Just a few days ago, Broncos wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders reminded us, “‘When you put the pads on, that’s the difference between the boys and the men.’ So, we’re going to see who the men are,” come Sunday.
Well, the pads were on today, and while only three running backs were dressed (C.J. Anderson, Stevan Ridley and Juwan Thompson), there was plenty of separation going on. Namely, the separation between the offense and the defense.
The ‘D’ dominated the day, and it was hard not to notice. The ‘No Fly Zone’ was picking off passes left and right, generally looking like men against boys. (Although head coach Vance Joseph did credit Sanders as having a great day.) Here’s what coaches and players had to say about being in pads for the first time and the dominant defense, quotes courtesy of Broncos media relations.
Head Coach Vance Joseph
On the first practice with pads
“That was a mans practice. We added a couple team periods in there. Putting the pads on—you talk about conditioning, but that really starts when the pads come on. You play football in pads, and those pads make a difference. Even those pants they wear, it makes a difference. Adding some team periods, adding some more ‘move the ball periods’, it’s going to allow us to get in football shape.”
On what the first practice in pads means for the rookies
“Putting the pads on, it creates a different mindset. The thinking goes up a little bit. The anxiety goes up with rookies. [Offensive Coordinator] Mike [McCoy] put a bunch of ‘check with me calls’ in today for the offense. You could see in the high red zone, we kind of struggled because there was a lot of volume in. That’s a part of it. For the rookies, they have to catch up and learn.”
On who stood out to him at practice
“Who stood out to me? I would say Sanders. He went all day at full speed. The inside linebackers were excellent today. The two guys have both been very consistent from the spring until now. We’re looking at big years from those guys. [NT Domata] Peko and [DE Derek] Wolfe, inside, they’re really stout. [G/C Connor] McGovern has played well. He’s played really well at the center position. A bunch of guys, but those guys hit my mind.”
Offensive Coordinator Mike McCoy
On how much he learned about the team in the first day of padded practice
“I think we’re getting the feel for it. We just started playing in pads today. We’re going to learn a lot in the next couple of weeks in pads, the way it’s supposed to be played. Up until this point, you have a double team block and we’re a little friendly—you’re not doing certain things. Now we want to see who can move guys and stay within the rules the way you can practice. Now that we’re into full pads, now we can go which is great. We’re going to learn a lot in the next couple of weeks. When we get into preseason games, we’ll really see. When you have no idea what they’re doing, and we’re going to have a gameplan going in of what we think they’re going to do, but just go play football.”
Defensive Coordinator Joe Woods
On the first day with pads
“I liked it. We talked about it in the defensive meeting this morning, just in terms of going out when we have pads on—we want to be physical. We don’t want to take guys to the game but you have to play the game physical to be a good defense.”
On the domination of the secondary today in practice
“One thing with those guys, and I’ve said it before in the past, when I came in right away those guys all had a chip on their shoulder. You want to call it pride. When they all come out to compete they hate to get beat. It’s not perfect. They’ll complete a couple of passes on us, but those guys take it personal. That’s the thing I love about them. You can see that whole back end. You can see the young guys starting gravitate and become the same type of players in terms of their attitude.”
On the defensive effort today in practice
“I feel like the effort was really good. I thought we tailed off a little bit towards the end of one period and then we brought it back and finished it up with two minutes. The thing we want to build defensively is to score and get the ball back for our offense more than their defense does. Today, the way we closed practice was awesome.”
Cornerback Chris Harris Jr.
On how he feels about practicing in pads
“This is when the real football starts, when you put these pads on. Receivers have been playing finesse football with no pads and we could barely touch them for so long. It feels so good to finally have the placement to where you can punch somebody and things like that—to be able to hit them. This is my element and this is what I love.”
On if he would consider today’s practice a good day
“These are good days and now we’ve got to try and stack them up. We don’t want to come out like we did in practice yesterday, tomorrow. We want to keep stacking these days up, keeping getting better and that’s the main goal.”
Safety T.J. Ward
On the performance of the defense at practice
“I think we just came out a little more aggressive. I think they got the best of us yesterday. We had to get them back today.”
On whether offense and defense keep score
“No doubt. 3-1. They’re definitely three behind us and they have to catch up. It’s all good though. There’s a lot of camp left.”
On whether wearing pads made practice more aggressive
“We went shells yesterday. I feel like shells and pads are the same thing. I guess a little for the interior guys, but not for me. Just a little more weight on my legs running.”
