Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - AGGRESSIVE: Denver Broncos Ready to HUNT for Upgrades in 2026 Offseason
Episode Date: January 28, 2026The Denver Broncos are pushing their chips in on being aggressive this offseason according to Sean Payton and George Paton. With Bo Nix solidified as the franchise QB with the 'IT' factor, the Broncos... are aiming to be aggressive in filling their biggest needs after an AFC Championship appearance. Plus, Payton dished on the Broncos inconsistent run game, and drops by wide receivers. Cody Roark and Sayre Bedinger discuss Tuesday's end of year conference with both Payton and Paton, and discuss why the Broncos have built a winning culture that will be sustainable for years to come. Cody Roark is a credentialed beat reporter for Mile High Sports and covers the Broncos daily in person. Sayre Bedinger is the site expert for Predominantly Orange. Both bring Broncos Country the most in-depth and objective coverage of the Denver Broncos. WANT MORE DAILY DENVER BRONCOS CONTENT?For all of the latest Denver Broncos news today -- Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOBroncos?sid=YouTube Locked On NFL League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Draft & More🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnNFL Follow on Twitter: @CodyRoarkNFL and @SayreBedingerFollow the show on Twitter: @LockedOnBroncos Everydayer Club If you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans.Click here to join -- https://lockedonbroncos.supercast.com/ Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!TurboTaxFor a limited time, you can have your taxes done by a local TurboTax expert for just $150 — all in, if a TurboTax expert didn’t file for you last year. Just file by February 28. Visit http://TurboTax.com/local to book your appointment today.Rocket MoneyLet Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster. Join at http://RocketMoney.com/LOCKEDON FanDuelIf you’re a new customer, bet just $5 and get $200 in Bonus Bets if you win. Make it count — because after the Super Bowl, the season is over. Last call for football on FanDuel, an Official Sportsbook Partner of Super Bowl Sixty. Rocket MoneyLet Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster. Join at http://RocketMoney.com/LOCKEDON PrizePicksDownload the PrizePicks app today and use code LOCKEDONNFL to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup.Click Here: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONNFL GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime. RobinhoodTrade Every Play with Robinhood. Now available across the U.S. Download the Robinhood app now to begin.Futures and cleared swaps trading involves significant risk and is not appropriate for everyone. Event contracts are offered by Robinhood Derivatives, LLC., a registered futures commission merchant and swap firm IndeedListeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/lockedonnfl. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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The Denver Broncos plan to be aggressive in the off season with the Russell Wilson dead cap no longer on the books.
How aggressive will they be?
We'll break it all down here on today's episode, Lockdown Broncos.
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The Denver Broncos, they have a lot of it.
And going to the off season, they're going to have even more without the Russell Wilson deadcap.
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As we go through on today's show and talk about what we learn from George Peyton and Sean
Peyton's end of the year press conference, where the theme was,
they are going to be aggressive here this offseason to maximize the team to push them towards Super Bowl 61.
Plus, John Payton, George Payton, they addressed the wide receiver position and the run game that has had some problematic issues throughout this season.
We'll share our thoughts on that.
Plus, we'll tell you why the Broncos, they are set up for long-term success and a winning culture from here on now.
You'll get all that here on today's episode of the show.
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I'm Cody Rourke, Credential Broncos reporter for Mile High Sports.
Joined as always by Sarah Bedinger,
sci expert over there, predominantly orange.com.
Sarah, it was great being able to catch up with George and Sean Payton.
On Tuesday, they had their end of the year press conference.
We're up there and had a chance to hear maybe the reflection a little bit on the 2025 season.
But more importantly, I came away from the press conferences,
feeling a little excited about the offseason and what's to come here.
Because both those two indicated that Denver is going to,
to have a very aggressive approach, which hasn't always been the case.
Sarah, we've heard them say at times, you know, we've got flexibility to be
aggressive if we want to.
This year we actually heard we will be aggressive.
To me, that is an important discernment.
100%.
And Sean Payton gave the analogy, right, of saying like, hey, there's a big difference
if you have 50,000 to decorate a home versus 200,000, right?
And that's with the Russell Wilson dead cap coming off the books completely.
I mean, an unprecedented, what, 85,000?
million in total dead cap money.
The Broncos have been dealing with the last two years in which they've won 24
regular season games and then won a divisional round playoff game against the Buffalo
Bills, made it to the AFC championship.
So everybody's thinking the same thing.
Shoot, what can this duo do in the offseason without that dead cap?
And we're about to find out.
And it's awesome that finally we get the chance to talk about an off season without that
Russell Wilson contract hanging over everybody's heads, right?
And that's been something that, okay, back in 2020,
A lot of folks thought the Broncos, there's no way they can put together even a competent roster with Russell Wilson having a at the time, 53 million in dead cap money.
And even last year, hampered by 32 million still left in dead cap money.
I mean, you figure like, all right, this is a team that's not going to be able to be overly aggressive.
They're going to have to be sort of, you know, wise with their spending in free agency, maybe some under the radar names.
And they go out and get Talanoa Hufanga, Dre Greenlaw, Evan Ingraham, right?
they make some big splashes.
So what is it going to look like with them approaching this as we're going to be
aggressive?
Like we now have the budget to go be as aggressive as we want to be, not just as
aggressive as we need to be, right, to put people in the right positions to help this
team win.
That's what I'm excited about, Cody.
That's what gets me fired up.
And that's why I've been saying and what I will continue to say all offseason, I know
that this buck's traditional thinking, but this year in particular, free agency,
is so much more important than the NFL draft for this Denver Broncos team
in terms of getting to that place that they want to be in the postseason.
I feel like as you were talking, right,
and I think most of the people who are older than you and I,
I think the people around your age, my age,
and certainly I think the younger people that listen to this show,
you know, if you ever hear a Lil Wayne song right before he has a verse,
the lighter clicks, so you hear the lighter and you're like,
oh, no, there's about to be some fire, about to be some bars here.
When you were talking about that,
I heard like the Lil Wayne lighter.
in the background quick.
And I was like, oh, my goodness, here we go.
But, no, I mean, you're right there, too.
And to your point about the dead cap, the one thing that Sean Payton has talked about
at kind of the last two years at the forefront of acknowledging, hey, we're moving
on from Russell Wilson was the fact that we're not letting this serve as a built-in excuse.
He said, we could have easily, you know, it's easy when you look at everything like
in the NFL, it's easy to come up with excuses.
Sean Payton is not an excuse guy.
But the one thing he said was, I'm proud of our staff and our team in the way that we've, we
didn't let that become an excuse for us.
It allowed us to focus and develop younger players and look at where they're at
because 2023, we saw what happened, you know, with Sean and Russell and obviously the
Broncos, they were just a couple of games out from the playoffs after they had the one in five
start.
They still almost made it, right?
They made some noise.
And everyone after you moved on from key guys like Justin Simmons, you moved on
from Russell, Wilson, everyone's like, wait a minute, the Broncos, they're tearing this
thing down.
They're going to be three or four years away from being good.
Well, no, they actually flipped it into the next year.
Hey, we're coming.
This year, hey, we're here.
The rebuild has been accelerated here.
And now an offseason where you have money, no shadow of a dead cap looming over you,
you have every opportunity to upgrade this team.
And obviously the Broncos have some in-house guys that they got to maybe look at taking care of.
But very much, it sounded like, especially when they were talking about Bo Nix and him being on his rookie deal,
George Payton said, we're going to push the chips in.
We're trying to push it in every single year.
I am so excited about that.
You know why?
Maybe it's just a security blanket.
You know, maybe it's a sneeze into the napkin of, you know,
$10, $100 bills because you have the richest cash ownership group
in all of pro sports in the Walton Penner family ownership group.
I believe it when they say they are going to be aggressive.
But let me ask you this, Sarah, when we talk about things,
because in terms of upgrading and being aggressive,
John Payton, George Payton essentially said that if there is a need,
they're going to fill it aggressively.
Now, of course, they're going to be a thought-out methodical approach.
here. Give me the biggest need right now. In your opinion, right, for this Broncos team,
what is the biggest need right now? Weapons. I mean, 100%. And I think then people will ask, well,
what do you differentiate? Wide receiver or running back? And I don't know at this point,
Cody, honestly. I mean, I could go back and forth on that. I think if you ask certain people,
they would say, hey, the running game is the clear number one weakness for this Denver Broncos team.
And if you ask other people, they'll say, no, no, it was dropped passes in that wide receiver
position last year. And we heard both things from Sean Payton and George Payton,
right, although they both acknowledge like they really like the young guys that they have
at the wide receiver position. They said that last year as well. So keep an eye on that as the
offseason progresses, but I still think they're going to make a big splash at both of those
positions, Cody. I really do. And I think that whether or not the big splash is somebody from
outside or I don't know if it's a trade or if it's a free agent, that's what I'm thinking.
And running back, here's my thinking, too.
If you bring back J.K. Dobbins, what other free agent are you going to be able to convince to join a running back stable that includes an established starter and a second round pick that played a pivotal role and is only going to grow in his role?
So to me, that's where I wonder, okay, if you resign Dobbins, which it seems like all signs are indicating that could end up being the case on a one-year deal potentially, we'll have to wait and see, then does the big splash come at the wide receiver?
position this off season where Sean Peyton was so frustrated by it.
He's out there talking about the way to properly catch a football is with your
thumbs together.
I'm not exaggerating.
He literally was explaining that at his press conference,
right, about how to properly catch a football.
And so I think he's,
I think that's where he's the most frustrated,
Cody.
I really do.
And so to me,
that's where we're going to see the biggest splash.
I'm with you.
I do think receiver will probably be the really big splash here,
right?
the two guys that come to mind initially when you look at guys who are free agents.
Unless you're trading for a guy, the free agents that I think the Broncos should absolutely make an aggressive push for.
George Pickens, who's played a little bit of catch and throw with obviously Bo Nix from time to time.
And I think Alec Pierce of the Indianapolis Colts, I mean, you talk about a guy who's got good speed, good size, really good hands.
Alec Pierce is one of those guys.
Those would be the two top guys at the top of my wish list here early on here.
But I'd also say maybe another biggest need here at this point, who is linebacker?
You have decisions to make here with Alex Singleton, who's set to become an unrestricted free agent,
Justin Sternad, who would very much like to return, but he wants to be a starter.
Well, if Dre Greenlaw is staying and he's going to be the starter,
and you're looking to bring back Alex Singleton, that means you're going to lose Sternad,
who I felt like was the better linebacker out of anybody on the roster last season.
So some tough decisions here.
Who's available out there that the Broncos can maybe get?
I mean, we'll look at every angle here all throughout the entire.
our offseason Broncos country. But we want to know your thoughts as well. Highlight to us
what you think the biggest team needs are here for the Broncos and what you hope that they can
do. Do you like the idea that they're going to be aggressive? Make sure you less know on today's
episode of the show. But coming up next, Sarah and I, we're going to dive deep into what Sean and
George Payton both had to say about the run game and the operation there. Plus, we talked about
drops and we talked about hand placement for wide receivers. We'll time deeper into what they
talked about that here on today's episode of the show.
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Broncos head coach Sean Peyton made a very interesting comment when he was asked about the running game struggles and who was the first person that he talked to.
We're going to tell you about that as well as his and George Peyton's thoughts on the wide receiver position at their end of season press conference on today's episode.
Locked on Broncos in Broncos country, thanks so much for making us your first listen to the day every single day.
Hey, for all you every dayers out there.
If you're already listening to the show every single day, Cody and I want to invite you,
become a member of the Everyday or All Access Club.
You're going to get tons of bonus content here all throughout the off season.
And you know, if you've been rocking with your boys for years now,
you already know that there's no off season here at Lockdown Broncos.
And the Everyday All Access Club is really just going to ramp that up.
Cody and I have already talked about a lot of cool, interesting things that we want to talk about
throughout the off season, bonus episodes, add free episodes of the show,
tons of stuff from the locker room.
obviously the end of season locker room clear out all that content is in there for you so check
it off the link in the show notes for more on that cody let's talk about this i said and i tease that
sean peyton went to an interesting person first when he was asked about hey the run game
struggles what do you got to do differently what are you got to do better to fix the running game
the first person that he said that he went to was zach which i assume is zach streif
the offensive line coach for the team so with that
in mind, that's very interesting because it's not like he said, oh, I went, I talked to George
about that this morning and you're thinking, okay, well, it's a personnel thing. It's not like he went
to JK and said, hey, we missed you out there. He said, no, I went straight to the source of our
line and getting that push because I think the prevailing thought after the AFC championship
game is that the Broncos O line got whipped around a little bit by those Patriots defensive linemen.
Yeah, 100%. Look, we even talked about all year long. It has been a theme on this
show tating back to week one that the Broncos have to find a way to run the football more effectively.
And at times, they've had success.
And then at times it has been kind of like a disappearing act.
Like you can't even get it.
Two yards seems so hard to get for the Broncos here.
And, you know, Sean did acknowledge that losing JK was a big loss.
And I think people forget at the time he went down with that injury.
He was the third leading rusher, I think, behind James Cook.
And if I'm not mistaken, I think who's the other guy?
Jonathan Taylor probably.
Yeah, yeah, because he was on fire.
Yeah, so he was right behind Jonathan Taylor and James Cook by, what, 200 and something yards at that point,
third leading rusher in week 10 by the time he went down.
That was a big loss for them.
And it felt like really he, before his injury, it felt like the run game started to get going, right?
But now you take him out of the equation.
You throw in RJ Harvey, who's still learning the offense, who's still learning where to go,
what to do, what the checks may be, but also just trying to figure out what his role is, right?
because I think with JK, he was more of a patient, wait for the hold to develop, hit it, get north-south quickly,
whereas RJ is, hey, I'm the speed explosive guy, I'm going to get to the outside edge,
or if I can get that one cut and get up field, I'm there.
That was different down the stretch here for Denver, ultimately after the injury to J.K. Dobbins.
And I think it's a combination of both.
I think it is personnel related.
I think it is scheme, but for him to go to Zach Streep and say, I felt like we are very good at where we're at right now
with RPO's, run-pass option looks.
They feel like they're in a good place with that.
But Sean indicated that we need to be able to run the football under center a lot more effectively.
And I agree with you.
That involves more, hey, we need to win.
We need to be physical off the line of scrimmage.
Whereas the outside zone scheme that Denver implemented this off-season was,
hey, we've got to get to a landmark before the defender and we've got to try to seal him.
And then hopefully our running backs hit the cutback or wherever a hole opens up.
To me, it seems like it is a combination of personnel and scheme because even Sean said,
We also have to ask ourselves, who are we asking to do this, that, and the other.
So, I mean, that was one of the bigger takeaways I felt like that we had because for this offense,
Sarah, I don't think it's a hot take to say if the run game, the Broncos can find a good enough run game,
this offense will be more explosive.
They'll be able to put up more points than they did this past season.
Yeah, I think so too.
And what's really fascinating to me is the fact that even when J.K. Dobbins was running the ball and running it very well,
as you mentioned, Cody, the Broncos offense didn't necessarily have this sort of consistent balance
that we all really hoped it would have if he provided that, right? So the statistical production
was there, right? I mean, he's averaging a career high, five yards of carry, I think like 77 or 78 yards
a game at the time. And those were all his career best numbers. So you're getting the best out of
J.K. Dobbins that you possibly can and still not having that overall balance that you're
seeking and coveting so badly offensively, teams are daring you to run the ball.
Teams were not allowing the Broncos to throw the ball deep because what we found out
after, I didn't realize this, Cody, after the playoff game, that was the longest past play
of the season.
The Jarrett stood him throw to Marvin Mims.
I had no idea.
I mean, and that was seemingly pretty commonplace in 2024.
So to me, this is a very layered problem right now for the Broncos.
That does deal strictly with, like you said, first starting with scheme and you're running
your run packages. What is your running game plan? And then who do you have executing these things?
And are you winning at the line of scrimmage? A staggering thing to me that I wonder if our listeners
felt the same way during the game as well. But man, the fact that on that fourth and one play,
there was no running back on the roster that Sean Payton trusted in that situation to go get you
one yard. And maybe more so than just not trusting a back. You didn't trust that you could get that
push with your offensive line.
You're not trusting that Jared Stidham can get it on a quarterback sneak.
And I understand that part of the strategy is,
hey, you've got to look at what the Patriots are showing defensively.
But how many times have teams just said, you know what,
we don't care what you're going to show us defensively.
We're going to run it right at you and we're going to get this freaking yard.
That bothers me.
That to me, how many times do we see a fullback like Adam Prentice leading the charge
as like a traditional lead blocker?
like you mentioned.
We don't see that a lot, but he gets used a lot.
So what's the,
what is the disconnect here?
I'm so interested to see how they approach this from the offseason
perspective because even when the run game was going well with Dobbins,
the past game wasn't necessarily complimentary in that,
in that time frame over those first 10 games.
Yeah.
And even though Sean said they need to be able to run the ball more effectively under center,
he said he wants to play out a gun.
He wants to play with a two-back system, multiple personnel sets.
That's what he wants to do.
So it doesn't sound like some of the other things that we saw are going to change here this offseason,
but they're hoping that maybe some tweaks to the scheme and maybe personnel here and there could help them find that.
But speaking of personnel, let's talk about wide receiver.
You know, one of the things that stood out to me was George Payton and even Sean saying,
like, we didn't lose the AFC championship game because of the wide receiver room that we had.
There was very much this, we like our wide receiver room.
That hasn't changed.
We dealt with injuries.
But more importantly, they talked about how much they really like their young guys, right?
the Pat Bryant's, the Troy Franklin's, obviously Cortland leading the way here.
But Sean made, you know, addressing the wide receiver room when he comes to drops and hand
placement, that was a very telling sign as well about where he thinks the room can improve.
Your thoughts on what they said about the wide receiver room here, because even though that
they like those guys, I don't think that they're going to be shy of making upgrades or adding
to that room.
And I wonder if it starts with another assistant coach.
I mean, he talked about Zach Streif, but what about Carrie?
Colbert, the wide receivers coach, right?
I mean, when you start talking about something that these receivers should be getting
coached up on, that's where I start to wonder, is he kind of sending a message to the
receiver's coach as opposed to the players on the field?
Because I believe Sean and George, when they say, we like our young guys at receiver.
And I think the Broncos have plenty of reasons to like those guys, don't they?
I mean, Troy Franklin took some big steps forward this year as an overall player.
Pat Bryant showed some good stuff.
Marvin Mims obviously has shown when he.
gets chances that he can be a big time playmaker for you.
So maybe it is the receiver's coach.
And I wonder if that's going to be one of the first moves that they make.
But I still feel like all those guys would be so much better if the Broncos would put
somebody out there, like you said, you know, earlier, like a George Pickens or a T.
Higgins, if you have to trade for him or, I mean, obviously a high priced weapon, like
somebody who is going to be coming in with high expectations of, hey, you're the wide receiver one.
Like you are the guy.
You are going to be expected to produce on 10 to 15 targets every single week.
And you're going to be expected to either draw attention, make all those plays,
or be that alpha in this room that makes everybody else better.
I think that would make Cortland Sutton better.
I think it would make all those young guys better.
I think it makes Evan Inker better.
And most importantly, I think it makes Bo Knicks better.
Like to have that player that you can trust every single down.
I know he would say, I trust Cortland Sutton.
I trust all he would say that stuff.
And I don't think he necessarily doesn't believe it deep down.
But what we've seen, Cody, is not the ability for the Broncos to turn to those guys at any moment in a game.
They've made big plays.
All of them have in clutch moments, certainly, but consistently, you need that wide receiver one.
And I think that's what the Broncos are lacking big time.
We'll see if they go out in there, get it.
Obviously, Broncos country, let us know your thoughts on what George and Sean Payton said about the running back room and the wide receiver room here on today.
episode of the show. But Sarah and I, we're going to continue our conversation as the Broncos and
George Payton here from him and Sean. One thing that they outlined is, hey, this Broncos team,
they are set up for long-term success. And it all starts with the guy who has the it factor,
Bo Nix. We'll get all that here on today's episode of the show. Today's episode of the show is
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The Denver Broncos, they have the pieces to have long-term sustainable success.
They have the foundation.
They have the quarterback.
They have the coach, the GM, and the cash-richest ownership group in all of pro sports.
And with all of that, the advantage of building the appeal to come to Denver
makes Denver a strong suit to continue their winning tradition that they're hopefully
continuing to build off of right tapping into their deep history under Pat Bowling.
And now the Walton Penner family ownership group and Sean Payton.
Things are looking up here in Brockow's country.
But we'll tell you why Denver is set up for long-term success.
We just want to say thank you once again to everyone in Brockow's country.
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That is our promise to you here.
Sarah, one of the major takeaways I had sitting there,
listening to George and Sean Payton talk on Tuesday at the press conference was the fact that
there's this belief inside the building that, hey, our turnaround was quicker than we thought it
would be. Here we are. Here's what we do to sustain that. The Broncos believe that they have
everything that they need to win not only next year, but going forward. And there's so many
different things. But the number one factor, and I think George Payton said this surely. They have
a guy at the quarterback position who has the it factor, and that is Bo Nix.
100% and George Payton was very effusive, if I can say,
and his praise of Bow Nix after this season, right?
I mean, he was talking about how anytime late in a game,
they felt watching like,
we got breaking news as we were doing the show.
The Broncos fired offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi.
And the follow up will be, I think, Cody,
Davis Webb going into that spot.
I mean, I don't want to put any carts before the horse,
but I've been thinking about this quite a bit.
bit because now we know, well, Jim Leonard is a big target for Joe Brady out there in Buffalo.
And I kind of assumed if Davis was going to get a head coaching gig that he was going to take
Jim with him.
So, I mean, barring maybe something surprising, maybe this is the Broncos recruiting tactic
to keeping Davis Webb around.
I mean, that's just my speculation.
What's your initial takeaway from that?
Because obviously, I mean, they were not happy with the way the things went offensively.
That's one of Sean Payton's guys, too.
So very interesting.
Your take.
Well, I mean, obviously, you know, we're recording this episode a day before it actually airs.
So we are going to do an emergency episode for all you folks out there.
This is big.
I mean, we talk about this.
This opens up the opportunity for Davis to step into the OC role.
I know a couple of people that are close to Davis.
Some have said that the plan was initially even when Davis signed on to become a coach for the first time that this was going to have an opportunity for him to jump into that job as offensive coordinator.
the Broncos. So maybe that time is here right now and the Broncos can maybe get not only Davis,
but maybe they get Vance Joseph to stay as well. Obviously, if you're now listening to this on Wednesday,
make sure you go back and listen to Sarah and I break things down on the emergency episode of the show that
we did here. But to go through this and talk about that it factor here once again, Sarah,
with Bo Nix, when you can build this team around him and you got people too, like even George
Peyton, Sean Payton said, people are going to want to come to Denver to play because they have a
quarterback here who's a gamer. And I think one thing that we've seen is you're in a situation,
you're down, you have a belief that you're going to win. Players have said that to me exclusively.
George Payton echoed that at his press conference. I think that is big. But here's the other thing
too, Sarah, the Broncos, not only they have more money coming up here, but on top of that,
they have a brand new state of the art team facility that will be ready in the month of May.
And then down the road here in a couple years, they're going to have a brand new stadium.
You're telling me that's not appealing to potential prospects that have seen the culture that Sean
Peyton has started to build here, that is a big reason why.
Oh, it's, it's massive. I mean, think about how important it is for any of us out there in
terms of like where you spend your nine to five. Like if you have a choice, if you have an
opportunity to pick where you work every single day, I mean, there's no doubt about it that
you'll want to work in the state of the art facility. If you're an NFL football player,
you want to work in the best of the best. And so I, if it was me, Cody, shoot, I'd be all over it.
I've seen all these YouTube videos about all these guys go around.
They look at all these college facilities, and they tour their weight rooms,
and they tour their cafeterias, and they're just blown away by all these different things
that become recruiting tactics for these schools.
And it's even now trickled down to the high school level.
I just saw a video of this crazy high school in the Midwest where, shoot,
I mean, they're paying all these kids to come there.
It's crazy stuff, but that is a major factor for the Broncos.
And George Payton outlined four different things.
Now, I think it's crucial when it comes to the recruiting tactics of the Broncos being able to be an attractive destination.
You mentioned it.
Obviously, Bo Nix was one of the things that he mentioned.
The first thing that he mentioned was ownership, like you said earlier.
So you've got ownership.
You've got the quarterback.
And then he said, number three, he's like the team is, it would get the best fans at football, right?
So the fans are a draw for players as well.
And then winning was the fourth thing that he mentioned.
Like winning brings people on board.
Like, no better example right now, a case in point.
than Vaughn Miller, right?
Von Miller is publicly campaigning his way onto this roster.
Like if he doesn't play for the Broncos in 2026,
it ain't going to be because he didn't let it be known that he wants to play for the Broncos,
right?
So he's putting it out there.
But that's the sentiment that I think is going to be there for so many players.
It's like,
this team has cash.
This team has got the best facilities in football.
This team was just in the AFC championship game.
This team has an established quarterback, like a great coaching staff.
game over for whoever the Broncos want to bring in this offseason,
they're going to be able to do it. Yeah. And I'm excited about just the direction too,
because now you have a roster full of young players. Yes, you have some savvy vets.
You have some key cornerstone pieces. But man, you have a lot of major parts locked in.
I mean, Sarah, you talk about the offensive line right now. That whole unit is locked in.
Ben Powers is a discussion that we'll have here another day on the show.
You have a cornerstone cornerback in Pat Certan. You got Zach Allen, Nick Benito,
Jonathan Cooper, you got those guys all locked up here.
And maybe there's a chance that JFM returns, right?
But man, this is a very, very interesting time.
If you're a Broncos fan, like the season end was so disappointing,
unfortunately being one game away from the Super Bowl.
But now I think that you have this feeling.
I know guys in the building certainly have that.
They're frustrated about the loss.
But guys in the building have told me,
we believe we're going to make it all the way next year.
You know, this is the fuel that we needed.
You know, we felt like we deserve to go.
We didn't make enough plays on Sunday against a page.
to do so, but we, we firmly believe we'll be back next year. And this time we're going to get it
right. And the Broncos have all the pieces in front of them right now when you talk about resources
and how they're going to go through the self-scouting process, position by position over the next
couple of weeks. They're going to put together a nice plan. I can't wait to see how it all
turns out here. And of course, Broncos country, you know that Sarah and I. We're going to have you
covered literally every step of the way, every single day all year long when it comes to this Denver
Broncos team. And in case you missed it, you heard us talking about it here. Make sure you go back,
check out our emergency podcast that we did surrounding the Broncos firing Joe Lombardi,
what that may mean.
You'll get all that and more.
Check it out here.
Locked out Broncos, wherever you get your podcast.
And tomorrow, your Broncos country, Sarah and I, we are going to sit down and we're going to discuss the Broncos rookie draft class from the first pick that they had all the way to the last.
And we're going to analyze how they might fit into the pieces.
Next year was the season for a jade, Baron R.J. Harvey, the other guy's successful.
We'll debate every question as well.
We'll break it all down on tomorrow's episode.
Lockdown Broncos.
