Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - IT'S TIME: Denver Broncos FIRST PRACTICE Kicks Off This Morning
Episode Date: July 29, 2026Denver Broncos training camp officially begins today as the team holds their first official practice. Patrick Surtain II and Quinn Meinerz met with us on Tuesday and detailed their excitement surround...ing the brand new team facility, team expectations and more. Cody Roark and Sayre Bedinger set the stage for Day 1 of practice, while discussing how Ben Powers paycut creates competition between he and Alex Palczewski on the Broncos offensive line. Plus, Jonathon Cooper will be at Broncos Camp this week amidst his ongoing legal proceedings. How does this impact Sean Payton's potential usage of Cooper in the rotation, Jonah Elliss and other Broncos pass rushers? Cody Roark is a credentialed beat reporter for Mile High Sports and provides boots-on-the-ground coverage of the Broncos daily in person. Sayre Bedinger is the site expert for Predominantly Orange. Together, both bring Broncos Country the most in-depth and objective coverage of the Denver Broncos. 📸 - Ron Chenoy — Imagn Images WANT MORE DAILY DENVER BRONCOS CONTENT? For all of the latest Denver Broncos news today -- Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms 🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/podcasts/locked-on-broncos/ Locked On NFL League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Draft, & More 🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/leagues/nfl/ 📲 Cody Roark Twitter / (https://twitter.com/codyroarknfl) 📲 Cody Roark Instagram / (https://instagram.com/codyroarknfl) 📲 Sayre Bedinger Twitter / (https://twitter.com/sayrebedinger) Everydayer Club If you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. one 📲 https://lockedonbroncos.supercast.com/ TEXT LINE: Support the show and interact with us on Denver Broncos rumors, News, Game Previews, Q&A's, and more. 📲 https://joinsubtext.com/c/lockedonbroncos 📲 TEXT: (720) 580-5759 📢 Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Join all the action at https://FANDUEL.COM to play Daily Dingers and make your free pick on who’s hitting a homer this MLB season. KALSHI For a limited time, Download the Kalshi app and use code [LOCKEDON] to get up to $500 in bonus credits when you trade $25. Square Get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at https://square.com/go/lockedonnfl! #squarepod Gametime Today's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Indeed Listeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/podcast. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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Today is the first day that Denver Broncos take the field to actually practice.
We got our eyes on all the excitement surrounding this team.
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?
The moment you've been waiting for is here.
It is officially the first practice day here of Denver Broncos Shrenica.
Cody Rourke, Sarah Bredinger here for another episode,
Locked on Broncos as we talk about day one of,
Broncos practice, which is taking place here this morning.
We're going to set the stage for that.
We'll go through what we learned from yesterday's media availability, hearing from
Quinn Miners and Patrick Sertan, as we also got our first look at the brand new team facility,
and it was incredible.
Plus, Ben Powers just took a pay cut.
What does that mean for him and his status?
And does it open up a new competition to watch for here on the offensive line?
And Jonathan Cooper will be at practice this week amidst his ongoing legal battle.
We'll go through all that and so much more here on today's episode of the show.
Sarah, we are here, man, and I tell you what, I got the juices flowing here today.
I've already had two cups of coffee.
I'm about ready to head off the practice, but I'm excited because yesterday, we got to see
the brand new team facility, unfrikin believable, walking inside to go through the security
checkpoint.
The most magnificent, marvelous thing I've ever seen.
You guys have seen the pictures on social media.
Pictures don't even do it justice.
It's that damn exciting.
But on top of that, got to go out and we've got to hear from Quinn Miners, Pat are
tan.
And I got to get some of my favorite things going.
Got to smell the fresh cut grass.
Got to hear the sprinklers going,
hydrating the fields for the crazy amount of practices.
You're going to be done.
Football's back, man.
I'm ready.
I love it, Cody.
You know what?
The only thing that's missing from that list,
well, a couple of things.
So it's the competition between you and the bird that used to beat you out
onto the practice field as well as Caden Davis,
who's, I think, still in the NFL, by the way,
after competing with the Broncos years ago.
But that was one of my favorite pastimes,
you know, at one of those training camps,
a couple years recently.
But yeah, I mean, looking at the facility photos that are out there,
hearing the players, how excited they are about it,
just even knowing that like about to cover some practices.
I mean, shoot, I'm going to have to start surpassing you in terms of coffee in the
morning to get as amped up because I'm right there with you.
I want, and I want if Broncos admin is listening,
I want an MTV Cribs style tour of this place.
like a video we need to get go recruit somebody like i know it's different shows we're crossing over
here but what was the guy exhibit who used to do uh the other show on mtv my ride yeah pimp my ride
we need all of the cast of characters to go through and just just give me the nostalgia and show me
this place because i can't wait to see more than just even the photos it's exciting it's really cool
i mean it's state-of-the-art stuff and uh it sounds like it's making some ease of use and a little bit
better workflow for these players who, man, they just couldn't, couldn't say enough good things
about it. Once again, a great reminder as training camp is about to get kicked off, Cody.
The Broncos ownership group, I think, second to none in today's NFL. They do anything and everything
that they can to make not just life great for these players, but to really value their most important
asset. Yeah. And obviously in the NFL PA survey grade, the Broncos, they got an F in the
locker room just because there wasn't a lot of space, right? But this brand new locker room,
It's not just going to accommodate 53 players in the regular season.
It has enough room in it right now to accommodate 91 players when you consider the international exemption.
So it is massive.
Here is where Quinn Miners stepped in and kind of told us his thoughts on the brand new team facility.
Yeah, I've already noticed how much closer everything is.
You know, like in the previous building, you know, wait room, you know, you have to walk.
I mean, it sounds so spoiled.
But, you know, you have to walk a little bit to go to the way.
room. And right now the wait room is like connected to the locker room pretty much. So like everything is so close.
You know, those little minutes of time, you know, do add up throughout the day. So it'll be nice to just have a really good flow.
Quinn Miners was pretty thinkative at the podium, Cody. Yeah, he was getting a little deep there, which I like.
I think that's great to get to hear and see more of these guys' personalities. Really also awesome to see two guys part of George Payton's first draft class taking the
podium for the first day of veterans reporting. I think that's very meaningful for Quinn Miners
and Pat Sertan, both members of the 2021 draft class, second contract players, really the culture
carriers and examples to be followed, I would say, in terms of what you want guys to exemplify
from, you know, the last guy on the roster to the top of the roster. I think it's very
intentional that those two guys were put up at the podium. So I love hearing from Quinn. He's, he's very
insightful guy. And it's weird to see him. He, he butchered the hair for those that are listening and not
watching, you're going to have to look it up because Quinn, he doesn't have, not only does he not
have the dreadlocks, but man, he's like going close to the scalp there a little bit. Yeah.
Yeah, no, he's definitely, he seems like in better spirits too, because even last year,
and he even attested this when he was talking to his yesterday, last year outside of just football,
he was dealing with some personal stuff. I'm not sure what it was. I don't want to speculate,
but he said that was something that impacted him a lot last year.
I mean, I also think there were times where he was ill.
And part of me is wondering if that kind of played into it.
But maybe Quinn will tell us on his own time whenever he's ready about that.
We also got to hear from Pastor Tan, who also shared his thoughts on the new team facility.
When I first got in, which was yesterday, I was looking at all.
You know, it's pretty special.
I mean, it's a testament to, you know, ownership group, Grant and Kerry, for putting this together.
So it's awesome.
a good guy. You want to have that from him.
I was like, my whole thought was like, Pat, you've got to sell a little bit.
The funny thing that he did, though, Sarah, when talked about whether or not the Broncos new facility could be used as a recruiting tool, you know, for guys that come in to take visit, he goes, shoot, it's already reminded me of my time at Alabama.
So I imagine when Saven was bringing in recruits, Pat was one of those guys that he wanted around.
And the same thing is, you know, is to be said about this past year.
Though Denver didn't get to really do much recruiting in terms of visiting outside for eight.
This Tyson Anderson, the only guy that they signed.
he already knew Jaylon Lotto.
They're close friends.
They've been close friends for a while.
So he was probably part of that facility tour there initially here.
But I do think part of the meat and bones of what we heard from Quinn Miner is he was asked about what has it been like working with Davis Webb.
And obviously the coaches that they're trying to get these wrinkles, these new wrinkles added into Denver's offense.
Here's what he had to say.
Yeah, it was awesome to get to work with him and the other coaches on the staff.
I can you can all tell as players how much time they put into you know it's not like a complete overhaul of the offense but there's a lot of new fun elements new wrinkles new stuff to it you know because when you get used to a system for so long there's some of that like you know that beginner learning that you kind of miss out on so it's kind of nice to like have a little refresh of things for us to have to learn on this offense for us to relock in the
to and kind of
it's not necessarily
monotonous. You know, we have the same, the same,
the same, the same. So it's,
it's nice to have like, there's still some similar
elements to this offense, but then there's a nice
sort of like sprinkle of additions of
what Davis has come up with,
what Coach Streeth has come up with,
what Chris Morgan has come up with.
So it's
going to be good. Sounds like the Broncos
offense to me, Cody. That's what it sounds
like. I like it. I really
like what he's saying there because ultimately,
I think a lot of assumptions were made over the course of the off season and certainly reasonably so, right?
When Davis Webb is taking over play calling, Sean Peyton's never given that up before.
Everybody's wondering a lot of the same things.
Like, is it going to be Sean Payton's offense?
Is it going to be Davis's offense?
Well, the foundation is the same.
But it's not like Sean is saying, hey, you see all my plays right here?
You can call from these plays and that's it.
No, he's giving him some creative liberties, it sounds like, as well as obviously Streif.
you know, Chris Morgan, those two guys working in tandem as the run game coordinator
offensive line.
I think that it's nice to hear that there's a collaborative effort towards spicing things
up a little bit, new ingredients into the mix.
Like, you know, we eat cheese pizza over and over and over again.
Pizza could be your favorite food, but hey, you need to at some time, you need to sprinkle
some pepperoni on there or some sausage or some veggies, whatever it may be.
I don't know about pineapple though.
Sometimes.
Oh, come on, man.
You're one of those anti-I love pineapple on pizza.
I'll die.
I'll die on that hill.
Pineapple belongs on pizza.
Has to be spicy with the pineapple, in my opinion.
You got to have something spicy with it.
But I mean, just that type of stuff gets me excited about the collaborative efforts.
Well, and this is the biggest thing, too, like all of this with you returning a lot of the same guys in place here,
adding these wrinkles to what you already know foundationally.
I'm curious to see if this will help the offense get off to a little bit of a faster start.
And that's going to be one of those biggest keys I think we hope for when the regular season comes around week one against Kansas City on Monday night football here.
But Broncos country coming up next.
We found out Ben Powers took a pay cut initially after not taking one months back.
What does that mean?
And how does that change everything with the Broncos offensive line room?
We'll tell you how here on today's episode of the show.
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The Denver Broncos restructured Ben Power.
contract after all and we have to ask the question now why would they do that well broncos country
we have our thoughts we have our theories and we're going to talk about them on today's episode of
the show appreciate just so much broncos country you know cody and i are excited cody's already
three coffees deep or whatever he said i'm i'm about to surpass him right after we get done
recording here but we're excited that the broncos are back we know you are as well so we want to thank
you for locking in every single day here especially throughout the course of the offseason for
you every dayers, but now that the season is back, man, the excitement is ramping up.
And I don't think anybody really expected the news that we got regarding Ben Powers, Cody,
which was that he took a, what we don't know exactly at the time when we're recording this,
but a substantial sounds like pay reduction to the point that potentially his spot in the
starting lineup could be open for the taking.
And I think that that's the biggest thing that we're taking away from this, not to,
We're not going to bury the lead there at all.
We're not going to try to sneak that in.
I think that's the real question that we have now after learning that Ben has taken a pay reduction.
It's not just a restructure to free up cab space.
It is a pay reduction after multiple injuries suffered last year, including one we didn't even know about.
So there's a lot of layers to this discussion.
And it ultimately seems to point to Ben Powers starting left guard job could be more up for grabs than we initially thought.
Yeah, it seems like there is going to be complicated.
there. I mean, considering now, once again, we don't know what the monetary figure is just yet for Ben. But overall, I think a lot of this stem, like the initial delay when we were anticipating the Broncos were going to restructure his deal or ask about it, we didn't know he was recovering from another surgery. Now, apparently in his first game back coming off the biceps injury that caused him to miss a large portion of the season, he suffered a Liz Frank injury and he finished the season, which taps off to him. That's tough to do, especially for a lineman that has to pull. And,
And the Broncos, they loved pulling behind Ben Powers.
They love getting him out there in space.
But that impacts you.
So now he went through that surgery.
He was recovering from two pretty serious injuries.
He was not very present during the offseason program.
We saw him, but he was not participating in any of the team drills.
He would do some individual things like that.
We were just wondering, like, okay, is this just maintenance?
Is this just veteran management for him?
Come to find out he had that LISFranc injury.
So he almost kind of didn't have leverage in this situation.
But basically what this does, Sarah, this kind of a little.
to the fact that because they brought Alex Paucheski back and they paid him, I'd say a pretty
reasonable deal to come back. What was it on a two-year deal initially? Well, now it seems like
Ben Power's spot isn't necessarily set in stone, though I would say it is a job to lose, right? If that makes
sense to anyone that's listening. But Alex Pauceschi seems like he's going to be competing with Ben Powers
for this potential job. And here's also another thing, Sarah, this pay restructure or the pay cut that
Ben Powers has now taken, that doesn't necessarily prohibit the Broncos from moving him via. And
a trade toward the end of the preseason.
Maybe if there's an injury that pops up around,
that's something that they could also do.
They're just not tied to the substantially large cap hit that he was accounting for.
I believe it was the second highest cap hit, if I'm not mistaken.
Yes, that's correct.
And I think it was over 18 million in terms of that cap hit, right?
So the Broncos, as of the time that we're recording this, of course, like we said,
we don't know exactly what the pay reduction was,
but they already had climbed back up, I think, upwards of 30.
million in total cap space. I'll pull that figure up so we can have it here and just a bit,
Cody. But ultimately, that is really fascinating to me in terms of when you think, okay, at this
point in the offseason program, you're not necessarily looking to add a bunch of salaries to
your cap, to your books, right? So why are the Broncos doing this? Well, ultimately, it feels like
it's leading towards them being able to roll over a lot of cap space.
after this year to be able to re-sign their own guys,
maybe to recruit some of those free agents like they talked about.
Because typically what George Peyton says is that you're not going to be
overly active every single year, right?
So when you take a year off of free agency,
like the Broncos,
I think we could safely say they took this year off of free agency.
They didn't sign anybody except Tyson Anderson.
I know they traded for Jalen Waddle.
It's not the same.
You have an opportunity next off season to be very active in free agency.
So you roll over a bunch of cap space, you have that flexibility.
And now this gives you the opportunity.
If you let Palschowski, if you liked enough what you saw and you and I talked about this,
when they brought Ben Powers back, it really felt like, okay, they clearly don't believe
Palchewski can be a starting left guard because if they're saying 18 million on the books,
totally fine.
We'll ride it out with Ben Powers.
That seems to be a clear indicator.
We don't think Palshke's the starter there.
But now that has all changed.
And so now our vision of this has changed a little bit.
And it complicates the discussion with Cage Casey.
There's so many different layers once again.
When you do something like this, like you said, even the possibility of a trade.
So I haven't even beaten you in the coffee department yet.
And I'm still getting worked up about this because this is my favorite thing when it comes to the Broncos.
It's like, ooh, they make a big move like this to cut somebody's salary.
What could that possibly mean now or into the future?
Well, and there's this flexibility room to it, right?
Like, worst case scenario, you know, you don't have to change up the starting
offensive lineman.
Ben Powers wins the job.
He's on the last year of his deal.
And then next year, you move on to potentially Alex Paucheski versus Cajy in a training
camp position battle for that job, right?
Or let's just say maybe there's an offer from another team that wants Ben Powers.
Well, now, you know, the team trades Ben Powers before the preseason ends or right after
the preseason.
And then that process plays out.
And now Alex Paucheski is your starter while Cage Casey.
get some snaps behind is that top option.
Like from a roster standpoint here,
I also think where do the Broncos view,
Ben Powers,
who was one of their first major signings
when Sean Payton came over,
by the way,
how much do you value like,
could we extend powers possibly next year?
Absolutely.
But what's on the horizon?
Jalen Wattle's cap hit rises.
Cortland Sutton's cap hit rises substantially
without any guaranteed money left on his deal.
So now you have to figure out how do you bring
those two guys' price tags down on top of,
hey, we got to pay this guy and this guy.
Like the flexibility is going to be there for Denver.
And of course, you have a couple of other guys as well that you can restructure
that just signed deals in the last one to two years.
But you don't want to approach those guys yet,
especially as they start to even enter the first year of their actual extension
that they initially got.
So to me, this is a very forward-thinking approach from George Peyton,
Sean Peyton, Richard Toddler, by saying, you know what?
We're not making any move that drastically changes our football side right now.
Ben Powers, still the starter right now, likely to have competition.
Okay, he wins the starting job.
We've got our same starting offensive line group that we've had for the third straight season,
a role for Bo Nix.
And for most of these guys, their fourth year playing together, that's not a bad thing.
But then after this year, it's all right, our process now is the shift to having more
cap space so we can restructure court.
Jalen, pay this guy.
And maybe wide receiver is a little bit more important than this because we like our
development with these younger guards.
Yeah, everything that you just said is exactly where my mind kind of goes, right?
And so you initially look at the salary cap space, right?
Right now the Broncos, before we know anything about this, 29.5 million roughly in terms of overall cap space.
And like you mentioned, Powers has the second highest cap hit on the team at 18.155 million.
He has a pro-rated signing bonus of 5.425 million, but there's zero in guaranteed money on his
contract this year, Cody. So it wouldn't surprise me if they maybe just converted that pro-rated
bonus number into his guaranteed salary for this year, which would shave off a lot more on the
salary cap, which then allows you to do other things throughout the course of the season, like have
the flexibility of if you, let's say, let's say they add another $8 million. That's a rough estimate,
$7, $8 million. Let's say you're sitting anywhere near $35 million in cap space during the season.
you can do anything that you want when it comes to upgrading your roster at the deadline.
If you suffer an injury, you could go after the biggest name available.
If you have an opportunity to strike while the iron's hot and some team ends up struggling that you didn't expect.
And they're saying, hey, best offer, you can have this player, player X, player Y, player Z.
The Broncos can then get involved because they not only have the draft capital, 10 picks projected in next year's draft and then some plus 3.3.5.
$35 million in cap space?
Like you can do anything.
So it gives you that ultimate flexibility in a Super Bowl window,
which is absolutely huge for George Payton.
Yeah, and I want to preface my thought here by just saying,
it does not seem like the Broncos are trying to get rid of Ben Powers.
It just seems like they are setting themselves up for the best possible.
Hey, we're going to let this whole thing play out.
Competition will allow us to play things out.
We like what we have.
We're not trying to force a rush a decision on anybody right now,
but it gives them the financial flexibility.
and maybe even that peace of mind coming into this season because the Broncos did initially ask in February for Ben Powers to take a pay cut.
But I don't think anything went there because he was coming off of the injury,
obviously the surgery of the Liz Frank injury that he sustained in his first game back coming off from the biceps injury.
So I'm very curious. Obviously, Broncos practice begins here in a little bit.
There's no pad.
So there's not going to be a lot of popping going on.
But when the pads come on, we're going to be watching Ben Powers.
When we're watching out to Paucheski, just a reminder, we're also going to have you covered here every day after practice with what.
But we saw a recap, and then the next day you'll get a whole entire plateau of like,
hey, what can you expect today here for Broncos camp?
That's the fun part about football being back here, Broncos country.
But coming up next, we did find out Broncos outside linebacker Jonathan Cooper will be at practice
for training camp as he continues to go through his legal process.
We'll talk about maybe how the team will approach it from the football standpoint.
Plus a position coach of his is returning after being off for a year after an off-field incident as well.
We'll break it all down here on today's episode of the show.
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They have found quality players at a position.
They may need to tap into that depth later on this season.
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spas or jobs. As the Broncos get ready for the first practice here this morning in just a couple of hours,
just want to remind you everyone in Broncos country, make lockdown Broncos your first listen every single
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Plus, it's the number one sports podcast network in the country.
You'll get a brand new episode every morning to kind of set the stage for what we expect
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So make sure you are subscribed or you follow us wherever you get your podcast.
We appreciate you so much here.
Sarah, we did get some clarification on Jonathan Cooper.
As we were going into this week on Monday, we kind of threw the question out there,
will we see Cooper at practice amidst his ongoing legal issue stemming from a domestic violence incident this offseason where the court process, he's gotten arraignment set for August 31st or he'll enter a plea of guilty or not guilty.
And then it could go to trial ultimately in 2027.
So how do the Broncos approach this?
He is at practice.
He did complete a month and a half long inpatient counseling and mental health course.
But the Broncos right now, it seems like their approach with Jonathan.
and Cooper, and as we're going to ward this from the football side of things,
until there is some sort of insight from the legal side,
it seems like Cooper will be able to attend practice and be at the team facility.
Right, which, I mean, it doesn't necessarily throw a wrinkle into things, Cody.
Obviously, we expected that there was a chance this could happen.
I think that ultimately, now you have the opportunity to sort of really be intentional
about how you rotate in Jonah Ellis, Q. Robinson, these other guys that you
you want to get more snaps because if the assumption is that Cooper is available for this season,
that still has to be a priority, getting those two guys on the field a little bit more.
And we know the Broncos flirted with the idea earlier this offseason of switching Jonah Ellis's position entirely,
just with the goal in mind of getting him on the field more.
So if that's still the belief that this team has, then that's still got to be part of the way that they incorporate these guys going forward.
because Cooper, just like anybody else, I think you can, on the field, you could talk about some
maybe areas that he wasn't good enough late last season, down the stretch, quarterback hits,
pressures, sacks.
I mean, all those categories that you look at pass rush productivity, he's got to step up and
be a little bit better than we saw in the second half of last season.
And I think that that's a fair criticism of somebody who has his pedigree, right?
who he's got a 10 and a half sack season at one point in his career.
So you expect a lot out of a player like that.
And when he doesn't play like that consistently,
especially in big moments,
you've got to have a little bit more open competition.
You bring waves of pass rush.
So I think that's what I'll be interested to see now is,
okay,
if Cooper's out there practicing as though he's going to be available for this season,
which should be the assumption until we hear otherwise, right?
I think now you have to figure out what in what ways are we intentionally going to get
Ellis and Robinson onto the field more because of their talent.
I think regardless, even with Coop practicing, the approach from Denver from Sean
Peyton needs to be, Jonah's getting those first reps of Benito.
We'll rotate Cooper in, but right now, because they may or may not have him, right?
That's still up in the air here at this point.
He could land on the commissioner's exemplar, which I want to answer in every day or
club's members text message sent in.
Andrew W. sent in the text.
I would love to know if Cooper's legal issues might get the commissioner's exempt,
world this season. It is certainly possible. And obviously, that's something that the NFL
league office is monitoring. But if he lands on that, he cannot be at the team facility. He cannot
practice. I think there are certain things he can do, but ultimately he cannot be involved with
the team during that time. And so I'm very curious to see what ultimately happens here. But
if I'm the coaching staff, you have to just kind of operate on the assumption, hey, we're probably
not going to happen for a stretch of games this year. Jonah Ellis should be getting those reps.
Dondre Tillman and Q Robinson should be getting those reps.
And then Cooper can also rotate in.
Whereas, and look, here's the thing too.
And I don't want to make excuses for Cooper last year in terms of that streak that he had
where he didn't register a sack.
I do know that he was dealing with a groin injury that he did have offseason surgery on.
And that could have impacted him in some way.
But you are right.
For a guy who had double-digit sacks, the expectation is, hey, if Nick Benito's
getting 14, you better be close, especially playing opposite of him.
Because at one point they were, you can make an argument.
One of the better pass rush duo was in the NFL.
and then Houston's dynamic duo just absolutely went on a tear last year in Daniel Hunter.
But I do think that's what the Broncos have to do.
And some other news as it pertains to outside linebacker, Michael Wilhoit,
who was initially hired by Sean Payton back in 2023, is the outside linebacker coach.
He was there initially.
He is back after he was released and let go by the team last year,
stemming from an off-field incident once again where he allegedly punched a police officer
at the Denver International Airport.
those charges have been dropped against him.
So now he is back on the team.
Not sure if it's back as the outside linebacker coach,
but he is back as an assistant officially as of today
and we'll be out there for Broncos training camp.
He's still going through a civil suit with the police officer right now.
So that process will play out.
But that's not going to have much bearing,
obviously because the actual charges were dropped against him.
The civil suit will be an entirely different matter.
Well, in all cases are individual, right?
Everything is independent of.
the other. But when you look at his situation, Jonathan Cooper, even in Yomo Uwazirike,
getting suspended for a full calendar year by the NFL for, you know, betting on games and
gambling and things like that, the Broncos have shown a willingness to stick with people,
stick with, you know, players, coaches, whatever it may be. And so they're, they're willing to
kind of let things play out and see what does the NFL say. Like I know Sean's philosophy with
Uazirike was, well, hey, if we just ditch this guy and don't give him any help,
what good is that really doing?
Right.
And I think I tend to agree with them on that, not to say that it's, you know, certainly
it was a fireable offense for other teams.
And it has been in other cases, similar to Cooper, similar to Wilhoite.
So I think that what the Broncos are showing is, okay, hey, we are going to sort of let
things play out and be maybe responsive instead of reactive in certain situations.
So just an interesting kind of note on all those independent situations that the Broncos
have sort of exhibited patience through it all.
Yeah.
And so really it kind of sets the stage for today's practice.
Obviously, no pads.
It's going to be helmet, jersey shorts for a few days.
And you'll transition into shells.
And then you'll transition into full paths where really the evaluation goes through here.
And so our Broncos country poll of the day here,
how do you think the Broncos should approach this Jonathan Cooper situation
in terms of on-field reps if he is going to actually be at practice this week here
with the team and throughout training camp.
Make sure you let us know here on today's episode of the show.
But Sarah and I, we're going to be back later.
I'll probably be 10 coffees deep.
By then, I know a new study came out saying drinking more coffee is actually great for you.
So, hey, any excuse I get, I'm going to take it.
But we will be back later for a post-training camp practice recap.
We'll highlight standouts.
Also, we'll get whatever the big story is coming out of practice.
You'll get that here on Locked on Broncos.
So make sure you hit that subscribe with that follow button.
So you never miss out on what's going on with your favorite team every single day here on the Lockdown Podcast Network.
We'll see you later.
