ENGLEWOOD -- Training camp is officially finished for the Denver Broncos. They had a good camp.
Case Keenum was the reason.
As for the Broncos’ preseason so far? They had a good camp.
“Obviously the game was a little bit of a hiccup, maybe a wakeup call for us,’’ Broncos general manager John Elway said Thursday about his team’s 42-28 loss last week to the Minnesota Vikings. It was worse than that for the Broncos as their first and second teamers had just one first down at halftime to 14 for the Vikings. “But up until that point, camp had been very good. So it was a little bit of a wakeup call that first game realizing that we have to take it from the practice to the field. As much as we didn’t want that hiccup it was probably a good hiccup for us.’’
Elway didn’t come right out and say it, but it does sound like he will explore bringing in a backup quarterback with experience. For now, Chad Kelly, who has yet to take an NFL regular-season snap, is the Broncos’ No. 2 quarterback.
“We’ll wait and see what happens,’’ Elway said. “We’ll wait through this week and see what happens and go from there.’’
The Broncos GM was much clearer that Colin Kaepernick would not be his backup.
“I said this a while ago, but Colin had his chance to be here,’’ Elway said. “We offered him a contract. He didn’t take it. As I said in my deposition - I don’t know if legally I’m able to say this - but he had his chance to be here. He passed it.’’
Elway was referring to March 31, 2016, when he hosted Kaepernick for a recruiting meeting at his Cherry Hills home. Elway was joined by his top front-office deputy Matt Russell and then-Broncos head coach Gary Kubiak.
The Broncos’ brass tried to convince Kaepernick to take a pay cut from a guaranteed $11.9 in 2016 to $7 million. In return, Kaepernick could leave the sad-sack San Francisco 49ers – who were 5-11 under Jim Tomsula in 2015 and were about to go 2-14 under Chip Kelly – to the defending Super Bowl-champion Broncos who needed a quarterback to replace the retired Peyton Manning and free-agent departed Brock Osweiler.
Elway inferred to Kaepernick that if he stayed with the rebuilding situation in San Francisco in 2016, he might have trouble getting another big contract in 2017. The Broncos’ offer, Elway said, was better for the long-term.
And while there was no guarantee the Broncos would have kept Kaepernick for the 2017 season, Elway’s instincts were correct -- the quarterback hasn’t played since 2016.
Some believe Kaepernick is getting blackballed by the league for starting the wave of protests against this country’s social injustice by kneeling during the National Anthem -- a position he took while with the 49ers and a few months after spurning Elway’s offer.
9NEWS reported Elway was deposed by Kaepernick’s lawyers in May during the quarterback’s collusion grievance claim against NFL teams. Elway essentially told the lawyers it was Kaepernick putting money over winning that turned him off. Not the anthem controversy.
Meanwhile, it is Swag -- not Kap or Pax -- who will get the next chance to become the Broncos’ backup to Keenum.
Elway seems more concerned his starters play much better Saturday night against the Bears than they did last week against the Vikings.
“What I would like is to see us take a little bit more pride in what we did, and say, ‘Listen, we want to get off to a good start,’’’ Elway said. “We didn’t do that, so that was the disappointing thing. I think now, knowing this week that we’re going to get things started and get off to a good start, start getting into a flow of things and the starters have to play—the mindset has to (be) that we’re here to get ready to play that opening game against Seattle.”
