On the first day of full pads at Denver Broncos training camp 2017, it was clear the offense is clearly a unit in transition. That’s understandable, given they have a new coordinator, new coaches for the quarterbacks and the offensive line, and new personnel along the line and in the backfield.
One of the key markers of Mike McCoy‘s offensive system is that it utilizes the strengths of its personnel (see his previous work with Kyle Orton and Tim Tebow as evidence). So, as McCoy returns to Denver and begins to map a plan to best utilize his talent and find best positional fits, McCoy is shuffling personnel – even with players whose roles are cemented on the roster.
According to McCoy, it’s all part of the plan.
“Whenever you come in, we’re trying to put a system in place for the long haul,” McCoy said after Sunday’s practice. “When the two quarterbacks are battling, we’re still putting a system in and find who does what best. Not just the offensive line—we moved [WR] Emmanuel [Sanders] around a little bit today during the practice to put him inside, to put him outside, to put him at ‘X’ and move those guys around. We’re going to try and find the right combinations for all of our schemes. There will be certain times when you play at a certain tempo of the game where a guy is going to have to play right and left in the formations and move around. We’re learning so much about our team and that’s what the preseason and training camp is for.”
Not only is camp and the preseason a time for determining personnel, it’s a critical time for ratcheting up playbook installations and taking the next step with the scheme as a whole.
“You go in different phases of learning the system. When you go through the initial part of the offseason program, you’re teaching everyone the schemes. When you come out here, everything is against air and then when you come out with the players on the field, you take the next step. Then you get into the OTAs and the minicamp and it’s a certain speed. Then it starts to pick up like it does in training camp. Today was the first day in full pads. Each day of camp it’s picked up a little quicker, the pace of practice and the speed that everybody plays with on the field. It’s going to continue to pick up as we go through the preseason. We’re going to find out what our offense does best and who are the best players for certain schemes that we want to run whether it’s the running game, the passing game and also in protection.”
Overall, McCoy is pleased with the progress of his offensive – even if the progress may not be evident against Denver’s otherworldly defense.
“I think as a group we’ve been outstanding at learning the system. We’ve got to do a better job, and we’re going to say this every week of the season, too, with the overall execution. Like we keep coming back to, this is first practice in pads. Now when there’s certain pressures that are coming after you in the running game, they’re coming full speed because we’re in pads. Before you get there, you help each other and you just fit a guy up and you stop and things like that because we’re going to avoid all of the collisions through the offseason program and the early days of camp. Now it picks up a lot quicker. That’s where we’ve got to learn the mistakes we’ve made or the little technique things that’ll make us that much better. The one thing I really am pleased with is the way we run the football in the short amount of time, with the number of schemes that we’ve thrown at them, the way they’ve come off the ball and they’ve worked together and communicated together. We’ve just got to keep getting better every day. That’s the most important thing right now and that’s going to be our focus every day. Come out here, get better as a team and get ready for the Chicago game and then we’ll go on from there and just keep on building. That’s what training camp is for.”
Still, don’t expect to see the depth chart set in stone any time soon. His offense, and the personnel he deploys to enact it, will be an evolving thing.
“I think as an organization we’ll make all of those announcements at the right time. I think looking back from the days in Carolina when [Offensive Line Coach] Jeff [Davidson] and I were together, we’ve always moved guys around because you never know during the season when someone is going to have to bump out from one position to another. Who is that sixth lineman on your roster that you’re going to put in. Does that mean that you have to move somebody else? We’re going to have a number of combinations and at the right time we’ll make all of those decisions. This is what training camp is for especially in the first year. The first year with a new staff here— we’re learning a lot about the players just like they’re learning about us and how we want to do things.”
