Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - Denver Broncos NAILED Day 3 NFL Draft Haul

Starting point is 00:00:00 Day three of the NFL draft concluded on Saturday for the Broncos, and they came away with quite a haul. You are locked on Broncos. Your daily Denver Broncos podcast. Part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day. It was long. It was tedious. But day three of the NFL draft was worth it for the Denver Broncos. What's happened in Brockos country? I'm Cody Roark, joined as always by Sarah Beninger. On today's bonus episode of the show, we're going to go through our thoughts on Denver's day three hall in the NFL draft where George Payton said it beforehand after the Broncos had a third round pick. They said, hey, the fourth round and on is going to define the rest of our draft.

Starting point is 00:00:43 And I think you can make a safe argument on paper. It did just that. We'll go through a strong finish and some steals that the Broncos possibly came away with. We're going to kick things off by talking about day three and even recapping the fact that the Broncos did, in fact, double dip at a position of needs. Sarah, my friend, I tell you what, is that the Broncos facility this weekend for the draft? by the time the Broncos picked in round five and then he had that long wait between their fifth round pick. And obviously to the seventh round, it was miserably long to the point that Sean Peyton and George Payton were joking after the fact that they were playing some games in terms of looking up who the most prestigious draft picks were in the seventh round, sixth round, fifth round, throughout NFL history.

Starting point is 00:01:22 It was a it was a wild ride here. But how did you feel coming out of day three, my friend? Feel great about it, Cody. Honestly, feel like the Broncos crushed it. Like we go into this draft and we come, you know, with all these different scenarios, like what players could work in this round, that round? How could the Broncos fill these needs at running back, linebacker tight end? I just love what they did overall.

Starting point is 00:01:45 I mean, we have the bonus episode on Jonah Coleman and Cage Casey, the team's two fourth round picks, but we talk about here starting off this double up at the tight end position, which you and I had previously discussed, hey, where should the Broncos double up in this draft? one of the positions that we discussed was the tight end position because it's such a strong draft at tight end. But also the Broncos really needed to upgrade over the guys that they had in the depth department. So you go out in the fifth round, you move up, you get Justin Joe Lee, the tight end out of North Carolina State. Really, really good player.

Starting point is 00:02:20 And I thought Cody, and I think we discussed him. And it's so hard to remember all the different players that we talked about on the shows if we didn't do a full episode devoted to that player. but Justin Jolie was one of those guys that production-wise, I don't think there was many guys better in this entire draft class. And certainly when it comes to the drops department, like he cleaned that up after a 2023 season at Yukon, in which he dropped the ball six times. He only had two drops this whole past season at NC State.

Starting point is 00:02:51 And some only account them for one. So I mean, I guess subjective depending on who you ask, but this guy has sure hands. he's got big hands. He's got the contested catchability. And I think he can be a high volume target in the past game. I loved the Justin Joe Lee pick for the Broncos in round five. Well, they envision him as a move around F type of player, right?

Starting point is 00:03:13 Denver ultimately here comes away. Remember we had the pre-draft press conference with Sean? John said, well, hey, if you like an inline wide, there's guys in this draft. If you like an undersized move around F, there's guys in this draft. The Broncos came away with both of those types of players. the F-type player is Justin Jolie. And look, I think one of the conversations we had with Reed Burkart, Broncos' assistant GM after the draft said that they really like what he can do

Starting point is 00:03:37 in terms of yards after the catch. They like his ability to work the scramble drill. They like his hands, his physicality. He's a hard guy to bring down physically. And they think he's going to mesh well in that type of role as kind of this move-around guy for Denver. Whereas Dallin Bentley tied in out of Utah, he's an interesting player because high school, Well, he's got the story.

Starting point is 00:03:57 I think he only played five snaps in his first ever high school game, had a Tibb-fib injury, right? Major injury ended up walking on, I think Snow College, where Garrett Bulls was at initially. And then they snow college to Utah pipeline, where then all of a sudden you saw him contribute as a little bit of a role player. But this past season, he really became a bit more of a focal point for them offensively, not necessarily someone who's got game-changing speed,

Starting point is 00:04:19 but possession, yard after the catchability. I mean, Denver got a little bit of both. And the best part about it, Sarah, these guys don't. have to be starters day one. They don't even have to be guys who are projecting, hey, you need this guy to be tight in one. Justin Jolie, I think projects a little bit differently than Dallin Bentley, whereas I think Bentley is viewed as a guy who might be able to develop on the practice squad. Yeah, absolutely. And he's one of those guys, as many are in these draft classes, a bit of an older rookie, just over 25 years old. But when you look at what he did at Utah this past season,

Starting point is 00:04:51 Cody, you're going to see a guy that everything that gets thrown his direction, he's like a football vacuum. He caught everything. Zero dropped passes this past season and he catches everything away from his body. The one trade about these two tight end prospects of the Broncos, I think really looked at and emphasized was not just not necessarily like ball security, but just like natural strong hands. Like when you throw the ball in this guy's vicinity, can he adjust and contort himself to make a play? And both of these guys do a tremendous job of that. And both of these guys catch the ball away from their bodies. Both of these guys instinctive once they get the ball,

Starting point is 00:05:28 they know how to get their feet down and bounce. They know how to turn up, grind out the extra couple of yards, or if they can turn it up field for big time yak, they can do that. So this is what I think the Broncos wanted to emphasize was getting more reliable targets in the passing game, obviously at the tight end position.

Starting point is 00:05:46 And many folks are wondering like, well, wait, don't the Broncos already have a bunch of tight ends? Like they have Evan Ingram, they have Adam Troutman, and they brought back Lucas Kroll and Nate Adkins. I think you and I would agree, even with Caleb Loner, a seventh round pick also out of Utah on the roster still. I think you and I would both agree that upgrading over some of those guys

Starting point is 00:06:04 was essential going into this offseason. This is what the Broncos are doing. They're creating competition. They're upgrading the depth, and they're getting future potential starter options in the back end of the draft. Like, these are, Justin Jolie, Cody, was a top 100 player on Dane Bruehler. board. Dalin Bentley was a fourth to fifth round prospect by most media outlets. So when you talk about not following the train,

Starting point is 00:06:30 Frank was like, hey, we're going to catch the train on its way back because apparently nobody was following the train this year. Yeah. And that's what I like about it because, look, the draft has been so frustrating for me just because, you know, you and I, we reacted the picks as they happen. And you get mixed reaction. You get player, you get fans.

Starting point is 00:06:47 They're like, I like this pick. I think this is a guy who can add value. Then he gets people, well, this pick sucks. It wasn't the flashy name. I want it. It's like, take a deep breath and relax a little bit. This is why I hate mock draft simulators. I don't know how many times in the last 48 hours. I've said I hate mock drafts. And this is the reason why. But this on paper, Sarah, to me initially, and I think we always have to preface this by saying we have to see the on field results. On paper, this was a good

Starting point is 00:07:13 draft for the Broncos. And some were even arguing it was a better draft than the draft that they had last year. That to me is exciting. But I think one thing that you want to make clear is you you don't want to put these players in a position where they feel like they have to come in and be somebody they're not right away. You know, we caught up with Reed Burkart. Once again, Broncos assistant GM after the draft. And I asked him a question about the roster continuity, where they're at in terms of the depth, having guys at positions that have already been established for a few years now.

Starting point is 00:07:40 And he said, it gives us a little bit more runway to develop these guys and have patience without saying, hey, day one, you got to fit a square peg into a round hole. That is why the Broncos have had success. in the last couple of years, sir, with their debt specifically and they're falling that same trend. Yeah,

Starting point is 00:07:57 and it's really great to have that luxury. When you're building a roster, when you're going into the draft, that's where I think that BPA strategy can really benefit you is because you can go into the draft feeling like, okay, I don't have to fit a square peg into a round hole like you mentioned, or I don't have to draft this particular position here.

Starting point is 00:08:16 I could take a player that I feel has starter qualities and that we feel fits our program and that we feel can give us depth. And it just overall, it's, it's a very different place to be than let's, you know, look at teams like the, the dolphins,

Starting point is 00:08:30 the Jets, the Raiders. Obviously, those teams all had pretty good drafts. At least I think the Jets and Darren Mucci, the former Broncos assistant GM, they had a really great draft. When you look at their draft class or the Browns or whomever,

Starting point is 00:08:42 you look at those classes and you say, wow, they got a lot of great prospects. They're going to ask those guys to do a lot right away. They're going to ask. those guys to come in and be franchise cornerstone pieces at premium positions without a quarterback in place. And so, yes, great draft on paper, but I feel it's a much more enviable position for the Broncos to be in, to be saying, hey, we'll take all the steals on day three or

Starting point is 00:09:07 late on day two or whatever it may be. And the Jalen Wattle trade, by the way, which not everybody's taken into account in their draft grades. And we'll take that scenario when we have the quarterback. We have an established coaching staff. We brought back 71 guys who were on the team last year in some capacity. We have continuity. We don't have to pressure rookies to play. They can become who they're going to become. Like how much easier is it, Cody, as a player, going into a second season, being

Starting point is 00:09:36 in the same city, in the same, you know, coaching staff, all these sort of things. You're not a rookie anymore, and you get to compete for a starting job in a year two. Like, you're drinking from a fire hose as it is as a rookie. Broncos just, I just feel like they crushed it, honestly. And I'm not saying that to gas it up. I love these picks. I think it was a great draft. I came away very impressed.

Starting point is 00:09:58 I thought they exceeded my expectations in terms of how I thought this draft was going to go. Maybe thought they were going to add maybe some different positions. And who they ended up adding, I felt like kind of fits the mold to what the Broncos are looking for. And of course, after every pick, we got to jump on a conference call to them. If you're part of the Everydayer Club, we already have some conference calls with those players up. So make sure join the Everdair Club. if you haven't done so already here. But Sarah, coming up here in just a moment,

Starting point is 00:10:22 you and I, we're going to talk about the day three stills that we feel like the Broncos had. And there's a player at the safety position that has some interesting traits and an interesting background. Plus, the Broncos also might have struck gold with Mr. Irrelevant. We'll break it all down here on today's episode of the show. Today's episode of the show is brought to you by Rujid. The NFL draft is here where preparation meets opportunity.

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Starting point is 00:12:36 The Denver Broncos got themselves some NFL draft steals on day three. We talked about doubling up at tight ends, but what about the defensive side of the ball? The Broncos might have saved their best for last in this draft. man, Cody, we got some great picks to finally be breaking down for the Broncos, a seven-player draft class, day three. Like you said, it was long, it was dragged out, but the Broncos made it worth everybody's while with some fireworks there at the end, certainly the steals of the tight ends in the fifth round, but let's talk about their first out of three seventh round draft picks. This was a surprise pick, I guess, to many, but also kept another street going for the Broncos of their, you know,

Starting point is 00:13:14 history of drafting college teammates one year apart from the other. So they went to the Illinois talent pool once again. And they got safety Miles Scott. I was fascinated by this pick because this is one of those guys. The more you go through the pre-draft process, the more you realize, shoot, the Broncos are always going to draft somebody that I've ever never heard of or I'm going to have to learn to love because I don't know much about him. This was that guy for me, Cody.

Starting point is 00:13:39 But watching him play, hearing him get his draft call and hearing the Broncos talk about him. Shoot, this feels like it could be yet another day three steal for this team. And Pat Bryant is stamping his, you know, vote of approval on this as well. He's saying certified dog. That's what Pat Bryant is saying. Now, the reason of that is actually, Miles Scott came to Illinois as a wide receiver. His first two seasons there, he was playing wide out alongside Pat Bryan. Now, after two seasons, their coach asked him, hey, would you mind trying making the switch to defensive back? We'll do a bonus episode. so solely on him so we could tell you a little bit more insight from what we gathered on our conference call with him.

Starting point is 00:14:18 But he did it during the spring and he said it was really tough at first. There was a lot to learn. And at first he became a little discouraged. But then he goes on to just stick with it throughout the entire spring. And then he goes and he makes his first career start, Sarah, at defensive back, at safety going into his third season. And in his very first game, he gets a pick six against Toledo. He actually had two interceptions that season in his first year at DB. both of them went for pick sixes.

Starting point is 00:14:43 They resulted in scores there. But it's not just that the ball skills, something that George and Sean Payton highlighted about this player. This is a guy who is a multi-sport athlete that they like his range and his ability to do different things. Now, the ball skills, they think that comes from being a wide receiver. And he said, if you would have looked, Sean Payton told me after the draft in the press conference, if you would have told me we're going to look at these safeties,

Starting point is 00:15:07 one of these guys was going to be a receiver, nobody would have been able to pick out who that guy was. That was Miles Scott. Dude had over 130 solo tackles in just three seasons, Sarah. So a guy who used to play receiver, and you know, they'd say receivers, they don't like to get hit much. This guy loves contact and he's good in the open field of making tackles. He has made that transition seem very, very nice. And he's a guy who also comes up with plenty of TFLs. Yeah, he had four this past season. I was just reading about that earlier, Cody, and find that interesting, like as he continues to grow as a defensive back, you know, that's kind of a sign of confidence when you're attacking the line

Starting point is 00:15:44 of scrimmage like that, making plays behind the line of scrimmage, four tackles for loss and a sack. And you mentioned the ball skills. I mean, we're talking about seven interceptions over three seasons plus 18 passes broken up. So the ball production is there. I believe even Cody, I don't remember if they were speaking to, you know,

Starting point is 00:16:02 Miles specifically, but Sean and George were kind of talking about somebody having baseball in their background. I think it was him. Yeah. And I think that plays into the safety role as well because we know if you're playing in the outfield as a baseball player, you read, react, the balls in the air. That helps tremendously.

Starting point is 00:16:19 And it was a cool note too from George Payton to talk about how you're starting to see baseball creep up a little bit more in the background of some of these football players, which, you know, he said baseball's making a comeback. It's good to see. And I agree that's that is great to see. But for a player like this, a safety, you want to have those ball hawking skills. he probably thought, man, shoot, playing safety is kind of easy. I just pick the ball off.

Starting point is 00:16:41 I take it back for a touchdown every time or what, you know? But ultimately, I think special teams immediately for this guy. He's got the athletic traits, the explosiveness, the size, like we mentioned, the ball skills. And with the future always in mind, you know, Brandon Jones last year of his contract, I think the Broncos, what I gleaned from this day three is what George Payton said last year about RJ Harvey Harvey, like the pet cats, right? Like these guys just feel like the Broncos guys. You can feel that just connection between the way the team drafted,

Starting point is 00:17:15 the way they fit the organization, and kind of just the excitement of, hey, like this guy could, we talked about they might not start, but definitely could make the roster. Yeah, and that leads to our next guy, Mr.

Starting point is 00:17:25 Arelevant, linebacker, Red Murdoch out of the University of Buffalo. And when you look at like his production, Sarah, and I don't know if it's because when teams were scouting or whatnot, They're looking at the school he played for, right? University of Buffalo, you get some Mac in there.

Starting point is 00:17:42 He has unbelievable stats. NCAA record, 17 force fumbles in his four years stretch there, which the ability to poke the football out, create takeaway, something the Broncos have struggled with. And when's the last time the Broncos have had linebackers have been punching the football out left and right? Not saying he's going to come in as a rookie and do that. But the upside with Red Murdoch is unbelievable.

Starting point is 00:18:03 And here's another statistic that I absolutely love. Look, tackling machine, 360 plus tackles in his four-year career at Buffalo, but 39 and a half TFLs behind the line of scrimbers. So what does that tell me, Sarah, tells me this guy knows how to read and react, play downhill, get in the backfield, and he can get after the quarterback, too. The fact that he's able to have the 39 and a half TFL's plus the 17 force fumbles, unbelievable. Like this guy, in my opinion, has a chance to be the steel of the draft defensively. We're going to have a full bonus episode on that on Monday's show to focus on him solely. but man, I was, I loved that pick. I think there was a consensus.

Starting point is 00:18:38 Everybody in the building, as the draft was happened when they took him, we all sat there like, wow, that's a good pick. The Broncos, they just got a guy. Absolutely. I mean, Red Murdoch is all you need to know about the fact that, I mean, when you've got a name like that, you're going to make it. I mean, I think the only other person who calls somebody Red Murdoch is Frank Castle, Cody, for all my fellow Daredevil lovers out there, you know.

Starting point is 00:19:01 Hey, Red, yeah, Red Murdoch goes the Broncos now. You're tough guy. So I'm excited about this pick. I can't wait to see him play. I had him in the fifth round of my final mock draft on Thursday over at predominantly orange.com. So obviously felt like, man, the Broncos could get this guy,

Starting point is 00:19:18 you know, earlier on in day three and it would have been a good pick, getting him with the Mr. irrelevant pick. Going into this pick, Cody, I mean, just for your perspective on this and for the listeners as well,

Starting point is 00:19:28 but I felt like with those last two picks, like there's no way Sean Payton and George Peyton because of how much they care about history like they're reading about you know seventh round draft picks and sixth round draft picks that have made it throughout NFL history with the history being such a huge thing for those guys and their personal passions there's no way they're just like throwing these picks to the wind and saying like oh yeah it's it's not usually going to work out so i feel like they want like they're going to manifest it with with these two guys that they picked in the or these three guys they picked in the seven but especially red murder

Starting point is 00:20:04 I feel like that pick was made intentionally. Like they had to choose who's going to be Mr. irrelevant. So all those sorts of factors, Cody, I'm not trying to make mountains out of a molehill. I know that some of the listeners don't love when we talk about, you know, players seventh round undrafted when it comes to like, hey,

Starting point is 00:20:21 kind of hyping these guys up a lot. I feel like the Broncos drafted guys two rounds later than they should have gone. Multiple players. I mean, Bentley, Murdoch, for sure. I don't know about Miles Scott, But I think for sure, Justin Jolie, multiple rounds later than he should have gone. So ultimately, it just feels like the Broncos stole this draft.

Starting point is 00:20:42 Every pick to me, the further and deeper we got, felt like a bigger and better steal. And look, there's always going to be folks that are going to try to be negative, right? Like for us, we are genuinely excited. We're not trying to blow smoke up your rear end or like ferment, whatever kind of negative opinions are out there. There are so many other outlets. If you want to go listen to people give hot takes and spew BS, nonsense and be constantly negative. Go listen to the radio.

Starting point is 00:21:06 Like, that's not what we do here. We talk about things. We're genuinely excited about it. So if you think that we're glazing this draft class just to do that, that you're mistaken. We generally feel that way about this draft class that there are some really good players here. We're excited to see what's going to be.

Starting point is 00:21:20 We're not dealing in absolutes here. I'm excited about it. And look, you go to the Mr. irrelevant conversation there. Sean Payton jokingly, obviously, calling Dallelman, the vice president too. Because, look, the Broncos were in a unique situation. This was kind of historic where it'll probably never happen again in the modern era where a team will close out the NFL draft.

Starting point is 00:21:39 One team will have back-to-back picks, the one before Mr. Irrelevant and the Mr. Irrelevant pick itself. Denver made history. And, hey, I'm excited to see what these guys can possibly do here. Overall general vibe, knowing what the roster is for Denver as was coming into the draft. Who they have added, I felt like match exactly what they told us they were going to do. we are going to draft players who have developmental upside that could some guys could play for us right away situationally, offensively, or they can play special teams right away. And there are a couple of guys who have a chance to maybe have more refined roles on offense and defense.

Starting point is 00:22:13 And I'm excited to see how that all plays out here. There are no end results right now. There's no etched in stone. This guy's going to work. This guy's not. We don't know that yet. But we can be genuinely excited and so can you. So stop poo-pooing on everybody's parade.

Starting point is 00:22:27 All the negative Nancy's out there. my goodness man yeah i know i'm with you i think that it's it's a great time to enjoy some players being added to this roster the broncos finally you know getting a linebacker everybody celebrates so i think we'll have tons to continue talking about when it comes to breaking down okay every position on the i think the strategy just to tease maybe some stuff that we can talk about cody like i think the draft strategy really speaks volumes about jonah ellis's transition to the linebacker position, waiting until the Mr. Irrelevant pick speaks volumes to that. I think it'll be interesting to see, you know, as we talk about undrafted players,

Starting point is 00:23:05 the Broncos already getting one of the best, in my opinion, and Tori and York from Texas A&M, the linebacker. So we'll get to talk about him, but tons of other stuff like we finally have players and additions to this team that we get to break down and we get to start talking about who could rise and fall up, up and down the depth chart and all the fun stuff that comes along with adding players that we've kind of been missing out on here. this off season. Yeah, look, Broncos country, day three in the books. It was a long one. I'm exhausted. Sarah's exhausted. I know all of you are exhausted, but you know what?

Starting point is 00:23:35 The Broncos, they have built a very strong roster right now that we're excited to see first off at rookie minicamp, Mother's Day weekend, then OTAs in mini camp in the month of June. There's going to be so many moving pieces. And you know what? This is the place to be locked on Broncos. We appreciate you so much for Rocko with us, making us your first list, however you choose to do so. Sarah and I, we're going to break down a little bit more of the specifics here. We're going to look at the Broncos offense. How did they get better scheme-wise with these players. And can we project a role for the players they took offensively,

Starting point is 00:24:02 including Justin Jolie, Dallin Bentley, and maybe where he fits into the tight-in room alongside Jolie, but even Jonah Coleman and his comp and how the Broncos view him stylistically? The player they already have on the roster, you can get all that on tomorrow's episode of the show.

Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - Denver Broncos NAILED Day 3 NFL Draft Haul

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