WEBVTT

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And now the big fella himself,
Benjamin Albright, is coming back to regain

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his throne. He joins us here
on the Commons Spirit Health text line,

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Ben, you're toughing it out here
to join us tonight, you know,

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a little under the weather, but
other than that, all right, it

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might be the first time I've ever
been a big fellow, and I'm gonna

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take it you're the big fellaw around
here. He's not sure. Don't do

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that. Hey, he needs to
call me the big fellow about my waistline.

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Well, Ben, what'd you think
of the news today? Seemed like

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this was able an inevitable decision for
the Broncos. Well, yeah, I

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mean, you know, the announcement
is they've officially informed Russell Wilson. Well,

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they unofficially informed him when they benched
him with two games to go during

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the season. I mean, we
knew this was coming. You know.

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Russ is good at a specific set
of circumstances. He was not particularly adept

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at running what Sean Dayton wanted to
run. He had his best moments this

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season when they cut him loose in
the fourth quarter and said, hey,

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you know, do what you do. And I think Sean Payton just doesn't

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want to operate that way. I
think Sean Payton wants to, you know,

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wants to operate with a quarterback that
does what he wants to do when

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he wants to do it, and
as the head coach, that's his prerogative.

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So Broncos moving on. Good to
take two of the going to take

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overall the largest cap hit ever and
two of the largest cap hits spread over

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two seasons in order to do it. That's that's real rough. But I

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would say that this is Sean Payton
show. Now. You know, he's

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got his people there, He's going
to have his quarterback, this is this

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is all his deal now, and
you know we're really going to see what

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direction he takes the Broncos from here. Well, Bing, you're absolutely right,

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this is Sean Payton's team and I
felt that that was pretty much Eston

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stone when the Broncos signed Sean Payton
a year ago. So I think the

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biggest question, and there's a separate
questions, but what does a Sean Payton

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quarterback actually look like? What are
those characteristics? Usually it's somebody with good

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foot athleticism. You know, they
don't have to be a dynamic runner.

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But they do have to be somebody
with quick feet and able to manipulate the

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pocket. You gotta have a little
zip on the ball. You got to

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be able to get the ball out
quick. That's probably the one of the

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bigger things is being able to identify
and get it out quick. You got

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an offense that is largely run eleven
and nineteen yards down the field, most

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of its inbreaking routes. It's in
between the numbers. You gotta be able

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to read the middle of the field
pretty well, you know. I mean,

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if you're looking for archetypes, the
sizes have all varied. I mean

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you've had guys like Drew Buries,
Teddy Bridgewater, Jamis Winston, but all

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those guys have, you know,
have something in common. They can drive

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the ball and they need to and
you know they're guys that did get the

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ball out fairly quick. Jamis,
you know, threw a bit more interceptions

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than the other guys, but mostly
you know, they try to protect the

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football and they can place the ball
fairly accurately, you know, in between

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the hashes. And I think that's
that's kind of what you need. Somebody

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who's quick processor and gets rid of
the ball quick has enough velocity to make

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the thrones and good enough placement to
get the ball to his receivers between the

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hashes and Ben. You know,
we thought that Sean Payton was gonna come

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here and be able to quote unquote
fix Russell Wilson, you know, and

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you know, thinking back over this
the last two years and Russell Wilson's tenure

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here, there was so much hype
and excitement him coming in talking about you

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know, winning not just one super
Bowl but multiple Super Bowls. How would

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you sum up the last two years
here with Russell Wilson. I think I

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think disappointment, you know from the
fan base. You know, we finally

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went out and got the quarterback,
or we thought we did, and you

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know, it didn't work out.
You know, that first season, I

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kind of just throw that away.
With the bathwater, the Nathaniel Hackett thing,

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that was a disaster on every level. So I kind of I don't

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really hold that one against Russ too
much. You look at this year and

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Russ kind of got back to who
he was. He's basically the same player

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this year. He'd always been a
guy who you know, is not particularly

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great instructure, but thrives outside of
it. When you need him to make

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plays and create, he can create
and you know in latent games he's dynamic

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and still keep you in it.
I think, you know, he cut

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the turnovers down this year, which
was which was good. But overall,

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I think, you know, most
fans probably look on this eras is disappointing.

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It had promise, but it just
it just didn't quite deliver well been

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for I think it's since twenty sixteen
the Broncos have had a multitude of starting

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quarterbacks, so they would have their
seventh different starting quarterback come Week one of

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twenty twenty four? Who now steps
into that role? Who is that guy?

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Is it your guy Jimmy Garoppolo,
which I know you love Jimmy because

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Jimmy, you know, has great, great hair. Not going to attest

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to that. But who's going to
be that guy? Who's that starting quarterback

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come Week one? Well, the
number one trait of any great quarterback is

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great hair. I mean, you
know, first and foremost, go right.

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I can look at John Elway when
he got drafted, Dan Marino feathered

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and lethal. You know, any
any quarterback that has great hair is always

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going to be a star. I
know, I I mean Jimmy's a possibility,

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I think less so because he got
suspended for the first two games,

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and that really kind of puts a
dam for what you wanted to do.

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You know, a low cost free
agent option like a Sam Darnold or a

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Carson Wentz is probably somebody you take
a look at, and then you know,

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to the draft. It's gonna be
tough because I don't think any of

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those first four quarterbacks are gonna be
there twelve. I don't think any of

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those first four quarterbacks is gonna be
there at six. So it's gonna be

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tough because I don't think they have
the ammunition to get up without mortgaging even

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more drafts, which is you know, sort of the problem to put him

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here in the first place. And
then whether or not you overdraft a guy

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like a like a Bonnix at twelve. You know that that doesn't really I

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don't know if that appeals to people
out there, doesn't necessarily appeal to me.

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You'd like to see them trade back
a little bit, try to get

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a little extra draft capital, and
then maybe maybe pull the trigger on something

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like that, so I could see
a situation where you know, they wind

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up with a Darnold and the Bonix
and you kind of have a quarterback competition

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and go from there. You know, I don't know, we'll have more

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clarity on this in the next couple
of weeks, because it sits right now.

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You know, this kind of looks
like a rebuilding year for the Broncos,

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even if they're not saying it.
You and talking about rebuilding there.

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We had Nick costmeidor on a little
bit earlier talking about, Okay, they

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do the Russ Wilson move, Well
what's next. They still have some more

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moves coming up here, don't you
think, Ben, just in order to

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get right in with the cap numbers, Well, yeah, I mean you

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were already fourteen million over the cap
before this. You add in what's probably

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going to be a thirty five million
dollar charge for Russ that puts your forty

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nine million over the cap. You're
going to have to cut j Jones,

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you let Josie Jewel walk. You're
going you have to either extend or cut

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Garrett Bowles. You're gonna have to
let Lloyd Cushion Barry walk. You're gonna

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cut Tim Patrick. You're probably gonna
trade Jerry Judy. Uh And you look

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at Cortland Sutton s if you can
trade that contract. If not, you'll

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need to either you know, extend
or or cut it. And then you

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know, Justin Simmons probably gonna probably
extend him and ask him to take a

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haircut for a couple of million.
So, uh, there's certainly gonna be

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some moves made coming up. I
expect them to, uh, you know,

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to reach into every every portion of
the bag of tricks in an effort

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to facilitate saving money. Ken Russell
Wilson rebound from the past two years that

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we've seen with the Denver Broncos and
move on to another team. Yeah,

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I think so. I think you've
got four teams in the market for him.

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Atlanta, who's who's kind of in
the market for everybody they're looking at

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cousins, uh, and that that
could that could very well happen justin field.

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That's a that's amazing. Russ Obviously
his wife's from Atlanta, so you

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know there's up in there. The
Steelers, who I think Russell is camp

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probably prefers because Arthur Smith is there
New England, who's who's looking for a

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quarterback. And then, believe it
or not, in the division, the

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Raiders. You know, the Raiders
have Luke Gatzi there as the OC worked

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with Justin Fields last year. Kind
of the offense he runs is something that

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Russ can't execute. So it'd be
interesting to see if Russ, you know,

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goes on a veteran minimum deal,
goes across the division to the Rivals

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and and tries to you know,
resurrect himself there. Wy Didn't that be

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some drama to play Russell Wilson twice
a year? I mean, that would

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be crazy. Ben. We had
a text here from eight six six'

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nine wondering about Jared Stidham. You
know, they had said that this was

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a big priority last offseason to bring
in a guy like Stidham. Do you

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think that he could be in play
or is he nothing more than just a

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stopgap kind of guy? I need
a stop gap. I mean we've we've

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seen over the last two seasons where
he's come on to be the spark for

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the Raiders and now the spot for
the Broncos. And I wasn't really much

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of a spark still him, you
know. I mean I don't want to

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I don't want to dog the guy, but he's just kind of a guy,

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you kind of see what he is
and what he is, and he's

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got a few plays in him,
but he also misses some plays, and

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you know, I don't know if
if a bunch of reps are going to

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change that. I'd like to see
him thrown in the mix and see if

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he can continue to grow in year
two. But what we saw last year,

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I didn't see anything there that I
could hang my hand on that said,

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hey, this is the guy for
the future. Now, with this

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daycap money that the Broncos expected to
be hit by, how does that change

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in your opinion what the Broncos will
be able to do once free agency opens

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up on March thirteen. Well,
I don't think it changes anything because I

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think we kind of already factored that
in. They're not going to be players

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in the way you've won a free
agency and they just they just don't have

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the cap space right now. They're
going to do everything they can to,

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you know, to kind of restructure
stuff and free up space where they can.

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I do believe there will be some
mid tier free agents signings, maybe

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a Porner, maybe on the defensive
line and maybe a tight end. We'll

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see, But but as it sits
right now, I mean, you know,

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I don't think they're going to be
major players. I think in that

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first week of free agency, I
highly doubt you're going to hear the dever

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Broncos signing anyone. Ben, We'll
let you out of here on this.

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You know, based off of what
you're saying, this is a huge off

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season for the Broncos, a lot
of changes, a lot of familiar faces

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are going to no longer be around
here. How much confidence do you have

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in the Broncos leadership here to get
this right and eventually get out from underneath

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this darkness. Well, I have
a lot of confidence in them in the

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draft. I think they've done very
well drafting over the last couple of years.

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So I have a lot of confidence
in that portion of it, and

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it's going to be important to get
that portion of it right. In terms

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of free agency, my confidence is
a little lower. You know, George

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Payton's missed on some signings. You
look at the edge rushers Randy Gregor and

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Frank Carkos didn't pan out. You
look at Sean Payton and the guys he

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wanted to bring in, Mike McGlinchey, Ben Powers, those guys have not

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exactly what the world on fire.
Although they finally got the quarterback lit on

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fire last year once or twice,
I I, you know, less confident

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in that portion of it. So
this will be a big year. It's

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important that they get everything right this
year. There's no margin for errors.

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So you know, my confidence in
the draft is high. My confidence a

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free agency. I'm gonna need them
to show me something they hadn't shown me

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before. Well, thank you so
much for toughening this out and joining us

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here to give us your insight.
Now you need some tea, some honey,

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maybe a little lemon. Hello,
Martinelli's appisoder I got Hey, I

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got a whole gallon of Martinelli's here, and they got to sent you the

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picture earlier, so you know I'm
doing my best. Hey, warm it

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up in the pot, put a
little cimon in it. If you want

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to, put a dash kya and
pepper man. Okay, that's the magic.

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Okay, I'm taking doctor Berg's advice. All right, Ben, thank

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you so much for hopping on and
get right. We'll get you back here

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tomorrow, all right. Care