While much has been made of the burgeoning youth movement within the Denver Broncos, some key veteran lynchpin pieces appear already in place. Indeed, new Broncos defensive end John Franklin-Myers brought some Super Bowl-winning experience to the team when he arrived via trade this offseason.
Despite being still a youthful 27-year-old, the affable Franklin-Myers has bags of experience. Any talk of Super Bowl runs outside of Broncos Country is not going to be indulged right now, especially as the team embarks on a new season with rookie quarterback Bo Nix starting under center.
That might be entirely sensible at this juncture, but being several years down the road from his time with the 2018 Los Angeles Rams coming up short in the Super Bowl, Franklin-Myers is unashamedly hankering for a taste of that intoxicating Lombardi feeling again.
"It's one of those things where in college, I didn't win a lot of football games," Franklin-Myers said last week. "In high school, I didn't win any football games. (Laughs) My rookie year, I'm like, 'Shoot, the NFL is easy.' [Former] NFL LB] Bryan Cox is a big mentor of mine, and he was like, 'The NFL is hard. You have to understand you might go your rookie year and never go again.' I was like, 'No, we went to the Super Bowl my rookie year.'"
What really stood out as the Broncos' 3-0 preseason concluded was how enthused and hopeful several veterans are about the benefits of promoting youth right throughout the rebuilt Denver roster.
"So understanding that, and now I tell everybody I definitelytook that for granted [and] didn't understand what I was really getting into," Franklin-Myers said. "Looking back on it, hindsight is 20-20. [I] definitely would appreciate it a little more, but it definitely gives me a little more drive to sit here and say it's a hard thing to do, but my main goal is to get back there."
The Broncos' inexperienced roster may be yet to taste a Super Bowl berth, but that youth can be an asset in the right coaching hands. You can count Franklin-Myers among those who believe that youthful energy and talent help build the all-important levels of physicality within a football team.
"I thinkdefensively, the thing is again it starts with physicality," Franklin-Myers said. "We're playing a violent sport. Guys are big, they run fast and they're strong. So understanding that, you see bothteams I was on. [At] the Jets, we had a great defense pretty much every year I was there. That's what it starts with. Great defense made the offense's job easier no matter who's out there."
Let not your hearts be troubled; Franklin-Myers has only been in Denver a few months, but he's buying what Sean Payton, Bo Nix, and the Broncos offense is selling.
"Extremely confident in our offense," Franklin-Myers said. "They're making us better each and every day. Sean is super smart, so he's definitely helping challenge us."
If Franklin-Myers plays up to previous levels, the low-cost trade to acquire him will look like a real steal. Indeed, just how badly the trade for Haason Reddick has turned out so far for the New York Jets, his former team, is beginning to make it look like full-on front-office fleecing.
Franklin-Myers brings a notoriously violent disposition and attitude to his game, a mindset and tone-setting kind of example that the Broncos will be hoping rubs off on impressive rookies like Jonah Elliss.
"Again, we want to play physical and we want to play with effort," Franklin said. "We're going to rush the ball; we're going to hit and we're going to get the ball out. Similar situations where that's what we did at the Jets, and then come here and get to attack, get [to] knock people back and be violent."
It's refreshing to have a player with some Super Bowl experience in the building again. Hopefully, it rubs off on others.
"It's been a while," Franklin-Myers concluded. "I went to the Super Bowl my rookie year, and I'm in year seven now. The hunger is [there]."
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