It’s the question everyone is asking, who will be the Denver Broncos quarterback in 2016? The loss of the top two quarterbacks off of the Super Bowl championship roster has Broncos Country as a whole in a frenzy.
At Broncos headquarters, though, where John Elway spends his days, there is no panic. In fact, on Thursday, during his pre-draft press conference, the Broncos general manager and vice president of football operations displayed the same calmness that he has shown through the team’s dealings at the position throughout the offseason.
“We’re happy with Mark,” Elway said, maintaining the teams portrayed confidence in Mark Sanchez. “Mark was a starting point for us and now we want to find somebody to come in and compete with him. I know Mark is excited about being here and we’re excited about having him. He was a high draft pick seven years ago and hopefully we’ll get someone else in here. That’s why we took our time, you never know how this thing is going to fall out, there’s been a lot of twists and turns already at this point in time.”
Denver has left the door open for speculation, staying true to the “Mark is the first step in the process” message they have sent since the day he signed his name on the dotted line. Who the next step in the process is has been the big question.
The first name on everybody’s mind is Colin Kaepernick, the second-round draft pick out of Nevada has been to two conference championship games and narrowly missed winning a Super Bowl, that talent has many hoping the Broncos can bring him in and recapture it.
Elway didn’t have much to say there but he did address it.
“It’s dormant,” he said of negotiations with the 49ers. “He’s been working out from what I understand, so that’s all I can really say.”
Dormant doesn’t necessarily mean dead, though.
“Everything is right there and that’s kind of where it is,” added the GM.
If you’re into reading between the lines, you might come up with a translation that resembles, “Our offer is what it is and it’s still on the table.”
So as that situation remains as it, the Broncos have continued turning over the proverbial quarterback rocks. On Thursday, they brought in former Texans and Browns starting quarterback and current free agent Brian Hoyer for a visit.
“We had a good visit. I think he has another trip lined up,” Elway said with the coy approach that he maintained throughout the presser. “He’s a possibility, he’s a good football player that we wanted to have in to get a chance to meet him and get to know him a little bit. Nothing to report there.”
Elway was asked what Hoyer brings that Sanchez doesn’t.
“He brings competition,” answered the hall-of-famer. “Earlier in the year, we talked about the fact that we’re going to bring in somebody to compete with Mark—he’s one of those possibilities and he’s a guy that had a real good year in Houston last year. A guy that’s definitely a possibility for us.”
Elway refused to share any info on the Broncos grades at quarterback or where he perceived the team’s biggest needs but he did open up a bit on why the team has been able to remain so patient .
“First of all, we feel good with Mark,” he said. “But you also know that there’s going to be a lot of different things that happen, so to really have to rush into a decision, we didn’t want to have to do that. Because if you rush into that one, and all of the sudden here falls another apple over there that you kind of like—I just didn’t want to get us to where we were going down one road and didn’t have the options to look at all the others. That’s why we’ve stayed patient and, again, what’s helped is having Mark, a guy that we feel like has the experience in the league and can play in this league.”
Patience and perspective. They’ve displayed it all along and they’re sticking to that. Don’t expect the Broncos to get desperate anytime soon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hm7hLEO_Qys
