DENVER — Put Tony Scheffler near the top of The Greatest Broncos Draft Class That Never Was.
“I was wondering where we ranked,’’ Scheffler said Thursday in a phone interview with 9NEWS. “I do think about that time a lot. I miss those days. We were young, dumb – and really talented.”
Fortunately, Josh McDaniels will be nowhere near the NFL Draft stage Friday night in downtown Detroit where Scheffler will have the honor of announcing the Broncos’ Day 2 picks – second- and third-round selections. Scheffler was once a second-round pick and hopes general manager George Paton can fill the Broncos’ second-round void by trading into the round.
“I’m on my way to downtown Detroit right now,’’ said Scheffler, who otherwise is the highly successful head coach of the Chelsea High School varsity girls basketball team. “We’ve got a bunch of stuff to do. Talk to Roger (Goodell, the commissioner) tomorrow morning. My son is tagging along with me wearing a Lions’ jersey. I’m going to have to keep him back stage, hidden.”
The core of the Broncos’ 2006 Draft class as picked by head coach Mike Shanahan with help from general manager Ted Sundquist and director of player personnel Jim Goodman. It consisted of quarterback Jay Cutler with the No. 11 overall pick in the first round; tight end Scheffler with the No. 61 pick in the second round; receiver Brandon Marshall and outside linebacker Elvis Dumervil in the fourth round; and guard Chris Kuper in the fifth.
All were good to terrific players with long NFL careers. Just not long careers with the Broncos. All but Kuper eventually had unceremonious exits from Denver. McDaniels, who replaced Shanahan as the Broncos’ new coach in 2009, apparently didn’t care for his inherited young hot shots and banished Cutler, Scheffler and Marshall by the end of that season. Dumervil, who wound up with more than 100 sacks, left later through the infamous Fax Fiasco.
“Yeah, that draft class was pretty special,’’ Scheffler said. “All those guys went on to have great careers. We were all similar-minded. Wanted to win and wanted to compete. I definitely think about that draft class a lot. I just talked to Kupe, he’s coaching O-Line in Minnesota.
“I don’t hold anything negative towards Denver or the Broncos. I attribute a lot of how it ended to Josh. I regret how it all went down. But I don’t hold that against Denver. But I definitely once a week think about what could have been had I re-signed there and kept going there. It started well.”
In his four years with the Broncos from 206-09, Scheffler’s 13.7 yards per catch still rank No. 2 only to Riley Odoms among tight ends in Broncos history. Scheffler averaged 35 catches, 474 yards and 3.5 TDs with the Broncos.
Scheffler then played four seasons with his hometown Detroit Lions, where he tacked on two more 40-catch seasons. He was selected by the NFL and the Broncos to make Denver’s Day 2 draft pick announcements in part because of his local ties to Detroit. He grew up less than 60 miles west of the Motor City, played at Western Michigan and had four NFL seasons each with the Broncos and Lions.
“I actually heard from the NFL before I heard from anyone,’’ Scheffler said about making the Day 2 NFL Draft announcements for the Broncos. “I got a random e-mail from the NFL talking about it. So then I called Patrick to find out what it was all about.”
He refers to Broncos’ public relations boss Patrick Smyth who pushed for Scheffler to make the celebratory Day 2 selections. Scheffler truly was touched.
“Maybe the greatest moment of my life was when the Broncos selected me in the second round, shoot, 18 years ago, now,’’ Scheffler said. “Forever grateful for the opportunity they gave me. Obviously, they believed in me. I was a zero-star recruit out of high school. Only had two Division I football offers and coming out of the MAC (Mid-American Conference), just believing in me. I remember they flew me out for a visit. I had an interesting visit with Tim Brewster.”
Fans and media who attended the Broncos’ 2006 training camp can still hear Brewster, the tight ends coach, screaming and yelling at the rookie Scheffler. Brewster was tough on Sheffler, to the point no coach is tough like that on players today.
“He was tough on me,’’ Scheffler said. “Then I see he made the national news with Deion last year and people are talking about him and I was telling them, ‘You don’t understand. I had to spend some real time with that guy.”’
Brewster left to become head coach of the University of Minnesota the next year, and Scheffler recorded a career-best 49 catches for the Broncos in 2007, along with five touchdowns. He had another 40-catch season in 2008 for a career-best 645 yards (16.1 per) yet Scheffler and Marshall – who finished with 970 catches, 12,351 yards and 75 touchdowns in his career – were benched by McDaniels in the final game of their Broncos’ career in 2009.
Despite that inauspicious ending, Scheffler is pleased for the chance to reconnect with his first professional organization.
“The Broncos are first class with their alumni,’’ he said. “From afar, I’m a little jealous with all the alumni opportunities they have. I’ve kept up to date on all the activities and all the events. It’s pretty incredible how first class the Broncos are with all their alumni. And that matters. I wish I could be there more. Shoot, who knows, one day we might move back there. It’s such a great place.”
Now 41, Scheffler has good reasons why he doesn’t make it back to Denver but every other year or so to visit friends. Besides helping Richelle with their five children – Braiden, 17, Avery, 15, only son Lawson, 11, Remi, 9, and Henley, 7 – Scheffler heads the Chelsea girls basketball team.
In their four seasons with Scheffler as head coach, the Chelsea Bulldogs have gone 13-3, 19-4, 25-2 and 18-5. To think Scheffler played both football and baseball at Western Michigan and is now a girls basketball coach. What a well-rounded sports guy.
“Chelsea is my hometown,’’ Scheffler said. “We’re like 75-14 in those four years. Doing good. Been in the top five every year but keep having a tough time in the regional final. Once you get down to the top five, six teams it gets to be pretty hard.
“My daughter (Braiden) is a junior on the team so I’ve been coaching her and bunch of girls since they were in fifth grade. It’s fun. She’s committed to Ball State to play field hockey. The MAC line runs deep with (Sheffler) blood.”
Scheffler still follows both his Lions and Broncos, two teams who have been trending in opposite directions. Only, it’s the Lions whose arrow is pointing up while the Broncos are cycling through a tough stretch. Scheffler believes Broncos’ coach Sean Payton can get his old team winning again, though. And sooner rather than later.
“I think the NFL really is … there’s not these dominant teams anymore,’’ Scheffler said. “I think it’s more up for grabs than it ever has been and I think people are realizing that. You can quickly build the right culture, treat people right and make the right moves, I think anyone can win in this era of NFL right now.”
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