DeMarcus Ware has plenty on his mind these days, not the least of which is readjusting to a 3-4 defensive scheme under Wade Phillips after spending a year working in Jack Del Rio’s 4-3.
He’s also wrapping his head around once again serving as mentor to a promising young pass-rusher, Broncos first-round draft pick, Shane Ray, not to mention other personnel developments that will impact his team in 2015.
But the “survey says” that the most difficult question he had to answer so far this preseason was, “What is one thing a guy names after himself?”
That’s because Ware just wrapped up a filming an NFL edition of “Family Feud” in which he, Antonio Brown, Antonio Gates, Nick Mangold and Terrell Suggs took on opponents from the NFC.
Following Tuesday’s mandatory veteran minicamp practice, Ware met with the media and spoke on all the tough questions he’s been asked this week, including what a guy names after himself.
The full audio is available below, courtesy of DenverBroncos.com.
[ca_audio url_mp3=”http://prod.video.broncos.clubs.nfl.com//DEN/videos/dct/video_audio/2015/06-June/150609_ware_presser-32k.mp3″ url_ogg=”” skin=”regular” align=”none”]Some highlights from his press conference (in text form) include…
“With Shane [Ray], he’s like a sponge right now. Him being a rookie, just figuring out where he fits in the defense, how and what position he’s going to play, but also learning from Von [Miller]—two different type of mentalities of rushing. I’m more of a technique guy that’s been here for a while and just really teaching him more film work, more of learning how to read the tackles. And then Von, both of us working on technique work with him. So he’s getting the best of both worlds.”
“When they drafted him [Ray] in the first round, I just knew that this is a guy that’s coming in here that can really wreak havoc. That’s what I really thought about it. I thought about now instead of having two guys, you have three guys. And then you have Wade [Phillips] here too, so my mentality of them bringing in a third guy is because we’re going to be that type of pressure team that’s going to be able to bring that pressure and make those big plays in key situations with all three of us in the game.”
“…When you think about him [Montee Ball] being almost a starter last year and them him getting hurt, just the ups and downs of the season—he’s not taking any of that for granted. He’s coming out here and really coming out with a tenacity of ‘You know what? When you give me that ball, I’m trying to get to the end zone,’ and that’s what we need.”
“…He [Sylvester Williams] was right behind Terrance Knighton and he didn’t get a lot of playing time, and now he’s getting that play time. He’s getting that confidence of being that guy in the middle you’re going to have to count on. I can see that confidence, especially in the pass rush. Also, with coach teaching him so many things—and the whole defensive line—those guys are really coming together as a conglomerate group.”
So what did Ware name after himself?
As we reveal in our inaugural Fathers Tribute edition of Mile High Sports Magazine, Ware named his son – DeMarcus Jr. – after himself.
“A son” was, not surprisingly, the number one answer to the Feud question.
Apparently the “survey says” Ware got it right on both fronts.