Denver Broncos John Elway was ‘excited’ during 2011 NFL Draft and happy with selections
John Elway, vice president of football operations, feels like he is back in his playing days with his first year in the administration of the Denver Broncos. The Hall of Famer said that during his first time in the draft room, "I felt like I was playing
a football game. I think that's why I was exhausted every night."
He also said that he paced the meeting room back and forth just like he did when he was the Broncos’ star quarterback.
"I was excited," Elway said. "Especially when you look at that board and you start getting closer to your pick and you've talked to the pick you want and then they're falling to where you want ... I was up pacing, walking around, getting nervous, hoping
that the guy would fall to us.
"Even when I was playing football, I never sat. I didn't sit down much. I was always pacing when I was playing football on the bench, too."
Elway was brought on board this year to help his old team that has been doing steadily worse since he retired over a decade ago. He worked with the Broncos’ new head coach John Fox and general manager Brian Xanders to decide on who to pick and when. They
eventually settled on using six of their nine picks on defenders to improve their horrible offense that caused them to finish 4-12 last year.
"I was expecting there to be more confusion, having the short time per pick, than it really was," Elway said.
The franchise eventually ended up with two tight ends, a right tackle, a defensive end, two safeties and three linebackers. Elway said that even though he specializes in the offense, primarily the quarterback position, he knows the true value of a good defence,
saying that a good defence makes the quarterback’s job a lot easier. If the defence is unable to stop opponents, the quarterback and the rest of the offense has to work a lot harder to score more points since the defence is giving up more points than it should
be.
Elway was also happy about the tight ends that he drafted, former basketball player Julius Thomas from Portland State University and Virgil Green from the University of Nevada who registered a 42½-inch vertical leap in the National Football League (NFL)
Scouting Combine.
Elway is confident with runningback Knowshon Moreno, who ran 182 times for 779 yards and five touchdowns last season. He also has no problems with wide receivers Brandon Lloyd and Jabar Gaffney, who registered 77 receptions for 1,448 yards and 11 touchdowns
and 65 receptions for 875 yards and two touchdowns, respectively.
The Broncos still have some work to be done on the defensive side of the ball at defensive tackle but will have to wait until the players and league solve their labour differences before taking a look at the ocean of undrafted players and free agents around
the league.
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