Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - Denver Broncos Hire Of Darren Rizzi Is Massive Addition For Sean Payton

Episode Date: February 17, 2025

Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton hired his number one coaching target this offseason with Darren Rizzi coming over from the New Orleans Saints to be the next special teams coordinator and Payton's assistant head coach. What will Rizzi bring to the Broncos special teams unit this season, where can the unit improve, and what positions on special teams could look different in 2025? Cody Roark is a credentialed beat reporter for Mile High Sports and covers the Broncos daily in person. Sayre Bedinger is the site expert for Predominantly Orange. Both bring Broncos Country the most in-depth and objective coverage of the Denver Broncos. WANT MORE DAILY DENVER BRONCOS CONTENT?For all of the latest Denver Broncos news today -- Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOBroncos?sid=YouTube Locked On NFL League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Draft & More🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnNFL Follow on Twitter: @CodyRoarkNFL and @SayreBedingerFollow the show on Twitter: @LockedOnBroncos Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!FanDuelRight now, new FanDuel customers can get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Bonus Bets if your first FIVE DOLLAR bet wins!Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Denver Broncos are riszed up on the special team side of the while Sean Peyton gets his guide. Darren Rizzi, the next special team's coordinator here for the Broncos. Where can this unit improve here in 2025 under Rizzi? We'll break that down and much more 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 happening in Broncos country? Welcome into another episode of Lockdown Broncos, your daily Denver Broncos.

Podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, where you know it's your team every day. Broncos Country, thank you so much for tuning in, making us your first listen of the day. However, you choose to do so, thank you to all the every dares out there that make Lockdown Broncos exactly what it is for all your Broncos news, content coverage, analysis and more. You can't get better coverage anywhere than right here, lockdown Broncos, wherever you get your podcast. I'm Cody Roark, Broncos reporter for Mile High Sports. Do it as always by Sarah Beninger, site expert, predominantly orange.com. You can check out our written work there exclusively every single day, as well as getting all the podcast coverage you need on your favorite team here on.

Broncos, with that said, we have a lot to break down here today. Broncos country. We kind of alluded to it last week as, hey, because Sean Payton be close to making some coaching hires and then bang, it happened. Darren Rizzy, the next special teams coordinator here for the Broncos. We'll highlight which special teams players will be changed in 2025. Some positions that could look different for this unit going forward to this upcoming. Season. We'll also look at maybe where special teams can improve in 2025, but we're going to kick things off by highlighting the biggest news so far of the offseason cycle for Denver, Darren Rizzy coming over. And now, not only just special teams coordinator, Sarah, he's the assistant head coach. That's obviously a really big title here.

It is. And I think this is one of the biggest additions the Broncos will make all off season. Obviously, Darren Rizzi won't be playing for the team, but he'll be making a huge impact on the field. As you mentioned, Cody, the new special teams coordinator. and assistant head coach. Under Rizzie's watch in New Orleans, the New Orleans Saints had some of the best special teams units in the NFL, depending on which I guess metric you want to look at, whether you look at Rick Gosselin's rankings, pro football focus, or if you just generally look at, hey, I mean, like Rashid Shaheed was an all pro returner,

Blake Groupie developed into a really good kicker. They've had just a ton of good individual special teams players on top of having good units under him. And he's been a coveted special teams guy. dating back to his time at Miami with the dolphins. And look, I think this guy is probably to me, Cody, Darren Rizzi, to the Denver Broncos is the best non-head coach coaching move of 2025. I think this is a huge, huge addition to the Denver Broncos to get this guy.

And really, it's not necessarily, and we'll talk about this, it's not necessarily about, well, which area was bad that he was brought into fix. I think he's going to be a guy that is an edge for the Denver Broncos. in many different ways this upcoming season. Well, and for Sean Payton to make the move to say, hey, like the Broncos special teams unit in 2024 is one of the best units in the league. For him to go through and say, hey, you know, it wasn't good enough. We're going to fire Ben Kotwicko, who I thought did a really terrific job.

I know you and I highlighted that. Yes, there were some errors on the special team side, especially late down the stretch. And maybe that's what kind of did Kotwick in in terms of him not returning here. But it's very clear, really from the onset that Sean Payton really wanted Darren Rizzi. I mean, that was really the first name that got brought up the moment that Kotwika got fired. But the challenge and what's been taking so long here is that there was the waiting game there. Darren and Rizzi was obviously in contention for the New Orleans Saints head coaching job there.

And he had public backing from players, Alvin Kammerer coming out publicly, Camero coming out publicly and saying, hey, we want Darren Rizzi to be our next head coach. And right there, like when you have that, like the Saints organization definitely felt a little bit of that pressure there because it's like, all right, do you want to listen to the players? Like Rizzi's a name who's obviously been a hot name here. I think, you know, for the last four or five years in the NFL. And now you got players, your star players saying, hey, we want this guy as our coach, right? But then you're going through the process of, but we really want to get this guy.

And ultimately, they landed on Kellynne Moore as their next head coach. And that's what really led to Darren Rizzy finally being freed up here to go through the whole process here. And obviously Chris Banjo was in consideration. initially before he took the New York Jets special teams coaching job to stay in Denver. He was, you know, candidate for an in-house promotion there at that point. He obviously went there. But now, like, Sarah, you bring in Rizzi, who's obviously been so great to develop

in the special team side. You know, obviously I saw on Twitter, Chris Harris Jr.'s, you know, comment that he had to our good friend Patrick Keote about what type of coach Rizzi is. And he says, hey, he's a player's coach. He's very smart, understands the little nuances of the game that set up things. And it's made some kind of. mark about he put me on the field one time when he knew there was going to be a fake punt ran by the other team and so I was in there and I you know I helped stop it that is the stuff

that Sean Payton is looking for right there was little details that can earn you the difference between winning or losing a game that's what Darren is going to bring to the table but also here's the thing assistant head coach there this means that Sean Payton's going out and getting yet another guy that he knows that he's familiar with that knows exactly how he likes it he's bringing that standard here over to Denver which is going to to, I think, encapsulate through what you need on the special team side. You had that with Mike Westoff, but obviously when Westoff had to step away, that created a little bit of difference, I think, you know, after he had stepped away there.

So now Sean Payton gets his guy, and I agree with you. This is a huge hire here for the Broncos on the coaching staff. Well, I think it speaks to what we talked about in our latest episode before this one last week, at the end of last week where we talked about our coaches jumping ship from Denver, or are they, you know, I just taking promotions, I guess, elsewhere. I think this is an example that coaches, I mean, crazy enough, they do like working for Sean Payton and with Sean Payton. And there's a reason why so many of his former New Orleans assistants have come now to Denver. And this is just the latest one of that.

And I'm sure we'll see even more as the offseason progresses. But here's another reason why I really like this move, Cody. I was actually reading an article on ESPN from last season after Rizzi took over the interim head coach job when Dennis Allen was fired. And, you know, obviously there's always that little honeymoon period when a coach gets fired in season. The interim coach gets his guys going for a couple of games, even if they don't end up doing much. But actually, the Saints kind of were in it near the end of the year in the NFC South there. What was fascinating to me in this article was a couple of mentions about how Rizzi is impactful when it comes to game management. Now, I don't think Sean Payton necessarily

struggles with game management, but there have been a few. times where you and I have talked after games like, why did Sean Payton do this? Why didn't he call timeouts here? Why did he call timeouts here? Why didn't he run the clock out here? I wonder with the assistant head coach title, if that's more than just a, hey, you're going to be getting paid a lot more than regular special teams coaches. Well, I'm sure it does mean that behind the scenes. We won't know that. But I wonder if there's more to it in terms of, hey, I need you standing next to me during games. If I'm Sean Peyton and I have, you know, if I've watched back last season and gotten honest feedback, I think that would be one of the things that probably would come up.

It's like, hey, game management at times, like we can be better or we can gain an edge in this way. I would be willing to bet that Darren Rizzy is going to be in Sean Payton's ear at times in terms of those game management situations, especially like you mentioned the fake punt, things like that. I think he's going to be standing right next to Peyton a lot of times during games. Well, and once again, it's just it's sending a consistent message too, right? You know, from Sean Payton, he's got a message that he gives to the team, how he wants it. He's got a standard that's set. That obviously goes down now to the special team side here with Rizzi. And ultimately, you know, that's the hope that you have there with Vance Joseph, a defensive

coordinator here. And, and obviously we talked about that last week with Jim Leonard staying on staff. You know, what does that mean long term for the Broncos and maybe Vance's outlook here with the organization? But, you know, I think one thing is clear is that Sean, John Payton and the Broncos have approached this offseason. They've got their quarterback in place. And now it's really analyzing, okay, and this is what he said to us at the end of the press conference. We're going to look at where we're at as a coaching staff. We're going to evaluate where we can be better, what we need to improve on, what we need to maybe, you know, move on from.

And they've done that. Obviously, they fired a couple of coaches, Ben Kotwick, one of them, Greg Mniewski, the other. They've lost a couple of coaches due to promotion. But now you're bringing in guys like Rizzi who are going to replace that. And to your point, it is a relatively big hire. here for them in terms of what they want. So now you're not bringing in guys who don't understand what the standard is, right? And they have to kind of learn from Sean Payton what that is.

You already have that here with Darren Rizzy. So I'm very curious to see how it's going to continue to play out here and, you know, the type of influence he's going to have. And obviously with Banjo departing, like, now you're going to need a new special teams assistant coach. Like, could we maybe see another player come out and get an opportunity to coach special teams here? You know, part of me thinks that's the path that Sean Payton maybe wants to take. And of course, they've got some guys on staff that are, you know, coaching assistants that are trying to work their way up as well.

So maybe there's going to be some promotions. And when you keep those guys in house, you know that standard, right? And now you pair them with Rizzi, who's going to understand what that standard is and it helps your organization grow. I think that's going to be big. And I can't wait to see what he can do. You mentioned Rashid Shahid earlier. I can't wait to see what he does with all pro returner Marvin Mims and how the Broncos can be even better on special teams. And honestly, that's where our conversation is going to next Broncos country.

We're not done on today's episode of the show. Up next, we're going to discuss in depth where the Broncos can improve on special teams, which specific units can get better if the Broncos are going to take another leap in 2025. You'll get that much more here on today's brand new episode, Lockdown Broncos. Today's episode of Lockdown Broncos is brought to you by our friends over there at Fandu. And as you all know it, Fandu, they are America's number one sports. But even though the NFL season is officially over, the NBA season is in full swing right now. and when the game tips off, the NBA action, it's just getting started.

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And that's why we see Darren Rizzi now coming in as the team's new special teams coach and assistant head coach. But where specifically will we see the Denver Broncos special teams get better now that Rizzi is in place? Well, we're going to discuss that and much more on today's episode, Locked on Broncos. But Broncos country, thanks so much. Mile high salute to every single one of you that makes locked on. Broncos, your first listen of the day.

Every single day, we appreciate you so much. And if you haven't done so already, become an everyday listener by hitting subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts as well as on YouTube. And Cody, I think this is an important piece of the discussion because why would you fire a special teams coordinator who clearly made that unit better over the last couple of years, right? I mean, I know Mike Westoff was part of that before he stepped down due to health reasons. But Ben Kotwika, like you said, I mean,

that unit wasn't necessarily bad by any means. Did they have bad moments? Absolutely. But if every unit got their coordinator fired who had bad moments last year, I think they would have all been cleaned out of the coaching staff. So where specifically do we feel like the Broncos can get better on special teams now that Rizzi is the coordinator of that unit? Yeah, I feel like this can be kind of like a double-edged sword a little bit, right? Obviously, special teams is its own unit.

and, you know, there's always three phases to the game. But I also think that there's times where the offense and the defense can help the special teams unit be in a better position. Now, more so I think this applies to the offense, right? Because if you start off in bad field position initially or if you go backwards and let's say you are backed up into your own end zone and now you have to punt it. Well, by nature, unless you have a freak of a leg, the opposing team is more likely going to start out near or at midfield in those situations. And late in the season, the Broncos were in some of those situations. Now, there were also a couple times where the Broncos punting unit, Riley Dixon, could have boomed it a little further downfield and just, you know, didn't punt it, whether it was the right out to, didn't get the right spin on the ball, whatever it may be, and it led to several opportunities for Joe Burrow and the Bengals, the Los Angeles Charters and a couple of those late games at the end of the season.

You know, obviously Denver went to the playoffs. They went 10 and 7, but, you know, we're talking about some of those little issues right there on special teams being the difference between, you know, winning the 10 games at Denver did, or maybe even winning 12 or even 30. And then all of a sudden, you know, the national media narrative about the Denver Broncos is a little different going into the offseason. There's still some naysayers and doubters out there. But I'd say for the most part, the Broncos have earned the stripes. They got some respect here. But those can be little differences that help you out. And obviously, I think it's not all just on special teams.

The offense at times has to help them out with field position. And that's where I think they can get better. But part of me is going to say here, you know, well, punt coverage at times, like most of the season it was good, Sarah. late in the season, you know, had a couple of moments. I would say kick coverage, right, on kickoff when they actually kicked it short, not in the back of the end zone, and they allowed a return. Denver gave up way too many yards there. Part of me saying, okay, we didn't see too many returns early on in the season.

It was really in that second half where things just kind of went downhill. And part of me was wondering, is it Will Lutz just kicking it short, or is that just like, is that part of what got Ben Codwick of fire? Ultimately here for the Broncos is, hey, we're going to kick it short. We trust our guys, which Denver got the person. know to go down there and make tackles, but they didn't do a good enough job late in the season there. So part of me is thinking it's the kit coverage aspect that could probably be one of the bigger areas of emphasis this offseason. And I think too that when Sean Payton watches teams like

the Kansas City Chiefs who, hey, if you want to host a playoff game like Sean Peyton has said, you've got to get past the Kansas City Chiefs. When he was doing his radio row stuff at the Super Bowl and talking about Chiefs Eagles and he even mentioned a couple of years ago when he worked for Fox and he brought up, you know, what's the, what's going to be the difference in this game? And why are, is who, why do you think whoever's going to win? He brought up the kicking game both times. And, and Sean Payton thinks really highly of Dave Tob, who's the special teams coordinator in Kansas City. And Kansas City, frankly, I think they won what, 16 or 17 straight one score games that they played in over the last couple of years. And what's been a huge

difference for them in those games? It's obviously the kicking game, special teams, whether you're talking about Harrison Butker field goals, or you're talking about, you know, he brought up Cadarious Tony's return in the Super Bowl a couple of years ago, Super Bowl 57. So I think that there's things like that that Peyton really believes in, hey, over the long haul, you see how it's benefited the chiefs in one score games with 16, 17 straight wins in one score games to have the advantage in the kicking game. I mean, it's huge for a team like that. And for the Broncos, like you said, Cody, it could have been the difference between. 12, maybe even 13 wins down the stretch of the season. We don't know the butterfly effect of making a field goal in the playoffs. I mean, I'm sure, like I've mentioned before, maybe the Broncos would have just lost 31 to 10 instead of 31 to 7, right?

But, hey, I mean, I think you would like to find out if you could go into the half tied and see what would be different as opposed to on a missed field goal like that. So, and I'm not saying Rizzie's going to come in and automatically every field goal is now going to get made. Every perfect decision is going to be made in return game. But what I am saying is that I think Sean Payton believes it's a big enough difference maker over the long haul to make a drastic change, despite the fact there wasn't any glaring over the last season. This was terrible like Tom McMahon's special teams units were previously. Yeah, Tom McMahon for some reason returns to the Raiders under Pete Carroll, you know, despite all that. And I remember all the years of unaccountability for special teams. how many post game shows do or talk about where it's like wow special teams once again does the broncos in and this game and like that was a big factor at one point you know when we were covering this team here like years ago here locked on broncos but i want to go back to the point you mentioned about like will lutz and maybe the butterfly effect right what was it like that was that the first miss that he had since the block field goal or i'm trying to think was there another was there another misleaning season either that chargers or that bengals game that i'm missing at the top of

my head here. I think it was. I think that was the, as far as I can remember, I mean, maybe somebody in the comments can correct if we're wrong, but I think that was the only miss after the block. Okay. Yeah. And before that, like Will Lutz had a terrific year. The block, not Will Lutz's fault, but the miss field goal, you know, obviously in the postseason, not when stings a little bit, you want that because then it's, what is it at that point? It's, 10, 10, if I'm not mistaken, going into halftime at that point. You never know what can happen, right? Like, when you miss out on points, it's a difference.

I think he missed one against Baltimore, if I'm not mistaken, but I was really on in the season. So, yeah, he didn't miss, like he was one of the top kickers in the NFL, really until like that final miss against Buffalo kind of impacted this percentage a little bit.

But yeah, no, he was very good in that regard there. So I think that the Broncos have their guy here in Will Lutz, but I do think we can maybe look at, you know, some of the other things that they can do. I,

you know, I don't think they had an issue at all with the long snapping. I thought Mitchell Friboni did a really good job. Like anytime you have like a low snap or, you know, a bad snap. That's when you're going to hear the long snapper's name. Aside from that, Mitchell Fiboni actually went downfield several times and made plays,

took good lanes, you know, on his coverage to force him into a gunner or even made tackles himself there. He was one of the top specialists in the NFL. So this is a unit that I don't think needs widespread changes or widespread improvements. But obviously, if there is a trend that is building up a little bit, like the Ken City Chiefs had said, they identified on film before the blocked field goal that, you know,

unfortunately led to heartbreak, which definitely cost the Broncos a game this season, you know, maybe even a sweep against Kansas City. That is one of those things I think that Darren Rizzie, Sean Payton believes that will not happen under his watch. And ultimately as a coach, you want guys on your staff that you trust. They're like, hey, I know that this is something we don't have to worry about. We don't know what it was like necessarily behind the scenes. But for Sean, I remember that press conference,

like the Monday morning after that Kansas City one where, you know, Leo Chanel brought it up and we brought it up to Sean and Sean said, well, he said, if they said that was a tendency on film, then that's something on us as coaches. And I'm sure behind the scenes, I sure Sean was a little fiery about that after the fact. Was he aware of it beforehand? I don't know, maybe, but he seemed a little surprised when we brought it up in that conference call. So we'll see how things continue to transpire here. And obviously, special teams, a great unit for the Broncos in 2024, but can be even better in 2025 under Darren Rizzy. Now we're going to also analyze what players or what?

What positions on special teams could look a little different with Darren Rizzy going into 2025? You'll get that and much more. On today's episode, Locked on Broncos. The fourth quarter action is here on Broncos country. We're going to take a look at which special teams players might be different, you know, in terms of personnel-wise here on the Broncos special team side of the ball under Darren Rizzi in 2025. We'll maybe take a look. And whether not the Broncos are bringing in competition.

But before we do that, I just want to say thank you once again to all the everydayers out there who make us your first listen of the day. Even in the offseason, Broncos country, really, for the true fan, there's never an offseason. The NFL scouting combines coming up, NFL free agency, the NFL draft. Your boys, Sarah and Cody, we got you covered literally every day all year long for the best objective Broncos covers that you can't get anywhere else but here. That's our promise to you every single day.

So we appreciate you so much for rocking with us here. Continue on our special teams conversation, Sarah. Let's open it up by maybe analyzing what players are personnel on special teams. team side of the ball could be a little different here in 2025. There's obviously a handful of players that are set to hit free agency, a couple of key guys there as well. Where are we starting off with? Well, I wonder if we should just start off with the guy we just got done talking about

Will Lutz, obviously the kicker, which is one of the most prominent positions on special teams. And to circle it back, Will Lutz, he only missed three field goals all last season. I guess four if you include against Buffalo in the playoffs. But the three field goals, two of them happened against Kansas City. One happened early in the season against the Jets, Cody. So to answer that question that we had before. And to me, I feel like, there we go.

I think he's going to come back. I do. I feel like he's going to be the long-term kicker for this team, at least as far as long-term can be in the NFL. And I think his connection with Rizzi helps. You know, I know the Saints made a tough decision a couple years back to move on from Will Lutz, while Rizzi was obviously the special teams coordinator,

and they found Lutz's replacement. So kind of a group, I think. Yeah, group. Yeah, yep, exactly. So I think that's one of those situations to where maybe could we see the Broncos bring in some competition, though? I don't know. I think, I don't know if Will Lutz necessarily has the biggest leg in the NFL.

I mean, he's been accurate. He only missed three last year other than the playoff. But I feel like maybe you could bring in a guy with a bit bigger of a leg and push Lutz a little bit this off season. I'd be curious to see which guy like that is available, right? Obviously, big leg, altitude. You know, there's been times we've all been trying to say, like, hey, can the Broncos maybe kick a long-range field? What's you're right?

You had the block against Kansas City. You had the miss, the long miss right before half-time of that game as well. So two-and-one game there. I mean, really for Lutz, he was fantastic all year long. You want to be able to continue to build on that. If anyone's going to bring in competition, Sarah, I don't know if it's going to be a kicker, though. I think Will Lutz has got the job. Obviously, he signed the contract.

He turned down Jacksonville and ended up standing here, obviously, in Denver. I think if there's going to be any competition, brought in. It's going to be like what we saw last year. And that's going to be at punner. Riley Dixon, I think we'll have some competition, which I don't think like right now it's his job to lose, right? And I think you had some momentum what you did. You know, he could throw the ball. He's an athlete. You have that special team's fake ability with him, you know, with his legs if you want to or even with his arm as we saw against Buffalo to Marvin Mims. But I do think this is one of those things. Just to keep you honest, right? You want to bring in another specialist during training

camp to compete, right? And I think more so. because punter was a little bit more of, like you had a little more struggle at punter at times last year than you did kicker. I think that's probably where it makes the most sense. Now, you know, probably the easiest question we'll be able to answer it. Will there be a change at returner?

Probably not now that you got Marvin Mim still in the fold. And I think part of you and I, what we asked last year, if Marvin's going to continue elevating as a returner, what does that mean about his role on offense? I certainly don't want to see Marvin. Like obviously, they know how elite of an returner he is. And Sean Payton highlighted that. He said, you know, we got to figure out how to get him the ball and get him to do things for us on the offensive side where it kind of features him like a returner, so to speak.

So that's why they started doing the stuff in the backfield. I don't think Marvin's role is going to change now. But I do think if they add a veteran receiver, I think it's going to make a little more clearer how they can use Marvin if they get a guy that has truly clearly defined role as a true number two or even a number one receiver next to Cortland Sutton. Right. because last year we were talking about Marvin really taking that next step and being maybe arguably the leader on the team in targets or receptions or yards or all three. I mean, and that was a viable discussion because that was kind of what was pitched. What we heard from Sean Payton and them in the offseason.

It's like, yeah, he's going to take that next step. So, I mean, I would make that trade honestly, Cody. Would I go after an alternate option in the return game if it meant Marvin Mims taking that next step as an offensive player? absolutely now I'd love to have both I'd love to have Marvin take the next step offensively and still be that all pro return man but I don't know how much can you really quantify even just catching punts because how many years had that been a struggle for dent oh my gosh catching the punts I mean insanity I still hold my breath I'm still scar do you remember do you remember when they put sunshine Jordan Taylor back there and

we were just so excited because we're like hey we like we like we know I know Sunshine's not going to break off a big return. Well, we know Sunshine's going to catch the ball and he's not going to drop. But we were just so excited for a fair catch and, you know, him being able to lock here. How far we've come from that because really, what was it? Trinininin Holiday was the next best returner or even Omar Bolden had some splash plays between them. But yeah, Marvin is, Marvin truly is very electrifying. And honestly, Marvin had a few returns last year that helped them win a couple of games.

So I don't know if that's going to change. But, you know, obviously when we saw kickoff, there was somebody next. to Marvin quite a bit. And that was Tramon Smith, who set to be a free agent. Obviously, one of the Broncos best gunners. He had that mishap against the Los Angeles charges led to the, you know, the free kick really at the end of half, the fair catch field goal, which was a little problematic.

That was a three point swing there. To me, do we see Tramon coming back here for the Broncos in 2025? The more that I look at like how Sean values it, of course, Tremont's not going to give you much at corner in terms of production or anything like that. He's not even going to be the top of your depth chart. He's not even going to be a, he's going to be the very bottom corner on your depth chart overall that you're going to have there. And you may even bring a practice squad up guy to play corner before you have Tremont out there. But he is, man, he is a legit jammer.

He is a legit gunner. And he's a legit guy on special teams. But is this where Denver maybe makes a change here in the off season? Do they get somebody else to return next to Marvin that's already on this roster? And if so, Sarah, who do you think that could be that is currently on the roster as is? Yeah, that's a great question. because Tremont Smith played more special team snaps than did anybody else on the roster last year, 387. And J.L. Skinner was next at 312, Michael Burton, Nate Adkins, Jonah Ellis, Devin Key, Dondre Tullman, and Justin Sternad, Cody.

All of those guys played over 200 snaps on special teams. And so maybe the next guy is somebody like a Devin Key, right? If the Broncos move on from Tremont Smith, I don't know that necessarily plays the exact same roles and things like that. but maybe it's him. Maybe it's Damari Mathis. If he's back on the roster this coming year, I know he's a lot of gunner down the stretch. So maybe that's him.

I mean, maybe it's a wide receiver, right? I don't know. I mean, there's options out there, but I think that one thing is for certain that when you get a new coach that comes into overhauling unit,

you typically see roster turnover in that area. And I think that there are going to be players who follow Darren Rizzi to the Denver Broncos. And it might not be household. names, but shoot, I mean, Taysam Hill plays special teams, Cody. I know a lot of Broncos fans are, are like, hey, I don't want Taysam Hill. I want, I want, you know, Tyreek Hill. You know, it's like, okay, well, you probably won't get the Tarek Hill.

You might get Tateham Hill. But, I mean, I get where Broncos country's coming from in that regard. Cody, you don't necessarily want to sign a guy and that's your only move that you make at a position, but like Tassum Hill's a good football player. And he's played a lot of things. And he could play a lot of special teams for you. So I don't know. I think that there will be guys that follow Darren Rizzy.

And I think the Broncos will bring some guys back to, but it could be, I mean, an interesting overhaul in terms of the top guys who played special teams last year. I'm looking at 18 players right now for the Saints that are unrestricted free agents or exclusive rights free agents. And obviously, Johnson has been a name that we've talked about in terms of this. I know there's Peyton Turner. He plays defense.

Willie Gaye Jr. You know, obviously played some special teams for the Saints and also played defense for them. But then I look at guys like there's Will Harris. There's Paul Paulson Advo is not going to play a special team. He's going to play corner. Denver doesn't need that right now. Adam Prentice though, maybe, right? With Michael Burton being a free agent, could Adam Prentice come back to Denver? Which, you know, I don't think a lot of people remember Adam Prentice's time here in the Mile High City. There's Hugo Umadi, Dante Pettis, Shamar Jean Charles. I mean, really, there's, there's nobody that stands out necessarily off the top

of my head that's like, all right, this guy's going to come in and play special teams here for him right away. I think the only guy I could think of maybe would be a guy like Adam Prentice, but it depends on how Denver feels about Michael Burton, who obviously another player who is one of their top special teams guys for the last couple of seasons. So I'm very curious to see where Denver feels like they've got to improve and they've got to get better. But certainly I agree. I think that these positions here we look at, if anything's the bigger one in question, it's punter in terms of competition. You and I talk to the, about long snapper there.

Tremont Smith really is the one guy that's going to be the free agent. And I even say Justin Sternod, but Justin didn't get to play as much special teams last year because he got thrust into a starter position. So depending on what the Broncos do to address that, I know that Sean Payton really likes Justin Sternod, but does Justin come back on a deal where he just goes back to excelling as a special teams guy?

And is a guy that you know can play for you if you have an injury at inside linebacker. He's shown that. So to me, I think that Denver's going to, to have this approach where they're going to analyze every element of their roster. And I think primarily they're going to break it up into what position group can we improve on the most, right? And obviously, we know what those ones are here for Sean Payton.

So, Sarah, the offseason, it's going to be very, very fun in Broncos country. We got you covered literally every day all year long, leading throughout next season and even throughout the entire next season. We got you cover all off season. The month of June, we're going to have position. But previews for training camp, July training camp will be here. I mean, March, free agency, April, the draft, OTAs, Broncos country. There's a lot going on in the NFL world that's becoming year round. And you need to make sure you may lock on Broncos your everyday watch or listen year round

for all your Broncos news content coverage, analysis, and more. No fluff. You get that all here on Lockdown Broncos. But with that said, Sarah Bender, myself will be back. We're going to take a little bit of look at free agency. We're going to take a look at which players, three players might not return for the Broncos here in free agency. You also take a look this week at which three players need to return in free agency here for the Denver Broncos. You get all that much more on the show. Broncos country, appreciate it so much. We'll see you tomorrow for a brand new episode, Lockdown Broncos.