Latest / Jeff Legwold ESPN Broncos Reports / Jeff Legwold joins Moser, Lombardi and Kane 1-8-26
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: To win games, you have to win the game, not
- 0:02Speaker 1: lose the game.
- 0:05Speaker 2: That is former Miami Dolphin head coach Mike McDaniel, and
- 0:09Speaker 2: we went to the Ramas Law hotline. Car accident you
- 0:11Speaker 2: need Ramos Law menical doctor in attorney, Ramas Law dot com.
- 0:13Speaker 1: Jeff Legwall joins us.
- 0:15Speaker 3: Hello Leggy, good morning fellas.
- 0:17Speaker 1: Hold on, good morning. What did you go to Northern Illinois? No,
- 0:22Speaker 1: where'd you go?
- 0:24Speaker 3: The University of Illinois?
- 0:26Speaker 4: That's your band campaign you're in ALAINI I am indeed
- 0:32Speaker 4: long ago.
- 0:33Speaker 3: Let's just say that up front.
- 0:35Speaker 5: Okay, I guess I screwed up.
- 0:37Speaker 4: Like I was talking to Pat Bryant earlier this season
- 0:41Speaker 4: and uh he asked me at one point what year
- 0:44Speaker 4: did you graduate? And I told him And you should
- 0:48Speaker 4: have seen his face, like he was actually like trying
- 0:50Speaker 4: to do the math.
- 0:51Speaker 1: It's like he saw a corpse, is what happened.
- 0:54Speaker 3: It was like it was like, my god, how are
- 0:56Speaker 3: you not dead?
- 0:57Speaker 1: It's been eighty four years.
- 0:59Speaker 2: Well, there's a lot of questions we got to ask
- 1:02Speaker 2: you because me and most were just talking about the Broncos.
- 1:04Speaker 2: I'll get to that in a second. With the breaking news,
- 1:05Speaker 2: here is Mike McDaniel's been let go from Miami. Does
- 1:08Speaker 2: that mean that Miami's had a talk with Harbaugh already?
- 1:12Speaker 1: What does that mean?
- 1:13Speaker 4: Well, I mean it was his agent told Adam that
- 1:17Speaker 4: seven teams had contacted him when only six had an
- 1:20Speaker 4: opening at the time. So you knew there was another
- 1:24Speaker 4: team ready to fire their head coach if they thought
- 1:27Speaker 4: they could get John Harbaugh and Stephen ross Is, you know,
- 1:31Speaker 4: in the league, is considered one of the more emotional,
- 1:37Speaker 4: you know, bombastic owners. You know, everybody wondered, how are
- 1:42Speaker 4: you going to fire your GM, you know, during the season,
- 1:45Speaker 4: and the coach make it and all of those things.
- 1:48Speaker 4: So I think, you know, I think a lot of
- 1:51Speaker 4: people in the league figured this might happen at some
- 1:54Speaker 4: point before the Super Bowl.
- 1:56Speaker 5: But it's It's very interesting though, because the Miami Dolph
- 2:00Speaker 5: cap hell Jeff and their quarterback can't play the game anymore. Listen,
- 2:06Speaker 5: say what you want about Mike McDaniel, and he got
- 2:09Speaker 5: eccentric for god knows what reason. I mean, maybe selth
- 2:11Speaker 5: Beach will do that to a guy. I don't know.
- 2:13Speaker 3: Brett would like to find out.
- 2:14Speaker 5: I would he'd like to turn into a weirdy un SELTHEA, Yes,
- 2:16Speaker 5: I would, but I think the guy probably did a
- 2:19Speaker 5: pretty good job. But his quarterback's brain has been scrambled
- 2:22Speaker 5: for three years. Man to a camp, he doesn't play
- 2:25Speaker 5: the game the way he used to play the game.
- 2:27Speaker 5: And when you don't have that, why would you take
- 2:29Speaker 5: that job?
- 2:30Speaker 1: Cap?
- 2:30Speaker 5: Hell, don't have a quarterback and your owner? Yeah, I
- 2:34Speaker 5: mean he's emotional. He signs all these big time free agents,
- 2:37Speaker 5: he spends the money. But is he too emotional? Why
- 2:40Speaker 5: would you want to put yourself in that position?
- 2:43Speaker 4: Well, you know, mo, He's just part of what I
- 2:47Speaker 4: see is a weird time in the league. I mean,
- 2:50Speaker 4: we're talking a quarter of the teams in the NFL
- 2:53Speaker 4: are looking for a new head coach. Yeah, are you
- 2:56Speaker 4: telling me there are eight candidates out there that are
- 3:01Speaker 4: all going to be better than the guys who got fired?
- 3:04Speaker 4: And I just I have a hard time believing that
- 3:07Speaker 4: year to year to year. And I understand, you know, hey,
- 3:09Speaker 4: you know people should get opportunities and you know, let's rock,
- 3:13Speaker 4: But this notion I just see ownership now, you know,
- 3:20Speaker 4: I don't. I don't think more people, more fans get
- 3:24Speaker 4: angry at losing seasons than they did when I first
- 3:29Speaker 4: started covering the league. I don't think there are more
- 3:32Speaker 4: aggravated fans at the end of a year that doesn't
- 3:36Speaker 4: end in playoffs or fun. I just think the owners
- 3:41Speaker 4: can now see them on social media, on whatever platform
- 3:47Speaker 4: people show them or talk about to.
- 3:49Speaker 3: Them, or you know, any of it.
- 3:51Speaker 4: I think that the frustration is more visible, so we
- 3:55Speaker 4: see more emotional reactions to it.
- 3:59Speaker 3: You know.
- 4:00Speaker 4: I just I have a hard time believe in a
- 4:02Speaker 4: quarter of the teams are going to fire their coach
- 4:05Speaker 4: every year and they're all going to improve, and that
- 4:08Speaker 4: that's the move you should make.
- 4:10Speaker 3: Uh. You know, the sad truth of the NFL is
- 4:14Speaker 3: you're not gonna win every year. That's just the bottom line.
- 4:17Speaker 4: And I don't know if firing the coach isn't just
- 4:22Speaker 4: firing one person. I think sometimes we all look at
- 4:25Speaker 4: it like, oh, they just fired one guy. You No,
- 4:28Speaker 4: you're firing a whole way of doing things in your
- 4:32Speaker 4: building and the and the response to that, uh can
- 4:38Speaker 4: take a long time to change. I mean, but again,
- 4:41Speaker 4: you know, other owners see, hey, look what Mike Vrabel did,
- 4:45Speaker 4: Why can't we do that? And I think it all
- 4:48Speaker 4: just works on itself.
- 4:50Speaker 2: Or Miami looks at the Broncos, says Cap Hell with
- 4:53Speaker 2: no quarterback.
- 4:54Speaker 1: Look at John Payton. That's easy.
- 4:57Speaker 4: A lot of teams have done that. I mean, you
- 4:59Speaker 4: got you know, two are considering it. Other teams have
- 5:03Speaker 4: looked at the Broncos, and you know Atlanta is probably
- 5:06Speaker 4: looking at the Broncos in some ways saying, oh, they
- 5:09Speaker 4: did it. But you know, some of these jobs I
- 5:12Speaker 4: don't know. You know, I understand every guy I know
- 5:16Speaker 4: who's coached in the league, or almost every guy, wanted
- 5:18Speaker 4: to be a head coach. But some of these are
- 5:21Speaker 4: not good gigs. You are not going to succeed. You
- 5:24Speaker 4: might as well just take the job, take the money,
- 5:28Speaker 4: and know within two or three years you're getting fired.
- 5:31Speaker 5: You're a big continuity guy. I do know that we've
- 5:33Speaker 5: talked about that on a number of occasions, and I
- 5:36Speaker 5: buy into that too. How much, I guess I don't
- 5:39Speaker 5: really pay attention to this. I think that when you
- 5:41Speaker 5: fire a head coach, you fire, you know, twenty guys
- 5:43Speaker 5: in the staff. How much turnover typically is there for
- 5:47Speaker 5: a coaching staff when you fire the main guy, because
- 5:50Speaker 5: some guys are routined. There ain't no doubt about it,
- 5:52Speaker 5: because you can't just going out and find twenty two
- 5:54Speaker 5: new coaches, including quality controling all this crap.
- 5:57Speaker 4: Well, sometimes, you know when Vance was hired here and
- 6:01Speaker 4: you know in seventeen, he didn't get to pick his
- 6:05Speaker 4: whole staff. You know, they they said, we can't get
- 6:08Speaker 4: rid of some of these contracts and this, We want
- 6:12Speaker 4: this and this and this. So sometimes you don't get
- 6:14Speaker 4: to rehire, you know, hire everybody you want, depending on
- 6:18Speaker 4: how much juice you have when you come in at
- 6:21Speaker 4: the time. You know, when Jim Harbaugh or John Harbaugh
- 6:25Speaker 4: rather gets his new job, he's going to get to
- 6:27Speaker 4: hire whoever he wants because that's he brings a resume
- 6:31Speaker 4: that allows him to do that. But yeah, but you're
- 6:33Speaker 4: hiring a whole draft strategy, you're hiring a free agent strategy.
- 6:40Speaker 4: What kinds of players did that coach want? Who do
- 6:43Speaker 4: you have on the roster? You've built the roster for
- 6:46Speaker 4: the guy that was in charge, and if the next
- 6:49Speaker 4: guy doesn't match that, you're beyond square one. You are
- 6:53Speaker 4: like square negative five to come back from that.
- 6:57Speaker 2: Jeffleagwell at ESPN dot com with us all coversations with
- 7:00Speaker 2: the Leggy You're brought you by the International Brotherhood of
- 7:02Speaker 2: Electrical Workers IBW Local sixty eight, start with a job
- 7:05Speaker 2: and with a career. We were talking about this in
- 7:09Speaker 2: regards to the Broncos. It is so hard to forecasts.
- 7:11Speaker 2: And I know that we don't have an opponent for
- 7:14Speaker 2: them yet, but what does their postseason look like? And
- 7:18Speaker 2: to me, it's always been a question of postseason starts
- 7:21Speaker 2: and then people trust the quarterbacks. They trust Mahomes and
- 7:24Speaker 2: Brady and Manning and Breeze. But this year there's not
- 7:27Speaker 2: really any of those guys. You got Josh Allen, you
- 7:30Speaker 2: got Matthew Stafford. But do you almost trust the defenses
- 7:33Speaker 2: more so? If I ask you this, the top four
- 7:35Speaker 2: defenses by points allowed per game in the NFL this
- 7:39Speaker 2: year are the Seahawks, Texans, Broncos, and Patriots.
- 7:43Speaker 1: I give you those four teams of the field, who
- 7:45Speaker 1: do you take?
- 7:46Speaker 3: I would always take defense, you know how I roll? Yep?
- 7:50Speaker 4: Because I think even as you say people trust the quarterbacks,
- 7:54Speaker 4: look at all those teams those great quarterbacks had, you know,
- 8:00Speaker 4: the two Super Bowls Peyton Manning one won. It rained
- 8:03Speaker 4: so hard in Miami they couldn't throw the ball, so
- 8:06Speaker 4: the Colts rushed for two hundred yards and in twenty fifteen,
- 8:12Speaker 4: you know, he was coming back.
- 8:13Speaker 3: From so many injuries.
- 8:15Speaker 4: They had to win that with defense and just grinding
- 8:19Speaker 4: out at a Super Bowl win.
- 8:21Speaker 2: In thirteen, they had the amazing offense, but the seasons.
- 8:26Speaker 4: The greatest offense that ever took the field, you know, statistically,
- 8:29Speaker 4: So I always think the best quarterbacks with the best
- 8:35Speaker 4: defensive postseason. You don't even have to have been a
- 8:38Speaker 4: great defense in the year, because I just think the
- 8:41Speaker 4: games turn into a different flavor than the regular season
- 8:46Speaker 4: has been. The stuff you were allowed to get on
- 8:51Speaker 4: offense in a regular season just isn't there anymore. People
- 8:55Speaker 4: don't give you, you know, they're not playing past the
- 8:59Speaker 4: sticks on third and eight.
- 9:01Speaker 3: They just don't. They don't give you anything.
- 9:04Speaker 4: And frankly, who's left in the most postseason fields the
- 9:08Speaker 4: best defenses every year? It's the dirty little secret because
- 9:12Speaker 4: fantasy football wants to tell us that defensive football is ugly,
- 9:17Speaker 4: it's boring, it's blah, and so we don't discuss it
- 9:22Speaker 4: a lot.
- 9:23Speaker 3: You know, during the regular season.
- 9:26Speaker 4: This year's a little different because the top three four
- 9:29Speaker 4: defenses haven't just been good, they've been historically good. And
- 9:35Speaker 4: I think that you're right. I think that will be
- 9:37Speaker 4: the tenor of this postseason. I think all of those
- 9:41Speaker 4: teams with those defenses are tough outs automatically, and if
- 9:45Speaker 4: you get them out of the playoff field, then suddenly, yeah,
- 9:48Speaker 4: your chances are winning are great.
- 9:51Speaker 2: Let's leave Pittsburgh out of this because I think it's
- 9:53Speaker 2: very unlikely that that's the matchup next week, depending on
- 9:56Speaker 2: you know, I assume one of these wild card teams
- 9:58Speaker 2: are going to win. So out of the next three, Houston, LA,
- 10:02Speaker 2: and Buffalo, which would you say is the best matchup
- 10:04Speaker 2: for the Broncos?
- 10:05Speaker 1: Which is the worst? Stylistically?
- 10:08Speaker 3: I think Houston. We've already seen that game.
- 10:11Speaker 4: That was a tough matchup and Stroud didn't even you know,
- 10:14Speaker 4: they knocked Stroud out before halftime, so you know they
- 10:18Speaker 4: had the backup quarterback in.
- 10:19Speaker 1: That is as best or worse you're saying.
- 10:23Speaker 3: I think that's the toughest matchup for the Broncos. Wow?
- 10:28Speaker 1: Really, So who's the best one?
- 10:29Speaker 2: Do you know?
- 10:31Speaker 5: Who?
- 10:32Speaker 3: Do you know?
- 10:34Speaker 1: I'm tea.
- 10:35Speaker 4: I think that I think the best one is that
- 10:37Speaker 4: the team they know best, which would be the Chargers.
- 10:40Speaker 1: See I feel that way too.
- 10:41Speaker 5: Brettz A Freddy Count of the Chargers and so Stanford court,
- 10:45Speaker 5: Sandford court, Sandford is like, I do not want to
- 10:47Speaker 5: face that team, and I don't know why.
- 10:49Speaker 4: I don't think the Chargers are more rugged, more tough,
- 10:55Speaker 4: uh than the Texans. I mean, you don't want to
- 10:58Speaker 4: face the Chargers because justin her her on any day,
- 11:01Speaker 4: it can throw for four hundred on you. Yeah, you know,
- 11:04Speaker 4: and he's already proven.
- 11:06Speaker 3: You know. It's funny to me.
- 11:07Speaker 4: When he came into the draft, people were like, I
- 11:10Speaker 4: don't know if he loves the game and can he
- 11:12Speaker 4: play with toughness and all that. That guy's been the
- 11:15Speaker 4: toughest quarterback in the league all season. Nobody's been hit more,
- 11:20Speaker 4: nobody's been sacked more, nobody's been hurried more. And the
- 11:23Speaker 4: dudes play with a broken hand. So yeah, that is
- 11:27Speaker 4: that a dude you want to see in the postseason?
- 11:29Speaker 4: Probably not, But I'm just talking schematically and roster wise.
- 11:34Speaker 4: You know, the Chargers are missing both of their starting tackles.
- 11:38Speaker 4: Their offensive line has been jumbled all season. I think
- 11:42Speaker 4: they have a hard time containing the Broncos in Denver
- 11:45Speaker 4: with the noise at home, I think they have a
- 11:48Speaker 4: hard time containing the Broncos defense now is it gonna be.
- 11:52Speaker 3: A pretty game.
- 11:53Speaker 4: No, I don't think Jacksonville would be a pretty game.
- 11:57Speaker 4: I don't think the Texans would be a pretty game.
- 11:59Speaker 4: And I don't think the Chargers are going to be
- 12:01Speaker 4: a pretty game. So if folks are going to empower,
- 12:06Speaker 4: think that we're gonna see some high fly and confetti
- 12:09Speaker 4: cannon football, I'm not sure you're going to get that.
- 12:12Speaker 5: Okay, well, this is where I'm going, and this is
- 12:15Speaker 5: where I can tell you're not going, and you can
- 12:17Speaker 5: tell me that I'm an idiot, and I'll take full responsibility.
- 12:21Speaker 5: I think the team that can come in here and
- 12:23Speaker 5: put up forty on you and then you can't match
- 12:26Speaker 5: is Buffalo. That's my biggest fear. And I look at
- 12:29Speaker 5: again just because I think they have an ability with
- 12:33Speaker 5: that quarterback Jeff to explode. And you may listen, you're right,
- 12:37Speaker 5: the Broncos will scheme the hell out of them, you know,
- 12:39Speaker 5: with the defense, and that'll be really good. But man,
- 12:41Speaker 5: they've put up thirty nine, thirty five, thirty five, thirty one,
- 12:44Speaker 5: forty one, forty four to four, and I'm like, good golly.
- 12:47Speaker 5: You know Josh Allen to me in the postseason, and
- 12:49Speaker 5: I know he's not one at all. I just feel like,
- 12:53Speaker 5: of all the potential, they could get to a number
- 12:55Speaker 5: that you can't get to offensively and you can lose.
- 12:58Speaker 3: Well, that's true, but their defense is so bad.
- 13:01Speaker 4: I have a hard time believe in that defense survives
- 13:04Speaker 4: this postseason, whether it's the Broncos that beat him or
- 13:08Speaker 4: somebody else. But I don't think you can go to
- 13:10Speaker 4: Indo a postseason with a defense playing like that. They've
- 13:14Speaker 4: put up those point totals because.
- 13:16Speaker 3: They've had to. That's not how they want to play.
- 13:20Speaker 4: You know, they've had the number one rushing team in
- 13:22Speaker 4: the league as well for most of the season.
- 13:24Speaker 3: So I think they're a flawed roster.
- 13:28Speaker 4: But yeah, I mean a quarterback and you know, anybody
- 13:31Speaker 4: that's won the MVP Award, you know that's always going
- 13:34Speaker 4: to be an issue if you're defensively. I just I'm
- 13:38Speaker 4: talking schematic matchups among the teams, and I have not
- 13:43Speaker 4: seen Buffalo play the rugged football defensively because of their injuries.
- 13:49Speaker 3: Frankly that some of these other teams.
- 13:52Speaker 2: Have two questions thirty seconds a piece here because we're
- 13:55Speaker 2: up against it.
- 13:56Speaker 1: Number one, I know you haven't done you.
- 13:57Speaker 3: You can't put a time limit on.
- 13:58Speaker 1: Me seconds just with the college football Playoff.
- 14:04Speaker 2: I know you haven't done your full scouting report yet
- 14:06Speaker 2: on things, but tell me, like is for Anando Mendoza,
- 14:08Speaker 2: like a when we think number one overall quarterback pick?
- 14:11Speaker 1: Is he that?
- 14:13Speaker 4: I think he certainly could be. I mean, I will
- 14:15Speaker 4: tell you. You know you didn't ask me in September,
- 14:18Speaker 4: so there's no way to prove it. But I was
- 14:21Speaker 4: pretty fired up about Mendoza back in the summer. Even
- 14:25Speaker 4: He's just got a lot of the stuff you want
- 14:29Speaker 4: in an NFL quarterback and he's only enhancing his status
- 14:34Speaker 4: on a week quarterback board yeah this year. So those
- 14:38Speaker 4: guys are always going to rise to the top. And
- 14:41Speaker 4: when he is interviewed by teams and put on a whiteboard,
- 14:45Speaker 4: he will blow everybody away. And that's a big deal.
- 14:50Speaker 4: And he's just got the mental capability to lift the team.
- 14:54Speaker 3: I don't think people.
- 14:55Speaker 4: Understand how bad Indiana was for decades. When I covered
- 14:59Speaker 4: the Big Ten in the eighties, they were other coaches
- 15:04Speaker 4: simply called them but the bye week back then, So
- 15:08Speaker 4: I don't think people understand how far down they were.
- 15:11Speaker 4: This is the greatest resurrection in college football history.
- 15:15Speaker 2: Yeah, and then and then finally, just because I'm obsessed
- 15:18Speaker 2: with this kid. I've been watching him since like midway
- 15:21Speaker 2: through the year. Trinidad Chambliss is just a joy to watch.
- 15:25Speaker 2: Is he an NFL big time type of quarterback because
- 15:28Speaker 2: he can do a lot of things?
- 15:29Speaker 1: Or is this a fun college quarterback?
- 15:32Speaker 4: Probably a little of both. I think in the right
- 15:34Speaker 4: scheme he could find an NFL home. But people are
- 15:36Speaker 4: gonna guys his size have not always fared well in
- 15:41Speaker 4: the NFL, and that's always Look, you know, there's no
- 15:45Speaker 4: cut and dry rule for everything, and there's always outliers
- 15:48Speaker 4: and all of that. But the injury factor would concern
- 15:53Speaker 4: people with him and the fact that six six defensive
- 15:58Speaker 4: tackles are the norm and.
- 16:00Speaker 3: Not you know, unique.
- 16:03Speaker 4: You know, you don't get that every week, even in
- 16:06Speaker 4: the SEC. So, uh, that's the issue, finding throwing lanes
- 16:10Speaker 4: and staying healthy in all those things. But playing football
- 16:13Speaker 4: part of it. Oh hell yeah, he's fun to watch.
- 16:16Speaker 1: Is Indiana your winner?
- 16:18Speaker 4: They're the best team top to bottom. They're the defense.
- 16:22Speaker 4: Defense gets no love, but the defense, that's the best
- 16:25Speaker 4: defense in the field, and it is easily the best
- 16:28Speaker 4: defensive scheme in the field. They do stuff that NFL
- 16:32Speaker 4: teams don't always try because it's hard to play.
- 16:35Speaker 5: If I'll just say this, I believed in them in
- 16:38Speaker 5: Signetti's a piece of work. But when they went to
- 16:40Speaker 5: Austin and they beat the Ducks the way they did,
- 16:43Speaker 5: I'm like, that's that's that's a damn fine football team.
- 16:46Speaker 1: So I'm right there with you.
- 16:48Speaker 2: By the way, just for the record, I want to
- 16:49Speaker 2: be on record right now. I would be happy in
- 16:52Speaker 2: April if the Broncos took anybody who puts their hand
- 16:54Speaker 2: in the dirt on Miami's offensive or defensive line, any
- 16:57Speaker 2: one of them.
- 16:57Speaker 5: All.
- 16:58Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, well a good call. You're a good person.
- 17:04Speaker 1: Jeff Flagwell joins us every week. Always appreciate it, lady.
- 17:07Speaker 3: Thank you. Thanks. What do you know?
- 17:11Speaker 1: See you, buddy?
- 17:12Speaker 2: You know what I love is you have somebody on
- 17:14Speaker 2: for expertise and then you go, what do you know
- 17:16Speaker 2: about it?
- 17:18Speaker 5: I was just Joshu with him, but he's right. I
- 17:22Speaker 5: just I don't know. I don't want I don't want
- 17:24Speaker 5: to speak it into existence. I talk about the Bills
- 17:27Speaker 5: offense anymore.
- 17:28Speaker 2: Let me tell you something right now, I will I
- 17:31Speaker 2: will change my mind on things I respect. Jeff Lagwell's
- 17:34Speaker 2: football opinion so much that if he says something, I'm like, okay, fine,
- 17:38Speaker 2: then I'll just.
- 17:38Speaker 1: Know what that was, right.
- 17:40Speaker 5: I just you change your You can be hard pressed
- 17:43Speaker 5: and say now I'm gonna stick to my guts. You're
- 17:45Speaker 5: like no kempt changing