Thread: SI: An oral history of the 2011 NFL draft

Fun read I randomly found today. What a great draft class 2011 was. Worth the read if you have some time, but here are the Bronco-related parts:

Schefter: Marty Hurney stood in the face of the critics and did what he thought was right, and he turned out to be right. . . . Then he lost his job anyway [after Carolina started 1–5 in 2012]. . . . At No. 2, Miller was ticketed for Denver all along. They needed pass-rush help. And Von had no issues.

John Elway (Broncos GM): He was as athletic as anybody I’ve ever seen. That size and speed; that talent. . . . Obviously Cam was up there too. We looked there [despite having Tim Tebow and Kyle Orton on the roster].

​​​Von Miller: I met John at the combine. I could tell on John’s face—I could tell on everybody’s face—they were really excited about meeting with me. They wanted me. It was different than any other meeting I had.

Whaley: On draft day we were thinking, Denver will probably go with [Alabama defensive tackle] Marcell Dareus, and then we’ll get Von Miller. We thought they’d go with an interior guy instead of an outside guy.

Schefter: I wish Doug had called me. That was one I knew.

Miller: At the draft, you kind of know—but you really don’t. I really didn’t know.

Elway: There were a lot of good football players [in that draft], but Von was a guy you could build an organization around.

Chris Harris Jr.: It was hard for me to find an agent; a lot of guys turned me down. But what made it even harder is that after the draft, teams couldn’t pick up undrafted guys like me right away because of the lockout. We couldn’t talk to anybody. I had to wait until July before I actually knew where I was going.

Dalton: We could do the media stuff the next day, but then we couldn’t even talk to coaches. We didn’t have OTAs, any of the minicamp stuff.

Kiper: They didn’t settle the lockout until July, so the off-season work—that prep that puts these players in a better position entering the season—they didn’t have that. Maybe that’s one reason Jake Locker and Christian Ponder and Blaine Gabbert were slow to contribute.

Dalton: You want to have time to learn an offense and get to know the guys around you. We didn’t have that.

Harris: That whole time, from April to July, I’m thinking, Man, am I going to be in the league? When the lockout ends, will they know about me? The Broncos were really the only team that wanted me. As soon as the lockout was up, they called me the next day.

http://www.si.com/nfl/2016/04/26/201...ton-von-miller

Good read.

That's where Denver had an advantage. How difficult could it be to coach Von Miller? "See the man with the ball? Run at him as fast as you can and hit him really hard."

Nice find.