05-03-24 Hour 1 of Broncos Country Tonight

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to it Broncos Country tonight.But with all Brian Dick Ferguson, Grant
Smith gusual license in Colorado Rockies threetwo winners over the Pittsburgh Pirates first game
of the year. They did nottrail at any point. I would like
to see him put that record alittle more out of reach. Yeah,
yeah, yeah, I mean it'donly been what nineteen hundred that it was

(00:20):
the last time that someone had letlike twenty eight games in a row to
start the season. Yeah, theygot trail one. Yeah, they get
to thirty one. It's just justputting it out of reach, just Cal
putting it out of reach. ButI think you get the win tonight.
Cal Quantrill got the uh, gotthe victory and went over. He has
seven to two thirds innings old total. Good for him, five six six

(00:45):
nine zeros. A text line,I'll take you guys' questions, So a
couple of guys checking to see ifI'm here. I am. It is
always If you ever miss any partof Broncos Country Nights, you can always
go to Broncos Country Night dot com, slash podcast, or wherever you get
your podcast Apple, it Tunes,Spot total free loss of my heart radio
app where you gets taken it forgranted podcast, or you can leave his
top backs a little red microphone upthe corner like this, Hey Ben,

(01:07):
it sounds like you either know someoneclose to or no. Dave Canalys,
I wanted to ask you if youknow if Dave Tepper took the restaurant managers
advice and let the GM and thecoach make the selection that dumpster fire down
there. I hope it gets workedout. Ah, yes, I do

(01:32):
know some people there. I've believeit or not, I've been called and
screamed at more by Carolina Panthers PRthan any other team in football. That
is a that is a there's anabsolute fact. Uh. And and it's
hilarious because the first couple of timesyou could tell when they when they called

(01:57):
to, you know, ask aboutsomething or how I got something, and
you know I was putting out theywould it would be a little edge to
their voice, but they were tryingto be overly pleasant, you know.
And then I think, finally theone where I tweeted about the Panthers owner
Dave Tepper, uh literally drawing upa play and handing it to his offensive

(02:20):
corner and saying run that run thisplay this week, that they got a
little upset called and started screaming,and so the the guy from PR is
like, what's the name of yourboss? And I'm like, you're not
gonna believe you're but his name isDave Tepper. Oh that set off a

(02:45):
whole other chain of like, youknow, upset in this thinking I was
messing with her or whatever, wheneverI wasn't, of course, because our
program director your name is also DaveTepper. You know, God, our
boss is a little more uh mellow. Yeah. So as far as Carolina,
as Dave Tepper goes, yeah,they let the but the general manager
and the and the coach, youknow, kind of do their thing.
For this draft, he does remaina little two hands on. But I

(03:08):
will say that overall, I thinkhe's kind of gotten the memo. He's
starting to see like perception is goin the other direction. So if that
changes, I'll let you know.I do have a pipeline there. I've
got a few friends on that staff, and then I've known Canals for years,

(03:31):
so you know, we'll we'll knowpretty quick. I promise you'll be
able to tell. You think he'llturn that thing around Dave. Yeah,
this is the thing, Like,I'm glad he got a job. I'm
glad he got a head coaching jobbecause he is that guy. If they
get the right players in there,he is that guy. Like he's he's

(03:52):
the dude. He does everything theright way. It makes you want to
follow him, you know, intobattle. That kind of guy. I
think it'd just be tough going intoa situation like that with the owner,
not only the owner who's outrageously ridiculousand it's just spiteful. It seems like
from the story about him tearing downthat other guy's house and building a bigger

(04:15):
one. Yeah, but his oldboss, he literally bulldozed his original boss's
house built a bigger house on topof the ruins, which I could kind
of respect a little bit, Butthat's the next level petty. Yeah,
but getting a quarterback drafted the yearbefore you get there, that has to
kind of be your guy now whenyou didn't really pick him. But Canals
was part of the group that renovatedGino. He's part of the group that

(04:39):
renovated Baker Mayfield, and so itkind of feels like if you are Panthers
owner Dave Tepper you go out thereand you get a coach who's got a
history of salvaging quarterbacks. Maybe hecan get up dunb with Bryce Young.
It's a pretty good track record.Yeah, And I just to say he

(05:01):
like, he is that guy,He's gonna do everything he can to make
you successful. Let's that's his coachingphilosophy. Dave can Alice's guy who's like,
what can I do to make yousuccessful? Because that's gonna make me
successful? Right, And so thathe goes about stuff the right way.
At the end of the day fivesix six nine zeros text line, I
had quite a few texts on there. Uh. I wanted to get to

(05:28):
this story about Marvin Harrison Junior.For those of you that don't know,
Arizona Cardinals wide receiver and fourth overalldraft pick in the draft last weekend,
Marvin Harrison Junior has declined to signan NFLPA licensing deal as leverage for a
new Fanatics deal which he already hadand an IL existing an IL deal.

(05:55):
So eight nights ago, Cardinals receiverMarvin Harrison Junior held up a jerseys has
a name on it, but nobodycan buy a jersey with his name on
it because he hasn't signed the NFLPAjoint licensing agreement, and John wynefussividiospen dot
Com reports that even though Harrison hasnot signed the NFLPA licensing deal, he
has an existing deal with Fanatics,who is the distributor of NFL player jerseys.

(06:23):
The deal, which Harrison signed beforehis last seasont Ohio State's worth more
than a million dollars, is forautographs, sign trading cards, game ward
apparel, and other marketing opportunities.But Harrison is trying to renegotiate that deal
for more money and is trying touse the fact that he has not signed
the group licensing agreement as leverage.By not signing the NFLPA agreement, Harrison

(06:46):
cannot be a part of a largenumber of marketing deals. He can't have
Nike producers cardinals jersey, which wouldthen be sold to various outlets, including
Fanatics. He cannot be in theMadden NFL video game. On Wednesday,
Pat McAfee said on his show thatHarrison turned down an offer for a card

(07:08):
deal from Fanatics as a as asophomore, so it goes all the way
into your second year in the NFLMarvin Harrison, who doesn't need the money.
He said, we're not taking thatdeal. We're not signing that deal,
and he's holding out for more money. He's selling signed member abidia on

(07:40):
his own personal website, which iscalled the Official Harrison Collection. Items there
include photos that range from one hundredone hunred and fifty bucks jersey at three
hundred dollars, helmet for as muchas four hundred bucks. The site has
a little blurb that says Cardinals memberBillia coming soon, the only website to
purchase signed Harrison memorabilia. In additionto his deal Fanatics, Harrison also has

(08:07):
an endorsement agreement with New Balanced shoesand Head and Shoulders Shampoo. But Harrison
signed the contract with Fanatics before thetwenty twenty three season, deal worth more
than a million covers autographs. Wementioned the Trading Cards game more apparel of
that. While union membership is mandatory, no player is required to sign the

(08:30):
NFLPA licensing deal, and probably oneof the best examples of that is former
NFL linebacker LeVar Arrington, who isone of the most prominent examples and his
refusal to sign, which is whyhe was always absent from the Madden video
game because he wouldn't sign the NFLPAdeal. So I don't know if this

(08:50):
is going to be something that Harrisonactually leverages into something more. The NFLPA
licensing deal. We talked about thisgosh a few weeks back when there were
some bizarre numbers out there that werenot even remotely accurate. The NFLPA licensing

(09:13):
deal has something like forty or fiftydifferent products underneath it, and you wind
up receiving a check for about twentythousand dollars a little over twenty thousand dollars,
that's the current number. And allthose numbers came out when people were

(09:37):
trying to say that the number putin front of athletes for the new NCUBA
video game was a bad number basedon the number that they thought they were
getting from Maden, which and I'llsay this, the number that the NFL,
the NFLPA check that you get iscolloquially referred to as the Madden money,
but it's much much more than that. But players don't necessarily know that.

(09:58):
They just they get it's called theMadden check because that's just what it's
called, even though it's way morethan Madden. The Madden portion of that
check is significantly less than half ofthat money. And so when people are
trying to extrapolate the number out,they were saying the nail athletes were actually
get a bad deal. Realities,they're getting about the same. It's about
the same, plus they get afree copy of the video game. But

(10:20):
anyway, end of the day,Marvin Harrison is not signing this. So
fans are getting upset because they wantto buy Morvan Harrison junior jerseys and they
can't. Fanatics is already under firefrom the league as being the biggest leak
for new jerseys. They were buyand laws not the only leak, but

(10:46):
they were the largest leak of earlyleaks for the new jerseys, including the
concept art that was leaked to AntonioBrown. So the teams are furious with
Fanatics. The Fanatics deal that they'vesigned to be distribute all this kind of

(11:07):
stuff has been an absolute just headachefor the NFL and for teams. Fanatics
in and of itself is about tocome under fire from the league. I
don't know if they've presented it tohim yet or not, but the league
is about to because they are theleak they aren't where we found out,
but they are the leak for mosteverybody else, not the only leak,

(11:28):
just the most problem has to say, as you can you and Nick can
both attest to they are not theleak for where we got the jerseys at
the time. But I just findthis fascinating, and maybe I'm the only
one who finds it fascinating that MarvinHarrison Junior is holding out for more money
from fanatics because he signed an NILdeal that he doesn't like. Now that
he's in the league. Maybe untilthen, no one can get a jersey

(11:52):
with us. And they literally cannotget a Cardinals jersey with Harrison on it,
and he's their number one draft pick, number one draft pick. That's
crazy. Other news the ESPN NFLnetwork closing in on a deal result in
the NFL taking inequity stake in ESPNand ESPN getting control of NFL media.

(12:15):
The deal is I understand it isall but signed and would probably explain why
the recent slash and burn approach toNFL network programming. ESPN is taking over.
Why would the NFL renew the contracts? There are multiple key NFL media
employees under contract, for instance,and Rapaport, who recently renewed his deal
with the league. They're unclear whatwould happen with those contracts, but we

(12:37):
saw today that Total Access, whichis their signature studio show, is being
shut down for good. I thinkthe relationship BETWEENFL Network and ASPN raised a
lot more questions than it answers beyondfuture program and there'll be real questions about
ESPN's independence when it comes to coveringleague. If win, the NFL takes

(13:00):
an equity stake and ESPN takes chargeof NFL network, he has been reporters
will be inherently comprised as NFL networkreporters. All I care about is they
better keep Scott Handsome in the redzone. Yeah. I just wonder what
has because I've got friends that workthere. I mean we all know James
Palmer, you know, locally,but I've got friends that were you know,

(13:22):
Ian rapp Aboard and Mike Garifuller orpeople like count as friends. I
talk to these guys on a regularbasis, and there are question marks as
to what their employment situation is goingto be. I gotta say though they
did both, I mean any networkwould want them, true, But you
know, I mean you got tofigure that that that might require them moving

(13:45):
or you know, uprooting their families, things like that. I think the
other part of this is, likewe have a a deal where ian rapport
comes exclusively on KA in this market. If ESPN takes over, do ESPN
affiliates then get the rights to allthat other than the grand grandfather deals because

(14:07):
our competitor, one of our competitorin Tian has rights to ESPN personalities Adam
Schefter, Right, that's why wecan't have Adam Schefter on the on the
show. You know, things likethat. I have had, like we've
had some some ESPN guys on thisthing, but we could. There are
people that are under contract Adam doesa regular segment at a competitor, and
so it brings the question whether ornot those deals will be Grandfather Dean all

(14:30):
kinds of stuff like that. Sothere's there there are a lot of questions
that are coming out of that,I think, And maybe that's a maybe
that's a making the sausage kind ofthing. I didn't even think of those
aspects of it though. Yeah,the trickle down of it all that is
uh, you know that is onein the group chat that's a conversation that's
happening. So other NFL news,Alex Magoo is moving from quarterback to wide

(14:50):
receiver. For those that don't know, the Packers selected to lane quarterback Michael
Pratt in the seventh round. McGoowas the USFL MVP in twenty twenty three
as a quarterback, but he mightplay on special teams. We saw earlier
in the week with the Pittsburgh Steelers, we're talking about moving justin fields to

(15:13):
kick return Revie A. Packers maymove Magoo back there as well as moving
him to wide receiver. And theidea behind that in both scenarios is because
you had to have two kick returners, and as soon as you see a
quarterback back there, you're probably gonnakick it at him. The idea is
to create throwbacks. If you've gotan athletic quarterback who could take off a

(15:33):
couple of steps in this sort oflateral or throw it back to the other
guy going the other direction, you'vegot a special teams already leaning towards you,
you might have a clear path fora touchdown. I'm so excited to
see how this new rule plays out. I get because there's gonna be and
I'm gonna tell you in this firstyear that you're gonna be able to tell
the good special teams coordinators from thebad ones because the creative ones are going
to mop up with plays like that. I can't wait. I want to

(15:56):
see it. So Alex mcgoo's isis transitioning from quarterback to wide receiver.
You spent last season as the Packerspractice squad thirteen quarterback by Jordan Love and
Sean Clifford. Very athletic guy,USFLMVP in twenty twenty three. Like I
said, so that'd be fun toofun to see there. When we come

(16:18):
back, Parker Gabriel is gonna joinus. We will recap on this draft.
What we're looking forward to for theBroncos season is a Broncos Country Night
on Kawa five six six nine zeros, A text line, a lot of
a lot of text message bagging fanatics. After that last segment by the Way
fanatics to L's at baseball, theuniforms are ugly, Nike fanatics collapse but

(16:41):
horrible. Apparently they've decided to redothe jersey. Yeah, they finally ACQUI
asked, because there was such backlashabout those Nike jerseys with the tiny numbers
and the letter. Like you understand, when you make a jersey, you
have to think of it for twodifferent perspectives. There's the perspective of right
up front, I'm wearing it asa faction assary. But there's a there's
a perspective of the people in thestands see the number and read the name

(17:06):
right you know, so you gotthe up close and I think people only
design stuff for like up close.They don't think about it from from far
away. And that's why we getlike the Broncos jerseys, why it has
the tiny little Broncos on it onthe front, like you can't read that
from the stands, ridiculous sight outto the kaway commaspirit on the hotline.
Bring on a good buddy, Parker, Gabriel Parker. Are you doing I'm
doing good? Hey, doing well? You know I'm over here fetching about

(17:26):
the uniform stuff on a Friday.So that's about how it goes. One
week ago. One week ago wehad the NFL Draft. Denver Broncos got
ostensibly their quarterback of the future,bow Knicks, taking him at twelve,
opting not to trade back. Probablysmart in hindsight, given the fact that
we now know the Raiders and Ramswere were interested in that. What did
you think of the bow Knicks pickfor the Denver Broncos. Yeah, you

(17:49):
know that It's one of those thingswhere it's like when you if you would
have asked me a week before thedraft, hey, what do you think
about you know people, did youwrite about it constantly? What do you
think about taking a quarter back attwelve? Who are they going to take?
What quarterback are they going to take? And what I kept saying was,
given the number of teams involved thatneed a quarterback, it's just really
hard to say who is going tobe available, what the options are,

(18:11):
how far up you know, canyou get, how far back could you
theoretically get? And that's sort oflike, you know, maybe maybe nine
times out of ten at twelve theytake bon Nicks or whatever. But like
you also couldn't have foreseen exactly howthe board was going to fall, and
it actually then went relatively normally intoAtlanta. And when you listen to Sean

(18:33):
Payton and George Payton talk about itafterwards, that changed their plans. You
know, you end up with thethree teams set eleven, twelve, thirteen
of Minnesota, Denver and Vegas andthere's only two quarterbacks for those three teams.
And so, you know, Ithink you're right where in hindsight you
look at it and you say,yeah, I mean, they did what
they had to do to get aquarterback. They took phone Nix right where

(18:53):
he was. They like him.And in an alternate universe where you know,
all three of McCarthy, Pennix andNicks on the board at ten have
gone differently, who knows, maybe, but the way it's fell, you
can't blame him for taking the guy, you know where they took him,

(19:14):
and obviously they had done a lotof homework to get to that point and
feel good about taking them there.Yeah, I mean, before I get
on to the rest of this draftclass, I do want to dive a
little bit deeper into the Michael Pennocksituation, because what did you think when
that name came across? Because forme, I was like, what,
I mean, you'd heard whispers,There's been a few little, tiny little

(19:36):
glimmers of you know that out there, but the Atlanta foulc has spent one
hundred million dollars on Kirk Cousins.And then go out and draft, the
second oldest quarterback in the first roundat that point in time. Now that
would be broken by Bonix a fewpicks later, but the second oldest quarterback
in the first round ever, behindBrandon Wheaton. Yeah, it was amazing.
I mean, it's kind of funny. It's one of those things where

(19:56):
I can't remember who it was.I mean, just read so much much
of the draft pre draft stuff,and you're and you're talking to as many
people as you can obviously and allof that. I think maybe it was
Ian Rap or like somebody at somepoints said like he Atlantica have real interest
in Michael Pennox at ed eight,And I just remember thinking like, oh,

(20:17):
this is one of those situations whereit's like a little bit too clearly,
just like the draft pasturing stuff.And as it turned out, and
and the you know, the batthe supporting evidence was basically like, well,
you know, they flew out toSeattle just to watch his workout.
I was like, I mean,that doesn't really sound like a recipe for
taking a guy at eight when you'vealready committed at least two years to the

(20:38):
quarterback you have. But okay,you know, it's the season where everybody
says everything they can about you know, every draft prospect, and then of
course lo and behold like that's actuallythe good intel And he comes off the
board at eight and you're sitting theregoing, wow, I mean you know
that that and when you listen toyou know what Bronco said, I mean,
I think that shipped them up tojust in terms of you know,

(20:59):
they were they were comfortable and thensuddenly they weren't comfortable about how the quarterback
board looked. Talking with Parker Gabrielat Parker J. Gabriel on Twitter covers
the Denver Broncos for the diver post. In the second round, they go
out and get Ellis, the passrusher out of Utah, highly productive guy,
obviously had a little bit of aninjury, a little injury issue there

(21:21):
a second day, two, thirdround, sorry, and wind up getting
somebody with Broncos connections. Obviously,and to be fair, the Yellis family
might be the mccaffreys of defense whenit comes to the NFL, given how
many of the progenies Thaugh out ofthe league. I asked him if he
had a sister out there who wasa rocket scientist that was a disappointment given
the number of people they have inthe NFL, and he said, no,
there's she's a safety for the Jets. So I guess they took that

(21:44):
all in stride. But for me, the interesting thing I think was looking
at George Peyton at the press conferenceafter day two, and he might have
been the most jovial and relaxed thatI've seen him in the last gosh,
I don't know how many years.And I asked him about was that because
he was going to be playing witha full deck going forward, that the

(22:04):
Russell Wilson, Sean Payton, Graftpicks were behind him at that point and
he kind of gave it an acknowledgmentof that. The question is whether or
not he's going to be able tostick around and be the general manager.
But I think that's been a heckof a working relationship with Sean and George
Payton. Yeah, definitely. Imean it's very interesting. Like you know,
the thing about our position, right, it's like you'll you'll me really,

(22:29):
I mean talk to people and allthat, but it's not like you're
you're sitting there when they're walking upand down the hallway and talking to each
other every day and they're pouring overtape and all that stuff. So like
you know, you're you're obviously youknow, you don't have full information about
about exactly how they worked together.But the interesting is the interesting still to
watch how that their working relationship inpublic has unfolded. And you know,

(22:52):
you see George sort of like eachtime they're out there, it's a little
bit more relaxed. Talking about Sean. He does this funny thing now where
like pretty much every time they talk, he sort of you know, ribbed
Sean in his own good natured way. And so you know, they really
do. You know, I thinkthey have a good working relationship. And
the thing about one of the thingsabout Seawan is, you know, for

(23:15):
all of the all of the turnover, and you know, for how intent
he is and all that. Likepart of the reason why they had such
stability in New Orleans because he hadsuch a good working relationship with Mickey Boomas.
They were there literally, you know, the entire time that Seawan was
there, Mickey was there. They'reprobably like a little bit more philosophically aligned,

(23:36):
specifically as the pretames to the draftand like how you use capital and
all of that, and if heand Georgia are. But even still,
I mean as a coach that recognizesthat for as good a talent evaluator as
he might be, for as youknow, particular as he might be an
evaluating players, you still have tohave, you know, scouts and executives
that can execute what you want.And I mean I think he's probably you

(23:57):
know, decided along the way thatGeorge pretty good scout and a really good
evaluator, and that they sort ofspeak the same They talk about this all
the time, their football guys,you know, and they they it seems
like they speak a very similar footballanswers well that they do talk with Parker
Gabriel from the Denver Post, whatis your optimism level on the Denver Broncos
now as opposed to before this draft? I'm sorry to say again, I

(24:19):
said, what is your optimism nowtowards the Denver Broncos this season as opposed
to before the draft? Yeah,that's a good question. I mean,
I don't I'm not sure I havea lot higher expectations than I had previously.
But they're going to be really interesting. And I think one of the
things that you you know, youmay be worried a little bit about or

(24:40):
you wondered about is like, whatis going to be the compelling storyline this
year? And that has just veryclearly turned into you know, Sean Payton.
I think it's like you break itdown and you wonder, and you
wonder and you wonder, and nowhe's got a quarterback and like, you
know, could it be that thatquote Nix is a nice player for a

(25:00):
couple of years and then you knowyou're in the market for a different quarterback
or whatever. I mean, yeah, that's possible, but it's functionally speaking,
I mean, this is the guythat is going to be the lynch
pin to Sean Payton sort of secondact as the head coach, and in
that way, he's a big partof you know, if you're talking about

(25:22):
legacy and the Hall of Fame ortrying to win a second Super Bowl,
be the first coach to win aSuper Bowl, two different teams solve that,
like phone Nicks is going to playa central role in that. And
just because all of that, youknow, doesn't necessarily unfold in the fall
of twenty twenty four, I mean, it's still the starting point for that

(25:44):
conversation, and that makes it justsuch an interesting pairing. It's going to
be interesting. It's the first timehe's ever you know, counted on a
risky quarterback or even a young quarterbackreally for anything. And so all of
these, all of these things addup to just make them go as a
compelling team, even if when youlook at him on paper you say,
I don't really know what to expectright now as you sit here in early

(26:07):
May for the season lost amidst thefervor of the draft was probably I think
the most significant move they made,which was the acquisition of Jonathan Franklin Myers,
someone I've log admired as a footballplayer. I think he's phenomenal,
phenomenal player and phenomenal person. Itpresents some interesting questions as to what DJ
Jones role is, what the nosetackle position is going to look like for

(26:27):
the Denver Broncos. But Franklin Myersis a disruptive and terror gap penetrator,
and I love that move. Itwas just sort of drowned out against the
furor of getting the quarterback and pairinghim up with with Franklin. Yeah,
it's kind of funny because you know, last year they swung the Day three
trade for Adam Trautman and you know, John Franklin Myers better better player than

(26:51):
Adam Truman is, but like,you know, similarly impactful. I mean,
you wouldn't have you wouldn't have thoughtat this time last year that that
Troutman would have played you know,seventy seven stats or whatever. He digitous
injury. But you know you canfind, Yeah, draft capital gets you
know, valued sort of you know, strangely sometimes Pertanton pro players. And

(27:12):
then when you come to a guythat you know, he had the signing
bonus money that the Jets were stuckwith, and so you know, the
Broncos got him essentially for pennies onthe dollar both in terms of draft capital,
and then you know what he wasbasically willing to take on the two
year deal, and so you know, he did a disrupt This player,
a guy who I think has hadyou know, fifty four or more pressures

(27:33):
each of the past four years,hasn't missed any times than healthy. I
mean, he's a he's a bonafide NFL starter that you got for a
sixth round pick two years from now. And so just from that standpoint,
like that's good value no matter what. And then to do it in a
position group that I think he couldargue needed it, but both outside of
the quarterback. I mean, it'sa it's a great move for Denver,

(27:55):
even if you know, even ifhe doesn't play exactly to those like to
the level that he did previously orwhatever, Like, it's good value no
matter what. And then on topof that, like you just have sort
of an interesting group. Now youadd upon Roach the run stopper, he
add Angela Blackson as a run stopper, Scott with Sharp Lawrence on a futures
contract, and now you've got JohnFranklin Myers and suddenly, like around d

(28:19):
J. Jones and jac Allen,that's an entirely new group and they needed
it for you know, they hadtwo good players and a bad unit last
year basically, and so to doas much work as they did up fronts
not saying they're gonna be it's notgonna probably be the group that John Franklin
Myers came from the Jets last year. But they've got somethleticism, they've got

(28:42):
some skill, and they've got moreversatility out there than they have any point
in the last couple of years thatthey do talk with Parker Gabriel from the
Denver Post. The Day three headlinerwas probably Franklin the wide receiver from Oregon
and the Broncos trading out to Ganham, but there were several other notable picks
that including the corner from Missouri,kind of a ballhawk, and then my

(29:02):
favorite, the offensive lineman from SouthCarolina who you know, I don't know
if you've seen the headshot photos ornot, but this is a man who's
all business on the fields, butit's definitely a party in the back.
He was a transfer from Yale,double major in polyscia and economics. You
know, you talk about a guywho just I thought has high wattage personality

(29:25):
even if he doesn't make this squad. What was your favorite pick on day
three? And then I wanted toget to real quick the curious case of
bj West after that. Yeah,so, first of all, Nick Grdulo,
the offensive line you're talking about.When I saw the headshot, I
thought that he sort of looked likea big bones version of Greg Doulson.

(29:49):
I went with hill Billy mel Kuiper. Yeah, okay, yeah, that's
a good look too. I thought, you know, of the Day three
picks like like you said, Imean I think you know Ranklin, Uh,
you're surprised he's there starts Saturday.Not surprised that they traded up to
go get them, you know Audricestimate. It just is like, given

(30:10):
what Sean Payton has liked and runningback in the past, bat No,
I know. You know, SeanPayton loves Alvin Kamara and loves that versatility,
but he's you know, mark ingramlike he's gone for bigger backs.
He likes bigger backs. He likesbacks to have that, you know,
the mass and can run between thetackles, and so you know that to

(30:30):
me, I think that's really interesting. You know, time flies, right,
I mean, it's maintaining that DevonteWilliams is going into the last year
of his rookie deal, but heis, uh and you know you've got
you know, hopefully he's sort ofback stronger, full another full year of
the injury and all that. Butlike that's a room where when you when
you look at it, Okay,Smasha, if you Ryan's got one year

(30:52):
left on the heel. Joelu mcwoflinis a nice player. He can he
can he can really excel in spaceas he in every down back, we're
probably not at this point at least. And so that that's the spot where
you look at it and you say, if you're only keeping three, who
is estimate bump out and who doeshe take roll from? And and if
I be you know, it's notgonna bump out all obviously, but he

(31:15):
might take roll away from sort ofall three of those guys, uh,
if he picks it up quickly.So to me, that's a really intriguing
one. I call running back asneaky position of need. And so I
didn't actually think they take one evenas early as they did in the fifth
round. So yeah, fifth round. So it's a super interesting pick to

(31:36):
me. Think he sits what theywant to do. And you know,
when you get added on the trainingcamp, we're gonna be like, that's
a running back and so you knowthat to me like that, that's an
interesting one. He is on theopposite side then of the positional side spectrum
from dj B. Well that's thething. We got about a minute left
here. But I am the sortmakes a lot of running backs. I

(31:57):
like big backs, and I cannotlie but Beja West a receiver from South
Alabama or you know, Southeastern Alabama. I think it was who ostensibly was
either signed or not signed by theDenver Broncos at five foot eight, one
hundred and forty two pounds, whichwould be the lightest player in the NFL
curly and certainly the lightest player sinceTony Jones was a guy who had two

(32:21):
receptions for negative six yards in hisentire collegiate career. And we're still trying
to figure out was he signed bythe Broncos or not? Yeah? What
is he? Maybe a mini camptryout? Is that what the deal is?
I guess I couldn't get confirmation eitherway. It was as funny,
you know how phones go on ignoreafter the draft. It was because it
was reported that he was signed,and even our Lands had him up on
the death chart and everything, andthen all of a sudden, nine News

(32:44):
omitted from their article that he wason there. Guy. So I'm still
trying to figure it out. Butat five foot eight, one hundred and
forty two pounds, there's hope foranyone if that guy can make it.
Yeah, that's true. I wasnever I was never fully under the impression
that he had signed a free agencyabout we'll see, you know, sometime
this week leading up to the weekend, if he's in camp in some capacity,

(33:07):
you know, tryout or whatever.And then the other thing that I'm
interested in, Ben, I thinkactually maybe you asked about this in the
three draft news conference, is I'mcurious if there are guys that get looks
because of the chicken trut rule andin particular because you're gonna need too in

(33:27):
the landing zone and so like.And I don't know if Bja West the
return to take or punch and whatever, you know, it just really went
to or whatever, but like tome, and it was interesting, Darren,
would you do such a general?Manser said that after the drafts are
pushing the staffs and brilliant know howmuch to evaluate because they don't know how
the rules can work out. Mark, are we gonna run? I appreciate

(33:49):
it, bubb We'll catch up nexttime. I said, brought fast coatry
to night. Can't win