And now the big fella himself, Benjamin Albright, is coming back to regain
his throne. He joins us here on the Commons Spirit Health text line,
Ben, you're toughing it out here to join us tonight, you know,
a little under the weather, but other than that, all right, it
might be the first time I've ever been a big fellow, and I'm gonna
take it you're the big fellaw around here. He's not sure. Don't do
that. Hey, he needs to call me the big fellow about my waistline.
Well, Ben, what'd you think of the news today? Seemed like
this was able an inevitable decision for the Broncos. Well, yeah, I
mean, you know, the announcement is they've officially informed Russell Wilson. Well,
they unofficially informed him when they benched him with two games to go during
the season. I mean, we knew this was coming. You know.
Russ is good at a specific set of circumstances. He was not particularly adept
at running what Sean Dayton wanted to run. He had his best moments this
season when they cut him loose in the fourth quarter and said, hey,
you know, do what you do. And I think Sean Payton just doesn't
want to operate that way. I think Sean Payton wants to, you know,
wants to operate with a quarterback that does what he wants to do when
he wants to do it, and as the head coach, that's his prerogative.
So Broncos moving on. Good to take two of the going to take
overall the largest cap hit ever and two of the largest cap hits spread over
two seasons in order to do it. That's that's real rough. But I
would say that this is Sean Payton show. Now. You know, he's
got his people there, He's going to have his quarterback, this is this
is all his deal now, and you know we're really going to see what
direction he takes the Broncos from here. Well, Bing, you're absolutely right,
this is Sean Payton's team and I felt that that was pretty much Eston
stone when the Broncos signed Sean Payton a year ago. So I think the
biggest question, and there's a separate questions, but what does a Sean Payton
quarterback actually look like? What are those characteristics? Usually it's somebody with good
foot athleticism. You know, they don't have to be a dynamic runner.
But they do have to be somebody with quick feet and able to manipulate the
pocket. You gotta have a little zip on the ball. You got to
be able to get the ball out quick. That's probably the one of the
bigger things is being able to identify and get it out quick. You got
an offense that is largely run eleven and nineteen yards down the field, most
of its inbreaking routes. It's in between the numbers. You gotta be able
to read the middle of the field pretty well, you know. I mean,
if you're looking for archetypes, the sizes have all varied. I mean
you've had guys like Drew Buries, Teddy Bridgewater, Jamis Winston, but all
those guys have, you know, have something in common. They can drive
the ball and they need to and you know they're guys that did get the
ball out fairly quick. Jamis, you know, threw a bit more interceptions
than the other guys, but mostly you know, they try to protect the
football and they can place the ball fairly accurately, you know, in between
the hashes. And I think that's that's kind of what you need. Somebody
who's quick processor and gets rid of the ball quick has enough velocity to make
the thrones and good enough placement to get the ball to his receivers between the
hashes and Ben. You know, we thought that Sean Payton was gonna come
here and be able to quote unquote fix Russell Wilson, you know, and
you know, thinking back over this the last two years and Russell Wilson's tenure
here, there was so much hype and excitement him coming in talking about you
know, winning not just one super Bowl but multiple Super Bowls. How would
you sum up the last two years here with Russell Wilson. I think I
think disappointment, you know from the fan base. You know, we finally
went out and got the quarterback, or we thought we did, and you
know, it didn't work out. You know, that first season, I
kind of just throw that away. With the bathwater, the Nathaniel Hackett thing,
that was a disaster on every level. So I kind of I don't
really hold that one against Russ too much. You look at this year and
Russ kind of got back to who he was. He's basically the same player
this year. He'd always been a guy who you know, is not particularly
great instructure, but thrives outside of it. When you need him to make
plays and create, he can create and you know in latent games he's dynamic
and still keep you in it. I think, you know, he cut
the turnovers down this year, which was which was good. But overall,
I think, you know, most fans probably look on this eras is disappointing.
It had promise, but it just it just didn't quite deliver well been
for I think it's since twenty sixteen the Broncos have had a multitude of starting
quarterbacks, so they would have their seventh different starting quarterback come Week one of
twenty twenty four? Who now steps into that role? Who is that guy?
Is it your guy Jimmy Garoppolo, which I know you love Jimmy because
Jimmy, you know, has great, great hair. Not going to attest
to that. But who's going to be that guy? Who's that starting quarterback
come Week one? Well, the number one trait of any great quarterback is
great hair. I mean, you know, first and foremost, go right.
I can look at John Elway when he got drafted, Dan Marino feathered
and lethal. You know, any any quarterback that has great hair is always
going to be a star. I know, I I mean Jimmy's a possibility,
I think less so because he got suspended for the first two games,
and that really kind of puts a dam for what you wanted to do.
You know, a low cost free agent option like a Sam Darnold or a
Carson Wentz is probably somebody you take a look at, and then you know,
to the draft. It's gonna be tough because I don't think any of
those first four quarterbacks are gonna be there twelve. I don't think any of
those first four quarterbacks is gonna be there at six. So it's gonna be
tough because I don't think they have the ammunition to get up without mortgaging even
more drafts, which is you know, sort of the problem to put him
here in the first place. And then whether or not you overdraft a guy
like a like a Bonnix at twelve. You know that that doesn't really I
don't know if that appeals to people out there, doesn't necessarily appeal to me.
You'd like to see them trade back a little bit, try to get
a little extra draft capital, and then maybe maybe pull the trigger on something
like that, so I could see a situation where you know, they wind
up with a Darnold and the Bonix and you kind of have a quarterback competition
and go from there. You know, I don't know, we'll have more
clarity on this in the next couple of weeks, because it sits right now.
You know, this kind of looks like a rebuilding year for the Broncos,
even if they're not saying it. You and talking about rebuilding there.
We had Nick costmeidor on a little bit earlier talking about, Okay, they
do the Russ Wilson move, Well what's next. They still have some more
moves coming up here, don't you think, Ben, just in order to
get right in with the cap numbers, Well, yeah, I mean you
were already fourteen million over the cap before this. You add in what's probably
going to be a thirty five million dollar charge for Russ that puts your forty
nine million over the cap. You're going to have to cut j Jones,
you let Josie Jewel walk. You're going you have to either extend or cut
Garrett Bowles. You're gonna have to let Lloyd Cushion Barry walk. You're gonna
cut Tim Patrick. You're probably gonna trade Jerry Judy. Uh And you look
at Cortland Sutton s if you can trade that contract. If not, you'll
need to either you know, extend or or cut it. And then you
know, Justin Simmons probably gonna probably extend him and ask him to take a
haircut for a couple of million. So, uh, there's certainly gonna be
some moves made coming up. I expect them to, uh, you know,
to reach into every every portion of the bag of tricks in an effort
to facilitate saving money. Ken Russell Wilson rebound from the past two years that
we've seen with the Denver Broncos and move on to another team. Yeah,
I think so. I think you've got four teams in the market for him.
Atlanta, who's who's kind of in the market for everybody they're looking at
cousins, uh, and that that could that could very well happen justin field.
That's a that's amazing. Russ Obviously his wife's from Atlanta, so you
know there's up in there. The Steelers, who I think Russell is camp
probably prefers because Arthur Smith is there New England, who's who's looking for a
quarterback. And then, believe it or not, in the division, the
Raiders. You know, the Raiders have Luke Gatzi there as the OC worked
with Justin Fields last year. Kind of the offense he runs is something that
Russ can't execute. So it'd be interesting to see if Russ, you know,
goes on a veteran minimum deal, goes across the division to the Rivals
and and tries to you know, resurrect himself there. Wy Didn't that be
some drama to play Russell Wilson twice a year? I mean, that would
be crazy. Ben. We had a text here from eight six six'
nine wondering about Jared Stidham. You know, they had said that this was
a big priority last offseason to bring in a guy like Stidham. Do you
think that he could be in play or is he nothing more than just a
stopgap kind of guy? I need a stop gap. I mean we've we've
seen over the last two seasons where he's come on to be the spark for
the Raiders and now the spot for the Broncos. And I wasn't really much
of a spark still him, you know. I mean I don't want to
I don't want to dog the guy, but he's just kind of a guy,
you kind of see what he is and what he is, and he's
got a few plays in him, but he also misses some plays, and
you know, I don't know if if a bunch of reps are going to
change that. I'd like to see him thrown in the mix and see if
he can continue to grow in year two. But what we saw last year,
I didn't see anything there that I could hang my hand on that said,
hey, this is the guy for the future. Now, with this
daycap money that the Broncos expected to be hit by, how does that change
in your opinion what the Broncos will be able to do once free agency opens
up on March thirteen. Well, I don't think it changes anything because I
think we kind of already factored that in. They're not going to be players
in the way you've won a free agency and they just they just don't have
the cap space right now. They're going to do everything they can to,
you know, to kind of restructure stuff and free up space where they can.
I do believe there will be some mid tier free agents signings, maybe
a Porner, maybe on the defensive line and maybe a tight end. We'll
see, But but as it sits right now, I mean, you know,
I don't think they're going to be major players. I think in that
first week of free agency, I highly doubt you're going to hear the dever
Broncos signing anyone. Ben, We'll let you out of here on this.
You know, based off of what you're saying, this is a huge off
season for the Broncos, a lot of changes, a lot of familiar faces
are going to no longer be around here. How much confidence do you have
in the Broncos leadership here to get this right and eventually get out from underneath
this darkness. Well, I have a lot of confidence in them in the
draft. I think they've done very well drafting over the last couple of years.
So I have a lot of confidence in that portion of it, and
it's going to be important to get that portion of it right. In terms
of free agency, my confidence is a little lower. You know, George
Payton's missed on some signings. You look at the edge rushers Randy Gregor and
Frank Carkos didn't pan out. You look at Sean Payton and the guys he
wanted to bring in, Mike McGlinchey, Ben Powers, those guys have not
exactly what the world on fire. Although they finally got the quarterback lit on
fire last year once or twice, I I, you know, less confident
in that portion of it. So this will be a big year. It's
important that they get everything right this year. There's no margin for errors.
So you know, my confidence in the draft is high. My confidence a
free agency. I'm gonna need them to show me something they hadn't shown me
before. Well, thank you so much for toughening this out and joining us
here to give us your insight. Now you need some tea, some honey,
maybe a little lemon. Hello, Martinelli's appisoder I got Hey, I
got a whole gallon of Martinelli's here, and they got to sent you the
picture earlier, so you know I'm doing my best. Hey, warm it
up in the pot, put a little cimon in it. If you want
to, put a dash kya and pepper man. Okay, that's the magic.
Okay, I'm taking doctor Berg's advice. All right, Ben, thank
you so much for hopping on and get right. We'll get you back here
tomorrow, all right. Care