Terrance Knighton: "I lead everywhere I can"

The star defensive tackle for the Denver Broncos, Terrance Knighton, met with the media today as well.  His line of questioning focused more of the team and the young players around him. Pot Roast welcomed the call for leadership around him and as a fan, I hope it leads to a nice payday for him at the conclusion of the 2014 season - if not sooner.

On filling the leadership void

Yeah, absolutely. I was looking at it today, and with Vickerson not practicing, I’m the oldest guy really on the D-Line... Then DeMarcus, obviously. But I’ve been here longer than him. I’m embracing it. I always tell guys like the Von Millers, with the ability that you have comes a responsibility. As well as I played last year, they’re expecting me to lead this year and take my play to another level.

I lead every way I can. We’ve got a lot of young guys. Sometimes they’ll mess up and they’ll need a vet to let them know it’s all right and we’ve been there before. We just want to make sure everybody’s moving forward together. Me and Sly have been working with the ones, so I go as far as he goes, he goes as far as I go. Nobody wants to leave each other behind ... we want to move together as a group. That’s something we definitely talk about with the first group on defense, playing together as a unit and being a dominant defense and not having spots where we’re dominant.

On Sylvester Williams

I’d probably say in the film room. He’s got the ability to play and be disruptive. The older you get, the more football you see, the easier it is. One thing I always tell him is to just watch film and watch other guys around the league that play his position. Just try to take something from other guys. Knowing we play Kansas City twice and Oakland twice, you know who you’re going to be going against twice a year. Just getting a jump on certain guys.

On switching numbers with DeMarcus Ware

No, the big conversation was how much (laughter). It wasn’t really about the jersey switch. I have so much respect for the game and guys who have done it really good for a long time. So immediately when we signed him, he texted. I texted him and said, "You know, it’s yours, but it’s going to cost you." He said leave it undisclosed, so I’m just going to go with that.

On being here when its voluntary

The good thing about this group is right now we’re healthy, besides Vick, but Vick will be back soon and Von is moving around and Chris (Harris) will be back. Everybody’s on the same page. When (Coach) Luke (Richesson) told us we had the day off, everybody looked at each other like, "Three days is enough. We’ll be back. Everybody will be back." We just don’t want to be that defense that does enough to get by and the offense is putting up 40 points. We just want to be that defense that goes out there and dominates and be talked about.

On the defensive line as a whole

I’m hoping that I get some one-on-ones. Obviously they paid a lot of attention to Von last year and this year it’s really pick your poison. So hopefully I fall into about two or three sacks and I’ll be happy with that. And I’ll take the credit (laughter).

On Nate Irving

Absolutely. We talk about it in the film room. We sit next to each other in the film room. We were talking about a play yesterday, and I told him, "Nate, if there are two guys on me, just go. Just go. Don’t worry about what Coach Del Rio tells you to do (laughter), really just go and make the play. If you’re wrong, we’ll play off each other." That’s the type of relationship you want to have with your "Mike". Sometimes when you’re on the football field, Xs and Os go out the window and you’ve just got to play.