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John Elway emphasizes patience for Jerry Jeudy, reflects on Peyton's Places experience

Dec 10, 2020 at 05:02 PM

Ben Swanson

Managing Editor, DenverBroncos.com

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — It's not pleasant to take lessons from a loss — especially an 11th consecutive one to the Broncos' hated rivals.

Still, after the Broncos battled the Chiefs in a hard-fought 22-16 loss at Arrowhead Stadium, there were some good things the team did, President of Football Operations/General Manager John Elway said in an interview with DenverBroncos.com's Phil Milani.

"I think we competed very well, and I think that we hung in there and really had a chance to win that football game," Elway said. "We played great in the red zone and did a heck of a job down there against a very, very good [team] — the defending champs. … So we've just got to continue to build off that, realize that we can play with the top teams in this league and just play a little bit more consistent and also be able to make some plays in tough situations. If we do that, then we've got a shot.

"I think it was a good confidence vote for our team because we hadn't played well the last couple times we've played the Chiefs. So it was better to go out there and be real competitive with them."

Preaching patience for Jerry Jeudy

A loss, no matter how competitive and how good the opponent, though, was bound to leave players frustrated. One player who appeared particularly frustrated was Jerry Jeudy, who had just one catch for five yards against the Chiefs.

Asked what advice he'd share for the rookie, Elway simply preached patience.

"It's just a matter of being a little bit patient," Elway said. "Sometimes that ball's not going to come your way, and that's when you have to be patient and realize that different defensive teams are going to do different things. And so it's unfortunate we weren't able to get him the ball, but he's always going to be a guy that's featured in our offense. And so hopefully we can get him some more catches this week."

Regardless, Elway noted that Jeudy's first season has still been impressive.

"I think Jerry's come in and had a tremendous year for us, especially when you look at the circumstances with no offseason and no preseason, with what he's done and come on and played as well as he has," Elway said. "Jerry's going to have a tremendous career in this league."

Appearing on Peyton's Places

On Sunday, ESPN+ debuted the newest episode of "Peyton's Places," which featured Elway as a guest. In addition to an interview with Elway about his life around the game, host Peyton Manning joined him to break down film from "The Drive" and to try to recreate the "Elway Cross" by throwing a football at such a velocity that the nose would be imprinted on a receiver's chest.

"It really was [a lot of fun], and Peyton does such a great job with that show," Elway said. "He's really good at it. So it's always good to spend time with him. He's a lot of fun to spend time with, to talk to him about it and the questions that he comes up with are always very unique. It was really a lot of fun. And also to be able to revisit 'The Drive' back in 1986 and talk about that. He brings back very, very fond memories. It was a lot of fun to do it."

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Crew members affix a Broncos barrel onto a gelatinous ballistics dummy by screwing it into suspenders before the taping of an episode of Peyton's Places at Empower Field at Mile High on June 26, 2020. (Photo by Ben Swanson)