Latest / Jeff Legwold ESPN Broncos Reports / Jeff Legwold joins Moser, Lombardi and Kane 1-11-24
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- 0:00From the blood Light Studios, bud Light Easy Sundays, if NHD one,
- 0:07Mos Mosier Lombardi and j Denver Sports Talk Altitude Sports Radio ninety two five,
- 0:15Moser Lombardi and Can Moser Lombardi and Kane moje Out Sick Kine out with Daddy
- 0:23Duty. So RAJ filling in today alongside Vic Lombardi, Marto Jesse Trio in
- 0:28the bud Light Studios as we head on out to the Ramos Law Hotline car
- 0:32Accident You need Ramos Law medical doctor and attorney at Ramos Law, where we
- 0:36find our friend from ESPN, Jeff Legwald. All conversations with Jeffer brought to
- 0:41you by bet Save Colorado, the exclusive club for passionate gamers and betters around
- 0:46the state. Legie, Good morning, Hello, big news Bill Belichick.
- 0:51Bill Belichick is gone. I just need your straight up reaction. Well,
- 0:56in a twenty four hour span, Nick Saban is going to Rich Pete Carroll
- 1:00is moving out of coaching, and Bill Belichick is moving on from the Patriots.
- 1:04That that's quite a twenty four hours in football coaching. I mean,
- 1:11go ahead, Vic. The mere coincidence of it, though, do you
- 1:14think any of them had anything to do with the other, or it just
- 1:18boom, it unfolded just out of the blow. Well, I guess I
- 1:22would say, Vic. I gotta believe Bill and Nick have talked at some
- 1:26point about a lot of this. They. I mean, Nick was on
- 1:30when I covered the Steelers. Nick was on Bill's staff in Cleveland way back
- 1:34then. So I think certainly those two are longtime friends and probably have discussed
- 1:41what the exit would look like at some point, you know, specifically,
- 1:45did they know they were going to do it just close to each other?
- 1:48I don't know that, but I gotta believe they've spoken about it, you
- 1:52know. But Belichick is you know, I think coaching is so much more
- 1:57difficult now than it was when George Hallis did it. I mean, George
- 2:01Hallis's forty winning seasons are never going to be touched, but the competition he
- 2:07faced in both strategic and talent weren't even close. So in my mind,
- 2:15Belichick is easily the best coach of the Super Bowl era and likely, you
- 2:20know, the one or two best coaches of all time. You mentioned the
- 2:23exit, both Nick and Bill talking about that. It seems as though Nick's
- 2:29exit is truly an exit from coaching. But Belichick's going to be in the
- 2:31league at head coach spot next year, right I would think. So,
- 2:36you know, the question is, you know, that's not an easy fit
- 2:38for a lot of the teams that have openings right now. I'll give you
- 2:44a quirky one I'd watch, and that's Washington because you know, Bill is
- 2:49a Maryland native. He spends a lot of time there in the offseason.
- 2:53And if Washington, you know, they got one hundred million in cash space,
- 2:55they got five picks in the top one hundred, If they're up for
- 3:01a few years of Bill Belichick and then going young at head coach, I
- 3:07think that's an intriguing one to watch because they may give him the kind of
- 3:12control you know, he may want, you know, at least a fifty
- 3:15to fifty you know, control in personnel, if he doesn't want the whole
- 3:20thing. But I think that's a quirky one to watch. The Washington has
- 3:23made a lot of noise, the new owner, Josh Harris has made a
- 3:27lot of noise about wanting a long term solution, and Bill isn't that that's
- 3:31that's the issue. If you're if you're hiring him right now and you're another
- 3:37team. He's not a long term solution. He may want a lot of
- 3:42personnel control, even though yesterday he hinted that maybe that's not the case.
- 3:46And you know, he's he's twenty nine and thirty eight without Brady. But
- 3:52the Hall of Fame is full of coaches. It didn't do very well without
- 3:54a Hall of Fame quarterback. I do agree with you, Leggy. I
- 3:58think Washington is the best available job because of everything you just mentioned. I
- 4:01really eight jobs are now suddenly open, a quarter of the NFL looking for
- 4:08a head coach, and let's not forget what took place in Seattle. I
- 4:11want to go to Pete Carroll because there's been this perception, and maybe it's
- 4:15more than perception, that Pete Carroll and Russell Wilson were at odds and that's
- 4:18why that split took place. And yet Pete Carroll out yesterday and there's Russell
- 4:25Wilson his second post. I just read another post on Twitter. He's going
- 4:29out of his way to celebrate Pete Carroll. Was that as big a rift
- 4:33as we assumed? Or are we seeing it the right way? You know?
- 4:39That got you know, I think people even who know him sort of
- 4:45wrestle with Russell Wilson's public social media persona and then being around him behind the
- 4:51scenes. You know, it's intriguing to me. And this happens a lot.
- 4:58I've seen it a lot with coaches and Genie ms. Neither one of
- 5:01them survives the split after they all sort of pushed toward a split. You
- 5:06know, it's really It's really funny in the league that way. And I
- 5:11always tell guys, if if you would just step back for a few minutes,
- 5:14take a breath and figure it out, you know, you're still better
- 5:17together than you are apart. And I think that was the case for Pete
- 5:23and Russell both. And you know, you know how time goes as you
- 5:27get older. I think you know, when you for anybody, I think
- 5:31if a little time passes, you think about you know, maybe I shouldn't
- 5:34have been so upset or so dug in about these certain things. So I
- 5:41think what Russell's doing on social media is genuine. Doesn't mean they didn't have
- 5:45issues, you know, a couple of years ago. Or Jeff he's compared
- 5:49it to the current coach he just worked for, and he's like, man,
- 5:51this guy was great. Yeah, this is easy, listen, well
- 6:00what you wish for sometimes right, you just said it. That is I
- 6:03think Leggie said it the best, like and Russ and Pete Carroll better together
- 6:09than they were apart. Both of these guys don't have or assumedly won't have
- 6:13the jobs that they split each other to find. We talked about this obviously
- 6:18over the past few days. We haven't spoken to you yet on this show
- 6:21since the after season presser. They kept the door open for us. Is
- 6:26it really open or is that just lip service that's not open? But you
- 6:30know, I you know, how is it really open? You know,
- 6:33nobody said you're gonna have to cut your contract in half for it to be
- 6:39open, or you're you're gonna have to compete for the job to be open.
- 6:42None of those details. And I've asked around. I mean, I
- 6:46think I think this is one of those, you know, perfect world things.
- 6:50Yeah, in a perfect world it's open. Uh, But I don't
- 6:55think Russell Wilson has any intention of staying here if they want to make him
- 7:00carve his contract into five things. And I'll say this, I get a
- 7:05lot of correspondence from from folks saying, why won't Russ or why didn't russ
- 7:11play ball and all of this. You know, all I know is if
- 7:14Russell Wilson would have held out in July, Greg Penner and Sean Payton and
- 7:19George Peyton, I have no doubt, would have stood at a podium and
- 7:24said he has a contract, he should honor it. And that's my beef
- 7:29with all this. You know, Sean Payton isn't given any money back because
- 7:33the team didn't make the playoffs. Greg Penner isn't cutting season ticket prices because
- 7:39the team didn't make the playoffs. And I think it's I think sometimes it's
- 7:44not right to frame it as the players should always give up the money.
- 7:47You know, the Broncos negotiated these clauses. They had a chance to be
- 7:51mad about them a year and a half ago. That's why I think in
- 7:57this case, both both can be right, both can be wrong. I
- 8:00understand, I understand what the Broncos did. I get it. You want
- 8:03to move on, I get it. But I also understand if I'm Russell
- 8:07Wilson and somebody says, readjust your kind, I said, no, I'm
- 8:11not doing crap. You gave me this deal, we we agreed. I'm
- 8:13not touching this. Yeah, we already sat at a table for a month
- 8:18the figure this deal out, and now you want to come. You know,
- 8:20I just don't get that part of it, but you know, hey,
- 8:22that's just meh, but it is. It's an enormously impactful decision.
- 8:31And you know, I think all involved, you know, when they were
- 8:37out there talking this way, I think everybody was just too quick to say,
- 8:41oh, we have a plan in place, we can be flexible if
- 8:46you listen closely. They did admit at one point, yeah, we're not
- 8:50going to be shopping in the big free agency aisle. And that is a
- 8:56public admission of what they're headed for. And I personally, they have forty
- 9:03four players under contract for next year. If they're twenty over the cap,
- 9:07they have ten million of dead money already before they do anything with RUSS.
- 9:13It's unlikely they're going to be able to keep their best free agents from leaving,
- 9:16and it's unlikely they're going to be able to sign players better than the
- 9:20ones who are leaving. I think their talent level takes a hit next year,
- 9:24no matter what their playing is. Does that talent level take a hit
- 9:28just by cuts or losing guys to free agency? Or do you foresee them
- 9:31making trades in order to get more draft capital, because, as you said,
- 9:35just one pick over the first two days the draft six overall for a
- 9:39team that's going to be living in cap hell not only this year but next
- 9:41year if they post June first cut Russ. They need picks. They need
- 9:46young, cost controllable players, and the only way to do that is either
- 9:48trading down in the draft, which fans would lose their minds over. I
- 9:52feel like they got to move on from veteran players via trade. Well,
- 9:58you got to have a market for those players, and if teams know you're
- 10:01desperate, they're not going to give you anything for those I think it's wrong
- 10:05for people to think trading their best players is the repair. I mean,
- 10:09you trade passer can not only do you have a worst player replacing him,
- 10:15you might never have a better one playing the position for the remainder of your
- 10:20time as a fan of the team. So this notion that trading the good
- 10:26guys is the solution now that twenty twenty four is gonna hurt no matter what,
- 10:31and people need to sort of wrap their heads around that there are no
- 10:37easy solutions here. Because they chose to do this to themselves because they chose
- 10:45not to figure out a way to make it work with Russ. He mentioned
- 10:50the staff Sean Payton did and his clos uram remarks the other day, do
- 10:54you expect any changes to his coaching staff? Yeah, you know, he
- 10:58seems perfectually frustrated with the offense pick and it may not be a huge change.
- 11:03You know, it may not be assistance you know, people are familiar
- 11:07with. But I've rarely seen a team go from one year to the next
- 11:11and there's no change on the staff. So I'm assuming, you know,
- 11:16there may be a few moves here and there, but I don't think,
- 11:20you know, vance Joseph may get some interviews, you know, and in
- 11:24some of these head coaching jobs, so you know, maybe they're some of
- 11:26those things, But I don't think they've really sort of decided in house of
- 11:33what those major changes I think were a couple of weeks from that, unless
- 11:39he comes back and starts meeting sooner than he said he would. Yeah,
- 11:43it's almost hilarious to because Peyton's coming in here and he's getting a pretty penny
- 11:48to coach this team, and already they have to buy out Russell Wilson.
- 11:52There's a lot of money going there. It just seems to be I'm gonna
- 11:56do whatever I want. It's not my money. I don't care. Hey,
- 11:58I need more money. Can you give me more money so you can
- 12:01do what I need to do. That's the way it looks like to me.
- 12:03Well, they're in a unique position again, you know. I mean,
- 12:07you've been here your whole life, Vick. The Broncos have never been
- 12:11the richest team in the league, and they're the richest team in the league
- 12:13and it ain't close. So there is a challenge for Greg Penner and the
- 12:20rest of the ownership group because they can never use money as an excuse.
- 12:24You know, It's easy for a lot of owners to say I couldn't do
- 12:28this because we couldn't afford it. The Penners, the Walton Penner group has
- 12:33to sort of figure out other ways to explain things because they can afford anything,
- 12:37and that puts them in a weird, at least sort of public position
- 12:43because they can never say we couldn't afford it. I mean, they can
- 12:46certainly say we didn't want to do it, whatever it is, but it
- 12:50is unique. But I don't care how rich An owner is. I've been
- 12:54around the league long enough to know at some point they come to you waive
- 13:00the checkbook saying, hey, you know, where's my return on investment?
- 13:03Buddy? Do you get Do you get a longer leash? Though? Does
- 13:09does Peyton get a longer leash because of that checkbook? I don't know.
- 13:13I guess we'll see. You know, a lot of it is just completely
- 13:16dependent on what Greg Penner thinks of John Payton's you know, use of that
- 13:24checkbook. Now, Sean Payton doesn't have personnel control. He does not have
- 13:28complete personnel control of the Broncos. He has a huge voice in it,
- 13:33but he doesn't get to say yes or no about everything, And I think
- 13:37people need to sort of dial that back a little bit. He doesn't get
- 13:43to make every movie he wants. They're gonna make a lot of them he
- 13:46wants for sure, maybe the majority, maybe almost all of them. But
- 13:50he doesn't get to make every movie wants. Greg Penner's gonna have to say
- 13:54yes or no when you start doing things like Russell Wilson. You mentioned personnel
- 14:01control, but the relationship with with George Peyton, I think it seems pretty
- 14:05obvious that they work together because George is willing to fall in line with whatever
- 14:11Sean wants. Correct. Uh, there's some of that. I mean Sean
- 14:15knows he cannot possibly, especially during the season. George Peyton is Sean Payton's
- 14:22eyes and ears when it comes to the players. You know, do we
- 14:28want this guy? Does he fit? You know, if Sean Payton hasn't
- 14:31coached him, I'm not gonna know as much about free agents and guys who
- 14:37are waived, you know, guys who are on other teams practice squads.
- 14:43I don't care what coach you are, whether it's Mike Shanahan here running personnel
- 14:46or Belichick in New England. You need eyes and ears. And if your
- 14:50eyes and ears stink, your roster's gonna stink. Uh. And Sean Payton
- 14:56needs George Peyton. He's smart enough to know it. And I've been told
- 15:01by everyone they get along when they work together. Now, you know,
- 15:05at some point is George I don't know the answer to this, is he
- 15:09gonna sort of miss being you know, unquestionably in charge of you know that's
- 15:16not a fifty but and contractually to great they both answer to Greg Penner.
- 15:24They both have an equal voice to Greg Penner, and it's up to Greg
- 15:30Penner how he tips the scale UH and individual decisions. But George Peyton does
- 15:37not answer to Sean Payton. He answers to Greg Penner, last one,
- 15:43last one before he gets you out of here, Leggie, I want to
- 15:46go back to the story of the day. The three head coaches Saban,
- 15:48Carol and Belichick now out, Vic and I have been asking the audience here
- 15:54rank those three coaches for me. Ah, well, just pure awe results.
- 16:03You know it's Saban, Belichick, Carroll, NFL. It's unquestionably Belichick
- 16:08Saban. For Belichick to do it, Saban did, he would have had
- 16:14to win a Super Bowl as a head coach before the salary cap and after
- 16:17the salary cap. Saban crossed eras did it at multiple schools, and he
- 16:22changed the way people coached college football. He brought a pro personnel mentality.
- 16:30They were the first school to have all these twenty three year old analysts analyzing
- 16:36recruiting the way NFL teams analyzed the draft. They had actual draft boards of
- 16:41recruits. People would people would come visit Alabama to simply see the board and
- 16:48how it was constructed, and Saban allowed people to do that. He allowed
- 16:52them to see how he did it. He changed everything about college football,
- 16:57and he won more than everybody else doing it. And when he the maybe
- 17:03one of the greatest defensive minds ever, decided that he was going to flip
- 17:08it all and bust open the offensive formation and getting a shotgun and open everything
- 17:15up, he changed the way that was done too. He adapted. He
- 17:19was smarter than everybody else, and he figured out how a way to do
- 17:22it that nobody else was doing. They're having a press conference in New England
- 17:27right after the show ten am Mountain time, and I'm wondering how much of
- 17:32that press conference is craft in Belichick, how it's going to look if it
- 17:36at all resembles the press conference we remember watching Pat Bowl and Mike Shanahan here
- 17:41in Denver. Well, I've always said Vic that that is the only time
- 17:47I've ever seen in the league's history. I don't think Belichick is fired.
- 17:52I think they're going to say, you know, this is an amenable party
- 17:57that they both came to. This was fired, yeah together, and and
- 18:03I've never seen that. I mean, we were in there for an hour
- 18:07and and they both cried during the thing. I mean Pat had fired Mike
- 18:11and he cried about it, and Mike had tears in his eyes talking about,
- 18:17you know what the next season was going to look like. It was
- 18:19an amazing thing. And I always felt like it really said a lot about
- 18:25those two guys. They they knew it ended with a little conflict there.
- 18:30I mean, Pat was really mad, Mike didn't want to make any changes
- 18:33to the defensive staff after that blowout in San Diego. And yet there they
- 18:40were, you know, big enough, close enough friends to sit there and
- 18:44do it. And they didn't just do it. They really were heartfelt about
- 18:48it. It was an amazing well, the most amazing things I've ever covered.
- 18:52If he cries today, I mean it's no way. Yeah, I'd
- 19:02love to see it. I wonder if he'll smile even, Oh, he'll
- 19:06crack a smile. Right, there's no there's no ay. It's on to
- 19:08Washington. I will say this. If I was Bill, I'd walk in
- 19:12with all the Super Bowl trophies under my arm and I just sit down.
- 19:17I'd put them right in front of me. Do I do I take them
- 19:22with me? Is this? Someone give me a cardboard box? Yeah?
- 19:26These come with me? Or what I mean what's the deal. Wrap this
- 19:30up. I got things to do. Let's wrap this one up. He's
- 19:33ESPN Senior Reporter Senior writer Jeff Legwald. All conversations brought to you by bet
- 19:37Save Colorado, the exclusive club for passionate gamers and betters across the state.
- 19:41Leggie, thank you so much for your time. Thanks Iles. We'll say it