Miles
Well-known member
- Mar 18, 2019
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FROM A DAY 1 SCARE TO SMOOTH SAILING
About 15 minutes before the NFL Draft broadcast began, the Vic Fangio broadcast ended.
"We were on a Zoom session," Boxer recalled, "and Vic's [screen] went black."
Luckily, the Broncos had stationed a support staffer to be available for everyone. Lazzaro was at Elway's house; Boxer covered Thewes and Director of Pro Personnel A.J. Durso, each of whom lived near him; and Trainor was on-site for the head coach.
Fangio had been encountering some slow internet speeds earlier in the afternoon, and Trainor called Comcast for some urgent on-site support. The minutes ticked away before they diagnosed a couple of poor-performing connectors, and at around 5:45 p.m., they brought down the internet.
"That was not the prime time, but his internet was too unsteady not to do it going into the draft," Trainor said. "So I made the call to get it fixed. And we got him up literally, it was 5:59 was when he came back alive, when his modem came back alive and everything started working. … I didn't want Coach not to be on those leadup conference calls with John and [Director of College Scouting] Brian [Stark] and Mark and A.J. and everybody else on those calls."
It was a bit stressful as time got tight, and it would require more maintenance on Friday morning, but Trainor truly earned the rare honor of trying Fangio's meatball recipe.
Other than those hiccups, things went pretty smoothly throughout the draft.
As personnel and coaching staff members prepared to decide on their selection, Thewes provided "situational recognition." When necessary, he put trade offers, medical reports from Director of Sports Medicine Steve "Greek" Antonopulos, scouting reports and background information on everyone's screen for them to review. He also kept an eye on league rules, reporting and compliance.
As the decisions were made, Thewes then had the important task of calling the newest Broncos to deliver the exciting news, transfer them to Elway and Fangio and then tell them the next steps as they prepare to begin their NFL careers.
Lazzaro had a particularly tough logistical balancing act, as he had to submit each of the picks (no typos allowed — he checked his spelling of Albert Okwuegbunam's name five times before entering the pick in Round 4), ensure Elway was able to field the calls transferred from Thewes and then record the calls on video. As the time shrank between each pick, that became more and more difficult. Eventually, Lazzaro recruited help from Elway's family to record the calls for the entirety of the third day of the draft.
"The time we're actually on the clock is chaotic, as it would be [normally]," Lazzaro said. "We'd wait to get them on [the phone with] the player, once we decided on a player. Mark would make the call to get the player on the phone initially and we wanted to make sure we got ahold of him and make contact with the player before we actually submitted the pick. Once we got that initial call in, I would submit the picks into the league. John would tell me who we wanted, so I'd submit that pick and try to answer the phone as it was coming in to him, so that John could talk to the pick and transfer the pick from John to Vic — and then in the meantime of that process, also try to record the phone calls and stuff for [digital media]."
It would be a very eventful three days for the team, of course, but the fact that it was largely uneventful from a technological standpoint proved the value of the Broncos' preparations.
"Because of the preparation and planning we did, I don't think it changed that much to be honest," Thewes said. "I would much rather be together in a room with everyone and feel the energy and teamwork that goes into the whole process — that part was missing just a little. Normally there is a bigger sense of camaraderie and celebration after a pick is turned in, but overall it was largely the same operationally. … This year I missed having the scouts in town for the draft since they put so much effort into the process throughout the entire year and are so vital to the results."
That said, it certainly made for a more memorable draft than usual.
"It was definitely a surreal experience," Lazzaro said. "I think this was my 22nd draft, and the rest of them kind of over the years start blending together for me. This is one I definitely won't forget. It was definitely a unique experience — hopefully something we don't have to replicate too many times. But I thought it was a real opportunity for us, to be honest. I felt really good technologically [with] where we were at, so it was a good opportunity to put a lot of that to the test and see it in action."