Five burning questions with ‘The Safety Blitz’ host Nick Ferguson

What a time to be a Denver sports fan. The Colorado Avalanche and Denver Nuggets are both in the second rounds of their respective postseasons. The Colorado Rockies find themselves amid a season with the highest expectations in recent history. And the Denver Broncos look to revitalize the franchise with a new head coach, new quarterback, and new crop of rookies.

It’s a nearly ideal time for former Broncos safety Nick Ferguson to kick things off as the newest member of the Sports Radio 104.3 The Fan staff with “The Safety Blitz” from 9 a.m. to noon weekdays.

So this week, Nick takes the hot seat and answers five burning questions from the Denver sports scene.

Sports Radio 104.3 The Fan digital content producer Johnny Hart: First off Nick, are the Broncos begging for a quarterback controversy in not only drafting Drew Lock but also signing Brett Rypien to a reported six-figure guaranteed college free agent deal?

“The Safety Blitz with Nick Ferguson” host Nick Ferguson: No, they’re not, because there’s no quarterback controversy because a lot of these quarterbacks are ill-equipped to unseat Joe Flacco. Even though Joe Flacco sat behind Lamar Jackson all of last season, he’s a Super Bowl-winning quarterback. And most people try to forget that — or forget that period. In looking at Drew Lock, there’s a lot that he has to learn. He has to learn the game, the pro game. Now he has to make plays from under center. I said this before, that’s very difficult. It doesn’t happen overnight. Some quarterbacks don’t master that until their second year. So, now we’re saying that he won’t master that until his second year. That means Joe Flacco has a full year to be at the helm, to command that Broncos offense, and really create more separation between him, Rypien, Drew Lock, Kevin Hogan, and even Garrett Grayson. So, there’s no quarterback controversy at all here.

JH: How long does Broncos Country wait until they start to worry about Chris Harris Jr.’s contract situation? 

NF: Well, you don’t start worrying about it until we get to a point of training camp. When you start missing days of training camp, now we start to worry. Because, usually, we start to venture into days where Chris will start to get fined. And then, you have to ask, if you’re Chris, is the fact of holding out for a much better contract worth losing that money up front? So, once we roll into training camp, a couple of preseason games start rolling around, that’s when we start to worry.

JH: What’s the realistic ceiling for the Nuggets in the NBA Playoffs this year? Can they win a championship? 

NF: Winning a championship may be tough because that means that you are going through the Warriors or the Rockets. And you’ve seen what the Rockets have done to the Nuggets this past season. Now, have they overcome a lot of adversity? Gotten farther than anyone ever expected? Yes, they have. If they can get through this series against Portland healthy and still hungry, there is a possibility that they could make a good run. Now, listen to what I said. I said a good run but not winning a championship. They have a group of young, scrappy players that you need to win in this league. But we’re still talking about a level of production. And that production doesn’t balance up when you talk about either matchup up against Houston or Golden State. There’s no balance.

JH: Paul Millsap compared Nikola Jokic to Tom Brady after he dropped 37 points in Game 1 against the Trail Blazers. Has he developed into a full-fledged star in the NBA?

NF: Not yet. And I thought it was a little far-fetched for Millsap to say or make that comparison of Jokic to Tom Brady. The only way you can make that comparison is the fact that Tom Brady was a sixth-round draft choice, and no one expected him to do much, like Jokic. But now, through time, Tom was able to turn things over. So, from that comparison, and that comparison only, now we can see a guy that’s come from obscurity to now becoming a full-fledged NBA star. but, in order to be considered an NBA star, you have to do it back-to-back seasons. You can’t do it one season and then taper off. This has to become who you are. If that can happen for Jokic, now we can start talking about him as being an elite player. But not in the Tom Brady status.

JH: Is Von Miller joining NBC’s Kentucky Derby coverage a needless distraction or not a big deal at all? 

NF: It’s not a big deal. This is the offseason. A lot of things are voluntary — or as we like to call them, “voluntary mandatory.” But this is the player’s time. If he wants to do things like this to increase his national brand, why not? I mean, if you are the Broncos, the only thing you’re worried about is making sure nothing terrible goes wrong. But, that’s not going to happen, especially with NBC being in charge of this whole thing. This paints Von in a whole different light. It opens (him) up to a more national audience other than what’s here in Denver. So, it’s great. I wish more players started to explore other things outside of their area to put them outside their comfort zone. So, this is just Von capitalizing more and more off of his celebrity status.