September 4, 2026 • 34 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Broncos Country Tonight, short show post-CU Buffs edition.
Benjamin Albright and Nick Ferguson here with you. Nick, you know,
it's interesting. The Broncos make a huge move, one real
big move this offseason. The trade of one to three
to bring in Jay LaWaddle. You know, you're going to
have to extend him, pay him $ 27 million a year.
(00:21):
And he takes over the Z, you know, wide receiver two,
wide receiver one debate, whatever you want. But he takes
over the Z position that was occupied by Troy Franklin
last year. Where does that leave us with Troy Franklin?
Where does he fit in to this offense?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
That puts him in a tight spot. And I know
usually the idea is what you get in, what you
fit in. So where is it that Troy Franklin actually
fits into this offense? We really don't know. Now the
Broncos kept, what, six wide receivers on the roster. Now
the issue is going to become, well, on game day,
I guess in some time from now when the Broncos
(00:58):
go on the road to face Kansas City, how many
receivers are actually up? Are we having five wide receivers because...
I mean, Marvin Mims has been a little injured, even
though to start training camp, he was one of those
guys who were kind of matching explosive play for explosive
play with Jalen Waddle. So now if you are the
Broncos and you're trying to figure out Marvin is healthy,
(01:20):
he's ready to go. So here you are, receivers, potentially.
There is Courtland Sutton. There's Jalen Waddle.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Right.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
There's Marvin Mims because Marvin Mims, you know, explosive ability. Right.
And his return ability as well. Then it's Pat Bryant.
And then now who's number five? Is it Troy Franklin
or is it Jordan Humphrey?
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Well, we know little Jordan Humphrey has blackmail photos of
Sean Payton. So he's obviously going to be.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
What is it with the blackmail photos?
Speaker 1 (01:45):
I'm just saying, man, like there's no way that guy
sticks around anywhere else.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
In the league except here.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
And there's no way he sticks around here on, you know.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Okay, well, there's a reason because the idea is that
Jordan Humphrey, he knows the system. He's been around Sean
Payton for a while. So I know you said that
he has pictures, blackmail photos, whatever. Maybe that is the thing,
the fact of him knowing the system. And I guess Sean,
Coach Payton thinking, okay, well, he's a reliable guy. That's
why he's staying around. Would we say he's reliable? Well,
(02:15):
once again, it all depends on who you are asking.
So I'll ask you again. I mean, there's plenty of
people that know the system, though. Well, apparently there is
a love affair with a Jordan Humphrey. If there wasn't,
he wouldn't have made the roster. So who would be
the fifth receiver? Is it a Jordan Humphrey? Is it
Troy Franklin?
Speaker 1 (02:33):
That I don't know, because it seems to me that
You have a balanced skill set across the other guys.
You mentioned Sutton already. You mentioned Pat Bryant. We mentioned
Jalen Waddell and Marvin Mims. So who's the other guy?
Do you want the big body of Lil Jordan Humphrey
or do you want the I'm going to drop it
from Troy Franklin?
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Well, that's the thing, because Lil Jordan Humphrey is the
bigger body. The idea is that bigger body means bigger.
He can drive guys off the ball even though he
hasn't done it consistently. And when you look at Troy Franklin,
his route running has improved. His biggest issue sometimes is
reliability as far as catching the ball. That is somewhat
of a problem. So could this be based on opponent
(03:18):
from a week-to-week basis? If you're playing a team that
you feel as though you want to run the ball against,
you want to get a bigger body in there and say, hey,
maybe that's due to LaJuan Humphrey. But if I'm Troy Franklin,
I'm a little ticked off about the situation. And this
is where he can improve or really show them that
he deserves the right to be that fifth wide receiver
by improving his blocking. Now, I can say this because
(03:40):
I do have one receipt that I can actually pull
it up from the first preseason game where RJ Harvey
was running the ball and Troy Franklin was in a
cut split. He was supposed to dig out a safety
or a corner and he didn't do a good job
of it. Now, Troy Franklin is more of a taller, leaner,
slimmer body than Le Jordan Humphrey, but if you want
(04:01):
to stay on the field, you want to be on
an active roster week to week, you have to start
showing that you can actually perform that part of the game. Well, yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
I mean, that's the thing. Troy Franklin is 6'2, 180.
So basically, he's 6'2, but weighed what I weighed earlier
in the year, which if you've seen my body, you
understand why I'm kind of rolling my eyes a little bit.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
But could he not weigh an extra 15 pounds with
want to? Because that's a whole part of it, right?
You got to want to get down and dig guys
out and block them.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Well, I mean, I want to. think that I could
stop Derrick Henry. But that's not magically going to make
me put on 60 pounds and be like, that's what
I'm saying, man.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
I'm like, what are we doing here?
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Because, you know, I want to win the Mega Millions,
but my bank account balance is showing a significantly smaller
number than the Mega Millions jackpot.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
So that means that Jordan Humphrey, from an air quote
standpoint I'm giving you here, a blocking standpoint, being as
though he's a bigger body, you can possibly see him
maybe being up as the fifth receiver instead of Troy Franklin.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Yeah, I mean, little Jordan Humphrey is maybe an inch
taller than Troy Franklin, but he outweighs him by 45 pounds.
He's a 225 pound receiver. You bring more to the table, literally,
in terms of being able to block and do things there.
And I'm not saying little Jordan's the best blocker. I think,
you know, I had plenty of conversations about that. But
there's something to the physics of force equals mass times acceleration.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Yes, all of that is definitely true. But Troy Franklin
comes with a certain skill set. He is, I would say,
maybe a faster receiver than LeJuan Humphrey. And, oh, by
the way, he is good friends and teammates, former Oregon
teammates with Bo Nix, who just happens to be, have
(05:52):
a great relationship with now the signal caller in Davis Webb.
Could we see Bo Nix wave the flag, pound the table,
and advocate for his Former Oregon Duck receiver.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
I don't know, man. I mean, the way Troy was
dropping balls last year, I think I'd be banging the
table to get him out of here and pretend it
was you, not me.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
No. There's no way I don't think that the relationship
between Troy Franklin and Bo Nix will fall off that
far because Bo, listen, let me back up for a second.
For a quarterback, you want to make sure that your
quarterback is as comfortable as possible. True enough? Oh, yeah.
So if Troy Franklin gives you that and provides that,
(06:32):
why not put him in the game? Now, Bo may
have to tell him, look, man, we're going to run
the ball, but I need you to be better at
the point of attack as far as running the ball.
If you can't do that, I can't save you.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
I mean, Troy's got to demonstrate better reliability catching the
ball to be viable in any which way, shape, or form.
That was the problem. He had one of the worst
drop rates in the league last year. I mean, he
was just bad. And I hate saying that because he's
a much better receiver than I will ever be in
my wildest dream. But at the same time, relative to
(07:02):
what you drafted him for, it's not cutting the mustard.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
And so.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Yeah, it's one of those things where he's just got
to learn to be more reliable. And you notice, and
I've pointed out before, he struggles to catch over the shoulder,
but when he flashes the numbers back to the quarterback,
he's not bad. So, you know, maybe you just need
to use and put him in the slot because the
slot receiver in the Sean Payton offense often runs that
square in, right? So he's putting his numbers back toward
the quarterback. Maybe that's what we're going to see because
it's that outside Z that's normally going.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
So you want to move Troy Franklin into the slot position. See,
that's very difficult, even though for a guy... was going into,
I think, his third year because now you're talking about
side adjustments. Now we're talking about the aspect of blocking safeties,
blocking linebackers. And we're already talking about, I mean, he
doesn't have the body makeup or the willingness to go
(07:50):
in and do it. And you want to put him
in the slot?
Speaker 1 (07:51):
I mean, you know, you're going to be dropping back
600 times anyway. Like maybe you're tipping your hand a
little when he's in there that you're throwing the ball,
but you're throwing the ball anyway. So, you know, I
don't know. But I just like on the outside– was
not really... The way the Z receiver does things in
the Sean Payton offense doesn't really cater to Troy Franklin's
(08:11):
strengths to me.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Well, all of this sounds as though Troy Franklin could
find himself on the outs when it comes to being
a healthy scratch because... We know that the Broncos like
Pat Bryant, right? And the only thing that— I'm going
to correct you on that.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Love Pat Bryant.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Okay. Been saying they love Pat Bryant. So now that
throws a kind of wrench in the will for Troy Franklin,
if you're a Troy Franklin fan. And therefore, you're only
hoping that maybe, I don't know, there's an injury to
Marvin Mims as he has a bruised foot. Maybe he
doesn't play in the game against Kansas City, which would
(08:50):
allow Troy Franklin— another opportunity to show what he can
do because we hadn't really seen a lot of Troy
Franklin in the preseason. And depending on who you are
and how you weigh the preseason, some people just throw
it away. It doesn't really matter. But there are just
certain things you want to see of certain players in preseason,
but we were not able to see that from Troy Franklin,
which I think has hurt him somewhat as far as
(09:13):
his level of production.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Yeah, and I think that's the other part of it.
We'll get the pulse of that throughout the season, but... Yeah,
I mean, if you're keeping actives, it may come down
to a question of little Jordan versus Troy, and then
what is it that you need that day? If you're
up against the Chiefs, what are you doing? Do you
want the speed or do you want the size? If
you're up against the Jags in Week 2, do you
want the speed or do you want the size? And
(09:36):
I think part of that depends on the health of
Marvin Mims, too. Marvin's missed a little bit. Obviously, Marvin's
going to be active on game days. Marvin is the
NFL's all-time leading return average guy. with his next return,
he will qualify the minimum number of returns for the
all-time statistics. And as long as he does not lose
(09:57):
97 yards on that return, he will be the NFL's
all-time leader in punt return average.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
I doubt that something like that would actually happen.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Fumble the ball, then go recover. Nope, let it go.
I'm letting it go.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Let him score.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Stop.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
That's messing up my average.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Yes. Well, okay. So, bringing up Marvin Mims, what happens
if Marvin Mims isn't available due to injury when the Broncos...
Head to arrowhead to take on the division rival Chiefs.
What happens then?
Speaker 1 (10:24):
If he's not injured?
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Well, Marvin can't go.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Well, then you're activating Troy for the receiver. You're activating
Colby Katsas off the practice squad.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Now you're talking about some roster for Nagelman. Yes. You
got to move some pieces around. And once again, why
does the Broncos have two long snappers?
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Because one of them was Bonex's friend at Oregon.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
See? See? There it is. See? Bo Nix's friend at
Oregon that you're saying. Troy Franklin was Bo Nix's friend, too,
as well. So, hey, it's better to have friends than enemies, right?
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Maybe. Although, I think you get less friendly the more
you keep dropping passes from me. I'm just saying. You know,
as far as the rest of that goes, I mean, yeah.
I mean, what else are you going to, you know...
What else are you going to do? I don't think that...
To me, Lil Jordan Humphrey will probably get more activations
or would probably be the fifth guy more often than
Troy Franklin. Now, they don't have to activate either one
because they're on the active roster. But to me, Lil
(11:21):
Jordan's going to be the guy that's getting more snaps
than Troy Franklin at this point. I mean, you literally
spent all of that to replace Troy Franklin with Jalen Waddle.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Wait a minute. I thought the idea was... of bringing
Wadu in wasn't to replace Franklin, to add someone who
can add another layer to the offense.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
That's the nice way to put it.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
An explosive layer.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
That's the nice way to put it. That's what Troy
Franklin was supposed to be, right?
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Explosive?
Speaker 1 (11:47):
He's supposed to be faster?
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Well, yes.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Whose snaps was he taking? It's not Corlin Sutton's.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Well, wait, at one point, people were saying that Waddle
was brought here to take over Marvin Mims' position.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
I mean, he's kind of taken over both of them.
Maybe he's not taking the punt returns from Mims, but
he's kind of taken over Mims and Frank. Mims didn't
use that much.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
No, he didn't.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Waddle's going to be out there to replay.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Who was the guy that was out there to replay
last year? Troy Franklin.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Well, okay. Was that by default?
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Yeah, I mean, it was, but I'm just saying, you
paid all that to replace Troy Franklin.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
That is going to be interesting. So let's just put
ourselves in the mind of Troy Franklin. First, they bring
in Jalen Waddle. You're thinking, okay, well, he's coming from
Marvin Mims' job, and then you start to realize that, ooh,
maybe I'm the art man out, and I'm being pushed
to the fifth or sixth wide receiver. Then Marvin Mims
gets injured, and you're like, oh, the football gods have
(12:44):
blessed me. But wait a minute. There's Jordan Humphrey, and
he proceeds to be a better blocker than I am,
What is it that you are thinking or you're trying
to do in these next couple of weeks before the
team faces off against Kansas City that you think that
you can possibly change the mindset of the coaches?
Speaker 1 (13:02):
I don't know. Troy Franklin was in all 17 games
for the Broncos last year, though. He was the second
leading target guy. I mean, Cortland was the top target guy.
Troy Franklin was the second leading target guy last year.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Well, we know. Those targets are going elsewhere. Yes, those
targets are definitely going elsewhere. But the mindset, what are
you thinking? I mean, how are you mentally preparing yourself?
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Make the most of the opportunities I get. Put me in.
I got to break one. I got to house it.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Is it something where you figure that maybe Troy Franklin
can actually do in practice? Right? Because we know how
people look at practice.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
I don't think so. Because I think in practice, you know,
the coaches, they're like, oh, okay, he made a play.
This is what we want out of him the whole time.
But we already got Jalen Waddell here. You got to
do it in a game where the fans' eyes are
on you. You got media talking about it. Wait a minute.
Troy Franklin's balling out now.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
What do we do?
Speaker 1 (13:52):
You know, that kind of... You got to have that
groundswell of pressure behind you. Because I don't think at
this point, your resume... I don't think you're making plays
in practice enough.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
That's going to be tough because... Troy Franklin didn't get
a lot of reps in the preseason. He really put
up a lot of numbers. So if he is, right now,
looked as being the six-wide receiver, chances are he's not
going to get that many opportunities unless someone gets injured, right?
To really show what he can actually do. So he
now puts himself in... He's in a bad spot.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
He's in a real bad spot. We haven't seen a
fall of Troy this hard since there was a horse involved.
A fake horse.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Hector!
Speaker 1 (14:27):
I'm just saying, like, look... I don't think that there's
any way for him to do it because there's just
too much ahead of him. They love Pat Bryant, who's
going to eventually supplant Cortland Sutton. You've already got Cortland Sutton.
You've got Jalen Waddell. Marvin Mims is the, like I said,
just barring a ridiculous collapse that would be almost impossible
to achieve, will be the NFL's all-time leading punt return
(14:47):
average guy with his next punt return. What would you
say you do here?
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Well, now we're talking about the Broncos looking potentially. This
is all hypothetical. Troy Franklin as maybe a move guy.
And I don't mean a shift guy, an X guy,
you know, or Z guy. I'm talking about move as
far as move off the roster.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
And the trade.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Maybe you feature him in the first two games and
see what's out there in terms of... You know, hey,
you guys want this lightly used Troy Franklin?
Speaker 3 (15:20):
New York Jets?
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Talking to you, Darren Mooji?
Speaker 2 (15:23):
No. Wow. That would be bad for him to go
from Denver to the Jets.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
With Frank Reich and Geno Smith?
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Oh, boy.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Jeez. Talk about upset.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
I mean, you know, what else are you going to
do at that point, though? I mean, I don't even know.
Because there's just no spot for him to crack. He's
just a rotational guy here no matter what. Unless somebody
gets hurt. Unless we have just an injury to Jay Lomato,
who does get dinged up in games, but doesn't really
miss games. Just misses time in games. I mean, you know,
(15:59):
going to New York might be the best thing for him.
You know, they got Adonai Mitchell, Garrett Wilson, and Isaiah Williams,
and Tim Patrick. But they drafted Omar Cooper. But, you know,
they could use more bodies there.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Well, Miami, the Dolphins... yeah there.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
You go miami just needs anything they're they're begging they're
begging out there i can't still can't believe they traded
tutu out all the way that's their their receiving core
is hilariously thin um most of those guys most people
i think don't even know where they played.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
I guess it's safe to say that the dolphins are
already tanking.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Uh yeah i mean very much so i mean with
the malik willis thing jaylen tolbert caleb douglas and malik
washington are their starters that's i mean that's that's the
most laughably bad receiving core i think i've ever seen
um Maybe in the history of the NFL. I'm trying
to think of a worst receiving corner I've ever seen.
I'm struggling to come up with one.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Well, here's what we do know. We know that George
Payton has put guys in great positions to help their careers.
I mean, it would hurt Bo, but maybe you do
that if he can't break the, I guess, game day roster.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
I need to. Broncos country tonight. Back after this. Welcome
back to it. Broncos country tonight. Short show post to
see you buffs football edition. Benjamin Albright, Nick Ferguson here
with you. We're talking a little bit about Troy Franklin
in the last segment. A couple of things, news notes.
I want to get back to our interview with get
(17:18):
to our interview with Super Agent Peter Schaefer here in
just a minute. But some news and notes today. Justin Tucker,
the disgraced former Baltimore Ravens kicker back in the news.
Part of a group workout for the Jets today. yesterday
that included Michael Badgley and Josh Carty. The Jets, of course,
are looking for a kicker after Jason Sanders missed an
(17:39):
extra point and a 54-yard field goal attempt in the
preseason loss to the Giants, concluding a failed competition for
the job from camp. The Jets waive Sanders. They claim
Blake Grupe off waivers. Sanders is back with the team
on the practice squad, but obviously if you're missing kicks,
that's a bad sign. Tucker, of course, eight-time Pro Bowler,
(18:01):
five-time first-team All-Pro for the Ravens in 13 seasons. However,
the Ravens released him in 2025 after 16 women accused
him of sexual misconduct that he allegedly engaged in repeatedly
over the course of the years during massage therapy sessions.
He denied the allegations, but there's text message and all
that kind of stuff. It's pretty obvious. The Ravens cut him.
The NFL announced he was suspended for 10 games. He
(18:23):
was not kicked in an NFL game. The Saints and
Colts both reportedly worked him out over the summer but
didn't make either roster. You know, Tucker used to be
one of the most accurate, reliable kickers in the league.
Would you take a chance on Justin Tucker?
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Yeah, why not? The Jets find themselves in a very
difficult situation as far as the kicking is concerned. And
we don't even know how many games they're actually going
to win this year. So you want to arm yourself
as much as you can. And I know bringing in,
you know, Tucker is somewhat of a controversy to you.
type of thing based on the allegations. The league suspended
(18:58):
him for 10 games, but there was no legal action
that was taken against Tucker, right? Let's be honest about
the situation. Now, we can all have our personal thoughts and,
you know, the way that we want to look at him,
but no legal action. So why not bring a guy
in and see what he can, what he can do.
And if he can help you, Hey, allow him to
help you. He's already served his 10 game suspension. And Oh,
(19:21):
by the way, you look at Cleveland and what's what
happened with the Sean Watson situation. So beggars can't be choosers.
And now everyone wants to point the finger and things
like that. But I still go back to the fact
of no legal action was ever taken against Justin Tucker.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
That is true. Although there's some civil stuff out there. Um, Well,
the thing real quick, a Philadelphia man is arrested and
charged with multiple felonies after attempting to break into the
home of Eagles star Saquon Barkley. Jabeer Parker, who was 24,
was arrested Tuesday, facing charges for two break-ins and an
attempted third break-in, all in the same house. The first
two break-ins were successful. He broke into it on June 22nd,
(19:58):
stole $ 107, 000 worth of jewelry. A few weeks later, stole
$ 687, 000 more.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
Worth of jewelry.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
The third attempt said that he... Nobody was inside the
home when he was hurt, but the homeowners were awakened
by the suspicious sound. So I guess Barkley, the third time,
was staying there and heard about him. So if you're
(20:20):
a criminal, why would you go back the third time?
You got almost a million dollars worth of jewelry.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Well, they say that sometimes criminals return to the scene
of the crime. And when you've gone and broken into
someone's house, not once, but twice, and you've been successful...
You're like, hey, I like my odds.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Man, if you break into the same place three times,
I'm starting to think the homeowner's in collusion with you. Like,
not that I think that St. Croix and Barclay is
colluding for the insurance fraud. Because, I mean, at that point,
three times, the same place, get a bunch of jewelry. Like,
come on, man.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
I don't know if that is the case. But at
the same time, if someone breaks in your house the
first time, wouldn't you, like, do a better job on
your security? I'm just saying.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Yeah, I mean, yeah, you would think so. And apparently
no alarm was ever triggered. Barkley just woke up. They
heard suspicious sounds like him and him and his girl
or wife or whatever, like woke up and heard suspicious.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
That's how scary that is.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
I mean, I know how scared the other guy would
be when I walked down there with a gun.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
I'm just sad. Anyway, I don't know. I thought that
story was funny. Cause I'm like, how are you going
to rob a guy three times? Like, you know, like
you got.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
To know what's too good. I guess hanging fruit.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Yeah, maybe, I guess I, I, I thought it was
ridiculous anyway. Um, You and I had the chance to
sit down with super agent Peter Schaefer. Peter's, of course,
repped people in multiple different sports, repped all kinds of
Hall of Famers. You know, Barry Sanders, our good buddy
Steve Atwater, people all over the NFL. We had a
(21:51):
chance to sit down with him. And here's that interview
for you. Peter Schaefer. Peter, how are you doing this evening?
Speaker 3 (21:56):
I'm doing great. How about you guys?
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Doing pretty well. You've obviously represented people across many different leagues,
the PGA, the Major League Baseball, obviously the NFL. We
were talking, and we've been trying to get different perspectives, coaches,
front office, and especially the agent perspective, what it's like
on cut-down day for you and your guys.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Well, it's not cut-down day. It's cut-down week, really. Really,
because obviously what happens is we start with the last
exhibition game, and You're watching your guys. Are they playing
the first quarter, second quarter? Are they second safety? Are
they the fourth corner? Are they on special teams? So
(22:36):
all of a sudden we're looking at the roster gyrations.
And then all of a sudden when Saturday comes and
the players have to be cut by 4 o'clock Sunday,
which is 6 o'clock Eastern, next thing you know, you
don't want your phone to ring. And a player calls
up and says, hey, what's going on? You're like, no, no,
don't call. All you're doing is giving me a heart attack.
(22:58):
I said, I love you to death. I hope I
don't speak to you this weekend. And then, you know,
then all of a sudden four o'clock comes and you're like, wow,
that's pretty good. And then the players that do get cut,
the first thing the teams tell you is, well, either
we want him back on practice squad, we might want
him back on practice squad, or he's not in our
first iteration of our practice squad, which means they don't
(23:21):
want him back.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
So at that particular point, Peter, sitting with players, because
every player wants to make sure that they're on a roster,
whether it's an active roster or a practice squad. What
happens with those guys who find that difficulty and you
can't really get them a job maybe in the first
two weeks? What's kind of the mentality and the preparation
for that?
Speaker 3 (23:43):
That's a great question. They've all been so used to
being on a team and working out and being in college,
and nobody gets cut in college. Now all of a
sudden they're cut. You know, where do they go? Do
they go back to their parents' house? Do they go
back to their college town? You know, we tell them
go back to a place that they have a workout facility,
that they can stay lean and mean. And, you know,
(24:05):
whatever you're going to do all day, podcasts or, you know, work,
use your degree, you owe me three hours of working out.
Because don't call me and bitch about not having a
job and I get your workout and you're not ready
to go. But I also tell them this, Nick, and
you know, because you cheated the Turk for how many years?
And the Turk is the guy that stands by the
(24:27):
door and grabs you and brings you up to the
general manager's office. And you've got to remember that, first
of all, being in an NFL training camp, there's only
3,000 guys in the whole world. I mean, you're a
hell of a football player. They caught a lot of
good football players. And it doesn't mean you're a failure
in life or a failure in football. It's just you
didn't make the first iteration of the roster.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Right.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Talking with super agent Peter Schaefer. Peter, yeah, it's not
making the original. There's still, you mentioned, it's a week
of cut down, right? It's not the original or the
initial 53 might not be the final 53. How much
from your end as an agent, how much wheeling and
dealing is it going on, dialing up the phones, trying
to get into front offices and get your guy in
front of a new general manager?
Speaker 3 (25:11):
Well, there's a lot of it. So teams are calling,
would your guy come to our practice, Scott? If we
don't claim him, if we claim him, we'll take him.
if it's a veteran and all of a sudden when
veterans with, you know, more than three pension credit years
get cut on Sunday, they're free agents. They don't go
through waivers. All guys that are not vested go through waivers.
(25:32):
It means that they're not, you know, teams have the
right to claim them. So the veterans, if, you know,
if you've got a guy who's making $ 5 million, he
gets cut. Now all of a sudden he's a, shoot,
he's a free agent. And some teams will call up
and what are you looking for? And then now all
of a sudden you're negotiating a deal. Usually it's a,
some type of discount than what he was making. And
then you try to pick out where you want him
(25:53):
to go, where's the best chance for him to go.
The thing is, and Nick's much better at this than
I am, but you got to send a guy to
a place he can learn the system too. Because it's
not easy going in on Monday and trying to play
on Sunday in a brand new city, brand new system,
brand new facility, brand new technique.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Right, Nick? Yeah, it's tough, which now makes me want
to ask this question. When it comes to Broncos third
quarterback Sam Ellinger, because we were having a conversation before
you joined us about who should be QB2, but that's
for a different conversation. But if you were the agent
for Sam Ellinger, known as though he came, he stayed,
(26:31):
he could have went to Indy last year, and he
came back and he competed and he played his butt
off in the Minnesota game. What are you telling that
particular guy? Are you telling that client, hey, hang in there,
stay with that team? Or are you saying, hey, listen,
we have options elsewhere? What would you tell a guy
in that situation?
Speaker 3 (26:48):
Well, in that situation, so it used to be that
we went from cut day Saturday, practice squad Sunday, first
practice Monday, game Sunday. Sometimes game Thursday, game Sunday. This year,
we have the Labor Day sort of bye. Now, there
are two teams that are heading off to Australia Wednesday.
But the rosters really aren't finalized until a week from
(27:09):
Tuesday or this Tuesday at 4 o'clock. So a lot
of teams are keeping that extra quarterback. Pittsburgh's got four.
Cleveland's got four. Broncos don't normally keep three. But maybe
they're keeping three because someone's going to come up and
trade for City or whatever because teams aren't looking for
(27:29):
that backup quarterback. So I would be out there. Talking
to teams, you look at their roster and say, boy,
they really do need a two. And say, why don't
you give George Payne a call? And try to get
him traded to a team that he can be the
number two at. Now, he just might be the number
two here, in which case, Stiddy's the one that needs
to have his agent calling around.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Talking with Peter Schaefer, super agent, and, you know... I've
seen some of the guys that you've repped over the years,
you know, Jerome Bettis, Barry Sanders, you know, Joe Thomas.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
You just had one in studio for now.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
Yeah, Steve Atwater, yeah. You know, so many greats. As
you've dealt with front offices, the league over for several decades,
who do you say is the shrewdest negotiator you were
up against?
Speaker 3 (28:19):
Ah, this goes back, way back, George Young of the
New York Giants. So George... He built all the teams
with Parcells, and he was a GM through the 90s.
And George was a high school gym teacher in Baltimore.
And so everybody thought he was just doing big George.
But I'll tell you something. Every time he tried to
(28:40):
make a point with George, like I said, I'm negotiating
for Nick. And, you know, Nick's had 112 tackles. And
I'm like, well, he had 112 tackles. He goes, yeah,
but how many did he have in December, Peter? I'm like, what? Yeah, well, yeah.
You know, he had five picks. Yeah, but how many
did he drop and knock over?
Speaker 1 (28:57):
Oh, I love it.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
Right. And so every time you made a salient point
that you thought you were just going to, boom, you know,
be game, set, match, you know, like in tennis, boy,
he'd just take that ball and just whip it right
back at you. Like, wow. And just like that, he
was so prepared. Every time you made an argument... He
had two to knock you back on, you know, if
you have a running back. Yeah, but he had a
3.2 yard per carry in December, and that's when we
(29:22):
needed him. And, you know, he dropped 17 balls. We
couldn't use him in the past. And you're like, all right, George,
I quit. What do you want to do it for?
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Oh, that's good. That's very interesting. And I want to
ask this because there's a lot of negotiating back and forth.
As we look at the NFL and we look at
college football, and more importantly, with college football getting started,
all eyes are on Clemson and LSU, especially with Lane Kiffin.
(29:51):
And this whole concept of guys who may have very
limited pro experience, who signed NFL contracts, didn't make it
through camp, and going back to college. That's kind of
the biggest conversation. For you as a guy who represents pros,
I mean, what was your thought about the whole ruling
and this back and forth on whether those guys should
(30:11):
get that fifth year and be granted an opportunity to
go back and play college football?
Speaker 3 (30:17):
Well, so I'm the attorney on a couple of the
Colorado lawsuits. It's an interesting sort of dynamic. And the
biggest thing is the lack of leadership for the NCAA
team You know, we expect our leaders in our society
to keep us out of trouble, to keep society moving efficiently,
to make things flow properly. And they've just– just horrible
(30:38):
lack of leadership. You know, this 2022 class that's affected,
the high school class of 2022, they got hammered on
the front end because they walked into college with the
COVID classes. So they're playing as 18-year-olds against a bunch
of 24- and 25-year-olds. So first of all, they got
screwed on the front side. Now they get screwed on
the backside because they're going to let everybody have five years.
(31:00):
But they were worried that if the 2022 class got
five years, that all the incoming freshmen would be displaced.
So that's why the 2022 class got hosed. And, you know,
everybody goes, oh, we don't want pros coming back. But
the reality is, had they made the decision in January
and told people, hey, we're going five for five and
(31:21):
you 2022s can play the fifth year, a lot of
them wouldn't have gone pro. So, yeah, I get it.
They went pro and they came out of camp and
they got whatever released. But a lot of them wouldn't
have gone. All right? And so it's hard to really
blame them. You know, of course, Lane Kiffin, I mean,
(31:41):
he's going to look for every possible advantage he can find.
He's aggressive now in terms of winning. And he's fanatical
about it. So, yes, it doesn't make sense. And it's
really basketball, Nick, that's more of an issue because there
are a lot of You know, there's only 30 whatever
draft choices in the NBA that really make it. And
yet there's more basketball players making over half a million
(32:04):
dollars in college than football. Because you've got, you know,
140 Division I schools. Even the smaller conferences are paying
their star players a half a million dollars. So they
will make more money going back for a fifth year
than they would playing overseas in Spain or Israel or,
you know, wherever.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
Yeah, I think that's the big thing is some of
these guys are having to choose to go back for
the money, right?
Speaker 3 (32:34):
Well, right. So in college, I've got a player, I
won't tell you who, but he's a college player, and
he's a good player, and he's got a six-round draft
grade right now. Offense lineman. And, you know, if you
come out, he'll get a $ 200, 000 signing bonus, he'll make
the team, he'll make $ 800, 000, he'll make a million, but
he's going to make the team, et cetera. He'd go
(32:54):
back to his school... guaranteed $ 800, 000 to finish his college degree.
Know that as opposed to coming to the NFL and
being a 6th, 7th, 8th lineman, he's going to start
and get better, hone his craft. All that thing factors
into all this stuff. The money they're making, it's not
(33:19):
going to be life-changing because it's not going to be
the $ 10, $ 20, $ 30 million that the NFL's paying, but
it's It's a pretty good living for a college senior.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
Yeah, I'll say, especially when I was doing hot pots
of ramen, you know, back in the day for no money.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
I hate.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
Ramen! Hey, Peter, we really appreciate the time tonight and
giving our listeners a little inside information on, you know,
how the agent thing works and everything else. Really appreciate
it and hope to have you on again soon.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
Uh, anytime you guys want Nick, you guys, you two
do a great job. So it's fun to listen to
you at night when I'm driving around the city.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
Well, we appreciate it. Uh, very, very much. Peter Schaefer,
super agent, Peter Schaefer. That was our interview with super agent,
Peter Schaefer. Uh, you can always get that at Broncos
country tonight.com slash podcast, or wherever you get your podcast, Apple, iTunes, Spotify,
all that kind of stuff. Uh, appreciate you guys being
along for the ride on a short show on the, uh,
post CU buffs football men's edition. Um, Nick, we've got
(34:18):
preseason football coming up next week.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
You ready? Oh, yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
I am definitely ready. And starting on Wednesday, I think
that's when things kick off.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
Patriots, Seahawks on Wednesday. Rams, Niners on Thursday from Australia.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
I don't know how I feel about Wednesday's game. I
know we want to get the season started, but I'm
all about the Monday night football game.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
Kansas City, Denver.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
And Denver Broncos, yes. That's when the season is officially
kicked off for me.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
Yeah, we'll be able to break down all that stuff
next week. Looking forward to that. I appreciate you guys,
as always, being along for the ride. Broncos country tonight.
We'll be back tomorrow night. Follow the Rockies.
Welcome to Broncos Country Tonight, short show post-CU Buffs edition.
Benjamin Albright and Nick Ferguson here with you. Nick, you know,
it's interesting. The Broncos make a huge move, one real
big move this offseason. The trade of one to three
to bring in Jay LaWaddle. You know, you're going to
have to extend him, pay him $ 27 million a year.
(00:21):
And he takes over the Z, you know, wide receiver two,
wide receiver one debate, whatever you want. But he takes
over the Z position that was occupied by Troy Franklin
last year. Where does that leave us with Troy Franklin?
Where does he fit in to this offense?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
That puts him in a tight spot. And I know
usually the idea is what you get in, what you
fit in. So where is it that Troy Franklin actually
fits into this offense? We really don't know. Now the
Broncos kept, what, six wide receivers on the roster. Now
the issue is going to become, well, on game day,
I guess in some time from now when the Broncos
(00:58):
go on the road to face Kansas City, how many
receivers are actually up? Are we having five wide receivers because...
I mean, Marvin Mims has been a little injured, even
though to start training camp, he was one of those
guys who were kind of matching explosive play for explosive
play with Jalen Waddle. So now if you are the
Broncos and you're trying to figure out Marvin is healthy,
(01:20):
he's ready to go. So here you are, receivers, potentially.
There is Courtland Sutton. There's Jalen Waddle.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Right.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
There's Marvin Mims because Marvin Mims, you know, explosive ability. Right.
And his return ability as well. Then it's Pat Bryant.
And then now who's number five? Is it Troy Franklin
or is it Jordan Humphrey?
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Well, we know little Jordan Humphrey has blackmail photos of
Sean Payton. So he's obviously going to be.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
What is it with the blackmail photos?
Speaker 1 (01:45):
I'm just saying, man, like there's no way that guy
sticks around anywhere else.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
In the league except here.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
And there's no way he sticks around here on, you know.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Okay, well, there's a reason because the idea is that
Jordan Humphrey, he knows the system. He's been around Sean
Payton for a while. So I know you said that
he has pictures, blackmail photos, whatever. Maybe that is the thing,
the fact of him knowing the system. And I guess Sean,
Coach Payton thinking, okay, well, he's a reliable guy. That's
why he's staying around. Would we say he's reliable? Well,
(02:15):
once again, it all depends on who you are asking.
So I'll ask you again. I mean, there's plenty of
people that know the system, though. Well, apparently there is
a love affair with a Jordan Humphrey. If there wasn't,
he wouldn't have made the roster. So who would be
the fifth receiver? Is it a Jordan Humphrey? Is it
Troy Franklin?
Speaker 1 (02:33):
That I don't know, because it seems to me that
You have a balanced skill set across the other guys.
You mentioned Sutton already. You mentioned Pat Bryant. We mentioned
Jalen Waddell and Marvin Mims. So who's the other guy?
Do you want the big body of Lil Jordan Humphrey
or do you want the I'm going to drop it
from Troy Franklin?
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Well, that's the thing, because Lil Jordan Humphrey is the
bigger body. The idea is that bigger body means bigger.
He can drive guys off the ball even though he
hasn't done it consistently. And when you look at Troy Franklin,
his route running has improved. His biggest issue sometimes is
reliability as far as catching the ball. That is somewhat
of a problem. So could this be based on opponent
(03:18):
from a week-to-week basis? If you're playing a team that
you feel as though you want to run the ball against,
you want to get a bigger body in there and say, hey,
maybe that's due to LaJuan Humphrey. But if I'm Troy Franklin,
I'm a little ticked off about the situation. And this
is where he can improve or really show them that
he deserves the right to be that fifth wide receiver
by improving his blocking. Now, I can say this because
(03:40):
I do have one receipt that I can actually pull
it up from the first preseason game where RJ Harvey
was running the ball and Troy Franklin was in a
cut split. He was supposed to dig out a safety
or a corner and he didn't do a good job
of it. Now, Troy Franklin is more of a taller, leaner,
slimmer body than Le Jordan Humphrey, but if you want
(04:01):
to stay on the field, you want to be on
an active roster week to week, you have to start
showing that you can actually perform that part of the game. Well, yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
I mean, that's the thing. Troy Franklin is 6'2, 180.
So basically, he's 6'2, but weighed what I weighed earlier
in the year, which if you've seen my body, you
understand why I'm kind of rolling my eyes a little bit.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
But could he not weigh an extra 15 pounds with
want to? Because that's a whole part of it, right?
You got to want to get down and dig guys
out and block them.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Well, I mean, I want to. think that I could
stop Derrick Henry. But that's not magically going to make
me put on 60 pounds and be like, that's what
I'm saying, man.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
I'm like, what are we doing here?
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Because, you know, I want to win the Mega Millions,
but my bank account balance is showing a significantly smaller
number than the Mega Millions jackpot.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
So that means that Jordan Humphrey, from an air quote
standpoint I'm giving you here, a blocking standpoint, being as
though he's a bigger body, you can possibly see him
maybe being up as the fifth receiver instead of Troy Franklin.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Yeah, I mean, little Jordan Humphrey is maybe an inch
taller than Troy Franklin, but he outweighs him by 45 pounds.
He's a 225 pound receiver. You bring more to the table, literally,
in terms of being able to block and do things there.
And I'm not saying little Jordan's the best blocker. I think,
you know, I had plenty of conversations about that. But
there's something to the physics of force equals mass times acceleration.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Yes, all of that is definitely true. But Troy Franklin
comes with a certain skill set. He is, I would say,
maybe a faster receiver than LeJuan Humphrey. And, oh, by
the way, he is good friends and teammates, former Oregon
teammates with Bo Nix, who just happens to be, have
(05:52):
a great relationship with now the signal caller in Davis Webb.
Could we see Bo Nix wave the flag, pound the table,
and advocate for his Former Oregon Duck receiver.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
I don't know, man. I mean, the way Troy was
dropping balls last year, I think I'd be banging the
table to get him out of here and pretend it
was you, not me.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
No. There's no way I don't think that the relationship
between Troy Franklin and Bo Nix will fall off that
far because Bo, listen, let me back up for a second.
For a quarterback, you want to make sure that your
quarterback is as comfortable as possible. True enough? Oh, yeah.
So if Troy Franklin gives you that and provides that,
(06:32):
why not put him in the game? Now, Bo may
have to tell him, look, man, we're going to run
the ball, but I need you to be better at
the point of attack as far as running the ball.
If you can't do that, I can't save you.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
I mean, Troy's got to demonstrate better reliability catching the
ball to be viable in any which way, shape, or form.
That was the problem. He had one of the worst
drop rates in the league last year. I mean, he
was just bad. And I hate saying that because he's
a much better receiver than I will ever be in
my wildest dream. But at the same time, relative to
(07:02):
what you drafted him for, it's not cutting the mustard.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
And so.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Yeah, it's one of those things where he's just got
to learn to be more reliable. And you notice, and
I've pointed out before, he struggles to catch over the shoulder,
but when he flashes the numbers back to the quarterback,
he's not bad. So, you know, maybe you just need
to use and put him in the slot because the
slot receiver in the Sean Payton offense often runs that
square in, right? So he's putting his numbers back toward
the quarterback. Maybe that's what we're going to see because
it's that outside Z that's normally going.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
So you want to move Troy Franklin into the slot position. See,
that's very difficult, even though for a guy... was going into,
I think, his third year because now you're talking about
side adjustments. Now we're talking about the aspect of blocking safeties,
blocking linebackers. And we're already talking about, I mean, he
doesn't have the body makeup or the willingness to go
(07:50):
in and do it. And you want to put him
in the slot?
Speaker 1 (07:51):
I mean, you know, you're going to be dropping back
600 times anyway. Like maybe you're tipping your hand a
little when he's in there that you're throwing the ball,
but you're throwing the ball anyway. So, you know, I
don't know. But I just like on the outside– was
not really... The way the Z receiver does things in
the Sean Payton offense doesn't really cater to Troy Franklin's
(08:11):
strengths to me.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Well, all of this sounds as though Troy Franklin could
find himself on the outs when it comes to being
a healthy scratch because... We know that the Broncos like
Pat Bryant, right? And the only thing that— I'm going
to correct you on that.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Love Pat Bryant.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Okay. Been saying they love Pat Bryant. So now that
throws a kind of wrench in the will for Troy Franklin,
if you're a Troy Franklin fan. And therefore, you're only
hoping that maybe, I don't know, there's an injury to
Marvin Mims as he has a bruised foot. Maybe he
doesn't play in the game against Kansas City, which would
(08:50):
allow Troy Franklin— another opportunity to show what he can
do because we hadn't really seen a lot of Troy
Franklin in the preseason. And depending on who you are
and how you weigh the preseason, some people just throw
it away. It doesn't really matter. But there are just
certain things you want to see of certain players in preseason,
but we were not able to see that from Troy Franklin,
which I think has hurt him somewhat as far as
(09:13):
his level of production.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Yeah, and I think that's the other part of it.
We'll get the pulse of that throughout the season, but... Yeah,
I mean, if you're keeping actives, it may come down
to a question of little Jordan versus Troy, and then
what is it that you need that day? If you're
up against the Chiefs, what are you doing? Do you
want the speed or do you want the size? If
you're up against the Jags in Week 2, do you
want the speed or do you want the size? And
(09:36):
I think part of that depends on the health of
Marvin Mims, too. Marvin's missed a little bit. Obviously, Marvin's
going to be active on game days. Marvin is the
NFL's all-time leading return average guy. with his next return,
he will qualify the minimum number of returns for the
all-time statistics. And as long as he does not lose
(09:57):
97 yards on that return, he will be the NFL's
all-time leader in punt return average.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
I doubt that something like that would actually happen.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Fumble the ball, then go recover. Nope, let it go.
I'm letting it go.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Let him score.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Stop.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
That's messing up my average.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Yes. Well, okay. So, bringing up Marvin Mims, what happens
if Marvin Mims isn't available due to injury when the Broncos...
Head to arrowhead to take on the division rival Chiefs.
What happens then?
Speaker 1 (10:24):
If he's not injured?
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Well, Marvin can't go.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Well, then you're activating Troy for the receiver. You're activating
Colby Katsas off the practice squad.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Now you're talking about some roster for Nagelman. Yes. You
got to move some pieces around. And once again, why
does the Broncos have two long snappers?
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Because one of them was Bonex's friend at Oregon.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
See? See? There it is. See? Bo Nix's friend at
Oregon that you're saying. Troy Franklin was Bo Nix's friend, too,
as well. So, hey, it's better to have friends than enemies, right?
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Maybe. Although, I think you get less friendly the more
you keep dropping passes from me. I'm just saying. You know,
as far as the rest of that goes, I mean, yeah.
I mean, what else are you going to, you know...
What else are you going to do? I don't think that...
To me, Lil Jordan Humphrey will probably get more activations
or would probably be the fifth guy more often than
Troy Franklin. Now, they don't have to activate either one
because they're on the active roster. But to me, Lil
(11:21):
Jordan's going to be the guy that's getting more snaps
than Troy Franklin at this point. I mean, you literally
spent all of that to replace Troy Franklin with Jalen Waddle.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Wait a minute. I thought the idea was... of bringing
Wadu in wasn't to replace Franklin, to add someone who
can add another layer to the offense.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
That's the nice way to put it.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
An explosive layer.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
That's the nice way to put it. That's what Troy
Franklin was supposed to be, right?
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Explosive?
Speaker 1 (11:47):
He's supposed to be faster?
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Well, yes.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Whose snaps was he taking? It's not Corlin Sutton's.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Well, wait, at one point, people were saying that Waddle
was brought here to take over Marvin Mims' position.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
I mean, he's kind of taken over both of them.
Maybe he's not taking the punt returns from Mims, but
he's kind of taken over Mims and Frank. Mims didn't
use that much.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
No, he didn't.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Waddle's going to be out there to replay.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Who was the guy that was out there to replay
last year? Troy Franklin.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Well, okay. Was that by default?
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Yeah, I mean, it was, but I'm just saying, you
paid all that to replace Troy Franklin.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
That is going to be interesting. So let's just put
ourselves in the mind of Troy Franklin. First, they bring
in Jalen Waddle. You're thinking, okay, well, he's coming from
Marvin Mims' job, and then you start to realize that, ooh,
maybe I'm the art man out, and I'm being pushed
to the fifth or sixth wide receiver. Then Marvin Mims
gets injured, and you're like, oh, the football gods have
(12:44):
blessed me. But wait a minute. There's Jordan Humphrey, and
he proceeds to be a better blocker than I am,
What is it that you are thinking or you're trying
to do in these next couple of weeks before the
team faces off against Kansas City that you think that
you can possibly change the mindset of the coaches?
Speaker 1 (13:02):
I don't know. Troy Franklin was in all 17 games
for the Broncos last year, though. He was the second
leading target guy. I mean, Cortland was the top target guy.
Troy Franklin was the second leading target guy last year.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Well, we know. Those targets are going elsewhere. Yes, those
targets are definitely going elsewhere. But the mindset, what are
you thinking? I mean, how are you mentally preparing yourself?
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Make the most of the opportunities I get. Put me in.
I got to break one. I got to house it.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Is it something where you figure that maybe Troy Franklin
can actually do in practice? Right? Because we know how
people look at practice.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
I don't think so. Because I think in practice, you know,
the coaches, they're like, oh, okay, he made a play.
This is what we want out of him the whole time.
But we already got Jalen Waddell here. You got to
do it in a game where the fans' eyes are
on you. You got media talking about it. Wait a minute.
Troy Franklin's balling out now.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
What do we do?
Speaker 1 (13:52):
You know, that kind of... You got to have that
groundswell of pressure behind you. Because I don't think at
this point, your resume... I don't think you're making plays
in practice enough.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
That's going to be tough because... Troy Franklin didn't get
a lot of reps in the preseason. He really put
up a lot of numbers. So if he is, right now,
looked as being the six-wide receiver, chances are he's not
going to get that many opportunities unless someone gets injured, right?
To really show what he can actually do. So he
now puts himself in... He's in a bad spot.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
He's in a real bad spot. We haven't seen a
fall of Troy this hard since there was a horse involved.
A fake horse.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Hector!
Speaker 1 (14:27):
I'm just saying, like, look... I don't think that there's
any way for him to do it because there's just
too much ahead of him. They love Pat Bryant, who's
going to eventually supplant Cortland Sutton. You've already got Cortland Sutton.
You've got Jalen Waddell. Marvin Mims is the, like I said,
just barring a ridiculous collapse that would be almost impossible
to achieve, will be the NFL's all-time leading punt return
(14:47):
average guy with his next punt return. What would you
say you do here?
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Well, now we're talking about the Broncos looking potentially. This
is all hypothetical. Troy Franklin as maybe a move guy.
And I don't mean a shift guy, an X guy,
you know, or Z guy. I'm talking about move as
far as move off the roster.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
And the trade.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Maybe you feature him in the first two games and
see what's out there in terms of... You know, hey,
you guys want this lightly used Troy Franklin?
Speaker 3 (15:20):
New York Jets?
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Talking to you, Darren Mooji?
Speaker 2 (15:23):
No. Wow. That would be bad for him to go
from Denver to the Jets.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
With Frank Reich and Geno Smith?
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Oh, boy.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Jeez. Talk about upset.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
I mean, you know, what else are you going to
do at that point, though? I mean, I don't even know.
Because there's just no spot for him to crack. He's
just a rotational guy here no matter what. Unless somebody
gets hurt. Unless we have just an injury to Jay Lomato,
who does get dinged up in games, but doesn't really
miss games. Just misses time in games. I mean, you know,
(15:59):
going to New York might be the best thing for him.
You know, they got Adonai Mitchell, Garrett Wilson, and Isaiah Williams,
and Tim Patrick. But they drafted Omar Cooper. But, you know,
they could use more bodies there.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Well, Miami, the Dolphins... yeah there.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
You go miami just needs anything they're they're begging they're
begging out there i can't still can't believe they traded
tutu out all the way that's their their receiving core
is hilariously thin um most of those guys most people
i think don't even know where they played.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
I guess it's safe to say that the dolphins are
already tanking.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Uh yeah i mean very much so i mean with
the malik willis thing jaylen tolbert caleb douglas and malik
washington are their starters that's i mean that's that's the
most laughably bad receiving core i think i've ever seen
um Maybe in the history of the NFL. I'm trying
to think of a worst receiving corner I've ever seen.
I'm struggling to come up with one.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Well, here's what we do know. We know that George
Payton has put guys in great positions to help their careers.
I mean, it would hurt Bo, but maybe you do
that if he can't break the, I guess, game day roster.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
I need to. Broncos country tonight. Back after this. Welcome
back to it. Broncos country tonight. Short show post to
see you buffs football edition. Benjamin Albright, Nick Ferguson here
with you. We're talking a little bit about Troy Franklin
in the last segment. A couple of things, news notes.
I want to get back to our interview with get
(17:18):
to our interview with Super Agent Peter Schaefer here in
just a minute. But some news and notes today. Justin Tucker,
the disgraced former Baltimore Ravens kicker back in the news.
Part of a group workout for the Jets today. yesterday
that included Michael Badgley and Josh Carty. The Jets, of course,
are looking for a kicker after Jason Sanders missed an
(17:39):
extra point and a 54-yard field goal attempt in the
preseason loss to the Giants, concluding a failed competition for
the job from camp. The Jets waive Sanders. They claim
Blake Grupe off waivers. Sanders is back with the team
on the practice squad, but obviously if you're missing kicks,
that's a bad sign. Tucker, of course, eight-time Pro Bowler,
(18:01):
five-time first-team All-Pro for the Ravens in 13 seasons. However,
the Ravens released him in 2025 after 16 women accused
him of sexual misconduct that he allegedly engaged in repeatedly
over the course of the years during massage therapy sessions.
He denied the allegations, but there's text message and all
that kind of stuff. It's pretty obvious. The Ravens cut him.
The NFL announced he was suspended for 10 games. He
(18:23):
was not kicked in an NFL game. The Saints and
Colts both reportedly worked him out over the summer but
didn't make either roster. You know, Tucker used to be
one of the most accurate, reliable kickers in the league.
Would you take a chance on Justin Tucker?
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Yeah, why not? The Jets find themselves in a very
difficult situation as far as the kicking is concerned. And
we don't even know how many games they're actually going
to win this year. So you want to arm yourself
as much as you can. And I know bringing in,
you know, Tucker is somewhat of a controversy to you.
type of thing based on the allegations. The league suspended
(18:58):
him for 10 games, but there was no legal action
that was taken against Tucker, right? Let's be honest about
the situation. Now, we can all have our personal thoughts and,
you know, the way that we want to look at him,
but no legal action. So why not bring a guy
in and see what he can, what he can do.
And if he can help you, Hey, allow him to
help you. He's already served his 10 game suspension. And Oh,
(19:21):
by the way, you look at Cleveland and what's what
happened with the Sean Watson situation. So beggars can't be choosers.
And now everyone wants to point the finger and things
like that. But I still go back to the fact
of no legal action was ever taken against Justin Tucker.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
That is true. Although there's some civil stuff out there. Um, Well,
the thing real quick, a Philadelphia man is arrested and
charged with multiple felonies after attempting to break into the
home of Eagles star Saquon Barkley. Jabeer Parker, who was 24,
was arrested Tuesday, facing charges for two break-ins and an
attempted third break-in, all in the same house. The first
two break-ins were successful. He broke into it on June 22nd,
(19:58):
stole $ 107, 000 worth of jewelry. A few weeks later, stole
$ 687, 000 more.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
Worth of jewelry.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
The third attempt said that he... Nobody was inside the
home when he was hurt, but the homeowners were awakened
by the suspicious sound. So I guess Barkley, the third time,
was staying there and heard about him. So if you're
(20:20):
a criminal, why would you go back the third time?
You got almost a million dollars worth of jewelry.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Well, they say that sometimes criminals return to the scene
of the crime. And when you've gone and broken into
someone's house, not once, but twice, and you've been successful...
You're like, hey, I like my odds.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Man, if you break into the same place three times,
I'm starting to think the homeowner's in collusion with you. Like,
not that I think that St. Croix and Barclay is
colluding for the insurance fraud. Because, I mean, at that point,
three times, the same place, get a bunch of jewelry. Like,
come on, man.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
I don't know if that is the case. But at
the same time, if someone breaks in your house the
first time, wouldn't you, like, do a better job on
your security? I'm just saying.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Yeah, I mean, yeah, you would think so. And apparently
no alarm was ever triggered. Barkley just woke up. They
heard suspicious sounds like him and him and his girl
or wife or whatever, like woke up and heard suspicious.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
That's how scary that is.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
I mean, I know how scared the other guy would
be when I walked down there with a gun.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
I'm just sad. Anyway, I don't know. I thought that
story was funny. Cause I'm like, how are you going
to rob a guy three times? Like, you know, like
you got.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
To know what's too good. I guess hanging fruit.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Yeah, maybe, I guess I, I, I thought it was
ridiculous anyway. Um, You and I had the chance to
sit down with super agent Peter Schaefer. Peter's, of course,
repped people in multiple different sports, repped all kinds of
Hall of Famers. You know, Barry Sanders, our good buddy
Steve Atwater, people all over the NFL. We had a
(21:51):
chance to sit down with him. And here's that interview
for you. Peter Schaefer. Peter, how are you doing this evening?
Speaker 3 (21:56):
I'm doing great. How about you guys?
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Doing pretty well. You've obviously represented people across many different leagues,
the PGA, the Major League Baseball, obviously the NFL. We
were talking, and we've been trying to get different perspectives, coaches,
front office, and especially the agent perspective, what it's like
on cut-down day for you and your guys.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Well, it's not cut-down day. It's cut-down week, really. Really,
because obviously what happens is we start with the last
exhibition game, and You're watching your guys. Are they playing
the first quarter, second quarter? Are they second safety? Are
they the fourth corner? Are they on special teams? So
(22:36):
all of a sudden we're looking at the roster gyrations.
And then all of a sudden when Saturday comes and
the players have to be cut by 4 o'clock Sunday,
which is 6 o'clock Eastern, next thing you know, you
don't want your phone to ring. And a player calls
up and says, hey, what's going on? You're like, no, no,
don't call. All you're doing is giving me a heart attack.
(22:58):
I said, I love you to death. I hope I
don't speak to you this weekend. And then, you know,
then all of a sudden four o'clock comes and you're like, wow,
that's pretty good. And then the players that do get cut,
the first thing the teams tell you is, well, either
we want him back on practice squad, we might want
him back on practice squad, or he's not in our
first iteration of our practice squad, which means they don't
(23:21):
want him back.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
So at that particular point, Peter, sitting with players, because
every player wants to make sure that they're on a roster,
whether it's an active roster or a practice squad. What
happens with those guys who find that difficulty and you
can't really get them a job maybe in the first
two weeks? What's kind of the mentality and the preparation
for that?
Speaker 3 (23:43):
That's a great question. They've all been so used to
being on a team and working out and being in college,
and nobody gets cut in college. Now all of a
sudden they're cut. You know, where do they go? Do
they go back to their parents' house? Do they go
back to their college town? You know, we tell them
go back to a place that they have a workout facility,
that they can stay lean and mean. And, you know,
(24:05):
whatever you're going to do all day, podcasts or, you know, work,
use your degree, you owe me three hours of working out.
Because don't call me and bitch about not having a
job and I get your workout and you're not ready
to go. But I also tell them this, Nick, and
you know, because you cheated the Turk for how many years?
And the Turk is the guy that stands by the
(24:27):
door and grabs you and brings you up to the
general manager's office. And you've got to remember that, first
of all, being in an NFL training camp, there's only
3,000 guys in the whole world. I mean, you're a
hell of a football player. They caught a lot of
good football players. And it doesn't mean you're a failure
in life or a failure in football. It's just you
didn't make the first iteration of the roster.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Right.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Talking with super agent Peter Schaefer. Peter, yeah, it's not
making the original. There's still, you mentioned, it's a week
of cut down, right? It's not the original or the
initial 53 might not be the final 53. How much
from your end as an agent, how much wheeling and
dealing is it going on, dialing up the phones, trying
to get into front offices and get your guy in
front of a new general manager?
Speaker 3 (25:11):
Well, there's a lot of it. So teams are calling,
would your guy come to our practice, Scott? If we
don't claim him, if we claim him, we'll take him.
if it's a veteran and all of a sudden when
veterans with, you know, more than three pension credit years
get cut on Sunday, they're free agents. They don't go
through waivers. All guys that are not vested go through waivers.
(25:32):
It means that they're not, you know, teams have the
right to claim them. So the veterans, if, you know,
if you've got a guy who's making $ 5 million, he
gets cut. Now all of a sudden he's a, shoot,
he's a free agent. And some teams will call up
and what are you looking for? And then now all
of a sudden you're negotiating a deal. Usually it's a,
some type of discount than what he was making. And
then you try to pick out where you want him
(25:53):
to go, where's the best chance for him to go.
The thing is, and Nick's much better at this than
I am, but you got to send a guy to
a place he can learn the system too. Because it's
not easy going in on Monday and trying to play
on Sunday in a brand new city, brand new system,
brand new facility, brand new technique.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Right, Nick? Yeah, it's tough, which now makes me want
to ask this question. When it comes to Broncos third
quarterback Sam Ellinger, because we were having a conversation before
you joined us about who should be QB2, but that's
for a different conversation. But if you were the agent
for Sam Ellinger, known as though he came, he stayed,
(26:31):
he could have went to Indy last year, and he
came back and he competed and he played his butt
off in the Minnesota game. What are you telling that
particular guy? Are you telling that client, hey, hang in there,
stay with that team? Or are you saying, hey, listen,
we have options elsewhere? What would you tell a guy
in that situation?
Speaker 3 (26:48):
Well, in that situation, so it used to be that
we went from cut day Saturday, practice squad Sunday, first
practice Monday, game Sunday. Sometimes game Thursday, game Sunday. This year,
we have the Labor Day sort of bye. Now, there
are two teams that are heading off to Australia Wednesday.
But the rosters really aren't finalized until a week from
(27:09):
Tuesday or this Tuesday at 4 o'clock. So a lot
of teams are keeping that extra quarterback. Pittsburgh's got four.
Cleveland's got four. Broncos don't normally keep three. But maybe
they're keeping three because someone's going to come up and
trade for City or whatever because teams aren't looking for
(27:29):
that backup quarterback. So I would be out there. Talking
to teams, you look at their roster and say, boy,
they really do need a two. And say, why don't
you give George Payne a call? And try to get
him traded to a team that he can be the
number two at. Now, he just might be the number
two here, in which case, Stiddy's the one that needs
to have his agent calling around.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Talking with Peter Schaefer, super agent, and, you know... I've
seen some of the guys that you've repped over the years,
you know, Jerome Bettis, Barry Sanders, you know, Joe Thomas.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
You just had one in studio for now.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
Yeah, Steve Atwater, yeah. You know, so many greats. As
you've dealt with front offices, the league over for several decades,
who do you say is the shrewdest negotiator you were
up against?
Speaker 3 (28:19):
Ah, this goes back, way back, George Young of the
New York Giants. So George... He built all the teams
with Parcells, and he was a GM through the 90s.
And George was a high school gym teacher in Baltimore.
And so everybody thought he was just doing big George.
But I'll tell you something. Every time he tried to
(28:40):
make a point with George, like I said, I'm negotiating
for Nick. And, you know, Nick's had 112 tackles. And
I'm like, well, he had 112 tackles. He goes, yeah,
but how many did he have in December, Peter? I'm like, what? Yeah, well, yeah.
You know, he had five picks. Yeah, but how many
did he drop and knock over?
Speaker 1 (28:57):
Oh, I love it.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
Right. And so every time you made a salient point
that you thought you were just going to, boom, you know,
be game, set, match, you know, like in tennis, boy,
he'd just take that ball and just whip it right
back at you. Like, wow. And just like that, he
was so prepared. Every time you made an argument... He
had two to knock you back on, you know, if
you have a running back. Yeah, but he had a
3.2 yard per carry in December, and that's when we
(29:22):
needed him. And, you know, he dropped 17 balls. We
couldn't use him in the past. And you're like, all right, George,
I quit. What do you want to do it for?
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Oh, that's good. That's very interesting. And I want to
ask this because there's a lot of negotiating back and forth.
As we look at the NFL and we look at
college football, and more importantly, with college football getting started,
all eyes are on Clemson and LSU, especially with Lane Kiffin.
(29:51):
And this whole concept of guys who may have very
limited pro experience, who signed NFL contracts, didn't make it
through camp, and going back to college. That's kind of
the biggest conversation. For you as a guy who represents pros,
I mean, what was your thought about the whole ruling
and this back and forth on whether those guys should
(30:11):
get that fifth year and be granted an opportunity to
go back and play college football?
Speaker 3 (30:17):
Well, so I'm the attorney on a couple of the
Colorado lawsuits. It's an interesting sort of dynamic. And the
biggest thing is the lack of leadership for the NCAA
team You know, we expect our leaders in our society
to keep us out of trouble, to keep society moving efficiently,
to make things flow properly. And they've just– just horrible
(30:38):
lack of leadership. You know, this 2022 class that's affected,
the high school class of 2022, they got hammered on
the front end because they walked into college with the
COVID classes. So they're playing as 18-year-olds against a bunch
of 24- and 25-year-olds. So first of all, they got
screwed on the front side. Now they get screwed on
the backside because they're going to let everybody have five years.
(31:00):
But they were worried that if the 2022 class got
five years, that all the incoming freshmen would be displaced.
So that's why the 2022 class got hosed. And, you know,
everybody goes, oh, we don't want pros coming back. But
the reality is, had they made the decision in January
and told people, hey, we're going five for five and
(31:21):
you 2022s can play the fifth year, a lot of
them wouldn't have gone pro. So, yeah, I get it.
They went pro and they came out of camp and
they got whatever released. But a lot of them wouldn't
have gone. All right? And so it's hard to really
blame them. You know, of course, Lane Kiffin, I mean,
(31:41):
he's going to look for every possible advantage he can find.
He's aggressive now in terms of winning. And he's fanatical
about it. So, yes, it doesn't make sense. And it's
really basketball, Nick, that's more of an issue because there
are a lot of You know, there's only 30 whatever
draft choices in the NBA that really make it. And
yet there's more basketball players making over half a million
(32:04):
dollars in college than football. Because you've got, you know,
140 Division I schools. Even the smaller conferences are paying
their star players a half a million dollars. So they
will make more money going back for a fifth year
than they would playing overseas in Spain or Israel or,
you know, wherever.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
Yeah, I think that's the big thing is some of
these guys are having to choose to go back for
the money, right?
Speaker 3 (32:34):
Well, right. So in college, I've got a player, I
won't tell you who, but he's a college player, and
he's a good player, and he's got a six-round draft
grade right now. Offense lineman. And, you know, if you
come out, he'll get a $ 200, 000 signing bonus, he'll make
the team, he'll make $ 800, 000, he'll make a million, but
he's going to make the team, et cetera. He'd go
(32:54):
back to his school... guaranteed $ 800, 000 to finish his college degree.
Know that as opposed to coming to the NFL and
being a 6th, 7th, 8th lineman, he's going to start
and get better, hone his craft. All that thing factors
into all this stuff. The money they're making, it's not
(33:19):
going to be life-changing because it's not going to be
the $ 10, $ 20, $ 30 million that the NFL's paying, but
it's It's a pretty good living for a college senior.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
Yeah, I'll say, especially when I was doing hot pots
of ramen, you know, back in the day for no money.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
I hate.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
Ramen! Hey, Peter, we really appreciate the time tonight and
giving our listeners a little inside information on, you know,
how the agent thing works and everything else. Really appreciate
it and hope to have you on again soon.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
Uh, anytime you guys want Nick, you guys, you two
do a great job. So it's fun to listen to
you at night when I'm driving around the city.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
Well, we appreciate it. Uh, very, very much. Peter Schaefer,
super agent, Peter Schaefer. That was our interview with super agent,
Peter Schaefer. Uh, you can always get that at Broncos
country tonight.com slash podcast, or wherever you get your podcast, Apple, iTunes, Spotify,
all that kind of stuff. Uh, appreciate you guys being
along for the ride on a short show on the, uh,
post CU buffs football men's edition. Um, Nick, we've got
(34:18):
preseason football coming up next week.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
You ready? Oh, yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
I am definitely ready. And starting on Wednesday, I think
that's when things kick off.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
Patriots, Seahawks on Wednesday. Rams, Niners on Thursday from Australia.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
I don't know how I feel about Wednesday's game. I
know we want to get the season started, but I'm
all about the Monday night football game.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
Kansas City, Denver.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
And Denver Broncos, yes. That's when the season is officially
kicked off for me.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
Yeah, we'll be able to break down all that stuff
next week. Looking forward to that. I appreciate you guys,
as always, being along for the ride. Broncos country tonight.
We'll be back tomorrow night. Follow the Rockies.
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