Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Get those nomination stories in.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
If you missed any of the Steve Outwater interview, you
can go to Broncos Country Night dot Com, slash podcast
or wherever each podcast Apple, i Tunes, Spotify, Totally Free
It also my Hurt radio app where he.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Gets take It for Granted podcast when he decides he
wants to do that. It's on hiatus. Is it on
hiatus right now? It is on hiatus maybe through the
end of the year. Okay, it sounds like you've been
taking your free time for granted.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
There you go, there, it is right there.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
I love it five six, six, nine zeros the text line.
The award finalists list came out today and curiously, there
is a name omitted. Travis Hunter is not one of
the three finalists for the Thorpe Award. Three finalists Texas
defensive back Jadie Brown, Baron Ohio safety Caleb Downs, and
(01:54):
Georgia safety Malachi Starks. The Thorpe Award, which goes to
the defensive back in college football, went to head coach.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Dean Sanders back in nineteen eighty eight.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Coach Price sounded offul a little bit about Travis Hunter
being snubbed for the award.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
How how is Travis Hunter snubbed by the Jim Thorpe Reward.
You can have my award. You can have it back.
Matter of fact, I'm gonna give him mind. I ain't
using it, just sit up there collecting dust.
Speaker 5 (02:25):
So Travis could have my Thorp Award.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
Because if this ain't the most idiotic thing in college
football that he's not a finalist.
Speaker 5 (02:35):
For the Jim Thorpe Award, and he.
Speaker 4 (02:37):
Is, I would say arguably, But it's I don't think
it's really an argument about this young man being the
best defensive back.
Speaker 5 (02:48):
In college football.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
I ain't said nothing about the receiver part of it.
I'm just talking about defensive back. He rarely gets thrown at,
He's won a game for tackling for US, and he's
always on point. So if you bring up the statistics,
I don't know how in the world is Travis Hunter
not a finalist.
Speaker 5 (03:09):
To the Jim Dork Award.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
They just pretty much messed up all the integrity of
the award and he could have mine. Whoever's voting down there,
who's ever bringing it home? Thank you, because I don't
Eve won't mine now, God bless you, man.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Coach primal selfie. That doesn't seem to make much sense
to me.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
I mean, Travis Hunter is arguably the best defensive back
in college football. He's the prohibitive favorite to win the
Heisman for Christ's sake. The focal War, for those who
don't know, is run by the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
They have a screening committe there.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
The Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame members narrow field of candidates.
It's about ten to fifteen semi finalists near mid season.
They reconvene near the end of November select three finalists
and that's how the.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Process was done. Today, Executive director.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Of the Hall of Fame there, Mike James said an
email that they offer no criticism of coach Sanders and
wish our former award winner the best. They gave a
little statement about since nineteen eighty six, the Oklahoma State
hallle Fame Jim Thorpe association of the other due diligence, etc.
Speaker 5 (04:05):
Etc.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
We look forward to announcing our winner and welcoming that
deserving young man into the pay Coom Jim Thorpe Award fraternity.
Speaker 5 (04:12):
How do you leave.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Travis Hunter off as a semi finalist?
Speaker 3 (04:18):
I have no idea.
Speaker 6 (04:20):
I have no idea because when you think about today
Baron who plays for Texas, right, he's one of the nominees,
Malachi Starks who plays for Georgia.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
I mean Malachi Starks has one it.
Speaker 6 (04:37):
Today Baron has four as one more than Travis Hunters.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
And Coach Prime makes a really.
Speaker 6 (04:44):
Valid point because it's not just the fact the number
of targets that you are a number of interceptions that
you have, but the idea of why teams don't target
you or the receiver that you're covering. And there's a
legitimate argument in conversation to he had there. And most
people feel as though, well, this is just Coach Prime
(05:04):
just standing on his soapbox for Travis Hunter. You darn
right he should because he understoods what Travis Hunter is.
And once again I'm glad we having this conversation because
when Travis Hunter was a member of Jackson State. Coming
out of high school, he was highly touted, hoighly recruited,
but once he went to Jackson State, it was almost
like everyone kind.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Of forgot about him a little bit. Yeah, right, not
until he.
Speaker 6 (05:26):
Came to Colorado and he was doing the same things
in Colorado uniform that he five at Jackson State that
people started taking, you know, awareness of.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
And I think this is totally wrong.
Speaker 6 (05:38):
And Coach Prime is well within his own right as
a guy who wanted Jim throw up a role award.
If he feels as though he wants to give it
back or he wants to give it.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
To Travis, that is up to him.
Speaker 6 (05:47):
But I do feel as though his blasphemous that Travis
is not even in this conversation.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
For his part, Hunter does have three interceptions, nine pass
break ups, and thirty total tackles on the season, but
what that doesn't measure is quarterbacks basically just avoid his
side of the field because of his ability in football smarts.
Coach Prime said they messed up the integrity of the award,
and I tend to sort of agree there. Whatever you
think of Deonn sanders Chador, the Colorado program, whatever, drilling
(06:18):
down to individual athlete performance. If you're gonna tell me
that Travis Hunter isn't one of the best three dbs
in college football, I don't know what to tell you.
Speaker 6 (06:26):
Well, you're absolutely right, Caleb's downs will play safety for
Ohio State. He has no force, fambles, three breakups, no
I iNTS right now, Granted, you know a lot of
these guys have named. Some of these guys played the
safety position.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
It's again, it's nothing against the three guys that are
in there, but what is the criterion for this award?
Because none of those players has meant more to their
team than Travis Hunter.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
And I'll tell you and I'm not even putting the
offensive stuff in there. No, you don't even have to
put the offensive stuff.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Like the game. What was the game that they were
playing last year?
Speaker 6 (07:02):
It might have been UCLA where he was supposed to
be in a deep third and he ended up picking
up a ball like a flat like coming back and
just like.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Oh my god. The last person I saw do that.
Speaker 6 (07:13):
I saw Champ bay New doing and Thanksgiving game against
the Dallas Cowboys when he was covering Keshawn Johnson. That's
the last time I saw someone I actually do that.
So There's a certain level of skill that Travis Hunter
has that I think is being overlooked by the group
comedian whomever put this list together. But all these young
men that we were talking about, they played well this
(07:36):
season for their team, But when we look at the optics,
the stats, none of that jumps off the page like
Travis Hunter.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Yeah, I mean, Travis Hunter's gonna be an all pro
corner at the NFL level. Right, He'll be a gadget
guy on offense and get get some catches and all that,
but he's gonna be an all pro corner at the NFL level.
I do not understand that when that's not that's not
a Homersm thing, that's not We're in Denver thing.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Like I mean, I shoot it to you straight. If
I didn't think that he'd belong on that list, I
tell you he absolutely belongs to the finalist on that list.
Speaker 6 (08:07):
I think the last you guy to win the Jim
Thorpe Award was Deon Feakers.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
That sounds right, back to that sounds right, I think
it was.
Speaker 6 (08:15):
Now do you think the group that put this list
to get together for the Jim Thorpe Award, did they
look at this and say, well, Travis is in the
running for the Heisman, So since he's in the running
for that award, should we just leave him off the
Thorpe list all together?
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Do you think that that maybe he's gonna get everything else?
Speaker 1 (08:35):
So we're Taylor leaving him off of this one, possibly
because he's on the Highs when he's probably on.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
The Maxwell Award or with the Dago Bras Cordy. Yeah,
Maxwell Award, He's probably on all those.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
So maybe it's one of those cases where we're going
to highlight somebody else because he's getting all the attention
on those things.
Speaker 6 (08:49):
Maybe damn that the idea is that you give awards
to the best player.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Did he get left off because Trey Taylor here in
Colorado at air Force won it last year?
Speaker 6 (08:58):
Now, I mean, look, Trey did a tremendous job, and
I'm glad that they actually validated Trey in the way
that he played, because easily they could have overlooked him
because well, he's playing for air Force. But Trey did
a great job of earning that award. To me, no,
you look at the guy's stats and what they're doing
at that particular moment, what do they mean to their
(09:19):
team overall and what do they mean to their defense?
And then you look at their level of production and
what they're doing. That's how you measure that. And this
is the one thing that drives me freaking crazy when
it comes to a lot of these awards, that there
seemed to be a lot of bias instead of looking
at that stats like real, real data.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
It's just people are very biased the team, Well, you
know what team you played for a lot of times
I would say that's the case. But again you look
at last year and it's Trey Taylor from air Force.
By the way, I was we were correct on So
what Don Figures it was?
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Chris Hudson was, Ye, it was less you player, and
Greg Myers from Colorado State.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Won it the year after and Dion Figures wanted in
nineteen ninety two.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Yeah, Figures Hudson ninety four, Greg Myers from Colorado State
ninety five. He had Colorado Colorado State back to back years.
So it kind of guess throws my whole theory about
maybe the regional aspect of it.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
I would love to I would love to be a
fly on the wall and figure out why they left off.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Arguably the best corner in college football.
Speaker 6 (10:16):
You know what, this may sound a little ten four
hat theory. I don't care, but I think I don't
know the individuals on the group that puts the Jim
Thorpe lits together.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
But I'm just saying, for me, maybe there is.
Speaker 6 (10:32):
A little disrespect for the CU buffs period.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Is there anything to the fact that they dropped that
game to Kansas this past week.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
That had nothing to do with Travis Hunter?
Speaker 1 (10:44):
But I'm just saying, is there anything to that, because
I mean, you look at the teams, you look at
the players that are in there, and you're talking about
guys that are gonna be in the college football playoff.
Speaker 6 (10:52):
Well, well, because human era and biases involved, there's a
strong possibility that some individuals looked and say, well, they
lost to.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
They couldn't stand, they couldn't force the Kansas.
Speaker 6 (11:05):
But well, once again, that is not an indictment on Travis. Now,
Travis gave up about forty and two touchdowns. Now you
still look at it, but you still would have to
look at his entire body of work leading up to
that particular point. But Travis wasn't a reason why CUBUS
defense couldn't make a tackle.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Yeah, I mean, I'm just spitball.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
I'm trying to throw throw reasons out there that it
possibly would have got left off or these people at
the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame well ostensibly understand the
game of football, and no good football, it would not
select a guy that you would think would be one
of the top three once.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
A game man.
Speaker 6 (11:43):
Right now, there's nothing logical that I can point at
legitimately and said, well, here is a bona fide reasons
why Now if you want to say, well, maybe Travis
doesn't win that award, okay, we can have a discussion,
But not to not to be on the list at all.
(12:03):
You know, It's like it's like your cousin's getting married
and somehow they forgot to give you the invitation.
Speaker 5 (12:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
I well, in this case, you go willfully left. I
forget willfully left them all my cousins aren't invited.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
I'm just kidding you on the other side of this,
you know, Okay, so he misses out.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
On a piece of hardware though, but he's still gonna
be in the name for a lot of other hardware.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
How big a deal is it? For? See you? Right now?
To have two players.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
That are probably getting taken in the top ten and
one of the top quarterback recruits coming in.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Is this Uh?
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Is this the kind of stuff that keeps your name
out there that helps build a program?
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Yes, it does.
Speaker 6 (12:40):
It definitely does winning games and you know, obviously we
still don't know if the bus would be able to
get into the big tier Big twelve Championship, but just
having that conversation being on you know, Big noon of Saturday, right,
those things help all That's that's visual eyes for recruit purposes.
(13:02):
Not getting being on a Jim Thorpe Award, even though
it's a single ward, that is big for a CU
because guess what the dB coach for to see your
Buffs can say, well, guess what I coach a Jim
Thorpe Award nominee or winner. So when you go out
and you sit in the kids house and you're recruiting
a top dB, you're able to use that. Dion Sanders
(13:24):
can be able would have been able to use that
for himself, but now you've essentially taken that away.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Now the Buffs got.
Speaker 6 (13:32):
The game coming up on Friday where they can go
out and they can use this as extra momentum.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Right, they are now incentivibes.
Speaker 6 (13:40):
They didn't do this for Travis, so we're gonna go
out there and punish Oklahoma receivers.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Yeah, maybe that's the way you go at the thing
about the reason I asked you about the stuff for
building a program is because I think we're in a
specific window right now where the transfer portal will work,
but I think long term it won't. I think you
can build a program right now now also the transfer portal,
but we get it.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
We're starting to get to the era where you can.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
And the reason I say that Michigan flips that quarterback
from LSU cost them twelve million dollars to do it.
That's for one season. That's not for that's not for
his whole Michigan career. That's for one season. You flip
the guy from LSU to Michigan for twelve million dollars, right,
you made it's a freshman quarterback. He might not even play.
That's a true freshman quarterback. He might he might not
(14:25):
even play. So you're gonna have to come back the
next year re recruit that guy getting back, and it's
gonna cost you more than twelve because that was that
was the that was last year's fee. Right, So if
you're pulling guys, if you're gonna get guys out of
the portal, right, you're gonna get guys to flip, high
level players to flip from other schools to.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Your school, it's gonna cost you just insane amounts of money.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Going forward, the cost keeps going up, and I'm not
sure that CU has deep enough pockets to do that.
So you're you're at a window here where the transfer
portal sort of works right now, but eventually you might
price yourself out.
Speaker 6 (14:54):
This is strong possibility, you could price yourself out. But
here's what CU and Rick George has working for. It's Prime.
Everything that you're speaking of, it changes if coach Prime
is no longer coaching and Boulder as long as he's
there in Boulder is always open.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
And the money you talk about CEEU needing, do they have.
Speaker 6 (15:16):
The money like a Texas? Do they have the money
like USC?
Speaker 5 (15:19):
No?
Speaker 6 (15:20):
No, no, But with Prime, right, there's an error there.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Yes, you want to be a part of the culture.
Speaker 6 (15:27):
You want to be a part of the culture, and
you can create that atmosphere. Soime there you go. Prime
Time knows exactly what he's doing. He's one of the
best individual brand marketeers in the world. I mean you
see him on Almond commercials. I mean I think he
has some kind of new show coming up with Roxy Yes, yes, Yo,
(15:52):
Toby Yeah, And I'm like, when does he have time to.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Even do that?
Speaker 4 (15:55):
Right?
Speaker 3 (15:56):
But this is what kids are signing up for.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
Well, come back we Ryan Michael will going inside the
numbers bow Knicks potential Rookie of the Year find out
next Broncos Country Night.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Thanks Steve Ower for joining us in the first hour.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Going right out to the Killy Common spiritalf hotline though,
and check it in with our guy Ryan Michael at
the Ryan Michael on Twitter, Ryan, how you doing the
same thing?
Speaker 5 (16:17):
Doing well?
Speaker 4 (16:18):
Then?
Speaker 5 (16:18):
Nick?
Speaker 7 (16:18):
How are you guys.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Doing pretty well?
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Guys?
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Bow Knicks has done basically a complete one eighty from
the first four weeks of the season what looked like
a bust to some people after a couple of games
to possible offensive Rookie of.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
The Year candidate now through twelve games.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Are listener, are you ready to apologize for Sean Payton
hate that's been sizzling out of your Twitter account?
Speaker 7 (16:45):
Oh my goodness, listen, I am the biggest Sean Payton
fan in the world, and nothing would make me happier
than to continue to see us winning football games, scoring points.
And yeah, I trying to be fair in everything that
I do. We're a team that's trending upwards. Certainly, seven
and five is well above expectations. I think the overunder
(17:07):
before the season started with five and a half, so
doing well super and Roe Nicks is quickly developed into
a player showing signs of becoming a franchise quarterback. Even better,
he was the guy who I had second on my
draft board coming into the season. I think he's had
one of the most impressive college football resumes of any
quarterback prospect we've seen over the last decade. So he's
(17:29):
trending in the right direction, so much so that if
we shrink the windows that since Week three, he took
his per game average and put it over a seventeen
game pace, you'd be looking at four th ninety total yards,
thirty four total touchdowns, only three picks, zero loss fumbles
all season, So sure it was spectacular. The offense, though,
(17:52):
have been still ranked nineteenth in ports per game scored,
and you want to guess where we rank last year.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
I know the answer to this would already I'll let
you dazzle us.
Speaker 7 (18:02):
In r nineteenth in points per game scored last year.
So you know, if you look at what we're doing
this year with floring points in very different ways. Both
accounted for twenty one of our twenty five offensive touchdowns
and for the four supportive Russian touchdowns on the ground.
One was one yard, another was five, another was eight.
Three of those four were you know, close in the
(18:22):
red areas. So we're doing it a bit differently.
Speaker 4 (18:26):
And I was.
Speaker 7 (18:26):
Talking on Twitter earlier today a little bit about this.
Speaker 5 (18:30):
Russell Wilson was.
Speaker 7 (18:31):
Very underappreciated for what he was able to accomplish our
structure last year. He led the AFC touchdown pass percentage
at five point eight. That's very high, and he produced
just one fewer touchdown pass and one hundred and fifty
fewer attempts than Patrick Mahomes to trade off, as I
feel like we talked about this every week. He finished
twenty seventh in sac of cent, so Bo is the
(18:51):
antithesis of that. He's seventh in the league right now.
He's technically third if you narrow it down the quarterbacks
who started ten or more games, but he's twenty first
a league in sac percentage. So both style is death
by a thousand paper cuts, right, timing, rhythm, efficiency are
Sean Payton offense perhaps without the weapons that we saw
in New Orleans and Bonnick isn't quite true abreziate. So
(19:15):
he's showing great development. We're doing the best b canon
salary cap held, but yet was still nineteen from the
league scoring.
Speaker 5 (19:23):
Now.
Speaker 6 (19:24):
Coaches like people are creatures of habit, and what I
mean by that is when they they live and die
by their system and they have players or they look
for players to kind of fit their previous system with
their current system. Now when you look at Cortland Sunn
and you look at Devon bey Lay, those two are.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
Now emerging in my opinion, as.
Speaker 6 (19:45):
Wide receiver number one and whide receiver number two. Do
you see how they're being deployed similar to maybe what
Sean Payton has done in the past with other receivers.
Speaker 7 (19:57):
Sure, I mean we're right now New Orleans Saints Light,
and I mean that effectionately. So you could say that
Courtland Sutton is a poor man's Michael Thomas and Mia Vaughan.
You know the comparisons this week to Marcus Coulston, I
could see that. You know what we could use, Nick
is we could use Jimmy Graham because right now, amongst
the tight end position, Lucas call leads the team of
(20:17):
ten receptions, Troutman just one hundred and fifty eight yards,
Nate Adkins, who hadn't scored a touchdown even in college
football and longer than I can remember most touchdowns by
a tight end on Broncos this year with two, So yeah,
I mean there's this similar deployment and they're cut of
the same mold of Sean Payton kind of eyes. We're
certainly seeing a roster that's built in his image this year.
(20:38):
So I like what I'm saying so far, and I
believe I said this last week. We have arguably, if
not the best rookie quarterback in the NFL, arguably the
best offensive line in the NFL, and arguably the best
defense in the NFL. So in salary cap hell, we're
not going to necessarily have assassins at the skill position.
I like what I'm seeing with what we have.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
I with Ryan Michael at the Ryan Michael on Twitter,
the offense has been steadily growing but the defense has
been consistently elite.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
How much credit do we.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Give Sean Bayton for the fact that the defense is
elite and carrying this team.
Speaker 7 (21:12):
I think that, you know, we have to give him
credit for the change of culture beyond that this is
really vanced justice defense. And I think we have to
be fair then, because Sean Payton was also the overlord
of New Orleans James teams that produced defenses that finished
thirty to thirty first and thirty second in points per
game surrendered, And if you think back to that time,
(21:34):
nobody was typically critical of him for those awful defensive
finishes because on the offensive side of the ball, they
were top ten, often top five. So if we were
going to be leaning on him when the defenses weren't
bad under his watch, can we really give him more
credit relative to the criticism that we gave him when
you were bad in New Orleans? I don't think so.
(21:54):
I think at the end of the day, we need
to give a lot more credit to Vance Joseph, And
what I'm seeing on that side of the ball is
an exotic aggressive defensive schemes. We're blitz heavy. I think
around forty five percent of the stats or blitzes, and
our guys get to the quarterback even when we're not
sending extra mens. So the personnel this year has been
very strong. And the unique thing about the Broncos pass
(22:18):
defense is they're winning in other ways, you know, compared
to other defenses that have been good. Take the Texans
for example, they lead the league with seventy passes defended.
Speaker 5 (22:27):
We're down to.
Speaker 7 (22:27):
Twentieth with only forty two. What we are are the
NFL's leader in sacks, we have forty four. We're sacking
the quarterback on a nine point six percent of the play,
so one out of every ten plays results in the sack.
You know that we're doing well. We're second only to
Baltimore and quarterback hits we already have ninety, so we're
doing it in a very different way. We're second in
(22:48):
the league in yards per attempt allowed on the positive
end of it, so we're only allowing six point four
yards per attempt. Our dbs aren't swatting down a lot
of passes. We're allowing completions. We're round the league at
ridge I think will allow roughly sixty five completion percentage.
But they're tackling machines and they're not traveling very far distances.
And at the end of the day, we can bend
(23:09):
a little bit, we're not breaking. We're not giving a
point third of the league points per game surrendered. I
love what I'm seeing from the defense.
Speaker 6 (23:17):
Well, you may love what you're seeing from the defense
as much as I love what I'm seeing for the defense.
But my counterpart, you know, Benjamin Albright, he has this
thing for clock management, and we've spent you know, some
time at nauseum talking about this, but I'm allowed to
get your your your take on the situation. There's three
(23:38):
minutes thirty eight seconds remaining in the fourth quarter and
the Broncos through three passes. Do you feel the same
way about clock management as one Benjamin Albright?
Speaker 7 (23:50):
I do, And at this level Nike, it really is up.
There are season Madden players about it. So you have
three minutes thirty eight seconds on the clock, you hear
us three times in a row, so you shaved a
few seconds that got him down to three minutes twenty
three seconds. So the fact that we won the game
means that we're going to overlook that kind of clock
(24:12):
management completely. But it's the kind of decision making and
a competitive, somewhat competitive game, at least towards the end,
they had shot that could cost you a football game.
So just because we win doesn't mean that we should
overlook bad clock management. It makes my head, well, you.
Speaker 6 (24:29):
Know what, It's very interesting because not often do you
come on and you agree with Ben hold on end.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Because Ben was celebrating, he threw his hands up.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
You missed it like he's.
Speaker 6 (24:41):
On the steps of Philadelphia and he was Rocky Balboa.
And then you mentioned, you know, Madden Football, all the
things that Ben loves to play. And I told him
immediately when he had his comments he was reverting back
to his Madden days where he just loves to run
the ball. But here's what I would say. I said
this the band, and you tell me we used Do
you think that coach Payton did what he did?
Speaker 3 (25:04):
Knowing is though he.
Speaker 6 (25:05):
Has one of the top defensive units in the league,
you can.
Speaker 7 (25:10):
Take more chances when you have an elite defense on
the other end of the football. But this kind of
brings me back Nick to Ben's question a few minutes ago.
How much credit do we give Sean Payton for the
elite defensive performance if you are now taking irresponsible shots
on offense, a kind of chances that could lead you
to losing a football game that shouldn't have even been
(25:31):
as close as it was. And if your excuse for
that is that vance Joseph from the defensive side of
the ball has us lockdown, I still think that that's
the excusable. I understand the personnel that we have to
work with in the ground game, it's not strong, but
you've got to at least give it to a running
back on one of those three plays.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Yeah to me, And at the end of the day,
it's not about gaining yardage or anything. You want to
get a first down, but even three negative rushes would
have been better than three incompletions agreed, at least you're
taking time off the clock or taking time outs away
from your opponent. I do want to give Sean Baks
some credit, though we can't just sit here a bag
on that, especially after a win. We can all see
the offense approving what specifically has impressed you about what
(26:11):
Sean has done on the offensive side of the ball.
Speaker 7 (26:13):
You know what I'm seeing with bone Nicks is we're
continuing to tailor the offense to his strength, so that
would be quick completion, structured yards after the catch.
Speaker 5 (26:22):
And as he's.
Speaker 7 (26:23):
Becoming more comfortable, he's opening up the playbooks. He's been
able to more efficiently attack the middle of the field.
These are the kind of things that we saw at Oregon,
and we knew that we weren't going to see instant success.
I believe I said before the season even started, the
twenty twenty four should be about getting Bone Nits acclimated
to the system. So here we are two thirds through
(26:44):
the season and he's already playing the position at an
elite level, hitting some highs. We put up one hundred
and forty five passer rating the week before last, second
highest in the history of the franchise, higher than John
Elway ever hit, although we've got to adjust for arrows.
So take it with a grand salt.
Speaker 5 (27:00):
Love what I'm seeing.
Speaker 7 (27:01):
And as bone, it's a quarterback driven offense. And I
don't say that to take any credit away from what
Sean Payton is doing. We understand that he doesn't have
Tampa Bay twenty twenty roster, he doesn't have the two
thousand and seven Patriots, so none of us should have
or have expectations for the offense to be a top three,
top five offense, we still want to produce more points,
(27:23):
and slowly but surely we're doing that. We have to
be patient. We're rooting for him every week again and
not trying to sell short the progress that he's made
with bon Nicks. But at the same time, guys, when
you see these issues with clock management and you see
the lack of points produced over the grand sample size
of here we are at seven and five, twelve games in,
there's still plenty of room for improvement.
Speaker 6 (27:46):
When you look at the Broncos run game, and we
haven't really talked about it in great detail because it
hasn't really been that explosive. Now we're moving into the
back half of the season, cold demon, what can we
anticipate from the Broncos offense from a run gaing standpoint,
you think panning.
Speaker 7 (28:07):
Out so far through twelve games, like DeVante Williams is
at one hundred and twenty carries, He's only averaging three
point seven yards per rush. That's not great success percentage,
which is an efficiency metric per Pro Football Reference, forty
six point seven percent. Not tremendous. I do like what
I'm seeing out of all your estimatings averaging four point
seven yards per carry, equal to that of Bonix, and
(28:29):
I believe I said this a few weeks ago when
we were trying to predict what the second half of
the season would look like for Bonix. I had a
feeling they would take him out of horns when we
wouldn't see as much of the quarterback design runs as
we saw in the first half.
Speaker 5 (28:42):
Of the season.
Speaker 7 (28:42):
I think that's smart. We need to keep Boniet healthy,
but you know, the more that we can rotate these
running backs in and generate momentum. I feel frustrated saying
the same thing week after week after week because we
don't have Derrick Henry.
Speaker 5 (28:55):
In the backfield.
Speaker 7 (28:56):
We don't have Shakuon Barklay back field. If we did,
with the offensive line we have, you'd be saying much
better games. So I don't think the objective should be
for us to become a run first team or to
have any crazy sort of expectations. We just want to
get better, and slowly but surely we're getting there.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
Tyler Ryan Michael at the Ryan Michael on Twitter, Ryan
Pat Mahomes didn't look like a scrub versus Carolina. Are
you ready to eat some crow on your Mahomes criticism
from a couple of weeks back.
Speaker 7 (29:23):
I mean, played Carolina and the second to loss in
the league. They give up one hundred and five point
six passer rating nearly seventy percent completion percentage. They're second
to last in the league and league fifteen sixteen seventeen
something like that, and their last in the NFC in
terms of touchdown passes surrendered with twenty one. So that
(29:43):
Pat Mahomes is trending upward as bo Nicks has been.
But at the end of the day, here he is
eleven games in his season, he ranked twenty first in
the league and adjust night yards per a tenth that
after last year he was fifteen in the league, so
right around league average from the moment he started his
first game against US than twenty seventeen. All the way
(30:03):
through the end of twenty twenty two, his MVP campaign,
he ran number one in the NFL. So when you
look at one of the best overall efficiency metrics, we
go from a half decade run being number one in
the league, dropping on the fifteenth last year, and he's
twenty first this year despite playing really well against Carolina. Well,
I love Pat mahons he's the future first ballot Hall
of Aamber. But if we're pretending that the totality of
(30:25):
his value of work, our last two season is going
to comparable to just one of the best runs we've
seen in the history of the position from twenty eighteen
twenty twenty two. I think what we're doing is we're
unintentionally selling short how great he was for that first
half decade.
Speaker 5 (30:40):
Don't do that.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Yeah, Ryan, we all want to understell.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
We got Cleveland Browns coming up on Monday night.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
What do you think. What's your prediction? Real quick?
Speaker 7 (30:48):
Twenty eight to seventeen Denver.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
Oh wow, Okay, I'm a little concerned about this one.
He's confident though. He comes out to twenty eight to seventeen.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
Well, we'll certainly I'll hold you to that, and if
it doesn't happen, we'll will mercilessly roast you for twenty
minutes uh next week immediately following the game.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
For those are the rules. I don't make them, I
just follow them.
Speaker 7 (31:05):
I'm there for a brother.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Take care, Ryan Michael. Let you Ryan Michael on Twitter.
We got to hit a break. We come back.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
We're gonna go around the Denver Sports World, talk a
little bit about the Nuggets.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
Getting blown out by the Knicks. Listen Broncos Country Night
Kawe
Well theme do it Broncos Country tonight, but with all
bright Nick Ferguson, Grant Smith, Guys, Heroes, thank you. It's
pat It's presented by Common Spirit, Hell Triple eight that's
eight and eight Heating and air Conditioning and Ent Credit Union.
You guys nominate ach a Chlorado family of a veteran
active military first responder that could use twenty five hundred
dollars this holiday season.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
We run this thing.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Ever, you guys know what it is. We got some
great sponsors that have got the cash and we just
need to know where to get that cash to. So
if you guys go to Kowclorado dot com slash contest
this year, we're doing written nominations and recorded nominations. You
want to write something out, you can just record yourself
talking about somebody.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
It's it's nice to get back this time here.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Surely we all know somebody who's been been a VET family,
a member of a VET first responder, et cetera.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
That we can give back to.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
So go to KWAI Colorado dot com slash contests and
get those nomination stories in. You got till December sixteenth
to get that stuff in.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
And myself Nick Ferguson rod Smith.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
We got you know, the all our great sponsors have
got twenty five hundred dollars to get out to.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
These deserving people, but we need your help on it.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
So get them out there, get the kwaclora dot com
slash contest, and.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Get those nomination stories in.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
If you missed any of the Steve Outwater interview, you
can go to Broncos Country Night dot Com, slash podcast
or wherever each podcast Apple, i Tunes, Spotify, Totally Free
It also my Hurt radio app where he.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Gets take It for Granted podcast when he decides he
wants to do that. It's on hiatus. Is it on
hiatus right now? It is on hiatus maybe through the
end of the year. Okay, it sounds like you've been
taking your free time for granted.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
There you go, there, it is right there.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
I love it five six, six, nine zeros the text line.
The award finalists list came out today and curiously, there
is a name omitted. Travis Hunter is not one of
the three finalists for the Thorpe Award. Three finalists Texas
defensive back Jadie Brown, Baron Ohio safety Caleb Downs, and
(01:54):
Georgia safety Malachi Starks. The Thorpe Award, which goes to
the defensive back in college football, went to head coach.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Dean Sanders back in nineteen eighty eight.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Coach Price sounded offul a little bit about Travis Hunter
being snubbed for the award.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
How how is Travis Hunter snubbed by the Jim Thorpe Reward.
You can have my award. You can have it back.
Matter of fact, I'm gonna give him mind. I ain't
using it, just sit up there collecting dust.
Speaker 5 (02:25):
So Travis could have my Thorp Award.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
Because if this ain't the most idiotic thing in college
football that he's not a finalist.
Speaker 5 (02:35):
For the Jim Thorpe Award, and he.
Speaker 4 (02:37):
Is, I would say arguably, But it's I don't think
it's really an argument about this young man being the
best defensive back.
Speaker 5 (02:48):
In college football.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
I ain't said nothing about the receiver part of it.
I'm just talking about defensive back. He rarely gets thrown at,
He's won a game for tackling for US, and he's
always on point. So if you bring up the statistics,
I don't know how in the world is Travis Hunter
not a finalist.
Speaker 5 (03:09):
To the Jim Dork Award.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
They just pretty much messed up all the integrity of
the award and he could have mine. Whoever's voting down there,
who's ever bringing it home? Thank you, because I don't
Eve won't mine now, God bless you, man.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Coach primal selfie. That doesn't seem to make much sense
to me.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
I mean, Travis Hunter is arguably the best defensive back
in college football. He's the prohibitive favorite to win the
Heisman for Christ's sake. The focal War, for those who
don't know, is run by the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
They have a screening committe there.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
The Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame members narrow field of candidates.
It's about ten to fifteen semi finalists near mid season.
They reconvene near the end of November select three finalists
and that's how the.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Process was done. Today, Executive director.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Of the Hall of Fame there, Mike James said an
email that they offer no criticism of coach Sanders and
wish our former award winner the best. They gave a
little statement about since nineteen eighty six, the Oklahoma State
hallle Fame Jim Thorpe association of the other due diligence, etc.
Speaker 5 (04:05):
Etc.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
We look forward to announcing our winner and welcoming that
deserving young man into the pay Coom Jim Thorpe Award fraternity.
Speaker 5 (04:12):
How do you leave.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Travis Hunter off as a semi finalist?
Speaker 3 (04:18):
I have no idea.
Speaker 6 (04:20):
I have no idea because when you think about today
Baron who plays for Texas, right, he's one of the nominees,
Malachi Starks who plays for Georgia.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
I mean Malachi Starks has one it.
Speaker 6 (04:37):
Today Baron has four as one more than Travis Hunters.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
And Coach Prime makes a really.
Speaker 6 (04:44):
Valid point because it's not just the fact the number
of targets that you are a number of interceptions that
you have, but the idea of why teams don't target
you or the receiver that you're covering. And there's a
legitimate argument in conversation to he had there. And most
people feel as though, well, this is just Coach Prime
(05:04):
just standing on his soapbox for Travis Hunter. You darn
right he should because he understoods what Travis Hunter is.
And once again I'm glad we having this conversation because
when Travis Hunter was a member of Jackson State. Coming
out of high school, he was highly touted, hoighly recruited,
but once he went to Jackson State, it was almost
like everyone kind.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Of forgot about him a little bit. Yeah, right, not
until he.
Speaker 6 (05:26):
Came to Colorado and he was doing the same things
in Colorado uniform that he five at Jackson State that
people started taking, you know, awareness of.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
And I think this is totally wrong.
Speaker 6 (05:38):
And Coach Prime is well within his own right as
a guy who wanted Jim throw up a role award.
If he feels as though he wants to give it
back or he wants to give it.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
To Travis, that is up to him.
Speaker 6 (05:47):
But I do feel as though his blasphemous that Travis
is not even in this conversation.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
For his part, Hunter does have three interceptions, nine pass
break ups, and thirty total tackles on the season, but
what that doesn't measure is quarterbacks basically just avoid his
side of the field because of his ability in football smarts.
Coach Prime said they messed up the integrity of the award,
and I tend to sort of agree there. Whatever you
think of Deonn sanders Chador, the Colorado program, whatever, drilling
(06:18):
down to individual athlete performance. If you're gonna tell me
that Travis Hunter isn't one of the best three dbs
in college football, I don't know what to tell you.
Speaker 6 (06:26):
Well, you're absolutely right, Caleb's downs will play safety for
Ohio State. He has no force, fambles, three breakups, no
I iNTS right now, Granted, you know a lot of
these guys have named. Some of these guys played the
safety position.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
It's again, it's nothing against the three guys that are
in there, but what is the criterion for this award?
Because none of those players has meant more to their
team than Travis Hunter.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
And I'll tell you and I'm not even putting the
offensive stuff in there. No, you don't even have to
put the offensive stuff.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Like the game. What was the game that they were
playing last year?
Speaker 6 (07:02):
It might have been UCLA where he was supposed to
be in a deep third and he ended up picking
up a ball like a flat like coming back and
just like.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Oh my god. The last person I saw do that.
Speaker 6 (07:13):
I saw Champ bay New doing and Thanksgiving game against
the Dallas Cowboys when he was covering Keshawn Johnson. That's
the last time I saw someone I actually do that.
So There's a certain level of skill that Travis Hunter
has that I think is being overlooked by the group
comedian whomever put this list together. But all these young
men that we were talking about, they played well this
(07:36):
season for their team, But when we look at the optics,
the stats, none of that jumps off the page like
Travis Hunter.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Yeah, I mean, Travis Hunter's gonna be an all pro
corner at the NFL level. Right, He'll be a gadget
guy on offense and get get some catches and all that,
but he's gonna be an all pro corner at the NFL level.
I do not understand that when that's not that's not
a Homersm thing, that's not We're in Denver thing.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Like I mean, I shoot it to you straight. If
I didn't think that he'd belong on that list, I
tell you he absolutely belongs to the finalist on that list.
Speaker 6 (08:07):
I think the last you guy to win the Jim
Thorpe Award was Deon Feakers.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
That sounds right, back to that sounds right, I think
it was.
Speaker 6 (08:15):
Now do you think the group that put this list
to get together for the Jim Thorpe Award, did they
look at this and say, well, Travis is in the
running for the Heisman, So since he's in the running
for that award, should we just leave him off the
Thorpe list all together?
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Do you think that that maybe he's gonna get everything else?
Speaker 1 (08:35):
So we're Taylor leaving him off of this one, possibly
because he's on the Highs when he's probably on.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
The Maxwell Award or with the Dago Bras Cordy. Yeah,
Maxwell Award, He's probably on all those.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
So maybe it's one of those cases where we're going
to highlight somebody else because he's getting all the attention
on those things.
Speaker 6 (08:49):
Maybe damn that the idea is that you give awards
to the best player.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Did he get left off because Trey Taylor here in
Colorado at air Force won it last year?
Speaker 6 (08:58):
Now, I mean, look, Trey did a tremendous job, and
I'm glad that they actually validated Trey in the way
that he played, because easily they could have overlooked him
because well, he's playing for air Force. But Trey did
a great job of earning that award. To me, no,
you look at the guy's stats and what they're doing
at that particular moment, what do they mean to their
(09:19):
team overall and what do they mean to their defense?
And then you look at their level of production and
what they're doing. That's how you measure that. And this
is the one thing that drives me freaking crazy when
it comes to a lot of these awards, that there
seemed to be a lot of bias instead of looking
at that stats like real, real data.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
It's just people are very biased the team, Well, you
know what team you played for a lot of times
I would say that's the case. But again you look
at last year and it's Trey Taylor from air Force.
By the way, I was we were correct on So
what Don Figures it was?
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Chris Hudson was, Ye, it was less you player, and
Greg Myers from Colorado State.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Won it the year after and Dion Figures wanted in
nineteen ninety two.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Yeah, Figures Hudson ninety four, Greg Myers from Colorado State
ninety five. He had Colorado Colorado State back to back years.
So it kind of guess throws my whole theory about
maybe the regional aspect of it.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
I would love to I would love to be a
fly on the wall and figure out why they left off.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Arguably the best corner in college football.
Speaker 6 (10:16):
You know what, this may sound a little ten four
hat theory. I don't care, but I think I don't
know the individuals on the group that puts the Jim
Thorpe lits together.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
But I'm just saying, for me, maybe there is.
Speaker 6 (10:32):
A little disrespect for the CU buffs period.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Is there anything to the fact that they dropped that
game to Kansas this past week.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
That had nothing to do with Travis Hunter?
Speaker 1 (10:44):
But I'm just saying, is there anything to that, because
I mean, you look at the teams, you look at
the players that are in there, and you're talking about
guys that are gonna be in the college football playoff.
Speaker 6 (10:52):
Well, well, because human era and biases involved, there's a
strong possibility that some individuals looked and say, well, they
lost to.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
They couldn't stand, they couldn't force the Kansas.
Speaker 6 (11:05):
But well, once again, that is not an indictment on Travis. Now,
Travis gave up about forty and two touchdowns. Now you
still look at it, but you still would have to
look at his entire body of work leading up to
that particular point. But Travis wasn't a reason why CUBUS
defense couldn't make a tackle.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Yeah, I mean, I'm just spitball.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
I'm trying to throw throw reasons out there that it
possibly would have got left off or these people at
the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame well ostensibly understand the
game of football, and no good football, it would not
select a guy that you would think would be one
of the top three once.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
A game man.
Speaker 6 (11:43):
Right now, there's nothing logical that I can point at
legitimately and said, well, here is a bona fide reasons
why Now if you want to say, well, maybe Travis
doesn't win that award, okay, we can have a discussion,
But not to not to be on the list at all.
(12:03):
You know, It's like it's like your cousin's getting married
and somehow they forgot to give you the invitation.
Speaker 5 (12:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
I well, in this case, you go willfully left. I
forget willfully left them all my cousins aren't invited.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
I'm just kidding you on the other side of this,
you know, Okay, so he misses out.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
On a piece of hardware though, but he's still gonna
be in the name for a lot of other hardware.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
How big a deal is it? For? See you? Right now?
To have two players.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
That are probably getting taken in the top ten and
one of the top quarterback recruits coming in.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Is this Uh?
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Is this the kind of stuff that keeps your name
out there that helps build a program?
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Yes, it does.
Speaker 6 (12:40):
It definitely does winning games and you know, obviously we
still don't know if the bus would be able to
get into the big tier Big twelve Championship, but just
having that conversation being on you know, Big noon of Saturday, right,
those things help all That's that's visual eyes for recruit purposes.
(13:02):
Not getting being on a Jim Thorpe Award, even though
it's a single ward, that is big for a CU
because guess what the dB coach for to see your
Buffs can say, well, guess what I coach a Jim
Thorpe Award nominee or winner. So when you go out
and you sit in the kids house and you're recruiting
a top dB, you're able to use that. Dion Sanders
(13:24):
can be able would have been able to use that
for himself, but now you've essentially taken that away.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Now the Buffs got.
Speaker 6 (13:32):
The game coming up on Friday where they can go
out and they can use this as extra momentum.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Right, they are now incentivibes.
Speaker 6 (13:40):
They didn't do this for Travis, so we're gonna go
out there and punish Oklahoma receivers.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Yeah, maybe that's the way you go at the thing
about the reason I asked you about the stuff for
building a program is because I think we're in a
specific window right now where the transfer portal will work,
but I think long term it won't. I think you
can build a program right now now also the transfer portal,
but we get it.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
We're starting to get to the era where you can.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
And the reason I say that Michigan flips that quarterback
from LSU cost them twelve million dollars to do it.
That's for one season. That's not for that's not for
his whole Michigan career. That's for one season. You flip
the guy from LSU to Michigan for twelve million dollars, right,
you made it's a freshman quarterback. He might not even play.
That's a true freshman quarterback. He might he might not
(14:25):
even play. So you're gonna have to come back the
next year re recruit that guy getting back, and it's
gonna cost you more than twelve because that was that
was the that was last year's fee. Right, So if
you're pulling guys, if you're gonna get guys out of
the portal, right, you're gonna get guys to flip, high
level players to flip from other schools to.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Your school, it's gonna cost you just insane amounts of money.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Going forward, the cost keeps going up, and I'm not
sure that CU has deep enough pockets to do that.
So you're you're at a window here where the transfer
portal sort of works right now, but eventually you might
price yourself out.
Speaker 6 (14:54):
This is strong possibility, you could price yourself out. But
here's what CU and Rick George has working for. It's Prime.
Everything that you're speaking of, it changes if coach Prime
is no longer coaching and Boulder as long as he's
there in Boulder is always open.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
And the money you talk about CEEU needing, do they have.
Speaker 6 (15:16):
The money like a Texas? Do they have the money
like USC?
Speaker 5 (15:19):
No?
Speaker 6 (15:20):
No, no, But with Prime, right, there's an error there.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Yes, you want to be a part of the culture.
Speaker 6 (15:27):
You want to be a part of the culture, and
you can create that atmosphere. Soime there you go. Prime
Time knows exactly what he's doing. He's one of the
best individual brand marketeers in the world. I mean you
see him on Almond commercials. I mean I think he
has some kind of new show coming up with Roxy Yes, yes, Yo,
(15:52):
Toby Yeah, And I'm like, when does he have time to.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Even do that?
Speaker 4 (15:55):
Right?
Speaker 3 (15:56):
But this is what kids are signing up for.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
Well, come back we Ryan Michael will going inside the
numbers bow Knicks potential Rookie of the Year find out
next Broncos Country Night.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Thanks Steve Ower for joining us in the first hour.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Going right out to the Killy Common spiritalf hotline though,
and check it in with our guy Ryan Michael at
the Ryan Michael on Twitter, Ryan, how you doing the
same thing?
Speaker 5 (16:17):
Doing well?
Speaker 4 (16:18):
Then?
Speaker 5 (16:18):
Nick?
Speaker 7 (16:18):
How are you guys.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Doing pretty well?
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Guys?
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Bow Knicks has done basically a complete one eighty from
the first four weeks of the season what looked like
a bust to some people after a couple of games
to possible offensive Rookie of.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
The Year candidate now through twelve games.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Are listener, are you ready to apologize for Sean Payton
hate that's been sizzling out of your Twitter account?
Speaker 7 (16:45):
Oh my goodness, listen, I am the biggest Sean Payton
fan in the world, and nothing would make me happier
than to continue to see us winning football games, scoring points.
And yeah, I trying to be fair in everything that
I do. We're a team that's trending upwards. Certainly, seven
and five is well above expectations. I think the overunder
(17:07):
before the season started with five and a half, so
doing well super and Roe Nicks is quickly developed into
a player showing signs of becoming a franchise quarterback. Even better,
he was the guy who I had second on my
draft board coming into the season. I think he's had
one of the most impressive college football resumes of any
quarterback prospect we've seen over the last decade. So he's
(17:29):
trending in the right direction, so much so that if
we shrink the windows that since Week three, he took
his per game average and put it over a seventeen
game pace, you'd be looking at four th ninety total yards,
thirty four total touchdowns, only three picks, zero loss fumbles
all season, So sure it was spectacular. The offense, though,
(17:52):
have been still ranked nineteenth in ports per game scored,
and you want to guess where we rank last year.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
I know the answer to this would already I'll let
you dazzle us.
Speaker 7 (18:02):
In r nineteenth in points per game scored last year.
So you know, if you look at what we're doing
this year with floring points in very different ways. Both
accounted for twenty one of our twenty five offensive touchdowns
and for the four supportive Russian touchdowns on the ground.
One was one yard, another was five, another was eight.
Three of those four were you know, close in the
(18:22):
red areas. So we're doing it a bit differently.
Speaker 4 (18:26):
And I was.
Speaker 7 (18:26):
Talking on Twitter earlier today a little bit about this.
Speaker 5 (18:30):
Russell Wilson was.
Speaker 7 (18:31):
Very underappreciated for what he was able to accomplish our
structure last year. He led the AFC touchdown pass percentage
at five point eight. That's very high, and he produced
just one fewer touchdown pass and one hundred and fifty
fewer attempts than Patrick Mahomes to trade off, as I
feel like we talked about this every week. He finished
twenty seventh in sac of cent, so Bo is the
(18:51):
antithesis of that. He's seventh in the league right now.
He's technically third if you narrow it down the quarterbacks
who started ten or more games, but he's twenty first
a league in sac percentage. So both style is death
by a thousand paper cuts, right, timing, rhythm, efficiency are
Sean Payton offense perhaps without the weapons that we saw
in New Orleans and Bonnick isn't quite true abreziate. So
(19:15):
he's showing great development. We're doing the best b canon
salary cap held, but yet was still nineteen from the
league scoring.
Speaker 5 (19:23):
Now.
Speaker 6 (19:24):
Coaches like people are creatures of habit, and what I
mean by that is when they they live and die
by their system and they have players or they look
for players to kind of fit their previous system with
their current system. Now when you look at Cortland Sunn
and you look at Devon bey Lay, those two are.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
Now emerging in my opinion, as.
Speaker 6 (19:45):
Wide receiver number one and whide receiver number two. Do
you see how they're being deployed similar to maybe what
Sean Payton has done in the past with other receivers.
Speaker 7 (19:57):
Sure, I mean we're right now New Orleans Saints Light,
and I mean that effectionately. So you could say that
Courtland Sutton is a poor man's Michael Thomas and Mia Vaughan.
You know the comparisons this week to Marcus Coulston, I
could see that. You know what we could use, Nick
is we could use Jimmy Graham because right now, amongst
the tight end position, Lucas call leads the team of
(20:17):
ten receptions, Troutman just one hundred and fifty eight yards,
Nate Adkins, who hadn't scored a touchdown even in college
football and longer than I can remember most touchdowns by
a tight end on Broncos this year with two, So yeah,
I mean there's this similar deployment and they're cut of
the same mold of Sean Payton kind of eyes. We're
certainly seeing a roster that's built in his image this year.
(20:38):
So I like what I'm saying so far, and I
believe I said this last week. We have arguably, if
not the best rookie quarterback in the NFL, arguably the
best offensive line in the NFL, and arguably the best
defense in the NFL. So in salary cap hell, we're
not going to necessarily have assassins at the skill position.
I like what I'm seeing with what we have.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
I with Ryan Michael at the Ryan Michael on Twitter,
the offense has been steadily growing but the defense has
been consistently elite.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
How much credit do we.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Give Sean Bayton for the fact that the defense is
elite and carrying this team.
Speaker 7 (21:12):
I think that, you know, we have to give him
credit for the change of culture beyond that this is
really vanced justice defense. And I think we have to
be fair then, because Sean Payton was also the overlord
of New Orleans James teams that produced defenses that finished
thirty to thirty first and thirty second in points per
game surrendered, And if you think back to that time,
(21:34):
nobody was typically critical of him for those awful defensive
finishes because on the offensive side of the ball, they
were top ten, often top five. So if we were
going to be leaning on him when the defenses weren't
bad under his watch, can we really give him more
credit relative to the criticism that we gave him when
you were bad in New Orleans? I don't think so.
(21:54):
I think at the end of the day, we need
to give a lot more credit to Vance Joseph, And
what I'm seeing on that side of the ball is
an exotic aggressive defensive schemes. We're blitz heavy. I think
around forty five percent of the stats or blitzes, and
our guys get to the quarterback even when we're not
sending extra mens. So the personnel this year has been
very strong. And the unique thing about the Broncos pass
(22:18):
defense is they're winning in other ways, you know, compared
to other defenses that have been good. Take the Texans
for example, they lead the league with seventy passes defended.
Speaker 5 (22:27):
We're down to.
Speaker 7 (22:27):
Twentieth with only forty two. What we are are the
NFL's leader in sacks, we have forty four. We're sacking
the quarterback on a nine point six percent of the play,
so one out of every ten plays results in the sack.
You know that we're doing well. We're second only to
Baltimore and quarterback hits we already have ninety, so we're
doing it in a very different way. We're second in
(22:48):
the league in yards per attempt allowed on the positive
end of it, so we're only allowing six point four
yards per attempt. Our dbs aren't swatting down a lot
of passes. We're allowing completions. We're round the league at
ridge I think will allow roughly sixty five completion percentage.
But they're tackling machines and they're not traveling very far distances.
And at the end of the day, we can bend
(23:09):
a little bit, we're not breaking. We're not giving a
point third of the league points per game surrendered. I
love what I'm seeing from the defense.
Speaker 6 (23:17):
Well, you may love what you're seeing from the defense
as much as I love what I'm seeing for the defense.
But my counterpart, you know, Benjamin Albright, he has this
thing for clock management, and we've spent you know, some
time at nauseum talking about this, but I'm allowed to
get your your your take on the situation. There's three
(23:38):
minutes thirty eight seconds remaining in the fourth quarter and
the Broncos through three passes. Do you feel the same
way about clock management as one Benjamin Albright?
Speaker 7 (23:50):
I do, And at this level Nike, it really is up.
There are season Madden players about it. So you have
three minutes thirty eight seconds on the clock, you hear
us three times in a row, so you shaved a
few seconds that got him down to three minutes twenty
three seconds. So the fact that we won the game
means that we're going to overlook that kind of clock
(24:12):
management completely. But it's the kind of decision making and
a competitive, somewhat competitive game, at least towards the end,
they had shot that could cost you a football game.
So just because we win doesn't mean that we should
overlook bad clock management. It makes my head, well, you.
Speaker 6 (24:29):
Know what, It's very interesting because not often do you
come on and you agree with Ben hold on end.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Because Ben was celebrating, he threw his hands up.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
You missed it like he's.
Speaker 6 (24:41):
On the steps of Philadelphia and he was Rocky Balboa.
And then you mentioned, you know, Madden Football, all the
things that Ben loves to play. And I told him
immediately when he had his comments he was reverting back
to his Madden days where he just loves to run
the ball. But here's what I would say. I said
this the band, and you tell me we used Do
you think that coach Payton did what he did?
Speaker 3 (25:04):
Knowing is though he.
Speaker 6 (25:05):
Has one of the top defensive units in the league,
you can.
Speaker 7 (25:10):
Take more chances when you have an elite defense on
the other end of the football. But this kind of
brings me back Nick to Ben's question a few minutes ago.
How much credit do we give Sean Payton for the
elite defensive performance if you are now taking irresponsible shots
on offense, a kind of chances that could lead you
to losing a football game that shouldn't have even been
(25:31):
as close as it was. And if your excuse for
that is that vance Joseph from the defensive side of
the ball has us lockdown, I still think that that's
the excusable. I understand the personnel that we have to
work with in the ground game, it's not strong, but
you've got to at least give it to a running
back on one of those three plays.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Yeah to me, And at the end of the day,
it's not about gaining yardage or anything. You want to
get a first down, but even three negative rushes would
have been better than three incompletions agreed, at least you're
taking time off the clock or taking time outs away
from your opponent. I do want to give Sean Baks
some credit, though we can't just sit here a bag
on that, especially after a win. We can all see
the offense approving what specifically has impressed you about what
(26:11):
Sean has done on the offensive side of the ball.
Speaker 7 (26:13):
You know what I'm seeing with bone Nicks is we're
continuing to tailor the offense to his strength, so that
would be quick completion, structured yards after the catch.
Speaker 5 (26:22):
And as he's.
Speaker 7 (26:23):
Becoming more comfortable, he's opening up the playbooks. He's been
able to more efficiently attack the middle of the field.
These are the kind of things that we saw at Oregon,
and we knew that we weren't going to see instant success.
I believe I said before the season even started, the
twenty twenty four should be about getting Bone Nits acclimated
to the system. So here we are two thirds through
(26:44):
the season and he's already playing the position at an
elite level, hitting some highs. We put up one hundred
and forty five passer rating the week before last, second
highest in the history of the franchise, higher than John
Elway ever hit, although we've got to adjust for arrows.
So take it with a grand salt.
Speaker 5 (27:00):
Love what I'm seeing.
Speaker 7 (27:01):
And as bone, it's a quarterback driven offense. And I
don't say that to take any credit away from what
Sean Payton is doing. We understand that he doesn't have
Tampa Bay twenty twenty roster, he doesn't have the two
thousand and seven Patriots, so none of us should have
or have expectations for the offense to be a top three,
top five offense, we still want to produce more points,
(27:23):
and slowly but surely we're doing that. We have to
be patient. We're rooting for him every week again and
not trying to sell short the progress that he's made
with bon Nicks. But at the same time, guys, when
you see these issues with clock management and you see
the lack of points produced over the grand sample size
of here we are at seven and five, twelve games in,
there's still plenty of room for improvement.
Speaker 6 (27:46):
When you look at the Broncos run game, and we
haven't really talked about it in great detail because it
hasn't really been that explosive. Now we're moving into the
back half of the season, cold demon, what can we
anticipate from the Broncos offense from a run gaing standpoint,
you think panning.
Speaker 7 (28:07):
Out so far through twelve games, like DeVante Williams is
at one hundred and twenty carries, He's only averaging three
point seven yards per rush. That's not great success percentage,
which is an efficiency metric per Pro Football Reference, forty
six point seven percent. Not tremendous. I do like what
I'm seeing out of all your estimatings averaging four point
seven yards per carry, equal to that of Bonix, and
(28:29):
I believe I said this a few weeks ago when
we were trying to predict what the second half of
the season would look like for Bonix. I had a
feeling they would take him out of horns when we
wouldn't see as much of the quarterback design runs as
we saw in the first half.
Speaker 5 (28:42):
Of the season.
Speaker 7 (28:42):
I think that's smart. We need to keep Boniet healthy,
but you know, the more that we can rotate these
running backs in and generate momentum. I feel frustrated saying
the same thing week after week after week because we
don't have Derrick Henry.
Speaker 5 (28:55):
In the backfield.
Speaker 7 (28:56):
We don't have Shakuon Barklay back field. If we did,
with the offensive line we have, you'd be saying much
better games. So I don't think the objective should be
for us to become a run first team or to
have any crazy sort of expectations. We just want to
get better, and slowly but surely we're getting there.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
Tyler Ryan Michael at the Ryan Michael on Twitter, Ryan
Pat Mahomes didn't look like a scrub versus Carolina. Are
you ready to eat some crow on your Mahomes criticism
from a couple of weeks back.
Speaker 7 (29:23):
I mean, played Carolina and the second to loss in
the league. They give up one hundred and five point
six passer rating nearly seventy percent completion percentage. They're second
to last in the league and league fifteen sixteen seventeen
something like that, and their last in the NFC in
terms of touchdown passes surrendered with twenty one. So that
(29:43):
Pat Mahomes is trending upward as bo Nicks has been.
But at the end of the day, here he is
eleven games in his season, he ranked twenty first in
the league and adjust night yards per a tenth that
after last year he was fifteen in the league, so
right around league average from the moment he started his
first game against US than twenty seventeen. All the way
(30:03):
through the end of twenty twenty two, his MVP campaign,
he ran number one in the NFL. So when you
look at one of the best overall efficiency metrics, we
go from a half decade run being number one in
the league, dropping on the fifteenth last year, and he's
twenty first this year despite playing really well against Carolina. Well,
I love Pat mahons he's the future first ballot Hall
of Aamber. But if we're pretending that the totality of
(30:25):
his value of work, our last two season is going
to comparable to just one of the best runs we've
seen in the history of the position from twenty eighteen
twenty twenty two. I think what we're doing is we're
unintentionally selling short how great he was for that first
half decade.
Speaker 5 (30:40):
Don't do that.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Yeah, Ryan, we all want to understell.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
We got Cleveland Browns coming up on Monday night.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
What do you think. What's your prediction? Real quick?
Speaker 7 (30:48):
Twenty eight to seventeen Denver.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
Oh wow, Okay, I'm a little concerned about this one.
He's confident though. He comes out to twenty eight to seventeen.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
Well, we'll certainly I'll hold you to that, and if
it doesn't happen, we'll will mercilessly roast you for twenty
minutes uh next week immediately following the game.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
For those are the rules. I don't make them, I
just follow them.
Speaker 7 (31:05):
I'm there for a brother.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Take care, Ryan Michael. Let you Ryan Michael on Twitter.
We got to hit a break. We come back.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
We're gonna go around the Denver Sports World, talk a
little bit about the Nuggets.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
Getting blown out by the Knicks. Listen Broncos Country Night
Kawe
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