Former Detroit Lions team president Matt Millen wished Hall of Famer John Elway well in his new role as boss of the Denver Broncos' football operations.

And he acknowledged that he set the bar pretty low for Elway.

"I hope John does better than I did," Millen told the Denver Post, "because I stunk at it."

Elway was hired on Wednesday as the executive vice president of football operations for the Broncos, the team for which he played his entire 16-year career that included two Super Bowl wins.

Millen's 2001-2008 era as boss in Detroit was one of ineptitude with several busted first-round draft picks and no winning seasons. Now an analyst for ESPN and the NFL Network, Millen offered some advice for Elway to the Post.

Among his thoughts:

"The first thing John has to do is learn the culture of the building. He should be ahead of the curve, because he's been around it. And then he has to learn the culture of the league. There's a lot of red tape, and there's a lot of politicking. And that's fine; you have that everywhere. Pat will help him. Joe Ellis will help him a lot too. Joe is really good at what he does."

"There's a misconception about the job. It's less about the game of football. It's less about X's and O's. It's less about personnel decisions. It's a job about managing people. It's about building a consensus when you pick the right head coach. You can't go in and be this football czar and say this is how it's going to work. If you pick somebody that a coach doesn't like and doesn't coach, that's a bad situation.

"Scouts all have certain types of players they like and don't like. Some guys are good at evaluating backs, some guys aren't good with safeties. Some guys are quarterback guys, some guys aren't. Some guys like athletes, some guys like tough guys. John has to get to where he can read all these things in his guys."

-- Sean Leahy