Start the car. Pack the bags. Make a break for Denver International Airport.
The Broncos’ summer break arrived a day early Wednesday when head coach Sean Payton canceled Thursday’s mandatory minicamp finale.
Now the team disperses to points near and far for the next approximately six weeks until training camp begins.
Payton indicated he made the decision recently and told the team in a Wednesday morning team meeting.
“Historically, prior to (2011), you had 40 offseason days and then after that (new collective bargaining agreement) it greatly reduced,” Payton said. “Prior to that CBA, you almost always had to find a day where you were doing something different. After 2011 it got reduced to 10 OTAs, your minicamp and your weightlifting. It’s a little harder to just plan a day.
“This was more a byproduct of what we’ve been seeing and where we’re at. I like where we’re at.”
Payton plays golf “every day,” he said, at his place in Idaho during the summer break, though he’s also having a cataract procedure first this year.
For his young quarterbacks and other players he said the key is a balance between relaxation and making some progress heading into training camp.
“There’s a happy medium there,” Payton said. “… I said to every one of these guys, at some point we’ve discussed you in depth and it’s not always a discussion for when you’re here, but also how we feel you’re going to work when you’re not here. I think they understand that.
“It’s a young team, but they’re pretty smart.”
In July all three of Denver’s quarterbacks and several receivers are getting together to work out together and spend time together.
“The teams that have the most success are really close away from the field as well as on the field,” receiver Courtland Sutton said Tuesday. “So we already have it kind of linked up, and guys are looking forward to it. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.”
Sutton “important.” Sutton on Tuesday spoke openly about what he considers a “stalemate” between he and the club regarding his contract.
At one point, he mused that he wants to be in Denver and that he hopes the feeling is mutual.
A day later, Payton said he’d spent time with the 29-year-old receiver before the team breaks for the summer.
“Courtland and I met this morning for quite a while,” Payton said. “We have a good relationship. He’s important to what we’re doing. … I would say he’s important and I think he knows that.”
Welcome back, Jim. Broncos first-year secondary coach Jim Leonhard on Wednesday spoke with reporters for the first time since landing his first NFL coaching job this winter.
The former college coach and longtime NFL safety has a pretty good star pupil to work with in fourth-year cornerback Pat Surtain II.
“Talent wins in this league and obviously we feel like we’ve got one of the best corners in the NFL,” Leonhard said. “I’m excited to work with him and help grow the leadership side. He’s getting to a point in his career where his voice goes a long way on the team, in the DB room. I’m excited to continue to push him there and on the field.
“So much of what he does is just so natural. It looks easy for him, so trying to find ways to continue to get him to improve but to have even more of an impact on this team on the field, off the field, that’s really his next step.”
Leonhard said the advice he gave Surtain on that front isn’t about being louder or more vocal.
“Do it your way. Be you,” Leonhard said. “He’s a guy who’s naturally kind of quiet and a lead-by-example type. He just has to understand the weight that his voice has in that locker room. Him having a one-on-one conversation with someone is going to go a long ways.”
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