Mile High Report
The pre-Draft presser offered little surprise, but as usual, it had a few interesting clues to uncover.
It’s finally Draft Week – and less than 72 hours from Denver’s first-round pick – which means it gets harder to decipher the subterfuge from the subtle hints about which player a team is genuinely interested in drafting.
Like many, I have sifted through the press conference statements to get clues – and there are some – but they can easily cancel each other out.
One quote may lean heavily toward staying at No. 20, not overthinking the needs and choosing the best running back for your scheme and room.
“There are a lot of runners in this draft. Certainly it’s an opportunity, but they are different types of runners. Some of them are physical, down-hill runners and some of them are guys who can take a misdirection, scissors-type run and go the other direction with it. It just depends on what you are looking for. We love Bo, but we are not talking about Bo in these meetings a lot. It’s more about how do they add to what we do offensively?” - head coach Sean Payton
Another quote may hint at trading up to get the guy everyone has been talking about as a generational player that happens to be a position your team could benefit from in a huge way.
“We haven’t drafted [a running back in the first round] where I’ve been, but I benefited from Adrian Peterson. I got there right after they drafted him. He impacted that organization for a long time. If you can find a guy like that, you take him right away. If he’s the best player on your board, he could impact your team. I think you take him regardless of the position.” - GM George Paton
A third quote might indicate the best move will be trading back, amassing draft capital because you can get just as good a player later as you could at 20 and then you can add even another potential starter with two picks in the early rounds.
“I think it’s all about your vision and your vision for the player. ... if you have a real clear vision for how you want to use them, I think it’s just the team’s feeling for how good that player is and what type of career we think he can have. Then sometimes it’s just the way the draft unfolds. Sometimes [when] you don’t take one, it’s not that you don’t want to take one, it’s just that maybe another position landed in your lap.” - Payton
And then, there’s always that quote that is either metaphorical or confusing — or both —, that you have to wait and see if it makes more sense on Draft Night:
“We are on the tee box and ... we can’t be afraid of talking about our goals and where we see this team,...
