Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - Denver Broncos CB Patrick Surtain II Dealing With Minor Ankle Sprain

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Denver Broncos are riding the high of Sunday's win against the Indianapolis Colts, but it's going to have to be short-lid because they have a short turnaround Thursday night football, the Chargers where they're going to have to go on the road and face them in an AFC West Divisional Showdown. What's the latest on Broncos cornerback? Patrick Sertan. We'll break that down and much more. Here on today's brand new episode, Locked on Broncos. You are Locked on Broncos, your daily Denver Broncos podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. What's happening in Broncos country?

Starting point is 00:00:35 Welcome into another episode of Locked on Broncos, your daily Denver Broncos podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Thanks once again to all the everydayers out there in Broncos country. Thanks for making us your first listen of the day every single day, wherever you get your podcast. We appreciate you so much. I'm Cody Roark, Broncos reporter from Ohio High Sports. Join as always by Sarah Bediger, site expert, predominantly orange.com.

Starting point is 00:00:59 Also right at NFL SpinZone, we have you covered every single day all year long as it pertains to all things orange and blue. And here's what you can expect on today's episode of the show. We got to speak with Broncos head coach Sean Payton on Monday morning following the Broncos win. He addressed some of the things with the run game. He talked about what he saw from Bo Nix in Sunday's game. And he highlighted and praised two of the cornerbacks that played in yesterday's game.

Starting point is 00:01:23 We'll also dive into why Nick Benito has a strong case and should be the defensive player of the year here in the NFL with three games remaining. And we'll also kick things off by starting off with our biggest story. of the day. What is the latest injury update on Broncos cornerback, Patrick Sertan? We'll break down all that here on today's episode of show, which has brought to you by our friends over there at Game Time. Download the GameTime app, create an account and use code lockdown NFL for $20 off your first purchase.

Starting point is 00:01:49 Sarah, I know we expressed some concern in our post game report. I know during the game on Sunday, I was tweeting out my frustration with why is Pat Sartan still in the game when he's got an ankle injury? He re-agravated it. And then, you know, he was walking with his arms around the trainers, was able to walk out on his own power. But good news for the Broncos all pro cornerback. Yeah, absolutely. Ian Rappaport told us all on Monday morning as we were all waiting with baited breath wondering, you know, what is the fate of Pat Sertan? That it is a minor ankle

Starting point is 00:02:18 sprain. Now, the fact that Rapsheet didn't say anything about high ankle sprain or anything like that, Cody, is probably great news. And I know you mentioned it on the post game report, but Pat Sertan's dad, Pat Sartan, I suppose, senior at this point or whatever he goes. by. He has also kind of stated like he's got that Nola blood in him, right? So he's kind of just saying, hey, like, don't worry about PS2. He's going to be all right. And so what does that mean on a short turnaround? That remains to be seen because we know that Sean Payton is always tight-lipped when it comes to injury stuff, especially on Monday when he does the conference calls. But look, I think that the report from rap sheet kind of says it all. It's a minor ankle issue. If there was a

Starting point is 00:03:01 chance that Sertan was going to miss any significant time, you would assume that that would be getting reported pretty quickly by some of these insiders. And so I just feel like, Cody, with all that's at stake in this game, like Pat Sertan's going to get, you know, he's going to rub some dirt on it, he's going to get some injections or whatever needs to happen. You know, I don't know how that works. And maybe I'm being a little bit overly optimistic here, but I know if it was me in that, in that situation, I know Pat Sertan is way more competitive than I am. I'm sure I'm guessing that he's going to do everything that he possibly can to be out there. Yeah, that's my, that's my assumption as well.

Starting point is 00:03:37 And look, once again, to kind of go over what I saw in the locker room yesterday from Pat, you know, walked by Pat, gave him a head nod. He gave me a head nod like everything's okay. And then just saw him walking around the locker room. He didn't seem to be walking with a limp. He wasn't walking gingerly. He wasn't grimacing from everything that we saw yesterday. So I think that's a good sign for maybe how he's at.

Starting point is 00:03:55 But here, I'll tell you, I'll give you some insight into how the Broncos plan to attack this week. consider and they have a short turnaround for Thursday and I football. There were some recovery and treatment stations following the game on Sunday. It's continuing all day on Monday. The team was obviously in for meetings to watch the film and to obviously start watching opponent film on the charges, but then it turns into a recovery day. Denver will practice on Tuesday. They'll be the only practice they have this week that we get to attend as media,

Starting point is 00:04:20 and it will be more than likely a walk-through pace here because guys just got them playing 48 hours prior to that. And then Wednesday will be a walk-through before they all get to the airport board the playing the flat of Los Angeles. But during these next three days, not only is Pat Sertan and other players going to be getting treatment, but it's going to be extensive treatment. You know, for example, like there's things like massage therapy that I'm sure is probably going to happen a lot with Pat, the ice, cold tub, hot tub, sauna, infrared.

Starting point is 00:04:45 I mean, they're going to do all these different things. Just knowing how competitive Pat is, Sarah, I think Pat's going to be good to go here on Thursday. Obviously, we'll continue to monitor the Broncos will release their initial injury reports this week. It's going to be hard to really read anything into it too much outside unless there's DNPs across the board. Like I said, they're only going to practice one true day. They released an injury estimation on Monday even though they didn't have practice, but treatment is going to be the number one priority, not just for Pat Sertan this week. Riley Moss,

Starting point is 00:05:15 there's some hope and maybe that he can play in this game on Thursday night against the Los Angeles charges. But man, one thing did happen here for the Broncos in Sunday's game. As good as the win was, you know, it's short-lived. You can't celebrate it too long. The winning season is nice, but now the focus shifts to the chargers. Passer Tans is not the only guy that's banged up. No, the defensive line in particular was getting banged up on Sunday afternoon. Cody, we saw DJ Jones in a significant amount of pain with his left hand coming off the field against the Indianapolis Colts.

Starting point is 00:05:46 And you can't help but wonder if that's going to lead to potentially him missing a game or two. I mean, you want all these. That's the thing. It's like Sean Payton said after the game, you base it off whether or not the medical staff says a guy could play whether or not you're like, we want this guy to be good to go next week. So we're going to save him or whatever. He's like,

Starting point is 00:06:04 he said that the Broncos don't think like that. So for everybody who wants them to think like that, sorry about it. They don't think like that, apparently. So with a guy like DJ Jones who injures his hand, like let's say you could wrap it up and give it a go or rest and give it some more time.

Starting point is 00:06:21 I think the Broncos would allow him if the medical staff cleared him, they would allow him to give it a go. But all of these things, are going to be remained to be seen, obviously on a short week. Maybe things are a little bit different. I know Malcolm Roach left the game as well, Cody, but returned to the lineup. I was also interested to see that when Quinn Miners left the game briefly, that it was Alex Palchowski, who came in to play at the right guard position. So some interesting personnel shuffling here for the Denver Broncos. I guess I wasn't sure what I would have expected there, but I thought that was an

Starting point is 00:06:52 interesting little nugget from this game that we didn't get a chance to talk about. Yeah, no, I agree with you. I initially thought when Miners was walking off the field, I was like, all right, ideally I would expect Luke Wattenberg just to shift over to right guard and now it's Forsyth to coming in the center. They kept Forsyth at Center and they put in Paucco at right guard. And I thought he actually did pretty solid in the reps in which he was in. The good news, though, Quinn Miners, it is a shoulder designation.

Starting point is 00:07:17 Quinn was able to return to the game in the fourth quarter, which I think is a great sign. If he hadn't returned, I would have been a little concerned at that point. I'm sure there's going to be some soreness. And obviously the day after the game, your body tends to fill it the most versus when you're playing the game. The adrenaline's high. It's a little different from that standpoint. But, yeah, I was surprised about that one as well. You know, Malcolm Roach did return to the game.

Starting point is 00:07:39 DJ Jones walked by in the locker room and kind of gave the indicator like, you know, I'll be good. So we'll see. We'll monitor that throughout this entire week. But, man, I couldn't help. But they also think, too, I was like, wow, in a game where the Broncos win, they get their ninth win of the season, they're one step closer to the playoffs. I was like it would be this time where injuries pop up and it doesn't help that you have the Thursday night football turnaround.

Starting point is 00:08:00 But I will say this. I think the Broncos coaching staff, the medical staff, when it comes to situations like this, because even this was the case last year. I mean, not even last year, like before the bi-week that Denver had there when they played that Thursday game against New Orleans, the one thing that they did was I think they prepared really well

Starting point is 00:08:16 to get these guys as much treatment recovery time as possible. And then Denver came out and played arguably one of the better games of the season on the road on Thursday night football. So hopefully that's the case here for the Broncos this week. The Chargers are going to be a little angry coming off the loss that they had. You want guys just to be healthy. And unfortunately, you're not going to get everybody at 100% considering the short turnaround.

Starting point is 00:08:38 That to me, I think, is something we're going to continue to monitor. You don't want some guy to be out there that has the high risk of reagravating something. So I think a lot of recovery this week is going to be the emphasis here for this team. But there is also a chance. Let's just put the hypothetical out there. Let's say Pat Sour tan is not ready to go. Let's say Riley Moss is not ready to go here on Thursday. That means we're going to see a lot of Chris Abrams drain and Damari Mathis

Starting point is 00:09:00 and we'll see you get to them later. Sean Payton shared some good praises for them. I've gone through and watched the all 22 film breakdowns on the way as well on Mile High Sports. A lot to be confident about in the Broncos Young secondary there. But unfortunately, you know, question right now. Pastor Tan, minor ankle sprain. Can he heal in the next three and a half days to get ready for Thursday night

Starting point is 00:09:20 against what I imagine he's probably going to be guarding. Quentin Johnston and Joshua Palmer quite a bit. So a lot of stake here for the Broncos. And look, there's a lot of stake for the Broncos this season. And certainly there have been a lot of surprises around every corner left and right. But no bigger surprise than what we have seen from Nick Bonito. And Sunday's game against the Colts proved that he should be the defensive player of the year. What does the competition around him look like?

Starting point is 00:09:42 We'll highlight that and much more here on today's brand new episode, Lockdown Broncos. Today's episode of the show is brought to you by friends over there at the Game Time app. And look, Broncos country is a short week here. never plays on the road at Los Angeles. And one thing we know, Broncos country always travels well. If you want to go check out games on Thursday night in L.A. against the Chargers in a game where the Broncos can clinch the playoffs, we'll get yourself some tickets with the GameTime app and utilize their GameTime picks feature, which filters out the fluff to make getting tickets to your favorite events

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Starting point is 00:10:55 Terms apply. Again, create an account, redeem code. Locked on NFL for $20 off. Download game time today. What time is it game time? Today's lockdown Broncos is also brought to you by our friends over there at Fandul America's number one sportsbook. Look, Fandu has everything that you could want if you're interested in diving deeper into

Starting point is 00:11:13 week 16 of the NFL season. You know you got the Broncos and Chargers on Thursday night football, But you also could get in on some futures bets as well. We talk about the Broncos having two players on the roster who are defensive player of the year candidates. Pat Sertan, according to Fandul, is a plus 380 in terms of Fandu. He's second right behind T.J. Watt, who's favored right now. Nick Benito comes in third in defensive player of the year odds at plus 1,300.

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Starting point is 00:12:13 Well, who would have thought the worst roster in the NFL has not won? two defensive player of the year candidates. Both Nick Bonito and Pat Sertan are right up there with Pittsburgh Steelers superstar T.J. Watt, Cody, for the defensive player of the year. I mean, this is great stuff. And the Broncos having some success on the field might be in line to see some players bring home some hardware off the field. Cody and I are going to talk about the case to be made for Nick Benito, defensive player of the year in the 2024 season. But Broncos country. Thanks so much for making lockdown Broncos. Your first listen of the day every single day. You know that your boys, Cody and I, we got you covered every single step of the way for the

Starting point is 00:12:55 Denver Broncos regular season, hopefully the playoffs and then the off season to follow. Going to be always a fun time here. So if you haven't already, hit subscribe, don't miss a single episode of the show. Hopefully, Cody, one day will be doing an episode talking about how Nick Benito won defensive player of the year. Now, is that likely to happen? And at this point, it seems like there's, you know, a chance. I mean, obviously in terms of the betting odds, Bonito has now crept into the top three with his teammate Pat Sertan and obviously Pittsburgh Steelers, T.J. Watt, this to me has become, it was already a decent case before the last two games, but the splash plays, the two defensive

Starting point is 00:13:37 touchdowns and consecutive games, that might be the scale tipper for Nick Bonito in his case for defensive player of the year. Yeah, I mean, I think when you, look at history, you look at JJ Watt, was it back in 2014? He also had multiple, you know, double-digit sacks and he think he had multiple touchdowns in a season, that won him the award. The Broncos have a great chance here with Nick Benito. And here's the thing I think that frustrates me a little bit about the NFL stats and what they say about certain things, right? Because we all know after, like when Nick Benito took that ball, they called it a fumble. So they're crediting him with a fumble return touchdown against the Colts when the reality was, we,

Starting point is 00:14:15 all saw, they tried to get tricky, they threw it to a wide receiver, who threw it back to the quarterback, who was then going to attempt a pass downfield. I don't understand how that's a fumble, especially when it's in the air. Now, if the ball landed on the ground and it was a backwards pass, absolutely. That's a fumble. To me, I'm counting it as a pick six. But my biggest gripe that I have here is there are a lot of people, Sarah, we know, there are a lot of people in the national media that actually don't watch all 22. They don't watch the tape. They're just going to look at the stats. They're going to compare. Like, all right, Nick Benito. has a fumble recovery for a touchdown. That means he just scooped up a ball and ran it all the way.

Starting point is 00:14:49 But there's going to be people that don't watch, right? To me, I think that is where it impacts the conversation on this award. Nick Benito, from a versatility standpoint, is playing fantastic football. We talk about 14 tackles for a loss behind the line of scrimmage. He led the Broncos last year in TFLs. He's playing well against the run. He's playing well in terms of getting after the quarterback, 11 and a half sacks on the year. And you look at it as well impacting. He's dropping back into coverage more than T.J. Watt is. Now, T.J. Watt, I would say, is probably the most dominant player in football defensively at that position from a physical standpoint. But what Nick Benito is doing is also very special. And he's doing a little bit more

Starting point is 00:15:27 right now than T.J. Watt at this point. There's three games left. And I think Nick Benito has a great chance to take the lead in terms of sacks. Trying to keep pace there. Obviously, with Trey Hendrickson, who has 12 and a half. But I think that Benito, in my opinion, made his case to win defensive player of the year. Even his teammates, Pat Sertan, even Jonathan Cooper is propped up saying, hey, defensive player of the year, Nick Benito, he is playing fantastic. And Sarah, for me, I look at it, George Payton draft pick. You look at Pat Sir 10, two Broncos in the top three in defensive player of the year voting

Starting point is 00:16:00 in terms of odds right now, not necessarily voting, but the odds. That right there is a very, very special thing. It happens to be two George Peyton draft picks, which, hey, maybe George knows a little something about something after all. Maybe he knows what he's doing out there, right? obviously caught a lot of flack for passing on Justin Fields to take Pat Sartan a handful of years ago. And then pretty dang good pick now. Pretty dang good pick, obviously.

Starting point is 00:16:22 And then the year after that, right, I mean, it was not a popular decision or a popular move by any means to trade von Miller to recoup some NFL draft capital after the Russell Wilson deal. So I think that, look, it was one of those things. I know that wasn't the order in which things happened, but it ended up giving them ammunition to make. the Russell Wilson deal. You know what I mean. Hopefully, you know what I mean. But here's the case for Pat Sertan, Cody. He's been targeted in 13 games 43 times. Okay. The dude has four interceptions on 43 targets into his coverage, which he's only allowed 26 receptions, a quarterback rating allowed of 49.5 into the coverage of Pat Sertan this year. So one out of every 11 passes that gets thrown at Pat Sertan, he's picking it off. Most of the passes that get thrown his direct

Starting point is 00:17:12 they hit the ground harmlessly, right? 26 out of 43 have been caught. The average yards per reception on passes that have been caught in Pat Sertan's coverage, Cody, 8.0. And that's down from, I mean, he's had some really good years in the past, a 10.9, 11 point something, 8.0 yards per completion into his coverage. I mean, it's just, it's freakish what he's doing out there. I know defensive player of the year, like you got to have eight or nine interceptions, something stupid like that. because like you said, a lot of times people don't watch the tape and it takes gaudy numbers in order to get this kind of hardware. But the gaudy numbers are there.

Starting point is 00:17:51 You just got to actually look for. I think Pastor Tan, I know they do this every year, the NFL Top 100. I'll make a bold prediction. Hot take right here. I guarantee you, Pastor Tan ends up in the top 10 this year in that category. Absolutely. Top five. There could be a legitimate argument there.

Starting point is 00:18:07 And the thing is, he's getting a lot of recognition nationally. He's getting recognition for players on a poll. teams. That stuff right there means a lot at the end of the day. And once again, I'm sure he's probably going to take home first team, all pro honors in terms of NFLPA player voting. And in terms of the players who have gone against him who play the same position, they'll probably vote for him once again for three consecutive years. He's playing incredible right now, Sarah. And look, I think the one thing, did you see James Palmer's tweet on Sunday about what an NFL defensive coach said? He said, really, there's nobody out there that's really

Starting point is 00:18:37 can stop Brock Bowers except Patrick Sertan. He's the only guy that can do it. And what we've seen in two games from PS2 against Brock Bowers, who's got a legitimate case for offensive rookie year, I tell you what, it's fun to see. Denver is drastically better with Pat Sertan. We've seen what it's like when Pat is not out there on the field. It's drastically different, though there are some confidence here and some of the Broncos young cornerbacks,

Starting point is 00:19:01 which we'll get to from Sean Payton here in just a little bit. You take Pat Sertan off the Broncos defense, and I guarantee you they nosedive a little bit further. Like they're going to, I think, have impactful plays. plays from the young guys, but you cannot replace the impact that Pat Sertan certainly has in terms of erasing the field. I mean, the Colts, for example, go back and watch the game. They would put a wide receiver to his side. They'd try to get the Broncos in a specific coverage look.

Starting point is 00:19:25 Then they'd motion the guy, and they would force Pat to have to cover a tight end. And they'd move Pittman and Downs and Pierce to Chris Abrams-drain side and J-Quahmack Millins. And Devers' secondary did a pretty good job against those guys, minus a couple of big third-down catches in the first half. but Pastor Tan's got a legitimate case as well. And look, I think that if either of these two guys win defensive player of the year, man, it's a testament. And I also feel like if one of these guys win it, they might co-share it because I don't think one happens without the other, you know, in terms of Pastor Tan being a great position because of the pass rush. And also great coverage helping Nick Benito get home and the pass rush to get home a little bit more for Denver.

Starting point is 00:20:00 So Brockos country, we want to know how you feel about that as well in terms of defensive player of the year voting. We feel like Nick Benito, Pastor Tann, any of these guys should get the award. award over anybody else right now. We want to hear your thoughts. But one thing we did hear of is from Broncos head coach, Sean Payton, he met with us on Monday following the Broncos game to talk about Bonnix, the run game and a couple of rookies at cornerback. We'll dive deeper to that much more here on today's episode, Lockdown Broncos.

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Starting point is 00:21:28 live on TNT, True TV, TBS, and Max. Once again, watch the college football playoff presented by Allstate, live on TNT, True TV, TBS, and Max. Max. Jumping into the fourth quarter action on today's episode, Locked on. Broncos, we heard from Sean Payton on Monday as we normally do following the game. Not too much insight from Sean from, you know, an injury standpoint.

Starting point is 00:21:51 That's one thing he refuses to talk about. He'll never dive into injuries, even though the attempt was made for people to ask him about injuries. But we also got the insight from Ian Rappapapur earlier on Pats or 10. But what he did go into, Sarah, was a lot on Bo Nix, the, you know, the run game. the issues that they're having there and also some cornerbacks there are a rookie in a third year corner in DeMarie Mathis. There was a lot of praise there from Sean Payton there. But I think the number one thing too, and I was thinking about this after my workout in the morning, Sarah. I was thinking like, wow, like just talking to guys like Mike McGlinch in the locker room,

Starting point is 00:22:24 even though Bo Nicks had arguably one of his worst games of the season, he shook off that worst game, that rough game. He went on to throw two touchdowns in the fourth quarter to kind of bounce it out. So, you know, your worst game sees you throw three touchdowns. You might take that, but there's this different resiliency factor here with Bo. Yeah, there really is. I mean, I was watching the game on Monday morning as well, Cody, and I'm sitting there. I saw the third interception happened. I believe it was still 13 to 7 at that point.

Starting point is 00:22:53 And obviously, the Colts didn't really do anything with the turnover. So kind of a no harm, no foul kind of thing, though, of course, like people start seeing Bo Nicks through all these interception. I think even Beau said it, unless this was a joke that somebody posted on Twitter, it's like you almost get scared when he drops back that like, okay, when you rear back to fire the ball, like, is it going to get picked? I mean, there's been times this season when we've had confidence that every time Beau steps back, he's going to fit it in the window.

Starting point is 00:23:19 He's going to put the ball where it needs to be. He's been that hot over the last couple of months. But these last two weeks got a little reckless with the football and a little bit careless with the footwork. I'm excited to see some of the breakdowns from you and others who break down the quarterback play and kind of see the turnaround. at this point because there was a deliberate turnaround. I know Broncos got some short fields,

Starting point is 00:23:41 but man, there was a clear clicking after the third interception that he started distributing the ball better, making better decisions, and he looked much sharper out there on Sunday afternoon. Here's what Broncos head coach Sean Payton had to say. Yeah, look, this is a tough league sometimes, and I felt afterwards, you know, when something like that happens with that adversity early on,

Starting point is 00:24:03 You know, I get frustrated at myself, you know, am I getting them in the right looks, the right place? And, but then, you know, later in that game, when we needed it, you know, he didn't flinch. There's a maturity and a moxie about them, which I love. And I think it's contagious to the team. And when you have that at the quarterback position, your team knows you're in every game. When you don't have it, that's pretty difficult because, deep down in their belly, they know that that's not the case.

Starting point is 00:24:36 And that's something noticeably, I mean, you notice with him this year especially and with this team. Yeah, I think that that's absolutely true. And I think even from the fans perspective, Cody, of course, like, get worried during the course of games. Like, is this going to be able to turn around? Like, are they going to be able to figure this out? But I think with Bo Nix, the mentality and the thinking is even when the Colts are

Starting point is 00:25:00 about to go up potentially 20 to 7 in that game, you know, you. you kind of figure like, all right, well, there's still plenty of time left. Obviously, it feels like we're cooked at this point, but you've shown this season that you can put up points in bunches and the offense can move the ball. I think early on, a lot of folks are saying, well, this isn't really an offense that's built to come from behind. I feel like you do have a quarterback right now in Bo Nix that gives you a shot in any type of game. Yeah, and look, I think just what the guys in the locker room say is like, Bo doesn't blink.

Starting point is 00:25:28 Cortland obviously had his back after the game and said it, you know, said it was bothersome to him to hear some fans like on their side, you know, on the sideline when they're sitting there, all of a sudden, Trashing Bow. And he's like, they were just singing his praises two weeks ago, offensive rookie of the year. And then, you know, they want to say all these negative things about him. I think it's okay to be frustrated with like Bo's performance in terms of the

Starting point is 00:25:47 interceptions. I think there's a story behind everyone. You want to find out what that is. Go check out my film breakdown on Bo Nix and the Broncos offense against the Colts on Mile High Sports. But I, I love the fact that these guys all have both back. They rally behind him. I think that's a very, very big thing. You don't necessarily, you don't see that. And I think when you look at some other teams around the NFL, certainly in some of the teams that Denver's played, you don't see that level of support for some of the quarterbacks from their teammates that Denver has faced.

Starting point is 00:26:12 So I think that's very big as well. One thing that also led into the offensive struggle is you and I have beat this horse into the ground, essentially, the lack of a run game. That's been problematic. Here's what Sean Payton had to say about his thoughts after watching the tape partially through. They didn't get through it all the way yet, but the run game is a concern to him. Yeah, we're not all the way through the tape yet just with our schedule. but I would say, look, there's some looks that we've got to be better at relative to when we're running a certain play into,

Starting point is 00:26:40 some tough looks where now you don't really have the leverage. We've got to do a better job as coaches, starting with me and having solutions when the looks aren't what you're practicing. Overall, though, I think it's an area that as we, here we are with three weeks left in the season, We have to find more consistency there. And there is still an opportunity to find a groove there, obviously, because, well, you just played a Colts team that was 31st against the run.

Starting point is 00:27:11 Obviously, couldn't get it going against them. We have seen the running game get going at times this season, Cody. And, hey, the Chargers, they just gave up over 200 yards on the ground to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as well. So Peyton Manning apparently said that the great thing for Bo Nix about Sean Payton's offense is that the offense always has answers. And you just heard Sean say it. They've got to figure that out for the running game as well.

Starting point is 00:27:33 Oh, and hopefully that's the case, too. We don't know what the status is going to be yet. Another guy, we forgot to bring up in the injury report, was Jilill McLaughlin left the game with a quad injury, did not return. He was limping after the game pretty well in the locker room. Looks like there's some soreness. They'll see if they can get him up to speed this week or else it could be maybe a call-up here for Blake Watson and potentially his first action, you know,

Starting point is 00:27:52 in terms of the regular season, maybe getting on the field a little bit here for the Broncos. Or it's going to be Javante and Audrake estimated, those two guys on Thursday night football. But in the event, we talked about earlier if Pastor Tan, Riley Moss, are not able to go on Thursday night football. I think that there's a level of confidence from Sean Peyton and Chris Abrams drain and DeMarie Mathis and Sarah, both these guys, I thought I had really impressive performances on Sunday.

Starting point is 00:28:14 I felt like there should have been an offensive pass interference called on the Colts. There was one player where DeMari was trying to go pick it. And the Colts receiver grabbed them around the shoulders there. It was a little odd play, but he liked the play of both those guys in Sunday's game. Yeah, number one, I thought those guys played well. That's the easiest way for me to answer the question. You guys know we don't talk about injuries, but I also don't want to talk about hypotheticals either.

Starting point is 00:28:37 And I understand your question. But those two guys really played well, and I was encouraged. That was about Passertan's injury. Yeah, the speculation part, like, I know you guys like to speculate. Sean, that's our job. We got to. Yeah, you've got to. And I think that's just young guys stepping up, right?

Starting point is 00:28:54 You saw the void that needed to be filled with Riley Moss going down. Levi Wallace couldn't do it. young guys come in. And look, the 2024 NFL draft class, Cody, it's the gift that keeps on giving at this point. No,

Starting point is 00:29:06 it is. And I think one thing, when we look back at the end of this season, if Denver makes the playoffs there, which right now they got a 91% chance to do so. A win on Thursday would clinch that. And also, I think give them the tiebreaker over the chargers at that point,

Starting point is 00:29:19 even though the Charters won that first matchup, it would put the Charters two losses behind them. And then obviously the conference record plays into a factor there. I just think this is a grand moment. It goes back to what John Peyton said earlier. You said, you know, I told, I told Greg and Kerry that this class right here is going to be one we look back on and say this is the one that turned things around. It certainly seems like it's trending that way. It definitely does.

Starting point is 00:29:43 And at every turn, somebody has made an impact, right? I mean, obviously we haven't seen Nick Garjulo yet this season, although he's been elevated a handful of times here. But pretty much everybody else in this rookie class has come in and done something of note at some point or, or another. Now, can we get some more consistency from Audrick Estimate? Can we see where's the Devon Valle that stepped up, you know, in a handful of games there that he was just making big time catch after big time catch. We need the big plays from Troy Franklin. But there, it's all, it's all either been proven to a degree or it's all been percolating

Starting point is 00:30:17 beneath the surface here, Cody. And I think for this draft class, man, the best is still yet to come. Yeah, I'm not saying comparison to the 2023 class, like their rookie season. We were sitting there wondering like, are any of these guys, getting out on the field. Like we're begging for more touches for Marvin. Mism. Marvin, man, I tell you what, marvelous. He is really grown into a very special role here at running back, receiver, returner. We're seeing that now payoff. Riley Moss, you're seeing that payoff. Drew Sanders, great effort in the special team side blocking in his first game back from the Achilles injury.

Starting point is 00:30:47 He suffered in April. But last year, we didn't have this type of feeling about last year's rookie class in terms of guys having an impact or playing significant roles right away. This year's class, almost every single one of them are getting involved, and they have a very delicate role here for this team, offensively, defensively, special team. So that's a promising development to see. But Broncos Country, that'll wrap up today's episode of the show here on the Lockdown Broncos podcast, wherever you get your podcast.

Starting point is 00:31:11 Thanks once again to all the everydayers, all the first listeners out there in Broncos country Thursday night football is coming up, and the Broncos will practice on Tuesday. We'll have you covered on practice reports, the latest on some of the injuries that are going on with the Broncos. Plus, you get the AFC or the NFL squad show this week. We're combining the AFC and the NFC once again. And on top of that crossover Thursday, Sarah Beninger is going to sit down with David Drogan Meyer to preview Thursday night football where, hey, this is a big game. The next biggest game of the Broncos season is here.

Starting point is 00:31:43 Thursday night, get the preview for that. Then you get the post game report. It's going to be a jam-packed week here on the Lockdown Broncos podcast. We'll see you next time.

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