06-03-24 Hour 1 of Broncos Country Tonight

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to it, Broncos Country Tonight, Budgement, All and Bright here with

(00:03):
you. Short show tonight post Rockiesedition. Obviously it'll be that way tomorrow
night as well, then Wednesday nightfull show. So programming note there,
I'll be myself Nick Ferguson. Ibelieve Steve Atwater is going to be in
studio, but don't hold me tothat just just yet. We'll be joined
by the Ron Michael and mystery guestswe're kind of working on. We think

(00:23):
you guys will be happy with.We'll see if we're able to able to
pull that one off. Five sixsix nine zeros text line. You guys
want to get involved in the conversation. A lot going on. I'll got
the third media day of OTA's tomorrow, that'll be Tuesday. We'll get a
chance to get out there for thethird time and kind of sort of check
out, you know these quarterbacks,this team. I Aaron Glenn came out

(00:47):
today, the defensive coordinator of theDetroit Lions and said that you know,
he's waiting for a training camp.They can put the pads on before he
can evaluate. People can't evaluate peoplein their underwear, and I tend to
agree with that, there's not awhole lot that you can take away from
OTAs. I mean, if somebody'sbad, you can tell, but you
can't really tell if they're good ornot right. And so I think that's

(01:07):
sort of the thing. I've seensuperfluous praise heaped on rookie bo Nicks,
and I don't think he's looked bad. He hasn't looked bad at all.
But the idea that he's just beenout here, you know, blowing the
doors off with no pass for rush, no pads, all that kind of
stuff, I don't know. I'mjust not the kind of guy who he's
willing to lean into that. Sowe'll see, we'll see what training camp

(01:30):
goes. But of course we'll bedout training at OTA's rather tomorrow to kind
of get another look at it,you know, and kind of see where
they're at. I'm still curious aboutthe Zach Wilson thing. I mean,
you'll see, you know, sixeight throws in a row where the arm
talent is obvious, right, You'llsee six eight throws where you're like oh,
and then you'll see two or threethrows we're like oh, And then

(01:53):
sort of what the problem has beenand the thing I think with him is
finding a place of consistence, gettinghim into a rhythm and going from there.
The talent is there and it's obvious. It's just a question of whether
or not somebody can harness that andI kind of go from there and they
hit Somebody say something to me theother day at the bank about Zach Wilson.
We were talking about it, andyou know, he was like,

(02:15):
well, yeah, you know,it's a shame he's further down the road.
He's basically the same age, justas bon Nicks. I mean,
they're they're basically the same age acouple of months apart. So the idea
that that Zach Wilson's just washed uphas been while bon Nix is this fresh
on thing. The reality is there'stwo guys who are basically the same age.
So I don't you know, Idon't put a whole lot into the

(02:38):
idea that one is more guaranteed overthe other. You know, there are
people that want to read into welBonix was taking twelfth overall and you only
gave up. Okay, that's asunk cost fallacy, but you know,
for me, it's I want tosee this thing play out and if it's
Bonix, is the guy cool?If Zach Wilson's a guy cool, and
if Jared stid Waters, I've NicknammemJared s did is the guy cool there

(03:00):
too? Like for me, it'swhoever wins the competition fair and square.
That was one of the things,one of the grits, one of the
complaints that I had when Pat Shermerand Vic Fangio sort of beat the fun
out of Drew Lock. I mean, not that Drew was ever gonna be
a world beater or anything like that, but the reality is he and Teddy

(03:22):
Bridgewater were basically a dead heat inthat competition, and it was always gonna
be Bridgewater because the coaching staff wanteda veteran. They wanted that guy.
They didn't really understand Drew. Theywere old guys, you know, they
didn't they didn't kind of get histhing, and so you know, it
was always gonna be Teddy. Andthey tried in that. And I'm using

(03:43):
the competition loosely here, because againit was predetermined. They tried in that
to set Teddy Bridgewater up to winright in front of the fans. So
the first day that the fans comeout on the hill, and that's Saturday.
We're back in Blue or whatever we'recalling it, and we're all in
the hills, our media is down, and they set up a script where
Drew Locke was going to have tothrow long bombs against a back then very

(04:05):
very tough defense, and Teddy wasgoing to be getting a goal line work
right in front of the fans.And it was a blatantly obvious practice script
that they'd set up that Teddy wasgoing to be throwing touchdowns right in front
of fans and kind of reinforcing thatnarrative publicly that he was the guy,
except that Bridgewater was unable to doit. And in red zone work he

(04:25):
threw something like four interceptions on theday, didn't throw a single touchdown,
And you know, it was oneof those things where at that point you
could kind of tell that the fixwas in. And it's nothing against Teddy,
who was a great guy, agreat person, and was a decent
quarterback. I mean, he wasn'thorrible. He was bad on third down,
but that's beside the point and thewhole conversation that hed he want to

(04:46):
get into at the end of theday, what I'm saying is that I
don't want to stack deck. Aslong as it's a fair competition. All
these guys are out there, I'mnot rooting for any particular one. I'm
rooting for them all. Root fromall would be sucessful. I'm rooting for
it to be a tough choice becausethey're so good. But you know,
at the end of the day,I just don't want something to be handed
to somebody. I hate that.I've always hated that. I've hated that

(05:09):
in my personal life. You know, you don't appreciate things that are headed
to you. You appreciate the thingsyou work for. I worked my butt
off for this microphone. I appreciateit quite a bit because of that,
Whereas there have been other things inmy life that, perhaps because I didn't
have to work for them at times, that I didn't appreciate them in the
same way. Five six, six, nine zeros of text line. I

(05:30):
want to get into some of thebig stories. The day Larry Allen passed
away, he risked in peace.We'll get to that in a minute.
The big contract news today is thatJustin Jefferson got a new deal with the
Minnesota Vikings, and the questions thatI got asked right away was how is
this affects the Broncos and Courtland Sutton, And I'm not sure that it does.

(05:58):
Sutton has made what he wants prettyclear and the Broncos have been un
willing to meet that to this point. So that's where we're at. There
is somebody that this contract does effect. There is someone out there that very
much had their eyes on justin Jefferson'snew deal, and that's Tyreek Hill.

(06:24):
Hill down to Miami is making twentyfive million a year and he's gonna want
the Dolphins to tear up that contractto replace it with a new deal,
and he'll want a new money averageto meet or exceed the thirty five million
per year, which is the valueof Jefferson's deal. So Hill's contract has

(06:44):
cash payouts of nineteen point seven sixfive million this year, twenty two nine
to three five next year, andthen forty five million and twenty twenty six,
and that's roughly eighty eight million dollarsold money, even though that last
year is his phone. The fortyfive million, it ups the average,
even though it's a voidable you know, it's not ever going to be realized
money. So to get to thirtyfive million in new money on a three

(07:10):
year extension, the six year valuewould have to be like one hundred and
ninety two point seven And that's anaverage of thirty two million per year,
which the Dolphins I think are morethan willing to do. Excuse me,
are more than the Dolphins are willingto do. So, like, the
thing about these things is, andwhat I find humors is the non guaranteed

(07:34):
years can be just absolutely ridiculously fictitiousnumbers. The agent just wants the numbers
to look big, whether or nothis client's actually getting the money, because
it helps him recruit other clients.When agents get these contracts that look like
huge, big money averages with voidableyears in the back end, they're fine
with that because hey, I gotmy client this number. You come to

(07:56):
me and I let me rep you, and you get this number. And
if agents their earnings are capped rightNFL, agents can only earn a maximum
of three percent per year in anNFL's a player's deal, three percent of
the deal maximum. So what theywant to do because the margins are so
thin is agents want to maximize thenumber of clients that they have, especially

(08:20):
the big money clients, and sowhen you get when you do deals like
this, it allows you to say, look, I went out and got
whomever. So with Tyreek Hill,it's sort of the same thing. Hill,
for his part as a player,wants to feel like he's the best
receiver in the league. It's partof the reason Kansas City eventually moved on
because he kept saying after new moneycontracts, hey, you need to top
me back off. I'm the bestreceiver. I deserve the highest dollar amount

(08:41):
whatever, you know, that kindof thing. So the problem with that
is that since those non guaranteed yearscan be fictitious, like the last year
of Tyreek Hill's current deal, whichis that forty five million we talked about
in twenty twenty six, there isa way to structure the payments so that

(09:03):
the new money average would be thirtyfive million, and a phony final year
kind of drives the average up right. In this case, however, it's
not going to be easy to getTyreek Kill to that number with eighty seven
point seven million already on the booksfor the next three years. But now

(09:24):
you're in the ballpark and you knowwhat that target number is. So if
and when Tyree gets paid the questionbecomes whether the Dolphins will have the cash
or cap space to give Tua thelong term deal he wants. Because if
Hill and Jalen Wattle are accounting formore than sixty million per year in cap

(09:46):
space, how much the Dolphin's goingto have available for the quarterback and to
distribute the ball to them. Andthat's sort of been I think a point,
an inflection point for Miami that they'vegot to figure out with a guy,
you know. I mean, thereare the numbers have sort of been
there in a spreadsheet sense, butto isn't winning anybody games, you know.

(10:11):
I mean, it's a lot ofit's the system, the speed,
you know, all this kind ofstuff that they've got going on, and
when you put to it a positionwhere he's got to carry a team,
he really doesn't like that. That'ssort of been the thing that's sort of
been the knock on him is thathe just hasn't And so I think that
the Dolphins have got some decisions tomake, and I think one of the

(10:33):
things the reason that I brought thisup is one of the things that you're
going to see is whether or notthey do top off Tyreek Hill, because
if they do, that would seemto be an indicator to me that they
would be unlikely to do so forto a talk about law for obvious reasons.
I mean, you'd have an exorbitantamount of your salary cap tied up

(10:56):
in three players, which is youknow, bad business top to bottom.
But you know, is what itis. I'm not saying they won't,
I'm not saying they can't. I'msaying they shouldn't. And it would seem
like that if they do spiff tyreekHill, that you probably are getting an
indicator that they don't plan on orsee to it in that way. And

(11:20):
it's been interesting because they've been reluctantto put anything in front of two that
would they would portray him that way. So, uh, they you know,
using fifth year options and all thatkind of stuff to you know,
to extend this thing out with himand and go from there. So you
know, we'll we'll kind of seehow it goes. One other person affected

(11:41):
today by the Justin Jefferson long termcontract extension is Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence.
Lawrence has said that for his part, he's keeping his focus on the field.
He has full belief this will takecare of itself, something I don't
need to worry about. Uh.He's heading into he is fourth NFL season,

(12:01):
and while he is an outwardly givingthe impression that he's anxious about a
deal or you know, staying awayfrom OTAs to try to force the issue,
he did say like to see thingsget wrapped up before the team starts
training camp. That he's saying todayquote that would be ideal to put it
behind us and keep moving and feelgood about that and going into training camp.
But either way, like I said, I have the same job.

(12:24):
Jack's head coach Doug Peterson said lastmonth that the team and Lawrence's reps have
been working tireders on a new deal. And you know, the break between
OTA's and training camp can give achance to push things over the finish line,
so all involved can put their attentionback on, you know, reversing
the late season collapse the Jaguars hadlast year. It looked like they were

(12:46):
heading for the playoffs and then theysort of fell off a fell off a
cliff. But that's an interesting oneas well. As we talked about TUA,
Trevor Lawrence, does he deserve thebig deal? Has he done enough.
You know, his tenure in Jacksonvillestarted off rough, and you had
the old urban Meyer you know,the urban Meyer debacle thing is. You

(13:11):
know, it's tough because that thatthat's just that killed the team for a
year and there's there's still in someways digging out from under that. But
you know, he came into theleague with a ton of fanfare in a
quarterback class that was tauteds generational andwould never be topped in In the meantime,
of those five quarterbacks draft in thefirst round, Lawrence is the only

(13:33):
one still with his team. Therest are all you know, backups elsewhere,
whether that's Zach Wilson now here inDenver, uh Trey Lance and Dallas
Justin Fields is the backup in Pittsburghand Mac Jones who is there in Jacksonville.
You know, the question becomes doyou pay him? Because good quarterbacks

(13:54):
generally don't play on the fifth yearoption. You know, teams will exercise
that as a as a contract negotiatleverage point, but the reality is teams
players generally don't play on that fifthyear option. Which is why I think
it's funny when people talk about tradinginto the back of the first for a
quarterback in the fifth year option.That just doesn't happen much anymore, you
know, if there's a guy youwant, I mean, like Baltimore had
had a belief in Lamar Jacksons,that wouldn't got him. But it's rare

(14:16):
to see teams trade back in thefirst for quarterbacks anymore. You either believe
in a guy and you go takehim earlier, you just don't, and
you know, and then you lethim follow into that much much later.
And we've seen that. We sawthat, you know, kind of this
year where all the quarterbacks went earlyand then there wasn't anything later on.
So you know, I think thoseare the things if you're looking around at

(14:39):
where the contract situations are this offseason, where the major things are, I
think those are some of the mainones. Is that there's some quarterbacks out
there. And the reason that Isay that is is as a I don't
know a safety net underneath what itis the Broncos are trying to do this
year. Let's say Bo Nixon andinstead of and Zach Wilson don't work out.

(15:01):
Let's say they get into training campand this thing isn't working. What
do they do after that you know, and so me, I kind of
have one eye on the available quarterbacksafter that, whether Toua, Trevor,
Lawrence, Dak Prescott are guys thatare going to be available down the line,
just in case that kind of stuffdoesn't work out, and kind of

(15:22):
have the one eye on the futureand again rooting for them to work out,
because it would be in the Broncos'best interest for the low cost options
to work out, But at theend of the day, it's important to
be realistic and understand that they maynot and kind of have an eye on

(15:43):
what else is going on out therearound the league. So and like I
said, I mean again, Ireally hope the Bonux thing works out,
or Zach Wilson or chased to whateverI do, it would be better for
the Broncos, be better for allof us, certainly make covering them more
fun. But I do always kindof try to keep an eye on what

(16:03):
direction things could go if it getsoff the rails, just in case,
because I think it's good to knowwhat your options are at all times.
That's why I say when we talkon the show about the rumors about oh
so and so cold, about soand so, and all that kind of
stuff, and we kind of tampthat down here in recent years for people

(16:26):
who listen to this show. Butthe reason that I always say a good
general manager knows the price of everything. They call around to get the price
tag on everything so that they alwaysknow, so they're always kind of if
something goes wrong, Okay, thisis what my options are. So I
pivot you rather than being and beproactive and that rather than being reactive and
having to try to guess with allthat kind of stuff. So come back.
I we'll talk about the late greatLarry Allen. You are listening to

(16:48):
Broncos Country tonight right here on Kait. It's a fifty am ninety four one
FM News Talk Sports. Welcome backto it, Broncos Country Tonight, Benjamin
Olm, Brian Grant Smith, You'rewith you five six six nine zero is
the text line? Got a fewtexts. I'm having some issues here so
I can't respond to you guys tonight. But I'm having some issues here with
the with the text line. Ican read them, but I can't send

(17:12):
stuff back to you. So ifyou usually get text back from me,
I'm sorry. This will have todo. I think get some interesting texts
from people that were absolutely appalled atthe idea that bo Nicks or Zach Wilson
wouldn't work out and that we shouldkeep an eye on the future market with
guys like Tua and Dak and andTrevor Lawrence and whatnot. Guys, Look,

(17:33):
I'm rooting for bo Nix and ZachWilson to workout. I am okay,
I hope they're special. I hopeone of these guys can go tot
to toe with my homes for thenext fifteen years whatever. But at the
same time, I think it's wiseto be prepared just in case they aren't,
just in case this turns out tobe packs and lynch or whatever,
you know. So it's wise tokind of keep your finger on the pulse

(17:55):
and see what else is going.And I get a lot of there's a
lot of hate in here about noDak and you know, and all that
kind of stuff. I don't particularlywant to it tall Oi here myself,
but Dak Prescott has been a phenomenalquarterback. And I would not be opposed
if things didn't work out and youwere able to get him and all that.
Wouldn't be opposed to bringing him here. You know, I think he
was on a trajectory to possibly beheaded here if someone else had taken Brounck

(18:21):
Osweiler and uh, he hadn't gottenthat d Ui. You know that that
kind of stuff. I mean,Uh, there was a lot of different
things that sort of you know,fell into place here or there, and
you know, the the Oswyre thinggoing to Houston and then Dak with It's
just there was a lot of stuffgoing on. There's been a lot of

(18:41):
stuff going on over the years thathis changed the trajectory of things. But
I would say that Dak Prescott wasprobably because that was either the Broncos took
Paxt and Lynch uh, and Isay Dak hadn't gotten the Dui and made
it out here and had his interviewand all that kind of stuff. I
think Dak Prescott be a Bronco andPax the Lynch probably would have been a
cowboy. But history is what itis, and so that's what we're gonna

(19:03):
live with. My thing is andto put a bow on it is to
say this, guys, it doesn'thurt us to know our options. We
can root for an outcome and stillknow what the safety net should be could
be that kind of stuff, andit doesn't hurt us to do that.
So that was where I was goingwith all that. Some big news today,

(19:27):
Larry Allen, Pro Football Hall ofFamer, one of, if not
the most powerful offensive lineman the NFL'sever seen, passed away today at the
age of fifty two. You know, he was an incredible athlete, incredible

(19:48):
strength, an incredible speed for hissize. I don't know if you guys
ever seen some of those clips.I think it's the Monday Night Football clip
where he, you know, randown to make the tackle after a turnover.
It was. It was incredible andyou should look that up. Cowboys

(20:10):
drafted Larry Allen second round nineteen ninetyfour, and at the time he was
a little gnome lineman from Sonoma State. But he started. He started ten
games as a rookie and by yeartwo he was an All Pro. And
he became an All Pro I believeit was seven consecutive times. He was

(20:30):
stunningly strong. He could bench presssomething like seven hundred pounds. It might
have been a little more than that, but I know at least seven hundred.
He won. The NFL used todo the Strongest Man event to the
Pro Bowl. He won that.And you know, in two thousand and
seven he was shockingly fast runner forhis size and as a rookie on that

(20:59):
Monday night foot game I think wasagainst the Saints, he spread it down
the field to make a tackle onan interception return, preventing the pick six.
And it's just fascinating to watch aguy that that that much size shouldn't
be able to move that fast.They just just shouldn't. Uh. He

(21:21):
Larry played for the Cowboys from ninetyfour through two thousand and five. Uh,
and then, as many veterans do, finished his career last two seasons.
He finished his with San Francisco andsix O seven was a member of
the Nineties All Decade Team, thetwo thousands Old Decade Team, the NFL
one hundredth Anniversary All Time Team.He was an absolutely, uh phenomenal,

(21:41):
phenomenal player, a key coog andyou know, and what Dallas was was
able to do you know in thein the in the nineties. For people
that have that have asked, hepassed away suddenly. He was on vacation
with his family. You know,I don't have a ton of details as

(22:03):
far as what what that was.But I would caution people not to speculate
or remember we had to go throughthe uh uh, the absolutely disgusting people,
just the gross disgusting people who weretrying to use Damarius Thomas's death to
thump their agenda on not taking vaccinesor whatever. If you don't want to
take a vaccine, that's fine,but uh, making up that Damarus Thomas

(22:25):
passed away from getting a vaccine toyou know, lying about that to further
some weird agenda you have, Idon't, you know, don't do that.
Damarius didn't even take the vaccine,so your lie was you know,
that was that was the thing.This the people who knew already knew that
the people who are doing that werelying, But that was It was disgusting
and and you know, don't don'ttartish your man's reputation by making something up,

(22:45):
you know, and going from there. We don't We just don't have
those details. He just all weknow is he passed away suddenly at fifty
two while on vacation. Yeah,family was, Uh it was down in
Mexico on vacation. He was.I mean, if you ever got a
chance to watch him, and someof the younger guys listening right now probably

(23:08):
didn't. But if you got achance to watch him, man, it
was it was something else. Hewas just he was feared, you know.
I mean that was the thing youwere, you were afraid you saw.
And I can't wait to because Iwant to talk to Nick a little
bit about this on Wednesday when he'sin and probably Steve as well. I

(23:30):
mean, he's his career overlapped,you know, bridged both those guys uh
careers about seeing him pulling out onthe edge and you gotta, you know,
and you gotta do something. Howhow do you even how do you
even begin to uh do that fora guy who was six three three twenty
five and coming downhill on you,you know, at five flat forty time

(23:51):
speed. That's it's it's something else, you know. He he was early
on he was a guard and atackle and then you know, kind of
later on became But he's Larry Allenwas somebody that I I just I enjoyed
watching. And there is a clipthat is circulating on Twitter if you can

(24:15):
find it, where John Madden justgushes for two minutes in the middle of
a game, is just gushing fortwo minutes about about Larry Allen and you
know what all what all he wasa football player, and it's fantastic because
you know, Madden, to theyounger crowd is known for the video game.
To the older crowd is known forhis coaching. But you talk about

(24:37):
his announcing in games and his hiscolor commentary. A lot of times the
way that he did it made,you know, was was you know,
self effacing in some ways and madehim seem like he was a bit of
a buffoon at times when he wasactually a very very smart, very sharp
football mind. And this clip sortof if you get the chance to do
that, it sort of shows youjust how sharp, you know, John

(25:00):
madd was. The gushes over whatLarry Allen was and and you know kind
of what he what he brought tothe table and what he could do.
We talked a little bit about thethe Justin Jefferson deal earlier. What that
means for Courtland probably nothing versus someother guys, Tyreek Hill, some of

(25:21):
the quarterbacks, that kind of thing. For those of you who are wondering
the full details on the deal,which I neglected to tell you in the
last segment, it has a thirtysix point nine three eight million dollars signing
bonus. The twenty twenty four basesalary is one point one two five million
fully of guaranteed. There's a twentytwenty five option bonus which is thirty million.
It's fully guaranteed. Twenty twenty fivebase salary one point one seven million,

(25:45):
fully guaranteed, and then in twentytwenty five there are per game roster
bonuses five hundred and ten thousand dollars. They're fully guaranteed, but they have
to be earned, so you know, it's one of those things like if
you do it, they're fully guaranteed, but if you don't, then they're
not. Same thing with his workoutbonus. He's got twenty twenty five workout
bonuses of a quarter million. It'sfully guaranteed, but you have to earn
it. And then the twenty twentysix when the base salary sort of balloons

(26:08):
going up to twenty four point nineto nine million, it is guaranteed for
injury at the signing of the deal. Of that amount, seventeen point nine
million is fully guaranteed at signing,and the other seven million becomes fully guaranteed
in March of twenty twenty five.It's just a way to kind of lock
that number in make sure he getsit. Twenty twenty six has per game
roster bonuses again half million, fivehundred and ten thousand, and then workout

(26:32):
bonuses a quarter million. All arefully guaranteed, but they got it earned
the twenty twenty seven base salary twentynine point twenty five million, the twenty
twenty eight thirty three point twenty fourand that's the first year that's not fully
guaranteed. So the deal pays eightyeight point seven million fully guaranteed its signing.
The practical guarantee is ninety four pointseven four three million, since it

(26:59):
can be avoided if he's but ifhe's cut after one year, there's one
hundred and twenty five point seventy fivethree million over four years in this,
and it's far more likely that he'llmake make that much off of it.
Thirty eight a little over thirty eightmillion cash flow, you're one seventy million
through two, ninety five point seventhrough three, and then one hundred and
twenty five point some four to threemillion through four years with one pin fifty

(27:21):
nine point seventy five three through fivedoubtful that he sees the fifth year of
that and probably just torn up andredone at that point, assuming he's still
you know, a great player andall that kind of stuff. But that's
uh, that's the structure of that. I'm sorry I didn't give that.
To give that to you guys inthe last segment, I feel like an
idiot for rambling on and on aboutit and not telling you exactly what the

(27:45):
specifics were, although to be honest, anybody could just could just google it.
There are several cities out there vyingfor the twenty twenty eight draft.
The twenty twenty five draft is goingto Green Bay, so next year will
be in Green Bay. Twenty twentysix is set for Pittsburgh, and the

(28:07):
league has not awarded twenty seven ortwenty eight yet, and there are teams
that are coming out trying to gettheir hands on that. Denver's one Buffalo's
one Buffalo via the Buffalo News.Though he's planning on being the twenty twenty
eight NFL drafts, so maybe themaybe Denver can get the draft in twenty
twenty seven. You know, Nickand I have talked about that. Nick's

(28:29):
a big proponent of it. Wetalked to Troy Vincent when we had him
on and he's, you know,he's gonna give the plug, plug,
give the good word. Uh Sowe're definitely, you know, we're definitely
excited about that and see if hecan, you know, see if we
could do that. But it's it'sinteresting to see that there are quite a
few teams that are quite a fewcities rather out there trying to you know,

(28:52):
get that get the draft locked upfor twenty twenty seven. Mean while
you got Buffalo shooting for twenty twentyeight, which it could be smart.
I mean, let teams duke itout for that one while you you've seen
top in the line to you know, campaign for the year after. So
the draft in Buffalo could be interesting. It's not normally that cold there by
the time the draft rolls around,so you know, that's that's sort of

(29:15):
the thing we in Denver. It'skind of interesting because for whatever reason,
we always get one like like lastsnow right around the draft, you know,
for whatever reason. So that couldbe an interesting, you know kind
of thing they have to hurdle,they have to kind of sort of circumvent
for the draft here. But youknow, we'll see let's see how it

(29:36):
goes. Darren Waller's future has beena pretty big storyline this offseason. Jordan
Rannon of ESPN so the Giants areexpecting Waller to retire by next week's mandatory
mini camp. Those close to Wallerbelieve he's leading in that direction. Waller,
who is thirty one, was tradedat the Giants last off season late

(29:57):
twelve games, eleven starts in twentytwenty three fifty two catches, five hundred
fifty two yards and one touchdown.He has been publicly contemplating his retirement throughout
the offseason, said he liked tomake a decision about his future by the
end of the off season program.New York's many mini camp, a Daitory
miniamp, will be Tuesday and onWednesday next week. Waller has not been

(30:18):
in attendance at any voluntary aspects ofthe offseason program, and the Giants have
made some moves that tied end overthe last few months. They drafted Theo
Johnson the fourth ront of the draft, and he's been taking first team snaps
during Phase three. They also haveDaniel Ballinger, Lawrence Cager, converted quarterback

(30:41):
Tyree Jackson last year of Bronco,Chris Mannarts and Jack Stole at the position,
so they've they've got some bodies there. Waller created I guess all the
mean potential in the world when hereleased a music video detailing he's sort of
metaphorical breakup is The video is ametaphor for his his real life breakup with

(31:07):
his with his wife who plays atw n b A. I created some
some mean potential with a lot ofpeople were were sharing those are out with
the video that he put out.We had a texter last week who said
that Waller missed the opportunity to dothe funniest thing possible and let Drew Locke
have a feature rap on that musicvideo. But you know, it is.

(31:33):
It is what it is, andI hope that he's able to get
through, you know, his issues, and if he needs to retire to
do that, so be it.You know. I Josh McDaniels didn't do
a lot right with the Raiders,but moving on for him was probably one
of the things that that he diddo well. Uh. Brandon McManus released

(31:57):
by the Washington Commanders. Half ofhis signing bonus had yet to be paid.
As we've got some clarity today onepoint five million dollars signing bonus that
he got when he signed with theCommanders, a fight could be looming over
half the money. McManus was dueto receive, seven hundred and fifty thousand
on or before April twenty sixth,and the other seven hundred and fifty thousand

(32:20):
four days from now on June seventh. Mcmanusy's technically owed the balance no matter
what. Whether they cut him ornot. Whether the Commanders pay it remains
to be seen. They could refuseto pay it, arguing, for example,
that McManus should have disclosed the potentialcivil claims arising from the twenty twenty
three flight to London before they signedhim. They could force McManus to go

(32:43):
through the steps of trying to winthe money through arbitration. They'll be required
to carry the cap charge while thecase is pending. If they won,
they'd get cap relief. Otherwise they'restill on the hook for as far as
that goes. But they have todecide whether refuse to pay the money,
which is due Friday, and thenif they do pay it, then it's
not an issue. If they don't, that's that's where it sort of I

(33:04):
guess it's interesting. You know,I think they sort of did the right
thing in that situation. You kindof had to. First of all,
you're paying a kicker three million dollars, which is a lot. Second,
you know, you're trying to establisha new culture there in Washington, and
you can't have a kicker with thiskind of accusation hanging over his head.

(33:29):
And you know, it's interesting tome, I'll say this certainly wasn't a
lot of people rushing up to defendBrandon McManus. Didn't see teammates jumping out
there in public saying no way,man I was there or heat this didn't
happen, He didn't do this,didn't see a one and so whatever we
think of Brandon McManus, because likeI said, I always thought I found

(33:51):
it to be humorous, willing togive his time, came on the show,
certainly in the way on Twitter thathe dealt with trolls. You know,
you had these guys that were talkingcrap about him, and he would,
you know, donate money to charityand claim it was in their name
and all that kind of stuff.I don't you know, those kinds of
things are all well and good,but you know, you could be great
at a lot of things and badat others. And again, I don't

(34:14):
want to accuse him, but itsays something to me when literally nobody jumped
up to defend, and nobody jumpedup to say, hey, look I
was there on this flight and thisdidn't happen, and there isn't anybody doing
that. So you know, obviouslythere's lawyers using certain language, but you
know, kind of is what itis. So we'll see and we'll continue
to keep you updated on that aswell. You are listening to Broncos Country

(34:38):
tonight right here on KOA say fiftyam Night four, WHATEFLM News Talk Sports,