Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - BRONCOS SQUAD SHOW: Denver Expected to Make BIG SPLASH at Running Back

Episode Date: March 4, 2026

NFL free agency is a week away, and the Denver Broncos are expected to make a big splash at the running back position. Jonathon Jones of CBS Sports reported that part of the reason the New York Jets tagged running back Breece Hall is in large part because they wanted to prevent the Broncos from making a competitive offer. With that, Kenneth Walker and Travis Etienne remain viable targets for Denver. The Broncos are also expected to take a look at wide receiver, linebacker and tight end when free agency starts. Join Aniello Piro, Cody Roark, Sayre Bedinger and Nick Ferguson as they preview the Broncos approach to free agency. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! TurboTax This year you’re getting a major upgrade — Intuit TurboTax now has in-person locations nationwide. Visit http://TurboTax.com/local to book your appointment today. Indeed Listeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/podcast. Gametime Today's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply. FanDuel FanDuel is giving you a way to turn that energy into even bigger potential wins with a College Basketball Parlay Profit Boost. Visit https://FANDUEL.COM to get started — Play Your Game. 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 a little Piro, and reports indicate that Denver Broncos might be making a big splash at running back. I'm Cody Rorke, and if you don't want Kenneth Walker, you best get to running. I'm Sayre Bedinger. The Broncos need to get on the Rams level. Get aggressive this off season. And I'm Nick Ferguson. Could there be some teams vying for Jared Stidham's talent in the trade? Let's break it all down on today's lockdown Broncos. squad show. Let's get into it, fellas. 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. Here up and squad up. The Broncos squad show starts now.

Yo, yo, it is your Lockdown Broncos squad show right here on your Lockdown Broncos YouTube channel and audio feed. Hope everyone in Broncos country is doing well out there in and around the mile high city. We've got the full squad for you today. Anilo Piro, Cody Ward, Sarah Bettinger, and Nick Ferguson, breaking down all the news and notes

in the world of Denver Broncos football. And boy, oh boy, we got a good show lined up for you guys today. A bit of meat on the bone, as I like to say, as it pertains to Denver's free agency plans at running back. Who's getting a phone call? Who's messing up the cold open? Yieldy.

Guilty. No, no, I'm playing. I'm playing. But I know, yeah, we'll dive into the running back stuff that we just got window about an hour or so ago. We'll talk a little Jared Stidham. I'm happy that Nick brought that one up. We've seen some thoughts about him floating around on social media as well.

And I like Sarah's thoughts, too, about being aggressive for the Broncos, much like the Rams have been this off season. But what's up, fellas? How we doing today? Another day. We're just, you know, a few days away and enjoying the nice weather here in Denver before Free A&C frenzy. next week, which Monday is going to be very fun, the legal negotiating period. So I'm excited.

Yeah, that makes two of us, man. I had a little break, was out of town over the weekend. I'm happy to be back. I did not think I would actually miss some of the cooler weather. I know it's like 60 degrees out here in Colorado, but I was down in Scottsdale. And I was telling Sarah, it was like 92 degrees out there. And normally I'm a warm weather guy, but even I was like, oh my gosh, like, I can't wait to get off the plane and just feel some brisk cool air running through my hair. So I'm happy to be back in Colorado and talking some Denver Broncos football. But all is well, gentlemen. How are we doing, Sarah? Nick, what's up?

Doing great. Doing great. I love this time of year. You know, Cody and I recorded an episode for Thursday's Locked on Broncos show. And it's just, this is the best. I don't know about you guys. Like, if you ever get asked questions about, like, what you do in terms of media stuff, but I was joking with Cody that, you know, people ask me what I do and I tell them what

I do. And they're like, oh, so like, this must be kind of just like a downtime for you then because there's no football going on. I'm like, absolutely. not this is busier than when the season is going on. And I love it. Like this is my favorite time of year, team building,

rumors, trades, free agent signings. I mean, everybody is on the same playing field. It's like you have a game going on at all times when free agency frenzy is ongoing. Yeah, there's really no off season in particular

when your team makes a deep playoff run. Like if you're like one of the worst teams, like let's say we're Cardinals coverage right now. I know they just released Kyler Murray or their intention to, but like after the season, you probably get a couple of weeks to slow down, but like the Bronco season ends and it's like what went wrong how do they improve free agency preview combine boom boom boom like it's all one thing after the other so I guess that's a good

thing for us Nick yeah what happens this time of the year is really exciting because there's a lot of anticipation and here's a part that sucks for teams that had deep playoff runs the same thing happens in basketball the love of offseason that you have from a player is very short that window is really tiny and before you know or you thrust right back into it but for the coaches and the scouts, man, it never says die. And everyone is trying to look at their roster and they're trying to treat it like a fantasy roster to say, okay, well, if we could, which of these top flight guys would we want to pluck into questionable positions?

And there's no guarantee that you're going to get that guy because remember, I think last we were talking about this when it came to the running back position, well, we had, we all got our little boards out and we started writing things as far as our wish list for running backs. But it seems as though, you know, the whole process with the football is taking a lot of those guys off the board. Like, you know, Breece Hall, like he was on the top of all of our boards. But guess what? Darren Moog you say, well, we're not letting him out of New York. We're going to slap the tag on him. And that is now going to set a lot of things into motion that a lot of guys who probably didn't think that the Broncos were looking at are now going to be on the Broncos boards.

Yeah. And that's a good segue. Let's talk about Breece Hall because it's not just about. Bruce Hall not being a Denver Bronco. I think it's also the Broncos in a way almost forced the hand of the New York Jets to slap the franchise tag on him. Here's a report that came out this morning from CBS Sports Insider Jonathan Jones. He says, quote, Denver is the reason why the Jets use the franchise tag on Breece Hall rather than the transition tag according to sources. Making sure Denver wouldn't get the opportunity to put together an offer the Jets would refuse to make. She continues here. The Broncos are poised to make a splash at running back next week.

Denver would be an obvious landing spot for Kenneth Walker, the third, but the team could opt for Travis ETN as a more affordable running back. So a lot to unpack there. Let's start with the Breece Hall dynamic here. It kind of confirms the thought process that we've all had throughout the course of the off season, which is running back is going to be one of,

if not the top priority for the Denver Broncos come free agency. but the Broncos kind of forcing the Jets to play a little defensive chess here, knowing that they would probably be taking a look at Breece Hall in the open market, making aggressive offward towards Breece Hall, and they essentially forced the hand of the New York Jets to franchise tag. Yeah, I mean, there were some rumblings coming out of the combine that if he were to hit free agency, Breese Hall would be interested in Denver.

And I sit here and I think of the franchise tag. Of course, what is it for for Breece? Isn't it like 14 something a million right now? Yeah, 14.25, I think. think you know so he's going to get paid well but here's the thing that i think about with bruce hall they're like you know we're going to franchise tag him we want to work towards a long-term deal with him i was like did bruce hall want to work towards a long-term deal with the new york jets i remember on the super bowl i remember bruce hall specifically tweeting out

man i can't wait to hopefully be on a stage like this one day and i was like well brother it ain't going to be with the new york jets ever who knows maybe i mean derrimoji i think it's a smart move for the Jets to do because obviously if they want to retain him, they're going to try to do whatever they can to go through and try to entice, you know, obviously his agent, his representation for a deal. But if Breeze doesn't want a deal, maybe he does play a year on the franchise tag. I mean, they could tag in the next year too, which would absolutely stink. But like this is just maybe their leverage saying, hey, like, Darren Moody's like, I know how George and that scouting department work because I was part of it. And he's a guy that

obviously would probably pluck up Breeze Hall at this point. Stoll. I imagine that's probably why the decision happened. But it's still, I mean, there's still a chance that maybe if the Broncos wanted him, they could try to trade for him. Yeah, I don't, we can get into that too. I don't think that would be the case. But I also think like going back to our conversation from last week, like the judge probably figured this out at the Combine last week,

eating shrimp cocktails out there at St. Elmo, right? Like that's probably how it goes down. That's the conversations that happen there at the Combine. And look, I think Breeze Hall would have been an excellent option for the Denver Roncos. And to your point, Cody, if they really are enamored with him compared to that of Kenneth Walker, Travis E.TN, Tyler, Alger, some of the other guys that are on the open market, they can still make a run at him. And it's not like he's completely off the table. I just think the likelihood of Denver now bringing in Breece Halls here goes down pretty considerably. Yeah, I mean,

the Jets get to control that situation at this point, which is to their favor. I mean, it's good business on their part. Like, you have an asset like that. We've talked about the fact that, The franchise tag for the running back position is roughly 4.7 or 4.6 in change percent of the salary cap. And that's the way that it needs to be looked at it. That's such a minuscule percentage when it comes to a team like the Jets that already lacks talent. You're reloading your roster. You're going to have a bridge quarterback this year, most likely. So why would you just let Brees Hall walk in free agency because he wants to play for a winning team?

I mean, you wouldn't. You would trade him for something good. And I don't think the Jets can realistically expect the non-exclusive franchise tag trade. You know, the preset price of two first-round picks. You can still trade for a player who's got the non-exclusive tag. You don't have to pay two first-round picks. You only have to do that if you try to sign him to a deal and allow the Jets to, you know, not match that offer.

So a trade would have to be agreed upon first before you offer him a contract in that case for anybody who's kind of wondering about that. because let's say the Broncos were like, hey, let's throw an offer sheet at Breece Hall. Well, they'd be saying, we don't care about our next two first round picks. That's what you'd be doing. So you would talk to Darren Moogie about a trade first. But that's where I think, like, all this talk, we know this, that very little actually leaks from this Denver Broncos building. And so like not even coaching moves are coming out in the week in which they're happening.

So like, why do the Broncos want everybody to know this? information. They're putting this out there. They want, they're telling all these reporters, like, we're going hard after running backs. Breece Hall wants to play for us. We would have signed him, you know, if he would have hit free agency. We're going to be in on the running back market. Like David Montgomery, oh, the only reason the Texans gave up a fourth and player and another pick is because we offered a fifth and they had to beat our offer. It's like, all this stuff is coming out. Why? That's the question that I'm wondering, because you know me, guys, I like to put on the tinfoil hat and I like to wonder these things.

Like, why do the Broncos, you know, the Brian Winhorse thing now, why would they do that? Why are they doing this? I'm interested for your guys' perspective because they don't let stuff leak. And for some reason, they want everybody to know we're in on running backs. And maybe it is just the obvious that they're in on running backs, but maybe it's something else. Well, I'll say this. It's always two things can be true at the same time. And the first part is, hey, you want to make.

sure you are telling your fans, we know that we have been deficient at this particular position for the past couple of years and we haven't got received great production. So we want you guys to know, we feel the same way that you do. Running back is a priority. So you want to make sure that you're telling your fans that you're shooting your shot at some of the top running back. So as you fall short of that, they know going in, you know what, you know, we settled for J.K. Dobbins, but at least the team told us that they were doing this. And think about most teams,

they don't really tell you exactly what they're doing. Because the second part of it, it could be smoking mirrors. We're telling you, we're looking at this position when all the while we're going in the different direction. Because remember doing the draft when we were looking at, well, was the Broncos

going to take J.J. McCarthy or were they going to take a guy like Bo Nix? The idea was that Sean Payton say, say, look, hey man, I use the Jedi mind trick on some of these teams. And they did exactly what I wanted them to do so we could take the guy that we wanted to take. So this is the lying season where people are going to say we were doing this one thing when they were thinking about doing something else. So definitely keep that in mind. Yeah, I agree with that. And I think there's probably more than meets the eye when it comes to this

conversation. Let me ask you this, Sarah. I was trying to keep tabs on this stuff when I was gone. Were these leaks from like Clists? Like who was reporting this type of stuff like about Montgomery? like where did that come from? Because it could also come from the other side, right? Like we're hearing through second part, second and third parties that the Broncos are being aggressive towards these running backs. And by the way,

I would have loved David Montgomery and the orange and blue. I guess he was with the orange and blue with the bears, right? And previously with the Detroit Lions as well. But I like David Montgomery a lot. Yeah, he would have been a nice pickup, right? I think I'm trying to find exactly where that did come from in terms of,

because I've just seen it kind of floating. Oh, Jeremy Fowler. Okay. So that makes sense, you know. And I was going to say, if that's just a group chat thing, then, you know, I'll go ahead and, you know, eat some crow on that. But yeah, I thought somebody, you know, reliable had said it too. I think that's the thing. It's like you've got to cast a wide net when it comes to a position like this.

You can't be laser focused. Like, we all knew there was a chance that Brees Hall was going to get franchise tagged, right? I mean, so there's, and you're not trading a first. round pick for Brees Hall. Like that's just, that's not good business to do that. And so I just, and maybe they will. And maybe I'll look stupid for saying that. But I just don't think you do that, you know.

And so I think you cast a wide net. You let it be known we're in the market. We're willing to pay because you can't talk to players right now. You can't talk. I mean, we know that stuff's happening behind the scenes, but you have to let it be known. Like we're in the market. We're interested. This is a good landing spot.

You should want to come here. And I think that's what's going to happen is that the Broncos will cast a wide enough net that they'll get a good player at a reasonable price because these players know they're going to take care of us. Hey, guys, I want to add something else to the mix because based on, like I said, when the line season, because there are certain broadcasters who have relationships with certain agents. And sometimes when you're in negotiation, you need to have leverage. And the way you gain leverage is having someone else being introduced into the mix. So I'm not saying that Jeremy Fowler did this, but I know this happens. And using that relationship saying, hey, listen, we are filled in calls from these other teams. Now you go ahead and you tweet about it.

And then now you're thinking, well, teams are saying, well, no, no, that was our guy. Now we got other people coming in. Now we need to go ahead and make a move. So we're going to see a lot of that happening too. And the same thing happens with the draft as well. It was the first time that we've seen a national reporter report on something. The player comes out, disputes it, and is wrong. And essentially the player that is disputing it gets community noted.

That was one of the funniest things. The game within the game. Welcome to the NFL offseason, ladies and gentlemen, here about a week away now from the start of NFL free agency. So it looks like Breeze Hall will be off the table. Again, there's maybe some way if the Broncos do want to give up that type of draft capital, that they could bring him in, but it's going to look like the Broncos is going to turn their attention to a couple of other guys. And why don't we hit our first break?

When we come back, let's take a look at some other options here for the Broncos at running back. And also some additional thoughts about what does the definition of success look like for the Broncos at the running back position this off season? All that and more when we come back right here on your lockdown Broncos squad show back in just a few folks. All right, you guys. Real quick, let me tell you about our friends over at. at Better Help. This episode is sponsored by Better Help. March is a time to celebrate women, especially around International Women's Day and to recognize just how much they carry at work in relationships, in families, and in all the unseen roles they play and step into every single

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Cody works here, Beninger, and Nick Ferguson, hanging out with you here on this Wednesday, March the 4th, creeping closer to the start of free agency. And before you know it, I know it's the long, cold off season, right? But before you know, we'll be back at training camp and we'll get ready for a regular season and we'll get ready for everything that comes with that, of course. But if you're watching on YouTube,

we appreciate each and every one of you. If you could do us a favor, hit that like button, smash that subscribe button. It really helps us out here on. the channel. Okay, good conversation about Breese Hall and the Jets decision of franchise tagging, but I think the larger conversation at hand, and Sarah was kind of hinting at this is, and Jonathan Jones essentially confirmed it this morning as well, is the Broncos are expected to be uber aggressive. I mean, the quote and the words that Jonathan Jones uses here is make a splash at running back next week. So with that in mind, I don't think it's a,

I don't think it's unfair to say that if the Broncos just bring back JK Davids and lean on RJ Harvey to progress, I think it'd be relatively disappointing in the hearts and minds of Broncos country, despite the fact that I like JK Dobbins. I know we all like J.K. Dobbins to a certain extent. But with the conversation that we've heard about David Montgomery and now, Breece Hall and this making a splash narrative that has been thrown out there, I think the expectation right now, Cody, is that Broncos are going to go out there and try to sign one of Kenneth Walker or Travis ETN. Yeah, I mean, I would not be shocked if that is their plan now, considering if, let's say, hypothetically, Breece Hall was at the top of the list.

Now that option is off the table. It would not shock me one bit if the Broncos want to go out there and upgrade that. Kenneth Walker, obviously, Super Bowl MVP. I see a lot of people downplaying, you know, Kenneth Walker, what he can do. Man, big body back, hard to bring down. He was the difference maker in that game against the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl and what was a defensive sludge match between both sides. All of a sudden you need something to break open.

Bang, Kenneth Walker, where's you down? that's what the Broncos could have used in the AFC championship game against the New England Patriots. You tell me Kenneth Walker wouldn't have made a difference in that game. Okay, there's that. Travis ETA and obviously the Broncos have seen him up close. They played against him this year. He's got some really good traits to him that obviously involved things. I see a lot of people talking about, well, you know, what the Broncos really need is they need a running back who's just great in past protection.

And one thing that we've seen is people highlight, well, Kenneth Walker, that's not necessarily his greatest strength, so to speak. I understand the importance of being able to have a running back in for pass protection from time to time. But the idea is that you bring in a running back to be a difference maker downhill, hit me a gap when you need to punch it in the goal line. That's what the Broncos need. They need a downhill runner at this point, someone who's effective in between the guard and the center that can bounce it out between the tackles from time to time. That is patient as a runner. That's what we saw the Broncos thrive with previously with J.K. Dobbins. But you're looking at these couple of other players, I think those.

those guys are upgrades. Can I play devil's advocate for just a moment on Kenneth Walker? And I like Kenneth Walker. This is a guy who have had on my fantasy team a number of different times. Just want to throw that out there. But do we think that there's maybe some recency bias? Because I know Brees Hall was kind of like the one guy that I think we're all unanimously in agreement on of like, this is a legitimate upgrade.

And obviously Kenneth Walker would be as well. But is there some recency bias with the fact that he went out there and one Super Bowl MVP looked as good as he did in that game? I mean, the reality situation is with Kenneth Walker. He split carries virtually the entirety of his career primarily in recent memory, Zach Charbonnet. He has two seasons in which he's rushed for over 1,000 yards. His rookie season, he rushed for 150 and last season, 1027.

So he's just crossing that 1,000 yard threshold. He's never scored double-digit touchdowns in a single season. And so again, I think Kenneth Walker is a good option for this Broncos team. And frankly, and I know it's Davis Webb now calling the plays, but I don't know if Denver is ever going to have a tried and true work course type of running back. I would imagine there will be some consistent splitting of carries throughout the course of the season. But do you think, Sarah, that maybe we're overvaluing Kenneth Walker because of what he did in the Super Bowl compared to what his body of work has been for a majority of his career?

Well, I don't think he's like Malcolm, whatever the guy's name was who was Super Bowl. Now the guy who was, is it Malcolm Butler? who was the guy who won Super Bowl MVP when the Seahawks destroyed. Oh, and he had that guy crash his press conference. You guys remember that? He was the outside linebacker wasn't it? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, see, we can't even remember his full name.

And that's what I'm saying. It's like, I don't think he's like that guy where it's like, oh, shoot, he just had this generational playoff run and nobody's ever heard of him before that or he's only a role player up until the playoffs and then he just explodes. Like, I think Kenneth Walker has a solid body of work, considering the fact the Seahawks have overhauled their. coaching staff, their roster, Malcolm Smith, somebody in the comments, Darien in the comments, and also Graham, thanks for that help there.

Malcolm Smith. I don't think Kenneth Walker is Malcolm Smith. I think that he's got a solid body of work, change in offensive schemes, you know, changing this, that, and the other, change of quarterbacks. Like, I'm not saying that you can't produce as a running back when all those sorts of circumstances are changing, but obviously it is a factor when it comes to your overall production. if the scheme is constantly changing, the eyes that are on this, you know, everybody's perceiving that roster differently, who's coming in there and coaching up those

guys. And so Kenneth Walker, to me, is still the guy at Michigan State who absolutely just dominated everybody. I couldn't even believe he went as low as he did in the draft. And so I feel like he's still got the ability to evolve as a player. He's only 25 years old. And I think the biggest concern that I have is not necessarily recency bias. But what I think the concern is, is you're the highest volume passing attack in the NFL, and this guy struggled in pass protection last year. And so that's the recency that I'm maybe most concerned about it. And the Broncos, I know, need runners. They need somebody to come in and carry the load, not necessarily worrying about pass pro, but you do have to think about that because you were

the highest volume pass attack in the NFL last season. I'm going to say to help with all those people who were talking about, you know, Kenneth Walker and inability to pick up a blitz because I look at it like this. When you look at his body of work, what are we talking about right now, what he was able to do in the Super Bowl. But let's not kind of just kind of focus solely on that. Think about everything that led up to that particular point, who they leaned on the most. Obviously, Sharbonnet was one of those guys.

but when you needed a big play, an explosive play, a game-changing play, who was that guy that was always showing up? It was Kenneth Walker. So when we started to measure the value of a running back and said, well, how many rushing touchdowns did he have, like inside the red zone? That's not the way that this was built. Clint Kubiak being Gary Kubiak's son and learning from that Mike Shanahan tree, it was all about running the rock.

An idea was he was going to use Kenneth Walker to get them in place and let Sam Darno throw a touchdowns because guess what? They still throw touchdowns aside the red zone, which for me being a defensive guy, I'm like run the damn ball, right? Because you shrink the field. But when I think about Kenneth Walker and his ability in this office, it would be great. And if your concern is about having guys to block, well, you got five offensive linemen. Have those guys block.

Oh, by the way, bringing the damn inline tight end that can actually block. Not one of these pass catching tight ends. bring in a guy inline blocking guy that that's all he does. Like if you wanted to go get a guy like Moe Alley Cox, who's a free agent from the Indianapolis coach, bring him in. And that's your sole job, right? Like Chris Manhart, that's your sole job.

We're not throwing you the ball. We want you to come in and just block. If the Broncos looked at it that way, they would be able to have explosive player and Kenneth Walker that would go well with Bo Nick's ability to run the ball because defensively now you're trying to, defend the dynamic skills of both of those guys, and that would make it really difficult.

And oh, by the way, if we don't like the fact that Kenneth Walker, you can say he's not a great pass blocker, don't put him in that situation. Get him on the edge. I can tell you, it was scared a hell out of defenders because guess what? You know he can run through you and he can run around you.

To what Sarah was saying just a bit ago about the most passing attempts in the NFL the season, you know why the Broncos had that because they just didn't trust their run game consistent enough. Sean Payton. So you know what? You mitigate that by running the dang football. And Kenneth Walker is that guy.

The one thing I'll say about that is like watching Seattle this year from afar, collectively him and Charbonnet, they were an incredible duo together. I mean, go back to that even playoff game against San Francisco 49ers. Kenneth Walker hit over 100. I mean, San Francisco couldn't stop a freaking nosebleed in that game. And they had Fred Warner back in the mix in that category there. And granted, that defense wasn't the same without Bosa, but man, I just remember watching him like, man, big chunks.

It was third and 15. Kenneth Walker picks up 19 on a run. I saw that and I was like, you know what? That is a type of back that the Broncos need. Look, here's the thing. You're not going to, you know, hopefully beg him to run for an 80-yard touchdown. I mean, that would be nice. He's got the capability of doing it.

But you need a bigger back that can methodically wear down a defense to where, for example, I think if Denver here at the mile high city, they want to take a picture of what they did against the Green Bay Packers, you have a back as big as Kenneth Walker that can wear down the legs of opposing defenses. When they're down, they got their hands on their knees. He's the type of guy that can absolutely just break it open at that point. And we also forget in the Super Bowl, he had a 70-yard touchdown called back due to a holding call. So just all these things.

I just think people are looking at price tag and they're saying, no, we don't want to do anything with the price tag. It's not our money at the end of the day. And you know what? If the Broncos want to spend that money, they know what they're doing. Well, I think the other thing that I would throw in there is, I don't think it's a question of who they sign. It's how do they use who they sign? Like, that's what is going to come down to is, are they going to utilize Kenneth Walker the right way if they bring him in? Are they going to utilize Travis E.

What is that? That's fair. And I guess like the reason I bring this up to is before he was heard, I mean, J.K. Dobbins, you know, was on pace to essentially match Kenneth Walker's numbers last year. I mean, he finishes Dobbins does 772 rushing yards, an average of five yards per year. carry. Kenneth Walker finishes with just like I said, 1,027 rushing yards, 4.6 yards per carry. Dobbins had four rushing touchdowns. Kenneth Walker had five. This is in the regular season, of course. We know what happened in the

playoffs. But I guess like the point that I'm bringing up is like maybe the gap, at least what the numbers are telling us, isn't so far off from Dobbins to Walker. And I agree with you. I'm just telling us what the numbers show up. You're not getting from Dobbins. Okay, but here's a difference. Walker's dealt with some injuries too. It's cool. Yeah, but he's, his average, he's playing at least 16, 17 games per season.

He's not, he's not missing on any. I think for him, there was one year, his rookie year where he, you're right, in 11 games. You played in 12 in 2020. Or after he got hurt in week 11 and then missed the remainder from that point. But, I mean, ideally he's on average playing a full season for the most part. And then, look, keep this, keep this in mind as you talk about the comparison between J.K. Dobbins and, you know, a guy like Kenneth Walker. Well, Kenneth Walker in Seattle, he was splitting the,

those carries with Charbonnet, another physical down here runner. When you look at J.K. Dobbins, okay, well, he was kind of like the feature back, even though Sean would rotate guys in, but a lot of those guys were not as productive. So as you tried to make that comparison, keep that in mind because if all things were equal and they were receiving the same amount of carries, or better yet, if J.K. Dobbins was splitting carries with a guy like Zach Charbonnet, what would his overall numbers actually be? So keep that in mind. No, it's a good point. And again, I'm on board with Kenneth Walker.

I think it would be a really nice edition for the Denver Ron because I just, I wonder, you're going to have to sign a guy at the peak of his market. I think it also says something that's Seattle, who just won the Super Bowl, who was their Super Bowl MVP, opted not to place the franchise tag on him. So I'm just trying to have the thought discussion. The position, man, remember a couple years ago, Christian McCaffrey, all the running backs, they unionized, so to speak. There was almost kind of like this whole concept of like,

hey, collectively, let's hold out because running backs deserve to get paid more. I mean, it is true. But you would think Seattle would want to bring them back, right? That's why I was surprised. Franchise tag him, work towards a deal.

That's what it's for. They don't have financial issues like Kansas City. That's why. They've got, I mean, Donald signed a three-year deal last off season. This is year two, which effectively means that deal is over after this year.

So they've got to resign Sam Darnold. Devin Witherspoon needs a new deal. Jackson Smith and Jigba needs a new deal. Kobe Bryant is leaving. Tariq Wulin is leaving. They, boy A Maffei is leaving. They need a pass rusher. Their offensive line was incomplete rebuild as of last off season.

So like Seattle from a team building perspective to spend 5% of the cap or, you know, roughly 5% on a running back when you have Zach Charbonnet and when you've been able to identify all these other guys at every position basically, like for them, it's like, Hey, go let him spread his wings and fly. We got this covered. Like Seattle traded D.K. Metcalf. They traded Gino Smith.

Like they don't care about their own guys. John Schneider, you want to talk about ego. And he's right. Like he knows what he's doing. But like he doesn't care about those guys that they've developed and drafted in house. He's not George Payton. He's like, the window is over.

It's time to move on. Time to go. And yes, they have cap space this year, as Darien pointed out. But they have to use that cap space. They have to use the cap space to get corners to get a safety, maybe two. They have to get a pass rusher. They might need an interior offensive lineman, which those are going to cost you 20 to 25 million. So like, yes, they have money.

Right. They need to spend that money elsewhere. Like they need receivers. Like I mean, they do. Rashid Shaheed, free agent. They traded for him in season. So like they have all these other spots. Like I don't view Seattle letting Walker go as a negative for him.

I view it as like they're allowing him essentially to get market value, which once again, 14 million a year for a running back, even if he gives you, let's say he gives you 1,200 yards from scrimmage and 7 to 10 touchdowns or even 6 to 10 touchdowns. Like you wouldn't pay 14 million to have that guy on your team last year for the Broncos, even for just one game to have Kenneth Walker. So I think it'd be huge for the Broncos. I'll tell you this, for those individuals who are listening to us watching us and they're thinking, okay, well, that's a hefty price to pay for a guy like Kenneth

Walker. Well, let me walk you back maybe a month ago, two months ago. And that fourth and one situation where Sean Payton had to decide whether to kick the field go or go for it on fourth down, imagine even if you had Jared Stidim as your backup quarterback, your running back is Kenneth Walker. What do you think happens in that situation? And the thing is a perspective. Right?

Yeah. You hand it to a damn kidded Walker. Right. Right. So you didn't have that option in the playoffs. That's right. To not have that option is that's what we're talking about here. Like people want to,

they want to split hairs over spending money, which by the way, it's not your money anyway. So what do you really care? Like you, it doesn't matter to you. It's the Walton Penner's money. And I know you want to say how the Broncos should spend their cap space and stuff.

Like I resonate with the fans in that way. It's like we all want to have our cake and eat it too. We want to have Kenneth Walker, but we want him for half the price of what it costs to bring him in because we also want the big money free agent at linebacker. And oh, we want a tight end. And we want an upgrade that wide receiver. And it's like, I get that mentality because in 2014, like that happened.

They brought everybody in. And they won the Super Bowl two seasons after that. So I just think you have to look at this as a, what was this team missing last year? how much of a difference could it have made to have whoever they're about to sign in free agency on that team? Because the majority of that team is coming back. It's interesting. I would have loved and we knew what the Broncos were getting into when they signed JK Dobbins,

but like how different would the offseason conversation be if JK Dalvin's were healthy for that championship game? Right. Like that's a large reason why we're here right now. So, no, it's interesting for sure. Let us know your thoughts in the comment section. Let's hit a quick break when we come back. Kenneth Walker is not the only option for the Broncos at running back. Let's talk a little Travis E.TN among some of the other guys.

And then we'll talk a little Jared Stinnom as well as the show goes along. All that and more as we continue rolling on here on your Lockdown Broncos squad show. Hey, it's Matt Derry from the Lockdown Lions podcast. The people I love depend on me. If I'm gone, the financial responsibilities don't disappear. I didn't want my family figuring things out during the hardest moment of their lives. That's why I knew only one place to go. I chose life insurance through my friends at Ethos. Ethos makes getting life insurance fast and easy. 100% online. You can get a quote in seconds,

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All right, well, come on back into your lockdown Broncos squad show to put the cap to our friends at Lockdown Lions for taking care of that read for us. Anilo Piro, Cody Rourke, Sarah Bedinger, Nick Ferguson. hanging out with you here. Good conversation on Kenneth Walker in the running back room as a whole. Let's hit these. We can kind of go in succession here. I think Travis E.T.N is obviously the next best name if the Broncos weren't to sign a Kenneth Walker or trade for a breeze hall. I've kind of talked to you guys. We've all talked about it already about Travis E.T. And I think you'd be a good fit for this team. I think there is a question about does he want to play in cold weather? And I know that maybe sounds like a little childish and you'll probably go wherever the money is. but it is something that he is on the record saying that he likes playing in warm weather.

So I don't know if that dictates his decision one way or the other, but he'll be a good fit if the Broncos do go down that route. I mean, cold weather. We didn't really see too much cold weather in Denver outside of the AFC championship. We've had one bad day of weather in Denver. AFC championship. The worst possible day. Literally.

It's like a conspiracy theory as to it. And we've had what? Yesterday it was 73 degrees here in Denver in February of, Yesterday was? Yeah, bro. I thought it rained yesterday. Oh, no, two days ago, two days ago. I'm going to say, my plane ride back was a little bumpy coming down.

But it's like, that's the thing. It's like, oh, you know, the motivations are very interesting for some players. But look, I understand some guys, they refuse to go to a place where they don't, you know, where they have to get taxes, you know, taking out. They like to play in there's no income tax. I understand that. Weather is certainly a factor. I wouldn't want to go play Buffalo.

Buffalo has a chance to be colder than anywhere else. but Denver, Denver be a great spot, I think, for a lot of people. And I forget if ETN is from Florida. Like obviously, I know he played in Jackson, but I went to Clemson, but I'll use the Dion Sanders analogy because, like, Dion's like, I'm a Florida boy, right, lives in Texas. And it gets a little chilly in Texas during the winter. But like, I remember when he first became head coach of the Colorado Buffalo,

he's like, I don't think it was going to be this nice, right? Like a lot of people, I just don't understand that, like, you think Colorado and you think skiing and snowboarding as you should. And that's up in the mountains, man. But to your point, Cody, I know it's been an ab. normally warm winter. But like, you know, you could usually count on both hands, like the amount of, like, terrible days we have in the winter. Yeah.

Where it's like you don't want to be outside. It's snowy and slushy. There's no humidity here, which is a nice bonus as well. So again, I don't know if that's a motivating factor. I just bring that up because he did say that on the record. Yeah. But if he comes out here, maybe he'll understand that it's not as bad as people make it out to be. But I do think Travis E.T. and the football player, sir, man, that's a guy that I get pretty excited about if Denver went down that route.

Yeah, 100%. I mean, once again, just. to have that option on that fourth and one play. Like if we're talking about how the season boiled down to Travis ETN is somebody who has, he dictates what defenses have to do. He's that good of a pass catcher as well. And we really saw his game taken to the next level under Liam Cohen last year, in my opinion, I know that there was some talks about Travis being traded before Liam Cohen and James Gladstone got there.

They stuck it out with him and put him in a great position to be able to cash in and free agency. I don't think he's redundant with RJ Harvey, nor do I think you approach or can afford to approach your team building process from that vantage point this off season. You need impact players. This is not a baseball lineup. You're not saying, oh, who are we going to put against left-handed pitching?

Who are we going to put against right-handed? This guy throws 100 miles per hour. This guy has six pitches. You don't build a football team that way. I understand that you want variance. I understand that the Broncos need somebody, who can maybe carry a bigger portion of the load. But I also go back to the fact that Sean Peyton said that the run game scheme was part of the problem here.

So if you plug these players into what theoretically should be a better scheme, if you fix that aspect of it, then you get impact players. I think that's the biggest thing is go for the best players that you can. Don't worry about, well, is Travis ETN 225 pounds? Because if he's not, I don't want him. I think that's how a lot of folks are thinking right now. is that they would rather not have Travis E.TN or, you know, whoever X, Y, Z running back because they're not 225 pounds. I just don't think that's the right way to approach this team being built for a Super Bowl title.

The whole idea is that the Broncos haven't run the ball well over the past couple of years. And if you want any examples, look at Javonte Williams. Javante was here and everyone, you know, said a lot of negative things about him. He came back from the injury and everyone was oohing and on and the training camp. I think, Cody, I might have been standing next to you when we were like, wow, man, he doesn't look like he had surgery at all. And then we watched the Broncos say, you know what? Ah, Javante, you are not doing it for us.

And then he goes to Dallas. And for the first time in his career, he rushes for more than 1,200 yards. And he got it back. So the idea is that maybe there's some issues with the scheme. And the scheme needs to be changed. that's why things are going to be turned over in some capacity to Davis Webb to say, well, how can you bring some of that young energy, innovative energy to the run game and make it a little more creative?

And if that's the idea and the concept, you need, like Sarah said, you need guys who are going to make defensive coordinators change what they do. And Kenneth Walker and Travis ETIN, those are both guys. Now, ETN is from Louisiana. And after playing in Florida in Jacksonville for a period of time, kind of get used to playing in the warm weather. But here's what people don't understand about the mile high city. The mile high city has more sun days than most cities have by themselves, right?

So you can sell that. And oh, by the way, if we're talking directly to Travis Eton or any other player who feels the cold weather, you're going to get paid a crap ton of money, right? So know what you can buy. If you need one of those kind of scuba suits that help you with the cold weather, you can buy one of those, right? Or if not, take some of that money they pay you and stuff it in your pants. I'm sure that was keep you warmed up.

How about that? Here's something that, you know, I always look at, like in this whole conversation about the Broncos run game, Javante Williams, the most touchdowns he's ever had as Denver Bronco was four rushing touchdowns in a season. He had five rushing touchdowns in the first five weeks for the Dallas Cowboys. And it's just like, at what point, and maybe this does factor into the Sean Payton discussion a little bit, and maybe this is why he handed off PlayCon, pun intended, maybe. It's maybe it's us.

Maybe it's not the player. Maybe it's us. That's the problem. Maybe it's our scheme. That's the problem. Sean has made mention of that, as well as also talking at the NFL Combine when he did his interviews, you know, when he made the rounds there, his press conference. Like, he's even made mention of the run game scheme.

He talked about it with, you know, after the ABC championship game, he went up to Zach Streif. Like, at what point? Like, maybe that's the admittance right there of, you. You know what? Maybe our scheme is the problem. I can't tell you this. I can't tell you which players have said it. I know some Broncos offensive players feel that way about the run game scheme. I'll take it a set further. I don't think it's a maybe.

I think it's darn near a definite. And I think Javonty Williams, like if you want to use him having another year to come off the injury as, you know, reasoning for that, go ahead. But I think, again, going back to what I brought up with Kenneth Walker, it comes down to whoever they sign, whether it's J.K. Dobbins, Walker, E. or ETN, Al Jir, any of these guys, how will they be used? Because the Broncos have shown us, at least under the command of Sean Payton, they don't really have like a definitive, like, one-A game plan. They have like a couple of different ideas.

I mean, Philip Lindsay was probably the last guy where it was like, and that was a team that was a disarray, right? But it's like you knew Phil could get the ball and go out there and run. Like, they've lacked an identity in the run game for a handful of seasons right now, which is why, again, I love Kenneth Walker. I love ETIN. I think Al Jir will be a lot. nice fit. The question for me, Sarah, is how do they use those guys? Right. I mean,

that's, and I think it's a fair question. I think the combination of Davis Webb taking over as the play caller, as well as just the stark, like reality of the running game having to be better in order for the pressure to be off of Bo Nix to really help him and his development. I think part of these last two seasons, it's not, I think at times, you know, we joke about it. There's maybe you some nuggets of truth to the joking, like Bo Nix is getting opportunities to throw the ball in the red zone when you should just run it three times, you know, because Sean wants him to have a passing touchdown in the situation. I think, you know, we joke about that stuff, but maybe there's a nugget of truth to that to some degree, but also like his development for the first

two years is so crucial. And if you can't lean on the running game, like how many times did we say Bo Nix is running back one for this team? He's the most effective runner on the team. I mean, I know that the scheme needs to be addressed, but like there was a four game stretch in 2024 when Javante Williams, I think, had one game where he had one yard. And there was another game that he finished with negative yardage. And then there was another game within that four where he had like three. So it was like, it's not like he's not getting chances. It's not like he's not getting opportunities. He's not seeing stuff. He's not breaking tackles. And I think there's there's truth to all of these things, which is why when it comes to the utilization of the backs, man, now.

you have, you have Davis Webb calling the plays. Sean is going to obviously have his input on player personnel, the packages, things like that. But it's going to be different in terms of what I think, how much these guys are a threat to the opposing team. Like, there's not, there's not going to be, I hope, as much predictability. And so that's where I think right now is that you bring in the best possible players and you just, you let Davis Webb do his thing. That's what I think. Yeah. Let him cook.

Yeah. but if the whole idea is, hey, get a run it back and just run the ball, which I've heard a lot, that really doesn't change anything, right? It's just, oh, run the ball, run it more. Well, I think you have to be a little more strategic with how you choose to run the ball and the utilization of the running back. And for me, I always go back to what I know, what made it difficult for me defending as a defender and what I've seen in practice.

To me, you got to lean on what we've seen from Sean McVe, Kyle Shanahan, And maybe this is the reason why so many of those coaches who come from that tree are getting jobs. You need a lot of movement. You need that pre-snap movement to get guys into position because the game of football, guys, and we all know this, it's about angles. How do you create angles? How do you put your players in positions? So we're talking about inside zone.

We're talking about outside zone. We're talking about traps, whams. We're talking about pin and pulls. We're talking about a variety of ways to utilize your running back. And also, oh, by the way, you get a pass catching running back. Now you can kind of put him on the linebacker and you can force team to say, well, are you going to be in your base defense or you're going to have to play us in your nickel defense the entire game because you need a more cover type of guy to cover our running back because guess what?

He can run freaking routes. Look at the Broncos roster last year, right? Even with J.K. Dobbins, which of those running backs do you feel or you feel had superiority and rock running from a running back standpoint. I'll wait. UTM would fit the profile, and I know it's Davis Webclane plays, but just like the overall profile is Broncos offense.

Yeah. RJ had too many drops, unfortunately. But also, I would say he also had a lot of past catching touchdowns as well. You know, I like, he can evolve there, but I agree. I mean, could you imagine, like, let's say you have RJ who's continuing to evolve, he's continuing to work, you have a two-back system,

let's say you have two backs on the field at the same time, RJ and one of these guys that we've talked about, man. That's what I want to see a little bit more of because then you can get creative. You open up the toolbox for Davis Webb a little bit. That to me is what I think Denver needs to have. And I think so much of this too with Davis call and plays, you know what he's going to ask? He's going to go to his quarterback and say, hey, what do you need? What can I do to help you? That is what I'm here for.

I'm excited about that because I think that's probably the reality that we will run into in comparison to Sean. Yeah, I would agree. All right, let's, let's hit our final break. When we come back, let's wrap up the show. Good conversations on the running backs today. A couple of housekeeping notes. We'll get to Jared Stiddam and the Kansas City Chiefs made a trade.

How does that impact then the Broncos? We'll talk about that next right here on your lockdown Broncos squad show. All right, welcome on back into the program. Full squad here. A.P. Cody works here, Bedinger, and Nick Ferguson. We appreciate each and every one of you for rocking with us out. there in Broncos country.

Free agency is upon us. Cannot wait to see what the Denver Broncos do, not just at running back, but also tight end, wide receiver, linebacker. And we'll dive into some of those other positions on Friday show and kind of give you a preview there

at what they might do with those different positions. But let's start with Jared Stidham here real quick to kind of round that out. Nick, I know you brought that up in your open. It seems like Jared Stidham is maybe a hot commodity, someone that's been talked about, you know, by a handful of different teams in trade markets.

What do we make of this news, Mr. Ferguson? Well, I think it says a lot about what teams think about Jared Stedham, even though the first time we actually saw him in action was in a pivotal game for the Denver Broncos, where, you know, we had the cold weather and the Broncos didn't run the ball or they were not efficient from the offensive production standpoint. But it also tells you that other teams are desperate. Think about Arizona.

I think one of you guys brought up the fact that Arizona is going to release Cala Murray. I mean, they need a quarterback. Right? And I wrote down some other teams that need quarterbacks too. Think about the Minnesota Vikings, the Pittsburgh Steelers, the New York Jets, the Miami Dolphins. All of those teams need quarterbacks. And I know last show we talked about Anthony Richardson and would we like to see him here with the Denver Broncos. And listen, only if, you know, if there's no Stidham and you can just kind of sign him off the street. But in this particular case, if you're the Denver Broncos and teams are calling you for Jared Stedham,

And we know how Sean Payton has kind of raved about, you know, Stidham. He calls him Stitty, right? So if you're going to call the guy Stitty and everyone was talking about put on for our city, Stitty, then if there's value for him and you can pick up some draft picks, why not move him to make your team better? What's his value? He's, well, like, what could you get for Jared Stidham? Fifth, six?

Yeah, you can get a fourth, maybe a fifth. You know, you know, one of these teams who are really desperate, Hey man, they may be so desperate. They may be willing to give, but, you know, hey, third rounder, right? You never know. I take it. Yes. So the idea is that if you find out these teams are really desperate, they really want him.

You test that and say, well, what are you really willing to give us for a guy like Stidim, who has experience in the league? And he played an AFC championship game, right? He didn't play that well, but he played nonetheless. And you don't have that on your team. Here's what I did a bonus episode. Sorry, Sarah, you go first. No, you're good. You're good.

You're good. I was going to say, I did a bonus episode of Lockdown that's going to go out tomorrow where we talked about kind of this whole trade idea around Jared Stidham. How serious is it? I mean, I don't know. But like what Nick had said, here's where I think Jared Stidham would fit perfectly in the situation, right? Let's think about these teams that are going to be in need of a quarterback, right? Let's say they want to go younger.

They don't want to go with the veteran guy, so to speak, and spend big money on a veteran QB, right? But let's say they want a veteran. anybody in this year's NFL draft, let's say there's a quarterback, you know, the Jets, the Arizona Cardinals, let's say they get a quarterback at some point in this year's draft, whether it be round two, three, or whatever. Jared Stittam, in my opinion, would be the perfect bridge quarterback short-term solution for some of these places where he could go in, play a year, expound his knowledge a little bit. And you know what? Maybe he reinvented himself, right? Maybe. We've seen to happen, not necessarily a guarantee. Sam Donald went and spent a year of quarterback rehab

with Kyle Shanahan in San Francisco before he went on to go and get more opportunities for himself. For Minnesota, now it's a Seattle contract extension Super Bowl champion. But like for Jared, he would be, in my opinion, a great bridge option for a team like the Arizona Cardinals that isn't likely to compete this year. For the Jets who aren't likely to compete any time in the near future. And then you have a young guy that learns behind him. If there's a team willing to give up capital for that, that's fine. Now, what does that look like for the Denver Broncos?

Who's the backup quarterback to Bo Nix? Spoiler alert, I even put it out on Twitter. I'm bringing Zach Wilson back to be the backup behind Bo Nix. Previous familiarity, similar athletic style profile. Not saying that Bo is Zach or Zach is Bow in any way, but I'm saying you have a guy who has backyard football traits to him that could have been useful in the AFC championship game to me. I would be okay with that.

Some fans are completely on board with Sam Ellinger. I'm like, wait, Sam Ellinger over Zach Wilson? I don't understand that respectfully. No. There's, this is the perfect offseason for so many teams around the league to not go buy groceries at the store, but to get an Instacart delivery of just a couple of things that you need. You know what I'm saying? And you pay a premium for the Instacart delivery, but these teams, they can't draft Fernando Mendoza.

And even if they did, you know, for the Raiders, like other teams might be saying like, wow, that's go ahead. Let's see how it works out for you guys because the 2027 draft is where you're going to go shopping for some groceries. You're going to say, hey, we're going to Costco in this draft. We're going to load up. We're going to get all the things that we need because that draft is just so much better, especially at the quarterback position. These teams are going to want a guy like Jarrett Stidham because one of two things could happen. Either Jarrett being a veteran quarterback at a reasonable price for them could raise the floor of what previously they, have, let's say the Jets, or he's going to help you accomplish the goal of getting Arch Manning in next year's draft. Like, Jared Stidham is worth the fourth, fifth, sixth round pick plus $6.5 million in salary

or whatever it is to say, hey, we're going grocery shopping next off season. This season, we're going to fill some more needs. We're going to take shots in the draft and we're going to get a guy who can come in. Darren Mugi, I guarantee you trust what Jared Stidham brings to the table. and Aaron Glenn being part of the Sean Payton coaching treat. Who do you think is getting the best possible evaluation of Jared Stidham as a bridge quarterback? Plus the Broncos need to do right by Jared and give him an opportunity to play. Like he wants to play.

He believes he can start. And it's, yeah, he signed up to stay in Denver. But you can bring back Zach Wilson. And by the way, you guys hated my Anthony Richardson trade idea. The Broncos made that trade two years ago when they traded for Zach Wilson. So they've already done it once. And I think, yes, they should bring him back. The talent is there.

The wildcard factor is there. But I just think, yes, trade Jared Stidham, get him to a new place. It saves money like Darien in the comments is saying. And it gets you an additional dart to throw in the draft. I think if a Stidham trade would have to get closer to the draft. Because I think the Jets, like, you make a compelling point. I think Aaron Glenn, though, like I think he's coaching for his job in year two. Like, if I got to be honest, I'd be surprised at the,

Jets don't end up with a Kyler Murray or Malik Willis type myself. But, you know, we'll see Jacoby Bressett's out there, dude. Like, yeah, I agree with you, though. Jared Stidham does want to play. He said that a handful of times in the locker room the last couple of years, right? And I think now it will be the opportunity to. And, you know, maybe the Broncos get some draft compensation out of it, whether it's a fourth, probably more like a fifth or a six,

maybe even a team gets desperate and offers a third. I don't know if that's going to be the case. And I think you'll need to see Murray and, you know, some of these other guys move before we see Jared Stidham get trained. get traded anywhere. That's just my personal. Murray's going to the Vikings. Murray's, Murray's on the Vikings, basically at this point.

Like he, Malik Willis going to the Cardinals. Like that's my opinion with, yeah, Gino Smith. I mean, and Gino, I think is going to stay with the Raiders.

Because I don't think the Raiders are sold that Fernando Mendoza can be a day one starter. Like he's not that great of a prospect. He's the only guy. Like, you, you're left with one date to the dance option. And so you,

you, that's all you got. That's your only option. That's what the Raiders are. with right now. I just think this is the worst. Like the Broncos having Bo Nicks right now. It's great for them. Their division is in shambles. Like the chiefs, like we haven't even got to talk about that. I love it. The chiefs are in shambles. Patrick Mahomes is reeling. He's posting on Twitter. He's lamenting. Like that's how good of us position the Broncos are in. Max

Crosby about to be out of here, about to be on the bears or something. Like the Broncos need to be aggressive. This is why you absolutely right. The Broncos should take advantage of it. And if there is a team that wants Jared Stidham, use that draft capital. We're talking about the Can City Chiefs. Mahomes is coming off of

ACL. Probably he was worst record as a member of the Chiefs, 6 and 11. And we knew Brett Beach was having financial issues because rent has finally come due. They kicked the can down the street for so many years, but

now they have to deal with it. I mean, what's going to happen with Chris Jones? Like, Trent McDuffie could have been like the first domino to fall. And then you send him to the Rams. Now Kansas City Chiefs now have two first round picks. And that would make three picks in this draft all from the Rams. The first round pick they just got from the Trent McDuffie pick, a fifth rounder and the sixth rounder all from the Rams. Now, how well would that make the Kansas City Chiefs? We really don't know because you can't really count on guys. is being drafted in the first round coming in at any position, making any type of impact at all. So this puts Kansas City kind of what they would say, well, you know what? We're okay.

We're fine. We're just going to retool, rebuild, and we're going to be right there. We're going to allow you Denver Broncos fans to just kind of take the AFC West. But guess what? In two years, we're going to reclaim it back from you. So it's going to be real interesting to see what the chiefs do with those. first two picks. Everything I've heard is this is a draft.

Like obviously you want to have picks. Like it's not like last year's draft where there's just like a heavy of talent, right? Like it's just it's not as deep as, you know, previous drafts. So the talent is at tight end running back and linebacker. But like even the running back though,

like you're not going to see a lot of teams spend a premium first round pick. Jeremiah loves probably going to be the only guy that gets drafted around one. But really it's going to be rounds one through three where a lot of these, all the good players are going to be gone. Yeah. Who's the chief's tackles? Who's the chief's guards? Who's the chief's edge rushers? Who's the chief's linebackers? Who's going to play corner? Who's going to play safety? Like Patrick, Travis Kelsey hasn't been re-signed yet, and they're still in cap trouble.

So like, yeah, what's their receiver room? Like, race is right? There's going to be a lot of restructure when we just saw today, Dak Prescott restructured his deal. Yeah. Right. So, so when we think about the salary cap and everyone, one looks at the salary cap like it's the boogeyman. But the salary cap isn't. When you learn how to manipulate it and, you know, and once again, you can kick the king down the street like Brett Beach is doing in Kansas City.

Rent what to come do. But in the interim, you find ways to make things happen. But think about what Les Ney did with the Rams, right? When they got, you know, was it Sam Darno? I'm not Sam Darno, but Matthew Stafford. Right.

They say, okay, but we're in our Super Bowl window. So you get Jalen Ramsey. you bring over Von Miller, right? You add O'Dell Beckham Jr. And he said, you know what? We were finding a way to make things work in the interim. And they still did. And then they just got better by adding Trent McDuffie to their defense.

So it all depends on the team, their philosophy, the ownership, how patient can you be. And if you're in these roles, you're not listening to these damn fans. You don't care. I don't care if you don't want me to make these moves because it's our money. It's our team, right? But once again, what is your long-term vision? And if you can stick with that and ownership is patient, you're allowed to make moves.

And guess what? The Rams are going to be right back there again. I would agree. Well, there are plenty of moves that need to be made. And I guess lining up to make those moves as free agency is a week away here as we do as we do this show on March 4th. So when we get to next week, we'll have some news to hopefully sink our teeth into. We'll see what the Broncos do. I think the Broncos, if we can talk about this more on Friday,

I expect them to come out and make a move or make a signing or two like off the rip. I know a lot of different teams do that. But what? Because didn't they sign who Fonga and Greenlaw pretty quickly last year, Cody? Pretty quick. Yeah. Follow your shot. Who's it going to be?

I don't, I feel like Greenlaws wasn't as quick. I feel like it was that night. I remember because it was a Monday night. It was a Monday night. Like, wait a minute. Like, because then it was like, oh, between this team and this team. Imagine us during the squad show.

I think we should do a live squad show. show on Wednesday when three agencies happening just because of chaos. That could be fun. That could be fun. I'm into that. We'll see. All right.

Anyone have any closing thoughts before we get out of here? We'll be back on Friday. Like I said, we'll do a wide receiver linebacker and tight end, maybe some other positions as well. But until then, anyone else got anything they want to get off their chest. Yeah.

Damn, the torpedoes. Spend that money, make this team better. Oh, let's go. I would agree. Yeah. I would agree.

Yeah. What are you? What are we waiting? What's the chips in? Yes. Enough of this. Enough of the almost. Like I can already see guys.

I can already see it happening because like I said, at the beginning of the show, why is this running back stuff getting reported? Like why are the Broncos letting that out of the building? Because I think partially because they want everyone to know, we would have been in on Breece Hall if he would have gotten, if he would have gotten out there. And that's why you can't be upset with us because what we say,

settled with jk dot like you guys were saying earlier too that's the thing that i'm afraid of like enough of the don't be the justin herbert of free agent you know general managers george bates don't be the if man of free agency let's go freaking make some moves let's go get the get the less need t-shirt wherever he got that shirt from with your face on it that says f them picks and let's take that mentality it's about Lombardi trophies man it's about winning it all this and you have better chance than ever before. Chiefs are down bad, Raiders are rebuilding, the Chargers have nobody on their team on the trenches on either side of the ball,

and you have an opportunity to do something big time. And this is where you have to be aggressive. These savages, dog. Savages. You almost have me? You don't even have your car. Oh, I love it. I love it.

I really do. All right, Broncos country, you guys are the absolute best. We appreciate you guys. and bring in with us here today. As I said, we'll be back on Friday, probably sometime in the early afternoon as well. We'll do those other positions and we'll get you guys all primed up and ready to go for NFL free agency. But for Cody Rourke, Sarah Bedinger and Nick Ferguson, I am Anilo Piro signing off another episode of your Lacton Broncos squad show in the books. Talk to you guys in a couple of days.