Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - Denver Broncos Jahdae Barron, RJ Harvey STAND OUT In Rookie Minicamp

Starting point is 00:00:00 Denver Broncos rookie cornerback, Zaday Barron is as advertised. So is R.J. Harvey. We'll tell you what we saw from them during Broncos rookie minicamp on Saturday. Here 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?

Starting point is 00:00:28 Welcome to a bonus episode, Lockdown Broncos, your daily Denver Broncos podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day for all your Broncos news content coverage analysis more. This is the place to be every single day all year long. So a special shout out to all the everydayers out there in Broncos country. Thanks for tuning in making us your first listen of the day. However, you choose to do so. I'm Cody Roark, credential Broncos reporter from Mile High Sports.

Starting point is 00:00:54 And I'm Sarah Bedinger, side expert, predominantly orange.com. And on today's bonus episode, you're going to get Broncos rookie minicamp reaction and content had a chance to be there in Duff Valley on Saturday as the rookies took the field for day two of rookie minicamp. And we'll go through why Jada Baron R.J. Harvey, Pat Bryant were as advertised when we got our first glance at the Broncos rookie draft class at practice. We'll also dive deep into why Sean Payton is excited about the traits that Caleb Loner possesses at the tight end position. And we'll also go through why several other players, including Pat Bryant, but also some other undrafted rookie wide receivers like Courtney Jackson stood out during rookie mini camp. You get all that reaction, much more here on today's episode of the show.

Starting point is 00:01:38 Sarah, look, it was a scorching day in the valley. I'm sunburnt to a crisp here, but it was our first chance to watch the Broncos rookie draft class up close and personal here. Undrafted rookie free agents, a few tryout players as well. And you could tell that there was this transition period from, oh, it may have been different how we did it at college. Now, this is what it's like at the pro level. And I think Sean Payton, his coaches did a tremendous job.

Starting point is 00:02:02 kind of setting that tone here from what we've been able to see because we know what practice looks like on a day-to-day basis for them. But Ja-day Barron, RJ Harvey, Sarah, I'll tell you this, they look exactly as advertised. Well, that's exactly what you want to hear, right? When you're talking about a rookie class that's going to have to come in and make instant impact, you want to see those guys hit the ground running. And I was just watching your practice recap video, Cody, as well over there at Mile High Sports.

Starting point is 00:02:29 And seeing some of that footage, I mean, those guys, they look, explosive. They got quick feet. RJ Harvey looks like an NFL running back. If I can say it that way, I don't know about that number 37. I think there's been a lot of debate about his jersey number out there. We'll see if that ends up actually being his number at the start of the year. But all kidding aside about jersey numbers and stuff, I think that what you wanted to see, what you needed to see from a rookie class that's expected, like, especially with those two guys,

Starting point is 00:02:56 Jada, Barron, RJ Harvey Harvey. I mean, you take a corner in round one on a defense that's already loaded. that guy better be good. And you take a running back round two after trading down, moving down. That's your biggest roster hole. That guy better be good. So to hear that these guys hit the ground running at rookie minicamp, I think that's great news for everybody in Broncos country.

Starting point is 00:03:14 Yeah, and it seems like they're picking everything up relatively quickly from terminology. You know, we'll hear from Jada Baron in this episode a little bit, had a chance to ask him a question in a locker room following practice. But, you know, one of the things that Sean Peyton raved about, you know, we talked about post practice because look, we'll be upfront and honest about these practices. You know, there is no physical contact. It's run by, you know, defense is running by an offensive player. The offensive guy, you know, keeps his legs turning there.

Starting point is 00:03:38 There's an emphasis on finishing the play. But, you know, when you are playing corner, you get to cover these receivers in press coverage. You get a playoff ball coverage. It's full speed. And the thing was Jadee that you absolutely see. And he was working inside the nickel outside, you know, things that we saw him do at Texas. But, man, you know, for a guy like Jada, the thing is that Sean Payton said is you sometimes worry about young corners and not recognizing route, you know, the splits and the receivers, you know, in terms of how close they are,

Starting point is 00:04:06 how far apart they are and what route concepts can come off of that. You see right away just how smart he is. And he's communicating. That's one thing I'll say with Jaude, when I watched him up close, you know, during Saturday's practice, he is communicating what he's seeing and he's communicating it to, you know, the guy playing inside next to him, the safety, and they're echoing that to the linebackers. You can tell the pickup is there. And he'll tell you there's some of the things that he's adjusted on as obviously, you know,

Starting point is 00:04:31 he's transitioning from learning what it's like to be a college football player to now being in the NFL and what's being thrown at you at the NFL from an offensive standpoint. But RJ Harvey, another player that Sean Payton said is picking things up relatively quickly to what they want to do. And just once again, I mean, he's big. I don't want to say he's got the upper body of Adrick Estimate. I feel like he's got really like his quads are ridiculous. I'm sure you've seen some videos or pictures posted out there.

Starting point is 00:04:58 but for a guy that is as big and bulky as he is, it's crazy to see him move and cut and just shift and be as explosive as he is, if that makes sense there. That, you know, Sean Payton was trying to put that into context a little bit throughout the day. But these guys early on, no pads, they move well as advertised. And I'm very curious to see what they're going to look like when the pads come on because that's really where the real evaluation happens. These guys can look great in a helmet and shorts and a jersey.

Starting point is 00:05:25 But when the pads come on, that's where you really tell. But the first initial impressions, Sarah, they're very, very good there. And I'll say this, Pat Bryant and Caleb Loner, like you talk about guys that are big. Pat Bryant is a big guy. Caleb Loner is massive in terms of just without pads there. So there's so much to kind of break down here. But overall, it's a good day. But Sarah, you know, even touching on some other things, too, about, you know,

Starting point is 00:05:49 Saturday's practice. Ian Book came in as the quarterback. Apparently Desmond Ritter was supposed to come in. Then he decided he may have. his career in football. Something may change along those lines. So Ian Book came in and, you know, his gets to reunite with Sean Payton. I, and he said, one thing Sean said is it's good to have a veteran inside, like the huddle, you know, a guy who understands, you know, how we want the tempo, how we want the cadence, getting in and out of the huddle. So like those little minute

Starting point is 00:06:16 details there, I just felt like Saturday's practice for looking at a rookie minicamp this the second year in a row been able to see it. I just felt like it was crisp and it was efficient. It was a good day from, you know, my eyes. have seen. And that's exactly what we need, right? Because this is one of the older draft classes in the league as well. You know, the Broncos, I think, had the highest average age among any team in terms of players drafted this year.

Starting point is 00:06:40 Now, a couple of guys kind of tilted the scales a little bit on that one. But certainly it's an experience group of players. And I love what RJ Harvey had to say, Cody, at practice, when he talked about how he wanted to be there in Denver, you wanted to get drafted by the Broncos because of Bo Nix, right? And you can tell just seeing what he said, I'm ready to get to work with the vets. Like these guys are ready to contribute to a winning team. And that's what I think excites me the most about this incoming rookie class is that they're joining something that it's kind of like the, you know, the 2012 class for the Denver Broncos, right? When you brought in Peyton Manning that offseason, you had Von Miller win rookie of the year, the year before, like things were trending upwards.

Starting point is 00:07:22 And so when you added guys like, you know, Derek Wolf, Danny Trevath and Malik Jackson, all those guys in that 2012 draft, what they were joining was something that was already in process of ascending. And I think that's what gets me so excited about this rookie class as well, is that these guys understand that they're part of something now that they don't have to be part of rebuilding the Broncos. They don't have to bring the Broncos back to life. They don't have to resuscitate the Broncos playoff, you know, record.

Starting point is 00:07:51 They don't have to get back into the playoffs for the first time since 2015. Like they get to join a team that now has legitimate aspirations in the AFC. And I think you're seeing and hearing that in their mentality. And the foundation, as you mentioned, is really kind of already in place for them. So I think it's going to allow these guys to kind of fit into the culture seamlessly. And look, there's a handful of guys I think are going to do tremendously well here. But we'll obviously hear from Broncos cornerback, Jadet Barron here a little bit in today's episode of the show here. but we're also going to hear from Sean Peyton

Starting point is 00:08:21 and why he's excited in the traits that Caleb Loner has there. He went into detail about what he saw specifically that stood out. You're going to get that reaction and much more here on today's episode, Locked on Broncos. Today's episode Lockdown Broncos is brought to you by our friends over at the game time app and there is nothing like the NBA playoffs, the intensity, the buzzer beers, fans losing their minds. It's the kind of atmosphere that you must experience live

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Starting point is 00:10:02 tickets lowest price guaranteed the Denver Broncos got themselves some big time sleepers in this year's draft and now we finally had the coaching staff able to see them out there on the field Sean Payton gushing over Caleb Loner. And obviously, like Cody and I mentioned in the first segment, the first round and second round picks of this team, showing out at their first rookie minicamp Broncos country. We're going to get you all the updates on the rookie mini camp that happened over the weekend. But first I want to say thank you for tuning in making lockdown Broncos,

Starting point is 00:10:34 your first listen of the day. Every single day, we appreciate you so much. Cody, I'm excited to hear more about this because obviously you were boots on the ground there. I'm getting the secondhand sort of information on all this, but it's exciting nonetheless, anytime you get to hear Sean Payton talk about the rookies and just get to hear their first impressions, right? First impressions matter.

Starting point is 00:10:56 I think especially for Sean Peyton, who has like a, he could probably write a novel about first, you know, first impression stories with every great player he's ever coached, right? So these matter to him. They matter to the team. And obviously these rookies are coming in and they are showing out.

Starting point is 00:11:13 Like we talked about, I think the theme is hitting the ground running. Yeah, and that's the thing that in terms of about impressions, like Sean said, the most important thing is, okay, hey, we get to meet these guys. You generate an impression when you're talking to them. You shake their hands. He says, but it's having them in the building at the facility, seeing them interact with one another in the team cafeteria, how they are in meetings. He says, that's when you really start to piece a lot of these things together.

Starting point is 00:11:36 Because in the pre-draft process, you may interview, you'll bring some of these guys in, but you may not get to know them as fully as you want to as more so like, hey, this guy is here. He's going to be here all throughout the summer. Now, this is an impression. And, you know, those impressions matter. And I think you learn a lot, too, just from my observation here, Sarah, as a former coach and as a former player, you get to see how a guy is when he's actually doing stuff

Starting point is 00:11:58 in a football structure environment. And it's different. You know, when you're going to a pro day and you're working a guy out, you know, there's a structure there. But it's nothing like, hey, we have our own practice. We have the own way, our own way of doing things here and how they go about it. That's one of those big keys is, you know, how are they adjusting to the altitude? There was an emphasis on hydration.

Starting point is 00:12:18 That's the Sean's very big on making sure that these guys get the proper nutrition in, the proper hydration in, monitoring. They're obviously, they're wear and tear. That's one thing that the Broncos, I think, do a really good job of, which has helped them, I think in the injury department over the last couple years when you get the data. But, you know, you talked about the excitement that he's had. I asked him about Caleb Loner, you know, the limited sample size in terms of overall football snaps. but when I saw him on Saturday,

Starting point is 00:12:44 man, this is a guy who moves extremely well, Sair. Here's what Sean Payton had to say about Caleb Loner. It's limited. So this is a basketball player for most of his career. He plays a year of football, count the snaps, count the catches, I get it. And yet you see trades, you see movements.

Starting point is 00:13:01 I'm not a big fan of the Big 12 Pro Day because a player like him gets six routes instead of 20 that he would get at his own pro day. So hopefully that that. That's going away. But there's two or three clips where I'm like, play it again, play it again. And then when you watch them and you watch them move and even in our first two days here, you know, and people bring up Jimmy and now Jimmy was a third round pick.

Starting point is 00:13:30 I get it. But there were some similarities in that. He only played a year, 80 some snaps. I think he had 18 catches. And so, yeah, we got to coach and develop. You know, in other words, if it was already present when you watch him and you guys see him and shake his hand and stand next to him like, holy cow. And so there's traits there that excite me. And then just visiting with him and, you know, his intentionality and his excitement about it.

Starting point is 00:14:06 man, I'm excited to watch it. Cody, I can't wait to get to see this guy in person because I know you and I were talking before we even started recording here and you're like, man, Caleb Loner, just a big, big dude in person. And I think with those traits that come through, that's exactly what you're looking at, right? When it comes to the NFL draft, I mean, a lot of times guys do get drafted based on production at the college level,

Starting point is 00:14:30 but how many times have we seen guys get picked because of their traits? And I think with a guy like this, you're excited more so about that than you would be if a guy played for four years. And man, he ran a great 40-yard dash and he had a great vertical jump and all these metrics and things like that, but just didn't produce for four years. I think you're more excited with a guy like this because he kind of produced within the limited snaps that he got as opposed to not producing over a bunch of games. Right. So the traits plus the intrigue of the limited sample, I think that's something that, man, if I, I resonate. Nate with Sean Payton on this one big time. Well, and I think another thing that he kind of made very clear when talking about that is like,

Starting point is 00:15:10 obviously there's traits there. You want to see a player develop, but he kind of put the on it's up to us as coaches to get him to where he needs to be as well. It's not just, hey, you know, we like the traits. The players got to get there. It's we got to help this guy get to this spot too. So he put the on on coaching as much as anything. But we're going to transition around some other sound bites as well.

Starting point is 00:15:29 We got a chance to hear from Broncos defensive and Savion Jones. One of the things that we asked him is, you know, have you had a chance to sit down and study the Broncos defensive tape from last season? Oh, yeah, man, just being able to study their game, first of all, just being able to be in a room with a team that produced the most Saxon and the lead. That's just, you know, it makes you want to study under them, you know, having that chance of being that room is like, you know, for a young guy like me, it's a lot of, it's like a sponge.

Starting point is 00:16:01 I'm just soaking up all the experience I can get. When you're playing with the big time players, right? We just saw an interview with Zach Allen and Chris Long. I mean, that's a pro's pro right there. John Franklin Myers. I thought it was interesting. Zach Allen talked about how well those guys played off each other, despite not knowing each other.

Starting point is 00:16:16 I can't help but feel like that's going to be something Savion Jones. Cody is going to be part of that sponge process that he's going to be learning, hey, how do I play off of the guys that I'm playing with? Because that's as important as being a disruptor, as having a quick snap get off, all those sorts of things. So adding him to the mix, that's going to be a lot of fun. Yeah, and I caught Zach Allen's interview, and that's what I was thinking about as well. I said, you know, these veteran guys, they're going to take care of these younger guys in terms of getting them up to speed on how that culture is inside that position room.

Starting point is 00:16:46 Apparently a couple of those defensive linemen, you know, in the Broncos veteran room on the D line. They went to Turkey, you know, for some hair implants this season. So we'll see who's got a brand new hairline this upcoming season. I'm curious about that. But let's now transition here to Ja de Baron, obviously, Star of the Day. always going to be the focus because he's the first round pick, had a chance to catch up with him inside the Broncos locker room following practice. No, it's just fun just to be out here, you know.

Starting point is 00:17:11 Last time I'm coming on a helmet was a long time ago, so I'm just enjoying the process. But it's good, just learning, learning information, taking the information from all the coaches and things like that. But I'm just blessed, truly blessed. So far quickly, coming from, I'm obviously playing at the college level. What's been the biggest transition so far on your first just couple of pro practices? I'm just adjusting, you know, I'm trying to learn the play schemes and things like that,

Starting point is 00:17:31 the concepts that the offense are running now at this level. A lot of different motions, a lot of different shifts and things like that. So I'm just suggesting it and putting into my game. For those that aren't watching on YouTube, Cody, they've got to. They've got to subscribe on YouTube because you would not be able to see Jadae Barron's incredible traps in that video. My gosh, the guy never misses traps day at the gym. What an impressive guy, right?

Starting point is 00:17:53 I mean, just listening to him there, he's so well-spoken. I feel like this guy is going to be an absolute grand slam addition to this defense in 2025. I mean, he moves well. Like I said, his communication style is on point. I think once you get him and look, you know, we're going to have OTAs in the mini camp here in the next couple of weeks where we're going to see Jadae Barron working in with Pat Sartan and the veteran guys. I think getting these young guys, their first look is great. Now seeing how they transition in with the veteran players, I think is going to be big.

Starting point is 00:18:20 But, yeah, I mean, you're right with Jaday. I mean, there is a lot of different motion concepts in the NFL and compared to the college game. And so it's just understanding how their coverage responsibility changes. he's picked things up quickly, and I think that's going to be a process that continues to accelerate here. I want to highlight, though, a couple of undrafted rookie free agents, though, Sarah, before we close out today's bonus episode, Lockdown Broncos, number 89, Courtney Jackson, I think he's going to be a player to watch during training camp potentially into the preseason.

Starting point is 00:18:49 I thought he ran routes relatively well, thought he did a good job, and I can't give away what routes. I'm not allowed to report or talk about that stuff, but he has an understanding on how to beat certain coverages, whether it be zone, whether it be man. I thought he had a crisp day. Gerwan Newton, also another player. Number 80, his name has escaped me at the top of my head right now. I think it's Joaquin Davis, if I'm not mistaken. Those three guys stood out to me in a big way.

Starting point is 00:19:16 Joaquin Davis has got really good size, six foot four, very athletic and go up and high pointed. I just thought the wide receiver room between Pat Bryant, talk about Courtney Jackson, Gerwan Newton, Joaquin Davis. These guys I thought all stood out during the practice of which we were able to see ultimately on Saturday. That's the only practice media gets to see of Broncos rookie mini camp. They'll wrap things up on Sunday. No coverage there. But we have a lot of stuff coming your way here, folks.

Starting point is 00:19:43 We got the Broncos schedule release coming out this upcoming Wednesday. You'll get reaction from Sarah Bedinger and myself here. But what that said, Broncos country, we want to say thank you so much for tuning in. Rocking with us here on a bonus episode, Lockdown Broncos on the weekend. and here's what you can expect on Monday's episode of the show. Sarah and I, we're going to sit down. We're going to take a look, some undrafted rookie free agents. We're also going to go through the next couple of days

Starting point is 00:20:06 and give our schedule prediction before the release even happens. Where will the Broncos go? How many primetime games will get? You've got a lot to look forward to this week here on lockdown Broncos. So make sure if you're not in every day or subscribe or follow, so you never miss out. Broncos country, we'll see you next time.

Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - Denver Broncos Jahdae Barron, RJ Harvey STAND OUT In Rookie Minicamp

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