Well, I mean, couldn't you just kind of elaborate when you saw on
Zach versus what you've seen on the film all easier? Yeah, good question.
I like his experience. You could tell he's played, and I feel
like he's got very live arm strength and he's picking up the offense pretty quickly.
Welcome to it, Broncos Country tonight. But with all Brian Dick Ferguson,
Grant Smith was right man, Chris Thomason, they get the good question
from Sean Payton. You know, we keep the scoreboard here in the studio
because I constantly am fishing for the good question from the coach. But Chris,
Chris got it today down there at the press conference. Chris Thompson from
the Gazette joining us now, one of my favorites out there. Chris,
how you doing? See me? Hey? Doing well? Yeah, it
was great to get a quote good question. Sometimes Peyton says a fair question.
He never said in a bad question. But if he gives you a
three word answer, he probably was a bad question. So thanks for having
me on, guys. Definitely, Yeah, and we're out of practice.
It's OTA's today. Obviously we're not in full pads. It's early, but
you know how everybody wants to scorecard, the report card, how are the
quarterbacks doing all that stuff? In my observation today, it's it's day one,
so I don't want to get overreactive to anything, but it felt like
that, you know, bo Nicks was was hit or busy through a few
that were behind guys, but overall wasn't bad. It was a, you
know, a day one type performance. Zach Wilson has moments where you're like,
this is a train wreck and moments where you're like, wow, look
at that. And Jared Stidham, who I have affectionately named Jared Stidwater,
reminded me of the the you know, kind of steady veteran who just kind
of knows the offense, knows what he's doing and doesn't rock the boat.
Would you disagree with any of that or agree with it or what did you
think? Yeah? I wouldn't necessarily disagree with any of that. I think
set him. They kind of know what he can do. I mean,
I don't think he's gonna dramatically all of a sudden improve over the last time
we saw him against the Chargers and the Raiders, So he's kind of the
steady guy that you know what he can do, and but they're certainly hoping
that they can find somebody who's better. And you know, Nick has looked
decent with his accuracy, and yeah, I agree with you on Zack Wilson,
he'll throw a up. You know, he's kind of erratic. But
he talked today about what a lot of people have said that he thinks,
under the tutelage of Sean Payton that he can blossom with this fresh start.
So we'll definitely see if that happens. And you can tell Sean Payton is
very intrigued about Zach Wilson because he's the I mean, they studied bow Nick's
thoroughly. I think he's got a good handle on him. But Zack Wilson
is kind of a little bit of a mystery to Sean Payton. He's probably
saying to himself, the guy can't go from number two in the draft to
being as bad as he was with the Jets. Just let me get my
hands on him now. Chris today also Stidham spoke, but he said,
look, I'm not willing to allow someone to come in here just be paaraphrasing
for him and take position from me, So he's willing to compete. Do
you see a situation where it's going to be provided that all three quarterbacks have
an equal stake in competing for the starting spot. Well, that's been the
case so far this week. Steadham, being the incumbent, got the first
team reps on Tuesday, Zach Wilson got him on Wednesday, bon Nicks got
him today. Sean Payton said that will continue for a while, but obviously
that could change, and of course only one you know, well, I
see what things look like at the mandatory mini camp, which is open for
three days. But I guess technically the media is only allowed there one day
a week during ogas. So if anything changes and Nick starts, for instance,
running more often with the first team, you know, we might not
know immediately because we'll just assume, oh, it must be Knicks's day.
This today, let's going to talk with Chris Thomason from the Gazette. The
second most common question I get asked after anything about the quarterbacks is what's going
on with Courtland Sutton? And Sutton obviously sitting out and hoping for a reupp
to deal. Sutton was very productive last year with Russell Wilson, especially in
terms of touchdowns. But at the end of the day, with only two
million dollars left on his deal, I don't feel like he has exactly a
ton of leverage. You look around at what the Broncos did in the room
this year that getting Tim Patrick back, they added Josh Reynolds, You've got
little Jordan Humphrey, Brandon Johnson, you drafted Vallet. It just doesn't feel
like that Courtland Sutton has a lot of leverage in these in this potential negotiation,
even if I agree that he probably does need to be spiffed on his
deal, Yeah, I agree with you there. I think the way Courtland
Sutton would get leverage would be to show up here and wow people in practice
and then prove that he's a thirteen million dollar receiver, which if he can't
stayed on EI fifteen contracts and the Broncos didn't do anything with them, he'd
make thirteen million this year. But as it stands now, the way he's
stay, you know, not being here, if other receivers kind of step
up, and there might come a time where the Broncos say, hey,
he's not a thirteen million dollar receiver. We're not going to give them money
once and who knows if not trade them, even release them. I mean,
I think it's a long shot they would release them. But the bottom
line is the two million that he's guaranteed. If you released him, that
amount would be offset because he's certainly going to sign with somebody else for more
than two million, So they would get that two million back, So it
will cost them nothing essentially to release them. I don't think it'll come to
that, but hopefully Sudden will realize that he needs to just get in here
and prove once again that he's the best receiver on the team this season.
Replaced in Justin Simmons. How is it that the Broncos do that? Known
as though they have a room full of young and maybe the most experience in
the room is five years, So how do they get that accomplished? Well,
you know, Brandon Jones was talking to some folks after he signed.
I was talking to Lewis Oliver, who's a former Pro Bowl safety with the
Miami Dolphins and follows him close out there, and I was like, well,
Brandon Jones is so good, hoping he wasn't a regular starting safety,
to which Oliver said, you know, yeah, that's kind of a mystery.
He should have been. So I think Jones could be a guy who
was ascending. So I think he's definitely one of the starters, and I
think PJ. Locke and Cayden Stern's battle for the other spot. I mean,
Locke obviously closed last year pretty well, but keep mind Sterns was listed
at even with Kareem Jackson on the depth charts before last season, and then
of course he got hurt and was out for the season in Week one.
Oh yeah, with Chris Thomason, I thought, you know, Joshua and
especially Lucas Kroll had decent days today. You've got to figure that Kroll has
has got to be a heavy factor in their plans. I know they've talked
Aboutdulsage and if he can be healthy, but he's still not. He's still
out there. We saw what Troutman is and what he isn't last year,
and the rest of the guys they had just really don't inspire. Nate Atkins
is a serviceable h back, but we don't know anything about doing Leonard and
Thomas y Asman. Kroll looked like he could be something six six sixty runs
a four to six forty. What do you think of his chances this year?
You know, Sean Payton loves him, and he was extolling his virtues
last season when he had never caught a single pass ever in an NFL game.
I mean they even threw to him if you remember at the end of
that Texans game on the last play that was intercepted. But I'm now reading
from the quote sheets and Sean Payton is even more in love with Lucas Kroll.
He said today, if you didn't notice, every one in the media
was looking down at the rosters to see who number eighty five was. I
said, somedays they're going to know who eighty five is. He's looking sharp,
so you know that might You know, with Greg Golchick's all of his
injury problems and what have you, a lot of people were saying, well,
why didn't they draft the tight end? But you know, certainly one
reason why they didn't is Peyton's love for Lucas Kroll. So when we look
at the the Broncos moving forward, they have a lot of depth at a
lot of positions. So this summer is going to be real key for certain
guys. One guy who I feel is going to be key for is Tim
Patrick, who recently changed his numbers from what did you see today about Tim
that gives you any type of idea that hey, listen, Tim can come
back stronger than ever the season. Yeah, he looked you know, solid
today. I mean he looked like he was looking a year ago when everybody
thought he was going to bounce back and have a nice season after missing one
year due to injury. Now it's two. But his injury now is pretty
far behind him because if he wasn't on injury reserve last year in forrest to
miss the entire season, they wouldn't have been out of the question that maybe
he could have returned at the end of the season because he was out on
a side field late last season, you know, doing some work running around.
So he seems to be well passed his injury, his achilles tear there.
So yeah, I think he's another guy that's putting the pressure on Courtland
Sutton. I mean, if Josh Reynolds looks good, Tim Patrick looks good,
if these rookies are okay, Troy Franklin, Devon Velly, you know,
who knows, maybe they'll say, you know, do we really need
to spend thirteen million on Courtland Sutton talking with Chris Thomason from The Gazette,
Chris, you know, one of the things that I don't if it bothered
me necessarily, but it's one of the things that made me raise my eyebrow
is the way that they sort of didn't address the offensive line in this offseason.
You know, we saw Russell Wilson take a lot of sack last year,
and I guess the question is is do the Broncos feel like that's on
Russ because they really didn't do much for this offensive line. Well, Kushberry
left the free agency, and it's sort of a Wattenberg or Forsyth or must
have for next man up. The starters, the rest of the starters are
all the same last year, from left to right, Bulls, Powers,
Might's McGlinchey. They did add Matt Pert as a backup. They did draft
Nick gr Julio, which you know that glorious mullet mustache Combo's fantastic. But
at the end of the day, it doesn't feel like they did much to
address the offensive line. Is that because they feel like that the sacks were
on Russ last year? Yeah, I think they a do feel that way
that a lot of the sacks could have been avoided and b as you know
that went out And the first two big name free agents they signed in March
of twenty twenty three were offensive lineman Ben Powers and Mike mcglinchy. Those are
Sean Payton guys, and he's, you know, maybe he's going to go
down with the ship with those guys if they don't work out. So I
think having those guys and also Quinn Mineharns something to have a wall caliber season
even though he didn't make the Pro Bowl. And you know, Garrett Bowles,
I think it's the case of, you know, where they're going to
find somebody better unless they you know, doled out twenty million, which is
money they didn't have this year. And then I think at center they lost
Lloyd Gushenberry. But center is kind of a position where you can, you
know, just find guys, you know, maybe guys who were laid around
draft choices, free agent pickups. And they think they at least got three
guys who will battle for the job in Luke Wattenberg's Zam must Defer and Alex
Forsyth Chris I know it's kind of early in the process where the Broncos having
their first OTAs and the team getting together. Is there a certain position,
not quarterback, that you feel that not just only there's going to be a
major competition, is something of a problematic position for the Denver Broncos. Yeah.
I think the running back battle is going to be fascinating. They got
Audric that's to me, in the fifth round. A lot of people thought
he would go before that, and then they got you know, a nice
back out of Memphis in the second round, and you know, undrafted guy
Watson out of Memphis. So I think those guys are going to push definitely
for roster spots, and there's only so many spots. And if you look
at Julia McLoughlin, figure, you know, he's on a rookie contract,
he's cheap, and he's probably going to stick around. Then you look at
Javonte Williams and some a GP Ryan who have no guaranteed money left in their
deals, and one, if not both, could be in jeopardy. Chris,
what's the sleeper story? What's what's that Broncos player that nobody's paying attention
to? That By training camp, the fans are going to know the name.
Well, oh, here's one guy fraud as levelle Bailey, who's undrafted
linebacker at a Fresno State and I did a story in him a couple of
weeks ago. You might recall George Payton at the owners meeting said well,
we got to get more athletic at linebacker. Well, they didn't draft a
linebacker. And then Bailey was telling me that Sean Payton called him not once,
but twice during the seventh round begging him to sign with the Broncos as
an undrafted CREA agent, which he did. So that's kind of out of
the ordinary. Is the head coach calling twice and then now Drew Sanders,
a linebacker has gone down, So you know he might be a guy.
I'm not predicting he's going to start or anything, but certainly guy who could
make the fifty three man roster. Chris Thomason reporting that Levell Bailey's going to
be an all Pro this year. We got you. We got you down
for that. When I appreciate your time tonight, Chris. We got a
junior. Yeah, made all decade and as undrafted and all will be all
decade. Chris is gonna be writing this Hall of Fame speech. It's alright,
it's already started right now, so uh no, Chris, Hey,
we really appreciate the time. Now we gotta roll. We got up against
the break. But you guys can follow Chris on Twitter at Chris Thomas and
of course at the at the Gazette. Man, we appreciate your time this
evening. Thanks for absolutely sir. Take care. Chris thomasin from the Gazette