The Broncos are hoping Mike Mayock is right again.
Mayock, the NFL Network’s draft analyst, defied conventional thinking and targeted Boston College quarterback Matt Ryan as the top player in last year’s draft. So what happened? Ryan became the league’s offensive rookie of the year, reviving a moribund Atlanta franchise in the process.
Now comes Tennessee defensive end/outside linebacker Robert Ayers, the Broncos’ second selection in Round One Saturday afternoon.
Mayock’s take on Ayers?
“Robert Ayers is the best defensive player coming out of this draft,” said Mayock. “You can get creative with Ayers. He brings you scheme versatility on defense. I think he’s a special player.”
Mayock had Ayers ranked as the third-best player in the draft behind Virginia tackle Eugene Monroe and Georgia tailback Knowshon Moreno, selected by the Broncos six picks ahead of Ayers.
This much we already know about the 18th pick of 2009: He’s a versatile player. At 6-foot-3 and 273 pounds, Ayers could play defensive end or outside linebacker in Mike Nolan’s 3-4 defense.
Ayers started only one year at Tennessee, finishing his Volunteers career with a rather modest nine sacks. But he has the athleticism to become a pass rusher in Nolan’s scheme. Not only that, he can drop back in coverage. Oh, and did we mention he saw spot duty at defensive tackle in Knoxville?
“I can do multiple things,” said Ayers. “I’ve dropped back and I’ve rushed from every position. So that’s not going to be anything strange for me. I’m ready to play whatever they ask me to play.”
Unlike some recent Broncos draft picks, most notably Jay Cutler in 2006, Ayers wasn’t surprised when the Broncos came calling. He had talked at length with Broncos linebackers coach Rod Martindale and projected himself into the Broncos’ system.
“I’m real excited,” said Ayers. “I told my family I was thinking that Denver was going to be the team. Coach Martindale pretty much told me I was his guy. You don’t want to get your hopes too high. You’re just trying to go along with it. But when I saw 303 come up on my phone, I knew who it was.”
The fact that Martindale called Ayers probably tells us where Ayers will land in the Broncos’ scheme. If the Broncos ask him to be a force coming off the corner in pursuit of the quarterback, he can fill the bill, says Tony Agnone, Ayers’ agent.
“Oh my gosh, yes,” said Agnone, when asked if he felt Ayers could emerge into a double-digit sack man. “Absolutely, he can be that kind of guy. He didn’t have a lot of sacks because of the way they played him, but when they let him go, he was phenomenal.
“He’s more of a (Michael) Strahan-type pass rusher. When he played against (Andre) Smith at Alabama, he crushed him. And he was blowing by everybody at the Senior Bowl.”
Denver-based Cecil Lammey of can attest to that. He was at the Senior Bowl, where Ayers solidified his first-round status by dominating Ole Miss tackle Michael Oher, Baltimore’s first-rounder.
“He was mashing Oher,” said Lammey. “He was taking him to school. He was very strong, very powerful.”
Still, Lammey wonders about the notion of Ayers significantly upgrading the Broncos’ pass rush, which was so anemic in 2008 that Denver accounted for only 13 turnovers, the second-lowest total since the advent of the NFL’s 16-game schedule.
“He’s more like Aaron Smith of the Steelers,” said Lammey. “He’ll get five or six sacks in a good year and seven or eight in his best years. I know they’re looking at him as a pass-rushing linebacker, but I don’t think he’ll do that. He may be better with his hand in the dirt as a defensive end.”
Immaturity was an issue for Ayers in his early days on the UT campus. He was involved in a fraternity brawl as a freshman, a development that served as a turning point in his life.
“He’s a great kid,” said Agnone. “That incident helped him settle down and focus on football. He decided he needed to turn things around and be a better player on the field and off it. And he’s done it. I’m telling you, he’s going to shock them a little bit. It’s all ahead of him.”
Jim Armstrong: 303-954-1269 or jmarmstrong@denverpost.com
