Denver Broncos to begin new era, but defense still tops By Nicki Jhabvala Denver Post July 27, 2016 On July 30, 2015, Broncos general manager John Elway, donning one of his many navy notch lapel sport coats, sat under an oversized tent in the smoldering heat as a horde of reporters peppered him with questions. The usual questions. The expected questions that had no definitive answers. Is the new system a fit for their quarterback? Is the young offensive line a concern? Is this team capable of going all the way? It was the day before the start of training camp and Elway, armed with a new coach in longtime friend and former teammate Gary Kubiak, was leading a new era. Elway had revamped the defense a year earlier, and after back-to-back disappointments in the postseason — a Super Bowl blowout loss followed by a first-game exit — had set the team up for change and a world championship in Peyton Manning’s final season. Come Wednesday, the eve of the Broncos’ 2016 training camp, Elway probably will field the same questions about the same topics, but with different names. Another Broncos era will kick off that afternoon and start in earnest the next day, when players take the field for Day 1 of practice. The retirement of Manning and abrupt exit of Brock Osweiler have paved the way for a new battle at quarterback between veteran Mark Sanchez, second-year player Trevor Siemian and first-round draft pick Paxton Lynch. The porous offensive line of 2015 has been revamped, with veterans Donald Stephenson and Russell Okung joining the mix of young, but more experienced players. And a year of learning Kubiak’s system will, the Broncos hope, make for an easier, faster transition to the offensive changes as they seek another a Super Bowl title. But while eyes might focus on the three quarterbacks, the Broncos’ league-leading defense returns mostly intact, with a season’s worth of work and rings with 194 diamonds each to prove their worth. Defense, they’ll tell you, wins championships, and last season, as the Broncos’ offense struggled to find a rhythm and consistency (as well as the end zone), the defense often took over on both sides of the ball. Although a few key faces — namely defensive end Malik Jackson and inside linebacker Danny Trevathan — left for bigger contracts in free agency, the leaders returned in outside linebackers Von Miller and DeMarcus Ware, and a secondary that has been dubbed the best in the league by Pro Football Focus. “Every year you lose people, so you have to be able to just bounce right back,” cornerback Chris Harris said. “We feel like the secondary, having us back another year on top of what we accomplished last year, we feel like the sky’s the limit.” The potential abounds as the Broncos look to become only the ninth team in history to repeat as champions. For a defense that thrives off doubts, the challenge is the next proverbial chip on its shoulder.

But as another year of transition awaits, these Broncos — and their general manager — will open camp with at least one concrete answer. “We know the formula to win. People get caught up in, ‘The quarterback has to throw 40 touchdowns, 50 touchdowns’ and things like that,” Harris said. “We didn’t win any games like that last year. Some games we didn’t play well on defense and we still figured out a way to win on offense. If the offense didn’t score a touchdown, we figured out how to score on defense. “It might not look good on paper, and I think that’s why people always slight us.” 2016-17 Key Dates Rookies got an early start to camp, but Thursday marks the beginning for all players. Some key dates for the Broncos: Sunday: First day players can practice with full pads. Thursday, Aug. 11: Preseason opener, at Chicago. Tuesday, Aug. 30: Roster must be reduced to 75 players by 2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 3: Roster must be reduced to 53 players on active/inactive list by 2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 4: Claiming period for players on waivers expires at 10 a.m. Teams can form practice squad with 10 players. Thursday, Sept. 8: Regular-season opener, vs. Carolina.

Aaron Rodgers explains “beauty and brilliance” of Peyton Manning’s “Omaha” call By Nicki Jhabvala Denver Post July 27, 2016 Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers has his favorites, and Peyton Manning is at the top of the list. Rodgers was a guest on Bill Simmons’ HBO show “Any Given Wednesday” recently and was asked for his top quarterbacks — the players he watched and admired in the league. “I like watching Peyton,” Rodgers told Simmons. “Peyton, I think, did a lot for the pre-snap for everybody.” When Simmons brought up Manning’s signature “Omaha” play call, Rodgers explained why the call, and Manning, were so effective: “That was important. I think that’s really interesting. The root of that is a timing mechanism where his offense can get off at the same time. And then the beauty and the brilliance of it is that it goes from that, that word, to you saw numerous times he would change it. He would have a code word that would mean it wasn’t coming on the “Omaha.” It wasn’t “Omaha, Omaha, set hut.” That was a dummy. “He doesn’t take the chances that we do in Green Bay when we draw somebody offsides, but his ability to manipulate that — their thing was if a guy jumped offsides, the offensive lineman would move an initiate contact or just move to where you get the neutral zone infraction, where we want to snap it and take a shot down the field. “But the stuff he does pre-snap and his ability to — the thing I love about Peyton, for years, especially in Indy, is they would stay in a 2-by-2 set in any personnel group. Marvin (Harrison) would play one side, and Reggie (Wayne) would play the other side, and they’d have the two tight ends or the third receiver in the slot and be able to run their entire offense out of that and not have motion or dilute it down by trying to be an offensive guru and create some incredible play. It was just, ‘Our offense in 2-by-2 is going to be better than you can do. We’re going to go at a tempo where you just can’t match it.’ There’s a lot to be said of that, and I’ve always tried to get in the minds in the decision-makers at Green Bay is that the simplest stuff is often the stuff that works best, and I always appreciated that about Peyton.”

Devontae Booker’s, Adam Gotsis’ potentials are high, but health is priority By Cameron Wolfe Denver Post July 27, 2016 The two knees that will garner the most attention in Denver during training camp belong to Broncos defensive end Adam Gotsis and running back Devontae Booker. Both rookies, second- and fourth-round picks respectively, spent most of organized team activities limited or out of practice with knee injuries suffered in college. Training camp starts Thursday, so their activity level on the field will be a testament to how close each is to 100 percent. Booker appears to be the closest to full strength. He invested most of his summer break staying in Colorado rehabilitating the torn meniscus and bone bruise he suffered in November. He had another surgery in February to trim his meniscus after it didn’t heal properly. The biggest hurdle for Booker was the mental recovery. He said it was his first injury, and having two surgeries affected him as he got back on the field. Now, he said his cuts and straight-line movement are back to normal. “I feel very confident about it and I can’t wait to get out there and compete,” said Booker, who wasn’t sure if he would be limited by coaches early in camp. Gotsis also had positive vibes about the progress from his torn anterior cruciate ligament he suffered last October. He said he was running around on the field Monday and would be a participant in individuals drills, but he fell short of saying he would be a full-go when training camp begins. “It’s still a day-by-day thing,” Gotsis said. “Obviously as the workload increases so will the recovery that we’ll probably have to take.” Gotsis went to Australia during the break to take care of his work visa information so he can play in the United States. Now that he’s back, it’s all about getting that knee 100-percent and throwing his hat into the defensive end competition. For Booker, once he proves that he’s fully healthy, it’s time to earn his role. He didn’t back off his comments at the rookie premiere that “I’m not here to carry pads. I’m here to take somebody’s job.” He expected to receive flak from the veterans when he returned, but to his surprise they were happy he said it.“They told me that’s what you have to do as a rookie,” Booker said. “I’m not going to downplay myself or my ability.” Footnote. The Broncos made a roster move to add depth to their inside linebacker core, signing 6-foot-2, 250 pound former Sacramento State linebacker Darnell Sankey. They waived long snapper Nathan Theus in a corresponding move. The release of Theus means Casey Kreiter has won the long snapper job as the only one left on the roster.

Broncos sign LB Darnell Sankey; waive LS Nathan Theus By Cameron Wolfe Denver Post July 27, 2016 With training camp just days away, the Broncos made a roster move to add depth to their inside linebacker core, signing former Sacramento State linebacker Darnell Sankey. They waived long snapper Nathan Theus in a corresponding move. Sankey, 6-foot-2, 250 pounds, led the Big Sky Conference and held second in the FCS with 153 tackles last season. He also had nine tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks. He joins inside linebackers Zaire Anderson, Corey Nelson, Dekoda Watson, Dwayne Norman and Frank Shannon competing for the final two or three inside linebacker spots. He’s the third Sacramento State player to join the Broncos roster along with linebacker Todd Davis and tackle Lars Hanson. Theus’ release leaves Casey Kreiter as the only long snapper on the roster and eliminates at least one camp competition heading into Thursday. Theus was signed by the Broncos as a college free agent in late April.

Von Miller joins Carrie Underwood in opening of “Sunday Night Football” By Joe Nguyen Denver Post July 27, 2016 The Von Miller tour rolls on. The Broncos linebacker is one of 12 NFL players who will be featured with singer Carrie Underwood in the opening of this season’s “Sunday Night Football” on NBC. Miller is the only Broncos player chosen, joining Giants’ Eli Manning and Odell Beckham Jr., Steelers’ Antonio Brown, Cowboys’ Dez Bryant, Raiders’ Khalil Mack, Cardinals’ Tyrann Mathieu and Patrick Peterson, Packers’ Clay Matthews, and Seahawks’ Kam Chancellor, Earl Thomas and Russell Wilson. Underwood will perform “Oh, Sunday, Night,” which is set to the music of “Somethin’ Bad.” The Broncos have two Sunday night games scheduled: Nov. 6 at Oakland and Dec. 25 at Kansas City.

Liquidator’s deadline for Mile High stadium naming rights passes without a lead bidder By Danika Worthington Denver Post July 27, 2016 The Monday deadline for bids on the Mile High stadium naming rights set by Sports Authority’s national liquidator Hilco Streambank came and went without a lead bidder — although one likely will be identified by the end of the week.

Hilco Streambank executive vice president Jack Hazan said several interested parties have approached his firm, though he declined provide details or discuss how the company has been marketing the naming rights.

The liquidator last week extended the bid deadline to July 25 from July 19, saying that, until recently, it had been too busy selling the retailer’s intellectual property and liquidating stores to focus on selling the naming rights. Englewood-based Sports Authority declared bankruptcy in March, which put a large question mark over how much longer the retailer’s name would remain on Mile High, the Denver Broncos home field.

Hilco Streambank has to be quick, though. Sports Authority is due to make a $3.6 million payment Aug. 1. Missing the deadline starts a 30-day grace period after which the naming rights return to the Metropolitan Football Stadium District and Denver Broncos.

Hazan said in an e-mail that potential buyers would receive better financial terms from the liquidator, than if they deal directly with the district. Hilco Streambank has priced the deal at $3 million a year for the remaining five seasons left on Sports Authority’s contract.

District spokesman Matt Sugar said it’s hard to say whether the deal would be cheaper. He said that if the stadium rights do return to the district, managers likely will be negotiating a longer contract. Although the average contract for NFL stadium naming rights tends to be 20 years, Sugar said the length of the Mile High sponsorship contract would have to be worked out in talks between the district and the team. Sports Authority took over Invesco Funds’ 20-year naming rights contract in 2011. Nearly $20 million is still owed on the contract, according to the term sheet. Over the 20-year period, annual payments averaged $3 million. Broncos spokesman Patrick Smyth previously said the team will not comment until the issue is resolved in bankruptcy court. “We continue to monitor the developments and are exploring all opportunities with regard to our future stadium naming rights,” he said Monday in an e-mail.

Sports Authority did not make its quarterly payments due Feb. 1 and May 1 on a separate sponsorship deal with the team. On Friday, the Broncos filed a motion in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court asking to be paid about $1.1 million owed on the agreement that allowed Sports Authority to call itself the official retail sponsor of the team.

Donald Trump Jr. poses with Peyton Manning at Mississippi fair where Ronald Reagan made history in the South By Joey Bunch Denver Post July 27, 2016 It’s a picture, not necessarily an endorsement, but there’s Peyton Manning, conservative and former Denver Broncos quarterback, mugging with Donald Trump Jr. at the Neshoba County Fair in Philadelphia — not home of the Democratic National Convention this week, but the town of 7,500 in east Mississippi. Manning donated to the presidential campaign of Jeb Bush, a bitter rival to Trump, but the signal-caller has reportedly played golf with the New York billionaire, and Trump said he was pulling for the Broncos in the Super Bowl this year, because he’s a friend of Manning’s. Neshoba County has layers of history and significance in business and politics: some of it good, some of it bad and some of it you can make up in your own mind. On Aug. 3, 1980, Ronald Reagan gave a campaign speech on “states’ rights” at the Neshoba County Fair, which historians view as a seminal moment in Republicans taking the South from Democrats. It echoed a then-not-so-distant time when George Wallace stood in the schoolhouse door at the University of Alabama not to hurt African-Americans, he said, but to stand up to federal judges who forced desegregation on Southern states. How do I know this? I grew up in Alabama in the aftermath of the civil rights era. I covered politics and civil rights in Mississippi. I’ve attended the Neshoba County Fair, a beloved spectacle held since 1889 in the dead of the Deep South summer, when the heat drives workers from the field to a welcome break before the fall harvest. I once wrote a story for the Biloxi Sun-Herald about the monuments of history that tower over Neshoba County. One was Reagan. Another was Freedom Summer, 1964, when three civil rights workers were killed by Klansmen in Neshoba County, drawing the nation’s outrage to help spur passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. I’ve walked every known step of that crime scene, from the site of the fire-bombed church that James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman came to inspect to the farm where they were found buried in an earthen dam. I am possibly the last reporter who tried to interview Cecil Price, the Neshoba County deputy who released the three to the Klan and was one of the few who served time for the murders. The attempted interview did not go well. Less than a month later Price died after he fell from a forklift and fractured his skull. Neshoba County also is home to one of America’s greatest business success stories, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. Once among the poorest inhabitants of the state, which is really saying something in Mississippi, the tribe today is one of the state’s largest employers with more than $500 million in economic development projects and a $100 million annual payroll in manufacturing and tourism, as well as tribal

education, health care and public safety. The diamond in the tribe’s crown is Pearl River Resort, with beautiful, busy, profitable casinos, a water park, fancy restaurants, a hotel and a championship golf course. I knew the late Chief Phillip Martin personally, and he joked about “running out of Indians” for his many diverse enterprises. Indeed, the tribe today says half its workforce is non-Indian. Martin died in 2010 and the New York Times reported he “guided his tribe from grinding poverty in the red clay hills of east central Mississippi to become proprietor of one of the state’s leading business empires.” In 2011, Phyliss J. Anderson was sworn in as the tribe’s first elected female chief. Given Donald Trump’s problems in the casino business, maybe the family could spend some time on the reservation in Neshoba County instead of hanging out with The Sheriff.

Casey Kreiter wins Broncos longsnapper job By Mike Klis 9News July 27, 2016 The Denver Broncos have themselves a longsnapper. He is Casey Kreiter, who snapped the previous two training camps and preseasons with the Dallas Cowboys, but was cut each time before competing in an NFL game that counts. Kreiter got the job after the Broncos waived undrafted rookie longsnapper Nathan Theus on Tuesday. Kreiter and Theus competed against each other during the offseason for the right to replace Aaron Brewer, who was released after Super Bowl 50. Brewer has signed with the Chicago Bears, where he is reunited with head coach John Fox and special teams coordinator Jeff Rodgers. To fill Theus’ spot on the roster, the Broncos signed undrafted rookie linebacker Darnell Sankey. Sankey was a tackling machine at Sacramento State. The 6-foot-1, 240-pound Kreiter was undrafted out of Iowa in 2014. Although he has the job for now, he will have to perform in the preseason.

Paxton Lynch won't accept backup role without competing By Mike Klis 9News July 27, 2016 Hey, coach. Over here. The No. 1 draft pick. Don’t forget about Paxton Lynch, coach. “As a competitor you’re not just going to say I’ll take the back seat to this,’’ Lynch said Tuesday. “But it’s my job as a rookie to push those guys that are ahead of me however I can.” When Denver Broncos head coach Gary Kubiak last publicly spoke about his new team’s quarterback situation in the post-Peyton era, he indicated veteran Mark Sanchez and second-year passer Trevor Siemian were eye to eye. And the rookie Lynch was third, primarily because the No. 26 overall draft selection from Memphis was well behind in such cerebral matters as an NFL playbook, reading defenses at a fast tempo and even with calling plays in a huddle – tougher than you think for a quarterback who was raised playing a no-huddle offense. Kubiak delivered his oral depth chart back on June 14, before the team left for vacation. With Broncos’ rookies getting a two-day headstart on veterans prior to the start of training camp this week, Lynch understands he will need more time to pass up Sanchez and Siemian. “I definitely think I have an opportunity to better myself and put myself up in that position to play right away or sooner than I thought,” Lynch said. “But I knew those guys would be ahead of me just because of their experience. And Trevor, his experience in the offense, and Mark, his experience in the league, and me being a rookie and this is the first time I’ve seen a playbook like that so I knew it was going to be tough and I knew I was going to be behind. “But the biggest thing for me is to just staying confident in myself and keeping my head up and keep pushing through it and keep grinding and it will come to you eventually.’’ Lynch said he spent part of his 5-week break training in Orlando, where he threw passes to his brother, and there was a charity event in Memphis where he got to throw to his former college teammate Mose Frazier, who is now a Broncos’ undrafted rookie. But there is both advantage and disadvantage for Lynch as the only quarterback in the Broncos’ unofficial 30-player rookie camp this week. “It’s pretty tough from the standpoint of conditioning,’’ Lynch said. “Just because you’re taking every rep and you’re taking every drop back, every drill when it’s just individual stuff but in the long run it helps you obviously because you’re taking every rep and you’re getting that conditioning you normally wouldn’t when those other guys are out here.” The vets report Wednesday. The first training camp practice is Thursday morning.

Manning is gone, Kubiak offense is up By Mike Klis 9News July 27, 2016 Peyton Manning is not only exonerated, he’s still retired. Denver Broncos head coach Gary Kubiak no longer has to defer to the mobility-challenged legend. Let’s see what the defending Super Bowl champs can do with the ol’ West Coast offense this year. There should be more huddles and less at-the-line calls. A few more run plays and play-action rollouts. “It’s really going to be 100 percent Kubiak’s offense this year,’’ said Broncos running back Juwan Thompson. “I mean we had a veteran quarterback that was the best quarterback to ever play last year. He’s gone, so we have to get back to Kubiak’s old ways. Everything is his way.’’ The Kubiak way includes a fullback for up to 25 percent of the plays. The Broncos used one briefly for three games last season but when James Casey’s aching knees finally gave out, and Manning was struggling to operate Kubiak’s system, the fullback was discarded for the rest of the season. (James Ferentz, a center, came in as the lead plow horse on goal-line plays). During the offseason and into training camp that starts Thursday morning, Thompson will share the fullback position with sixth-round rookie Andy Janovich. “We’re trying to put this fullback in and make sure we’re going with the new fullback movement this year so it’s going to be different,’’ Thompson said. “A lot more running, a lot more playmakers throughout the backfield with various talents.’’ Which in turn could mean a tad less plays targeted on the outside. Not that receivers can’t put up big numbers in Kubiak’s offense. Andre Johnson had five seasons of at least 101 catches and 1,147 yards for Kubiak in Houston from 2006-13. And Demaryius Thomas had 105 catches for 1,304 yards for the Broncos last year. Still, the Kubiak offense isn’t quite as receiver-friendly as the Adam Gase system the Broncos used in 2013 when Manning threw 55 touchdown passes and four Broncos caught at least 10 touchdowns. That system, by the way, lost in the Super Bowl. The Kubiak-Manning hybrid offense played to the defense last year and the Broncos won the Super Bowl.

“I think it’s more running back friendly now,” Thomas said. “But it is what it is. Whatever we’ve got to do to win the game. Of course as a receiver you’re going to want the ball but it’s a little different. But you still get the opportunities to go out and make plays, you just got to make ‘em.”

Booker dealing with injury for 1st time By Aaron Matas 9News July 27, 2016 A year of firsts. Training camp number one for Devontae Booker , which is being affected by another number one. "This was my first injury ever. I didn't know what to expect. It was tough in the beginning doing the rehab stuff because it was my first injury ever," said Booker. He had surgery on a torn meniscus in November, and a second repair done in February. He has never dealt with anything like this, never even missed a game up until his final collegiate season. "If I did have an injury like an ankle sprain, or something like that I just played right through it. Even when I got hurt playing at Utah, when I tore my meniscus during the game, I just played right through it," Booker told 9NEWS. Devontae is ready to say he's recovered for the first time ever because he's got some words to back up. During the off-season Booker was quoted as saying 'I'm not just here to carry shoulder pads.' He's apparently ready to compete with the veterans. "I said it at the rookie premiere and my phone was blowing up," said Booker. Did Devontae cause trouble for himself? Actually no. The veterans loved the comment. "They were basically saying, what else are you supposed to say. I'm not going to down play myself and my ability on the field," said Booker. He hopes to show that ability off soon. And when it comes to who carries the ball for the Broncos come September, Booker hope to be first in line.

Devontae Booker might carry pads now, but he still wants to play – soon By Jeff Legwold ESPN July 27, 2016 It has been just over two months since Denver Broncos rookie running back Devontae Booker dropped the missive that still brings a slight smile to his face. In May, at the NFL Players Association Rookie Premiere in Los Angeles, Booker raised a few eyebrows in the rookies-should-be-seen-and-not-heard crowd when he made it clear that he had no intention of being a typical first-year player. He said in an interview, “I’m not there to carry pads. I’m there to take someone’s job." On Tuesday, just before the Broncos rookies' second practice of the week, that snippet of bravado brought a grin to Booker’s face. “I said it at the Rookie Premiere, so a couple minutes later, my phone was blowing up," Booker said Tuesday. “I thought I was going to get a lot of stuff when I came back here from the vets, but they did not at all. They pretty much liked it and were telling me that that is what I have to do when I am a rookie. The [Broncos players] were basically saying, ‘What else are you supposed to say?’ I’m not going to downplay myself and my ability on the field." Booker, who was the Broncos’ fourth-round pick in this year’s draft, figures to push for playing time quickly, given his size (219 pounds), vision as a runner and work as a receiver out of the backfield (he had 80 receptions in two seasons at Utah). He rushed for 1,512 yards for the Utes in 2014 with 43 receptions and had 1,262 yards in 10 games last season before he suffered a torn meniscus in his knee to end his season. He had surgeries in November and February to repair the knee and did not participate in drills at the NFL's scouting combine. The Broncos held him out of most of their team drills in the offseason program but saw enough for coach Gary Kubiak to declare that Booker would have a role in the offense. For his part, C.J. Anderson, who has worked as the No. 1 back throughout the offseason program and will open training camp in that role, has said, “What do you expect him to say? I said the same thing. I have confidence in what I can do." Kubiak praised Booker’s desire to play, saying, “You want all of [the players] to think that way." Booker remained at the team’s complex in recent weeks to rehab his knee with the team’s medical staff. He said he believes he’ll be ready to compete quickly and if not when the team’s full practices get underway Thursday -- the team’s veteran players report Wednesday -- then soon after that. “It was definitely an investment for me over this whole portion when I got up here," Booker said. “I actually stayed here throughout the summer break when all the guys went home. I was just rehabbing.

Like I said, it was an investment for me to do that so I can get back on the field quicker and go out and compete with the rest of the guys.” On his potential to play, Booker said, “I’m really confident about it. I’m just here to compete and do what I need to do for the team so I can get out and play a lot this year. I think I’m relied on heavily by some of the coaches to exceed expectations, and I believe that I will do so."

Broncos like their situation at quarterback a lot more than most By Jeff Legwold ESPN July 27, 2016 Since owner Pat Bowlen hired John Elway to return to the Denver Broncos, the organization’s plans have largely come together. After all, there have been five consecutive AFC West titles, two Super Bowl trips and a Super Bowl 50 victory in February. And through it all, players have come, players have gone, the Broncos have even switched coaches, and yet the wins keep coming. But now with what seemingly would be plenty of benefit of the doubt in the bank, many in the league look at what’s happened at quarterback for the Broncos and wonder what plan was on the drawing board for Elway this offseason. That's because the team's quarterback depth chart consists of a guy who has started 10 games in the past two seasons combined in Mark Sanchez, a guy with no career starts in Trevor Siemian and rookie Paxton Lynch. And the one irrefutable fact is Elway and Broncos coach Gary Kubiak like their situation behind center a lot more than you or most anyone else does. Peyton Manning retired this past March to close out a Hall of Fame career, Brock Osweiler left for far greener financial pastures in Houston, and the Broncos trust things have still gone according to Elway’s plan. "I think that’s true," cornerback Chris Harris Jr. said recently. "Elway, Coach Kubiak, and the guys in the locker room, we’ve seen those guys work, we see our defense, we see our team. We think we can win. What other people say, that’s all stuff we don’t really listen to." Or as linebacker Brandon Marshall put it: "Last year, every Sunday we put in work, we won the Super Bowl. This year we’re ready to put in work again, we’re ready to be a team that wins. Positions don’t win, man, teams win. We’re a team." There it is, the bottom line of the coming season for the Broncos. If Elway and Kubiak are right, someone out of the group of Sanchez, whose teams are 4-2 in his six playoff starts, Siemian, and perhaps even Lynch, a productive, consistent starting quarterback will emerge and the Broncos will be a playoff team again. But if Sanchez can’t rise above some of the ill-timed mistakes that have happened since he opened his career with two appearances in the AFC Championship Game, or Siemian doesn’t continue his ascent, or the Broncos have to rush Lynch, then they'll be another team that leans too hard on its defense, with a running game too many defenses would be prepared for. "But we like our quarterbacks. We like what Mark’s done, his progress. We like what Trevor’s done and we like Paxton as a young guy we targeted in the draft that we wanted," Elway said earlier this

offseason. " … I think sometimes people look at things like the sky is falling. We like the team we’re putting together. ... Pat Bowlen wants this team to be in position to compete every year and we think we’re doing that." The defense should be key to that again. The Broncos, whose veterans report Wednesday, with the team’s first full training camp practice on Thursday, have 10 starters potentially returning from the league’s No. 1 defense in 2015. They also believe they will run the ball significantly better than they did last season, with a crowded depth chart at running back and a re-vamped offensive line. And they believe their trip through the postseason to a Super Bowl win, with victories over a quarterback honor roll that included Ben Roethlisberger, Tom Brady, and Cam Newton, will matter. The Broncos also showed toughness, putting together 11 victories in 2015 by seven or fewer points. "Once you win it, you see what it takes," Marshall said. "Before you win it, you think you know what it takes, and you do to a certain extent. But when you win it, you see what kind of commitment it takes from everybody, nobody can waver. I think that’s why teams that win it, if they stay together, are tougher to beat. They know what it’s like to be the last one standing."

Paxton Lynch believes he's made significant progress in the Broncos' offense By Jeff Legwold ESPN July 27, 2016 When Paxton Lynch came to the Denver Broncos earlier this year as a newly minted first-round draft pick and potential franchise-quarterback-in-waiting, he quickly saw how steep his learning curve was going to be. The offense he played at Memphis bore little resemblance to what he called the phone book-sized playbook the Broncos handed him, and he was staring squarely at a from-the-ground-up task to get himself acclimated to his NFL home. The Broncos’ rookies got a head start in training camp this week before the veteran players report Wednesday, and Lynch believes he has made significant progress. Asked Tuesday where he has made the biggest jump in the weeks and months since the draft, Lynch said: “Just how far I’ve come mentally, I think. When I first got here and it was all thrown at me, I was having trouble getting plays called in the huddle, even doing that. Now, I’m doing a lot better with that; my footwork is where it needs to be. I still have a while to go with that, but from where I came when I first got here ‘til now, I’m very pleased with my progress. ... I’m a lot more confident in myself, knowing the plays and playing a little bit faster than when I first got here.’’ Broncos coach Gary Kubiak has repeatedly praised Lynch’s work, potential and attitude, but has also added the rookie has a “long way to go.” But Kubiak, even while he has said the competition between Mark Sanchez and Trevor Siemian was “neck-in-neck’’ when the offseason program drew to a close, has been careful not to eliminate Lynch from the conversation despite the ground the rookie has to make up in the preseason. Lynch did not work under center at Memphis and did not call plays in a huddle, and his progressions and footwork in the Tigers’ offense were not the same as what is required in the Broncos’ offense. So it has been a square one affair for Lynch, but the Broncos see a growing comfort level and all the physical attributes, including his arm strength, that enticed the team to trade up in the first round to select him. “I knew it was going to be tough; I knew I was going to be behind,’’ Lynch said Tuesday. “The biggest thing for me is just staying confident in myself, keeping my head up, keep pushing through and keep grinding, and it’ll come to you eventually.’’ Since the Broncos’ rookies reported Sunday night, Lynch has taken every snap in drills the last two days, since he is the only quarterback on hand. That will change Thursday when the team has its first full practice. “From what I hear, it is the way the vets are in OTAs and what you do before camp is a little different from when they do get into camp, because it’s time to lock in and take care of your business,’’ Lynch said. “My relationship with [Sanchez and Siemian] so far has been good. They have been really helpful for me whenever I had bad practices or questions about something. They’ve always been there to help me.’’

Rookie Paxton Lynch thinks he can push Mark Sanchez, Trevor Siemian By Jeff Legwold ESPN July 27, 2016 Denver Broncos rookie quarterback Paxton Lynch believes he can get himself into the discussion to be the team's starting quarterback over the next month. When the Broncos closed out their offseason program, coach Gary Kubiak said Mark Sanchez and Trevor Siemian were "neck-and-neck" in the battle to be the starter for the defending Super Bowl champions. Kubiak added that it was not surprising that Lynch, the team's first-round pick in April's draft, was behind at that point. But Lynch said he believed he still could affect Kubiak's decision and get into the mix when he was asked Tuesday just before the Broncos' rookies went through their second practice of the week. "I definitely think I have the opportunity to better myself and put myself up in that position to play right away or sooner than I had thought," Lynch said. "I knew those guys were going to be ahead of me just because of experience -- Trevor his experience in the offense and Mark his experience in the league and me being a rookie, and this is the first time I've seen a playbook like that." That said, Lynch has reported with the rest of the Broncos' rookies -- the team's veteran players report Wednesday -- after some time away from the team complex ready to push for more. He added he's not ready to step aside and let Sanchez and Siemian decide things on their own. The Broncos acquired Sanchez in a trade with the Philadelphia Eagles shortly after Brock Osweiler signed as a free agent with the Houston Texans in March, while Siemian was the Broncos' seventh-round draft pick in the 2015 draft and was on the roster throughout the Super Bowl season. Siemian was the team's No. 2 quarterback for six games when Peyton Manning missed seven starts with a foot injury, "From a competition standpoint, obviously, as a competitor, you're not gonna say, 'Yeah, I'll take the backseat in this,'" Lynch said. "It's my job as a rookie to push those guys that are ahead of me however I can." Kubiak has not announced any decision on naming a starter in the wake of Manning's retirement and Osweiler's departure. Sanchez worked with the starters more in the offense during OTAs and minicamp than Siemian did, but when the Broncos adjourned their offseason work in June, Kubiak declared it a tie between the two. And Kubiak has said he wants to see one of the team's quarterbacks "step forward" in word and deed to earn the job. Kubiak has also said he's willing to take the decision deep into the preseason. The Broncos open the regular season Sept. 8 at home against the Carolina Panthers.

Denver Broncos quarterback Mark Sanchez goes back-to-school shopping By One Nación Staff ESPN July 27, 2016 Most football players want to avoid getting "schooled" on the field. Mark Sanchez is a player who wants to be a part of making sure kids are prepared for school. The Denver Broncos quarterback helped some children of the local Boys and Girls Club buy supplies for the upcoming school year. Back 2 school shopping. Thx @BGCMetroDenver @MyKingSoopers @Broncos pic.twitter.com/by5GoQWDjQ — Mark Sanchez (@Mark_Sanchez) July 26, 2016 Gotta get those supplies pic.twitter.com/qGVGyXAbPD The kids may be preparing to return to school, but Sanchez, who is of Mexican heritage, is on a mission as well. He's hoping to prove to the Broncos faithful that he can step in as the team's starting quarterback, replacing the iconic Payton Manning. The team hasn't officially named Sanchez as the starter yet, with rookie Paxton Lynch and last year's backup, Trevor Siemian competing for the spot as well. The Broncos kick off preseason action on Aug. 11 against the Chicago Bears.

Broncos rookie QB insists he can win the starting job By Arnie Stapleton Associated Press July 27, 2016 Most football players want to avoid getting "schooled" on the field. Rookie Paxton Lynch insists he shouldn't be counted out from the Denver Broncos' quarterback competition. The first-round draft pick who labeled the playbook a dictionary when he first arrived in Denver this spring begins training camp Thursday looking up at Mark Sanchez and Trevor Siemian on the depth chart. The Super Bowl champs are holding quarterback auditions after losing Peyton Manning to retirement and Brock Osweiler to free agency in the aftermath of their 24-10 win over Carolina in the Super Bowl. GM John Elway acquired Sanchez from the Eagles in a trade and moved up in the draft to select Lynch. The only holdover from last year is second-year pro Siemian, who has just one NFL snap on his resume but has been in this system the longest. When the Broncos wrapped up their offseason program last month, coach Gary Kubiak said Sanchez and Siemian were neck-and-neck for the starting job after separating themselves from Lynch, the 26th overall draft pick out of Memphis. Lynch, who is focusing on his footwork, insists he can make up that ground over the next several weeks. "I definitely think I have an opportunity to better myself and put myself up in the position to play right away or sooner than I had thought," Lynch said Tuesday. "I knew Mark and Trevor were going to be ahead of me because of their experience — Trevor with his experience in the offense and Mark with his experience in the league — and me being a rookie." Lynch said he expected to be in this position as he transitions from the no-huddle, spread offense he operated at Memphis. "This is the first time that I've seen a playbook like that, so I knew it was going to be tough and I knew I was going to be behind," he said. "The biggest thing for me is just staying confident in myself, keep my head up, keep pushing through and keep grinding. It'll come to you eventually. "From a competition standpoint, you're not just going to say, 'Yeah, I'll take the back seat.' It's my job as a rookie to push those guys that are ahead of me however I can." Lynch and the rest of the rookie class reported to camp Monday. The veterans, including Sanchez, a six-year veteran, and Siemian report Wednesday with the first full-squad workout Thursday. Lynch said getting all the snaps the past two days was difficult from a conditioning standpoint but "mentally getting those reps is really important.” All three QBs cut short their summer vacations to prepare themselves for what Kubiak has said will be a high-pressure test to determine his starter when the Broncos begin defense of their title against the Panthers on Sept. 8 in Denver.

Paxton Lynch thinks he'll be the Broncos' starter soon, and history backs him up By Jared Dubin CBS Sports July 27, 2016 The Denver Broncos entered the 2015 offseason with Peyton Manning and Brock Osweiler on their roster. Within the first few days of free agency, they were left with only Trevor Siemian, due to Manning's retirement and Osweiler's southern exodus.

Rumors swirled about a Colin Kaepernick trade or a Robert Griffin III signing, but the only quarterback Denver acquired before the draft was Mark Sanchez. When draft day came, John Elway surrendered the 31st and 94th picks to move up to No. 26 and select Memphis quarterback Paxton Lynch.

The Broncos have been proceeding all summer as if Sanchez will be their starter for the 2016 season, with defensive tackle Sylvester Williams recently stating that head coach Gary Kubiak "kind of let us know" that Sanchez will be the starter. Lynch, though, still thinks he's got a shot at playing as soon as possible.

"I definitely think I have the opportunity to better myself and put myself up in that position to play right away or sooner than I had thought," Lynch said, per ESPN.com. "I knew those guys were going to be ahead of me just because of experience -- Trevor his experience in the offense and Mark his experience in the league and me being a rookie, and this is the first time I've seen a playbook like that."

Lynch's assertion that he'll be starting sooner than he thought got me thinking: Just when do first-round quarterbacks tend to make their first career start? Thanks to the Pro-Football-Reference archives, we've got that information at our (virtual) fingertips.

There have been 42 quarterbacks drafted in the first round since 2000. On average, it has taken them 14.1 games to make their first career start. That's a late-Season 1 debut. Since the Matt Ryan-Joe Flacco class of 2008, though, first-round passers have been making their debut after only four games on average. Over the last five seasons, that figure is down to 2.7 games, and that's despite the entire 2014 first-round class (Blake Bortles, Johnny Manziel, Teddy Bridgewater) making delayed debuts.

From 2000 through 2007, only one of 21 quarterbacks drafted in the first round made his first career start in the first game of his first NFL season. Since 2008, 13 of 21 have done so. Since 2011, it's eight of 11.

The 19 top-five picks made their debut the soonest, with an average of 5.8 games passing before they made their first start. That figure rose only to 5.9 games for the nine quarterbacks selected in the remainder of the top half of the first round (picks 6-16), but shot all the way up to 13.3 games for the 14 passers taken in the back of the first, like Lynch.

The Broncos themselves waited until Game 14 of the 2010 season before giving Tim Tebow (pick No. 25) his first start, and did so despite the fact that they went just 3-10 in the first 13 games. Kyle Orton played pretty well in those 13 games though, checking in with a 20-to-9 touchdown-to-interception ratio and a 87.5 passer rating.

So, while history tells us it's more likely than not that Lynch does indeed make his debut as a starter at some point this season, the small bit of recent Broncos history we can base this guesstimate on suggests it may not be until the back half of the year, provided Sanchez doesn't completely melt down.

Agent's Take: Here are the 16 AFC players with everything to prove in 2016 By Joel Corry CBS Sports July 27, 2016 It's hard to believe now, but 2014 was considered as a pivotal year for New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski. Although he was the NFL's best tight end when healthy, he had missed 14 regular season games over the previous two years because of back, forearm and knee injuries.

The Patriots had until the last day of the 2015 league year to pay him a $10 million option bonus to pick up his 2016-19 contract years. Another injury-plagued season in 2014 could have forced a difficult decision on Gronkowski's future with the Patriots. It became a moot point after he caught 82 passes for 1,124 yard with 11 touchdowns that season.

A different set of players face a crossroads or have something to prove every year for a variety of reasons. The most common reasons are related to age, contract or salary cap concerns, injury, poor performance or off-the-field issues. Here's a player from each AFC team to keep an eye on during the 2016 season fitting into one of these categories.

Baltimore Ravens: Terrell Suggs

Suggs missed the last 15 games of 2015 after tearing his left Achilles in Baltimore's season opener. It was the second Achilles tear for Suggs after injuring his right one in 2012. He rebounded from the initial tear to earn the sixth Pro Bowl berth of his career in 2013. It remains to be seen whether the 33-year-old can bounce back as effectively this time around.

Buffalo Bills: Tyrod Taylor

Taylor is the NFL's lowest-paid starting quarterback that isn't on a rookie contract after he unexpectedly won a three-way quarterback competition with 2013 first-rounder EJ Manuel and Matt Cassel last preseason. His two-year contract has a base value of $2.15 million over two years.

The first-time starter emerged as one of the NFL's best dual-threat quarterbacks in 2015. Taylor was second in rushing among quarterbacks with 568 yards and seventh in the NFL with a 99.4 passer rating.

The Bills have been reluctant to give Taylor, who is in a contract year, a new deal worthy of QB1 status because of his limited track record. A repeat performance could bring a non-exclusive franchise tag into play next year. The quarterback number should be approximately $21.4 million in 2017 with a salary cap in the neighborhood of $168 million.

Cincinnati Bengals: Jeremy Hill

Hill must rebound from a sophomore slump for Cincinnati to earn a sixth consecutive playoff berth in the highly competitive AFC North. He only averaged 3.6 yards per carry, and his 1.46 yards after contract was fourth worst in the NFL.

The 2014 second-round pick was phenomenal as a rookie. Hill's 5.1 yards per carry was third among NFL running backs in 2014. He was also second in the NFL in rushing during the second half of the 2014 season with 775 yards.

Cleveland Browns: Robert Griffin III

Robert Griffin III signed a two-year, $15 million deal (worth up to $22 million with incentives) with Cleveland to try to resurrect his career. The situation sets up nicely on paper for the 2012 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year because USC's Cody Kessler wasn't taken until late in the third round (and was widely considered a reach) despite speculation that a quarterback would still be taken with the team's first pick even after trading down from No. 2 overall. Griffin may not get another shot at being a starting quarterback if he can't beat out 36-year-old journeyman Josh McCown, Austin Davis and Kessler during training camp.

Denver Broncos: Mark Sanchez

Sanchez was given a new lease on his NFL life when he was quickly obtained from the Philadelphia Eagles for a conditional 2017 seventh-round pick after Brock Osweiler left for Houston. As the only quarterback on Denver's roster with any significant game experience, Sanchez should have the inside track to start.

Sanchez merely performing like an average starting quarterback will likely give the Broncos a legitimate chance to repeat as Super Bowl champions, because the defense should remain dominant despite some key losses in free agency.

Houston Texans: Jadeveon Clowney

Injuries are a big part of why the 2014 first-overall pick hasn't made the impact the Texans have expected. Clowney has missed 15 regular season games during his two NFL seasons. He was also unavailable for the Texans' playoff loss to the Kansas City Chiefs last season.

Clowney staying on the field takes on more importance because of J.J. Watt's back surgery. In a best case scenario, Watt will be ready for the season opener against the Chicago Bears, but it wouldn't be a surprise if Watt didn't make his season debut until early October.

Indianapolis Colts: Andrew Luck

2015 was a season to forget for Luck. Assorted injuries contributed to him having the worst season of his four-year NFL career, and at 8-8, the Colts missed the playoffs for the first time since making him the first-overall pick of the 2012 draft. When Luck's season ended after a Week 9 victory over the Broncos because of season a kidney laceration and abdominal tear, he ranked 31st in completion percentage

(55.3 percent) and 32nd in passer rating (74.9). Luck had also thrown the second most interceptions (12) in the NFL.

This didn't stop the Colts from signing him to a five-year, $122.97 million contract extension containing $87 million in guarantees, which makes him the NFL's highest-paid player. Luck will need to consistently perform at the same level or better than he did in 2014 to live up to his lofty contract. In 2014, he led the NFL with 40 touchdown passes and was third in passing yards (4,761) and seventh in passer rating (96.5).

Jacksonville Jaguars: Luke Joeckel

Joeckel was supposed to anchor Jacksonville's offensive line when he was taken with the second-overall pick in the 2013 NFL Draft. Instead, the Jaguars declined to pick up Joeckel's fifth year option in 2017 for $11.902 million.

Kelvin Beachum, who is coming off of a torn left ACL, was given a one-year deal for $5 million with an option for $40 million over four years (worth up to $50 million through salary escalators) to provide competition for Joeckel at left tackle. If Joeckel can't hold off Beachum, a move to left guard could be Joeckel's last chance to impress general manager David Caldwell and head coach Gus Bradley.

Kansas City Chiefs: Jamaal Charles

Surprisingly, the Chiefs won 11 straight games, including the playoffs, with Spencer Ware and Charcandrick West operating in Charles' place after he suffered the second ACL tear of his career five games into the 2015 season.

Ware and West signing identical three-year, $4.2 million deals (worth a maximum of $8.2 million with salary escalators) suggests that the Chiefs have a succession plan in place at running back. 2016 will likely be the last season in Kansas City for Charles, who turns 30 in December, if he doesn't return to form with two reconstructed knees.

Miami Dolphins: Ryan Tannehill

The eighth-overall pick in the 2012 draft has yet to have a true breakout year, but Jay Cutler thrived in 2015 with new Dolphins head coach Adam Gase during his lone season as the Chicago Bears' offensive coordinator.

It's conceivable that the Dolphins could look for a new quarterback in 2017 if the same doesn't happen with Tannehill. Only $3.5 million of Tannehill's $17.975 million 2017 base salary is fully guaranteed, and the remaining $14.475 million becomes fully guaranteed in mid-March on the fifth day of the 2017 league year.

New England Patriots: Jimmy Garoppolo

Garoppolo will be under the microscope while Tom Brady serves his four-game suspension in connection with Deflategate to begin the season. Keeping the Patriots on track during the first four

starts of his career could pay big dividends for the 2014 second-round pick. The Patriots would likely have a valuable trade commodity for any quarterback-needy team looking for a starter.

New York Jets: Ryan Clady

Clady (along with a 2016 seventh-round pick) was acquired by the Jets from the Broncos in April for a 2016 fifth-round pick. He'll replace D'Brickashaw Ferguson, who retired instead of taking a pay cut. Clady reworked his contract in the process to lower his 2016 salary from $9.5 million to $6 million with another $1.5 million in incentives. The Jets hold an option on Clady in 2017 that requires a $1 million payment to pick up his $10 million salary.

Clady was an elite left tackle prior to missing a majority of the 2013 season with a Lisfranc foot injury and the 2015 season with a torn ACL in his left knee. An inability to play at a similar level as before the injuries likely means New York will be just a one-year pit-stop for Clady.

Oakland Raiders: Latavius Murray

It was a tale of two seasons for Murray, even though he became Oakland's first 1,000-yard rusher since Darren McFadden in 2010. Murray was less effective as the season progressed. 436 of his 1,066 rushing yards came in the first eight games of the season, and he went from 4.8 yards per carry in the first half of the season to 3.3 over the last eight games.

Murray is in the final year of a $2,226,200 rookie contract. The $6.5 million annual salary with $14 million fully guaranteed Lamar Miller received from the Texans could become Murray's salary floor on his next contract, provided he consistently performs more like he did when rushing for 632 yards on 132 carries in the first half of the 2015 season.

Pittsburgh Steelers: Le'Veon Bell

Bell is confident he won't serve the four-game suspension to start the season he is facing under the NFL's substance abuse policy for allegedly missing multiple drug tests. Absent a compelling reason or extenuating circumstances, winning these types of appeals is extremely difficult.

Bell's 2015 season was derailed by a torn MCL and PCL in his right knee during Week 8's game against the Cincinnati Bengals, which sidelined for the rest of the season. He was also suspended for the first two games because of a substance abuse violation.

Although Bell is the NFL's best dual-threat running back when healthy, a long-term contract at market value could be in jeopardy unless he can start erasing any concerns the Steelers may have about his reliability. Assuming Bell's appeal is unsuccessful, his next offense could bring about a one-year ban, or 10 games instead with a positive test for marijuana.

San Diego Chargers: Melvin Gordon

The Chargers need Gordon to take a step forward to provide much-needed offensive balance after Philip Rivers led the league by throwing a career-high 661 passes in 2015. Gordon's disappointing rookie

campaign included just 641 yards on 184 carries and ball security issues. His five fumbles tied him for the second most in the NFL on rushing attempts.

Gordon, who had microfracture surgery on his left knee, found a mentor in Adrian Peterson. Hopefully, the second-year player's time with the future Hall of Famer was well spent.

Tennessee Titans: DeMarco Murray

Murray was one of 2015's most disappointing free agent signings after receiving a five-year, $40 million contract (with $21 million in guarantees and worth a maximum of $42 million through salary escalators) from the Eagles. He gained 702 yards, the second-worst total in his five NFL seasons, on a career low 3.6 yards per carry.

Murray was traded to the Titans early in the offseason in an exchange of 2016 fourth-round picks. He cut $5.45 million out of the remaining four years of his contract to make the deal work. He needs to be a lot more effective than he was last season because 2015 Heisman Trophy winner Derrick Henry, who was taken in the second round, is waiting in the wings.

Burning NFL training camp questions: 32 teams, way too many QB unknowns By Pete Prisco CBS Sports July 27, 2016 It's NFL training camp time, which means every player, coach and fan thinks their team is going to the Super Bowl.

We know better.

And so do most of them if they are being realistic.

There is no way any Cleveland Browns player could be thinking that, right? Right?

As we ready for camp, it's time to take a look at a burning question for each team as it opens its push to get to the Super Bowl. All 32 teams have issues, some more than others. But I picked out the biggest issue facing each team as it prepares to open camp. For many, it's the quarterback position, which is always the focus at this time of the year -- and always for that matter.

Here's a look:

Arizona Cardinals

Will Chandler Jones and Robert Nkemdiche amp up the pass rush?

The Cardinals had 36 sacks last season, tying Jacksonville for 20th in the league, and the leader was Dwight Freeney with eight. He is no longer with the team. That's why they traded to get Jones, who had 12 sacks for the Patriots last season.

Nkemdiche was a top-10 talent in the draft, but off-field concerns dropped him down. If the Cardinals can keep him in line, these two should amp up a pass rush that was a problem area in 2015. With second-year edge rusher Markus Golden also improved, those three should help get the Cardinals closer to 45 sacks.

Atlanta Falcons

Can Matt Ryan fit into Kyle Shanahan's system and bounce back?

Judging by the media chatter, Ryan was dreadful last season. He wasn't. He just didn't seem to be a good fit in Shanahan's offense, which features much more of Ryan on the move than he should be. Ryan needs to play more from the pocket, and he struggled at times to make Shanahan's offense work. He still threw for the fifth-most yards in the league with 4,591, but he threw 16 picks to go with 21 touchdowns. That's not good enough. Maybe Shanahan will wise up and use Ryan more conventionally.

For the first time last year, Ryan had to tape his ankle in practice because he moved so much. That's just stupidity for a player of his talents.

Baltimore Ravens

How will quarterback Joe Flacco play coming off a torn ACL?

That's hard to gauge. Flacco tore his ACL and MCL in his left knee in a game against St. Louis, but he was back running in April and has said continually that he expects to be ready for the start of the regular season. That is possible and we've seen quarterbacks like Carson Palmer come back from ACL surgery and play well, but it's still an unknown until we see it. Flacco works hard and I would expect he's back playing at the same level early in the season.

Buffalo Bills

Can Rex Ryan turn around a defense that took a major step back last season?

Ryan is a self-anointed defensive guru. And he has been the leader of some good defenses. But he has had four defenses ranked lower than 25th in points as a coordinator or head coach, the same as he has had in the top 10.

The Bills went from fourth in scoring defense in 2014 to 13th last season in Ryan's first as coach of the team. They had some players gripe about the scheme and Mario Williams loafed because of it. Ryan has to get the defense back closer to the top five if the Bills are going to be a playoff team.

Carolina Panthers

Will there be a Super Bowl hangover?

That's one of the toughest questions to answer for any team, but the reality is that most Super Bowl losers are good teams the next year. Of the 49 losers, 35 went back to the playoffs. But the last Super Bowl loser to get back to the big game was the Buffalo Bills in the early 1990s. The Panthers say they went back to fundamentals some to avoid a possible hangover, and they have a talented, young roster that will help make sure it doesn't happen. They are still the favorites in the NFC South, but getting back will be tough.

Chicago Bears

Can John Fox and Vic Fangio continue to improve the defense?

The Bears were terrible in 2014, giving up 442 points. But in the first year for Fox and Fangio, they improved a bit with 397 points against. They played a lot of young players, so growth is expected. The key will be getting more pressure since they had just 35 sacks in front of a relatively young secondary. That's not good enough in Fangio's system. The addition for first-round pick Leonard Floyd should help the edge rush ability for the Bears.

Cincinnati Bengals

Can this talented team ever win a playoff game?

The good news is coach Marvin Lewis has taken his team to the playoffs each of the past five seasons, but the bad news is he's 0-5. The Bengals had perhaps their best team of any of those five last season, but when quarterback Andy Dalton went down with a thumb injury in December they had problems. Even so, they blew their playoff game with the Steelers without Dalton because of bonehead, undisciplined plays. That has to stop if they are to ever reach their potential. They have a ton of talent, so now is the time.

Cleveland Browns

Will Hue Jackson be able to re-invent Robert Griffin III?

That's going to take a lot of work. RG3 excelled early when the Redskins used him in the read-option offense. But he never developed as a passer from the pocket. Jackson is a bright quarterback mind, but getting RG3 to excel from the pocket is a real challenge. Observers of the offseason work said he was wild with his throws, which isn't a good start in Cleveland. This is a big task for Jackson.

Dallas Cowboys

How much does Tony Romo have left?

Ripping Romo has become a sport of sorts over the course of his career, but I've always contended he was underrated. The critics found that out last year when he went 3-1 in the games he played and the Cowboys were 1-11 in the games he missed. That's value. Romo is back from the injury, but he's also 36 years old. There is no doubt he is coming to the end, but I still think he can roll up big numbers if he's on the field. It's all about health.

Denver Broncos

Is Mark Sanchez the answer at quarterback?

There was no real committment to Sanchez by the staff this offseason, but word is starting to get out that he will be the guy. There was some talk that Trevor Siemian would be in the mix, but it looks like Sanchez will go into the season as the starter for the Super Bowl champs. But his position sure isn't firm. Paxton Lynch is the long-term answer, but there is talk that Siemian might be the guy at some point this season. It's a job for Sanchez to lose.

Detroit Lions

With Megatron retired, who picks up the slack?

The Lions wanted to be able to run it more last season, but they finished last in the league and averaged 3.8 yards per rush. They changed coordinators during the season and will go back to throwing it around more -- which has been their identity with Matt Stafford at quarterback. But with Calvin Johnson retired, do they still play that way? Golden Tate has been a top-10 receiver in catches the past two seasons, so

he now becomes the No. 1 receiver. They signed Marvin Jones away from Cincinnati, and he will fill the No. 2 role he played with the Bengals. Neither is in Johnson's class, but they both can be effective starters. The Lions also added Jeremy Kerley from the Jets and reportedly just picked up veteran Anquan Boldin. They will be fine -- if they don't become too run heavy.

Green Bay Packers

What can the Packers expect from Jordy Nelson?

It's unheard of to think the Packers with Aaron Rodgers weren't dynamic on offense, but that was the case last season. The Packers were 15th in the league in scoring and clearly struggled without Nelson, who tore up a knee in the preseason. Nelson will be back, but will the knee impact his game? If so, can some of the other receivers who didn't step up last year -- guys like Davante Adams -- get it going in 2016? Rodgers was off some last season as well, but he remains the game's best quarterback. The Packers need to get more creative on offense too. The simple isolation routes don't work like they used to for the Packers.

Houston Texans

Will Brock Osweiler finally be the long-term answer at QB?

That's the $72 million question, which is what his contract is worth now that he left Denver as a free agent. It's really a two-year deal that the Texans could get out of after the second season. But they think Osweiler can be their guy for the long haul. Osweiler did some good things for the Broncos when he played last season, but he's far from a sure thing. He threw 10 touchdown passes and six picks, but the sample size is small. He has thrown only 305 passes in four seasons and this will be the first where teams game plan for him as the full-time starter. That matters. There's a book on him now.

Indianapolis Colts

Can they get more pressure and sacks?

Andrew Luck will help make the offense good again, but it's the defense that has been a worry for most of his tenure with the team. The Colts had 35 sacks last season, which tied them with the Bears for 22nd in the league. Their sack leaders were defensive end Kendall Langford and edge rusher Robert Mathis, each with seven. That has to be better. Mathis is another year removed from his torn Achilles tendon, but he's also 35. They need to get more from guys like Trent Cole and Erik Walden. It's not a good situation, no matter what.

Jacksonville Jaguars

Can Dante Fowler become the elite pass rusher they so need?

After missing his entire rookie season when he tore his ACL in rookie camp last May, Fowler had an impressive offseason this year. Coaches and team personnel, as well as players, were raving about him and his speed off the edge. But now comes the tough part, which is showing he can do it when the pads

go on. He won't officially be a rookie, but counting on him to get double-digit sacks, which the Jags are, is asking a lot. Even so, team officials haven't backed away from the belief that the third overall pick in 2015 can do that. He might be special, based on that speed and power and he just might get 10 sacks in 2016.

Kansas City Chiefs

How do they compensate for the loss of Justin Houston?

Can they? Houston is one of the better edge rushers in the NFL when healthy, but he had surgery for a torn ACL in February. He actually tried to play through that late last season, but he was a shell of himself in the playoffs against the Patriots when he was on the field. The Chiefs will look to former first-round pick Dee Ford to start. He had three sacks in a game last year, but he has to be more consistent. They also have Tamba Hali back, but he's on the decline. Houston is expected back at some point during the season, but when? He will be missed.

Los Angeles Rams

How long before Jared Goff becomes the starter?

Why wait? I've always been a big believer in playing the kid. Why delay his starting? It's not like Kurt Warner is on the roster. Deciding between playing Case Keenum or Nick Foles and throwing Goff in as the starter should be an easy one. The Rams aren't a playoff team with any of their QBs, so why not get on with it for the future? Don't delay the inevitable. I would expect Goff to take over maybe in early October.

Miami Dolphins

Will Adam Gase turn Ryan Tannehill into a franchise passer?

Tannehill has done some really good things in his four seasons with the Dolphins, but there are still questions. I think a change in offensive systems -- his third in four seasons -- will help him grow as a passer. Gase did really good things with Jay Cutler last year, and I think he will help Tannehill as a pocket passer in a more conventional offense. The deep ball, a bit of problem area for Tannehill, has to improve. I think it will.

Minnesota Vikings

Can Teddy Bridgewater take the next step?

There were big things expected of Bridgewater last year, especially after his impressive rookie season. He also had Adrian Peterson back on the field, which was expected to help the passing game. But it didn't. Bridgewater didn't play poorly, but his 14 touchdown passes was the same number he threw as a rookie in three fewer games. His passing yards per game fell from 224.5 to 201.9. That number has to come back up. He didn't have great receivers, and the addition of Laquon Treadwell from this year's draft will help.

New England Patriots

Can Jimmy Garoppolo go .500 in his four starts?

I think he can, but even if he goes 1-3 the Patriots will win the AFC East. They are too good and the rest of the division isn't in their class. Tom Brady will miss the first four games because of his Deflategate suspension, which puts Garoppolo in the spotlight. He hasn't been great in the preseason, but it can be tough to get into a groove in those short-work situations. The Patriots open at Arizona, then play home against Miami, Houston and Buffalo. Even with Garoppolo, they should win the three home games. And then it's off to another division title.

New Orleans Saints

Will the defense ever improve?

The Saints gave up a league-worst 476 points last season, leading to the firing of Rob Ryan in November. Dennis Allen is now the man in charge, so expect a more sound style of defense. Ryan loved to attack, but he didn't have the players to do so. The talent is still thin, but there is hope. The Saints used a first-round pick on defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins, who should help push the pocket. He is an Aaron Donald-style of player. The secondary and the rush off the edge remain major questions, so Allen faces a major challenge. But the Saints have nowhere to go but up.

New York Giants

Can Steve Spagnuolo turn all the big-ticket signings into a dominant unit?

The Giants spent on defense in free agency like they were printing money. They added pass rusher Olivier Vernon, corner Janoris Jenkins and tackle Damon Harrison as big-ticket additions. They also re-signed Jason Pierre-Paul and used their first-round pick this year on corner Eli Apple. That's a lot of help for a defense that needed it. They were 31st in the league in points given up last season, and it cost coach Tom Coughlin his job. Now Spagnuolo, a holdover as coordinator, has more pieces to try and fix the troubles. They will be better, but how much better is the big question.

New York Jets

Who plays quarterback?

Will the Ryan Fitzpatrick contract situation work its way out before camp begins? The two sides are way apart and Fitzpatrick, who had a good season in 2015, hasn't been a part of any offseason work. I eventually think he signs, but if he doesn't it will be Geno Smith going to camp as the starter with rookie second-round pick Christian Hackenberg also in the mix. Fitzpatrick is a smart man. He will realize the Jets' offer is a lot better than sitting around getting nothing. I bet he's their Week 1 starter.

Oakland Raiders

How does this young team handle the expectations?

The Raiders are a chic, trendy pick to be a playoff team and possibly win the AFC West. They went 7-9 in coach Jack Del Rio's first season, and they have a nice, young base of talent in quarterback Derek Carr, pass rusher Khalil Mack and receiver Amari Cooper. They also spent big in free agency to get linebacker Bruce Irvin, corner Sean Smith and guard Kelechi Osemele. They are building to something, but are they ready for it in 2016? Or are they still a year away? Being young and sneaking up on teams is one thing, but that's not the case with the Raiders this time around.

Philadelphia Eagles

How long can Sam Bradford hold off Carson Wentz?

It sounds like the Eagles are ready to keep Wentz as their third passer for the season. So they say. I am not sure I believe it. Bradford will go into camp as the starter, but will first-year coach Doug Pederson stick with him? What happens if Bradford struggles? If he does, do they go to Chase Daniel? Like with Jared Goff, the longer they wait to play the rookie the longer they are delaying the inevitable, unless, of course, the Eagles consider themselves a playoff team. Do you? I don't think so.

Pittsburgh Steelers

Who are the corners?

Isn't this always a major question for the Steelers? In years past, their pass rush could cover up for not having great corners. But that hasn't been the case lately and their corners have been exposed in recent years. The Steelers allowed the third-most passing yards in the league and quarterbacks completed 64.3 percent of their passes against them. Veteran William Gay will be in the mix, but expect first-round pick Artie Burns and last year's second-round pick (Senquez Golden) and fourth-round pick (Doran Grant) to also be in the mix. Ross Cockrell is another player who will get a shot. The Steelers should hope the youngsters can play right away -- or they could have issues.

San Diego Chargers

Can they fix the offensive line?

Injuries crippled the line in 2015, with the projected starting group barely on the field together the entire season. Guard Orlando Franklin, who the Chargers paid big money to as a free agent, disappointed last season. He has to be better. Left tackle King Dunlap played in seven games and they had a rotating mess at center. They expect to have five holdovers start this season, with the only possible new starter being third-round rookie center Max Tuerk, but he's coming off an ACL injury last year at Southern California. Philip Rivers better hope like heck this unit can stay healthy.

San Francisco 49ers

Can Colin Kaepernick turn his career around under Chip Kelly?

All indications are that it's Blaine Gabbert's job coming out of offseason work. That's in large part because Kaepernick had to deal with injuries and was limited. He is coming off surgeries on his right

thumb, his left knee and on his left shoulder to repair a torn labrum. Gabbert took over last year and played better than at any point in his time with the Jaguars, his first team. But Kelly takes over and that could mean a chance for Kaepernick to get back to playing like he did when he took the 49ers to the Super Bowl. I would expect Gabbert to start the season, but I expect we will see Kaepernick start games as well.

Seattle Seahawks

Who runs the football with Marshawn Lynch now retired?

It will probably be back by committee. Thomas Rawls, who took over when Lynch got hurt last year, is coming off an impressive season, but one that was cut short by a major ankle injury. He hopes to be ready at some point in camp, but that's to be determined. If healthy, he will be the top guy. After that, it's youth. They have three rookies -- C.J. Prosise, Alex Collins and Zac Brooks -- who have a chance to play right away. Prosise has the look of a third-down back who can play right away. They also brought back veteran Christine Michael last year and he's in the mix as well. I would expect this to be a season-long competition.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Can Mike Smith fix the defense with the players on the roster?

The Bucs gave up the seventh-most points in the league last season, which isn't good. They weren't bad from a yardage standpoint, but they gave up 417 points, which is way too many. They need to get that about 100 points lower. Former Falcons head coach Mike Smith faces a big challenge. The Bucs were built in the Tampa 2 scheme, which means Smith inherits a smallish unit that was predicated on speed. The Bucs have to get bigger. One major issue: Where's the pass rush? They have to hope rookie Noah Spence can be the big-time edge rusher they need. The secondary is shaky at best.

Tennessee Titans

How will the move to a run-first attack impact Marcus Mariota?

Titans head coach Mike Mularkey is a run-first coach, and the team's moves this offseason suggest that will be the focus of the offense. They traded to get DeMarco Murray from the Eagles and then drafted Derrick Henry in the second round. They also signed center Ben Jones as a free agent and drafted tackle Jack Conklin. That's all well and good if they want to help Mariota, but this has to be his team. It's a team that has to be built around him, not the running game. That could stunt his growth. He appeared to be far more than a game manager last year as a rookie. Why not let him continue to grow?

Washington Redskins

Can Kirk Cousins make the Redskins regret not giving him a long-term deal?

Cousins is playing on a franchise tag of $20 million, but even that would have seemed ludicrous at this time last season. But when Robert Griffin III struggled, Cousins took over and had an impressive season,

throwing 29 touchdown passes with a passer rating of 101.6. Now comes the tough part, which is doing it again. He has a nice group of pass catchers, so there are no excuses. If he plays well again, the Redskins could be ready to give him the long-term deal they passed on this year. This is a show-me year for Cousins.

Best of the AFC West: Broncos and Chiefs team up on an incredible defense By Jared Dubin CBS Sports July 27, 2016 Over the course of eight days, we will be unveiling our All-Division teams here at CBSSports.com. What does that entail? We're picking a quarterback, two running backs, three wide receivers, two tight ends, five offensive linemen, two defensive ends, two defensive tackles, four linebackers, three cornerbacks and two safeties from each division that we believe will have the best 2016 season. Over the last few weeks, we've narrowed down the final roster, and we'll present them in this space. We'll continue today with the AFC West. Quarterback Philip Rivers QB / San Diego Chargers Even during Derek Carr's breakout 2015 season, you can still make a reasonable argument that Philip Rivers was the better player. Rivers had the edge in completion percentage (he led the NFL in both completed and attempted passes), yards per attempt, passer rating, and QBR. Plus, as our Sean Wagner-McGough showed a few weeks ago, there are reasons to be concerned about Carr's second-half slump. Until the young Raider shows that the potential he showed during the first half of 2015 is more real than the other season-and-a-half of his career, Rivers is still the best bet to be the best quarterback out west. Running Back Jamaal Charles RB / Kansas City Chiefs Jamaal Charles is coming off a torn ACL. That's concerning. The last time he was coming off a torn ACL, though, all Charles did was run for a career-high 1,509 yards. He was 25 for most of that season and 29 now, so maybe he won't bounce back quite as strong, but Charles has never had a fully healthy season as the starter in which he's failed to run for 1,000 yards. He's also never averaged fewer than 5.0 yards per carry in any season, healthy or not, starter or not. His career average of 5.5 per carry is the single best mark among the 197 players in NFL history with at least 1,000 carries. The history is definitive: When Charles is on the field, he's one of the league's best running backs. There's no reason to expect that to stop being the case in 2016. Latavius Murray RB / Oakland Raiders We couldn't decide which of the Broncos' running backs (C.J. Anderson or Ronnie Hillman) was more likely to be the better player this coming season, so we settled on Latavius Murray as a fallback option.

He's taken his 348 career carries for 1,490 yards and eight touchdowns. There are worse running backs out there. Wide Receiver Demaryius Thomas WR / Denver Broncos Through the first three years of the Peyton Manning Era in Denver, Demaryius Thomas averaged 99 catches for 1,494 yards and 12 touchdowns. That was with Manning playing at just about as high a level as anyone has ever played the quarterback position. With Manning a shell of himself in 2015 and Brock Osweiler not exactly lighting the world on fire, Thomas still managed to post a season of 105 catches for 1,304 yards and six scores. Whether the Broncos have Mark Sanchez or Paxton Lynch under center in 2016, Thomas is going to be fed a ton of targets. And when he gets targets, he produces big numbers. Amari Cooper WR / Oakland Raiders In post-merger NFL history, Amari Cooper's 72 catches during his rookie season are the 15th best. His 1,070 receiving yards and seventh best. He's an absurdly precise route-runner that often creates two-to-three yards' worth of separation from his man; and even when he doesn't, his body control is so good and his hands are so strong that he usually comes down with the ball anyway. He and Carr will grow together over the next few years, helping each other get better along the way. Keenan Allen WR / San Diego Chargers Keenan Allen had 71 catches in 15 games as a rookie, 77 in 14 games as a sophomore, and was on pace for 134 when he got seriously injured on a ridiculous touchdown catch in the Chargers' eighth game last season. The presence of Travis Benjamin as a deep threat should open things up a bit more for Allen underneath. Philip Rivers will find him often. He always does. Tight End Antonio Gates TE / San Diego Chargers Antonio Gates is a legend, one of the best tight ends in NFL history. His snap share has decreased a bit over the last few years as he's aged, but he still changes the way the defense operates when he's on the field, especially in the red zone. He should play a greater helping of snaps now that Ladarius Green is in Pittsburgh rather than Southern California, and when Gates is on the field for big snaps, he usually puts up big numbers. Travis Kelce TE / Kansas City Chiefs

Over Travis Kelce's two seasons as the starter, the only tight ends with more catches (139) are Greg Olsen, Delanie Walker, Rob Gronkowski, Martellus Bennett, and Jason Witten. The only tight ends with more receiving yards (1,737) are Gronkowski, Olsen, and Walker. It's somewhat unfortunate that he's paired with a quarterback (Alex Smith) that is not physically equipped to take full advantage of Kelce's capabilities as a downfield receiving option, but so long as he remains the 1B target to Jeremy Maclin's 1A (or the other way around), he should continue to produce at a high level. Offensive Linemen The offseason addition of Osemele (and retention of Penn) pushed the Raiders into a tier with only the Dallas Cowboys in terms of offensive line strength. It was tempting to just use all five of their guys as the All-Division offensive line. The way the line has come together in a very short period of time is really impressive. Penn was signed away from Tampa Bay two years ago and has had arguably his two best seasons since. Hudson was signed away from the Chiefs last offseason and immediately had his best year. Jackson was drafted in 2014 and became an immediate quality starter, then improved in his second season. Osemele has been one of the NFL's best guards for a while and even excelled at tackle last season. Now he's moving back inside to play on an even better line. Austin Howard is a quality player and showed improvement kicking back outside to right tackle after a season at guard, but Schwartz may have been the NFL's best right tackle last season. He allowed only 11 combined sacks and hits last season, per Pro Football Focus, and he had a solid run-blocking season as well. Oh, and he hasn't missed a snap since entering the league. Defensive End Khalil Mack DE / Oakland Raiders Khalil Mack's four-sack rookie season looked a bit disappointing on the surface, but the fact that he had 52 pressures meant improvement in 2015 was likely coming. And come it did. Mack could be the best edge player in the league. Mack leapt from four sacks to 15, and improved on that pressure figure as well, finishing the year with 84. He's still two or three years away from his physical prime and he's already one of the best pass rushers in football. He showed in Year 2 that he is more than capable of handling himself in the run game as well (his 54 run stops, per PFF, led all edge defenders). Big things are in store for this guy over the next decade or so. Derek Wolfe DE / Denver Broncos The Broncos re-signed Derek Wolfe to a bargain of a deal by getting him to put pen to paper during the playoffs rather than after the Super Bowl. They've got to be happy he's back on a four-year, $36.7

million contract, especially after losing Malik Jackson following his big playoff run. Wolfe was no slouch himself during the playoffs, notching 15 tackles and 2.5 sacks in three games. Defensive Tackle Dontari Poe returned from a one-game injury absence and resumed his form as one of the best run-stuffers in the league. He's not much of a pass-rusher, but his presence in the middle of the Kansas City defense helped fuel their rise from a bottom-third ranked defense over the first six games of the year to the NFL's second-best unit during their 10-0 stretch run. And he can still be on the field for third downs because his ability to push blockers into the backfield. Corey Liuget DE / San Diego Chargers Corey Liuget is probably overpaid and he didn't have his best year in 2015, but even in that down season he was strong against the run, which is his biggest responsibility. With Joey Bosa now sharing his defensive line, Liuget should receive less attention from the offensive line and thus be able to make more plays. Linebacker Von Miller OLB / Denver Broncos Brandon Marshall ILB / Denver Broncos If Mack isn't the best edge player in football, then Von Miller might be. The Super Bowl MVP has 60 sacks in five seasons, sixth-most in NFL history, despite the fact that he's also missed eight games during that time. His new contract is totally justified, considering he's coming off a playoff run in which he had seven sacks and 30 pressures, and oh yeah, single-handedly altered the Super Bowl. Faced with a choice between keeping one of their two starting inside linebackers, the Broncos kept the slightly-more-expensive Brandon Marshall over Danny Trevathan, who left for the Bears. Marshall plays with superstars all around him on the field, but he's a good player in his own right. Marshall was one of the best run-defenders in the NFL among inside linebackers, expertly working through the trash to find the ball-carrier. Justin Houston OLB / Kansas City Chiefs Derrick Johnson ILB / Kansas City Chiefs Justin Houston is coming off a serious injury and may not be on the field for the full season, but when he's out there, he's damn tough to handle. His 56 sacks in 70 games put him pretty close to Miller in terms of production through five seasons. Derrick Johnson came back from a torn Achilles that robbed him of all but one game in 2014 to make the Pro Bowl once again during the 2015 season. He was as big a part of Kansas City's defensive turnaround as anybody else. As long as these guys are on the field, they're good bets to produce. Cornerback

Chris Harris CB / Denver Broncos Aqib Talib CB / Denver Broncos Chris Harris is the best slot corner in football. He's also shown himself over the last few years to be a heck of an outside corner as well. He has as good an argument as anybody in the league for the title of Best Active Cornerback. Per PFF, he gave up less than 1 yard allowed per snap in coverage for the fourth straight year. He's the only cornerback to do that. Aqib Talib isn't quite as consistent or as solid as his teammate due to the chances he takes when making plays on the ball, but he makes enough plays that he's a top-flight corner himself. The combination of this duo and Denver's pass rush make the Broncos the NFL's best defense. Marcus Peters CB / Kansas City Chiefs Marcus Peters led the NFL with eight interceptions during his rookie season and also returned a league-high two of them for touchdowns. His 26 pass breakups also tied for the NFL lead. Those numbers are all impacted by the fact that he was the most-targeted corner in the league, which is why his seven touchdowns allowed were also nearly the most for any corner. He benefited from having Eric Berry next to him in the secondary but, well, that'll still be the case in 2016. Safety Eric Berry FS / Kansas City Chiefs Eric Berry returned from his battle with leukemia to make the Pro Bowl and be named a first-team All-Pro. In other words, he was still Eric Berry. We expect that to continue, assuming he eventually reports despite the fact that he didn't get a long-term deal. T.J. Ward SS / Denver Broncos T.J. Ward isn't quite as heralded as Harris and Talib or Miller and DeMarcus Ware, but his presence on the back end of the Denver defense is vital to what they do. They couldn't send as much pressure or use their corners the way they do without Ward roaming all over the field and helping out at all levels. Wade Phillips knows what he has in Ward and will continue finding creative ways to move him around.

Von Miller spent part of his off-season researching extinct animals By Aaron Torres FOX Sports July 27, 2016 Von Miller has been in the headlines all off-season, which tends to happen when you're a Super Bowl MVP-winning defensive monster who just last week agreed to a ho-hum deal that will pay you at least $70 million over the next couple years. But for all the headlines Miller has made on the field throughout his career (and this off-season), he is equally fascinating off of it as well -- which is something we learned on Tuesday. 'The Ringer' did a fascinating deep dive into Miller and how he's spent this off-season, and let's just say he's one of the most interesting guys in all of football.That included time spent over the last few months researching a variety of topics on the internet, including -- are you ready for this? -- extinct animals. No, seriously. Here are the details: "I spend a lot of time looking up extinct animals," he says. Miller describes this chain of events as though spending hours learning about Haast's eagle was a highlight of his offseason. He's particularly fascinated by the moa going extinct so quickly. It took only 100 years, he says. "That is so super fast. It normally takes at least 1,000 years. But that's what happens. Humans hunted the moa to extinction, and the Haast's eagle went extinct right after because that's what he ate." (Dinosaurs are not a part of Miller's fascination with the extinction process because "everyone already talks about them."). "I guess I'm just weird," Miller says. "I don't know why I like giant animals in New Zealand, it just interests me. But when you see pictures of this ... you've got a 12-foot bird that looks like an ostrich or an emu and you've got these little humans and they are hunting down these birds, I thought it was just dope. We've come far since then, people don't really even go out there and hunt like that. I think it's dope to learn about humans, about ourselves and where we come from." Well, hello! Haast's eagles, huh? Guarantee Peyton Manning probably wasn't doing too much digging on them throughout his nearly two-decade long NFL career. But then again, that's apparently just what makes Von Miller, Von Miller. As he said, "I guess I'm just a little weird" and it shows in that quote. Either that, or -- as the rest of the article lays out -- simply one of the single most inquisitive people anywhere in sports. Miller made a point to mention that he tries to get away from football in the off-season, and it showed in his various pursuits over these last couple months. That included doing some work on his self-owned chicken farm (he became interested in the business after taking a class on it at Texas A&M) as well as riding roller coasters. He gained a fascination for them at some point since Super Bowl 50, which resulted in seven different trips to Magic Mountain this summer. For as good as Von Miller is on the field, turns out he's equally interesting off of it.

Denver Broncos to begin new era, but defense still tops By Jacob Feldman Sports Illustrated July 27, 2016 We’ve made it! After 170 days of draft chatter and contract blather, we have officially arrived at the return of football. And with it, comes a portion of the NFL calendar unlike any other. Simply put, training camp is where dreams go to die. The math demands it. Ninety men will report to each team this week after months of preparation. Yet in four weeks’ time, just over half will still be around. But of course, for those men who were once just boys with aspirations, training camp is also where dreams come true—and therein lies the draw. Legacies may be defined in January, sure, but lives are altered in August. That’s certainly been true for Bills cornerback Mario Butler. Butler’s journey to Pittsford, N.Y., started with tragedy. A father stabbed and stuffed in a refrigerator 16 years ago in Jacksonville. A 10-year-old son left without answers. Jeff Sr.’s death didn’t do Mario in, though. Just the opposite, as he set out to honor his father by escaping the environment that consumed him. Bolstered by a strong support network at home and at school, Mario developed into a three-star recruit and earned a scholarship to Georgia Tech. There, he started 39 games, made the ACC Academic Honor Roll, and capped everything off with a go-ahead 85-yard interception return for a touchdown on senior day as the Yellow Jackets earned bowl eligibility. All of his hard work led up to the 2011 NFL draft, when Butler’s family gathered at his grandmother’s house to watch. Over three days, 254 picks went by without his name being called. That moment set the tone for what was to come. Undeterred, Butler earned an invite to Cowboys training camp, where he played well enough to latch onto the practice squad—for a year. Dallas waived him in October 2012. His wife and their two children, including a newborn, moved back to Jacksonville at that point while Butler sought another opportunity, strengthened by what he felt had been a few impressive preseason performances. Two weeks later, he set out for Denver, where he again earned a practice squad spot—for a year. Butler opted to stay on the Broncos’ practice squad that first season rather than take an offer to join an active roster, hopeful that his loyalty would pay off. Yet, he could only watch as the team added several corners that off-season, and though he tried to give even more than usual during the preseason, it was not enough. He was let go on Aug. 25, the date the team had to go down to a 53-man roster. As Butler returned to his family in Jacksonville at the start of that NFL season, the way he thought about his father’s death changed. No longer did it solely serve as motivation—it helped him gain perspective. “The way my attitude towards most things now is not stressing a lot over what I can’t control. That’s the biggest thing,” Butler says. “If I can’t really control it, then I don’t worry about it.” Of course Butler had discouraging days while he was home wondering when or if another NFL team would call as weeks turned into months. But he tried to make the best of his time. He watched his son’s first season of youth football, grew closer to his wife, and trained constantly. Butler flew across the

country to work out for several teams, though each trip proved fruitless. After three months of false starts, he decided it was time to unpack his bags in Jacksonville. Maybe, he and his wife thought, emptying his luggage might prompt God to make a move. The next day, Buffalo called. “We had been praying that wherever I went next, it was for the long haul,” Butler says. Butler spent ’14 on injured reserve with an ankle injury, his first serious injury, but “it was just another obstacle that I had to overcome, just like anything else,” he says. “I just added it to the list.” He made a team for two straight camps for the first time in his career last August, and in December, earned his first career start. He wore special gloves and shoes for that game, each emblazoned with ‘J. Lee’ in honor of his childhood friend, Joshua Lee, who he’d lost to colon cancer hours before kickoff. Lee had always encouraged Butler, telling him, “This is your year. This is your year.” He was right. By the end of the season, Butler had tallied nine tackles and five pass deflections. He had entered 2015 with none of either. You might think Butler had made it, that he had finally broken through. But that’s not the case. This off-season, the Bills brought in Sterling Moore from Tampa Bay, Corey White from Tennessee, and former second-round pick Javier Arenas to compete for spots on the 53-man roster. When Buffalo training camp starts this week, everything resets. Butler is back to being the former undrafted free agent chasing his dream. For five years, he’s done enough to stay in the league, longer than most of those who came in with him in 2011, but those past performances cannot help him now. So Butler enters camp No. 6 with the same mentality he entered the league with: Make plays. Every day. If Butler has changed during his time in the NFL, the difference is most notable on the mental side. He’s not nearly as nervous as he was heading into this first season. He’s learned what he can and cannot control. And he’s started to see himself in the bigger picture. “There’s a lot more Mario Butlers out there,” he says. “Guys that have been on the bubble. Guys that continue to fight. Not only a lot of people in the NFL or the NBA but people that are living it every day that may be going through some things.” This is all to say: Let’s stop counting the days until the Panthers and Broncos play on Thursday, Sept. 8, and start appreciating the players giving their all now. The preseason doesn’t count, but it matters. Here are a few other players around the league whose futures could be shaped this August... For Peyton Barber, family comes first Some doubted Barber’s decision to leave Auburn early and enter the NFL draft this winter—until they heard him speak. At the combine in February, Barber explained that his mother was homeless, as she had been when he was a young teen. That was not the only challenge Barber has faced, though. Through his junior year of high school, he was put in special education classes due to his ADHD, and his ability to attend an SEC school was in doubt. Soon after arriving at Auburn, he was diagnosed with dyslexia. He finally knew why reading has always been more difficult for him. Still, Barber managed to make multiple SEC Academic Honor Rolls. On the field, he broke out last season to the tune of 1,017 yards and 13 touchdowns.

Teams asked Barber about his ability to learn a new playbook during interviews. Those concerns, combined with the fact he played only one full year at an increasingly devalued position led teams to pass over him during the draft, though he drew several suitors as an undrafted free agent. Barber decided to sign with Tampa Bay to stay close to his home in Georgia, and with the hope that the state’s lack of an income tax would allow him to do more for his family. Barber also liked his chances of making the roster for the Bucs, who currently have six running backs. They carried four last season. He’s already been able to provide some aid after earning close to $10,000 from various autograph sessions. He has his sights set on much more, though, namely getting his mom out of the crowded two-bedroom apartment she is currently in. The first step to accomplishing that is studying the Buccaneers’ system, which Barber says shares almost no overlap with what he had learned with the Tigers. After being given the playbook on a tablet, he has diagrammed every play in a five-subject spiral notebook, taking up over 150 pages, and he has put many on notecards as well. “I’m still learning it,” he says. “It’s been difficult but I’m going to get it.” A self-described introvert, Barber says he wishes he hadn’t drawn attention to his family’s situation at the combine. “That’s the only thing in my life I hadn’t wanted to happen,” he says. As for actually struggling with homelessness as a kid, Barber would not have it any other way. “I wouldn’t be the same guy if I hadn’t gone through something like that,” he says. And how about the decision to turn pro? “I definitely enjoyed the time I was at Auburn. If you ask me today, ‘Do you miss it?’ Heck yeah,” he says. “Do I wish I could go back? Yeah, I do. But you’ve got to do what’s best for me and my family.” Lawrence Okoye puts Oxford on hold The British record holder in discus and 2012 Olympian has had less success stateside since making a career switch in ’13. Now, he is running out of time to achieve his dream of becoming England’s biggest NFL star. Okoye was first introduced to the sport as a teenager by way of games broadcast on Sky Sports. He quickly figured the skills he had developed playing junior rugby union might transfer to the football field, and after competing in the London Games in discus, decided to pursue the dream he’d been harboring. Okoye’s hunt for greatness started with an impressive showing at a regional combine. Scouts envisioned the 6' 6" 21-year-old as a defensive end, and he signed a month later with the 49ers, becoming a project for then defensive line coach Jim Tomsula. But Okoye spent his first year there on injured reserve and his second season on the team’s practice squad. San Francisco waived him a year ago. Even though Tomsula let Okoye go after becoming head coach, he said, “What he’s done in three years or two and a half years is remarkable.” Okoye had the ability to return to discus (many throwers don’t peak until their late 20s) or find a new path in life (he has earned admission to Oxford to study law but deferred until at least 2017). Yet, he decided to continue his NFL odyssey, heading to Arizona. He only lasted there for a month though, before being cut for taking a reserved parking spot, as we learned during the premiere season of the

Amazon docuseries All or Nothing earlier this summer. “There weren’t any parking places, so he just parked and came running in,” Cardinals coach Bruce Arians said on the show. “He has a different sense of entitlement having been an Olympian. He is a talented guy. He ought to go to Oxford.” After that, the Jets brought Okoye in and began molding him into a potential offensive tackle—a change Okoye took in stride. “I’m using it as a way to broaden my horizons in the game,” he told NJ.com in December. That experiment did not last long though. They waived him in June. Okoye signed with the Cowboys a week later and returned to the defensive line. Dallas tried something similar last year when they signed Efe Obada from England, but they cut him in March. Okoye is hoping to last longer. Otherwise, another career change may be on the horizon. Meet New York’s second most interesting man: Anthony Dable Odell Beckham Jr. probably has a lock on the “Most interesting Giants receiver” title, but this Frenchman might not be far behind. A year ago, Dable was playing wideout for the New Yorker Lions, but he could hardly have been farther from the Big Apple. The team is based in Braunschweig, Germany—the name comes from the squad’s sponsor, a fashion label. After tallying 145 catches and 32 touchdowns over two years for the Lions, Dable caught the eye of former Giant Osi Umenyiora, who helped get the 27-year-old a tryout in February. “I was shown a video and I was like, ‘Wow,’” Umenyiora said to Newsday. “The things he was doing on the football field, you could tell they would translate. ... We’re not just talking about a special teams guy.” The former defensive end made sure Big Blue got to see Dable first, and New York signed him before he could attend scheduled workouts with the Seahawks, Chiefs and Jaguars. Dable grew up competing in taekwondo and handball, not football, but picked up the American game after learning about it through NFL Quarterback Club 98 on the Nintendo 64. From there, he joined a local amateur team, quickly falling in love. After finishing his rounds as a cycling postal worker each day, he would stay up late to stream NFL games and watch NFL Network shows. Dable learned English by watching those games and highlights, and when you hear him speak, you can tell how much time he spent glued to the screen. Fluent in French and German as well, he is now learning new Giants head coach Ben McAdoo’s offense after showing potential during OTAs. Dable recalls being stunned by how bright Manhattan was during his first night in town, but he has decided not to explore until he makes the team. If that happens, he will also have to figure out if he should uproot his 2-year-old daughter, Zoe, and bring her over as well. His position on the roster became more precarious with the addition of second-round draft pick Sterling Shepard, though there may still be space for him as he battles the likes of Dwayne Harris, Geremy Davis and Myles White for the No. 4 and 5 receiver spots. Dable’s story, as well as those of German Viking Moritz Bohringer and England’s Harry Innis, who trained all trained together this spring, was told during an NFL Network special Sunday. Watching a pre-release version was special for Dable. “It’s funny that some parts are about me,” he says. “I watched so much of NFL Network reportage things, so having me on it is crazy.” But Dable still is looking to achieve more. “You don’t come from France just to say, ‘I was on the practice squad’ or ‘I was signed and then released,’” Dable told ESPN in April. “There’s always a point where you make a play or do something that makes people notice you and that’s your start. I know there’s a moment coming like that for me ... and I just can’t wait for that.”

For now, you can enjoy these clips of Dablatron dominating his German competition. The first native Kenyan to be drafted, Rees Odhiambo is just getting started When Odhiambo was drafted in the third round this year, he was cooking pot roast and veggies. There was a time he considered himself to be a Day 2 prospect, but after an ankle surgery cut his senior season first, he was preparing for a call in one of the later rounds. Instead, he heard his phone ring in the other room and, after picking up, initially only managed to make out one word: “Seahawks.” The first ever Kenyan-born player to be drafted, Odhiambo lived in Nairobi until he was seven. After his father died, his mother moved to the U.S., getting settled for a year—though it felt a like longer to Rees—before he and his sister joined her in Texas. There, he was quickly introduced to the local sport, though he was not pushed into trying out until going through a growth spurt in high school. Tragedy struck again when his mother, shortly after receiving a degree in chemistry, died of a sudden illness at 38. Odhiambo, 17 at the time, was taken in by other family in the area, who helped keep his life together. Meanwhile, one of his high school coaches drove him to football practice everyday, and his lone scholarship offer, from Boise State, gave him something to work for. After a redshirt year, Odhiambo appeared in six games for the Broncos and then started eight the next year. He would miss five games for injury that year though, and was sidelined for another four in 2014. In October of his senior year, during what was going to be his final drive of a comfortable win over Wyoming, Odhiambo heard his ankle break. An X-ray confirmed what he feared: his college career was over. He would not be able to perform at the NFL combine, either. Instead, he would have to answer tough questions about his injury history in between telling stories about his parents he had not thought about in years. His agent told him to expect the injury to drop him two rounds, from the second to the fourth, at least, but the Seahawks—a team with an affinity for players who have overcome adversity—had other plans for the 6’4” lineman. Now, Odhiambo is adjusting to a new city, new teammates, and a new position as he transitions from tackle to guard. He has already found a rental home close to the team’s facility and has identified a few good eats nearby. Though he was drafted higher than many expected, Odhiambo says he does not feel any pressure to live up to the draft slot. Instead, he is getting another clean start. “The way the Seahawks work, it’s not about where you are drafted,” he says. “It’s all about, ‘Can you come in and work hard and perform?’ They could care less where you were drafted…. To me, that works perfectly.” Neiron Ball forced to bounce back one more time Ball had already overcome more than his fair share of challenges by the time he reached the NFL. When he was six, he lost his mother to a heart attack. Three years later, his father died after battling lung cancer. Neiron’s brother-in-law, Dary Myricks, took the kid under his wing at that point and helped him develop into a four-star recruit. But one year into Ball’s Florida career, Myricks felt helpless as his surrogate son lay in the hospital with a brain bleed in 2011. Doctors eventually diagnosed Neiron with arteriovenous malformation, a rare condition that leads blood vessels to rupture. The condition could have been fatal. After losing both of his parents, Neiron thought he might be next. “This is a kid who has

gone through a lot in life—a lot,” Myricks told ESPN. “He’s seen so much death. … For him to be dealing with an uncertain future, it was just so hard to watch.” A risky surgery and a lengthy rehab process followed as Ball suffered from sudden loss of balance and light sensitivity. A year after surgery, he was cleared to practice again. When then-Florida coach Will Muschamp delivered the news to the team, "It was epic," teammate Ronald Powell said to Yahoo! Sports. “Special. The odds were so far against him ... it was joy for everybody.” Ball never put up big stats at UF, and his senior season was cut short by a knee injury, but he still did enough to get selected by the Raiders in the fifth round of the 2015 NFL draft. Given everything he had overcome, what happened to Ball in his rookie year seemed especially unfair, particularly given how his nascent career was developing. He had tallied his first sack in Week 3. “It felt really good,” he said at the time. “My eyes got really big when I saw it coming, And then when it happened, I knew I had to celebrate, gotta make it cool.” Two weeks later, he earned his first start, one of the best stories of the season. But his next game would be his last of the year due to another knee injury. Since then, a promising Oakland team has added several new linebackers to a young defense, forcing Ball to earn his roster spot again this August. Through it all, Ball has somehow kept an upbeat attitude, earning the nickname “Little Kid” as a Gator and connecting with young fans who have also had to battle brain disorders. It’s hard to see Oakland not continuing to invest in his future.

As their scandals subside, Manning and Brady’s legacies remain intact By Chris Burke Sports Illustrated July 27, 2016 A legacy, by definition, requires time to marinate. It’s not something one really can pin down in the moment. And with that in mind, here’s a spoiler of how you will feel about the Peyton Manning HGH investigation in 10, 20, 30 years when it become easier to digest Manning’s “legacy”: You won’t care. At least, not enough to warrant much of a reaction beyond “Ohhhhhh right, remember when Peyton got accused of using HGH?” The NFL announced Monday that it had found “no credible evidence” that Manning had used HGH during his playing days, as we was alleged during an Al Jazeera America report in December. The case is now closed from the league’s perspective, with no punishment forthcoming to Manning. Manning’s retirement no doubt made this a cleaner process than it may otherwise have been. Other, active players named in the report (James Harrison, Clay Matthews Jr., Mike Neal and Julius Peppers) are still under investigation. Should the NFL happen to turn up anything, it would be far easier to hand down a punishment than if Manning had been deemed guilty. The manner in which Denver won the Super Bowl brushed aside the Manning-HGH talk to an extent, too. The Broncos rode the backs of their defense to the title, with a battered Manning playing a small, supportive role in the process. Had Manning lit up the vaunted Panthers defense, a few more HGH questions would have been asked in the aftermath. Regardless, with the NFL issuing its verdict, the whole unusual affair will be little more than a footnote—if that—in Manning’s biography. Eventually, a similar situation will unfold with Tom Brady’s role in the Deflategate case. Right now, that remains about as significant a storyline as there is in the NFL, what with Brady suspended for the first four games of the 2016 season. Down the line, when Brady is up for Hall of Fame induction or the NFL Network airs one of those “Greatest QBs of All Time” shows? It’s not going to matter much. Of course, there is no universal conclusion when it comes to a player’s “legacy”. So, for example, diehard Patriots fans always will view Brady in a different light than those trained to hate him by team allegiance. The Colts, who first brought the football-inflation issue to light, and the Rams, at least some of whom still believe something was amiss during Super Bowl XXXVI (Brady's first Super Bowl) probably will want to keep an asterisk pinned to Brady’s career achievements. If so, well ... so what? Brady won’t lose his Hall slot nor any of his accomplishments to date based on the Deflategate resolution. Manning certainly won’t hear much more about the Al Jazeera report now that he will be relaxing at home on Sundays.

The only lingering threat to Peyton’s perception is how those other HGH investigations play out. If the NFL keeps digging for weeks and months, then drops the hammer on the other four players named by Al Jazeera’s report, it would force everyone to circle back with an eyebrow raised to Manning’s clearance. Even in the event of that unlikely outcome, Manning does not have much to worry about. A shift in public opinion? A few more hours spent discussing the legitimacy of Manning’s final season? Hardly anything that would keep Manning up at night, let alone linger past the next few months. That’s the other reason determining a player’s true legacy requires patience. There is an immediacy to just about everything these days, and that includes trying to define the impact made by professional athletes. The immediacy, however, breeds fickleness. Talk to anyone about Manning’s career right now and you are just as likely to relive his benching for Brock Osweiler as the 71,000-yard career he had. The wistfulness will set in eventually, and Manning’s Hall of Fame credentials will easily supersede anything about Al Jazeera America or the NFL investigation. This was but a blip on the radar. There are exceptions to the rule, but for the most part all that matters in the long run—to teams and fans—is what a player can do on the field. Brady has a slightly extended fight for his reputation ahead. For Manning, the HGH claims figure to be forgotten almost as quickly as they came.

Training camp preview: Broncos search for starting QB By Conor Orr NFL.com July 27, 2016 Training camp report date: Rookies July 24, veterans July 27. Training camp location: Paul D. Bowlen Memorial Broncos Centre, Englewood, Colorado. Offseason in a nutshell: John Elway is living proof that head of personnel is one of the most thankless jobs around. Even as the team was soaking up the euphoria of a White House visit, Elway was being vice-gripped into handing away one of the most lucrative contracts in NFL history to Von Miller. Brock Osweiler bolted to Houston, and C.J. Anderson nearly left for Miami or Chicago after the low-round-tender strategy backfired. Does he have time to catch his breath now? Not really. Denver opens camp with a three-way quarterback battle -- Mark Sanchez, Trevor Siemian and Paxton Lynch -- and a little more than $5 million in salary-cap space. Player to watch: Quarterback Paxton Lynch. The Mile High Report recently summed up the Denver Broncos' quarterbacking situation beautifully: If we're really talking about Trevor Siemian beating out Mark Sanchez for a job, then we're talking about a world where Lynch is the favorite to start. While Denver deserves credit for developing Siemian to this point, there is no real use in sitting a player that some Broncos apparently like more than Osweiler anyway. If there is even a question in Gary Kubiak's mind between Lynch and Siemian, there shouldn't be a moment's hesitation. To be clear, we fully expect Mark Sanchez to be the opening-day starter, but Lynch needs to be a convincing enough No. 2 to earn himself some snaps if QB1 cannot perform up to par. THREE BURNING QUESTIONS 1. Is all the Siemian rhetoric really a challenge to Sanchez? When it comes to surviving aggravating, high-profile quarterback competitions, Mark Sanchez is the NFL's Aron Ralston. He weathered not one, but two brutal Summers of Tebow which bookended Hurricane Geno and the shoulder injury that led to his ouster from New York. All of this is to say that Sanchez doesn't need manufactured motivation at this point in his career. He's almost 30 now and understands what it takes to be an NFL quarterback. If that isn't good enough, teams need to stop digging for something that isn't there. Plus, Broncos players are already talking about Sanchez as their starting quarterback, so why create doubt? "Right now, they're giving all three of those guys equal reps, so I don't think either one of them has created any advantage at this point, because they haven't consistently been with the ones yet," Broncos nose tackle Sylvester Williams recently told SiriusXM. "But I think, going into the camp, I think Coach Kub kind of let us know he's going to go with Mark and give Mark the opportunity to see what he can do and then go on from there." Sanchez is a more-than-capable option for now; a quarterback who played well with a good offensive line, running game and wide receivers. This is probably the best offense he's been a part of since the 2010 Jets.

2. Will Aqib Talib take significant preseason snaps? Talib is off crutches following a gunshot incident at a Dallas-area night club in June and is, according to the Denver Post, back running, cutting and planting. While it's easy to assume that someone can just move on -- and by all accounts, Talib was very lucky he wasn't more seriously injured -- any setback to the back end of Denver's defense could affect the balance of pressure and coverage that Wade Phillips artfully created a year ago. 3. Are the Broncos starting a rookie fifth-round pick at guard? There are other candidates, but quietly Connor McGovern is being touted as a diamond-in-the-rough type of find for a Broncos team looking to fill some pretty hefty shoes. While this rendition of Denver's offensive line will not blow anyone away with name recognition, it's about time the Broncos decided to get younger and less expensive in the hopes of building a cohesive unit that can adequately pave the way for Kubiak's bootleg offense. Way-too-early season prediction: It's strange seeing a team that could easily go 12-4 next year just as quickly as they could go 4-12. We all expect Denver to come back to Earth, but just how far? Last season, sub-average quarterback play did not stand in the way of a resounding Super Bowl victory. What about this year?

The Best Player in the NFL Is Also the Weirdest By Kevin Clark The Ringer July 27, 2016 In the next 5,000 years there won’t be any more freckles or red hair,” says Denver Broncos linebacker Von Miller. “That’s the way humans are evolving.” Miller is sitting in Venice, California, during an offseason in which he’s become one of the most famous athletes in America. He’s stopped dealing himself cards so that he can focus fully on recounting a particularly juicy internet deep dive that led him to a batch of information he hasn’t been able to stop thinking about. “We will all eventually be bald, too,” he adds, removing his hat and rubbing the thin layer of hair atop his head. “We lose hair because it helps us cool our brains faster. The smarter we get, the less hair we need, because our brains need to be cool. Also, we will lose another toe. We will have four toes.” You already know that Miller is the best player in football. The transcendent linebacker cemented his status as the sport’s most dominant force by registering 2.5 sacks in Super Bowl 50 and by signing a new contract worth $114.5 million earlier this month. At 6-foot-3 and 250 pounds, he’s become the prototype for the modern disruptive defender, with Broncos executive vice president of football operations/GM John Elway calling the 27-year-old “as talented as anyone I’ve ever seen.” You might not know, however, that Miller is the weirdest player in football as well — by all accounts, including his own. He’s a superstar who’s graduated from watching run-of-the-mill nature shows to spending hours on YouTube trying to piece together his passion of the moment, and the weirder a given discovery, the better. He’s a part-time chicken farmer and a full-time sleuther, and in the past few months, he’s become obsessed with a certain amusement park ride, the food chain, extinct animals, and human evolution.

“It’s not like I’ll be around for this,” the Super Bowl MVP says of a freckle-less, four-toed future. “But I think it’s dope.”

He’ll start these conversations and I am not interested in any of the things he brings up,” says San Francisco 49ers defensive tackle Tony Jerod-Eddie, who’s been Miller’s best friend since the two attended Texas’s DeSoto High School together and Jerod-Eddie lived with Miller’s family.

Jerod-Eddie can’t pinpoint exact dates when he recounts his exchanges with Miller because, he says, they happen too frequently to track. He shares a sample back-and-forth:

“What do you think living species on Pluto would be like?” Jerod-Eddie says Miller asked him this summer.

“Bro, I don’t know and I don’t care,” Jerod-Eddie responded.

“Just think about it,” Miller shot back. “Just think what living beings on other planets would be like.”

It’s not hard to think about other planets (dwarf or otherwise) when talking to Miller, who’s living in a wonderfully wacky world of his own.

That universe includes a particular affinity for roller coasters. Earlier this offseason, after coming home from a day at Six Flags Magic Mountain with Odell Beckham Jr., Miller approached Jerod-Eddie gleefully and said “Bro, we gotta go back.” And so they did — six more times to Magic Mountain and once to a location in Arlington, Texas. Miller and his friends arranged for a park guide that allowed them to skip the lines. That kind of efficiency might have helped Miller test the escorts’ claim that it’s possible to enjoy the entire park in two hours, had he wanted to; it turned out, however, that he mostly just wanted to ride the “Superman” roller coaster over and over again. Six times in a row, in fact, on one visit. When Miller discovered that the Superman ride was different in Dallas, he devoted himself to the Mr. Freeze ride instead.

“It makes you feel like a little kid again,” Jerod-Eddie says when asked about Miller’s urge to visit theme parks.

There are plenty of thrills outside of amusement parks, of course. When Jerod-Eddie bought a new car, he says Miller asked about the fastest speed he’d reached. When Jerod-Eddie responded with a number around 90, Miller asked to drive and shortly thereafter, the number had dramatically changed.

“Anything we do, he wants to go as fast as possible — jet skis, dirt bikes, four-wheelers,” says Jerod-Eddie, who’s 301 pounds. “And I’m the exact opposite. I’m always the guy saying ‘I don’t know if we should go this fast.’”

The theme parks and adventures are all part of Miller’s well-designed plan to be far away from football when he’s not at the facility. “Maybe I should try making football 24/7,” Miller says.

Star football players tend to be boring. Getting creative and adventurous on the field and deviating from the plan can cost a player his spot in the league. Football players are trained to follow rules and regulations, and for the successful ones, that extends to consuming as much film study as possible.

Miller is the exception. “I watch film on my iPad and stuff, but, not really,” Miller says with a laugh. Unless it is the playoffs — more on that later — he’s totally finished with football once he’s home each day. He tries to complete all of his game preparation and film study at the team facility so that he can use his free time to be free: namely, to watch National Geographic or dive into a new online theory. This offseason he’s become intrigued by the last ice age, and more recently by a creature called “Haast’s eagle,” which piqued Miller’s interest by going extinct because its primary food source, the flightless moa, went extinct due to hunting by humans and other causes.

“I spend a lot of time looking up extinct animals,” he says. Miller describes this chain of events as though spending hours learning about Haast’s eagle was a highlight of his offseason. He’s particularly fascinated by the moa going extinct so quickly. It took only 100 years, he says. “That is so super fast. It normally takes at least 1,000 years. But that’s what happens. Humans hunted the moa to extinction, and the Haast’s eagle went extinct right after because that’s what he ate.” (Dinosaurs are not a part of Miller’s fascination with the extinction process because “everyone already talks about them.”)

“I guess I’m just weird,” Miller says. “I don’t know why I like giant animals in New Zealand, it just interests me. But when you see pictures of this — you’ve got a 12-foot bird that looks like an ostrich or an emu and you’ve got these little humans and they are hunting down these birds, I thought it was just dope. We’ve come far since then, people don’t really even go out there and hunt like that. I think it’s dope to learn about humans, about ourselves and where we come from.”

This is where life can get tricky for Miller, who doesn’t have anyone in the NFL to speak with about such topics. “I think there’s only one Von,” Miller says. “The way I think about stuff, there’s only one. It would be dope to talk about the moa or the Haast’s eagles [in the locker room], too. I just think it’s dope to expand your mind.”Teammate Brandon McManus says that despite being an NFL superstar, Miller “never wants to be the center of attention, he is just so unique and goofy.”

“I mean, most guys in the league, if they can’t sleep, they either go out or they get a game of cards together or whatever,” Jerod-Eddie says. “He goes on YouTube to learn about the galaxy.”

“I think the typical football player watches World Star or Chive,” Miller says before a fashion shoot at a small house for the apparel company ’47. He admits he watches a little bit of that, too, but not much. He wants to focus on finding rabbit holes that will help him think differently. He compares himself to Jake Gyllenhaal’s character in Nightcrawler — not because he’s a sociopath, but because his passions are self-taught.Sometimes Miller’s obsessions evolve into more than just thought exercises. Ever since taking a chicken farming class at Texas A&M (“I wanted to take an easy class”), for example, he’s continued to study the process, and now owns a full-fledged chicken farm in suburban Dallas. His studies on the matter helped him forge the belief that humans need more organic, pastured chickens and that raising chickens in a happy and humane way would lead to premium birds, which would mean more profits. He estimates that he wouldn’t have to sell the 90,000 chickens that most farmers would consider a haul in a given year, instead needing to sell just 10,000 of his premium flock. “It’s a billion-dollar industry and if I could get like 5 percent of that, I would be good and my children’s children would be good,” Miller says.

Miller may be focused on his chicken operation long-term, but his football playing will pay the bills for now, with $70 million in guarantees in his new deal. After the Super Bowl, Miller said that he will eventually start a full-blown commercial farming operation once he gets more money, meaning a major expansion should come soon.

Miller transformed from run-of-the-mill football star to can’t-move-in-an-airport megastar midway through the first quarter of the Super Bowl. He took off from the left side of the Broncos’ defensive line, casually strolled around Carolina Panthers tackle Mike Remmers, and got to quarterback Cam Newton so soon in the progression that he was able to simply rip the ball from Newton’s hands, no big hit needed. This is not a play that is supposed to happen against Newton, one of the NFL’s best and most mobile passers. But Miller pulled it off, then held the ball for a brief second before it flopped into the end zone, where teammate Malik Jackson hopped on it for the score.

This was partially the product of an internet deep dive, too. Miller has been picking the brains of pass-rushing legends like teammate DeMarcus Ware for years, and often runs into former stars like Lawrence Taylor at events. He decided to hit the web as well because he realized that he’ll never get to glean any

in-person advice from former Kansas City Chiefs legendary pass rusher Derrick Thomas, who passed away in 2000. Miller wasn’t necessarily interested in the way Thomas played — he’d seen plenty of that. He was interested in the way Thomas thought.

In recent seasons, Miller has sat at the computer and watched every Thomas interview he could find, seeking to learn about the mindset of someone he so admired. Miller kept clicking until he found something that changed his perspective about his position, eventually stumbling upon Thomas discussing how he imagined that he played offense. “He felt like the offensive linemen were on defense and trying to stop him, as if he was a running back,” Miller says. “And when he explained himself, I saw myself. I’ve never felt like I was going to stop the offense. The guys behind me are trying to stop all those guys. I’m trying to get after the quarterback.”

Miller recently started studying something else as well: the concept of positive energy, so that he can help out in the locker room by better understanding others in the organization. One day he just started searching, and he called this rabbit hole the best thing he’s ever found on the internet. He recently came across “The Rice Experiment,” a scientifically questionable study that claims that yelling angrily at a pile of rice would have ill effects on the rice, and it made him think about how to use positive reinforcement with teammates. He looks up different mannerisms to analyze why a teammate is walking a certain way “and then try to figure out a way to make his day better.” He’s researching facial expressions and self-visualization. Though Miller may be studying ways to improve others, teammates and friends say he hasn’t changed himself. Fame didn’t make Miller weird because, well, he’s always been weird, always been cool. When Miller saw teammate McManus at Peyton Manning’s retirement party in Los Angeles recently, the linebacker was so happy to see him he sent cars to usher McManus to every party in town. McManus didn’t ask for special treatment, but he barely paid for anything the whole weekend.

McManus says he couldn’t believe how calm Miller was during what should have been the most stressful weekend of his life. “It was the heat of the moment because the contract deadline was coming up and he was just with a bunch of his friends, acting like a regular guy,” says McManus, who adds that Miller was able to show he was his normal self by doing something he loves: “Dancing, a lot. He loves to do crazy dances all the time.”

Miller admits he’s thought about changing his habits and focusing more on football after hours. During the playoffs, he dialed back his internet usage and ignored social media, and he had the run of his life. “Maybe this season I should try that every single week,” he says.

No one buys that he could ever be a normal, eat-sleep-breathe football player, though: “He wants to be outside the box,” Jerod-Eddie says. “He looks past what everyone else sees. He’s the only person who could think things like ‘If I could start my own farm I would get the happiest chickens living.’”

Miller has big plans for the chicken farm, but he returns to the Broncos’ facility this week to prep for the 2016 football season. He’ll use all the tricks he learned on YouTube about how to “help the lowest guy on the totem pole improve, and not just on the field, but figuring out a way for him to want to be great.”

Donald Trump Jr. ran into Peyton Manning on the campaign trail By Des Bieler Washington Post July 27, 2016 Fresh off a well-received speech (by conservatives, at least) in support of his father at the Republican convention in Cleveland, Donald Trump Jr. went to do some more campaigning in Philadelphia. No, not that Philadelphia — the big city where the Democratic convention is taking place — but a much smaller town in Mississippi of the same name. [Stephen A. Smith blasts Ted Cruz as a ‘sore loser’ for GOP convention speech] That is where the Neshoba County Fair has been annually held, almost without interruption, since the late 19th century, and it’s an event of significance in U.S. political history. It’s also where Donald Jr. ran into Peyton Manning, and he had the Instagram post to prove it. Let’s assume that Trump meant the fair is a great tradition that started in 1889, not hanging out with Manning. The recently retired Denver quarterback — next stop: Hall of Fame — and his family are longtime regulars at the event, as his mother, Olivia, hails from Philadelphia, Miss. Manning and Trump would also seem to have political leanings in common, considering that the former has donated to several Republican politicians, most of them running in Tennessee, where he became a legendary player for the Volunteers. No word yet on whether Manning mentioned to Trump that, in 2015, he made a donation to the presidential campaign of Jeb Bush, who proceeded to get mocked mercilessly by Junior’s dad. [NFL clears Manning in HGH investigation sparked by documentary] It may not have helped Bush’s cause that, while addressing a February crowd in Mount Pleasant, S.C., he said that he rooted for the Broncos in the Super Bowl instead of the local favorite Carolina Panthers “because Peyton Manning wrote me a check.” Before that game, Trump Sr. had picked Denver, telling CBS’s “Face the Nation” that “I very much have always liked Peyton Manning. He is a very good guy. I know him. And he is a very, very good guy. So, I have to go with the person I know and I like. I like the other team. I think the other team looks fantastic. Probably, they would be favored by something. But I will stick with Peyton, because he is a very good guy.”

Paxton Lynch: I think I have a chance to play right away By Josh Alper Pro Football Talk July 27, 2016 Broncos defensive tackle Sylvester Williams said recently that coach Gary Kubiak “kind of let us know he’s going to go with” Mark Sanchez at quarterback. That likely fits with what most people believed the Broncos would do at the start of the year as Sanchez worked with the first team most often in the spring and has more experience than Trevor Siemian and first-round pick Paxton Lynch. Siemian has appeared to be the likelier alternative of the two, but Lynch said Tuesday that he hasn’t gotten that impression from Kubiak or anyone else despite his perceived place in the pecking order. “I definitely think I have the opportunity to better myself and put myself up in that position to play right away or sooner than I had thought,” Lynch said, via ESPN.com. “I knew those guys were going to be ahead of me just because of experience — Trevor his experience in the offense and Mark his experience in the league and me being a rookie, and this is the first time I’ve seen a playbook like that.” Lynch acknowledges that his competitive side makes it hard to “take the backseat in this” even if signs are pointing elsewhere for the team’s starting quarterback, but he wouldn’t be the first rookie to make an unexpected leap up the depth chart once a team saw everyone in action during training camp and the preseason. The veterans report for Denver on Wednesday, so it won’t be long before everyone starts to get a clearer idea of where everyone will stand come September.

Broncos add a linebacker, go with one long snapper By Zac Jackson Pro Football Talk July 27, 2016 The Broncos made a roster move Tuesday, signing undrafted rookie linebacker Darnell Sankey and waiving rookie long snapper Nathan Theus. Sankey was a four-year contributor at Sacramento State and was a first-team All-Big Sky pick last fall. Theus was a four-year long snapper at Georgia and signed with the Broncos after this year’s draft. The release of Theus leaves first-year player Casey Kreiter as the lone long snapper on the Broncos’ roster. The team cut long snapper Aaron Brewer in March after he performed well for four seasons. The Broncos start training camp Thursday.

Paxton Lynch offers a status report as Broncos training camp approaches By Andrew Mason DenverBroncos.com July 27, 2016 When OTAs concluded, Head Coach Gary Kubiak said that veterans Mark Sanchez and Trevor Siemian were neck-and-neck, with Paxton Lynch behind them. That status doesn't faze Lynch as training camp begins. In fact, it's what he expected. "I knew those guys were going to be ahead of me just because of their experience -- Trevor, his experience in the offense and Mark, his experience in the league, [with] me being a rookie and this being the first time I've seen a playbook like that," Lynch said Tuesday. "So I knew it was going to be tough, and I knew I was going to be behind. But the biggest thing for me is staying confident in myself, keeping my head up and [to] keep pushing through and grinding. It'll come too, eventually." This doesn't mean that Lynch is conceding the starting job to Sanchez or Siemian; in fact, he thinks he has the opportunity to set himself up to "play right away -- or sooner than I had thought," he added. "Obviously, as a competitor, you're not just going to say, 'Yeah, I'll take the back seat and do this," Lynch said. "But it's my job as a rookie to push those guys that are ahead of me however I can." To do that, Lynch must first master the playbook. When he first arrived for rookie minicamp in May, he said the playbook was so thick, it "looked like a dictionary." Nearly three months later, it doesn't appear as daunting. "It's getting its way down there, but it's still pretty thick," Lynch said. "Going over the days we've already covered, it's easier to pick up on instead of having to stay at it and study it for hours [upon] hours. You kind of look at it and kind of remind yourself, 'Oh, this guy's got this.' "It's not 100 percent, obviously, just because of the time I've been here," he added, "but I'm a lot more confident in myself knowing the plays and playing a little bit faster than when I first got here." That progress in the playbook has helped him improve in the mental aspects of the game, particularly his work in the huddle. That was the area in which he felt he improved most during OTAs. "When I first got here, it was kind of just thrown at me, and I was having trouble calling plays in the huddle," Lynch said. "Now I'm doing a lot better with that going out there." But he still has some ground to make up, just because of the adjustment involved with going from a spread, no-huddle, calls-from-the-sideline offense at Memphis to the more traditional style of the pros.

"It's getting there to the point where I'm comfortable in the huddle, but obviously I'm not to that point just yet," he said. "Being in the huddle is somewhat new to me, so when you've only been in the huddle a month, your'e not going to have it down like the back of your hand. But it's definitely coming to me, and I feel like I'm improving on it week to week." Another point of emphasis during OTAs was footwork -- something that was also a key area for Siemian last summer. "My footwork is where it needs to be," Lynch said. "I still have a while to go with that, but from where I came in to where I am now, I'm very pleased with my progress." The progress did not stop when OTAs ended June 14, and Lynch stayed busy during the time off from organized work. He had throwing sessions with college and Broncos teammate Mose Frazier during a 10-day stay in Memphis with teammate Mose Frazier. During the rest of the respite, he threw in Orlando with his brother -- who isn't exactly in Frazier's class as a route-runner. "I had to spot him up," Lynch said with a smile. But it was still work, and it still helped him get ready for training camp and the competition ahead.

20 days, 20 Broncos camp questions -- 19. What will Devontae Booker's role be? By Andrew Mason DenverBroncos.com July 27, 2016 He will be in a tough competition for playing time behind C.J. Anderson, but if he stays healthy, he has a chance at a significant role. If he can prove his full health and his ability to handle all aspects of the job, he could be the No. 2 running back and edge ahead of veterans like Ronnie Hillman, Juwan Thompson (who is also in the mix at fullback) and Kapri Bibbs. Given Booker's status as a fourth-round pick, he is likely to be on the 53-man roster if he completes his full recovery from the meniscus injury that resulted in two surgeries, including one last February that sidelined him at the Combine and limited him in pre-draft workouts. But the extent of his role will be determined by how sharp he can cut, how quickly he can accelerate and how well he can square up on the knee when he has to get involved in pass protection. Booker said Tuesday he feels that he is "all past that." He said he spent the downtime after OTAs in Denver, continuing his rehabilitation work. "Cuts and straight lines are all back to normal, so I feel good," he said. "I really confident about it. I’m just here to compete and do what I need to do for the team so I can get out and play a lot this year. I think I’m relied on heavily by some of the coaches to exceed expectations, and I believe that I will do so." It helps that he was able to make a gradual recovery and not be rushed into service. By the final week of OTAs, he saw some team-period repetitions. Through that work, he realized that the Broncos' zone-blocking based scheme was perfect for him -- something that appeared evident from his Utah film, as he read blocks and made the decisive single cuts upfield the scheme demands. "I don’t think I could have landed in a better situation here in this offensive scheme," Booker said. "I’m going to do everything I can to go out there and play my butt off. It’s why I can play." And if he plays better than his experienced competition, he could be the primary backup behind Anderson.

Broncos sign rookie LB Darnell Sankey; waive long snapper Nathan Theus By Andrew Mason DenverBroncos.com July 27, 2016 The Broncos made a move to set their roster before training camp, signing rookie linebacker Darnell Sankey. To make room for Sankey, they waived rookie long snapper Nathan Theus. A 6-foot-2, 250-pounder, Sankey earned FCS All-America honors from multiple sources, including the American Football Coaches Associaiton, the Associated Press, the Walter Camp Football Foundation and STATS, Inc. At Sacramento State, Sankey led the Big Sky Conference with 153 stops last season, a figure that ranked second in FCS. He added 3.5 sacks, had nine tackles for losses and forced a fumble while finishing with 76 more tackles than anyone else on the Hornets roster. He set a school record with 27 tackles in a game against Weber State last September. His performance helped land him a spot in the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl, an all-star game held Jan. 26 in Carson, Calif. Sankey began his college career as a defensive end, and earned honorable mention All-Big Sky honors as a true sophomore in 2015 at the position, finishing with six sacks and 9.5 tackles for losses. He moved to linebacker for his junior season and had 99 tackles in just nine games prior to suffering a season-ending knee injury. The versatile Sankey also saw some brief work at fullback as a junior, scoring two touchdowns and gaining 11 yards on six carries in short-yardage situations. Sankey becomes the third Sacramento State product on the Broncos roster, joining a hive of hornets that includes inside linebacker Todd Davis and rookie offensive tackle Lars Hanson. The decision to waive Theus effectively ends the competition for the long-snapping role. Casey Kreiter, who spent the last two training camps and preseasons with the Dallas Cowboys, is now the only exclusive long snapper on the 90-man roster.

Adam Gotsis fully participating as rookies begin non-contact practices By Aric DiLalla DenverBroncos.com July 27, 2016 So far, so good for rookie defensive lineman Adam Gotsis. Gotsis, who is recovering from a torn ACL, said Tuesday he participated fully in Monday's rookie practice, and that he felt “pretty good” after going through the workout. “It's still a day-by-day type of thing,” Gotsis said. “Obviously as the workload increases, so will the recovery that I will probably have to take. I'm just taking it day by day, listening to my body and the strength staff and athletic training staff. They've done a great job with me and I've got full trust in them to get me right. I think for the time that I've been here they've done a great job getting me into the position that I'm in now.” When he does return, Gotsis said he’ll aim to be as versatile as possible along the defensive line. And while he said he feels most comfortable at the defensive end spot, he knows that he’ll have to slide inside at times. He picked up some tips during OTAs by spending time with injured DE Kenny Anunike, who helped Gotsis prepare for when he could finally take reps with the team at full speed. “Me and him would talk about each play and [I’d] go through it with him,” Gotsis said. “So that was good just having him there to talk to. Then just watching the other guys, mistakes they might make, good things they do, you can pick up little things along the way.” As Gotsis mentioned in mid-July, the return to football follows his first trip to Australia in more than 18 months. On Tuesday, he shared the highlights of his trip back to Melbourne. “I really just met up with some close friends and family,” Gotsis said. “That's all I really wanted to see. Just talking to those guys, especially some guys from my high school, it was crazy meeting up with them. I still talk to them a bunch. It was crazy meeting up with them and them from back in high school when I was trying to come over and do the college thing. “A lot of them were probably like 'Oh, that's not going to work.' They're all just real proud of me and I think that was a pretty cool thing to see—how far I've come since I left being with them every day, to where I am now. It's just good to get back and sit down with those guys and just be a regular guy again, and not be a football player in America where everyone knows your face. That was probably the best part, just being a regular kid from Australia again.”But now that he’s found himself a spot on the defending Super Bowl champions, he can look back and laugh at the doubts that he used to face. “They used to make fun of me back in high school. I used to drink a ton of milk to try and get some size on me. I used to carry around a milk jug at class. They'd make fun of me, but now it's all paid off. I'm doing alright.”