ENGLEWOOD http://www.seahawksauthorizedshops.com/ … ton-jersey , Colo. (AP)Now they’re teammates, too.Seven months after calling his team a bunch of softies, Broncos general manager John Elway picked one of the toughest players in the draft in Chubb at No. 5.The prolific edge rusher from North Carolina State is a high-motor pass rusher with a rare mix of speed, strength and savvy that helps him beat double teams to get to the quarterback or stuff the running back.Despite constant attention his senior season, Chubb collected 26 tackles for loss, 10 sacks and the Bronco Nagurski Trophy as the nation’s top defender.It’s safe to say Miller approved of the pick.”Ahhhh! Ahhhh! Ahhha!” Miller hollered in a videotaped selfie as St. Jude patient Austin Denton of Albuquerque, New Mexico, announced his beloved Broncos’ pick Thursday night.It’s safe to say Elway and his staff had a similar reaction when the Cleveland Browns, thought to be high on Chubb, instead took Ohio State D-back Denzel Ward at No. 4 to go with their surprising pick of QB Baker Mayfield at No. 1.Elway said his phone blew up with ”a ton” of trade offers from other teams desperate to move up to fifth, ”but we really wanted Bradley and we’re thrilled that he was still there.”Coach Vance Joseph said seeing Bradley ”there at five was definitely a surprise – and for sure exciting.”Chubb is Denver’s highest draft pick since Elway chose Miller second overall in 2011 and he immediately upgrades an already stout defensive front where Miller, Shaq Barrett and Shane Ray suddenly look even more formidable.Chubb said at the NFL combine that he’d love to land in Denver and learn firsthand from his hero.”If I got to play with Von Miller that would be crazy. He’s such a great player, such a dynamic player. Definitely could learn a lot from him,” Chubb said.Chubb also provides the antidote for the constant double- and triple-teams that opponents have thrown at Miller over the last two years. The Super Bowl 50 MVP’s production slipped following DeMarcus Ware’s injury-marred 2016 and retirement last summer.Coming off a 5-11 debacle, the Broncos sorely needed a quarterback upgrade this offseason and they filled that void in free agency with the signing of Case Keenum to a two-year, $36 million deal.That left Elway with the option of bypassing this year’s deep class of promising but problematicquarterbacks to grab a blue chipper.Still, few foresaw Chubb slipping past the first few picks.Last week Gary Jennings Jr. Jersey , Miller said he’d love to play alongside Chubb.”He’s Khalil Mack and Von Miller put together,” Miller said with a laugh. ”He is a great player and I would love to have him on my team. You don’t come across a guy like that often. We don’t (normally) have the No. 5 pick in the draft. I hope we don’t have a high pick like that for a while. So if we can steal a player like that, I’m all for it.”That was an echo of Chubb’s comments at the NFL combine when he said, ”I try to take Khalil Mack and Von Miller and put them into one person,” modeling Mack’s strength and Miller’s speed.Chubb comes into the NFL a better run stuffer than Miller was as a rookie. Like any great pass rusher, though, he said he takes the most pride in getting to the quarterback.Even with a stockpile of moves, however, Chubb knows he’ll have to refine his game in the NFL, and that’s where Miller’s tutelage will come in.”It’s definitely going to have to get fine-tuned because there’s no weak offensive linemen in the NFL,” Chubb said.— CLEVELAND (AP) — Freddie Kitchens briefly left football. Football never left him.Shortly after he stopped playing quarterback at Alabama, where he started for three seasons, Kitchens spent his weekends washing FedEx trucks to supplement his income as a car salesman. When those Saturday afternoons in October and November that shaped his life ended, Kitchens worked to the sounds of his beloved Crimson Tide on the radio.When the crowd roared, he ached.“It almost brought me to tears listening to it,” Kitchens recalled. “I knew I couldn’t live without the game of football.”Two decades and six coaching stops later, he and the Browns are going on together.The 44-year-old Kitchens http://www.seahawksauthorizedshops.com/ … nes-jersey , who grew up admiring his father’s dogged work ethic, was introduced Monday as Cleveland’s 17th full-time coach, completing a sudden, stunning climb up the NFL coaching ranks.Despite his lack of any head coaching experience, the Browns selected Kitchens, who began last season as the club’s running backs coach, over several other quality candidates primarily because of his unique ability to connect with people and a deep drive to win.Trading his bright orange game-day “Dawg Pound” sweat shirt for a plaid sport coat, tie and Browns cap, Kitchens said he realizes he might not be viewed as the ideal candidate. Sitting at a podium across from large windows framing Cleveland’s skyline, Kitchens politely praised owners Dee and Jimmy Halsam — “Mr. Jimmy and Miss Dee” — for their “guts” in picking him.“I won’t let them down. I know that I am not a popular choice,” Kitchens said. “I understand that and I don’t care.”Kitchens, though, endeared himself to Browns fans during his eight-game audition as the club’s interim offensive coordinator. After he took over the offense in late October, the Browns — and especially rookie quarterback Baker Mayfield — clicked under Kitchens, who helped them win five of their last eight games and finish 7-8-1 after going winless in 2017.Now that he’s in charge of more than the offense, Kitchens has bigger plans.“It drives me crazy that people are happy with 7-8-1,” he said. “If I was in a different setting Ugo Amadi Jersey , my vocabulary would demonstrate that. That is not acceptable. Nobody here wants that. We all understand that it was an improvement, but under no circumstances is that ever going to be acceptable. We only have one goal here and that is to hoist the Lombardi Trophy.“There’s not but one team that’s happy in this league. If you’re happy we finished, ‘We made the playoffs,’ well, hell, that’s not my goal. I’ve been to the playoffs, I’ve been to the Super Bowl and I lost the Super Bowl. That was the most-gut wrenching thing I’ve ever dealt with in my life. And that’s what drives me every day, is to get back there and win it.”Since agreeing to become Cleveland’s coach last week, Kitchens has been busily assembling his staff. He added former Arizona coach Steve Wilks as his defensive coordinator and Todd Monken, who spent the past three seasons in Tampa Bay, will handle the Browns offense.However, Kitchens will continue to call plays.General manager John Dorsey said the team’s coaching search committee met regularly for the past nine weeks to discuss candidates. As time passed, their list shrunk but every time it did, Kitchens’ name was at the top of it.Dorsey acknowledged the team had “really nice discussions” with former Green Bay coach Mike McCarthy, and that New England offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels’ decision to back out on Indianapolis last year had no bearing on the Browns’ interest in him.“He didn’t make the final list,” Dorsey said.There were several other coaches who got serious consideration, and the committee formally interviewed six other candidates. None of them though Dwayne Haskins Jersey , was more impressive than Kitchens.“We got it right,” Dorsey said.When Kitchens was hired a year ago, Dorsey couldn’t have imagined that he would become Cleveland’s next coach. But as the season unfolded, and after Kitchens called Cleveland’s plays in the team’s final exhibition game, Dorsey began to see him in a new light.“Freddie is really good with people,” he said. “You could see how much, even in his previous role, how much the players actually liked being around him. We walked away from the fourth preseason game in Detroit going, ‘He just did that, didn’t he?’ And he made it look easy. Play-calling is an art and just when you sit and talk with him you just know. We knew it was the right decision.”While he has a new title, and more responsibility, Kitchens won’t change.In some other city, on some other team, he might do things differently.There’s a reason why he wanted to be in Cleveland.“I can be myself,” he said. “I don’t have to put on a show. It kills me with some guys that they think they have to be more head coach-ish. I won’t be that. I will be who I am. I can be myself and we are going to have fun. The fun is in the winning and we are going to have fun.“We are going to win and we are going to have a damn good time doing it.”
Bradley Chubb and Von Miller are big fans of one another.
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