Broncos officially announce Elway hire, promote Ellis to president

John Elway, you knew about. The Broncos officially named him executive vice president of football operations this morning. Post columnist Woody Paige reported the deal was finalized at 6 p.m. Tuesday.

That Brian Xanders was retained as general manager had also been previously reported.

What wasn’t known until the Broncos sent out their press release today was that Joe Ellis, who had been the club’s chief operating officer, was promoted to team president.

Broncos owner Pat Bowlen will remain chief executive officer, but hands off his President title to Ellis.

What that means is Ellis is officially running the team on a day-to-day basis. He had been the past two years, anyway. But now, it’s clear.

Elway reports to Ellis. Bowlen remains owner but stays in the background.

“John has won championships as both a player and executive, and his experience will be a valuable addition to this franchise,” Bowlen said in a statement. “He is the perfect fit for this role, and I am excited to welcome him back to the Denver Broncos.”

The Post will have live coverage of Elway’s 1:30 p.m. introductory press conference. Check back to denverpost.com/broncos.

Assistants meet with Elway

The Broncos assistant coaches, all in limbo since the end of a dismal 4-12 season, were to spend this morning meeting with Elway as well as Xanders.

Each of former head coach Josh McDaniels’ assistants were to have roughly 25 minutes individually to give Elway and Xanders evaluations of the players under the direction of that specific coach. The meetings started early this morning and were scheduled to go several hours.

The meetings were designed to help Elway get up to speed on the team’s current personnel and to give the team’s football decision-makers a chance to ask questions of the assistant coaches. The coaches spent Monday completing the player evaluations.

Several of the Broncos assistants were already reaching out to former associates around the league about potential openings. Few expect to be retained in Denver, though a couple will likely be extended the opportunity to interview for positions when the team’s new head coach is hired.

Interim head coach Eric Studesville is scheduled to formally interview for the Broncos’ head coaching job next week.

Mike Klis: 303-954-1055 or mklis@denverpost.com