Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - Denver Broncos Move On From TE Greg Dulcich, Roster Spot Opens For Sean Payton

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Denver Broncos are moving on from tight-in, Greg Dulcich. Why is Sean Payton comfortable with this decision? And what does it mean for the Broncos open roster spot right now on the 53? We'll break that down and much more on today's episode, Lockdown Broncos. You are Locked on Broncos, your daily Denver Broncos podcast. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. What's happening in Broncos country? Welcome into another episode, Lockdown Broncos, your daily Denver Broncos podcast.

Starting point is 00:00:32 part of the Locked-on podcast network. You know it is your team every day. Thank you so much all the everydayers and first listeners out there in Broncos Country. Thank you for making the show exactly what it is. We appreciate you so much. I'm Cody Roark, Broncos reporter for Mile High Sports, joined as always by Sarah Bedinger, site expert, predominantly orange.com, right over there, NFL Spin Zone.

Starting point is 00:00:53 We got you covered here every step of the way. And here's what you can expect on today's episode of the show, Broncos Country. It's a little bit of a mailbag episode tied in with some breaking news, so to speak, here. we're going to wrap things up by talking about what do the Broncos top draft needs for 2025. And in these final five games, what could we see from them? What do we hope to see from them? And we're going to also talk about the Broncos offensive identity.

Starting point is 00:01:14 One listener sent in their question, what is Denver's offensive identity and what strengths do they have to build on going forward? But while he kicked things off with the news of the day the Bronco was making a decision to move on from tight. And Greg Dulcich will break that down. The roster ramifications, what it means in a new. feature called the Broncos poll of the day that we're going to bring here on the show, which is brought to our friends over there at Fanduel. Start the season with big return on Fandual. New customers can place a $5 bet, and you'll get started with $150 in bonus bets.

Starting point is 00:01:44 If you win your first $5 bet, visit Fanduil.com to get started. Sarah, let's get started here today. Obviously, the news that happened on Monday, the Broncos officially waived tight-end Greg Dulcich signaling the end of an era in which the Broncos had a lot of high hopes for Greg, where their hopes were versus where he was at and what they needed from him, simply just never meshed well. And now the Broncos are moving on from Dulcich, who was third round picketingy,

Starting point is 00:02:10 2022 NFL draft. Yeah, really tough to move on from a guy that you had, obviously that high of a draft grade on, right? And of course, there was some people during the 2022 NFL draft process who felt like Greg Dulcich was the top tight end in that entire class.

Starting point is 00:02:25 I know that class wasn't necessarily renowned for its tight end position, but Dulcich, obviously, a 6 foot 4, 6 foot 5 guy ran a 4-6 at the combine. I think he averaged almost 17 yards of catch at UCLA or something like that. So just a really big play guy, worked hard, was a, you know, I think he was a, didn't have a scholarship when he started at college. So he worked his way to a scholarship, worked his way to being a third round draft pick. And then unfortunately, just injuries took their toll in the NFL. Remember, his entire rookie season, basically Dulcich dealt with hamstring issues,

Starting point is 00:03:02 then that continued into year two, just didn't have availability from Dulcich. I went back, Cody, and I watched, I watched some of his highlights from that Chargers game, his very first NFL game. I watched highlights from the Jaguars game in London, where he played probably the best game that he had as a pro. It's sad to see the way that injuries kind of wrecked what Dulcich was and what he could have possibly been, because Sean Payton's been talking a lot about the Joker tight end. And the player that, man, it's so important if you can find one of these guys to have one in today's NFL.

Starting point is 00:03:34 I think the Broncos had one in Greg Dulcich. I just think, unfortunately, injuries and maybe a case of like the NFL's version of the Yips kind of took its toll. Yeah. And look, here's the thing with Greg is, you know, he got, he appeared in the first four games of the season for the Broncos. His biggest struggle has been blocking. And I think ultimately that's kind of undone him a little bit. that's kind of what up into him. But I think this move comes not as like,

Starting point is 00:03:59 hey, Denver was looking to make this move. Obviously, there are some potential teams that had some interest in terms of trading for him as a time that we're sitting down talking about this. This is before, you know, maybe a team has been able to put a chance, you know, claimant on the waiver wire there. But I would say, hey, don't be surprised if you see the Indianapolis Colts, the Cleveland Browns, the Los Angeles Chargers, maybe put in a claim here for Dulcich,

Starting point is 00:04:20 considering those are some upcoming opponents here, low risk, high reward type opportunity for them. But really it kind of opens up into our mailbag question here, so to speak, Sarah. Like we're going to tie it into this because obviously this news comes from this. The Broncos made this move because they're in a position right now. They need to make some roster decisions. And you look across the board, it's hard when you're healthy, which is a good thing. But it also creates some problems here.

Starting point is 00:04:42 So, you know, we have a question sent in from Tripp Nibs, 5984, sends in the question, how do you think the blocking from the tight ends has been kind of tying in this news with that? And honestly, this is a great question that's sent in because this, really is a big factor into why the Broncos made their decision, Sarah, because Greg Dolsich, that was his one weakness was as a blocker. And inside of Sean Payton's offense, you're asking Greg Dulcich, who's a guy who can be moved around everywhere to be a blocker, like we've seen him motion as that wing guy. They've tried him this year. I go specifically to the New York Jets game, even on that drive that the Broncos marched down the field in the second

Starting point is 00:05:17 half. They bring him to the left side of the offensive formation as an offset wing. And then at the snap, they bring him back underneath to kick out the defensive end. He attacks the wrong shoulder. Javante luckily runs through the hole there and gets the first down, but he missed his blocking assignment. It just wasn't his strength. He was getting overpowered in that department. And so it just saying, you know, at this point, just wasn't a great fit for the Broncos

Starting point is 00:05:39 and what for Sean Payton is doing with this offense going forward. He's been inactive for eight straight weeks. And look, I know one thing, too, I want to make very clear here about Greg. And I know a lot of fans, like, they're like, yeah, get rid of him. Good red ends. I understand like he's not on your team anymore. So you have no reason to root for him. But it's like Greg always had the right mentality.

Starting point is 00:05:57 He had a great attitude. Even after bench, he expressed that he was disappointed with the benching. But man, he came out and he continued to work hard at practice. He had a good attitude. He just put his head down and grinded. You know, just unfortunately his time in Denver didn't work. We wish him the best.

Starting point is 00:06:10 And I hope Broncos fans also do the same thing. There's no need to be bitter towards players. I never did anything wrong. It just, it just never worked out. Sometimes that happens. So our best there to Greg Dulcage. But yeah, Sean Payton, very comfortable with Adam Troutman, Nate Atkins, and Lucas Crull, which, to be honest with you, Sarah, it has been pleasantly surprising, even though

Starting point is 00:06:28 they're not producing big numbers in terms of the passing game. And just going back and watching that Raiders game, they use a lot of different guys to try to chip Max Crosby and they stayed in some extra protection realms there against the Raiders aggressive cover zero rush where sometimes there's since six, seven guys, the tight ends did a really good job in past protection. I think that's why Sean Payton is comfortable with who he has right now. Yeah, 100%. You're asking those guys to do quite a bit out there. And I think that's why we're seeing this move is that, hey, these guys, they're healthy right now.

Starting point is 00:06:59 Obviously, Greg's got a chance to go somewhere else and potentially get four, five, six weeks here of work in a new system, potentially, you know, make his case to latch on for next year. So Broncos kind of held out as long as they could. Now they're giving Dulcich an opportunity to go make his way somewhere else in the league. And I just think back to a quote that Sean Payton has had, Cody, in the past a couple of times, you know, when it comes to having a 90 player roster and really whittling it down to 53 guys, remember Sean Payton always talks about the fact that like, you don't want to have a guy in your building and on your practice field that you let go somewhere else. And all of a sudden they start bawling out and you, you wonder like, well, what did we miss with this guy? Like the fact that Sean Payton is hyper aware of those kinds of things, I think speaks volumes to the fact that he was. willing to let Greg Dulcich go at this stage. So there is that.

Starting point is 00:07:51 The Broncos also have three free promotions for Donald Parham Jr. at some point, which we've been wondering for a long time, like, are they going to use those? Why are they not using them? They might as well, you know, at least think about it at some point here in the near future. So maybe we'll see that happen. But ultimately, like you said, you wish Dulcich the best, but at the same time, kind of just ready for the Broncos to see what they can do with these other guys that are coming up

Starting point is 00:08:16 off injured reserve, you know, Drew Sanders, Josh Reynolds, what's going to happen there? That's really fascinating now going forward with this release. Well, with this move that happened, Broncos country, Debra has a spot open on the 53-man roster, which now prompts us to a new feature. We're going to start doing here every day on the podcast. We're going to ask you the listeners of the show. We're going to give a lockdown Broncos poll question of the day with this move. With one roster spot being open, which player between Drew Sanders and Josh Reynolds

Starting point is 00:08:44 Do you feel like is a higher priority to bring back to the active roster? Make sure you let us know however you listen to the show and reach out to us with your responses as well here on Lockdown Broncos. But we're also going to continue our mailbag series here on today's episode. One listener in Broncos country asked the question, what is the Broncos offensive identity and what strengths are we seeing develop with them? We'll break that down in depth and much more here on today's episode, Locked on Broncos.

Starting point is 00:09:12 Today's episode of the show is brought you by our friends over there at prize picks. And as you know, prize picks is Daily Fantasy Sports done the right way with over 10 million members and billions of dollars in awarded winnings. Price Picks has made daily fantasy sports accessible to all. You just pick more or less on at least two players for a shot to win up to 100 times your cash, run your game all season long on price picks. And within the Price Picks app, it's the best place to get real money sports action where you can join over 10 million users and sign up today. On top of that, they now offer Venmo for quick and easy deposits and withdraws into your account this sports season. So sign up today and get $50 instantly when you play $5. You don't even need to win to receive the $50 bonus.

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Starting point is 00:10:17 after you play your first $5 lineup prize picks run your game. Today's show is also brought to our friends over there at Skylight Frames. And if you're missing someone this holiday season and want them to be part of your festivities from far, you can do that with Skylight Frames. Do your loved ones live far away but wish they could be close to you? Well, we've got the perfect gift for you. Skylight Frame is the touchscreen digital photo frame. your whole family will love, upload thousands of photos with your phone and watch them appear in seconds.

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Starting point is 00:11:13 And now, as a special limited time offer for our listeners, get $20 off your purchase of a skylight frame when you go to skylightframe.com slash NFL. That's S-K-Y-L-G-H-T-F-R-A-M-E dot com slash NFL. Get $20 off your purchase now at skylightframe.com slash NFL. What is the identity of the Broncos offense? Well, I'll give you a hint here. Maybe take the first letter of both of those first two.

Starting point is 00:11:39 words there. Broncos offense. The identity, it's him. It's Bo Nixon. Cody and I are going to break that down on today's episode, Lockdown Broncos, answering your questions from this week's Broncos, Broncos, and hey, if you haven't already done so, we appreciate all of you that subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss a single episode every single day. All you, every day is out there. We appreciate you so much. Happy Thanksgiving this season, this week as we celebrate and give thanks. We want to give thanks from us to you. We appreciate. all of you so much. Cody, the listeners of the show coming through Clutch for the questions this week. Obviously, we have a question here about the Broncos offensive identity. Of course,

Starting point is 00:12:21 I spoiled it a little bit because we're thankful. As I was just saying, we're thankful this season for Bo Nix. You can't spell Broncos offense without B.O. So we're talking about Bo here, but let's answer this question from who sent this question in. Ryan Erickson, a longtime listener of show somebody we interact with on Twitter as well the Broncos offensive identity what is it and now Cody you break this down on film every single week you're seeing more of the x's and o's and kind of the habits that that are being formed in terms of the overall offense it's easy for for me to sit here and say well yeah the offensive identity it goes through bow nix but what does that really mean for somebody who's kind of digging into the details i mean it's just like

Starting point is 00:13:05 everything starts and ends with bow nicks which you know like if you take both Nick's out of it right now. Sarah, I know that Sean Payton has built this offense in a way that's like, hey, we want to be QB friendly. But the reality is, is Bo is doing a lot of spectacular things, you know, in terms of just this confidence level, his arm. I loved what he said the other day about, you know, he's asked the question about has Bo Nix, his arm gotten strong? He's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, it's been there. Our pundits eyes were weaker, right? So a nice little bar there from Sean Payton. But in terms of like everything is operating around Bo, like, Bo is seeing things pre-snap.

Starting point is 00:13:41 I think the one thing, the biggest change that is becoming the strength right now, which, you know, considering there isn't a consistent run game element, Bo is the entire offense right now. Bo's got things rolling. And the one thing I would say probably needs adjusting a little bit is if the run game can get going here for Denver offensively, you're going to see some changes, some good changes here. Because, hey, Bo right now, he's making these pressure-based throws. He's getting blitzed and he's making the right decision every time.

Starting point is 00:14:09 identifying where the coverage is and he's going exactly where he should, right? If you have a too high safety look, they may have a specifically, okay, if you get two safeties here, this is our first read. If you get a single high safety, we need to attack this specific side. And so Bo is seeing that pre-snap. He's decisive with the football. And you've seen that confidence level really start to grow. And they're doing this as well.

Starting point is 00:14:31 Like there's even times, even against the Raiders, where, you know, the Raiders, they're dropping seven back into coverage. Denver's only running two to three-man routes. and Bo is hitting the open guy. It's like, how are there three guys running routes and how are there one or two guys coming open against seven guys in coverage? It's smart, it's methodical.

Starting point is 00:14:48 And obviously, we've talked about it here on the show. There are a lot of rules here inside this offense. Like, for example, you know, you get a specific coverage. You have a play called the receiver's route will change based on that coverage. And that's what Bow and the offense are communicating pre-snap. And it's just about being able to capitalize on that. I'd say a lot of that is there. But I'd say probably the biggest key and the biggest strength here, sir,

Starting point is 00:15:07 the offensive line is the foundation here. These guys are playing fantastic in terms of their run film. I don't know if anyone had a chance to check out Brandon Thorne's little clip snippets that he does. Quinn Miners, Gair Bowls, these guys are burying dudes. The offensive line is also a big reason why the Broncos offenses have success. They are. And I know that this was a tough game in a number of ways for them against the Raiders, but they were still throwing guys out of the club, as they say,

Starting point is 00:15:33 when they're posting those clips of the offensive line on Twitter. So, Cody, I watch this Broncos offense and just from my vantage point here and seeing this happen in real time, I know we've talked a number of times before about the Broncos offense, not really having like a bread and butter, so to speak, in the passing game, not really having like, what's the go-to for this team? It felt like for so long with Russell Wilson, it felt like, okay, this is like a team, like a basketball team that can shoot threes pretty well, but you're not really making anything else. just hitting three point shots, right?

Starting point is 00:16:08 And when Bo Nix came aboard early on in the season, it was kind of like, all right, well, if we're not making layups, we're not getting anything. We're not hitting from three point range. We're not hitting from mid range. We're just getting the layups. And if that, right, it's contested layups at that. Now what we're seeing to me, Cody, is an offense that we're hitting the layups.

Starting point is 00:16:27 We're hitting the mid range shots. We're hitting the three point shots. And it's not perfect by any means, but you see that the Broncos are able to have success running or throwing when it comes to their heavy personnel, when it comes to three wide receiver personnel, they're throwing Marvin Mims in the backfield. I feel like the offensive identity, as you mentioned with Bo Nix, it's just continually evolving over time.

Starting point is 00:16:50 We were criticizing Sean Payton for too much personnel change at the beginning of the season. And now it's like, all right, let's let Sean Payton cook a little bit here because Bo Nix is operating the offense so efficiently that you can do that stuff. Now I know against the Raiders, you had the situation in the second half. It didn't cost you anything this time. But it had to take those timeouts because we weren't paying close enough attention to the play clock. That kind of stuff still does have to improve. But I think overall, you see just the growth of their ability to handle all that Sean Payton is throwing at them.

Starting point is 00:17:25 And that's huge. Well, and another thing, too, is like, we know what this offense can become. You know, you factor in like you don't have a ton of playmakers, right? Like that's always been a big glaring need that we've identified in the offense here. You've got Cortland Sutton who's making plays. And look, Cortland is a playmaker, but it's like you look at the Bengals, they got Kumar Chase, they got Tee's. They got they got dudes that can go up at any moment.

Starting point is 00:17:46 Cortland can do that. But right, we're talking about the consistency factor, you know, within the offense. And sometimes having more than one guy that can be a playmaker opens things up specifically, right? And I think that's one of the things we've been looking at. And that's where Devon Bailey has suddenly become a little bit of an emerging factor. Can Josh Reynolds be that when he returns? Troy Franklin is doing some really nice things, even though he's not necessarily getting the ball a lot. Like he's getting targeted downfield. He's getting targeted in the short to intermediate passing game.

Starting point is 00:18:12 But it's his speed that is worrying defenses so much on certain sets that it's opening things up for other guys. So it's showing up in ways that don't necessarily appear when you look at the stats. I know a lot of people, they look at the stats. They don't actually watch the game these days, especially some of those people who love the advanced analytics. But the thing I will say about what this offense can't. become as if the run game gets going. And we haven't seen as much of Bo Nix using his legs in the last hand full of weeks, which I think is good.

Starting point is 00:18:40 I don't want that to be part of his, like you need to have that as an element of a game, but I don't want that to be part of every single week because I think that opens up more risk for him, right? Let it be calculated designs. Like we saw Sean Payton do against the Cleveland Browns with Russell Wilson last year. Like Russ wasn't primarily the runner,

Starting point is 00:18:56 but man, he turned into one against Cleveland on design. So I think it's going to be schematic. It's going to be game plan. But this offense, will be a death by a thousand paper cuts type of offense if the run game can get going consistently. Like that's the Sean Payton said. That is the biggest mystery they are trying to solve here is getting the run game going.

Starting point is 00:19:16 We'll see how it all formulates here. But I think the offensive identity, it's rooted in substance. Real ones only know what I'm talking about there with Bo Nix, obviously leading the way in the offensive line being the foundation. I think that Denver's got those pieces where they can add and kind of like what they do with defense with Brandon Jones and some of these other guys. You can maybe remove some guys, but you can also add in guys and get production or maybe get better fits for certain things. It's going to be a lot of questions about what the team is going to do this off season, which ironically enough sets up our final question.

Starting point is 00:19:46 We're going to get on our mailbag series here today because Broncos country wants to know what the top draft needs are, what the Broncos can do in these final five games, but more importantly, some of the bigger position needs this team has going into free agency. I know we're a long ways off from that, but that's a very relevant melbaug question as we see where the Broncos are at right now at, at 7 to 5. We'll break that down and much more. Here on today's episode, Lockdown Broncos. Today's Lockdown Broncos is brought to me by friends over there at Fanduil. And look, right now get ready to tackle the NFL action with Fandual, America's number one sportsbook. And right now, new customers, brand new customers can bet $5 and get $150 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins. So for example, the Broncos, their five and a half point home favorites on Monday

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Starting point is 00:21:38 I just want to say thanks once again to all the everydayers and first listeners out there in Broncos country. Sarah, we kind of got a little bit of a two-parter here from Broncos country. Las Shannon 3510 asked the question. Can the Broncos go undefeated the rest of the season? Question mark. Realistic? I mean, they could. Absolutely.

Starting point is 00:21:56 Right? But I think when you look at the schedule, this is where I think the exercise in the off season, when the schedule comes up here like oh yeah win win win win loss loss loss win win like they'll go through and they just pencil it in but it's like man the NFL is so different look we saw it i think week 12 was a great example as to like hey you can never deal in absolutes the NFL can change at any moment here that's why the Cleveland Browns beat the Pittsburgh Steelers I mean it's just any given Sunday truly is the principal matter here for the NFL yes Denver could go undefeated man to be honest with you think about that sir if Denver were to go undefeated man to be honest with you think about that sir if Denver were to go undefeater it for a sense. It would kind of be a little reminiscent of that Peyton Manning first year in Denver. Kind of they ran the table a little bit there after they got off to an abysmal starting there in 2012. I mean, what was it? They were one and four at one point, two and four, two and four, two and five after that Chargers game.

Starting point is 00:22:49 The Chargers game Monday night. Yeah, they're down 24 nothing. Then they're going a little bit of run here. Very interesting parallels, so to speak here, right? You've got five games remaining. Obviously, Cleveland's coming up here. You get the by week. the Colts on paper. I mean, Denver can win those two games. Absolutely. Then you have the Thursday night game against the Chargers, which I, you know, I think you can beat the Charters. Absolutely. Denver had that letdown at home early on. They want revenge for that. Brockos country travels well. And then you got, you got Cincinnati Bengals who are, you know, they're such a wild card in terms of. Joe Burroughs playing great football. And then it's Kansas City. You know, if they're playing for that one seat or if they already got the one seat locked up, they may not play their starters in that game. So, I mean, Denver essentially could go undefeated and run the table in these final games, which would.

Starting point is 00:23:29 give them, what was it, 12 and 5 record at that point? Yeah. So, I mean, that would be huge. Because you imagine, like, just the stakes that I think they could. Is that going to happen? I don't know. Like, the final three games of the season are going to be the Broncos toughest here. I want to get your quick thoughts on that.

Starting point is 00:23:45 And then we'll get to obviously some future outlook here for the Broncos. Yeah. I mean, 12 and 5 until we ain't, right? I mean, let's see it happen. Let's manifest it, right? I think the Broncos have a chance. Cody, as you said, I mean, you have a chance in every game. That's when you're a good team, that's what that's the luxury that you have there is being in every game potentially there.

Starting point is 00:24:05 So I think with the fact that Broncos play at home against the Browns on Monday night, advantage Broncos right there. In my opinion, I mean, you're playing in Denver. Then you play after the buy. You play the Colts at home. Like that's a huge advantage for the Broncos. And then like you said, those final three games, we got two divisional games, teams that have already beat you. It's tough to beat teams twice. The Bengals game, that's going to be a tough one.

Starting point is 00:24:28 you have a chance in every single one of these games. Absolutely. I think that the Broncos can run the table here. And if that happens, I mean, that'd be really cool to see. But in all likelihood, you probably won't go undefeated. If you do, that's a huge bonus. But if you can't, I mean, that's, you're not only getting into the playoffs, but you're probably going to be the top wild card spot in the AFC there. So very exciting times for the Broncos to even be discussing the team in that light, Cody.

Starting point is 00:24:54 But also, as we get towards the end of the season, I know mock draft, season is of course ramping up for a number of people. I know you and a number of others. Don't really love that. Not right now. Not right now. It's time for the playoffs, people,

Starting point is 00:25:08 but you keep one eye on the future at all times. The scouts, you know, out there on Twitter and the armchair GMs. We love to keep one eye on the draft class. That's incoming. The question comes in from, I'm Kendrick Lamar Boye.

Starting point is 00:25:22 And it asks when, that's two eyes. I'm just being phonetically correct. here, okay, people. That's two eyes on the question there. So they're asking, Jay, yeah, when draft season comes around, what position do you think the Broncos will prioritize? I know we need a tight end and running back, maybe another wide receiver. I kind of just say yes to all of that, Cody. I know that the Broncos just want to get better offensively at the skill positions. Like Giovante Williams' contract is expired after this year.

Starting point is 00:25:54 I think you do draft a running back or bring in a running back. We know the Broncos had interest in signing Josh Jacobs and free agency. So I do believe that they will be involved in getting a running back. I also think you try to upgrade out wide receiver. And I don't know who that means would go, but I think, you know, potentially you look for an upgrade there. But Sean Peyton has made it very clear, Cody, in recent weeks that there's one position in this offense that he is going to be prioritizing above all else. And I think he's looking for a little Joker in the deck. Well, you know, I think that's going to be a big key to, because, you know, you got Troutman.

Starting point is 00:26:30 I think as long as Troutman keeps reducing, you're going to get him. I think Nate Atkins will stay on the roster because I think that he'll transition and more of that fullback role next year. Bigger questions here, though, too, is like, what is Denver going to do with Garrett Bulls? At this point, Sarah, I'm firmly on the table saying the Broncos need to find a way to extend Garrett, keep him here because, look, he's going to be one of these guys that's going to play, I think, long into his 30s. And from a fiscal standpoint, he still has all the tools.

Starting point is 00:26:56 Like, you're not seeing really any regression from. Garrett, which I think is a nice sign. So it's like right now, do you do you rob Paul to pay Peter? Or do you try to train up Alex Paucheski for left tackle and say, hey, we got to move. Like, I don't know. I think Garrett should resign here in Denver. Thank goodness, free agency kind of comes first because then I think what we see the Broncos do in free agency, I feel like they could spend this year.

Starting point is 00:27:18 I know that I know they said they're not going to try to be big spenders every year. I feel like this is a year where they could go out there and spend because they're trying to maximize the winner. You got a rookie quarterback on a rookie contract right now. And he's been spectacular. You're loving what you've seen from him. Go out there and spend some money to get him another wide receiver. What is it going to mean for Cortland Sutton? You know, obviously he's going to have one year on his deal after this.

Starting point is 00:27:43 Like that's, I think another thing we have to talk about. I think Cortland's going to have to be part of this team going for. I think that you want Corton to be part of this team going forth. But get him another guy, right? Just so it can help out. And then you got these young guys like DeBon Bailey. Detroit Franklin on rookie deals that give you so much flexibility to maximize, I think, a window to compete here. I think it's going to be a very revealing offseason based on what Denver decides to do.

Starting point is 00:28:06 Now, if we're looking at draft, right, you want to get young foundational players that you want to add. So what does that look like? Like, are there positions right now that the Broncos like, hey, we need to draft a position here. We don't need this guy to play right now, but maybe in two or three years, we need this guy to potentially take over. Could that be inside linebacker? I think Cody Barton's going to be in line for a contract. extension here with the team. They'll bring it back. Look, he's producing. They'll bring him back. Justin Sternard is going to be a free agent. They're going to have to find, like,

Starting point is 00:28:32 he's going to command some interest on the free agency market this year, probably more so than he ever has in his career. But I know he'd like to stay in Denver. You have to resign DJ Jones, who I think's been so crucial for you. So like for me, I'm looking at all these different pieces. I'm trying to think to myself, what positions do you need to draft? I think this is where you load up on the offense, Sarah. I think you can out a playmaker receiver. You do it. You had a playmaker. make or tight in, you do it. You add a running back, you do it. I don't think you do a running, you don't, I don't think you had a running back in round one or two, depending on unless there's like a game changing caliber type of player. I know a lot of people want the Boise State. They want

Starting point is 00:29:07 the Bronco to Bronco connection. But it's like, let's see where Denver's at here. I, I think Denver's in a position right now where they don't have any like drastic needs, which I think is a good thing. It is. Yeah. I think the one on offense that you could pinpoint would be that playmaking tight end, the joker in the offense. And that is something that in this draft. I mean, there's a couple of very interesting guys. Colston Loveland from Michigan, Tyler Warren from Penn State, a couple of guys to kind of keep your eyes on because as I'm reading scouting reports and kind of watching these guys, they are considered to be past catching guys first and foremost, like capable blockers, but past catching guys who line up at wide receiver,

Starting point is 00:29:45 and that's exactly what the Joker is in Sean Payton's offense, isn't it? It's a guy that you can move all around the formation and create these mismatches with. And now that you have Bo Necks proving that, man, he could be the franchise quarterback. He is the franchise quarterback. He's the guy that you want to build around. That's now what you do in the off season. You invest in building around that quarterback and you go all in. Like to your point, Cody, of spending in free agency. Maybe we'll do an episode about this on Black Friday or something like that. Do a little teaser about, hey, what will the Broncos be spenders in the off season and where at? I love that idea because you went kind of cheaper this past year after spending big in

Starting point is 00:30:24 23. Now it's time you found your quarterback, got the guy on the rookie contract. Let's go all in and make sure that you put the right pieces around him. I think the Broncos, that ownership group, they are going to be opening up the wallets and saying, Sean, we see the vision that you're building here. We like what's being built here. Let's go get some more guys that fit what you want to do and that can elevate this team. Yeah. And I think having that looked at, you have an ownership group that is the richest ownership group in all of American sports right now. And we've seen the Broncos, they're willing to pay any cost to give them the best advantage or to give them, you know, any kind of advantage for whatever it may be, whether it's, hey, a brand new field

Starting point is 00:31:03 midway through the season, you know, that's going to be one thing. Like, think about it. You know, Sarah, the Broncos just played one game, like they replaced the field, brand new field against the Falcons. Do you have two more home games? So it's like you're really just going to be playing two more home games at that, oh, three more home games. My bad. Three more home games to say like, hey, we're going to get a new field for three games. Interesting to say the least here. But like I said, they're willing to spend anything to give the Broncos the advantage. I think that you're now seeing Sean's vision, George Payton's vision, and ownership is saying, hey, we trust these guys, this brain trust right here, it's leading us in the right direction.

Starting point is 00:31:38 Now they're going to throw their full support behind it. It's good. It's so good to have great ownership. When you look at some of these other teams right now and you're like, wow, some of these other organizations are a dumpster fire from an ownership standpoint. The Broncos is fortunate to have, I think, great ownership here. Good sign here, Broncos, Coach. you don't forget to answer our lockdown Broncos poll question of the day with the open roster spot should it be josh reynolds or drew sanders the team brings up to the 53 if you had to choose between those two who would it be thank you so much for making us your first listen of the day for all you every dayers out there here's what you can expect this week here locked on broncos we've got the a fc squad show coming up we also have crossover thursday where sarah's going to sit down with jeff loy to lock down browns and break down sunday monday night football obviously on primetime action and then Then we'll get into our keys to victory, maybe do a little Black Friday special as to.

Starting point is 00:32:26 Why the Broncos should be spenders this offseason. A lot to look forward to here on the show. We'll keep it updated with practice reports, updates, and more here. Lockdown Broncos, part of the lockdown podcast network, your team every day.

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