Sean Payton has powerful message for the Broncos on first day of OTAs
The Denver Broncos started phase one of their offseason workout program, and that means we are one step closer to seeing this team on the field again, but hopefully, in a better way. The last time we saw this team they were better than at the beginning of the season, but they still weren't great. […]
The Denver Broncos started phase one of their offseason workout program, and that means we are one step closer to seeing this team on the field again, but hopefully, in a better way. The last time we saw this team they were better than at the beginning of the season, but they still weren't great.
This team won four games in the year, after having expectations of making the playoffs. This year will be different though, at least we hope so. Sean Payton, the new head coach, made sure to make it an emphasis that this offseason will be different. In fact, he had a somewhat powerful message to his team based on the reporting we are hearing.
"We're going to close the chapter on last year," James Palmer reported on NFL Network. "He believes that these players obviously have taken it from every single angle physically and mentally and through the media and everything that went wrong last year. He wants to close that chapter and he wants to move forward telling them now is the time that they're going to roll up their sleeves and they're going to get to work. And he mentioned that it's going to be difficult. It starts today with their conditioning. I've seen them go into the weight room earlier this morning and obviously, they're going to have these meetings with Sean Payton and his new coaching staff.
"What he wants to focus on is those first two and it's the conditioning and it's the weight training because he believes these players weren't pushed enough last year in the offseason… He [Penner] wants this phase one to go much longer than the three weeks that it is in the NFL. They have added a mini-camp from April 24th to the 27th. That's going to be more to phase one. It's more conditioning, more weight training. That is his number one focus that this team was not physical enough it was not competitive enough during the preseason in his eyes. No, nine on seven, no one-on-one drills. Everybody is going to play in the preseason. We're going to see more competitiveness from this entire group and that kind of all started today."
He addressed everything that was wrong with last year. He went over the preseason games and the starters not playing, and he made sure it was known that that was going to be different. The drills and offseason stuff they do in training camp will be different. All of it from that to the injury-related problems the team showed all year with the former staff.
Now we need to see it in action. He is showing that he can talk the talk and say all the right things, the things the Broncos fans and media want to hear, but can he do it and get the job done? It won't be easy, but there is a reason he was hired to do a job as difficult as this one.
