The defining story of the Broncos in the first decade of this century was the inability of their quarterbacks to escape the shadow of John Elway.
Elway was no longer with the Broncos organization, but his presence and accomplishments lingered. Brian Griese, Jake Plummer, Jay Cutler, Kyle Orton and Tim Tebow all, to some degree, operated in Elway’s shadow — Orton and Tebow almost literally, since they were the quarterbacks of record in Elway’s first season as the Broncos’ football-operations czar.
As Elway cedes final-say authority over personnel decisions, his shadow will remain as he drops the “general manager” from his title and serves solely as president of football operations.
But unlike his retirement as a player, he doesn’t step away after back-to-back Super Bowl wins; he leaves on the heels of four consecutive losing seasons, the Broncos’ longest such streak since the Nixon administration.
Elway said that he “probably” would have decided to step back even if the Broncos were 13-3 rather than 5-11. Nevertheless, he leaves his successor with plenty of room for upward movement.
That, plus the fact that Elway will not be around every day, will allow the new general manager to be their own person.
The general manager and head coach Vic Fangio will both report to Elway, but the GM will possess final-say authority on the roster.
“They are going to work things out and come to a decision of which direction they want to go,” Elway said. “I plan on being involved in some of those discussions, especially the big ones, to where I can be helpful. Ultimately, the GM is going to have that control and being able to come in here and do what he sees fit with the roster.”
Elway will be involved in the selection of the next general manager, working with team president and CEO Joe Ellis, Fangio and vice president of player personnel Matt Russell, for whom this will be the final task before he retires after 20 seasons as a scout and personnel executive with the Patriots, Eagles and, for the last dozen seasons, the Broncos.
Still, Elway will have to mindful to ensure that his presence does not loom over the incoming general manager — even with carrying the title of president of football operations for the 2021 season.
He doesn’t believe that will be a problem. In fact, he put the degree of his involvement on the mantle of whoever succeeds him as general manager.
“That’s going to be up to him. Ultimately, he knows he’s going to have the decision-making authority to do that,” Elway said.
“My idea is to give my opinion and let him know what I think is right and wrong, but use my experience of where I’ve been and hopefully that can help him and help him get to the right decision.
“He’s still going to be in charge of that, but I would hope that somebody would want to come in this role and be able to bounce things off me with my experience as a player as well as a GM.”
It’s the kind of role that Ozzie Newsome plays now for the Ravens — although as an executive vice president with the club, a position into which he transitioned after the 2018 season. Elway said that he recently spoke with Newsome about what such a role would look like.
John Elway and Ozzie Newsome share a smile as they leave a session at the 2016 NFL Annual Meeting in Boca Raton, Fla. (PHOTO: ANDREW MASON)
“I’ve been good friends with him for a long time so you have a great deal of respect for Ozzie and I knew that he had moved up,” Elway said.
“I think the bottom line is … we all want to stay in football, we just don’t have the time or the energy anymore to do the day-to-day stuff. He had such a great career and he moved up, and he seems to be very happy in the role he’s in now.”
Elway appears happy with the decision, too. He seemed at ease during the Zoom press conference. Perhaps he was looking forward to the time he’ll spend golfing, relaxing and being a doting grandparent of seven children, including one born to his daughter, Jessie, on Monday.
“There’s nothing better than being a grandfather,” Elway said. “It’s much better than being a parent. You don’t have to discipline them, you get to spoil them and they always like you.”
Broncos Country will always like Elway, too.
In 26 seasons as a player and the Broncos’ chief football executive, he ran his race — and ran it better than almost anyone else. With two Super Bowl rings from his playing days, one from his decade running the Broncos’ football operations and even a title ring from his six-year hitch in the late Arena Football League, he hit the apex in all three stages of his pro-football life.
Now, like a grandparent, he gets a taste of football. He gets the good stuff. If there’s a massive football decision to be made, no one is going to padlock the doors to keep him from walking in and offering input, if the new GM so desires.
And then Elway can go home to leave the messy parts to the generation that follows him. The shadow won’t be long, not just because of the frustration of the last four years, but because Elway wants to experience different aspects of life as he enters his seventh decade.
