The Denver Broncos will be back on the practice field this morning for Day 8 of training camp. After three straight days of pads and thumping, the Broncos will pull back a bit without pads for Thursday’s practice as they continue to build calluses as the preseason inches closer.
Denver Broncos building thicker skin
In order to build calluses for a grueling physical season, you have to go hard and then pull the reins back a little bit. That’s what the Denver Broncos will be doing going into Thursday’s practice as the pads come off for a day.
Since training camp has started, the Broncos have put in a lot of work as they’ve increased the workload on the players, including having a longer practice yesterday that saw Bo Nix run with the first-team offense. With Denver’s first preseason game coming up in the next week and a half, Sean Payton is balancing being smart with wear and tear while also maintaining urgency to get as ready as possible for the season.
Specifically, the most contact occurring at practice has been between the offensive and defensive lines.
“I think you can, and I think just as important is the mental toughness as well as the physical toughness,” Payton said. “This game is certainly played in the trenches, but there’s a mental element that’s important relative to—there’s so many [momentum] swings in a game and swings in a season that you have to establish that grit. We look for players that have those traits in the very beginning of the process because every team—I don’t care who they are—they’re going to have their swings during the course of the year. It’s not how they’re reacting when they’re winning. Often times, [it is] how they’re doing coming off a tough loss or two losses. Back to the initial question though, relative to inside the trenches, that’s important. I think that both sides of the ball are kind of committed to that: winning the line of scrimmage. Generally speaking, when we look at a tape afterwards, that’s kind of where—barring turnovers—a lot of times the games are won and lost.”
There won’t be as much physicality during today’s practice, but Payton will still want his team to play fast. Stay tuned for updates following practice later this afternoon.
