Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - RISE: Denver Broncos QB Bo Nix Could Have His BEST SEASON Yet in 2026

Starting point is 00:00:00 Bow Nix was good in 2025, but if the Denver Broncos clean up one area on offense, he'll have his best season yet. 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? I'm Cody York. Today's episode of show is brought to by Fandul during the tournament. Fandu is offering $300 back in bonus bets every day for 10 days.

Starting point is 00:00:29 Head to Fandul.com to get started. It is a mailbag Monday edition of the show in Broncos Country. You delivered as always as we talk about some of the myths that we're going to dispel surrounding the team over the last two years and how they've overcome that with Sean Payton, Bow Nix and Company Plus, which Broncos players could see a massive leap on offense and on defense here in 2026. We're going to kick things off by talking about Bo Nix and his best season yet could be incoming in his third year in the NFL. And let's go into that right now, Broncos country. This question comes in from Robin every day or here of the show. he asked the question with a new play caller in Davis Webb and a new toy to play with the wide receiver room,

Starting point is 00:01:08 the addition of Jalen Waddle. What are some realistic stat projections for Bo Nix in his third season? I think this is a great question. In year three, for a lot of quarterbacks, right? If you've been drafted in the first round, year three is always kind of one of these interesting, like fork in the road types of situations

Starting point is 00:01:25 because what did you show in years one and years two? And now year three, what are the expectations? Because you still have after year three, You got year four, then you got the fifth year club option if the team decides to pick up on that or if they decide to give you an extension. So there's a lot that goes into it. But for Bo Nix, this really isn't a question about, you know, is Bo the future? We all know, Bo is the franchise quarterback of this team.

Starting point is 00:01:47 So to answer this question here, and I know it's going to be long-winded, I want to go back to where it all began, right? Rookie season 2024 drafted. A lot of people said, all the Broncos, you know, they reach for Bo Nix. Bo comes in his first couple of weeks. He struggles. It's not until week, I think it was it, week four in a monsoon where he throws his first touchdown pass of the season there to Cortland Sutton and a little bit of a monsoon hurricane

Starting point is 00:02:11 game. But a lot of people are already through four games his rookie season. A lot of people on the outside were saying, ah, the Broncos got a bust in Bo Nix. But then what do we see from Bo? He got better. He continued to ascend. He continued to make some really impressive plays. Then he started stacking very impressive games.

Starting point is 00:02:27 He competed on the road against Patrick Mahomes into Kansas City Chiefs. And all of a sudden, everyone's like, wait a minute, like this Bo Nix kid can play. We all knew that. You know, I think a lot of people on the outside, you know, they want to be skeptical about something until they're proven wrong, right? I think that is the unfortunate nature of sports in today's game, right? So 2024, Bo Nix has a pretty good rookie season, leads the Broncos to a 10 to 7 record.

Starting point is 00:02:49 They go to the playoffs. He's not the reason they lose to the Buffalo Bills in the playoffs. Man, a year later, it's a different story. Bo Nix obviously had his best season yet. In 2025, he threw 3,931 passing yards. passing touchdowns and 11 interceptions compared to 12 interceptions he had in his rookie season. He reduced that by one. He did a really good job for the most part last season protecting the football.

Starting point is 00:03:13 But we saw the Broncos find another gear with Bo Nix. We saw Bo Nix become one of the more clutch quarterbacks in the NFL, at least in 2025, the come-from-behind wins, just, hey, you need a big moment. Bo is not going to blink. We saw that here. But I teased it earlier here in the show, and this is to answer Rob's question. as I mentioned, a little long-witted here, Rob, so I'm sorry about that. The one statistic that if the Broncos can clean this up here in 2026,

Starting point is 00:03:40 Bo is going to have his best season yet from a statistical standpoint, right? So as I mentioned, 3,900 passing yards last season, 25 passing touchdowns, 11 interceptions. Here's the statistic that was the most disturbing about the Broncos offense when it comes to Bo Nix in the passing game. 43 dropped passes last season, which can account for 350 to 400. lost yards through the air. A handful of different drop touchdowns that we saw, certainly last season from the Broncos. So let's factor that in.

Starting point is 00:04:10 43 drops. You lose out on 400 plus yards passing in those situations. And you had 3,900 passing yards in your second season in the NFL. Let's say the Broncos clean that up. And Bo plays at the same pace in which he did last season. But this time around, guys aren't dropping the ball. I think very well, Bo at that point, will pass for over 4K yards.

Starting point is 00:04:33 He should pass between 41 to 4,200 yards. That would be nice. But also, I think it's also hard to gauge because of what we saw last season as well. Another statistic that was very telling you, the Broncos, Bo Nix had the most passing attempts in the NFL last season. And that was because they did not have a run game that they could lean on and rely on consistently enough. So, Bo, he was thrown all over the place. We've done so many shows here where we're talking about the aftermath of a game,

Starting point is 00:05:01 where Bo has 17 passing attempts in the first half. The Broncos have run the ball, what, four or five times? That right there puts the Broncos in a tough spot. That, I think, puts Bo Nix in a tough spot because this dude just has to throw, throw, throw, throw, throw, throw. Okay, well, you know, you got the production, you got the volume there, but then you factor in the 43 drop passes by receivers, running backs, tight ends.

Starting point is 00:05:25 It paints a little bit of a story here about Denver's offense and just how much Bo, I think, in his position, really helped the Broncos overcome offensively and was Bo great all the time? No, we're not saying that Bo played perfect. Bo's still growing. There's areas of his game. He has to be better. He could be more consistent. We can obviously highlight that here. But the fact that we saw a Broncos team struggle as bad as it did without Bo in the AFC championship game, I think we all sat here and wondered what would have been like if Bo had played. So if in 2025, despite 45, despite fighting 43 drops, despite leading the NFL in overall passing attempts and having a 63, I think it was, 63, 64% completion percentage last season. What would that have been if there weren't the 43 drops?

Starting point is 00:06:07 That could have very well been a 65, 66, 66, 67% completion percentage for him last season, well over 4,000 yards. And I would estimate two, maybe 30 plus passing touchdowns on the season for Bow. So if Davis Webb, if this new wrinkle of having him come in as a play caller, and it's going to be opening things up from a balance standpoint where it's not going to be Bo dropping back on every single play and passing in the first half is that the Broncos have a complimentary run game, it opens up Bo to be far more successful. It allows them to dial it maybe more deep shots if the run game is working. And then you can go to the play action game.

Starting point is 00:06:44 Everything sets up there. If Jalen Waddle's addition of this offense creates more opportunities for Cortland Sutton, we are going to see that downfield aspect. But if defenses still say, hey, we're really worried about Cortland and we're not going to cover Jalen Waddle, we've seen on tape that Jalen Waddle himself can beat Man. He can beat zone. He's got that vertical speed to get down the field as well. And if teams focus on him, enter Troy Franklin, Anton Marvin Mims, enter Pat Bryant here.

Starting point is 00:07:09 The Broncos have a litany of options now that right now on paper, Bo should be in line. I think his early projections here in 17 games, if everybody stays healthy, if the offense does the little things, and they can work on not dropping those passes at the rate in which they did last season, as I mentioned, 43, Bo should have 30 plus passing touchdowns next season.

Starting point is 00:07:29 he should have over 4,000 yards passing as well. That is my prediction here, Rob, for Bo this upcoming season. And I just think that everything around Bo right now from a nucleus in terms of the core of the team, it's in a really good spot. And I think the biggest question mark too. And this is also going to maybe answer the Davis Webb question a little bit. Can Davis Webb rely on the run game? I think at times Sean tried to rely on the run game, but Sean's aggressive.

Starting point is 00:07:55 I think at times Sean abandoned the run game if it didn't work on the run game. if it didn't work on the first play, right? Or if the first carry of the game ended up being a minus two yard result, right? Because someone broke through the backfield or the back didn't see the hole. At times when you don't trust in that, it's easy to go away from that.

Starting point is 00:08:11 And I think at times that's what Sean did. But I think now with Davis calling plays, and Sean kind of being this observer, who's still going to have an ear, a voice in the ear of Davis Webb, so to speak, during the games and it's going to be very involved in the game planning process, I think you are giving maybe a different perspective.

Starting point is 00:08:28 Maybe Sean will see the game a little bit differently now that he's not trying to process everything right after one play ends and now he's got 40 seconds to figure it out. Sean can process that and he can also help Davis Webb be more efficient by saying, hey, they were in this. Relying on what the coaches in the boxes are also telling you and then getting that play call in quickly, getting the personnel in quicker than what we saw from Sean last year. I think the addition Jalen Wattle certainly is going to help. And I think on paper, Davis Webb now calling plays will open things up a little bit more here for Bo Nix because of the relationship. two guys have. I think that Davis is going to be a little more receptive to ideas that maybe Bo has. Sean is at times receptive to ideas that Bo brings to the table. And certainly, Sean will ask Bo on a week to week basic. What plays are you comfortable with? Like, does this work for

Starting point is 00:09:12 this week's game plan? They have that collaborative relationship. But I'm saying now with Davis, what I'm saying now is with Davis, you might have a little bit more sway on the situation here if you are. But Rob, I think it's a great question. And once again, to answer my prediction for him, 4,000 plus passing yards, over 30 plus passing touchdowns. I think the Broncos offense is going to be one of the better units in the NFL this upcoming season. If everything goes according to plan, how I at least see it on paper. In theory, it sounds great, but they obviously got to get on the field.

Starting point is 00:09:42 They got to go out there and they got to make it happen. So we're going to have to wait and see, but I think it's going to be his best season entering year. It's going to put him in a position as well for after this year, he's eligible to sign an extension. And if he plays well enough, I think the Broncos will give that to him here. But Broncos Country coming up next. We got another mailbag question about which players on offense and on defense could be in line for taking the largest leap forward. On here on today's episode of the show.

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Starting point is 00:11:54 You need to hire. This is a job for Indeed, sponsor jobs. Evan Ingram is one player who could benefit the most from Davis Webb becoming the play caller, and he could be the one person on offense who takes the largest step forward. I just want to say thank you once again to everyone in Broncos country. All the Everydare is out there. Thanks for tuning in making us your first list. If you want to find a way to support the show, hey, join the Everydayer Club.

Starting point is 00:12:14 It's in the show notes down below. We're Lockdownbroncos. dot supercast.com you get an ad-free version of the show. So if you want to support, make sure you head over there, becoming every day or here today. Let's talk about this last question that we just had submitted in from our good friend, Jonah, who asks, which Broncos player could you see taking a big leap in 2026, one on offense, one on defense? And I think it's important that we talk about offense first. And I think Evan Ingram is the one guy that we should highlight here. Now, Evan last season, I felt like it was one of the more exciting off

Starting point is 00:12:46 season additions that we all had, at least going into the season, right? Because the Broncos, they desperately needed a pass catching weapon tied in. Evan Ingram, he visited, he left, he went to the Chargers and we were saying, no, to the Broncos just fumble an opportunity to get a playmaker here for Bo Nix. Evan ultimately ends up signing with Denver. And that was very exciting for all of us because Sean Payton brought him in to be the Joker. And I know folks get mad every time we use the term Joker, but we're talking about the reality of the situation. That's what Sean Payton told Evan he was going to be. Evan was coming into the season thinking that I'm going to be used this way, this way,

Starting point is 00:13:24 this way. He just simply wasn't. And even Evan said, hey, I was brought in to be the Joker because he's got those elite past catching athletic assets that could be used in mismatch opportunities out of the back field or in the middle of the field. And that's exactly what Sean's definition of that position ultimately is. He was that guy. RJ Harvey also became that guy primarily last season for Denver here.

Starting point is 00:13:48 But for Evan Ingram, what was frustrating, at least from my vantage point, and I'm not going to speak for Broncos country, but I imagine that a large portion of Broncos country felt the same way. Evan was not utilized in any way, shape, or form that the Broncos had sold to him about, hey, this is going to be your role here. And I think a lot of it is because people are like, well, he's just not a great blocking tight in. Here's the thing about Evan, folks. you didn't bring Evan Ingram in to be a blocking tight end. Yes, you know, from time to time, you're going to have to be able to chip a pass rusher or chip a potential guy who could impact maybe a play in the run game, right? You have to be able to take angles.

Starting point is 00:14:25 It's not about being a bigger physical guy. Folks, if you've played the game of football, I played flanker, right? I was a slot. My job, we ran lead option nine times, you know, on a drive specifically. You know what my job was, was to go crack block big inside linebackers. Now, I was 5'10. I was going against 6-3 linebackers. And you know what?

Starting point is 00:14:46 Even though they had the size advantage against me, it's about getting to the right shoulder, getting to an angle and preventing them from making the play. You want them to go underneath you versus going around you because that disrupts the flow of the play. You're not asking Evan Enger to be a one-on-one, legit, just pound somebody into the dirt blocking tight-in. That's not why you brought him in.

Starting point is 00:15:04 You brought him in to be an isolated matchup threat against inside linebackers, smaller nickel defenders and safeties at time. you draw certain matchups right there. You thought he could be a guy that can win you in fourth down situations. And at times this season, he was. But the Broncos didn't use him in that manner, hardly enough. He played a career low in terms of overall snaps played. Granted, he missed one game.

Starting point is 00:15:27 But that didn't factor into the number of snaps that he played. Adam Troutman by virtue played over 600 snaps and had 20 targets, 23 targets, offensively, only 20 catches. And he was the tight-in one. But he's a blocking guy primarily. He's not a pass catching guy. Evan is a clutch player here. I think we saw that for the Broncos last season at various times offensively.

Starting point is 00:15:49 We'll go to the Washington Commander's game on Sunday night football. You isolate him on a shake route against Bobby Wagner one-on-one. You'll take that match up every time, 41 yards and overtime, sets up the Broncos for RJ Harvey, eventually scored the game-winning touchdown in that game. You need some big plays against the Jacksonville Jaguars in that third quarter. Well, it's a 33-yard catch-and-run over across the middle of the field. that the Broncos had. It's in that comeback against the Philadelphia Eagles. You saw these splash plays here. And then, you know, against the New York Jets the following week in London,

Starting point is 00:16:19 he comes up with a huge catch on. They believe it was third and medium, third and long situation there for the Broncos that ultimately helped them get the game winning field goal. That's what you want to see in terms of the usage, but you want to see it more. It's not just like, hey, we need to break this out every once in a while. Evan is a very good player that you should absolutely isolate in different matchups. And the thing about him, you can put them in line. You can put him in the slot. You can put him on the outside. You can even put him in the back field and get him to release out there. Right. If you can isolate him one-on-one against the linebacker, run him out there in the flat. Get them the, get him the ball in space. We've seen

Starting point is 00:16:52 that he's got some deceptive speed to him. He's not a burner by any means, but he's athletic. And he's also got some explosiveness to him. You have to find a way to use that. I think Evan Ingram is one player here. If I had to answer your question, Jonah offensively, who's going to be prime for a leap here. Now, I want to go to the defensive side of the ball here. Justin Sternat is my selection here, right? And I was racking my brain trying to figure out who could be the leapier guy for the Broncos defensively this season. Part of my mind wandered towards Jadae Barron. We don't know what his role is going to be just yet.

Starting point is 00:17:22 There may be a competition. He's going to have to go out there and earn it. But we do know Justin Sternat is going to be a starter. Last year, he was arguably the best linebacker for the Broncos in terms of the saxy got four and a half last year. He was able to get after the quarterback. he was the Broncos most effective blitzer at the position from the offball linebacker standpoint. He was the one guy consistently getting stuffs at the line of scrimmage, sometimes behind the line of scrimmage for a TFL.

Starting point is 00:17:47 But he was also the Broncos best coverage linebacker last season. And he only started half the games last year for Denver because of injuries. He should have started all season long, in my opinion. But now he's going to get a chance to be the full-time starter. And I think because of that, you are going to see him take a leap forward here this year, which means a reduction of special team snaps. He's probably not going to play as much special teams for Denver this upcoming season, which is okay.

Starting point is 00:18:12 That's why you brought in guys like Tyson Anderson at safety to replace guys like PJ Locke. But it gives maybe other guys like Jordan Turner or Lavelle Bailey an opportunity to make the roster for special teams alone, a role that Justin had before he became a starter, right? That's where you can allow guys to develop a little bit more as players, get them on special teams, and then the opportunity will present itself for them at one point. Wesley Woodhers also great.

Starting point is 00:18:35 example of a Broncos player who was just a special team's ace at one point and then emerged to be a team captain and also a starter for you. Justin Sternat has earned his place and that's why I think he's going to be in position the most on defense to have a leap forward. You can make arguments for maybe pass rushers like Jonah Ellis or Dondre Tillman. I'd say Dondre Tillman took a massive leap last season. So he'd have to do even better, I think, to overtake that. Jonah Ellis has to stay healthy in order to be in consideration for this.

Starting point is 00:19:05 but he's a very good player. But I think the easy button here in terms of looking at a player who wasn't starting as much last year, Sternat is the easy selection, easy choice here for being that lead players. So, Jonah, great questions that you sent in here on today's episode of the show. Really appreciate it. Broncos Country. If you have any players that you feel like on offense, you feel like you're going to take a leap forward in 2026 and on defense, hey, make sure you let us know here on today's episode of the show.

Starting point is 00:19:31 But Broncos Country coming up next, we're going to dispel some of the false narrative. surrounding this team over the last two years and why the Broncos are exactly where they should be right now. Here on today's episode of the show. Today's episode of the show is brought to you, our friends over there at five-hour energy. Welcome to the five-hour energy flavor draft with 18 different flavors to choose from, including new options like confetti craze, fruity rainbow, or cotton candy. There is something for everyone. The board is set, the flavors already, and I've got my number one pick for the five-hour energy draft,

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Starting point is 00:21:00 We're going to pump the brakes on that Broncos country. Denver is exactly where they need to be. And I'll tell you why here in just a second. Just want to say thanks once again for taking time out of your day to make us your first listen. However, you choose to do so here. Our final mailbag question for today's show comes in from Brad. Brad asks, why has the world seemingly forgot about where the Broncos were just two and a half years ago? And why are people now saying that the team is running out of excuses to win now?

Starting point is 00:21:26 I think this is a great question because I have seen some of these national talking heads, people who honestly really don't pay attention to what the Broncos do on a day to day or on the week-to-week basis. They just look at certain things. Now, after the Broncos signed Jalen Wattel, I mean, traded for Jalen Waddle. You saw a lot of different things coming out about, oh, well, you know, Jailen Waddle is a great addition, but the Broncos lost Pete Carmichael. The Broncos, they lost Jim Leonard. Like, a lot of people don't realize, like, Jim Leonard was an important loss for Denver.

Starting point is 00:21:56 He had a very key pivotal role as a defensive past game coordinator. But some people are thinking that Jim Leonard, was the defensive coordinator for the Broncos last evening. Pete Carmichael had this very, very important role. He was a senior offensive assistant. It was a very cushy or cushy job for Carmichael there because he was with someone that he knows really well. And that's Sean Peyton, Joe Lombardi, it was a good old boys club, so to speak.

Starting point is 00:22:18 But now he's the offense coordinator over there in Buffalo. Awesome. Great for him. But I think there are a lot of people, and I've seen some things as well. And the one thing that I saw that kind of drove me a little mad about this. And I'm glad you sent this to me, Brad, was you've had some people saying that the Broncos, they're running out of excuses to win now. You know, like they just made this trade for Jalen Waddle.

Starting point is 00:22:38 Okay, well, they better win a Super Bowl now. I think people forget where Denver was two years ago going into the 2024 NFL season, right? They had Bow Nix. They drafted him. There was a lot of excitement. Hey, Denver's got a quarterback. But the narrative and the people in terms of where they planted the goalpost at that time was, well, the Broncos reached for the six best quarterback initiators NFL draft.

Starting point is 00:22:58 wow, it's not going to do much for them. And then people were running those victory lapses I talked about earlier after week two of the NFL season where the Broncos lost to the Steelers and Bo was struggling. He didn't have single touchdown, but he had, I believe, at that point, I think he was 0 for 4. I think he had zero touchdowns, four interceptions at that time. And people were just having an absolute field day with Bo and maybe some of the struggles in terms of where he's, I think it was 0 for 5, if I'm not mistaken, at that point.

Starting point is 00:23:28 And so people are like, yeah, he's a bust. Move on from him. The Broncos, they got fleeced. They're going to be in contention for the number one draft pick going into the 2025 NFL draft. Well, guess what the Broncos rattled off 10 wins that season? Bonnick certainly got better. But the Broncos embraced that period because they released Russell Wilson. They incurred at the time, that's now been broken by Tuatunga by Lowe and the Miami Dolphins,

Starting point is 00:23:50 the largest dead cap in NFL history by getting out of the Russell Wilson contract. They ate 55 million one year, 32 million last year for them. And so people said, you know, hey, like, you know, Denver's going to be in the bottom. They got all this dead cap that's working against them. You know, they can't do this, that or the other. A lot of people still thought that the Broncos didn't have their draft picks from the Russell Wilson deal, which Denver got those back essentially in the 2024 NFL draft. 2023 was a little bit of a different story there.

Starting point is 00:24:19 But then 2025, the narrative all of a sudden as the Broncos are winning games, and they rattled off 11th Street victory. the narrative was, well, the Denver Broncos, they didn't play anybody. I just always wonder, what's the next narrative going to be that's going to move the goalpost here? Because people are saying, well, now Denver's running out of excuses. They won 15 games total last season. They made it to the AFC championship game.

Starting point is 00:24:42 Folks, I would say that not many people, I know I can only speak for myself, but a lot of people in the national media didn't have the Broncos doing anything. There were a lot of people that thought, still, the Broncos were going to finish third or fourth in the AFC West last season. I had them winning the AFC West this year. I had them winning 11 plus games this season. And I have that all the way back in our mile high sports pre-football magazine edition. We even had the locked on AFC West squad show on here to preview the AFC West for that season where I said,

Starting point is 00:25:12 hey, Denver's going to finish first in the division. Everybody in the comments tried laughing at me, tried clouding on me saying, yeah, the Broncos aren't going to do that. They did. You know, so the Broncos are further ahead right now than. where anybody else thought that they would be. They thought that maybe, hey, after the Bronco has moved on from Russell Wilson, released Justin Simmons, they thought, okay, hey, they're probably like 2026, 2027. That's when the Broncos is going to be competitive.

Starting point is 00:25:37 They're rebuilding, right? They're in a three to four year rebuild here for Sean Peyton, and it's going to take some time for them to get good. Well, the Broncos, they doubled down. They didn't use the $95 million in dead cap as an excuse. They said, you know what? We got to deal with it. We're taking this on now, but now it just means that we're going to have to rely on

Starting point is 00:25:53 younger players. A lot of these younger guys are going to have to play. and they're going to have to develop. And hopefully they can accelerate that development quicker than we thought. They did that. Look, the Broncos defense has also been very good. That helps out a guy like Bo Nix. Bo Nix has been very good despite the fact that the Broncos have not had a very good run game

Starting point is 00:26:12 or a consistent one at that matter. So for them to be ahead of schedule where they're at, I think is very, very interesting because people are saying like, well, in 2026 they don't win the Super Bowl, okay, well, it's over. Like they're not going to do it. They're in a window right now. I think we can all agree upon that. But Denver being ahead of where they're at,

Starting point is 00:26:32 I don't even think that there's an excuse here at this point. Denver doesn't have any built-in excuses from a roster management standpoint. They pushed the chips in. They got Bo Nix, another really good weapon. They're having the same offensive line return this upcoming season for Bo that he had dating back to when he was a rookie. Continuity is key. And the Broncos have a nice foundation.

Starting point is 00:26:51 They have a really good locker room and a good team culture there. That is where. the Broncos have overcome some of these narratives that people have labeled on them. And I'll never forget, too, that Denver's going to pick number one in a 2025 NFL draft. Well, we saw how that all played out here, folks. So for me, this team, they've exceeded expectations. Now, if we're going to look at any NFL team out there and we're going to go through and say, hey, if anyone should have that, well, these guys are running out of excuses label tagged on them.

Starting point is 00:27:19 Let's talk about the Los Angeles Chargers with Justin Herbert. and the fact that they can't get out of the first round of the playoffs. Let's talk about the NFC where we take a look at maybe the Los Angeles Rams, who have obviously made some moves to push the chips in. They're very much in the forget them draft picks approach. But they've lost games, right? They've fallen short. They haven't been able to advance or get back to the Super Bowl.

Starting point is 00:27:39 And then there's a San Francisco 49ers who just years ago was a juggernaut. They were good last year, but they still have not been able to overcome injuries or overcome the hump that they've certainly had. since losing in the Super Bowl back in 2023. So I think that excuses label should be attached to those teams well before they should be attached to any team like the Devere Broncos. I think it's far too early to attach that to the Kansas City Chiefs just yet. Obviously, Mahomes injury was pretty bad for them last year.

Starting point is 00:28:09 They didn't play good football last year, Kansas City. And, you know, playoffs weren't necessarily something. I think a lot of people expected after the midway point of the season. Like, yeah, Kansas City, they're cooked. They're done this year, at least. Mahomes injury changes the future outlook of that. But I'm not ready to attach that label to them just yet. But I think the chargers, the Rams, the 49ers, maybe the Green Bay Packers could have that.

Starting point is 00:28:29 The excuses are running out label. The Broncos, they've never had an excuse. They could have. I think on paper, you could have made a great argument for them to have every excuse possible to be where they're at. But they said, forget that. We're going to go win 10 games in 2024 with a rookie quarterback and get to the playoffs for the first time in 10 years. In 2025, you know, we're going to get to the AFC championship game. And Bo NIC is going to be a big reason why.

Starting point is 00:28:52 were there and why we win that game. That happened. Then the injury occurred. We can maybe make the argument. Hey, if both played in the AFC championship game, would the Broncos to beat the Patriots, I think we all feel good that they would have. There's not a guarantee in that. But that's not us using that as an excuse in any way, shape, or performance. Hey, the Broncos, they fell short. They didn't have a good enough run game.

Starting point is 00:29:12 Late in that second half, the Broncos defense coming out of the halftime, didn't do a good job on the Patriots ensuing drive to open things up. And Drake May used his legs. they converted on some big plays despite the snow. So it's not necessarily like, hey, Denver's got these excuses built in. They're not. And I don't think Sean Payton and the Broncos, they buy it as well. Bo Nix is a guy that's never going to make excuses for this team.

Starting point is 00:29:34 So that's kind of where I stand on it. And I think that's just a fantastic question that you sent in here, Brad, on today's mailbag edition of the show here. Broncos country, please let me know your thoughts here. What are some of the false narratives that you've seen surrounding the Denver Broncos have got you scratching her head and saying, where did this come from? Here's to know because there's so many, I feel like every single week that we see something

Starting point is 00:29:55 on the social media sphere, unfortunately, that pops up here. But that'll wrap up today's episode of show. Brockow's country, I appreciate you so much. We've got a bonus episode coming your way a little bit later on this afternoon. We take a look at Pat Bryant and what he can do to ascend a little bit further here,

Starting point is 00:30:09 going to this second season in the NFL. Just a reminder, if you want to join the Everyday Air Club, join right now for an ad-free version of the show. If that's how you want to support the show, we appreciate you so much for doing that. Make sure you subscribe or follow wherever you get your podcast. We're here on YouTube. And if you know someone who's a Broncos fan that doesn't know about this show, share this episode with them, send that to them, and have them become an everydayer as well.

Starting point is 00:30:29 With that said, we'll see you tomorrow for a brand new episode. Locked out Broncos. Broncos country. We'll see you then.

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