John Elway: Five things we learned from end of season presser

The Denver Broncos are fresh off of a 5-11 season, and are moving on. Here’s five things we learned from John Elway’s end of season presser…

John Elway, Vance Joseph, and Joe Ellis addressed the media following the Denver Broncos’ 5-11 season, and as always, there were some interesting nuggets mixed in with some football clichés that always leave us with more questions than actual answers.

The Broncos’ lead decision makers had a lot of explaining to do after an awful year, one that included an eight-game losing streak.

Elway, who may be the most competitive human being alive today, opened the presser with this statement:

”First of all, Happy New Year to everybody. There is nobody happier than me that 2017 is over. Maybe Vance (laughing).”

As it was reported back before the Broncos played the New York Jets, the decision to fire Vance Joseph was one Elway never really wanted to make. He addressed that — and more — in this press conference, and both Joseph and team president and CEO Joe Ellis addressed the media as well.

Here are five takeaways from their press conferences and one-on-one sessions with Broncos media…

John Elway listens (and doesn’t like D-Mac)

If you thought John Elway didn’t listen to the scrutiny he’s received from the media and many fans this year, you’d be wrong.

104.3 ‘The FAN’ is a big sports radio station in Denver, and one of their top hosts Darren McKee asked Elway a question about what he’s learned about himself this season.

Elway, who never really feels a need to explain himself or how he does his job (because he’s very good at it), finally felt the need to open up a little bit.

This may be the most vulnerable I’ve seen Elway in a public forum. It may be the most angry I’ve seen Elway in a public forum.

This is a side of John Elway that grabs the ball in the fourth quarter and kills the hopes and dreams of the opposing team.

This is the Elway that we all know and love, and it took him less than two minutes to show us that the ultimate competitor still exists, even though he’s not putting on a jersey and pads every week.

Elway hates to lose, and even though he’s not the quarterback on Sundays, he’s the quarterback of the front office, calling all the shots, putting together the team.

He’s received a lot of negative press this year, specifically from D-Mac’s show on The Fan, and clearly he’s had enough.

He used the platform and D-Mac’s question to absolutely destroy the local reporter/radio host, and I for one found it incredibly refreshing.

John Elway knows he must be better

The second major thing we gleaned from this entire press conference is that Elway knows he needs to do better putting the right players in place for his coach to have success.

The reason Elway almost felt the need to fire Vance Joseph this year was because the team lost eight straight games, and could have potentially done even worse than 5-11 if not for a comeback win against the Colts.

But that doesn’t mean Elway would have been immune from blame either way. He understands that this roster is one he assembled, and this quote was as clear of an indicator that Elway is not blind to his shortcomings:

About a month ago, I wrote about how it wouldn’t make sense for the Broncos to fire Joseph given their quarterback situation, and I think that played more into the decision to keep him than we know.

I put together a list of reasons why keeping Joseph was the right call, and discovered that the Broncos’ starting quarterbacks had an average rating of 61.6 in their losses. That is inexcusable and not really Joseph’s fault.

You can gameplan all you want, but the head coach cannot be personally held responsible for incompetent quarterback play.

Elway rightly fell on the sword for that one, and vowed that they will make it right.

John Elway needs his QB to have ‘swagger’

Elway was asked specifically what he looks for in a young college quarterback. This was a quote that needs some context from Elway, so I’ll give you the full transcription:

"“I think half of it is what you see on film and the other half is figuring out what kind of guy it is. I think the biggest challenge about playing the position is there is a lot of good football players and a lot of guys that have a ton of talent out there. But again, obviously stepping into that role when you come out of college—in college you’re allowed to be a kid. You come to the NFL and the expectation levels rise, especially if you’re a high pick. You’re expected to be good or show signs of being a very good player early. The other half is how are they going to handle the situation and how are they going to handle the [significance] of being a quarterback in the NFL. That is the biggest part and I say it all the time. Just trying to figure out how these guys can handle the tough times, because there’s going to be tough times. When the world feels like it’s caving in are they going to be able to battle through that and not lose their confidence? Because once somebody loses their confidence at that position…what gets you here is your swagger and your confidence as quarterback. You have a chance to play in the NFL and that’s what gets you here and you can’t be afraid of it. Then all of a sudden if you get in the world and all of a sudden things aren’t going well, the world starts caving in on you and you lose that swagger or you lose that confidence, it’s very, very difficult to get it back. You have to figure out how strong they are, what they believe in and how strong they are, what they are as a quarterback and to be able to battle through that. If they can do that, then they have a chance to have a great, long career. To me, I say it all the time: It’s 50 percent the physical side of it and 50 percent mental side. The heart and finding out what they have inside, that’s the difficult part. Not only at the quarterback position, it’s about every position because it comes down to what’s inside, what’s in that heart, how bad they want it and how great they want to be. If they want to be great football players, they have a chance to be great.” (quotes via Broncos PR)"

I am not really sure what to make of all that, except that the only quarterback on the Broncos’ roster we didn’t get to see this season has the nickname of ‘Swag’ (Chad Kelly).

To me, and maybe I’m wrong about this, but it sounds like Elway is pretty accurately describing a quarterback like Baker Mayfield. He’s also talking about having confidence and the ability to bounce back from adversity, which sounds like something he felt he didn’t see from any of the guys currently on the team.

Gary Kubiak’s role is increasing

We don’t know at what capacity Gary Kubiak’s role will be increasing with the Broncos, but he’s been working behind the scenes all year and is apparently ready for a promotion.

Here was the official update from Elway:

"”Yes. We’re going to enlarge Gary’s role as far as on the personnel side. Right now, he was working in college [scouting] as well as really doing the offensive side of football for us. So now Gary is going to have a larger role to get him involved in free agency as well as the draft. He’s a guy that has a lot of knowledge in football. He’s a very good evaluator, too. He’ll help us in that area.” (quotes via Broncos PR)"

Elway went on to say he doesn’t know what Kubiak’s official new title is going to be, but it’s obvious that he’s going to have a hand in the player personnel side of things.

Specifically, it seems Elway put him in charge of getting together scouting reports on offensive players, and we know Kubiak has been in Texas much of the year doing his work.

This is the perfect role for Kubiak, who does have an eye for talent, and can help the Broncos significantly when it comes to finding the right offensive players going forward.

Kubiak also has a number of connections around the league, and with all the time he spent as a coach, he will certainly have scouting reports on many of the free agent players soon to be available.

Starting a Rookie QB?

Would John Elway start a rookie quarterback?

Here’s what he had to say:

"“Obviously it’s not ideal, but I would say this: I did it. It was tough. You drink through a fire hose. But then again, if you make it through that you have a chance to be tough enough to handle it in this league, too. You have to play it by ear. The personality, if it is a young guy—what’s his personality? Where do you think he is? We have to formulate that plan. With that being said, the number one goal is we know we have to get better at that position.” (quotes via Broncos PR)"

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Not ideal, eh?

The Broncos have been heavily scouting quarterbacks for the up-coming 2018 NFL Draft, including Elway and Matt Russell personally attending Josh Allen’s bowl game, and Kubiak joining them for Sam Darnold’s bowl game.

Still, based on Elway’s initial response to this question — and it’s a big one — I don’t know that he’s totally committed to the idea of a rookie quarterback coming in and leading this team right away.

This would lead me to believe that the Broncos are going to try bringing in a proven veteran to be the quarterback next year first, whether via free agency or trade. If that doesn’t work out, I think the ‘not ideal’ scenario of bringing in a rookie with that fifth overall pick would be the plan of action.