Mellinger Minutes: Chiefs & Mahomes, Royals & Indians, Fickle Fans, Blaming Gmdm

Jordi Fernandez wasn’t in Denver for the coronation, but he helped steer the Nuggets toward the throne. During his six years on Michael Malone’s staff, en route to his own head coaching job in Brooklyn, he left an indelible imprint on players. “No good memories,” Michael Porter Jr. said, straight-faced. “Not a single one.” Kidding. “He was here when I first got here.

George Paton’s top lieutenant is getting interest for a top job. Broncos assistant general manager Darren Mougey interviewed Saturday morning for the New York Jets’ vacant general manager job, the Jets announced. Mougey, NFL Network reported, is one of several candidates set to speak with the Jets this weekend. The 39-year-old Arizona native has been with the Broncos his entire front-office career.

The pundits aren’t pulling any punches. The wise guys at FanDuel put the Rockies’ win total for 2025 at 59 1/2. In ESPN’s “Way-too-early 2025 rankings,” the Rockies are 29th out of 30 major league teams. “Colorado is coming off consecutive 100-loss seasons and, given the strength of the rest of the division, might be hard-pressed to avoid a third straight such season,” ESPN opines. Ouch.

Team Grading The Week has a New Year’s resolution this month we think everybody can get behind: more Russell Westbrook. The stats don’t lie. In the three games before Friday night’s Nuggets-Nets showdown, Beastbrook averaged 18.0 points, 8.7 rebounds and 6.3 assists and was generally a Swiss Army Knife of awesome.

To get an idea of the unique talent that is Pat Surtain II, all you have to do is look at the variety of pass-catchers the Broncos asked him to cover this season. The list includes speed merchants, wily vets, young guns and big, physical specimens. There were five Pro Bowlers, including tight ends young (Las Vegas’ Brock Bowers) and old (Kansas City’s Travis Kelce), precision route-runners like Cincinnati’s Ja’Marr Chase and Baltimore’s Zay Flowers, and even a former pro and college teammate in Cleveland’s Jerry Jeudy. The one thing they all had in common: Surtain consistently locked them up. “The film doesn’t lie,” Broncos safety P.

Goodbye, reality. Hello, reality show. Is there any coach that makes more sense in Las Vegas than Deion Sanders? It is better for our state if Sanders remains at Colorado, where he has made the Buffaloes relevant again. But almost every NFL hiring cycle features an outside-the-box selection. And this season, if it’s not Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman going to the Chicago Bears, would it be that crazy to see Sanders landing in Las Vegas? He has yet to receive a contract extension from CU, even as he has created a compelling argument that he deserves more than $8 million per season. And Las Vegas could work, while admittedly requiring suspension of belief.