February 20, 2024 • 36 mins
PA with some ponderings to start the hour on Danielle Hunter, then he chats NFL Draft with Denver sports reporter Brandon Krisztal for the remainder of the show!
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(00:01):
There. The named Neil Hunter cameup earlier on the radio show with the
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NFL free agency approaching. Welcome back, yours truly, Paul Allen at iHeart
Radio sister station eight five O koA. It's a KOA, it's a
heritage station, but been around forever. It's og is as as Marconi's game
goes. And once again, thanksto not only Nordo for hooking it up
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back at FM one hundred point threek f A M, but the Shannon
Scott and Chad Bauer here with KOA, along with Brandon Christall a reporter and
host who will join us in thepenultimate segment of today's show, because we
couldn't do it without them, sothank you very much. And with that
Daniel Hunter conversation, it's I mean, it's not like, you know,
I'm staring longingly at Rocky mountains orceiling fans thinking about a Deshaun Watson's contract.
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Daniel hunters a lot in life withthe Minnesota Vikings. But you know,
the the closer we get to freeagency, that the more you know,
I and we are going to thinkabout this because Daniel's coming off a
season where at one point, youknow, it had some defensive MVP to
it and with all the sacks andyou know, his his for my taste,
and and you know, those whoare new to the covenant, you
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know, so therefore maybe they haven'tyou know, seen all of Daniel's games,
all of his career. But youknow, the right people were telling
me during the season that that thisis the best Daniel has ever played against
the run, and and and thatyou know that matters, so that you
know that that was a one intwenty where Daniel smartly, he and his
representation uh were able to finagle theirway or get the team to acquiesque to
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not being able to put the franchisetag on him. So uh, that
bravo for them. I mean thatthat that's very key in this equation because
I believe it's going to be morethan twenty million dollars a year on the
average. And you know, sowhen you're you're starting to think about who,
what, where, when and whyof Minnesota Vikings football, and Daniel
Hunter is one of the first andforemost or second and four second when it
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comes to thinking of certain names andmoving forward. But what really triggered me
on this is Hya and young AlexAlex Lewis from the Athletic When when when
he stopped by nine to noon,I think it was last Thursday, and
you know, he we're talking aboutDaniel a little bit and I stick by.
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You know what I say, Idon't I don't know if it's going
to happen, But the Chicago Bearsand Detroit Lions would be fools to not
try to run down Daniel Hunt giventhe money they have to spend on a
player like that, specifically the Lions, who they're on the doorstep of destiny.
Man, I mean, that's ateam that's on the doorstep of getting
to the super Bowl. So youput the division rivals to the side,
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and YA said, just you know, out of nowhere Jacksonville, you know,
And and I had heard that too, but you know, he was
emphatic. And so then you lookat the Jaguars and they have money.
They have this Josh Allen cat andI think they got to work something out
with him contractually. But then theygot this tray Von Walker who was taken
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like first second or third I thinkin the twenty twenty two draft or something.
They had like ten and a halfeleven sacks, he's really good and
offensively with the way they run itwith at ten and Lawrence. I don't
think Trevor Lawrence's career has exactly workedout how they thought it would given how
high they took him. But youknow, Christian Kirk is, I mean,
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Christian Kirk has turned into a really, really good football player and worth
every dollar that came his way.And I say that because there were a
lot of national people who kind ofmocked the Jags for the deal that Christian
Kirk got. And now with Petersonas the coach, you got the offensive
part getting mostly squared away, butthey got some firepower. But the identity
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of this team, the Jacksonville Jaguars, is becoming that a defense, especially
if they flirt with Daniel Hunters.So when YA dropped that last week,
it's something that I thought about andI think it makes a lot of sense.
You know, and Daniel is he'sin the second part of his career.
So you know, when it comesto thinking about older players or you
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know, like age discrimination against playersand they won't bring them in because of
their age and stuff like that,you know, Cousin is going to be
thirty six this next season. Ithink there's going to be a good market
for him. But when you arein my stead tomorrow, yeah, if
you happen to have Mike Florio onthe radio show, he he wrote a
story. It might have been Friday. I saved it in the email and
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sent it to you simply because Ijust you know, it doesn't require a
lot of talking out right now.But you know from this ProFootball talk dot
com story. Federal law, alongwith the laws of most, if not
all, states, prohibit discrimination againstage. The protection begins at the age
of forty, but obviously the temptationto discriminate can get stronger as forty dips
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farther and farther into the rear viewmirror. In the twenty two plus years
we've been operating this specific media outlet, that'd be PFTA. You know,
we there have been multiple examples ofpossible agism. Often it happens with lower
profile jobs like scouting. Given thelatest hiring cycle for head coaches, it's
fair to ask whether there's a biasagainst older head coaches. Then he writes,
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two of the best coaches in theleague history were available, Bill Belichick
seventy one, got one interview PeteCarroll seventy two, who got none.
Then finally after that, the averageage of the eight new head coaches Mike
McDonald thirty six, Grod Mayo thirtyseven, Brian Callahan thirty nine, Dave
Canalis forty two, Antonio Piers fortyfive, Raheem Morris forty seven, Dan
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Quinn fifty three, Jim Harbaughs sixtyis forty four point eight. And if
Washington had landed thirty seven year oldBen Johnson instead of the fifty three year
old Quinn, that average would havegone to forty two point eight. So
the reason I bring it up,you know, before we pause here in
a couple of minutes, is Idon't necessarily think Bill Belichick was super interested
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in getting back into the game,and likewise for Pete Carroll. I mean,
if Pete Carroll wants to be consideredfor a job, then there are
teams that would have interviewed Pete Carroll. You know, it's it's okay after
elongated runs, it specifically runs whereyou've worked really really hard to climb to
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the top and win. Super okay, something unfortunate happens, Nobody wants to
be fired or asked to leave,but you know, maybe there is self
awareness in a way they recognized,you know, I want to be away
from it for a year or so, and maybe they won't get back in.
But I would think Belichick and orCarroll would be mostly comfortable with that.
So I don't know what you think, ma'am, but I've just never
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really thought of like agism or agediscrimination being a situation with these older coaches
potentially looking for jobs, because theseteams have the right to look at these
younger coaches. We have one herein Kevin O'Connell and ideas that A are
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different than those who had done itfor twenty years and be one of the
real underrated facets of successful head coachesthis day and age is how they work
with this generation of human being.You understand what I'm saying I do,
and that's you know, a doorof Florio Absolutely to me kind of feels
like you and I sitting together andthinking about the most obscure and outlandish idea
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for a Vikings trade or something.Again, the idle hand philosophy that I
just I feel with the way we'reanalyzing our team and with a lot of
people just kind of between you know, post super Bowl, pre combine,
pre draft, let's throw some talkersout there simultaneously. The idea of you
know, we know that this isa habit league. We know that this
is a copycat league. We knowthat this league rides trends and waves.
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And it should shock nobody that fora Bill Belichick, who hasn't even been
to the playoffs since twenty nineteen,that there's some disgruntled parts of that organization,
quarterback issues, all of those thingsthat teams didn't immediately run and clamor
for his services long tenured, you'regoing to have to do a ton of
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adjustments, including GM and personnel,and you're really handed over a lot more
than just a job to Bill Belichick. And in some ways similarly with Pete
Carroll, where John Schneider is theGM, but you know, Pete Carroll's
had his hands in every bit ofthat Seahawks organization. These are these are
guys and then not just an agething. I mean in any aspect of
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life in the career world. Ifa guy's seventy and wants to work,
I absolutely support that guy having anopportunity to do it. But in the
same way that technology changes business processes, the efficiency of industry. Similarly,
the players change, the generations changed, the needs change, and older Americans,
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older anybody are always going to havea tougher time adjusting and meeting those
needs as things change. So youknow, whether it was here with Zimmer
and where you know that conversation piecesand you nailed it. The ability to
accommodate and connect with with a youngerand a completely different player than when Zimmer
started his career, you know,just hammering on the ear drums of the
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Larry Browns and Deon Sanders of theworld. It's different now, and it's
different for Belichick. So I don'tlook at his agism. I look at
it as evolution. That's just kindof as basic as I can put it.
I think, from my point ofview well stated. And if the
Minnesota Vikings are looking to get youngerat quarterback, selecting one at or around
eleven definitely could be the bill offare in two months and change. Now
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with Bob with shoes in the boxfor the New York Jets kind enough to
join us to talk about the Jetsat ten and me, you know,
he didn't make us sound like theywere super interested in quarterback at ten where
if you want one and you're theVikings like yes, because of the trade
up situations that I believe are goingto have to take place to get a
certain quarterback. But what about twelveand with yours truly in Denver and in
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Colorado doing the radio show from theheritage piece KOA, what about those Broncos
at twelve? Let's discuss that andmuch more with a Brandon Christall at BK
Denver Sports when nine to noon canon the fan. Here comes BK Brandon
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Christall at BK Denver Sport to beof the tweet machine. He's a sports
anchor and reporter for KOA Radio andthis family here, the iHeart family here
in the Rocky Mountain region. Andhe's also a father for his daughter,
Scarlett, three year old, beautifuldaughter with those beautiful braids in her hair.
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She's here with us too, andBK Denver Sports is here to amplify
nine to noon, which is eightto eleven Denver time. What's up,
my brother? So I told somefriends in Minnesota to tune in for some
high quality entertainment, which I'm expectingyou to provide. I'm just gonna stop
it tag long. But the greatJohn Randall, who I missed in Vegas
last week, but going to seehim in Indy next week at the Combine.
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He does so much stuff with theLegends community. My friend's Patrick and
Susan born and raised in Minnesota,love the Broncos, like their whole house
is Broncos. They came out fora Broncos game this year. And then
one of my fraternity brothers, Jessekeyboard of Daniels and Keyboard law firm f
right. And when you say fraternitybrothers, that would be the Kansas Jayhawks
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exactly, and a long time friendof mine. I mean, I've called
Vikings games twenty two is something likethat, so about two decades. Media
relations guy John Exstrom is from He'sfrom Kansas City or at least that area,
and he loves the Jayhawks. ManMario Chalmers go crazy, Jock Vaughn
go crazy, Grady Dick go crazy. But it's like watching the Jayhawks this
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year like watching the Kentucky Wild Kats, I mean a couple of blue blots.
Now, Kansas is better than thanKentucky, but I've watched Kansas play
two times. One one was awhat's the most recent loss? They lost?
To TCU. That's what it wasa big Monday of that last week.
There you go, Okay, it'sa loss to TCU, and it
wasn't great. But the other timeI watched him, they were playing this
bally hoot Houston team on a Saturdayin the middle of the afternoon Cornfields,
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and I'm like, I'm texting Xtrom, going, if your squad plays ninety
six percent, ninety two percent asgood as what I'm watching right now,
ain't nobody in this country going tobeat that team. They have a high
ceiling. I saw where Seth Greenbergsaid they have the best starting five.
They're shooting is an issue, butevery one of these, I mean,
the final four last year. Ascool as it is to see Florida,
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Atlantic or Miami get there to makeit the event we wanted to be.
You need a blue Blodder two alsosneaking in there, and I get Yukon
obviously winning it. I'd love tosee Kansas and Phoenix. It's the same
weekend as Rocky's opening weekend here athome. Wow, I'll happily miss that
to go see my Jayhawks down there. And then our pal Bob Hagen saw
him briefly his iy was State squad, I mean the big twelves loaded.
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So he was in Vegas last weekand we didn't talk much, but I
was State. Obviously put it onKansas a few weeks ago where KU was
a road dog, and we knowHilton's tough, but the Big twelve it's
fun to watch for sure. Somany KU alums are there in the Greater
Twin Cities area. I mean legitimately, you know, to b BK Denver
sports anchor, slash host, slashreporter, you know, or maybe you're
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going to bet your money here asopposed to tried and true a lam and
you just love the team inside.Now, like winning the national championship,
I mean chipchair chance or yeah,they legitimately have a good chance. I
think they have a good chance becauseespecially if they're running their stuff the right
way. You've got a point guardand Dewan Harris, who was a point
guard on championship team just a coupleof years ago, Hunter Dickinson. You
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know, I talked to a coupleof basketball people and I said, oh,
is he the next Nicole Yokich kindof kidding and basically they're said no,
if he was a pro he'd bein the pros. He's a very
good college player, kind of likeZach Edy who is a dominant college player,
but not share their game translates tobe the star at the next level.
Doesn't mean they won't be on NBArosters for a decade. But think
about our guy, Frank Kaminski fromWisconsin, right, You're like, look
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at this guy. It's gonna translatefor sure. And he's been at the
end of the bench and playing inin mop up time for me, But
he can't start, certainly, notfor that. The Timberwolves, who are
going to give the Nuggets a runfor their money, I think this spring
if they match up in the playoffs. Yeah, that and and I was
chatting with an NBA mind named DaneMoro does really good work earlier, And
that's the barometer for me. Andyes, I believe the Timberwolves can get
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to the NBA Championship and and butbut I mean, whether let's give the
Wolves home court, Okay, Imean until hearts can get wrapped around,
do you truly believe you can beatJokic in a seven game series? That
that that's the barometer for me.I mean, Jamal Murray obviously off on
the side, and who's going tocheck him? And Jamal's the bomb and
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Porter and Gordon specifically Porter and theway he plays in the postseason. Yeah,
I mean, it's I still believethat's absolutely target at which to shoot,
for sure, funding it's the champs, but the Jimberwolves are legitimately better,
and this is a legitimately top topthree ist, top fourst team in
the game. Well, and whenyou're getting the performance that you've got from
Carl Anthony Towns this year and thengo Baar defensively, and if they're both
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both healthy, they create the biggestproblems for the Nuggets. I mean,
obviously it was only a five gameseries in the first round, but matchup
wise, as good as Kevin Durantknow, Booker was banged up by the
end of that Sun series. Theysweep the Lakers with Lebron and Ad but
not a lot of real help.I know, they've got nice players around,
but not real help with Anthony Edwardsand then the two bigs. But
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Anthony Edwards is a certified star rightis where he ranks on best wings in
the league. We can do thatall day, but he is a tried
and true all star that will bein that game for a decade and can
carry you in the postseason. Wesaw some of those great performances in that
first round series lost to the Nuggets. I know this, if I'm the
Nuggets, I'd rather play the Lakersand maybe even the Suns again before I
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want any piece of the Timberwolves.All right, well, go Beart's the
key here for the Wolves. Imean he should be favored to become Defensive
Player of the Year for a fourthtime. Finch, Let's see he floats.
I mean it's expecting Rudy or anybodyto run around with the Okic.
I mean that that's minimizing what GoBeart does defensively. So it's like here
he is on Jokic and the areais on this guy, and he just
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kind of floats around. And that'sreally I mean, we're close to a
year removed from the Timberwolves pushing forthe postseason. They have a home game
and Rudy Gobert punches teammate Kyle Andersonon the bench during the game at home,
right in front of the fans.So I mean the metamorphois of how
that whole thing has changed has beenincredibly impressive. Now from the NBA to
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the NFL, I assume you're you'regoing to the NFL scouting combine, right,
Yeah, I will be there Mondayto Saturday. Monday to Saturday,
well, because early in the weekyou've got the coaches and gms, maybe
talking, maybe not, and youget into the pro aspects. But the
best stuff that I've been able toget in terms of talking to people establishing
relationships happens Thursday night, and evenmore so Friday night, because by then
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everyone's kind of let their hair downthere, they're worn out, talked to
most of the prospects. Yeah,there's some more coming, but by honestly,
Friday is when I've had the bestnights, even though I've had plenty
of good nights there, you knowhow it is just getting to talk to
people and getting know them a littlebit without a microphone or recorder in their
face, just getting to know likehumans, which I know is weird for
some people in this business, right, But yeah, So I the week
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in India. I hope it neverleaves India, and it's one of my
favorite weeks every year. So,I mean, it is your goal,
and I'm glad you went down theroad you did about getting to know them
so they can trust you specifically inyour role man, because you break news,
you know. But it's it's establishingthat trust for as we say,
quote background, yeah, end quote. I mean, how much does that
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help you with free agency in thedraft. It helps a lot, especially
with the draft, because I'll askpeople around the league that are in the
personnel departments just where they where theyhave a player, what they think of
them, and they know that I'mnot going even though I work in Denver
for the Broncos flagship, I alsodo work with Fox Sports Radio. They
don't expect that if they give mean evaluation, and it's going to be
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raw, it's not gonna be likeI like this, this and this.
But if they give me some sortof honest assessment, then we know that
it's the lying season really starting.Now. I look back, I think
I'm the first person that called itthat I know it's a weird claim to
make, like George Costanza saying hecoined the term pardon my French to a
girl, but no one else hadlying season in a tweet prior to me
a few years back. So youcan only trust so much. But if
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you're not worried about what they're doingat the top, and you just want
an evaluation of hey, what doyou think of this receiver from this school,
or what do you think of thisguard? And that becomes invaluable.
Or a guy ends up here inDenver that played somewhere else or that played
against him. I can get anhonest assessment so that I know what the
league thinks of the guy. Wasit a fair market deal? This and
that? So it's not always what'sgoing to happen. And you know,
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agents can helpful with that. Butmy name's not Adam Schefter I and Rappaport,
and I don't pretend that it is. So it's just good to have
those relationships. Also, people changeteams, they changed jobs, and they
mand up in your division or youknow, and I'll see him a little
bit more here when they're playing theBroncos. So the value in just creating
relationships. And you don't know,when a guy you meet it's a good
dude at the bar, hanging outor whatever, or just you know,
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shooting the breeze, becomes an offensivecoordinator in a couple of years. Yeah,
you know, I've told you thestory. I've talked to Kevin O'Connell
and I saw Scotty McKnight, whowere with the other day. He was
Scotty McKnight is Mark Sanchez's best friend. Was a great receiver at CU walk
On that turned into a scholarship alltime leading receiver when he left a couple
of years with the Jets when O'Connellwas there back in Mark up. So
we're at the we're at the SeniorBowl and Kevin's just got let go by
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the by the Washington Football the teamwhatever they were called that. Yeah,
and he's telling us and you know, it's whatever. He's like, I
don't know if I'm gonna stick withcoaching. Well, he ends up not
only going to the Rams. Twoyears later, he's the coach of the
Vikings and the year one there inthe playoffs and certainly competitive. And I've
reminded, I'm like, dude,it's so crazy that you were contemplating moving
on to a guy that is notonly going to be a head coach,
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hopefully in Minnesota for a long time. Yeah, but even if it doesn't
work out or he it feels likehe will be an NFL coach for twenty
years. If he wants to beright, he's got that makeup. And
if he blew the doors off theBroncos here even though he was their ninth
of ten interviews that round when Hackettgot the job a couple of years ago.
But so those are the types ofthings that happen. It things like
the Senior Bowl in the combine.Is that you know with the Broncos,
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Is that just you know, likenot hiring O'Connell and then hiring Hacket,
or it doesn't even have to beHacket, it could just be somebody else
who didn't work out. Is hasthere just been a string of events where
it's like you had so and sohere you went with somebody else, You
did this with Ross. Now Russ'sis going to be gone. It's like,
you know, a left turn wasobvious to many, but they went
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counterculture so to speak, and madethe right turn and then the car wrecked.
So it was kind of a dominoeffect. Right when Peyton Manning retired
and he was at the end ofhis rope physically, I think everybody saw
that. They then thought they'd havebrock Osweiler. He was so frustrated by
how things went at the end ofthat season, even though they won a
Super Bowl that he was bench inthat final game. What was he a
second round pick? He was asecond round pick in the same draft that
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Russell Wilson and Kirk Cousins were in. Wow, he was And now here's
the second round pick. I thinkhe was the guy that that was going
to be circled anyway for for JohnElway in that draft in twenty twelve.
Now that's the year they got PeytonManning. But he was because Brock's roommates
with Jackson. He thought he'd seenhim, he knew him jack as Johnson
at Arizona State. He was abackup quarterback there for a little while that
that was going to be his guy. And so that way, it's a
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second round guy that can compete withte Both they don't Land Manning and then
he'll end up winning the job overTebow and that'll allow John to move on
from Tim Tebow. Yeah, sothey had Brock Brox there all those years.
He then plays well, they gofive and two in his seven starts
that last time, they got thewin against the Chargers, and they obviously
Peyton does enough to get them witha great defense to a Super Bowl victory,
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so his agent, Jimmy Sexton,they decide. Apparently this was how
the story goes. He turns toBronck's wife at that Chargers regular season game
and says, don't worry, wewon't be here next year. And then
the way negotiation went was they calledthe Broncos asked for and I'm getting way
into the weeds on this, butthey said what's your best offer? And
John says sixty four million, thirtyfour million guaranteed. Okay, thanks.
He calls back and says, well, the Texans are giving him sixty eight
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million, thirty eight million guaranteed,see you later. Yeah, And that
was it. It wasn't well doyou want to match that? It was
what's your best offer? Oh?Well the Texans did better, see you
later. So now they're scrambling.They end up trading up to get Paxton
Lynch, which they weren't the onlyteam trying to do that. Apparently the
Chiefs liked them too, and hadthe Chiefs done that, then maybe Patrick
Mahomes goes somewhere else. But sosince then you then then you get Relock,
but then a year later you goto from Gary Kubiak to vance Joseph
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who you hired instead of Kyle Shanahan. And it wasn't because Kyle didn't blow
him away, because he did.Wow. It was that there was a
strained relationship with Mike Shanahan and JoeEllis, the team president at the time
and the de facto owner, andthey just didn't know if they wanted Mike
around as much as they thought hemight be. Turns out Mike's not around
very much in San Francisco. Yeah. Does he have an iPad where he
can watch practice and checking on themeetings? Maybe I haven't confirmed that,
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but there's a prevailing rum. Sothat was one of the bigger ones.
So then you go from Kubes toa first time head coach and advance Joseph.
I see, he doesn't get topick his assistance, so there's that.
So he has Mike McCoy coming in. Wow. Right. So then
after a couple of years Advance.Then you go to another first time head
coach, Vic Fangio finally getting hisshot, a lifelong defensive coordinator that doesn't
really work out. Two offensive coordinatorsin his couple of years or I guess
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there's two and three years and thenHackett blows him away in the interview.
Yeah, we know that doesn't work, and you've got Russ and all of
that, and now here Rob SeanPayton. Then I don't know, we
can play guess who that quarterback willbe next year. I don't think it'll
be Russ. Well, that's allamazing, I know how you laid that
out. Now, the Broncos andthe twelve all right, our squad,
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the vikings right in front of theBronx at any quarterback related opinions at this
stage of the equation, obviously,with the right to change it closer we
get to the draft. Any anysteam you can share at this point,
because I mean, I absolutely believethe Broncos take a quarterback with their first
pick, and just being here afew days, you know it's I'll let
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you go first. Well, soSean Payton made them rounds on behalf of
Zebra Technologies. That's the folks atPower next Gen Stats, and folks don't
know this. Sean Payton was thefirst person to use next Gen Stats for
tracking practice movement all this. Sohe's on Kay Adams show, and name
a show he was on it.Who will a big national show Fox Sports
with Doug Gottlieb, and he keptsaying, I don't even know any of
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the quarterbacks Jersey numbers. Right.We saw that clip over and over like
that was his talking point. Right. I think they have several plans laid
out. I don't think they've pickedtheir best plan. But I want to
throw this back at you. One, I want to ask about Kirk Cousins.
But two, whether it's the Vikesat eleven or the Broncos at twelve.
I've always had this thought that ifthere's a quarterback you like, I
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don't want you to hope he getsto twelve. I want you to trade
Bam with the Jets at ten,okay, or with the Bears at nine
on their second pick, and itends up maybe costing you something. But
say there's a guy I liked enough, I couldn't believe that they made it
even to six with the Giants.Yeah, so I'm jumping to six.
I don't want you to sit backand at twelve, sort of like the
Patriots. I think that was macJones, right, he fell to them
like, Okay, we'll take him. And I know it's not a good
example, but just that even ifyou have one spot if the Vikes are
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resigning Kirk right or whatever, justto flip that one spot so nobody else
can jump in front of you.Because so I just don't know if they've
identified what their plan will be.Well, whether the Vikings resigned Kirk,
I still think it behooves them toget a quarterback on a rookie deal and
have it be a first roundish quarterback. You know, in this you go
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to the Combine every year, man, I mean it just just listened to
the way Brandon Christall at BKA DenverSports is laying things out, man.
I mean, this is a leadfootball mind here, and so therefore into
the Combine twenty twenty, we're thereright before the pandemic hits, and all
we're hearing is greatest wide receive draftinghistory of the NFL, and we're veterans.
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Man specifically me, I'm kind oflike, you know, I got
to pump the brakes on that andwatch them twenty five before I can say
great. As ever, that's wherewe got Jefferson. Judy maybe hasn't been
great here, but he's been goodor so on all the way through.
What Darnell Mooney in the fifth round. Heard the same thing last year about
the tight ends, and now you'rewatching Dalton Kincaid and Musgrave and Tucker Kraft
and so on, So it wasa Sam Laporta had a pretty good rookie
(27:25):
year. That's the A topic.Yeah, Laporti in the our division the
A topic. So okay, thatlooks like it's going to work out.
Hearing the same thing about the quarterbacksthis year, that it's high end good
with five of them, five ishof them, and that they're going to
be about seven, eight, nineten, that if they're in the right
systems they might all work. Sowith that said, is I believe you
(27:47):
know Sean Payton at the end ofthe equation in his quest to get the
next Drew Brees, and that makessense. Then you need a quarterback coming
out of a pro style offense.You need a quarterback with a strong arm.
JJ McCarthy from Michigan is one thatI believe if they drafted right now
and everybody had to stay in theirspots, if he didn't go ahead,
they would take him at twelve.What do you think? I think you're
(28:07):
probably right, and I think themore works they do on him, even
with Jim harboss hyperbole saying he's thebest quarterback in the draft. He may
end up being right. He's gota write a fifty percent chance either he's
writers wrong right, And that's notreally how that equation works. But you
certainly like the raw skills and yourealize that they ran the ball and played
such good defense that they didn't needhim to do much, but when he
needed to make plays, similar towhat we saw was c. J.
(28:29):
Stroud last year. He was myfavorite quarterback in the draft, mostly based
on what we saw in the bowlgame in the Law or the playoff game
lost to Jurity, Like, oh, he can run a lot more when
they let him. Ryan Dayden needhim too, so there's no need to
expose him. And then we sawmaybe the best rookie season since Andrew Luck
or Justin Herbert or you know,go down that list. But he's certainly
(28:49):
in that category of Okay, let'swait and see this guy might have it
quickly on the quarterback. So yeah, Well, the fact that this is
now twenty twenty four and we stilldon't have, even with three hundred and
sixty million Americans, thirty two goodquarterbacks the NFL blows my mind. We
can name all the great quarterbacks everin about ninety seconds. You've been watching
football your whole life. You've beencalling Vikings games for more than twenty years.
(29:11):
Yeah, and you've had some playersyou like, and you've had guys
with great performances like Case they've neverhad. I mean, fran Tarkenton was
their last great court Dante was good. Right, we go through that Randall,
whatever it may be, Kirk,at times you've never seen it,
right, especially when you look atwhat Wayne Larravy gets to call with Hall
of Famer to Hall of Famer.And now we'll see about Jordan. But
my point being, we can nameall the great quarterbacks ever, and the
(29:33):
good quarterbacks, the boomeras Ayas's,Randall, cunning Hans, we can throw
them in pretty quick. And thenyou get to now with all these guys
that have retired or Aaron Rodgers beingan asterisk, but Tom's gone, Peyton's
gone, Rivers, Eli whatever,but they're all gone, Big Ben.
It's Patrick Mahomes for sure. Talkingabout those football people that I've gotten to
meet. They've got Joe Burrows second, and then your next yeup. The
(29:53):
next group has Josh Allen Lamar Jackson, maybe Jalen Hurts, maybe Herbert.
Then you've got the Lawrence and Daxprobably below that, but Deshaun Watson,
they all and now see j Strout. I even put in that group of
let's see he's trending even after ayear. But that's the point. Yeah,
and everybody else is okay, maybewe can win with our guy,
(30:15):
right. Yeah, So even ifthese five or six are good, go
back to that draft with Lamar Jacksonwhere he went thirty second, but in
Josh Trent seven. Look at theRams winning it with Stafford at that stage
of his career. So I guesshe's in that weird it's an outliers and
Stafford probably in that middle tier wherehe can yeah a cousin's tier, Yeah
for sure. And because he hasthe ring, I guess you have to
put them a little ahead of it. But that when things are going really
(30:37):
good and you got everything good aroundyou. But I'm with you. You
still if you have a chance totake a first round quarterback, I think
you do it every year until you'vegot the guy NFL NFL Draft and much
more. With a Brandon Christall atBK Denver Sports, he's an anchor and
a reporter for KOA Radio and thefinal segment for yours truly today from Denver
back to the Twin Cities and availablevia the free iHeart Radio app, is
(30:59):
around final segment brought to you inpart by Cases, whether it's the rat
most days or days like today.Final segments cases stop in get Casey's rewards
free coffee on Mondays you already knowthat, but deals on food and fuel,
the large one topping pizza, buythat, get the second one half
(31:21):
off, stop into a Casey's.Today KOA and Iheartsports anchor and reporter Brandon
Christall at BK Denver Sports wrapping upthis Tuesday, This Talker Tuesday with Yours
truly, Paul Allen from KOA Radio. We're at the heritage piece again and
(31:41):
they're nice enough to let yours trulydo nine to noon from here. We
think Brandon, Shannon, Scott,Chad A. Bauer and of course Nordo
back at f M one hundred pointthree KFA N for facilitating and making it
so comfortable. Now the Broncos arethey're like minus twenty five minus thirty million
against the salarycap, is it?I mean that's obviously a problem. And
(32:06):
the Russell Wilson situation, you knowwherever that goes next. Forget the salarycap
piece. We're in deep stretch.If somehow Russell Wilson ended up being a
Vikings quarterback as a bridge quarterback twentytwenty four, how do you think that
would work out? I think,well, I think any quarter back situation
that he ends up with where theplay caller understands let's maximize what he does
(32:30):
with the play action, with theboot game out on the edge, which
it's just not what Sean Payton wantsto do. Yeah, they're all rooted
in the West Coast offense, butthe zone running stuff that Kyle Shanahan runs
because of his dad and because ofBobby Turner, because of the laid Alex
Gibbs, well, that would bea good fit for him. He's not
likely going to San France. WithArthur Smith now calling the offense in Pittsburgh,
that feels like the perfect kind offit. With Mike Tomlin, a
(32:52):
strong head coach, he's just goingto say, hey, this is how
it is a really good defense.But when you look at the pieces of
Minnesota has and with Justin Jefferson,and able to stretch. Plus you get
Jordan Addison and obviously Hockinson and andI think you need Dov. Maybe look
at a running back boost, perhapsto mix in with Madison and the other
(33:13):
young kid. I think minnesot wouldbe a great fit. And you're gonna
get Russ for a million bucks onepoint too. No one's gonna pay it
over and even if they incentivize itwith oh, you get another half million
if we win the division, ahalf million if we may or whatever.
Million will make the super Bowl.That doesn't count against cause those are bonuses,
so that doesn't even count against thecap. They'll work the rest of
the cap stuff out. It justseems crazy you're gonna pay theim thirty nine
million to not be here, Butthat's how it's looking. Hey, BK,
(33:35):
what's up? What's the boulder buzzaround here with Dion? Now that
he and the team legitimately have beenhumbled. I think that it's I hope
he sticks around for a while.It's cool that they got the best lineman
prospect and maybe decades years whoever youwant to ask. Shauduer looks the part.
A lot of people think he couldbe the top quarterback taken next year
could be number one overall. TravisHunter is as good as advertised and probably
(33:57):
should try to play both ways ofthe right team and right coach will let
them. Pat Shermer, offensive coordinator, expect them to run markedly more than
they have oh the last thirty years, No, no doubt and Paton I
know Shader have a really good relationshipbecause one of Tat's main responsibilities before they
put them on the staff full timeto call plays, was just kind of
helping consult and spending time around Shador, getting him ready for things he's going
(34:17):
to need to do at the NFLlevel, and so I think that Pat
will be good for him. Noone's going to accuse Pat of being the
most creative play caller ever, butyou don't necessarily need that when you have
really good talent, and with thewhite outs they have, with the running
backs they have, if they canjust be solid up front in a big
twelve where of course, my Jayhawksare my favorite. I don't know if
(34:37):
they're the actual favorite, but they'regoing to be good with we all lost
four guys in the portal with LanceLeipold there Jeeves, so they're going to
be competitive. You know, OklahomaState will be their tcuh. And my
guy Sonny Dykes, who was myhigh school running backs coach, wow a
million years ago. His dad didn'twant him to start right at tex so
he came out to high school forone year. Yeah, and then went
back to because he knew how tofollow the good talent. Now we have
(34:59):
a minute and change left, Max, When it comes to the Avalanche and
the Nuggets, which team do youthink has a better chance to hoist a
trophy? And why? Probably theNuggets because of Joker. The Abs.
McKinnon has a point in twenty sixinseecutive home games. That's unbelievable. Yes,
now second only to Gretzky who didit forty of the forty one home
(35:19):
games in eighty nine. How aboutthat he passed Bobby or Yeah. Look,
McKinnon's awesome. Mccarr's awesome. Theirdepth around them is good. Their
goaltending has been good. But becauseJoker is such a cheat code. With
the way the NBA is, ifthey're healthy again with Jamal Murray, with
Porter playing the way he does,like you mentioned earlier, I would bet
it's the Nuggets. But we're gonnaend up with one of these years where
(35:42):
both of them make a deep runand I'm just gonna be living at Ball
Arena until well into June's The isthe Bops women's basketball team? Ballyhu?
I mean, is it like asuper good team? I don't know where
it's right now. They just liketop ten. They just dropped two eleven.
No, they were as high astwo or three. I mean they
beat defending champs LSU, and they'vehad some good wins. They lose the
UCLA, bounce back to the USC, but then they lose Oregon State.
(36:05):
Two more quick shout outs. JustinBauer got in the car with his folks
and then my guy Andy Strauss,one of my other training brothers. His
dad Jerry Strauss used to come inGod rest us and talk to you all
the time. First first guest inthe history of my radio, back all
the way going back to something relatedto Courtney James in nineteen ninety seven,
something like that. Nothing like that. So I'll see you in India next
week. Can't stop bye, Okay. That's Brandon Chris Stall at BK Denver
(36:27):
Sports once again thanks to Shannon Scott, Chad Bauer here at KOA and Nordo
for producing Nine to New. I'mPaul Allen. The program is next,
Have a Wonderful Days, Good News, The Money, Them Money Podcast,
(36:51):
Today's Paul Allen Show. We'll goback to previous show and interviews, So
I go into the iHeart Radio appfor kN
There. The named Neil Hunter cameup earlier on the radio show with the
(00:27):
NFL free agency approaching. Welcome back, yours truly, Paul Allen at iHeart
Radio sister station eight five O koA. It's a KOA, it's a
heritage station, but been around forever. It's og is as as Marconi's game
goes. And once again, thanksto not only Nordo for hooking it up
(00:49):
back at FM one hundred point threek f A M, but the Shannon
Scott and Chad Bauer here with KOA, along with Brandon Christall a reporter and
host who will join us in thepenultimate segment of today's show, because we
couldn't do it without them, sothank you very much. And with that
Daniel Hunter conversation, it's I mean, it's not like, you know,
I'm staring longingly at Rocky mountains orceiling fans thinking about a Deshaun Watson's contract.
(01:18):
Daniel hunters a lot in life withthe Minnesota Vikings. But you know,
the the closer we get to freeagency, that the more you know,
I and we are going to thinkabout this because Daniel's coming off a
season where at one point, youknow, it had some defensive MVP to
it and with all the sacks andyou know, his his for my taste,
and and you know, those whoare new to the covenant, you
(01:42):
know, so therefore maybe they haven'tyou know, seen all of Daniel's games,
all of his career. But youknow, the right people were telling
me during the season that that thisis the best Daniel has ever played against
the run, and and and thatyou know that matters, so that you
know that that was a one intwenty where Daniel smartly, he and his
representation uh were able to finagle theirway or get the team to acquiesque to
(02:07):
not being able to put the franchisetag on him. So uh, that
bravo for them. I mean thatthat that's very key in this equation because
I believe it's going to be morethan twenty million dollars a year on the
average. And you know, sowhen you're you're starting to think about who,
what, where, when and whyof Minnesota Vikings football, and Daniel
Hunter is one of the first andforemost or second and four second when it
(02:32):
comes to thinking of certain names andmoving forward. But what really triggered me
on this is Hya and young AlexAlex Lewis from the Athletic When when when
he stopped by nine to noon,I think it was last Thursday, and
you know, he we're talking aboutDaniel a little bit and I stick by.
(02:52):
You know what I say, Idon't I don't know if it's going
to happen, But the Chicago Bearsand Detroit Lions would be fools to not
try to run down Daniel Hunt giventhe money they have to spend on a
player like that, specifically the Lions, who they're on the doorstep of destiny.
Man, I mean, that's ateam that's on the doorstep of getting
to the super Bowl. So youput the division rivals to the side,
(03:15):
and YA said, just you know, out of nowhere Jacksonville, you know,
And and I had heard that too, but you know, he was
emphatic. And so then you lookat the Jaguars and they have money.
They have this Josh Allen cat andI think they got to work something out
with him contractually. But then theygot this tray Von Walker who was taken
(03:37):
like first second or third I thinkin the twenty twenty two draft or something.
They had like ten and a halfeleven sacks, he's really good and
offensively with the way they run itwith at ten and Lawrence. I don't
think Trevor Lawrence's career has exactly workedout how they thought it would given how
high they took him. But youknow, Christian Kirk is, I mean,
(03:58):
Christian Kirk has turned into a really, really good football player and worth
every dollar that came his way.And I say that because there were a
lot of national people who kind ofmocked the Jags for the deal that Christian
Kirk got. And now with Petersonas the coach, you got the offensive
part getting mostly squared away, butthey got some firepower. But the identity
(04:19):
of this team, the Jacksonville Jaguars, is becoming that a defense, especially
if they flirt with Daniel Hunters.So when YA dropped that last week,
it's something that I thought about andI think it makes a lot of sense.
You know, and Daniel is he'sin the second part of his career.
So you know, when it comesto thinking about older players or you
(04:40):
know, like age discrimination against playersand they won't bring them in because of
their age and stuff like that,you know, Cousin is going to be
thirty six this next season. Ithink there's going to be a good market
for him. But when you arein my stead tomorrow, yeah, if
you happen to have Mike Florio onthe radio show, he he wrote a
story. It might have been Friday. I saved it in the email and
(05:04):
sent it to you simply because Ijust you know, it doesn't require a
lot of talking out right now.But you know from this ProFootball talk dot
com story. Federal law, alongwith the laws of most, if not
all, states, prohibit discrimination againstage. The protection begins at the age
of forty, but obviously the temptationto discriminate can get stronger as forty dips
(05:28):
farther and farther into the rear viewmirror. In the twenty two plus years
we've been operating this specific media outlet, that'd be PFTA. You know,
we there have been multiple examples ofpossible agism. Often it happens with lower
profile jobs like scouting. Given thelatest hiring cycle for head coaches, it's
fair to ask whether there's a biasagainst older head coaches. Then he writes,
(05:53):
two of the best coaches in theleague history were available, Bill Belichick
seventy one, got one interview PeteCarroll seventy two, who got none.
Then finally after that, the averageage of the eight new head coaches Mike
McDonald thirty six, Grod Mayo thirtyseven, Brian Callahan thirty nine, Dave
Canalis forty two, Antonio Piers fortyfive, Raheem Morris forty seven, Dan
(06:15):
Quinn fifty three, Jim Harbaughs sixtyis forty four point eight. And if
Washington had landed thirty seven year oldBen Johnson instead of the fifty three year
old Quinn, that average would havegone to forty two point eight. So
the reason I bring it up,you know, before we pause here in
a couple of minutes, is Idon't necessarily think Bill Belichick was super interested
(06:36):
in getting back into the game,and likewise for Pete Carroll. I mean,
if Pete Carroll wants to be consideredfor a job, then there are
teams that would have interviewed Pete Carroll. You know, it's it's okay after
elongated runs, it specifically runs whereyou've worked really really hard to climb to
(06:58):
the top and win. Super okay, something unfortunate happens, Nobody wants to
be fired or asked to leave,but you know, maybe there is self
awareness in a way they recognized,you know, I want to be away
from it for a year or so, and maybe they won't get back in.
But I would think Belichick and orCarroll would be mostly comfortable with that.
So I don't know what you think, ma'am, but I've just never
(07:20):
really thought of like agism or agediscrimination being a situation with these older coaches
potentially looking for jobs, because theseteams have the right to look at these
younger coaches. We have one herein Kevin O'Connell and ideas that A are
(07:41):
different than those who had done itfor twenty years and be one of the
real underrated facets of successful head coachesthis day and age is how they work
with this generation of human being.You understand what I'm saying I do,
and that's you know, a doorof Florio Absolutely to me kind of feels
like you and I sitting together andthinking about the most obscure and outlandish idea
(08:07):
for a Vikings trade or something.Again, the idle hand philosophy that I
just I feel with the way we'reanalyzing our team and with a lot of
people just kind of between you know, post super Bowl, pre combine,
pre draft, let's throw some talkersout there simultaneously. The idea of you
know, we know that this isa habit league. We know that this
is a copycat league. We knowthat this league rides trends and waves.
(08:33):
And it should shock nobody that fora Bill Belichick, who hasn't even been
to the playoffs since twenty nineteen,that there's some disgruntled parts of that organization,
quarterback issues, all of those thingsthat teams didn't immediately run and clamor
for his services long tenured, you'regoing to have to do a ton of
(08:54):
adjustments, including GM and personnel,and you're really handed over a lot more
than just a job to Bill Belichick. And in some ways similarly with Pete
Carroll, where John Schneider is theGM, but you know, Pete Carroll's
had his hands in every bit ofthat Seahawks organization. These are these are
guys and then not just an agething. I mean in any aspect of
(09:15):
life in the career world. Ifa guy's seventy and wants to work,
I absolutely support that guy having anopportunity to do it. But in the
same way that technology changes business processes, the efficiency of industry. Similarly,
the players change, the generations changed, the needs change, and older Americans,
(09:35):
older anybody are always going to havea tougher time adjusting and meeting those
needs as things change. So youknow, whether it was here with Zimmer
and where you know that conversation piecesand you nailed it. The ability to
accommodate and connect with with a youngerand a completely different player than when Zimmer
started his career, you know,just hammering on the ear drums of the
(09:58):
Larry Browns and Deon Sanders of theworld. It's different now, and it's
different for Belichick. So I don'tlook at his agism. I look at
it as evolution. That's just kindof as basic as I can put it.
I think, from my point ofview well stated. And if the
Minnesota Vikings are looking to get youngerat quarterback, selecting one at or around
eleven definitely could be the bill offare in two months and change. Now
(10:22):
with Bob with shoes in the boxfor the New York Jets kind enough to
join us to talk about the Jetsat ten and me, you know,
he didn't make us sound like theywere super interested in quarterback at ten where
if you want one and you're theVikings like yes, because of the trade
up situations that I believe are goingto have to take place to get a
certain quarterback. But what about twelveand with yours truly in Denver and in
(10:46):
Colorado doing the radio show from theheritage piece KOA, what about those Broncos
at twelve? Let's discuss that andmuch more with a Brandon Christall at BK
Denver Sports when nine to noon canon the fan. Here comes BK Brandon
(11:24):
Christall at BK Denver Sport to beof the tweet machine. He's a sports
anchor and reporter for KOA Radio andthis family here, the iHeart family here
in the Rocky Mountain region. Andhe's also a father for his daughter,
Scarlett, three year old, beautifuldaughter with those beautiful braids in her hair.
(11:45):
She's here with us too, andBK Denver Sports is here to amplify
nine to noon, which is eightto eleven Denver time. What's up,
my brother? So I told somefriends in Minnesota to tune in for some
high quality entertainment, which I'm expectingyou to provide. I'm just gonna stop
it tag long. But the greatJohn Randall, who I missed in Vegas
last week, but going to seehim in Indy next week at the Combine.
(12:05):
He does so much stuff with theLegends community. My friend's Patrick and
Susan born and raised in Minnesota,love the Broncos, like their whole house
is Broncos. They came out fora Broncos game this year. And then
one of my fraternity brothers, Jessekeyboard of Daniels and Keyboard law firm f
right. And when you say fraternitybrothers, that would be the Kansas Jayhawks
(12:26):
exactly, and a long time friendof mine. I mean, I've called
Vikings games twenty two is something likethat, so about two decades. Media
relations guy John Exstrom is from He'sfrom Kansas City or at least that area,
and he loves the Jayhawks. ManMario Chalmers go crazy, Jock Vaughn
go crazy, Grady Dick go crazy. But it's like watching the Jayhawks this
(12:52):
year like watching the Kentucky Wild Kats, I mean a couple of blue blots.
Now, Kansas is better than thanKentucky, but I've watched Kansas play
two times. One one was awhat's the most recent loss? They lost?
To TCU. That's what it wasa big Monday of that last week.
There you go, Okay, it'sa loss to TCU, and it
wasn't great. But the other timeI watched him, they were playing this
bally hoot Houston team on a Saturdayin the middle of the afternoon Cornfields,
(13:16):
and I'm like, I'm texting Xtrom, going, if your squad plays ninety
six percent, ninety two percent asgood as what I'm watching right now,
ain't nobody in this country going tobeat that team. They have a high
ceiling. I saw where Seth Greenbergsaid they have the best starting five.
They're shooting is an issue, butevery one of these, I mean,
the final four last year. Ascool as it is to see Florida,
(13:37):
Atlantic or Miami get there to makeit the event we wanted to be.
You need a blue Blodder two alsosneaking in there, and I get Yukon
obviously winning it. I'd love tosee Kansas and Phoenix. It's the same
weekend as Rocky's opening weekend here athome. Wow, I'll happily miss that
to go see my Jayhawks down there. And then our pal Bob Hagen saw
him briefly his iy was State squad, I mean the big twelves loaded.
(14:00):
So he was in Vegas last weekand we didn't talk much, but I
was State. Obviously put it onKansas a few weeks ago where KU was
a road dog, and we knowHilton's tough, but the Big twelve it's
fun to watch for sure. Somany KU alums are there in the Greater
Twin Cities area. I mean legitimately, you know, to b BK Denver
sports anchor, slash host, slashreporter, you know, or maybe you're
(14:22):
going to bet your money here asopposed to tried and true a lam and
you just love the team inside.Now, like winning the national championship,
I mean chipchair chance or yeah,they legitimately have a good chance. I
think they have a good chance becauseespecially if they're running their stuff the right
way. You've got a point guardand Dewan Harris, who was a point
guard on championship team just a coupleof years ago, Hunter Dickinson. You
(14:45):
know, I talked to a coupleof basketball people and I said, oh,
is he the next Nicole Yokich kindof kidding and basically they're said no,
if he was a pro he'd bein the pros. He's a very
good college player, kind of likeZach Edy who is a dominant college player,
but not share their game translates tobe the star at the next level.
Doesn't mean they won't be on NBArosters for a decade. But think
about our guy, Frank Kaminski fromWisconsin, right, You're like, look
(15:07):
at this guy. It's gonna translatefor sure. And he's been at the
end of the bench and playing inin mop up time for me, But
he can't start, certainly, notfor that. The Timberwolves, who are
going to give the Nuggets a runfor their money, I think this spring
if they match up in the playoffs. Yeah, that and and I was
chatting with an NBA mind named DaneMoro does really good work earlier, And
that's the barometer for me. Andyes, I believe the Timberwolves can get
(15:31):
to the NBA Championship and and butbut I mean, whether let's give the
Wolves home court, Okay, Imean until hearts can get wrapped around,
do you truly believe you can beatJokic in a seven game series? That
that that's the barometer for me.I mean, Jamal Murray obviously off on
the side, and who's going tocheck him? And Jamal's the bomb and
(15:52):
Porter and Gordon specifically Porter and theway he plays in the postseason. Yeah,
I mean, it's I still believethat's absolutely target at which to shoot,
for sure, funding it's the champs, but the Jimberwolves are legitimately better,
and this is a legitimately top topthree ist, top fourst team in
the game. Well, and whenyou're getting the performance that you've got from
Carl Anthony Towns this year and thengo Baar defensively, and if they're both
(16:17):
both healthy, they create the biggestproblems for the Nuggets. I mean,
obviously it was only a five gameseries in the first round, but matchup
wise, as good as Kevin Durantknow, Booker was banged up by the
end of that Sun series. Theysweep the Lakers with Lebron and Ad but
not a lot of real help.I know, they've got nice players around,
but not real help with Anthony Edwardsand then the two bigs. But
(16:37):
Anthony Edwards is a certified star rightis where he ranks on best wings in
the league. We can do thatall day, but he is a tried
and true all star that will bein that game for a decade and can
carry you in the postseason. Wesaw some of those great performances in that
first round series lost to the Nuggets. I know this, if I'm the
Nuggets, I'd rather play the Lakersand maybe even the Suns again before I
(17:00):
want any piece of the Timberwolves.All right, well, go Beart's the
key here for the Wolves. Imean he should be favored to become Defensive
Player of the Year for a fourthtime. Finch, Let's see he floats.
I mean it's expecting Rudy or anybodyto run around with the Okic.
I mean that that's minimizing what GoBeart does defensively. So it's like here
he is on Jokic and the areais on this guy, and he just
(17:21):
kind of floats around. And that'sreally I mean, we're close to a
year removed from the Timberwolves pushing forthe postseason. They have a home game
and Rudy Gobert punches teammate Kyle Andersonon the bench during the game at home,
right in front of the fans.So I mean the metamorphois of how
that whole thing has changed has beenincredibly impressive. Now from the NBA to
(17:45):
the NFL, I assume you're you'regoing to the NFL scouting combine, right,
Yeah, I will be there Mondayto Saturday. Monday to Saturday,
well, because early in the weekyou've got the coaches and gms, maybe
talking, maybe not, and youget into the pro aspects. But the
best stuff that I've been able toget in terms of talking to people establishing
relationships happens Thursday night, and evenmore so Friday night, because by then
(18:07):
everyone's kind of let their hair downthere, they're worn out, talked to
most of the prospects. Yeah,there's some more coming, but by honestly,
Friday is when I've had the bestnights, even though I've had plenty
of good nights there, you knowhow it is just getting to talk to
people and getting know them a littlebit without a microphone or recorder in their
face, just getting to know likehumans, which I know is weird for
some people in this business, right, But yeah, So I the week
(18:30):
in India. I hope it neverleaves India, and it's one of my
favorite weeks every year. So,I mean, it is your goal,
and I'm glad you went down theroad you did about getting to know them
so they can trust you specifically inyour role man, because you break news,
you know. But it's it's establishingthat trust for as we say,
quote background, yeah, end quote. I mean, how much does that
(18:55):
help you with free agency in thedraft. It helps a lot, especially
with the draft, because I'll askpeople around the league that are in the
personnel departments just where they where theyhave a player, what they think of
them, and they know that I'mnot going even though I work in Denver
for the Broncos flagship, I alsodo work with Fox Sports Radio. They
don't expect that if they give mean evaluation, and it's going to be
(19:15):
raw, it's not gonna be likeI like this, this and this.
But if they give me some sortof honest assessment, then we know that
it's the lying season really starting.Now. I look back, I think
I'm the first person that called itthat I know it's a weird claim to
make, like George Costanza saying hecoined the term pardon my French to a
girl, but no one else hadlying season in a tweet prior to me
a few years back. So youcan only trust so much. But if
(19:37):
you're not worried about what they're doingat the top, and you just want
an evaluation of hey, what doyou think of this receiver from this school,
or what do you think of thisguard? And that becomes invaluable.
Or a guy ends up here inDenver that played somewhere else or that played
against him. I can get anhonest assessment so that I know what the
league thinks of the guy. Wasit a fair market deal? This and
that? So it's not always what'sgoing to happen. And you know,
(19:59):
agents can helpful with that. Butmy name's not Adam Schefter I and Rappaport,
and I don't pretend that it is. So it's just good to have
those relationships. Also, people changeteams, they changed jobs, and they
mand up in your division or youknow, and I'll see him a little
bit more here when they're playing theBroncos. So the value in just creating
relationships. And you don't know,when a guy you meet it's a good
dude at the bar, hanging outor whatever, or just you know,
(20:21):
shooting the breeze, becomes an offensivecoordinator in a couple of years. Yeah,
you know, I've told you thestory. I've talked to Kevin O'Connell
and I saw Scotty McKnight, whowere with the other day. He was
Scotty McKnight is Mark Sanchez's best friend. Was a great receiver at CU walk
On that turned into a scholarship alltime leading receiver when he left a couple
of years with the Jets when O'Connellwas there back in Mark up. So
we're at the we're at the SeniorBowl and Kevin's just got let go by
(20:45):
the by the Washington Football the teamwhatever they were called that. Yeah,
and he's telling us and you know, it's whatever. He's like, I
don't know if I'm gonna stick withcoaching. Well, he ends up not
only going to the Rams. Twoyears later, he's the coach of the
Vikings and the year one there inthe playoffs and certainly competitive. And I've
reminded, I'm like, dude,it's so crazy that you were contemplating moving
on to a guy that is notonly going to be a head coach,
(21:07):
hopefully in Minnesota for a long time. Yeah, but even if it doesn't
work out or he it feels likehe will be an NFL coach for twenty
years. If he wants to beright, he's got that makeup. And
if he blew the doors off theBroncos here even though he was their ninth
of ten interviews that round when Hackettgot the job a couple of years ago.
But so those are the types ofthings that happen. It things like
the Senior Bowl in the combine.Is that you know with the Broncos,
(21:29):
Is that just you know, likenot hiring O'Connell and then hiring Hacket,
or it doesn't even have to beHacket, it could just be somebody else
who didn't work out. Is hasthere just been a string of events where
it's like you had so and sohere you went with somebody else, You
did this with Ross. Now Russ'sis going to be gone. It's like,
you know, a left turn wasobvious to many, but they went
(21:52):
counterculture so to speak, and madethe right turn and then the car wrecked.
So it was kind of a dominoeffect. Right when Peyton Manning retired
and he was at the end ofhis rope physically, I think everybody saw
that. They then thought they'd havebrock Osweiler. He was so frustrated by
how things went at the end ofthat season, even though they won a
Super Bowl that he was bench inthat final game. What was he a
second round pick? He was asecond round pick in the same draft that
(22:15):
Russell Wilson and Kirk Cousins were in. Wow, he was And now here's
the second round pick. I thinkhe was the guy that that was going
to be circled anyway for for JohnElway in that draft in twenty twelve.
Now that's the year they got PeytonManning. But he was because Brock's roommates
with Jackson. He thought he'd seenhim, he knew him jack as Johnson
at Arizona State. He was abackup quarterback there for a little while that
that was going to be his guy. And so that way, it's a
(22:38):
second round guy that can compete withte Both they don't Land Manning and then
he'll end up winning the job overTebow and that'll allow John to move on
from Tim Tebow. Yeah, sothey had Brock Brox there all those years.
He then plays well, they gofive and two in his seven starts
that last time, they got thewin against the Chargers, and they obviously
Peyton does enough to get them witha great defense to a Super Bowl victory,
(22:59):
so his agent, Jimmy Sexton,they decide. Apparently this was how
the story goes. He turns toBronck's wife at that Chargers regular season game
and says, don't worry, wewon't be here next year. And then
the way negotiation went was they calledthe Broncos asked for and I'm getting way
into the weeds on this, butthey said what's your best offer? And
John says sixty four million, thirtyfour million guaranteed. Okay, thanks.
He calls back and says, well, the Texans are giving him sixty eight
(23:21):
million, thirty eight million guaranteed,see you later. Yeah, And that
was it. It wasn't well doyou want to match that? It was
what's your best offer? Oh?Well the Texans did better, see you
later. So now they're scrambling.They end up trading up to get Paxton
Lynch, which they weren't the onlyteam trying to do that. Apparently the
Chiefs liked them too, and hadthe Chiefs done that, then maybe Patrick
Mahomes goes somewhere else. But sosince then you then then you get Relock,
but then a year later you goto from Gary Kubiak to vance Joseph
(23:44):
who you hired instead of Kyle Shanahan. And it wasn't because Kyle didn't blow
him away, because he did.Wow. It was that there was a
strained relationship with Mike Shanahan and JoeEllis, the team president at the time
and the de facto owner, andthey just didn't know if they wanted Mike
around as much as they thought hemight be. Turns out Mike's not around
very much in San Francisco. Yeah. Does he have an iPad where he
can watch practice and checking on themeetings? Maybe I haven't confirmed that,
(24:07):
but there's a prevailing rum. Sothat was one of the bigger ones.
So then you go from Kubes toa first time head coach and advance Joseph.
I see, he doesn't get topick his assistance, so there's that.
So he has Mike McCoy coming in. Wow. Right. So then
after a couple of years Advance.Then you go to another first time head
coach, Vic Fangio finally getting hisshot, a lifelong defensive coordinator that doesn't
really work out. Two offensive coordinatorsin his couple of years or I guess
(24:30):
there's two and three years and thenHackett blows him away in the interview.
Yeah, we know that doesn't work, and you've got Russ and all of
that, and now here Rob SeanPayton. Then I don't know, we
can play guess who that quarterback willbe next year. I don't think it'll
be Russ. Well, that's allamazing, I know how you laid that
out. Now, the Broncos andthe twelve all right, our squad,
(24:51):
the vikings right in front of theBronx at any quarterback related opinions at this
stage of the equation, obviously,with the right to change it closer we
get to the draft. Any anysteam you can share at this point,
because I mean, I absolutely believethe Broncos take a quarterback with their first
pick, and just being here afew days, you know it's I'll let
(25:11):
you go first. Well, soSean Payton made them rounds on behalf of
Zebra Technologies. That's the folks atPower next Gen Stats, and folks don't
know this. Sean Payton was thefirst person to use next Gen Stats for
tracking practice movement all this. Sohe's on Kay Adams show, and name
a show he was on it.Who will a big national show Fox Sports
with Doug Gottlieb, and he keptsaying, I don't even know any of
(25:33):
the quarterbacks Jersey numbers. Right.We saw that clip over and over like
that was his talking point. Right. I think they have several plans laid
out. I don't think they've pickedtheir best plan. But I want to
throw this back at you. One, I want to ask about Kirk Cousins.
But two, whether it's the Vikesat eleven or the Broncos at twelve.
I've always had this thought that ifthere's a quarterback you like, I
(25:55):
don't want you to hope he getsto twelve. I want you to trade
Bam with the Jets at ten,okay, or with the Bears at nine
on their second pick, and itends up maybe costing you something. But
say there's a guy I liked enough, I couldn't believe that they made it
even to six with the Giants.Yeah, so I'm jumping to six.
I don't want you to sit backand at twelve, sort of like the
Patriots. I think that was macJones, right, he fell to them
like, Okay, we'll take him. And I know it's not a good
example, but just that even ifyou have one spot if the Vikes are
(26:18):
resigning Kirk right or whatever, justto flip that one spot so nobody else
can jump in front of you.Because so I just don't know if they've
identified what their plan will be.Well, whether the Vikings resigned Kirk,
I still think it behooves them toget a quarterback on a rookie deal and
have it be a first roundish quarterback. You know, in this you go
(26:42):
to the Combine every year, man, I mean it just just listened to
the way Brandon Christall at BKA DenverSports is laying things out, man.
I mean, this is a leadfootball mind here, and so therefore into
the Combine twenty twenty, we're thereright before the pandemic hits, and all
we're hearing is greatest wide receive draftinghistory of the NFL, and we're veterans.
(27:02):
Man specifically me, I'm kind oflike, you know, I got
to pump the brakes on that andwatch them twenty five before I can say
great. As ever, that's wherewe got Jefferson. Judy maybe hasn't been
great here, but he's been goodor so on all the way through.
What Darnell Mooney in the fifth round. Heard the same thing last year about
the tight ends, and now you'rewatching Dalton Kincaid and Musgrave and Tucker Kraft
and so on, So it wasa Sam Laporta had a pretty good rookie
(27:25):
year. That's the A topic.Yeah, Laporti in the our division the
A topic. So okay, thatlooks like it's going to work out.
Hearing the same thing about the quarterbacksthis year, that it's high end good
with five of them, five ishof them, and that they're going to
be about seven, eight, nineten, that if they're in the right
systems they might all work. Sowith that said, is I believe you
(27:47):
know Sean Payton at the end ofthe equation in his quest to get the
next Drew Brees, and that makessense. Then you need a quarterback coming
out of a pro style offense.You need a quarterback with a strong arm.
JJ McCarthy from Michigan is one thatI believe if they drafted right now
and everybody had to stay in theirspots, if he didn't go ahead,
they would take him at twelve.What do you think? I think you're
(28:07):
probably right, and I think themore works they do on him, even
with Jim harboss hyperbole saying he's thebest quarterback in the draft. He may
end up being right. He's gota write a fifty percent chance either he's
writers wrong right, And that's notreally how that equation works. But you
certainly like the raw skills and yourealize that they ran the ball and played
such good defense that they didn't needhim to do much, but when he
needed to make plays, similar towhat we saw was c. J.
(28:29):
Stroud last year. He was myfavorite quarterback in the draft, mostly based
on what we saw in the bowlgame in the Law or the playoff game
lost to Jurity, Like, oh, he can run a lot more when
they let him. Ryan Dayden needhim too, so there's no need to
expose him. And then we sawmaybe the best rookie season since Andrew Luck
or Justin Herbert or you know,go down that list. But he's certainly
(28:49):
in that category of Okay, let'swait and see this guy might have it
quickly on the quarterback. So yeah, Well, the fact that this is
now twenty twenty four and we stilldon't have, even with three hundred and
sixty million Americans, thirty two goodquarterbacks the NFL blows my mind. We
can name all the great quarterbacks everin about ninety seconds. You've been watching
football your whole life. You've beencalling Vikings games for more than twenty years.
(29:11):
Yeah, and you've had some playersyou like, and you've had guys
with great performances like Case they've neverhad. I mean, fran Tarkenton was
their last great court Dante was good. Right, we go through that Randall,
whatever it may be, Kirk,at times you've never seen it,
right, especially when you look atwhat Wayne Larravy gets to call with Hall
of Famer to Hall of Famer.And now we'll see about Jordan. But
my point being, we can nameall the great quarterbacks ever, and the
(29:33):
good quarterbacks, the boomeras Ayas's,Randall, cunning Hans, we can throw
them in pretty quick. And thenyou get to now with all these guys
that have retired or Aaron Rodgers beingan asterisk, but Tom's gone, Peyton's
gone, Rivers, Eli whatever,but they're all gone, Big Ben.
It's Patrick Mahomes for sure. Talkingabout those football people that I've gotten to
meet. They've got Joe Burrows second, and then your next yeup. The
(29:53):
next group has Josh Allen Lamar Jackson, maybe Jalen Hurts, maybe Herbert.
Then you've got the Lawrence and Daxprobably below that, but Deshaun Watson,
they all and now see j Strout. I even put in that group of
let's see he's trending even after ayear. But that's the point. Yeah,
and everybody else is okay, maybewe can win with our guy,
(30:15):
right. Yeah, So even ifthese five or six are good, go
back to that draft with Lamar Jacksonwhere he went thirty second, but in
Josh Trent seven. Look at theRams winning it with Stafford at that stage
of his career. So I guesshe's in that weird it's an outliers and
Stafford probably in that middle tier wherehe can yeah a cousin's tier, Yeah
for sure. And because he hasthe ring, I guess you have to
put them a little ahead of it. But that when things are going really
(30:37):
good and you got everything good aroundyou. But I'm with you. You
still if you have a chance totake a first round quarterback, I think
you do it every year until you'vegot the guy NFL NFL Draft and much
more. With a Brandon Christall atBK Denver Sports, he's an anchor and
a reporter for KOA Radio and thefinal segment for yours truly today from Denver
back to the Twin Cities and availablevia the free iHeart Radio app, is
(30:59):
around final segment brought to you inpart by Cases, whether it's the rat
most days or days like today.Final segments cases stop in get Casey's rewards
free coffee on Mondays you already knowthat, but deals on food and fuel,
the large one topping pizza, buythat, get the second one half
(31:21):
off, stop into a Casey's.Today KOA and Iheartsports anchor and reporter Brandon
Christall at BK Denver Sports wrapping upthis Tuesday, This Talker Tuesday with Yours
truly, Paul Allen from KOA Radio. We're at the heritage piece again and
(31:41):
they're nice enough to let yours trulydo nine to noon from here. We
think Brandon, Shannon, Scott,Chad A. Bauer and of course Nordo
back at f M one hundred pointthree KFA N for facilitating and making it
so comfortable. Now the Broncos arethey're like minus twenty five minus thirty million
against the salarycap, is it?I mean that's obviously a problem. And
(32:06):
the Russell Wilson situation, you knowwherever that goes next. Forget the salarycap
piece. We're in deep stretch.If somehow Russell Wilson ended up being a
Vikings quarterback as a bridge quarterback twentytwenty four, how do you think that
would work out? I think,well, I think any quarter back situation
that he ends up with where theplay caller understands let's maximize what he does
(32:30):
with the play action, with theboot game out on the edge, which
it's just not what Sean Payton wantsto do. Yeah, they're all rooted
in the West Coast offense, butthe zone running stuff that Kyle Shanahan runs
because of his dad and because ofBobby Turner, because of the laid Alex
Gibbs, well, that would bea good fit for him. He's not
likely going to San France. WithArthur Smith now calling the offense in Pittsburgh,
that feels like the perfect kind offit. With Mike Tomlin, a
(32:52):
strong head coach, he's just goingto say, hey, this is how
it is a really good defense.But when you look at the pieces of
Minnesota has and with Justin Jefferson,and able to stretch. Plus you get
Jordan Addison and obviously Hockinson and andI think you need Dov. Maybe look
at a running back boost, perhapsto mix in with Madison and the other
(33:13):
young kid. I think minnesot wouldbe a great fit. And you're gonna
get Russ for a million bucks onepoint too. No one's gonna pay it
over and even if they incentivize itwith oh, you get another half million
if we win the division, ahalf million if we may or whatever.
Million will make the super Bowl.That doesn't count against cause those are bonuses,
so that doesn't even count against thecap. They'll work the rest of
the cap stuff out. It justseems crazy you're gonna pay theim thirty nine
million to not be here, Butthat's how it's looking. Hey, BK,
(33:35):
what's up? What's the boulder buzzaround here with Dion? Now that
he and the team legitimately have beenhumbled. I think that it's I hope
he sticks around for a while.It's cool that they got the best lineman
prospect and maybe decades years whoever youwant to ask. Shauduer looks the part.
A lot of people think he couldbe the top quarterback taken next year
could be number one overall. TravisHunter is as good as advertised and probably
(33:57):
should try to play both ways ofthe right team and right coach will let
them. Pat Shermer, offensive coordinator, expect them to run markedly more than
they have oh the last thirty years, No, no doubt and Paton I
know Shader have a really good relationshipbecause one of Tat's main responsibilities before they
put them on the staff full timeto call plays, was just kind of
helping consult and spending time around Shador, getting him ready for things he's going
(34:17):
to need to do at the NFLlevel, and so I think that Pat
will be good for him. Noone's going to accuse Pat of being the
most creative play caller ever, butyou don't necessarily need that when you have
really good talent, and with thewhite outs they have, with the running
backs they have, if they canjust be solid up front in a big
twelve where of course, my Jayhawksare my favorite. I don't know if
(34:37):
they're the actual favorite, but they'regoing to be good with we all lost
four guys in the portal with LanceLeipold there Jeeves, so they're going to
be competitive. You know, OklahomaState will be their tcuh. And my
guy Sonny Dykes, who was myhigh school running backs coach, wow a
million years ago. His dad didn'twant him to start right at tex so
he came out to high school forone year. Yeah, and then went
back to because he knew how tofollow the good talent. Now we have
(34:59):
a minute and change left, Max, When it comes to the Avalanche and
the Nuggets, which team do youthink has a better chance to hoist a
trophy? And why? Probably theNuggets because of Joker. The Abs.
McKinnon has a point in twenty sixinseecutive home games. That's unbelievable. Yes,
now second only to Gretzky who didit forty of the forty one home
(35:19):
games in eighty nine. How aboutthat he passed Bobby or Yeah. Look,
McKinnon's awesome. Mccarr's awesome. Theirdepth around them is good. Their
goaltending has been good. But becauseJoker is such a cheat code. With
the way the NBA is, ifthey're healthy again with Jamal Murray, with
Porter playing the way he does,like you mentioned earlier, I would bet
it's the Nuggets. But we're gonnaend up with one of these years where
(35:42):
both of them make a deep runand I'm just gonna be living at Ball
Arena until well into June's The isthe Bops women's basketball team? Ballyhu?
I mean, is it like asuper good team? I don't know where
it's right now. They just liketop ten. They just dropped two eleven.
No, they were as high astwo or three. I mean they
beat defending champs LSU, and they'vehad some good wins. They lose the
UCLA, bounce back to the USC, but then they lose Oregon State.
(36:05):
Two more quick shout outs. JustinBauer got in the car with his folks
and then my guy Andy Strauss,one of my other training brothers. His
dad Jerry Strauss used to come inGod rest us and talk to you all
the time. First first guest inthe history of my radio, back all
the way going back to something relatedto Courtney James in nineteen ninety seven,
something like that. Nothing like that. So I'll see you in India next
week. Can't stop bye, Okay. That's Brandon Chris Stall at BK Denver
(36:27):
Sports once again thanks to Shannon Scott, Chad Bauer here at KOA and Nordo
for producing Nine to New. I'mPaul Allen. The program is next,
Have a Wonderful Days, Good News, The Money, Them Money Podcast,
(36:51):
Today's Paul Allen Show. We'll goback to previous show and interviews, So
I go into the iHeart Radio appfor kN
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