Schlereth: Elway remarks on Flacco point to QB being long-term answer

During the introductory press conference for new Denver Broncos quarterback Joe Flacco, general manager John Elway on a handful of occasions mentioned the club believes the 34-year-old gunslinger has “a lot more football left in him.”

“Joe’s the perfect fit for us — the fact that he’s a winner, he’s played in a lot of big games, and he has a lot of good football left in him at 34 years old. We feel like he’s just really coming into his prime,” Elway said on one such occasion. “We’re excited about the fact that he’s going to be our quarterback and think that, like I said, he’s a perfect fit for us.”

“Schlereth and Evans” co-host Mark Schlereth said he believes Elway is “100 percent correct” in his assertion that Flacco has plenty of mileage left and that, reading between the lines, he’s going to be the Broncos quarterback “for the next three or four years at a minimum.”

“He’s basically saying to you Joe Flacco is your starting quarterback for the foreseeable future,” Schlereth said. “And I’m not just talking about this year and next year. I’m talking about years to come.”

After the press conference, “Pritchard and Cecil” co-host Mike Pritchard said he was “sold” on Elway’s excitement about Flacco, which is something he didn’t seem to muster for past quarterbacks like Paxton Lynch, Trevor Siemian, or Case Keenum.

“I think the excitement is real. The enthusiasm is real,” Pritchard said. “This isn’t a placeholder. This isn’t a guy to bridge us to the next quarterback. No, this is a guy that we’re invested in and we believe we can win a championship with.”

Pritchard said Elway is “absolutely chasing a title again” and feels like he “has the right guy to do that” in Flacco.

“If you had any doubts, at all, about what John Elway’s doing, don’t have those doubts anymore,” Pritchard said. “That guy, No. 7, is trying to win a championship again.”

Schlereth’s co-host, Mike Evans, said he too thinks Flacco has “a lot of football left in him” and that he’s glad the veteran quarterback is in Denver, specifically because it’ll likely commit the Broncos to not taking some “reckless gamble on one of these young quarterbacks, especially in the first round.”

“At least by committing to Flacco, what you’ve now opened yourself up to as a franchise is now you’re not going to be tempted at all to blow valuable first-, second-, or third-round picks on quarterbacks,” Evans said. “You can go after players who can immediately come in and help this team …”

Schlereth said in order for Denver to become more competitive with Flacco under center, however, the club needs to strike well in the next waves of free agency and in the draft.

“There’s still a lot of work to be done with this offensive roster if Joe Flacco’s going to be your quarterback for the next five or six years … a lot of work that needs to be done,” Schlereth said.

Follow digital content producer Johnny Hart on Twitter: @JohnnyHart7.