Inside the Broncos’ team auditorium Friday morning, college scouting director Brian Stark presented Player A to a group of coaches, scouts and executives scattered about the team’s draft hub.
Stark listed all the relevant information — height/weight, key statistics, etc. — that served as a re-introduction to the prospect.
Then the debate started … and continued … and progressed. For nearly an hour, the player’s pluses and minuses, ceiling and medical history, suitability and make-up were dissected.
“You can probably guess the position,” general manager George Paton said with a laugh.
An educated guess is quarterback considering Paton’s Pro Day travels over the last month, the Broncos to-date lack of additions to the position and their draft spot (No. 9).
“Even if it’s a late-round guy, sometimes you just get to talking about how he fits, his strengths, his weaknesses, his character and maybe the area a scout disagrees with the coach and then you put on the tape,” Paton said.
Over the last week, during early-morning to late-evening meetings, Paton has led the Broncos’ draft preparations. The team has nine picks during the April 29-May 1 event. Paton is The New Guy — among those in the meetings, he predates only two assistant coaches — so he is equal parts learning the scouts/coaches while also making judgments on the prospects. A full plate that is typical for a new general manager.
“It’s a really good process; I’ve been really impressed,” said Paton, who was hired Jan. 13 after John Elway moved to the role of president of football operations.
During a phone interview with The Denver Post, Paton pulled back the curtain on the Broncos’ draft process. The benefit of attending Pro Days. His impression of scouts he didn’t hire. How many players they have met with via Zoom. And the trade calls.
“I’ve already heard from teams that want to move up (to No. 9) … I’ve heard from one team that wants to move back (from the top eight),” Paton said.
Pro Days, Zoom calls
The coronavirus pandemic, and the ensuing rules established by the NFL, created another layer of challenges for every team. There were limits on the number of college games (if any) scouts could watch in-person last fall. The combine was canceled. Pre-draft visits — teams are usually allowed 30 — were prohibited for a second consecutive year. And Pro Day attendance was limited to three officials per NFL team and they could only talk to the prospect via Zoom video conferencing.
To gather as much information as possible, Paton hit the road.
Over the past month, Paton attended Pro Days at North Dakota State (quarterback Trey Lance and offensive tackle Dillon Radunz), Penn State (linebacker Micah Parsons), Notre Dame (linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah), South Carolina (cornerback Jaycee Horn), BYU (quarterback Zach Wilson) and Ohio State (quarterback Justin Fields).
Paton was booked to go to Alabama on March 23, but opted to stay home to finalize safety Kareem Jackson’s one-year contract and meet face-to-face with new cornerback Kyle Fuller.
Paton has always found attending Pro Days, particularly ones involving quarterbacks, beneficial.
“It’s so much different than tape,” he said. “How does the ball come out of their hand? How fast do they spin it? Are they poised? How do they handle the pressure?
“The Pro Days I went to, the (quarterbacks) had a lot of coaches and a lot of GMs watching. When they make a bad throw, did they let it get to them? Were they emotional? Did they get fazed? There is just so much you can see. We didn’t see a lot of these guys live this year so it was important to see them at their Pro Days.”
Another plus, Paton said, is seeing the body type of the players. Are they really six-foot-and-something and weigh 200-and-something? How are their lower-body mechanics, which can be better ascertained with an in-person view?
“You feel a lot better about taking a player if you’ve seen them live,” Paton said.
Teams could not meet with prospects “live” but were allowed unlimited Zoom calls. Paton estimates the Broncos conferenced with “over 200,” players.
“I would say our whole ‘front board’ — our ‘front board’ are players we would be willing to draft,” he said.
Impressed with scouts
To account for social distancing, the Broncos have transformed their team auditorium into a draft room. Last year, the pandemic forced the entire organization to conduct draft meetings from their homes.
Upward of 30 people are in the room at any one time — Paton, Elway, coach Vic Fangio and the coaching and scouting staffs.
At the front of the room are three giant video boards. The middle screen is the Broncos’ draft board and is flanked by two screens that run the player’s tape so it can be seen by those throughout the theatre-like room. Underneath the big screens are multiple 60- to 70-inch monitors that include medical and psychological information.
“It starts with the football operations department and the way they set up the team room for us to have our meetings and our draft in there,” Paton said. “They’ve done an incredible job and I’ve been really impressed with the whole operation.”
Particularly important has been the college scouts traveling to the Denver area — the Broncos’ March draft meetings were conducted via Zoom so this has been Paton’s first chance to meet them.
“On Zoom, you can tell how they evaluate players and their background and how detailed they are, but it’s really hard to get a feel for a scout or a person via Zoom so it’s been good to get them here in-person and just talk and talk about players and situations and our team and everything involved,” said Paton, who has not added to his player personnel department since being hired. “I didn’t know a lot of these guys, but I’ve been really impressed from top to bottom.”
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Before/after and sometimes during meetings, Paton’s cell phone will ring. Every team is preparing for the draft from top to bottom — as Paton said, a late-round player sometimes merits a lengthy debate, too — but the focus is at the top, which is the focus of the calls.
“It’s happening now,” he said. “It seems to happen earlier and earlier every year. (This) week, we’ll start getting calls and the week of the draft is when things start heating up and the day of the draft is when it really heats up.”
Which team would look to move down to No. 9? Wisdom suggests Atlanta at No. 4, whose depth chart needs replenishing, and Detroit at No. 7, which should be looking to add picks for its rebuild. The Broncos moving up five spots would likely cost them next year’s first rounder. Moving up two spots likely would not.
No matter the scenario, no matter the round, Paton will be prepared for his first draft in the big chair.
“We feel we’re in a good spot,” he said. “There is going to be a really good, impact player (at No. 9) and we have the flexibility with the draft capital we have to move up or move down.”
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