Brandon Stokley, Former Broncos WR and Host on Denver Sports 104.3 The Fan

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Search Cash the Ticket on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. Alright, let's continue to react to Russell Wilson. With it being announced yesterday, he's going to get released by the Denver Broncos.

That didn't catch anybody by surprise but now the Broncos' future is extremely intriguing. We go out to the guest line, welcome in a former NFL wide receiver, won two Super Bowls in the NFL and now is the host of the Stokely and Josh show on Denver Sports 104.3. He's a fan and that of course is Brandon Stokely. Brandon, always great to have you on the show. Appreciate it and how you doing? I'm doing great. Thanks for having me, Zach.

Well, thanks so much for coming on. So, here's what still annoys me with the whole situation in Denver. I understand that why they're moving on from Russell Wilson but it just feels like, especially when you hear about the contract and all that, that Sean Payton took this job and he never really had an intention of trying to salvage Russell Wilson's time in Denver.

See, I got to disagree with you there. I think when you look at what is best for the Denver Broncos moving forward, it would have been if Russ worked out. Right now, you don't have to cut him. You don't have to find another quarterback.

You don't have this huge cap hit. So, I think it would have been best for everyone, Sean Payton included, for Russ to work out and for them not to be going down this quarterback road again. Trying to find a quarterback is a hard thing to do. Sean didn't find one after Drew Brees. He knows how hard it is and I think Sean got a lot of good out of Russell Wilson this year. You look at Russell with the Daniel Hackett and then now you look at him last year and it wasn't great but he did throw 26 touchdowns, 8 interceptions.

So, it was much improved from the year before. I think it would have just been best for everyone here in Broncos country if Russ would have worked out. But with how quickly they went to him and basically threatened to bench him if he didn't adjust his contract, that doesn't come off to you as someone in Sean Payton that just gave up on him rather quickly? Well, I think that was a business decision that obviously came from the general manager and it was the general manager calling Russ' agent to discuss it.

Making an amendment here so we can look at some things maybe a little bit differently. I think what they were trying to amend was this guarantee here that's coming up here on the fourth day of the league year that now guarantees 2025 salary. And they wanted to move that back a little bit. I think it would have been best for Russ to be more open and receptive to that.

It's just business. Football is business and they were handling business at that time. Russ said no. And then what happened? Russ was a starter for six, seven, eight more weeks once they were out of the playoff pitcher and they knew that Russ wasn't going to be around much longer.

And especially the following year. Then they turned the page and they took a look at Jarrett Stidham. So I think football is business and sometimes it's business time and they tried to get something done. Russ said no. He was still the starter.

And that's just part of it sometimes. The Broncos are very far away. That's abundantly clear. And we know that this new contract didn't even kick in with the extension yet. Do you think this is a mistake to get rid of Russell Wilson now? Maybe they should have just let this play out for one more season and then move on a full year from now. Well, that's the problem. If they played it out one more year, now 2025 is guaranteed.

You know what I'm saying? That's why they tried to get that contract adjusted. So I think they would have played it out one more year with them if they didn't have to guarantee 2025.

Right? And so they knew that Russ wasn't the long term answer. I think they would have done it one more year with them if it wasn't for having to guarantee a year in advance. And so it's like don't make one bad decision worse by doubling down on it. I think they realized that it wasn't going to work out.

Russ wasn't going to amend the contract at all. So it's best just to rip the Band-Aid off and try to find that next quarterback. And obviously it's not going to be an ideal situation. You're drafting 12th.

You don't have a lot of cap room. So hey, that's the gig that Sean Payton signed up for. Now it's his responsibility to find that quarterback.

You talked about it. The big reason to me why Sean left the New Orleans Saints is because he didn't have a quarterback anymore. And then you go to Denver and how quickly this just deteriorated with Russell Wilson. Now you don't have a quarterback again as Brandon Stokely joins us. You talked about how they're sitting there with the 12th overall pick.

Do you think that they're going to be active here? I know all the capital they just gave up for Russell Wilson and how that's played out. But can you see them moving on up in this draft to go get their quarterback of the future? It's Sean Payton.

I don't think he's scared. He opened up the season this year. His first play as a coach for the Broncos was an onside kick.

He started the second half of the Super Bowl with an onside kick. Sean Payton's not scared to be aggressive. I don't think it's the right play for the Denver Broncos. But I'm not sitting there evaluating these quarterbacks.

You've got to find a quarterback at some point. I think the best thing for the Broncos this year is to be more conservative. They don't even have a second round pick. They gave up a first rounder and a second rounder for Sean Payton. So they don't have a second round.

I think they should move back a little bit from 12, move back, gather some more assets. They've got a lot of other business they need to take care of besides a quarterback position, unfortunately. Try to find a quarterback third, fourth round.

Pick up a guy there. You go with a guy like Jacoby Brissett. You've got Jared Stidham on the roster.

And that's how you've got to navigate 2024. But I wouldn't be surprised at all if all of a sudden Sean Payton moves up to six or seven and takes JJ McCarthy or Drake May if he's false. Do you think this is setting up? And I know that the word tank is very polarizing. I don't think players tank, but organizations can tank. Is this setting up to be a tank year for the Denver Broncos? No.

No. I wish they would have done that last year. They were one in five.

They were awful. And I'm like, that was the time to lose. That's not Sean Payton.

The owner of the Broncos was Greg Minner. You know, this is going on his third year. He doesn't want to lose.

You know, he's all in. And so I think that type of mindset, they just, they could go down the road. You saw the Cardinals last year kind of go down that road. You could take all the dead cap hit this year, $85 million and not spread it out over two years. You could cut a few guys, veteran guys, and make it tough to win. I just don't think after losing as much as the Broncos have lost, they haven't had a winning season since 2016. I just don't think they go down that road. I think they'll try to be competitive. You saw like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this year.

I think they'll try that type of model and be competitive. Talking to Brandon Stokely right now, when we get to Russell Wilson, in terms of him being in that locker room, year one, it looked very toxic from the outside in. Year two, and that lengthy goodbye letter that he gave yesterday, it seemed like he improved some of those relationships. How do you kind of evaluate Russ as a teammate, just being able to cover him being in the Denver area the last two years? I think Russ is a good teammate.

He shows up, he works hard, he's accountable, he tries to do the right thing. Does he drive certain people crazy? You saw him drive Sean Payton crazy. It's got to be hard to block for the guys in offensive lineman.

And playing the wide receiver position can't be the easiest thing to do. But Russ checks all those other boxes. He's all in. He's all about winning. He'll do whatever it takes to win. I think some of the things that he does can drive his teammates crazy. You saw that in Seattle, where after he left Seattle, he had a lot of his former teammates coming out and saying a lot of things that drove them crazy. I don't think it's the easiest situation to be in to be his teammate, but his commitment level, there's no questioning that. Wrap it up with Brandon Stokely who joins us right now.

Make sure you listen to him weekdays on 104.3, the fan in Denver, Stokely and Josh. When you look at it from a Broncos fan perspective, there was a lot of excitement two years ago when this deal was made. It clearly did not work out. It's one of the worst trades in NFL history in acquiring Russell Wilson with how it just imploded. Sean Payton, there was a lot of excitement a year ago.

I don't know where the excitement level is now. We know ever since your BFF, Mr. Manning has left Denver as the quarterback of that team. Denver, quite frankly, hasn't been able to find that quarterback. Are Broncos fans starting to say, uh-oh, here we go again? Are they souring on Sean Payton as a coach?

I think some have. There's been a lot of backlash and negativity from a national perspective against Sean Payton with how he handled the Russell Wilson situation and how dare the Denver Broncos ask him to adjust his contract and how dare the Denver Broncos bench him. Russ did that. He went out there when he got benched. He asked to have a press conference with two weeks left to go in the season.

He asked for the media to talk to him. Then you see him go on Brandon Marshall's podcast, and he tries to paint himself as a good guy on the Broncos as the bad guy. Russ made out with over $100 million in a couple years here. $37 million is guaranteed this year. So I don't know how attractive some of these antics that he's done will be for a future team for Russell Wilson.

Now, you talk about Broncos country here, how they view on Sean Payton. I think it's still up in the air with him, and I think for me, I look at Sean and say, hey, I'm just going to trust you. I'm going to trust that you're going to get this thing fixed. It's been so bad, and I'm going to trust that you're going to find that next quarterback, whoever it may be, whatever round it may be. I thought it was going to be a disaster last year. They started one and five.

All of a sudden, he changed the culture here with not a great roster. So I'm just banking on that, hoping that happens. It's not going to be easy this next year. Look, anytime you're looking for a quarterback and you're not in a good cap situation, it's going to be a difficult thing to do.

Oh, by the way, you're playing in the chief's division, right? And so it's going to be a tough thing to do this year, but I hope they have a long-term plan, got to find a quarterback, and what better guy to try to figure this thing out than Sean Payton? When you see the future of Russell Wilson, Brandon Stokely, if you had to take a guess right now, what do you think is the best option, the best fit for him moving forward? You can see it takes two to tangle here, and a team would want him, and he would want to go there as well. I mean, I think the best fit would be like the Atlanta Falcons. I don't know if Atlanta Falcons want him, though. We see Kirk Cousins, you know, maybe, hey, Kirk Cousins, if not Justin Fields.

So I heard you mention Pittsburgh earlier, and you look at a guy like Kenny Pickett. Like, do you want your young quarterback around a guy like Russell Wilson who doesn't play from the pocket very often, has some bad habits? What happens if Russ starts and you got to bench him? How is he going to act? You know, is he going to blame the team?

Is he going to call a press conference again and ask all the reporters to come over to ask him questions? Like, I think as an organization, you have to ask yourself that, do you want Russ around a young quarterback? And you look at a team like the Raiders, that could be a possibility. I really do think that Russ is going to have to wait a little bit here. Does Russ want to go in and sign in a week or two with the Pittsburgh Steelers and know he's going to be in a competition? I mean, I don't think he does right now.

I think you expect to get a starting job right away. So I think this is a situation where you might look up here, and Russ might be waiting around for quite a while before he gets an opportunity. Yeah, I think it's going to have to be a domino effect on his landing spot, because I don't think he's priority number one for any organization right now. But you see a team like Minnesota, Kirk Cousins, let's say, go to Atlanta, then you have the Vikings scrambling, and you may have to turn to Russell Wilson on a cheap one-year deal. Because we know this, Russ just made a ton of money. He could take a cheap one-year deal, and he has to take a cheap one-year deal to save his career.

Zach, I mean, you're spot on. I mean, it'd make a million and a half bucks or whatever it is, and so that's very attractive for teams, certainly. You look at the Vikings who, if they don't, you know, re-sign Kirk Cousins, then they'll obviously, I guess, you know, probably evaluate Russ in the situation. But also, they're going to be looking for a quarterback in the draft. They draft 11 right in front of the Broncos, right in front of the Raiders, who are also all in the quarterback market. So I think a team like the Vikings would be very intrigued, but they might say to Russ, hey, we'll get back to you after the draft happens. And so I think that might be Russ's situation where a lot of teams are looking at, okay, let us go through the draft first, and then we'll give you a call, Russ. I would love for it to be the Raiders, though.

Just from a selfish standpoint, you get to see two games up against Sean Payton, who, in my opinion, screwed Russell Wilson over this year. Man, get your popcorn ready, as T.O. would say. That would be fun.

Exactly what I said today. I hope it's the Raiders. We owe the Raiders over here, and I hope it's with Russ as the quarterback.

Now, how about that? Let me ask you about one of your other old teams, and that's the Indianapolis Colts. Where's the confidence level now getting Anthony Richardson back? Had a little bit of a flash in the pan before getting hurt. Do you think the Colts are moving in the right direction? Was Shane Steichen who did a good job as your number one as their football coach?

Absolutely. I mean, I thought Shane did an unbelievable job there, and now you got your own quarterback. You wish he would have got a little bit more playing experience last year, certainly, but I think Shane's the real deal. You talk about a great offensive coach, and for them to do what they did last year, playing that quarterback roulette a little bit and then having their starter and Anthony Richardson get hurt, Minshew obviously did a nice job, but there's some good pieces there, and I think they got the right coach in place.

I saw that Pittman got the franchise tag today. Do you think he's a number one wide receiver in the NFL? Is he kind of one of those in-betweeners between a one and a two wide receiver in this league?

Well, I do. I think he's an upper echelon receiver, and certainly if you've got a young quarterback you're trying to develop, you don't want to lose a guy like that. Whether he's a middle level number one, a high number two, certainly he's a really talented receiver, and when you're trying to develop a young quarterback, you just can't try to replace that guy and hope that you draft a guy that replaces him. You just can't take that gamble, take that chance, and so I think that's a smart move from the coach.

You try to work out a long-term deal here before the deadline comes up, I think sometime in June or July, but I think that's a smart play by the Colts. Last thing I'll ask you, Brandon Stokely, with how disastrous this year and a half basically in Denver was for Russell Wilson. I know he's a nine-time Pro Bowler, but people usually remember how careers finish rather than the entire length of the career, and you know how much of a prisoner of the moment we are. Do you think Russ has played himself out of the Hall of Fame with what has happened in Denver?

No, I don't. I think what he did in Seattle, once we get a little bit further away from this, will stand on itself, and what he accomplished there was unbelievable. I think he had the most wins ever for a quarterback through his first ten years, something like that. Won a Super Bowl, obviously lost the other one. He was remarkable. He had some unbelievable years there in Seattle. You can't take that away from him. I think it was a bad partnership, obviously, with Nathaniel Hackett.

It was a complete disaster. Last year was better. He's just getting a little bit older, but I still think he's a Hall of Famer. He is Brandon Stokely. Brandon, always appreciate you when you join us. Thanks so much for doing this. Thanks, Zach.

Appreciate you, buddy. I'm Tony Kornheiser. This is my show. My friends come on and you know them. We talk about the sports you care about, basketball now, golf and the metronome of your life, baseball. Whether it's opening day, the big tournament or one of the majors, we have the best to preview it and break down just what happened.

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