ENGLEWOOD, Colo. – Earlier this week, Executive Vice President of Football Operations John Elway sat down with Chris Hall of Broncos TV for the Week 3 installment of their weekly podcast "Elway Access," presented by US Bank.
Elway took a look back at the Broncos 41-23 win against the Broncos and took a look forward to the Monday Night Football matchup with division-rival Oakland.
The Broncos lost Ryan Clady to a foot injury in last week's game and has since been placed on injured reserve. Before the move was official, Elway expressed his confidence in Chris Clark on the podcast.
"Any time you lose a guy like Ryan Clady – who's an All-Pro tackle and a guy that's been the cornerstone of our offensive line and really has never been hurt – it hurts," Elway said. "But the bottom line is Chris Clark played throughout the preseason. We've got a great deal of respect for Chris and think that he'll come in and do a great job and think that we'll be able to not miss a step. I think that anytime you lose a guy like that, you do (miss a step), but everyone else has to pick it up, too."
The Broncos are preparing, without Clady, for their first AFC West game of the season now as the Raiders will be at Sports Authority Field at Mile High on Monday night. Elway addressed some of the unique challenges that the Raiders present.
He described quarterback Terrelle Pryor as a "Cam Newton-type" and a young player with a tremendous amount of upside. Elway added that he can "do some damage if you don't keep him in the pocket and under control."
The Raiders, who are 1-1 this year, have gotten off to a promising start and the Broncos have taken notice. Elway praised the Raiders and said that the Broncos will have their hands full.
"They're doing a tremendous job," he said. "(Raiders Head Coach) Dennis (Allen), as you mentioned, is feeling much more comfortable in that position. With all the talk of the demise of the Raiders, if you look at the first two weeks, they very easily could be 2-0. They went to Indianapolis and lost a close one there to Indy but really got after (QB Andrew) Luck and pressured him. And they had a good win last week against Jacksonville.
"So we know our hands are full, like you said, it is on a Monday night which will be exciting for the players as well as the fans. We know we've got our hands full. (Terrelle) Pryor is a quarterback that's an athletic guy that moves around. (RB Darren) McFadden had over 100 yards rushing last week. We know that we're going to have to come out and play well because the Raiders are a better football team than people think they are."
The game Monday will be the 66th time the Broncos have played on Monday Night Footballand the 33rd time it's been at home. The Broncos are 28-36-1 in those games with a much better winning percentage at home – 20-11-1.
On the podcast Elway recalled a couple of Monday night games that stood out in his memory. He mentioned beating the Bears in November of 1987, 31-29, and then falling to Joe Montana and the Chiefs in October of 1994, 31-28.
"Unfortunately that's becoming such a long time ago that I have to go back and review it and then I say, 'Oh yeah, I remember that,'" he said. "But it was always fun playing Monday night at Mile High. I remember a Bears game where it was back-and-forth the whole night – we ended up winning late. But I also remember the Chiefs game that we had here on a Monday night where we scored late and then Joe Montana took it down and they scored late, too.
"So, (there are) a lot of fond memories on Monday night, some good, some bad."
For more from Elway, listen to the entire podcast here.
