Derek Wolfe, Former Denver Broncos Defensive Lineman

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It's cash the ticket. On the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. Time, how are ya? I'm doing great. How you guys doing? I'm doing alright. You know, I'm not a Broncos fan. You just hosted a radio show.

Congratulations by the way on the new gig. Give me kind of the feel today in Denver after that catastrophe last night. Oh, it's been just overcast. 50 degrees. Falls kicking in. I mean after like, it was a beautiful night yesterday too. Which just blows my mind that we had fans just leaving the game. Going into overtime. Blows my mind. Yeah, I couldn't believe.

I've never seen. We've seen fans leave early. The game stinks or the game's over pretty much. It's a blowout. You want to go beat the traffic.

That game was that bad that at 9-9 headings overtime fans go thanks but no thanks. I've had enough. And I can't really kill them for that.

No, you really can't. People got to go to work on Friday. You know what I mean? Like hang around and watch this dumpster fire. What's going on with Russell?

It was bad. Yeah, what's going on with Russell Wilson? Because he just looks lost right now. He didn't even look at the right side of the field at moments last night.

Where do you see him with Russell Wilson? Well, I'm seeing him try to be somebody he's not. He's not using his legs. He's not getting out of the pocket. He's making. I think he was a little banged up going into the game. His shoulder was hurting him and bothering him. But for the most part, I think there's a disconnect between him and the players.

He's living this different lifestyle. He has his own office in the building with his own coach that he hired. I mean, to me that is just. You got to understand, I played with Peyton Manning. Peyton would never do something like that. And Ross isn't paid to Manning.

Let's be real. And let's be honest, he's not. Yeah, he's not.

We don't have to even. He shouldn't be mentioned in the same breath as Peyton Manning. He's just not. He's not a Hall of Fame quarterback.

He's not playing. The problem is that there was so much hype surrounding the signing of Russell Wilson and him coming to Denver. And it was going to be like, you know, that 2012 to 2016 when we had Peyton, we were just winning games. We were number one seed every year. But, you know, 2012 we did start out two and three. But we didn't see it like this. It didn't happen this way. It wasn't.

No touchdown scored. It was. I mean, that was. It's bad football for him to just, you know, that that interception he threw that first one that he just threw up in the air.

I mean, come on, man, you're not you're not helping yourself any. And then we could talk about bad coaching this bad coaching that. Maybe Hackett should have calloused these guys a little bit more during training camp and we wouldn't see these injuries happen like this because there's just no callous built.

They did. They had it almost too easy during training camp, which I'm all for. Just like having a conservative training camp where you're not trying to kill guys and you're trying to play for the you're playing for a championship.

So you're trying to push them through to January to peak in January and February. But you can't have you can't have your defense hold an offense to zero touchdowns, have five or six sacks and two turnovers and not win the game. We didn't have a quarterback like Russell Wilson that you just paid forty eight million dollars a year for.

You're right. It does seem like there's a disconnect in the locker room. Russ is now starting to come off as unlikable.

He's trying too hard. The let's ride thing at the end of the game was so cringe worthy. You being a player that understands the locker room.

What advice would you give? That whole let's ride thing has been cringey since the day you said it. It's been so cringey and people are just like, well, I guess, you know, Russ is a good dude.

He's a good person. So, like, all right, we're not going to pick on him. We're just going to ride with it. But now it's like, come on, Russ, what are you doing? Why do you even say that?

Just like, I don't know. I just really think that he's having I think there's an identity crisis going on with the entire team. Is this fractured beyond beyond repair? Derek Wolf, like, oh, like, what's the future look like?

No, I don't think it's fractured beyond repair. There's still time. It's only a quarter of the way through the season.

There's a ton of time still to get it together. It's just like, let's see the sense of urgency, because I'm not seeing that. I saw a sense of urgency from the defense last night. But from the offense, I didn't see it didn't seem like they cared. It didn't seem like he really like it was like, oh, we're just going to go, you know. It's like they're just going through the motions, you know, like they're not really they're not clicking. There's not they keep saying when we click, when we click, when we click, I will five weeks in.

You still haven't seen we haven't seen any kind of flash of clicking. You know, there's a big play here and there. But the missed opportunities in the shooting yourself in the foot is just ridiculous. It's almost stunning, Derek Wolf, that they lost that game last night. I still can't believe they lost the game. Shocked.

I was shocked. I really was, because I had I thought I thought we were going to see, you know, like a 250 yard game out of Russell Wilson, two touchdowns, something like that, you know, like a respectable game. But I mean, I was a part of some bad Broncos football for four years back, really bad offenses. But at least we could score a touchdown.

Derek Wolf here with us. So the reason why I asked is it fractured beyond repair? And maybe that's taking it to an extreme. But I feel like now we get caught in this world where Brady plays, you know, late, you know, into his 40s. You see how long Peyton Manning did play, Drew Brees, et cetera, et cetera. You know, the last year and a half, Russ hasn't looked good. That's why I get concern when you see the simple things not being simple anymore for him.

And he turns 34 in November. Well, his footwork was off as well. That's why I think the coaching situation or his having like this extra coach around, I think is a problem. I think that's a problem. I think that we need to take a really need to take a look at that.

I think the organization needs to take a real look at that. I think Hackett needs to put his foot down and be like, look, Clint Kubiak is our quarterback coach. All right.

Not this. I think the guy's name is Jake Heaps. Yeah, he's been on our show before.

I don't know that. I don't know the guy, but whatever he's coaching him isn't working. So we've got to try something new. Let's get the guy that we hired as our quarterback coach to be the quarterback coach. And let's get this guy coached up into the system how we want to coach him.

And this is not how this other guy that he hired coached him up. Is Hackett even going to make it to the end of the season? Let's see what happens at the buy. That's when you need to make a decision, because first of all, when you have fans leaving the game at halftime or going into overtime, that's not good. That's not good for the shield. That's not good for the organization. That's not good for the city. That's bad. Really bad. I think the viewership was the lowest Thursday night football game of the season, which tells you everything you need to know.

That's bad for the brand. So I think I think what needs to happen is there needs to be some soul searching going on. I think you need to take a breath, take a breath, try to bounce back here against the Chargers on Monday night. Great opportunity to bounce back.

I mean, very rarely do you get an opportunity like this to have this kind of time off, get healthy, get feeling right, catch a breath and get it together. Look at the things that you do well and look at the things that you don't do well and make some changes, make some real changes as far as play calling goes. And I can't even knock the play calling that bad because there was wide open guys at the end of the game to win. Your quarterback has to make those decisions and he's not making the right ones.

Yeah. Why Derek Wolf did he not even look at KJ Hamler that that final play? I still just don't I can't wrap my head around the guys wide open. I I think I think that on his on that interception pass that he threw when he just basically punted the ball up in the air and gave it to the Colts. I think that he got concussed on that play.

So I think that him I think he just was like, all right, I'm going to lock in on my number one receiver and throw the ball to him. Really? Interesting. Regardless, doesn't matter that it's Stephon Gilmore who is one of the best defensive backs of all time.

I mean, this guy was a defensive player of the year, what, three, four years ago? Yeah. So I'm going to keep trying him who's already picked me off. I'm just going to go at him again.

That's a smart decision. Here's the biggest problem. I think he was concussed. OK, here's the biggest problem. And last thing I'll ask you, you talk about the fans leaving. We know a few weeks back they were they were counting down the play clock.

The fans. This is not only just bad like you've said it. You've been on bad football teams. This is turning into a clown show. And I just feel there's going to be a big divide in that locker room because there's got to be guys that don't believe in Hackett.

There's got to be guys that don't believe in Ross. This it's it's getting ugly early and it's not just ugly. This is a circus. Well, when you've got guys slamming their helmets on the ground after a game and, you know, instead of going and uplifting their their quarterback, you know, guys are looking sideways at him. Like, hey, man, what's going on here?

You get all this special treatment and we're not you know. The juice isn't worth the squeeze. It's one of those things where I really think this year is a lost cause for them. I just don't see how they turn this around. I would be shocked if this team makes the playoffs. I think I think we just kind of try to win more than five games right now. Try to win eight games.

But I think at week eight, going into this buy, if things don't get better, Hackett has got to go. You've got a 60 billion. You've got an owner worth 60 billion dollars. All right. This guy's not he's not worried about paying off the coach. Right. He's not worried about paying off the coach or bringing in a Gary Kubiak or maybe a Sean Payton. I'll see what happens. We know that the story is not going anywhere, especially when they do play in primetime once again next week.

He's Derek Wolf from the drive on one of four three. The fan in Denver, former Broncos defensive end, did win a Super Bowl with the franchise. Congrats on the new gig and appreciate you carving out some time for us. Absolutely. Thanks for having me. Football season is here. The new Odyssey app lets you stay connected to your NFL team, your station, your shows. Follow your favorite stations and come back again and again. Get real time updates on everything you care about.

Miss your show? Jump back to their awesome rewind feature. The Odyssey app is NFL football. Live and on demand wherever you are, whenever you want. And did we mention it's all free? Download the Odyssey app today.

Football season is here. The new Odyssey app lets you stay connected to your NFL team, your station, your shows. Follow your favorite stations and come back again and again. Get real time updates on everything you care about.

Miss your show? Jump back to their awesome rewind feature. The Odyssey app is NFL football. Live and on demand wherever you are, whenever you want. And did we mention it's all free? Download the Odyssey app today.