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Jeff Legwold previews Broncos @ Texans with Moser, Lombardi and Kane 10-30-25 · Jeff Legwold ESPN Broncos Reports

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Let's go back to the Ramas Law hot line car
• 0:01
  Speaker 1: accident Ramos Law medical doctor and attorney Ramas Law dot com.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: As we're joined by Jeff Legwald of ESPN dot com,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: as we are every Thursday.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Hello, Leggy, morning fellas Florda.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: So, how much can I take away from the Dallas
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: game of the offense playing better with Dallas's defense being
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: very obviously bad.
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: Well, I wouldn't take much going to this week because
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: you go from one of the worst to one of
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  Speaker 3: the best. Yeah, so, uh, you know, totally different scenario
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  Speaker 3: this week. You're not going to have those kind of
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: throwing windows. You're not going to have as many receivers
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  Speaker 3: cut loose because the safety in the corner don't communicate.
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: You're not going to have much of that stuff going on.
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  Speaker 3: So if they, you know, the Broncos can move the
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: ball this week, they will have earned it.
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  Speaker 2: They will have earned every yard.
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  Speaker 4: What does Houston do so well defensively? Why are they
• 0:59
  Speaker 4: so good?
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  Speaker 3: Well, you know they sometimes in the NFL it's it's
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  Speaker 3: taken not as a compliment when people say, oh, you know,
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  Speaker 3: they don't do much, but in their case it is
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  Speaker 3: a compliment. You know, their their defensive menu isn't huge.
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  Speaker 3: There's not a lot of exotic looks and and pressures
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  Speaker 3: and coverages, and they don't do you know there there
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  Speaker 3: isn't you know, sort of the mix and match you
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  Speaker 3: see with some teams. They just are good, solid defenders,
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  Speaker 3: you know, basic stuff. They cover and they rush and
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  Speaker 3: they do both well and that's that's been a problem
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  Speaker 3: for people. The only thing that's held them back is
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: they've they've been so bad on offense, particularly in their
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  Speaker 3: offensive line, that you know, they're they've they've got this
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: great defense and they still aren't really playing as well
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  Speaker 3: as as a lot of other teams. So, but their
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: problems they've had this year, very few have been on defense.
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  Speaker 1: So is this another game we could expect like a
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  Speaker 1: five sack game out of the Broncos defense?
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  Speaker 3: Again, Yeah, this offensive line isn't good, so I don't
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  Speaker 3: you know, I don't know what that'll look like. But
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: you know, they you know that the advanced metric a
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  Speaker 3: lot of people use now is that you know the
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  Speaker 3: the past block win rate, you know how well you're
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  Speaker 3: doing against the rush, and you know they're at fifty percent,
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  Speaker 3: which is you know, not spectacular if you're only winning
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  Speaker 3: half of your your past block scenarios. That isn't good
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  Speaker 3: for your quarterback. But the interesting thing is, as bad
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  Speaker 3: as they've been up front, CJ. Stroud hasn't been sacked
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  Speaker 3: a ton.
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  Speaker 2: You know.
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  Speaker 3: He's like in the middle of the pack, I think
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  Speaker 3: fourteenth or so in sacks. So he has found a
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  Speaker 3: way to adjust because he's good enough. But this is
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  Speaker 3: definitely a game where the Broncos should be able to
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  Speaker 3: create pressure. Uh, and they're gonna have to because they
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  Speaker 3: don't have the best cover player in the NFL in
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  Speaker 3: the lineup this week.
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  Speaker 4: So yeah, I was gonna ask you about that. Does
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  Speaker 4: that mean that Riley Moss now handles the top receiver?
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  Speaker 4: What do they do to make that adjustment with that?
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  Speaker 3: Patrick Certan, Yeah, I'm going to be interested to see
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  Speaker 3: if they do travel anybody with the good the good receivers,
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  Speaker 3: and I think offenses will sort of kick the tires
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  Speaker 3: and see too. I think the big component to this
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  Speaker 3: is the Broncos play more man to man defense than
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  Speaker 3: anybody else in the league, and it ain't close.
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  Speaker 2: Uh. You know, I think.
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  Speaker 3: I'm ninety nine percent sure that Riley Moss has played
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  Speaker 3: more snaps in man coverage than any other dB in
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  Speaker 3: the NFL this year, and that's that's a big significant difference.
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  Speaker 3: You take certain out of that equation. Can you do
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: that as much? You know a lot of their rush
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  Speaker 3: and being as aggressive as they are up front with
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  Speaker 3: all the simulated pressures. I mean, they turn a lot
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  Speaker 3: of six man and five man looks at the line
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  Speaker 3: of scrimmage into four man pressures and they get away
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  Speaker 3: with it because they cover in man coverage so well.
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  Speaker 2: So that could be a very big adjustment.
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  Speaker 3: It's hard for me to believe you could still play
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  Speaker 3: They're the only team in the league that plays over
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  Speaker 3: sixty percent of their coverage downs in man, and it's
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  Speaker 3: hard for me to believe you could keep doing that
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  Speaker 3: without certain On the other side.
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  Speaker 4: Of that, I have a theory on that, and I'm
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  Speaker 4: glad you brought that up. They do play a lot
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  Speaker 4: of man, and they do it long enough to get
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  Speaker 4: to the quarterback. Right, So if you play exclusively man, Jeff,
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  Speaker 4: and I know you've seen enough of this, it's only
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  Speaker 4: amount of time before you get beat. But if you're
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  Speaker 4: if you're covering the dude for the first three seconds
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  Speaker 4: and the quarterback doesn't get an open. Look, quarterback panics,
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  Speaker 4: quarterback gets sacked, quarterback does something he doesn't want to do.
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  Speaker 4: It's those first three seconds. And I think Riley Moss
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  Speaker 4: has been really good. When he gets in trouble is
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  Speaker 4: when the quarterback finds an opening and then you know,
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  Speaker 4: after three seconds is up. Good luck trying to stop
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  Speaker 4: your guy. And that's the difference. That's why I think
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  Speaker 4: Riley Moss has been exposed a lot. It's only he's
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  Speaker 4: only been exposed at times when the quarterback has found
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  Speaker 4: more time to go pick on him a little bit.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, Vick, and I you know, look, I know it's
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  Speaker 3: it's in vogue everywhere to say, oh bench, Riley Moss,
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  Speaker 3: get him out of there.
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  Speaker 2: Look at the penalties. I got news for you.
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  Speaker 3: If any other dB not named certain is in man
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  Speaker 3: coverage as many snaps as Riley Moss has been asked
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  Speaker 3: to be in man coverage, you're gonna get some flags
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  Speaker 3: and you're gonna give up some plays because in today's NFL,
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  Speaker 3: they don't let the dbs do anything.
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  Speaker 2: To uh to sustain coverage.
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  Speaker 3: You know, most of the rules cover what happens at
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  Speaker 3: the line of scrimmage, what happens in the five yard
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  Speaker 3: bump zone. You know, the rules cover what happens early
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  Speaker 3: in the play. As the play goes on, the receiver
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  Speaker 3: has every advantage in the rule book, and you're gonna
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  Speaker 3: get exposed. It's just Riley Moss has the mental capability
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  Speaker 3: to deal with it. He's I can't tell people enough.
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  Speaker 2: He's a rare player. I've seen very few.
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  Speaker 3: Guys who could get back up and line up and
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  Speaker 3: plays as tough and aggressive as he does down after down,
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  Speaker 3: And even Cirtaan has said it's his best that's Riley
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  Speaker 3: Moss's best quality, and he's the perfect compliment to certain
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  Speaker 3: But you know it's gonna be different for him now.
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  Speaker 3: He is suddenly the number one corner and offenses are
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  Speaker 3: going to treat him that way. So this this will
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  Speaker 3: be a spot when when he's gonna have to play
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  Speaker 3: his best and be at his you know, sort of
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  Speaker 3: competitive best play after play.
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  Speaker 1: Jeff Flag will with this ESPN dot COM's he joins
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  Speaker 1: us every single Thursday. Do you agree with Balmani Jones's
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  Speaker 1: assessment of Riley Moss.
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  Speaker 5: I find that when there is a Caucasian brother playing quarterback,
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  Speaker 5: white people treat him like they treat white basketball players
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  Speaker 5: with startling levels of skepticism. The crab and a barrel
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  Speaker 5: phenomenon tend to come up. And that's how I felt
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  Speaker 5: when they called that pass interfairence all Riley Moss. I
• 7:26
  Speaker 5: was like, come on, man, it's just profile. I didn't
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  Speaker 5: think that was no pillowy y'all just don't believe that
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  Speaker 5: man was capable of playing defense.
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  Speaker 2: That's all it is.
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  Speaker 6: Do you agree with Bomoni.
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  Speaker 2: There's certainly a cultural element to this, I'll say.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, I do. No, I think that's institutional. You see
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  Speaker 3: it a lot. I hear it at the senior ball
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  Speaker 3: all the time.
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  Speaker 1: You know.
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  Speaker 3: I get tired of the smart, heady characterizations. You know, yeah, man,
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  Speaker 3: he's one of the best athletes in the NFL, I
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  Speaker 3: don't care how you slice it. And patser Tan's one
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  Speaker 3: of the smartest skies in the NFL.
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  Speaker 2: You know, I just let's get past all that.
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  Speaker 3: But yeah, in that case, I think I think a
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  Speaker 3: lot of flags have been from the deep official who
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  Speaker 3: doesn't have the best view of the play. But that's
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  Speaker 3: you know, I think PI is always going to be
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  Speaker 3: that way because the NFL wants points, they want offense.
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  Speaker 2: They don't like when the defenses are winning.
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  Speaker 3: And you know, look, look at all how much whining
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  Speaker 3: goes on at the end of every season.
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  Speaker 2: If scoring goes down at all, yea, who it's boring?
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  Speaker 3: And you know what do people tell you as a
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  Speaker 3: boring game, the one where the defenses were really good,
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  Speaker 3: And that's always been that way.
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  Speaker 6: Jeff Lagwild with us.
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  Speaker 1: I don't think can you tell me if I'm wrong
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  Speaker 1: here that the Mercedes Lewis signing was an accident when
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: they're going against the number one defense in the league,
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  Speaker 1: because what is Mercedes Lewis at this point in his career.
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  Speaker 1: He's basically an extra tackle that's on the field.
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  Speaker 6: And do you think they will.
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  Speaker 1: Utilize some more jumbo sets with him if he is
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  Speaker 1: active for this game this week and he gets used
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  Speaker 1: to try and help the run game.
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  Speaker 3: I think what they do is you can use him
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  Speaker 3: and it is a jumbo set, but you're not telling
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  Speaker 3: the defense it is. I think right now their concern
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  Speaker 3: has been all right, that they have to go to
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  Speaker 3: that jumbo look to get what they want, and that's really,
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  Speaker 3: you know, sort of profiling your play call for the defense.
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  Speaker 3: I think he gives them the option of a being
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: more diversified because he can run great routes and catch
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  Speaker 3: the ball. And it's phenomenal though. I mean, I hope
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  Speaker 3: people understand how rare this is. You're talking about a
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  Speaker 3: twenty year NFL player. I can't even imagine the level
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  Speaker 3: of work it takes to stay in this league twenty
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  Speaker 3: years at a position player and be healthy enough to
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  Speaker 3: be in the league twenty years.
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  Speaker 6: He's played seventeen James the last four years, all seventeen.
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  Speaker 2: No, it's Chris.
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  Speaker 3: The guy's phenomenal and you see him and you can
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: see why. I mean, he's he don't look forty one,
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: and he's embarrassing a lot of guys at the gym.
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  Speaker 4: I'll tell you that, Well, you don't look eighty three,
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: but we have you got anyway.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, No, I keep that. I keep that to myself.
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  Speaker 3: You know that way it always looks good.
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  Speaker 4: Jeff, can you explain this to me because I'm trying
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  Speaker 4: to recollect. When the Broncos were searching for head coach,
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: wasn't Demko Ryan's front and center of the target before
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  Speaker 4: Sean Payton?
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  Speaker 2: He you know they were leaning that way, Vick.
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: What happened was is they wanted Demico to come back
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: for a second interview, as you always do with the
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: top candidates, and they had decided at that point Demko
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  Speaker 3: and Sean Payton were gonna get second interviews. So the thing, yeah, yeah, yeah,
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: after the Harbaugh thing, after they went they went back
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: to ann Arbor. They flew everybody to ann Arbor to
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: make sure the no from Harball was really a still
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: a no. So they get that, and then Demiko and
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: Sean Payton are gonna get second interviews, and they wanted
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: to get Demiko in here first because when you're the
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: richest ownership group in the league, you're gonna think if
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: you get the first crack at somebody, you're gonna be
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: able to get them. And now I don't know if
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: they were ahead, if it's just scheduling, you know, I
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: can't really say that definitively. I just know that they
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: wanted to get Demiko's second interview before he got another
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  Speaker 3: one in Houston. But Demiko's family is his in laws
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: are from Houston, he played in Houston. I think that
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: was always going to be a tough ask for the Broncos.
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: If the Texans offered Demiico Ryans the job and the
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: Broncos offered him the job. I think he would have
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: taken the Texans job, no.
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  Speaker 2: Matter what makes sense.
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  Speaker 1: You know one other thing here, Jeff and you are,
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: you're like a truffle pig for sniffing out some bs
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: that media comes up with, uh doing as you accused
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  Speaker 1: me of a couple of weeks ago.
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  Speaker 6: The radio thing.
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  Speaker 3: You're still holding that, you're holding that no gudge like
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: he is actually great.
• 12:16
  Speaker 6: No, I think it's actually great.
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: And here's why, because i'dge though, Man.
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  Speaker 6: No grudge. I'm not a I'm not a grudge holder.
• 12:24
  Speaker 6: I'm not mosure.
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: You're doing thing the look at that?
• 12:32
  Speaker 6: Oh no, he got cute up. Yeah, he's got a
• 12:34
  Speaker 6: cute up.
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  Speaker 1: So here's my question the Chador Sanders story and what's
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: going on in Cleveland. Is there some real weird conspiratorial
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: stuff or is this as simple as the media is
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: drumming up a guy who's not good enough to play
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: and making a story out of a guy who has
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  Speaker 1: a name.
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  Speaker 2: Well, you know, I'll just tell you.
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  Speaker 3: In today's media age, there's there's two ways of sort
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: of making a story, and one is you actually talk
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: to people and you you try and get as much
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: information as possible and you frame a story. The other
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: one is you have some information, you have some information,
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  Speaker 3: and you try to read the tea leaves and then
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: make make assumptions or conclusions.
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  Speaker 2: I always think.
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: That's a tough way to go, but I prefer the
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: people method. But uh so, I think there's always a
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: little bit of everything in a situation like this, because
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: you know, I know a lot of the reporters, you know,
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: doing the stories up there, and ah uh and just
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  Speaker 3: you know, I know some people who play for the
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  Speaker 3: Browns and coach for the Browns, and if a guy
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  Speaker 3: isn't playing right now, there there are reasons for it,
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: football reasons. And I think there are some legitimate football
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  Speaker 3: reasons that they haven't made the move, and you know,
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: sort of publicly endorsed him on that level. So I
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: think there are real football reasons. But some of the
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: stuff I've seen, you know, I'm not buying, but I
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: think there are legitimate football reasons in there somewhere.
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  Speaker 4: And you know, yeah, but you know, the football reasons thing,
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  Speaker 4: it'd be. I could understand that if we didn't see
• 14:21
  Speaker 4: him play right before our eyes for two years, aga, I.
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  Speaker 3: Can also understand I mean, I think they also, you know,
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: the numbers were good, but from an NFL scouting level,
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: there were significant things he was going to have to
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: address before he could play NFL quarterback on a regular basis,
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: no matter how good those numbers were. And Boulder and I,
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: you know, I watched a lot of that as well.
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: So there are football reasons, but it's really something how
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: you know, sort of polarizing he really is to some people.
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: And I guess that part of it, you know, I
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: don't understand that.
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: Could I make the argument that there are plenty of
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: football reasons to say that Dylan Gabriel is not good
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: enough to play either, you know.
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  Speaker 6: What I mean?
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  Speaker 3: And I think it's that that's one of those situations
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: where it makes you wonder why, you know, and if
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: I was there, you know, you'd really dig into it.
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: And I can't pretend to people. Yes, I've I've talked
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: to people I know who play and coach for the Browns,
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: but I don't have the definitive answers here. But I
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: think there's something to why, you know, football, why he's
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: not playing, Whether he's not working hard enough and the
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: coach's eyes are showing up early enough, or doing all
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: those weird things coaching, not weird things, but the you know,
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: the things that really resonate with coaches. And you know,
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: I've spoken to young quarterbacks at the Senior Bowl and all, Look,
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: if if you're the quarterback of an NFL team, you
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: have to accept the life of that and you have
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: to be the first guy in the building every day.
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: Whether you like it or not, whether you think it's
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: fair or not, none of that matters. If you want
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: that job, you have to do it. You got to
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: be the first one in. You got to be the
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: last one out. You got to take all the heat,
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: you got to cover for your teammates, you got to
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: be accountable, you got to do all of it.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: But you know, you got to do it.
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: Whether you like it or not, whether you think it's
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: fair or not, it's just part of it. And you know,
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: sometimes young quarterbacks have a tough time with that transition
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: of what it's going to require to be really good
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: in the NFL. It's probably Bo Nixon's young quarterback superpower
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: right now is that he understands that better than a
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: lot of these other young guys do.
• 16:55
  Speaker 6: Jeffleagwell ESPN dot Com, jorgees every week.
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: Thank you, thanks fallas they have.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: All conversations with Leggy rought to by the International Brotherhood
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: of Electrical Workers IBW Local sixty eight.
• 17:05
  Speaker 6: Start with the job and with the career.