QB Carousel: Tyler Polumbus, Former Denver Broncos Offensive Lineman

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Don't be shy! The Super Bowl is over, but the NFL quarterback carousel is just beginning. You've got to ask yourself a question.

Do I feel lucky? What does the future hold for all 32 NFL teams at the QB position? Now, I'm gonna give you an opportunity to spin this wheel right here. Let's spin the wheel and find out which teams we hit today.

The Denver Broncos. All right, now joining us, the Super Bowl 50 champion does a great job. Mid-days on Altitude Sports Radio, and that's our pal Tyler Palumbus. Tyler, how you been? Hey, I'm doing great, Zach. Good to be with you.

Well, thanks so much for coming on. So, we found out today that Russell Wilson, to start this offseason, did undergo right knee surgery. When you look at last year, it was a disaster, obviously, for Russell Wilson and the Broncos. Now, Sean Payton is in. What's your expectations for year number two of Russell Wilson with the Denver Broncos?

Well, that's a loaded question, right? I think for the fan base, for the layman fan, all they really care about is wins and losses. They're not going to be looking at touchdowns, interceptions, although I will. I'll be looking at touchdowns, interceptions.

I'll be looking at it completion percentage and all those things that we need to look at for our own advanced stats. But the fans, you get to nine wins, or you get to 10 wins, sneak into the playoffs, and maybe you could flirt with some success in the first round or not. And I think the fan base would be forgiving. Obviously, it's been a roller coaster since Russell Wilson arrived in Denver, and it's supposedly been on the downhill. I don't know. The downhill, the fun part on the roller coaster? Which part's the non-fun part on the roller coaster? Because that's the part we've been stuck on. Maybe when it ends, or maybe, if you ask me, when it flips upside down, because I can't stand that part. I'm projectile vomiting all over the place.

Yeah, we've been stuck there. So, you know, Russ had 16 touchdowns. He had 11 interceptions last year.

I would love to see those numbers. I would love to see him in the 26, 28 touchdowns. You know, and honestly, probably in the same ballpark as far as interceptions.

10 or 11 interceptions all the year. I think now we expect all quarterbacks to play into their late 30s or early 40s with what we saw with Tom Brady, seen with Tom Brady, and then also what Aaron Rodgers is still being able to do at a pretty high level. Is there that concern with Russell Wilson that maybe we're seeing the decline and that's what it was last year and he'll never be able to be a great quarterback again in the NFL? Of course there's that concern.

Yeah, I mean, I think people are terrified of that. You know, when Russ got here, just last season, he said that he was going to play another 10 years and he's going to win another three or four Super Bowls. I think we would be lucky to get a solid three or four more years of good football out of Russell Wilson. If you got a Super Bowl out of it, I think we would all count that as a bit of a miracle at this point. I mean, it was bad ball last year. It was really bad ball.

Now what everybody's banking on is the last four or five games. Russ was playing better. He played really well against the Chiefs. He ended up getting hurt in that game. That was probably his best game of the season, but he started to find his stride a little bit with Jerry Judy. They found a connection at the end of the year, but Jerry Judy's on the trade block right now and I do think they are still actively trying to get rid of Jerry Judy.

So what's the deal there? Because we were just talking about that before you came on Tyler Columbus. It's like, okay, this guy just played three years in the league. He hasn't been as great as what people thought he was going to be, but at the end they had a little bit of a connection.

What's the truth with the Jerry Judy situation? Well, you know, the wide receiver room is just not good enough right now. Cordland Sutton is getting paid good money. It's not like incredible money for wide receivers in today's day and age, believe it or not, but I think he's making like 14 million per year, which is crazy to say that's not stupid money. Of course, that's stupid money, but you know nowadays wide receivers are making a lot more than that, but he has just not lived up to his expectations ever since he got that contract. Jerry has just been frustrating. He has had, in his first couple years, he had so many drops. Last year his drops really weren't so bad.

There was a lot of guys, I think he was hovering around that five or six mark on the season, but it's been a roller coaster. He's been an emotional roller coaster. He's a guy that wears his heart on his sleeve and he throws temper tantrums a la Odell Beckham Jr.

I mean, I would call it like many OBJ type of temper tantrums. Doesn't run back to the line of scrimmage. He'll pout, take plays off, so I think they're making a decision right now. You know, they got to decide if they want to give them that fifth year option, and so if they don't trade Jerry Judy, I think it's a guarantee that you're going to give them that fifth year option, so it's really are they willing to make a two-year commitment to him right now or not.

That fifth year option, I believe, comes in around 13 million dollars, so do they think that he could be worth 13 million dollars? I personally think the Broncos should keep him. Your wide receiver room is so depleted already. I think you got to bank and just hope and cross your fingers that the Jerry Judy that you got in the last five games, that's who you're going to get consistently. I'm going to ask you about the running back room. I know Javonte Williams injured last year. There was high expectations and who knows what he's going to return.

I read a lot of discouraging things on the rehab process, unfortunately there for him. Is there a chance, I know it doesn't usually happen in division, but I see where the odds are right now that they somehow wind up with Austin Eckler via trade. Well, I don't know about Austin Eckler. Broncos are out of draft picks. I mean, they gave up the farm to go get Russell Wilson. They gave up the farm again to go get Sean Payton. So draft picks are not a commodity that the Broncos have enough of.

If anything, they got to find ways to get more draft picks. So I don't know if Austin Eckler makes sense. I would love to have him. Great football player and I think he'll be worth the money still. He wants a new contract.

On the surface, I would welcome Austin Eckler. I do think that despite the fact that it's unlikely they'll trade for a running back, they will add another running back because of what you just mentioned. Rumors behind the scenes, and I want to be clear, I don't know this for a fact, but rumors behind the scenes are that Gervonta's knee injury was much more serious than what anybody would do.

It was a total rebuild when they got in there. So I think they're going into the season expecting to be their number one. If they get Gervonta back, great. And Gervonta would probably get that number one spot back if he does come back healthy, but they got to bank on Gervonta not being there.

So they got to add another running back either way. So you think there's a chance you could miss the entire season? I hope not. I hope not because Gervonta Williams is such a fan favorite. I mean, anybody that's watched that kid run, he is so easy to root for, but I fear it.

Yes, I fear it. By the way, you're doing a local talk show in Denver. You guys don't have a draft pick until the third round. What the heck do you talk about with the draft? Well, I was talking about that with our producers the other day.

I was like, so do I just get to take the first two rounds off? We don't have to do any draft coverage because they can't trade back into it. It's very boring.

It's very anti-climatic. Could we get a starting center in the third round? Can you get, you know- Can we get a running back?

We're talking about the boring stuff. So when you look at Sean coming in, obviously that locker room was dysfunctional last year. What is going to benefit Russell Wilson the most by having such a great coach like Sean Payton? Well, going back to Russ and kind of the drama of last year, so much of it had to do with off the field stuff. Obviously, he wasn't playing well on the field, but you know, Russ, there were rumors that Russ had up to six parking spots that were available to the stadium. You know, he had his own personal quarterback coach that had an office in the building, not a Broncos employee. On Tuesdays, Russ and his personal quarterback coach would pass out a game plan that was non-sanctioned by the Denver Broncos. It was Russ and his personal quarterback coach's game plan. And I think honestly, the best thing that could happen for Russ right now is what Sean Payton did on day one. He said, no, there's not going to be any non-Bronco employees in this building. That's not working like that.

All the perks are going to go away. Russ is going to have to force himself to kind of reacclimate with the locker room. And that's been a problem because I don't think guys dislike Russell Wilson.

I just don't think they know how to relate to Russell Wilson and it's going to be good for him to get back. He had his own personal office. He's going to lose his own personal office. He's got to be back in the locker room with the fellas. What is the status of Jake Heaps? That's the personal quarterback coach. We know he's not going to be at the facility.

Sean made that clear. I'm assuming he's still working with Russell Wilson. Have we heard anything on the Jake front? Does he do interviews still?

No. You know, Jake was doing interviews with us at the beginning of the season and then he went quiet. I think he probably got a little upset with me. I consider him a friend, but I broke some Russell Wilson news in the middle of the year about him using audibles from the Seahawks and the offensive line not knowing it.

So I'm sure that didn't help my personal relationship with Jake. But as far as I know, he's in town. He's working for us. He's going to be doing everything that he can just outside the building.

Jake Heaps' best friend, Tyler Prolumbus, here with us on CBS Sports Radio. How tough is it going to be for Russ to win back over that locker room? Because that's weird when a locker room turns that quickly on a quarterback with that much established success in the league. It shows you how bad that situation was. And then at the last two, three weeks of the season when teammates were starting to try to make it not look as bad as it was, I thought that was so phony. Well, it's real simple.

It's real easy. Win ball games and you get the locker room back. Nobody cares. If Russ went out last year and won 11 football games and he was playing like Russell Wilson in the old, nobody would have cared about Jake Heaps being in the building. Nobody would have cared about the parking spots.

Nobody would have cared about the extra people on the plane. But when you don't win ball games, it's all an issue. So the best thing Russ can do to reacclimate himself with his teammates, win. Do you think it's likely this team makes the playoffs this year? I think anytime you got Sean Payton as the coach, you've got a fighting chance at it. It's so hard to predict because nobody knows if Russell Wilson is left for dead or not. And if I had to guess, I think he's closer to permanently on the decline than playing like Seattle Russ ever again. So playoffs are a stretch, but easily attainable. If Russell Wilson can even come back remotely to his old form, of course, playoffs is attainable with Sean Payton and Russell Wilson. But it all comes down to it.

We got to see what Russ is in the first four or five weeks of the season. The Chiefs are better. The Chargers are better. Are the Broncos right now better than the Raiders? Yeah, I think so.

Josh McDaniel is always a mess. I forgot that's your best friend. Oh yeah, that's my real best friend.

That's my real one. Yeah. So I mean, but seriously, look at what he's done out there. I mean, he's having problems left and right. Get just got rid of Darren Waller, traded out Derek Carr for Jimmy Grapplo. Jimmy Grapplo is not as good as Derek Carr. Derek Carr is clearly better. The market said that Derek Carr was better based off the deal that he got down in New Orleans and based off the deal that Jimmy got with the Raiders. So yeah, I mean, I think the Broncos are finally a more healthy organization. The Raiders, the Chargers, you know, they're always the best team on paper to begin the season and then they just charger it up and they do what they always do.

So, you know, as good as Justin Herbert is, what have you really accomplished, right? So I think there's still an outside chance of getting a wildcard spot. You're not going to dethrone the Chiefs. That's not happening.

So the best you can do is try to fight for that number two spot. I'll tell you, just going back to the Raiders, I listened to that entire Pat McAfee interview with Darren Rogers and it seemed like Rogers was definitely interested in a reunion with Devante Adams. That still blows my mind how that didn't happen, where you move on from Carr, who I don't love Derek Carr, but it doesn't move the needle for me really bringing in Jimmy Garoppolo when it seemed like Rogers wanted to go there. I'm not the world's biggest Derek Carr fan either, but he is better than Jimmy Garoppolo. Yeah, I don't think there's really much of a difference. Like to me, Derek Carr's healthier.

Jimmy Garoppolo's won more games, but yeah, if you're probably just looking at the talent, Carr's probably slightly better. Right, right. But not getting Rogers there, that's a big mistake. It's a swing and a miss by McDaniels.

Yeah, yeah. Although I'll tell you, it doesn't shock me that Josh is going with the middle of the road quarterback. I mean, Jimmy G, he wouldn't ballgame. Nobody can take that away from him.

He went ballgame. But I'll tell you, when Josh traded away Jay Cutler from the Broncos, he came into the team meeting. He addressed us all. He said, fellas, don't worry about it.

I could turn a high school quarterback into an all pro. So that is Josh McDaniel's philosophy on quarterbacks. How did you react to that? How do you think we reacted to that? I mean, he just traded away our whole nucleus. He had Jake Cutler, Brandon Marshall, Tony Shepler. I mean, we had one of the youngest, most exciting nucleuses on offense in the NFL and he got rid of them all.

It was not a good start for Josh. Oh, I'll be hanging out later on tonight with Josh McDaniels and Jake Heaps. He's of course is Tyler Columbus. Tyler, I appreciate the time. I got no beef with Jake. I like you buy that beef with me. Uh, I'm just going to go out on a limb. I don't think he likes you these days by the way that you explained. I'm going to assume you might be right. You know what? I will put you guys in a group text and I'll just say, Hey guys, you need to mend this relationship. See what happens.