April 5, 2026, 7:00 a.m. MT
Following a grueling 2025 season that stretched into late January, the Denver Broncos are pushing back their offseason program.
Broncos coach Sean Payton first announced that news during an interview with ESPN’s Pat McAfee at the NFL combine in February. He confirmed the tweaked schedule while speaking to media members at the NFL’s annual meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, last week.
“Typically, we come in in April,” Payton said. “The first four weeks — I know what the league’s phases are — we kind of tweak it. I always want the first month to be weight room, nothing to do with football. So this year, we went three weeks further into the season. Our players won’t be in our building until May, the first Monday in May. I think it’s the third or fourth.
“All of May will just be weightlifting. You’ll see us on the field in June. We’ll have two weeks of OTAs and a week of minicamp, but I don’t want them to feel like they were just here. So we’ve done that before. I think it’s important, and I think the players appreciate it because they were just here.”
Payton indicated the offseason program will begin on Monday, May 4, followed by organized team activities (OTAs) beginning in early June and a mandatory minicamp in mid-June. After that, players will have a summer break until training camp begins (usually in late July).
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Payton also said quarterback Bo Nix (ankle) will be ready to participate in the offseason program.
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