Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - Denver Broncos SECRET WEAPONS Emerging After Minicamp

Starting point is 00:00:00 There are a number of secret weapons on the Denver Broncos roster in 2025. Sam Ellinger played a big role getting J.K. Dobbins to Denver. Special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi talks up, punter Jeremy Croshaw, and Justin Sternod might be the linebacker we're all sleeping on. We got that and much more for you 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. Broncos country, it might be the dog days of the 2025 off season, but you know what?

Starting point is 00:00:40 We're not sitting around here at Lockdown Broncos. We got a lot of fun stuff to talk about today. We're talking about some secret weapons today, why Sam Ellinger was maybe one of the key reasons why J.K. Dobbins ended up signing with the Broncos. Jeremy Croshaw and his kind of secret weapon as a punter and what drew the Denver Broncos to draft him as the only punter selected in the 2025 class. as well as maybe just since you're not, being the linebacker that many of us in Broncos country have been sleeping on this offseason.

Starting point is 00:01:13 Welcome in to another episode of the show. My name is Sarah Bedinger. So grateful that you're here today. I'm the co-host here at Lockdown Broncos as well as the site expert at predominantly orange.com. And for all of you, everyday listeners, we can't tell you enough how much we appreciate you. If you're not already an everyday listener of Lockdown Broncos, we appreciate you taking a couple of seconds. and hitting that subscribe button wherever you listen or on YouTube if you haven't done that already. And Broncos Country, today's episode is brought to you by our friends at GameTime.

Starting point is 00:01:45 Download the GameTime app, create an account and use the code locked on NFL for $20 off your first purchase. The Denver Broncos made some actually pretty big waves across the NFL landscape during minicamp when they signed veteran running back J.K. Dobbins, of course, one of the biggest aspects of that story is the The Broncos got him away from the Chargers who kind of revamped their running back position this offseason. But the Broncos made more understated moves. Actually, they had really only made one move leading up to that point at the running back position, which was one of their worst in 2024. They let go of Giovante Williams.

Starting point is 00:02:23 They let him walk in NFL free agency. And then they brought in RJ Harvey through the NFL draft in the second round. And I think a lot of folks were assuming, okay, this is going to be the young guys show. once again, offensively, it's going to be R.J. Harvey. It's going to be Audrick Estima, a second year player the Broncos had high hopes for in his rookie season as well. And then Jalil McLaughlin kind of coming back and doing his thing. But ultimately, the Broncos saw their running backs over the course of OTAs. They decided to finally bring in J.K. Dobbins for a visit, which spanned multiple days. And they sign him to a one-year contract that's heavy with incentives,

Starting point is 00:03:01 but still indicates that I think Dobbins is going to play a massive. role in the offense here in 2025. And because of that, it's kind of interesting to think about what was it that brought Dobbins to Denver. Well, obviously, they have a great situation for him to step into, right? He could be the top running back on the depth chart. He could be the guy that leads the team in carries this coming season if he stays healthy. But ultimately, we know in the NFL, it's those ties that bind, right? It's the ties that bind and really the three degrees of separation is always interesting to kind of try to figure out. And Sean Payton is obviously big on this.

Starting point is 00:03:38 He talked about it in terms of the relationships with people that he had that led to him hiring Lou A. Annie, the team's running backs coach. And you could look at a number of different, he's got all these different guys on the coaching staff who are connected at Northwestern. And he's got guys on the roster with connections to Utah and Texas. J.K. Dobbins obviously has a number of former Ravens or Ohio State teammates on the Denver Broncos, and we'll get to those guys in a little bit. But the secret weapon in signing J.K. Dobbins might have been Sam Ellinger. J.K. Dobbins met with the Denver media for the first

Starting point is 00:04:14 time after mini-camp practices last week. And he talked about the fact that Sam Ellinger in the state of Texas, where Dobbins is from, was actually his best friend before they left for college. I think when you break down the decision for Dobbins to sign in Denver, obviously familiarity with guys on the roster already helps. But Sam Ellinger specifically doing some recruiting for the Broncos is quite interesting because the discussion this offseason has really been a lot about, man, the Broncos, they're probably going to keep two quarterbacks on the roster. They don't necessarily have somebody like Zach Wilson who you feel like he could leave

Starting point is 00:04:52 in free agency next year and go make millions on another team and potentially even help the Broncos get a compensatory pick. Sam Ellinger is a different type of player at the quarterback position. He's somebody that he's probably a lot more valuable to the team than really meets the eye. And I think this is one of those instances where he's got so many connections, right? He's obviously, he played college at a high level at Texas, second most all time yards passing in Texas football history, second most passing touchdowns in Texas football history, both of those behind Colt McCoy. And then he's second all time in rushing touchdowns at the quarterback position at Texas behind Vince Young. So a very decorated player who was with the Colts the last four seasons.

Starting point is 00:05:37 And he's going to be a pretty important guy to watch over the course of the preseason for the Broncos because he's going to be giving the looks to a lot of these young guys that we're trying to see battle it out for roster spots. And Ellinger is going to be the guy throwing them passes. He's probably going to get a lot of playing time in the preseason coming up. Does he stand a better chance of making the 53 than meets the eye? Certainly. when you're recruiting guys to come join the team, that probably benefits your case at least a little bit. And I think it's worth discussing because Sam Ellinger has plenty of experience in the NFL in terms of being part of a quarterback room. And those third quarterbacks,

Starting point is 00:06:17 they have much more of an impact, I think, than you really realize. It's the impact in the quarterback room, in the film room, on the sideline, and just really overall benefiting your starting quarterback from giving him another set of eyes. The Broncos already have Jared Stidham. They already have Davis Webb. They have guys who can really help Bo Nix. But when you have that tightly formed bond between a group of guys, you almost don't want to screw with that.

Starting point is 00:06:43 You don't want to mess with that if you're Sean Peyton, right? And so the Broncos bringing in Sam Ellinger in the first place is fascinating. But then to know that he's recruiting guys like J.K. Dobbins, who's probably going to be a starter, probably going to be running out of the tunnel for this Broncos team in 2025. you've got your third string quarterback out there calling up his old best friend and saying, hey, you want to come be part of what we're doing here. We're building something special.

Starting point is 00:07:09 So Sam Ellinger is a unique case, I think, is worth kind of monitoring as we go along this offseason. And yes, it's the dog days of the off season. And yes, we're talking about third string quarterbacks. But I think this is a unique situation here and a unique debate. And do you keep three quarterbacks on this roster if you're Sean Payton? Do you try to allocate that roster spot elsewhere? What are you compromising if you do decide to keep three quarterbacks?

Starting point is 00:07:36 And where are you sort of, all right, well, we're going light at this position because we're keeping a third quarterback because ultimately last year, although Zach Wilson needed that development that he got in Denver, he was inactive every single week. He was the team's emergency third quarterback, which does not take up a spot on your game day roster, but it does take up and occupy a spot on your 53 man roster. And there's got to be a situation every year where you go into the offseason program and you're saying, okay, we have this many spots. We have X number of spots dedicated and devoted to players who they're probably not going to play. In recent years, we've seen that happen with guys like Frank Crum, you know,

Starting point is 00:08:17 and others in sort of similar situations where they're clearly developmental players. They're not necessarily. The Broncos don't want to subject them to waivers because they don't want them getting claimed by other teams, but they also aren't going to necessarily put them on the 53. So guys that are on the practice squad have a better chance of actually playing. So Sam Ellinger is one of those interesting cases to where do you try to sneak him onto the practice squad? I think that might be plan A for the Denver Broncos to have him and you can still utilize him as your emergency third quarterback. But to put him on the 53 man roster, it's probably going to take a little bit more than recruiting a free agent running back to get there.

Starting point is 00:08:57 Ellinger is going to have to have a phenomenal preseason and give these guys good looks and also prove himself in the quarterback room over the course of training camp. It's not like he's going to have to go out there and just be dominating at training camp. There's going to be intangible qualities that he brings to the table that will ultimately determine his standing on the 53 man roster. but one player who has no contest right now for his spot on the 53 man roster is rookie punter Jeremy Croshaw. We finally got to hear last week from special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi about the Broncos process of making him the only punter selected in the 2025 NFL draft. Some really good stuff from Coach Rizzi on Jeremy Croshaw.

Starting point is 00:09:41 We're going to talk about that as well as Justin Sernod, maybe being the most slept on linebacker on this roster right now. Coming up next year, Lockdown Broncos. Today's episode of Lockdown Broncos is brought to you by game time. There is nothing like the NBA playoffs, am I right? I mean, the intensity, the buzzer beaters, fans losing their minds, right? It's that kind of atmosphere that you really have to just experience live. And this year's matchups, they've already been delivering in that regard.

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Starting point is 00:11:22 And yes, punters are people too, everybody. We saw a number of comments in the comment section over there on YouTube asking about Jeremy Croshaw. And so, hey, Broncos Country, if there's ever anything you want to discuss on the show, we always appreciate your feedback, whether you hit us up on YouTube, Twitter. However you get in touch with Cody and I, we always love talking about the things that you're passionate about as well, including Jeremy Croshaw. Everybody's been interested to know, what's the update on this guy? Well, other than booming punts out at mini-camp practice, which was certainly the scenario. I remember reading a tweet from Andrew Mason who said that every time the dude kicked the ball, it sounded like a cannon was getting fired off.

Starting point is 00:12:04 Jeremy Croshaw has a big leg. The Broncos made him the only punter drafted in 2025 for a number of different reasons. But Darren Rizzy, the special teams coordinator, actually gave us some really interesting insight into what it was that drew them to Jeremy Croshaw in the first place. Of course, his natural talent is there. He's got the big leg. And you combine the big leg with a mile high air. You've got the perfect combination to potentially really just flip field position

Starting point is 00:12:35 on a consistent basis. It's kind of interesting to me that no punter has really been able to figure that out in Denver. There's been solid punters, right? I mean, Sam Martin was solid for the Broncos. I feel like Riley Dixon was solid for the Broncos, but nobody has really been able to be that true, true weapon. And I guess we're calling today's episode, we're calling these guys secret weapons, right? Nobody's been able to be that real weapon in the kicking game for the Denver Broncos as a punter. And you feel like that's really unfortunate because you do have a major advantage playing in the mile high air in Denver.

Starting point is 00:13:12 So you would think that whoever's punting in Denver's got a great job. just like anybody who's supposedly hitting for the Colorado Rocky should have a great job, although we know that's not really the case, don't we, Rocky's fans? But look, the punters in Denver, all kidding aside, they've underwhelmed, in my opinion, in recent years, as solid as Riley Dixon may have been, as solid as Sam Martin may have been, you just feel like you're missing a little bit of something. And now the Broncos may feel like they have the perfect combination with not only Jeremy Croshaw as the punter, but Darren Rizzie coaching him up.

Starting point is 00:13:46 Darren Rizzi is known for being one of the best special teams coaches in the NFL, highly coveted type of coach who's worked with Sean Payton before was the interim head coach for the New Orleans Saints last year in case you didn't know about that. And he's just a great leader out there. He's a great guy to have teaching your special teams players the nuances of the game. And he's going to be a huge help for Jeremy Croshaw, who we can only assume was hand-select. by Rizzi himself. And here's what Rizzi had to say about Jeremy Croshaw at Broncos minicamp. He said, I really believe at that position, at a specialist position, your demeanor might just be

Starting point is 00:14:26 as important as your ability because it's one play and done. You have to have the mentality of kind of a batter in baseball, if you will, or a golfer. You have to go on to the next swing. I really like his level-headedness. I really like his maturity. I really like his approach. what does that all mean what darren rizzy is trying to say there is that if crawshaw shanks one he's not going to get the yips all of a sudden he's not going to come out there and just have a streak of bad kicks what he's going to do is he's got that mental ability to to climb those mountains so to speak he's got the ability to jump those hurdles he can go right back out there after you know a bad kick maybe sets him back a little bit he can go out there and he can boom the

Starting point is 00:15:10 next one, right? And that's what the Broncos need from a rookie at this position is. You can't have a scenario where for a full game or multiple games in a row, your punter is shanking kicks or having kicks blocked or getting into his own head. It's just like when a kicker misses a field goal, you all of a sudden, you know, you get that dread in your mind like, oh man, this kicker missed one. Now he's going to be thinking about that miss going forward. The same thing does apply to punters, although not to as significant of a degree, right? When a kicker is missing field goal after field goal or multiple extra points in a row, you're literally taking points off the board.

Starting point is 00:15:50 With a punter, you're not taking points off the board, but inadvertently you might be leading to the other team scoring more. And that's where the Broncos really struggled late last season in games against the Chargers in that game against the Bengals. Right? When Riley Dixon was struggling in that way, I feel like the Broncos really were set back defensively. You wasted that great start from the defense that you got against Cincinnati.

Starting point is 00:16:13 You wasted an 11-point lead against the LA Chargers. And that was due to the kicking game, the punting game. And so for Jeremy Croshaw to come in, the expectations are going to be high because, well, you're a punter and you were drafted. So the expectations are just naturally going to be high. But now you talk about this guy was kind of hand-selected by, Darren Rizzy to come in. And not only was he a drafted punter, he was the only drafted punter. So you have to have a short memory. You cannot dwell on any bad kicks. And of course,

Starting point is 00:16:45 we all hope that we don't see very many bad kicks in the first place from Jeremy Croshaw. And we also hope that we really only see him out there when he's holding for extra points, right? That's exactly when you want to see Jeremy Croshaw. You love to see the back of his jersey holding down for extra points. But in the event, and the Broncos will need this, in the event that you need to flip field position, in the event that you need to pin the opposition deep, how do you enhance one of the best defenses in the NFL aside from adding to that defense? Well, you enhance one of the best defenses in the NFL by setting them up with a great punter, a guy who can flip field position, a guy who can bury teams deep, a guy who, let's say you go three and out offensively,

Starting point is 00:17:29 you can pin the other team deep and set your offense up for a better situation going forward. So it's that domino effect of what Sean Payton has called hidden yardage in the past on special teams that makes all the difference when it comes to the course of a regular season. If 100 yards equals six points or seven points, right, you think about that in terms of the kicking game, how much that's affecting your team over the course of a regular season. And for a guy like Jeremy Croshaw, man, the pressure is going to be on because you do want to enhance that defense. You want to give them every opportunity to flex in terms of their pass rush abilities, in terms of the coverage ability that you have. You don't want to be setting them up with short fields.

Starting point is 00:18:13 The Broncos need to be one of the best teams in the NFL at opposing starting field position, right? They want to be burying teams deep. And that helps your quarterback. That helps your defense. And that helps your defensive coordinator, especially. because you're not having to, okay, we're on our heels immediately. The opposing team is starting closer to the 50 than we like every time they get the ball. Your punter has to be an asset in that way.

Starting point is 00:18:39 And Jeremy Crosha having a short memory could be one of the biggest secret weapons for the Denver Broncos in 2025. And you know what Broncos country, that defense being the number one defense in the NFL, what are they missing in order to get there? Well, I think we would all agree that it starts with the last. linebacker position, right? That linebacker position has to be better in 2025. I would argue if the Broncos could get better consistent production out of the inside linebacker position, this defense would have absolutely no weaknesses whatsoever. So Justin Sernad, is he the guy that we've been kind of sleeping on all offseason? Is he the one that we've been waiting for? And is he ready to really step up after

Starting point is 00:19:21 getting a year to start in 2024. We're going to talk about Justin Sernod as the secret weapon of this Denver Broncos defense coming up next, Locked on Broncos. We've all been wondering who is going to be that linebacker next to Dre Greenlaw. In the Denver Broncos defense in 2025, there's been a lot of talk about Alex Singleton coming back off the ACL injury. There's been a lot of talk about Drew Sanders, who could be that secret weapon for the Denver defense in 2025.

Starting point is 00:19:55 but what about Justin Sternard, who played pretty darn well when given the opportunity last year? He's building some confidence coming off of his first year as a starter in the NFL. And Sean Payton made note of that at Denver Broncos mini camp. And Broncos country, I think this is an interesting discussion and an interesting player to bring up because Justin Sernad has now come back two years in a row for this Denver Broncos team. he was brought back this offseason with the understanding that he could potentially be competing for a starting job. And maybe he's the guy who's the biggest threat to take over Alex Singleton's job from last year. Now, Sean Payton talked about this at Broncos OTAs and Broncos minicamp.

Starting point is 00:20:42 He answered a number of questions about Drew Sanders and his progress. And he did say that having Sanders get those reps at the off ball linebacker position, he said, I think it is extremely helpful. But when he was asked about Justin Sternad, he had an interesting comment. He said, when you look at the amount of snaps Sternad has had, all of a sudden, now there's confidence. I'm not just a guy running down on special teams. I started a whole season, right? So what he's talking about there is the fact that, well, Sean Payton mentions this all the time.

Starting point is 00:21:13 He says that confidence is born from demonstrated ability, right? And so when Justin Sernard is out there getting snaps, he's getting reps, he's being able to string together plays, make some tackles for loss, get to the quarterback as a blitzer, which he did all of those things last year. I would argue that Sernad was easily the best off ball linebacker the Broncos had last year. Now, that might not be saying much based on the fact that position was kind of an area of weakness for the team. but certainly when you look at his overall body of work with eight tackles for loss, a number of big plays behind the line of scrimmage, there was a bit of feast or famine at times when Sternad was out there and he was benched as a result a time or two for that.

Starting point is 00:21:57 But at the same time, that confidence that he built of being a starter for a full NFL season, you can't help but wonder how much is that going to help him going into this offseason, right? And Sternad has always had that potential. He's always had that potential to be a full-time three-down player in the NFL. Go back to his rookie season in the NFL when Vic Fangio was the head coach. Sernad was getting first team reps with the nickel defense as a coverage linebacker. And that was something that really drew a lot of fans to him early on in his career.

Starting point is 00:22:35 Remember, Sernod was supposed to be like one of these Fred Warner types that could play on all three downs. Now, obviously, the hyperbole when a guy gets drafted is always just off the charts, right? You're always trying to compare him to the best of what his position could turn out to be. And you want to believe the best in guys like that. But for Sternad, it was just injuries that derailed his career early on. It was certain things that, man, you just feel like this guy can't get ahead. Right when he starts to build ahead of steam, something derails him. Last year in the preseason, though, I thought that he looked outstanding in the preseason.

Starting point is 00:23:14 And then what happened? Well, when we got to the regular season, the Broncos apparently just had no confidence in him at all because they brought in Christian Welch off the practice squad of the Packers or after the Packers cut him and you let him play in week one. And so with Cody Barton leaving and the Broncos kind of reshaping this position, Alex Singleton coming off of injury, Drew Sanders being such an unknown. known, Sir Nad really has put himself in a unique position to be able to lay claim to a starting role in 2025 and maybe surprise some people, maybe surprise even, you know, us who cover the team,

Starting point is 00:23:51 we look at all 91 guys on this roster and we're sitting here trying to break down, man, who could be that breakout player? You always tend to look for guys that are 25 and under or 26 and under in that regard. But we've seen some late bloomers across the NFL regardless of position, right? Justin Sernod could be that guy for the Denver Broncos. And I'm interested to know what all of you listeners think of that as well. Do you think Justin is that, would you be excited about that? And do you think he is that guy to emerge?

Starting point is 00:24:20 Or are we selling, are we trying so hard to figure out who's going to be the breakout guy at linebacker that we've all of a sudden started to undersell Alex Singleton, right? I mean, that's a fair question as well. This is just such a unique situation for the Broncos because you've got a guy who's over the age of coming off of a major injury. Drey Greenlaw has dealt with a lot of injuries. And then you've got a young player who you drafted high. I mean, Drew Sanders was the 67th overall pick in the 2023 draft.

Starting point is 00:24:51 You want to sort of manifest his NFL success, right? And so those are kind of the factors that lead to this discussion. And it can cause you to overthink. But like Sean Payton warned a little bit at minicamp, he said, don't be finalizing the roster just yet. Don't be finalizing the depth chart. Don't be trying to figure out all the numbers there because ultimately most people are going to get it wrong. Right.

Starting point is 00:25:15 And I think that's fair because, yeah, at this time of year, we have no idea what's going to happen in training camp. We have no idea what's going to happen in the preseason. We have no idea how these battles are going to end up playing out. But what we do know is that Justin's Ternad played better than any linebacker on the Broncos roster last year. And I mean better than anybody that's currently on the roster. right. So what Sternod did last season, he could be the perfect compliment to a guy like Drake Greenlaw and he could be a longer term fixture at the position than somebody like Alex Singleton. But does that disappoint you if you're a Drew Sanders supporter? So it's going to be

Starting point is 00:25:53 a fun battle to watch this offseason Broncos country. We're going to continue to talk about battles like that. We're going to continue to talk about sleeper players on this roster. We've got a lot to discuss even in the dog dark days of the off season. So you're going to want to be subscribed to the show so you don't miss a single episode because we're keeping Broncos fandom alive and well while there's not much to talk about. We're going to find things to talk about. We're going to bring up interesting stories for players on this roster. We're going to answer your questions. We're going to look deep into some of the roster battles. We're going to look deep into the rookie class. And we're going to react to some of the interesting statements that have been

Starting point is 00:26:30 made by Sean Payton and his staff over the course of the offseason program. So if you're not already, Hit follow wherever you listen to podcasts, hit subscribe on YouTube. And don't forget, Lockdown Broncos is also on TikTok these days. You can find short form content on YouTube as well. You're going to want to stay plugged in all throughout the offseason because your boys, Cody and Sayer, will have you covered no matter what happens. And Broncos Country, we appreciate you so much for tuning in today. Can't wait to see you on the next episode of the show.

Starting point is 00:27:00 Have a good one.

Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - Denver Broncos SECRET WEAPONS Emerging After Minicamp

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