Latest / The Appetizer Hour with Brett Kane / 9-01-26 - The wrong way to handle dead money/"Top Heavy" Avs, Rox crushing defeat/Cooper pleads not guilty
Transcript
- 0:02Speaker 1: This is the Appetizer Hour with Brett Cain on demand.
- 0:06Speaker 1: Check out Brett weekday mornings at 6 on Altitude Sports
- 0:10Speaker 1: Radio 92.5 and on the Altitude Sports Radio app.
- 0:19Speaker 2: Look, I thought Sam earned it, played well, especially finished
- 0:23Speaker 2: the season, the preseason well. We felt that became an
- 0:28Speaker 2: easier decision as we got into camp a little bit further.
- 0:34Speaker 3: Sean Payton talking about the cues. Now, I....
- 0:41Speaker 4: Watching yesterday, Waver Wire, good news, you bring back Red Murdoch,
- 0:47Speaker 4: who was, you know, a standout in camp and seems
- 0:50Speaker 4: to have some potential. Here's the thing, though, and it's
- 0:55Speaker 4: a huge dichotomy between two completely different situations. And it's
- 1:01Speaker 4: pretty amazing to me... to see a couple of these
- 1:04Speaker 4: details in front of you. Considering where this Sean Payton
- 1:09Speaker 4: Broncos regime started and where this regime is at now
- 1:15Speaker 4: heading into year four, it's sort of a master class.
- 1:22Speaker 3: In how you go about navigating a very difficult situation.
- 1:30Speaker 3: And the reason I want to bring this up is...
- 1:34Speaker 3: Because of this.
- 1:35Speaker 4: When I was watching the waiver wire claims yesterday and
- 1:40Speaker 4: wondering if the Broncos are going to pick somebody up,
- 1:44Speaker 4: if they're going to lose somebody, turns out they lost two.
- 1:48Speaker 4: And one of them was fifth round pick Justin Jolie.
- 1:52Speaker 4: Some people around town really upset about it.
- 1:54Speaker 3: I'm not, I wouldn't.
- 1:57Speaker 4: Look, I would have preferred to have him back on
- 1:59Speaker 4: practice squad. It seems like he has, um, He had
- 2:05Speaker 4: potential to be pass-catching sort of weapon in the offense
- 2:13Speaker 4: somewhere down the line.
- 2:14Speaker 3: Still a little bit raw, but had that ability.
- 2:22Speaker 4: And I always kind of go back to the idea of,
- 2:25Speaker 4: I don't know why you're keeping three quarterbacks on the roster.
- 2:30Speaker 4: Was that worth losing a tight end with some future
- 2:33Speaker 4: potential maybe to take over for an Evan Ingram type?
- 2:38Speaker 4: And now you're going to start back at the drawing
- 2:40Speaker 4: board at that position next year. So there's aspects of
- 2:44Speaker 4: that that I'm like not a huge fan of.
- 2:46Speaker 3: At the end of the day, I.
- 2:50Speaker 4: Mean, guys, I don't know if Justin Jolie is going
- 2:54Speaker 4: to be anything or not. But here's the bigger thing.
- 3:02Speaker 4: Different situations handled in the Broncos case in an amazing way.
- 3:13Speaker 4: But in the case of the team that claimed Justin
- 3:15Speaker 4: Joe Lee, really tough. So here's what happened yesterday.
- 3:25Speaker 3: The Miami Dolphins did something I've never seen before. Never
- 3:30Speaker 3: seen it. They claimed seven different players across the league
- 3:38Speaker 3: off of waivers. Seven. Do you know how bad you
- 3:42Speaker 3: have to hate your roster to claim seven players from
- 3:46Speaker 3: other teams who just got cut all at the same time?
- 3:48Speaker 3: Do you understand how miserable.
- 3:52Speaker 4: You have to believe your 53-man roster was going into that?
- 3:57Speaker 4: That you're like, I am willing, not only am I willing,
- 4:03Speaker 4: to take on seven more players. I'm willing to cut
- 4:05Speaker 4: seven more that we currently have. The Broncos found themselves
- 4:11Speaker 4: in the opposite situation. They were cutting players they did
- 4:15Speaker 4: not want to cut. But you just look at where
- 4:21Speaker 4: the Broncos are at right now from, or I'm sorry,
- 4:24Speaker 4: the Dolphins, from surely a dead money.
- 4:30Speaker 3: Sort of number.
- 4:34Speaker 4: Do you know how much dead money is on the
- 4:38Speaker 4: Miami Dolphins roster right now? It's almost unfathomable, okay? Right now,
- 4:49Speaker 4: on offense, they are spending $ 56. 8 million on players currently
- 4:56Speaker 4: on the roster. Guys who will suit up on Sundays
- 4:59Speaker 4: and play football for them.
- 5:01Speaker 3: $ 56. 8 million. On defense, they're spending $ 57. 2 million. And on
- 5:03Speaker 3: special teams, they're spending $ 3. 7 million.
- 5:05Speaker 4: They are paying $ 181 million to players who no longer
- 5:07Speaker 4: are there.
- 5:22Speaker 3: Tua, 55.4. Tyree Kill, 28.2. Jalen Waddle, 23.2. Jalen Ramsey, 20.8.
- 5:25Speaker 3: Mika Fitzpatrick, $ 13 million. Bradley Chubb, $ 11 million. Tarana Armstead, $ 10. 7 million.
- 5:28Speaker 4: And the list goes on and on from there. Their
- 5:30Speaker 4: highest paid player on their roster right now just by
- 5:51Speaker 4: the cap number, is Zach Saylor, who's making $ 11.
- 5:56Speaker 3: 4 million.
- 5:58Speaker 4: Their next highest paid player against the cap is Austin Jackson,
- 6:02Speaker 4: who's making 6.8. It is remarkable.
- 6:12Speaker 3: How bad that team is. And I want to juxtapose
- 6:15Speaker 3: that To what Denver's doing.
- 6:19Speaker 4: Because I want to show you guys, just kind of
- 6:21Speaker 4: like give you an actual example of the differences in
- 6:26Speaker 4: the way that teams operate. So I told you the
- 6:32Speaker 4: Miami Dolphins in dead cap this year, $ 181. 6 million is
- 6:35Speaker 4: going to players not on their roster. 181.6. Nelly, take
- 6:47Speaker 4: a guess. How much do you think the Broncos have
- 6:56Speaker 4: in dead cap this year?
- 6:57Speaker 3: Dead money.
- 6:59Speaker 5: Russ is off the books, right?
- 7:00Speaker 3: He's off the books entirely now, yes. I don't know.
- 7:03Speaker 5: 10 million?
- 7:04Speaker 3: 5.9.
- 7:05Speaker 4: There you go. The worst offender in that group is
- 7:09Speaker 4: Dre Greenlaw at $ 2.
- 7:11Speaker 2: 1 million.
- 7:11Speaker 3: That's it.
- 7:16Speaker 4: And again, it's a simple case of how do you
- 7:23Speaker 4: handle these situations?
- 7:24Speaker 3: How do you do it? And the Dolphins are very
- 7:29Speaker 3: obviously turning over.
- 7:32Speaker 4: Now, next week, as we head into the first week
- 7:35Speaker 4: of the football season, I will do my yearly thing,
- 7:38Speaker 4: which I've always, it's one of my favorite things of
- 7:40Speaker 4: the year. Some people do power rankings. Some people do tiers.
- 7:45Speaker 4: Your boy does both. I do power rankings with tears.
- 7:49Speaker 4: Nobody's doing that around here. We'll do that tomorrow. And
- 7:52Speaker 4: I'll just give you a preview of my guarantee. My
- 7:55Speaker 4: guarantee is going to be that the Miami Dolphins are
- 7:57Speaker 4: going to be dead last on that list. Miami Dolphins
- 8:00Speaker 4: have a roster that very possibly might not win a
- 8:03Speaker 4: football game. It's that bad. Now, how do you navigate that?
- 8:15Speaker 4: How do you get around it? And that's the big thing.
- 8:20Speaker 4: I'll be the first one to admit, when the Broncos
- 8:23Speaker 4: cut Russell Wilson and they drafted Bo Nix, do you
- 8:28Speaker 4: know what I thought to myself, Nelly? I thought the
- 8:31Speaker 4: Broncos would be picking in the top five that year.
- 8:33Speaker 4: Because it's very, very, very difficult to navigate that much
- 8:42Speaker 4: money not being available.
- 8:47Speaker 3: It's really hard.
- 8:53Speaker 4: And I looked at what they had on their roster,
- 8:59Speaker 4: what they had on their schedule, and I just thought
- 9:01Speaker 4: to myself, there's no way this team can make something
- 9:05Speaker 4: of this season. And to their credit, not only did
- 9:08Speaker 4: they make something of the season, they made the postseason.
- 9:13Speaker 4: parlayed that the following year into an AFC championship appearance,
- 9:16Speaker 4: and we know the rest. But I can't tell you
- 9:21Speaker 4: how difficult of waters that was to navigate and how
- 9:29Speaker 4: stellar of a job that George and Sean Payton did
- 9:33Speaker 4: in navigating that. Again, Tua's situation and what they're paying
- 9:40Speaker 4: him is very similar to to what the Broncos did. So,
- 9:47Speaker 4: the dead money for Tua in a very similar situation.
- 9:52Speaker 4: This year, it was $ 55. 4 million. The Dolphins next year
- 9:58Speaker 4: will be paying him $ 4. I think, if I remember
- 10:03Speaker 4: this correctly, Nelly, was it $ 50 million year one and
- 10:06Speaker 4: $ 35 million year two for Russell Wilson?
- 10:08Speaker 3: I think it was somewhere in that ballpark.
- 10:09Speaker 5: Because I know it was north of $ 80 million and
- 10:11Speaker 5: they split it over two years.
- 10:13Speaker 3: Yes.
- 10:13Speaker 5: And they front-ended it. So I think that those numbers are...
- 10:17Speaker 5: Mostly right, yes.
- 10:18Speaker 4: So the Dolphins are doing the same thing, but they're
- 10:20Speaker 4: doing even more than that in paying off Tyreek Hill
- 10:25Speaker 4: and Jalen Waddell and Jalen Ramsey and Mika Fitzpatrick and
- 10:28Speaker 4: Bradley Chubb and Taron Armstead and all these different guys.
- 10:32Speaker 3: They're taking it a step farther. But where the Broncos
- 10:38Speaker 3: are at... Because....
- 10:45Speaker 4: Of decisions that were made post-Russell Wilson that were intentional,
- 10:52Speaker 4: where you did have the money, where did you spend it,
- 10:55Speaker 4: on the foundation of a football team, offensive and defensive line.
- 11:02Speaker 4: It's the most amazing thing. As much as we get
- 11:04Speaker 4: enamored with man, look at the flashy wide receiver this
- 11:10Speaker 4: team has, or look at this stud running back that
- 11:12Speaker 4: this team has, or look at this quarterback that does X, Y,
- 11:15Speaker 4: and Z. How do you win football games? The answer's
- 11:18Speaker 4: been the same for 60 years. Dominate the line of
- 11:21Speaker 4: scrimmage on both sides of the football. You do that,
- 11:24Speaker 4: you're probably going to win. It's the most tried and
- 11:29Speaker 4: true formula you're going to find in sports. Dominate up front.
- 11:37Speaker 4: And it's very likely that you're going to be okay.
- 11:41Speaker 4: So I say all of this to tell you, if
- 11:44Speaker 4: you're one of these people that's upset yesterday with losing
- 11:48Speaker 4: a Justin Jolie to waivers, and again, I'm not a
- 11:51Speaker 4: fan of it, but I'm going to go back to
- 11:55Speaker 4: something that I think is earned.
- 11:58Speaker 3: And it's been this way for a few years.
- 12:01Speaker 4: And I think it's time that we acknowledge this even more.
- 12:07Speaker 4: The Broncos, much like the Nuggets and much like the
- 12:10Speaker 4: Avs over the last few years, if you have disagreed
- 12:13Speaker 4: with a move, you're a fan. Of course you're allowed to.
- 12:16Speaker 4: I've had plenty that I've disagreed with over the years
- 12:18Speaker 4: with all three of these teams. But I will go
- 12:22Speaker 4: back to one thing. I think they've earned the right
- 12:28Speaker 4: with how they've built these rosters to maybe earn a
- 12:34Speaker 4: little benefit of the doubt. Now, if Justin Jolie goes
- 12:39Speaker 4: to Miami and becomes some all pro tight end, then yeah,
- 12:41Speaker 4: it's a gigantic whiff.
- 12:43Speaker 3: Oopsie daisy.
- 12:46Speaker 4: No, the big thing that I'm, I would say about
- 12:50Speaker 4: losing him specifically. And it's, it's not so much like
- 12:52Speaker 4: I was blown away by him in camp or preseason.
- 12:55Speaker 4: Cause it wasn't, but it's just, you're kind of starting
- 12:59Speaker 4: from the same place at tight end. And you're probably
- 13:02Speaker 4: going to restart, be restarting that next year. Um, This
- 13:08Speaker 4: year is going to be your same old Evan Ingram,
- 13:13Speaker 4: Adam Troutman, Nate Atkins rotation with maybe a little bit
- 13:16Speaker 4: of Dallin Bentley blocking mixed in.
- 13:21Speaker 3: But I think I've made it pretty clear. I'm not
- 13:23Speaker 3: a huge fan of... I'm fine with Troutman. I'm not.
- 13:31Speaker 4: I'm still very puzzled by the amount of money that
- 13:34Speaker 4: Troutman got.
- 13:38Speaker 3: And it just feels like Dallin Bentley's like another, he's
- 13:41Speaker 3: sort of a Troutman clone, which is great.
- 13:44Speaker 4: You need tight ends who can block. But I think
- 13:48Speaker 4: that the separator with some offenses and what makes them
- 13:52Speaker 4: so dynamic is a dynamic tight end that can really,
- 13:57Speaker 4: really put a fear In the opposing defense.
- 14:00Speaker 3: So, 303-504-0925.
- 14:01Speaker 4: Texture says, you city slickers abandoned your post yesterday because
- 14:07Speaker 4: they were laying asphalt outside? Give up your man cards.
- 14:14Speaker 4: To be fair, one, we were told we had to leave.
- 14:21Speaker 3: We were told.
- 14:22Speaker 4: We were still on the air. I was still talking.
- 14:25Speaker 4: And our boss was like, you got to get out
- 14:27Speaker 4: of here. And there was a fireman with an axe
- 14:30Speaker 4: that showed up. And I go, okay, it must be serious.
- 14:32Speaker 4: I don't know what's going on. Secondly, it had a
- 14:35Speaker 4: strong sort of electric fire smell to it.
- 14:38Speaker 3: I don't know how to describe it.
- 14:40Speaker 5: And as we said yesterday, I cannot emphasize enough how
- 14:44Speaker 5: much every single nook and cranny of this building smelled
- 14:49Speaker 5: like burning ass. I mean, our instincts were just, this
- 14:52Speaker 5: isn't right. We got to get out of here. I
- 14:54Speaker 5: guess the main takeaway is, I'm glad that John Wayne
- 14:57Speaker 5: listens to our show over here.
- 14:59Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 14:59Speaker 5: Yeah, hey, pilgrims, why didn't you get out of the building?
- 15:02Speaker 5: City Slickers, yeah.
- 15:03Speaker 3: Yeah, cool, man.
- 15:04Speaker 5: No, who was the guy in the movie City Slickers?
- 15:08Speaker 5: Was it Jack Palance? Yeah, that guy who played the
- 15:12Speaker 5: old rough and tumble guy who ran the ranch. This
- 15:14Speaker 5: is one of those moments I actually need Mosier.
- 15:16Speaker 3: Billy Crystal, right, was in that movie?
- 15:18Speaker 5: Yeah, he and Daniel Stern were attending the ranch.
- 15:21Speaker 1: Yes.
- 15:22Speaker 5: The old grizzled guy who ran the ranch evidently listens
- 15:24Speaker 5: to our show now, so that's good news.
- 15:26Speaker 3: I like that, though.
- 15:28Speaker 4: Hey, I'm a big farmer guy. I think the backbone
- 15:31Speaker 4: of America are farmers. Shout out.
- 15:35Speaker 3: 303-504-0925. A lot more to get to. Stick around.
- 15:37Speaker 4: Joe, what do you say to fans and online experts
- 15:40Speaker 4: who will say top-heavy teams don't win as many cups
- 15:44Speaker 4: as balanced teams?
- 15:45Speaker 3: You get that a lot. Maybe you hear that, too.
- 15:48Speaker 6: Probably disagree with that statement. You can't win without superstars. Um, yeah,
- 15:52Speaker 6: you need, uh, you need depth. Uh, you need your
- 15:55Speaker 6: team playing, playing really well at the right time. You
- 15:58Speaker 6: have to, you know, when it comes to playoffs, um,
- 16:02Speaker 6: you need bounces, but you need your players to be healthy.
- 16:05Speaker 6: We ran into the injury bug a little bit last year, um,
- 16:09Speaker 6: especially with kale. Um, we had a bad week that,
- 16:12Speaker 6: that costed us, but, uh, we had a team that was, uh,
- 16:17Speaker 6: built to win. It didn't happen. And we expect our
- 16:21Speaker 6: team to be built to win for a long time.
- 16:23Speaker 6: But you can't, unless you have guys like Cale and
- 16:27Speaker 6: Nate on your team, it makes it a lot harder.
- 16:32Speaker 4: Yeah, that sack yesterday at the McCarr press conference. I'm
- 16:36Speaker 4: so confused by this. And I understand that was, was
- 16:42Speaker 4: that Sean Keeler.
- 16:42Speaker 3: Who asked the question?
- 16:43Speaker 5: Yep, Sean Keeler.
- 16:45Speaker 3: I understand why.
- 16:45Speaker 4: Sean asked it, because there are a lot of people
- 16:47Speaker 4: that talk about this, about being top-heavy and all this stuff.
- 16:51Speaker 4: And it's something we've discussed on the show before. I
- 16:55Speaker 4: think with the Nuggets, it's a little bit different when you.
- 16:58Speaker 3: Have basically four guys who are taking up a gigantic
- 17:08Speaker 3: part of your cap. Here's what I don't get with
- 17:12Speaker 3: the Avs, though. Are they that top-heavy?
- 17:21Speaker 4: Like, in comparison to other places, are they that top-heavy?
- 17:25Speaker 4: I mean, yes, when you pay somebody $ 20 million a year.
- 17:32Speaker 3: That's going to take a gigantic part of the cap.
- 17:36Speaker 4: Nathan McKinnon's making $ 12. 6 million until 2031. That's the craziest
- 17:46Speaker 4: number you can get.
- 17:48Speaker 3: He's one of the best in the world.
- 17:52Speaker 4: And here's, I'm just going to reemphasize something. When you
- 17:56Speaker 4: draft players with the hope that those players become superstars,
- 18:02Speaker 4: and God, if the stars align, they become Hall of Famers. Well,
- 18:06Speaker 4: Hall of Famers, because they're the best in the league,
- 18:09Speaker 4: get paid the most money in the league. That applies
- 18:13Speaker 4: to pretty much every business you've ever heard of. Can
- 18:17Speaker 4: you name, Nelly, name a random occupation for me. As
- 18:22Speaker 4: random as you can get.
- 18:24Speaker 3: Go ahead.
- 18:25Speaker 5: Plumber.
- 18:26Speaker 4: I bet you the best plumber in America makes a
- 18:30Speaker 4: lot of money. Because he's good at what he does.
- 18:35Speaker 3: Or she. I don't know. Like, what? What do Avs fans.
- 18:45Speaker 4: Who are, I guess, thinking about the, quote, top-heavy nature
- 18:48Speaker 4: of the roster, what do you propose?
- 18:53Speaker 3: That they don't sign him? That they let him go?
- 19:01Speaker 3: And again, I don't think it's as top-heavy as people
- 19:03Speaker 3: make it out to be. So Kale's making 20.4. That's
- 19:06Speaker 3: a lot.
- 19:10Speaker 4: McKinnon at 12.6 is a steal. And at 12.6 for
- 19:15Speaker 4: the next five years, steal. Marty Natchez at 11.5, totally
- 19:22Speaker 4: reasonable for the next five years.
- 19:27Speaker 3: You have Gabe making seven.
- 19:30Speaker 4: Maybe that's a little bit steep considering he missed three
- 19:33Speaker 4: years of hockey. And He's getting older. He's 33, but
- 19:39Speaker 4: still good player. I mean, what else are we looking at?
- 19:45Speaker 3: Logan O'Connor at two and a half.
- 19:46Speaker 4: Jaden Schwartz, excuse me, 3.25. Taves at 7.2. Malinsky at 4.7.
- 19:54Speaker 4: Kulak at four and a half. Manson at four. I
- 19:59Speaker 4: don't know what's top heavy. The one thing, the one
- 20:06Speaker 4: thing that should be at the top of mind for
- 20:13Speaker 4: everybody is getting Kale's deal done for.
- 20:16Speaker 3: Whatever price it takes.
- 20:20Speaker 4: And so top heavy, where that comes into play is
- 20:26Speaker 4: if your top heavy guy, one, isn't producing at that level,
- 20:29Speaker 4: or two, is getting injured a lot.
- 20:32Speaker 3: And Kale is not guilty of either of those things.
- 20:36Speaker 3: He got hurt at the wrong time, I suppose, missing
- 20:39Speaker 3: a couple of games against Vegas. But I just, I
- 20:44Speaker 3: don't know. I don't know why any of this would
- 20:48Speaker 3: be viewed as a problem. This is the price of
- 20:55Speaker 3: good talent evaluation.
- 21:00Speaker 4: And it's sort of, look, I'm not a big brand guy,
- 21:03Speaker 4: so maybe I'm the wrong guy to be talking about
- 21:05Speaker 4: with this. But if your dream was to have a
- 21:11Speaker 4: huge mansion, let's go with that instead of brands. If
- 21:15Speaker 4: you wanted a huge mansion that was your lifelong dream
- 21:17Speaker 4: and you made, I don't know, millions of dollars, and
- 21:21Speaker 4: you're like, I want a six, I don't even know
- 21:25Speaker 4: what a mansion would have, an eight-bedroom house. What did
- 21:27Speaker 4: Russell Wilson have? 13 bathrooms, whatever, right? Well, that house
- 21:32Speaker 4: is going to cost a lot more money.
- 21:34Speaker 3: Why? Because you're getting good stuff. That's why.
- 21:42Speaker 4: You want a Ferrari? Well, a Ferrari costs way more
- 21:44Speaker 4: than a Honda Civic. So a texture says, Brett, you're
- 21:51Speaker 4: not top-heavy right now. You're going to be top-heavy after
- 21:55Speaker 4: Leckie and others walk because you can't afford to extend
- 21:57Speaker 4: them after Cale's money hits. It might be like that
- 22:02Speaker 4: in the short term. It won't be like that three,
- 22:05Speaker 4: four years from now. In three to four years, there
- 22:09Speaker 4: will be 20 guys in this league making $ 20 million
- 22:12Speaker 4: a year. The cap will continue to rise. Again, these
- 22:20Speaker 4: are things that you've planned for. You are planning for.
- 22:23Speaker 4: They planned probably for this two years ago, knowing what
- 22:28Speaker 4: was coming. But it's like, I just.
- 22:36Speaker 3: I don't know.
- 22:36Speaker 4: I don't know what people, what did you prefer to
- 22:39Speaker 4: happen outside of that? You aren't going to hard negotiate
- 22:46Speaker 4: with your best player, by the way, or one of
- 22:48Speaker 4: your best players. You don't go to a Hall of
- 22:52Speaker 4: Famer and try and nickel and dime them. You aren't
- 22:55Speaker 4: going to have that kind of relationship. You do exactly
- 22:58Speaker 4: what the Avs did. How much money do you want
- 23:01Speaker 4: to make? Pretty much the most you can?
- 23:03Speaker 3: Cool. Here's the check.
- 23:08Speaker 4: But yeah, it's just something that over the last couple
- 23:10Speaker 4: of days since that deal was signed, I just, I
- 23:14Speaker 4: don't know what the alternative was. And it's not like
- 23:18Speaker 4: this came as a surprise to anybody within the Avs organization.
- 23:23Speaker 3: Wait, Kale wants to make the most money in the league?
- 23:26Speaker 3: I'm shocked. They weren't.
- 23:31Speaker 4: Broadcasting from the back is in Shanker Studios. Serious Lawyers
- 23:34Speaker 4: for the Seriously Injured. The Rockies are on a quest
- 23:39Speaker 4: to not lose 100 games.
- 23:44Speaker 3: And they're battlers. Like, they go out and, look, they're
- 23:48Speaker 3: not a very good baseball team, but I give them
- 23:51Speaker 3: this credit.
- 23:51Speaker 4: That team tried. So going into last night, they've been
- 23:57Speaker 4: on just this horrible stretch. It feels like they were
- 24:00Speaker 4: going to miss that 100 loss mark. But over the
- 24:06Speaker 4: last couple of weeks, It's been terrible. So they went
- 24:11Speaker 4: on a seven-game losing streak before winning two in a
- 24:13Speaker 4: row against the Nats, and then they've gone back on
- 24:16Speaker 4: a five-game losing streak.
- 24:18Speaker 3: But how they lost the last three games have been brutal.
- 24:21Speaker 4: All one-run losses, and last night, Jake McCarthy steps up
- 24:27Speaker 4: to the plate, and.
- 24:31Speaker 3: It's the bottom of the ninth. You're down one, man on,
- 24:36Speaker 3: two outs.
- 24:38Speaker 4: He rips one to dead center field, and what he's
- 24:41Speaker 4: been doing all year long, Jake McCarthy has been like Mr.
- 24:44Speaker 3: Clutch. He hits a ball that was.
- 24:49Speaker 4: Estimated at 425 feet. 425 feet. And here's what it
- 24:58Speaker 4: sounded like if we have the audio here now.
- 25:00Speaker 5: Would you like to hear the Rockies call or the
- 25:03Speaker 5: Orioles call?
- 25:03Speaker 3: Let's do the Rocks first. Rockies first. Fly ball, deep
- 25:12Speaker 3: center field, going back. Couser still going back. Leaps. He
- 25:17Speaker 3: caught it. Oh, my goodness. That went from a winger
- 25:26Speaker 3: to the most painful loss in a while.
- 25:31Speaker 4: Colton Couser, center fielder for that giant boom that you heard,
- 25:36Speaker 4: by the way. Was him running full speed with his
- 25:39Speaker 4: back hitting the wall as he robbed the game-winning home run?
- 25:44Speaker 3: Walk off.
- 25:44Speaker 5: And also, how about at the beginning, all the let's
- 25:46Speaker 5: go O's chants?
- 25:48Speaker 4: Well, we'll get to that in a minute. But here's
- 25:51Speaker 4: how the Orioles broadcast sounded.
- 25:54Speaker 5: Make your pitches, but know where to miss. McCarthy deep
- 25:57Speaker 5: center field.
- 25:58Speaker 3: Couser racing back. Couser near the wall.
- 26:01Speaker 1: Jumps.
- 26:01Speaker 3: Couser! He made the catch! He made the catch!
- 26:06Speaker 6: It would be the greatest home run robbery game-ending catch
- 26:11Speaker 6: you'll see in your life!
- 26:12Speaker 5: You've got to be kidding me!
- 26:15Speaker 3: Unbelievable!
- 26:19Speaker 4: That's what it's like to be a Rockies fan. Um, again,
- 26:23Speaker 4: it looked like, and make no mistake, Nelly, the Orioles
- 26:29Speaker 4: are a half game back.
- 26:32Speaker 3: I'm sorry. They are. Is it a half game back?
- 26:37Speaker 4: Half game back of a wildcard spot in the AL.
- 26:40Speaker 3: Like every game matters to them. Every win matters to
- 26:44Speaker 3: them right now.
- 26:45Speaker 5: They just got above 500 or maybe they're right at
- 26:49Speaker 5: 500 for the first time since April.
- 26:52Speaker 4: They are 69 and 69, but they're half game backs
- 26:56Speaker 4: of the Cleveland guardians for a wild card. It's, it's
- 27:00Speaker 4: a massive play for them to keep them in the
- 27:03Speaker 4: race and keep them in the hunt. But the rocks
- 27:09Speaker 4: now for the rest of the way to, and I think, look,
- 27:14Speaker 4: I tried to explain this yesterday. If you're a struggling
- 27:17Speaker 4: football team in the NFL and is there, is there
- 27:23Speaker 4: a massive difference by going 8-9 or 9-8 while you
- 27:27Speaker 4: still miss the playoffs? Like, if both of those records
- 27:30Speaker 4: still mean you miss the playoffs, is it a huge difference?
- 27:32Speaker 1: No.
- 27:33Speaker 3: There's really no difference. But to be able to say
- 27:36Speaker 3: that you had a winning season at 9-8 feels better
- 27:40Speaker 3: than going 8-9.
- 27:41Speaker 4: And I think in the same way for the Rocks,
- 27:44Speaker 4: saying we didn't lose 100 games again is like, it
- 27:48Speaker 4: would be a nice marker of progress. Whether they lose
- 27:55Speaker 4: 99 or 98 or 100, not having the triple digit,
- 28:00Speaker 4: I think, is a nice little mental thing for them.
- 28:05Speaker 3: But now they have to finish the season 11, I
- 28:12Speaker 3: think 11 and 13. You got to.
- 28:16Speaker 4: Play essentially 500 baseball, which has been tough to come
- 28:19Speaker 4: by for them this year.
- 28:22Speaker 3: Haven't done that too often. Even in the first half of.
- 28:27Speaker 4: The year where they were rattling off some wins, I mean,
- 28:29Speaker 4: they were trying to figure out when they played 500 baseball.
- 28:33Speaker 4: They started the year 6-6, but it's been pretty slim
- 28:39Speaker 4: picking since then. If you can play nearly 500 baseball,
- 28:43Speaker 4: you can avoid this. Now, I already know what's going
- 28:46Speaker 4: to happen today. There's another piece of audio. that emerged
- 28:52Speaker 4: from that game. This is the Orioles' manager postgame, and
- 28:56Speaker 4: he said this.
- 28:57Speaker 7: The crowd was unbelievable. Our fans, they've been great all year,
- 29:02Speaker 7: especially on the road. We travel well, and we hear them.
- 29:06Speaker 7: And today, in particular, absolutely. There was a lot of
- 29:08Speaker 7: O's contingency. We heard them during BP, which was awesome.
- 29:12Speaker 7: We heard them throughout the game, and obviously the long
- 29:14Speaker 7: rain delay, them sticking around. When we came back out
- 29:19Speaker 7: for the 6th, It was rocking pretty good with just
- 29:22Speaker 7: O's fans. It was awesome.
- 29:25Speaker 5: Yeah.
- 29:26Speaker 3: I know that everybody is going to nitpick this one. Nelly,
- 29:31Speaker 3: you said this even made you mad. Why did this
- 29:33Speaker 3: make you mad?
- 29:34Speaker 5: Well, DMACC sent me the clip, props to DMACC for
- 29:37Speaker 5: sending this my way, and I listened to it, and
- 29:39Speaker 5: I was like, dude, you're the... You're the frigging Orioles,
- 29:43Speaker 5: and you're talking about how great your fans travel? Oh,
- 29:46Speaker 5: I'm sorry. Is Baltimore in SoCal where the Dodgers play?
- 29:51Speaker 5: Are we talking about the Cubs here or the Yankees? Like,
- 29:53Speaker 5: where do Orioles fans get off traveling? Like, that just
- 29:56Speaker 5: makes me mad. Go watch The Wire for the 30th time.
- 30:00Speaker 5: We're catching heat for Baltimore fans being there?
- 30:04Speaker 4: Now, I would say the Orioles have been a pretty
- 30:09Speaker 4: good baseball team in recent memory. Like the last five years,
- 30:14Speaker 4: they've been a team that's been, you know, near the
- 30:17Speaker 4: top of their division, making wild cards, stuff like that.
- 30:20Speaker 3: I mean, they've had something cooking there for a minute. Now,
- 30:26Speaker 3: here's what's tough. You got a team that's probably going
- 30:29Speaker 3: to lose 100 games again this year. It's a Monday.
- 30:32Speaker 3: School's back. And there was a long rain delay. That
- 30:36Speaker 3: game ended, I don't know what time. I was asleep
- 30:38Speaker 3: by the time it ended. It feels to me the
- 30:48Speaker 3: people you'd get out of crowd for a game like
- 30:50Speaker 3: that after that kind of rain delay on a Monday
- 30:52Speaker 3: night are probably ones that want to see their team
- 30:54Speaker 3: that live in a different place now.
- 30:59Speaker 4: But also, guys, the Rockies aren't good. This is what
- 31:05Speaker 4: happens when your team's not good. You have a smattering
- 31:09Speaker 4: of other people's fan bases that are there. So I'm
- 31:14Speaker 4: not as bothered by this as some people seem to be.
- 31:18Speaker 4: Like this isn't, you know, the Nuggets winning 58 games
- 31:22Speaker 4: in a season and then you get a whole bunch of,
- 31:32Speaker 4: I don't know, Spurs fans that fill up the arena.
- 31:35Speaker 4: This isn't the Avs when they play the Blackhawks and
- 31:37Speaker 4: the Avs are the number one team in the league.
- 31:40Speaker 4: It's a bad baseball team. And that's what happens when
- 31:42Speaker 4: your team's bad. A lot of opposing fans come in
- 31:44Speaker 4: and kind of infiltrate.
- 31:48Speaker 5: That was honestly the weirdest part about being at the
- 31:51Speaker 5: Savannah Bananas game a few weeks ago. 95% of the
- 31:56Speaker 5: people in the stadium were rooting for the home team.
- 32:00Speaker 5: When was the last time you saw that at Coors Field?
- 32:02Speaker 5: It was a sea of yellow. You could count on, like,
- 32:06Speaker 5: one hand the amount of people that were rooting for
- 32:08Speaker 5: the Indianapolis Clowns. I can't remember the last time I
- 32:10Speaker 5: saw that at Coors Field.
- 32:13Speaker 3: Are there actual Clowns fans out there? They exist?
- 32:16Speaker 5: Yeah, of course. I mean, you don't want to root
- 32:20Speaker 5: for the clowns? We're all clowns.
- 32:21Speaker 3: You want to be a true rebel, you root for
- 32:23Speaker 3: the Indianapolis clowns. Okay.
- 32:25Speaker 5: I would root for the Salt Lake City party animals,
- 32:27Speaker 5: the neon sleeveless jerseys.
- 32:30Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 32:30Speaker 5: I'd choose them over the bananas, if we're being honest.
- 32:33Speaker 4: 303-504-0925, reminder to everybody out there that tonight, someone is
- 32:39Speaker 4: winning a trip or two to Kansas City in our Rock, Paper,
- 32:41Speaker 4: Scissors tournament, and if You didn't qualify on air.
- 32:44Speaker 3: You can still get in.
- 32:46Speaker 4: Just go to Rooftop Social starting at 6 for your
- 32:48Speaker 4: chance to compete. There's huge prizes for contestants and the crowd,
- 32:52Speaker 4: plus great drink specials on Bud Light and more. Thanks
- 32:56Speaker 4: to Bud Light, the official beer sponsor of the Denver Broncos.
- 32:58Speaker 4: But that's at Rooftop Social tonight at 6. Six back
- 33:02Speaker 4: after this. All right, so news yesterday, Jonathan Cooper pled
- 33:07Speaker 4: not guilty to all charges. He will have a trial
- 33:10Speaker 4: by jury set for November 10th, 12th, and 13th. And
- 33:16Speaker 4: I'm going to be honest with you, I have no
- 33:19Speaker 4: idea how this.
- 33:20Speaker 3: Legal process goes. November is pretty late into the season.
- 33:29Speaker 4: And the Broncos at that point in the calendar, that'll
- 33:34Speaker 4: be a game. They'll just wrap up with the Carolina
- 33:40Speaker 4: Panthers game. And then they head into their bye week.
- 33:46Speaker 4: So I don't know how this works. When you're on
- 33:48Speaker 4: the commissioner's exempt list, are you exempt until trial starts?
- 33:56Speaker 5: Or what?
- 33:57Speaker 4: Because if that's the case, you're missing six, eight, nine
- 34:04Speaker 4: games just until the trial starts. You know, if you're
- 34:08Speaker 4: guilty of those charges, you know, one of these is
- 34:12Speaker 4: a felony. Now, again, I don't know all the inner
- 34:15Speaker 4: workings of what time frames and what punishments go into this,
- 34:20Speaker 4: but I believe there's jail time tied to it. I
- 34:25Speaker 4: don't know how this goes, but if you're potentially losing
- 34:31Speaker 4: Jonathan Cooper for this amount of time, you almost got
- 34:37Speaker 4: to pretend like he's just not part of your roster
- 34:40Speaker 4: this year. So what George Payton said about it the
- 34:45Speaker 4: other day was, that they take the matter very seriously.
- 34:49Speaker 4: And he said, we're going to monitor all legal developments
- 34:53Speaker 4: and continue to support Jonathan. What he said now, he
- 35:00Speaker 4: also said, we're going to wait on the league and
- 35:03Speaker 4: wait for this process to play out. But again, I
- 35:07Speaker 4: don't know what exactly that means. Are you waiting for,
- 35:14Speaker 4: All the way, you know, nine weeks into the season
- 35:16Speaker 4: until this trial date starts. And then you get the
- 35:23Speaker 4: result of the trial. And then you kind of move
- 35:26Speaker 4: on from there. That's the confusing thing. And it's not
- 35:28Speaker 4: just the Broncos dealing with this. It's the Green Bay
- 35:30Speaker 4: Packers with Josh Jacobs, too, has also been put on
- 35:33Speaker 4: the commissioner's exempt list.
- 35:38Speaker 3: Bottom line is, I think you just operate.
- 35:42Speaker 4: as a football team under the assumption that he's just
- 35:44Speaker 4: not going to be here this year. You almost treat
- 35:46Speaker 4: it like it's somebody with a season ending injury. And
- 35:49Speaker 4: now it's down to Jonah Ellis and Q Robinson and
- 35:53Speaker 4: everybody else to sort of take over what's lost from that,
- 35:58Speaker 4: which again, it was ever since this news came out,
- 36:05Speaker 4: there are multiple factors in the Broncos season that could
- 36:10Speaker 4: lead to to I think this year being a bit
- 36:14Speaker 4: of a hiccup. And I don't know how big of
- 36:17Speaker 4: a hiccup it would be, but is missing the postseason
- 36:23Speaker 4: on the table? I think it's on the table, though
- 36:26Speaker 4: highly unlikely. But one thing that had my concern from
- 36:31Speaker 4: the very jump was.
- 36:36Speaker 3: Your team is built around winning.
- 36:40Speaker 4: Really one central thing that you have been historically great
- 36:44Speaker 4: at over the last two years in this successful run
- 36:47Speaker 4: to two straight playoff appearances. Their ability to attack and
- 36:52Speaker 4: get after the quarterback is second to none.
- 36:57Speaker 3: It's their best trait. It's their superpower as a team.
- 37:03Speaker 4: Vance Joseph talked about this, I believe it was after
- 37:06Speaker 4: the second preseason game where He said, teams know that
- 37:10Speaker 4: we want to get into situations where we can let
- 37:12Speaker 4: guys rush the passer, and that's why on first down
- 37:14Speaker 4: they're playing a lot of quick game and outside runs
- 37:16Speaker 4: and stuff like that to pick up a more manageable
- 37:19Speaker 4: second down and have those guys not totally thinking, you know,
- 37:26Speaker 4: seeing red going after the quarterback. But losing a guy
- 37:30Speaker 4: like Jonathan Cooper, it hurts a lot, and... It's going
- 37:36Speaker 4: to take guys like Jonah Ellis and Q Robinson to
- 37:38Speaker 4: really step up and blossom in larger roles. I mean, ideally,
- 37:46Speaker 4: what you would hope for is with Zach Allen and
- 37:50Speaker 4: Nick Benito playing on that same defensive front, they're going
- 37:53Speaker 4: to command so much attention that you get one-on-one battles
- 37:56Speaker 4: and then you win those one-on-one battles. But it is
- 38:01Speaker 4: something to monitor. This court date is going November 10th, 12th,
- 38:05Speaker 4: and 13th. So that's what you're looking at. By the way,
- 38:08Speaker 4: speaking of what's going on in the NFL, it's just
- 38:15Speaker 4: something I was thinking about in talking about the Avs
- 38:20Speaker 4: and their cap table or the Nuggets and where they're
- 38:23Speaker 4: at from a cap perspective. When you have fully guaranteed
- 38:31Speaker 4: contracts in a sport, it's really hard.
- 38:36Speaker 3: Really hard. If you make a mistake.
- 38:40Speaker 4: Because there's no going back. When you make a mistake
- 38:46Speaker 4: with a fully guaranteed contract, you just got to eat it.
- 38:51Speaker 4: There's plenty of teams in baseball that have dealt with this.
- 38:54Speaker 4: You know, Anthony Rendon contracts and Chris Bryant contracts and
- 38:57Speaker 4: stuff like that. But fully guaranteed deals just make it
- 39:03Speaker 4: impossible if you mess up.
- 39:04Speaker 6: We need a full season of KB.
- 39:06Speaker 4: Especially on a big one. In football, you can have
- 39:13Speaker 4: ways to navigate that. It still becomes incredibly difficult. We
- 39:17Speaker 4: just talked about the Dolphins.
- 39:19Speaker 3: Dolphins have over half their cap space dedicated to people
- 39:21Speaker 3: who no longer play for them.
- 39:24Speaker 4: The Broncos obviously dealt with being very hamstrung. by the
- 39:28Speaker 4: Russell Wilson contract but they were able to navigate that beautifully.
- 39:35Speaker 4: I got a question.
- 39:39Speaker 3: How the hell the Rams doing this?
- 39:43Speaker 4: The Rams have spared no expense for the last decade,
- 39:47Speaker 4: starting with the trade. In what, 20, was it 2021 maybe?
- 39:55Speaker 3: Where they traded Jared Goff for Matthew Stafford. And since then, it's.
- 40:02Speaker 4: Bleep them picks, not drafting anybody, going out and getting
- 40:06Speaker 4: proven talent, trading for Vaughn Millers, trading for Jalen Ramsey's,
- 40:10Speaker 4: trading for Miles Garrett's, trading for Trent McDuffie's, trading for
- 40:14Speaker 4: Devante Adams, trading for, they traded for everybody. And in
- 40:20Speaker 4: a sport where the season's about to start, you're making
- 40:26Speaker 4: some decisions based on cap space here when you cut
- 40:29Speaker 4: down to 53.
- 40:31Speaker 3: They just find 20 million bucks to give Aaron Donald? How?
- 40:38Speaker 3: How is that possible? You're telling me? That they just
- 40:47Speaker 3: had an.
- 40:47Speaker 4: Extra $ 20 million just to throw around after paying guys
- 40:52Speaker 4: like Miles Garrett and Matthew Stafford and everybody else in
- 40:54Speaker 4: that roster? How can they do that? And it's almost
- 40:59Speaker 4: more frustrating than the other sports with fully guaranteed deals
- 41:04Speaker 4: because I don't know what's real. But it's like the
- 41:12Speaker 4: season's about to start. Everybody's spent basically the money they're
- 41:15Speaker 4: going to spend. And the Rams reach under a couch cushion.
- 41:19Speaker 4: They find 20 million bucks to throw at a Hall
- 41:21Speaker 4: of Famer. Just part of me is like it doesn't.
- 41:27Speaker 4: It doesn't make logical sense. Texture said going back to the.
- 41:35Speaker 4: Jonathan Cooper discussion.
- 41:36Speaker 3: Is there going to be a point this season that
- 41:39Speaker 3: we regret not signing Vaughn? I don't think so.
- 41:46Speaker 4: Again, if I ask you guys this question, this is
- 41:49Speaker 4: how you have to view things, and I'm always very
- 41:52Speaker 4: careful when it comes to former players who are entrenched
- 41:56Speaker 4: in a franchise's history.
- 42:00Speaker 3: You have to factor in bias.
- 42:06Speaker 4: If Von Miller's name was not Von Miller, and it
- 42:09Speaker 4: was Steve Nelson, And the same caliber of player now
- 42:19Speaker 4: was maybe on the table for the Broncos. Would you
- 42:22Speaker 4: still want 37-year-old, who, yes, was still productive, had a
- 42:27Speaker 4: nine-sack season last year, but would you want a 37-year-old
- 42:36Speaker 4: as badly as some Broncos fans want Von Miller if
- 42:39Speaker 4: his name wasn't Von? And that's where I'm always careful
- 42:43Speaker 4: about that stuff. And I think the answer is probably not.
- 42:45Speaker 4: You probably feel good about Jonah Ellis and Q Robinson,
- 42:48Speaker 4: the young guys on this roster.
- 42:52Speaker 3: So again, a lot to get to this morning.
- 42:55Speaker 7: 303-504-0925.
- 42:55Speaker 3: Here's something for you. You know, Bernie, the mascot, he's
- 43:01Speaker 3: up for an award.
- 43:02Speaker 4: USA Today is looking for the best NHL mascot and
- 43:04Speaker 4: Bernie is in the running to vote.
- 43:06Speaker 3: Just text Bernie to 303-504-0925. We'll send you a link.
- 43:12Speaker 3: Give Bernie some love.
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