Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - Denver Broncos Biggest Lesson From Eagles' SB Beatdown Of Kansas City

Episode Date: February 10, 2025

What is the biggest lesson the Denver Broncos can learn from the Philadelphia Eagles beatdown of the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl 59? How can the Broncos defense thrive if they invest in the trenches and add a rangy athletic off-ball linebacker? What can Bo Nix do that Jalen Hurts showcased against Kansas City's defense on Sunday and how can Sean Payton take these lessons and apply them in 2025? 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!LinkedInLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONNFL. Terms and conditions apply.PrizePicksDownload the app and use code lockedonnfl to win $50 instantly when you play $5. You don't even need to win to receive your $50 bonus, it's guaranteed! Prizepicks. Run Your Game.Click Here: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONNFL FanDuelRight now, new FanDuel customers can get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Bonus Bets if 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.

The Philadelphia Eagles dominating win over to Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl 59. Might have just given Sean Payton and the Denver Broncos the blueprint to winning the AFC West in 2025. We'll break that down and much more here on today's brand new episode, Lockdown 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 Lockdown Broncos, your daily Denver Broncos podcast.

podcast, part of the lockdown podcast, Derek, where you know what is your team every day. Every team right now is zero and zero following Super Bowl 59 here. And we got you cover for all your Broncos news content coverage analysis and more. So thank you to once again, all the everydayers out there in Broncos country. Thank you to those who make us your first listen of the day. However, you choose to do just that. I'm Cody Rohr, Credential of Broncos reporter for a mile high sports. Join as always by Sarah Bedinger, site expert predominantly orange.com.

We got a lot to digest and break down here on today's. post-Super Bowl 59 show here of lockdown. Broncos will wrap things up by talking about how it's important for the Broncos offense going into the offseason to put more pieces around Bo Nix and how the Eagles maybe showcased how Sean Payton can help Bo Nix and the Broncos offense in 2025. We'll also talk about why investing in the past rush and maybe the lineback position will be crucial.

But we're going to kick off today's episode show by really diving deep into what can the Broncos learn from Super Bowl 59. And it wasn't just Drake turning off the TV last night. It was the Kansas City Chiefs as well, an absolute thumping by the Philadelphia Eagles, a former Broncos head coach, Vic Fangio leading the way for that defense in terms of play calling. Christian Parker as well.

Today's episode of the show is brought to you by friends over there. FanDuel. And right now, new customers can get $150 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins. Check it out today at fandul.com. Sir, no words, my friend. Not the Super Bowl, I think, that we were expecting. I felt like going into, we all thought that this was going to be a very close and competitive game. I had it going into it as like 28, 24, the Eagles were going to beat the Chiefs.

And look, it wasn't even more close to that. It was an utter beat down. And there's so much the Eagles did in that game against Patrick Mahomes in the Kansas City Chiefs that I feel like the Broncos, they should be paying attention to some of those things. 100%. Just like the Chiefs and Eagles a couple of years ago played in the Super Bowl, the Eagles learned from that game. they kind of allow that game to be a chip on their shoulder.

I think the Broncos have to do the same. Learn from all the losses against Kansas City and figure out, okay, how can we keep this as a chip on our shoulder? Like, we need to be the aggressors and really sort of taking advantage of their weaknesses because Kansas City, not a perfect team by any means. We've talked about it all year. And I've been assuming that they were going to win, Cody. I've been assuming it because I didn't want to be upset if the Eagles lost that game.

I didn't want to be, you know, caught off. guard by thinking, man, I thought I had all the right equations here, figured out. I thought I had all the, and the keys to victory for the Eagles, and they have this amount of talent here and this, that. I didn't want to be caught off guard by the Eagles losing this game. And thankfully, the chiefs were delivered a, you know, a heaping, heaping pile of Super Bowl 48 where the Broncos were destroyed by the Seattle Seahawks. I mean, it was very similar in that regard, wasn't it?

Yeah, the defensive touchdown early by K. Kansas City. You obviously had, I mean, the eagle, or sorry, by Cooper DeGine against Kansas City. And just throughout the course of the game, just utter dominance in every possible way. It felt like everything the Chiefs tried to do was the wrong thing to try to do. The Eagles had answers everywhere. They drew up the shot place. They had everything going defensively, pass rush, zero blitzes from Vic Fangio's defense in

this game. And Mahomes was sacked six times. Like everything about this game was cathartic if you're a Broncos fan. And I mean, let's talk about it because how can the Broncos find a way from this blueprint to do this to Kansas City going forward? That's going to be the big question. Well, I think that when you look at this past season, you know, taking away that last game of the regular season that Denver had, I mean, the Broncos and Bow Knicks have shown that they can compete and they can fight with Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. And Vance Joseph, look, Vance did a really good job.

Unfortunately, in that game, Arrowhead, third down killed the Broncos, but it wasn't enough for them to lose the game. Like, the Broncos had every opportunity to win that. You know, it all came down to a block field goal, unfortunately. It really decided the outcome of that game here. But, you know, there's so much to like with where the Broncos are at, with the young nucleus that they currently have. But I think when you look at it, I mean, Sarah, you mentioned it there.

The Eagles and Vic Fangio, they just sent their four-down linemen, really, all night. They didn't blitz the inside linebackers. They didn't blitz the safeties. Even though they got the guys that could do it, they just said, you know, we're going to clamp up. We have confidence in our four-down linemen, the guys like Jalen Carter and obviously sweating those guys, that they can just dominate and that they can win their one-on-ones

or that if a guy's getting double team, the other guys are going to win their one-on-ones. They made Patrick Mahomes life a living hell in Super Bowl 59. And he was trying to do a lot. And look, this was the worst game that we've ever seen from Patrick Mahomes in the Andy Reid era, but it wasn't all on Mahomes in terms of why they were. lost. It's, you know, we saw all those things, right? All those, what advanced Joseph call it?

Those moles that you have on you a little bit or the warts. That's what it was. We saw all the works that impacted them throughout the regular season, kind of come to a full head here in this game. And the Eagles, they did a great job to taking advantage of it. When you can go, and according to NFL next day, it's like you mentioned, when you can blitz, patch him home zero percent of the night, like you don't send a blitz at all, but you pressure him, I think it was like 36.1 or 36.8 percent. And you can sack him six times. And you can sack him six times. that's incredible. I mean, that is hard to do.

And it was almost like the perfect storm here for the Eagles defense against that offense that really for Mahomes and the chiefs, they couldn't get anything going. Of course, the final score 40 to 22. People are going to look at it and say, oh, it was like people that didn't watch it. They're just off a couple of scores. No, it wasn't even close.

This was an utter blowout from really start to finish a couple of garbage time touchdowns. It didn't matter. This was domination by the Eagles there. And I think that's what Denver can learn. Right. And, you know, kind of maybe shifts are thinking a little bit. here because we'll obviously get into this as the show goes on,

but does the trenches now for the Broncos defense, right? The defensive line. How important is that going to be here this offseason? DJ Jones is the only starter who's set to be a free agent at this point. Do you bring him back, which I'm a big proponent of bringing him back, or do you add another big, sizable guy there that can be dominant inside? Like, I mean, that to me is like where I'm going because you have Zach Allen, you have John Franklin Myers.

The scheme that Denver runs is not like Vic Fangio. So that to me is like where, you know, when you're trying to draw the parallels and the comparisons here, it's like, wait, how do you do that? Because you have two outside linebackers, but then you have to have your three-down linemen that are, you know, very good. You've got two of those guys. You know, one of those guys is a free agent, not sure if he's going to return. How can the Broncos replicate this with a different scheme? That, I think, is the million-dollar question here.

Yeah, because it wasn't necessarily guys like DJ Jones that were wrecking the game last night for the Philadelphia Eagles. Like DJ Jones played a little under 40% of the snap. this past year. Tremendous run defender, tremendous early down guy. The guys who dominated this game, though, are guys like Milton Williams, Jalen Carter, like you said,

Josh Sweat, these guys who are big, long, athletic, almost every down players. I know not anybody on the defensive line and the NFL is really an every down guy. And Jalen Carter is supposed to be a number one pick, right? What was that? Two drafts ago that he fell in the draft because of some off-field issues

and the Eagles scooped him up with the ninth overall pick. and everybody's like, well, great. Now you gave the Eagles basically a number one overall pick on the D line. Like that kind of stuff doesn't happen every year unless I guess you can want to talk about Pat Sertan falling to the ninth overall pick as well. But it's just, I mean, the Broncos are going to have to outkick their coverage on some draft picks, Cody. That's the reality of the situation because, I mean, you talk about Jalen Carter, first round pick, DJ. Sorry, excuse me, Devante Smith on the offensive side, first round pick, A.J. Brown acquired with a first round. Like a lot of these guys that we see, Quinyan Mitchell, who was a huge breakout player for

that first round pick, I mean, up and down this Eagles roster are guys that they've invested heavily in and over the years. Like this wasn't an overnight process. They did become, this is why I think the Broncos can really take from the Eagles here, okay? The Eagles were what, nine and eight or something like that. And Jalen Hertz's first year when he took over the starting role, he wasn't the day one starter that year. I think it was 2021, maybe.

The Broncos, I think, got beat by them pretty badly that year, actually. But the thing that you could take from that is this. They were questioning, how are we going to move on from Carson Wentz? How are we going to move on from this dead cap, all these different things? Jalen Hertz all of a sudden comes into the mix, you're 9 and 8, the very next year. They were one of the elite teams in the NFL already. So I think that progression for the Broncos can be similar in where, okay, we've got our quarterback.

Now let's start investing around him and building around him and doing what Howie Roseman does best, Cody, better than most general managers. He's opportunistic and he's super aggressive. Like the Eagles are always looking to upgrade the roster. And I feel like we talk about this frustration oftentimes on our show. Like, why is George Payton not going after this guy? Why is Sean Payton not going after this guy? It's always the Eagles that seem to be going after all these.

They're taking shots on Jahan Dotson. They're taking shots on all these other players. you roll those dice because you feel like you have a chance to develop them in your system. And so maybe there's a number of things you could take from what Howie Roseman and the Eagles do differently than Denver right now, team building-wise. I think the Broncos will have to do that going forward. And maybe that is the process, right? Maybe the first year of Sean Payton in Denver and going into year two, it's like, hey, we've got to get our foundation set before maybe they can do stuff like that. Well, now that the Broncos foundation is set, I'm very, very curious.

Will they be ultra-aggressive? I personally hope that they do, right? I hope they just go out there and they make that aggressive push, that aggressive swing because right now the chiefs are kind of on that back end. They're in a little bit of a downward spiral, and now is the time to capitalize on that here. But Broncos country, we're not done yet. Up next, we're going to debate whether or not inside linebacker

now becomes the biggest off-season priority here for the Denver Broncos. You're going to get that here on today's episode of the show. Today's episode, Lockdown Broncos is brought to you by friends over there at length in jobs and as a small business owner, your work doesn't end when the clock hits five. Your business is always on your mind, which means that when it's time to hire, you need a partner that works just as hard as you do. That's where LinkedIn jobs comes in handy because when you clock out, LinkedIn, they clock in. LinkedIn makes it easy to post your job for free. Share it with your network and get qualified candidates all in one place.

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We're going to talk about why that might be a crucial area for the Broncos to address on the roster in 2025 and more on today's episode, Lockdown Broncos. But Broncos country, thanks so much for making us your first listen of the day every single day. And as we look through and sift through the aftermath of the Super Bowl, let's get ready for an offseason together of figuring out how the Broncos can build a Super Bowl contender going forward, right? So join us every single day. Subscribe if you haven't done so already. We really appreciate you for doing that. And let's talk about this, Cody, because the inside linebacker position,

we've mentioned it before. Like, yes, the Broncos have a couple of free agents there, Justin Sernod, and obviously Cody Barton, free agents, Alex Singleton, going to be 32 this year coming off of a major knee injury. So this is already one of the biggest areas of the roster to be addressed. But after Super Bowl 59, after watching Zach Bonn, and I believe it was Oren Berks, the former Packers draft pick out there playing for the Eagles. Do you vault this up into the must-havs?

Because Sean Payton recently said, hey, it's a need, right? It's in that need tier. Do you vaulted up to the must-haves now after watching the Super Bowl? Yeah, this is a great question. And I would certainly say, like, when we watched the game last night, like having a, having that pass rush, you know, that the Eagles had, it was paramount. But I think we also have to remember the Broncos, they had one of the more impressive pass rushes in all the NFL this season. They had 63 sacks, which was a franchise record. It also led the entire NFL the season, even though you had the Philadelphia Eagles who, you know, still were producing at a high rate.

Keep in mind what Jamar Kane and the Broncos defensive line was able to do. And if they can bolster that a little bit, then, yeah, I think things can be even more paraps. amount for them. But like for me, I look at inside linebacker and I now feel like it has to be a little bit of a bigger priority, right? If you had to have a top priority on defense, to me, it's going to be inside linebacker for all the reasons that you're going to have, plus Alex Singleton coming off the ACL injury, plus the unknown question mark that is Drew Sanders. Then you only have an undrafted rookie free agent linebacker, Lavel Bailey. That's not enough to really go into 2025 and say, you know what? We're confident in being able to run it back to me.

This has to be the biggest position of priority here for the Broncos, at least on the defensive side of the ball here. Over D-Line, I think Devers D-Line is very strong there. We'll see what they do with DJ Jones. But lineback to me is the most important thing. And here's what I learned from that game against the Kansas City Chiefs on Super Bowl 59 by the Eagles defense. They didn't have to blitz those guys. They didn't have to send them in the A gap.

These guys, they read their keys, which was, okay, is the guard showing run or is it pass? Okay, I'm reacting. Run, I'm filling my gap. Pass? All right, I'm dropping back. Eagles did a great job of their linebackers dropping back into coverage there right at that middle of the field. I'm not talking about playing man-to-man coverage on a tight end, but dropping back into a zone locating there and taking away windows for Patrick Mahomes. Like, Rangy, sideline to sideline athletic linebackers there.

They did just that. And I think that's a big reason why we saw Vic Fangio, when he came to Denver. That's why he moved Baron Browning to off-ball linebacker because Baron's a freak athlete. And he's like, you know what? We need that type of athleticism. at that second level. I feel like that's probably the more paramount part of Vic Fangio's defense is that. So how can the Broncos, which all goes back to when Sean Payton took the job,

who was the number one D.C. candidate he wanted to bring in. It was Vic Fangio, but Vic even said this week past week, a Super Bowl radio row, it just felt like it was too soon for him to come back to Denver. So they got Vance Joseph. So how can Sean, in his place where he's at as the head coach, emphasize that this is what we need on the defensive side of the ball to Vance Joseph, right? because Vance, obviously I like the fact that he can blitz,

but what do we see at times last year, especially down the stretch? When you blitz too much and teams picked up on them, they got the ball out quick, the Broncos, they hurt on the defensive side of the ball because of it. So you need the linebackers to be able to do some of those things and have that bounce. I don't think that Denver had that this past season. They didn't.

And we saw it come to a head against the Cincinnati Bengals when Sean Payton said there's just way too many free runners out there, right? And so there was some lapses late in the year for Denver's defense. and I don't know that it was all necessarily due to the personnel at linebacker, but maybe, I mean, maybe that's the biggest issue. I guess I don't know 100%. And I think it's a big part of the issue, right? Because Sean Payton said that's in the needs bucket at this point.

And the Eagles, the way that they developed and built that position group was, I think a strategy that a lot of Broncos country would be upset by this off season. If the Broncos took a similar approach to what the Eagles did last year, which was you signed a guy like Zach Bond, who nobody knew going into this coming season that he was going to even be a starter for the Eagles, right? Because he didn't start for the Saints. He wasn't even a traditional off-ball linebacker with the Saints.

He was a special teams guy who signed a one-year deal worth like $3 million last year in the off-season. And then they brought in Oren Berks, who was kind of a backup for the 49ers recently. And sort of a bust, if you ask Green Bay Packers fans, when they took him in the third round out of, Vanderbilt a handful of years ago. So those are the guys the Eagles brought in.

I mean, they had Nicobi Dean who was consistently off the field injured. You know, he wasn't playing very often. And a huge concern for that team in terms of his availability. So if you talk about the team building aspect of it, like Broncos country feels like, man, this is, this just happens to teams like the Eagles. It's just easy for them. But they struggled tremendously in 2023 when they tried to replace two start at the offball linebacker spot when they played the Chiefs in the Super Bowl previously.

So I don't know, Cody, I just think, do you think the Broncos spend big money here? Or do you think they take the same similar approach to what the Eagles did to where it's like, I mean, we can kind of go budget friendly here and see if something sticks because we believe in our defensive coordinator? I mean, when you look at it in hindsight, right, it wasn't the sexy approach. It wasn't the let's go out and be big spenders here by the Eagles front office in regards to addressing that position. And it was, hey, can we identify guys that we feel like nobody else is really looking at the way that we're looking at them.

Right. And I think that when you look at Sean Payton, George Payton, the way that they have evaluated some players and they've brought in some players in and their justification for it. Now you've seen it work out in Denver. It's like, oh, okay, like the Broncos, they have the ability to do the same exact thing. Right. To me, it's like what the Eagles did was they found the secret sauce, right? It wasn't the sexy ingredient that's available at all stores that you can go and you can buy. But it was, hey, we're going to put some thought and put some emphasis here.

Okay, we're bringing in. Vic Fangio is our defensive coordinator. What does Vic need? You talk to Vic. You consult with Vic. Okay, I need athletic, rangy linebackers. What traits do these guys have? Then you go and you look at the bonds.

You look at the Birx. It's like, all right. The emphasis is we don't know what these guys are going to be just yet. But if they work out in the way that we think that they can, okay, things are going to pay off. And now Zach Bond is going to be probably one of the most coveted off ball linebacker free agents here in the cycle that's coming up literally a month from now, Sarah. So like there's going to be the blitz for that. Could the Broncos pursue him? That might be something that they do.

But we can't get into that right now. I think that you have to look at that. I think linebacker, off ball linebacker specifically does become a huge priority for this team. We already know Sean Payton said must have as a joker. I think you must have a linebacker. And it doesn't have to be the big spend. It doesn't have to be the big sexy name. To me, that's going to, I think, formulate to where this off season is going to go.

And like for a guy like Zach Bonn, as good as he played this year, is he going to get a massive contract right away? Or a team is going to be like, hey, you had a great year in Philadelphia. but your overall sample size, we don't know exactly yet, like how sustainable it is. Is he going to get a really big deal? Or is he going to get kind of like a low end in terms of like length, but also maybe like higher incentive based contract and, you know, in sense, kind of like a prove it deal. I don't know.

But that's got to be where the Broncos look here in terms of that. The more I look at it, the more I see, can you have a linebacker that can cover, you know, in the middle of the field, not necessarily man to man, but can he drop back in the zone and be a weapon back there? Can he play and plug the run? You know, can he shoot through gaps and get tackles for a loss behind the line of scrimmage? That, I think, has to be emphasis number one here for the Broncos. And look, well, Broncos country, we are curious for your thoughts here on whether or not this now shifts up to one of the bigger priority positions here for the Broncos, the off ball linebacker position.

Make sure you let us know here on today's episode, locked on Broncos. But we're not going anywhere just yet, Broncos country. Up next, what did the Eagles offense reveal that Sean Payton and Bowen can take advantage of on the offensive side of the ball next? year, especially if they want to win the AFC West. We'll take a look at that and much more here on today's brand new episode, Lockdown Broncos. Today's Lockdown Broncos podcast is brought through my friends over there at Fandul, America's number one sportsbook.

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Make every moment more fan to the official sports betting partner of the NBA. As we jump at the fourth core action on today's episode, Locked on Broncos. We'll highlight how Sean Payton and Bow Nix and the offensive side of the ball can learn a little bit from Jalen Hertz and the Eagles from Super Bowl 59. We'll get into that on today's episode show. Thanks once again, all the everydayers first listeners out there in Broncos country.

We appreciate you. Look, the offseason is here. That doesn't mean that we're going anywhere. We're here every single day all year long because for the true fan, there is never an offseason. Sarah, what can the Broncos offense, O'Nick, Sean Payton, what can they learn from the Eagles here in terms of their win and what we saw on Sunday? I think the biggest key from everything that we saw going into that game, right? Saquan Barkley, and we've talked about it here on the show is a dynamic running back, game changing, right? And we've said, hey, like the Broncos, they'd love to have a guy like Sequan Barkley.

but it's hard to find guys like that. Going into this game, I think a lot of people, including myself, I said, okay, hey, Sequan's going to win MVP. He's going to probably run for three touchdowns, and he's going to be the Thorn and the Chief's defense side. That was not the case. Kansas City, for as bad as things went for them, the only thing that really went right for them was stopping Sequan Barclay.

I mean, 25 carries, 2.3 yards per carry for Seekwon there. That was not the reason that the Eagles won the game. It was their defense. And also, Jalen Hurts stepped up. in a big time moment, right? We would say you need to run the football, but what happens if teams take away run the ball? You got to pass it.

I thought Jalen Hertz did a really good job finding his weapons in his game and also using his legs against the Chiefs defense at times. Which is what we need to see Bo Nix doing a lot of going forward, right? We know Bo can make the big time throws. We know that he's got the athleticism. And those are the things that need to be exploiting the opposing defense going forward. Every time the Denver Broncos take the field is, hey, don't make Bo Nix be the reason why you win every game.

Like, he doesn't necessarily need to be out there playing hero ball, which I think that that was one of the biggest things from his rookie year, Cody, that as you look back, you kind of feel like, man, they put a lot on Bo Nix's plate. They asked him to do a lot. And the reason they did that is because, well, they didn't necessarily have as many playmakers as they probably should. And, you know, you've got to give the Broncos some grace,

a grace period here to build this thing out under Sean Payton. But that's why getting playmakers is going to be so important. I mentioned it earlier. The Eagles invested a first round pick. Actually, I believe they traded around to get Devante Smith a couple of years ago in the draft. And he's been tremendous, phenomenal for them, makes unreal plays. And then not long after that, it was trading for AJ Brown, right? Being opportunistic and seeing, hey, the Titans are getting rid of this guy for a first and a third.

And we're going to take him. We need him. We need a guy like this. And it got their GM fired. They got their GM fired. Exactly. I mean, it's one of those types of things that you just have to be ready if you're the Broncos to be able to make moves like that to surround Bo Nix.

And then how easy would it have been for the Eagles to say, no, like we got Miles Sanders. Like we were in the Super Bowl with him. Like we can keep him around. We can continue to build with him. No, they go out and they get Sequin Barclay. They're like, we're going to make a splash at running back. And they already have Dallas Goddard. And you have the offensive.

line built out. So yes, it takes time. But if you're the Denver Broncos, like, you need to find ways to surround Bo Nicks with players that, hey, when he makes the big time throw deep downfield, like your guy is going to come down with an incredible catch if need be. We're not going to be talking about, man, if that would have been a tough catch, you know, it's one of those plays that's like could go either way. Like the Eagles have receivers who make those plays. And they have playmakers and their offense who make the impossible, really difficult plays. And so I think that that's how you support Bow Nix, just like Philly has supported Jalen Hertz. Yeah, and I think that's one thing that stood out to me from the Super Bowl.

And honestly, on the inverse, it was really surprising that Kansas City. I mean, they didn't even come out and try to run the football to really start that game there with Isaiah Pacheco. And they struggled. I mean, obviously, we talked about the pressure on Mahomes by the Eagles defense, but, you know, guys weren't necessarily getting open as well. You know, you had DeAndre Hopkins dropping passes. And it was just, it was a weird thing to see from Kansas City, not what we're normally accustomed to and go on the inverse right. You know, Devante Smith was the one guy who really stepped up in a big way early on.

AJ Brown, you know, J.L. Hurts tried to target him a little bit early on. You know, you had the offensive pass interference call really at the start of the game, which was questionable at best. And then all of a sudden, you know, he started to get a little frustrated. You see him joining with Siriani a little bit. And next thing, you know, they run him on a crossing pattern across the field there. He catches, it gets a touchdown.

And then he's excited. Like you get your two primary playmakers involved and you need that. here. You brought up Dallas got it, right? Because we've talked about the need for tight end being here for the Broncos. And I mean, he didn't necessarily have like the big game that, you know, he's had throughout the entire season. Like they didn't really need him to have the big game because they had Devante Smith stepping up. They had AJ Brown stepping up. But I think it was the, the couple of catches from Johan Dotson, they're number three guy that's like, whoa, okay, they got contributions from everyone. Whereas you look at the Broncos last year in games where I say it was like tight to the wire, Cortland Sutton was always the producer, right? but then it was like a guy like Marvin Mim stepping up big against the Cleveland Browns in that one game, right? And it's like, all right, you get two guys. Can you get like, is there a third option that can emerge just to like take the pressure off of those two guys? Denver didn't have enough opportunities for that that really happened. But they believe in Sean Peyton even said, as we highlighted when he was on Radio Row, he said that our wide receiver room is better than most people think. And he's got a lot of faith invested in Troy Franklin.

He's got a lot of faith invested in Devon Vele. But part of me does think that they could go out there and they could add another. weapon, which ironically enough, we've already talked about here on the show, Cooper Cup is available for trade. We've already put on our tinfoil hat, the conspiracies that link these guys together with Sean McVeigh and Sean Payton hanging out during Super Bowl week there at going golfing, you know, and doing those things. They're having dinner together. Then you also look at maybe the other ties that bind two over the week, and it was announced. And this is something we're going to talk about really in-depth on tomorrow's episode of Lockdown Broncos. The San Francisco 49ers

to the Broncos have a great trade relationship with already, they're going to look at exploring trading away Debo Samuel. And when you look at Debo Samuel, it's like, wow, there's the Joker role that automatically there's your top candidate for Joker for Sean Peyton. Could that be something that they go out and they do, right? Because maybe he said, you know, you have a need of a wide receiver, but we must have a joker.

Well, now you get two and one essentially with the Debo Samuel. If you're interested in trading for him, to me, it's like, all right, the Broncos, they might be, they might be preheating the oven a little bit. They might be pouring the vegetable oil or the olive oil. whatever is on the skillet right now to pre-heat the meal. Like I think that Denver is going to have a very aggressive approach to free agency. And obviously the NFL draft is coming up. I think Denver's going to make some noise this off season.

And it comes at a time where it seems like Kansas City's domination over the entire AFC West. It might be coming to an end here soon with the rise of the Broncos, with the rise of obviously the Los Angeles charters. Who knows what the Raiders are going to look like under Pete Carroll. But right now it looks like the Andy Reid Mahomes era. and look, this could come back to haunt me one day. Someone might clip descending into freezing cold takes, but this might be where things end for the chiefs in terms of their utter dominance,

which opens up competition around the AFC West. 100%. And we've only got, like you said, earlier, a month to free agency. So let the games begin, right, this offseason. And when it comes to keeping up with the Mahomes of the world, now it's all right, maybe they're done. Maybe that's kind of the end of it. Mahomes going to be 30 this year.

obviously, and that's not old by any means. But you know what? It changes the way the chiefs are going to have to build their team as well and develop their team. Because at the age of 30, like now you have to start planning for, hey, over the next window of time, the next three to four years, if we can't block for Mahomes against no blitzes in the Super Bowl, we still can't block. What is that going to mean for his future? Like how many more hits is he going to be able to take in games like this? How much more is he going to be able to carry the load in terms of getting out of the pocket, making plays with his legs? Like, at what point does the pressure cause a huge negative for them?

I'm not wishing that on them by any means. But what I'm saying is that, all right, now there's an opening. And if there's a crack, the Broncos have to be willing to smash through and do whatever it takes. This off season, I'm not saying like, hey, go, let's be patient over the next four to five to seven years. like let's go after it right now. Bo Nix is on a rookie deal. Like be aggressive this offseason and see the crack that is there and go take advantage of it. Don't be worried about, well, Buffalo's got Josh Allen and Baltimore's got Lamar Jackson and, you know, Patrick Mahomes is still there.

Take the crack that you've been given and absolutely smash through the door this off season. That's what the Denver Broncos need to do, Cody, in my opinion. I'm with you there. on Broncos country, as always, let us know where you think the Broncos should go with their offseason. Look, free agency is coming up. Then you've got the NFL draft. And then as OTAs, training camp and the season will be right here before you know it is never an off season here. Especially if you're a true fan, make sure you listen to lockdown Broncos every single day is your first listen of the day for all the Broncos news, content coverage and analysis that you cannot get anywhere else but here.

We appreciate you. For all you every day, here's what you're going to get on tomorrow's episode of the show. Debo Samuel will be available from the San Francisco 49. and should the Broncos look into making a move for him? Well, if Sean Payton's looking to get his Joker, we'll tell you why the Broncos need to be all in on the Debo-Samuel train. You'll get that much more on tomorrow's brand new episode, Lockdown Broncos.