Forty minutes into Thursday’s OTA practice, Denver hadn’t shifted out of walk-through mode.
Instead, coach Sean Payton and the Broncos spent a good, long while talking through rarely encountered situations.
“There’s a board where there’s 43 things that are unique end-of-game, end-of-half, sometimes middle-of-the-game situations that may come up once every four weeks. Maybe once every two years,” Payton explained afterward. “We begin teaching those and not just to those involved. In a perfect world, the whole bench is going to know what to expect at the end of game in certain situations, so we spent all of the walkthrough on about eight different situations.
“Training camp, each day we’ll take two. We’ll review. They have to know those cold and they have to know what we’re thinking so that, when they come up, they can execute.”
Several veteran players said they appreciated the work at this stage in the offseason.
“I’ve had a lot of coaches here over the past years and Coach Payton is a guy that’s been very firm on his emphasis on attention to detail,” wide receiver Courtland Sutton said. “Whether it’s pre-snap penalties, whether it’s ‘guys, stand back when we’re running plays.’ Everything to him is very intricate and there’s a rhyme and a reason to everything.
“For us to be working on situational football as in depth as we are in OTAs is amazing. It shows us that he understands and knows what to expect when we get into these games.”
The lessons will be a daily staple through next week’s minicamp, training camp and then into the regular season.
“If you don’t address one because it doesn’t come up but every two years, then you’re going to be faced with it and nobody’s going to know what to do,” Payton said. “It’s really just trying to get really specific with the details of certain in-game situations that actually happen.
“We have video of it, we have the statistics of it and then what’s the strategy when it happens?”
Gambling education continues: The NFL offseason’s featured multiple instances of heavy discipline for players violating the league’s gambling policies. Several Detroit Lions players were suspended for varying lengths of time and now Indianapolis’ Isaiah Rodgers is being investigated, too.
Payton said he gave a presentation to the Broncos recently and there’s more coming.
“We’re professional teachers,” Payton said. “The packet we received (from the NFL), we looked at, studied closely and then presented. I probably had 20 minutes on it to really make sure everyone has it. If you’re a teacher and half your class gets a ‘D,’ you’d better look at yourself.”
Sterns with a highlight: Caden Sterns made a leaping interception deep down the field in coverage against Jerry Jeudy on Thursday despite what looked like a good throw from Russell Wilson.
“He’s smart,” Payton said of Sterns. “That’s a good trait to have at his position. And I think he’s got instincts. That was a heck of a play down the field and staying on top.”
Sterns had a strong run early in the 2022 season when Justin Simmons missed four games to a quad injury, but then missed the rest of the season with a hip issue.
The play Thursday was one Payton said he thought portended good things for the third-year safety.
“Confidence is born out of demonstrated ability,” Payton said. “You can hope for confidence or say ‘I’m going to be confident,’ but it’s only born from demonstrated ability. Plays like that, you guys have all seen a preseason game where someone excels and then all of a sudden you have a different player and you can point to a certain moment.
“He’s one of those type of players.”
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