08-06-24 Hour 1 of Broncos Country Tonight

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to it. Broncos Country tonight. Benjamin Olbright here with you.
Short show tonight. Obviously post Rockies five six nine zeros
text line, grat Smith here. Producing got a lot of
stuff to get to today. Broncos training camp back in pads,

(00:21):
the Brandon Ayuk situation that is or isn't, and the
unofficial depth chart came out today. All those people that
have been haranguing me pretending that Bonix was a top
the depth chart, well he isn't yet. He will be eventually,
but he isn't yet, which is what I've been reporting.
And now you can sort of see that even though

(00:41):
that death chart is a bit phantom as far as
that stuff goes, the Broncos listed rookies at the bottom
of the depth chart. This is not a practice they
did last year, by the way, they listed rookies at
the bottom of the death chart simply as a sort

(01:02):
of earn it type deal. They listed if you look
at the receivers, Courtland and Tim Patrick as the starters,
with Mims and Josh Reynolds as three four. In the
running back room, they listed Javante at one, Julie at three.

(01:27):
On the tight ends, Troutman Dulsitch Kroll were the top three.
No surprises there. People wondered who the tiet starting center was.
Luke Wattenberg was listed there. On the defensive line, no surprises,
Zach Allen, d J. Jones, John Franklin Myers. With the
linebackers that we did have our first or Baron Browning

(01:48):
and Jonathan Cooper were listed as the starting edge rushers,
with Thomas Income and Nick Benito is three and four.
The inside backers Alex Singleton and then Jonas Griffith or
Cody Barton listed there sternd leavel bai Leandre Smith, Alec

(02:12):
Mack behind him the starting corner we got another or
partially because of injury to Levi Wallace, who's listed behind
Patsertown and that is Tomary Mathis and Riley Moss was
the other or Jake wand at the nickel PJ Lock,
Brandon Jones the starting safeties. The only other ore that
we had besides having Jonas Griffith, Cody Barton and Jamariy Mathis.

(02:37):
Riley Moss was it punter where you had Riley Dixon
or Trenton Gill. Although Riley Dixon has by far in
a way been getting the most of the punting snaps,
so we'll kind of see how that goes. On the
kick and punt return depth chart, Marvin Mims was listed
atop both, although with kick returns, I'm not sure he's
going to be the guy. Treymont Smith listed as the

(03:00):
backup for both Julia McLoughlin on kick returns, and Michael
Bandy was listed as the third punt returner on the
depth chart. As far as receivers go, Bandy was listed
well behind all the other receivers we mentioned the big

(03:20):
four after that little Jordan Humphrey, Brandon Johnson, David Sills
Field or set then Jalen Virgil, Michael Bandy and Troy Franklin.
Devine and Devon Vallet were listed at the bottom, so
sort of a list of the rookies in the bottom with
the running back room sort of the same thing. Javonte
samaj Jaliel Tyler, Bady, Estimate, Blake Watson rookies sort of

(03:41):
listed at the back for the offense on this depth chart,
so again unofficial, does it really mean anything other than
it is a league requirement? And then the quarterback room
of course listed Stidham, Zach Wilson, bow Nicks bo He's
not the guy yet, but he will be. And that's,
you know, again, one of those things that it will
be fairly obvious as time goes on. Jared Stidham is

(04:03):
the placeholder until them. I'd love to hear your thoughts
on that. Five sixty six nine zero. I do want
to get into before we get into training camp, which
will be in the next segment, this Brandon Ayuk deal
that's going on. There was a report out yesterday, and

(04:25):
I say report, I air quotes that there was a
tweet out yesterday suggesting that the Pittsburgh Steelers and the
forty nine Ers had agreed to a trade for Brandon Ayut.
I got a text shortly that after I talk to
somebody up there with the Steelers. I've got some friends
in that organization who decried that is absolutely false that

(04:48):
while they were interested in Ayuk and had been since March,
and I posted a text message from March fourteenth, I believe,
showing somebody talking to me about that on Twitter, the
idea that anything had been agreed to was absolutely and
totally false. In fact, at that point last night they
said it was unlikely that anything got done because the

(05:09):
forty nine Ers were not agreeing to the compensation that
the Pittsburgh Steelers were willing to give. The Browns and
Patriots are engaged in trade talks with Brandon Aiyuk and
do have the framework of a deal with the Niners
in place today, and multiple people have since confirmed that

(05:29):
there's absolutely no deal. So you know the person who
tweeted it, whose name was Camerino, and then there's an
account on Twitter that a lot of people have put
a lot of stock in, but really is just a
guy with who's guessing that goes by pretty ricky. Both
are claiming that a deal was done. Deal was not done.

(05:50):
There was no deal done at any point, no agreement
of a deal, no nothing, So any report of that
is patently false as far as what is correct. The
Steelers are still, I guess, trying to be at the
table for this, although they've not agreed to compensation. There
is no agreement, no framework in place at this point.
They've engaged in terms of phone calls, but there is

(06:12):
no deal in place there and are trying. They've been
trying to get Brandon Ayuke for a while that I
you can pickens. They feel like are receivers that would
play well together and give Russell Wilson, who's the quarterback
there not justin fields, a shot at having a really
really good offense. But there have been rampant rumors and

(06:35):
reports and whatever else that I could be traded. But
Kyle Shanahan was asked if there's a scenario where the
Niners do a long term deal even keep him, and
Shanahan said, there's a scenario for everything, so I wouldn't
rule anything out. He was also asked if the team
would be better if it traded Ayuk, and he said,
Brandon's a great player, so it's real hard to be
better when you lose a great player. We got to

(06:56):
look at everything, We got to understand the situation that
we're in with what that looks like, and that does
take time. So hopefully it'll all work out for the
best for us and the best for him in the
long run. Lost of a great player in trade obviously
makes it important for the Niners to get back in
trade someone who can replace his impact. Kendrick Bourne would

(07:16):
be somebody if the Patriots engaged that they would get back.
I think the Browns with Amari Cooper, Shtahan confirmed that Auk,
who is due to make six and a half million
dollars this year in the final year of his rookie contract,
has permission to talk to other teams. He was asked
whether the situation is a disappointment for him personally, and

(07:36):
he said, quote, it's been a disappointment for a little bit,
so that's nothing really new to me. I mean, you're
always disappointed when you can't keep a hold all your
players or it's not going exactly right. I don't like
losing anybody, so that's why I'm hoping it does work
out here. I guess the bottom line is it's still
possible that Iuk could stay put there in San Francisco.
The question is, given what other teams are willing to

(07:57):
pay Ayuk, what the the Niners won't Dating back to
before the draft, the Niners have to ask themselves, you know,
what makes sense in this particular situation. And to add
to that, forty nine Ers rookie wide receiver Ricky Pearsall
had to leave today's practice with a shoulder injury. Coach
Kyle Shanahan said that he'd aggravated an issue that he

(08:18):
dealt with in the spring. Pearsall had opened camp on
the NFI list because of a hamstring issue he picked
up while working out his own Channa had called it
a precautionary move, and it's unclear if you might miss
more time or be held out of the preseason opener
later this week. Pearceall's issues have come in a moment
where these trade talks and involving Ayuke have sort of
heated up a little bit, So it'll be interesting to

(08:39):
see whether or not, you know, they're able to get
him healthy, because again, if you do wind up trading
Brandon Ayuk, which is a possibility even though no deal
is done, that that's going to be something that you know,
you're going to need help from from Pearsall to be
able to mitigate the loss of Brandon. I you in

(09:03):
that process, and and so that's you know, that's where
that stands. The reason that we're commenting on this though,
is is largely because of this situation where something was
posted online as a report and you know absolutely was not.

(09:23):
So you know, I I it's tough because again I've
I've been on the other side of this where people
didn't believe when I something that I had said, when
I put something out and so you know, I've I've
sort of seen that I feel for I feel for

(09:44):
people who report something and then it's not believed. But
in this particular case, this isn't a report that, this
isn't a report that is not being believed. It's just
patently false. The only people that the Niners have had
framework deals in place with up until the moment that

(10:07):
I'm speaking was the Browns and the Patriots, and that's
been confirmed multiple places. Adam Schefter, Ian Rappaport, Matt Mayako
of NBC Sports Bay, who's one of the preeminent forty
nine Ers reporters. The Niners had given permission for Ayuke's
agent to communicate with the Browns, Patriots, Commanders, and Steelers.

(10:28):
The Commanders remove themselves from that trade talk, and the
Steelers were not even close to what they wanted as
of last night. The Browns and Patriots have presented an
offer to Ayuk, who's holding in at Niners camp had
skipped the off season program. Mary kay Cabot of Cleveland

(10:50):
dot Com has noted that the Browns can afford Ayuk
and what he wants if Amari Cooper is part of
the trade. Going back to the Niners. So just something
to keep your eye on there with with regard to
how this goes. But it's fascinating to me. I know

(11:14):
how tough it can be to try to make your bones,
make your name in this industry. And you know, if
you have you have some information, you know, and you're
getting out of there. Sometimes you can jump the gun
on things a little bit. There is a changing nature,
a changing evolution of information in the NFL, and something

(11:38):
that can be true in one moment can cannot be later.
But this, again is not one of those situations. This
is simply someone claiming something that was absolutely untrue at
the time they claimed it could Bran and I you
wind up on the Steelers absolutely. The question isn't whether
whether he becomes a Steeler now, the question is is

(11:59):
that report d at the time it was submitted, and
of course it was not. So be careful what you
read out there on Twitter. Not everything that you read
out there is factual. I would say, just you know,
trust somebody's resume, if you don't know somebody, or if
somebody is using you know, a fictitious name or sort

(12:21):
of an avatar, and this guy's using like a dog
avatar and then going by pretty ricky and it's just
you know, this stuff is is just silly, and I
don't know why you do that, you know it did.
I guess there's an air of mystery and it creates
a fun situation on the internet. But the reality is
that that's not a reliable source of news, and these

(12:42):
people delete their misses. They don't have an editor that
you know, that holds them accountable for things they get
wrong and right, and so, you know, I guess it
seemed probably seems self aggrandizing a bit in the sense that, uh,
in the sense that I work in this business and
so you know, but I'm trying to give you a
peek behind the curtain. There is an accountability for people

(13:03):
like me. There isn't accountability for people that are professionally
employed in the sense that we have bosses and editors
and all that kind of stuff, who you know, verify
our work before we publish it, versus people like this
who just shotgun stuff out there and then you know,
hope that it comes true or hope that part of
it comes true, and they can make their bones or

(13:23):
make their name and skip the line, as it were,
on a lot of things. Shifting gears a little bit
before we get the Broncos camp. In the next segment,
talk a little bit about Russell Wilson speaking of the
Steelers his caf once it's totally healed and he's back
taking regular snaps. One of the other things that I

(13:44):
talked about when I was asking about this Brandon Nyuk
deal up there in Pittsburgh was about this quarterback controversy
or whatever in Pittsburgh. And it's kind of funny the
media is painting this as a real competition and Justin
Fields is gaining steam. The coaches I talked to sanskmpletely
fabricated it's Russell Wilson's job. Russell Wilson will be the
starting quarterback for the Steelers. Now. Fields is a growth project,

(14:11):
and there's potential that eventually down the line he could
be the guy. But as it sits right now, Wilson
apparently has a much better grasp on the job than
perhaps media up there is pretending Wilson wasn't as bad
as people seem to remember over the last two years.

(14:34):
The Hacket year was a disaster. Last year wasn't bad
at all. I mean, Wilson threw twenty touchdowns and one
pick in the red zone last year. You know, he's
not exactly sitting there like he was in his prime,
and there are some physical skills that are diminished, but

(14:57):
he's not the turnover machine or this sort of bust
that people make him out to be. Fields Meanwhile, thirty
interceptions and thirty eight fumbles in forty games, there are
some occasional impressive moments running the football, and his skill
set lens to that. But the reality is that Russell
Wilson has a firm grasp on that job from the

(15:18):
people that I talked to, and that's not that again,
that's not necessary. The Fields can eventually become a guy,
but right now he just he's an athlete playing the position,
not a quarterback, and that's sort of been the problem.
That was the problem with Getzi there in Chicago. So
it's you know, it's interesting. I thought, you know, it's
kind of funny that Chicago had that pipeline to failed

(15:41):
Bears quarterbacks. They brought in Trubisky as well, and that
didn't work. They added Fields, but he and Russ aren't
costing anything, and Fields has a ton of upside. I
get that, But the biggest sort of the most interesting
part of Steelers camp so far ties back again to

(16:04):
the Brandon Ayuk thing. Nobody stepped forward to be a
legit number two behind George Pickens, and nobody knows that
Pickens can handle the coverage and pressure being a clear
cut number one. So you know, we'll see an Arthur
Smith offense that the tight end is really kind of
the wide receiver too. But you know, we'll sort of
see Pat Fryermouth had what thirty two catches last year

(16:25):
as he prepared for that, So we'll see the Steelers
are lacking at receiver and that's why the Brandon Ayuk
thing is even a thing to begin with, and that
sort of getting him would make them dangerous to pair
with that defense. When we come back, we'll get into
Broncos training camp. I know that's what you guys are
tuned in for, and we'll get the latest observations of today.

(16:47):
You listen to Broncos Country Tonight right here on KOA.
It's eight fifty am ninety four one AM News Talk Sports.
Welcome back to it, Broncos Country Tonight. Benjamin Olm, Brie,
Grant Smith here with you. Five six six nine zeros
text line. Quite a few of you texting here saying
you don't want to talk about Russell Wilson. Fair enough.
I was just trying to tie that one together. I'm
sure everybody wants to talk about Jared Stidham, Zach Wilson,

(17:15):
maybe a little bit of Bicks. It appears the depth
chart is out, and it appears that Sean Payton has
basically told you what I've been telling you is coming
out of camp, no matter the position, they're putting the
rookies at the back end, just because they're putting the
rookies at the back end, that's not been what he's
traditionally done, didn't do it last year. I think that

(17:40):
if you're a Bnicks fan, you are going to get
what you're looking for sooner than later. But the reality is,
and I've been trying to tell people this from the
get go, namely that people are framing this incorrectly. This
is not a quarterback competition. Let me say that again.

(18:03):
This is not a quarterback competition. Jarrett Stidham is the
placeholder at QB one until bow Knicks takes the job.
They aren't competing for it. It is just a question
of Jarrett Stidham having the job until bo Nicks takes it. Okay,
Sean Payton mistaked his entire reputation on bon Nicks, So
the idea that they're not going to get him to

(18:25):
it sooner than later is laughable at best. Sean Payton
is incredibly cognizant of legacy, right Sean Payton wants the
Hall of Fame. Is it is something that he definitely wants.
And Sean Payton recognizes that he's not going to get
the Hall of Fame unless he does something no other
head coach has ever done, namely winning a Super Bowl
with two different teams, one one with New Orleans needs

(18:48):
to way one with the never Broncos. And part of
that is because of you know, the scandals, Pillgate, bounty Gate,
those kinds of things that he has with and part
of that is the fact that he hasn't won multiple
Super Bowls. Elsewhere You've got guys like Tom Kauflin, George Seaffert,
of course, Mike Shanahan not in the Hall of Fame
with multiple Super Bowls. So the idea that Sean Payton
is going to get the Hall of Fame on his

(19:09):
current resume is is it best, even if the most
optimistic person is unlikely. So he's somebody that has to
win a super Bowl here, and how are you going
to win a super Bowl? Well, he had to get
the quarterback he wanted in here. He got the guy
he wanted in Bonix, and that was the guy he coveted.
Can't stop gushing about him. Is leaking stuff to national media,

(19:31):
whether that's calling coward, Dianna Orsini, whomever you're hearing, Rich Eisen,
You're hearing the same quotes at those national media outlets,
right and anytime you hear the same quote in multiple
places from anonymous sources, you can pretty much narrow down
where that's coming from. Right on this show, we operate
on facts, not assumptions. So we're not going to sit

(19:51):
there and you know, I'm not going to sit there
in state where it's coming from. I'll lay it out
so you can play it out. In this particular case,
you can figure out where it's coming from. That said,
I think Bo has a chance to be a decent
quarterback in this league. I talked yesterday with the Kay
Sports shows about comparisons to pro quarterbacks and who that

(20:12):
could be. You know, I Bonix reminds me of Derek Carr.
A guy who gets a ball out quick, has some
better athleticism than you think he does. You know, he
can challenge you deep, but doesn't do it as often
as perhaps you'd like. He's a guy that gets more
confident every day. You ever go back and look at
Derek Carr's resume, like when he starts out with a

(20:32):
new OC, it's not great, and it just gets better
over time every stop he's ever been to. And so that's,
you know, I think that's a fair comparison. Now, most
people blanche instantly when you say, you know, when you
compare to Derek Carr. But Derek Carr is a top
half of the league quarterback, which is not something the
Broncos have had and some time, unless you count last
year with Russell Wilson, which apparently this fan base doesn't

(20:53):
want to count. Russell Wilson was in the top five
in the NFL and touchdowns when he got benched. But
you know, people don't want to remember that he was
twenty touchdowns to one pick in the red zone last year.
People don't want to remember that. And it's not that
I'm sitting here keeping for Russell Wilson anymore. He's gone.
But it is important to be honest about things. Whether
you liked Russ or not, it's important to be honest.

(21:15):
And the facts don't care about your feelings. To paraphrase
a fairly popular quote, there are a lot of people
who don't like Russ. Didn't like Russ. Fine, Russ isn't
here anymore. As far as Bo goes, he's got to
get a better command of the offense overall out of

(21:35):
trading camp. Today, again, it was definitely a Jared Stidham
day to day. Stidham was running with the ones and
had an appreciably better day. And that's not you know,
Ben Olbright saying something for controversy. That's exactly what happened. Again,
Bo Nix is going to take this job at some point.
Jared Stidham is the placeholder. Okay. I want to be

(21:56):
very clear on that because apparently people reading my Twitter
think I have some Bonick's bias or whatever latest thing
they've fabricated about me. But what I will say is,
you know, Bo is coming from an Oregon offense that
did a lot of things that aren't going to work
in the NFL. Right, there's a lot of smoke and

(22:17):
mirrors there. There's a lot of way they set things up,
and you want to take some of those concepts to
make him as comfortable as possible, but there's not a
lot of what they did that translates to the NFL level,

(22:38):
and Sean Payton is not going to sit there or
rework his offense for somebody. You're going to do what
Sean Payton does. I think the toughest part of the
evaluation of bo Nicks is something that the average fan
can't do, and that is the question of ken bow

(23:02):
Nick set the table right, and that's the hardest part
of playing quarterback. You know, people talk about the throws
and the arm and all this kind of stuff, but
the reality is a lot of playing the position comes
from your diagnosis of the defense pre snap. BOE's got
to sit there, figure out what the defense is doing,
and they pick the solution, work to the solution, whatever
the built in solution is on that particular call to

(23:24):
solve it. And there are times where he does that
well and there are times where you can clearly see
that he doesn't. And you know, defenses in college football
are not nearly as complicated as the NFL, and it
could take a while to get mastery of that. And
he comes in with more starts and more reps, and
that's a good thing. I firmly believe that. But there

(23:47):
are times where you can see that he's not exactly
comfortable yet doesn't understand what he's seeing those kinds of things,
and that isn't getting reported on in media. You're getting
gushing reviews of certain throws and at sometimes I've seen
slanted coverage. You know that favors bo it ignores things
that Jared's Didham does pop positively. There are plenty of

(24:08):
honest people on this beat, but there are some things
out there that I see that I'm like, well, wait
a minute, now, we clearly have a rooting interest here,
because you know, the throw of training camp thus far
as was an incompletetion. It was Jared's Didham over the
shoulder to Troy Franklin had dropped it. Franklin had his
best day as a Bronco earlier this week and then
kind of reverted to form today with a pair of
drops that I saw. I would not be surprised if

(24:31):
Troy Franklin winds up making the team, but as a
healthy scratch most games. If his current trajectory holds, I
absolutely believe that Bo Nix is going to take the
quarterback job in Denver. I don't know if that's week
one of the season. It won't be this weekend against

(24:52):
the Indianapolis Colts. Jared Stidham will get to work with
the ones. It'll be the starter. I know they said
what the midweek they're going to make a decision, but
I'll just spoil the surprise for you. It doesn't mean
that it Bo's not progressing, that he's on track. This

(25:14):
year is not a Super Bowl Windows season for the
never Broncos. There is no pressure to get Bo Nicks
to where he needs to be immediately. You can run
Jared Steadham out there for a few games if you
have to, and honestly that that might be beneficial. It
might be beneficial for Bo to see how a quarterback

(25:35):
in the NFL prepares for a game. But there's no pressure,
and the idea that you're wasting reps are wasting snaps
is actually backwards. It's a common fan sentiment, but it's
actually backwards. Yes, you want to get bow Nicks reps,
but the reality is you want to set him up
for success, and you want to make sure that every

(25:56):
aspect of being a quarterback is baked in or t
in before you get him to the part where he
has to make decisions. You want to get him into
the positive habits category on everything, and you don't want
to create negative habits. One of the things about dropping
him into the middle of the soup out there in Seattle,
for instance, if in fact he's not ready, is that

(26:18):
you've got him thinking about all those other things in
addition to a hostile environment. And so what happens does
he start taking shortcuts? What does he do to navigate
those things? Because the last thing you want to do
is create a situation where he's in bad habits. So
the idea that you're wasting reps, wasting time, or it's

(26:39):
a waste to put Jared stid him out there, it's
really backwards. And you could go back and look at
other NFL quarterbacks that didn't There were rookies that didn't
start the season. Pat Maholmes played the last game of
the season there in Kansas City, Justin Herbert wasn't even
thrust into it until Toad Taylor went down with a
punctured lung, and that's sort of the thing. Coaches look

(27:01):
at this and like, Okay, I'm gonna put my rookie
in the best position possible I can, and then he's
gonna be the guy. The last thing you want to
do is put a guy out there before he's ready
and then have to pull him off the field, because
if you do that, you undermine the confidence and can
set him back. And I will give you an example
of someone that it worked out positively for and then

(27:22):
examples of people that it hasn't. It worked out for Tua.
Eventually they kept pulling him off the field because he
wasn't ready and it was a problem. In fact, he
got benched against the Broncos during the COVID year vic Fangio.
Then it ended up working out for him. That's one
of the rare positive examples where you can sort of

(27:43):
get a guy and you know, and play the bait
and switch and get him out there. But if you
have to pull a guy off the field, like for instance,
Marcus Mariota, another guy who's benched against the Broncos by
the Tennessee Titans because he's just not there, doesn't get it.
You go back to rookie seasons. You want to talk
about guys who are pulled off, like Mitched Trubisky or
you know, justin fields like there are there are guys

(28:07):
who just aren't ready for it, and it damages their
ability because you've damaged their confidence. It is a very
confidence based position. And it's not just your own personal confidence,
it's your teammate's confidence in you. And so if you
if you have to yank a guy because he's not ready,
then the next time he goes out there, that team

(28:28):
is like, well, does he have it this time? We
don't know? Do we trust coach who put him out
here the last time? So it undermines sort of the
confidence in the in the position and the and in
the person. If you have to play the musical chairs,
Mary go round with the guy. The idea should be
in every instance to set a guy up for the

(28:49):
maximum amount of success possible, and that's that bo will
eventually take the job. I've seen the learning curve, I've
seen the upper trajectory. He's going to take the Whether
that's week one, week four, week eight, week ten, whatever,
it doesn't really matter to me. At this point. This
is not a Super Bowl window. For the never Broncos.

(29:10):
You're trying to set the table. You're laying the foundation
right now. The window for the Broncos starts next year.
This year is about figuring things out. The window starts
next year, and then you've got the rookie contract plus
the fifth year option before you've got to pay a guy,
and that's you're determined. You've got to sit there in

(29:31):
that timeframe and figure out is this guy capable of
winning this Super Bowl? Can we get that? And you've
got this year to kind of play around with house money.
Jean Payton's going to be back next year either way.
This is not a make up break year for Sean Payton.
There's no pressure to win this year for Sean Payton.
The only pressure out there that exists for Sean Payton
is whether or not Bo Nicks is the guy. He
has literally staked his reputation to this, and as I've

(29:59):
mentioned previously, reputation matters for Sean Payton, his legacy matters.
This is someone who went out of his way to
say that the Denver Broncos were smarter than everybody else
and being able to identify quarterback talent. He got out
there with the media right in front of all of
us and said that he had baited Minnesota into taking

(30:21):
JJ McCarthy, that bo Nicks was the third quarterback on
their board, that this was their guy. They went out
of their way to say things they didn't need to say,
and attaching themselves to bon Nicks. Sean Payton has firmly
cemented his legacy and attached his legacy to bo Nicks.

(30:46):
So now the question becomes, when is bou ready to
roll him out there? And as a rookie, he's going
to make his own mistakes, but when are you ready
to put him out there? I don't know that that's
weak one, and I've seen again, I've seen the gushing,
I've seen the reporting. I sat there, I stand there

(31:09):
with the Denver Broncos beat reporters. Not everybody's going to
agree with me on everything, and not everybody has to,
but I think if we sat down and we're honest
about this, the reporting has been very tilted in the
direction of bo Nick's when the reality is Darren Stidham
hasn't done anything poor wrong, He's got everything he's needed

(31:30):
to hang on to the job. Bo is climbing the
stairs one step at a time, and eventually he's going
to reach the top of the staircase. He's just not
there right now. If he were there right now, I
promise you the Denver Broncos rookies would not be listed
last on the depth chart. The unofficial depth chart, which
doesn't really mean anything, is listed the way that it

(31:51):
is because Bo isn't ready yet. The turkey is still
in the oven. It hasn't fully baked. It will get there.
I don't hate Bo. I want the best man for
the job to win, because covering this team winning is
a lot more fun than covering it not winning. I
think most of you can tell I was having more

(32:11):
fun last year during the wind streak than I've had
in quite some time. Covering a losing team is frustrating.
So you gonna sit there and try to find angles
and talk about you know, hey, here's why this is
going the way it is. Here's how we can fix it.
In the middle of a season where you can't fix it.

(32:35):
So I'm not trying to in my criticisms of Bnicks
that if I'm a little harder on him, then you'd
like it's simply because I'm trying to be honest In
my assessment, I want Bonnicks to start when he's ready.
I want Bonnicks to be the guy when he's ready.

(33:00):
That moment isn't this moment. I'm glad we're finally going
to get some preseason look at him. During the Colts game,
Zach Wilson will get a look at as well. Although
Zach has languished far behind the other two, it's just
a matter of consistency. Like, Zach Wilson has better tools

(33:21):
than either of the other two. He's got a stronger arm,
he's more athletic. I mean, you can see it. Every
once in a while, you'll see a pass and you're
just sitting there, like, I see why they drafted the
Jets drafted a number two, And then you'll see the
subsequent six or eight passes and be like, Hi, see
why the Jets let him go for a six rounder.
He'll get there, He'll absolutely get there. But right now,

(33:44):
this is Jared Stidham's quarterback one and is a placeholder.
We are framing this competition, which isn't a competition incorrectly.
Bnicks is the future of the Denver Broncos. Bonnicks is
the future of the Denver bron goes for better or worse.
Jared's Didham is the placeholder until he arrives, and he

(34:05):
has not arrived yet. It's important that we contextualize things
for you guys, for the fans as to what they are.
It's fine to have a forward lean and say, okay, look,
this is where I think things are headed, and I

(34:25):
think things are headed in that direction, but it's also
important to be factual and honest and frame things as
to where they are right now, and where they are
right now is exactly what you're going to see on
Sunday when Jared's Didham starts preseason Game one against the
Adanapolis Colts. Broncos Country Tonight will be back after this

(34:45):
right here on eight fifty A ninety four one FM
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