The Denver Broncos drafted safety Miles Scott in the seventh round, and his connections to Illinois have value.
Like many NFL teams, the Denver Broncos have a couple of preferred programs when it comes to targeting players in the draft. There’s often a coaching connection that helps lead to this sort of thing, and sometimes it’s just a very good player who come from out of nowhere to help establish a line.
The latter is definitely the case with safety Miles Scott, according to Luca Evans of the Denver Post. The Broncos drafted the Illinois receiver-turned-safety in the seventh round in April, and Illinois’ receivers coach Justin Stepp is familiar with how the process works with players like Scott.
“A lot of scouts, all of them ask a lot of the same questions,” said Illinois receivers coach Justin Stepp, describing NFL scouts’ pre-draft process. “And I know, as far as Denver, they ask a lot of the same questions that we ask when we’re out recruiting kids.”
The answers to those questions have helped the Broncos fill a couple of key roster spots. The list of former Illinois players who now populate Denver’s roster includes offensive lineman Alex Palczewski and receiver Pat Bryant, despite neither player being all that high on the radar of most NFL teams.
“They might not have been the five-star guys,” said Kenenna Odeluga, who played with Scott at Illinois. “They’re not the guys that you’ll see … all the hoopla around them. But these are guys that bring their lunch pail to work every day, do what the coaches tell them, do it to the best of their ability, and then are there when the team needs them the most. And those are just — lunch-pail guys.”
The Broncos love lunch-pail guys, and Scott fits the basic mold. They know players from Illinois will often play hurt, which is a trait coach Sean Payton especially values. Scott’s been on the Broncos radar for a while, according to Illinois coach Bret Bielema, and he also identified Scott as a player who would “give him the pulse of the locker room.”
Scott also has the versatility to play in a variety of formations and handle adjustments well, which is yet another important Denver trait. He’ll have no trouble fitting in, but Scott will have a mountain to climb just to make the roster, and he’ll also probably have a role on special teams initially. But that hasn’t stopped the other players from Illinois that the Broncos have drafted, and the history here is a promising sign for Scott.