Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - BRONCOS SQUAD SHOW: What Are Denver's TOP PRIORITIES Ahead of the NFL Draft?

Episode Date: April 2, 2026

The Denver Broncos are in the midst of a critical offseason as they try to build upon their 14-3 record. Denver made it a priority to bring back key internal free agents while also making a splash in trading for Jaylen Waddle. Now that the dust has settled after Denver's initial moves, what will the Broncos look to prioritize ahead of the NFL Draft? Plus, there are some strange reports going around linking Aaron Rodgers to the Broncos. 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. 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! Robinhood You’re no longer just a spectator. Play by play. You decide. 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. FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. During the tournament FanDuel is offering $300 back in Bonus Bets every day for ten days. Visit https://FANDUEL.COM to get started — Play Your Game. 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 Elo Piro and the Denver Broncos have some interesting decisions they need to make before the NFL draft. I'm Cody Roark. Life's too short. Eat the cake. I'm Sarah Bedinger. Jonah Ellis getting a comparison to one defensive MVP candidate. Very interesting. I'm Nick Ferguson. Sometimes the old is better than a new. Well, let's talk about it on a Thursday edition of your lockdown. Broncos Squad show. Let's get into it, fellas. From the South stands, it's the Broncos squad. Everything Denver Broncos every week covering all the big hits and game changing plays from the mile high city. The way only the Lockdown Podcast Network can. Gear up and squad up. The Broncos squad show starts now.

It is your Lockdown Broncos squad show right here on your Lockdown Broncos YouTube channel and audio feed. Hope everyone in and around Broncos country is doing well on this Thursday. The sun is shining once again here in Broncos country. We love to see that. And we've got the full squad here today. And Yelo Pirok, Cair, Bredinger, and Nick Ferguson. Got a good show lined up for you guys today. We'll talk about some top priorities and questions the Broncos need to answer leading up to the NFL draft. We'll also debunk one of the more egregious rumors that we've seen involving the Broncos this off season. So a lot to unpack here on this show today. Fellas, what's up? What's up? What's up? Another day, my friend. Another day. I like the weather. And like I said in the intro,

life's too short, eat the damn cake. My wife for my birthday made me a cake. I feel like the kid in Matilda, man. I tell you, I love me a good chocolate cake, but she doesn't eat it. So guess what? Guess who has to eat it myself? You know, so criminal. That's criminal. That's criminal. She'll bake the cake and not eat it. Wait a minute. Wasn't it Maria Antoinette who told the people who were starving in France to eat cake and then they chopped up her head? I think you're correct. Is that where that J. Z lyric came from? No, no, no, Jay Cole.

Jay Cole. It was a J. Cole lyric. Your boy, Jay Cole's going to go play basketball in China. You see that. Hey, the man, Cahoot, man. Shout out to Cole, man. I'm excited for that August 21st concert here in Denver, so it's all good. That'll be a good. I might have to pull up with you for that one.

Do it. I've seen a couple times. I don't know if I got two tickets. I don't know if my wife wants to go with me to see J. Cole, but, man, she doesn't. You're more than welcome to tag along, my man. Keep me posted. Keep me posted. But all right.

Little Broncos conversation, as always. Let's start with Jonah Ellis. Because I think we did good job of kind of unpacking a lot of what Sean had to say. I do want to talk about what he had to say about J.K. Dobbins as well. We could do that a little bit later on in the program. But Sean does not like the talk. term run it back, right? That was one of my big takeaways from, what was that Tuesday when he spoke, I think. And just a lot of different things about just how Denver's handle the off season.

He heard the frustration from Broncos country. He's paying no attention to it. But I think something schematically that kind of came out that we can kind of sink our teeth into here is Jonah Ellis expected to take some reps at linebacker. And look, I was talking about it. I've talked about it with you guys off air on the show, my colleagues in the media as well. I think Jonah Ellis of like the untapped guys on defense, right? He's kind of been a rotational player. I think he has some of, if not the most upside of those untapped guys on the defensive side of the ball.

And so clearly Denver's looking to get Jonah Ellis on the field a little bit more and might try to experiment with him at linebacker. Sarah, I know you have some interesting thoughts on this as well. I'll start with you. Are we on board with the idea of Jonah Ellis playing some linebacker? Is this just something that they may be going to test out in the off season and depending on how it goes. Maybe they implement that in the regular season. Like broad thoughts on Jonah Ellis here to get the show started.

Yeah, I'm really on board for it. I think that it's a, you do you want to get your best players, your most talented players out on the field. And I know that a lot of people are skeptical of the idea, but here's what I would say. I think that there's a lot of history behind players making this transition successfully. But Sean Payton noted a couple of them in specific when he brought this topic up. Specifically, it was Jonah's brother, Kaden, who he drafted in New Orleans, and then Zach Bond, who he drafted in New Orleans as well. And I thought the Zach Bond comparison was an interesting one because Bond spent four years in New Orleans, barely playing defense at all. And then he goes to Vic Fangio's defense and becomes a

defensive MVP candidate in year one. So I think if you've got the chops, you've got the chops, you have to be able to obviously play the position in full. But I also think having the kickoff rules changed last year helps in a number of different ways, right? Obviously, playing the linebacker position is very different from playing special teams, but there's some translatable traits there, right? You have to take the right angles. You have to be a good wrap-up tackler. You have to be quick. You have to have some speed to you. And I think those things can all help playing the linebacker position, which Jonah did play his freshman year at Utah as well. And he's just a great football player. What's the number one thing I think that we talk about anytime Jonah Ellis comes up is that the

dude just has great football IQ. It runs in his family's veins, right? It's in his blood, the game of football. So I have no doubt that he can make the transition. I have no doubt that this is a bigger deal than just, hey, we're going to give him a look because otherwise, why would Sean Payton just kind of offer that information? Maybe some misdirection before the draft to throw people off the scent with that top pick. But otherwise, I don't think there's any reason to bring it up unless you are planning on

this being like an actual thing. Nick, you can kind of speak to this a little bit. I know you obviously played in the secondary, but what kind of goes into making the move to linebacker from your perspective with Jonah Ellis? Well, first off, I want to say that I've actually played with, you know, Jonah Ellis and Kate Nellis' father, Luther Ellis, and he was a very large man.

He played on the defensive line, so I'm not surprised that his sons are performing the way that they are. But when you play inside that box, man, let me tell you, man, it's a different animal. I mean, when you're standing on the edge, all you have to worry about can you beat that tackle is there a pulling guard and setting the edge versus the run? When you move to the second level of the defense,

everything happens fast. And what you have to do is you have to train your eyes. How many linebackers have we seen take false steps? When you take false steps, you allow those guards to climb up and put their hands on you. Once they grab you, man, you can wiggle, putt and hollered. No one's coming to help you because it's a rap at that point. That's where Jonah Ellis is going to have to make somewhat of adjustment

because we've seen Drew Sanders, you know, I mean, injuries apart. We don't even know where he's going to play. And when you make that move is very difficult and it's interesting. Say you bring up Big Fangio. Remember when Von Miller was here and Big Fangio was here? We saw Von Miller kind of out in coverage, right, dropping in coverage. Like, what the hell is that? I mean, that's not his, you know, trade or that's not his craft.

But once you start to drop back in coverage, you see a lot of things. That's the one thing about playing in defense. That's a little different than offense. You have to see everything, but also see nothing at the same time, which sounds damn confusing, but sometimes your eyes can betray you. And that's where we see a lot of guys get lost as far as a lot of these run reads. So, I mean, listen, I know, Jonah has the skill set.

He has the athleticism, but he has to get down that part. And I'm thinking, you know, let me channel my inner Vance Joseph. What did we see Vance able to do with Justin Strunard? Right. He turned him into a blitzing machine, which is why Sharnar got his bag. So they're saying, listen, we have Q Robinson who we want to see more playing time with. But for me, this is an indictment on the other linebackers, Jordan Turner, LaVelle Bailey, Kareen Reed.

they don't feel confident in that group of guys that they have to put Jonah in this situation. But I still think it's a little smoke and mirrors because I still think the Broncos need to go out in this draft and still draft the linebacker, Jacob Rodriguez. Yeah. Oh, man, if he is there at 62, you pull the trigger. No question to about it. Instant draft W. I would be eating the W on my fingers like James Winston did, you know, back in the day.

But I think that is the concern that a lot of fans have. about like, okay, well, if they're moving Jonah, like, please make sure that it doesn't take you out of the running from drafting a linebacker. I think even with Jonah moving here, even if Drew Sanders stays healthy, you have to draft the linebacker at this position. I like Jordan Turner's chances of being a guy on this roster special teams wise more so than I do the other two undrafted guys at this point. I think he's got some traits, the ability to blitz the quarterback. And like you said, Nick, I'm envisioning right now. Like, like Singleton, his strength isn't necessarily as a blitzer. He can do it, but it's not necessarily

his strength. Whereas Sternat, he's a little bit stronger in the upper body. I look at Jonah Ellis with his pass rush moves that he certainly has. Imagine them double mugged in the A gap. You get that double mug look and then you send them like that right there, Jeff's kiss. And let's say on that point, too, you got the double mug look and you bring the nickel off the other edge there. That right there is disaster for opposing offenses. I like the prospects of it. I think where, and not to say this is an indictment on Drew Sanders, my personal opinion, I think Jonah Ellis up here cerebrally is probably more suited to make this position switch than I think than Drew was. How about this, Cody?

Try this homicides. We used to call this NASCAR. So the idea is to get all your fast guys on the field. So you have Nick Benito, John DeCooper, Q. Robinson, and you have just two linebackers with Strunard and Alex. Singleton. And oh, by the way, you got Jonah Ellis. Now, opposing offense to say, well, you know what, we're going to run rough shot over that defense because they're smaller guys.

You may think that, but that is a pass rush group that can put a lot of quarterbacks under a lot of duress and force that quarterback to get rid of that ball sooner than he wanted to. Yeah. My man muted himself. Yeah, now I muted myself. Now we really can't hear him.

I'm fighting the mic, dude. Oh, my gosh. But I was going to say, Jonah Ellis, I also think he's a twitchy player. And I agree with you. Like he's young. He's moldable, like all that kind of stuff as well. But I think if he makes that move,

I think you benefit from it. Obviously, you get him on the field. He's an athletic freak too, which I think benefits the Broncos in that sense. But the question I have for you, Cody, is we knew that linebacker was kind of a major point of emphasis, at least it appeared to be entering into this off season. And I want to talk about what Drake Greenlaw has said in the last couple of days as well,

because I found that interesting. Do you see what he said to the ref? Yeah, I did see that. That was a classic. But if Jonah Ellis were to make this move to linebacker, how do you think it impacts the room as a whole with Sternaud and Singleton? Well, I mean, that's an interesting question considering Singleton got a two-year deal. Sternad got a three.

Sternad's a starter, plain and simple, I thought last year, and I've said it before, a million times on this show, thought he was the best linebacker the Broncos had on the field last season. When you talk about a guy who has improved week to week, year to year, my goodness, he has been that guy in terms of Constance, steady improvement. Maybe this, I don't know, like, even if Singleton comes back on the two-year deal, to me, I don't think they necessarily guarantees that he should be a starter, right?

Especially after the first year, you can get out of that deal. So do the Broncos, do they maybe have a little bit of competition? I don't think that would hurt, but Sternad should be the unquestioned starter. Singleton, I know, can be a very capable, good starter. He's been that for Denver, but I think it'd be nice to challenge him, especially if you're going to make this move of putting Jonah at a new position when, what is it, after this year he's got one more year left on his deal, on his rookie deal, why not go all in, essentially?

And like it's going to require patience, but see what you can get from Jonah at this position. It could certainly help you going forward. Well, that's how I kind of view it too is like maybe this is like a bridge gap plan. And you mentioned what he has left on his contract and we'll see just based off how this year goes and all that kind of stuff, like what his market value may be. But maybe this is the Broncos trying to get ahead of the curve here a little bit. And Sean Payton and George Payton talk time and time again this week about culture, fit, all that kind of stuff. Like Jonah Ellis obviously checks all those boxes.

So maybe it is we've got Sternodd and Singleton for at least this year. But let's coach Jonah Ellis up to be a linebacker of the future potentially, Sarah. Yeah, it's 100% a preemptive move. And not that the Broncos really care about the optics, but let's say we bring this up quite often. You're one injury away from blank, right? Well, right now, they're one injury away at the linebacker position away from potentially being in serious trouble. And so now you get this out there early in the off season to say, hey, we're going to give Jonah Ellis some looks at linebacker.

Now, in the event that an injury happens, the PR, for lack of a better term, of Jonah taking snaps at inside linebacker, if we didn't already know about it, it looks less reactive and now it looks more proactive, right? So you get the opportunity for that succession plan and your defense is already built for Jonah to do what he does best early on. If this is a multi-year sort of thing, right? If maybe this year is kind of a, hey, go get reps off the edge. We're going to give you reps at off ball linebacker. And then by 2027, it's full steam ahead. You're going to start next to Sternat or whatever it is. Then I could see, right, utilize him in those blitz packages.

Let him go out there and do a little bit more playmaking and a little bit less. And then, you know, you kind of pass off that torch in 2027 and say, hey, we're going to ask more of you. We're going to put more on your plate. And I also think, too, this is as much about the Broncos needing to get Q Robinson on the field as it is anything else. Because the fact that he's a game day inactive, I mean, we talk about roster malpractice all the time. It's okay for rookies to learn in year one. But, man, every time Q Robinson got on the field, he was making place. So it's really just you have an embarrassment of Rich.

how can we get the most out of these guys that we've invested in? It wasn't going to happen playing off the edge. Those guys weren't all going to play. You had one guy sitting as a healthy scratch for almost every game this past season. So Jonah is the one guy that I think can really do this and be effective in the packages that they use him in early on. Well, I think you make a really good point there as well, Sarah, that there could be a domino effect to moving Jonah Ellis to linebacker. And I think the other part of this, too, is it's a luxury that the Broncos have as effective of a pass rush as they do.

It's a luxury that you have a Pat Certan that you can essentially afford to experiment with a guy like Jonah Ellis and know that your pass rush isn't going to take a hit, know that your secondary is going to be fine. So I think because of the pieces that this Denver Broncos defense already has, Nick, it allows them to kind of play around with some different sets and schematics overall. And if it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out. Like if we get to training camp and it's a train wreck, like we can see the Broncos just peck. pivot back and moving Jonah Ellis back to his natural position where he's been playing in the NFL. But I don't hate the idea of setting that standard now that could obviously pay dividends for you down the line, not just this year, but in years to come. Yeah, that's why having adequate depth is so important. And that depth being young guys. And the most important part for the

team is you have young guys on rookie deals and you're not paying them a lot of money. Now, what we are suggesting or what we're talking about really with the idea of Q. Robinson and the team feeling is though, well, listen to which one of our current guys who excel as a pass rusher, we can actually move to a second level. Once again, it goes far beyond your skill set, but it's mental capacity. Do you understand the game in that particular way? And I'm not saying that Q Robinson and other guys couldn't do it to pull it off, but what I do is that Jonah Ellis is one of those guys who are able to do it because we've seen Vance Joseph over the past couple of years actually put this kind of in motion.

because we saw, you know, Jonah Ellis out in coverage, right? And he was doing that as a young guy. So I'm sure when they looked at the linebacker situation and looked at the team and said, well, who could we move if we decided to move a person that would give us a bunch of versatility? And it was Jonah Ellis. And then you look at the Q. Robbins' situation. You're trying to find ways to get him on the field.

And I agree. I mean, he's done a decent job and he deserves more reps. But here comes the question, guys. who's coming off the field, whether it's Jonah Ellis or Q Robinson. To give them more reps, someone's got to take a back seat, right? I know it's not going to be Nick Benito. So are we talking about sitting Jonathan Cooper to give Q. Robinson some more reps? And Cody just brought it up.

I mean, Justin Stratt is probably going to, could he be the green dot guy and not Alex Singleton, if that's the case? Now, if Jonah starts to show that he understands position, He can drop in coverage and he understands complimentary routes, then it could be a faster Jonah Ellis on the field with Justin Strunard. These are the situations that the team is having because I tell fans all the time. There's a difference between football business and the business of football. And right now, we're talking about the business of football.

Yeah, it's a good point. Well, we have plenty of time to see how the Broncos want to try to develop Jonah Ellis potentially into a linebacker. does it influence how they draft, all that kind of stuff as well? So I think it's an interesting conversation. And again, I think schematically, one of the big things that we learned hearing from Sean and George Payton earlier this week. Okay, let's hit a quick break. When we come back, let's do a little early NFL draft thought kind of building off

of that conversation. Is there a position group in particular that we want to see the Broncos target? We can kind of have that conversation and do all that when we come back right here on your locked on Broncos squad show. Back in just a moment, folks. All right, you guys, real quick, let me tell you about the fine folks over at Fanduil because the tournament is here and it's one of the best times of the year. Brackets, buzzer beaters, upset. It's non-stop action from tip to final cut down.

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All right, well, come on and back in. What? Lockdown Bronco, Sintia. It's my signature, baby. I love it, my man. I know, I'm with you. You've got to have some fun with it. Real quick as well,

let me tell you about the Everydayer Club. Cody, I think you and Sare could speak about this a little bit. It's a really cool way to give some fans our real loyal audience here on the Lockdown Broncos YouTube channel and audio feed. Just some extra insight from YouTube in particular. Yeah, it's a great way. For fans that want to find a way to support the show, it means the world. So you tune in every day, but if you want a little bit more from us, well, guess what?

That's where the Everyday Air Club comes in. You get an ad-free version of the show, which everybody loves that. The All-Axas version gives you access to all 22 film breakdowns. I got one up on Cortland Sutton and how defenses play him. I got one coming out on J.K. Dobbins and the explosive runs that he had last season. So much more. Access to our Discord where you can engage with other members of Broncos Country, discounted merchandise on the locked-on store.

You get so much more there. So if you want to check it out, make sure you check it on a show notes down below or locked-on broncos. com. Love it. Yeah, that's a new edition, right? I feel like the last six months,

that thing just got started, right? Yeah, it's been fun. It's been super, super fun. So you want more. There you go. There you go. Okay, before we talk about the draft, I teased it a little bit in the first segment.

Drey Greenlaw, and I know he's no longer with the Broncos, but like him coming out and basically saying that he never wanted to leave San Francisco. He was never happy in Denver. I mean, I think it's just safe to say that Broncos swung and miss on that one, no? Yeah. He was,

it was a nice splack, right? I think we all agree that when they signed him, we're like, oh, okay, this is a nice addition. But sometimes it just goes to show too, like making that big splash might actually be like a small pebble in the, you know, in the water, The ripple effects might not be worth the thing. And unfortunately, it didn't work out for Dre. I don't think he meant it in the sense of, you know, he was miserable here because,

you know, how things were or anything like that. I think his whole situation of being injured and not really having a chance to start because of the injury, it allowed other guys like Sternat an opportunity. It just kind of felt like a wasted year for Dre. So maybe he's seen it from that standpoint. Yeah, maybe. I think, unfortunately, Dre Greenlaw's memory. memory with the Broncos is going to be that

suspension that he got at the end of that game going up to the ref. So you know, it is what it is. They hit on Hufanga though. So I guess that's a good thing. Yeah. Yeah, who Fongo was a great addition for him. But you know what? I don't think the situation where Greenlaw

is as bad as most people make it out to be. And because once again, we got just had to realize we're looking at things from a player's standpoint. He was in San Francisco for an extended period of time. He's only here for you know, a season. And looking at what he said to kind of in the postseason as he was walking out of the building, a lot of people took a lot of shots at him. But for me, I give him credit. He was just

being, you know, honest. Like sometimes, like when Russell Wilson was here, a lot of people in the media criticized him because they felt as though he wasn't being genuine. But here you have a player who's being genuinely honest about his situation and comparing two different coaches and two different organizations. That happens all the time. And he feels as though, hey, listen, maybe I shouldn't have left San Francisco. It was a better place. And a lot of players find themselves in that situation. Like, I remember when my playing days, Greg Jennings was with the Green Bay Packers.

He had extraordinary season. And then he went to the Minnesota Vikings and his numbers tapered off because he wasn't in the same situation. Right. So that happens with a lot of players. And I know you brought up Tolonofanga. It's a little different because Funga wasn't injured. He had a chance to groove himself into. the flow of this defense.

And I can tell you guys, standing on the sideline, holding the script in your hand, trying to look at plays. It's not the same as actually being on the field. And that's why Greenlaw said when he came here, it was like Spanish to him. Rob Salah and what they were running out in San Francisco was entirely different than what, you know,

Vance Joseph is running. But now Great Greenlaw is where he needs to be, where he always wanted to be. And now we have to see what is level of production. is like this season and can he stay healthy with San Francisco opposed to what things are like with him in the Denver Broncos. Yeah, he and Fred Warren together should be good again. But once again, like Fred suffered that crazy freak injury last year. Dre, you know, with his injury history, hopefully they can stay healthy.

I got no ill will towards Dre. And I agree. I'm with you, Nick. Like we want honesty. Like when we talk to players, we just want like honesty. And sometimes we don't get that on camera, right? But behind the scenes off the record, you're going to see a lot of that. that like there are so many guys in this locker room that i wish fans got to see a little bit more of

right that they got to know them a little bit more but um it's just hard it's just hard sometimes like brandon jones in my opinion is one of those guys that has one of the best personalities inside the entire locker room but fans would know because they don't get to really hear from him too much so right yeah no it's well said well i just wanted to bring that up because i just you know those comments when you see them come off the screen it's like huh what but i think you you kind of put it there perfectly um okay to the draft I'll start with you, Sarah. We had a pretty good conversation there to open up the show about linebacker.

Is that the position group that you think Denver needs to target the most? I forget if it was Sean or George. They've all kind of blended together for me at this point. I believe they both talked about it, though. Denver's done a pretty good job of hitting on picks later in the draft, drafting best player available. You know, you look at Nick Panito, you look at some of these other guys that they've hit on before.

So do you think it's a position group approach for Denver in the draft? or do you think it's kind of like Jaday Barron-esque of best player available when they get on the clock for the first time? I really hope it's not the latter, right? I really hope it's not the, hey, let's just take it. It doesn't matter if this guy is going to play or I really hope that they take the other approach because, well, George Payton talked about how this kind of pick range has become their wheelhouse, hasn't it? With Nick Benito getting selected at 64th, Marvin Mims at 63, R.J. Harvey at 60. and what do every single one of those picks represent?

They all represent drafting for need. I mean, that's just the honest truth. Like, Nick Benito was a direct replacement, literally taken with a selection that you acquired in the Von Miller trade. Marvin Mims filled one of the Broncos' biggest needs that year of kickoff returner. And then obviously, RJ Harvey has 12 touchdowns as a rookie running back. And that was arguably the team's biggest need going into last year's draft. So I do think that it's valuable for this team.

when it comes to identifying the talent that fits in the culture to marry that up with your team's biggest needs now and maybe 2027. With Jadae Barron, there was no like, hey, this could be this year or next year sort of a thing. That's a first round pick that you threw at your deepest position. It makes no sense, even in hindsight, looking at it. And that doesn't mean that Jade is never going to play. That doesn't mean that he's not a good prospect. What it means is that you could have had a lot of other guys who could have helped your team

or who could be starting for your team this year, like Mason Taylor, who's going to be a really good tight end in the NFL. So I think with this top pick, the Broncos absolutely have to go with a linebacker or a tight end with this top selection. And if it's not that, then it needs to be an offensive lineman because that's where your 2027 top need could be at either left guard or right tackle. And I don't think you say, well, we're not going to take, you know,

we're not going to take a great safety prospect if he's there. No, go ahead. safety could be a need next year as well. We're not going to take a defensive lineman if he's there. No, you could take a D-Linman, but I think you have one choice in the top three rounds right now. You've got to use it on somebody who's actually going to play. Nick?

Yeah. Agree or disagree? I definitely agree from the standard of the Broncos already have their quarterback, right? So because you already have your quarterback of the future, you need to make sure that you surround and you build, of a wall around him. Now, we know the right tackle position has been a little inconsistent, and so has the left guard position.

So, yeah, I'm with Sarah. If there is a alignment out there and that guy could be a swing guy for right now, you go out and sign the guy because, once again, we're talking about depth. And you find out how important depth is later in the season when guys start getting banged up. And the luxury that the Broncos had last year that the football gods gave them was there was not a significant amount of guys that got into. injured. So that allowed the Broncos to do what they did last season with the 14 and 3.

If you have three, four injuries on the offensive line, the defensive line, that changes everything in 2026. So if there is an offensive lineman that's out there that you feel fits the knee, then you go ahead and take it because it makes things easier to move on from maybe a Ben Powers or Mike McGlitchie. But I still feel, man, if Jacob Rodriguez is there, this is me. This is my bias. this is my fandom. Hey, I'll live and die on that hill. To me, even with the conversation about Jonah Ellis, man, you need to get better at that position and add in depth. If he is there, you freaking take him, man, because once again, it's all about giving the strength of your team the most weapons. And the Broncos defense was, in fact, the strength of the team in 2025.

And it will be that way in 2026. So you want to make sure you add that value. and I hope that he's there and I hope that the Broncos take it. Cody? Yeah, no, I agree. Like for me, I want them to take linebacker at 62. Tight end. If there's a guy that you know whether this year or next year can be an impact player, you know,

as a pass catcher, do it. You need that type of guy there, you know, but I think right now a lot of people are looking at, you know, where could Denver go? I think a lot of people are kind of anxious to see, like, does Denver take the same approach as he did last year? what we talked about, like Jada, where it was like, best player that was on the board versus, you know,

the best player at a position of need that Denver certainly has. Linebacker to me is that because Drew Sanders, once again, last year of his deal, there might even be a chance he doesn't even make it onto the 53 man roster, you know, this summer. So you have to factor that into the equation, you know, yes, you're going to experiment with Jonah Ellis. Could that be maybe the Broncos attempt of like putting out like a cent

that, hey, they're moving Jonah Ellis to linebacker, so that probably takes linebacker off the board for them at 62. Maybe, you know, it is smoke and mirror season. But to me, it has to be linebacker, tight end. I wouldn't be opposed to an interior offensive lineman either, you know, if it's a potential Ben Powers replacement or the Broncos could extend him next year. But I think so much is contingent upon, like, how does Denver see things playing out for themselves?

Like, as Sean has mentioned with the run game, we believe it's a scheme issue. Like, that's what he believes. they brought every, every guy back that played on that in that room last year. And they said they were going to look at personnel. So for them to bring everybody back says, hey, it is a scheme issue. So is that the issue? Is that to solve for the Broncos problems? Is that maybe where they go?

What position though, folks, would you be pissed about if they took with the 60 second overall pick? Sarah? I mean, it's got to be, it's got to be either, I mean, obviously the quarterback is a as a non-starter corner. is another one. Edge would be another one. I think that we talked about Mike Cliss threw that out there. But now you get a little worried because if you're moving Jonah Ellis to linebacker, does that throw the edge position back into the mix?

Because they love drafting those guys. And we know that. And I wouldn't be, I mean, yeah, it's all about future thinking as well as we want instant contributors, right? And it's not a have your cake and eat it two situation because you could be talking

about instant contributors from the vantage point of like either instant depth that's going to play or a starter in 2027 that could be depth immediately. So I don't think there's many starting jobs available, but you're not going to get somebody to even play or contribute off the edge, corner, quarterback. I mean, shoot, I know the Broncos did a pre-draft visit with a long snapper. They ain't no way they're taking the long snapper at 62. But anything, anything outside of, yeah, running, I think running back is the one that I wanted to say. initially because I don't like this class and I don't think it's a worthwhile investment unless you're getting Judarian price at 62 to say hey we're going to take a running back three in this

spot to be your kick return or two yeah that's true I would say I would say corner if you were to go out and get a corner I would be disappointed in that because even though you have riley moss on the final year of his deal you have Chris Abrams drain uh you have a j and you have Jody Barron. So that would be it for me. But I wouldn't be upset if the Broncos decided to take a running back. I personally like the Nick Singleton kid from Penn State. I think he would do great.

And this kind of offense, especially what this passing game should look like with a guy like Jalen Wado. But once again, we'll see what the Broncos will do. I know you mentioned tight end. And I mean, I would love for the Broncos to do that. but not early in his draft. But, yeah, it would be a cornerback position for me that would be slightly disappointed

if the Broncos decided to go in that direction. Yeah, I just don't think taking a cornerback makes any sense knowing you used a first round pick on an under utilized, but also a developing cornerback in Jada Baron. I think you have to put your eggs in that basket with respect to cornerback of the future and to your point. You've got Jay Mack, you've got Riley Moss. It's Riley's job to lose.

Yeah, I agree. I'd say what, or go ahead. No, I wouldn't be upset if the Broncos picked up an edge player, right? Because here's what I do know. You can't have enough edge rushers because there are not a lot of guys who excel in that particular part of the game. And the more pass rushers that you can throw at opponent to wear down their tackles, the better. But here's the other thing it does. I mean, we already know that if you had to choose between Nick Benito and John the Cooper,

obviously I think everyone on the stream would probably lean more towards Nick Benito, no slight towards John Nick Cooper, but if the Broncos were to take another edge guy and that edge player starts to develop, it now makes it easier to part ways with that salary with the guy

with Jonathan Cooper. So you always have to try to think in futures, and I know there's a lot of fan favorites, but the business of football man trumps everything. Tillman, Q, Q, Q's a future guy in my opinion

this does open up if you wanted to you could justify bringing in Bond Miller as that fifth For what? Look, here's the thing. I'm not saying, I'm not advocating for it. I'm just saying a lot of fans want it to happen. Von is a guy that will always be in the hearts of Broncos

country. With Jonah and Q and Dandre behind Benito and Cooper, that never ever really made sense, right? But now that Jonah's moving positions, I mean, I would say you keep Vaughn on speed dial in the event of an injury. That's maybe my only appeal here at this point. But they already switch.

They're already changing Jonah Ellis's position. So the idea of having too many pass rushers is already kind of being disproven. Like they've admitted we have too many. We literally have to put a guy at a different position to get him on the field. And five guys for this team played 150 plus snaps last year. four of them played over 300 off the edge. That would be obviously Benito, Cooper, Tillman, and Ellis. They all played 350 plus.

And Q Robinson, even though limited action, played 150 snaps last year. So they're going to play five guys or they'll have at least five guys on the team. Now, I mean, you lose John Firmier Myers and you move Jonah Ellis to off ball linebacker. You have to replace that pass rush productivity somewhere, some way, somehow. In Yoma, Uwazerike is. a run-stuffing guy. So that's where I say, maybe a defensive end with that first pick is not off the board because you do have to replace JFM.

And I know they like Savian Jones. They trade it up for him. I know they like Inyoama Uwazerike, but he's also entering a contract here. Are you going to resign him after this season? And even with that top four set, now you've switched Jonah Ellis. You've kind of said, like, we do have too many pass rushers. We need to get these guys on the field. So while I wouldn't be surprised if they draft another.

edge based on the movement of Jonah. I also don't think that it's going to impede on, well, shoot, they could always throw Jonah Ellis back to the edge. Right. You said the operative word, right? You said, like, love.

Like, you want a coach to say, but we love this guy, right? I mean, he can do this and this. See, that's what you want. When you talk about players or even draft picks, the end part, you don't want a coach to say, well, he can do this, but It's like, oh, no, you want to stay away from them, but you want the end.

So, hey, listen, man, I definitely agree with you. I mean, this could change things for the Denver Broncos. And once again, having young guys who can add to the past rushing group and there are on rookie deals. And man, that's the best of both worlds. Well, one thing I would add is sometimes the Broncos just don't do the conventional thing that we think they do. Right. So I'm sure we'll get a curveball with their. first pick in the draft and probably a couple

other after that as well. So let's hit a quick break. When we come back, the mindset of Sean Payton doesn't like the term run it back, tunes out the noise from Broncos country to a certain extent because he believes they have a vision that they need to accomplish

regardless of what the outside thinks. Let's talk about that and what that might mean for Denver's overall offseason strategy when we come back right here on your locked on Broncos squad show. All right, you guys. Let me tell you about our friends over at Robin Hood,

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All right. Welcome on back into the squad show, AP, Cody, Sarah, and Nick. Hope everyone is doing well out there. Do us a favor. Hit that like button and that subscribe button really helps us out here on the channel. And if you're on the audio feed, if you ever want to watch the show, you can check us out on the Lockdown Broncos YouTube channel as well. Sean Payton

saw Mike Cliss caught a stray or two in that press conference on Tuesday which seems to be the norm and the tradition at this point

but he's got to leave my man Mike alone Mike is like the most innocence not the right word but like you don't have to worry

about Mike no like the guy Mike does his job he does his job better than anybody else there's no malicious intent I also saw my guy Troy Rank

catching some strays from Sean with the Jalen Waddle stuff It's just, you know, it's always fun. I think folks, I think fans sometimes want to know how it really works, like how the beat is. Like, I'm on the beat. But, you know, the Broncos don't feed me nothing.

They don't feed me anything. Like, they've got partnerships with Nine News and the Denver Post. Those guys get fed stuff first, and that's fine by me. I choose to cover the team a different way, right? I get to know the players. You know, I'll go to Sean's pressers. I'll ask a question here and there, but there's a lot of force stuff in this industry. I think a lot of people don't really.

realize in terms of how things truly operate. Mike, behind the scenes, fantastic. Does so much of his own background work there as well. Luca does such a great job. Like, those guys went to journalism school. I didn't go to journalism school. So you know what I did? I went to football school. So that's why I spent time trying to get to know the players and and doing that. But the game, you guys know this as well. The game is very interesting behind the scenes. Yeah. In the words of Omar Little from one of my favorite TV shows, The Wire. right? It's all in the game, yo. That's just kind of how it goes these days, right? There's layers to this stuff. There's different ways to play the game. There's different players

in said game, which is this media lifestyle that we've all chosen in a partakey. It's fun. So, no, it's fun. But one of my big takeaways from Sean, more Sean than George. Like, George is more kind of like corpority, like not in a bad way, but like George is going to say the right things, right? Like he's going to be politically correct. Like Sean will kind of fire from the hip a little bit more. And Sean heard all of you. You was in Broncos country. He was reading the stories that were put out about like, what are they doing?

And he made kind of a funny joke of like, thank God we made the Jill and Waddle trade before we went out there and coached a flag football thing with my fan base melting down. But Sean kind of has a, I don't give a bleep attitude when it comes to outside perception, which frankly, I think is a good thing. Like when you're the leader of an organization and all that kind of stuff, you have to bet on yourself as opposed to betting on what people outside of the organization

wants you to do. But as it pertains to offseason strategy, like there was a couple of takeaways, like talking about how J.K. Dobbins was like the top priority for this team, among some other things as well. How do we think that kind of factors into this conversation that we've been having, again, about draft?

And if there's some more free agent signings to come. Because I think the way that I look at it, guys, is the point that I made before the break is they're pretty unconventional or rather firm in their beliefs about how they want to go about their business. So it wouldn't surprise me if there's a curveball or two that's thrown our way, whether it comes in the form of assigning or drafting. I know, Cody, you've been high on the idea of them packaging picks to move up as well. Yeah, I mean, at this point, they're going to just see how things,

I think they've approached the strategy of how does the board fall? Now, obviously, without a first round pick, you don't have as much leverage in the sense of, hey, what goes on between picks one and 32. And you really almost kind of have to worry about, like, man, we have to wait all the way until we get to the 60 second overall pick really in order to do anything. the cost to move up, usually if you're trying to move up really, really far is astronomical, in a sense. Versus if you wanted to move up a few spots, you know, you could easily try to convince a team that's interested in trading back.

Hey, let's swap. Like, Denver's not in that position this year. So I very much think their approach is going to have to be, let's see how the board falls to us. And we'll see where at kind of like what they had to do with Nick Benito. Look, I go back to like when they captured it, like George Payton sitting there like, we're going to take Benito unless we're really. blown away by something. And then the time came and Nick Benito was there and George Petton was like Nick Benito at 64, holy bleep. Like you never know what you're going to get in a situation like this. And I would be a little more worried if the Broncos didn't have the

roster that they did. So for me, like this draft honestly is not as exciting for me. Yeah, I would agree with you. And back to Dobbins just real quick for just a moment because we have a good commentator from Biggie. He says if he actually was the top priority that being Dobbins, they would have never even looked at any of those other running backs in free agency or even a trade. Look, I think we touched on it. I challenged that, though. Well, I said, you should look. You should look. Yeah. I think Dobbins became their top priority once they knew they couldn't get Breece Hall. And I think it also speaks to George said it and Sean said it that like they really do put a lot of emphasis on that C word, which is culture. And I know that some of the fan base rolls their eyes at that.

But like on top of what Dobbins was able to do productivity wise on the field, I think they kind of felt like he was an integral part to their organization with what he does off the field as well, Sarah. Yeah, I mean, what did he say about like bringing 10 guys along with him or something like that? I can't remember the exact quote. I don't have his transcript. It's a compound player. Yeah, he's a compound player, right? He affects everybody else.

And I think that's 100% the case because we saw the Broncos run a trajectory to be one of the better offenses in the NFL and one of the most balanced offenses in the NFL. you know, at the point of which he went down with the injury. And unfortunately, that game was sort of the turning point to where it felt like the Broncos then were going uphill backwards in a blizzard, you know, trying to skate on ice, essentially to move the ball down the field. And we saw that in the back half of the season. It wasn't just when they went up against the Houston defense or other teams. It was like against Kansas City on Christmas, right? And we all sat there and watched that and we're like, dude, this is miserable.

Like, what are they doing? are the Chargers in the last week of the season, right? So I think that what Dobbins does is he obviously made everybody better. And that was when the Broncos offense was at its best, when Dobbins was his healthiest. And so I think there's no coincidence that he is. He was their number one target. And we talked about that on this show as well. It's like, who's the real upgrade? Like, when you look at Kenneth Walker and you look at Travis A. Chan and all these guys that are available, the real upgrade was always, Brees Hall. And everybody else, it was kind of like, well, I could take, I could take a situation with Kenneth Walker. Or if you bring it, if you bring back J.K. Dobbins, like, that's also

a good situation with, with no Brees Hall in the mix. I think that was the ultimate, like, okay, plan A, if we can get Brees Hall, he's young, he's dynamic, he's got the size, he could be here for a long time. But beyond that, it's like, why wouldn't you just bring back J.K. Dobbins if you believe he's healthy, which the money says that they believe he's healthy. He was the better runner too. Yeah, 100%. And they made note that it was a freak injury, not a soft tissue injury, right? So we understand that J.K. Dobbins has never had a fully healthy season, but I think there is belief that his body's in a good enough place that they're going to be able to get more out of them, assuming there are no freak injuries upcoming here in this season. The other thing that I

think is just funny, and I think I said this on Tuesday. I just got to say it again. Like, I don't know why Sean is so anti-run-it-back. Like, you're literally running it back. Like, you've made two new additions. Like, you brought in the guy from Cincinnati and you brought in Jalen Waddle. And Jalen Waddle is a massive addition. But, Nick, like, outside of that, like, you're essentially running it back. Like, I don't understand why Sean is so anti-run-it-back. It's not a bad thing. Well, I guess he, he doesn't want to get kind of caught into titles, right, and narratives. But it is what it is. I mean, it is running it back. You can call it a reload.

You can call it a reboot. You can call it whatever the hell you want. But, I mean, you start to bring back 12 or of your starters. That signifies that you are running it back. And these are just semantics, just words that coach doesn't want to use. Because with running it back, it brings along a sense of pressure, right? Because the idea is that, well, look at what the team did last year. So you bring everyone back for.

last year and you think, okay, well, we're just going to get back to where we were. And I understand it. I was there, you know, myself. We played against the Pittsburgh Steelers and the FC championship game in the 2005 season. And I'm thinking, okay, yeah, we lost. We shouldn't have lost that stuck, right? The fans kind of sold their tickets, kind of sold us out. That's a whole different conversation.

But to stay on topic, the idea is that, hey, listen, I thought then we're just going to run it back with the same guys. and we'll be right back where we were the prior year. So yeah, even though Sean doesn't want to say it, that's essentially what's happening. But I want to touch on something really quickly that you guys were talking about when it came to J.K. Dobbins, an idea, well, yeah, he was a priority. Here's how it works out, gentlemen, there's priority A and priority B, right?

Was J.K. Dobbins priority A, probably not. He was priority B. So when priority A doesn't work out, you go to the contendix. plan and guess what you still would be able to say he was in fact in theory a priority right because we knew the broncos had said they were going to be aggressive in order to be aggressive you got to think about some of the top-notch guys when you guys mentioned breese hall you mentioned a chain whatever uh Travis a chain right so those were the guys that the broncos were heavily on on priority A. And when priority A doesn't come through because those guys decided they wanted to take less money or more money elsewhere, you got to go to the contingency plan. And you say priority because you want to make sure you save face with the fan base to let them know we were looking for priorities. And we tried it. But also you want to save face with that guy that you bring in who wasn't priority A, who's priority B. That's how this thing works out.

Yeah, and I think I speak for all of the fan base here. If we're going to label off seasons, I'd rather label this off season as the run-it-back Broncos than the Broncos acquiring a Joker, right? Because that was the big terminology thrown out there last year. It's Joker on your head, man. It's on your head. Well, this is Nicola Yogod's the Joker. I did walk into that. I did walk into that.

But, hey, Nicola, I don't know if you guys saw, I know it's a Bronco show. He cemented last night the second consecutive season for him of averaging a triple double, which is, is just absolutely ridiculous. Legit man. But yeah, give me run it back summer over Joker's summer. Yeah. And I think Sean's mindset of like run it back means like,

you know, he's always going to say you take the magnets off of the, like your roster. You take all the magnets off. You flip the board pieces over. But it's the same pieces. Minus JFM minus PJ Locke plus two new guys. For the larger part of it,

it is the same team. Now, Sean may not like pressure, any like early pressure or like these things being created by us. But I would also say Sean himself puts a lot of pressure on the team by some of the things that he says openly. Now, did you notice, though, when he was talking about like the challenges, we talked about that on today's episode of Locked On where Sean is essentially saying like, hey, last year we won a lot of one score games. I could easily flip. Like, we have to get better. You know, when you have a good team, it's, it's hard to get better and better. Like, it's difficult.

It's difficult to, you know, continue to raise the elevation of play. Like, you can't keep adding to your roster. It's very tough to do that. So I think he's kind of cognizanty, he's kind of hit the pause button and it's like, all right, we're facing a lot. We're facing tougher opponents in 2026. We got to be better so that we don't find ourselves in the position of flipping those one score games the opposite way, like what happened with Kansas City.

his approach has changed. I wonder what's going to be like when we hear from him in July. Yeah, I'm sure that'll be fun. I'm sure it'll be fun. Okay, let's hit our final break. Cody's about to get mad. Can't wait for this. Hopefully,

the most absurd conversation we have of the whole offseason as there is an interesting report that came out yesterday that links the Broncos to a certain Hall of Fame quarterback. Barry that. Bird. the 30. We'll talk about it when we come back right here on your lockdown, Veronica, Squatcho.

All right, welcome on back into the program. Anilo Piro, Cody Roerser, Befinger, and Nick Ferguson. We save this for the last topic of the day. A couple minutes here. The report, so yesterday is April Fool's Day. Stupid. Any adult participating in April Fool's, go get a life. Touch grass.

Yeah. If you're 28 plus and you're participating in Twitter, April Fool's they like you don't get out enough cody why are you so bitter man right i i just i can't say the stuff that i really want to say i'll i'll go scorchirk on all of it it's just like you're like a young old man no just touch just touch grass like i feel like we're like here's the thing i'm okay like someone says are you okay i'm great i just i absolutely hate what social media has become It has become like April Fool's is every day on social media now, essentially, because of everything that we see on it now. Well, the thing, though, it is is that Florio, Mike Floreo, the topic in question here, he was not joking, which is the great thing.

That's the thing. That's the thing. It's like, everybody's like, oh, no, it was proven in April Fool's joke. And I'm sitting there like, no, it wasn't a joke. Like, he, I was just looking at the pro football talk YouTube page. I'm looking at it right now, guys. there's one, two, three, four, five, six. There's six videos about Aaron Rogers in the last 24 hours. And a couple, three of them are about the Broncos, like crunching the numbers between Bo Nix and Aaron Rogers. Does Aaron Rogers or Bo Nix give the Broncos a better chance to win?

Are the Denver Broncos interested in Aaron Rogers? That's the, this is the crazy thing. It's like, I watched Florio's video yesterday because I thought just like everybody, else. Oh, it was an April Fool's joke. Like, no, like, whatever. He's just being stupid. And then I read the article. And in the article, it says, this is not an April Fool's gag. So then I watched his YouTube video that he said. And he's like, starts it off by saying, this is not an April Fool's joke. Like, I betted my sources on this. I double checked. He's like giving all these reasons. It's, it's crazy to me. And so like, hopefully somebody's playing a prank on Florio and trying to like bury his credibility.

because the Broncos immediately came out, as we all discussed in our group chat, and refuted this whole thing. But you know me. I like to put on the tinfoil hat and see, like, okay, let's dig into this a little bit. What's he saying? Most all of it was hypothetical other than the idea

that somebody gave him, which he said he vetted a source, that the Broncos could have interest in Aaron Rogers, if, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah. So I just think the whole thing is stupid as well. And it's unfortunate that we're having to discuss it. The only way this makes any sort of rational sense is if Bo Nix was going to be out for the year or for a significant amount of time. And we got the opposite of that told to us earlier this week from Sean Payton that Bo is ahead of schedule.

He'll be ready for the offseason program. Right. So it's like if Bo were going to be out for two months, right? If Bo was going to come back around Thanksgiving or November, okay. Like it's still a wild possibility even. in that dynamic, but then you can, I guess, stomach it. But like, the idea of bringing Aaron Rogers into your point here, like, the reason I feel like we have to talk about it is because like it's Florio. Like there's some legs. He's doubling down. Like, Florio may have

done himself some favors by waiting you to drop that news today and not dropping it on April Fool's day. I think it's a whole lot of BS personally. I don't understand why the Broncos would even entertain this. But it is interesting. But Florea is one of the more reputable guys in the industry too. Not really. He reaches a lot. He reaches a lot. used to be, but that's falling off a lot. But this isn't like Dov Kleeman. He is essentially becoming Dov Kleeman. But here's the thing.

Sean does not like Aaron Rogers. Aaron Rogers hate Sean. Why would that ever make sense for these two guys? And also, you have both Rick and Knicks. Why? Like what is the point? Yes. Let me inject and play a little devil's advocate here.

Okay, Cody, even though you said both guys don't want. like one another. I don't know that for certain, but let's just say for the sake of argument, that is true. Keep my coach's name out your mouth, remember? Right. Listen, here's what I do know. Coaches want to win, and they want to win at all costs. And it comes a point where you got to let bygones be bygones and focus on the main thing. We know Rogers is a very competitive guy. He's a very outspoken, which is probably one of the

reasons he and Sean Payton may not get along. But if it's to win football games, maybe they would. I know it sounds like a far-fetched idea. And like an L.O. said, the only thing that makes this what Mike Florida say even interesting if Boe suffers a setback, right? We already saw what Stidham, not what he is, what he isn't, right? Because he couldn't lead the team in the moment, even with the Broncos defense. defense in what it was.

And then, I mean, there's a setback. Where are you going to go from a quarterback standpoint? Do you believe in Sam Eflinger to be that guy? This only comes into play if Beau suffers a setback or what we were told about his foot wasn't exactly true. Now, I don't want to wear a 10 to 4 hat, but if I wanted to make a case for what Florio was saying, that would be the only scenario to make that happen.

because I do know, Sean is a very prideful individual. And the idea of doing something that no other coach has ever done in the game, you can say you're the only guy that did that. To me, you may want to put your issues with Aaron Rogers aside if push came to show. But Bo Nix is a better quarterback than Aaron Rogers right now. I would take Jared Stidham over Aaron. We saw what Aaron Rogers is. Stop.

Aaron is not. I don't believe that. And we watch the playoffs. Did we watch the playoffs where the dude played arguably one of the worst games I've ever seen from him? And there are the cameras following him back and forth. Oh, Aria Rogers, could this be the Latin? No, miss me with that nonsense. He is cooked.

There's a reason he hasn't announced where he's going. I don't think he's going to have serious interest. I would take Sam Eldridge. I'll take Zach Wilson right now over Aaron Roder. No, no. I won't. I won't. As much as bizarre as this conversation seems, as far, far, far,

as it seems. I would rather take Aaron Rogers if push came to shove, and that was a situation over either the quarterbacks the Broncos have on a roster not named Bo Nix, because Stidham has been historically a backup quarterback. He was a backup quarterback going into the pictures game that everyone wanted to have faith in, but he proved that he was a backup quarterback because he made backup quarterback mistakes. So if the Broncos were ever in a situation like that, and they needed a guy, not saying that I'd be a huge fan of it, But I would prefer to have Aaron Rogers over any of the backup quarterbacks that the Broncos have because Aaron Rogers, like him or not, right?

Like him or not, Aaron Rogers is still a better quarterback than those guys. I'd call Tom Brady before him. I'd call Tom Brady out of retirement. Either way, they're better quarterbacks, older though, but better quarterbacks than those quarterbacks. I know, but physically, though, Rogers just doesn't have it anymore. We saw it. Like, do the Broncos win the AFC championship game as Rogers is playing? No, no, they don't.

They absolutely don't. That dude couldn't move. He couldn't move. Like, do we forget that this guy literally couldn't avoid a pass rush? Hey, man. Like, what do you think would have happened against that one? Yeah, I'm just, but I'm also saying, like, to act like Aaron Rogers are going to come in and be more mobile and athletic. No, he can't move anymore.

He probably, but he would be a little more precise with his three. Rose because Jarrett Steerham was a mobile quarterback, right? And we saw what his mobility yielded for the team. We saw that. I wouldn't say he's a mobile. I wouldn't say he's a mobile quarterback. Wait, wait, okay. If he's not mobile, is he T-Mobile?

Because, I mean, what is he? He can make a guy miss once, but not twice. Well, Colonel Rogers is not making anybody miss. Yeah, this is one of the more absurd stories I think I've seen. and again, to say this point, like, Florio's doubling down on it. Sometimes you have to double down on being an idiot, you know, it just happens. What if you guys found out that Beau's foot isn't exactly what we were told?

I don't worry. What if we find that out maybe a month from now? I don't think, I mean, I don't think that would, they wouldn't talk about it. I don't think they would. This was floating. No, they're not worried about it whatsoever. Bo is literally doing his own training right now, and then he's going to join the team, obviously,

for the off-season program in May. Like, right now he's resuming his regular throwing pattern with his coaches away from, you know, wherever. He's also strength training. I'm not, that's everything that I know. Cody, you've had injury before. You know what happened. Like, you get to a certain point,

everything is great, and then you start feeling great as a player, you go out there and you think you're Superman, then all of a sudden there's a setback. Maybe not with, injury that you had, maybe it's on the opposite foot. We've been there before. I'm not saying I'm wishing that can happen, but that's a possibility.

Yeah, but I feel like there's a million other quarterbacks that the Broncos were so concerned. There's a million other quarterbacks that are younger that they would go with. Someone just threw in the chat, James Winston, who's got familiarity. I would take James Winston over Aaron Rogers right now in this very instant as a backup. I just think, oh, we spent way too much time on this. I had to bring it up. Ask your boy Andrew Mason how he feels about it. I've talked to me about it.

I've talked to everyone agrees. Everyone agrees for the most part. Big poop sandwich and nothing. If the Broncos actually do, like if what Florio said is true, like his theory is that somebody, somebody didn't want this to happen in the Broncos organization. So they leaked it to him essentially or whatever. You know, they leaked it. and therefore it's going to get shut down and written off as ridiculous.

If the Broncos would risk a long-term future with Bo Nix to just to entertain the idea of bringing in Aaron Rogers for a year, like that would. I'd have to turn in some cards, guys. I wouldn't support an organization that stupid. I mean, we already went through it once like with Josh McDaniels and, you know, trading away the entire team. So, like, would we do that again? If somebody seriously is like, somebody in charge is saying, hey, we need, we, I'd rather have Rogers this year with a shot at a Super Bowl than Bo Nix. Then that would, like, you would lose so many people.

Greg Penner would have to step in and say, you know what, guys, like, this is not happy. We've had discussions on this show before. Who would the Broncos choose between Sean Payton and Bo Nix? I think we were all pretty unanimous that it's Bo Nix. So it would have to be a situation where his ankle or whatever is in such bad shape that they were like, all right, he doesn't even have a long term future anymore. And we just don't want to tell everybody that would be that that would make me sick physically ill. Really quickly, guys. Okay, here's a bigger conversation that we're not having because we're having this Aaron Roger situation where Florio continued to double and triple down.

And it seems as though from his accounts that someone inside the organization might have taken. kept him off and said something, I think that's the bigger issue. Like, who inside the building might have said something to Mike Florio? Because- The janitor. If that's the case, they have bigger problems as far as being able to contain information inside their building. Yeah.

And what have we seen since Sean has come in? There literally is nothing that comes out of that building. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of people, a lot of former insiders have been frustrated because they're not getting things the way that they used to get them anymore. because people get pissed people get pissed inside the building cody you and i both know that yes they control the narrative of everything and they're not gonna they're not gonna let something like that out

like for them to shut it down as quick as they did it's like yeah that's preposterous hey man a disgrunt to employee man can bring down the whole house of cards especially when it comes from an anonymous source well that's the thing though anonymous nobody knows it could he i i got anonymous sources hold on my phone's ringing right now hello hello hello you're telling Cortland Sutton's getting a new contract extension oh guys per source Cortland Sutton's getting a new deal you see how freaking easy that is boy well oh I need to go work I need to go to the gym now I'm pissed there you go touch some grass bro going to walk yeah go touch grass I want to go lift some damn weight

There you go. That's what I want to do. Golly. I don't think anything is going to come of this. I don't think any of us think anything's going to come of this, but it is. Hopefully it was just a April Fool Day joke that is still running for some reason. I'm not sure if it is. But good stuff on today's program. Ladies and gentlemen, you in Broncos country are the absolute best.

On your way out of the door, hit that like button, smash that subscribe button for us. We'll back at it again next week with another episode of your locked on Broncos squad show. Peace out, y'all. Have a good one. My name's Mike Florio. I have sources. Bom.