Should the Denver Broncos make a TRADE before Training Camp? | The Rundown
[Music] should the Denver Broncos consider making a trade before training camp begins next month can Shawn Payeyton trust the wide receiver room around his sophomore quarterback and Bo Knicks could a family reunion be coming for the Denver Nuggets and could the Colorado Avalanche potentially make a surprising offseason move to help maintain their title contention window all things to come on a jam-packed rundown And we will bring in friend of the show Denver sports analyst at denverports.com scrappy Will Peterson to help us begin in the world of the NFL where the question one of the main questions I’d say many are asking about the Denver Broncos as they are now into their summer break ahead of training camp is who’s going to be the odd man out in a crowded running back room They bring in JK Dobbins the former Charger on a one-year deal They draft RJ Harvey late in the second round to go along with returning third-year player in Jul Mclofflin and secondyear player Audrey Guest And that doesn’t even begin to touch on the usual fringe suspects like a Tyler Bedet or a Blake Watson So Will what is your overall assessment of this running back room just in the sense of the the pieces that they have and also how they project to be better than last season yeah I mean I think when you sign JK Dobbins you booted someone out of that room There’s just not enough roster spots to go around for everyone and you look at Beday and Watson is probably more practice squad type guys So that means either Jal Mclofflin or Audrey Estmes is not making this team in my opinion and Jal is a different type of skill set whereas Audri it feels like you already have a couple Audrey Estmes on the roster He was a fifth round pick He didn’t get a jersey in a playoff game Richie they have upgraded in a major way Both JK Dobbins RJ Harvey 100% locks to make this football team To me I would look to move Aric Esté now see what you can get back maybe a sixth seventh round pick and just start to kind of pair down that crowded running back room versus if you cut him at the end of August no GM’s going to play ball with you Then they’re going to say “Just cut him I’ll just get him on the waiver wire.” If you want to get some value in return between now and camp is when you should try to move him I read your piece your column at denverports.com that articulated that the Denver Broncos and Shawn Peyton should look to trade Audrey Estimate even for a a a late day three pick like a sixth round seventh round pick something in return before the season because he in your eyes will Peterson appears to be the presumptive candidate the obvious choice to become the odd man out My follow-up question to you on that is why i don’t know that I’m a 100% sold that that’s the case because I look at Jalum Mclofflin and I understand the change of pace potential that he has He clearly has speed as his secret weapon if you were going to assign one But RJ Harvey has speed too They both run 4440s and RJ Harvey is clearly going to be used in the passing game the way that Julin was attempted to be used in space last season So why is it that Audrey Esté is clearly the odd man out but Jal Mclofflin isn’t everything he can do RJ Harvey can do better well first of all Jal at least made a play or two last year that you can remember I mean think about the touchdown he scored in Tampa Bay on fourth down The only plays we remember from Audrey is the fumble on his first ever carry another key fumble And then as I mentioned they go to a playoff game and the head coach says “I trust Tyler Bedet more who hasn’t played since week four versus Audrey Estime who’s been on this roster all season long.” I mean that’s the definition of tipping your hand that Audrey Esté has completely fallen out of favor And what do they do they take a second round running back and then they sign JK Dobbins the best remaining free agent in June Like they’re just they’re providing us breadcrumbs left and right that they’re not big fans of Audrey Estim I I see that you know you’re saying what a lot of people say Well maybe it’s Shal maybe it’s not AR Just go listen to Sean talk about Shal last year He is a He is a fan He loves how he gets there at 5 in the morning first one in last one out type of guy With Audrey it feels like he’s trying to do this this sort of hollow like well you’re going to see him more you’re going to see him more To me they’re just trying to bump up any sort of minimal trade value he may have actions speak louder than words and their actions with Audrey Esté have not been real flattering I do think there is a real world or a real potential that both Audrey Estay and Jalil Mclofflin could find themselves the oddman out and a guy like Tyler Bedet who got the jersey over Audrey Esté in that playoff game comes more into Shawn Peyton’s favor as a complimentary piece alongside RJ Harvey and JK Dobbins But I do think there’s something that Audrey Estame has that none of the other backs can can replicate that could be relevant for this upcoming season and that is that he’s the same body type the same archetype as JK Dobbins in terms of a bigger physical power runner Did he do it effectively enough last year no But JK Dobbins who in his five years in the NFL has suffered three significant lower body injuries uh and that’s really been the one thing that’s hampered him from being one of the better more productive backs in the league So I know with the the voodoo magic of Bo Lowry and and all the the ways that the Broncos have become one of the the most often injured and now the most least injured teams in the NFL but if that doesn’t hold up and JK Dobbins’s career path continues down the way that it is and he gets injured again Audrey Esté in theory provides the best body type stylistic replacement for that style of runner does he not okay sure But but first of all JK Dobbins played 13 games last year which is pretty good for a running back And second of all like you said the Broncos have been nothing but healthy under Shawn Payeyton They are rolling the dice that Dobbins will be healthy That’s why they signed him So I I don’t I don’t know Like you know I think we’re being a little unfair to JK Dobbins Like well he’s going to get hurt so therefore you got to keep Audrey Estate I just can’t live my life that way I’m going to assume that JK Dobbins is going to play 13 14 15 games for the Denver Broncos this season I’ll patch it together and the couple he doesn’t Like you wouldn’t assign the guy in the first place if you’re like well he’s just going to play four games then get hurt because that’s what he does That’s just not worth it for the Broncos to go down this path They are assuming he’s going to be healthy You can’t live your life going “Well he’s probably going to get hurt so we better keep estimate.” No let’s assume this guy does stay on the football field and therefore Audrey Estame just doesn’t have a role In the world of assumptions Will Peterson I want to shift gears to the wide receiver room Are we just assuming that one of these uh uh handful of players in Marvin Mims Devon Vele Troy Franklin Pat Bryant are we just assuming that one of them is going to rise to the occasion to be a number two level wide receiver in the NFL opposite of Courtland Sutton who some think truly isn’t a a real wide receiver NFL one in this league are are we making some assumptions about which guy or if a guy in that room can rise to be a number two or could we be looking at some problems in that area this upcoming season no we’re definitely making assumptions I wrote about it yesterday Pro Football Focus came out with their receiving core rankings and the Broncos were 22nd in the NFL out of 32 teams To me now that you have RJ and JK the receiving core is the biggest question mark on this team for sure Like Evan Ingram will help No doubt about it as a reliable tight end But then after that you know you could ask 10 different people that work at Denver Sports and they may give you 10 different answers in terms of power ranking you know Courtland and then everyone else Like to me I think it’s it’s Mims at two it’s Vele at three Um it’s Pab Bryant at four it’s Franklin at five Now that’s just receivers If I was including Ingram I’d probably put him at two behind Sutton But you’re right between Mims Vle Franklin Bryant whoever you talk to someone’s going to have a different name The problem is we live here Richie We cover this team We are so familiar with this team If you went and pulled football fans in good markets you know Baltimore Pittsburgh um the list goes on New England San Francisco name two Broncos wide receivers They’d get Courtland Sutton I’m not so sure they would get another one So it’s a valid question And that that Pro Football Focus list that you mentioned um or or that I brought up certainly kind of validates that for as excited as we are about this team it’s one of the remaining weaknesses even after free agency in the draft does that viewpoint and kind of using the Pro Football Focus ranking as a lens because you know any outlet can rank anything any specific way and everyone’s got their own opinion or or slice of the pie and how they want to look at it Um but viewing it through using that Pro Football focus analysis as a lens of the Broncos going into this season with the moves that they made and the players that they have returning are basically a bottom third receiver room in the NFL or close to it So with that frame of mind does it make sense to turn around and pay Courtland Sutton 23 24 $25 million a year when best case scenario factoring in Courtland Sutton you’re in the bottom third no I don’t I don’t think so You know I I know he’s going to want some incentives at the bare minimum just like last year Most people think he’s going to stomp his feet if he doesn’t get a new deal But I’m going to tell Courtland let’s play this out Go do it again and then I’ll take care of you People forget he was not the same guy after he tore his ACL for three straight years He caught caught 10 touchdowns with Russ the one year and then last year he really did look like Courtland Sutton again But for a guy who’s soon going to be on the wrong side of 30 I’m not in the business of dishing out another long-term extension He’s already gotten one from the Broncos If he does it again this year stays healthy high level then we can talk But I think there’s this assumption that Courtland’s going to get paid between now and training camp But I’m just I’m not sure that’s the best idea And by the way during the the time that you referenced there where the three-year period where Sutton was having to fully try to recover not just you know physically but mentally to to become the receiver that he was coming out of college Uh he was paid pretty handsomely for a good number of those years George Payeyton extended both Sutton and Tim Patrick before he had to and at a dollar amount that was telling you hey this is probably more than they may be worth right now but we think that it’ll be a bargain on the back end And maybe that’s true maybe it’s not But I I don’t like the notion that that that Courtland Sutton has been has been this you know playing for pennies all this time Uh when when in fact I don’t think that he was especially given how long it took him to kind of come back to the form that we’re seeing right now When I was talking uh uh to Philip Lindsay last week about the number two wide receiver room I kind of looked at it as three different categories that you look at and I kind of want you to to run through this exercise with me When it comes to the number two wide receiver I think you can break it down into who should it be who do you think it will be and then what’s the who’s the best case scenario candidate for it to be for the Denver Broncos And that’s where you can add a little subjectivity into it My read on it was it probably should be Marvin Mims I mean he’s kind of the the the second guy in terms of production uh and he possesses breakaway speed and a different skill set to Courtland Sutton but based on the way we saw uh some of the emergence last season my feel on it was it I think it will be at least in game one week one against the Titans Devon Veil I think he presents a body type similar to Tim Patrick and somebody that can mirror Courtland Sutton and give you similar skill sets on both sides of the field Uh uh and that’s you know a pretty strong projection for a sophomore seventh round draft pick in the NFL But I think the best case scenario whether it’s in week 1 or by the time we get to week 10 or 11 for the Broncos to emerge as the number two wide receiver would be Pat Bryant the third round pick out of Illinois because I think he in some ways represents the future of the wide receiver position for the Denver Broncos and somebody that could help maybe take the mantle from a guy like Courtland Sutton who may not be here after this upcoming season What say you Will Peterson yeah you didn’t mention Troy Franklin in any of those three and I’m not gonna mention him in any of my three It should be Marvin Mims Jr It could be Marvin Mims Jr It will be Marvin Mims Jr Like I Let’s just not overthink this It the plays he made Broncos fans can all recall the touchdown against the Browns the two against the Bengals the one in week 18 against the Chiefs Like that guy exploded in the second half of the season last year Let’s not try to square peg round this Marvin Mims Jr is their second best wide receiver He’s my answer to all three of your hypotheticals Well and I’m not necessarily saying I would hate that outcome either because to be honest with you one of the things that I think Bo Nicks possesses uh that that so many Broncos quarterbacks in the revolving door the the the carousel that came before him uh didn’t is a pretty spectacular looking deep ball And outside of Troy Franklin Marvin Mims is the best suited to try to capitalize on that arrow in Bo Nick’s quiver and we saw it manifest itself a number of times in in the last season And that’s something that Courtland Sutton isn’t really going to give you the week in and week out because it’s just not the type of receiver that he is especially getting toward the wrong side of the 30-year line which in the wide receiver world starts to make you feel a little ancient Well shifting gears to the NBA we have all been speculating about what potential moves the Denver Nuggets should or could make assuming they don’t assuming they hire a GM at some point in the future So for GMTBD there are some potentially intriguing uh uh uh options or decisions that they could look at in terms of improving this Denver Nuggets roster ahead of the 2025 2026 season and finding a way to break out of that first round second round playoff wall that they seem to be hitting once again And the two names that stick out to me one is Bruce Brown who we’ve mentioned before or he could be like a potential mid-level exception vet minimum type of candidate and somebody that clearly hasn’t lost his affinity for the Colorado and the Denver area as he makes well known on social media showing up to events and to games and things like that And the other comes now as a result of some other moves that are happening uh across the conferences in the NBA And that would be Gary Harris who’s expected to be bought out and could potentially be a a free agent candidate pickup option this off season for any team Should the Nuggets be interested in bringing back both or either of those guys if they can make the uh the magic work financially yeah Well Orlando made that big trade for Desmond Bane and they they declined Harris’s team option So he is going to be a free agent They said “We can’t afford to pay you seven and a half million.” So um he will be out there The problem you go look at it his numbers declined every year in Orlando And last year Richie played in 48 games averaged three points a game on 14 minutes I mean Gary Harris’s career has done this and what arguably was the greatest trade in Denver Nuggets history bringing in Mr Nugget Aaron Gordon to help them secure a championship That said NBA rosters are huge They’re huge Why not bring back Gary Harris give him a jersey Worst case scenario he’s just on your bench He’s a veteran leader He’s a DeAndre Jordan type role Best case scenario he remembers I still can play basketball I’m 30 years old You know it’s funny We talk about that with Sutton Well in the NBA 30 doesn’t feel no all that crazy old And if he can play 12 to 15 minutes a night get that Jokic boost that everyone gets feel reinvigorated by coming back to the city where he started career his career And don’t forget he averaged 17 and a half points per game one season for the Nuggets shooting 40% from three So I just think Orlando kind of ran its course with Gary I am wide open to this idea Richie Again worst case he’s just one of your vets that fills out the bench Who cares best case he can still play and is in the rotation I think he’d be embraced by fans I think he’d be embraced by the locker room I see very little downside to bringing in Gary Harris as long as the money is some sort of bet minimum type thing Yeah And that’s ultimately it’s going to come down to money and a lot of it hinges on Daario Sarich probably opting out of his player option which you know you never know or can’t control if you’re the team how he approaches that Uh and we’ll see what they decide to do if they decide to do anything in pursuit of bringing Russell Westbrook back after declining his option But with either one of these guys and I think it would be maybe a little bit far-fetched to try to to get them both or bring them both unless they were both so willing that they you know helped you out on the back end as a as a team but you need better bench help and you needed veteran presence that was lacking Russ was brought in to be both of those things the leader of the bench unit and a veteran presence And I think he was better at one of those things than the other So if you’re not going to bring Russ back you’re still going to need those guys you’re still going to need a Jeff Green You had Bruce Brown in the title year uh as well And so if those guys can come back and be pieces seven eight nine or or or 10 throughout the regular season and potentially shore up the back end of a postseason rotation I’m all for it And I think that both guys experience decline Gary Harris more so uh when once leaving Denver but as we saw with almost any free agent that’s come in during the Jokic era you basically play your best basketball alongside the best basketball player and one of the better distributors in the world uh in terms of a basketball player So I’m not necessarily afraid of that And I think that they’ve got to do GMTBD has to do something because you can’t just keep running this thing back and expecting things to be different That is ultimately the definition of insanity Yeah totally And to be clear Bruce Brown is more intriguing from a pure basketball standpoint Agree I can sit here and confidently say Bruce Brown would be in your playoff rotation I’m not so sure about Gary Harris But yeah I mean you’re going to have to get creative here And guess what if these guys want to be here and they want to take less maybe they are your best options And we’re not just doing this for nostalgic purposes We’re doing it because it makes sense from a basketball standpoint and a financial standpoint There’s another pretty prominent name in the world of hockey that says he may want to be here at least if you believe uh some reputable insiders and whispers coming out of the NHL And that is the man Jonathan Tae the the center the legendary Blackhawks leader uh uh who spent a lot of time away from the game recovering from COVID related illnesses and sers and things of that nature uh but is looking to make a return to the NHL and supposedly according to reports has interest in the Colorado Avalanche who also have a Taves of no relation and the Winnipeg Jets as potential landing spots for him to try to make a move You would figure that Jonathan Taves would probably slot in as like a third line center type of player uh and financially could be cheaper than the third line center you have now in Charlie Coyle who you just acquired this offseason Will what are your thoughts on the potential for the Avalanche to bring in a guy like Jonathan Taves from a financial standpoint and a fit standpoint heading into the 2025 season yeah I like the idea because he is going to be you know a couple million bucks And if you trade Charlie Coyle making over five boom you just saved yourself three right there And oh by the way this guy’s got three Stanley Cup rings He’s got a K Smite to his name He’s another veteran leader in the locker room Now I know they still have Nathan and Gabe and Kale and Valeri and Arturi but maybe bringing in a guy who’s done it elsewhere as a veteran presence would help this team get over the hump Clearly Jonathan Ta has no interest in going back to the Blackhawks He wants to chase a fourth cup before he calls it a career I would love this man I think it’s a great idea for the Avalanche because the leadership the championship experience and you save money I wasn’t impressed with Charlie Coyle once he got here in the postseason This to me would be a clear upgrade I would love if we find out in the next few days that Jonathan Taes has picked the Avalanche They move Charlie Coyle maybe move a Sam Gerard a Ross Colton a Josh Manson or even a Marty Nis And now all of a sudden we’re looking at 8 to 10 million in cap space And when all those lists come out the day after the Stanley Cup final ends and you see Colorado 32nd in the league with 1.2 million start to get creative to figure out how we can make this situation a little bit better Well I think the team that just won their second consecutive Stanley Cup trophy in the Florida Panthers would tell you that they probably don’t regret going down that path that you’ve just described bringing in a guy like Brad Marshian who spent plenty of time and prime years of his career with a different team and is now bringing that veteran leadership and experience to Florida and helping them go backto back will selfishly on the way out because you brought up his name I will ask you um about Marty Nous who appeared on Frank Saravali’s uh offseason trade targets list that he put together every year around the NHL based on intel that he hears from all the different teams across the league And when I saw that immediately my head went to what an absolute nightmare scenario it could be for the Avalanche if uh specifically for Chris McFarland if he ships out a cornerstone franchise player like Miko Rant and a perennial 100point scorer in the league and then does it with the mindset of breaking up that production building depth to spread out across from the top six to the bottom six And then the main focal point player that he tries to replicate Miko’s production around Marty Nes from Carolina decides to bet on himself doesn’t want to resign with the ABS with one year left on his deal at 6.5 AAV wants to go a full season to try to play himself into the 9 10 11 plus million dollar range in the offseason and then leaves Colorado that will have completely emptied the cupboards And even for somebody like me who was who saw the logic and was justifying at least in principle the decision to trade Miko Ranton even I would have to raise my hand and say you know what in hindsight this went wrong in every possible way from trade the they the day the trade went down to now How would how would you Will Peterson feel about that potential nightmare scenario yeah it’s a it’s a bad case of deja vu Here we are again right if you tell me well we had to trade Mo because he couldn’t walk for nothing Even though he did it with six weeks still to negotiate well then you got to trade Marty because he can’t walk for nothing I mean that’s the position Chris McFarland has gotten himself in We had that report from Sportsnet that he wasn’t quote overly thrilled with his time with the Avalanche I don’t know what that means other than maybe he can’t handle playing with Nathan McKinnon who’s super high um demanding of his teammates So yeah it it I mean the trade’s already an F Richie It’s an F minus It’s terrible The guy ended your season with a hat-tick in the third period of game seven They don’t write Disney movies like this You can’t script something like that happening Now if you trade Marty Nis inevitably for a little less than he’s worth because the new GM scared about him walking then the Miko trade goes to a G minus I don’t know It’s just where we’re at on the letter grade scale This is a uh doomsday scenario Although I will say if Natious doesn’t want to be here Yeah Enjoy the Sharks bro Enjoy the Ducks Enjoy the Sabres Fine by me Yeah I couldn’t agree with you more That was my first thought If the grass ain’t green enough for you playing on a top line with Nathan McKinnon on a team that has champ uh championship aspirations and Stanley Cup potential there’s a lot more places you could find around the the the United States of America that play worse hockey than that Well on last thing here it looks like we have an audience participation question Uh uh Mel one of our loyal listeners has a question for you uh that she wants to know and Trey’s going to throw that up on the screen here momentarily because it’s not often that we get uh uh pointed directed questions on the day we have guests So please ask Will he can consider Tae an upgrade over Charlie Coyle That’s ridiculous Cheaper yes but Coyle is easily better and a younger player Will is Mel crazy or is there is there smoke to that fire well Mel he’s definitely younger I don’t know if he’s better What’s his resume versus TA’s resume we got to we got to bring in the the leadership and the cups and the the fistful of rings and all that into this conversation Like Mel I’m sorry but name me the play Charlie Coyle made in those seven games against the Stars I can’t think of one that comes to top of mind So I get it Ta is a little bit of a lottery ticket To Mel’s point that is fair He’s a little lottery ticket But guess what even if he’s not great I think Jack Drury showed enough that he can be your third line center and then Ta is your fourth line center That wouldn’t be the end of the world either Jack Drury played better than your traditional fourthline center in the NHL So Mel the other thing on this is they have 1.2 million in cap space Like I’m sorry someone’s got to go If it’s not Coy then it’s Colton it’s Gerard it’s Manson Like they there’s going to be names that as fans know Richie that get traded in the next few weeks Yeah No I think that they are they’re in a little bit of a of a pickle They’ve got a little bit of a sticky wicket in the same way financially that the the Nuggets find themselves financially hamstrung just a little bit And I think this off season uh uh with with GMTBD and GM maybe not for much longer in Chris McFarland if things continue to to decline uh both teams could find themselves struggling to keep that window open that we thought maybe even just a year or two ago was blown wide open for for both franchises to compete for championships Will thank you so much for joining us Appreciate everything you do at denverports.com We’ll catch you in about 90 85 minutes sitting in with our guy Zack B on the drive Uh uh which will be a pointing listening for me myself and uh we’ll catch up again soon my friend All right thanks for having me Richie Talk to you soon man Appreciate it To the rest of you out there have a wonderful rest of your hump day It is Junth tomorrow We will be back out on Friday at noon catching you up on all the latest in the world of Denver sports of the last 48 hours We’ll see you then I do what I love I never
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