06-20-24 Parker Gabriel with Broncos Country Tonight

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
But at the end of the day, I mean, if you're the Stones
concert, what are you the listeningto Broncos country today? You must be
tuned in for our next guest,and that is the Denver Broncos beat reporter
for the Denver Posts, Parker Gabrielat Parker Jay Gabriel on Twitter, Parker,
are you doing this? See me? I'm doing great? Can I
indulge you with a Rolling Stones concertstory? You certainly cancer my mom.

(00:22):
I'm very proud of her. Shewas attending Rolling Stone Concert of Madison in
nineteen ninety four, a couple ofdays short of being due with my little
brother Paul, and somebody got alittle bit too close to her and she
knocked a woman out. Wait,Okay, I need you to go back
on this one. But first ofall, Zach Wilson, and you shut
off your radio. Second of all, I need you to go back here

(00:43):
a little bit. Somebody got tooclose and she like, what do you
mean got to like it was liketoo handsy, like you know, drunk
stumbling around. My mom is youknow, eight plus months pregnant? Deck
here, So your mom just holedoff and just like was it? And
I hesitate to say this, soI probably so misogynistic. Was it pregnancy
hormones or was your mom just like, you know what, no, we're

(01:06):
not getting close to me. Yeah, I think. I think basically she
took matters into her own hands delivereda knockout blow. And then a couple
of days later, they were closingon a house and the realtor said,
are you the woman that punched outsomebody at the wrong stone? Oh well,
okay, okay, now see thisstory gets better. So wait a
minute. Your mom suddenly became suddenlyhad this reputation as the woman who knocked

(01:29):
someone out of the stones? Howbig was this town at least? I
mean, while there's eighty thousand people, I can't randle probably, but the
town that we were moving to wasa town of two thousand people. So
easy to reputation. Oh okay,okay. I was like, because wait
a minute. I'm like, waita minute. The Stones aren't playing in
the middle of a you know,a cornfield and Iowa, so this is
not in New Claris, Wisconsin.America's mama said knock you out. Yeah,

(01:55):
she took it. She took itas literally as possible. I'm trying
to burn my time up there inWisconsin. The I remember I was up
there at Fort McCoy for some trainingbefore I got deployed. I think it
was my final tour overseas and wehad a weekend off. So I went
to some small town and I swearit was called Sparta, and we were,

(02:15):
I mean just hammered and we weresitting there doing whatever he probably tourist
does in that town. It's justSparta, like idiots. Yeah, that
sounds like something you were doing Sparta. I mean, I think it's the
only thing to do in Sparta ifI remember correctly. But anyway, if
I have six six nine zeros oftext on you guys got questions from Parker
are having to ask him Parker.The Broncos have made some moves. They've

(02:35):
added David Shaw, somebody they previouslyinterviewed for the head coaching job, as
a Senior Personnel Exact whatever that titlemeans. Obviously, Shaw interviewed for the
head coaching job back in January twentytwenty three. Now he's sort of in
the I guess scouting in personnel world. I don't really know what that title
means. Per se is it feelslike that this is yet another ad to

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the front office to take a littleoff George Payton's play. Yeah, I
think it's I think you're exactly right. It doesn't, it doesn't. It's
not real specific, But I thinkit's that's because it's probably a little bit
of everything, and it's it's primarilyabout films. So like you're you're you're
probably you're scouting college players, DavidShaw obviously college coach for a long time,
you're scouting pro players obviously every NFLteam as a pro personal department,

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and then also perhaps doing you know, scouting of the broncos own roster too,
which is part of pro scouting.But so I think it's just a
little bit of everything. It's justa you know, sharp football mind,
gots a lot of coaching experience,and a guy who can you know,
uh, lend a hand just onplayer evaluation no matter sort of you know
where the players being evaluated are currentlyand and sit in as sort of another

(03:49):
set of of eyes and ears andevaluating chats for for George Payden is the
indicator because many who speculated online thatGeorge Peyton not long for that job.
You look at what the you Broncoshave done they've had a Cody Rager,
who you know kind of is ascouting buddy of Sean Payton's. Now you've
got you know, David Shawf,a guy who used to coach with Sean

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Payton now in the front office.Is this an indication that that the working
relationship that we've sort of seen latelythat looked like it was, you know,
Sunshine and Roses may not be that. I don't think necessarily like,
I don't think it's quite so justa to b like that. I mean,
I do think, you know,if you if you are on entirely

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solid ground and there's no doubts aboutthe job you're doing, you don't necessarily
need to, you know, addsubtracts from your staff whatever makes changes.
Now Invariably, if you're really goodat what you do in the NFL,
you end up making changes to yourstaff because people get promoted and leave.
And so while I don't think thisis you know, George Peyton like anybody

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else setting up a post George Peytonera or anything like that, I do
think it's probably at least in partGeorge Peyton recognizing that when you haven't won,
the status quo is not going tocut it. So, you know,
you add a guy who Sean Payton'svery familiar with to get, you
know, fresh perspective. You addDavid Shaw to get fresh perspective. And

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it's kind of funny that I washaving this conversation with somebody earlier. This
is the way it goes when youdon't win for eight years. I mean,
think about every single person who's beenadded to the coaching staff or the
personnel the front office this offseason.Like the first question that everybody jumps to
is like, who are they setto replace at some point? You know,
Jim Leonard, Oh, well that'sVan Siosi's eventual replacement. Kody Rager

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was George Peyton's replacement. Now DavidShaw, is that George Peyton's replacement?
Like, this is the way theconversation goes when you're not winning games.
Yeah, And I think that's Ithink that's it, and I do I
do hope that this is more ofa continuity type move if people do move
on, than it is a we'retrying to push somebody out, you know,

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as was speculated, and you knowthat kind of stuff could speculate on
social medium five six six nine zerois the text line Parker Gabriel from the
Denver Post Parker J. Gabriel onTwitter, I refuse to call it X.
The Broncos waved former Air Force linebackerAlec Mock today as well. That
was the roster spot needed to signUFL Birmingham Stallion's standout Dondrea Tillman to that

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three year deal. Now, Ilook at the numbers I've seen on this,
I can only find ten grand guaranteein this contract, even though it
looks like it's a pretty sweet threeyear deal. Am I Am I missing
something here? No, you're not. I mean I think a lot of
times like the sometimes with guys thatare like essentially on on rookie contract.
You know, you'll like a guylike Jolil McLaughlin who makes a roster as

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an undrafted guy right like, he'snot he doesn't have the standard for year
rookie contract that you get if you'redrafted, but they do end up getting
multiple years. So while yeah,I mean technically it's a three year deal,
the only guarantee is a ten thousanddollars signing road and still like functionally
functionally, Don Andrea Pulman sort ofjoined the roster with the approximate status or

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at least the approximate job security ofa guy who is an undrafted rookie who
got a ten thousand dollars signing bonus, which is to say, like not
a whole lot. Now, obviouslythere's plenty of opportunity he can play his
way into more. But the threeyear contract, I think Bill wies a
little bit like what's actually happening here? We look at what he brings to

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the table. I don't know howmany people watched, you know, UFL
football is spring, and he washe was pretty good. I thought it'd
be interesting to see, you know, I guess better competition at the NFL
level how productive will be. Butthe Broncos have made an investment into the
defensive line and edge rush, youknow, this offseason, whether it's it's
getting bodies on the inside to tieup blockers, guys like Malcolm Roach,

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Angelo Blaxon, you know, youlook at for the trade for one of
my favorites, Jonathan Franklin Myers,you know, and then of course drafting
Jonah Ellis on the edge. They'vemade a real commitment to that, and
it looks like based on some ofthe personnel that they brought in, the
type of bodies that they brought in, that this defense is going to pivot
away from what they've done basically sincemcfangio got here, and back toward what

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they were doing when Vance was thehead coach, in continuing the tradition of
Wade Phillips. Is that are myeyes deceiving me on that? Or is
this just a chance to be moremultiple? Or am I way off here?
No? No, I don't thinkyou're way off. I mean,
I don't know that you're going tosee him. I mean, who knows.
It's it's June. You know,there's a lot the entire seasons ahead.
I don't I don't know if it'sa full pivot to you know,

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play an even front and all that. But even last year, I mean,
you saw they just ended up intwo down so often last year,
given kind of like where their depthwas on the defensive line, and just
you know, last year. Oneof the things, there's one of those
things like it sounds great and sometimesit's it's a little bit of like code
word or talking around a problem whenwe say, well, we're just trying
to find a way to get ourbest eleven on the field, and like

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fire in large last year ten versuseleven didn't include three to the defensive linemen,
You're just gonna have a hard timeplaying that way. And so I
think you have guys that are arecapable of playing odd front, even front.
You know, maybe you've got acouple of you know, pass rushing
defensive linemen now and Dak Allen andJohn Franklin Myers that don't make it as

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necessary to you know, play threeoutside linebackers and pass rushing situations or whatever
some a lot of the sub stuff. So it's gonna be interesting to see
how they deploy those guys, andit's going to be imperative, I think
for the rest of what's a relativelyyoung outside linebacking group, but a group
that does have some experience at thispoint, like those guys are going to

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have to show that it's not theydon't just get after the passer, but
that they can hold up against therun because otherwise that you know, that
formula could shift, like you're sayingthen sort of like a wave from a
traditional three to four, especially onearly downs, into some you know,
personnel groupings where maybe they're a littlebit better equipped just from my side strength
perspective to slow down rushing attacks.Talking to Parker Gabriel, the never posted

(10:03):
Parker J. Gabriel on Twitter,all eyes on the quarterback situation obviously through
ota S mandatory mini camp. Youknow, I thought Jared's didn't looked the
best or a least the smoothest sofar, and that's the way it should
look. I mean, he's gota year experience in this offense. He's
got a year with these receivers.I thought bo Nicks looked competent. I
thought he looked like a rookie,but he looked competent. He looked like

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he was, you know, kindof finding his footing and probably number two
on the depth chart. And thenthere's Zach Wilson and the tools are there,
and you see a couple of throwsthat you're like, okay, all
right, there it is. Andthen you see eight or nine throws in
a row. You're like, Okay, we got a lot of work to
do here. There's been something somewhere. I have no idea where this originated,

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but there is some kind of reportout there that Zach Wilson is leading
the charge in this quarterback battle.I that's not what I saw, and
I was there for every viewing periodI saw. You were there for a
reviewing period. Can you explain howanyone would come to that conclusion? Are
my eyes deceiving me? Maybe?Maybe the way that you would come to
that conclusion vent is like if youweren't there and then you just were guessing.

(11:07):
But I don't know. I don'tknow. I had not actually seen
that. I don't know where thatwould have come from. And I think
to like, I get it,like the way that people end up reading
into this, I think in largeparts because there's just we're not you're not
really allowed to say a whole lotabout Hey, this guy was you know,

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three for five and seven on seven, but then he was just one
of three in team or whatever.Like they're not you know they they you
will get a phone call very quicklyif you put charting numbers up and stuff
like that, and so like insome ways, I don't I don't think
it helps. I don't think theyparticularly care about this, but like it
doesn't behoove like fans, readers,listeners, viewers. When you don't you

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can say, well, I thinkyou know, Jared Sidham looks the smooth
as I think bo Nix, youknow, it looks like he isn't old
when you walk up to the linescrimmage or anything like that. But there's
just not a lot more you cango on, and so like I think
everything gets a little bit overblown.I think vote makes this performance gets overblown.
He was fine. I totally agreewith your assessment. Like sometimes he

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looks like a rookie. Most ofthe time, it at least looks like
he knows what he's doing, whichthat's sort of where you wanted to be
at this point. And Zack Wilsonlike, yeah, he struggled at times,
like at times the arm talent justjumps off the screen. At times
it looks like he doesn't know whathe's looking at or what he's doing.
And like, given where the calendaris, I think that's okay at this
point. But people jump right tothe like, well he's horrible, he

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has no chance at the job.He dis and that it's not really that.
It's just he's just getting used toa new system. And it didn't
look pretty all the time. SoI'm not saying I think he's gonna win
the job. I don't, butI do think that they're gonna come back
here at the end of July.It won't take long for the reps to
start to adjust, But I thinkthey're at least going to look at all
three guys and say like, Okay, we're just reading forcing that we think

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we're on the right track with howwe want the reps to go towards the
preseason games. Well, yeah,and I think that, you know,
I mean, is Zach stance asgood a chance as anybody. It's interesting
to me how people sort of considerhim washed when he and Bodex are basically
the same age. I mean,there's like six months separating them, you
know, So I it's for me, I'm like, well, you know,
if Bonix can learn, then ZachZach Wilson can learn that. To

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me, that's just that's just absurd. We got about two minutes left here.
If Bonix doesn't win the job,if it does go to Jared's Stidham,
is that disaster or is that,Hey, this guy just needs a
little bit more time in the oven. I don't think it's disastered necessarily,
but I think the thing with thefirst round quarterback right is like, you

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don't want to do what happened isZach Wilson, where you end up.
He's playing, he's on the bench, he's playing, he's on the bench.
He just you know, you're notquite sure. Like the ideal,
no matter what happens with Bonix iseither he plays and he works through whatever
challenges he has. It's not alwaysgoing to be pretty, but he makes
it through and he learns a lotand all that, or Sidham starts the

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year in your hypothetical and then whenyou make the move to bo you just
do it once and he's ready andhe plays okay, and you sort of
go from there. Like the worstthing that can happen really is that you
make more than one. You can'tcontrol injuries, but that you make more
than one performance related change at thequarterback position this coming season. So if

(14:31):
that numbers one or zero, youknow one of them is going to involve
Bonix. Probably if that number isone or zero on the ear doesn't mean
you have great quarterback to play,but it probably means that you've got the
decision right or close to right atthe outset. Looking forward to talking to
you again here soon. Parker Gabrielat Parker J. Gabriel on Twitter hey
man, have a good night.Yeah.