Latest / Jeff Legwold ESPN Broncos Reports / Jeff Legwold joins Moser, Lombardi and Kane 5-14-26
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: Let's sit out to the Ramas Law hot line.
- 0:02Speaker 2: Car accident you need Ramos Law, medical doctor and attorney
- 0:05Speaker 2: ramas Law dot com or joined as we Are Every
- 0:06Speaker 2: Thursday by Jeff Legwald of ESPN dot com.
- 0:09Speaker 3: Hi, Leggy morning follows.
- 0:11Speaker 4: Hey Jeff, We're we're going to talk to you about
- 0:13Speaker 4: football because you're brilliant at it.
- 0:15Speaker 1: Yeah, but did you catch the game last night?
- 0:17Speaker 3: Yeah? I snagged a little bit of that.
- 0:19Speaker 4: Oh oh, had time out of your busy football day
- 0:23Speaker 4: to watch a little hotey.
- 0:26Speaker 5: I did scoot over and uh get with Nick Benito
- 0:30Speaker 5: and Jonathan Cooper and they were doing a little event, so, uh,
- 0:35Speaker 5: I snuck some football in. But yeah, I saw the
- 0:38Speaker 5: comeback for sure.
- 0:39Speaker 4: You know, you've talked a lot about hips in football, right,
- 0:42Speaker 4: hipswivels and all this kind of stuff, scouting reports and
- 0:45Speaker 4: DB's and how good is hipswivel? I was during the
- 0:48Speaker 4: break showing Brett Kane the hips swivel on Brett Koulak,
- 0:52Speaker 4: who scored the game winning goal last night, how we
- 0:54Speaker 4: hip swivels and presents himself for the one time.
- 0:57Speaker 1: Or the third time he did it to me today
- 0:59Speaker 1: by the way.
- 0:59Speaker 4: Yeah, but you what him swivels, Jeff in him swivels
- 1:03Speaker 4: translated in a lot of sports, do they not?
- 1:05Speaker 3: They do?
- 1:06Speaker 5: Indeed, I just don't want you to hurt yourself right
- 1:08Speaker 5: there in the studio.
- 1:10Speaker 6: I just love the term that Moser's using here. Leggy
- 1:12Speaker 6: presents himself. He's done it like five times. Well, you
- 1:15Speaker 6: come across as a guy who often presents himself.
- 1:19Speaker 4: Oh yeah, yeah, that's perfect response, Jeff.
- 1:26Speaker 2: I do have I do have a Broncos question for you,
- 1:28Speaker 2: which is Week one. They're going to play Kansas City
- 1:31Speaker 2: on Monday Night football. Now, all signs indicate that Patrick
- 1:35Speaker 2: Mahomes is going to be healthy, not just for the
- 1:37Speaker 2: start of the regular season, but for training camp.
- 1:40Speaker 1: But is it any somewhat in advantage to get Mahomes.
- 1:45Speaker 2: First week of the year off the knee injury with
- 1:48Speaker 2: the team that has created the most pressures in the
- 1:50Speaker 2: NFL over the last couple of years.
- 1:53Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean a guy like him, they're not gonna
- 1:56Speaker 5: play him unless it's okay.
- 1:58Speaker 3: You know you're not gonna play.
- 2:01Speaker 5: Yeah, you'd like to win your opener and all that,
- 2:03Speaker 5: but you're not putting him out there. He is the
- 2:06Speaker 5: franchise You're not going to put him out there unless
- 2:08Speaker 5: he's really ready to go. And when a guy has
- 2:12Speaker 5: played in that many big games, super Bowls, conference championships,
- 2:18Speaker 5: I think he's he's going to be able to get
- 2:20Speaker 5: his emotions and everything right to play in that game.
- 2:23Speaker 5: If he's physically ready, I think they get the full boat,
- 2:28Speaker 5: Patrick Mahomes, And it's probably just best to prepare for
- 2:32Speaker 5: that and be ready.
- 2:34Speaker 6: How are these these knees becoming so quick to deal
- 2:39Speaker 6: with that? I remember the old days where if he
- 2:41Speaker 6: had the ac he had all of it. By the
- 2:43Speaker 6: way he had his entire knee.
- 2:45Speaker 3: Yeah. No, it was a career ender.
- 2:47Speaker 5: When I first started covering the league, it was a
- 2:49Speaker 5: career ender, and the scar went from your lower society
- 2:54Speaker 5: to your midshin. So yeah, it's like everything science, medicine,
- 3:02Speaker 5: it's all better than whatever it takes.
- 3:06Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 3:07Speaker 5: No, And players are so much well versed in what's available,
- 3:12Speaker 5: what they can do, and teams are a lot more
- 3:15Speaker 5: willing to let you go to the surgeons you want to.
- 3:20Speaker 5: That's a lot more prevalent now and available to them
- 3:24Speaker 5: than it used to be.
- 3:25Speaker 3: It used to be you had to go to the
- 3:27Speaker 3: team's people and that was that.
- 3:30Speaker 5: But now you can go around and you can go
- 3:32Speaker 5: to the best you know, Bo Nicks and get surgery.
- 3:36Speaker 3: Here.
- 3:36Speaker 5: He went to the best foot and ankle orthopedist, you know,
- 3:41Speaker 5: one of the two best in the country, and at
- 3:44Speaker 5: the James Andrews Clinic in Birmingham.
- 3:46Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 3:47Speaker 6: I have a buddy of mine who used to work
- 3:50Speaker 6: in television in Nebraska and the weatherman broke his leg
- 3:54Speaker 6: and he got the legs set by a veterinarian in
- 3:56Speaker 6: the town and it was pretty common practice. I'm not
- 3:59Speaker 6: sure if you're from that to on Brett, but true story.
- 4:02Speaker 6: Talk to my guy Eric Christensen from Channel four.
- 4:05Speaker 4: I don't know if Brett went to a vet growing
- 4:10Speaker 4: up for every thing to a body part, that would
- 4:13Speaker 4: explain a lot.
- 4:14Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, what's the difference horses leg, cow leg,
- 4:18Speaker 6: human leg? Just set the leg up lets the minor
- 4:20Speaker 6: break that.
- 4:22Speaker 3: I figure the person went to school for a long time.
- 4:24Speaker 3: Why not.
- 4:25Speaker 1: It's all good. I've never had rabies nor tics.
- 4:29Speaker 6: Is there a part of you though I referenced this
- 4:31Speaker 6: earlier in the week, not the physical issue with Patrick Malmes,
- 4:36Speaker 6: because physically after he'll be fine. But you know, his superpowers,
- 4:39Speaker 6: the ability to escape the pocket, even momentarily find a
- 4:43Speaker 6: window and make a play. He got hurt escaping the pocket.
- 4:47Speaker 6: I wonder how readily he'll do that now that he
- 4:50Speaker 6: endured that injury.
- 4:52Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that's always any player.
- 4:56Speaker 5: Uh, we'll talk about the trust issue in the return
- 5:00Speaker 5: the knee is whatever was injured, is it gonna hold
- 5:03Speaker 5: up when I really am explosive on it, you know,
- 5:07Speaker 5: during a game. And I think that's for any player.
- 5:11Speaker 5: But the list of people who, you know, the great
- 5:15Speaker 5: players who continue to be great and even raised their
- 5:19Speaker 5: game after significant injury is pretty long. I mean Tom
- 5:23Speaker 5: Brady leads the list. You know, Peyton Manning, you know
- 5:29Speaker 5: those great, great, great players. I think can compartmentalize things
- 5:34Speaker 5: like that and continue to be great because that is,
- 5:39Speaker 5: along with his escapability, probably one of his other superpowers.
- 5:43Speaker 4: Jeff Fiden, we'll talk mini camps coming up here in
- 5:46Speaker 4: the coming weeks and so on, And schedule comes out
- 5:48Speaker 4: today at some point, so we'll break that down a
- 5:50Speaker 4: little bit. But as far as the schedule is concerned,
- 5:53Speaker 4: they've released all the international games, and they've been all
- 5:56Speaker 4: these places before. But I am blown away. Australia, Brazil,
- 6:00Speaker 4: three in London, France, Spain, Germany, Mexico. I guess I
- 6:07Speaker 4: should have seen this coming, but what are we looking
- 6:10Speaker 4: at now from the NFL? And really there must be
- 6:13Speaker 4: an appetite in all these countries forward, otherwise why would
- 6:16Speaker 4: they go there?
- 6:17Speaker 3: Yeah. No, they don't do anything just out of the goodwill.
- 6:21Speaker 5: I mean, these are business decisions and inventory position you know, rights,
- 6:29Speaker 5: media rights holders. What if you can add Europe and
- 6:33Speaker 5: Latin America and Australia into your media rights holding bidding?
- 6:41Speaker 3: You know, it's like ESPN.
- 6:44Speaker 5: Has the Super Bowl this year and part of that
- 6:47Speaker 5: is putting it on deportees and Univision. You know that
- 6:52Speaker 5: that's all part of the equation. And eventually there'll be
- 6:56Speaker 5: a new CBA negotiated and and these potential media rights
- 7:01Speaker 5: will have a lot to say about the money you
- 7:05Speaker 5: know that goes to the players and everybody else. But
- 7:08Speaker 5: the list is only going to get longer. I've always
- 7:10Speaker 5: told the story, but the day after Roger Goodell was
- 7:15Speaker 5: named commissioner, the day after I had a very good
- 7:18Speaker 5: friend of mine in the league who's been one of
- 7:21Speaker 5: the people I've known the longest say two things would
- 7:26Speaker 5: absolutely happen.
- 7:28Speaker 3: In however long his tenure was.
- 7:31Speaker 5: And it was the league will play as many games
- 7:34Speaker 5: in as many countries as possible, and with London being
- 7:39Speaker 5: the epicenter, and he didn't like the Pro Bowl, and
- 7:43Speaker 5: those those two things have absolutely happened in his tenure.
- 7:48Speaker 2: Along the way, Jeff League at ESPN dot com with
- 7:51Speaker 2: us all conversations with Leggy, you brought you by the
- 7:53Speaker 2: International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers IBEW Local sixty eight start
- 7:57Speaker 2: with a job and with a career. So over the
- 8:00Speaker 2: last couple of years, Legie, we have seen Bijon Robinson
- 8:04Speaker 2: selected eighth overall, Jamir Gives twelve now Jeremiah Love third,
- 8:08Speaker 2: two first round running backs this year.
- 8:09Speaker 1: Devon A.
- 8:10Speaker 2: Chain's got a four year, sixty eight million dollar extension
- 8:13Speaker 2: from Miami. Are we seeing a resurgence into a more
- 8:18Speaker 2: bell cow type of back in the NFL.
- 8:22Speaker 5: Well, I don't know if anyone's ever going to give
- 8:25Speaker 5: somebody three hundred carries a lot back to back to back.
- 8:29Speaker 5: See you know, I don't know that we're going to
- 8:31Speaker 5: see that ever again. But you're seeing the importance of
- 8:35Speaker 5: impact players in your offense. And if that happens to
- 8:39Speaker 5: be a running back, and you've got to be involved
- 8:42Speaker 5: in the passing game in some fashion to really be
- 8:45Speaker 5: the well rounded thing. But I think it's more people
- 8:50Speaker 5: are looking at impact now and the pendulum always swings.
- 8:53Speaker 3: You know, when they went away from the run.
- 8:57Speaker 5: Game, it was because people decided wide and you know,
- 9:02Speaker 5: the horizontal passing attack was was fine and you know,
- 9:06Speaker 5: pre snap motion and all those things, and then defenses
- 9:10Speaker 5: responded with big nickel and and nickel defenses, and they
- 9:15Speaker 5: responded with athletic safeties and corners, and scoring has gone down.
- 9:21Speaker 5: So now you're seeing people say, you know what, let's
- 9:25Speaker 5: let's pound away at some of these nickel defenses with
- 9:29Speaker 5: smaller linebackers and all of that. So it's just an
- 9:33Speaker 5: an ebb and a flow and people want to keep uh.
- 9:38Speaker 5: You know, finding those players is just as difficult as
- 9:42Speaker 5: finding the you know, pre eminent wide receivers. So that's
- 9:46Speaker 5: why you see the the value of the draft picks
- 9:50Speaker 5: because you know how many Jeremiah loves where they're in
- 9:54Speaker 5: the draft. There was one and you know you might
- 9:57Speaker 5: not see another one for a few years like him
- 10:00Speaker 5: because he he's like a wide receiver in the passing
- 10:03Speaker 5: game and like a high end running back in the
- 10:06Speaker 5: running game.
- 10:07Speaker 3: That's that's a rare, rare player.
- 10:10Speaker 6: I ran into Georgia Peyton last night at the game,
- 10:13Speaker 6: and obviously he's excited because he's got five more years
- 10:16Speaker 6: coming his way. Was that a I mean it was
- 10:19Speaker 6: a four gone conclusion, right, It was no back of.
- 10:21Speaker 5: He he wanted to stay and they want him to stay.
- 10:25Speaker 5: Sean Payton knows, you know, look at you know, I
- 10:30Speaker 5: think sometimes your bad decisions, you know, Randy Gregory, Russell Wilson,
- 10:35Speaker 5: you know, we can argue when and where they made
- 10:38Speaker 5: those decisions and why, and you know, obviously they didn't
- 10:41Speaker 5: work out, you know, hiring Nathaniel Hackett. That wasn't all
- 10:46Speaker 5: on George Peyton. But at the core, he finds football players.
- 10:52Speaker 5: I mean they and they need somebody who can find
- 10:55Speaker 5: football players. He leads a scouting department that's very respect
- 11:00Speaker 5: that his grading system is used by you know, others
- 11:05Speaker 5: because people like it, and they they really had to
- 11:10Speaker 5: keep him if they want to keep this momentum, because
- 11:13Speaker 5: I don't think you would get as good a replacement
- 11:16Speaker 5: at this point in the league. But he wanted to stay.
- 11:20Speaker 5: They wanted him to stay. The only wrinkle as Minnesota
- 11:23Speaker 5: is looking for a GM and he had been there
- 11:27Speaker 5: so long. He was one of the you know, highly
- 11:30Speaker 5: rumored candidates in the league. But I in talking to
- 11:34Speaker 5: him and talking to everyone in the organization, I don't
- 11:37Speaker 5: think there was ever any danger of him leaving because
- 11:41Speaker 5: he knows the resources they're going to have here and
- 11:46Speaker 5: his ability to hire staff and and have whatever he
- 11:50Speaker 5: needs as a GM at this place.
- 11:53Speaker 4: Hey, Jeff, I guess one day you wake up and
- 11:55Speaker 4: you realize inevitability is upon you at some point, and
- 11:59Speaker 4: you know, the older I get, death becomes much more
- 12:03Speaker 4: of a reality for people around you and friends and
- 12:05Speaker 4: family and so on. And we lost. Yeah, well no,
- 12:07Speaker 4: but I'm getting to Craig Morton. I want to try
- 12:10Speaker 4: to do my best to honor the people who help
- 12:13Speaker 4: build what we have here in Denver, Colorado, and I
- 12:17Speaker 4: hope other communities would do the same. But this guy
- 12:19Speaker 4: was very important to the Denver Broncos and really brought
- 12:22Speaker 4: them from a laughing stock type of team from the
- 12:25Speaker 4: AFL or the NFL days to not only respectability, but
- 12:29Speaker 4: a team that became a force in the National Football League.
- 12:32Speaker 4: Did you have many interactions with Craig Morton, and if so,
- 12:35Speaker 4: can you share a few or whatever? You know, just
- 12:38Speaker 4: the reaction from people around the organization and whatnot.
- 12:41Speaker 5: Yeah, most I think, you know, I've spoken to him,
- 12:44Speaker 5: you know, many times over the years, and I think
- 12:48Speaker 5: if he talked to people, even Pat Bowling, you know,
- 12:52Speaker 5: if you talk to people as the franchise was, you know,
- 12:56Speaker 5: it took him seventeen years to go to the playoffs
- 12:59Speaker 5: one time, and that's a long stretch of football for fans,
- 13:05Speaker 5: for former players, for everybody. I think Floyd Little's probably
- 13:10Speaker 5: the first real Bronco Star franchise player, but Craig Morton
- 13:17Speaker 5: was the guy who helped them usher in how we
- 13:21Speaker 5: think of the Broncos now a fixture, you know, in
- 13:26Speaker 5: the playoffs, the one of the foundational teams in the league.
- 13:31Speaker 5: I think he helped sort of legitimize all of that
- 13:35Speaker 5: because he had come from one of those teams.
- 13:39Speaker 3: Before he came here.
- 13:40Speaker 5: So and whenever I talked to players from that era,
- 13:46Speaker 5: I don't think folks understand the physical price they paid
- 13:52Speaker 5: to play the game that we all watch in some fashion,
- 13:57Speaker 5: But the price they paid was beyond belief that you know,
- 14:01Speaker 5: they didn't have the training staffs and the and the
- 14:05Speaker 5: rehab facilities and even the field conditions players have now.
- 14:10Speaker 5: And I you know, as as part of my Hall
- 14:13Speaker 5: of Fame discussions with people over the years, a lot
- 14:17Speaker 5: of people like to say, well, those guys could never
- 14:19Speaker 5: survive athletically in today's NFL, and I would argue today's
- 14:25Speaker 5: players would have a hard time surviving and the conditions
- 14:30Speaker 5: that those guys played in. And I think Craig's body
- 14:33Speaker 5: as he got older, like all those guys, I mean,
- 14:36Speaker 5: just shake hands with Randy Gradisch are sometimes and and just.
- 14:40Speaker 3: Look at the damage.
- 14:43Speaker 5: But the physical price he paid to play the game
- 14:46Speaker 5: has always stuck out to me when I when I
- 14:49Speaker 5: spoke to.
- 14:49Speaker 2: Him, Jeff Label the ESPN, I com last thing for you, Legy,
- 14:52Speaker 2: was appreciate the time Sean Payton went out of his
- 14:56Speaker 2: way to mention that he thinks Caleb Lohner looks a
- 14:59Speaker 2: lot better than year as he's in rookie camp.
- 15:02Speaker 4: Now.
- 15:02Speaker 2: I know that he was a project and the guy
- 15:04Speaker 2: only caught four balls in his entire college career, But
- 15:08Speaker 2: what do you think in this seven deep tight end
- 15:12Speaker 2: room right now, his chances are of being an impactful
- 15:15Speaker 2: player in some fashion this year.
- 15:19Speaker 5: Given I think he's the best athlete. It gives him
- 15:22Speaker 5: a great chance. You know, I personally covered games in
- 15:28Speaker 5: the NCAA basketball tournament that he played in, and that
- 15:33Speaker 5: athleticism didn't go anywhere the Broncos are getting are getting that.
- 15:38Speaker 3: I thought they.
- 15:41Speaker 5: Should have at least as the season wore on and
- 15:45Speaker 5: they had a roster spot or two. I thought giving
- 15:48Speaker 5: him some red zone opportunities last year would have been
- 15:52Speaker 5: worth a look to me, because I think athletically he
- 15:56Speaker 5: is a rare player and he's physical. I mean he's
- 16:01Speaker 5: technically He's got some work to do, you know when
- 16:04Speaker 5: he's in line playing the inline spots, but he's strong enough,
- 16:10Speaker 5: powerful enough, and he plays with an edge that you
- 16:15Speaker 5: wouldn't think of, you know, as a multi sport athlete
- 16:19Speaker 5: would I think he definitely has a future as a player,
- 16:25Speaker 5: and he did. You know, I don't think Sean was exaggerating,
- 16:29Speaker 5: even though it's no pads, and you know it's for
- 16:32Speaker 5: those older players. They always look so much better than
- 16:36Speaker 5: the other guys in rookie mini camp. I mean, Nathan Peterman,
- 16:41Speaker 5: if you went on how it looked this weekend, you know,
- 16:45Speaker 5: he'd be getting five million dollars from somebody, because I
- 16:48Speaker 5: don't think he threw an incompletion in the time I
- 16:52Speaker 5: was out there. So those guys are Yeah, those guys
- 16:56Speaker 5: are always going to look good in that situation.
- 16:59Speaker 3: But no Loner.
- 17:00Speaker 5: I think Glowner is an NFL player, and I think
- 17:03Speaker 5: he is going to force them to make a decision
- 17:07Speaker 5: or to a tight end because I think I think
- 17:10Speaker 5: Jolie is ready to go NFL tight end too. So
- 17:15Speaker 5: that's two spots to me right there.
- 17:19Speaker 2: Just quickly. We're having this discussion. Earlier we were talking
- 17:21Speaker 2: about Caleb Bloher. And this does not mean the job
- 17:26Speaker 2: is easy. It's incredibly difficult, and I'm well aware of that.
- 17:30Speaker 2: But it feels like in any other major professional sport
- 17:33Speaker 2: here in this country, is football the hardest to enter
- 17:38Speaker 2: at the professional level without experience, Like you couldn't be
- 17:42Speaker 2: a professional baseball player if you ever played baseball?
- 17:44Speaker 3: Is the easiest?
- 17:45Speaker 2: That's yeah, yeah, is Would you say that's somewhat accurate
- 17:50Speaker 2: or no?
- 17:51Speaker 3: I guess I wouldn't.
- 17:52Speaker 5: But I've been around it my whole adult life, so
- 17:56Speaker 5: maybe I'm too deep in the weeds.
- 17:58Speaker 4: Put some skates on, Jack, just sick.
- 18:00Speaker 5: Yeah, I've had skate I got skates in my garage.
- 18:03Speaker 5: You ready to go but I can put the blades
- 18:06Speaker 5: on and do some things.
- 18:07Speaker 6: You don't think.
- 18:09Speaker 3: I know he can.
- 18:10Speaker 7: I was just being sarcastic, no, I I you know,
- 18:14Speaker 7: I think sometimes football has places on the field where
- 18:19Speaker 7: you don't touch the ball, so it offers a more
- 18:23Speaker 7: of a presentation, more of an entry point.
- 18:26Speaker 3: You know. I covered h.
- 18:30Speaker 5: With the Steelers. You know, Carlton Hasselrigg had never played
- 18:36Speaker 5: college football, he had been a wrestler, and they turned
- 18:40Speaker 5: him into a h, you know, an all Pro guard.
- 18:45Speaker 5: So I think the fact that there are spots on
- 18:47Speaker 5: the field where you don't touch the ball, but it
- 18:49Speaker 5: still takes technique and incredible strength and all of these things.
- 18:53Speaker 5: But I think the other sports require you to touch
- 18:58Speaker 5: the ball or the puck or you know whatever, you know,
- 19:03Speaker 5: whatever constitute scoring. Uh, there isn't as many entry points.
- 19:08Speaker 5: And there's just more guys on the field than football too,
- 19:11Speaker 5: so there there are more jobs.
- 19:13Speaker 1: Jeff Lakewell, ESPN dot Com joins us every week. I
- 19:15Speaker 1: appreciate it.
- 19:16Speaker 5: Let you, thank you, thanks fellas.
- 19:18Speaker 3: Jeff Broncos.
- 19:19Speaker 5: I think the Broncos are gonna get some plenty of
- 19:22Speaker 5: funky national games, weird days, so be on the lookout.
- 19:27Speaker 1: Yeah, I love it.
- 19:28Speaker 4: I love it.
- 19:29Speaker 1: Thanks you for the tidbit.
- 19:30Speaker 2: Jeff always appreciate it. That is Jeff Legbelt ESPN dot com.
- 19:34Speaker 2: Where did marky Mark Wahlberg plays collegeball?
- 19:36Speaker 4: I didn't play collegeball.
- 19:37Speaker 1: He didn't play collegeball.
- 19:39Speaker 4: That's right,