DENVER BRONCOS 20



centertop0DENVER BRONCOS 2020 NFL DRAFT PRESS CONFERENCE QUOTES (4/25/20)PRESIDENT OF FOOTBALL OPS./GM JOHN ELWAY & HEAD COACH VIC FANGIOOn what the factors were in the decision to bring so much speed to the Broncos with this draft classJohn Elway:?“I think obviously we've struggled on the offensive side the last three years. I think we concentrated on the defensive side. We still helped the defense in the offseason with the trades that we made, so I felt that offensively, for us to be able to compete and give [QB] Drew [Lock] a chance to be successful and us to be successful on the offense's side, is we had to get some speed and we had to get some talent on that offensive side and some explosiveness on the offensive side. That's why we decided to go that way. We played good defense last year and we'll continue to play good defense this coming year, but we had to pick things up on the offensive side and that explosiveness and speed factor. We have some good players on the offense already, but we had to add to that. We were able to do that especially with [WR] Jerry [Jeudy] as well as [WR] KJ [Hamler], the wide receivers, and then [TE] Albert O. (Okwuegbunam) today, with great speed at the tight end position. We just feel like we had to add that explosiveness and we were able to get that done.”On Okwuegbunam’s pass-catching ability and LB Justin Strnard's best spot at linebackerJE:?“With Albert O., we really felt—the first phone call we made today, Vic and I made—was to Drew to find out about Albert and see what he thought about him because he had a much better junior year when Drew was there than he had last year. We wanted to find out and get the inside on him. Drew really liked him and gave him really high praise and thought he was a guy that could come in here and help us and talked about how he could really, really run, but he had a poor year last year. We were really kind of going off his junior year. Then when Drew gave him the seal of approval, we were glad—he was our target in the fourth round and he was still there, and we got him. Plus, to put him on the other side from [TE] Noah [Fant], he's a 4.49 guy that can really run at 258 lbs., and so again was able—and a big target, good in the Red Zone. He’s another weapon with great speed that we could add.”Vic Fangio:?“We liked Justin. We'll just throw him in the mix there with all the other inside backers. We treat our inside backers for the most part as interchangeable guys. It's not one side or the other, or this position or that. They're both off-the-ball linebackers. They both have to know how to do each job. He'll just get thrown in the mix there and we’ll see how he develops and competes with the other guys.On Elway building a team around Lock utilizing his own experiences as a palyerJE:?“I think that as a quarterback, there's no question you always want to have great weapons around you, but I think the key thing is trying to figure out how to win football games. I think that when you look back over the last four years, since Super Bowl 50 when we really won it on the defensive side—then when Peyton [Manning] retired, we've been trying to find that replacement for Peyton since then. We've tried to concentrate on the defensive side with the idea that if we can keep the score down, we’ll stay in football game and eventually, try to find the quarterback we can replace him with and get the offense back on track. I think with the way Drew played at the end of last year, we saw the signs of a guy that has a chance to be very successful in this league, but to do that, he's got to have some good people around him. The concentration—we felt like we're still in good shape, defensively, especially with, again, like I said, what we've added in the offseason through trades, that we needed to add that explosive feature on the offensive side. We had the guy we believe over time, as I've talked about, that it's going to take some time, to give him a chance to be successful and us a chance to be successful. We've got to put points on the board. Seventeen points a game is not nearly enough, so the first step was this year in the draft.”On the fact that the NFL kept the draft on scheduleJE:?“I thought it went great. There were really hardly any issues at all. I'm sure there are other teams that had some issues here and there, and other than the first day with Vic's internet going out, we really didn't have any issues at all. I will say this. I said this last night to Peter King. I think the credit goes to Commissioner [Roger] Goodell and the fact that he was taking a lot of heat because there were a lot of people that wanted to push it back, didn't want to do this, didn't want to attempt it, didn't want to have to stay at home and do it, wanted everybody to get to their war rooms, and he pushed everyone out of their comfort zone and I think it came off great. I really give Commissioner Goodell a lot of credit and people needed to see a live event. They like the NFL. I think the people were craving something live and something that they could look at on TV and get excited about. I think it came off tremendously. I think Commissioner Goodell gets all that credit for holding his ground and doing the right thing. He had a great feel and knew it was the right thing, so he deserves a lot of credit.”VF:?”I really don't have much more to say. I think John said it accurately and good. I think the draft went off well. Along the way, between the decision to do this and the six or seven weeks leading up to the draft, at times, it was a little cumbersome and the rules were changing daily, but that's to be expected. I echo everything John said.”On how valuable the scouts, coaches and support staff were for this draftJE: “I can’t give enough credit to our scouts. They are the unsung heroes. We talk about them. They never get enough credit. This is the one time of year that all of their work really comes through. I just got off of a Zoom call with all of them, thanking them for all of their hard work. They did do a tremendous job. We were able to put together a tremendous draft and it was because of those scouts. All of the work that they do, all of the background work and all of the character work they do, it’s a lonely job. They are on the road many days out of the year and they do it unselfishly and they do it for the Denver Broncos. They are the unsung heroes and they really deserve a lot of the credit because they did a heck of a job this year for us.”VF: “I think another part of that this year is, besides the scouts and everything John [Elway] said, all of the IT people that had to kick up their game and get all of this stuff done. If this had happened 30 years ago, without all of these advancements, the Draft wouldn’t have gone on. These guys got tested and they came through with flying colors.”JE: “I also don’t want to forget about the coaches either. One good thing that we talked about is that Vic has put together a tremendous staff. The teamwork that we all have with our scouts, with our coaches, us on the personnel side to be able to put all of the information together and get everybody talking to each other and get the best fit for the Denver Broncos. Everybody included, I think it went very well. As difficult as it can be sometimes, especially when it’s virtual like it was, everybody had their say and I think we were able to come out with the best football players we could.”On the depth at corner backVF: “I feel good. Obviously, we added [CB A.J.] Bouye. We took the Iowa corner, [Michael] Ojemudia. We have a bunch of young players that we acquired last year like [CB] Duke Dawson [Jr.] and [CB Davantae] Harris. Those guys all need to develop. They are at that stage where they need to prove whether they are worthy or not to play in the NFL and I think two of those guys will come through. We have [CB Bryce] Callahan coming off of the IR list, so we’ll have a good group to play with.”On how QB Drew Lock will learn the new offense with OC Pat Shurmur during the offseasonVF: “They are going to start on Monday. I’m sure there will be some trial and error with the total communication because now you’re communicating with a bunch of different players at one time and from all different locations. We’re going to see how it goes, but we’re going to be aggressive to push the limits of this teaching situation because it’s critical especially for our offense and quarterback as you mentioned with Drew, putting in a new offense. We’re going to make the most of it. I’m sure some of it will be trial and error. We’ll make adjustments as we get through these next three weeks, but I’m confident we’ll get a lot out of it.”On if they are comfortable at the tackle positionJE: “We have to get better there, there’s no question about it. That’s a position we have to get better at. I think we are going to have an open competition [at left tackle] and [T] Ja’Wuan James [at right tackle] with great expectations of him last year. He was hurt so he couldn’t play very much last year. We have great expectations with him coming back and being the right tackle for us and playing like he’s capable of playing. As Vic said, it’ll be an open competition at the left tackle with [G/T] Eli [Wilkinson] and [T] Garett Bolles. We just didn’t feel like we were in a situation to where we could add to that. I think with where we were and what our game plan was, the tackle never fell for us as far as something we thought that there was a player there that could help us at that position. We still feel like we can be very competitive with the tackle situation that we have and the open competition. The best player is going to play.”On if the Redskins ever approached them about a deal for OT Trent WilliamsJE: “No, we did not talk to them. We had heard what was going on, but we also had heard what the compensation was. I think Tampa was in on it, Cleveland, several other teams were in on it, but where the compensation was we didn’t feel like it was something that we wanted to get involved in.”On having a 10-player draft classJE: “It was a factor of what picks we had. We had 10 picks, so obviously with the trade we made last year with Pittsburgh to get the extra three and also the pick we got from San Francisco when we moved [WR] Emmanuel [Sanders], and then we end up getting three comp picks. That’s why it added up to be a 10-player draft. We tried to move around a little bit, but we didn’t think that what we did was worth what they wanted, so therefore we sat. It wasn’t about numbers. We just felt that we should’ve stayed where we were. We tried to move but didn’t have to. We’re glad we didn’t, and we ended up getting the players we wanted where we were.”On what might happen this fall and do they expect there to be more players players entering the supplemental draft JE:?“We have talked about the possibility of more kids coming back out especially with the uncertainty of the college season and where that sits. Each week and each day we find out more and more information of where everything's going. I would think with the situation that there is a possibility that there'd be more kids in the supplemental draft especially kids that were thinking about coming out. We're still very positive on the fact, and you know, encouraged by the fact that we think we're going to have a season that we'll end up going to training camp, but again, we'll just have to kind of wait and see and see where that falls. Nobody really knows. We're going to prepare like we're able to prepare it, and the plan is to get ready to go to camp at the end of July.”On adding speed to the roster with this draft and trying to keep pace with Kansas CityVF:?“We needed to score more points, whether we're playing the Chiefs or not. But obviously, playing against them, you're going to need to. That was part of it. Adding the speed is always—it's always good to be fast, but sometimes, people make the mistake of just getting fast with players that aren't good football players. We believe our speed that we've drafted has come with players that can play the game also. It was good to get the added speed. Hopefully we're a harder offense to defend now once it evolves and we get to playing games, but we need to score more points.”On if there was a point during the offseason that they decided to collect as many weapons for Lock as they couldJE:?“Yeah, I think that that was definitely part of it, especially with the number of picks that we had. Where we ended last year, as far as the things that we'd added in free-agents or in trades in the off-season in free-agency, that we felt like we had something to build around. With the way that Drew played at the end of last year, that we wanted also to give him a chance to be successful and take advantage of what his abilities were. Also, as Vic said, we've got to put points on the board and it's been very frustrating for all of us the last three, four years because we have not been explosive on the offensive side and even really five years. When we won Super Bowl 50, we weren't very explosive on the offensive side. I think we were just very good on the defensive side I think that we want a well-balanced football team. We want to play great defense, but also, we've got to be able to score points. We're able to, with our plan, do it this year. With way things fell we were able to do that through Jerry in the first round, KJ in the second, and even Albert O. in the fourth round, to be able to add speed to the offense.”On what the medical evaluations revealed about?G Netane Muti and why the Broncos selected himJE:?“He was a very good football player, number one. There were a lot of people who had third-round grades on us, as well as we did, and so we knew that our seat was sitting there, staring at us at the top of the sixth round. We talked to [Director of Sports Medicine] Steve Antonopulos and talked about his history. We had talked about it before, but we reviewed it again today and he's had two of the Achilles and then he had the Lisfranc. ‘Greek’ seemed to think that the Achilles usually are stronger after you have surgery so he was not concerned about that. And the Lisfranc—he was doing well in his recovery there. We just felt that where we were sitting and the grade that we had on him, we felt that we were going to be taking a little bit of a risk with the medical. But really felt at the top of the sixth round, we were getting tremendous value and it was worth the risk to be able to go ahead and take a chance on him.”On if S Justin Simmons will sign his franchise tag before Monday JE:?“I don't know. I think if you look at history and you look at his agency and the history, they usually don't. We'll continue—now that the draft's over—we'll continue to negotiate with him. We're hopeful to get something done with Justin.”On how the discussion around picks went in terms of personnelJE:?“I think we discussed every pick and I think that's—we're able to do it over the Zoom communication-wise. It's not like being in the same room. Obviously, a lot of times people had to mute because there's noises in the background and those type of things. The mute button was probably everybody's friend, but I think communication-wise, we were able to get everything done that we needed to get done and communicate and everybody was on the call. For the most part, the next best thing to being around each other was the way it worked out.” ................
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