Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Chad Jensen previews the Denver Broncos playoff run, How important is Garrett Bolles (?), Super Bowl or bust (?),
Transcript
- 0:03Speaker 1: It's not Sean O'Connell's show. You were home of the
- 0:06Speaker 1: best inside of your Utes. Let's get back to OC
- 0:09Speaker 1: from the Murdoch Chevrolet studio of ESPN seven hundred ninety
- 0:14Speaker 1: two to one a FM.
- 0:23Speaker 2: The lot going on into college football world, and obviously
- 0:26Speaker 2: here on the Home of the Utes, we stay focused
- 0:28Speaker 2: on that. But goodness gracious, the NFL coaching carousel is
- 0:32Speaker 2: spinning at a rapid pace. You've got playoff games this
- 0:36Speaker 2: weekend that you can hear right here on ESPN seven
- 0:39Speaker 2: hundred and ninety two one FM, and the de facto
- 0:44Speaker 2: home market for a lot of people here, most of
- 0:47Speaker 2: you are Broncos fans. I think the Broncos have the
- 0:49Speaker 2: largest chunk of NFL fans in the state of Utah.
- 0:54Speaker 2: So let's talk a little Bronco football. Chad Jensen, founder
- 0:59Speaker 2: of Mile High Huddle and former Utah resident, joined us
- 1:03Speaker 2: right here on the Sean o'connashol. Chad, welcome, How are
- 1:05Speaker 2: you doing great?
- 1:07Speaker 3: How are you Sean? Thanks for having me, buddy.
- 1:09Speaker 2: Yeah, I appreciate you giving us some time this This
- 1:12Speaker 2: Broncos team has been fascinating this year and really last
- 1:17Speaker 2: year as well, but especially this year. Are you surprised
- 1:21Speaker 2: at at how quickly the bo Knicks thing has worked
- 1:24Speaker 2: out and how well this team has come together in
- 1:27Speaker 2: the twenty twenty five twenty twenty six season.
- 1:30Speaker 3: Man, I think anybody who says otherwise would be lying
- 1:33Speaker 3: to you. I mean, I was excited about bo Nix.
- 1:36Speaker 3: I was one of those guys that didn't understand some
- 1:38Speaker 3: of the shade on Knicks coming out of Oregon in
- 1:41Speaker 3: twenty twenty four. But I figured about where they are
- 1:44Speaker 3: today would be something like year three at best, probably
- 1:48Speaker 3: year four of the Sean Payton bow Knicks thing. So
- 1:52Speaker 3: they've outkicked the coverage. You know, Sean Payton figured out
- 1:55Speaker 3: a way to microwave this thing, and bo Nix is
- 1:58Speaker 3: a big reason for that. But it's actually pretty crazy too, Sean,
- 2:02Speaker 3: when you realize that Sean Payton has achieved this while
- 2:05Speaker 3: managing the biggest dead cap hit in the history of
- 2:08Speaker 3: the NFL over the last two years, with that Russell
- 2:10Speaker 3: Wilson contract that with eighty five million bucks, the Broncos
- 2:14Speaker 3: could not spend on players that their opponents could. So, yeah,
- 2:18Speaker 3: they're ahead of schedule most definitely.
- 2:20Speaker 2: That's pretty insane. This is a very Utah specific question.
- 2:24Speaker 2: I'm sure you're doing a lot of these hits around
- 2:26Speaker 2: the country.
- 2:27Speaker 1: A lot of people are.
- 2:28Speaker 2: Not gonna ask you about Coarne Reid, but we are
- 2:30Speaker 2: because he's a former ute and he's activated off the
- 2:33Speaker 2: IR Do they do you expect that he'll be used
- 2:36Speaker 2: heavily as we get into these playoffs.
- 2:39Speaker 3: Not so much on defense, but he's you know, he's
- 2:42Speaker 3: a four core special teams guy, and all of his
- 2:45Speaker 3: stats so far, I mean, he's got five tackles. Remember
- 2:48Speaker 3: he's missed, you know, the last many many games, but
- 2:51Speaker 3: he's got five tackles this season, all of them on
- 2:54Speaker 3: special teams. Big contributor there, and that's important because the
- 2:58Speaker 3: Broncos coverage you and it's on specials has not been
- 3:02Speaker 3: very consistent. And a big part of that was because
- 3:04Speaker 3: Reid got hurt. So that's a big part of it.
- 3:06Speaker 3: But they also have an injury up at depth chart
- 3:09Speaker 3: with dray Greenlaw dealing with the hamstring that's kept him
- 3:12Speaker 3: out of the last two games, and he's a little
- 3:14Speaker 3: bit injury prone. He ends up kind of staying on
- 3:16Speaker 3: the sidelines quite more than the team would would like.
- 3:20Speaker 3: And so I could see Reid and a pinch getting
- 3:22Speaker 3: called in, but he's mostly third phase. He will be
- 3:24Speaker 3: dressing but third pace.
- 3:27Speaker 2: And look one of the favorites of Utah even though
- 3:30Speaker 2: he was only with the youths for a year. As
- 3:33Speaker 2: a guy who's really made himself into a staple for
- 3:36Speaker 2: the Broncos, I'm talking about Garrett Bowles, and you know
- 3:39Speaker 2: he's the Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee. He's
- 3:42Speaker 2: the guy that is I think largely representative of what
- 3:46Speaker 2: this new Broncos culture is. You'd be better equipped to
- 3:49Speaker 2: tell me if that's true or not. But what does
- 3:51Speaker 2: he mean to this team?
- 3:54Speaker 1: A lot?
- 3:54Speaker 3: Man, He's one of those guys that wandered the desert
- 3:58Speaker 3: of you know, the of NFL basement with the Broncos
- 4:02Speaker 3: through the lean years post Super Bowl fifty and so
- 4:06Speaker 3: he hung in there tough. You know, he really turned
- 4:08Speaker 3: a corner as a as a player way back in
- 4:10Speaker 3: twenty twenty, got himself a second team All Pro, kept
- 4:13Speaker 3: plugging away. I think now that he's got his first
- 4:16Speaker 3: Pro Bowl not I think he could. You know, it's
- 4:19Speaker 3: basically him and Andrew Thomas who comes away with the
- 4:22Speaker 3: first inaugural Protector of the Year award. That the NFL
- 4:25Speaker 3: is rolling out this year. He's right there. He is
- 4:28Speaker 3: not allowed to sack this season. The only player in
- 4:31Speaker 3: the NFL with nine hundred and seventy five pass blocking snaps,
- 4:36Speaker 3: Garrett Bowls is the only guy who hasn't who has
- 4:38Speaker 3: not you know, allowed a sack. So emotionally, he means
- 4:41Speaker 3: a lot to this team. And you know, Sean Payton
- 4:43Speaker 3: when he came in, he cleaned house on a lot
- 4:45Speaker 3: of those veterans that were leaders during the lean years
- 4:49Speaker 3: but just had not been able to contribute to a
- 4:51Speaker 3: winning culture for whatever reason. I think part of it
- 4:54Speaker 3: too was the premium position that he plays. Bowls was
- 4:57Speaker 3: one of those guys that Sean Payton saw fact bring
- 5:00Speaker 3: into the long term and he's now on his third contract,
- 5:03Speaker 3: so he means a lot to this team. He's a
- 5:04Speaker 3: big time leader and culture guy.
- 5:08Speaker 2: This team leads the league in sacks, as you're well aware,
- 5:11Speaker 2: Nick Benito's the top five, and there's you know, a
- 5:14Speaker 2: lot down the line that have contributed to that. In
- 5:17Speaker 2: the playoffs, how big a factor do you think that
- 5:20Speaker 2: pass rush is going to play?
- 5:22Speaker 3: Huge? Absolutely huge, And it's the number one reason why
- 5:26Speaker 3: the Broncos are the number one for us to be
- 5:29Speaker 3: reckoned with in the AFC, and not just because that
- 5:32Speaker 3: got the home field advantage throughout as the one seed,
- 5:35Speaker 3: but we all know the cliche defense wins championships. And
- 5:39Speaker 3: of all the teams that are in the AFC tournament, man,
- 5:42Speaker 3: the Broncos they have that calling card and Vance Joseph
- 5:45Speaker 3: you know, he's interviewing with five of the seven head
- 5:48Speaker 3: coach vacancy teams right now or this week anyway. So look, man,
- 5:52Speaker 3: the Broncos have a special defense. Nick Bonito, He's accomplished
- 5:56Speaker 3: actually several things historically that not even bon Miller pomplished,
- 6:00Speaker 3: which is kind of crazy in a short amount of time. Him,
- 6:04Speaker 3: Jonathan Cooper, they're the edge guys. But don't forget what
- 6:07Speaker 3: Zach Allen brings to the table inside, as well as
- 6:09Speaker 3: John Franklin Meyers. So man, sixty eight sacks they came
- 6:13Speaker 3: for short of tie in the record that's held by
- 6:15Speaker 3: the Chicago Bears, and a big part of that is
- 6:18Speaker 3: they kind of slowed down the last three weeks or so,
- 6:21Speaker 3: but they're fixing to rampant back up.
- 6:25Speaker 2: So I don't know how much you're able to follow
- 6:27Speaker 2: college football, but I spent the whole year before the
- 6:32Speaker 2: college football playoff format change saying, man, it's going to
- 6:35Speaker 2: be so valuable to teams to get that first round
- 6:38Speaker 2: playoff by. And we know how well that prediction has
- 6:40Speaker 2: worked out for me because it ends up being a
- 6:42Speaker 2: curse on college teams. How do you characterize this first
- 6:46Speaker 2: round by for the Broncos? Is it going to be
- 6:48Speaker 2: good for them to get rested or do you not
- 6:50Speaker 2: want to see them break any of this momentum from
- 6:52Speaker 2: the season.
- 6:54Speaker 3: No, I think in this case it's a good thing.
- 6:57Speaker 3: It's a good thing. Although there are arguments for both sides.
- 7:00Speaker 3: Broncos have a pretty storied history of getting the first
- 7:03Speaker 3: round by and then you know, being won and done,
- 7:07Speaker 3: especially twice actually during the Peyton Manning years. But yeah,
- 7:10Speaker 3: there's arguments for both sides. I think in Denver's case,
- 7:13Speaker 3: because of the coach, because of Sean Payton and his experience.
- 7:16Speaker 3: I mean, this is far from his first rodeo. I
- 7:19Speaker 3: think the team will be prepared, be able to kind
- 7:22Speaker 3: of move around some of the obstacles, the rust versus
- 7:27Speaker 3: rest you know argument, They'll be ready. Sean Payton's big
- 7:30Speaker 3: thing is, hey, it just removes one game that we're
- 7:32Speaker 3: at risk of being eliminated. So that's the good news.
- 7:35Speaker 3: But I think at the end of the day, with
- 7:37Speaker 3: how banged up the Broncos are, which relatively speaking, is
- 7:40Speaker 3: not as bad as a lot of their opponents in
- 7:42Speaker 3: the in the AFC playoffs, but they have a few
- 7:45Speaker 3: key injuries like the Dray Greenlaw when I mentioned earlier
- 7:48Speaker 3: that that extra week could be of help, plus both
- 7:51Speaker 3: Old injured his foot, injured his ankle, I should say,
- 7:54Speaker 3: in that finale versus the Chargers, so that extra week
- 7:57Speaker 3: will make a difference, and I think Sean Payton will
- 7:58Speaker 3: have him ready to go.
- 8:01Speaker 2: When you talk about the rest of this AFC playoff field,
- 8:05Speaker 2: who's the biggest threat to the Broncos in your mind?
- 8:09Speaker 3: Man, I actually think it's the Chargers. There's an argument
- 8:12Speaker 3: to be made for the Buffalo Bills because you know,
- 8:15Speaker 3: the Broncos faced him in the wild card last year
- 8:17Speaker 3: and absolutely got curb stump. But matchups wise, this Bills
- 8:21Speaker 3: team is not the same team as it was last year.
- 8:24Speaker 3: And yeah, Josh Allen, he's still you know, forced to
- 8:26Speaker 3: be reckoned with. But Jim Harbaugh has the Broncos number
- 8:31Speaker 3: like make you know, dismiss that season finale. Herbert wasn't
- 8:34Speaker 3: playing Khalil Mack, wasn't playing Irwin James, many others. All
- 8:37Speaker 3: their star players, with the exception of Keenan Allen, sat
- 8:40Speaker 3: in that game. Jim Harbaugh outside of that finale is
- 8:44Speaker 3: undefeated against Sean Payton and bow Knicks. They're three to
- 8:48Speaker 3: zero going into that finale, and they just match up well.
- 8:51Speaker 3: Jesse Mintors, LA's defensive coordinator just seems to kind of
- 8:55Speaker 3: have Sean Payton's numbers. So that's the team that actually
- 8:59Speaker 3: makes me the most trepidacious. But hey, they got to
- 9:03Speaker 3: get past New England first, and I actually think that
- 9:05Speaker 3: they pull it off. I take LA ends up as
- 9:07Speaker 3: the seventh seed going back to Denver in two weeks
- 9:11Speaker 3: to play the Broncos.
- 9:13Speaker 2: Who's gonna Who's Denver gonna play next week?
- 9:17Speaker 3: That's what it's got to be. The I think it's
- 9:19Speaker 3: the Chargers, you know. I mean, there's a chance, who knows, right?
- 9:23Speaker 3: How good is the are the Patriots? They only beat two,
- 9:27Speaker 3: They only played two teams with the winning record in
- 9:30Speaker 3: twenty twenty five, won one of them. How tested are they?
- 9:34Speaker 3: You know? In terms of the refiners fire they played
- 9:36Speaker 3: a pretty dang easy schedule, so I'm not fully believing
- 9:41Speaker 3: in this. Uh Drake may led Patriots squad and the Chargers. Man,
- 9:45Speaker 3: They've got the defense, they got the quarterback, and then
- 9:48Speaker 3: they have the veteran coach, you know, Jim Harbaugh's seen
- 9:51Speaker 3: a lot of football over the years. So I think
- 9:53Speaker 3: it's the Chargers who advanced. Because the Broncos is the
- 9:56Speaker 3: one seed. One of the benefits is they get to
- 9:58Speaker 3: play whoever the lowest seed that survives the first round.
- 10:02Speaker 3: That's who goes. And I think it's going to be
- 10:03Speaker 3: the Chargers as the seven.
- 10:06Speaker 2: All Right, help me out with the rest of these
- 10:08Speaker 2: AFC games, Steelers, Texans, who comes out of that one?
- 10:12Speaker 3: Houston? That defense is maybe even scarier than Denvers.
- 10:18Speaker 2: Jags, Bills.
- 10:20Speaker 3: This is a toughie. This is a toughie because the
- 10:23Speaker 3: Jags they got something special cooking there. But Josh Allen
- 10:27Speaker 3: does he still have the magic? We'll find out. I'm
- 10:29Speaker 3: gonna take the Jags though, because I saw him up
- 10:31Speaker 3: close in Week sixteen against the Broncos and they are
- 10:34Speaker 3: forced to be reckoned.
- 10:34Speaker 2: With and then you think it'll be the Chargers over
- 10:38Speaker 2: the two seed Patriots, which would set up that Broncos
- 10:41Speaker 2: matchup one versus seven heating on January seventeenth.
- 10:45Speaker 3: Interesting from my gut for now, but we'll see.
- 10:49Speaker 2: Yeah, from an expectation standpoint, I've been through the Niners
- 10:54Speaker 2: lean years and then hey, the Niners are back, and
- 10:58Speaker 2: you remember the first couple of years where your team's
- 11:01Speaker 2: back in a playoff conversation and it's like, all right, cool,
- 11:05Speaker 2: it's good to be back at the playoffs. But we're
- 11:08Speaker 2: just going to be happy with that for now, and
- 11:09Speaker 2: then maybe next year will be our year. Maybe the
- 11:11Speaker 2: year after that will be our year. Where are Broncos
- 11:15Speaker 2: fans feeling right now? What does this Broncos team think
- 11:18Speaker 2: about their own possibilities to be in the Super Bowl?
- 11:22Speaker 3: Well, the team Sean Payton made waves in the summertime
- 11:25Speaker 3: deciding to go public with saying that this is one
- 11:29Speaker 3: of what I think he said four or five teams
- 11:31Speaker 3: he's coached all time where before the season he felt
- 11:35Speaker 3: like this could be a Super Bowl champion team, and
- 11:36Speaker 3: he went public with the and the Broncos have had
- 11:39Speaker 3: to live up to that, and so far they have,
- 11:41Speaker 3: you know, eleven straight wins during the regular season, the
- 11:43Speaker 3: one seed, so the team's expectations are super Bowl or busts,
- 11:48Speaker 3: especially now that they won the one seed home field
- 11:50Speaker 3: throughout fans, I think what you talked about with just
- 11:54Speaker 3: kind of being happy that we made it to the party.
- 11:56Speaker 3: It's okay if we at the bouncer, eighty six of
- 11:58Speaker 3: us early we made it. That was last year, you know,
- 12:01Speaker 3: Broncos fans were thrilled that they won ten games with
- 12:04Speaker 3: the rookie quarterback and made the playoffs and just happy
- 12:07Speaker 3: to snap the street the playoff drought. But this season, man,
- 12:11Speaker 3: it has so many strange parallels with the twenty fifteen
- 12:14Speaker 3: World champion Broncos, and combined with this team, this fan
- 12:18Speaker 3: base is relatively kind of snooty high standards, And I
- 12:22Speaker 3: say that in the best sense. You know, Broncos fans
- 12:24Speaker 3: have been very spoiled over the years. Let's face it, right,
- 12:26Speaker 3: Like you go from Lway to even that one Tim
- 12:29Speaker 3: Tebow year, wild Peyton Manning. Now here we are with
- 12:33Speaker 3: bow Nick, So I think fans have kind of fallen
- 12:37Speaker 3: in line with the team message, which is super Bowler bust.
- 12:41Speaker 3: So here we go.
- 12:42Speaker 2: Does Nick still have any doubters in that market? Because
- 12:45Speaker 2: I was with you, I covered him while he was
- 12:48Speaker 2: in the Pac twelve and I was like, Boenicks is
- 12:50Speaker 2: going to be an awesome NFL quarterback and was somewhat
- 12:53Speaker 2: surprised by the disbelievers. Do they still exist in Denver?
- 12:59Speaker 3: I mean, you'll hear with my publication mile High Huddle,
- 13:03Speaker 3: and you know, we're also Denver Broncos. On SI, we
- 13:07Speaker 3: have a pretty deep staff and not everybody is just
- 13:11Speaker 3: you know, sunshine and rainbows. When it comes to the Broncos,
- 13:14Speaker 3: we try to tell it like it is. But overall
- 13:16Speaker 3: in the market, I think bo Nicks no more doubters
- 13:20Speaker 3: in Denver, and I don't you know, for the most part,
- 13:22Speaker 3: I think he silenced all those doubts with what he
- 13:24Speaker 3: did as a rookie. I mean, he had the second
- 13:27Speaker 3: most prolific rookie season in the history of the NFL,
- 13:30Speaker 3: behind only Justin Herbert's twenty twenty campaign. So that kind
- 13:34Speaker 3: of brought everybody in line. The doubters kind of like,
- 13:37Speaker 3: all right, cool, but he's still got his national boo birds.
- 13:40Speaker 3: They're out there, man, just they dug in so hard
- 13:43Speaker 3: on those pre draft positions. The Bonnicks is not a
- 13:46Speaker 3: first round guy and he should be in the third
- 13:48Speaker 3: round that you know, they're really clinging to what are
- 13:52Speaker 3: as time March is on being exposed as freezing cold takes.
- 13:55Speaker 3: I mean, he's you look at what Boon Nicks has done.
- 13:58Speaker 3: He's the only quarterback in the history of the NFL,
- 14:02Speaker 3: in the history of the NFL to win twenty plus
- 14:05Speaker 3: games in his first two years, pass for seventy five
- 14:08Speaker 3: hundred plus yards and fifty plus touchdowns. Nobody's ever done
- 14:11Speaker 3: that before. So he is a force onto his own
- 14:15Speaker 3: and I think people need to kind of just admit
- 14:18Speaker 3: the situation. There's more dignity in it and go Bo Nicks.
- 14:24Speaker 2: If I take him out of the equation, who is
- 14:26Speaker 2: the most important Bronco for this playoff run?
- 14:30Speaker 3: Ooh, that's a great question, man, that's a toughie. I'm
- 14:39Speaker 3: gonna say Nick Benito. It's a toss up, but I won't.
- 14:42Speaker 3: I would say Nick Benito won a Pats or ten one.
- 14:47Speaker 3: B You know, the pass rush and the past defense
- 14:50Speaker 3: go hand in hand the coverage, but the Broncos need
- 14:53Speaker 3: that league leading pass rush to be the tip of
- 14:56Speaker 3: the spear. Because look as flowery as I just was
- 15:00Speaker 3: about Bo Nicks these last three weeks from Week sixteen,
- 15:04Speaker 3: on the offense has kind of been in a little
- 15:07Speaker 3: bit of a rut and the defense has had to
- 15:09Speaker 3: kind of carry the way. I don't know, It's hard
- 15:11Speaker 3: to put your finger on exactly what's going on. A
- 15:13Speaker 3: lot of people think that Sean Payton, once they clinched
- 15:16Speaker 3: the playoffs and had pretty much control of the AFC
- 15:19Speaker 3: West and a really good run at the one seed,
- 15:22Speaker 3: that he kind of took his foot off the gas
- 15:24Speaker 3: and he's not trying to show too much to the NFL.
- 15:26Speaker 3: But I'm like, you guys, remember were like many months
- 15:29Speaker 3: into the regular season, right, Like, he's already shown everything
- 15:32Speaker 3: pretty much there is to show, but it's been in
- 15:35Speaker 3: the offense a little bit of a funk. So they
- 15:36Speaker 3: need that defense out there, rip roaring, putting pressure on.
- 15:40Speaker 3: Sean Payton's big emphasis coming into the playoffs as takeaways
- 15:44Speaker 3: and the Broncos that's the one thing defensively that was
- 15:47Speaker 3: missing from the resume is they came one takeaway away
- 15:51Speaker 3: from being having the lowest number of takeaways by any
- 15:54Speaker 3: Broncos defense in the history of the Denver Broncos one
- 15:56Speaker 3: takeaway away. But they they're trying to turn that around,
- 16:00Speaker 3: and I think the first step to that is pressure
- 16:02Speaker 3: on that quarterback staying consistent, because that's where the mistakes
- 16:05Speaker 3: are made and that's where the ball can get Lucy goosey.
- 16:08Speaker 3: So I'm gonna say, Nick Benito, I.
- 16:12Speaker 2: Like what he's done. Even I'm not a Broncos guy.
- 16:15Speaker 2: I'm a Niners guy. But it's cool to see the
- 16:18Speaker 2: professional football fans here in Salt Lake City having something
- 16:22Speaker 2: to cheer for because the Broncos are kind of a
- 16:24Speaker 2: local team. The Seahawks, to my chagrin, a kind of
- 16:28Speaker 2: a local team, the Niners, my Niners. All these teams
- 16:30Speaker 2: in the playoffs. So NFL interested back at an all
- 16:34Speaker 2: time high.
- 16:34Speaker 3: Maybe it's good to see. I'm stoked for Utah. I mean,
- 16:39Speaker 3: most people I knew growing up were Broncos fans. I
- 16:42Speaker 3: grew up in Saint George, and you know, so we
- 16:44Speaker 3: still got the same TV market as Salt Lake City
- 16:46Speaker 3: and stuff. So Broncos on every day, right, like every Sunday,
- 16:50Speaker 3: but a lot of Niners fans, You're right, And it
- 16:52Speaker 3: wasn't until about the Russell Wilson there that I started
- 16:55Speaker 3: seeing people be fans of the Seahawks. In the Utah
- 16:58Speaker 3: market book, you know whatever, charge it to the game.
- 17:02Speaker 2: Yeah, well, we appreciate you giving us some time today.
- 17:05Speaker 2: As this Broncos run continues, hopefully we'll have you.
- 17:08Speaker 3: On some more my pleasure. Thanks for having me Sean
- 17:12Speaker 3: great stuff.
- 17:14Speaker 2: Broncos insider Chad Jensen Mile High Huddle. You can follow
- 17:19Speaker 2: him on Twitter