Here's what to expect when the Broncos tee it up for training camp

The Broncos do not begin practice Friday; that happened weeks ago.

But their session Friday morning does mark the transition to what will be the closest thing to traditional training camp that we will see this year: a practice with helmets, building up to the first full-pad sessions next week, and viewed by people not connected with the organization.

A limited amount of media will be credentialed to view each session, and DNVR will have one reporter present at each practice to disseminate and analyze what the Broncos do on a day-to-day basis.

Here’s what to expect from a training camp unlike any other in the Broncos’ 61-season history:

SOME FULL-CONTACT, FULL-SPEED SITUATIONS

With no preseason games or joint practices, Broncos coach Vic Fangio noted that there could be some live-action repetitions “on occasion” once the team is settled in to its full-ap regimen.

“I’ve never been many places where that’s been done in practice. We just relied on the preseason games for that,” he said. “We’ll just go from there.

“We may practice a time or two at the stadium to get them adjusted to being in a big stadium, an NFL stadium, although it would be empty. You’re right that’s going to be—a lot of those guys, all of them, you can’t evaluate them totally until it’s live action. Who can tackle, who’s willing to tackle and who can break tackles, it will be an adjustment for everybody.”

THE BEST COMPETITION WILL BE AT RUNNING BACK

Two recent Pro Bowlers battling for their share of the load makes the duel between Phillip Lindsay and Melvin Gordon the best battle of camp by a wide margin.

Pat Shurmur has relied on bell-cow backs over his career; he leaned heavily on 2018 No. 2 overall pick Saquon Barkley with the Giants in the last two seasons and favored a heavy dose of Dalvin Cook early in the 2017 campaign when he was Minnesota’s offensive coordinator. But after Cook suffered an ACL injury four games into that season, Shurmur devised an effective time-share arrangement with Latavius Murray and Jerick McKinnon. In the final 12 games of the regular season, Murray averaged 17.9 touches per game while McKinnon averaged 15.3.

How the Broncos use the duo in practice could provide an indication of whether the Gordon-Lindsay combination is a 1-and-2 or a 1a-and-1b arrangement.

DEFENSE WILL HAVE ITS MOMENTS

The cliche’ about the defense being ahead of the offense early in camp is such because it is usually on-point. Throw in a new offensive scheme, a young core that did not have OTAs to work together and a defense in its second year executing Fangio’s tactics, and it would come as no surprise if the defense takes the measure of the offense in the first few days the Broncos don pads.

As a result, some scattershot days for the offense should not be cause for public concern. Don’t get caught up in the day-to-day ups and downs; instead, evaluate the offense over the broader sample size of practices.

TEMPERS FLARING?

In a typical camp, teams typically grow weary of hitting each other in practice after a few days. Thus, joint practices or the first preseason game comes just in the nick of time, leading to some intense work that is the product of building frustrations and energy.

The Broncos and the other 31 teams will not have that luxury this year. So even with social distancing ruling the day away from the practice field, don’t be surprised to see more testy moments than usual as the days progress.

THE PRACTICE WILL BE THE ONLY THING THAT RESEMBLES NORMAL TRAINING CAMP

Meetings have social distance. Players, coaches and staff wear contact tracers on their wrists that beep when their proximity is too close away from the field. The days of a dozen players pulling tables together in the cafeteria for a big lunch gathering are gone. And team meetings see the Broncos divide into offense and defense, with Fangio addressing the offense in person while the defense watches remotely.

“Asking questions from one virtual room to the other is a little cumbersome so we have to get though that part of it. It feels different,” Fangio said. “It is different.”

Different. Not better. But it’s the reality of the moment. The teams that navigate this environment best will be the ones most poised for success.