04-29-24 Geoff Schwartz with Broncos Country Tonight

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
We'll go right out to the kaCommon Spirit Else hotline. Bring on.
My friend Jeff Schwartz, former NFLoffensive lineman, works the Fox Sports Serious
x am and basically I just lovehis Twitter feed at Jeff Schwartz on Twitter,
but important for this conversation Oregon Duckalumni Jeff Schwartz, Jeff, I
you done, man, Yeah,man, It's good to hear your voice.

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We we got a couple of duckshere. It's like the quack attack
is back here in in Denver asbo Nick Troy Franklin become the latest Denver
Broncos. I I liked what Isaw out of bow Knicks looking at him
during the pre draft process better thanI liked, for instance, Michael Pennix
or you know JJ McCarthy, whowas rumored to be the apple of the

(00:43):
Broncos eye. But of course thatwas a smoke screen for Sean Payton.
What can you tell us about bowNicks? Yeah, you know, I
think he's got a bad rap forsome of the you know a dot stuff
and short passes. I put outa tweet at Courts on my Twitter.
There was a stat that someone playout that said, you know, Bonnicks

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had a thousand yards of receiving whenthe ball was thrown at or behind the
line of scrimmage, and five ofthose players encounted for twenty percent of that
thousand yards. Like, it's nota lot of throws he made behind the
line of here was a lot ofwe're in rhythm. I think the things
that you like about bon Knicks arehe's very decisive with the football. If

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you watched Orgers Austins last season,they did a lot of kind of two
things, a lot of play actionpass and then they went empty production.
Right, they had five wide receiversout and they let bone Knicks chose aside
pre snap balls out quickly. Heprocesses very well for six needs to work
on, but he can make allthe throws. If you have the strongest
arm, I would say no,but you can see all the all the

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pro throws he made, and don'tlook at the advanced numbers, the amount
of ends and curls and comebacks andgo routes, things that you're going to
see him have to do on Sunday. And I think if you look at
the top three guys, who isthe most kind of able to fit with
Sean Payne to wanton offense from aquarterback, and that is Bonnicks, and
so I think that pairing makes alot of sense here. Well, yeah,

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I think the pairing does make alot of sense. And I think
if you look for the qualities thatSean Payton is looking for at a quarterback,
a guy like Bonix just fills thoseout. You mentioned the quick decision
maker, but I think some ofthe other things there that this sort of
you know, add to that.Sean Payton's offense is a schedule offense.
Boknicks doesn't take sacks, he doesn'tfumble the ball, literally did not fumble
the ball at all at Oregon,and those are two things he's He's previously

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called out about. The last quarterbackhere, Russell Wilson. Yes, he
will get the ball out. Ithink that one of the negatives on him
that I've seen and I'm serious tosee, you know, in the NFL
was different. And he's very goodpre snap and then post snap. If
he doesn't get exactly what he thoughthe would get, then there's a little
hesitation, and so I think justkind of growth in his game from that

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perspective. Obviously, wish Sean Paynewhat he's done for so many years with
Drew Bridges, and that's a goodfit there. I didn't go Aliable to
learn that. Also, it's worthnoting that Oregon had a very pro style
passing attack mixed in with you know, some of the college RPOs and flagship
pass stuff. You watch the offense, they had a lot of what we

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would call triangle reads, where he'sreading a triangle, he's reading one,
two, three, and he's lookingat the leverage of linebackers and corners and
safeties to figure out where the ballshould go. That's a very pro Stout's
a West Coast offense type of thing. Or you read the triangle if you
notice, if you ever stop likea Chiefs play and you can see there's
a triangle formed typically by the weapons. Mahomes is looking at it, maybe

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even four guys at times. Feelfor me, they fought for strong So
it's a very pro style offense youran at Oregon. They will translate well.
Kean I fol Plus you get theleadership part of it right, and
I know that you know he's older, that's certainly true. And the last
part of it, he's really athletic. He can run. He doesn't run
to run like. He runs veryvery specific situations that you can use that

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in the red doone especially, that'swhere quarterback runs I think are a big
benefit. Well, Jeff, youhit on something that is really important.
I think bon Nikes has been criticizedfor but I think it's an advantage.
But I would like to get yourtake on it. And it's his level
of experience. Both he and MichaelPennix are guys who are you know,

(04:24):
twenty three to twenty four. Butyou tell me, as a guy that
played the game, how does thatactually help bo Nicks opposed to hurting him?
Well, he just he's seen alot of football. We have to
sort of Okay, so you knowwhat happened with all these older quarterbacks we
obviously know is the COVID year,right the COVID year and this next draft

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and twenty five will be to thelast COVID year. Guys, So all
the duds is older right now.And I'm not sure that it's a bad
thing. You look at the ageof pennex, at the age of necks
like, it takes guys a littlebit longer to matureim times We've seen it,
certainly at the quarterback position that maturingis that happened in the NFL is
wort have happened in college. Andhe has seen a lot of football sixty

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one starts, I believe, Andso he goes in the NFL not be
intimidated. He's seen everything. Now, of course he's not seen NFL defense
and the speed and whatnot, buthe's seen a lot of football. He's
played a lot of big football thathe's played in, you know, in
big games at Auburn, he's playedin big games in Oregon. And so
when he goes to the NFL,is not getting intimidated by the moment,

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by the environment. And I thinkwe just have to sort of get over
the age thing. It's it justis this class right now, sort of
just that this is what it is. Jame Gamis, by the ways,
were older too, right He's atwenty two. Pesson was twenty nineteen and
he beat Organ there to the endof that season. So these guys just
older. Because of COVID year,it will kind of reverse back next couple

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of years. But that's just theguys you're getting right now. Another player
of the Broncos got and came awaywith on draft days beginning of days are
you trading up for wide receiver TroyFranklin. I enjoyed watching Franklin plays guy
who you get the ball in hishands and you know, and he creates.
Sean Bayton says he looks at himas a as a Z receiver in
this offense. What can you tellus about Troy Franklin. Yeah, man,

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he can, he can. Hecan really run. He uh,
he's a weapon on the edge andhe caught a lot of big past this
organ this past year. He isable to just straight line speed to get
by a lot of corners. Ithink you've got to learn to play more
physical. If you watch against Washington, especially the title championship game, Mohammed

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and at the corner at Washington wasable to kind of press them again in
his face. And those are thingshe used to work on, just sort
of the physical part of it andjust learning I think a little bit more
of the route trade. Oregon.He was a lot of comebacks, a
lot of slants, post goes,you know, not a lot of kind
of deviation off those those four routes. So uh, look again, just

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supremely talented player. And there's reasonshe dropped and that's the draft, right,
You're gonna get guys with value atcertain points. But I like the
idea of reuniting the cornerback in awide receivers what he's I think it just
gives a comfort level for both thoseplayers, especially for Go Knicks, to
have someone he knows and someone whoknows him and you can really work with

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Franklink. There's a lot of upsidebecause of this speed. He's just he's
fast. I know that he didn'trun fast to combine, but you had
to play this year against usc thatI think they caalked him a like twenty
two miles an hour you could run. I think there's this play street.
Obviously there's combine speed. I justkind of prefer what they play, you
know, working pads. So,Jeff, what do you say for those

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who kind of look at both Nicksand say, well, and it's time
in Oregon. He spent a lotof time in shotgun and in NFL if
you want to run play action andwhat Sean Payton's even to do with Drew
Brees and the wall is a lotof that is from under center. So
how does a quarterback, in youropinion, kind of graduate and learn to
adjust now being forced to play morein the center than he did in college.

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It's a great question, you know, I don't it's it's difficult,
right, And I think the partthat's difficult about it is and this is
what people have said, I don'timagine. You know, you you turn
it back to the defense, right, so you know, you see one
thing, you see too high anduh, and you turn your back to

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the defense. All of a suddenthey're in one high right and you thought
that the zone coverage. Now it'sa man tubag. And so the ability
to think on your feet and understandit, and Bonus is able to do
that again, like when you watchhim play, his ability to recognize things
in the field is high. It'sa high it's a high level trade of
his and so he just be ableto do that now with his back,

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you know, to to the defensepotentially. And I think, look,
Sean Payne has had no quarterbacks before. He's going to figure out an offense
early in his tenure there that worksfor Bonis and then they'll build it out
from there. And so you know, it might take him some time to
learn how to do that, butthat's just kind of part of the Woking
learning process is figuring out you things, and I mean this look I'm off

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its lineman. Obviously, I didn'tplaying a three point stance at all on
college in the NFL, and youlearned to play a three point stance like
that's just part of growing in beingan NFL. So I think it's gonna
be fine because he's shown the abilityto make those adjustments in college. I
don't know if you know much aboutthe Denver Broncos last pick in the draft,

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but I wanted to talk to youabout the offensive lineman Nick Cargulio out
of South Carolina by way of Yale. And I don't know if you've seen
this man's headshot prior to cutting hishair off. I was devastated when he
got rid of that glorious mullet.But he this mustache mullet combination that he's
rocking where he looks something like ayoung mel Kuiper if mel Kuiper lived in
Alabama in the nineteen seventies. Thisguy's a double major economics and political science

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out of Yale. And where's jerseynumber sixty nine? This guy has all
the personality in the world. Iam sitting here saying we need more of
this, We need more offensive linemenwith mega personalities like this. I had
to figure you'd be a big,big fan of the pick. Yeah,
well him and him and put right. I'll tell you what. So deep

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Mannyweather is everybody in min my bestfriend. He trains all the offensive lineman
down a Dallas for combat and he'sin you know, we have a text
with him and play named Brandon Thorns. I just follow Brandon two on social
media and he's been talking up Nickfor a while now. Just to the
ability, I think that to bekind of under the radar and a guy
that Look, sometimes you find thoseseventh round players other sermons around player you

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just fall through the cracks a littlebit, especially at the center position.
Right, it's not a position thatand even plays center guards and it depends
on who he's tall enough to doboth. But you know, like they
just fall through the cracks sometimes,especially that position. And so to be
able to get a player like that, who I think has a lot of
upside in the round is good.I mean, look, you need death

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players. I think we won't talkabout that enough anyway. Jordan Ellis,
I watched him a lot at thatconference due to Russia passer like he he
he did after it, like hehas polished passwords. He has a spin
move, which is the hardest todefend if your offensive lineman, he's good
at it, like he comes tothe NFL being able I think to use

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that immediately. And we've seen throughthe careers of many defensive ends that if
you keep spin man like that's asit's really, it's a valuable tool to
have, and he hasn't already.Now tell me how big is the transition
for offensive linemen trying to go fromthe college level to the pro level.

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I know there's somewhat of a learningcurve learning the system, but just the
fundamental parts of it. Because thereason I'm asking his question, we watched
the Broncos offensive line last season whenSean Payton came in and he made some
adjustment adjustments bringing in Mike mcglei tothe right tackle and Vampius had the left
guard. But they had their issues, they had their struggles. But how
was that transition for some guys?Meanings though, that's from the technique,

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in the footwork and putting all thatstuff together. You know, it just
takes work, you know, andit's hard, I think now because you
just don't get that practice time likeyou used to, you know, and
it's I think it's difficult to getall the working you need. And so

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it takes a get off of theline coach, It takes an offense works
you off of the line to figureit out. If you have two days,
it's again, we don't have twodays anymore, you know. Then
I think in those days you're ableto figure it out a little faster and
more practice. And so it's justa matter of reps, getting reps.
We often see right like young playersthat just get better throout the season because

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again there's more reps to be hadthroughout the year. So it's just reps,
it's a repetition. It's playing togetherwith each other. It's really to
communicate with each other. And look, I think we all agree clearly offense
will just function the last season.And you bring Bone Nixon. He's a

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quarterback, I think from probably dayone, looking at your quarterback room,
and they'll be able to sort of, you know, kind of rolld that
offenses offensive alignment around what they wantto do with Nix. You know,
we saw when Seun paid work inNew Orleans. You wanted very specific consumers
offensive liignment. He likes big guardsbecause he wants you to be able to

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put those big guards, sort ofkeep him firm in the front of the
pocket, have the tackles, kindof worry about the width of the pocket.
And so that system works. Thereare a lot of teams like to
do that, and I think they'llbe just fine. It just takes reps,
man, It just reps and goingto the offense, and they don't.
You want to go with your quarterback, understand where the quarterback is going
to be, getting rid of theball. All those things matter for the

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offensive line. Jeff Schwartz Jeff Schwartzon Twitter. Jeff certainly appreciate you taking
the time out tonight. Thank youguys. Have a good one. Absolutely
take care. Jef Schwartz, formeroffensive lineman University of Oregon football, analyst
to Fox Sports and Sirius exam