Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton knows instant success at linebacker is tough. He recalls a story about HOF linebacker Brian Urlacher.
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00:00 I was at the Giants in 2000,
00:04 and I believe it was Erlacher's first year's rookie season.
00:08 We played him, I want to say
00:12 week two or week three in Soldiers Field, and it was
00:16 his first start. And he wasn't at Mike then,
00:20 but you can do
00:24 a lot, and then there's that time for, hey, let's play. And I'm sure
00:28 if we went back and looked at that film, it wasn't perfect.
00:32 He eventually became a Mike and then eventually became a Payne, and
00:36 everyone's tale, he was a great player. I think
00:40 that Drew's earned that opportunity, and we saw
00:44 enough of it in the preseason,
00:48 and I'm sure he's excited. I love what we've
00:52 done in the last, call it five years. There's two
00:56 thoughts. Do you have another league to develop players, or do you give teams
01:00 more players to develop? And I love that each team has 16 players,
01:04 and you guys know it. Those players, each week, just take a peek.
01:08 Look at the call-ups. And I think
01:12 COVID kind of brought us there a little bit, and then we weren't as
01:16 paranoid maybe about stashing players. More players
01:20 to have on your roster to develop, and those players are playing.
01:24 And so he's just another example
01:28 of that. At the beginning of the year, we always put a list of, here are some former
01:32 practice squad players, and then when you look at the list, you're like, wow, I don't remember him being
01:36 -- and then here's the list of undrafted free agents.
01:40 And I like that,
01:44 and I think universally, I think the teams