John Franklin-Myers figured the football mountaintop couldn't be that tough a summit.
After all, here he was, a rookie for the Los Angeles Rams as the team ripped off playoff wins against Dallas and New Orleans en route to the Super Bowl.
He had a strip-sack against Tom Brady on that February day, but the Rams came up short.
Tough one, but he'd be back, right? Easy for a young player to think.
"In college I didn't win many football games," Franklin-Myers said. "High school I didn't win any football games. So rookie year, shoot, the NFL is easy. (Former linebacker and current NFL assistant) Bryan Cox was a big mentor of mine and he said, 'Man, the NFL is hard. You've got to understand that you might go your rookie year and never go again.'
"I'm like, nah, bro. I went to the Super Bowl my rookie year."
Of course, Cox's words have shown to be true and applicable to Franklin-Myers. He went through five straight losing seasons with the New York Jets and now will try to end the drought on a young Broncos team with modest external expectations this fall.
The Broncos are young and hungry, head coach Sean Payton says. Franklin-Myers feels like he hasn't eaten in a while, either.
"(Shoot), you want me to answer that? It's been a while," he said when asked if he fits that moniker. "I went to the Super Bowl my rookie year and now, I mean (shoot), I'm in Year 7 now, so hungry? I'm starving. I'm on the buffet."
One quick aside: When Franklin-Myers said he didn't win any games in high school, he meant it literally. Greenville High in Texas went 0-41 from 2010-13, including 0-30 his three years on varsity.
Then at SFA, a 21-25 mark over four seasons.
He knows about being an underdog, and he feels a kinship with his unproven, inexperienced teammates.
"I think there's a different level of physicality and effort that's played with by guys that are young and hungry," he said. "That's kind of understood that when you first get in the league, we're all excited and we just want to run and hit. You see that a lot here. Guys just want to run, they want to hit, they play with extreme effort and physicality. Me, those were the two things in my first press conference when you asked me about my game, that's what I told you I play with.
"I fit right in with these guys."
Right tackle Mike McGlinchey had essentially the opposite experience before arriving in Denver last year. He was a blue-chip high school recruit who went to Notre Dame and then was picked in the first round in 2008.
In San Francisco, his five years with the 49ers featured a 4-12 rookie season but then three playoff runs.
He called that kind of sustained success — Kyle Shanahan's team is still on a Super Bowl-or-bust run currently — "incredibly rare," but said he likes the direction Denver is headed.
"It's something we're going to really work hard at," McGlinchey said. "I think we're in a great position. I feel a changing in the tides coming along, and hopefully we can make a run out of this year."
McGlinchey, for his part, thinks being a young team can make that prospect easier in some ways rather than more difficult. Just look at how a rookie sometimes doesn't even know how difficult it can be to make a Super Bowl.
"I think the youth thing is actually an advantage. You have a lot of guys that are young and don't really know what success or failure feels like," McGlinchey said. "They just know how to do their job, and they do it fast, and for real and as hard as they can. The bliss of not knowing where we could be, or the expectations put on our shoulders because of whatever the outside perception is, I think is an advantage to us. I think it just allows you to play free. It allows you to play competitively and I think there are a lot of guys in this building with a lot of talent who haven't necessarily gotten a shot to prove that to the rest of the world yet.
"It's awesome to have them overlook us because it's going to be a lot of fun when we prove them wrong."
Bailey to fill out practice squad. ILB Levelle Bailey cleared waivers Friday, meaning he'll likely return to Denver as a practice squad member.
Bailey made the initial 53-man roster Tuesday as an undrafted rookie but was waived Thursday to make room for the Broncos to sign ILB Kristian Welch. Now Bailey should return to the practice squad, which will fill that group at 17 members.
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