Into the unknown: How the Broncos will have to adapt on the fly for another pandemic-altered offseason

By midday Monday, Broncos players had scattered to the winds. With the exception of players reporting to UCHealth Training Center for rehabilitation work, the locker room is now a ghost town.

And no one knows when they will gather once again.

In normal offseasons, players know that they will return to the facility for the beginning of team-organized workouts sometime in April — one week earlier than usual if there is a new head coach. They can plan offseason trips and individual workouts around the team schedule, and have a solid idea of what their day-to-day and week-to-week existence will look like until the start of training camp.

This year, Vic Fangio’s message to the players was uncertainty.

“I can’t give them any dates for anything because nobody knows,” he said. “As soon as we know, they’ll know. I don’t think you have a plan A, B or C.

“You have a plan that you wait to see what the facts are, then you make your plan. It’s such a fluid situation and I don’t think anybody can tell you what March, April and May are going to look like at this point. As soon as we do, we’ll have our plan.”

An hour later, Broncos president and CEO Joe Ellis acknowledged the haziness of the next several months — although he did did share optimism that an offseason could happen.

“I don’t know that we’ll be able to have an offseason,” he said.

“But if we can have an offseason where we get them in the building … it would be very important for us to have that as an organization with the same coaches for the players. I think that’ll give us a chance to be more successful.”

How uncertain are the plans for the next few months? Consider this: Not even the NFL Combine is set, which could mean that the even the dates of the draft itself become fluid.

One reason why the NFL was able to remain on schedule with its lead-up to the draft was because the Combine ended March 2, nine days before Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert’s positive COVID-19 test became the shot heard ‘round the sports world as plans for every sport tumbled like dominoes.

The NFL will not have that luxury this year.

For starters, the entire complexion of the Combine could look different. It could be spread out over a longer period so that no two groups of players are present at the same time. Interviews could be virtual with teams remaining back at their headquarters. The medical checkups — which offer the most important information at the Combine — are about all that could look the same.

And then there is the notion for players gathering for work that, while important, is still technically “voluntary” in nature.

What could that offseason work look like? It might be pushed back or compressed. The NFL has vowed not to “jump the line” in having its players and staff receive COVID-19 vaccines.

If the vaccine distribution timeline ensures that adults between the ages of 18 and 39 can receive their vaccines by mid-to-late spring, then the league could punt the start of in-person offseason work to May and get under way with its players vaccinated, finishing closer to the expected start of training camp around Aug. 1.

It is possible that the league could resume its testing protocol for offseason work, although the benefits might not be worth the expense. This is something for which the NFL Players Association might argue — especially since NFLPA president J.C. Tretter advocated for eliminating the offseason program last week.

“I believe the changes implemented this season have demonstrated that we can put an entertaining product out on the field while further reducing wear and tear on our players’ bodies,” Tretter wrote. “Sloppy play would usually be evident with low-scoring games, a high number of penalties and more missed tackles – all things that have historically been attributed to insufficient practice time to hone our fundamentals.

“But we have seen the exact opposite this year, with points per game at an all-time high, a decreased number of penalties and even fewer missed tackles compared to last year.”

The loss of OTAs meant that thousands of repetitions vanished — a point often noted by some coaches, including Broncos offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur. For a team featuring a new offensive coordinator and first- or second-year starters at five spots, the loss of offseason work damaged their ability to find cohesion.

Still, Tretter argued that offseason work was not necessary to build chemistry, develop young players and play the sport without an abundance of mistakes.

“We are the only major sports league with an offseason program. The most physically demanding sport is the only league that brings their players back for extra practices outside of the season,” Tretter wrote “The argument in favor of these offseason practices is based on the assumption that players need reps during OTAs to develop and learn while teams need the practices to gel. Yet, the lack of OTAs this year demonstrated that those theories aren’t substantiated. New and first-year head coaches had success. Newly assembled teams had success. Rookies stepped in and played at a high level all across the league.

From a view of 35,000 feet, the overall NFL product was relatively unscathed by the lack of offseason work — which was also the case in 2011, when a lockout canceled all in-person work at team facilities before a new collective bargaining agreement was signed that July. But at ground level, some teams endured issues — the Broncos more than most.

“With a new [offensive coordinator] and trying to learn a new offensive over virtual meetings and not being able to walk through it and not being able to hear Drew’s [Lock] voice with reps in the OTAs — it gets difficult with stuff like that,” outside linebacker Bradley Chubb said.

“It’s hard to make the argument because you have veteran teams who know what they’re doing and who can sit at home in virtual meetings and come out on Sundays and play great. You have to find a happy medium because at the end of the day this is the NFL and you want guys to perform how they feel like they could perform the best.

“I don’t really know what the answer is on what to do or what not to do, but I feel having an offseason program helps those younger teams like us and it would be beneficial for sure.”

That said, Chubb added that he was “not trying to make a decision” on whether the NFL and NFLPA should keep the normal offseason schedule intact.

But if more teams and their players feel as the Broncos and Chubb do, the notion of wiping out another offseason could be squashed.

“I’m really hopeful that we can get the players in here for some form of an offseason and I just think that’s really important,” Ellis said. “That part of it is critical. We can do meetings, like we’re doing this press conference on Zoom, and things like that with players, but just the interaction — whether it’s in the weight room or it’s doing conditioning outside or it’s doing the OTAs and being together at that time. I think, for the makeup of this team, that’s critical.”

The final piece of it goes beyond the facility — to work that players do on their own. Lock said Monday that he and some teammates have begun discussing the idea of having workouts away from UCHealth Training Center.

But how will those sessions look?

“That’s a good question,” tight end Noah Fant said. “I’m not sure how that’s going to look, specifically because I’m not sure what the NFL and the PA’s rules are going to be for the offseason. I know during the season they weren’t allowing teams to do that kind of stuff and get together aside from things like that.

“Hopefully, it’s a very good possibility. If we can do that, obviously, that’s going to help getting those reps, getting those throws, and all stuff—all the time and the things that go into it, so I definitely think that will be very helpful.

“We’ll see where this pandemic goes, we’ll see how the NFL handles it, and we’ll see all the rules that we have to abide by. I’m definitely hoping for the best, though.”

For the Broncos, “the best” will be to get in as many repetitions as they can. But like everything else in the pandemic era, all they can do is wait, see and hope.

“I think we need to be together as a team,” Ellis said.