04-16-24 Ryan Michael with Broncos Country Tonight

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
You can't wait Common Sparrel's hotline.Bring on our good buddy Ryan Michael.
Inside the number is with Ryan Michael. Get a little music in there too.
Look at that. I like that. Yeah, We're we're We're into
it. Every time. It's like, you know, it's like one of
those little things. We're just addinga little bit to it. Every time
we get that thing. You're gonnahave your own walk up theme music by

(00:22):
the time we're done, we're goneplaces. Oh we are right? Do
you have any do you have anyparticular themes you going in your little icy
DC back in black? You know, you know Mark Morrison's Return of the
Mac. Is any any particular walkup song that would be your song?
You know? Any of the abovesounds good to me. So I'll let
you, guys surprise me. Ican't pick you. We can't pick now.
No, no, no, no, absolutely not. We're gonna we
cannot pick your walk up. Youhave to pick the walk up. So

(00:42):
you can choose a spot right now. You gotta choose, and I can't
make it for you. Oh wegot a brainstorm. If you're asking me
off the top of my head,I got nothing for you. Then give
me give me a day, Okay, I just don't do something that's like
overly. Don't choose like Bohemian Rhapsodyor something just to just to be that
guy and be difficult. You know. You know, we gotta Davido and
we gotta we gota through the wholething while we're trying to or we're trying
to get you out there. I'mjust saying I would be the guy that

(01:04):
would do that to somebody else andbe antagonistic. But don't don't do that.
Let's been one of those kind ofdays, speaking of antagonistic. You
know, I'm a bit of anantagonist on Twitter at times. I know,
shocks you are, I can hearit, say you're a heel me
I could never. But you know, we've we've gone over some things over

(01:26):
the last couple of weeks, Iguess, and I think that with regard
to some of the stuff that we'regoing to have you talk about today.
So this stuff is stuff I've talkedabout. But I get a lot of
pushback. I get a lot ofpushback on something. You get a push
back on trading pats are tan.We'll get to that a minute. But

(01:46):
I get a lot of pushback onnot wanting to mortgage everything to trade up.
And you got the Twitter chart gradingthe Broncos first and second round picks
post Super Bowl fifty. So whydon't you tell us a little bit about
what the data says there and whyI'm right sure. So what I did
was a breakdown of all of ourfirst and second round draft selections starting in

(02:09):
twenty sixteen. And because I likethe color code things, I guess I
should explain that for me, greenranges from good to really good, sometimes
great. In the case of patsare ten, yellow is average to sometimes
pretty good. And read ranges fromdisappointment to downright bust, which would be
Packed and Lynch. So going throughthe colors for my busts or anyone that

(02:31):
I put in red at kJ Hamler, Drew Locke, I hope that Nick's
not listening when I said Drew lockecausewe'll talk about it. You shut your
mouth, You shut your dirty mouth. Sorry, Disappointment, not Buss,
DeMarcus Walker, and Packed and Lynch. I'm very comfortable giving him the bust
label. In yellow. We haveMorgan Mims, who could one day,

(02:52):
you know, growth to be agreen. You know, he says Pro
Bowl, not as a special teamsquayer. So Nick Benito, Javonte Williams,
Jerry Judino a fan, Dalton Risenerat Courtland Sutton, and Adam Patsis
for the Green, we asked theirten. We have Bradley Chubb. We
have Gary Boles who still ninety ninestarts into his career, started a lot
of games for Denvers, so it'snot easy to continue to get that starting

(03:15):
out in the NFL, especially atthat position. So if you look at
the overall percentages, ben just combiningthe first and second round picks, four
of the fifteen selections were read,eight of the fifteen we're yellow, three
of the fifteen we're green. Soyou're looking at seventy three point three percent
ranging from yell to green. That'snot bad. It's better than most NFL
teams. So as far as whatwe've been doing in the draft at the

(03:36):
top of the draft, not sobad. But to the point of not
mortgaging your future to surround your quarterbackwith a team that's not going to support
him, I'm on board with youthere. That would be an awful decision.
Well, and that's the thing Imean, I don't understand the concept
of you know, emptying the magazineas it were, to go get a
guy and then realize you got noamo to do anything with for a few

(04:00):
years. I mean generally, whenwhen teams do that? And I went
back and went over examples of that. Generally, if a team moves up
and they haven't already built the team, they're usually in trouble. I mean,
you could look at the Jets withwith Zach Wilson. You could look
at uh we listened several of them. Uh. You look at at Mahomes
for Kansas City. It's an exampleof the building a team and then going
up and getting them. You lookat Trey Lance, Well, they backed

(04:23):
toward the way to brock Party,but the idea was to go up and
get the quarterback. The Niners werealready built. They got in there with
a Jurneyman quarterback and building that thingafter sanding all the way down. And
so for me, I guess Ilook at this a couple of different ways,
and and I don't think that emptyingout the clip is the way to
go. So then people suggest tome, well we could just trade pats
er Tan, to which I atthat point get apopleptic. Because I'm like,

(04:46):
okay, so you want to tradeCirtan, not get back what you
think you're going to get for him, and how are we replacing Sirtan because
we spent that capital getting the quarterback. I couldn't agree with you more.
And I think a lot of folksthink that it's Madden. So I would
say to anybody who's giving you thepushback, they need to provide some examples
of teams who have traded up tothat spot. Forget even trading up for

(05:11):
the first or second overall pick.Realistically, we're looking at the fourth quarterback
taking in the draft. So Iwould like for anybody who's giving you that
pushback to provide examples of anybody whohas given up three number ones and a
starting player that's roughly what we'd belooking at and ended up having success in
the long run with that force quarterbackin the draft selection. I'd like to
hear some examples, because I cantell you right now it's an invisible list.

(05:34):
Right Generally, there are too manyexamples of teams that did not have
the team built and then traded upto get the quarterback and more successful.
I think the most glaring example Ithink is Buffalo, But that's kind of
an outlier because it was a brandnew regime taking over that had a plan,
they knew they were saved for afew years, and they were starting
to build around the quarterback. Anyway, in most other cases, it just

(05:56):
doesn't work. I agree, Iagree, And I think for Denver the
trouble is, and we've talked aboutthis before, right where Elway was more
successful in free agency and Peyton hasbeen more successful in terms of the draft.
And I don't want to take awayany of the credit that John deserves
for what he did during his timehere, but I would say that he

(06:16):
definitely benefited from the Manning effect,which credit to him for bringing Payden here
to Denver. But the quarterback parouselthat we've been going through, in my
view, is the ultimate free agentdeterrent. That doesn't mean the answer is
to mortgage the farm the tools andthe resources to leave someone who you hope
to be a good farmer without anyof the resources to farm. So you

(06:38):
know, when you have the starquarterback in place, that's going to incentivize
good free agents to come to town. But you can't force it because even
if even if, as we've talkedabout it's anything but a sure thing.
JJ McCarthy is as good as advertised. If you place them in a bad
scenario, you're not going to getPeyton Manning results. So players are going
to need to see JJ McCarthy deliverbefore they're incentify it become to Denver well,

(07:00):
right, And that's the thing somebodytoday was talking about. We were
talking about Geno Smith, and I'mlike, you know, Gino's a thirty
four year old journeyman who's caught firedlast couple of years. And whether that's
Ham or Shane Waldron or both whatever, we'll find out. But the reality
is Geo started his career in sortof a similar situation. I mean,
he was a guy who's taking thesecond round, but they needed a quarterback.
They didn't have the team built aroundthem, and it didn't work.
It took till later in his careerwhere he went to a team that had

(07:23):
the pieces that it worked. Yeah. I think that we continue to look
for these ideal scenarios that are notrealistic. And I would say the one
thing that I file in the backof my head is Sean Payton decided to
come out of retirement to come toDenver and I think that he was fully
aware of the possibility that Russell Wilsonwouldn't pan out the way he wanted it

(07:46):
to pan out, because he knewthe kind of system he was going to
run, So the result shouldn't surpriseanyone, much less Sean Payton. So,
facing the scenario that we're facing nowin Salary capell without having the contender
ross sure that Patrick Mahomes walked intoin twenty seventeen, Sean Payton had to
be prepared for this scenario. Ihave a hard time believing that he's going

(08:09):
to go Jared Sida mc QB onefor seventeen games next year. But I
think Sean Payton's been around this leaguelong enough to know that mortgage in your
future to get a quarterback to puton a roster that isn't complete yet isn't
going to work out any better.So you know, the draft can't come
any sooner. I can't wait tosee what they're going to do. Yeah,
tired of the speculation myself. Fivesix six text. I talk with
Ryan Michael. Let the Ryan Michaelon Twitter. We don't call it X,

(08:31):
I call it Twitter here. Youknow, we were talking a little
bit earlier today, also about MikeShanahan, and you know you pose the
question, is Mike Shanahan below inthe Hall of Fame? I think there
are two coaches currently out there thatI believe our absolute stone cold should have
already been in the Hall of Fameguys, and it's Mike Shanahan and Tom
Coughlin. But what's say for me, Mike Shanahan is an absolute no brainer.

(08:56):
I mean, the imprint of whathe left on this league is still
being today, right. Different variationsof the Shanahan offense that you think,
the pre snap motion, the playaction, the wide zone, the West
Coast offensive moving parts where the threatof the run opens things up for the
passing game and efficiency in the passinggame opens things up for the run game.
And if you look back even ata lot of the folks coaching today,

(09:18):
right, I mean, his treein Washington included Kyle, Sean McVay,
Matt before Mike McDaniel, and sohis presence is still being felt to
this day in the form of KyleShanahan and a lot of coaches who coached
underneath him. I take a lookat Mike Shanahan's resume and It's so much
more to me then than just thetwo Super Bowls he won in Denver.

(09:39):
He's a six time conference champion,five times with Denver, two of them
being as a head coach. Andhe was the offensive coordinator in San Francisco,
and he took over as the offensivecoordinator in San Francisco in nineteen ninety
two. Steve Young be team theleague MVP in his very first year as
a starter. So if you thinkeven how good Aaron Rodgers was early on,

(10:00):
once he had the opportunity to play, he wasn't named the league MVP.
And for his fourth season as astarter, Steve Young won two MVPs
in his first three years, allwith Mike Shanahan at the Helm. So
I mean in totality, he gotsix different quarterbacks to the Pro Bowl back
when making the Pro Bowl wasn't suchan easy thing. It was actually an
accomplishment back then. So under MikeShanahan as either a coordinator, a positional

(10:24):
coach, an OCI or a headcoach, John Ellie went to seven Pro
Bowls. Steve Young went to three, including two first team All Pro selections.
During that run to MVPs. BrianGreasy went to the Pro Bowl,
Jake Plumber, Jake Cutler, RobertGriffin the third, led the league in
yards per attempt and had one ofthe greatest roockey passing seasons in the history
of the NFL. One of thegreatest unanswered questions is going to be how

(10:48):
good he could have been if hiscareer wasn't derailed early by injury John Elway.
From eighty three up through ninety four, pre Shanahan had a career passer
rating of seventy six point eight.Soon a Mike took over, it bumped
all the way up eleven point ninepoints. At eighty eight point seven,
Terrell Davis won an MVP. Justthe amount of success that followed Shanahan is

(11:11):
unspeakably underrated, given the reality thathe's not yet in the Pro Football Hall
of Fame. Yeah, the impact, it's not just what he did in
terms of, you know, interms of his record, in terms of
you know, the quarterbacks, allthat kind of stuff. I mean,
it's the impact on the game acrossthe board. I mean, you just
you look at this stuff and ithas been a massive impact across the board.

(11:33):
It's interesting to me because over thelast I oh gosh, what is
it thirteen seasons. I think somethinglike that that the Washington had. When's
the last time I mean, JoeGibbs was head coaching last time they had
a double digit win season. Thatwasn't Mike Shanahan. That should say,
say, Mike Shanahan got them toa wild card at a ten win season.

(11:54):
You know where they won the divisionwith that rookie year you talked about
with RG three before, you know, before he got the railed. But
I mean that's the more abund franchisethat he came in there and brought success
to. It had been seven yearsprior to his arrival that they'd had a
double digits win season and they haven'thad one since. They have not had
a double digit win season since.So that's I mean, I think that

(12:16):
goes on to say exactly the kindof impact yet, and then you look
at the coaching tree, you lookat the fact that everybody in the league
is running that offense. You know, I was talking to Grant earlier,
we talked about the New Orleans Saints. The New Orleans Saints wanted to update
their offense, so they went fromwhat we're running here to what the guy
who made his bread and butter herehas got the whole league running. You're

(12:37):
not wrong. You're not wrong.I mean when the imprint is felt to
this very day, and I thinkback to that twenty twelve team in Washington
and just how good RG three was, Just how good Alfred Morris was stepping
into the league, put up almostfourteen hundred yards on the ground alone,
and the success that Shanahan was ableto get out of the ground game.
And so Terrell Davis, like hisrun the numbers that we put on Twitter

(13:00):
the other day when he was healthybetween ninety five and ninety eight under Mike
Shanahan, he average not a careerbest. We're not just talking ninety eight
here, We're talking every seventeen gameshe produced two thousand, one hundred and
sixteen yards and seventeen total touchdowns fromscrimmage. And what TV did in the
postseason was even more impressive. Theaverage almost one hundred and sixty yards a

(13:20):
game, one and a half touchdownsto game. So if you expanded that
out to a seventeen game sample size, you're looking at two thousand, seven
hundred one yards twenty five and ahalf touchdowns. But after TD have Landis
Gary put up one thousand, threehundred and eighteen yards from scrimmage Mike Anderson
the next year, one thousand,six hundred and fifty six. Clinton Portis

(13:41):
during his two year run average twothousand, two hundred fourteen yards and eighteen
touchdowns per year. Ruben Drones onethousand, four hundred and eighty one yards
in two thousand and five. TeamNick was on the combination of Tatum Bell,
Mike Anderson, and the rest oftwo thousand, five hundred and thirty
nine yards. The accomplishments are literallyit's such a lengthy list, we don't
have enough time even talk about it. Yeah, he's obviously him, Vince

(14:03):
Lombardi, Don Shula, Chuck Nol, Jimmy Johnson, Bill Belichick, and
Andy Reid. The only seven coachesthat went back to back Super Bowls,
you know, and then twelve coachesin history to have uh four wins in
one postseason. Uh, you know, he's in that list. Uh,
There's there's just so many and it'sjust one of those things that you start
to look at the coaching tree.First of all, I mean the guys

(14:24):
that he worked under some you know, definitely some names to Dan Reevee George
Seaford, Barry Switzer, you know, guys like that. But you go
on to look at the guys thatthat were his assistant coaches that became head
coaches in the NFL, Art Shell, Carl Derel, Jay Bookcart, Greg
Robinson, Gary kobiact And Brewster,Troy Calhoun, John Ambry, Anthony Lynn,
Sean McVay, Kyle Shanahan, JetFish, Charlie Jackson, Met Lafleur,

(14:48):
Lu Spanos, Mike McDaniel. He'sgot former players in Cliff Kingsbury and
Anthony Lynn that went on to becomehead coaches. And and then you know,
five of his execs went on tobecome general managers, Rick Smith,
John Elway, Regie Mackenzie, DaveGettleman, and John lynch Lord. Yeah,
the list is never ending. Andone of the things been that always

(15:11):
stood out to me about Shanahan asan offensive minded coaches, he was always
able to put defensive coordinators into placeto have balance on the defensive side of
the ball. I still stay tothis day the two thousand and three to
two thousand and five Broncos. Theyremind me of the Bills from the nineteen
nineties, of the sense that theyhad such balance on offense and defense.
Double digit wins every year, topten offense, top ten defense every year.

(15:35):
And you compare that to some ofthe success that Sean Payton had in
New Orleans. He had tremendous successon the offensive side of the ball.
Sure, but if you look atpoints per drive under Sean Payton, I
mean you had defenses that finish.I'm taking a look right now. Twentieth
yeah, thirty first, yeah,thirty second, back to back years that
would have never happened on Mike Shanahan, right. Brian has always be appreciated.

(15:58):
Got to cut a little short here, but we'll look forward to talking
to you again next week. Soundsgood. Been looking forward. Absolutely. Take care