John Elway Picking ‘Impact’ Over ‘Need’ In NFL Draft

John Elway held his pre-draft press conference Monday morning at Dove Valley.

We can all speculate what the Broncos are going to do with their No. 25 overall pick (and beyond), and for the Broncos themselves, it can be speculation as well.

“We can go in with an idea of what we’d like to do, but that changes as players come off the board,” Elway said. “It’s always fluid.”

The Broncos completed their draft board on Friday.

Many think the Broncos will select a defensive tackle with their first pick in the draft, but that’s not guaranteed.

“We don’t feel as bad about our tackles as everybody else does,” Elway said. “We feel okay there.”

The goal for the team is to find an impact player in the first, second, and even third round of the draft.

“I think the bottom line is we want to come out of every draft, and we want to come with players that are going to be impact players,” Elway said. “You have a lot more misses in my mind when you draft to need. We’re going to try to find the best players in positions of need, but also try to find those impact players that are going to be able to come in and help us right away.”

Elway said that an impact player doesn’t have to be a starter. He just has to be a guy that can help the team win.

Last year heading into the draft, Elway said that his goal was to draft three starters. As for this year, a similar goal is in place. However, the team is not dead locked in their first-round draft position.

“We’re open,” Elway said. “If there’s somebody that likes somebody in our position at (No.) 25, we’re fine there, but we’re always open to go either way.”

There was very little guessing who the Broncos would select No. 2 overall last year. This time around, who the Broncos’ pick will depend on 24 other teams, and a lot of that has to do with the 2011 draft class.

The NFL draft begins at 6:00 pm MST on ESPN.

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