Broncos schedule preview, Has Bo Nix earned the Denver starting job? | NFL | THE HERD

Well, he's on a very popular radio show in Denver. He's got three Super Bowl rings, multiple time Pro Bowler, Fox Sports, one of the bedrock guys here Mark Schlereth is joining us. He just wrapped up his morning show in Denver. So I got to tell you, I watched Bo Nix. And I thought to myself, I talked about this early, that the college draft in football gives you microwaveable stars, heat them up, they're ready to go. It doesn't matter if you're Bryce Harper, you could be Wemby. You could be a hockey star. You put it in the oven, you cross your fingers, you bake a couple of years and hopefully they help you out. But my takeaway is as big a mess as Denver was. Nat Hackett draft capital cap. Hell, it was a mess. And I watched that and I went, are these the Texans. Are we looking at like they'll become a model of how to get out of a cap disaster. Now, I could be overstepping it here, but he looked like he looked in college. I mean, they've already named him the starter for next week, have they not. Mark Yeah, they certainly have. Bo Nix played exceptionally well. And I think a couple of things. NFL teams have to do. I think we have to do it as people, Colin, you have to be honest with yourself, right. And you have to know what your strengths are, but more importantly, what your weaknesses are. And you have to understand that you have to build the majority of your football team through the draft. Because when you go after everybody in free agency, you're paying 8 plus for b-minus talent Yeah And so what the Broncos did was saying, we're going to stop the bleeding, like we are we're not putting band-aids over gaping wounds anymore. We're going with Bo Nix. And by the way, the best fit, in my opinion, of any of the quarterbacks that were taken in the first round. He was sixth overall. I just thought he was a perfect fit for Sean. And ultimately, you look at the way he played and I always talk about just pocket presence. The kid has unbelievable pocket presence and you saw everything come to fruition. You saw him stand in the pocket, deliver the football on time accurately. You saw him manipulate inside the pocket, never taking his eyes down to focus on the rush, always keeping him downfield delivering strikes. You saw him scramble out of the pocket when he was under duress, but continued to focus down the football field and complete. His first completion was to Courtland Sutton on a third down and 10 for a first down outside the pocket. You saw him operate on third down as an offense. You saw everything you needed to see. And Bo Nix is legitimately going to be the day one starter for the Denver Broncos at the quarterback position. Without question. In my mind, this is I mean, it's just a fact. Zero sacks in that game Yeah everything that Russell Wilson wasn't last year for Sean Payton Bo Nix was I know it's only one preseason game but this has been the way it's been all pre-season through practices with Bo Nix Yeah Now that there's a distinction now Justin Fields took a lot of sacks for the Bears but PFF told you it was like the 15th best O line the Broncos O line with a left tackle that's elite more than workable at the guard. Like I look at the O line, I'm like, I don't think it's a disaster when I watched him play. But let's talk about that because it's a position better than anybody. Is that because a quarterback gets sacked, there is a tendency to think the O line is terrible. That's not necessarily what it means. Explain that Yeah, well, think. What you have to understand is that quarterback sacks to me are more of a quarterback driven statistic than they are an O line driven statistic. The way the game has changed is that the majority of the throws made within the context of your offense are quick three step and 5 step in nature where the ball is coming out one to 2 and it's coming out in under 2.5 seconds. So if your quarterback doesn't throw the ball on time or pulls the ball and scrambles around, especially on the backside of the pocket, now those sacks go on the quarterback. And if you look at the Denver Broncos last year, of the 45 sacks they gave up, I bet you close to quarters of those sacks were credited as Russell Wilson's fault. And that's unacceptable. Like that is unacceptable. And the worst part of that for me as an offensive lineman is when the quarterback comes out and doesn't jump on the hand grenade. You want to talk about want to talk about a guy that will be hated in the locker room and that will piss me off is when he takes five sacks and of the six sacks that were given up and then he comes out in the press conference afterwards and says Yeah, we got to protect better. No, no, no, no, no. We what are you, French waiter? No, you got to play better. We don't have to protect better with all your. We So one of the big emphasis with that game yesterday with the Denver Broncos is zero sacks and that's going to be like when you give up a sack in the course of a drive have almost zero chance after that sack to score points. Your scoring ratio drops down to like 8% to 10% or something crazy like that. I don't know exactly what the percentage is, but you're almost zero ability to score points if you give up a sack and a drive. So having quarterbacks not taking sacks because they understand what they're doing in the context of the offense becomes vitally important. Bo Nix and Peyton get a little bit of a break with scheduling, so you open with Seattle, but it's a brand new staff. You also have Vegas. At the end of it, you're at the Jets. But again, the Jets are what are the Jets you're at Tampa winnable. Pittsburgh at home with a quarterback issue. You start looking at the first. Now it gets a little tougher after that. But what is I mean, I don't know. I look at that with a rookie quarterback and Minnesota's early schedule is landmines everywhere I look at this and I think. Pretty workable. What is realistic is somebody who knows players there. Sean Payton, privately, what do you think is workable in the first five or six weeks Yeah no, I think they could come out of the first five or six weeks with either a winning record or of a 3 and 3 type record. So do I. And Yeah, ultimately, here's the thing that ends up happening with national analysts is they'll say, hey what, talent is questionable here. They don't have a lot of talent. And I'll say, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, you're mistaken. They don't have a lot of name value Yeah, they have a lot of talent, but the talent that they have hasn't created a name for itself yet. The first game I ever played in Collin was a game in Philadelphia about halfway through the season, my rookie year in 89 when I became a starter. And I'll never forget it. It changed the trajectory of my career to have somebody believe in you is it can mean so much to you as a player, but just as a parent, if you believe in your kid, the best thing you can do for your kids is to believe in them. And I'm sitting on the bus scared, scared as all get out, going to open up my career in the vet in Philadelphia against Reggie White and Jerome Brown and Clyde Simmons and I mean, this is the number one defense in football. And our quarterback is Doug Williams. And he walked on the bus and he walks by me and then he stops and he turns around and he backs back up and he taps me on the shoulder. I take out my headphones. And he said, listen, the only difference between you and them is they had a chance to go out and make a name for themselves. And he goes in today, you have a chance to go out and make a name for yourself. And I completely believe you're going to do that. And I end up getting a game ball in that game and getting in a fight. And I mean, the whole 9 yards, I'm like this guy by the name of Mike Pitts. I am wearing his ass out. And he swung at me. He threw a punch at me and I tried to decapitate his ass because I was like, I'm a tenth rounder from Idaho. You're not punking me right. I guarantee you that that's not going to happen. And ultimately, I got a chance to make a name for myself. These guys that play for the Broncos right now haven't had that opportunity. But trust me, at the end of this season, they're going to be four or five guys who make a name for themselves that are going to become those guys that you look at and go, Wow, that team is more talented than I thought Yeah And they just don't have name value yet Yeah no, I've said this. They've got two workable backs, potentially three receivers. I like a good left tackle. They have, they lack a rush end, which they drafted. So to me cross your fingers on that. One of the best corners, safeties are good linebackers move great coach I don't buy this that means I say Minnesota and Denver. I keep hearing they're going to finish fourth and I'm like, I don't know. I see a lot of players. We got to run. We got to run Mark Schlereth good seeing you, Bud. You to call and take care, buddy Yeah.