Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - Three Denver Broncos Facing The MOST PRESSURE To Make Roster

Episode Date: June 4, 2025

A.T. Perry, Lucas Krull, and Frank Crum are three Denver Broncos players facing the most pressure to make the roster this offseason due to the moves the team has made at wide receiver, tight end, and offensive tackle. How can Perry make a name for himself considering the Broncos WR depth? Can Krull stand out enough to take another step forward to crack the tight end rotation and will Crum take his development to the next level this summer? 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://link.chtbl.com/LOBroncos?sid=YouTube Locked On NFL League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Draft & More🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnNFL Follow on Twitter: @CodyRoarkNFL and @SayreBedingerFollow the show on Twitter: @LockedOnBroncos Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!LinkedInPost your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONNFL. Terms and conditions apply. FanDuelRight now, new customers can get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA. Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNFL at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. 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.

As the Denver Broncos dive deeper into week two of OTAs, we're going to discuss three players who have long odds of making the roster. What can they do to make an impression throughout this summer? We'll discuss that here on today's episode, Locked on Broncos. 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? Welcome me to another episode of Lockdown Broncos, Your Daily Denver Broncos podcast,

part of the lockdown podcast. Derek, we know it's your team every day. If you want Daily Broncos News, content coverage analysis more, make sure you subscribe or follow wherever you get your podcast or available on YouTube. We want to give a special shout out to all the everydayers out there in Broncos country. Thanks for tuning in, making us to your first listen. However, you choose to do so.

I'm Cody Rourke, Broncos reporter for Mile High Sports. And I'm Sarah Bedinger's site expert at predominantly orange.com. And here's what you're going to get on today's episode of the show is week two of OTAs is officially ongoing. Media is set to attend Thursday's practice in Dove Valley. We're going to highlight three players who have tough roster odds of making it it onto the 53, considering the depth additions there. We'll look at wide receiver AT Perry,

maybe why he's a little bit of a long shot that has a lot of talent that could potentially be an impact if it can formulate there. We'll also talk about Lucas Crowl at the tight end position and why he really needs to show something this summer to make the roster and be a valuable depth option in that tight end room. Plus, Frank Crum, the Bronf. He was undrafted, a rookie fridge who made the 53-man roster last year. He's got some competition.

So his spot isn't necessarily guaranteed as the Broncos look to fill out their depth. The offensive tackle position will break all the down here on today's episode of the show. Sare. Let's get into it here. I think first and foremost, look, you and I have been kind of banging the table a little bit here, talking about A.T. Perry dating back to when he was brought onto the team's practice squad last season. Denver dealt with some injuries at the wide receiver position with Josh Reynolds. A.T. Perry was a practice squad edition.

we started thinking to ourselves, okay, when white, we see him on the field? And I can tell you, watching him in practice last year, six foot five runs routes really well, has explosive speed to him. And I was thinking to myself, how come we can't see this guy in the field? But now that the Broncos have made moves at the position and Sean Payton has come out and said that guys aren't necessarily competing for spots or competing for touches, I can't help but think that AT Perry's opportunity to thrive might not be this season in Denver. Yeah, it's going to be really tough to crack the rotation.

because you've obviously got Cortland Sutton, Devon Valet, Marvin Mims, Pat Bryant, incoming, Troy Franklin, who had a good day of practice last week and who Sean Peyton is already speaking highly of. And then, of course, Trent Sherfield, who is supposed to be the new Tremont Smith or special teams ace on this team. So by my count, Cody, that puts the Broncos at potentially six wide receivers that I don't know if you can really at this point in the year for anybody on the team. I mean, some guys obviously, right, but putting guys names in Sharpie on the roster. I think there's six guys that you can maybe say, hey, let's write this in pen and we'll cross it out later if we need to. That's kind of where it feels. It doesn't feel like anybody at

receiver is really penciled in as like, this guy's not really guaranteed to make the team, have the eraser ready. I feel like you can put it in pen and kind of say, if you need to, you scratch his name off and you write somebody else's in. A.T. Perry has to go out there and force this coaching staff, forced the front office to say, we're scratching somebody's name off of the 53 and putting A.T. Perry in there. Now, I know it was reported last week that he wasn't out there at OTAs for practice. And I also know that listeners of the show, Cody, we get a mixed reaction anytime A.T. Perry's name comes up, don't we? I mean, some people are like, why are you bringing up a guy who was on the practice squad last year? And then you throw it out there on your Twitter, hey, who do you

want us to talk about some underrated guys that don't get a lot of love on the roster? And I saw probably seven, eight comments, A.T. Perry, A.T. Perry, A.T. Perry. People are interested to know what's going to happen with this guy because of what you mentioned. Size, speed, big playability, which has been proven in the regular season. And so I think it's now up to him to rewrite the narrative, right, to say, these guys that you've written in ballpoint pen or that you've got up on the on the board written in red or whatever the, whatever the Broncos code is for this guy is probably going to be on the team, you've got to force it to cross him out, to cross. a name off and put A.T. Perry in there.

Well, that's the challenge, too, because, you know, in this business, in the NFL, a wide receiver, it's a premium position. Sure, there are a number of guys, but how many guys are that maybe know your system that you can maybe bring in off the street? Now, I think for a guy like A.T. Perry, in a world where he doesn't make the 53-man roster for Denver, the Broncos, I can guarantee you, would love to have him stay on the practice squad. But last year, this is why I find the A.T. Paras saga in Denver a little interesting. last year there were a handful of teams. There are at least two or three teams that I know were interested in bringing A.T. Perry

onto their 53-man roster. He declined it. He had the opportunity to go. He stayed in Denver on the practice squad. So for me, I'm looking at the whole picture here. And of course, yes, we can talk about the key guys, the Cortland Sutton's, Marvin, Troy Franklin's. But you also have to look in like, okay, hey, what if Cortland Sutton goes down with an injury?

What if the Von Veil goes down with injury or Pat Bryant? You also want to make sure your debt that you have, you can bring up and those guys can play. Now, there's the risk that you run there. Let's say the Broncos go in through the preseason and play and AT Perry obviously gets reps and obviously he's not brought back onto the 50s tournament roster. If there are other teams that are interested in, they can certainly claim him on waivers if that's the case. And then the Broncos lose out on that. But as we know, most of the time when we sit here and we talk about,

I don't know if you guys can push this guy through waivers when you do roster cuts. It's too risky. we see those guys, you know, get cut, clear waivers, come right back on the practice squad. So it's not as crazy as maybe it sounds like, but you do run the risk of losing that player. Or there's another situation here, Sarah, that maybe we can look at as an opportunity here for the Broncos. Okay, we've seen George Payton work as magic with guys like Trinity Benson just years back. Let's say A.T. Perry is the type of guy who comes out has a tremendous training camp, has a great preseason. He is one of those guys, in my opinion, a team that could suffer an injury at training camp or

in the preseason at wide receiver. That's where the Broncos and George Pink say, hey, we got A.T. Perry, give us a sixth or a seventh round pick. You know the Broncos would take that. So it's also an opportunity to elevate the stock of a player in order to maybe gain additional assets down the road in the NFL draft, which, I mean, when we're talking about a player who can play and we're talking like, okay, this guy could be traded. You know, sometimes it can come across as like, okay, there's no value to them on team. There is value, but I'm just saying you can't feed, like you're not going to carry seven players. a wide receiver on the active roster.

It's just not going to be a realistic thing that a team does. Yeah, I think that the only realistic way for him to make this team if the Broncos keep six receivers is that somebody's a surprise cut or trade or the potential that you and I have discussed before of mainly defensive guys being the ones that get kept around for that special team's specific role. Like Trent Sherfield, we talked about the fact that he got $1.5 million guaranteed on his contract. That's a hefty amount. But at the same time, given the fact of, hey, he's a proven veteran, things like that, it's not necessarily a guarantee to say, well, the Broncos gave him 1.5 million,

so he's making the team. They cut Josh Reynolds last year. They've cut a number of other guys despite higher guarantees. They took the 90 million dead cap from Russell Wilson's deal mostly last year, right. So I think that it's really one of those situations. And I know they took 50 some odd million last year, 30 some odd million this year. I know we always get, you know, we've got to be, you know, clear here, Cody, because I don't want to get called out for, you know, saying something. But with Trent Sherfield, maybe, maybe his road to the roster is not as guaranteed. And that opens it up for AT Perry. But then again, Velae doesn't play special teams. Troy Franklin didn't play special teams. Marvin Mims only really is a return man. So these guys at receiver, Pat Bray

He didn't play special teams at Illinois. Those guys don't have that advantage. And they're going to be in the rotation at receiver. So does A.T. Perry play special teams, right? I mean, it's all up in the air at this point. But at the same time, you're right. You've got friends in high places with other NFL teams. There's a lot of former Broncos in, you know, NFL City X, NFL City Y, NFL City Z.

Players and coaches and executives that know A.T. Perry, they're going to be not necessarily the player side. but the executives and the coaches, they might pound the table to throw a pick for that guy. And he could end up being a valuable asset to the Broncos in that way. Well, and look, he's got the athletic traits. He's got the things that are valuable, right? And so much upon where a player lands or goes, the environment is just as important as the traits, right? I think you can look at Devante Adams. Look, he had a couple of big games last year for the Jets.

But I would say like Devante Adams, you know, great player went to New York, wasn't as great, in a sense as to what we were used to seeing when he was dominating with Green Bay. Some of the stints that he had when he was a member of the Las Vegas Raiders. But on top of that, I would just say like 6 foot 5, you know, 4, 5, 40 yard dash speed or like 4, 49. Teams love that. They'll always take a chance on that. And if you have to, you know, give up a 7th or a 6th round pick or George Payton, what did you get for Trinity Benson, a 5th and a 7th essentially? A few years ago, all right, you might, you'll take that gamble because those are back in guys.

And, hey, it could pay off. And we've seen NFL teams do that before. But, yeah, I mean, for AT Perry, it is a tough road for him, considering all the names at the wide receiver position right now. He's going to have to have a really strong offseason. I think in order to make a case to make the 53, and I know the team would want him back, but that's not necessarily a guarantee.

So obviously highlighting A.T. Perry here as one of those players. But there's another player whose roster spot is on the line. He's probably got the toughest uphill battle of this position. We'll discuss why Lucas Crowell needs a lot of help to make the roster here in 2025. Here on today's episode, Lockdown Broncos. Today's episode of Lockdown Broncos is brought to you by fans. The NBA finals, Oklahoma City Thunder, Indiana Pacers, every single night is going to deliver highlight-worthy performances, major momentum shifts, and those can't-miss moments that we all love. Whether it's a game-winning shot, a breakout player, there's never been a better time to get in on the action.

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He faces maybe the biggest uphill climb of any notable offensive weapon in 2025 to make this Denver Broncos team. We're going to talk about Lucas. We're going to talk about some other offensive players facing an uphill climb to the roster on today's show. But Broncos Country, I want to say thank you to every single one of you that. makes us your first listen of the day every single day. And for all you everyday listeners out there, we appreciate you so much.

If you haven't done so already, go ahead, follow, hit subscribe, wherever you listen to podcasts, as well as on YouTube. We'd love to be part of your day every single day. And Cody, let's talk about Lucas Crowell because last year, about a year ago at this time, there was some talk that he was the best player on the field at OTAs. And Sean Payton had a good laugh about that and even cracked a joke about it later down the line. I know Lucas Krull had a strong finish to 2023. We saw some of that big playability that got everyone excited when the Broncos brought him in after the 2023 preseason. He was a,

it was a fun addition and a fun player to talk about last year. But unfortunately, I feel like he just didn't seize the opportunity that he was given. And now as a result, facing the potential, real, real potential of being cut at the time that, you know, I guess moving forward to, September here. He's really got a lot of guys ahead of him on the depth chart right now. Yeah. And look, the tight end position is one that obviously has needed upgrading here for this Broncos offense. It's been a big talking point for you and I almost for a full season now of who's going to really take a step forward and emerge. And, you know, luckily now we can say, all right, the Broncos, they couldn't find that in-house with any of their guy. So they went

on and they got Evan Ingram. Love that they've been able to do that. And we were a little worried initially when Evan Ingram was taking, you know, leaving Denver without a deal. And he was going to visit the Los Angeles Chargers and Justin Herbert and Harbin. We're like, wow, like the Broncos, they lose out on hand. That's a major fumble of the bag there. But now, obviously, you know, Evan Ingram is here in Denver. He'll be the primary tight-in option. Veteran Adam Troutman obviously looks like a little bit of a lock there because of his reliability,

someone that Sean Payton knows and has full trust with. And that's another factor. Sean Payton's trust is what keeps you on the roster, right? It's almost like meet the parents where, you know, you got the circle of trust either in or you're out. Adam Troutman is in for life. at this point when it comes to his relationship equity with Sean Baten as you do the De Niro face there.

I would say this about Lucas Crowell. Sarah, he's got the traits. He's got the big build. He's got the height. He's got the athleticism. He doesn't necessarily have, I'd say, the speed, like game-breaking speed to be a consistent dynamic threat to you. But you don't need him to be that.

Like what the Broncos have needed at this position for a handful of years really since Noah Fant is a guy who could be a consistent chain mover who can be someone you can match up maybe against an inside linebacker or a smaller safety and you could just move the chains keep drives alive or because of his height use him in the red zone where you have other guys who have that six foot five plus archetype you know the way that sean payton likes even though that crow led the team in overall what receptions with 19 his receiving yards didn't match that so when you're talking about his overall yards per

catch it was a low output if he had 19 catches on the year and adam troutman led the team at tight end with 188 total yards receiving. That's where I look at things. Like, all right, something's got to formulate. I will say this, seeing Lucas Crowell at OTAs last Thursday, we'll have a chance to see him once again here this upcoming Thursday. He did have a catch on the sideline that I felt like was impressive, but you got to see more of that, right?

We got to see it more than just practice because we saw it. Like I'll say in OTAs in mini camp last year, we saw Lucas Crowell making plays downfield and we're like, all right, hey, the Broncos might have a gem here. and it never formulated into anything in the regular season, right? So it's obviously our job to talk about it as we see it now, but it's on the player, it's on the coaches to put that player in a position to succeed. Lucas Crowell,

I mean, he really has a long uphill battle because you've got Evan Ingraham, Adam Troutman, you've got Caleb Loner who's got a four-year rookie contract that looks like he's going to be very involved in developing. And then Nate Adkins still is making a strong case for himself as a potential two-way hybrid player that can play fullback for you as well. So really,

I look at Lucas Crowell. there could be a chance maybe he makes it back onto the practice squad. But the 53-man roster, I'd say at everyone at that position, he's probably got the longest odds to do so. I think when you look back at last year's Broncos offense, one of the things that Sean Payton and his staff did not do well is setting up guys downfield beyond the line of scrimmage with after the catch opportunities, right?

It was if you were throwing the deep ball, it was a point A to point B kind of thing. Go up, get the ball, make a play like Cortland Sutton. on his dagger routes or Marvin Mims on the deep ball, right? You're trying to hit shot plays that's designed to go from A to B, not from A to B to C, right? Because a lot of offensive coordinators and play callers around the league, Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVeigh, Matt LaFleur, these guys draw up plays that are designed to go from A to B to C. From the quarterback to the receiver to, hey, he should be able, based on how we're designing this play, to get yards after the catch.

Lucas Krull last season, Cody, had 67 yards after the catch on 19 receptions. That was almost half the yak per reception that he had the year before when he only caught eight passes. So there's there's an obvious situation here with Krull where I feel like his body type, his athleticism, his playing style, which is sort of the NFL blitz type of player, right? Because you want this guy to have the ball in space. He is a physical guy who wants to stiff arm dudes. He wants to throw people down on his way to the end zone. He wants to be having Chris Berman say, rumbling and bumbling and stumbling his way.

The Broncos have to give him chances to do that. I'm not saying that Lucas Krull should be this all pro tight end. But what we know about his skill set is that he can be ball dominant at the catch point, didn't see many opportunities for him to do that last year, and he can be effective after the catch. I don't recall any situations. year where Lucas was given a, he's coming to cross on a mesh concept or he's doing a little drag across the middle of the field.

And the play is designed to get him the ball in space and let him go after the catch. That's, it was always a, hey, Kroll is coming back to the ball. Kroll is working back to the, or he's, he's trying to make a catch at the sideline. That kind of stuff, just it's not his strength. It's not going to amplify his strengths. So I would hope that if the Broncos are going to give him a real shot to make this team, they give him those chances after the catch, which they didn't give him last year. I would say that's a very valid point because you mentioned those mesh concepts, crossing patterns.

Remember the Kansas City Chiefs game in Arrowhead where we saw Bow Nix find Adam Troutman on a crosser because really the Broncos, they stayed in 12 and 13 personnel and they just blocked, block, block with those guys. And then you did a block release where the linebacker was pretty much cheating. Like, this guy hasn't ran a route all game long. I'm going to cheat on the other crosser because the tight end, they're not going to throw to number 80. to Bonex found him in stride, yard after the catch 32 to 37 yards, something along those lines there. I agree. That is, I think, an element of Lucas Crowell's game that could be an impact here for the Broncos offense. But now with the addition of Evan Ingram, with Troutman still being in the mix here,

Crow is going to have to come in and make a very, very strong case for himself because I imagine Devere will probably carry, they're going to carry three or four guys that tied in. I could see four, but I'm trying to lean a little bit. bit towards three. And then who's the odd man out there? Because if you keep three, then what does that mean? Okay, it means Caleb Loner, Troutman, and obviously Evan Ingram are going to be your guys. I think they carry four. Loner makes the roster. And then it's really up between Nate Adkins. And I'd say a guy like Lucas Crowell to really turn heads and try to impress. And obviously, Cole Fotheringham is in the mix here, but didn't see him last week at OTA's either after he impressed during the rookie trial. So a lot of moving pieces here with this position. But obviously,

Lucas Crowell probably has the most pressure on him out of anybody at that room right now to make the 53-man roster. I like Lucas. I think he's very candid in the locker room. He's a great guy to talk to. He's an energizer bringing like that's one thing he plays with is energizer. And he does play a little bit of special teams. This is a guy who loves football and the Broncos, I think, have to find a way to give him the ball and space a little bit more. So I agree with you on that said.

But Broncos country, we want to hear from you on today's episode, Lockdown Broncos, your thought of Lucas Crowl, his roster odds as it pertains to making the 53 with this room right now being what it is. What does he have to do in order to change your opinion on him going into 20, 25? That's obviously something we want to hear from you on today's episode show, but Broncos country, our discussion is not done yet. Last year, one Broncos undrafted rookie offensive tackle made the 53 man roster this year, that same player. He's got some competition.

His spot is not necessarily on lock. We'll talk about Frank Crum and his path to the 53 here on today's episode of the show. The Denver Broncos have reinvested in. building their trenches offensively and defensively, and they believe they have capable depth on both sides of the ball. But when you look in the offensive side of the ball with two guys locked into the long term, Garrett Bulls, Mike McGlinchy, your depth at offensive tackle is very important, considering we've seen those guys miss some time due to injuries. Can Frank Crum make the 53-man roster here once again and take a drastic step forward compared to his rookie season? We'll discuss

on on today's episode of the show. Sarah, I find this to be a little bit of an interesting conversation point here because Frank Crum will be honest. We were watching the preseason games last year. We were watching training camp practices. And Crum was a guy who obviously struggled a little bit. He struggled against some of the speed rushers in the preseason. He didn't look like he was having the best performances there. He made the 53 man roster.

And we had asked Sean Payton about Frank Crum. And the reason he made the 53 was the intangibles, the traits that they feel like they could take with him, even though he was raw. and they can believe that they can develop him into something. Well, that's great. You had that experience last year. He continued to develop. Now is the opportunity for him to really kind of carry that development forward here in OTs.

Obviously, he's going to get a lot of reps this off season. But his spot is not necessarily guaranteed as well with guys like, you know, trust on the roster was an undrafted guy. They brought back veteran Matt Pert. They got Alex Paucheske, who's obviously a guy who shined really well when stepping in from Mike McGlinchie at right, tackle. The future for Frank Klum is not very clear right now. It's not.

And I think that's the thing for him that what is the defined role for Frank Crum, right? Is he the developmental left tackle? Is he the developmental swing tackle? Is he the sixth man? Is that going to be Matt Pert's job once again? Because the Broncos kind of under the radar. They did bring back Matt Pert this offseason. And Frank Crum, like you mentioned, Cody, he is the, I guess,

Rass darling of the offensive line. I know Garrett Bowles did great coming out of Utah as well, but athletically speaking, I don't know that anybody scored. Maybe Quinn Miners did. Maybe he did. We'll have to go fact, check that one. But Frank Crum scored a 9.83 on the Rass scale. And that wasn't just because he's a big dude, right?

I mean, he's 6 foot eight. He's got 34 inch arms. He scored extremely well above the 90th percentile and above the 95th percentile in almost every category. Vertical jump, broad jump, three cone, 10 yard split, 40 yard dash. I mean, what does that mean? That means that he's a fast, explosive, quick, he's got good feet, he's got long arms. He has like you said, all of those intangible traits to be a starting tackle in the NFL. The question is, can offensive line coach Zach Streif get that out of him? And that, I believe, is why the Broncos gave Zach Schreif a raise. They gave him a performance. They

motion to keep him around because he did such a great job with Lloyd Cushenberry, year one at the center position. He did such a great job last year with Luke Wattenberg and his injury and then you throw in Forsyth. And you had to use Palcheschi for two starts at right tackle. You had to have Perk go out there when Bulls needed some relief, right? And other guys rotating in and out, the Broncos buy what Streif is able to sell as a development or a developer of talent on the O line.

Crum is that guy that's saying, okay, you take the elite athletic numbers and you take a coach that knows what he's doing and you mesh those two things together and you have a potential future starter. But Frank has to show that this year. Like in the preseason at training camp, when the pads come on, there can be no question because the Broncos have used Pairt as the 6th O lineman. They've used Palschewski as the swing guy. Crum has to get it right this offseason. Well, and look, I would say it's not like it's a big gamble by. of Broncos. It's not like they spent premier draft capital. They drafted a player.

And it's like, all right, we need to see something. It's, hey, this is low risk, high reward type of, you know, material that we're talking about here. Frank, and this is a thing, this is always the toughest thing about the NFL. So like as a reporter, going in the locker room, seeing these guys. Frank is one of the nicest guys I've ever met who's an offensive lineman. Look, there are plenty of offensive linemen who are big and they look scary, but they're the nicest in the world. Frank Crum is honestly one of the most genuinely nice human beings. I think. I have ever met. And I think that he's really embraced from what I've been told, people I've talked to, he's really embraced being in the weight room here this offseason. Right now in OTAs, it's hard for us to evaluate offensive line play because there's no

pads on. There's no physical contact. But he's definitely, he's put on more muscle. They're hoping that his base is a little bit more centered there so he can anchor down a little bit. And they want him to be able to adjust, I'd say quicker, move laterly quicker against some of the speed rushers, then maybe he struggled up against a little bit in the preseason last year, but this is a guy that you take, I think, that type of chance on here.

And worst case scenario, okay, he doesn't make the 53-man roster. He's a guy, unless he really impresses another team out there and they have their eye on him, you can clear him through waivers, bring him back onto the practice squad. And then you have flexibility. If there's an injury, you can bring him up. You can use a practice squad to game day roster elevation three times. Or if there's an injury, a guy goes on IR, you can bring him up and give him a 53-man roster spot.

then there is a lot of flexibility. And I'd say like team control when it comes to a player like Frank Crum. Now, even though Frank has a lot to prove this upcoming season, I'm just excited to see what step forward he can take because also think about it, players can surprise us. How often do we talk about a player that we're watching in the preseason or in training camp? Like, man, this guy, you know, he's struggling. He's having a rough goal. And then one year it's like, bang, okay, this guy looks good.

Matt Parrott is a great example. Matt Parrott is a guy who I thought had struggled a lot during training camp. and he's a guy I thought who struggled a lot during the preseason where there was a time. I think it was against coach. He got put in the lap of Bo Nix on a play there. You're like, oh, no, like this guy's falling down. What's going on? He just needed to get comfortable in the scheme and the system.

And he even did an interview where he was talking about how Streif really kind of, you know, he brought him in as this guy who's got some experience. He's obviously a veteran, but you strip him down to just the bare bones and now you build him back up again. He said that's exactly what Streif did with him. And he ended up playing really well when he had to step in and the regular season. So I think that's where these conversations,

you know, a lot of them are hypotheticals, but that's why we're in this game, man, this is what we talk about. We look at every angle, good, bad, in between all that stuff. I'm excited to see how Frank Crum responds to this

and obviously having extensive competition behind him this upcoming year compared to where he's at last year. And I never want to say that the Broncos are going to sit there and burn a roster spot, Cody, but there's definitely like last year, it was Frank Crum and a couple of other guys that you could realistically

say on a week-to-week basis, this guy is not going to play. You know, this guy's, even if he gets in, or if the starter gets injured, the Broncos are going to bring in somebody else and this guy is going to continue to stay on ice because they're waiting until the right time to unleash him. I wonder how many spots there are going to be like that this year to where I know we've talked about Caleb Loner as one of those guys that no matter what he does this offseason, I still believe you can pencil him in for a roster spot, if not Sharpie, his name in. Broncos drafted him, knowing that.

And last year, I think they picked up Frank Crum understanding, okay, there's Garrett Bowles out there. We've already got Perk. We've got Palchesechi, who's a year ahead of him. You know, we've got all these guys, but we're going to use a roster spot on this guy all year. No matter what happens, unless there's a major emergency, unless we got, you know, 12 guys on IR.

This guy is staying on the roster. And I wonder how many spots they'll have like that this year, because you and I haven't talked much about this, but I don't know if the team's going to keep three quarterbacks again. And I don't know what that, I don't only one spot, but you'd be shocked at the difference in roster gymnastics that you can play when you have that one extra spot to work with. It's very, very different.

And so I think that that's going to be a factor and how many spots are you willing to say it's our future investment spot. It's our, you know, it's our savings fund, so to speak, for these guys. And Crum, he might get more action this year on the field, but I just wonder, How many spots are they going to be willing to reserve for guys like him and maybe including him where it's, hey, this guy may not play this year, but we still believe that he can be a future starter. And you have to look at that too, because I agree with you. You know, quarterback could be that one spot too.

But I think there are going to be two or three positions where the Broncos, and as it pertains to the offensive line, where the Broncos look at it and say, okay, we don't need to carry this many guys at this position. This gives us flexibility to add maybe a couple more pieces here so much for the offensive line. how it pertains to who's going to make the roster. I think it all comes down to impact depth, but also the ability to play two different spots, right? Whether it's tackle guard or whether it's guard center, those conversations will happen for the Broncos as they try to really formulate what that 53 is initially going to look like.

And look, I'm a big believer too. If the NFL ever expands to 18 regular season games, and they take away a preseason game, I think they should add one more spot to the practice squad. And I also think that they should expand the active roster, at least two or three more spots instead of 53, make it 55, 56, and then obviously you only can have your certain amount on game day, maybe elevate that by one or two spots in comparison as well.

But that's another conversation for another day. But that'll wrap up today's episode of show, Broncos Country. We appreciate you so much for rocking with us here today. For all you every dayers out there, here's what you expect on tomorrow's episode of the show. We're going to talk about some of the under-the-radar offensive players, maybe not being discussed about enough at OTAs. Guys like Blake Watson, Caleb Loner,

others, a couple of undrafted rookie wide receivers that we're going to tell you about on tomorrow's episode, Lockdown Broncos, Sarah and I. We'll see you then.