06-24-24 Hour 2 of Broncos Country Tonight

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to it, Broncos Country Tonight, Benjamin Albright, Grant smith Man,

(00:04):
the Myth, the Mustache, uhfive six six nine zeros of text Line
gets that a minute. Thanks toSteve Atwater for joining us in the last
hour. For you missed to dothat, you go to Broncos Country Night,
dot com, slash podcast or youknow wherever you guts podcast, Apple,
it Tunes, Spotify and totally freeand awesome I heeart radio app.
Or you get to Take It forGranted podcast as well. Uh you a
new new episode? I don't younew episode tomorrow? There it is recapping

(00:28):
my trip to Canada, which Iam definitely here for. I want to
hear all about your trip to Canada, Grant, which you won't tell me
about because you had to put itin podcast form. You gotta tease it.
I can't if I have any ofit away. I tried to get
the behind the scenes scoop on theTaking It for Granted podcast, and because
I'm not a VIP subscriber, Iwas unable to unable to get that.
I need to make a tier likethat, you know, make them pay

(00:49):
me to listen. Then no onewould listen to really i'd be people listen
five six, six, nine yearsof text line. I want to send
a shout out rest in peace toMinnie the Doll. Of those who need
to know what that means will knowwhat that means. But many of the
dog passed away today, and ourthoughts are with the the family involved.
I wanted to get into this.I don't want to call it beef.

(01:15):
I don't really know what to callit. But there is a local media
member here who said some things aboutthe Russell Wilson Sean Payton thing, and
now there is some pushback up therein Pittsburgh about that from rayfil A Potto,
who's been on the show before.I dove into this a little bit

(01:38):
because it fascinates me. As muchas we want to turn the page on
Russell Wilson, it just seems likeeverybody's unwilling to do that, unwilling to
turn the page on, you know, kind of Russell Wilson and what it
was that happened here, that kindof stuff, and we continue to get

(02:00):
a sort of I don't know thesereports or whatever local media member, and
he works for a competing station.So I'm gonna mention my name even though
we're not supposed to do that.I guess I don't know. I don't
really know what the rules are,and I don't really care. Mark Flarath
was on his own podcast and sortof voiced his opinion about Russell Wilson,

(02:24):
which he's done many times, andsaying, quote, I will tell you
that Russell Wilson's still very athletic.He can still move. All these reports
that was losing athleticism. That's whythose are incorrect reports something we said on
the show. But I don't believethat Russ wants to become a zone read
quarterback. I believe he still hasthat thought his mind. He could end
his career very much like Drew Breesended his, And I don't know that

(02:46):
that's necessarily what the Russell Wilson orRussell Wilson camp thinks. I think he
tried that in that first year withNate Hackett kind of knew that wasn't going
to be the case. Russell Wilson'stest it looked quite good last year,
and he was fifth in the inthe in the NFL in passing touchdowns when
he got benched, So you canimagine his incredulity there. You look at

(03:15):
how Breeze ended his career seventeen andsix. His filed two seasons five fifty
six, seven to sixty eight,passing fifty nine to twenty one yards,
fifty one touchdowns, ten picks.Those numbers sound pretty great. The problem
is, according to Clare, thatthat's not Russell Wilson saying quote, I
think when you're delusional, you thinkyou can point the finger at eight million

(03:38):
different places to say this is whythat happened. This is why he said
of Wilson, based on his beliefthat Wilson believes he is capable of playing
in a way that he's not.Then he went on to give an interesting
quote with an interesting term, aterm coined on this show by this person.
So I appreciate you listening, Markwhen he said, quote that toxic
positivity and surrounding yourself with people thatbasically tell you it's not your fault.

(04:01):
I mean, it's not even derogatory, that's just fact. Thanks for listening,
lessen ands think I appreciate your listenership. That term was coined on this
show, and it's something that itwas. I mean, you literally cannot
find it on the internet before wehad it on this show. It's something
that we've said of Russell Wilson beforeand sort of that that perpetual positivity has

(04:27):
even in moments where it's awkward,right where it shouldn't be, that does
a sort of toxic positivity. Rayfit Apoto pushed back on this, and
it's sort of created I guess this. I don't I don't want to call
it a Twitter beef because that's notexactly it. There's not a Twitter beef,

(04:49):
but there's a dueling sources, asort of thing going on here.
And ray that Apuldo, who isof the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, said quote,

(05:10):
one thing that's always struck a quartalwith for me about Russell Wilson's tenure
in Denver was Sean Payton went outof his way to make things difficult with
their relationship, really putting a SuperBowl winning veteran quarterback in places that were
just odd for me to see him. The way he talked about it in
the media, his body language andgames, the yelling on the sidelines,
you don't see that every day.One veteran AFC personnel executive told Jeremy Fowler

(05:32):
of ESPN that Sean Payton never likedRussell Wilson from day one, saying quote,
Seawan never liked him as the guyfrom day one. Went out of
his way to make that known.Peyton ripped in his Wilson on the sideline
in the road game against the DetroitLions. I was at that game.
I saw it happen live, andit seemed more personal that a coach just
letting a player have it that Aapaulowant. I to say. Sean Payton

(05:58):
does have a reputation in the NFLbeing a I was difficult to deal with.
So that's another reason I want togive Russ the benefit of the doubt
with the Steelers. Sometimes just gettingaway from a toxic coach can be a
good thing. Maybe you get ina more positive situation. Maybe you can
get back to where you weren't seeI aw that whole Sean Payton thing always
struck me as odd, the wayhe treated Russell Wilson. For me,

(06:19):
the thing that's interesting here is this, I believe multiple things can be true.
The rust situation didn't work out here. Sean Payton was very clear that
he was not a Russell Wilson guy. Never was. He said that before
he took the job here. Iknow there was some pr backtracking with that
kind of stuff, but there wasa reason that when he was hired,

(06:42):
this show went out of its wayto say, look, this is a
one year deal for Russell Wilson atthis point, and unless he comes in
and balls out, he's probably gone. And I thought he played well,
but still not enough. That said, Sean Payton hasn't been toxic about bon
Nix or Jared Stidham or Zach Wilson. Nothing I love for those guys.
It seems like he's been more jovialthan ever. If we're being honest,

(07:04):
the curmudgeon is Sean Bayden that wehave seen. The sort of arrogant I
know more than his is sort oftaken a back seat. He's been more
genial than ever. And so,I mean, while I tend to agree
with rayfil Apolo here in saying thatit really didn't matter the RUSS situation was

(07:29):
never going to work here, andit did feel like, whether it's true
or not, it felt like SeanBayton was putting Russell Wilson in situations where
he couldn't succeed for three quarters ofthe game they would run an offense he
just not capable of running. AndSean Payton is a smart football guy.

(07:53):
He knew Russell Wilson couldn't run thatstuff in the fourth quarter of the Denver
Broncos with the number one scoring teamin the NFL. And it wasn't because
teams were in prevent defense or whatever. There are only two games that were
getting blown out of where he wasputting up numbers. One of those was

(08:13):
Detroit. Russell Wilson at the timethat he was benched led the NFL and
game winning drives and fourth quarter comebacks. You can't be getting blown out if
you're bleeding game winning drives and fourthquarter comebacks. My definition to blow out
is unrecoverable. So I think multiplethings here can be true. I just

(08:35):
found it fascinating that this sort offeud is still going on and how everybody
has to frame the narrative surrounding RussellWilson. But Russell Wilson that I got
to know briefly was kind of adork, wasn't anything, you know.

(09:00):
I didn't find him to be anelitist, out of touch snob. The
narrative running rampant around Denver through themedia that his quarterback coach was inside the
building was laughably, laughably untrue.Jake Keeps was barely there at the team
headquarters. And when I say barelythere, I'd be barely there. It's

(09:26):
not like what he did was notsomething he needed to be in the building
to do anyway. And so I, you know, weird Jake Keeps got
the weirdest burned in effigy kind ofthing while he was here. And in
the answers to full disclosure, I'veknown Jake for a decade. Unfairly treated

(09:50):
here, frankly lied about by people. But I never found Russ to be
uh, you know, on outof touch elitist or anything like that.
He was just kind of a dorkand a little bit aloof I think that
he sort of he just exists ina different world. You know, your

(10:13):
your wife is a music superstar.You bought one of the most expensive houses
in Denver when you when you showedup. I think that you know,
he's And again the term we coinedhere that got that is being spread around
now, toxic positivity. I thinkthat Russell Wilson, in a way,

(10:39):
the way that he is doesn't resonateor connect with everybody. He has a
personal philosophy that he's just gonna bepositive no matter what. And I think
that in a vacuum, that's agreat thought. But I think there are
instances. I think there are situswhere that doesn't work, or the idea

(11:05):
of being positive all the time doesn'twork. I think sometimes you need somebody
to show emotion, to show thatthey're down, to show that the situation
is upsetting to them. Because there'sa moment there where in any team type
environment where you see that and you'relike, Okay, we're all in this
together, we're all dejected. There'sno way that this due to see in

(11:26):
sunshine or rainbows while the rest ofus are down here and that you know
what, right? I mean,think about it. In any situation you've
ever been in, whether it's asport, an occupation, the military,
whatever, there's got to be asituation where you were frustrated by something and
you needed to see your leadership frustratedby it too. You needed to you

(11:50):
needed your leadership to empathize. Andwhen you're a quarterback in the NFL,
you're in a position of leadership.People needed to see that out of Russell
Wilson here. I think teammates neededto see that, and I don't think
they did. Five six sixty ninezeros A text line late Skinner texted in

(12:22):
listening to Broncos Country Night in thegym, asking who the top five or
six Broncos wide receivers in the twentyten era are. That's a good question.
We got Cody Roher coming up here, and if you will ask him,
Brian Texim been your guy. Dioncollected fourteen interceptions thrown by Hall of
Fame quarterbacks Steve Young. Will hegot four against Steve Young. I guess

(12:46):
when you're you know, with Dallas, and you get to play against Steve
Young a lot, you got moreopportunities to do that. I would have
early played Steve Young twice and bySteve's own admission, he would have had
a lot more interception if you wouldhave had better hands. Yeah, that's
gonna say. Steve was real funnywith that. You know, He's like,
I had a lot more exceptions ifI could catch. Yeah, I

(13:09):
would have made the league if Ihad talent. Just say five six sixth
time zeros of text line programming.Note, we got Rockies baseball tomorrow.
We'll be back with a full liveshow on Wednesday, and then Thursday night
we've got the presidential debate and wewill have a preview show here myself,

(13:31):
Ross Kaminski, Mandy Connell. Forthose of you wondering why I would be
on that, I have some backgroundand sort of some of that kind of
stuff. It's a hobby and apassion of mine, and I look forward
to kind of showing you guys alittle bit different side of myself, getting
to talk about those kinds of issues. So we will have that. We'll
have a live I believe it's likea live video broadcast on Facebook during the

(13:56):
debate, kind of a simulcast kindof thing, and then once it's over,
we'll come back here and recap.So it'll be UH during that during
the Broncos Country to Night time block, but we won't be doing Broncos UH
stuff on Thursday, and then ofcourse on Friday, I believe we've got
the UH podcast, so we'll beback there as well. Programming no for
the week. Cody are gonna joinus here in just a few Mile High

(14:18):
Sports interested to see what his allseason storylines are. Lance Sanderson from Mile
High Hole joins us top of theHour you know we need to ask Lance
about the cookoffs. Yeah, I'vebeen waiting. We're hungry profit Lance.

(14:45):
I'm gonna need those I'm gonna needthose entries. I've got to do my
judging and also I'm hungry. Isanybody gonna do a who do have a
pie bake off at all? What'syour go to pie? That's a good
question. Pecan is my favorite byfar, I'm not I'm not really a

(15:07):
peach pie guy. I can doblueberry, but it's more of a cobbler.
You ever had a BlackBerry pie?Yeah, apple is probably the go
to with a little bit of icecream over the top. What about a
pumpkin pie? I don't know.You love a pumpki? Do not a
little punkin pie? I hate it? Oh? Maybe you are a comrade
Albright? I do what because Idon't like kind of like nasty squash pie,

(15:33):
which is worse. Pumpkin pire rhubarbpie. Neither they're both worse,
killing me Smalls, Well, youhave a fantastic mustache and beard. Tabo.
I'm jealous. Stuff Broncos Country Tonight'sgot Cody Roar coming up next to
hater. The text line apparently doesnot like my opinion on pumpkin pie.
I'm sorry that you all are wrongand have poor taste. Oh, I'm

(15:54):
sorry that you're wrong, and you'rea true American. I loves pumpkin pie,
never wrong. I'm trying to cutyour mic up right now. I
don't have that button. Only Ihave control. You have that kind of
power, And I said, Elsa'srubarb pie is worse. Pumpkin is king
as long as it's not a spicelattee. Greetings from London. Greetings from
London, England. I'm on vacationsto listening all. They're super awesome.
iHeart radio app There you go,uh seven to two? Oh hey,

(16:18):
Grant Ben is totally wrong. Afresh cooks pumpkin pie with some fresh whip
cream is great. Oh bet,whip cream is great. Pumpkin pie is
nasty crap. So I don't know, uh, you know what. I'm
sorry that you pours have terrible taste. It's whatever. I'm here to educate
him, but Kaway comes, buton the hotline and bring on my guy,
Cody Rourke. We know he's nota poor It hates pumpkin pie,
Isn't that right? Cody? Hey, you know pumpkin pie is pretty good.

(16:40):
Hang up on it, hang upon it'schy, preachy, But I
like I like guinea pie. Cherrypie is my favorite. Uh you know,
peach cobbler. I love that.I mean, it can't go wrong
with some pumpkin pie. Though Idon't prefer It's not my first preference.
Yeah, I don't. I justdon't like it. Maybe maybe I've had
the wrong stuff my whole life.But every pumpkin piver has a terrible pumpkin
spice. Lottes are terrible. Pumpkinsare for carving. That is my stance.

(17:06):
I'm getting made in a T shirt. This is this is what we're
doing with things, Cody. It'sbeen an interesting off season. We're starting
to see the Pittsburgh Steelers media startto beef with Denver media a little bit
about the Russell Wilson situation. Youknow, that's that's one that'll obviously play
itself out. I suppose what isthe off season storyline that you've most had

(17:26):
your eye on? Well, youknow, I think a lot of it
is how is the quarterback competition goingto go? And to be honest with
you, I mean I think weall think it's gonna be Bonnicks. I
mean, there's a reason Sean draftedhim, and I think the early returns
of what we've seen in OTA's inMini Caap, you know, a good
indication of what bol can do herein a Broncos uniform. Now, when
the path come on, I thinkthe evaluation will be a little bit different,

(17:48):
and I'm excited to see how heresponds. But I think really the
overall storyline is what do the Broncoslook like in Sean Payton's second year with
a rookie quarterback potentially and a youngerroster. And I to be honest with
you, Ben, I've been verysurprised with what I've seen early on from
the Broncos at OTA's, especially witha lot of young guys getting in the
mix. Yeah, and there's beena couple that has sort of stood out.

(18:10):
You know, Steve Atwater was instudio here a little bit earlier and
we were talking about some of thatstuff. Devon Valley who I mean,
I mean, granted he's a twentysix year old rookie, but he looked
like a rookie. You know,out there there's a lot of young guys
that are that are kind of inthe mix. One thing that has jumped
out at me, though more sothan even the ute movement, as it
were, that's Jana Ellis slash DevonVallet slash my cousin Vinnie Joke. Is

(18:33):
the Sean Payton that we've seen sofar this year seems wildly different than the
Sean Payton we saw last year.Yeah, No, drastically. I think
you see a change in demeanor.I think that the team is aligned really
with how he wants. I mean, granted, when he came on as
a head coach last year was itwas February is right before the Super Bowl,

(18:55):
So I mean, I wouldn't sayit was a true Sean Payton off
season last year for Denver, andhe just kind of had it jumping on
the fly and look that there wasno no getting around the whole Russell Wilson
thing. It was, Hey,you know, Russ is going to be
the quarterback this year regardless. AndI feel like this year and obviously Sean
and Luto he said that, youknow, he did a lot of peeing
on trees last year. He justseems more relaxed. I don't know if
he's litting more candibles inside his office. But he seems like he's actually just

(19:18):
enjoying life now, which I meanafter a win. He said that he
was driving around the parking lot tryingto find a place to park, going
to East Sushi, which he hatessushi, and he's just trying to think
himself, we just want a game. Why why can't I be happy?
Like? That was a sack fuckinglast year. So I'm glad he's found
piece a little bit. He doesseem like he's in a much better mood
this year. He seems like he'sgot a team around him, a young

(19:38):
team that he can build with thatI feel like he likes, and you
know, I'm kind of excited aboutit as well. It was Sean Payton's
first losing season as a head coachsince twenty sixteens, fifth overall losing season,
sixth non winning season in the NFL, and that is in sixteen years.
So obviously normally used to winning anddoing things, you know, sort

(20:00):
of sort of seeing things out atleast the right way as far as this
stuff goes. It's going to beinteresting though, because you did, you
moved on from Russell Wilson. You'vegot jared'stead of you got Bonecks, you
got Zach Wilson, You've got aquarterback competition, which I think you're probably
hoping bow Nickx wins, but organizationallyanyway, But Jared's did them, you
know, kind of in the inthe driver's seat right now is the guy

(20:22):
who's been at this offense for ayear. But you look around at the
other positions and it's not just aquarterback competition. You've got a competition at
corner. You've got competition at safety. You've got competition at the edge,
competition on the defensive line, competitionat the center position, wide receiver,
running back, all over this roster. I talked to Steve Atwater about this

(20:44):
for a second, and I wantto get your take on it, because
George Payton has been land basted inthe media here locally. You know,
if you listen to it, youknow every hack with a microphone that's say
you, you know, this guydoesn't even belong in football. But at
the end of the day, theroster depth on the Denver Broncos better now
than when George Peyton got here.And look, I think if it wasn't
for the depth that they had theydon't get out of that one in five

(21:07):
hole that they were in last season. And look, they made a lot
of personnel changes up to the Miamigame. We understand that. And obviously
George deserves some criticism for some things. I mean, obviously the higher Nathaniel
Hackett. I mean there was alot of different things behind the scenes going
on with that. But I meanthere was no ownership in process or in
place there. So you put alot of responsibility on a guy who's sole
purposes to, you know, helpassemble and build a roster with this personnel

(21:32):
staff. You had to deflect fromthat a little bit. You know,
a lot of people are saying,well, the Russell Wilson trade at the
at the time, Ben, Ithink everyone could agree at the time it
was the right move on paper.We didn't know how it was going to
go, you know ultimately, youknow, I know people say I were
like, oh, we knew itthe whole long, you know how long
you know what it would look likefor us, But the reality is on
paper. I remember the moment thatthat trade went through. I remember seeing

(21:53):
everyone saying, build a statue ofGeorge Payton outside of the empower field of
male high and so obviously it didn'twork out the way you wanted to.
You lost all the draft capital,you had to give up some guys to
do that. That was the painpoint there. But I think Denver's actually
found a way to get out ofthat. I mean, obviously they're eating
fifty two million this year though fiftythree though eat thirty two next year.
But Denver's in a good spot witha lot of cap space coming up.

(22:15):
And I tell you what, likethe way that they've navigated this offseason with
the Russell Wilson release. Of course, you know the one casualty that's stunk
about it was justin Simmons. Theyare in a better position right now than
I think they were last year,and they got a lot of as you
mentioned, competition around the board.The depth on this team is very good.
I'm excited about it, Ben,And look, if everyone stay healthy,
these competitions will be very very excitinghere in July and August. If

(22:38):
I were to ask you right now, without looking what Denver Bronco has the
highest ap y in terms of salary, who would you think that was well
on the current roster right now?Yeah, I'm trying to think now is
it a stock Courtland Sutton or Timis it? Uh? Is it Mike

(23:02):
mcglechi, Zach Allen, Oh thatwas big, Zach. Wow. Most
people, I don't think would thinkthat the money is distributed fairly evenly over
the over the over the course ofthe roster, which I find fascinating.
It's uh, usually you have atilt and I'm sure it will get tilted
again once you know, Stan getsa deal the four guys that are set
to be free agents to right right, and that's gonna be part of it.

(23:22):
But plus, you know, youget the Russ contract hanging out.
You know, there's still still therehanging like an albatross. But and that
will change once once Patrick Sartanget's acontract as well. But you know,
it's just sort of sort of somethingthat's that's fascinating to me. One of
the more interesting things. And Italked about this, I've about this a
couple of times. Now is thisAnd I can't, for the life of
me figure out where this originated.But there is some report out here that

(23:44):
Javonte Williams is washed and about tobe cut, and that Jaliel McLoughlin is
set to be running back one herein Denver, which you and I have
been there for for viewing sessions.I don't know how someone would come to
that conclusion when nobody's wearing pads.But apparently this report is out there in
the ether somewhere. It doesn't matchwhat my eyes have seen. Am I

(24:07):
the crazy one? No, you'renot. And look Jelil McLoughlin, I
will say it, probably out ofall the backs, probably has looked the
most impressive, especially with his speed. I mean he by and larks.
He's the fastest guy you know atthat position room right now. Davante is
not a Javante was never a fastguy. And I think you know there
have been some times during practice I'mlike, you know, Gavonte, there's
no paths, right, you're notrunning through guys. Javanti can't do the

(24:30):
things he's accustomed doing because you can'trun over guys, and obviously you're not
being tackled by guys. I thinksome people are confusing that Javonte looks slower
than everybody, like the guy likeJalil as that now says. I think,
to be honest, if you've benefI had to do an early prediction,
right, now we're going through thisseries on Lockdown Broncos in the next
week or so. I think thereare two locks for running back right now
on this roster. I think theregonna be Gavonte and Joel and I think

(24:51):
everything else between. Everybody else atthat position is going to be up for
grabs, and I'm excize he outplays out. Gavonte obviously had a career
road year for him in terms ofards per carry, but he still managed
somehow to crack over a thousand yardsfrom scrimmage. I think you're going to
see a more bi committee approach thisyear, but I think you're gonna see
a fresher Gavonte, a more ingrainedblocking scheme here for Denver, and I
think if you have a balanced rungame in a passing game, it's going

(25:15):
to allow guys to thrive. Imean last year then you saw it as
well. Defenses were daring Denver totry to throw the football last year and
that was what got the Broncos insome of those holes that they found themselves
in. So I think it'll bea Revampa Yet, No, Gavonte will
still be running back one. Ithink Jellet will be RB two. I
think there's no question about that.Yes, yeah, it's the way I'm
looking at this thing too. Youdrafted Estima, You've got Blake Watson,
who's probably a kick returner and anemergency back. To me, the odd

(25:38):
man out here is some maj pRyan who you know, if you look
at them finance, this makes themost sense. And then by the way,
he was a little bit of afumbler last year. It's ment opportune
times and I feel like that thathe's probably on the outside looking in at
this point. I mean, injuriescould change all that, obviously, but
if you've invested what you've invested inthe draft pick at Estima and the money
that they invested in Unifa Blake Watson, that those guys figure to be on

(26:00):
figure to be on the roster relativelyspeaking. Some of the more interesting battles
that are out there. Obviously,the center position is up for grabs.
Whether that's gonna be the Baltimore transplantMustifer, whether it's going to be Forsyth,
you know, whomever, Wattenburg,whoever it takes over that role,
that's gonna be the I think forme, the interesting camp battle. And

(26:21):
then on the defensive side of theball, you know kind of who is
going to be the the the othercorner opposite Sartin. We don't mc miller.
It'll be on the slot. Weknow Stan is gonna be CB one.
The question is who's going to bethat other corner? Was is there
a researches for Murray matthis, willRiley Moss take the job? Whomever they
signed Levy Wallace free agent? Whowho is going to step into that role?
Those are the two most interesting battlesto me. Is there anything else

(26:42):
that that jumps out at you asis more interesting than those? Yeah?
No, I think I like thedepth at corner and obviously I think the
Denver is going to be very differentthis year with how they use guys.
I think there's gonna be a lotmore versatility and that's something we've seen under
new defensive backs coach and passing gamecornertor that important time right there for Jim
Leonard important to know for people,you're seeing guys that play on the inside

(27:03):
learning how to play on the outside. Guys playing on the outside playing inside
like Levi Wallace outside cornerback was workingon the inside at times. Jakwan McMillan,
who we know excelled and thrived andcame out of the scene last year
on the nickel, he's been playingreps on the outside. Ben. I'm
this might be a little bit ofa bolt take, but I think the
Dever's depth of corner is pretty solidthis year. But I do think I
think Jakwan McMillan is gonna emerge asa starter on the outside of it.

(27:25):
Dever goes their base, and let'ssay it's not a bass nickel, right,
Let's just say they go base.I think ja Kwan is going to
be that other guy on the outside, and we saw him play outside in
this first game in the NFL acouple of years ago against Mike Williams,
held his own, did a reallygood job in that game, got robbed
of an interception. I think it'llbe Jakuan, and then I think when
Dever goes to their nickel, Ithink you can see maybe Jaquan slide into
the slot there. He can evenbe on the outside. I think it's

(27:48):
going to be dependent on matchup whoyou're going against, but then you're gonna
see guys come in, like youknow, I think Themary Mathis or Riley
Moss or LeVar Wallas, like they'vebeen rotating all these guys in. I
think that you're going to see arotation of guys to keep guys fresh,
and it should open up opportunities.But then when Dever goes to the dime,
I mean, they could move guysaround everywhere. I mean, Ben,
they could essentially have that they wantedto Jaqua mcmill and Pats er Can

(28:10):
in the slot that there's a goodmatchup there, let's say against the Raiders
and they try to spread them outa little bit, and then you could
have a guy like Damari Mathis orRiley Moss on the outside. There's so
much that they can do. AndJim Leonard told me. I asked him
right before we got out of thisbreak here. I asked him about and
he said, you can't hide,like if you can't move your guys in
between the numbers. Now, likeyou can't hide defensively because teams just gonna

(28:30):
put their best player on the slotand run away from you. So there's
gonna be an emphasis on that.And you know me, I'm a defensive
Backskuy alongside a good friend Steve Allwott. It might be a little biased in
that department. But that's what I'mthe most excited about. I think Jaquan
mcmill is going to be a nameto watch to win that other job outside
of pat That'd be interesting, Iwould I would love to see that.
I'd love to see him, youknow, kind of be that guy.
I mean, he's so good inside, you know, in carrying that torch

(28:52):
from from a good friend Chris Harristhat you know, you kind of feel
like that that that's his home.But yeah, I mean if they do
go now, I don't know howmuch base they'll run. You go back
and you look at what advance Josephtypically does a lot of UH four two
five two four five type type looksheavy nickel type stuff. Instead of going
to the dime. They kind ofbring another safety in a lot of those
situations. It's it really is interestingbecause they've gone out and they've gotten uh.

(29:15):
They went and got Brandon Jones,who's who's more of a box safety
than uh than than we've had inrecent years. We had a lot of
high safeties. He's more of abox guy. I know Kareem was a
thumper, but he went in abox safety. I mean, he's he
was he was more of a twohigh guy. You know, You've You've
got you got PJ. Lock,who's probably his best as a as a
single high, and then you've gotCayden Sterens, who is a you know,

(29:36):
a remnant too high guy who youknow, you kind of hope becomes
something gonna be interesting to see howthe safety rotation works out when you've got
uh guys behind them like Key andand Skinner uh that that are looking to
crack this lineup as well. EvenTanner McAllister stood out a little bit and
he was making some plays during OTAsand I was like, oh, it
was different because obviously Kayden had thenumber of changes like, oh, man,
Kayden looks, Kate looks shorter.No, that's not that's Tannion McCall

(30:00):
so that's not case sterns there,but kateon obviously. Then you know,
as we've seen a sample size ofhim, when he's on the field,
he's a ballhawk. He can takethe football away. He did at a
high rate when Vic Fangio was theDC. He did obviously at twenty twenty
two when a Giro Evro was there, and unfortunately, you know, the
injuries kind of piled up on hima little bit, and he's expected to
be ready for the start a trainingcamp from what I know, so that'll
be an exciting sign to see fromhim. But they have so many different

(30:22):
options here then that they could justmove guys around. I like the luxuries
that you have there. I knowSteve is keeping it on that safety competition
that they're having, you know,going on there. And then I even
think maybe a young guy who stoodout to me a little bit is Chris
Abrams Drain. I like the technique, he demonstrated the ability like he's good.
He looks comfortable playing off ball covers, he looks comfortable playing for us.
He think he does a really goodjob mirror receivers off the line of

(30:45):
scrimmage, getting in phase, gettingin that hip pocket. He's a smart
young guy. But you know,the question is like, well he played
a lot early on. I don'tthink so. I think he'll play a
lot of special teams. But Iwouldn't be surprised to see him crack the
rotation this year defensively as well.Yeah, I certainly would be for it.
He's more of a ball hawk type. It'll be interesting to see how
fast he gets up to speed onon some things, you know, inside

(31:07):
this defense, I think we're gonnasee and we got about two minutes left
here, I think we're gonna seea lot more of what Vance Joseph has
traditionally run, you know, Vanceobviously with the continuity last year, the
verbiage, they tried to sort ofkeep a lot of the concepts from from
Vic and a Gerald Rivero, youknow, tight front quarters match, that
kind of stuff. Now, Ithink you're going to see a a pivot

(31:29):
towards a lot more something that representsor reminds you of what Wade Phillips used
to do as defensive coordinator, andobviously he's Vance's mentor. Yeah, and
a lot of guys that could playman coverage. You know. I think
that's a benefit that allows that ZachAllen had said it right before break too,
that the defensive line, the shareof the mentality is a little bit
more attacking than you know, Ithink under Jamar Kaine, which last year

(31:51):
was more read and react under MarcusDixon, which you know, part of
me is like, maybe there's areason why Sean Payton allowed him to go
elsewhere, you know, maybe hehad a different plan a different vision,
but I do think we will seethat more aggressive style of defense this year.
And I think we're gonna see situationswhere it's you know, no longer
going to be third and three andyou got passer Tan playing off ball coverage
on the outside seven yards off there, trying to make a play on there,

(32:12):
Like that was some mind boggling tome. I think you'll see better
continuity. That's why Jim Lenard iscoming in to coach the secondary, and
this kind of line up for Advancewants to do from an aggressive attack standpoint
and kind of place to Advance hadsome success with when he was a coordinator
at Miami. So I think we'llsee, you know, some exciting developments
happened your camp. My biggest hopeend and obviously I know I'll see you
out there. I just hope theguy, you know, everyone can stay
healthy this year. He never hashad some stories where they've had some guys

(32:35):
emerge but then an injury pops upand you're like, man, like,
what could have been? I hopethat's not the case this year. Yeah,
same here, and you know,our guy Tim Patricks looks pretty good
out there. I'd love to seethe great comeback story there. Yep,
he could be a comeback player ofthe Year if he. You know,
I like the article that just cameout on the website that he you know,
he did an interview with So he'sgoing to be a new hymn this
year. He looks good, heruns routes crisply. You're like, you

(32:57):
know, a guy who's confident.You know, I wouldn't have the cop
evidence he did if I from myAco, my Achilles and back to back
years. It didn't look like itwas bothering him at all. Love to
see that from Tim. Hopefully agood season to come here for the Broncos.
Yeah, I wouldn't have the confidenceeven if I didn't do all that.
So appreciate you joining us, Cody. Look for seeing you out there.
Brother. All right, Ben,appreciate you have a good one.
Yep, take care, Cody RoarMile High Sports Broncos Country Tonight.