A new spread system under Mike McCoy could be the spark the Broncos’ offense needs to get over the hump in the 2017 season. Veteran wide receiver and last year’s offensive captain Demaryius Thomas is very pleased with how the offense is challenging the defense in minicamp so far.
Eric Goodman and Les Shapiro of Mile High Sports AM 1340 | FM 104.7 spoke to Thomas after minicamp practice Wednesday to get his thoughts on how it feels to play in a new system and the transition for the offense as a whole.
“I’m very excited for it. We have bits and pieces of what we can work on, but as you’re watching practice and practicing out here with the guys now we’re completing a lot more passes from last year’s minicamp to now because we have so many options and you’re not getting double-teamed here, double-teamed there,” Thomas raved. “Then we have tight ends that are healthy and getting open as well as the backfield.”
Thomas also spoke very positively about the way the offense was finally catching up to the defense, which has been the dominant unit over the past few seasons.
“To tell you the truth it’s knocking heads. One day they might get us, and one day we might get them,” Thomas explained. “Like today we started off fast and they started kind of slow, but then they finished fast. It’s been like that this whole minicamp and OTAs, just competing and getting better and better. That’s what we like if we can do that at practice against them it’s better for the offense and better for the defense.”
When asked about any worries he may have about getting less touches in the new system, Thomas dismissed the thought and reiterated how much he prefers the spread offense.
“This one for sure. I never played in [the spread offense] before. We (Emmanuel Sanders and Thomas) knew we were going to get it last year. It was the fact of what types of routes we were going to have and being the first and second time playing in a play-action offense now which is you change a lot of stuff at the line, you’re on the ball at all times, you have defenses squirming around everywhere,” Thomas said. “Now we might have these big games where we throw the ball 40-50 times and me and Emmanuel [Sanders] are getting 12 targets a game which is going to be big for us, but you spread it out and still have 30-40 more targets a game to spread out to other people.”
Listen to the full interview with Thomas, including his thoughts on the aggression of the offensive line, in the podcast below.
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Catch Afternoon Drive with Goodman and Shapiro every weekday from 4p-6p on Mile High Sports AM 1340 | FM 104.7 or stream live any time for the best local coverage of Colorado sports from Denver’s biggest sports talk lineup.
