BRONCOS TRAINING CAMP

We took a short drive up I-25 to watch the Denver Broncos training camp practice. The Broncos hold training camp at their regular season practice facility in the Denver suburb of Centennial.

This is the largest of 3 permanent observation/film towers. As you can see from the ad on the side, training camp is held at the UCHealth Training Center. We wonder what the sponsorship cost?

When we arrived, the players were just finishing their warm-up activities and stretching exercises at the far end of the defensive field.

This is a view of the offensive field with shaded VIP seating. You can also see tower #2.

There were several thousand fans in attendance, mostly decked out in Denver orange and blue. Fans were seated on the berms at the one end of the offensive and defensive fields.

The defensive players have just run towards the fans from the stretching area. Some of the players saluted the fans for being there, and the fans responded with a loud cheer. Bum Phillips, the defensive coordinator, is standing with his back to the fans in the end zone waving the players towards him.

#18, Peyton Manning, an obvious future Hall of Famer, works on his footwork. Notice the small portable stand used to film this part of practice.You can see the four QB's in camp. #17 Brock Osweiler is the back-up QB. #2 Zac Dysert is in his 3rd season out of Miami (Ohio) and #3 is Trevor Siemian, a rookie from Northwestern.

Receivers have joined the QB's for a skeleton passing drill.

The QB's and receivers are now throwing towards the near end zone and working on catching the ball inbounds. #88, Demaryius Thomas, is catching this pass while #12 Andre Caldwell watches.

Defensive players are also doing individual type drills. Here the defensive player, #68 Ryan Harris, hits the blue hand-held dummy and jumps up to deflect the white volleyball that has been tossed in the air, which is easier on the players' hands than a football.

This is a photo of an 11-man defensive skeleton drill against only an assistant coach playing QB. The fans cheered when the ball was intercepted and run back towards the fans for a TD.

The offense goes against the defense in an 11 on 11 skeleton drill. The players are wearing shorts instead of full gear so there was no tackling. The ball is thrown by #18 and completed to the receiver running right to left about 20 yards from the line-of-scrimmage.

This Broncos practice was highly spirited, with the players seeming to be enjoying themselves despite the warm morning. The summer sun in the Mile High City is intense. Part of the energy could be because the team has a new coaching staff which had given the players the previous day off. The Broncos are one of the AFC favorites to get to the Super Bowl in February. Time will tell.