Latest / Jeff Legwold ESPN Broncos Reports / Jeff Legwold joins Moser, Lombardi and Kane 9-4-25
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: M money. We go out to the ramos Law Hotline
- 0:04Speaker 1: car Accident ramos Law medical doctor and attorney ramos Law
- 0:07Speaker 1: dot com are joined as we are every Thursday at
- 0:10Speaker 1: nine o'clock by Jeff LAGWELDOVESPN dot com, who just was
- 0:14Speaker 1: furiously typing I think over the last half an hour
- 0:17Speaker 1: or so.
- 0:17Speaker 2: Just read the article during the break.
- 0:20Speaker 1: But the big news Nick Benito signed to an extension
- 0:24Speaker 1: the day that the season opens up tonight with the
- 0:28Speaker 1: Cowboys and Eagles. One thing out of the gates here
- 0:31Speaker 1: with this legg you and always appreciate the time. I
- 0:35Speaker 1: am blown away by how George Payton has expertly slotted
- 0:40Speaker 1: these players and gotten them to agree to like kind
- 0:43Speaker 1: of where they should be.
- 0:44Speaker 2: There's always this thing.
- 0:45Speaker 1: About it being somebody's turn, which means they get paid
- 0:48Speaker 1: a little bit more money than maybe the.
- 0:50Speaker 2: Guys that are their peers.
- 0:52Speaker 1: Benito feels like a thirty million dollars a year player, Coulton,
- 0:56Speaker 1: Sutton feels like a twenty what is a twenty three
- 0:58Speaker 1: to twenty four million dollar a year play. Everybody is
- 1:01Speaker 1: getting slotted to where they should be, which I think
- 1:03Speaker 1: is rare and a huge compliment to George Payton, What
- 1:06Speaker 1: say you.
- 1:08Speaker 3: Well, I think it's a compliment of both sides. I
- 1:11Speaker 3: think the agents understand the Broncos will do business. Broncos
- 1:16Speaker 3: are open for business, and if you work with them,
- 1:21Speaker 3: you'll get a deal that you want. And from the
- 1:25Speaker 3: player perspective, you know Sirtan, Zach Allen, Courtland, Sutton, now Benito,
- 1:31Speaker 3: these are all true extensions, so you get the current
- 1:34Speaker 3: year plus the new deals, so you get they're trading
- 1:39Speaker 3: a year of security for maybe a few more dollars,
- 1:43Speaker 3: you know, hidden in a deal that they might not
- 1:45Speaker 3: see in a dummy year or whatever. These are from
- 1:49Speaker 3: what I've seen. You know, I haven't seen all Benitos,
- 1:53Speaker 3: you know, particulars yet, but these deals are real money.
- 1:58Speaker 3: So I think that's why seeing them fit because they're
- 2:02Speaker 3: real money deals. They're not fake fake years and balloon
- 2:07Speaker 3: payments and all this stuff. These are real contracts given
- 2:11Speaker 3: to the players. And I think this is an indication
- 2:14Speaker 3: that the agents and the players are saying, yeah, this
- 2:17Speaker 3: is real money, let's do this. So I think they've
- 2:20Speaker 3: found a sort of a sweet spot. And look, you know,
- 2:25Speaker 3: they have more resources than anyone in the league. It's
- 2:27Speaker 3: just a fact. Ask anybody, and it's and it's not
- 2:30Speaker 3: by a little and I think you're seeing the fruits
- 2:33Speaker 3: of that.
- 2:34Speaker 4: They have resources, no doubt, but they still have to
- 2:36Speaker 4: have a salary cap to deal with and they've been
- 2:38Speaker 4: able to manage that. Are you surprised that they've acted
- 2:42Speaker 4: this quickly even with the second season of Russell's Wilson's
- 2:47Speaker 4: dead money still on the cap.
- 2:50Speaker 3: I think, you know, Vic, this is why they took
- 2:53Speaker 3: that big hit last year because they knew they were
- 2:57Speaker 3: going to have to do some things this year. You know,
- 2:59Speaker 3: that'll a lot more guys coming up for contracts this year.
- 3:04Speaker 3: And what it's enabled them to do is last year,
- 3:07Speaker 3: when they did some of those deals, they had to
- 3:10Speaker 3: add some fake dummy years to a lot of players,
- 3:14Speaker 3: and they did not do that in Zach Allen's deal.
- 3:17Speaker 3: So I don't know yet what Benito's fully looks like,
- 3:22Speaker 3: but they haven't had to do that because they managed
- 3:25Speaker 3: their situation last year so well and went so young.
- 3:31Speaker 3: And I think again, this is if you're good in
- 3:34Speaker 3: the draft, you're in position to do these things and
- 3:38Speaker 3: maintain your cap. And that's why you have to be
- 3:41Speaker 3: good in the draft, because if you're not you're not
- 3:44Speaker 3: going to be able to do this on the other
- 3:47Speaker 3: the other side of it, you're going to have to
- 3:49Speaker 3: have this tier of highly paid guys that you wanted
- 3:53Speaker 3: to keep, and then you keep re restocking on the
- 3:58Speaker 3: other side of it with with your draft classes. But
- 4:01Speaker 3: you know, look who they've signed. You know, Sutton's a
- 4:05Speaker 3: draft pick, Quinn Minors is a draft picks or Tans
- 4:09Speaker 3: a draft pick, Benito's a draft pick. These are the
- 4:12Speaker 3: players they're signing. Zach Allen is the only guy in
- 4:17Speaker 3: that flurry that wasn't in the extension flurry that wasn't
- 4:21Speaker 3: a draft pick. But he would have been as if
- 4:26Speaker 3: this regime would have been, you know, in place when
- 4:28Speaker 3: he was on the board. But anyway, that's that's how
- 4:31Speaker 3: they've managed this is because they took that big, the
- 4:34Speaker 3: bigger hit last year and went young. And you know, again,
- 4:39Speaker 3: when you have a court, when you're starting quarterbacks on
- 4:42Speaker 3: a rookie deal, that's the best flexibility to build your
- 4:46Speaker 3: best team.
- 4:47Speaker 5: Uh.
- 4:48Speaker 3: Initially, hey, Jeff, we're here.
- 4:50Speaker 5: Football is back tonight.
- 4:53Speaker 3: Yeah all right, right right yeah.
- 4:56Speaker 2: Ready, legies ready to roun.
- 4:58Speaker 5: Hey that being said, it just feels like the Broncos
- 5:01Speaker 5: are getting all these proper pieces in place that Okay,
- 5:05Speaker 5: the way it's being thought out, the way you're constructing,
- 5:08Speaker 5: the way you're building these solid core pieces. They this
- 5:12Speaker 5: is a I mean, this is a pretty dang good
- 5:14Speaker 5: plan at least that's what it appears on the outside.
- 5:17Speaker 2: How do you feel about it?
- 5:20Speaker 3: Well, to me, you know, I've always been a proponent
- 5:23Speaker 3: of build your team through the draft. And you know
- 5:28Speaker 3: the best of the best of those draft classes are
- 5:31Speaker 3: the ones you resign and then keep going, you know,
- 5:35Speaker 3: with the future draft classes. I think that's the proven
- 5:38Speaker 3: way to do it. We all get fired up for
- 5:41Speaker 3: free agency because it's familiar names, we know the resumes.
- 5:45Speaker 3: You know, if you play fantasy football, you know what
- 5:48Speaker 3: they've done, and you know the numbers and all those things.
- 5:52Speaker 3: But that's not a long term solution, and you know
- 5:55Speaker 3: it's been proven over and over again. So I like
- 5:58Speaker 3: that they've leaned in to the draft component. You know,
- 6:02Speaker 3: it was not something Sean Payton did a lot of
- 6:05Speaker 3: in New Orleans. He would go in cycles. But it
- 6:10Speaker 3: looks to me here at least for now, that it's
- 6:14Speaker 3: going to be the way they do business. And I
- 6:17Speaker 3: wrote a story a couple of weeks ago, and I
- 6:20Speaker 3: quoted another GM saying that it looks more collaborative for
- 6:25Speaker 3: Sean here in Denver than it was in New Orleans.
- 6:29Speaker 3: And I think this is proof of that. Now you
- 6:31Speaker 3: know that the trick is always maintaining the consistency of
- 6:36Speaker 3: your bet approach, because if you get you get suckered in.
- 6:40Speaker 3: You know, suddenly you have no flexibility, You've got no
- 6:44Speaker 3: way to restock your depth chart, and you're out there
- 6:47Speaker 3: floundering signing guys to one year deals, you know, every year,
- 6:52Speaker 3: just trying to piece it together. This this keeps you
- 6:55Speaker 3: from doing that if you consistently hang in and have
- 6:59Speaker 3: the discipline to do it over the long haul.
- 7:01Speaker 1: You know what's interesting, Leggy, is that all these extensions
- 7:04Speaker 1: that they've made over the last year, let's say ballparky year.
- 7:07Speaker 1: So you throw obviously Benito and Zach Allen in here, Courtland, Sutton,
- 7:13Speaker 1: pats Er, Tan, you can go back last December they
- 7:15Speaker 1: extended Garrett Bowles. All of those are four year extensions.
- 7:20Speaker 2: And I don't think it's a.
- 7:20Speaker 1: Coincidence that that lines up directly with bo Nix's rookie contract,
- 7:24Speaker 1: and when that thing ends, they see this as their
- 7:27Speaker 1: championship window. It feels like some teams, like Green Bay,
- 7:30Speaker 1: they'll go on the outside and they'll grab Micah Parsons
- 7:32Speaker 1: and say, this is how we're pushing our chips in.
- 7:34Speaker 1: I think they're doing this with this core of players, saying,
- 7:37Speaker 1: if we're going to win right now is our best chance?
- 7:40Speaker 3: Well, this is the window where you have the flexibility
- 7:43Speaker 3: to do it. I mean, because the quarterback isn't on
- 7:47Speaker 3: a fifty million dollar a year deal, or by the
- 7:49Speaker 3: time Nick signs this deal, who knows where the top
- 7:53Speaker 3: end of the quarterback money is could be sixty sixty five,
- 7:57Speaker 3: I mean, who knows per year. So again, this is
- 8:01Speaker 3: the window, the best window you have if you're if
- 8:05Speaker 3: you're a good team, uh, and you've got the quarterback
- 8:09Speaker 3: on a rookie deal, that's you know, that's that's the
- 8:12Speaker 3: sweet spot.
- 8:13Speaker 5: You know.
- 8:14Speaker 3: The Chiefs have shown you can do it beyond that
- 8:17Speaker 3: if your quarterback is truly special. But it's more, it's
- 8:21Speaker 3: been more difficult for them. Look how much more difficult
- 8:24Speaker 3: it's been for them to maintain the roster after Mahomes's
- 8:29Speaker 3: deal than it was before. So yep, this is the window.
- 8:34Speaker 3: And I think they've decided as a team. You know,
- 8:37Speaker 3: they're as you know, they're actuarial data or whatever. Is
- 8:41Speaker 3: that four years is a good window for a veteran player.
- 8:45Speaker 3: You know, let's see where it is four years from now.
- 8:48Speaker 3: And the player likes that too, because it you know,
- 8:52Speaker 3: maybe they get another bite at the big free agency apple,
- 8:56Speaker 3: you know, like guy like Cirtan may get two or
- 8:58Speaker 3: three more swings at it. And I think they're prepping
- 9:03Speaker 3: for that too. I think, you know, they know they're
- 9:05Speaker 3: probably going to have to dive into the Certan deeal
- 9:08Speaker 3: before it runs out beautiful.
- 9:11Speaker 4: They're making it rain at Broncos headquarters. Guys are getting paid.
- 9:15Speaker 3: I have not in the media room. It ain't raining
- 9:17Speaker 3: in here. But that's all right, you know, let's keep
- 9:19Speaker 3: it up. You know you're us here.
- 9:22Speaker 4: You look plenty well paid their legging. But I do
- 9:25Speaker 4: need to ask about a guy they paid in the
- 9:27Speaker 4: off season via free agency, Drake Greenlaw did not practice yesterday.
- 9:30Speaker 4: How concerned should we be?
- 9:32Speaker 3: Well, I keep saying, you know, they keep telling me
- 9:35Speaker 3: it's no problem, But I am of the mind until
- 9:38Speaker 3: I see him in in pads in a game day uniform,
- 9:42Speaker 3: it's a question mark And That's how I'm going to
- 9:44Speaker 3: approach it. So they can keep telling me it's no problem,
- 9:48Speaker 3: but I want to see with my own eyes him
- 9:51Speaker 3: participating in practice. Now, I will say, the last couple
- 9:55Speaker 3: of weeks he's looked great in practice, so obviously, h
- 10:00Speaker 3: something else has happened. You know, Sean is in regular
- 10:04Speaker 3: season mode. You know it doesn't take long. But you
- 10:07Speaker 3: know he has said he is refusing to speak to
- 10:10Speaker 3: injuries and they will only report what they are forced to.
- 10:14Speaker 3: So you know, I've asked around. I think he has
- 10:18Speaker 3: retweaked it, but we'll see how it looks, you know,
- 10:21Speaker 3: today and tomorrow at practice.
- 10:22Speaker 5: Two parts on that number one. Early this morning, I
- 10:26Speaker 5: pretended I was Sean Payton. I would like to speak
- 10:29Speaker 5: to people in everyday life. The way that he speaks
- 10:32Speaker 5: to the media when he's asked a question about like
- 10:34Speaker 5: his answer about dreen Law yesterday, cracks me up.
- 10:38Speaker 2: I mean, that's just dude.
- 10:40Speaker 5: But Jeff, this is a guy who didn't participate in
- 10:43Speaker 5: the offseason, didn't do really anything in camp, didn't play
- 10:47Speaker 5: any preseason games. Weren't the Wednesday now the Thursday before
- 10:51Speaker 5: opening week. If he's not in the field today, he's
- 10:55Speaker 5: not playing. If he wasn't in the field yesterday, ain't
- 10:58Speaker 5: he hasn't done any thing. Why are we even joking
- 11:02Speaker 5: around with this or whatever? I mean retweaked that that
- 11:05Speaker 5: seems to be just the basically the base level of
- 11:08Speaker 5: it all.
- 11:09Speaker 3: You know, Monday, mos you know, I think Sean offered
- 11:13Speaker 3: a little hint to everybody because he you know, we
- 11:16Speaker 3: did ask him about green Law and he did answer
- 11:19Speaker 3: it on Monday and he basically said, uh, we're meaning
- 11:26Speaker 3: the team that they're going to be conservative was the
- 11:29Speaker 3: word he used, and that you know, this was about
- 11:31Speaker 3: the long haul too and not just the short haul.
- 11:34Speaker 3: So part of me, you know, now in my now,
- 11:38Speaker 3: in my million season, I you know, part of me's
- 11:41Speaker 3: thinking right then, all right, he's he's framing the idea
- 11:45Speaker 3: that it may take a little bigger wind up for
- 11:48Speaker 3: green Law to be ready to play. But you know,
- 11:51Speaker 3: I'm I'm old school. You know, until I see him
- 11:55Speaker 3: on the practice field. You can tell me how good
- 11:57Speaker 3: he looks, as much as you want, but I want
- 12:00Speaker 3: to see the guy on the practice field with my
- 12:03Speaker 3: own eyes doing the all of the things everyone else
- 12:07Speaker 3: is doing, because that's when you're ready to play, not
- 12:10Speaker 3: when you're on a side field, not when you're on
- 12:13Speaker 3: a pitch count. You know, I want to see it
- 12:15Speaker 3: with my own eyes, with everybody ready to go.
- 12:18Speaker 1: Yeah, Leggy, were at the end of our chat and
- 12:24Speaker 1: they play a game on Sunday, so I want to
- 12:25Speaker 1: ask you about that too.
- 12:27Speaker 2: But this news, Benito just came in.
- 12:30Speaker 1: So they have the highest points spread of the week.
- 12:32Speaker 1: The Broncos are favored by eight and a half points
- 12:34Speaker 1: heading into this. I know that you are mister pumped
- 12:37Speaker 1: the brakes and everything's not as cool as it seems
- 12:39Speaker 1: and blah blah blah. But they need to look like
- 12:44Speaker 1: they dominate a rookie quarterback on a bad team in
- 12:46Speaker 1: Week one, don't they. Isn't that an indicator you kind
- 12:49Speaker 1: of got to see if you want to believe that
- 12:50Speaker 1: the Broncos are truly contenders this year?
- 12:54Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean defensively, I think you want to see
- 12:56Speaker 3: them force the issue because I think that's their personality,
- 13:01Speaker 3: you know, as a team. You know, point spreads, I
- 13:06Speaker 3: get it, you know, they're just Vegas is just trying
- 13:08Speaker 3: to split the money there. That's not really an indicator
- 13:11Speaker 3: of how the football is going to go. It's just
- 13:14Speaker 3: how people feel about it with when they're throwing the
- 13:17Speaker 3: cash down. But I think offensively is where the question
- 13:22Speaker 3: mark is for me. I mean that their backups look
- 13:25Speaker 3: good in the preseason, but they're starting offense with bow
- 13:29Speaker 3: Knicks at quarterback against largely backup players on defense. Took
- 13:35Speaker 3: them six drives in thirty nine plays to get a touchdown.
- 13:39Speaker 3: So I'm that's the one I want to see at
- 13:43Speaker 3: least looks smooth, you know, find some production. But the
- 13:49Speaker 3: you know, the spread to me, is a little misleading,
- 13:51Speaker 3: especially defensively upfront. The one spot where the Titans could
- 13:57Speaker 3: cause the Broncos a problem sure Sunday, is that's a big, big,
- 14:03Speaker 3: really big physical defensive front and if and if they
- 14:08Speaker 3: get the Broncos offense mired in that, you know, four
- 14:13Speaker 3: and out, five and out, three and out, you know
- 14:16Speaker 3: all of that, then that's the problem for the Broncos
- 14:19Speaker 3: because then no matter how well your defense is playing,
- 14:22Speaker 3: you're still in a in a slug it out game.
- 14:24Speaker 1: Well, one of those big guys that you mentioned, Leggy
- 14:27Speaker 1: Jeffrey Simmons had this to say about bon Nicks.
- 14:30Speaker 6: I'm just saying, we know bo Nit is gonna you know,
- 14:33Speaker 6: his first reading there you're gonna take off running with
- 14:34Speaker 6: the football, So we got to make sure we're on
- 14:36Speaker 6: the same pay. We got to make sure we have
- 14:37Speaker 6: a balance of rusher, you know, not trying to be
- 14:40Speaker 6: robots out there. But at the same time, we know
- 14:42Speaker 6: that if it's not there, bon is gonna take off running.
- 14:45Speaker 6: So that's that's it's gonna be on us though front
- 14:47Speaker 6: to make sure we keep him in a will and
- 14:49Speaker 6: keep him in a slide.
- 14:50Speaker 1: You're you're a tape grinder, Jeff Legwell, do you agree
- 14:53Speaker 1: with Jeffrey simmons assessment that he's a one read guy?
- 14:58Speaker 3: I do not, but that's uh. You know, if I
- 15:01Speaker 3: was an enormous defensive tackle, I would say all quarterbacks
- 15:04Speaker 3: and guys like That's the way I would say, because
- 15:08Speaker 3: all right, because there's approach is you know, take the read.
- 15:12Speaker 3: I'm gonna throw you on the ground as soon as
- 15:14Speaker 3: I get close enough.
- 15:15Speaker 4: More importantly, Jeff, now that I've joined the world of
- 15:18Speaker 4: fantasy of football, you were going to get annoyed with
- 15:20Speaker 4: all these antacy questions from me.
- 15:22Speaker 2: Because that's the way it works.
- 15:24Speaker 4: So having said that, you just mentioned that their front
- 15:26Speaker 4: is pretty big and could cause problems. Should I start
- 15:30Speaker 4: Bo Nicks against Tennessee or Brock Purdy against Seattle.
- 15:33Speaker 2: Who's my quarterback this week?
- 15:35Speaker 5: Uh?
- 15:36Speaker 3: Wow, that's an excellent question. I think they're both face
- 15:41Speaker 3: the same issues. I think Nicks has a little more
- 15:44Speaker 3: to work with in the pattern, so I guess I
- 15:47Speaker 3: would go with him because he's got more of the
- 15:49Speaker 3: supporting guy.
- 15:50Speaker 4: See, I see these guys sort of grown. When I
- 15:52Speaker 4: asked that question.
- 15:53Speaker 1: I didn't see how annoying funny.
- 15:57Speaker 4: No, see how annoying it is. See selfish, It's selfish,
- 16:02Speaker 4: is what it is. Oh, I want to talk about
- 16:04Speaker 4: my team and my players in my situation, in my
- 16:07Speaker 4: mind mind, that's all it is.
- 16:10Speaker 3: I've never played it because I think I would stink
- 16:12Speaker 3: at it. I think I would overthink.
- 16:15Speaker 2: It until it was totally.
- 16:17Speaker 3: My head exploded. I would just be I'd be grinding
- 16:21Speaker 3: tape at like three in the morning, trying to pick
- 16:24Speaker 3: w R four, you know, and I would just be
- 16:27Speaker 3: out of my mind. So I think it's a public service.
- 16:30Speaker 3: I don't do it.
- 16:31Speaker 1: Uh, like you last thing for you and we'll let
- 16:33Speaker 1: you go and always appreciate the time. So you got
- 16:36Speaker 1: the game coming up against Tennessee this Sunday, but overall.
- 16:39Speaker 3: I guess I should carve out the afternoon then, right,
- 16:42Speaker 3: that's coming up Sunday, I'll be ready.
- 16:43Speaker 2: Yeh yah, yeah yeah.
- 16:45Speaker 1: Overall though, does the AFC West still belong to the Chiefs?
- 16:49Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I'm you know, I'm you know, you're the
- 16:53Speaker 3: champ until somebody tells you you're not. I mean, that's
- 16:56Speaker 3: just the bottom line. I don't get. You know, It's
- 16:59Speaker 3: like all the years I kept Pick of the Patriots,
- 17:01Speaker 3: like twenty one years in a row, and everybody would
- 17:03Speaker 3: make fun of me, and I think eighteen of the
- 17:05Speaker 3: years I was right, So you know, you know, they
- 17:10Speaker 3: are the team until because the quarterback is the guy.
- 17:14Speaker 3: Don't you know, we can all do top one hundred
- 17:16Speaker 3: players in the league or whatever. He's my number one
- 17:19Speaker 3: until someone else shows me he's not.
- 17:22Speaker 1: Jeff Lagwell, a the ESPN dot Com joins us every
- 17:24Speaker 1: single Thursday and check out his stuff right now. I
- 17:27Speaker 1: got to write up on the Benito extension. Go check
- 17:29Speaker 1: it out on ESPN. LEGI always appreciate the time. Thank you,
- 17:32Speaker 1: Buddy de Fellas, Jeff Lagwell, ESPN dot Com. All conversations
- 17:36Speaker 1: with Leggy are brought to you by the International Brotherhood
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