Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - BRONCOS SQUAD SHOW: Broncos DBs & D-Line - Biggest Strengths, Concerns & Expectations

Episode Date: July 7, 2026

The Broncos' defensive backs and defensive line are the foundation of the defense in 2026—but where are the biggest strengths, and what concerns still need to be addressed? Join Aniello Piro, Sayre Bedinger and Nick Ferguson as they break down the Broncos' DBs and D-Line, analyzing each position group, highlighting the biggest strengths, identifying potential weaknesses, and sharing expectations heading into the season. From the pass rush to the secondary, we'll discuss which players are poised for breakout years, who has the most to prove, and what this unit needs to do to help Denver compete.   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! FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. From the opening whistle to the final kick, Let There Be Goals on FanDuel. Visit https://FANDUEL.COM to get started now. Odoo Great organizations win because operations matter. And that’s why you should get Odoo. Try for free today at https://Odoo.com/lockedon. Betterhelp This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Sign up and get 10% off at http://BetterHelp.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 a little Puro, and while I feel very confident about the Denver Broncos defense as a whole, I'm very interested to see how they replace the production of JFM on the defensive line. Sarah Bedinger, predominantly orange, and what if I told you that Riley Moss holds the key to fixing one of the Broncos' biggest problems from last season? I'm Nick Ferguson, and I'm here to tell you, there's going to be some smoke in the city. All right, let's break it on down on today's lockdown Broncosco. show. Let's get into it, jents. 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. Oh, yes, so welcome on in to a Tuesday edition of your Lockdown Broncos Squad Show. Hope everyone is doing well out there in and around Broncos. country today. Anilo Piro, Sarah Bedinger, and Nick Ferguson, hanging out with you guys on this Tuesday. Cody Rourke, as we like to say, is on assignment, but he will be back sooner rather than later.

A lot to unpack here on the program today as we kind of continue along with our preseason kind of previews by position group. We've done linebackers. You know, we've done running backs last week. Today we'll kind of split it down the middle. We'll go a defensive line and defensive back. So we'll have some fun with that today on the show. And today's episode of your lockdown on Bronco Squad show is brought to you by our friends over at O-Doo. Great organizations win because operations matter, and that's why you should get O-D-O-D-O-O-O-D-O-O-O-com slash locked-on. That's O-D-O-O-O-O-O-com slash locked-on.

What's up, fellas? Happy Tuesday. How we doing? Everyone have a good fourth. Yeah, absolutely. Great fourth. You know, the best fourth, in my opinion, maybe a hot take here is one in which I'm inside

and trying to ignore the fireworks. while everybody else is outside, you know, being crazy. I hate, I hate fireworks. I can't overstate it enough. But I love me a good hot dog. I don't know, though, Joey Chestnut might have ruined it for me. I just can't. I can't do it after watching that kind of just mess.

It's like, I mean, it's, you can't not see it. You can't not watch it. The highlights are there. But man, yeah, good fourth. I hope you guys had a great one as well. Come on, Sarah, man. How do you not like Fourth of July? I mean, are you one of these in the United?

individuals who don't go to the circus because you're afraid of clowns. Come on. Absolutely. Absolutely. No, that's the 4th July was supposed to be about, man. Things popping and going off, man. And as long as you don't JPP the damn thing, right? You don't want to do that.

Yes. You don't want to do that. Well, I mean, no. No, I was saying, yeah, I was just going to say, look at this. What do you think about this? No, I told my, I told my wife on our morning walk this morning, I was like, hey, you know what? Now that the Fourth of July is over, now we can get to the real holidays.

Like that's what I'm talking. Like every holiday from this point forward is like the good holidays. The holidays up to this point, you know, not really feeling it. It's not, it doesn't really do much for me. But once we get to like the fall holidays and the winter holidays, now we're talking. So, I mean, Fourth of July is kind of a nice in between, but it also represents like the worst time in sports, right? I mean, it's like NASCAR and MLB, especially now that the USA is out of the World Cup. So, I mean, shoot, I'll have to talk to you guys in four years the next time I care about soccer again.

But, you know, it's just over now. So what the heck do we do? At least I have the Cubs, I guess. But here's a great part about it. Here's what July 4th actually tells us. That becomes the countdown to training camp, countdown before the rookies get to training camp. then the veterans that tells us just guess what the hall of fame game is right around the corner that's why i love the fourth of july absolutely i also will say this i i enjoyed this year's

NBA draft as well i mean i feel like uh you know that was that's kind of an underrated thing that just like slips in in the summer i feel like but there's some exciting players my bulls might have a little something something going on so i know we're not talking about the bulls today but actually might have something to be excited about for once so but i'm with you nick i mean the countdown for training camp is on it's like we can finally feel once training camp hits that means football is officially here and shoot i mean that's that's that's the real holiday right it's there you go he's come around ladies and channel i love it no i mean i'm with you guys right like it's kind of just like the last like i i try to

take advantage of it just because like there's like a two month period like maybe even a month and a half period just in the business that we work in Nick, right? Like going to the games and all that kind of stuff where like things actually tend to slow down. Like nuggets and as playoffs are crazy. Football season's crazy. I cover the buffs as well, do the lockdown buffs postcast for them. And so for me, I'm like, all right, deep breath. Make sure the batteries are recharge because once we get a couple of weeks from today, man,

I mean, rookies report, all the full teams report. And it's a way we go. So, you know, that's how I kind of look at it. But I also find myself like itching for that fall morning and waking up and like thinking about who the Broncos are going to play, who the buffs are going to play, looking at the red zone slate, right? Open it up my fan dual app, seeing who I can put some shekels on, right? And we're almost there.

And it's also going to be like 100 and something degrees next weekend, which is going to be brutal. So I am looking forward to the fall season rapidly approaching. But I'm also looking forward to talking a little bit of the Broncos just in general today. Before we get to DBs and defensive line, did you guys see the story that Seth Wickersham put out this morning on ESPN by Chas? Yes. Unbelievable stuff.

Unbelievable stuff. I love because I'm the, you guys know me, I'm the tinfoil hat guy. He's going to be a free agent in the coaching world. I wrote an article, no joke. I have evidence. I'll send it to you guys. I wrote an article and I write many of these types of hypotheticals, but I wrote an article saying, hey, what if Bill Belichick, like, join Sean Payton's staff?

As far as I knew at the time, they didn't have any, like, beef or anything, but I didn't realize, I mean, Sean was like, I mean, actually thinking about trying to find a way to make that happen. Like that was insane. Getting that kind of access during the playoffs, insane stuff. So yeah, really, really cool, especially because there's not been much happening for the Broncos this off season. So to get something like that, I feel like it's kind of a, it doesn't necessarily make up for a slow off season, but it definitely gives you something to talk about that. Normally, you would not get the chance to do. what I like to toss into the conversation, right? Let's look at what this Kevin Bacon, where they call

the six degrees of separation. You have Bill Belichick, you have Sean Payton. What is it that these two guys have in common? Now, one will definitely be a Hall of Fame coach. The other is inching his way to get to that point. They've both won Super Bowls, but there's someone in between that connects these guys. And it's Bill Parcells. So I know there's, there's this concept that maybe Sean wanted to bring over Bill Belichick to help him get that extra win the past Don Shula. But I'm wondering if that brainchild came from or that idea came from Sean or did it come from Bill Parcells looking to do his guy Bill Belichick one more solid?

That's an interesting point. And the way that I just came up with this as you were talking. So it's not like I've been molding this take for a long time. but like because you're right about how bill bellichick and sean payton are kind of cuts from the same cloth but like it's kind of like bill bellichick is like that senior in high school when sean payton's like the eighth grade quarterback right like there's a far enough gap between them but there's like this neutral respect of like hey like this guy's only a few years older than i am but like you know we come from the same neighborhood we do kind of the same things i would think that it may be because i obviously think sean peyton treats bill parcels word you know like gospel and obviously that weighs very highly on him but sean also seems like just like like that kind of guy that would think about like, hey, like, this is like the greatest NFL coach of all time. Like, let's do him a solid, make our team better. And also, you know, give me a little good, good PR along the way. I'm sure it's probably a combination of both things, Nick. But when I saw this story, it was kind of like, whoa, like the fact that we even got this on the record is kind of

crazy. Sean's taking it to the next level with like, you know, how at the end of the season, he's always kind of mindful of, hey, how many catches? I think it was Cortland Sutton needed certain number of catches two seasons ago in the last week, and Sean made sure he got him. And then last year was the kind of joke about Adam Troutman and Emmanuel Sanders in the past talked about how Sean made sure he got his incentives. Like he really cares about those, like those details, right? That if it's an incentive for a player or if it's like,

hey, you're really this close to a milestone. Like, what if I can help you get there some way, somehow? He cares about that history. There was another part in that article where, you know, George Payton stopped by Sean's dad. or whatever and is like, hey, happy anniversary. He's like, what are you talking about? It's like the Minneapolis miracle or whatever.

And Sean, you know, basically tells him to F off or whatever. But I think it's funny. Like he cares so much about history and he cares about, you know, that legacy. I think that's what he's all about. And so I find it to be fascinating stuff. It's really just getting inside the mind of Sean Payton. He's an interesting dude for sure. I think, Sarah, the operative word is legacy.

I know some coaches, some players. they say, well, I'm not thinking about that opponent and I'm not thinking about awards and accolades. Yes, you do, because even if you're not, someone's reminding you, just like you said, George Payton reminded him jokingly about that Minnesota miracle. So Sean is really thinking about it. I mean, why do you think you come to Denver? And if you're able to take Denver out of the dark ages and then you rise like a phoenix from the ashes, guess what?

That puts you on a certain level. That's why we've never seen a head coach in NFL history. And Sean is attempting to be the first one to do it to win a Super Bowl at two different places. And oh, by the way, in the house that Mike Sanderhan built. So whether people say they're not concerned with it, yes, you are. And I mean, for a player to hit his incentives or benchmarks under you, that helps you out. Because you can say, listen, Corlin Sutton under my toolage, he had. three consecutive years where he had 10 red zone touchdowns.

That means a lot. And I know most people think that coaches don't think about it. And coaches, when they stand up there at that podium, they say, you know what, I'm not thinking about it. Yes, you are. Because if you're not, there's someone in the building whose job is to remind you what's on the line. So listen, either way, I like the entire story, right? Because seldom do we get a chance to see, you know, what happens behind the curtain,

and get a peek behind the curtain to see how the sausages made. I wish the NFL decide to do more stories like this. Yeah, I do too because it gives you that insight that, you know, you don't get even from watching like hard knocks, right? This is behind the closed doors. This is when you say, hey, I wish I could be a fly on the wall for this. Well, I mean, Seth Wickersham was a fly on the wall for the deepest and darkest parts of, you know, the playoffs, which is crazy.

But I've loved a couple of things. number one, the fact that Sean would even think of, you know, concocting this plan to go to Greg Penner to ask about the Bill Belichick thing is indicative of just how much he believes that this ownership group is willing to do literally whatever it takes and that they have the resources to do literally anything that he can dream up in his mind. Like nothing is off limits, which is a really cool thought, I think for Broncos country to just kind of stew in. But also the other thing, and this is not even on a remotely similar level,

but as a game planner and getting excited for Sean Payton, the CEO of the team, as opposed to the play caller for the offense and the CEO of the team. How about the story of how the Buffalo Bill's special teams player had a baby the week of the playoff game? And Sean is like, we know we need a fake punt at some point in this game to win. We are going to go at that guy because he left to go be there for the birth of his child.

So we're going to pick on him for, for that play and the fact that it worked i mean that's crazy next level stuff so i just that that's so much fun to me to hear that kind of thing and how these these these guys who are at the highest level and you know the way that they operate the way that they think it's just it's it's it's a great way to kind of break through those own uh maybe break ground on your own sort of mental pathways that you can take just by thinking wow that would have never occurred to me but now there's a new pathway opened up in your brain after seeing the way that these guys think and operate.

Hey, man, those things are definitely diabolical. And, you know, speaking of that particular play, I would even have to go as far as maybe giving credit to Mike Westoff, who was Demo Broncos special teams coach at that particular time. And it tells you how much information and detail that individuals put into trying to figure out angles, right? How to attack a particular player. because guess what?

His wife had a baby and his mind is not really on the game. And it tells you it goes back to a story. And I know Chad Johnson, he used to use this and other players used to use. And I know Kevin, what was it? Kevin Garnett used it against Mello one time when they were playing a basketball game here. And a ball arena. But it was it then? It was, it had a different name.

But anyway, the whole point was that this is the going to extra. mile to find out details about a player to get them someone off of their game, mentioning, you know, Kevin Garnett's situation. That almost ended in fisticuffs with Mello. But Chad Johnson used to do that all the time, try to get in a guy's head. So this is taking fans, you know, we're pulling back the curtain, showing you how much emphasis that coaches put in on a game plan, but how coaches are having someone inside delving through players,

you know, profiles to figure out how can we use this against players, but I'll definitely give Mike Westoff also a little credit for that too as well. Yeah, look, I mean, it's a fascinating story. I encourage everyone to go check out ESPN.com. Seth Booker-Cham did an absolutely incredible job. Like the version of Sean Payton that he was able to be around is certainly not the version of Sean Payton that we are around on a daily basis when it comes to practice and training camp and all that great stuff.

And so a lot of insight there about kind of inside the mind of Sean Payton throughout the course of the playoffs, the Belichick stuff, the baby shower stuff, which was the code name of the play that they ran against the Buffalo Bills, by the way. I mean, the dude is just the definition of a football guy through and through and through, excuse me. So highly suggest you guys go ahead and check that out. Let's go ahead and hit our first break, though. And like I said, today we're going to talk defensive backs and defensive line. And it just so happens. This was not planned. ESPN gave us some talking points as it pertains to the Broncos defensive back room. We'll tell you what that is when we come back right here on your. Locked-on Broncos Squat Show. Today's episode of your Locked-on Broncos Squad Show is brought to you by our friends over at Odu. Running a business shouldn't feel like you're trying to connect a bunch of systems that were never designed to work together. One app for accounting, another for inventory, another for sales, and somehow none of them talk to each other. That's where Odo comes in. Odo is an all-in-one business management software that brings every part of your business together in one powerful platform.

From sales and accounting to inventory and marketing, everything works in one place, helping your team move faster, stay organized, and focus on growing the business instead of managing software. The best organizations know that success isn't just about talent. It's about having everyone working toward the same goal, and that's true in sports, just like it is in business. One thing that really stands out to me with the Broncos is how they've got everybody pulling in the same direction, right? It's not just Sean Payton. It's not just Bo Nix. It's not just PS2. Everybody seems to be in sync in this Broncos organization.

At least it was last year. We'll hopefully see that carry over to this year with expectations at an all-time high for this organization. But again, it wasn't just one player. It wasn't just one coach. It was a coordinated effort across the entire organization that makes them successful, guys. We're talking ownership. We're talking head coach, assistant coach, offensive coaches, defensive coaches,

quarterback, running back, wide receiver, special teams guys, right? Medical staff, everybody's on the same page and everybody's pulling in the same direction, which is ultimately going to make and continue to make the Broncos one of the more competitive and best organizations in the NFL. Great organizations win because operations matter, and that's why you should get O-D-O-D-O-O-D-O-O-D-Clocked. That's O-D-O-O-D-Ci. Be sure to check out our friends over at O-DU guys and let them know that Lockedon Broncos sent you. All right, welcome on back into your Lockdown Broncos squad show.

Cody Lopiro, Sarah Beninger and Nick Ferguson hanging out with you guys here on this Tuesday. Sarah, now's a great time to let the fine folks know about the everydayer club. Yeah, it's just a great opportunity right now to get the show ad free. You could start a seven-day free trial. And we've got some plans for the start of the regular season. Of course, when we get into the games and everything like that, Cody's going to do some all 22 breakdowns. We've got some other plans as well. So for now, definitely check it out to get uninterrupted Denver Broncos coverage every single day.

be sure to do that if you're a diehard Denver Bronco fan like I know a lot of you are you will not regret subscribing and signing up for the everyday okay so just for the record we were coming up with the show topic for today yesterday right I was like let's do defensive back defensive line it just so happens that this morning Jeremy Fowler writes the story on ESPN.com execs coaches scouts rank top NFL cornerbacks for 2026 so it feeds in perfectly to our conversation Any guesses as to where Pat Sertan ranks on this list, gentlemen? Number one, I mean, he's got to be. Who else? Number two is Derek Stingley Jr.

Okay, that makes sense. Who's three? Three is Christian Gonzalez. I don't know. How many did they rank? Did they rank five, top five? No, they keep going here. Seven is Denzo Award.

Eight is J.C. Horn, nine. Sauce Gardner at nine. nine. Oh, he should be further down. Yeah. I know that's it down the line. Cooper de jean at 10. But point being, the reason I wanted to bring that up, because we'll talk about the room as a whole, but it's overwhelming how much love Pat Sertan gets in this. Sartan, they right here held a convincing grip on the process, eliciting more than 75% of the first place votes. So I mean, I don't know what the other 25% are voting for, but it was Sartan by a wide margin. And obviously, it's a good way to kind of start our conversation because you've got an island on one side, right?

Like we've seen what Daryl Rivas was. We saw what Dionne Sanders was back in the day, right? We've seen prime Richard Sherman and what these guys were able to kind of do when you get a true showstopper on one side of the field. And that's exactly what Pat Surtan does. So, I mean, sometimes it's almost boring to talk about Pat, like, because it's just like he's so good that he doesn't see any action, right? It's like, you're just like, yep, all right, like Sertan's over here.

We're good on that side of the field the way we go, right? The bigger questions, I think, for the defensive backroom comes safety and the opposite corner position. Riley Moss, Jake Juan McMillan, Junae Beren, Talaoufonga, because Pat Turtan is that reliable, fellas. Yeah, it's the same quest that the Broncos had after they acquired Chant Bailey back when Nick was playing for the team as well. It's who can we get on the other side to force teams to throw at Chant Bailey, right? And now the question is, how can we get teams to throw at Pat Sertan? Well, Riley Moss, like I said in the show open, he holds the key to the entire thing. If he starts picking off more passes because he's been

targeted 221 times total over the last two seasons combined. If he starts picking off some passes, teams are going to have no choice but to throw more at Pat or J-Quan Macmillan or even test the Broncos deeper downfield and maybe allow them to cheat their safeties back a little bit more instead of helping those linebackers out. I think that really ultimately what it comes down to is Nick, I mean, you could speak to this. I remember the late great Derrit Williams. He was one of the guys who started forcing teams to throw. at Champ Bor and it resulted in Champ probably having the biggest snub for defensive

player of the year in NFL history, in my opinion, when Jason Taylor won it in 2006. But you get somebody on the other side who could start picking off passes. All of a sudden, teams are like, well, shoot, we can't always throw it over there because he's making us pay. And now that's what the Broncos desperately need with Pat Certan. Like, yes, he's taken away a side of the field. What's the criticism if there is any of Pat? It's that, okay, he's taking away a side of the field, but you're still giving up big plays on the other side.

Riley led the league in penalty yardage last year. He had 19 passes broken up, but he's got two interceptions in his career on 221 total targets. That will not do. You have to at least triple that number this season. Easier said than done, but that's got to be the quest right now is for Riley to start picking off more of these passes. If the Broncos were a blockbuster movie, and if you think about Hollywood, it's all about the marquee names. And it's the first name that's on that marquee that symbolize this person is that dude, they're the star. That is PS2 in a nutshell.

So Riley Moss is, hey, he's part of the ensemble cast. But this year, he has to be much better than he was last year. I'm glad you tossed out those numbers about Riley Moss because, yes, he was targeted a lot. have to anticipate. When you're opposite that dude, you're going to be targeted a lot. I watch Champ Bailey when he was here. It was Darren Williams. Then it was Dominic Foxworks. And then it was Dre Bligh, right? Anyone playing opposite champ, you're going to get targets. And you best have your A game ready to go. This is why I feel as though Jalen Wado is going to be an intricate part for helping the growth of not just Jaquam McMillan, not just Riley Moss,

but everyone the defense aside the ball because pay attention to training. can. Everyone's going to be who and I'm over and salivating over Jalen Wado because he's going to catch passes against a lot of people, even Pat Sotan. So while everyone is on their Twitter machine going, hey, man, look what happened. I'm going to say, you know what? That needs to happen. You wanted to happen in practice so it doesn't happen in the damn football game. And you want Riley Moss to get over this whole idea of reaching and grabbing and pulling because if you guys with the officer coordinator for the opposite team playing the Denver Broncos, guess what? You too will find 21 because you know there is a doubt in his mind.

And then if you talk to the referees before the game and say, hey, watch 21. He likes a hole on upfield routes. Guess what? You're going to get him every single time. So say, I do agree with you. Riley Moss is definitely the key. But the one thing about keys, guess what? You can throw him away and get another one.

And that guy's name is Jade Barron. Well, that's where I was going to go is like, are we sure it's Riley Moss's job off the rip? I remember us talking about, you know, at some point in the off season, probably around draft time or a little bit shortly after that, about how, you know, we expect there to be an open competition for that cornerback to role. And obviously, you've got a guy in Jaday Barron who controversial is not the right word, but I guess surprising that the Broncos drafted him in the first place, just kind of knowing what their needs were at that time in the draft. And anytime you draft a guy that's a Jim Thorpe Award winner and his. considered one of if not the best cornerback in college football. You expect that guy to play and translate. And he was kind of out to see, for lack of a better phrase last year,

just not really finding a defined role within this Broncos defense. Obviously, you've got Jaquo McMillan, too, who I thought has continued to grow and sprout and just develop before our eyes with the Denver Broncos. So I think it's going to be interesting. I ultimately think it will probably be Riley Moss fellas, but I think there's going to be an open competition either way when we start training camp. which I think will be a surprising development honestly not not surprising to have competition but surprising in the fact that i know sean said at ota's or minicamp one of the other that yes jade is going to compete at outside corner but he never actually said that riley moss's job was up for grabs like he did say that jade is going to compete at outside but that that doesn't necessarily put riley moss on the chopping block in a in a manner speaking, does it? I mean, he would have to explicitly say, like, hey, yeah,

we're going to have a start, like a competition for the starting role there because we know that jade is good. A lot of these corners, most of them are going to work inside and out. Like, we see that all the time. They split time here, here, there. But I just, yeah, that's where I'm kind of, I guess, confused as maybe not the right word, but sort of intrigued going into training camp of what does a rotation look like there? Does Riley get. off days. You know, what happens if Riley, I mean, because we know Jaday also was recovering this off season. So it wasn't like a, hey, from day one of OTAs, we're going to have these guys kind of swapping spots. I don't think anything from minicamp or OTAs that I heard about or that

you guys, we've all talked about indicates that Riley's job is up for grabs other than Sean saying, yeah, Jadae is going to compete an outside corner. That's all he said, you know. So I don't know. does it mean something? Does it not? I guess we're fixing to find out. Well, let's read through the coach speak because saying, oh, well, he's going to have the ability to compete. And even though Sean Payton had not come out and said anything about Riley Moss that he was on a hot seat, we all know that because Riley's on expiring deal. And you just listed a host of numbers as far as what his targets have been and the penalties that have been thrown in his way.

So yes, you have to really figure out what's going on with Riley Moss. And then more importantly, can Jaday Barron step into that role? Because we saw him as a rookie and get his first interception against that Prescott covering Jake Ferguson. And everyone was like, oh, wow, hey, this is amazing. And the first thing everyone said was, oh, oh, watch out J-Quan McMillan. Because everyone's been trying to throw him to the wolves and say, well, he was going to be the guy that was going to have to exit stage left.

but Jad, but, I mean, Jaday didn't take over and J-Quan said, you know what? I mean, I'm not going that easily into the night. So here's what we're probably going to see, right? Come training camp, whether they advertise it this way, that there's a battle between those two guys because they need to find out. They need to figure this out. So Pat Sertan is going to practice in training camp, but don't be surprised if we don't really seem that much in, I guess,

these preseason games, right? we could see Jody Barron opposite Riley Moss. Let them compete on an equal playing field so they both have equal reps when you start to evaluate. So when you go back in the room and you pull out that piece of paper and you say both guys had 60 reps in training camp, who won the most of those reps? That's when the analytics person would give you those particular numbers. And then you say, well, who played well against Jalen Wado in practice? And to me, the knot now goes to that guy because here's a rule in the NFL.

You got a veteran player, which Riley Moss is, and you have, if you want to call a veteran player, I'm still going to say a rookie player in Jard E. Barron playing equally to that veteran guy, guess who the knot goes to? The rookie, the young player. So that is the competition that we have to watch in this room because just push PS2 to the side. We already know what he is. ESPN has told us with this list who he is. is that is the battle.

And I'll ask you gentlemen, right now, without seeing anything in training camp, no preseason action, if you had to choose right now between paying Riley Moss to state with the Denver Broncos, letting him slide and slipping Jaday Barron into that role, which would you do? Well, to me, I think you have to play the first round draft pick. I mean, you drafted a guy that high, like he's got to play. unless you're a quarterback and in a very rare circumstance even for quarterbacks, you should be playing and starting as a rookie if you're a first round draft pick. I mean, that to me is just you're drafted in the first round for a number of reasons.

But obviously the most obvious one is that you are considered one of the best prospects of a crop of hundreds of guys. And therefore, the most NFL ready in many of those cases, not always the case, but I think you should be starting at bare minimum, bare minimum by year two, if you're a first round pick, a top 20 draft pick. And so to me, like you guys have talked about, we talked about this. I love the idea of the Broncos having tremendous depth at corner. I do not mind it. But even if you were to say, hey, Riley's gone or hey, Jaday's gone, you still have

Chris Abrams Drain who's capable of starting. You had Reese Taylor who could step in in the slot, who's stepped up last year on special teams as well. The team really likes him. I just think that when you have this sort of situation, I look at the Detroit Lions right now. And I just say, hey, the Detroit Lions are licking their chops at this Broncos cornerback competition.

And there's going to be an open line of communication between Brad Holmes and George Peyton where Brad's going to call him up and be like, hey, what's up? Remember the Trinity Benson trade from a couple years ago? You know, you already know I'm going to hook you up for one of these corners, which one of these guys is winning your competition? And just by the way, hey, I've got one of Riley's teammates here as a captain of my defense. It would be an easy, smooth transition here for him, for, you know, his Iowa teammate, Jack Campbell, right?

So I don't know. I just, I can already kind of see the ducks falling in a row here as far as the future planning for the Denver. Broncos. And they have to believe this one thing is true that we can trust Jaday Barron with 110 plus targets coming his direction this season. That's that's the question you have to answer. Who do you trust in that situation? Is it only Riley Moss or or do we trust Riley and Jaday? Or do we trust a combination of Jaday and Chris Abrams drain? Because if that's the case, Riley in a contract year can go start for the Detroit Lions yesterday. I mean, he would be their

number one corner in Detroit. And I just think that he could go make himself a lot of money there. Whereas in Denver, you've invested a first round pick, regardless if it was unexpected in the draft or not, you took Jaday with a first round pick. You changed your whole strategy. The Trayvion Henderson, you know, whatever that was or was going to be or could have been Mason Taylor, who knows, you abandoned that for Jaday Barron. And therefore, you kind of in the same breath abandoned Riley Boss.

or Jayquan Macmillan, and we know it's not Jayquan at this point. Well, you know what I'm saying? You reminded me of a very iconic movie when you said, Who Do We Trust? And I thought about Al Pacino playing Scarface. And it was like, who do you trust? Me? Right? So, I mean, that's going to have to be the idea of either Jody Barron or Raleigh Moss. Hey, man, who do we trust?

Will it be you or will it be someone else? But the idea is that the Broncos will have to make a tough decision after training camp, who's going to be that starting guy? Because is that going to set the tone for whether the team is going to keep Raleigh Moss or they're going to decide to give it to their first round draft choice. I think ultimately it's a good problem to have, right? Having a bunch of depth and a lot of different guys with some upside at that position, which as we all know is one of the harder positions to, you know, build in free agency, right?

Like good cornerback and secondary rooms typically are built through the draft and ultimately the Broncos find themselves in good shape. Let's talk about the safety position when we come back. Telanoa, Hufonga, Brandon Jones, how do we feel about that pairing and the depth behind them? And then we'll move along to the defensive line. All that more. We come back right here on your Locked-on Broncos Squad Show. Back in just a moment, folks.

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especially with the every goal pays bonus that they're running out right now, guys. From the opening whistle to the final kick, let there be goals on Fandual. Visit fandwell.com To get started, be sure to check out our friends over at Fandul. and let him know that Lacton Broncos sent ship. All right, well, come on back into your Lacton Broncos squad show AP, Sarah Bedinger and Nick Ferguson, hope everyone is doing well out there. Good conversation on the cornerbacks. Again, I think the sentiment is going to be interesting to see.

Like this general sentiment is like good problem to have, like I said, ultimately we'll see if it is Riley Mosh today bearer and what happens with J. Mack. The safety position, though, right? I feel like there's so much conversation about cornerback naturally because you have the best quarterback in the game. and then Riley with the penalties and today with the draft status, right? But I think Telano Hufanga, I mean, you want to talk about a guy that came in and made an instant impact last year. And obviously, Brandon Jones has been steady for them as well when he's been healthy. Obviously, he was unable to play down the stretch of the regular season and into the playoffs.

Like I said, the cornerback room gets a lot of praise, right? But I think the safety room with those two guys healthy is no slouch either, fellas. Yeah, it's a great room. It's a couple of veterans who play super physical. They're always around the ball. I know Hufanga mentioned this offseason. I can't remember what was the injury. You guys maybe can remind me the injury that he said he was kind of recovering from

or dealing with or something like that. But I don't want to say he blamed the dropped interceptions on, but he kind of mentioned like, hey, yeah, it was like he was still kind of trying to recover from it, but he was hitting the jugs machine this off season or whatnot. I can't remember what that was. I think it was a ligament in the race. Wrist. Ligament and the wrist.

Yeah. That's, yes, that is it. So, I mean, for him to have played a full season in Denver, I think he was a first team all pro if he picks off even three of those passes that he got his hands on. I mean, he had that one play against Philadelphia. That was kind of just like exactly what you expect from Tallanoa, Hufanga, where you can see his hair flying through the line of scrimmage. And then he's like getting his hands up and getting his hands on a ball.

And he would have taken it for a pick six if he'd been able to catch it. That's the kind of impact player that he is. When the Broncos signed him, the only way that I can even articulate how he kind of makes me feel watching him play is that you have a 12th player on defense because he's always around the ball and he's so fast to the football. And obviously, Nick, you can speak to this of just the instinctual level of play that he has, but he just seems to always be Johnny on the spot or Johnny before you're even supposed to be on the spot.

He's like at the spot before you get there. So that's why I say it's like you have 12 guys because it almost doesn't matter what you do. He's going to meet you at that place and wreck your plays. And he did that so frequently last season. I think he would have been a first team all pro if he picks off a couple of those passes for sure. Oh, Tala Noho Funger giving Sarah the warm and fuzzies. You know, I understand why being as though I played that position and you're right. you know, everyone needs a field general on every single level.

And you say, okay, well, Nick Benito is that guy from a pass rushing standpoint. On the second level, whether you like it or not, that guy is Alex Singleton. And the secondary, as far as being 12 or 14, it is Tolanova funga. Especially when Brandon Jones went down, he really had to step up. And they tried to move him around to kind of take advantage of his skill set. But he's absolutely right. You know, you have to be able to anticipate plays before they actually take place. and you start by doing that by looking at film early in the week,

trying to pick up on Tennessee's. But he did say, you know, hey, listen, he's going to hit that jug machine because he needs to catch the ball more. And I was standing right there as he said that. And I thought back to my career because I say, you know what? If I could go back and reverse, I would spend more time catching the ball because I never really thought about that, guys. my whole idea of growing up watching Steve Atwater,

Chuck Sisu and John Lynch, it's like, can I separate the guy from the ball, right? For me in my mind, that was better than the interception. But now I know, no, no, no, Nick, they pay more money if you take the ball away, right? So I'm expecting a great year for Talonore Funger, but since we're talking about the safety position and we talk about Brandon Jones and his injury,

what would be the plug or who would be the plug and play guy. If the Broncos were to sustain somewhat of an injury, maybe a week or two for either of those guys. And right now, there's only one guy that I can think of, and that's Devon Key, but he can't play both positions. Yeah, that's the really difficult part about losing somebody like PJ Locke, right, is the fact that now you have Next Man up.

And I know that doesn't necessarily directly apply to Devin Key, but Sean has referenced this offseason about guys who have played special teams and are now, ascending to bigger roles on offense or defense and how that means it is going to be next man up on special teams. And so it'll be fascinating to see because Joseph even said last year that he wouldn't lose a single wink of sleep if Devin Key was one of his starting safeties in the middle of the season. I mean, they have that level of confidence in him. He developed in that defense for years now. So I think, yeah, when you bring into like Miles Scott then, what's the fast track for Miles Scott, even as a seventh round draft pick? what's the fast track look like for him in terms of getting ready to play some defense?

Because ultimately, can you sacrifice Devin Key on special teams when he's that good and that valuable franchise record for special teams tackles in a single season, right? So that to me is where you kind of are like, do we want to, you know, Rob Paul to pay Peter in this instance? Or do we fast track this dude who was the green dot player at Illinois? And yeah, he's a seventh round pick. but shoot, if there's any team out there that's proven, they don't really give a, you know what about draft status and playing guys. It's the Broncos.

Like, whether you're a first round pick or a late round guy or undrafted, like they will play you if you're ready. And that's evidenced by guys like Nate Adkins. It's evidenced by guys like Alex Palcheseki coming in as the eligible O lineman. Like they'll do that. They don't always play rookies, as we know, we saw last year. I mean, some of these guys sit on ice. But I just have to also acknowledge, too, that, Nick, you just had an interstellar moment.

I can't get it out of my brain. You had, like, the, you know, Matthew McConaughey is yelling at, he's like yelling out the window. That was you just a moment ago. I have to just have to acknowledge that. It was executed. Well, you know what? Yeah, I would definitely agree with that. But I think we're talking about two different things when we talk about the Bronco safety,

Miles Scott and Devin Key, because you mentioned, okay, well, what is it going to take for Miles Scott is a seven-round pick to get on the field. Well, you got Tyson Anderson, who's just coming over. He doesn't really know the defense. J.L. Skinner's been with the team going on his fourth year. And guess what? He hasn't even been able to break the lineup. So you have to think, well, he doesn't know the scheme that well.

So if Miles Scott wants to get on the field, guess what? It's real simple. Learn the damn defense, right? You'll be able to leapfrog both Tyson Anderson and J.L. Skinner because this is a prove-a-year for J-L. Skinner. I mean, he doesn't get it done this year. he can find itself on the chopping block now as far as Devin Key and the idea of well you know what he's played so well on special teams we don't want to sacrifice that no no no no this is where you add value to yourself because there's a guy that's been in Devin Key situation for my 10 year career in the NFL guess what gentlemen I played on every special teams except for one PAT field goal and once you do something really well guess what that is your standard right and they don't want to lose the playmaking ability of Devon Key by taking him off special team and say, you know what,

we're going to plug and play your own defense. That's not how this works. And I'm sure Darren Rizzy would be pissed if you remove one of my better special teams player because you say, well, you know what? We need him to fill in the role on defense. No. Now here's a part that sucks, gentlemen. So you are great at a multitude of different things, but they only pay you one check. right so so that is where devon key finds himself but at the same time he still has value because there are not too many people who can excel at their positional needs while playing special teams at a high level so he has a lot of value and when you start to look at well who do we keep at the end of the day well guess what devon key in PS2 is not going to be in that conversation

is on going to be all these other guys yeah no i think it's a good point and safety is different than cornerback or as quarterback, you have a lot of depth safety. It's kind of some question marks behind your two starters. Could we see one of the depth cornerbacks maybe in an emergency spot, kind of play that safety position, whatever it might be? And look, I mean, we got to call it like we see it. I mean, it was a big injury for Brandon Jones last year and whofongas dealt with injuries throughout the course of his career as well. So if you lose one or both of those guys for any stretch of games this year, it could get a little dicey for the Denver Broncos back there in the safety position. So let's go ahead and hit our final

break though. When we come back, let's shift over to the big boys up front, the defensive line. No more John Franklin Myers. How do they replace him? And what does this defensive line look like moving into next season? All that more when we come back right here on your Lockdown Broncos Squacho. All right, final segment here on your Locktime Broncos Squacho. Appreciate you guys for rocking with us on the show. As always, do us a favor. If you're watching on YouTube, hit that like button, smash that subscribe button really helps us out here on the channel. stuff on the secondary. Let's shift over to the defensive line. And I'll kind of just throw out the big picture question to either one of you guys. Obviously, we know JFM is no longer a member of

the Broncos organization. That's a big void they're going to have to fill. Obviously, you've got Nick Benito and Zach Allen still up front. And look, I know the situation is still unfolding, but there's a chance that Jonathan Cooper is there. There's a chance he's not there. Is he there at all? Right. So you're looking at one hole that you know you have to fill. with JFM, but there's also this potential second hole that might have to be filled for a short period of time, if not the entirety of the season, depending on how the legal process plays out with Jonathan Cooper. Losing JFM in the first place stinks for the Broncos, obviously.

You've got Malcolm Roach as well. But what's kind of your guys' assessment here of the past rushing room? Like obviously you've got Benito and Allen, who are two of the best of their positions. But outside of that, it's maybe a little bit of musical chairs right now, fellas. I think they're set up really well in this regard. I think this, if I was to say, hey, what's the biggest strength of this roster on paper for the future, for the present? I would say the defensive front is my favorite part of this whole roster. And I think that they've proven over time that, hey, we can get the job done.

Two straight years leading the league in sacks, setting a franchise record with sacks. I mean, these guys get the job done. So, yeah, you're right. The one starting job that's, I mean, at least as far as we know, unless Riley Moss's job is up for grabs as we speculated. The only starting job from last year's team that's open is the spot left behind by John Franklin Myers, which makes the competition very fascinating. I could see a combination of things happening. Of course, the low-hanging fruit is, hey, just use your top pick in the draft on Tyler O'Neadam. That makes sense. You use and you trade it up to get a third

round pick to take Savian Jones. In last year's draft, you've also got Malcolm Roach on the roster, Inoma Uazerike, playing a lot more in the middle of the defensive line than defensive end, rotating maybe with DJ Jones. I could see that being a situation where it's Malcolm, DJ, Zach, and then Iyoma coming in the middle with Onietam and Savian rotating off the defensive end position. I could see that. It's kind of like the offensive line, right, where you want to get your best five out there, but unlike the offensive line, you can rotate guys in the D line.

You can bring guys in waves. this is going to be a pivotal year for the young players developing, stepping up into that role. But I think it's going to be a combination, Malcolm Roach, Savion Jones, Tyler O'Neadem at the defensive end position opposite Zach Allen. And then also who keeps Zach fresh at his spot, right? Because remember he played almost a thousand snaps in 2024. Sean Payton is like, we're not doing that. It was like 700 something last year. So they cut his snaps back considerably, and he's still finished right behind Miles Garrett and total quarterback hits over the course of the season.

So keeping him fresh was the right call. So who can help do that once again this season now that you're replacing JFM snaps and then kind of next man up everywhere else? It's depth and consistency for me when I look at this group. Yeah, I mean, there are a lot of young guys. There's some veteran guys. You mentioned Zach Allen, a guy that I think is kind of overlooked league-wide. and I don't think he gets enough credit for the dirty work he does here with the Denver Broncos because he's not one of those edge rushers because as quickly as you're able to get to the quarterback

and pull him down, that guy gets all the glory. He also gets to marry the supermoder and make a lot of money. So parents, if you have a kid and you're trying to push him to be a quarterback, you might want to push him to be an edge rusher as well. But I like what the Broncos are definitely doing. And it's not just going to be the idea of rotating guys. in, but who can you rotate in and you don't have a drop off in production? Because everyone's going to be looking to say, okay, well, let's compare John Franklin Myers numbers with the Tennessee

Titans to what we're seeing for the guys. They're hoping to replicate what he was able to do last year for the Denver Broncos. That is something I know I'm going to be watching out for sure. But for me, the way that you help the guys in Interior is by helping them outside on the edges. And Anilo, you said, we don't know right now. what's going to happen with Jonathan Cooper. So the team has to continue to move forward. So what you do is, guess what? You got Jonah Ellis, a guy who the team was saying he is so athletic and athletically

inclined that they were willing to move him from an edge rushing standpoint to a stand-up linebacker. So there's a lot of value that he brings to the table. You got Dondrey Tillman. And also, Q. Robinson, you have to figure if something happens with Jonathan. than Cooper sooner or later, Q Robinson is going to find his way on the field.

And we've seen a lot of bright moments for this young player. So I like where the Broncos are. You can mix and match if you advance Joseph. And you're not really, you know, handcuffed to say, well, we only have to play with these number of guys. Like, no, you don't. You need to kind of mix things up. But I'm interesting to see how Odeon plays this season,

Sabian Jones, but also Rosalie, what is he going to do? Because I think a lot of pressure will be placed on him because they're going to look at him and the fans are going to look at him and say, well, listen, they let John Franklin Myers walk because of you and Savian Jones. It's put up a shut up.

Can you give us that same level production? If they can, that's going to put extra stress on the defense as a whole. Well, how about another guy who was named in that Seth Wickersham article too, right? Jordan Jackson. I think that the Broncos have liked him for a long time. He's kind of been around the team for a handful of years now.

You just never know when it's going to be your time to step up and step in, right? I think that's where you have these guys who, hey, we've, we've loved this guy's scouting report since the 2022 NFL draft. And he's been on this team for such a long time. They also brought back Matt Henningson, surprisingly, on a one-year deal. And then he has the interception at minicamp or whatever that was that had the entire defense rallied around him celebrating as he came off an injury from last year. So I would classify the Broncos defensive front as just an absolute embarrassment of riches. I think that's what it is because they have so many guys that I think could play well if they were called upon. And that's from the top of the depth chart on down.

It's very, very rare in today's NFL that you would lose a starting defensive end and potentially a starting edge rusher and not suffer for it. But the Broncos are in a position where they might actually, and I know this might be, a hot take, they might actually be better. Like Jonah Ellis might be better than Jonathan Cooper. I mean, the young guys that they have might be better than John Franklin Myers. I mean, long term,

like, I mean, here's all I'm saying. Like, Jonathan Cooper disappeared down the stretch last season. Off field stuff aside, he didn't make any impact plays that I can even remember in the second half of the season.

I know that it's not always like, well, a sack is the only way to quantify impact on the field. That's not what I'm saying. Like, go look at the quarterback hits numbers. Go look at the total pressure numbers. Go look at the sack numbers. Forced fumbles.

Like Jonathan Cooper was not around in the second half of the season. And the biggest splash play from the playoffs in the pass rush department, who made it? In the, in the AFC championship game, who made the biggest splash play? Q Robinson. Who made the biggest splash play against Buffalo? Nick Benito. So Jonathan Cooper, I was wondering before all this stuff happened, where is he been? John Franklin Myers played 43% of the snaps or 46% of the snaps last year.

That's not a lot to have to replace. And yes, he gave you great production. But against the run, the Broncos got bullied two years in a row in the playoffs. And they got bullied against the run a number of times in the second half of the season. Not saying that was John Franklin Myers' fault, but I'm saying they could be better against the run. And there's a reason why they were willing to let him go with no contest, no offer. Remember we talked about in the early portion of the offseason.

If the Broncos go to John Franklin Myers and say, here's an offer to stay. Will you stay? Would he turn him down? We all unanimously agreed. No, we all agreed that he would not turn them down. So if they made him an offer, we thought, hey, he would come back. They didn't make him an offer at all. Like, not because they couldn't afford it because they could.

They could have not paid Luke Wattenberg and gone after a cheaper center option. And they could have kept John Franklin Myers. they said, no, we're not going to do that. I think they got the best out of John Franklin Myers, but all I'm saying is, is that to me, Jonah Ellis is way more talented than Jonathan Cooper. I'm not saying he's proven more.

I think he's more talented. I think he's a way better prospect than Jonathan Cooper was coming out. And I'm interested to see maybe roll the dice a little bit and say, okay, you know what, we've got a guy who might be more talented here. Let's get him in the starting lineup. The only thing that's held Jonah back is injury. So I don't know.

I feel like this could be a bit of falling upward for the Broncos in a way because of their player development in what we've seen in the last couple of years. I'm going to have to disagree with you, Sarah, because one thing, let me start out with the positive first. I'm going to agree with you with the Jonah Ellis situation because Jonah Ellis has shown since he's been able to be here, he could do a multitude of different things, things that John DeCuba can't do, things that we've seen Nick Benito do, things that we haven't even seen. you know, Von Miller be able to do at the high level. Like Big Fangio tried to make Von Miller drop in coverage. That didn't look well. That's not his forte. Jonah Ellis, he can cover running backs out of the backfield.

John the Cooper can't do that. He has that versatility to be a stand-up linebacker or rush off the edge. John think Cuba can't do that. So I will agree with you on the Jonah Ellis issue. Now, as it pertains to John Franklin Myers, a lot of pressure is going to be on those guys who are said to have to replace him. Because here's one of the reasons I feel as though the Broncos did not bring him back. Like the idea was that, well, if they offer him a contract, he's going to take it.

No, he's not because he understands his worth. And he knew that based on his production within the framework of Vince Joseph defense, and yeah, you got Zach Allen and Nick Benito around you, his stats started to go up. So when your stats start to go up, you know what that means? That means more dollars. And I know you talk about Luke Wattenberg. The Broncos felt is that, you know what, they looked at the roster and say, look, can we easily replace John Franklin Myers? And it's like, nah, I'm not sure that we can.

Look at his level of production. And what did the Broncos do? Who did they give the extension to? Not John Franklin Myers. They gave it to Malcolm Roach. That told you right there what they were thinking. They thought, well, we got Malcolm Roach, all these other guys, we can easily replace, you know, John Franklin Myers. But Luke Wattenberg, no, we need to keep our car offensive line together because what was

Sean Payton's mindset when he was a head coach of the New Orleans Saints, right? You bill with the offensive line first. So we can make do on defense, but we're not sacrificing on offense because that was his side of the ball. But we'll get a change. And I hope you're right, sir. Some of those young players can step into that role. and we started to say John Franklin Myers, who?

Yeah, I mean, it's possible, right? I mean, you invested in these guys. You traded up for Savian Jones. You, you know, spent the 60, what, 66 pick or 65th pick on On Yadam. And you, like you said, re-signed Malcolm Roach, who he played a lot last season. But I think, you know, we haven't really seen him do fully what he's capable of. He'd struggle with an injury as well. He was on IR for a brief stint, if I remember correctly.

So I think we have layers of this defensive line that are yet to be unleashed. And so, and I want to go to my Cooper. I want to back this up a little bit because I wasn't just trying to have a hot take. I knew that the numbers back this up. The last eight games of last season, he had one sack, five quarterback hits, two tackles for loss. If you include the two playoff games, that's 10 games, two sacks, three tackles for loss, and seven total quarterback hits in 10 games down the stretch last season. So that's not the type of production, I would say, that you want off the edge.

It's like he gave you two sacks in, you know, eight games or nine games or 10 games, whatever that was. That's, I mean, if you're the robin to a Batman that is Nick Benito, you've got to do more than that. You've got to be able to capitalize on all the attention that Zach Allen and Nick Benito are commanding. And once again, it's not just sacks. It's also quarterback hits.

Five quarterback hits in the last eight games of last season. to me, that's grounds for kind of losing some snaps to a guy like Jonah Ellis who basically gets into the backfield every time he's on the field or Q Robinson who's in the back field every time he's on the field. So, yeah, I would say not even considering the off field stuff that we've been hearing about over the last couple of months and uncertainty over what the future could hold. Like Jonathan Cooper to me at the back half of last season was not good enough. And I love the idea that Jonah Ellis and Q Robinson are going to get some more playing time. You heard it here first, folks. You heard of here first? No, I see where your head's at.

And honestly, like, I think I'm far enough from moving the season now that like just even you talking about Coop. Like, he definitely did fade down the stretch, right? You lay it out the way that you did. And ultimately, I still think Coop's a good player. Again, there's some off the field stuff that's going to have to work itself out before we even know what that situation is going to be like for the Broncos. But kind of like cornerback, it sounds like there's, you know, depth that. you and all of us tend to believe in behind the big two guys of Nick Benito and Zach Allen. So it's going to be fascinating. I mean, ultimately, like I said, like safety to kind of put a

bow on the entire conversation. Like I feel really good about Denver at all three of these positions that we've talked about today. Safety is the one that maybe you have the most concern of just if those guys get hurt and you have a couple of guys with a little bit of an injury history as well. But like this is a team that's shaping up to have one, if not the best defense in the league once again, right? It'll probably be them in Houston. Obviously, you know, Denver led the league by a wide margin in sacks. last year, that number could probably even go up if Jonah Ellis and, you know, some of these guys project the way that Sarah has talked about throughout the course of the show today.

So I think all in all fellas, like the Broncos defense, not a surprise is obviously the strength of their team. And we feel pretty good about them across the board. I know there's questions about lying back course we talked about a couple weeks ago, but as a unit really can't complain too much. You know what, before we go, I want to bring us up. I know we are down one fellow today in Cody Rourke. And I have a feeling that we should have this conversation again and comparing, you know,

John DeCooper to Jonah Ellis because I have a sneaky suspicion that Cody is going to think a little different from what Sarah and I just said going choosing Jonah Ellis over John the Cooper. So I want to believe that he will not say it, but there's a part of me that thinks that, yep, Cody's going to be in opposition to what we just said. Yeah, he might be. I mean, he might be. And we got to call him, he's Cody New York, not Cody Rourke. That's right.

He's Cody, New York. Cody, New York. Cody, that sounds like a name that's left for some more adult material. What? Cody on Broadway. Yeah. Catch him all you can. There you go.

Yes. There you go. That's it. I love it. I love it. I will, everyone in YouTube, thank you guys. so, so much for tuning in, everyone on the audio feed. We appreciate you guys as well.

Let us know your thoughts on all three of these position groups. Which of the three do you feel best about, which you maybe have some concerns about? We'll have some fun with that. And then we'll continue along here with the lead at the training camp, kind of our positional previews. We've still got to do wide receiver. We got to do quarterback, mixing a little offensive lines. We want to do special teams as well. So plenty to unpack as the crawl into training camp continues.

Light at the end of the tunnel is rapidly approaching that we're almost there. ladies and gentlemen. But that's going to do it for us today. For Nick Ferguson, Sarah Bettinger, I am Anilo Piro. Thank you guys so, so much for tuning in. And we'll back to you guys later. Have a good day, y'all. Peace.