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John Elway on draft: 'We do need a wideout'

Broncos GM said "war room" separation will make it difficult to make trades. He also explained how the Broncos' recent losing seasons led to character priority.

DENVER — It’s been no secret since Drew Lock became their unquestioned starting quarterback that the Broncos would be looking to get him a better receiver or two to complement Courtland Sutton in the 2020 offseason.

Free agency came and went with no upgrades as Nelson Agholor signed with the Raiders. That leaves the upcoming NFL Draft for Broncos general manager John Elway to get a starting-caliber receiver.

The top six prospects are Jerry Jeudy, CeeDee Lamb, Henry Ruggs III, Justin Jefferson, Denzel Mims and Jalen Reagor – not necessarily in that order, although maybe.

“It’s what flavor you like,’’ Elway said in his Zoom video pre-draft conference call with the Denver media Monday. “It’s a very deep draft when it comes down to receivers.

“The good thing for us, the fortunate thing for us -- as you said we do need a wideout -- it's a deep class. So we'll have to see how things fall.''

In his 19 minute, 28-second virtual press conference, Elway saved his best for last when asked if there was anything about the success of his past two draft classes in 2018-19 that would carry over to his 2020 draft. Elway immediately went to the quality of character.

“We had a couple misses back there and the misses that we had were character concerns,’’ he said. “I think we’ve focused a little bit more (on character). We’ve always concentrated on the locker room. But I think more so when you go through tough years like we’ve been going through the last couple years your locker room is very, very important and the influences that you have in your locker room when things are tough, you need those guys to lead us through the tough times and be able to get back to the winning ways.

Credit: AP Photo/Michael Conroy
Denver Broncos president of football operations and general manager John Elway speaks during a press conference at the NFL football scouting combine in Indianapolis, Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2020.

“I think we’ve suffered a little bit there. We haven’t had the leadership in the locker room that has been able to dig us out of this hole. I think that’s why we concentrated more on character guys. Because it’s easy to win. It’s not easy to win but it’s easy to be in that locker room when things are going well and a lot of positive things are going on when you’re winning. But when your losing there’s a lot of negative things going on in that locker room and it can be very influential on how we play on Sunday.

“When you’re having a two-game or three-game losing streak we need to have the leadership to be able to pull us out. And I think we concentrated on that the last couple years. We’ve gotten some good leadership in that locker room, positive leadership, guys that want to win football games, it’s important to them. Instead of complaining about what’s going on, we’ve got guys that can be positive with it.’’

Players from the Super Bowl 50 team who are no longer with the Broncos can read into that what they will.

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Other topics Elway addressed:

Negotiations with Justin Simmons. 

The safety has been franchise tagged for a $11.4 million but he figures to eventually get a multiyear deal closer to $14 million a year.

“We’re in negotiations right now,’’ Elway said. “We’ve given them offer and they gave us an offer back, so we’re in active negotiations.”

The virtual mock draft all 32 participated in Monday morning.

“It got off to a little bit of a hiccup when we first started but other than that it went really smooth. There were really no problems with it as we got more comfortable with it.”

Later he was asked about executing draft trades through the virtual method.

“The tests we had, the mock draft we had today everything was predetermined so it made it a little easier than I think it’s going to be. With the time constraints, being virtual and not having everybody in the same room makes it more difficult. That may lead to less trades. I still think there will be trades.

“If anything it makes us prepare a little bit harder to have an idea at each position of where we are right now whether we go up or back. Not only in the first round, but second, third and fourth rounds to have an idea what the compensation may be.’’

His reaction upon learning star pass rusher Von Miller contracted coronavirus last week.

“I’m proud that Von is coming out and helping everybody with the seriousness of the COVID-19 virus. … I’m glad Von’s doing fine which is good but hopefully it’s brought more attention to it so I’m proud of Von.”

On offensive tackles.

“There is good depth at tackle, I think it’s one of the stronger positions.’’

On settling in on Lock as the team’s QB even though Tom Brady, Philip Rivers, Cam Newton, Andy Dalton and Jameis Winston were available. 

“By no means has Drew made it. We believe he’s got the potential to do it. … There are some quarterbacks that are still available but we’ve decided we’re going to build around Drew. Give him that opportunity to take the job.’’

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