The Denver Broncos built themselves around one position

 

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Take one step into the Denver Broncos locker room and your eyes will immediately shift to the back left corner.

No matter the day, no matter the mood, no matter the situation, that’s where the most noise is coming from, usually in the form of laughter.

As you make your way past the three Super Bowl trophies majestically displayed in the center of the room, you see the lockers that surround that ruckus.

Taurean Nixon, Lorenzo Doss, Justin Simmons, Will Parks, Darian Stewart, T.J. Ward, Aqib Talib and Chris Harris Jr.

It’s the defensive backs; the ‘No Fly Zone,’ usually joined by the other big personalities on the team, the Von Millers, the Billy Winns, the occasional appearance from Shane Ray, and they are almost always having a grand ol’ time.

It takes a certain type of person to be a defensive back. Of course, you have the necessary physical abilities—speed, agility, etc.—but the mental mindset is as, if not more important. Defensive backs are brave—they have arguably the hardest job on the field—defensive backs have a swagger, a confidence, a cockiness about them, really. They are boisterous, unruly and uproarious.

Defensive backs are the entire playlist you listen to to get pumped up for the gym balled up into a human and the Denver Broncos might be on the verge of being the most defensive-back influenced team in NFL history.

It starts in that locker room, that row of lockers labeled Stewart, Ward, Talib and Harris Jr. is the core of the place, and now it just goes on up the chain from there.

Defensive backs assistant Johnnie Lynn: Eight years in the NFL as a DB, 20 years in the NFL coaching the secondary in some capacity.

Defensive backs coach Marcus Robertson: 12 years in the NFL as a safety, 14 years in the NFL coaching the back end.

Defensive coordinator Joe Woods: Four-year letterman at corner for Illinois State, 25 years coaching DBs at various levels.

Head coach Vance Joseph: Two years in the NFL at corner, 18 years coaching defensive backs in some capacity.

If LSU is DBU, the Denver Broncos are DB Inc., and they are sure to produce a unique product.

“We’re going to let those guys be who they are and just allow them to go out there and do what they do,” the 47-year-old Robertson explained of how all that back-end influence will affect the team.

This is not to say that the previous coaching staff tried to cage the beast that is the ‘No Fly Zone’ but they also didn’t go out of their way to embrace that personality throughout the football team. Now, though, that DB mentality permeates all the way to the top. The team that has been led by defensive backs between the lines for multiple years now has that same mentality in charge of the team.

What exactly that means for the club is yet to be seen, but it’s safe to predict a bit of added swagger, competitiveness and confidence.

“One thing I can say about these guys is they do it right,” Robertson said of his group. “It’s important to them, there’s a lot of communication on the football field, and they have pride in themselves. I think when they hit the field they want to go out there and show that, so I’m excited to be a part of it.”

Oh, and a lot more fun.

Even in the darkest moments of last season, when most of the locker room may as well have been a morgue, the secondary always seemed to be having fun.

Towards the end of the playoff-less year, I asked one member of that DB corps how he always kept that smile on; his answer was swift and simple.

“Football is a really fun game,” the pro-bowler said. “The second you lose that it just becomes a really hard job.”

A lot is expected to change under the new leadership put in place this offseason, but the personality this defensive-back laden football club eventually takes on may just be the most intriguing.