DENVER -- Seated on a stage in the Broncos locker room at Sports Authority Field at Mile High, Executive Vice President of Football Operations John Elway – as well as a handful of Broncos players – took questions and had some chuckles with fans on Wednesday night at a sponsor appreciation event for 850 KOA, the Broncos' longtime radio partner. Linebacker Von Miller, guard Zane Beadles, defensive tackle Mitch Unrein, center J.D. Walton and punter Britton Colquitt represented the Broncos at the event, taking the stage after Elway had finished his Q&A session.
The event gave those in attendance a chance to pick Elway's brain on everything ranging from how he's handling the lofty expectations for the upcoming season to the learning curve he's experienced as an NFL executive.
Longtime Broncos play-by-play announcer Dave Logan, who asked football-related questions to Elway and the panel of players, hosted the event.
Legendary Broncos wide receiver Ed McCaffrey, who serves as the Broncos color commentator on 850 KOA, was also present.
After the Q&A session was complete, the players raffled off prizes and signed autographs for fans.
The upcoming season will mark the 44th year that 850 KOA has provided radio coverage of Broncos football.
Here are some of the highlights from the Q&A portion of the event:
Logan asked John Elway about the expectations surrounding the 2013 season and Elway said, "I'm excited about the year. We've got a good football team but we've got to take it one step at a time. It scares me, in my position, when you look at it and you look at the intention, obviously everyone is talking about the Denver Broncos going to the Super Bowl. To me, I don't like counting those chickens before they hatch. So that's why it's important for as a team to keep the focus on where we are day by day by day."
Logan later asked Elway what the learning curve had been like for him in his first two years as Executive Vice President of Football Operations.
"I think there's a tremendous amount of interesting things. There's a lot of depth to this position -- the fact of learning about the salary cap and just the administrative side. The first two years have been a tremendous amount of work learning about the administrative side, who does what, not only in our building but who does what at the NFL and how would you get things done and how you migrate through all those different people to get questions answered."
The players took to the stage to answer some questions. Logan had some fun with the players and asked J.D. Walton, who played at Baylor, to compare Robert Griffin III to Peyton Manning.
"Both pretty fast, get out of the pocket," Walton said.
"You ever kid Peyton about that?" Logan asked.
"Heck no," Walton said with a laugh. "Do what you do and we'll be alright with that."
Logan also had a laugh with Mitch Unrein while talking about the one and only touchdown reception of his NFL career, which came against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during the 2012 season.
"I turned around and saw that the ball was in the air and thought, 'Oh here we go!' It felt like five minutes the ball was in the air – it was really so and I was like, 'Don't drop it. Don't drop it. Don't drop it.' It hit my hands and I brought it in and I got about six steps in because I didn't know where I was in the endzone. I thought you had to get six in, in the NFL."
Miller arrived later in the program and had this to say about getting to the next level in 2013.
"For me the football part, playing football on the field, has always been fun. It's always come easy for me. It's the other stuff that's involved in it, just being a great football player, being a great teammate. I think I definitely need to cut down on the mental errors. In the NFL, everybody is good. So you've got to be able to play within a scheme and be consistent every single day."
