The Broncos have convened their rookie minicamp, which has given the media a chance to ask defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio about life without defensive end Elvis Dumervil, who was cut after a fax snafu and then signed by the Ravens.
“My thinking really is that Elvis is a part of last year,” Del Rio told reporters on Saturday, via a transcript provided by the team. “He is not going to be going with us this year. So, we’re just moving on. You almost can treat it like a guy that was injured. But fortunately we’ve been able to address the fact that he’s not here and add pieces. We’ll find out who those guys are that will help. We are going to play 11, we’re going to find 11 guys to put on the field and attack offenses the way we feel we can best and get the ball back for our offense.”
Del Rio danced around the possibility that linebacker Von Miller will play right defensive end in passing situations.
“We’ll work through that as we go put people in position to make plays and do what we can with the guys that we have,” Del Rio said. “We’ll determine roles as we go. We’ll let competition kind of sort through that. He is a special player. We are going to continue to move him around and do different things with him and utilize his talents and make it difficult for people to know where he is going to be.”
Robert Ayers is slated to start at right defensive end, and former Chargers linebacker Shaun Phillips is expected to play defensive end, too.