Brandon Krisztal | KOA Denver Broncos Insider

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Shopify.com slash odyssey podcast. We're excited to welcome Brandon Kerstal, former colleague of ours going back to the beginning of the network. Now with KOA Colorado covering the Broncos. Brandon, what in the world's gotten into this team? Well, I guess belief is a word that we keep hearing. Belief, believe.

The idea that if you keep working, good things will happen. And this is obviously a franchise that's very proud. We know about the history. It's been a down two years with a bunch of different first-time head coaches and then Sean Payton with his Hall of Fame caliber kind of resume comes in and you think, okay, maybe they'll get it turned around quickly and they start out one in five, right? And they give up 70 points and lose by 50 in Miami.

And you're like, wow, how do they believe now? And then they reel off not one, not two, not three but four straight victories that haven't all been beautiful works of art necessarily, certainly on the offensive side. But here they are at five and five in a wide open AFC playoff race.

It seems unlikely they'll catch the Chiefs but I suppose a loss tomorrow night makes things more interesting if KC goes down in Arrowhead to the Eagles which doesn't make up for losing the Super Bowl, by the way. So here they are though with some big wins and if they can string together a few more all winnable games on their schedule, some harder than we maybe originally thought, they'll be in the mix all the way till the end. It's interesting that you say it's been a couple bleak years, a couple down years because the Broncos haven't had a winning season since 2016. They've made multiple coaching changes. We know about the different quarterbacks that have gone through and the struggle to find a quarterback and then the first disastrous season with Russell Wilson. Gosh, it feels a lot longer than just two bleak years, Brandon. Well, right, it's been seven.

Seven very lean years in the desert. But when you've gone to as many Super Bowls as they have and won three, you look at the handful of franchises that have never even been to a Super Bowl or won one and think, okay, well, it could be worse. We could be the Browns or the Jags or the Vikings. They've been to a bunch, right? But the Vikings still don't have that first ring.

And so it's one of those things where you're like, I can't last like this forever. And we don't know if Russell Wilson will be much more than what we're seeing now which is certainly efficient and making big plays late. Like he always has, but not prolific 350-yard passing games very often.

But it looks like he's at least figured out what he does really well with Sean Payton and vice versa. And because of the new ownership group and their resources and their willingness to spend money, there's no reason to think the Broncos won't continue on an upward trend even if they maybe fall short of the playoffs this year. When you think they only won five games last year, I have a hard time believing they're going to go five and 12 and that we're done seeing them win after they've ripped off four in a row.

Doesn't mean though that they will be in the postseason because we know a lot has to happen a lot of different directions. But it does feel like all of a sudden things are certainly looking brighter than they were a few weeks ago. I want to start with the defense as we talk about what's changed for them because the defense actually was the side of the ball that was really struggling in the first say six weeks or so.

What changes have you seen from that side? Well, to say they were struggling across the board is a little... I don't want to say obviously they struggled at times, but they hold the Raiders in check in the opener but lose 17-16.

They're up on Washington 21-3 and had a disaster in the second half. They followed that up one to Miami, but they didn't have Justin Simmons. They didn't have Josie Jewell in the middle of the defense and they didn't have Mike Purcell, their nose tackle. And I get that's three players and three players probably, even though they're all really good, aren't going to make a 50-point difference. But Justin Simmons is a guy that gets everybody in place and he and Josie Jewell have worked together for so many years.

Their communication keeps everything kind of connected. And so they were really bad the following week against the Bears in the first half. And Justin Fields was dicing them up to DJ Moore. Then something changed at halftime. And since then, even though they lost to the Jets, which was obviously a bit of an embarrassment because of what the Jets offense is, they still only give up 17 points in that game, right? And they give up two touchdowns to the Packers. They hold Patrick Holmes to one touchdown in two games. And the defense, for as bad as the Broncos have been in recent years, has still been pretty solid, whether it was some of Vance Joseph's defenses, certainly Vic Fangio's in the Girovero a year ago.

So it was really perplexing that it wasn't working. But I think what's worked is not only those guys being healthy that I mentioned, specifically Simmons, but also Vance Joseph, I think, sticking to his guns, if you will. So the play calls are still similar. He didn't want to change the verbiage from what they've been running with Fangio. And then last year with Ivero, who basically just kept an extension of what Vic called everything. But conceptually, where Vance wanted to be aggressive in his own style versus trying to call a defense like Vic Fangio because he's not Vic Fangio. So I think part of that is Vance being more comfortable with his personnel. And then the the emergence of their young pass rusher, specifically Baron Browning, returning to the lineup has certainly helped as well. Brandon Costal is with us from Denver going back to, gosh, it's 11 years ago that we were together at the start of CBS Sports Radio.

And then he went back to Denver and has been covering the Broncos since then. So it's seen a lot of these bleak years, though, of course, Super Bowl 50 too. The Russell Wilson wild ride is it's still got some choppy moments. And obviously they weren't great in this game for the first three quarters. The turning point really being a pair of Minnesota turnovers late third quarter, early fourth quarter that kind of sparked the Broncos. Without those turnovers, this is probably a Vikings win. But yet there is more of a comfortability with Russ this season.

Why? I think that Russ has learned to trust his coaches maybe more than he did a year ago. And I don't say he didn't trust his coaches in Seattle. He didn't accidentally throw 292 touchdowns. But it wasn't like they were winning games 35 to three, right? The reason he has now 43 fourth quarter comebacks is because the games were close.

And I think a lot of that was Pete Carroll having a good run game and solid defense, not just a legion of boom, but even beyond that, because they didn't also accidentally go to the playoffs in eight of the 10 years that he was there. At the same time, I think he tried a little too hard last year in the thing. I can maybe tried a little too hard to get Russ cooking and get him in the MVP conversation.

He had never had a first place MVP vote or whatever we heard. And Sean Payton kind of stripped a bunch of stuff down, not just the way things operated in the building, but the way Russ approached football. And I got this second hand, but from a really good source from a coach that worked with Russ, he's the most challenging quarterback you'll ever work with. Because most quarterbacks follow their coaches leading on first and 10, want to get to second and six, then they want to get to third and two or three. And then they want to have the whole playbook open to try to pick up that first down. And now in this day and age, maybe even on fourth down if they need it. But on third and two, third and three, you can do whatever you want, right?

Mm-hmm. And Russ is wired to first and 10. He scrambles around in the pocket. He's a receiver, 18, 20 yards downfield, lets it rip and the ball gets there, and they move the six, right? Versus, oh, here's the running back out of the backfield. Take the four yards, take the tight end on the little quick out, and just move the chains along, keep the ball moving forward, and we'll get to the end zone. And so I think when you look at the numbers that are most impressive is not just the red zone efficiency, not that they were great tonight until they needed to be late, but all year long they've been one of the best red zone teams, and he's been the best red zone quarterback because Sean does do a good job of scheming stuff up in the red zone, but Russ has the willingness to just kind of take what's there and isn't trying to force the ball into space.

That's why he only has a couple turnovers to this point, or a couple interceptions, is because he's trusting his coaching and trusting that his players will get open for him, and O-line will hold up long enough for he'll make a play with his legs and then find something. And so I think that's really been the biggest thing is the buy-in from Russ. There was so much chatter about a disconnect in the locker room, Brandon, and whether or not Russ is liked by his teammates, blah blah blah blah blah. What do you see when it comes to their spirit in the locker room and their cohesiveness as a team? Well, they are a really close team compared to some of the teams we've seen in recent years, but it feels like a lot of these teams also will start out a certain way, and by the end of the year it's fractured because the results just aren't where you want it to be. And that's probably not unique to the Broncos, it's probably across sports, right? When things are going well, guys just like each other and find ways to win.

And you probably have some teams where guys don't like each other but they work well together, and that's fine, and you probably have some where guys love each other but their team stinks because they all have bad habits together, or whatever it may be. Russ is just different, right? He's got a pop star wife and he's the kind of guy that when they're in Europe he's having dinner with the CEO of Mercedes, right?

Two summers ago or whatever it may be. But the one thing that no one questions is Russ's work habits. He's still the first guy in the building every day and the last one to leave.

He and Jaleel McLaughlin, I guess McLaughlin the rookie from Youngstown races him in because he's just kind of wired the same way. But everyone sees the way Russ works. As far as connecting with them, I don't know how easy it is or isn't, but he tries to get teammates together for dinners, they go to games, they'll get sweets, or he'll sit with a teammate courtside at a game, and at the same time they don't have the same lives because the rest of them don't have a partner that has 35 million Instagram followers, right? So it's just a little different and he has this Russell Wilson corporation that is a bigger thing than most of the other players on any team could really relate to, and there's one or two guys like that in almost every building, but at the same time I think he's gone out of his way to continue to try to be one of the guys, be in the locker room more, they obviously took his little office away, he can go to the quarterback room, but when we're in there during that open locker room period, if he's not getting treatment, we see him around a little more. At the same time, I think he's just maybe a little, you know, he's a different dude. I don't want to say that he's awkward, but I think he's been really good at sports his whole life and he's really good at public speaking and communications and all that, but on an interpersonal level, maybe that's something that doesn't come as naturally to him, but it doesn't matter when you're the best baseball player, you're the best football player, and you always have a smile and you're a good guy who means well and wants to do right by people and charity and all that. So I think that he tries to connect with his teammates, they try to connect with him and where it works, it does, and in other places maybe it doesn't as easily, but when you're winning, I don't think you worry about that stuff as much. When you're losing, it can probably be a little bit more bothersome. Yeah, it can definitely be jarring and it is what people are talking about, but when you're winning, it tends to cover over a multitude of whatever challenges or interpersonal differences there might be. Brandon Cristal is with us from Denver.

Just one more thing I want to ask before I let you go. We'd heard routinely over the last few years, but especially last season and maybe even to start this season as well, you would know personally about the booing from fans and the Denver Broncos fan base is so passionate, one of the most passionate and intelligent in the NFL. So what was the atmosphere like tonight from start to finish as it was bleak early but ended with that late touchdown drive? I think because of what's transpired the last few weeks, there's certainly, I don't say that there was the optimism, oh, they're going to roll this team, right? But there also wasn't the, there may have been a boober too early when they not only force a turnover, but they keep having to settle for field goals and they just can't really move the ball at the same time the defense is doing what it does and the Vikings weren't moving the ball necessarily either. So I think fans sat there and thought, okay, we'll just kind of sit on our hands, not that they're going to cheer when there's a play worth cheering for, but we'll give them the benefit of the doubt because they beat the Chiefs here a couple weeks ago, they pulled that one out against the Packers and then obviously with a little bit of help from the Bills were able to win Monday night. So I think there was a little more cautious optimism than maybe there has been in recent home games because the Broncos forever were really good at home, but as Sean Payton has pointed out, especially in the Mike Shanahan era, but in general, he goes, yeah, they were always really good here, but they're also good on the road. Same thing with our Saints teams. We'd win a lot of the dome, but you know what, we won a lot of road games too because we were just good teams, right? And good teams find ways to win. And I don't know how good the team is, but they used to seem seemingly find ways to lose late in games, regardless of whether it was Vance Joseph, Vic Fangio or Nathaniel Hackett that this year they're all of a sudden finding ways to win. It is nice when you can flip that on its head. It's like the old adage you hear about playing golf when your misses and your miss hits are still playable.

Well, you know you're making progress. Right, right. And look, coaches would much rather clean up bad, bad play, sloppy, sloppiness, whatever it may be after wins than after losses. And somebody brought up, I've heard actually a couple of different times now, the idea that this is similar to when Tim Tebow was here, except that I think their ceilings are because I think the defense has more talent. And obviously Russell Wilson is a much better quarterback than Tim Tebow was.

Certainly a better thrower of the football and understanding everything, but it does have some of that similarity that, well, it's not pretty, but there are plenty ways to win and you'll take wins over losses every day of the week. Not to mention that's pretty much the NFL this season for most teams with the majority, well, not majority, but with so many teams having lost their starting quarterbacks, defense and run game are at a premium and we're seeing more teams win ugly. So it may be just be that kind of season in the NFL. Yeah.

And look, teams are close, right? The parody, it's great for the league as long as you're not trying to win money gambling. But right, that's the best example. When you saw six walk-off field goals with six walk-off kicks, right?

We'd never seen that. And that's great. It's great for fans. It keeps you invested that your team has a shot at the playoffs way, way into November and even December with the expanded playoff two and the 17 games. You know, all these numbers about how teams start are going to have to be reworked to 17 game season. So talk to me about how many teams start one in three or, you know, right after three, four, five years of that versus since 2000 or whatever it may be.

Well, and the Broncos are a good example because they started out one and four actually started out then one and five even before they went on this win streak. All right. So you can find Brandon on Twitter at BK Denver Sports anchor reporter insider for KOA Colorado covering the Broncos longtime friend, former colleague. It's great to connect with you. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family. We appreciate a couple minutes. Yeah, thanks, Amy. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours and to all the great listeners at CBS.

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