Denver Broncos: Top takeaways from ‘Behind The Broncos’: Episode 3
By Jordan Lopez
The third episode of the Denver Broncos new docuseries premiered live on the Broncos’ YouTube channel at 8 p.m. ET on Tuesday night.
Fans get to see behind-the-scenes footage of George Paton and his team work together in preparation for the NFL Draft coming up and free agency. They embrace the “day-to-day” and they’re focused to improve the Broncos roster so Denver can go back to its’ winning ways.
The NFL Draft is in a few days and the Denver Broncos are still selecting their guy with the ninth overall pick. This can change come draft night though as there is a strong possibility Denver can either trade up or down in this year’s draft.
Paton has always mentioned that he would like to stock up on draft capital to really build the team through the draft. He has a history of doing it as well in Minnesota when he was helping GM Rick Spielman at the Vikings.
Episode 3, “Inside the Broncos’ war room ahead of the draft,” gives the fans communication between Paton and the college/pro scouts in the war room. They talk about certain college players that may help the team day one or that can be a backup and then a starter in the near future.
Here are the big takeaways from the third episode of “Behind the Broncos: No Shortcuts.”
George Paton embraces the analytics
During the episode, Paton describes how much the analytics and numbers mean to him and the team. “We value analytics here big-time,” Paton said and he truly does mean it.
Scott Flaska is in charge of the football analytics and the team collects all the data they can on every draft prospect and puts them into their model. In this analytics model, it projects the players’ ability on how they might perform and Flaska produces a grade for each player.
Flaska states, “It translates all of these things we know pre-draft so whether it’s your measurables, height, weight, speed from your pro days in the combine or their college stats, personal player information like all these different things we pick. Then we use the model to sort out all that information, find the most important predictors and then make a prediction on every prospect in the draft.”
Scott’s team dives into the numbers of every player and George Paton trusts his team to provide the best analytic numbers to him. There is even a cool clip in the episode of Scott talking to the whole war room and explaining why this prospect has this percentage of him being an “A” grade based on his “playing time.” He also goes on to say that the model also takes into consideration if the player is older than the average college player and things such as their wingspan for the position too.
Vic Fangio addressing the NFL Draft
Head coach Vic Fangio had some interesting things he had to say about the draft. Paton and Fangio have had constant communication with one another as Paton has really tried to get the players Fangio wants and the players that can fit his scheme.
Fangio said that it is always nice to pick the best player available in the draft and hope that player can make an immediate impact but filling needs is also a priority while selecting prospects.
“Picking at nine you should be able to get a really good player and one that should play immediately for you in some shape or form.”
The Denver Broncos currently have nine picks in total for the NFL Draft and Fangio mentioned that he hopes to add “seven or eight, nine players” in the draft. Does this mean they have intentions to move up in the draft since he said seven players and they have a total of nine? Time will tell and we’ll find out shortly.
Broncos Country will soon find out if Denver stays put at nine or if Paton trades up or down. The NFL Draft will be a big one for the Denver Broncos and it is safe to say that George Paton has done everything in his power to have a successful draft and I believe he will come Thursday night.