I just finished up moderating a fan forum with Executive Vice President of Football Operations John Elway and Director of Player Personnel Matt Russell.
Season-ticket holders were able to ask them questions during the hour-long conference call, and it was a pretty fun experience for everyone involved. We’ve held a few fan forums in the past and we’ll hold more going forward this season.
Some of the more interesting notes to come out of the call were Elway’s thoughts on the addition of new Director of Pro Personnel Tom Heckert, Russell’s comments on Ryan Clady and Elway comparing Montee Ball to Terrell Davis.
Below are some quick hits from the fan forum. We’ll have more from the call over the next few days.
Elway on Heckert:
“Well, we’re thrilled to have Tom. He’s a guy that, as you said, he has 20 years of experience in the NFL. He’s got general manager experience, and he really started on the pro (personnel) side. So for him to come in and be our director of pro personnel, he’s going to add a great deal of knowledge on the pro side, as well as player evaluation. So we’re thrilled to have Tom. We think he’s a great addition, and we’re glad he’s with us.”
Russell on the atmosphere in the team’s draft war room:
“We’re prepared. We’ve done our work. We don’t really stress out about our picks; we just go with our board, and like I said, the work’s been done with our area scouts, and we have a great scouting staff, so we go with our board, we look up at the board, and it’s pretty laid-back prior to our pick, and then maybe three or four picks before us, we start to get intense, maybe that’s making trade calls or getting calls from other teams, but we lay back and we try to compose ourselves. We kind of know who we’re going to take when the time comes to pick.”
Click to continue reading “Elway, Russell Talk Heckert, Rookies, Clady in Fan Forum”
