Keeler: Nope. You know which NFL wide receivers turn 28 during the regular season? . Heck, he’s only four months younger than Maxx Crosby and Kyler Murray. Look, big No. 17 was a heck of a story last year, a seventh-rounder who gave you second-round or third-round production as a rookie for a team that needed young guys to outperform their salaries. But he’s also, you know, 27. His peak is coming quicker, yes. But it’s also likely to be a smaller one than that of Franklin or Bryant, who are both 22. Whatever Vele’s going to be, he pretty much is right now. And that’s a pretty decent WR2 or WR3 if his knees are right. The latter remains to be seen.

Renck: Getting two draft picks for a 27-year-old seventh-round receiver is not a transaction, it is a heist. Yet, two things can be true. The value screams the Broncos had to do it, but treating Vele as a luxury for a team trying to win its first division title since 2015 is dangerous. Franklin and Bryant boast higher ceilings. But they haven’t proven it in the regular season. Vele did. As a rookie, he caught 41 passes, including 11 for first downs on 16 third-down targets. Compare that to Franklin, who delivered two first downs on 15 third-down targets. The conclusion: Franklin’s improvement and Bryant’s practice performance better not be a mirage.

Keeler: Granted, if there is a part of the trade that makes me cringe, it’s missing Vele’s sure hands. Devaughn did what Tim Patrick used to do for this offense at a fraction of the cost. That can’t be understated. Dinks and dunks matter in a Payton offense. Reliability is an ability, too. Bryant has to provide something comparable to what Vele did a year ago, right from the jump. The eye test says he can.

Renck: Vele is not Ed McCaffrey or Rod Smith. Don’t confuse this. He had a promising first season. And Franklin struggled. Marvin Mims Jr. is electric, but still profiles more as a gadget than a consistent weapon. What does this all mean? The Broncos got an offer they could not refuse. But what it really comes down to is this: Tight end Evan Engram must produce. For all the buzz about Franklin and Bryant, Engram is the Broncos’ No. 2 target. If he posts 70 catches for 700 yards and six touchdowns, Vele will not be missed. But let’s not pretend the reward of this trade does not come with risk.

Keeler: It depends on your faith in the law firm of Payton & Paton, doesn’t it? When it comes to drafting and developing skill players, I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt. The Broncos took a flyer on one of the most fungible commodities in the NFL — a seventh-round draft pick — and helped that commodity overachieve, which is a win. They then flipped that fungible commodity for two of the most valuable, precious metals in the league — more draft picks. More cost-controlled talent. Vele is a good dude and a fun story. But turning him into two younger players, or into draft capital that could land you an even better veteran via a trade? That isn’t a win. It’s a rout.

This time, perhaps particularly so.

Miller made one of his regular treks back to the Front Range on Tuesday night to be on hand for a Wednesday Von’s Vision event.

This time, he doesn’t yet know where he’s going to be playing the 2025 season — though he’s sure he’ll be playing — so he had actual, fond thoughts about the idea of being at OTAs and summer training sessions.

This time, he returned to ����apountry on the same day an old friend was honored.

Miller got to Denver just a few hours after the team announced that Demaryius Thomas had been elected into the Broncos’ Ring of Fame in his first year of eligibility.

“Seeing ‘D.T. go in the Ring (of Fame) was incredible. That was my guy,” Miller said Wednesday. “We all knew that was coming. We all knew he was going in the Ring (of Fame). It����ap fitting for him — he had an incredible career here as a Bronco.

“I know he’s smiling down, big smile.”

The two are, of course, closely linked.

Thomas was one of two Broncos first-round draft picks in 2010 — he went No. 22 and then Tim Tebow three picks later — and then Denver picked Miller No. 2 overall the next season.

They made the Pro Bowl together four times, starred together on some of the franchise’s best teams and eventually won Super Bowl 50 together. Miller was the MVP of that win against Carolina after sacking Cam Newton 2.5 times. Thomas had just one catch for eight yards but finished his fourth straight season with 1,300-plus receiving yards and a ring.

Miller said that����ap the day he thinks of still when Thomas comes to his mind.

“Of course, we expected to win that game — every game you go into, you expect to win — but actually doing it and the confetti dropping and seeing D.T. smiling with his mom and his dad. You see him with Peyton Manning and DeMarcus Ware. He had a really special relationship with DeMarcus, too. Those are some of the memories that, when I think of D.T. going in the Ring of Fame, I think of him after the Super Bowl,” Miller said.

“Everybody was happy. That feeling lasted all summer — the summer of 2016 was incredible and seeing D.T. happy and smiling is the picture that I’ll have forever.”

Miller is hoping not to be at the Super Bowl 50 reunion the weekend of Oct. 19 “unless I’m playing for the Giants or the Broncos,” he said Wednesday. That’s when Thomas’ family will be in town to honor his entry into the Ring of Fame.

It����ap an honor that will come for Miller in the future, too.

In fact, he might just be the next player to make the Ring of Fame on his first year of eligibility, as Thomas did.

There are other deserving candidates. Aqib Talib’s got an interesting case after spending just four years with the club and several long-standing options like Ed McCaffrey and Al Wilson are also out there. But perhaps the only other first-ballot option in the coming years would be cornerback Chris Harris Jr. in 2028.

Otherwise, the number of elections in the next half-decade or more is likely to be small and the number of first-year entrants even smaller.

That will be another honor Thomas and Miller are likely to share, though it will be a while. If 2025 is Miller’s final year playing, he’d be eligible for the Ring of Fame in 2031. Tack on a year on the back end for each subsequent year he plays.

At 36, Miller doesn’t sound like he wants to be done playing. He’s got two Super Bowls and a rock-solid Pro Football Hall of Fame case already, but he’s within shouting distance of some incredible heights on the all-time sack list.

From his current 129.5, he needs 3.5 to hit the top 20 in NFL history. He needs 9.5 to surpass Ware. Just beyond that, 12.5 would get him to 142, a half-sack past Michael Strahan and tied with Lawrence Taylor inside the top 10 of all time.

That����ap one part of his legacy.

Von’s Vision and the off-field work is another.

All of it is still very much in progress for Miller, who can’t help but sometimes think back when he’s around here — but still very much has his eyes forward.

“I do think about (legacy) but then I don’t because I’m trying to do more and more,” he said. “I don’t have a lot of time to look up. When I do look up and I see ����apountry, this was an incredible period in my life.

“We’re still working. When I look up, I do look at my legacy and all the things we’re doing, but at the same time, we’re still trying to build.”

Masisak: My guess? Cheers during the welcome back video, but it won’t be the long, thunderous ovation he deserves. And some boos at other points. There’s a lot of nuance and context packed into a six-week whirlwind that led to this point. Rantanen didn’t want to leave. He thought he’d finish his career here. Even when negotiations weren’t leading to a new deal, Rantanen (and his teammates) thought this would work out just like it did with Gabe Landeskog in 2021 when he signed hours before becoming a free agent. But the Avs were willing to move on. And there were plenty of teams out there willing to pay Rantanen more than what the Avs had offered.

Keeler: Let me be clear: Rantanen is an Avs legend who, like his old pals Nate and Gabe, should one day have his number hanging from the Ball Arena rafters. . Lord Stanley doesn’t return to the Front Range without him. And, yes, the Avs were the ones to ship him out of town in the first place. It’s not so much that he got dealt to a hated division rival. It’s that he then signed a long-term deal, at age 28, with a hated division rival. This was Kyle Freeland signing with the Giants. Or Ed McCaffrey signing with the Raiders. Or Aaron Gordon signing with the Lakers. It just feels wrong.

Masisak: Rantanen (and the Hurricanes) dealt with some real bad luck/timing. He barely spent any time in Raleigh because of road trips and the 4 Nations tournament. He was stunned the Avs weren’t bluffing and actually traded him. He had a very short amount of time to weigh his future. Carolina offered him more money than Colorado, and reportedly was willing to offer even more, but he didn’t love the fit and didn’t have time to fall in love with it.

Keeler: Know what? I don’t fault Mikko for wanting to get out of Carolina. Or for wanting to latch onto a winner. But the fact he looked west, and that he looked to Dallas? That comes off as personal. Would the Moose in Edmonton, for example, feel any less painful? Probably not. And I get it. Business decisions, blah, blah, blah. But I’ll also guarantee you this: Nobody in Ball Arena would have anything but love for Rantanen if he’d signed a long-term deal with, say, the Florida Panthers.

Masisak: The deal he signed with Dallas is worth about $6 million more (after taxes) than Colorado’s best reported offer. That’s a lot of money. He didn’t want to leave, but after he did … Dallas and Florida were the two obvious best fits for him. Florida didn’t have Logan Stankoven and two first-round picks to trade. A bunch of other teams also tried. In the end, he didn’t chase the biggest contract, and he didn’t choose Dallas out of spite. He’s not Matt Duchene. He’s not a traitor. He deserves a great tribute video and long ovation Sunday … and then he can be the enemy when Dallas is here during the first round of the playoffs next month.

After Luke emerged as one of the best receivers in the American Athletic Conference at Rice in 2023, teams were still unsure of his speed or if his playmaking ability at a Group of 5 school would translate to the NFL.

So Luke made it his mission to beat the marks of his older brother Christian, the 49ers’ All-Pro running back, at the NFL Combine.

“When I told NFL scouts that Luke was going to be a 4.4-something in the 40-yard dash, a lot of them didn’t believe me,” recalled then-Rice wideout coach Mike Kershaw. “So his No. 1 goal was to beat all of Christian’s numbers at the combine. And when he ran a faster 40 than Christian, that wasn’t by accident.”

Luke ran two-hundredths of a second better Luke also tied the San Francisco star’s numbers in the 10-yard split and the broad jump, while also posting a better shuttle time.

That tangible display of speed and athleticism, on top of his college production — Luke racked up 992 yards on 71 catches and an AAC-best 13 TDs in 2023 — led the Commanders to draft him in the third round at No. 100 overall.

Now, Luke is set to make his NFL playoff debut on Sunday when Washington travels to Tampa Bay for a wild-card showdown. His professional emergence comes despite being relatively raw at wideout. He didn’t fully transition to the position until 2022.

That came after Luke, who started at quarterback as a senior on an undefeated Valor Christian Class 5A title team, went to Nebraska as a QB. After two seasons in Lincoln, he transferred to Rice in 2021, again to play quarterback. But shortly after that season ended, he made the decision to return to the position he played in his first few years at Valor.

“I was at a point where I wasn’t having the success that I wished I was having at QB,” Luke said. “… I also got to the point where I just wanted to do what I could to have fun playing football, and to enjoy it so I could follow the process and love the game again. Thankfully, I found that through switching positions and being able to impact the game in other ways.”

Luke in his first collegiate season as a pass-catcher, with 58 receptions for 723 yards and six TDs in 2022, including 274 yards after the catch. In that transition, Kershaw saw a player who was in the early stages of development as a route runner, but one who was finally coming into his own.

A seven-catch, 121-yard performance against Houston in the fourth game that fall was Luke’s breakout — and he never looked back.

“Trying to come in and be the face of the program as a quarterback, I think he had a lot of pressure on his shoulders,” Kershaw said. “He couldn’t just be Luke. He was trying to do too much, probably. You could tell that by making the decision to switch positions, he became himself a little bit more.

“That’s when I knew we were going to see who this kid really is.”

Luke’s athletic family roots are well-known.

His dad, Ed, played 13 years in the NFL for the Giants, 49ers and Broncos, winning three Super Bowls and becoming a Colorado Sports Hall of Famer along the way. Ed was Valor Christian’s head coach during Luke’s senior year. His mom, Lisa, was a star sprinter in high school and went on to play soccer at Stanford. Lisa’s dad, Dave Sime, in the 100-meters at the 1960 Olympics.

Then there’s Luke’s brothers: The oldest, Max, played briefly as a wideout in the NFL and is now an offensive assistant for the Dolphins. Christian, one of the best Colorado high school players ever, has emerged as one of the faces of the NFL. And Dylan, who is now out of football, played at Michigan and then for Ed at Northern Colorado.

With the Commanders, the coaching staff’s seen a rookie determined to make his own name.

“His work ethic and his fearlessness is through the roof,” Washington offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury told reporters in October. “Every day at practice you almost have to slow him down because he wants it so bad.”

Luke has 18 catches for 168 yards this year. He’s also made an impact at kick returner, where he has 10 returns for 299 yards.

He’s not getting targeted much — only 24 times on the season, and never more than three times in a game — but he’s made plays that helped propel Washington to its first playoff berth in four seasons. That included a 30-yard catch on fourth down in a Week 3 win over Cincinnati, a grab that set up a touchdown and helped swing the momentum early in the game, as well as several solid returns in a Week 16 win over Philadelphia.

Ed and Max review Luke’s film after each game, then jump on a weekly call with Luke to break down his play.

“We watch the film with him, I give my two cents, Max gives his two cents,” Ed said. “In terms of technique and things he might be able to do better with his route in certain situations, we’ll give our input and hopefully at times it will help him.

“He’s chomping at the bit to get on the field more and get more targets, but at the same time, the great thing is he really is embracing preparing every day so when he gets those opportunities, he can make a play for his team.”

As Luke makes his playoff debut, he insists “there’s so much more on the table that I can learn and grow and get better at.” Ed, who had only 16 catches for 146 yards as a rookie with the Giants in 1991, after being drafted in the third round like Luke, is even more optimistic.

“The sky is the limit,” Ed said. “He has the physical ability to become one of the most accomplished receivers in the league.”

Why is Davis Webb so well-regarded? I’m not trying to knock the guy, but he’s only been a quarterbacks coach for a year and it’s not like we were super amazing in the passing game. It just sounds like he’s the second coming of Adam Gase in terms of QB coaches.

— Mike, Denver

Hey Mike, totally fair question. I wrote a story over the weekend about Webb and the critical role he’s playing as Denver’s 29-year-old quarterbacks coach in a group full of guys that are either inexperienced (Bo Nix), have a lot to prove (Zach Wilson) or a combination of both (Jarrett Stidham).

It����ap maybe not a perfect comparison, but Webb’s kind of like a big-time prospect in baseball or an early draft pick in football, right? He’s young, he’s got tools that teams around the NFL seem to covet and he’s in a job coaching quarterbacks that typically is where teams look when they’re eyeing coordinators, head coaching candidates, etc.

Webb gets rave reviews from former teammates and coaches alike for his ability to teach. He did it even as a player with his “Dragon reports.” But he did more than that, too. He told me a story last summer about how the Bills got Stefon Diggs during the COVID-19 pandemic and Diggs had to learn the offense.

“There were no coaches allowed so I was meeting with ‘Stef’ an hour (at a time), three days at a week,” Webb said last year. “No one asked me to do that. They said, ‘We got Stefon Diggs.’ I said, ‘I got it. I’ll get him up to speed.’ We were in year three or four of that system so he was playing catch-up, but boy he played catch-up quick.”

Webb has played in a bunch of different styles of offense and has figured out how to be fluent across each of them. Teaching is about relating to both the subject matter and the student and then finding the path that allows the student to connect it all. Webb apparently has a knack for it.

That does not mean he’s destined to be the next Kyle Shanahan or that he’s a sure-fire upper-echelon NFL position coach. The Broncos certainly had middling quarterback play last year from Wilson and Stidham and some of that falls on the quarterback coach, for sure.

But it says something about Webb that Buffalo tried to hire him as its quarterbacks coach even before the 2022 season when Webb was 27 years old and still playing.

This is part of what makes him a compelling figure in the Broncos’ story this year and beyond. They absolutely have to make strides in the quarterback department and they’re tasking a guy who’s undeniably really bright and well thought-of but also undeniably very young and inexperienced as an actual coach to help lead that charge.

Like last year, there are a lot of years of experience around Webb and the quarterbacks in Payton himself, coordinator Joe Lombardi, passing game coordinator John Morton and now senior offensive assistant Pete Carmichael Jr., too.

Have the Broncos announced when they’re going to wear their throwback jerseys this season?

— Phillip B., Aurora

Hey Phillip, nothing official yet that I’m aware of, though we can put a pretty good guess on at least one date.

The . Among those being honored are, of course, 2024 Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee Randy Gradishar and 2024 Broncos Ring of Fame electees Steve Foley and Riley Odoms. They all played on the 1977 team. The Broncos throwback uniform is a near exact replica of the 1977 uniform. In the design process, club officials picked that year because of its significance — they broke through and made the franchise’s first Super Bowl that season — and its place in the middle of the Orange Crush era. The throwback uniforms are designed to be just like that year’s model down to the patterns of the stripes in the socks.

I’m not a math major, but that seems like one plus one equals two.

The thing to keep in mind is that teams can wear alternates and throwbacks up to three times in a season. So if we figure that Oct. 6 is a good bet for the retro uniform, then there are two other times during the course of the season the Broncos can either wear that throwback or their navy alternate uniform.

Ja’Quan McMillian balled out last year. The dude just makes plays. He’s one of the best nickels in the league. We have to lock him into a long-term deal.

— Marvin Lee, Colorado Springs

He sure did, Marvin. One of the most impressive developments of the season, obviously, was McMillian going from barely making the roster to playing like one of the league’s top playmaking nickels in a few weeks’ time.

Nickel has become a premium position, too, in modern defenses. There aren’t many guys who can stay stout in the run game and make plays in the backfield while also covering some combination of backs, receivers and tight ends.

McMillian’s going to have to keep proving it, obviously, but he’s playing his way toward a lot of money. It just is possible it won’t come for a while still.

At present, he’s under contract for 2024 at $915,000 base salary and then his contract expires. If I have my Collective Bargaining Agreement jargon translator working properly today, McMillian would then be in line to be an exclusive rights free agent since he’d have two credited seasons (2023 and 2024) to his name. He was on the practice squad for 17 of 18 weeks as a rookie in 2022 before starting Week 18, which isn’t enough to get a credited season.

ERFAs can be re-signed at the league minimum by their current team and other teams don’t get a chance to get into the mix.

So McMillian’s not likely going anywhere anytime soon. If he keeps playing at his 2023 level, though, you’re exactly right, Marvin. He’ll be well worth considering for a long-term deal.

Will it be quiet and calm before training camp starts or might we see some madness and mayhem with Sean Payton and Broncos management?

— Ed Helinski, Auburn, N.Y.

Hey Ed, thanks for the question.

You never fully count out the possibility for madness and mayhem, but in general the Broncos have been in a relatively stable stretch here after the blockbusters of cutting Russell Wilson and Justin Simmons and trading Jerry Jeudy earlier this spring.

Famous last words, right?

There’s always the chance Denver will add another veteran or two as the summer goes along. Last year, remember, they cut kicker Brandon McManus after the draft and added Frank Clark on a one-year deal right about this time. The Clark move didn’t pan out the way Sean Payton and company hoped, but it was a move partially in response to Baron Browning’s offseason knee surgery. So something along those lines can’t be ruled out, especially if any injury issues beyond Drew Sanders’ Achilles tear come up. Neither can a surprise veteran cut after next week’s mandatory minicamp, though at this point you might figure that most will start training camp and see what happens from there.

As far as anything major on the coaching staff or front office — management, as you put it — never say never but that group also seems like it����ap landed in a stable spot for now. Emphasis, though, on “for now.” You just don’t typically see organizations make major changes this time of year. To be sure, some people will be under the microscope this fall. But that����ap every team in the NFL.

Otherwise, you’re talking about potential trades or long-term deals and those pictures haven’t changed all that much this spring.

We know receiver Courtland Sutton and left tackle Garett Bolles want new contracts — Sutton has two years remaining and Bolles is entering the final year of his deal — and defensive tackle D.J. Jones is also heading into his contract year.

We know the club at some point will set about trying to come to long-term agreements with cornerback Pat Surtain II and right guard Quinn Meinerz, though neither of those has to be done by the time the season starts.

So yeah, there are plenty of ways the Broncos could make news in the next month-and-a-half before training camp gets here. The question is just how many of them hit.

First things first: It’s about time the Broncos honored Steve Foley and Riley Odoms and inducted them into the Ring of Fame. It’s been long overdue for both guys. But can we bring up a couple of other guys who should also be in already? How about Ed McCaffrey and Al Wilson? Ed was clutch during those ’90s Super Bowl teams and Al’s one of the greatest defensive players we’ve ever had. Do you think they may make it next year?

— Mark, Arvada

Hey Mark, thanks for writing in. Not quibbling with your choices, necessarily, but there will be others to consider, too.

Namely, you’d have to think it won’t be long before the late, great receiver Demaryius Thomas is inducted. When that happens, will he be a standalone class?

Foley and Odoms are the first to be added to the Ring of Fame since 2021, which means they’re the first since the Walton-Penner Family Ownership Group bought the team in 2022. They wanted to take their time, tailor the committee and really get to know the process before the first additions of their tenure. Now going forward the question will be about the rate at which additions are made. As your question suggests — Foley mentioned this extensively, too, when he spoke to reporters last week — there is no shortage of good candidates. But it����ap also not likely that there will be multiple additions per year every year.

Remember, before 2022 the club had inducted 13 Ring of Famers in 11 years. In the 11 years before that, it was just six.

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He’d won big at his previous job. He had a plan. He made his kid the starting quarterback. He had another kid around constantly. His family took over the place. And that was cool, because, again, this was a big name, a winner, beloved by millions.

Then he lost.

Players, at first. Then coaches. Then games. Then more players.

Stories came out. Whispers got louder. There was buzz that he was never fully invested. That he’d set up multiple strike zones — That he had too many competing business interests to devote the time truly needed toward a serious rebuild. That he could be hard to work for. That he had an ego.

Some ex-players lashed out. Before long, some of the guys he’d recruited as upgrades bailed, too.

“And I think, maybe it was something that had to happen,” the coach said at the time. “A lot of times it has to do with a lot more than me.”

The coach got frustrated. He circled the wagons.

“I believe that the type of players in our program are selfless and unselfish,” he continued. “We’ve had a normal year of football. They want to be here. And I’m more concerned with the guys that we have, and the guys we continue to add into our program.”

When people accused him of nepotism, especially if his QB1 struggled, he barked back at the haters.

“If it wasn’t for (my son), we would be getting obliterated,” the coach countered. “He gets us in the right place all the time. He had two perfectly thrown touchdown passes, that should have been touchdown passes. … we would have way more sacks if it wasn’t for him. He does a great job of getting the rid of the ball. When it’s not there, (he) takes monster hits when he has to. … If it wasn’t for him, it would be a lot worse.”

Now we’re not saying Deion Sanders is borrowing whole pages from Ed McCaffrey’s script. But we’ve seen scenes from this particular movie before, haven’t we?

“I’ve never played (or) coached (a) team that only won three (games) last year,” Ed, the ex-Broncos great , told me before his second star-crossed season up in Greeley. “But that was one more than the previous three years. So you’ve got to understand what we’re dealing with.”

We’re not dealing with a perfect parallel, granted. At least Ed knew some of his linemen by name.

And, yes, Coach Prime’s Buffs are faster and more talented than two years ago, even with a historic roster churn. Yes, Shedeur Sanders is an NFL quarterback, a first-round draft pick.

But the superficial stuff? It tracks.

Before The Prime Effect, there was The Eddie Effect. McCaffrey, a Front Range football legend, drew cameras, eyeballs and money that never would’ve sniffed Greeley otherwise. His name alone got enough moneybags on board to line up much-needed facilities upgrades, and plans for a new set of lights. Coach Prime, after 18 months on the job, has made CU a national brand. It’s largely his brand, but still.

McCaffrey hired his 28-year old son, who had no coaching experience, to be his offensive coordinator. This season, the Buffs will trot out an OC in Pat Shurmur whose only collegiate coordinating experience came halfway through last season, and who still hasn’t produced a game plan that’s won a game for CU. Sanders is debuting a defensive coordinator this fall who’s never been a college defensive play-caller — heck, a play-caller anywhere — in his career.

Players came and went in droves at UNC two years ago, just as they are right now in Boulder. When depth wasn’t an issue, continuity and consistency were.

Swapping your malcontents for somebody else’s malcontents didn’t fix the chemistry much as long as the double standards for family, for the chosen ones, persisted. Names changed. Faces changed. Resentment remained.

Year 1 at UNC saw a bump from 2-9 before Ed arrived to 3-8 in 2021. Year 2: Another 3-8.

The crowds waned. The whispers hissed. There was no Year 3.

CU should be better. Lord help Ralphie if they aren’t, because this film usually doesn’t end on a happy note. At some point, all sizzle and no steak leaves everybody with an empty stomach.

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He came prepared, even if he didn’t quite know it.

Rosengarten, the Highlands Ranch native and 2024 NFL Draft prospect, had arrived at the NFL combine in Indianapolis not long before.

He knew it would be a grueling week. He knew he’d meet with a ton of teams who wanted to figure out how his career at the University of Washington had prepared him for life in the NFL.

But it����ap hard to know exactly how teams are going to sweat you in each 15-minute formal interview.

Rosengarten’s first meeting was with Philadelphia. He walked into the Lucas Oil Stadium suite, Sirianni tossed him a mini basketball and pointed to a hoop.

Three shots. Let’s go.

“It����ap kind of quirky, but Coach Sirianni loves hoops and he’s got a hoop in the team meeting room,” Rosengarten told The Denver Post recently. “… So that����ap kind of the way they get you on your heels and put the pressure on you.”

Two makes, one miss and a squat test later, Rosengarten was off and running on the next phase of his football journey with a sense of comfort.

He’s a natural hooper, after all.

Rosengarten showed his game at Valor Christian before he became a four-star football prospect. Before he became Michael Penix Jr.’s blindside protector on a Huskies team that stormed to a 25-3 mark the past two years. Before he became a hot name among NFL teams, Colorado’s top local prospect this spring and seemingly a sure bet to hear his name called during Friday night����ap second or third rounds, at the latest.

Whether the Eagles brass knew about Rosengarten’s history on the hardwood is beside the point. They could have tested him another way. Start on one side of the line and flip. Translate terminology. Get to know a new coach. Handle expectations. Whatever.

Rosengarten’s past six years have prepared him for this moment.

Valor to Seattle

The fourth-quarter run is preserved in newspaper print and on YouTube.

Rosengarten, a senior at Valor Christian, picks a George Washington pocket for a layup. Then knocks down a 3-pointer.

The Eagles stave off the Patriots for an Elite Eight win on the strength of big No. 44 scoring eight of his 16 in the final period.

Ticket to the Final Four: punched.

“Shoot, that was one to remember,” Rosengarten said. “All of us wanted to go play in the Denver Coliseum and we thought that was the coolest thing.”

Only problem? It’s March 7, 2020. The finals never actually happen as the country lurches to a stop at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Instead, Rosengarten’s class became the first to make the transition from high school to college amid the pandemic’s disruption.

Rosengarten worked out in the concourse of Husky Stadium when he got to Seattle.

“Couldn’t shower, couldn’t use the locker room, so I was working out on the concourse next to the vendor setups,” he said. “You name it, A, B and C, we went through it right when we got up there as freshmen.”

Even under much more normal circumstances, the transition would have been strange. He, receivers Rome Odunze and Jalen McMillan and the rest of the 2020 class had been recruited by Chris Petersen, but Petersen stepped down after the 2019 season and Jimmy Lake took over. Then Lake got fired after 2021 and in stepped Kalen DeBoer.

“It was different, but it ended up working out in our favor,” Rosengarten said.

Did it ever.

UW took off under DeBoer, who came from Fresno State and persuaded his former University of Indiana pupil, quarterback Michael Penix Jr., to join him in Seattle. When that pairing got to town, Rosengarten had played in just five games — a fake punt against Arizona in 2020 and four appearances during the 2021 season.

His offensive line coach Scott Huff, perhaps the one constant besides several of his teammates in Seattle, asked Rosengarten if he’d switch to right tackle to protect Penix’s blind side.

“I took that responsibility with a chip on my shoulder,” Rosengarten said.

He already had building blocks in place.

Sunday potential

Rosengarten didn’t start playing offensive line until his junior year of high school, when Ed McCaffrey took over as Valor’s head coach.

Almost immediately, though, McCaffrey’s loaded coaching staff noticed the nimble big man making the transition from tight end to tackle.

“Within the first week of working with him, this is no joke, I literally pulled him aside after a practice,” former eight-year NFL offensive tackle and Valor assistant Tyler Polumbus told The Post. “I said, ‘Dude, you’re going to hate me, but I’m going to push you beyond what you’ve ever known because I truly believe you’re going to be playing on Sundays one day.’

“I don’t take credit for anything. He walked in with that type of talent and it was just obvious from the get-go that this dude is just different.”

Polumbus may not take credit, but Rosengarten readily offers it up for him and for fellow former NFL offensive lineman Ben Hamilton.

“I give majority credit to those guys and Coach McCaffrey,” he said. “He assembled a juggernaut staff and I had two really good offensive line coaches. … I loved the way they coached me. They didn’t sugarcoat anything.

“Tyler’s the one that kind of laid the foundation of the tackle sets, being out in space and anything from A to Z for playing tackle.”

Polumbus said he considered not putting such expectations in Rosengarten’s mind all those years ago. Some kids maybe wouldn’t know how to handle it. But he knew he had the right student. He also taught Rosengarten some advanced moves, including a personal favorite the pair called “Harry Swayne” after the former Broncos tackle. It����ap a high-risk, high-reward move that either stops a rusher in his tracks or gets you beat. Badly.

“Very few guys actually utilize it,” said Polumbus, who deployed it in the pros to protect against bull rushes. “That maneuver doesn’t make him a great tackle, but what it shows is he’s a guy who’s willing to be coached and use whatever weapons he’s got in his arsenal.”

Roger Rosengarten and I breaking down the intricacies of his signature 'change-up' pass set that I often refer to as a 3-step short or as the UW OL called it, the 44 special.

— Brandon Thorn (@BrandonThornNFL)

Polumbus took his son to Seattle to see Rosengarten play last fall, and the two have kept in regular contact in the lead-up to the draft.

“I’m not surprised at all to see the success he had,” Polumbus said. “He had one bad game last year and it just so happened to be the national championship game. But I mean, seriously, outside of that, he had a nearly flawless season. Seriously, nearly flawless.”

Next chapter

Rosengarten has ripped through the pre-draft process in impressive fashion.

He’s visited several NFL teams, including the Broncos, Philadelphia and Washington during the Commanders’ mid-April bonanza featuring several top prospects.

He ran the fastest 40-yard dash of any offensive lineman at the combine, rolling down the turf in 4.92 seconds.

You’ll find mock drafts that place him as high as the back of the first round — ESPN draft guru Mel Kiper Jr. — and almost nobody who thinks he’ll have to sweat out Saturday’s Rounds 4-7.

“He’s ready to come in and play right away,” ESPN analyst Matt Miller told The Post, noting some teams may prefer Rosengarten at guard instead of right tackle. “The dude had almost 2,000 snaps in college. He’s super experienced. …

“I think he’s going to be a really good player.”

Rosengarten played only right tackle the past two years at UW, but if the past six years have shown anything, it����ap that beyond positional versatility, Rosengarten’s equipped to handle what comes his way.

Sometime Friday night, he’ll arrive at the next door, though just like in Indianapolis, he’s not quite sure what����ap waiting on the other side. He just knows it will be a wild ride.

“Dream come true,” he said. “I’ve wanted to play in the NFL since I was a little kid and to be in this spot and the position I’m in right now with the draft coming up, it����ap going to be crazy. It����ap going to be crazy.

“I haven’t thought about how I’m going to react. … When the time comes, it����ap going to be exciting.”

Local 2024 NFL Draft prospects

“Kyle was the babysitter for my oldest son and his brother,” Kubiak, the former Broncos coach and quarterback, recalled to me over the phone from Las Vegas.

“And one time, Kyle got mad at Klint and hung him on the doorknob by his underwear.”

While Mike Shanahan and Kubiak were pushing buttons and kicking tail for the Broncos and 49ers, a young Kyle, the Cherry Creek alum now coaching in his second Super Bowl with San Francisco in the last four years, got tasked with babysitting the Kubiak boys. Sometimes, things went … you know, sideways.

“Somebody told me the other day, ‘You know that you’ve been part of three world championships with Ed McCaffrey?’” the elder Kubiak said. “So, yeah, we have a lot of history together. And Christian was running around as a little kid back in those days. Life comes full circle, man.”

No kidding. Klint, the kid whose tighty-whiteys once dangled from said doorknob, and, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the . Klay, that other young rapscallion, Flail and forgive, apparently.

“It’s really interesting, because you get so wrapped up in the team, you’ll watch them all year long and will be talking to the boys all the time,” said Kubiak, 62 years young and still the last coach to lead the Broncos to a Super Bowl (50). “And obviously, Kyle, and my relationship with him and Mike, I think we’re all kind of, as families with that history, we kind of get all wrapped up in Kyle’s team. It’s been a lot of fun.

“It’s just a joy. I miss football a lot, and this gets me a chance to stay in it.”

The Shanahans and McCaffreys aren’t the only families of Front Range football royalty with skin in the Big Game. Whereas Broncos legends Mike and Ed have a son each on the San Fran sidelines , Kubiak, who flew into Sin City from the family farm in Texas last week, has got two of ’em.

“I really just (told) them to make sure you enjoy it,” the elder Kubiak said. “‘We all know it’s hard. It’s a long season, it’s a grind. Don’t take anything for granted because the chances of getting back there are really, really hard. Your dad was really fortunate. You guys make sure you enjoy this week and feel everything. You’ve gotta make sure you enjoy it.'”

The ties that bind this one are forged in blood and steel, tinged with orange and blue. The first of Gary’s four rings came in January 1995 with the Niners, where Mike was offensive coordinator, the elder Kubiak was quarterbacks coach and Ed was a wideout. Christian, the Niners’ bell-cow tailback and former Valor Christian star, was born in June 1996, after Dad, Big Shanny and Kubes moved to Denver, where they won two more Lombardis together.

Kyle then worked under Gary with the Houston Texans from 2006-09, spending the last two seasons as Kubes’ offensive coordinator.

“The chances that you’re now grown up and playing pro football and for the same team your dad played for, it’s interesting how it worked out,” the elder Kubiak said.

“And for Kyle to have his (relationships) in Denver and for Christian to do what he does and the position his family is in, it’s amazing — all those kids, Luke (McCaffrey), the one at Rice, I saw him play this year.

“You’ve got to enjoy it. All of a sudden, time flies.”

Little Shanny’s Niners are everything Mike and Gary’s Broncos used to be, then lost to the ether. Best left tackle on the planet. Deebo. Aiyuk. McCaffrey. George Kittle is arguably the fourth-most dangerous option on any snap, which is a

Which is not to slight 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy, the Iowa State coup who turned a No. 3 overall pick, Trey Lance, into Mr. Irrelevant. But given how many times the San Francisco defense found itself bent like a Gumby doll this postseason, conventional wisdom says it’ll take at least 29-30 points to win this game, on this rostrum, against

We know what we’ll get from Patrick Mahomes. Will we get the Purdy of the first half of the NFC title game, all misfiring and happy feet, seeding doubts that the moment was too big? Or the Purdy of the second half?

The one who flipped from playoff caterpillar to postseason butterfly? The one who channeled regular-season Lamar Jackson? The one whose legs turned nothings into somethings, improvising the Lions’ entire defensive game plan into a pile of ash?

If regular-season Jackson had shown up in the AFC championship, and if so much, the Chiefs don’t crash this party in the first place. More’s the pity. Go Niners. Go Kubes.

“I do follow things (with the Broncos) and I watch what’s going on,” the elder Kubiak continued. “I spent so many years of my life up there.

“I know very well. We know very well. (I’ve had) good conversations talking to people. There are still a lot of people within the organization who were there (all those) years with (myself) and Mike.”

Life comes full circle man. Time flies. This week, while Klint and Klay are burning the midnight oil with Kyle on Super Bowl prep, it’s Gary’s time, grandpa’s time, to do the babysitting.

No wedgies. He swears.

“It’s OK,” Kubes laughed. “It’s my turn. They helped me for years.”

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“He put his outside foot in the ground, cut, and completely broke my ankles,” recalled Nelson, then Arapahoe’s star safety. “I ended up falling down, rolled over, and watched him run away from the rest of our defense for a touchdown. I had never experienced something like that.

“He was like when you make one of those custom Madden players and you turn all their attributes all the way up. That’s what it felt like to play against him. And I look back at that game and think, ‘What could we have done to stop him?’ Nothing. He was a freak back then and now he’s doing the same thing to NFL defenses.”

That’s just one tableau of many from McCaffrey’s storied prep days at Valor Christian from 2010 to ’13 when the dynamic running back and Colorado native was the centerpiece of four straight state title teams.

As the San Francisco 49ers star prepares to face the Kansas City Chiefs in Sunday’s Super Bowl, the players and coaches who tried to stop McCaffrey during his Colorado prep days now speak with reverence about the time they shared a field with the future All-Pro. For many, it represents a brush with athletic greatness they’ll never forget. For others, it stands as the most frustrating 48 minutes of their careers.

One thing just about all of them agree on: McCaffrey, at his best, was “untackleable.”

“He wasn’t a guy who could be wrangled,” said Pine Creek coach Todd Miller, whose Eagles were blown out by McCaffrey & Co. in the 2011 Class 4A championship. “He avoided contact and then when he did get in contact, he was impossible to get down on the ground.”

Bursting onto the scene

The same attributes that made McCaffrey a Heisman Trophy finalist at Stanford and three-time Pro Bowler in the NFL were evident early on at Valor Christian. Long before those accolades, McCaffrey was torching the Colorado high school scene with a generational combination of speed, vision, balance and strength.

It didn’t take long for him to make an impact. After recording his first high school touchdown on a 30-yard scoop-and-score in his second game as a freshman, he had his first 100-yard rushing game against Rock Canyon in Week 6.

The next game, McCaffrey ran for 188 yards and five touchdowns on eight carries against Castle View, the first of five times then-Sabercats head coach Ryan Hollingshead got a taste of the tailback’s incredible talent.

“I remember in that moment thinking, ‘This is the best high school player I’ve ever seen,’ and he was 14 years old,” Hollingshead said. “I’ve never seen a player who could cut and accelerate to full speed like he did. That first game, it was a lot of outside zone, cut back all the way across the field, and make everybody look funny. Even as a freshman, he always had that one extra gear and he would destroy the best pursuit angles in two steps.”

As a sophomore, he ran for the first of three 1,000-yard seasons and culminated the year with his first jaw-dropping playoff performance: 312 total yards and four touchdowns in Valor Christian’s 66-10 pummeling of Pine Creek in the Class 4A championship,

As he took over the game in the first half, the Pine Creek staff implemented a unique strategy to try, in vain, to prevent further gashings.

“In the second quarter, we told our safeties, ‘As soon as the ball is snapped, guess (on your read), and run as fast as you can to the alley where you think he’s going to be,'” said Miller, the Pine Creek coach. “McCaffrey still outran our guys two times for long touchdown runs, even when our safeties cheated and guessed right. I had never seen that before.”

McCaffrey’s local stardom came into full bloom as a junior, when the Eagles moved up to Class 5A.

In the aforementioned game against Arapahoe where McCaffrey left Nelson tackling air, the tailback turned in the top statistical performance of his prep career with 403 total yards and six touchdowns as Valor Christian blasted the Warriors 49-18 in the state quarterfinals.

By then, everyone knew about McCaffrey’s speed and shiftiness in open space. But what stood out to then-Arapahoe coach Mike Campbell most was his power running, a feature that later came into focus in college and now the NFL.

“Until I saw him that day, I don’t think I could ever believe how physical he ran between the tackles,” Campbell said. “A lot of times you see a guy with that kind of juice, and they don’t really drive it down your throat in the A and B gaps. But where my respect was the greatest for him came from seeing him in head-to-head collisions with linebackers. He was never afraid to pump it inside, and he was just as hard to tackle there.”

Even in one of McCaffrey’s more vanilla performances of his prep career — the state championship that season against Cherokee Trail — he found a way to tilt the scales in favor of Valor Christian.

The Eagles were tied 0-0 heading into the fourth quarter of the Class 5A championship in a game that saw McCaffrey grind out 126 yards on 28 carries. Valor Christian’s dynasty was teetering in the balance as a tough Cherokee Trail defense, headlined by future NFL linebacker Jacob Martin, gave McCaffrey’s offense its stiffest test of the season.

But leave it to McCaffrey — who also played cornerback, returner and punter — to deliver the key special teams play that helped propel the Eagles to a hard-fought 9-0 victory.

“Christian did a rugby punt from about midfield,” then-Cherokee Trail head coach Monte Thelen recalled. “We thought it was some type of fake, and our returners came up to play defense. He let off a beautiful 46-yard punt that rolled down to about the 3-yard line. That was really a deciding play in terms of the field position battle, because then in the fourth quarter, they scored a TD and a field goal.”

An unstoppable senior

By the time he was a senior, the McCaffrey hype reached a crescendo as he continued to deliver running behind an enormous, Division I prospect-laden offensive line that rivaled the size of the Broncos’ front.

He had 10 games with 100-plus yards rushing that season, including three above 200 yards. His rushing high came against Columbine in the state quarterfinals, a 49-13 Valor Christian win in which McCaffrey triggered the first and only mercy rule of head coach Andy Lowry’s 30-year tenure with the Rebels. McCaffrey piled up 272 yards and three touchdowns on just 15 carries.

“McCaffrey could’ve had 400 yards rushing in that game,” Lowry said. “They just kind of messed around a little bit on first and second down, and then on third down they’d finally give him the ball and he’d rip one off. He did whatever he wanted to us.

“When they finally hit the mercy rule, I thought it was the greatest rule ever. I just wanted to get out of there. It put us out of our misery. Only a couple years later did I feel a little bit better about that, after he did it to USC and UCLA and the whole Pac-12.”

In McCaffrey’s final high school game, he destroyed Fairview with 221 total yards and four touchdowns as the Eagles rolled to a 56-16 win. As then-Fairview linebacker Dan Hoskins explained, “When he got the ball, it seemed like everybody else was in slow motion.”

Even the Knights’ half-baked scheme to intentionally risk drawing penalties over allowing McCaffrey to break a big play couldn’t contain him.

“Our coaches told us, if you see him run out on a slip screen — which they had been using to get him huge gains all season — just tackle him, whether he has the ball or not,” recalled Connor Spencer, who was a senior defensive lineman for Fairview. “Technically, that’s defensive holding, but we figured it would be 50/50 odds of it getting called. I did get called for it during the game. … And even when I did (hold him), he still caught the ball, even as I was tackling him.”

Seeds of a national sensation

When McCaffrey got to Stanford, stories of his high school dominance only became amplified.

But even with the skyrocketing fame and recognition that came with being a Heisman Trophy finalist, he remained the same hungry, chip-on-the-shoulder player he was as a freshman at Valor Christian.

Brent Vieselmeyer, who was Valor Christian’s head coach for McCaffrey’s freshman through junior seasons, recalled the hyper-dedication that turned McCaffrey from a relatively skinny high school prospect into the bulked-out tailback who will take the field Sunday in Las Vegas.

“He’s shown consistent discipline over a long, long time,” Vieselmeyer said. “Even at Valor, we would try to get him to relax a little bit as far as taking time off. He’d call and be like, ‘Coach I’m on vacation, but I did 500 push-ups on the beach.’ I would be, ‘Um, OK, stop that.'”

McCaffrey paired that intensity with a humble style of play, even amid his routine domination that led to at least one TD in 52 of his 55 career games.

In an era when the vitriol toward Valor Christian was at an all-time high, McCaffrey’s personality and complete lack of trash talk between the lines endeared him to the coaches and teams he beat.

“He was head-and-shoulders better than everybody on that field, but you wouldn’t know it by the way he acted,” Miller said. “He was quiet, businesslike. He’d have a big run, flip the ball to the ref, jog back to the huddle and do it again. That’s what frustrated you. You wanted to dislike him, but you couldn’t, because the way you’d want your son to play the game, he did it.”

In McCaffrey’s case, son was very much like dad.

Ed McCaffrey’s powerful but understated game as a 13-year NFL wide receiver produced one Super Bowl title with San Francisco and two with Denver. Christian’s mom, Lisa, was a standout track athlete and soccer player, while his grandfather Dave Sime won a silver medal in the 100-meter dash at the 1960 Olympics.

That storied athletic lineage was evident in the tailback’s days at Valor Christian — and even years before that.

“One thing that really stuck out was his running form,” said Hoskins, the former Fairview linebacker. “Me and my teammates thought he had probably gone through intense running training. It looked so clean and immaculate. But obviously, a lot of that is from the crib.”

McCaffrey’s sensationalism in high school wasn’t news to those who knew him best. This was, after all, the player who as a 7-year-old produced his first highlight-reel TD in a halftime game at the Broncos’ stadium against NFL mascots in 2003.

“You knew even at that young age how good he was, and his unique knack as a football player,” explained Austin Smith, McCaffrey’s teammate on the Douglas County Dolphins, a squad where the tailback played two years up. “That highlight of him scoring a touchdown (on a reverse) against the mascots at Mile High Stadium, that was an omen.

“You knew from a very young age that he was a rare talent. And even then, we knew that Christian was always the one we should try to get the ball to. Just like his whole career, in that game and on our team he was never the biggest guy out there, but that play showed that his instincts and his knack for football are unparalleled.”

McCaffrey’s Colorado legacy

Now, all that promise has bloomed into reality in the NFL.

After being drafted eighth overall by the Panthers in 2017, McCaffrey made his first Pro Bowl in 2019 while becoming one of three players ever to record 1,000 yards rushing and 1,000 yards receiving in the same season.

Carolina traded him to San Francisco in 2022. In the time since, he made two more Pro Bowls while also becoming the league’s highest-paid running back with an He turned in an MVP-caliber season this year while capturing the NFL’s rushing title with 1,459 yards to help lead the 49ers to the Super Bowl.

For most Colorado football diehards it’s a resume that, along with McCaffrey’s accomplishments at Valor Christian, puts him at the top of the list of the most extraordinary Colorado high school football players ever.

With four state titles, two state Gatorade Player of the Year trophies and the Gold Helmet Award — in addition to astounding statistical tallies that litter the such as 8,815 total yards and 141 offensive TDs — the legend of McCaffrey’s dominance at Valor Christian is only sure to keep growing.

“There’s been some great players to come out of this state — guys like (Wheat Ridge’s) Freddie Steinmark and Dave Logan, (Cherry Creek’s) Darnell McDonald, (Denver South and Chatfield’s) LenDale White,” said Campbell, the former Arapahoe coach. “But it’s a really easy argument to make that McCaffrey is the greatest high school player in the history of the state, and I don’t think anybody else on that shortlist could take offense to that.”

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Sarah Kelly, deputy sports editor

It would be difficult for the Buffs to fare worse than they did last year, but CU’s schedule in its final Pac-12 season is no walk in the park. Despite the enormous hype surrounding Coach Prime and QB Shedeur Sanders, both are untested at the FBS level. We’ll have a better sense of just how good Prime & Co. are after early tests at TCU and against Nebraska. A modest improvement is realistic and achievable. Prediction: 4-8.

Kyle Newman, sports writer

The Buffs’ opener against TCU will bring PrimeFest back down to earth a bit — CU may show flashes, but they’ll come up short against an established program coming off a national title game trip. The key to CU’s turnaround — and a bowl appearance — are the rivalry games in Weeks 2 and 3 against Nebraska and Colorado State. Win both, and the seeds of Deion Sanders’ overnight roster-overhaul will begin to sprout. Prediction: 6-6

Sean Keeler, columnist

No matter how much you believe — or want to believe — in Coach Prime, opposing coaches don’t care. Opposing defenses don’t care. And that schedule absolutely does not give two flying Chips about how many “Prime 21” sweatshirts you’ve stuffed into your closet. September is brutal, and whether you’re Nick Saban or Deion Sanders, brutal is brutal. But if CU can somehow steal three wins from those opening five games, anything’s possible. Not likely, mind you. But possible. Prediction: 4-8 (But a sexy 4-8)

Matt Schubert, sports editor

For all the improvements Coach Prime has made to the program over the past nine months, there’s no getting around that schedule. If the Buffs escape September (at TCU, vs. Nebraska, vs. CSU, at Oregon, vs. USC) with a 3-2 record, just hand Prime the coach of the year award right then and there. Of course, 2-3 or (gulp) 1-4 is much more likely. Here’s guessing the Buffs are at the very least a tough out at Folsom Field. Prediction: 5-7

Colorado State

Kelly

The Rams are an inch taller at every position compared to last year, and coach Jay Norvell’s confidence going into his second season in Fort Collins is persuasive. With very few easy wins on this schedule, the Rams will need to pick off at least one of the two Power 5 schools and put up good showings against Air Force, Boise State and San Diego State to make a bowl game. Prediction: 6-6

Newman

A leaky O-line made the Rams dreadful in ’22, with one of the nation’s worst offenses. But CSU’s remade front should provide different fortunes this fall. They’ll start 0-2 with close losses to Wazzu and CU, get routed by Boise State and lose to Air Force again, but the Rams will find a way to win enough close games in-conference to go bowling — and surpass CU’s win total. Prediction: 7-5

Keeler

History says Jay Norvell Year II beats the living pants off of Jay Norvell Year I. Which is good, because Year I was a mess. The Rams opened the season as a too-young, too-green, pass-happy team that couldn’t block a light breeze and ended it by handing it off to Avery Morrow, punting it back to the defense and hoping for the best. If CSU can score TDs in the red zone and pull off an upset at home (Wazzu, Boise, Air Force and SDSU all visit FoCo this fall), this could get fun. And funky. Prediction: 5-7 (But a less sexy 5-7)

Schubert

This pretty much boils down to one thing: Is the Rams offensive line improved enough to keep quarterback Clay Millen from getting tossed around like a rag doll? They’ve got a lot of new faces. And, more often than not, new faces up front need time to gel. That likely means a slow start, followed by a frantic finish. Will bowl eligibility be decided before the season finale at Hawaii? We say yes. Prediction: 6-6

Air Force

Kelly

The Falcons lost some key talent in Haaziq Daniels, the program’s third-winningest quarterback, and fullback Brad Roberts, who led the nation in rushing last year. Expect Air Force to cruise to two early wins before facing a fairly challenging Mountain West lineup with big challenges at Navy and Boise State. A third consecutive 10-win season may not be on the table, but the Falcons have plenty of winning to do this year. Prediction: 9-3

Newman

In the last three full college football seasons, the Falcons ripped off 11, 10 and 10 wins. Troy Calhoun knows how to win with the flexbone offense, and that won’t change this fall. The Week 7 road game at Navy will be a test, as will the two weeks after that, facing the Rams in FoCo and then Army at Empower Field. Boise State could also be trouble in the regular season finale. But once again, Air Force will be the winningest FBS team in the state. Prediction: 9-3

Keeler

Don’t look now, but the Zoomies might be 8-0 heading into Empower Field on Nov. 4 for that critical Commander-In-Chief Trophy showdown with Army. Ralston Valley alum Brad Roberts will be missed in the backfield but most of a killer defensive unit that allowed just 13.4 points per game last fall is back. AFA should make enough noise for the College Football Playoff bigwigs to keep tabs and the Zoomies are a solid bet to reach the Mountain West Championship. Prediction: 10-2

Schubert

Death, taxes and Troy Calhoun teams methodically moving the football. Opening the season with games against Robert Morris and Sam Houston is a nice way to break in a new starting quarterback. Getting San Diego State at home is a bonus, too. One look at Navy last Saturday is enough to know this much: The Commander-In-Chief Trophy will almost certainly come down to the Zoomies’ Nov. 4 game against Army at Empower Field. Prediction: 9-3

Northern Colorado

Kelly

On one hand, new coach Ed Lamb won a Big Sky championship with Southern Utah and comes with a BYU pedigree. On the other hand, three of the Bears’ opponents are ranked in the preseason Top 25: No. 8 Sacramento State, No. 13 Idaho and No. 14 Montana. An infusion of talent and experience via transfers should help UNC stay competitive, but this season will be a grind. Prediction: 3-8

Newman

Following the failed Ed McCaffrey Experiment that produced consecutive 3-8 seasons, UNC turns to Ed Lamb to turn around the program. It’s hard to see the Bears’ fortunes changing drastically this fall, especially with a couple guaranteed beatdowns on the schedule in Washington State and Sacramento State. Prediction: 3-8

Keeler

Coaches, privately, tell you that Ed Lamb is an upgrade over Ed McCaffrey. They also follow up by admitting that isn’t saying much. After throwing a Hail Mary that landed 17 yards south of the end zone, the Bears are hoping that the BYU family tree bears fruit where the Eddie Mac tree didn’t. Just probably won’t be this fall, though. Prediction: 3-8

Schubert

Unfortunately, Ed McCaffrey left behind a rebuild that����ap going to take Ed Lamb more than one offseason to construct. And probably more than two. Prediction: 2-10

Colorado Mines

Kelly

The Orediggers’ path to the best record in Colorado won’t be without challenges, starting with the season opener against No. 3 Grand Valley State. But with Harlon Hill Trophy-winning quarterback John Matocha returning and 17 sixth-year seniors on the roster, Mines has experience on its side. Prediction: 10-1

Newman

High-flyin’ Mines has been the most exciting college football team in the state over the past few years, culminating in last year’s run to the Division-II title game. Expect the Orediggers to again be nationally competitive, despite being on their third head coach (Pete Sterbick) in as many seasons. There are few defenses on Mines’ schedule that will be able to contain 2022 Harlon Hill Award winner, QB John Matocha. The team’s opener against No. 3-ranked Grand Valley State may be the only foe who can keep the Orediggers from an undefeated regular season. Prediction: 10-1

Keeler

New coach, same ‘Diggers. More or less. Eight starters are back on defense, while QB John Matocha is 36-6 in his last 42 starts. If Mines can navigate a whale of a conference opener against Grand Valley State, another Division II national-title contender, an unbeaten regular season could be in the cards. And then the real fun begins. Prediction: 10-1

Schubert

At this point, does it really matter who the coach is? John Matocha could operate the Orediggers’ offense in his sleep. And he’s just one of 38 (!) red-shirt seniors on the roster. That����ap a whole lot of experience — all of it of the winning variety. The only real question with this team is whether or not it can finish the job in December. Prediction: 10-1

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