08-28-25 KOA Sports Hour 1 with Nate Jackson

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thursday, everybody, Brian Edwards, Nate Jackson will be along here
in just a matter of moments. Very excited to have him.
And Studio five six six nine zero is our KWA
Common Spirit Health text line if you want to interact
with our show. We have some significantly man's breaking news here.
Moments ago. Micah Parson has just got traded to the Packers.

(00:21):
This is like something that you say out loud, like
a week ago. He say, Now those the way the
Cowboys would entertain this, And here we are. He's gonna
sign a four year, one hundred and eighty eight million
dollar extension with one hundred and thirty six million guaranteed.
It's forty seven million a year. Nay, you should have

(00:44):
been a pass rusher. What's up? Man? Is it too
late for me? Well, I don't know these numbers. I
think you got a couple snaps in your ice.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
I got a couple, I do. That's a lot of money.
That's a lot of money.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
I am the trade package. So the numbers are what
they are, right, The contract is what it is, forty
seven million a year for Micah Parsons. But what did
they give up? What did the pack how many firsts
did they give up? It's truly remarkable. Good to see it.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
Man.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
How you been I've been good. How about you good?
You know it's so funny we do these shows and
you and I. I've been working in the market a
long time. I han't had to do a show with you,
which I'm very excited about. Today. You think, hey, you know,
we'll open the thing, we'll sort of talk about it,
has your life, kids and what are you doing? And
then seconds before it's like, well, gosh, you really can't

(01:34):
ignore this. Forty eight million is a lot. It's a
non quarterback for a non quarterback.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
Yeah, and they're paying Jordan Love quite a bit of money.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
They already paid the quarterback. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
And when he's over fifty million, that's right. So that's
one hundred million on two guys. You only have fifty
one more. But the salary cap keeps going up though,
I'm told, I am told these things.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
I am told that the salary cap maybe is aginary,
maybe it keeps going up in the end. Teams, because
we've been told for so many years, well, once you
pay the quarterback, you really can't afford too many other things.
You're you're gonna pay the quarterback. And it's like, well,
you paid Jordan Love last year and just very recently,
and here we are. You got this deal done. By

(02:18):
the way, Benjamin Albright, we're gonna have him on a
little later on. I planned it anyways, just to ask
him because there was a room from Leagus this afternoon
that Michael Parsons might be on the move. And up
to this point, I'll say that I consistently thought this
is a typical Jerry Jones thing. You're going to dominate
the news cycle and eventually, okay, then you'll pay him
more than you were supposed to pay him, like you

(02:39):
did with Dak, like you did with them, and like
you did with CD. But whoa, Yeah, Michael Parsons on
the move. I'm stunned by this, man, I am absolutely
stunned by this. And Ben, by the way, I think
he was pretty consistent saying he didn't think it was
going to happen. So, just like that ivon the Veley thing,
Ben's over two. Not a good look for our insider

(02:59):
wide write all Bright.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
Well, you never know, you know, the Devon Valley thing.
I actually wish you were still here. Oh, personally, I
know a lot of people are like, yes, the value
you get back for him a four and a seventh,
that's it is. But you know, to me, a bird
in the hand is worth two in the bush. And
he was a very consistent pass catcher for the Broncos

(03:21):
last year, very wide catch radius, very good ball control.
Bow Nick's like throwing to him. And this is a
rookie quarterback. So Baul is going to have to find
some new targets who he likes. And I know we
know he likes Troy Franklin. Pat Bryant looks pretty solid.
We haven't seen him in the real game yet. But
Devon Vley was a baller man and I really appreciated
his skill set.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
So you are George Payton in this moment, and you're
getting the call from multiple teams, yeah, Jacksonville as well
as in New Orleans Saints, and they're both saying willing to
give you all the way up of a fourth round
pick plus something, maybe a seventh, and you're like, you
know what, I'm good. I'd rather have my six wide receivers.

(04:01):
No flexibility on my roster, that's what you want, no flexibility.
They didn't bring in six in the fifty three they're
not six wide receivers currently on the roster.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
Well they didn't they can. How many defensive linemen did
they keep seven?

Speaker 1 (04:13):
Yeah, they wanted all of them.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
Well, the super Bowl window has opened right here we go?
Has that been said?

Speaker 1 (04:21):
Not today? No, not today, not in the midst of
the Michael Parson's thing. Sure in Green Bay, they're saying,
but go ahead. Well, Sean Payden has indicated that it
is open. Okay, He's been around six now seven teams
that he thought could win the Super Bowl. This is
the seventh Bo Nick's top five quarterback will be If

(04:42):
that's the case, per Sean, Yes, right, If that's the case,
and the windows open and Bo's on his rookie deal here,
which means you got extra money to spend on guys.
Why take away the guy who is your young quarterback's
favorite target besides Courtland Sutton, Cortland Sutton, who they're going
to be keying on Courtland Sutton, who's going to get

(05:04):
double coverage, Courtland Sutton, who's been pretty darn healthy, but
you never know. Why do we bring in Evan Ingram
for the joker? He wanted a jokers to Jack Nicholson.
There that was good. That was pretty good. They get
a load of me. That's good. You know a lot
of people go Heath. But we grew up with Jack
and Jack Jack is the o G. Yeah he was

(05:26):
the best he was.

Speaker 2 (05:28):
But you know, you know, Sean Payton likes having lots
of toys. He likes a lot of tools. He likes
a lot of different personnel groups. He likes a lot
of packages. He likes a lot of gadgets. He likes
to keep the defense guessing. And this is part of that.
I mean, you know, a tight end or running back
with uncommon receiving skills, that's what a joker is. And

(05:49):
Evan Ingram is that guy. You look at him out there,
he doesn't look like a tight end.

Speaker 1 (05:53):
No, he does not. In fact, he doesn't work out
with the tight ends ee of there. So it's a
remarkable thing to notice when you got to go to camp.
So I'm not even saying anything that the Broncos would
not like me to say. You go to camp and
you see Evan Ingram working out with the wide receivers,
not with the tight ends. Yep, did you get to
that benefit when you were here?

Speaker 2 (06:10):
I did not, although I would have appreciated it because
I actually made that transition from wide receiver to tight
end after year two, and it was it was a doozy,
I believe it. I didn't I didn't sign a contract
like Evan Ingram did, so I had to just go
out and play special teams and figure out.

Speaker 1 (06:27):
How to block. And it was.

Speaker 2 (06:28):
It was brutal because you know, when you have receiver
skills it and you're in the slot or you're out
wide and you are asked to block, it's a much
different task than putting your hand in the dirt, and
you know, trying to move a dude who's a lot bigger,
a lot stronger, and has been doing this his whole life.

Speaker 1 (06:45):
I got my butt kicked every day. It was brutal.

Speaker 2 (06:48):
I walk out on the grass of practice and it
was just it was just a sinking feeling because I
knew I was about to get humiliated in front of
all my friends. And then to make matters worse than
you got to go inside and watch it on film. Yes,
and you remember which play you really got messed up
on course, and so when you're watching it and it's
coming up, and it's coming up, you start your heart

(07:09):
starts beating fast, and you hope that your coach has
mercy on you. He doesn't do because he wants to
make an example of you, yes, and let everyone else
know what happens when.

Speaker 1 (07:19):
You screw up.

Speaker 2 (07:20):
So those were hard days, but you learn to have
thick skin, you learn to take criticism not take it personally,
and you get better really fast because you have no choice,
have no choice, and so you work on your weaknesses.
You turn them into strengths or at least non weaknesses,
and then your strengths remain strengths. And that's what really
every football team needs is players who work on their
weaknesses and don't just rely on their strengths. And so

(07:44):
when that relates to having Ingram, I think he's got
to continue to working on his blocket because it can't
be every time everyone Ingram walks on the field.

Speaker 1 (07:52):
That you know it's a pass. No, of course, not right.
And he said somewhere in the midst of training camp
that he prides himself on his blocking, willingness to block.
He's not Julius Thomas. He didn't say these things, but
he didn't say, you know, hey, I don't really care
about it. My name is Jimmy Graham or I don't
really care about it. I'm Julius Thomas, and I expect
to be one of the highest paid tight ends in

(08:13):
the least Like, no, I care about it. I do
care about it. But to your point, he wasn't really asked,
at least not in practice to do a lot of it.
So we'll see. But my point of it is is
not to be well too snarky, a little bit snarky,
is just to say that he was brought here to
be the number two guy, like that's exactly why you're
paying him to be here. In fact, those targets to
Devon Vailey, a lot of them I think will shift

(08:34):
immediately to Evan more so than they'll say, shift to
Pat Bryant's or Troy Franklin. I think there's an assumption
being made there because of the wide receiver position, but
the reality of it is, especially with the Sean Payton offense,
it's actually going to go to the tight end. The
running backs. Yeah, Sewan does like throwing to the tight ends.
It does. He also likes throwing to one guy that
he really likes. Yeah, he does.

Speaker 2 (08:53):
Michael Thomas had one hundred and forty nine right, Arcus Colston. Yeah,
and the Broncos last year didn't look like that didn't.
Is that a function of bo you think or is
that more Sean? I think it's both. I think it's,
you know, a rookie quarterback. I think it's Sean not
knowing who his Michael Thomas is yet when he finds
that guy.

Speaker 1 (09:13):
He'll feed. He'll feed the beast.

Speaker 2 (09:15):
But he also likes doing lots of different stuff man
keeping you guessing he does. He likes it when you
spread the ball around to ten different receivers, you know.
He likes it when you think it's going there but
it's really going there. He likes it when you set
something up in the first half and you think that's
happened the second half and all of a sudden, boo,
you know it's behind you. And he's only had two

(09:39):
one thousand yard running backs and it's nineteen years as
a head coach.

Speaker 1 (09:43):
They've had a really good running games. But you're right,
because they do at least the two running back system
like minimum, right, they're running back by committee and sometimes
they got a third guy in there for third downs
and Sean even talked about that today. It's amazing. I
had a plan for the show, but then we obviously
get this Micah Parsons thing and sort of lips on
the side. But I do want to get to the
running game at some point with you. But yeah, that

(10:03):
is his style is to have the two headed monster
running back, which means you're probably almost never going to
get in a thousand yard back. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (10:11):
Yeah, he was mark Ingram had it a couple of times, sure,
and then Duce McCallister his very first year there in
two thousand and six.

Speaker 1 (10:18):
Yeah, I don't I don't think Alvin's ever gotten there.
He's all purpose. He's gotten like obviously over a thousand
like every year, but that's just not what he's I mean,
he's I don't know what Albu Kamara is. He's just
kind of a unicorn, right, I mean he is so
he looks like he's so tough to bring down as
a running back, but then when he's out there running routes,
you're like, well, why would you never why would you
not want him doing that all the time. It's like

(10:39):
Christian McCaffrey, it was also very tough to bring down,
but he's so smooth out of his brakes. You're just like, well,
I think he might be better there. Couple of jokers.
Couple of jokers, A couple of jokers. A key words.

Speaker 2 (10:51):
You can't you can't put a linebacker on him. No,
you can't even really put a safety. I mean you can,
but you, I mean, those guys can't be covered. Christian
mccaff if we can run every route in the route
tree famously, and most running backs cannot do that, and
it gives you a distinct advantage because you can put
them anywhere on the field.

Speaker 1 (11:07):
It's like a positionless football.

Speaker 2 (11:10):
I mean the Niners when they had Debo and they
had Christian, they move those guys around so much you
couldn't really get a beat on what they're doing based
on where.

Speaker 1 (11:18):
They line up.

Speaker 2 (11:18):
They can play any position on the field, and I
think that's what Sean Payton's hoping to find in some
of these guys.

Speaker 1 (11:23):
So we have Nate Jackson his studio, we're getting a
little bit of information on the trade package. It is
going to include two first round picks and a player
oh minimum. So that Adam Schefter quite literally three seconds ago,
says trade package includes two first round picks in a
front line player for Michael Parsons Again, I come back

(11:44):
to this thing because you know, the next closest player
as far as his apy is forty one, he's up
forty seven. Like this is in line to come back
for this just a second. This is in line with
like Deshaun Watson getting the fully guaranteed Like that's what
that now? That is that? That's off the map? Like

(12:05):
what are we doing? So it's not quite maybe not
quite there, but going from forty one to forty seven
for a non quarterback, it's something. It's truly now. I
guess you asked yourself the question, whether you're the Packers
or just anybody that loves the NFL, is Michael Parson's
worth it? Is he worth it? Well?

Speaker 2 (12:24):
You The salary cap, like what we mentioned, keeps going up.
It's up to two hundred and seventy nine million now.
It's up thirty from last year and twenty five from
the year before that.

Speaker 1 (12:35):
What was it that when you were do you remember
do you have? It was like eighty and that wasn't
I mean, I'm not that old, you know what I mean?
Like I was here in Denver what like you were playing?
It's like that, Yeah, you you rate it was my
last year.

Speaker 2 (12:47):
Yeah, and and now these quarterback salaries would be the
whole entire salary cap, right, So so you got the money,
and I know there's ways to spread it around and
not you know, you know, count against the cap, but
that's less money you get to spend on the rest
of your team, right, And so that that factors in.

(13:08):
But he's a type of player that can make plays
all over the field. He can play inside and outside,
and he's his versatility makes it a different play than
like a kind of a one trick pony.

Speaker 1 (13:17):
So it's gonna be two first and Kenny Clark oh
are going to the Dallas Cowboys. Okay for just a
second here, I really again, I said from the beginning,
I didn't think Jerry would do this, And I think
part of it is because of what he does typically,
which is try to own the entire narrative and then
the national coverage and all those kinds of things. But

(13:37):
then I also because of his age. Like Michael Parsons,
to your point, is that guy like he is a unicorn.
He is. He is one of the best in his position,
and the way he can you can put him all
over the place makes him very difficult to know exactly
where he's coming from. I thought, based on where he's
at and the lack of success they've had in the postseason,

(13:58):
that this would be the last thing he'd want to do.
You want to your window includes Michael Parsons, doesn't it?
Like for a moment, what does this mean for Dallas?

Speaker 3 (14:05):
Well?

Speaker 1 (14:06):
I think it's a good thing for Dallas. Okay, here
we go.

Speaker 2 (14:09):
Because he was a malcontent. There's bad energy there now. Content, Yeah,
I like it.

Speaker 1 (14:15):
I mean he was not happy.

Speaker 2 (14:16):
I mean Jerry Jones is going on TV talking about
how the agent disrespected him and and and in airing
the dirty laundry there.

Speaker 1 (14:25):
To me, the bridges were burned. Jerry called him Michael
like multiple times, he called him wrong. I'm not saying
he didn't.

Speaker 2 (14:33):
He didn't have a right to feel that way, Okay,
but he has been upset or feeling unappreciated for quite
a while, and and those and when a guy like
that is in your locker room, and and it's also
your best player isn't happy, well, that trickles.

Speaker 1 (14:48):
Down to everyone else. So when.

Speaker 2 (14:52):
You know when I was, when I was a rookie,
I was in this is maybe not the best example,
but I was with the forty nine ers trying to
make the team as a wide receiver. I was in
the same wide receiver room as Tara Owans, and Tara
Owans could be pretty moody, and he would, you know,
work really hard out on the field, but in meetings

(15:12):
you just sleep.

Speaker 1 (15:14):
He would sleep. And what kind of example is that
for the young guys. Probably not a good one, not
the best one. Yeah, Michael Parsons laying on the tab
exactly for the game, or like, this.

Speaker 2 (15:24):
Guy's fed up. And so when a coach says something,
he rolls his eyes or he said, sure, Well, the
young guys around hear that. They pay attention to that
union guys were bought into where you're going. And so
I think that getting Micah Parsons a fresh start, he's
going to be happier, He's probably gonna play better, and
the Cowboys they can breathe a you know, breath of

(15:45):
fresh air there now. Jerry Jones is probably isn't happy
about this, but he got something back in return. They
haven't necessarily been a great team either with him as
their leader. And one thing, he's a very outre not wrong, wrong,
he's a very outspoken guy. Nobody wants their guys doing podcasts,

(16:06):
you know what I mean. Nobody wants a podcast for yourself.
While I was playing, man, I wouldn't have had one. Okay,
I don't think you don't. You just don't believe in
focusing on football.

Speaker 1 (16:20):
Yeah, it's the correct also, and I mean no offensive
I mean Michael Parsons for what you know, as a
defensive MVP candidate every single year, he probably he could
probably walk around that building with a different kind of
feeling about where his standing is. Yeah, then it will
anybody else, right, But.

Speaker 2 (16:39):
I think more than once he's you know, said some
things that that were like viral moments or became national
news fodder in the weekly conversation about sports. And you
don't really want your guys in the middle of the
season to be embroiled in that. It's distracting. The D
word is the is the is the big of the

(17:02):
word that you want to avoid when you're putting together
football team. You don't want any you don't want life
getting in. You want these guys to focus on football.
And I know it's hard these days. Do you remember
Sean Payton wanted the anonymous donors.

Speaker 1 (17:13):
He did say that. Now did we practice that. Do
any of these guys have a podcast here? Well, Nick
Well bo Nicks has his own YouTube channel.

Speaker 2 (17:23):
He's got two videos, one video on it with like
fourteen thousand views.

Speaker 1 (17:28):
He's not promoting him. He's more taking a shot at
Sean who every single year fails to follow the bulletin. Hey,
anonymous donors, do as I say. I'll take the slings
and arrows. Yes, learn me a guy. That's leadership. Yeah,
you guys just focus on being football players. I'll be
the guy in the spotlight. Imagine what Nick Benito's thinking

(17:50):
about right now. Yeah, that's that's good for you. He's
not gonna make it, you know, and I I see
people talking about it. He's not going to be forty
seven million. So this is when the next guy gets paid.
Discussion like this isn't well Knicks max X men up.
You know forty seven is the floor now and that
that is not what's happening here. There are shades of

(18:11):
but I think our conversation throughout this off season about
Nick Benito being maybe in the twenties is is sailed. Yeah,
that is a that is done, and that's before he
plays a snap. You know, that was one of those
things like, well, he's betting on himself, he's playing his
final year. I dig it, he's better what I'm saying.
But eight sacks, thirteen and a half sacks is the
last two years, and then he's going into this year

(18:32):
and he who puts up fifteen mid thirties. Yeah, it's
not even it's not even a question. But I think
then we were all all right either way. But we
probably are already there anyways. Yeah, because because our guy
Ben was saying, one of the reasons he was waiting
is he wanted to wait till the top five average
was a better situation for him. And you know what,
the top five average just went way up, way up. Yeah.

(18:54):
So yes, he's in great He's in a great boode.

Speaker 2 (18:56):
It's it's funny because back when I played, you didn't
hear this much talk about people's money, about what they
were gonna get or what they could get, or you know,
you didn't have the spot racks and all the.

Speaker 1 (19:10):
You know, salary gurus.

Speaker 2 (19:12):
Imagine if you flipped on the radio and heard people
talking about what you were going to make openly, yes,
openly speculating on what you were.

Speaker 1 (19:20):
Worth and what you made.

Speaker 2 (19:22):
I mean, if you're driving down the street right now,
imagine how surreal that is. I think that Nick Benito
would just like to just play ball right now and
not and not worry about this.

Speaker 1 (19:33):
He's got a big payday coming to him regardless. Is
that real? Is that like? And I'm asking, Oh, it's
just us in the studio, nobody's listening. Oh yeah, Is
it real that players when they say I just want
to focus on football, they believe that sure?

Speaker 2 (19:47):
I mean, do you think he wants to be having
these conversations about his money right.

Speaker 1 (19:51):
Well, not with me, but.

Speaker 2 (19:53):
His house or because with his agent. Football players are
not trained to have those conversations. The terms that are used,
the terminology that's used in finance and contract negotiation. We
don't have those skills if we sit in the room there,
And it's not like we couldn't develop them, we're just
never taught that stuff. The minute you show you that

(20:14):
you're an excellent football player, everything else starts getting taken
care of for you. And for these guys who are
in these conversations, they've been the best football player in
their town since.

Speaker 1 (20:23):
They were five truth.

Speaker 2 (20:25):
They have never had to worry about anything because they've
had people wanting to help them and be a part
of their journey.

Speaker 1 (20:34):
Now, most of these people are well intentioned. Some are not.
Sometimes you have to find that out the hard way.

Speaker 2 (20:39):
But we don't learn the real world's skills and we
don't speak the real world language, and so that's why
we hire an agent. Now some guys, do you know,
Lamar Jackson did his own negotiating, and it does happen.
But I think for the most part, guys just want
to focus on their craft and that's training, learning their stuff,

(21:00):
getting better on the field.

Speaker 1 (21:02):
I dig it, I dig that you I did that.
You said it like that because when fans saying, by
way have Nate Jackson, people are asking, who is this
Nate Jackson Studio. I think sometimes when fans hear that,
it's like, well, that's the thing you're supposed to say.
You're supposed to say, I care more about playing football
right now, because if you go the other way, if
you're like, actually, I'm not playing it down until I

(21:23):
get my money, like Terry McLaurin did, or like other
players like even Michael Parsons did, then you you can
sort of ride that line of support. And it's like
we always say during the CBA, when the CBA stuff
comes up, well, the fans tend to back the owners,
even though the owners actually have so much more power
they don't even need it. The fans will back then

(21:44):
because they want the product on the field, and then
look at the players and say, you're being selfish. And
so even for Terry McLaurin, who absolutely has outplayed his contract,
MIKEL Parsons who is doing a new deal, he used
the same drafts as Pats of Tann who got paid
last year. He's been a good soldier. He's been there,
he's played, he's he did everything he was supposed to do.
But the fan support of Michah Parsons and the fan
support of players that tend to be vocal about these

(22:06):
things doesn't always back them. They tend to be like,
shut up and play ball, man, Like you get paid
a lot of money. I'm over here working a nine
to five job, or I'm stocking shelves that night, and
here you are a multi millionaire telling me that fourteen million.
You know, Trey Hendrickson, say, sixteen million isn't good enough
for you to need thirty and it's not about that.

(22:26):
It's not real world dollars. But it's hard not to
look at that sideways for fans. So I think players
always should stop what you just said, but not all
of them do.

Speaker 2 (22:38):
If forty nine of the top fifty watch television shows
every year were people tuning in to watch that dude.

Speaker 1 (22:45):
Stock shelves, he would be able to demand a whole
lot more money and he would be justified and maybe
to come up with a multi billion dollar idea. We
have a competition. I mean, I'm just telling you want
people showed up in person. Yeah, it paid really good
money to watch people stocks else then those guys would
deserve a lot more than they make. I'm kind of
intrigued on that reality show now, but always continue to continue.

Speaker 2 (23:08):
And I think there's an organizational component to this as well.
Nick Benito believes that the Broncos have his best interest
in mind and they're not going to screw him. They
want to do this the right way. Did Michael Parsons
believe that about Cowboys?

Speaker 1 (23:21):
No, Terry McLaurin.

Speaker 2 (23:23):
They may have new ownership there, but until you show
me that things are going to be done differently around here.
I'm not going to believe it, but the Penners have
done nothing but show everyone in that locker room that
they're going to do it the.

Speaker 1 (23:34):
Right way, which is why they showed up for everything, right,
Corlan Sutton, Nick Benito afm Zach Allen, they all showed up. Yeah,
And so I do.

Speaker 2 (23:42):
Believe that he means what he says when he's like,
I just want to play ball, because also if he
plays well, he earns himself more money. You know, Chude,
keep his head down, go have twenty sacks. He's going
to be fine regardless. He is going to be fired regardless.
But that's my point this number.

Speaker 1 (24:01):
And again, I don't need everybody on Twitter or the
text line telling me he's not making forty seven. I
know that it's more about what it does for the average,
more about what it does for the market. Because you
go from it was a Miles Garrett making forty and
then TJ. Watt going to forty one. You thought, okay,
Micah Parsons and I did expect Mike going to make

(24:21):
more because he is the next man. But he's the
next man in that group and that tier of edge rushers.
I thought, you know, hey, forty two. Maybe they just
get over it by half half a million. Whatever, you know,
it's it's a lot of big deal, right, a big deal.
Then forty seven in the trade, and it's one of
those deals like, well, the Packers are already kind of
blowing this thing out of the water with two first

(24:43):
rounders in Kenny Clark, which is, by the way, if
you're just tuning in, Michael Parson's getting trade to the
Green Bay Packers for two first rounders and Kenny Clark
the defensive tackle there, and in return he's going to
get this massive contract that includes forty seven million per
I don't know. I think I think that it sounds
it sounds silly and preposterous on his face value. But

(25:05):
once again, the NFL does this. They're printing money. You
said it, They're printing money. They're good and by the
we get a few weeks into the season for what,
don't even think about this, yeah, uh hey, good good
for green Bay. Dallas got worse today, even though you
said long term probably the better. But if you're Dallas
for a moment, this is this is definitely an l
There There is no way Jerry and that organization could

(25:26):
spend this in any other way. He went on a
media tour. He's going to Fox, flipping News, Fox and Friends,
telling them about the deal and about how he's working
it out and how he's negotiating and he's being a
tough negotiator, and and then you hear you're here and
you have nothing to say. But this just did not
go well for us. Jerry reached the end of his

(25:47):
rope apparently. Yeah, that's that's what this looks like. Anyways,
I'm excited to have you in studio, Nate. It's been
a long time. We've known each other for a while.
I've had an a chance to host with you, so
I was looking forward to this. We have also stuff
to get to. I certainly want to get your thoughts
on the Broncos sort of the states of things. By
the way, tremendous Australian accent. The other day, I meant

(26:08):
to tell you, Yeah, there was. I wouldn't even attempt
that because I knew i'd butcher it. But I thought
it was really good today. By the way, they did
some stuff, different stuff with cross Shaw in practice. Is
that right? Yeah, they did some simulations. What does that mean? Well,
I mean that's not like VR goggles if it is, Hey, like,
all right, just you're in the middle of a field. No,

(26:31):
they actually I'll just play Sewan. Do you have my
sund up here? Grants sound up? Cool? Awesome. This was
Sean Payton earlier today on the simulations they ran in
practice for punting. It was something It was a great
idea by Riz.

Speaker 3 (26:44):
You know, we get into these periods and then we
go punt and we and we're going to have a
punt period, right, but in the game it's punt. You're
out there one punt, you know, and so you're on
whole seventeen. It's a par five, you're on the tee.
And just creating those situations I think benefits the young

(27:06):
punter because that's kind of the game.

Speaker 1 (27:10):
You know.

Speaker 3 (27:12):
If you said, hey, we're gonna go out there, we're punting,
and everyone chill out for a second, wall he hits
three and then he's gonna pun them, that's not very realistic.
So I thought he handled it well. I thought it
went well, and we'll continue to do that.

Speaker 1 (27:26):
You like that. I love that.

Speaker 2 (27:28):
So, you know, practices are so unlike games in the
scripted nature of the way things unfold and the special
teams period is sandwiched in the middle, or oftentimes during
the season it's at the beginning. You go out there
just the special teams guys, thirty minutes before the rest
of the guys come out, and it has no similarity
to what you're going to do.

Speaker 1 (27:48):
In a game.

Speaker 2 (27:49):
This guy, Jeremy Crosshaw is an ausy. He's not used
to the flow of a football game. He's crushing it
in practice, and then in the games he's struggling. So
they are trying to fire out of way to get
him in the groove. And I think this is a
great way to do it. You know, don't tell you,
don't tell him that at one point thirty we're gonna
have a fifteen minute period and then you kick, you know,

(28:10):
like Sean said, yes, twenty punts and then go stand
on the sideline. No, you got to be ready whenever.
You don't know when fourth down's gonna come up, right,
So just stand here and wait till you hear your
name and go out there and just rocket the ball
up on the the m right.

Speaker 1 (28:28):
I had to want to bet somewhere in edverd to
get you to do your ass. Acid right off the
top of the shelf.

Speaker 2 (28:33):
Well, I mean the Aussies like the way you really
know they laugh at the way we say beer wow,
they say it be yeah, oh that's right.

Speaker 1 (28:41):
Yeah, there's yeah, there are there are beer Australian for
bah yeah. Yeah. So so so Jeremy Crosshaw apologies to
all OSSI's that listen to the show. Sorry, but but.

Speaker 2 (28:54):
He's been you know, you've been out there a practice,
really good at practice, right, and so we just got
to get him to be good at games because the situations,
or as Sean Payton calls them, situations, you never know
where you're gonna be or what you're gonna be asked
to do. I've been on punt team where I had
to protect and then cover. The punt is the most
difficult or kind of complicated special team because there's two

(29:16):
elements to it. There's the protection and then the coverage.
So you got to master two things. It's not just
kickoff orre you're running down and tackling. So the protection
is difficult because there's guys twisting and stuff and they're
trying to block that kick and they're coming pretty fast,
and so Jeremy Kroshaw's gonna be careful with that, but
he's also got a directional punt and understand who he's
kicking it to, and you know where you're trying to
pin him. So you get in the huddle for a

(29:38):
punt and they tell you deep right. So I go
up there to the line of scrimmage believing it's going
deep right because I was told that. And there were
a lot of times when you you know, you protect
and then you start running down you hear the boom,
and so you start running.

Speaker 1 (29:52):
You go deep right, and I'm running right and the
balls what's going left?

Speaker 2 (29:55):
And that puts, you know, your coverage team in a
bind because you're not pursuing the ball directly, and it
takes a minute to track it, and by the time
you see where it is, you're out of place.

Speaker 1 (30:04):
And so he'll get it.

Speaker 2 (30:06):
He'll get it, And whatever they can do to make
him feel comfortable, I think is a good thing.

Speaker 1 (30:10):
One hundred percent. We're off rolling Nate Jackson in studio,
very quick break. We got news and traffic here at
the bottom of the enerl right back on koa fine.
We got all sorts of stuff to get to over
the next two and a half hours. With you continue
to talk about the Micah Parsons trade that went down
just a little bit ago. What that means for Nick Benito.

(30:31):
I think that's an interesting sort of time. Well checking
with Ben Albright coming up at four thirty, get his
thoughts not only on the trade, but also what it
means for Nick. What what he's hearing about Marvin Mims
because he left practice yesterday with groin injury. According to
Sean Payton, we have Mark Johnson joining us after five o'clock.
There's sometimes I want to call Mark Jackson just longtime bronco,

(30:52):
you know, but Mark Johnson's going to join us after
five o'clock to get a preview of the buff season.
Are you look? We are real college football happening. I mean,
it's it's it's underway tonight. Yeah. I mean we had
we had some games this last week, but tonight's the
night it's going down. It's going down.

Speaker 2 (31:07):
It's gonna be a great weekend of college football. We
don't know what the Buffs are gonna look like. It's
just so many question marks, right and uh, the nil world.
You don't know who anyone is or how they're gonna gel.

Speaker 1 (31:19):
Does that bum you out?

Speaker 3 (31:20):
Like?

Speaker 1 (31:20):
As a as a former football player the nil era,
we'll thinking about what you could have done. Not necessarily
because I was a guy. I played D three football.

Speaker 2 (31:29):
Okay, Okay, I got cut from the one double a
school I walked onto. Okay, I was overlooked, I was
kicked to the curb. I was just dead, and so
I had to come in the back door, and so
I wouldn't have been probably a candidate for a bunch
of nil money. However, it feels weird. It doesn't feel
like amateur football. It feels like pro football. And these kids,

(31:52):
you know, they're not really getting an education, they're not
really having a typical college experience. I know that, you know,
a lot of things have changed in the modern world.
That's not the only thing, but you just, you know,
the purest in me wants these guys to be able
to go to school and be at school and be
with their friends and go to class and play football.

Speaker 1 (32:10):
It's the best time in your life. It's supposed to be,
but it's not treated that way anymore.

Speaker 2 (32:14):
The renegades guns for hire, and they have a good
year here and they're off to the next place. And
and I think that there's a challenge in the NFL
to scout these kids, sure, because of how on the
move they are.

Speaker 1 (32:27):
What have they learned? You know what coaches have they
coached them? Yes, you know what systems have they absorbed?

Speaker 2 (32:32):
What idiot coach puts this in this guy's brain that
we're going to have to now extract from his operating system.

Speaker 1 (32:39):
I mean, oh, that's fair. It's it's like it's a
capitalistic society, right, So you say, well, hey man, you
have a skill set and relation is not supposed to
be capitalistic though, But how much does education play into
college and athletics anyways? Well, used to do it with
a wink, but now it's completely gone. You know, we
just we now say the part out loud. These guys

(33:01):
aren't going to classes, they're taking them from their dorms
or online at the you know, inside the field house
or wherever.

Speaker 3 (33:07):
Like.

Speaker 1 (33:08):
It's not priority one. It hasn't been priority one for
basically at least my entire life. And so now we're
just saying that, and we're now we're acknowledging that, and
now you give a chance. And I think for me,
and I've said this for quite some time, I think
this is the market over correction I think we will
kind of find our way back to the middle someday.

(33:28):
But this is the These guys were exploited for so long,
and college football benefited off the backs of so many
people that they got fat off of it. And and
you're talking about these bowl games that did not help
the players out. There was just this extra extra exhibition
game that the sponsors got money for that college, the

(33:48):
athletic programs got money for, and the players mostly would
get nothing other than, hey, you get some swag bags
and thanks for playing in our bowl game. Hope you
didn't get hurt and scrip your draft status. But it's
nice now you get a chance to earn some money
on this. And plus it gives you some some bargaining power,
some power when it comes to the NFL you don't
have to take. And I do think this is going

(34:09):
to eventually impact the draft. I don't it's not happening
just yet. But we are gonna have a point where
guy's like, man, I make ten million per year, why
do I need to come out early? Like think about
arch Manning. Yeah, for arch Manning, if he doesn't like
the team at the top of the draft, I'm gonna wait.
I don't need to. I don't need the Browns like that.
He made to make that decision. So but part of
the uh, the allure of the of the NFL is

(34:31):
that you do need it. Everyone's hungry for it. They're
willing to do anything to stay on that field. When
you walk into the NFL and you already got fifteen
million dollars in the bank, what do you what do
I care?

Speaker 2 (34:42):
What do I care?

Speaker 1 (34:43):
What do I care? And will that affect the product?
Hard to tell. It's gonna take them tell it's some
time there. But if you agree that maybe this is
like the over correction, we probably will find our way back.
They need some money.

Speaker 2 (34:53):
I do believe that. I think it's got. It was
a little out of control. I mean, Chador was making
how many millions last year?

Speaker 1 (34:59):
It's like seven.

Speaker 2 (35:00):
Yeah, it's a little much to me because then there's
an incentive to sort of turn yourself into a celebrity
and a personality instead of, you know, being one.

Speaker 1 (35:09):
Of the guys.

Speaker 2 (35:09):
Because you're on a football team with a bunch of
guys who aren't making it any money.

Speaker 1 (35:12):
Hold on it's ring of famer. Sure, Sanders just want
to make sure you got that right, let's make that clear.
But the difference between the haves and the haves not
on a team like that. You know the guy there's
guys making nothing, Yes, and that's not fair. Well, the
quarterback is a quarterback. Well, the quarterback's overpaid. Oh, here
we go. The quarterback is drastically overpaid.

Speaker 2 (35:35):
One guy who doesn't run, tackle, hit, any of it
shouldn't be making twenty percent of the salary cap.

Speaker 1 (35:45):
You're probably right, but you also know you're very wrong.
So I don't know.

Speaker 2 (35:51):
I'm on an island with this take, but I really
do believe that the exorbitant salaries that quarterbacks are getting
are lopsiding these teams and creating some difficult scenarios for
the rest of the guys. I mean, you know, a
team on a rookie quarterback deal has a lot better
chance of getting to the Super Bowl unless you got
Brady Patrick.

Speaker 1 (36:11):
Mahomes or Peyton Manning.

Speaker 2 (36:13):
Other than that, these dudes who are making sixty million
dollars a year don't go and win the Super Bowl.

Speaker 1 (36:18):
Oh listen, And the numbers back that up. You're right,
The numbers backup on once you pay your quarterback unless
you have one of those guys that has not worked
out well for the teams that ended up having to
pay their quarterbacks that don't have Patrick Mahomes or Tom Brady, etc.
I'm with you on that. I think that the difficult
thing is is you know what the haves and the
have nots look like, and when you feel like you
have your guy. I think the in between is the

(36:41):
worst plot possible. And that's really not much for debate
because we could talk about, say Dak Prescott, since we're
talking about the Cowboys today. Like I think Dak Prescott's
a good quarterback, I don't think I can picture him
winning a championship, like not really, and you're paying him
sixty five million per So that for me is the
no man's land where you feel like you have to
pay a guy because you're afraid of what the unknown is.

(37:04):
But then meanwhile, you're also paying a guy hamscreens, hamstrings
the rest of your team and you know you can't
win with them.

Speaker 2 (37:09):
Well, if you paid him thirty million and you use
the other thirty five million to pay guys around him
or to make him better, then you would be able
to picture Dak Prescott winning a super Bowl because he'd
have guys around him playing at a higher level. These
guys who play who you know, Patrick Mahomes took over

(37:30):
a perennial ten win team. Alex Smith had them playoff ready.
This was a roster that was built and ready to
take off. Patrick Mahomes took him to the next level. Yep,
But he didn't build that himself. You're a hundred percent right.

Speaker 1 (37:42):
You got to have a team around you. And if
you are, and if you do have that, you can
do some good things.

Speaker 2 (37:48):
And I feel like so many teams are just so
excited to find the next hot quarterback that they could
give sixty million dollars to that. The rest of it
falls by the wayside. Look at the Cincinnati Bengals. They
pay you know, they're paying a quarterback and two receivers
half of their salary cap.

Speaker 1 (38:02):
Yes they are.

Speaker 2 (38:02):
And what are you gonna do on the other side
of the ball. What are you gonna do for those
offensive linemen? It's not gonna You can't just have a
fireworks show every game.

Speaker 1 (38:10):
Why not? Forty five points per game doesn't get it done.
Probably not. Actually we already know the answer to that. Yeah,
that's about a five hundred season. You're really good in
the regular season, but you're gonna lose some games. You're
gonna lose some games to some really good, high powered
offenses like the Baltimore Ravens, like the Buffalo Bills, so
on and so forth. Yeah. No, I mean, listen, you're right,
it's a fun discussion. But I think we come back
to ground here and say, what a team looks like

(38:34):
without one of those guys, Like what kind of conversations
and optimism would you be having if you don't have
one of those guys. And we know what Cleveland is
talking about right now, which is next year's draft versus
what we're talking about here in Denver, where we have
some optimism because we think we have the guy.

Speaker 2 (38:48):
Yeah, I'm not saying you don't need a guy who
plays at that level at that position. I'm saying, does
that guy deserve that much money when you have a
bunch of other guys working just as hard every day
who don't get that close to that money.

Speaker 1 (39:04):
So where does it end? I guess, Well, I mean
it's kind of work. I mean, what the quarterback has
to learn versus what you, as the blocker have to learn. Well,
I think I think at tight end as the guy
that can't even throw a baseball. Go ahead, Well you're
throwing out the first pitch. Yeah, that's exciting for you.
I'll butcher it.

Speaker 2 (39:23):
When I played wide receiver, you know I knew a
certain amount about what we were doing. I knew, you know,
a good amount, but not as much as what I
learned when I moved to tight end. Tight End has
to know everything that's going on, arguably just as much
as the quarterback. The quarterback just has to articulate it.
He needs to be able to say it. He's the
only guy who gets to talk. The other guys have

(39:44):
to learn just as much stuff. They just never talk
about it and don't have the ability to do or
no one asks them. Right because everyone in the booth
is a former quarterback.

Speaker 1 (39:56):
So of course they're going to talk about how hard
it is to play quarterback. Now what you're saying, we're brainwashed.
Look the nuance, My eyes are open. Every single position has.

Speaker 2 (40:10):
Infinite layers to peel back and nuance that we don't understand.
The tackle, the guard, the kicker, Even those guys have
are not as much the kicker because the quarterback has.

Speaker 1 (40:23):
Decisions to make. You just talked about a punter like
kicking right and left. The quarterback has decisions to make
and he has to decide to go with the ball.
But the best quarterbacks, no, get it out of my
hand quick and get it to the guys who knew
how to run with this good right.

Speaker 2 (40:36):
The tight end has to know. You know, I'm not
going I'm not going to go too far down this road.
What I'm saying is the quarterback has an incredibly difficult job,
but so does everyone else, and the nuance of everyone
else's job is unknown by us because we don't get
taught that.

Speaker 1 (40:51):
We get taught everything the quarterback sees. You know, there
is no like.

Speaker 2 (40:57):
Morton Anderson cast, you know, like there's a man cast.
Would you want to watch Morton Anderson talk about what
he sees during a game?

Speaker 1 (41:04):
Probably not. I mean I have a little bit of nerd,
but i'd maybe there's something there, what a name by
the way, or to drop here. He's got some explaining
to do because he said he didn't think this was
gonna happen to Green Bay, Mike Parsons getting traded there.
He was also off on the Devon Bailey things. So

(41:25):
we'll see what he says about all of that and
what it means for Nick Benido this one. Nate's so
good to hear you back on the air. Where have
you been, man? Well, where have you been, Nate Jackson?
I mean, I know, but I give you a chance
to tell him. Yeah. So, so I'm doing media at
Guerrilla Sports.

Speaker 2 (41:42):
It's an online digital media company, and we're doing We're
covering the Broncos, We're covering the ads, We're covering the Nuggets,
covering the Rockies. Do you ever just on the internet?
You know, we're not on terrestrial radio. And you know,
I worked for the Fan for a while and that
was fun. But by trying this new endeavor and I
got a show with Eric Goodman called Going Deep, and
we cover the Broncos and we have, you know, conversations

(42:03):
much like what we're doing now.

Speaker 1 (42:04):
Eric's awesome.

Speaker 2 (42:05):
He's been in the market for a long time, and
so we've been doing it just for a couple of months.
We've got about ten episodes in the books there. But
it's really fun. And we got some more programming on
the horizon there. I'm gonna be doing a show with
Jake Plumber nice. Yeah, and there's some other talent gonna
come and hopefully we expand our our lineup and hopefully,
you know, we can create some content that.

Speaker 1 (42:25):
People like around here.

Speaker 2 (42:26):
I know everybody has got a podcast these days, so
it's kind of hard and there's only twenty four hours
in a day, so how do you penetrate people's algorithms
and stuff?

Speaker 1 (42:35):
That's kind of part of the digital's landscape.

Speaker 2 (42:37):
But in addition to that, I got a little baby
girl who just turned one, congratulations, got a five year.

Speaker 1 (42:41):
Old boys just start a kindergarten. Very cool.

Speaker 2 (42:45):
You know, I'm the NFL's sideline uniform inspector on game
day for the Broncos.

Speaker 1 (42:50):
Why are you laughing at me? You're a little brag
about that? Or is that I'm not bragging? You ask
me what I'm up to? Well, that's true. I did.
I did ask you. I just it's like one of
those things where you'd be ashamed because I am probably
a little bit a little bit. But but listen, man,
if you're proud of it, you'll be I'm proud of
it be in the NFL's Karen no I think I
think it's ironic because when I was a player, there

(43:10):
were certain people around us that I scoffed at. Okay,
and now I'm I'm two of those people.

Speaker 2 (43:18):
Media media and I'm and I'm yeah, I've fallen pretty
far from my from my standards.

Speaker 1 (43:28):
Like you as like you're a kid, you're playing football,
You're dreaming about your career, what that's gonna look like,
and then your post career, like you have a family
and you know, hopefully I'm doing something really cool, and
and then here you are, like in the media. Yeah,
did you I can't remember. Did you like talking to
the media when you were player?

Speaker 2 (43:48):
Some players don't like talking to the media because I
kind of spoke their language.

Speaker 1 (43:51):
Yes, you know, when I was able to, I was able.

Speaker 2 (43:53):
To develop some friendships there and articulate some things that
we were going through, you know, and so so I
had some good relationships with media members, but you know,
I always kept him at arm's length and sometimes was
disenchanted with the way that they would roll things out.
We were taught to be pretty skeptical of the media,

(44:14):
to not give them much why, right, imagine we were
taught that they were out, well, not out to get us.
But I don't know if we're taught that they wanted
to watch us burn but but I witnessed that a
couple of times. I've seen it too, and I think
they're probably The most stark moment along those lines was

(44:37):
when Jake Plumber was our quarterback. Jake Cutler was waiting
in the wings. He had been drafted Kachhanahan traded up
to get him. The season after we went to the
ANFC Championship and Jake Plummer was our leader.

Speaker 1 (44:50):
Everyone in the locker room knew that we didn't blame
the loss on Jake.

Speaker 2 (44:54):
Nobody played well, but coach Shanahan wanted to upgrade that
position show he traded up and drafted Jake Cutler, and
ever since, or from the moment Jay was drafted, there
was the drum beat and it was pretty loud from
the media, whereas us in the locker room knew who
we we thought as our leader. Now we were seven
and three going into a Thanksgiving game against the Chiefs,

(45:16):
A story broke that if we lose this game, if
we lose, Jake would be replaced, Jay would get the start,
and sure enough, Thanksgiving, we lost the game.

Speaker 1 (45:28):
Immediately after the game in the.

Speaker 2 (45:30):
Locker room, every member of the media, who never ever
cared at all about what Jay had to say after
a game went straight to his locker first that it
was dirty, it was slimy, pretty tough.

Speaker 1 (45:44):
And it hurt my feelings.

Speaker 2 (45:46):
And then at that moment, I swore I would never
become part of the media, and then you know, a
couple of years later, here I am.

Speaker 1 (45:58):
But you're really good at it for the you know,
I know what they're going through. Yeah, and I try to.

Speaker 2 (46:04):
Articulate it in a way that doesn't throw him nder
the bus or doesn't point fingers. And I know that
hasn't made me the most. The hot take is, you
know media member who rises up the ranks in the media.
But I think it's a much needed perspective because you know,
I know what those guys are going through, and I
know when you know something goes wrong, it's not as
simple as saying.

Speaker 1 (46:22):
That guy messed it up. You know.

Speaker 2 (46:24):
That's why I don't like what PFF does, because they
don't know what they're looking at. You know, they grade
players without having knowing what their assignment is.

Speaker 1 (46:33):
This is correct? How do you know if a guy
was correct if you don't know what he was taught.

Speaker 2 (46:38):
There's a chain reaction that happens in each football play
where the left tackle might have blown the assignment, but
it doesn't show up until the right tackle looks like
he missed the blitz. Well, it's not so simple, so
so I think more guys who have that understanding should
be in media helping to explain what's going on. Because
football is really complicated sport. There's twenty two guys moving

(46:58):
at once. Nobody can see all that stuff. Not even
the brightest football minds in the world can see everything
that happens it in a play. So the more of
us out here talking, I think the better.