Chad Brown, Former NFL Linebacker & 104.3 The Fan Host

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Available now on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. Let's head out to the guest line right now as we're talking Russell Wilson, we're talking Nathaniel Hackett getting fired, and we'll welcome in a former Pro Bowl linebacker. Now does a talk show out in Denver on 104.3 The Fan, and that of course is Chad Brown. Chad, happy holidays, happy new year. How you been?

Happy holidays to you guys as well. I've been fantastic, unlike the Bronco fans. This has not been a fantastic year in any way. Yeah, we all knew that Nathaniel Hackett was gonna get fired, the question just was going to be when it occurred. When the news came down on Monday, was it at all surprising just because how long he lasted into the season? I kind of thought he was gonna get to the rest of the year. Yeah, once he got past like week 12, thinking became in Denver, he's just going to be able to last the season and kind of play the string out, but when you get, you know, crushed by the Rams who are missing their best players, they put up 51 points on you.

The Walton Penner group, I had seen enough. To your point, we all knew it was going to happen, but you know, I think to try to create some distance as quickly as possible between Nathaniel Hackett's tenure and what the Broncos do next, this was an attempt to do that, so let's get the future rolling as quickly as we possibly can. I know the new ownership group can write a check to make anyone maybe say yes to become the next head coach, but a lot of people are throwing out the name Sean Payton. Other than that reason, I don't see why Sean Chad would take this job. What has the conversation been in Denver about Sean in the last 24 hours? Well, there's a lot of conversation about Sean Payton because, you know, he's the most experienced coach who's on his couch right now and he was available, but also because Sean Payton had some success, a lot of success with Drew Brees, and Drew Brees being a shorter quarterback, Russell Wilson being a shorter quarterback.

People are making that kind of connection, but I think it's just a faulty comparison. Drew Brees's game was completely different than Russell Wilson's game. They played the position quite differently, and I think Russell Wilson has shown this year he's not prepared in any way to be a true kind of pocket passer like Drew Brees was, so you can bring in Sean Payton in hopes that, you know, he can try to coach Russell Wilson into becoming Drew Brees. I don't think it's within Russell Wilson's skill set to do that, so it'd be another one of those kind of foolish hires based on faulty reasoning. What do you think the ceiling is for the rest of Russell Wilson's career? Because the last year, year and a half before this one, you saw some signs and I know we all kind of made it okay, that was more the situation in Seattle and we didn't put any of the blame on Russ, but really this has been an issue now for two years and it keeps on getting worse and worse, like the season he's having this year, no one could even have imagined this, Chad.

No one could have imagined. Now, I did a coaching internship in Seattle when Russ was a quarterback, and I was on the defensive side of the ball, so I got time to spend time with guys like Richard Sherman, Michael Benin, Cliff Averill, even guys on the offensive side of the ball like Marshawn Lynch, and they certainly let their feelings be known about Russ and what kind of teammate he was and how relatable he was and what their opinion was of him, so I knew that there were issues, so I talked about those issues on my show in Denver, and a lot of Bronco fans were upset with me, like, you're a Russ hater, it's like no, I'm not a Russ hater, but I got to present the facts as I know them, and there's a certain slippery slope with this guy, I know we're excited, we've been quarterback starved ever since Peyton Manning left, but let's not, you know, fall in love with this guy before he actually does something on the field to prove that we should love him, and speaking of that, that line of thinking, ownership in George Peyton gave this guy a quarter billion dollars before he played a regular season snap, so not only would this possibly go down as the worst trade ever in NFL history, it could also go down as one of the worst contracts in NFL history, and to your original question, I kind of throw this question back on to you, can you think of another player who has fallen as fast and as far from a skill standpoint as Russell Wilson has, who is somehow able to regain his previous level of magic, and don't worry, I'll wait, but I'll be waiting forever because there is no one that I can think of in recent NFL history who would fit that bill, so I'm not sure if this Russell Wilson pursuit, or this Russell Wilson kind of lens through which you begin to try to get a new coach is the right angle to take, because if this guy's brought in with the purpose of somehow fixing Russell Wilson and he doesn't address the rest of the team, the Broncos are still going to be in a terrible point. There's a lot of folks in Denver who are saying maybe it's just time to take the severe top hit of either 70 million after June 1st or 170 million before June 1st and just struggle through the next year or two just to hit the reset button kind of like you would do in Madden and get rid of all the old and bring in some new. He'll be the quarterback there though next year. I would be surprised if they do that because I think it's clear what they're saying, and not that Nathaniel Hackett is all to be blamed for this, but he didn't do a good job, it became an embarrassment, and I think they're gonna try to cover this up and just bring in a new coach and say, okay, it's up to that new coach to fix Russell Wilson.

I just don't know if this is fixable at this point. But the Broncos have been doing this ever since Peyton Manning left. When John Elway was the GM, his competitive fire wouldn't allow him to rebuild. Yeah, but not to contract in picks like this. They kind of unfortunately shot themselves in the foot because now there's really no way to fix this in the next year or two.

No, there is no way to fix it in the next year or two. Whether it's Russell Wilson or not Russell Wilson. So why not get rid of the crazy salary? Why not suffer the cap hit now? So this rebuild that has been needed to be done, that it kicked that can down the road so many times, and now they're gonna try to do it again and somehow expect the results to be different.

So that's what my issue is. The folks who are saying just suffer through the cap hit, I'm beginning to see the logic in that because this offensive line needs to be rebuilt. And you can't do that with a 50 million dollar quarterback salary that's weighing you down from a salary cap perspective. Take the big cap hit, move forward, do some draft picks, do what you can, get rid of good players to bring those draft picks back that you gave up to get Russell Wilson. Just fully hit the reset button.

Accept where you are. Don't spin, don't try to sell the Bronco fans something that's not true, which has been done so many times over the last six or seven years. Accept the reality of the situation, deal with it from a reset standpoint and a rebuilding standpoint, not trying to put band-aids on top of it. Chad Brown here with us. Let's just assume that Russ is back next year and I'm glad that you touched on your time in Seattle when you had the coaching internship because you look at the relationships in that locker room.

If this thing is going to get fixed, that's where it needs to start. And I don't know if Russ is capable of really connecting with that locker room because it has been comical from the things that you've heard this year on where some of those relationships are at in a bad spot. Yeah, I don't see how this guy is certainly going to change his strategy from a quote-unquote great teammate. You know, if you're a good guy, of course, he goes to Children's Hospital every week. There's a lot of great qualities about Russell Wilson as a person, but as far as being a relatable human being, as far as being a guy in the locker room, guys feel comfortable with it.

And once you play for and do great things for, Russell Wilson doesn't bring that out of guys. His team, not the Bronco football team, but his videographer, his social media guy, his quarterback coach, his massage guy, his mental coach, all those folks are in the facility constantly. They travel with the team. They get hotel spots. They take up parking spots in the wives parking area. The wives who have parked in certain locations for home games have been kicked out of their parking spots, all those kind of things. I'm not sure how you can change that. And this is a guy whose team is still releasing the slow-motion videos of him walking into the locker room wearing the latest, greatest Versace gear.

It's just so ridiculous and they're always trying to sell us something and spin us on something. Just play great football. That's the best advertisement you could possibly make. Don't sell me your outfit. Sell me that you're a good quarterback. Let's do that first.

Then we can do all the other stuff. Chad Brown, you've been in a lot of locker rooms. When you're on group chats and group texts and all that and these players are hanging out together, what do you think they're saying about their quarterback?

They're talking about all these weird quirks. They're talking about, you know, you hear reports about in the team dining room Russell Wilson comes and sits down at a table full of players and suddenly takes over the conversation and doesn't take the time to know who these guys are or to join in the conversation that they're having. So there's just this complete disconnect and I'm sure they're having all those kinds of conversations similar to what we're having now about who is this dude and why does he not get it and is there any way possible he can change around?

I think their answer will be the same as mine. My experience tells me no and I'm sure their locker room experience tells them no as well. So just as we've never seen a player fall this far this fast from a skill standpoint and be able to recapture the previous magic, I don't think any of my teammates or these guys who are currently in the Broncos locker room could say we've ever seen a player who was such an unrelatable guy suddenly become a great teammate that you couldn't wait to play with again. So whoever this new coach is and yes to your point it seems like Russell Wilson will be back under center for the Broncos next year has got a very difficult task in front of him not only trying to maximize the skill of a declining quarterback who's lost not not just a step in my opinion but two steps but also try to repair relationships in the locker room which is completely fractured. We got Dalton Reisner pushing Brett Rippon on the sideline of this last game. We got Randy Gregory punching people out after the game.

So there's all kind of issues going on. This is why this is the least attractive hand coach opening for me. The contract, the quarterback, all the other issues and new ownership. There's just so many things that would make me an experienced coach like a Sean Payton say hey this is not the one for me guys. Chad Brown before we let you run I think there's gonna be a lot of people to say no to this job before they find someone to say yes. Who do you think if you had to give a guess or two a name that you thought about in the last 24 hours that you could see maybe taking this Broncos job?

This is tricky. This is a tricky one because as I just said in my opinion it's the least attractive job. So someone like you know my former CU teammate Eric Ginnaby but I mean the hot list for a long time as far as being an NFL coach. Does he want to take his first stab at it with a situation where another former CU teammate is Vance Joseph wasn't really given what he needed to be successful and you add the contract with Russell Wilson and then the need to maximize whether the clown and quarterback can do on the field. Even guys like that who I know are great coaches and just want the right opportunity would probably pass on this opportunity.

So guys like Sean Payton did mention I mentioned earlier because of the connection between Drew Brees and Russell Wilson as far as height and being a quarterback. But again there's gonna be lots of names talked about but I don't understand why anyone would take this job other than the Walton Pinner group offering some kind of ridiculous salary to you know entice somebody when you know they all can recognize that the lay of the land is so awful compared to other opportunities that are gonna happen here this offseason. I threw out Dan Quinn the other day I'm starting to think that maybe Dan would say no to this job but if it feels like it's going to be someone that has previous head coaching experience like maybe it's Jim Caldwell meant maybe it's a Frank Reich like those are two names that I gravitate towards to today. Yeah I've heard those names and Jim Caldwell's interesting just because of the non-experience that he has and his manner about him maybe just a more low-key kind of guy could be the guy to bring this thing together. Dan Quinn obviously was in Seattle so he knows a bit about Russell Wilson but that in my opinion that could be a reason to not take the job rather than a reason to take the job. You know Frank Reich certainly disappointed to be fired in Indy maybe he wants to dive right back here I'm not sure how many years he had left on his deal because he can sit down and make money on his couch and not be forced to take the Broncos opportunity because again it's just there's so many question marks and my football experience tells me the more question marks you have the more likely not all those are going to be answered with an affirmative yes or they're going to be answered in a good way. It's the same thing about every football team we talk about you know hey they're finished up with training camp let's talk about their how they're gonna play this season well they got question marks at the quarterback position question marks here what question marks there we put doubts around that team well there's so many question marks around this team from a head coaching perspective ownership who's that going to be is George Payton the GM going to be there long term because he was a guy who brought in Lester Wilson gave him the contract and brought in Nathaniel Hackett I'm not gonna have a new GM next year who's gonna want a different coach that he's tied to so with all those question marks again I'm not sure how this becomes an attractive job other than the dollars that the Walter Penner group can put out there yeah why is George Payton safe in this because he hired Hackett and he made the trade for Russell Wilson why is it why isn't he being sent packing I think for Greg Penner as much as he's saying he's going to lead this coach coaching search and gonna have the coach report directly to him I think you know there's a bit of a uncertainty about this NFL process lots of business experience but the NFL is certainly a tricky place to navigate and we I mean just look at the the fleece job the Seahawks pulled on the Broncos with the trades and the players to bring Russell Wilson to Denver George started on George Payton Pete Carroll and Schneider up there up in Seattle have to be high-fiving themselves every single day not only to get rid of this guy we got players we got draft picks and that drastic I think is currently the third pick in the draft for this upcoming draft so for Greg Penner to think he can navigate those tricky waters without having a George Payton by his side to let him know who he can trust who he can't trust those kind of things maybe that's why George Payton is still here for maybe one more year last one for Chad Brown you talking about your alma mater Colorado where's the excitement level with Deion Sanders primetime joining the bus well well we were really excited in Colorado when we got Russell Wilson so I think obviously it's a different situation different level of football coach's prime maybe the only coach whose brand is bigger than whatever school he goes to and we're seeing that already with some of the recruiting success that he said see you've got just a couple of three and four star guys in the last couple of decades he's already brought a ton of those guys in already it's only going to get nowhere but better so I expect things to improve very quickly up there I'm 52 years old I don't think coach prime would be for me but for kids who want likes and follows and social media presence and time on camera and all that stuff coach prime is going to bring all of that in space with ability to sit into a family's living room and sit on someone's mom's couch and tell that kid yeah not only are you gonna play great now are you gonna be have an opportunity to you know play on a big stage at Colorado one of the best conferences in the country that's really the resurgence of the packed wall was big this year but I'm gonna get you social media follows and likes and NIL opportunities and all that stuff that's going to come with the glitz and glam that coach prime bling so we've been starving in Boulder for a winner for almost two decades now so coach prime comes in with that and comes in with a level of interest nationally that puts the bus back in the national spotlight in ways that we haven't been since my glory days so I am certainly excited but there's a little bit of tempering of that excitement because we were all excited about Russell Wilson too in Denver Chad Brown always great to catch up with you thanks so much for the time my friend thanks for having me on I appreciate it the listening you love is on the free Odyssey app your trusted local radio stations coverage of your favorite teams live news from your hometown and millions of podcasts on demand best of all you can completely customize your listening experience follow topics you care about like leagues and teams pause or rewind your local sports and news and add shows to your queue to catch up later there's a lot to listen to so get started and download the free Odyssey app today what makes your skin crawl no matter how absurd I want to know tails without fur on them such as rats or opossums I'm Larry Mullins the host of a new podcast called your weirdest fears you send me your fear I'm just so weirded out about the texture and how they can just move around and flop and then I go to the experts to learn how to overcome them listen and subscribe to your weirdest fears on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast from the listening you love is on the free Odyssey app your trusted local radio stations coverage of your favorite teams live news from your hometown and millions of podcasts on demand best of all you can completely customize your listening experience follow topics you care about like leagues and teams pause or rewind your local sports and news and add shows to your queue to catch up later there's a lot to listen to so get started and download the free Odyssey app today