Denver Broncos QB Peyton Manning is used to playing in some lively atmospheres.
In fact, considering his sheer longevity, he’s probably been apart of more games in raucous venues than maybe any other QB in football history.
But Manning doesn’t think it’s just playoff games that bring the “juice,” he says the season opener can also feel that way.
Manning met with the media on Wednesday and here are his thoughts on that Week 1 atmosphere, if he’ll play another year and taking fewer reps in practice:
Peyton Manning: “I think season openers are similar to playoff games. There’s a lot of energy, a lot of juice. Guys are pretty fresh out there and playing with a lot of speed. The key is just being able to kind of do your job and execute. We’re certainly glad to be playing at home. We feel like the fans out to be fresh, as well, and loud. We want to use that to our advantage. In order to beat Baltimore, everybody’s got to be doing their part. I know the fans are going to be doing their part like they always do. It’s up to the players to do their part.”
PM: “Anytime I have to do an interview that kind of gets a general—I’d like to talk about just this game, if I could, but I understand when you talk somebody for the first time and only time a year, there’s only so much you can talk about today’s practice and how third down and red zone drills went that day. I think everybody, including me, feels good right now going into the season. We want to keep feeling good. The best way to do that is to win. You want to win. I think the key for us is just to keep improving throughout the season whether it’s me or all of our players, just to keep getting better. We want to be playing well to start the season, but we want to improve and hopefully be playing even our best football late in the season. I think that is kind of our ultimate goal. Certainly, with our schedule, we have two tough games coming up here—two games in four days. We need to get off to a good start because we’re playing two really good teams to start the season.”
PM: “I don’t know if it was so much time off [during training camp]. I’m on board. I feel like I’ve always had a good attitude—team player. Whatever they feel they want me to do, that’s what I’ll do. If it’s being out there or if it’s taking a period off or cutting down on certain reps, if that’s kind of part of the plan, then I’m all for that. The key for me is when I’m in there, trying to take advantage of the reps. Even when you’re not in there, you’re still communicating, you’re still talking NS you participate in walk-throughs. Whatever it may be, [we’re] trying to get on the same page. We do have some changes and we do have some new players. The more we can just keep growing as a unit, the better off we’re going to be.”