Gerard Warren sums up the difference between Cleveland and Denver quite simply.
"At Cleveland, we went out there hoping to get better," he said last week. "Here, we go out there thinking we're going to win a Super Bowl."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/10/sports/football/10broncos.html#secondParagraphThe addition of Gerard Warren, Courtney Brown, Ebenezer Ekuban and Michael Myers gives Denver Coach Mike Shanahan, above, options.
If the Broncos are going to contend for a Super Bowl this season, it could come down to the Cleveland castoffs - Warren, Courtney Brown, Ebenezer Ekuban and Michael Myers - four defensive linemen who moved west in hopes of recharging their careers and winning a title.
They were together again last Wednesday, this time wearing Broncos blue on the first day of the team's mandatory, three-day minicamp.
"We've got depth there," Coach Mike Shanahan said. "Now, we get a chance to see what people can do and what the pecking order will be."
The addition of all these former Browns - members of the worst-run defense in the league last season and a defense that averaged only two sacks a game - raised eyebrows around the league. But really, the four acquisitions came at a low risk and a low price for the Broncos - especially considering the possible upside.
In Ekuban, the Broncos got a sixth-year veteran who had eight sacks last season but underwent knee and shoulder surgery at the end of the season. Myers, a seventh-year veteran, has 11½ sacks in his seven-year career, spent mostly as a steady, versatile backup.
Brown signed an incentive-filled, one-year contract - not a bad gamble to get the injury-prone Brown, who was the top pick of the 2000 draft.
Warren, meanwhile, came in a trade for a fourth-round pick. He was the third pick of the 2001 draft and has underachieved through his career. But he is in a contract year and has every reason to play hard this season.
"Gerard Warren has done a great job this off-season," said Shanahan, who earlier indicated that Warren's off-season conditioning would be important to his success. "He hustles, he fits into our system very well."
Coaches and teammates raved about Brown, who finally made it to the field after missing 14 games last season and most of this off-season with a foot injury.
"The biggest human being I've ever seen in my life," defensive lineman Trevor Pryce called him.
Warren said, "I don't think anyone in the league can block him one-on-one."
Larry Coyer, Denver's defensive coordinator said: "You get Trevor Pryce again. He's got speed, a phenomenal attitude, he's a very high character guy. There's no question he's a first-round draft pick. He's talented. He wants to. If God smiles on him, he'll be out there."
Also on the line, the Broncos have Marco Coleman, Luther Elliss, Mario Fatafehi, Anton Palepoi and Pryce, who most thought would be gone in the off-season, but who signed a new contract for less money and says he feels good as ever.
"I'm no more hungry than I already was," Pryce said, when asked if his expected departure from Denver gave him something to prove. "You're hungry because you're a football player and you want to help your team win."
Warren, pretty much for the first time in his career, sees more than a rebuilding project ahead of him. To hear him tell it, it makes a big difference in the attitude. It's why he thinks he and the rest of the ex-Browns could be better than what they were in Cleveland.
"Everyone on this team comes in with the mission to win the Super Bowl," Warren said. "That's what gets me fired up."
"At Cleveland, we went out there hoping to get better," he said last week. "Here, we go out there thinking we're going to win a Super Bowl."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/10/sports/football/10broncos.html#secondParagraphThe addition of Gerard Warren, Courtney Brown, Ebenezer Ekuban and Michael Myers gives Denver Coach Mike Shanahan, above, options.
If the Broncos are going to contend for a Super Bowl this season, it could come down to the Cleveland castoffs - Warren, Courtney Brown, Ebenezer Ekuban and Michael Myers - four defensive linemen who moved west in hopes of recharging their careers and winning a title.
They were together again last Wednesday, this time wearing Broncos blue on the first day of the team's mandatory, three-day minicamp.
"We've got depth there," Coach Mike Shanahan said. "Now, we get a chance to see what people can do and what the pecking order will be."
The addition of all these former Browns - members of the worst-run defense in the league last season and a defense that averaged only two sacks a game - raised eyebrows around the league. But really, the four acquisitions came at a low risk and a low price for the Broncos - especially considering the possible upside.
In Ekuban, the Broncos got a sixth-year veteran who had eight sacks last season but underwent knee and shoulder surgery at the end of the season. Myers, a seventh-year veteran, has 11½ sacks in his seven-year career, spent mostly as a steady, versatile backup.
Brown signed an incentive-filled, one-year contract - not a bad gamble to get the injury-prone Brown, who was the top pick of the 2000 draft.
Warren, meanwhile, came in a trade for a fourth-round pick. He was the third pick of the 2001 draft and has underachieved through his career. But he is in a contract year and has every reason to play hard this season.
"Gerard Warren has done a great job this off-season," said Shanahan, who earlier indicated that Warren's off-season conditioning would be important to his success. "He hustles, he fits into our system very well."
Coaches and teammates raved about Brown, who finally made it to the field after missing 14 games last season and most of this off-season with a foot injury.
"The biggest human being I've ever seen in my life," defensive lineman Trevor Pryce called him.
Warren said, "I don't think anyone in the league can block him one-on-one."
Larry Coyer, Denver's defensive coordinator said: "You get Trevor Pryce again. He's got speed, a phenomenal attitude, he's a very high character guy. There's no question he's a first-round draft pick. He's talented. He wants to. If God smiles on him, he'll be out there."
Also on the line, the Broncos have Marco Coleman, Luther Elliss, Mario Fatafehi, Anton Palepoi and Pryce, who most thought would be gone in the off-season, but who signed a new contract for less money and says he feels good as ever.
"I'm no more hungry than I already was," Pryce said, when asked if his expected departure from Denver gave him something to prove. "You're hungry because you're a football player and you want to help your team win."
Warren, pretty much for the first time in his career, sees more than a rebuilding project ahead of him. To hear him tell it, it makes a big difference in the attitude. It's why he thinks he and the rest of the ex-Browns could be better than what they were in Cleveland.
"Everyone on this team comes in with the mission to win the Super Bowl," Warren said. "That's what gets me fired up."
