Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - Denver Broncos Position Battles RAMP UP vs. Arizona Cardinals In NFL Preseason Week 2

Starting point is 00:00:00 We know the Broncos starters won't be playing in Saturday's preseason game, but there are a handful of position battles that are going to come out of the microscope. We'll break it all 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 me to another episode, Lockdown Broncos, your daily Denver Broncos podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day.

Starting point is 00:00:34 Thank you so much. Broncos Country for tuning in, making us your first listen every single day and a special shout to all the everydayers out there who make us a big part of your daily routine. If you're not yet and every day or become one, hit that subscribe with that follow button, wherever you get your podcast. So you never miss out on what's going on with your favorite team every single day all year long. I'm Cody Roark, Broncos reporter for my sports joint is always by Sarah Bedinger's site expert over there at predominantly orange.com. And while we know the Bronco starters will not be playing in Saturday's pre-year-old. season game against the Cardinals. We're going to go through and highlight why the running back position battle is going to fall under the microscope and some other battles too at the tight end position here for this team. We'll also go through the defensive players and some of the

Starting point is 00:01:16 position battles. We're eyeing there and which players we think should have standout performances against AZ. And then we'll go through our keys to victory in why a run game and having success over 100 yards once again is going to be important if the Broncos want to go 2 and 0 in the preseason. Sarah, my friend, obviously, you know, every time we get a chance to do these games, game previews. The regular season ones are going to become a little bit more meaningful just because we'll have the 53 man roster set. But with the starters, most of the starters not playing on offense or defense in tomorrow's game against the Cardinals, this opens up the opportunity for some of the intense position battles to maybe start to solve themselves a little bit with just two weeks left in the

Starting point is 00:01:54 preseason. Let's start off on the offensive side of the ball. And I think you and I both, we go through, we pinpoint three players that we have on our watch list every single week. Who do you have your on in Saturday's game against the Cardinals. My three Broncos players to watch offensively against the Arizona Cardinals are rookie wide receiver Pat Bryant, running back Tyler Badegh and offensive tackle Frank Crum. Now really excited about getting a chance to see Pat Bryant with more extended action. Cody, of course, the rookie wide receiver made a couple of plays in preseason week one. Been standing out all offseason.

Starting point is 00:02:28 Now let's build on that. You've got Jarrett Stidham throwing you the ball out there. He should have a big day, especially with the starters not expected to play. And then Tyler Badegh at the running back position, he just kind of feels like he might be one of the favorites to go in there and win that third job. I really like what we've heard and seen from Tyler Badee so far this offseason program, including preseason week one, where he was showing off the explosiveness, picking up in pass protection, doing his thing as a receiver, really like what we saw from him. and then Frank Crum, a developmental prospect on the offensive line that's been being molded by offensive line coach, Zach Streif. He's got the athleticism. He's got the physical attributes, the height weight, all those sorts of things.

Starting point is 00:03:12 Can you put it together in game situations? He's going to be out there blocking the blind side of Jared Sidham, Cody, and he's going to get a great opportunity to really prove himself as a pass protector, as a run blocker, getting out in space, doing all those sorts of things. I think these three guys to me are exciting options in the preseason to sort of put under the magnifying glass and say, hey, these guys got to perform. And not just because they're not fighting for roster spots necessarily, but they are fighting for present and future roles with this team. Yeah, and I'm excited about the three names that you mentioned. Let's start off obviously with Pat.

Starting point is 00:03:48 I'll share my thoughts there. I think just once again, a super consistent and strong offseason dating back to rookie minicamp for him. It really doesn't matter who's throwing him the football. he's going out there and he's making plays. He's doing the dirty work as a blocker. I love the Pat Bryant pick. And I know that we'll probably see him feature a little bit more in terms of special teams in this game, according to what we heard from Darren Rizzy a couple days ago here.

Starting point is 00:04:09 I'm excited to see the rookie there in terms of Tyler Badee. This kind of plays in a line what we've been talking about because even Sean Peyton himself has said, I'm where you guys are at right now. I don't know how this room is going to shake out, but I'm excited to find out. This is a great opportunity for Badee who Sean certainly has highlighted a lot of the strengths that he feels to be valuable. And he even mentioned he went to the great lengths of saying like we even activated him for a playoff game.

Starting point is 00:04:32 So you see something in his skill set there. And so to me it's really it's Tyler Badei's job, I think, to lose. I think he's got a really strong chance to go out there and secure that third spot right now at running back. I like that choice. And I don't think it'd go wrong with Frank Crum either. I think where he's developed from a rookie to now, he looks like an entirely different player.

Starting point is 00:04:52 He looks like he's more comfortable in the scheme in the system. He was the first guy to get reps when Garrett Bulls. left with his asthma scare in Thursday's joint practice. And luckily, he's going to be good. But really like what I've seen from Frank Prum, the athleticism, the strength. He's a very, very strong guy. He gets his hands on guys. So I think those are three names that are great to highlight in Saturday's game.

Starting point is 00:05:11 I like your choices here, Sarah. I think for me on the offensive side of the ball, my three players that I'm going to watch here, I'm definitely going to go with the running back. I'm going to go with Audric Estimae as one guy, Lucas Crowl at tight end and undrafted the rookie free agent wide receiver, Joaquin Davis. Now, start off here with Audrake estimate and why I'm choosing him. So much is for the same reason you chose Badegh, right? This running back battle is really between four guys. And Sean Peyton kind of confirmed that

Starting point is 00:05:35 in Thursday's press conference after practice that he even mentioned Jalil's name. Like, these guys are all fighting for spots. Audrick, I want to see him get run with this second team offensive line that I think is going to be important. Sean Payton even kind of smiled about that second team O-line unit when it was brought up in a question. So will we see Audrick get run with these guys and you know, what's the running back order going to be like on Saturday? If Audrick is in that mix here first with Jared Stidham, I want to see him get downhill. I want to see him run through contact. I mean, that's something he brings to the table.

Starting point is 00:06:07 That's not necessarily like, hey, we're going to draw this play out wide in the outside zone and you're going to hit the cutback. I think he's a downhill runner that can also excel in the outside zone scheme. So I want to see that from him. And I'm going to give Lucas Crowe some props here. Realistically going back to OTAs, wasn't making any. plays. Now, it seems like obviously the first week of the preseason catches a wide open touchdown pass from Jarrett Stidham. That's a nice little confidence booster there. But he's

Starting point is 00:06:32 also been catching passes from Bow Nix and Stidham in practice. He's been making play specifically in the joint practice. He had two really important catches and a seven on seven period from Bo Nix there. And you're starting to see him kind of stack that right now. This is where he has a chance to really kind of emerge and showcase, hey, I'm developing. Because his roster spot was really kind of in question coming into the season. I think there's a little more confidence in him being able to make the roster now, considering where he's at. So that's an important key that I'm going to highlight there.

Starting point is 00:07:02 And then I think, obviously, third and foremost with our final guy that we're mentioning here, Joaquin Davis, he had a Moss touchdown grab in joint practices on Thursday with the defender tightly underneath. And that defender after he got both feet in, it was just still trying to knock the ball away. And he just kind of little manned him. Last week, we saw him block a 49ers defender into the ground. what do we say? We said he sunned him.

Starting point is 00:07:24 That's the phrase there. I want to see Joaquin Davis come out in this game, make a few big grabs if he catches a touchdown. That's icing on the cake. But those are my three offensive players that I have my on here specifically. I love the undrafted free agents that are getting opportunities now to prove in a class where really the Broncos didn't do a whole lot to add guys at positions where you feel like they have a great chance of making the roster.

Starting point is 00:07:49 Now there's guys that are standing out making people. plays in doing what undrafted free agents do, which is kind of shock you. And I love to hear that. You got a guy that's both mossing and sunning guys at the same time. What can he do now against the Cardinals in a preseason game in terms of just adding another verb to his repertoire there? I'm excited to find out. Love the pick of Lucas Crowell.

Starting point is 00:08:09 I want to talk about that later on in the show, too, with one of my keys to victory. Little teaser there. But, Audric Estimate, I think what I'm most interested by that pick, Cody, is to see, do we get Audrick Estime with that second offensive line unit because he kind of slammed his, you know, he slammed the ball on the ground at one point in that first preseason game and frustration because he gets hit in the backfield. And it's like, how am I supposed to go out there and make a roster if they're not blocking properly, right? Or if guys are getting through the line of scrimmage right away, you want those holes to develop and you want to be able to attack and do,

Starting point is 00:08:42 like you said, get downhill quickly. Because Audrey Estimate, he can create yards after contact. He could do that. But the best way that he can create yards after contact is with a full head of steam. And you don't want to see that guy coming with a full head of steam. So I'm really hoping that he can have another big game here. Sounds like he had some good practices, obviously, before preseason week one, had a decent showing in preseason week one. So now, once again, you're under the microscope and can you follow that up with a big performance against the Cardinals? Let's do something different here in our kind of players to watch in each segment. Let's get a little bold here. Out of the three players you highlighted and your players to watch, give me one bold

Starting point is 00:09:20 prediction with one of those guys. I'll share mine as well once we get to the point. But your three players that you obviously had in the mix, Pat Bryant, Tyler Braid, Frank Crum, what bold prediction can you give for Saturday's game with one of these three players? Let's call a big time touchdown for Tyler Badee of 40 plus yards. I mean, that's not super bold, but it's pretty bold. Let's see, I mean, if he hits from 40 plus yards out, you heard it here first. That's my bold prediction. Tyler Badee with a touchdown, but it's from 40 plus out. Okay, I like that.

Starting point is 00:09:50 I think that's a good one. You know, out of my three players here, I think that Joaquin Davis is going to have one of his mossing moments. He's going to son a player here. Once again in this game, I got Joaquin Davis coming away with a touchdown grab, whether it be from Jared Stidham or Sam Ellinger. Bracko's country,

Starting point is 00:10:07 make sure you let us know your players to watch on the offensive side in Saturday's game against the Arizona. Cardinals coming up next, Sarah and I. We're going to go through our defensive players to watch, why guys like Justin Sternard and J.L. Skinner, they need big games as veterans going in to solidify this depth for the Broncos defense. We'll go through that and more here on today's episode of the show. Today's episode, the show is brought to my friends over there at Monarch Money and most people can't name all their financial accounts or even what they're worth,

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Starting point is 00:11:49 What are we going to get for an encore? Well, we got a lot of guys whose names start with the letter J here in our players to watch defensively for the Broncos against the Arizona Cardinals in Broncos country. We're excited to see what unfolds in this preseason game. And we're also thankful for every single one of you that makes us your first listen of the day. Every single day, we appreciate you so much. And if you haven't done so already and if you love this content, man, take a couple of seconds.

Starting point is 00:12:13 Follow us wherever you listen to podcasts and hit subscribe. on YouTube. We really appreciate you for doing that. Cody, let's talk defense here. This is going to be a fun, fun matchup, even without starters out there because the Broncos have enviable depth at every level of the defense. And so we're going to be seeing guys who will be contributing on Sundays this coming season, who do you have your eyes on here as we get into our defensive players to watch against Arizona. I wish we were watching some of the starters here, but really it seems like there's no need to. You want to see some carryovers from that joint practice where You adjusted. The Broncos got off to a slow start, but finish strongly.

Starting point is 00:12:49 You love to hear that. But we're going to go through some of the guys that are in the mix here. I think we talk about the depth of this team. Let's start off on the defensive line. Jordan Jackson, you know, he's one of my players. Justin Sternaud at inside linebacker. And then I've got safety, Devin Key here. I'm going to go through these guys one by one here.

Starting point is 00:13:05 Now for Jordan Jackson, I think one of the highlight worthy points of discussing this is I do feel like right now the 53 men roster on the defensive line, I feel like is set of seven players. I think it goes obviously, Zach Allen, John Franklin Myers, DJ Jones, Malcolm Roach, and then you have Jordan Jackson, Savian Jones, And Nioma Uwazerica, I think, kind of really closing out those final pieces here. Jordan Jackson's development has just been on this upward trajectory. And last year we saw him really break out in the preseason. I expect him to have another kind of big standout performance here because I think he's just,

Starting point is 00:13:38 this is a good scheme that fits what he's able to do strength-wise. I think he plays well next to whoever's the past. pressure right next to him. It's very much, what is it, sympathico, or they all coincide with one another there. I'm excited to see that with Jordan Jackson. You know, for Justin Sternard, I think he and Lavelle Bailey are probably going to start this game at inside linebacker. And once again, I think Vance Joseph has found this comfortability in blitzing Sternard. He's shown to be an effective blitzer against the run and

Starting point is 00:14:05 also getting after the quarterback. Last year, he had a lot of TFLs. I want to see this kind of be the case here as well. Sternod, I want to see him plug in against the run the way that he did. last year, but also he's going to get some opportunities against his Arizona defense to be able to drop back and maybe showcase some of his covered stuff. I know that's an area of his game that he was really working on this offseason, and I want to see that come to fruition. And then I think the lock and key combination, PJ Lock, Devon Key at safety,

Starting point is 00:14:33 I think this is probably going to be the group that starts here for Denver defensively. Devin Keyes just had such a big rise here. He's been a core four special teams player last year, has seemingly found that favor here with Darren Rizzi going into this season as well. But I also think he just played well at safety here in the actions that we've seen from him at training camp. He's intercepted Bo Nix with the first team defense. He's rotated in when Brandon Jones, you know, has missed the practice, which was against

Starting point is 00:14:58 the Arizona car, I mean, the San Francisco 49ers in that first joint practice. So I want to see Devon Key continue to make plays and kind of solidify that, that back in depth that Sean was talking about the safety position. He's definitely on my microscope here. I like those picks a lot. I think a lot of listeners may be surprised to hear you. say that you feel seven defensive linemen could make this 53 man roster, which I think would be amazing for the Broncos to have seven guys worth keeping on the D line and to be able to carry

Starting point is 00:15:25 those guys into the regular season and continue to build that unit into next year because we just saw, I mean, the Philadelphia Eagles, they've proven you can't have too much depth on your defensive front, especially when you get into big games and then you come out of those big games because guys do end up leaving in free agency. So you want to be prepared to reload next year with already the guys that you have this year. So that's an interesting wrinkle to look for. And I love your picks too, Cody. My top three guys to watch in this game,

Starting point is 00:15:52 I've got undrafted rookie cornerback, Jaden Robinson, safety J.L. Skinner, and then rookie pass rusher, Q Robinson. Really, really excited to see all of these guys play for undrafted cornerback, Jaden Robinson. Feel like he had a great game against the San Francisco 49ers, had the chase play on fourth down that knocked the 49ers offense off the field where he tackled Robbie chosen and brought him down in front of the sticks to make a big play in that game,

Starting point is 00:16:21 made a big PBU against Isaiah Hodgins, really, really good stuff. Honestly, and maybe a lot of the listeners will relate to this. I didn't have any of these undrafted defensive players on my radar. Like we talk about them a little bit, but it just hasn't felt like there's any real chance of them making the team because of the situations at their respective positions, even Renee Reid at linebacker. It feels like there's kind of a logjam of players in front of him.

Starting point is 00:16:48 You feel like these guys, if they go out there and make so many plays, it forces the decisions of the coaching staff. And Jaden Robinson made a couple of splash plays that, I mean, if he does that again against Arizona, it's going to be an interesting discussion that we end up having. Speaking of splash plays, J.L. Skinner had the forced fumble against the 49ers, also had a couple of really nice plays on special teams.

Starting point is 00:17:11 I want to see him build off that. Cody. I want to see him flying to the football, playing confident out there, being that guy that everybody thought that he could be coming out of Boise State. I think that the scouting report, it's going to come to fruition. It's already starting. We saw last year the special teams progression from him. Can you do that on defense? Can you make those steps forward on the defensive side of the ball? And then, of course, Q Robinson off the edge, had the great TFL against the 49ers on a play that was a designed screen to a wide receiver. He drops back. reads it perfectly, goes and makes a play behind the line of scrimmage. Let's see him get after the

Starting point is 00:17:47 quarterback even more here in this game. I'm excited. I think he's one of those mysterious rookies for this team that didn't even play what 400 snaps at Alabama last year or whatever it was and just really stood out in the reps that he did get before he had the season ending injury. Now you're getting a chance to go up against other NFL hopefuls and you can go out there and dominate. And if you can do that, you might get yourself a role here in the regular season. I love your picture. Look, if Broncos countries keep and score last week, Sarah's players to watch on offensive defense. A lot of those guys stepped up and made some plays and were highlight prominent worthy names that, you know, we talked about in our postgame report initially against San Francisco. You know, I like the JL one specifically too, because even Darren Rizzy was raving about him when we had a chance to speak with him a little bit.

Starting point is 00:18:31 Just says how much he loves what JL brings to the table from a physicality standpoint. He can play multiple positions on various special teams units there. So there's just versatility there. I mean, I'd say JL spot is kind of safe. It's a roster lock right now if I had to make any kind of prediction here. But continue on the trend that we did in the previous segment here. Give us a bold prediction, Sarah, about one of the three players that you mentioned on the defensive side of the ball. Who are you leaning with out of that group? I'm going to take J.L. Skinner for the bold prediction here, Cody.

Starting point is 00:19:00 And after getting a forced fumble last week, how about he takes a pick back for six here in this game against the Arizona Cardinals? I mean, we haven't, we've seen the hard hitting ability, right? That's what we knew about him coming out of Boise State. We knew that he could lay the wood. We knew that he could come up from that safety position and absolutely rock somebody. But can you go make a play on the ball and then do something with it? How about in this game, J.L. Skinner pick six for the Denver Broncos. I would love to see that.

Starting point is 00:19:28 I know the fan base would absolutely go crazy for it, Cody, because they love J.L. Skinner. I think that would be awesome to see him be able to do that. Yeah. And look, that is a bold prediction. That's what we're shooting for. We love that. I like that.

Starting point is 00:19:40 And that would certainly just, I think, evolve maybe what the Broncos defense could do in the regular season with JL. You know, not necessarily as like a single high safety, but I think you can get creative with maybe how you use it. Maybe as a dime linebacker. So I like that one. I think for me, out of three players that I mentioned here in terms of my bold prediction, I'm going to go with Jordan Jackson here. I'm going to say that Jordan Jackson in this game forces a fumble on a sack on Clayton tune in this game. He gets a sack, knocks the football away. the Broncos will recover it.

Starting point is 00:20:09 That's going to be my bold prediction here from all of the players that I highlight here because I think Jordan Jackson is probably going to play a little bit more than some of the other guys that I mentioned here. Obviously, is my three defensive players to watch. And Broncos Country, make sure you let's know your three defensive players. You have your eye on here in Saturday's preseason action against the Arizona Cardinals. We're not done yet. Coming up next, Broncos Country, Sarah and I, we're going to dive through our keys to victory.

Starting point is 00:20:31 And why the Broncos run game needs to get over 100 yards on the ground here. Once again, if they want to have a better chance to improve to 2 and 0, in the preseason. We'll share our keys to victory here on today's episode of the show. This episode is presented by Yahoo Fantasy, and it's the best time of the year, folks, because NFL kickoff is almost here. And that means that fantasy football season is back in full swing. You have your drafts that are coming up here in Yahoo Fantasy this year. They are turning things up with a fantasy football experience like never before. Join Sarah Bredinger, myself over here at Lockdown Broncos, because we are playing on Yahoo Fantasy,

Starting point is 00:21:02 and you should too, whether you're a first-timer or if you're a veteran that's making your millionth league. Cody, one of my favorite moments, actually most of my favorite moments in fantasy football, always involve a little bit of homerism, right? Back in 2013, I took Julius Thomas when nobody else in the draft even knew who he was. And of course, that was his big breakout year with Peyton Manning at quarterback throwing 55 touchdown passes. So sometimes you got a bank on your sleepers. And like I said, I've been using Yahoo Fantasy for years. Updates that they're rolling out this month, they're wild in the best way. To celebrate 28 years of fantasy football greatness, Yahoo Fantasy's drop.

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Starting point is 00:22:04 Stay tuned for more killer announcements and start playing Yahoo Fantasy football now at Yahoo! Fantasy.com slash locked on NFL. Preseason isn't always about going undefeated. Your wins and losses. Sure, you love the wins, but it's about player evaluation. We also want the Broncos to win this game as well because it makes Broncos country happy. It makes us happy. So with that said, if Denver is going to win this game on Saturday in a game where

Starting point is 00:22:29 starters are not playing on both sides of the ball for the Cardinals or the Broncos, what is it that the second and third team offensive units have to do in order to do that? Sarah, I want you to kick us off here, my friend, in terms of your keys to victory. You had a nice little tease earlier on in the show, and you had mentioned that maybe a tight end might be one of the valuable assets in this week's game. If the Broncos are going to win, tight end production is going to be a big part of that. What are your three keys to victory? Absolutely. Number one key to victory, get the tight ends involved.

Starting point is 00:22:58 Number two, chunk plays on offense. And number three, fly to the ball on defense. So let's talk about number one, getting the tight ends involved. Of course, the Denver Broncos struggled more than most teams last year. I think they were even weighted heavily by National Tightens Day, where they basically got the majority of their production out of the tight ends, right? It was a rough year in terms of getting the tight ends involved in the offense. When a guy led your team in catches with 19, a guy leads your team in yards with 18,

Starting point is 00:23:26 just involvement from the tight ends in general, not good. And then in preseason week one, well, we didn't see any targets go, to Evan Ingram and we didn't see anything go to Adam Troutman. We barely saw other than the wide open play go to Lucas Krull, right? So the tight ends need to get more involved by design. I want to see Sean Payton in the offense to do that. And then number two, of course, chunk plays on offense. I talked about my bold prediction for Tyler Badegh is a 40 plus yard touchdown. You would love to see those types of chunk plays, the home run ball, especially in the running game where the Broncos really struggled last year with yards before carry, yards

Starting point is 00:24:03 after the contact, right? Not yards before the carry, yards before contact. Yards before contact, yards after contact. Create those yardage and go get that big play that you need to stand out in the preseason. And then, of course, defensively flying to the football. We know a player like J.L. Skinner, he can already do those sorts of things in terms of bringing the wood and hitting guys. Can you do that when you're going to get the ball and trying to create takeaways?

Starting point is 00:24:31 We want to see these young defensive players do exactly that. Limit the Cardinals in terms of, you know, you don't want them gaining yards after contact. You don't want them getting yards after the catch. You want to meet them at the ball and fly to the football to make plays. That's how you're going to stand out in the preseason. So, Cody, those are my three keys to victory in this week's game against Cardinals. I wanted to ask you something as well, kind of as a follow up there to the tight ends,

Starting point is 00:24:54 getting involved more. And maybe this is something that will actually help this come to fruition. We know the Broncos don't have a fullback right now. We know Michael Burton pulled up with a hamstring injury in Thursday's joint practice. We know that Nate Atkins, who played that full-back tight-in hybrid role, he had tightrope surgery on his ankle. That's going to require a missed time going into the regular season. So Sean Payton's offense doesn't have this out of the tight ends that are playing.

Starting point is 00:25:17 We know that Evan Ingram and Adam Troutman are not playing in this game. More than likely, Troutman's not going to, right? So there's two tight ends there. Who, in your opinion, could maybe play this full-back type role out of these guys? because you have Lucas Crowle. You have Caden pre-scorn who got a touchdown last week as well, and has had a good couple of weeks. And you also have Caleb Loner,

Starting point is 00:25:36 who we've all kind of wanted to see a little bit more from. We didn't see much in last week's preseason game. How can these guys get involved a little bit more, and who's that body type at that position that could play some fullback? I was kind of fascinated to see Caleb Prescorn out there in the first preseason game as early as we saw him. Cody, when you sign a guy like that, that's not only an undrafted free agent,

Starting point is 00:25:57 but wasn't even among your initial class of signes. Like that guy's not expected to get in until the third, fourth quarter of most preseason games, right? And even when he does, everybody's like, who the heck is that guy? He was out there early in this game. And I love that the Broncos are giving him that chance

Starting point is 00:26:14 because it's always next man up mentality. And if you can go out there and do your job, stick a hat on somebody, make a catch when you're asked to do so, create something after contact, and do your role on special teams. maybe Caleb Priestcorn should be this week's honorary player to watch on the offensive side of the ball. I feel like we've had a lot of questions about why Caleb Loner's kind of been quiet as of late.

Starting point is 00:26:36 And I feel like the difference between Caleb and Caden is that Caden has a developed tight end body. He's got more production, more proven production, I think going back to the college level at Tide In than a guy like Caleb Loner at Utah. And so I think for that development is there. Prescorn, I will say in joint practices, did definitely play this role a little bit when Michael Burton went out. maybe there is a role and a value to be had here for him. And can Caleb Loner maybe come out of the depths there? I'm very, very curious here, Sir, to see if that's the case.

Starting point is 00:27:04 My three keys to victory that I have here for the Broncos, I think for the second consecutive week, get the run game going back to back here. Last week, the Broncos had over 100 yards on the ground with all their backs, having some big gains, big carries there. They obviously changed a little bit of the dynamic of the game, helped them dominate the time of possessions. That's going to be very big here in this second preseason game.

Starting point is 00:27:24 Number two, I think you've got to. get four sacks on the defensive side of the ball. Obviously, I had Jordan Jackson. My bold prediction for him was getting a sack and forcing a fumble in this game. We'll see if that comes to fruition. But getting after the quarterback is definitely important. We've seen this defense generate pressure left and right. Can these guys maintain that going into a second consecutive week this week? I'm excited to see. I mean, Jordan Jackson also had a little bit of a breakout game last preseason against this Arizona Cardinals team. So can that happen for yet another consecutive year? That's going to be key. And then my third and final one is at least two takeaways on the defensive side of the ball.

Starting point is 00:27:59 You had your bold prediction about J.L. Skinner getting a pick and taking it back to the house. That's one. If Jordan Jackson gets that strip sack, there's two. So you know what? Your keys, your bold prediction actually plays into mine as well. So I like that. And look, more importantly, whether the Broncos win or lose this game, we're really watching us to see the depth continue to develop here. And guys, maybe rise up a little bit.

Starting point is 00:28:22 There's so many different position battles going for back-in. spots on this roster. This game is going to really decide a lot of that. And I think ultimately that's, that's the main takeaway what we want to get from this game, whether Denver wins or whether they lose. And you want to see that depth flex its muscles a little bit, right? We saw that against the 49ers to where this Broncos team, the starters, they got off to a slow start against the 49ers, got into a quick 7-0 hole, right?

Starting point is 00:28:47 And then all of a sudden, what was the final score, like 30 to 9 or something like that, Cody? So the depth on this team, especially when you have an experience. experienced backup like Jared Stiddam at the quarterback position. You know that these guys are going to be able to go out there and operate well offensively. You believe strongly in your second team O line. You've got guys competing for jobs at the running back position. Your depth at wide receiver, you got six guys that are going to play roles on this team. So when we talk about depth on this roster, it's not just defensively where the Broncos are stacked,

Starting point is 00:29:17 especially on the front, but they are stacked offensively with young players that they truly believe in. Right. And so that's where you feel like you have a huge advantage in. We know it's not necessarily. It doesn't mean anything ultimately, right? The history says, you know, what the 4 and O Detroit Lions in the preseason went 0 and 16 in the regular season. It doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. But yeah, you do want to win. You want these guys, the preseason, the guys who are going to be on the practice squad, let them experience club dub. I don't even know if Sean Payton does that, Cody, during the preseason.

Starting point is 00:29:50 But you want them to experience winning. So that's a huge part of this culture is let's win in Denver, too. It's the only preseason game in the Mile High City. I don't know if Sean breaks out the smoke machine for the preseason. I can't remember if you did last year. But I know that the speakers, the loud speakers, they go off. Club dub is very much present in the preseason, maybe minus the speakers there. I don't even know last year, I think they brought in a DJ there.

Starting point is 00:30:15 And they were playing Nick Benito's song that Nick Benito obviously had put together, which I don't even know if that's released yet to the general public. I had to go back and look at that, though. But funny news and note here before we get out of today's show, my handy dandy assistant just dropped this note to me saying that, Caden Prescorn, his college football career, he had over 112 catches in his career, 1,500 yards receiving and 14 tutty.

Starting point is 00:30:38 So, all right, Caden Prescorm, didn't recognize your game before. Big fella, go out there and continue to impress here. Is this a tight-in battle seems to be one of the more interesting parts of this roster building construction for Sean and how many they may or may not decide to keep, especially with the fullback position right now, kind of being out of market here for this Broncos team. But what that said, Broncos country, let us know your thoughts on our keys to victory, send in yours as well. And one thing you can expect following the game on Saturday, Sarah and I, we're going to sit down in the evening late at night. Once I get back from the stadium, we're going to record the post game show.

Starting point is 00:31:11 And it's going to be ready for you when you wake up Sunday morning. You have a cup of coffee, turn on the pregame show of the best Broncos coverage you get here. Locked on Broncos. We're excited for that. And Denver practices on Sunday as well. well. So we'll go through all that and more on the next episode, Locked on Broncos.

Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - Denver Broncos Position Battles RAMP UP vs. Arizona Cardinals In NFL Preseason Week 2

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