07-10-24 Parker Gabriel with Broncos Country Tonight

Episode Transcript

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We're gonna right out of kay commentaryat the hotline that we'll bring our good

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buddy, Parker Gabriel at Parker J. Gabriel on Twitter covers the Denver broadcast
of the Denver Post. Parker,how you doing this evening? I'm doing
great. How do I get Joedoing? Doing pretty well? Known if
you watched any of the Euros atall, but uh, uh, like
as we was just talking about,we have the team from Yuruguay's is into
the stands to fight fans from Columbia. Yeah, I saw that. That's

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uh yeah, like you said,I mean it's you know, you get
shut out and then you go,you know, try to hit something.
I guess. But it's pretty Thatis a pretty wild scene. Yeah,
that's I mean, it's embarrassing.But at the same time, I'm gonna
it's sports talk radio cookies, soI'm gonna I'm gonna get my feast on.
Uh you know, right now,I want to talk to uh talk

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to you real quick. Of a'sstart off with big twelve media days.
I don't know if you've been payingattention or not. Of course, yesterday
Mike Gundy comes out admits to drunkdriving thousands of times. Today Coach Prime
uh was was there talking about theColorado Buffalo's program and how he has more
pressure on him to win than maybeothers. And while I don't necessarily agree

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with everything that Deon Sanders says,I think he has a point on that
because if it was literally anyone else, I don't think that five wins for
the CU Buffs this season would beseen as falling short. But if Coach
Prime doesn't win more than five games, it's definitely going to be seen as
falling short. Yeah, I thinkthat's right. And then I think it's
also fair. I don't mean thisin a flight to Dion and that program

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in the least, but like,yeah, the pressure might be different on
him, but he brings that.I mean he's not. I think it
might be a little bit. It'sa little bit like yeah, man,
I mean the way that you runyour program and the way you talk about
your program invites that pressure, whichis great. Go for it, you
know, put big expectations out there, draw a lot of eyeballs, understand

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what it's going to do in termsof generating buzz, and also criticism,
some of which is fair and someof which is just sort of your general
internet babble. But like, yeah, there's pressure, and he is the
one that it starts and ends withand it's by design. So are they
going to be held to what likedo they need to show progress? Sure?

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Yeah they do. But it issort of like, you know,
I mean, he's the one that'sdrumming this up. So I don't think
it's a surprise. He shouldn't besurprised that that there's added pressure that it's
his program, right, I absoluteagree, and he absolutely does invite it.
The thing I guess I question isthe vitriol that gets leveled at him

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because Dean isn't doing anything original.This is the same playbook that Pete Carroll
rolled out at USC. It's theexact same playbook. It's just Pete Carroll
versus maybe Dion Sanders, who ismaybe a bit more in your face than
Pete Carroll. Is that the isthat the difference here? I think a
little bit, you know how thatI'm sure he saw the all the clips

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from the New York Giants and theoff season Hard Knocks, right, and
like the one that one of theones that was making their house today was
Joe shown with their vice president ofcommunications, and he said something about like
he said something about Saquon and thosenegotiations, and the PR guy was like,
eh, I wouldn't say it thatway, and Joe Shoon started laughing,
was like, hy, yeah,I'm not obviously going to say that

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during the news conference, and likeDion just sometimes says that during the news
conference, and like that. Ithink what's funny about that is like every
once in a while it goes alittle far. Every once in a while
you feel a little bit like,oh man, I mean he is talking
about, you know, making somany kids transfer and it it made like

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offends the sensibility a little bit.And on the other hand, like,
especially in our business, then likewe want coaches to be honest, right,
we want to not be afraid tospeak their mind. We want them
to say interesting things, even ifit's not always actually in their best interest
to say interesting things. And solike I will never I don't know if
he's handled everything perfectly or whatever,but like I will never complain about a

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head coach, let alone one withthe wattage that that Dean Sanders stakes with
them everywhere he goes being upfront andhonest and saying things on a daily basis
that draw eyeballs and draw readers andlisteners and viewers and all of that.
Well, yeah, and it's certainlymore fun for you and I because I
mean I barely even go to pressconferences anymore because they're so sanitized, they're

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so scripted, and it's usually whatyou're getting is messaging from the team.
You're you're not getting real answers toquestions. You're getting the coach or whomever
is up there framing their answer throughthe narratives that the team is already predetermined,
honestly practiced in an effort to getwhatever message that they want to cross.

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Yeah, definitely, And I mean, like listen, I mean it's
the same thing if you if youlisten to a shareholder call from Bank of
America or whatever. You know,I mean, like this is you you
want to like you want Companies wantpolished, they want people that organizations want
people that represent them well and saythe things they want them to say and
all that. And like when webuck that trend, sometimes those people catch

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more wrath. Now, especially withsocial social media, you catch more vitriol.
And then like the same thing happensjust in a different flavor. If
you're boring all the time, Ican you know, think of a quarterback
who played in Denver for two yearswho like part of the seeming problem that
everybody had with him was he neversaid anything interesting and he never said anything
that sounded original. And then you'vegot someone just like on the other end

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of the spectrum saying things that sortof make you go whoa what all the
time, and it's and and it'slike you you know, it's like you
can't win regardless of sort of whereyou are on that. And so I
just say, hey, listen,if if he's going to be the star
of the show, he wants toput the pressure on himself, he wants
to say spiky stuff like go forit. That's that's that's my opinion on

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it. Just at some point they'vegot to deliver that. That's the thing.
It's just that you paint the targetand you accelerate the process as it
works with the Parker Gabriel at ParkerJ. Gabriel on Twitter works for the
Denver Post. I want to switchgears talk about the Denver Broncos a little
bit. The news came out theteams down there gathered down at TCU.

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And it's interesting the way that thisis sort of portrayed because the headline is
that Jared Stidham got the team together. They're down there at TCU and and
they're practicing. The reality is Botixis there too, right, and and
so this is kind of but thatgets omitted from basically all the coverage.
It's that jared' Stidham has done that. That's such a it's a bizarre way

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to frame what is happening there,is it not? Yeah, maybe a
little bit, you know, youknow what it's interesting about that, Like
I didn't actually give that a lotof thoughts that that's the way it had
been portrayed. And I think it'sprobably because you know, I mean,
I think the thing that you've noticedabout the summer so far is that you
know, Jared's didham like so farin his career, Like on the field,

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he's been what he is, buthe's like no matter what you think
the way the quarterbacks is going togo or whatever. Like, the thing
that's undeniable about Jared Siddam so farthis summer is that he's in a different
position than he's ever been in before, Like he's really competing for the job,
and whether he can win it,you know, we'll we'll see.
But he's actually had this opportunity tosort of take the bull by the horns

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and say, like, I'm theveteran guy in the room. We were
laughing about that. I was laughingabout that with him during mini camp.
It's like you're the old man inthe room, which is kind of funny,
he's like twenty eight years old,but it's true. And so I
think one of the things you noticeis like he is really trying to like
sort of live up to that.And so he took it upon himself as

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the veteran guy in the room toget everybody together and say we're going to
go through. And I think,you know, whether it was just because
he really, you know, wantsBo to be there and it's good for
everyone to be there, or whetherit was optics in part or whatever,
like Bo's there too and that's great, and so like it's a very it's
very interesting because you know, itwent to Jared Sidham's house, he's he's

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down base in Dallas and all ofthat. But it all sort of like
it is interesting that that two ofthe three guys are there, and that
Jarrett has clearly sort of taken itupon himself to say, like, I'm
gonna do everything I can in thefield. I'm gonna put my best foot
forward. But one of the thingsthat they won't be able to say about
me at the end of August isthat I didn't do my darness as a

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leader. And these days in theNFL, this sort of thing is part
of what goes into being a veteran, veteran leader, leader and quarterback on
the team. We're talking with ParkerGabriel. You know, Bill Barnwell puts
out a lot of content, andyou know he had this write up of
this the skill position groups and rankthe Denver Broncos third worst in the NFL,

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ahead of only the Chargers and theGiants, bemoaning a lack of firepower
not named Courtland Sutton. And thequote here is the day's Denver had a
promising young group of playmakers have passed. Jerry Judy never had his breakout before
being traded to the Browns. TimPatrick hadn't played two years. Javante tore
up his knee, average three sixa carry, Dalstch caught three passes and
Marvin Mimms didn't much behind Judy inthe line. And while all that is

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ostensibly true, I wouldn't say thatSean Payton's offense was really built on playmakers
so much as it was built onguys who could make plays in the structure
with what with which they were doing. Now, there were some years where
they had some great tight ends,you know, Jimmy Graham, Jemmy Shocky,
that kind of stuff, but itwasn't really like they had usually had

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a slant guy on the on theright hand side, whether it was Colston
or Michael Thomas, whatever, Theyusually had a burner over there on the
left hand side to take the topoff of it was Ted Ginn, Brandon
Cooks, you know whomever, andthen a stable of running backs. Are
we worried at all that the Broncosdon't have enough around bow knicks when he
eventually takes over. I mean,I think there's there's a little bit of

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that, But I also think thatin part it's not that it's impossible that
it exists. Certainly I think thatperson is unproven, right like it we
saw the flashes from Marvin Mims lastyear, but not the usage to really
say, Okay, he can doeverything, he can do this, but
he doesn't do this well. Youknow, we'll see sort of how fast

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Troy Franklin can adjust to the physicality, especially of playing in the NFL.
Like they have some guys that ifit breaks rider they stay healthy and Greg
dlca's case, or they sort ofgrow into their role, maybe put on
a little muscle in Juliu McLoughlin's case, Like, you can see some guys
that that can be playmakers. Idon't I think there's maybe a little don't

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concern or whatever, Like I wouldn'tbe surprised if we get to the season,
We're a few weeks in and wego, I don't know who the
single player is that keeps defensive coordinatorsup right. But at the same time,
just as you're saying, Ben,like part of John Peyton's you know,
philosophy and part of the system isif you're in the right spot and
we have a vision and a rolefor you, you don't necessarily need like

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four of those guys, right,Like, if you're in the right spot,
the timing is there. The quarterbackputs the ball where it's supposed to
go, so the scheme can helpthe players, and the players can help
the scheme rather than being tilted tooheavily one way or the other. And
so like, I don't think thattheir collection of skill talent, at least
as far as I've seen it sofar, is like particularly daunting or impressive.

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But I also am not ready tosit here before training camp even starts
and say like there's no way thatas a collective group that they can't do
damage and score points, because Ithink it just you know, it remains
to be seen. Sehn Payton clearlyseems very confident about this group's ability to
be better offensively than they were lastyear. That's going to take some doing,
obviously, given all of the change. But yeah, I mean I

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can see both sides that I don'tknow who the big time playmaker is and
I don't know that it's critical tohave, you know, league average or
a little better offense. I'm kindof with you on that. I know
everybody's focused on the Broncos offense,but the more interesting stories to me you
are the other two units. Withthe change in the kickoff roles, special
teams. All eyes are on specialteams and who's going to be who's going
to solve the new kickoff rules beforeanybody else. And then defensively, the

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Broncos look like they're in a pivot. You know, you look at the
personnel they brought in, you lookat what they've tried to do here.
This looks like it's gonna be somethingmore akin to what Vance Joseph has traditionally
run. Vance tried to have continuitywith with what Vic Fangio run, and
Gero Vero kind of continued that,and they tried to continue that last year.
It didn't really didn't really work,and it's anathetical to what what you

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know Vance does. Anyway, Vanceis a Wade Phillips disciple. They want
to send everybody play play man,and you know, and maybe middle of
field close, whereas you know Vicand Vero it's it's middlefield open, tight,
fronts, cover four, cover twoh you know, stuff like that.
A lot of own I'm wondering ifwe're going to see a significantly more
aggressive defense this year, and ifthat may be the talk of the town.
You go back and look at thewinning streak the Broncos had. The

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defense largely carried them, Yeah,yeah, definitely, And you know there
was a there was a sort ofanomalous turnover binge in there, but those
those happen in football, right,Like the key is when you get hot
and you force a bunch of turnoversto win games. In the Broncos,
they did that in that in thatstretch of five wins in a row.
I do think, you know,like you're saying, I do think you'll

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see, you know, more moretweaks defensively, probably a little bit more
aggressive. It'll be interesting to watchhow the sort of identity of that group
unfolds over the course of camp.But they're obviously like, you know,
you get some time playing. Ireally, I know it's a ways out
still, but just given the firepowerthat Green Bay has offensively, I'm very

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interested to see sort of where Denver'sat at the midpoint sort of of camp
during that joint practice August sixteenth,because it's a good test, right and
and the thing is like they're justbuilt a little bit differently. They they
you can play more aggressively if you'renot one of the worst teams in the
NFL against a run, you canget into more pass rushing situations and and

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play, you know, put iton the line a little bit more,
which is how like you said,how Vans likes to play, and so
if they can, if they canbe better against the run. They put
a lot of sources in sort oflike several different ways in terms of like
upgrading the town on the defensive line, which we've talked about before. And
so if that if the front sevenand really even like sort of the front

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five to six, like the defensiveline and the outside linebackers, if those
guys are a good, solid NFLgroup this year, that can go a
long way, not only in improvingthe performance against a run and rushing the
passer, but also just in likehow confident you are to play aggressively and
let you know your guys in thesecondary play man and make plays on the

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ball. Tudlick Parker Gabriel of theDever Post Parker, what is the bare
minimum this year? You know wetalked at the beginning of the segment.
What's the bare minimum for Coach Prime? What's the bare minimum for Sean Payton?
What's the what's the benchmark they needto clear in terms of wins this
year? Man, that's a greatquestion. I have to tell you that
I don't know the ins and outsof Colorado's schedule all that well, I

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feel like I feel like in collegefootball, like if you're not playing in
a bowl game, it's just it'shard to call it a success, right,
And so like, could they andespecially when you've got Shugar Sanders flank
quarterback, like you just you haveto find a way to beat the teams
that are supposed to be you haveto find a way to steal one.
And so like I feel like ifthey find themselves out of the postseason again,

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like I just don't know how itcould be better, But like I
don't know how you call that good. And then you know, with the
Broncos, I honestly don't really know, Like I don't know that I've felt
that out yet. I had apretty good feel for it at this time
last year, and it's just there'sbeen so much change that in a way,
I feel like, no matter howmany games win, it could be
ten, it could be six.If you know, categorically the answer to

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the quarterback question. At the endof this year, I think that counts
as a win. Now, thatdoesn't necessarily mean it will have been a
good year, but to me,like, do you want to make the
playoffs? Yes, with the numberof teams, the number of teams that
go from postseason to out out topostseason every year, Like you're not gonna
hear me saying, oh, it'sa great year if they don't make the
playoffs, but it will be aproductive year if you know seven months from

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now, you say, hey,listen, whether it's Bonix or either of
the other two guys, Like,if they know the answer to the quarterback
question categorically at the end of thisyear or ninety eight percent at the end
of this year, I think that'spretty much what this one's about. And
then they're a lot more flexible intwenty twenty five. Yeah, I think
I tend to agree, at leastspecifically on the Broncos, and that is
that the wins, not not they'renot irrelevant, but if you know,

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if you know the answer, ifyou have the answer, whichever one of
the three of the quarterbacks, notnot that you have you know know that
they're not good enough, but ifone of them is and you know and
you're willing to build around that,then that's I think the big thing.
The other thing you got to dothis year, you got to beat the
Las Vegas Raiders the Bronx. TheDenver Broncos had never beaten the Las Vegas
Raiders ever, never beaten the LasVegas Raiders. That's a problem. So

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you got to do that this year, Parker. We're out of time.
I appreciate you, you jumping ontonight. Yep, you've bet hav a
good night. Absolutely take care ofParker Gable. The Denver Post