Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - Denver Broncos' Cornerback Room LOCKED AND LOADED For 2025 | Most Intact Position Group?

Starting point is 00:00:00 With the reigning defending defensive player of the year at cornerback, Patrick Sertan, this is one position group that is set for Denver in 2025. We'll overlay what that room looks like and more on today's episode, Lockdown Broncos. You are Locked on Broncos, your daily Denver Broncos podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. Broncos country, what's happening? Welcome into another episode, Lockdown Broncos, your daily Denver Broncos podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day for all your Broncos news, content coverage,

Starting point is 00:00:39 analysis, and more that you get every single day all year long, even throughout the entire off season. This is the place to be a special shout out to all the everydayers out there in Broncos country. Thank you so much for tuning in, making us your first listen of the day every single day. However, you choose to do so. And hey, if you're not an everydayer, it's super easy to become one. All you have to do is hit that subscribe or that follow button so you never miss out on

Starting point is 00:01:03 your favorite. Broncos podcast out there, locked on Broncos. I'm Cody Roark, Broncos reporter here for Mile High Sports. You can check out my work over there, Mile Highsports.com. Joined, as always, by Sarah Bedinger, the longtime site expert over there, predominantly orange.com, where you could check out his written work there every single day. And look, Broncos country, the NFL draft is still fast approaching here. And what you're going to get on today's episode of the show is a little bit of a position

Starting point is 00:01:30 overview after free agency. Will the Broncos continue their streak of adding a player in the NFL draft here in 2025? We'll debate and discuss that. We'll also talk about and debate whether or not the Broncos should look at adding a veteran cornerback to the mix of what we believe is already a set position here on this team. We're going to kick things off today by highlighting that cornerback group and where the Broncos truly are at with the youth movement there led by veteran. Patrick Sir Tancel, you know, this is a position group obviously in free agency. The Broncos, they didn't go out there and make any movement. moves at cornerback they could have, right?

Starting point is 00:02:05 There are a handful of guys available. We'll dive into that later on the show, but really seems like, hey, we're locked in here, pun intended with Patrick Sertan, Riley Moss, Jayquan Macmillan, Damari Mathis,

Starting point is 00:02:15 Chris Abrams, Drain, the Broncos, they have a pretty loaded group right now of players I think can contribute at a high level for them. Yeah, and I think if they had brought Tramon Smith back in free agency,

Starting point is 00:02:26 which we know they tried to do, and then, of course, replaced him with Trent Sherfield at the wide receiver position. I think if they had brought Tremont back, I don't know if there would be any real, even inkling of an opening at this position. And this is one of those spots to where I think you can comfortably go into the NFL draft thinking to yourself, if you're George Payton, Sean Payton, obviously secondary coach and defensive past game coordinator, Jim Leonard, you can feel really, really good about the group that you have. You've got a great mixture of young guys, guys who are now developing into veterans like Pat Sartan,

Starting point is 00:03:00 who is the elder statesman of the group at this point. And I think that that should give this team such a confidence, like to build in the trenches up front, right? That's what I think having a strong cornerback room does for you is really allows you to go into the draft saying, how can we make our cornerbacks better? Because we already have the guys. How can we make them better?

Starting point is 00:03:22 We can get pass rushers. We can go out and get guys who can hurry up the clock for the opposing quarterback. You've already got guys at this position group who can make plays on the football, who exhibit that toughness, that physicality that you so desperately need at the position nowadays, especially what we saw from Riley Moss and Pat Sertan and run support. And certainly J-Quann-McMillan blitzing every so often. These guys have the full arsenal of skills, I think, on top of just, you know, saying, well, we've got the position group set, right? Or we feel really good about the guys that we have. They've all got that

Starting point is 00:03:57 skill set that you desperately look for at the cornerback position. And the Broncos may have, you know, even a guy that's going to be sitting on the bench, you know, a little bit more than others this year who's potentially a starting caliber guy as well. And I'm excited to see how the additions of Talanoa who Fong, Dre Greenlaw, like these guys are obviously big time additions that are going to make that defense even better, right? And I think specifically with the addition to Dre Greenlaw, having a linebacker who can sit back there and cover anything crossing in the middle of the field and,

Starting point is 00:04:27 can go out there and maybe drop a little bit deeper. You can blitz him. He is a guy that will help. Certainly, I think the Broncos overcome those issues on crossing patterns that we saw on that final fives, you know, stretch of five games last season there. That's going to help out your corners there. But then you wrapped it up with your pass rush that already led the NFL last season with 63 total sacks. Obviously, we expect some extensions coming from maybe Nick Benito, Zach Allen, John Franklin Myers potentially here.

Starting point is 00:04:53 But you're bringing that unit back that helps you get to where you are. your ability to get after quarterbacks, obviously that's going to be huge. But what really limited that production later in this season was discrepancies on the inside, at the inside linebacker position in terms of teams hitting those crossing patterns there, identifying quarterbacks who, you know, get the ball out of our hands quickly when they know a guy is blitzing. You know, you have the number one rule you always say is throw against the blitz, right? If you've got a nickel blitz to your left side and an inside linebacker blitzing as well, hey, you're throwing where the blitz is coming because there's vacated area.

Starting point is 00:05:26 There's vacated grass over there. So great Greenline, I think, is going to give the, you know, guys like Riley Moss, Jayquan, Macmillan, a little bit more help. Pat's or tan, he's a weapon in and of itself. He's the great equalizer here. But I want to focus here on Riley Moss for a second because coming into the off season,

Starting point is 00:05:42 we've seen some Broncos fans say that they're not comfortable with Denver's cornerback depth. I honestly, I will disagree with that. I feel good about it. You know, for Riley Moss, of course, everyone's going to go back to Cincinnati Bengals game. First game back off the need. injury. You know, obviously he still wasn't his best self yet. But the, the catches he gave up against

Starting point is 00:06:00 T. Higgins, you can maybe make an argument. Maybe one of those he absolutely got torched on. The other ones are T. Higgins making a great play with Riley still being in pretty close position to be able to make a play there. T. just made a better one against him. That's the life of a cornerback here. I'm not worried in any way, shape or form about Riley Moss. How do you feel about him, especially as we now get to see him really coming into year two as a true full-time starter? Even putting aside my Iowa Hawkeyes bias for a moment, Cody, I feel like Riley Moss had a really good first year as a starter for this Denver Broncos defense. And you see it just in spades all over the place, what Sean Peyton has said. And what we repeat on this podcast a lot of times, that confidence is bred from demonstrated ability.

Starting point is 00:06:43 And what Riley Moss did last year is play extremely well for long stretches of time and fail forward in others. I don't think there was anything that we saw from Riley Moss last year that was indicative of things that we had seen like early in the careers of guys like Isaac Yadam, where it was, you might have to upgrade at that position or Michael Ogemudia where you're like, I mean, I know we spent a third round pick on the guy, but I don't think we can bank on him being a starter, Damari Mathis even in the 2022 season, getting an opportunity. I don't think there was any real, this guy should be a number one or number two corner in the NFL after. his, you know, first season as a starter. But with Riley Moss, I think it's a completely different story. I think we truly did see top-tier cornerback traits from him. And I don't understand why that can't be just okay, you know, after his, it's his first year as a starter.

Starting point is 00:07:36 It's not just, you know, convincing yourself that, okay, well, I'll talk myself into Riley Moss. I think there's no projecting that happens. I think if you're, if you're not an all pro or a pro bowl guy or if you're not, you know, ranking number one. on pro football focuses, lists or whatever, I think a lot of times the fan perception or the armchair analyst perception is that, well,

Starting point is 00:07:59 the guy wasn't good enough, obviously. He didn't play at an all pro level. I don't think that's the case. I think there's a lot of projecting that has to happen. And teams putting faith in guys, just like last year at this time when I think it was fair to question, like is Riley Moss somebody that you just put faith in because he didn't play as a rookie?

Starting point is 00:08:16 So I get the hesitation then. But now there's proof. of concept over long stretches of time in NFL games, real NFL games of him playing well. So I don't think there's any need for the Broncos to convince themselves of a lie in that, oh, well, I don't know if Riley Moss was necessarily good enough. I think that's just kind of fear mongering for the sake of doing so. Yeah. And look, I think if you look at Riley's tape, what does he do?

Starting point is 00:08:44 He can play man coverage. He can play his own coverage. He comes up and tackles. He's not afraid to get involved with contact. Like, that's the thing I like about Riley is Riley can do a little bit of everything here for that. And he's not afraid of the moment. Like, that's the one thing I'll say about Riley is, you know, he's been putting some situations where it's, hey, you got to go make a play. And he has made some plays there.

Starting point is 00:09:04 I think the knee injury definitely derailed them a little bit because for anyone that's ever played cornerback, which it's hard. Like, I did that. I told my ACL, tried to come back and play the next year. I couldn't do it. I didn't have the same confidence. And when you have a knee injury, you're always just thinking like, hey, am I? good, am I going to plant right? Like all the stuff that he has to do from that position,

Starting point is 00:09:24 being able to plant, cut, back pedal, T-step, which is a big argument on social media that we're not seeing these days, which is, you know, funny. But Riley, Riley's not afraid of that. And I had a chance to talk to Riley after that Bengals game, and he still had nothing but, you know, confidence in himself. teammates had confidence in him. And I can tell you, the coaches have confidence in Riley Moss.

Starting point is 00:09:44 George Payton does. Sean Payton does. His cornerback coach, Addison Lynch, who has done a tremendous job with that. room as well. They have nothing but trust in Riley Moss. And I think that we're going to see things forming a little bit more. He's going to have a bigger role this upcoming season, Jayquam, Macmillan, inside the nickel. And then, you know, you got guys like Damari Mathis who are kind of in a little bit of a prove it year at this point. Can he find a way to make it on

Starting point is 00:10:06 the field and some packages? That's something we're going to keep our eyes on here. But Broncos country, the room at cornerback is young. And we're going to ask ourselves whether or not the Bronco should add a veteran guy. Is there a veteran that makes sense here for Denver to add before the NFL draft. We'll take a look at that and much more on today's episode, Lockdown Broncos. Today's Lockdown Broncos podcast is brought to you my friends over there at the Game Time app. Imagine watching your favorite team live, filling the energy of the crowd and witnessing unforgettable moments. There's nothing like experiencing a big game in person. The same thing applies to concert events that are going on. And I'm excited in particular about the month

Starting point is 00:10:42 of June at Empower Field at Mile High. Metallica is coming to town for a two-night, no repeat, seat set list. You know me. I'm a diehard Metallica fan if you know me, if you truly know me here. And game time gives you the best opportunity to get the best deals on seats to that event or any sporting events that are going on in your area. And they also have game time picks, which curates and makes it easy to find the better value for tickets to sports, concerts, comedy, theater, and anything else going on in your area. And they have super deals like the lowest price guarantee or game time will credit you 110 percent of the difference. And you can also see what your vantage point of the event you're going to

Starting point is 00:11:22 is going to be like with seat views inside the app. So take the guesswork out of buying tickets with game time. Download the game time app. Create an account. Use code locked on NFL for $20 off your first purchase. That's L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N NFL for $20 off. Download game time today. Last minute tickets. Lowest price guaranteed. Is there any sort of need for the Denver Broncos to bring in a veteran cornerback in 20, Well, I don't know, the debacle that was Levi Wallace against the Cleveland Browns last year just might prevent the Broncos from going after any sort of similar path, but you never know when there could be a steel available in NFL free agency Broncos country.

Starting point is 00:12:03 So we're going to discuss today whether or not a veteran corner is necessary on this episode, Lockdown Broncos. But first of all, I want to say thank you to every single one of you out there that makes Lockdown Broncos your first listen of the day every single day. And if you haven't done so already, Cody and I, we'd really appreciate if you take a couple seconds, hit subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts as well as on YouTube because you know we got you covered every single day here on the show. Cody, let's talk about a veteran corner for the Denver Broncos right now. Obviously where the thing sit with the depth chart currently, I don't know. I mean, are you talking about the sixth best player on the roster at most, maybe fifth, if you want to really split hairs over Damari Mathis?

Starting point is 00:12:47 right now. I think that we didn't talk much about Chris Abrams Drain in segment one, but he factors into this discussion as well, three more years on his rookie deal. The Broncos have been super, super successful drafting guys and finding guys on the undrafted free agent heap that it's hard for me to maybe even justify a back end of the roster corner veteran signing right now. Yeah, look, I'm not on board of necessarily bringing in a veteran corner at this point. I think you continue to go with the youth movement, right? You've upgraded linebacker.

Starting point is 00:13:19 You've upgraded, obviously, the safety position. And you got some young guys all across the board that already contribute. The Broncos defense doesn't really have, I think, right now a hole more so than they do a question mark. And that really comes at inside linebacker. But good, we maybe, you don't wander into the deep waters of what happens if there is an injury to either a Pat Certan, a J-Quan-McMallinois, Riley Moss again here. Because when that did happen to Riley Moss, Moss, Levi Wallace, Levi Wallace, got thrown into the mix here. And obviously we saw how that kind of transpired in that Cleveland

Starting point is 00:13:49 game. He had one of the worst games of his career. And it led to him ultimately being cut by the Broncos here. To me, I don't think that was necessarily, okay, you got a veteran guy. That's the reason it happened. I think more so it was you had a guy that I just don't feel like fit the scheme of being able to play man at a consistent rate against some of the other top guys. Like when you're facing a team that has loaded wide receiver rooms, you have to be able to play man-to-man coverage at times and I don't feel like that was a strength of Levi Wallace. But for me, that's also on the coaching staff. That was a little bit on Vance Joseph for them saying, hey, you know, we're going to go

Starting point is 00:14:22 with the veteran guy here. I understand the safety net of going with the veteran guy. And I understand Vance Joseph at times has hesitancy to maybe hand the keys to a rookie here. But what do we see from Chris Abrams drain in that Cleveland game? He got put in on the final drive and was covering Jerry Judy and was in good position. And we saw him against the Los Angeles Chargers pick off Justin Hurst. Herbert, like Chris Abrams Drain to me showcased enough last year where he was playing.

Starting point is 00:14:48 I'm like, you know, if there is an injury, I'm okay with this guy stepping in. Like Abrams Drain is a guy that I think was a little bit more NFL ready than people thought. And some people were surprised by how he played last year. I wasn't. I mean, I was kind of on that train a little bit from the onset, you know, throughout the entire preseason process here with Abrams Drain. But if the Broncos add a veteran there, they have to add a guy that maybe fits the traits of what you want to do from a scheme standpoint. And what does that mean? That means that you have to be able to play zone coverage, which a lot of teams run zone. But you have to be able to play man coverage. And that is the opportunity cost here because there are some corners who excel in zone, struggle in man.

Starting point is 00:15:25 There are corners who can do both. And then there's guys who just, you know, maybe struggle in zone because it's a little bit more reading react versus just, hey, I'm going to read the hips of this guy. I'm going to follow wherever he go. Some guys are really good at that. The free agent market right now in terms of guys available is very interesting to me, Sarah, because I don't know if there's anyone that's a necessary fit for what the Broncos want to bring in at this point. I mean, you could look at former Buffalo Bill, former Baltimore Raven Tradevius White, who at one point was really good. But at what point? Like, are you bringing in a veteran guy here to still reps away from a guy like Chris Abrams, Drain, who's, you know, was taken with a premium pick. And the Broncos, they view him as a guy who can play for them. You've got Riley Moss.

Starting point is 00:16:07 You've got Jayquam McBone. You've got Pat Sertan. To me, I don't think you need to add to this room. all. And the veteran list of guys is not that high. I'd say Trudevius, why being one as a veteran guy, probably a low-end veteran signing, but I'm still surprised at this point that a guy like Asante Samuel Jr., former AFC West Division rival with the Chargers, I'm surprised he's a free agent still. I'm surprised he has not landed with any other team. Yeah, he's the most shocking name, I think, on the list as of right now when you

Starting point is 00:16:36 look at just his age, what he's done in the past, and kind of where teams usually are willing to invest in NFL free agency. Maybe he's just waiting for the exact right fit or maybe the dollar amount is not quite where he wants it to be. But whatever the case may be, I think if we're playing devil's advocate here for a second, my opinion is that the Broncos could upgrade the competition in the slot for Jayquan Macmillan. I know they have guys on the roster that could potentially buy for playing time there. Macmillan had a number of penalties last year. I think that, you know, you're willing to live with stuff with young guys because they're young guys and you want them to grow and you want them to play and fail forward. And so it's not that big of a deal in the grand

Starting point is 00:17:19 scheme of things unless it continues. But I believe he was maybe the league leader or among the league leaders in defensive holding or pass interference or both last season. And so maybe the Broncos do want to say like, hey, let's, uh, let's bring in some competition for this guy because he's now in a contract here. So not only is he competing against himself to get a new contract, but he's competing against somebody like Asante Samuel Jr. And really having to earn his roster spot or earn his role with the team again. And I think that that brings out the best in everybody, doesn't it? And so it's one of those things to where if you have a chance to like truly upgrade and

Starting point is 00:17:58 you feel like it's a clear step above what you currently have, he would be the one guy that I would say, okay, in the draft or free agency, you might be able to actually find somebody that could do that job a little bit better. But, I mean, again, that's kind of just playing devil's advocate at this point. Well, I'm going to be the guy that the angry old man yelling at the clouds. I felt like a lot of the penalties last year, there were a couple that were like clear-cut penalties. But I felt like Jayquam McMillan got unfairly penalized on some things.

Starting point is 00:18:27 Like, you know how I feel about the NFL's rules towards defensive players. You got to have as much right. That's why I'm all in favor of the Detroit Lions proposal to eliminate that illegal contact being an automatic first down, I hope that passes because it's ridiculous. Like if it's third and 20 and you have an illegal contact, you're playing zone coverage and your corner gets called for, you know, rerouting a guy across the field to be able to get into his zone. I hate that.

Starting point is 00:18:52 It's an unfair advantage, you know, for the offensive side of the ball. And if it's third and 20, now all of a sudden becomes an automatic first down by default. I hate that. It drives me up a while. I felt like Jayquam McMillan, a lot of the penalties that were called on him last year, I felt like we're ticky tack at times. There were a few clear ones there. Also felt like Pastor Tan got a pretty awful whistle at times last season as well.

Starting point is 00:19:14 I wasn't a big fan of that. But I'm going to continue to yell and be the angry old man yelling at the clouds when it comes to that. I'm a huge advocate for making defense great again in the national football league. Allow defensive players to be able to lock up. They got the toughest position in football, in my opinion, having to cover the fastest dudes who can change directions at any minute. And they're doing it while going backwards.

Starting point is 00:19:35 So my little rant is going to be, you know, kind of end right there. But I personally don't believe that the Broncos should go out there and add a veteran cornerback. I think you also have another contract year here for Damari Mathis. Whereas Sarah, I think if you're really looking at, he played in that dime last year for the Broncos. So if you're looking to add competition for J-Quan Macmillan, why not allowed Damari Mathis to maybe play their role? Because it is very clear at this point that Pat Certan, Riley Moss, these two guys are going to be on the

Starting point is 00:20:03 outside. Damari, he's got a chip on his shoulder. I've talked to Damari. He was disappointed. He didn't win the competition last year and he got hurt obviously in that final preseason game, but this is a guy who wants to get on the field and is wanting to do whatever it takes to do so. So if that means maybe playing inside the slot a little bit more, he may in fact do that also on special teams. This is going to be a little bit of a differentiating factor for who gets a 53 man roster spot because of the nature you lose Traymond Smith. Now there's an opening there. So Chris Abrams, Drane, to Marri Mathis, those guys competing for some special teams reps as well. And maybe even Abrams Drain is going to compete a little bit for inside.

Starting point is 00:20:38 Though I feel like he's going to be better suited on the outside here for the Broncos. So we'll see how things pan out here. But Broncos country, you want to ask you as always, do you think that the team should add a veteran cornerback here before the NFL draft or after the NFL draft to this room? What's your level of comfort with corner? Make sure you let's know here on today's episode, Lockdown Broncos. But we're not done yet. Broncos country. We still got a lot to break down on today's episode of the show.

Starting point is 00:21:01 show since George Payton has taken over as the team's GM. There has been a streak of cornerbacks taken in the NFL draft. Will that streak continue here in 2025? We'll debate and discuss on today's episode, Lockdown Broncos. Will the Denver Broncos continue their streak of adding a cornerback in the NFL draft? After adding Chris Abrams drain last year, are the Broncos comfortable with their room? Or do they want to continue to add young players who might be able to continue to develop as the team gets older? position in the years ahead. We'll discuss that here on today's episode. Lockdown Broncos.

Starting point is 00:21:37 I want to say thank you once again to everyone in Broncos country for tuning in, making us your first listen. Thanks to all the every dares out there. We appreciate you so much. Sarah, let's continue on here today. Obviously, the NFL draft since George Peyton has come along. They've added, you know, a handful of corners. You go back to George Payton's first draft with the team 2021. You land all pro defensive player of the year. Patrick Sertan the second with the ninth overall pick. 2022 comes around. You end up landing Damari Mathis out of pit. 2023 comes around.

Starting point is 00:22:08 You don't necessarily go with that because of your limited capital. And then 2024 last year, we saw them take Chris Abrams drain, obviously with the pick out of Missouri. So just a comfort level on taking in young guys that they feel like can develop well. And I think so far they've been on a pretty good path. Demari Mathis kind of littered a little bit with injuries throughout his career, some inconsistencies. But I'd say for the most part,

Starting point is 00:22:30 quarterback has been one area. I feel like George Payton. And I think even Sean Payton, feels like, hey, we want to continue to add youth to this position. Yeah, 2023, even they traded up for Riley Moss. So there's definitely every year since George has been in town. They've gone after a corner in the draft. And I think it was Kerry Vincent in 2021.

Starting point is 00:22:50 They doubled up at the Eagles. So, yeah, then traded him to the Eagles. So it's one of those things that's like Vic Fangio kind of, I think he said at one point, I'm paraphrasing, but he's like, basically there's 96 star. cornerback jobs in the NFL with how much teams play in the nickel at this point. And he said, there ain't 96 starting caliber corners in the league. And that's why you continually load up at the position. And when he was talking about that was after, remember, the Broncos had, I think they had

Starting point is 00:23:21 Bryce Callahan, Kyle Fuller, Ronald Darby. Like they were, they had all these free agents and all these guys that they had added to the team. And then they draft Pat Sartan shockingly. And everybody's like, what are you doing? You just got all these guys. And now how thankful are we that they still made that decision to draft PS2 as opposed to just thinking they were good with those other guys? So maybe something to think about Broncos country as we get into the final stretch here of mock draft season.

Starting point is 00:23:47 If you feel like they're set at a current position, where can they get a blue chip talent? But I think with this streak that we're on, Cody, I don't see it ending. I don't think there's any way the Broncos will come away from the 2025 NFL draft without taking a cornerback. because this is one of those positions where obviously their scouting department has been nails. I think the guys that they've picked have been really good. Like even Damari Mathis, I would say, is mostly injury related to why he hasn't stepped into a bigger role at this point. But I mean, you look at, I mean, obviously Pat Sertan's resume speaks for itself. Riley Moss, that pick is looking like a hit.

Starting point is 00:24:23 Chris Abrams drain, pick is looking like a hit. So I think there's no doubt that you trust your guys that you that are scouting this position and say, hey, we feel like in the sixth round even, you know, we can get a guy here who could potentially play in the slot, can play some special teams, he's going to make the 53. And if you, if you're whoever is evaluating DBs for this team, whoever's scouting them, if it's George Peyton himself, I think you're sitting there saying, all right, we're going to go with what this guy says or what this gal says, because obviously like they're hitting it every single year out of the park.

Starting point is 00:24:57 Well, I know there's also been some mock drafts that have had Denver going with the cornerback with Will Johnson out of Michigan at 20th overall, which I mean, on paper, that would be a fun addition. But as we've said, the Broncos, they have more pressing needs where they can add a very high quality player on the offensive side of the ball because, look, I think the defense, I think they're in a really, really good shape right now going into the NFL draft. I think they're in better shape going into the season at this point than they were last year on paper. That defense got drastically better. And we had a lot of question marks going about that defense and about Vance Joseph going into year number two in his system after, you know,

Starting point is 00:25:34 was that streak that they had where they forced all those turnovers and had that five game one streak? Was that a fluke? Well, it turns out it was not a fluke. The Broncos defense actually started playing legit. Now they started to transform their playmakers at different levels of the football defensively. And you start to bring in young guys to develop and it gives you an idea like, hey, you have flexibility because Sarah, I think the challenge of managing an NFL roster today is always trying to

Starting point is 00:25:57 think like, how can we address? what we need now and how to be good at certain positions now while also not ignoring that position down the road. That's why you always have to get younger guys because you are an injury away. You're a retirement away or you're just one move not panning out from being like, hey, this might put us in a rough position. And then when you factor in contract extensions, like look at what teams like the Cincinnati Bengals kind of put themselves into.

Starting point is 00:26:23 They waited so long to get a jump on extending guys like Jamar Chase, T. Higgins, T. Hedrickson, that they're paying. really ridiculous market value when they could have gotten extension done that's probably a little more team friendly earlier if they had made that a priority there. So it's a balancing act of trying to figure out how to manage your salary cap in that regard, understanding like, hey, we're good at this position, but we also need to be mindful. Like unless we have two guys that are, you know, lamb locked into being cornerback one cornerback two, this is a position teams will always bring in another guy because, hey, you suffer one injury. and you see how many wide receivers teams have in today's NFL.

Starting point is 00:27:00 We see how many times you see three by one sets or empty formations. It's like, hey, you've got to have three or four guys that can cover and you have to have good guys on the back end of your secondary at safety. So to me, this is a position. I feel like you can never go wrong, adding young guys here in the NFL draft. And I even think even adding undrafted rookie free agents to come in and do some things as well. Like you need that type of depth there. You can stash guys on your practice squad that can develop a little bit more.

Starting point is 00:27:25 And I think that's a huge. emphasis. I think that's so important here for what George Payton. I think what Sean also values to is good cornerback play and needing those guys. I think that's why he really couldn't hide last year during training camp, how he felt about Riley Moss. And I'm just excited to see how this position room continues to grow. Like I said, I think that the cornerback coach Addison Lynch has done a tremendous job working with these guys. It helps when you have a guy like Pat Sertan. It helps when you have a guy like Riley Moss. But this is a smart room. They have smart coaches. They have smart defensive coordinator in Vance Joseph.

Starting point is 00:27:57 They have a smart head coach and Sean Payton and knows how to find the best players available that fit what they want to do from an identity standpoint. To me, Denver can only get better at this position, which they don't need to right now. It's a strength in my opinion of theirs. It is. And it's one of those position groups to where, I mean, yeah, you could justify taking best player available if that's the case at 20 overall. Like you mentioned, Will Johnson or Jedi Barron from Texas as well, who's some people's

Starting point is 00:28:23 cornerback one in this class. and you could justify it and say like, yeah, you can never have too many good corners. And look what it did for us to draft Pat Sartan when it seemed like we didn't have a need at that position. But at the same time, it feels way more like a luxury at this point. And it's a luxury that, you know, it's nice to know that even though the Broncos top two positions on the roster, according to Sean Payton and George Payton last year were offensive and defensive line, I'd be willing to bet cornerback wasn't far behind because those guys played extremely well for, where they're at in their careers and the faith that was put in them by this coaching staff to say,

Starting point is 00:29:00 look, we're not going to go out and sign anybody but Levi Wallace. Like, we're going to let Riley Moss and Jayquan McMillan play. And we're going to let Chris Abrams drain play. The faith that was put in those guys was rewarded. And I think that's the kind of like thing that what gets rewarded gets repeated, right? So the Broncos, I think they're going to take that same tactic and strategy into this year. So I would say as early as the fourth round, but probably. not earlier than the fourth round for corner if I had to guess today.

Starting point is 00:29:29 Yeah, no, I'm with you there. I think that the first three picks, I think that their top three, first three picks on the top 100 are going to be offense, which I think it should be offense, load up at running back, tight end, maybe add a receiver to the mix. Then I think you can focus on adding defensive guys with the remaining back end capital that you have. Will the Broncos make any draft day trades? I mean, that, that's certainly a possibility.

Starting point is 00:29:52 We've seen them do that with other teams. I think really two years in a row. Sean Payton first year traded with the Saints to get Adam Troutman. In year number two, they traded with the New York Jets to get John Franklin Myers. I imagine we're going to see another draft day trade this upcoming season. So four weeks away, Broncos country, there's going to be a lot of action involved here. But we're going to continue our position overview after NFL free agency. We broke down the cornerback room here today.

Starting point is 00:30:15 But are the Broncos comfortable with their pass rush room at outside linebacker set as is? Or could they add a spark by bringing home a familiar face? We'll break that down and much more on some. tomorrow's episode. Lockdown Broncos. Broncos country. We'll see you then.

Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - Denver Broncos' Cornerback Room LOCKED AND LOADED For 2025 | Most Intact Position Group?

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