Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - UNDERRATED: Denver Broncos Alex Forsyth Brings GRIT to Offensive Line

Episode Date: December 31, 2025

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The Denver Broncos broke in a new starter at center against the Kansas City Chiefs, and he kept the running game rolling. We're going to talk about it 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 to another episode of Locked on Broncos, where we've got a lot to break down as the Broncos get ready for their week 18 matchup against the Los Angeles Chargers.

We're going to talk about Alex Forsyth. making his starting debut against the Kansas City Chiefs and just how much he upgraded the running game for the Denver Broncos or maybe how much he can upgrade it going forward. We're also going to talk about the fact that Justin Herbert and a lot of other Chargers players likely won't be playing in week 18 as the Broncos will get Tray Lance and then we got to see some stuff in this week, right? We've got to see Evan Ingram getting involved and we've got plenty of other things that we want to see from this Chargers game.

But quickly want to say thank you to all of you out there that make lockdown Broncos is your first listen of the day every single day. All you, every day,ers, we appreciate you so much. My name is Sarah Bedinger. I'm a site expert at predominantly orange.com, alongside, as always, Cody Rourke, who is the Broncos beat reporter for Mile High Sports. And it's an exciting time to be a Denver Broncos fan.

Absolutely 100%. Today's episode of the show is brought to you by our friends at GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account and use code locked on NFL for $20 off your first purchase. Cody, I slipped up when we initially recorded this talking about Alex Palchese. He was the original fill-in for the Denver Broncos at left guard on the offensive line, but it's another Alex who filled in for Luke Wattenberg for the very first time at the center position. Something that was debated throughout the course of the offseason.

I feel like there was some talk, not necessarily the loudest debate and not necessarily, you know, Broncos fans aren't, you know, arguing over this every single day. but there was some talk of should it be Alex Forsyth or should it be Luke Wattenberg as the starting center for this team. I'm interested to know what you saw because I feel like even in the short, small sample size, Alex Forsyth was highlighted by the broadcast crew at Amazon Prime. Like he was doing a really good job doing his, you know, I guess in a redemption game sort of against Kansas City. He shined. He played well.

and I feel like he gives the Broncos an opportunity maybe to keep their running game going here moving forward. I'm not shocked one bit when it comes to Alex Forsyth and the success I thought we saw him have on Thursday night football last week. I think a lot of people forget that he started a handful of games for the Broncos last season, including a road game against the Chiefs there when Luke Wattenberg was initially out with an ankle injury. But now he's going to be the guy right now, essentially, sir, until the Broncos get to the Super Bowl, right? that's how many games. Luke Wattenberg is set to miss four minimum games. So that would mean Chief's game last week, Chargers game this week,

division around. And if Debra makes it past that, then they get to obviously the AFC championship. Now, obviously, Demmer's going to have to win this week in order to not have to play in the wildcar round. But we think that they should take care of business. So four games minimum that Wattenberg will miss. I was not surprised to see Forsy step in and play well. I thought last year when he was in, the run game started to get going a little bit last

year, right? And in this system, the one thing I liked about Forsyth, and as you're watching the game on Amazon, you can actually see when they're getting up to the line of scrimmage with time, Alex is identifying where the mic is or where the blitz is coming from. That helps with Beau. He handled those communications really well alongside Quinn Miners and obviously the rotation of Alex Pouchesky and Ben Powers that we saw, obviously, on Thursday night, that the team continues to do. But there was this one play in specific that I really enjoyed seeing. You saw Quinn Miners and Forsyth kind of dominate this play. And it was on Jolil McLaughlin.

He had a 15-yard run where he just got north-south quick, huge hole. Alex Forsyth crashed down to one technique and pushed him down, essentially towards where the offensive tackle was just crashed him inward. And Quinn Miners goes up to obviously Nick Bolton and moves him out of the way. I just have a feeling like this could be the nice little run game spark that the Broncos need going into the postseason. Forsyth is very smart on knowing how to attack certain. angles. We talk about the communication, understanding, hey, you know where the pressure's coming.

You can communicate those checks. Whereas I look at him, he's the more cerebral guy. I think Luke Wattenberg's the more physical, brute strength guy. Not to say that Luke's not cerebral and not smart, but I think from a processing standpoint, I feel like Alex Forsyth can operate the center position very effectively in Wattenberg's absence. And obviously, his familiarity with Bow certainly does help. But here's one thing, a little hidden story. I'm going to give Broncos country some insight here into the journey of Alex Forsythe. Ever since that moment happened last year against Casey, right, the block and whatnot, you know, he's used that as fuel, but that hasn't defined him. And I really liked that about him. But after every single practice there,

no matter what, every practice, whether it's a Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Zach Allen and Alex Forsyth, they work together off to the side doing one-on-ones right after practice. Zach's helping Alex get better and vice versa. And I think that's why we've seen him step in and just throw. So far, now you want to do it a second week in a row. But Alex Forsyth, very capable of leading the operation here for the Broncos at center into the postseason. And this is a view that the top down of the organization has had, right? We've heard George Payton say it that they believe he's a starting center in the NFL. And that was maybe one of the reasons why there was kind of that talk between Luke Wattenberg versus

Alex Forsyth. Obviously now, Wattonberg got the big money contract. So he's going to be the guy whenever he is able to be on the field. But you mentioned it. I mean, his strength is in the running game. And that's exciting, I think, for the Denver Broncos offense here as we get into the postseason run. And when you have depth on the offensive line, like you and I talked about this all throughout the course of the off season. It feels like the Broncos were kind of built for this, right?

They have one of the best starting five offensive lines in the entire NFL. But behind that, their depth has been extremely tested. And we've seen those guys come through. I mean, obviously right now we're talking about Forsythe, but throughout the course of the season, right, we've had Alex Palchesey stepping in for the long-term injury at left guard where Ben Powers is kind of making his way back. And that's kind of where I'm interested to see now,

do we get the same starting five for an entire game once again? Because it's been Ben Powers rotating with Alex Palchowski at the left guard position. Do you think we're going to see that pitch count kind of, all right, we're just going to get rid of that for now. Ben Powers, he can go out there, he can play. do you think this game against the Chargers is where that happens, or do you think we're going to still see that rotation between those two guys? I think we'll still see the rotation between those two guys.

But if I had to estimate maybe when that stops, I think probably the playoffs, right? You probably don't want to be rotating guys in every other series or every two series, because that's really what they've been doing, two on, two off between obviously Paucheski and Powers. I think once Denver gets to the postseason, that'll probably go back to, you know, the starting lineup, which would be Ben Powers there. And look, as we're sitting here today, look, the Broncos are going to practice. practice. I'll be out there here today. You always have to wonder, right? There's nothing, there's no rumor, no inkling of this happening, but one has to wonder, am I going to go out

there this week? Are we going to somehow maybe see J.K. Dobbins on the side field at some point? Or is that going to come in the playoffs? Or is that going to come if the Broncos secure the one scene? Is that going to come during that by week beforehand? Stuff like that gets me a little excited. And look, and it's not to say that there's an inkling of it, but I just found it interesting, as you and I have pointed out here before, what Sean Payton said that we hope to get him back for the playoffs, which is like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, okay, Sean, like, all right. And I do know that they make a special insult for players who have had a Liz Frank injury that they can put in their shoes.

So I don't know. That's just me looking at the tea leaves here and just maybe speculating a little bit. But I like the starting offensive line how it is right now, whether it's Wattonberg or Forsyth in its center. I'm curious to see once Powers gets his feet underneath him. I thought he did a terrific job at times too in that Thursday night game against Kansas City. So having as much continuity as you can, I think. going into playoffs there, I think is so important.

It's really big. And the Broncos have had a lot of continuity with their roster overall. And they practice this stuff all throughout training camp, the preseason. We see guys rotating in. And this is why, because at some point during the year, you're going to have to have these guys out there. So it's nice to have the luxury of a player like Alex Forsyth. And of course, the Broncos, they got a little bit of intel. It kind of went under the radar. But they brought back old friend Sam. I call him Sam Mustafa, Cody, because I'm a Star Wars nerd. and I'm sure a few others out there will appreciate that. But Sam Mustafa is back.

The Broncos sign him off the Chargers practice squad for additional insurance and depth at center. So they'll have him as well as whatever intel he can bring after spending all year with the Chargers there. But we know the Broncos, their starting five on the offensive line will potentially be solidified this week for sure for the playoffs. But anybody but the Chargers starters is probably going to be starting in this game as L.A. is looking to get as healthy as they possibly can for whoever they're going to face. in the playoffs. The Broncos, they're not going to be facing Justin Herbert. We'll find out who else in this game, but we're going to talk about why this game matters so much for the Denver Broncos, regardless of how the Chargers are approaching it.

You got to go beat the brakes off these guys. We'll tell you who is or who isn't maybe playing for the Chargers coming up on today's episode, Lockdown Broncos. Today's episode of Lockdown Broncos is brought to you by game time. The NFL season is in full swing, and there's nothing like being at the game, right? The crowd noise, the energy, cheering, alongside other fans. Watching at home is great, but being at the stadium, especially now with the playoffs on deck, it just hits different. The frustrating part is

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Broncos country. Going to be the Trey Lance show out there as the Broncos face yet another backup quarterback this season. I want to talk a little bit about why I feel like that doesn't diminish anything the Broncos have done this season. It actually amplifies it. In my eyes. So we're going to talk about that, but we're also going to talk about who else could potentially be sitting out this game for the Chargers. Just want to quickly say, once again,

thank you to every single one of you out there that makes Lockdown Broncos. Your first listen of the day, every single day, part of the Lockdown podcast network, the number one sports podcast network. And if you want additional Denver Broncos coverage that you won't get anywhere else, join the Every Day or All Access program. We have a link in our show notes for you to do that.

And what you're going to get is bonus episodes of the show, all 22 breakdowns. Coming up in the future, we'll do free agent previews. We'll do mock drafts. You get a discount on lockdown merch and so much more. So check that link out and sign up for that today. Cody, let's talk about the Chargers, not playing Justin Herbert for this game. It's going to be the Trey Lance show.

Obviously, Trey Lance presents an interesting challenge with his athletic ability. He's obviously got a big arm. He's now been with this Chargers team for a while. So it's not like the Broncos are going to be facing off against somebody who has no idea what he's doing out there. But it does obviously change things dramatically. The line for this game went from, I think, six and a half points to 12 and a half. The Broncos defense, they've got to take care of business.

But let's start with that discussion. Trey Lance starting over Justin Herbert for this game. Yeah, look. And, you know, I think there's going to be people out there like, oh, yeah, the Broncos, they get to play a team full of backups. Once again, that's not the Broncos problem. That's the charges problem. That's everybody else's problem that couldn't obviously take care of business in the games

that they maybe should have. that would have made the stakes a little interesting here coming in a week 18. The reality for the Chargers is simple. They were going on the road regardless. And I don't think that they care who they play, whether it's going to be the Patriots, whether it's going to be the Jacksonville Jaguars. They don't care about that.

Their goal is to get healthy for whatever they do in that wild card round, whoever they tend to face, right? You want to be as healthy as you can. So I understand the Chargers standpoint there. That has nothing to do with Denver. Good. You know what? Fine.

Win more games. Make the stakes a little more challenging for Denver in this game. It's simpler. Like, do you just beat this Chargers team here? Guess what? You're the number one seed. You get home field advantage. And, you know, while the Chargers is still going to come out and try to beat the Broncos,

Denver should win this game. But you can never overlook anybody, Sarah. We always say it every week. It doesn't matter what the situation, the circumstances are. You can't overlook anybody. The question is, we know Justin Herbert will not play in this game. We know that their offensive line is already bang up as is. They're going to have to play some of their starter still on offense and on defense.

But the question is, which key. guys are not going to play. I think you have to take a look at that. Like, if you are Jim Harbaugh, do you want to risk Merri and Hampton in this game? You know, your rookie running back that right now really has kind of been the strength of, you know, a little bit of your run department there after the Najee Harris injury. They lost him for a handful of weeks. He went on IR for a short stint.

And all of a sudden, the charges offense started to struggle a little bit. Kamani Vital was also another guy who was banged up and hurt. He didn't play in this last game against Houston Texans. They're going to have to play a running back, though. They're going to have to play their offensive line. They're going to have to play their wider stages. I imagine Keenan Allen will play in this game. I mean, it makes sense for him to play in this game, Sarah, because he's not banged up.

One thing Harbaugh outlined this week to reporters in Los Angeles was that some starters who have been nursing injuries or bruises, like, we're probably going to rest some of those guys. Okay, but they can't rest everybody because guess what? You only have a 53-man roster, folks. So you're probably going to see a lot of practice squad elevations this week, but you are going to see still a handful of starters on offense and defense play. My question is who is going to be out? Like, do we see Derwin James this week? He's obviously a missile.

Do you see obviously a Diane Henley? I don't know. That's obviously up in the air at this point. Maybe we'll find out more as time goes on. But it doesn't matter. That's not the Broncos problem. And anyone trying to say, oh, yeah, well, the Broncos got lucky. It's like, no, the Broncos took care of business where other teams did it.

Plain and simple. But I think we want to see Denver come out here and kind of do what they did to Kansas. city when they were in that week 18 rest your starter scenario you want to see dembert come out here and just take it to the chargers whoever's playing it doesn't matter if it's justin herbert dan fouts philip rivers none of that stuff matters you got to find a way to come out and win yeah you absolutely do and to your point as well cody i think it's interesting if if you don't beat the teams that you're supposed to beat that's what that's all anybody can talk about well you should have beaten the teams that you're supposed to beat but when you beat the teams that you're supposed to beat you're lucky to

of played teams that you should beat, right? So it's kind of funny how the goalposts always move. You and I talk a lot about that on here because we like to bring that perspective that I think is fair while sometimes it's right to be critical of the Broncos, as in I think on Christmas night, we all expected them to do a lot better in terms of the final score of that game against Kansas City. And I don't think that necessarily means that they were, you know, taken to the brink by the chiefs.

It came down to that last drive, obviously, but I feel like the Broncos, you know, know, they've done well all throughout this season, whether they're playing Jake Browning, Chris Ola Doken, or Jordan Love and Dak Prescott. I mean, they've beat all types of quarterbacks, Jalen Hertz. So it doesn't really matter to me, you know, in that regard. But I will say with the Chargers, you look back at last week's injury report, I think that's a safe place to kind of look in terms of, hey, which players are probably not going to play this week, anybody that was maybe questionable or worse,

anybody that they're looking to just preserve for the postseason. I would look at guys like Khalil Mack. I don't think he would play in this game. Cody, and risk anything. You have other players that were on the injury report last week, you know, Benjamin St. Juice,

Mackay Beckton, Tier Tart, like you mentioned, Camani Vidal. So I'll be interested to find out as well what they end up doing there because to me, if you're not going to play Justin Herbert, that would also mean guys like Derwin James

would probably not play in this game because why would you, you know, why would you risk him getting hurt? I know you have to feel the roster at the end of the day and you have to go out there and play the game. But at the same time, I think this is going to be one for the backups, one for the practice squad guys who are going to get elevated. Because if you're trying to preserve the health of your best players, then your best players won't play. So to me, that's where you go for this. We will see some familiar faces out there, obviously, because you can only have so many guys at this time of year. But it's going to be a situation just like last

year against Kansas City, Cody, where all these guys, they're going to be on the injury report this week. They're going to be held out of this game. I'm very curious to see how Vance Joseph prepares to approach this week's game plan against a guy like Trey Lance. I feel like probably we'll have to go back and scout the preseason tape or any type of snaps whenever Justin Herbert left the game. There's been a couple of moments of sure where he's left for a few snaps. Trey Lances come in. How do they try to approach a game plan with him in terms of throwing? I think ideally they'd probably like him to hand the football off a little bit more. But he does have athleticism.

I mean, Sarah, he is the type of guy that can use his legs to hurt you, keep plays alive a little bit. So I'm very curious. We hear the term cage rush quite a bit. Denver doesn't approach every week with a cage rush, so to speak, right? It's more of a term that's used like, hey, if we have an athletic mobile quarterback that we know just can absolutely hurt us with his legs, we try to cage rush him to kind of keep him within, you know, a certain realm there.

So I'll be very curious to see if the cage runs. rush approach from the Broncos is in emphasis. I don't know if that should be this week, right? It's not necessarily about just getting sacks. Now is a chance to maybe get that momentum, right? You talk about the dam looking ready to break. Broncos need to force turnovers. The best way to do it is against a backup quarterback and some guys that aren't

necessarily starters that aren't always on the same page at this point. I'm very curious more so about the offensive line for the charters. Do they rest any of the starters on the offensive line? Consider, and that's a unit that is already decimated by injuries and makeshift patchwork guys at this. point. I'll be very curious here. But it doesn't matter. Once again, if the Chargers aren't playing their starters, that's not the Broncos problem. That's the Chargers problem. And Denver is very much looking forward to coming in and trying to just secure the number one seed so they can

try to rest up, get guys healthy, and then potentially go on a big time run here when the playoffs come to fruition. Teams that didn't do enough can't be mad at the Broncos for winning 13 games. I mean, there's no question about it. The Broncos have taken care of business up to this point. And as Sean Payton said, it doesn't always have to be aesthetically pleasing. And you know what? At this point, Broncos country, you win, you get the number one seed. Who cares how it happens, right? You want to be hosting playoff games.

You want to buy week in the first round of the playoffs. This is the path that has been set before the Broncos. And therefore, they've done what they've done. And it's been an awesome ride this season. But even though there's only one regular season game left, even though it is going to be against a lot of the Chargers backups, there's a lot that we need to see from the Broncos in this game. A few things that won't cost them anything to go ahead and come. correct about, including getting Evan Ingram involved.

We're going to continue to beat that drum coming up on today's episode, Locked on Broncos. It's time for the Evan Ingram legacy game in Week 18 against the L.A. Chargers, the Denver Broncos, they don't necessarily want to give away all that they may be planning to do in the postseason. But I think this is a great opportunity to get Evan Ingram involved, as well as do a couple of other things in Week 18, regardless of who's out there for the L.A. Chargers.

It's an opportunity for the Broncos to go out, play a team. tough game, get the number one seed and look good doing it, Broncos country. Thanks so much again for tuning in every single day. We appreciate you for making us your first listen of the day here at Lockdown Broncos. Cody, I want to, I want to talk about this. We beat this drum many times. Evan Ingram needs to be featured more in this offense. He's played a career low in terms of the percentage of the snaps offensively this year. I don't want to say he's been a bad fit for the Denver Broncos. I think that there's a lot of mouths to feed. Sean Payton does so much in terms of changing out personnel. But man, I'd be, I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to see Evan get like

10 to 12 or maybe more targets this game. Just let this guy cook, man. Let's see what he can do. He's been making plays when he is targeted. I want that volume for Evan in week 18. And the Broncos, they can do that at no extra cost to them. Yeah, look, and there's no reason why you can't try to maybe get some stuff going a little bit early, right? Teams, I think defensively when they're scouting the Broncos offense, have said, like, okay, Denver loves to live in 12 and 13 personnel. I think that's a large portion of the NFL today. Like, you know, I think there are teams that try to thrive a little bit in 11 personnel,

but it doesn't work. Like, I look at other teams around the league and the success because they can run play action, they can get the run game going, but still have a balanced passing attack. A lot of it does come out of 12 and 13 personnel here, where you can get extra pass protection against some of the best elite rushers in the NFL. I don't know if Denver's going to face any of those guys this week, so to speak. But for Evan, why not try to get him involved even more in this game? I like the idea.

I think that there needs to be a drive. Let's just say it's the first drive that Broncos have offensively. Maybe it's Jaliel McLaughlin and RJ Harvey getting going on the ground, but maybe you have an emphasis, hey, we're going to Evan Ingram on the first two or three plays of the game. Why not? Why not just try to get this guy some rhythm? Because there's time, Sarah, where it's like he's a weapon. Like, let's even go back to was it the Jacksonville Jaguars game where he runs a deep over,

has a 33-yard catch and run and, you know, puts the Broncos into field goal range. After that, I don't even think he saw another target for the rest of the game. So it is there. You are right. It's the personnel. The so many miles to feed here that Sean Peyton certainly, you know, works with in terms of getting his personnel. And I think what will ultimately help is if they can get their personnel in quick, give them time,

then you might be able to find a guy like Evan Ingram a little bit more. But I think that there are some situations here this week where you can manufacture some touches for Ingram. I think that has to be a priority. I agree with you there. One thing I want to see defensively, Sarah, can the Broncos disguise coverage? Can they disguise a little bit better here, right?

Because I've now started a notice of tendency on film. What did we use to see early on? It was like week six when they played the Eagles. The Broncos, they'd walk up two linebackers in the A gap. And it's like, okay, are these guys blitzing? Sometimes both those guys blitz. sometimes both those guys drop back. One guy blitzes, one guy drops back.

But as of late, it's really just been one guy dropping back, the other guy blitzing, and there hasn't been a tendency change up in the last couple of weeks. Can you start to maybe get rid of some of those warts there that you've maybe put on tape and saying, hey, we used to do really good at disguising what we were going to do. Teams now know what we're going to do, and now we know where to go. And I thought the Jaguars did a great job really of exploiting that against the Broncos a couple of weeks ago. So get back to that. of being who you were,

it doesn't matter who's out there for the Chargers, whether it was Justin Herbert or whether it's Tray Lance, I think if Denver's going to carry this mentality and get the defensive issues corrected a little bit that Sean Payton was talking about in terms of the takeaway and the turnover margin, you have to just get back to doing that, be who you were instead of just saying,

hey, we're okay, we're going to show this and we're just going to drop one guy back instead of, you know, everybody. Make those tendencies less revealable, I would say. Yeah, confusing, Trey Lance. is critical for this game because you want him to make as quick of a decision as possible with the football because more often than not, if guys are out there having to make split decisions,

they're not always going to make the right one, right? So I think you be aggressive in this game. I think you send a lot of your basic blitz packages at him. But like you said, disguising coverage on the back end and let those defensive backs go out there and be aggressive. I think that that's going to be huge for this game. You obviously don't want to, you know, get anybody hurt.

You don't want to be out there. being reckless, but I think at the same time, what we saw against Chris Ola Docken and the Kansas City Chiefs, Cody, was a very conservative approach. I know that Sean Peyton said he doesn't care about sack numbers, and I don't care necessarily about sack numbers either, but I do care about turnovers. And we've been talking about this, as much as we've been talking about Evan Ingraham this year, we've been talking about this Broncos defense not being able to generate takeaways. Sean Peyton did acknowledge that that's the number one thing that his team is focused on not necessarily creating takeaways, but winning that turnover margin because only one time in the last

20, 25 years has somebody with a negative turnover margin in the postseason been able to win the Super Bowl? And it was the ramp. So I think that the Broncos obviously understand we have to generate more takeaways. It's not that the offense is so bad or inconsistent, but I think they've been dealing with a lot of long fields this season. They have not been getting the turnovers to create those short fields and those extra possessions throughout the course of the game. that defense is so capable of it and a game against a backup quarterback, you have to make that happen. So I think that's on Vance Joseph to be aggressive and get his guys after

Trey Lance, make him make quick decisions. Yeah, and I'm very curious to see if, like, this is just one of those game plans where the Broncos just unleashed. Look, 64 sacks on the year. I mean, how many would they need to tie the 72? Let me do my quick math here on there, right? You get six plus two. You just need eight sacks to tie the Chicago Bears record.

Could this be a game where it's doable? You never know, right? We've seen stranger things happen, but let's hope that's the case. Hopefully the sliders get turned down on the Broncos defense can pin their ears back, get after the quarterback, create strip sack, fumble opportunities, more takeaways. That's what we want to see from the defense going into the playoffs because they are going to get a buy if they win this game. And can they come out of the buy better, right? It's almost like a reset, right?

They went to the buy week after that win against Kansas City, said, all right, we're ready for a second half run. They come out. The defense has not been its best. And they have a little reset after another by week. Well, you only get that if you get the win on Sunday. And that's the most important thing, right? I mean, we talk about what we need to see, what we want to see in this game against the charters. Obviously, number one, it's getting a win.

Doesn't matter. Once again, aesthetically, what it looks like. If you get the win, you get the number one seed, you get a by week to start off the postseason. That's number one. Number two, I think Cody is staying healthy, obviously. I mean, those are two things that you want to do every single game. You want to win, you want to stay healthy. but at this time of year, it's obviously all the more crucial, right?

To get your guys to that postseason as healthy as possible, as we've talked about on our squad shows a number of times. It's not necessarily always the best teams on paper that win the Super Bowl. It's the healthiest teams in the playoffs that end up winning the Super Bowl. And the Broncos, they're pretty darn good in that category right now. They're banged up just like everybody else. But I think that in terms of the overall starting lineup that we started the year with, man, they're looking pretty good going into this.

game. So it should be, it should be one of those games where, like you said, against Kansas City last year, you faced off against Carson Wentz and a lot of the Chiefs backup's being rested. I think there was the same level of worry last year that there is going into this game, right? I mean, what would be your perspective on that too? Because last year, folks were saying, man, if you don't go out there and take care of business against Carson Wentz at home, wearing the throwbacks. Like, it feels like it's almost the exact same vibe here in week 18 of the 2025 season. Yeah, which I think. the good thing is, is like the stakes this week is when you get home field advantage and you

know, throughout the entire NFL playoffs. If that's the case, if that's where Denver's at, whereas last year was, hey, win and you're in the playoffs. Like Denver didn't have a playoff spot secure just at that point there. So very similar kind of scenarios, but different stakes, I would say that are involved here. Regardless, Denver's going to play a play playoff game. Denver's going to be at home for the playoffs, whether it's the wildcard round. Hopefully, that's not the case. Hopefully we're sitting here on Sunday talking about, hey, the Broncos, they have first round by, and now they get to watch everybody play and beat up on each other.

And then they get to prepare for whoever they're going to face in the divisional round. So much of that, I'm looking forward to seeing Sarah here. And I just want to see this team come out. And we'll obviously keep you up to date. I mean, for everyone that's an everyday or all-access member, we get locker room interviews with players. You're going to get all that stuff inside of obviously the lockdown Broncos every day or club. So make sure if you're not yet a member of that,

go subscribe to it. highly recommend it. You get all 22 film breakdowns, locker room interviews, exclusive content that you don't get here specifically. You get a lot over there. So, yeah,

I think everyone's just got to buckle in, Sarah, and we're going to have to wait to see you until Sunday. We're buckling in for the postseason run. The Denver Broncos facing off against the LA Chargers on Sunday afternoon. 225 p.m. Mountain Time kickoff for this one.

Broncos country, we hope you enjoy your new year. We'll see you next year for the next episode of Lockdown Broncos.