The Denver Broncos have a new coordinator running their offense this year, and it's already looking different.
The Denver Broncos have had plenty of action considering that they’re barely a week into training camp, and Parker Gabriel of the Denver Post provided a series of enlightening takeaways that focused on multiple developments, most notably the new-look offense that features several new wrinkles from new offensive coordinator Davis Webb.
These aren’t big changes yet, but they have been noticeable. According to Gabriel, this year’s Broncos offense isn’t just going to be Webb picking off items from Payton’s old menu card, especially when it comes to tempo and sequencing.
“I feel like Davis is doing a really good job of communicating with me and not over-communicating, but just give me a few things here and there,” quarterback Bo Nix said recently. “Reminders, little things about a play, like, ‘Hey, don’t forget this. Hey, remember you have this.’ So I think that’s going to be great as we go with that communication in my ear.
“He’s been waiting for this moment for a long time. He’s been preparing for this, and he’s really put us in a good spot.”
Defensive coordinator Vance Joseph is running practices this weekend with Payton in Canton introducing his former quarterback, Drew Brees, in his Hall of Fame induction moment, and Joseph indicated that the tweeaks represented a good challenge.
“He’s got a bunch of wide-open concepts in practice because of shifts and motions,” Joseph said yesterday. “He’s worked very hard from the spring to now to put together and it looks really good. … The shifts and motions and the window dressing pre-snap has been good for all of us to see.”
Meanwhile, it’s business as usual on the other side of the ball. Joseph helped design a defense that nearly broke the NFL record for sacks, so the old “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” adage definitely applies.
“You’re not coming into camp kind of stressed about learning,” veteran linebacker Alex Singleton said. “That’s the hardest thing when you go to a new team or have new guys where you’re teaching guys, ‘Hey, this is our check in this situation.’ No, instead it’s, all 11 guys know.
“So, we’re one step ahead of where we would’ve been last year or the year before that at this time of the year.”
There will be tweaks applied going forward, because that’s a simple fact of life in the NFL. But they probably won’t be elaborate, especially with most of the key veterans returning from last year’s unit.
