Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - LOCK IN: Denver Broncos Ready To CONTROL Playoff Destiny

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Denver Broncos new year's resolution was to get healthy at the right time, and they are doing just that. 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, welcome into another episode, Locked on Broncos, your daily Denver Broncos podcast, part of the Locked on podcast network, the number one sports podcast network in the country as the Broncos are getting ready for their regular season finale here.

Starting point is 00:00:35 week 18 where if they win, they clinch the number one seed and home field advantage. We'll talk about how the Broncos are trending towards getting healthy here just at the right time ahead of the NFL playoffs. Plus, why the run game looks like it might be ready to take off a little bit against the chargers going into the postseason with guys like RJ Harvey, J.R. Jalil McLaughlin. And we'll tell you why Marvin Mims and Troy Franklin are our specific players to watch in Sunday's week 18 regular season finale here on today's episode of the show brought to you by

Starting point is 00:01:05 our friends over there at Fandu. And before tip off, check the Fandu app. See what's dropping during NBA happy hour every Friday from 6 to 7.30 p.m. Eastern Time. I'm Cody Rohr, Credential Broncos reporter for Mile High Sports. Join, as always, by Sarah Beninger, site expert of their predominantly orange.com. Thanks to all the everydayers out there for tuning in making us your first listen. However you choose to do so, we appreciate it.

Starting point is 00:01:27 Sarah, look, I think one of the bigger keys that we talked about before the season with this Broncos team specifically was, Hey, can they continue to find a way to stay healthy, which has been a trend since obviously Sean Payton came in. They brought in Belowery. Here we are entering week 18. And the Broncos injury report is a little bit smaller compared to where it has been at times this season. That's a good sign. The Broncos are now trending towards getting healthy around the playoffs.

Starting point is 00:01:53 Now there's one more week here. And that's this week. Hopefully that trend can't continue. Yeah, the injury report has been diminishing week by week, hasn't it? I mean, the Broncos obviously just recently got. Ben Powers back into the lineup. He's kind of been rotating with Alex Palchewski there at the left guard position. And honestly, you know, you'd lose a guy like Luke Wattenberg, but it gives an opportunity to somebody like Alex Forsyth.

Starting point is 00:02:15 But it's those other names that kind of after that Jaguars game, maybe had fans a little bit worried, right? Pat Bryant, obviously getting carted off the field, taken to a hospital. And it was a scary scene. But, Cody, he's already a full participant back at practice here ready for the Chargers week. So we'll see what the team does with him. And then Drake Greenlaw is expected to be back for the playoff run. We wondered, why did the team not place him on injured reserve? Well, now we know because he's going to play in the playoffs,

Starting point is 00:02:44 hopefully their first game being in that divisional round. Yeah, and look, I'll tell you, just being in practice this week. You know, Wednesday we go out there. I got my binoculars. We're looking in the stretch lines and we're seeing, okay, who's in there, who's out. And it's like, oh, wow, Nate Adkins is back out there, which is great because, I mean, maybe the writing was. on the wall a little bit. I felt like if

Starting point is 00:03:04 Nate Adkins knee injury was going to put him on IR. Sarah, I felt like after that Jaguars game, they would have been like, hey, like this is the second time this injury has happened to your knee. We're going to put you on IR. He's probably going to have to have surgery, I imagine, in the off season. But he's donning, you know,

Starting point is 00:03:20 a sleeve and a brace on the knee now. So I wonder if that's going to be something he's going to be wearing during the game. But the fact that he upgraded from limited participation to full, that indicates that he's going to play against the chargers here on Sunday. So now probably you might have Mercedes Lewis inactive. Again, he is on the 53. But that's the challenge of like injuries right now and roster management,

Starting point is 00:03:42 sir, because if the Broncos were to release or waive a couple of guys at this juncture, this late in the season, Sarah, I don't know if a lot of fans know that, you know, even if you're a vested veteran, now you're subject to waivers at this point because of how late in the year it is. So where is the roster advantage standpoint of making moves here? Like they're really isn't one. It's actually kind of risky considering the playoff field. I mean, heck, we just saw the Dallas Cowboys wave Trayvon Diggs and guess who picked them up. The Green Bay Packers picked them up off a waiver. So, you know, you don't want to lose any of your guys to a potential playoff team in the waiver order at this point. So very interesting about

Starting point is 00:04:19 that. But Pat Bryant being back on the field, being an upgraded participant, it's been good to see him, Sarah. He's been running routes well. He's been catching passes. It's good to see him back to his normal self in comparison to what we saw in that Jaguars game. And thankfully, he avoided any other major injuries besides the concussion. I know that is a major injury, obviously when it comes to the head, the brain, all those sorts of things. But I think when you see a guy that's being kind of immobilized on a stretcher, taken in an ambulance to a hospital,

Starting point is 00:04:48 you sort of fear that there might be something else going on there. So you hate to say it's only a concussion. But I mean, at the same time, I think Broncos country is glad that Pat is able to be back out there just two games later, potentially playing in this one. And I think that's huge. And another thing that was interesting that we kind of went under the radar against the chiefs is the fact that defensive lineman John Franklin Myers played one of his lowest snap

Starting point is 00:05:12 counts of the season. And everybody's sitting there wondering like, what the heck's going on with that? What happened to John Franklin Myers? A lot more Iyoma Owasarike out there who's been playing really well this season. Maybe something that we'll have some time to talk about at some point. But John Franklin Myers, Cody also kind of just on the injury report this week. I guess I'm not 100% sure what his status is going to be. The Broncos obviously want to make sure he's full goal for the playoffs as well.

Starting point is 00:05:38 So I wouldn't be shocked if he's limited in snaps once again this week. Yeah. Look, so far he's been a limited participant. I mean, he's been out there at practice since we've seen him. We've seen him in the locker room. You know, he's a veteran enough guy at this point to where he could be limited for, let's say, two days out of the week. And maybe because the Broncos have one final practice today that obviously I'll be at.

Starting point is 00:05:57 we'll see if he upgrades from limited to full participation. Like sometimes that is the trend, like a player, especially a veteran, they give those limited days to early on in the week and then, hey, Friday, you're full go, you're ready to rock and roll. But it would not shock me one bit if JFM is on a little bit of a pitch count, obviously that because they want them in the playoffs. They want this team to be ready to rock and roll for the playoffs. But also the other theme here is that they are treating this game against the Chargers

Starting point is 00:06:24 like a playoff game, regardless if Justin Herbert, those guys aren't playing because the Broncos want to flip that switch. They want to get in them mode and talking to guys in the locker room. That is very much the vibe like, hey, like, you know, we, we've been able to get through the entire regular season. We've won 13 games. We need to win 14. We need to get home field.

Starting point is 00:06:41 He said, but we, you know, players have told me we're treating this like a playoff game because we also need to get in that mindset. Like, because at this point, every error becomes a little bit bigger if we make those in the playoffs. So they're really trying to just flip the switch, shorten. I mean, iron out. Some of the things have been impacting them negatively this season from an execution standpoint. They're trying to get all those little details right in the right spot before they get into the postseason.

Starting point is 00:07:08 So best way to do that is treat this week's game like a postseason, which I found John Payton's thing on Wednesday. Very funny. You're talking about, you know, on the scoreboard, there's always a two-minute break. This is the thing I don't like about football, Sarah, like going to an actual game. Like, you guys get the commercial break. They sit there like in the huddle waiting for two minutes while they do some great. games around the stadium or on the scoreboard screen. Sean Payton doesn't want that.

Starting point is 00:07:31 He wants it to be a playoff atmosphere this week and obviously going into, hopefully as we talk about, they win, you host a division around playoff game. Hopefully you win that. You host an AFC championship. He ain't here for the games. No,

Starting point is 00:07:43 he's been really liking the volume of the stadium is what he's been really liking and calling for at his Wednesday pressures, right? I mean, he's really been coming out and saying, hey, that volume is an asset to us. And he even talked about, you know,

Starting point is 00:07:56 Wednesday's presser, he's like, Texas A&M coined the 12th man phrase in Seattle bought it from him, which I thought was a fun little, you know, there's lots of discourse about that kind of stuff when it comes to the 12th man and who really owns that phrase. But it is a huge factor regardless. And I like that he's all about that. Cody. You mentioned the commercial breaks thing. Man, we need to start getting whoever, whoever's in charge at like YouTube and Netflix of putting the countdown on the TV of how much time. is left with the ads. We need that everywhere. We need that every single week for all of us that watch at home. But I digress there a little bit. But yeah, I mean, the playoff atmosphere,

Starting point is 00:08:35 I think it's going to be real in Denver this weekend. I think that absolutely this franchise and the fan base understands when your fan base is aware of what's at stake, you're going to get that kind of atmosphere, right? It's going to be just a tray lance, not going to be able to hear if he's going to the line of scrimmage with two calls, Cody, he's not going to be able to make those adjustments line. I mean, it's, it's one thing to, you know, talk about, well, this guy has talent and he's got athleticism and he could still make plays. He was still a top draft pick. The Chargers, even their backups, they still get paid to play. It's just going to be a way different atmosphere for them compared to a preseason game where, you know, you're out there, you're facing against other backups.

Starting point is 00:09:17 It's not that kind of volume on the field. It's just a, it's going to be like drinking through a fire hose for a lot of those guys. And so hopefully that 12th man aspect is very prevalent for the Denver Broncos here this weekend. Devere is one of the best home field advantages. When you talk about the altitude, you talk about the noise. I mean, first down against the Jaguars, my water bottle in the press box, it was shaking. And then a third down, it was shaking violently. It was almost like there was an earthquake. That's exactly kind of what it felt like there. And I obviously grew up on the West Coast a little bit. So that's, I think the call here is that Sean Payton wants Broncos country to bring their a game, not only this weekend but for the NFL playoffs as well.

Starting point is 00:09:55 And coming up next year and I are going to talk about, you know, some of the things, the keys to victory. And we'll tell you why the run game looks like it might be ready to go against the chargers and why they got to get it going this week. You'll get that and more here on today's episode, Lockdown Broncos. Today's show is brought to you by friends over there at Robin Hood. And nobody knows your money goals better than you. Robin Hood puts you in control of your money with tools that work as hard as you do.

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Starting point is 00:10:56 That's going to be the theme against the Los Angeles Chargers. Obviously, we want to see the Broncos running game continue to potentially be able to dominate going into the playoffs because you have to be able to have that when it comes to postseason action. But what else and what other players are we looking forward to seeing besides the running backs in this game? We're going to tell you coming up here on lockdown Broncos. But Broncos country, as always, I want to say just thank you so much to every single one of you, every dayers out there.

Starting point is 00:11:23 And hey, if you've been listening for two days here to start 26, pat yourself on the back, you've listened to Lockdown Broncos every single day this year. Keep it going. All you every dayers out there, we appreciate you so much. And if you haven't done so already, Cody and I want to invite you to join the Everydayer All Access Club. And it's something that you get extra content from us here at Lockdown Broncos, whether it's bonus episodes of the show, locked on merch discount, all 22 access with Cody's breakdowns,

Starting point is 00:11:49 as well as locker room stuff that Cody gets with the players that he referenced in the first segment, tons of stuff that you get access to if you sign up. So check that out in the show notes today. Cody, let's talk about the run game being ready to go here against the Chargers. The Broncos had three different guys with 40 plus rushing yards against the Kansas City Chiefs. I know that doesn't necessarily look the best to everybody on,

Starting point is 00:12:13 on paper when it comes to like fantasy football and things like that. But when you have 40 minutes time of possession, it requires you to run the ball and pretty good. So let's talk about why we think that's going to continue here in week 18 against the Chargers, the Broncos going up against backups. I think they are going to emphasize RJ Harvey and continue to get his playoff legs underneath him. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:12:34 And I think so much of this too is not only just for RJ and Jaliel, but I think very much as well for Alex Forsy. I mean, Sarah, going back and watching the Out 22, which we still have some more. Chiefs all 22 footage uploading from last week's game for you for all the everydayers out there. My thing that I saw was I just like, I feel like the inside run game might open up with Alex Forsyth there. And that's nothing against Luke Wattenberg, right? But I'm saying, just knowing how smart Forsyth is and seeing some of the plays that he made where he's crashing down a defender and

Starting point is 00:13:05 it's opening up. It's almost like parting the red seaser. Jolil McLaughlin, like a 15-yard run, straight in the A gap where you had Forsyth crashing down the defensive tackle and you had Quinn Miners coming up to get to the playside linebacker to create that space. We haven't seen that consistently this year, right? I'm not saying that's the first time, like, you know, just because we saw it on the Chiefs game is going to be a trend. I just have a feeling by watching the game all throughout the all 22 and going back. I just think that the offensive line is a little different with Alex Forsyth

Starting point is 00:13:38 when it comes to the run game in terms of imposing. your will. And I think Luke Wattenberg took some steps this year, right? But you're not going to happen for the playoffs. So now you want to see what Alex Forsyte can do. I think that there's been an emphasis this week in practice of obviously getting RJ and Jalil a little bit more involved. Sean Payton told us on Wednesday that Jalil is going to have a very important role here going forward. I know Broncos fans want to hear about J.K. Dobbins. Is there any update on him? And I can tell fans, there's no update right now. You know, he's in a locker room. He's been attending team meetings, position meetings, but he's not on the field yet. You know, he's continuing to go

Starting point is 00:14:10 through the rehab process. They want to be smart about the Liz Frank. JK does not think that, you know, his injury is going to end his season, but it's very much about being smart. And the team, I think at this point, trying to protect their investment in JK, but also protecting JK from himself because you don't want to come back too early from this because if you do have another re-rubpture or re-injury, which is very high occurring if you come back too early from a Liz Frank,

Starting point is 00:14:35 it could completely derail his career to point. So you've got to be smart with that. Sarah, I think between Forsyth, the offensive line, I think the continuity that we're going to try to see piece together there, probably Ben Powers, rotating in a little bit more back to his normal spot here. I think staying there primarily. And then I think with Forsyth, I just think that the run game has a chance not only to go off against the Chargers, but I think the run game is going to be a very, very big focal point

Starting point is 00:15:01 when they get to the playoffs. And I think what you mentioned about the inside running game is a really key point with that too, because I feel like that will, you know, allow our. J Harvey to highlight one of his greatest skills, which is contact balance. When you get north and south quickly and you're kind of inviting that contact a little bit more, right? When you're running an inside, it's not always going to just the sea parts and you have this huge highway to the end zone every time you execute an inside running play.

Starting point is 00:15:30 But what it does is it allows your guy who you believe has arguably the best vision, great feet, great contact balance of any rookie in this class. it allows him to get to the second and third level where he can not only make guys miss, but like we saw against the Jacksonville Jaguars, he can use that contact balance to his advantage. I mean, you run head first into somebody, all of a sudden he's spinning around and he's gaining all these extra yards after contact because guys can't just bring him down on the first initial hit. And that doesn't always happen when you're doing the outside running game where it's slower developing sometimes. you've got to let those blocks set up.

Starting point is 00:16:09 And then sometimes those safeties and linebackers can attack the line of scrimmage, right? And they can make it harder for you to make that first guy miss because you don't necessarily have a full head of steam. But when the inside running game is working, it keeps defenses on their heels. They're not just attacking one way or the other. And I think for RJ Harvey, too, that's going to be huge for him in this game to be able to get north and south quickly. And in the postseason in general, Cody, I feel like that's where.

Starting point is 00:16:37 Some of your drives are one or lost is on first down when you need six yards on a drive starter and you're running back and get that for you. That's humongous. No, it is too. And look, I think the formula here, and I think you highlighted it perfectly about the inside run game. You start gashing a defense with a couple of big inside runs. You know what they're going to do? They're going to start pinching. They're going to start pinching.

Starting point is 00:16:59 And then, you know what that opens up in the run game. Well, let's try the outside run. Let's do a toss. Let's do a stretch. Maybe get them counter and see what we can do. so where that outside zone kind of comes in a little bit. And then when you have to account for, hey, we've got to stop the run inside because they've been gashing us.

Starting point is 00:17:13 Okay, now they hit this. We have to maybe adjust a little bit. You know what you can do after that? You can do play action. Everything opens up. You know, a lot of conversation this year about how defenses have been playing the Broncos. Like, we're seeing more zone defense thrive right now in the NFL against everybody,

Starting point is 00:17:27 not just Denver. Like, that's the thing. Like people are like, oh, well, teams are only running zone against Denver. No, teams are running primarily zone coverage across the NFL this season. Denver, they run a lot of zone coverage. They also run more man coverage and probably most other teams there. But Denver's not getting a lot of man coverage from their looks in terms of who they're going after. So it's like when we're not seeing the Troy Franklin and Marvin Mims,

Starting point is 00:17:49 Cortland Sutton deep bombs downfield is because, hey, oh, they're in zone. They're checking out of it. I mean, you're seeing that with the too high shell and obviously today's game, but they're also playing disguised coverage very, very well. I think the Chiefs game is a great example of just like how his own defense is trying to become a little more prevalent in today's game to take away those explosives. That's why you have to have a run game in today's game. So I think it really all culminates to that, Sarah, here if the Broncos are going to thrive, not only against the

Starting point is 00:18:16 chargers, but also I'm thinking the playoffs as well. Yeah. And you know what's interesting, too, is that I know on one occasion this year, I think it was that first game against the Raiders. You know, Sean Peyton talked about how Patrick Graham, the defensive coordinator, the Raiders, gave them a look that they basically weren't ready for. They weren't expecting. And I think what we saw against the Chiefs is another example of that. Steve Spagnola, the defensive coordinator, has a very distinct brand in way that he plays the game with blitzing and with man coverage and, you know, being aggressive. And we even heard Kirk Herb Street during the audio or during the broadcast talk about the fact that he's like, I think he typically blitzes five times in the

Starting point is 00:18:54 first series. I think we've seen him blitz five times the entire game. And he was talking about that in the fourth quarter. It's funny how different things can be and how easy it is. And how easy it is to blame, you know, the quarterback. I'm not trying to turn this into a bow next thing, but I think it explains a lot of why the Broncos bread and butter last year maybe was that deep ball. And now teams are respecting that. Teams are saying, hey, you're not going to be able to do that every single time you

Starting point is 00:19:20 drop back to pass. You're going to have to run the ball. You're going to have to beat zone coverage. And if you can do that, we're going to allow you to do that. And then we might get aggressive. And then you have to hit your shot plays after that point. So it really is that whole domino effect. That's why the Broncos need more possession.

Starting point is 00:19:35 That's why they need to get the chargers off the field as quickly as possible. Well, and I talked to Marvin Mims and I talked to Troy. And I even, I've even brought up the question, you know, like what is it, you know, is different from last year. And like we're not seeing man. Like we have man beaters. We'll have deep shots called. Said, but we have to check out of it or we have to adjust because it's zone and they're not checking out of it.

Starting point is 00:19:55 Like the defense is staying in the zone. So it's like if we want to try to get deep, they're keeping everybody deeper than the deepest bend. They got two safeties playing quarters coverage to take away on anything vertical in breaking. They said, so really it has kind of changed our approach. And I think that's why the Broncos have really kind of just embraced. Like we have to take what the defense gives us. But also at times when Denver's gotten zone coverage, we've seen Bo take some calculated shots like whole shots like the she's game.

Starting point is 00:20:19 Let's go to the Adam Trotman wheel up the right sideline there in between a window between the corner and the nickel defender playing underneath. Let's talk about the Cortland Sutton cover two whole shot that was there on first and 20. So I think Bo is the right guy to command this. He sees it. He understands it. He knows when a disguise coverage is changing. And he can locate it post snap, which is so important in today's game. I think that's going to be key, not only this week against the Chargers,

Starting point is 00:20:45 who have a very good defensive system under Jesse Minter, but also I think when the playoffs begin, you're going to get everybody's best. And you can get Bow's best as well here. But Brockos country coming up next, Sarah and I are going to tell you why Marvin Mims, Troy Franklin, are players that we have our eyes on here in Sunday's game. You'll get that more here on today's episode, Lockdown Broncos. Today's Lockdown Broncos is brought to you by friends over there at Fandu. And Fridays already feel different during basketball season and Fandu is making them even better.

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Starting point is 00:21:54 energy. That's NBA Happy Hour, only on Fandual, the official sportsbook partner of the NBA. Troy Franklin and Marvin Mims are two players. We're going to highlight as our players to watch in Sunday's regular season finale against the Los Angeles Chargers, plus a little bit more. We'll tell you why here. I just want to say thank you once again, the everydayers out there on Broncos Country

Starting point is 00:22:13 for tuning in making us your first listen, however you choose to do so. We appreciate you taking time out of your day. And thanks for making us part of your year in 2025, make us part of 2026 every day all year long. Sarah, let's get into our players to watch here for Sunday's game. Now, so much of this I think was harder to kind of devise because we have a general idea who we think is not going to play for the Chargers,

Starting point is 00:22:35 but it's hard to say, hey, definitively, this person's playing, this person's not outside of Justin Herbert. We know Herbert's not playing. So it made it a little difficult here. We know for the Broncos. Everybody's going to play. They're treating this like a playoff game. So I felt like this would be a great opportunity to kind of use this players to watch as more of a, hey, can the Broncos get some momentum rolling with some of these guys, right?

Starting point is 00:22:56 Who are you going with and why? Well, I'm going with Troy, Frank. Cody, and I think that, as you mentioned, the Broncos are treating this as a playoff game. So here's the deal. You want your wide receivers, this young wide receiver group, to step up like it is a playoff game. And you need to give them opportunities to do so. So you mentioned Marvin Mims.

Starting point is 00:23:16 I'm going with Troy Franklin. I think you could add Pat Bryant to this list as well. I want to see the Broncos young receivers step up in this game like it's a playoff game. And we've seen in particular, Troy Franklin has stepped up this season in big ways. And I know that it's a lot of, we've talked about a lot of drops as well. There's no question about it. But I think everybody in Broncos country needs to keep in mind, too, that Troy Franklin is just 22 years old, right? I mean, he is a young player.

Starting point is 00:23:44 He's developing growth in the NFL is not linear. Check out some of these numbers from this year, right? 709 receiving yards, six receiving touchdowns this season on 65 catches for Troy Franklin. Every single number that he's put up this year, obviously, is. a huge improvement on his rookie season. But this is the biggest one. Catch percentage in terms of targets versus receptions. Last season, Cody, as a rookie, 52.8%.

Starting point is 00:24:12 This year as a second year player, 63.1%. So we're talking about nearly an 11% jump in terms of the catches to target ratio for Troy Franklin. But when it comes to big moments, we saw he stepped up in the playoffs last year, got that opportunity on the first touchdown catch. I want to see Troy step up in a big way. I want to see a 100-yard game from Troy Franklin here against the Chargers in what the Broncos expect to be like a playoff atmosphere.

Starting point is 00:24:39 That would be awesome to see that, right? And I'm with you there. And you want to look at the parallels maybe the last season, right, that week, 18 regular season finale against the Chiefs, who were kind of in a situation where they were resting their starters because they had the number one seat already locked up in the NFL playoffs. For me, I look at this as an opportunity to say, hey, like, is this where Sean Payton's going to bust out some interesting designs or interesting plays?

Starting point is 00:25:02 Because remember that last year against the Chiefs? They did this one motion play, fake the inside handoff to, you know, the running back, fake the screen, and then you dump it off to the other side. I remember it was like it involved Troy Franklin and involved Marvin. And Marvin ended up scoring on that play. I feel like this is a great way to get Marvin more involved in the offensive game plan. Now, obviously, last week because Pat Bryant didn't play, we saw Marvin's snap percentage actually increased against the Chiefs.

Starting point is 00:25:26 which is a great sign, right? Now that Pat Bryan is returning, does that impact things in any way, shape, or form? I don't think it should. I think that you can feed every single one of these guys. You just have to be, I would say, precise with what you're doing when they're on the field, right? You don't want Marvin just to be out there to be a decoy. You know, teams fear Marvin's speed, but that's why we're seeing so much zone coverage. They're like, hey, number 19's on the outside.

Starting point is 00:25:49 We're going to be deeper than the deepest man at this point. We've seen some opportunities this year where Bo has had a chance to have. at Marvin Deep, right? And sometimes he's either been underthrown a little bit or there's just too much air on it and it stays in the air and then falls down at the wrong trajectory. And, you know, I think we saw that a few weeks ago, actually, for that. I just want to see this connection between Marvin and Bo. I want to see it thrive a little bit. I think maybe this is the week where, hey, Sean's like, you know what? We're going to manufacture some touches. Now, it's crazy that there's only really one player that

Starting point is 00:26:21 is in line for some incentives this week, Sarah. I'd be remissed if we didn't bring that up here. Remember last year, it was Cortland Sutton or was two years ago. Cortland Sutton needed a certain amount of catches or yards in order to, you know, trigger a bonus, you know, in this contract. The only player who's really kind of eligible this week to maximize on any offensive incentives, it's Adam Troutman of all players. And he only needs five catches, sir, five catches, I think, to get $175 or $125,000, bonus.

Starting point is 00:26:50 We know Sean Payton historically when that is the case, we see kind of this emphasis to get those guys. paid a little bit. Let me ask you, because Sean joked about it. He said that's usually the number of catches he has in a season is five. Do you think that he gets the five catches this week? Look, I think that on the first drive of the game, we're probably going to know how much of a thing this is for Sean Payton, right?

Starting point is 00:27:15 I think if we see some quick, quick throws to Adam Trotman, we're going to know that, all right, he got him two on the first drive. He's going to try to go to him, you know, for the rest of them in this game. And I think that that is something that, you know, you joke about out loud to the public and to the media. And now you kind of got to come through. And so I think if the Broncos have this game well in hand, Cody, there's no reason why you can't force feed a little bit to Adam Troutman.

Starting point is 00:27:40 Get him that, get him that bonus, right? And, you know, I think that'd be fun. That's a fun kind of little byline in this game or a little, you know, extra storyline to be paying attention to because it is something that I think players pay attention to when they are coming to Denver. It's a big picture type of thing, right? Hey, the head coach, he's going to make sure when you have contract incentives written into your deal,

Starting point is 00:28:04 your coach is going to try to get you those incentives. It's not just, oh, well, we forgot about that, or, oh, yeah, that doesn't really matter to us. Or, oh, we're going to bench you for the final two games so we don't have to give you that incentive. No, Sean actively works to get these players, those incentives. So it's kind of a bit of a recruiting tactic for him to get these five receptions to Troutman this week.

Starting point is 00:28:23 I also wonder if it could be a little bit of a decoy just because Sean came out publicly and said it. So maybe like Jesse Minter and the Chargers are like, oh, okay, they said this. All right, hey, don't be surprised coming out. They try to go to number 82 in the past game. Like they're going to try to get him paid. Like I guarantee you that's probably been brought up in the Chargers team meeting. Not to say like, oh my gosh, we have to really highlight number 82. He's this guy that can hurt us.

Starting point is 00:28:46 I think Adam Troutman can be this underrated guy that can hurt people. I think, you know, I'm trying to figure out. what the analogy is. Like he, in my opinion, Adam Troutman could be this death by a thousand paper cuts type of guy for you, where block, block,

Starting point is 00:29:01 block, he's not really involved in the passing game. Oh, shoot. He just caught a first down for 14 yards. Like Troutman has been reliable this year for Denver. And I've actually been very glad that he's been there. Look, we want Evan Ingram to have more catches and more yards and obviously more

Starting point is 00:29:15 opportunities. But for Adam Trotman to make the kind of hay that he has in the role that he has this season, I think that's so important for the Broncos to have. that type of production and consistency at tight end, which they simply haven't had in quite some time. But I'm surprised we didn't make Evan Eagle maybe one of our players to watch. Maybe someone in the,

Starting point is 00:29:33 maybe one of our everydayers will do that here. But with that said, Brockos country, that'll wrap up today's episode. So make sure you let us know who your players to watch are in Sunday's regular season finale against the charges. We know the stakes when you get the number one seed, you get home field advantage,

Starting point is 00:29:47 and you get a host, the division around of the playoffs. And that gives you the best chance to host the AFC championship game, which then gives you the best chance to potentially go to the Super Bowl. We appreciate you so much, Broncos country. We'll see you Sunday post game

Starting point is 00:29:59 following the Broncos game against the Chargers. Week 18, make sure you stay locked in. We'll see you then.

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