THE ROSTER BUBBLE | Nate Jackson Monologue on Denver Broncos Players Who Won't Make The Team

oh what's up guys how you doing Nate Jackson here Guerilla Sports exciting exciting times in Broncos Country B Knicks named your starter this week and I know we're really excited about who that quarterback's going to be we kind of maybe thought it was going to be bo now we know it is and it's a really big story but I'll tell you what the bigger story is right now inside of that locker room guys it's the Assembly of this football team all 53 players on this roster next week right now there's 90 guys and the average career guys is less than three and a half years Tom Brady played for 23 Jerry Rice played for 21 John Elway played for 16 and then there are thousands of guys whose names you can't remember guys with Incredible high school and college careers who wowed football fans their entire lives young men who sacrificed it all for the sport they love and the sport you love made it onto an NFL roster fought like hell for a spot and watch it all come down to the last preseason game like the one the Broncos play on Sunday at empower F like I said 90 guys currently wear a Broncos jersey only 53 will make the week one roster that's 37 football players who will be getting varying forms of bad news next week some will end up on the practice squad most will get cut outright now we do get caught up in the quarterback chatter I do too B Knicks I I believe leave it's Bodacious rightly so and we focus our attention on the Stars we know and love but as coach Shawn Peyton has repeatedly said this process is about finding the right 53 while the starters have by now likely all been fleshed out upstairs the coaches know who's going to start it really is the back end of this roster that now requires the attention after all once you assemble the team every man on it I'm talking about every man I was once one of these guys is an injury away from major playing time and when you're on that field on Sunday anything can happen you might be asked to make the play to win it for your team that happened to me several times I started the game as a special teams player getting limited reps on offense and then because of an injury to a guy ahead of me there I was on the field in the final drive of the game trying to win it for my team or help win it for my team and I had to do my job I had to know what that job was and the coaches had to trust me so can we trust you for that Sunday's game is the last chance to make your case but it's true things have changed in the NFL guys there used to be four preseason games and the last one was only a week before the regular season began that usually meant that the starters wouldn't play in that final preseason game and this made it very clear who was going to play and how much playing time you'd actually get in my six-year NFL career all six with the Broncos by the way in all of them but one I had to play and perform in that last game to solidify my spot on the team and because the starters weren't suiting up the rest of us the guys who were trying to fight for our our spot got to play the entire game plus all the Special Teams it it was one of the most tiring games I can remember playing especially because it felt like so much was on the line now maybe the coaches already had it made up in their minds maybe if I hadn't played well I still might have made the team who knows after all it is the body of work at this point that matters most who you were every single day not your last desperate attempt to make an impression no you probably can't win a spot on the roster in the last preseason game but you certainly can lose one and this is that thing that no one talks about that thing that the coaches try to express to you the night before Sunday's game when they dismiss all the starters and you watch them walk out so they can go watch film for Seattle and you look around the room and realize that everyone left is fighting for their football lives and most of us in in here will be gone by next week you've done everything you've been asked since the moment you stepped into the facility You' fallen in love with this team and this city and you don't want to leave not now not yet and then the coach stands up in front of all you and tells you how difficult these decisions are how proud he is of everyone in this room and the effort that you've given how he wishes that he could keep all of you but he can't and that this is the hardest part of the business letting go of good players and saying goodbye to Good Men and you know he's telling the truth after all there was a time when coach pton a record setting college quarterback was a young football player himself sitting in one of those chairs listening to that same speech the night before his last chance to change someone's mind he knows how this feels so when he delivers this message the players will understand that he means it what coach may also say or decide not to is that for many of you in this room this will be the last football game you ever play a few will catch on for another team but never as much as we hope the fact is the sport you've devoted your entire life to is ending and tomorrow will be the final page the last time you strap on those shoulder pads the last time you bite down on the mouthpiece the last time you look at yourself in the mirror before taking the field and the last time your cleats hit the grass but here's the catch if you think it's the last game you'll ever play in you're probably right I've seen guys go out and try to win a job in the last game a job they'd already lost and end up playing out of control and embarrassing themselves don't think about the end you'll have plenty of time to do that later just go out and play the game you know how to play with speed passion and joy and pray you've done enough to still be a Denver Bronco next week that's all for now check you later