Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - HONOR ROLL: Denver Broncos NFLPA Report Card Grades Reflect PROMISING Team Direction

Starting point is 00:00:00 The top secret NFLPA report card got leaked, and Denver Broncos head coach, Sean Payton, has the same grade that he had last season. 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? Happy Wednesday. Welcome into another episode of Locked on Broncos,

Starting point is 00:00:27 your daily Denver Broncos podcast, part of the Locked on podcast network, the number one sports podcast network in the country. All thanks to all you every day. there in Broncos country. Thanks for tuning in making us your first list and however you choose to do so. It's back to school kind of here. It's the Denver Broncos NFLPA report card for the 2025 NFL season released. We'll go through on today's episode of the show, Sean Payton, receiving the same grade that he did last season, not improving in that category. We'll give some context behind that. But Broncos ownership, Broncos GM, George Payton receiving high marks in their

Starting point is 00:01:01 grading category. And on top of that, Broncos coaches had a lot. of improvement in their grading. And on top of that, we'll go through where the Broncos improved in a lot of major categories as they look to get even better grades going to 2026 if it leaks. I'm Cody Gore, Credential Broncos reporter from Mile High Sports. Join, as always, by Sarah Bettinger, site expert over there, predominantly orange. Dot com ESPN's Kalin Kahler. She received all the information, all the NFLPA report card grades.

Starting point is 00:01:28 And she was thankful enough to publish it all the way to ESPN, where we got screenshots of it. And we learned a lot about how the Broncos, how players specifically, and these were given out in the months of November and December, how they graded. The Denver Bronco was in almost every category top to bottom. But let's start things off there by focusing on Sean Payton's grade. Sean received a B for the second consecutive year in a role by the players in terms of grading. And people also have to factor into the context of rankings. If he ranked 26 out of 32 coaches, you'll see there are a lot of coaches with A's or some coaches with A plus. pluses, A minuses, B pluses, Bs, like it is skewed in a sense.

Starting point is 00:02:09 It doesn't necessarily tell the full story. Yeah. And Sean Payton's grade, quite frankly, I mean, a B is not a bad grade necessarily, but Sean ranks pretty low in this category in particular. I mean, when we're talking about overall among all NFL head coaches, like he was just above some of the guys that got fired. He was 27th out of 32 in terms of his efficiency with time ranking. And then when you look at like locker room feedback addressing team needs, he was ranked

Starting point is 00:02:39 29 out of 32. So like Cody, I mean, this is, it's not necessarily good news for Sean Payton. I know that nothing has changed from last year. So I guess it's nice that it didn't get worse in terms of that overall grade. But I would be really interested to know, you know, what is it like working for him? Why is this the perception? What are the players? Because this is a group in the Broncos roster that is largely been.

Starting point is 00:03:03 intact for the last three years. And if they're the ones voting on this, I mean, what are they trying to say? Like, what do you make of this? Because to me, I got a little secondhand embarrassment reading this and thinking like, oh, dang, like, if that was me and I was ranked

Starting point is 00:03:19 that low on this list, like, that would make me uncomfortable. So I'm interested to hear your perspective on that. Yeah, I mean, it doesn't bother me. And I think it's because this is the role that Sean takes on. Sean essentially takes on the role of being bad cop. And his coaches are good cop.

Starting point is 00:03:36 We've talked about that dynamic here on the show before. And so Sean, I mean, he sets the standard. And look, I think where the Broncos are at right now, Sean Payton is a very large reason. There is a method to the madness. Long, callous training camp practices, you know, travel to, you know, the Greenbriar at times, or, you know, you're going to go do stuff in London,

Starting point is 00:03:54 like you have a structure. Sean has his days or players days at the team facility, structure to a point where there's a mission behind it. There's not a lot of time where we're going to, guys are just laying around. There's times of recovery, rest and treatment, things like that. But it is very much like, hey, this is your job. Players are at the team facility for probably 12 to 15 hours per day in season, whether that's meetings, lifting, practice, everything else in between. There is an expectation of, hey, there's work to get done here. And I think that's

Starting point is 00:04:24 good, though. I think the Broncos need that type of structure. So, Sean, like when you go through this survey and where it says the 80% of Broncos players feel their head coach, Sean, Peyton is efficient with their time. That is a good ranking. That's a good category there because he wants them to maximize everything. Now, he's not going to put them through the gotlet. So a sense to burn these guys out. Like, he doesn't want to do that.

Starting point is 00:04:46 Sean ultimately wants just guys to be at the facility doing their job without burning them out. He doesn't want coaches to miss some of their more important events as well. Like, there's good balance to be had there. But it's like, hey, when you're here at the team facility, we're doing this, this, this and this. And it's not negotiable. And that's where I think.

Starting point is 00:05:03 it comes to the fact where it says players feel that Peyton is moderately receptive to locker room feedback on the team's needs, ranking 29th out of 32. That's more so these guys say, hey, Sean, can we do things this way? You know, Sean is not necessarily like, it's not a democracy with Sean. And it's not a dictatorship either. I want to be very clear. It's no, hey, this is what we're doing. This is why we're doing it.

Starting point is 00:05:26 And I think when we look at the results at the end of the season, Sarah, 15 total wins this season, winning a playoff game, getting the AFC championship game. that is the opportunity cost. Players are giving up some comfortability for the idea of going a little bit further. So for me, I don't necessarily view this as a bad thing. You look at the AFC West counterpart, Jim Harbaugh, he got a C plus, Sarah, in this ranking category, which I think if we look at like the social media perception of Harbaugh, people are like, man, he's just such a great raw, rock coach, you know, this and that.

Starting point is 00:05:57 There's a reason. Like, he got ranked to C plus. There are also some coaches. I believe if it was, I think Mike McDaniel, I think. he got an A minus, he got fired or he got a B plus. It was something along those lines. But you also saw some fired coaches have higher grades, so to speak, than Sean Peyton at that.

Starting point is 00:06:14 So I think beauty is really in the eye of the beholder, but there's so much context behind these grades that not everybody, I think, is aware of, I think, unless, you know, you're covering the team, you pay attention to the team. And certainly Broncos fans have been staying in tune all year with what's been going on with the Broncos and with Sean. So I think that they maybe understand that. I think that's why there's some confusion about a B grade. Yeah, no doubt.

Starting point is 00:06:36 And I think that that helps clarify it a ton, which is big. You know, we know Sean Payton is not for everybody, right? That extends from, I guess, to the players, to the media, to other coaches, things like that. I think that that's okay. I think that he runs things the way that he does because he learned from Bill Parcells. Like, he's learned from the best. And so when you implement those sorts of things, there are non-negotiables that don't necessarily fly with everybody. in a workplace and that's just the way that it is and the success speaks for itself i want to talk

Starting point is 00:07:08 too about the locker room getting a degrade cody i think last the year before that it was an f i remember that very distinctly because the broncos locker room has been tight quarters it's old it's outdated that's why they're getting the new training facility and i think that this is going to be the area that we look at and say hey from 2024 until 2026 the locker room the facilities, the amenities that players have at their disposal is going to, it's going to be the biggest glow up around the NFL. You're going to go from an F in 2024 to now a D in 2025, and it's going to be an A plus likely by the end of 2026. Yeah. And look, I think I've gotten a lot of questions about this. Why is the locker room rate is to low? This is not the stadium locker

Starting point is 00:07:54 room. This is the team facility locker room, folks, by the way. And the reason that it got a D and the reason I had an F before is space. It really is space where players, Lockers, if we're interviewing, let's say Nick Benito, it's a big scrum, right? It takes up about three players locker spaces. And so they have to wait for us to be done interviewing players in order to get to their locker to get to their stuff. And like just the space, there's not a lot of privacy because of that. That is the reason why it graded out so low. And people are like, well, what are they doing to rectify?

Starting point is 00:08:20 I was like, folks, they're building a new team facility. Have we not been paying attention? That in May, which is the team facility is expected to be done sometime in May. We'll get a tour of it. It is going to be significantly better. That's why the Broncos ownership, they got these first round of grades. They're like, you know what? We are going to improve player foot traffic.

Starting point is 00:08:38 We want to do this. Another one I want to touch on here is treatment of families. I think a lot of people like, oh, they treat families poor if they had a D one year. Last year's grade in 2024 was a C minus. This year it was a B. And the biggest reason for these. And this is why I think there needs to be clarification in the wording of it. Treatment of families had more so to do with after games.

Starting point is 00:08:59 Do players and their families have a place to? to congregate and meet. That was not the case necessarily. The Broncos, they ended up clearing out this room next to the press conference room on the lower field level floor where families and kids, they get to go in there and then players get to go see their family after the game. They've made room for that. Now, obviously, this is something that's hard to do because you can't just build onto the already current stadium that is there. That's why if they build a new stadium, this is going to be factored into the equation as well. Players will have a built-in place for their families to go. And the other part of it has to do with there being access to daycare.

Starting point is 00:09:35 The Broncos on Saturdays before games, they have families out to practice. It's always a family day, so to speak. So families get to go out there and watch practice and be around there. So Denver has taken necessary steps here to improve this, which I think like when you look at treatment of families, we're like, depending on the grade, people are like, wow, they must treat people poorly. It's just, it's resources, it's amenities. That's really what it is at the end of the day. the Broncos are very much all in, especially with the Walton-Penner family ownership group on making sure that families have as much access to everything as possible there. They want to obviously make sure families are treated well. They really believe in that.

Starting point is 00:10:14 So I think that's an area that they've obviously done a really good job of trying to rectify and obviously improve that grade there, so to speak. So those are the interesting elements of this report card here. But Broncos ownership, General Manager George Payton, they received high marks from Broncos players. go through that survey here on today's episode of the show. This episode is sponsored by Better Help. March is at time to celebrate women, especially around international women's day and to recognize just how much they carry at work in relationships and families. And in all the unseen roles that they step into every single day, it's easy to celebrate this strength, but it's important to make space for their emotional well-being. And honestly, that goes for all of us. My wife,

Starting point is 00:10:52 she's awesome. She carries a lot of water in certain aspects of her life. She's got her own business that runs and that is a lot of pressure. And I think about that and it makes me think how many of us are doing the same thing? The roles that we play, the expectations we carry, the pressure we don't always talk about. Therapy can help with all that creating balance, setting healthy boundaries and supporting your overall well-being with over 30,000 licensed therapists and more than 6 million people served worldwide. Better help is the world's largest online therapy platform and it works. Fill out a short questionnaire, get matched with the licensed therapist. And if it's not the right fit, switch at any time. Your emotional well-being matters. Find support.

Starting point is 00:11:28 to feel lighter in therapy. Sign up and get 10% off at Betterhelp.com slash locked on. That's better, help.com slash locked on. Denver Broncos ownership and general manager George Payton made the dean's list on this year's grades that are handed out the NFLPA report cards. They were leaked and certainly you feel good about where the Broncos are at in terms of the people in charge of building this franchise. From the top on down ownership, George Payton got high grades.

Starting point is 00:11:58 talk about that, break down exactly what those grades mean on today's episode, Lockdown Broncos. And we want to say thank you to all of you every dayers out there that make us your first listen of the day every single day. If you haven't already done so, Cody and I want to invite you to join the Everydayer All Access Club. The offseason does not exist for any of us here at Lockdown Broncos, especially with the Every Dayer Club and Free Agency is here. So are we. We're going to be here every single day covering all of the craziness of free agency and you can get one month free of the everydayer club with the code free agency. All one word, all caps, no spaces, free agency.

Starting point is 00:12:34 Now through March 15th, you can go add free with the show. Keep the conversation going on Discord. Join at lockdown broncos. Dot supercast.com link in the show notes as well, Broncos Country. We appreciate you considering supporting the show in that way. Cody, the Dean's list is out. And the Broncos owners are on it.

Starting point is 00:12:53 I think that these are, it's a group of people that's got a lot of background in the education realm. They obviously had to work really hard to get to the point that they're in in terms of the business world and all the things that they've been able to do in terms of getting to the point to being able to purchase the Denver Broncos. So we know these are some good students out there. And when they get a bad grade, I know. I know what it's like because I'm married to one.

Starting point is 00:13:18 And if a student gets a bad grade on a report card that takes pride in that, they're going to be like, what do I got to do to get an A plus? You know, what do I got to do extra credit? Broncos ownership, Cody, I mean, they knock it out of the park and their grades in this report card reflect that. Yeah, I mean, for them to get an A plus, that's huge. Last year, they got an A this year. They got an A plus. And that so much of this grade, what factors into it is obviously ownership's commitment to winning the players.

Starting point is 00:13:50 Almost 99% of the players believe that Broncos, Broncos ownership is fully committed to giving them the on-field resources, the off-field resources, everything necessary to win. There's a commitment to that, but also the community involvement away from football. The Broncos love that. Obviously, the ownership is as invested in the community as anything here. But more importantly, it's you have an ownership group, Sarah, that is boots on the ground. I mean, Greg Penner, Kerry Walton Penner, they come in. They talk to players individually.

Starting point is 00:14:19 They ask players, what do they like? what don't they like? I can't go into the extent of that with some players, what they have told me, those conversations ever regarded around. But you have an ownership group that wants to hear what's going on. Like they've invested so much money in this team. And obviously, they're still committing that type of money,

Starting point is 00:14:37 you know, into the day-to-day when it comes to the team facility. Obviously, they're building a brand new team facility that's going to be ready here. In the next couple of months, obviously, there's ideas about a potential new stadium that has players excited, has the fan base certainly excited, and questionable in summary. regards there. But this is also a privately funded effort, which I think as well that, you know, players and fans certainly appreciate that. But I just think the commitment to going around and getting player feedback is something that the players believe they have a very hands-on

Starting point is 00:15:05 ownership group. But it's also to the point where they don't meddle in things that maybe they don't understand. And that's what I really like about Greg Penner and Kerry Walton Penner, their involvement without muddying the waters of things that they don't necessarily understand. Right. And I think that's absolutely huge for what you see a team like the Dallas Cowboys, where Jerry Jones does medal in everything. And he gets to the point of making it personal with their best defensive player. And all of a sudden now you go from having a chance to compete for a championship to you got no shot because your defense is one of the worst in the NFL. I mean, that's the opposite of what you want in terms of ownership. And yeah, you want your owners to want your team to win.

Starting point is 00:15:47 You want your owners to be willing to do whatever it takes to help the team win. And that's what I think you get from the ownership group. It's not, okay, we're going to, you know, we're going to trade our best defensive player because he wants too much money. What they do is, Cody, they're like, hey, the field needs to be replaced. We're going to have it replaced in a, just a blink of a blink of an eye right there. At the drop of a hat, we're going to do that. Or, you know, we need this equipment for this high school, you know, cohort. that we support.

Starting point is 00:16:18 We're going to just invest all this money in the equipment or we want to go out in free agency. We got the cash on hand to be able to do exactly that. What do you guys want to do here? I think that what this ownership group has done to reshape the culture and to bring the spirit of Pat Bowlin back into the mix. It's like, we want to win. We want to be the best team in the NFL.

Starting point is 00:16:42 We'll do whatever it takes to do that. And they're not, they're not meddling. They are putting their. assets toward. There's such a big difference between that. It's like you don't, you don't know necessarily all the football things if you're Greg Penner, right? Greg knows that. Greg is like, I'm going to let George Payton make the football decisions and Sean Payton make the football decisions, but I'm going to give these guys whatever assets I can in order to make those football things happen. That's what I love about this is that there's a self-awareness amongst billionaires that doesn't typically

Starting point is 00:17:15 exist of what you see and what you assume about people with that much wealth and that much success in the financial realm, the business realm, they have that level of self-awareness and humility that's like they'll go into the locker room after the games. They'll dapp up the players after the games. And that's what it's all about. But man, it kind of is to a degree. Yeah, it shows that they care. And that's something that players obviously acknowledge. And look, I'll say this quickly as a former high school coach. I love the fact that they did the all-in, all-covered initiative, which grants every player for every high school football program, new helmets, helmets that are up to standard that really are invested in player safety for our

Starting point is 00:17:56 future generation of potential NFL players, college football players. And even as it's going, they've grown the game, too, with making girls high school flag football and actually state-sanction sport here in the state of Colorado. That initiative has been so huge as well. They are very invested in growing the game, which is important. let's get to George Payton here. Actually, you know, also kind of that because we talked about the field. The home game field was given an A grade by the players, which to your point, you acknowledge it. They make sure that the field stays fresh, that it's not run down.

Starting point is 00:18:26 I know that was a huge issue for some teams in this survey across the NFL, but the Broncos, not a problem for them. George Payton, A grade. This is kind of a new category. They didn't include the general manager in prior years grading. George gets an A, and I can tell you this, based on talking to all the players that I talked to, man, at the end of the season, during the end of the year exit interviews, George is very open, very honest about player situations where the team is at. He doesn't just give them lip service. That's one thing I've heard players that they really appreciate about George is that he is honest.

Starting point is 00:18:57 And he does ask them, what is it that you feel like we could do more for you? What could we do better? Like what did we not do well enough for you? Like those are the types of things he goes into. And I think George is very, very close here, Sarah, to a contract extension. I think so too. and deservedly so. I know that a lot of fans will say,

Starting point is 00:19:16 well, what about the Nathaniel Hacker Hire? Well, we know he was trying to get Aaron Rogers to the Broncos, which pretty much everybody in the fan base wanted, not 100%, but I'd say probably 98% of the fan base

Starting point is 00:19:26 wanted Aaron Rogers. So George was trying to do that. I mean, there's reports out there that say that's what was happening there. Well, what about the Russell Wilson trade? Well, didn't we all want George to take a swing

Starting point is 00:19:37 at the quarterback position? Didn't we all believe him when he said this team is a quarterback away? It's his roster as a sleeping giant. We all wanted that at any cost to get the next version of Peyton Manning. So I don't fault George for the Nathaniel Hackett hire because I think that those paths were supposed to lead to Aaron Rogers. I don't fault George for the Russell Wilson trade because we all wanted that kind of move to happen. And the way that this team has recovered and rebounded is astounding.

Starting point is 00:20:05 The drafting probably needs to get a little bit better. Obviously, we've seen like, okay, hey, the rookies coming in. Are they being drafted to actually play or what's the vision with some of these guys? You know, so I think honestly, you can be fair in critiquing George Payton, but the way that this roster is built right now, man, they're built for some long-term success. So I love what he's doing with the team and rewarding players. That was something he declared right when he was hired. He wants to draft, develop, get guys to second contracts.

Starting point is 00:20:33 That is happening actively every year over year. So I think it's great. He's done a great job. And I think the grade is is worthy. Do you know what I think to be funny? Like the amount of times we see the goalposts move surrounding George Payton, right? When Sean Payton came in, it was, oh, George is on his way out. Like Sean's, you know, and then still, we still see it.

Starting point is 00:20:53 Like, Sean has complete say in the roster and all this stuff. And then, you know, when it comes to drafting, like if there are draft picks that, you know, I think fans don't like, they're like, oh, George Payton did terrible. Like when it's a good draft pick, it's, oh, yes, Sean Payton did such a great job. Huh. I wonder how that works, folks. It doesn't necessarily work that way. This is on both George and Sean what happens in the NFL draft.

Starting point is 00:21:14 Not one way towards the negative, not one way towards the positive. Collectively, they're both responsible. I think that's always important to point out here. But coming up next year, Broncos Country, Sarah and I are going to talk about Broncos position coaches actually grade out high, including Joel Lombardi, getting a higher grade than Sean Payton. We'll break it down. You know, today's episode of the show. Hey, it's Matt Derry from the Lockdown Lions podcast.

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Starting point is 00:22:20 and up to $3 million in coverage at ethos.com slash lockdown NFL. That is, ethhOS.com slash lockdown NFL. Ethos.com slash lockdown NFL application times and rates may vary. The Denver Broncos coordinators this past season, graded out well in the NFLPA player report card and a better overall indication of a grade, how they've been playing the role of good, bad copy, comparison to Sean Payton's B grade.

Starting point is 00:22:49 We'll discuss that where the Broncos improved in terms of categories and so much more here on today. Show just want to say thank you once again to everyone in for the Broncos country for tuning in, making us your first listen, however you choose to do so. We appreciate you so much. Sarah, I kind of teased it right before we got to this segment here. Joe Lombardi receiving a better grade, so to speak, than Sean Payton did.

Starting point is 00:23:09 A minus this past season. I know some Broncos fans are asking, is this great about Davis Webb or is it about Joe Lombardi? These surveys were conducted back in November and December of last year. So not necessarily an indication of Davis Webb, though he does fall into one specific category we'll get into. Yeah, I think when you look at the A minus given to Joe Lombardi, I mean, obviously he's done a great job to be able to stick around in the NFL. It's not like he's just been on Sean

Starting point is 00:23:37 Peyton's coaching staffs for his entire coaching career, right? So he's been an asset to a number of different NFL teams may not be the best play caller, right? I mean, we saw him with the Chargers and we've seen him with other teams. He may not be the best play caller, but I think it's fair to say that he's a good coach and he's worth having a route. Like, we know the, the only reason the Broncos let him go is because they wanted to promote Davis Webb. And Joe Lombardi wasn't necessarily getting fired up in the organization, you know. So give him an opportunity. He's already landed on his feet elsewhere.

Starting point is 00:24:11 I'm sure it was fine working for him. I'm sure he brings a lot to the table in terms of his knowledge of the game, his understanding of offense and the quarterback position and all those sorts of things. So it doesn't surprise me, honestly, that he was given a good grade because I think there's a reason why he's been around for such a long time. Well, I encourage some of you and Sarah, if you want to do this if you have time, I encourage Broncos fans to go back to some Joe Lombardi press conferences from this past season. I want you, and you can obviously find them on the Broncos YouTube page, but find the ones of Joe Lombardi that run long and then look the next week.

Starting point is 00:24:45 It runs a little bit shorter. The thing I appreciate as a reporter, when we got to talk to Joe Lombardi, Joe wasn't afraid to answer some of the things Sean wouldn't necessarily answer. And I think at times that got Joe into trouble maybe behind the scenes because we'd get like a seven minute presser one week with Joe. The next week would be a two minute and 22nd press conference. So it was more so like, hey, you said too much. Now I'm cutting your time on that. That's kind of our perception here in the media of kind of what we saw.

Starting point is 00:25:12 But Joe was always willing to answer some of those questions about, you know, Bose performance, the running backs, the receivers. You know, I think that there were also some times where we would ask a question about maybe a unit or the group that was struggling, and I felt like Joe would give us an honest answer as to like what they need to do to not struggle. And that's something I always appreciated about him. As I mentioned before, these Broncos coaches, and I don't know if Sean said this directly to them, but like I said, I think Sean's role is to be the bad cop, to be the guy that makes things tough, and you need the coaches to be good cop, so to speak. So I think Joe Lombardi was a good bridge between offensive players and Sean at times last year.

Starting point is 00:25:53 And as you mentioned there, you know, there's no way that, like, Lombardi's going to lose the title of offensive coordinator, then all of a sudden rise up in the coaching ranks or like the positional ranks in terms of where the Broncos are at. It was, hey, it was a new opportunity. And we got this young guy there that we really need to see something out of. He's going to be calling plays this year. And I think that's the direction that Sean ultimately went there is with Davis. And I think that's why we saw the grade, obviously, that Joe Lombardi got is he was just, I don't want to say a yes, man. but he did a lot of stuff that Sean said,

Starting point is 00:26:24 but he also did a lot of stuff that was in benefit of the players too. Yeah, no doubt. And that's where, like you said, the good cop, bad cop is necessary. But it's, I love Star Wars. Cody, you know that.

Starting point is 00:26:35 The listeners know that. There's got to be balance in the force. You have to have coaches that bring balance to the force. So if Sean Payton's a bad cop, you got to have guys who are good cop. Speaking of, you know, players can't speak highly enough of,

Starting point is 00:26:48 frankly, I'm surprised that Vance Joseph didn't get an A plus. I know he got an A on this report card. I'm a little surprised that he didn't get an A plus based on the way players talk about him, based on the way players were campaigning to have him back. I mean, obviously, nobody's unanimously liked. You and I know this. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:27:07 It's the nature of our job. So, you know, as much as you want to think that Vance, he was one of the best assistant coaches in the entire NFL last year. So like I said, I'm a little surprised he didn't get an A plus on this report card. And A, still very good, but what was maybe missing to get him up to the A plus on this one? It's a great question, too, because I also wonder, too, how do offensive players vote when it comes to the defensive coordinator, so to speak? Like, ah, this guy's just dialing up the blitz. I don't like that.

Starting point is 00:27:36 I'm going to mark him down. Or it could be maybe a player who believes he should be a starter that's not starting. Maybe that's what factor. I mean, there's so much context in this that we probably don't know and we'll never know. It's just, hey, these are the grades. We have some context behind it, but not the full thing. I agree. I felt like Vance would have deserved an A plus. I mean, I talked to the Broncos defensive players quite a bit in the regular season.

Starting point is 00:27:57 Man, nothing but high praise for VJ. I don't think I've ever came across any starter that was disgruntled about their role or frustrated by what they were doing defensively. I think very much at times last season, like this defense had Vance's back in a sense. Like if there was ever any kind of like strife between he and Sean Payton, I'm not saying that there was. I'm saying that if there was ever a situation where maybe Sean was at, wrong about something, but you know, you see them sometimes on the camera arguing or whatever may be or Sean may seem passionate. Like the defense will always have Vance's back. Like that's, that's just the nature of it. Like these guys will go to war for Vance and that has nothing to

Starting point is 00:28:34 do with anything bad about Sean Payton. It's just that type of relationship and dynamic that certainly has been built. And you saw what Jonathan Cooper kind of spilled the beans a little bit about Vance's decision essentially to stay and not take a head coaching job. You could tell that these players are so excited about that. They feel like they're growing here. under Vance's direction, which I find to be good. Darren Rizzi, he got an A-minus as well. I think obviously players like Rizzi, you know, the way he coaches, he does coach things hard.

Starting point is 00:29:00 But I think that he's very fair and balanced as a coach in terms of players that I've talked to on just seeing him coach. I think he's willing to give us answers, you know, so to speak on certain areas that when the special teams were struggling last year, he was very open and saying, that's on me. I got to fix this. And so there were times where, hey, guess what? They went out and they fixed it.

Starting point is 00:29:19 So there is that level of accountability there. position coaches, though, got to be, which I'm very curious. I wonder which coaches kind of influenced this grade. It's not Davis Webb. I know those guys love Davis Webb, but we saw a couple of coaching changes. I'm curious to what led to the B grade here. The only thing we can do right now is speculate. I know.

Starting point is 00:29:36 I would be as well. And like you said, we saw Kerry Colbert, the wide receivers coach. He was fired this offseason. Addison Lynch, a defensive backs coach, was let go. And then, of course, you know, like Jim Leonard would be in that mix from last year. He was another defensive backs coach. There's a lot of Zach Streif, who is one of the, you know, assistant head coaches on the team, the run game coordinator offensively.

Starting point is 00:29:59 Very interesting, Cody, because I feel like the Broncos have assembled a pretty darn good, you know, group of coaches other than a couple of guys who obviously got let go after the year was over. But that's an interesting one, right? Because like you said, players are voting on this. And what's the perception from other position groups? What is, I mean, Jamar Kane seems like. like he does a great job with the past rushers, right? And I mean, there's just a lot of different layers to that, that,

Starting point is 00:30:26 okay, somebody must have had a really low grade to bring it down because you feel like there's enough guys to bring it back up. I wonder if they gave this grading line, like, hey, how would you rate your position coaches? You give it one grade. I imagine that players probably received a, you know, maybe it was split up by position coaches, right? Like position groups had to vote on their specific position versus, you don't have O. Lyman voting on the DB coach. and how he's doing, right?

Starting point is 00:30:51 But certainly maybe one of those players or a couple of players, you know, had a bad grade. And it does bring down the overall collective score of position coaches. And maybe they tally up all that at the end between all of them. And then you have your average concurrent grade across the coaching staff. So maybe that is something that went into it. But overall, the one thing I do want to highlight, the Broncos in this year's NFLPA report card,

Starting point is 00:31:15 they improved in eight categories. They got marked down in two. In comparison, I believe it was nutritionist being one of them, nutritionist, dietitian. They took a step back in that. And there were the other one. I can't remember off the top of my head, but it wasn't necessarily, you know, an important one, so to speak. But they improved. They upgraded their grade from last year in eight categories.

Starting point is 00:31:36 That is huge. That's probably going to get better as well when the new team facility opens in the month of May here. But I'm excited about it. Sarah, look, NFL free agency is just about a week away. We're very excited. We're going to be plugged into the legal tampering period of the legal negotiation. period. And then NFL free agency, the frenzy is going to begin. So expect a lot of Broncos news in the coming days and week here. We're going to have you covered every step of the way here, lockdown Broncos

Starting point is 00:31:59 with your daily regular episodes. Plus, you get a bonus episode every single day. Broncos country, we appreciate you so much for rocking with us. Sarah and I will see you tomorrow for a brand new episode of the show.

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