Eric Decker Interview: A Few Minutes with the Denver Broncos Wideout

Few people could have been as excited about Peyton Manning’s move to Denver than incumbent Broncos wide receiver Eric Decker. After catching 44 balls last season in an offensive system designed around you-know-who, Decker could conceivably see his offensive production double in 2012, and that would suit the third-year product out of Minnesota just fine.

Decker was made available to us by our acquaintance at Pop Chips, who have teamed up with Decker and 14 other elite athletes for the Game Changers program. Fans will have the opportunities to select the charities where these athletes donate their time and effort.

I asked Eric about how he got involved in the program, what he has been doing with his offseason and how he feels about his team landing the most high-profile free agent in NFL history.

Josh Zerkle: Where were you when you found out that you would be playing with Peyton Manning?

Eric Decker:  I was here in Colorado, just trying to get ready for OTAs, when a buddy of mine texted me. It said, “Congratulations.” I was like, What are you congratulating me for? What are you talking about?

He said, “You guys signed Peyton Manning this morning. And I was like, wow. Just playing on the same team with a future Hall-of-Famer, a Super Bowl winner, a quarterback of that caliber is exciting.

I don’t want to stir any trouble, but last year you had a situation where you weren’t getting a lot of production out of the passing game. That could have been a situation where the locker room could have torn itself apart, but that didn’t happen.

I think some of that was just the leadership in the locker room, but also because John Fox was so clear about what we were gonna do, we were changing our game plan toward our strengths.

And we had a lot of unselfish guys that realized what it took to win football games. And we really wanted to get to the playoffs, and Tim Tebow playing the way that he did was our best weapon, so we stuck to that.

And we didn’t care. We just wanted to win.

As a wide receiver, how much more difficult is it to evaluate your performance when you’re catching fewer balls in a game? For example, in Week 2, you caught five balls for 113 yards and two touchdowns. That’s obviously a good game. But how do you measure yourself when you’re not getting the ball?

I think you just try to get better at everything you do. The routes I run, the way that I block, those are things that I always want to do better each week.

When I don’t get as many balls thrown my way, and the stats that come with that, sure, it doesn’t look good to an outsider, but inside the facility, most people understand that I’m doing the same things week after week.

Tell me how you got involved in this Game Changers program with Pop Chips.

My agency brought it to my attention, actually. I’ve always wanted to get involved and find different opportunities to do that. This program will actually allow the fans to decide which organizations that I and the 14 other athletes will support.

There’s a nomination process for the charities, and then at a certain point, there will be a vote for the final five. I think it’s a great way to raise awareness for all of these organizations, but also to get everybody involved.