Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - BRONCOS SQUAD SHOW: Broncos Fans Should Be EXCITED After Rookie Minicamp

Episode Date: May 12, 2026

The Denver Broncos first practice of rookie mini camp is in the books, and Broncos Country should be thrilled with the early returns. Running back Jonah Coleman impressed along with a handful of other rookies. Broncos Country should also be pumped up with the NFL Schedule set to drop this Thursday. Join Aniello Piro, Cody Roark, Sayre Bedinger and Nick Ferguson on todays Locked On Broncos Squad Show as they 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! Square If you’re starting a business, or running one that deserves better tools, Square helps you sell, manage, and grow without slowing down. Right now, you can get up to $200 off Square hardware at https://square.com/go/LockedOnNFL. FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now new customers can bet just five dollars and get one-hundred and fifty dollars in bonus bets if your first bet wins. Visit https://FANDUEL.COM to get started — Play Your Game. 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. Rocket Money Let Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster. Join at http://RocketMoney.com/LOCKEDON Gametime Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. 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 Nilo Piro, and it's schedule week, ladies and gentlemen, a lot to break down on the program today. Cody, Roak, a mile high sports, and I'll tell you why Broncos fans should be excited about the buds coming out of a rookie minicamp. I'm Sarah Bredinger. Bring on the Chiefs. I'm Nick Ferguson.

Who gives the damn about the schedule stuff? All right. Let's talk about it on TV. Locked on Bronco Squad Show. Let's go, fellas. From the South Stans, 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 Locked-on Broncos squad show. Happy Tuesday. Happy schedule release week to everyone out there in Broncos country. We got the full squad here today, Anilo Piro, Cuddy Bork, Sarah Bedinger, and Nick Ferguson.

and hope everyone is doing well out there in and around Broncos country and a lot to unpack here on the program today. We'll talk about rookie minicamp, which Cody was in attendance for, and we'll also have some fun and do a little whiteboard session here as it pertains to the schedule release. So we'll have some fun with that. And you guys feel free to get involved in the YouTube chat for everyone listening on the lockdown Broncos audio feed. We appreciate you guys as well. And fellas, you know, schedule release week, that's when it kind of starts to feel like it's getting a little bit more real, right? We're inching closer and closer the start of the season.

We'll kind of do our little reaction to wins and losses and record predictions after this Thursday. So we'll have some fun with it. Should be fun. You're saying we're getting closer to football. There's no better feeling about it being closer to football. Nick, you're going to appreciate this, having been a former player. There's a certain time of the year where the weather is warm. We've had great weather here in the Mile High City.

But when the grass is cut, there's a certain smell near a football field that you smell. And it's like, ah, football's getting closer. To me, that's what's got me all jazzed up. And we got a little bit of a glimpse of that in Saturday's rookie minicamp practice. And I can't wait for the full thing to be here. Yeah, Cody, you talk about, you know, fresh cut grass. It has that internal feeling that reminds you of what it was like when you were on a grid eye. And for me, you know, I love smelling it, but I hate it at the same time because it makes me want to hit someone.

Right. And now I'm at the stage of my life where if I hit someone, I'm going to jail, right? So I had to find ways to kind of restrain myself. But practice, game day, it all is the same. I just sit there and I soak it up and just think about what used to be because I can't hit anyone anymore. Who needs smelling salts when you just got to smell the freshly cut grass, man? My buddy brings smelling salts when we go golfing. What?

Yeah, he's always like, dude, just take a whiff of this, bro. like it'll get your senses right. And I'm like, what is wrong with you? Okay, here's the thing. Do you actually take part in it? I did it once because I hadn't done them in like years. So I kind of forgot what it was like. Wait a minute.

You said you had done it in years like you smoke a pack of cool 100. No, but like, you know, when I was a kid and stuff like high school, like, you know, it was like, who it's got smelling salt. Like, I don't know. Wait, wait, hold on now. Okay. Oh, man. This is like tax and caps.

Like when you were in high school, well, you just. walking around with smell of salt just kind of, I mean, what you're doing that? No, no. It's like, you know, it's the high school ecosystem. You've got this group of kids that are doing that. Then there's this one kid who's got this. And it's just like, you know, you know, you know what that means, right? Peer pressure.

Yeah. Hey, we had a good time. We never had smelling salts, man. We just dealt like, you know, at our friends that always chewed tobacco. And that was the thing freshman year was like, hey, try chewing tobacco. Don't do it. That was the worst thing ever did in my life. I puked. I puked. I couldn't do it. But smelling salts, I've never done smelling salts in my life.

I don't need smelling salts to get me jazzed up for football or anything. I'm, I'm ready to go, man. Let's go. I'm ready right now. Cody, to warn you about about chewing tobacco? I mean, that was the one, like, clear warning. Honest confession. Last year was the first time I ever saw the sandlot and I got what you just said just there. So there we go. Wow. That's insane. I think I had watched that movie 100 times before even the year 2000. My niece, she's three years old. She loves the sand lot. And I was like, wow, I can't believe I never saw this as a kid.

Then again, my childhood circumstances were a little different. But my wife is still finding out somebody saying, she's like, you never saw this. You never saw this. You never watched Disney. I was like, no, I didn't have the luxury of doing that. I was, you know, I didn't have those, you know, we didn't have that back in the day. You know, the only thing I could relate to was probably like rocket power. That was about it.

Oh, rocket powers are good. Oh, man, I'm jazzed. I'm ready to go, man. Well, Sam Lott, you know, in the conversation's sake of like coming of age, right? It's kind of like coming of age season for the Broncos rookies. We had rookie minicamp on Saturday, Cody. I know you were in attendance. Saw your report, saw reports from a handful of other of the fellows that were down there covering the rookie mini camp.

I think Broncos country has a legitimate reason to be pretty excited and optimistic about what this rookie class might. Now look, it's mini camp, it's not training camp, it's not even preseason. It's not regular season. But the early returns on the rookie class from what you and the other media members saw seems to be pretty positive. Yeah, right. And here's the number one thing. I always try to tell people to kind of reel in, like there's hype, but there's like

real then expectations, right? Like when you come out to these types of practices, no physical contact is allowed, guys aren't hitting each other. But what is it that we want to see when we take a look at these players? Do they pass the eye test? Do they do like the little things that maybe have an impact in their position? Jonah Coleman, for example, is probably the most popular rookie that the Broncos have right now. No disrespect to Tyler O'Neum, who was their first pick in this year's draft.

But for Jonah, it's like, wait, how can you evaluate how the running backs are doing when there is no physical contact allowed by the offensive line, the defensive line? We call them muddle huddles where, I mean, it's just a bunch of patty cake in between the O line and D line. Because you really can't. Like, it's just guys moving to us. spot. But running backs, how does he run with anticipation, right? If there's a hole that is opening up up from our vantage point, does he hesitate or does he hit it? Does he get north-south? Does he anticipate maybe where the pursuit and the flow of the defense is coming? Does he adjust accordingly?

Those are the little things I saw with Jonah that have me excited. Justin Jolie, we also talked about as well, just the size. Like, he's not big compared to guys like Caleb Loner or Dallin-Bentley. Man, he's got that Evan Ingram size and he's going to be a little bit more physical than Evan, he's going to play in that role, but he's got the big hands. He's got the midst to where he's, you know, pass is being thrown in his way. He's catching it. You hear the thump of the football hit his hands, but then you hear him run with power down the sideline.

Like you can hear the foot that bop, up, pop, pop, it's heavy feet, which isn't a bad thing. Like that's the thing that I like. I think in terms of being a hard guy to tackle. Like those are the things that we look at. And of course, Berg, you understand this. It's easier for us to look at the wide receivers, the DBs. They have better chances to stay now because they can actually make plays on the football, whereas a lot of the other positions are really limited in the scope of what they can do.

Yeah, it's funny how you talk about those hamburger helper type hands. And that's what you need for wide receivers, but you also need that from offensive linemen because you want them to kind of have heavy hands. And what I mean by that is when you put your hands on the defensive alignment, you want to be able to move and you want to strike and you want to be able to move a guy off his spot. But, you know, it is hard to evaluate, you know, a lot of those guys who, you know, didn't really make the team, or better yet said, we're not invited back for OTAs and minicamp.

It's hard because you only get so many opportunities. And the first part is you're trying to show that you know the system and you need to go out there and operate. So they try to make it as simple as possible so you can go out there and you can evaluate. But you're right about Jonah Coleman. When you watch guys like that, you just want to see if the burst is there, right? If the juice is worth and squeeze, what you saw on tape,

are you seeing that on the field? And from all accounts, you were there, I was not, and went to my son's lacrosse game. But that's kind of what I've heard. But also, too, I saw some of the team video. It was similar to when we saw RJ Harvey for the first time. I mean, you see a guy in his past, but then you see him up close and personal,

and you see how thick and rocked up he is. And it seemed like that's kind of the running back. Like Pierre Thomas, who used to play for Sean Payton down in the Wallis, that's kind of the body-sized running backs that we have. now. So hopefully they'll be able to lean on all three of those running backs this upcoming season. Yeah. Yeah, I think as we've kind of alluded to, guys, like Jonah Cohen, I think is naturally probably the player that we think could have the biggest impact in his rookie season. Ultimately, we'll see how that plays out. Craig me, if I'm wrong, Coeague, I was busy with the avalanche over the

course of the weekend, too. Was I seen tweets about Caleb Loner? Was I seen some tight-end conversation with Caleb? Yeah, and look, I'll say this too about Caleb. Like, there was nothing that we saw like during practice, like, oh my gosh, Caleb Loner, it was more so what Sean said at the podium to us, because he was asked, you know, are there any players that have stood out to you? And he just went out and he said, you know, like he mentioned Caleb Loner specifically and said, just the jump, the leap that he's made from last year to where he's at now going into year two. He's a much different player. And in terms of that, I think a lot of is looking at him and talking to him, he put on more weight, more muscle to, you know, obviously the blocking aspects can be very, you know,

important for him and maybe getting more involved in the past catching him because last year in the preseason he struggled with some drops. He also struggled with some penalties. And I think at times it's due to him being a little outmatched physically last year against some of the bigger edge guys or, you know, the athletic linebacker. So a lot of that emphasis was going there and just grind. And he helped him a lot last year on the scout team at tight end. He helped him a lot, you know, he even played scout team outside linebacker. So for Sean to go out there and recognize him without really just, you know, he didn't have to. Like, Sean's not the type of guy that's going to go out and blow smoke up people's who are ends.

Like, you know, he's not the one. Sean's not the one who said, Lucas Crowe looked like the best guy here in 2020, whatever it was. But, oh, my God. John did say Caleb Loner took a massive leap forward. See, I don't know if you guys know what Cody is referencing, but we all said in the room where Sean Payton was asked, not once, not twice, but there was a third reference to Lucas Crowe being his best. player, his best offensive player.

And we all sat there looking at each other like, what the hell is going on? So, yeah, I still have that video, Cody. I still have that video. That's an all-timer. That's an all-timer, my friend. Sean went like this, like the thing that drove me, that Sean goes, not even close. But then at the end of it, he was still so, like, perturbed by the notion. He looked at the camera and it's out there still in the archives.

He goes, just. Nilo, that's your peeps, dog. Those are your peeps. You know, man, I do me. I chill. That's what Kevin Durant likes to say. I do me. I did not ask the question.

I did not. You know? Though, to be fair, Anilo was on, was working for. I think you were with those peeps at that time, Nick. I think we're not back then. I was no low. I got to be at that point.

He was Mr. Independent. Yes. So it was a good way to be. Yeah. Oh, my gosh, dude. You guys are like, what a time.

Okay. Here's my thing. Here's my thing. That was 2020. That was going into Bo's rookie year. I was going into Bo's rookie year. No, because, no, that was great because, well, here's the thing, too. Your other counterpart, someone I love very dearly, Andrew Mason, who obviously, you know, works alongside the commenter about that.

Even he went like this when it was asked. She's like, like, what? Like, what are you doing? It was great, man. They say shoot or shoot, bro. You know what? Hey, but it's like that, it's like that meme though, right? Where, what was it?

Nick Young shoots it and he turns around. It's like it's going in. It goes, zoo jiz-d-d-d-d-d-o rams out. I don't know if that's going to be the case this year, too. Like if we're going to the things talking about Lucas Crowe, it looks like the best player again. Like we're going to have some problems this upcoming season. That's not, that shouldn't be it.

Yeah, sir, okay. So don't you think with Sean Payton making those comments about Caleb Loner. To me, the first thing I thought was there's two things at work here. Either Sean is sending a message to the other veteran tight ends, hey, hey, Caleb Loner's doing this, or this is kind of a precursor to Sean, you know, looking at where the tight end room could actually shape out, kind of talking about cable loaner if the team decides to move him after training camp. I mean, I don't know how you guys thought about it, but those are the two things I was thinking about right away. It's interesting because I think oftentimes, you know, those, you put those feelers

out there to do those sorts of things, to send those kind of messages, not necessarily baiting teams to give you a call about certain guys, but maybe even making a comment like that about Caleb, Loner would cause teams to call on somebody else and be like, hey, what's, you know, what's going on with this other guy? Like, you know, I don't know, because they trade Devon Valle last year out of nowhere, right? So you never know when that's, you know, stuff's going to come up. But I think what really stood out, too, about the comments about Caleb Loner is Sean Payton used an analogy from Bill Parcells where he talks about, like, if they don't bite

when they're puppies, they're probably not going to, you know, whatever. I thought that was a great way to put the physical element of the game. And Caleb Loner had to answer that in the locker room scrum that he had as well about how different it is. Like people kind of assume, hey, boxing out in basketball, you're going to be able to be physical at the catch point in the NFL. but it's so much more than just boxing out a DB or a linebacker when you're at the catch point. It's about can you play on the line?

Can you, can you, you know, chip an edge rusher? Can you do all those sorts of things? And so he's bulked up to, I think Peyton said he's six, seven, two 65. That's crazy. I mean, that guy is, he's going to stand out no matter what when he walks on to a football field because he's just a big dude. But I think if that physical element is there, do you guys think there's any chance of him sort of maybe upending the narratives of this roster at the tight end position a little bit

and how high could he be on the depth chart? Because I don't, I think Sean says this kind of stuff to make sure we all remember. This guy was one of our, you know, pet cats last year. And it's somebody that we thought a lot of. And we kept him around and he rejected offers from other teams to stick around. So like, man, there's, there's definitely something there. I don't know if it's just, I don't think it's anything in the way of like offseason fluff by any means. I think he's, I think he's genuinely impressed by Caleb Loner's progress, which is great news. Well, if anything, right, and you and I've had discussions about this on a regular show, too, Nate Adkins is back, Lucas Crowell is back.

I mean, I think it's safe to say Evan Ingram, Adam Troutman, Justin Jolie, those guys are roster locks at tight end, but do they keep four? Do they keep five? Does Nate Atkins maybe compete with Adam Prentice for fullback maybe this year, which also frees up room to keep an additional tight-in, right? And obviously there's the conversation between Dallin Bentley in the seventh round. He's got good size, good size to him, but he's going to be one of those inline guys. Is there going to be competition between the loaner and Bentley for maybe that last spot on the tight-end position?

I mean, that's what I'm wondering. And I'm also wondering, too, once we get to OTAs, once we get to minicamp here in the month of June, and ultimately training camp. is that where we see Nate Atkins. If Nate Adkins is getting reps at fullback, I think that tells us that, hey, that spot there for the fourth spot here for Denver at tight-in, that's going to be open for one of these guys. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

Do you guys really quickly think when we talk about Bailey, do you think that the team saying looking at the tight-in situation, they may have guys and teams always have guys that they want to keep and say, okay, well, he may not only be like, like practice squad material, who's to say that if he shows good footwork and I mean, he's an inline blocker at tight end anyway, you don't just add weight to him and then, you know, make him a tackle. And the reason I say that is because in my time of Mike Shanahan, Duane Carlswell was a tight end. And eventually they made him gain some extra weight,

made him a tackle. So when we went to heavy personnel, here's a guy you can come in. He had good feet so he could play that tackle position. But also, you know, you. you can also throw him passes too as well. So I'm wondering if the Broncos may entertain that thought and that idea because you know, Garibald's on the left side, you know, obviously it's a thing that happens in the NFL. They talk about the player's age and then you look at Mike McGlitchie, right, and his contract expiring sometime soon. And also, Mike having issues with his feet and being able to slow down, you know,

I guess elite pass rushes. So I'm interested to see what you guys think as far as would that ever happen. I will say, I don't know. I don't think that's going to be in the case for Dallon, but Denver, I mean, they got some good size on their offensive line. Like we're at rookie minicamp, Cage Casey, he's got really good size for an interior guy. Like right now he's getting a lot of reps at left guard, but they even said that he's a move around guy, can play left tackle, left guard, they could play center if need be, could play

right guard, can play right tackle. There's him, but they even have an offensive lineman who's a behemite, he's six foot nine, I believe it's Tyler Miller. he was tall. I mean, that offensive line group that they had in, you know, between the undrafted sinees, the players that were there on a tryout basis, they had good size to them, you know, size that kind of fits in the category of Frank Crum a little bit. So I, I think that they're very much like, hey, we want to develop as many, you know, bigger offensive linemen as possible. I think their plan right now is Paucheschi behind McGlinchie. And if they ultimately move on from him,

I also think the plan is going to be Frank Crum. And, Cage Casey being potential options on the left side. Frank Crum could even be in consideration if the Barracos eventually want to move away from McGlinchie. But I don't know what their plan is here because look, it's the same offensive line that Bose had since he came in. You might have to change it up at some point just because of financials, but you still have some familiarity in there because you've got guys that have been in your system for the last two or three years. So I think that's where it kind of like the tradeoff is versus where some guys go out

and spend in free agency. So I don't know. That's a great question, though. I just don't see them moving down on Bentley. I mean, he moves well. He moves well at Tidin. Heck, if there's anyone, Nick, that I would say if he were to get signed to the roster, one of the trial players they had, his name was Stone Eadie.

There's a tight end out of SMU. I don't think he had more than one career catch SMU. He got three during OTAs during the mandatory minicamp here. He's got big body, big upper body, big lower body. He'd be the guy outside of he'd probably move him out of anybody. Well, it's going to be interesting to see how the Broncos obviously navigate these decisions, all good decisions, right? All good problems. And I don't want to say problems, but like good to have options, right?

And good to have some flexibility there, I think, is how I'd put it. So let's have some fun. Let's hit a quick break. And then let's take a look at this schedule. We'll do a little whiteboard segment the rest of the way here on the program. And we'll do that when we come back right here on your locked on Bronco Squatchew. All right, you guys, real quick, let me tell you about our. friends over at game time because we can stream anything, order food, and minutes, do everything

from our phones and somehow buying tickets to live events still feels way harder than it should be. Long lines, confusing checkouts, prices jumping at the last second. It really should not be that complicated. That's why there's game time. It gives fans the advantage and making and makes getting tickets fast and simple. It's awesome, guys. It truly is absolutely phenomenal. I'm an active game time. I like to say it every single time that I do the read. It is like literally the only place that I get my tickets. I was just looking at tickets for an upcoming Rockies game, and it took me minutes to find great options.

I could see the full price up front with no surprise fees at checkout. The seat views are absolutely huge, which means you can check your exact view before you purchase your ticket. And the zone deals is where you pick the section and save even more money, two taps, and you have a great seat locked in. It's quick, easy,

and actually makes you want to go to more events. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets to every type of event with game time. Download the GameTime app today, create an account, and use code locked on for $20 off your first purchase, terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem with code L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N for $20 off. Download the GameTime app today and let them know that Locked on Bronco sent you. All right, welcome on back in to the squad show, Nila Pirok, Cuddy, Rourke, Sarah Bedinger, and Nick Ferguson. Hope everyone is doing well out there in and around Broncos country. And Cody, I'm sure you had some good additional content with the Everydayer Club.

Yeah, just the Everydayer Club gives Broncos Country an ad-free version of the show Every Day plus access to our exclusive Discord server where you can interact with other members of Broncos country. It's pretty fun. So make sure you go check it out, lockdown Broncos. com. Make sure to check that out. Cody and Sarah do an absolutely superb job with that. Okay, before we get to the whiteboard segment, just.

Quick thoughts here. The news came out like 6 o'clock this morning. The Broncos will indeed play the Kansas City Chiefs. Did any of us have the Chiefs? Because we did that exercise a couple of weeks ago where we were trying to guess who we thought the Broncos were playing week one. I know I had the Raiders. I had the Dolphins.

Okay. I wasn't sure if any of us hit on the Chiefs. Yeah, you had the Sea Chickens. Berg. Who did you have, Berg? At Buffalo. Buffalo. Well, yeah, we'll see.

I think any quick thoughts here about the, Chiefs week one matchup Monday night football. Love it. What a great way to start the season. It doesn't matter if it's in Denver, doesn't matter if it's an arrowhead. Exciting. And I think it showcases too. You know, Sarah and I are talking about it on tomorrow's episode of the show where I mean, ESPN gets to host the Super Bowl this year.

This season, they're rolling out the red carpet to try to build up for it. So what better way for the Broncos to start the season on ESPN and to end the season on ESPN? Do you think my home is plays in the game? Yeah, this game is a, for me. It's a dud. Wow. It's a dud. Why? Tell me why.

Well, I'm glad you asked because we're talking about week one. We don't know if the game is going to be played at Arrowhead or here at Empower Field, but it changes the whole narrative because no Patrick Mahomboi playing in the game. Right? He's going to play. And you're going to have Justin Fields. Now, for the Denver

Broncos, I say for the fan base, this game, yeah, you want to win a division game. You want to beat Kansas City. but you want to beat them at their best. So no Patrick Mahomes takes a little sting off the game itself, right? But it would look bad for the Broncos if no matter where they play, Justin Fields is able to beat the Broncos. Because remember what happened in London when the Broncos played the Jets? I mean, I don't know what Justin Fields was looking at during that game,

and the Broncos fans are hoping to see the same thing. But it's not one of those heavyweight fights. I mean, you want to start off the season. And I get what you're saying, Cody, but I want a club of laying, you know, Rocky Barboor, you know, fight at the very beginning. Not, not this. Who's to say that he's not going to play? Like, he's participating in OTAs at September. He's going to be around nine months.

Come on, do you really think he's going to play? You want to go a bet on it? You want to do a chick-fil-a bed on it right now? You still owe me. I got you. We'll do a chick-fil-a bet on it. Look at that Sarah was ready with the Chick-fil-A cup. So we're talking, Patrick Mahomes playing week one against the Denver Broncos.

Yes, we'll play. All right. Let me spin it. Is it a sandwich? Is it a Chick-fil-A sandwich or a meal? What are we talking? It's a meal, brother. Whatever you want.

Okay. It could be a full-on meal. You could even get a side of mac and cheese if you want to, you know, or instead of a meal, you could just get two sandwiches, too. It could do it, you know, whatever you desire. See, I don't even eat Chick-fil-A anymore, but I'm willing to do it. All right. Listen.

Wow. Or what do you eat? Then we could do it on that. We'll do it on that. How about if I win, you get me chick-fil- Wow. Is that blast for me? Yeah.

Chick-fil-le is pretty darn good, man. He lays fire, man. God. You guys would think that I stole my first kid the way you guys responded. Like, this guy doesn't eat Chick-fil-A. I'm no longer in the group. We got Anillo who just kind of get those little things. He's sniffing the ammonia patches, but I don't even Chick-fil-A no more.

And I'm the bad guy. I'm the bad guy. Come on, man. Man, man. Yes. Oh, my gosh. That it is. Yes, yes.

Sounds good. You're going to bring him out of Chick-fil-A retirement, Cody, if you win this bet. I love it. I love it. Let me spin it for just a second here. Do you think ESPN, because I'm not sure how, like, the selection process works, but, like, you would think that there's not an assurance, right? But ESPN and the league have to have a pretty good feel that Patrick Mahomes has at least a pretty good chance to play in the game.

Because if not, and I know it's still the Chiefs and that brand and Travis Kelsey, but like if there was a 2% chance that Patrick Mahomes is playing in the game, I don't think you see that as the opening week matchup for the Broncos, let alone on Monday night football. So the fact that it's on Monday night football personally makes me think that there's a good chance, more than a 50-50 chance than Mahomes was. That's what your boy, Joe Buck said this morning on Good Morning America. He says, you know, the belief is that Patrick Mahomes is going to be good to go.

Even if he's not 100 percent, like he's going to play, like nine months. He's got, here's the thing. And look, this is the thing. And this is why regardless, Arrowhead, Denver, it doesn't matter. Patrick Mahomes is going to have an adjustment period, even if he does play, of trying to just get used to what life is like, doing the football stuff after the injury. One of the best things about his game has been his ability to create off structure, being able to scramble, dip underneath, make guys miss. I mean, against the Broncos, almost every game you can imagine he's played.

There's been like a third and 13 where he runs and picks up 15. You know, he's done that consistently. That's going to be a lot different. And now he has to face the defense that has led the NFL in Saxon, two straight years in row. He's got to run away from Jonathan Cooper, Nick Benito and Zach Allen. I like this for Denver, whether it's in Denver, whether it's at Arrowhead. And there are people, like, I hope it's at Arrowhead so you don't have to go there in December.

Folks, if you believe this is Super Bowl winning team, a Super Bowl contending team, it don't matter if they play in December and ever head. You got to go down there and you got to win the dang thing. So that's kind of where I'm at. I'm guessing that the, the chiefs or the NFL got a couple of options with how many chiefs. Because Monday Night Football and ESPN, it's not like they just get as many Chiefs games as they want. Like they're competing with Amazon. They're competing with CBS.

They're competing with, you know, all of it, NBC. Netflix. Yep, Netflix. So you get limited options. And so they were probably given a couple of options in terms of, hey, when do you guys want the Chiefs? And so there's two factors here that make this the ideal spot for ESPN to pick Kansas City. Now they get to hype up all offseason. Like they have the Chief's first game back after a down year, their potential bounce back story.

That also applies to Bo Nix coming back from injury. But let's say with either option of Patrick Mahomes playing or not playing on the table, it's a win-win for them because the Chiefs are still going to be undefeated going into this game. So they're not going to like have a bad record going into Monday Night Football. Things aren't going to be going off the rails already. Like there's still the optimism of the entire season ahead of everybody. But then you also have if Patrick does make his way back, then you can promote it as him playing against Bo Nix as both of these guys come back from injuries.

So it's ratings gold no matter what, even if it's not the, you know, the heavyweight fight that, you know, everybody wants to see the two best quarterbacks in the division going at it. And yes, I just said that. So if that ever gets, you know, needs to get clipped and cut. But I think, look, that's what the ESPN has at their, you know, disposal right now is the option of chiefs, you know, they're still going to be undefeated, nothing off the rails. Patrick Mahom's plays, awesome. But if nothing else, we have their comeback.

beginning to start the season. See, this is wild, guys, because the NFL has a rule about, you know, players injuries, you know, even though it's like, it's crazy how it works is a guy's doubtful, he's injured, probable, or out. So you get all of those injury updates, so you know from a betting standpoint, you know from a fantasy football standpoint, kind of the way things are going to go. But for me, this is kind of odd for the NFL. And you say, you know, Joe Book kind of talked about this and ideas that Patrick Mahomes is going to be ready to go.

Yeah, they're saying that, okay, right now he's running. And I've had a knee injury before. Cody, you've had one before two as well. You might get out there and you might start to run, but you're not yourself. What Cody just explained about Patrick Mahomes being able to move around, that's kind of his skill set. That's kind of part of his lifeline. And he will not be able to do that, even though it, look, as a Broncos fan, I'm all for it. But as a person who loves football, I'm like, man, let's not do it this particular way.

If this game was more so in like week eight or week nine where you got a healthy Patrick Mahomes, yeah, it makes sense. And both quarterbacks are coming off of injuries, but Patrick Mahomes is more severe. I wanted more of a top-notch game. That's why I was rooting for a Josh Allen. but beating up on the Kansas City team that doesn't have their starting quarterback. It'll be a dub, but still it's like, for me. But here's the thing, too.

They have a built. This is also how the NFL did it as well. Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs will have a built-in excuse. He plays week one. The Broncos win. Well, Mahomes, you know, is his first game back. You know, he's not fully comfortable just yet. Like, it still protects their golden boy, right?

Which, you know, people are going to move the needle. Like, if it was in the con. context to Denver. People like, oh, it didn't matter. Patrick Mahomes wasn't fully healthy, but they beat the Broncos. It was like Denver wouldn't have a built-in excuse. People would have given that the NFL darling. Telling you, that's just the way it works. I want my chick filet. I'm telling you, you know, I'll go with the 12-piece nugget with a side of mac and cheese and we're, you know, we're ready to go. Oh, my gosh, I can't wait. We're going to, this will be a recurring theme now.

We'll have to film like the Nick Furgh, former Broncos player, chickflay for the first time in seven, eight years. That a bang. There is a chick flay right down the street from the facility. I got one right next to me here off of Santa Fe. It's a problem. It's a problem, dude. I went on Saturday.

Do they know you by name, Cody, like Norm from Cheers? No, they know Sarah. They know, they know Sarah by name more than they know me by you. I don't go to Chick-fil-A that much. I go like once every two months. Okay. All right. Chick-fil-A conversation, or should we hit a break?

We've got a lot to talk about. There's some fun things about this potential schedule. We know the opponents at Denver's going to play. We just don't know when yet. No doubt. All right, so I'm going to throw this out here for the chat. When we come back, we're going to do our first little whiteboard exercise here. How many primetime games will the Broncos have this regular season?

Obviously, the playoff for all primetime games. We know one of them. That's Monday night football week one. Broncos Chiefs will write down our answers and share those when we come back. right here on your Lockdown Rocko's Squad show back in just a moment, folks. All right, you guys. Where did my thing go? There we go.

All right. Let me tell you about our friends over at Indeed, because workplace chaos deadlines stacking up, inbox is overflowing. And the one position you have to fill is still sitting open. When the pressure is on and you need the right higher, this is a job for sponsored jobs. Indeed, sponsor jobs helps you reach the people who actually fit what you're looking for with the skills, experience, and location dynamic.

So you're not just hoping the right candidate stumbles across your post. And here's a stat that says it all. And the minute I've been talking to you guys, companies like yours made 27 hires on Indeed, according to Indeed data worldwide. So if you're hiring, spend less time searching and more time interviewing candidates

who check all of your boxes with Indeed sponsored job. Again, spend less time searching, and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all of your boxes, less stress, less time, more results. When you need the right person to cut through the chaos, this is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. And listeners of this show, yes, you listening right now, we'll get a $75 sponsored job credit

to help get your job the premium status. It deserves at Indeed.com slash podcast. So just go to Indeed.com slash podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply need to hire. This is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. Be sure to check out our friends over at Indeed guys

and let them know that Lockdown Broncos sent you. All right, welcome on back into the program. AP, Cody, Sierra, and Nick. Let's get right on into it. Again, the question is how many primetime games will the Broncos have this regular season? We know the first one, Monday night football. And real quick, prime time games are Monday night football,

Sunday night football, Thursday night football. Are we including the Saturday later in the week or later in the year games? Nah, because those are usually like to be determined, flex scheduling, things like that. Those aren't necessarily set in stone. So they always put a TBD on that because it either could be like a Saturday game or it could end up being a Saturday prime time or it could be a Sunday night football game. So, yeah, we'll exclude those. And last year it was what?

They were on Christmas. they were on Sunday night football against the commanders. Monday night was the Bengals. I feel like I'm missing one more. No, they had two Thursday night. Yeah, Thursday night on Christmas on Amazon against Kansas City. Well, you got to count the game against the Jets on London. They count that.

True. I didn't think of that. I didn't think of that. All right. Well, they had four last year. Cody, we'll start with you. How many primetime games do the Broncos have in the big two six? Yeah, I've got them as having five total games here.

Obviously, ESPN, Amazon, NBC, so Monday night football Thursday night and obviously Sunday night. Here's the thing, though, too. I'm going to go a little bold here on this, right? We know Denver has one Monday night game. I'm going to predict not only they have a Monday night game. They're going to have a Thursday game. Sean Payton in the past has opted for an additional Thursday game down the line. Maybe that happens down the road.

But I'm going to say that the Broncos will end up having two games this year on Sunday night football. That's going to be my prime prediction. I think they're going to have a home game on Sunday night, and I think they're going to have an away game on Sunday night. And my early prediction is going to be a home Sunday night game against the Buffalo Bills, and in a way, Sunday night game against the New England Patriots. Those are my predictions here for Denver.

They're going to have the max allotted five. And obviously at the end of the season, I think they'll get slotted into a couple more because, you know, potential end of year scenarios. We'll see. Juicy, I like it. I like it. Sarah, I'll kick it to you. Yeah, I've got five.

So I agree with Cody and I also have two Sunday night games on there. I have one Monday night game. Obviously, we know what that one is. Everybody gets a Thursday night. So those are kind of your two free spaces on the bingo card there. Two Sunday night games and a miscellaneous. And what I put miscellaneous for is kind of what we were talking about. Like I guess I don't know where the Broncos are at with the Mexico City game or if that's even still happening.

I haven't paid that close of attention to that stuff. or, you know, the Black Friday game is another option now on top of Thanksgiving games and Christmas. So there's so much going on. The Broncos haven't played on Netflix yet. So maybe I'll throw the Netflix option in there at some point. But yeah, I think it's going to be five. I think, you know, we're obviously going to see the Kansas City game. I think the Thursday night game could be kind of an obscure, you know, opponent potentially because they don't seem to get like the best matchups on Thursday night football for whatever reason.

I think one of their prime time games is going to be against San Francisco or LA, the Rams. I think they're going to get one of those two games in prime time. I could see the Patriots for sure, but I also wonder how much CBS is going to pay for some of these AFC matchups. So I think that's where you kind of maybe look at the lower tier opponents like Pittsburgh being in one of these. And I call Pittsburgh lower tier. I know they won their division last year, but they reek. I can smell them from here. So I think that it's going to be something like that.

Pittsburgh, San Francisco, L.A., obviously the chiefs, and then we'll see kind of some of the lower tier options, but that's kind of where I'm at. And real quick, I just saw someone bring it up in the comment section. Is Mexico City confirmed for this year? Or is that? No, it's a possibility. Correct?

That's their designated like space in terms of like there, there's a huge portion of Broncos country in Mexico, right? So it's about embracing that. And so if they do play anywhere as a, but here's the thing, it would have to be as a home team. Unless San Francisco is also Mexico City designated as well. Because San Francisco is going to Australia. Aren't they going somewhere else as well? Not that I could think of off the rib.

Were the Broncos the home team or the road team last year against the Jets? They were the away team. Yep. Okay. So in theory, it's their turn to sacrifice a home game. Which, I mean, here's the challenge. Denver only gets eight home games this season because they had nine last year. So you're not going to take that away.

Yeah, yeah, that's a good point. It would have to be in a year where they have nine home games to take one of those away because you're going to give Broncos country seven home games. And I understand, like, I do think the international audience is so important. But when it comes to like stakeholders here in Denver, like that, these home games matter a lot. Yeah, that's a good point. Well, if they did play Mexico City, I would imagine that's a prime time game as well.

London would be two. It would be a Monday night football game probably. Yeah, yeah, you're right. Nick, I'll kid to get to you, your thoughts. How many primetime games for the Broncos? I got five. You know, I was thinking about the international game.

So if they play that international game, that kind of changes things. But I have, obviously, we know about the Monday night football game against Kansas City. I have the Broncos Sunday night football at Buffalo, a Thursday night football game hosting San Francisco and another Thursday night football game at Pittsburgh and of course, I mean,

I mean, you got to have a game on Peacock with all these streaming services. Oh, no, God, no. Hey, listen, I mean, you can choose, you can opt for Netflix, but it's going to happen. There's going to be an NFL game on Peacock and Netflix. Flip a coin for that one. So here are the three options for that Christmas game, right?

because Sarah's mentioned a Christmas game. So either it's at Jacksonville, at New England, or at Seattle for that Christmas game. Wait, a Wednesday. And it's a Wednesday, right? No, it's a Friday. Thank goodness. I feel like some of the Christmas games haven't been.

I mean, I guess that's not true because they had, they had Chiefs Broncos last year and they had what, Bengals? Some boring game. Cowboys. Buffalo, Kansas City played a week. I'm not mistaken. Okay.

Okay, honest question. How many of y'all have a dang peacock subscription? Because I don't. Oh, I do. What's wrong with you guys? There's nothing good on it. No, no. No, I watch Yellowstone.

It's what's wrong with you. Wait, you can watch Yellowstone elsewhere. That's the only way you can watch the office. Ah, my goodness. SVU is my guilty pleasure show, bro. SVU's on Peacock. Oh, man. You got to watch Lieutenant Benson, bro.

I watch it. I have kids. So they, like, five. nights at Freddy's. Okay. Yeah. But what was it? There was a game a couple years ago.

It was on Peacock. It was the Dolphins versus the Chiefs. Remember, you had all the players and he had doing their pregame warmups without a shirt on the end of the fan that ended up getting a frostbite and having to get some skin cut off of him because he did the same thing. Like I remember how poor that whole broadcast went in terms of it was choppy. It was in and now. They haven't mastered it.

I will say Netflix has actually done a great job with the games that they have had on because a lot of people are worried about like all the boxing events that were taking place on Netflix. They were all, they were terrible. They were crappy production couldn't connect. There was, you know, an outage. The NFL, it never happened. So, I mean, I guess. They did figure it out.

But I hate it. There's a delay though. Like there's a worse delay when you have a streaming site versus like there's always a natural delay on cable, right? Compared to like real time, we see everything at the stadium like 25, 30 seconds before everybody else gets to see it around the world. the challenge is now with streaming, sometimes you lose 45 to 90 seconds of where things are at. So people are like, that's why I always tell people, get off of Twitter during the game because, you know, it's crazy.

I just wish they made it more accessible to people versus like the average consumer now has to spend so much money just to watch their favorite team. To me, that's ridiculous. I understand money, money, money, money. You're talking about billionaires who are saying, okay, we're going to put player safety first, but you just keep expanding games and everyone gets a Thursday night game, right?

So it's the same thing when it comes to these streaming services. They realize that, hey, there is a dollar value there, especially when Amazon, you know, several years ago, they got the game and they only had to pay a small amount of money. Then the NFL said, wait a minute, there's something to this streaming service. And now there's one game, like Amazon has like what maybe six games or something like that a year, whatever, maybe

more, but everyone else won a piece. I mean, even was it YouTube, we went from direct TV to YouTube TV, right? It's only going to go up and as a former player, I'm pissed because guess what? They didn't give us any of it. Yeah, and that's the thing. Like they sell you on certain things like, oh, you know, you're not, you know, you're not going to get impacted by a drug testing from this thing. You know, that was the appeal in the last CBA.

We're not going to penalize you for for this, this, this, and this. But like, for me, my problem is also the fact that you have issues here locally where some, some people still deal with blackout restrictions on certain things, right, to watch their own team. Like, to me, it's crazy. It doesn't matter where you are. Like, you should be able to. If you're a Devere Broncos fan that lives, let's say even in Mexico, if you live in New York, you should be able to purchase a package for your team specifically. let's say, $150 bucks, $200, okay, but it guarantees you that no matter what, you're going to get every Denver Broncos game possible.

You're going to be able to have access to it. To me, I just hate that sometimes, you know, and there's, since my wife became a Broncos fan, you know, I got people to live on the New York on the East Coast that are like, I can't watch the Broncos game. Sarah lives in Nebraska, and sometimes he doesn't even get to watch the Broncos games locally, even though he's closer to Denver than the game that's actually being played in his place. to me it's just frustrating how much more money people have to dole out. Cody, you do know the NFL, they're not only just looking to expand games

and international markets, but they are looking to expand and do exactly what you're saying. But guess what? It's going to cost you. You're going to watch a team. I'm against expansion. I think 32 teams is enough. You don't need any more than that. If you want to.

They should get, nah, stupid. I think they should just focus on a G league for players. like partner with the NFL and use that to feed into practice squads in my opinion. Well, when I say expand, not expanding past 32 teams. Okay, thank goodness. What I'm saying, expanding into international market. So people who live in China, they can actually watch the game

because it comes down to one thing, fellas, at the end of the day, it's money, right? And we, we have fans, we have fandom, we are so thirsty, we cannot live without our NFL. It's like asking us to go two weeks without having our damn phones. We can't really do that, right? I wish I could. If I told you, Cody, all right, you know, go without your phone. And we made this kind of a group bet saying, we're all going to go without our phone. That's not going to happen.

And I say to you, if you knew Anilo, myself or Sarah were kind of using our phone, like, would you snitch on us? And we give you a bonus for us. You'll probably tell on us. Oh, yeah, absolutely. If I get the money out. But here's the thing. I did go through that on my honeymoon. I was not allowed to use my phone.

That's your honeymoon. You're not supposed to. Probably. Still, Broncos training camp began. I missed the first week of training camp because of it. I meant you just sweating like a hooker in church trying to use your phone. I was, well, it was bad. It was bad.

I was also sweating because it was so damn humid over there in Italy. I was drenched and sweat. But yet, I mean, same exact thing. Oh my gosh. It's incredible. It's incredible. Real quick, before we hit our final break, I had the Broncos at five primetime games as well.

I think you guys said everything that needs to be said. I think the only thing I would add is just like looking at their opponents. And of course, we'll get the schedule on Thursday. I mean, do you think they'll put another primetime game with a division opponent, right? Because if we just take that out of the equation for a minute, the games that have primetime status,

you would think would be Buffalo, the Rams, the Seahawks, the Jaguars, the Patriots, San Francisco. I don't think the Seahawks. I think the Seahawks will be that like 205 Fox or CBS. Fox will buy that one. You know the other thing too? Because I was actually teetering between four and five. The Broncos, because of where they are situated here in Colorado,

like there's like they're always typically on that 225 time slot. So like you don't want to, like you know how you get like later in the year. And like sometimes that 225 time slot is just barren. Bro, it's brutal for us because. We're not out of there to like seven, eight o'clock at night after the fact of that. I will say there were a little bit more 205 p.m. mountain time kickoffs last year for Denver, which I like. If they can embrace earlier, do it.

I'm cool. You should cover the Nuggets and then complain about what time you get out. Nah, brother, I'm good. I would rather cover a team that's committed to winning right now. Nine p.m. tip-offs in the playoffs, bro. You don't want to do that? No, absolutely not. The fact that Nuggets games take place at 8 o'clock, 8, 30, 9 o'clock at night is ridiculous.

We're in Denver, Colorado. Start the dang stuff at 6 o'clock. Then again, it's the cronky effect. You know, back to Peacock, right? You know, they sell out for the almighty dollar. Amazon Prime is going to get theirs. Peacock going to get theirs. And we, the little man, the consumer, are the ones that get the short end of the stick.

But, all right, let's hit our final break. When we come back, final whiteboard question here, when do we think the Broncos will have thereby? We'll discuss that and break that down. We'll come back right here on your locked-on Bronco. Squatchew. All right, welcome on back. into the program. We got the fellows here, Cody, Sair, Nick and myself, hope everyone's doing well out there. The question is in chat, feel free to get involved here. When do we think

the Broncos will have their buy? Before we flip them over, I just want to ask Nick, like, you know, having a former NFL player here on the show is definitely one of the advantages that we have. Was there a, a, did you like the early buy? Did you prefer the late buy? Like, what's just kind of your opinion of buy weeks and if there's a better time to have it versus another? I like it somewhere mid-season. because it's at the midway point, you know kind of where you sit within your own division and as you look for the second half of the season,

you start to circle the calendar, okay, well, this is a win, this is a win. And usually that's a great time because, I mean, after the first four to six weeks, guys are going to be beat up. And if you get it right at the midwark point, now you're saying, okay, well, now we get a chance to catch our breath.

We get a chance to hit a hard reset, and now we get ready for that. late season push. So I like it later in the season, opposed to it early in the season. The early by is kind of weird, right? Like, especially for like a fan base, it's like, oh, we're like so excited and it's like week five. You know, and you just get a week off.

I would think, yeah, I think middle is probably the, like, not obvious, but like you would think just, you know, split the season into. But if you're telling me if I have to go earlier late, I'd probably take the late by myself just because it feels like you, like at least you can settle into a groove. Like sometimes it saves teams, right? maybe sometimes they're sputtering early and you get the buy and it gets him back on track. But you know, the biggest myth growing up being a football fan, you know, watching as a, what, sixth grade, seventh grade, eighth grade, Broncos fan.

I always used to think I was like, man, the buy week is when everybody's going to, like the problems are going to get fixed. They're going to get solved. They're going to have the buy week. But the reality is as you get older, you realize actually, players are in the buy week, they don't, it's not practice. They're not, they're, they're stepping away for a little bit because it is nice. it is essential at times to do it.

I believe in, like what Nick said, a midway point buy week, just because you have the first part, you get guys maybe that are banged up. You might get them back coming out of the buy. It gives you an extra time to get guys rested. But then you have just grind, small break, grind, playoffs. And hopefully, number one seed, which means a buy going, you know, having that other one or like earn that. If the NFL eventually adds an 18th game, please add a second buy week to the schedule for

every team. I think that's going to be absolutely important, but I hate the early by weeks. I think it's one of the worst things because then think about the gauntlet you have right after that. Let's say you have a week. The Broncos at some point, what was it? When they got off to the hot start that they did with Trevor Simeon, didn't they start

off 4 and 0? Yeah. Didn't they have the by week right after that after they started off 4 and 0? I can't recall off the top of my head. But I remember what year is that? That was 2016. 16, yeah. They had their 20s. 2016 buy.

No, they were week 11 in 2016. Okay, well, shoot, never mind. I'm thinking of the Jay Cutler years then because I remember, I think Denver started off three and all and then completely fell apart after the buy week. I think they had an early week four, week five buy. That's the point, you know. Well, the Broncos had a week 12 buy this last year. And obviously they were able to kind of bookend the win streak.

I want to say that was eight consecutive wins going into the buy, followed by three off the by, the commander's game, the Raiders and the Green Bay Packers, before that win-street came to a close against the Jacksonville Jaguars. But what's done is done. Week 12 was last year. Where do we think? What week do we think that Broncos will have thereby this year? Cody, I'll start with you.

Yeah, I've got it at week 11. Week 11 is when I think that they're going to have the buy week. Kind of very similar because even what was it in 2023? And Sean's first year, when was their by week then? 2022 or 23? 2020. 23. Their buy week was So nine?

So they had the week nine by like I kind of like the nine to 12 range within that three weeks stretched right there. I think that's the perfect time to have anything earlier than week nine. I think it's problematic. So for me, I'm going to go week 11. I think that's going to be when their buy is. I'll kick you to see here in just a second, but just because you're talking about nine. That was what I wrote down myself. I'm thinking week nine because you had the week 12 last year.

I think you have to go back. you know, probably have an earlier buy at least by a few weeks. So I went week nine myself. Sarah, where are you going here? Yeah, I put week 10 because of similar reasons that you guys are pointing out because I think that the last two seasons have kind of shown us, especially I would say last year that the buy was just like a week too late. And I think that that was evidenced by the way they played against the Raiders.

So on that Thursday game, I think they probably would if they could go back, they probably would have said, hey, we needed that week off right there. to really reset and just rest and kind of get away for a minute. But all is well that ends well, right? I just think that you kind of learn. And it also depends on like when is their Thursday night game going to be. Are they going to be playing on Christmas? So if they're involved heavily in the, you know,

holiday games later in the season, I think we're going to see an earlier by than people really want to see because they'll have to adjust the entire schedule during the month of, November and December to accommodate for shorter weeks. And so that's where you kind of hope for a nice split at the very least, right? So if you have like a week eight by, let's say, and you play later in the season on Thursday night football, then you're like, well, shoot, maybe there's like a 10-day gap in between games or an 11-day gap in between games, because we already know they're going to be playing week two, most likely, on a short week already.

So, yeah, it's going to be interesting to see. But I think somewhere week nine or 10, that sounds about right. Nick? Matt. I'm going to go with week eight. The reason I'm saying week eight because once again is right there

in the middle. And it gives a lot of the players and the coaches opportunities to see where they are from a schedule standpoint, a schematic standpoint, but also helps you to manage injuries as well because we don't know exactly we know who the opponent is going to be.

We don't know how they're going to fall. And what we've seen the league do over the past couple of years to make a lot of these games more intriguing, especially divisional races for playoff positioning, is they backload the schedule with a lot of your division opponents, and you want to know, where is that murderous role of games that are going to come? Because if you're talking about, you know, the Chargers, and you're talking about Seattle or the Rams or Buffalo,

and back-to-back weeks, whether you're home or away, to me, you want to avoid that, man, because now you're talking about not only playing against elite teams, but teams that can really beat you up before you get to week 10 or week 12. Well, think about it last year. The Broncos, they had three games in the span of 11 days to end the season last year. Green Bay, Jacksonville, and then Kansas City on Christmas Day. Like that was, and Denver went, what, two and one in that stretch?

I mean, it was great that they did it, but that was one that we were looking at like, man, this could be tough, like this stretch right here. And we didn't think anything at the time, like when the schedule came out last, year that Jacksonville was going to be as good as they were. But man, at the end of the year, it really kind of showcased how important, like, it was for Denver to take care of business. Thank goodness they went on that winning streak there because the stakes for them a little bit, even going in the last week of the regular season were pretty high.

Like, when, you clinched the number one seed, but you have to hope that this team loses. You have to hope that this team loses, you know? Like, you don't want to be in those situations. You want to have your business taken care of. But those three games in 11 days, that was a lot for the players. I remember talking to guys and they're like, wow, we need that first round by because who we're filling it right now. Like remind me after that game to London,

usually the NFL give those teams time off. But I think it was Sean Payton, it was just like, well, no, he doesn't want that time off. But luckily, it didn't really hurt the team. So another element about this season is successful. It almost did. It almost did. Now, I mean, the team would need to be healthy.

And I know how difficult it is to have back-to-back years where your team is one of the more healthier teams in the league. So that's going to be something that the Broncos are going to have to, you know, combat. So it's going to be interesting. Yeah, the game after the jet game was home against the Giants, where it kind of felt like the sky was falling for the Denver Broncos. The first four quarters, right? What a game to be at, though.

Like, for the people that left, they'll never understand the magnitude of what went on in that building. You and I, AP, we were sitting there. Like I had my game story already kind of written that the Broncos just laid a complete egg. And then all of a sudden, we're like, wait a minute. Like Troy Franklin catches his deflected pass. It's like, okay, you know, Denver's here. Oh, Bonix just runs it in for a touchdown. Okay, what does this mean?

And then all of a sudden, it just, the momentum started a shift. Yeah. And to the point, like, even though that there were a lot of people that left, the fans that were there, it got so loud for a stadium that lost. How many people out of 75,000 people? How many people do you think left that game? had to have been 10 to 15,000 potentially. It's probably about right. Thank you for a loud.

Justin Ardard, huh? Yeah, that was a great play, man. Oh, man. I'm so pumped up for the schedule release. I'm just excited for football. Like, it's, you know, there really is no offseason for the NFL these days, but we're getting closer and closer and closer that main entree here. So looking forward to that.

Before we get out of here, fellas, any closing, thoughts from either one of you guys, anything you want to get off the chest. No, schedule release is going to be here. We'll break it all down for all the fine folks here on Broncos Country. And we'll see where our predictions kind of came through like on today's show. When we find out we'll have clarity on Friday for our next squad show, we'll have clarity on kind of where things landed. But so many great things in story here, Broncos Country, we're going to have to cover it

every step of the way. I'm just wondering, you know, once we get the schedule release on Thursday and we do the show on Friday will Anilla open up with a cold opening with one of those ammonia tabby I hope he's got his smelling salt ready you set yourself up for it now AP you might

have to it's smelling salts you guys are making and think that it's like you know some street drug you know it's uh well still like smelling salt it's not the worst thing and it's my friend it's not even me it's not even me wait wait you say it's not the worst thing

have you see on the side line I've seen guys take an empty gatorade bottle and put like eight of those joints inside and paddle around. Yes. Oh. It'll wake you up. It does the job. Like,

that's the thing. It serves a role. You know, sometimes you need a little juice. If you can't get up for anything, we're naturally, there's a pill for that. Anyways.

We got Ruggie, guys. Yeah. Oh, my God. Anything you, sir. Right?

No, I was just going to make the same joke as everyone did. But then also, too, you know, for the, since we're on that line, you know, Rocket Money can help out with everybody who's frustrated about all the subscription services and, you know, having to, that's the, yeah, everything now connects back to something else in the web that is my mind. So 100%. Love it. Love it. All right. That, or that Chick-fil-A order for me, Nick, we're going to be cooking. You know, what's actually great is if Cody wins, the Chick-fil-A bet that he owes me just goes to Nick,

or my chick flay used to come from you. How about we get together here soon and let's go get chick fillet and I got you. All right. We'll figure it out. You live on the other side of where I live. So it's kind of hard because we never really intertwined.

Like we don't, AP used to work with me at Mile High Sports and he took, you know, he got a job elsewhere. And so we don't get a hang out every day like we used to. So it makes things a little difficult. Well, you know what? Maybe all three of us are just go have a bike. You know what?

Might as well. I mean, for, we could do that. If you want, like bird call is apparently a little more natural. So we could even switch it to a bird call that. Okay. Okay. And they're open on Sundays.

Yeah. Brick call. We'll get, we'll get Sarah out here soon too. We'll do a squad meetup. Please. That would be fantastic. Well,

all we have to do if we go out to eat, we just kind of face time, Sarah. Yeah. And I'll just, yeah, I'll bring whatever. Yeah.

I'll eat whatever. There you go. There you go. I love it. I love it. All right. Good stuff today. as always, fellas.

Really appreciate everyone in the chat for hanging out 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. For Cody Wark, Sarah Bedinger and Nick Ferguson, I'm Anilo Piero. Enjoy the rest of your Tuesday, folks. And we'll talk to you guys soon. Peace. Money, money, money.