Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - Denver Broncos' Bo Nix STRUGGLING CONFIDENCE is Impacting The Offense
Episode Date: October 12, 2026Bo Nix’s confidence has become the Denver Broncos’ biggest offensive concern after a survival-mode win over the Los Angeles Chargers.Cody Roark and Sayre Bedinger examine Nix’s decision-making, ...pressure rate, and shaky pocket presence while explaining why the quarterback isn’t solely responsible for Denver’s struggles.They also discuss the issues of an offensive line allowing interior pressure, inconsistent run blocking, and potential changes involving Mike McGlinchey, Luke Wattenberg, Ben Powers, and Alex Palczewski. They also assess Wil Lutz’s missed kicks, Denver’s mounting secondary injuries, missed tackles, and the challenge of facing the Seattle Seahawks on a short week. Can Nix regain his spark before the Broncos’ flaws snowball?Cody Roark is a credentialed beat reporter for Mile High Sports and provides boots-on-the-ground coverage of the Broncos daily in person. Sayre Bedinger is one of Broncos Country's longest-tenured voices, writing for Predominantly Orange. Together, they bring Broncos Country the most in-depth and objective coverage of the Denver Broncos every single day, year round.📸 - Ron Chenoy — Imagn ImagesWANT MORE DAILY DENVER BRONCOS CONTENT?For all of the latest Denver Broncos news today --Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/podcasts/locked-on-broncos/Locked On NFL League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Draft, & More🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/leagues/nfl/📲 Cody Roark Twitter / (https://twitter.com/codyroarknfl)📲 Cody Roark Instagram / (https://instagram.com/codyroarknfl)📲 Sayre Bedinger Twitter / (https://twitter.com/sayrebedinger)Everydayer Club If you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get access to ad-free audio version of Locked On Broncos, All-22 Film Breakdown, and access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. 📲 https://lockedonbroncos.supercast.com/📢 Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Gameday Men's HealthBook your complimentary test and consult at https://join.gamedaymenshealth.com/reasons_to_choose_gameday-1201?utm_source=lockedon&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=NFL&utm_network=lockedon&utm_adgroup=corp&ghl_tag=national,corpOdooGreat organizations win because operations matter. And that’s why you should get Odoo. Try for free today at https://Odoo.com/lockedon.Butcher BoxIf you're looking for an easier way to get great meals on the table, give ButcherBox a try. Go to https://ButcherBox.com/LOCKEDONNFL to get $20 off your first box, plus your choice of free ribeye, new york strip, or filet mignon in every box for a year — with free shipping always.AppleYou can earn up to 3% unlimited Daily Cash back on every purchase you make with Apple Card using Apple Pay. Apply in the Wallet app on your iPhone today. Subject to credit approval. Apple Card issued by Goldman Sachs Bank, USA. Salt Lake City Branch. Terms and more at apple-card-dot-com.https://learn.applecard.apple/unlimited-daily-cash?cid=apy-318-2000008800000-400000000000039&itscg=2030032&itsct=srvs-crd-P3004756-C3004897&mttnagencyid=c1a&mttnsiteid=133087&mttnpid=LockedOn%20%28Audio%29&mttnsubad=srvs-crd-P3004756-C3004897&mttnsubplmnt=&mttncc=USPrizePicksVisit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONNFL and use code LOCKEDONNFL and get $150 if you win your first $5 lineup!KALSHIToday's episode is brought to you by Kalshi. For a limited time, Download Kalshi and use code Locked On to get $25 when you trade $25. Kalshi. Trade what’s next.GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelGet three hundred fifty dollars in Bonus Bets — GUARANTEED — when you bet five dollars every day for seven days. Join all the action at https://FANDUEL.COMFANDUEL 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.
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Discussion (0)
QB1's confidence is lacking right now throughout the first five weeks,
and it's up to the Broncos to find a way to help him get his spark back.
You are locked on Broncos, your daily Denver Broncos podcast,
part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day.
Good morning, Broncos country aftermath.
Monday, Cody works, Sarah Bedinger here as we go through and talk about Bo Nix,
who's seemingly in a rough spot right now when it comes to his confidence.
That'll be a major focus of today's show.
plus the Broncos offensive line,
if some of the same issues keep happening,
they might need to make some shuffling changes.
We'll go through what those potential changes could look like.
And then we'll wrap things up by highlighting some of the Broncos
smaller concerns that are now starting to snowball
and become a little bit of a bigger concern as the season goes on.
You'll get all that here on today's episode of the show brought to you by Fandu.
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Sarah, let's have the conversation here, right?
We had our initial postgame show reacting to the Broncos win on Sunday.
Sunday, and I think we need to have a larger conversation here around Bo Nix.
And my goodness, I tell you, you're going to get different opinions left and right.
We're going to get different opinions here on this show specifically.
There's a lot of extremes.
There's get rid of Bo Nix, bench Bow Nix, be done with Bo Nix.
And then there's, hey, like, all right, he's struggling right now.
What can the Broncos do to get it going?
I'm not of the mindset personally of, all right, that's it, close the door, move on.
It's over.
I don't believe in that.
I'm not going to give up on the two years body of work that we've seen, just
because of a five-game slump right now.
But it is very clear, and we can all objectively say this.
Bow-Nix doesn't seem confident right now,
and that right now is a major problem that's holding him back from performing.
Yeah, I think we're all wondering,
where is the Boe-Nicks from the divisional round against the Buffalo Bills?
Where's the Boe-Nicks from last year's Packers game or last year's Cowboys game?
I mean, that's kind of what we're wondering.
Heck, where's the Bo Nix who wrote that emotional and really inspiring letter to
his daughter this off-season talking about coming back from that anguish?
ankle injury and really kind of making his bows for what this season and what he could do on
the field, what that could all look like, right? I mean, where is that guy? Where's the guy who
had the 25-yard run against the Houston Texans? Where is that guy who was, you know, I know we've
seen Bo make some plays. We've seen him make some throws this year against the Jags, against the
Rams, like the Broncos have been the comeback kids once again. But I feel like this was as as carried as
Bo Nix has ever been to a win, right? I mean, you and I agree. In many of these come from behind
victories, the game winning drives that Bo has orchestrated in his career. Like he's been largely
responsible for those come from behind wins. Whereas against the Chargers, it felt like his teammates
were kind of carrying him, you know, the defense, giving him short fields and the running game
kind of coming through late and all these different circumstances setting him up for a win. It felt like
this was the least responsible Bo has been for one of these come from behind winds.
And it kind of just gives us a chance to step back and say, all right, what's going on?
Well, it looks like Bo is broken to a degree.
Maybe it's mentally. Maybe it's emotionally.
Maybe he's just down and, you know, I don't know what it is.
He's just in a slump out there.
A hitter's got to change their swing when they're in a slump, Cody.
Pitcher's got to change his mechanics when he's in a slump.
And you got to find any way that you can to get out of it.
And it's almost good, in my opinion, the Broncos have a short week this week for Bo to kind of hopefully break out of it because he's going to want to get back out there really quickly after the game that he had on Sunday.
Yeah.
And I look, I think these last two games, it's the least confident I've ever seen Bo.
Right.
And I think that right there is to me, I think it's a mental thing.
And yes, the mental does impact the physical impacts the decision making, the on field stuff.
We all know that here.
But the thing that drives me nuts about the Bo Neck's narrative, right?
Like, yes, like folks, we are sitting here saying Bo Nix is responsible for a lot of his struggles.
Like, Bo is struggling.
We're putting it out there.
But the reality is like there's so many people like, well, it's just Bo Nix.
And there's nothing else going wrong with the offensive team game.
How the team plays certainly impacts Bo and how Bo plays certainly impacts a team.
We live in a world where both of those things can be true.
Both of those things can coexist with one another here.
The solution here is not to just, okay, get rid of this guy.
Look, the Broncos aren't in a rush right now to have to pay Bo Nicks, right?
I think that's a wild narrative that a lot of people are like,
oh, they got to pay in the shirt.
They do not have to.
There's no rush on doing just that.
I think the Broncos are going to be strategic about it.
Bo has to play better.
But, man, are we going to continue to ignore as a whole Broncos country?
There are some people that acknowledge it.
There are some people who simply refuse and they just want to point the finger at Boe specifically,
as if he's the only problem with this offense.
But my goodness,
watching the game back, can we talk about some of the issues on the offensive line?
Can we yet again talk about the center snapping the ball low and to the left of
Bo on a certain play where he gets sacked?
Can we talk about guys not coming open?
Can we talk about certain guys dropping passes?
Can we talk about on a QB sneak?
You got to get one yard.
Your right guard Quinn Miner is the only guy that generates push forward and your center
is getting pushed back on a freaking QB sneak.
To me, all of these things, every bad thing that Bo does, I feel like
it gets amplified because the Broncos' offense is rough.
It is painful to watch.
It is brutal to watch right now.
But I also felt like Sean Payton had some pretty reasonable thoughts on this,
obviously after the game here.
And I think one of the biggest things, too, was about the pocket.
Like Bo Nix right now, Sarah, if you look at our friends over there in NFL next gen stats,
they said that Bo NICs faced pressure on 34.5% of his dropbacks in week five,
which was the second highest mark for him this season.
That one game, the first time it happened was against the Kansas City Chiefs here.
Now, here's this.
The Chargers blitzed on 37.9% of Nix's dropbacks, which is their highest blitz rate this season,
according to next gen stats.
And they generated pressure on 45.5% of blitz dropbacks compared to 27.8% of dropbacks with four or fewer rushers.
Against the blitz, Nick's was 5 of 10 for 30 yards and a touchdown.
Without the blitz, he went 11 to 17 for 93 yards.
The pocket and it being clean certainly is part of that.
And that's something that Sean Payton himself made mention of.
I would say this. I think the one area, I think, you know, obviously there's a lot been said about his feet.
I think he's settling that down. I think it's important from a protection standpoint that early in games, we provide that clean pocket so that clock doesn't get juiced up a little bit.
Yeah, what he's talking about there, Cody, is obviously that when you face pressure early on, when you are under duress early on in games, what did, what, what, is, you're talking about there?
Sam Donald once say he was seeing ghosts out there. You know, you feel like you're feeling
pressure that may not even be there, right? And we've seen quarterbacks struggle with this.
Even the best quarterbacks in the NFL will struggle with this at times. Just kind of
feeling pressure that isn't there because why, just be honest about it. You don't trust your
offensive line. And I feel like that is a point of discussion right now with the Broncos and
Bo Nix, especially with the context of his ankle injury, right? I mean, he's not necessarily out
there playing scared, but like you mentioned, he's not necessarily playing as confident as we've
ever seen. In fact, it's probably the least confident that we've ever seen him play. I mean,
you and I both during the game yesterday, we posted on our Twitter pages, some things that,
like, I think a lot of the fan base is probably thinking, wow, Cody and Sarah have finally
turned on Bo Nix at long last. Like, that's not what we're doing, but like we can point out stuff
that's actually happening. And we can see stuff that's actually happening while also keeping the
perspective in mind that, hey, Bo is the guy.
Like Sean Payton also talked about this after the game, Cody.
Like you're telling Bo Nix, like, we picked you to be our guy at the position.
We picked you to be quarterback.
And of course, like, we're not going to just sit here and complain after every bad game and say,
well, the Broncos need to go figure out another solution at the quarterback position because
the quarterback carousel, I don't know if Broncos country remembers over the last 10, 11 years.
That's not a carousel that you want to be on.
You'd rather go to Disney World and hop on the carousel there.
Don't get on the quarterback carousel if you can avoid it.
We know that progression is not always linear.
We know that it's disappointing at the same time that Bo hasn't taken that year three jump that everyone's expected.
So yes, you have to play both sides.
That doesn't mean we're not saying, we're not giving analysis of a situation or that we're trying to,
well, we're trying to play the middle.
We're straddling the fence.
We're not willing to say anything bad about Bo Nix.
absolutely not. He's not playing good enough. We know he's the catalyst for this offense,
but at the same time, everything kind of has to come together all at once. But yes, we do need
Bo to flip on that light switch and become the Bo Nix that we know he can be. Agreed with you here.
And Sean Payton even mentioned another thing about the quarterback byproduct, some of the things
that impact the QB play. Here's what he said yesterday. And I think after four weeks,
there's a handful of things that collectively, you know, when it starts with me,
where it's like, all right, let's focus on these details.
And I think the byproduct helps the cue.
Obviously, the hardest thing to do in this league is play that position if you're not rushing the ball.
Keep going.
That's what he said.
Like, if you're not rushing the ball.
Like, and here's the thing, the Broncos consistently are not rushing the ball.
Well, I will say, I felt like they came out on Sunday's game and they tried to run the ball more,
but they weren't getting results.
Mike McGlinchie was getting pushback.
Ben Powers and Luke Wattenberg, those guys were getting.
push back. Denver, I don't know why they keep trying to run to the outside, right side,
because it simply doesn't work. You're not feeding RJ Harvey. Like, Denver's got some issues,
but maybe J.K. Dobbins got a little bit of momentum in that fourth quarter. And I don't know,
could that be the potential spark that helps the Broncos get things going here in the run game?
We can say this, folks. And I, once again, I think the conversation, once again,
people aren't going to listen to what we've said. There are going to be some people that completely
ignore it. Bo Nix is struggling. Bo Nix is a problem right now with this offense,
but he's not the only one.
And if you want to close the door on Bo, that's fine.
You can do that as a fan.
You can have that stance and that opinion.
I simply refuse to do that just yet because I still think there are a lot of issues with this offense.
Bo's part of it.
Bow's got to fix it.
So do these other areas of this offensive line and this offense in general that are struggling.
That sets us up perfectly because coming up next, the Broncos offensive line,
it might need some reshuffling here, Broncos country because it is far too inconsistent
and it is far from that best unit that everybody was praising.
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Maybe there's a reason why you don't see the same offensive line on any NFL team for four straight seasons.
The Denver Broncos, I don't know, Cody.
It's getting a little iffy there on the offensive line right now,
specifically at three of the five positions, right?
We've talked about this.
Garrett Bowles and Quinn Miners are really exempt from these conversations.
but Ben Powers, Luke Wattenberg, Mike McGlinchie, you've mentioned them already on this show.
They've become at times and maybe even consistently in some cases here, liabilities on the
offensive line, issues with penalties, issues with allowing pass rushers through, issues with
getting pushed back on quarterback sneaks.
I mean, we saw McGlinchy on one series in this particular game against the Chargers.
He allowed a huge tackle for loss on a screen pass and then followed that up with a penalty
on the very next play.
So what we're seeing from these guys is maddening to the point of considering some reshuffling,
like you mentioned, on the offensive line here.
Where do you start?
Like, what is the, hey, if the Broncos came to us and said, hey, we'll let you guys
make one change to the offensive line.
Where are you starting that discussion?
Oh, man, that's tough, right?
Because I feel like center play right now is a big concern for me because Luke Wattenberg
has consistently struggled with his snap placement.
He's a loud interior penetration.
I would really say Mike McGlinchie is definitely a problem area right now.
But the closest path to impact in the quarterback negatively, Sarah,
it always comes from the inside, right?
An interior pressure or pass rush situation there.
And Ben Powers and Luke Wattenberg have consistently struggled.
I mean, it's been rough to see.
And look, maybe it's for powers.
He's trying to find his group because not only did he have the tricep or the bicep
injury last year that put him on the shelf until December. Then he suffered a Liz Frank injury.
And Liz Frank injuries are tough for anyone to overcome. I know JK's trying to overcome that right now.
But I mean, I imagine for an offensive lineman who's probably a little bit heavier than some of
those guys that are moving like that, I imagine there's probably some impact there. Right. And I don't
want to discount that for Ben. But Ben is also on a pay cut right now. He doesn't have a lot of money
really left on his deal. And this is the last year that he's got on his contract currently in
Denver. So if you make a change, do you make it there at last?
left guard. The problem with center, you just paid Luke Wattenberg a four-year contract extension,
which to be honest with you, Sarah, I felt like that was premature. I'm not sure why they did that,
especially when they have other guys in the mix or they could bring in at least other guys
to challenge Luke specifically because what have we truly seen at center from Luke? It hasn't
been a consistent body of work, but you've got guys like Davis Webb, like he's the smartest center
I've ever been around. Okay, but we're not seeing it translate to the physical here. The Broncos can't
generate push consistently enough at the center position or left guard.
They're allowing a lot of penetration and pressure there.
So what do you do?
If you had to shuffle the offensive lines, sir, and let's just say like this is
break glass in case of mercy.
This is a doomsday scenario.
Let's just say things get bad here for Denver's offensive line, which I think is a big
problem right now is a big area of their offensive struggles.
What changes do you make?
Mike McGlunchy's got what?
One more year left after this year?
I mean, the Broncos essentially could move on after the season potentially.
but what do you do? Are you going to put Alex Paucheschi at right tackle?
If you wanted to make a change at left guard, you could certainly put Alex Paucheschi at left
guard. But I also think that doesn't get rid of your issues that you're currently having at center, right?
So if you were to make any changes, do you slide because he got a four-year extension?
Do you slide Luke Wattenberg over to left guard and put Alex Forsyth at center and then have Alex
Paucheskey as your right tackle? I mean, the Broncos are a year or two from that potentially
even being the case for them anyways.
Right. I think that is one of the scenario.
that you would ideally consider if you could make some wholesale sweeping changes to address
those guys who have been weaknesses on the offensive line is to say, all right, we got to figure
out who's our best five because the five that we have out there right now are giving up way
too much pressure. They're committing way too many penalties and they're having way too many
consistent issues. And so I would say that's one of the options. Maybe if I could only make
one switch to anything right now, I think I would say, let's put Palchowski back at
left guard and kind of see how that goes.
And give him a shot to prove himself again.
Last year, he played that position on an emergency basis.
It was not a strategic switch for the Broncos by any means.
But, I mean, even though you and I talked about it this off season, the fact that
they bring back Ben Powers kind of indicates, hey, we don't necessarily believe that
Palchewski is a, you know, long-term starter maybe at the left guard position.
I think right now with the way Powers is playing, we're kind of seeing why he got a pay
cut what pay cut excuse me why he took a pay cut to stick around with a pretty much guaranteed starting
job and so i think that lack of competition this offseason not getting palcheski in the rotation
or somebody out there i just feel like that was a mistake by the broncos and so if i could make
just one change and hope for the best i would say pal chesky let's get him in there left guard
and see if we can't figure things out but we also know that the run game has been pretty i mean pretty good
Alex Forsyth is in at the center position.
He's a better blocker than Luke Wattenberg.
So I wouldn't mind a couple of major changes being made.
You know, that's, is that going to happen?
Are we just talking in circles right now?
Are we the hamster on a wheel just kind of, you know,
hopeful of change when it's not going to come, maybe?
But at the same time, like the Broncos do have some alternatives in place
that they could consider.
And after Sean Payton rips play calling duties from Davis Webb,
you never know.
I mean, why not at this point create some more competition on the offensive line specifically?
I think if you're going to ever make a change personnel-wise on offense, you think about it on the O line before you ever think about it at QB, plain and simple.
I think that's where you have to look for your, and I never want to hear ever again, PFF ranks the Broncos O line is the number one unit.
I don't care about PFF and stop caring about it.
They don't, their evaluation means jack squat in the whole grand scheme of things.
It does not matter.
They don't know what the heck they're looking at here.
So I don't want to hear that it's the number one offensive line in football because it was the number one offensive line in football.
They could run the dang ball.
They can't do that.
That to me is the biggest problem right now with this team combined with Bone Nix's lack of confidence right now.
And when you don't have that to take that pressure off your quarterback, it can add up and it can spiral.
And right now, that's exactly how teams, when you look at the tape, that's how they're playing the Broncos right now.
They're not bringing anybody extra up into the box.
They're saying, you know what, this offensive line can't block anybody.
we're just going to keep sending four or five guys.
We'll drop six or seven guys back into coverage here in zone,
and we're going to make you try to throw it through the air.
But guess what?
We're going to take that away because you simply can't block us.
That to me is the most frustrating thing that has stood out,
I think especially in the last two weeks here for the Broncos offense specifically,
and it is a problem, and they're going to have to get that figured out here.
Broncos country, to Sarah's question,
if you can make one change right now on the Broncos offensive line,
what would that change be?
Let us know your thoughts here on today's episode.
of the show. But it's not just the offensive line. That's a concern. There's other concerns,
small concerns that are now starting to snowball and become bigger ones. Will Lutz is a part of that
problem. What's going on, everybody? My name is Ross Jackson, host of the Lockdown at Saints
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There are a lot of small problems here with this Denver Broncos team, despite the fact that they are three and two.
Look, that's the positive.
They are three and two, but there are a few things that are happening behind the scenes,
be under the curtain.
It's not being talked about enough that you've got to pay attention to because those
could become problem areas for this team in the grand scheme.
We'll get into that here on today's episode of the show.
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Sarah, let's talk about some of these small concerns that you and I have certainly talked about
on air. We've talked about it off air as well that are starting to add up a little bit and not to
discount anything he's ever done for this team because last year he came up big in a lot of
clutch moments. But you could make the argument really since the AFC championship game and on.
There have been moments where Will Lutz has kind of been a little bit inconsistent to where
I think there are times we go into a game. We're like, you know what? Like we don't worry about
Will. But as of late, I'm starting to be a little concerned about maybe the consistency factor
from him because he missed a normal field goal that, you know, he typically makes quite a bit in
yesterday's game against the charges. And I really kind of compounded to the negative as, man,
nothing could go right for this team at that point, right? And then he had the miss,
obviously, against the Rams. He had a miss last week against the 49ers. At what point do we
start having a conversation about like Will Lutz? Can he truly be the long-term guy here at the
kicker position here? As we've seen all these other young guys that can seemingly boom it,
I don't know if we get that vibe necessarily from Will, but that's not to completely take away
the game-winning kicks that he has made for this team. But I think Will is starting to become a little
bit of a concern. Yeah, when you're one of the highest paid kickers in the NFL, you've got to be
better than 28th and field goal percentage in three straight games with a missed kick, especially when
there's two from 40 to 49. I mean, can you excuse the 58 yarder or whatever it was against the 49ers
as you're trying to kind of like say, well, let's kick a field goal. Let's try to get an onside kick.
Okay, yeah, you can excuse that one. But the two that he's missed from, you know, 40 to 49, those are
kicks in tight games against good teams that you have to have, that you cannot.
And I know the Chargers are only five.
And I mean, that's a divisional opponent, though.
You can't lose a game like that because of a missed field goal.
Did the Broncos lose a game to the Chargers last year in L.A.
because of a miss kick as well?
I mean, let's just call it what it is, Cody.
So Lutz is making too much money to not get criticized for missing these kicks that he
needs to make because he's not a long distance kicker.
It would be different if the Broncos could rely.
on him from 50 plus on a consistent basis, but he's not that type of kicker.
He's not a boomer out there.
Yeah, what is that like?
What's it like to have a weapon like that?
The Jaguars have it so good, man.
Oh, man.
Yeah, 57-yard game winner.
Like, imagine, right?
I know that Will Lutz has made some game winners, and I know that he's, like you said,
we're not diminishing that whatsoever.
But if you're going to start getting in these rough situations as a team,
because your kicker who's well compensated is missing kicks in the
AFC championship game.
The difference in the game was missed kicks.
And I know that the weather was a huge factor there.
So once again, but at what point, Cody, do we just not make excuses and say,
hey, you got to go out there and do your job.
Like he did one job.
You have one job.
You have one job to go make kicks.
And so dating back to the AFC championship game, there is some growing concern.
You're 28th in the league right now in field goal percentage.
You've missed three of your first.
11 attempts this year, including one miss in three stray games.
Can't have it.
Can't have it from your kicker who's getting paid a lot of money.
And they have not brought in competition since Will has really been here to compete or push him a little bit,
which I think they should at some point.
Like I think it's too late to do that now.
But my goodness, like I get a little bit of envy watching opposing team offenses, you know,
around the league run the ball really well.
But I also get jealous watching guys boot in 58, 57-yard field.
with ease, with plenty of room to spare and more distance to travel.
It's like Denver kicks that out.
Like you got altitude advantage over here.
And you simply, it's like 50 doesn't feel like a gimmie anymore.
Right.
Whereas like, remember McManus, I think 50 was kind of his struggle area at times, right?
But he could make them.
The last time you really had a kicker, you could be super confident just to boot it
from any distance was Matt Prater.
Matt Prater could boot it from 64, 65 yards in the parking lot.
Like that's the type of confidence that you had.
Remember that stretch of games, and this is back in the Tebow era, too, where Matt Prater's nailing, 59-yard game-winning field goals.
Like the Broncos just don't seemingly have that advantage there, though I'd say, I would trade that because you want more accuracy within 40 to 49, 30-to-39, where I feel like at times Brandon McMahon struggled with some of those early on in his career and through his tenure.
But Will's got to be better.
I'll say the one thing that I think Will does really well on kickoffs, I think his placement on kickoffs are also really good.
So if he could just find a way to be more confident and be more consistent, then, okay, we're not talking about a kicker here in week five.
That to me, I think, is a small concern that could add up if the Broncos continue this trend or if he continues this trend.
And then injuries right now also a little bit of a concern that continues to pile up.
We don't have an official update just yet on Talanoa Hufanga, but Denver very much could be going into Sunday's game against the Seahawks without PS2, Riley Moss,
Talanoa, Hufanga against Jackson Smith and Jigba and a very explosive offense.
It can be tough if without those guys there defensively.
But I think the Broncos defense could still rise up.
But how concerned are you right now about some of the impactful injuries that Denver's taken
in the last couple of weeks?
Well, you definitely don't love to see injuries by any means.
But you also load it up at the secondary positions for a reason, right?
So these guys are capable of going out there and doing a good job.
We saw that against the Chargers.
We've seen that when they came in relief against the 49ers.
I feel like those guys can play well.
And hey, maybe this is why you brought in a guy like Taylor.
rap to come in and potentially get his first action with Hufanga going down with an injury.
Rap is an experienced veteran.
You've got the basically free practice squad call-ups.
So it might be an opportunity for him to come in as maybe a dime, you know, defensive back or
something like that just to prove a little bit of what he can do as a veteran player.
I mean, this, this in principle is kind of why you would sign a guy like that, right?
It's to say, hey, Hufanga's down.
Who do we call upon?
And well, we've got a veteran who's played a lot of games, a lot of big games, sitting on the practice squad, forced a lot of turnovers.
We need you to come in on a short week and step up in a big spot.
So I think that's a big deal, Cody.
And I also think to me, the mistackles continue to be a bit of an issue for this team, which is ironic because Broncos had 10 different players with a tackle for loss against the Los Angeles Chargers.
You shouldn't be really talking to much about missed tackles after a performance like that.
But I think that is still a concern that it's lingering just a little bit over.
for this team. They've got to clean that up. Yeah, and they allowed 155 rushing yards in Sunday's game,
which, you know, if it's a loss, we talk about a little bit more, a win. It's like, all right,
you know, where did they make the sacrifice there, right? Like you sacrifice this and you allow that,
okay, you can make the argument for that. But short week, Bronco is not going to have a lot of
time to go out there and prepare for the Seattle Seahawks. And same thing for Seattle. They're not going
to have a lot of time to prepare for the Denver Broncos either. They're going to have to
travel to the Mile High City on Wednesday. So a lot of moving pieces here. And we'll have you
cover. It's going to be a busy week, Broncos country. Make sure you're subscribed here on the
Lockdown Broncos podcast. Join the everyday or all access club so you can get access to the
all 22 film breakdowns and add free audio version of the show and so much more. Sarah and I,
we will be back tomorrow as we hear a little bit of the aftermath. Maybe we'll get an update on
Talanoa Hufanga, but we are expected to hear from Broncos head coach Sean Payton here shortly
in the next couple of hours and we'll see what updates he certainly has going forward. You'll get all
that on tomorrow's episode of the show.
