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00:00With me now on the West Her Hotline is our guy in Denver, Benjamin Albright, KOA Colorado.
00:05Ben, you good? I hope we're not putting any sort of extra stress into your life by bugging you today.
00:10No, it's been a fascinating day here for me personally, but I'm glad to be on board with you.
00:16If you want to say anything, go ahead. I mean, in this world, maybe it does get back to you,
00:20but I don't know. If you want to vent, you certainly should feel free.
00:24I don't even know what to vent. I mean, the parking garage in my apartment complex sort of collapsed,
00:31and I don't even know what you do with that, really. It's been one of those days.
00:36I guess you just park somewhere else and wait for security or wait for repairs, I guess.
00:42I don't know. Tough one. I guess the best you can do.
00:46So, Benjamin, here we go into 2026.
00:48The Bills and Broncos, having met in the playoffs each of the last two years,
00:52have Broncos fans, yourself, everybody there, kind of settled into a new reality
00:58that these guys are like a contender and you have high standards there now?
01:04I think the fan base certainly has.
01:07The bar is far higher than it was when Sean Payton got here.
01:12The bar is now set at excellence.
01:13I think the fans around here are looking at this team as a contender.
01:18I think the team feels it's a contender.
01:20I think there's been a growth of confidence to the point where last year they were winning a lot of
01:25those games
01:25with last-second comebacks, and I think last year they sort of had this mentality that they could hang with
01:30anybody.
01:31I think they're coming into this year more with a hunter's approach.
01:35Like, we can't just hang with anybody. We can beat anybody, and I think that's where they sit right now.
01:40Teams tend to like it when they feel slighted, and maybe the Broncos have a little bit of that
01:46with there being just one manifestation of it, perhaps.
01:50The third choice in the betting markets in the AFC West, maybe a little bit of what do we have
01:54to do.
01:55Okay, Kansas City, I get it, but the Chargers, too.
01:58That's a little weird for me, given the year Denver just had.
02:02Yeah, I mean, I think so.
02:03I don't, you know, that has not been a consistent talking point around here,
02:08but I do think that that's certainly felt.
02:09I think everybody, you know, here in Denver kind of says, well, hey, look, we think we're a contender.
02:14We don't care what the betting markets say.
02:16Maybe, you know, we're getting better odds to put our own money down on this kind of stuff.
02:20So, you know, I think here it's interesting because I think they feel like the biggest threat is the Chargers
02:25and not really Kansas City.
02:27A lot of people think Kansas City's probably the third team in the division,
02:30and so that's going to be interesting to see how that plays out this year.
02:33I think the pulse of Denver is one that, you know, maybe Kansas City's time at the top is waning
02:39or has passed.
02:40Why do you think that would be, Benjamin, that the Chargers might outrank the Chiefs in Denver's eyes?
02:47I think part of it is, I mean, watching the Chargers the last couple of years.
02:51Sean Payton's always struggled against Jim Harbaugh, but, you know, you look, it's been a quality team.
02:55When they haven't had, you know, a spate of injuries, they've been tough to beat.
02:59Now you've added guys that are well-known here in Denver.
03:01Adam Gase is on that offensive staff.
03:03He was, of course, on the Broncos' offensive coordinator when they were record-setting.
03:07Mike McDaniel is running the offense.
03:09Of course, he's a very familiar name.
03:11He's from here.
03:12And so I think there's a combination of, you know, adding those two names,
03:17the work they did on the offensive line this year,
03:19just seeing how that team played in previous years when they were fully healthy.
03:23Right.
03:23Adam Gase, back to that incredible, historic Peyton Manning season, right?
03:28He's the 55 touchdowns.
03:30He's the quarterback coach of that team, right, maybe?
03:33Yeah, he was the OC QB coach.
03:35Those teams back then, he was kind of the architect of that.
03:38Now Peyton Manning was running the show against Peyton Manning,
03:41but Adam Gase was certainly the guy with the designation.
03:45McDaniel is interesting.
03:46I love his story.
03:47And that's a guy I root for.
03:49I mean, Bills and Dolphins, the Bills continued to kind of own them,
03:53and obviously it came apart for the Dolphins.
03:55But I get the optimism about him with L.A.
03:59It sounds like you might, too.
04:01Yeah, I think he's probably one of those guys that's best suited as a coordinator anyway.
04:05You know, he's one of those people that's a brainiac.
04:08He loves drawing things up and that kind of stuff.
04:10His problem down there in Miami with a lot was managing personnel.
04:13And, you know, he doesn't have to do as much of that, I think,
04:16you know, as is the OC with the Chargers.
04:18He's, you know, obviously a Shanahan disciple, and he's been through it in the league.
04:22He's seen it all.
04:23He's been around, suffered through, you know, some addiction and rehab issues
04:27and all that kind of stuff, and just managed to conquer all that.
04:30He's one of those guys that when you talk to him, you kind of can't help but root for him.
04:33Right.
04:33Benjamin Albright, my guest.
04:35I'm Mike Shope.
04:35Bulldog is off today.
04:36This is WGR.
04:38I hate to keep asking you questions about how you think everybody feels.
04:42I go on in different cities, and I get those questions,
04:45and I don't want to speak for everybody.
04:46You can't.
04:47But I am curious for how maybe in your own mind or how you think Denver sort of looks back
04:54on the end of last year, winning the Buffalo game in overtime, in the playoffs.
04:59Then you get the Knicks news right after the game, which was shocking.
05:03And, you know, the AFC championship ends up being in a blizzard without your quarterback.
05:09I mean, do you throw your hands up a little bit because of that?
05:12Is it – I mean, being kind of new back into the playoffs and into the AFC championship game,
05:19you know, you never want to lose, but you sort of look at it maybe as growth.
05:24What are maybe the right sentiments for the Broncos at the end of last year?
05:28Well, I think – I mean, I think there's a feeling here that if Bo had been healthy,
05:32they'd probably beat the Patriots.
05:33I don't know if they'd beat the, you know, beat the Seahawks, but they'd probably beat the Patriots.
05:39Okay.
05:42And I think more –
05:48Hey, Ben, we're kind of losing you here for a minute,
05:50so I don't know if you can go back to where you were if you moved like 30 seconds ago,
05:53but I lost you in the middle of that answer.
05:56Knicks, remember – I do from what I remember about working that night after the Bills loss with Bulldog here
06:03is the news that just sort of interrupted our post-mortem that Knicks had been injured.
06:08Sorry, Ben, hopefully this works better.
06:11You were saying.
06:13Yeah, sorry about that.
06:14No, I think there's an optimism that comes out of that.
06:17I mean, I think the team is, you know, certainly dejected that they didn't have full strength
06:21and Bo to play the Patriots, and obviously, you know, they feel like they could have won that one.
06:28You know, but you look at that and you say, okay, well, you know, we got there.
06:32And, you know, this is a return.
06:34We're bringing the whole band back, basically.
06:35I mean, John Franklin Meyer is the only player they're not bringing back.
06:38And so I think there's a mentality that, hey, we got there with what we had.
06:43Why not us?
06:44Why can't we do it again?
06:45And so I think there's an optimism from that.
06:48Benjamin, did anybody outside of the locker room know about the Knicks injury before Sean Payton announced it?
06:57Sort of.
06:58We all saw Bo, like, limping there.
07:00And so there was sort of this, like, oh, he's a little dinged up.
07:03But we did not know the extent or severity of it.
07:07And, no, it did not leak until right before Sean got up there to the podium.
07:14The Broncos front office, you know, communications people kind of pulled some of us to the side there and said,
07:18hey, he's about to go up there and Bo's going to be done.
07:21You need to be in there for that.
07:23Yeah, that had to be pretty shocking.
07:24I mean, it was – I was just saying for a minute there how incredible that was here.
07:29I mean, we're sitting here trying to digest the loss and figure it all out.
07:34And then, you know, we get in our ear, by the way, Bo Nix broke his ankle.
07:38And wasn't Nix bothered by how that went or what was disclosed eventually?
07:43Yeah, yeah, that situation was – there's a lot to that.
07:47I'll say this.
07:48I mean, Bo probably dropped back too much in that game.
07:51Shouldn't have been running, you know, QB power there toward the end.
07:53They should have let a running back run it.
07:55All kinds of decisions that were involved in that.
07:57Later on afterwards, he sort of took exception to the way Sean Payton got out there and publicly talked about
08:03the injury
08:04and maybe described it as sort of recurring because he had had an issue with the other ankle back in
08:09college.
08:09And there was some friction, some definite friction from that.
08:13That's long since made it now.
08:15But at the time and the way that was presented, there was definite friction from Bo on that.
08:19How do you feel, Ben, about how Nix is perceived as a quarterback in the league, a top quarterback, the
08:26success that he's had?
08:28I mean, I think he gets sort of run over a little bit because of either his age
08:32or just sort of the way Mahomes, Allen, Jackson, even Burrow sort of established a hierarchy in the conference.
08:40And I think May has maybe even cracked that too.
08:43The question maybe should be, does Nix, in your opinion, get enough respect?
08:48Yes and no.
08:49I mean, I think the national narrative on him is somewhat lacking.
08:53I think some of the arguments that are used against him are somewhat suspect.
08:58But the flip side of that, I mean, I think opposing players respect him.
09:02I think it's maybe a media and a fans thing.
09:04I mean, you look at this.
09:05He led the NFL in dropbacks last year but didn't clear 4,000 yards.
09:08That was a little eye-opening.
09:10And so people look at all the screens and things like that and they say,
09:14OK, well, he doesn't throw the ball deep.
09:16Well, that's not true.
09:17I mean, he's got a pretty good deep ball, actually, which you guys saw a couple of those.
09:21It's just the way they were doing things last year when J.K. Dobbins went down and that kind of
09:26stuff.
09:26And then the offensive line gets credited as being one of the best offensive lines in football.
09:31Well, part of that's because Bowe gets rid of the ball so quick and doesn't take sacks.
09:34And sacks are as much a quarterback stat as they are an offensive line stat.
09:38So I think there's a little give and take with that.
09:40I think sometimes the narratives on him are incorrect.
09:43And then sometimes he does get the praise he deserves.
09:47Seven game-winning drives.
09:48I mean, you can't really scoff at that too much.
09:52So what have they done to get better?
09:55Jalen Waddell, in my fantasy streets, Benjamin, there's a lot of excitement about Jalen Waddell.
09:59He's a player that, over the course of the summer, has gone up in drafts.
10:04I guess the question, well, questions about him can be asked, I suppose.
10:07He hasn't always been the most durable guy.
10:10But I guess the question I would have is, can he be somebody, is he a clear number one?
10:17You know, you still have Sutton.
10:18And Denver is famous for just running in and out, a few other guys in and out in their running
10:23game and their passing game.
10:25What do you think it looks like for Waddell?
10:28Well, I mean, you know, I don't know about number one.
10:31But what he brings to the table changes what they do on offense.
10:34I mean, he can fly.
10:36But more importantly than that, he can gear down, change direction, and pick speed back up.
10:40And so that allows him to work the middle of the field.
10:42He's going to be the Z receiver.
10:43I mean, Sean Payton offense typically has got that ex-guy who's a big-body slant guy, you know, Michael
10:49Thomas back in the day, Marcus Colston.
10:50That's what Corlin Sutton will play.
10:52And then Waddell will play the other side of that.
10:54He'll be the, you know, the Devery Henderson back there, Brandon Cooks, Ted Ginn, those types of guys that are
10:57on the backside that can fly.
10:59And when you've got that guy, it changes how you play defense.
11:01I mean, it forces defenders to go back to, you know, too high looks a lot, opens up stuff underneath,
11:06and it's going to make things better for other guys like Evan Ingram, who didn't have the most productive year
11:09last year.
11:10That's interesting.
11:11So, I mean, Sutton, you see him still being Cortland Sutton going into this year?
11:16Like, I mean, he's not old or anything, 30.
11:19It's about the time to start asking those questions.
11:21But is he likely, in your mind, to be the player he's been?
11:26I think so.
11:27I mean, he's looked like that in camp.
11:28Now, the question is, is this going to be his last year in Denver?
11:31The Broncos had previously drafted Pat Bryant, who has looked like an absolute star here in camp.
11:36And so I think what you're getting here is probably the last year of Sutton.
11:39Sutton knows that.
11:40I think he's playing for one more contract somewhere else.
11:43And I think you're going to get a player that looks pretty much like the Sutton of old.
11:47And, you know, he's going to have a lot of one-on-one attention because people are paying attention to
11:50Waddle,
11:51just another guy that gets some benefit from that.
11:53How about the running back mix, Benjamin?
11:55That's another one with Denver that is really tough to predict, I think, sometimes, at least from the outside.
12:00Jonah Coleman seems interesting as a rookie.
12:03Dobbins back.
12:04R.J. Harvey.
12:04How do you think it meshes?
12:07Well, Dobbins is the guy until he's, you know, inevitably hurt.
12:11I know he made the promise to Denver Media, said he pinky promises he's playing all 17 games.
12:15He'll buy everybody a beer if he doesn't.
12:17I told him I was going to hold him to that.
12:18I want my free beer.
12:19But, you know, as far as the rest of that goes, I mean, Dobbins is running back one.
12:24He's the main guy.
12:25After that, R.J. Harvey has sort of a pass-catching role.
12:28If you go back and look at Sean Payton's offense in New Orleans and how he deployed Reggie Bush, that's
12:32basically the R.J. Harvey role.
12:35And then Jonah Coleman is probably the guy to own, if you're a fantasy owner, if Dobbins goes down.
12:40Because he'll step into the Dobbins role rather than Harvey just moving up.
12:43Harvey will continue his same role.
12:45And Coleman, who has looked just phenomenal, will step into that J.K. Dobbins role.
12:50So, if you're looking at that thing, it's kind of a RB 1-2-3 with Dobbins, Coleman, Harvey, except
12:55that Harvey has sort of carved out a pass-catching role as well.
12:59Okay.
12:59Hey, no offense to the guy.
13:01I respect anybody that plays in this league.
13:04And what he's been through physically is, I mean, it's a tremendous effort and story and, you know, perseverance.
13:11If he's willing to extend that offer, my hand is up.
13:14I mean, there was the year with Ian Rappaport where Rappaport tweeted something about, I think it was Rappaport.
13:19Or somebody on that level, like, tweeted something about Dobbins, you know, not being ready maybe for week one.
13:25He was still with Baltimore at the time.
13:27And he clapped back at that, but the report was correct, it turned out.
13:32Yeah, and he's just super sensitive about that because it's, you know, it's one of those things he has battled
13:36back from a myriad of devastating injuries, frankly.
13:39And, you know, credit to him for being able to battle back from that.
13:42But, you know, monikers stick, and they stick for a reason.
13:45And so I think that's kind of where he's at right now is he's trying to put that positivity back
13:50in the universe.
13:50But there's quite a bit of skepticism.
13:52I want to get to Jim Leonard, but while we're on offense, Davis Webb, and the Bills might have dabbled
13:58in that idea, too, when they were looking for a replacement for Sean McDermott.
14:02He ends up, what, getting promoted in Denver?
14:05Is he the play caller now, or what exactly?
14:08Yeah, and there's some, you know, there's some mythology out there that Sean Payton has identified him and groomed him,
14:13and this was thing.
14:14Now, this was engineered by Bo and Greg Penner, the owner, and he's the play caller now.
14:20And you can see it, you know, that some of the archaic aspects of Sean Payton's offense have been updated
14:26with Davis Weber on the show.
14:27There's more motion.
14:28There's more tempo.
14:28They break the huddle much quicker.
14:30And so those are things, I think, that are going to really matter once they get to playing this season.
14:35So, you know, he's the play caller.
14:38He's the offensive coordinator.
14:39The question is how long he's going to be here before somebody snaps him up and makes him a head
14:43coach.
14:44Pretty good career arc so far, being only 31 and in that spot, right, at least?
14:48Oh, yeah.
14:49Oh, yeah.
14:49He's a rising star.
14:51He's a young guy, but he's a rising star.
14:53Jim Leonard takes over the Bills defense.
14:54What were your interactions with him like?
14:57Oh, they were great.
14:58And, you know, Jim was more than just, I mean, he was listed as the, you know, the secondary coach,
15:03the DB's coach, that kind of thing.
15:04But he was much more involved than that, you know, kind of a lieutenant as the defensive coordinator.
15:09Great guy to be around.
15:10Loves football.
15:11You know, knows football.
15:12He was instrumental in helping to identify some draft picks, too.
15:16When he was back there at Illinois, the Broncos drafted two or three players from Illinois from when he was
15:21there, including Miles Scott this past year, a converted receiver who's a safety now that Leonard, you know, basically taught
15:27him the ropes as a defender.
15:28So, very instrumental, great coach.
15:31That was one of those things that, honestly, a lot of people here expected Vance Joseph to maybe get a
15:36head coaching job this offseason and Jim Leonard to be the D.C. here.
15:39So, you know, high marks for him all the way around around here.
15:43Big changes coming to the Bills defense underway after, what, nine years with Sean McDermott, kind of doing it one
15:50way and big adjustment transition time here for the Bills.
15:53A few minutes left with Benjamin Albright.
15:56Ben, what about the AFC overall here?
15:58We talked about the AFC West a little bit, and you have three contenders there.
16:03Man, it's tough for me to try to parse the rest of it.
16:05You've got at least two worthy, I mean, two teams in each division at least where you can talk seriously
16:11about them winning big, I think.
16:13I'd include the Bengals, you know, Jacksonville, and Houston in the South.
16:16Now, it's going to be fun this year after a while of – last year was its own transition in
16:22the AFC where you had, what, four teams had won the respective divisions two years in a row before last
16:29year and then none of them did.
16:30So it could get pretty wild.
16:32Yeah, it could.
16:33And that's that parody that we love in the NFL, right, the way the pendulum swings and nobody has it
16:40unless you're the Tom Brady Patriots.
16:41Nobody has that lock on it forever.
16:44So, you know, it's good.
16:45I think it's good for the league.
16:46I think it's good for everybody.
16:47And you see some teams on the rise that have been more abundant over the years.
16:50I mean, Jacksonville being good all of a sudden was kind of fun.
16:53You know, that kind of thing.
16:54You've got Houston.
16:55If they figure the quarterback situation out, that defense is lethal.
16:58You know, you mentioned Cincinnati.
16:59They could pour the points on.
17:01The question is, you know, can they field a defense?
17:03And that, you know, they went out and got next to Lawrence, but, you know, we don't know.
17:06Baltimore with new coaching staff, what's that going to look like without Harbaugh there?
17:10There's a lot of questions, but I think it's a lot of fun questions.
17:12I don't think it's a lot of, you know, it's a lot of treachery.
17:15I think this is one of those things where you've got good teams that have question marks,
17:18and I think it's a pretty fun playing field.
17:21That Denver schedule, you got the NFC West this year.
17:24I love it when it's West versus West.
17:26They're such great matchups and a lot of night games right away at Kansas City, Monday night
17:31in week one.
17:32The Bills have their version of this.
17:33The Bills get the NFC North.
17:35The Bills have five games.
17:37Well, of course they would against the NFC, and they're all at night.
17:40And they all look like, you know, really good matchups on paper.
17:43And Denver's schedule is much the same, including the Bills in Denver on Christmas Day.
17:50Yeah, that's going to be, first of all, that's going to be a fun one to work.
17:53But, you know, it is.
17:55You know, you mentioned the West versus West thing, and, you know, the NFC West is kind
17:59of like the AFC West where you've got three teams that are contenders and one team that's
18:02the goofy stepchild.
18:04And, you know, the Arizona Cardinals and the Raiders for the divisions respectively.
18:08But, yeah, it's going to be tough.
18:10And the first, I don't know, six, eight weeks that Denver plays, it's a brutal schedule before
18:14it gets kind of easy and then, you know, starts to tighten back up there around Christmas.
18:18So if the Broncos can weather that storm early, that middle of that schedule, very favorable
18:22for them.
18:23And then, you know, it sets up beautifully heading on into the late season of playoffs.
18:26Very similar to the Bills' schedule.
18:28And then last thing for you, Benjamin, you get, as it happens, Denver gets Buffalo and New
18:33England back-to-back late in the season.
18:35Just like last year in the playoffs, the Bills out there and then the Patriots in the AFC
18:39Championship.
18:39How do you compare those two teams?
18:43Well, I mean, the Bills, you know, going through that transition, you're going to be changing
18:48defensive styles.
18:49You know, you went from, you know, zone defense under McDermott to an attacking defense under
18:53Jim Leonard.
18:53It's going to be a lot more one high.
18:55You know, everybody, you've got the threat of Josh Allen.
18:57That's going to be interesting.
18:58And, you know, we hear reports about how him and DJ Moore look together and all that.
19:01But as far as the Patriots go, I mean, they're a good football team, but it's, you know,
19:05it feels like they're a team that's more on the rise than established, like Buffalo.
19:08You know, you've got the young guy, Drake May.
19:10You've got Vrabel.
19:11We have yet to see with all the stuff that went on with him this summer, how that looks,
19:14how that team stays together this season.
19:16So, you know, good defense, but another team that maybe, you know, you're kind of waiting
19:20to see these pieces they brought in, how they fit.
19:23Benjamin, thank you.
19:24Good luck with that parking garage.
19:25Hopefully your car wasn't in it.
19:27Yeah, it wasn't.
19:28Thank goodness.
19:29That's a break.
19:30Thanks for your time.
19:30Enjoy the season.
19:31All right.
19:32Take care.
19:33Benjamin Albright out in Denver, KOA Colorado, Bills and Broncos Christmas Day, one of three
19:40games on Christmas, because we have to have games on Christmas.
19:44We already had NBA games.
19:46That wasn't enough.
19:46We have to have NFL games on Christmas.
19:50Let's get one of these joint practices played in Europe.
19:54I mean, is that inevitable?
19:56That's Roger Goodell's word, right?
19:57Inevitable.
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