06-13-24 Hour 2 of Broncos Country Tonight

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
It's Broncos Country Tonight. Our tacklehere, me helping receivers. Let's go
on the official home of the Broncos. All right, all night KOA pull
back to it. Broncos Country Tonight, Benjamin Albright, Nick Ferguson, Shannon
Scott back there behind the glass,all shucks in it as usual. You're

(00:26):
too humble, man. I wouldtune into the Shannon Scott Show just saying
he's turned the audio, he's turnedthe music up on me to draw me
out five six six nine zeros intext line three h three says please.
Father's Day is just another day tocelebrate Mother's Day. Oh my yes,
I am so completely wanted to doexactly what you want to do today.
I love it. I'm so happy, well done, well done. I

(00:49):
uh yeah, that's the thing.Nick texted that earlier. I said,
yeah, I don't know where thatis in the pathe end of holidays.
Father's Day seems pretty down there,though, pretty low on the list of
the Once again, it's everyone lovestheir dad, and I'm a dad,
but when it comes to mom andother priorities, we we rank mother significantly,

(01:12):
said, I get it. Itotally understand it. Me you don't
have to do too much for me. But it doesn't have to be one
has to suffer to expense the other. We can we can celebrate broth equally.
Wait a minute, we are insports talk, so usually how some
people think is that to elevate onetear down something else. Yes, I'm
saying down, fellas, let's putour foot down. We need to start.

(01:34):
We need to start ramping this upand promoting father We don't have to
demote Mother's Day. We just needto start promoting Father's Day. Ted to
ramp it up. Yeah, I'mjust saying with that, let's go inside
the numbers. One, No,inside the numbers with Ryan Michael. Well,
you go right out to the KwaitComments Sparrel hotline and bringing our good
friend Ryan Michael. Ryan, howyou doing this evening? Doing well?

(01:57):
Then? Nick? How are youguys doing pretty well? We'reting the uh
where Father's Day belongs to the pantheonof holidays, and so far people seem
to be feeling that that holiday isa little lower on the total bowl than
perhaps it should be. It mightbe a little bit underrated. I'll give
you that. Really, three hundredand sixty five days of a year should

(02:17):
be both mothers and fathers to celebrateit. When you will give love to
everybody. Ah see, I lovethat. Let's look at him shaking me
out of my shaking me out ofmy way that I'm doing things already,
I'll be a pessimistic and know Ryancomes along is optimistic. He's optimistic about
everything. I've been derisively calling ourrookie backfoot bow for a couple of days
now because I don't like these backfootthrows I'm seeing. But Ryot's got a

(02:38):
mile high if you will, longlist of top statistical finishes for bow Nicks
that he put out on Twitter.Yeah, I won't. I won't stand
for any of the bow Nick slander. And even when it's on point,
then, I mean, this isreally the time. I remember you told
me this about Josh Rosen going backabout five years, that this is really
the time to be throwing picks,to be working out your passing mechanics.

(02:59):
So he'll get there. He'll getthere, I'm confident, I hope so
as well. If you go backand you look at the resume and we
just mentioned, of course, someof those top statistical finishes that he's had,
you go back and you look atthe college resume. Obviously he was
in college for quite some time,but he has a rather lengthy list of
things that he has done well.And typically if you've produced before, you

(03:23):
would think you have the ability toproduce at the pro level. That's right,
and college football statistics can be particularlytricky when it comes to quarterbacks because
I would say, where you playin the stage in which you're producing,
the numbers matters somewhat, So youdon't want to necessarily sell short. Some
of the quarterbacks who have played inHawaii and other places, I won't name

(03:46):
names, but I will say asfar as a box score perspective is concerned,
bo Nix has had a tremendous resume. He's started an EMPTYAA record sixty
one games. He played college footballso long he competed against Joe Burrow at
LSU. The highest single season completionpercentage in college football history last year seventy

(04:08):
seven point four percent and more completionstwo hundred and eighty six and more passing
yards fifteen, three hundred and fiftytwo yards than any first round pick in
the history of the National Football League. So those are some pretty jaw dropping
numbers. The thing about Bone Nexus, he's just not a box score magician.

(04:29):
He's just as impressive from an analyticsperspective when watching the film. So
the combination of those two strengths leavesme feeling very optimistic for what he can
do in Sean Payton's offense. Andlet's thick with that level of optimism that
you have, because when you thinkabout bone mixing, you talked about the
numbers and what he did on thecollege level. I mean, he was
the sixth quarterback taking off the board. Now I'm okay with that because it's

(04:53):
all about landing at the right spot. But I want to just know,
what do you have in comparison toCaleb Williams, who was the number one
quarter How do you compare these twoquarterbacks? And oh, did you have
higher on your board? There aretwo very different styles of quarterbacks. So
my top seven goes as follows.I had Caleb number one, and I'm
confident in saying Caleb is The distancebetween one and two is fairly significant.

(05:17):
Caleb Williams is one of the bestcollege football quarterbacks I've ever scouted. So
Chicago can rest fairly the knowing whothey have at QB one. Unlike many
people, I had Bonnicks number twoon my big board, so I have
Nix at number two, Jaden Danielsnumber three, JJ McCarthy number four,
Drake May number five, Michael Pennixnumber six, Spentler Ratler very much further

(05:41):
down there at number seven. SoI don't know too many people who had
Bononix as high as number two.But again it's the combination of what he
produced statistically and just how good helooked when you're watching the coach of this
film, very print quarterback from CalebWilliams. I would describe Bonnicks, as
I've said time and time again,as Drew breeze Light with some wheels,
and I mean that with great affection. His strengths are not Caleb strength.

(06:05):
Caleb is more cut of the moldof Patrick Mahomes. Of the mold I
think is really something that you shouldhone in on there because nobody is Patrick
Mahomes. I don't know if anybodyever again will be. And bo Nix
is that Drew brees Light. Sowith Sean Payton at head coach, we
saw what it was like to havea quarterback who could make plays off schedule

(06:28):
right, a quarterback who could putthe team on his shoulders in the fourth
quarter. Russell Wilson put up somefairly impressive numbers last year. He also
took too many sacks, So we'retransitioning from that to a guy who was
sacked on only one percent of allof his dropbacks last year. He's the
perfect fit for Sean Payton's system.On paper, at least, Bo led
the NCAA and passer rating over thelast two years total touchdowns. Last year,

(06:53):
you know, we talked about statisticsbeing tricky and the lens to which
we view those, and you broughtup Hawaii Texas tack. You know,
there's a reason Cliff Kingsbury as acoach and not the all time greatest quarterback
despite putting up monster numbers in college. How much of those numbers that Bo
has put up translate to the NFL. I don't think they'll translate to the
NFL in the sense that I don'tfeel it's reasonable to expect that Bo is

(07:15):
going to be leading the NFL andpasser rating total touchdowns. He's a little
bit underrated as a dual threat.In twenty twenty two, actually led all
college football quarterbacks of fourteen rushing touchdowns. So the numbers are through the roof.
They're better than Patrick Mahomes numbers havebeen here in the NFL. The
reality is he's stepping into a teamthat had a losing record last year.

(07:38):
We've had a tradition of losing overthe past seven or eight years. So
he's not stepping into a Kansas Citysituation where Andy Reid had Alex Smith playing
at a level at least again froma box score perspective, and was higher
than Tom Brady. That's not goingto be both situation. It's really taking
a deeper dig into how he's lookingat on film and football focus has some

(08:01):
tremendous numbers I'd like to share withyou in that regard, When you think
about the Broncos receiving court, Imean to me, this is the first
time in a long time that we'veseen a bunch of veteran and young talent
in the same room. But youstill have some young quarterbacks and some uncertainty
as far as who is going tostart. But how do you see twenty
twenty four from the receiving standpoint andwho could emerge as a real threat from

(08:28):
the wide receiver group, provided we'reable to work out the details as we're
hoping to do. I do believethat Courtland Sutton is going to be that
wide receiver one. I think TroyFranklin is going to be somebody who is
going to deliver a number of highlightplays, flashes of that brilliance we saw
back at Oregon. I don't thinkhe's going to be a down in,
down out wide receiver number two hisrookie year at least, and Courtland Sutton

(08:52):
is a guy who even captain passesout of structure, as he did with
Russell Wilson last year, had apasser rating when targeted of one hundred and
twenty point two last year. That'stremendous. He had three games with a
passer rating when targeted of one hundredand fifty six or higher, which is
remarkable considering the formula's capped at onefifty eight point three. He's a guy

(09:13):
who was a Pro Bowl selection backin twenty nineteen. So as bo Nix
is able to really plant his feetin Sean Payton's system this year, and
as Courtland Sutton is going to havea full off season to work with bow
and the other quarterbacks, but bois really going to be the focus.
I'm hopeful that Courtland Sutton is goingto emerge not just as the best receiver
out of our receiving core, buthopefully somebody who can return to playing at

(09:35):
a somewhat pro bowl level. I'mtalking with Ryan Michael at the Ryan Michael
on Twitter. You know, wetalked about the statistics and the statistical accomplishment
there. But as any football guywoulday, you got to go to the
tape. You gotta to the tapes, he would have, guy can do
what he can be. Pro FootballFocus, who you know, ostensibly looks
at the tape. They love botings, They have high marks for them all
over the place. You could makethe argument, and I can't speak for

(09:58):
Pro Football Focus, but you canmake the argument that nobody graded out higher
in areas of measure that are thingsthat you're going to look to translate from
the college game to the pro game. So Bonnis had a number of first
place finishes via Pro Football Focus,either tied or just this straight up leader.
Number one when pressured, ninety onepoint two, grade number one when

(10:20):
blitzed, ninety point six, numberone on throws past the sticks, ninety
four point eight number one, intermediatepassing ninety four point seven, number one
on first and second downs, numberone also on third and fourth downs,
number one outside the pocket, thatcovers almost everything. And to see him
either have the first place solo spotor co share in the first place in

(10:43):
those measures from Pro Football Focus.Again, you combine that with what you're
seeing in the box score, andit's very rare to see a quarterback who's
topping the charts in both regards.So Ryan, with that being said,
why is it that so many kindof dismiss bon Nix and his ability based
on the stats that we've seen overthe past two years. I think a
lot of people are going to bedismissive over this. Excuse me, the

(11:05):
statistical production at Oregon. There wasa little bit of that with Justin Herbert
coming into the league. But Ithink more than anything, bo Nix has
a playing style that doesn't pop onthe highlight reel in the way that Caleb
Williams or Jaden Daniels does. Heis, for lack of a better phrase,
of very boring quarterback to watch.If you tube highlights is your measure

(11:26):
with preference, He's the kind ofquarterback who down in and down out executes
at a very high level, whetherit's the short game, the intermediate game,
at times in the deep game.He's not the kind of quarterback that
flashes on the highlight takes away alot of people like to see, and
I think as a result of that, they're dismissive of just how talented he
is because they're overlooking just how difficultit is to execute the quarterback position down

(11:50):
in and down out the way theboat did at Oregon. Well, Ryan,
we always appreciate having you roll thoughshort on time tonight, but always
look forward to talking to you,look forward to seeing what you dig up
for us next week. Brother soundsgood, Ben, thanks for having me
on. Absolutely take care. RyanMichael at the Ryan Michael on the Twitter
Machine always loves He's always got theselittle, uh, these little tidbits,
little bits of data, little teasersthat are always fun to kind of kind

(12:11):
of look at and check out.And uh, of course, uh,
you know, his star's kind oftaken off many Donald Jacksonville to try to
co opt him and put him onJacksonville Radio all the time down there and
stuff, trying to take our guy. You ever watched the show that I
think it was back in the ninetiescalled Quantum Leap Yes, and the story
Yeah, yeah, right, theguy had the little uh digital palm,

(12:33):
digital computer called Ziggy. Yeah,that's kind of what Ryan is sometime when
he said personal Ziggy. Yes,I just needed this to follow me around
all the time. You give memy personal Ziggy, right, and give
you all types of stats and datato really, you know, go behind
the numbers and tell you about howwell guy's actually performing. Because sometimes you
see stats and you know, Isay, well, men line, women,

(12:56):
women live, but stats don't.But sometimes the stats don't really hell
every part of the story. Andthat's where Ryan comes in. Yeah,
I guess the question becomes in thisparticular uh scenario, which one of us
is Scott Bakula and which one ofus is Dean Stockwell, well, see
I would be Scott, Dean,I'd be Dean Yeah, okay, yeah,

(13:16):
yeah, Because listen, you sortof like Ryan in a sense that
you always throw out random facts.And it was like, where the hell
did Ben get that from? Like, like if I could say that a
movie came out in nineteen seventy six, you'd throw out, oh, you
know, you know who was thedirector? You know who who? Actually
they had to read a couple ofrewrites on the script and you throw out

(13:41):
the names like who the hell knowsthat? But you so, yeah,
you know you'll be You'll be theguy with the zig in his hand.
Yeah, I'll be with the cigarsand they you know, do you remember
his name in the show? Oh? Geez, wow, No I don't
because Scott Backnan was Sam Beckett.This Al Callavici was Rear Admiral Rear Admiral
Al Kellevici. Have you watched theI never watched the remake of it now

(14:03):
and I watched a few episodes ofthe remake of mcguiver and I was like,
this is terrible. Okay, well, well so this is a little
different because I was a little apprehensivebecause my wife did watch the original that
much, but she's into this one'sinto the new one. Yes, And
once again I was apprehensive because Imean, I was so used to the
the older one in the nineties,but pleasantly surprised and and they rope the

(14:28):
storyline into so it's not a remake, it's a sequel, is Yes,
that's kind of what it is.Oh, I have not watched it,
so maybe it maybe I'll add thatto my list and become become my new
thing. But no, I II tried to get into the new mcgiver
and I was like, this isjust this is killing me. I mean,
after you've seen the old mcgiver wherehe takes some toothpaste and paper clip

(14:48):
and rubber band and makes a bomb, you can't go back, right And
first of all, like you can'tremake mcgiver without the mullet, like how
lethal? Like like what what whatare we doing here? And and so
yeah, anyway, then they madePete Thornton like a bad guy and it
was Patricia Thorpe was a girl,and I'm like, this is what are
we doing here? This is notnow get out of here with this.

(15:09):
Of course I didn't really like theirthe remake, of course, but I
do like magoobook. That was hilarious, Yes I did. I enjoyed the
Will Forte uh huh. I can'tsay half of that on this, but
yeah, that that one was hegot obsessed with the guy wrote the license
plate that whole journal when we comeback roby b Broncos Country today, it's

(15:33):
Broncos Country to here we helping receiveson the official home of the Broncos.
All right, all right, KOA, well by to it Broncos Country tonight.
But with all Brian mcferguson Ship's gotback there behind the glass five six

(15:56):
six nine zeros the text line,we have questions coming in about a Walker
Texas Ranger. Now after we startedtalking about reboots and remakes, they want
to say reboot of that. Well, there was a reboot what I guess
the guy from Supernatural, Jared Patalkiwas his name. Yeah, he ended
up being missed that obviously I missedout. I didn't know this until very
recently either, but yeah, uh. And the thing about Chuck Chuck Norris

(16:17):
being in there, you know,walking textas range but it was a sidekick.
Was the dude from die Hard?Yes, the guy computer nerd from
from die Hard? You're right?And it was also in Top Gun he
was uh Merlin in Top Gun?Right, yes it was? Or someday
when I don't remember five six sixzeros and text I would go right back
out to the ka comments pared tothe hot I know and ring on CBS
News is romy Bean, romy howyou doing this evening? How you guys

(16:38):
doing doing pretty good. We hada discussion earlier about where Father's Day ranks
in the pantheon of holidays. Iknow you're very close with your father.
Where do Where does Father's Day rankas far as the holidays go? You
know what? Every day's Father's Dayfor me? Guys, that's fair,
Okay, get your death's love everyday. No, you know, I
could see where you guys were going. But that's what you're saying. It's

(16:59):
like gets like like right, becauseon Mother's Day, you know, you're
waking mom up, breakfast in bed, you're cleaning the house, do what
everything mom wants, going out forwherever mom wants for dinner, all that
kind of stuff. For Father's Day, you get like a neck tie,
and then you know it's whatever everybodyelse wants to do. I wouldn't really
know. I've never been the recipientof a Father's Day. But but Nick
has no that is true. Itdoes seem how Father's Day does tend to

(17:19):
go. But I don't know.I don't you know what. That's not
kind of thing I will give youin trouble. I no, I totally
get it. Broncos cut excuse mementoring mini camp short one day. Some
very specific segments of the fan basemelted down about that. Others, uh,

(17:41):
don't really care. Where do youcome down on ending mandatory mini camp
a day early? Yeah, Ihave no problem with it. I think
it's funny when people get really upset, like field day. Why having a
field day? There's really only somuch you can do this time of year
anyway, right that a lot ofthem get cut short. You know,
anyway one day, you cutting itshort here is not going to effect whether

(18:03):
you win or lose in the fall. But whilst I know some fans get
very upset about that, I alwaysfind it funny when when they get mad
about a field day or get madabout cutting it early, I think is
perfectly fine when it comes to CourtlandSutton and I was glad to see Courtland
show up, and I knew thathe would definitely show up for a mandatory
mini camp. But when you watchedhim for the past two days that we

(18:26):
were allowed to watch them, whatdid you see about Courtland? Especially in
I don't want to say a newBroncos offense, but I'm only kind of
saying that because they have two youngquarterbacks and Zach Wilson and Boenix. But
what did you see in those twodays from Cortland Sutton that made you believe
that, you know what, wecould see a different Courland than we saw

(18:48):
last season. Uh, you know, I mean, I feel like we
saw so little of him, especiallythat first day. He did barely anything
kind of that working his way backin kind of a thing, So we
didn't get that much. I feltlike we didn't see that much. But
I think just going off based offyou know, year two Sean Payton and
having a quarterback that Sean Payton wants, I think that he's just going to

(19:11):
be able to utilize Courtland more.And I think we're going to see Court
utilize a lot more besides just thosecrazy in the corner touchdown you know,
in the fourth quarter comeback touchdown passestype of things that we saw with Russ.
I think Court will be the numberone guy. But I think big
picture, you know, I thinkCourt is part of this year's plan.

(19:32):
I don't know if he's necessarily partof the future of Sean Payton's Denver broncos.
I think he certainly is the forthe near future, but long term
future and that of course depends right, of course, on what kind of
season he has, but I thinkthat I think right now, there's a
lot of young guys. It's reallyinteresting mix. That wide receiver competition is
so interesting, and there's a lotof young guys, there's some veterans.

(19:55):
I think Courtland's veteran leadership is abig deal obviously, But again, I
just I'm interested to see this seasonif we're going to get a sense of
how much is Courland a part ofSean Payton's two year three year plan,
you know? Or is this justmore the interim plan until you get the
younger guys kind of up and going. Talking with romy Bean from the CVS,

(20:17):
you know, Romi, it feelslike Sean Payton is a more relaxed
version of himself thus far through mandatoryMinichamp here here too. He kind of
made jokes about that a little bit. What has been your sense of Sean
Payton getting adjusted to being here inDenver? Yeah? Well, well the
pison on the trees quote wasn't anal Teimer. I really enjoyed playing that
one on television. He's definitely givenus a good soundbites this so far.

(20:38):
But yeah, I mean, thisjust looks like a totally different Sean Payton.
I think he's just settled. Ithink when you think of any job,
right the first year on the job, there's just so much that goes
into it, and you can geta little more tightly wound and everything if
you will. And I think thathe's just more settled into this feels a
lot more like his team. They'vedrafted completely in the vision of his team,

(21:00):
Whereas last year, obviously he inheriteda quarterback he didn't want, he'd
sure he inherited other players he didn'twant, and it kind of feels like
now it's more his team and he'sgot control over it, and it's moving
in the direction he wants, andhe looks happy about it that this is
going how he wants, how hewants it to go, And I think
that kind of bleeds down onto theplayers. They look so much more relaxed

(21:22):
this mini camp compared to last year, and everybody just seems more comfortable.
That also is being in year twoof a system, but everybody seems just
less on edge and more comfortable allin all. And I think if nothing
else, that just helps moving forward. Right, there's less uncertainty you have
a complete idea of where he wantsto go and what he wants to do.
If you're a player with so manyyoung pieces on the offensive side of

(21:45):
the ball, I mean, howmuch pressure do you think that this puts
on the DEFENSI side of the balland the VI's And I asked because when
Alex Singleton was kind of asked,okay, well, thinking about team and
thinking about the defense, he said, we don't want to suck. So
how much pressure is now put onthis Broncos defense? I mean, I
think a lot. I mean Ithink that when you look at it,

(22:07):
defenses are always the one that kindof have to carry the brunt or shoulder
the extra load when the offense isstruggling, and with a young quarterback,
whoever that might be, all ofthem are young, and any young offense,
a lot of young receivers, youknow, questions a little bit in
the running back that it's going tobe on the defense to keep them in
games. For sure, that takesthe pressure off tremendously, especially if you're

(22:30):
going with a bonus or a ZachWilson who's kind of still got a little
bit of you know, post traumatica little bit there. You can tell
that from all of this time withthe Jets. I think it does.
It comes on the defense to keepthem in games, to keep games from
getting out of control. But usuallyand you can probably speak to this better
than I can, Nick, butmy experience with defensive players like they love
that man, they eat that up. They want to be the ones that

(22:52):
right you rely on them and thatthey keep the game in check. So
I think this group will relish that. And I still think they have a
chip on their shoulders from how thisseason started. Last year's season started that
Dolphins game, et cetera, etcetera, And they're pretty determined to prove
that they are the team that wason that five game win streak after the

(23:12):
Dolphins game, not the team fromthe beginning of last season. Robbie,
A lot of a lot has beenmade of, you know, coach Prime's
kind of debut at CU. Obviouslysehn lewis no longer there, took the
head coaching job, has Shermer,Punt Shermer as that were now running the
offense. You know, it's seewhat what is the what is the barometer

(23:33):
for Coach Prime that he needs toclear this year? What is that bar
because you while see you as sortof the epicenter of the college football world,
it wasn't exactly like we rayl anddated with winning last year, and
this is probably the last year thatShadora and Travis Hunter are in Colorado.
What what is the bar that coachPrime needs to clear to keep this thing
going. That's such a great question. I think every time someone's like,

(23:55):
well, how do you think you'regoing to be this year, I'm like,
I don't know. They obviously hada huge influx of talent. They
shored up a lot of the weakareas from last year that really were just
their achilles heel, So they havethe potential certainly to be a whole lot
better. I think they're going intoa conference that they can compete a lot
better in compared to the Pac twelve. So everything is pointing in the right

(24:17):
direction. But you certainly have toget more than your four wins, and
I mean, realistically, you probablygot to get got to get to five
hundred, right, you got to. I think it's so interesting when you
look at their schedule. I'm notsure how many games they're going to win,
but it does seem like if withshador leaving with Travis Hunter leaving,
if Dion is to stay, whichI'm not sure if he will or not,

(24:41):
but if he is to stay,you certainly feel like this team's got
to get to a bowl game tocontinue to be able to recruit the way
you're recruiting, because now you don'twon't have sdur at quarterbacks a year after.
So it feels like you got toget those six wins this year.
To me, now, coach MichaelMalone has never really been short on his
words of encouragement or validating anything thatsaid about his team or his players to

(25:07):
anyone in the sports industry. Butwhen you look at how the Nuggets lost
to the Timberwolves, and we lookat the Dallas Mavericks playing the Boston Celtics
and on a verge are possibly beingswept, do you think that this now
motivates coach Malone even more to justkind of bring that more burning fire to
his team and really press them moreto kind of get back to where he

(25:30):
thought and everyone thought that they canactually get back to, which is a
championship. Yeah. I mean,I think when you watch this, a
lot of Nuggets fans are like,man, are you kidding me? I
mean the Celtics. The only teamthey didn't beat that Sheason was the Denver
Nuggets, and everybody felt like,if the Nuggets could have got past Minnesota,
you know, they could have beatDallas, which I think they would
have beat Dallas. But I thinkwhat it comes down to is, you

(25:52):
know, I know, load managementto dirty word in sports, but for
Michael Malone, that has to becomea real fake. He played his starters
too much, and everybody said itall year long, and there's there's two
fold to that. First of all, you could see how they exhausted.
They were that obviously that twenty pointblowing a twenty point lead is that's an

(26:14):
all time boofty. But they wereall gas and he even said in his
end of the Yeppressor, did Irun them into the ground? Maybe I
did. He played the starters toomuch. And this is not like a
new thing. This has always beenMichael Malone playing is starting five maybe a
little too much. It's never beena problem. But now that you've seen
what can happen with the exhaustion,he has to play Nicola Yakush a little

(26:37):
bit less, plays starting five alittle bit less. One to conserve those
guys, but two to have hisbench be ready. The bench was the
Achilles heel. You felt like theseguys came into the playoffs and they simply
did not have enough regular season playingtime and experience, with the exception being
Christian Brown to go in there andreally feel confident that they could carry a
load for a long time. Sothe bench has to get more playing time

(27:00):
during the regular season. You've gotto add some veterans to that bench,
certainly, and you just have toplay your starters a little less. You
don't have to sit them, youknow, for games necessarily, but take
them out earlier in the fourth,you know, and you have to start.
He has to be better about thatgoing forward, because I think even
though Nicola Yokich is like a horsethat he just never seems to get tired.

(27:22):
You have to keep that into considerationas all of them are each year
getting a little bit older. Andfor me, that's kind of the biggest
thing going in the next year.Well, you mentioned adding to that bench,
but how do you do that,you know, given the salary cap
and luxury tax constraints that they have, that that would be rather difficult.
Is this the time to shop?Michael Porter in an effort to get more

(27:44):
bodies back, or is there anotherway to go about doing this? I
mean, I think the starting fiveis good enough that you can get value
players. One thing that I reallythink they need to do is get a
backup big. They don't have abackup big. It's so when Yoki leave
the court, they're now playing acompletely different brand of basketball. So Mason
Plumley, for example, you knowa guy like that. That's not going

(28:06):
to cost a lot. But you'vegot to get a backup big. It's
kind of bonkers. They haven't reallyhad one in all this time. Maybe
no offense to DeAndre Jordan, butno, that's not going to cut it.
And so I think they do haveto get creative. You do have
to find some value players. WouldI be opposed to them shopping someone now,
I wouldn't if you'd get the rightdeal. I think that there's no
reason you shouldn't ask around. ButI don't feel like they're going to do

(28:32):
that. But in this day andage, where as you know you can
think you have the best starting five, it's really hard to win multiple championships.
You have to do whatever it takes. So if that means shopping somebody
and you can get a ton ofvalue. I think they have to be
open to it. And Contavious CaldwellPope's going to be a huge factor.
Guys. If he goes out andgo somewhere else, I think he's maybe

(28:53):
the most underrated guy on the startingfive. That would be a big loss
and it'll be very interesting to seewhat they do to replace that. Okay,
it's interesting that you went to thepart of the Biggs and I'm right
there with you because DeAndre Jordan he'sa great motivator on the bench, but
being on the courts giving against spellingNicola Jokis, we hadn't really seen that

(29:18):
much and then when he did doit, he wasn't that productive. So
what do you say about the ideaand just just I'm just want to toss
it on, get your thoughts theidea of bringing Boogie Cousins back, because
the reason I say that, Roman, let me preface it by saying this,
because at least with Boogie, youhad a certain type of mentality that
you brought to the to the Nuggets, but you still had a guy who

(29:41):
can come in and give you qualityminutes. He's not going to play at
this stage of his career, likeNicola Yogic, but he's going to give
you a lot more than DeAndre Jordangave them Denmer nuggets over the past two
seasons. Yeah, I mean,and the interesting thing was Boogie was remember
when he came here, everybody waskind of concerned about it, But the
truth is that you know, hehe has a great relationship with Michael Mallon.

(30:02):
This team was really good fit forhim. The way Nicole Jokich's mentality
and unselfishness kind of bleeds out,it was just a great fit for him.
He wasn't he hit really well.I think that would be another great
option that you could certainly look into, because I mean, like you said,
Nick, they don't have to play. Guy's not gonna play a lot
of minutes. Yogish doesn't even likesitting out for a long time. But

(30:23):
you've got to have a guy thatyou can rely on to be productive enough
that you can sit Yogish maybe alittle bit more than he wants to,
especially in the regular season, buta guy that's effective and has a lot
of veteran experience so he's comfortable inthe postseason. Romie, we always appreciate
the time, look forward to catchingyou on the CBS newscast. And why

(30:45):
don't you guys have something coming upto the viewhouse on Monday. Well maybe
we don't know. We do.We have a show every Monday, but
I'm actually off this Monday, soour dear friend Rod Magiew will be leading
that charge. No, well I'lljust wing by and go see Rod.
Yeah, I gotta got to gottalove run back. Appreciate the time to

(31:06):
night, and look forward to talkingto you getting down the line. Of
course. Appreciate you guys, Thanksfor having me. Hey guy romy Bean,
CBS Sports. I I do likeI am concerned a little bit that
the Nuggets are not going to beable to restock the bench as it were,
given the constraints that they have.I think you've maxed out with what
you've built in terms of flexibility becausekcp's got an opt uh, You've got

(31:29):
he's gonna opt in. Yeah,I mean probably, but you know,
I mean when you start to lookat this and the in the thresholds and
that you know, and the andthe the redone CBA, it's it's gonna
be tough for them to be ableto field what they need to to be
able to push this team beyond wherethey went. But this is where you're
gonna lean on, you know,veteran leadership and say, Okay, well
what veteran guys that out there atkey positions that we're gonna be able to

(31:52):
bring in if you Calvin Booth,that they can give us quality minutes still
kind of keep the score kind ofdecent for that second unit, but they're
not going to cost a boatlow becauseI mean, you got three guys on
Max Deal's right, And that's whatI'm getting at. This is like,
how do you balance that and findthat? Because who are you getting for
that at that point? But thisis why I throughout you know Boogie Cousins,

(32:13):
right, I mean, he maynot be on everyone high on everyone's
list because his temperament, but ifthere's one coach that I think that can
rail him in, it is aguy who coached him when he was in
Sacramento, and that's Michael Malone.Yeah, and he's already had a stint
here, so he's familiar with it. With your offense. But the Nuggets
knee a little edge. That's somethingthat they did not have against the Timberwolves.

(32:37):
They need an edge, and youcan't look at Nicola Jokic and ask
him to be You're enforced him.You need him to just do what he's
doing on both ends of the floor. How much does he have left in
the tank? I mean, hedidn't play in the NBA since twenty twenty
two, and he was in Taiwanlast year playing for the beer Leopards.
Once again, I believe you know, Okay, think about it. You
said, well, how much youguys left in the tank? What did

(32:58):
DeAndre Jordan do the past two seasonsthat Boogey cousin can do? I mean
fair, I'm just saying, atthe end of the day, like how
much is that? Is that sixand one half dozen to the other?
Is that one of those things?Because he announced back in February he's done
trying to make an NBA comeback,because a reporter asked him if he planned,
he said, no, I've hadmy time there. If there was
a point I was trying to makethat happen, I'm in a place in

(33:19):
my life where I'm just going it. So anyway, he signed with the
Taiwan beer Leopards, and that's youknow, that's sort of what he's doing.
I just I guess I don't know. What does he add that you
don't already have out of DeAndre Jordanwhen you're getting all the extra that you're
getting with him, Well, headds a certain level of toughness that the
Nuggets haven't really had around here.Like, this is what you're going to

(33:45):
need when you're playing against the Timberwolves, the MAVs and some of the more
elite teams, both in the EasternConference in the Western Conference. You need
a guy who's going to get outthere and get dirty. And Boogie doesn't
seem like he has a problem,you know, trying to grab boards and
scrap for the fifty to fifty balls. He would give you a little more
of an edge, And I agreethey need that. Yeah, we'll get

(34:07):
more into that we come back.Broncos Country Night, Kawe