Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - Denver Broncos QB Bo Nix Earns Another Award, Lands On Injury Report

Starting point is 00:00:00 Denver Broncos quarterback, Bo Nix takes home another NFL honor for the third consecutive week in a row. And it really begs to question how many people are actually paying attention to Nix will break that down and much more here. 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. Hey, hey, hey, what's happening in Broncos country? Welcome to another episode, Lockdown Broncos, your daily Denver Broncos podcast, part of the Lockdown. podcast network where you know it is your team every day thank you so much to all the everydayers

Starting point is 00:00:40 and first listeners out there in Broncos country we appreciate you so much for tuning in wherever you're at whenever you can thank you so much for making the show exactly what it is I'm Cody Roark Broncos reporter from Mile High Sports joined as always by Sarah Bedinger site expert predominantly orange dot com also rider over there NFL spins on you can catch us here every single day today's episode of the show is brought to you by our friends over there at the game time app download the

Starting point is 00:01:05 game to map, create an account and use code locked on NFL for $20 off your first purchase. And here's what you can expect here today. Broncos country following your Thanksgiving feast. Broncos get a little bit of help on Thanksgiving from the Green Bay Packers and elevate a little bit of a cushion against the Miami Dolphins, some of the other teams that are behind them in the playoff race. We'll highlight that. What's the latest injury update on Zach Allen, who was a big loss for the Broncos last

Starting point is 00:01:28 week against the Raiders? But we'll kick things off on today's show by highlighting Bow Nix, winning another award for the third consecutive week, but he's also on the injury report. And there's a lot of things there just going on about Bo Nix. Look, apparently I frustrated a lot of the national pundits, you know, fans about not watching the tape because it's like clear. Like there's narratives being put out there that, hey, you know, Bo Nix, you know, he's just protected by play action.

Starting point is 00:01:56 The Broncos have a strong run game. And that's why Bo Nix is having success. And it's like, wait, where's the good run game at? So you call that out and all of a sudden, everybody gets in their feelings. Interesting week so far for the Bow Nix High. But you know what? None of that matters because he wins NFL rookie of the week for the third consecutive

Starting point is 00:02:12 week, which is the first Bronco to ever do. Just that's there. So Bo Nix, once again, all these things protecting him, somehow finds a way to win these awards. I know. Just imagine what could happen if he starts impressing the film bros, Cody. I can't bavum. What awards he could win or what accolades he could rack up. It's going to be impressive to find.

Starting point is 00:02:33 out when Bo Nix actually, you know, actually starts playing well what he's capable of doing here. But all joking and tongue and cheek aside, I mean, Bo Nix has been tremendous this season for the Broncos. You and I have talked about it every single day, every single week. And shout out to all the everydayers who have been rocking with us through it all, that Bo has been improving every game. I mean, since that Seattle game where I think there was a lot of concern in Broncos country of like, all right, I mean, what the heck was that?

Starting point is 00:03:01 You know, what kind of, what are we doing here? know, is he going to be able to find a way to get better? And then, you know, as the weeks progress slowly, but surely, it seems like things are slowing down for Bow next. He's operating the offense very efficiently, very effectively. He's pushing the ball to all three levels of the field. And he's just spreading the ball around really well. He's seeing the field so well, Cody. He's not making mistakes with the football. So he's well deserving of that award, the third straight rookie of the week award and look i think the bigger story here is that he popped up on the injury report right because we saw him during that las vegas game on the tv broadcast he was on the sideline getting treatment

Starting point is 00:03:41 for his back actually what i saw was was him was him kind of wrapping him his own like torso with uh athletic tape there so kind of interesting i didn't really make much of it you see him wincing going into commercial breaks every once in a while you know and that type of thing so something to monitor as he did pop up as limited on the first official injury report of the week, which came out on Thanksgiving. Yeah, and we attended practice on Wednesday, which there was no official injury report there. The league did not mandate it because of Thanksgiving, but saw Beau there and Bo look fine. Obviously, they had a little walkthrough on Thursday on Thanksgiving day that wasn't open to the media. It was a quick in and out session.

Starting point is 00:04:19 He popped up as limited there. Obviously, we're going to practice here in just about a couple hours. I'll be there. So obviously, we'll have a little bit of an update here. Obviously, on Locked on Broncos for Bo. Bo Knicks here. But, you know, like I said, hey, back hurting a little bit from carrying the offense against the Raiders. I mean, Sarah, he was accounted for 278 of Denver's 325 total net yards of offense. You know, that really screams that the Broncos have a good run game.

Starting point is 00:04:42 That the run game is really helping things out. Bo, Bo elevated team. Look, that's the thing that just frustrates me a little bit, right? And so to my point here, let's address the Nate Tice situation here that obviously took the Twitter sphere and obviously some detractors in Broncos country, you know, a little bit by storm. But I'd say I was actually kind of overwhelmed by all the support that Broncos country had. You know, they, you know, sticking up or I don't need people to stick up for me, but it was really cool to see. But it's like, you know, you got national guys like Nate Tice who look, I've seen Nate's work before. Nate does a tremendous job on a lot of different film breakdowns that he does.

Starting point is 00:05:13 But it's like, how can you say you watch the Broncos film when your takeaway, and you can even go back to what they even said after the Broncos first preseason win with Bo and there's videos about that. But how can you take away that Boe is just a product of being protected? by play action and that really he's got a good run game to help him out and the justification that they were saying it was well you know his you know first and second down run rate in terms of the Broncos having success there helps him as a passer in third down situations the Broncos run game Sarah has not been good all season long beau has been the leading proponent of the Broncos run game a good portion of the season some by design some not by design there but when your lead back is averaging 3.7 yards per carry on the season and there was even a stance

Starting point is 00:05:56 where he had like negative rushing yards last week against the Raiders. How can you say that Bo is benefiting from a good run game? Jule McLaughlin started off the game with a couple of big runs, absolutely. But then, you know, he had the knee injury and then you didn't get the run game going after that. The Raiders sold out against the run. They ran a lot of cover zero looks. Dimmer's been facing a lot of cover two defenses this year. So for me, it's just like, I don't know how you can watch the film and say,

Starting point is 00:06:18 hey, Bo doesn't push the ball down field much. I would say early on the season, he was taking some shots. But, you know, I think in the first half of the season, he was just playing to like, hey, I got to protect the football. I can't keep making the same mistakes that I was early on in week one and weeks two. So he was playing methodically safer. But as you've seen, when you watched the games with your eyes and not just rely simply on, oh, well, this data point here has ADOT, his CPOE, EPA, whatever acronyms you want to use there,

Starting point is 00:06:43 says this. It's like, just watch. Just watch what he's doing. You've seen he's gotten more comfortable in the dropbacks. And you've seen that he's been able to launch the ball down field more. He's using his legs to get to the outside to create opportunities. people look so much ADOT and they're like, okay, that's it. Like, Bode, he benefits from screens.

Starting point is 00:07:00 Screens are a part of the Broncos offense, but the thing that Denver has offensively now, sir, they didn't have last year with Russell Wilson, they have a short intermediate passing game that is effective. And you've got a quarterback who's still taking shots down field. So those narratives that he doesn't do that, and then he's got a good run game, that was my point of contention. That's what I put out there.

Starting point is 00:07:17 It's like people with national platforms put that stuff out there. It spreads like wildfire because people who don't actually watch it, grab onto it and say, hey, that's the Broncos. It spreads false narratives. And that, I think, is to the point. Should I have been as harsh on Nate? Like saying, Nate is ruining it? No, I don't think that was the case.

Starting point is 00:07:34 I should have prefaced it by saying, hey, national media today is ruining discourse on football because of things like that where you say something. You have a big platform. People are like, yep, that's the Broncos. And they don't watch the Broncos, but they say that. Like, that to me, that drives me nuts. Yeah, because then we get questions and comments and things are dealing with people saying, saying, well, Bo Nix is a checkdown merchant or Bo Nix, you know, checks the ball down. As, as Nate said in his video, Cody, and for those that don't understand the reference,

Starting point is 00:08:01 I mean, go check our Twitter pages from the last handful of days. And you can kind of see a lot of Broncos country rallying around this because in this video, it was said that Bo Nix checks the ball down a lot. And so we took kind of issue with that because I don't particularly see Bo Nix checking down the ball a lot. I see him pushing the ball. I see him operating the offense really well and taking the checkdown. when he needs to.

Starting point is 00:08:25 I don't see him checking the ball down a lot. I see a number of plays that are designed short passing plays, but that's very different to me than just checking down the ball. To me, a checkdown a lot would mean that Bo Nix isn't necessarily seeing the field well. He's not getting to all of his progressions and he's kind of just panic throwing. Like Russell Wilson checked the ball down a lot. To just ask Samajai P.

Starting point is 00:08:47 Samaj was one of the teams leaders in receptions last year. That was an issue last season. but Bo Nix isn't checking the ball down a lot. So when you say something like that and you get called out for it, and then you have other people in that same community, Cody, who come to the guy's defense and say, well, you know, somebody points out, Bo Nix leads the NFL in completions over 20 yards. And so then you have somebody else that comes and says,

Starting point is 00:09:12 well, that's because he has more attempts than anybody else beyond 20 yards. And so I'm sitting there trying to figure out, is Bo Nix checking the ball down a lot? or is he throwing the ball down field a lot? And what is the, what's the truth here? So the truth of the matter is, is that a lot of people say they watch the Broncos, and I believe that they do on a number of occasions.

Starting point is 00:09:34 I believe they do watch some of the Broncos. But at the same time, you got to understand that if you say something that is not factual about the Denver Broncos, that you're going to get called out by people who actually do watch the team. And it's not just because we're fans of the team that are saying, man, I'm coming to bat for my guy. You can't speak negative of my guy. I could care less of people talk positive about Bow Nicks, Cody.

Starting point is 00:09:59 I don't care. What I care about is if you say inaccurate stuff about Bo Nix. If you're saying stuff that's not correct, not factual based on what he's doing in the games and what we're seeing with our eyes, that to me is the bigger issue. Well, you know, like I said, too, in terms of Bo checking the down and taking shots downfield, the 20-plus yard passing attempts, you know, even the screen game, I tell you, Sean Payton's inventing new offenses by running screenplays at 10 to 15 yards downfield. You know, that's the new screenplay here in the NFL as we're seeing it if he is a product of being a screen merchant.

Starting point is 00:10:32 And it's just like, and we're also seeing Bo distribute the ball evenly. How many times, how many games have we seen Bo connect with eight or more different receivers in a game, right? You know, this is a guy who's not just pixelating on one guy. He's spreading the ball around, which is a nice productive thing to say. And Boe certainly has grown quite a bit. And look, I think that's the biggest thing. It's like, Bo is growing. He's doing all the things.

Starting point is 00:10:54 He's not the same quarterback he was in the first four weeks of the season. And so when there are these false narratives out there that, hey, he's, you know, he's only benefiting because of a strong run game. It's like, how many times have we done a show here, Sarah, on our keys to victory, highly say, hey, if the Broncos can get the run game going, like, finally, you might see the offense open up even more. Like, we've been saying that for almost two seasons now here. So just to put that to bed there, obviously, Bo Necks winning rookie of the week for

Starting point is 00:11:16 the third consecutive week, getting some cushion, obviously, and building a stronger case for potentially NFL rookie of the year. In terms of him being on the injury report, he isn't the only one here. What's the latest update on Broncos defensive end, Zach Allen? You're going to get that and much more. Here on today's episode, Lockdown Broncos. Today's Lockdown Broncos podcast is brought here by friends over there at the GameTime app. And GameTime has a brand new feature called Game Time Picks, which makes getting tickets

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Starting point is 00:12:41 Again, create an account, redeem code, locked on NFL for $20 off. Download game time today. What time is it? Game time. Guess who's back, Broncos country back back again. Zach Allen is back on the practice field in full for the Denver Broncos as they approach their Monday night matchup against the Cleveland Browns. Cody and I are going to talk about Zach Allen, his return to the practice to the little

Starting point is 00:13:04 cameo that he made on one of Cody Roerick's practice video posts there, as well as a lot more on today's episode, Lockdown Broncos. Hey, everyone out there, thanks so much for making us part of your day. However you choose to do so, happy Thanksgiving. Black Friday. Whenever you're listening to this episode, we appreciate you all so much for making us part of your week, especially this week as you're celebrating with family and friends and getting geared up for the Denver Broncos to potentially, hopefully win their eighth game of the season. But Broncos coach, we have to discuss Zach Allen because like Slim Shady,

Starting point is 00:13:37 Zach Allen was back out there, Cody. And we've created a monster, but nobody wants to see monster anymore. They want Zach Allen back in the lineup against the Cleveland Browns. The dude has a force all season. He's already very close to setting a career high in sacks. His career high is five and a half. He's already got five. So he's one sack away. He's already set a career high in tackles for loss. He's right there in quarterback hits, pressures, everything. This is the banner year for Zach Allen to have him miss a game against the Raiders, Cody. That was tough. But it looks like he's going to be back against Cleveland Browns. Yeah. And look, to be honest with you, when we saw him pop up on the injury report last week before the Raiders game saying, hey, he's got a

Starting point is 00:14:17 heel injury. Like usually that indicates that he suffered the injury in practice, not before hand or else, you know, that would have been prior knowledge because we saw him last Friday in before the Raiders game. And, you know, it's like, all right, he's going through stretch. And it's like, wait, he popped up on the injury. But now he's questionable. Like what? And then come to find out when you see the video of him on Sunday before the game in a walking. But you're like, wait, what's going on? And then Sean Peyton told us on Monday, hey, we should be fine in that regard. We go to Wednesday's practice. And now obviously, since the injury report has come out, we can talk about it. We weren't able to talk about it on Wednesday unless Sean Peyton. would have said anything but it's like oh Zach Allen's out here oh he's moving well he doesn't have a boot on he's literally just going through the team stretch with his helmet on and he's moving he's like doing the lateral you know jumps that they do in their dynamic warmups like okay wait he was just in a walking boot a couple of days ago so obviously you know he's got that wolverine blood he's he's healing very very quickly here but he was an estimated full go during thursday's walkthrough obviously we mentioned baroncos have practice here this afternoon they also have practice on saturday we'll have complete updates for you mile high sports dot com predominantly orange dot com and also locked on broncos for that but uh the fact that he's seems like he's going to be good to go for monday night football that's that's a huge side of relief because i think you and i are also wondering sir okay well if he's not fully 100 like what's the broncos philosophy sean peyton was asked this uh you know on on no not on monday on wednesday he was asked this about like you know what is your philosophy like if a if a player is do you want players to play if they can or is like with the bi week coming up does that influence

Starting point is 00:15:46 whether or not you get them some extra rest. He says, hey, if a player is healthy enough to play, they're going to play. And so all signs point to Zach Allen being able to play, obviously on Monday night football. Can't quite say the same here for Riley Moss. Did not see him when we went on Wednesday. He was not there for Thursday's walk through as he's dealing with the knee, the MCL injury. So definitely, I think something that bears monitoring here. It looks like Levi Wallace will more than likely be inclined to start for the Broncos opposite of Pat Certan and Jaquan McMillan.

Starting point is 00:16:14 And so something to monitor here. And Denver making some roster moves as well, Sarah. They promoted Zach Cunningham to the active rush. I find it to be a little surprising. Yeah, it was because there was talk of just a handful of weeks ago that Kwan Alexander, getting promoted to the 53-man roster was kind of just a matter of time or a matter of figuring out, logistics of getting that spot opened up. Well, the Broncos opened up a spot.

Starting point is 00:16:37 We all assumed it was going to be for wide receiver, Josh Reynolds. And then all of a sudden, Zach Cunningham gets signed to the active roster. So kind of fascinating, a guy who previously led the NFL in tackles. He's been very good at stuffing the run throughout the course of his time. And the league had three tackles this year for the Broncos against the Falcons. No tackles against the Raiders. But I feel like Cody, now that he's been promoted to the 53-man roster, we can probably expect to see at least a little bit more of him,

Starting point is 00:17:03 especially on run-downs, those obvious running downs. I think we will see quite a bit of Zach Cunningham. It does still leave some question marks, though, as far as, all right, you cut a guy and you fill the spot with Zach Cunningham, what the heck does that mean for Josh Reynolds? I know that the Broncos don't have to make any determination until next week regarding Josh Reynolds, but kind of been wondering because he's been practicing in full

Starting point is 00:17:27 with that hand injury, the last handful of weeks here. Seems like he could help the offense. And it seems like if you shut him down for this season, Cody, it's very reminiscent to me of, you know, the situation for those that remember with Derrent Williams, and Javon Walker and that whole deal where after Javon was part of that whole instance, just the tragedy of it,

Starting point is 00:17:51 it really shook him. And I don't think he was able to really keep that and maintain that same focus on the football field. Obviously, this is me speculating, which is not necessarily fair here, but I can't help but wonder if that whole situation, just the emotional scarring from that,

Starting point is 00:18:08 which would be traumatic. I've never been through anything like that. I can't help but wonder if that is, part of the factor here and whether or not Josh Reynolds will be back on the roster this season. I think it's a fair question. You know, I'd say, though, from just watching Josh, I mean, he seems to be locked in, like out there on the practice field. You know, he's out there, he's present, he's doing things, he's running routes,

Starting point is 00:18:28 catching passes from the QBs during the times we could see. And then when we're allowed back onto the practice field right before Sean speaks and before open locker room begins, we see Josh out there like, you know, he's walking, he's with his teammates. And so the Broncos, I know, is continuing to bride him with all the support. and all the resources that he needs from a mental health standpoint here. I do think obviously they're going to have to make a decision here soon. You know, after Monday night football, there's that Wednesday, right?

Starting point is 00:18:53 Denver's going to begin their biweek. But that next Wednesday following Monday night football, Denver has to make the decision or else, you know, Reynolds is going to stay on that IR for the rest of the season, which I'm very curious to see what they're going to do because part of me is wondering here, Sarah. And obviously this could happen literally moments after we record the show and it airs or before it air, whatever it may be. So it could be outdated or it could be predated, so to speak. So the Broncos, for example, they just promoted Zach Cunningham to the active roster, right?

Starting point is 00:19:20 Does that mean that Lavelle Bailey might be the next guy who gets waived and hopefully clears waivers? They bring him back onto the practice squad. That could be the case because Calvin Throckmorton was waived. He was brought back onto the practice squad here for Denver. But you need to free up a roster spot or does that mean that Riley Moss ends up on short-term IR and that opens up a spot? I hope that's not the case because it's like, oh, no, you're like, they're going to need Riley. Riley is playing some damn good football right now. So we're going to keep our eyes on these things as it's ongoing and it's developing here.

Starting point is 00:19:47 But for the most part, the Broncos should be healthy on the injury report this week. We're keeping an eye on Bo Nixon, his status, but unlikely to see Riley Moss. Zach Allen looks like a full go. And the Broncos should be a full strength when they try to get after James Winston and the Cleveland Browns on Monday night. Football Thanksgiving gave us many reasons to be thankful. But Broncos countries especially thankful to the Green Bay Packers for helping them game a little bit more cushion in the AFC playoff race. We'll highlight what the Broncos AFC playoff outlook looks like following the Dolphins' loss on Thanksgiving.

Starting point is 00:20:18 You'll get that and much more here on today's episode, Lockdown Broncos. Today's Lockdown Broncos is brought to you by friends over there at Fandul. Get ready to tackle the NFL this season with a big return inside of Fandulul, America's number one sportsbook, especially as week 13 of the NFL season approaches us. The Denver Broncos, the host of Cleveland Browns this week on Monday night football, where you're going to get Bo Nicks against Miles Gary. You're going to get James Winston, having to go against the Broncos defense and Patrick Sartan. It's prime time action.

Starting point is 00:20:46 It should be fun in a classic AFC rivalry. But the lines right now at Fandu have the Broncos as five and a half point home favorites against the Browns. The Browns have played spoils as of late to a couple of teams, including the Baltimore Ravens, the Pittsburgh Steelers. Can the Broncos avoid that trap here against the Browns? That's something you can keep your eye on here on Monday night football, five and a half. Once again, Broncos are the favorites here in this matchup. But the Fandu's sportsbook app right now is going to give new customers $150 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins. So you sign up as a brand new customer.

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Starting point is 00:21:44 Van Duel, an official sportsbook partner of the NFL. As we jump in the fourth quarter action on today's episode, Locked on Broncos. We're going to take a look at the AFC playoff picture after Thanksgiving. The Broncos have many reasons to be thankful for the Green Bay Packers. We'll dive into that here on today's show. Real quick, I want to take a moment to say thanks once again to everyone in Broncos country, all the everydayers, all the first listeners out there. We appreciate you so much for tuning into the show every single day all year long for the best Broncos objective news content coverage and more you get that here every single day sir you know i think uh thursday was very very busy obviously for thanksgiving i hope

Starting point is 00:22:22 you and your family had a great and help everyone in broncos country had a great one nothing's better than being able to sit back and watch some football and one thing we kind of talked about earlier in the week in our state of the afc is hey broncos country got to be rooting for the packers to beat the dolphins this week that's exactly what happened on thanksgiving and now there's got a little bit of a and the AFC playoff right with those teams who are trying to creep up to that seven spot there. They do. The Broncos at seven and five are in really good shape right now. Cody,

Starting point is 00:22:49 as the dolphins now drop to five and seven on the season, they were kind of lurking behind after three straight wins, and they were five and six going into that Green Bay game. But, man, bringing the dolphins up from South Florida to come play in the cold temperatures at Green Bay, that's just a tough, tough ask, you know, and so it was predictable in a lot of ways,

Starting point is 00:23:09 the result of that game on. fortunately, as we kind of saw in the playoffs when we were all hoping the dolphins in their high-flying offense could go to Kansas City and get a win. And helmets were busting all over the place. So it's a tough ask for them. And so we saw kind of that cushion being built as the NFL. Dot-com playoff predictor now has the Broncos odds at about 73 percent or 74 percent, depending on if you round up or down. And that number could go up significantly here, Cody, this weekend. that if the Broncos can get a win and we get to all sit back, as you said on Thanksgiving,

Starting point is 00:23:42 nothing better than sitting back and watching football, while the Broncos and the fans have the luxury of sitting back and watching what will transpire here on Sunday as well as the Broncos kind of look to, okay, what's going to be happening with the Indianapolis Colts? They play on the road against New England. The Colts, they could get their eighth loss of the season already.

Starting point is 00:24:02 That would be huge for the Denver Broncos. Other teams that were kind of monitoring right now, Obviously, Black Friday, we'll see what happens with Vegas and Kansas City. Don't necessarily expect that to have any bearing on the Broncos' overall playoff chances. But you look at Pittsburgh going to Cincinnati on Sunday at 12 o'clock. That is going to be a big matchup for the Broncos to watch in terms of Cincinnati, kind of being another team that's floating behind. So Atlanta hosts the L.A. Chargers at noon.

Starting point is 00:24:31 So the Chargers got to go play on the East Coast after playing the Baltimore Ravens in primetime. I don't think that's going to be easy for them at all. So, Cody, I look at the Falcons coming off a buy as another one of those situations where, hey, they're hosting the Chargers in their house. They're coming off the buy week. The Chargers right now have four losses, right? So they're seven and four. They lost J.K. Dobbins, too. They lost J.K. Davens.

Starting point is 00:24:57 Like, I'm looking at this weekend as, okay, yes, the Broncos need to take care of business. But the nice thing is, is that all this other stuff is going to transpire before they even take. take the field again. Yeah, it'll be nice, too. And it's like, it's crazy because these situations, especially at the end of the season, we're always sitting looking at the schedule like, all right, like, okay, these teams need to take care of business against these opponents that the Broncos need to lose. But the ultimate thing, as you mentioned it, the Broncos themselves have to take care of business, right? You don't want to necessarily put it in the hands of other teams. You don't want to be watching like the schedule. And I think this is a good representation of where the Broncos' locker room is

Starting point is 00:25:31 at right now. I mean, Sarah, we talk to Mike McGlinchie and we're like, hey, you know, you guys have a bye week coming up. He's like, honestly, guys in this building, we don't want the time off because we're getting in a groove here. And yeah, it's nice to have a buy. He said, but we want to continue to play our best football. And so that's something to monitor. But even guys like Cody Bartner are saying, it's like, yeah, we need to take care of business because we don't need to be looking at the schedule and saying, hey, we hope we get some help from some other teams. I think, obviously, you can get some help from some other teams this week. But the main focus is, hey, we're going to go in there and beat the Browns on Monday night football. So while we're worried about all that,

Starting point is 00:26:04 And the fans are worried about the schedule and the players. They're focused on the Browns. And we'll see if those other teams take care of business. But I mean, you're right. I mean, Sarah, think about it this way. The Falcons somehow beat the Chargers here. They dropped to 7 and 5 at that point. The Broncos with a win, they improve to 8 and 5.

Starting point is 00:26:21 And then obviously, you have the Bengals, if they lose 4 and 8, that puts them back a little bit. Not only do we have to take a look at those three teams behind Denver, but you look at the two teams that are above Denver, the Philadelphia Eagles, was taking on the Baltimore Ravens. You know, if the Eagles won that one, okay, the Broncos and the Broncos win, the Broncos and the Ravens are going to have the same record. But the Ravens, because they beat Denver earlier, they have the tie record. So they'll stay ahead of them.

Starting point is 00:26:46 But part of me is wondering because of it, like if the Chargers end up losing and Denver wins, even though that the Chargers beat Denver, Denver is going to have eight wins opposed to seven wins for the Chargers, which means essentially Denver would jump up a spot in the wild card races. And you still have a head-to-head match. up coming up with the Chargers, which is obviously we all know is flexed a Thursday night football. So things are going to shake out in this AFC playoff race, I think relatively soon. It's interesting when you look at it, like the AFC, the standings, you look at even the NFC.

Starting point is 00:27:19 The NFC is more top heavy in terms of the standings right now, but the AFC just seems like there's a battle between those final, you know, seven, six, five spots there. And unfortunately, that fourth spot is likely to remain with the Houston Texans because, hey, It goes one, two, three, four based on division. Best division gets the top. I don't see best record, and the best division gets the top. And then the worst record, the winner of that,

Starting point is 00:27:41 of the worst division is still going to be on top by default. I still don't agree with that. But, you know, what can I do? I can't move the goalposts here. Yeah, no, I, Cody, as you're talking, I get so excited about this because by the time we all, our heads hit the pillows on Monday night or, you know, for you and I, probably more like Tuesday morning.

Starting point is 00:27:59 Tuesday. As late as we'll be up. But by the time our heads hit the pillows, the Denver Broncos could be the sixth seed in the AFC, which as of right now, it kind of just feels like everybody is assuming like if the Broncos make the playoffs, it's going to be as the seventh seed because, well, they've lost to the Ravens. They've lost to the chargers, but there's still a lot of time for those things to change. And so you want that fifth seed because I think you want to play Houston right now in the first round of the playoffs, if possible. I know, be careful what you wish for kind of thing.

Starting point is 00:28:31 Yeah, you don't want to play Buffalo. You certainly don't want to, let's say, Buffalo overtakes Kansas City for that number one seat. I mean, you certainly don't want your first game in the playoffs to be going to Kansas City and playing against Patrick Holmes. Maybe. I mean, maybe for the Broncos. For most teams, you might not. But look, I mean, just it gets, it gets you excited to think about the idea of, hey, if the Falcons can take care of biz, if the Eagles can take care of biz, these teams could set the Broncos up to potentially be the fifth seed as, soon as their next they may not even have to it may not even require them playing a game cody they

Starting point is 00:29:06 could get that fifth seed based on what happens during their by week in week 14 so really exciting right now based on the way that you know things are shaking out the broncos yes they need to take care of business you got three weeks to get two wins you could be already guarantee yourself a winning season they are set up nicely right now to be able to potentially rise up these aFC playoff rankings rather quickly I've been doing the show since 2017. You joined me in 2020 right before I think it was the COVID season. Or was it 2019 that you joined? I joined 21, 21, Teddy Bridgewater year.

Starting point is 00:29:41 Okay. So I thought you're with me during the COVID year. But anyways, like we've been doing the show for quite some time together. I've been doing a show for a while and never, I think since 2017, never have, I had a moment where it's like, hey, the Broncos at this point of the season, they're playing meaningful football. And all of a sudden, it's like, wow, it's exciting. Like that 21 season, there was a little bit of an interesting side, right? Because they had that matchup against the Bengals. They would have beat the Bengals.

Starting point is 00:30:04 They probably would have gotten to the playoffs in 2021. But they didn't. So it was close. But this is a different vibe here. And look, I think Broncos country, all the fans have so much to be excited for. I think the future, regardless of how this season ends, I think fans are excited about the vision and about just the potential that this team has going forward, you have an entire offseason ahead where you can build this team a little bit.

Starting point is 00:30:27 But this is huge. Like the Broncos are in a good position right now. Hasn't been like this in quite some time. So I'm enjoying the ride too with you. I'm enjoying the ride with Broncos country. And obviously it's going to set the table, I think, for the next couple of years here with how this team finishes the season and how they plan to attack the off season. And Broncos country, one thing we want to say is we're going to be here every step of the way. We want you to join us here every single day all year long, locked on Broncos.

Starting point is 00:30:54 Because there's never an off season for the true fan. We got you covered daily. all year on the show here. But that'll wrap up today's episode of the show, Broncos Country. We'll have another episode for you on Monday leading up to kickoff. It'll be our game preview. We're going to hand out our players to watch,

Starting point is 00:31:08 matchups that will define the game and bold predictions. You're going to get that on Monday's episode, Lockdown Broncos. Plus you get post-game report coverage after Monday night football. You get that here on the Lockdown Broncos podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.

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