WEBVTT

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Well, I mean, couldn't you
just kind of elaborate when you saw on

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Zach versus what you've seen on the
film all easier? Yeah, good question.

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I like his experience. You could
tell he's played, and I feel

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like he's got very live arm strength
and he's picking up the offense pretty quickly.

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Welcome to it, Broncos Country tonight. But with all Brian Dick Ferguson,

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Grant Smith was right man, Chris
Thomason, they get the good question

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from Sean Payton. You know,
we keep the scoreboard here in the studio

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because I constantly am fishing for the
good question from the coach. But Chris,

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Chris got it today down there at
the press conference. Chris Thompson from

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the Gazette joining us now, one
of my favorites out there. Chris,

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how you doing? See me?
Hey? Doing well? Yeah, it

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was great to get a quote good
question. Sometimes Peyton says a fair question.

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He never said in a bad question. But if he gives you a

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three word answer, he probably was
a bad question. So thanks for having

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me on, guys. Definitely,
Yeah, and we're out of practice.

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It's OTA's today. Obviously we're not
in full pads. It's early, but

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you know how everybody wants to scorecard, the report card, how are the

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quarterbacks doing all that stuff? In
my observation today, it's it's day one,

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so I don't want to get overreactive
to anything, but it felt like

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that, you know, bo Nicks
was was hit or busy through a few

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that were behind guys, but overall
wasn't bad. It was a, you

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know, a day one type performance. Zach Wilson has moments where you're like,

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this is a train wreck and moments
where you're like, wow, look

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at that. And Jared Stidham,
who I have affectionately named Jared Stidwater,

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reminded me of the the you know, kind of steady veteran who just kind

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of knows the offense, knows what
he's doing and doesn't rock the boat.

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Would you disagree with any of that
or agree with it or what did you

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think? Yeah? I wouldn't necessarily
disagree with any of that. I think

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set him. They kind of know
what he can do. I mean,

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I don't think he's gonna dramatically all
of a sudden improve over the last time

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we saw him against the Chargers and
the Raiders, So he's kind of the

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steady guy that you know what he
can do, and but they're certainly hoping

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that they can find somebody who's better. And you know, Nick has looked

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decent with his accuracy, and yeah, I agree with you on Zack Wilson,

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he'll throw a up. You know, he's kind of erratic. But

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he talked today about what a lot
of people have said that he thinks,

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under the tutelage of Sean Payton that
he can blossom with this fresh start.

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So we'll definitely see if that happens. And you can tell Sean Payton is

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very intrigued about Zach Wilson because he's
the I mean, they studied bow Nick's

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thoroughly. I think he's got a
good handle on him. But Zack Wilson

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is kind of a little bit of
a mystery to Sean Payton. He's probably

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saying to himself, the guy can't
go from number two in the draft to

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being as bad as he was with
the Jets. Just let me get my

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hands on him now. Chris today
also Stidham spoke, but he said,

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look, I'm not willing to allow
someone to come in here just be paaraphrasing

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for him and take position from me, So he's willing to compete. Do

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you see a situation where it's going
to be provided that all three quarterbacks have

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an equal stake in competing for the
starting spot. Well, that's been the

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case so far this week. Steadham, being the incumbent, got the first

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team reps on Tuesday, Zach Wilson
got him on Wednesday, bon Nicks got

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him today. Sean Payton said that
will continue for a while, but obviously

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that could change, and of course
only one you know, well, I

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see what things look like at the
mandatory mini camp, which is open for

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three days. But I guess technically
the media is only allowed there one day

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a week during ogas. So if
anything changes and Nick starts, for instance,

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running more often with the first team, you know, we might not

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know immediately because we'll just assume,
oh, it must be Knicks's day.

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This today, let's going to talk
with Chris Thomason from the Gazette. The

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second most common question I get asked
after anything about the quarterbacks is what's going

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on with Courtland Sutton? And Sutton
obviously sitting out and hoping for a reupp

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to deal. Sutton was very productive
last year with Russell Wilson, especially in

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terms of touchdowns. But at the
end of the day, with only two

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million dollars left on his deal,
I don't feel like he has exactly a

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ton of leverage. You look around
at what the Broncos did in the room

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this year that getting Tim Patrick back, they added Josh Reynolds, You've got

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little Jordan Humphrey, Brandon Johnson,
you drafted Vallet. It just doesn't feel

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like that Courtland Sutton has a lot
of leverage in these in this potential negotiation,

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even if I agree that he probably
does need to be spiffed on his

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deal, Yeah, I agree with
you there. I think the way Courtland

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Sutton would get leverage would be to
show up here and wow people in practice

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and then prove that he's a thirteen
million dollar receiver, which if he can't

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stayed on EI fifteen contracts and the
Broncos didn't do anything with them, he'd

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make thirteen million this year. But
as it stands now, the way he's

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stay, you know, not being
here, if other receivers kind of step

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up, and there might come a
time where the Broncos say, hey,

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he's not a thirteen million dollar receiver. We're not going to give them money

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once and who knows if not trade
them, even release them. I mean,

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I think it's a long shot they
would release them. But the bottom

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line is the two million that he's
guaranteed. If you released him, that

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amount would be offset because he's certainly
going to sign with somebody else for more

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than two million, So they would
get that two million back, So it

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will cost them nothing essentially to release
them. I don't think it'll come to

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that, but hopefully Sudden will realize
that he needs to just get in here

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and prove once again that he's the
best receiver on the team this season.

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Replaced in Justin Simmons. How is
it that the Broncos do that? Known

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as though they have a room full
of young and maybe the most experience in

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the room is five years, So
how do they get that accomplished? Well,

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you know, Brandon Jones was talking
to some folks after he signed.

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I was talking to Lewis Oliver,
who's a former Pro Bowl safety with the

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Miami Dolphins and follows him close out
there, and I was like, well,

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Brandon Jones is so good, hoping
he wasn't a regular starting safety,

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to which Oliver said, you know, yeah, that's kind of a mystery.

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He should have been. So I
think Jones could be a guy who

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was ascending. So I think he's
definitely one of the starters, and I

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think PJ. Locke and Cayden Stern's
battle for the other spot. I mean,

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Locke obviously closed last year pretty well, but keep mind Sterns was listed

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at even with Kareem Jackson on the
depth charts before last season, and then

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of course he got hurt and was
out for the season in Week one.

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Oh yeah, with Chris Thomason,
I thought, you know, Joshua and

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especially Lucas Kroll had decent days today. You've got to figure that Kroll has

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has got to be a heavy factor
in their plans. I know they've talked

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Aboutdulsage and if he can be healthy, but he's still not. He's still

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out there. We saw what Troutman
is and what he isn't last year,

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and the rest of the guys they
had just really don't inspire. Nate Atkins

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is a serviceable h back, but
we don't know anything about doing Leonard and

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Thomas y Asman. Kroll looked like
he could be something six six sixty runs

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a four to six forty. What
do you think of his chances this year?

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You know, Sean Payton loves him, and he was extolling his virtues

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last season when he had never caught
a single pass ever in an NFL game.

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I mean they even threw to him
if you remember at the end of

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that Texans game on the last play
that was intercepted. But I'm now reading

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from the quote sheets and Sean Payton
is even more in love with Lucas Kroll.

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He said today, if you didn't
notice, every one in the media

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was looking down at the rosters to
see who number eighty five was. I

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said, somedays they're going to know
who eighty five is. He's looking sharp,

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so you know that might You know, with Greg Golchick's all of his

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injury problems and what have you,
a lot of people were saying, well,

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why didn't they draft the tight end? But you know, certainly one

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reason why they didn't is Peyton's love
for Lucas Kroll. So when we look

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at the the Broncos moving forward,
they have a lot of depth at a

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lot of positions. So this summer
is going to be real key for certain

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guys. One guy who I feel
is going to be key for is Tim

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Patrick, who recently changed his numbers
from what did you see today about Tim

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that gives you any type of idea
that hey, listen, Tim can come

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back stronger than ever the season.
Yeah, he looked you know, solid

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today. I mean he looked like
he was looking a year ago when everybody

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thought he was going to bounce back
and have a nice season after missing one

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year due to injury. Now it's
two. But his injury now is pretty

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far behind him because if he wasn't
on injury reserve last year in forrest to

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miss the entire season, they wouldn't
have been out of the question that maybe

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he could have returned at the end
of the season because he was out on

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a side field late last season,
you know, doing some work running around.

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So he seems to be well passed
his injury, his achilles tear there.

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So yeah, I think he's another
guy that's putting the pressure on Courtland

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Sutton. I mean, if Josh
Reynolds looks good, Tim Patrick looks good,

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if these rookies are okay, Troy
Franklin, Devon Velly, you know,

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who knows, maybe they'll say,
you know, do we really need

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to spend thirteen million on Courtland Sutton
talking with Chris Thomason from The Gazette,

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Chris, you know, one of
the things that I don't if it bothered

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me necessarily, but it's one of
the things that made me raise my eyebrow

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is the way that they sort of
didn't address the offensive line in this offseason.

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You know, we saw Russell Wilson
take a lot of sack last year,

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and I guess the question is is
do the Broncos feel like that's on

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Russ because they really didn't do much
for this offensive line. Well, Kushberry

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left the free agency, and it's
sort of a Wattenberg or Forsyth or must

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have for next man up. The
starters, the rest of the starters are

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all the same last year, from
left to right, Bulls, Powers,

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Might's McGlinchey. They did add Matt
Pert as a backup. They did draft

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Nick gr Julio, which you know
that glorious mullet mustache Combo's fantastic. But

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at the end of the day,
it doesn't feel like they did much to

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address the offensive line. Is that
because they feel like that the sacks were

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on Russ last year? Yeah,
I think they a do feel that way

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that a lot of the sacks could
have been avoided and b as you know

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that went out And the first two
big name free agents they signed in March

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of twenty twenty three were offensive lineman
Ben Powers and Mike mcglinchy. Those are

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Sean Payton guys, and he's,
you know, maybe he's going to go

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down with the ship with those guys
if they don't work out. So I

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think having those guys and also Quinn
Mineharns something to have a wall caliber season

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even though he didn't make the Pro
Bowl. And you know, Garrett Bowles,

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I think it's the case of,
you know, where they're going to

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find somebody better unless they you know, doled out twenty million, which is

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money they didn't have this year.
And then I think at center they lost

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Lloyd Gushenberry. But center is kind
of a position where you can, you

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know, just find guys, you
know, maybe guys who were laid around

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draft choices, free agent pickups.
And they think they at least got three

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guys who will battle for the job
in Luke Wattenberg's Zam must Defer and Alex

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Forsyth Chris I know it's kind of
early in the process where the Broncos having

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their first OTAs and the team getting
together. Is there a certain position,

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not quarterback, that you feel that
not just only there's going to be a

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major competition, is something of a
problematic position for the Denver Broncos. Yeah.

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I think the running back battle is
going to be fascinating. They got

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Audric that's to me, in the
fifth round. A lot of people thought

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he would go before that, and
then they got you know, a nice

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back out of Memphis in the second
round, and you know, undrafted guy

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Watson out of Memphis. So I
think those guys are going to push definitely

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for roster spots, and there's only
so many spots. And if you look

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at Julia McLoughlin, figure, you
know, he's on a rookie contract,

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he's cheap, and he's probably going
to stick around. Then you look at

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Javonte Williams and some a GP Ryan
who have no guaranteed money left in their

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deals, and one, if not
both, could be in jeopardy. Chris,

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what's the sleeper story? What's what's
that Broncos player that nobody's paying attention

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to? That By training camp,
the fans are going to know the name.

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Well, oh, here's one guy
fraud as levelle Bailey, who's undrafted

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linebacker at a Fresno State and I
did a story in him a couple of

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weeks ago. You might recall George
Payton at the owners meeting said well,

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we got to get more athletic at
linebacker. Well, they didn't draft a

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linebacker. And then Bailey was telling
me that Sean Payton called him not once,

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but twice during the seventh round begging
him to sign with the Broncos as

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an undrafted CREA agent, which he
did. So that's kind of out of

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the ordinary. Is the head coach
calling twice and then now Drew Sanders,

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a linebacker has gone down, So
you know he might be a guy.

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I'm not predicting he's going to start
or anything, but certainly guy who could

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make the fifty three man roster.
Chris Thomason reporting that Levell Bailey's going to

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be an all Pro this year.
We got you. We got you down

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for that. When I appreciate your
time tonight, Chris. We got a

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junior. Yeah, made all decade
and as undrafted and all will be all

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decade. Chris is gonna be writing
this Hall of Fame speech. It's alright,

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it's already started right now, so
uh no, Chris, Hey,

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we really appreciate the time. Now
we gotta roll. We got up against

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the break. But you guys can
follow Chris on Twitter at Chris Thomas and

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of course at the at the Gazette. Man, we appreciate your time this

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evening. Thanks for absolutely sir.
Take care. Chris thomasin from the Gazette