Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - Denver Broncos Building POWERHOUSE Front Office Structure

Episode Date: May 20, 2025

The Denver Broncos are building a powerhouse front office structure under George Paton and Sean Payton as the team looks to capitalize on finding their franchise quarterback in Bo Nix. How does the new front office structure put the Broncos on a path to compete now and going forward and what obstacles might they face in the coming years? 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!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. Skylight CalendarRight now, Skylight is offering our listeners $30 off their 15 inch Calendars by going to Skylightcal.com/NFL. LinkedInPost your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONNFL. Terms and conditions apply. 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 Denver Broncos are building a powerhouse front office structure, and it is because of the relationship of George Payton and Sean Payton. We'll discuss 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 happened at Broncos country? Happy Tuesday. Welcome into another episode of Locked on Broncos,

your daily Denver Broncos podcast, 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 every single day all year long. This is the place to be a special shout out to all the everydayers out there in Broncos country. Thanks for tuning in making us your first listen. However, you choose to do so. As always, I'm your host, Cody Roark, Broncos reporter for Mile High Sports. And I'm Sarah Bedinger, site expert predominantly orange.com.

And here's what we have installed on today's jam-packed episode of the show. The Broncos are building a little bit of a powerhouse struck. within their front office dynamic after a multitude of departures this offseason, and that's reflective of the relationship of George Peyton and Sean Payton. We'll talk about that. And on top of that, go into the dynamics of their relationship, what we've observed from them over the last two seasons going into Sean's third year now as the team's head coach will break every aspect of that down and how it's got the Broncos

positioned going forward in the years to come. We'll get all that on today's episode of the show. make sure you hit that subscriber follow button wherever you get your podcast or on YouTube so you never miss out on what's going on with your favorite team. Sarah, my friend, hope Disney World was great for you and your family. I know Broncos country missed you here on the show. But look, while you were gone, there was some restructuring of the Broncos front office. As we all know, there were a handful of key departures this off season. Brian Stark being one of the biggest ones, Darren Moji being another one of those. John Spitech, not with Denver, but formerly of the Broncos front office with the Raiders,

Then John Spytech poaches away Mark Thuse, who was, you know, the VP of compliance and a whole bunch of football operations here for Denver. So George Payton, Sean Payton had to restructure the front office, and they did so. Two external hires, nine internal promotions here for the Broncos, but the external hires were very big ones. They were obviously, you know, the Broncos, they've, Cody, they've done a great job of kind of adding slowly but surely to the front office over the last. last couple of years. And one of my, I think one of the biggest additions, Cam Williams, the co-director of player personnel along with AJ Durso, Cody, why is this such a big move? Well, AJ Derso is getting that co-director label with a guy. A.J. Derso has been with the team for 13 seasons. So when you're talking about bringing somebody in and giving them a title,

like this is a big deal. The co-director of player personnel, that's kind of in that what I would consider to be the brain trust. There's the entire scouting department. department, right, guys that you're sending out and gals that you're sending out to go look at this college talent or evaluate pro, you know, pro players around the league. And then there's kind of this, the inner circle, the circle of trust, you know, it's those people that, hey, you get a bigger voice or bigger seat at the table. And I think that's really fascinating to me. So you bring in somebody like this who, I mean, he's, he's been with the Patriots and then scouting, holding the, just a lot of different titles throughout the course of his NFL career, but part of multiple Super Bowl

wins in New England there. And certainly you get that flavor of kind of just what, you know, Sean Payton has brought, a member of the Saints did a lot of trades with the Patriots over the years while Sean was with New Orleans. I think there's definitely a mutual respect or a way of doing things in those front offices that I think Sean wants in Denver and maybe George Peyton as well, obviously. Well, and I think when you look at, you know, these moves here in terms of the structuring of it, right, having two co-directors of player personnel is big, right? Because let's say you lose one guy. Let's say you just have one guy in this position as the director of player personnel. Well, all right, you lose that guy, which the Broncos lost that guy, essentially. Now you

have two guys in place. It allows you to say, okay, even if we lose someone, now we can kind of promote from within and allow people to work their way up into the organization. And that's really been process here of the Broncos for so long. I think Darren Moji was a great example of that throughout his time in Denver, worked his way up almost every single year. He was with the team from being a scouting intern to then overseeing the entire personnel department for the Broncos and then becoming George Payton's assistant GM. Well, with the departure, Darren Movie, the Broncos now have a brand new assistant GM

internally promoted within the organization. Reed Burkart will be the right-hand man here to George Peyton. He was previously the director of player personnel. So talking about those roles that AJ Dursso and obviously Cam Williams have now, instead of that being one guy, there are two people with that title as co-directors of that category with Burkart getting the promotion internally up ahead. I think that's a great way to kind of restructure this front office. And I don't know if every front office around the NFL is kind of like this, right? But I think what you do is you bring in the best minds of the scouting minds, guys with so much experience, girls with so much. experience, which we'll get to here a little bit. That's where the Broncos have really done a great job with this structure of this front

office. You know, everyone's like, all right, it's just George Payton, you know, his scouts there. The scouts have such a major piece to the Broncos roster and organizational puzzle here that even Sean Payton himself has said, like, these people deserve all the credit here because it's such a collaborative effort there. So obviously with Cam Williams coming over from the New England Patriots after spending the last nine years with them, the Broncos, they see a familiar face return to the front office structured Jordan D's on.

He was originally part of the Broncos front office from 2015 to 2021. He departed in 2021 to go to the Philadelphia Eagles under Howie Roseman where, look, the Eagles from that time frame on, you talk about the draft. They've always been a team who's kind of dominated the draft in terms of getting high value, great value picks and guys who are contributing immediately. You bring him over here. He's got a role now with the franchise where he is the director of pro-personation. personnel. To me, I think that's an interesting tie here. Like, you're getting two really good guys

as external hires that are coming to the fray here to work with George Payton and Sean Payton. Yeah, that's a fascinating one because I believe he left the front office when George was hired, or maybe it was that he spent one year with George Peyton in Denver. So he was a John Elway guy. And then you go to the Philadelphia Eagles, obviously had the connection there with Matt Russell and things like that. And so that's a great person to bring back to the organization because how many teams around the NFL do a better job than the Philadelphia Eagles of pro scouting? The Philadelphia Eagles are experts at taking calculated risks on players who, I mean, you could look at how certain things worked out differently, but obviously like the Mackay

Beckton pickup last off season. That worked out extremely well for them because he's now a big money player for the Chargers. On the other end of the spectrum, though, there's, you know, like the Jahan Dotson trade. And I think those are all worthwhile risks to take because for every Mackay Beckton, there might be 5, 10, 15 Jahan Dotsons, but at the same time, you take those swings on guys who are talented. Maybe, maybe this, the return of Jordan dies on in the front office, Cody. Maybe that can prompt the Broncos to do a little bit more because you know that's one of

my favorite things that the team can possibly do is take shot. calculated risks on those reclamation project type guys because talent, if you can get, if you, if you trust your coaching staff, and I think Sean Payton really does, get the best out of those guys who are once high draft picks who have been kind of cast off by teams or who could be available for discounted prices. And then I want to just quickly touch on the, the promotion of Reed Burkart because he's a former Minnesota Vikings director of pro scouting. I think that's an interesting move there to monitor because I think when Cody Rager was brought in, we all kind of assumed he was on the fast track to maybe being the next GM to come out of

Denver's front office. But instead it's Burkhart that's getting promoted to assistant GM. Not that that's anything against Rager. I think he's kind of in his lane and doing what he does as part of that brain trust. But Burkhart, interestingly enough, spending 13 seasons with the Minnesota Vikings. It's it's great for George Payton to have somebody, you know, when you spend a lot of time with somebody, you can either have a yes person, you know, in your ear, or you can have somebody that's really holding you accountable and who understands your flaws as an evaluator sometimes or who can remind you of like, hey, I've been with you for 17 years now from Minnesota and Denver. Like, remember, remember when this happened? Remember when you were thinking this way about

this guy and you didn't pull the trigger on it or you should have done this? You have done this. You have somebody like that, they have such a long relationship equity with that can really help shape your decisions in a positive way and kind of keep you from making those mistakes that maybe you've made in the past. So I really like that aspect of the move to bring somebody up into that title who now, hey, you've got a bigger voice at the table. I want you to tell me when I'm wrong. I want you to tell me when I should be taking these risks. I like that move for George Peyton and the Broncos. Well, in one reason I love the dynamic between George and Sean Payton, which we'll dive deeper into coming up here in just a little bit.

I just think that John's background, he came into the league as really evaluating talent as well as a coach. Like as a coach, you have to be a really good talent evaluator. There are so many guys that just specializing like the X's and O's, but if you don't know how to evaluate players and talent, you know, you might be a little bit one-sided there. So he obviously understands the importance of that, of the scouting aspect of it. George Payton coming into the league, obviously, as a scout and working his way up and really just becoming a great process and a talent, evaluator throughout his career as a scout. I think George and Sean actually came to the league around the same exact time,

if I'm not mistaken. So you see the dynamic that is present there. Both of these guys as GM and head coach understand the importance of, hey, we need really good talent evaluation, not only from themselves, but they have a scouting department in place, which I always like to look at the scouting department is kind of like the offensive line. These are the guys that do a lot of the dirty work, but never get the glory for what you see go on behind the scenes there.

But I think that the Broncos, the relationship between George Peyton and Sean Peyton, has the Broncos building in a positive direction. We'll debate and discuss that here on today's episode, Lockdown Broncos. Today's episode Lockdown Broncos is brought to you by Fan Duel, the NBA playoffs, although sad for Denver Nuggets, fans are down to the final four. And every night is still delivering highlight-worthy performances, major momentum shifts, and those can't-miss moments that we all love about playoff basketball, whether it's a game winning shot or a breakout player,

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The relationship between Denver Broncos general manager George Payton and head coach Sean Payton, it's never been stronger. These recent hires and promotions in the front office, they tell us the story of why Cody and I are going to discuss that on today's episode, Lockdown Broncos. But Broncos Country, thanks so much for making us part of your day every single day. We appreciate you all so much, especially those of you who are everyday listeners of the show, Mile High salute to you. If you're not already, go ahead, take a couple seconds. Become one today.

Get us at the top of your podcast feed at the top of your YouTube algorithm. Hit subscribe today. We really appreciate you for doing that for us. And Cody, I think that early on when Sean Peyton was hired, it was interesting. The spin was while George Payton got strong armed into hiring Sean Payton, it was never George Payton's decision. It was always the ownership's decision. George Payton going to take a backseat to Sean Peyton. Sean has final say of the roster, and he does have final say on the roster. But I think that everyone assumed that this relationship between these two guys was going to be so contentious that George was eventually going to phase out. Sean was going to be the de facto general manager like Mike Shanahan used to be in Denver. And it was going to become sort of this power

struggle that ultimately led to George being like, you know what, screw this. I waited so long for a general manager opportunity. I'm not going to just sit around and be told. what to do when in reality now the opposite has happened i think it's interesting you and i kind of got flamed for talking about this when it was kind of unfolding back in 2023 you and i were very optimistic that these two could work together and work well together and i think now we're starting to see the real fruit of their relationship coming into play these two guys man they i would say based on what we're seeing with these front office hires that their relationship has never been stronger No, it is in a tremendously great place.

Obviously, we saw them sit in court side together at a Nuggets game more recently. Unfortunately, you know, at the Western Conference Finals coming up, we won't be seeing that because the Nuggets are out. Can't stand, Oklahoma City Thunder. Make sure you go check out lockdown Nuggets for how the Nuggets are going to get out of that mess of an off season after all the stuff to happen this year. But in terms of like the George and Sean dynamic, I mean, Sarah, so much of it, George took a lot of heat and he had, you know, he had some blemishes on his name because of the Russell Wilson trade. because of the hiring of Nathaniel Hackett.

And I understand. I think that's fair to say, you know, he's definitely got some blame for that. But I also think there's so much missing context about that. Like what George has done since coming on is the GM in terms of building this roster. I mean, you look at his draft classes. They have been incredible here for Denver. You have so many guys that are, you know, that you drafted, that are impact players now, rising stars.

Of course, there's a couple of misses there. Greg Dulcich being one of those guys. That was a guy that Nathaniel Hackett. at one of them. But then this goes, I think, to kind of paint the picture as to what this relationship is like. Sean Payton as the head coach, right? His job is to obviously get this team in place, get them in a place to be competitive, to create a structure offensively, defensively, special teams wise that makes the Broncos a competitor. George Payton's job as a general manager is to ask Sean Payton, Sean, what do you need in order for us to win? Sean tells him that.

George goes and makes it happen. That's what ever, that's what the GM job is. People always make it seem like, you know, oh, Sean's actually the GM. Well, the GM works for the head coach. Oh, I wouldn't necessarily say it works for, but works alongside both as we know the structure as it's been reported. George and Sean report to Greg Penner. But that brain trust, that collaboration or that triangle, as Sean has said, like you need that important dynamic for an organization. That is firmly in place here. And it's crazy to see after what had happened in 2022 with Nathaniel Hackett and the whole debacle there.

how fast things have changed for the Broncos culture-wise. And granted, 2023, the first six games of the season, Sarah, it did not look pretty? One in five. And everyone was saying, like, did the Broncos make a mistake with Sean Payton? I know we were even having conversations that we didn't see this coming here for the Broncos. Then they go and they win five straight. And it's like, all right, there's a method to the madness. But the dynamic between George and Sean from their relationship, these guys collaborate one, you know, with one another.

When it comes to roster decisions, what they feel. like they need and they even discuss how they feel about a player in the evaluation process there. And a lot of people, I think, make the assumption like building up to the draft. What if you guys disagree? Like, does it get heated? He says, no, we talk about it. Like, I think that a lot of people have kind of put like these irons in the fire, so to speak, to try to create a narrative that the dynamic between these two guys wouldn't be successful

when the reality is, as we've seen the fruits of the labor, suggests that these guys, they actually love working alongside one another. I think it's evident from the day to day of what we see, and I can tell you just be in their boots on the ground in Dove Valley Daily. I see these guys talking all the time at practice in between periods. And George even says, like, you know, Sean and I talk probably two or three times a day. You know, there's a 24-hour open line of communication between them. This is what I feel like can be the next powerful dynamic in the NFL.

George Payton, Sean Payton, and the Broncos have a lot of pieces in place that. make that a reality. And one of the biggest pieces that's been in place over the last couple of years is the ownership group, right? And I think that when you talk about being a head coach and being a general manager in the NFL today, yes, you want to get to that point. If you're an area scout for some team, that's your ultimate goal is to be a GM, right? You want to be a general manager, run your own team.

If you're an assistant, you know, quality control coach, you want to be an NFL head coach someday. And for these guys to get to this point in Denver with an ownership group that is the richest ownership group in American pro sports, you have a dream job. Like you have the dream job. You have every reason to be motivated to work together. Like, yes, Sean Payton is one of the best head coaches of the last 30 years in the NFL. George Payton waited, what, 15 years or so to accept a general manager position in the league. I think that there's a huge misconception out there that these guys are just like,

itching at chomping at the bit to to move on to the next NFL city to get rid of each other, so to speak, right? And you have this ownership group that's supporting you in such ways, giving you every available asset to make the team better. And you're finally starting to see the fruit of that. And to me, Cody, I think that the internal promotions are one of the biggest reasons to believe that these two guys are working so well together because they're like fricking frack. You know, they're laughing at each other coming off the podium at the combine or at the pre-draft presser, like they're cracking jokes about each other, things like that. They get each other.

They understand each other. When you understand each other like that, that's so huge for a working relationship. You know, it's just like, you know, you and me doing this podcast every day together. Do we agree on everything that happens with the Broncos? Well, according to some of the listeners, maybe we do, but we don't. We talk about these things. Yeah. We write stuff out in the script.

And we have differing viewpoints. And we have a lot of people that we talk to every single day that we disagree with. we would build the team differently, but ultimately, these guys, they are in sync. They have figured it out. They've gone through the rocky period of a relationship. And now that you've got a quarterback, of course, it makes everything a little bit easier. Well, I think when you overcome some of those tough hurdles, like the biggest one I would say of their tenure together is probably the Russell Wilson contract, right? Like trying to figure out how to maneuver off of that, they did it.

They ate the largest portion last season. And then now they had flexibility coming into this offseason. They go and they get Talanohu Fonga. They get Drake Greenlaw. They have a draft where you talk about the joking dynamic between these two guys. What was it? George said, you know, we want to congratulate Sean on, you know, his first ever trade back in the NFL draft in his, how illustrious career, whatever it may be.

Just you see the fun that these guys have with one another. There's a level of trust there that I feel like these guys, they both have gone through the fire a little bit here. We're trying to turn the Broncos around. And now we're just seeing it pay off. I mean, look at it. Look where Denver is at. And obviously these are some of the pieces we'll highlight coming up here in a minute.

But you have a quarterback of the future already in place here. You have a reigning, defending, undisputed defensive player of the year in Pat Sertan. And you have a lot of young pieces, a young roster that proved to be pretty competitive last season when nobody thought that they would. And now you have a system in place where the Broncos, they're in a good position going forward in terms of building this team. We'll talk about how that dynamic between George and Sean has the Broncos heading in the right direction. not only now, but for years ahead. We'll debate and discuss that here on today's episode, Locked on Broncos.

How does the relationship between George Payton and Sean Payton had the Broncos ready here for 2025, but also in a position to compete going forward? We'll discuss that here on today's episode, the show really quick. I want to say thank you once again to everyone in Broncos country, all the everydayers out there. We couldn't do the show without you.

You make the show exactly what it is. So make sure if you're watching on YouTube, you comment on it interact with other members of Broncos country. If you're listening to this, wherever you get your podcast, make sure you hit that like or that subscribe button. Leave us a five-star review telling us how much you love the show. It would mean the world to us. It would get this out to more members in Broncos country.

Let's go through the dynamic here as we continue to talk about the relationship between George and Sean Payton. I mean, Sarah, I think when we look at how the Broncos are positioned as a team going forward, they're in a good spot right now. And certainly, yes, maybe there's still some questions in certain areas. But I think that the Broncos have a lot of pieces in place right now that have them primed to compete here going forward. I think first and foremost, I touched on a little bit in the last segment.

The Broncos have their quarterback now in Bo Nixon. When you answer that question is who's our quarterback? I feel like as an organization, it gives you an idea as to where you can go, how you can build this team around, you know, a young guy, right? Now, obviously with Bo Nix on a rookie deal, you have a little bit of time to maximize this window, but you have answered with so many teams still in the NFL or still looking to answer is who is our quarterback. Well, the Broncos have that guy.

his name is Bo Nix. They do. Cody, I've already started exercises on 2026 mock drafts, you know, kind of just looking at what players should we have on the radar, you know, what quarterbacks are out there. I think you could see potentially a matching. If all goes according to plan, you could see as many as six in the top 12 next year again because there's so many teams out there that are looking for quarterbacks like desperately. They would like they would pull the trigger in the first. round if a guy was good enough. That's the, that's just the reality. And even more,

I think would try to move up some of the good teams that have, you know, the Pittsburgh Steelers. They, they don't have a quarterback. So I think that when you have somebody like Bo Nix that you can actually build around and a guy that has not just upside, but man, I think as the game continues to slow down for him, remember he talked about that last year after his first handful of weeks in the NFL. He's like, I felt like things just kind of slowed down for me a little bit. as the game continues to slow down for Bo Nix, I think that's a scary prospect for everybody else,

especially because the Broncos have four out of their five positions on the offensive line locked in to big money contracts right now. They now have flexibility in the NFL draft to be able to go after future assets on the offensive line. I mean, what we're talking about is a team that just climbed out of a $90 million hole and is taking a third cornerback in the first round of the draft a year later. I mean, how crazy is that? I don't think that gets talked about enough,

the fact that the Broncos are in such a good position as a roster on the cap for the future at quarterback. They took a third corner in the first round of the 2025 NFL draft. That is impressive. And for this team, we were talking about should they take a tight end? Should they take a running back? The luxury of where this team is at right now, roster-wise, it proves like, okay, George Payton, I can go get you. Sean, what do you want? What do you like? What is your, what makes you tick? What kind of guys fit your offense? What kind of guys are you looking for for your defense? George knows exactly

what Sean is looking for. Those two are, you got an elite talent evaluator, getting a guy who's elite at playing the game of chess in the NFL and all the pieces are falling into place. I don't feel like you could have said that any better. That was perfect the way that you kind of highlighted that dynamic there. And I'll even go to great lengths of saying this as well. You know, what does Sean Payton said that he believes will help a young quarterback like a Bow Knicks, having a strong run game, right? Which we are hoping that's going to take off this upcoming season, but also having a really good defense in place.

The Broncos, they had a really good defense last year. And of course, they had some works from time to time. We saw that down the end stretch of the season, but they went out and they kind of attacked those needs with fire this offseason, getting a versatile coverage dynamic linebacker like Drake Greenlaw and a safety like Talenoa who Fonga, who can help them stop the run. I mean, this isn't a guy who's just going to play against the past, but it's like when we go smaller,

we still need to be able to stop the run against some of these run heavy teams. We need to be able to have that hybrid difference maker. Talano Oufanga brings that to the table alongside Brandon Jones. And then you go and you add Jada, Barron, and gives the Broncos more coverage guys to match up against some of these elite level wide receivers and these teams that have multiple weapons in the receiving game that Denver is going to face obviously here in 2025, when you also have money tied up to your defense,

significant amount of money. when you talk about Greenla on Hufanga, but not only that, Pat Sertan, you've got Zach Allen coming up, Nick Benito potentially coming up so much money invested in your defense right now, which I think is important here for the Broncos to maximize this window now with Bo Nix. But I also want to talk about maybe some of the obstacles that the Broncos could face along the way. They're in a great position right now, but what obstacles could be coming up here in the next couple of years,

Sarah, I think first and foremost, that cost of that expensive defense, you're hoping, I think, in this window to be able to capitalize it because eventually now you're going to have to start paying the offensive side of the ball with some of these other guys as well. This is where I'm trying to figure out how do the Broncos find that perfect balance? Because this is an obstacle that is coming up here in the next couple of seasons for Denver. It really is going to come down to investing your draft capital and hitting on guys at the premium positions, right? That's why we saw the Broncos in this year's draft. Like I said, you took a corner in round one. that could end up being a big deal for you because now you've got five years of inexpensive team

control at that position. And you go after edge rusher in the fourth round. It's like the Broncos didn't really need an edge rusher. Well, you take premium positions because if you can hit on those guys like a Jonathan Cooper, man, that really helps your team over that window that you're talking about. And then you just take all these other premium positions. I think that's where we're going to see. I'm putting this on the radar way out in advance. But I would be shocked if next year's draft isn't heavy on the offensive line early on for the Denver Broncos because ultimately you're probably going to shift some of what you're paying on that offensive line to some of these defensive guys, right? And you can't pay everybody on the offensive line. I mean, you just paid Ben Powers and Mike

McGlinchie in 2023. So next year is when we kind of start looking at, okay, 2026, 27, we need to have somebody ready here in the next couple of years. The Broncos, I bet you they're going to go first or second round, offensive tackle next year. And that would be the first time they've drafted an O tackle since Garrett Bowles in 2017. So I think you're going to get somebody like that. I think you could see high investment as somebody who can play both center and guard. But to get those offensive line contracts off the books, that will help you pay. All right, we can now pay our corners, like Riley Moss. You know, we can pay our receivers. If Marvin Mims ends up being somebody they can feel like they can build around, we can pay Marvin. You know, you can pay all these other guys

because you're investing that draft capital now on the offensive line and kind of resetting those clocks at premium positions. I think that's a good point, but let me even take it a step further. What if the Broncos are already doing that, right? And they're doing it the unconventional method with undrafted guys. Alex Paucheski, the Broncos really, really high on him. He thought he did a really good job stepping in for Mike McGlinchie.

Last season, could Alex Paucheske be the potential step in for McGlinchie, the eventual successor potentially? There's a possibility there. And it's not an expensive contract because he really was an undrafted rookie free agent. And so for him, all the pressures on Paucheschi to continue to perform and to grow, but the Broncos have leverage from a financial standpoint there. And then I even talked about this a little bit in yesterday's Melbag episode about maybe a guy like Clay Webb. Could Clay Webb be the potential center for the Broncos at some point?

Is he going to be thrown in the center competition? Or is he maybe envisioned as a guy who could maybe take over eventually for Ben Powers? I mean, with the way that George Payton, Sean Peyton have talked about Clay Webb, it makes me wonder. And look, right now it's a little bit of a stretch to say that because, hey, he's an undrafted guy. We haven't seen him yet. But this preseason, we might actually get a look that says, okay, hey, this might be the plan here for the Broncos internally to kind of get ahead of that, which goes back to the talent and evaluation process, the scout, the front office structure, what the Broncos brass behind the scenes outside of George and Sean Peyton have done to put the Broncos in this position. And also, I'd even say, like, I wouldn't even be surprised if wide receiver next year is one of the Broncos top investments. I mean, look, you got the kid at Alabama.

You got the kid at Ohio State, Jeremiah Smith. I think Jeremiah Smith has to play another year if I'm not mistaken. I don't know if he can come out, but it's like, who's the Ryan Williams kid? I think he also has to play another year. Could the Broncos in two years from now? Could they maybe be in line to take one of the top wide receivers in the NFL draft? I just think they have so much flexibility right now. I'm curious to see how they manage it.

There's definitely going to be some bumps in the road along the way. Like, you know, we're sitting here talking about the positive of the Broncos front office. And of course, like, Broncos country, we're not sitting here just trying to blow smoke up your rear end. We're sitting here talking about Denver's in a good spot right now. And yes, there will be challenges ahead. But that's for every organization. I think the Broncos have shown so far in the two years since Sean has come on as head coach now going into year three. He and George have been able to navigate the Broncos out of what we thought was

I don't know, category five hurricane. Like the worst case scenario, the Broncos were just in such a bad position. The Russell Wilson contract was going to doom them forever. Well, now they've gotten, they went through the storm. They made it through the eye of the storm. They made it through the other side. And now they're coming out of it. And it's like, hey, the ship is firmly intact.

So I'm excited about the direction of this team. We'll obviously be able to see how they navigate some of these challenges and obstacles along the way here. And Broncos country, we want to make sure you're with us every step of the way here by being in every day or here on the lockdown. Broncos podcast, subscriber follow. If you haven't done so already. But with that said, practice is coming up here in the next two weeks.

That means we get a look at the Broncos as the veterans and the rookies all gather for OTAs beginning next week on the 27th through the 29th. I'll be there at practice, but we'll have some build up the entire way here with Sarah and myself, Lockdown Broncos. What that said, Broncos Country, that I'll wrap up today's episode show. We appreciate you so much for rocking with us. And for all you every dayers out there, make sure you tune in tomorrow because Sarah and I, we're going to be beginning a new series that's.

going to lead up to Broncos practice. We're going to take a look at the starting depth chart in terms of RIs where the depth chart is at, pieces that can be moved in or off the depth chart as well as the Broncos. Look to begin 2025 with a bang. We'll break that down much more on tomorrow's episode. Locked on Broncos.