It's time to talk that talk, and we talk it like no one else. This is the Stinking Truth. Now, here's your host, Mark Schler. Hey, welcome to the Stinking Truth Podcast. Alongside Mike Evans, I am Mark Schler. Thank you so much for making us a part of your day. Stinking Truth Podcast on Odyssey, Radio Networks, also on YouTube. Make sure you like and subscribe. Also, wherever you get your podcasts, whether it's Apple, Spotify, we thank you so much for making us a part of your day. This is the Broncos version of the podcast where we discuss just the Broncos preseason training camp, preseason game number one, right around the corner, Friday night against Atlanta. Yeah, but before we do all that.
This time last week when we talked, you were in the throes of battling a kidney stone that you were trying to pass. And you've had a history with kidney stones in the past. How did this one play out? Well, I originally went up to Alaska and on Friday, my dad's birthday. had the kidney stone hit me. And there's just, it's undeniable. If you've ever had them, you know, as soon as it leaves your kidney and gets into what they call your ureter, which is the tube that goes from your kidney to your bladder, like, you know, you're like, oh shoot, uh-oh, this is not going to be pleasant. And so I spent, you know, all day throwing up and just being in excruciating pain, went to the hospital, they gave me a CAT scan, gave me some fluids, sent me home with some pain medication, go, you should be fine, you should pass it. Anyhow, Monday rolls around.
Sunday I'm flying home from Alaska and I am dying on this plane, like literally dying and just trying to do everything I can do not to throw up. I'm like, it's like I was giving birth, right? I was just going to give a little, have a, you know, a little, a little nine millimeter, you know, pencil lead baby. And anyhow, so I'm dying. And so Monday I get home from doing the radio show and doing the podcast and I'm like, I don't know, the lawn needs taken care of. And, but I'm not feeling great, but I'm okay. So I decided I'm going to trim the edges. Then I'm going to mow the lawn. Then I'm going to water the front yard. I get done watering and I walk into the kitchen and I am just.
bend over in pain. I'm like, yeah, this is not good. And I'm like, let me get a painkiller in me. I'll be all right. My wife's like, put your jeans on. We are leaving. And I'm like, well, I don't know. She goes, we're leaving now. So I get up to the hospital. It's like, I don't know, 3.30, quarter to four. I check in. And then I spend the next 25 hours in the hospital. I went through 10 bags of fluid, just all kinds of morphine and other, whatever derivative now of morphine is. They're like, would you like to take the direct, you know, oxycodone? And that takes a little bit longer, but it lasts a little bit longer, but it takes longer to get in your system. Or would you just like it going straight into your, you know, your...
Isn't that why we tap this vein? Just to give me medicine straight into the vein? Like, let's do that. Like, that makes more sense to me. Yeah, but it doesn't last as long. So I'll get another. Like, I'll do another. So anyhow, I spent all day yesterday or all day or all evening afternoon in the hospital getting bags of fluid all day. I rolled down a surgery about 1030, probably in the operating room at 1130. And of course, everybody in that operating room is a female. Except the doctor, right? So I'm trying to work up a little blood. Oops, sorry.
because it's cold in there. You've got to warn me when you've got to say those things. Yeah, there's going to be shrinkage. I mean, my anesthesiologist is a female. Her assistant's a female. The scrub down nurse, all the nurses in there, got me loaded up. And I'm like, I'm not the proudest guy. I'm a large man with delicate features. So I'm just like, really? Ladies, I just want to get this out on record. You did not catch me in my best moment. I'm like, if you guys could just put me out and then do whatever you have to do to get this thing out. So I got out of hospital yesterday afternoon at about four o'clock and I'm just still...
Like every time I take a piss, it's like straight razor blades. It's just like, you gotta psych yourself up. Last night in the middle of the night, I'm like, because 10 bags of flu, you're gonna go feed off, right? So I'm like, all right, here we go. I'm talking to myself. Just trying not to wake up my wife. Oh.
I live to tell about it. Well, hey, just like that day where you had surgery around midnight on a Sunday night and you got a few hours of rest. And then that Monday morning, you checked yourself out of the hospital. You joined your Bronco teammates for pregame. And then that night on Monday night, you went out and kicked some Raiders ass on Monday night football.
You did the same thing today. You were back for the radio show. You're back here now. So let's do it. We got a lot of Bronco topics to get to. Let's go back to the Hall of Fame. I want to get your thoughts on the Hall of Fame induction ceremony over the weekend that saw Drew Brees go in and the speech he made and the thanks he gave to Sean Payton and how he got emotional. And he was talking about how, man, I loved our time together. I love those sessions when we would go over the game plan and the plays and when you're going to call this. And it.
For me, I found an interesting thing because I think it shed a lot of light on the relationship between Sean and Drew Brees. And I wonder if it maybe explains why. Sean Payton is giving up the play calling this year. Because what I sensed was, Drew Brees was at a stage of his career, five, six years in, where he was ready. He was ready for all that knowledge. And it was the perfect time to be paired up with Sean Payton. And the two of them worked so well together, and it could be complex, it could be detail-oriented, it could be minutiae, and they both thrived on it. But I wonder, was Sean now getting Bo Nix in the first two years of his career, if he somehow tried to do that same thing with Bo, and Bo just wasn't ready for it. And that maybe Sean realized, you know what, maybe that day will come.
But not right now. And maybe Davis Webb is better for Bo Nix at this stage of his career. That was my takeaway. Yeah, that could be. I think it's a legitimate thought process. I think that could be part of it. Sean has talked about, you know, maybe I'm not as aggressive as I once was and all this stuff. But it just goes to show you the insight into playing quarterback. And that head coach.
quarterbacking kind of combination or that play caller quarterback combination that gets you into the Hall of Fame. That connectivity, that seeing the game as the same kind of on the same wavelength, if you will. Being in a game, and I've heard Drew Brees, and I've talked to Drew Brees about this, being in a game and a third down play call comes in and you go, I know exactly what this play call is going to be. And it's exactly what you thought it was going to be because you guys are in such lockstep. And the importance of that, you think about quarterback coaching combinations. And I wonder if you look back at all the Hall of Fame.
quarterbacks, how many of them had kind of Hall of Fame offensive coaches that were head coaches? You know, obviously, Bill Belichick, Brady kind of break that mold, right? Right. But I think for the majority of those guys, you know, whether it was Bill Walsh and Joe Montana and Bill Walsh and, you know, and Steve Young and then Mike Shanahan and John Elway. And you think about with the McVeighs of the world, the Kyle Shanahan's of the world and little floors of the world and all these guys who come from that offensive side. Isn't this truly why we want an offensive coach to compare?
with our extremely gifted, our hopefully, we've come into this. Like, when I hear you say Drew Brees, and I thought you were going to bring me this question, which you didn't, but that's fine. I thought you were going to bring me this question, do you see the similarities? Well, that was going to be my follow-up, because I came away hearing Sean and Drew talk about each other feeling even more strongly and better about Sean Payton picking Bo Nix. Because when you hear him talk about Drew Brees, how can anybody hear Sean talk about Drew Brees and not think that when it came time to identify the young quarterback he wanted to build around, It doesn't make sense that he would look for a quarterback that he felt had some Drew Brees characteristics about him. Yeah, no, without question. I think like even from size, the size component, although Bo Nix is a little bit taller than Drew Brees, but just your ability to move in the pocket, your ability to not take sacks, whether that's get rid of the ball quickly or that's just that subtle movement inside the pocket or you're having to climb out of the pocket and take off. So your ability not to take sacks, that's a big part of Sean's. Like there's very few people on planet Earth that have sat with Sean in his office and talked exclusively about the Bo Nix, like that process of drafting Bo Nix.
And you can't help but hear the similarities. Like, not only not taking sacks and escaping the pocket, but your intense ability to process information quickly. And then you've got to have this love for the game. And I go back to what Jimmy Garoppolo told me about Tom Brady. What did you learn backing up Tom Brady? And Jimmy Garoppolo, without hesitation, said, playing quarterback in the NFL is not a job, it's a lifestyle. You've got to be so dialed into it week in and week out. And when I talked to Sean right after the draft, I mean, like, a couple days after the draft, he told me about
Bo Nix and just his ability to understand like the paperwork that they give you. So they give you all this information that there's no way you can possibly digest this information. They give it to you at like five o'clock in the afternoon and then they got a meeting the next morning at nine or seven or whatever it is, right? They give you more information than you could ever process. and then you sit down with the quarterback, and he unloads his backpack, and he's got a Theragun in there, and he's got tape, and he's got all these football cleats, a pair of cleats in case you asked me to throw, all this stuff. But Sean was like, of all the quarterbacks that we invested in and spent time evaluating in that draft class that included Bo Nix, included Drake May, Jaden Daniels, Caleb Williams, who they didn't do a ton of study on because it was already known he was going to go to Chicago, J.J. McCarthy, and Pennix.
Sean said the one guy who had an a plus on my grade sheet doesn't mean everybody else's great Sheep in his great sheet when it came to learning was Bo Nix He said he gave him all that information about it down Formations motions how you call plays where you want to go with the progression read is versus the defense a plus learner and so I can't help but listen to what Sean Payton talked about with Drew Brees and what Sean Payton saw in Bo Nix and seeing that correlation there A lot of other things going on here with the Broncos over the last week since we last talked to you. J.K. Dobbins, a little bit of a scare. Had to leave practice, a little bit of a soft tissue injury. He was right back out there the very next day, so crisis averted. But it is a reminder that despite the fact that he said, I pinky swear I'm going to be healthy this year, and he'll buy all the media a drink if he's not, it's still a reminder of how fragile this guy has been. And so despite him being confident that this year he'll be able to avoid the injury bug, how do you approach J.K. Dobbins? You still kind of live in that, well, when, not if?
He gets hurt, or are you optimistic? Yeah, no, I'm hopeful. I'm not optimistic, but I'm hopeful. I mean, he's never made it through a season, so what makes you think he's going to make it through a season now? The pinky swear? Is that what gets you over the top? Not me. And I think it's one of the reasons the Broncos addressed the running back position in the draft and went out and got Jonah Coleman from Washington. And I will tell you this, Mike. Start of the season, all things being equal, and that running back room is healthy, okay? It's going to be J.K. Dobbins, and then the second tier of the carries is going to go to R.J. Harvey. And I think that you'll be hard-pressed to get Jonah Coleman a couple of touches a game. Call a three.
But interestingly enough, the reason they went out and got Jonah Coleman is he's a 4'6 bowling ball of butcher knives. He's a lot more like J.K. Dobbins than R.J. Harvey is like J.K. Dobbins. And so if something, unfortunately, was to happen to J.K. Dobbins, I think what you would see is that script flipped, meaning it wouldn't be...
R.J. Harvey elevating the number two spot and Jonah Coleman coming in. So now all of a sudden R.J. Harvey's getting 16, 17 carries a game and, you know, and, you know, and Jonah Coleman's getting eight. It's going to be flipped. I think Jonah Coleman will be the guy. And this running back room, this was one of those things last year that was truly a weakness. And when they went in that AFC championship game without J.K. Dobbins and R.J. Harvey gets hurt early and they were down to their last two running backs in Bidet and McLaughlin. I think that was that was a wake up call that we really need a running back. Now, here's here's the issue that you get into. And this is not always the case.
But the majority of times it is. When you have a guy that plays running back that thinks he can outrun, outflank a defense, that dude is far too often going to take negative carries or no yard gains. Because he always thinks that I can bounce this thing outside and make what happened in college when I played it, you know, whatever blind sister the poor is going to happen in the NFL. And it does not work that way. This is why I like Jonah Coleman. Jonah Coleman knows he ain't getting to the edge. He knows, like one of the most important traits for a back is to know when to stick your nose in there and get the ugly three or four.
And Jonah Coleman does that. You're going to get some breakouts in doing that. And I think J.K. Dobbins does that. R.J. Harvey has way too much. Let me see if I can bounce the outside. Let me, instead of taking this two and a half yard gain, which is the right decision, let me see if I can bounce it out here and make it a 10 yard gain. And then it's minus two. And you're like, now we're behind the chains. So I think J.K. Dobbins and Jonah Coleman are like backs. I think R.J. Harvey's a third down guy.
Now, that doesn't mean he can't get better, but I think that's what he is based upon my film study of RJ Harvey. So I think that's the way this thing will break out. So the Broncos have much better running back depth right now than they did a year ago. They also have a ton of wide receiver depth right now. And Pat Bryant, I think I'm on solid footing in saying that if you want to break down two or three of the stars of Broncos training camp thus far, Pat Bryant might be number one. He's getting rave reviews everywhere he turns.
As you look ahead to this season and you see Cortland Sutton, you see Jalen Waddell, you see Pat Bryant, you know you have Troy Franklin. Marvin Mims made some big plays at the beginning of camp, and he's a guy that when being given a chance to play receiver has made some big plays the last couple years. How do you see it all working out? And are there enough footballs to go around for all these wide receiver mouths to feed? Right. Before we started doing this Broncos exclusive podcast here on the Stink It Truth Podcast Network, we had talked about this on a radio show. And I said, the way I see it is Pat Bryant will be the third receiver.
So we're talking about rotation and we're saying, hey, man, is it going to be Mims or is it going to be Troy Franklin? I think it's going to be Pat Bryant. And Pat Bryant is one of those guys that you think about that Sean talks about all the time, the wide receiver position. I want big guys. I want dudes that can win in the margins. And I want dudes that can capture the edge of a football field. And that's what Pat Bryant is. He's six foot two. He's a bigger dude. Think about back in the day when they drafted, was it Michael Thomas? And the two or three years that Michael Thomas just ran a rough shot through this league. And most of the balls he caught.
were at about six to 12 yards deep between the tight end and the ghost tight end, right in the middle of the football field. That's where he was doing his dirty work, man. They get beat up in there a little bit, right? And Pat Bryant had a couple of concussions last year, but Pat Bryant is a football player and Sean wants his receivers to be football players. So don't be surprised when they break the huddle the first time in week one, Monday night against the Kansas City Chiefs and they go three Y's and the first personnel group out there in three Y's is Cortland Sutton at the X.
Wall at the Z, and inside is Pat Bryant at the F. And you know how this league works, Mark. Teams are constantly looking for your replacement. They're constantly looking to groom somebody who's younger and cheaper. And when you look at what Pat Bryant's doing and the description you just gave of how he could play, is this the Court and Sutton replacement? Oh, yeah. I mean, not this year, I don't think. No, but if Pat Bryant's all that, could you honestly see Court and Sutton as being his last year as a Bronco?
I'm not in a hurry to move Cortland out, but let's deal with the reality of the situation. Why do you hate Cortland? I do not. Whenever I offer any kind of critique, you feel I hate people. Why? No, I think you could definitely see that as a trend. You move forward and say, hey, man, depending upon Cortland's production and all that stuff, would Pat Bryant be a viable replacement? At least, man, this receiver room has gotten so much deeper and so much better since Waddle entered the equation. And I thought last year Pat Bryant was ready to be a breakout star, but he had the two concussions that set him back a little bit. This guy's got the potential to be big time.
Like, big-time player. You just watch. When did Sean Payton get all soft and cuddly and all friendly? Like, so here's the story. Last week, Sean gave the okay for his players to, instead of having like a nighttime meeting, had them all go and watch the new Spider-Man movie together. Like, the buses pulled up, everybody got on, and they went to Spider-Man. Yeah. I mean, you know, what's happened to Sean Payton?
I don't know. Has he lost his... Lost his fastball? Is he all like soft and cuddly? Sean didn't go. Grandfather? Oh, no, no, no. He's not much of a Spider-Man guy, whatever. That'd be like trying to drag in my dad poolside to go see a Spider-Man movie. Or dragging you to a superhero. No, quick story here, folks. So we're doing like a radio station movie premiere night with a bunch of listeners for the last Batman movie, the one with Robert Pattinson in it. And...
Stink and I are sitting next to each other halfway through the movie. Gotham City, all it does is rain there in the movie. It's always dark. It's always dark. And it always rains. And halfway through the movie, I just happen to look over at Mark and he's just like...
Sound asleep. One, I had no interest in Batman. Don't care. I'd be like, Sean, don't care about Spider-Man or Superman or any other man. And I'm just like, I just imagine her. I said this in the last podcast as well. My dad, poolside, just be like, when did I have another daughter? Like, what are you doing going to this? Like, I can see Sean going, oh, you guys like Spider-Man? All right, sure, whatever. But you know what? Actually, I see the brilliance of the movie. And I actually think it's a good thing. Oh, I do too. I think it's a great thing. Championship. Think about this offseason, right? You had a Bronco.
strategy was to, over the last couple of years, re-sign a lot of their own players. They were not heavily involved in free agency. They were bringing guys back, the whole running it back type thing, and they were really setting a message that continuity and our culture matter. Well, if you think that your culture and your chemistry matters and it's a strength of your football team, then isn't this a good way to continue to build that strength? Get your team together. Think about this defense. I mean, you're essentially bringing all 11 starters back. You probably have 14, 15 guys that started a bunch of games last year.
And then offensively, your whole offensive line is back. Your running back room is essentially all back. Your wide receiver room is all back and they just got better. Your tight ends are all back. And your quarterback's in his third year. You think, what's more valuable? Going and seeing some stupid movie and spending two hours away from it like it's a big reward and I had popcorn. I had popcorn and I drank a soda. It was great. Maybe they went to those movie theaters where you get a beer. Sure. Had some beers, had some popcorn. That was great. Some red vines? Right. Took a nap. Woke up. I was like, oh, this is great. I like this part. Whatever. Or sitting in meetings reinstalling an offensive play that you put in four times before. Right.
Like, this is what really smart coaches do. They have a pulse on the finger of, or they have their finger on the pulse, you know what I was trying to say. Drones. Right, their finger on the pulse of the team. The other thing is, is you got enough, you know who's playing. Yeah. You know week one who's going to be out there. Like, you know your team, and you know your team's made of the right guys.
So it's a reward, right? And it's not rewarding bad behavior. It's rewarding hard work. Yes. And there's a big difference. Big difference. Well, next week at this time, we'll gather and we'll have a preseason game to digest and take apart the first one against Atlanta. We'll break down some plays, tell you how Bo's doing. I really think that you're going to see, like just to end this thing, you're going to see probably, depending on how the series go, you're going to see, if it's a three and a half series on offense, you're going to see a second series for this offense. They want to put about seven to 12 plays together that are stellar, that end in a score.
And then you can get off the field. Same thing goes for the defense. You go three and out right off the bat. You probably get one more chance to go three and out. Then you're done. But I think it's important to play your starters in the first two preseason games. I think you'll see that from the Denver Broncos on Friday when they face the Atlanta Falcons. All right. Look forward to it. Thank you for everybody involved in the Sting True Podcast. We thank you so much for making us a part of your day. For Mike, I'm Mark. Thank you so much. Make sure you subscribe. And we will talk to you later on in the week.