Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - Bo Nix, Denver Broncos Offense Take BIG STRIDES in 49ers Joint Practice

Starting point is 00:00:00 Denver Broncos quarterback, Bo Nick says, if you're not trying to win the Super Bowl, then why are you here? The Broncos, they threw a punch against San Francisco 49ers into joint practice. We'll break it all down and more here on today's episode of the show. You are Locked on Broncos, your daily Denver Broncos podcast. Part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day. What's happened to Broncos country? Welcome into another episode of Lockdown Broncos, your daily Denver Broncos podcast.

Starting point is 00:00:32 part of the lockdown podcast network, Reno, it's your team every day. Thank you so much all the every dares out there on Broncos country. Thanks for tuning in and making us your first listen, however you choose to do so. And if you're not yet and every day, become one. Hit that subscriber or that follow button so you never miss out

Starting point is 00:00:48 on all your Broncos news, content coverage analysis, and more every single day all year long. That is our promise to you. I'm Cody Rourke. Broncos reporter from Mile High Sports, joined as always by Sir Bedinger, the longtime side expert over there at predominantly orange.com. Broncos country, fresh off the heels of a joint practice with the San Francisco 49ers,

Starting point is 00:01:06 Bo Nix and Troy Franklin, that connection stayed hot in that joint practice. We'll recap some of the biggest storylines coming from the offensive side of the ball following the joint practice. Then we'll go through the Broncos defense, how they got off to a hot start. But then cool down a little bit as practice went on. And then we'll go through some other updates, including the kicking game where Will Lutz apparently had a little bit of a update and maybe an injury update on Brandon Jones. Is it an injury? What's the latest storyline there? You're going to get all that on today's show.

Starting point is 00:01:32 here. Sir, look, you know, unfortunately, I was not in Santa Clara here for this joint practice between the Broncos and the 49ers ahead of Saturdays preseason game. So I, unlike, just like everybody else in Broncos country was glued to my phone, refreshing for updates. And it seemed like the Denver Broncos offense in Bow Nix, they took big strides forward in this joint practice against the San Francisco

Starting point is 00:01:53 49ers. There were a lot of good moments and a lot of teachable moments. But, man, overall, your thoughts and your takeaways on what we learn from this joint practice on Thursday. Well, it's really exciting to hear that the Broncos went into a new environment and the offense, which you and I had talked about, hey, what are we looking for in this practice? We really wanted to see the offense continued to build upon those highlights that we had heard about all throughout training camp, which was Bo Nix, hooking up with Troy Franklin for

Starting point is 00:02:20 some big plays, Pat Bryant making catches, Cortland Sutton doing his thing in the red zone, all the young receivers stepping up. And it sounds like that happened, Cody, as I saw a number of updates to where Troy Franklin had a big play. Cortland Sutton had a couple of touchdowns on the day. Pat Bryant made a catch where apparently there was almost no way he could have even seen the ball coming according to those. And shout out to all those who were at the practice giving updates and things like that. It was great to see and hear about all these different sorts of things. Also get a see from the 49ers perspective, you know, their beat reporters and the people covering that team, like what are they thinking?

Starting point is 00:02:55 What's their perception of what's happening out there? Sounds like the Broncos offense did a really good job all around in this practice from the top unit on down. But of course, the biggest aspect of this all is how did Bowenix do against their top defense? Cody, it sounded like he was out there making some plays. Yeah, and look, when you're going against Nick Bosa, Fred Warner, it sounds like they have some impressive young guys in the secondary there in San Francisco. It's trying to figure out how do you adjust against a new defensive front, right? How do you read a defense that you haven't gone against all throughout training camp? And I always pinpoint this when we talk about training camp for Denver's defense, right?

Starting point is 00:03:32 And we always hear storylines around the entire NFL how the defense is always ahead of the offense. The defense, they don't have as many play calls that they're going to have to call or run against an offense that, you know, the offense, they're going to have to have pamphlets. They're going to have probably 20 to 45 pages, just a little bit of an install on pages and just foundational aspects here. But when you're going against the same unit every single day, you see certain formations, certain tendencies. and because of that, you may pick up and identify what a play is because guess what, you've practiced against it, you've lined up against it. But when you're going up and you're lining against a different defense that you haven't

Starting point is 00:04:08 gone against and you got Nick Bosa on one side, it sounded like there was an emphasis on the Broncos side of trying to mitigate what he could do, and that's using a hard count, which a couple of 49ers beat reporters said got Bosa a couple of times. And there were even times where Bo Nicks would get the ball. He'd drop back and scan the field. Pressure would come from Bosa and Bo would maneuver up and under or around it or at times where he's rolling out to the sideline. He's using his legs. It's a scramble drill.

Starting point is 00:04:35 And he's finding Devon Valle for a big gain across the middle of the field. This is what we love to hear. This is what we want to see here from Bo Nix and this offense is taking steps forward. And look, because you haven't gone against this defense and you haven't scouted against him, you're just going on practicing. You're running your foundational stuff. What it sounds like for Denver relatively efficient, which is what Sean Pays. Peyton is looking for. But of course, with that comes looks that you're going to obviously want to go back and maybe redo if you're playing in a game tomorrow. If they're going to do another training camp practice, you want to be able to do some things differently based on what you've got on tape.

Starting point is 00:05:08 And the Broncos said that they got a lot of good stuff on tape that they can't wait to go over. And it also sounds like they maybe struggled a little bit in the move the ball period. Cody, of course, they're going to have ups and downs in a practice like this where you are executing basic stuff. But obviously the 49ers, they've got some good players out there defensively as well. You mentioned Nick Bosa. Sounds like he got to Bo Nix at one point during the move the ball period for a sack. And look, that's not the worst thing in the world. It allows you to go back and adjust.

Starting point is 00:05:35 That's what Sean Payton said after practice is. They got a lot of film that they feel like they can use as valuable tape to bring back to Denver or to whatever they want to use with it and to improve. That's ultimately the goal of these things is to go up against somebody new, find ways to improve, find areas where you might have been weak or where you might have had some blind spots. and the offense can actually do that. This is a young group, a young core of guys. They're going out there against players who have played in the Super Bowl, right?

Starting point is 00:06:02 I mean, as much as the 49ers are transitioning, they've played in the Super Bowl. And quite frankly, I love that this offense is getting a chance. And the whole team in general, Cody, to kind of manifest that, right? I mean, the Super Bowl is going to be played in Santa Clara this year, as fate would have it, 10 years ago, the Super Bowl 50 champion. Denver Broncos won there at Levi Stadium. It's kind of cool that they can start off. their first road trip of the entire off season, right, to go to Santa Clara and to be in that

Starting point is 00:06:31 environment where, man, hey, you starting here, you want to end here as well. Man, it's, it's kind of writing like a perfect storybook, right? Almost kind of how the Broncos Super Bowl win and Super Bowl 50 was kind of writing, right? Peyton Manning, you couldn't have written a better Hollywood script of Denver Broncos. Peyton Manning, he gets benched due to an injury. Brock Osweiler comes in. Peyton comes back, week 17, secures the number one seat. the Broncos go to the playoffs.

Starting point is 00:06:55 They beat Big Ben Rothesberger. Then you get Brady Manning. And then it's the Broncos offense who no one thought that this team was going to win the Super. There's going to be a worse blowout than what you got against the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl 48. Peyton goes out on top with a Super Bowl, rides off into the sunset, retires a champion. And now here you are 10 years later. It's the passing of the torch. You've got Bow Nixit quarterback who had what I would say is the quote of the day in his post-trainty

Starting point is 00:07:21 camp practice. presser said it's important for the team like there's a belief they need to set lofty goals he said if you're not trying to win a super bowl then why are you here i love that there's no wasted words there's no wasted space in terms of what you're trying to do and there's intention there's purpose with everything they're doing but man the storybook the passing of the torch to bow nicks here from Peyton manning and you know can the broncos who started off their preseason in santa clara the goal is to get there to play in that final game of the entire season in february that right there If I was a Hollywood script writer, I'd say, you know what?

Starting point is 00:07:54 Bam, I'll fund the budget. Whatever you need, I'll give it to you. Yeah, exactly. We don't need the script saying anything about the Kansas City Chiefs anymore, Cody. Let's get that script. Let's throw that in the fire. That's old news. Let's get the Denver Broncos back where they belong.

Starting point is 00:08:08 I love that from Bo Nix. I love that he said what kind of you and I had a little bit of a opportunity to rant a day or two ago when we're talking about, why would you not expect that? These teams don't go into their locker rooms or they don't go into games. week, you know, these sorts of things and say, hey, you know what? We're favored to lose this game too bad. I guess we'll get them next week or in the next game we're favored. When everybody expects us to win, we'll go ahead and do that.

Starting point is 00:08:33 No, I mean, go out and win the dang thing. Like you might as well, right? That's why they're there. That's why they work so hard. That's why Bo Nix is doing all the, you know, throwing the giant medicine balls at the wall and he's doing all the throwing drills. He's meeting with Drew Brees and Tom House. Like, go win the dang thing.

Starting point is 00:08:49 Go win the Super Bowl. and create some history. Create your own legacy in Denver. It's time for a new era. Cody, the Broncos last time they changed uniforms. I think it was the second season that they had them, that they went there and they won. They went back-to-back Super Bowl.

Starting point is 00:09:04 So changed uniforms last year. I don't know. I'm just saying, let's just throwing it out there. I mean, the ties that buying are very appealing right now. Broncos country should have you a little excited as well. But more importantly, the Broncos offense coming out of this practice, healthy and more importantly, taking strides forward and looking forward to seeing continuing contributions from guys like Troy Franklin.

Starting point is 00:09:25 You get J.K. Dobbins in the mix, R.J. Harvey. And even, you know, just Marvin Mims catching a touchdown from Bonex. Trent Shurfield catching a touchdown from Bonax. Cortland Sutton also hauling in a touchdown. A good overall day here by the Broncos and obviously the starters, as we know, we'll play some in the NFL preseason, how much that remains to be determined here. LeBroncos, country, let's know your thoughts on the offense is performing. in the joint practice on Thursday against the San Francisco 49ers.

Starting point is 00:09:52 We'll take a look coming up next on the Broncos defense, how they got off to a hot start, but they fizzled out a little bit toward the end of practice. We'll look at that and much more here on today's episode of the show. Broncos Country, today's episode, the show is brought to you by friends over there at Fandu. And as you all know, Fandu is America's number one sportsbook, and summertime is the perfect time to get in on the action, because summer sports are in full swing and whether you're all about baseball under the lights,

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Starting point is 00:11:12 We'll tell you what went down at joint practice. but want to say thank you once again to all of you that make us your first listen of the day every single day here. If you haven't already done so, we greatly appreciate if you hit subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts as well as on YouTube. We're getting close to 20K on YouTube, Cody.

Starting point is 00:11:29 Let's make it happen here. Beautiful. Start of the season. We can make it happen everybody. So we appreciate you for doing that. But let's talk about the defense going up against San Francisco's offense. Of course, no Dre Greenlaw out there, as was expected, Cody. He didn't practice.

Starting point is 00:11:42 He's obviously still coming back. slowly from the injury. The Broncos will continue to acclimate him. Same thing with Alex Singleton. No reason to risk with a full contact, full speed practice, getting these guys hurt in a situation like that doesn't make sense at all. Like we said, you want these guys to get to week one as healthy as possible. So they'll be back practicing at some point, I assume. But let's talk about this defense. Cody, what were the big standouts? I mean, it sounded to me like the Broncos started off hot, cooled off at the end of this practice. Where do you think they started well? And,

Starting point is 00:12:14 what happened down the stretch. Yeah, real quick. Before we get into that, a quick update on Dre Greenlaw, Sean Payton did tell us after practice that Dre should be ready to go back full speed Monday. Once the team comes back, he's not going to play in this preseason game. So obviously something to monitor there. So good news there for everyone in Broncos country. But I mean, obviously it sounded like early on and one-on-ones, that, you know, that's a great opportunity to see your secondary, your cover guys go up against some of the wide receivers

Starting point is 00:12:41 that obviously the 49ers have, including Ricky Pearson, who the hype surrounding him, he seems to be having a really tremendous training camp. If we listen to our friends, Brian Peacock and Crocky over there at Lockdown 40-Niters and beat reporters over in San Fran, say, hey, Ricky Pearsall has kind of turned it up a little bit. You know, Brandon Ayuk did not participate. Obviously, he's still coming back from his ACL. Joanne Jennings has this contract dispute that is not obviously, you know, playing into the favor, I think, of where he would want to be right now.

Starting point is 00:13:07 But, yeah, obviously with those wide receivers and those situations being factored into it, I think that the Broncos, you know, when you get in the job, team period. How do you fare against Christian McCaffey, right? And from the sound of it, the Broncos defensive line, they did a really good job stopping the run, but Brock Purdy at times, got them on a couple of passes in the move of the ball team period. He found obviously Ricky Pearsall for a touchdown with Jade Barron, who apparently had pretty good coverage on the players, a better catch and throw. But for the Broncos, it's being able to maybe show up some of those miscommunications. If that was the case there, it's unclear. There was no Brandon Jones

Starting point is 00:13:41 at practice today. So it was Devin Key and Talanoa Hufanga and Keith had a standout day from some of the reports that came out of there. But on the move of the ball period, I think just a different look offensively. We know what type of challenge San Francisco presents here for Denver and for any team. And it's kind of a scheme that the Broncos and Vance Joseph had kind of struggled with over the course of the last two years. You factor in a similar scheme in Miami with Mike McDaniel. We saw that 70 to 20 game there. The Detroit Lions a few years ago as well in that same year, Those types of offenses have kind of been problematic. So it sounds like Denver was able to corral the run game,

Starting point is 00:14:16 but some passes kind of, you know, got the best of that defense. Not only the first team defense with some inside routes, but maybe a couple of miscommunications in the red zone period. You want to shape that up. And despite that, Riley Moss continuing a strong, strong training camp by all accounts of Thursday's practice. Absolutely. Riley Moss continues to stack the days, which has been a great sign after last year, how things ended.

Starting point is 00:14:39 Of course, the discourse that's gone on all. season, you want to see that guy absolutely crush it out there. Sounds like he has been. I heard about a couple of interceptions as well. Cody, sound like J.L. Skinner and J. Kwan McMill. McMillan got Brock Purdy in their seven-on-seven work with interceptions. So that's exciting to hear about. Of course, we know there's nothing to really take from Ractus interceptions other than the fact that they happen. And it's not necessarily an indictment on Purdy. It's just, hey, you, you've all found you. You made a play. That's good. You finally, J.L. Skinner popped up. That's kind of what I'm

Starting point is 00:15:11 I think, Cody is. I mean, we needed to hear about him popping up. Other guys who popped up as well. I saw In Yomo Uazirike had a sack. Savian Jones had a sack. So a lot of first timers popping up onto the radar here as the Broncos got out there against a new team, a new offensive line, you know, whatever it may be.

Starting point is 00:15:31 I don't know if it's just juices flowing differently or what it is, but a number of different guys that we have not heard about, including all those guys. I just mentioned Macmillan, Skinner, Uwazerike Jones. We haven't talked about them hardly at all during camp, and they finally made some plays here against the 49ers. Well, let's go back to Jada Baron as well.

Starting point is 00:15:50 One of the things that stood out in terms of that, you know, Vance Joseph told us a couple of days ago in Denver before the team traveled to San Francisco was, you know, you always want it with a young guy like that, practice is great because you want him to get all those mistakes out of the way. And, you know,

Starting point is 00:16:05 he's made some mistakes in practice. And it's been quiet, but he's also had a good practice too. And that's something I think people are glossing over or what Vance said. They're like, wow, he struggled a little bit. I mean, you expect young guys to struggle in a sense with all the rules that he has to face.

Starting point is 00:16:19 Like when you're playing in the nickel, it's not just as simple as like, hey, this is my rule. Your rule changes based on the splits of the wide receivers. Of course, Mann and zone coverage factor into it. But for another element, like even while Baron is still learning and growing, which is going to be great for him, he's also shown to be an effective blitzer, according to the reports as well. And I've seen this at Broncos practice.

Starting point is 00:16:38 When he blitzes off from the nickel side, he does. a really good job of disguising it. He never really showcases it. He had to force bow nicks to throw a pass away a few days ago at practice and he moved the ball period there where the Broncos eventually kicked the field goal that would have been end of the half, given them a nine six lead. And on kind of a same situation here, he blitzed against Brock Purdy and was able to force kind of a throwaway there. Or he would have had a sack according to the accounts over there at practice. So you want to see these guys continuing to make strides in that department. And speaking of that department,

Starting point is 00:17:09 I mean, Seveon Jones, Jordan Jackson, those guys getting into the mix alongside Uwazirica, as you had mentioned there. We're seeing the stories carry over into another practice setting where, hey, this Broncos defense is very, very good. And Christian McCaffrey and his post-practice press conference for the 49ers said that it was a great run defense that the Broncos have. And overall, they have a really great defense. And Christian, look, of course, he's not going to go out there in the meet and say, ah, you know, we felt like we could do whatever we wanted against their defense, anything like that. Christian's a humble guy. Christian's never going to be one to bash opponent. And of course, you would say, what else would you expect them to say?

Starting point is 00:17:46 But Christian acknowledging and said his thoughts, he felt like the Broncos had a really great defense. And that's good news. You want to be able to hear that and you want to see that carry over because these guys more than likely aren't going to play on Saturday when Denver lines up against the 49ers, right? The starters for Denver will, but it'll be under different circumstances potentially against Mack Jones. Which will put a lot more pressure on those defensive players to perform at a high level because everybody's going to be. be saying you let mac jones and the you know 49 or second third string players do this to you i mean that's going to be the narrative so you got to go out there and absolutely kill it which i think they will and look when you talk about this is what gets me so excited we see against a different team jade

Starting point is 00:18:25 baron showing what he can do as a blitzer cody you've mentioned like we may see jade and jacuan macmillan on the field at the same time those two guys can blitz really well from the slot and i think that they can disguise a lot of things for the Broncos. Imagine those two guys on the field, both of them showing blitz. What's a quarterback going to do? He's going to have a hot somewhere, right? And the Broncos will be able to feed off of that and be able to kind of take advantage of that, the overaggressiveness or the overthinking things when a quarterback has to make a split decision

Starting point is 00:18:55 like that. That's where Talanoa Hufanga can be line it in and take the ball away. And I just love that the Broncos have so many options on this side of the ball. Now, yes, they do have to get it kind of cleaned up. when it comes to covering running backs in the passing game because, like you said, that's been an issue for them. They've allowed teams to kind of run all over them in that way, whether it was the, you know, the Shanahan style of offense or if it was Josh Jacobs, you know, like they've

Starting point is 00:19:21 let all these different guys do that and they just can't have it. So open field tackling, utilizing these defensive backs as blitzers to go make plays in the backfield or disrupt. Maybe these running backs coming out of the backfield. I think that's going to be absolutely critical for this team. in the preseason, that might be something to watch for us, how they respond to running backs coming out of the backfield running routes. That'll be a big key.

Starting point is 00:19:44 And it sounds like from the passing game standpoint by the 49ers in this joint practice where they had the most success was quick inside passes. So, I mean, that could be, you know, a wide range of different route combinations. And so without being able to see the tape or the plays, it's going to be hard for me to make a judgment for an evaluation on that. But the quick passing game could be an approach that teams might try to use to negate the Broncos blitz effect. this upcoming season. We'll see how things go there. But Broncos country, we want to know your thoughts on the

Starting point is 00:20:10 Broncos defense and their effort against the 49ers in Thursday's joint practice. We're not done yet. We still got a lot to break down here on today's episode of show, including an update on Will Lutz. Should the Broncos be concerned after Will Lutz apparently missed several kicks in one of the key team periods? We'll go through that and some injury updates potentially on Brandon Jones and others here on today's episode of the show. This episode is presented by Yahoo! Fantasy, and it's the best time of the year, folks, because NFL kickoff is almost here. And that means that fantasy football season is back in full swing. And this year, Yahoo! Fantasy is turning things up with a fantasy football experience like never before. So get your Knicks and your kicks with fantasy football. And this year, me and Sarah Benendrober

Starting point is 00:20:53 here at Lockdown Broncos, we're playing on Yahoo! Fantasy. And you should too, whether you're a first timer or you're a veteran that's making your millionth league. Cody, I've mentioned this before, but I used to play on Yahoo Fantasy football where you had to manually input all of your draft selections after we would write them all down on a whiteboard at Buffalo Wild Wings or something like that. Shout out to Jeremy Macklin who helped me win a fantasy league one year. Antonio Brown, the boys from my undefeated team. You all, you know, we didn't have a press conference or anything, but you know what? Yahoo Fantasy is where it's at. And to celebrate 28 years of fantasy football greatness, Yahoo Fantasy is dropping 28 big new features over 28 days

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Starting point is 00:21:51 you can still play in head-to-head private leagues or join a public league. Stay tuned for more killer announcements and start playing Yahoo! Fantasy football now at yahoofantasy.com slash lockdown NFL. Following Thursday's joint practice against San Francisco, 49ers of Broncos have several updates on key players like Drake Green Lons.

Starting point is 00:22:10 We've highlighted a little bit, Alex Singleton, and then Brandon Jones, who is not spotted at Broncos practice, we'll keep an eye on that. But is there a concern around Will Lutz's day that he had for the Broncos? I feel like we should definitely talk about it. There's definitely a factor. I'm never usually worried about the kicker, especially when it comes to training camp kicks and practices.

Starting point is 00:22:32 But when you're going against another team, you're getting another look. Certainly, I think it's something to monitor here, as it was reported, by Chris Thomason of the Gazette that Will Lutz had three misses wide left today in the Broncos team period against the 49ers defense. And look, that's something in the regular season you simply can't have happened. I think in Will Lutz's first year, you look at that being a difference maker in some of those early season games that the Broncos had. You know, obviously he's been better since.

Starting point is 00:22:59 But is there any reason to be concerned about Will Lutz's apparent rough day in Santa Clara? Well, I think anytime you miss three and one practice and it stands out. That's the one thing about a lot of special teams guys, isn't it? Cody, it's like if you're doing your job and you're doing it well, you're typically not going to get talked about unless you do something spectacular. If you're getting talked about as a special teams guy, it's usually not for a good reason, right? And when you're missing this many kicks, it stands out in such a way that's like, all right,

Starting point is 00:23:27 that's, you know, you fool me once, fool me twice, fool me three times. I do put a little bit of stock into that because you feel like kickers are, like relief pitchers in baseball where if they get the yips, man, it could take them a long time to get out of it. It might, sometimes it takes in these kickers situations, it takes them a change of scenery to really get out of that funk. And I don't think let's not overreact to this or anything. I'm not saying that that's going to happen with the Broncos and Will Lutz, but what I am

Starting point is 00:23:54 saying is that, hey, it's worth kind of pointing out that it happened on this day if these struggles do persist. Because if he misses a kick early in the season, that decides a game, people are. are going to point back to this practice against the 49ers and be like, you didn't see the signs coming. Like he missed three in one practice and you didn't go out and do anything to fix it or whatever the case may be. So that's the one thing that I do worry about a little bit is that if it carries over,

Starting point is 00:24:19 because he's going to need to go out and have a couple of really good practices in a row to kind of kick that, you know, pun intended there, I guess. But it's just one of those situations that gives you a little bit of reason to pause. Well, and I'll say too, there's so much missing. context when it comes to at least practice, right? And a joint practice at that because, you know, it's not like a game where you have cameras, you have replay and things like that. So, you know, it could have been something that maybe he overshot his first one or was there a low snap? Was there maybe it was the hold by Croshaw, the punter? Was it not handled properly? Like,

Starting point is 00:24:52 these are things that we are obviously not hearing and we don't know of yet. So that could factor into it. I think I'm going to keep an eye on him obviously in the preseason opener here. Hopefully the Broncos are kicking a lot of extra points and not necessarily field goals. But when he gets into field goal opportunities. Can Will Lutz obviously make those? Because look, if you have, you need to make them now, especially if you have ambitions of getting back to Santa Clara at this same exact stadium for the Super Bowl,

Starting point is 00:25:16 you best be right. You better be making those kicks because I don't even remember the perfect poke season that Brandon McManus had in that 2015 run, especially in the Super Bowl, came up big off the leg of Brandon McManus. Will Lutz definitely going to have to make his kicks here. I'm not concerned about it, but obviously this is something will maybe put a little bit of a bookmark onto and then revisit a little bit later.

Starting point is 00:25:34 it does pop up here. But let's go through maybe some injury updates and news and notes you're coming out of Thursday's practice. We highlighted a little bit earlier about Drake Greenlaw, Alex Singleton, not participating, not being out there. They were observing practice. Matt Henningson is a player who rolled his ankle, obviously during practice. I'm not sure if he ever came back out, but John Franklin Myers also apparently rolled his ankle, got it taped up, but was a little bit hobbled at that point. So maybe a little bit more of an extensive look at those young guys who mentioned, the Savian Jones, the Noma-Uwasar case of the Jordan Jackson's, those guys had pretty big days.

Starting point is 00:26:07 Not sure if it was in place of those guys who maybe got banged up, but I would say your thoughts on that, Sarah. And then obviously the biggest one is we did not see Brandon Jones and Sean Peyton didn't have an update for us on practice. Not sure if it's injury related or not or if it's just maybe one of those veteran days. But to me, maybe something to monitor because Brandon Jones is going to be a very important part of this defense this upcoming season. Yeah, he is.

Starting point is 00:26:28 Remember last year how he missed a lot of the offseason program and a good, I think it was a chunk of train camp. If I remember all of training camp. All of training camp. So that was a huge concern. And he's another one of those guys that you want to get him to week one. Because now there's proof of concept, so to speak, right? After last year where I was, I was ready to be like, this is stupid.

Starting point is 00:26:49 Why do we get rid of Justin Simmons when this guy's not even able to practice? He hasn't been around. Like, how is you going to hit the ground running at the start of the year? Well, shows how much I know about Brandon Jones's health and what he's capable of doing, I guess. So I guess that's a situation where you. do get a little concerned about it because Sean Peyton also talked about how some guys were held out of this practice, but others were left back in Denver based on the severity of injuries. So I'm interested to find out just like you are, you know, the seriousness of that if there is anything going on there. And ultimately,

Starting point is 00:27:21 the Broncos have avoided anything super serious for the most part up to this point. And so you keep your fingers crossed and, you know, you say a prayer or whatever, knock on wood, I guess, whatever you do to hopefully keep these guys on the field. That's what the Broncos need to do. Get these guys to week one. So the de-linmen, though, I don't really worry so much about those guys. Cody, I mean, those guys play through anything, don't they? I mean, they're so tough and they're physical. And especially a guy like Henningson, you feel like he's going to do whatever it takes to

Starting point is 00:27:49 scrape and claw his way, at least onto a practice squad, if not another roster around the league because he could be that good. And with John Franklin Myers, certainly worth monitoring. But at the same time, you get these young guys more opportunities. Good to hear the Savian Jones is getting, you know, impressive reps and was looking good against that 49ers offensive line. A little fun thing that Talanoa Hufanga had said in his post practice, Presby said he threw a couple of air punches at Trent Williams,

Starting point is 00:28:16 just for fun. You know, some people who know Trent Williams, his tendency to maybe throw a punch or something like that. That was a fun little bar between those two guys here. But I feel like maybe the most important update we should provide here as we get ready to close out today's episode of show. Don Payton kind of confirmed more or less that maybe there are two spots open at this running back position behind J.K. Dobbins and R.J. Harvey, Tyler Badeh, apparently had himself

Starting point is 00:28:39 a really nice day. And one thing that Sean said in response to our good friend Mike Cliss, his question about Badee was he, you know, he's offering value as a pass catcher out of the backfield. He's a good runner. He's explosive. And he's very much in the mix with several of these other backs at a position that Peyton says he's excited to see play out for one or two spots. I mean, that kind of almost kind of puts it out that, all right, I guarantee you, maybe Denver is going to carry four under the 53. And maybe that. competition is kind of open between Badei, Watson, and Audrake Estime. A hundred percent.

Starting point is 00:29:11 Yeah, I get that impression as well that this, this is a guy that Sean really likes. Remember, at the end of last year, he pulled him off the injury report and benched Audrake Estimate for the playoff game. I know that a lot has been made of that for varying reasons, but I think ultimately what gets lost in that is that Sean Payton really likes Tyler Bade, because last year during that Bucs game, he ran the best that I think we saw pretty much any. back over the course of the season in any individual game, right? So the Broncos wanted to have him try to build on that against the Jets.

Starting point is 00:29:41 Obviously, he suffered that injury that kept him out for the majority of the year. But man, every time he's been out there on the field, it feels like Cody, dating back to the very first touch that he ever got with the team, that he's just an explosive play waiting to happen. And the Broncos recognize that better than anybody else. They're not oblivious to the fact that he caught his first NFL pass and took it to the house. They're not oblivious that he carved up the Buccaneers defense in the,

Starting point is 00:30:06 just off the practice squad, right? So he can play. And I think that he's in a competition. Obviously, like you said, Estimee Watson. I'm still keeping close tabs this preseason on Jalilil McLaughlin as well. Cody, you know I've been hard on him all offseason. I want to see what he can do now entering year three to bounce back after a tough year last year. We want to hear from you, Broncos, country.

Starting point is 00:30:27 Your thoughts on ongoing running back competition. We're going to see some extra steps here from very, is position battles when the Broncos take the field on Saturday, 6.30 p.m. Mountain time for kickoff preseason opener, week one. We're excited about it. We're going to be with you every step of the way. But that'll wrap up today's episode of the show. Broncos country for all you every dayers. Here's what you're going to get tomorrow. Sarah and I, we're going to sit down and we're going to share our preview as to what we want to see from the Broncos offense. But more importantly, we're going to give our players on offense that we're going to have our eyes on, players on defense that we want to see step up. And we're going to give you a plan that the Broncos have against the 49ers in terms of rolling out.

Starting point is 00:31:02 out different phases of rotations here to be able to get guys reps in the preseason and obviously the opener that they have here against San Francisco. Stay locked in, Broncos Country. We'll see it tomorrow for a brand new episode of the show.

Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - Bo Nix, Denver Broncos Offense Take BIG STRIDES in 49ers Joint Practice

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