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June 5, 2024 13 mins
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(00:00):
It's time for Inside the Numbers.Now inside the number is with Ryan Michael,

(00:07):
right, how you doing this evening? Doing well? Then? Nick?
How are you guys doing pretty well? We gave you a little assignment,
a dynasty assignment, if you will, not the New England Patriots,
but a football bloodlines sort of assignment, as we have quite a few of
those here in Denver, whether that'sMcCaffrey's, the Mannings, the Sute,

(00:27):
now the Ellises, ELS's Elis's lsI. How do we I don't know
how we pluralize that, but wehave a lot of bloodline type stuff here
in Denver and father son, brothers, all that kind of stuff, and
it's been you know, it's it'sfascinating that I think that that we have
those football lineage type type of things. What were you able to find out

(00:51):
or what can you dazzle us within terms of statistics from these football bloodlines.
Well, there's a lot of funstuff to talk about, and probably
more than we can cram into onesegment. A stat that I had stumbled
on before coming on this evening isn'trelated to any of those four families,
but a shout out to the Greasyfamily because you have a Pro Football Hall
of Fame quarterback. Bob Greasy ledthe NFL in passerating eighty seven point eight

(01:15):
nineteen seventy seven. His son,Brian Greasy led the NFL in passerating one
to two point nine in two thousand. What are the odds that two quarterbacks
in a twenty three year span,which is roughly the duration of Tom Brady's
career, would both lead the NFLin passerating. That's really interesting from a
standpoint, But I would have comea little closer to home, like really

(01:41):
really closed, because christ McCaffrey justgot a new deal with the San Francisco
forty nine ers. That's kind oftaking that running back market that most have
devalued to a whole different level.But I remember Kristen when he was much
of a younger kid running around withhis dad. You know, my team
at a McCaffrey. But what numbersdo you have on those two and their

(02:04):
legacy as father and son and bothboth incredible football players. So I'll touch
on Christian for just a second.You know, you're looking at a guy
who, right now, at agetwenty seven, has already produced ten thousand,
five hundred and five yards from scrimtageand eighty one total touchdowns. The
cool stat also because I always appreciateplayers who have success regardless of the surroundings,

(02:28):
the team, the system. He'sled the NFL in both total yards
from scrimage and total touchdowns with twodifferent teams. He did it with Carolina
in twenty nineteen he had two andthree hundred ninety three yards nineteen touchdowns,
and he did it last year inSan Francisco twenty twenty three yards and twenty
one touchdowns. And when you considerthe pedigree that he's coming from, Eddie
Mack is one of my all timefavorite Broncos and I'll start with nineteen ninety

(02:52):
four. Before he truly became needMcCaffrey that we appreciated here in Broncos country,
he was with Mike Fanahan in ninetyfour with forty nine ers, very
small sample size. There, hecaught eleven of fourteen targets seventy eight point
six percent. He had a seventyone point four percent success percentage, which
is an efficient symmetric per Pro FootballReference, those two numbers would have ranked

(03:14):
second and number one amongst wide receiversin the NFL. That year if it
were a larger sample size enough toqualify so cool that he want to ring
there. He goes on to Denver. He has three consecutive one thousand yard
years ninety eight, ninety nine,two thousand and You know, it's not
surprising to see receivers do well withJohn Elway throwing in the football, but
the combination of Bobby Brister and BryanGreasy later ed McCaffrey from nineteen ninety nine

(03:38):
to two thousand amongst all players inthe NFL six in receptions one seventy two,
tenth in receiving yards twenty three hundredand thirty five, eighth in touchdown
reception sixteen, and eighth in firstdowns one hundred and fourteen. So bear
in mind he's one hundred and seventytwo receptions during that two year stand.
What's more than Randy Moss and TaroLoans too, respectively, caught one hundred

(04:01):
and fifty seven passes each. Wow, that's fascinating, stuf fight. You
know, Christian obviously leads the wayin money earned for the family after the
new UH New contract. He said, it's like, you know, walking
up to your dad being the bigball. You know, they go out,
Dad, you know you did allthis. But the family, I'm
just saying, you know, andthen they've got of course, the Brothers's.
It's incredibly athletic family overall. Imean, you get Max and Dylan

(04:24):
Luke and they just incredibly and tobe fair, at least it might be
the most athletic on all of themwhen all said and done. But you
know, it is what it is. I think I think the mcaffie's are
kind of Colorado royalty as far asas far as that goes. Is Christian
Hall of Famer? Is Is hea future Hall of Famer in my opinion
if he retired today. Yes,very different style of play, but very

(04:48):
Jim Brown asks in the sense thathe's been dominant pretty much from the time
he entered the league in two thousandand eight teams. So in my view,
he's the most complete running back,not just in the NFL now,
of his entire your generation. Sohe's twenty seven years old and have almost
eleven thousand yards and over eighty touchdowns. Not too bad if you're gonna put
a running back in the Hall ofFame from this generation Christians the one.

(05:11):
So keeping with this, whole teamabout maybe five and son tandems and the
world of football. Jonah Ellis,son of Luther Ellis, one of my
teammates here with the Denver Broncos.Now, Jonah is just kind of getting
his feet wet. But Lutha hasseveral sons who are playing in the NFL.
What do you think that maybe Jonahcan bring to the Broncos that might

(05:33):
start that conversation where people start comparinghim to his father. Well, Jonah's
arguably the most talented amongst these brothers, and you know whether or not he'll
go on to have the kind ofcareer's father did remains to be seen.
So you know, his brother's Caydenand Atlanta with the Falcons, Christian in
New England with the Tats, andNoah previously played for the Philadelphia Eagles for

(05:55):
a few years. Joonah Ellis,in my view, was the defensive steel
of the two twenty four NFL draft. As I mentioned before, it's second
amongst all the sense the players takenin sacks, only lots who had more
thirteen. Ellis had twelve, andso the projection is good as long as
he can stay healthy. I'm veryexcited about what he can do in this

(06:15):
defense. His father Luther had inmind you a pretty underappreciated career defensive tackles
that they usually ends up being thecase, nig. I mean, he
put together three hundred and thirty onetotal career tackles, twenty nine sacks.
And to make that Denver connection,he was your teammate in two thousand and
four, the final game of hiscareer November seventh, two thousand and four,

(06:38):
we ended up getting Houston thirty oneto fourteen. He got the final
sack of his career sacked David Carr. David Carr went down four times that
game, amongst thirty six trillion duringhis career, unfortunately, and he had
six tackles in that game. Howdo you like that, yells is And

(06:58):
in terms of I mean, theygot so many that they might be the
mccaffreys of defense. We're if we'relike that. But let's go back to
I think the first family of football, the most famous probably family of football,
the Manning family. My father's favoriteplayer was Archie Manning. You know,
I obviously Peyton and Eli, we'vegot arch you know, kind of
coming up. But I think thething about the Mannings. For me,

(07:19):
that's interesting is first of all,how good Archie was that. I think
that that gets sort of lost tothe mix and say what an incredible athlete
he was. Because we think ofPeyton Manning and Eli Manning, we think
it was great quarterbacks, we don'treally think of them as phenomenal athletes,
where Archie Manning was Steve Young beforeSteve Young was Steve Young. Absolutely,
Archie Manning was kind of cut ofthe mold of Roger Stawback, a little

(07:42):
bit more similar in style to maybea Trevor Lawrence into a Payt or an
Eli or both pocket passers. Iwish I could remember who to attribute this
quote to, but I remember hearingyears ago something to the effect that if
Terry Bradshaw had been drafted by NewOrleans and Archie Manning had been drafted by
Pittsburgh, Archie Manning would be inthe Pro Football Hall of Fame and we'd
be asking who is Terry Bradshaw.That might be a little hyperboling, but

(08:07):
you have to look at what Archiewas able to achieve in New Orleans within
the framework of the situation he played. So I got the numbers for Archie
from nineteen seventy one to nineteen eightyone, which really represents the time where
he was a full time starter inNew Orleans. Amongst all NFL peers,
he was two completions shy of fourthone thousand, one hundred and forty eight,
eight halfing yards short of six twentyone thousand, seven hundred and thirty

(08:31):
one thirteenth and touchdown passes he threwone hundred and fifteen of us. You
have to bear in mind, youknow, adjusting statistics for era. Joe
Namath led the NFL in touchdown passeswith nineteen hearing Archie's sophomore season, and
he was a two time Pro Bowlselection in nineteen seventy eight. Nineteen seventy
nine helped lead the New Orleans Saintsthe records of seven and nine and eight

(08:52):
and eight. So when you considerthe teams that he was playing with,
I would say that you could makean argument that his career was an over
achievement. Archie Manning is usually theexample people use when they're referring to incredibly
talented college quarterbacks who end up intough situations. Archie Manning very underrated quarterback
historically, in my opinion, allright, Ryan, we got to take

(09:13):
it back to the defensive side ofthe field. One of I mean,
I love watching this guy practice.I love watching play because it reminds me
of Champ barely to four who Iplay with, and that's up. He
is two pats, Tan and tellme because Stan is already he's already gone
to two Pro Bowls all ready.But what does he need to do in

(09:37):
your mind? You got to beput on that same category as his dad,
past sertan senior. He definitely hassome big shoes to fill. And
for him, I think he's alreadydisplayed the ability to play amongst the very
best at his position at first teamAll Pro selection in twenty twenty two,
and as you mentioned that, atwo time Pro bowler in twenty twenty two

(09:58):
and twenty twenty three. We lookat what he's been able to do.
Having some success against Patrick Mahomes,it reminds me of his father's success against
the most dominant quarterback of that generation, Paid Manning ps one for lack of
a better phrase, seven and fouragainst Manning. During his time in the
AFC East. He was a threetime Pro Bowl selection two thousand and two,

(10:20):
three and four He was a firstteam All Pro selection two thousand and
two, and that year the Dolphinshad the top rated passer rating defense in
the AFC, holding opponents to seventytwo point seven, number one in the
AFC and pass defense the XP againa Pro Football Reference metrics, so very
similar trajectories in terms of the twoSir ten cornerbacks. I think it's just

(10:43):
a matter of continuing to do whathe's already doing well. We look forward
to him doing that here in Denver. Obviously, there was a lot of
trade bs out there, which Itry to tell people was absolute nonsense.
With get Lebrugs were never trading passerten. It was never a thing that
was happening. I saw reports thatthey were put together a package move up
to three that it was all absolute, utter nonsense. He's going to be

(11:05):
a dever Bronco for a long time. You know, I don't know if
Satan is the best corner in theNFL. Those kind of lists are subjective
and all that kind of stuff anyway, But where do you put him based
on what it is that he's ableto do, which seems to be about
everything. Where do you put himright now in the league? As far
as ranking him as a corner,I believe that if pats er ten were

(11:26):
to be surrounded and we'll see,because you're not going to be able to
feel the complete defense the caliber ofa guy who's the first team All Pro
selection. But I think as wewe start to establish greater balance and we
build the defense from the bottom up, you can make the argument that he's
the best corner in football. Youknow, so far, he's really been
holding his own on some defensive unitsthat haven't quite been the Broncos defensive ole,

(11:52):
the Nick Ferguson era or the OrangeCrush era. So you know,
maybe I'm being a little bit biased, and I think with the right support,
having another year in Vans Joseph System, I think there will be an
argument to be made by the endof the year that he may be the
best corner in all football. Sothere are several guys who are either in
the league right now or coming intothe league who their fathers have played.

(12:15):
When you think about Marvin Harrison Juniorwho is just coming into the league,
Antoine wilferl Junior, Frank Gord Junr. Is now in the league, and
Brendan Rice. When you think aboutthose guys. What's of those guys that
maybe I just name or you justmay have on your own, Well,
you think that they can kind ofput themselves, not on the level of
their fathers, but kind of startthat conversation in comparison. I think that

(12:41):
all of the players you just mentionedcertainly have an opportunity to play up to
or close to the level of theirfathers. Obviously, the most intriguing of
the names you mentioned is going tobe Marvin Harrison Junior. Because he's arguably
the best receiving prospect we've seen ina number of years. And when you
look at the trajectory of wide receiverswho are taken at the top of the
draft, you don't see the samecorrelation with success as you do with the

(13:05):
first quarterbacks taken in other positions infootball. But in terms of what Marvin
Harrison Jr. Was able to produceat Ohio State, and given the caliber
a football player, his father wasone of the greatest route runners in the
history of pro football, he's themost intriguing. I do think he's the
player on paper who has the greatestupside. It'll be very interesting to see

(13:26):
what he's able to do here inhis rookie season. Ryan, we appreciate
it as always, brother, Lookingforward to checking in with you next week.
Sounds good, guys, Thanks forhaving me on the Ryan Michael at
The Ryan Michael on Twitter, ourofficial and official statistician here at PCT
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