The Denver Broncos have yet to decide who will be the next general manager to lead this team into the next era. A week away from John Elway resigning from GM to take on an “elevated” role in the head office, the Broncos have held five interviews to get a chance to work.
One candidate has already retired after interviewing Dave Ziegler of New England, who leaves Brian Stark’s internal option and the three external candidates competing for the job, starting with Minnesota’s George Paton, Terry Fontenot of New Orleans and the Champ Kelly in Chicago. None of the candidates interviewed have GM experience, although Paton has been the closest to the “big chair” to which he cites 9 NEWS‘Mike Klis, an insider.
Klis joined The unit the 104.3 The FAN on Monday evening to provide an update on the state of affairs in the search for Elway’s successor Broncos successors. Among the topics chosen in Klis ’conversation with hosts Darren McKee and Tyler Polumbus was the respective view each GM candidate had on Drew Lock during the interview process with Elway, CEO Joe Ellis, Vic head coach Fangio and head of communications Patrick Smyth.
It turns out that each candidate had a different decision about the direction the Broncos would take on the quarterback if they got to work. Klis compensated himself by saying that he was not “aware of all this” and that he was not sure what was “discussed”, while on the next blow he dropped that seed.
“I’m not very aware of all this,” Klis told McKee and Polumbus. “I know it was discussed. There were general opinions about, ‘If you get a chance to go find a top-tier quarterback, you have to try it,'” There’s No One in the Free Agency o [via] trade will be better than Drew Lock, [so] you have to get it out of the project, ”“ Give it more time, you’ve invested a lot of time. You better be with him and we’ll get a quality veteran backup in case he slips. And I’m not sure who was with whom in those opinions. “
(Listen to the clip at 35:00)
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In short, there were three views, but two of them would keep Lock as a starter, just in different conditions. A candidate would do his best to get a “top-tier” QB in the NFL draft. Another candidate would stay with Lock as The Guy in 2021, mainly because of the investment the team has already made in him and the lack of viable options in the free agent and trade market, while the latter boy would stay with Lock but protect himself by stepping back by signing a competent veteran backup.
We have no way of knowing which candidate professed what prospects, but takeaway food is one of three options, only one would look at the draft for an immediate update / replacement to Lock. No doubt fans will try to theorize and speculate on which candidate said what, but for now only a handful of people know the answers: the candidates themselves and the Broncos hiring committee. Chances are Klis knows which candidate said what, but he’s not about to spill these beans on the airwaves.
Elway, as president of football operations, will want to be “consulted” on all the “big” decisions the next GM will make. What can be described as “big”? Klis offered an extra insight into his illuminating conversation with The unit.
“A quarterback decision would be‘ big ’if Drew Lock is resigned and Matthew Stafford is taken away,” Klis told McKee and Polumbus. “And John won’t make the final decision on it. He’ll just say, ‘Look, I understand you want Stafford. Personally I think Drew Lock, if you give it a little more time, can benefit the Broncos. That’s why I like Drew Lock, he’s two years old [in] but he really only had one year of development with the time he lost as a rookie through injury and the time he lost in the second year due to lack of OTAs and preseason. ”So I could argue. “I don’t think he’s involved in Justin Simmons. I don’t think he’s involved in Von Miller.”
Another common issue among these GM candidates, according to Klis, was the priority to re-sign Pro Bowl safety Justin Simmons. And while Broncos Country might not want to hear it, none of the candidates seemed willing to get Von Miller back for the final year of his contract at the current cost of $ 17.5 million, despite the first push it would be to try to negotiate a restructuring. however this might seem.
“All these GMs, when they were interviewing, almost everyone tried to say,‘ Try to get Justin Simmons; Justin Simmons should be a priority to get him back. “Finding out how to get Justin Simmons back,” Klis said The unit. “And Von, the feeling was,‘ Try to get him back into a kind of contract, to see if we get a new contract. You can’t return it for $ 18 million. But I think it was nice how much all the GMs thought about these two players. ”
These are the momentous decisions that the new GM of the Broncos will be fixing on the barrel when they are hired; Lock, Simmons and Miller. For now, Paton seems to be the favorite to get the job, but, as Klis said Monday, he is very “demanding” when it comes to finding the right one for his first chance at being GM.
Paton and Kelly could start immediately, if an agreement is reached, while the Broncos would have to wait for Fontenot until the Saints bounce back from the playoffs or until after the Super Bowl, according to the former. Klis raised the possibility that the Broncos would consider Kelly as the “second in command” ideally, not as GM’s actual contract, which opens a new can of worms.
But, remember, the Broncos are not only occupying Elway’s former job as GM, but they also want to replace Matt Russell and hire a new player staff director. This would require two new hires at the reception. If Paton proves to be too costly or demanding and the Saints continue to be successful in the playoffs, Klis could predict a “second wave” of GM interviews in Dove Valley.
“If they don’t get Paton and Fontenot it’s in the playoffs and they can’t get it for a while, and they want Champ to be second in command, but maybe not the first, that’s where I think they could open up backup,” he said. dir Klis a McKee i Polumbus.
If a second wave develops, watch out for former Texas Tex GM Rick Rick Smith and former Falcons GM Thomas Dimitroff. They both have GM experience and Smith has a working relationship with the Broncos on his NFL resume.
Follow Chad on Twitter @ChadNJensen i @MileHighHuddle.