06-04-24 Hour 1 of Broncos Country Tonight

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to it, Broncos Country Tonightbeen all right here with you Post Rockies

(00:04):
edition, joined by the Og,Triple Og, the Godfather, the You're
to Myhull. You've running out ofthings now listen. I'm I'm excited to
be here. I'm sorry I sabotageyour show last week. Grateful, grateful
to get the invite back, andhonestly, I mean that's on this side

(00:25):
of the table. Yeah. Butbut but I uh, I'm very much
looking forward to because I haven't hada chance to watch yet, but I
can't wait to watch you and Marioand Patrick chop things up. That that's
gonna be fascinating. So we givethem a little shout out to, Yeah,
that'll be fun. That's coming upa little later as we're recording this,
you know earlier, so yeah,that that'll be coming up a little

(00:46):
bit later. And I don't knowwhat they do for replay on that show,
so some time you hear this,you'll be able to watch the replay.
I give them a shout out becauseyou know, people, the BCT
listeners are gonna want to see whatkind of wilds anything's happened with Mario,
Patrick and Ben Albright. Because theyverse may implode. There may not be
a show tomorrow, they may notbe a universe tomorrow. It may implode.

(01:07):
You know. One of the thingsthat I almost responded, and I
know you'll appreciate this because you likemovies like as much as I do.
So Spaceballs on my all time favoriteall time at the very end when they're
crawling out of the nose of aMega Maid and you have the Planet of
the Apes reference, right, andhe's like, oh bleep, there goes
the planet very much wanted to respondwith when you were invited on to that

(01:32):
thing as a fellow old you andI would have gotten that reference. I'm
not sure that Mario and Patrick wouldhave gotten that reference. I know,
and that's why I didn't respond withit. I found the gift. I
I went through all the process ofeverything. I was like, it's gonna
be like me and Ben that understandsthis and nobody and everybody else was like
I don't get this all. Yeah, yeah, what what movies is from
is did you really go into theApes? Like no, the Spaceballs?

(01:52):
Who's doing homage to Planet of theApes. It's really brilliant and you and
I are the only ones laughing justand they looking like idiot swallow balls.
Dude. It's it's it's a goodway. All the Melbrooks movies, well
they are they all, they areall good. Uh, and they're very
quotable, but that one for it'slike Anchorman, right, I could just
literally start to finish just quote theentire movie like without prompt Yeah, let

(02:15):
me be uh we'll get into broncosto fears of a second. But the
Anchorman thing, like I was,uh, I watched the couple weeks back,
the roast of Tom Brady. Yeah, and he came out did the
Ron Burgundy thing. It wasn't great. It wasn't great. He needed to
retire that bit like prior to Anchormantwo, honestly, but they why did
And I know it's here on iHeart. I probably should be bad ma moled
or whatever. But the Ron Burgerndypodcast wasn't funny. The Ron Burgundy bit

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outside of the first Anchorman movie isn'tfunny. The second Anchorman movie wasn't funny.
Like it might be time to letthat one go. Will that that's
that that might be uh, youknow, you might have overstepped it's your
most successful character and sometimes you think, like play the hits. You know,
we hear that the term all thetime in radio and otherwise play the
hits. Yeah, I'm I'm actuallymean. He hasn't resurrected the character from

(02:59):
Blue Oyster CULTU. You know thatwould come back. I mean you know
that. Hasn't he let that go? He hasn't. He hasn't brought hair
of carry back again. But infairness, though in fairness the more cowbell
guy, a backstory on him wouldactually be a pretty funny probably be hilarious,
like a whole movie centered around that. We probably like get John c
Riley in there, you know,because yeah, like the pint, the

(03:20):
Coleman and moment or whatever, cumblina moment or whatever it was with him
playing the colibell that in that sceneand then interjecting the back Yeah, I
mean, I might be. Butit just feels like and it's not to
say that Will Ferrell is funny.He's more funnyan I'll ever be, but
uh, it feels like that alot of the Will Ferrell comedy has sort
of it's tough, sort of died. And it breaks my heart because Anchorman
is one of the all times greatand he was great in old school.

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He was he was right on snL all that kind of stuff. But
you know what was the one withDanny McBride, the long haired pitch he's
bounded down he was yet yeah he'sstill well, I think it's funny,
but he's you'll think it's funny,he's he's He was good in that too.
Is that the loved boy watch littlelitterally living role and that was fantastic
And you know, but at theend of the day, yeah, it's

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sad because I was thinking about thatthe other day. I was like,
this is this is not funny,just flat out not funny. It you
know. But but like most things, like your style of fashion, and
then some of your jokes timeless NowI don't think if you say them enough
they eventually come back around. Andthen they come back around. So like
some of your jokes that you werelabbing during OTAs today, which is by

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the way, and for those ofyou who don't know t as, the
Broncos do practice in OTA's. ButOTAs are really an opportunity for me to
get up there and kind of worka stand up comedy routine amongst the other
beat writers. Uh, It's beenthat way for years, and I think
that people are appreciative and well appreciative. It's a strong word doing a lot
of heavy lifting there. There forit's do a lot of heavy lifting there.

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But I'd say there's a certain entertainmentvalue of it. I think more
of the challenge is not laughing atthe really bad jokes. How do I
go for like awful, like justjust bad, so bad, but but
then like, because they're so bad, you chuck, you can't help it.
And then as you chuckle, Iknow I'm feeding into you and you're
like, yeah, this is funny. I'm funny. Your laughter sustains me.

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It's like the tears. Yes,So I'm like, I'm like the
monsters and monsters, except I needyour laughter. And horrible jokes is a
horrible just just bad jokes, notlike horrible subject matter, but just bad.
It was just bad puns. Yeah, bad puns. Anyway, Yeah,
I Ota is today. Yeah,I think the funniest thing was that

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Zach Wilson is still in the quarterbackcompetition. Kidd. It was just it
was not a good day for ZachWilson. It was in a good day
for Zach Wilson. I'd say overallfor the offense, it really wasn't a
good day. It was it waspretty windy, and not that it's an
excuse, it's not an excuse.Is the offense wasn't sharp today. The
defense, I thought, especially upfront, and we probably haven't given them enough
flowers. Over the three ota practicethat we watched, we've seen some pretty

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impressive work from not only the edgerushers but also from the interior defensive line.
So I want to and again thisis without pads, so you know,
maybe you say you should read intothat however you want, because you
could say, well, the offensiveline can't do everything they want to do
because they're not on pads. Simultaneouslythe defensive line. Maybe the offensive line
is letting him have some of thosewins because they're just I don't know who

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knows. But the point of itis that the defensive line has been has
been working, and today you sawa tough day for the offensive line.
The pass rushers were in the lapof the quarterbacks multiple times. All three
quarterbacks were dealing with that. Andyou know, so we can talk about
Zach Wilson, who threw the onlyinterception to PJ Lock in a yolo ball
office back foot. But that wasbecause of pressure, Yeah, because it

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was a corner blitz and he justdidn't see it until the last second and
he decided to just yollo ball thatthing up into the air. And guess
what, PJ Lock didn't have todo very much to get No, he
was fair mailed right to him.I mean, and it was, you
know, and to be fair,you know, it's OTA's it's practice.
You want to get all that stuffout now. And Zach Wilson is playing
from behind in the sense that isthe least amount of time in this offense,

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and you know, and all thatkind of stuff, to be fair.
But if you had to rank themtoday, if you if if tomorrow
was the opening game of the season, I would expect Jarret's did him to
be the starter, Bonnicks to behis backup, and Zach Wilson to either
be on the practice squad or notinvolved. Well see, okay, and
you and I were debating that outof practice if it was today, okay,
fine, if we if we literallyI can only judge based on today.

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Now. I fully expect Monicks tostart looking better the more time he
gets in this and not that helooked horrible. No, no, no,
he looked. But Jared Stidham lookslike a guy who's bet in the
offense for he does he does so. So if we're going under the completely
unrealistic and unreasonable take of the seasonstarts tomorrow, yeah, like June fourth
starts for the NFL season. Well, I don't know. They reorganized the

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OTA, so maybe he doesn't say. Who knows the first game is gonna
You know, it's a fourth ofJuly kickoff for the NFL. See,
it's the Patriot Palooza spectacular. Soyou can't see the dance moves on Millian
Studio, right, which which actuallywere pretty good for all for all,
I mean again, it kind oflooked a little bit like the groundhog from
Caddyshack. Right. Well, Ijust you know, you got great tag

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lines that can go with this too, you know, the fourth of July
kickoff spectacular. Yeah, it won'tbe the only flags you see today.
Oh my god, terrible, terrible. This is the stuff I put up
with out of OTAs. But Iexpect Bonis to be the starter. I
do think he offers he's will bethe starter at some point this year.
I'm willing to see that, andI'm just say he's gonna be the starter
out of camp. But that's allonly based on a projection. It's only

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based on a trajectory that I hopehappens because I hope that happens too.
I hope I'm wrong and that he'sstarting week one because Stidham, if he
just continues down the path that he'son, you know, it's it's fine.
Today was an example. It's fine, the offense is fine. You
seem to be rooting heavier for aTeddy Bridgewater offense than I am. No,

(08:43):
no, no, no, no, but but I I just think
there's more. The one thing Idid, I did come to a realization
that with Bonix, and it's it'skind of something we we more or less
have talked about, but it reallywas reinforced today. And it's only because
you are making fun of me thatit was reinforced. Because I was talking
we were watching doing skeleot during skeletonin the Red Zone. Yep, boy,

(09:03):
he looked great, really sharp,right, and I kept saying they
were decisive, and you were makingfun of me for that, but of
your use of decisive, yes,which has been divisive between the two of
us. But the thing about it, I came to the realization, and
we knew this about his days atOregon. He really functions best when he
knows where he wants to go rightaway, and I think a lot of
quarterbacks do, but he more thananybody. See, like we talked about

(09:24):
Russell Wilson, he's like the antiRussell Wilson that respect, Russell wants to
get to the improv part. Russellis almost hoping the improv part happens so
that he can take the ball anddo something really spectacular with it, because
that's been the calling card of hisentire career. I'd say it's the opposite
in a lot of his Bonnicks.I'm not saying that Bonicks can't think out
of structure. I'm saying he utilizesthe structure to the best of his ability,

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and that's where he really thrives,kind of like we talked about with
Drew Brees to a certain extent whenhe was at his best. When he
is at his best, and thatoffensive is best, you're tearing teams apart
before the ball is even snapped.That's where I think Nicks eventually settles in
the problem is is that something youcan easily scout. Well, I'll give
you a partial credit on that,because I think you're partially right. I
think the other part of this whereI think there is and I want to

(10:09):
see them get in pads and seeit goes. I'm concerned about what he
does after the predetermination because we sawa little bit of that today where he
got bufuddled with and didn't know whatto do. You said decisive, when
that wasn't there. It was.It was the opposite. We was you
know, he was he was ayou know, he was a puddle.
And so he did He did betterwhen when he knew where he was going
to go and when the ball cameout really fast. And I think once

(10:30):
he gets mastery of the offense,that will be easier because then you'll know
where you're going and read one exactlywhatever. But we saw we saw some
plays where he, uh, hethrew a ball where the receiver he anticipated
the receiver running a comeback and insteadit was a fly and the ball just
the ball sailed on him anyway.He was off bounce when he was he
was clearly anticipated something different than whatthe receiver was doing. But that's third

(10:50):
team offense. Also, like Keithit in mind, yeah, but I
mean it was on the quarterback.I mean clearly it was on the quarterback.
But I'll say this again, ishe gets more knowledge of the offense,
will get better Again. Jared Stipp'sbeen in this offense for over a
year, you know, and Bonnixhas been in it for you know,
a couple of months. I meanhe's had portions of it through the draft
process and then you know, Benimbursed in it since since rookie, so

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he isn't And the same thing wasAach Wilson who didn't get the benefit of
minicamp, the rooks minicamp. SoI think that for me, I want
to see the growth through training campand by the time we hit week two
a training camp, we'll be ableto start making some definitive things. But
right now it's just kind of observationslike there isn't uh uh, you know,
it wasn't the arm strength thing thatwas out there for a minute,

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that was that was BS. Ithink that's that's nonsense. Zach Will says
the most arm strength of the three. But but whatever, you know,
and and when he's not doing ridiculousDennis Eckersley style throws, which was he
did some kind of submarine thing todayand it was just like, you know,
I'm like, what are you evendoing? They just throw the ball.
Yeah, he was trying to hitthe running back on the swing pattern

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and it bounced at his feet becausehe tried to fillip rivers it or whatever.
It was just silly. Look.I hope that all three continue to
progress and we have a real quoteunquote competition in camp. I know,
you don't like competition because you justadd, you know, you know,
quarterbacks. Everybody deserves orange slices andparticipation and all that kind of stuff,
and we got to get everybody attrophy. But quarterback quarterback competition, I

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do hope because I think it'll makethem all better. I do think that
there is talent here, even ifJared'stidham is not a world beater, and
Bonix the rookie and we don't knowwhat he is yet, and you know,
and Zach Wilson's kind of a shellthat's trying. I do think that
it's better for all three him butI want to see that. But right
now, you've got a veteran who'sbeen in the system that clearly clearly knows
it, even if he is maybea little bit more limited. You've got
a rookie who looks like he's gettingchunks of it, but there are still

(12:41):
chunks that he's missing after three visiblepractices to the media, and you got
Zach Wilson who's out goat herding withJimozzi, Giovanni Coazzi or whatever, because
because that dude is not playing footballright now. It's tough. And like
I said, Sid, it wasa tough day. But the way I
kind of look at it, especiallywith Zach Wilson chance with the run,
with the ones, you wanted tosee confident quarterback play, right. You

(13:03):
want to see him confident. Lastweek, one of the knocks I had
about Zach Wilson I thought he wastoo careful. So, I mean,
who knows if he I certainly doesn'ttake it in account what I have to
say, but I don't know ifthe coaching he got was like, hey,
let's let's go back out there andlet let's let's slee in a little
bit. Because he did, andit wasn't great. I mean, he
had one nice little comeback pass intothe wind too Mims, which was was

(13:24):
nice down the right sideline, butoutside of that, it was it was
just a rough day for Zach.And he has the most experience of all
of them. See that that's wherefor me, you said Stidham's experience in
this office. That is absolute truth. But Zach has the most starting experience,
and you think being in his nowwith this his fourth training camp,

(13:45):
that that would show up. It'sthe most starting experience and he's six months
age difference from Botex and it justhasn't it hasn't been there. Right,
He really does not look like thatguy, right. I hate to you
know, you don't want to putdefinitive things on it, and you don't
want to sit there and I'm makingjokes. I get that, but but
Zach does not look like he isready at all. Like I mean,
it's you know, this is pullingthe turkey out of the oven at Thanks

(14:07):
Given and realizing you've got five hoursto go. Well, it's sure,
And I wonder how much of it. We've said this before with rookie quarterbacks
or young quarterbacks when they come inthe league, if there's if there's too
much on their plate early on,you really can shake their confidence, and
we've I think we could confidently saybased on his experience with the New York
Jets, that's something probably happened.And that's why we talk about football rehab

(14:28):
and him needing a change of scenery. Right, those are all legitimate points
about his game where he's at.But the mental side of it, it's
it's so tough because it is abit of like light switch. It's maybe
it turns on, maybe it neverturns on. You know, he's clearly,
like I said, arm talent there, athleticism, all those things,
but he is not putting the ballwhere I think he wants to put it,

(14:52):
and that's a mental thing. Andhe's not seeing the pressures. He's
just he's just not seeing it.He's not confident in the pocket. And
and so then you worry about whenthat's gonna have happen or if it's ever
going to happen. It sort ofreminds me of how Drew Lock got eroded,
you know, like it got worseand worse, you know, and
I think it to me, youknow, you got to make football fun
again, especially for guys like that, for a Lock, for a Zach
Wilson, a guy who plays,you know, kind of in then he's

(15:13):
ripping. Yeah, you got tomake it fun again. And if you
can make it fun and loose,and then they start to build a little
bit of the time off of thatand get those guys to where they need
to be, we'll see. ZackWilson may turn into something, may not
be, might wind up being thestarter for the never Broncos. Who knows.
But right now, after three viewableOTAs for media, I would say
he's clearly behind the other two andand I I mean like a huge gap,
which is remarkable because I think fora lot of Broncos fans, and

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we can talk about this a littlebit more on the other side, for
a lot of Broncos fans, theykind of rank it as bon Nicks Zach
Wilson than Jared Stidham as they wantto see, right, But I would
suggest that, like, you know, to me, it feels like that
you're you're setting up a situation herefor Stidham to kind of be the caretaker
and be the guy who's been aroundleague for a while as the veteran maybe
doesn't never make starts as Wilson,but it's been around league while h and

(15:58):
Bonnicks to you know, eventually bethe starter or whatever it see. It
feels set up for that. Andif Sack Wilson can come in and play
the spoiler and it clicks and youknow, so much the better. But
yeah, as far as the fansgo, I mean, I think they
saw two games of Jarristidham last yearand we're like, yeah, we need
draft a quarterback at twelve. Imean clearly, and there was no way.
And I think the bill of thebiggest fears for Broncos fans more than

(16:18):
anything, was that Sean Payton wouldcome out this year and say, you
know what, we believe in chargeSidham, We're gonna go into this year
with that guy. They didn't dothat. I think that's good for the
fan base. But I think that'san interesting discussion something we'll watch in training
camp. Yeah, well, youknow, we'll get a chance coming up.
I want to get to some ofthe other positions. You know,
we focus on the quarterbacks. Iwant to get around some of the other
positions. Some of the other guysthat have stood out jumped out and just

(16:41):
kind of resonated in our minds aslike, oh hey, so we'll get
into that here on the other side, listening to Broncos Country Tonight. Right
here on KA It's eighty the AMninety four one FM News Talk Sports.
Welcome back to it, Broncos CountryTonight Benjamin Albright joined by Ryan Edwards,
The Og Triple Og, the DeGarmoto my key, that's a contemporary Christian

(17:03):
music reference in the nineteen eighties.If you get that one, that one
went on my head. I'm justgonna do and key. Yeah, anyway,
I was. I was trying togo, you know, I was
gonna go say the Tanil to mycaptain. See, we don't need to
be making Pizzasah, they got plentyof food there. I. Uh,
that's a hitch reference for you.I I yeah, the Captain of tan
Neil thing, which is, youknow, we'll get off this real quick.
But uh it bothers me. Whydid you have to nickname yourself the

(17:26):
Captain when your real name was alreadyDaryl Dragon. I did not know that.
Literally today, you'rs old learning somethingright now to learn that you could
be in the Dragon and Tanil.It still works, it still works,
and it's actually better, it's waybetter. Did you just want to wear
the jaunty hat to Dragon too.Dragons you just want to wear the like
the jaunty little little hat, isit? I mean, you know your
name was Daryl Dragon and then youwere like, no, I'd rather be

(17:48):
the captain again. And by theway, I'm refusing, I will not
call you maestro sightful reference there bythe way I'm working my way through curb
it is. It's hilarious. It'svery cringe, but it's very very funny.
But again, it's it's basically likeif George had his own spin off
pretty much, because that's who GeorgeCastanza is based on. Larry David.
So it's hilarious and to have allthe times Jason Alexander bags on the George

(18:11):
Costanza character is gold. It's gold. Jerry. Yeah, that was an
enjoyable watch for me, was goingback and redoing that. Anyways, you
want to talk about some of theother players, Yeah, let's just start.
But let's let's start with players onart here. First of all,
you know the Courtland Sutton situation.Yes, as that continues that we've got
mandatory MINDIAMP next week and John Paytonsays he expects Courtland here for that.

(18:33):
It's mandatory, So you got Imean, you know at that point where
you know he says he expects himthere for that, we'll see that there's
no indication for Courtland that they willbe Courtland, of course asking for a
pay bump. As we look aroundthe league, there was a wide receiver
got paid yesterday and Jefferson up therein Minnesota. We saw Christian McCaffrey get
paid this morning, and that maylead to additional moves there in San Francisco

(18:56):
for as the wide receiver position goes. You know, I people I've talked
to think that that Courtland that theBroncos aren't going to move off their position
as far as PA too, Idon't think they do. Here's the thing.
Let me let me say this firstof all, I don't think there's
a bad guy in the situation.No. I think from a business perspective,
Cortland Sutton is doing the right thing. He knows he's coming into a
season with the rookie quarterback. Thenumbers are going to be down in a
contract year, so he wants tobe spiffed and based on his performance last

(19:19):
year, I get it. He'snever been a guy that did that kind
of stuff. Before. On theflip side of that, the Broncos like,
we got a stacked wide receiver row. We brought in Reynolds, Tim
Patrick's back, we brought it backa little Jordan Humfrey. We got five
guys drafted Franklin drafted Franklin Vallet andlooked good. You know, we've we've
got four or five guys that alreadydo what you do. I know,
by the way, last year,Tim Patrick was the plan, not you
until he got hurt. So forme, I'm looking at this and I'm

(19:41):
like, there's not a bad guyhere. It's just it's just two people
who are trying to do the bestthing for them, and unfortunately it's an
impass. People I've talked to believethat Cortland could wind up in Pittsburgh reuniting
with Russell Wilson and it feels sogood. They don't believe that the Broncos
is going to move off their position. I don't know how Courtland works that
into coming back next week. Doyou anticipate him being here? Sean Payton

(20:06):
said, he expects him here,but there's a different thing between I expect
him here, which is what acoach has to say versus I anticipate him
being here. Well, Sean hasmaintained that he has a relationship with Courtland
and they've been talking, So ifwe take that at his value, and
he says that he did offer alittle bit of a hedge on that answer.
His initial was yeah, I expecthim to be here, and then
he said, well, you know, but we'll see. He can't get

(20:26):
really guarantee anything, So he's right. If Courtland ultimately decides that it's worth
the fines, I'm staying clear,I'm standing stand upat with with this process.
Then yeah, I guess he couldhold this thing out into training camp.
I just I don't think that's thecase because I think that he's going
to be He's going to realize thatit's not worth incurring fines for this,

(20:51):
And once again he got his pointacross. He's been talked about a lot,
and I'm sure they're a of whathis position is. He could have
just showed up and done what hedoes. You know, he just showed
up and practice and whatever, andthey would be unaware of his unhappiness.
But he's probably in his best spotto just go ahead and make this happen.

(21:14):
Now, I'm not going to createany kind of hot take ultimatum here
saying that well, if he doesn'tshow up, then this is what it
means, or if he does orwhatever. I just in the end,
like you said, there is reallyno bad guy. There's really no obvious
solution here where it's like the Broncosabsolutely need to pay this guy or the
other way around. Corl and Suttonis completely out of his mind asking for
more money. No, I thinkit makes sense for both sides why they

(21:37):
want to take a look at this, and the Broncos may decide to do
a little bit of a restructure andthen give him some more cash up front.
There's certainly some paths forward where everybodyends up being happy. That's what
I do think is going to happeneventually. But as we sit here right
now, the Broncos don't really havea pressure to do much, and like
you said, because they view itas guess what, these are more reps
for the future of this wide receivercorps. Right. Let me let me

(22:00):
let me ask you this question theBroncos. If Courtland Sutton shows up mandatory
medi camp, how many games doyou think the Broncos win this year?
None? I mean, it doesn'tchange anything, get versus if he doesn't
none. So if if the answeris zero, then what are we doing?
Yeah, and and so that that'sthe thing. Not that I don't
want Courtland to be here. I'dlove for Cortland to be here. But

(22:21):
at the end it might be itmight just be time to turn the page.
You've already turned the page on guysthat probably should be here, guys
like Justin Simmons. Uh, youturned the page on k Jack. That
was probably a little late turning thatpage. But you know, you've retooled
the defense. The offense is mostlygot it as well. I mean,
you still got Garrett Bowles and youknow, if you guys in the last
couple of years, let me askyou something said. Somebody point this out

(22:41):
to me the other day. Ithink it was James Palmer pointed this out
to me. Do you notice thatthere have been and we expect pastor tan
at some point, there have beenno extensions given the players that were on
the roster before Sean Payton got here. Yeah, not one. I know
they're just you're you're hey, weI mean they talked about Lloyd the the
Tim Patrick redo is about the onlydeal that you got. And even then

(23:03):
that's not it's not an extension oranything like that. Yeah, it's just
it's a situation where they cleared upsome money. As far as this stuff
goes, He's he's brought back ona vet Men deal. Sean Payton's gonna
get his guys in here, andthat's gonna be the way it's gonna be.
It's an observation something to kind ofkeep in mind here is with this
Cortland sudden situation, right, thiscould be a little bit of a canary
the coal mine of how he feelsabout some of these guys that were on
this roster, or if he's justkind of like not far to sturn the

(23:26):
page. I I drafted MEM's lastyear, drafted Franklin and Vle. This
year, we brought back Patrick,who we think again can do a lot
of things you can do. Weyou know, we have little Joe Humphrey.
We brought in Josh Royls. Wefeel pretty good about our wide receiver
corps and we know of nothing else. This is a developmental year. We're
hoping to pop some wins and hopingto surprise some people. But in the

(23:48):
end, this is getting reps forall these guys to hit the ground running
in twenty twenty five. Before weget into the other players that have stood
out, let me continue where Iwas going to close the loop on this.
How many games do the Pittsburgh Steelerswin as construction could right now versus
if you add Courtland Sutton to thatroster. I think he makes a difference
there because I think all of asudden they got something. Yeah, he

(24:08):
makes them better. But once again, I'm in a I'm in a weird
place with the whole Russell Wilson thing. Are you're anti you're an anti Russ
site? Well, fine, atleast he's not gonna I'm not gonna come
at this thing and try to pretendlike it's something else. I'm gonna absolutely
say, Yeah, I gotta believeit. I'll see it when I believe,
or I'll believe when I see it, is what I'm trying to say.

(24:29):
I believe way, Yeah, I'llbelieve that Russ can still function as
an NFL quarterback and help teams winconsistently when I see it. And yeah,
he's gonna receive a better organizational setup with the Steelers, and I
don't want your BCT listeners like tohammer me because I always get, you
know, profits in my mentions killingme because he's like, oh, you

(24:52):
gotta forgive and let it go,and I'll let it go when the Broncos
are no longer paying part of hissalary to play against him. Well,
that wasn't his choice, though,that was the Broncos choice. If he
would have played better, if you'dhave played that as advertised, if you'd
have been a fraction of the quarterbackthat he promised he would be, that
this wouldn't even be a problem rightnow. In fact, Sean Payton probably
wouldn't even be here right now.Well, i'd see. I disagree with

(25:15):
that. I think that I thinkhe was if he had twenty six touchdowns
in his first year with the Broncosand the thing you Hacket wouldn't have even
been fired. Well, but that'swhat I'm getting at. I think the
Hackett situation and all the turmoil there, I just I count that as its
own island, and then I viewRuss as a Bronco only through the lens
of last year, in which inwhich case I thought he did pretty admirably.
I mean, there were times wherehe very obviously could not execute what

(25:38):
it was that they were trying todo. But when they let him do
his thing, he was wildly affective. I mean, he was benched.
He was top five in the NFLtouch in passing touchdown. So there's just
not an argument to counter that,you know, at the end of the
day. So for me, Idon't I don't have any ill will towards
Russell Wilson in the interest of forledisclosure. Yeah, I have a little
bias because people's camping all that kindof stuff, But like like I'm not,
I don't have any ill will towardRussell Wilson, and I wish him

(26:00):
nothing but the best, except whenhe comes here obviously to play the Broncos,
then I hope they lose, youknow, five thousand to nothing.
But I my, my, my, my largest thing is the Broncos have
turned the page, like so muchso that they're paying him in an exorbitant
amount of money to not be here. It's like the line from uh Moneyball
when Billy Bean goes up to tellit to you know, David Justice keeps
kind of you know, giving snarkycomments, and you don't relate to me

(26:22):
and all this kind of stuff.He's like, maybe I don't. It's
like we're both here at the show, try to squeeze the last life out
of these careers or whatever. Andyou know what, the New York Yankees
are paying me forty million dollars foryou not to play for them. So
tell me again, you know,at to say so? I think that
I don't. I don't have anyanimosity towards us at all. I don't.
I think he tried his best.I think he wasn't a fit for
what they I think the first seasonwas an absolute just disaster across the board.

(26:44):
The second season he wasn't a fitfor what Sean Payne wanted. We
don't. I hope bo Nicks atall six succeeds, whether it's Sack Wilson,
bo Nicks, whatever, succeeds.But I don't. I don't have
to. I don't have ill willfor Russell Wilson. Okay, I just
don't like I don't. You know, you know you're normally a joevial,
good natured you know, now you'veturned into a little finger with these Macavellian
schemes. To is my one there'smy one hill that I'm gonna die on

(27:08):
and it's gonna ta at least acouple of year because the Broncos is gonna
be paying for a couple of yearsto a tree on that hill, one
tree hill. Yeah, I justI just thought i'd squeeze that in.
Uh. Camp has been our otahas been going on for a little bit.
Now we've got our third media viewingperiod. There have been some names
that have jumped out at me,uh, particularly both sides the ball.
Uh that have looked uh that havelooked good so far. Some under performers,

(27:30):
but there's been some guys that havelooked I think pretty good in the
in the helmets and shorts. PJLock being one of them, keeps showing
up. Uh. Ja Quon McMillankeeps showing up. Both those guys I
think are gonna be are in forfor pretty big years. PJ I think
is going to have a breakout yearfor the Broncos this year. I'm I'm
here for it. I think PJ, Jaquan McMillan has looked really, really
good. I'm even wondering if weshould start having conversations about him at the

(27:52):
boundary. He's at his best inthe slot. I I I hear that,
but I'm like, man, thatdude is a slot corner. Those
are hard to find. I'll puthim in there, and we're trying and
the other guys at the boundary untilwe have to move him there. Just
saying you have two starting caliber cornershere. Yeah, you got certain and
you've got ja Quon McMillan. Thequestion is who the other corner is gonna
be? And that really I meanfor me, I'm right there with you.
Uh you know, is the MaryMathis or Riley Kneecap Tattoo Moss or

(28:17):
uh, you know, whomever gonnaget a step up to the to the
plate and become the guy or oryou know, maybe Levi Wallace. You
know, it's got something left inthe tag. Who knows they found Uh.
I don't want to call it gold, but maybe uh maybe a good
copper in in Moreau last year,you know who filled it. I thought
pretty admirably for what he did.I felt like the Broncos moved on from
Ron Darby too quickly back in theday. Yeah, and it felt like

(28:38):
that would be the guy who wouldbe a great fit for what they're doing.
Now. Well, that's what jawConnor reminds me of a little bit,
although he's got better hands certainly.Uh. And I do like what
Vance is doing. He's moving around. Jakwan McMillan, is you want to
talk about finding gold? I mean, well, that's that's striking gold.
Yes see he's he's been Really whyare we starting a sang bassie again,

(29:00):
because somebody like me who kept thinkingthe same bassie didn't turn into something is
wrong? Sorry? Is that whereyou got the nickname insane bassie? No,
that's for something else. But yeah, I Jaqui mcgillan looks really good.
As I talked about in the previoussegment, the d line Blackson Blacks
and I like a lot. Yeah, Angela Blackson, Malcolm Roach, some

(29:21):
of those guys. Those guys gotsome beef to them, They got somef
to them. And yes, Ithink we're going to see something that's perhaps
a little bit more aggressive up frontthen we saw dating back to before Vic
Fangio being the defensive coordinator, becausethe last few years had been the Fangio
defense, whether it was Fangio,whether it was a Vara, whether it
was Vance running you know, theirversion of things. I think We're gonna
see more of the Vance Joseph defensethis year. I do looking out there,

(29:41):
it doesn't look like a bunch ofquarters match. I will say that
the league appears to be pivoting tooacross the league, like the Fangio defense
is still the Vogue defense, butthe Mike McDonald defense is starting to creep
in there and sort of be thenext what looks like the next iteration of
this and Vance runs something closer towhat Mike McDonald ran, and then you
know, then Vic Fangio, sothat it'll be interesting to see exactly how

(30:04):
much carryover there is in terms ofVIC stuff, because it looks like they're
trying to be more aggressive upfront.Yeah, and I talked about last week
Joe Alis I think has some somereal potential rotational. Sure, he's a
little undersized, no doubt, butagain it's situational pass arts, deny his
motor. It's it's a buller thatDrew Sanders isn't going to be available,

(30:25):
because I would have liked to seea little bit more from him. I
tell you what. Today, aguy that that I noticed quite a bit
is Jail Skinner running with the two'sout there and and they were kind of
sending them again, you're talking aboutsome of the blitzes and we can't get
too specific on what we see.I will, but I think being brought
to jail that's fine. But butJail Skinner man, he's he's a specimen
and he's noticeable because he's a sizeright off the bat. I mean,

(30:48):
you see it again, Oh thatguy's a safety, right yeah. You
know you're thinking it's like a reallytall outside linebacker. He's a big dude.
And then you're like, oh wait, this is a safety. And
and then you're seeing him up withthe line and you're like, holy cow.
I mean, so again, someinteresting things mix and match of this.
George Peyton kind of intimated that theywere looking for big things out of
Jail Skinner. They were impressed withsome of his special teams work last year

(31:11):
they had limited reps. But backat the combine he kind of told this
that, he kind of said,you know, je Skinned, don't won't
count him out. You know itkind of it interests me in that who
is the odd man out in thesafety's room because it feels like there's one
and right now you've got you know, Brandon Jones, who you paid all
the money to to bring over frommysay, all the money he paid money
to to bring over from Miami.You got PJ. Lock, who figures
to have the other starting safety spotlockdown. You've got Kayden Stearns who's dealt

(31:36):
with some degenerate hip stuff, buthe's trying to come back again. You
got Skinner who contributes on special teamsand it looks like a just a beast
out there. And he had LarryonTurner Yale, who was out there running
the hill by himself. Yeah hewas. I think he's he's working,
he's were working with. Well,who's our tight end? That's that's hurt
all the time? Grill choles this. Yeah, so they were out there

(31:56):
on hills, and I mean itis tough. I think, and I
said this before when I was inwith you. So many decisions about the
back crossed guys are gonna be dictatedby what's gonna happen with kickoffs this year.
Yeah, Like you're gonna be thinkingabout, Okay, if I'm keeping
an extra running back, you mightkeep five running backs. You might you
might actually do that because you're thinkingabout using those guys as returners since the

(32:19):
kickoff is a glorified stretch play now, right, So you're looking for the
lanes and you're cutting back and maybeyou want running backs back there. Maybe
that is the direction that you decideto go. I'm not saying that you're
doing that. I'm just saying there'sa lot of different mix and match.
It was really fun listening to SeanPayton today talk about that, talk about
all the different ways that they're sortof looking at the kickoffs. But the

(32:40):
fascinating thing is this is completely territory. Most time. We get to maybeay
through training camp, we're starting topredict the fifty three, and then you
start to think about, man,we won't really know that this could change
the mathematics of all of it.I'm fascinated by that, is well.
I asked the question a couple ofweeks back about before the draft if they're
drafting guys based on that. Theydidn't really want to get into it too

(33:02):
much, but you know, youcould tell that it is something that everybody
feels like they're gonna have an edgeon at the beginning, and we'll see
who really does you know, wewe will we know a little bit about
some of the things, the uniquethings that maybe Pittsburgh is gonna try Kent's
City, Kansas City, you know, and Sean Payton. It's it's interesting
because some of the things he's like, yeah, that makes sense, and

(33:22):
some of the things like, forinstance, using a position player to kick
off, well, you know,if it's gone, if it's the ball's
coming back to the forty, thenwhat's the point. You know, Like
having a guy who can tackle inthere doesn't matter if he can't kick it,
can't accurately kick it the thing.So I sort of get both both
aspects of that. I do thinkyou're gonna see a lot of running backs
or guys with running back backgrounds backthere and kickoffs. One guy I think
might make this roster by virtue thatwould be a guy like Treymont Smith.

(33:45):
You said Smith used to be arunning back. Yeah, he's a running
back in a cornerback Houston and returnerwith Houston. And so that might be
a saving grace for a guy likethat. Has it really latched on as
a corner here in Denver. I'mI think you're absolutely right, and he's
he's still got a roster spot.I think he makes the team, But
I think you're right. I thinkhe makes the team with the fact that
they have some some options there,and and and again. You want speed,

(34:07):
you want quicks, you want vision, you want to cut guy with
long speed. That's right. Souh and the Broncos, for whatever you
think about this season and what theyexpected to be able to do, that
might be one way they can tipthings in. Their favorite at times is
be really good at special teams,which has been an abject disaster for for
the better part of the decade.Hey man, I appreciate you stepping in
here and giving us some time.Ryan Edwards, of course, a host

(34:30):
of KOI Sports, really the onlyguy on the show. There's so what
of those other guys Winifred and joinsthe Broncos, Dave Logan and right there
they're you know those guys, theylive in your shadow. Broncos Country tonight
right here on k It's eight damninety four one FM News Talk Sports