PA Season Ticket Holder
05-11-2003, 02:38 PM
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- Mother Nature did her best to cross up the Broncos this weekend, tossing some ball bearings into the gears of the Broncos' precision-clock mini-camp schedule with an unusual early-May snowstorm that lingered into Saturday morning.
But just like a quarterback with keen improvisational skills, the Broncos adjusted on the fly, dividing their practice between the team's indoor practice bubble and another domed structure a mile and a half northwest of the team complex.
VIDEO: REPORT FROM MINI-CAMP, DAY 2
VIDEO: REPORT FROM MINI-CAMP, DAY 1
The Broncos piled onto waiting buses, dressing in their locker room and making their way to the Sports Dome just over a couple of hills and down the road. Inside, they got a taste of the future, practicing on FieldTurf -- the same surface that is currently being installed on an outdoor field back at the team facility.
And from there, it was business as usual -- which, on the second day of mini-camp, entails shaking off the rust and finding cohesion, as returning players mesh with the 25 newcomers who joined the team via various means during the offseason.
"Usually the first day's the roughest. I don't care if it's camp or mini-camp, there's always some growing pains," Head Coach Mike Shanahan said. "But we did make some strides today."
One man who did make strides was the Broncos' most physically imposing offseason addition, 6-foot-6, 295-pound defensive tackle Daryl Gardener. But it took a day for him to adjust to the tempo of an average Broncos practice, which, for a moment, put him in unfortunate circumstances.
"Yesterday's practice, I had a double team and I think they took me and beat me up and put me five yards where I didn't want to be," Gardener said.
Less than twenty-four hours later, Gardener had adjusted to the pace, and had begun exerting his presence, moving around nimbly and showing no residual effects from the back problems that bothered him in 2001 but did not flare up a year later with the Washington Redskins.
"Mike (Shanahan) takes pride in his offense because the offense is physical, these guys come off the ball with no pads on," Gardener said. "It's new to me. I'm going to have to learn to practice full speed, without pads, so again, today was a much better day defensively as a group."
But as Gardener figures, there's no reason to wait for training camp to bring the defense -- not to mention the entire team -- together. That's especially true when one considers that the unifying process can be taken care of posthaste between the mini-camp and the offseason conditioning program, which picks up again later this week.
"What we need to get out of this is just to find out who's a ballplayer and who's not, and to gel as a team," Gardener said. "We realize we're going against each other and there's competition out there, but we have to gel as a team right now."
http://www.denverbroncos.com/front-features3/index.php3?clmn=/front-features3/051003_1.prm&go=shownews
But just like a quarterback with keen improvisational skills, the Broncos adjusted on the fly, dividing their practice between the team's indoor practice bubble and another domed structure a mile and a half northwest of the team complex.
VIDEO: REPORT FROM MINI-CAMP, DAY 2
VIDEO: REPORT FROM MINI-CAMP, DAY 1
The Broncos piled onto waiting buses, dressing in their locker room and making their way to the Sports Dome just over a couple of hills and down the road. Inside, they got a taste of the future, practicing on FieldTurf -- the same surface that is currently being installed on an outdoor field back at the team facility.
And from there, it was business as usual -- which, on the second day of mini-camp, entails shaking off the rust and finding cohesion, as returning players mesh with the 25 newcomers who joined the team via various means during the offseason.
"Usually the first day's the roughest. I don't care if it's camp or mini-camp, there's always some growing pains," Head Coach Mike Shanahan said. "But we did make some strides today."
One man who did make strides was the Broncos' most physically imposing offseason addition, 6-foot-6, 295-pound defensive tackle Daryl Gardener. But it took a day for him to adjust to the tempo of an average Broncos practice, which, for a moment, put him in unfortunate circumstances.
"Yesterday's practice, I had a double team and I think they took me and beat me up and put me five yards where I didn't want to be," Gardener said.
Less than twenty-four hours later, Gardener had adjusted to the pace, and had begun exerting his presence, moving around nimbly and showing no residual effects from the back problems that bothered him in 2001 but did not flare up a year later with the Washington Redskins.
"Mike (Shanahan) takes pride in his offense because the offense is physical, these guys come off the ball with no pads on," Gardener said. "It's new to me. I'm going to have to learn to practice full speed, without pads, so again, today was a much better day defensively as a group."
But as Gardener figures, there's no reason to wait for training camp to bring the defense -- not to mention the entire team -- together. That's especially true when one considers that the unifying process can be taken care of posthaste between the mini-camp and the offseason conditioning program, which picks up again later this week.
"What we need to get out of this is just to find out who's a ballplayer and who's not, and to gel as a team," Gardener said. "We realize we're going against each other and there's competition out there, but we have to gel as a team right now."
http://www.denverbroncos.com/front-features3/index.php3?clmn=/front-features3/051003_1.prm&go=shownews