Speaker 1: How would you rate my pick of Nick Benito?
Speaker 2: You know, I think that he's an underrated player and
Speaker 2: has a fantastic opportunity to be a great contributor. Is
Speaker 2: he going to be someone who lead the team and
Speaker 2: av No, I don't think so.
Speaker 3: Carolina three or ten On third down, empty set, Young
Speaker 3: raises the right knee, bounces around, it bounces right into
Speaker 3: a sack back at the sixteen yard line. That's the
Speaker 3: easiest one of the year for Nick Benito. And that
Speaker 3: is the sixth consecutive game that Nick Benito has had
Speaker 3: at least a sack. That one fell right into his lap.
Speaker 1: I always love it when Grant plays clips of something
Speaker 1: that I was right on, that I forgot that I
Speaker 1: was right on that I get to spike the football again.
Speaker 4: This is not about you being right, So stop bringing
Speaker 4: your arm trying to patch yourself on the back.
Speaker 1: Everything is about me being right. And I've already sought
Speaker 1: treatment for the sore elbow from patting myself on the backside.
Speaker 4: Elbow.
Speaker 1: It patters elbow. You know, it's similar to us. It's
Speaker 1: the same injury Act that those referees are getting in
Speaker 1: the NFL right now with flaggers elbow with throwing so
Speaker 1: many flags out there right now, they'll get the over
Speaker 1: got to get the tub ready for the refs.
Speaker 4: Is similar to uh yes, and you're gonna have to.
Speaker 1: Get that surgery, the surgery in order to be able
Speaker 1: to get that flag out there five six six nine
Speaker 1: zeros in text line Benjamin old Bright Deck ferguson live
Speaker 1: from Sam's Number three in Glendale, Gonna go right out
Speaker 1: to the KA commcentrator with hotline and bringing on our
Speaker 1: buddy Ryan Michael at the Ryan Michael on Twitter ride.
Speaker 1: How you doing this evening?
Speaker 2: Doing well?
Speaker 4: Man?
Speaker 2: Nick? How are you guys?
Speaker 1: I was just basking in the globe being right again?
Speaker 1: Nice Nick was. Nick was frustrated with it, but you know,
Speaker 1: I think deep deep down he appreciates me spiking the
Speaker 1: belt even though I didn't score on that particular play.
Speaker 3: Ryan.
Speaker 1: You know, we've it's been an interesting ride so far
Speaker 1: this season. Earlier this season, all we hear about bo
Speaker 1: Nick's uh, you know, recording historic lows and efficiency. Then
Speaker 1: we get the Raiders, the Panthers, the Saints. We see
Speaker 1: them light at the box score a highlight reel. Halfway
Speaker 1: through the season. Who is Bonix?
Speaker 2: You know? That's a difficult question to answer, Ben, because
Speaker 2: eight games in we're dealing with such a small sample
Speaker 2: size with both the highs and the lows. Of course,
Speaker 2: the truth is going to be somewhere in between those
Speaker 2: two ends of the spectrum, you know, when you look
Speaker 2: at his efficiency numbers from a statistical perspective. We talked
Speaker 2: about this a little bit last week. Having such a
Speaker 2: small sample size when you struggle as he did towards
Speaker 2: the beginning of the season, We'll skeew the numbers and
Speaker 2: I'll give you a Payton Manning stat to that effect.
Speaker 2: Building off of our win over Carolina in Super Bowl fifty,
Speaker 2: Manning only attempted twenty three passes if you include the
Speaker 2: two point conversion twenty four passes. He was got awful
Speaker 2: in the second quarter two of seven for fifteen yards
Speaker 2: to pick a zero point zero passer rating, but in
Speaker 2: the other three quarters combined, his passer rating was nearly
Speaker 2: one hundred. He completed the total of twelve of seventeen
Speaker 2: passes for one hundred and twenty eight yards, And so
Speaker 2: you look to the total numbers for that game, you
Speaker 2: would say Peyton Manning did not have a good statistical game,
Speaker 2: But the sample size was so small that awful second
Speaker 2: quarter killed the overall efficiency numbers. Similar thing at play
Speaker 2: for bow in terms of his awful outings versus Seattle
Speaker 2: and Pittsburgh, and some more efficiency even than the win
Speaker 2: over the Jets. So the truth is somewhere in between.
Speaker 4: Well, and we've seen bow Nicks be successful from the
Speaker 4: beginning of the season with the implementation of maybe some
Speaker 4: RPO plays and some design quarterback runs. And we saw
Speaker 4: last week on Thursday Night Football against the Saints he
Speaker 4: had that long run down the left side of the field.
Speaker 4: Do you project or foresee that bo Nick's being able
Speaker 4: to run efficiently as he has been thus far as
Speaker 4: being something that the Broncos to lean on move forward.
Speaker 2: You know, I think he accepted the bar so hind
Speaker 2: Nick that it wouldn't be reasonable to expect to see
Speaker 2: this kind of production on the ground, and I came
Speaker 2: prepared with some numbers to that effect. His four rushing
Speaker 2: touchdowns are two away from the Broncos franchise rookie record
Speaker 2: in tebou scored six. But right now, his rushing success percentage,
Speaker 2: which is an efficiency metric per Pro Football Reference, at
Speaker 2: fifty five point eight percent blows away Tebow's rookie mark
Speaker 2: of fifty one point two percent. It's the highest mark
Speaker 2: in franchise history for a rookie quarterback. So high, he's
Speaker 2: eighth in the NFL for players of all positions. The
Speaker 2: only quarterbacks ahead of him are Jalen Hurts and Jaden Daniels.
Speaker 2: Bo is just to tick above Lamar Jackson a fifty
Speaker 2: five point six percent so hey his current pace, he's
Speaker 2: on pace to produce five hundred and fifty yards eight
Speaker 2: touchdowns while averaging five point zero yards per carry on
Speaker 2: the ground. I don't think it's sustainable. Will continue to
Speaker 2: build off it, and it will be effective at times,
Speaker 2: but he's really set the bar so high to expect
Speaker 2: more of the same in the second half of the season,
Speaker 2: I don't think that would be reasonable. I would expect
Speaker 2: see not so much regression as much as the opposing
Speaker 2: defenses having Moral twenty two to study, and they'll implement
Speaker 2: measures that force him to win through the air.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think that's the way we all we
Speaker 1: all saw it coming. Bo Nix would absolutely just lam
Speaker 1: based Lamar Jackson in terms of rushing because he's such
Speaker 1: a you know, I can't even finish that call it
Speaker 1: bo Vic when all sudden instead of bow Knicks. Look,
Speaker 1: there have been things that have helped bow improve over
Speaker 1: the course of this though. You talked about a little
Speaker 1: bit but quicker pre snap work, cleaning up some of
Speaker 1: the issues that play the offense. During the first few
Speaker 1: games of the season, we saw the Broncos finally start
Speaker 1: to adopt a little bit of tempo at times, picking
Speaker 1: up the pace of things, and that's certainly helped out
Speaker 1: as well. What else can they do to kind of
Speaker 1: sort of help bow Knicks as he matures and grows
Speaker 1: this season?
Speaker 2: You know, I think it's a matter of continuing to
Speaker 2: build continuity in the offense so we don't need to
Speaker 2: be having the seemingly endless number of persons I'll swap.
Speaker 2: I think that Sean Payton has certainly dummied down the
Speaker 2: language right, so we're not seeing bo Nick struggling just
Speaker 2: to get the words out in time to call play.
Speaker 2: I think we've made improvement in that area, and I
Speaker 2: think as he continues to get more support on the ground,
Speaker 2: that's going to open up things in the passing game.
Speaker 2: All the cliches are true. Football is a balanced game,
Speaker 2: so you can find that perfect balance of passing and
Speaker 2: rushing deficiency as we've seen over the last four weeks
Speaker 2: or so, and I wouldn't say that it's perfect. I'd
Speaker 2: say it's trending in the right direction. If we can
Speaker 2: continue to build on that, I'm excited to see what
Speaker 2: he's going to be able to do as a passer
Speaker 2: against some tougher defenses.
Speaker 4: Well, when you think about last Sunday's game, it was
Speaker 4: it did start out as well as the Broncos wanted,
Speaker 4: and they had some trouble spots along the way. But
Speaker 4: is there a particular player on either side of the
Speaker 4: ball that really stood out to you?
Speaker 2: I think collectively for Bo, it's really just a matter
Speaker 2: of that overall efficiency, and as we've seen, he starts
Speaker 2: to get hot during the second half of games. We
Speaker 2: even saw that in the season opener this year against Seattle,
Speaker 2: So you know, it's a matter of getting off. If
Speaker 2: we could take the positive hot start that he had
Speaker 2: versus Tampa Bay with some of these hot finishes, you'd
Speaker 2: really have the perfect quarterback. So there's plenty to clean
Speaker 2: up and plenty to build off of.
Speaker 1: As we look at the splits that Bo has incurred
Speaker 1: through the first half of the season. What are some
Speaker 1: positives and what are some some negatives.
Speaker 2: Sure, I'll start with the positive, even though it's a
Speaker 2: somewhat limited sample size. Under center, he's been playing very well.
Speaker 2: He's completed twenty eight forty five passes two hundred and
Speaker 2: forty eight yards, four touchdowns, no picks, a one oh
Speaker 2: six point five passer rating. He's only taken one sack
Speaker 2: in those forty forty six dropbacks, and three of his
Speaker 2: four rushing touchdowns have come from under center. So I'd
Speaker 2: like to see them incorporate a little bit more of that,
Speaker 2: you know, weakness. I would say after he crossed his
Speaker 2: midfield between the opponents forty nine and twenty plays better
Speaker 2: in the red zone. But between the forty nine and
Speaker 2: twenty he's only completed fifty seven point three percent of
Speaker 2: his passes for one hundred and fifty three yards, no touchdowns,
Speaker 2: two picks, sixty four passer rating. He gets better in
Speaker 2: the red zone eight touchdowns to one pick, which are
Speaker 2: his numbers for the totality, or rather, the touchdowns for
Speaker 2: the season have all come in the red zone. He's
Speaker 2: playing good football there, just needs to clean it up
Speaker 2: after he passes midfield.
Speaker 4: So what do you think that coach Payton needs to
Speaker 4: do to kind of squeeze more of the Jews out
Speaker 4: of his receivering corps, Because on Sunday we saw you know,
Speaker 4: Devon Villat making couple of plays, and obviously since last
Speaker 4: week there has been a consort of efforts trying to
Speaker 4: get Troy Franklin involved in offense more. But what can
Speaker 4: he do from a coaching standpoint or even scheme standpoint
Speaker 4: to kind of give those guys more touches?
Speaker 2: You know, I think he's doing what he can. In
Speaker 2: the receiver have to make the most out of their opportunities. Obviously,
Speaker 2: the big drops and bumbles or are killers even in
Speaker 2: games where we're well ahead, as we were against Carolina,
Speaker 2: So you know, we have to clean that up, and
Speaker 2: the players who are getting targets need to make the
Speaker 2: most of those opportunities. You could tell Courtland Sutton must
Speaker 2: have felt the paint of having no targets the week
Speaker 2: before because he hauled in eight receptions off eleven targets
Speaker 2: butt up one hundred yards. That's definitely encouraging to see,
Speaker 2: and I think that the rest of the receiving corps
Speaker 2: will need to follow suit.
Speaker 1: What should we expect, what should broadcast country expect out
Speaker 1: a bone X in the second half season.
Speaker 2: I'd say in the second half of the season, what
Speaker 2: we're going to see are he's going to be forced
Speaker 2: to flesh out his skills as a passer, and then
Speaker 2: I'm in agreement with you. As impressive as it is
Speaker 2: to see him put up the box score numbers that
Speaker 2: he did against Carolina, and even on tape, it was very,
Speaker 2: very pretty, but it was against one of the worst
Speaker 2: defenses in pro football. He's catching a break this week
Speaker 2: going against Baltimore's defense that ranks twenty ninth and passer
Speaker 2: ratings surrendered at one O three point four, dead last
Speaker 2: in the NFL. In passing yards, They've given up two
Speaker 2: thousand and three hundred and thirty one, tied for dead
Speaker 2: last in the league. They've given up seventeen touchdown passes.
Speaker 2: On the flip side, they're number one in the NFL
Speaker 2: in terms of yards per carry, only allowing three point three.
Speaker 2: So it looks to me, at least on paper, a
Speaker 2: game that he is going to need to win through
Speaker 2: the air. As time goes on, I want to see
Speaker 2: how he holds up against some of the better pass
Speaker 2: defenses in the league, because that's something we haven't seen yet.
Speaker 2: Carrying apart bad defense is one thing, but eventually you're
Speaker 2: going to be facing those top ten defenses and you
Speaker 2: got to show up.
Speaker 4: Well, we know the Raves are not that great as
Speaker 4: far as playing the pass, and we watched Davante Williams
Speaker 4: just kind of explode out of the gate last week
Speaker 4: on Thursday Night Football, and no one as though you're
Speaker 4: going to need every single player in every ounce of production,
Speaker 4: none is going. You're going against Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry,
Speaker 4: who they gonna want to keep the ground game going.
Speaker 4: Do you see an opportunity at any point, I guess
Speaker 4: as Baltimore Ravens defense where the Broncos can get davontep
Speaker 4: back on track.
Speaker 2: You know, as much as I'd like to say that,
Speaker 2: this week is going to be the week going against
Speaker 2: the league's leaders in defensive rushing XP, which is another
Speaker 2: efficient symmetric per Pro Football Reference twenty two point zero five,
Speaker 2: Statistically speaking, Nick, this is going to be the week
Speaker 2: to be efficient through the passing game. It's not that
Speaker 2: you're going to abandon the run game. Because we, of
Speaker 2: course need to have balanced We've done a great job
Speaker 2: in terms of controlling the quod. I think we had
Speaker 2: thirty three minutes plus of possession last week, so I'd
Speaker 2: like to see that continue. This week is going to
Speaker 2: be tougher against a quarterback like mar Jackson, but I
Speaker 2: think if our offense is going to have any success,
Speaker 2: it's going to be through the air.
Speaker 1: Talking with Ryan Michael at the Ryan Michael on Twitter, ran,
Speaker 1: what'd you think of the accusations of Sean Payton trying
Speaker 1: to run it up last week?
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, when you produce twenty eight points, I
Speaker 2: don't know how much we're running up the score. And
Speaker 2: I may be in the minority here, Ben, but it's
Speaker 2: my view that as opposing coaches, as opposing defensive players,
Speaker 2: your job is to stop the other team from scoring.
Speaker 2: So if you perform so poorly that your opponent is
Speaker 2: ahead by so much that they're to take their foot
Speaker 2: off the gas, it's the classic thing to do. And
Speaker 2: you know, I don't think it's something that should be
Speaker 2: taken for granted. So I think you've got to go
Speaker 2: out there and play football. If you're exhausting yourself at
Speaker 2: the end of the game. Coming after a head coach,
Speaker 2: we're doing his job, and that's really what we'd like
Speaker 2: to see more out of a Sean Payton offense that
Speaker 2: ranks twentieth in the league and scoring and two of
Speaker 2: those touchdowns come on the defensive side of the ball.
Speaker 2: So I want to see Sean Payton leave the offense
Speaker 2: to more points. I don't particularly care when it happens.
Speaker 2: It means more when you're putting your team ahead, but
Speaker 2: it happens at the end of football games that it
Speaker 2: builds momentum going into next week. I'm here for it
Speaker 2: played better.
Speaker 4: I mean, whether we in season or were in the
Speaker 4: off season, the conversation is always dominated by quarterback play,
Speaker 4: just kind of overall. Looking at the situation that Shane
Speaker 4: Stikeen is dealing with with Anthony Richardson with the Colts
Speaker 4: and the fact that you know, he said that he
Speaker 4: was tied, and that narrative is that he tapped he's
Speaker 4: tapped out. Do you think that somehow, as we move
Speaker 4: forward during the evaluation process and for Quarterbacks Schedule to
Speaker 4: come out in twenty twenty five, that looking at Anthony
Speaker 4: Richardson somehow changes how the quarterback position is evaluated from.
Speaker 2: Here on out. Well, you know, as we talked about
Speaker 2: during the spring, it's more probable than not that your
Speaker 2: top ten overall quarterback selection, with the exception of the
Speaker 2: guys who are going number one overall, is going to
Speaker 2: be a bust relative to a really really dating stand
Speaker 2: And statistically, unfortunately for Richardson dead last in the league
Speaker 2: and passer rating at fifty seven point two, second to
Speaker 2: lasses for Levis at seventy point seven, he's only completed
Speaker 2: forty four point four percent of his passes, so it's
Speaker 2: been a very ugly overall season for him. With a
Speaker 2: somewhat limited sample size, he's only attempt at one hundred
Speaker 2: and thirty three passes. So this really isn't anything new.
Speaker 2: Rarely do you see a quarterback drafted that high struggle
Speaker 2: as much as Anthony has this season. But it's something
Speaker 2: that all thirty fIF teams have to be prepared for because,
Speaker 2: with the exception of number one overall picks, it's a
Speaker 2: coin flip when you're drafting in the top ten, and
Speaker 2: so depending on the situation, you have to be prepared
Speaker 2: for that. There is no guarantee that because you draft
Speaker 2: a quarterback high he's going to be playing at an elite level.
Speaker 1: Ran What do you give the Broncos as far as
Speaker 1: chances coming up against the Baltimore Ravens. They got a
Speaker 1: tough three game stretch. The Ravens is nick noted, not
Speaker 1: exactly great against the pass this year. They do stuff
Speaker 1: pretty well. The defense has had some issues there, but
Speaker 1: of course they got a very very good offense. It's
Speaker 1: going to be interesting as you've got the number one
Speaker 1: per play offense to the Baltimore Ravens against the number
Speaker 1: one per play defense in the Broncos. But what chance
Speaker 1: do you give the Broncos this week?
Speaker 2: You know, I have Baltimore at twenty seven to twenty one.
Speaker 2: It's a winnable game. When you look at just how
Speaker 2: week Baltimore's pass defense has been, I would say if
Speaker 2: history is the gauge, they're due to have a good
Speaker 2: game because it's been really ugly for them three eight
Speaker 2: games so far. But Baltimore is the better overall team.
Speaker 2: Lamar Jackson's arguably playing the quarterback position better than anybody
Speaker 2: in the NFL right now, and as great as our
Speaker 2: defense has been, it's going to be the biggest challenge
Speaker 2: of the season far and away, so I'm pulling for him.
Speaker 2: I think it's a winnable game, but I still give
Speaker 2: the slight edge to Baltimore.
Speaker 1: Well, he's Ryan Michael at The Ryan Michael on Twitter.
Speaker 1: Look forward to talking to you next week. Hopefully the
Speaker 1: Broncos are able to get that win against the Baltimore Ravens,
Speaker 1: but if they don't, we going into Kansas City and
Speaker 1: and trying to figure things out. Look forward to talking
Speaker 1: to them.
Speaker 2: But thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: Absolutely take care, Ryan Michael at The Ryan Michael on
Speaker 1: Twitter