Speaker 1: Let's go right to can'a commasp a hotline though, and
Speaker 1: bring on our guy Ryan Michael.
Speaker 2: At you, Ryan Michael on the Twitter machine? Ryan, how
Speaker 2: you doing this evening?
Speaker 3: I'm pretty excited, Ben after our win on Thursday night,
Speaker 3: so excited about this upcoming in terms of a stretch
Speaker 3: of two games. It can't be too much more excited
Speaker 3: than a very winnable game coming on Sunday. So looking
Speaker 3: forward to talking about it.
Speaker 1: Sh I do say that, of course if we lose
Speaker 1: that how devastated and disappointed will we all be if
Speaker 1: we lose to the Carolina Panthers, now that we've hyped
Speaker 1: that up.
Speaker 2: But we're gonna, we're gonna we're just.
Speaker 1: Move past that for now and just pretend that it's
Speaker 1: continue to say that it's a very winnable game before
Speaker 1: I get into it.
Speaker 2: Did you I don't know if I've asked you this before?
Speaker 4: And now?
Speaker 2: Have you ever watched the TV show Psyche?
Speaker 3: Oh? Yeah, of course it's It's been a good probably
Speaker 3: fifteen years since I've seen an episode.
Speaker 1: But yeah, okay, well it is a cinematic masterpiece that
Speaker 1: it is great to show of all time.
Speaker 2: Whatever. Yeah, I loosely based my life on the character
Speaker 2: of Sean. I.
Speaker 1: I was trying to tell the guys I was going
Speaker 1: to make them some food. I remember how the discussion
Speaker 1: came up last night that they didn't, you know, believe
Speaker 1: I cook or whatever, and I do enjoy cooking. So
Speaker 1: I'm going to make them from the Cinnamon Festival episode,
Speaker 1: the cinnamon pie from that episode. So that's gonna be
Speaker 1: something that's on the docket for next week. And one
Speaker 1: of the listeners actually got me the recipe.
Speaker 3: I have no idea what episode you're referencing, but it
Speaker 3: sounds good.
Speaker 2: It's a Twin Peaks spoof Dual Spires.
Speaker 1: But all right, anyway, let's get right into it here
Speaker 1: a little bit. I talked about this Broncos defense during
Speaker 1: training camp to prestige. I said, they're going to sneak
Speaker 1: up on people that go to surprise people. It's gonna
Speaker 1: be a very good defense. I may have undersold. According
Speaker 1: to your chart on Twitter, am I correct in saying
Speaker 1: that this year's defense might be the best pass defense
Speaker 1: over the last decade, even better than the No Fly.
Speaker 3: Zone statistically speaking, yes, And when I dig into the numbers,
Speaker 3: I'll get to that in a minute. It's actually even
Speaker 3: more impressive than the wrong numbers. So what I did
Speaker 3: in my chart is I charted all of our past
Speaker 3: defenses over the last ten years, so including this year,
Speaker 3: dating back to Super Bowl Championship year in twenty fifteen,
Speaker 3: and I ranked them by adjusted net yards per attempt
Speaker 3: on defense. So that's factoring in completion percentage, yards for
Speaker 3: passing a tep touchdown, passes, interceptions, and sacks. It's a
Speaker 3: pretty good on puppeteing metric, and so far our adjusted
Speaker 3: net yards per a tent mark this season is four
Speaker 3: point two, So if you look to the chart, our
Speaker 3: lowest mark over the previous ten years was four point four.
Speaker 3: By the twenty sixteen squad was actually slightly better than
Speaker 3: the four point seven that we put up our Super
Speaker 3: Bowl Championship winning year. We've been dominant in the statistic
Speaker 3: Curry number of years, second in twenty fifteen, number one
Speaker 3: in the NFL in twenty sixteen, third of the NFL
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty two. We dropped all the way down
Speaker 3: to twenty eighth last year, and now we're back up
Speaker 3: to second place this year. And I also threw in
Speaker 3: just for fun, where we rank as far as quarterback
Speaker 3: hits and pass defensive exp which is expected points added
Speaker 3: per Pro Football Reference. We're number one in the league
Speaker 3: in both two of those category. So you know, depending
Speaker 3: on the statistic of measure you're choosing, you're certainly an
Speaker 3: argument to be made this is the best we've seen
Speaker 3: over the last decade.
Speaker 4: So, Ryan, why do you think the Broncos are playing
Speaker 4: better this year defensively opposed to how they played defensively
Speaker 4: last year? Last year, to be fair, they did have
Speaker 4: their moments where they play well. As a group, they.
Speaker 3: Did, and I think it's a combination of scheme, personnel,
Speaker 3: and just having another year under the belt for Van
Speaker 3: Sursus to really implement and run this defense the way
Speaker 3: he likes to. You know, obviously, it's going to be
Speaker 3: impossible to run away from the comparisons to the twenty
Speaker 3: fifteen squad. We don't quite have the personnel that we
Speaker 3: fielded in twenty fifteen, and for that reason that I
Speaker 3: can make the argument that I'm even more impressed with
Speaker 3: what we're able to do. Obviously, Patsotan's the best corner
Speaker 3: in the league. I've been saying that since the summer,
Speaker 3: and even with him out on Thursday night. Granted it
Speaker 3: was against a very beat up New Orleans team, but
Speaker 3: we didn't miss a beat. So this defense has been
Speaker 3: so dominant that if you break down the quarterbacks that
Speaker 3: we face, and they share with you some numbers that
Speaker 3: to me make what we've been able to do all
Speaker 3: the more impressive. In the season. Opener Gina Smith, who's
Speaker 3: the NFL's leading passer, we held them one hundred and
Speaker 3: seventy one yards. He's been averaging three hundred and two
Speaker 3: point three passing yards per game in all of the
Speaker 3: other games. What kind of difference is that if you
Speaker 3: take that pace and you spread it over seventeen games,
Speaker 3: it's the difference between twenty nine hundred and seven passing
Speaker 3: yards a year, which would be nineteen seventies numbers, or
Speaker 3: in terms of what he's averaging outside of the games
Speaker 3: against Denver five one hundred and forty yards. Baker Mayfield
Speaker 3: leads the NFL with eighteen touchdown passes. We held him
Speaker 3: to one. He's turned seventeen and the other six teams
Speaker 3: that's almost three touchdown passes per game. And even more impressive,
Speaker 3: the Buccaneers collectively as a team, we held them to
Speaker 3: seven they've scored two hundred and two points in the
Speaker 3: other six teams, that's thirty three point seven points per game.
Speaker 3: We held them to seven. You know, the numbers in
Speaker 3: the rankings speak for themselves, but when you dig into
Speaker 3: the context of who we've been facing and just how
Speaker 3: well we've been playing, I'd make the argument there even
Speaker 3: better than the Ron Hubs.
Speaker 2: Well that certainly as impressed.
Speaker 1: They're talking to Ryan Michael at v Ryan Michael on Twitter,
Speaker 1: how much of the credit goes to Vance Joseph for
Speaker 1: turning this thing around?
Speaker 2: And I want to tack on Jim Leonard.
Speaker 1: As well, because that addition seems to have really helped
Speaker 1: with the secondary.
Speaker 3: Unquestionably, and for me, it's one thing if you have
Speaker 3: an established culture of excellence and something that we're trying
Speaker 3: to take for granted. Nick, I'm sure you can relate
Speaker 3: to that because of how dominant the defenses were the
Speaker 3: years that you've played there. But I don't think people
Speaker 3: fully appreciate just how much the team struggled last year
Speaker 3: because we did have the bright spots, but at the
Speaker 3: end of the day, we finished twenty seventh in points
Speaker 3: per game, surrendered, one of the lowest marks and franchise history.
Speaker 3: We're third in the league right now. If this was
Speaker 3: happening on the other side of the ball, it would
Speaker 3: be the story of the NFL this year. For whatever reason,
Speaker 3: we don't give defense the same amount of love that
Speaker 3: we give offense. But clearly it has just as great
Speaker 3: of an impact in terms of wins and losses. Because
Speaker 3: we're sitting at four and three after going through some
Speaker 3: fairly tough games with some pretty big upset wins. So
Speaker 3: it's tough not to be jazzed about it.
Speaker 4: Ryan, I'm glad that you said that, because you're absolutely right,
Speaker 4: and this where where we live to talk about the
Speaker 4: quarterback sell them.
Speaker 2: Do they give the.
Speaker 4: Defense their props? Because the last time I check, the
Speaker 4: saying is very true. Defense wins championship. So with that
Speaker 4: being said, looking at this lay of games that the
Speaker 4: Broncos have coming up, they get the Panthers on Sunday,
Speaker 4: they have Baltimore, they have Kansas City. Is this Broncos
Speaker 4: team or Kansas team actually be a playoff contender?
Speaker 3: It's certainly possible. So again, you know, Ben, we don't
Speaker 3: want to take for granted the game against Carolina. It's
Speaker 3: the NFL. Any given Sunday, anything that can happen. But
Speaker 3: let's say we do beat the Panthers, we advance to
Speaker 3: five and three. That's when we get into the meat
Speaker 3: and potatoes of the schedule. It's going to be very,
Speaker 3: very difficult. But if you look at the schedule as
Speaker 3: a whole, there are a number of winnable games. Atlanta
Speaker 3: has a winning record, but they're twenty second and points
Speaker 3: per games surrendered only fifteenth in scoring. That's a winnable game.
Speaker 3: The Raiders is a winnable game, The Browns, the Colts.
Speaker 3: You know, if we want all of those games, that
Speaker 3: would get us to nine. If we pull another upset,
Speaker 3: maybe take one from Kansas City, that would be ten.
Speaker 3: So looking at the schedule as it is, and this
Speaker 3: is provided that we take care of business against Carolina,
Speaker 3: I would say that seven to eight wins would be conservative,
Speaker 3: and that's of course exceeding the expectations. Right with five
Speaker 3: and a half, we're going to move past that, And
Speaker 3: I would say, on the optimistic side, it's possibly you
Speaker 3: could get nine and ten and possibly sweak into the postseason.
Speaker 3: What we would do there certainly remains to be seen.
Speaker 3: And I agree with what Ben's expressed in terms of
Speaker 3: the upcoming schedule. Even if we don't win our games
Speaker 3: against Kansas City and Baltimore, I'm going to be paying
Speaker 3: very close attention to how we could be because if
Speaker 3: we get blown out, that's going to be a sign
Speaker 3: of things to come. But if we're competitive, I think
Speaker 3: we can carry that momentum and to see to pick
Speaker 3: up some late regular season wins.
Speaker 1: Well, in order to even be competitive or get those wins,
Speaker 1: we're going to need to see quite a bit out
Speaker 1: of bo Nicks. We're seven games into his NFL career.
Speaker 1: What do you make of the rookie quarterbacks so far?
Speaker 3: You know, statistically then it's obviously a disappointment relative to
Speaker 3: my preseason projections. There's no running away for that. But
Speaker 3: when you're looking at a seven game sample size, it's
Speaker 3: important to know that any number of games that are
Speaker 3: really bad ton exkew the efficiency. So you look to
Speaker 3: the extreme low safetyguards per attempt, the only average three
Speaker 3: point three versus Seattle, A future two point four against
Speaker 3: the Jets, you know, completed forty eight percent of his
Speaker 3: passes against the Jets. So those are the kind of
Speaker 3: things then that statistically will kill your season. Efficiency marks,
Speaker 3: so the overall raw numbers are not pretty. On the
Speaker 3: flip side of the coin, there are the hinds. Right,
Speaker 3: we expected, though, to be a quarterback who was difficult
Speaker 3: to sack. I don't know if we expected his hack
Speaker 3: percentage to be this good. At three point eight six percent,
Speaker 3: he's fourth in the league. He's number one in the
Speaker 3: NFL once quarterbacks who have thrown two hundred or more passes.
Speaker 3: He threw four picks in his first two games, sure,
Speaker 3: but then one interception over the next five. So right
Speaker 3: now we're having a guy who with his legs, I
Speaker 3: think we get all three of us can agree he's
Speaker 3: exceeding expectations there. And maybe you're the only person who
Speaker 3: had the hope to see him as good of a
Speaker 3: duel threat as he's been. But in my view, he's
Speaker 3: exceeding expectations on the grounds. He's virtually impossible to sack,
Speaker 3: which is also certainly a credit to the offensive line,
Speaker 3: and over the last five weeks he's been almost impossible
Speaker 3: to intercept. He's caught some breaks. So you look at
Speaker 3: just the one interception over the five, that could have
Speaker 3: been a few thrown in there. But overall, there's a clean,
Speaker 3: a clean play of football that we've seen over the
Speaker 3: last five games. And if that's a sign of things
Speaker 3: to come, I think Broncos country has something to be
Speaker 3: excited about.
Speaker 2: What do you make.
Speaker 4: Of what we saw last Thursday and what I mean
Speaker 4: by that to put it in context, We saw some
Speaker 4: things that vot Nicks in office was running that we
Speaker 4: have been seen, I mean this year, well we didn't
Speaker 4: even see last year but Russell Wilson. But it made
Speaker 4: the offense a little more creative and it also open
Speaker 4: up the field for Bow to make play. So once again,
Speaker 4: I mean, what did you see or what do you
Speaker 4: think led to that kind of creativity that we haven't
Speaker 4: seen around here in a while.
Speaker 3: Well, he's he's explosive, a different style of runner than
Speaker 3: Tim Tebow. But imagine if Tim Tebow had the pass
Speaker 3: accuracy to complete some difficult passes. That is a lot
Speaker 3: more explosive than I think people gave him credit for.
Speaker 3: In his second to last year of college football, he
Speaker 3: led all of the NCAA in terms of the quarterback
Speaker 3: position of Russian touchdowns. To believe he had fourteen. So
Speaker 3: we shouldn't be as shocked as we are to see
Speaker 3: that he leaves the league in rushing touchdowns. So far
Speaker 3: he leads the league, rather leave the Broncos in rushing touchdowns.
Speaker 3: For three he's averaged five point four yards per carry,
Speaker 3: that's number one on the team. His success percentage running
Speaker 3: is fifty five point three percent, that's the best on
Speaker 3: the team. So certainly it's going to open up paints
Speaker 3: for the passing game. It's really the passing game where
Speaker 3: we need to see him develop. So as great as
Speaker 3: it is to see that he's avoiding facts and avoiding picks,
Speaker 3: at some point he's going to have to put the
Speaker 3: team on his shoulders. Having a defensive dominants what we've
Speaker 3: had at Swardson, the luxury of not having to do that.
Speaker 3: Think of what Mark Sanchez got to work with in
Speaker 3: his first two years in the league. And certainly hope
Speaker 3: that Bow ends up a better quarterback than Mark Sanchez.
Speaker 3: But what's going to happen when he has to throw
Speaker 3: thirty five or forty times a game and actually carry
Speaker 3: the team remains to be seen. Because it wasn't pretty
Speaker 3: at the beginning of the year when he was throwing.
Speaker 2: One designed quarterback keep running left side.
Speaker 5: It's a block from boles Nick is free instead of
Speaker 5: twenty five to twenty. He stumbles, he's inside of ten,
Speaker 5: He's hit from behind and knocked to the turf inside
Speaker 5: the five. That was a designed run and a run
Speaker 5: of thirty three yards for bow Nicks.
Speaker 1: Always love Dave Logan on the call, there Odix on
Speaker 1: the scramble. Talking with Ryan Michael at the Ryan Michael
Speaker 1: on Twitter contribute to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Speaker 1: I mean, the Broncos do beat Carolinas, we kind of
Speaker 1: expect do they have a realistic shot at competing for
Speaker 1: a playoff spot?
Speaker 3: I think it's possible. Obviously, it's going to depend completely
Speaker 3: upon how the other teams in the AFC play, and
Speaker 3: the AFC is obviously a tough conference to be a
Speaker 3: part of. So I think as Broncos fans, we should
Speaker 3: temper our expectations because at four and three we're already
Speaker 3: exceeding them. If we're fortunate enough to win that fifth
Speaker 3: game next week, we would continue to be exceeding that.
Speaker 3: And you know, the Panthers defense is dead last in
Speaker 3: the NFL. They're giving up thirty four point seven points
Speaker 3: per game, and they're just atrocious through the air and
Speaker 3: on the ground. The average passer rating against that Panthers
Speaker 3: defense is one hundred and eleven point eight. They're also
Speaker 3: dead last in the league and rushing yards and rushing
Speaker 3: touchdown surrendered to giving up one sixty two point one
Speaker 3: yards in thirteen rushing touchdowns. So whether Bose beating them
Speaker 3: with his arms or his legs, this might be an
Speaker 3: opportunity if we put some points on the board early
Speaker 3: in the game for him to test his limits and
Speaker 3: kind of see what he can do in a little
Speaker 3: bit more of a comfortable atmosphere. Playoffs, it's possible. The
Speaker 3: old cliche taking it one week at a time, I
Speaker 3: think it needs to be our mentality.
Speaker 2: What do you think about what we saw last Thursday?
Speaker 4: Because I like to go back to that because Javonte
Speaker 4: Williams and he's been really criticized early on the early
Speaker 4: part of the season because most people didn't think that
Speaker 4: he was bouncing back the way they wanted him to.
Speaker 4: And you go back to that Jets game and then
Speaker 4: and I sat there and once that Jets game and
Speaker 4: it looked like Tayler but Dave was going to be
Speaker 4: the guy, but he was moved out. Javonte is getting
Speaker 4: more carries. Do you think that this part of the
Speaker 4: game for the Broncos and how they ran against the Saints,
Speaker 4: do you think that is sustainable?
Speaker 3: You know, we put up two hundred and twenty five
Speaker 3: rushing yards against the Saints, So you certainly can't expect
Speaker 3: that every week. Your quarterback's not going to run for
Speaker 3: seventy five yards himself every week. But Savante had a
Speaker 3: heck of a game eighty eight yards on the ground,
Speaker 3: two touchdowns that he caught all three of the passes
Speaker 3: that were sure on his way. So you know, those
Speaker 3: are lofty expectations, neck But I think as Javante continues
Speaker 3: to return to one hundred percent health and get his
Speaker 3: feet wet, and as we can balance what we're doing
Speaker 3: between the rushing and the passing game, which bo is
Speaker 3: evolving as a passard, it's going to open up to run.
Speaker 3: So we just have to continue to play complimentary football.
Speaker 1: Are Ryan. We're almost at the midway point in the
Speaker 1: season here. What's been your biggest surprise, What's been your
Speaker 1: biggest disappointment thus far?
Speaker 3: That's a tough one. I mean, I would say the
Speaker 3: biggest disappointment for me would be the lows that Bow
Speaker 3: they hid early in the year. I didn't expect seeing that,
Speaker 3: And you know, for all of the positives that I'm mentioning,
Speaker 3: they're not necessarily the positives that I was expecting, certainly
Speaker 3: production on the ground. So it's kind of a mixed
Speaker 3: bag when I take a look at where he is
Speaker 3: seven games into his NFL career. You know, as far
Speaker 3: as a disappointment, I would say that I wish that
Speaker 3: we got more production in terms of yards after the
Speaker 3: catch and yards after contact from some of our receivers.
Speaker 3: I understand our offenses and structure to be that kind
Speaker 3: of animal, but at the same time, I don't see
Speaker 3: our receivers making a kind of plays after the ball
Speaker 3: is in their hands, So I think there's a room
Speaker 3: to improve in that regard. And part of that's on
Speaker 3: the quarterback too. I mean, if you see it and
Speaker 3: throw it kind of guy I receive, it's going to
Speaker 3: get tackled, not really facilitating yards after the catch opportunity.
Speaker 3: So it's really just a matter of you know, working
Speaker 3: out there's kings and fleshing out the offense to be
Speaker 3: more of a balanced animals the season goes on.
Speaker 1: Ryan, we we appreciate the time has always got to
Speaker 1: hit a break here man, But looking forward to what
Speaker 1: you're cooking up for us after this hopeful Panthers victory.
Speaker 1: Victory over the Panthers, I should say, Ryan Michael, let
Speaker 1: you Ryan Michael on Twitter, contributor at the Pro Football
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame, always deep diving into the data for
Speaker 1: us