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Jeff Legwold joins Kreckman & Lindahl 4/5/24 · Jeff Legwold ESPN Broncos Reports

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Jeff Lagwell Tom of the Friday afternoon on Altitude Sports Radio ninety two five,
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Jeff Legwald joining us on the Ramos Law Hotline. Let's get real drafty in
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here ahead of what we're expecting to be a very drafty weekend here along the
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front range, Leggy, how are you, man? I'm good? Are
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you guys? We're doing quite well, Leggy. Is there a consensus yet,
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either amongst the draft knicks or even just among Jeff Legwald himself? Is
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there going to be more than three quarterbacks taken in the top ten of this
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draft? Or is the noise just simply that noise? Well, history says
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it's noise, Nate, so you just gotta go by that. I mean,
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we've we've all been down this road before. I mean, uh,
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we've seen it happen, you know, especially it's happened more, which has
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been my point, so that the league is reacting differently than they used to.
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But it's always hard for me to believe that there will be more than
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three in the top ten of any draft, especially when you consider there are
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only two in the top ten and the eighty three draft and that's routinely considered
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the greatest quarterback draft in the history of the draft. So but I also
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think it's a very realistic possibility that people go wild and that there are four
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in the top ten. I could see it happening, and I've talked to
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general managers who say they have mocked it that way and their pre draft work
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and they're prepared for it. And Jeff, the reason why I bring it
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up is this goes back to the conversation Andy and I have been having,
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and I'm willing to go out on a limb. Even though Andy and I
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are the sexiest radio show here in Denver in addition to being the best sports
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radio show here in I would argue we have thank you, I would argue
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we have the least sexy draft conversations because Andy and I are both of the
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opinion, please don't trade up. Please do not move any future assets on
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a team that is so bereft of talent. You cannot move any future first
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round picks to go jumping into the top ten, to go and find a
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quarterback should one fall to you at twelve that you like, have at it
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fellas go crazy. But the thought of the Broncos paying the kind of freight
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that the Niners did to move up to number three to go and get Trey
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Lance, including moving two future firsts. LEGGI it's number one. It's both
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risky and number two. It destroys any ability you have to be able to
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continue to build your football team here in the future. So like a world
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where four quarterbacks are going in the top ten concerns me that the Broncos could
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do something silly. Yeah, I don't think. I think trading up is
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you know, you guys know, look, I thought they should have waited
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a year to do. Russell Wilson and I put trading up in that trading
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up into the top three, I put in that category of impulsive and not
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really really really considering your future. And I just think some of the worst
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moves I've seen are teams moving to three like the Niners did, or even
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way back, moving to two like the Chargers did to get Ryan Leaf instead
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of Peyton Manning. If you can't get to one and be in charge of
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the board and have a roster constructed in such a way that the guy isn't
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going to be joining a terrible team, yeah, I mean the Broncos would
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would do all that to move up and then what kind of situation are you
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putting that player in? Are you really giving him a chance to get off
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the ground. Those are my issues with it. It'd be one thing if
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if you sort of prepared you know, now the Packers took him down the
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board, But when the Packers took Jordan Love, they were preparing to do
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that. They had a lot of draft picks, their cap was in good
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shape, they weren't in a rush, they didn't need them to play right
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away. They were preparing to do that. And I contend trading up as
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a move the Broncos aren't prepared to do so. And I think because of
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the quarterback situation and because of the league's own sort of growing impulsiveness about it,
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your chances of getting one of the draft's best players at twelve are significantly
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higher in this draft than they would have been maybe ten years ago. Also,
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Like I mean, the other issue here is if they to do that,
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Like Andy and I were breaking this down the other day, what was
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our math on this if they if they moved up into the top three,
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Like, if they made that move and they moved two future firsts they were
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the last five years, they would have taken one first rend made one first
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round pick in five years. You can't win like that, right, That's
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that's how you get talent. The best teams are obviously ones with quarterback situations
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that they know of, but there are also situations where they have as many
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talented guys on rookie deals as possible. Baltimore has made a living out of
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it. Kansas City is getting better at it, and that's why they win
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because they have the alpha at quarterback and they're getting better at managing their roster
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along the way because they know the only way to keep the Alpha at quarterback
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and one or two other really good players is to have a lot of guys
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on their rookie deals. And that's why you saw them start sixteen of their
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own draft picks in the Super Bowl. I'm gonna keep saying that number until
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people are sick of it because everybody said, mahomes, mahomes, mahomes.
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Yeah, they got mahomes. They also started sixteen of their own draft picks
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in the Super Bowl, and the Broncos would have a hard time starting sixteen
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of their own draft picks in a preseason game. Right now, Well,
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there, hey, listen to that. There's a mic drop statement for Jeff
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Flakewald I saw. I think it was Matt Miller, your guy fielder.
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Yates had retweeted it, talking about how hard it is to rank Drake May
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in his opinion. Nate and I've had some conversations about Drake Drake May.
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He's been linked to Sean Payton loves him in the old noise machine. Where
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do you have Drake May as you're starting to hammer out and close in on
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your top one hundred. Well, you know, obviously we're never really gonna
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know what Sean Payton's thinking. Everything he said publicly is on purpose, and
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people should know that, yeah, he means to do it. He has
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a very specific thought in mind whenever he's talking about that whatever he says publicly.
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But it's just from an evaluation standpoint, it's hard for me to believe
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that he would he would be that fired up to play Drake May right away
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because some of the decision making is exactly what he just got rid of for
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eighty five million dollars of dead money, red zone decision making and and sort
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of weight with his eyes. And but you know that why he fits sort
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of the hype machine so well is because of all the quarterbacks on the board,
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Drake May looks like what we always think the quarterback's going to look like
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in the NFL, and that is that's a powerful thing. I know,
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scouts who have very strong opinions that the quarterback must be six four and he
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must be too eighteen to two twenty five, and you know what I mean,
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And they have very strong opinions that that is how you survive in the
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NFL. And you know, until one of the more mobile, you know,
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sort of six foot guys, you know, wins the Super Bowl.
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You know, people are always gonna say that because you know, Mahomes is
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built more like a classically you know, what we think of as the quarterback.
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He just has all the modern game stuff in him too. But Drake
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May is the guy that looks like the the quarterback, and when he is
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decisive and he does let it go, there's a lot to like. You
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know, I'm not saying he's a bad prospect, but I'm saying some of
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the decisions he makes are exactly the kind of decisions Sean Payton just moved on
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from. So he would have to believe he could fix that and repair that
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as they were going along, would you know, Peyton is going to think
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that he can fix and repair that on a prospect like may leggy because he
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is, to your point, he's he's the big athletic freak, but he's
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also he needs to go be a sit and learn guy, is what he
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probably needs to do. Issues Like you know, a guy like may has
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has some footwork issues. Right when you're in season, like like weeks one
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through eighteen, how much can you improve footwork fundamentals, those things like how
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much how much space is there to work on those things? Once you get
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into a season and game plans are the only thing that matter. Well,
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that's why the flame ount factors so high, because there's almost no time to
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do that, you know, because when they're not on the field, they
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want them preparing. It's not like they can say, okay, practice is
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over. The extra Whenever you hear you, you know, about a guy
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throwing after practice, you're really talking about like an eight minute window. You're
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not talking about an extra forty five or an extra hour. And you know,
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there's always a concern about you know, how many pitches you got in
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your arm in a season, you know, and you know some of those
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things, but they're That's why the developmental part is so hard on a quarterback,
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especially when you play as a rookie, because once you insert him into
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the game planning process, development is over. Other than learning by pain,
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you know, you threw an interception, don't throw it there again, you
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fumbled, don't spin out in the pocket that way again. You miss the
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hidden rusher you know in the front seven, don't miss him again. You
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know, it's learning by pain after that, it's not learning to get better,
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And and that impacts the player's confidence, and there's a whole litany of
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things. The dominoes just start falling in that regard. And I think that's
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why it's so the benefits of waiting even a little bit, if you can
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just do it, I think teams reap them all the time. But because
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coaches get fired quicker than ever, you know that there's almost no incentive.
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You know, the feeling is why should I get the guy ready for the
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next coach? You know that that's always sort of the unspoken truth of it
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all. You know, if he's good, I want him to help me
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right now. And if he flames out for the next guy, you know,
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I'll be fired anyway. And I think all of that impacts learning and
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developing, and the minute you play him, though, learning time has decreased
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other than you know, learning about the the cover four, the next opponent's
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plan, rock Morton and Mustafer some interesting names added to the offensive line must
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have for in particular, he started a few games. Do you think he
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battles as a starter. What do you think is going on with those moves?
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And could their arrivals signal anyone else's departure? And I always just think
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they're they're looking at the same draft board we are, and they're they're sort
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of their signings to me are very good indicators of where they think the board's
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a little weaker and inside offensive lineman, if you're not going to take one
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or two of the top centers, they're developmental guys. Now the two top
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centers are gonna play right away, but they're kind of showing where they think
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the value of the board is and kind of hedging their young guy bets that
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they want to have a veteran in house, you know, just in case.
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And I think it's all of the above. Jeff Lagweld with us on
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the Ramos Law Hotline talking NFL Draft. So Yes, they're shoring up interor
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offensive line, not so much on the edges. And Jeff, it really
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looks like there's gonna be some good options available at number twelve at the tackle
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position. And have you settled on a favorite or two going into this draft?
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Well, I mean it's it's a really good class and I can I
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can just zip up the list, you know, you know, I think
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for me, Joe All from Notre Dame is the top tackle. The guy
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that's intriguing though, Like at twelve is Amarius Mims from Georgia. Yeah,
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that's a pro tackle, but he started eight games in his college career.
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But you talk, I've done this a long time, and I've seen very
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few players physically who have all of the traits he does. So he is
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your classic what they call triangle player, height, weight, speed, that's
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a classic you know, prospect over production. What do you like? What
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what the guy might be or what he's actually done. But I think he's
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very intriguing. I certainly j C. Latham, there's another tackle. I
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actually think you could play left tackle. A lot of teams think you could
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play right only, but I think he shows especially in an offense that uses
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the tight end like the Broncos do in line, but Latham's the most entertaining.
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I mean, if you care at all about offensive line play, you
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want to watch some game video. The guy's a weed eater. I mean,
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it is just carnage after he's finished, and it's unbelievable. There's nobody
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on the board like that but that there's a ton of good linemen. You
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may see more offensive linemen going this first round than we have it a long
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time. By the way, Jeff, when you're eating tape, lineman tape
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is the most fun tape to watch, right on the good ones. The
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good ones are just especially when they're you know, the SEC guys are fun
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to watch because it's good on good every week and you can see teams draft
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so many SEC players because it's a safe bet. You know what you're getting.
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They've played pro ball already. Frankly, they they have to be up
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every week. They have to have good technique every week. And that's why
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you know this year will be no different. In the first and second round,
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you just count the SEC players coming off the board at every position because
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teams know exactly what they're getting. They can see ten games against the best
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opponents instead of just one. Well, there you have it. You know
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what, Jeff, I want a good baseball story. They don't know what
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way to lead you because it's Opening Day. Nate and I were talking about
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the true die hards, and Nate doesn't believe there's many left. I still
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think we have a couple die hard fans, and they gotta be die hards
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because you know, Chris Bryant, your guy got booed today. If the
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Rockies have any die hards, they're dead well they have died hard and a
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deadhead jersey for the Mammoth tonight. No, just having rooting for a team
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that didn't win a World Series for a century. I mean, it's it's
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it's all. You just want to see them do something. I mean,
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I think what makes it hard here is a baseball fan is the division they're
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in and just watching how aggressive sort of everybody else is. You know,
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and you know, Tani was in Chicago today. I had I had buddies
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just texting me today. You know, Otani's in Chicago. You know,
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they're just so gassed up about that. But you know, I've only been
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to one Opening Day, but my baseball story for Opening Day would be.
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My dad worked for the railroad and those guys rarely got the take off for
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any reason at all ever, you know, hurricane, tornadoes, blizzards,
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it did matter. They couldn't take off, But for some reason they can
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always scam their way out for the White Sox opener. Because the rail the
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rail the rail yard was on thirty fifth and Cicero and Commissie Parks on thirty
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fifth and Shields in Chicago, and for whatever reason, I don't know if
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the bread didn't get delivered or the box cars didn't get unloaded, but those
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guys would sneak out from the White Sox opener every year. And I never
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let my dad forget it because I'm uh. I was a big Cup fan
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and my brother was a Socks fan, so I thought I thought my dad
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was picking sides. Southsider. What a trader. Unbelievable by the way,
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Cubs did win today nine to seven. Chris Bryant Homert he just goes yacht
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sea in the bottom of the How those booze are gone now? He's worth
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one hundred and eighty two. Yeah, Hey, Jeff, how about your
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guys playing in two degree weather the other night? Because they apparently didn't want
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the Rockets to leave without a victory. Good job, that's a good showing
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by your guys. Uh. Strategy worked out, My friend worked out awfully
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well. Why White Sox woke up looking at that weather and said, now
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we're out. Your guys are like, we're waiting. There's a window by
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the way. We need uh, we need the official Jeff Legwall prediction.
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Uh, I need two national champs leggy, women's and men's. Uh,
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who's winning the national championship? What do you got for me? I'm going
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with Yukon. They they're unbelievable, and Uh, I like Iowa for the
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women. There you go Yukon and Iowa. He doesn't want to go double
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Yukon. I respect that out of him. You know, after a team
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rips off a thirty nothing run on all on our alma mater, Jeff,
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it's pretty hard to pick against those guys. I've ever seen. I've never
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seen. It's been a long time since somebody went roar through the bracket like
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they have. They're I believe they're up to what that nine consecutive tournament victories
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and and they're they're like by an average of over twenty points a game.
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That team is just a freakin' machine. It's also been a long time since
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one team scored thirty while another team just watched it. Yeah, you don't
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see that very often either. Jeff Legwold everybody, ESPN. That's where you
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watch him, that's where you read them, that's where you get his draft
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coverage. The top one hundred will be here soon. Leggy, get back
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to work, Buddy, I am on it, say it.