Elway’s “soft” comment riles players

Broncos players have little clout with a 3-7 record. But when they heard the comments of general manager John Elway on Friday that maybe they got “soft” after the bye week, the four-letter word didn’t sit well with many in the locker room.

“John watched this team every day,” coach Vance Joseph said Sunday following the team’s 2017 loss to Cincinnati. “He’s watched every meeting. He’s watched every practice. He watches every game. When he said that, I was initially offended. But in some aspects, he’s right. When you’ve lost that many games in a row, you have to do things in a tougher manner.”

Von Miller, who said Sunday’s loss to the Bengals hurt especially hard, echoed the feelings of his coach.

“He’s the head guy. His comments — he’s the boss,” Miller said of Elway. “… 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.”

Nose tackle Domata Peko agreed. The numbers, he said, back Elway.

“Losing five in a row, that’s soft,” Peko said. “How many turnovers we’ve been giving away, that’s soft. Dropping punt returns, that’s softness. Letting people run on us last week and the week before — that’s what coach was telling us, too, and he showed us that last night. I feel like today we were out there playing hard as hell. I didn’t feel too soft today out there. I felt really good. That’s just constructive criticism that, as a man, you’ve got to take it.”

Receiver Demaryius Thomas said it felt like Elway was calling out everyone — players and coaches — and that Joseph mentioned it Saturday night as a reminder before they took the field. Thomas, like Miller and Peko, couldn’t argue with Elway’s assessment.

“He wouldn’t have said it if he wasn’t telling the truth,” Thomas said. “We’ve lost six in a row. I think there’s a little softness in us somewhere, and he’s talking about everybody, including me.” But not all agreed.

“We definitely didn’t take kindly to those remarks,” linebacker Brandon Marshall said. “I understand this is his team and he put it together, so his name is on it. But it’s our skin in the game. Nobody is soft on this team. We work our (butt) off, and we work hard. We play hard, and we go out there and give it 100 every game and every practice. We just fall short.”