Put in the Extra Work or Get Out: The Broncos cut-throat approach to a “Super Bowl or Bust” season

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — “I’ve got to go to a meeting after this, so we got to hurry this up.”

Just five minutes into Tim Patrick’s press conference on Wednesday, Denver’s $10 million receiver let the media know it was time for him to get back to the grind. The 6-foot-4 receiver made the remark to the media with a smile and calm laugh, but wasn’t joking about his afternoon plans.

“Team meetings with Russ. Team meetings with each other. Meetings, meetings, meetings,” Patrick said, attempting to explain how many meetings there were now with Russell Wilson and Nathaniel Hackett in town. “There’s a lot, trust me.”

While meetings have, of course, been part of the Broncos’ everyday schedule well before Patrick arrived in Denver in 2017, the number of meetings has drastically increased with the arrival of a new head coach, quarterback and offensive system for two reasons.

First off, Denver’s offense is more complicated for “everybody” involved, Patrick stated on Wednesday.

“We have Russ and we have Hackett, they’re putting both of their systems together so it’s kind of like a one-of-one offense so it’s not something that’s not really been taught before,” Patrick explained. “It’s just something different that we haven’t done yet.”

Another reason the Hackett-Wilson offense is complicated for Denver is because it’s designed to confuse opposing defenses and make every play look the same at the snap.

“Everything plays off each other. There’s no tells in our plays,” Patrick said. “We have, I guess you can say, five routes that all look the same and so you can never just key in on one route. So the defense has to play us honest, especially corners.”

Sure, the Broncos have OTAs, mandatory minicamp, training camp and even the preseason to work on the new playbook before Week 1 against the Seattle Seahawks rolls around. But that’s not enough time for this offense.

“Just the regular routine practice is not going to be enough for us to get it down pat. So we have to do things on our own so we can get it,” Patrick said. “Because we don’t want to be one of those teams to make excuses—new coach, new quarterback, new offense—and we don’t get going until the end of the year. We want to come out of the gate firing on all cylinders because this is Super bowl or Bust this year.”

The last time the Broncos had legitimate Super Bowl or Bust aspirations was when Peyton Manning was in town.

Speaking of elite Broncos quarterbacks, the second reason why there are more meetings this season is due to the Russell Wilson effect.

“When you see [Wilson] carry [himself] the right way everyday, it makes you up your game, not to slack and to put winning first. At the end of the day, we’re all here to win a Super Bowl,” Patrick stated. “If our quarterback is doing it, no one else has an excuse not to do it.”

From arriving at the facility at 5:00 a.m. to devoting himself to winning, Wilson isn’t leaving excuses for his teammates to slouch.

In fact, Patrick added with Russ around the facility, he doesn’t feel like others need to lead because of the presence of the future Hall-of-Fame quarterback.

“If you don’t follow his way of the way he does it—well, I don’t want to say if you don’t follow his way, but if you see Russ doing it and you’re not putting in the extra work, you’re not serious about winning and you don’t belong on this team,” Patrick stated without hesitation.

Put in the extra work or get out.

After Monday’s OTA practice, where the defense largely dominated the offense, the quarterbacks along with a handful of players, inducing Patrick and the receivers, stayed after to put in extra work.

“It’s an every day thing,” Patrick added about the new grind.

Now that the Broncos have their eyes set on the Lombardi Trophy, the work—specifically the meetings—won’t stop until they reach the pinnacle. At least that’s the environment that’s percolating around the UCHealth Training Center in the new Wilson-Hackett era.