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View Full Version : John Elway Talks About What He Learned From The Vance Joseph Hire, Paxton, Keenum and Other Topics!



Cugel
01-14-2019, 02:56 PM
Elway talks (https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2019/01/14/nfl-divisional-playoffs-saints-patriots-rams-chiefs-fmia-peter-king/?cid=pftstory) about "what I learned" from the Vance Joseph coaching hire, and his thoughts about Case Keenum:



What I Learned

Time flies. Denver GM John Elway, who last week completed his eighth year as Denver GM and president of football operations by hiring his fourth coach (John Fox, Gary Kubiak, Vance Joseph and now Vic Fangio), on his lessons learned in coach-hiring and team-building, in his post-Hall of Fame-quarterback life:

“The key thing I learned in the coach-selection process: Cover your bases thoroughly and get the best candidates that you can and don’t make your mind up going in. Don’t draw any conclusions before you go into the coaching interviews. Take each interview in the moment and do not pre-draw it. Don’t combine it with the other ones and don’t make your mind up when you walk out. Be as thorough as you can and try to find the right guy that fits your job at that point in time. So that’s what I learned. I’ve probably pre-drawn my thought process going in before. I talked to [Vance Joseph] before the process a couple of years ago, and knew him, and going in, I had an idea that he was kind of our guy. I admit it. I was wrong on that one. I don’t like to say it out loud because I don’t want to offend VJ, who is a good football coach. But things didn’t work out.

“The other thing that I’ve learned is that the bottom line in this league, it’s about winning. Forget about anything else. You want to do things the right way and we work on everything else. It’s very difficult to do it year in and year out unless you find a franchise quarterback. And, you know, we drafted Paxton Lynch in the first round [in 2016] and [head coach] Gary [Kubiak] was on board with Paxton and I thought he was a good fit with what Gary did. And then Gary gets sick and can’t do it anymore. Now all of a sudden we change a whole system that we had drafted a quarterback for. And once that [public] tidal wave started against him, he is getting bashed, and it’s hard for a 23, 24-year-old kid to beat that.

[This particular comment ignores the fact that Paxton has had half a dozen interviews and couldn't find a spot on any NFL roster last year. He's washed up in the NFL. ]

“Obviously, we’ve got to—Case [Keenum] is probably a short-term fix—find the long-term guy for us. When we do find that guy, we’ve got to have the continuity on the offensive side to where we can train him and develop him and get him in there. This is our fourth offense in probably three or four years. Quarterbacks need to be developed. You don’t find one ready-made. We got to have a solid system in place for when we do go after whatever guy it may be, a young guy or a trade or whatnot.

[This kinda suggests that it might be 2020 before they find that QB and he's justifying building up the team first in 2019, knowing they are not competing for this division with Keenum (or Joe Flacco or Nick Foles for that matter.)]

“Here’s the big difference I’ve learned between being the quarterback and being the GM. The number one thing that goes untold about a quarterback, if you’ve got the right one, is that everyone believes that he will always give you a chance to win. The quarterback’s a leader. Guys look up to him. But the quarterback isn’t in charge of his teammates’ livelihood. Right? I wasn’t in charge of whether they’re on our team or not. As a GM, it’s a lonely spot. You have to make those tough decisions that aren’t necessarily gonna be liked at the time but might be the best thing for two years down the road. But when it works out two years down the road, people are not coming back and going, That was a helluva decision by Elway back there two years ago! As a GM, the upside comes from you doing the best you can and feeling like you’ve done the right thing. It comes from within.

“But there’s no question that my experience as a quarterback helps me deal with the ups and downs. Having been in the heat as a quarterback for all those years and now being in this position, I get it. You’re still human and you don’t like it, but you know how to get along and not let what’s being said on the outside affect you.”