Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - RETURN: Denver Broncos Run Game Must EVOLVE Into Strength To Return to AFC Championship
Episode Date: June 22, 2026If the Denver Broncos are going to return to the AFC Championship in 2026, their rushing offense must evolve into a strength of theirs. Part of that is J.K. Dobbins remaining healthy, RJ Harvey contin...uing to grow, and Jonah Coleman serving as the insurance policy for the Broncos offense. Plus, the Broncos run game scheme has to evolve Sean Payton believes the same. Cody Roark and Sayre Bedinger break down the Broncos rushing attack in the first episode of their 'Returning To The AFC Championship' series. Cody Roark is a credentialed beat reporter for Mile High Sports and covers the Broncos daily in person. Sayre Bedinger is the site expert for Predominantly Orange. Both bring Broncos Country the most in-depth and objective coverage of the Denver Broncos. 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! Rugiet Get 15% off your treatment → https://rugiet.com/lockedonnhl Rugiet. Performance medicine for men. Odoo Great organizations win because operations matter. And that’s why you should get Odoo. Try for free today at https://Odoo.com/lockedon. FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. From the opening whistle to the final kick, Let There Be Goals on FanDuel. Visit https://FANDUEL.COM to get started now. Square If you’re starting a business, or running one that deserves better tools, Square helps you sell, manage, and grow without slowing down. Right now, you can get up to $200 off Square hardware at https://square.com/go/LockedOnNFL. 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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If the Denver Broncos are going to make it back to the AFC championship game in 2026, the Broncos run game must evolve.
You are Locked on Broncos, your daily Denver Broncos podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day.
Happy Monday Broncos country, Cody Rourke, Sarah Beninger here as we're breaking down a new series on this week's installment of Locked on Broncos.
How the Broncos can get back to the AFC championship game and what they can do.
Well, the biggest theme is the run game here.
Will the Broncos run game this season ride the hot hand when one guy's got the momentum?
How will that change with Davis Webb?
Plus we'll dive deep into how the scheme itself must evolve and what we've heard from Davis
Webb, what we've heard from players about what works, what hasn't worked.
We're going to kick things off by talking about the Broncos running back room needing to stay healthy this upcoming season
if they are hoping to achieve all of these with the ultimate goal of getting back to the
AFC championship game and then being able to win the AFC championship game.
Sarah, my friend, I'm excited about this series as we break down multiple episodes this week,
how to get back to the AFC championship game.
And I think the run game for the Broncos, this can be the key for them getting back to not only the AFC title game,
but also for them to get to a Super Bowl and potentially win a Super Bowl.
But the biggest thing here that derailed the Broncos last season in the run game specifically
would be J.K. Dobbins going down with an injury and all of a sudden it changed.
the entire archetype of how the Broncos running back room was after his injury.
They just weren't able to recover after losing J.K. Dobbins.
I mean, that's the unfortunate reality.
And that's kind of the mark of why I think it's been discussed a lot this offseason.
And even by Sean Payton right after the season, that it wasn't necessarily just the running backs that were the problem, but the run game.
That was the problem because J.K. Dobbins was the only guy who was having success.
So I think you've got to kind of look at, okay, let's look at the foundation of it instead of
the guys carrying the ball because at different times,
we've seen Tyler Badegh have success.
We've seen Jal McLaughlin have success.
RJ Harvey has had success,
but those guys weren't able to sustain anything after Dobbins went down.
And when Dobbins went down,
we've talked about it.
He was awesome,
like fifth in the NFL in total rushing yards at the time of his injury,
and fifth in the league in rushing attempts.
So the Broncos actually had some semblance of balance even in their
offense when JK was healthy,
which also went away.
after he was injured, and he was tied for fourth in the NFL,
maybe the most surprising stat of the entire year for J.K. Dobbins,
21 runs of 10 plus yards at the time of his injury.
So he was not only providing the physicality that I think the Broncos missed
in the AFC championship game and so many other games leading up to that,
but I think he was also that explosive element in the running game
that you figured could come from R.J. Harvey,
or it could come from Tyler Bade, who's really fast and is on kick.
return and is an explosive threat after the catch, Jaliel McLaughlin, who's got good speed.
Like you, that was the one thing you felt, okay, if J.K. Dobbins goes down, at least the Broncos
will have explosives. No, they really didn't. I mean, RJ provided occasionally, Jalil
provided occasionally, but J.K. Dobbins was the source of everything. And so he may be made up for
a plethora of issues that this team had as they kind of tried to implement more wide zone stuff and,
you know, maybe overcomplicated. I don't know. But that's,
that's where J.K. Dobbins left this team was sort of in ruins in the running game.
Yeah, and that was the tough position that they got put into. And you even mentioned it as well,
as we talked about like last week, even the injury to Ben Powers at left guard.
That also changed things. Though I would say Alex Pouchesky did a great job when filling in.
I mean, heck, we even saw against the, you know, we saw a combination of guys just filling in.
But that was even like before JK got hurt. Like I go back to the Dallas Cowboys game where
JK and RJ are busting off big runs. J.K., you know, he's ratch.
rattling off big carries. RJ's rattling off at 40 plus yard touchdown and Poucho's down filled with Quinn Miners blocking at the second and third level.
And it's like the offensive line is also very important to this as well.
But it also seemed like if you go back and you look at how JK ran the ball and the types of runs that they use JK on specifically.
And then RJ seemed like they were always trying to get RJ on the outside because of his speed.
JK was kind of this, hey, we're going to pull the guard.
You're going to get behind the guard because he's a patient runner.
and then he's going to find that seam and that crease.
JK was so special last year in the small sample size that we had through 10 games.
And the fact that through 10 games, he had 772 yards was averaging 5.0 yards per carry is promising.
But RJ's run style is a lot different than JK's.
And when JK went down, it almost seemed like they had to try to put RJ into that JK role.
And even though RJ was still being used as that kind of all around Swiss Army knife utility weapon as a runner and as a passenger.
catcher. It seemed like RJ's impact outside of a couple of runs in the second half.
I mean, specifically the one against the Jacksonville Jaguars where he broke,
tackles and made a terrific play. His strength was really as a pass catcher, not necessarily
as a rusher. And that's something that we saw. And so the Broncos are trying to supplement
Jaliel, Tyler Badee from time to time. There was just no formula to the point there.
And this obviously brings up a very interesting thing. Obviously, you know, RJ was a second leading
rusher on the team with 540 yards and seven touchdowns. But Bo Nix was.
the third leading rusher. He had five touchdowns last season, and he had 356 yards on 83 carries.
But besides that, how many times did you and I do a postgame show where we're saying,
hey, when Bo Nix is your leading rusher in a game, it's not a good thing. There were a stretch
of three or four games, I think at one point in the second half, where all of a sudden,
Bo is your leading rusher. And RJ is under 50 yards. And you're like, wait, what is happening?
What's going on? And of course, that's a byproduct of Bo being able to use his legs,
not necessarily designed runs.
To me, that was also a little bit more problematic here about Denver.
I think so.
And I want to see Bo Nix have his athleticism and speed unleashed.
Of course, everybody's a little hesitant with the ankle injury.
But I think this is a part of Bo Nix's game that it has to be a part of the offense.
And that's just the same with the Buffalo Bills and Josh Allen.
His legs are part of their offense.
It's part of the reason why they have one of the best running games in the NFL.
But what are the bills also have?
Well, they also have James Cook, who's out there running really well.
And behind him, other guys who run the ball well, the Jacksonville Jaguars got a ton of production last year from Trevor Lawrence as a runner.
But that wasn't at the expense of their running game with the running backs.
That was with Travis Achan, racking up 1,400 yards from scrimmage.
So the Broncos need somebody, we hope it's J.K. Dobbins, who spurned the Jaguars we recently found out in free agency.
we hope it's him to lead the charge this entire year.
He's already declared to Luca Evans of the Denver Post.
Like, I'm not getting injured this year.
He's making fetch happen.
He's manifesting.
And I love that.
I love the attitude from him.
I think even if JK does have something come up,
you need RJ to take that next step.
You need Jonah Coleman now to come in and be a physical presence.
And we know at the college level,
very few running backs were as successful,
at least in terms of those coming into this year's draft,
as Jonah Coleman when it comes to yards per carry.
Nobody had more yards after contact.
He was a threat in the passing game.
So Jonah's bringing in that,
the question that we asked at the beginning of the offseason,
what is your JK Dobbins insurance policy?
We kind of thought maybe, well, sign two free agents, right?
If you sign JK, bring in somebody like Tyler Algier,
because are you going to really trust another rookie
with the same situation that we had last year,
which was you get to the AFC championship game,
and all of a sudden, it's like you're a deer caught in the headlights,
and you have no solution, but it's the biggest game of the year,
and you need somebody to step up.
I think even without Bo Nix,
if J.K. Dobbins would have been healthy for the AFC championship game, Cody,
the Broncos beat the Patriots easily because on fourth and two,
you hand it to J.K. Dobbins, and he picks up the first down.
I mean, that's the frustrating aspect of all this,
is just knowing that so many different ways to slice it that the Broncos could have been,
you know, but would have could have should have.
right. So I think that the running game, it's not just the backs, right? We know that. And RJ can be better. J.K. can be healthy. And Jonah Coleman can be a factor. But it ultimately does come back to like you mentioned, the run scheme. Well, what you said there too, and it made me chuck a little bit because I was thinking about it. So now I'm thinking like how I say this. I have to say it slowly so it doesn't come across as a curse word. Somebody once told me it is not good to should all over yourself.
So there we go.
When it comes to like hindsight, 2020, I mean, Jonah Coleman is that insurance policy where it's like, all right, if JK goes down, I think that they trust.
I think they trust Jonah with his size to be able to pick up first downs in these types of scenarios.
Will they feed three running backs this upcoming season?
Could be interesting with the Davis web wrinkle being added into the mix.
But I think we can all agree here.
If the Broncos is going to get back to the AFC championship game, the run game scheme must evolve.
and the numbers from our good friends over there,
true media, tell us a little bit of a story
that there was a lot of meat left on the bone
of the run game offense last season.
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We don't want to see the Denver Broncos leave any meat on the bone when it comes to the running game in 2026.
And you know what?
I don't think they're going to.
I think this is going to be one of the most improved areas of the team.
And we're going to tell you why the run scheme has everything to do with the why behind that on today's episode.
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And Cody, let's keep talking about the run scheme because as we're doing this series here,
in the doldrums of the offseason.
We know that everydayers are eager to find out what this Broncos team is going to do here in
2026 and ultimately get back to, like you said earlier, not just the AFC championship game,
but build on that and get further.
The number one thing I think you and I agree to making that happen is going to be like,
hey, let's get this running game figured out because if there's balance to this offense,
we think it can really unlock pretty much everything else.
Yeah, I think everybody sees that too.
with how good Denver's defense is and what we've seen from Bow Nix to elevate this unit at the
quarterback position. It's, man, could you just imagine Denver with a really good defense,
a really good run game and a really good quarterback, right? That perfect triangle.
Could the Broncos finally figure that out this upcoming season?
Well, so much of it, too, goes back to the AFC championship game.
And even the Buffalo Bills game, Sean Payton said he was not pleased with how the run game was.
He was very concerned about it to the point where he's going up to Zach Streep's office.
He's saying we've got to really figure out what's going on here.
And so far collectively, I think all of us were wondering, well, what was said behind closed doors about the scheme?
And Sean had said after the AFC championship game, we're going to take a look at personnel.
We're going to take a look at scheme.
Well, you're bringing back the same personnel from last year when a lot of those guys were also free agents.
So it goes to show that, hey, maybe it is our scheme.
Maybe it is, you know, something that we tried to do that just it's not our strength.
Davis Webb when we had our chance to talk with him during
mandatory OTAs when he got his first chance to speak with us.
One of the things he said is like our philosophy,
like this is a Sean Payton coach team.
This is a Sean Payton offensive philosophy.
But for all of us, this is the Broncos offense.
And more importantly, we're looking at everything.
What did we do well last year?
What didn't we do well?
And it's focusing on, okay, we're going to stick with doing what we are good at.
Sarah, I want to pull up some numbers here from our friends over there at True Media
for the Broncos run game last year.
Now, it's crazy when you think about it.
They were ranked 16th in the NFL in rushing offense last season,
rushing for 2,018 yards collectively.
They were 15th in the league in rushing yards per attempt at 4.4.
And I think if most people say, hey, you're averaging 4.4 per attempt,
that's pretty dang good.
In the grand scheme, like, yes, but when you talk about the larger sample size,
the total number of rushing attempts, it's kind of middle of the pack in the NFL.
What was concerning to me was this number here specifically,
where Denver ranked third in yards before contact per rush.
They were averaging 1.90 yards before contact per rush,
but they were ranked 31st in yards after contact per rush at 2.53.
So basically it was, hey, we're getting about 1.9 yards before we have contact.
And after we have contact, we're only getting about 2.53.
There is a significant drop off there that kind of tells the story about the Broncos run game.
I don't necessarily think it's a play.
player driven thing. I think that right there kind of showcases, hey, this is a scheme thing with how it's being blocked up. And we know the outside zone introduction last year. I'll be honest with you talking to players. They said it was very challenging. And now it starts to make sense when you look at that data. Yeah. And it begs the question, who's the most responsible for second level blocking and why were they not doing their job? Right. I mean, that's where if you talk about being third in the league and yards before contact, that means that, well, you're getting to the second level, right? You're getting to the linebackers.
you're getting outside the tackles.
And that's where those guys are making place.
And it's just not, you're not getting anything beyond that.
And we saw that with RJ Harvey,
who didn't have hardly any success when it came to outside runs last year.
I think he was like 43rd out of 47 qualifying backs or something.
It was a really low number.
It was one of the worst in the league.
And that's not all RJ's fault, right?
I mean, he's not necessarily a tackle breaker.
He's somebody who's going to, you don't break ankles out there.
And so that's where I think you bring in somebody like Jonah Coleman,
who can kind of compensate for that as you also figure out the scheme and figuring out the blocking
and second level because we talked about it.
The tight ends, I mean, they struggled with it last year, right?
That wasn't just you had Mercedes-Lewis coming in off the street.
Nate Adkins was not playing for this team most of last year.
They were missing him.
So there's a lot of different elements of this that personnel scheme, like, and not personnel
in terms of, hey, we don't have backs who can break tackles.
no, it's personnel in terms of we're constantly shifting guys in and out.
We don't have everybody doing the same job every single play.
So some consistency for a team that prides itself on continuity might actually help.
That's just a, I don't know, just an idea.
But I think that look at that number 22nd in the NFL in first downs per rush.
I would be willing to bet too that the Broncos were one of the least efficient running teams on first down.
I don't know about what true media says about that.
but that is something that just thinking back to last season,
they did not have many really good quality drive starters in terms of their running game.
That's where a scheme comes into play.
Because if you can, you know, just, hey, let's man up.
We're going to run right at you.
That's what a lot of teams who are good at running the ball do.
That's their drive starter.
That's their drive finisher.
The Broncos didn't have that.
They used the passing game as drive starters.
And when the running game was the drive starter, it wasn't typically starting much.
So that's where I.
I get frustrated with last year's team regressing in that regard, even having a better player
than Giovante Williams gave the Broncos with J.K. Dobbins.
Well, let's even talk about that when Javante was on this team in 2024.
It was the same thing.
It was the same struggles.
I mean, Javante was putting up terrible numbers, like to the point where, what, there was one game
where he had, what, 13 rushing attempts in only four yards or something like that.
There was a stretch of games where it was rough for Javante.
The Broncos ultimately moved on, but then what did we see Javante go do in Dallas?
a terrible team. I mean, they had a great offense, but
Duvante kind of revitalized the run game over there.
Javonte became, he had a career year over there in Dallas.
And all of a sudden, we're sitting here like,
was it Javante or was it the scheme?
Two years in a row.
Well, like, that was our question last year.
At the end of 2025, I think we all sat here and said,
you know what?
It is the scheme.
That is definitely something that you can see.
And the crazy thing is also Denver struggled to convert on third and short situations.
Like the Broncos, any rushing attempt really for the most part,
that they converted for first down is Bo Nix, quarterback sneak seem to be the most successful
run play on fourth down situations or even short yard situations for Denver versus hand
the football off and run.
And JK, though, in my opinion, when he was healthy through at least the 10 games that he played,
JK was probably the one guy that would get things going.
JK was also the guy that was running for 10, 15 yards on first down from time to time.
And then when he went down, everything changed for the Broncos to still go on the run that
they had without JK, where the run game started to become a little more lackluster after
week 10. It's astonishing to me that Denver was able to do it, which also excites me and
it should excite you Broncos country because if they can figure that out, this Broncos team's
going to win a lot of games. They're going to be very good if they could figure the run game out
because they were put in a lot of situations because of the lack of run game last year where they
could have easily lost games. And I think this would be the difference. As Sean said, like,
we understand, we want a lot of one score games. We understand like the data suggests.
like you have to do certain things different.
The run game is the difference maker
and determining the fact that hopefully this year,
the Broncos could start winning those games by more points
versus being in these close games that could flip either way.
That is going to be a massive key here going forward.
And I think another key to for the Broncos,
if they want to have a successful run game,
that's going to ultimately get them back to the AFC championship game.
Sarah and I are going to tell you why the Broncos need to figure out
how to ride the hot hand when the run game is on fire in 2026.
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We're going to eye deep into how the Broncos need to invest in writing the hot hand through the course of next season when there's one runner who's got the juice.
The Broncos didn't do enough of that in 2025.
that'll be a formula for them to win in 2026 if they can figure that out here.
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Sarah, I feel like the Cincinnati Bengals game last year was kind of one of those games.
And we had multiple games last season where we came away saying,
okay, hey, they finally figured the formula out for this player or for this position group.
Evan Ingram was the guy that we talked about coming out of the Washington Commanders game.
They finally figured out how to use Evan Ingram.
They didn't stick with it.
Week 4, Monday night football against the Cincinnati Bengals.
The Broncos finally figured out the formula how to really use the run game with J.K. Dobbins and R.J. Harvey,
because both of those guys collectively, I think, went over 100 yards from scrimmage,
or I think RJ was shy a little bit there.
But seemingly, like, they rotated series.
J.K. had a hot series. He stayed on the field.
RJ had a hot series.
He stayed on the field the next time.
the Broncos didn't do too much of that consistently last season.
And I felt like that impacted the flow and rhythm.
Because if JK's rattling off a couple of big 10 to 12-yard runs, am I taking
JK off the field?
Absolutely not.
You don't want to do that.
I understand Denver wanted to rotate all this personnel in, but that ultimately,
what I felt like, Sarah, and I think, you know, I think many in Broncos country will
agree.
I think that was also something that hindered the Broncos offense was the constant rotation of
personnel.
Personnel matters.
but the frequency in which they did it versus keeping guys hot, I felt like that was a problem.
Well, and I think that it kind of goes directly against what Sean Payton said he likes to do or doesn't like to do with running backs.
He always talks about how difficult it is to involve three guys.
And then he constantly did that throughout the course of the season, right?
With Tyler Bade just taking so many snaps.
And I know that it may be in the grand scheme of things wasn't that much by comparison to other guys.
but it really was.
Like he was out there on the field during critical situations.
And that is, I don't know, I just,
you say it's easier to involve two backs.
So to me, it's like, well, then just do two.
You know, I don't know.
That's what I would do.
But Sean was adamant about getting all those guys involved.
And so I think that this year, if you're going to involve three,
it feels a little bit more, you know, I don't know,
high upside to put it that way with Jonah Coleman versus Tyler Badee,
potentially being that third back.
And that's not to say,
Badei can't contribute in a good way.
I think he can.
But if you're not running the ball when he's on the field,
you're telegraphing.
How many times have we said that?
We've talked about that.
If you're telegraphed what you're doing when a guy's on the field,
it's not going to work no matter what.
So that's where this hot hand concept really does play a huge factor
because you want to keep J.K. fresh as well.
But man, like we talked about this once before,
we were kind of just thinking out loud,
when's the last time a Broncos back had 25 carries in the game?
It really hasn't happened.
I think you said 22 Latavius Murray was the last time that happened.
And that was when Giovante Williams was hurt and the Broncos had nobody else.
So I think now when you have somebody who is dominating a game,
you have to balance, okay, let's keep them fresh versus, you know,
we want to make sure that we're putting the pedal to the medal
and winning these games by more than one score.
And that's where I think you can really help yourself,
is to recognize, hey, this guy's hot.
Let's feed him the rock.
Well, and I think another thing, too, is looking at maybe just the flow
and the rhythm of the game, right?
Let's say, I mean, think about it on average,
how many plays take place on a scoring drive.
Like, I think an ideal perfect world, and the Broncos,
they've done really good at this the last couple of years with Sean,
even though it hasn't been as consistent.
How many times have we seen a 12, 13, 14, 14 play scoring drive that takes six,
seven minutes off the clock and you're like, you know what, there you go.
But like in that course of that series, let's say you have 10 to 12 plays.
How many times are you running the ball theoretically?
Five, six times on that depending on down and distance, circumstance, short yardage,
whatever it may be.
Of course, you always have the opportunity to score on one big play.
But like for me, I'm thinking of it this way.
Like if you're going to use the high and let's say J.K. Dobbins comes out in a series
and let's say he has five carries for like 40-something yards or 50-something yards on that particular series.
That would be great.
Okay, JK clearly is in rhythm right now.
So when the Broncos offense is next on the field, let JK start.
And let's say, okay, hey, first carry for JK, it's first and 10.
He gets a seven-yard run.
Keep him on the field.
Give him another carry.
He rattles off a four-year run.
Okay, keep him on the field.
But you may not run the ball three straight times.
You may throw a pass in here or there.
Okay, now after three plays, take him off, let somebody else come in.
But there's seven to eight plays where J.K. is on the field and he's feeling it.
That's what I want to see for this team.
And let's say you do the same thing with RJ.
You bring RJ into the mix.
And let's say all of a sudden he's rattling off a couple of big 10 to 15 yard runs.
And then you run into the scenario where it's like, okay, now they're trying to load
to the box.
Well, guess what?
Now I'm going to use RJ in the passing game.
Like there's so much that you can do to keep guys freshen in rhythm versus guys are running off
to the sideline.
It's December.
It's cold.
They're sitting here like, ah, you know, now I'm starting to like stiffen up a little bit.
Keep the hot hand going.
And you know what I also want to see more of Sarah?
I want to see more two back sets.
I want to see scenarios where JK and RJ are on the field together at the same time next to Bo Nixon and the shotgun.
I would, we used to pray for times like this.
Can this come to fruition in 2026?
I believe it.
I'm waiting to see it.
I can't wait.
I mean, look, last year we saw times where shoot Adam Prentice was out there in third down situations or, you know,
fourth quarter.
Because the Broncos needed their, they just needed that reliability.
So they're relying on specific skill sets, I think too much, right?
I think that was maybe one of the things that we learned from last year is that there's a difference between,
you know, highlighting what a guy is really good at and then relying way too much on their best
trait, right?
So with Tyler Bade, for example, you say, hey, he's one of our best pass protectors and he's
also a decent pass catcher.
So he's always out there in a two-minute drill and third downs, right?
that telegraphs to a defense or Adam Prentice is out there standing next to Bo Nix.
The one time they did hand it off to him, we were all like shaking our heads, putting our face in our palm, just being like, you've got to be kidding me.
Like you're running a draw now with third and whatever that was with Adam Prentice out there.
So I think what we've discovered is the Broncos need to better figure out how to not telegraph what they're doing based on their specialized skills of their running backs and really figure.
out ways to amplify what they're good at while still disguising what the offense is trying to do.
Yeah, and I'm curious to see how maybe Sean Payton's new CEO approach as a guy who's not going to be
primarily calling the plays and now he can just see things.
I wonder how much of this will actually help the Broncos versus when he's just so tunnel vision
on I'm calling the play.
I'm looking at the defense.
Okay, this is what we're going to do here.
That's hard.
Like Sean had such a hard job.
Like play callers have that difficulty of a job.
now if you're a play calling head coach.
I mean, that all falls on you ultimately.
Now he can also be a sounding board for Davis Webb to maybe see these things.
Like if Sean himself says, at times I need to figure out how to run the ball,
and he's got run the ball written on his play card that we all see on the national broadcast.
And when you're so close to it, sometimes you can't see what's working, what's not working.
Now, from his perspective, he might say, why aren't you running the ball, Davis?
Like, maybe we'll see that.
And then there'll be some funny moments that we can talk about throughout the season.
But Sarah, I agree with you.
I think the Broncos need to figure out how to utilize the hot hand approach to their advantage this upcoming season.
And I think these things that we've talked about, when this run game and the running backs in particular,
the Broncos can do two or three of these things consistently and they can make it a strength of theirs.
They can get back to the AFC championship game, despite having a tough schedule this upcoming season.
They can prove it.
They can prove that they belong.
I think this is one of those keys to doing just that here.
Broncos Country.
That'll wrap up today's episode of the show.
this was our first episode in the installment of how to get back to the AFC championship game.
Well, if Denver's going to do that, Bo Nix's playmakers need to step up and help them a little bit more.
43 drops last season.
That was far too much here for Denver.
And if that can get corrected, the Broncos offense will explode.
And they can get back to the AFC championship game.
We'll break it down on tomorrow's episode of the show.
