Hey thanks so much for joining
us here on 9 News Plus and here
with Nine News, Sports Director,
Broncos extraordinaire is that?
Let's board my closest title,
but we'll give you that for now.
That's here and Rod. Let's start
things off with the Broncos
first preseason game. They win.
What are your top takeaways?
And also can I honestly ask does it matter
if the Broncos won the preseason opener?
The bigger deal is that they won Thursday.
That's when they had the joint practices
and that's honestly that's my gut is.
That's the closest thing to the
real thing we're going to see until
they play Seattle on the opener on
Monday night on September 12th.
That was starters getting
really about 50 plays each.
That was Russell Wilson that was Justin.
Demons that was Courtland Sutton.
That was the best of the Broncos
against the best of the Cowboys,
and what was incredibly encouraging
about that is the Broncos were better,
and the Cowboys keep in mind I
would be beyond shocked if they
are not a playoff team this year.
Their division is not good.
Dallas is good red zone,
Russell Wilson took it to him.
Denver really dominated the red
zone when they went Broncos offense.
They're against the Dallas defense.
And on the other side the flip side.
I don't know when I've been
so entertained because.
That Denver D loves to chirp,
they just love to talk and douse.
Didn't like it so much.
So there was a lot of I counted 6 different.
Brawl some more serious than others.
I mean, I saw punches thrown,
guys getting taken down it was it was crazy,
but they were better on that
side of the ball as well.
And then they followed that
up on Saturday night,
which turned out to be pretty
much the battle of the backups,
and the Broncos were better then too.
Shows you the depth we saw so many
of those receivers truly shine.
They didn't have many running backs
so they threw the ball a lot and
I was impressed with those guys.
So good start.
I think you can.
You know,
you know they ain't going to the playoffs
after what you saw in the preseason,
but it was certainly encouraging.
I guess before we get into some
more optimistic notes here,
I guess the downside would be John Griffith,
40 seconds into the preseason opener.
Dislocated elbow out four to six weeks.
Of course. The Tim Patrick injury?
Yep. Are you taking place
earlier in training camp?
Talk about the impact of those injuries.
And that's and that's why I think
these preseason games will continue
to be the battle of the backups.
The Rams won the Super Bowl last year.
The Rams never ever play
starters in the preseason.
Tim Patrick Fluger ACL.
That's ACL is usually our
non contact goes down.
Horrible horrible big blow
for the Broncos and then.
Four basically,
there's four guys that were starters
for the Broncos in that preseason
game Saturday night against the
Cowboys and on the second play,
one of the four Jones Griff.
The linebacker goes out four to six
weeks now they have to bring in Joe
Schobert today a new guy coming in.
I mean,
it's just the luck that they decide
to play those guys because like at
the tight end position there were
some starters there too because they
don't know who's going to be the tight end.
So there's some positions they're
going to have to play these starters
because they've got to get a look at.
They still need to make decisions.
But it's I mean the Griffith one was tough.
The Patrick one is brutal.
That's a huge blow, but that's
that's why you look at these things.
And you know,
we've talked into Nathaniel Hackett.
He talks about risk versus reward.
He didn't risk much,
and it still didn't pay off.
So that is.
And that's the thing.
Say what you will about
training camp preseason games.
The most important thing about
it is come out of it healthy.
And the Broncos are now gotten dinged twice.
You alluded to it there.
Russell Wilson did not play.
Do you expect to see him at all?
I don't think they have.
Any interest in playing Russell Wilson?
Now they know what he can do.
I mean nine time Pro bowler the
guy is gonna be a Hall of Famer.
He's done everything.
I mean, nobody works hard.
It's not like he's not gonna be ready.
He's been working with these
receivers in the offseason.
He's he's pulled him aside.
They've gotten so much work.
They work before practice.
They work after practice.
They got that working against the Cowboys.
I think that was big for them.
You know,
there's there is a thought that you get
them out there for a series or two,
but then you saw last week and
other NFL games with key players
going down for other teams.
And that probably just reiterated.
Kojak's mine I'm not.
I'm not risking it,
I'm just not risking he's gonna
be good to go for Seattle.
I just don't know if you wanna
put him at risk.
There's some guys you probably
do want to get out there.
Let them get tested a little bit more,
but with Russell?
I mean that's that's the team.
I mean, that's that's.
Expectations are great because
of the coach and the ownership,
but you lose rust and it's it's
we're right back to where we've
been the last couple of years.
You got to have that quarterback
in the NFL. I just I.
I would be shocked if they risk.
Too much, maybe a series or two,
maybe against Buffalo,
maybe against Minnesota,
but based on what we've
seen so far, I'm not
so sure. Game three, by the way,
against Buffalo, that's usually
for those of you unfamiliar.
It's usually 2 Buffalo,
23373, Minnesota,
and usually it's game three, right?
That's the dress rehearsal
game for the season.
It's because remember used
to be used to be four games,
and so game three was the one
when you would see those starters
play into the second-half.
Now game and then game four.
Nobody would play well.
Now game three is game.
Four and they cut it down,
so there's really no rhyme
or reason to how that works,
so that's why it's kind of interesting now,
because I've got rid of that game that
was just the useless game at the end,
and now you got three.
So how do you treat three and then keep
in mind they've got another week after that,
so they've got two weeks after you
you played the third preseason game.
Then you got an extra week,
almost a built-in bye week
before the season opener.
Alright, give me a few stars,
some training camp,
and maybe from the preseason.
Really, really enjoyed seeing what Brandon
Johnson did, so this is this is for you.
Those who you don't know.
This is Charles Johnson,
former Colorado Rockies catcher,
so it was a great story coming in.
We're like, oh, this is cool.
We just thought it was a great story.
Well, turns out he's a great player.
He was probably the best player along
with Josh Johnson, the the backup
quarterback in that preseason game.
Jones was great.
I mean, Johnson Johnson.
Brandon Johnson was great.
I mean, he's going to make this team.
There's no question 89 is going
to make this team look for him.
It was great.
I think Josh Johnson,
the backup quarterback who's
played for SI believe it's 17
different NFL teams over his career.
Wow and he's just he's just a.
Such an enjoyable guy to root for,
to talk to teammates love him.
He loves being here.
I think he solidified the
number two position.
So verifies Yep and Brett played pretty well.
Josh played better.
They got two more games to figure this out,
but I think that's probably
the direction they go.
I think those two guys really stood out.
There were a couple other
receivers that played well.
Kendall Hinton,
the guy who's already in the Hall of Fame,
is the quarterback who had to come in when
the NFL kind of hosed the Broncos there.
He played well.
Seth Williams had a great touchdown catch.
I mean,
they they did some exciting things.
All right, So what are you going
to be watching for as we head
into the second preseason game in
Buffalo? It will be interesting
to see what Buffalo does.
I would love to see Von Miller play.
That'd be cool.
I would love to see Josh Allen
play the former Wyoming.
Quarterback, that would be cool.
I don't know what their theory is,
so this is when they're facing Buffalo.
This is this is the team
that's Super Bowl favorites.
The Buffalo Bills are the Super Bowl
favorites, so I don't know how many
of those guys are going to play.
I don't know how many of the Broncos will
play, but you got your first Rd game.
Just continue to watch.
Kind of what Nathaniel Hackett does
and everything else get together.
And again this is this is also
as they continue to stack that
depth chart and solidify those
final positions on the roster.
Any final thoughts as we normally
do predictions at the very end but.
I'm not gonna ask you to predict the
preseason game because nobody cares.
What, any final thoughts
as we wrap things up here?
No, just that it's it's it's exciting to see
what in all honesty the pre season was great,
but what we saw in that Thursday game,
that's truly what stood out because
that was the real thing as close.
They didn't take down the quarterbacks.
They weren't.
You know they're hitting,
but they're not tackling to the ground.
But it's still just gave you an idea.
I'm also excited, Randy Gregory.
Just came back.
This is were not for Russell Wilson.
This is your big offseason addition.
He's back off the PUP list,
the physically unable to playlist.
So that's great to see Billy Turner,
the offensive lineman back today.
So it's gonna be nice to get those guys back.
We're just under 4 weeks away
from the season opener so I'm
glad they got those guys back.
Now get him some work.
So hopefully they're ready for September 12th
and both guys expect to be 100% for
they they hope to be there
for the season opener.
I don't think anyone's ever
100% except you of course. Stop.
No. So I'm hoping that's both.
Has talked about that,
so our goal is to be ready for that.
And that's I mean coming back with
this much playing time, hopefully.
And you also have to get rid of
the mental aspect of testing
it out and see how you do,
because until you truly get in
there and play an actual game,
you just don't know
for sure. Of course not, but yeah,
we know that you're Mr 99% because
you're the sports director at pins,
so there you go 99.
But Ron Mackey. Thanks so much
for joining us here on 90 plus.