Latest / Jeff Legwold ESPN Broncos Reports / Jeff Legwold joins Kreckman and Lindahl 12-29-25

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Jeff Legwold joins Kreckman and Lindahl 12-29-25 · Jeff Legwold ESPN Broncos Reports

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  Speaker 1: Welcome back to a rally house Football Monday. Jeff Legwald
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  Speaker 1: is brought to you by the International Brotherhood of Electrical
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  Speaker 1: Workers ib W Local sixty eight. Start with a job,
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  Speaker 1: end with a career. We are joined by ESPN insider
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  Speaker 1: an all around great guy, Jeff Legwald. Jeff, how you doing?
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  Speaker 1: Did you have a good Chris Well? I guess you
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  Speaker 1: were covering the Broncos on Christmas, but other than that,
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  Speaker 1: out the holidays.
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  Speaker 2: Treat you it was all good, always good. How you
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  Speaker 2: guys doing good?
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  Speaker 1: Not bad? Not bad? I want to you know what, Actually,
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  Speaker 1: I want to start with the news that we we
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  Speaker 1: just found out just a little while ago where the
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  Speaker 1: head coach of the Chargers came out and said that
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  Speaker 1: they're they're not playing Justin Herbert this weekend against the Broncos.
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  Speaker 1: A matter of fact, they're going to not play a
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  Speaker 1: lot of those guys who are currently a little banged up.
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  Speaker 1: What do you think about that decision? I mean, Harbaugh,
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  Speaker 1: I assumed that they were this was going to be
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  Speaker 1: a game game coming up this weekend, but it sounds
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  Speaker 1: like not so much. What do you think about that?
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  Speaker 3: Like this is one of the reasons they didn't put
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  Speaker 3: it in the one of the prime slots for the weekend.
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  Speaker 3: I think there was some feeling. I know some people
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  Speaker 3: around the Broncos believe that Herbert may not play in
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  Speaker 3: this one. I think if you're wanting to know who's
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  Speaker 3: really mad, you know, look at the Patriots, because you know,
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  Speaker 3: the Broncos get the inside track now against what will
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  Speaker 3: largely be backups probably across the board Sunday against the Chargers.
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  Speaker 2: And guess who the Chargers most.
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  Speaker 3: Likely play in the opening round of the playoffs will
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  Speaker 3: be the Patriots. So they're going to take a bye
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  Speaker 3: week essentially to get rested to play the Patriots most
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  Speaker 3: likely if things unfold the way everybody expects. So pretty
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  Speaker 3: big gambit by Jim Harbaugh, but he obviously sees an
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  Speaker 3: enormous benefit for doing it.
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  Speaker 4: Do you think, Leggy, You know, Justin Herbert has been
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  Speaker 4: taking a pounding in recent weeks. You know, without there
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  Speaker 4: two very high level tackles, then you gotta go play
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  Speaker 4: Benino and Cooper and that fronts and the AFC is
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  Speaker 4: so stacked that you know you're on the road week one.
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  Speaker 4: No matter what, Let's just make sure Justin Herbert, who's
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  Speaker 4: coming off of a broken left hand is as ready
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  Speaker 4: as he possibly can be for round one.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, bring, I think he's doing it for the whole roster.
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  Speaker 3: I mean he even said, you know the quiet part
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  Speaker 3: out loud today. He basically said, they're gonna sit anybody
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  Speaker 3: with bruises or you know who's feeling banged up. So
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  Speaker 3: I think that list will be long when they finally
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  Speaker 3: play the game this weekend. But yeah, there's when you
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  Speaker 3: watch what Houston did to Herbert. How many times they
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  Speaker 3: hit him, how many times they harassed him, I don't
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  Speaker 3: think you know, and that was a game in so
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  Speaker 3: far so you don't even have well, SOFI is kind
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  Speaker 3: of a neutral.
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  Speaker 2: Field these days.
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  Speaker 3: Playing a defense that rushes like Houston or the Broncos
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  Speaker 3: or the Rams or Seattle and playing them at their
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  Speaker 3: home is a totally different deal because you're you're limited
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  Speaker 3: in your cadence, you're silent kind of. You know, all
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  Speaker 3: of that stuff gives the defense an advantage, and I
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  Speaker 3: think he saw the prospect of plenty of punishment for
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  Speaker 3: Herbert if he played him Sunday.
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  Speaker 1: Now that we're one week away from the end of
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  Speaker 1: the regular season, what to you has been the most
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  Speaker 1: surprising aspect of the Denver Broncos regular season this year.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I'm not sure anybody had them, you know, even
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  Speaker 3: Sean Payton decreeing before the season he thought this was
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  Speaker 3: a super Bowl worthy team. I'm not sure anybody saw
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  Speaker 3: they had the potential to win fourteen games.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, that's a pretty steep, pretty steep.
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  Speaker 3: Total for them, and you know, I'm not sure people,
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  Speaker 3: you know, I think I saw them as a playoff
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  Speaker 3: team that would make some improvement, you know, be in
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  Speaker 3: the eleven twelve win range there. But this is gonna
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  Speaker 3: end up to be one of the winning of seasons
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  Speaker 3: in franchise history. So I think that's a bit of
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  Speaker 3: a surprise. And I am a little bit surprised that
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  Speaker 3: the offense has had some extended lulls. They just don't
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  Speaker 3: seem to snap out of it sometimes, and that has
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  Speaker 3: surprised me. I mean, this has been a team that's
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  Speaker 3: shown it has the coaching staff and the players to
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  Speaker 3: make quick adjustments on things to rebound, you know, to pivot,
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  Speaker 3: and they have done on defense plenty this season. But
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  Speaker 3: I'm not sure we've we've seen a lot of that
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  Speaker 3: from the offense. And I think it's you know, it's
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  Speaker 3: worth noting. You know, you've only they've only played you know,
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  Speaker 3: they've played thirteen one score games this year. That's not
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  Speaker 3: that's awfully close to being a non playoff team if
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  Speaker 3: even a third of those go another way.
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  Speaker 2: So that's a hard way to live.
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  Speaker 3: And yeah, I mean there's tons of one score games
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  Speaker 3: in the NFL.
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  Speaker 2: That's sort of life in the NFL.
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  Speaker 3: But I think to have eleven of your wins be
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  Speaker 3: one score games, and I think you can trace a
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  Speaker 3: lot of that to this offense being one of the
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  Speaker 3: league leaders in three and outs this year. I think
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  Speaker 3: that part has surprised me a little bit. I thought
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  Speaker 3: they'd they'd find a rhythm at some point. They haven't
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  Speaker 3: really found and you know, they've got another week couple
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  Speaker 3: weeks to find it because you know, nobody's gonna I
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  Speaker 3: don't think anybody will, will, you know, shoot off the
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  Speaker 3: offensive fireworks too often in the playoff because that's just
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  Speaker 3: not how it goes. But they're going to need a
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  Speaker 3: little more from that group if they really want to
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  Speaker 3: go deep.
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  Speaker 4: Leggy, you mentioned Bronco's Chargers maybe getting that Sunday night slot,
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  Speaker 4: but maybe some whispers that the Chargers would be resting
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  Speaker 4: some dudes before the schedule was announced last night, the
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  Speaker 4: Week eighteen schedule. Instead, it'll be a battle for the
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  Speaker 4: AFC North. That championship game so to speak, Steelers and
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  Speaker 4: Ravens gets the primetime slot. What do you make of
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  Speaker 4: that game? The winner of the North's chances in the
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  Speaker 4: playoffs likely facing Houston at home in round one, and
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  Speaker 4: specifically Baltimore, Like what's going on with Lamar Jackson and
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  Speaker 4: are we sleeping on the Ravens And you've talked about
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  Speaker 4: how like the Kansas City's out, like Mahomes is out.
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  Speaker 4: The the kryptonite for the Bills and the Ravens is
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  Speaker 4: not going to be in this field, specifically Baltimore, but
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  Speaker 4: also Pittsburgh, what do you make of their prospects in
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  Speaker 4: the play playoffs? For who for whoever advances.
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  Speaker 3: Well Pittsburgh got you know, it's hard to figure figure them.
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  Speaker 3: I mean they are limping, limping along and still have
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  Speaker 3: a chance somehow too to be in the playoff field.
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  Speaker 3: I think Baltimore could wind up being one of the
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  Speaker 3: really high drama places of the off season. And I
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  Speaker 3: think a lot of people wonder, you know, are they
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  Speaker 3: going to stick with Lamar is this is this a
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  Speaker 3: rift in the relationship.
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  Speaker 2: You know, there there was a story in the.
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  Speaker 3: Baltimore Sun that was pretty scathing about the relationship between
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  Speaker 3: John Harbaugh and and Lamar, and you know, it's that
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  Speaker 3: seems amazing to me just after multiple m VP wins
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  Speaker 3: and all they've done that it's it's gone this way.
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  Speaker 2: But uh, I know some people in.
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  Speaker 3: The league now they they will tell you up front
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  Speaker 3: they don't and have real information. So I'm not saying
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  Speaker 3: this is a fact or take it to the bank
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  Speaker 3: or anything. But I know people in the league who
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  Speaker 3: feel like, if Lamar doesn't play in Sunday's game, you know,
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  Speaker 3: does that mean his futures in doubt with the Ravens.
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  Speaker 3: And that seems staggering to me. But I know people
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  Speaker 3: who really believe that who work for NFL teams. So
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  Speaker 3: but Baltimore's gonna go. You know, it was so weird
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  Speaker 3: that they didn't let Derrick Henry touch the ball for
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  Speaker 3: the last almost thirteen minutes of the game they lost
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  Speaker 3: to New England, and then they turn right around and
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  Speaker 3: hand it to him thirty six times this past weekend.
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  Speaker 3: And I think, if you want, you know, if they
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  Speaker 3: want to see their formula. I think they saw it,
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  Speaker 3: you know, just let the big guy go and see
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  Speaker 3: how far he can take it.
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  Speaker 1: What do you I mean, what does Sean Payton game
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  Speaker 1: plan look like for this weekend knowing that the other
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  Speaker 1: team might not put forth their best ever? Like, what
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  Speaker 1: what do you think Sean Payton and the Bronx does
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  Speaker 1: want to accomplish with his final game of the regular season.
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  Speaker 3: I think he'd love a finale that looks a lot
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  Speaker 3: like last year's finale where they took on the Chiefs
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  Speaker 3: junior varsity as it were, and just put the pedal
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  Speaker 3: down and kept it down the whole game and.
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  Speaker 2: Went home with a nice win. And I think that's
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  Speaker 2: what he wants.
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  Speaker 3: I think he wants to go into a playoff bye
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  Speaker 3: week with confidence and feeling good on both sides of
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  Speaker 3: the ball about where they are. And I think he
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  Speaker 3: I think he's going to ride him even harder this
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  Speaker 3: week with that message, you know, don't limp around Sunday,
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  Speaker 3: don't played, don't play your way out of something you've
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  Speaker 3: worked very hard for.
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  Speaker 2: And I think his message will be.
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  Speaker 3: Don't come this far and then don't get the number
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  Speaker 3: one seed because you didn't handle your business in the
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  Speaker 3: last game, so I think he wants exactly the game
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  Speaker 3: he got last year in the finale to get into
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  Speaker 3: the playoffs.
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  Speaker 4: Jeff, do we have any sense here on Monday about
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  Speaker 4: what like a Pat Bryan's injury status would be for
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  Speaker 4: the finale coming off that concussion.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, that's spring, that's always uncertain. You know, everybody's different.
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  Speaker 3: They don't They're not going to rush you through the protocol.
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  Speaker 2: You can't.
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  Speaker 3: You know, it's very rare that guys would would clear
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  Speaker 3: multiple steps in a day or two, especially one day.
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  Speaker 3: But so I think until they hit the practice fields,
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  Speaker 3: he's got to be in the the limited practice first
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  Speaker 3: and then a full practice and then one more clearance
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  Speaker 3: for the game after that. So still got a few
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  Speaker 3: hurdles because we haven't seen him on the practice field
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  Speaker 3: yet and until we see that, and I don't think
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  Speaker 3: we can make a good assessment.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Jeff, thanks for hopping on, appreciate it on this Monday.
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  Speaker 1: Enjoy the enjoy your New Year's, New Year's Eve and
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  Speaker 1: New Years and we'll talk to you here later in
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  Speaker 1: the week.
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  Speaker 2: You bad. Thanks Helf