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Jeff Legwold joins Kreckman and Lindahl 4-6-26 · Jeff Legwold ESPN Broncos Reports

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  Speaker 1: Jeff lakeweld with us here on a Monday afternoon. He's
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  Speaker 1: brought to you by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
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  Speaker 1: IBW Local sixty eight. You start with a job, you
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  Speaker 1: end with a career, Jeff, good run. Not enough, especially
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  Speaker 1: not enough shooting in the end for the fighting a
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  Speaker 1: line I on Saturday in Indianapolis as they fall to
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  Speaker 1: Yukon seventy one to sixty two. Jeff I told Andy earlier,
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  Speaker 1: I wasn't disappointed in how they played. I thought that
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  Speaker 1: Brad Underwood had the team prepared. I don't think that
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  Speaker 1: Dan Hurley's offense gave them too many fits to be
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  Speaker 1: able to handle. They just had a crap shooting game
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  Speaker 1: at the worst possible time. And that was where my
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  Speaker 1: frustration came from. As you watched that game, what was
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  Speaker 1: it in the end that Yukon did that Illinois didn't
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  Speaker 1: do besides make a thousand shots?
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  Speaker 2: I mean, Nate, I think in all the years I've
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  Speaker 2: gone to cover the tournament, I think it's always a
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  Speaker 2: bad sign if one team looks like it's running isolation plays, you.
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  Speaker 3: Know, a lot of pounding the ball at the top.
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  Speaker 2: Looking for an opening, and the other team is sort
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  Speaker 2: of in movement mode. I think it's rare the isolation
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  Speaker 2: team wins that type of battle unless they shoot like
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  Speaker 2: Villanova in the huge upset of Georgetown way back.
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  Speaker 3: You know, you got to shoot.
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  Speaker 2: Huge percentages to win that matchup because I think the
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  Speaker 2: possessions are so limited in a in a tournament game
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  Speaker 2: for a lot of reasons. But it just seemed like
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  Speaker 2: there was a lot more sort of pounding the ball
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  Speaker 2: at the top and hope you know, you get enough
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  Speaker 2: guys open, or you know, posting.
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  Speaker 3: Up or.
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  Speaker 1: Now when you don't make any shots, it's impossible to
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  Speaker 1: have assist. But still three assists is pretty bad.
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  Speaker 3: I think it's always just too much of that. I
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  Speaker 3: wanted to see him.
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  Speaker 2: They when they've played better, it was less of that
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  Speaker 2: and more of now they don't run the same offense
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  Speaker 2: Yukon does all that slashing and moving and all that,
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  Speaker 2: But there needed to be more than just pound the
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  Speaker 2: ball a top and hope somebody gets open, I thought,
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  Speaker 2: And then you know when you don't shoot, Yeah, I
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  Speaker 2: mean one one team played like you know, they've been
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  Speaker 2: to three of the last four final fours, and the
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  Speaker 2: other team played like it had been a while.
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  Speaker 1: I felt like if they if they played ten times,
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  Speaker 1: Yukon would win six or seven probably, but six to
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  Speaker 1: twenty six from three man, that's that's it. Murkovich didn't
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  Speaker 1: do anything offensively in that game. Jake Davis was invisible.
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  Speaker 1: Just too many guys had had their worst games at
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  Speaker 1: the worst possible moment, and then when they had opportunities,
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  Speaker 1: because I thought they defended well, especially in the second half,
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  Speaker 1: but when there were opportunities to cut into it, the
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  Speaker 1: shots just didn't fall. Also, that rim on the as
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  Speaker 1: we were watching it on television, the rim on the
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  Speaker 1: left side of the court, that rim hated us. I
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  Speaker 1: don't know what was going on with that thing, but
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  Speaker 1: I would like a congressional investigation into it.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, that's typical. Play basketball in a football stadium. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: you know, the rims are always tight, the ceilings is
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  Speaker 2: you know, it's just a weird shooting experience. I think
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  Speaker 2: one of the coolest things I've heard is Dusty May
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  Speaker 2: taking the Michigan team into the football stadium to practice
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  Speaker 2: before they went to the Final four, to shoot like
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  Speaker 2: in the open air. And I thought that was an
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  Speaker 2: intriguing way to handle it.
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  Speaker 4: All right, I got to ask you one about yogics
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  Speaker 4: because you and I always talk about him at our
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  Speaker 4: lunch and you always talk about how great he is.
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  Speaker 4: Just share for the crowd. How special is in your
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  Speaker 4: You've covered a lot of athletes, you know, so that's
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  Speaker 4: why like asking. I don't know if you got the
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  Speaker 4: highlights or if you saw the game and what he
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  Speaker 4: did against wimb and Yama, but I mean the floating.
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  Speaker 4: Nate and I have been talking about the floater and
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  Speaker 4: the step back and all the stuff that he does
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  Speaker 4: forty I mean, he figures out the guy. Everybody's just
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  Speaker 4: he's Wiben Yama has been the talk of the NBA
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  Speaker 4: for two months now. How special is Jokic in your mind?
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  Speaker 4: Of guys that you've seen and covered.
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  Speaker 2: It's amazing to me how he seems to numb people
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  Speaker 2: to how good he is. I mean, you know, I
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  Speaker 2: work for a place that runs all kinds of stories
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  Speaker 2: about MVP. You know, rankings during the season.
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  Speaker 3: He should be.
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  Speaker 2: Number one or number two in any ranking in any
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  Speaker 2: season he plays in any week of the season. He's
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  Speaker 2: just one of the most well rounded players who's ever
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  Speaker 2: lived or walked the earth.
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  Speaker 3: And you know, the shot to you know that Wemby.
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  Speaker 2: What's his hand eleven twelve feet in the air and
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  Speaker 2: he makes the shot. It's like nothing, And I mean,
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  Speaker 2: that's rare stuff.
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  Speaker 3: And I just.
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  Speaker 2: A lot of the really, really good, amazing elite athletes
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  Speaker 2: I've been around have that same toughness about him. You know,
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  Speaker 2: I just I can name all of the great players
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  Speaker 2: in the sports I've been around. There is just an
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  Speaker 2: innate toughness to the moment, to the aches and pains
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  Speaker 2: he has to feel the way he gets pummeled, you know,
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  Speaker 2: night in and night out, and yet they still achieve
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  Speaker 2: excellence so consistently. And you know, in the modern era
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  Speaker 2: to do what he's doing at center is ridiculous, and
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  Speaker 2: you know, historical, I think sadly, I'm I'm a little bummed.
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  Speaker 2: He won't be appreciated, probably fully until he's done playing
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  Speaker 2: and you start comparing what he did to the people
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  Speaker 2: that follow. But he's in the shortest of conversations in
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  Speaker 2: my mind.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's you count on two hands, the greatest
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  Speaker 1: of all time. To me, he's absolutely in that list.
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  Speaker 1: By the way, Jeff, and I don't know if you've
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  Speaker 1: even thought about this on this level, but I'm gonna
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  Speaker 1: ask the question anyway. All right, So we're discussing earlier.
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  Speaker 1: Michael Malone is gonna take the North Carolina job. He's
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  Speaker 1: making the jump in in the NIL era. I think
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  Speaker 1: it's advantageous for a pro coach to go and coach
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  Speaker 1: in college athletics right now because it basically is professional athletics. Okay,
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  Speaker 1: so right now you're working on your top one hundred.
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  Speaker 1: You were ranking the top one hundred players going into
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  Speaker 1: this NFL draft, so you are you're combing through college
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  Speaker 1: football film constantly right now. Okay, we talk so much
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  Speaker 1: about the way that the sport has evolved from a
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  Speaker 1: scouting perspective, Do you notice anything different now, quality of player,
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  Speaker 1: attention to detail, nuance? Is that part of the job
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  Speaker 1: any different in this era of the sport versus what
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  Speaker 1: it was five ten, fifteen, twenty years ago? How loud?
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  Speaker 1: How long you've been doing this?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, in the time I've been doing it.
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  Speaker 2: I think the the fastest guys compare over most of
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  Speaker 2: the eras the elite, top tier, fastest most athletic players
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  Speaker 2: I think compare in the ears. They play in the
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  Speaker 2: top of the pyramid. There isn't that much difference. I
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  Speaker 2: think the depth of athleticism is deeper now, far deeper,
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  Speaker 2: I think players. You know, I'm slapping a day three
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  Speaker 2: grade on now athletically. You know, twenty five years ago,
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  Speaker 2: I would have taken a longer look at that. Oh
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  Speaker 2: you know, wow, look at that close. You know, because
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  Speaker 2: I back in the day before he had all the data,
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  Speaker 2: you would have to sort of find place where a
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  Speaker 2: guy had twenty yards where he had opened it up
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  Speaker 2: fully to really see what you thought. So it is
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  Speaker 2: different that way. But the depth of athleticism doesn't make
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  Speaker 2: them better players. Sure, I mean that the quality of
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  Speaker 2: play doesn't always translate that. But I think the depth
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  Speaker 2: of athletics just because the programs are better, they eat better,
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  Speaker 2: they train better, they recover better, medically, everything's better. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: an ACL used to be a death sentence when I
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  Speaker 2: first started covering the league. If you had one, you
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  Speaker 2: had a scar enormous, you know, from your thigh down
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  Speaker 2: to the middle of your shin almost and you know
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  Speaker 2: it was a career you know, torn Achilles was a
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  Speaker 2: career death. Now and just things like that I think
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  Speaker 2: are the biggest changes. And players are far smarter now
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  Speaker 2: about how to approach it all than they used to be,
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  Speaker 2: and especially in the off season.
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  Speaker 3: Those are the biggest changes.
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  Speaker 1: You know, you mentioned before the amount of data that
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  Speaker 1: is now available and players tracking, which we you know,
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  Speaker 1: we've had in the NFL for some time, it's now
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  Speaker 1: readily available in college football. When you talk to two
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  Speaker 1: people in NFL front offices, how have they adapted to
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  Speaker 1: all of that information to make sure that it's that
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  Speaker 1: it's getting used constructively and that it's not just something
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  Speaker 1: that they're swimming in when they're evaluating these players. Like,
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  Speaker 1: what are the best front offices doing with that stuff
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  Speaker 1: right now?
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  Speaker 2: Well, I think that they're still you know, refining all that.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, these department analytics departments have been growing around
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  Speaker 2: the league. Some teams fought it more than others, but
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  Speaker 2: I think there is a quest right now to really
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  Speaker 2: find the numbers that matter. And you know, some teams
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  Speaker 2: have gone as far as to try to create their
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  Speaker 2: own data sets they think are are more pertinent to
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  Speaker 2: what they want. You know, some teams are very interested
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  Speaker 2: in history. You know, give me the last fifty wide
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  Speaker 2: receiver under six feet tall drafted on Day one.
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  Speaker 1: That feels like a Sean Payton thing that you just said.
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  Speaker 2: Well, it is one of he he is a person
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  Speaker 2: who likes history and data, but he is not alone.
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  Speaker 2: A lot of people like the data for that, Like,
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  Speaker 2: show me where the outliers are, and then I can
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  Speaker 2: work back from that. You know, if only if only
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  Speaker 2: three players of a certain framework have succeeded, you know,
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  Speaker 2: in a given twenty year span, Well that's pretty good
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  Speaker 2: indication that if you're looking at a player with those attributes,
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  Speaker 2: you better be really really sure he can be one
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  Speaker 2: of the outliers and not. And I think some teams
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  Speaker 2: are working from the outlier back. I I've always sort
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  Speaker 2: of done that informally because I didn't have enough manpower
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  Speaker 2: around me doing you know, when you're trying to stay
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  Speaker 2: at six hundred players on your own and cover the team,
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  Speaker 2: I'm gonna miss stuff all the time, even as hard
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  Speaker 2: as I try not to. So you try to work
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  Speaker 2: back from the from the outliers on both sides of
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  Speaker 2: the equation. You know, Kenyan Sadiq an outlier at tight end,
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  Speaker 2: but not for negative if it's for like the rarest
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  Speaker 2: of reasons, like you know, no one's ever had that
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  Speaker 2: combination of things at that position, sou But that there
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  Speaker 2: is a lot of pursuit of of what data really
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  Speaker 2: means something, and you know what data is really just
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  Speaker 2: clouding your vision even though it sounds, you.
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  Speaker 3: Know, pretty good.
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  Speaker 2: Like the one thing I still you know, and I
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  Speaker 2: go over this with coaches all the time, is.
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  Speaker 3: Air yards for quarterbacks.
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  Speaker 2: Like, I'm still not positive that's an amazing or a
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  Speaker 2: telling statistic. I see the power of it, and I
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  Speaker 2: see how the rankings align, but I, you know, I'm
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  Speaker 2: still working through my own little mathematical biases to see
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  Speaker 2: if that's really important to me and how I look
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  Speaker 2: at things.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, along those lines though, like like you bring up
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  Speaker 1: air yards right there, and I would agree like air
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  Speaker 1: yards in and of itself in a vacuum may not
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  Speaker 1: be a true tell of a quarterback. But like if
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  Speaker 1: you were to look at like air yards and then
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  Speaker 1: you know, put that next to accuracy or accuracy metrics,
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  Speaker 1: and then it's like, Okay, now I'm getting an indication
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  Speaker 1: of what this guy actually is as a thrower of
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  Speaker 1: the football. Like when you're trying to find those points
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  Speaker 1: that you say, all right, this is what's happening in
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  Speaker 1: college football, and this is what translates to the pros,
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: much like Sean Payton's affection for bo Nix's ability to
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  Speaker 1: avoid negative plays, Well, that was something that he did
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  Speaker 1: at the college level, like he had a low pressure
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  Speaker 1: to sacrate, and that is something that translates to the NFL. Like,
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  Speaker 1: those are the things that I think is what these
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  Speaker 1: teams are trying to solve. And it's just it's interesting
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  Speaker 1: to hear you, like because you're trying to put your
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  Speaker 1: ranking together like completely independent of what anybody else is thinking.
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  Speaker 1: But it's like, what what is the data point that
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  Speaker 1: then matters to Jeff Legwald almost is it's it's like
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  Speaker 1: a microcosm of what every NFL front office has to
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  Speaker 1: solve right now.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean that's the challenge of it too.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: I think it's a lot like looking at the night
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  Speaker 2: sky and finding the constellation. You know this everywhere, you know,
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  Speaker 2: where's the constellation? And you know, in a lot of ways,
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  Speaker 2: the constellation that NFL is looking for is the player. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: you know, you got all these things out there and
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  Speaker 2: you want the player you know, out of it all.
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  Speaker 2: So it's why the draft fascinated me in nineteen eighty three,
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  Speaker 2: and it fascinates me now. I and even before we
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  Speaker 2: had all the data, I just felt like it was
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  Speaker 2: all out there somewhere, and the bond of finding the
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  Speaker 2: pieces that matter are the coolest part. But you know again,
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  Speaker 2: it's I also remember that the scouters showed me the
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  Speaker 2: way way back forty plus years ago.
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  Speaker 3: See O Ricado.
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  Speaker 2: Always told me, he said, no matter how much you
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  Speaker 2: learn and how much you find out or people tell
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: you or show you.
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  Speaker 3: Always remember the one rule.
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  Speaker 2: And he would tell me, don't forget why you like
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  Speaker 2: the guy in the first place, and that in the
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  Speaker 2: end he has to play football, and that those two
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  Speaker 2: things I've never forgotten that like, my favorite football player
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  Speaker 2: on this board is you know, is Caleb Downs. Everybody
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  Speaker 2: keeps telling me he doesn't have Wow traits at all.
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  Speaker 2: You know what, I don't care when I watch football.
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  Speaker 2: That guy never makes a mistake, He never misses a tackle,
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  Speaker 2: he always makes the play. He lines up all over
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  Speaker 2: the place, he gets his teammates in the right spot.
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  Speaker 2: I don't so much care what the forty data says.
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  Speaker 4: I guess in the end, all right, Broncos, who would
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  Speaker 4: be their perfect player? Because I know you've gotten yeah, Caleb.
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  Speaker 4: But in a realistic world, it would be the perfect
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  Speaker 4: player that's there when it's time to pick, as you
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: as you start grinding your things down.
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  Speaker 2: I think if one of those really two impactful receiving
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  Speaker 2: tight ends where they're now, you know, Sadiq he has
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  Speaker 2: one of my rate I will say he has one
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  Speaker 2: of my limited first round grades.
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  Speaker 3: Sadiq does just because yeah.
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  Speaker 4: He's not looking in the sixties.
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  Speaker 1: No, he gets past twelve, it's going to be a miracle.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it gets past twelve, You're gonna see people
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  Speaker 2: moving because you know, nickel d fences everywhere in the league.
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  Speaker 2: How do you want to crush all nickel defense? That
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: guy is a you know, a nickel destroyer. But I
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  Speaker 2: think Stours would be that'd be a perfect world pick.
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: They need a lot to happen. They need a run
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: on safeties. They need to The Broncos need a run
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  Speaker 2: on safeties to happen. A run a wide receiver and
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  Speaker 2: maybe the tackles, and that would probably give them a
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  Speaker 2: scenario where they'd have a shot at that.
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  Speaker 3: They might have to move up a little.
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  Speaker 2: But if I'm the Broncos and he gets past forty, okay,
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  Speaker 2: I'm starting to work the phones to see what it might.
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: Take Yeah, it's sixty two and one aweight. Would that
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: get them, you know, a fifteen spot jump or whatever
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  Speaker 1: it would take. Yeah, that's that's what they got to.
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: The first teams you call are the teams above you
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: who don't need a guy who don't need them. So
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: you start shopping, you know again, backward from from who
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: doesn't need them, and and do that.
• 16:58
  Speaker 4: If Sidik ends up a chief, I'm gonna head there's
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  Speaker 4: gonna be in that. I'm so glad we're not gonna
• 17:04
  Speaker 4: be live on the air if that happens.
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  Speaker 3: That's like no that I will say. That would be
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  Speaker 3: bad for the rest of the Yeah, I don't like.
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  Speaker 4: It because you've been telling me how bad my homes
• 17:13
  Speaker 4: thing is the last decade.
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  Speaker 3: I'm tired of your bad news. Leggy.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: All right, Jeff Legwald, everybody ESPN dot com check his
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  Speaker 1: stuff right there, Leggy, excellent work. We'll talk to you Friday.
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  Speaker 3: Man. See both