Four takeaways from Friday's pre-camp press conferences

On the last day of the Broncos’ offseason Joe Ellis, John Elway, Vance Joseph, Demaryius Thomas and Chris Harris Jr. met with the media. They spoke about a potential sale of the team, Case Keenum, their third cornerback, and a host of other topics. Here are the key takeaways:

THE SEARCH FOR THE NEXT OWNER HAS NARROWED

The Broncos ownership situation has cast a bit of a cloud over the organization since Pat Bowlen had to step down as controlling owner seven years ago.

This summer, the situation flared up when Beth Bowlen pushed to become the Broncos’ owner, only to be rejected by the Broncos trustees. With Beth unlikely to take the reins, the last Bowlen with a clear path at the job seems to be her 28-year-old sister Brittany.

Joe Ellis shared some more information about Brittany during his press conference, Friday.

“She’s expressed an interest to us, I will say that,” he said. “She’s taken some steps, some good steps along the way in terms of education. She just finished up her MBA at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business, is headed to work for one of the world’s, frankly, leading consulting companies, McKinsey and Company. We talked it through and she’s going to get some incredible business experience there from strategic management through marketing, finance and overall management perspective when they work on case studies and stuff.”

Ellis added that she understands that she isn’t ready to take over quite yet and that there are no imminent plans to transfer ownership.

“She’s worked here a little bit, but she hasn’t been here much as an employee,” Ellis said. “She will come back some day, I’m assuming, so we’ll see where it goes from there.”

In the past, Ellis has held firmly that the Broncos wouldn’t be sold, but he eased his foot off the brakes on Friday when he was asked if the trustees have talked about a sale.

“Not really. Pat said if no child is qualified, then you should sell the team, but he would like us to make every effort to see if a child is capable of, has the ability to and has earned the right to sit in his chair.”

Elway reiterated that Broncos fans shouldn’t be worried about the team’s ownership.

“Mr. Bowlen put a plan in place and wanted the trust to execute it,” he said. “In my opinion, I have total confidence in the fact that is going to happen the way that Mr. B wants that to happen. And the people on the trust know Mr. Bowlen very well and what he wanted. I will just tell you, I’ve had zero heartburn when it comes down to what is going on with the ownership because it’s not going to affect what we do on the field.”

THIS IS CASE KEENUM’S FOOTBALL TEAM

If this wasn’t clear when Case Keenum signed a two-year, $36 million contract earlier this offseason, it is now: Keenum is the leader of this offense.

“We have a starter,” Joseph said. “That’s exciting. It’s exciting for our team. Obviously, the football part, but [also] the leadership part. When you’re competing to be the quarterback, it’s hard for a guy to be a great leader. It’s Case’s team. It his first time being the guy, he’s embraced the role of being a leader and obviously, he’s won games in the past. It’s definitely given us clarity for our football team, and we’re not guessing who the quarterback is going to be. We’re not guessing who the leader’s going to be. It’s Case.”

Demaryius Thomas is also excited to have a true number one quarterback this season.

“You don’t have to get used to more than one guy. It’s just one guy now,” he said.” “I think the first thing I saw from Case was that he knows—I can’t say every quarterback knows where to go with the ball, but just being around Case, he knows where to go with the ball. He reads the coverage so fast, so he knows who he needs to be on and who not to be on. That was one of the biggest things, and he’ll extend the play for us. He has a very catch-able ball, so I look forward to it and getting better and better week in and week out.”

The only quarterback battle this year will be between 2016 first-round pick Paxton Lynch and the last pick of the 2017 draft, Chad Kelly.

When John Elway said that the pair would compete for the backup job earlier this spring, it was easy to brush the comment aside as garden-variety front office. But Elway doubled-down on his comments on Friday.

“It’ll be a good competition at two and three with [QB] Chad [Kelly] coming in and competing,” Elway said. “We’ll see where that falls.”

With Case Keenum locking down the starting job, the loser of Lynch and Kelly could find themselves without a roster spot at the end of camp.

THE BRONCOS EXPECT A JUMP FROM VANCE JOSEPH IN YEAR TWO

Vance Joseph says he learned a lot last year and that he expects the team to take a step forward during his second year in charge.

“I think every coach in this league, every year, gets better,” he said. “From [Eagles Head Coach] Doug Pederson to myself, everyone gets better. Last year is last year. Obviously, it wasn’t a great year for us, but that’s behind us. We’re moving forward.”

Elway supported the sophomore head coach, as well.

“I think there’s no question that in that first year as a head coach, you think you know what might be involved being a head coach, but once you get in the middle of it and go through it—then I think he understood what it took to be that head coach,” he said. “We’re looking into this year, Vance used those experiences that he had last year. The staff, he’s added some quality people to his staff that I think will help him there, but also, Vance is going to take the reins. With that year under his belt and the experiences that he’s had before that, I’ve got full confidence that he’ll take a hold of those reins, know that it’s his show and go from there.”

And if Joseph hits a rough patch this season, he’ll have Super Bowl-champion head coach Gary Kubiak just a few doors down, waiting to give him advice.

“His door is always open,” Elway said.

THE NEW TARGETING RULES WILL BE A BIG CHANGE… OR MAYBE NOT

Chris Harris Jr. isn’t thrilled about the NFL’s new rule penalizing players for lowering their head into contact.

“I think it’s going to be a huge impact because a lot of teams already have guys that are on the tipping scale of, ‘If you do one more hit like this then you’re going to get fined even more,’ so their leash is real slim,” he said.

The new rule allows referees to kick players out of the game when they hit defenseless players above the shoulders. While the NFL’s goal is to reduce the number of concussions, Harris is concerned that the players won’t be able to adjust.

“I know we’re going to preach and practice hitting low and try to hit with our eyes up,” he said. “I see that’s going to be a huge problem this year just because the NFL is so violent. It’s so hard to slow down. Someone runs a slant down the middle of the field, it’s hard to tell a safety to slow down and not try to kill that guy. It’s going to be a huge impact, I think. Guys have to be slower and think about how they are going to tackle now.”

Joseph, on the other hand, isn’t concerned with the change.

“As coaches, we changed the way we’ve coached tackling years ago,” Joseph said. “That’s not going to change from a coaching perspective. In my opinion, it won’t change the league much because when you look at last season, it was only probably seven to eight hits that we don’t want in the game. Those hits can’t happen, and guys should be punished, in my opinion, for acting that way on the football field. It’s about respect and playing the game the right way. I think the coaches have coached it differently for the last 10 years, so I don’t see that happening any differently in training camp.”