Reacting to Sean Payton, Pat Surtain II & Bo Nix being named NFL award finalists | Altitude Advantage

Published Jan 23, 2025, 11:44 PM
On this episode of Altitude Advantage, team reporter Elisa Hernandez and lead writer Aric DiLalla look back at the start of the offseason and discuss several Broncos being nominated for league-wide awards. Intro/Look back at start to offseason (00:00-10:03) Early look at HC Sean Payton, CB Pat Surtain II, QB Bo Nix being named AP award finalists (10:04-23:29) Want more of “Altitude Advantage”? Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts. Make sure to leave a rating, review and a comment.

Here we are with another episode of Altitude Advantage. I'm your team reporter and host, Alisa Nandez, and across the computer from me is our lead writer on Denver Broncos dot Com, Eric Dalala.

And we've missed you guys.

There's a lot to kind of go over and that the season has concluded for the Devor Broncos.

The twenty twenty four season is in the books.

And now we kind of look into award season. We've gotten in some great nods to patchri ten the second which we'll get into that in a second, and some finalists awards for NFL Honors coming up. So there's a lot to talk about, especially with the end of the season press conferences that also happened not too long ago.

So yeah, I mean, just kicking things off.

The season flew by so fast and from where we started to where we ended. I think Broncos Country is very optimistic of the future and kind of what they're building in Denver.

Yeah.

Absolutely, And I know it's been a little bit since we've done a podcast and people were able to see us on our instant analysis and this instant analysis after the end of season press conferences, and we've had plenty of content up there. But it's nice to be back on the podcast, even though it's virtual. We'll be in person again soon, but nice to be talking to everybody again. But yeah, I think that listen as we were about what a week and a half removed now from the end of the season, and I think that, like we said, we'll go into some of those lasting takeaways from the end of season press conferences towards the end here, but I think just overall, I still feel like this was a successful season and a building block, a big stepping stone toward what this team can accomplish. And it's nice to be in this place where you won ten games and you made the playoffs, and you know, we're going to talk about some of these awards, but you've got guys being named first Team All Pros, and you've got guys being named, you know, to the All NFL and All AFC teams, and you've got obviously Pats or Tan winning like every award you can possibly win, and you just kind of you look back and you're like, wow, this this team was really good and like accomplished a lot and has a lot of really good foundational pieces on this team. And I think sometimes it's hard for me at least, where like you're so dialed into the Broncos each and every week, and you're so dialed in on your team, and like, obviously, you know Marvin Mims is a really good punt returner, but you just don't have time always to look at every other punt returner around the league. And then you look up and it's like, Marvin Mims did league, the entire league and punt return average, right, like you know what, you know, you know how well Bonix is playing for a rookie, and then you look up and it's like, oh, he's sixth in the NFL in touchdown passes among any skill and experience level. And so it's nice, I think these couple of weeks to take a step back and kind of look at what this team accomplished. And I think, obviously still still disappointing to lose in Buffalo, but obviously that's that's a good football team that's going to be competing this weekend for a chance to go to the Super Bowl. And so for this team to accomplish what it has to see some guys get wrecking one for what they've done this year. And you know, have optimism moving forward. It's it's really it's nice, right all he said, because the expectations weren't super high nationally, and we could have been at a place where you finish this season with five or six wins and you're at a real you know, crossroads. Maybe you don't know as much about your franchise quarterback, maybe you don't know as much about the talent on this roster, and instead the way things played out, I think you feel really good moving forward. So that's really encouraging from my standpoint.

Yeah, and I think when you look at you said it perfectly, when you're able to take a step back and really see what this team was able to accomplish, like wow, Like the different ways that they were able to really attack this season was really impressive. From the defense, you know, setting the new franchise record for most sacks in the single season, something that was said decades ago, and for this unit to do it, and knowing that some of those key pieces are going to be signed or were signed during the season is also great, I think for this team. And just like the arrival of Nick and the season that he had and he's going to his first Pro Bowl this year and just you know, he was named All Pro. So I think those kind of a concert for this team. We've talked about growing pains all year, and now they've actually grown up.

It's like some things are there and you.

Know, some things are still you know, are going to be growing pains for next season. But I think, you know, one of the things that I really took away from head coach On Payon and general manager George Payton was just the optimism they have for the pieces they got in this past draft, you know, and from the Jonah elliss to resigning Jonathan Cooper to obviously evaluating when a Bonito can be over the next couple of years.

You know, that's.

Something that they're feeling really good about. Like we've we've drafted very well this year. And I think what got me, especially because fans are now okay, like what's next, what's next? And I think they're already thinking what's next. And I think, you know, obviously there's a lot to get through before the NFL Draft, but I think the important thing was that they're confident that this team is going to be aggressive, if they need to be, they're going to be you know, tempered if they need to be, and they're not just going to go for the big splash just to make a splash. They want to bring guys in that are really going to factor it into this culture and what they're building and that camaraderie that they have, because you know, the locker room can be a very delicate balance, and I think the guys that they have in there really also port each other, all want each other to win. It's definitely me, not it's the definitely.

Team not me.

And I think knowing that your GM and your head coach have that are on the same page and ownership as well, that to me, that always leads for a recipe to success when everyone's on the same page and they understand like, we don't have to go out and just get anything. No, the dever Broncos are going to start becoming a team that players want to come to.

You know, players want to play.

For, whether it's you know, for the new facilities or just the culture or the you know, those things like you start to become like, no, I want to go play over there a destination place to play for. And I think you know, everyone's really confident going into that to next season in free agency.

Yeah, absolutely, And I think you're bought on about fans and their reaction and their excitement level, and I think I share the same thing. You know, last year there was almost like a nervous energy right of like how does this team? Where does this team go from here? After going eight to nine? And obviously they make a big move at the quarterback position, drafting Bnicks, moving on from Russell Wilson, they move on from several veterans, and you go into training camp and you're just like, okay, like you know, at some point Bonix is going to earn this job, but is it going to be for the start of the season. And then you're approaching the season and like there's excitement to see, at least for me, like, hey, what is Bonix going to look like? But also in granted, I'm as optimistic as they come, and I laid out, hey, here's the path if they want to get to the playoffs, But you just don't know going into Week one, like is that going to be possible with a team that has salary cap restraints and the expectations where they were among a lot of national media members, You just you don't know what's going to happen, and so it was almost kind of like this, Okay, let's wait and see what happens in twenty twenty four, Whereas you know, fans are already at this time now here in twenty twenty five like can't wait to see, like which weapon are we going to get in the first round of the draft? And obviously we'll have tons of draft content coming up. We're already somehow less than one hundred days away from the draft, which seems crazy to me, but like people are entirely excited about that. And it's now it's not like Okay, what's the direction or what's going to happen. It's like we have this direction. Now let's move full speed ahead toward this direction. And I think like for me, I already can't wait for the first week of September, Like I can't wait to see what the schedule is. I can't wait to see who are the Broncos going to open up with? How does bo Nix take the next step? Like last year was this this cautious sense of like, Okay, how is this all going to work? And now it is just kind of and again you still got a Sean Payton said at the end of season press conference. Each year you start over and you've got to rebuild from scratch, and so they got to do all the work again. But I think externally you can talk about man, excitement is at a really high level and just kind of all aspects of the offseason, whether it's NFL Honors and you know, Cam Patzer, Tanner Bonex or Sean Payton win one of these awards, or who are they going to get in free agency, or who's in the draft, or what's the schedule or hey, when they finally get back on the field for the offseason program, all of these things, it's like the excitement's just amped up a little bit because of what they were able to accomplish this year.

I agree, and I think again, it feels good to go into the off season. Like you mentioned, like, yes, that loss in Buffalo hurt, and obviously you'd like to see that the Broncos real competitive in that game, you know, but y'all, like again, Josh Allen is having an MVP season.

You know, this team put up a really.

Good fight, and I think, to me, it's I'm excited to just see what Bonux's Firstly, you know, off season looks like right, I feel like he's already hungry to just be on the field again, and you want that in your quarterback. And I think for you know, Champagne to say like we went out, we found him, like we found our guy. Like that's such a weightlifted, because, like you said, you always want to look like where can we go? But we know exactly where we're going, and we know the pieces that are here, and now you can comp and you can build around that.

You know.

Greg pennor owner and CEO, had kind of alluded to that a little bit, like now we have our guy, we can build around that guy. And I think, you know, like you said, they resigned a couple of key guys.

Garaboles got resigned. We mentioned how the Cooper got resigned.

You have these pillars, but not only that for what they do on the field, but what they do off.

The field, you know, and and what the presence that they.

Are in a young locker room and that young and hungry mindset, and you know, talking to Gara Boles over the course of the season, you know, he was he's not one of those guys that's like, oh the rookies, they don't matter, Like no, He's like, no, the rookie is like, they are this, and he's constantly uplifting and that really matters.

I think that trickles down a lot. So I think the culture and.

That they're building, you know, within the Broncos lock room is really going to play well going into next season.

And I mean, then you have Pat, you have Pat doing Pat things. You have Pat doing Pat things.

You know, when I spoke to him before they before we ended the season, I said, you know, we got a little sneak peak of playoff Pat, and he just smiled and he was like, yeah, I'm like, it's the first of many. And you know, I think for him, now you got that taste of the playoffs, you got the play the taste of the postseason life, and you're like, hmm, I want more of that, you know. And he had such an incredible year. He won pfw A Defensive Player of the Year, he won one oh one awards AFC Defensive Player of the Year. The accolades are kind of stacking up. I know you had some stats on the last time characters. Yeah, I mean, I'm saying it's just the fact that he's now a finalist for Defensive Player of the Year.

We'll get to Bow and Champagne in.

A second, but Pat has really to me just put on a clinic and you had mentioned something on one of the podcasts a while back, and you said, you know, people always wonder why there's no film. They don't go to him, like no film is good film honestly in this case.

Yeah, and I you know, obviously we'll see if he wins AP Defensive Player of the Year, he would be the second player in franchise history to win that, joining Randy Gradishar, which was obviously back in seventy eight, and so that speaks to how long ago that was. I mean almost what fifty years ago that that happened. So that's how historic this would be if he's able to win. Obviously, at the end of the year, he was the betting favorite, like you mentioned, he won PFWA Defense Defensive Player of the Year. So and I think I saw stat that twenty eight of the thirty two PFWA Defensive Player of the Years have gone on to be named the EP Defensive Player of the Year. So the odds are well. I think Andrew Mason over at the Fan tweeted that out. But yeah, a lot of there are signs that suggest that maybe Pat is going to be able to win this, and I don't think you know, sometimes we get like, oh, yeah, he wins this award, he wins this award, and you kind of just get used to it. But I don't think we should be like sleeping on what he did. And I mentioned I tweeted out like all the things he's accomplished between Pro Bowl and you mentioned the Defensive Player of the Year awards and All NFL and AP First Team All Pro, like all those sorts of things, Like I'm almost out of characters typing all the things that Pat's done this year's exactly and he, you know, he's just been so spectacular. I think we talked at some point midway through the season when Lebroncos were starting to play well and starting to find their stride, and we talked a little bit about about Pat's Defensive Player of the Year chances, and I was just a little I don't want to say skeptical, but like, it's such a narrative driven award, and I wondered if, like, like you said, because people don't throw at him and he had the fewest yards allowed and he has the fewest. His target percentage is the lowest in the NFL, and all these advanced statistics that if you look at him, they're spectacular, But it's like, at that point he probably had you know, two picks or whatever, three picks and so and finished the season with four, which a year ago or a couple of years ago, now he had a guy with ten, right, I think Trayvon Diggs had ten, and so sometimes it feels like voters need that high interception totals, and he didn't even win with the ten interceptions. So I just wondered if obviously there's so many football games to watch, and the Broncos hadn't played in a lot of primetime games at that point in the season, I wondered, with all the voters all spread out, would they be able to recognize what Pat's accomplished, And regardless of what happens with ap Defensive Player of the Year, it's been nice to see that. Yeah, people took note of what Pat was able to do. I think that game in primetime against Cincinnati where he just shut down Jamar Chase, that really helped. I do think people embracing these advanced statistics has helped Pat's case. But when you're talking about something the champ Bailey didn't win Defensive Player of the Year in Denver, right, Like, that's kind of what we're talking about here in terms of how special Pat certain has been. And so yeah, we'll get into it. I think we'll talk about Bo and Sean here in a second, but we'll get into next week kind of an individual video series of like why they're deserving, but certainly Pat, I don't know. To me, it feels like this should be a slam dunk and just really happy for Pat because for a corner to get this award, you've got to be really special, and he has been really special. And you know, I'm talking about the pfw A Defensive Player of the Year and the one O one Awards and like all these things that you're like first enfranchise history, second in franchise history, first Corner since however long ago, Like he's putting himself in rare territory and listen, it's only been four years. But I do think at some point you talk about he's on a Hall of Fame trajectory already, and that's incredibly impressive. He's been spectacular.

Yeah, and I think for him in particular.

You know, you bring up those games and it's almost like you you look back at the stats to even start the season. You know, he was going against DK Metcalf, George Pickens. You know he's going against these guys in the first kind of three weeks of the season, and he completely shut them down. And I again, I know it's kind of an old stat at this point, but it literally just makes me happy, and Diana makes me laugh when I think you had mentioned here, and I saw a few guys tooted it out just saying that had quarterbacks just thrown the ball straight to the ground better complete, like a better percentage than trying to like throw that Pat, which is insane.

Yeah, he's been he's been really good. I mean, there's like there's only so many ways to say, like he's been really good. And it'll be exciting to be out there. We'll be out there at the super Bowl on the red carpet, excited to catch up with Pat and see him there. I'm sure he's always got tremendous outfits for the red carpet, so I think last year he wore like a bright red suit with a bow tie. So excited to see what he has for us this time around. You mentioned it before. Bow was another guy who's up for one of these awards. He's a finalist for AP Offensive Rookie of the Year.

I mean, that's pretty impressive, like just that, that's that alone. And before we move off from Pati Will said, I did want to mention he also won the twenty four pm w A Denver Chapter sivent of the Damarius Thomas.

Team MVP Award. And that's why I'm wearing a d T jersey today for the podcast. You know, yeah, I have to keep I have to keep the gear going.

Okay, I like it, but you know, I think that ties into again, like the leadership on this team, and that ties into Bow. Bow was named a captain uh to start the season, and I think when you kind of see where that started.

And again, like you said, not knowing exactly what you're.

Gonna get from this rookie who was named captain and name the starting quarterback, and to now it's like you're now nominated for you know, Rookie of the Year, and I think that's the was a lot of great candidates in there, but I think for him to throw his name in there with the again with the expectations where no one really expected much of you, and they took that, you know, and didn't let it kind of get to them. And you go and you get ten wins, a playoff birth for the first time since Super Bowl fifty and you know you, You've ended a lot of conversations for this franchise this season. I think that really holds strong with what Bonix was able to do this year.

Yeah, and listen, I think everyone knows that Jane Daniels is probably the favorite, and he's done some impressive things. I will say it's a regular season award. It's not based on the postseason, so like it was voted on already, Jane daniels postseason run is not taken into consideration here. And I will say that you know Bo and again next week you'll hear us talk about kind of the case for each guy. But like Bo has the most touchdown passes of any rookie, He's got the most touch total touchdowns, he's got the most passing yards, I think, most completions. Like he's he's up there in all these categories.

And one Rookie of the week plenty of times shound passes by a quarterback, by a rookie quarterback in NFL history.

He's got like the most two touchdown no pick games of anybody. And I think Jane Daniels obviously started really fast and it took Bou a couple of weeks to maybe get going. But I think if you look at Bo's resume, he's more than deserving of a strong consideration for this award. And if it weren't for Jane Daniels having a really strong season, like almost any other year, this would have been a runaway for Bownicks. And so, you know, we'll see what happens. Maybe maybe Bo does end up winning. We'll see, But I don't want to take anything away from his season because you know, you're you're almost again, like you get to a place where expectations change and like they reset. But if you think about it, Bo was the sixth quarterback off the board. Externally, people talked about, hey, it's a good fit with Sean Payton and bow Nix, but but people weren't sure, like is he gonna be able to play at that high level? And this again externally, like I think there's always a belief from the moment Sean Payton drafted Bonnicks and this organization drafted bon Necks that he was going to be able to accomplish things. But the fact that he went out there and did it. And we heard Greg Penner say at the very beginning of the season there's going to be some ups, there's going to be some downs, and there weren't that many downs.

I mean, yeah, there was so there was a rookie law. He smashed through it.

Yeah, there were some tough losses to La and Sincy and in Kansas City, but like there weren't the fault of bons and he rose to the occasion, proved something else each and every week. And so yeah, really happy for him as well and excited for him to be honored as a finalist.

Yeah, and that's a big credit to again head coach Jean Payn, who was also a finalist for Coach of the Year, and what he's been able to do in just his second year in Denver, really turning around the culture of the franchise, getting back to the winning ways, really paying tribute to what this franchise is known for, and it's kind of winning those big games and being part of those big moments.

And you found a guy that also wants to be part of those.

Big moments, and you're able to grow that and you're able to kind of guide him in a way where you let him be himself, but you'll also find a way to make him better and find ways to win games. And I think they're both winners. You know, Champagne's resume speaks for itself. There's no we're gonna go into it later, but we'ren went there right now. But you know, his resume speaks for itself. And what he's been able to come in and do with this team in two years and find these guys and bring the best out of these guys and surround them with the best coaching staff.

I think really speaks volumes to the.

Fact that he's a coach that can really block out the noise and really block out what national media or what the you know, externally what is being said and keep his guys together.

And I think.

Again, I think back to that Monday night football game when things were kind of getting off the rails a little bit and the shootout and the guys knew like, hey, we have to come together. We pulled the dude, Malcolm Roach, and these guys pulled their one together and was like, hey, let's refocused, let's get back to our brand of football. Obviously, they go on to win that game, but I think when you when you've taught that so much that later in the season, you no longer have to say it.

You know, your guys just know.

And I think it's a big testament to what he's been able to do here. And we're really excited for all those times. And we'll get into more of it next week. And yeah, I'm really I'm really excited for what's to come for the off season and you know what, everything's getting built here and I'm excited for the award show.

Yeah, I don't know. I got to figure it out, but yeah, and we'll talk more about Shauna. I do think kind of like you mentioned, he talked at the very beginning of the years that you've got teams with high expectations that perform well, You've got teams with high expectations that don't perform well, low expectations that don't perform well, and then low expectations that do perform well. And he said, you always want that last group of low expectations that perform well. And there's he just always had the right He always pressed the right button. I think George Payton said at the end of the season, like after that lost to Kansas City, Sewan had him ready to go after two minutes in the locker room and move on and let's go on a four game win streak. He pushed all the right buttons. Again, we'll talk more about his candidacy, but I think you know, he'd be just the second active coach with multiple Coach of the Years to his name. He'd be the second coach in franchise history to win. And I you kind of talk about the award and like what it's for. Some people think hey should be Andy Reid or Dan Campbell. They led their team to one seats a lot of the times it's like who did more with less or exceeded expectations, And if you're looking from that standpoint, Sean Payton should have a really strong case because of where people externally thought this team would be for the most part, and they won ten games, and they got to the playoffs for the first time in ten years, essentially almost and they did it all with an extremely high with high salary cap constraints, with a rookie quarterback, with a lot of young players, so yeah, a tip of the cap to Sean Payne, I think, another well deserved finalist and can't wait to cover those guys out there in New Orleans next week.

Yeah, it's gonna be it's gonna be a fun week. Obviously Pro Bowl's coming up. We have a couple guys there, so yeah, grow out, a great content coming your way. And again we'll be back next week with more in depth coverage going into all the awards for Navil Honors. So once again, I'm your team reporter and host Alasta none of this virtually. Joining me is our historian and lead writer on Devin Broncos dot com, Eric Zalala.

And we appreciate you guys. Makes you guys, leave your comments and we will see you guys soon

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