Broncos GM rumors: Team has permission to interview Champ Kelly

Broncos GM rumors: Team has permission to interview Champ Kelly.

The Denver Broncos’ general manager search is officially on.

We’ve already listed a number of strong candidates but there could be a variety of others around the league we don’t yet know about.

Initially, it’s natural to look to candidates who already have personal connections to people already in the Broncos’ organization. As it turns out, there are a number of candidates who had been on the Broncos’ staff at one point or another.

One of those candidates is the first reported candidate to have a confirmed interview set up with the team — Champ Kelly of the Chicago Bears.

Kelly worked with Denver from 2007-14 before joining the Bears in 2015, so he has worked not only with John Elway and Matt Russell for a long time, but he worked with Vic Fangio in Chicago for four seasons as well.

https://twitter.com/Broncos/status/1346548685497393154

Kelly would be an awesome hire for the Broncos and has plenty of experience not only as a talent evaluator, but in analytics, prior experience as a general manager of an indoor football team, scouting, and playing two ways as an indoor player himself.

There’s going to be a lot to unpack with Kelly as a candidate but it should be noted he’s currently the favorite among Broncos Twitter and when Benjamin Allbright tweets something, you can pretty much take it to the bank.

Mike Garafolo of NFL Network also made some very interesting points in this short video clip about the Broncos’ general manager situation.

He noted that with Elway and Russell both stepping away from their positions, the Broncos could favor experience in a new general manager candidate. There is a personal connection between the Broncos (Matt Russell) and former Atlanta Falcons general manager Thomas Dimitroff.

Russell will not be making the GM hire, but he will have input and both he and Dimitroff worked together in New England back in the day. Dimitroff also has a home in Colorado, so it could be a natural fit for him.

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As of the time of this writing, there has been no interview between Dimitroff and the Broncos actually scheduled, but again — it would make plenty of sense.