Mixed reaction on Elway ‘soft’ comment from Broncos after loss

Denver Broncos general manager John Elway didn’t mince words when he dropped one of the four-letter variety when describing his current squad: soft.

“I think we got a little bit soft. To be dead honest with you, we got a little bit soft,” Elway said.

During a ceremony to honor newest Hall of Famer Terrell Davis and Ring of Fame inductee Red Miller on Friday, Elway said that after a 4-0 preseason and a 3-1 start heading into the bye the team “exhaled.”

“It’s hard to recover from that,” Elway said.

And after another loss on Sunday, Denver’s sixth in a row to fall to 3-7, the Broncos may not yet have recovered.

“He’s the boss. He made this team, and if he feels like it’s soft, then that’s what it is,” defensive lineman Derek Wolfe said after the game Sunday. “Our play has shown it. We’ve dropped six, or five, I’ve lost count. This stuff is frustrating, and we need to find a way to get it together.”

Wolfe said he’s using Elway’s words as a means of motivation, saying, “As a man, you take pride, and anytime somebody calls you soft you want to come out and prove you’re not soft.”

However, the message was met with mixed reaction by players and coaches.

“When he said that, I was initially offended,” head coach Vance Joseph said after the game. “In some aspects, he’s right.”

Linebacker Von Miller described having a similar reaction to Joseph’s, that he was “taken back” by the general manager’s comments but, upon reflection, agreed.

“If you have any type of emotion about you, if you play soft, 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,” Miller said after the game. “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.”

But Miller’s fellow linebacker Brandon Marshall said he and his teammates didn’t necessarily react in a positive manner toward the remarks.

“We definitely didn’t take kindly to those remarks. 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,” Marshall said after 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 (percent) every game and every practice. We just fall short.”

Wide receiver Demaryius Thomas said Joseph mentioned the remarks as the team met Saturday night to “remind everybody.” Joseph, however, said what was said during that meeting is “obviously private between me and the team.”

Newcomer Domata Peko, who played for the first time against his former squad on Sunday, did shed some light on how Joseph used Elway’s comments as a motivational tool.

“That’s just constructive criticism that, as a man, you’ve got to take it. It starts at the top and rolls its way down. Coach (Joseph) said it best: he called us all that,” Pekos aid. “We’ve just got to come out here and keep working hard and get through that.”

Follow digital content producer Johnny Hart on Twitter: @JohnnyHart7.