Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - Denver Broncos JOKER Evan Engram MISSING From Sean Payton's Deck of Cards

Episode Date: September 16, 2025

The Denver Broncos and Sean Payton brought in Evan Engram to be a Joker for the Broncos offense, but Payton hasn't used him that way in their first two games. What's the issue with the Broncos offensive usage of Engram and why is that on Payton more than anything else? Plus, the Broncos have a big issue at inside linebacker that teams will look to exploit. Cody Roark and Sayre Bedinger share their thoughts with Broncos Country. 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!5-Hour ENERGYEnough with boring, flavorless caffeine, it’s time to give your caffeine a flavor upgrade with 5-hour ENERGY®️ shots. Get the favorites you love or be bold and try something new in-store and online at https://www.5hourENERGY.com or Amazon today.     DoorDashWith DoorDash Streaks, you save every Saturday you order — stack it up all season and you could save up to $250. Order this Saturday. Keep the streak alive. Fuel your gameday — only with DoorDash. Terms apply. Promo period through 11/18. Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNFL at https://monarchmoney.com/lockedonnfl for 50% off your first year. UpsideDon’t let this offer drive on by, download the free Upside app now using my limited time promo code TOUCHDOWN for a limited time 25 cent per gallon bonus! Offers vary by user and location, Go to upside.com for terms and conditions.Click Here to download the app: https://getupside.onelink.me/zlLr?af_xp=custom&pid=barrington&c=barrington_lockedon25&deep_link_value=promo&deep_link_sub1=lockedon25&af_dp=upsideapp%3A%2F%2F SquareTo learn more, go support your favorite neighborhood spot and see what Square has been up to in your neck of the woods. And then if you have extra time, check out https://square.com/go/lockedonnfl. PrizePicksDownload the PrizePicks app today and use code LOCKEDONNFL to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime. FanDuelRight now, new customers can bet just FIVE dollars and if your bet wins—you’ll get THREE HUNDRED dollars in bonus bets to use across the app. 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.

Denver Broncos have a joker in their deck, but Sean Payton hasn't pulled that card. What's going on with the Broncos free agent acquisition to tight end? We'll break it down and much more 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 up, Broncos country? Welcome into another episode, Locked on Broncos, your daily Denver Broncos podcast, part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day.

Where is Evan Ingram? That's a question everybody in Broncos country seems to be asking. You're Sean Payton. We're waiting for the answer on what is going on with the Joker in the deck. We'll break it all down here on today's episode of the show. I'm Cody Roark. Broncos reporter from Mile High Sports. Join, as always, by Sarah Bedinger.

Site expert over there, predominantly orange.com. Thanks to all the everydayers out there in Broncos country. Thanks for making us your first listen. However, you choose to do so, if you're not yet and every day, become one today. We'll go through a lot here on today's show. It's going to be a little bit of a mailbag episode as well. We're going to talk about the Joker role being non-existent so far through two weeks of play here for the Broncos offense.

We'll go through also the linebackers becoming a liability in past coverage and a concern of statistic. The Broncos were given up in Sunday's loss to the Indianapolis Colts. And on top of that, Sean Payton falling on the sort of game management and decision-making late in the Broncos loss on Sunday to Indianapolis. You'll get all that here on today's show brought to you by friends over there at Fandul. And right now new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you'll get $300 and bonus bets to use all across the app. Sarah, let's go to probably the biggest question right now surrounding this team besides the defense, which we'll get to later.

Really, it is, where is Evan Ingram? What is Sean Payton doing with this Joker role that he has been banging the table for since the moment he arrived? Yeah, he said it was the number one must have of the off season. Didn't he, Cody? You and I heard that interview that he did with Kay Adams. and he talked about how the Joker role, which is an elite receiver at tight end or running back. And we believe Evan Ingram to be that guy, not just based on our opinion, but based on what Sean Peyton has said this offseason, based on what Evan has said this offseason, what other teammates of

Evan Ingram in Denver have said this offseason. It's not just an opinion that we think Evan Ingram is the Joker. He was brought in. He specifically said he was recruited to Denver by Sean Peyton to come and play that role. He said in his first interview that he had with the team, Cody, he talked about how that was part of the recruiting pitch to get him to come to Denver, was to play this Joker role. And like you mentioned, we just haven't seen it. Six targets in the first two weeks, four catches for Evan Ingram and 51 snaps, which is 38% of the offensive work at this point. Now, we have to say, the caveat obviously is that he's, you know, he had the calf injury in week one. So he wasn't available for 100% of the snaps. But,

Less than 40% in two games, Cody, seems excessively low for somebody who is supposed to be playing this must have role for the offense. And he's a chess piece too, because if you use him the right way, if you look at how Sean has utilized Camara back in the day. I mean, granted, the Joker role is how it's used is different at running back at times than, you know,

you see it with tight in. Like when you go back and you watch Jimmy Graham, you watch how Tassam Hill was used kind of bit as that Joker there for him. We have not seen that here with Evan Ingraham. We're not even seeing those design plays there to him. And granted, some people are saying, well, he was injured. He's coming off the injury. I don't want to hear that as an excuse for Sean Payton because Evan Ingram practiced in full on Thursday and Friday.

He was full go. I was there. I watched him. And for us to sit there in the third quarter and say, hey, how come we haven't seen Evan Ingram against the Colts? It's a little problematic there because he does have a skill set, Sarah. When you talk about when you're facing different linebackers, sure, you want to match him up against the slower, you know, not.

as athletic linebacker. But I think Evan Ingram is the perfect guy that you can match up on a very athletic linebacker, like a Zaire Franklin of the Colts, to be exact in this situation here. We didn't see it. Like the routes we saw on crossing routes underneath. We're seeing them on little just releases to the flat, little sit routes there. I want to see Evan Ingram used as how Sean Payton has used these other guys that he deemed as jokers, where you're bringing them underneath the formation there because

you're capitalizing against the blitz. You find him wide open and now he can catch it. about four to five yards. He can take it all the way up field for about 20 to 30. We have not seen the utilization here in the way that Sean has kind of said that he would like to use a guy like Ingram. And I don't think that's an Evan Ingram thing here. I want to be very specific with that.

I think very much this is a Sean Payton going with, I think not too many options, but I don't know if Sean knows how to balance all of that early on here in the season. And that's the good news, Sarah. It's only week two. Yeah. And it is a balancing act at this point because I think it's kind of like when you open up gifts at Christmas time, you know, you're like overwhelmed by the amount of stuff

that just entered your life. You know, if you, if you ever been in that situation or your kids have, it's like they want to use everything all at once. They want to play with every toy. They want to play every video game. They want to unbox and unwrap everything all at once. And you can't just do that. You can't just have everything all at once. You got to go one thing at a time. And so for the Broncos, I think you have to prioritize. What's the most important thing, right? And the most important thing is, is you feel like this was your number one must have of the off season. So you've got to allow the offense to be filtered through that. I'm not saying that we sat here and expected a hundred catch,

a thousand yard player immediately upon his arrival to Denver. But we did expect immediate impact because of how good he is as a past catching option. The two targets that he didn't catch Cody were nearly intercepted by the opposing team. Week one against the Titans, it was Amani Hooker, nearly jumped a little out route, pretty much the same route to the opposite side of the field that was nearly jumped by Kenny Moore as well. Just the Colts and the Titans were all over. It was telegraphed.

It's obvious type stuff like you're mentioning. The Broncos aren't disguising things well. They're not getting him involved enough to the point that he's opening stuff for other players. That's what we want to see. We want to see Evan really dictating everything else that defenses are doing. And it's not happening. I don't know if it's because they're overwhelmed. by all the different, we want to feed Pat Bryant, we want to get him more involved.

We want to use both backs. We want to have Cortland Sutton. He's our number one target. We got to get Troy Franklin. There's so many different things going on, but you're forsaking the one guy who could really make everybody else better. We've talked so much about the easy buttons for this offense, right? Cortland Sutton being the number one guy, I found it a little astonishing.

Only one catch for six yards on four targets. We talked about the target share of this game in our post game recap. For anybody who missed it, I felt like you. and I gave a pretty raw, like out front, like just explanation and conversation about what the heck happened in this game here. The offense did enough in Sunday's game to win this game, but certainly I think, Sarah, the utilization of certain guys has to be brought into question here because there is no excuse. Like Evan Ingram can play on the outside. He can play in the slot. He's been playing in line. He can play offset. So why aren't you doing these things? Like I found

it astonishing a little bit. And granted, they have a little bit of a different offensive system in Indianapolis. I think Denver has a wide variety of different playmakers that can make plays and obviously have a positive impact for this team. But how come you're not using a guy like Evan Ingram the way that the Indianapolis Colts have seemingly found a way to utilize Tyler Warren. I mean, he was their chess piece move around guy. Denver's got, I think the pieces around them to be good. There's no way you should make this offense one dimensional or make how you use a guy like Ingram one dimensional. No, we talked about it in the first before the game, actually, how, the Colts got Tyler Warren involved to your point, Cody, with 10 total touches or 10 opportunities in the first week. And then obviously against the Broncos, he has another four catches for 79 yards. We saw him lined up in the backfield, albeit he didn't have success in the one time that they did hand him the ball. But the fact remains that when he was on the field, because you handed him the ball in that situation, even though it was a failure as in terms of the Broncos stopped it, right? Even though it was a failure, now all of a sudden,

sudden, you're the opposing defensive coordinator is thinking now, okay, he's lined up in the backfield, the ball's going to him. All of a sudden, you do something different. Sean Peyton knows all these things. Like, we don't, we're not sitting here saying things that Sean Peyton doesn't know about, oh, well, he could be a decoy for you. Oh, he can move around the formation for you. The problem is the, the, I guess, conflict that we're having right now is, is that through two games, we're not seeing it. And that's not acceptable for somebody that you said was your number one must have. I keep repeating that because if it's your must have, you got to prove why it was your must have from the opening. He's a veteran player. He's on a two-year

deal. You didn't draft anybody in a really tight, a really strong tight end class in this drafts. I mean, until Caleb Loner late. So you could have drafted somebody. You didn't. You could have gone after other free agent options that would have been cheaper. You didn't. You paid Evan Ingram. You gave him the bag. So let's go ahead and put that vision into place. Let's get it. We don't want to wait. We don't maybe maybe that's what it is, Cody. I know somebody wrote us and said maybe he's saving this chip for the chargers, right? And yeah, why? If that's the case. Yeah, why are you doing that? But if that's the case, then, okay, no better time than the present. The best time to plant a tree other than 100 years ago is today. So maybe that's the philosophy with Evan

Ingram here in week three. I've never heard that before, but I like it. I like it. I like it a lot here. Broncos country, we're going to continue to answer some of your mailback questions coming up next year. What is going on with the Broncos linebacker position? There's got to be a sense of urgency there. We'll highlight some alarming statistics that came out of Sunday's game specifically at inside linebacker here on today's episode of the show. This episode of Lockdown Broncos is brought to you by Mazda. Mazda crafts cars for those who do more than simply move. Mazda delivers confidence with every ride with more IHS top safety pick plus awards.

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What do the Broncos do about it? Should they bench Alex Singleton? We're going to discuss on today's episode, Locked on Broncos. But Broncos country want to say quickly, thank you so much to all of you. make us your first listen of the day every single day. If you haven't already done so, we really appreciate if you hit subscribe and join the lockdown Broncos community, wherever you listen to podcasts and on YouTube. Cody, let's talk about this. The liability that was the Denver Broncos linebackers, especially in coverage against the Indianapolis Colts.

We talked about it in the lead up to this Colts game that, man, they got a lot of playmakers out there. They've got a lot of guys that can beat you, whether it's that wide receiver, running back. Obviously, their new tight end, Tyler Warren, Shane Steichen, very, very good play caller. So part of this is just kind of you throw up your hands and you're like, man, yeah, we got beat by a really good unit there. But also, these are the guys that you're trusting to start. These are the guys that you are, it's the early part of the season.

You're building a foundation. They just got dog walked for 473 yards of total offense. And like you mentioned to me, before we started recording the show, 9.8 yards on every first downplay for the Colts in this game. I mean, there's a lot of dirty hands, but let's talk about the linebackers here for a minute. Yeah, it was very staggering and alarming to hear Sean Peyton tell us that, you know, that Colts offense 9.8 yards per play on first down. I mean, that really pushed you in a buying on second down.

And it changes what you can do on third down, just a lot of busted coverages, missed assignments. And I can't help through. I was going through my all 22 and on NFL pro, you can see like all the plays. I was alarmed at the amount of 10 plus yard plays the Broncos allowed in this game. And it came on first down, it came on second out, came on third down. But specifically, we definitely have to talk about where the big explosives came from. And primarily that was from the linebacker position. Now, I'll say after going back and watching the film, I don't think Justin Sternard had a bad game at all.

I think there was one play where they got to dump out to Tyler Warren where he over pursued it. And he cut back inside, Alex Singleton, then missed the next tackle there. I'd say that's like the one negative mark in coverage for Sternad. But you go back to Singleton on that one play where they brought Warren into the backfield and they released him through one of the gaps up the field vertically. Alex Singleton didn't recognize that, tried to pass it off to Sternado, but Sternado's in man coverage against the running back. So who are you passing coverage off to?

And then it leads to that big downfield play right there. And then I think everyone wants to talk about the Jonathan Taylor play there where Singleton gets caught underneath here. Part of me also wonders this as well. That's a tough play for Singleton to make. And I'm not making any excuses for him in any way, shape, or form. I think sometimes the Broncos defense has strict rules because if you're locking up, you're sending pressure from somewhere.

Singleton has to get underneath, not only, look, you have Tyler Warren. You have the tight end in line. You have a wide receiver with condensed splits closer to the line of scrimmage. Your man covered. So Pat's playing man on the wide receiver. Brandon Jones is playing man on the tight end. Now you're swinging the tail back out. It was the perfect call from Shane Steichen.

But in my head, I'm thinking, why can't you have a combo call between the corner and a safety? hey, if the tellback comes out, Brandon, you take the tailback. Singleton will take the tight end, though still even if Singleton takes the tight end, I'm not confident in a one-on-one in that situation here. I think it's a very valid thing to kind of bring up here,

sir, because I think we forget, because of the injury to Dre Greenlock, because of the injury here to Drew Sanders, we forget that coming at a trinity camp, Singleton wasn't necessarily being gifted the starting job. He was going to compete with Sternad. And obviously, Drew Sanders for the starting job here, whereas

Now it just kind of got handed to him in a sense. I just think coming off the ACL, he wasn't necessarily the fastest guy to begin with. He's a hell of a player. Has a lot of heart to him. But if it's going to be where the Broncos are getting picked on in this specific position on a week-to-week basis, something has to change. And what is that something, right? That's the question.

Because I know a lot of fans are asking both of us, should Alex Singleton be bench? And I think the only player that you can realize to be bench him for is, correct? René Reed, right? Exactly. That's the only guy that's currently also on the depth besides Garrett Wallow, who, I mean, he was activated this past week. Lavelle Bailey, those are practice squad guys. So I don't know what the Broncos are going to do in terms of, hey, do you just continue to stick with it? Like if he continues to struggle, how long is the leash there? You know, we know Alex Singleton is tough. We know he's a physical dude. We know that he can attack the line of scrimmage, although I will say part of the problem against the Colts was also the

second level of defense getting blown out of the way by the Colts O' line, getting to the second level and not being able to shed blocks, right? I mean, that was another part of the problem. You could tell me if you saw that on film review as well. But interesting stat here from Luca Evans, Cody, when those two linebackers were the closest targets on a combined six plays against the Colts, according to pro football focus, six of six for 126 yards. I mean, even if sternod is absolved of some of these, it's,

too much. It's too much from either one of these guys. And so when you're talking about linebackers and past coverage, you're not going to have many linebackers in the league that can cover Jonathan Taylor. But can you be in the right position? Absolutely. When he gets a full head of steam, though, he's running 21, 22 miles per hour, whatever it was on the next gen stats, GPS. Alex Singleton's going to look like Rich Eisen running a 40 yard dash by comparison to a guy that's running 22 miles per hour. That's just the way that that's most linebacker. That's not just singleton. But it's, it's just, are you in the right position?

That was far too often not the case against the Colts. And can you identify the right matchups, right? Can you put yourself in a position where even if the offense does something to move guys around, can you at least be in a favorable situation to where you can adjust? And look, it's tough. It's very tough in today's age because primarily Broncos linebackers, they will have man coverage responsibility nine times out of 10 on a running back. When you're man aligned, whether you're in shotgun or whether you know, you even

have a pistol formation. Like, for example, if Alex Singleton is a left side linebacker and that running back swings out to the left side, towards his left side, he's got man on him. If he swings out to the right, it's going to be Justin Sternad there. So a lot of it is, and I think that Colts did a good job of this too. On that one specifically, he was on the opposite side of Singleton. They brought him back underneath. And that's obviously a tough play to make.

But I can't help but think to myself, when Drey Greenlaw returns, hopefully it's this week. When Drey Greenlaw returns, do you look at a situation where you platoon at this position? Do you go, Sternaud, Greenlaw, as your two primaries and maybe rotate Singleton in on certain situations, like maybe early downs or something like that? I don't know. I think that you can use all these guys and certainly have to find a way to do just that. But the Chargers are coming up this week, Sarah. And that to me, what was the biggest issue last year in that matchup? Middle of the field. And that is, I think, something that you're Justin Herbert, you're Jim Harbaugh. you're looking at this matchup saying, all right, we're going to go out number 49 here.

That is something that the Broncos simply can't have be dictated on them on a week-to-week basis. No, they can't because like we talked about, I mean, the Colts averaging 9.8 yards per first down play. That really doesn't allow you to platoon on the early downs, does it? Because if you're giving up that much on first down, it doesn't matter who's out there on the field. I mean, so you've got to make sure that, okay, if you're putting Alex Singleton out there on the early downs, if you have to make an adjustment over the course of a game, then make the adjustment, right? Go out and put somebody else out there.

Put Carine Reed out there. I don't know. It can't be any worse than that. I mean, how many teams had a worse number than that on first down plays this week? I'd be interested to know, Cody, defensively, if any other units allowed worse on first down plays because that was, that's pathetic. This defense should be embarrassed with the way they played. It's worse watching it back.

It's worse thinking about it and rehab. bashing it all. So yeah, whatever adjustments have to be made, the Broncos have to be willing to do it, even if it means putting Singleton on the sidelines in certain situations. What's frustrating about this game is going back and watching the film, the offense. I mean, they did everything that they should have to win this game.

Yes, they made a few mistakes, but they're not the reason they lost this game. It was because of the big plays that the defense gave up, some special teams of errors here defensively. They're going to have to prove there's going to be a sense of urgency. Even with Joe Burrow out in week three on Monday night football, Jake Brown can still operate that offense. And they still have those talented playmakers there in Cincinnati.

Then you play the Philadelphia Eagles who got the best of the Kansas City Chiefs in a Super Bowl rematch here in week two. It doesn't get easier here for this Broncos team. This defense needs to find a way to identify that and move on quickly here. But there were some questions at the end of the game here for the Broncos, including some timeout decisions by Sean Payton. Sean Payton fell on the sword in his Monday conference call. And some of the end of game stuff is the concern for you, though, Broncos country.

We'll share our thoughts here on today's episode, Lockdown Broncos. Today's episode of Lockdown Broncos is brought to you by Fanduel. The NFL season is finally here. And Fandual is making sure you're ready for kickoff with a can't miss offer. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you'll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. I love using Fandle because it fits however you like to bet, right? Whether it's player props, building a same game parlay or even jumping in live as the action,

unfolds. It's quick, it's easy, and it's the best way to add a little more energy to Sunday. So are you ready to play? Download the Fandual app now by visiting Fandual.com to get started. That's Fanduald.com to place your first $5 bet. What happened late in the Broncos lost against the Indianapolis Colts? Well, you go back to the field goal, you go back to the penalty. There was a lot that Sean Payton says after the game. He wishes he would have done differently here in hindsight after being able to watch the film. Broncos country, all the everydayers first listeners. Thank you once again for tuning in and making the show exactly what it was.

We continue some of our mailbag questions here and some deeper dives here into what happened here. You know, I think the one thing was Sean Payton, at least through the two weeks. You look at how the offense performed in week one. He kind of fell on the sword for Bow Nix and said that I could have been better as a play caller. Week two, you have the special team's gaff. And he says, that's not on Darren Rizzi. That's not on Dandre. Tell me. He says that's on me. I found that to be very interesting here because really in that situation, Sarah, and I think looking back on in hindsight, it makes sense. You want an ultra-aggressive field goal block attempt. Maybe if it's a gimmee feel-goal, right?

We're talking 35 to 45 yards here, something that's a little bit more of a gimmy for any field goal kicker in today's NFL. And he says, for a 60-yarder, we just needed to play that straight up. We didn't have to do anything exotic. And he said, that's on me as a head coach. Your thoughts on Sean kind of taking the blame here, kind of two weeks in a row for some of the issues that have hurt the Broncos here early on. I think it's just as the leadership coming out, Cody, obviously you want the head coach to be willing to take the blame for certain things, anything that goes wrong within the course of a game because everything comes into question when you lose, right? When you lose, you look back in hindsight, everybody's asking, well, should you have taken those timeouts when you did?

Well, should you have throwing the ball on this down? I mean, everything is questioned unless it works, right? If you throw the ball in a third and short situation and the receiver catches it for a first down, everybody's like, wow, what a genius play call. If the ball hits the ground, you know, it's a terrible play call. And Sean Payton should be replaced by Davis Webb. So everything is questioned in hindsight. I will say, I think that you and I both agreed after the game that, man, that 60-yard field goal attempt is going to be hard for any kicker in the league.

Maybe not for the Cowboys kicker. I mean, that guy's pretty special. But for anybody else, a 60-yard. field goal, you kind of are just saying, hey, this is less than a coin flip chance of going in. Like, we've got pretty good odds here. Even if he's just straight up, even if we're not even on the field, there's a chance he ain't making this kick. So all you got to do is throw your hands up in the air.

You might even have blocked it that way. Just throwing your hands up in the air with like a 6-6D lineman Uwazerike. He did that a couple of times at Iowa State. So I just think that that's the thing with he's right. It shouldn't have been unless it was a shorter field goal that you get super, Obviously, you want to go win the game. You don't, but then again, Cody, here's what happens. The Colts kicker drains it from 60 yards out.

All you did was stick your hands up in the air, and everybody's like, why didn't you try to block the kick? So I think that's just how things go in today's NFL. You win some, you lose some. I like that, Sean, you know, didn't disagree with the call because eventually I feel like that's something that could benefit the Broncos if the league is paying more close attention to that. Yeah.

And I mean, I also hate the idea that it ever became a rule that you can't use leverage anymore. Like Justin Simmons did it perfectly. Nowadays, you know, there's certain limitations to what you can do. Like once the ball snap, like you can push the guy down, but you can't launch yourself off the ground by pushing him down. To me, it's like there's so many moving pieces. Why do we have to overcomplicate it? Like go through and just if you want to jump over, the guy you want to send a safety to jump

over the front man, let him do it. I think it's stupid to throw a flag on it. But then again, that's just the integrity of the game that the NFL so happens to talk about on a week-to-week basis. It was the right call by definition. Frustrating, but you know what? You shouldn't have been in that position to begin with, honestly. And, you know, ultimately that's going to define the early part of the season. But you have to now, as we said, the proverbial pity potty, you got to flush it, you got to move on.

There's a lot of things to correct here. I think overall, I came away with the Broncos offensive tape. I liked what I saw from them. There's a lot of great things that they could build on. The offensive line played a hell of a game, in my opinion, but it's not going to get talked about because of all these blunders of what happened. But now you have to shift your focus to the Los Angeles Chargers here. Let's get to a mailbag question here as well from Mbo Merrick on YouTube.

He asked the question, do you agree with how the timeouts were used? Honestly, sir, I didn't find too much of an issue with it. I understand it. Like you get a stop defensively, and let's say you don't allow them to convert. for a first down. Then it looks like a genius move. Fortunately, there was defense and he stops.

And that obviously led to like, okay, now you don't really have much leverage at this point. I didn't find really much of an issue with it. Yeah, I think that was kind of the right way to go about it. Actually, you know,

when you watch it back. I mean, you got a basically a 50, 50 shot there on that play to Alec Pierce with Pat Sertan in coverage. And ultimately, Pat just got caught a little too far behind in the trail technique, right? I mean,

when he's playing Alec Pierce there. So great throw, great catch. I mean, you just bank on your guys making a play in that situation, even if it is short yardage. So the Colts, they just made one more play than the Broncos could afford with the timeouts they had. And so it's, again, one of those things where I think we want to go back to certain landmark points and blame stuff. I think if we want to blame anything. Blame J.K. Dobbins spiking the ball after his first down run. Blame the face mask on the very next play.

Blame Will Lutz for the missed field goal. Like those are the legitimate things that you can blame for the loss in this game. Blame 473 yards of total offense. Let's not talk about timeouts at the end of game. I mean, when your defense couldn't stop a nosebleed all afternoon, it's just that stuff is way harder to stomach than the idea that you didn't manage your timeouts well at the end of a game when you want to preserve as much clock as you possibly can because, yeah, the Colts, hey, let's say you stop them. They're going to kick it or they're going to go for it.

Then all of a sudden, you've got an opportunity to do. something with the ball there if they make a kick or whatever it may be. So I just, I don't like the questioning always, Cody. I think sometimes it's worth discussing. But yeah, when it comes to the timeouts there at the end of game, I think that was way more reasonable than than what we saw from, like you mentioned earlier, the Cortland Sutton stuff in this game. I mean, the Broncos did not get their number one receiver very involved at all. And after getting Marvin Mims involved, didn't get him more target. So it's really that stuff to me is way, way more of the stuff that I I would point to as the landmarks in this one.

Yeah, and that question obviously comes in from Daniel on YouTube about Sutton's usage. I mean, Troy Franklin had 48 offensive snaps in Sunday's game. Cortland had 45. So three less snaps than Troy, which love to see the volume here for Troy. We'd like to see more targets and more on-field snaps for Evan Ingram, Marvin Mims, Pat Bryant. Like you have all these guys that can contribute. I understand with different personnel packages, more tight-in usage.

Adam Troutman's seeing a lot of time on the field because of his blocking a ability. I understand that. I get it. But I think you have some playmakers at wide receiver that simply can make a bigger difference in certain areas of the game as it unfolds and as it develops, especially with Marvin Mims. But Cortland, you know, I'd say like for Cortland, he's seeing a lot of different types of coverage looks here where he's being bracketed, whether, you know, it's a corner playing outside leverage against him. They have a safety over the top. If it's not a safety, it's a corner and an inside linebacker dropping back and just kind of keeping an eye on if he's running a drag route or across. pattern here. And so they're really trying to take away Bo Nix's easy button, Cortland Sutton.

And that's why you have other guys emerging like Troy Franklin, which is great. But can you get your other easy button going with Evan Ingram, with Marvin Mims, with Pat Bryant, like Denver has a solution here. If you take away our easy button, guess what?

We got another one. We're going to go to this guy. You try to take that guy away. We're going to go here. Denver has diverse weapons that they can use. John's just got to get to the point where he finds a way to go to these guys effectively. And I think that's something that you need to work out.

sooner rather than later. 100%. And it comes down to those situational moments as well. Third downs, red zone. I mean, obviously the offense played way better in week two than we saw in week one. We saw a lot of positive signs from them. Just a couple of mistakes at the wrong moments, right? Sean Payton talked about them getting in their own way. But again, that probably should have never happened.

Probably should have never been the case because the defense needs to go out there and get a stop. So the big question that I'm going to have for this week going forward, Cody, is can the Broncos, The Rockos played complimentary football at the perfect time now because you've got a chance to bounce back, but not just bounce back, bounce back against a division rival against the Chargers who beat you twice last year. But they looked really good in week one. And if that team comes out in week three against Denver, they're spreading the ball around this defense. They've got to be ready. So we need to bounce back in a big way from that unit here in week three.

I agree with you, Sarah. In Broncos, Country, we appreciate you so much for rocking with us, making us your first listen every day here on the Lockdown podcast. Network for all you every day who's out there tomorrow. Sarah and I, we're going to sit down and we're also going to preview some of the bigger storylines. Could Dre Greenlawn make his debut for the Broncos this week against the Chargers?

We'll go through what that would look like and more on tomorrow's episode. Locked on Broncos.