Good morning, Broncos Country!
We had a pretty clear indication John Elway would address the offense in the NFL Draft.
It wasn’t far fetched he also wanted to add speed to the equation. We just didn’t know how much speed.
The Denver Broncos got both in droves in the first virtual draft.
In the words of Ricky Bobby from “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby,” Elway wants Drew Lock and the Broncos offense to go fast.
But it’s not just fast for the sake of going fast. That just happens to be one of the attributes of the players Elway selected in the draft. It’s also not just about keeping pace with the Kansas City Chiefs — figuratively and literally.
“We needed to score more points, whether we’re playing the Chiefs or not,” Broncos head coach Vic Fangio told the media after the draft. “But obviously, playing against them, you’re going to need to. That was part of it. Adding the speed is always — it’s always good to be fast, but sometimes, people make the mistake of just getting fast with players that aren’t good football players. We believe our speed that we’ve drafted has come with players that can play the game also. It was good to get the added speed. Hopefully we’re a harder offense to defend now once it evolves and we get to playing games, but we need to score more points.”
On the MHR Radio Podcast, Adam Malnati and I talked about what this means for Lock and the subtle nod he got from Elway. “Here’s some more weapons, now do your thing.”
“I think, obviously, we’ve struggled on the offensive side the last three years,” Elway told the media after the draft. “I think we concentrated on the defensive side. We still helped the defense in the offseason with the trades that we made, so I felt that offensively, for us to be able to compete and give Drew a chance to be successful and us to be successful on the offense’s side, is we had to get some speed and we had to get some talent on that offensive side and some explosiveness on the offensive side. That’s why we decided to go that way.”
Based on the interview Lock did with 104.3 FM on Friday, he got the message.
“They’ve got a plan,” Lock told “The Drive.” “It seems like it revolves around me and I’m going to make sure that doesn’t go to waste.”
That quote shows that Lock has the right approach and attitude. Time will tell if it translates to the field (I think it will, but we’ll see). It’s also the latest evidence he gets “it.”
Elway’s goal was clear: weapons and speed.
Now it shifts to the players and coaches to turn that plan into success. For the first time in five years, it seems the Broncos are on the right path.
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