More photos » by Ed Andrieski - AP

7 months ago: Denver Broncos head coach Josh McDaniels talks about the team's two first round NFL Draft picks at the team's headquarters in Englewood, Colo., on Saturday, April 25, 2009. The Broncos selected Georgia running back Knowshon Moreno with the 12th pick and Robert Ayers a defensive end from Tennessee with the 18th pick.(AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)

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HEAD COACH JOSH McDANIELS

Opening comments

"Well, we had a good first day. We took (CB) Alphonso (Smith) in the second round, (S) Darcel McBath and then (TE) Richard Quinn. We feel all three players fit the role or the mold we're trying to fill: tough, smart, versatile, competitive, good people. And we feel like all of them will come in and compete to play right away. So, we feel good."

On drafting players at running back, defensive back, tight end

"We've got depth at those three positions, for sure. In regard to the secondary, (CB) Alphonso (Smith) is very highly rated on our board. I know that I'm sure there are some questions surrounding the trade from one next year to two this year. He was extremely valued in our room. Has been all spring. We love his ball production. We love the fact that he intercepts the ball, he's a great tackler, a great kid, he's smart, can play in the slot. So, that gives us an opportunity to get a guy in there that's a very productive football player, that can help us both in nickel situations and in first and second downs. (S) Darcel (McBath), same thing. Started a lot of games. Not only productive in the passing game, but also a tackler, smart kid, very versatile, can play in the kicking game; which as I've mentioned all spring, we're not trying to just improve one phase or the other. But, both kids have the opportunity to help us in the kicking game. And (TE) Richard (Quinn), as we saw the day go, one of the themes - you know we saw the board get picked pretty thin. When that starts to happen, you ask yourself ‘should we go ahead and get a player that we really feel is going to help us pretty quickly and be here for a long time? Or, should we go ahead and be patient and hope that some of those guys that are left on our board are still on there when we're on the clock tomorrow?' So that was the reasoning behind moving up to get Richard Quinn late in the day and we feel very good about all three players."

On tight end Richard Quinn

"He's tough, smart, physical; very physical. People would say maybe the top blocker in the draft as a tight end. He didn't catch a lot of balls at (the University of) North Carolina, but that wasn't because he can't catch. They didn't use him that way very much in their system, in their scheme, but he showed very good hands during the course of the spring. We worked him out personally. We also saw him at the combine and he doesn't drop many balls, he's very big and physical and gives us a presence on the edge. We're going to use some two tight end sets, we have two good tight ends ahead of him, but he'll be in the mix to play in some of those packages."

On pick Nos. 37 and 48

"The two guys we picked at 37 and 48, those were the two players that we were targeting at that point. The one thing about (CB) Alphonso (Smith) and (S) Darcel (McBath) is both should play on third down. Which gives us some good flexibility there and players that can hopefully help us get off the field. Alphonso certainly has done that in his career and so has Darcel. So, we feel like we got quite a few players today that are going to help us on three downs, which was one of the goals. If you can find three or four on the first day of the draft that can play on all three downs I think you're doing pretty well for yourself."

On first experience in NFL draft as head coach

"It was great fun. The draft room is a neat place to be. There's a lot going on. The phone's ringing a lot of the day and you're going back and forth with scenarios, trying to make quick decisions, some of which I know we were down there late on the clock; with the (S Darcel) McBath selection, there were some things going on there. It's another part of the process leading up to the season. Obviously, we have an opportunity to get better each time we make a selection and that's what we feel like we did today and we'll look forward to tomorrow doing the same thing."

On setting franchise record for picks in the first round of an NFL draft

"That's great. I hope it leads to wins in September, October, November and December."

On justifying trading first round pick in 2010 for a second round pick in this year's draft

"Next year's value is not the same as this year's value. If you feel you have the grade on (CB) Alphonso (Smith), or any player you happen to do that with, if you feel like he's really worthy of a selection that you maybe would have made in the first round sometime this year, then I think you stick to your evaluation of the player. We don't care what anybody else rated that player as, or valued that player as. The only thing that mattered is that we saw him and he was definitely worth the value and we went ahead and made the switch."

On whether the current roster has defensive players who are going to start in 2009

"Obviously, they're going to be there, and they're going to play and they're going to start. Who those guys are eventually at the end of August, time will tell. But when the board gets picked clean, you don't start reaching for players in the first round or the second round that you don't feel equals the value you're taking the selection at. I don't know how many defensive linemen were drafted today, I don't know how many defensive linemen were drafted to play in the 3-4 system. But we felt like we took players at each spot that are going to come in and help us. You go into (the draft) understanding that you're not going to fix everything that you want to fix, you're not going to pick a player at every spot that you may think you need a player at. Certainly, that's going to be true for us, that's going to be true for everybody across the league. So, we tried to pick players that we felt were worth equal value to where we were taking each player and we felt we did well today. We were happy with what we did."

On how the Broncos decided to trade the first of two first-round picks in the 2010 NFL draft

"That's a great question. You can label it a few different ways: You can say it'll be our pick, it'll be Chicago's pick, or it could be the later or the earlier of the two. That was what we agreed upon on the trade and we felt comfortable with it, and they did, too."

On whether CB Alphonso Smith will help (WR) Eddie Royal in the Broncos' return game

"Alphonso (Smith) may help in that role, certainly. But I think we would all agree that Eddie (Royal)'s a pretty good punt returner in this league. So, no. He's going to add depth to our special teams, as will (S) Darcel (McBath), but no, Eddie will continue in that role. In a perfect world, maybe you have more than one guy that's capable of (returning punts) so that you take a few reps, during the course of a season, from one player or another as a punt returner, as a kickoff returner. But Eddie's value to us, in the punt return game, is very high, and it is on offense as well. So, we'll continue to have him play both roles."

On confidence in 2009 draft class through Day 1

"We're happy with the players we selected. The proof's in the pudding. So, when we get all five of them on the field and they can help us contribute and help us win games, that's when we're going to feel really good about that. We feel comfortable with adding these players to the position groups they're going to come in and compete with. Time's going to tell for us, and for the entire league, on how we did or how well these selections pan out."

On addition of TE Richard Quinn

"(TE) Daniel (Graham)'s a veteran player, he's a good inline blocker, different type of a pass receiver than (TE) Tony (Scheffler) is. Tony obviously can be flexed away from the formation a little bit more. We'll use him a little bit more on the move than Daniel. Richard (Quinn) is more in the middle of both. He can catch the ball, he's got soft hands, we can move him, he certainly can handle his own on the line as a blocker. But when you're going to use two and three tight end packages during the course of the season, you'd love to have three guys that you feel good about. To have three guys that can run block, pass block, catch passes in the passing game and make an impact at more than one thing, I think that's very valuable to us."

On trading both 2009 third-round picks

"Well, we gave up the two third round picks to move ahead to get (TE) Richard (Quinn). So, we're going to have a little lighter morning. We'll pick in the fourth round, but our philosophy is going to stay the same. We've got a number of players that we're hoping are available when we select tomorrow. We have six selections. We're going to try and make every one of them count and make every one of them productive for us in a role and we're looking for players that are going to come in and contribute. That's what we're going to do."

On feeling comfortable with quarterbacks

"We feel comfortable with it and I think our building feels comfortable with it. We've added some players today that should help our offense, should help our defense, should help our kicking game. Again, our goal going into the draft is to try to improve our football team in a lot of phases and hopefully we did that; at least that was the goal. We certainly drafted that way to try to bring in some players to try to impact more than one phase."