ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — The Broncos continued their general manager search Friday afternoon with an interview of Chicago's Champ Kelly.
Kelly, the Bears' assistant director of player personnel, is the second candidate to interview with the Broncos. George Paton interviewed with Denver on Friday morning.
For the last four seasons, Kelly has held his current role in Chicago and has been in charge of a variety of tasks, according to The Athletic's Dan Pompei.
"He's responsible for a lot of things," Pompei told DenverBroncos.com. "His role is pretty broadly defined. He [evaluates] the draft players every year that they rate in the top 100, and then he also does a lot of the pro stuff. He's involved in a lot of the IT stuff, because of his background, in terms of how that relates to the scouting staff. The other thing is, it's kind of an unofficial role, he's also kind of a conduit, I think, between the front office and a lot of the players. He seems to have a good relationship with a lot of the players, which is kind of unusual for a guy in his position. He's able to kind of bridge that gap."
While in Chicago, Kelly overlapped with Head Coach Vic Fangio, who spent 2015-18 with the Bears.
Kelly also has a strong connection to the Broncos' franchise, as he spent eight years in Denver from 2007-14. He began in Denver as an area scout before becoming the assistant director of pro personnel.
Kelly interviewed with the Jets in 2019 for their GM role and reportedly has the interest of several teams in this interview cycle.
In addition to Kelly and Paton, the Broncos will reportedly interview New England's Dave Ziegler, New Orleans' Terry Fontenot and in-house candidate Brian Stark.
