Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - BRONCOS SQUAD SHOW: Are Broncos Getting Ready To Make Another BIG MOVE?

Episode Date: March 24, 2026

The Denver Broncos made their big splash of the offseason last week by trading with the Miami Dolphins for wide receiver Jaylen Waddle. With that, news came down Tuesday morning that the Broncos are planning to restructure his contract to free up additional cap space. Could the Sean Payton and the Broncos be gearing up for another move? Join Aniello Piro, Cody Roark, Sayre Bedinger and Nick Ferguson on today's Locked On Broncos Squad Show to break down the latest news and notes in the world of Broncos football. 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 learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclub Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! TurboTax This year you’re getting a major upgrade — Intuit TurboTax now has in-person locations nationwide. Visit http://TurboTax.com/local to book your appointment today. Indeed Listeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/podcast. Gametime Today's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply. Robinhood You’re no longer just a spectator. Play by play. You decide. Trade 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. FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. During the tournament FanDuel is offering $300 back in Bonus Bets every day for ten days. Visit https://FANDUEL.COM to get started — Play Your Game. 5-Hour ENERGY Have your cake & drink it too. Birthday cake-flavor is back, no fork needed. Vanilla-y cakey flavor, caffeinated kick, and no sugar. It's party time. Order Now at 5-hourENERGY.com or Amazon. Home Chef For a limited time, Home Chef is offering my listeners 50% off your first box, free shipping, and free dessert for life. Go to http://HomeChef.com/LOCKEDON. 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.

I'm an I'm anilo Piro and the Broncos made a big splash last week. Could another name be coming to Denver this week or sometime in the near future? I'm Cody Rourke and the Denver Broncos offseason has been pretty good as is after the addition of Jalen Wild. I'm Sarah Beninger. I can't believe the Broncos decided to have fun without me. Don't try me like that. And I'm Nick Ferguson and I am a little horse. Okay.

We'll find out what that means. And we'll talk about it on today's Lockdown Bronco Squad show. From the South stands, it's the Broncos squad. Everything Denver Broncos every week. Covering all the big hits and game-changing plays from the Mile High City, the way only the Lockdown Podcast Network can. Gear up and squad up. The Broncos Squad Show starts now.

It is your Lockdown Broncos squad show right here on your Lockdown Broncos YouTube channel and audio feed. Hope everyone in Broncos country is doing well out there. It's almost criminal. I know, sir, you're not in Colorado, but it's like 77 degrees right now. I was driving back home from the gym, and I'm like, I kind of want to just go sit outside. So we're going to crank this show out,

and then I'm going to go enjoy some of the nice weather. I'm going to drive down to work. But yeah, hope everyone in Broncos country is doing well. We've got the full squad here today. Anilo Piro, Cody Works here, Bettinger, and Nick Ferguson. What's up, fellas? How's up, fellas? How's it going on? How's it going, fellas?

It's good to see you all again. It's nice to have a full squad show here. Sarah was having fun, but at the same time, he was in a lot of pain. Because when we were having fun, he was actually at a work conference. Dude, when you texted me when, because like we're getting ready to do the show last Tuesday, right? And like the waddle, did the Waddlewis coming on, was it Tuesday or Monday? Tuesday. So it was the day of.

And I'm like, oh my gosh. Like obviously I'm excited to talk to Cody and Nick, but like, Sarah's been like pounding the drum about this off season. And then Cody texted me that he's at a work conference. And I'm like, that is terrible timing. So let me kick it to you first, just because I know you've done other shows with Cody, but with the squad show dynamics, Sarah, just kind of your quick thoughts here,

now that the dust is settled on the Broncos acquiring Jalen Waddle. Yeah, I really, I was really bummed that I missed out. I was in an Uber and my phone starts, you know, flowing up. And so it was like, man, of course. Like I even brought a microphone with me. I was ready in case anything happened during like the downtime. but man, it's it's so gratifying in a way to kind of see the Broncos take a big swing like that after. I know that there was a lot of debate of like, well, this is an AFC championship roster.

And of course, they want to bring everybody back. And they don't really need to make any huge splashes. And it's not really that type of, you know, players available this off season. And then it's just kind of nice to have the Broncos take the swing that, you know, for lack of a better term, that I was complaining for them not making. And I think that it's clear that like when the move like that gets made that you're in alignment in some way. And in a lot of ways, Cody and I, we've talked, I have so many images in my downloads of Jalen Waddle over the past like six months. And we've talked about him so much.

So I would say just gratifying in a way to know that like, okay, we're we're kind of on the same page with the organization here. Just the timing. Obviously, we don't know everything that's going on behind the scenes. Broncos don't want people to know what's going on behind the scenes. So timing is everything, but it's good to know that we're all on the same page here at the squad show and in Dove Valley. Yeah, I want to give a quick shout out here to the Dream Catalyst 2112. He's watching from Greece.

Greek is sick. So we're overseas right now here on the squad show. I'm jealous, man. It's awesome. Yeah, dude. That's pretty cool. So we appreciate all of you guys out there. But yes, Sarah, I mean, and we obviously heard from Jalen Waddle when he's,

met with the media for the first time. We'll dive into that throughout the course of the program. Didn't really say much, which I don't necessarily think is a bad thing. But I feel like I don't want to say that it saved the off season, but I think it saved Broncos country a bit of tension. Right? Because like Broncos country on social media, that first week of free agency, Cody. Interesting place.

It was a minefield with tweets left and right and frustration coming out. Yeah, no. And that's what social media still is to this day. Look, and there was these fake little accounts that are like tweeting out. careful Broncos country something big's happening something's coming it's like stop listening to those folks like you'd realize by now that the Broncos don't let anything out of that building right they let people know when it actually happens not beforehand and those people are the Denver Post 9 news it's not in some random YouTuber it's not that so stop getting your hopes up but I will say that the frustration I like I think Broncos fans were perfectly valid in feeling frustrated by the approach at first right the lack of movement. Now, ultimately, behind the scenes, while we were all complaining, right? And we're allowed to. We're entitled to that they weren't doing anything. They were doing things. They just, once again, that was just not our knowledge. That was not our public knowledge at that point.

So they're like, you know, people are allowed to feel, you know, mad or, you know, just, what are they doing? They're the only team that hasn't made a move. Well, there's a good reason behind it. I think really, if you look behind the scenes too, and you look at them restructuring Cooper's contract, when minors, like, they're maneuvering something. What is it? not sure. But now we know. So all is well in Broncos land. Yeah, Nick, and we had a pretty good conversation last week. And Cody, I know you've had the opportunity to do some film studies. I've seen your post over at Mileis Sports. Nick, I'm sure you've been able to watch just some of the film on Waddle and just even bank it on your knowledge of just who he's been as a receiver.

Like now that we've kind of had a little time to kind of digest it, right? Like there's that initial excitement, as Cody alluded to of like, they did something. They brought in a big name, right? But the more that I kind of think about it, like this is a guy that I think is, going to be a really nice fit and a complimenter. I don't want to say a complimenting receiver to the Broncos. I think he'll compliment the rest of the receivers that Denver already has and really just open up the playbook here a little bit.

Well, I don't want to say that he's going to compliment those guys. He's going to be the guy. Because when you look at the fact of why the Broncos did this and they doubled down. Last year this time, they were looking for Waddle and the price was too high. So they said, well, you know what? But let's go ahead and take our Y receiver group out for a test run and see what it's like after the season. And basically by bringing in Wado, they're telling you they don't think their Y receiver group is good enough. I know Sean Payton told us at the Combine, or he may mention at the Combine, it's me paraphrasing that, hey, we are okay with our Y receiver room.

Only for us to find out he wasn't okay with his Y receiver room. Because if you were okay with Cortland Sutton and some of the young guys that you have and Pat Bryan and Troy Frey. and Marvin Mims, you wouldn't have made this move. I mean, somewhat so you brought back LaJore and Humphrey, and we know what LaJore and Humphrey is. He is not one of those guys. He is just a serviceable guy because he knows the system, and Sean Payton knows him.

But is he a capable guy, dependable guy for bonnics? No. So the Broncos needed a dependable guy. And we thought that Marvin Mims was going to be that guy because, let's go back a couple of years. Marvin Mims was Sean Payton's first draft it. Right. And as I try to tell people, he didn't draft Marvin because his wide receiver's prowess. He drafted him because he was great as a special team's player.

And it's unfortunate, but that's how Marvin Mims is visualized. And he's seen within the organization is just being a special team's player with wide receiver capability. And just think about what we've seen. We've seen the team try to use Marvin Mims at the running back position. He is not Debo Samu's. He's not. but he has a lot of playmaking ability, but bringing in a guy like Waddle

not only makes that wide receiver room much better, but it puts certain guys on notice. Yeah, 100%. And it's going to be interesting to see how training camp kind of plays out with guys like Troy Franklin, Marvin Mims, right? I think we know what Cortland Sutton is. I'm not worried about him necessarily, but like how does it maybe change the dynamic,

if at all, with this wide receiver room. And Cody, I mean, I think when you look at Waddle the player as well, like you're getting a level of explosiveness and just kind of a change of pace. Like he's a different type of wide receiver than Cortland. That it should kind of just add another layer to this Broncos offense that maybe they've struggled to tap into with guys in Franklin and Mims on a consistent basis. Man, he's a dog.

Like Jalen Waddle is everything that Broncos fans have been asking for in terms of getting a guy that can do something for this offense, right? Cortland has his own skill set that's unique, right? I think for his size, there's a value in what Cortland does. But how can you open everything else up for the offense? The Broncos haven't had a guy, like they were hoping Jerry Judy was going to be this guy that could just demolish man covered, zone cover, just be this game changer. Jerry struggle with drops.

Jerry struggle with attitude, whereas you're getting a guy in Jalen Waddle who played alongside Jerry Judy. And you talk about the rich history of like who he played with at Alabama, who he went up against defensively every day at Alabama and PS2 and the defensive guys that they had. Jalen Waddle is a game changer in every sense of the term there because this is a guy who can win against man, win against zone. I mean, the Broncos haven't had a guy that can run the speed out effectively enough like Jalen can. And there's times where corners are playing offball coverage.

He's still beating them on that speed out because he knows how to attack leverage. He's a great route runner. Like this is something the Broncos certainly haven't had in quite some time. I'm really trying to rack my head thinking about a guy who can move the way that he does. I think the last guy was Emmanuel Sanders that could actually move fluidly as a route runner in a sense and actually produced like that. But I'm not saying that Jalen Waddle is the next to Emmanuel Sanders or vice versa. I'm just saying the Broncos haven't had a guy with the Twitch and the move and the actual

ability than I think since they did with Emmanuel. Yeah, I think it's like it's you don't want to ever comp the two, right? And I'm not big on comps because it's just like each player's unique, right? Like in La Wadle is himself. Exactly. But I think there's similarities, right? And we've seen what a Broncos offense looks like with a Cortland Sutton type alongside with the Jalen Waddle type.

And so it's not a direct comparison, Sarah, but I think it speaks to maybe a vision that you could see with this Broncos offense. Yeah, I mean, to your point about the complimentary skill sets, I think that that is an important factor here, because now you have situations like I know we brought up Marvin Mims already. Cody and I have a full episode coming out about kind of what this move means for Marvin Mims and why I know he's maybe questioning his role right now,

but I think it's a good thing for everybody. And you just kind of put that picture before yourself and say, okay, if Cortland Sutton, Marvin Mims, and Jalen Waddle are all on the field at the same time, how does a defense defend against that? And what does that change over the course of a game, over the course of a season? So you've got 14, 19, and 17 out there. You're circling number 17 because as Nick said, he could be the focal point of your passing game. That opens up opportunities first and foremost for 14. And then secondly, for Marvin Mims. So you send Mims in motion. Now all of a sudden, And, okay, 17 is circled, but 19 is moving around.

And defenses just don't have any sort of, there's no way that you can possibly effectively defend that over the course of four quarters, especially if your running game is cooking a little bit. And then you've got Evan Ingram to think about. So the dreaming should be, I mean, Davis Webb should be sleeping well at night and having dreams of the plays that he can draw up with these guys. Because when you elevate the talent of your offensive weaponry, like we've been just begging for the Broncos to do like give Bo Nix something else because yes it's nice to

have a reliable veteran like Cortland Sutton and it's nice to have young guys that you believe in like Mims and Franklin and Pat Bryant but unless you elevate the talent of the skill position players offensively the best of what those guys bring to the table is being wasted because there's nobody to take pressure off of them there's a reason why the Chicago Bulls started winning titles when Scottie Pippen came around because now all of a sudden you can't just, okay, let's take Michael Jordan out of the game. What else do the Bulls have? Well, now when they've got a second player who can actually do some damage,

it creates better opportunities for your best players to do what they do best. And so bringing in Jalen Waddle, it's going to clear out space for Marvin Mims to make those plays in the short passing game that the Broncos just haven't been able to do because teams can easily take that away. It's going to open up one-on-one chances for Sutton. to do what he does best, 60, 40 balls down the sideline. I mean, all these things are impacted by one player coming in. And it's why it's just what we've been asking for.

What we've been begging for is now the reality. Yeah, I think you're spot on 100%. And I think, you know, hopefully he's kind of the rising tie that raises all boats. And, you know, I've been on the record last week talking about how I think R.J. Harvey is going to really have a nice increased role and just have some other looks now that Jalen Waddle is a part of this offense too. So we'll see how it shakes out. But one thing I want to hit on before we hit a break is we saw Jackson Smith and Jigba get paid yesterday by the Seattle Seahawks, a insane amount of money.

Highest paid wide receiver in the NFL here at the moment. I'm sure Pooka Nukuwa will surpass that when his time comes. But my first thought when it came to the Wattle trade is I love how the Broncos now have two, you know, established receivers in Waddle and Sutton respectively, along with the upside of guys in Troy Franklin and Marvin Mims and R.J. Harvey and Pat Bryant. in different capacities. And I love the fact, Nick, that they don't have to break the bank to make this happen because I'm looking at $42 million for one player

in Jackson Smith and Jigba. And I'm saying Denver's paying Corton Sutton and Jalen Waddle essentially combined that money. I like the approach that Denver's taking this offseason as well in upgrading that room, but not having to break the bank along the way. Yeah, all of that is important and to keep a team intact. And the one thing that allows the Broncos to do that is having both Nicks on a rookie team.

deal. But here's the thing, guys, rent is coming due. After this season, if Bo has a spectacular season, and let's just say Waddle or Marvin Mams, you could choose your wide receiver, they have a breakout season. Now, I'm sure Bo Nix camp is going to be like, yo, we need to get a deal done right now. And if you go to Denver Broncos, you will want to get that deal done more sooner than later because we know that right now, currently the NFL is in negotiations with a lot of media partners and they're asking for billions of dollars. So that money's going to go up, which will make, you know, Bose number go up.

But being able to get that deal done sooner than later is very important. But also, here's the thing. We're talking about Jalen Waddle and we're talking about the wide receiver room. See, competition makes everyone better or should. And we'll get a chance to see which one of these Y receivers are willing to elevate their level of play because, you know, the conversation should be about, rock running. And that's why Wada was here, because the Broncos

didn't feel as though the current Y receiver room as constructed, they were excellent route runners. And this is no disrespect to any of those guys. I mean, I would go in that locker room as a former defender and tell these guys, I don't mean you any disrespect, but I'm going to tell you from being a former

player and a coach, some of your routes were not as clean as they need to. You guys struggled at the top of your route, trying to separate. Now you have a guy who's going to open up the entire field, for everyone, even the run game. So I'm hoping that this means as though the Broncos are going to score more than an average last year,

which was about 20 points a game. Hopefully that jumps up to 24 to 27 because if that happens and the defense continues to play, like they played last year and they're healthy, I'm not saying that the Broncos repeat exactly what they had last year, but it's definitely going to put them in the conversation. Yeah, 100%. And it's going to be.

interesting. Like I'm chomping at the bit, like just to get to training camp. I'll probably be sick of training camp after about a week because then I'm ready for the regular season. And maybe after the slog that is preseason and all that kind of stuff as well. But you make good points. And one more thing I want to throw out there before we hit a break, because I agree with you. Like, you got to pay your rent when it comes to Bo Nix. The Broncos has been pretty good at getting ahead of the curb on some of these deals. Like look at the Pats or Tann contract they signed him to. That thing is aged like fine line. So I do think whatever route the Broncos decide to go down with Bo Nix with respect to his contract extension will be we'll look back on it and say they did the

right thing. Go ahead, Sarah. Yeah, I just want to add to that because with a Bo Nix contract extension, so he's obviously in the third year now of his rookie deal, which time flies when you're having fun. I love it and it's great stuff. But yeah, now he's going to be contract eligible after this season. But keep in mind as a first round pick, the Broncos also have that fifth year option. And, you know, some teams are ditching that, which it probably be the right decision. because that cap hit is going to be high. But what happens if you get a long-term extension done after this season with Bo Nix is he still has the fourth year of his rookie deal.

And the initial cap hits of any extension that he signs are going to be rather minimal in terms of cap percentage over the first two years. So we really are probably four years away from having any sort of discussion about, hey, Bo Nix's cap hit this year is like prohibitive in terms of the Broncos. goes they need flexibility at which point they'd be able to start then adding void years to the end of the contract and kick that can down the road when those cap hits come in play. So as we've seen with like Kansas City and like you look at the Cowboys with Dak Prescott and all this money that can be converted, the salary cap is going to continue to rise.

Like I think that there's ways that you look at this that, okay, the rent's coming due, but it's not a Dodgers show hay situation where they're going to be paying him, you know, the majority of his 500 million or whatever it is later down the road. But with Bo Nix, you don't have to worry about that cap hit, like, affecting what you can do in terms of resigning everybody else, probably until like 2028 or 2029. Yeah. I want to add something really quick. Sorry for the interruption. So I just thought that with Jalen Wilder's contract, they converted part of his salary into a signing bonus this season.

So this is another way to manipulate the salary cap, but I wanted to toss that out. Plus, great green laws post-June 1st designation is going to give them eight more million. So they got around a shout out to our friend Luca for posting this. Right now Denver's around like what, 19.7 million. Then that eight is going to kick in. They're going to come into the season probably around $25, $26 million in salary cap space. It's a great place to operate. Yeah, Nick, you were reading my mind because that's where I wanted to kind of bridge the gap here as we go to a

commercial break with that restructure of the waddle money and then on top of what Cody's talking about with Drake Greenlaw in that situation like do we see the Broncos maybe add another player we'll talk about that when we come back right here on your locked on Broncos squad show all right you guys real quick let me tell you about the fine folks over at TurboTax because it's tax time but for a lot of us the old way of doing taxes is a lot trying to book an appointment that's not the most convenient thing to do, sitting in a waiting room with stacks of papers, emailing back and forth and wondering if they really get your situation. That is not very fun. But this year, you're going to get a major upgrade with Intuit TurboTax as they now have in-person locations nationwide. You can meet

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I told you, I was doing so good. I was doing so good. Oh, my gosh. What if Pastor Tantel, Jay Leno water, you got too much dip on your chip, brother. Bro, it's because I got to do the Nugget Show tonight, and I'm just, like, in two different mindsets, and it's just like, oh, my gosh, I've done that only a handful of times since I started doing the Nugget shows, too.

Hey, well, you know, Anilo is your resident locked on Denver squad postcast hosts, folks. At least you don't have to do Rockies. That's nice. Ooh. Yeah. Did you imagine? I did it two years. years ago because they were doing postcasts for the Rockies they have since stopped

to doing those because of how bad they are and I'm not even kidding you don't I think I did like the same show every night like it's like oh they lost eight to four oh they lost nine to three oh you have 23 runs yeah like you know and so it was fine I'm a big baseball is my personal favorite sports like I was happy to talk about it but like that every night oh my gosh it is an absolute slot it is you're a locked on Broncos squad show yes I'm Sarah Bediger and Nick Ferguson. I'll be doing the Nuggets Postcast tonight. So if any of you are Nuggets fans,

feel free to hop over to the Denver Nuggets YouTube channel audio feed. But what Nick was talking about, I got the tweet pulled up here. Or I did. Yeah, here it is from Mike Cliss. This came out this morning right before 8 a.m. A simple restructure on Jalen Wattle's contract, converting $15.42 million in salary in 2026 to signing bonus.

There is a $1.215 million salary for a $1.25 million. total 2026 payout of 17.241 million, which is what he had from the Miami D equals. So the Broncos, maybe some bookkeeping, right? We just did the TurboTax read. So maybe it's just getting their books aligned with whatever they want to do. But let's put on the tinfoil hat here, Cody. Do we think the Broncos are trying to clear some cap space to maybe add another player or two? I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if they add one more player.

I can't see them going out adding two or three guys. But I also think they're going to add one. it has to make sense. And right now I'm trying to think because of what they decided to do at running back and tight end and linebacker in terms of running it back, I don't think they're going to go out there and sign another linebacker. I think they should sign a veteran linebacker, but who wants to come play where you're not going to really start, right?

Obviously, the starter is going to be Justin Sternad and Alex Singleton. Is there a depth option guy? Maybe, right? That could be maybe a second move they make. If they're going to make any move, I think it's going to be an impact move, right? and I think a lot of people have been talking about Cam Jordan. I know I have certainly on our show, Sarah and I have talked about it quite a bit. Darien in the chat is talking about it.

Cam Jordan would be a nice pickup because he replaces JFM. And he's not going to be playing every down. Like that's the thing is he's going to play some Savion Jones, Ennio Moro Wazeriki, like you can replace JFM with three guys versus just hoping a second year guy who hasn't played much is just going to come in and be the answer. I think that would be the one. I would be on board with at this point. I know Sarah did an episode today of the show where he talked about maybe kicking the can on Najee Harris a little bit.

Not bad in terms of like having a veteran insurance policy, but I know a lot of fans are hung up on the, well, he just tore his Achilles. If you've seen him training, he's doing some nice things coming off the Achilles. But the only thing that makes sense to me right now is Cam Jordan or bust. Not David and Joku. I don't even see that at this point, right? especially if Adam Trotman is back on a three-year deal and they used Evan Ingram on 42% of the offensive snaps last season.

What are they going to do? I mean, if you bring in David Nizoku, then it means you've got to get rid of Evan Ingram, at least in my opinion. Like what world is Sean? Maybe Davis Webb changes it, but in what world is that going to work? I just don't see that happening right now.

Yeah. As much as I'd like it to. Yeah, I think I'd agree with you. I mean, for me, if they're going to make a splash move per se, I think it'd be a defensive line or running back. And running back is a little bit different. I just feel like with how that position operates in the NFL. But let's talk about Cam Jordan here for just a second.

He put out the tweet yesterday. What am I even doing right now? Dot, dot, dot. And it's him in like a suit. He's got the sport code on, right? Oh, there's your answer. He's entertaining his options. He's businessman.

He's filing his taxes with turbotex. Yes. He's virtual signaling. And basically what he's trying to say, he's doing two things. simultaneously. He's trying to say, well, you know what? If my career comes to an end, I'm dressed for a success and ready to step into that role as a broadcaster. Also, I'm also letting teams know that I'm free. Hey, Sean Payton out there in Denver. Hey, you remember that

run we had in New Orleans? Hey, we can rekindle that relationship in a mile high city. So he has multiple options. And does Cam Jordan fit with the Broncos need at this particular point? And he can fit a void, but like you said, Cody, he's not going to be in the every down guy. And if I'm in that room with George Payton and I'm having that conversation, and I'm not trying to be adversarial or be a Debbie Downer, but I would have to raise the question, yes,

could we bring in Cam Jordan and he'd be an excellent veteran in our locker room? Absolutely. Does he have familiarity with Sean Payton? Absolutely. But what does that mean for us overall? If we're going to pay a guy, you got to say a better minimum, and he's only playing a handful of plays. But also, you know, do we want to stifle the growth of some of our young players?

I mean, you move John Franklin Myers because of Savian Jones and a Wazareke, so you want to see those guys play. If I'm the Broncos, I would think that those funds could be better use, trying to go out and get another impact player for the offensive side of the ball. And also, you can go on a draft when you can pick up an interior guy because let's be totally honest. John Franklin Myers was a dog last year. He should have got paid.

He should be on this team, but he's not, right? So the idea of having three guys to make up for the production of one, I mean, you can possibly do it, but do you really want to do it? The thing that I would say is, like, I like Savian Jones and I like a Wazerica. I think they have some upside for this Broncos team, but you find yourself like in this championship window right now. And I know that there's some questions about Camp Jordan of like, Is he going to retire?

Does he want to keep playing? And like, Nick, I know you could speak to this. I'm sure all of us could speak to this as well. Just like you grew up wanting to be a professional athlete. And Cam Jordan has been there, done that, has made a lot of money. And if you're kind of teetering on the edge of retirement, you would think the one thing that can get you back in the game for at least one more season is the opportunity to go out there and contend, if not win a Super Bowl.

And if you're looking across the way and it's the Denver Broncos, and you've got a familiar head coach there in Sean Payton who likes you and you have a good relationship. Like, wouldn't that in theory be enough that if you did still have some gas left in the tank, that can get you off the pot and back in the game a little bit here, sir? Yeah, I mean, and this is a guy that had 10 and a half sacks last season. So you had 10 and a half sacks in a rebuilding year for the Saints. Like, I don't know.

As a competitor myself, I'm not a professional athlete by any stretch of the imagination. But I love to compete. I hate losing more than I love winning. There ain't no way that I'd be retiring. after having 10 and a half sacks, I can still play. And, you know, my team just had a losing season. I've never won a Super Bowl. I have a chance to maybe sign with a contender.

So if I'm Cam Jordan, unless the money is so good, but the money's going to still be there for, you know, whatever he wants to do post playing. If it's media stuff or whatever it ends up being, like that money will be there. So find some place that you can go chase a ring, right? And what better place than with the guy that drafted you? And guess what? I mean, who played more snaps last year? John Franklin Myers or Cam Jordan? I'll tell you right now, it was Cam Jordan played 590 snaps compared to John Franklin Myers,

who played 517. So Vance Joseph does a great job already of rotating those guys on the defensive front. And I would argue that's one of the biggest keys to success that the Broncos have had, setting a franchise record in sacks the last two seasons, is the fact that they can bring in different groups of players keeping these guys fresh, all throughout the course of the season. And then now you have a player in Cam Jordan that you can trust in impact moments. When the game is on the line, you throw him out there and say, hey, go make a play or go make

it easier for Nick Benito and Jonathan Cooper to make a play. When the Super Bowl on the line, there's, I mean, and I mean this with all due respect, I mean it with all due respect to these guys as professionals, they have a chance to grow, progress. I mean, with the game on the line, with the Super Bowl on. the line. Are you throwing Yoma Uwazerike or Sabian Jones out there and saying, hey, we're banking on you guys to go make a play in this humongous moment? Or are you going to say, shoot, I wish we had signed Cam Jordan when we had the chance. He's one of the best to ever do it. Don't, don't live with that regret down the line when you can make a move to address that situation right now. And within Yoma Uazerike, too, last year, like I thought where he was at in his role, he took a huge step forward. right but when we're talking about like what are you losing with jfm you're losing a dominant pressure

player that's what he brought to the table and factoring in where he played 49% of denver snaps in yoma played maybe a little bit over a hundred less snaps than jfm did last season but he was not he's not a pressure player that's not necessarily him he had some cleanup sacks but overall here if you look at our friends over there pro football reference he only had last season five quarterback hits when he talk about pressures when you get into that category there he only had six pressures compared to JFM who was 20 plus. You're not just trying to replace JFM, but when Zach Allen needs to ultimately come off the field for a couple snaps for a breather, you need somebody else to step in.

Those guys can grow, but I'm all in on the standpoint that you were in this window to try to win a Super Bowl now. If this one piece can maybe help you get there without breaking the bank, go for it. Why not? And I think it speaks to the point of what we just talked about before, maybe we were at the start of this segment or before we hit the commercial. break of like bow nix and when his contract will kick in like that's aligning yourself with like knowing that we're three or four years down the line of when that contract really kind of takes hold like

Cortland sutton's going to be on the back nine of his career at that point right like what is jlin waddle going to be in four or five years right uh we know sir tan's going to be here still but like a lot of these guys will start to kind of age out and you have to replenish guys with different players so why not push your chips into the center of the table right now and let me just say this on the record i would much rather have a cam jordan than avon miller and i know that vaugh has been pontificating about his desire to come back here to Denver. But one thing that Vaughn did say is like, you know, I don't need to play every down. I can come in and be that third down specialist.

Like, why not utilize that same role for a guy like Cam Jordan? Yeah. I would say, you know, with that whole Cam, Vaughn conversation, and we touched on a little last week, I will lean more towards, you know, Cam, because Cam is an interior guy. And you have other guys book into you. If you were Vaughn and you brought Vaughn back,

it's Vaughn on the outside and you're asking him to beat some of these tackles. And even at this stage of his career, even though he's not as quick as he was years ago, he still is a savvy veteran, but that still puts a lot of pressure on Vaughn Miller to come back to a team that drafted him and live up to those expectations. And I don't know about you guys, listen, you know, the one thing you hate to see is your heroes, you know, fall or see them in a bad situation. like watching Michael Jordan go to the Wizards.

I mean, I love watching him play, but it wasn't the same. And it's kind of distorted my image of what Michael Jordan was early on in his career. So if the Broncos had to choose with 22 players, I say choose Cam. And listen, if the Broncos wanted to go in this direction, I mean, yeah, okay, I think it would be cool. But it also will kind of show signs that, you know, Arraso Riquet and Savian Jones, the belief that we heard last year, about these two particular players and letting John Franklin Myers walk, it wasn't exactly what we were being told.

And it's okay. You know, just tell us the truth. These guys didn't really develop the way you hope that they would. So you had to go out and get Cam Jordan. Just like the Broncos Y receiver group, they didn't really trust in them like they told us. So they went to go grab Jalen Wado. At least be up front and tell us the truth.

Yeah. I think you're right. And obviously there's still plenty of time throughout the course of this offseason draft coming up next month, so we'll see what Denver opts to do if Cam Jordan truly is in play or if they decide to go another direction. I tell you what, I'm excited. Night one at the Broncos team facility,

I can't wait to just eat and enjoy the drafts because the Broncos aren't picking it around one. And you know what? I'm okay with that. Yeah, I'm okay with it too. So let's hit a quick break when we come back. Let's, Sarah, you kind of stirred the pot a little bit on social media about this idea of maybe a Naji Harris type. We've talked about the defensive line.

Let's talk about maybe some other options that are out here for the Broncos in particular. Running back when we come back right here on your locked on Broncos squad show. All right, you guys, real quick. Let me tell you about our friends over at Robin Hood, because what if sports were traded like markets? Now you can put your sports IQ to work in real time with Robin Hood prediction markets. It's not you against the house. It's you participating in a live market. You can buy or sell your positions live all game long.

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and let them know that locked on Broncos sent you. All right. I did it. I got through that one. So proud of you my man. It's showing showcasing growth and development. Come on now. Come on now. We're back baby.

but it is your locked on Broncos squad show, Anilo Piro Cody Warg, Sarah Bedinger, and Nick Ferguson here on the program today. It is Tuesday, March the 24th. I know there's no such thing is really an offseason in the NFL, but this is kind of like the dog days, I guess you could say, especially when the Broncos don't have a first round pick. But there's a lot to talk about.

I mean, I think on Friday show we're going to do kind of a more deep dive into the Broncos wide receiver room and like, what does it mean for Troy Franklin? What does it mean for Marvin Mims and Pat Bryant? that they have a Jalen Waddle. So we'll have some fun with that a little bit later on in the week. But when it kind of comes to like adding some additional pieces, right? I like the Cam Jordan conversation.

We'll see what they do there potentially. But Nick, I'll start with you. You're talking about going to make a splash with offense, right, as maybe opposed to defense because of some of the belief in guys like Savian Jones and some of these other guys they have on their roster defensively. Is it positional for you? Is it running back? Is it tight in?

Is it receiver? Or is it just a matter of finding maybe the right guy that fits with what the Broncos are looking for. For me, it's just an impact player. Because let's talk about what this whole situation is in the NFL offensively. It's an arms race because the idea is how many weapons can you stockpile? We know guys are going to get injured. And you want to put pressure on the defense every game, every possession.

So you want to be able to threaten them vertically and horizontally. And there's seldom do you look around the end. NFL and you say, well, if I were to ask you guys, just 32 teams, and let's just kind of take, let's include the Denver Broncos. And we started to talk about an elite defense from a personnel standpoint. How do you look on your first level, your defense, the second level, and what do you look like in your secondary? And there's not a lot of teams that have a lot of guys that you're saying that you have an elite

defense and your personnel is great. I mean, obviously, we think about the Denver Broncos, the next team, probably even after the Denver Broncos and maybe before the Denver Broncos, that's a dark side defense. And even their defense has taken a hit with the departure of some of their personnel. So the reason why you want to make sure that you arm yourself offensively because you want to make sure that defensive coordinator stays up at night. How are we going to stop this team? They have too many moving parts.

And the question becomes, once you stockpile those offensive guys, do you have the signal caller that can scheme plays to set those guys up. Just think about what we what we just saw at the combine and what we heard. Sean Payton deciding to relinquish the play calling duties to Davis Webb. We have to see how much of that is going to actually be in Webb's hands, but that's kind of an omittance of guilt saying, well, what I was doing last year in the last two years wasn't truly working. So we have to try something entirely different. So if Webb is going to, going to be at the helm calling these plays, he's going to have to have a comprehensive play calling structure that sets each one of these guys up because there's only one football. But even with

that being said, you can orchestrate your offense where you set guys up and you decide from week to week, here's who we're going to feature. I don't care what they do, what kind of defense they play cover three, cover two, they want to work, they won't rob. We don't give a crap. Here, we're going to, we're going to run them off the field. But in order to do that, like I said, you need a common quarterback, which you have in Bow Nix. You need the weapons offensively. And then third is you need a play caller who doesn't have a massive ego and he's about setting the players up. That's the most important thing. And that gentleman is football one-on-one. Well, and I think it's about doubling down on your success as a team last year, but also trying to improve when you could. I mean,

look at what the Philadelphia Eagles have done, right? Like, what is Howie Roseman, you know, known for? Like, going out there and getting talent. You look at what the Los Angeles Rams did last offseason, bringing in Devante Adams, despite the fact that they already have Pooka and Akua, right? And so you have to kind of be advantageous when these situations present themselves.

Now, I don't think there's a Sequan Berkeley or a Devante Adams out there for the Broncos to go out there. And again, I think Jalen Waddle is kind of their equivalent of that. But I think there are some supplementary pieces that at Denver does want to look at running back, or if they want to look at TIDD, despite the Evan Ingram situation, right? They could try to upgrade these positions by being a bit aggressive,

whether it's in free agency or trade, Sarah. Yeah, and they've got to be because there's too many, as I was saying to some of the listeners in the chat, there's too many your one injury away from blank disaster scenarios on this roster right now. And case in point is the running back position. Like the Broncos are one injury away from being in the exact same spot they were last year or the exact same spot they were in last year,

plus a rookie. And is that the solution? Because that rookie at best is going to be the 60 second overall pick in this year's draft or if they trade up a few spots. I mean, I wouldn't mind, you know, moving up, get Jadarian price if you can. Great. But then you lose the opportunity to go after, okay, another developmental tight end. As we're talking about, hey, Najoku may not make sense with Evan Ingram on this roster, but Evan Ingram may only be on this roster for one more year. So the Broncos have to draft a tight end. You would think they haven't drafted it off. offensive tackle since 2017. There one injury from Alex Singleton or Justin Surnat. They're one injury away at that position from turning to who exactly at the linebacker position.

So you've got to draft somebody there because there's nobody available in free agency. There's just too many position groups like that on this roster right now. That is a very deep and a very good roster, obviously. But those positions still have to be addressed in the depth department. and you made the big move for Jalen Waddle. That's great. He elevates the talent of this roster tremendously, but there's still areas that have to be addressed.

And this is a perfect opportunity to just vent a little bit about this because I will not be bullied when it comes to cranking out ideas. Like, let's brainstorm. What happened to brainstorming without, you know, okay, I'll just shut my mouth because, you know what? If I brainstorm an idea, I'm going to get called every name in the book. I'm going to be called a non-ball knower or whatever it may be, just for throwing out an idea, like,

and I will not be gaslit into thinking that the Broncos are not better off, signing Najee Harris to a minimum one-year contract with him on the roster versus Tyler Badegh and Jalil McLaughlin. Najee Harris is an objectively better player than all of those guys. And what did the Broncos lack the most at the end of last season that Najee Harris, even hobbling on one leg might have been better than what they threw out there in the AFC championship game. And so upgrading the depth at positions of need and where you need depth, that is either veteran depth or actual like draft picks who can play, not talking about,

oh, well, we took, you know, Joe Blow from Stephen F. Austin in the sixth round and he could be a steal for us. Yeah, maybe in 2028, but like, miss me with this idea that the team can't still sign free agents that have, you know, produced in the past. Oh, Noggi Harris wasn't even good before he hit free agency last year. Okay, well, until freak injuries, he didn't miss a single game for four seasons. He was a big time recruit at Alabama where he started on national championship teams. He was a first round draft pick and he had four straight years of a thousand yards in the NFL. So like, I'm so annoyed by the idea that we can't even talk about ideas without people being like,

no, it doesn't make sense. he's not good anyway he's injured he's damaged good he's never going to play again like do your research actually have a discussion and invite the opportunity to like hey let's brainstorm together or if you don't like something let's just say like yeah that's not really an idea for me but you know let's let's talk about draft guys that i like like don't present a problem if you don't have a solution i'm just i'm so fed up with this guys like we were criticized for talking about jalen waddle and like oh the brokers are never going to make a trade like that George Payton is too scared after training for Russell.

Broncos don't need any playmakers. They went to the AFC championship game last year. They didn't even have Troy Franklin, didn't even have blah, blah, blah for the AFC championship. Like, shut up. Like, seriously, shut up, okay? Because the team is doing things that you said they weren't going to do. And then you're getting mad at us for suggesting more things that they won't do for sure.

And then they go ahead and they do these things. So I just, I don't know. I think it's funny. And I'm really sick of it all. Where's Sarah's rocking chair in his country time lemonade? That was great. Off my lawn. Come for the Broncos talk.

Stay for the epic. But Sarah, I mean, you're right. I mean, you can't like on today. And this is this is the problem with like our industry now. Like Twitter, social media used to be a really, really fun thing. I don't have fun on social media anymore. I hate it. It makes me want to jump sometimes just because you can't have an opinion.

opinion. You can't throw out, as you mentioned, a, just a question like, hey, what if, what would you think if Devere did this, right? Instead of just like a constructive conversation, it's always toxic, it turns negative. Then there's the awesome people, like the people we have in our chat here that, you know, say, hey, I like that, but I don't know if that would work. That's perfect client. That's respectful. Or they love it. But then you just have the toxic little avatar fanboys on Twitter that just, you know, just so toxic just because you have a different opinion. It's so crazy. I'm with you. Can we get rid of social media? Can this just be our social media here?

No, we can't get rid of it. It's now part of our interwoven societal fabric. But here's what I would say with the Najee Harris situation. While that sounds like a viable option, if I'm the Denver Broncos, I look to see what you do in the draft first, right? And then once you get those guys and the rookie OTAs, you get a chance to see them move around. You get a chance to see how well they adapt to the system

and who's quickly learning, who's falling back. And then that is still an option because right now, Naji Harris would still be out there. He still will be available based on the injury. But if the Broncos can get past the draft and say they still wanted to add someone, hey, listen, I've signed me up for that because I'm all about adding competition within that room because that's how you make every single player better. Let them know that, hey, listen, we don't have time to wrestle on our laurels. Don't sit around here and think, hey, I made it last year.

the team brought me back so that means that I have a slotted position heading into the regular season with the active roster of slot. No, no, no. We're going to make every single person compete. But also, to your credit, the whole idea of saying, why did you bring Tyler Badee back? Or is it baddie? Whatever the hell is last thing is, whatever, which I still don't understand what the hell is going on with that. But the thing is that when you look at it. healthy Najee Harris, what he could actually bring to the offense.

So if the Broncos were to kick the tires on this later on down the line, I wouldn't be opposed to it. Let's take a look here. They did the same thing with J.K. Dobbins last year. Yes. Yeah, they did. Nageiris is probably the most attractive name of the free agent running back still available. I don't think they'll go after a Joe Mixen for a number of different reasons.

But Austin Ekler, Antonio Gibson, Nick Chubb, Rahim Mostert, Kareem Hunt, Sanders, right? Like, these are some of the names that Gibson wouldn't be a bad option as like that mandatory minicamp bring him in and see what he can do in training camp type of thing. I'll be okay He can return kicks too. Yeah.

I mean, that's what Denver needs. Wait a minute. When you say returning kicks, are we talking kickoffs or punt return? Kick return. Yeah, let me look. I'm looking it up right now. Because we actually we did it. Tomorrow's episode of Locked on that Sarah and I recorded we're actually talking about like why the

Broncos need to find and invest in a kick return. Like, get Marvin Mims off a kick return. Keep him at punt return, remove him from kick return, and have some other players do that. So Gibson, by the way, did have a kickoff return touchdown last year. He only played five games, but he had 12 returns, 342 yards, one touchdown at a 28.5 average. So that might be on to something there. Well, we'll see if the Broncos make a move one way or the other, running back and offensive position or a defensive position as well. Let us know your thoughts in the comment

section. Let's hit our final break. When we come back, we'll have some fun here. Some closing thoughts and put a bow on the show right here on your Lockdown Broncos squad show. All right, welcome on back into the program. Your Lockdown Broncos squad show and Ilo Piro, Cody Works, Sarah Bedinger, and Nick Ferguson hanging out with you here on this Tuesday morning going into the afternoon. Hope everyone is doing well out there. Good conversation today. about just overall Jalen Wattle thoughts now that the dust has settled on that trade and if the Broncos by restructuring his contract

might be looking to make a move whether it be free agency or via trade. We'll see what happens here and they'll lead up to the NFL draft. You'd think that if a trade is going to happen, like it could come on as soon as draft night or as late as draft night rather just because you see a lot of movement around that time.

But I'm not as antsy about this Broncos team right now as I was after the first week of free agency. I'll put it that way. What do you mean? like antsy in a good way or bad way? Like I was just kind of like, what are they doing like the first week? Yeah,

but I have an idea of what they've done with Jalen Waddle. Like if they just stand Pat and, you know, maybe at a small time free agent here, or they're like, I'm okay with it, right? It's not like before I felt like the sky was falling to a certain extent. So, uh, we'll see. Man, guys,

no longer fall. Yes. We are okay now. But it was true. Like, like as much as, oh, people want to say now like in hindsight, well, all those people who were complaining about the Broncos, they're just being impatient. It's like, no, like, I mean,

just because their timing was different than our expectation doesn't mean we were wrong to be upset. Like, there's no question that if they had not made the Jalen Wattle trade at this point, that there would still be upset fans and justifiably so, because this is a team that's on the cusp of a Super Bowl, you've got to be aggressive in upgrading and adding impact players. And you're just bringing everybody back. And that was sending signals that they were just okay with getting as far as they had gotten.

And obviously that's not what they were, you know, doing behind the scenes. So I just don't, I'm not trying to say like, I'm right. I need to be recognized for being right. But at the same time, like, we were right to be upset about it because they were obviously working on something massive behind the scenes. Well, Sean Payton spoke about it a little bit at this flag football fiesta that happened over the weekend with this girl K. Adams. And she was kind of poking fun at him about like you get, you know, about the lack of moves.

And I forget exactly what he said, but it was something along the lines of like, yeah, you know, free agency was tough, right? I was watching flag football film and trying to draw up plays. Gosh. Are we into this flag football thing, by the way? Well, I think let's revisit. I think it's a great topic. I think it's a great topic.

We'll talk about it here in a second. And I'm curious here why. But I did like that Sean. I mean, once again, Sean's going to give Kay stuff. Like, that's fine. He's not going to give us local media guys anything just because, I mean, yeah, I mean, I don't know. Kay doesn't have an agenda. Like she's just, she's just Kay.

That's his, that's someone that he's just like, hey, that's my person. I'm going to go to that person. It's like he has 20 lattes before he goes and talks for it because he gives up everything. You can ask him what play he's going to run the next time the Broncos take the field. He'll probably tell her. Yeah. They have a good bond. You know, whenever, whenever she's at a training.

camp that's usually like the most information that we get of course we get nothing like in the press comments but he saves it all for okay and then at least we get voodoo donuts well what think about it she was able to as in as i believe i sent this to you guys uh the only person i could think of that could get coach peyton to lower his guard you know lower enough where he would actually do the waddle could you imagine yeah standing at the podium here at the team to see the wattle and And someone, I don't know, imagine Luca. Imagine Luca doing it.

I mean, come on. He would look at you sideways, blank stare, and think repulsive thoughts in his head. Yes. But that speaks to whatever relationship that they have. And like you said, Cody, she gets a lot of access

that most people in this media market they don't receive. So kudos to her. But I think here's what should happen. If the local media wants to find out anything from Sean Payton, maybe they should text her the questions and have her ask them. True. Straight up.

It's a good strategy. Yeah. It's a good strategy. How many people out there will have Kay Adams nowhere, though, is the question. That's, you know. Well, that's, that's, what does Sean? What does Sean say? No, you don't want to go through agents, man.

Agents are terrible. Yes. He does a great job, though, of asking the questions. I think everybody wants to know the answers to, which speaks to the great job that she does in terms of, like, being, being in touch with not only the questions. fan base, but like understanding what is relevant. And Kay Adams has, you know, Riz. She has charisma. Like she just does. Like she's a great interviewer. She asks questions in such a way that you're like, I want to answer that as, you know, detail as I possibly can

because a lot of thought goes into that question. A lot of thought goes into, I mean, obviously, you know, you break the ice with the Jalen Waddle dance or whatever, the touchdown celebration. But also like, there is a way that she kind of goes about. asking things that like even listening to the interviews you're kind of like oh wow yeah that's a that's actually a great question and you know it's pertinent information for everybody it's not just like national media stuff like tell me tell me blah blah that nobody cares about it's it's actual like you know she's asking about riley moss before his breakout year you know and i think that validates a detailed response where he gives something that he otherwise maybe wouldn't well he hasn't been

asked about Darren Waller yet. Well, it may come at some point. But here's the thing, yeah, Kay does a great job and interviewing is a skill set that, you know, only a few have actually mastered, but it goes back to the person who's being interviewed, you know, because there's a conversation before the interview takes place. Maybe what are you comfortable with talking? Can I talk to you about this particular subject matter or this particular player? So that person being interviewed has to be open. and not, you know, playing guarded as far as the question. So that's the thing that makes the interview that much better.

But once again, there is somewhat of a rapport relationship that's there because come OTAs, come training camp. When Kay Adam comes, when no one else here gets that interview that sit down with Cortland Sutton sitting down with Jalen Waddle, she will have that interview. Trust me. Oh, yeah. But I'll say this really quickly since you guys brought this up about the flag football game, I'm glad we were able to actually see it. And when I first heard the announcement

that there were going to be NFL players that were going to be involved with the 2028 Olympics, I said, while that sounds great on paper, it doesn't make for a great game. And here's a reason why. And I can tell you this being a former player, what it calls to play the game of football, professional football, is entirely different from flag football. It's a unique skill, set. And if you guys remember, I think it might have been like eight or nine years ago, NFL Network was showing a lot of flag football games. Would it show, you know, regular average everyday Joe's playing against NFL guys and flag football? And them dudes were giving the NFL guys the business. You know why? Those guys

are hungry. You know, these were the guys who didn't get a chance to play in high school. I mean, they played in high school. They didn't get a chance to play in college. They didn't get a chance of playing the pros. So anytime you get on the field or court, whatever, with the former player, that's your opportunity to shine. And those guys shine on Sunday, much to the dismay of a lot of former players. It's the rules are different, you know,

and it's something that NFL, I think you could clearly tell by watching the NFL players had no idea about the rules of flag football and how it all worked. I do think there is a world that exists where some NFL players could go on there, could go and play there. but I don't think it would be like these guys are replacing these guys. I think that there could be like if you're going to play an NFL player in a flag football game, the guys who've been playing flag for years and years and years and years can help the NFL players get adjusted.

The NFL players have the skill set to be good at flag football, but it's a different game. I'm also of the premise of saying I do not want any of the players that, like if I'm a if I'm a GM or a head coach, I don't want any of my players going out there and playing flag football. I was, I watched Joe Burrow try to spin. And I watched his knee just kind of get stuck in the ground. I'm like, you know what? Imagine blowing out your knee in a meaningless flag football game. It's different.

But then, like people are saying, like, oh, you know, it's NFL players can do. I think NFL players can't. I just think that they were outmatched because that's an unfamiliar territory from. Just as if the guys who were playing flag football, if they had to play in 11 on 11 pads, they would get demolished against the actual NFL team. Like, there are two different games in two different worlds. And that's where I think the respectfulness of it is like, now we understand it. Now we see it.

There's a learning curve. It's a big learning curve. It is. It's like, think about the NBA when they play an Olympic competition, they're now playing with FIFA rules. And the ball is a little different. You can take the ball off the rim. There's a massive adjustment. Now, if these players went through a process where they learn how to kind of,

navigate through these rules, yes, because of their skill set, a lot of these guys are going to be really superior in the sport. But then we're still asking some wide receivers who are not used to defending and grabbing flags to actually, you know, dial in on that. You know how difficult that is to kind of get your mind fixated on the flight. Like Tom Brady, right? Tom Brady made a dude miss who had him dead to rights he made him miss it's like how can you miss Tom he can't freaking run right

he fired an absolute rocket though on that play right so when you look at those quarterbacks the ball placement is going to be there like Odell Beckham Jr. with the one hand grab that was sick right they can do that NFL players can do that but can you understand the final

points and the nuances of playing flag football because I'll tell you guys when I was growing up as a kid you know, my mom didn't want me to play football because she thought I would get hurt. So I started out for the first couple of years playing flag football, right? That's how I was able to hone my eyes in on grabbing the flag, which when I started playing tackle football, I knew where to put my eyes when I went to tackle. That's how that happened for me. Yeah.

Yeah, I think it's- I think Cody just saw. I just saw, yes. Like, I have this conversation with my wife a lot. Like, when we have kids, The one thing, like, I want my, if my son wants to play football, if I have a son, I want him to play. But I'm not going to start him off his first experience being pads. Like there's times where they have little kids in pads and I'm like, you know what?

Most of the time these coaches aren't teaching them the right stuff. They're not teaching them how to properly tackle. I would have a problem with that. Starting off with flag until you get to an age appropriate where you can actually wear a helmet and pads, I'm all for that. I am, like to me, that you can grow. the game. And right now we're seeing girls flag football really, really take off to the point where now I think Nebraska has kind of made it to where they're looking at, expanding it to where

you could play it at a Division I program now. I already know it's at D3 schools right now. It's become sanctioned here in the state of Colorado. I think there's value to it as long as it keeps more people to game. However, I do not want the NFL to eventually become flag football. I don't. No. And I think we're a long ways from that. But it's interesting. If J.C. Treter stays in power too long, you never know. Yeah, that's a whole conversation for another day. Oh, my God. Don't bring that name up. Yeah. All right. You know, Cam Jordan will be great in that role.

Maybe that's what Camp Jordan should do. Maybe that's what he's preparing for to, you know, work his way into a similar type of role. Yeah, they're not going to vote him into that role. I can tell you that because you got to get along to go along, right? There's reason Treter is in that spot, right? because if you have there's so many other people I know who were really quickly who were candidates for that that spot or we're trying to get into the mix to even be nominated they shut those guys out yeah they shut them out right for the sole purpose of electing the people who have driven the NFLPA into disaster it is and there's a collective bargaining agreement that's going to be negotiated as a former player you know part of my benefits law in their hands, right? And it stinks because there was already an arbitration where, you know, Traylor went on with, who was a

Ross Tucker show and told, was telling the running back how to manipulate the system and claim an injury for workman's comp, which violates the CBA. The owners know that. They won that arbitration. That's the guy who's going to be negotiating on my behalf. I don't really like that. It's crazy. With you.

It is a business at the end of the day. You know what we got to do? There is the, we got to get, there is here on the Lockdown Network. There's a Lockdown NFL player, squad show, former players. This should be a one hour show of everybody talking about it. I think that would be. Let's say if I can maneuver it. I'm going to work my magic here.

Plant the sea. Work the magic. We'll see what we can do. All right, good stuff for us on today's Lacked on Broncos squad show. conversation across the board we'll be back at it again on Friday and I also believe I saw a tweet today that is Peyton Manning's 50th birthday so happy birthday to Pfm so we'll end on a high there for Cody works there bedinger and Nick Ferguson I am anilo Piero appreciate appreciate you guys tapping in with us hit that like button smash that subscribe button on your

way out the door and we'll talk to you guys later this week peace I'm gonna go play pickleball now