BRONCOS SELECT GEORGIA TECH DT
Broncos draft Australian tackle, hard-hitting safety in second, third rounds
Second-round pick Adam Gotsis is a defensive tackle who got his start playing Australian rules football growing up in Melbourne.
The Broncos don’t do predictable. Thursday night, they traded up to draft their quarterback of the future, Paxton Lynch. He will compete for the starting job, leaving Denver satisfied with its trio of veteran Mark Sanchez, second-year pro Trevor Siemian and Lynch.
General manager John Elway identified Lynch as his top target and moved quickly to secure him. Conviction and surprise remained the reverberating themes Friday. Elway, who relishes scouting in the field, landed a defensive tackle. This didn’t turn heads after the loss of Malik Jackson and Antonio Smith. The name did.
Elway selected Georgia Tech’s Adam Gotsis with the 63rd pick, a rugged 282-pound player who is recovering from a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee he hopes is healthy by September. Gotsis predicted last week he could go anywhere from the second round to the fifth, but Broncos defensive line coach Bill Kollar stumped hard for him.
“He’s big, athletic, strong, long,” Elway said. “He got hurt last year. He hasn’t played a lot of football. The amount he has played, it’s really
good. He’s a guy we think has a really high ceiling.”
With Darian Stewart entering the last year of his contract and David Bruton gone to Washington, the Broncos filled a need in the third round, selecting hardhitting free safety Justin Simmons of Boston College. He posted 67 tackles and five interceptions last season.
“I can’t wait to learn from the best defense in the country,” Simmons said.
He is considered an elite athlete. He demonstrated quickness and delivered a 40-inch vertical leap at the NFL scouting combine.
“He’s versatile. He’s going to fill a lot of roles,” coach Gary Kubiak said, noting how Simmons can complement safeties T.J. Ward and Stewart. “We have added a big piece to the puzzle. This was a great get.”
Australia carries a reputation for producing tough athletes. But not producing American professional football players. Gotsis, 23, provides an intriguing skill set as a run stuffer, and is attempting to carve out a niche in history as only the fourth Australian position player to appear in an NFL game.
He projected as a fourth-rounder in his NFL.com draft profile. But Elway didn’t believe he would be available as the last pick of the third round. The Broncos did extensive homework on Gotsis, who was introduced to American football when he watched a video of the Southern California-Texas 2006 national championship game. After excelling in Australian rules football for eight years, he made the switch. He earned team MVP honors for the Monash Warriors in 2010 in a pseudo recreational league, where the crowds were “30 people surrounded by a roped off field. It was just guys out there loving the game,” Gotsis said.
It set the stage for an opportunity at Geor- gia Tech. Coach Paul Johnson was looking for a kicker when alerted to Gotsis. He became a full-time starter as a sophomore, was team captain as a senior and finished his career with 27½ tackles for losses. He blew out on his knee Oct. 31, and now will work under highly regarded D-line coach Kollar, who helped Derek Wolfe and Sylvester Williams take significant strides last season.
“I think I was playing at a very high level before I got injured,” Gotsis said. “My film shows that the game was coming to me; I think that is when you know you are ready for the next level when you are seeing the play before it is happening, and you can have an effect on it that way. It’s been an unreal process. I am ready for that next level and that next challenge.”
Eleven Australians have played in the NFL, including eight kickers and punters. Running back Jarryd Hayne made the 49ers’ roster last summer, becoming national news in his home country. Gotsis is poised to make his mark after his leg heals.
“It’s an awesome feeling. Coming up there is going to be fun,” Gotsis said. “They have true professionals and guys that leave it all out there.”