05-16-24 Hour 2 of Broncos Country Tonight

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome into Broncos Country tonight on KOAeight fifty am and ninety four to one
FM. I'm Eric Dlala from DenverBroncos dot com Film and for Benjamin Albright,
who is out tonight, we gotNick Ferguson. We've been talking all
things Denver Broncos schedule, and Nick, I know's there's some things that stand
out. Back to back road tripagainst the Ravens and the Chiefs three of

(00:22):
four to open the year on theroad, a late by in week fourteen,
but I think we're in agreement thatno matter where you play, no
matter when you play, no matterwho you play, the best thing and
the best way to win is astrong run game. Yes, sir,
and the Broncos we both think havea chance to take a step forward in

(00:47):
that department this year and really getback to running the football well, which
even though Nick, it hasn't alwaysbeen great over the last several years,
I would say running football has beena string of this team generally, and
with the addition of it, itsounds like maybe your guy and we call
him your guy your estimation. No, I'm not gonna call him my guy,

(01:11):
but he is a hell of aguy to have on the Broncos roster,
because you're absolutely right. When peoplewho have come to know the Denver
Broncos over the years, they've knownthe fact of having a tough running game.
And I know a lot of thetime we spend talking about the quarterback
position, what is it going tobe, who's going to emerge, who's

(01:34):
going to be the starter, Butit really doesn't make a difference if you
don't have a quality run game tosupport you, to take that pressure off
you. That's rookie or veteran.But I do like the lineup of competition
that has been assembled in that Broncosrunning back room. And right now,
because of that, everyone's looking attheir roster. I know the fans are,
and I can tell you this playersare looking at it too, trying

(01:57):
to see m who do I haveto beat out to make this team and
knowing as though you have you knowestimate on this team big physical running back,
Javonte big physical running back to myGP rod physical running back. But
then you got you know, BlakeWatson, and you have Julian McLaughlin who
is a slash of a guy too. So if you were Sean Payton,

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you're looking at your past to seewhat you did with your running backs and
how you deployed them. But alsoyou're looking at this new group and say,
well, who fits in these particularroles, and that's what you're gonna
need. You're gonna need a runningback by committee. In my time here
playing with the Denver Broncos, that'sexactly what Mike Channon had running back by
committee. And you can throw anyrunning back out there, and those guys

(02:44):
were getting like over more than athousand yards rushing. YEA, So it's
a it's gonna be great to see. But I don't know if I want
to be some of the posing defenderslooking to tackle some of the Broncos running
backs. Well, it's just gonnabe. You look at this roster and
where there will be competitions in trainingcamp, Nick and obviously quarterback will Well

(03:06):
chart every day who does what,who throws picks, who throws touchdowns,
how many completions, et cetera,et cetera. But but running back might
be the toughest competition on this roster. I mean, you went through all
of them, but they each bringsomething. I mean, Javonte Williams,
let's not forget how good he lookedas a rookie and early in the season
before his injury, and Nick youprobably know as a former athlete. Year

(03:31):
two after that injury, these guystend to bounce back really well. Uh.
Javonte Williams I think flashed at timeslast year. Probably you would tell
you could be could be better,more consistent, but you could have a
Javante coming another year removed from injury, coming back. Samajp Ryan. I
like to say two minutes Samaj becauseanytime the Broncs, anytime the Bronco's gone

(03:53):
the two minute drill, Nick,this man was just making outstanding plays.
He's the reason the Broncos won acouple of fotball games. I mean that
game against Minnesota, they don't winthat game of Samaj doesn't play as well
as he does in the two minutes. Suil a great pass blocker. You
look at Julia McLoughlin, Blake Watson, both of those guys. I think
we hear Sean Payton talk all thetime about who's gonna be the quote unquote

(04:15):
joker in this offense. Is goingto be Greg Dolcich. Is it going
to be a running back like itwas with Alvin Kamara in New Orleans.
So those two guys are there,and then yeah, rodrick estimate Nick he's
big. Yeah, he's big.I saw a Ricky mini camp in the
locker room and I'm like, he'she's a rookie. Yes. So you
know when you see a guy inyou know, short snow pads and his

(04:35):
calves look like like he doesn't looklike a record, No, he doesn't.
He looks like a guy. He'she's built and ready to play this
game. But you miss an ideaof having a joker. That joker could
be anyone. It could be someonein the in the running back room.
Because the idea is that whomever thatguy is has a certain skill set that

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creates matchup nightmares. And that's whatthe game is become. It's like basketball.
You know, offensive coordinators they wantto create space, right because I
can tell you as a defender that'sthe toughest thing to contend with. Having
a guy who's big and who's quickin space. You're thinking, okay,
well, where's my help? Imean, am I going to miss this
tackle? Because if you start makingmissing tackles in this league, most likely

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you're going to see that play overand over and over until you stop it.
And this is the beauty of therunning back room. And you look
at Javonte for a second. Youplay sixteen games, two hundred and seventeen
carries, average three point six acarry, and he finished with seven hundred
and seventy four yards, obviously waybelow the average of what he anticipated with

(05:42):
the team and hoped for. Butyou're still talking about a guy who I
give Davante a lot of props becausehe came back from a shredded knee.
Right, I've done that before,but not under the circumstances that he had
to deal with. But to seehim still run with that same level of
power after the injury as he didbefore, that's encouraging. And I'm sure

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based on what the Broncos did bybringing in these free agent guys, he's
only going to be encouraged even more. He didn't just come back. He
did in like six or seven months. Yes, he was out there in
the row season, Yes, Imean it was just unbelievable. He's playing
the preseason and it's still hard tofathom that he was able to come back
so quickly, and hopefully he takesthat next step this year. I do

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think one thing that'll be interesting Nickwith the joker is that, you know,
whoever fills that role is is howdo you get those guys on the
field without being predictable, Because Ithink Joe Lombardi, Broncos offensive coordinator,
talked at times last year about tendencieswith Hey, when Julia McLoughlin's on the
field early in the year, hewas getting the ball and so then the
Broncos had to figure out, Okay, how do we get you Jalil on

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the field, and now we throwit to somebody else, So that there's
that element of, you know,a defense just can't tee off. And
so whether it's Julia, like Watsonandri Guestime, whoever it might be one
of these young running backs, You'vegot to develop all parts of your game
so that it's not just like,oh, this guy's in a defense knows

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this is coming. You hope tohave a kind of a stable of well
rounded guys that you can just kindof filter in there and and pose some
problems for the for the opposing defense. Because Nick, this offensive line from
a run game standpoint was good lastyear. I think they're ready to do
that again, and as we lookat this schedule, if you can run

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the ball well, for example inSeattle in New York, keep Aaron Rodgers
off the field. I mean that, especially if you're starting, whether whether
it's BONICKX or not. Even ifit's a young guy in Zach Wilson who
was going to be in a newsystem, Jared Stidham wasn't at many starts.
Can you just help your team byestablishing the run that that feels critical

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to me and I think that that'swhere you start to build an identity.
Well, the one way that youcan help your offense out and remove predictability
when JEELM McLoughlin is on the fieldis to have him on the field and
have him do something different than whatthe defensive units has scouted against the team.

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And I'll even dare say what teamshave watched is how Jalil has been
deployed, run those same type ofplays or run a different play behind it.
So let's say if they're used toseeing Jalil come in the game and
they're thinking, okay, well it'sgonna be some kind of outside stretch play,

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well, you show them the outsidestretch motion, You draw the defense
because the way that we are taught, we're taught. Hey, you study
your film all week, you learnyour keys, and when you go to
salides like coach, if they getyou, I was reading my keys right.
So you use those same keys againstthose defenders and you throw the ball
down the field. This is wheresomeone needs to emerge as a joker from

(09:00):
a passing standpoint, having someone whocan show on a consistent basis one they
can stay healthy, two that theycan attack the middle of the field,
because let's be totally honest, overthe past two years, the Broncos have
not done an effective job attacking thatarea of the field. If you have
someone to tight end, a receiverwho can do that, that's a game

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changer because now that puts someone rightin front of the safety, right in
front the safety, but right behindthe linebacker, and sometimes that's hard to
defend when you were looking at runaction. Yeah, and I think anytime
you can give Sean Payton a chanceto draw some stuff up and then you
know, we see some things sometimesNick and Friday walkthroughs. You know,

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the media is allowed to be outthere and watch and you sometimes see things
that they don't even use in agame, but you're like, well that's
interesting, or like I never wouldhave thought of doing that. And when
you have a joker, you're ableto do more and more of those things,
in my opinion at least, andespecially if it's a guy like Dulsitch
at the tight end position, orif it is that running back coming out

(10:05):
of the backfield, or or motionover to the slot like you said,
that gives Sean Payton, I think, the the tools to do what he
do what he does best, whichis be creative and set these these players
up for success. And listen,I think there's some there's some plays that
Sean Payton probably wants to run thatjust didn't maybe didn't have the personnel available

(10:28):
last year. And if you canfind that joker player, you can run
them. And listen, Nick,there's gonna be some tight window throws that
a guy like bo Nix or whoeverhas to make. But you also want
and our our friend Phil Malani usedto say this a lot. We like
the easy ones too. We likethe easy plays. And I think what

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was it against the Cleveland where whereCourtland Sutton ran that kind of that disguised
wheel route and he's wide open fora touchdown. I mean, we like
some easy plays too. I thinkif you get the joker involve, whether
that's and we're not talking about NicoleYokitch here, but you get the joker
involved, you get more easy touchdowns. Makes life a little bit easier on

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whoever the quarterback is. Well,there's nothing wrong with getting some of those
easy plays. And I know mostpeople, most fans, they want the
home run play, right. It'salmost like in baseball, everyone wants to
hit the home run. But I'mlike, it's okay to get guys on
bases and move them around. Youwant to go to iraqis game and watch
guys just grind out walks, right, Like if you could watch six walks

(11:33):
in a row, that's that's whatyou want to say. No, I
don't want to see that, butthe idea that no, not seven.
But listen, if you hit asingle walk, it's like, yeah,
it's like he plays small ball,right, small ball. That's all it
is is small ball is you canscore and you can win games playing small
ball, believe it or not,and you can win games and the dink

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and dunk, which most fans hate, some drives coaches, but that's what
we've seen in the NFL over thepast three years, scoring has gone down.
This is why they changed the ruleas far as kickoff, because they're
trying to encourage more scoring. AndI can tell you as a defender,
when you get inside the red zone, more teams are struggling inside the red

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zone because the field is reduced andthe defenders you still can attack them because
Kansas City has figured out an excellentway to use your strengths against you.
But the idea is making sure theguys are well coached up and utilizing your
guys in the right way. Becausewhen you look at this roster now totally

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different than last year, you havesome big, physical wide receivers. You
have some guys who can stretch thefield. How can you incorporate all those
skills to help your young quarterback?And oh, by the way, another
part of the game that helps youngquarterbacks defense having the ability to turn the
ball over. The young quarterback outtremendously well. And from a running game

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standpoint, if it's not just inthe first quarter, second quarter, it's
good to have a running game orto score a touchdown if this team gets
up late and you can rely onJavonte Williams or Rodrig Estimate or whoever it
is, to just grind out firstdowns in the four minute drill. I
mean that that's how you win,because games even when you know people I

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think, like you've mentioned externally,maybe don't have the highest expectations for the
Broncos from a win loss standpoint,but games are close in this league no
matter what, and so the Broncosare going to be in one possession games.
And if you can if you canhave a running game that can just
grind things out and keep Patrick Mahomesor Justin Herbert off the field or whoever
the heck, Las Vegas is goingto start at quarterback, I mean,

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just if they decide at some pointthen then we'll we'll figure it out,
I guess. But if you canhave somebody who can keep these quarterbacks off
the field, that helps your defense, It obviously helps your team, makes
it so that whoever the quarterback isdoesn't have to try to do too much
in order to win these football games. For me, there's two metrics that

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I look at from a defensive standpoint, right, especially when I was playing
and we're playing against a team,how well or what they're doing in two
minute and what they're doing in fourminutes, right, So with two minutes,
it's a hurry up, how quicklycan they get in and out?
But the four minute is different.They're trying to milk the clock. They're
taking their time getting to the huddle. The quarterback is taking his time with
this cadence. Then they're running theball, and then it's a mixture of

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both run and pass and they're doingit efficiently. When you have a team
that can really do that, theycan play that slow drip football, right.
They know that when you get intothe month of November December, are
you able to still run the ballin the physical, downhill way with your
opponent knowing you're going to run theball. The Broncos did that well against

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Cleveland last year, and I waslike, oh, I have plugged,
And I was like yes, becauseit took the pressure off of Mike mcglitchy
and the other guys along the offensiveline. If the Broncos can come out
and establish that balance that they coulddo it in a two minute, four
minute better team and then help youbow Knicks out this season. Yeah,
I mean the middle of last yearwas the recipe right. I mean,

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that's what the formula was. Ifyou want to win football games with this
team, and listen, that doesn'tmean that you can't still take shots down
the field or you can't be moreefficient offensively. I think obviously Sean Payton
would like to see both of thosethings. Fewer sacks, fewer turnovers.
That's one of the reasons why theydrafted bow Nicks. But I think it

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begins and ends with having, likeyou mentioned, Nick, a running game
that can help out a young quarterback, whichever young quarterback it is, and
be ready to go, especially earlyin the season. On the road,
Nick, we are gonna be joinedby Ryan Michaels when we come back,
a contributor to the Pro Football Hallof Pro Football Hall of Fame, and

(15:56):
go inside the numbers here on BroncosCountry Tonight on KOA eight fifty AM and
ninety four to one FM. Insidethe Numbers with Ryan Michael Eric Delala here
on Broncos Country Tonight alongside Nick Ferguson. Ryan, Thank you so much for
joining us here a Pro Football Hallof Fame contributor. Are things going doing

(16:22):
well? Eric? Nick? Howare you guys doing tonight? Things are
good things are good, right.I want to start us off here with
probably maybe the number one cause forconcern when you watch the twenty twenty three
Denver Broncos from the quarterback position,which was turnovers and taking sacks. I
know you've kind of taken a lookat what the Broncos struggled with their last

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year, and I'm wondering, wherecan the Broncos and how can the Broncos
get those numbers down. I knowit's important to Sean Payton, I know
it's important to Broncos country for sure. It is then, you know,
for the folks who have been listeningto my spot on the show over the
past few months, I've really donea one to eighty since the NFL Draft,
and I went from being as pessimisticas anybody you'll find to being as

(17:07):
optimistic as anybody he'll find in Denver, because I really think that the way
we approached free agency in the draftwas to work with the deficiencies that we
have in hand. We're in salarycap hell, we didn't have a lot
of draft picks, and what wedid with the opportunities we were afforded is
we were looking to channel weaknesses andthe strength and one of the biggest ones

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we talked about a lot last yearwith sack percentage. Russell Wilson, for
as much as I defend him ashaving had a much better season than a
lot of folks give him credit,certainly sack percentage has not just last year,
but always been the greatest weakness ofhis game. So he finished last
year ranked twenty seventh in sack percentage. He went down nine point one percent

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of his drawbacks. That's awful.And when you factor into net yards per
attempt, which factors in sacks alongwith yards per attent, twenty third in
the league five point seven to two. That's just above Aid and O'Connell at
twenty fourth five point five to seven. Not where you want to be.
So what does Sean Payton do.He gets the antithesis of what Russell Wilson

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was in the pocket in the formof Bonnicks bon Nicks, and last last
season, with four hundred and seventyattempts, he was sacked only five times.
At one point one percent. Sackpercentage was far and away the best
mark of any quarterback taken in thetop fifteen over the last ten years,

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and so since Sean Payton's system ispredicated upon efficiency. Having a quarterback who
has that sense of awareness in thepocket is going to make a tremendous difference.
So I'm very excited about that move. It's down to the office side
of the ball. Before you joinedus, Eric and I was talking about
the Broncos running back room and howcompetitive is going to be in training camp.
But we know, whether you're aveteran or you are a rookie quarterback,

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your best friend is a run game. So how is it that this
run game could it help out notjust Sean Payton, but bow Nicks as
well. Absolutely, I mean,and that was really the brain better of
what you guys did so well duringyour time Nick with the team under Mike
Shanahan. So right now we're lookingat a Broncos backfield that last year,

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excluding Russell Wilson's work on the ground, rushed for only five touchdowns in the
seventeen games. So you bring inAudrick Estimate, a guy who produced eight
thon rushing touchdowns last year, andhe got particularly strong as the season went
on, scoring eleven touchdowns in hisfinal five games of college football. Again,
it is if Sean Payton looked directlyat our deficiencies. Someone asked him,

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what are you going to do aboutit? We pick up Audric estimate.
I'm very excited about what that willdo to help alleviate some of that
pressure on bo Nicks, particularly inred zone situation. I'd like to see
what that dynamic is going to looklike this year between estimate, between some
of the additions at the wide receiverposition, how much does this look to

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you like Sean Payton's type of guyon offense, and how much improvement.
Granted that there could be a rookiequarterback, a quarterback who is new to
the system, or a quarterback withjust two starts in the system, So
granted that there might be some growingpains there, but when you look at
the additions, how much more isit realistic to expect out of this Sean

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Payton offense compared to what we sawlast year? Well, I think that
what we're going to see it's goingto be tough to replicate what Russell Wilson
did. Well, So you're lookingat a guy in Russe Wilson who finished
eighth in the league last year inpasser rating, number one in the AFC
in touchdown past percentage. I don'texpect realistically bon Nicks to match those strengths.
But what I think we're going tosee here's the antithesis of Russell Wilson.

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I've been calling bon Nicks Drew Breeslight, and I consider that a
high compliment given how highly I thinkof Drew Brees. You're going to see
efficiency. You're going to see sackof witness. You're going to see god
willing, a high completion percentage.You're going to see a guy who has
been incredibly efficient at avoiding turnovers andproducing touchdowns. He led all of college
football with fifty one total touchdowns lastyear. So I think what we're going

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to see is hopefully something that mightbe similar in terms of points produced and
totally as an offense, Hopefully we'regoing to produce more getting some touchdowns on
the ground. But the success thatBonnicks is going to have it might look
similar in the box score in termsof points scored. He's going to be
getting it done very differently, andI think laying down the bricks of that

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foundation for Sean Payton's system and runningit the way that he wants to run
it is going to show greater gamesin year two for bon Nick's Troy Franklin
than the rest of the guys.Speaking of system, what would that system
look like? And the reason Iasked because when anytime we talk about Sean
Payton and offense, it automatically goesback to New Orleans in his time with
Drew Brees, and we know thatwhen you spending a lot of time with

(21:57):
any guy in any system, thingskind of flow a different way. But
now we're talking about Zach Wilson,both Knicks and even Jared Stidham, you
know, being in this particular system, and neither guy I would say this,
we don't really know what they actuallycan be in this system. So
what are you predicting that we couldsee with the new additions? Offensively?

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You know, I don't think realisticallyZach Wilson is going to see the field.
He might see some preseason action,and you know, as as Bennett
mentioned last week, there's no guaranteethat Bonnicks will be QB one week one,
although that's certainly what I'm going tobe pulling for, because in my
view, Jared said him, evenif he play as well as going to
be a short term solution at best, his ceiling is far lower than Bonnicks's

(22:42):
ceiling. Is. I think ourgoal for this year, we'd like to
win the Super Bowl, right,we'd like to knock off Kansas City.
We did it last year last year'srosters, so never see never. But
the goal was more about laying downbricks to build that foundation for the future.
And I think that if we dosomething similar in the wing column and

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perhaps score a bit more points andprevent a few more points, sure we
might not win the Super Bowl thisyear, but we might find ourselves in
really good position for twenty twenty fiveand beyond. Ran Curious, but before
we jump over to the defensive sideof the ball, and here you can
choose a guy on defense if you'dlike. But wondering one edition from this
offseason that from a statistical standpoint interms of addressing a weakness then really stands

(23:30):
out to you as, Hey,here's the guy that maybe fans haven't thought
enough about when they think about Likeyou mentioned that the Broncos weren't big spenders
like they were a year ago butstill made some moves in free agency.
Who's maybe the under the radar editionthat fans should know ahead a week one.
Well, for me, I've beenconsistent in saying that Malcolm Roach is

(23:52):
my favorite free agent signing, andsince the tackles don't traditionally get a lot
of love. But if you lookat where we finished last year in terms
of rushing yards per carry surrendered,we were dead last. We gave up
five yards per carry. And tojust put into context just how bad that
number is. The distance between thirtysecond and thirty first. Giving up four
point seven yards per carry is equalto the distance between thirty first and twenty

(24:17):
second. It's a gargantling gap.So sure the outlier massacre in Miami given
up three hundred and fifty yards inthe ground was a big part of it.
That you look at Malcolm Roach,and he's a guy who Pro Football
Focus had ranked number one in theNFL amongst interior defensive linemen and runstop rate
at seventeen point four percent in thesame flast year, finished tied for fourth
and rushing touchdowns allowed, they onlygave up ten. They finished eighth and

(24:41):
rushing the XP which is an efficiencymetric per Pro Football Reference. So he's
really the perfect edition in terms ofaddressing that weakness on the defensive side of
the ball. Now, obviously thispast offseason, the loss of Justin Simmons,
you know, from an emotional standpointand what he means to the team

(25:02):
from a community standpoint. Fans arestill going through that. But now there
are new players who are going tobe inserted into the lineup where they're going
to be as to carry that lowand even take it to a whole different
level. How do you think VanceJoseph in his second year can actually help
those guys play better in the backend. It's still human for me to

(25:23):
talk about losing Justin Simmons because he'snot the kind of all player that you're
going to replace very easily, ifat all. But I love the pick
up of Jonah Ellis. I thinkthat we're going to turn our defense into
strengths through different areas. So weobviously need to generate pressure in terms of
sacking the quarterback. And he's aguy who last year finished seventeen college football

(25:44):
in total sacks with twelve, whichwas second amongst all players taken in the
NFL draft. I think that we'regoing to see the same shutdown corner in
terms of what Patser can can dowell. And I believe one made the
point a few weeks ago. Whenyou're looking at Chris Abrams screen, he's
a guy who's more of an aggressivedefensive back who might be able to take
some chances invad some people into throwingsome picks. He finished tenth in the

(26:04):
nation and passes defended last year.So I don't see any route to replacing
Justin Simmons with the collection of talentthat we've assembled through free in be king
the draft, least be hopeful thatin Kris Joseph's second year we're going to
be a lot more efficient on thedefensive side of the ball. Well,
I do want to jump back tothe defensive line, just for one second
second. In my mind, itall starts there. How underrated? Maybe

(26:30):
I know Draft weekend gets crazy,a lot going on, but to get
a guy like John Franklin Myers,just curious your thoughts on him, Angel
Blaxon, I mean that wasn't likeMalcolm Roach was the only guy they really
made a concerted effort to get betteralong that defensive front. How much of
a difference, in your mind doesa good defensive line make for both the

(26:52):
linebacking corps and the secondary. It'sgoing to make everybody's life easier. You
know, stopping the run is goingto be key. Malcolm Roache certainly plug
that point of developing pressure off theedge. It's going to allow our linebackers
to be able to scan the fieldand you know, be able to adjust
to the surrounding circumstances in a waythat enables them to play at their best

(27:15):
if the dvs have a chance tobreathe and have a chance to be able
to catch a posing quarterback out ofposition because we're getting pressure to quarterbacks.
Finally, this year, it's notgoing to be the twenty fifteen Broncos,
but it really is of the moldof building that bully and I like everything
that we've done. To be honest, with the resources that we had,

(27:37):
the money we had to spend,I don't think we could have done much
of a better job in creating andseem the draft, Brian, So much
about the NFL is about the offensiveside of the ball. And I have
to ask you, like, likeI played with Rod Smith and he was
a very underrated guy. Do youhave any fun facts about Rod Smith himself

(28:00):
and what he was able to accomplishin his time as a Bronco I do.
Not only is Rob Smith one ofthe most underrated Broncos of all time,
he's one of the most underrated widereceivers of all time. An undrafted
guy, a guy who proves howfar you can come with hard work and
just got given talent and ability.So here's a statu for you. From

(28:22):
nineteen ninety seven through two thousand andfive, so we're talking a nine year
stretch, almost a full decade samplesize, he produced ten thousand, eight
hundred and forty yards from scrimmage.So if you adjust that to a seventeen
game season, he would have averagedone thousand, three hundred and seven yards
per year every year for nearly afull decade. That is Hall of Fame

(28:47):
numbers for a guy who certainly hasn'tgotten anywhere close to that degree of recognition.
One of my all time favorite Broncos. All right, well, Steve,
that water is with us earlier.He's gone, so he can't hear
you say nice things now. ButI want to know what you got on
Steve the Smiling Assassin. You've gotsome good stuff on Rod. You anything
on Steve over there? You know? I think when it comes to dB

(29:07):
a lot of their greatness isn't necessarilyreflected in the box score because you want
to throw away from those guys.And Steve Attwater's resume in Denver is very
similar in my view to Barry Sanatorsresume on the running back position in Detroit
in the sense that every year hada very very high ceiling. So from
nineteen eighty nine through nineteen ninety eight, all of his years in Denver,

(29:30):
every single season he either won anAFC Championship, was named to a Pro
Bowl, was named All Pro,or he won a Super Bowl. So
his rookie year AFC champions the Broncowas to the number one scoring defense in
the league. He finished second placein voting for Defensive Rookie of the Year
nineteen ninety He made the Pro Bowlninety one through ninety two Pro Bowl and

(29:52):
the first team All Pro selection ninetythree for ninety five Pro Bowl, every
single year ninety six Pro Bowl,and a second team All tra selection nineteen
ninety seven, one is for SuperBowl nineteen ninety eight back to the Pro
Bowl, and one another Super Bowl. That's a Barry Sanders resume on the
defensive side, including some rings incredibleresume you know that's very interesting because you

(30:15):
absolutely right, Ryan, defensive guys, we never really get that much love
because it's all about the offensive guyshow many points that they can score.
But listen, I mean, ifit's not for defense, a lot of
teams wouldn't have championships. So thatwhole phrase of defense wins championships, it's
true. And you just laid itout based on the stats about I mean,

(30:38):
our great Steve Atwater. I wantto know if Ryan has my high
school stats somewhere. I think Ihad like three interceptions. Got that on
the max perhaps or something. Giveme a week. We'll go inside the
numbers. Okay, go inside thenumbers, an Eric Delava, there's another

(31:00):
Bronco's defensive fact that we want tobelieve. To the end of the segment,
this was Ben's pick, so we'retrying to leave it as a surprise,
and I'm going to go with NickKurtson. And so, you know,
we often see quarterbacks credited with winsand losses, and we always say
they get a little bit too muchcredit when they win, a little bit
too much blame when they lose.So if we're going to look at wins
and losses for individual players. I'mgoing to use you, Nick as an

(31:21):
example. From two thousand and threeto two thousand and sixteen games that you
played in the Broncos finished thirty nineand sixteen. That's a seventy point nine
percent winning percentage. You finished topten in points per game surrendered every single
season, and two against Peyton Manning, two against Drew Brees, three against

(31:44):
Tom Brady, including his first everpostseason defeat. So how do you feel
about those numbers? You know,way, when you put it that way,
I'm like, man, it onlyfrustrates me more that I wasn't voted
to the Pro Bowl. But I'llsay this is that hearing those numbers and
playing on those teams, it wasn'tjust one person, and that's the one

(32:06):
thing I loved about playing on ourdefense. There were multiple people from week
to week that were counted on tomake plays and that's how our defense was
galvanized. If I'm not mistaken.One of those years we led, I
think we were in tops in theleague as far as teams against the rush,
and for me that was something thatyou know, both John and myself

(32:28):
and Al Wilson and Ian Gole.I mean we took the heart. We
wanted to make sure that at theend of any game, whether we want
to loss, that opposing team hadan opportunity to definitely fill us. So
I have to thank Ben for puttingme in that mix to as well.
I think it's also worth noting thatthat it's not just what you did statistically,

(32:49):
but it's who you competed against.So during the time that you played,
I always say the two thousand andthree to two thousand and five Broncos
one of my favorite runs ever.You were competing against Peyton Manning at the
peak of his power, Drew Brees, Tom Brady Ladini, and Tomlinton Holmes.
You weren't going in Division three teamsout there. You were going against
some of the greatest players to haveever played the game. And to pick

(33:10):
up not just one, but multiplewins against guys with those kinds of resumes,
it's truly remarkable to testament to theteam coach Sanahan put together, and
all of you guys collectively were ableto achieve the team. Well, Nick
is just sobbing in here now andhe's just overjoyed. I did think he
was going to say that when yousaid it gives me regrets. We didn't.

(33:31):
I thought you were to say,win the Super Bowl, but you
went for the Pro Bowl. Wewent for the individual honor there. Nick,
that's okay because that one I don'twant to do that because that still
hurts. Okay, it's I trynot to bring it up. I mean,
Eric, I'm sorry. You knowwhat. He's walking out, he's
walking sobbing. He was happy,now he's sad. Ryan. We appreciate

(33:52):
you, we appreciate you joining us. I got to go make sure that
Nick's okay. We'll be back onBroncos Country and I on KOA eight fifty
AM and ninety four one FM