Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back, Dave Logan, Ryan Edwards, Orlando Franklin and studio
with us. We're on until six o'clock. We have things
off to Broncos Country tonight. Rockies are back in action
tomorrow nights we get back with the second half of
their season. Broncos right around the corner. Also, some really
cool things going on for the Broncos. We're talking about
them a little bit earlier, and a buddy mine pointed
this out on Twitter, and I guess I kind of
(00:20):
knew this, but I just didn't think about it. It's
been over a decade since Denver has returned a head
coaching and quarterback combos. Think about that, John Fox and
Peyton Manning back in twenty fourteen, was the last time
that you had a combo of the coach and the
quarterback returning for the second season. Wow, with any kind
(00:42):
of consistency, it's pretty remarkable. And we're talking about the
starting quarterback of the starting year. So because like Drew
Locke finished the last handful of games whatever, and then
he was the starter of the next year with Vic Fangio,
but he wasn't the starter at the beginning of that year, right,
So this is the starting quarterback, starting coach. Is the
first time since twenty fourteen that you've.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Had my last year, we're here with the Broncos. Yeah,
there you go.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Wow, it's pretty remarkable, and it I guess it's probably
not much of a surprise when you just sort of
think about kind of the futility of some of those seasons,
and I definitely don't want to relive all of them
right now, but it certainly points to why there's so
much optimism, because if you don't have that combination, that
combination right there, scratchuate almost everything else, it all matters.
(01:30):
But just for a moment, how do you even compete
in this league? Yea?
Speaker 3 (01:34):
It shows you how important the quarterback position is, right,
I mean when you just think about all the professional
sports and you think about a year and the year out,
the turnover or at the familiarity that you'll have with
your squad and now with the Broncos, just trying to
find that piece. People lose jobs for it every single week.
There's only thirty two jobs in the world right starting quarterbacks.
(01:58):
And yet every year we see a handful of guys
get drafted in the first round because teams are searching
for it, and when you find your quarterback, you have
them for a decade and a half.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
It's crazy, yep.
Speaker 5 (02:08):
I mean, it's it's the single hardest position to find,
and it's one that if you don't if you don't
get it right, it is really you might catch lightning
in a bottle. Once you might have that special season
and everything goes right and you find a way to
get in and maybe you win a playoff game, and
then there's danger in that scenario because that kind of season,
(02:31):
if you don't have your guy quarterback, is even though
it was magical, is virtually unsustainable. So that's that's why
these guys are making what they're making playing quarterback, because
they're really really hard to find.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
And I'd even go to the other side of that too,
like the pairing with the coach. I mean we've seen examples,
say for Trevor Lawrence down in Jacksonville. You know, they
drafted Trevor Lawrence first overall and he's supposed to be
generational and all those kinds of things. Well, they fire
his head coach after one year because Urban Meyern it
was an abject disaster.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Fired another coach in Doug Peterson.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
So they're on to the third coach with their generational quarterback,
and yet our expectation right now with Jacksonville Jaguars is
kind of wait and see. Right, they have their guy,
they're paying him to be the guy, but they're still
kind of this like, I don't know, and maybe Liam
cum can be the guy and it's a pairing for me.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
I think a lot of that is because of what
we see just in today's football world, right, I mean
when you look at college football and il guys are
jumping around for money, right, and so where you really
getting that great foundation? So you got to really like
it puts like a more of a stress on like
what Dave does and coach in high school football and
like the character of these guys and molding these guys
(03:42):
from like fourteen to eighteen, because now from eighteen to
twenty two, it's all about the money and it's all
about who's going to give me the biggest bag. But
now you get to the NFL and you're expected to
have a job and figure things out. And when you're
only allowed in the building for four hours, what are
you doing when nobody's watching? And it just puts so
much more on these young men, and you see guys
(04:05):
fizzle out. Jaden Daniels had the year that he had
last year because a guy like Cliff Kingsbury willing to
lean into his strength and saying, hey, you go, this
is year one. Let's win, Let's work with these things,
and let's now develop him into that pocket passer, which
I anticipate you're we're going to see a little bit
more of this year than what we saw last year.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
You think they're going to lean more into being a
pocket passer than you think it'll take away the legs.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
No, I don't think you take away the legs at all.
I think that's something that is a great thing. But
the hits in the NFL are bigger, right, So how
do we not protect him?
Speaker 2 (04:38):
And now we have a whole off.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Season where it's not coming from a college style playbook
to an NFL style playbook.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
We have a whole off.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Season now to say, these are the things that he
did really, really good. How do we build on these
things that he showed the time, and he showed that
he could do it from the pocket. How do we
build more of those things into the game plan?
Speaker 1 (04:57):
I always think that's such a I actually don't agree,
agree with you very much. I just think it's such
a difficult thing when you take a player that is
so good at that, like that facet of his.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Game, Jane Daniels, He's unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Like watching him run around last year and he seemed
to be very smart with it so well.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
I just Joe Burrow, remember, yeah, Cincinnati did with him.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Yeah, but he's not I mean, he has the mobility
he's but he's not Jaydene Daniels. It's like if all
of a sudden, we're going to tell Lamar Jackson, Hey,
you know what, it's great that you can run around,
You're amazing at it. We really need you to be
a good pocket passer, like that's that's where your wheelhouse
should be.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
But I don't think that that's what you're lying. I
think Jade Daniels has already showed that he could do
it from within the pocket. Yeah, I think that if
you could take five percent less of a risk of
what we've seen from your legs last year, wouldn't you
take that as a whole organization. Why don't you take
that as a whole team. If I'm the right tackle
for that team, I know I want him to run
(05:58):
five percent of this.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Is a selfish thing.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
No, I think it's for the organization and for everything.
I think it's a longeviardy thing because the NFL stands
for not forlong as one hundred percent issue rate.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
What do you think, Dave?
Speaker 5 (06:11):
I think Jayden Daniels will be challenged this year too.
I thought I thought he was very First of all,
he's a really good player. Second of all, I thought
the offense was set up for him to succeed. Lots
of screens, lots of creative ways to get the ball
out of his hands. You know, pretty good skill position players,
(06:33):
Terry McLaurin being one of those. The running backs pretty good.
They had a tight end who's a pretty good player.
I thought, you know, and I thought, as you said, Ryn,
I thought I thought he was smart in terms of
his running ability. He's He's a completely different player to
Lamar Jackson. I don't see any comparison at all. And
(06:54):
I would start with physically. You know, if they both
walked through this door, I think I think people would
be astounded at how big Lamar Jackson is. I mean,
Lamar Jackson wound up losing weight last year, right and
got down to about two ten because he wanted to
(07:15):
regain a little bit of his quickness and mobility. I mean,
Lamar Jackson is a world class athlete. Now Jayden Daniels
is a world class athlete too, but he's just smaller.
He's more diminutive in size. So I think what O
says is true. You know, the next step for him
is operating maybe a little bit more in the pocket
(07:38):
and a little bit less on even when you run boot,
you know, when you get him out, there's more of.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
A chance I think.
Speaker 5 (07:48):
I mean, he's gonna run if something's not open, So
every time he runs there's a chance that it's a
bad ending.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
She was sitting down, ye, but it was a good joke.
She was a good pull. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
And then again social media thought that ESPE would freak out,
but to Dave's points, said, hey, they're aware of all
the jokes. There's no way Disney and ESPN lets anybody
roll out there and just make stuff up.
Speaker 5 (08:17):
Not the fly, No, No, it was it was very scripted.
And again, I like Shane Gillis before watching him last night,
I thought he was put in a tough situation. A
couple of times. You're trying to make stuff, and he
alluded to it by saying, I didn't write it exactly.
I didn't write it. I didn't want to do it.
(08:40):
You know, he's trying to make make it funny. But
a couple of those were I mean, for the most part,
I didn't have any issues. A couple of them were
like cringe worthy, like I don't.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Know, Well, you get to an interesting stat on sacks
and how much they impact drives, but they're flashing on
the screen. Mike Williams announced his retirement wide receiver for
the Chargers.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
He of course, the last couple of years he played well.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Last year he played with the Pittsburgh and the New
York Jets, But prior to that he was a house
of horrors for the Broncos at wide receiver. But you know,
once again, it's like we talked about earlier with guys
having a difficult time staying healthy. I think he I
think he had two seasons out of ten that he
played full the full season. Otherwise he did not play
(09:26):
a full season.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
He got lucky.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
He's lucky, Yeah, just because he played ten stealing money,
No stealing money.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
I've never been shut down. I had hearn every single dollar. No,
I'm all jokes aside. I mean, health is a real issue.
And when you're Mike Williams was with a big wide receiver, Yes, sir,
he wasn't a small guy. You guys them to do
what those guys have to do and run the way
that they got to run each and every day. It's
only a matter of time before the body he starts deteriorating.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Six four and eighteen, former seventh overall pick in twenty
seventh team. So I don't know, man, I mean you
you remember calling the games, so when he was out there, I'm.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
You prayer for him.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Keenan Allen On the other side, they always it's interesting
where the Chargers are at now because he was he
just signed back with the Chargers. You thought that that
would be part of their group of receivers this year
that was already like Lad McConkie, Trey Harris, their second rounder,
and then just kind of a bunch of names. You
thought Mike Williams sort of solidify things. But this is
probably tough news for them.
Speaker 5 (10:26):
I think, yeah, I think they They obviously were hoping
that he'd come in and still still have a year
or two left.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
Oh, it's right.
Speaker 5 (10:34):
You know, in terms of his size six four two twenty, big,
big receiver.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
And I've been told that guys that size that have.
Speaker 5 (10:45):
To run like that on the outside and take shots,
probably their body tends to break down.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
You might know little something about that.
Speaker 5 (10:54):
Yeah, I mean you will. There's more body to hit.
Here's how you look at it, Lad McConkie. You say, man,
he's little and he's playing in the league, and Lamb.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
Mcconky's a really good player.
Speaker 5 (11:06):
But there's not a lot of there's not a lot
of hit zone, right, Lad McConkie squirts across the middle
when Mike Williams comes in there, you know, there's a
there's a lot of target that you can say hello to.
So I appreciate those type receivers and what they do.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Yeah, I just go back to like a guy like
TJ Ward, right, they played here for the Broncos, And
I look at the Gronk injury right where Gronk catches
the ball and gets over the and TJ goes low
on them. When you are a bigger body, like you
have to worry about like that big target and you
gotta you're trying to impact. But now what if somebody
(11:47):
goes down six inches like that's where those massive injuries
come from. And now on top of that, you're you're
running you know what, five miles a day in practice
as well.
Speaker 5 (11:58):
You know it sounds crazy, but I've been a fitted
from playing as long as I did in the era
that I did because guys didn't have to go low.
So guys, I mean guys would try to and guys
would would try to visit your family heritage by running
(12:19):
through your neck, but you took all your shots up top.
There's danger in that. But I didn't have a lot
of guys because they could hit a high that had
to go low and then suffer an injury like Gronk did.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Louren Nis recently one on thousand dollars listening to Kowa
this hour chants one thousand dollars coming up the next
five minutes thanks to Colorado Joint replacement Colorado Joints.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Donald oh Yeah, Jay Gillis yeh said.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Some of the jokes slated a little better than the others,
And that was another one from last night. Welcome back,
Dave Logan, Ryan Edwards, Orlando Franklin. We're on until six o'clock,
so This was a Sean Payton endorsed tweet last night
from a Warren Sharp talking about how sacks in the
course of drives impact the scoring rate. And before I
(13:14):
get to the ultimate stat one of the things I
want to establish in this segment here, as we have
a resident offensive lineman in studio, we have a coach
as well in studio.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
I want to once and for all.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Establish when a sack happens, who's to blame is that
the offensive line, is the quarterback? Is it the coaching
staff who's calling the plays? And how much of the blame,
like if we look at a pie chart should be dispersed. Okay,
because offensive line typically say, well, it's the quarterback's fault.
The quarterback will sell you. Hey, well, now if they're
(13:46):
a good quarterback, they'll actually say, yeah, it is my fault.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
Every play is different. I think it's a third you
split into.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
You're an offensive line and you're gonna say that, yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
Onder.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
I mean, I've been in games where you know, if
I know that it is a five step drop and
I'm looking at a defense, I said, I'm going I'm
going to attack him. I'm jump setting. This guy probably
shouldn't do that in that situation, I probably should be
given some ground in that situation. So if I get
beat inside or I don't get my hands on him,
now that's not me right. But there's also situations where
(14:20):
you see the quarterback hold onto the ball, or their
read is off, or they're a second late with their
red or with their eyes. And we definitely know that
every coach thinks that they are guru. So for me,
I think it's evenly dispersed.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
I think it depends. I think every play.
Speaker 5 (14:36):
Has its own little saga. You know, Now, if your
left tackle gets beat on a speed rush and just
as the quarterback, if it's a five step drop, hits
that fifth step that guy is we're forcing him to
step up and he's got him by the jersey, then
(14:58):
maybe maybe you let tackled, didn't pass set quickly enough.
Maybe he's late on the snap count. Maybe you've got
to change the snapcount, which could help the left tackle,
but that one would be more than a third on
the left tackle. The next time, maybe your quarterback comes
back and you know, doesn't like the.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
First read, second read.
Speaker 5 (15:17):
I mean, there's a time where you got to let
go of the ball right throw the tom Moore, one
of the great offensive coordinators in NFL history and still
coaching at age eighty.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
I think six one of his one of his favorite sayings.
Speaker 5 (15:37):
I mean coach Ben Roethlisberger, coach Peyton Manning, coach Terry
Bradshaw with the Steelers back in the seventies. This is
one of the elite, elite offensive minds our game has
ever had. You know, he would talk to quarterbacks about
one two, throw the ball away. Now you know, sometimes
(15:58):
you'll get to the third, but you you you've got
to teach that quarterback. Listen, We're we're on limited time
here right that clock is running, So you can't do
it to Tebow with the three sixties, the three sixteen?
Speaker 4 (16:10):
Why does behind you when this like, what where are
you going?
Speaker 3 (16:14):
You know?
Speaker 5 (16:15):
For every time you know that somebody like Tibau could
make magic, which you can do, which is part of
I think the Russell Wilson thing as well. He made
some magical plays in Seattle and made a couple made it,
you know, handful whatever here in Denver. But you you
can't sustain an offense with that kind of understanding in
(16:42):
terms of what the quarterback is going to do. Guys,
that are like him, look like, oh they they got
to know where that guy's going to be, and then
that guy's got to be there, so you know, then
they know, you know, do I jump set? Do?
Speaker 4 (16:56):
I mean?
Speaker 5 (16:57):
Okay, it's a five step drop, it's a pocket drop.
This is a design pocket roll, so it's you know,
changes the launch.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
Point, but it's it all coordinates together.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
So like Ryan Clayty right first round pick, Boise I
got here a couple of years after, and I remember
having a conversation with Ryan because of just how smooth
and all the accolades and all that. Like, so this
is like one of like the first conversations I'm having
with him, first two weeks in the building, and he says, yeah,
(17:27):
like I made the Pro Bowl because of Cuttler, Like
Jay bailed me out on about five sacks my rookie year.
Like if it was for him getting the ball out
on time and throwing the ball sometimes it was two
wide receivers or two a pass catchers. Sometimes he was
thrown it away in that situation. So that's why, like
when I look at it, it's like, okay, So there
(17:48):
can be a lot of blame placed on the offensive line.
There could be a lot of blame placed on the quarterback,
but sometimes coaches are just dumb coaches and dumb I mean,
you know, let's not put the tight end on von Miller, right,
you know, like, like what do you think in here?
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Order? And that's why I brought up coaching because oftentimes
I think we're watching the games, we think about it
in terms of the players on the field, and like
you talked about, hey, maybe not the best technique for
that offensive tackle, and me he could have done something different,
But also that edge rusher is one of the best
if he's a TJ.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Watt or something like that, right, I mean, that's what
it is.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Plus like if it's Russell Wilson scrambling around or Tim
Tebow scrambling around, you're like, Okay, well that guy just
took a sack because he held the ball for seven seconds.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Okay, Well that's on the quarterback.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
But then the design of the play and the design
of where who the blockers are and where the hot
read if there is even a hot read. Because part
of me thinking about this was Caleb Williams last year,
which took sixty eight sacks. Well, you know, Caleb did
hold the ball a long time. But how much of
that was design? How much of that was the coaching
staff not doing enough for him, whether it's the quarterback
(18:59):
or the offensive why.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
I mean, we all know and love Peyton right and
the things that he was able to do, you would
just question what he's getting ready to do, even though
you know that he was an amazing mind. Like I'm
in games and he's telling No Sean like, hey, it
takes two for you to be hot. But then he'll
(19:24):
be like, hey, I want you to free release now
or like and he's just dumping it to him immediately.
So like, if you have a quarterback that just understands
the game and knows what the defense is doing before
they do it. As a former offensive lineman, I mean,
life is just so easy. But then you have some
(19:45):
quarterbacks that you know. I loved Tim Tebow to death
and my rookie year it was t bau Mania and
it was magical. But what Chris Cooper did that year
was spectacular. He would break the huddle, tell me what
to do, tell t bo if you was good, and
then go block the three technique. It's amazing and did
(20:05):
that for ten weeks. Chris Cooper like that's crazy to me,
that's incredible.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Well, and I was looking at the sack numbers from
last year before I get to the stat and I
thought this was kind of interesting, So I mentioned Caleb
Williams the sixty eight as great as the season as
Jayden Daniels, he still took forty seven sacks. You know,
we laud the Broncos, and Bonis only took twenty four.
And it felt like that twenty four if he, if
Bonis would have taken forty seven, Broncos don't even make
(20:33):
the playoffs in my estimation, if you're taking the same
amount of sacks as Jaydon Daniels did, what it does
to every single drive or what it would have done
to the Broncos, who at times works on a razor's
edge on offense.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
I don't think they make the playoffs. What do you think?
Speaker 5 (20:51):
May yeah, maybe, I mean that's a lot of sacks.
It's one of the things that sixty most. Sean Payton
highlighted when he drafted Nicks. He right off the bat
was talking about, this guy is hard to sack. He's
still he's still talking about in this offseason after Bow's
first season, that this guy is hard to sack. So
(21:13):
there's an I just think there's a knack for quarterbacks,
even the guys that are trying to hang in there
and let that thing develop at the last minute, because
you're you're waiting for, you know, waiting for that receiver
to just show a glimmer that he's gonna uncover before
you launch it. But there's there's I think the great
quarterbacks have that clock in their mind and they know
(21:35):
when that thing, when that bell's about to hit, you know,
you know, you have to do something. You got to
get rid of the ball or decide to run it
and climb the pocket, and that can be dangerous. So
I think guys that are that are smart. And bo
is smart and he can scramble and extend.
Speaker 4 (21:54):
Plays a little bit.
Speaker 5 (21:55):
But I thought he was really good last year knowing
when hey, you know what, let's live to find another day,
throw that ball away second and ten.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
So this is the stat here for Warren Sharp. He
says how much do sacks matter? And I was like, well,
by Sean Payton probably already knows this stat. He says,
if you take no sacks on a drive, you have
a forty one percent score rate chance and a twenty
six percent touchdown rate. Okay, you take a sack, any
sack on the drive, it drops from forty one to
(22:26):
twenty three score rates and twenty six touchdown.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
To eight digits.
Speaker 5 (22:32):
If you take a sack on any particular drive, your
chance of scoring a touchdown on that drive is eight percent.
Speaker 4 (22:39):
That's right, not very good.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
But then you don't take a sack twenty six basically
one in four opportunity to score a touchdown.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
You look at sacks, and if you're in a second
and sixth situation and you take a sack and now
that pushes you back five yard and now it's third
and eleven, that just drastically changed everything for your whole
entire offense because as an offense, now all five guys
(23:10):
are getting out on routes. So what is the defense doing.
Are they blitzing? Are they bringing pressure? Are you hot?
Speaker 4 (23:16):
Now?
Speaker 3 (23:16):
So now you're forced into this reaction mode where now
you got to kind of take whatever your plan was
and however you were trying to attack this defense, you
have to throw it out the window now because now
it's like, how do we convert and what is this
defense going to throw at us in this situation and oh,
by the way, if we are on a backup offensive linement,
(23:38):
we can't really help anybody in this situation, Like everybody's
got to kind of blow up in order to try
to convert this third and eleven. So you know, that
number doesn't shock me at all.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
No, I mean, it doesn't surprise me in the least.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
And I as you're talking there, I was thinking about
all the times, you know, over the last decade or so,
when the Broncos would sort of start out games like
that where they take a sack on the very first drive.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
I mean, you work all week to get ready for the.
Speaker 5 (24:03):
Game, the third quarter in particular, or to start a
second and a half.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Yes, hey you did the you got lucky, whatever it was.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
You won the coin toss, you elected to receive the ball,
and you go three. Now because you took a sack
on that first drive, and just what a backbreaker it is.
And it's a backbreaker for that drive. And it's a
backbreaker for momentum, which is a real thing. I mean
you can feel it. You can feel momentum. You can't
quantify it all the time, but you can feel it.
You can know when it's happening. So absolutely, And so again,
(24:34):
you know, this is the thing where Sean Payton, as
he told us just a couple of years ago, we
do a great job scouting quarterbacks and we think other
people don't. He wanted a quarterback that didn't take a
lot of sacks, and of course Bonix was really good
at that in the college level, was able to translate
that to the pro level. That's got to be one
of those things that that sustains, in fact, maybe even
(24:56):
gets better.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
And I don't know how you can get better than
twenty fourth.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Best in the league last year as a starting quarterback
who played every single game.
Speaker 5 (25:02):
But it's got to be well, there's thirty two teams,
so you can you could be eight teams better in
terms of fewer sacks. I think again, I think the
running game helps that number. I think they'll be more
efficient with these backs.
Speaker 4 (25:17):
I mean, the.
Speaker 5 (25:18):
Offensive line got great marks last year in terms of
their run blocking, and I've said so many times I
think I think the backs, going back and looking at games,
the backs left some yards out there. I mean, you,
when you block it a certain way, you expect the
back every now and then the back if you're if
(25:39):
you're in an NFL back you've got to make an
unblocked guy miss, whether you run through an arm tackle,
whether you're shaking, and that just didn't happen enough.
Speaker 4 (25:52):
I think with the Backs last year, it just didn't.
So you got JK. Dobbins, you got R. J. Harvey.
Speaker 5 (25:58):
I think the running game will be more. For sure,
the tie end spot is going to be better. I
think the wide receiving position is above average, and so
there's no reason, in my book, there's no reason that
this offense should not be, you know, notches better in
virtually every meaningful offensive category this year than they were
(26:23):
last year.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
Most of the right ends on that poll question I
ran were about the run game. Almost everybody, universally, if
they disagree with the four options that I put up
there said the most critical thing for this season, in
my opinion, is getting a more efficient and effective run game.
Speaker 4 (26:38):
Ryan's huge pole.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
But at the same time, like we talk about twenty
four sacks like it's that's a bad number, Like I'd
take that any any year. Sure for the Broncos. Sure,
like you know, seventeen games. If you're telling me like
we're going to as a whole entire offense, we're going
to give up twenty four sacks. Sign me up every
single year for that, So you know, you look at
(27:02):
just how the Broncos have been able to improve. I
think the connection with the running backs that the Broncos
have and this offensive line and just another year together,
I think there will be a lot more in synct
and when you're more instinct, there's going to be a
lot more of those hidden yardage out there to go get,
like what Dave saying, And then sometimes you just got
(27:23):
to find two defenders and split too as a running
back and just say that's a pure heart and who
you are as a human being.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
So another year of Sean Payton and getting.
Speaker 3 (27:33):
After these guys because clearly, you know, some of these
guys fear Sean Payton and the person that he is
and and they want to do it right every single time.
I think that that could be good for certain players,
and certain players I think that could also be bad.
But I think Sean Payton is doing a heck of
(27:53):
a job of identifying what each and every individual needs.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
Like that's the difference between a great head to coach.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
By the way, there's one consistency point that I feel
like every former player that we've brought in here or
even current players, Dave, And that's a healthy fear of
your coach.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (28:15):
I think that phrase healthy fear, I think was coined
by some poor NFL player sitting in a bar in
an off season Friday afternoon on his third PBR.
Speaker 4 (28:30):
You know. I mean, it's not like I respect my coach.
I like him.
Speaker 5 (28:35):
I just there's a what would would you say, there's
a healthy fear, right, I mean, and that's so true,
that's so true, And a whole bunch of there's a
whole bunch of dudes that are grown men playing in
the NFL making a lot of money, that.
Speaker 4 (28:50):
Have a healthy fear of their head coach.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
Well, and I don't know, I mean as that as
a coach, is that something that?
Speaker 2 (28:58):
Is it just an accountability?
Speaker 1 (29:00):
Is that what that really ultimately is is like, Hey,
I'm accountable to the fact that I do not want
to let this guy down. I don't want to be
the reason why we as a team struggle or we
as a team mess up.
Speaker 4 (29:09):
I think it's that's part of it.
Speaker 5 (29:11):
Yeah, I think the other part of it is, Hey,
I'm not trying to get that guy pissed to me.
Speaker 4 (29:15):
Because you know, my.
Speaker 5 (29:18):
Stuff could get cleaned out of my locker like tomorrow,
so I'm trying to like, you know, there's guys that
won't even make contact eye contact with head coaches walking
down the you know you're not going to look into
the devil's eyes, right, So yeah, yeah, And I think
Sean has that. I think a handful I mean maybe
two handfuls of coaches in the NFL.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
It's different for each person, right, I mean, you hear
how Bill Belichick has ran his systems and his team
SA and hey, this person wanted more money, so we
just traded him to Cleveland, right Or But for me,
like playing under John FOXX, I didn't want to let
him down, like you took a chance on me, like
you were players coach, like you're the same person ever
every single day. I never thought that John was John
(30:03):
Fox was gonna yell at me and screw at me
or embarrass me.
Speaker 4 (30:06):
But I didn't.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
I never wanted to let him down, like, Hey, I
just love the way how he operated and how he
treated everybody on the football team. So I think it
could be a little bit of both, but it's usually
one or the other. When you look at a team
because of who the head coach is.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
You think this is the reason why Nathaniel hacket Field here, Dave,
somebody's got to win this game.
Speaker 4 (30:28):
Well, I don't know if.
Speaker 5 (30:31):
Yeah, I don't think there was a healthy fear from
players with Nathaniel Hackett. But I think there are some
coaches that maybe, you know, don't necessarily engender that kind
of feeling from their from their team, Like I mean,
Matt Lafleur, I don't know. I'm not sure. I've had
(30:53):
a couple of people that have played for Matt Lafleur
that love the guy, but I don't know that they
would say there's a healthy, healthy fear there. They've they've
seen him, they've seen it. Like like my first NFL
coach played head coach played for Vince Lombardi. It came
from the Green Bay Packers dynasty and was a great
Hall of Fame player, played offensive tackle Forrest Gregg.
Speaker 4 (31:17):
So he was and he was six y five.
Speaker 5 (31:19):
And at that point, like two hundred and sixty pounds,
big Texan bar tone voice.
Speaker 4 (31:24):
When he walked in. You know you you did.
Speaker 5 (31:28):
Not want to get on the wrong side of that
head coach. And I told the story he got fired
in my second year. Before he got fired, he's talking
to the team. We're sitting in a in a theater
theater setting.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
And.
Speaker 5 (31:42):
He stops, he's he's down. I'm at the top row
watching he walks. He stops talking completely, walks out the door.
So I'm sitting next to like the Paul Warfield and
Reggie Rucker and we're looking at each other like what's up?
Speaker 4 (31:57):
What are we doing?
Speaker 5 (31:58):
And the player personnel director ten seconds later literally came
flying through the door and rolled like head over ass
right on the stage where the coach was talking and
like gets up on one knee, then stands up, and
(32:21):
the head coach walks in and says, you want to
you want to hear what I say to my team?
Sit your ass right down there in the front row. So,
I mean, there's not a peep. We're all like petrified,
like holy what is going on? Next day reading the paper,
longtime Browns player personnel director Bob Nesswam fire or resigns,
(32:45):
resigns this post, and then the head coach got fired
later that year. Wow, So yeah, yeah, there are some
there are some healthy forward guys.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Is that a healthy fear? Is that a fear, fear
of like physical see.
Speaker 5 (32:59):
But the leak we talked about this, I don't KNOWFO
agrees the league. The league wants you to be paranoid.
The league wants you to be you know, I gotta
get back and feel I.
Speaker 4 (33:09):
Gotta do this.
Speaker 5 (33:09):
I gotta do that because they get they think they
get the best out of you, and in some cases
the right. So they don't care if we have a
healthy fear or unhealthy fear.
Speaker 3 (33:19):
Even when things don't make sense to you. I mean,
you're constantly thinking, like I played seven years in the league.
Every year I thought I was going to be replaced.
I've already told you, like I thought I was going
to be the first person in the NFL in the
history of the NFL that it was the second round
pick there and said, you know what that contract, like,
we want our money back because I'm going against von
Miller and Summerville every day and I'm wondering, like, how
(33:41):
the heck am I going to get this done? And
then obviously I just realized that they were really, really
great players. But you know, you're constantly looking at that.
I've my last year here with the Broncos in twenty fourteen,
I remember we worked out Richie incognito one week and
I was like, what the heck did I do wrong?
Speaker 4 (34:03):
Like it just for me.
Speaker 3 (34:04):
It was like Richie plays left guard, like they're trying
to place me.
Speaker 4 (34:08):
Like so now I'm.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
Stressed out, and at that point, like I gave it
up one sack and made that seamless transition, like I
was having a great year, but yet I still was.
There was so much anxiety, and I was stressed out
now because I just turned on my computer and saw
that somebody was working out stamping computer
Welcome back, Dave Logan, Ryan Edwards, Orlando Franklin and studio
with us. We're on until six o'clock. We have things
off to Broncos Country tonight. Rockies are back in action
tomorrow nights we get back with the second half of
their season. Broncos right around the corner. Also, some really
cool things going on for the Broncos. We're talking about
them a little bit earlier, and a buddy mine pointed
this out on Twitter, and I guess I kind of
(00:20):
knew this, but I just didn't think about it. It's
been over a decade since Denver has returned a head
coaching and quarterback combos. Think about that, John Fox and
Peyton Manning back in twenty fourteen, was the last time
that you had a combo of the coach and the
quarterback returning for the second season. Wow, with any kind
(00:42):
of consistency, it's pretty remarkable. And we're talking about the
starting quarterback of the starting year. So because like Drew
Locke finished the last handful of games whatever, and then
he was the starter of the next year with Vic Fangio,
but he wasn't the starter at the beginning of that year, right,
So this is the starting quarterback, starting coach. Is the
first time since twenty fourteen that you've.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Had my last year, we're here with the Broncos. Yeah,
there you go.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Wow, it's pretty remarkable, and it I guess it's probably
not much of a surprise when you just sort of
think about kind of the futility of some of those seasons,
and I definitely don't want to relive all of them
right now, but it certainly points to why there's so
much optimism, because if you don't have that combination, that
combination right there, scratchuate almost everything else, it all matters.
(01:30):
But just for a moment, how do you even compete
in this league? Yea?
Speaker 3 (01:34):
It shows you how important the quarterback position is, right,
I mean when you just think about all the professional
sports and you think about a year and the year out,
the turnover or at the familiarity that you'll have with
your squad and now with the Broncos, just trying to
find that piece. People lose jobs for it every single week.
There's only thirty two jobs in the world right starting quarterbacks.
(01:58):
And yet every year we see a handful of guys
get drafted in the first round because teams are searching
for it, and when you find your quarterback, you have
them for a decade and a half.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
It's crazy, yep.
Speaker 5 (02:08):
I mean, it's it's the single hardest position to find,
and it's one that if you don't if you don't
get it right, it is really you might catch lightning
in a bottle. Once you might have that special season
and everything goes right and you find a way to
get in and maybe you win a playoff game, and
then there's danger in that scenario because that kind of season,
(02:31):
if you don't have your guy quarterback, is even though
it was magical, is virtually unsustainable. So that's that's why
these guys are making what they're making playing quarterback, because
they're really really hard to find.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
And I'd even go to the other side of that too,
like the pairing with the coach. I mean we've seen examples,
say for Trevor Lawrence down in Jacksonville. You know, they
drafted Trevor Lawrence first overall and he's supposed to be
generational and all those kinds of things. Well, they fire
his head coach after one year because Urban Meyern it
was an abject disaster.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Fired another coach in Doug Peterson.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
So they're on to the third coach with their generational quarterback,
and yet our expectation right now with Jacksonville Jaguars is
kind of wait and see. Right, they have their guy,
they're paying him to be the guy, but they're still
kind of this like, I don't know, and maybe Liam
cum can be the guy and it's a pairing for me.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
I think a lot of that is because of what
we see just in today's football world, right, I mean
when you look at college football and il guys are
jumping around for money, right, and so where you really
getting that great foundation? So you got to really like
it puts like a more of a stress on like
what Dave does and coach in high school football and
like the character of these guys and molding these guys
(03:42):
from like fourteen to eighteen, because now from eighteen to
twenty two, it's all about the money and it's all
about who's going to give me the biggest bag. But
now you get to the NFL and you're expected to
have a job and figure things out. And when you're
only allowed in the building for four hours, what are
you doing when nobody's watching? And it just puts so
much more on these young men, and you see guys
(04:05):
fizzle out. Jaden Daniels had the year that he had
last year because a guy like Cliff Kingsbury willing to
lean into his strength and saying, hey, you go, this
is year one. Let's win, Let's work with these things,
and let's now develop him into that pocket passer, which
I anticipate you're we're going to see a little bit
more of this year than what we saw last year.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
You think they're going to lean more into being a
pocket passer than you think it'll take away the legs.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
No, I don't think you take away the legs at all.
I think that's something that is a great thing. But
the hits in the NFL are bigger, right, So how
do we not protect him?
Speaker 2 (04:38):
And now we have a whole off.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Season where it's not coming from a college style playbook
to an NFL style playbook.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
We have a whole off.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Season now to say, these are the things that he
did really, really good. How do we build on these
things that he showed the time, and he showed that
he could do it from the pocket. How do we
build more of those things into the game plan?
Speaker 1 (04:57):
I always think that's such a I actually don't agree,
agree with you very much. I just think it's such
a difficult thing when you take a player that is
so good at that, like that facet of his.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Game, Jane Daniels, He's unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Like watching him run around last year and he seemed
to be very smart with it so well.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
I just Joe Burrow, remember, yeah, Cincinnati did with him.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Yeah, but he's not I mean, he has the mobility
he's but he's not Jaydene Daniels. It's like if all
of a sudden, we're going to tell Lamar Jackson, Hey,
you know what, it's great that you can run around,
You're amazing at it. We really need you to be
a good pocket passer, like that's that's where your wheelhouse
should be.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
But I don't think that that's what you're lying. I
think Jade Daniels has already showed that he could do
it from within the pocket. Yeah, I think that if
you could take five percent less of a risk of
what we've seen from your legs last year, wouldn't you
take that as a whole organization. Why don't you take
that as a whole team. If I'm the right tackle
for that team, I know I want him to run
(05:58):
five percent of this.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Is a selfish thing.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
No, I think it's for the organization and for everything.
I think it's a longeviardy thing because the NFL stands
for not forlong as one hundred percent issue rate.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
What do you think, Dave?
Speaker 5 (06:11):
I think Jayden Daniels will be challenged this year too.
I thought I thought he was very First of all,
he's a really good player. Second of all, I thought
the offense was set up for him to succeed. Lots
of screens, lots of creative ways to get the ball
out of his hands. You know, pretty good skill position players,
(06:33):
Terry McLaurin being one of those. The running backs pretty good.
They had a tight end who's a pretty good player.
I thought, you know, and I thought, as you said, Ryn,
I thought I thought he was smart in terms of
his running ability. He's He's a completely different player to
Lamar Jackson. I don't see any comparison at all. And
(06:54):
I would start with physically. You know, if they both
walked through this door, I think I think people would
be astounded at how big Lamar Jackson is. I mean,
Lamar Jackson wound up losing weight last year, right and
got down to about two ten because he wanted to
(07:15):
regain a little bit of his quickness and mobility. I mean,
Lamar Jackson is a world class athlete. Now Jayden Daniels
is a world class athlete too, but he's just smaller.
He's more diminutive in size. So I think what O
says is true. You know, the next step for him
is operating maybe a little bit more in the pocket
(07:38):
and a little bit less on even when you run boot,
you know, when you get him out, there's more of.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
A chance I think.
Speaker 5 (07:48):
I mean, he's gonna run if something's not open, So
every time he runs there's a chance that it's a
bad ending.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
She was sitting down, ye, but it was a good joke.
She was a good pull. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
And then again social media thought that ESPE would freak out,
but to Dave's points, said, hey, they're aware of all
the jokes. There's no way Disney and ESPN lets anybody
roll out there and just make stuff up.
Speaker 5 (08:17):
Not the fly, No, No, it was it was very scripted.
And again, I like Shane Gillis before watching him last night,
I thought he was put in a tough situation. A
couple of times. You're trying to make stuff, and he
alluded to it by saying, I didn't write it exactly.
I didn't write it. I didn't want to do it.
(08:40):
You know, he's trying to make make it funny. But
a couple of those were I mean, for the most part,
I didn't have any issues. A couple of them were
like cringe worthy, like I don't.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Know, Well, you get to an interesting stat on sacks
and how much they impact drives, but they're flashing on
the screen. Mike Williams announced his retirement wide receiver for
the Chargers.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
He of course, the last couple of years he played well.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Last year he played with the Pittsburgh and the New
York Jets, But prior to that he was a house
of horrors for the Broncos at wide receiver. But you know,
once again, it's like we talked about earlier with guys
having a difficult time staying healthy. I think he I
think he had two seasons out of ten that he
played full the full season. Otherwise he did not play
(09:26):
a full season.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
He got lucky.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
He's lucky, Yeah, just because he played ten stealing money,
No stealing money.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
I've never been shut down. I had hearn every single dollar. No,
I'm all jokes aside. I mean, health is a real issue.
And when you're Mike Williams was with a big wide receiver, Yes, sir,
he wasn't a small guy. You guys them to do
what those guys have to do and run the way
that they got to run each and every day. It's
only a matter of time before the body he starts deteriorating.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Six four and eighteen, former seventh overall pick in twenty
seventh team. So I don't know, man, I mean you
you remember calling the games, so when he was out there, I'm.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
You prayer for him.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Keenan Allen On the other side, they always it's interesting
where the Chargers are at now because he was he
just signed back with the Chargers. You thought that that
would be part of their group of receivers this year
that was already like Lad McConkie, Trey Harris, their second rounder,
and then just kind of a bunch of names. You
thought Mike Williams sort of solidify things. But this is
probably tough news for them.
Speaker 5 (10:26):
I think, yeah, I think they They obviously were hoping
that he'd come in and still still have a year
or two left.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
Oh, it's right.
Speaker 5 (10:34):
You know, in terms of his size six four two twenty, big,
big receiver.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
And I've been told that guys that size that have.
Speaker 5 (10:45):
To run like that on the outside and take shots,
probably their body tends to break down.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
You might know little something about that.
Speaker 5 (10:54):
Yeah, I mean you will. There's more body to hit.
Here's how you look at it, Lad McConkie. You say, man,
he's little and he's playing in the league, and Lamb.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
Mcconky's a really good player.
Speaker 5 (11:06):
But there's not a lot of there's not a lot
of hit zone, right, Lad McConkie squirts across the middle
when Mike Williams comes in there, you know, there's a
there's a lot of target that you can say hello to.
So I appreciate those type receivers and what they do.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Yeah, I just go back to like a guy like
TJ Ward, right, they played here for the Broncos, And
I look at the Gronk injury right where Gronk catches
the ball and gets over the and TJ goes low
on them. When you are a bigger body, like you
have to worry about like that big target and you
gotta you're trying to impact. But now what if somebody
(11:47):
goes down six inches like that's where those massive injuries
come from. And now on top of that, you're you're
running you know what, five miles a day in practice
as well.
Speaker 5 (11:58):
You know it sounds crazy, but I've been a fitted
from playing as long as I did in the era
that I did because guys didn't have to go low.
So guys, I mean guys would try to and guys
would would try to visit your family heritage by running
(12:19):
through your neck, but you took all your shots up top.
There's danger in that. But I didn't have a lot
of guys because they could hit a high that had
to go low and then suffer an injury like Gronk did.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Louren Nis recently one on thousand dollars listening to Kowa
this hour chants one thousand dollars coming up the next
five minutes thanks to Colorado Joint replacement Colorado Joints.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Donald oh Yeah, Jay Gillis yeh said.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Some of the jokes slated a little better than the others,
And that was another one from last night. Welcome back,
Dave Logan, Ryan Edwards, Orlando Franklin. We're on until six o'clock,
so This was a Sean Payton endorsed tweet last night
from a Warren Sharp talking about how sacks in the
course of drives impact the scoring rate. And before I
(13:14):
get to the ultimate stat one of the things I
want to establish in this segment here, as we have
a resident offensive lineman in studio, we have a coach
as well in studio.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
I want to once and for all.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Establish when a sack happens, who's to blame is that
the offensive line, is the quarterback? Is it the coaching
staff who's calling the plays? And how much of the blame,
like if we look at a pie chart should be dispersed. Okay,
because offensive line typically say, well, it's the quarterback's fault.
The quarterback will sell you. Hey, well, now if they're
(13:46):
a good quarterback, they'll actually say, yeah, it is my fault.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
Every play is different. I think it's a third you
split into.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
You're an offensive line and you're gonna say that, yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
Onder.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
I mean, I've been in games where you know, if
I know that it is a five step drop and
I'm looking at a defense, I said, I'm going I'm
going to attack him. I'm jump setting. This guy probably
shouldn't do that in that situation, I probably should be
given some ground in that situation. So if I get
beat inside or I don't get my hands on him,
now that's not me right. But there's also situations where
(14:20):
you see the quarterback hold onto the ball, or their
read is off, or they're a second late with their
red or with their eyes. And we definitely know that
every coach thinks that they are guru. So for me,
I think it's evenly dispersed.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
I think it depends. I think every play.
Speaker 5 (14:36):
Has its own little saga. You know, Now, if your
left tackle gets beat on a speed rush and just
as the quarterback, if it's a five step drop, hits
that fifth step that guy is we're forcing him to
step up and he's got him by the jersey, then
(14:58):
maybe maybe you let tackled, didn't pass set quickly enough.
Maybe he's late on the snap count. Maybe you've got
to change the snapcount, which could help the left tackle,
but that one would be more than a third on
the left tackle. The next time, maybe your quarterback comes
back and you know, doesn't like the.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
First read, second read.
Speaker 5 (15:17):
I mean, there's a time where you got to let
go of the ball right throw the tom Moore, one
of the great offensive coordinators in NFL history and still
coaching at age eighty.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
I think six one of his one of his favorite sayings.
Speaker 5 (15:37):
I mean coach Ben Roethlisberger, coach Peyton Manning, coach Terry
Bradshaw with the Steelers back in the seventies. This is
one of the elite, elite offensive minds our game has
ever had. You know, he would talk to quarterbacks about
one two, throw the ball away. Now you know, sometimes
(15:58):
you'll get to the third, but you you you've got
to teach that quarterback. Listen, We're we're on limited time
here right that clock is running, So you can't do
it to Tebow with the three sixties, the three sixteen?
Speaker 4 (16:10):
Why does behind you when this like, what where are
you going?
Speaker 3 (16:14):
You know?
Speaker 5 (16:15):
For every time you know that somebody like Tibau could
make magic, which you can do, which is part of
I think the Russell Wilson thing as well. He made
some magical plays in Seattle and made a couple made it,
you know, handful whatever here in Denver. But you you
can't sustain an offense with that kind of understanding in
(16:42):
terms of what the quarterback is going to do. Guys,
that are like him, look like, oh they they got
to know where that guy's going to be, and then
that guy's got to be there, so you know, then
they know, you know, do I jump set? Do?
Speaker 4 (16:56):
I mean?
Speaker 5 (16:57):
Okay, it's a five step drop, it's a pocket drop.
This is a design pocket roll, so it's you know,
changes the launch.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
Point, but it's it all coordinates together.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
So like Ryan Clayty right first round pick, Boise I
got here a couple of years after, and I remember
having a conversation with Ryan because of just how smooth
and all the accolades and all that. Like, so this
is like one of like the first conversations I'm having
with him, first two weeks in the building, and he says, yeah,
(17:27):
like I made the Pro Bowl because of Cuttler, Like
Jay bailed me out on about five sacks my rookie year.
Like if it was for him getting the ball out
on time and throwing the ball sometimes it was two
wide receivers or two a pass catchers. Sometimes he was
thrown it away in that situation. So that's why, like
when I look at it, it's like, okay, So there
(17:48):
can be a lot of blame placed on the offensive line.
There could be a lot of blame placed on the quarterback,
but sometimes coaches are just dumb coaches and dumb I mean,
you know, let's not put the tight end on von Miller, right,
you know, like, like what do you think in here?
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Order? And that's why I brought up coaching because oftentimes
I think we're watching the games, we think about it
in terms of the players on the field, and like
you talked about, hey, maybe not the best technique for
that offensive tackle, and me he could have done something different,
But also that edge rusher is one of the best
if he's a TJ.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Watt or something like that, right, I mean, that's what
it is.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Plus like if it's Russell Wilson scrambling around or Tim
Tebow scrambling around, you're like, Okay, well that guy just
took a sack because he held the ball for seven seconds.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Okay, Well that's on the quarterback.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
But then the design of the play and the design
of where who the blockers are and where the hot
read if there is even a hot read. Because part
of me thinking about this was Caleb Williams last year,
which took sixty eight sacks. Well, you know, Caleb did
hold the ball a long time. But how much of
that was design? How much of that was the coaching
staff not doing enough for him, whether it's the quarterback
(18:59):
or the offensive why.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
I mean, we all know and love Peyton right and
the things that he was able to do, you would
just question what he's getting ready to do, even though
you know that he was an amazing mind. Like I'm
in games and he's telling No Sean like, hey, it
takes two for you to be hot. But then he'll
(19:24):
be like, hey, I want you to free release now
or like and he's just dumping it to him immediately.
So like, if you have a quarterback that just understands
the game and knows what the defense is doing before
they do it. As a former offensive lineman, I mean,
life is just so easy. But then you have some
(19:45):
quarterbacks that you know. I loved Tim Tebow to death
and my rookie year it was t bau Mania and
it was magical. But what Chris Cooper did that year
was spectacular. He would break the huddle, tell me what
to do, tell t bo if you was good, and
then go block the three technique. It's amazing and did
(20:05):
that for ten weeks. Chris Cooper like that's crazy to me,
that's incredible.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Well, and I was looking at the sack numbers from
last year before I get to the stat and I
thought this was kind of interesting, So I mentioned Caleb
Williams the sixty eight as great as the season as
Jayden Daniels, he still took forty seven sacks. You know,
we laud the Broncos, and Bonis only took twenty four.
And it felt like that twenty four if he, if
Bonis would have taken forty seven, Broncos don't even make
(20:33):
the playoffs in my estimation, if you're taking the same
amount of sacks as Jaydon Daniels did, what it does
to every single drive or what it would have done
to the Broncos, who at times works on a razor's
edge on offense.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
I don't think they make the playoffs. What do you think?
Speaker 5 (20:51):
May yeah, maybe, I mean that's a lot of sacks.
It's one of the things that sixty most. Sean Payton
highlighted when he drafted Nicks. He right off the bat
was talking about, this guy is hard to sack. He's
still he's still talking about in this offseason after Bow's
first season, that this guy is hard to sack. So
(21:13):
there's an I just think there's a knack for quarterbacks,
even the guys that are trying to hang in there
and let that thing develop at the last minute, because
you're you're waiting for, you know, waiting for that receiver
to just show a glimmer that he's gonna uncover before
you launch it. But there's there's I think the great
quarterbacks have that clock in their mind and they know
(21:35):
when that thing, when that bell's about to hit, you know,
you know, you have to do something. You got to
get rid of the ball or decide to run it
and climb the pocket, and that can be dangerous. So
I think guys that are that are smart. And bo
is smart and he can scramble and extend.
Speaker 4 (21:54):
Plays a little bit.
Speaker 5 (21:55):
But I thought he was really good last year knowing
when hey, you know what, let's live to find another day,
throw that ball away second and ten.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
So this is the stat here for Warren Sharp. He
says how much do sacks matter? And I was like, well,
by Sean Payton probably already knows this stat. He says,
if you take no sacks on a drive, you have
a forty one percent score rate chance and a twenty
six percent touchdown rate. Okay, you take a sack, any
sack on the drive, it drops from forty one to
(22:26):
twenty three score rates and twenty six touchdown.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
To eight digits.
Speaker 5 (22:32):
If you take a sack on any particular drive, your
chance of scoring a touchdown on that drive is eight percent.
Speaker 4 (22:39):
That's right, not very good.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
But then you don't take a sack twenty six basically
one in four opportunity to score a touchdown.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
You look at sacks, and if you're in a second
and sixth situation and you take a sack and now
that pushes you back five yard and now it's third
and eleven, that just drastically changed everything for your whole
entire offense because as an offense, now all five guys
(23:10):
are getting out on routes. So what is the defense doing.
Are they blitzing? Are they bringing pressure? Are you hot?
Speaker 4 (23:16):
Now?
Speaker 3 (23:16):
So now you're forced into this reaction mode where now
you got to kind of take whatever your plan was
and however you were trying to attack this defense, you
have to throw it out the window now because now
it's like, how do we convert and what is this
defense going to throw at us in this situation and oh,
by the way, if we are on a backup offensive linement,
(23:38):
we can't really help anybody in this situation, Like everybody's
got to kind of blow up in order to try
to convert this third and eleven. So you know, that
number doesn't shock me at all.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
No, I mean, it doesn't surprise me in the least.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
And I as you're talking there, I was thinking about
all the times, you know, over the last decade or so,
when the Broncos would sort of start out games like
that where they take a sack on the very first drive.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
I mean, you work all week to get ready for the.
Speaker 5 (24:03):
Game, the third quarter in particular, or to start a
second and a half.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Yes, hey you did the you got lucky, whatever it was.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
You won the coin toss, you elected to receive the ball,
and you go three. Now because you took a sack
on that first drive, and just what a backbreaker it is.
And it's a backbreaker for that drive. And it's a
backbreaker for momentum, which is a real thing. I mean
you can feel it. You can feel momentum. You can't
quantify it all the time, but you can feel it.
You can know when it's happening. So absolutely, And so again,
(24:34):
you know, this is the thing where Sean Payton, as
he told us just a couple of years ago, we
do a great job scouting quarterbacks and we think other
people don't. He wanted a quarterback that didn't take a
lot of sacks, and of course Bonix was really good
at that in the college level, was able to translate
that to the pro level. That's got to be one
of those things that that sustains, in fact, maybe even
(24:56):
gets better.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
And I don't know how you can get better than
twenty fourth.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Best in the league last year as a starting quarterback
who played every single game.
Speaker 5 (25:02):
But it's got to be well, there's thirty two teams,
so you can you could be eight teams better in
terms of fewer sacks. I think again, I think the
running game helps that number. I think they'll be more
efficient with these backs.
Speaker 4 (25:17):
I mean, the.
Speaker 5 (25:18):
Offensive line got great marks last year in terms of
their run blocking, and I've said so many times I
think I think the backs, going back and looking at games,
the backs left some yards out there. I mean, you,
when you block it a certain way, you expect the
back every now and then the back if you're if
(25:39):
you're in an NFL back you've got to make an
unblocked guy miss, whether you run through an arm tackle,
whether you're shaking, and that just didn't happen enough.
Speaker 4 (25:52):
I think with the Backs last year, it just didn't.
So you got JK. Dobbins, you got R. J. Harvey.
Speaker 5 (25:58):
I think the running game will be more. For sure,
the tie end spot is going to be better. I
think the wide receiving position is above average, and so
there's no reason, in my book, there's no reason that
this offense should not be, you know, notches better in
virtually every meaningful offensive category this year than they were
(26:23):
last year.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
Most of the right ends on that poll question I
ran were about the run game. Almost everybody, universally, if
they disagree with the four options that I put up
there said the most critical thing for this season, in
my opinion, is getting a more efficient and effective run game.
Speaker 4 (26:38):
Ryan's huge pole.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
But at the same time, like we talk about twenty
four sacks like it's that's a bad number, Like I'd
take that any any year. Sure for the Broncos. Sure,
like you know, seventeen games. If you're telling me like
we're going to as a whole entire offense, we're going
to give up twenty four sacks. Sign me up every
single year for that, So you know, you look at
(27:02):
just how the Broncos have been able to improve. I
think the connection with the running backs that the Broncos
have and this offensive line and just another year together,
I think there will be a lot more in synct
and when you're more instinct, there's going to be a
lot more of those hidden yardage out there to go get,
like what Dave saying, And then sometimes you just got
(27:23):
to find two defenders and split too as a running
back and just say that's a pure heart and who
you are as a human being.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
So another year of Sean Payton and getting.
Speaker 3 (27:33):
After these guys because clearly, you know, some of these
guys fear Sean Payton and the person that he is
and and they want to do it right every single time.
I think that that could be good for certain players,
and certain players I think that could also be bad.
But I think Sean Payton is doing a heck of
(27:53):
a job of identifying what each and every individual needs.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
Like that's the difference between a great head to coach.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
By the way, there's one consistency point that I feel
like every former player that we've brought in here or
even current players, Dave, And that's a healthy fear of
your coach.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (28:15):
I think that phrase healthy fear, I think was coined
by some poor NFL player sitting in a bar in
an off season Friday afternoon on his third PBR.
Speaker 4 (28:30):
You know. I mean, it's not like I respect my coach.
I like him.
Speaker 5 (28:35):
I just there's a what would would you say, there's
a healthy fear, right, I mean, and that's so true,
that's so true, And a whole bunch of there's a
whole bunch of dudes that are grown men playing in
the NFL making a lot of money, that.
Speaker 4 (28:50):
Have a healthy fear of their head coach.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
Well, and I don't know, I mean as that as
a coach, is that something that?
Speaker 2 (28:58):
Is it just an accountability?
Speaker 1 (29:00):
Is that what that really ultimately is is like, Hey,
I'm accountable to the fact that I do not want
to let this guy down. I don't want to be
the reason why we as a team struggle or we
as a team mess up.
Speaker 4 (29:09):
I think it's that's part of it.
Speaker 5 (29:11):
Yeah, I think the other part of it is, Hey,
I'm not trying to get that guy pissed to me.
Speaker 4 (29:15):
Because you know, my.
Speaker 5 (29:18):
Stuff could get cleaned out of my locker like tomorrow,
so I'm trying to like, you know, there's guys that
won't even make contact eye contact with head coaches walking
down the you know you're not going to look into
the devil's eyes, right, So yeah, yeah, And I think
Sean has that. I think a handful I mean maybe
two handfuls of coaches in the NFL.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
It's different for each person, right, I mean, you hear
how Bill Belichick has ran his systems and his team
SA and hey, this person wanted more money, so we
just traded him to Cleveland, right Or But for me,
like playing under John FOXX, I didn't want to let
him down, like you took a chance on me, like
you were players coach, like you're the same person ever
every single day. I never thought that John was John
(30:03):
Fox was gonna yell at me and screw at me
or embarrass me.
Speaker 4 (30:06):
But I didn't.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
I never wanted to let him down, like, Hey, I
just love the way how he operated and how he
treated everybody on the football team. So I think it
could be a little bit of both, but it's usually
one or the other. When you look at a team
because of who the head coach is.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
You think this is the reason why Nathaniel hacket Field here, Dave,
somebody's got to win this game.
Speaker 4 (30:28):
Well, I don't know if.
Speaker 5 (30:31):
Yeah, I don't think there was a healthy fear from
players with Nathaniel Hackett. But I think there are some
coaches that maybe, you know, don't necessarily engender that kind
of feeling from their from their team, Like I mean,
Matt Lafleur, I don't know. I'm not sure. I've had
(30:53):
a couple of people that have played for Matt Lafleur
that love the guy, but I don't know that they
would say there's a healthy, healthy fear there. They've they've
seen him, they've seen it. Like like my first NFL
coach played head coach played for Vince Lombardi. It came
from the Green Bay Packers dynasty and was a great
Hall of Fame player, played offensive tackle Forrest Gregg.
Speaker 4 (31:17):
So he was and he was six y five.
Speaker 5 (31:19):
And at that point, like two hundred and sixty pounds,
big Texan bar tone voice.
Speaker 4 (31:24):
When he walked in. You know you you did.
Speaker 5 (31:28):
Not want to get on the wrong side of that
head coach. And I told the story he got fired
in my second year. Before he got fired, he's talking
to the team. We're sitting in a in a theater
theater setting.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
And.
Speaker 5 (31:42):
He stops, he's he's down. I'm at the top row
watching he walks. He stops talking completely, walks out the door.
So I'm sitting next to like the Paul Warfield and
Reggie Rucker and we're looking at each other like what's up?
Speaker 4 (31:57):
What are we doing?
Speaker 5 (31:58):
And the player personnel director ten seconds later literally came
flying through the door and rolled like head over ass
right on the stage where the coach was talking and
like gets up on one knee, then stands up, and
(32:21):
the head coach walks in and says, you want to
you want to hear what I say to my team?
Sit your ass right down there in the front row. So,
I mean, there's not a peep. We're all like petrified,
like holy what is going on? Next day reading the paper,
longtime Browns player personnel director Bob Nesswam fire or resigns,
(32:45):
resigns this post, and then the head coach got fired
later that year. Wow, So yeah, yeah, there are some
there are some healthy forward guys.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Is that a healthy fear? Is that a fear, fear
of like physical see.
Speaker 5 (32:59):
But the leak we talked about this, I don't KNOWFO
agrees the league. The league wants you to be paranoid.
The league wants you to be you know, I gotta
get back and feel I.
Speaker 4 (33:09):
Gotta do this.
Speaker 5 (33:09):
I gotta do that because they get they think they
get the best out of you, and in some cases
the right. So they don't care if we have a
healthy fear or unhealthy fear.
Speaker 3 (33:19):
Even when things don't make sense to you. I mean,
you're constantly thinking, like I played seven years in the league.
Every year I thought I was going to be replaced.
I've already told you, like I thought I was going
to be the first person in the NFL in the
history of the NFL that it was the second round
pick there and said, you know what that contract, like,
we want our money back because I'm going against von
Miller and Summerville every day and I'm wondering, like, how
(33:41):
the heck am I going to get this done? And
then obviously I just realized that they were really, really
great players. But you know, you're constantly looking at that.
I've my last year here with the Broncos in twenty fourteen,
I remember we worked out Richie incognito one week and
I was like, what the heck did I do wrong?
Speaker 4 (34:03):
Like it just for me.
Speaker 3 (34:04):
It was like Richie plays left guard, like they're trying
to place me.
Speaker 4 (34:08):
Like so now I'm.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
Stressed out, and at that point, like I gave it
up one sack and made that seamless transition, like I
was having a great year, but yet I still was.
There was so much anxiety, and I was stressed out
now because I just turned on my computer and saw
that somebody was working out stamping computer
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