Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - Courtland Sutton's Extension TOPS Denver Broncos' Priority List

Episode Date: April 3, 2025

Courtland Sutton's looming contract extension should be at the top of the Denver Broncos priority list this offseason. Why are the Broncos waiting until after the NFL Draft to open up extension talks? Between Courtland Sutton, Zach Allen, Nik Bonitto, and John Franklin-Myers potential extensions, which one is the most important to get done first for George Paton and Sean Payton? Cody Roark is a credentialed beat reporter for Mile High Sports and covers the Broncos daily in person. Sayre Bedinger is the site expert for Predominantly Orange. Both bring Broncos Country the most in-depth and objective coverage of the Denver Broncos. WANT MORE DAILY DENVER BRONCOS CONTENT?For all of the latest Denver Broncos news today -- Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOBroncos?sid=YouTube Locked On NFL League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Draft & More🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnNFL Follow on Twitter: @CodyRoarkNFL and @SayreBedingerFollow the show on Twitter: @LockedOnBroncos Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime. Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNFL at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. FanDuelRight now, new customers can get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA. 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.

Extensions are a top priority here for the Denver Broncos, but not until the NFL draft. Which player will be the top priority for George Peyton and Sean Payton to take care of? We'll debate and discuss that here on today's episode, Locked on Broncos. You are Locked on Broncos, your daily Denver Broncos podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. What's happening in Broncos country? Welcome into another episode of Locked on Broncos, your daily Denver Broncos podcast. as part of the Lockdown Podcast Network where, you know, it is your team every day for all your Broncos news, content coverage, analysis,

and more this is the place to be a special shout-out to all the everydayers out there in Broncos country. Thank you so much for tuning in and making us your first listen. However, you choose to do so. And if you're not yet in every day, I'll make it very simple for you. It's super easy to become one because all you have to do is hit that subscriber of that follow button and you will never miss out on a days worth of Broncos news and analysis every single day, all year long. That is our promise to you. I'm Cody Rourke, Broncos credential beat reporter for Mile High Sports. You can check out my written work over there at Mile High Sports.com. Join, as always, by Serbettinger,

longtime site expert over there at predominantly orange.com where you can check out his written work that he does there daily. Plus, you get us on the podcast here in Broncos country. Here's what we're going to break down on today's episode of the show. We're talking about contract extensions, which Broncos players more likely going to be extended in season? or maybe in the off season going to next year compared to right now. Also, which extension is the most important for the Broncos to take care of before the season even begins? And more importantly, we're going to kick things off by talking about what George Peyton said. The Broncos not interested in talking about contract extensions until the NFL draft clear.

So, Sarah, we have some timelines here. And obviously some things can change. I think is you're leading up to the draft or maybe even right after the draft. Circumstances, your roster, your valuation, you're going to have a clear picture what that's going to be like following the draft. Is it kind of a mistake in your opinion to not at least get one extension done before the draft or do you think that the time process in which George Payton has laid out is the right one to follow?

I do think it's the right one to follow. I think going after the draft gives the Broncos leverage with all these situations, right? And of course, I mean, after the draft, we'll see if they still have that leverage, right? Because you may not come out of the draft with a wide receiver. And that could impact Cortland Sutton's, negotiations or you could say the same for defensive line where you've got a couple of guys, Zach Allen, John Franklin Myers, maybe the edge with Nick Benito, right? So the draft is one of

your, you know, best cards to play at this point in time on the negotiating table of saying like, hey, you know, you may have seen all these other guys getting huge extensions around the league, but we could still draft this player's replacement. And that's just the way that business goes in the NFL. It's not like a personal, hey, you know, we hate this guy type of thing. So we're going to draft him to spite him for not signing a contract extension. But it's one of those things to where teams have to do business the right way. And if you can get cost effective at positions that are getting paid a lot of money in the NFL,

because those are the positions we're talking about on today's show is positions that get paid a lot of money for the top tier guys. When you're talking about that kind of guaranteed money and average annual value, the NFL draft being your significant playing card at this point, it can't be trumped by the fact that, hey, we just want to just get these deals done for the sake of getting them done. Yeah, and I think that there has to be a method to the madness, right?

Like, it has to make sense because, and I know I'm going to get you on a little bit of a rant here. This is kind of my ploy. Obviously, I've seen you on Twitter. I've seen this being discussed, and I agree with you. It's a frustrating talking point.

I'm getting ready to fire you up here. But yes, contrary to popular belief, the Broncos do not need to save, 10 or $12 million in cap space for their rookie class. That's not the allocation there. So, Sarah, you know, for fans who are, you know, because that's out there on social media, you see one thing posted. Oh, they have to have this amount for the rookie class.

It spreads like wildfire. Do you want to put that fire and those rumors to bed here? I would love to. I think that's one of the most ridiculous things that we talk about every year. Every time you suggest something on Twitter, there's going to be pushback from somewhere, some angle, right? And that's fine. I mean, we're not always going to all agree on the same thing. That's what makes our industry so great is that there's so many different perspectives and different ways to analyze things. However, there are certain things that are just straight up facts,

which is what you're talking about, the price or the cost of the draft class against the salary cap. You can go look at overthecap.com. They have a resource for how you can calculate how much each team's draft class is going to cost in terms of the total price of it all, the pool of each pick, how much each individual selection is worth. And then what it all counts against the salary cap for the Denver Broncos. Okay. This is, this is maybe breaking news to somebody. The entire rookie class is going to count less than $3.2 million against the salary cap. It's like $3.18 million or $3.19 million, something like that according to over the cap. This is not according to me. This is not according to, you know, somebody else's opinion for fun, right? Like,

oh, well, I want the draft class to count less against the cap, so I'm going to say that it does. No, it's just the real legitimate facts. What the Broncos save by changing Jonathan Cooper's roster bonus into a signing bonus is essentially going to allocate towards the draft class going under the salary cap. So it's only $3.2 million at most, right? And that's the frustrating thing is like you said. You have people saying and reporting, not just people on Twitter with a number in their handle. It's people that are actually reporting the draft class is going to cost 10 to 12 million

against the salary cap. That's never the case because you only count the top 51 guys of your 90-man off-season roster against the salary cap. And most rookie contracts do not meet that threshold. Yeah. So I think that's important to get out there because too, a lot of people are thinking, well, you can't do a contract extension because you have to have 10 million, say, for your draft class. No, that's not how it works. And here. the awesome thing about extensions. And of course, I would have loved for the Broncos to maybe have already gotten at least one extension done with guys. But these things take times.

It's not like you pull up Matt and you go through, say, all right, I'm going to turn the salary cap off. I'm going to give him this contract here, guaranteed money. It doesn't work that way. It's you have to put framework in place, right? And when you have other players out there specifically, some players at the Bronco, I mean, positions at the Broncos are looking at extending around the NFL. That market changes. Thank you so much to Miles Garrett and Max Crosby for doing what they did in terms of getting the contracts. They did because that's going to make the negotiations for Zach Allen and Nick Benito a very interesting factor,

which we'll dive into a little bit later on here in the show here. But the Broncos right now currently sit around $17.1 million in cap space. If they were to extend someone now, it's not necessarily going to impact it. As a matter of fact, that would give them more overall available cap space because the overall cap hit of that first year, even that second year, where we know the Broncos next season are going to have so much salary cap flexibility without Russell Wilson's dead cap here on the books. And now all of a sudden, now you got to play with house money a little bit. You're in a good position.

But Denver's in a good position right now by not having to do that. So I wanted to ask you this, which extension, right? We all know the names that players, Cortland Sutton, Zach Allen, Nick Bonito, John Franklin Myers, all of these players are eligible for a contract extension at this point in time. who do you think gets done first, I think is the more important question I want to ask you here today. I think the way that things are sounding, it sounds like Cortland Sutton is going to be the first one to get a deal done. And you kind of sense that from just the difference in the way that he's approached this offseason as opposed to last year where, I mean, he planned on skipping the earliest voluntary offseason workouts.

And this year he's not doing that. And you see him out in public doing the thing, which I thought was a sign, Cody, to me, of an indicator that, hey, Cortland is in good spirits. Like he's not worried about the off the field stuff, whereas last year he kind of was. And then Sean Payton actually revealed that he went to Cortland and was like, look, like you don't do contract extensions when you got two years left on the deal. You do it when you've got one year left on the deal. And the Broncos and Sutton are operating in good faith right now.

I think that deal is going to get done. I think that Sutton is going to get roughly 23, 24 million a year and probably close to 50 million guaranteed, anything less than those numbers, I think would be a massive hometown discount from our current wide receiver one. Yeah, and look, I think that's probably the one that makes the most sense as to what needs to happen right now because you keep Bo Nix's top target in there. You have that security blanket knowing that he is there. And like I said here, I don't think this is a hot take by any means.

But I think that Cortland in the next two to three years is still going to be playing some of his best football. I think we're going to see his best football yet in this next two to three. year window. And some of these moves that they've made offensively could open that up even more for the Broncos wide receiver one here. And look, Broncos country, we want to hear for you on today's episode, locked on Broncos. Even though the Denver's not expected to talk extensions before the NFL draft, who do you think will be the top priority for George Peyton and Sean Peyton? Make sure you let us know here on today's episode, Locked on Broncos. But coming up next, we're going

to tell you why Cortland Sutton's extension is probably the most important out of all the contract extension eligible players here on today's episode, Lockdown Broncos. Today's episode of Lockdown Broncos is brought to my friends over there at Game Time. And look, the Game Time map gives you access to the best seat prices, best ticket prices for some of your favorite events that are going on near you, whether it's a spuring event, a concert, a comedy event, or even a theater event that's going on in your area. Game Time is the place to be.

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Download game time today. Last-minute tickets. lowest price guaranteed. Out of all the contract extension available players in 2025 for the Denver Broncos, it's hard to choose who's the most important. But you know what? I think we can maybe make a pecking order together here on today's episode, Locked on Broncos.

So that's exactly what we're going to do. We're going to tell you which extension is the most important and what order of operations the Broncos need to go in. But Broncos Country, thanks so much for making us your first listen of the day every single day. You know that your boys, Cody and Sayer. We got you covered all offseason long. Anything that happens with the Denver Broncos, we will have a reaction. We'll have a show to cover those moves.

And really, as we approach the NFL draft, you're going to want to be subscribed to this channel because you don't want to miss a single episode or anything that goes on with your favorite team. Cody, let's talk about the priorities in terms of the extensions. We kind of have our opinion of which one is going to get done first. I think the Broncos are experts right now at operating in secret. John Payton is assembling his coaching staff basically behind the scenes without anyone knowing about it. They did an entire private workout last year with Bo Nix without anybody knowing about it until after the fact. They do a lot of stuff without anybody knowing about it. So the fact that we do know a little bit about Cortland Sutton and his contract extension at least leads me to believe that's going to be the first one to get done.

But does that necessarily mean it's the most important? Like, what's your perspective on this? because we're talking about guys like Cortland Sutton, who's your current wide receiver one. We're talking about Zach Allen and all pro D lineman, John Franklin Myers, who probably should have been in the Pro Bowl, or at least in that discussion, right?

And then Nick Benito, who was in the defensive player of the year discussion off the edge as well, who could be that Batman that we talked about so often last year. These are not small deals. This is not a, you know, and I'm using this as an example. That's not to say it's a small deal,

but DJ Jones getting the deal that he got for, you know, three years and 13 million a year, 26 million guaranteed. That is going to pale in comparison to the deals that we're talking about here. Yeah, these ones are going to be big ones. And obviously, these are going to have to have a lot of roster shuffling in a sense. Like what does it look like two, three, four years down the road at certain position groups when you factoring this in. And I think a lot of it right now is we've got Bow Nix on a rookie contract before we have to look at extending

him down the road here. That's what the Broncos are thinking. So where can we best maximize that? Well, I think you and I've talked about it, keeping his number one target in the mix. I think it's probably priority number one, right? Cortland Sutton brings tremendous value to the Broncos. And that's not to diminish or say the Nick Benito, Zach Allen, John Franklin, Myers don't. Those guys have significant value to this team. But what's going to help the Broncos jump to the next level, Sarah? I think it's the offense. Like, you know, they were a top 10 scoring offense in 24. Just the first time they've been, I think, a top 10 scoring offense.

I think since what, 2014? I think that was the last time where that was the case. So it has been a while since they've been in that conversation in that category. And we know the offense has to improve more. But keeping Bo Nix's glue guys around him, I think is important. That's why I think Cortland Sutton, I think his will probably be the easier deal out of all the other ones to maybe come to terms of things. I think maybe John Franklin Myers will be an easy one for the Broncos to kind of

to get the framework for that. But I think Cortland Sutton, look, it speaks volumes. The last two years, 18 touchdowns, he's been reliable. He's been available. He's been the top target on third down situations here, not only for Russell Wilson in 2023, but for Bow Nicks in 2024. And it's clear that those guys have a great report together. Cortland, Marvin Mims, Bo Nicks.

They're going to get together next week and also before the NFL draft and we're going to throw. And I think that's important is that you keep your guy there. And the fact that Cortland is going to be showing up to volunteer. voluntary workouts, I think is a sign of good faith. And I think that that kind of means, Sarah, like if we're going to read the tea leaves a little bit, maybe he has confidence. Hey, I know this is going to get done. I know that they probably had those conversations behind closed doors. Like, we're going to find a way to do it. I'm curious to see what the incentives would look like in

that deal here. Obviously for Cortland doing what he's done the last couple of years, I'm sure there's going to be some front load of stuff in there as well for him. So for me, I think Cortland is important. But Zach Allen, in my opinion, right now, probably he's going to be the most important, all contract extension to get done because Sarah, when you look at what he was able to do last season, the value, I mean, you even turn on the tape. It doesn't like, you look at the numbers, you're like, wow, that's incredible, but you turn on the tape and you watch him. I mean, this is a guy who's consistently beating double teams. He's also manhandling his one-on-one. Zach Allen, he had eight and a half sacks last season. He had 47 pressures, 40 quarterback

hits. I mean, Sarah, in a vacuum, when you look at that, it's like, wow, that guy's a workhorse. And he also is a guy that literally has to be pulled off the field by the team. He'll never come out. He'll play 100% of the snaps defensively as a three down lineman if you let him. Like this is a guy. I think you have to take care of. And obviously, I think he's probably going to be the most overall important to the team here. I think so too. I think his extension is the most important right now because of the fact that he plays a premium position and he's probably going to get the highest average annual value out of any of the players that we're talking about here. And I I think that includes Nick Benito right now, which, you mean, you could maybe say that they're going to be comparable in what they end up getting average annual value.

Milton Williams of the New England Patriots now, Cody, he just signed a free agent deal worth 26 million average annual value over four years, which is a lot. It's a lot to pay for a defensive lineman. But Zach Allen is 27 going on 28. This is going to be the biggest contract that he likely gets in his entire NFL career. and I say that with all due respect. Like once you get into your 30s, you just don't get the same types of contracts as you do in your mid to late 20s.

So this is going to be the biggest contract that he gets as an NFL player. And he's going to make it count. And rightfully so. I mean, he was second team all pro. And he should have probably been first team all pro with the way that he played last season. And so I think he's probably going to get

upwards of 26, 27 million average annual value on a new contract. And we see Milton Williams got $63 million in guaranteed money. I expect Zach Allen to surpass that. And like you mentioned earlier, that will likely lower his cap hit in 2025. I don't know how much the Broncos are going to fudge without all that stuff, because his cap is going to take up a significant percentage. His charge is going to whenever he does sign this deal over the next two years,

and you likely do want to have that as low as possible. But Cody, I expect him to, the price that he commands have guaranteed money and average annual value to reflect what's most important. The most confusing one to me is Nick Benito right now. I don't know where to pencil him in or where to slot him in because you mentioned Miles Garrett and Max Crosby. Those two guys kind of messed with the market a little bit. No, they really screwed the market up.

But this is also, I mean, how did the Broncos, how does Nick Benito's agent, like, how does that triangle of the negotiating process? How does that work right now? because Nick Benito is more of that stand-up, outside linebacker who's obviously agile enough to drop back. I mean, he dropped back into coverage handful of times. He had a pick six, a fumble six, whatever you want to call it. This is a guy who was disruptive in the defensive player of the year conversation. That's going to account for a lot in this discussion.

But when you look at Max Crosby, you look at Miles Garrett and the way that they play in the defensive schemes in which they play in, it's drastically different than Denver's, right? Those guys are hands in the dirt. They move around. They do a lot of different stuff. So for me, it's like, how does it impact Nick? Does that benefit Nick or does that hurt him? I think right now, I think it hurts Nick. And, you know, Nick's not going to go out there and get $41, $40 million per year for his position there.

If anything, I think it's maybe around 22.5 to 23.4. I mean, something along those lines, whereas I think Zach Allen will probably be in that $25 million per year range. This is the one that's the hardest to decipher right now because we don't. know what the parameters of this contract look like in comparison to some of the other positions here. So I'll be very curious to see how the Broncos, George Peyton, Rich Hurtado, and obviously Nick Benito and his agent work through this because this is going to be probably the most tricky one that I imagine is probably going to take a little bit more time to put together than a John Franklin Myers or a Zach Allen or a Cortland Sutton one. But I do think that all of these,

at least three of these four will get done here at some point here in 2025 or maybe even going into next year. And look, Broncos Country, that's exactly what we're going to continue our conversation about here. Which of these extensions that we're talking about are more than likely to happen during the regular season, kind of similar to what we saw with Garrett Bulls. We'll break that down. And it's more here on today's episode, Lockdown Broncos. Continuing our contract extension discussion here on today's episode, Lockdown Broncos, real quick, I want to say thank you once again to everyone in Broncos country. Thanks to the everydayers out there for making us your first listen. We appreciate you so much for taking time out of your day to make this show exactly what is.

biggest Bronco shows you're going to get on the internet. We appreciate you so much. You make the show exactly what it is here, Broncos country. And look, obviously chime in here on your thoughts on the contract extension discussion that we're having here today. And Sarah kind of continuing on all with here,

which extension is more than likely going to happen in season? We've kind of shared our thoughts at Cortland Sutton. We think it's going to happen right after the NFL draft. I think that two of these extensions will probably take place here in season. Part of me worries and wonders that Nick Benito, because of the framework of it, because of the structuring of it, I worry that this one's going to drag out a little long just because there are so many unknowns to it that it probably leads to Nick Benito being franchise tagged by the Broncos at the end of the season. I think that's definitely on the table here.

Whereas I think Zach Allen will probably be an in-season contract extension candidate. I think John Franklin Myers could be an in-season candidate extension as well. I mean, depending on what Denver does, I don't want this to happen, but depending on what Denver does in the NFL draft, if they don't extend JFM, I also think there's a chance that they trade him at the, you know,

by the deadline, which I would not like to see. I would hate that. I know that there were some initial rumors early on in the off season. Those were never substantial. There was nothing rooted in substance with those potential talks there. But JFM wants to get paid. We've seen him.

He's been very vocal about that. So part of me is wondering how all of this is going to come to a head. I think that Zach Allen will happen in season. I don't know if the Nick Benito one will. Yeah, I agree with you on that because, look, Nick Benito has every reason to kind of wait it out. If the Broncos aren't offering exactly what he wants right now, I mean, when Micah Parsons, whenever he signs a deal,

that's going to raise the price of the franchise tag even significantly. Do you think he's going to, do you think Micah's going to stay in Dallas with all the stuff that's going on? I mean, Jerry Jones just came out and like pretty much trashed, his agent, who's one of the most notable nameworthy agents in all the NFL, which is nuts to me. Yeah, it doesn't make sense the way that Jerry does business. But then again, I mean, there were similar weird things happening with the DAC press got negotiations. And people were like, oh, shoot, Dax's probably going to get traded with the way Jerry's talking about his situation right now.

So I'm assuming that Micah will be back in Dallas. But it's funny you mentioned the franchise tag, Cody, because while you were talking, I actually pulled up the projected prices of the franchise tag. This year for linebackers, the franchise tag is $25.45 million, and the transition tag is $20.86 million. Next year's projected franchise tag numbers for the linebacker position, which is what I assume that Nick Benito is going to fall under $28.93 million for the franchise tag and $24.02 million for the transition tag.

So oftentimes when you're talking about guys that are at the top of the franchise, their position groups. You're talking about, okay, let's start with the franchise tag number and kind of work from there. You know, let's work from that at worst case scenario, you're going to have to tag this guy. So you're going to have to pay him that in either average annual value or throw that into the guaranteed money mix. I could see Cody with the amount of cap space the Broncos have next year.

They have the threat of the franchise tag, which players don't want that. Even though I guarantee you, Nick Bonito ain't going to be upset about it. getting a $28 million guaranteed salary for next year, he's in a situation where he's liable to make over $100 million and guaranteed money if he does hit the open market. And that's just the reality of the NFL these days. That's where the TV deals have taken the salary cap. So I feel like the Broncos will want to get a deal done with him

before the end of the season because of the fact that when the salary cap increases next March, now so does the. the overall everything. Everything gets inflated, right? So you want to get Nick Bonito done in this current market and figure out a common ground there. And part of me does wonder like obviously with that being at $28 million in terms of the franchise tag, is that medium somewhere like half of that? Is that $23 million, $24 million? I mean, I don't know. We'll have to compare obviously in terms of some other like passwords to do the same thing. It's hard to compare like Nick Bonito's things to like T.J. why, though I'll say last season, Nick Benito actually had a stretch.

I mean, TJ O'I had a stretch where he had, I think, one tackle or no tackles, no sacks, nothing. And while Nick Benito was in the defensive player of the year conversation, when you look at that, I don't think, and I hope the Broncos don't do this, right? And I know our fan base, I think they're kind of split at certain things when it comes to Benito, because I see a lot of people hating on him on social media, which is weird to me about paying him. But it's like, what, like, they want him to prove it.

I felt like he proved it this year, Sarah, because last year what we saw from him was he stepped up into a role after the Broncos released Randy Gregory and Frank Clark. And all of a sudden, he took on a mantle and he got really close to those double digit sacks. But he was their impact guy. And it's like, okay, hey, Nick Benito, you see it. Now he's having that year like forget his rookie year. He looks more comfortable. And now he's an entirely different player. Then this year, he just absolutely explodes.

And, Sarah, I might have to mention this as well. he's doing it on the defensive right side, which means that he's going against left tackles, which there was a story that came out where he was talking with Joey Bosa, and Bosa said, you've got to move around a little bit more because you're getting all these matchups against left tackles where there's probably more premier left tackles in today's NFL than there are right tackles. And Joey Bosa said, all the sacks are against the right tackle.

We said, switch to the left side and get those right tackle matchups. I know Jonathan Cooper is playing over there. The Broncos obviously had both those guys play in double-digit sacks last year. So for me, I just think that Nick Benito, I don't think he has anything else to prove. I think he's proved it. He's here. He is that Broncos pass rusher that they've been looking for. He's that closer that the Broncos have been looking for on defense that you know,

hey, you need to get out to the quarterback. This is a guy that's going to find a way to do it. And if not, there's J.F.M. There's Zach Allen. There's DJ Jones is going to anchor in the middle. And then there's Jonathan Cooper, who obviously proved capable. And then you got guys like Dondray Tillman who only, you know, like I said, five and a half sacks, I think, 29% of defensive snaps last year.

I like where Denver's at. And now you had Drey Greenla and Talanoa Hufanga. My goodness, this defense on paper is spicy. It really is. It's a very talented, very athletic defensive front. Guys, you can bring pass rush in waves. And when you can do that, man, that's when like Sean Peyton and George Peyton said, that's when your D-Line is going to grade out as one of your best units over the course of the year.

And those guys brought the heat all season long. It's worth bringing up that what people I think are saying, and Cody is that there was a stat that got thrown out there about Nick Bonito was the league leader in sacks with like seven or something like that during, you know, quote unquote garbage time or like when the when the game was basically in hand, that's when he got his sacks. And I mean, isn't that kind of when you want your guys to get a lot of sacks? I mean, let me just throw this out there that when you're trying to close a game, when you're trying to prevent a team from coming back,

when you're up to scores, as the Broncos won nine of their 10 games this past season by nine or more points, so two scores or more, when you're in those types of situations, you want your pass rushers to bring down the quarterback and seal the game for you. That's when, like, you're not always going to have these moments where, hey, we're trying to come back against the Chargers back in 2012

and Elvis Dumerville, pop the ball loose from Philip Rivers, and you're trying to come back. Like that type of stuff doesn't happen all the time. It happens when you're in the lead and you put teams in obvious passing situations. So while I do get it what people are coming from there, I also agree with what you're saying more than anything, Cody. It's that look, like Nick Benito did his job in the big moments for the Broncos.

When they needed a game changing play against the Colts, who came up with it? You know, when they needed a game changing play against the Cleveland Browns, who came up with those plays. It was Nick Benito. It wasn't any, it was him against the member of the Chicago Bears in 2023. They need a game changing play. Who came up with it?

So you want a guy to go out there and not only close games, but make the game changing plays. And it's easy to look at lame stats sometimes and just be like, oh, well, yeah, obviously, now that I think about it, like, when did he really make a sack in a big moment? It's like, come on now. Like, let's all watch the games together and remember these things because certainly the team's intentions here are going to reflect what he did in those big moments. Yeah, my guy's going to have to get some new celebrations, though,

because he got fine for throwing the ball in the stands when he had that pick six against the Cleveland Browns. He got fine for his Marshawn Lynch gesture. So he's going to have to come up with something, but he did tell me. He's like, it was worth it. He said it was absolutely worth it. You know, the Broncos ended up winning those games. Okay, you know, $25,000 fine, though. I don't know if I could ever handle that.

That would be a little rough here as well. But Broncos Country, we're eager for your thoughts here on today's episode of the show. That wraps up our conversation on contract extensions. Which extension is more than likely going to happen in season? Do you think the Nick Benito one will drag out a little bit here? Always eager for your thoughts here. Share them with us on social media at Cody or NFL at Sarah Bedinger. But that'll wrap up today's episode of the show.

Broncos Country, here's what you can expect for all you every dayers out there on tomorrow's episode of the show. We're going to take a look at the AFC West, the state of it, following free agency, going into the NFL draft, how much ground did the Broncos make up against the Kansas City Chiefs and also against the Los Angeles Charters? And what type of threat might the Raiders pose to them? We'll break all that down and much more on tomorrow's episode of the show.