Latest / Jeff Legwold ESPN Broncos Reports / Jeff Legwold joins Moser, Lombardi and Kane 1-22-26
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- 0:00Speaker 1: Let's head out to ramas Law hot line car accident.
- 0:01Speaker 1: You need Ramos Law medical doctor and attorney ramos Law
- 0:04Speaker 1: dot com. Jeff lake Wald of ESPN, or, as Scott
- 0:09Speaker 1: Hastings would say, Jeff leg Walt's joins us.
- 0:13Speaker 2: Now, Jeff, I have a question to start this process.
- 0:16Speaker 2: We knew about the injury Sunday night. We're all in dismay.
- 0:19Speaker 2: He went surgery, got good surgery news. Fine, what was
- 0:23Speaker 2: the actual break for Bonix? Do we know the details?
- 0:26Speaker 3: What?
- 0:26Speaker 2: What did he break in the ankle?
- 0:29Speaker 4: Uh?
- 0:29Speaker 5: You know that that's the one thing we did. We
- 0:31Speaker 5: don't have a clear picture of yet.
- 0:34Speaker 4: Uh.
- 0:35Speaker 5: You know, I've been I hesitate with medical stuff to
- 0:38Speaker 5: just you know, do the old I've heard, but uh,
- 0:44Speaker 5: you know it whether ankle foot, it could be like
- 0:49Speaker 5: you know, my understanding is it's right in the connection
- 0:53Speaker 5: of the ankle to the top of the foot. But
- 0:56Speaker 5: until I talked to Bow or someone else, I can't
- 1:00Speaker 5: give you that officially, but.
- 1:02Speaker 4: I was. My understanding is that it was low on
- 1:05Speaker 4: the joint. Okay.
- 1:07Speaker 2: The reason I bring that up, Jeffrey is because he
- 1:09Speaker 2: suffered a similar injury to the same foot in college.
- 1:12Speaker 2: And I'm wondering now, and this is what scares me.
- 1:15Speaker 2: Is this a chronic issue?
- 1:17Speaker 4: Well, you know, I don't. We don't have the answer
- 1:19Speaker 4: to that.
- 1:20Speaker 5: Or you know, again, it is the third time he
- 1:23Speaker 5: has broken a ankle, whether that's left or right, you know,
- 1:27Speaker 5: and he also.
- 1:30Speaker 4: Last year, you know, I.
- 1:32Speaker 5: Don't know if you recall, but when the season ended,
- 1:37Speaker 5: several of us reported that he had a surgery after
- 1:41Speaker 5: the season was over, and at the time we reported
- 1:44Speaker 5: it as a surgery because that was the information we had.
- 1:48Speaker 5: But I later found out it wasn't ankle surgery. But
- 1:52Speaker 5: I don't know if that. I don't know if that
- 1:54Speaker 5: was the left or the right ankle. So this current
- 1:58Speaker 5: one is the right ankle.
- 2:00Speaker 2: So he might just have bad ankles. You know, some
- 2:02Speaker 2: people are predisposed Steph Curry. Yeah, some people have knee injuries. Right,
- 2:06Speaker 2: Those people like knee injury every year. Oh my god,
- 2:09Speaker 2: another uh ankles are listen, I have bad ankles. I've
- 2:12Speaker 2: broken both ankles. I've sprained both ankles. It's one of
- 2:16Speaker 2: those things where, for some reason, the way the body's built,
- 2:19Speaker 2: all the pressure goes to that area. You're telling me
- 2:21Speaker 2: that he's had his third ankle break. That's that's a
- 2:24Speaker 2: concern of mine.
- 2:26Speaker 4: That's a concern.
- 2:27Speaker 5: Yeah, he had one in high school, one in Auburn,
- 2:31Speaker 5: and now one.
- 2:32Speaker 4: With the Broncos.
- 2:34Speaker 3: Hey, Jeff, I saw that the guys who got injured
- 2:38Speaker 3: over the weekend were practicing in Franklin and Bryant, and
- 2:41Speaker 3: I see the JK. Dobbins just out there in limited.
- 2:45Speaker 3: Were you, on a scale of one to ten on
- 2:47Speaker 3: any of these guys being able to go coming up
- 2:50Speaker 3: on Sunday? Or is this just a hope and a
- 2:51Speaker 3: prayer thing or is it realistic? No?
- 2:55Speaker 5: You know, moj I, you know, I don't really want
- 2:57Speaker 5: to give you a number number, but uh, I think
- 3:00Speaker 5: Dobbins is moving really well. I mean again, I'm not
- 3:02Speaker 5: an orthopedic surgeon or anything, but I thought Dobbins looked
- 3:09Speaker 5: good last week when he was working off to the side,
- 3:12Speaker 5: and I think he looked very good yesterday. Now, you know,
- 3:18Speaker 5: in the playoffs, as we all understand, coaches are wound
- 3:22Speaker 5: a little tighter. We did not see as much practice
- 3:27Speaker 5: as we may have seen in November.
- 3:31Speaker 4: So I can't really tell you.
- 3:33Speaker 5: You know, how Dobbins looked in eleven on eleven or
- 3:36Speaker 5: any of those things.
- 3:39Speaker 4: But in the portions that were open.
- 3:41Speaker 5: He looked good enough to me where that I think
- 3:45Speaker 5: that could be a legitimate call at the end of
- 3:47Speaker 5: the week. If he comes through the week fine again,
- 3:50Speaker 5: that would be an amazingly fast recovery for that injury.
- 3:55Speaker 5: And a few weeks ago, when I saw Dobbins still
- 3:59Speaker 5: move and around here on a scooter, I would have said,
- 4:04Speaker 5: you know, probably not, but but he definitely looks good
- 4:09Speaker 5: and he certainly is jumping around on the practice field
- 4:13Speaker 5: like you know, he really really wants to play, which
- 4:16Speaker 5: is understandable, you know, concussion player like Pat Bryant, a
- 4:21Speaker 5: player who has had two concussions now in a very
- 4:23Speaker 5: short span.
- 4:24Speaker 4: I'd hesitate to tell you because I saw.
- 4:27Speaker 5: Him job yesterday that I think he can play, But yeah,
- 4:32Speaker 5: you know, that would be surprising. It's two concussions in
- 4:35Speaker 5: a very short period of time. Part of the protocol
- 4:38Speaker 5: is if you clear certain levels, you can put a
- 4:41Speaker 5: helmet back on and run and.
- 4:44Speaker 4: Then they test you again, and then you have.
- 4:46Speaker 5: To go to clear clear be cleared for full contact,
- 4:49Speaker 5: and then you have to be tested again to be
- 4:52Speaker 5: cleared for the game. So he has multiple hurdles yet
- 4:57Speaker 5: to get back.
- 4:58Speaker 1: Who's Who's the running back that came back insanely fast
- 5:01Speaker 1: from a torn a cl and played for the Rams.
- 5:03Speaker 2: Adrian Peters, not Peterson.
- 5:06Speaker 1: There was somebody who came back in the Super Bowl
- 5:08Speaker 1: for the Rams that I can't remember.
- 5:10Speaker 4: There was a Texas, Texas running back.
- 5:12Speaker 1: Yeah, moment the gu the Dobbins thing would remind me
- 5:18Speaker 1: of that. If he can come back and play, is
- 5:19Speaker 1: it No, it's not girly, It wasn't gurly. We'll find it.
- 5:24Speaker 1: But the point is, if Dobbins can come back and play,
- 5:26Speaker 1: I think, even if he's not one hundred percent, it's
- 5:30Speaker 1: such a boost because it would help out between the
- 5:33Speaker 1: tackles running. I think it would give Peyton a little
- 5:35Speaker 1: bit more confidence with his running backs in the backfield
- 5:39Speaker 1: like cam Akers, thank you cam Makers, col But but.
- 5:42Speaker 5: Like he did go to Texas, So I did my draft.
- 5:46Speaker 5: My draft brain only remembers the schools.
- 5:50Speaker 1: Okay, But here's sort of the question that I have,
- 5:53Speaker 1: and this is what I'm battling with. You have a
- 5:56Speaker 1: quarterback that has made four starts, it's gonna play in
- 5:58Speaker 1: the AFC Championship game, haven't started in two years, And
- 6:03Speaker 1: immediately your mind goes too. Well, that team's got no shot.
- 6:06Speaker 1: But the Broncos feel to me a team that is
- 6:10Speaker 1: not built off of a quarterback being good for sixty minutes.
- 6:13Speaker 1: And I'm not taking anything away from bow He's been
- 6:15Speaker 1: really good at the end of games. But am I
- 6:16Speaker 1: Am I wrong in thinking like this isn't the traditional
- 6:20Speaker 1: way you think about a quarterback a backup being in
- 6:22Speaker 1: this game? Is that wrong to think that way?
- 6:25Speaker 5: Well, you know, I don't, you know, the backups the
- 6:28Speaker 5: backup for a reason. I always you know, I know,
- 6:31Speaker 5: I know out there, you know.
- 6:33Speaker 4: In the he's so negative, Jeff, Oh my goodness.
- 6:36Speaker 5: Well, when we all talk about football, there's always this
- 6:40Speaker 5: discussion like they're they're leaving the best players on the bench,
- 6:45Speaker 5: like if that, if that guy would play, they win
- 6:48Speaker 5: every game, Like they don't watch these guys every day
- 6:51Speaker 5: in practice and at the meetings.
- 6:52Speaker 1: And can I give you a quick example of what
- 6:55Speaker 1: I'm talking about.
- 6:56Speaker 4: I'm not.
- 6:56Speaker 5: I'm not sure the Broncos worry about being good at
- 6:59Speaker 5: it anything.
- 7:00Speaker 4: For sixty minutes.
- 7:01Speaker 5: They just kind of, you know, slug it out with you,
- 7:05Speaker 5: and you know, at the end of the game they won,
- 7:07Speaker 5: and you're and you're mad.
- 7:09Speaker 1: But Just as an example, on the other side of
- 7:11Speaker 1: the legend, the NFC, it's the Seahawks versus the Rams.
- 7:14Speaker 1: If the Rams are playing their backup quarterback, it would
- 7:16Speaker 1: hurt them way more than the Seahawks, wouldn't it, Because
- 7:18Speaker 1: the Seahawks feel like they they're built around defense and
- 7:20Speaker 1: running the football on that sort of thing.
- 7:23Speaker 5: The rugged teams can overcome injuries better. They're not They're
- 7:27Speaker 5: not pretty to look at, which is why we don't
- 7:30Speaker 5: talk about them in that frame of mind. But that's
- 7:33Speaker 5: always been the case the rugged teams. I mean, way
- 7:37Speaker 5: way back when the steel in the Steelers dynasty is
- 7:40Speaker 5: probably the best example of all time. Terry Bradshaw gets hurt,
- 7:44Speaker 5: frank O Harris gets hurt, and I think that year,
- 7:47Speaker 5: I think their defense put up five shutouts in a
- 7:52Speaker 5: single season. You know, the two thousand Ravens, you know,
- 7:57Speaker 5: were were offensively challenged. The defense just held everybody to
- 8:01Speaker 5: nine points. Essentially, if you're built around defense and you're
- 8:06Speaker 5: a rugged team, you can overcome things that happened to
- 8:11Speaker 5: your offense. And the Broncos are certainly that kind of team.
- 8:15Speaker 5: I mean, just like you know, what they've done on
- 8:18Speaker 5: defense has gotten lost because occasion. You know, they have
- 8:21Speaker 5: this weird sort of you know, they give up explosive
- 8:25Speaker 5: plays at times and you know, or you know, Buffalo
- 8:28Speaker 5: ran the ball well on them for an afternoon. But
- 8:33Speaker 5: their defensive metrics front to back this season are very rare.
- 8:38Speaker 5: I mean, you know, Zach Allen leads the league in
- 8:41Speaker 5: quarterback hits, Nick Benito's third in pressure rate, They led
- 8:46Speaker 5: the league in sacks, and they had twenty more sacks
- 8:49Speaker 5: than the next team that made the playoff field. Wow,
- 8:53Speaker 5: twenty more sacks than any other playoff team Legy.
- 8:57Speaker 2: I need to ask this question because it's twofold. JK
- 9:00Speaker 2: Dobbins availability. If he's going to be effective at all,
- 9:02Speaker 2: can he play this Sunday? And here's the question. The
- 9:05Speaker 2: Broncos run game clearly hasn't been what they hoped it be.
- 9:09Speaker 2: Are the Broncos not good at running the ball because
- 9:12Speaker 2: they can't or because they won't.
- 9:15Speaker 5: I'd like to say I can give you an answer,
- 9:17Speaker 5: but when you only give running backs ten carries in
- 9:21Speaker 5: an NFL game, it's hard for me to make a
- 9:24Speaker 5: judgment other than you as the head coach and the
- 9:27Speaker 5: play caller, both which Sean Payton is obviously decided he
- 9:33Speaker 5: only wanted to give his running backs ten carries in
- 9:36Speaker 5: the game.
- 9:38Speaker 1: He didn't do that with Dobbins though this seasons would
- 9:41Speaker 1: carry the ball.
- 9:42Speaker 4: But that's look at the numbers. JK.
- 9:45Speaker 5: Dobbins hasn't played since November sixth, he still leads the
- 9:49Speaker 5: team in rushing back two hundred yards, and he still
- 9:53Speaker 5: has the most runs of ten or more yards he
- 9:56Speaker 5: has twenty one. He hasn't played since novel six he
- 10:00Speaker 5: has twenty one. The next Bronco running back is at fourteen.
- 10:04Speaker 3: Man, hey, Jeff, do me a favorite.
- 10:08Speaker 2: That's that speaks volumes right there?
- 10:10Speaker 4: Yes it does.
- 10:11Speaker 3: And again this gets back to me quote being negative
- 10:15Speaker 3: and whatever. People want to say that if you have
- 10:17Speaker 3: a backup quarterback and you don't have really an established
- 10:21Speaker 3: running game at all, and either one or two wideouts
- 10:24Speaker 3: are going to be out and so I mean, what
- 10:28Speaker 3: what what am I? What am I supposed to be
- 10:30Speaker 3: optimistic about? Offensively? What can they do offensively outside of
- 10:33Speaker 3: just ball control? That makes me think that this is
- 10:37Speaker 3: going to be okay? They I guess, coach me.
- 10:40Speaker 4: Up a little bit.
- 10:41Speaker 5: Well, I'm not gonna like coach your happiness.
- 10:45Speaker 2: Well, you know, it's an impossible task.
- 10:48Speaker 4: Hold on, I said, I can do many others.
- 10:52Speaker 3: Running coach my happiness all day? Every fan out there
- 10:55Speaker 3: a Texan bose Europe whacked out. They're trying to coach.
- 10:58Speaker 2: My happines leggy Grandpa's cough medicine today.
- 11:01Speaker 4: Take it easy. No, I just uh, you know, I
- 11:04Speaker 4: can do many things.
- 11:05Speaker 5: I can lift heavy things in life, But I can't
- 11:08Speaker 5: coach your happiness.
- 11:10Speaker 3: Then then then give me a reason to live.
- 11:13Speaker 4: All right, that's a lot of pressure on and let
- 11:16Speaker 4: me let me ask you this.
- 11:18Speaker 5: No, I just I would always offer. Look, defense is
- 11:23Speaker 5: king in the playoffs. We don't want to talk about
- 11:25Speaker 5: you know, the playoffs look different since the playoffs started.
- 11:29Speaker 5: Look how the games have looked. That's not how the
- 11:33Speaker 5: regular season looks. You know, whether it's bad weather or
- 11:38Speaker 5: just pressure is turnovers everywhere.
- 11:42Speaker 1: Uh.
- 11:43Speaker 5: If the Broncos like the Texans, uh sack Drake May
- 11:49Speaker 5: five times and forced Drake May to fumble four times.
- 11:53Speaker 4: I like their odds, you know.
- 11:55Speaker 5: I you know the Texans who's past rush isn't what
- 12:01Speaker 5: the Broncos is got to May anytime they wanted, and
- 12:07Speaker 5: if their quarterback had not played probably the worst game
- 12:12Speaker 5: of his football life.
- 12:14Speaker 4: The Texans are probably coming here, you know, someday.
- 12:18Speaker 2: And that's what gives me hope. The fact that CJ.
- 12:20Speaker 2: Stroud had a QBR equivalent to just spiking the ball
- 12:24Speaker 2: on every down, that's how bad he was. And the
- 12:27Speaker 2: fact that the Broncos have a backup quarterback who's proven,
- 12:29Speaker 2: he's shown that he's capable of throwing the ball.
- 12:33Speaker 5: He's got to avoid the turnal. Yes, yes, And in
- 12:37Speaker 5: his four starts, this is, you know, the red flag
- 12:40Speaker 5: the Broncos got to deal with. In his four starts,
- 12:44Speaker 5: Stidham's taken thirteen sacks. He has got to have a
- 12:48Speaker 5: way to avoid the five sack day, the sixth sack
- 12:52Speaker 5: day he can't have. He's got to get it out
- 12:55Speaker 5: of his hands, and he can't take risks because he's
- 12:59Speaker 5: trying to go that that he can make the big
- 13:02Speaker 5: money play.
- 13:03Speaker 4: Now.
- 13:03Speaker 5: He will be aggressive down the field and there is
- 13:07Speaker 5: no way Sean Payton doesn't call some downfield shots.
- 13:12Speaker 4: I just see it coming.
- 13:13Speaker 2: I said that to start the show as that, I said,
- 13:15Speaker 2: the one teaching aspect this week for Sean Payton will
- 13:19Speaker 2: be to try and teach this guy to throw the
- 13:21Speaker 2: ball on time before the pressure get there. That's the
- 13:24Speaker 2: that's the teaching point. And now whether you can do
- 13:26Speaker 2: it in a week remains to be seen. But why
- 13:28Speaker 2: wouldn't you help me out here? You can't run the ball.
- 13:31Speaker 2: You haven't run the ball. There's just nowhere to run
- 13:34Speaker 2: the ball.
- 13:35Speaker 4: I would say, they haven't tried very hard.
- 13:37Speaker 2: Okay, all right, whatever, let's say, why not just lean
- 13:40Speaker 2: into the passing game this week? And I mean lean
- 13:43Speaker 2: into it. I mean short passing game, intermedia passing game.
- 13:47Speaker 2: Let's go, what do you got to lose?
- 13:49Speaker 4: Well, they have done that in some fashion.
- 13:51Speaker 5: Know, all those bubble screens and flash routes, those are
- 13:55Speaker 5: really run plays back in the day. I mean knows,
- 13:58Speaker 5: you know when they're they're just flipping the ball to
- 14:01Speaker 5: the perimeter, to the back or mimes.
- 14:04Speaker 4: That's a run.
- 14:04Speaker 5: Play, you know, in philosophical So they are they are
- 14:10Speaker 5: leaning in like that.
- 14:11Speaker 4: But you know the whole just throw all the time you.
- 14:15Speaker 5: Were, you were serving your quarterback up for serious problems.
- 14:20Speaker 5: And to me, that's that's the issue. You've already got
- 14:24Speaker 5: one who is out. You really can't afford to put
- 14:29Speaker 5: your quarterback in harm's way, you know, unless you're way behind,
- 14:34Speaker 5: and you just got to play that way. But you
- 14:36Speaker 5: know to in today's in the playoffs, especially against the
- 14:41Speaker 5: defense that you see in the playoffs, to simply go
- 14:44Speaker 5: five man protections over and over again, you're just asking
- 14:48Speaker 5: for your guy to take a beating just quickly.
- 14:50Speaker 1: Here, Leggy, this is sort of a two parter or
- 14:52Speaker 1: number one. Am I crazy crazy?
- 14:56Speaker 3: Yes?
- 14:57Speaker 1: But am I crazy for this for a kind of
- 15:00Speaker 1: not wanting Pat Bryant to be active because that will
- 15:03Speaker 1: force Marvin Mims into a bigger role like it did
- 15:06Speaker 1: last week and that proved to be very nice. That's one.
- 15:10Speaker 1: Number two?
- 15:11Speaker 2: What was that sentence structure?
- 15:12Speaker 4: I don't know.
- 15:13Speaker 3: Number two?
- 15:15Speaker 1: Can I get a game from the Evan Ingram like
- 15:18Speaker 1: just one? Like this feels like this is Taylor made
- 15:21Speaker 1: injuries to all these different skill position guys. Can I
- 15:23Speaker 1: get an Evan Ingram game this weekend?
- 15:26Speaker 5: Well, I would say Evan can't throw himself the ball.
- 15:29Speaker 5: I mean, you know, I just think a lot of
- 15:37Speaker 5: you know, I think when Bo at this point in
- 15:39Speaker 5: his career two years in, which is you know, you're
- 15:42Speaker 5: just barely starting your NFL career as a quarterback, I
- 15:47Speaker 5: think sometimes he goes from the primary to the checkdown,
- 15:53Speaker 5: direct route, nothing in between, and a lot of times
- 15:57Speaker 5: Evan Ingram is one of the progressions in the in
- 16:01Speaker 5: between area. So that's why he doesn't get many targets sometimes,
- 16:06Speaker 5: or why Mims doesn't get many targets because I think
- 16:09Speaker 5: they've told Bow so often, whatever you do, don't take
- 16:14Speaker 5: a sack, because Sean Payton considers sacks turnovers.
- 16:19Speaker 4: I think often he goes from the primary to the.
- 16:22Speaker 5: Checkdown, and your tight end isn't gonna be the checkdown
- 16:26Speaker 5: in this offense a lot, it's gonna be the back,
- 16:29Speaker 5: and it's gonna be you know, somebody else. But I
- 16:35Speaker 5: think with Stidham, you know, he may work some of
- 16:38Speaker 5: those other progressions more because he can't. He doesn't have
- 16:43Speaker 5: Nix's athleticism to pull the ball down and go, so
- 16:47Speaker 5: he may work deeper into the down by a second
- 16:52Speaker 5: or two than Bow may have. But that means the
- 16:56Speaker 5: Broncos are gonna have to protect longer too, But that
- 16:59Speaker 5: that is a spot where they need to attack Nickel defenses,
- 17:03Speaker 5: and that I think that's why they're three and outs
- 17:05Speaker 5: are such a high percentage. They're down near the bottom
- 17:08Speaker 5: of the league again the second year in a row,
- 17:11Speaker 5: and what's been the you know, the common thread in
- 17:15Speaker 5: both those seasons. They don't get much production from the
- 17:18Speaker 5: tight end, because that's the whole against Nickel defenses.
- 17:23Speaker 1: Jeff Lakewell ESPN dot Com. All conversations with Leggy you
- 17:26Speaker 1: brought to you by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
- 17:28Speaker 1: IBW Local sixty eight. Start with the job and with
- 17:30Speaker 1: the career. Last thing, Leggy, and I hate to do
- 17:33Speaker 1: this to you. In twenty twenty one, cam Akers tore
- 17:36Speaker 1: his achilles in July. He came back and was on
- 17:40Speaker 1: the active roster in December and played in the Super
- 17:43Speaker 1: Bowl for the Rams. He was not a Texas guy.
- 17:47Speaker 1: He went to right, he went to Florida State.
- 17:50Speaker 4: That's my bad. Yeah, it's awful. I'm gonna go. I'm
- 17:53Speaker 4: gonna go take a lap.
- 17:55Speaker 3: Go take a Lappreciate it, buddy, Thank you.
- 18:01Speaker 4: Yeah, that's awful. Thanks man, It's awful.
- 18:03Speaker 1: I'm tapping out, all right, all right, see you like
- 18:05Speaker 1: Jeff l aweld ESPN dot Com. It's actually, I think
- 18:09Speaker 1: the only time I've heard him incorrect on draft prospect
- 18:13Speaker 1: going to the NFL. The only time it happens