The Trade That Built Two Contenders & updated Broncos Targets | DNVR Draft Podcast

Andre Simone (0:00)

D-N-V-R. The DraftPod, we're doing it, baby. That's right, on a special game day, none the least.

Nonetheless, nonetheless, okay. Well, rough start, rough start. We're gonna get it right.

Usual disclaimers, this is the DraftPodcast, not your regularly scheduled Broncos programming, which you will be getting all of tonight, pre-Watch Along post. I think we'll both be on the Watch Along, which is fun. Come check us out at the Tailgate. Hank, Benny, RK will have you covered on all fronts. But this is what we do. We do the DraftPod and we've switched it up. We're trying to do this on Broncos off days so that you have regularly scheduled Broncos programming Monday through Friday, no matter what the season with us. So yeah, great to do this. Great to have you back. The man, the myth, the legend behind the DNVR Buffs, the Schwan man himself. How are you doing, brother?

Jake Schwanitz (1:03)

Doing great, bro. Thanks again for covering for me last week. It was greatly appreciated. But I missed y'all boys, man. I missed talking ball with my guys, risers, followers, picks, all that stuff. So I'm locked in and ready to go, bro.

Andre Simone (1:19)

Jake, you missed a perfect day of picks for your boy.

Jake Schwanitz (1:24)

I heard.

Andre Simone (1:25)

Yeah.

Jake Schwanitz (1:26)

We're going back to back.

Andre Simone (1:28)

Let's try, man. Let's try. I'm knocking on wood. But yeah, three dogs who all won straight up, even though I gave them against the spread. UCLA was the big hit. And then even nailed the under that Hank talked me into because of the hurricane that was going on in Alabama for the Georgia-Bama game. Nailed another total. I don't know. I'll pull up the DraftKings app in a second and look at that. But we've got lots to talk about. And it's Seahawks week. So Seahawks day, well, Thursday Night Football, lots going on. And when the Seahawks are on the menu, I always can't help but do a quick little revisiting of the Russell Wilson trade.

There's so much to unpack with it always. A, it's a miracle that George Payton kept his job, but thank God he did because it's really worked out. I mean, what's insane is, well, obviously, the Seahawks are defending Super Bowl champions, so it undoubtedly worked out best for them.

The Broncos came out from arguably the worst trade in franchise history and one of the worst trades in NFL history, one of the worst trades in Denver sports history, and are still quite the team, quite the contender. So it's always fascinating to look back, you know, since roster building is our primary responsibility here on the DraftPod, to see, you know, what team building lessons can we get out of that trade before we move on to your predictions for the game and all the risers. It's kind of like, it's the halfway point in the college football season. So now we can really go back and be like, okay, half a season in the books, who's really risen, who's fallen, who's on our radar. And man, I got to tell you, I've got a lot of names I'm really excited to get into, particularly as it pertains to potential future targets for the Broncos. But yeah, the Russell Wilson trade.

Quite the doozy. The Seahawks got Drew Luck, who amazingly has won games for them already this year. Noah Fant, Nothing Burger. He's still roaming the world and getting NFL snaps. Miami?

Jake Schwanitz (3:59)

Right?

Andre Simone (3:59)

Yeah, that sounds right. That sounds right. Shelby Harris, who good player, but given the Broncos defensive line strength, not a terrible loss. And then two first-rounders, two second-rounders and a fifth-rounder. Those picks turned into the two first-rounders became Charles Cross, franchise left tackle out of Mississippi State, ninth overall, Devin Witherspoon. What are the better corners? A shutdown corner? Maybe actually shutdown is not the label, but a sticky corner, one of the, certainly a top 10 corner in the league and two premium positions that have been real building blocks. One on offense, one on defense for what became the Super Bowl champions. And then two edge rushers, Zimboya Mafia, Derek Hall.

Serviceable players, but nothing to write home about. And Tyreek Smith, Ohio State edge rusher was the fifth round pick. He's the one guy who didn't pan out.

But yeah, any thoughts on the Seahawks side of things before we get into how the Broncos survived all this?

Jake Schwanitz (5:12)

Sure. I mean, I even go back a little bit further of these two teams being tied together with that Super Bowl in 2013, right? I mean, I think that Super Bowl taught them a lot, it taught John Elway a lot of lessons and it, you know, he was able to manage to completely, not completely, I guess, but I mean, he redid what the Broncos were good at basically in two seasons. So a lot of lessons learned from that, from this trade. Yeah, I think that you go to the two first round picks and, you know, you always talk about whenever you're in a position where the Broncos were at that point in time, like just give up the first round picks, right? Like, and it sounds great, but I mean, this is exactly why the Seahawks did it and why they're so good because of it. They got two, as you mentioned, franchise cornerstones, a left tackle, a cornerback. You got a couple of edge rushers, Derek Hall still on the roster. He's dealt with some other stuff throughout his career as well, but it just shows you get two cornerstones, man. They're cornerstones for a reason. You build around them and the Seahawks were able to go through the Gino era, go into Darnold and those things are made a lot easier, just from our perspective. A franchise has constantly changed quarterbacks. Those things are made so much easier when you have those pieces already in place. Obviously, that had them set up. They were able to get ahead of schedule, of course doubling up with the Broncos first round picks too.