Speaker 1: Then I need you to do three things here. Three things, okay,
Speaker 1: three things today. First things, First, I need you to
Speaker 1: get your picture taken next to Gwyneth Paltrow at a
Speaker 1: cold Play concert wearing a gold suit made of rich
Speaker 1: Corinthian leather and top gun v neck tshirt. Then I
Speaker 1: need you to link up with Chris Baron spin Doctors,
Speaker 1: write a song about Broncos Country Tonight call State Sponsored. Okay,
Speaker 1: you need to pair up with Stetson Cologne. Oh God,
Speaker 1: create your own vet blend. You get all three of
Speaker 1: those things done, you have a seventy chance of getting
Speaker 1: back on the Taking It for Granted podcast.
Speaker 2: Wow, you got every reference for the last five years
Speaker 2: and there that is well done.
Speaker 3: Certain wells a boss always when that clip gets played,
Speaker 3: you guys know what's coming up next. Lana Sanderson, the
Speaker 3: mile High Hule right out if the wait comments of
Speaker 3: hot Linelands, how you doing thisce eving.
Speaker 1: Doing good? Then you know, I was surfing through Spotify
Speaker 1: the other day and I found that song that you
Speaker 1: wrote with Chris Barren. I'm just surprised that you decided
Speaker 1: to go with a Poka theme, but the accordion solo
Speaker 1: from you absolutely tremendous man. Well done, very well done, some.
Speaker 2: Of my best work.
Speaker 3: People don't know that I've an accomplished accordion and harpsichord player,
Speaker 3: So you know, really, I'm just trying to break back
Speaker 3: your relevant reference, irrelevant musical interests for people, as well
Speaker 3: as promulgating German music, which is my heritage just because
Speaker 3: of my love of the Hasselhoff.
Speaker 1: Yes, sir, Yes, sir. How are you doing it? Man?
Speaker 1: I'm good to talk to you.
Speaker 2: I'm doing good.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 2: We're coming off the three game win streak.
Speaker 3: You know, the Broncos won three in a row, and
Speaker 3: I think that people probably through five games, did not
Speaker 3: see this is where the team would be.
Speaker 2: Some of it's by.
Speaker 3: Hook, some of us by crook, but they managed to
Speaker 3: get it done. They've been flashes for the offense and
Speaker 3: the Tampa and.
Speaker 2: The Raiders game.
Speaker 3: Where do you feel about this team right now through
Speaker 3: five games?
Speaker 1: Well, quite honestly, I have to give a big shout
Speaker 1: out to Van Shijosef in the defense and what he's
Speaker 1: able to do with the players that he had, because
Speaker 1: coming into the season, you know, it was so hard
Speaker 1: to project what this defense would look like, specifically against
Speaker 1: the run. You know, you move on from Justin Simmons,
Speaker 1: you bring in Malcolm Roach, bring in Jonathan Franklin Myers.
Speaker 1: But the issues that you had last year, the depth
Speaker 1: concerns that he had coming into the season, Van Joseph
Speaker 1: has this defense playing at a probably the best defense
Speaker 1: in the NFL level right now. Like they're third in
Speaker 1: yards per game, second against the yards play, first in
Speaker 1: EPA per play, Like they're getting after it in a
Speaker 1: very special way, and like there's so many different ways
Speaker 1: you can break this defense down, but it all starts
Speaker 1: with Dan Joseph in the aggressiveness that he is chilling.
Speaker 1: Obviously the forty one point eight percent blitz percentage right
Speaker 1: now highest in the NFL. Utilizing that secondary which I
Speaker 1: had super big concerns with, especially at the safety position.
Speaker 1: Like I'd love to break this down and talk defensively
Speaker 1: specifically for tonight's show.
Speaker 2: Well, I yeah.
Speaker 3: I look, Vance Joseph getting his flowers is personally validating
Speaker 3: for me. I remember when Advance was hired as the
Speaker 3: defensive coordinator here and I had everyone of their mothers
Speaker 3: screaming that we needed to hire you know, Rex Ryan
Speaker 3: out here. Make sure you have appropriate footwear if we do.
Speaker 3: And I, you know, I liked the hire of Vance Joseph.
Speaker 3: Vance doesn't get enough credit for what he has done defensively.
Speaker 2: When he was the head coach of the Broncos, the
Speaker 2: defense was good.
Speaker 3: They gave out the blueprint for how to kind of
Speaker 3: slow Patrick Mahomes down back when Pat Mahomes was the
Speaker 3: hottest thing going.
Speaker 2: And I don't realize that Pat's numbers are down.
Speaker 3: He's still the best quarterback in the league.
Speaker 2: Grant killing me.
Speaker 1: I.
Speaker 2: Know.
Speaker 3: And then you turn around and you look at what
Speaker 3: a Dvance did People talk about that year in Miami.
Speaker 2: He only got one year, didn't get a chance to
Speaker 2: turn it around. You go back to Arizona.
Speaker 3: He took over ostensibly the league's worst defense, and they
Speaker 3: were good.
Speaker 2: By year three.
Speaker 3: Now, the wheels came off in year four with all
Speaker 3: the injuries, But what he did in Arizona I thought
Speaker 3: was good. The thing about Vance Joseph that a lot
Speaker 3: of people, I think they'll realize this is ie for talent.
Speaker 3: Van's Joseph is the reason that Zach Allen is here.
Speaker 3: Mass Joseph is the reason that Brandon Jones is here.
Speaker 3: And I think Brandon Jones has been a hidden gem
Speaker 3: for this team. Vance Joseph is coaching the defense that
Speaker 3: has one first round pick on it in Pats Artan,
Speaker 3: and six guys that were Day three or undrafted.
Speaker 2: To me, that's just a heck of a.
Speaker 1: Job, dude. It's it's amazing. Like quite honestly, everybody knows
Speaker 1: that Zach Allen, I mean, he leads the league in
Speaker 1: pressures from interior defensive lineman. He's getting after the quarterback
Speaker 1: at like a sixteen point seven percent, right, Like, it's
Speaker 1: incredible what they're doing up front. And I know that
Speaker 1: everyone's given passer Tannan's flowers, which is absolutely like.
Speaker 2: Due for him.
Speaker 1: And the huge game that he had against Raiders this
Speaker 1: last week, two interceptions, obviously the one hundred yard picks
Speaker 1: pick return for a touchdown. But the guy that I
Speaker 1: think is really the guy that stirs the drink for
Speaker 1: this defense is Brandon Jones. Because of his versatility, his
Speaker 1: ability to line up at a single high safety if
Speaker 1: you need him to do that. He can play both
Speaker 1: halfs of the field. But his ability as a blitzer
Speaker 1: and his tackling ability, the way that they can line
Speaker 1: him and PJ Lock and utilize those guys in that
Speaker 1: blitz scheme, utilizing the linebackers as well, and just allowing
Speaker 1: Zach Allen and Jonathan Franklin Myers and Malcolm Roach to
Speaker 1: be penetrators. That's a big thing for vanc Joseph's defense.
Speaker 1: He wants these defensive linemen to get upfield, even against
Speaker 1: the running game, and allow his linebackers to flow through
Speaker 1: make plays, make plays at the second levels even though
Speaker 1: it's still technically the first level because they're crashing so
Speaker 1: far forward. And if Brandon Jones and PJ Lock and
Speaker 1: the versatility that they bring to the back end of
Speaker 1: that secondary is something that cannot be overstated. Right now.
Speaker 1: PJ Lock, his ability as a blitz is just fantastic
Speaker 1: right now. Brandon Jones again, his ability to see the ball,
Speaker 1: chase the ball down, go and make big plays. He
Speaker 1: has the interception, force the fumble as well, had a
Speaker 1: fumbler recovery. This secondary, I think right now, is not
Speaker 1: getting quite the credit that it deserves for what is
Speaker 1: allowed with Vance Joseph and his pressure schemes up front.
Speaker 1: I mean, you're talking the highest cover zero rate and
Speaker 1: the highest blitz rate in the NFL right now, just
Speaker 1: because your secondary is playing quality at the back end,
Speaker 1: it's also playing quality on the boundary.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think it's interesting.
Speaker 3: You know, you talk about that the highest covers of
Speaker 3: your highest blitz percentage, and there are shortcomings to that,
Speaker 3: and we saw a little bit of that early on
Speaker 3: in the Raiders game. They popped that big run Bowers
Speaker 3: got free on that play.
Speaker 2: There are the.
Speaker 3: Opportunity for busted coverages or the opportunity for one man
Speaker 3: missing and the whole thing. You know, the House of
Speaker 3: cards tumbling does exist on that and we've saw a
Speaker 3: little bit of that the Raiders game. Thankfully, Patzertan was
Speaker 3: able to make it up with the one hundred yard
Speaker 3: pick six by the way, fastest ball carrier on a
Speaker 3: pick six only ball carry out of pick six over
Speaker 3: twenty miles per hour this year. I you know, I
Speaker 3: love this style of defense. It's a radical departure from
Speaker 3: what we had previously. Vic Fangio, who basically has the
Speaker 3: blueprint on what everybody in the league is running right
Speaker 3: now with the tight front cover four cover two see
Speaker 3: six stuff on.
Speaker 2: The back end and very little blitzing. Now we're seeing
Speaker 2: the antithesis of that. And I love it.
Speaker 3: It's kind of a harken back to Vance Joseph's mentor
Speaker 3: and Wade Phillips. But there does exist that is the
Speaker 3: Achilles heel to it. There does exist the potential for
Speaker 3: busts and big plays.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but the one thing that's counteracting at even with
Speaker 1: the bust and big play potential is the tackling ability
Speaker 1: of this unit at the back end. Specifically, I mean
Speaker 1: when you're talking about yards after catch over expected. Right now,
Speaker 1: according to NFL plus dot com, the team is fourth
Speaker 1: plus thirteen yards over expected in terms of yards after catch.
Speaker 1: They were minus thirty five last week, which was forty
Speaker 1: yards better than the next defense allowed. And I know
Speaker 1: that the big brock Hours catch and run on the
Speaker 1: first possession that sunk the hearts of Broncos country. That
Speaker 1: definitely factors into this. But even a run run yardage
Speaker 1: after contact over expected, they're six in the NFL minus
Speaker 1: nine yards yards after contact over expected just period eighth
Speaker 1: at two point seven seven yards. This team is rallying
Speaker 1: to the ball, they're making clean, sound tackles, and they're
Speaker 1: really limiting these explosive plays from offensive I understand you've
Speaker 1: got the Kenneth Locker Junior run in Week one. That
Speaker 1: was in the Gino Smith run where they they had
Speaker 1: three lanes to run. Alex Ing Wilson miss that big
Speaker 1: tackle against Kenneth Walker Junior. You got the brock Powers play.
Speaker 1: But every time an offensive player touches the football, they
Speaker 1: are hitting the ground and less than three yards after
Speaker 1: they touched the football, which is a tremendous boost to
Speaker 1: what this defense is and a tremendous boost to what
Speaker 1: Vance Joseph is doing as a defensive coordinator. Oh.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, And I don't want to take away from Vance's flowers.
Speaker 3: I just want to say that's the difference between the
Speaker 3: Fangio blueprint and then the Vance blueprint. The Fangio blueprint
Speaker 3: strives to keep plays in front of you. It will,
Speaker 3: it does work in producing lower scoring outcomes designed to
Speaker 3: hold you the field goals, bogging down on the red zone.
Speaker 3: The problem the Achilles field to the Vance Joseph excuse me,
Speaker 3: the Vic Fangil formula is that if you need a
Speaker 3: quick stop, it's probably not going to get you one.
Speaker 3: We saw that too often when Vic was the head coach,
Speaker 3: when Hackett was the head coach, and even when Vance
Speaker 3: was running the continuity sort of last year you saw
Speaker 3: that if you needed a late game stop, you just
Speaker 3: weren't going to get one. It's ben don't break, and
Speaker 3: they would be able to run the clock out.
Speaker 2: And we saw that.
Speaker 3: Now we have a defense that can get those turnovers
Speaker 3: and they're getting them.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, man. You've got obviously the three interception game
Speaker 1: against the Raiders, you had uh, Brandon Jones again with
Speaker 1: the interception against Tampa Bay. You had the force fumble
Speaker 1: that that Jones took back again here to the house. Uh,
Speaker 1: Like they're they're they're not only getting the turnovers, they're
Speaker 1: getting after the quarterback at one of the highest clips
Speaker 1: in the NFL right now. They're uh they're pass rush
Speaker 1: uh Apa for play is first at negative point two seven.
Speaker 1: Like they're they're they're doing it very well with the
Speaker 1: exotic blitz of that dance Joseph is dialing up, allowing
Speaker 1: these linebackers to kind of play in some space, bringing
Speaker 1: the safeties and whatnot. The and Zach Allen, Johnason, Franklin
Speaker 1: Meyer is doing their dirty work up front, like getting
Speaker 1: after the quarterback. This team is just spectacular defensively, and
Speaker 1: quite honestly, it's a treat to watch, especially after what
Speaker 1: we saw in the first five weeks of last season.
Speaker 1: I mean, this defensive turnaround right now, I don't know
Speaker 1: if you if you understand this, Like last week coming
Speaker 1: out of the Miami Dolphins last year, excuse me, coming
Speaker 1: out of the Miami Dolphins game, the defense was on
Speaker 1: pace to be one of the worst defenses in NFL history,
Speaker 1: and Miami was on pace to being one of the
Speaker 1: best offenses in NFL history. Fut that script around a
Speaker 1: year later, Denver has the best defense in the NFL
Speaker 1: and Miami has one of the worst offenses in the NFL.
Speaker 1: This turnaround that Vance Joseph has dictated with his play
Speaker 1: calling and with the players actually stepping up, hitting the scheme,
Speaker 1: buying into what Dance Joseph is calling. Defensively, it's amazing
Speaker 1: and quite honestly that the guy should be up for
Speaker 1: Assistant Coach of the Year. As it stands right now,
Speaker 1: he's been just tremendous and I cannot give the guy
Speaker 1: enough credit.
Speaker 3: Let me pose the question to you that I'm posing
Speaker 3: to everybody right now, is if Vance Joseph, as expected,
Speaker 3: gets head coaching interviews this offseason and takes a head
Speaker 3: coaching job somewhere, the Broncos get two third round compensatory
Speaker 3: draft picks. Back, is it worse if he leaves and
Speaker 3: takes a head coaching job and Jim Leonard as sensibly
Speaker 3: steps into that role, or is it you know, would
Speaker 3: you rather have would rather have basically the third round
Speaker 3: picks or would rather have vance Joseph next year? Because
Speaker 3: that question, if you'd ask that question last year, universally
Speaker 3: everybody would have said they would have rather had the
Speaker 3: two third rounders.
Speaker 2: Now I'm not so sure.
Speaker 1: That's a difficult question to answer, man, because like I can't,
Speaker 1: like I said, I can't give Dance Joseph enough credit
Speaker 1: the third round picks to help build this team around,
Speaker 1: especially with the offensive playmakers coming out in this year's draft,
Speaker 1: Like that would be a big boost at helping the
Speaker 1: development of Quote Nicks. But what's one of the best
Speaker 1: tools that you can give a young quarterback him a
Speaker 1: quality running game and a quality defense and just tell
Speaker 1: them to go not go out and make mistakes, don't like,
Speaker 1: take care of the football and make the plays that
Speaker 1: you need to when they're necessary, and you'll have some
Speaker 1: success with the young quarterback losing Dance Joseph, I think
Speaker 1: is going to be a big, a big loss for
Speaker 1: this Broncos team, especially right now, because like I said,
Speaker 1: these players are buying in specifically to what they want,
Speaker 1: what he wants them to do. But I think that
Speaker 1: there's an option out there that stupidly got fired from
Speaker 1: New York. Why the New York just fired Robert Solla.
Speaker 1: Go out and pick him up, bring him in as
Speaker 1: a consultant as fast as you possibly can allow him
Speaker 1: to work with Jim Letard a little bit. Maybe you
Speaker 1: can work some kind of a co defensive coordinator impact
Speaker 1: with those guys. With Robert Solon his linebacker play that
Speaker 1: he always seems to have high quality play coming from,
Speaker 1: and the Jim Letter continuing to work with the secondary.
Speaker 1: I mean that that to me is as a quality
Speaker 1: option there. But yeah, losing Dance Joseph would be to me.
Speaker 1: And it's crazy because a year ago everyone wanted to fire,
Speaker 1: they wanted him ran out of town, and he was
Speaker 1: scared that he was going to lose his job. For sure,
Speaker 1: I know that for a fact. But what he's doing
Speaker 1: right now to help this team turn around everything again,
Speaker 1: it cannot be overstated nearly enough.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm with you on that. Real quick, we got
Speaker 2: a couple of minutes left. I want to look forward
Speaker 2: to the Chargers game coming up.
Speaker 3: You know, a lot of people view this as a
Speaker 3: very winnable game, myself included. But the Chargers are a
Speaker 3: little bit better than people think, at least in terms
Speaker 3: of defense. They're one of the top defenses in the league.
Speaker 3: Twelve point five points allowed per game this season would
Speaker 3: rank number one. They're third overall and takeaway differential at
Speaker 3: plus five.
Speaker 2: They've already had a bye week and they're coming off
Speaker 2: a bye week.
Speaker 3: They have some of the similar problems to the Broncos,
Speaker 3: and that the pass game has just not gotten going
Speaker 3: the thirty first in passing yards per game one thirty six,
Speaker 3: But in terms of rushing yardage, they've been good.
Speaker 2: Their top ten team in terms of running the football.
Speaker 3: Could this be a trap sort of game for the
Speaker 3: Denver Broncos as you look forward to maybe going to
Speaker 3: New Orleans on Thursday and overlook a Chargers team that's
Speaker 3: a lot more physical than they've been in recent years.
Speaker 1: No, quite, Honestly, looking of this game as intently as
Speaker 1: you did as the Raiders game this last week, I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: you've won a couple of games against the Chargers over
Speaker 1: the last handful of years, but it really what does
Speaker 1: that matter. This team right now at three and two,
Speaker 1: needs to be approaching every single game as aggressively as
Speaker 1: they possibly can be, and quite honestly, I want to
Speaker 1: see what they're going to do against this charge of
Speaker 1: this Chargers defense, which has a high quality pass rush,
Speaker 1: they're doing really well against the run, they're doing really
Speaker 1: well against the pass as well, and the Broncos offense.
Speaker 1: As much as we want Boonnicks to be the guy,
Speaker 1: I still need to see a lot more out of it,
Speaker 1: not only from Bonnicks himself, but as Sean Payton is
Speaker 1: a play caller. We need to open some stuff up
Speaker 1: against the against the Chargers and try to manufacture some
Speaker 1: more points offensively and not just rely on the defense
Speaker 1: to make plays and pushing in quality situations. Because as
Speaker 1: much as the Chargers have struggled on offense, they've done
Speaker 1: a really good job running the football. They're controlling the ball,
Speaker 1: they're not turning it over, and they're just keeping keeping
Speaker 1: the opposing offense off the field. I mean, it's the
Speaker 1: it's the Jim Harbaugh script to every single game that
Speaker 1: he's been a coach ever since he was back at
Speaker 1: what San Diego. I believe where he was at the
Speaker 1: count ball control offense, run the football, play physically, grind
Speaker 1: the clock down, shorten the game, and keep the opposing
Speaker 1: offense off the field. When the Broncos have opportunities. I
Speaker 1: think Sean Payton needs to open this thing up a
Speaker 1: little bit. We saw a little bit of that in
Speaker 1: the second half after bo Nicks got after him for
Speaker 1: whatever it was when it was a play call, flipping
Speaker 1: the play call, whether it was Bonicks not being under
Speaker 1: center for the Luke Wattenberg snap that hit him in
Speaker 1: the button and was the fumble, it doesn't really matter.
Speaker 1: What happened was bo Nicks started to get a little
Speaker 1: bit more confident, started pushing the ball down the field
Speaker 1: a little bit more. They were playing with the lead,
Speaker 1: and Sean Payton allowed Boonicks to kind of grow a
Speaker 1: little bit, and to me, that was a really big
Speaker 1: sign for the Broncos offense. I want to see more
Speaker 1: of that against the Chargers.
Speaker 2: I'm with you on that, hopefully some more. Marvin Mims
Speaker 2: reps as well. Lands. We always appreciate.
Speaker 1: Having you or can we talk about that for a second.
Speaker 2: Weak football.
Speaker 3: We got to hit a break, We got hit a break,
Speaker 3: your last but we'll get to it next time.
Speaker 2: We gotta we gotta see more. Marvin Mills.
Speaker 3: We always appreciate you having you on there at Lant
Speaker 3: Sanderson Mile High Huddle