Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's a Broncos Country.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
Welcome back to the Broncos podcast network and YouTube for
the latest episode of Broncos Now. As I always are,
our host of Sidney Jones, and for today's episode, I'm
coming to you from Indianapolis at the NFL Scouting Combine.
We'll take a look at the top storyline surrounding head
coach Sean Payton and a general manager George Peyton's.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Prescomferenses, all that more coming up. We're taking Broncos Now
on the road this week.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
As I'm here in Indianapolis at the NFL Scouting Combine,
we heard today from head coach Sean Payon and a
general manager George Payton, as the addressed the media and
detailed where the team is at at this point in
the off season and what they're looking forward to most
this week at the combine.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
It's always good to be down in Indie and it's
another important step in the process. Obviously, you know, we
just finished a busy two weeks. We had our scouts
in two weeks ago, we had you know, eight days
of draft meetings, and then before we came we had
free agent meetings. Do feel like we're ahead of the
game this year. You know, last year at this time,
(00:58):
we're still you know, finalizing our coaching staff. You know,
we didn't have free agent meetings still after the combine.
You know, Sean wasn't able to sit in the draft meetings.
So feel good with where we're at. Look forward to
a productive off season.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
You know, we're looking for goal driven players, athletes that
are unselfish to some degree. And and then I would
say that one trait is that we use that term
grid a lot, but that you know that that ability
to get up time and time again overcome adversity. It's
(01:36):
a little bit more challenging now with the portal. Like
I started thinking to myself, how many times when I
was in school that I would have loved to jump
into a portal, you know, upset or disappointed or mad
or whatever had a bad practice. And but those traits
still exist, and I think those are important traits when
(01:58):
we're visiting with young athletes.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Both Shawn and George also talked about what they're looking
for specifically when evaluating quarterbacks this week.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
The first thing is getting to put a name with
a face, and it's the it's the first personal visit
where you're like a nice to meet you, and then
you know, you'll spend time with questions and they'll be
football related, and they'll be follow up meetings, you know,
(02:26):
pro day visits, private workout visits, and so these are
all like pieces of the equation that I think are necessary.
And uh, you know, obviously, the look the the beginning
of this event was to combine medical information, you know,
hence the term combine, and then pretty soon let's run
(02:50):
a forty and let's run a few of these cone drills.
Let's have these meetings. But the interactions in the in
the meetings are important because it is the for a
lot of us, the scouts maybe not so much, but
for a lot of us, it's the first time we're
getting to we're getting introduced to a prospect and so
(03:13):
not just a quarterback, but the other positions, and I
think that first impression is important.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
You just want to get around them as much as
you can. You know, I was fortunate to see you know,
a lot of these quarterbacks during the fall, and then
that's one step of the process. And then you have
the All Star Games, and then you have the combine,
and then you have pro days and maybe private workouts
so as much as you can get around them and
see what, you know, what makes them tick. You know,
Sean talked about leadership, what's the day to day like
(03:39):
and what do their teammates feel about them. You can
evaluate the arm strength, the accuracy, the athleticism. You know,
being able to process is a little more difficult, But
I think the more you can get around them, the
better decisions you know you'll make.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Sean Payton went on to talk about how that evaluation
process has changed for him over the years.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
I think the receiver position is difficult, there are a
lot of misses there, and the quarterback positions is difficult
sometimes and this is not just recent. And we go
all the way back to man the run and shoot,
and we can list a number of guys that were
successful that we didn't expect to be successful and guys
(04:16):
that weren't. And I think that oftentimes the systems that
they're in can be difficult to evaluate. You know, it's
harder to find good inside linebackers anymore. It used to
be difficult to evaluate offensive tackles because teams were running
you know, option football, veer schemes, wishbone or what have you.
(04:37):
Now we get great film in evaluating whether guys can
pass protect or not, but then conversely we get more
difficult film at other positions. To your point, with quarterbacks,
I think that I think one thing that's hard to
(04:57):
measure is their ability to multitask, can process and make decisions.
It's one thing like you can visit with someone and
you know they can be intelligent, but man, how quickly
can they deliver the information and how quickly can they
get through the progression? Are they accurate? There's some fundamental
(05:19):
things that we have to see that are present, and
so sometimes it's not as difficult as we make it
out to be, and then sometimes, listen, it's very difficult.
And so I think, I think we'll be really good
at this, and I think to some degree we're glad
(05:39):
that a lot of people aren't.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Plus, George Payton discussed how the Roncos planned to approach
free agency this year.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
We're going to be very Mike, like we said, we're
gonna be strategic. We're not going to be aggressive as
last year. You know, we we have flexibility, but we're gonna,
you know, just be more measured and try to fill
specific you know, positions, specific specific needs. You know, throughout
the team and feel like we'll have the flexibility to
do that, but we're not going to be like and
we can't do that every year and be aggressive like
(06:06):
we're last year.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Now, joining me here on Broncos Now for today's episode
from Indianapolis is Broncos lead writer Eric Dalala.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Eric, thanks for joining me today. Great to be here
at the combine.
Speaker 5 (06:15):
Got it said we hit the road for this one.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
I know we did. It's been fun so far.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Eric. We heard early in the show from head coach
Sean Payton and a general manager George Payton. To start
with Sean's press conference. What was your biggest takeaway?
Speaker 5 (06:25):
Yeah, I mean it was all about the quarterback position, right.
Speaker 6 (06:28):
I think the biggest news is that within the next
couple of weeks that Broncos are going to make a
decision on Russell Wilson's future his status. But I was
also interested hearing all about the quarterback evaluation process and
what's so important to Sean Payton when he looks for
a quarterback, especially a young quarterback in the draft, and
he mentioned there's a lot of things accuracy, leadership, you know,
(06:50):
the bill, the makeup from a physical standpoint that you
shouldn't miss on. And then there's all the stuff that
kind of is maybe harder to measure, less tangible in
terms of being a little process and you know, take
control at the line of scrimmage, call to play the
right way, process quickly again, and and those things are
harder to figure out. Yeah, and so that's what this
meeting room time is for, to start to get an
(07:12):
idea of what that's all about, how these guys do.
And Sean said, Listen, it can be really difficult to
figure that out. But I think we're good at it,
and I think we're happy that some other teams are
not so good at it, and so Coley the Broncos
feel like they have an advantage there in terms of
evaluating that position.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Yeah. Absolutely, And it was interesting Eric to hear both
Shawn and George also talk about how the evaluation process
of a quarterback has really changed over the past couple
of years too, especially for Seawann who's been coaching for
a very long time.
Speaker 6 (07:42):
Yeah, you know, offenses are different, and what guys are
asked to do is different. I think some of the
college offense has to do with that. But but at
the end of the day, he said, a lot of
things still stay the same for as much as they've changed.
You still want a guy that's accurate. You still want
a guy that can maybe move a little bit outside
of the pocket. But he did say you've got to
be able to win from the pocket because teams are
going to force.
Speaker 5 (08:02):
You to do that.
Speaker 6 (08:03):
You still got a process, he said, once it was
in a mini camp and guy got up there and
he could just tell right away this wasn't the guy
they thought they were getting. And so clearly that's going
to be when you hear him talk about the quarterback position,
that the processing element is clearly the number one thing
I that the Broncos will be looking for.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Yeah, h Eric, Now onto George's press conference. What was
the big thing that really stuck out to you? Yeah?
Speaker 6 (08:25):
I think two things from George. Won the salary cap.
You know, it took a big jump from where people
expected it to be to where it ended up. I
think the key there from George was it gives us
team flexibility and that they had a plan for Okay,
here's a projected salary cap. Here's what we think we're
gonna be able to do. And George did say we
were going to be able to meet our needs regardless,
but now you've got a little bit more flexibility and
(08:47):
that you know it can either help you this year,
maybe it helps you next year planning for the future.
But every team gets helped the same amount, right because
this salary cap goes up, but for the Broncos it
does feel particularly beneficial given where they sit with the
salary cap. The other thing was the free agent plan,
and that was just kind of an echo of what
he said after the season of the Broncos are not
(09:08):
going to be swinging for the fence on day one.
It's not going to be like last year when Le
Broncos really went out and got a bunch of guys
in that first wave.
Speaker 5 (09:16):
They're going to be strategic.
Speaker 6 (09:17):
They're still going to film needs it and that doesn't
mean they're not going to be active in free agency,
but signing four big ticket guys day one probably not
the path this year. So you know, where a few
weeks removed from the season and certainly things can change,
but George kind of re emphasized that that's still the
plan there as we head in a free agency in
just a couple of weeks.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Just a couple of weeks. It's come of before we
know it. Eric, I know.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
George also talked about how beneficial it's going to be
this year having the same coaching staff for two years
in a row. You know, we haven't seen that in
recent years. How important do you think that really is
going to be this year?
Speaker 6 (09:49):
Yeah, I mean, gosh, I can only imagine how difficult
it is. George comes in, you got Vic Fangio, make
a change to Nathaniel Hackett, make a change to Sean Payton,
and so you're drafting player for different coaches. It's like
you're buying ingredients for one chef and then somebody else
comes in. It's just hard to make that work. And
when you have consistency with the same head coach with
the same system, obviously fancy Joseph Back as defensive coordinator,
(10:12):
that can only help. And plus it's not just the
way guys fit. But George knows more now about what
Sean Payton is looking for. He said a couple of
months ago, Hey, I know exactly what Sean Payton wants
at the quarterback position.
Speaker 5 (10:23):
Those are big.
Speaker 6 (10:24):
Things as you're trying to build a team. And we've
heard so much right about stability and the value of that.
And it is really hard, I think, to find success
when you're constantly changing at those positions and when you're
not quite sure you know, is there going to be
that stability year to year and so being able to
build a roster that kind of has that, you know,
just that that line through it of hey, George has
(10:46):
been here, Sean has been here, George knows what Sean's
looking for. We're going to go find those players. That's
important and it allows guys to develop. So you know,
another thing Sean said was Marvin Mims we think has
great potential at receiver, and really he was on the
coaching staff for not using him as much as a
receiver last year, but hey, year two, same system, Marvin
Mims can get better. Drew Sanders, you know, those are
the types of guy Riley Moss, I mean, those are
(11:07):
the types of guys that can benefit from consistency. And
so it's not just about this year's draft class, said,
it's about last year's draft class as well.
Speaker 5 (11:15):
Taking a step forward.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Yeah, or as we know, you know, the draft road
to the draft really starts here at the combine.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
We've talked a lot about the quarterback position.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
But what other positions do you think George and his
staff Sean will take a look at this week.
Speaker 6 (11:27):
Yeah, I mean there's a lot of areas where you
could look and say, hey, the Broncos could use a
playmaker here, you know, cornerback, you could always use more
depth there. George mentioned that he mentioned up front stopping
the run, so that could be interior defensive line. Could
that be a linebacker, an edge guy. You know, certainly
with the production the Broncos got last year at tight end,
(11:49):
that could be an option. Obviously there's there's only one
guy there that really speaks to people from a first
round grade, but certainly later in the draft that could
be valuable. And then I think you're always looking at
receivers and guys can make big plays, you know, find
guys that offensively are weapons for whoever's at the quarterback position.
So kind of a hedge there said, but I think, yeah,
(12:09):
the exciting thing is because the Broncos have not had
these early picks in recent years, they could go a
lot of different directions and still make a big impact,
a big upgrade on this football team. And so maybe
we'll get a little more clarity after free agency.
Speaker 5 (12:24):
But right now. I think there's a lot of paths
that the Broncos.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Could travel YEP, which is exciting.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
And I know George said that he feels good about
the draft this year and the talent in the early round.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
So we'll see what they do here in a few weeks. Eric,
appreciate you joining the show today.
Speaker 5 (12:36):
Got it said, Well, that's going to do it for.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
This week's episode of Broncos Now Broncos Country. Thanks so
much for tuning in. I'll meet you right back here
on the Broncos Podcast Network in YouTube next week for
another episode.