ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — The Denver Broncos wrapped up their first offseason program under head coach Sean Payton in relative isolation Thursday about 20 miles south of the Nuggets' championship celebration that drew tens of thousands of revelers downtown.
Rejecting the “field day" finishes that some of his predecessors preferred, Payton ran a spirited indoor practice before dismissing his players for their five-week summer break.
“Definitely seeing another team in the same city win it all” is an inspiration, veteran safety Kareem Jackson said. “Those guys had a great year. It's definitely encouraging for us. We definitely want to do the same thing.”
The Nuggets dispatched the Miami Heat in five games in the NBA Finals, winning the franchise's first championship in 47 years in the league.
Their fellow Ball Arena tenants won the Stanley Cup last summer when the Colorado Avalanche topped Tampa Bay in six games.
That makes Denver the only city that's celebrated an NBA, NHL and NFL champion since 2015, although the Broncos haven't made the playoffs since winning Super Bowl 50 seven years ago.
Since beating Carolina 24-10 in Hall of Famer Peyton Manning's final game, the Broncos have churned through 13 starting quarterbacks and Payton is their fifth head coach since Gary Kubiak stepped away a year after winning it all.
Payton was a courtside mainstay during the Nuggets' playoff run along with Manning and current quarterback Russell Wilson, and the coach donned a Nuggets visor on Thursday as an homage to the NBA champions.
“Well, the first thing that I’m going to tell you is I have a big dome, so it clearly looks small on my head," Payton said on an early morning Zoom call accommodating the reporters covering the basketball parade.
"If I showed you the back of it, you would see that I’m on the last button. (Chief Communications Officer) Patrick Smyth had this thing on my desk this morning at 6 a.m. because we knew the parade was taking place.
“Obviously, there is a lot of excitement in the city. It was the perfect time to show our support,” Payton added. "I know that the fans are excited. We are proud of the Nuggets organization. ... Those guys will walk together forever. The parade is the culmination of so much work by so many different people. It’s amazing. It’s great for them to experience it today, and we’d like to be there.”
Payton may not have taken it easy on his team this week by letting them goof around with dunk tanks and golf challenges as the Broncos have done on the final day of their mandatory minicamps in recent years. But unlike his predecessor Nathaniel Hackett, Payton took it easy on them this offseason with designs on a more rugged training camp.
Hackett operated what came to be known as “Camp Cupcake” last summer with walkthroughs, jog-throughs and no-contact days dominating the schedule in hopes of maintaining the team's health.
It backfired as the Broncos lost a slew of players during a 5-12 debacle that cost Hackett his job before the season was over.
Payton has scoffed at the notion of ditching 7-on-7 drills in training camp or holding starters out of preseason games as Hackett did, saying players need to get their bodies calloused at practice and participate in the preseason to really get ready for the grinds of the 17-game schedule.
Jackson, who's entering his 14th NFL season, said he's never worked under a head coach more focused on strength and conditioning as a foundation.
“A lot of the head coaches have so much other stuff going on” that they don't get involved with the training, Jackson said. “But you know, just seeing how involved he is with it and how much he harps on it in meetings and things like that, I think it’s pretty amazing.”
Payton's parting message to his players was not to stray too far from their conditioning during vacation lest they fall out of shape by the time the real evaluation begins in late July.
“I’m anxious to see what kind of team we have,” Payton said. "There are a lot of things that can dictate that, especially in the first four weeks of the season. To the conditioning level, to the strength, to the running, and to the offseason program, I like where we are at now.”
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