Sunday's haul makes them 'our' Broncos

A few truths regarding the Denver Broncos: Coach Mike Shanahan's team hasn't made the NFL playoffs the past two seasons and is 16-16 in that time.

In fact, the Broncos have won just one of their five postseason games since John Elway took them to back-to-back Super Bowl championships after the 1997 and '98 seasons.

The Broncos play in the NFL stadium with the stupidest name - Invesco Field at Mile High. What the...?

Oh, and one more: The Broncos just got a lot more popular this side of the Rocky Mountains. This side of the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel, actually.

That's because "our" Broncos were busy Sunday on the last day of the NFL draft, plucking fresh Southside talent and hoping it helps lift them off their proverbial schneid.

Norfolk's Jack Williams, a 5-foot-9, jet-footed cornerback from Booker T. Washington High and Kent State, was the first on the phone with Shanahan. That was just moments before Denver chose him in the fourth round with the 119th pick.

Not long after Williams bid his new coach a giddy - and very temporary good-bye - Shanahan and other Denver higher-ups were on the cell again, chatting up Chesapeake's Carlton Powell, the defensive tackle from Great Bridge and Virginia Tech.

The Broncos used their second fifth-round pick - 148th overall - to bring Powell into their stable, so to speak. Add in its second-round choice, the dangerous receiver/return man Eddie Royal from Virginia Tech, and Denver's local haul thickens a roster that already had a very Vuh-gin-yuh feel.

How thick? Try this: Cornerback Dre' Bly of Chesapeake, a two-time Pro Bowler, already toils for the Broncos. Ditto linebacker John Engelberger from Virginia Tech, long-snapper Mike Leach from William and Mary and a couple of new practice-squaders - Virginia Beach's Marquay McDaniel (Salem High) and U.Va. running back Marquis Weeks.

I can see I-264 speckled with flapping Broncos window flags as we speak.

"I've definitely been feeling mile high all day," chuckled Powell, who watched at home in Chesapeake.

Said Williams, in Ohio with family and friends, "I talked to the general manager and he asked me if I'd like to be a Denver Bronco. I said I'd love to be a Denver Bronco."

And that was that. It was a scene played out 252 times over the weekend, from No. 1

pick Jake Long to the last, Idaho linebacker David Vobora - Mr. Irrelevant 2008, soon to be sarcastically feted in Newport Beach, Calif., by people who actually, uh, fete Mr. Irrelevant every year.

Virginia Beach cornerback Isaiah Gardner (Maryland) and Chesapeake linebacker Vince Hall (Virginia Tech) should be so lucky; they expected to be drafted and were not. However, they quickly accepted free-agent offers - Hall with St. Louis, Gardner with Jacksonville - so their chance will come.

It's just that the chance that comes with being a draft choice shines a little brighter and tastes a little sweeter. No matter that neither Williams nor Powell has ever been to Denver. They are young men in that storybook, heading West, mining NFL futures. And that's all they need to know for now.

That, and mini-camp comes in less than three weeks.

"Man, I'm excited about fulfilling my dream, excited to work with the best corner in the league (Champ Bailey)," Williams said. "I've tried to model my game after him a little bit. He's the best and you always want to be the best. So I felt like I had to watch him."

Waiting for his phone to tweet left Powell "a little frustrated because it just seemed like a lot of other guys not up to my caliber of player were going in front of me.... But when I talked to the defensive line coach, he said, 'I think we definitely stole you in the fifth round. We felt you could've gone a lot higher.'"

Funny thing: By Sunday evening, Williams and Powell had come to appreciate their new altitude just fine.

Tom Robinson, (757) 446-2518, tom.robinson@pilotonline.com