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Jeff Legwold joins Kreckman & Lindahl 2/16/24 · Jeff Legwold ESPN Broncos Reports

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  Jeff Legwald is our Broncos insider Altitude Sports Radio ninety two five Pro Football,
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  the insider I've covered while Jeff leg Wall his appearances are always must listen radio.
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  You learn a lot. Five Betsafe Colorado, the exclusive club for passionate
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  gamers and vetters across the state. It's Leggy on Altitude Sports Radio ninety two
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  five Scott Brian and let's chat with Jeff Legwald of ESPN. He joins us
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  on the ramos Law Hotline Car Accident You do need ramos Law Medical doctor and
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  attorney ramos Law dot com. Hello Jeff Legwald, Good afternoon. It is
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  good to have you back as always. Uh So, Leggy your colleague over
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  there at the four letter Network Field Yates, Field Yates. JJ McCarthy at
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  number twelve to Denver Leggy, give us the pro in the cons Why could
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  it work? Why might it not work? JJ McCarthy at number twelve to
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  Denver Well. I mean it's I think even Field would say that's overdrafting.
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  JJ McCarthy. I believe it wrote that in his paragraph. The upside is
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  I mean, he's the upside quarterback on the board. I mean he's sort
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  of the unfinished project. I mean, when you have ten completions in the
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  in the title game, so and I think he averaged twenty completions through the
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  season. I mean, so he's the upside pick his testing numbers if he
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  works out at the combine, and I think people expect him to, but
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  his testing numbers will be great. And uh, you know, he's a
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  little bigger than a lot of the guys on the class, and his arm
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  is NFL worthy, So that package is going to get you noticed. And
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  you know, I try to tell people all the time that the draft is
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  in the eyes of NFL talent evaluators. The draft isn't what you are now,
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  it's what you might be. And I think he's the biggest risk too
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  among your quarterbacks on the you know, in that first round grouping that people
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  are talking about. I doubt very much I'll have a first round grade on
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  him, but he he will have a first round grade by some And it's
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  a risk because you're gambling that he will come to fruition. As it were,
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  I don't think. I don't think a team looking for to throw a
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  rookie in as a you know, in twenty twenty four, I'm not sure.
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  A lot of people I know in the league see him as as ready
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  for that. But the other side of it is people think, Okay,
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  you played for Jim Harbaughs, so you have a thick skin and you be
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  ready for something like that. Pus Jim already said he'll be the best quarterback
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  in the draft. Leg would think Jim would say that. I think Jim
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  would be very I don't think Jim would say be the best quarterback in the
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  division now, though might might stop short on that one. Yeah, Leg,
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  you have to pick a free agent who's coming here quarterback wise, quarterback
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  wise, you know, and the question is who can you afford after you?
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  You know, if and when the Wilson move comes, that's going to
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  impact what you can't do as an organization. I Uh, I know people
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  who believe minshew Is is the guy the Broncos believe would be a free agent
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  fit. You know, if that, if that came to fruition, would
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  he be in their price range? I'm assuming Denvers. Yeah, I think
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  that's a great point. Like, I'm assuming their price range is going to
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  be like legitimately in like the the three to five million dollar range, Like
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  what's stead of making. Maybe that's the you know, I what Baker got
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  last year in Tampa, what Jamis got last year in New Orleans, Like
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  that's the aisle they're shopping in. I think. So. You know,
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  we did an exercise at ESPN where we had to sort of play GM and
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  offer contracts, and I can conct at a two year, fourteen million dollar
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  deal that's fully guaranteed that we we sort of accepted as we get done.
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  But I'm not sure that number is even high enough given the need and desire
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  all over the place for quarterbacks. But at the time we did the exercise,
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  I had talked to GMS and I said, is this a fair market
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  value for him right now? And they said yes. So that was my
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  parameter. But I honestly don't think that number will turn out to be high
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  enough when it actually gets negotiated somewhere, all right, I asked, I'm
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  asking everybody, I haven't even brought this up to you at our little lunch
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  getaways. Would you be intrigued by him at all? Would he be affordable
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  if we're having to add a quarterback. Part of me says, you've spent
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  the money on Stidham, You're eating too much money on russ. Just live
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  with your room and draft a kid. But if they're going to add an
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  outside presence, would Browning at least intrigue you, well, you know,
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  at least you're gonna know it's intriguing to me if they dive into free agency.
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  That may be an indicator of what they think the first round is going
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  to look like quarterback wise, because I mean, I think the first three
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  are coming off the board before four picks are made. I mean, I
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  honestly believe that right now. So that puts you know, that puts McCarthy
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  and those other guys in the wheel of teams trying to move up into the
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  middle and all of those things. So if you sign a quarterback in free
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  agency, does your pick suddenly become more valuable if you don't think any of
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  those quarterbacks are worthy of that pick, and you just you know, you
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  sort of play it that way too, because you know, if the quarterbacks
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  go early, you know my theory, you know, the blue chip guys
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  come down and you end up with a top seven player at your pick who
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  ends up playing for you for a decade. You know, but that scenario,
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  but you gotta you obviously need a quarterback. I'm not sure any rookie
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  playing next year, like a rookie thrown in the pool. You're not getting
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  the Stroud down there. You're not getting that kind of season, I don't
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  think. And they're frankly not built. I don't think offensively to support a
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  rookie after their sallery cap machining as it were. And you know, I
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  don't I don't know that a rookie playing next year would be better than Stidham
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  or a free agent. So that those are the kinds of decisions they're staring
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  at right now. Deep Lakeweldon ninety two to five, brought to you by
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  bet Safe Colorado, the exclusive club for passionate gamers and betters across the state.
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  Jeff, one of the things that Andy and I talked about, and
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  I don't know if an NFL team or the bron you know, the Broncos
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  in this situation, would look at it like this. But this Chief's dynasty
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  that we're that we're living through right now almost gives you cover, like in
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  a sense of like, well, you know, you're not winning your division
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  or winning a super Bowl at a time soon exactly, so, so take
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  the time to build this up correctly. Let's let's talk about the Super Bowl
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  champs here for just a moment. And I'm sure you're reading your your buddy
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  Adam Tischer's coverage. What what is the next step for the Chiefs now as
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  they enter this offseason and what what moves will they make? Do you anticipate
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  will happen with this team in order to obviously probably make them honestly even better.
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  Well, you know, I've said they they've done what you should always
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  do. In my mind, they had the alpha at quarterback. Okay,
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  that's to me, that's a separate thing. Uh. And I've said this,
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  the starting lineup in the Super Bowl for the Chiefs, the starting twenty
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  two, sixteen draft picks in their sixteen Chiefs draft picks in the starting twenty
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  two and you have Mahomes not even to his prime. You are built the
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  way you should be built in the salary cap era. And if you count
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  the punter who was an undrafted rookie they signed and kept, seventeen or the
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  top twenty four are their own homegrown players, and Mahomes is twenty eight.
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  To me, if you're the Broncos or the Raiders or the Chargers, that's
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  what should concern you. This is not some throw it together team that went
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  for at one time. They are built to replace the players they lose.
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  They lost Tyreek Hill, they won a Super Bowl. I don't know,
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  I don't know how you can phrase it any better. I mean, Tyreek
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  Hill was in the MVP conversation and they still run, you know, because
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  they're built. This is how you build. This is why six draft picks
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  for the Broncos are so concerning. It's why no number you know, three
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  number ones of their own on their entire roster is so concerning because your chief
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  competition is doing it that way, and that's really hard to unseat. Because
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  they have the ultimate eracer who's twenty eight at quarterback. They can build a
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  homegrown team over and over and over again. And guess what. Homegrown teams
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  are cheaper. So you can pay your stars to stay. You can pay
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  Mahomes over and over and over again. You can pay Kelsey late in his
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  career if you feel like it. Can they pay Chris Jones Jones, You
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  can pay Chris Jones because when you move on from one of your own draft
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  picks to the next one, that's how you do it. And that's the
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  tough position the Broncos are in now in their division, because it's not a
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  throne together, go for it, win at one time team. They are
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  built for the hall, and as long as he stays healthy at quarterback,
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  you have the ultimate flexibility. You know, you're really just to ray of
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  sunshine. Jeff All this about how the next ten years is going to go
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  kind of in that vein so a lot of people have been putting out there,
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  Let's just eat the whole eighty five million at once. When it seems
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  like you're gonna get rid of Russ. Everyone's making the rounds with his house
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  on the market and all this kind of stuff. Yeah, Hey, it's
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  what happens when you don't get along at the end of the year. Is
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  eating the eighty five million even realistic for them in one fail swoop? They
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  have to break it up into two, don't they. I mean you could,
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  but you'd have probably twenty undrafted rookies on your roster and the distance between
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  starter and back up would be really large. I mean, so a couple
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  of injuries, maybe you go from the quirky seven, ten, eight and
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  nine nine to eight team a couple of injuries, you go immediately to the
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  top of the board. Oh, you have no depth. So to me,
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  the lure of it doing it, it would be enormously painful. We've
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  never seen it, you know, I think sixty eight millions the biggest figure
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  we've ever seen a team wrestle with. And you know that team had double
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  digit draft picks to do it, and the quarterback was already on the roster.
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  That the issue with the Broncos is you're doing all this and you don't
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  have your long term solution at quarterback on the roster. So really the pain
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  sort of goes and goes until you figure that out. That's that's the big
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  issue. But eating it, the one big attraction is you are picking up
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  at the top of the board next year. But I will tell you,
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  and these projections, you know, never take them to Vegas. But I
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  will tell you scouts and gms really don't like next year's quarterback class, which
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  is why this year the run may be really big. In the first first
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  round. You may see people jockeying to get what they can, which is
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  why the Broncos pick may end up being valuable if they really don't like those
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  quarterbacks. Because next year's class is not highly thought of right now. That
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  could change if guys blow up and play like crazy. But I'll just say
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  people are not thrilled. That was the vibe I got it at the Senior
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  Bowl that if you want one, you know, next year's rookie class may
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  not give you much of an immediate solution unless you're all the way at the
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  top of the board. All look, they'll still need something big next year
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  anyway, all right, Nate and I asked this question earlier, are long
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  time stage of sports? Who are the All Star games for? It's All
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  Star weekend this weekend, ANHL just had Theirs Pro Bowl. Was you know
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  we got the whole lineup of the three games where it seems like nobody really
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  wants to be doing this. Baseball at least still gives half an effort,
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  and it's the closest thing to the actual way the game is played in the
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  regular season as any of the rest of them. But Nate asked a great
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  question. As a kid growing up, he didn't get to see the American
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  League. I didn't get to see George as much as I like to because
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  the basketball one was my favorite. Who are the games for now? That
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  we've changed the sporting rules so much. Well, and we are, I
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  mean unfortunately, I am old enough to have covered the NFL when guys had
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  summer jobs because they had to. And I think way back those games meant
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  something because it was your only leverage before free agency. It was the only
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  one of the few ways you could show your team that your status us was
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  at a certain point in the league. And it even put minimal pressure on
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  them to give you a raise, So they were important. There was a
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  time when those were all very important to players. You know, now that
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  time has passed. So now I think it's ultimately the league's trying to just
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  say this is our brand and this is the best we have enjoy it in
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  sort of an informal, fun setting type of thing. And you know,
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  the NFL has proven and at least in their you know, in their world,
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  people watch no matter what they do. So the NFL is right now
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  is where the other people are not. But I think right now it's more
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  of a corporate branding. You know, these are our stars, right,
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  take a look at them at all, all in one place, and it's
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  more that now these days, yeah, it's almost a trade show anymore.
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  And it leads to a very bad televised product. Jeff Legwald, everybody,
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  ESPN dot com that's where you read his stuff. He's uh, he's combined
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  bound very very soon here Jeff will talk to you next week, Thanks buddy.
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  Yeah, we're grinding on the corners today. So corner grinding. Oh
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  okay, real quick tearing and Arnold quen're on Mitchell. That's the dude out
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  of Toledo. He's the best player on the field and mobile. There's no
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  question in my mind that kid is. He is ready made walk in starter,
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  mister quin all right, Quinnan Mitchell out of Toledo. That's the guy
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  leg he's talking up today. Does he have top five in the top one
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  hundred kind of juice? Oh, I want too badly, but I would
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  be I would be pumping it up a little too much. Okay, he's
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  top ten in my mind. I think he's just spectacular. All right,
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  good stuff, thanks Leggy. All right, Jeff Legwald with us right there.
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  Yeah, he's he's grinding that corner tape