We're gonna go right out to the ka Comsperl hotline though, and bring Ryan
Michaels on because we're gonna go inside the numbers, No, inside the numbers
with Ryan Michael. Ryan, how you doing this evening? Doing well?
Ben? Nick? How are you guys doing pretty well? Gave you the
homework assignment. It's about the five greatest rookie seasons in Broncos franchise history.
And I've seen some previewing on this stuff, and I'm going to tell you
Nick Nick has posted some of it in his group chat the former players,
and this one, uh, this one I think is going to get some
some conversation going on Twitter. So without further Ado's jump right into it.
What are the five greatest rookie seasons in Denver Broncos history? Could be honest
with you, Ben, there were so many. I couldn't keep it to
a top five. I had to expend it to a top seven. And
there's some honorable mentions that I put out on Twitter. But for the sake
of brevity, I'll start off with number seven and work my way up to
number one. Number seven, I have one of my favorite defensive acts of
all times. Steve Atwater came in second place for Defensive Review of the Year
honors. Three interceptions, one hundred and twenty nine total tackles. The Broncos
in eighty nine had the number one scoring defense in the league, won the
AFC Championship at number Did we lose Ryn? Sounds like we lost him.
I can hear you, guys. Okay, yeah we lost here. Sell
let's reset that number two, all right? So we got number six Goose
Gonslin and how this is an old school A Ring of Famer. Okay,
nineteen sixty, first year in Broncos history. He was a first team All
Pro selection. He hauled in eleven interceptions, which not only led the AFL
that year, but to this day remains the Broncos single season franchise record.
At number five, this is one of my personal favorites. I have Ryan
Klfty in two thousand and eight and he was a second team All Pro selection,
didn't make the Pro Bowl, which says everything it needs to say about
what I think about the Pro Bowl. Actually came in third place for Offensive
Rookie of the Year honors, which is not a small feat for a left
tackle. And since you don't have stats, specifically on left tackles. I'm
going to share a quarterback that that is just as much a credit to Ryan
Clady as it is to Jay Cutler. In two thousand and eight, Jay
Cutler led the NFL with a one point eight percent sack percentage. There have
been eighty two seasons an NFL history where a quarterback is thrown six hundred or
more passes. Cutler's one point eight percent sack percentage is the second highest in
the history of the NFL. Only Dan Marino in nineteen eighty eight was thatack
one percent of the time was better. Number four I have Terrell Davis nineteen
ninety five. He put up one thy four hundred and eighty four total yard,
eight touchdowns, average four point seven yards per carry, which is tied
for the second best mark of his Hall of Fame career with nineteen ninety seven.
Only ninety eight did the average more yards per carry, and he came
in second place for Offensive Rookie of the Year. Now, this might be
a little bit controversial having Mike Anderson over Torell Davis, but Mike Anderson in
two thousand did win Offensive Rookie of the Year honors. He put up one
thousand, six hundred and fifty six total yards from scrimmage, fifteen total touchdowns,
and averaged five yards per carry. Number two I have Von Miller came
in top ten in sacks. He had eleven and a half and he actually
missed a game, so he could have been even higher. Twenty nine quarterback
hit, sixty four tackles, two forced fumbles, and four passes defended.
He was a second team All Pro selection, and he was named Defensive Rookie
of the Year and at number one, and this one wasn't too much of
a struggle. I have Clinton Portis in two thousand and two, he put
up one thousand, eight hundred seventy two total yards from scrimmage, seventeen total
touchdowns. He played in all sixteen games, but he only started twelve of
those games. So shout out and thank you to Clinton for retweeting that before
I hopped on. That's my number one pick for the greatest rookie season in
Broncos franchise history. Wow, that's a bunch of great rookies. But the
one thing that jumps out to me in this seven players sample size, there's
a majority of offensive players on the board and a lot of them playing for
Mike Shanahan. So what does that say about Mike Shanahan and his creativity Because
there's three running backs on this list. I mean, what Mike Shanahan was
able to do in the ground game during his tenure in the NFL maybe second
to night because it wasn't just Torell Davis in his Hall of Fame career,
but you had Alandi Scarry in nineteen ninety nine stepping in rushing for over eleven
hundred yards. You had Mike Anderson, as we just mentioned, offensive work
of the Year, and two years later you're plugging Clinton Portis and he's the
offensive rookie of the year when he moved over to Washington. Alfred Morrison his
first year rushed for over fourteen hundred yards alone. So if there's a term
running back whisperer, maybe Mike Shanahan would be that in addition to being a
quarterback whisperer. Yeah. I mean a lot of people I think you would
would agree with you that you know, and often running backs have been called
plug and play in the Shanahan system, but there were there were special The
thing that was probably most impressive to me was what Mike Anderson did. And
I understand, you know Clinton and all that kind of stuff. I you
know that, but Mike Anderson was a guy who'd been a Marine for four
years. Uh, you know, into college, comes out, Uh.
You know, he gets in with the uh with the with the Denver Broncos
as a six round draft pick, and then you see him in his rookie
season, which he only started. I believe it was twelve games a year.
I'd have to go back and double check. Uh, but he had
more yardage than than any running back had in the NFL last year. I
mean, Christian McCaffrey had had, you know, fourteen hundred yards. He
was he was above that. Christian McCaffrey had fourteen touchdowns last year. You
know, Anderston had what fifteen is a rookie year, which would have been
tied for uh for a second in touchdowns last year, which by the way,
would have been tied. Two of those guys were quarterbacks. I mean
Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts, you know, sneaking him in goal line stuff
or he moster would thank the only guy that that'sur passed that another guy who's
in that system. I which of these jumps out at you as as I
mean, I get that we will ranking them as a rookie, but what
was the most impressive feat to you? Whether or not it was Clinton Portis
there at number one or not, what was the most impressive thing about these
rookie seasons? I would say, arguably the most impressive may have been Ryan
Clady in two thousand and eight, because for Cutler to have the second best
sack percentage in the history of the NFL, and I posted to Twitter the
top eight sack percentage seasons of all time with six hundred and one passes.
So it's a big sample size, right, So all the other names in
the list are all either first ballot Hall of Fame quarterbacks or future first ballot
Hall of Fame quarterback. You have Marino one, Cutler two, Breeze three,
Roethlisberger four, Peyton Manning five, Breeze again at six, Peyton again
at seven, also tied with Marino again, So there's a tie for seventh
place. For Ryan Clady to step in as a rookie protecting the blindside for
a quarterback who only had two other top ten finishes in sack percentage in his
career, it's one of the most astonishing statistics in Broncos franchise history. Fascinating
stuff. We talk a lot about the running backs in the Shannian system.
The Shannan system is not we run here anymore. But Denver does have a
great lineage of running backs. They drafted one in this past draft in order
guest Man and more Dame, what kind of rookie season could we maybe see
out of the rookie You know, I don't know if Audric is going to
be quite at the level of a Clinton Portis, or a Mike Anderson,
or even necessarily an Orlando Sciary. But what I would say to his I
like the comp that you gave us last week for Mary and Barbara, both
of them standing five to eleven. Barbara was to eighteen estimates two twenty one.
I like him as a first and second down back. I like him
as a red zone thread. You know, he's a smart football player,
great pre staff vision, downfield power. He's slow off the snap, so
it takes him a little while to get going in the red zone. For
a Broncos team that only scored five rushing touchdowns amongst running backs last year in
seventeen games, Audri estime in his final year of college football, produced eleven
rushing touchdowns in his final five games. I'd like to see what we can
do plugging him into some red zone situations, giving bo Nicks a little bit
of ring to brief. All right, let's take a look in the famous
crystal ball and look ahead, not backwards, and let's see if we can
project maybe what bow Nick's step line might be after this season campaign. So
tell me, have you dug into those stats, snaps and those stats and
tell us what do you think those numbers could actually be. Nick, I'm
gonna channel your optimism here and you know we're going to hope for the best.
You know, the offensive genius label has followed him for a very long
time, and obviously, as we've talked about in recent months, he's had
a lot of struggles without your recent quarterback. So this is the ultimate opportunity
for Sean Payton to show exactly who he is as a play caller. So,
looking at the number of passing attempts we've seen out of Sean Payton offenses
in recent years, say Bonnicks throws five hundred and fifty passes and he's able
to start all seventeen games, I have him completing three fifty two, which
would be sixty four percent for foury fifteen passing yards, So he'd be averaging
seven point three yards per attempt, twenty five touchdowns to thirteen picks, a
ninety one point one passer rating. I think somewhere in that ballpark would be
a very optimistic stat line, provided he's able to start all seventeen games,
and provided Sean Payton is able to channel that offensive genius that we all know
that he has in him. So I'm looking forward to see what both can
do in the system. Wow, that's amazing. Now I want to go
back for just a second. Now, Yeah, you mentioned von milone your
list, So I want to go back and revisit the twenty eleven draft because
I'll give you the top four picks and then I'll get to my question.
Cam went off the board first, then I believe it was Vaughn, Marcel
Darius and AJ Green. Now with the Broncos facing off against Cam new then
the Panthers and Super Bowl fifty. Now when we look at it, I
mean Cam's no longer playing, Vaughn is still playing. Per say all about
the better of the pick. Was it the Panthers? What was the Broncos?
You know, as tempted as I am to very quickly just say von
Miller, and as if it's obvious, I do want to give Cam Newton
a little bit of credit. And I just recently, as a matter of
fact, wrote a piece for the Pro Football Hall of fam that's going to
be coming out shortly about how dominant he was in twenty fifteen. So Cam
Newton at the peak of his power was as good as Von Miller was at
the peak of his power. For me, it's really a master of how
did they play throughout the totality of their careers. VN is an eight time
Pro Bowl selection of three time First Team All Pro. Cam made it to
three Pro Bowls and had that one first Team All Pro MVP season in twenty
fifteen. So Von Miller unquestionably a better football player at his position than Cam
was at his But the quarterback position does provide a lot more value. It's
an impact the results of games. Given the reality that we picked up Peyton
Manning in twenty twelve, which certainly would not have been the case if Cam
Newton hypothetically had fallen to number two. And we took him. I'm very
happy with the fact that we took von Miller, and I think that if
there was any doubt about who was the better choice between the two, Super
Bowl fifty is the evidence that provides the answer to that question. Talking with
Ryan Michael at the Ryan Michael on Twitter, Sorry I had to coughing fit
there for a minute there. I think as we talk about rookie performances,
all eyes here in Broncos Country are obviously all the number twelve pick. Bo
Dick's drafted like quarterback out of Oregon. You know, he obviously he's got
to beat out Zach Wilson Jarret Stidham, which I you know, I'm not
gonna say it's a foregone conclusion, but certainly would be disappointing if he did
not. What can we expect out of the rookie in his debut season,
you know, I think for bone Nicks, the most important thing is going
to be him the learning Sean Payton's system, and it's going to be a
tremendous challenge for the team to provide him with the supports in terms of pass
protection, in terms of the running game, and certainly in terms of defensive
performance. I'm excited to see what our defense can do on the opposite side
of the ball, because if we're going to be in the bottom quarter of
scoring defenses this year, you're going to force bone Nicks into a situation where
he's going to throw a lot of picks. Rookies throw picks. Ask Peydon
Man and he'll tell you. And so I think bone Knicks will have an
opportunity to be, as I said last week, a poor man's Drew Brees,
provided he's given the supports that he needs to succeed. I'm also confident
that he'll get the starting nod for Week one, and we hope that he
stays healthy and is able to play through all seventeen games. For me,
you look at the rookie season as the ultimate learning opportunity. Worked for Paydon
Man and worked for Dan Marino, and you saw how much better those two
quarterbacks were in their second year. So I'm optimistic in terms of what we'll
see from Bow, but I'm not expecting a Robert Griffin the third CD Stroud
type of rookie season. I don't think we have the team in place to
be able to support such a year, right Ryan, does that change because
you mentioned support having a support system, and I'm really big on quarterbacks more
importantly having a support system. But with Troy Franklin, who is a rookie
and we're talking about, you know, being on your list of top rookie
performers, could this now benefit both Troy Franklin, which now benefits bon Knicks
and put him higher on this list based on his overall performance. I think
it has the potential because the chemistry that they had at Oregon was arguably second
to nine in all of college football, and there's definitely going to be an
opening for that wide receiver two spot with the Broncos this year. So,
you know, Franklin was a guy who ranked third in the nation and touchdown
deceptions last year fourteen. Some of them were pretty deep, which is not
so bad for a guy who's claimed to be the king of the screen game.
In bon Nicks. The two of them have proven they can stretch the
field. So if we get something even comparable to what Eddie Royle did in
two thousand and eight with Jay Cutler, I think that will be a good
foundation of the future moving forward. Ryan, we appreciate it as always the
Ryan Michael on Twitter. What do you what are you cooking up for us?
Next time? You know, you've got to give me an assignment.
I've been so caught up with the NBA playoffs, to be honest with you,
haven't given it a lot of thoughts. So we'll see what we can
do later this evening. But if you have any ideas, yeah, we'll
work on it. Areas of emphasis in which the Broncos maybe you weren't as
productive this past season with with Sean Payton, that they can improve on in
year two. I like that. Let's do it. Let's do it.
Absolutely, ran Michael that the Bryan Michael on Twitter looking forward to it.
Always great going inside the numbers with him.