AP

As he did so many times as a player, John Elway was willing to play it cool as the clock ticks toward the draft, with his team left with a pretty glaring hole at quarterback.

In addition to mentioning the possibility of signing Brian Hoyer, Elway also left the door open regarding a rumored deal for 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick during his pre-draft press conference.

“It’s dormant,” Elway said, in comments distributed by the team. “He’s been working out [with San Francisco] from what I understand so that’s all I can really say.”

Asked if he’d revisit trade talks, Elway replied: “It’s never been [dismissed]. Everything is right there. So that’s kind of where it is.”

When asked if their previous offer stood, he said: “It’s there.”

Of course, it depends on Kaepernick being willing to take far less than the $11.9 million he’s guaranteed if he stays put in San Francisco.

Elway said during his press conference that he was comfortable with Mark Sanchez, but that might also be a function of availability as well, as they don’t have a tremendous amount of options. Picking 31st, the top quarterbacks will be off the board, and the Broncos executive admitted the cost of getting into that range the way the Rams and Eagles did was prohibitive.

“It’s a long way to move,” Elway said. “When you at look at how much they paid for where they moved—both teams moved— I think it might have taken four of our drafts. It would have been a little difficult.”

So for now, Elway is willing to wait, and see if he can pull off something late.