It’s a well-established fact that the Broncos face some tough personnel decisions this offseason. With the NFL Combine and free agency approaching, those decisions need to be made well if the Broncos hope to field another championship team.
Head coach Gary Kubiak had a lot of positive things to say about the youth on the Broncos’ roster, and with Peyton Manning likely retiring, the Broncos look to their young players to lead the way.
A lot of big names need to be courted and paid without breaking the bank this offseason. What cannot be overlooked is the draft and the chance to bring new talent into the fold. Like many great coaches, Kubiak has his eye on the right players for his team, rather than the best athletes on the field.
On Wednesday, the media got the opportunity to speak with Gary Kubiak at the 2016 NFL Combine press conference.
Kubiak on Denver’s young running backs
“Well, Ronnie [Hillman] is a free [agent]. I’ve got to get all of my ducks in a row here. Both those guys (Hillman & C.J. Anderson) did a really good job for us. [RB] Juwan [Thompson] had some injuries for us. I think he’s got a bright future. We’ve got a young man on our practice squad—Kapri Bibbs—who I think fits what we want to do. We’ve got four good young players, and hopefully Ronnie is still part of that. We’ll go from there. I thought we got better as the season went along. Keeping C.J. healthy I think is the key moving forward.”
Kubiak on Brock Osweiler’s growth as a player
“I think he has a bright future, obviously. He did a heck of a job for us. He started seven games for us. He played against some really good people in some tough situations. He played very well. I think he has a bright future. Obviously we think the world of him. We want him to be a part of our football team. We have a lot of guys that free [agents] like that. He’s been real special with the job he’s done this year. I think he’s grown a great deal.”
Kubiak on adapting the offense to the quarterback
“That questions is easy for me to answer because this year we went through a lot of the same type of stuff. I think as a coach you have to adjust. We went through about three different offensive football teams throughout the course of our season. We had a veteran—one of the greatest players this league has ever seen—and then we had a young player for seven weeks. You have to adjust as coaches and do what’s best for your football team in this league and find a way to be successful this week.”
Kubiak on offensive line priority in the draft
“We went through a great deal—a lot of tough times this year. You guys know that. Worked on tackles four and five through most of the year. I think with the situation we went through, we had to move some guys around. [G] Evan [Mathis] and [G Louis] Lou [Vasquez] were beat up a great deal of time. I would think of it this way. First of all, I think we’re young, and so I like our future from that standpoint. At the same time, we feel like we definitely have to improve. Does that make it a high priority? I don’t know. We’re going prepare for this draft at every position just like we do each and every year. Obviously it’s a position that we feel like we need to improve upon offensively.”
Kubiak on evaluating offensive linemen that played in a spread offense
“It is more difficult, I think, because of the types of things they are doing. Especially watching them in the run game. When they are in the spread game it’s a little bit of a different type of run game as far as watching a guy come off the ball and power-type football and those types of things. I think evaluating their football knowledge [is important]. In my history with guys—we had a guy like [G] Max [Garcia] last year that came to play for us from [the University of] Florida. Through this combine and through our time with Max, we knew talking football to him that he could make a quick transition. I think that’s really important—their football knowledge and how quick they can help you.”
Kubiak’s take on a coach’s role in the draft
“It’s very important. You can’t sit here as a coach—that’s John’s business dealing with the free agents, taking care of all of those things. You’re trying to keep those things in place. As a coach, our job is to go out and evaluate, which is what we’ve been doing the past couple of weeks. Trying to evaluate real quickly. Our season is very long. Try to suggest to John that we think we can get better. Now we’ve got to go evaluate these young men and come back with a good idea of what they can do and how they can help our football team. I think every draft is big and obviously this one will be very important to us.”
Kubiak on how to plan personnel at the tackle position
“I think what you see in our league is if you have a staple at left tackle—a Pro Bowl player—you can help the other player a lot in certain situations. If you’re not in that [situation], it’s hard to help two guys, especially with great pass rushers and defensive coordinators who move people around. That makes it more difficult. Obviously tackles are extremely important positions. We played with a young one in [T] Michael Schofield this year for I think 13 weeks and then [T] Ryan Harris, who we picked up midway through the [offseason]. They battled for us and did a good job but I think if you’re going to throw the football and protect the quarterback it’s a very important position.”
Kubiak’s thoughts on Ty Sambrailo
“He’s doing very well. The expectations are for Ty to be there when we go to OTAs.”
Kubiak’s thoughts on Cody Latimer
“I think he made a lot of progress this year, especially the last eight weeks of the season. I think Cody has starter ability in this league and that’s what you’re looking for. He’s playing behind two really good players. He’s become an excellent special-teams player, which was a different for our football team. He might have been as good a special-teams player—he and [CB] Kayvon [Webster]—as we had probably the last eight weeks of the season. I think Cody is a confident young man and think you’re going to continue to see him grow.”