John Elway sent a clear message with his first-round pick

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — In the wee hours of a frosty Indianapolis morning, at an infamous local burger shack, a Broncos source uttered the following sentence to a couple of BSN Denver reporters: “If we can add the right pieces, Joe Flacco is a top-ten quarterback in this league.”

That, along with the other information we gathered at the NFL Scouting Combine—including one source telling us the staff shifted their focus away from quarterbacks after the Flacco acquisition—led us to a pattern of reporting that suggested the Broncos would not be selecting a quarterback with their first-round pick, something that most thought to be a likely scenario at the time.

On Thursday, the Broncos followed that pattern, with John Elway telling us after the first round that the team did not consider any quarterbacks with their pick at 10, or after trading back to 20. Instead, Denver doubled down on 34-year-old Joe Flacco, and got him one of those pieces that they believe can help vault him into the NFL’s top 10 signal-callers.

Flacco, meet Iowa tight end Noah Fant, your new best friend.

Fant is an absolute athletic freak, who clocked a mind-blowing 4.50 40-yard dash in Indy. For some reference, that’s faster than George Kittle (4.52), who you may remember running past the entire Broncos’ defense last season. That’s also faster than fellow first-round pick N’Keal Harry (4.53), a wide receiver that stands two inches and 22 pounds beneath Fant.

The fresh-faced tight end, calls himself an “eraser” for the quarterback.

“It means that if the quarterback misses any type of read or is struggling or anything and needs to bail out, he gets it to the tight end,” he explained. “That’s where I come in, trying to be a dynamic tight end where maybe those mistakes can turn into touchdowns. That’s something that’s very important and something that I hopefully look to do for the Denver Broncos.”

You don’t think Flacco will mind throwing it up to a 6-foot-4 tight end with a 40-inch vertical, do you?

Let’s put it this way, during his last two seasons in Baltimore as the full-time starter, Flacco’s leading receivers in terms of receptions were Dennis Pitta (86) and Benjamin Watson (61), two guys who were on the wrong side of 30 at the time. Will all due respect to two longtime NFL tight ends, neither of them possessed the toolbox that Noah Fant will bring into the league.

On Thursday night, as Joe Flacco sat on a flight from Denver to Philadelphia, John Elway sent him a resounding message: You. Are. Our. Guy.

“We obviously want to get him as many weapons as we can,” Elway said of his unquestioned QB after the round.

The message to Broncos Country: Get on board. It’s Flacco or bust.

Don’t act surprised.

In the end, there were many different directions Denver could have gone with their first-round pick, but as we took a look at it leading up to Thursday, it boiled down to two things: Are they going to double down on their investment in Flacco, or are they going to double down on their investment in head coach Vic Fangio?

When push came to shove, the Broncos went with the option that needed more help, giving their new quarterback, and their new offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello, a very shiny new toy.

As the night dwindled down and the first round came to a close, a BSN Denver source sent a text regarding the mood when Fant came available at No. 20: “[Scangarello] was fired up!” it read.

It’s safe to say Flacco had a similar reaction. Now it’s up to the former Super Bowl MVP to make his bosses look smart.

Outside the walls of the UC Health Training Center, folks are scratching their head wondering why Denver passed up on both Drew Lock and Dwayne Haskins. Inside those doors, it was a no-brainer.