Schools around the country are letting out.<\/p>\n
Sean Payton\u2019s team will be on break by Thursday night at the latest.<\/p>\n
The sun baked the Broncos\u2019 practice fields Tuesday as the team kicked off its mandatory minicamp, with temperatures shooting well into the 80s.<\/p>\n
Signs of summer are all around.<\/p>\n
Still, Payton felt the need to provide a couple of curt calendar-related reminders during his post-practice news conference after Tuesday\u2019s practice.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t start counting heads in a fierce running back battle, he warned, not before training camp starts. Not even as the team signed veteran J.K. Dobbins<\/a>, all but ensuring that \u2014\u00a0assuming good health \u2014 at least one and likely multiple of Audric Estime, Blake Watson, Jaleel McLaughlin and Tyler Badie get left off the 53-man roster at the end of August.<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t start counting,\u201d Payton said. \u201cI\u2019ve heard you guys counting. \u2026 Don\u2019t try to figure out the club right now. It\u2019s way too early.\u201d<\/p>\n And let\u2019s not get ahead of ourselves when it comes to talk about whether Vance Joseph\u2019s defense will be the best a Payton team\u2019s ever deployed.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll see. We\u2019re sitting here in June talking about the best,\u201d Payton said. \u201cWe have a chance to be a real good defense and time will tell.\u201d<\/p>\n Noted. It\u2019s only June, and there\u2019s no pads or tackling involved.<\/p>\n Still, the Broncos defense made its presence known in what Payton described as the team\u2019s first red zone day of the offseason program.<\/p>\n Quarterback Bo Nix was nearly picked by Talanoa Hufanga and then Riley Moss on a deflection. Nik Bonitto showed quicks blasting around Mike McGlinchey for what likely would have been a sack. Rookie Que Robinson continued to flash athleticism and length off the edge, too.<\/p>\n Hufanga\u2019s shown the kind of smarts and playmaking ability over recent weeks<\/a> already since signing a three-year free agent deal back in March.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019d have thought we\u2019d been friends for all our life, just his vibe and how smart he is,\u201d fellow safety Brandon Jones said of Hufanga. \u201cWe shared the same position coach (Todd Orlando) in college, so we came in knowing each other. It\u2019s been really fun. His football IQ, always asking questions, flying around the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n Practice eventually ended when inside linebacker Levelle Bailey trailed down the goal line and picked off a Jarrett Stidham pass.<\/p>\n Other observations and notes from Tuesday\u2019s practice:<\/p>\n \u2022 One regular happening at Broncos practice: Nix will mix it up with defensive players on his way back to the huddle between plays. Tuesday, he took off and ran in a 7-on-7 situation and heard about it from a group including Jones and nickel Ja\u2019Quan McMillian \u2014 who later picked off Nix when a ball bounded off of receiver Courtney Jackson\u2019s pads.<\/p>\n Nix, naturally, gave it back.<\/p>\n \u201cI love that,\u201d Jones said. \u201cI never want to be somewhere where a quarterback is kind of shy or to himself. If the quarterback can kind of show that dog mentality, that goes a long way for me. It keeps us battling, keeps the competition super healthy and very competitive. I\u2019ve liked what I\u2019ve seen from him from that standpoint.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022 The Broncos had good attendance Tuesday, though they did have a couple of notable absences, including second-year receiver Devaughn Vele. Payton didn\u2019t provide a reason for Vele\u2019s absence but said he had no injury concerns and that Vele is \u201call good.\u201d Running back Blake Watson, who didn\u2019t practice last week during the OTA session open to reporters, wasn\u2019t spotted, nor was receiver A.T. Perry.<\/p>\n Safety P.J. Locke, inside linebackers Dre Greenlaw (quad) and Karene Reid, and long-snapper Mitchell Fraboni (back) were in attendance but didn\u2019t do much work besides on the side field. Defensive lineman John Franklin-Myers was on hand as expected after skipping the voluntary portion of the offseason program. He didn\u2019t do much in team settings, but did individual work.<\/p>\n \u2022 The Broncos have seven tryout players in town for minicamp, including former Colorado wide receiver Will Sheppard and Nevada receiver Jaden Smith.<\/p>\n A couple have pro experience, including tight end Patrick Murtagh. The 6-foot-6 Australian is a dynamic athlete who spent last year on injured reserve in Jacksonville. Linebacker Milo Eifler\u2019s appeared in 17 games since 2021 between Washington (2021-22), Arizona (2023) and last year Atlanta. The rest: Georgia State CB Gavin Pringle, Wyoming S Wyatt Ekeler and CU defensive lineman Shane Cokes.<\/p>\n \u201cIf they have a helmet and a jersey on, we\u2019re looking closely,\u201d Payton said. \u201cCan they help us? What\u2019s the vision? What can they do? History has told me \u2014 personally, I\u2019ve found guys in this camp that weren\u2019t on the 90 (-man roster) then later were on the 90 and then made the team the next year.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022 Defensive tackle Zach Allen won\u2019t get many special teams reps, but he doesn\u2019t get much rest during those practice periods. On Tuesday, he spent at least one special team session behind the action, working the finer points of pass-rush moves with pass-rush specialist BT Jordan<\/a>.<\/p>\n