Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
We're headed out to the Kai Commaspird health outline and
bringing a good friend, good friend of the program from
the Athletic Nick Cosmider.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Nick, you're all with Ryan Edwards and Benjamin Albright. How
are you, my friend?
Speaker 3 (00:09):
I'm good?
Speaker 4 (00:10):
How are you?
Speaker 3 (00:10):
Guys? Doing great?
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Very excited about not only tonight with the Nuggets, and
I definitely want to ask you a couple of questions
about that, but also of course, uh, the game on Sunday.
I don't know, man, There's gonna be a lot made
of the offense needing to sort of carry their weight
in this one. Where do you come down on what
we've seen from the offense seven games in?
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Yeah, I mean, I think it all comes out to
the balance of about where they're where they're kind of
ranked statistically, which is which is pretty average, right, whether
you look at scoring, you know EPA per play, you
know yards per game, it's it's all kind of in
that that league average kind of level. And you know
that that has been good enough to be five and
two when you have a defense that is as good
(00:53):
as this one is, when you have a quarterback who
has shown the ability in the moments that truly matter
most games of late to get the job done.
Speaker 4 (01:03):
But it's also not good enough to think.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
That this is a team that can ultimately be a
championship type contender as it's currently playing. And so I
think that's that's where some of the frustration, both externally internally.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
Comes in, is that you know they.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Have some of the right stuff that can make you
look at it and say, especially in what appears to
be a pretty open league this year, you know to compete,
but that won't happen unless they unless they get it going.
And that's just kind of the urgency that you felt
being around there this week.
Speaker 5 (01:36):
It's all well and good when you're up against teams
like the Jets or or the Giants or the Bengals
post Joe Burrow and you're able to do that kind
of stuff, but you've got a tough slate of games
caught up. The Cowboys can put points on points on points,
even if they can't stop anybody. The Texans look like
they may be starting to figure a little something out
on offense and have a very good defense.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Kansas City looks like they're finally starting to hit their stride.
Speaker 5 (01:59):
You get the walk Commanders on Sunday night, football, the
Packers coming up another game against the Chargers, the only
two Guinea games in here. It looks like the Broncos
have left of the Raiders this thing, like if they
don't get the offensive proved, could these things go sideways fast?
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Yeah? I mean, and that's the thing of it, especially
when you look at it then and you I mean,
and I know.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
You know this, but they you could look at that game.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Pretty much any game it wasn't the Bengals game could
have gone the other direction. And Garrett Bowles said in
the locker room after the game on Sunday, like, you know,
we know we could be seven and oh right now.
And that's true, but they could just as easily, you know,
be you know, be one and six. I wouldn't really
quite put the Titans game in that category. I don't
(02:42):
think there was ever any you know, real concern with
that one, even though they certainly did not play well.
But but really so let's say two and five, like
you could easily, you know, point.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
To that and say if some of these hadn't.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Gone right late of late, then you would be looking
at that kind of reck right now. So absolutely, I
think it's tenuous and that and that's the whole thing.
Like they're saying, you're not going to avoid close games
in the NFL. They're they're they're part, they're part of
the league's fabric like that, that's just the way it goes.
But you can also put yourself in better positions to
where you're not, you know, again, coming down to the
(03:17):
last minute and not only coming down the last minute,
but having to to to rally and do all these
kind of like out of the box things in order
to even get in that position. That that's that's what
they have to avoid. Because yeah, I completely agree that
it's not it's not sustainable to win this way if
you cannot find more consistency with what you're doing offensively.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
But I imagine as you've been in the locker room this week,
you haven't gotten the sense from the guys that they're
they're satisfied with us either.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Oh oh no.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
Like I again, I think that's the confounding thing.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Like you talk to a guy like like Mike McGlinchey
and he says like this, you know, that's that's part
of the frustrating thing is because we know we have
we have what it takes. Because when you go back
and they start, you know, they look at it. You know,
if you were just a team that never showed you know,
there's a lot of bad offenses in the NFL that
aren't showing these kind of fireworks in stretches that the
(04:10):
Broncos have, like they're I think they're top ten in
an explosive play rate. So it's it's not that they
don't have the capability. It's not that they haven't shown
it in stretches. It's the it's the inability to get
on a roll. Evan Ingram said, if you look, if
you look at it, when we get a first down,
we're really good. And the problem is they go three
and out as much as almost anybody in the league.
(04:32):
And so there's that fine line of like getting going.
It seems like once they can get going on a drive,
more often than not they finish it. They've just had
too many where they didn't get that initial first down
or maybe you know, the second one. It's almost like
once they get to the fifty, they can see the
goal line, they're in good position, but they've just been
tripping themselves up too much to find that rhythm that
(04:54):
would make them a good offense.
Speaker 5 (04:55):
Right now, yeah, and it feels like that there are
feels to me like I mean, I'm just a door
with a microphone.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
Do I really know?
Speaker 5 (05:01):
But it feels to me like there are easy fixes
to this kind of stuff. You know, if there are
things that aren't working and we have large enough sample
sizes to see that they're not working, and we have
things that are working that we're not doing, why not
just you know, I get the oversimplification, but just switch
to the things that are working. Why aren't we running
the football more early? Why aren't we running the football
inside the five yard line? Why aren't we deleting these
(05:22):
And I know Sean doesn't want to talk about it,
but deleting these screenplays that aren't working or are working
at a twenty to thirty percent clip, Why aren't we
just doing higher percentage things to maximize the.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Talent we have?
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Well, and Joe Lombarty said when he got up to
the podium today.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
On coordinator day there we was kind.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Of asked about the you know, the gap between the
struggles you know, in earlier parts of game versus the
fourth quarter, and he said, well, we've told him this
week we're just going to do the fourth quarter stuff
early in the game, and it's it's that whole like
there's always a kernel of truth to you know, to
a good joke, right, and that the truth part of
that is that while you can't play the same way
(06:01):
in terms of just like you know, up tempo or
whatever else, like a lot of that comeback. The Giants
were playing them straight because they had to, and what
you were finding success with was like just just attacking
your good one on one matchups. And I think they
they work so hard to kind of scheme things the
way that they want to that you know, like, hey,
(06:22):
Courland Sutton can beat can win most of his one
on one matchups. Marvin Mims has shown more and more
that that he can win one on one matchups in
different ways, including like going up and getting a ball
for you. And they just seem to play more free
when when that really becomes the focus and bo is
really just kind of looking at that top read. I
understand you're not getting they're not getting a ton of
(06:43):
one on one looks all the time. But again, I
just think that they need to simplify things earlier in
the game versus you know, waiting to get down and
then just kind of going out and making plays.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Nick Cosmoner from the Athletics joining us here. Let's go
to the other side of the ball here for a moment.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
And and I do.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Want to talk about your article in a second about
being the most penalized team. That's an obviously important factor
in all this. But just a question on the defense
this Dallas Cowboys offense. I mean, as you know, they're
they're one of top two, top three across the league.
So I guess your perspective, how would you defend them
on the back end.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Yeah, it's tough. I thought they it's Joseph had an
interesting point today where he's saying, like, if you look
at it, the Cowboys when they're in their like eleven personnel,
they're averaging like six point two yards per carry.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
And that's because you know.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Teams are having to play them, you know, kind of
play them high because of all the weapons that Dak
Prescott has. And so in the running game, Javonte Williams
is getting a lot of you know, to in vance
Joseph's words, a lot of clean boxes. So that that
is the challenge, Like once you've incorporated that balance, once
you've proven that you can attack down the field with
(07:54):
the weapons that they have in Ceedee Lamb, George Pickens,
and Jake Ferguson. Now, like now the running game becomes
much a much easier part of that question, and it
starts to build on itself. So you know, I heard
Tella no Hufangas talking in the locker room about like
what they have to do really well. Advanced Joseph mentioned
this too, is like some of the cat and mouse
disguise stuff that this defense has typically done a pretty
(08:17):
good job of of like not really giving you a
clean sense of what it is that they are, what
it is that they're bringing, you know, having the late rotations,
really doing it as best they can to kind of
mix up those looks for Dak Prescott so that they're
you know, maybe not showing heavy boxes, but being able
to come down and bring that, you.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
Know, right after the snap.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
I think those are kind of kind of be some
of the interesting subplots of this game on Sunday.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
All right, So one more Broncos question before we ask
you about the Nuggets. Really good breakdown here on the penalties.
Is horses depressing to look at it to leading the
NFL in yours penalized by a wide margin, as you
put at five hundred and seventy five with Jacksonville d
in next of five twenty eight. It's it's stunning when
you think about this coaching staff and the tension to
(09:02):
detail that you know it resides inside that building.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
What do you make of it?
Speaker 4 (09:08):
Yeah, it really is.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
I think confounding is a good word. Vexing, perplexing, you know, whatever,
whatever kind of words you want to use for it.
Because as Peyton noted too, I think the thing that
he is clearly kind of like missed by is that
it's coming from everywhere. It's not just like they're having
this one set of problems and like you know, I
mean in twenty twenty two they were obviously heavily penalized
(09:33):
under Nathaniel Hackett, and that thing as the season went bad,
like you start getting more personal fouls and so that
starts kind of compounding itself. But early on it was
just these like influx of you know, crazy delay of game,
pre pre snap stuff. Here. It's just like so widespread
that you know that it's a little bit harder to
put your put your finger on it, you know. But
(09:55):
I was talking to Evan Inger about I say, hey,
I know this is a hard thing to ask about,
right because, yeah, of course they don't want to be
committing penalties. But his thing was, like, we just we
have to understand that, like we cannot live this way.
Like it's it's pretty rare that you could have two
different games in which you're penalized twelve times for one
hundred and twenty plus yards and win both of those games.
That was Philadelphia and that was the New York Giants,
(10:17):
and you.
Speaker 4 (10:18):
Know, the Lady luck is.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Not going to continue to shine on you if you
can't figure it out.
Speaker 4 (10:22):
So I don't have a good answer as to how
they do it.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Like obviously there's technique that they look at, there's you know,
points of emphasis that they have in their team meetings.
All those things are kind of part of the gumbo
of figuring this thing out. But bottom line is they
just have to do it because at this rate, you know,
it's eventually going.
Speaker 5 (10:40):
To bite you, you know, Nika, Yeah, I've been they've
been on discipline, second worst in the NFL in turns
being penalized. But somebody who looks fairly disciplined, Jabal Murray
the Nuggets, looks like he's in the best shape I've
seen him, mean since probably drafted to the Nuggets. Nuggets
tip it off the night against Golden State Warriors. What
are you looking forward to in this one?
Speaker 3 (10:59):
Yeah, I mean I think just right there, I mean, no,
Number one, it would be him. I think that that
was something back, you know, back when I was covering
the team on a regular basis that like you you've
been hearing about. It's like just kind of this this
this hope, this this push to have Jamal Murray, you know,
kind of show up in the kind of shape that
he seems to be in right now going into this season.
(11:20):
And you know, part of that again has been injuries
that spanned a couple off seasons and some different things
like that. Clearly last year there was you know that
there was the internal tension in the organization, there was
the delay of his contract. There was just a lot
of like funky stuff that kind of clouded the start
of his season. But just just the kind of clear
headedness from Afar that it seems that he has going
(11:41):
into this year, I think is big and I want
to see how that translates. And then the other thing
is like how much can they get Nicole Yokich off
of his feet this year. I think that's going to
be critical. You know again that we know this guy
is just a machine in terms of his endurance and
all those kinds of things. But you know, he's another
year older. I think you want to have him more
fresh going into the playoffs this year than you did
(12:03):
last year. So like, you know, how how much can
they get on his valcunis on the floor because they
can kind of play a little bit more of the
same way when when Yokic sits, you know, maybe that
allows you to kind of give him some some longer runs.
You know, if you if this roster is overall better,
maybe maybe you have more leaves late in games than
you did last year. And then again like that, the
(12:24):
other part of that test is can Adaman take a
bigger picture view than sometimes Mike Michael Malone did.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
That was such sort.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
Of the criticism of just like, you know.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
Playing guys heavy minutes early in.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
The year because you're you're chasing every win, when hey,
we know we're good enough to be where we need
to be in the playoffs. Let's not lose sight of
the you know, the forest through the trees kind of thing.
So those are those are a few of the things
I'm really looking looking forward to seeing from them.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
Yeah, no doubt about it. And then one thing in
this last thing for me, I appreciate you joining us, Nick.
The chemistry thing, right, this team up until this year
was kind of the same cores. That's not kind of
the same guys, and they even if they had to
play a lot of minutes, they knew what they were
going to be doing. Cam Johnson now in place of
Michael Porter Junior, Like, how does that change some of
the rotations and where you think he's gonna be.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
And I understand that a lot of people are.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Excited about how he's going to be very a better
defensive player, but there were some nice things that Michael
Porter Junior obviously did for this team.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
You know, Bruce Brown's gonna fit right like a glove.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
I mean, I'm not worried worried about that, but you
mentioned valanchunas you know what's that going to look like?
So for me, like, the chemistry of things early on
is going to be something to watch.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
What do you think?
Speaker 4 (13:31):
Yeah, I one.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
Hundred percent agreed. I think as good as I think
a lot of people think. This team is and it
certainly looks like, you know, the best rosters since at
least their championship season in twenty three, and I don't
think people even thought that roster was that good going
into that year. You know, as good as it is,
I think it would be naive to not think there
is going to be some you know, maybe some early
(13:52):
season hiccups because of that what you said, Like they've
played with largely the same cast for quite a while
and they made some pretty big shakeups this off season.
But I think you need it. I think you need
sort of that refresher. I mean, we even just look
at the you know, the Patriots in our sport that
we cover, right like they had already won championships and
then all of a sudden you get a guy like
(14:14):
with the talent of Randy Moss. And I know they
did not add somebody of that talent profile. I'm just saying,
like somebody with that kind of energy that they brought
in and all of a sudden, a team that you
said you knew was a championship type team but then
just elevated to a different level because you had this
sort of spark. I'm interested to see what the collective
of these new guys brings that kind of element to
(14:35):
the nuggets. But yeah, I think that getting that chemistry right,
figuring out rotations and all those kinds of things are
going to be important.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
No doubt. Nick always appreciated man, great reporting. As always,
We will talk.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
To you soon, all right. Well, thanks a lot the
cosmid Or from the Athletic. Really good stuff there.
We're headed out to the Kai Commaspird health outline and
bringing a good friend, good friend of the program from
the Athletic Nick Cosmider.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Nick, you're all with Ryan Edwards and Benjamin Albright. How
are you, my friend?
Speaker 3 (00:09):
I'm good?
Speaker 4 (00:10):
How are you?
Speaker 3 (00:10):
Guys? Doing great?
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Very excited about not only tonight with the Nuggets, and
I definitely want to ask you a couple of questions
about that, but also of course, uh, the game on Sunday.
I don't know, man, There's gonna be a lot made
of the offense needing to sort of carry their weight
in this one. Where do you come down on what
we've seen from the offense seven games in?
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Yeah, I mean, I think it all comes out to
the balance of about where they're where they're kind of
ranked statistically, which is which is pretty average, right, whether
you look at scoring, you know EPA per play, you
know yards per game, it's it's all kind of in
that that league average kind of level. And you know
that that has been good enough to be five and
two when you have a defense that is as good
(00:53):
as this one is, when you have a quarterback who
has shown the ability in the moments that truly matter
most games of late to get the job done.
Speaker 4 (01:03):
But it's also not good enough to think.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
That this is a team that can ultimately be a
championship type contender as it's currently playing. And so I
think that's that's where some of the frustration, both externally internally.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
Comes in, is that you know they.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Have some of the right stuff that can make you
look at it and say, especially in what appears to
be a pretty open league this year, you know to compete,
but that won't happen unless they unless they get it going.
And that's just kind of the urgency that you felt
being around there this week.
Speaker 5 (01:36):
It's all well and good when you're up against teams
like the Jets or or the Giants or the Bengals
post Joe Burrow and you're able to do that kind
of stuff, but you've got a tough slate of games
caught up. The Cowboys can put points on points on points,
even if they can't stop anybody. The Texans look like
they may be starting to figure a little something out
on offense and have a very good defense.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Kansas City looks like they're finally starting to hit their stride.
Speaker 5 (01:59):
You get the walk Commanders on Sunday night, football, the
Packers coming up another game against the Chargers, the only
two Guinea games in here. It looks like the Broncos
have left of the Raiders this thing, like if they
don't get the offensive proved, could these things go sideways fast?
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Yeah? I mean, and that's the thing of it, especially
when you look at it then and you I mean,
and I know.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
You know this, but they you could look at that game.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Pretty much any game it wasn't the Bengals game could
have gone the other direction. And Garrett Bowles said in
the locker room after the game on Sunday, like, you know,
we know we could be seven and oh right now.
And that's true, but they could just as easily, you know,
be you know, be one and six. I wouldn't really
quite put the Titans game in that category. I don't
(02:42):
think there was ever any you know, real concern with
that one, even though they certainly did not play well.
But but really so let's say two and five, like
you could easily, you know, point.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
To that and say if some of these hadn't.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Gone right late of late, then you would be looking
at that kind of reck right now. So absolutely, I
think it's tenuous and that and that's the whole thing.
Like they're saying, you're not going to avoid close games
in the NFL. They're they're they're part, they're part of
the league's fabric like that, that's just the way it goes.
But you can also put yourself in better positions to
where you're not, you know, again, coming down to the
(03:17):
last minute and not only coming down the last minute,
but having to to to rally and do all these
kind of like out of the box things in order
to even get in that position. That that's that's what
they have to avoid. Because yeah, I completely agree that
it's not it's not sustainable to win this way if
you cannot find more consistency with what you're doing offensively.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
But I imagine as you've been in the locker room this week,
you haven't gotten the sense from the guys that they're
they're satisfied with us either.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Oh oh no.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
Like I again, I think that's the confounding thing.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Like you talk to a guy like like Mike McGlinchey
and he says like this, you know, that's that's part
of the frustrating thing is because we know we have
we have what it takes. Because when you go back
and they start, you know, they look at it. You know,
if you were just a team that never showed you know,
there's a lot of bad offenses in the NFL that
aren't showing these kind of fireworks in stretches that the
(04:10):
Broncos have, like they're I think they're top ten in
an explosive play rate. So it's it's not that they
don't have the capability. It's not that they haven't shown
it in stretches. It's the it's the inability to get
on a roll. Evan Ingram said, if you look, if
you look at it, when we get a first down,
we're really good. And the problem is they go three
and out as much as almost anybody in the league.
(04:32):
And so there's that fine line of like getting going.
It seems like once they can get going on a drive,
more often than not they finish it. They've just had
too many where they didn't get that initial first down
or maybe you know, the second one. It's almost like
once they get to the fifty, they can see the
goal line, they're in good position, but they've just been
tripping themselves up too much to find that rhythm that
(04:54):
would make them a good offense.
Speaker 5 (04:55):
Right now, yeah, and it feels like that there are
feels to me like I mean, I'm just a door
with a microphone.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
Do I really know?
Speaker 5 (05:01):
But it feels to me like there are easy fixes
to this kind of stuff. You know, if there are
things that aren't working and we have large enough sample
sizes to see that they're not working, and we have
things that are working that we're not doing, why not
just you know, I get the oversimplification, but just switch
to the things that are working. Why aren't we running
the football more early? Why aren't we running the football
inside the five yard line? Why aren't we deleting these
(05:22):
And I know Sean doesn't want to talk about it,
but deleting these screenplays that aren't working or are working
at a twenty to thirty percent clip, Why aren't we
just doing higher percentage things to maximize the.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Talent we have?
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Well, and Joe Lombarty said when he got up to
the podium today.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
On coordinator day there we was kind.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Of asked about the you know, the gap between the
struggles you know, in earlier parts of game versus the
fourth quarter, and he said, well, we've told him this
week we're just going to do the fourth quarter stuff
early in the game, and it's it's that whole like
there's always a kernel of truth to you know, to
a good joke, right, and that the truth part of
that is that while you can't play the same way
(06:01):
in terms of just like you know, up tempo or
whatever else, like a lot of that comeback. The Giants
were playing them straight because they had to, and what
you were finding success with was like just just attacking
your good one on one matchups. And I think they
they work so hard to kind of scheme things the
way that they want to that you know, like, hey,
(06:22):
Courland Sutton can beat can win most of his one
on one matchups. Marvin Mims has shown more and more
that that he can win one on one matchups in
different ways, including like going up and getting a ball
for you. And they just seem to play more free
when when that really becomes the focus and bo is
really just kind of looking at that top read. I
understand you're not getting they're not getting a ton of
(06:43):
one on one looks all the time. But again, I
just think that they need to simplify things earlier in
the game versus you know, waiting to get down and
then just kind of going out and making plays.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Nick Cosmoner from the Athletics joining us here. Let's go
to the other side of the ball here for a moment.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
And and I do.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Want to talk about your article in a second about
being the most penalized team. That's an obviously important factor
in all this. But just a question on the defense
this Dallas Cowboys offense. I mean, as you know, they're
they're one of top two, top three across the league.
So I guess your perspective, how would you defend them
on the back end.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Yeah, it's tough. I thought they it's Joseph had an
interesting point today where he's saying, like, if you look
at it, the Cowboys when they're in their like eleven personnel,
they're averaging like six point two yards per carry.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
And that's because you know.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Teams are having to play them, you know, kind of
play them high because of all the weapons that Dak
Prescott has. And so in the running game, Javonte Williams
is getting a lot of you know, to in vance
Joseph's words, a lot of clean boxes. So that that
is the challenge, Like once you've incorporated that balance, once
you've proven that you can attack down the field with
(07:54):
the weapons that they have in Ceedee Lamb, George Pickens,
and Jake Ferguson. Now, like now the running game becomes
much a much easier part of that question, and it
starts to build on itself. So you know, I heard
Tella no Hufangas talking in the locker room about like
what they have to do really well. Advanced Joseph mentioned
this too, is like some of the cat and mouse
disguise stuff that this defense has typically done a pretty
(08:17):
good job of of like not really giving you a
clean sense of what it is that they are, what
it is that they're bringing, you know, having the late rotations,
really doing it as best they can to kind of
mix up those looks for Dak Prescott so that they're
you know, maybe not showing heavy boxes, but being able
to come down and bring that, you.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
Know, right after the snap.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
I think those are kind of kind of be some
of the interesting subplots of this game on Sunday.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
All right, So one more Broncos question before we ask
you about the Nuggets. Really good breakdown here on the penalties.
Is horses depressing to look at it to leading the
NFL in yours penalized by a wide margin, as you
put at five hundred and seventy five with Jacksonville d
in next of five twenty eight. It's it's stunning when
you think about this coaching staff and the tension to
(09:02):
detail that you know it resides inside that building.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
What do you make of it?
Speaker 4 (09:08):
Yeah, it really is.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
I think confounding is a good word. Vexing, perplexing, you know, whatever,
whatever kind of words you want to use for it.
Because as Peyton noted too, I think the thing that
he is clearly kind of like missed by is that
it's coming from everywhere. It's not just like they're having
this one set of problems and like you know, I
mean in twenty twenty two they were obviously heavily penalized
(09:33):
under Nathaniel Hackett, and that thing as the season went bad,
like you start getting more personal fouls and so that
starts kind of compounding itself. But early on it was
just these like influx of you know, crazy delay of game,
pre pre snap stuff. Here. It's just like so widespread
that you know that it's a little bit harder to
put your put your finger on it, you know. But
(09:55):
I was talking to Evan Inger about I say, hey,
I know this is a hard thing to ask about,
right because, yeah, of course they don't want to be
committing penalties. But his thing was, like, we just we
have to understand that, like we cannot live this way.
Like it's it's pretty rare that you could have two
different games in which you're penalized twelve times for one
hundred and twenty plus yards and win both of those games.
That was Philadelphia and that was the New York Giants,
(10:17):
and you.
Speaker 4 (10:18):
Know, the Lady luck is.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Not going to continue to shine on you if you
can't figure it out.
Speaker 4 (10:22):
So I don't have a good answer as to how
they do it.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Like obviously there's technique that they look at, there's you know,
points of emphasis that they have in their team meetings.
All those things are kind of part of the gumbo
of figuring this thing out. But bottom line is they
just have to do it because at this rate, you know,
it's eventually going.
Speaker 5 (10:40):
To bite you, you know, Nika, Yeah, I've been they've
been on discipline, second worst in the NFL in turns
being penalized. But somebody who looks fairly disciplined, Jabal Murray
the Nuggets, looks like he's in the best shape I've
seen him, mean since probably drafted to the Nuggets. Nuggets
tip it off the night against Golden State Warriors. What
are you looking forward to in this one?
Speaker 3 (10:59):
Yeah, I mean I think just right there, I mean, no,
Number one, it would be him. I think that that
was something back, you know, back when I was covering
the team on a regular basis that like you you've
been hearing about. It's like just kind of this this
this hope, this this push to have Jamal Murray, you know,
kind of show up in the kind of shape that
he seems to be in right now going into this season.
(11:20):
And you know, part of that again has been injuries
that spanned a couple off seasons and some different things
like that. Clearly last year there was you know that
there was the internal tension in the organization, there was
the delay of his contract. There was just a lot
of like funky stuff that kind of clouded the start
of his season. But just just the kind of clear
headedness from Afar that it seems that he has going
(11:41):
into this year, I think is big and I want
to see how that translates. And then the other thing
is like how much can they get Nicole Yokich off
of his feet this year. I think that's going to
be critical. You know again that we know this guy
is just a machine in terms of his endurance and
all those kinds of things. But you know, he's another
year older. I think you want to have him more
fresh going into the playoffs this year than you did
(12:03):
last year. So like, you know, how how much can
they get on his valcunis on the floor because they
can kind of play a little bit more of the
same way when when Yokic sits, you know, maybe that
allows you to kind of give him some some longer runs.
You know, if you if this roster is overall better,
maybe maybe you have more leaves late in games than
you did last year. And then again like that, the
(12:24):
other part of that test is can Adaman take a
bigger picture view than sometimes Mike Michael Malone did.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
That was such sort.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
Of the criticism of just like, you know.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
Playing guys heavy minutes early in.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
The year because you're you're chasing every win, when hey,
we know we're good enough to be where we need
to be in the playoffs. Let's not lose sight of
the you know, the forest through the trees kind of thing.
So those are those are a few of the things
I'm really looking looking forward to seeing from them.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
Yeah, no doubt about it. And then one thing in
this last thing for me, I appreciate you joining us, Nick.
The chemistry thing, right, this team up until this year
was kind of the same cores. That's not kind of
the same guys, and they even if they had to
play a lot of minutes, they knew what they were
going to be doing. Cam Johnson now in place of
Michael Porter Junior, Like, how does that change some of
the rotations and where you think he's gonna be.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
And I understand that a lot of people are.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Excited about how he's going to be very a better
defensive player, but there were some nice things that Michael
Porter Junior obviously did for this team.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
You know, Bruce Brown's gonna fit right like a glove.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
I mean, I'm not worried worried about that, but you
mentioned valanchunas you know what's that going to look like?
So for me, like, the chemistry of things early on
is going to be something to watch.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
What do you think?
Speaker 4 (13:31):
Yeah, I one.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
Hundred percent agreed. I think as good as I think
a lot of people think. This team is and it
certainly looks like, you know, the best rosters since at
least their championship season in twenty three, and I don't
think people even thought that roster was that good going
into that year. You know, as good as it is,
I think it would be naive to not think there
is going to be some you know, maybe some early
(13:52):
season hiccups because of that what you said, Like they've
played with largely the same cast for quite a while
and they made some pretty big shakeups this off season.
But I think you need it. I think you need
sort of that refresher. I mean, we even just look
at the you know, the Patriots in our sport that
we cover, right like they had already won championships and
then all of a sudden you get a guy like
(14:14):
with the talent of Randy Moss. And I know they
did not add somebody of that talent profile. I'm just saying,
like somebody with that kind of energy that they brought
in and all of a sudden, a team that you
said you knew was a championship type team but then
just elevated to a different level because you had this
sort of spark. I'm interested to see what the collective
of these new guys brings that kind of element to
(14:35):
the nuggets. But yeah, I think that getting that chemistry right,
figuring out rotations and all those kinds of things are
going to be important.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
No doubt. Nick always appreciated man, great reporting. As always,
We will talk.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
To you soon, all right. Well, thanks a lot the
cosmid Or from the Athletic. Really good stuff there.
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