Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - BRONCOS SQUAD SHOW: How the Denver Broncos CRUSHED the NFL Draft

Episode Date: April 28, 2026

The NFL Draft has come and gone, but the Denver Broncos did a great job of addressing positions of need despite not having a first round pick. Which selections stood out? Did the Broncos whiff on any picks? Join Aniello Piro, Cody Roark, Sayre Bedinger and Nick Ferguson as they recap the NFL Draft on today's Locked On Broncos Squad Show! Everydayer Club If you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclub Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. 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. Rugiet Get 15% off your treatment → https://rugiet.com/lockedonnfl Rugiet. Performance medicine for men. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I'm an I lo Piro, and I think it's safe to say the Denver Broncos understood the assignment when it came to the NFL draft. I'm Cody Roart. The Denver Broncos added every piece of debt that they needed to to bolsen the roster. I'm Sarah Bedinger. The Broncos not only understood the assignment, but I think they get an A plus. I'm Nick Ferguson and the Broncos got a running back. Wow. Let's talk about it all on today's lockdown Broncos. Squat show. Let's get into it, gents. 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 your Lockedon Broncos squad show right here on your Lockdown Broncos YouTube channel and audio feed. What up, YouTube chat. I hope everyone is doing well.

there as well as our audio listeners that might be driving or going about their day, whatever they might be doing. We got the full squad here today. Anilo Piro, Cody Warwick, Nick Ferguson, and Sarah Bedinger. What's up, fellas? How we live in? Great, great, man. The draft was great.

You know what? Football is almost here. I'm stoked about it. Cody, what do you mean? Football is almost here? God darn it's here. Well, it's here. It never leaves.

We don't. got one-on-one's right now. You know, you and I'd be lining it up. I mean, actually, you know, we got to make it happen, man. I've been working on my T-step, you know, with a torn ACL. So I'm ready, man. I'm yoked up. I'm fired up.

What do the kids say these days? What are the sling? I don't want to say the wrong one because it might also be bad. What I say, like, bricked up is one of them. But what's like the, what does it mean to be chopped? What does it mean to be chopped? Chopped means you're like ugly. Yeah.

Chopped. I mean, you are pretty chopped, but. Brother. You better chill out, you little Ron Jeremy looking guy. Hey, I don't get the mustache right now, bro. You need a haircut. You got to, yeah, you got to go get an haircut. You looking like you were just under the streetland not too long ago.

Can I tell you why I haven't gotten a haircut, like at least in the last couple of weeks? Until the abs and nuggets win a noted championship. No, no. My barber is a Minnesota Timberwolves fan. And so I'm not going to go get my hair chopped. Really? You're doing that? I'm not going to go get my hair chopped when this dude's playing against the nuggets in the playoffs.

Like that's just kind of my thing. I don't know. That's a whole different fandom. Yeah, I'm not accustomed to that fandom. You know, I just, when I'm trusting someone with my hair and my looks and it's like he's, you know, on the opposite side of the spectrum. It grows back, man. It grows back. But what if it's like, my buddy's got some really bad haircuts before, not from this guy, but from a different guy.

I don't know. I was saying, you know, here's the thing. I'd say when you talk about trust, trust in George and Sean Payton. Amen. Amen. And just a quick thing of why I'm so excited for football season. Like I've had a blast doing the Nuggets and the Abilanch. But Cody, I've romanticized waking up early and going to training camp.

And training camp is like, what am I? Like, after like the first week, I'm kind of like, okay. Like it's kind of like the same old song and dance. But I'm actually excited for training camp and everything that comes with that. And of course, it's starting the regular season. We're a bit of a ways away, brother, from training camp. But the good news is we do have OT. We do have mandatory mini camp, which, you know, the month of June is going to be fun for us.

Rookie mini camp is coming up Mother's Day weekend. So I'm sure I'll be there. I don't know if you're going to be there, but it's going to be fun. Yeah, we'll have some fun with it, no doubt. The schedule comes out soon too, right? Yeah. So there's going to be some really, really fun things that kind of break down. It's a good time.

If you're a Broncos fan, it's good that the draft is now concluded because we got all the action that we were kind of hoping for. And now it really kind of sets the stage for everything. that's to come, which for the fan base, they, you know what, before the draft, it was rough. It was a tough time because there wasn't a lot of stuff going on, but here we are. Yeah, and I think, you know, the Broncos really addressed a lot of the needs and position groups that we had all kind of talked about, right? They got a couple of tight ends. They drafted a running back.

They addressed offensive line. They addressed defensive line. And so I think overarching here, Sarah, the Broncos did just a really good job of saying, okay, like we need to get depth and we need to address certain positions. And I think considering the fact that they didn't have a first round pick, you really can't be upset at all with how the Broncos handle the draft. No, it feels like they nailed it. Honestly, I mean, and when you factor in Jalen Waddle, it looks even better, right?

Because you go out and you address the trenches with two of your top three picks. We had plenty of discussions about that here on the squad show and kind of the merit behind, hey, invest in the trenches. Some of the guys are getting older. You just lost JFM and free agency. So I love that strategy that they took. And then, yeah, going after the skill positions to Nick's point in the show open, Broncos actually got a running back who, you know, fits perfectly for what this team needs.

And then you go out and you get a tight end who can catch the ball really well, barely any drops over the past two seasons for Justin Jolie. You double up at tight end. That was something we talked about wanting to potentially, I mean, just everything other than going after the linebacker position, which will be an interesting thing. discuss on today's squad show, the Broncos almost did fan service with the way they invested

their draft base. Yeah, I would agree with you as well. And I think Cody, like, to Sarah's point, I haven't really seen any fan base that's like too fired up. I know there's a lot of people that want to Mike Washington over like a Jonah Coleman type.

I think that's a separate conversation that we could have because I think Jonah Coleman fits the overall scheme of what this offense is trying to do. All security. Yeah, exactly. When it comes to just like, you know, checking a box, checking a box, checking the box of like all these different position groups.

That's exactly what the Broncos were able to go out there and do. Yeah, I mean, they double dip too at a position of need. And Sarah and I've been kind of doing some bonus episodes of Locked on this week where we're talking about, you know, the undrafted guys, the seventh round picks, kind of going in reverse order here to highlight that. But I really loving the Justin Jolie and Dallin Bentley picks here for Denver because both of those guys, they categorizes themselves differently in this offense. down in Bentley could be the guy who learns from Adam Troutman and then eventually

takes off down the road maybe a year, two years from now. And then Justin Jolie is the perfect type of player who kind of replicates what Evan Ingram does in this offense, though I will say he is more of a physical blocker. He loves the physicality, whereas I think Evan is more of a speed, finesse type of guy. And there's nothing wrong. Like Evan will take certain angles and chip guys, but Justin Jolie goes out there and he looks to put dudes in the dirt, which I was breaking down his film, man. I am ecstatic with that pick.

I think both these tight ends have a lot of room to grow, but I think the Broncos, they're in a position where these guys don't have to play right away, and that's okay. Yeah, I'm with you 100%. And I think there are some guys that have the opportunity to come on here year one and make a legitimate contribution. We'll talk about that throughout the course of the program. But Nick, I mean, kind of feeding off what Cody and Sarah said,

it seems like the Broncos did exactly what they needed to do. Yeah, they did. If you listened to what both Sean Payton and George, and said, you know, during the whole draft process and even the day of the draft, it was all about adding development of players. And when you look at majority of these players, you're saying that, you know, you're not expecting any of these players to play right away. And as crazy as it seemed, with the Broncos not having a first round draft choice,

some of the fans were a little upset. We know what it was like in free agency. But the idea is that that proved that the team was in a good spot. All you have to do is kind of plug it. and play guys and build for the future because some of these guys who were drafted, the guys who are in front of them who are going to be started this season, we're expecting a lot of production out of these guys, but these guys maybe after this season or two season,

they're going to be expiring deals. So the idea is to get in early, get these guys into the mix, get them kind of indoctrinated into what the system is on either side of the ball, and make sure that these guys know what they need to do once they're up to bat, per se but you know the brocos told you a lot about how they feel about this squad and looking at the number of players on the offensive side of the ball that they selected and looking at the fact that hey listen even in you know free agency they had well on drafted players i think like three or four wide receivers that's that's not to say that all those guys are going to make the team but they feel

as though they want to make that room more competitive in a tight-in room they want to make this room more competitive. And Jolie, I'm interested to see what he, what he does in year one. That made, there are two players who I, well, let me take that back. Three players, I think, in this draft, that could possibly see a significant amount of playing time this year. Dona Coleman from the running back standpoint, Jolie, as I mentioned, and Tyler Oedem, hopefully I'm pronouncing his name right. Those are the three players that I expect to see play at least 50 to 60% of the time this

upcoming season. He kind of stole what I was going to ask everybody. I was going to say, why don't we all go down around the room and say who we think will probably play or we let's we could do that. But let's maybe change it up. Who do we think out of this rookie class? And AP, I want you to share your thoughts on this as well. One player that you feel like will have the biggest impact out of all the rookies versus just a few. I agree.

I agree with every guy that you said, Nick. But who do you think? If you had to choose one, let's start off AP. I'd have to say it's Jonah Coleman just because I think running back is not that it's a question mark and I don't want to project or forecast anything but just history tells us that J.K. Dobbins will miss a couple of games here or there throughout the course of the season. And I think R.J. Harvey has been solid, right? I think there's room for R.J. Harvey to grow, but I think there's also room for desire in that running back room and going back to the initial point that we made there, I just think Jonah Coleman schematically fits with this Broncos offense is trying to accomplish. And when you just look at the running back, position as a whole. It's just become a revolving door, right? Which is, we'll talk about like Jordan Love or not Jordan Love. I'm forgetting the kid. What the heck's the kid that got

judged by the Cardinals, Jeremiah Love. And what the Cardinals did there as well, which was bizarre pick in my opinion. But I think Jonah Coleman has, of all the rookies, the guy who has the ability to have the most immediate impact on this Broncos team. I think that's fair. And to your point, you talked about JK, like

the Broncos envisioned Jonah Coleman as like, he can play the role, does. Like, JK and RJ are two different runners stylistically. And I would say inside this scheme, when they were both healthy, you saw just how different that usage was with them when JK was healthy. And then they would go to RJ. It was kind of like this finesse and then smash and dash kind of concept.

Jonah Coleman, he may not be the fastest, which I don't care about having a burner running back. I don't think that's necessarily as important. But can you have a guy that can get you a first down on third and short, fourth and inches in an AFC championship game when it's fourth and one? Do you trust this guy to go out there and do that? With Jonah Coleman, I do. It allows RJ Hardy to kind of stay in his role as that all around, you know, can run the football,

but primarily is going to be a weapon out of the backfield in the past catching game here for the Broncos. Jonah Coleman, he can catch out of the backfield, but he's going to be that stylistic thumper running back that if something happens to JK, it's going to be Jonah that goes up and plays the JK role while not making RJ have to go back to that role where he had to do a little bit of everything. I just don't think that was in his game. Maybe it could, but this kind of protects that. Well, and I think to that point, Cody, like when J.K. Dobbins went down, I think you had to see the Broncos kind of alter their running game approach, right? And I think you hit the nail on the head by drafting a Jonah Coleman.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. But the little running game that they did have, they had to alter for RJ Harvey to play to his strength. So now I think you can keep the integrity of whatever your running game looks like with a Jonah Coleman assuming he lives up to his potential. I know there's a lot of Jonas now Jonah Ellis Jonah Coleman is going to be uh you know there's going to be so when you're talking to Sean you can no longer say hey you know what's your plan with Jonys or Jonah Coleman that we have to now be Jonah Ellis or Jonah Coleman we have to now be Jonah seen. Jonas seen. Yes. Yep. You got the offensive Jonah versus the defensive Jonah there.

But Sarah, if you had to choose one player, who would it be? Or is it Jonah Coleman? I think it's going to be Justin Jolie. I do because look, the Broncos, you know, they use 12 and 13. team personnel at tight end so often. And I don't want to write off. Like, I know Nate Adkins is still on this team. They re-signed him.

They brought him back. But let's be real, like Mercedes-Lewis was playing for this team significantly last year. And so I know that they want to go big a lot of times. I think Justin Jolie can play the little Jordan Humphrey role. I think he can be on the field in three tight-end sets. I think he can play a substantial. Like, we saw Nate Adkins make a big impact as a rookie when he was an undrafted player, Not necessarily catching 50 passes or anything like that,

but you now have somebody who can do that, I think. I think that Justin Joe Lee's skills as a receiver and his big hands, his ability to play split off of the line of scrimmage from the slot. He can play out wide. More than 50% of his snaps last year at NC State were played either in the slot or out wide. So he can do all those different things for you. And he's a better blocker on the perimeter than Lil Jordan and Humphrey or pretty much anybody that played that big slot role for the Broncos last year.

Let's just be honest. The perimeter blocking was not good. So I think that Justin Jolie can do that for you. And he can be on the field when you're in your heavy personnel and offer a much more, let's call a spade a much more dynamic threat as a receiver than pretty much anybody else that was out there in 13 personnel last year. Because that wasn't even really where Evan was playing a ton was in 13 personnel. So I just, I know the Broncos aren't going to.

be in those books, you know, 100% of the time, but maybe 40, 45% of the time. They'll have two tight ends or more on the field. And so I think that's where you're going to see Justin Jolie make a big impact. I want you guys to look at me. I want you to look at me real quick. I got a plan here, okay? Imagine this. Ferg, as a safety, think about it this way.

Justin Jolie, Evan Ingram, when the Broncos go three back pistol, right? They come out in the pistol. They got Jolie and they've got Evan Ingram as the two guys next to Bo Nix. and then you got either JK, RJ, or Jonah behind him in the pistol. To me, oh, the things you could do out of that has me feeling very excited. Very nice. Well, I'm going to say this. I'm going to go with Jonah Coleman.

Here's why. Because when we think about the lack of running game that the Broncos have had over the past couple of years, this is why this kid was actually drafted. This is why RJ Harvey was drafted. This is why for two years in a row, the Broncos brought. back jk daubman's because they know that element of their offensive scheme has been somewhat on a milk carton it's been missing and here's the other thing about you know jonah coleman we know he is not a burner but we know that he is a physical down here runner and he can move the pile and it's funny

cody that you brought up fourth and one when he was drafted i was thinking like you know what what if he was a part of the broncos in that situation where jerry He arrested him on the fourth and one, right? Things would have looked entirely different. And that's not a shot at RJ Harvey. It's just calling it what it is. RJ Harvey, I still think is a hell of a running back. He should be better in the second year.

But having a guy like Coleman, I think he's like 5, 8, 5, 11, 200 to 20 pounds, you know what it is like to hit a guy with that low center of gravity hiding behind those linemen. Hey, man. And I feel for opposing defendants because someone's going to get run the hell over. But here's the other thing. With Jalen Wado, now part of the Denver Broncos, guess what, fellas, you can't put nine men in the box. Now the Broncos get a favorable box and you can run against four and five men in the box.

And because of Coleman's skill set, that's going to give him a lot of opportunities. And you guys tell me, people on the chat, are you a believer in Jule McLaughlin in this particular offense. Are you a believer in Talibaday? I'm going to say hell no, because you have three running backs who are, who look damn near the same because of the height and their girth their width and being lower body guys with those big thighs. To me, this is a perfect situation for the Denver Broncos. I have a question for everybody. I want, and I have a follow-up point to make from it. Who do you guys think is going to get the two-minute roll in the backfield? You think it's going to be Jonah Coleman because that was really Tyler Badez role this past year.

It was a lot of two minute work, a lot of, hey, we're going hurry up past game. He's out there on the field. So do you think that's now going to be Jonah Coleman? He's got to earn it, but I think he can. I absolutely think he can. I think if anything, he's projected right now to take over Bade's role as that third down back, that pass pro situation. You need it. I very much could see that because guess what you need in two minute. You need good pass protection because the one thing you don't want in two minutes is going backwards or having a quarterback getting sacks. So I can see that. Absolutely.

What do you what do you guys think? I would agree. I would agree. How many pass attempts when we saw Talibadee out running routes did he actually dropped last year, right? A significant amount. And that derailed the momentum of the offense at that time. And listen, I know Sean Payton. but more importantly, I know his mentor and Bill Parcells.

No, he's probably telling Sean, hey, listen, man, you got to change something about your offense because you wanted that guy to be Dave Megget. He is not Dave Meggett. He may look like him in size and body, but he's not catching a damn ball on third down. And when you have a running back that can run routes on third down situations, but more importantly, Cody knows this,

a guy with soft hands that you know he can look. look the ball in, turn up field, and then knock guys over. To me, that's an element of the Broncos passing game. We saw a glimpse of it last year with J.K. Dobmans when he was healthy. Also, we saw big time with RJ Harvey, who had, what, like, five, six, seven red zone reception touchdowns. So this is what the Broncos are trying to build. They're trying to build a backfield where they can throw anything at an opponent

and where they're backsized down. Yeah, I think it's versatility in the Jonah Coleman draft selection, but I also think it's some insurance like we talked about earlier, about if J.K. Dobbins does go down and I'm knocking on wood. But again, history just tells us that J.K. Dobbins will probably miss a handful of games here or there. And to Sarah's question, too, you know, about third down usage in the two minutes. I think Jonah Coleman is going to have to earn that for sure. I don't know if he's going to be that guy, you know, week one,

unless he just has an exceptional training camp and really shows out in the preseason. But I'd say it's a fair expectation by the time we get to week. eight, week nine, somewhere in the middle of the year. Just like we kind of saw RJ Harvey kind of blossom into his role, I think it's fair to kind of project the same thing for Jonah Coleman coming up here in his rookie season. So I love to see that. I think will be on this roster for Denver.

One of them will always be inactive. I think you have to have four. So what, Coleman, Harvey, Dobbins, who do you think is the fourth? So whoever can do what RJ does. Whoever is the, yeah, whoever's, I'd say, best suited to maybe fill into that RJ roll. I think it may be McLaughlin because even in the towards end of the season, McLaughlin got a little care, a couple of carries here and there, and he looked pretty decent. It's only Tyler Breda that didn't really do much with the reps that he had.

Yeah, I agree. That's fair. All right. Let's hit a quick break when we come back. Let's continue along with the conversation. We talk about which rookie we think will have the biggest impact in year one, but why don't we take a look at which rookie we're most excited about in general for their NFL career with the Denver Broncos. All that more when we come back right here on your lockdown Broncos squad show. All right, you guys, real quick, we'd say about our friends over at Ruggie it because the NFL draft has come and gone and when prep where preparation meets opportunity and every decision matters.

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off your ED treatment. That's RU-G-I-T.com slash locked on NFF. for 15% off, Ruggiot, Performance Medicine for Men. Be sure to check out our friends over at Ruggiot and let him know that Lacton Broncos sent you. All right, welcome on back into your Lockedon Broncos squad show. We got the whole crew here today. Anilo Piro Cody works here, Bedinger, and Nick Ferguson.

The NFL draft has come and gone, and we're all pretty psyched up about what the Broncos were able to accomplish, despite not having a first round pick. And Cody, I already know that you and Sarah have done some good additional research and insight on the Everydayer Club. Yeah, the Everyday Air Club is a great opportunity in Broncos country. You want to see some All-22 on some of these rookies. Well, I'm going through and watching the All-22 on these guys. I've got a couple of film breakdowns up that are now up there on Jonah Coleman and Justin Jolie. We're going to have a couple of film breakdowns on him as well.

Some of the games that they played in their collegiate careers. You get to see a little bit more up close and personal look at them. Outside of what you see normally on highlights, you get to see the All-22 on that. So we got that for you. Plus, every show is ad-free. You get an ad-free version of the show. you get access to our exclusive discord where you can join other members in our Broncos country community, as well as interact with the other favorite lockdown host if you're a fan of other lockdown shows here on the network.

So check it out today. Lockdown Broncos is a supercast.com or in the show notes below. Do it. You guys will not be disappointed, Cody and Sarah do an excellent job with all of that additional content. So I think I know the answer to this question just based on how the conversation's been going, but I'll kick it to Sarah first. which draft pick do you think has the most upside that the Denver Broncos selected here last week or over the weekend rather? This is a good question.

Yeah, this is a good question because to me, that was really the strategy of day three is getting guys that you feel like have upside because I think if you're talking about out kicking the coverage in terms of draft status, I would go with Mr. Irrelevant Red Murdoch, but I think Tyler Oenietam is on a trajectory. that's like if you picture the the you know i don't know what those are this the graph you want to call it a progress graph right curve yeah the bell curve exactly so at iowa state you know he's kind of

like slowly creeping up and then we're at this kind of like midway or partial midway point on his development from texas an m where they do a lot more like stuff that you will see the broncos do in terms of what they ask of defensive linemen get your hands on guys the stunts the all the loops all those other things that they were talking about after the draft, right? So he's kind of at that midway point on the upward trajectory. And I think as he gets coaching from Jamar Kane, Vance Joseph, all the other, you know, Zach Allen, you know, all these guys that are going to help him in his pro career. I think Tyler Ognettam is kind of getting written off in a way for a top pick. Like, the Broncos invested pick 66 in him, not because they didn't know who else to take. But, I mean,

he's replacing John Franklin Myers. Sean Payton said that. Not. me. So I think that there is a huge upside for him as a pass rusher with 34 plus inch arms. He's athletic. He's instinctive. And just ask Arch Manning. I mean, how quickly he can get to the quarterback because he will knock somebody out. So I think absolutely, On Yedem has the highest like upside long term, although I think you could look at any of the day three picks and shove them into that category. And real quick on Yadam, Nick, I'm curious to get your opinion here because as Sarah alluded to, what Sean Payton's kind of envisioning for him with his role is taken over that of

JFM. But isn't there like a natural, I don't want to say an advantage, but when you're anchoring or you're playing on a defensive line that already has the Benito's, the Allen's, the Coopers of the world, not that that necessarily makes life easier for him, but because defense is already going to have their hands so full with Benito and Allen and Cooper, on yet it might get some pretty favorable looks early on that he might be able to take advantage of. Yeah, and it's interesting you bring that up because when you have John the Cuber and Nick Benito and Zach Allen, who Oniatim actually talked about and his, I guess, presser, you know, after the draft, he was drafted, that says a lot because what that means is, though, with guys like that on the defensive line, you're going to have a lot of one-on-one matchup. And, you know, when you look at the way that he played at Texas A&M in the scheme, he played in, he played all over the place. He played the zero, two, three, technique, five.

And having that level of versatility gives Vance Joseph a number of opportunities to align him to take advantage of those inside twist, games, and stunts, which I think he was great on because he had explosion, but more importantly, for a big guy his size, especially dating back to the time when he was younger playing, you know, running back, he's got quick feet. And that's one of the things that drew the Broncos to him was his. athleticism. So yeah, I mean, he's one of those players that I would say would have a lot of upside because right now you got, you know, Wazerike, you got Sabian in those particular places. And I'm not going to say like neither one of those guys last season really set a blaze or a trail for themselves. And a lot of that had to do with John Franklin Myers. But even with that being said, the Broncos went in this direction because they were not really sure that Sabian or a Wazerike can emerge and be a dominant player.

And you put on Yadam next to Zach Allen and John Franklin, not John Franklin, but Malcolm Roach, it's going to create a lot of opportunities. And that's where you want to live because you want guys who are penetrated. When you look in this division along, you look at what Kansas City did at their running back position, right? That to give you pause to say, we need to make sure that we have interior guys that can put a lot of pressure on opposing teams running game.

And I expect for him to do that this season. Cody? Well, you also need to, you know, Zach Allen's not going to play every snap. He would if he could, if the team would let him. He may, like if there's 80 snaps in the game, he'll play 78. Like he'll come off, you know, for one. But you need to protect your investment in Zach Allen, right? He's one of the best players in terms of creating pressure.

You obviously quarterback hits have been a phenomenal thing that he's brought to the table. But you want to protect him as the years go on. And that's why your depth needs to be good. I mean, that's why I think JFM played so well is because, for example, when he would get a double team, Zach Allen would be getting a one-on-one and would be winning. When Zach's getting a double team, then you got JFM getting a one-on-one and winning and not being pushed around. Like you had guys that weren't getting pushed back by the offensive line.

They had dudes that could anchor down or create backfield penetration. And I think for Oneedam, where he'll probably, they'll work on getting him stronger. That'll probably be the developmental emphasis for him. He does have some pass rush moves. But the thing that benefits him as a rusher is his first step, his getoff. He's very quick. He's shifty. And he's going to get that work with Jamar Kane.

And the way that the Broncos, for example, they'll crash DJ Jones. They'll line him up as a one tech and they'll slant him inside. And then they'll loop the other guy around inside the A gap. that's where I think we're going to see Oneedem probably have a little bit of a bigger impact right away. This is the question, no, and this is why I'm glad the Broncos run out and addressed it. I said it a few weeks ago, I planted my flag and I said it's going to be defensive line and it ended up being that. So not to do a victory lap here, but sometimes you just got it. I was going to say that's the definition of a victory lap.

That is, Cody. 100%. It's a weak sauce. Sometimes you've got to flex on people. It's all right, you know, unless you're Christian Brown dunking after getting punking, by Jedd McDaniels. That's another whole conversation. Yeah.

Oh, whoa, man. Don't you get me started about the nuggets, man. I'm irritated with them. I wish you could sit next to you. I wish you were covered the nuggets with me. Sitting next to Cody during Broncos games is fun. I can only imagine what it's like during my game.

Maybe for the everyday club next year will mic myself up during games. And we'll have someone like stuff that Cody says, you know, because I kind of do. I don't know if you want that out there. I don't know if you want that out there. Yeah. Ryan Black, I do say some crazy. things. Ryan Blackburn does a good reverse jinx, but that's my thing. I always do the, it's my own way of doing a reverse jinx, you know, big play happens. Oh, that's it. They're not going to come back from

this one, you know, I always say that. And everyone's like, oh, I'm like, brother, you know, it's like, y'all got to be around me all the time. It's fun. I'll say this, like maybe, I think an underrated player to maybe keep an eye on here, especially as you, you are going to have four players that are going to have expiring deals after this year. I'm curious to see Miles Scott, the safety out of Illinois. I've been watching tape on him on the All-22. And, man, I like what I see. This is a guy who from the last couple of years, his first year at DB to now he has gotten so much better as a tackler. He's a high-volume tackle guy, too. I mean, 131 solo tackles in three seasons. That's hard to do, but he has elite level ball skills. You know, he's got the ability

to track the football. I think he does a great job disguising. I was actually watching a game as I did my film breakdown on Washington versus Illinois, seeing he and Jonah Coleman a little bit, like there's times where they're running opposite to his side because he's always the safety that's going up there and making plays. This could be one where I think Miles Scott will probably play special teams right away, and he could be a guy that they maybe throw in there a couple years from now, depending on what they do with Brandon Jones. But J.L. Skinner's contract is up after this year.

Devin Key will be, I think, an exclusive rights or a restricted free agent this upcoming season. Tyson Anderson set to be a free. agent. There's a lot of questions right now at what the safety outlook's going to look like and who Fonga's deal is going to be up in two years. So I like the player that they added. And he's not anywhere I think close to being who he can be just yet. But man, for a guy who used to play receiver, you would have never known when you watch him play. He's not afraid of contact. He likes hitting people. And that's something that I like about his game. Well, Miles Scott would be more of a reserve safety because it's interesting you bring up Devon Key.

Devin Key is just waiting for its opportunity. Yeah. And once Brandon Jones, if he decides to leave, that would be an excellent opportunity because I know they really love Devin Key, not just on a special team side of it. And Jail Skinner, man, he just hasn't lived up to expectation. He hasn't taken that next step. So his job is therefore in jeopardy. And think about it this way.

You have Devin Key, who was a hell of a special team's player. Jail Skinner is known for being a special team's player. and they just added a guy and Tyson Anderson who's known for special teams but he's also you know a guy who knows you know the passing game coordinator who was in Cincinnati with the passing game coordinator

so it's going to make for an interesting level of competition but Miles Scott does have an opportunity to be a reserve safety and he could do that for maybe two to three years before he gets his opportunity I like it perfect I like it a lot of upside with these picks for the Denver Broncos out Let's hit a quick break when we come back. Let's dive into Mr. Jolie here a little bit because I know tight end was a massive position of emphasis from us.

I know the fan base has been pounding their head against the wall trying to figure out with this tight end position or what this tight end room might look like moving forward. And the Broncos draft not one, but two of them. We'll talk about that next. We'll come back right here on your Lockedon Bronco Squacho. What the hell was that? I don't know. That wasn't me, brother.

I don't know what you're talking about. You're the only one who would do that. No, I'm good. I saw your little audio levels light up. Might have been my fire alarm, my smoke alarm. Okay. All right. All right.

All right. That's one of the smoking. I have a buddy of mine, just a quick tangent. His smoke detector beeps like every 60 seconds, and he claims that's how it's supposed to be. No, it's not. That's what I keep saying. He's like, that's how you know it's working. Come on, man.

Dude, I'm going to clip this and send it to him because it's. You should. That is not how it's supposed to work. The best news is that you hope you never hear your freaking smoke detector go off. But you got to make sure the green light is there. There's no red light underneath it. It's like every 30, 60 seconds or whatever. Beep, beep.

He also drives no seatbelt on so that thing's just going off all the time. I'm sorry, what? Yeah. Brother, I bet he pumps his gas with the vehicle on. You know who it is, Cody. You know who it is. My boy, B' moon. Yeah, does he pump his gas with the car on? I don't know about that.

That one. He might. That one's actually like a myth, though, I think. Or does he drive, does he drive left foot, right foot, left foot break, right foot gas? Yeah. You know, dude's a marvel. Dude's a marvel. But yeah. He's a menace is what it sounds like.

Yeah. Talk about rolling the dice with no protection. Jeez. Right. Yeah. You know. Don't give him any ruggy it. Don't give this guy Rugee it.

Oh, my gosh. I like him we could go off the, off the beaten path every once in a while. It's nice. Yeah. No, it's definitely fun. Okay. Let's talk about tight end, fellas, because I think we can talk about offensive line a little bit on the program today too as well. But like we expected some running back conversation with Jonah Coleman, of course, talked about the defensive line.

But I think tight end is maybe the most interesting position for the Denver Broncos just because they don't really have much of a future there. And even Evan Ingram last year was like fine. But I think Broncos country expected a lot more out of the tight end room last year. They drafted a couple of guys, Dallin Bentley there in the seventh round, and then, of course, Justin Jolie in the fifth round. Jolie in particular, like one thing that I had been told from a couple of people that cover the NFL and, you know, are in tune with the Broncos. He has some of the highest upside as a past catcher in the tight end room,

you know, probably tight end, two, tight end three in the draft when it comes to pure offensive skill set of catching the ball. I think this is exactly the type of guy you want to see the Broncos target, Sarah. 100% it is. I mean, he's that move around like Cody mentioned earlier and somebody that you can split out into the slot out wide. He does all those things, massive hands. I mean, he's got the, I think, untapped potential as a yak player, which you didn't see a ton of at NC State, even though they kind of still fabricated a lot of touches to go his way. So I'm interested to see the year one vision for him because it's important that we don't forget the sentiment at the end of the year when we're all fired up about the. way the season ended, right? And, and I'm sitting here and calling out, hey, Frank Crumb was the best past catching tight end. The Broncos had this season. And that wasn't an indictment on Evan Ingram because I think they misused Evan. But at the same time, you really got nothing from Adam Trotman, from obviously Nate Adkins, who missed a lot of time with injury. Lucas Crowell missed a bunch of time with injury.

Caleb Loner, even with all the injuries, couldn't get called up off the practice squad. And so you call in Mercedes-Lewis, like, it was just the, it's the opposite of an embarrassment of at a position, right? So you go out and you draft two guys that now, I think, project really well to play for you immediately. And the trait that they both bring to the table that the Broncos, I know they know they needed, is that they don't drop passes. Like, they don't. Just look at Justin Jolie from last year at NC State. I think he dropped one or two passes all year long. Dallin Bentley in his first year with 76 targets, zero dropped passes. So I think what you're getting in these two guys is sure.

handed outlets. Do they need refinement as blockers? Yes, who doesn't coming out of the college level? Do they need to improve their strength when they're, you know, asked to actually block, especially against edge rushers? Yes, but who coming out of college doesn't need that. So get these guys in a whatever fast track you need to be ready to at least chip and be competent as blockers because you didn't do that with Greg Dolsich. He wasn't ready. Like Greg looked lost in those games against Tampa Bay and the Jets back in that 2020. three season right before he got cut. So the Broncos have to figure out what did we do wrong there?

Where did we fail him? Because, well, now he got another contract from the Dolphins. So what did they figure out that we didn't? It's time to look in the mirror. He drafted the right guys, I think, especially above where they were projected to go. So now how can we fast track them to play and not do this whole song and dance about seniority and, you know, Nate Adkins has paid his dues. Nobody said that.

I'm putting words in their mouth. but that's the perception from my end is that there's this like these guys have had their letterman's jackets for years now right they've been around they know the offense they they were the first ones to show up and the last ones to leave like that was the sentiment that I was sick of at the end of last year and watching all these failures offensively that the Broncos have to correct and I think they've got the right guys but you've got to give them the right opportunity and I'm curious as to what those opportunities are going to be right because I think you're still obviously going to try to maximize what you've got out of Evan Ingram. We know that

Adam Troutman is a favorite of Sean Payton. So, you know, where are these snaps going to come necessarily for some of these young guys, Cody? Well, I think it depends on really what we learn from Davis Webb when he takes over his play calling because really if he's going to be the play caller, he's also going to be in charge of personnel. So how is his personnel utilization a lot different than what Sean did? That's one thing I'm curious for. And I think maybe something that will help that process is and they have coaches that do this, but it wasn't efficient last year where Davis Webb calls a play and based on, hey, we get five yards. We're on, we're cross midfield. They have a guy that says, okay, hey, we already have a plan for this. We know we're going to go 12 personnel

short yardage over the 50. These guys are already on alert. Like when I coached and when I played, we are like, when I played, our coaches are always say, hey, pun alert, pun alert, third down. It's like, whatever happened. Why not, what not PAT alert? Why is it always pun alert? You know, It's just those little things right there. I think will be a little bit different. And that's kind of an unknown question that we have right now is what does that look like with Davis versus Sean? And I do think maybe during maybe during rookie minicamp,

they might actually let us meet with the coordinators. I'll be curious to hear maybe if that's something that is asked to Davis. If not, I'll try to ask it as well when that chance comes. But it has to be, they have to use this position a little bit more. Adam Troutman, if he is going to be out there, he can't just be just the blocking guy. They need to feature him a little bit more in the passing game or else it just becomes a little bit rudimentary at that point.

You know what I was just thinking about, like typically during coordinator days after practice, like it would be Sean and then everyone would flock to Vance, right? Like it's going to be interesting to see how much attention Davis Webb gets because no one wanted to talk to Joe Lombardi. Like I don't mean that in a bad way, but like we all knew it was Sean's office. We're like three people. Like it's like the peanut gallery talking to Joe Lombardi. Now I think there's going to be a lot of people obviously wanted to talk to

Davis-Webb and seeing what his vision is for this offense. But, Nick, just your overall thoughts here on the tight end room and how the Broncos try to navigate that now moving forward. Well, they told you everything about what the Broncos thought of the current tight-in room before they added these two guys, Joe Lee and Bentley. And even just think about it, we sat here and watched and listened and read a lot of things about Broncos country fans and how upset they were. were about the Broncos not doing anything in free agency and they were running it back with

some of the same players and they were really upset about the tight-in room right and the way I look at it you know these young players have an excellent opportunity because there's no one on the Broncos roster right now as a veteran who's been in this offense one or two years that we can honestly say you know they they are those dudes we can't really say that because Nate Atkins right inside the red zone. He got injured. We know he's not going to stretch the field vertically. When we look at Adam Trotman,

he is considered by far the best blocking tight end that the Broncos have on their roster. And if we were to compare him to other blocking tight ends in the league, he probably end up being 32nd. And we know what Evan Ingraham is when he comes to blocking. Listen, man, let's keep it real, man. I mean, that's the way we look at it. Because if you watch Adam Trotman,

And I'm speaking to you guys, not as a person that hates him, but a guy that played the game and played against some great blocking tight ends, it is blocking at the point of attack. It is not just getting in the way. Can you hold that guy for at least three to four seconds to give your quarterback an opportunity, to give the runnerback an opportunity? And I can say with full certainty, no, that didn't happen.

And if it did, you wouldn't have these two guys on the roster. So Joe Lee is going to be the flex tight end set to take Ingram's, you know, place. And when you look at Bentley, Bentley's going to take Adam Trotman's place. Now, if I'm talking directly to these young tight ends, this is what I would tell them. Nate Atkins is the current fullback. Burton is no longer on this team. He's in Cleveland. So if you want to have longevity, not just with the Denver Broncos, but in this league,

learn how to watch film on Kyle Juice Check. Right. Jukech is a tight-in or tight-in fullback by position, but that's not what he is. He's a move guy. He can do a variety of different things. If these guys can learn to do that, they not only make Bo Nick's life easier, but it does the same for Sean Payton and Davis Webb. But what I do know, the Broncos that are currently on this team, I don't believe there's a lot of faith in these guys. because if it were, why did you draft these two tight ends? And I know you didn't take them in the first and second round, but each one of those guys have unique skill sets.

Well, I'll say this too in terms of early on in the draft when Denver, you know, was at 62 set the pick at 62. From what I understand, they liked Max Claire out of Ohio State. They felt like he was probably one of the more well-rounded tight ends in terms of this guy can be an inline blocker. He can also be a pass catcher for you. The Los Angeles Rams out of nowhere. snipe them, even though they have four or five different tight ends right now, including last year,

they drafted Terrence Ferguson. So for me, that was a little bit of a surprise. And maybe that changed things for Denver. Maybe that's what influenced them trading back there. You know, a lot of people are saying, well, what about, you know, Eli Stowers? From what I understand, I don't know if the Bronco were as high on Eli Stowers as maybe they were other guys. I think they liked him.

But did they love him? I don't think they loved him. So, you know, factoring all that end of the equation. So now for them, it's like, all right, instead of going out there and getting one guy who we think can maybe be an overall producer. We're going to double dip at this position. And we like this guy's upside in Justin Jolie. And we also think Dallin Bentley has some potential that's been untapped into considering

the type of offense he played in at Utah. And both these guys can come in. And they're two different types of tight ends. One's an inline Y. One's a move around F, something that Sean Payton and George Peyton said in the pre-draft press conference. If you want either of these types of guys, they're in this draft. They took two of them.

I like that approach. Yeah. I like it as well. And I believe what tight end is the only position, like they double dips on defense, but two tight ends. Yeah, because they went running back, offensive tackle. Yeah, safety linebacker. So yeah, they double dip a tight end, which I think says something for sure.

Real quick here before we hit a break, Sarah, I know you were beating the drum about offensive tackle. And they did accomplish that with their fourth round pick in Cage Casey out of Boise State. Yeah, he's kind of getting slept down a little bit in the overall discussion because obviously the Broncos having established start. starting five and five guys that have been together for the last majority, the last three years, right? So you haven't established O line. You're taking somebody a developmental potential starter. For the time being, if there's like a championship belt for ending the streak of not drafting an

offensive tackle, I'd say Cage Casey gets to have that belt until it's stripped away from him. If they transition him to the guard position on a full-time position, which we know the Broncos have talked about. They envision him being able to be a guard full-time or even a center. I think that was thrown out there by one of the guys, I think it was Reed Burkhard or the scouting director. I can't remember which one said that, but they do view him as having starting qualities there at guard. So what we could be looking at here is the potential of Cage Casey taking over for Ben Powers in 2027. And then like Nick just alluded to a little bit ago, you know, Justin Jolie taking over for Evan Ingram in 2027. So the Broncos were out for developmental starters.

And they also compared, by the way, this was the Broncos. tacos by who made this comparison they compared Jonah Coleman's game to that of jk. Dobbins. So if you're reading between the lines and if you're following the breadcrumbs and reading the tea leaves here, you might have with your top three picks on day three, three starters for 2027 that this team saying, hey, the sand timer, we flipped it upside down when we drafted these guys. It might take until next year at this time for you to be talking about them as legit

starters. But that's what the vision is, I think, for those three guys. especially with Cage Casey at left guard. Yeah, there's upside, right? There's a future, it seems like, at a few of these positions with how the Broncos went about their drafts. And obviously we'll have to see.

Not all these draft picks pan out always, but I think on paper schematically, a lot of these guys make a ton of sense for the Denver Broncos just with regards to their positions of need and where this organization is heading into the future. Good picks. Like, here's the thing. And you got why I hate mock drafts.

I'm going on another freaking mock draft rant this week. Buckle up. The consensus big boards. or where guys go in mock drafts aren't a real gauge for where they could or should go in the NFL draft. And I think that's what gets people so frustrated. Like it's just there's a level of ignorance that comes with that to where, whoa, the Broncos drafted this guy. I didn't see him going here.

I didn't even know who this guy was. There must be a terrible pick. Go back and watch the player. Like go back and watch tape. Like that's the thing. And a lot of people in the pre-draft process, they listen to what other people say versus going out there and doing their own research. like if I'm hearing about top defensive lineman prospects,

I'm going to try to go and watch as much film as I can about those players so I can have a better opinion. I can read. And I trust people who also put in the work, but that doesn't mean that I'm not going to hold Dane Brugler or Daniel Jeremiah as like the end all be. I value their opinion, but I also need to form my own, especially if I'm going to be trying to inform and educate the masses and share my perspective.

There's not a lot of, hey, I'm going to learn about this guy myself. I'm just going to read this stat box or say this. oh, hey, good pick, bad pick. That's why I absolutely hate. Like right now, you're seeing it. Draft grades, draft grades. This team gets an A.

This team, we don't care about your damn draft grades. That stuff does not matter. It's just low-hanging food content. Oh, brother, I could go on a tangent all day about this. Cody, I'll add this for Broncos fans who have any concerns about Cage Casey. Remember the Raiders drafted this running back in the first round who played at Boise, who Cage Casey blocked. block for.

Name is Ascenti. So just keep that in mind. 240 yards per game that offense was averaging that year. He started every game at left tackle. I mean, he's got that versatility to play guard tackle. But it's also the Broncos kind of got two for one there. Ben Power is going to be a free agent after this year. Could he play guard?

Yes, he can. What if Garrett Bulls, in the next couple of years, decides to just up and walk away? Well, now you got a guy who can learn that. And yes, you have other guys in Pouchesky and Frank Crum. But it gives you more darts, more options in the house. And that seems like how the Broncos want to approach it versus going out there and spending big on an offensive line. And you get cost control, especially because you just paid Quinn Miners.

You just paid Luke Wattenberg. You got those guys locked in for the near future. Garris still has some time. But ultimately, as you got to pay Bo Nix, you can't have the most expensive offensive line in the league and pay your quarterback and have some of the pieces you have defensively. The Broncos are doing this, in my opinion, the right way. a way that not a lot of teams do.

And it's going to require some trust-fall exercises, but that's why you develop players. Yeah. Go ahead. Sorry, I was just going to say, just to throw it out there really quickly, if Garrett Bowles does want to do anything else, he does appear to have a future in the automobile repair.

I just wanted to throw that out. They didn't tie on the side of the road. Can we get him a guest appearance in that Netflix series Tires with Shane Gillis? Absolutely. Might as well. J.J. Watt appeared in it. So might as well, Garibol's. Protector of the Year award, automatically should go to him for that.

My favorite Bulls subplot, you've probably heard him talking about in the locker room, Cody, is how he might have a future in broadcasting. He was like running the DJ booth when he was at Utah. Like that was like, really, it's college gigs. Yeah, I think he was talking about it like Scotty Gaines or something one time in the locker room. So. Interesting. Not just a lot of good stuff. He does a lot of good stuff right now, like especially like for speech therapists, like especially the Bulls,

Jenny Bajoram speech therapy. Institute that they have created there. It's great. My wife's a speech therapist, so that made her fall in love even more with like the Broncos. So that was really a cool thing, kind of tying in her world to like our world, so to speak. He's going to do a lot of great things. I think when his playing career is

over. I wouldn't be opposed to seeing him do something like that. Yeah, no, I'm with you 100%. All right, let's hit our final break when we come back. We'll put a bow bow on the show. I want to get your guys opinion. We've talked a lot of Broncos, obviously, because it's our Broncos squad show, but which team not named the Broncos do you think was the most surprising with how they handled the NFL draft.

We'll talk about that. We come back right here on the program. All right, final segment here, Locked on Broncos Squad Show, Nilo Piro, Cody Works, Sarah Bedinger, and Nick Ferguson. Appreciate each and every one of you that are live with us on YouTube. We appreciate the chat and everyone watching after the fact. And, of course, listening on the Locked on Broncos audio feed, you guys are the absolute best.

One thing I do want to say kind of going back to the previous conversation we just had, like obviously we're all tapped it, right? like Cody you're at the you're at the facility as much of any of us here I'm with you at practice on there on game days Nick you played for the organization you're around the team still Sarah you do great work in the in the website space and obviously here on the show as well like I don't think we're for lack of a better phrase glazing the Broncos because of what they did in the NFL draft what I can't like I'm just saying these dang this thing young generation slang that's that's that's the term is like when you go crazy by like oh my gosh, they did this, they did that. Like they referred to glazing. Like I think objectively, though, like the Broncos did a really good job of addressing these positions of need. Like, and it's not just us being homers or being biased and whatnot.

Like I'm looking at it through as unbiased as a lens as I can. Like, I'm looking at the picks of Broncos made. I'm like, okay, this makes sense. That makes sense. This makes sense. Well, to that point, I mean, the only position that, you know, you could really question is linebacker, right? Because ultimately we went into the draft.

I think that everybody in Broncos country, if we couldn't have Jacob Rodriguez, it was take the next best linebacker on the board, right? So we're talking about all these. I mean, we went through so many mock draft scenarios where we're talking about every linebacker that could have possibly been available from the second round to the fifth round. And any mock draft scenario that had a linebacker going later than the fourth round, I mean, you might as well have just made yourself given somebody a pitchfork and say,

hey, come after me. because forsaking the linebacker position was not acceptable in Broncos mock draft, you know, this offseason. So, I mean, the linebacker spot, I think, is one where they really decided they're comfortable with what they have, which has been an unpopular take from a lot in Broncos country, myself included from the beginning of the offseason. Because like I said to Cody, they could have traded up three, four spots and got Anthony Hill from Texas. And they decided not to do that. The Texans, I think, anticipated that the Broncos might want him. jumped up two spots ahead of them to take him.

And so if you really wanted Anthony Hill, why would you not move up to get him if you felt like that was such a piece that you had to have? If you, they obviously really didn't want Devin Lloyd because he signed for a pretty reasonable contract. They obviously didn't really want Caden Ellis because he signed for a very reasonable contract. The Broncos perception, and I think Reed Burkhart talked about this as well, but their perception of Sternad and Singleton is vastly, vastly different than what.

the fan basis perception of those guys is. And even from a lot of us in the media, myself included, like I don't, I don't know if that's the right decision. But I will say, I love the Red Murdoch pick. I mean,

you want to talk about, we've got a bonus episode of the show on Red Murdoch. I put him in my final mock draft on Thursday before the draft. In the fifth round, I think the Broncos stole him with 257. I think he's going to make the team. I think he's, you know,

got all the abilities to potentially start for you down the line. don't want to put too much expectation on a seventh rounder. But at the same time, this was a draft where we talked about wherever you take somebody. The only mistake is not taking one. And the Broncos waited until the very last pick to take one. And I think you got two guys at linebacker in Red Murdoch and Tori and York, who, I mean, you want to talk about two plus rounds later than you should have got him. And in York's case, I mean, he could have been a fifth rounder.

Red Murdoch could have been a fifth rounder. So that's the way I viewed the way they invested in this position is a couple of dogs who are going to come in with chips on their shoulders and say, hey, I'm going to outplay my status as a seventh rounder or UDFA. Yeah, I think it's a good point. I think there's a lot of upside with Red Murdoch for sure. And ultimately, we'll see once we get to OTA's minicamp and all that kind of stuff, how these guys start to round into form for the Broncos here in their rookie seasons. But, okay. You know, really quickly, I want to touch on what an add to what Sayer just said about Murdoch. See, since they know Murdoch is not probably going to start this season,

maybe later in the season due to injury or as the team is starting to figure out what they're going to do with Alex Singleton, here's a great thing that I know George Payton was excited about the number of sports fumbles that Murdoch actually created. And the way that I look at it, for my first thought was, dude, if he can do this on special teams, who being what they are now, now you get, now you're putting Bo Nex on a short field and potentially turning the ball over and dare I say, the Broncos are scoring points on special teams because that's a unique art.

So much so when when someone punches the ball out, what is the first thing everyone goes? Oh, the peanut tilman punch, right? But there's been other guys who've been punching a ball out. But Murdoch said that he's kind of specializing as he watched film and he figures out how to do this from an elite standpoint. So if he can do that, he's going to make the Broncos special teams better, but here's what he's also going to do. Because he has a unique skill set for it, he's going to do it in practice. So we're going to see a lot of balls on the turf in practice,

which Sean Payton's going to be really pissed off about it, but that's what practice is for. You learn how not to turn the ball over in practice, so you're better in the game. So he's going to impact both special teams, defense, and the opposite side of the ball. Yeah, no, I like it a lot. So excited, man, excited.

It feels like to the point that Cody made earlier in the show, like now that we've gotten through the draft, we can start to project and look forward and get excited for what this season is going to be now that we have a little bit more of an idea of what the team is going to look like with those draft picks. But, okay, before we get out of here, just a quick, fun little question.

Which team surprised you the most with how they handle the NFL draft? I know there's a few of the popular ones that are being talked about, but was there a pick in the first round or just a body of work with their draft status that kind of surprised you more than another? I honestly I liked the Jets draft I thought when you talk about first round they probably had the most impactful draft you know you go on you get David Bailey your second overall pick you get Kenyon Cidique out of Oregon who was in my opinion a unicorn this year at the tight end position and then they trade back into the end of round one to get Omar Cooper Jr.

or a wide receiver out of Indiana. They loaded up good depth and good talent. Not only that, too, they, DeAngelo Ponds, they got him. My only concern with New York, I think they had a great draft. I just don't think they have the right head coach. And they certainly don't have the quarterback. That's the only thing that I would say right now. You know, and K-Club Nick's not going to be the quarterback of the future.

Maybe he does. But I don't think Aaron Glenn is it, unfortunately. And I don't think that Gino Smith is the guy that's going to take him to the promised land. Yeah, Sarah, your thoughts. Yeah, I love the Jets draft. I mean, you got to set the table for a quarterback next year's draft is going to be legendary. I mean, in terms of what NFL teams are expecting, that's not, I don't think that's hyperbole at this point.

I think every NFL team proved it. I think there was only one 2027 selection traded during the entire draft, which you normally see a lot of those future picks changing hands. And so I don't, I might be wrong about that. Somebody might have traded a late rounder, but I think that's accurate. And I think the AJ Brown trade from what. from what reports are saying is going to be for a 2028 first round pick. So everybody is like, if you want one of my 2027 draft picks, don't because you're not getting it.

So, but I think in terms of the team that surprised me the most in the draft, our boy Darien in the chat spoiled my answer. I thought the Rams, like Ty Simpson was such a dumb pick for them, not because he's a bad player or he's a bad kid, but because of the context of where they're at, they're repeating the Aaron Rogers, Jordan Love. I would call it a mistake. I know the Packers have a franchise quarterback, but when you're in a Super Bowl window,

you need to do everything that you can to leap through the Super Bowl window. And there was like jokes made at the time about how little the Packers had invested in the supporting cast around Rogers in terms of not drafting a skill player for over a decade. And I know that the Rams aren't in that realm, but Devante Adams is 33 years old.

Puka Nakua looks like he might be a little, you know, I don't know what's the appropriate word to use on this format, but I don't know what's going on. on with Puka Nakua, I'll put it that way. And, you know, they're drafting. He's biting people. He's biting people, yeah. So, I mean, that tells you everything you need to know.

So with that first round pick, why are you taking Ty Simpson when Kenyon Sadiq is right there? Because you turned around in the second round and took Max Clare. So you got a worse prospect. You could have had the best prospect at that position when you're trying to go out of this 12, 13 personnel looks. And Sean McVeigh was very mad. Like, and he can say. all he wants he can try to walk it back all he wants he was mad about the tie simpson pick you can hear it in his voice when he's on the phone call with tie simpson the kid has just experienced the greatest

moment of his life and he's like let's go make history coach and he's like crying on the other end of the phone and shong this is matthew yeah he's like yeah um so anyway yeah he's like not paying attention he's totally disengaged he's totally emotionally like checked out he's mad at less need i can tell i don't care what he says i'll make that assumption the Rams had the dumbest draft strategy in the NFL. And that's saying something because the 49ers and John Lynch are using Chat GPT to make their picks. So I think the Rams ultimately, and we may find out this in, you know, what, eight months,

I can't help but wonder if the Rams did the Broncos a favor and they're going to lose the Super Bowl because they didn't take Kenyon Sadiq or Mikhail of them with their first round pick against the Broncos. I love it. Well, I'm going to say something that's going to be consistent. to be blasphemous on this program, but you asked a question, and I'm going to give my take. Not so much surprised, but addressing things of me, I got to stay within the AFC West and look at the Kansas City Chiefs. What they did, they took four defensive guys to fill some major holes

within the defensive side of the ball, and they feel as though that was a part of their team that had drastically changed over the years. And I agree to a certain point, because when you look at Spag's defense and the reason why the Chiefs made it to a couple of Super Bowls, it was because it was defense, being able to turn the ball over, being able to turn those turnovers into points from a defensive standpoint, and being able to shut teams down or slow the run game. So they knew that they had to adjust. They just watched the Denver Broncos defense going back to back years, increasing at franchise sack totals. So they knew they had to make some changes.

And they lost two guys in the secondary to the Rams. So they needed to kind of to re-up. So this is an organization that I, even last year, when Patrick Mahomes was struggling, then he got injured, there were a lot of Broncos fans celebrating like, oh, the Kansas City Chiefs are on the downside. No, they are not, buddy.

And by them reloading on the divas inside the ball, it gives them a chance, but just like any of the 31 other teams, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to get you to the Super Bowl. But I thought they did a great job, because from a running back standpoint, they got Walker, and then they added Emma Johnson from Nebraska.

So they're telling you right now what they want to do. They want to stop people on defense, and they want to run the ball. And if you really think about it, doesn't that kind of philosophy sound really familiar? That's exactly what the Denver Broncos want to do. I think it's a fair point. And it's going to be interesting to see how the AAC West shapes up this year

because, you know, what does Kansas City look like? You know, when does Patrick Holmes come back? Obviously, the Chargers got McDaniels, now, right? The Raiders who are, I don't think are going to be very good this year. It seems like they have a bit of foundation moving forward. And, of course, we know what the Broncos are doing. The team that I'll highlight here is the Arizona Cardinals. And I understand why they take Jeremiah Love.

But, like, it feels like you could have traded out of that pick for a team that wanted to move up and get Jeremiah Love and get some assets. They also draft Carson Beck. Like, that was the definition of me. It just darts on a dartboard and hoping that one of them hits a bulls. I mean, that's a single word. I mean, that's a senior hour out here was not very happy. No, I mean, that organization just seems like a rudder to a ship. If you're going to draft Jeremiah Love, why not keep Kyla Murray at that point?

You know who's over there. Nathaniel Hackett's over there. It kind of makes sense. The worst owner, I mean, arguably one of the worst owners in the league right now. And their fan base talks about that all the time. And so they're just a poorly run organization that has no vision that nobody wanted to go be the head coach of, that they can't decide who to even take with the third overall pick. They're taking the dead money on Kyler Murray.

They have no plan at quarterback behind Ty Simpson other than Carson Beck. Like, miss me. I'm glad to not be an Arizona Cardinals fan or any part of that media situation either because covering that team would be a nightmare. And I like the core of Jeremiah Love and Marvin Harrison Jr. Trey McBride, one of the best tight ends in the game. But talk about not being able to look in the mirror. And it's like people who think that they can sing and they go on American Idol and everybody laughs because they suck so bad. That's what the Cardinals are the equivalent of as an NFL franchise is like, we're an NFL team.

baby you know what I'm saying like and they get up and they look themselves in the mirror every day and they're like I can sing dang it my mom says I can sing and then they go onto the field and they're like oh wait we're going back to the top 10 of the draft every single year the cardinals are a joke and I like I like Jeremiah love I think he's going to do well in the NFL but they have no that they just yeah the Cardinals are the quarterback play them this year do they are the Broncos yeah great good news that's all you need to know so say just called the Arizona Cardinals William Hong. She bangs. She bangs.

Why does everybody ask me that? Who the heck is that? Oh, my gosh. I love it. I love it. I love it. Well, yeah, definitely some interesting drafts from the Rams, the Cardinals, the Chiefs, the Jets. I thought the Steelers had an interesting approach. The 49ers as well.

Terrible. Terrible. Steeler, terrible. 49ers, terrible. I mean, this is, this draft was bad. And that's why the Broncos trading for Jaylon Waddle, to circle it all back, was such an awesome decision. Like, in hindsight, especially. This draft stunk.

The Broncos got the right guy and they've got the right guys running this thing. That's why, like Cody said, the draft boards, who freaking cares what the draft boards say? Although the Broncos aligned more with the consensus this year than any year previous that I can remember. And still, these folks are giving them C, C plus grade, C minus. I could go on and on it, guys. Anil, you go ahead and shut down this show because we're all fine.

Well, we'll have some fun with it on Friday as well. But yeah, no, two thumbs up for the Broncos and how they approach the draft. Ultimately, we'll see how these guys end up projecting in their rookie season. But I think we're all on board with the direction that the Denver Broncos took. But good stuff today, as always, gentlemen, for Cody Works here, Bedinger and Nick Ferguson. I am Anilo Piro. Hit that like button and subscribe button on your way out the door. And we'll talk to you guys later this week.

Peace out, y'all. My name's David Edelman. I'm such a soft coach.