05-22-24 Hour 1 of Broncos Country Tonight with the OG Ryan Edwards

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to it, Broncos Country Tonight, but with all bright, Nick Ferguson,
Grant Smith and absolutely no one else. Oh wait, hello there,
Ryan Man, the O G TripleO G himself the godfather of Froncos Country
Tonight, Ryan Edwards. I feellike that that is kind of our dynamic.
You are kind of the the LukeWilson godfather, meaning well at all

(00:22):
times responsible. I am probably moreof the Vince Vaughan say, Frank the
tank but whatever, you know,I was trying to be a little more
reformed than that. But you know, we're all going streaking. Everybody's doing
it through the quad to the quad. Yeah, you know, super loop
Snoop Snoop a loop. They're allright back there, Yeah, right behind
me, the cold out there,Frank. It's fantastic. Everything about them,

(00:46):
like it does not hold up,by the way, if you watch
it, No, it does nothold up. It's ridiculous. Yeah,
so many ways. But you tella classic, and I mean obviously you're
thinking about all those characters who youknow, Vince Vaughn's being Vince Vaughn fawns,
He's Vince wanted in every movie.Yeah, he's never played anything but
Vince Vall except for the one andbe Cool Yeah, yeah, it be

(01:07):
Cool in a long time. Yeah, which was the sequel to to Get
Shorty where the Rock plays the likehis gay bodyguard and then he's like the
I don't know, the white dude, the rapper or whatever. Underrated.
Yeah, well did you see theseries? By the way, there was
a series? Yeah, I didnot see this highly underrated, pretty good.
Definitely recommend you check that out.So not the same thing, but

(01:30):
sort of this, Well, what'sthe other show that you really like that
you're always trying to get me towatch better than Psych or worse? Wildly
different Okay, dramatic, so thatmeans worse. Okay, uh no,
it's fantastic and Ray Romano is init for a while, Well then it's
way worse. No, it's reallynot. Ray Romano doesn't do it for
me. Ray Romano is a sleazyB movie director in this and I promise

(01:53):
you is it's the role of thathe was born to play. He's not
very funny, like he's supposed tobe supposed to be fun He's supposed to
be a up and you know,like like when somebody's a comedian and they're
not very funny. It's it's justit bothers me. You don't like everybody
loves Raymond Cook on tour. Touchetouchet, way to go, coming in

(02:15):
hot guys, your fastball to die? Yeah you know, yeah I expected
we go Paul Hardy. No,No, that was last night and now
the rest of the story. Mygod, last night, you're the only
one who got that. By theway, I was, I was really
riffing on something like the only wayyou got headlines with a deep voice.
So my voice was shot, Likemy voice has been shot. I had

(02:35):
I've had pneumonia. My voice isshot and it is right now. But
I'm like trying to keep trying tokeep it up. That's part of the
reason you're injured, take some ofthe weight off, trying and uh,
I you know, much like mydiet, I'm unsuccessful with taking some of
that weight off. So uh becauseI keep eating Chipotle all the time.
I think I thought you were doingthat on purpose, like you're just doing
this yoyo thing just for effect,like Christian Bale, you know, to

(02:59):
Batman, you know, just tryingto well. I was thinking more like
like like the office where He's like, I'm intentionally raising my cholesterol. Why
would you raise your cholesterol so Ican lower it? Oh? Well,
as I say, the weight onewhere they have the competition to lose the
weight, so they all start eatingice cream, like the three weeks before
the right, so they actually justget back to their original weights. Yes,

(03:20):
that's what I was thinking. SoI was thinking you were intentionally doing
that. And then you come inhere talking about ice cream and you're eating
chips and k soo, and I'mjust like, oh man, what happened
to you? You fell off?Well, I mean you left the show
and I just fell off. Youjust stopped caring. That's what it was.
I did a shaddle shave anymore andhad a haircut in twent and a
half years. Yeah, well that'sactually probably a good thing because last time
you had a haircut there were somereferences to maybe some background stuff you probably

(03:43):
don't. Yeah, it was awful. Yeah you can't be of German heritage
and rock that aircut. It stillthat good luck. And then you did
the mustache. I mean that wasreally like. Yeah, anyways, it's
good to see you. I appreciateyou letting me hang out with you.
For a little bit, and yeah, what do you want to talk about
time? Ben? Well, youknow, I just felt like this is
the perfect opportunity for a documentary aboutus, but nobody was biting on that.

(04:03):
However, there is a documentary aboutour new quarterback, Bo Nicks thanks
to a Bolt TV. Pretty good. Yeah, well, I was gonna
ask, what do you think aboutwhat's the titlest thing? Grit and glory,
the journey to the draft. It'sa good thing. Hey, Alfred
said this. Actually he's like,it's a good thing he was drafted in
the first round because that would havebeen America. You do grit and glory

(04:24):
and then you slipped to like daythree. Well they too, but I
mean he would have probably been I'mjust saying, we've seen quarterbacks slyly jomber
Gino was expected to be a firstround quarterback and the second round or whatever.
I know what I'm saying. Likehe got drafted top twelve. It
works very nicely with the docu series, which I think is actually pretty good.
I mean the editing is really welldone. But again, it would

(04:46):
it would have a different meaning altogether. You do this kind of thing,
and then he ended up sort ofslipping in all the footages of you sitting
in your room, your living roomwith your family and everybody's looking at you
like when is this going to happen? You know, does is getting a
little awkward? Yeah, I thinkthat that would have that would definitely have
the potential for a lot of Imean, can you imagine Aaron Rodgers having
done that back in the day andhe's sitting there in the green room with

(05:08):
the you know, it's a facialexpression is everything? Uh, it goes
It's It's interesting. The guy who'sdirecting it, Nate Simmons. We know
date you know, isn't this thesame? Isn't it? Justin's a different
names So he's a director at he'sa Wyoming resident, different Naate Simmons.
There's more. I was like,you know that, you know Nate Simmons

(05:30):
the writer and director. Really,I mean that's a take away from you
having no that was just like wow, that one surprised me. That was
like, okay, but he's uh, he's been a producer and the Ghost
of the Western Hunter on TV.It's a hunting show. If you've ever
seen it, No, you've alreadylost me. That's what I figured so
it's actually good, like he justhe doesn'tcruple. So I was kind of
excited that he was going to bethe one that was, you know,

(05:50):
that was doing this so U butI I have seen snippets, I've not
watched the whole thing. What haveyou thought so far? I thought it's
been really good and we played alittle bit sound from it earlier from part
two of the series today again withthe editing of it, it's very clear
they want to get across that hejust lives East breathe football, right,

(06:11):
And certainly I think what's fun forjust I don't know, football fans is
to watch what the pre draft processlooks like, how much work goes into
the pre draft process, and evensmall things like the pro day, like
the one that came out yesterday.They went through this process of showing like
how much work, how much scriptinggoes into this predius now and we already

(06:33):
know that, right, we justknow that, But to say like,
Okay, get all these receivers withme, and this is what we're gonna
do. We have fifty eight throwsand we're going to do these kinds of
things, and we want people tobe able to see all the things that
we can do right. And yougot the receivers out there, right,
Troy Franklin's out there, he's runningrounds, and they want to be able
to show off their stuff as well. So I thought the kind of look

(06:55):
inside of all of it, becauseit's a very very intense process, like
the I think a lot of peopledon't recognize or realize basically these kids give
up their last semester of college becauseeverything you're doing is preparing for this job
interview, which is you know,kind of the combine in your meetings with
teams. But you get sense frombon Nix as he's putting this out and
they want to make sure that everybodyunderstands and sees him as a guy that

(07:20):
just lives it, just like absolutelyfully into it. And we played this
cut earlier and honestly, you're SeanPayton and you're looking for wow factor moments.
You're looking for something that's going totell me that this is the guy
I want. Well, gosh,this might be one of them. Everything
you do, you got to thinkof it as if like, is this

(07:41):
going to make me a better quarterback? Is what I eat for dinner gonna
make me a better quarterback. Tomorrowis what time I go to sleep,
gonna make me a better quarterback.Tomorrow is what I read or study,
going to make me a better quarterback. So everything I feel like going through
life, I get to ask myselfthat, and at this point it's kind
of redund it and become a pattern. But you say no to the same

(08:03):
things and you say yes to thesame things, and it's just something that
you gotta do if you want toplay at a high level. And if
you don't, it's fine, youjust won't necessarily, you know, reach
those goals. And so I understandthat the you know, the daily disciplines
that are going to make the biggestresults. But to me, it's just
doing it over and over and overand not, you know, getting bored

(08:26):
with the redundancy of life. Sobasically what I do for the show,
but the complete opposite. Yeah,I mean you hate the redundancy. Oh
yeah, radio, who's already boring? I'm not doing this And I'm the
opposite. I love the man,Yes I are my favorites makes so good
together. I like the prep.I like meals. Oh man, we

(08:48):
can stack the show like this andthis and this. We do these things,
and you just show up and youstart reading headlines. That being said,
now for the rest of the story, what I think was cool about
that And and this is not mesaying that he's gonna be Peyton Manning,
but falling in love with the redundancy, falling in love with the discipline that
it takes to play this job.And once again for fans, for Broncos

(09:11):
fans around long enough to ce packsand Lynch was literally polar opposite. Did
not like the redundancy, did notlike the discipline part of it, wanted
to use his natural athleticism to bailhim out at every opportunity. Bonix isn't
that guy. And so I coupledthat a couple of that mindset with the
fact that he played sixty one gamesin college that he and we talked about

(09:33):
this on k Sports, that hesaw losing. Right, he's the first
round quarterback that knows what it feelslike to lose, to pick yourself up
off the mat and to go outand improve, and he did that all
throughout his college career, and heended showing everybody that he's a better quarterback
than what he would have been ifhe just left after Auburn. You know

(09:54):
what, I the vibes, Igot it. It worried me. Russ,
No, you got the camera crewfollowing, you were around everywhere,
you talking about talk about how theminutia and I mean this is I mean
the same things that Russell Wilson saidthey are and I and so I like,
at the end of the day,like I got a little Bnix is
not Russell Wilson, and I thinkthat Bnix is an authentic person, whereas

(10:16):
and I don't want to say thatRuss is not authentic. But Russ is
very cognizant of the brand of Russand that's what he represents it all the
time. I got, I gotthat vibe for a secondary like I had
to like, I was like,okay, I need to step away from
this for a second, because thiskid is all people are different. This
kid is not the same guy.And I don't want to be shell shocked
by what I just went through.Well you're not alone, by the way.

(10:37):
I've seen some reaction to that SoundBite, specifically where there were people some
saying like, I don't know,this feels a little bit staged, right.
You want your quarterback to say this, Are you saying this because you
believe it. But but based onso many other things what other coaches have
said about him, we'll hear somethingfrom a second prom Knowing his dad,

(10:58):
I know that he's not that's justnot. I don't think he's built like
that. I think he legitimately believesand thinks these things, and and there's
like this perpetual chip on his shoulder. Again, I will say that I
was not the biggest fan of thedraft pick right when it happened, But
now that I've had some time tosort of digest it and had a chance
to talk to people and you know, watch him a little bit more and

(11:20):
get a sense of how he fitshere, which we already talked about leading
up in the pre draft process.He's a good fit for Sean Payton.
I'm in, I'm I'm I'm bot. I'm bought and sold on Bonix being
a good fit for what we do. Now. Doc doing his job well,
I mean to a certain extent.Yeah, I mean I bought some
Man White products last night too,you know what I mean. I'm just

(11:43):
look, the green tea is justphenomenal. Well, let me tell you
about the pyramid scheme. It startsat the top and sell things. But
that I hate a benefit. No, I'm in, I think b Nick's
I mean because I have to bein. I mean because and I say

(12:05):
that I don't know yet, Ihaven't seen it. I look, man,
I was born in Missouri. Showme I I I've been around enough
of this. I've bet around enoughhype. I better around enough fluff.
I've been around enough optimism that Iwant to see it first. And I
remember when when Russell Wilson first camein here and we saw the first couple
of practices, like, wait,is this supposed to look like this?

(12:28):
You know, because I knew rightaway with Packstell's like, oh that ain't
right. No, And we havethe sense, I mean, we have
the sense of rookie camp right helooked bad. Yeah, and he saw
that. I mean, it wasyou know, it's funny because uh,
people are clamoring. The fans areclamoring for Chad Kelly. Remember that when
Case Keenum was here and I waslike, Case is is you know?
I mean he was Teddy Bridgewater onepoint oh whatever. But you saw Chad

(12:48):
Kelly and You're like that ain't it? Well? He just had he had
a little more arm talent respect factthat he played the sec with all the
respect to Brett Rippan, who welove as a person. Uh, you
could look and watch him pregnant,isn't it? You know? And we'll
get a chance tomorrow for the firsttime since Bonnicks has been drafted by the
Broncos to scene with the Vets andright Rookie Minie Camp. But I mean,
that was so scripted, and you'reyou're talking about guys who I mean,

(13:09):
you know, eighty percent of thepeople were in Rooie Mini Camp are
selling insurance this week? Yeah,and they were running a kind of a
mid tempo thing. Actually, Ithink one of the most interesting things that
Sean Payton talked about in his pressconference after Rookie Mania Camp is getting all
of the players that were obviously comingfrom a lot of different teams. These
are all rookies, These are allor some of them are second youar players
that qualified, right, but mostlyguys that don't have a lot of NFL

(13:35):
experience. Getting them all on thesame page of what a mid tempo practice
in the NFL looks like. Ithought that was so fascinating. I never
really thought about it like that isone thing, if you've been with the
team, you're into training camp,Hey, we're gonna go mid tempo today,
right, right. But if youare coming from Virginia, you're coming
from Alabama, you're coming you're fromall over the country and suddenly you got

(13:56):
to come into an NFL camp andthey're saying, we're all passing it level.
And the other thing he added Ithought was cool is he talked about
how, you know, you're tryingto impress the coaches, but we're not
giving you an opportunity to really domuch out here. It's not like you
get to run a pick six backand that really matters because nobody's wearing pads,
right, and nobody's really running fullsprints out here, right. And

(14:18):
you're also you're at elevation when mostof most of these guys are using to
Yes. So I thought that wasone of the more interesting things to think
about the logistics. We just takeit for granted. By the way,
Take It for Granted podcast, checkit out on iHeart. It's going to
be playing on a Memorial Day,right, that's right? Yes, Sarah
with the one and only Dave Logan. There you go. What that's cool?
I can't wait to see her hearthat. But anyways, that I

(14:39):
thought was one of the more interestingthings. And tomorrow we'll hear from Sean
again. But I can't wait tosee bo Nix with the Vets tomorrow.
Yeah, it'd be good to see. I'm just maybe I'm a little and
I liked. I mean, Iknew bo Nix was a Sean Payton guy
back in you know, back inJanuary, you know, I mean,
that's not new news, you know, it's something I've been bracing for for
a while. The question was isthis hit? And Sean Payton's willing to

(15:01):
put his legacy on it, andhe's forgotten more about football than I'll ever
know. But at the same time, you know, it's what is it
the hope that'll kill you? Well? But what else do we have?
Right? I mean, do yousay yourself like you're bought in because what
else are you gonna do? Well? Maybe Zach Wilson turns into something too,
I'm I see. Honestly, that'sthe storyline. The Bonis thing is
all set up to be bicks andbe the starter and all that, and

(15:22):
if he succeeds, great, hebecomes Broncos quarterback. Broncos football will be
more fun to cover. I'm moreinterested in the Zach Wilson storyline. A
guy shooting his last shot for redemptionafter you know, high hopes crashed and
burned, was absolutely brutal with ayou know whatever went on with that coaching
staff. Yeah, but you rootfor the villain in every movie, it's
a little bit different, like you'reyou're that guy. I mean, look,

(15:43):
I don't understand the Karate Kid wasnot about Roth Macchio. Well that's
the extra true. Well, RothMachio was actually the villain, right as
we all know it. Spartey Stintsonpointed out to us, all history history
shows that he was the bully.Johnny was the Johnny was actually the and
they've done right by him in CobraKai. Just show him as the protagonist.

(16:03):
There you go, see. Ijust with the bone Nix thing,
I mean, it feels like that. It's just it's like coming into the
Drew Lock Teddy Bridgewater quarterback competition.We all knew it was gonna be Teddy
because the coaches wanted it to beTeddy, and so the script was out
there. But then you're watching,you know, you're watching certain things,
and so I'm just kind of interestedto see. I was, like,

(16:23):
Wilson plays into this real quick text. Yes, let's not get excited.
Just wait. Broncos fans are hopelessromantics. These poor quarterbacks coming into Denver
are under so much pressure. Well, they haven't drafted the first round quarterback
since Paxson Lynch. Sean Payton hasnever drafted a first round quarterback. So
for me, yeah, I'm gonnaI'm gonna put a little bit of hope
into that. I'm gonna put alittle hope into Sean Payton having a quarterback

(16:45):
that he wants to work with,not a quarterback he's forced to work with.
Right, And I'm looking forward toit. I'm looking forward to seeing
what it is like. I'm notI know I'm being a negativenancy a little
bit right now, but I amlooking forward to the guyliner. You know,
me and Derek Carr, who gotthe same guy. You got to
play the role. You were borninto the darkness. Some were molded by
it. Even Rocco's Country that rollson after this. Raise your hand if

(17:07):
you want to get rich, allright, No, how is this not
a pyramid scheam? All right.Let me explain it. I get Phil
has recruited me and another guy.Now we are getting three people each.
The more people to get involved,the more people who are investing, the
more money we're all gonna make.It's not a Pyramids game. It is

(17:30):
a it's not even a scheme perse. It's so great. I don't
have to go make a call.Welcome back to it. Broncos Country Tonight,
Benjamin Olbright, Grant Smith here withyou, George show tonight obviously post

(17:52):
Rockies. We will have a fullshow tomorrow. Myself, Nick Ferguson,
Grant Smith obviously looking forward to that. Sorry, I just wolfed down a
Chipot label during the break. It'scatching up with me there. I shouldn't
eat so fast. Five six ninezeros a text line. I want to

(18:12):
talk a little bit about Lamar Jackson'sweight loss. I don't know if you
guys have seen this or not,but Lamar Jackson has dropped a bunch of
weight. Certainly, there's some sideby side photos out there on Twitter that

(18:33):
you can see, and you cansee he's gone from two hundred and thirty
pounds, which is what he playedat in twenty twenty two. To about
two hundred and five pounds where he'splaying at now, And he said in
an interview today, he said hewanted to cut weight because he wanted to

(18:55):
increase his agility to where it wasseveral years ago. And I'll say the
quote is, I'll say it wasimportant enough to be able to move around
a little bit extra. That's alljust so I can be more agile,
be able to move more. AndI hear that, I mean as you
get older, I mean you loseagility. It happens. Losing weight can

(19:15):
help you, you know, maintaincertain levels for a while. But Lamar
Jackson being a quarterback and going downto two hundred and five pounds, and
if you look at the pictures ofwhat he looks like now versus when he
was, you know, two thirty, it is a significant difference. I

(19:38):
don't I don't get it. Ireally don't. It's that's your durability right
there. And you're talking about aguy who hasn't been durable taking the hits
that he's going to take. AndI get wanting to be a little bit
more agile. I get that yougot Derek Henry back there in the backfield.
Now you're probably gonna show some runsearly in the season to kind of
open those lanes up for him andand and help out Henry and I sort

(20:02):
of get that, but man,that's that's a lot of weight to drop.
You know, typically when someone iscoming into the league as a quarterback,
most of these guys start at aboutthe two d and fifteen pound range,
and your your ideal is to getthem up to two thirty. You
know, I specifically remember Sam Bradfordbeing exactly those weights and wanting to get

(20:23):
up to two thirty and thicking itup because of you know, the hits
that you're going to take back there. You know, it's you know,
Jackson is a guy who his athleticismdoes help make him who he is.

(20:44):
He's not necessarily a traditional pocket passer. And while they've moved on from Greg
Rolman and gone to more of atraditional offense enter Todd Munkin, he's still
not, you know, exactly whatyou would call a traditional passer. He
has moments where he's asked to dothat. He does that, you know
fair enough. But you talked aboutAgo does take hits and it it two
hundred and five pounds. I mean, that's that is very very light.

(21:10):
To put that in perspective, RussellWilson when when he was here got up
to about two thirty two thirty fivein his first season here, when when
Nate Hackett was here and he hadhe put that weight on on purpose.
He knew he was going to bea pocket passer, or he was trying
to become a pocket passer, andknew he was going to take more hits,

(21:30):
and so the idea for him wasthat he was kind of thicken up
to be able to take that,right. And that's Russell Wilson at five
to ten, So he was afive ten and he's gotten up to about
two thirty two the five and thenyou saw it. I mean people joked
about him getting fat and all thatkind of stuff, and that was it
was on It was an on purposedecision, but it didn't work out and
and ultimately Russ lost the weight andwent back to uh two fifteen, you

(21:53):
know, and at five ten andtwo fifteen, Russ looked much much slimmer,
but two fifteen is still I mean, it was much lighter. You're
talking about Lamar Jackson, who's sixfoot two and change, going down to
two oh five and that's that's railthin. You know. I don't.
I wouldn't do that. I can'tunderstand the logic behind that. I understand

(22:19):
the idea that you know that youwant to you know that you want to
be more agile, but you're goingten pounds below your college playing weight.
You know, when he came outof when he came out of high school,
he was one hundred and ninety.When he came out of college,
he was all the way up attwo fifteen. So you know, you're
going back to a weight that issomewhere in between your high school playing weight

(22:45):
and you know where you wound upby the time you were done at college,
going through a college training room.I don't understand that. I just
don't. It's fascinating to me thatthat somebody would make that decision, like
what exactly what kind of offense arethey planning on running? You know,
this year, because you're talking abouta guy who who gets sacked thirty something

(23:11):
times a season, you know,thirty thirty five times a season on average.
He's been sacked one hundred and sixtynine times over the course of his
career. In addition to that,you know he runs the ball quite a
bit. In fact, last seasonwith Todd Munkin, it was an uptick
in the number of rushes. Hewent from one hundred and twelve rushes under
Greg Roman to one hundred and fortyeight under Todd Monkin last year. And

(23:36):
that I mean, I that's alot. You know, that's that's that's
almost ten rushes game. It's basicallynine rushes per game, because he played
sixteen games this past year and it'sit's basically nine rushes a game. In
addition to taken you know, twothree sacks a game, So inimum you're

(24:00):
getting full on hit you know,twelve to fifteen times a game. And
then you add in the dropbacks andhe has most dropbacks last year of his
entire career, he dropped back topast four hundred and fifty seven times.
And you're gonna get hit. Mostdropbacks you're gonna get hit on. There
are some you don't, but thereality is in the modern NFL, you're
gonna get hit on seventy percent ofyour dropbacks, you know, maybe a

(24:22):
little less than that. So havinga low weight like that and dropping all
that weight, I don't think Idon't see how it would be beneficial to
Lamar Jackson, I don't see howthat does him good. I understand him
again talking about the agility and allthat kind of stuff, and nobody knows
their own body better than themselves.But at the same time, to me,

(24:45):
that feels like bad advice. Thatfeels like the kind of advice that
you know, that you get fromfrom a buddy and not from somebody who's
played the game or a coach oryou know whatever. It's fascinating to me
that that would be the advice you'dget because I just don't as a quarterback,

(25:06):
you gotta take too many hits.I just don't get that. So
for me, that's it's it's interestingsomething to barrow the barrier, to keep
an eye on with with Lamar Jacksonof the course of the season, whether
or not he gets dings and knockedaround a little bit after having dropped the
weight. I don't know if youguys saw this or not, but Vic
Fangio making some news, not exactlynot exactly him making news, but his

(25:33):
name, I guess should be consideredback in the news here as the Miami
Dolphins defense and defensive players have comeout and talked about how much they did
not like Vic Fangio. Multiple playershave come out and said how that they
enjoy new defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver.Javon Holland called it a complete one eighty

(25:59):
to have new defensive cord Anthony Weaverin the fold. He said, it
just so happens that I posted thereright when the news came out that Vic
got fired. I wasn't necessarily surethat Vic got fired to I post the
video, so just so happened.I picked up some random Rocks, kicked
him and filmed it posted on Instagram. Everybody wanted to call me the bad
guy. I'm innocent. I didn'tdo anything wrong. All I did was
posting is simple videos and analogy.But that analogy had nothing to do with
Vic. Although you know, Ithink a Victy video right after Fifangio got

(26:22):
fired of his players saying kick Rocksis probably pretty pointed. And he's certainly
not been the first player in Miamito say something about Vic Fangio in his
style, and certainly wasn't the first. Obviously, several Broncos said many things
about that. Omar Kelly, whocovers the Miami Dolphins down there, answered

(26:49):
someone who goes by the cocky finshandle on Twitter and said, was Vic
that bad when he the Scoop andmore? I said, yes, I
wrote about it when he left ourcomplaints old year players would actually strongly encourage
me to ask him very specific questions, trying to force him to address things
that it never worked. He wasso stubborn. And I can sort of
vouch for some of that because ofhis time here, in the sense that

(27:11):
Vic Fangio's been around a long timeand is going to answer questions the way
Vic Fangio wants to answer them,and you know, and that kind of
thing. I know that I knowthat there were players here that disliked Vic.
There were some players that liked him. There were players that disliked the
way he handled things, felt likehe mostly just favored the defense and that.

(27:33):
And I would say that Vic Fangiois more of an old school of
throwback type coach. And if you'relooking for him to coddle you, that's
not your guy. That said,I know of some specific instance with Vic
that he could have handled better.When ed Donnatel had COVID and was in
the hospital. I mean, hejust didn't address it with the team,

(27:53):
and there were players that wanted toknow what was going on. You know,
they loved Ed and they wanted toknow what was going on. And
Victim really say much about it andwouldn't talk about it to the team,
And there was finally a blow upabout it, and when Vic excuse me,
when Ed Donna tell his wife wasasking why the players were not coming
to visit Ed in the hospital.So, you know, I think that

(28:18):
players in Miami not liking Vic Fangio. I certainly understand some of the complaints
about this. One thing I willsay about Vic is that none of these
complaints about people that don't like VicFangio, none of these are complaints about
his ability as a coach. Noneof these are complaints about him as a
football coach or saying that he lacksthe football acumen to succeed in the NFL.

(28:40):
Indeed, the Vic Fangio defense inthe tight front in the quarters match
have been the staple of the NFLfor probably the last six seven years.
I mean, it's been the defensed jour in the NFL. Now that's
sort of it's sort of shifting alittle bit. We're seeing a lot of
what Mike McDonald, who is thedefensive coordinator in Baltimore. We're seeing a
lot of what he did, youknow, being implemented more and more across

(29:03):
the league. Is it is kindof taking over now. McDonald of course
got the head coach job with theSeattle Seahawks, who the Broncos will open
the season with. But there areI believe six total teams in the league
that'll be running what Michael McDonald bhad last year, versus of course one
that was running it before. Maybethere may be more. I'd have to
go back and double check where it'sIt's kind of growing and the fangio thing

(29:25):
as everybody's doing it, some teamsare starting to move away from it because
everybody was doing it now. Idon't know. The Broncos had been running
a variant of that under at GeraldVero and Vance Joseph. I don't know
if they're going to run more ofwhat Vance has traditionally run this next year.
We'll see. I suspect they will. I don't think that, you

(29:48):
know, I mean, what vicran was almost foreign to Vance. Vance
came up under Wade Phillips. Soit'll be interesting to see if the Broncos
pivot to more of what or whatVance Joseph has traditionally run. Vance is
I think a good defensive coordinator.I've always thought that he has a good
eye for talent. You know,he just he turned around that Arizona defense.

(30:10):
You know, the Cardinals were abysmalwhen he got there. He turned
them all the way around. Thenthe last season the wheels came off because
of injury. But h and youknow, an age JJ Watt was getting
up there all that kind of stuff. But you know, Vic Vick is
a decent defensive coordinator. Trying torun scuse me Advance and we all know
Vic, I mean, is agreat defensive coordator, but better ly forever.
But it's interesting that these comments arecoming out. Vic of course is
now the defensive coordinator with the PhiladelphiaEagles, and sort of, uh,

(30:33):
that was sort of his plan allalong. He he wanted to be the
defensive coordinator for the Eagles. Uh. The lengthy hiring process that it took
because the Cardinals wanted to hire JohnGannon, they had to go through a
whole bunch of hoopes because the Eagleswere still in the playoffs and they couldn't
interview and it was just a wholething so Vic ultimately took the Miami gig

(31:00):
and basically immediately regretted it and thenwanted to go, you know, be
be with the Eagles, be backhome Philadelphia. Now he's back there,
and it's gonna be interesting to seebecause Philadelphia is traditionally run more of an
attacking style defense, and now nowyou're going to see the Vic's ben don't
break, you know kind of defense. It's going to be interesting to see
how that mession is over there,as well as his personality and his style.

(31:25):
You know, the head coach thereis pretty amiable, but it's it's
interesting. It'll be interesting to see, you know, how that works.
I just find it fascinating now thatall the commentary coming out about, you
know, about Vic and how muchthe players there in Miami and the and
they did, I mean they theyreally disliked him, you know, down
there, and and so I thinkend of the day, I think,

(31:47):
uh that that departure, while acrimonious, I think it was best for everybody
involved. You know, the Dolphinshave moved on from Vic. They moved
on for a bunch of players too, is Avian Howard and Van Ginko,
Brandon Jones, of course here inDenver, Christian Wilkins all no longer there,
so they've got some holes to fillanyway. But uh, it's it's

(32:08):
it fascinates me, Uh, someof the stuff that comes out, you
know, in hindsight and all that. And now you've got players that are
openly calling Anthony Weaver are a goodperson, you know, and then being
pointed about it. Uh, Andso you know, it's just kind of
one of those It's just kind ofone of those things where you it's interesting
what you see out there in termsof how people you know, talk about

(32:32):
Vic Fangio because our former coaches ingeneral, because I mean Nate Hackett,
you know, there was all thoserumors about the Jets were looking to replace
him. They're not going to.Uh, although Robert Salin is getting more
involved in the offense this year,so that'll be That's another interesting, you
know, aspect to to keep onthings, to keep an eye on things.
Le Broncos don't play Philadelphia this year, but they do play the Jets

(32:53):
again. It'll be interesting to seeif Sean Payton, who made all those
comments about nith I know, Hackettwinds up making good on him as he
was unable to do a sort oflast year. We've got owners meetings coming
up. I don't believe that Tombrady Raiders purchase is going to be decided

(33:13):
now. I suspect that's going tobe a lot closer to the start of
the season. But that's one ofthe big things. And the other thing
is the eighteen game schedule, andGiants' owner John Mara thinks most owners want
to do it, although he isnot necessarily in favor of it. He
said quote, I can't say I'mnecessarily crazy about extending the season. I

(33:37):
worry more about player fatigue and wearand tear on the players moving forward.
It's one of the reasons we haveto have this discussion with the NFLPA many
years of the sixteen game regular schedulewith the four game preseason, the NFL
changed in twenty twenty one the seventeenin the three preseason. The next would
be eighteen regular two preseason, Andif Mara is correct, then it's what

(33:57):
most owners want. That'll probably eventuallyhappen, but that's something that they'll be
looking at. It'll be League meetingswill be in Nashville this week, so
that will be interesting. They're buildingthe stadium there and it'll be completed in
twenty twenty seven. Good I wasasked about a Super Bowl there. That's
probably something that will be on thedock at once that stadium is completed.

(34:20):
Other big news out of the daywas the was Pittsburgh as getting the draft.
So as much as we want thathere on Denver and haven't had a
chance to get that yet, Pittsburghis going to be getting the draft.
That was That was something that wasannounced today along with a bunch of hirings
for the Niners. For whatever reason, they all got announced today. Steve

(34:44):
Wilkes, who was let go afterone season. Nick Sorenson is going to
be the defensive coordinator. They alsonamed former Chargers head coach Brandon Staley as
their assistant head coach. Uh Heinterviewed for the coordinator position along with Swordson,
but Soordsen the got the job.And then you know, Mick Lombardy

(35:07):
was was hired as a senior offensiveassistant and former Seahawks linebacker kJ Wright as
defensive quality control and Clay Kubiak willbe the offensive passing game specialist. Clint
was the passing game coordinator last yearand is now the Saints O C,
replacing Pete Carmichael, who is nowhere in Denver. So that keeps you

(35:30):
up on the the NFL soap opera. Listen to Broncos Country tonight right here
on KOA. It's eight fifty amninety four News Talk Sports.