Latest / Jeff Legwold ESPN Broncos Reports / Jeff Legwold on Moser, Lombardi, & Kane 12-28-23

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Jeff Legwold on Moser, Lombardi, & Kane 12-28-23 · Jeff Legwold ESPN Broncos Reports

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  So I want to know where the blame kind of falls. Maybe we could
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  start this off with Jeff Lagwald, who joined us now on the ramos Law
• 0:07
  Hotline car Accident You need ramos Law medical doctor and attorney ramos Law dot com.
• 0:11
  Laky, good morning. We have a lot to discuss with you today.
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  This move right here. If I just pose that question to you,
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  pie chart of blame for why Russell is bench now with two weeks left in
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  the season, where do you split that between the three names of Sean Payton,
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  George Peyton and Russell Wills. Aah. I think it's the whole pie
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  chart? Is Sean? I mean to me, Russell Wilson's played okay,
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  he's played good enough. I mean he's he's sixth in the league in touchdown
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  passes. And we hear Sean Payton say yesterday at some point you got to
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  get the ball in the end zone. Well, Russell Wilson's the only guy
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  on the team getting the ball in the end zone. So uh. And
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  then I am the one who asked the question. This makes it look like
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  you're putting all the blame on Russell and Peyton's response was I can't bench the
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  entire offensive line. I can't get five new receivers. So I think even
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  in his mind the blame has spread out and he sort of added himself to
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  the list in the offensive struggles. But again I charted this stuff. You
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  know, people can believe me or not, but another list of problems on
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  offense. I got Russell Wilson down the list a little bit. And I
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  always remind people when we sort of put our expectations on players by their contracts
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  or their draft status, they didn't do that. I mean they Russell Wilson
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  didn't give himself the money. I mean, guys don't draft themselves number one.
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  So if you're gonna want to be pissed at somebody for the contract that
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  Russell Wilson got a lot of money, well i'd look at the building at
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  Doug Valley then, rather than the guy who took the check, Jeff.
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  This whole damn thing is so convoluted and has been perhaps since day number one.
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  I'm trying to wrap my head around all of it. We'll ask you
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  for a timeline in a little bit. But why the heck is Russell going
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  to be the quote backup quarterback? Why is he even going to dress what's
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  the point if Stidham goes out in the first series coming up on Sunday,
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  is Russ really going to come into the game and throw the ball around and
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  risk injury? If that's truly what they want to do is avoid the injury
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  situation? What the hell's going on? Yeah, most it's a little bit
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  of double speak. Frankly. I mean, if they protect the way they
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  did in the last two games, Russell will be in the game before halftime.
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  So yeah, it doesn't make a lot of sense. I think there's
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  a part of me just because it would be fun and interesting if you know,
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  Russell Wilson goes in the game and leads the comeback. Okay, what
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  the hell do you do now? You know? So, I mean that's
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  just you know, that's just a I I think people need to understand.
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  I know, there's this huge block of people, including some in our business,
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  who just want him cut, who just want him gone, you know,
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  get it over with what they're doing now, and if they cut him
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  this offseason, and right now it looks like they will. If they do,
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  it's a franchise crippling move and people need to understand that the Broncos will
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  not be better in twenty twenty four unless they get really lucky. They only
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  have five draft or six draft picks, they don't have a second rounder.
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  They're in the bottom third of the NFL of oldest teams, and they're already
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  twenty million over the cap next year for like forty players. So they have
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  no way to fix this if they add eighty five million dollars of dead money,
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  because they don't have the patience to go one more year with Russell Wilson,
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  who's got twenty six touchdowns in Nate picks, and I know they can
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  look kind of fraudulent, but to a certain extent you said it earlier,
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  he's the only guy getting in the end zone. My whole thing has been
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  Okay, I think we all kind of understand that Russell, and I know
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  you discussed the contract already, but he's not living up to that contract.
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  Fine, whatever. The task from Sean Payton coming in here was one to
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  win football games and two to kind of fix that thing, and now you're
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  admitting that you can't. And my beef is, okay, you make the
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  quarterback switch, Well, that doesn't fix an offensive line that can't protect.
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  That doesn't fix a running game that hasn't been able to move the ball the
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  last four weeks. That doesn't fix the fact that you don't have seemingly a
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  very good offensive playmaker anywhere around there. And then you add the dead cap
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  on top, Well, how do you find a quarterback and how do you
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  find skill position talent when you have no money like this thing since and no
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  picks. Yeah, the reason, and I want to emphasize this to people
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  because they really need this crowd of just get Russell out of here and everything's
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  better needs to really take a minute. The Packers got away with getting rid
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  of Rogers because they have the youngest team in the NFL, and I believe
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  they had twelve picks in the draft. The Broncos have six picks and they
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  don't have a second. They're already over the cap, and they have one
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  of the older teams in the league. And I will tell you this.
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  I had a personnel director from another team yesterday reach out to me and say,
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  where is the flexibility from Sean Payton he demands from his players? And
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  I think it's an excellent question. I do too, It's a very good
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  question. But Jeff, again, it's hard for me and I'm going to
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  repeat myself again here, but it's hard for me to have any sort of
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  sympathy for him. I mean, for a million bucks a year, you
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  knew he did his homework on this, He knew exactly what was before him,
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  and he probably played the scenarios out in his head. Okay, if
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  I can't fix Russ than this, or if I can fix Russ than that,
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  or you know, he had to have all of this, in my
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  opinion, laid out before he said, Okay, I'm going to take the
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  job. Well, now he's Brett's completely correct. Man. The bullseye is
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  going to go to Peyton only period, end of story. It's all on
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  him, and he's going to be the one charge with turning this thing around.
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  I just don't know. This feels like an aircraft carrier type of situation.
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  You don't just turn an aircraft carrier or a cruise ship around, man.
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  It takes miles and miles of open sea to get that thing going the
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  other way. Yeah, most I got two things I'd add to that.
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  The first is, and I asked this with all objectivity. I want people
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  to be objective, but I asked you this question given their cap situation,
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  the number of picks they have, what what are the real chances in twenty
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  twenty five? Or the guy they have behind center is better than Russell Wilson,
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  I would say almost zero. Look at the free agent crop of quarterbacks,
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  look at how the draft is stacking up. You tell me how they're
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  going to get an improvement, an improvement over Russell Wilson in twenty twenty four
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  if they're not right about Stidham. And I guess I think if Stidham was
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  at that level, he'd already be a starter somewhere. So we'll see.
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  You know, everybody gets their opportunities, and he was behind Tom Brady and
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  that ain't his fault. You know, he got drafted by the team with
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  the greatest winner ever. So I mean that's the first thing. The second
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  thing is, I know I'm just sportswriter guy, but I've spent a lot
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  of time in NFL locker rooms. Sean Payton has released a respected captain on
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  Monday, and he has benched a respected captain on Wednesday. That's an enormous
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  risk in his own locker room. And we're gonna see how that plays out.
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  Do I dare even make this comparison, but you know you've been here
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  for it. Does it feel kind of McDaniel zy right now? Not to
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  say that the end has to be the same as McDaniels, but does it
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  have some of those qualities of benching guy that was respected, releasing guy that
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  was respected. Does it have any of that feel? Well, I just
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  think for any head coach, and I don't care what your pedigree is.
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  And I've talked to people like Bill Kawer and Mike Shanahan, and you know,
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  I've talked to people like this about this Marv Levy Hall of Fame coaches
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  about the risk of making a move on a captain and how you do it.
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  And I mean they did talk to Kareem and everything, but Kareem is
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  respected in the locker room and you just cut him and now he's not on
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  the team anymore. And Russell, for all the angst and crap. We
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  everybody talks about Russell because they don't like the way he responds to things.
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  He's respected in the locker room. Nobody spends more time in the Broncos building,
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  including maybe some of the coaches, than Russell Wilson. The players see
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  that, they see effort you know, they see those things that maybe we
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  don't talk about enough. But he's respected and this move didn't go over great
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  in the locker room, I'm here to tell you, and it's gonna be
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  interesting to watch the next couple of weeks. Why the hell am I so
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  confused? I mean, you made me more depressed with your realism, and
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  I appreciate that. That's why we have all I just I just, I
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  guess I'm tired of the narrative of just cut Russ and everything. You know
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  that fire the confetti cannons and get the Super Bowl parade fired up. This
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  team's in shaky shape. They're old, they're older, they don't have many
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  draft picks, and guess what you want to talk about talent level on the
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  roster. This team has three first round picks on its roster, three of
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  its own first round picks. They only have one on defense. So you
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  don't even have contracts that you can mess with to create calf room because you
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  didn't keep enough first round picks. And now people think they're going to trade
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  future first round picks to move up in the draft to get a quarterback.
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  I mean, you're dreaming twenty twenty four is going to sting if they if
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  they cut Russell Wilson twenty twenty four, they're going to need to get really
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  lucky to even be as good as they are right now. And that's what's
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  funny. Like you, we were talking about this after the Detroit game.
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  Will let you go in just a second, but we were talking about this.
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  It was like that the vast talent difference in some of the young players
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  that Detroit had, whether it's Gibbs or Saint Brown or Loporto or Jamison Williams,
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  Like you take the pick. I was like, I don't know if
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  the Broncos have a player that would be even in the top four or five
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  of young talent on that one roster. And it was very obvious in that
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  game the difference in just speed in raw talent from some of the skill position
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  guys. Well, again, you have an NFL roster with three first round
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  picks on it. Are you kidding me? I mean, that's just you
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  can't survive in the salary cap era without young talented players on their first contracts.
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  I mean, it's guess what. Guess who the oldest team in the
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  league is right now? The New Orleans Saints. Guess who's in cap trouble
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  with the oldest team in the league, the New Orleans Saints. I mean,
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  this train was coming down the tracks and it's arrived. This is holly
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  old teams. This is what he believes in, and when he had Drew
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  Brees, it worked, So you know, this is where it's at right
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  now with the Denver Broncos. And is Jeff Legwald ESPN dot com. He
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  joins us every week. Leg, you appreciate a buddy, Thank you,
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  thanks and always take care. Is Jeff Legwald.