Zach Allen’s comments show one MAJOR change for the Denver Broncos | The Rundown
Some of Zack Allen’s most recent comments after signing a 4-year contract extension provide further proof of a major change happening here in Broncos country. What is the ceiling for Bo Nicks and Shawn Peyton heading into the 2025 season? And will Nick Bonito as the next man up for a big payday sign that check before the start of the 2025 season? All things to come on today’s rundown as we are once again live here at Broncos Park powered by Common Spirit for another day of Broncos training camp. It’s a spirited practice today. Not full pads like we got a good chunk of last week, but still in shells as they gear up to head to Santa Clara for a joint practice with the 49ers in just a few days. We saw some crisp passes for Bo Knicks today. Did throw an interception on a free play to Justin Stern, but thankfully an offsides penalty negated what would have been a true interception for Bo Knicks. We got some good route running from some of the running backs, JK Dobbins and R.J. Harvey especially showing that they have the capability and skill set to be some pretty advantageous weapons in the passing game for Bo Knicks and Shawn Peyton. And speaking of the passing game, there is somebody who I think was labeled in a pretty under the radar low-key kind of way that I think is set up to succeed those expectations and exceed their projections heading into 2025. And that’s somebody that I want to get into a little bit deeper tomorrow. But we will begin today’s show along the defensive line where we got the news over the weekend that Zack Allen signs a four-year $102 million contract extension to ink himself in Denver for the better part of the next half decade going forward into this season. And man, I got to tell you, it feels good. It feels good to me that George Peyton, Shawn Peyton were able to get this done. They lock down for Sutton for a deal that in my opinion is a win-win for both sides financially, length of terms, the way the contract sets up in a year-to-year basis and etc. This, in my opinion, was the next step on that list in terms of guys to get done. Zack Allen then potentially addressing something with Nick Bonito who’s already confirmed that his representation has been in talks and that those conversations are ongoing. But Zack Allen, although he plays on the interior defensive line, which is an easy position to kind of forget when you look at the defense with edge rushers, cornerbacks, and even linebackers and safety, some of the high-profile flashing moves and signings that this front office has made. Make no mistake about it, Zack Allen’s presence on the interior of that defensive line is a key cog in Vance Joseph’s machine and somebody whose presence, if it were to be absent, would significantly beat Bell. Take a look at his stats from the 2024 season alone. He has 40 quarterback hits careerhigh led the NFL for interior defensive lineman. In fact, the only interior defensive lineman to hit those numbers in the last seven years, guy by the name of Aaron Donald, in case you hadn’t heard of him, and that’s since 2018. If you go further back over the last two decades or so, names like JJ Watt and and and Jared Allen and others kind of come to mind as guys who can hit that mark. all of which are significantly high-profile contributors uh uh at the defensive line position. And then eight and a half sacks, also a careerhigh, 15 TFLs, an absolute disruptor in the middle of that defensive line. And somebody who is so good and so impactful that it overshadows the contributions of guys like DJ Jones, who’s been nothing but a run stuffer since coming here from the 49ers. John Franklin Myers who has had to take to social media and be extra vocal with the fact that he feels underappreciated and underpaid. Well, he feels underappreciated and underpaid because all the attention and now all the money is going to the likes of Zack Allen. Malcolm Roach is also entering a contract here on that defensive line as well. So getting this deal done with Zack Allen was just from a pure football standpoint for the Broncos going into 2025 a significant check off the list and somebody that you were going to lock down from a productive standpoint was still in their very productive years as an NFL player for the next half a decade. But it was the comments that he made after signing the extension when he took the podium over the weekend during Saturday’s practice that to me spoke to a on a much more broader scale to a significant change happening here in Broncos country. When asked why he felt good about signing the extension and his feelings now going forward, he said, quote, “I just love what we’re building here, and I just can’t state that enough. It’s all about the culture here. I think that’s kind of why you see how Courtland, myself, everything being handled right now is because we believe in this team and believe in this organization. It really is a blessing to be a part of the Denver Broncos organization and be living here in Denver. That’s a pretty powerful statement from a guy like that. What’s up, Stone? What’s up? I’m like, I see somebody over my shoulder. Oh my god. That’s a pretty powerful statement from a guy like Zack Allen who’s a newcomer here to town. Came over from the Arizona Cardinals where he had familiarity with Vance Stickup’s defense and and to already in just a number of years he was going into the final year of his initial contract here in free agency. To already feel that kind of impact as a newcomer to the team who’s played for other organizations in his career, I think is significant. And he mentions the the silence, the the effective radio silence and lack of maybe drama or or riff ripples in in in the water when it came to Portland Sutton and Zack Allen. Portland Sutton contrasting to last offseason where he was very vocal on social media. He did not shy away from his comments and basically said in no uncertain terms that he would play under the $14 million deal that he was set to for this year. Turns out he will. It’s just with a lot more guarantees tacked on to the future years after that. But you see how Sutton’s contract extension is handled. You see how Zack Allen’s contract extension is handled. Then you hear from both guys and most recently Zack Allen and the way that they speak so glowing about the culture which has been brought in and started to rebuild under Shawn Peyton after more than half a decade of some of the worst and dysfunctional football in the history of this franchise. maybe in the NFL at large if you’re looking over the last half decade or so given what went on at the ownership level, the front office with the transition from John Elway to George Payton and then the head coaching cycle that continued to go and go and go with Nathaniel Hackett and Big Fangio and now you have Shawn Peyton and you have that alignment that goes from the ownership group with the Walton Penner ownership group, the richest owners in professional sports down to a front office with a guy like George Payeyton who we weren’t sure was going to work that well with Shawn Peyton. It turns out that they fit like a glove. You have an experienced head coach with pelts on the wall who knows what he’s doing and is able to bring and establish a culture here in Denver that had been missing for so long. And then Bo Nicks being the quarterback, final star of alignment that comes together and you see how quickly things change. Well, Zack Allen’s comments right there are giving you proof of that change taking hold and why you see guys like Zack Allen who could have their pick of the literary free agency choose to stay here in Denver. Why guys like JK Dobbins choose to come here to a division rival to try to further the next step of their career. and you have a front office that is willing to and able to negotiate these things in a very tactful, respectful, and prompt manner. The agents and the players clearly have faith in this organization. Something that was lost in the last seven or eight years, I believe, here in Broncos country. And it was really refreshing to me to hear Zack Allen’s comments there and what it means to this Broncos organization going forward as they look to be on an upward trajectory toward potentially not just a wild card reappearance, but potentially winning a division, getting past the wild card round, competing for the AFC, and maybe even returning to the Super Bowl for the first time in at least what will be a decade during this 2025 season. If the Broncos are going to return to the heights that they did return to uh that they did reach in 2015, Bo Knicks is going to have to be at the center of that. And the question now after a surprising rookie season where Bicks goes 10 and seven after being the sixth quarterback taken off the board. He melds with Shawn Peyton in what was maybe in the first three to four weeks of the season, some of the uglier football at the quarterback position, which is saying a lot given the quarterbacks that have come through here, but it was a pretty historically bad start to Bo Nicks for a rookie quarterback. But a finish. You want to talk about a a a another side of the coin? Somebody who from weeks 11 to 18 was one of the best quarterbacks statistically in the entire NFL. Not the AFC West, not the AFC, not among rookies, in the entire NFL, who was a bonafide rookie of the year candidate, overshadowed only by a pretty significant season from a guy like Jake Daniels, who takes the Washington Commanders from the second overall pick to the NFC title game. and maybe one of the best tight ends in the NFL already in Brock Bowers. So, you want to talk about the start to the finish. Well, that has everybody wondering if this feels if this is the floor, right? If you’re if you’re accepting and predicting a natural progression for a rookie quarterback like Bix going into his sophomore season and beyond, it feels like where we are in 2025 and what we saw in 2024 is relatively speaking the floor. So, if that’s the case, then what the hell is the ceiling? Because that’s a pretty high floor and something that I think everyone in Broncos country can certainly be excited about. Well, we got some we’ve gotten comments from Shawn and we also got comments from a pretty noted quarterback guru around the NFL in Tom House, who’s been working with Bonigs and famously worked with other Hall of Fame type quarterbacks like Drew Brees, who Shawn Payton obviously knows very intimately. And Tom House had some nice things to say about Bo Nicks in his initial evaluations. He said, quote, “He’s a pretty complete product right now. The things that I help Bo with are small things that can make him more efficient and consistent and able to recover quicker, but he’s a very good quarterback.” And that’s where we’re at again right now as a floor for Bon Knicks going into 2025. You got a guy who’s worked with some of the best quarterbacks who have ever spun a football at the NFL level and he’s like, “Hey, I know it’s only been one year, but this guy’s legit.” Okay. And I think that’s a validation of some of the things that we in the media and we in the fan base have already seen from Bo in his first year with Shawn once he got through that drink through a fire hose kind of welcome to the NFL baptism by fire phase that took place over the first three to four weeks of the 2024 season. And so for Bo Nicks, it already is feeling like all the pressure that used to come with being the starting quarterback for the Denver Broncos that was shouldered by the likes of John Elway, Jake Plumber, Payton Manning, and a and the laundry list of other quarterbacks who couldn’t live up to it like those other three did. It’s already back and being placed on bone eggs. And while that is a great thing, it’s also kind of a stressful situation to be in. Thankfully, I think that Bon Knicks is well equipped from a skill set standpoint, the way he approaches the game mentally, the coaching and the foundation that he’s built with Shawn Payeyton. I think he is more than well equipped to be able to handle that pressure. And I think that it spells nothing but great things for the Denver Broncos because if Bo is able to shoulder that burden and continue to build upon the blocks that were laid in 2024 with this rookie contract window and the contract extensions that we’re seeing for Sutton and now Allen and potentially Bonito before the start of this season or at some point in the next calendar year, you’ve got the reigning defensive player of the year in Patrick. all of the weapons and pieces that were brought in around him from R.J. Harvey to JK Dobbins to Evan Ingram to Pat Bryan, the defensive additions like Talano Huanga and Dre Greenoff. This is a team that legitimately already can consider themselves postseason contenders from 2025 forward and potentially even reach heights that they haven’t reached in the last decade or so. And all of it begins here with the 2025 season where we will see if Bo Knicks can avoid the dreaded sophomore slump that has plagued quarterbacks in years past. So many things to keep tabs on here at Broncos Park powered by common spirit as Broncos training camp rolls on. We are into game week of the first preseason game for the Denver Broncos. And I’m telling you, before we know it, football in a real sense with week one across the league will be back. And we will start to see how more of these puzzle pieces in this busy but meaningful off season and tactical offseason for the Denver Broncos starts to pan out. We are keeping tabs on the health of the inside linebacker room. Alex Singleton was back out in action today. Saw a little bit of time over the on the field over the weekend. It was although he wasn’t really participating, it was more observing, but he was out there. He was out there with a helmet on today. Frank Greenaw obviously working back from a a lower body injury that is unrelated to some of the quad issues and Achilles issues he’s had in years past. Drew Sanders elects and opts for football uh uh surgery on his ligament issue that he was dealing with his foot which could keep him out into the start of the regular season. So, we are keeping tabs on that. There’s some emerging talents in the wide receiver room and maybe some risers and fallers to a certain unfortunate degree in that room that could impact the wide receiver 2 discussion and the overall effectiveness of that room as a whole. And then obviously keeping eyes on Bo Nicks as he and the offense continue to kind of work out kinks. And while they still seem a little bit disjointed in nature and I think that there’s a lot of timing and rhythm issues that they still have to work through, especially when you’re going up against defense like this every single day, as long as the building blocks keep stacking, things will be moving in the right direction. And we here at 1043 the fan will be here to chronicle for you all and every step of the way on denver sports 1043 the fan at denverports.com and on all of our social media shows like Denver Sports Daily, the rundown and orange and blue today. We will be live tomorrow once again at Broncos Park powered by Common Spirit at noon and we’ll see you then.
Zach Allen’s comments show one MAJOR change for the Denver Broncos. Will Niko Bonitto get his contract extension before the NFL season begins? What is the ceiling for Sean Payton and Bo Nix? Join @RichieCarni live from Training Camp right now!
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