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Jeff Legwold joins Kreckman and Lindahl 9-2-25 · Jeff Legwold ESPN Broncos Reports

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  Speaker 1: Jeth Lakewell, brought to you by the International Brotherhood of
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Electrical Workers IBEW Local sixty eight. Start with the job,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: end with a career legie. Let's start here. How is
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  Speaker 1: Marvin Mims as we go into week one and how
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  Speaker 1: is his groin?
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  Speaker 2: Well, he looked okay in practice yesterday, so that's what
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  Speaker 2: that's my information right now, is that he was back
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  Speaker 2: on the practice field.
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  Speaker 1: Now, we.
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  Speaker 2: Regular season rules, so we see a little less practice
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  Speaker 2: than we have. But he they didn't have him, you know,
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  Speaker 2: when we were in there, they didn't have him like
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  Speaker 2: off to the side or anything. He was with everybody
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  Speaker 2: else warming up and getting ready. So I think what
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  Speaker 2: they said is, you know, I always leave some reserve
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  Speaker 2: judgment for tomorrow, you know, but I think as of
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  Speaker 2: right now, he looks on track to play.
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  Speaker 1: One of the things that I think is a great
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  Speaker 1: mystery about this team is what is going to be
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: the size of Marvin Mims role this upcoming season? And
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  Speaker 1: Andy and I have had many a conversation about it.
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  Speaker 1: You know, you look at the back half of last year,
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  Speaker 1: you know, basically starting with the Raider game, you know,
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  Speaker 1: you know, right around Thanksgiving and it was you know,
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  Speaker 1: at least five targets every single game. The rest of
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  Speaker 1: the way, he was catching a huge percentage of those targets.
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  Speaker 1: A lot of them, quite frankly, were you know, high
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  Speaker 1: percentage throws that he was catching behind the line of
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  Speaker 1: scrimmage and being able to turn up field. You know,
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  Speaker 1: as you have watched this, this camp, this preseason, as
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  Speaker 1: you have talked to people around the team, what is
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  Speaker 1: your sense of how much they want to use Marvin
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  Speaker 1: Mims And is he just can you just slap that
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  Speaker 1: label on him? Is he just a gadget guy or
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  Speaker 1: is there something else there?
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  Speaker 2: I think there's more there, you know, whether they do
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  Speaker 2: or not. They keep saying they do, but you know,
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  Speaker 2: they say a lot of things. They say they want
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  Speaker 2: to run the ball more and get everybody all these touches. Look,
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  Speaker 2: Evan Ingram's arrival is taking touches from a lot of people.
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  Speaker 2: And we don't know yet, you know, how it will
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  Speaker 2: be divvied up. But you know, I think Sutton Ingram
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  Speaker 2: are your top two targets when the season's all said
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  Speaker 2: and done. But you know, and I think they'd like
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  Speaker 2: Mims involved, They'd like Franklin involved, because frankly, those are
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  Speaker 2: their the explosiveness. You know, even Ingram at his best
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  Speaker 2: in the last three seasons or so has not been
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  Speaker 2: a big run after the catch guy. So a reliable
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  Speaker 2: target gets open a ton and will make a ton
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  Speaker 2: of plays in this offense that they haven't had somebody
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  Speaker 2: do in a long time. But your run after the
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  Speaker 2: catch guys are Franklin and Mims frankly, and I think
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  Speaker 2: they've got to find a way to to make that happen.
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  Speaker 2: Whether they do or not, again, it's that I think
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  Speaker 2: the issue has been last year specially, Franklin and Mims
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  Speaker 2: played the same spot in the offense. This year, they've
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  Speaker 2: tried to diversify that in camp and we've seen them
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  Speaker 2: in different slots, but during the game, we don't know
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  Speaker 2: yet if that's the rotation. You know, does Mims come
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  Speaker 2: off the field when Franklin comes on? All of those things,
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  Speaker 2: But you know, when they've gone three wide for most
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  Speaker 2: of the camp and offseason, it's been Sutton, Franklin, Mims,
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  Speaker 2: and I think that gets everybody the potential for good
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  Speaker 2: quality touches if it stays that way.
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  Speaker 3: All right, what do you think the first play of
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  Speaker 3: the season is going to be. I'm just kind of
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  Speaker 3: curious about it. I ask you that because you had
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  Speaker 3: told us you saw a scenario where you thought maybe
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  Speaker 3: Jake or r J. Harvey is the one that's out
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  Speaker 3: there to start the game, right, But could they come
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  Speaker 3: out if they want to run wide zone which everybody
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  Speaker 3: keeps hinting at and coach Sanford thinks he saw a
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  Speaker 3: few of the formations You've talked a little bit about
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  Speaker 3: it all that kind of stuff. Is Dobbin's the better
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  Speaker 3: guy for that or is that RJ Harvey all the way?
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  Speaker 2: I think they'd like it to be Harvey Andy, But
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  Speaker 2: you know, I think that the initial you know, the
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  Speaker 2: Titans are a little different animal. They're big upfront on defense,
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  Speaker 2: So maybe the Broncos go heavy initially and we don't.
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  Speaker 2: We don't. We don't see that, uh, you know, some
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  Speaker 2: of that wide zone stuff for you know, until the
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  Speaker 2: game gets going. But I think they'd like Harvey to
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  Speaker 2: be that runner. And in Dobbins, they know if for
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  Speaker 2: some reason, you know, they're they're not getting what they
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  Speaker 2: want from Harvey. Dobbins can be an easy, just go
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  Speaker 2: in there and make it happen type guy, but he's
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  Speaker 2: been the third down guy in long yardage guy almost
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  Speaker 2: exclusively Dobbins. I mean for for camp, the preseason and
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  Speaker 2: everything I've seen, we didn't get to see Dobbins get
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  Speaker 2: a carry. Uh. And again, I think they've purposely held
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  Speaker 2: back a lot of some of the tweaks in the
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  Speaker 2: run game because I think they'd like to spring that
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  Speaker 2: on people if they can.
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  Speaker 1: Jeff Lakewald with us here, joins us on the ramos
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: Law Hotline car accident. You need ramos Law medical doctor
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: and attorney. Visit Ramoslaw dot com. Jeff, what are some
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  Speaker 1: pitfalls that could get Denver here in Week one?
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  Speaker 2: Don't score? I mean we saw a lot of that.
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  Speaker 2: It's basic, I know, like the type of thing. But
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  Speaker 2: after the preseason they had I mean it took with
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  Speaker 2: Bo Nixon quarterback, it took them thirty nine plays with
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  Speaker 2: the starters over six drives to get a touchdown. And
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  Speaker 2: you know that, to me, I would have liked to
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  Speaker 2: have seen. I know it's the preseason and all of that,
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  Speaker 2: and I get it, but I would have liked to
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  Speaker 2: have seen a little more. If I'm them, I would
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  Speaker 2: have liked to see a little more from the offense.
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  Speaker 2: And I think they proved they wanted to see more too.
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  Speaker 2: I think in two of the games they played the
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  Speaker 2: starters longer than they fully intended to to simply get
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  Speaker 2: them in the end zone.
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  Speaker 3: As far as this defense goes and the pressure that
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  Speaker 3: will be put on it, what do they have to
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  Speaker 3: do to prove that they are as good as twenty fifteen.
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  Speaker 3: We know they've got the makings of it, and I
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  Speaker 3: think of things like the first thing you said to
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  Speaker 3: me that always stuck with me about twenty fifteen is
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  Speaker 3: this team can rush and they can cover. I feel
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  Speaker 3: like this version of the Broncos can do the same.
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  Speaker 2: Can they do you expect them to? They have the
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  Speaker 2: talent to. I mean I have no hesitation in say
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  Speaker 2: it's one of the most talented defenses I've ever seen
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  Speaker 2: come out of a camp or a preseason. The thing
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  Speaker 2: that twenty fifteen team did better than anybody I've covered
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  Speaker 2: was clutch plays. I mean, when they played the tough
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  Speaker 2: downs the best. They didn't give up the fourteen yard
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  Speaker 2: run when they had somebody at third and eleven. You know,
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  Speaker 2: they didn't give up the forty five yard completion when
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  Speaker 2: they had somebody pin deep. They played the clutchdowns, the
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  Speaker 2: tough downs better than anybody. And that's why they I
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  Speaker 2: think they won what nine one score games that year. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: and you know, the Browns game for me will always
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  Speaker 2: sort of be the testament of that defense. The Browns
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  Speaker 2: are going to kick a field goal until the to
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  Speaker 2: win the game, until the defense just decided you're not
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  Speaker 2: going to kick a field goal and you'll be on
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  Speaker 2: the other side of the fifty when we're done with you.
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  Speaker 2: And that that was what separated that defense. And that's
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  Speaker 2: the question about this group. Last year, they had one
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  Speaker 2: of the best defenses in the league, but they had bobbles.
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  Speaker 2: You know, Jameis Winston, you know Lamar. Look, Lamar Jackson
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  Speaker 2: does it to a lot of people, So I'm not
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  Speaker 2: sure that's a bobble.
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  Speaker 1: Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, like the elite of
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  Speaker 1: the elite got him last year. Justin Herbert got him
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  Speaker 1: last year.
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  Speaker 2: That's the difference. If you're gonna be a great defense,
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  Speaker 2: you got to shut down the great quarterbacks. And if
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  Speaker 2: you're in the AFC, you're gonna get plenty of opportunities
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  Speaker 2: to shut down the great quarterbacks. And look at their schedule.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, Lamar's on it. Joe Burrow on it. You know,
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  Speaker 2: two games against Herbert, two against Mahomes. I mean they
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  Speaker 2: got plenty of quarterback firepower, you know, coming at them
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  Speaker 2: this year. So I think it's the it's the clutch,
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  Speaker 2: tough downs. Are you good then and avoiding those lapses
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  Speaker 2: where somebody gets free. And I think if when you're
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  Speaker 2: a defense is as aggressive as they are, the trouble
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  Speaker 2: often starts when suddenly you decide to go zone to
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  Speaker 2: keep everything in front of you, and you don't play
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  Speaker 2: it enough to have those smooth pass offs and transitions.
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  Speaker 2: And I think that's what gets you out sometimes when
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  Speaker 2: you're an aggressive defense like that. You know, Wade Phillips
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  Speaker 2: had the same thing. You know, I've often talked to
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  Speaker 2: Wade about it is that's the one concern you have
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  Speaker 2: when you play with your your foot to the floor
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  Speaker 2: so hard, is that when you do go zone and
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  Speaker 2: when you do back off, you don't have the smooth
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  Speaker 2: transitions and some of the coverages you do, and you
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  Speaker 2: get burned for a big play here and there.
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  Speaker 1: We'll always talking to Jeff Legwall to ESBN. Normally mondays
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: we'll do it on a Tuesday since we get pushed
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  Speaker 1: back one day this week. We'll talk to Leggie again
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  Speaker 1: on Friday, previewing this matchup against Tennessee Jeff. Draft season
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  Speaker 1: wasn't all that terribly long ago, and you spent quite
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: a bit of time breaking down cam Ward as you
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: were writing up the top one hundred. Dig back into
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: your cam Ward expertise and tell us what cam Ward
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  Speaker 1: could do to overcome the let's be honest, not proud
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  Speaker 1: history of rookie quarterbacks starting their first game on the
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  Speaker 1: road in the NFL.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and he didn't get a good luck of it. Seriously,
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  Speaker 2: this is a tough road spot, even if the defense
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  Speaker 2: is middle of the road. So that's this is a
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  Speaker 2: big ask they're making. I'll tell you, I went back
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  Speaker 2: and I looked at all of this preseason snaps multiple times.
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  Speaker 1: We have nineteen throws in the preseason, I think, yeah, yeah.
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  Speaker 2: And he kept him in the gun almost exclusively. I
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  Speaker 2: was a little surprised at that. I think I had
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  Speaker 2: seven snaps under center, and most of those were the
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  Speaker 2: cheesy short yardage gimmes, but they had some RPO sprinkled
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  Speaker 2: in there. They've tried to run out of the shotgun
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  Speaker 2: with him, which wasn't that effective. But he was in
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  Speaker 2: the gun almost exclusively, which tells me they're trying to
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  Speaker 2: get that comfort level quick and worry about the rest later.
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  Speaker 2: I think, you know, Brian Tallahan was here for a while.
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  Speaker 2: His dad's one of the great old line coaches ever,
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  Speaker 2: and I'd know they'd like him under center a little more,
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  Speaker 2: probably in a perfect world as they moved forward. The
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  Speaker 2: big trouble thing he could be for the Broncos is
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  Speaker 2: he's he's at his best off schedule, and he's at
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  Speaker 2: his best when he's just kind of moving and spinning
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  Speaker 2: and doing those things. And you know, if you don't
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  Speaker 2: pin him in there, he could cause you a problem
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  Speaker 2: because they do have some receiver talent. Who are you know,
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  Speaker 2: Ridley and lock It and those guys are good on
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  Speaker 2: scramble drills from what I saw, and that you know,
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  Speaker 2: they didn't have them all out there much, but when
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  Speaker 2: I did those, they were effective at leaving the route
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  Speaker 2: and getting right to the scrambled drill because they're veteran receivers.
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  Speaker 2: So I think that's my concern if you're the Broncos
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  Speaker 2: is letting him loose, and you know, I would expect
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  Speaker 2: the Titans to give him some confidence throws early to
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  Speaker 2: get something moving. But he didn't have to work much
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  Speaker 2: in the silent count realm in the preseason that I saw,
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  Speaker 2: so I think that will be an issue for him
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  Speaker 2: as well, because there will be almost no audible way
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  Speaker 2: for him, especially early in the game, to convey protections
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  Speaker 2: and the rest of it. So I'm intrigued to watch him.
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  Speaker 2: But he's really good off schedule and he's decisive. So
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  Speaker 2: you got to keep a to me, if you're the Broncos,
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: you got to keep them hemmed in and you got
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  Speaker 2: to get them off that first read and make them
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  Speaker 2: work it.
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  Speaker 3: Jeff Nate asked an interesting question earlier because the Athletic
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: did their poll where they talked to some gms and
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  Speaker 3: coaches and all that, and they had more votes for
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  Speaker 3: the Broncos likely to not meet expectations than to meet expectations. Now,
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: expectations is a vague word, so they put it at
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: the nine and a half wins Vegas expects. I think
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  Speaker 3: that's a fair point. You've talked to plenty of personnel people,
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  Speaker 3: you do it all the time, You know a lot
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  Speaker 3: of people in the league. I'll ask you the question
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  Speaker 3: they'd asked, are the Broncos and media darling, Does the
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  Speaker 3: rest of the league buy the potential there that the
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: media seems to be hyping on all the NFL shows.
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  Speaker 2: You know, they're probably a little more hyped in the
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: media realm and inside the league. But that's just because
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: that the AFC is kind of a thirty one flavors
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  Speaker 2: right now. It's who you like. You know, You've got
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  Speaker 2: a lot to choose from in the AFCA, and it's
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  Speaker 2: hard for people to wrap their heads around this is
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  Speaker 2: the year the Broncos are going to get by Josh
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  Speaker 2: Allen and Lamar Jackson and Patrick Mahomes. I mean, you're
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  Speaker 2: hitting four at best even if you have a great year,
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: just because of the of the and that doesn't even
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  Speaker 2: include Burrow. What if the Bengals get it together with Burrow?
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  Speaker 2: That's the issue. And in the league it's like they
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: people look at the other quarterbacks and but people like
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: this roster. They are impressed. The Broncos have assembled better
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: depth in a salary cap NFL than a lot of
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: teams have. And I know people don't here want to
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: hear it here a lot because of the Russell Wilson
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: thing and Randy Gregory and I get all of that,
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: and you know Nathaniel Hackett, but as a football guy,
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: George Payton is pretty pretty respected in the league and
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: people think the Broncos roster reflects that right now.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, depth all of the place. I mean, we talked
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: before about like you're gonna sustain injuries because it's humanly
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: impossible not to. But what we've seen out of this
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  Speaker 1: team so far was when you talk about some of
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: those position battles, and it's like Chris Abrams Drain is
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: cornerback number five, like Trent Sherfield is wide receiver number five.
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  Speaker 1: Like that's pretty damn good at positions like that, very
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  Speaker 1: valuable positions out on the field where it's like, if
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: you've got to play these guys a little bit, you're
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: not necessarily gonna be done for. There's gonna be practice
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: squad guys that we were talking about having a shot
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  Speaker 1: to make maybe a lesser team, Well, they gonna have
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: to play at the end of the year. And I
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: think that's where I think that's where the Broncos are
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  Speaker 1: well well built to be able to deal with some
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: of this. There's always the things you can't predict, like
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  Speaker 1: you but this is a deep team.
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  Speaker 2: You're right about that, Yeah, And I think that's one
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  Speaker 2: thing personnel guys will say right now is if say
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: the front runners get hammered. You know that a lot
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: of those teams have had good luck with injuries. You
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: know what if one or two of those teams gets hammered,
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: who's in the best position to take advantage The Broncos
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: are one of those teams to take advantage of that.
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  Speaker 2: And you know, I've I've said for a long time
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  Speaker 2: it's not always the two best teams in the Super Bowl,
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: but it's often the best healthy teams in the super Bowl.
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: And that's you know, I think that will always be
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: the case.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: Guys read Jeff legwaldt ESPN dot com. Leggy, you're dropping
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: anything big this week for Week one Big season preview?
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: What do you got for us? Had?
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: I had a nice little extended conversation with bow Nicks
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: that's coming later this week, So that's uh. I enjoyed that.
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: I enjoy talking to him, and uh we got a
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: little of that coming later in the week.
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: Here, all right, Jeff Legwald sitting down with QB one.
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  Speaker 1: We'll be talking about it coming up here on Friday. Leggy,
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: excellent work man, thank you.
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: Thanks Bellows. We'll say it