Cornerback Drayton Florence

Patrick Smyth, Executive Director of Media Relations ([email protected] / 303‐264‐5536) Rebecca Villanueva, Media Services Manager ([email protected] / 303‐264‐5598) Erich Schubert, Media Relations Coordinator ([email protected] / 303‐264‐5503)

DENVER BRONCOS OTA QUOTES (5/22/12)

CORNERBACK DRAYTON FLORENCE

On if things are settling down for him “I’m actually enjoying it. Things happened in Buffalo that enabled me to land here. I’ve got a great group of DBs I’ve been working with and a lot of competition back there. So I’ve enjoyed it so far. A little competition is good for everybody. The situation that they brought me in to compete for a starting job, possibly playing nickel, is something that I thought was a great opportunity for me. With Peyton Manning being here and it being my 10th year in the league I’m trying to win a Super Bowl ring. I’ve enjoyed it so far, everything is going smooth, getting comfortable, getting settled in and into the community, things are going pretty good so far.”

On if he’s been told he’ll be playing nickel “Coach Fox told me that if I come here everyone is going to be competing; nobody in the secondary has a job except for Champ Bailey, which is obvious, and everyone else is out there competing and that is what we’re going to do. All the good teams have competition at every position and that is how you build a successful team.”

On what it’s like to have Champ Bailey as a teammate “He’s a great pro, true pro veteran. You can learn a lot from a guy like Champ, seeing all the route combinations. He and I have been talking about mostly off‐the‐field type things. After football plans, things like that and I plan to learn a lot from him. He’s been in the league 13‐14 years and even [S] Mike Adams has been in the league a long time but can learn a lot from that guy [Bailey], so just trying to learn a lot from the other guys that have been in the league for a while. Take a few of the things that they do well and put it in my toolbox.”

On his impression of the Broncos after playing with the Chargers early in his career “They’re a lot different now. The offense is totally different. Jake “The Snake” [Plummer] was back there getting out of pocket, bootlegs. Coach [Mike] Shanahan’s offense—I enjoyed the battles, we always had good competition playing against great receivers like Rod Smith, Ashley Lelie. I enjoyed my time in San Diego playing against the Broncos. This division was always tough. The team that won that division always had a good chance of winning the Super Bowl. Those are things I’ll look back on once I’m done playing and now I’ll be on the other side of that chippiness going back to San Diego.”

On if his play will be better in his 10th year as opposed to his fifth year “You should be. I’m sure you’re a much better reporter now than your first year. The older you get the smarter you should be getting. You’ve seen a lot, nothing should really be new. Week‐in‐and‐week‐out you should know how to prepare for teams. Like I said being around veteran guys is only going to make me better, guys like Champ Bailey and Mike Adams in the secondary. In this business you have to keep improving and if you don’t you all know how that goes.”

©2012 Denver Broncos Football Club. All rights reserved. The individual quotes cited in this document may be used for the purpose of news reporting and other fair uses as defined by Section 107 of the Copyright Act. Duplication or posting of this quote sheet, in its entirety, or any other use of this material which is not a fair use as defined by Section 107 of the Copyright Act is strictly prohibited without the prior written consent of the Denver Broncos Football Club. On his skill set “I think I bring a physical presence at the corner position. Getting my hands on guys at the line of scrimmage is what I take pride in and when you have guys like [DE Elvis] Dumervil and [LB] Von Miller coming off the edge you obviously want to throw the timing off. I think we’ll all mesh well together. It’s still early. Everybody is getting to know each other. We’re learning the defense, making the right calls, making the right adjustments. As we progress I think we’ll be fine.”

On how to stop big, receiving tight ends “First thing is you have to put pressure on the quarterback. You can line up five receivers all day, big tight ends, but you know if the quarterback can’t get them the ball it makes our job a lot easier. So the first thing is getting pressure up front. Being sound in your coverage. Being sound in the defense. When it allows for you to go up and jam a guy on the line of scrimmage you have to take advantage of that. Playing against New England twice a year for the last three years we faced a lot of those sets where they put guys out wide and you just have to be physical with them. You don’t really have to worry about them beating you deep, just bodying you up, like [TE] Antonio Gates does out in San Diego. Just playing body position and good leverage. Just trying to take those guys away at the line of scrimmage.”

On if after reviewing the Broncos’ playoff game against the Patriots he could suggest areas of improvement “Any time you play against the Patriots you’re rarely going to see the same thing twice. The two times Denver played New England last season were two completely different types of ball games but playing them twice a year up in Buffalo you have to be ready for an up‐tempo game, very rarely are you going to get in a huddle. They like to go fast‐paced and you have to practice and condition for that. You have to be able to match up outside because if Tom Brady sees a weakness he’s going to keep attacking it. You have to keep giving them different looks and you have to keep pressure up the middle and off the edges to get them off the spot to make some bad throws.”

On how much better he will be after practicing with Peyton Manning every day “It doesn’t really matter who I’m going against. Obviously, Peyton is a great quarterback, makes great decisions but you really don’t judge yourself off the quarterback you’re playing against. You want to be great off of whoever it is, even if it’s the scout‐ team quarterback. I think it helps that he checks out of a lot of plays and gets his offense into the right situation for the coverage so you always have to be able to cover your man because you never know. You always have to think that the ball is coming to you and that’s how I approach it. Hopefully we can pick him off a lot in practice.”

On how similar this defense is to the one that Defensive Coordinator Jack Del Rio coached in Jacksonville “There are some similarities. We have different [position] coaches on this staff. As a defensive staff you respect thing that worked well wherever you have been. Obviously, they’re all getting together on that. We’re still very early in the process of putting the defense in so there are a few similarities. Football is football it hasn’t changed in one hundred years and it’s not going to change. It’s about tackling the football, getting turnovers and this year since we have one of the better quarterbacks in the league turnovers are going to be a thing that we are really focusing on. If we can get Peyton as many opportunities to go down and get us six points it’s going to put us in the win column a lot this year.”

On how many quarterbacks in this league give a team a good shot at winning the Super Bowl “You’ve got Drew Brees, Eli [Manning], Big Ben [Roethlisberger]. Obviously, there are a number of guys but [Peyton Manning] is a proven guy that commands a lot of respect from the defensive guys preparing for him. I’ve played against Peyton six or seven times in my career and I know how that week is of preparation because you have to be on point, no mental errors, can’t really show your coverage too early because like I said he’ll get four or five yards just by checking out of the play. You have a lot of guys but the opportunity came up for me where I had a chance to come out here to Denver and play with Champ Bailey. Obviously a guy I’ve looked up to my whole career and then Peyton Manning so it was an easy decision for me to make.”

On how he feels about playing with the lead “That’s going to be fun when you have a lead and you can build on that lead with the type of offense we have it enables the defensive coordinator to send a lot of pressure on the quarterbacks. If we can do that and play with a lead early which I have done a lot in the last four or five years, turning Von and Dumervil loose and letting them get after the quarterback takes a lot of pressure off the secondary.”

©2012 Denver Broncos Football Club. All rights reserved. The individual quotes cited in this document may be used for the purpose of news reporting and other fair uses as defined by Section 107 of the Copyright Act. Duplication or posting of this quote sheet, in its entirety, or any other use of this material which is not a fair use as defined by Section 107 of the Copyright Act is strictly prohibited without the prior written consent of the Denver Broncos Football Club. On being called a sure tackler “That’s the game of football. You’ve got to be able to tackle. I take pride in covering, tackling, anything I can do to help my team win, just being a football player. You’ve got to be able to do that in this league.”

On the NFL making thigh pads mandatory “Champ and I were talking about that today. They’re changing a lot of things, helmets. I’ve been wearing the same helmet for 15 years. Champ’s been wearing it longer than me. This year we have to switch to a new helmet because of concussions and things that have been coming up—the thigh pads. My opinion is that I don’t want to wear them but you have to follow the rules and policies.”

On what is new about the helmets “They’re a lot bigger. I guess the design of them is different, concussion prevention, the material inside is different. The helmet I’ve been wearing my whole career is a lot different than the new style. It feels big, it feels bulky but I still have to go out and cover guys. It doesn’t matter what I’m wearing.”

On wanting to be a future general manager in the NFL “It’s true. When I get done playing I’m planning on going into personnel whether it’s the pro side or the college side and I’ve been around this game awhile I know what it takes to build a winning team. I know what kind of guys you have to have to have that kind of atmosphere and I think it’s something that would be a good opportunity for me.”

On being an NFLPA representative “I don’t want to be an NFLPA rep. I think [Domonique] Foxworth will try and take that job sooner or later but like I said, I want to go into the front office and stay on the football side and be in the background.”

On Executive Vice President of Football Operations John Elway and his staff “It’s been great. Everybody has been open. From the equipment guys, personnel, scouts—everyone has been accepting and it’s always good to feel wanted in this league. I felt wanted here and that’s why I decided to come here.”