09-05-25 Hour 1 of Broncos Country Tonight with Zach Segars

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, Broncos Country, It's time for another late night post
Rockies edition of the show. Hosting for you guys tonight,
it is Zach Segers once again covering for the one
and only Benjamin Alright and Nick Ferguson. Getting ready for
Week two of college football action. Hoping my Colorado Buffaloes

(00:24):
can bounce back against the Delaware Blue Hens, and I
expect they will also excited for Week one of the
NFL Slay. You know, just had the kickoff game last night,
and you know, it's a surprisingly good game. I thought
the Eagles were going to roll. Cowboys put up a
pretty good fight. You know, you had the the Jalen Carter, theatrics,
a few other moments where things got a little intense.

(00:49):
I guess we're a couple couple other fights that broke
out in that game, and you know came down to
the wire bit of US newser after all the delays.
You know, the lightning delay was a bomber two. I
became a punt fest, like I said, after those delays.
But overall, you know, a pretty pretty good kickoff game.
Broncos Titans on Sunday, We'll get the Broncos season started tonight,

(01:12):
we got the Chiefs and Chargers wrapping things up, but
that Broncos game. I'm kind of glad the Broncos are
starting off with a team like the Titans in Week one,
because I feel like after the preseason there's an air
of panic or anxiety about the fan base, you know,
and I would just love to see the team roll

(01:33):
to a confident Week one win and everyone can just
you know, let out a nice big exhale and we
can all just chill a little bit, just take a breather.
I think that'll definitely have to be the focus of
today's show. First, though, I do want to talk about
some of the big Broncos news we had to break

(01:54):
this week because I haven't gotten a chance to react
to all of it, and that being, you know, the
big Let's start the biggest headline, the Nick Bonito contract extension.
It's a four year deal worth somewhere between one hundred
and six and one hundred and twenty million dollars depending
on how many incentives he hits. That comes out to

(02:16):
an average of, again depending on incentives, between twenty six
point five million a year and a max of thirty
million dollars a year. Now maybe at the start of
the offseason, this is about in line with where we
were talking. But back then the top of the edge
market was thirty five million. Right now it's forty seven million,

(02:40):
and you had three guys sign in the forty and
up range, and so it just seemed like naturally that
would bump up the whole edge room. You know, if,
as I think we talked about on the show last week,
if Nick Benito wanted to play hardball, wait, wait things
out play this season, if he even had a half
decent year ten SAC, year eleven SAC like that, that's

(03:02):
a better than half decent, but you know, looked still
like an iron player. He gets the franchise tag, that's
twenty eight million guaranteed, you know, and that would set
the floor for his negotiations, where now you are probably
talking about a thirty thirty five maybe thirty five to
forty million dollar a year player. So him signing for
a contract that, you know, at base value is just

(03:26):
twenty six and a half million seems like a pretty
nice steal. We're talking about a player going into the
fourth year of his career, already has been an All
Pro and he's not even signing near the top of
the market, right like Brian Burns Montest what comparable starts
their career, Maybe not as high high as they probably

(03:47):
established themselves a little earlier, but I think viewed as
similar level players to Benito when you know they signed
their respective contracts as you know to where Bonito is now.
And yet you know, you adjust those contracts for the

(04:08):
modern cap, you know, you factor in inflation. They come
in around thirty to thirty two million a year, so
the low end of that river Sean Gary right, he
comes out right to thirty million. He's kind of the
lower end of that bracket of players. That's going to
be the high end of the Nick Benito contract. And
as good as that sounds, it's even better than that.

(04:30):
You know, he right now he's signing, he's going to
be somewhere between the there around twelve thirteenth highest paid edge.
Even when you adjust for inflation, that probably is going
to drop a little over time, but probably continues to
hover around that that ten to fifteen range for the
lifetime of the deal. It's just another great signing by
George Payton and Sean Payton, and I just you know

(04:51):
what I'm gonna start blindly trusting them, which is generally
something I'm pretty strongly against. But man, I have been
several million dollars high, five ten million dollars high on
every single contract extension, major contract extension they've signed over
the last two seasons. I mean, Jonathan Cooper was cheaper

(05:14):
than I think most expected. Quinn Minors was cheaper than
most expected. Sir Tan was the highest bid corner of
the moment he signed that deal, it quickly got reset.
But the expectation was Cirtan would reset the market kind
of like Parsons just did for edge rushers, or you know,
like the Stingy eventually did for corners, and that really
didn't end up happening, like even Cirtan, you know, Sutton.

(05:37):
Of course, Zach Allen was maybe about market deal, but
I think even that was was fairly team friendly. At
this point, I just kind of assume if the Broncos
signed someone to a contract extension, it's going to be
a team friendly deal. Now, some of the fallout of
this move, I think one of the minimal down It

(06:00):
does seem like John Franklin Myers is probably playing his
last season in Denver. Now. The Denver Post is reporting
that a contract extension there looks unlikely, and that's no
surprise you the Broncos have invested so much in that
D line already. I think now the hope is just
can save you On Jones show you enough to where
and Juaza Rique and Jordan Jackson kind of that that

(06:21):
young depth group on the defensive line. Can those guys
show you enough that you don't feel like you have
to spend it first or a second round pick in
next year's draft trying to replace John Franklin Myers, where
maybe it's another save On Jones level investment or a
fifth round pick or something where you're maybe adding another
body to that room, keeping it deep, but it can

(06:42):
be a developmental piece instead of a guy you feel
has to contribute right away. And I think ultimately, unfortunately
for the Broncos, they're going to get to see a
lot of Jordan Jackson and Jasa Rique and save Ian
Jones over these coming weeks. And that's with the Malcolm

(07:06):
Roach injury. Malcolm Roach in practice yesterday suffered a grade
to calf strain. He's expected to miss somewhere between four
and eight weeks. You know, definitely some big games for
the Broncos early on this season, So that's going to
hurt no matter what. And I think he's a really
underrated part of that rotation, impactful pass rusher, I think,

(07:26):
much more than he gets credit for. And I think
you can at least argue he's the best run defender
in the Broncos front seven. Now, losing that piece is
going to hurt undeniably. You know, again, I think Broach
is one of the more important players in that front seven,
even if he's not a starter. And it's a big

(07:47):
ask for you know, the rookie Savion Jones or Jaserrique
or Jordan Jackson to replace him. With what we've seen
from that trio so far in the NFL, I think
there's reason for optimism, but none of those three have
have shown you enough to believe, you know, this is
a plug and play Malcolm Roach replacement. Now that said,

(08:09):
I think the Broncos defensive line is one of the
best in the league. You know, Zach Allen, John Franklin Myers,
DJ Jones. Not many teams have a top three that good.
So even if you know now the fourth man is
Savean Jones or you know, one of those other guys,
that's still probably one of the better top fours. And

(08:32):
that's not how the defensive line works. Of course we
know that, but that's still probably one of the better
top end defensive line rotations in the league. I think
the big concern row is Zach Allen had so much
put on him last year. He played the most snaps
per game of any defensive lineman in the league last year,

(08:56):
a lot of wear and tear on his body, and
he held up on He was totally healthy. I think
you worry about putting all that on him again. Right.
Why was Saquon Barkley not the consensus number one option
in fantasy this year? Because guys who have three hundred
and fifty touches don't often repeat that the next year.

(09:16):
It's hard to do that back to back seasons. Zach
Allen is at a similar position on the defensive line now. Unfortunately,
because of the roach injury, they're going to have to
continue lean on him hard, you know. I think DJ
Jones actually played us surprisingly low amount of snaps on
the defensive line for the Broncos last year. I think

(09:38):
he needs to see a much larger snap count. They're
going to have to lean on him much more. You know,
I think of Waza Rique if you wanted to go
with the unexpected name, who who needs to step up
the most in the wake of Roach being out of
the lineup. Jasa Rique with his size, offers something that
the Broncos don't have much of on their defensive line

(09:58):
and they have even less of it now without Malcolm
Roach and that size, and I think, you know, Osriquez
still raw, but it seems like this is maybe his
season to breakout. You know, he earned a roster spot.
The Broncos kind of over stuffed their defensive line room
to get him a roster spot. And you know, he's

(10:19):
still in a contract year if he wants to stick
around in Denver, now's his time to shine. With that
out of the way, I thought it'd be fun to
get on the record with some Broncos season long predictions. Here.
I did my Coach of the Year, you know, you know,
MVP Offensive Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the

(10:40):
Year stuff Wednesday night. If you missed that, check it
out on ka dot com or iHeartRadio app or wherever
you listen to podcasts. That'll be Wednesday's episode of Broncos
Country Tonight. But still I think, you know, I want
to get on the record here with not only what
I think what happened for the Broncos this year, but
give my super Bowl picks and and all that fun stuff.

(11:01):
And I think that's a nice way to close out
the segment here for the Broncos. You know what, let's
maybe close out with that super Bowl pick. I do
think the Broncos are going to take a big step
forward this year. I don't think they'll make it to
the super Bowl. I do think this is the year
that Patrick Mahomes misses the AFC Championship Game. It will
be the first time in his career he doesn't advance

(11:23):
that far. I just think that the rest of they
see so stacked and it's hard to keep up a
streak like that. A streak like that's not going to
last forever. It's eventually going to crumble. With how good
the Bills look this year, with how good the Ravens
look this year, I think this is a good year
for that to happen. I have Ravens over Bills. I

(11:43):
think the Bills will be the one seed. Their schedule
is pretty easy this year. I think the Ravens are
the best team in the AFC, though I have them
toppling the Bills making it to the Super Bowl Super
Bowl sixty in Santa Clara. On the NFC side of things,
I think we're going to see that Micah Parsons trade

(12:08):
pay major dividends for the Green Bay Packers, and not
only that, so their defense was borderline elite last year.
I think they've covered around ten to nine to eight,
somewhere in that range if you look at the advanced numbers,
and then their offense, you know, was streaky but peaked

(12:28):
really high. And I think that's kind of been the
Jordan Love story. A little streaky, but when he's been
on fire, he's produced at like a top five, top
six level. I wonder if Jordan Love is less streaky
than we think. Right. Two years ago was his first
time starting front and half of the year was rough,

(12:49):
and then second half of the year he was a
flame thrower. Last year, in the opening game down in Brazil,
that Friday night kickoff, he had I think he stepped
on the turf wered I forget the specifics, but injures
his MCL and that nagged him throughout the first I
believe their coach was saying he couldn't fully practice into

(13:11):
like week fourteen fifteen or something, so that nagged him
for almost the entire season, and down the stretch we
saw him heat up again and tear things up. What
if he was just it's not Toyotathon or whatever you
know the meme was last year. What if it's not
about Toyotathon that makes Jordan Love turn into one of

(13:31):
the better quarterbacks in the league. What if it was
just injury and lack of experience hampering that the last
two years, and if he gets more normal circumstances, maybe
he does produce at you know, I won't say an
elite level. I don't think he's in that group of four,
but you know, just outside of that, like, why couldn't
he have a Jade Daniels level season? What we just
saw from from Daniels last year, CJ strout a couple

(13:53):
of years ago. I think that's absolutely on the table
for Jordan Love. And if that happens, you've got Josh Jacobs,
who's one of the better running backs in the league.
Matthew Golden seems primed for a breakout campaign. All the
camper portz out of green Baar that he looks like
the true number one guy that Green Bay has been

(14:13):
looking for for a long time. And then the defense,
which again was also kind of a borderline unit. I
think you worry about the cornerback group, but you look
at the cat Since Michah Parsons has entered the league,
when he's on the field, the Cowboys have the best
defense in the league by EPA per play. With Micah

(14:34):
Parsons off the field, they have the second worst defense
by EPA per play. Right, that's some Nicola Jokic stuff.
And I think you add that to a Packers defense
that was already solid last year, you know, flawed, but
a good defense, and I think you're going to supercharge it.
And the Packers are I think they're too flawed to
be an elite defense, but I think they'll be just

(14:55):
outside that. I think we're talking about a top seven offense,
a top seven defense, And as we saw it last night,
I'll give you my other NFC championship team. I think
it'll be the Eagles, But as we saw last night,
they're a very flawed team. You know, I think it
looks like they maybe don't fully trust Jalen Hurtz Sakwon
Barkley didn't look quite the same. Kevin Bittulo doesn't quite

(15:17):
look like Kellen Moore in the OC role. Vig Fangeo's
defense struggled at least in the first half of that game.
The cornerback spot opposite Quinyon Mitchell looks like a real concern.
So I'm going with the Green Bay Packers. It's hard
to go back to back. I think the Packers' title
town makes it to the Super Bowl. They go to
Santa Clara, but I don't think they win it. I

(15:39):
think it's Lamar Jackson's time. I think this his Peyton
Manning in two thousand and six Super Bowl forty one.
It had been long overdue. Everyone knew he was one
of the best in the game. He had stacked up
a pile of MVPs, but he needed to prove it
in January, and he finally got it done. And if
you look at Lamar Jackson's playoff performances these last few years,

(16:00):
He's already playing at a pretty ridiculous level. Outside of
those two mistakes last year, and they're big mistakes, he's
been nails against the You know, two years ago, he
had a pretty solid playoff run. I even think so.
I think that narrative's a little overrated, and I think
the Ravens finally get it done this year. Coming up

(16:21):
in the next segment, I'll give you my prediction for
the Broncos final record and also break down the upcoming
Week one game against the Titans. All that coming up
next right here on Broncos Country tonight on KOA. Hello
Broncos Country, and welcome back to some more post Rockies

(16:46):
late night Broncos Country Tonight, and man, do we have
a lot to talk about college football. We're in the
thick of things. I mean now, we're in the thick
of the NFL season, even games kicking off yesterday and
then tonight that continued with the Chiefs and Chargers going
at it down in Brazil. I'd be annoyed if I

(17:06):
was a Chargers fan. Not only are you losing a
home game, but despite it being a quote unquote home game,
you've got a Chiefs end zone out there and a
Chargers end zone out there. As annoying as that is, though,
I think a team that a fan base rather that
should actually be troubled is the Chicago Bears, and that's
because of an article that came out today on Go

(17:29):
Long from well thought of sports journalists named Tye Dunn.
It's his blog where he has a bunch of long
form reporting stories, real sports journalism, and I think does
a lot of great work. You might recognize the name
of it. He's the guy who broke the Sean McDermott
story a few years back about his failings in Buffalo,

(17:53):
and you know the viral story that came out of
that was him using the citing the nine to eleven
hijackers as part of a motivational speech, which is one
can imagine, was not received well by a locker room

(18:14):
of football players in Western New York. Find Surprisingly, that
went over like a lead balloon. This latest story from
ty Don is also quite concerning, and it's not all
out yet. We're getting it in three installments. He just
released the first part today and even that one's pretty
long and will take some time to come through. But

(18:36):
there are some shocking revelations inside about Caleb Williams and
the Chicago Bears last season. Reading this article, it really
sounds like Caleb Williams was more of the problem than
the Bears coaching staff potentially, and maybe he isn't wired

(18:59):
the way to ultimately live up to the hype. To
quote ty Doun in this piece, he says this is
quote here, quote Williams was more source of turmoil than
victim end quote. And some of the stories in here
are wild. A story about interim coach Thomas Brown trying

(19:20):
to talk with Caleb Williams on the sideline and Caleb
Williams turns away and starts walking away from him, and
Thomas Brown's like, don't walk away from me when I'm
talking to you. Come back here, and Cably just saunters
off into the huddle and you know, doesn't address him. Yeah,
that's a red flag. But it's crazy here. Back in

(19:41):
the spring, right, I'll quote from the piece here. Quote
that spring, the Bears changed the snapcount to appease Williams.
Instead of using a combination of colors and numbers like
every other team in the NFL, the Bears reverted to
a ready set go straight out of JV football because
that's what the quarterback requested. Aside from the obvious on

(20:01):
field consequences defenders could tee off, the Bears were establishing
a troubling precedent and allowing a rookie to tell them
what to do. Veterans couldn't believe it. Are you blanking me?
One receiver asked. The coach also cites examples of him

(20:22):
looking at his wristband for the play call like it
was a foreign language, them having to remove huddling out
of the offense, and dumbing down the playbooks so he
could digest it. Williams, that is and I think when
you hear these stories, they also talk about a lack
of willingness to work. Quote. For all the talk about

(20:44):
wanting to be great, this new quarterback didn't seem to
have the desire. When he wasn't storming away from a coach,
he was telling veteran wide receivers how to run their
routes before taking a game rep himself. In the meeting room.
He barely said a word and didn't pay attention. Coaches
often caught Williams on the wrong page of the game
plan completely. He blew off film sessions and lifts. You know,

(21:07):
and these are minor things. We're not saying, oh he
didn't or the report isn't saying, oh he didn't come
in for an extra practice session at five am. You
know you're hearing reports about Jade Daniels is in the
facility at five am. The report isn't oh well, Caleb
Williams was lacking to do that, he was lacking the
bare minimum. I mean, you're in the meeting room altogether,
going like a like a lesson in school, and he's

(21:30):
not paying any attention. I mean, that's I hate to
say it, that's Paxton Lynch esque. And so you know,
I did not have a lot of concerns about Caleb
Williams after last season. I thought he was in a
rough position and I was kind of excited to see
what he could do this year in a more normal setting.

(21:50):
Right now, I'm gonna be watching those Bears games very closely. Now. BENJ.
Johnson seems like a strict coach, a hard coach maybe even,
and that seems to be what Caleb needs. So maybe
they're able to write the ship. But man, if it
looks anything like it did last year from Caleb, I
think this story kind of removes the benefit of the

(22:11):
doubt he was getting. With that out of the way, though,
let's talk about Caleb Williams. Peers are one of them
in bo Nix and the Denver Broncos getting ready to
kick off their season Sunday at two twenty five Mountain
Time against the Tennessee Titans, trying to bounce back after

(22:31):
drafting number one overall last year, hoping they found their
quarterback of the future in cam Ward. I think there's
a decent chance they have. I'm a pretty big cam
Ward fan. I liked him as a prospect. I think
he's gonna work out in the NFL, But man, I
don't think it's going to work out for him in
this first game. He's drawn about as rough a debut

(22:53):
as you possibly can. Vance Joseph and this Broncos defense
not only am Men's talent, but Vance Joseph a great
job in recent years of mixing up the third down
coverage calls. When he was hired by the Broncos, he
really leaned heavily into cover three, Cover one, and there's
still a lot of that. But if you look at
the overall splits, he's one of the more varied defensive

(23:15):
play callers in the game, which was not his rep
at all when the Broncos hired him. I think that
just means one. There's a large menu at Cheesecake Factory.
Menu for cam Ward to try to prepare for, and
then also just all the talent. You know. I think
the Titans have upgraded that offensive line, but the Broncos

(23:36):
pass rush and coverage I think is just still going
to be a little too much. And then the Broncos offense,
I think they'll have their way with the Titans defense,
though I do really like Titans defensive coordinator Denard Wilson.
It's a little quick overview, but let's get into what
to watch for and my keys for the game, and

(23:57):
then I'll give you a little prediction on what I
think actually happen. Starting with what to watch for here,
first thing I'm going to be curious to watch for
personally is R J. Harvey and JK. Dobbins. I think
one of the biggest, really the biggest outside of quarterback

(24:18):
swing factor, x factor, whatever you want to call it,
for the Broncos this season, not just the offense but
the Broncos in general. I think are those two running
backs JK. Dobbins and RJ. Harvey and what they're able
to provide. I guess JK. Dobbins kind of towards the
tail end of his career and R J. Harvey as
a rookie. You know, I think they should be an upgrade.

(24:38):
I'm with Julia McLoughlin and Javonte Williams offered last year.
You know, the depth chart in Jalil now being fourth
would I think further support that notion. But still we
have to see it, and I think another element I'm
curious about what does the split look like right now?
I think Dobbins should be a pretty clear one A.
And that's because we haven't seen r. J. Harvey pass

(25:00):
protect at all and he's going to have to prove
he can hold up there before he starts getting more
playing time. And that's the other big element of this,
of these two running backs Broncos debuts, I'm curious about,
does r J. Harvey pass protect at all? It seems
likely there'll be a rep out there. But if they
don't ask him to pass protect at all, that will

(25:21):
speak volumes in and of itself. But what does it
look like, you know, does he hold up well? Is
it shaky? Is it up and down? Is it unworkable?
Is do they not look at it at all and
just ask him, you know, if he's in there for
passing play to go out as a receiver. I think
he's a good pass catcher, but if he's not able

(25:42):
to pass protect or isn't trusted to pass protect, that's
going to eat into his playing time. And then even
to a lesser extent, how do Tyler Biday and Julia
McLoughlin fit into the mix? Are they total afterthoughts or
are they regular contributors? Second big thing I'm watching for,

(26:03):
and it's it's along similar lines here. What does the
wide receiver rotation look like? And what does the rotation
look like at that slot receiver position? Right? So for sorry,
who's like the number one target? I guess is what
I'm getting at with the rotation thing? Who are the
number two and number three targets? I think Evan Ingram

(26:23):
probably number two? The new's number three? Is it Mims?
Is it Franklin? You know, I think that's up for Gradu. Really,
that whole top four I'm curious to see. You know,
where does Franklin fit in? Where does Ingram fit in?
You know how much is Pat Brian and Trent Shirfield playing?
Where are they again? Kind of just afterthoughts? And then

(26:48):
the slot situation, how does that break down? Right? Evan
Ingram I think is going to play a lot out
of the slot this year. Marvin Mims did his best
work last year out of the slot. Pat Bryant projects
to do a lot of work in the slot. Troy
Franklin this preseason back and forth between playing outside and
playing in the slot. Trent Sherfield, right, everyone talks about

(27:09):
how he might be the little Jordan Humphrey replacement with
his blocking ability. Where does that guy line up in
the slot? You're typically only going to have one of
those guys out there or one, you know, slot for
player at a given time, unless you're really spread out,
which Sean Payton doesn't do a ton of. So with
that in mind, how do those limited snaps get you know,

(27:30):
broken down who gets what and who fills the void
outside opposite set? And again, it seems like Mims. Mims
was that guy all training camp, all preseason, at least
when the starters were playing. But that was also kind
of the plane last year, and then the regular season
came and it didn't quite work out as they intended.
Flipping over to the defensive side of the ball. Now,

(27:53):
I'm very curious to see what Nick Benito can offer
as a pass rusher you know, he's now one of
the highest paid edge rushers in the league with that big,
new shiny contract extension, and even if it was a
pretty team friendly deal, you know, it's I'm curious, can
he live up to now being that highly paid guy,

(28:15):
or you know, is this maybe something the Broncos regret
a year or two down the line. I don't think
it goes that way, but I'm curious to see what
Benito can prove and hopefully made me feel more confident
in that contract. And if he looks anything like he
did against the forty nine ers, that shouldn't be a problem.
And that wild performance against the forty nine ers he

(28:36):
played five pass rushing snaps, got a pressure four times,
including two sacks. I mean that performance is part of
the reason I'm so excited. Yes, that was against backups,
but even dominating backups to that extent is pretty ridiculous.
I cannot wait to see a can you replicate this

(28:57):
against actual NFL starties? Obviously not to that degree, but
can you be just a dominant, lights out pass rusher
like it felt like you were for the little glimpse
we saw you this preseason. I'm very excited for that
that's the last big thing I'm keying in on, circling
the last individual thing I guess i'd say I'm watching for,
but also the rest of the edgroom. I'll say Hugh

(29:19):
Robinson excited about him, Jonah Ellis excited about him. Not
sure if we'll get Dendrea Tieman. I think we will,
but either way there I mean, I'm just so excited
about the depth of this edgdroom. I want to see
how dominant they look against a group of Tennessee tackles
that's still kind of in flux. You know, they signed
Dan Moore, who's a fine starter but not a world
beater by any means, and J. C. Latham this is

(29:41):
going to be his first snapset left tackle in the NFL,
so you know you can exploit this group. And then
cam Ward I think he's an awesome talent, but he
does hold the ball a while, so the opportunities will
be there for this pass rush. Staying on the defense,
the first big key matchup, I'm curious about what does

(30:01):
the Broncos front seven look like, particular particularly their run
defense against a rebuilt Titans offensive line with great offensive
line coaching. Bill Callahan is their offensive line coach one
of the best in the league. And the Broncos are
without Malcolm Roach and they're without Drey Greenlow for this game,
and Singleton reportedly is going to be on a snap count.

(30:24):
That's a lot of run defending ability removed from the
front seven, you know, when you're replacing it with Justin
Sternaud and maybe Savean Jones or Jaso Rique. You know,
I think they're fine contributors, they're not on the level
of the guys they're replacing. It's a healthy downgrade. What
does the run defense look like without those guys, especially

(30:46):
with Tony Pollard looking like the best version of himself
and cam Ward can also threaten as a runner. So
that's going to make Tennessee's run defense or run game
that much harder to defend. The second key to the game,
bo Nick's knocking the rust off. You know, I don't
think he was bad in the preseason, but I do

(31:06):
think it's safe to say his performance was a little rusty.
Didn't look like the dialed in guy we saw down
the stretch last year. Is he ready to hit the
ground running or like Joe Burrow and some other quarterbacks,
does he maybe needs some time to settle in and
let the game slow down for him. You know, if
he needs an adjustment period, it might not lead to
a loss this week, but it could next week. The

(31:29):
last key I want to talk about today that I'm
going to be watching closely in this Broncos Titans game.
That the last key to victory as I see it,
And this one is not only a big question for
this week, it's a big question for the season. Does
the Broncos offensive line look like the borderline dominant if

(31:51):
not dominant offensive line we saw a year ago? Or
is it the shaky unit that really struggled with Saints
and forty nine preseason pass rushers. You know, they were
not good. The Broncos offensive line in the preseason was
not good in the run game, and they were not
good in pass protection after being I think pretty strong
in both areas just last year. You know where they rusty,

(32:15):
not engaged, you know, whatever you want to call it.
Was it just that or is this a cause for
greater concern? Is there maybe something seriously wrong here with
the offensive line, which you know is probably the found
that and Sean Payton call in the plays that's the
foundation for the Broncos success on that side of the ball.
You know, bon Nicks is still developing, the weapons are
still developing. The foundation for success there is you have

(32:39):
a great offensive line and you got a great offensive
coordinator calling the shots or offensive play caller. Suddenly, if
the line is even just mediocre, I think that throws
a lot into question. You know, in this Titans pass
rush is decent, but it's it's pretty underwhelming. I want
to see the Broncos offensive line hold up and hold
up pretty well well against that unit, because if you

(33:03):
can't block them, what are you going to do against
the Chiefs with Karl Loftis and Chris Jones? What are
you going to do against the Raiders with Max Crosby?
What are you going to do against the Bills and
their group of pass rushers? Against the Ravens and their
group of pass rushers, even if they don't have the
crazy aces, you know, they're not dramatically worse than Tennessee.

(33:23):
If you struggle with Tennessee, I think it's going to
be a fairly consistent trend all year. You know, it's
Week one, there's plenty of time to iron kinks out,
But man, you really hope your offense can take advantage
of this matchup. All right, let's close things out quick
here with my score prediction. I got the Broncos winning
this one twenty four to thirteen. I really think the

(33:46):
defense may slife incredibly hard for cam Ward. I think
there's probably some offensive rust, but ultimately they'll take advantage
of whatever opportunities the defense provides and they'll put up
enough to win pretty easily. All right, Coming up next,
talking about some Broncos news, Malcolm Roach injury, Nick Benito

(34:06):
contract extension, and a whole lot more. Coming up next
right here on Broncos Country tonight on KOA A fifty
AM ninety four one FM