The Broncos defense dominated the early portion of training camp, but Russell Wilson and the offense have provided a run of highlights in recent days.
Wilson hit Jerry Jeudy for a 47-yard touchdown in a down-six, two-minute drill to end practice Saturday, threaded a touchdown pass to Courtland Sutton during a sharp red zone drill Monday and engineered a 73-yard touchdown drive in another down-six, two-minute situation Tuesday.
Given Wilson’s career-worst 2022 season and his seven-year, $245 million contract, his play day-to-day in practice gets analyzed and dissected and picked apart whether it’s good or bad, exciting or boring, routine or extraordinary.
On Tuesday, he outlined why he thinks the two-minute work in particular is good for him and good for a Broncos offense that’s trying to learn new a new system under coach Sean Payton
“We’ve done a really great job in the two-minute situations for the most part and really executing when we need to,” Wilson said. “Coach Payton does a great job of putting us in situations that we’re going to have to win. Being in these close games, last year we felt like we weren’t able to capitalize on some of those and this is a great opportunity to really establish how we’re going to go about it. Our thought process.
“Obviously Jerry made an incredible play in the two-minute a couple of practices ago to win the game deep down the field. Courtland Sutton made a great play (today).”
The throw to Jeudy on Saturday came on a long-developing route, but Wilson had plenty of time in the pocket and was able to step up and into a deep throw that took Jeudy well into the end zone.
On Tuesday, Wilson extended a third-and-8 in the two-minute drill and was able to locate rookie second-round pick Marvin Mims Jr. for a 37-yard gain before polishing off the drive with a 14-yard touchdown pass to Sutton.
“Mims did a great job on the scramble play and made a big-time play today,” Wilson said. “I’m really excited about the guys that we have and what they’re capable of. They’re really understanding, and the coaches are doing a great job of teaching them, so we’re all understanding what Coach Payton wants and how we want to go about it as players and our thought process.”
Payton on Saturday said he wants his team to be focused as much on the mechanics of two-minute situations — when to call a timeout, when to hand the ball to officials, how to think about getting out of bounds or up the field and the myriad other decisions that come quickly at the end of the half and end of games. Currently, the Broncos are also still installing their two-minute concepts.
“Right now, you put in a library of two-minute calls,” Payton explained. “When you get into an opponent — in a two-minute drive, there are generally maybe two or three calls per drive that are done at the line. The clock stops a lot. So, let’s say you have eight two-minute routes that are in per game — that can vary a little bit. You find out what the opponent does and then maybe the things that, within the framework of what we do and what we think we do well.”
It hasn’t been perfect for the Denver offense in those practice situations, of course. In fact, they had two marred by penalty on Friday and Saturday, the first of which ended in a Randy Gregory interception returned for a touchdown.
In 2022, 11 of the Broncos’ first 13 games were decided by one score. They went 3-8 in those contests. Payton quipped Saturday that he’d rather be in four-minute offense trying to protect a lead than in two-minute trying to score late in games. Wilson assuredly is the same way, though he relishes the chance to win late.
“At the end of the day, you’ve got to have the right mentality when it’s, let’s say 1:30 on the clock and one timeout and you’ve got to go 75 yards,” he said. “It’s your mentality and how you go about it and looking forward to those opportunities.”
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