“Very nice,” he said, giving me a wry, knowing smile and a short laugh.

Some background is definitely required here.

In 2014, Weiss was managing the Rockies on a hazy, humid September Sunday morning at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. Somehow, Weiss, MLB.com’s Thomas Harding, and I started talking about our 1970s crushes. We mentioned, of course, Farrah Fawcett and her famous poster, Cheryl Tiegs and her poster, as well as other supermodels and Hollywood stars. I said I once had a poster of pop singer Linda Ronstadt.

Then came the bombshell.

“I had a crush on Barbara Streisand,” Thomas said. “I thought she was hot.”

Walt and I were aghast. As Walt pointed out, “Babs” had a nose like his own. No way Thomas was telling us the truth, right? To this day, insists he was.

The kicker came after the Rockies lost to the Cardinals that day. Walt pulled us aside and said, “You know, when I was going out to the mound to make a pitching change, I kept thinking about Barbra Streisand. Thanks a lot, Thomas.”

The point of my ramble down memory lane? My nearly 28-year career at The Denver Post ends Wednesday when the Rockies host the Red Sox at Coors Field. I’ve covered World Series, Super Bowls, Final Fours, Nuggets games and scores of high school state championships alongside Kyle Newman. In the end, my fondest memories are not about games, highlight reels, strategy, upsets, or scoops. My fondest memories are about people. It’s what I wrote about best.

Being a baseball beat writer is the most gratifying of any of the major sports beats, in my humble opinion. You get to know the people, from owners and managers to players and clubbies to broadcasters and fellow writers. Meanwhile, the walls between the NFL and the media grow thicker and taller with each passing year. I can’t imagine Broncos beat writers talking about their boyhood crushes with coach Sean Payton.

I was hired by The Post in October 1998, joining Adam Schefter as a Broncos No. 2 beat writer, just in time to cover John Elway’s second Super Bowl title. In the summer of 2005, I was yanked off the Broncos beat and moved to the Rockies, as the No. 2 writer behind current Post columnist Troy Renck. It was a demotion for me, no doubt.

My wife, Nancy, and I were shocked by the grind of the baseball beat, especially back in the days when The Post still traveled to cover the Rockies. We eventually embraced the lifestyle, though it wasn’t easy.

Covering a team afflicted with chronic losing wasn’t easy either. I covered the Rockies for nearly 20 years, and during that time, they had five winning seasons, made the playoffs four times, and made one magical run to the World Series in 2007.

I’ve had to rewrite more deadline game stories than I can count. The adage in the Coors Field press box: “The Rockies blew another lead. And they blew another lede.”

But, all in all, it’s been quite a wonderful ride. What follows are excerpts from some of my favorite stories I wrote for The Post. The common theme is people.

McCaffrey family legacy

When I started covering the Broncos, first for the Longmont Times-Call and then with The Post, training camp was still held at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley. The players stayed in one dorm, the media in another, and we shared the same cafeteria. Access to the players was incredible. I once interviewed Elway while riding in a golf cart as the fans screamed for autographs — Elway’s, not mine.

That’s how I got to know wide receiver Ed McCaffrey and his wife, Lisa. In 1999, I profiled their family’s rich sports legacy:

When 5-year-old Max McCaffrey plays soccer, his 3-year-old brother, Christian, can’t bear to watch.

“Christian is always trying to run out on the field to be with his big brother,” his dad said. “We have to keep reeling him back in.”

Christian can’t help it. The need for speed, the energy driving his little motor, the desire to follow the bouncing ball — they’re in his genes.

His grandfather won a silver medal in the 100-meter dash at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. Uncle Billy became a legend in the Pennsylvania Rust Belt and later won a national basketball championship with the Duke Blue Devils.

When she was a pixie in South Florida, Christian’s mom scored so many goals for her high school soccer team that her mug shot ended up in Sports Illustrated’s “Faces in the Crowd.”

Christian’s dad? All he’s done is win three Super Bowl rings, earn a trip to the Pro Bowl, develop a stiff-arm that could stop a rhinoceros, become one of the best receivers in Denver Broncos history and destroy forever the notion that white men can’t run.

Arenado’s SoCal roots

In 2016, Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado was a budding star. I traveled to his boyhood home of Lake Forest, in Orange County, California. While the Rockies hosted the Blue Jays at Coors Field, I sat in the living room of Fernando and Millie Arenado as they watched the game on TV. It was a remarkable day, topped off with a trip to El Toro High School, less than 10 minutes from the Arenado home. I spent an hour reminiscing with Mike Gonzalez, Arenado’s high school coach.

Here’s the beginning of my story about Arenado’s baseball roots:

LAKE FOREST, Calif. — The trim, stucco home looks like many others in this quiet, middle-class Southern California neighborhood. There is a basketball hoop out front and a beautifully tiled swimming pool in the backyard.

Step inside and you’re enveloped by warmth. Family photos cover every wall, every shelf, every nook and cranny. The family dog, a white Havanese named Mojito (“Mo” for short), hops up on the comfy couch to greet visitors.

Baseball is everywhere, too. Indeed, the home is something of an impromptu museum. Near the TV in the living room sits Nolan Arenado’s gleaming 2015 Silver Slugger Award. Open a nearby cabinet, and one of Arenado’s three Gold Glove Awards sits among a sea of memorabilia.

Likely more baseball stuff will be added after Tuesday night����ap All-Star Game in San Diego, where Arenado, the Rockies’ third baseman, will be appearing, the second year in a row he was voted in by fellow major-league players. Who knows? Perhaps an All-Star Game MVP trophy will be his newest baseball heirloom. At the very least, his All-Star Game jersey will find a place in the Arenado home.

Upstairs is the “Bonus Room,” as the family calls it. In the middle sits a pool table, now overflowing with framed photos, jerseys and signed baseballs. On the couch in front of a big-screen TV sits a Star Wars stormtrooper helmet. Back in the day, Arenado wore it while playing video games.

A day in the life of Buddy Black

I covered five managers in my time with the Rockies: Clint Hurdle, a force of nature and philosophy; Loquacious Jim Tracy, one of the nicest men I’ve ever met; Weiss, a fellow Bruce Springsteen fanatic; Bud Black, a walking baseball encyclopedia who’s beloved throughout the game; and current manager Warren Schaeffer, full of incredible passion and heart.

Of all of the Rockies’ managers, I know Black the best. We’re near the same age and share the same sense of humor. We still text frequently. In 2018, in the midst of a race for the National League West title, Black allowed me to go behind the scenes and chronicle a day in the life of a big-league manager:

It����ap the second week of September, the Rockies are chasing their first division title, and Bud Black has former Bronco Peyton Manning on his mind.

He’s trying to figure out a way to get the legendary quarterback to appear in a video that would play on the giant scoreboard at Coors Field as the Rockies make their run to a possible National League West crown.

“I want Peyton, waving his arms up and down, to get the crowd going,” Black says. “Hey, we don’t care about the snap count! We want it loud! ‘Omaha! Omaha!’ ”

Later in the afternoon, he’ll call in Julian Valentin, the director of social media, to see if there has been any progress on Project Peyton. (Valentin tells Black that it����ap being looked into).

Black’s office, down the hallway from the players’ spacious clubhouse, contains a comfy black-leather couch and a tidy desk. Photographs of Coors Field adorn the walls, including one that captures the joy of a young boy watching a game. Encased in a glass frame is the lineup and a baseball from Black’s first game as Rockies manager. It����ap dated April 3, 2017, a game in which the Rockies beat the Brewers at Milwaukee, 7-5.

Black has plenty on his to-do list, though he goes about his chores with a relaxed, easy manner. Colorado’s second-year manager, age 61, plans to watch video, meet with his coaches, chat with some players and confer with head trainer Keith Dugger. The night before, the Rockies hammered the Diamondbacks, 13-2. With nothing to stew over and no second-guesses haunting him, he got an excellent night����ap sleep. Today, he’s open to having a reporter shadow him, from arriving at the ballpark just after noon through another critical game that night vs. Arizona.

Helton gets the call

Todd Helton is the greatest player in Rockies history. He’s a complex, moody, smart and extremely funny man. His sense of humor can be cutting and takes some getting used to. Somehow, we bonded.

In January 2024, Helton invited Thomas and me to his home outside Knoxville, Tenn., to be there with his family and close friends when he got the call that he’d been elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. We all figured he’d get in, but there were no guarantees. It turned out to be one of the most memorable days of my career:

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Todd Helton, arms folded across his chest, nervously paced the living room of his home Tuesday afternoon.

“I haven’t been superstitious for 10 years, not since I retired,” the Rockies’ iconic first baseman said. “Today, I’m superstitious. I didn’t look at anything, I didn’t watch anything, I didn’t look at the internet.”

He could have spared himself the angst.

Because, fittingly, at 5:17 p.m. Eastern time, No. 17 got the call of a lifetime. Told that he had been elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Helton pumped his fist and finally took a deep breath.

“It����ap the greatest honor you can get as a baseball player,” Helton said. “Getting your number retired and getting elected to the Hall of Fame are the two greatest achievements you can get.”

Still, Helton wasn’t quite ready to let it all go.

“I’m going to go (crazy) when y’all leave,” he said.

The sweet-swinging Helton, the beloved heart and soul of the Rockies for 17 seasons and one of the most accomplished players of his era, received 79.7% of the vote, clearing the 75% bar required by the Hall of Fame and the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.

Matzek, ‘The Yips,’ and me

We’ve all got something. Mine is anxiety and depression, something I’ve dealt with for much of my adult life.

That’s why I was so interested in Tyler Matzek’s story. The former Rockies pitcher had such a bad case of the yips, brought on by performance anxiety, that it nearly ruined his baseball career. In December 2015, we met in a Southern California coffee shop and talked for nearly three hours. He was remarkably candid.

In 2021, he won a World Series as a shutdown reliever for the Braves. But before that, I wrote this story:

LAGUNA HILLS, Calif. — On Sept. 5, 2014, at Coors Field, Tyler Matzek pitched a three-hit shutout against the San Diego Padres. Poised and confident, and throwing a 94 mph fastball with graceful ease, the Rockies’ rookie left-hander was dominant. Over his final six starts, Matzek went 4-2 with a 1.55 ERA. He looked like the Rockies’ ace of the future.

Yet demons lurked in the corners of Matzek’s mind, and by the time he took the mound for the Rockies’ 2015 home opener April 10, he was headed for trouble.

“Even when things were going the right way, there was this overwhelming stress inside me that just kept building and building and building,” Matzek said recently while sipping coffee at a Starbucks in Southern California. “(Then) I just couldn’t hold that stress any longer and my game collapsed.”

Matzek was suffering from performance anxiety.

It wrecked him on the mound and even began to creep into his everyday life.

“My wife, Lauren, said it was our worst time, relationship-wise, because I was so tight, so stressed, just waiting to explode from this thing,” Matzek said. “She knew it wasn’t about her, but it was hard.”

But the quiet, intelligent 25-year-old confronted his condition head-on, confident he would fulfill the promise that prompted the Rockies to make him the 11th pick in the first round of the 2009 draft. He is determined to compete for a job in the Rockies’ starting rotation in spring training.

Thanks, mom

The day after I cover my final Rockies game, Nancy and I are flying to Southern California. We’ll join my extended family to scatter the ashes of my mom, Anita, and my dad, Dusty, in Laguna Beach, their favorite vacation spot.

This is my final chance to say thanks, sharing past stories with you:

Somewhere up there, my mom is smiling.

Ryan McMahon hit a home run for the Rockies in their 4-3 win over the Giants on Thursday night. McMahon broke out of a horrendous slump.

“RyMac” was my mom’s second-favorite Rockie, right behind Todd Helton. Why? Partly because he’s Irish, mostly because I like RyMac.

She was thrilled when Helton invited me to his Knoxville, Tenn., home to witness his Hall of Fame phone call in January 2024. When my wife, Nancy, and I were invited to Helton’s party in Cooperstown last July, my mom felt like she was there.

During her last years, I watched Rockies road games with her when I could. She rarely asked why the team was winning or losing. Strategy was not her thing. She always asked, “Is so and so a good guy?”

That����ap the kind of sports fan my mom was. She knew nothing about OPS, yards after catch, 3-point percentages, or point spreads. She just liked how players played and hoped they were good people. She loved Dr. J, Nolan Arenado and Floyd Little.

In the Broncos’ infancy, when Little was their only star and the game plan was “Little off left tackle, Little off right tackle,” my mom would shout, “Don’t hurt Floyd!”

In her later years, she’d tried to stay up late enough to watch manager Bud Black’s postgame news conference, not because she wanted to hear his explanations but to hear me ask a question.

Thanks, dad

I wrote this journal a few months before my dad died in May 2022:

What do you get your dad for his 90th birthday?

I’ve been pondering that question for the past few weeks. I kept striking out.

Then, as I perused the web, I came across a cool T-shirt. Cardinals red, the shirt displays the image of Stan Musial, leaning on a baseball bat. The script simply reads: The MAN.

How many sports-related T-shirts, sweatshirts and books have I given my dad over the years? I’ve lost track. It doesn’t matter. My dad’s going to love his “Stan the Man” T-shirt.

A father and son bonding over sports is not unique, but it is different for every father and son.

Walter Patrick “Dusty” Saunders was born on Sept. 24, 1931, in Denver. He was a lonely kid. His father died when he was 9 years old, and his mom died when he was 10.

In the 1940s, my dad’s companions were the radio, books and sports. He became a St. Louis Cardinals fan because he could pick up the strong signal from KMOX radio in St. Louis. Musial was his favorite player.

In 2006, my first full year on the Rockies beat, I took my dad to St. Louis for Father’s Day to watch the Rockies play the Cardinals in the first year of the new Busch Stadium. He chatted with Clint Hurdle and Todd Helton. After the game, my dad, MLB.com Rockies beat writer Thomas Harding and I had dinner at former Cardinal Mike Shannon’s restaurant. Thomas and I still talk about that day.

Please, dude. The faster, the better. The fat lady is doing arpeggios backstage at the Bellagio. The bookies on Fremont Street are busy counting chickens. The Avalanche are eight wins from sleeping with a Stanley Cup and two losses from waking up in Cancun. If Game 1 was an elbow to the nose, Game 2 was a 5-iron to the crown jewels.

“That’s part of the game, when you can (kill off a penalty) and get momentum off of it,” Vegas defenseman Rasmus Andersson told me after his Golden Knights put the favored Avs in an 0-2 Western Conference Final hole — in Denver, for the love of Pete Forsberg — in advance of Sunday’s Game 3 at T-Mobile Arena. “And we just stuck with it.”

The Avalanche power play, meanwhile, is back to being stuck in neutral, spinning burgundy and blue tires in the mud.

Colorado, with an extra man, was already a hard watch with a healthy Cale Makar dancing along the blue line. Without him, it reads a lot like a Sean Payton script: Pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, punt.

Two power plays Friday. At least two chances to build on a scrappy 1-0 lead, to put some space between you and John Tortorella’s master plan. They got nothing. Nada. Zip.

After a workable 25% PP conversion rate in the first two rounds of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Avs are 1 for 5 with the man advantage in two games against the Golden Knights. Friday evening offered some serious Dallas 2025 vibes, water torture on ice.

“I think back on some big moments, 4-on-4, we’re in the zone for a minute plus, we get (Nathan) MacKinnon from the slot, we miss the net,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “We get (Devon Toews) from the slot, we miss the net, we get (Valeri) Nichushkin coming downhill, we miss the net. We’re going to have to force them to make some difficult saves.”

They’re going to have to make Carter Hart — the Vegas netminder who’s been the best player of these opening two games — actually work for it.

At some point, they’re going to have to make Torts — who’s coaching giant concentric circles around Bedsy right now, minus captain Mark Stone — pull out his whiteboard and start scribbling on the fly. They’re going to have to think about taking Devon Toews (who piled up 29 minutes of ice time) and Nazem Kadri off of the PP unit and plopping bigger bodies in front of a too-hot Hart.

Coming into the Western Conference Final, the Golden Knights were 6-2 when holding playoff foes without a power play goal — and 2-2 when the opposition managed at least one. Yet the Avs’ power play without Makar at the point is more or less what the Broncos’ offense looks like when Jarrett Stidham’s at the controls. Against a real defense, you’re toast.

“I think our PK has been really good all the playoffs, honestly,” said Andersson, who led a grindy Vegas defense with 36 grindier shifts and logged an assist on the empty-netter that sealed a 3-1 win. “We’ve done a good job with getting the momentum back.”

They stuck a proverbial dagger between the Avs’ shoulder blades at the end of the middle stanza. A slashing call on Vegas’ Shea Theodore put Colorado a man up with 1:18 left in the second period while nursing a 1-0 lead.

With 27 seconds left in the frame, captain Gabriel Landeskog corralled a nifty feed from teammate Nathan MacKinnon from behind the Golden Knights goal — but couldn’t land a point-blank look. A Brett Kulak slapper 51 seconds into the third period was stoned by Hart, allowing the guests to keep hanging around. And hanging around.

“I mean, they (the Avs) have a lot of firepower on that PP,” Andersson explained, “so you try to stick to the game plan (from) before and then execute it.”

“Could you see the frustration mounting when they couldn’t convert?” I wondered.

“I mean, that’s a question for them, honestly,” Andersson replied. “When we have a power play, obviously, you always want to score, but … I feel like if you can get some momentum off of it, it’s good.”

The momentum now wears a home sweater that’s roughly the same color as one of Taking an 0-2 deficit into Vegas is like trying to swim the Blue Mesa Reservoir with a bowling ball strapped to your right ankle. Per ESPN, NHL clubs that go down 0-2 on home ice in conference finals eventually lost 20 of 21 series. Colorado had faced an 0-2 hole in its Stanley Cup history nine times prior to 2026 — and went on to win just three of those matchups (3-6).

The Avs wore a look on the other bench Friday as if they knew the odds. A look that said, “We’re cooked” almost as soon as Vegas’ second goal of the night, this one via Ivan Barbashev, lit the lamp with 8:38 left to play.

What’s puzzling is about that is how many times we’ve seen the Avs get punched before — against the Kings, literally, and against the Wild, figuratively — over the past month, only for the guys to remember they’re the Avs, pick themselves off the canvas and start swinging back.

This version of Colorado, by contrast, looks oddly resigned at the first sign of any real trouble. We don’t have Cale. They have Torts. What the heck are we supposed to do now?

That’s on Bednar, Makar, or no Makar. The Avs with Cale believed they could come back from any deficit. The Avs without him seem starved for faith, starved for goals, starved for self-belief.

“It����ap a fine margin for error,” Bednar said. “The difference of winning and losing.”

Right now, those margins are mental, messy and massive. And the fat lady is on in five.

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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