Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - Denver Broncos' Taurean York, Red Murdock Have BEST PATH to 53-Man Roster

Starting point is 00:00:00 With Jonah Ellis staying at outside linebacker, the Denver Broncos have a wide open opportunity for Tourian York and Red Murdoch to take over those third and fourth spots at linebacker. 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? Cody York here for a bonus episode, Locked on Broncos. As we talk about the linebacker position, it's going to be a harder climb for guys like Lavelle Bailey and Corrin. read after they've made the 53 man roster over the course of the last two seasons because of the two guys we're going to be talking about here today primarily we're going to kick things off with Tori and york the broncos undrafted rookie for agent linebacker and mr irrelevant red murdock who selected set in the seventh round very last pick of the NFL draft these guys so far they looked apart in terms of the reaction style at linebacker but they got to translate that into more onfield

Starting point is 00:01:00 production and training camp and obviously the preseason so let's go through that here right now here today. Going through week one of OTAs last week, week two of OTAs is going to have to take place this week and I'm excited to see how these guys continue to progress. Now, ultimately, when you talk about OTAs, non-padded practices, no contact allowed, how do you evaluate the linebacker position? Well, first and foremost, they always have to take a read step to see what the guard is doing. Pad level, the offensive guard stays down. It's a run. Pad level raises up. That means it's a pass. The one thing that I've noticed about Tori and York and Red Murdox specifically. And when they're on the field together, it has me excited because not only are they

Starting point is 00:01:40 instinctual, they know how to read and react quickly, but I think that they play well off of one another. I'm excited when the pads come on to see how they work against the run game. But Red Murdoch, you can tell, knows how to attack downhill. I know Sean Payton likes to crack jokes about that here. He reads and he feels quickly in run. But when it's a pass and he's playing alongside Tori and York, I love how these guys react, especially in the Broncos defense. We're at linebacker, they are going to be playing primarily man coverage against a running back out of the backfield. But at times where there is no running back and they have match concepts that they have to play defensively,

Starting point is 00:02:18 if this guy crosses this threshold, you have two guys who I think move really well laterally side to side, which is so important. You know, often at times a lot of these positions at lineback are attacking straight downhill. Once again, I'm bringing it up. Sean Payton, don't get mad at. me on this. But when you have to play in space and you have to drop back to a middle hook or to the hook to curl area there, you have to be able to move quickly, open up, change direction,

Starting point is 00:02:45 flip your hips, do a lot of things that sometimes DBs do. You don't necessarily have to back pedal. It's one thing that you don't want linebackers doing is backpedal and you want them to open up and run. These guys have the ability to attach to a crossing tight end to a wide receiver and they communicate so well alongside one another. So I don't know if that was something that these guys kind of built together when it went back to rookie minicamp because they were the primary two guys for Vance Joseph when we're at rookie minicamp. And now on OTAs, you're seeing them rotate in with other guys like Lavelle Bailey, Karen A Reid, Jordan Turner. So, but when they play together, it just seems like that these two mesh well together. And I imagine spending time

Starting point is 00:03:25 in that linebacker room, these guys are trying to make a mark for the. themselves. And I think that this is the year that the Broncos have an opportunity for not only Red Murdoch as Mr. Irrelevant to make the 53, but Tori and York, especially considering he was the paid the most guaranteed money out of all the undrafted rookie free agents. I think the Broncos had a draftable grade on him from what I understand. And the only thing that was negatively impacted against him from a perception standpoint based in the draft was his size. He was a little undersized. But that doesn't matter if you have the instincts, you have the football IQ. He's a team captain. He's a green dot guy. York was. He can play fast. Red Murdoch. You see the proven production

Starting point is 00:04:03 at the University of Buffalo. He's a true linebacker. These two guys are going to be very exciting. And special teams, they will probably play it right away here this upcoming season. They will all probably be core four specialists while Alex Singleton and Justin Sternad get the start. And they have the best opportunity out of everybody else in that linebacker room featuring Jordan Turner, Levelle Bailey, Karenne Reed. They have the best shot at making the roster here for those third. and forth spots, but they have to continue to stack consistency. Now, once again, I'm not trying to create too much hype because I think hype in a situation like OTAs, it can be hard because this is what you see initially here. You're excited about it, but then when the pads come on,

Starting point is 00:04:43 it's a different story. We're evaluating this part of it. But now if they do the same exact stuff when the pads come on in July, then I think that hype can start to generate even more. This is an exciting thing to watch for because you look at the proven ball production from Red Murdoch, obviously at college, forcing an NCAA record in terms of forced fumbles, but over 300 plus tackles for him throughout his career. And then York, who's played in big games, was in the college football playoffs this past year against Miami, who ultimately made it to the national championship. That Texas A&M defense had a lot of dogs on it.

Starting point is 00:05:16 But the heart and soul of that defense was York. And he's bringing that edge here now to the mile high city. I imagine he'll play punt coverage, kick return coverage, kick coverage. He'll do all this stuff. he'll help set things up. He'll be an important piece, punt block for Denver. He's going to be one of those guys that I'm excited to see in training camp when Darren Rizzy's getting a special teams group guys together

Starting point is 00:05:37 and they're now doing full-filled work with the pads on. You want to see how it works out. Now, I think not having joint training camp practices, that's where things get a little tricky when we're evaluating it because when you're going against other guys, you're not hitting your own guys anymore. Now you're getting the true competitive spirit of somebody else trying to come in and trying to dog on you.

Starting point is 00:05:58 That's where I like these guys, the mentality and the makeup that they have as on-field football players. There was a clip that I saw from the Pat McAfee show earlier on this year, I think it was from college game day where Tori in York, he's the guy walking as Texas A&M is going on on the football field. He's walking alongside his head coach, his teams behind him. And he's saying, if you don't wear our jersey, forget you. That's the PG-13 version way of saying it.

Starting point is 00:06:22 But this is a dude that just absolutely brings it. And at OTA practice number one that we saw last week, just he and Red Murdoch played well next to each other. When they're dropping back into coverage and they're seeing guys cross, they're picking it up. They're communicating constantly. I don't think you can over communicate as a lineback, but when they're playing right next to each other,

Starting point is 00:06:42 they know how to compliment one another perfectly well. At least in the rookie minicamp practice that I saw and now that carried over into OTAs, that's going to be something I'm paying attention to here. Obviously, as the media gets access to you, another practice on Thursday. I will be there and they are going to be the two names that I'm watching when they are on the field together here. But there are some other guys at this position that we've alluded to, Lavel Bailey, Karenne Reed and Jordan Turner. They have a harder climb, but Jordan Turner might be the wild car in this room.

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Starting point is 00:08:28 with Lavelle Bailey and Karenne Reed being examples here, especially with Torrean York and Red Murdoch emerging as high buzz guys here and guys who are standing out at least in helmets and shorts at this point of the offseason here. Broncos Country, appreciate it so much for rocking with those making us your first listening here on the lockdown podcast network. We know it's your team every day plus. It's the number one sports podcast network in the country. That's all thanks to all of you out there in Broncos,

Starting point is 00:08:53 country. So let's dive into this as well. I said it earlier that the climb for guys like Lavelle Bailey, Jordan Turner and Corrine Reed, guys who have made the roster in the past, Jordan Turner was a practice squad guy that got called up a couple times, but Bailey and Reed are guys who have made the 53 man roster in the last two seasons, 24 for Bailey, 2025 there for Reed. And now, I'd say the circumstances have kind of changed for those guys. There's more competition and now than I think they have experienced previously where the Broncos linebacker room, at least on paper, was solidified with Alex Singleton and Cody Barton in 2024. 2025 you bring in Dre Greenlaw and you have Singleton, Sternad, and Greenlaw is your top three guys.

Starting point is 00:09:38 It was harder for those other guys to get into the mix as much. So Kerrana made it as a special teams guy. And ultimately, it was a preseason standout. The Broncos didn't want to risk losing him. But now with them investing draft capital in Red Murdoch and them paying a higher guarantee here to Tori in York, it really kind of puts their spots on notice. Lavelle Bailey has been this guy that even last year when Drey Greenlaw was dealing with his injury in training camp, he was getting reps with the first team defense alongside Singleton, alongside Sternad.

Starting point is 00:10:08 Those guys were spending time rotating with the ones. And we all thought, hey, Lavel Bailey is going to be the one guy that's going to be getting the most buzz here about potentially competing for a start. starting jobs, especially after Drew Sanders' injury took place in the first week of training camp. Well, now, Lavelle was a guy that even during the regular season, the Broncos were dealing with injuries not only to Greenlaw, Sternad got banged up for a game. Singleton had the cancer diagnosis that caused him to miss, you know, just a week or so of action there. There were questions about whether or not Lavelle would be called up, and he wasn't. Even Corrine Ried was on injured reserve, and Lavelle still couldn't get the call up to

Starting point is 00:10:43 contribute defensively because Sternad ended up returning and playing alongside Greenlaw. against the Kansas City Chiefs. And so all of us were wondering like, okay, what is it that's going on? Like, Lavelle is a guy who works so hard behind the scenes. Great team guy is involved on the special team side. He's very attentive when it comes to practice and meetings. So we were wondering what was going on. There's no true answers to why he didn't really get those opportunities to play any defensive snaps

Starting point is 00:11:07 in the 2025 NFL regular season. Correne Reed, we just kind of knew what his role was as a special teams guy, spent that stint on IR and then really kind of didn't even play down the stretch here for Denver, even when he's able to come back. But a wild card in this, and I mentioned this earlier, it's going to be Jordan Turner. The Broncos really like him. He was a guy who stood out in the preseason last year and was able to get after the quarterback. Vance Joseph felt like he could deploy him on linebacker blitzes. He ended up, I believe, getting two sacks in one game last season, if I'm not mistaken, against the Arizona Cardinals in one of the preseason games that Denver

Starting point is 00:11:39 had. But he's a guy that I think Darren Rizzi really likes on special teams. And that's not to say that Rizzi doesn't like Reed or Bailey as special teams players. I think that there's this physicality that comes with what Jordan Turner brings to the table that you can feel. When you watch him practice, you can see that he's got this commanding physical presence about him. Whereas I look at Karen A. Reed, he's not afraid of contact,

Starting point is 00:12:02 but I think he's more of a finesse player from what I have seen. And I don't want to try to miscategorize him or mischaracterize how he plays his game. In any way, I'm just saying just from my optics of watching and practice, he's smarter in terms of, hey, I'm going to avoid contact to make the play because he's not necessarily the biggest or the most muscular guy, right? But he's an instinctual player that plays the lineback position. Lavelle Bailey, he's got pretty good muscle mass to him and moves pretty well here. But I just think that right now the Broncos had a vision for not only Lavelle Bailey,

Starting point is 00:12:34 he was one of the most coveted underat the rookie free agent guys before he initially signed. They were competing with so many other teams. And Denver sold the vision. They come here to Denver. and we promise, like, we have a tradition here of undrafted guys making it. Well, he goes out in the preseason. He stands out. He has a pick six against the Cardinals a couple of years ago.

Starting point is 00:12:51 And then he makes the active roster. Then the very next day, he gets waived so they can make roster space for another player. And then he comes back to the practice squad. And then last year, he was a practice squad player for them as Karenne Reed made that roster there. So Jordan Turner might be a guy that as the Broncos are looking at Lavell and they're looking at Karenne, the vision for those guys might change. It could have changed. And with the emergence of Tori in York and Red Murdoch and what I know about Jordan Turner,

Starting point is 00:13:19 those guys might make up those final three spots here on Denver's 53 man roster when it comes to the linebacker because I think they are going to carry five guys at this position. Jonah Ellis, we all know is staying home at outside linebacker. Sean Payton seemingly confirmed that this past week at OTAs. We will see if he splits any times. And he did say that there are certain packages he might be able to fit into. but it seems a little unlikely at this point, that's going to happen, especially with him staying there. If he's playing too well at outside, there's no point of moving him to offball linebacker if the Broncos really like York.

Starting point is 00:13:50 They really like Red and Burdock. And maybe the emergence of those guys, Jordan Turner, maybe how Lavelle Bailey and Kareni Reid, all these guys have been performing during OTAs and obviously being at the offseason program, that might have made the decision for the Broncos a lot of you say, you know what, we are not going to move Jonah. We like these guys. you don't have as much proven contributions from guys behind Singleton and Sternad, but they are banking on player development. They are banking on what they are seeing, knowledge of the system,

Starting point is 00:14:18 and seeing if that translates into on-field success. So, Broncos Country, let me know your thoughts here a little bit early on here. Justin Sternad, Alex Singleton, the projected starters. Doesn't seem like that's in question for them at this point. But then you got Red, you've got Tori in York, Lavelle, Carrenet, and Jordan Turner. Who's going to make up those five spots we anticipate for Denver on the 53? Let us know here, you're a little bit of a too early projection here on today's episode of the show. And if you want an ad-free version of Lockdown Broncos, Broncos country,

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Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - Denver Broncos' Taurean York, Red Murdock Have BEST PATH to 53-Man Roster

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