09-17-24 Hour 1 of Broncos Country Tonight

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome into it, Broncos Country tonight, Benjamin Albright here with
you guys who have to bear with me. I'm a
little under the weather, so the voice is a little
bit shot. I appreciate, appreciate you guys sticking with me,
and I apologize again. You're gonna hear me clear my
throat a little bit more of than normal tonight, but
we'll make it work. Short show tonight, obviously post Rockies edition,

(00:20):
snooze and notes, a little housekeeping you guys. I definitely
want to stick around tomorrow and Thursday, full live show
six to nine. Myself, Nick Ferguson, Steve Attwater is gonna
join us. We're gonna have Jake Arians breaking down the bucks.
Ryan Michael is always going to join us. So lots
of good stuff the next couple nights with no Rockies
action going on, so that'd be a lot of fun. Sunday,

(00:41):
we got the Orange and Blue Brunch down there at
Scooters in Aurora. We've talked about that before. Obviously, I
gotta do the gambling and fantasy shows from seven to
nine at the iHeart Studio, but after that I'm gonna
head over to Scooters and Aurora and I'll be there
for the Orange and Blue Brunch and on through the
opening kickoff for the Broncos. So come on down and
see myself, Nick Ferguson. The fine folks at Don Julio

(01:03):
put that on and they got plenty of great prizes
things for you to get registered to win, including I
believe a pair of tickets to see the Chiefs in
Kansas City Broncos against the Chiefs in Kansas City, whole
vacation package deal. And they've got some freebies they giveaway.
They had some coolers and all kinds of stuff. Excuse
me that we were giving away last time. Lots of stuff,

(01:27):
lots of fun. Come on down, hang out, check us
out down there at Scooters in Aurora. Looking forward to
seeing you guys there on Sunday. Last night, I got
some feedback on the show last night. You guys thought
I was a little bit angry, and angry is probably
not the right word. Frustrated is probably the word, because
I do believe that the fan base deserves better than
what's going on this year. You know, I felt like

(01:50):
that there was a bit of a false perception in
terms of what the Broncos were going to be this year,
buoyed by the fact that we sort of game planned preseason.
You know, we had bon Nicks out there with the
starters and they were up against the threes for the
Colts and the Packers, and you know, it made it
look like this was going to be something that was

(02:10):
going to be explosive and fun what the fans have
been waiting for on offense since honestly since the wheels
fell off for Peyton Manning, and it has not been that.
In fact, it's been brutally bad on offense, and there
have been a lot of reasons for that. We'll delve
into some of that here in just a little bit.
One of the things that I would have said was,
I'm not angry. I'm just I'm hurting for you guys.

(02:32):
You know, like I'm a fan of the game of football, right,
I'm not necessarily a Broncos fan. I know the joke
about being a Chiefs fan because I grew up in
Kansas City, But I'm not necessarily a fan of any
one team. I obviously have my preferences in terms of
people I know around the league, and I'm rooting for them,
but and I'm rooting for the Broncos to succeed because
it makes this job a lot more fun when the

(02:52):
Broncos are good. You know, it makes this a lot
of this job a lot easier when they're good and
we're able to have some fun with that. But I'm
not necessarily a fan of any team, per se. I
don't live and die by the wins and the losses
and all that kind of stuff. I just love the
game of football, and I love the fact that I
get to continue to work in this industry long after

(03:13):
my body told me that I wasn't allowed to play
this great game anymore. And so, you know, that's the
thing for me. And I get frustrated when the product
on the field doesn't match the abilities of the players
and the coaches that are putting that product on the field.
And in this particular case, you've got a coach who's

(03:35):
been in the league a decade and a half. You've
got players who have won games before. I mean, we
saw how many games of Broncos won last year. They
came close to making the playoffs, they were in it
down to a stretch run and watching where this thing
is now, and I understood, I knew they were going
to be growing pains you know, I knew with a

(03:56):
rookie quarterback with bo Nix that were going to be
ish shoes in building this thing out, that it was
going to take time. With think we've gotten spoiled as
football fans with some of these quarterbacks that have come
in and been instantly successful, right, And so when you
have quarterbacks that take a little longer to get there,
it can be a frustrating experience because you're wondering why

(04:16):
this guy isn't that guy, you know, when it comes
to that kind of stuff. And I will say that
in bo Nix's case, some of that is an adjustment
from the college game to the pro game. And then
some of it, I think is he's just not been
put in the best position to succeed. When you look
at the Broncos and what we've done through two games,

(04:39):
if they line up under center, they're running the ball,
they line up in the gun, especially on they're throwing
the ball, and they're tipping their hand as to what
they're doing with some of these alignments and formations, uh,
which is which is bizarre because Sean Payton was a
guy who was maniacal about not having tendencies. You know,

(04:59):
back when he was in New Orleans. He was a
guy who was extremely concerned or worried about the fact
that you know, that he would get into a tendency
or any of that kind of stuff. So I, you know,
that's that frustrates me. Excuse me, that frustrates me seeing
that it frustrates me seeing that now that they're not

(05:24):
that the offense is so predictable, which it is, but
that it's predictable, and that there are ways that they
could make it more efficient, streamline it, and get some misdirection,
and they just choose not to. And the fact that
they've acknowledged some of these problems. You know, Sean Payton
and the press are sitting there talking about, yeah, we
probably have too many personnel groups because he has like
a million different personnel groups and they shuffle in and

(05:45):
out that guys can't get in a rhythm. Well, if
you're acknowledging that as the coach, then what are we
doing here? Right? Your job as an NFL head coach
is to put your players in the maximum position to succeed. Right.
It's your job to know the odds in any given situation.
And as we saw last night in the Eagles game,

(06:07):
there are coaches who can overthink it, do the wrong thing.
We saw Nick Sirianni go out there and dial up
that pass play on third and three that Saquon Barkley dropped,
and there are people out there telling me, hey, look,
Saquan should have executed, you should have caught the ball. Fair.
That is fair, But as a coach, you chose a
play with multiple failure points in it and an outcome

(06:30):
at that failure point that would put your team at
risk of losing a game in which you held the lead.
You had the ball, you're inside the red zone, and
they don't have any timeouts inside of two minutes. Run
the ball. Run the ball on third down, don't overthink it.
Don't outsmart anybody. Run the ball on third down. If
you want to throw it on fourth down, okay, because

(06:53):
the thing that mathematically it doesn't make sense to throw
the ball on third down, Right, if you've already decided
that you're going for the field goal, the maximum efficient
play that you could have done on third now would
have been to neil the football. It's the lowest risk play.
It maximizes getting rid of the clock. And if you
decided to go for the field goal. That's what you
should have done if you were going to go for

(07:14):
it on fourth down, and you should have already known
this before you dialed up the third down play. If
you're going to go for it on fourth down, the
clock stops on a possession shift anyway, so at that
point it would be like being up against the two
minute warning. And that's when you dial the pass play.
You line up like you're going for the toush push
and then you swing it out there to the flat
and you get the look. They got the look. They
wanted everything else and didn't execute. Fine, but it's irresponsible

(07:37):
to call that play at that point when you have
the opportunity to bleed the clock even more. Going back
to Sean Payton, though, it's frustrating to sort of see
that he's acknowledging some of these things but not fixing it.

(07:59):
It's frustrating that he can talk about the personnel group,
so he's identified that that's been a complaint before. It's
frustrating to see an offense that, because of those personnel
group changes, doesn't get into the huddle as quickly as
they could. Then you have verbose play calls that take
forever by the time you repeat that and a you know,

(08:20):
and an alternate play for the kill, and you get
out of the huddle. You're down to ten nine seconds.
Everybody's got to get lined up. You don't have time
for priestinget motion. Bonix doesn't have time to diagnose the defense.
And let's be honest, he doesn't have the experience that
Drew Brees had or the mind that Drew Brees had.
When Breeze was running this offense, Drew Brees was a
football savants. He was a genius, criminally underrated for how

(08:44):
good he was because he played in the era of
Peyton Manning and Tom Brady. And so you know, when
you have that, it covers up the flaws or the
weak links in your offense. Well, they don't have that anymore,
and so you have to make this easier on Bonix.
How do you do that? Well, instead of you know,
incredibly verbose play calls, we put those plays that we're

(09:06):
going to run this week on the on the risk band.
We call it numbering. We call it as quick as possible.
We quit shuffling personnel groups in and out on every
play and start using a per drive personnel groups. We
get him up to the line with greater than fifteen seconds,
so that even the coach can look at what the
defense is doing and be in the quarterbacks ear and

(09:27):
give him the opportunity to assist with trying to read
the defense. Because right now the game looks too fast
for bot X and it's not like the line isn't blocking.
He's got like the tenth most time in the league
to throw. You know, he's getting two point eight two
seconds per play over the course of two games to
throw like that's you know, if you're getting that kind

(09:50):
of time, you've got to be able to execute. And
so you know, there's a level of frustration when you
see things that could be correct, that are correct a
bull that are identified, that the coaching staff is aware of,
and we're still not doing. You have a rookie quarterback.
You have to make it as easy on him as possible.

(10:12):
You can't tip your hand with the run game and
then blame the running backs when everybody knows you're running
the ball, you're snapping the ball at one second left.
They get the greatest jump in the world and get
the key in on you, like you just like I
don't understand where the idea that this is on the
line or the running backs, or my favorite fad lately

(10:32):
where everybody talks about receiver separation, which is frustrating because
those numbers get skewed by being open on one play.
Those numbers get skewed by the route concepts that you're running.
If you're running a slant or a comeback, or you're
playing against the defensives in zone, there's not going to
be any separation. The guy's gonna be right there in

(10:55):
your hip. That's by design. There's some frustrations I have
with people pointing to things that aren't necessarily the problem.
The receivers are open. They're open at an NFL level.
You can look. You can get on the all twenty
two and you can see guys open on the play.
The problem is is that what's being dialed up right

(11:17):
now is just being camped on by defenses because we're
tipping our hand and they know what they're going to run,
and they know what bo can and can't do. Right now,
we saw the biggest gain of the season came on
a trick play because they didn't know what was coming.
And so I'm not saying that we need to run
on the wildcat run trick plays every play. But I
do believe that we need to shake ourselves out of
our tendencies. We can't run between the b gaps every

(11:40):
first down and expect there to be from under center
and expect there to be a different result. You know,
insanity's doing the same thing over and over again and
expecting a different result. So, if we're going to clean
this thing up, Sean Payton has got to do very
things on early downs in an effort to keep people
off balance. And oh, by the way, put your quarterback

(12:01):
in third and short type situations, second short situations where
you can take advantage of those. You know, if you
can do that kind of stuff, then you're going to
set him up for success. But right now, putting it
on his shoulders when he's not even capable of really
reading the defenses or even having appropriate time to begin
to try to do that, that presents a problem. So

(12:22):
and there are other things that we can do. You know,
one of the biggest gripes or complaints, you know that
I've had the lack of putting Marvin Mims on the field.
It is absolutely absurd. Marvin Mims got nine snaps nine
in the game against Pittsburgh. That's inexcusable the Broncos. If

(12:44):
we go back to the beginning of last season, the
Sean Payton are are the seven longest gains that the
Broncos have. Well, one of them was Josh Reynold's forty
nine yard catch on that trick play that we just
talked about. Four of the top seven longest play since
Sean Payton has been coaching the Broncos have been Marvin
Mims sixty yard catch, fifty three yard catch, forty eight

(13:06):
yard catch, forty seven yard catch, Brandon Johnson had that
won fifty yard catch that's the hail Mary from Russell
on the Washington game, and little Jordan Humphrey has the
other of the top seven, which was that fifty four
yard catch and run that he had last year. Mims
has fifty seven percent of the team's explosives on just

(13:26):
three point six percent of the team's touches. It is
inexcusable that the Denver Broncos don't have him out there
basically every play. It doesn't matter if he doesn't understand
the entire His speed and his athleticism out there changes
the way defenses cover you and gives you an ability
and a dynamic threat you don't have anywhere else. What

(13:49):
good is having this athleticism if we're not using it.
Troy Franklin got active and then got what twelve snaps
in that game, and not that I think that Troy
Franklin is the answer. He's got a lot to learn.
But having speed out there on the field does matter.
The size is handy in the red zone. The size
is handy if you're boxing out on routes. But the

(14:09):
quarterback doesn't have the placement yet to be able to
put those the ball in places he needs to put it.
So what do we do in that particular situation? Start
making it easier on the quarterback. How can you do that? Well,
what's the easiest pass to hit in the NFL? So
shallow cross right, So start running. So start running crossers.

(14:31):
If Troy Franklin and Marvin Mims they can run shallow crossers,
just have them run run shallow crosses. Run a rub
when one of them comes three, dump the ball in there.
Practice that all week. You can run that play three
or four times in a game. It's going to set
your offense up for better success. Find ways to get
the ball in the hands of your playmakers. Javonte Williams

(14:52):
can be a good running back, but he's not going
to be a good running back if we're lining up
under center, running between the b gaps from under center
on every first down and the defenses are tee and
off on him. Julia McLoughlin can be an explosive threat.
We've seen it before, So why don't we get creative
with that and start rutting some screens when we have
Sean Loves to spam the screen Peyton and then all
of a sudden we get away from that against a

(15:13):
man team like Pittsburgh, it doesn't make sense to me.
There are a lot of things that don't make sense
to me with some of these game plans, and I
think I'm hoping that what we found was a coaching
staff that started out smarting itself. I've seen them put
together intelligent game plans before. You can go back and
look at the Cleveland Browns game last year where they

(15:35):
ate up Jim Schwartz's defense by running the trap game.
We've seen it. We've seen them come up with game
plans that match the personnel they have and match the
defense that they're up against. So I don't understand why,
all of a sudden, it's so difficult to do with
a quarterback that you hand selected as your guy because

(15:55):
he believes he best fits your offense, and all of
a sudden, we're back to running sort of the same
things that we ran before with Russell Wilson, and we're
expecting a different result. Sean Payton was in his bag
in that, you know, in that in the in the
Colts in Green Bay game, we saw some RPO stuff.

(16:18):
Bo Nix has been the leading rusher for the Denver
Broncos in both games. That's that's inexcusable. But if he's
going to be that guy, well let's design some stuff
to take advantage of those legs and really put it
to opponents. If we're able to run the ball with
the quarterback, that's going to open things up for the
run game. Anyway, when we come back, we're going to

(16:41):
get into a few other observations I have and look
forward to the Tampa Bay Bucks game. You are listening
to Broncos Country Tonight right here on KAWA SAY fifty
ninety four one FM News Talk Sports. Welcome back to
Broncos Country Tonight. Benjamin Albright here with you. Apologize again
for my voice little under the weather and trying to

(17:01):
muddle through. So hope you guys muddle through with me.
I talked a lot in the last segment about how
the Broncos can improve and make things easier for Bonex
before the snap. And part of that is, you know,
is obviously getting those play colors in faster. Obviously, part

(17:21):
of it is making sure that you've got speed on
the field. Part of it and your playmakers on the field.
You know, part of it is not being predictable lining
up one way and doing something because we line up
that way to do it. There are multiple facets to this,
and I encourage you to go back and listen to that.

(17:41):
We try to touch on, touch on all of that.
One thing we didn't touch on that I haven't really
talked about Mike mcglinche gonna be out for a little while.
They dealing with an injury. The Broncos have been fairly
fortunate with injury luck over the first two weeks. We've
seen a lot of players go down with with injuries

(18:02):
that are going to keep them out for multiple weeks.
The team that we're playing this weekend, the Tambay Buccaneers
have had multiple defensive injuries. You look at a team
like the Rams, who's receiving cores getting incredibly thin at
this point because both Cup and the Coop are out.
You know, you can go down the list. They've got

(18:23):
a bunch offensive line problems too. You go down the list,
you can look at every team there's there's injury. The
Broncos have mostly staved off the injury concerns early, so
that's at least one positive. On the defensive side of
the ball, they've they've played pretty well top third of
the league and just about every measurement, and that's that
is I think a building block. If you've got a

(18:47):
good enough defense to carry you the offense, maybe you
can start to get some confidence in itself and move forward.
Based on some of these defensive plays that they've made
so far, things definitely be worse. You could be a team,
for instance, like Dallas that's struggling on defense. We saw
in Week one they played pretty well, but against New

(19:09):
Orleans Saints, who are absolutely surging, you know, that sort
of presented a problem. His first game is defensive coordinator.
Back in two thousand, Mike Zimmer gave up two hundred
and one rushing yards to Douce s Daley in the
Eagles way back in the day, Eagles beat the Cowboys

(19:32):
forty one to fourteen. It was a game known as
the pickle Juice Game after the Eagles used pickle juice
to stem cramping in the Texas heat, and Zimmer must
have been having flashbacks watching Alva Kamara a total one
hundred and eighty yards from scrimmage, including one hundred fifteen
rushing yards in the Saints forty four to nineteen win
on Sunday. New Orleans rush for one hundred and ninety

(19:53):
yards as a team and average five point eight from scrimmage.
Zimmer city talk to the defense for a while. They
watched film together. They talked about the things they need
to do better and the things he needs to do
better and just keep working at it. Then he referenced
that he said, my first game here is coordinator, was
a pickle juice game. I saw how to fix it
after that. If I don't fix those, I wouldn't be

(20:15):
standing here today. So Zimmer did take responsibility for the
Saints six consecutive touchdowns to open the game. Blame the scheme,
disagreed with Michael Parson's assessment that it was an effort issue, saying,
I don't know if that's the case. I think we
got lined up fine. We were trying to find a
way to move the front some they caught us a
couple of times when they were moving guys, So I've

(20:37):
just got to do a better job instead. I've watched
you guys for over three months now. I've never seen
us at one practice like that. I've never seen us
give up plays and a practice like that. These guys
typically they're on point and do everything the right way.
They play very hard, they like to compete, and again,
I didn't you allow them to use our strength, which
is being able to get him into some third down
and passing situations. So I've got to do a better

(20:58):
job of that. And all that to say a couple
of things tying it back to the Broncos won. It
could be a lot worse. You could have an abject
meltdown on defense and the way the Cowboys did, and
you know, and be getting blown out, which isn't the case.
But Mike Zimmer taking responsibility there, like specific responsibility and

(21:21):
pointing to how he needs to make some adjustments. Here's
where they caught us napping and that kind of stuff,
and we saw a little bit of that Sean Payton.
We've seen some of that from Sean Payton in the
past when we talked about not getting Marvin Mimmes involved
enough last year, and he said, well, Jerry Judy's been
in front of him on the death chart. So once
they moved Jerry Judy out, what's the excuse. And as
I talked about in the last segment, I mean, Marvin

(21:44):
Mims has four of the top seven explosive plays the
Broncos have had in the last you know, nineteen games.
You put him on the field and you've got a
chance at explosive plays, and for whatever reason, Sean Payton
is just refusing to put him out there. And I
don't know why Marvin Mims is in the doghouse. I
don't know why he's not a primary thought. You drafted

(22:09):
him early to be that guy. You you've had him
in the system now for over a year, and instead
of putting him out there and utilizing him, we're shelving
him to run guys out there. Like you know, with
all due respect little Jordan Humphrey and Josh Reynolds who

(22:29):
Reynolds has had an issue dropping the ball, though he
you know, he made a big play on the underthrown
trick play. Little Jordan Humphrey has had a couple of drops,
but you know, I mean, he's he's found a way
to be a big body out there. You've got to
find a way to get your playmakers on the field.
You've got to take responsibility for it, and you've just
got you've got to put yourself aside and put guys
like that out there and let them make plays. Speed kills.

(22:52):
In the NFL, you got a whole teams built on
the concept of speed. Look at the offense for the
Miami Dolphins. You get the entire offense is built on
the concept of having speed everywhere that you can't cover.
Kansas City did it for a while. They had to
retool a little bit, but you know it was it
was elite speed everywhere. San Francisco kind of uses some
of those precepts as well. Winning teams know that you've

(23:15):
got to have speed on the field. It's there's there's
no coaching that up. There's no there's no getting around it.
And yet, for whatever reason, the Denver Broncos just don't
want to put speed on the field. You had Troy
Franklin on their twelve plays, you got Marvin Mims on
their nine plays, Jillio McLoughlin getting out snow. Tyler Baty
had the one explosive run that you had, and then

(23:37):
you just never went back to him again. There are
things I don't understand with this, and I point to
the Dallas thing where they just they identify the problem
and they're they're trying to find ways to remedy that problem.
And so if you're you know, if you're struggling to
make big plays, well maybe maybe put the speed out

(23:57):
there and let them make big plays, because what you're
doing right now is working running out there with well,
we've got more sure handed guy. Whatever it is, whatever
the reason for having guys like Josh and Little Jordan
and Courtland out there, we've seen Courtland thrive in this
offense when he has a quarterback capable of getting him
the ball. We saw what he did last year with
Russell Wilson. Cortland was right for holding out this offseason,

(24:19):
you know why, because he knew he was staring down
the barrel of this this season going into a contract year.
Where he wasn't going to have the production to validate
getting the contract that he wanted because he had a
rookie quarterback thrown in the ball or in this case,
not thrown at the ball. So for me, there are
head scratchers before the snap for this offense. There are

(24:42):
head scratchers in terms of the personnel we're using or
not using. And I just don't understand why things that
seem obvious to the rest of us aren't the things
that seem it's clear as day arn't to this coaching staff.

(25:03):
And so I think that's one of the things that
they're going to have to sort of answer for as
we go forward. I got asked today, Excuse me. I
got asked today several times after the Patriots cut Jalen
Rager from the practice squad if the Broncos would be interested.
Gregor's a former first round draft big and his career

(25:23):
has just taken another hit getting cut from the Pats
practice squad today. Regor was a wide receiver from TCU.
Originally went to the Eagles with the twenty first overall
pick in the twenty twenty draft. After two disappointing years
in Philadelphia, used trade in Minnesota last one year there
and then was cut and signed by the Patriots. Last year,
Rigor caught seven passes, but he did show some big playability.

(25:46):
He averaged nineteen point seven yards per catch and returned
to kickoff for a touchdown. So it'll be interesting to
see if a team picks him up. The question was
whether or not he would be or Denver would be
interested in him, and well, normally I would say no,
the Broncos would not be interested. We've certainly seen them
go out an attempt to add speed in Caden Davis,

(26:09):
and I think Raager offers more than Davis does. Also,
there is a connection. You know, Monte Rager, who is
Jalen Rager's father played defensive tackle for the Broncos previously
as well, Not that that always means something, but certainly
having that tie there has shown to assist before. And

(26:33):
so my answer is, I don't know if they're actually
looking at Rager, but I wouldn't be opposed to them
trying to add his speed and seeing, if you know,
if that might help put some explosive playmaking on the field,
although would Sean Payton even use it, As we've already
noted with Marvin Mims, and Troy Franklin. One thing I

(26:55):
found was interesting a record that was set this past week.
The NFL set a record for field goals in one
week with seventy three, most field goals in a slate
of games for a week ever for the NFL. That
beat Week fifteen of the twenty sixteen season, which was

(27:17):
previously was sixty nine. Nice in terms of field goals.
The record almost fell last week when sixty eight field
goals were converted, and thus we have through the first
two weeks of the NFL season the most field goals
kicked ever. And it's interesting. Offenses have seemed to be

(27:39):
much more sluggish over the last two years as the
league really adopts a lot of what Vic Fangio runs.
And I'm not saying that Vic Fangio is single handedly
responsible for scoring being down across the NFL, but what
it is that he runs, and what a lot of
teams have converted two with too high and a lot

(28:02):
of too high looks and keeping the play in front
of you and bogging teams down in the red zone
for field goals, which we're seeing evidence of, is the
vogue way to play defense in the NFL right now,
and we've seen scoring fall off precipitously, the amount of
touchdowns being scored his way down, the amount of field
goals being kicked his way up. And there are those

(28:22):
on social media who muse whether or not Vic Fangio
has quote ruined football. Some tweets out there referring to
him turning everybody into Derek Carr, although Derek Carr seems
to be the one that's thriving right now in the NFL.
It's just fascinating to sort of see how things change,
and I wonder what the next offensive adjustment will be

(28:45):
to the current vogue coverages, but fascinating to see exactly
how much scoring has been down, and a large portion
of that is the field goals and the field goal
kicking going up is because teams get bogged down in
the red zone and take the three. So one of
those one of those things to keep your eye on
going forward. One thing we knew was coming, we know

(29:08):
him was coming, was the Dolphins placing head coach too
at Tegabayloa on the injury reserve. Dolphins head coach Mike
McDaniel had said Monday the team was still considering whether
they would place him on the ir but appears they've
reached their decision. Multiple reports today the Dolphins will place
two on the list as he continues to recover from
the concussion he suffered against the Bills last Thursday night.

(29:30):
That move would rule Taka by Law out for at
least the next four games, and then open up a
spot of the fifty three man roster for quarterback Tyler Huntley,
who they've brought in to back up Skyler Thompson. The
Dolphins are in Seattle this week, home against the Titans
next week in New England week five, and they traveled

(29:52):
to Indianapolis after a bye in week six. Skyler Thompson
is slated to take over as the starter in Tago
his absence. Neither McDaniel nor anyone else in the Dolphins
has talked about a timeline for him to return to action,
although there was a report that he plans to continue playing,
he's still seeking out additional medical advice. At this point

(30:15):
we're talking about Low has suffered through multiple concussions in
twenty twenty two. He met with specialists, and there will
likely to be more clarity about his next step over
the next couple of weeks as he takes that time
to recover, and I think that's a good thing for
him to do at this juncture. I mean, you'd have
to have some pretty clear evidence that this was going
to be a non factor going forward. And I don't

(30:36):
see how you're going to get that if you're too
if you're to his family, if you're the Miami dolt.
Like what doctor is signing off on him playing again?
You know what doctor is putting his name on. Well,
it's okay, Like it's I hate it for to a

(30:58):
I hate it for him, But the reality is the reality.
This guy gets concussions. He's had a lot of them,
and they continue to pile up. Every time you get
a concussion, it makes it easier to get another one.
So I don't know right now to it needs to
be focused on recovery and not on all these kinds
of questions. But us with a microphone, we have to

(31:20):
talk about this kind of stuff. And unfortunately that's the
nature of the beast when it comes to this kind
of stuff. And for me, I think it's frustrating because
I look at this and it feels like there's a
clear answer. You retire, you know, the money in your
contract is guaranteed. You can work out a settlement with

(31:41):
the Dolphins if you feel like it. But reality is reality.
You're unlikely to have full quality of life even at
the point you're just at now. Look at the players,
Look at the settlements that we had from the concussions
back in the day. Look at how bad Muhammad Ali

(32:03):
has it. You know, we have definitive evidence, there's clear,
definitive medical evidence at this point of what it is
that concussions do to people long term. And we've seen
perhaps the crassness of the jokes made about CTE, but

(32:28):
it's a very real and prevalent thing, and we've seen
what it's done to former players. You know, I hesitate
to invoke junior sale right now, but i mean, come on,
we have to be cognizant of this stuff. And I'm

(32:49):
worried that Tua, being the competitor that he is, is
going to want to get back out there. And I'm
hoping cooler heads prevail. If it's medically okay, and I'm
not a doctor and I'm not looking at his his medicals,
then okay. But I can't imagine a scenario in which
it would be most people listening to the sound of

(33:09):
my voice right now. Know would have had at least
one concussion before. Nick and Steve and I were talking
about it last week. What that's like. It's you know,
quality of life diminishes with each successive concussion, and so

(33:30):
with Tua, I am one worried about what his quality
of life is going forward. In AFC West News, the
Kansas City Chiefs but Isaiah Checko on the IR and

(33:50):
signed Kareem hunt He is backwards career, began signing the
practice squad. Hunt Is twenty nine, was ch third I
pick back in twenty seventeen, A league in rushing is
a rookie. Chiefs waved him after video surface to him
pushing a woman to the ground and kicking her. Spent
the last five season with the Browns, but put check

(34:10):
go out for an extended period of time. Look for
him to try to work back in the rotation with
Carson Steel and Samaj p Ryan, who the Broncos had
obviously last year. As far as fantasy advice, I would
say Carson Steel is probably the one you want in
the short term, and Kareem didn't look like he had
anything in the tank when I last saw him play

(34:31):
with the Browns, so I don't know how that's going
to work out. P Ryan is a guy who wears
down over time, but it's certainly had some viability as
a pass catcher. Appreciate you guys being along for the
ride and really putting up with my voice tonight as
I'm a little lone of the weather. Broncos Country Tonight
continues on Kowa