Broncos
Broncos president John Elway said he was happy with the way new GM George Paton ran the draft.
“What I will say is that I was thrilled to be able to leave the Broncos in great hands,” Elway said, via Mike Silver. “Because the Broncos have been my life, you know. They’ve been great to me. It was a perfect time for George to step in, and I think we left him in a pretty good situation, cap-wise, as well as young talent. So for me to be able to leave them in a great spot — not necessarily win-wise, but with our personnel and giving us a chance to get back to what we’ve been and what our fans deserve — I feel great about doing that.”
Paton said that when he was hired, even though he had been selective with general manager interviews, he couldn’t turn this one down.
“When John Elway calls, you answer,” Paton said. “I was in my office in Minnesota, and he called and kind of sold me on the organization, all the resources it provides, how it’s all football and no distractions, and how special it’s been for him. He talked about coming there after growing up in Southern California and falling in love with the community. It meant a lot, especially to a kid from L.A., but he really didn’t need to tell me too much. It was John f—–‘ Elway!”
Colts
Colts GM Chris Ballard said that even though the team needed to find a replacement for former LT Anthony Castonzo, the board didn’t fall that way in the draft.
“Look, any time you have a player like Anthony Castonzo retire, it’s a need,” Ballard said, via Bob Kravitz. “Having said that, it just didn’t match up at that point in the draft. I’ll be honest, how many true left tackles were there in this draft? … Prototypically, maybe some of these guys are going to play left tackle; let’s see if they stay there their whole careers. But if you’re going to draft a guy that high, and you’re drafting him to play left tackle, you’ve got to know he’s going to be able to do it his whole career.”
Colts owner Jim Irsay agreed with Ballard and gave a vote of confidence to OT Sam Tevi as a potential starting left tackle.
“I think that you look at the whole offensive line and how they develop as a group of five and I think Tevi’s body of work shows that he’s very capable.” Irsay said. “He’s a veteran that I think can get the job done. There’s other options that could come about that we could look at. … We believe that if we were playing a couple weeks from now that we would have an outstanding offensive line with Tevi and we’re just going to see where we go from here and what other opportunities present themselves. Still, September is a long way away.”
“Quite frankly, (in the fourth and fifth round), people jumped in front of us. We had some guys we really liked and that happens. You’re getting up on that pick and you’re getting pretty close and that tackle goes off the board that you thought was going to be a good possibility. Not in round 1 or 2 but after we got into the fourth round. Again, there’s no guarantees with those type of football players. The board just didn’t give us that opportunity. We knew that going into it.”
Jaguars
Regarding the Jaguars recently working out Tim Tebow as a tight end, HC Urban Meyer said he did not fully discuss with Tebow about converting to tight end out of college back in 2010. However, Jacksonville brought in Tebow to work out with TEs coach Tyler Bowen and intend on re-visiting the matter soon.
“Tim and I’ve talked about, when he was a quarterback in the NFL that was a big topic,” Meyer, via ProFootballTalk. “I was so busy, I didn’t give him the time. ‘What do you think? What do you think?’ and I didn’t know, I was too busy to even think it through. I know playing a position in the National Football League without — that’s a long shot, this is years ago. How did it happen this time? We had a conversation. He worked out with our tight ends coach, I stopped by, did not stay for the whole workout. Then our focus went to the NFL draft. We’re going to revisit here in the near future. That’s how that all happened.”
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