Denver Broncos Just Got a Winning Formula...

Oh my goodness. We're talking about a four-time All-Pro recipient, a three-time Walter Payton Man of the Year finalist for the Broncos, a two-time Pro Bowler, and number one in our hearts, he's Justin Simmons. Simmons, how you living, big dog? Man, what an intro. Are you kidding me, man? I'm great, brother. I'm great. How are you? Dude, I'm freaking out that I'm talking to you because I watched you play and you were one of my son's favorite players. And like, this is just an honor of a lifetime, dude. So you hopped in as a rookie to this team and it was essentially our Super Bowl defense minus was like Trevathan was off the team, and Brandon Marshall was in which of our current defenders who I love. I think this is my second favorite defense could actually hang on that team. You think, Oh, okay. So not replacing anybody. Yeah. Let's, let's not even talk about it, but like they can be in the same sentence without people laugh about it. Yeah, no doubt. J Mac is number one for me. I mean, it goes without saying, Pat Sertan is, I mean, I guess he would be the number one. J-Mac number two. The way that it's trending, Huff had a great year last year, and he started off amazing this year. Unfortunate with the injury, but Huff and B. Jones are playing just as good as any safety combo in the league. I feel bad. I feel like I'm about to just name every single player on the defense. that whole that whole front can hang with and that was it and that was like who who was the front when Super Bowl 50 is Malik Jackson, Derek Wolfe, DeMarcus Ware, Von Miller you know so like Nick Benito, Zach Allen, V.J. Jones, Coop, Roach like these guys so there's a good amount of that that defense man that that can really hang and what i love is it's two totally different styles this one with V.J. is very um attack style based almost like a Brian Flores like he's constantly sending pressure Wade Phillips definitely blitzed but they were more four man five man rush we're gonna play quarters and man we're just gonna beat you up like try to beat us if you can like here's a keep uh here's Chris here's TJ here's Robe here's Stu beat us and no one could beat us so we hear a ton like i've seen like 100 youtube shorts on like how complex an offensive play call is like right banana what is it actually like uh in a defensive huddle and is it is it the same thing where you got a green dot and the defensive coordinator can talk to you as long as he wants till it cuts out like what's it like when a defensive call comes in it's it's not nearly as complex i mean literally not even close especially like a Sean Payton play call it is like five sentences long you know and so you have like for most offensive play calls you have the initial call then you have the can or the check um if the defense isn't presenting what you want to run your first one and normally the can is either a run opposite direction or it could just be checking to like quick game or screen depending if we're getting a whatever and so defensive play calls are literally like uh it could just be like split three jade like that's a play call and in that play call uh you have different checks though like two by two three by one empty and that's where the defensive play calling can get a little hectic because you have a full list of plays that are not long at all maybe one sentence long and you have to have the checks within every call though and every call has a different check and in vj's defense he was explaining this to Kareem and i were explaining this on on the first episode it's like the responsibility that the safeties nickel and linebackers have and turn like inside linebackers like Alex and Justin Strnad i mean these guys like if the tight end is in a three-point stance and then goes to a two-point stance like it changes your whole defensive the whole defensive play call and so everyone has to get the call everyone has to get the check there's a lot that goes into it and um that's why like i think it's its common information to say like a lot of the times I think the stereotype is football players aren't intelligent oh no and when it comes to something like this I'm like I've worked with like the smartest people I've ever been around you know and I've been to Boston College I've been around some really smart individuals and the football field is where I'm meeting guys that know how to process information at an absurdly increased rate and be able to react just as quickly which is really hard to do so defensively man it could be tough you're talking about advanced math and angles every single play out there uh you mentioned Alex Singleton and that is one of the players you have crossover with a ton of the dudes on this team and he's one of the guys who I feel like the perception on Broncos social media sometimes versus what I hear coaches say about him and see coaches actions around him are so different what's the actual take on Alex Singleton like is he like do you is he a great player he is a great player in recent history and in Broncos country like you've had the Danny Trey the Brandon Marshalls even like Todd Davis when he got chance to be a starter and I'm just talking about guys that I've played with like over the years right like I didn't get to play with Danny Trey but I obviously got to see him play and so um there's a high level there's a high standard just like at the safety position uh just like at the corner position like Broncos defense has always had a high standard no matter who was the coach no matter what and so I'm explaining that because Alex is coming into a city in a football country that's like based on defense like we pride ourselves the Orange Crush we pride ourselves on great defense and so a lot of times like you just like look at the film and you scrutinize a bunch of different things and Alex would be the first one to tell you like he's missed some tackles he's missed some coverages um offenses get paid too he'll be the first one to tell you that but what the one thing that he doesn't get enough credit for is the workload of being the inside linebacker for Vance Joseph defense because he he is it's like the tight end like The tight end's not just out there pass catching. He's also responsible for the run game. So he has to block outside linebackers. He has to maybe down block on a D lineman and, you know, combo block and then go up to the second level. There's so much more to being a good tight end than just going out there and catching passes. Same thing with the linebacker. Like, you have to be able to take on 300-pound linemen and stop the run and fill your A-gaps. And you've got to run with the Trey McBrides, who's coming up this Sunday. you got to be able to run you know with tight end Travis Kelce's you know the the George Kittles you got to be able to run with the running backs like Bijan Robinson out of the backfield Jahmyr Gibbs you know and you got to be able to sit in zones and sometimes you have to if a zone coverage you got to be able to cover a slot receiver or there's a lot that goes with playing inside linebacker and so i'm saying all that to give perspective on Alex he races so much that goes unseen and it won't show up on the stat sheet and that to me always proves his value he's a great communicator there's very few busts in the coverage or linemen like the interior linemen in terms of their alignment or their assignment and um Alex is a big reason why and I think and it's not saying like Justin Chernod couldn't do it or anybody else but I'm telling you like being in the system with Alex for years that I played with him uh he's a highly intelligent individual he's flying to the football he's always leading the NFL or like top three in tackles because he's just flying to the ball it means a lot to him and um yeah I think I think he's I'm not gonna say underrated because I think people that really watch football will see that and hence why his coaches speak so highly of him teammates speak so highly of him uh but there's definitely like that that big part of our fan base that only watches the big plays that happen and it's like a big play happens every game and he may be a part of it sometimes and everyone's like see look look look but I'm telling you he does way more good than he does bad way more yeah they're they're looking at him get beat on a wheel route by Saquon Barkley and not the leading tackles all these other things that we didn't even sniff a linebacker in free agency we didn't draft one like obviously what the coaches think about him what his former players who've played alongside of him I mean a lot more than dragon slayer on X for sure so I'm gonna keep writing but he can do more with one testicle than I could do with two like I mean just and he played last year with cancer so he's a dog right he's a beast bro he's a beast all right so you played with six different head coaches who was your favorite to play for and why brother don't even eight years six head coaches by the way that's not good it wasn't your fault. That is. Isn't that insane? Who was my favorite and why? I have, most of them are for different reasons, but just to answer your question, I'll say Gary Kubiak because it was only one year. And I came in as a rookie and Kub's like really challenged me. And there was like times where I'd made mistakes and I got like ripped into, and he was very fair. And I learned a lot about like what it meant to be a good leader. And I also learned a lot about what it meant to lead by example um and it was really cool watching a Super Bowl winning head coach operate at the level that he did with the room that he had because he had a lot of characters you know you had to keep to lead pretty much like the whole no fly zone each of them had a different like Stew was kind of the quiet one and then the rest of them were like loud and at sometimes could be like obnoxious in a good way you know like you wanted to be on teams with these guys is what i'm getting at and so um Kube being able to take all these different personalities and meshed them into a team goal. I obviously wasn't there for the Super Bowl 50 team, but even getting there the year after, I could see the tight-knit bond that this group of guys had and the way that he was able to lead them. I learned so much from Kube just in that first year. And again, I think that's what helped a lot of my trajectory, along with Wade Phillips, because that was my DC year one. So yeah, I would have to go. I'd have to tip my hat to probably Kube's. Kube's was awesome. so all the talk about culture does matter as much as you know it's kind of cliche it matters like how dudes gel in a locker room more than talent no it really does because it the they always say like coach like whatever that saying is like coaches coach-led teams you know can be good but player-led teams can win championships and so the like when Kube was operating with the rookies early on you could tell he was showing you what the culture looked like how you're supposed to operate but the players were leading it and so there'd be times where like i messed up or i wasn't operating in the way that the Gary Kubiak Broncos the Pat Bowl and Broncos were supposed to and Kube just be like Akib get him or TJ get him and you know they would take me under their wing and just explain something and say like that's not how we do things here x y and z and so like that to me is what like good leadership looked like because Kubiak had established that And so he no longer has to waste his time going to go talk to a rookie when he has all pro, pro bowl level, Hall of Fame level talent in his locker room that can say, like, this is our culture. This is our standard. This is what we're going to do. And if you're on board, cool. And if not, we'll get rid of you and we'll bring somebody else in. Like, we don't have time to babysit. This is the NFL. It's not college. You're not here on a scholarship. We'll get rid of you and replace you. So that was like really cool for me to see because I went from high school to college and it's almost baby ish. And I wasn't babied at B.C., but there's baby ish aspects of it. And that was really cool to see coming into a Super Bowl winning program. so cool man so yeah you came into a super bowl winning program and then you took the mantle and you were the man as we mentioned in the intro here 32 career interceptions game winners against commanders dolphins raiders my favorite was the interception you had against the detroit lions in that Demaryius Thomas game and the man who's picked off patrick mahomes more than anyone else on planet earth what's your all-time favorite interception yeah it's definitely the dt one um since i've retired i've been asked out of the 32 and i have some really cool ones that stick out uh the miami one was cool but the the dt one was very special because dt meant a lot to me talk about the leadership and culture setting like dt was leading the charge right on that as well as the other guys that i mentioned and so um almost like a big brother to me i looked up to him a lot he challenged me a lot in practice one of the bigger receivers i've ever went up against you know and so i had to beat him in run blocks i had to cover him in the passing game sometimes and i feel like dt was a very underrated receiver obviously us in broncos country no uh but i feel like he was very underrated and so i got to go up against him in practice and you know we broke bread like at lunch and dinners during camps those types of things and not like we were best friends but i looked up to him as like a big brother and so when that news happened And I was, I was crushed just like everyone. We were all crushed and we were honoring him that game. And I think what goes unnoticed is like, just because like, for example, like, like with Mike Ditka the other night, Thursday night, last night with Thursday night football, it's like, yeah, we want as the bears organization, we want to go out as the Broncos for DT. We want to go out and win the game, but the Patriots and the lions, you know, the opposing teams, they're not just going to let you go win the football game, you know? So emotions are high and there's a lot that goes into it. And of course you want to win for the fan base. we want to win for us we want to win for a bunch of different reasons but you're not just gonna go out there and win and so that was another aspect that made it really cool like i know the lions weren't good that year um but they played hard yeah and we had to go out there and still execute at a high level we had to focus mentally and so i was more proud of the fact that the team rallied and really focused on trying to win that football game with all the emotion of knowing DT like a lot of us like Courtland was there, Tim Patrick was there um Kareem Jackson that's like his one of his really good friends like growing up and so that's what i appreciated about that game and we i was talking to Kareem before the game i'm like yo we're gonna get some turnovers for DT and when we do we gotta go plant the ball um at his number and it was really cool man it was like i always call him um and not to get like religious on here but i always call him God winks because i'm not saying like it happened like that but when i got the interception i was already right there right and so like it didn't i'd have to run across the field like i was already right next to his logo planted the ball and then the offense took the ball 88 yards to go score isn't that crazy there's no chance that that's a coincidence dude and Demaris was a believer too and like yeah yeah like god has had you know and we saw that with the Tebow run there there's definitely more to that i love that you share that we have that in common man so that that's incredible yeah you're one of them ones man that broncos country will never forget uh you played with you know you we talked through all the coaches you played through you also had a ton of starting quarterbacks at what point like does a defense i think it's 13 total different quarterbacks were leading the offense of the teams you're on at what point does the defense start to get disgruntled or have a bad attitude and do you have any fears that maybe that might be going down a little bit now i don't i i'm a week away from getting a Bo Nix tattoo on my lower back but um yeah what point does defense give up and do you think that's a concern now no i i don't think uh there's definitely frustration i'd be lying if i told you there wasn't frustration like there's always going to be um a little bit of chatter and we what we used to do is we always used to say like man let's get it out right now let's not let this linger let's not say hey don't talk about those things So like in the locker room, like over the years, when we played on when I played on like good defenses and we were probably the best out of the three phases on the team, we kind of took the mantle of like, all right, well, it's expected that we're supposed to play really good football. So what we need to do is turn that energy of like, man, we played good enough to win into we didn't play well enough to win. And that that was kind of the energy. And so like if we needed to get some some things out, we would go talk about it. You know, we come into the defensive meeting room and we'll talk amongst players and coaches and we'll say, hey, man, listen, is it is it all right on the other side? No, but we can't control that. Right. And so that would make you feel better, at least addressing the elephant in the room. But the reality is, like, we just didn't play good enough football to win, because if you take the mindset of like, well, we did all we could, you never did enough. And so that to me is what I'm the most proud of over the years of us taking up that mantle, because we really had each other's backs. we weren't pointing the finger and i think that's what this defense is doing and i think that's why that confidence is exuding from them they don't need the offense they don't even need the offense to go score they'll be like I will score ourselves it's all right we'll figure it out you know Super Bowl winning teams coming into our house we'll just get two picks in the fourth quarter in overtime and we'll win this football game don't even worry about it and so that's the mentality that these guys are having you can see you can see it they believe it and that's going to be the most important thing you know it even comes down to like i'm thinking of a game we played this was the Hackett year so we played at Baltimore and Lamar Jackson goes out like the first or second series and snoop comes in Tyler Huntley and we end up losing that game 10 to 7 we were winning most of the game 7 to 3 and we lost because the offense their offense got the ball at like the 20 with like a minute and some change left and they drove the ball all the way down the field and they scored a touchdown right so you can look at that as a defense and say well we gave 10 points to Baltimore yeah we held them to 10 points blah blah Tyler Huntley was in the game and they didn't run the ball well and blah blah you can say all these different things that you want to but the fact of the matter is we had the lead 7-3 and we gave up a last minute touchdown to lose the game so like that's the mentality we just get a four and out we win yeah and we couldn't do it so that's the mentality that's you're a better man than me man because i would have been like come on come on yeah that's the mentality so we hear we hear a ton about Sean Payton want to find that joker on offense the receiver the running back who can play receiver and you know all that you for Fangio really were the joker on defense like you lined up as slot corner outside corner in the box did you how did it feel getting moved all over the place doing all those things were there any of you loved doing and any of them you hated doing i loved i loved all of it i loved what i loved the most in Vic Fangio's system was the onus of running the defense at the safety position because we were responsible for the checks moving the defense in and out of different like i had a this like i was prepped all week i'm not just me and Kareem as well like we were prepped all week on here's what's going to be presented here's the calls that we're going to call and here are your tools that you can use that are available and so it wasn't like there would be times when we talked about it was like okay we think we really want to go with this so let's start with this and then if we need to we can adjust uh but most times we would go into a game Kareem and i and we would just have tools at our disposal and depending on what we felt the offense was was trying to do or what we felt was the best to set us up for success we would check us into that so it wasn't necessarily it wasn't necessarily like we're doing this it was it was up to discretion for Kareem and I and I love that because that to me was like I'm playing chess with not only the quarterback but I'm playing chess with the offensive coordinator you know I'm playing chess with Eric Bieniemy and Patrick Mahomes I'm playing chess with whoever over the years that we were playing and so that to me was really fun being able to get in and out of checks set up our defense to be successful in that down and move stuff around that was fun for me well if Justin Simmons is playing chess. There's going to be a lot of checkmates, big dog. Now you also have a show that we get to watch every week. So tell us about that. Yeah, bro. It's, it's fun. I started the show The Last Line with Kareem Jackson. We called ourselves the duo when we played with Denver for, I think we played together for five years, but man, it's great, man. Cause Kareem and I, there's so much, I learned so much from the No Fly Zone when I first got in and when those guys transitioned and and did their own thing and kind of left Denver uh Kareem came in and he was going to be kind of like our hybrid our nickel slash safety and so I learned a lot from Kareem I mean he played nine years previously before coming to Denver with Houston and that was just really good for me and I think that also helped my career in a different aspect the things I got to learn from him so yeah so we became best friends like we were always involved in each other's lives with our families with our kids and that became like my brother and so cool yeah we we decided man once we both uh called it quits and we retired and um it was really cool as we both got to retire Bronco we were like dude how fun would it be to just do a show let people see more of us as people instead of just as the football guys and uh break down some Broncos film maybe along the way and yeah just chat it up so that's that's really the whole vision behind the podcast The Last Line the last say if we could on Broncos football before they before they head into every Sunday or whatever it is Thursday Monday whatever whatever game that makes a lot more sense that like you are actually friends because y'all's chemistry was like so good in that first episode so um so pumped to watch that link in the description for sure man I truly can't thank you enough I'm gonna be the super fan being your first comment every video dude because it's it's that good uh so link in the description and uh yeah thank you so much for the time big dog man you're the man appreciate the time yourself and uh man good luck all things in the future and go