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Lammey: 3 big observations from Broncos minicamp – Day 3

Jun 16, 2017, 3:16 PM

The Denver Broncos wrapped up mandatory minicamp on Thursday at UCHealth Training Center. They have gone through rookie minicamp and voluntary OTAs, and this is the final step before the team breaks before the start of training camp in late July.

Broncos head coach Vance Joseph said on Thursday that he’s happy with the progress his team showed during the week of practice.

“It’s been really quality work. I’ve been impressed with the group as far as being engaged and learning,” Joseph said. “The weight room work has been great. It’s a good group. It’s a motivated group and that makes my job easy.”

Here are the three biggest observations from Day 3:

Adam Gotsis getting his knee scoped

Second-year defensive end Adam Gotsis didn’t hit the practice field Thursday, and Joseph shed some light on why after practice, saying he underwent arthroscopic surgery to alleviate some discomfort in his right knee.

“It’s a small cleanup job. It happened this morning. It was successful. He’ll be back the first week of camp,” Joseph said.

“… It was bothering him for about four days. He kept going on it. It was just soreness. He went to the doctor yesterday and there was a little something floating in there. We fixed it immediately. He’ll be back the first week of camp.”

Gotsis injured his left knee in October 2015 while playing his final season at Georgia Tech, which he later underwent surgery to repair the damage, and went through the recovery process and while playing 333 snaps during his rookie season with the Broncos in 2016.

He had been making an impression during OTAs and mandatory minicamp, but his status for the start of training camp is in question.

Gotsis should be ready for the start of camp, but the team may choose to ease him into action.

The Broncos are situation ready

Though it was a walkthrough Thursday, the Broncos did work on something very important — situational football.

Analytics are a big part of football, and the Broncos pay attention to tendencies, percentages, and probabilities when working in certain down and distance situations.

Joseph elaborated after practice Thursday:

“Today was a (director of football analytics) Mitch Tanney practice. It was simply a situational practice. We’re trying to smarten our guys up as far as situational football. That stuff over the years, with most coaches, you kind of go through it and brush over it. It could cost you a game or two, or win you a game or two, so our focus is to obviously win us a game or two by being a smart football team.”

You have to be ready for anything in the NFL, and the Broncos have put in the work to be prepared for any situation that arises.

Advice for the break

This is the time of year when players are left alone. They’ll take time off, get away from football, and take vacation.

After that, players will get ready for the start of training camp and the grind that is the regular season in the NFL.

Joseph left his players this advice heading into break:

“As they head out, the football message was the things that were learned as far as the scheme on both sides of the ball, let’s not lose that. Let’s come back and start from this point, not go backward. Off the field, the message was to be smart. Let’s just be smart and stay out of trouble and walk away from conflict. Use Uber. Just be really socially conscious about their surroundings and their behavior. Again, any conflict, walk away. Just be smart.”

The first-year head coach said he’ll take some time off as well but also that he can never get the game off his mind.

“After a week or two off, I’m bored. I’m ready to get back here. I have to force myself to relax and just take life,” Joseph said. “The kids help that, though. The kids have no clue about this atmosphere. In their opinions, it’s football and it’s playtime. They help me with that. After a week or two, my mind is back.”

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Lammey: 3 big observations from Broncos minicamp – Day 3