Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - BRONCOS SQUAD SHOW: Key Takeaways From the Broncos End-of-Season Media

Episode Date: January 29, 2026

The Denver Broncos season is officially over following a slew of press conferences this week. Broncos Country heard from Head Coach Sean Payton, General Manager George Paton, Owner/CEO Greg Penner and quarterback Bo Nix as the organization officially enters offseason mode. With that, some of the Broncos' offseason plans were revealed throughout the week. Join Aniello Piro, Cody Roark, Sayre Bedinger and Nick Ferguson as they break down the latest news and notes in the world of Broncos football. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! TurboTax For a limited time, you can have your taxes done by a local TurboTax expert for just $150 — all in, if a TurboTax expert didn’t file for you last year. Just file by February 28. Visit http://TurboTax.com/local to book your appointment today. Rocket Money Let Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster. Join at http://RocketMoney.com/LOCKEDON FanDuel If you’re a new customer, bet just $5 and get $200 in Bonus Bets if you win. Make it count — because after the Super Bowl, the season is over. Last call for football on FanDuel, an Official Sportsbook Partner of Super Bowl Sixty. PrizePicks Download the PrizePicks app today and use code LOCKEDONNFL to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. Click Here: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONNFL Gametime Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime. Robinhood Trade Every Play with Robinhood. Now available across the U.S. Download the Robinhood app now to begin. Futures and cleared swaps trading involves significant risk and is not appropriate for everyone. Event contracts are offered by Robinhood Derivatives, LLC., a registered futures commission merchant and swap firm 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/lockedonnfl. 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 Anilo Piro, and the Denver Broncos offseason is officially here, but not without some questions about the direction of the franchise moving forward. I'm Cody Roark, and the Denver Broncos, they have plans to be aggressive, but will they be? I'm Sarah Bettinger, and I was not prepared to have to buckle in for some unexpected drama for this Denver Broncos team in 2026. Hey, I'm Nick Ferguson, and you smell that? It's not what the rock is cooking, but I smell beef. I love it.

Let's get into it on today's Locked on Bronco Squad Show, fellas. Here we go. 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 Locked-on podcast network can. Hereup and squad up. The Broncos squad show starts now.

What is up, Broncos Country? come on into your locked on the Broncos squad show, kind of our first official offseason squad show, if you may. And we're getting ready to kind of turn the page to the draft, the combine, all that good stuff. But there are definitely some lingering conversations that need to be had from this week's media availability to kind of close out the regular season. Got the full squad here.

Anilo Piro, Cody Works, Sarah Bedinger, and Nick Ferguson, appreciate each and every one of you in Broncos Country for rocking and rolling with us throughout the course of the season. Don't worry. The show's not going anywhere throughout the course of the off season, but we will kind of turn a page with respect to the conversations involving the team. So if you're watching on YouTube, do us a favor. Hit that like button. Smash that subscribe button. It really helps us out here. And to all of our audio listeners. Yeah, don't break your screens. And to all of our audio listeners, we love you guys as well. So, okay, I know Sarah's got a lot to say here. And before we kind of open up the can of worms per se, let's kind of lay out the timeline. Like we typically do. the weekday version of the squad show on Tuesdays, but there was the expectation that we'd have locker clean out, even though it wasn't really a locker cleanout. We just kind of got players at the podium on Monday.

And then Tuesday, we hear from Sean Payton and George Payton. And then Wednesday, we hear from Greg Penner, like all of these things we kind of knew when we woke up. And then like kind of in the middle of the afternoon yesterday, we get the notification that Bo Nix is going to meet with the media via Zoom. So that's our last opportunity, essentially, to talk with Bo Nix until probably the springtime training camp, whenever that, you know, next situation arises here. And so a lot of information for us to digest, and we'll break it all

down for you guys through on the program today. But I think the topic that Broncos country is most interested in is the scenario in the conversation involving quarterback Bo Nix. Everyone knows the injury. Sean Payton kind of talking about it. Bo Nix calling a press conference yesterday to clarify some stuff. And Sarah, I'll open it up with you. because I know Cody and Nick, you guys were both on the conference call, but from your perspective, you were not on the call, but you were kind of consuming this in a different way than all three of us were. What did you kind of make of, one, the news that Bo Nick was going to meet with the media?

And two, what was said in that conversation between Bo and the media. Well, I texted you guys when I got the email, just like everybody else did, that it was a surprising thing. Like, I don't think anybody expected that Bo was going to have a conference call. And yet it was kind of a pleasant surprise, right? because obviously we hadn't heard from him since the injury other than his Instagram post. And so I feel like based on the quotes that Bo Nix gave in this conference call, I feel like

he called this conference call in order to set the record straight on a bunch of information that has been put out there, regardless if it was from Sean Payton, his head coach, or the national media guys. Like Ian Rappaport said, like literally verbatim, three to four months recovery. time. And Bo Nix is out here saying, no, no, no, it's going to be four to six weeks. I'm going to be good as new. Sean Payton is saying like there's predisposed issues and that it was something that was going to happen at some point or another. And Bo Nix is saying, no, there's nothing that was predisposed. So what I believe that we have here, fellas, is our first, other than

the yelling that we've heard on the field during games, I believe that we have our first major power struggle between Bo Nix, the franchise quarterback, and Sean Payton, the head coach. Now, as a young quarterback in the NFL, I also believe that Bo knows his place, right? He's somebody who's been around a lot of different coaches. Obviously, his dad was his coach for a while. And interestingly enough, I feel like the best and maybe most accurate comparison between the relationship between Bo and Sean is sort of a father and son relationship. However, I believe it's now gotten to the point where it's maybe a little bit less of the father-son relationship and a little bit more of the boss employee relationship,

in which case I now feel like this team behind the scenes and potentially getting ugly in the public at this point, what this team is experiencing right now is potentially a shift from being Sean Payton's team to Bo Nix's team. And I firmly believe that if the ownership group had to choose between one of the two, that they would choose, Oh, Nix. And so this is, I know I'm going down the rabbit trail.

I should have a tinfoil hat on for this whole discussion. And there's so many different details to break down. I don't want to take the entire episode. But guys, I want to get your thoughts on that too, because that's where I feel like we're at is our first major power struggle between Bo and Sean. That is like a legitimate, not just yelling about personnel on the field, not just yelling about the play call coming in at the right time. But I feel like this is the first like major power struggle that could lead to it.

important fork in the road. Yeah, I mean, what's the old saying, like where there's smoke, there's fire now? Are these just like little embers burning or is this going to turn into something much bigger between the power dynamic between Bo Nix and Sean Payton? And to be fair, it might be nothing. It might just be clarification from Bo Nix and it might just be Sean kind of talking as Sean wants to talk. Cody, you were on the call yesterday. Why don't you kind of set the scene for Broncos country out there from your perspective? Yeah. I mean, ultimately it was just Bo, you know, usually at the end of the year, you get to talk to the franchise quarterback. Bo obviously, with respect to his injury, was not available for us when we

had the end-a-year locker room, which, as you mentioned, was not a locker room. It was Atrium. We're going to bring these guys out to you guys to talk. So it's like you don't actually get to go up to the players and talk to them and either interview them or even just talk to them in general and debrief about like, you know, what their ambitions or their goals are for the off-season. So that was a, that was frustrating in terms of access and where we were at. That was different. and what we've been accustomed to the last handful of years. I was on the call with Bo yesterday. And it was nice that it was more so it seemed like he wanted to initiate the conference, right?

It was good to hear from him because as Sarah mentioned, the only thing we got to hear from him was the Instagram post and obviously, you know, all the well wishes and like things that his wife was posting, his mom was posting on social media. We didn't really get to hear from Bo himself. And I felt like for Bo establishing himself as a franchise quarterback saying, hey, no, you are going to hear from me. We want to do this. And it was, it wasn't like this was like, hey, I'm calling this press conference because I'm pissed about this.

It wasn't like that at all, really where things kind of turned in a sense was Bo was asked a question about Sean saying, you know, the injury, you know, we mentioned something was predisposed or, you know, do you have any long term concerns about, you know, the ankle? And he says, no, there was nothing predisposed. It's just a normal, normal bone break. There was stress prior to that and it led to the break. So that's what Bo had said. So that kind of contradicted what Sean had said on Tuesday that when the surgeon went in there, there was this predisposed, which predisposed typically means that there's an underlying factor there that was there.

Like, for example, I'll be very open and honest. I don't drink alcohol because I come from a family of alcoholics in a sense. So I'm genetically predisposed to being susceptible to being addicted to alcohol if I were to ever drink it. So that's why I don't drink it. Kind of the same thing. So I think that language right there from Sean. that was kind of the thing that I think Bo was like, wait a minute, nah.

And then he was asked another question about, you know, well, he wasn't really asked. It was more so said like, hey, Sean said, this is your third ankle injury. And that's where we start seeing the deleting of tweets initially being put out there. You know, we're reacting to it in real time, right? We can get language in the tweets, so to speak. But basically, like, Bo was like, no, I don't think Sean, I don't think he should have said that. Like, he doesn't even know. Like, I don't think he should be saying that.

So that's where it's like, oh, smoke, fire. I think that Bo, rightfully so, was like, no, like, I'm controlling my own narrative. Rightfully so. I think he should. I think it's a, to me personally, I think it's a miscommunication in logjam. I don't think it's a really big issue between Sean and George. I mean, not Sean and George, Sean and Bo. But, I mean, once again, like Davis Webb leaves that room.

Maybe that's the bridge between Sean and Bo when they're frustrated with each other, which is normal in a competitive setting. between the quarterback and head coach, they've acknowledged that, but they've also acknowledged both of them publicly how much they like each other. So it could be something, but I ultimately think it's nothing at the end of the day. Yeah, I've got some opinions as well, but I want to kick it to Nick here too, because, you know, you've been in locker rooms. I'm sure you've had some situations with coach player relationships,

but also like where this Broncos team is at right now, you know, obviously off the heels of an AFC championship game appearance of 14-win regular season, a big win over the Buffalo Bills, situation is relatively bizarre, my friend, I would say. Yeah, it is. I would clarify it as being interesting. But I want to take you guys back as I break down what this all means to me. 2024, the Broncos are playing the Las Vegas Raiders and they defeat them 3418.

And if you guys remember, that's when Sean Payton, after exchange with Bo Nix, called him Ferris Bueller. So the way that I look at it, this is basically a coming of age movie. and if John Hughes was directing it, it would be Ferris Bueller Day Off part two. And Bo is just asserting himself. He's just saying, look, man, I know what my capabilities are. And I'm no longer a rookie. And this happens in the NFL when a guy starts to realize

where he is in the pantheon or the hierarchy in the organization. And Sarah brought it up. I mean, if you had to choose and you twisted the arms of the Broncos ownership, and they had to choose between their franchise quarterback, or the head coach, most likely they're going to choose their franchise quarterback because you can say that the Broncos did not win the game against the Patriots, everything that we saw because of Bo Nix. If Bo Nix had played that game, I personally would have picked the Broncos,

but I didn't because number 10 wasn't playing. So this is Bo asserting himself, and we're seeing it more now than we've seen it in years past, and especially when I played, it was almost like taboo. It was forbidden. I mean, whatever the coaches or the organization said about you, you said nothing. It was zip. You close your mouth. But these guys now, they're now in charge of their own careers.

And the idea is like, I'm not going to let you say something about me that I feel can mislead people. It may not be correct. So you're going to hear straight from the horse's mouth. And I'm going to tell everyone how I feel and what's going on with me. So like Cody said, it's kind of a miscommunication. But in this situation, the way that the Broncos ended their season, the fact that Boe did not play in that game and then you have this, it's led to a lot of conversation.

And you want to make sure in the offseason, the only time, I guess local and national media is talking about you, what are you going to do in free agency? What guys you're picking up? But now this story has been picked up and it's turned into something else. There's no quotes. We didn't get a transcript either. Oh, what does that tell you?

No YouTube. It's not on YouTube either. This is more so I guess. I guess this was just like a media only Zoom call, so to speak. This looks worse, in my opinion, Cody. It looks worse for doing that. I mean, I don't understand.

Yeah, he said some stuff in there that was based in maybe questions that were not based in reality like it was reported, right? You know, when somebody's saying, hey, Sean said you've had three procedures before and that's not the case. That's not even what Sean said, right? Sean was talking about, but at the same time, Bo's not able to vocalize any of this stuff by him. himself. It's Sean that's bringing this stuff up. Sean, the guy who all throughout the season gets

so mad at anybody who asks any question about injuries whatsoever. And then now he's divulging a bunch of information that directly pertains to Bo Nix's ability to get a life-altering, generational altering contract. Like that type of stuff. And I think it was Luca Evans who pointed that out in his piece on the Denver Post, too, about the fact that Boe is entering a pivotal, pivotal year three with this franchise. And this is the year that's going to determine, are you going to get a $300 million plus dollar contract or better? I mean, from we're talking about the Walmart money. We're talking about the unlimited cash resources of the Denver Broncos. And so what Bo Nick is having to do is call a press conference to defend himself in his body, his bodily health, from what his head coach is

saying like I'm I've always been the biggest advocate and supporter of Sean Peyton on this show. So if I get in trouble for saying any of this stuff, I have receipts from years now of me defending Sean Payton of saying like, yeah, he was justified in saying this. He was justified to not bring up this. He was justified to make this play call. Hey, I understand the process behind this. Like I have never not defended Sean Payton. However, this is the one time I would say in all this time.

time of covering the Sean Payton Denver Broncos that I think he's directly in the wrong. And I think that Bo was upset about it. You could tell he was ready to to clap back about whatever it was. He didn't take the time. And maybe this is a maturity thing from Bo Nix's part as well. He didn't even take the time to contextualize what Sean Payton had said to the media by saying, no, actually Sean didn't say that. He was so pissed that he was ready to clap back at whenever that question came up. Like, I think that is the reason why he called the press conference in the first place was to correct information that's been out there.

And when it's the head coach that's putting the information out there, that to me is the biggest sign of like, okay, I'm not saying they can't move past this. I'm not saying that it has to be us versus them when it's like pro Bo Nix, pro Sean Payton. They can squash this stuff behind closed doors, but they're going to have to address this. This is a huge, huge deal that I know that. I know that it seems like, oh, well, it's not really that big of a deal. He's just, you know, in the heat of the moment.

I get that perspective as well. But I think this is a, I mean, a 300 million plus dollar situation that we're talking about. Here's my thing. And this is how they could have avoided the crap storm that came from this is just post it. Post the interview. Post it to where you can actually hear the question that's being asked, right? Because really what everyone's grabbing off of was, you know, we're hearing it in real time. It's things are getting tweeted.

on the tweeter sphere, right? And then all of a sudden, now it's like everyone in the world, it's like they're seeing a tweet and they're reacting to it. Wait, why are they now deleting the tweets? Post the interview so people can actually hear the question, I feel like it's easy to get out in front of this. Or if anything, why can't Sean Payton issue a little statement? Why can't they put out a statement here?

Because now this is going to become a, I mean, this is a huge talking point right now as to what you said. The next time we get to hear from Sean, his next month at the combine. If you're Sean Peyton. What press release do you have? What are you actually saying? I was wrong? Yeah.

Or I didn't articulate it the right way because what's the one is it? He has to come out and say, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said it. That's it. That's it. And behind closed doors, he has to go to Bo Nix and say like, hey, I screwed up. You know what we're going to get now. You know what we're going to get now.

Sean's never going to tell us anything about injuries ever again. You know what he said? He's like, I'm not going to have fun anymore. He's like, yep, now we're never going to be injury. You're never going to be an injury question again. Don't just say, I'm trying to do my job, right? The problem when Sean is trying to have fun is it doesn't come across us that way. Like, yeah, it comes off as a bit, you know, condescending at times.

And like, I know him and Luca have a good relationship, but yeah, let's hit a quick break because I want to keep this conversation going. This is obviously the major talking point in Broncos country right now. We'll get to some coaching conversation as well and some overall off-season. in conversation. But for now, honing in on the Bow Nix and Sean Payton Dynamical continue along with that. We come back right here on your lockdown Bronco squad show. All right, you guys, let me tell you about our friends over at Rocket Money, because let's be real, managing your finances can feel overwhelming between subscriptions you forget about,

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Be sure to check out our friends over at Rocket Money and let them know that Lockedon Broncos sent you. And let me also tell you about the fine folks over at Game Time. My buddy actually just used Game Time to get tickets for the AFC Championship game. I've used Game Time. It is absolutely phenomenal. And there's nothing like being in an NBA arena these days, the crowd, the energy, the moment. Getting tickets, though, that part has not always been so simple.

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Very unnecessary. Like, this is just totally unnecessary that we're having this conversation right now. Like, Sean Payton could have just fallen on the sword, could have moved on to the offseason yet. Maybe it was deflection to get away from the fourth down play call that people were going crazy about on social media. There's a little tinfoil action. I mean, he answered that. That was one of the first two questions that he talked about on it.

I don't think it's that. It's ridiculous that we're having this conversation. And here's what I will say to Sarah's point from earlier about like, is this a fracture in the relationship? I don't think this situation is going to be what decides the Sean Payton versus Bo Nix dynamic right now. But if something were to happen next season, the year after, in the middle of the season, we're going to look back to this moment here. We're recording on January 29. So it was on the 28th of January as, oh, like, this is maybe where this all started.

You go back to that end of season press conference. And again, I guess there's my whole big takeaway from this is the only reason we're talking about it is because Sean Payton brought it up. And to kind of double down on the points that both you and Sarah made, Cody, I think Bo's absolutely doing the right thing. it's a critical year for him going into year three. He's playing for a big money contract. And the last thing that Bo Nix wants to be thrown out there is he's a potentially injury prone quarterback, given what we've seen from the sample size of this season. I mean, Cody, here's my thing.

The idea of injury prone, Nick, you can also speak to this. As a player, you got injured, right? We've all, like those of us that have played, if football is a game where there's literally never, I don't think there's one person that has gone out there and has never gotten injured playing. This is the game. Like there are guys that pop up on the injury report, but man, there are guys that aren't on the injury report that are playing through injuries. Like the idea that, and this is what I hate about the sports media conversation about it.

Or like Twitter because people are like, oh, he's an injury prone player. Every player in the NFL is prone to getting injured because it's the most physical, fast, violent contact sport in America. I think Bow is going to be like, I'm not worried about Bo. is not worried about Bo, George Payton, Greg Penner, of all people are not worried about Bo Nix. You don't think those guys get the firsthand information. I am curious, though.

I wish I could be a fly on the wall in George Payton's office or Greg Penner's office when they're ciphering through what happened yesterday. I would just be curious to know those thoughts. Well, and Sean Payton's been very assertive since he took over his head coach of the Denver Broncos. So if you want to kind of keep this thought going, like, I mean, what is George Peyton's like overall relationship with Sean? I'm sure it's a good one.

But I think it was Greg Penner, who came out yesterday and was like, you know, you don't want to be buddy, buddy with the players. Like you don't want to be like best friends with these guys. He doesn't think that's the right approach to take. And I'm not saying Sean Payton is that whatsoever. But the thing that I keep coming back to is like, Sean is no longer the head coach of the New Orleans Saints, right?

Like Sean could do no wrong in New Orleans. He would have had that job for his entire life if he wanted it. And I feel like he's approached this situation. like he's still in New Orleans to a certain extent. And to a point that you made Nick, you know, he comes from that Bill Parcell's coaching tree, that kind of hard-nosed old, he's about his old-school throwbacky of a head coach

as you can have in the modern-day NFL. Nick played for Parcells. This is true. That's not necessarily the Sean McVeigh, Kyle Shanahan. You know, Drey Greenlaw, unprompted, came out and was like how different the practices were between for Sean Payton and playing for Kyle Shanahan. So Sean Payton's kind of over that old guard.

And I'm just saying a lot of different stuff, but it comes down to, can Sean adapt to the modern day NFL climate, Nick? I don't know, not at this particular point. And when you come from a tree like Bill Parcells, it's very hard because all you have to do is look at Sean Payton, Josh McDaniels, Bill O'Brien, Kurt Signetti, Lane Kiffin, Dan Lennie, Brent Key, Nick Saban, right? All of those individuals, Bill Belichick, they're all kind of the same person because they learned from Parcells, and Parcells was a cutthroat guy. And for me, I mean, you can say a lot of things about Parcells,

and you may say that he was a donkey's behind because a lot of people didn't really know how to take him because he just, he spoke his mind. And not everyone is truly able to take it, so they may call him a donkey's behind. But for me, I love the damn guy. And the reason I love him because he kept it a buck 100%. And as a young player, I saw him yell at Curtis Martin and Benny Testiverty, two of the nicest guys ever.

So I saw him yelling at them. And I'm like, if he's doing this and they're all-stars of the team, I don't stand a chance, right? You're going to get worse. Yes. And it was much worse. but the whole idea of understanding Parcells is that he's going to press those particular buttons to see what you're made up. And that's where Sean learned, right?

Now, Sean is better with the media than Parcells ever was. But I want to get back to this particular point that you brought up. When you look at certain owners and coaches, they have a different mentality as far as not being the player's buddy, buddy friend, right? and I feel different about that. Now, you need to be able to draw the line because Mike Shanahan once told me, yeah, you don't want to be a guy's friend to a point where when you need to release him, you can't do it because you're so buddy, buddy.

But at the same time, you need to make sure that you develop a relationship with that player because that's why players play for you, right? Every game is going to be tough. But when the rubber hits the roll and you're in the thick of it, You need to know that you can rely on your coach and your coach can rely on you. So it goes back to that father-s-son relationship, tough love, right? Because that's what it was with Parcells. You loved him and you hated him at the same time.

But every time you touch the field, you played for him, right? And look, from Mike Sandahan, I played both injured and hurt. My knee injury, I had two knee injuries. My first knee injury ended up being the second knee injury, and it had something to do with the first one. I should have been out there playing, but I looked at Mike Shanahan. I saw the team in desperation. I looked John Lynch in the face.

And I was like, you know what? To hell with it. I'm going back out there. This is what good coaches give back to you. So it's not going to always be peaches and cream. And coaches are going to be a little different because when I was in Buffalo, it was different with Wade's Phillips staff opposed to when I got to New York with Bill Parcells.

I was like, what the hell did I just sign up for? it's totally different. So Sean has the ends to a mean. And it's not what a lot of people in this media market, they're used to. And it may not be what players are used to. But I'd still believe from a coaching standpoint, you still need to kind of have a balance

between being that guy's boss, but also connecting with him because if you don't connect with that player, when things get tough, I'm not going to play for you. There's two sides to every coin. and let's point this out as well for the sake of fairness. Like J.K. Dobbins was rearing and ready to come back for that AFC championship game

and said that the organization was essentially the one that made the cult to not play him and kind of look out for his better well-being in the future, whether he's back with the Broncos or not. So again, two sides to every coin with that dynamic. But let's bring it back to the Sean Boe conversation here as well. And Sarah, I think it's something that you brought up that I want to kind of harp in on here a little bit. There's no need for Bo to have an outside distract. or outside feelings. Like Bo's should be positive, energetic,

and focused on his recovery and focused on getting back to 100% for next season. And look, I think this conversation will hopefully just die over the course of the offseason. And when we get to OTs and training camp, we don't even bring it up after the first press conference. We'll see if that happens, Nick. But this is not, you don't want to be filling Bo's head with thoughts about, does my head coach have my back? Like, what is my head coach doing entering into year three?

And I don't think Bo Nicks will think, like that. Like I feel like Bo is a very headstrong human being who is willing to do what he feels is necessary, even if it means he's got to take a bit of a vigilante approach. And what I think is fascinating about the discussion that we're talking about here with will the players continue to play for Sean Payton? What's really interesting to me is that multiple times throughout the season, Bo Nix deferred to executing the play that was called. We heard after the, you know, at the end of season, you know, mock room availability. Evan Ingram was talking about how he was just kind of playing the role that he was

asked to play. We also heard after the game against the Patriots that Mike McGlinchie was asked about the fourth down play call and said, I was just executing basically the play that was called. There's been quite a bit of deferring from the players to, hey, like, my hands are clean in this situation. I'm doing what I was told to do. I'm doing what I was asked to do out there.

But you're hearing a very common theme from all. the players when it comes to, hey, we're just doing basically what we're asked. And it goes back to something that I feel like is really important to this discussion overall. And it's probably something that we're going to get into. But Ian Rappaport's report about the Denver Broncos trying to steal Joe Brady from the Buffalo Bills with the potential that he would call plays. If there's even a fraction of a chance that Sean is willing to relinquish play calling duty, I know we've had some impassioned discussions about that on this show in particular, if there's even a fraction of a chance of that happening or if it's

getting to the point of Ian Rappaport, what is going on behind the scenes right now and is ownership stepping in? Because here's my thought. Okay, Greg Penner says, I'm not, I'm not meddling in the football decisions, right? But then he does say and kind of contradicts himself in this way as well, that he will step in if there's a disagreement between George and Sean about something. So it's like, Okay, so which one is true here? And how much of the Davis Webb stuff is playing into the Joe Brady rumors and trying to bring it. So there's so much, guys, that's going on behind the scenes with you can read the tea leaves and the breadcrumbs that are being left by the players and what the players are saying and deferring to. I'm doing what I was told to do.

I'm doing what I was told to do. I'm practicing to the degree of which I'm told to practice, right? Dre Greenlaw saying those things. and now all these Sean Patens, you know, you got to know when to not drive in the rain or maybe, you know, all these different things is it's got me in my tinfoil hat mode that not only is there more going on behind the scenes than than we realize, but I think what Bo Nix did in this press availability is a much bigger deal than just clarifying inaccurate reports. I think there's so much more. This is, when have we seen Sean Payton undermined like this in public by a player? I mean, have you ever seen it? I don't know that I've ever seen it. And so I know that that's maybe not necessarily the language that the Broncos would want to be used in the situation. But perception for many of us fans is reality, right?

And so the perception right now, I'm getting texts from not just one person, but from multiple people, fellow fans of the team that are now legitimately worried about the future of this organization because of the drama that seems to be going on with Sean Peyton and Bo Nix. And like Cody said, to circle it all back, what would really help is if we could all just at least hear what Bo Nix was saying. But they're not letting us do that. They post every other press availability on YouTube or they do it live on Twitter. This one, nothing. No quotes, no videos, no audio, no nothing. So it's just playing into somebody's got to take control of the situation and get ahead of it because right now I think there's a general sentiment in the fan base. either people are worried or people are saying to themselves, it's nothing to,

nothing to even worry about at all. But deep down, I think everybody's thinking the same thing. You know what? I want to jump it for a quick second because just follow me here. This is what I'm thinking. I'm not saying that this is actually happening. So the Broncos were the number one seat,

14 and 3. They were hosting, they were field gold or a couple of field goals away from punching their ticket to repeat what the Super Bowl 50, 2015 team did. Now, usually what happens after you lose that particular game, all the conversation for two weeks go about the two teams that are in the Super Bowl. Now, I'm not saying once again, this was orchestrated for this reason, but here's where we are. Now, with the Broncos eliminated, and we're supposed to move on. No, no, no, no, no. We are still talking about the Broncos.

And as we know, in broadcasting, even bad news is good news and is good for the brand, because you're still talking about them. You know, when you get to, if you guys are going to the Super Bowl and once you get on Ready or Row, guess what's going to happen? It's going to be that same conversation. Now, you're going to have the conversation about the Seattle Seahawks and the Patriots, but it's going to go back to, well, what really happened in Denver between Sean Payton and Bo Nix?

Is there an issue in Camelot, right? And here's what I'm thinking the ownership is going to do. They're going to get these two guys together in the room, or they may even do it separately and say, well, we cannot do this. We can't say something and put something out by the head coach and then have our star quarterback call his own press conference and then talk about what the head coach said that they may feel as there's a miscommunication.

We cannot do that. We have to be on the same page. It's like two parents, right? One united front. We can't let the kids know exactly what's going on. We have to present ourselves and the best way possible and this is not it. Yeah, no, I think you make a lot of good points.

And again, I'll just go back to kind of where I started this segment of like, this is just completely unnecessary, whether it's fabricated, whether there's substance to this conversation or not. Like, this should not be the conversation we're having right now, but so we are. That's, I guess, the way that it goes at the end of this season, at least with Sean Payton and company. But all right, let's get a quick break.

When we come back, we'll continue along with the conversation. Let's turn the page over to the coaching staff. some departures, which means some new opportunities out there. And also speaking of Sean Payton, one of his former coaches had something to say about why he believes he was let go. We'll break that down next right here on your Locked on Bronco squad show. All right, you guys, let me tell you about our friends over at Indeed, because if you've ever hired someone who looked good on paper but wasn't the right fit, you know how important that is.

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Okay, well, come on back into Lockedon Broncos Squatchup offseason edition. Anilo Piro, Cody Wark, Sarah Bredinger, and Nick Ferguson breaking down some smoke coming from the aftermath of the Denver Broncos regular and playoff run. regular season in playoff run, rather, I should say. And so we've talked a lot about Bo Nix and really just Sean Peyton and kind of his leadership style with the organization. Well, one of the bigger pieces of news that came out this week is the Broncos opting to move on from offensive coordinator, Joe Lombardi.

A couple other guys get let go as well on the offensive side of the ball. But I don't know if you guys saw this yesterday from Chris Thomason of the Denver Gazette. He got a quote from Joe Lombardi on why he believes he was fired as the offensive coordinator again for context. Joe Lombardi's not calling plays. Sean Payton is the one calling plays. And he says this, quote, Sean decided to move on.

I don't think it's ever a surprise you could tell he was in one of those moods where he felt like some changes needed to be made, and I guess he decided one of those with me. I've been around him long enough to kind of read the tea leaves, end quote. So Sean Payton and Joe Lombardi

have a pretty good relationship for many of years right now. Maybe a little pettiness. Am I interpreting that correctly, Cody? from Joe Lombardi in those words or maybe a little sour taste in his mouth about how he was let go, saying that Sean was in, quote, one of those moods?

Yeah, I mean, if you're Joe Lombardi, like, he's got to be frustrating because here's the thing, Joe Lombardi was the title OC, but Joe Lombardi's not putting the offensive game plan together. Joe Lombardi's not designing the route schemes that are going into the game plan that week. Joe Lombardi

is kind of up in the box, and he's telling Sean, hey, they're in this personnel. their defenses in this front. Here's what you're getting. And he's just more so another voice. Some people would say like a yes man. But I feel like me saying yes man is kind of like, I feel like that's more negative.

It's got a negative connotation to it. So I think really like Joe Lombardi was just the title guy at that point. And for Sean like being in Joe's worked with him, right? And he said, you know, Sean was in kind of, I guess he was in one of those moods. I've coached with a coach who, you know, he's been coaching for over 40 years. And every week, I got fired. Every week, every week, all of us and the coaching staff got fire for this, that, the other. You know, it's just one of those things.

But I actually never got fire. You know, he threatened to fire me almost every week. But that's just how he coached, right? And he would get in those moods where it's like, oh, do we have to walk on eggshells? Do we have to be very curious about what or careful about what we say in this team meeting that we're about to go into? One of those things. For me, I just think, okay, Joe Lombardi is the title, Losey. if you want to keep Davis Webb,

who's getting these head coaching interviews, coordinator interviews, you can't have him become that if you have an OC. So is this more of a, hey, we're trying to put Davis in this position now. I mean, I don't know where they're planning on going,

but there's so many things, so many layers to this that we'll have to break down. But to me, there was that one. Keri Colbert, I mean, Sean kind of alluded to the fact that he was not pleased with the wide receiver,

like some of the things there. Like he was pleased with the room, likes the players did not like what they're apparently being coached to do in terms of catching the ball, to lead in the league and drops. To me, the more surprising firing, in my opinion, was cornerback coach Addison Lynch. That to me was probably a little more surprising.

Yeah, I don't really know how to rationalize that one because it's like you kind of got a guy in Pastor Tann. I'm not trying to say he's uncoachable, but like he's a reigning defending defensive player of the year. And like the Riley-Moss stuff was not necessarily about Riley's coverage. It was more so about the flags and the penalties that were associated with Riley. I mean, Jekylln McMillan, you know, an emerging star on this Denver Broncos team in the second half of the season. That one definitely threw me for a whirl. The wide receiver room,

I think you can understand, right? Sean was talking about the triangle when you catch the football. Loves to talk about that. So I guess you can understand that, as Cody alluded to, leading the league in drops to the Broncos wide receiver room. But let's focus in on wide receiver and offensive coordinator because, Cody, I do think there's something to what you said. Davis Webb, you know, being a candidate for a couple of the remaining. head coaching vacancies, a guy who's considered to be an up and coming play caller and just offensive coach in this league. You go back to what Ian Rappaport put out about Joe Brady and potentially Sean Payton

giving away play calling himself to present that to Joe Brady if you were to come here. I think this could potentially be a move to promote Davis Webster. Yeah, 100%. I mean, those are the those are the tea leaves to read at this point. Like things behind the scenes in the NFL move a million miles an hour faster than what we get, you know, via reports on Twitter. So if Davis Webb is still getting interview requests from teams about being their offensive coordinator, I think it's pretty clear that Clint Kubiak is the odds on favorite

for the Raiders job. If the Raiders wanted to hire Davis Webb, it would be done. And so it's not going to happen unless he just downright turns him down, which I mean, I guess we'll know after Saturday when they talk to him again, if that's going to be the case. But I just don't think Davis would be getting interview requests for offensive coordinator jobs at other locations if he was going to be the Raiders head coach, which means that the Broncos are now recruiting to keep Davis Webb and the evidence is firing Joe Lombardi and giving him

that promotion and title. The question is, is it going to come along with play calling responsibilities? And if that is the case, I have to feel like at least to some degree, that is one of those situations where Greg Penner or the ownership is stepping in? because is Sean Payton, whose legacy as being potentially the first NFL head coach ever to win a Super Bowl with multiple franchises, is he going to put that on the line with a first year play caller? Just because the organization wanted to keep the guy around, who's maybe the buffer between he and Bo Nix. That's where I think this whole discussion about tinfoil hat theories gets really interesting because of the report by rap sheet that said that the Broncos tried to get Joe Brady from the bills and the potential that he would be calling plays.

Now, what we know about Joe Brady is that Sean Payton was the one who discovered him when he was a graduate assistant at Penn State and he brought him up to the NFL for his first ever NFL job. But this would not be Joe Brady's first time ever calling place. This would be other than a preseason game, Davis Webb's first time ever calling plays. But don't you fellas think that Sean Payton serves to look like a genius in this either way. It's a win-win situation for him. The win is you keep Davis Webb around. everybody's going to be thrilled. Oh, Broncos kept Davis Webb.

So many teams wanted to hire him. They promote him to offensive coordinator. Huge win. The other win is the fact that if Davis Webb sucks at calling plays, Sean Payton can take it back. And then all of a sudden he looks like a genius after the fact because he's doing such a better job than Davis Webb. There's no lose in that scenario for Sean Payton other than his pride in the moment

of, you know, delegating that task to somebody else, which he's never done before. that'd be significant for him. It's wild. I mean, that's the thing, though. Like, Nick, you and I've had many conversations about this, too. For a coach who has told us before, and he told us this year, he's not going to give up play calling.

What's the sudden change right now, right? What's the sudden change in doing that? Like, it's Sean likes his hand in the operation, but you could tell it wasn't only, and I was telling Sarah this earlier this week on lockdown. We've seen times this season with Bo Nicks where Bo's like, Sean, like, get your play call in. Jared Stead him in an AFC championship game.

I was watching with my binoculars. He was doing the same exact thing. So, you know, they say it's the art of what, racing in the rain or something like Sean was saying, like, you know, they tell you when you get older or not to drive in the rain at night. Was that Sean maybe finally saying like, hey, I can just be the CEO coach and delegate,

but have final say on things. Well, you know what? That is very difficult for certain coaches who have kind of settled into the rhythm of calling certain plays. You've been that guy for so long. So you feel as though you were still that guy. You run into that when you're a former player.

You go back to your heyday when you play and you say, okay, well, I did this when you're like, dog, that was like 10 years ago. You can't get out there and play. I mean, mentally you may say you can, but your body's saying something else. And I think there's something to what Sayer is suggesting. I don't know this for sure,

but I know it happens in organizations sometimes where the owner's saying, look, we didn't reach the pinnacle that we thought we were going to reach. So we have to make some changes. That's players, that's coaches, and that's play calling. And we've seen around the league where coaches are stripped of their play calling duties. And it's labeled as being a demotion. And you don't want, for me, I don't want to look at it as a demotionist.

What's in the best interest for the team, right? Would Sean ever acquiesce to someone else? I don't know, but we'll get a chance to see. and with Davis Webb getting all these kind of interviews at 31, someone in an organization took notice of it and said, you know what? You don't want to lose that guy. And it's all about retention.

When you think about the Pats and how they went on that run so many years ago, it was retention. Holding on to the coaches, holding on to players, right? And that's kind of what's happening. And just even knowing as though, Ian Rappaport having a report, the same one of the Broncos was trying to pull Joe Brown. Brady from the Buffalo

Hills, that tells you right there someone noticed that we need to make a drastic change, right? And that's why Lombardi is on the way, his way out. And once again, you've got to think about it. He has been with Sean Payton like 10, 15 years.

For him to part ways with the guy, and I'm not going to say he was his right-hand man, but a guy that you know, you know his family, right? His grandfather's name is on the trophy, right? You're moving away from him for Davis Webb because you want to keep him in the building. Oh, by the way, Davis Webb has a great relationship with Bo Nix.

And this is where people get it twisted by the game of football. It's all about the head coach and the O.C. And sometimes the head coach is the O.C. But the most important guy is the guy who sits in the room with the quarterback. It's the quarterback coach and three guys. That's it. You know why? You know why?

Sean will be the bad cop. Davis is the good cop. And Sean will say that too. I imagine, I imagine, like, because this is just my experience speaking. But we always had our head coach and let me be the bad guy. You guys be good cop. Like, you guys be the good cop. I'll be the bad guy.

That's kind of what it is. All this to say, though, Sarah, Broncos next OC is going to be Johnny Moe. He's not, he's not tolerating that because Sean still calls the plays. And we know that Bo does not like that all together. I mean, I don't think he would ever come out and directly say that, but there's evidence from multiple hot mics catching him saying stuff in games, including calling out,

get the effing personnel out here because he's so frustrated with the way that things are going. And the fact that players keep on saying, like, I'm just executing the play that was called. And Sean talking about you're too old to drive in the rain or whatever that analogy is, which is a perfect analogy for it, it's all coming together for the tinfoil hat, like me to believe that something as crazy as Sean giving up play calling duties could

actually happen. Now, I'm not saying it's definitely going to happen, but I do think there's something to what Nick was just saying about ownership, believing that, hey, a change has to be made in this regard. The offense took a step back this year. Like Cody and I talked about the fact that even when the running game was J.K. Dobbins at a career pace, the best year of his NFL career. Even when that was happening, guys, that was all happening before we started these squad shows. So when that was happening, were the Broncos playing complimentary football offensively with the past game and the run game? It was still very much disconnected because of the personnel issues consistently coming to the forefront. And you see all these other teams like Cody and I talked about

Sam Donald and the Seahawks this year. And you compare that even with his time with the Vikings and Kevin O'Connell. And why is that working so well? It's two different cities. It's a quarterback that has obviously great weapons at his disposal, but those two teams weren't considered to have the best O line. They weren't considered to have the best even offensive coordinator. Clint Kubiak was fired by the Saints, obviously. He wasn't retained by the new staff there.

So what is it that's working for those teams? It's play calling, play sequencing, and getting the offensive scheme to fit the players as opposed to the players fitting into your scheme. I think Greg Penner's sharp enough to understand that. and Sean Peyton has to be willing at his pay grade to delegate that skill if Greg Penner says it's time. I want to add this part to it to finish with the whole Davis Webb situation. Do you remember when Davis Webb was here with Russell Wilson? And we all saw Sean yelling at him during that Detroit game or anytime that Sean yelled at Russ.

Houston. Who was the first person over to Russell to just tell him, dude? Hey, let's just kind of keep it together. It was Davis Webb. And what Bo is realizing that it's a little chaotic with the play sheet. And him talking to Davis Webb calms his mind. So it could be something to the conversation that we're having that Bo, and we've seen him frustrated, we've seen him multiple times,

that he wants to be more concise. He wants the game plan to be more reduced. And he feels as though maybe Davis Webb gives him this. And you've got to figure that Kerry, Walden Penner and Greg Penner, they've had these conversations. They've led, you know, big companies, and that's all the Broncos are, right? They're a big company, and you have to do self-reflection and self-revaluation. And what they're saying is, say, listen, we want to operate more effectively and efficiently.

What gives us an opportunity to do that? Maybe we need to cater to our damn quarterback. That could be the conversation. It's fascinating. It's very, very fascinating. I think I speak for all of Broncos' country that if they were to promote, Davis Webb and consider giving him play calling duties. Best case scenario.

Yeah, that's best case scenario. It would make a lot of Broncos country sleep well at night. Worst case scenario? Johnny Moe's the OC. Yes. Right, right. Wait, wait, wait. Wait, don't.

Wait, Johnny Moe had his play calling duty stripped from him. Yeah, exactly. Yep. Just for Sean, I'd be like, hey, you could be the OC. No, no, Cody. I'm going to tell you. What do you think the Frank Crum play came from? Listen.

That's crazy. Okay, Frank Crumb, good job for Frank. And that's one play. No, I know. But trust me, I would hate the move. I would hate the move. So with Marvin Mims and the wide receivers, they would hate the move too. Yes.

Let's hit a quick break. When we come back, let's put a bow on the show, some closing thoughts here as we look forward to the Broncos in the off season. All right, y'all, let me tell you about our friends over at Intuit TurboTax, because tax season doesn't have to take over your life. This year, TurboTax is making it easier than ever just to hand things off and move on with your day. with TurboTax full service, you can have your taxes done for you by a trusted local expert start to finish without the stress or the guest work. Instead of spending hours trying to figure out forms, you can meet with a local TurboTax expert in person or connect online. They handle everything from W-2s to self-employment forms and work to get you every single the deduction that you could get. You can upload your documents, go about your day, and get updates right in the TurboTax app. It's a huge time saver. It gives real peace of mind knowing an expert. is handling it. For a limited time, you can have your taxes done by a local turbotax expert for just $150 all in if a turbotax expert didn't file for you last year,

just filed by February 28th. Take taxes off your plate and get back to your life. Visit turbotax.com slash local to book your appointment today. Taxes are no fun to do. So let our friends over at TurboTax do the heavy lifting for you and let them know that lockdown Bronco sent you. Okay, winding on down here on the lockdown Broncos squad show. Appreciate each and every one of you for tapping in with us as always. You know, I was kind of curious what our conversations were going to be like in the middle of this week, if I'm being honest. And thankfully, the Broncos gave us plenty to talk about, not just with the Joe Lovardi firing,

but the Bo, Nick, Sean Payton, dynamic dilemma question, however you want to phrase it right now, between those two guys. But look, we're going to have a lot of time to kind of digest what this Bronco team needs to do. go through some position grades and position reviews and positions of need and all that kind of stuff. But as we kind of wind on down here today, Cody, we'll kind of go in order here. Just overarching thoughts from the week that was with the Broncos and their end of season media availability. Can I just say how nice it is, the fact that like the season went on this long? Usually we're, this would have happened.

We would have been at this point like three weeks ago, you know, under the old regimes. The scrap of the topics. The last 10 years. Yeah, it's like, wait, what are we going to talk about? where it's like we're five weeks away from free agency folks. So it's like there's so much to talk about. And like there really isn't an off season. If you make it this far,

there's not really much of an off season. If you were a fan of a team, you know, there's so much going on. But I mean, look, your typical stuff, I would say the biggest surprise for me was just the process and change. I am a huge believer in using the end of the year locker room to go and build relationships with players or to like continue.

Like once again, you build that throughout the season. You have a debrief with players. I typically go to the end of your locker room. I don't stick a camera on the face of the guys. I go in and I chat with them. I talk them up and ask them what they're going to do in the off season. I just wish we would have had a chance to do that.

We as media members did not, which I mean, you can spend it in multiple ways. You know, like, oh, they got all the equipment bags out. Like, that's never been a problem before.

So all of us, I would say on what we, was it Monday? I'd say all of us on Monday were pretty pissed and I think everyone kind of vocalized it out loud. I was shocked. I was generally shocked when we weren't going into the locker room. I don't know if that's just because I also think it was interesting of note.

Correct me if I'm wrong here, Cody. I don't think Cortland Sutton spoke on Monday. No, we didn't get you here from a Glynchie. We didn't get here from Pat. Like we got to submit our request like, hey, that's a good player. Yeah. How do we know your, but hats are tan? unbelievable.

Yeah. You know? And Pat's always great to... Pat always talks to us, you know? It's just like one of those things, you know? And also I understand they're doing exit interviews at the same exact time. I get it. But man, it would have been nice to talk to a few players versus it just being like,

hey, talk to this player. We got to hear from Jerry Greenlaw, which we really haven't heard from him all year. Like, you know, here's some of the things to Nick. I'm curious for Nick's thoughts on this. As a former, as a former player, like, you have an obligation, whether you like to or not of talking to the media or else there's this thing that happens where it's called a fine for not talking to the media.

You want to divulge on that a little bit here. Yeah, I mean, when you sign your contract, it's in the fine print. It goes hand in hand. It's like peanut butter and jelly, right? You have to do it. And the one thing I will say at the closing of the season, even though contractually, it says that we're obligated.

We really don't have to talk to the media at that particular point. Because when you think about it, technically, the season is over, right? True. That contract that we signed, it's now voided. So I'm only going to talk to you if I like you.

I'm only going to talk to you if we develop some kind of rapport. I'm only going to talk to you if you've done me a solid when you've come to me, I told you something and you quoted me as I told you, opposed to how some people, I'll say when I was playing, misquoted you, they wanted click pay. That's what I would do. Every single year, even as frustrating as it is

and leaving, you got to grab the garbage bag. And once again, man, what the hell is up with that? You know, I got to put all my belongings in a damn garbage bag and haul them out, right? You got to pay for your jerseys too. Yes. Well, I mean, I get that part of it, right? They're not, hey, listen, you don't become billionaires by giving anything away for free. All right? So I get that part. But I would talk to people in the locker room, but understanding how the team lost and how of an emotional, I guess, beat down that was, you don't want to kind of relive it. You're trying to get away from it as quickly as you want to.

And just imagine being in that situation, losing that game at home. And then you come in the locker room, you have those exit physicals, you have those close-out meetings, and you look around the locker room, you say, well, some of us are not going to be back. Right. So it's very emotional. And I mean, look, man, tears, really in your eyes. Like, remember when Bond Miller was traded as he was going out to Broncos Gate

and people were interviewing him? He was emotional, right? And sometimes fans forget that we are people too. So that's why maybe some of the players didn't want to talk. And I can see if the organization told the players, if you don't want to talk, you don't have to talk. We've all been in there in that locker. during, I guess, lunchtime, and there's very few players in there because they're like, man, you

know, I'm not going in there. I don't want someone asking me this question. And when you catch a player in a very emotional state, depending on who that player is, and you ask them the right question and you phrase it the right way, guess what happens? He gives you that moment where you have that viral moment, like he actually said that you can't believe it, but that's why players try to stay out of that space because emotion leads to saying something that you shouldn't have said. It's fair. It's fair. Well, they'll have some time to digest this season. We'll talk to him again soon enough. Sarah, any closing thoughts for you today? Yeah, I mean, it's disappointing that Alex Singleton was the only captain to really speak to the media in that whole session.

Until Bo Nix called his own press conference to clarify injury timeline and, you know, whether or not things were predisposed. Like, we went back to it. Yeah. I mean, I'm not, I'm frustrated by it because I feel like coming off as a, from the perspective of a fan of the team, guys, the team just won 14 games. We all sit here and feel like they would have won the AFC championship game running away if Bo Nix had played that game.

So all things considered, one of the most incredible seasons that this team has had in a decade, probably the best, obviously, overall season that this team has had in a decade. And here we are just days after the fact having to discuss this, is there tension between the head coach and the quarterback, the most important dynamic on the team in terms of winning games? And what is it like that stuff to me, that really, that really puts a sour taste in my mouth because I, you know, I'm always positive. You guys know this.

I'm, you know, it's 17 and O until we ain't type of. type of fan of the team. And I think the Broncos made good on those predictions this year. I only was wrong four times, including the playoffs. But here's the deal. Like you don't make the captains available to the fan base after a game like that, after a season like that. And the captains don't make themselves. I don't know what's the situation with that. I don't know who put the cabash on what, but that's disappointing to me. The comments from Sean Payton are disappointing to me. And frankly, there's this, this unsettled feeling that I think the fan base largely has, at least for myself and those who

are thinking like me, that I feel is extremely unfair after a season like that, to be going into an offseason feeling unsettled as opposed to very excited about the direction of this team with a young franchise quarterback, a bunch of cap space, George Peyton saying we're going to be aggressive going into the off season, and really all these plans for the team to continually get better to have this sort of unsettled feeling right now. I just, I think it's, I don't think the fans deserve that. I'm not saying I'm entitled to feeling in a certain way, but I don't think it's right that the fans should have to be thinking about this

when all we should be focused on is the excitement of where this franchise is heading. Yeah, it was a bit of a sour end to a great season for the Denver Broncos, just how they lost and then everything that kind of came with the aftermath of that as well. But it is what it is. I guess it is time to turn the page. So Bronco's country. It is what it is. Yes, it is.

We appreciate all of you guys. You guys have been rocking with us since we started the Squatch. We're not going anywhere for anywhere for the off season. Obviously, we'll just kind of switch up the topics and look forward now as opposed to looking back. So we'll have some fun with that. So make sure to hit that like button and subscribe, but on the way out the door that we guys never, ever miss an episode of anything locked on Broncos. But for Cody Rourke, Sarah Bediger, Nick Ferguson, I am Anilo Piro signing off. We'll be back at it again next week.

We'll let you guys know, keep you updated with some information about the show moving forward. But for now, live in the moment. enjoy the regular season and playoff win that it was and then get ready for what should be an awesome 2006 peace out y'all