DENVER BRONCOS QUOTES (4/10/17)
HEAD COACH VANCE JOSEPH
Opening comments
“Well, the Honeymoon is over; it’s football time. I’m excited. The players seemed excited this morning with a good turnout. It’s time to go to work.”
On his message to the team this morning
“It was a friendly reminder of how much time we have to get ready. It’s not much time. For us, it’s 38 days to get ready for the Fall season. There is not much time. There is no time to waste. That was the overall message.”
On how he would gameplan for the team’s offense if he were an opposing coach
“I would definitely take away the two receivers (Demaryius Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders). That would be my first priority. If the running game was obviously intact, that would be tough to do to Load the box with enough guys to stop the running game and having enough coverage for those two receivers. Again, running the football is the ultimate way to put the defense at risk. If the running game is intact with those two receivers, it’s almost impossible to stop the offense.”
On QB Trevor Siemian’s expected availability in OTAs
“Trevor is full-go. He’s been cleared to be a full participant in the offseason program. He is full-go and ready to go. No issues.”
On RB C.J. Anderson’s expected availability in the on-field portion of OTAs and whether there is concern with his injury
“It’s the offseason. I have no concerns. Phase 1 is designed to get the players into football condition. I have no concern with C.J. as far as getting in shape. The first game is not until the fall. We’ve got plenty of time to get him into shape. Obviously with C.J., we’re going to take it slow and make sure he is really ready to go for OTAs. That’s the most important date for C.J. That’s when the full practice starts.”
On QB Paxton Lynch
“He’s been fine. He’s been around the last couple of weeks. He’s been engaged. He’s excited to be here. He’s got a big smile on his face, so that’s important.”
On whether the quarterback competition is completely open
“It is open—50-50. It’s an open competition. We have these two young guys that have bright futures. It’s open and it’s going to go down to the wire, I hope. Right now, it’s a new system that is going into place here with [Offensive Coordinator] Mike McCoy. It’s a fair and open competition. The best guys will play.”
On building an offense with two quarterbacks with different skillsets
“I think the structure of your offense won’t change. That would come into play more when the game-planning stuff starts in the fall. Right now, the overall structure won’t change whether it is Trevor or Paxton playing the quarterback position for us now. It’s Mike’s basic offense, basic route tree and basic run-game going in, so that won’t change until the fall.”
On how many players were in attendance today
“I didn’t take roll, but it was a good turnout.”
On what he wants to come away with in OTAs
“That takes time. I’ve met probably half the team until today. It takes time to kind of see what you’re working with here. Obviously the film in the past discussion about players, that kind of helps you. But as far as knowing what we’ve got to work with here, that takes time. That’s going to take an entire offseason to figure out. I’m looking forward to it though.”
On adding more ‘juice’ to the running back position
“I think overall to our offense in general [we need to] add more juice there, whether it’s a receiver or a running back. Every good offense needs a guy who take the ball from the L.O.S. (line of scrimmage) and go the distance with it. It’s important to have that aspect of an offense. Running back, receiver, wherever it comes from, but definitely having more juice on offense is a must in my opinion.”
On whether the starting left tackle is on the roster
“It’s hard to say. We don’t play for a while. Now, if we played tomorrow, absolutely.”
On who on the roster would be the starting left tackle
“I don’t know. We’ve got four or five candidates that are going to compete for the job. I don’t know who it would be right now, but we don’t play until the fall, so that’s a good thing.”
On characteristics he wants to see in his players
“You want guys that are tough and fully engaged and love to win. Defensively, that secondary, all four guys are always fully engaged, very competitive and tough guys. That’s what you want on offense. You want guys that hate to lose and every day come into work doing it. That’s important. From that perspective, offensively we’ve got some guys that can fill that role, but I want more.”
On adding ‘juice’ to the offense by using Thomas and Sanders in different ways
“Absolutely. We’ve got those two guys and probably a good two or three more guys that we can use differently to create more juice. When I say more juice sometimes, it’s not necessarily a player playing better. It’s a type of player that I’m referring to.”
On whether there are players with ‘juice’ in the draft
“From the first round to the fifth or sixth round. That’s not by accident that you find guys like that. It’s by purpose. You have to have an idea what it looks like and go find those guys because they won’t fall to you. You have to go find those guys.”
On how Cowboys QB Dak Prescott’s success affects scouting
“I wouldn’t say everyone missed on him. He went to a good football team. He went to the perfect team for a young quarterback with a big time running back and an experienced and dominant offensive line. It wasn’t a miss on Dak, but he went to the perfect football team. That plays a role with quarterbacks. Most of those guys get drafted really early to—I wouldn’t say bad, but—average to bad football teams. That’s the issue with young quarterbacks. When they go to teams that are more established and teams blocking and playing defense around him, they play better. Dak is an example of going to the right football team.”
On C Matt Paradis’ health
“He’s fine. He’s still rehabbing. Our goal for Matt is going to be July 1.”
On whether there are offensive tackles in the draft that can start from Day 1
“I’m not going to share that with you, but I think there are a couple guys that we have been studying that can help us.”
On rookie offensive tackles in the draft that can start on Day 1
“I’m not going to tell you who they are (laughing).”
On what Lynch can do to impress the coaches
“Paxton was obviously a first-round pick for a reason. He’s a big guy with a big arm and is very athletic. I think playing that position is about decision-making. If he does those things better, he has a chance to compete to be our starting quarterback.”
On his confidence in the tight ends on the roster
“We’ve got a bunch of prospects there. Overall, it’s a group that is filled with different types of players. It’s a good group. Obviously with a different system, hopefully some of those guys can rise to the top, but we’ve got plenty of options there.”
On whether he feels like there is more that he knows or doesn’t know about the team
“I think it’s more what I know. Every game [tape] is available. Every report from their draft class is available. If you work at it and study it, it’s all there. There won’t be any surprises.”
On how he has divided his attention between the players on the team and the draft
“As far as our personnel, that’s been done and over for about a month now. This month has been more about the draft. It takes time. It’s a stage of information gathering, so it takes times, especially the offense. It takes a lot of time. It is our draft prep right now. Our players, that’s been done and over with about a month now.”
On attending Denver Nuggets and Colorado Rockies game this past weekend
“It’s been fun. It’s a great sports city. The city has grown since I lived here before. It’s a big city now. Traffic, wow, heavy traffic (laughing). But it’s great to get out there and see the Rockies on opening day and going to the game last night. The Nuggets didn’t pull it off, but it was a great game.”
On getting more comfortable with the different things that come across his desk
“It’s OK. It’s part of the job. I kind of embrace that part of the job. Whatever happens each day, we’re going to fix it and move on to the next day. But the pile never goes away. There is always big pile of stuff to do. It’s always a big pile. It never goes away. Don’t even try to make it go away. Just work with it every day and the next day work with it again. Hopefully by the end of the year, it’s all done.”
On whether he feels the team got meaner in free agency
“Meaner? I guess, yeah. Tougher and meaner up front, there is something to be said about that because those teams do win. Big and tough works up front. [NT Domata] Peko is a guy that is obviously big and consistent. He’s a tough guy. I think [DE] Zach Kerr is that way. I thought [G Ron] Leary was the nastiest guard in free agency. [T Menelik] Watson is a big, tough guy also. Absolutely, big and mean works.”
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