Latest / Jeff Legwold ESPN Broncos Reports / Jeff Legwold joins Kreckman & Lindahl 5/31/24
Transcript
- 0:01Je Leald is our Broncos insider Altitude Sports Radio ninety two five Pro Football,
- 0:07the insider I've covered Jeff leg Wall. His appearances are always must listen radio.
- 0:14Learn a lot in Altitude Sports Radio ninety two five. Oh that's right,
- 0:29little by Bosstones for you. That's someone that Leggy may know about.
- 0:33Here as we go on a SCO Friday, it's Mike Sanford angeland all night
- 0:37back on Monday. The Altitude Sports Radio app is powered by the Will Height
- 0:40Law Firm. Injury lawyers go to Will Heightwinds dot com. That's Will Heightwinds
- 0:46dot com if you need an injury lawyer. And uh, you can also
- 0:49listen on the app to me and Mike and now Jeff Lagwald as he joins
- 0:53us. Of course on the hotline, the ramost Law Hotline Car accident you
- 0:57need Ramos Law medical doctor and attorney, visit Ramos Law dot com. We
- 1:00say a load to Jeff leagwealld All right, Jeff, you know what it's
- 1:03like. All the friends are here now, we were all out at the
- 1:06OTAs yesterday, and I'm just kind of curious, Uh, you've seen all
- 1:11the practices. What I asked this Mike earlier. I'll ask you the same.
- 1:15Give me something you took there was a positive and something that you continue
- 1:18that maybe continues to uh cause a little bit of concern. Well, and
- 1:23you know positive. I'm you know, I think the one thing I did
- 1:30see to vont Williams is is moving better uh than he did at the end
- 1:36of last season, and I thought that was uh worth doing to. I
- 1:40haven't had a chance to talk to him yet, because you know, I
- 1:42do think he seems like he may have bulked up even a little bit uh
- 1:49thus far. So, but I think this movement was a positive for me,
- 1:53and especially after watching him in practice last year. You know, I
- 1:59still overall, you know, this is not a deep team, and it's
- 2:04just it's glaring to me every time I see see them in person now,
- 2:08and I think they're going to need to be as fortunate injury wise as they
- 2:13were last year. Leggy the news yesterday Rodrick estimate was absent from OTAs and
- 2:20then Sehn Payton cleared it up clarified that he had had a minor procedure on
- 2:23his knee. What do you think that does in terms of running back depth
- 2:28in the competition. I guess going into playing time early on in the season.
- 2:32You know, Mike, I think you know, he sn Peyton said
- 2:38he would be ready for camp, so probably doesn't impact the overall plan.
- 2:44Now if he you know, if that doesn't turn out to be the case
- 2:47and he isn't available going in deep into camp, I think that it would
- 2:53it would sort of tweak the order. But I think of the rookies,
- 3:00take bow knicks out of the equation. You know, whatever happens with him,
- 3:04I think estimately is the rookie who sees the field and with important snaps
- 3:08the quickest, and maybe Jonah hallis after that. So I think they have
- 3:14plans for him, and I think they're very hopeful he'll be he'll be ready
- 3:19to go as expected at the at the start of camp. Sean Payton said
- 3:22he would be ready at the start of camp, so I think that was
- 3:25something worth noting. I did go back and all my draft notes I collected
- 3:32on people, and I didn't see any team had red flagged his knee in
- 3:38any fashion, and he practiced the week before, so it must have just
- 3:43been something that had either started to bug him or he did during practice.
- 3:50Jeff, what do you what do you make of the progress basically of the
- 3:53quarterbacks? Again, Sean Payton gave us the old Netflix analogy is so now,
- 3:58which I kind of chuckled at. Or I'm trying to catch you up
- 4:00on the episodes that you don't see. You had said they all looked to
- 4:04basically like you expected. Is what Jared Stidham shows us. Is there any
- 4:14argument to be made if you're Sean Payton, because I know you've written about
- 4:17you know, bon Nicks and just get the clock going as well. But
- 4:21if Jared Stidham could show you for four or five games what it's supposed to
- 4:25look like, is that valuable or anyway? Or is it more valuable for
- 4:28Bonnicks or whoever else to be out there and just doing it, you know?
- 4:32And I think's the safest bet, you know, and you know,
- 4:40there's far less unpredictability you know, and his play than the other two guys.
- 4:45And but the issue is with bo Nicks, is you know, is
- 4:51it really going to be a fair fight this competition because developmentally, just because
- 4:57of the way the NFL works, a practice time and the available time on
- 5:03the field, if bow Knicks is not the starter for some reason, his
- 5:10developmental you know, part of his rookie year essentially ends in September if he's
- 5:16not playing. Yeah, you go to meetings and you go to practice,
- 5:19but once the regular season starts, the starting quarterback takes virtually all of the
- 5:27reps in practice and the other guys are left with scout team stuff. And
- 5:33you know, bow Knicks running the other teams plays off cards is not developmentally
- 5:43a good thing, and you know his development would essentially stall, and to
- 5:49pick someone else other than him to be the quarterback, you're kind of accepting
- 5:54that now. You know, maybe they do Stidam or Zach will Wilson,
- 6:00you know, start a few games and then bow Knitz comes in. But
- 6:04I think developmentally, we we don't know yet how Sean Payton's really going to
- 6:09handle this in training camp. I'm intrigued to see, because the developmental question
- 6:15on bow Knicks is really he's got to play right away if if you want
- 6:20his rookie year to be this huge sort of advancement. Otherwise, you know,
- 6:28you've almost got to commit to sitting him almost the whole season, like
- 6:32you know the Chiefs did with Mahomes is always the greatest example of that in
- 6:39the in the last fifteen years or so, Legy, I'm going to play
- 6:42a game with you if you if you would it oblige kind of missing the
- 6:47draft evaluation analysts type of language that's thrown around a lot. The one I
- 6:53want to go with is high ceiling, low floor, low ceiling, high
- 6:57floor. I want you to go through these three quarterbacks and I want you
- 7:00to define them by their ceiling in their floor, because I'd be very interested
- 7:05to get your take because you're you've been evaluating these players since they were college
- 7:10players. You've seen several of them in their days in the National Football League.
- 7:14But if you go through these three quarterbacks, how would you define their
- 7:16ceilings and floors? Yeah, I mean instead of you'd think, right now,
- 7:21you know his ceiling if you're the Broncos, unless he's got another gear
- 7:29we haven't seen yet, so his you know, his ceiling is more known
- 7:32than the other two guys. I think Zach Wilson and Boonis both you both
- 7:40have to say they're high ceiling players. It's just, you know, Wilson,
- 7:46you've got three seasons of a resume. It's just how much do you
- 7:51think the situation drag him down? Rather than you know, some of the
- 7:57things he did as well. But it says the highest ceiling because there's the
- 8:01least known and probably the the the highest floor too, just because we don't
- 8:09have the data yet, we really don't know how this is gonna go with
- 8:13him. But uh, you know, Nicks has got the most open,
- 8:18wide, open spectrum on that. But when you're talking to like the draft
- 8:24guys, Jeff, is there anybody out there that they can look at to
- 8:30maybe upgrade the skilled position group, It's just it's interesting to watch yesterday.
- 8:33And I don't want to say any you know, it's not like it's disaster
- 8:37out there or anything. But Jeff, we continue to watch and it just
- 8:39doesn't feel like guys separate a lot in this offense. I mean, is
- 8:43there something maybe they could do? Would one of those backs be used out
- 8:46of the backfield? What can they do to add a little speed thread on
- 8:50the team? Is it just I mean, I feel stupid asking you because
- 8:52I know the acquisition period for players is pretty much done. But I guess
- 8:56I'll shift the question to do it Do you work one of the running backs,
- 9:01one of those smaller running backs, And I know it's McLoughlin and forgetting
- 9:05the other kid that they just brought Inlake Watson. Watson, did they try
- 9:07to get those guys out on the edge just to have a little more speed,
- 9:09because Jeff, they're not even contact yet and it doesn't feel like whide
- 9:13receivers are running clear in the open the way I would expect at times.
- 9:16Well, I think in the in the couple practices we've seen the whole thing.
- 9:22You know, Mims has been the most consistent, you know guy to
- 9:26create space. I think everyone else, no matter what their speed is,
- 9:31they haven't created space like him. And I think, you know, the
- 9:37the other issue I see there is if Courtland Sutton really isn't coming in anytime
- 9:45soon, they don't really have a red zone physical presence either. And that's
- 9:50where you know, we were all kind of talking yesterday practice together, the
- 9:56three of us. That's where the tight end and the running back in the
- 10:00passing game they're gonna face nickel defenses. That's a matchup you've got to have.
- 10:05And they don't really flash much right now in the passing game from a
- 10:11tight end or running back. And you know, I think they hope estimate
- 10:16can give you a little something. But again, that's not an explosive,
- 10:22you know, fast twitch type of player in the passing game. So they
- 10:26need some impact in the passing game at tight end or running back or it's
- 10:31gonna be a lot more difficult to move the ball against nickel defenses because that
- 10:37I mean, you look at all the good offenses in the league. They're
- 10:41challenging those nickel corners with a tight end or a running back, you know,
- 10:46you know, Detroit, Kansas City. I mean you look at all
- 10:50these good offenses. That's a that's a matchup they're winning. And that's the
- 10:54matchup what you're talking about right there. The Broncos really haven't had are shown
- 11:01yet. He keeps saying it's in there, but we have not seen it
- 11:05yet. They real quick. I want to ask both of you, because
- 11:07you're a ste you're a strategy guy there, Mike, why doesn't anybody ever
- 11:11go with like the h back again, like the old Shannon sharp eah back.
- 11:15Remember Legy and Shannon came into the league. He was a big receiver,
- 11:18but a little bit slow. And I guess I'm kind of thinking Courtland
- 11:20Sutton here. Is it just because the tight ends have gotten so athletic.
- 11:24I'm asking both of you. Legy, you start, Mike, I want
- 11:26you to jump in. But why does nobody go with that kind of h
- 11:30back which is what they called Shannon forever before they called him a tight end
- 11:35kind of deal. It still exists, Andy, but a lot of them
- 11:39are. You know, it's kind of in the offenses that have a fullback
- 11:43type position in them, and that you know, those those offenses are getting
- 11:48fewer and fewer in the league, and uh, you know, right now
- 11:54everything offensively, at least the teams haven't success that. It's all space and
- 12:01explosiveness, you know, And I think that, and there are not a
- 12:05lot of colleges anymore play in that type of position, so you you're creating
- 12:09it in real time on an NFL practice schedule, and you know, I
- 12:15think all those things together are why you don't see a little more of it.
- 12:20Yeah, I would say this Andy, in talking here with our guy,
- 12:24the greatest, the goat, Jeff Legwald. The h position what it
- 12:28traditionally was, think Shannon Sharp, that's a lot of people starting tight end
- 12:33right in their skill set. Travis Kelce, He's not He's not exactly dominating
- 12:35at the point of attack like a traditional why tight end would I think you
- 12:39look around the league right now a team that's employing a Y in an H
- 12:43or an F. Some people call it an F the second tight end.
- 12:46The Ravens, Andrews and Isaiah likely and I think we're whether you like it
- 12:50or not, it's coming to town by way of the Vegas Raiders because they
- 12:52went out and got the elite body type and athleticism in an H. And
- 12:58that's going to be, you know, a combination of their two tight ends
- 13:01there in Vegas is going to be something else. Yeah, like Mike say,
- 13:07it exists, but people are playing it on a line of scrimmage or
- 13:11in the slot now rather than you know, sort of in that offset position
- 13:16out of the backfield. Legy. Always good to talk to you, my
- 13:20man. We'll catch up with you again next week after we get another viewed
- 13:24real quickly. Are we going to get a watch all three days of the
- 13:26Mini Camp? I've been meaning to ask you privately, but we might as
- 13:28well just put it out there for everybody. Is the Mini Camp viewing or
- 13:31no? I believe that is the case. Once Mini Camp arrives, sou
- 13:37and that's I think that's when the at least the first time the sort of
- 13:41the proverbial rubber hits the road on the Courtland Sutton situation. If he waves
- 13:48off mini camp. Okay, now it's now it's a serious issue. I
- 13:50think, what is mini caamp going to be, Jeff A couple of weeks?
- 13:54Yeah, eleventh, June eleventh to the thirteenth, I believe is mini
- 13:58camp for these guys. It's also, Mike, it's the only mandatory thing
- 14:05in the offseason and the current CBA, so the players can be fined if
- 14:09they don't come. It's the only thing they could be fined for. By
- 14:11the way, real quickly, before I let you go, I've got to
- 14:13ask you what do you think of this extended? Does the Players Union really
- 14:16want to go from June through the rest of the season. Do you buy
- 14:18that? I think they're trying to create what the coaches don't want, which
- 14:24is a bigger gap somewhere in the offseason calendar where there's a bigger gap of
- 14:33player off time. You know. Now it's essentially the end of the season
- 14:37to about April fifteenth, and I think they're just trying to up that annie
- 14:43a little more because I think the players Union believes the eighteen game schedules coming,
- 14:48and they're trying to to push back a little bit on some other things,
- 14:54including a second bye week, which you know, I'm old enough to
- 14:58have covered the league when they did the two buy weeks one season and it
- 15:01wasn't very popular. But anyway, I think it's just part of the pushback
- 15:07because they know the eighteen game schedules coming, whether they like it or not.
- 15:11You're the best, man. We'll talk to you Monday. Take care
- 15:13of a good weekend, Jeff. You guys are awesome man. Thank you.