Broncos General Manager John Elway said on Friday that he thinks his team has gotten “a little bit soft” since opening the season with a 3-1 record.
When Elway said that, the Broncos were losers of five straight games. When reporters had a chance to talk to Broncos players on Sunday, they were losers of six straight and well aware of the comments after coach Vance Joseph brought them up on Saturday night.
Linebacker Brandon Marshall said “nobody is soft on this team,” but Elway’s feelings found a more receptive audience elsewhere in the locker room. Wide receiver Demaryius Thomas said Elway “wouldn’t have said it if he wasn’t telling the truth” and linebacker Von Miller agreed with that take.
“He’s the head guy. His comments -- he’s the boss,” Miller said, via the Denver Post. "... I was kind of taken aback by it, which you should be. If you have any kind of emotion about you ... your reaction should be: ‘What? I’m not soft.’ But if you take a look back at it, the truth is, that’s what we’ve been putting out there. That’s the type of team that we’ve developed into. That’s what we got. It’s the truth. He’s telling the truth.”
At some point, it’s just a question of semantics because any adjectives Elway or anyone else chooses to use is just a different way of stating that the Broncos aren’t very good this year. Six straight losses and a 3-7 record make it impossible to argue that assessment.
