ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — The Broncos have hit the field 12 times in the past month, but they don’t have any wins or losses to their name.
“In the offseason, all 32 teams are kind of running this race with blinders on,” head coach Sean Payton said. “In other words, I don’t know how the three other teams in our division are at this point. I don’t know where they are at. I have to assume they are going in a certain direction.”
Offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi knows plenty about the rest of the division thanks to two seasons running the Chargers’ offense before reuniting with Payton in Denver this offseason. He knows the importance of putting up big numbers to compete with the Chiefs and Chargers.
“That’s a challenge,” Lombardi said. “No matter where you’re playing, you have to score enough points to win. It’s never easy. The Chiefs—you don’t expect them to have any step back. They are a team that has been doing really well for years and scoring a lot of points. The last couple years, we had some shootouts with them and it’s never over. We’ll have to be on top of our game.”
But those games are months away. With 12 practices down, the Broncos will have about 30 more to go before they open the season against the Raiders. Those practices, which begin in late July, are where the exciting stuff will happen.
“We’re trying to get the fundamentals of the offense down—the formations and our splits,” Lombardi said of the offseason workouts. “Our goals here are assignment, alignment, making sure we know what to do and making sure they understand how we’re trying to coach it.”
According to Lombardi, quarterback Russell Wilson is performing about as well as you could ask him to.
“For June 14, we’re really happy with where he’s at,” Lombardi said. “There’s some muscle memory that we have to overcome. He’s used to doing things a certain way and we’re presenting a new way of doing things. He shows up every day ready to work. He’s the same guy every day—same attitude, and he’s really fun to work with. I think the answer for him is what the answer is for everyone: work hard every day, get your fundamentals down and understand what you’re trying to accomplish. So far, it’s been really good.”
Lombardi, 52, has coached in the NFL for much longer than Russell Wilson has played in it. Over the past decade, he’s seen plenty of Wilson. But he took a deeper dive into how Wilson succeeded in Seattle and what went wrong when Wilson got to Denver last season.
“You want to see what a player does well and maybe what he struggled with, but also you don’t want to make too many assumptions,” Lombardi said. “It’s a new year, a new coaching staff and a new scheme. We have a lot of time to figure out exactly the best plan forward for all these players.”
All that time will come in handy as Wilson and the rest of the offense learn the basics.
“Break the huddle, learn the snap count, know where to line up, who you’re supposed to block and what route you’re supposed to run,” he said.
