems started
(09:55):
at practice. We saw guys, when they would start to
rush the passers, you have to.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Put an edge on the defense.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
Someone always has to be contained on the defense, even
if that means you take one of your outside rushers,
loop them inside. Someone's got to come back and put
an edge on the defense. And I started noticing sometimes
guys who were responsible with staying on the outside, they
would have a tendency to, to peek back inside because
(10:21):
they're trying to make a play. And I know that
they're competing, but when they do that, they allow the
runner to get outside. They allow themselves to get out leveraged.
And I was thinking, okay, well, I'm going to take
a mental note of that in training camp. Let's see
what happens in some of the games. And it has
come to fruition. Those guys are not holding the point
(10:41):
because they're so concentrated on trying.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
To make a play.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
And you see all these outside perimeter runs. And the
Broncos definitely have to get better because, I mean, when
you look at the fact that who they're going to
face in the first couple of games, you're going to
face San Francisco.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
That's what they love to do.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
Sean McVay is one of the better coaches as far
as scheming and play calling and testing the edges of
your defense. So this is great that the Broncos are
sending it now so they can kind of remedy the
situation before they get out of hand.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
They're going to play both those coaches pretty early on.
Speaker 7 (11:14):
One of the best things we get to do here
at KOA is a little bit.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Of access, I guess, since we're the— That broadcast part
of the Broncos is our own Dave Logan gets to
sit down with head coach Sean Payton every week and
have a conversation. Here's this week's Coach's Corner.
Speaker 7 (11:32):
Packers rush four. Bowe in the pocket. Throws a deep ball.
Caught right in.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
The middle of the field.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
And this is going to be.
Speaker 7 (11:39):
Jalen Waddell and the speech for navigating his way across.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
The field gets up. He's excited.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
And so are all the fans here in Denver.
Speaker 7 (11:47):
So Sean, this was big play against the Packers and
an opportunity for, for home fans to see Jalen Waddell
talk a little bit about that play.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (11:55):
So look, it's a third down in five and in
our league, you know, that third and three, four and five,
you would tick up a little bit more man coverage.
So this play's got man answers and, which we're going
to get here, and it's got zone answers. And one
of the things we like to do if you're getting
man is to condense splits, bunch players together, and you
(12:19):
see a bunch here. You see Pat Bryant with his
initial release. He wins, and I initially... from my vantage point,
think he's going to get the throw. And then Waddle
comes off that stack release and catches a flat-footed nickel
and goes by him. And so, you know, Bo's got
that inside-out read and then a nudge shallow with Evan
(12:43):
coming across. So we get a good man-beater, and we
get a vertical man-beater.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
And a lot of times when it's third and.
Speaker 6 (12:51):
Five, defensively, you're taught to kind of sit at that
down in distance. And every once in a while, it's
important on those third and two to threes, four.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
To fives, that you go by them. Yep.
Speaker 6 (13:07):
And that helps you. the number of times that you
were going to be not going by him. And so
this is a three vertical play, a stacked release from
a bunch. We get the man-to-man look, and you get
to see Waddell's separation. I said to him after he
caught it, I said, shoot, you were bouncing around. I
(13:27):
almost felt like it was his first catch in the NFL,
but he was that excited.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
He really was, and so were the fans.
Speaker 7 (13:33):
What I liked most about his route was after the release–
almost at the top of the round, he gave just
enough of a shake.
Speaker 6 (13:41):
He's special with that. Enough of a shake to freeze
that defensive back. He just has a great way of
leverage leaning. And so he leverage leans, and it kind
of forces the defender to not stop But straighten up,
and then it just opens up this window. The throw's good.
The route was, it's one of his superpowers. You know,
(14:03):
his transition and understanding of leverage. And so, you know,
he gets this guy flat-footed. Leverage leans to the outside.
And then the space he creates... For the throw. Oh, boy.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
Is really good. I'll get you out of here on this.
Speaker 7 (14:18):
If you could pick only two things that impressed you
most about him when you were thinking about making.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
That deal, what would they be? The two things. So
let's start off the field.
Speaker 6 (14:28):
Because, you know, in free agency, my parents used to
love to go to garage sales. That was the one
thing they did together. Every Saturday and Sunday... They'd have
15 garage sales. And then they'd bring back a new
couch every other week. And I dreaded it because that
meant that I was lifting the old couch out. We
were excited about the new couch. And we sat in it.
(14:51):
And then Tuesday, all of a sudden, we noticed it
rocked a little in the left corner. And you're like, ah,
this is why this was at a garage sale. And
so if you're not careful, free agency can be that
a little bit.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
The information and insight, Nick Saban.
Speaker 6 (15:07):
All the people that have been around him unanimously spoke
about his competitive and love for football. And it's contagious. Like,
he endears himself to his teammates. He's not selfish. And, like,
you come out here, and there's nothing better than working
with players that.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
Don't have bad days. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
All right?
Speaker 6 (15:29):
And then, so, now that you can have all of
that and be an average player, all right, now you
have a guy who's... who's a unique player, extremely talented,
and I would say it's his speed, but then it's
his ability to stop transition and do the things that
we're discussing. So you're getting this from a makeup, and
(15:51):
then you're getting this from a talent, and you're probably
getting a couch that you're going.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
To keep that doesn't wobble. Good enough. Sounds good.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
All right.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
We'll see you.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
56690, the text line. Appreciate it. Steve Atwater and Phil
McGogan for joining us tonight. And with that, let's get
to the NFL Six Pack. It's time for the NFL
Six Pack.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
I'm going to drink a lot of beer tonight.
Speaker 5 (16:17):
Insight and inside information you can't find anywhere else.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Now, the top six NFL headlines.
Speaker 5 (16:25):
One.
Speaker 8 (16:28):
Starting off here with a check-in on the NFL's top
100 players list. So far in the top ten of
that list, Pat Sertan came in at number ten. Jameer
Gibbs ranked ninth, followed by, or I guess right behind,
Micah Parsons at eighth, and Puka Nakua at seventh. That
leaves Matthew Stafford, Josh Allen, Bijan Robinson, Christian McCaffrey, Jackson
(16:49):
Smith and Jigba, and Miles Garrett as the remaining players
in the top six. What do you make of that
top ten list so far, and who do you think
will be the number one, and who should be that
number one player?
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Um... Yeah, I mean, I just, I don't know. I
don't get into this stuff as much as some people do.
At the end of the day, I think number one
is going to wind up being Smith and Jigba or
Matt Stafford or Josh Allen. Should Bijan be in that conversation? Sure.
Should Miles Garrett be in that conversation? Sure. We'll see.
(17:24):
You know, I think if you were just basing it
on last year, Smith and Jigba or Miles Garrett to me,
you know, but, you know, quarterbacks get pushed up, so.
Speaker 4 (17:34):
Of course, there's always going to be a quarterback because
you can't put a defensive player at number one because
that changes somewhat of the narrative. But if you were
to twist my arm, I would say Miles Garrett should
be number one. I mean, he beat Michael Stranhan single
season sack record.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
So why not put him there?
Speaker 4 (17:55):
But since we're in a quarterback driven league, I would
dare to say Matthew Stafford. Because think about Matthew Stafford's
age and think about what he did coming into last season. Like,
he had a back issue that no one really thought
was going to play this season. He didn't start off
the preseason playing, but look at what he was able
to do. So that would be, you know, my number one.
(18:19):
Myles Garrett would be number two. Jackson Smith and Jigba
would be, you know, number three. So, yeah, let's see
how it shakes out.
Speaker 8 (18:26):
History of that number one honor since then, if I
started doing this in, 2011 it looks like almost all
quarterbacks to your point nick the the outliers we've got
a couple running backs with adrian peterson and saquon barkley
a wide receiver with tyree kill but you do have
two defensive players jj watt in 2015 and aaron donald
(18:47):
in 2019 i think miles garrett makes three we just
saw i think you could argue the greatest defensive season
ever when you look at him breaking the sack record
And the fact that he had so much, like he
had the extra game, but so much fewer pass rushing
opportunities than the guys who had set that record before
him because the Browns were so often trailing in those games.
(19:08):
Teams were so often running out the clock. He didn't
have those opportunities to just tee off, pin his ears back,
gather up those sacks, and he still set the record.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
I think he's going to be number one.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
And I think there's something that should be said about
the fact that he was.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Playing in Cleveland.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Oh, exactly.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
Yes.
Speaker 8 (19:27):
Nfl.com's lance zeerlein is projecting big seasons for the nfl's
top two pure pass rushers or edge rushers i should
say with ruben bain jr and david bailey jr both
being projected to tally nine and a half total sacks
this season what are your thoughts on that lofty projection
and which rookie between Bain and Bailey Jr. do you
(19:52):
think will be more productive in 2026?
Speaker 2 (19:54):
I'm going to go with Reuben Bain Jr.
Speaker 4 (19:56):
Because in camp, he's definitely been showcasing his ability.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
And here's the other part.
Speaker 4 (20:03):
Look at the division that he's in. And we know
that his quarterback, Baker Mayfield, is upset. He wants to
go scorch earth, not just on Tampa Bay, but everyone else.
So he is motivated. So you give Baker more opportunities.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
The Bucs are now scoring more points, and Bane.
Speaker 4 (20:19):
Has more opportunities to get after the quarterback because now
they're chasing points and they're in third and long situations.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
I'm with Nick completely here. I think just both these
players are going to be good, but I think Reuben
Bain is going to be a monster. I think the
over-under on him is like nine and a half sacks,
and I'd bet the over on that. He does have
the AC joint sprain, but he's going to be ready
for week one against the Bengals, and he's going to
have plenty of opportunity because you know they like to
throw the football with Joe Burrow back there and that
offensive line not being all that great. So I expect
(20:46):
him to be off to the races starting week one.
Speaker 8 (20:48):
I'm going with you guys too on Reuben Bain. I
think that Buccaneers defense looks to be a good bit
better this year. It seems like they've upgraded the talent there.
I think that will help him out. And, you know,
even if the Bucs offense comes back down to earth
a little bit without Mike Evans, I think it's a
heck of a lot better than what the Jets are
trotting out. You're probably going to be playing with a
lot more leads. Just everything about the Bucs is better.
(21:09):
Overall roster, overall coaching, whatever. So I think he's just
going to have much better situations to try and rack
those numbers up and He was incredibly pro-ready coming out.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
David Bailey was maybe.
Speaker 8 (21:21):
The higher upside pick for some, but man, Bain I
think is just a polished, ready-to-go pass rusher and should
be pretty productive from day one. Packers running back Josh
Jacobs is now facing misdemeanor charges of battery and of
criminal damage to property in relation to a domestic violence
(21:42):
incident this offseason. How will the NFL respond to this
latest development? And when will we get clarity on this situation?
It's coming soon. And I will tell you there's video.
I will tell you that video is horrible for Josh Jacobs.
And I would be stunned if Josh Jacobs does not
spend time in prison.
Speaker 6 (22:01):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
I will leave it at that. I've seen the video.
It will get leaked at some point. I'm not going
to leak it because it depicts domestic violence. It backs
the woman's assertion. And I will say that I would
be stunned if he manages to avoid prison after that.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (22:21):
Are you suggesting that it is kind of Ray Rice
type of video?
Speaker 1 (22:26):
There is violence committed on that video.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
Listen.
Speaker 5 (22:30):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
It's always he said, she said, and then there's the truth.
Speaker 4 (22:35):
When there is video that can document the situation itself,
it changes the narrative and how you look at any situations.
And what we've seen, anytime there's a domestic issue, it's like.
Speaker 8 (22:47):
A guaranteed six games right off the bat. And when
there's video, it oftentimes gets worse. I think of the
Kareem Hunt situation. I think of the Ray Rice situation.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
He's facing 18 months in prison already for the charges
that are on there. If this video gets out, I
don't know if he plays football again.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Wow, that's big.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
So I'll leave it at that. Again, I don't want to.
I'm trying to tell people what I know, but at
the same time, I don't want to comment on domestic
violence situations.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Yeah, makes sense.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
Four.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Sorry for stepping on you with the four there.
Speaker 8 (23:22):
The Colts have activated Alec Pierce off the pup list
as he eyes a week one return following that breakout
2025 campaign and lucrative contract extension he got. What are
your expectations, though, for Pierce this season and Do you
think the Colts will be able to refine that elite
offensive form they had early on in 2025?
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Well, the hope.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
Is that they can.
Speaker 4 (23:46):
As long as you have a healthy quarterback in Danny
Dimes and Jonathan Taylor is running the way that he
ran over the past couple of years, then the Colts
will always have an opportunity.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
And that means that you can take shots down the field.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
So with Alec Pierce being one of the faster receivers
in the league, I mean, he now has Josh Downs
and Keenan Allen, the veteran wide receiver, who runs excellent routes.
I think the Colts definitely have a chance. And the
interesting thing about Alex Pierce, once again, when people see him,
they kind of underestimate his ability and his speed. But
(24:21):
I tell you what, if you want to find out
from someone who saw it up close and personal, talk
to Riley Moss.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
He'll tell you it's real.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
I expect a resurgence from the Colts this year. You
know they lost every game after the bye week last year?
Every game? Yeah, they dropped seven straight. The game before
the bye week, they won in overtime. The game before that,
they lost. But prior to that, they had been on
a tear. When the injuries kicked in, all those injuries hit,
they fell off a cliff. But before the injuries, they
were rolling. So much so that even with that 0-7
(24:55):
after the bye week, they still finished eighth in the
NFL in points. They started a game with Riley Leonard.
They started how many games with Phil Rivers? And they
still finished eighth in the league in points.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
They could put up points.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
That's how much they were rolling.
Speaker 8 (25:07):
Through eight weeks, you know, you look at the offenses
they were up there with, and it was like the
07 Patriots, the 2013 Broncos.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
It was a historic, the greatest show on turf. It
was a historically great unit.
Speaker 8 (25:17):
My one thing, though, it started to come back down
to earth a little before the injuries. I remember the
Germany game. I think it was against the Falcons. Now, granted,
international travel. But that was ugly. There was a Steelers game.
I want to say right before the bye week.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Those are the two. The injuries had started to chip
in at those two games and then the bye week.
And then they just dropped. They felt the bottom fell out.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
But you still had Jones healthy. You still had some
pieces clicking.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
I wonder if.
Speaker 8 (25:40):
I think it's going to be somewhere between historically great
and the bottom of the barrel we saw down the
stretch last year.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Finds a healthy middle where it's a good offense.
Speaker 8 (25:48):
But maybe not elite or historically great.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
They did put up 29 on this Broncos defense last year.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
That they did. Five.
Speaker 8 (26:01):
Tristan worse told the media this week that one of
his goals for 2026 is for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
to have one of the NFL's very best offensive lines.
Do you think worse will be able to accomplish that
goal this season? And how far from the elite lines,
if you know, separated at all is Tampa's front?
Speaker 2 (26:19):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
I think you're middle of the road. Um, worse the
hell of a player, but I don't know about that
line overall being one of the best. Uh, it's going
to be interesting. Um, This season, is that coaching staff
desperately fighting for their jobs? Their offensive coordinator is Zach Robinson,
by the way. The new OC is Zach Robinson.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Colorado native, for what it's worth.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Right, but we saw what happened there, I think, with
the Falcons a little bit.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
It wasn't great.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Yeah, it really wasn't. I'm not expecting big things out
of that offense necessarily this year. Now, they don't have...
Mike Evans anymore so you've got Jalen McMillan stepping up
to a bigger role and of course Chris Godwin so
it's going to be interesting as far as the line
goes that's a good goal to have be one of
the best offensive lines I just don't see them as
being that talented.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Yeah, that's a great goal to have. And who's to
say that they cannot do it?
Speaker 4 (27:03):
Because even with Ben citing the fact of the wide
receivers that they don't have, they still have Emeka Obuka.
But the biggest thing that would help the offensive line
is the fact that the quarterback has no sacks. And
the thing that ensures that is getting the running game going.
So you're talking about Kenny Gainwell and Bucky Irvin. If
those guys can have, I mean, let's just say they're
(27:25):
splitting carries, One guy has about 800 yards. The other
has about 954. That's going to make the offensive line
look superiorly better than what they've looked before because guess what?
They don't have to worry about, you know, kick sliding
and those drop back passes because they get a chance
to fire off. So if things start to happen that way,
once again, you got an all-inspiring quarterback in Baker Mayfield
(27:47):
who's to say that it can't happen.
Speaker 8 (27:49):
The Zach Robinson thing, he really struggled in Atlanta. I'm
a little optimistic he might be able to bounce back
in Tampa because so much of that Atlanta tenure was
with Kirk Cousins off the Achilles at quarterback. And as
Nick knows, uh, playing against that Mike Shanahan offense, plenty, or,
you know, that, that West coast Shanahan wide zone, whatever
offense it's all about. The quarterback's got to run in
(28:10):
that system. It's all about angles. It's all about landmarks.
It's about that boot action. And Kirk Cousins could not
do it for Atlanta the past few seasons. So they
had to operate out of the pistol, which really hurts
the run game, changes the angles. Uh, It's kind of
the worst of both worlds.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
I like running out of the pistol, though, because you
can still dot the I on the pistol and keep
it balanced.
Speaker 8 (28:30):
You can, but I think it's like the worst of
both worlds where it's not quite as good. It's a
better run game than the shotgun, but the pass game's
not quite as good, and the run game's not as
good as it is under center, but the pass game's...
There's just a few things that are funky. It's not
the true Shanahan offense. Now that you're able to go
back to those roots with... I think better overall, or yeah,
better overall personnel, better fitting personnel. I really like that
(28:50):
Bucs offensive line with the pieces they've got. I think
that Bucs offense could make some noise this year.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
All right, I can dig it.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
Six.
Speaker 8 (28:59):
Today, the Miami Dolphins traded wide receiver 2-2 Atwell back
to the Los Angeles Rams in exchange for running back
Jarquez Hunter. You know, not superstar players, but this jumped
out to me because the Dolphins are trading away wide receivers.
Are you surprised to see that end? Will Tutu Atwell
make an impact for the Rams this season?
Speaker 4 (29:18):
Absolutely, Tutu Atwell will make an impact for the Rams.
I mean, when you look at Sean McVay, how he
likes to use his players and creatively kind of throw
them out and put them in a scheme to put
them in advantageous positions, absolutely. And you got to think
about that. You have Devontae Adams, Puga Nakua, and then
you have Kyron Williams running the ball. that's going to
(29:41):
give you opportunities in the pass game because not too
many people have teams have three good corners so this
is going to be excellent opportunity but it makes you
think about the Miami Dolphins Why are you trading away assets?
Speaker 2 (29:54):
And I said to Ben, are they starting to tank already?
Speaker 4 (29:58):
Because if you know that you in desperate need of
wide receivers to score points and make your hair coats
look good, why would you trade away adequate targets?
Speaker 2 (30:06):
Makes no sense.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
Yeah, I don't think they're starting to tank. I think
they're mid-tank before the season started. Signing Malik Willis and
this group of receivers is not serious football. The one
good thing I will say out of this is if
you trade Tutu Atwell, you're suggesting that one of Caleb
Douglas or Chris Bell, your third-round rookies that you both
run receivers that you draft, you think one of them
is going to be something. If you're trading because the
(30:28):
rest of their wide receiving core, they're starting wide receiving
core this year. Jalen Tolbert, Malik Washington, Jalen Rager, Kevin Coleman,
Chris Bell and Douglas. You got three rookies and you
got four, three other guys who have combined for almost
no production in their entire career. Like, I don't know
what we're even doing here. This this this is not serious.
This is not a serious offense. I feel bad for
(30:50):
Devon H.A. who's, you know, probably going to be.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
They're going to stack the box again.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
Javon A. Chain is going to have bad backs quite
a bit this week. You know what I mean? Coach,
I ain't feeling like I'm getting– I can do 10
carries and I'm good. Why don't you give Jalen Wright,
Ollie Gordon, and now Jarquez Hunter the fourth-string running back
they just traded for in this? This is almost malpractice.
Speaker 4 (31:08):
But this could end up being a good season for
former Broncos tight end Greg Dosage because– Man, he's going
to get a lot of targets.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
Yeah, and look, who's running this offense? Bobby Slowik, the
guy who couldn't get it done. He got one sort
of year out of the Houston Texans, and then he
got fired for that second year he came back.
Speaker 4 (31:25):
Now, Bobby did, after that first season, he got on
about five job interviews, head coaching interviews.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
Yeah, and then everybody saw the production. He didn't change anything.
He Cliff Kingsbury'd it up, and he came back and copied.
Everybody figured him out. His whole protection team was a
four-man slide with one guy isolated on the backside, and
they started taking advantage of that. Hopefully he's evolved. We
shall see.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
It's going to be an interesting year with Jeff Hathaway.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
Yeah, his dad was a great coach. I just don't
know about Junior. We'll see how he goes. Broncos country tonight.
Speaker 3 (31:55):
Back at this.
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