John Elway gives key insight on the future of the Broncos' roster

Last week, on a short family getaway to the Bahamas, Jack Elway posted a picture to his Instagram story of his dad’s briefcase with a binder popping out that read “Broncos 2018 Free Agency.” Along with the picture, Jack added, “Wouldn’t you like to know.”

Yes, we would, Jack. Yes, we would.

Fans, reporters and every other NFL organization around the country would like to know the Denver Broncos’ plans for the rest of free agency and the offseason. While we didn’t get to see the inside of that binder, we did find out some insight on the team, potentially information that was inside the all-encompassing binder.

On Sunday, at the first day of the NFL’s Annual League Meeting in Orlando, John Elway opened up on what he knew, and didn’t know, about the future outlook of the Broncos and their plans moving forward.

As the third week of free agency begins, Elway didn’t close the door on more moves being made by the Broncos, telling Nicki Jhabvala of the Denver Post, “If it’s the right guy in the right situation for us, we’d still do something.”

However, after Denver acquired RT Jared Veldheer on Friday in a trade with the Arizona Cardinals, the Broncos only have a few million dollars left in cap space—after accounting for the future draft class—so if additional moves will be made, it likely won’t be many.

One of those moves could be at tight end. Elway told Mike Klis of 9 News Denver has “been looking for tight ends for a long time.”

“We’ll continue to look for them and try to find one there,” Elway said. “You never know what happens through either free agency or trades so we’ll try to address that.”

Right now, the Broncos currently have a young stable of tight ends including Jake Butt, Jeff Heuerman, and Austin Traylor, none of which have been a starter for an entire season in the NFL.

Along with the addition of Veldheer—who is expected to be moved to right tackle—other changes are expected to the offensive line. Elway said “the plan right now” is to move Ron Leary back to left guard.

Left guard is Leary’s natural position, but he was moved to the right side last year in an effort to help fellow guard Max Garcia. Garcia’s role as a starter, however, seems very much in jeopardy after Elway didn’t even mention his name when discussing the team’s options at right guard for 2018.

“We got (Connor) McGovern in there and (Menelik) Watson may be able to play some guard, so maybe move him inside,” Elway continued. “And then obviously we got the draft here, too.”

Fortunately for Denver, a major strength in the 2018 draft class is the guard position, with Quenton Nelson being a potential candidate for Denver with No. 5 overall pick as well as Will Hernandez and Isaiah Wynn in the second round.

As for the draft itself, Elway laughed at the idea that Denver knows who it will select at No. 5 overall.

“It’s kinda funny — everyone thinks they know where we’re going. I don’t know where we’re going yet,” he said, before saying their possibilities are wide open. “We’ll have to wait and see.”

Another wait and see is the future of running back C.J. Anderson. After coming off his best year as a pro—topping 1,000 yards on the ground for the first time in his career—Anderson has been on the trading block this offseason as he’s set to make $4.5 million in 2018.

Elway wouldn’t give reassurances that Anderson would be in Denver next year, telling Klis he “may or may not” be a Bronco.

“Who knows? We’re going to continue to massage this thing, figure out what’s best,” Elway said. “We’ll see where it takes us. There’s a lot of moving parts when you talk about cap and type things.”

Elway used his spotlight on Sunday to again call out the leaders of his team, specifically when asked by Klis about Von Miller, Demaryius Thomas, Emmanuel Sanders, Derek Wolfe, Chris Harris Jr., Brandon Marshall and Darian Stewart.

“For us to get back to what we want, which is compete for a championship, those guys have to play better,” he said, maintaining the message the entire offseason that the team just simply needs to play better.

As for another player on the team, Elway also told Klis the “plan so far” is to have defensive end Adam Gotsis attend the team’s offseason workout program, which begins April 16. Gotsis is currently being investigated for strong-arm rape that allegedly happened in 2013.

“We’ll see how that goes,” Elway said, referring to the investigation. “But so far we are planning on having him train with us.”

Later in the day on Sunday, head coach Vance Joseph told Jhabvala that Bradley Roby is not guaranteed to be Denver’s No. 2 cornerback. It was expected Roby would be given the job after the team traded Aqib Talib at the start of the new league year. However, with the addition of cornerback Tramaine Brock in free agency, Joseph expects a battle for the No. 2 spot.

“We’re hoping that [Brock] and Roby battle it out and the best guy wins the job as the No. 2, and whoever doesn’t win the job as the 2 is the 3,” Joseph said.

The final tidbit of the day was Denver met with Yale OLB Foye Oluokun after his pro day a few weeks ago held at Fordham University. Oluokun trained with Broncos’ new strength coach Loren Landow during the offseason and ran a 4.48 40-yard dash at his pro day.