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Broncos-Bears hope to hold joint preseason practices at UCHealth Training Center

If preseason game is set, it would be 7th consecutive year Broncos have arranged for a joint practice.
Credit: AP

INDIANAPOLIS — From behind the plants in the downtown hotel lobby shared by the Broncos and Chicago Bears here at the NFL Combine, you hear things.

Among them: Hey, what d’ya hear about us getting together for practices for a few days in August?

The Broncos and Bears are planning to hold joint practices as part of their preseason schedule, sources told 9NEWS from the lobby of the team’s hotel here Monday.

The arrangement is not finalized as NFL schedule makers first have to pit the Bears against the Broncos in a preseason game at Empower Field at Mile High.

But it only makes sense. Broncos head coach Vic Fangio well knows the Bears’ organization, having served as its defensive coordinator from 2015-18. His replacement as Bears defensive coordinator, Chuck Pagano, is Boulder-raised and older brother of Broncos’ outside linebackers coach John Pagano.

If the Broncos-Bears’ practice-preseason game is set as expected, it would be the 15th time Denver has held such an arrangement in team history and seventh year in a row.

It would also be the seventh time Fangio has been involved in a Broncos’ joint practice. He was on the New Orleans Saints’ staff in 1986, when they practiced against the Broncos in Greeley; the Carolina Panthers’ staff in 1996 when they practiced in Greeley; the Houston Texans’ staff in 2003 and 2005 when the Broncos went to Houston for practices and a preseason game; the 2018 Bears that practiced at the Broncos’ headquarters in Englewood; last year as Broncos’ head coach against the 49ers in Englewood and perhaps this season against his former Bears at UCHealth Training Center.

The Broncos all-time joint practices:

1984      Cowboys             Greeley

1985      Saints/Oilers      Greeley

1986      Saints                   Greeley

1996      Panthers             Greeley

2003      Texans                 Houston

2005      Texans                 Houston

2007      Cowboys             Dallas

2008      Cowboys             Dove Valley

2014      Texans                 Dove Valley

2015      49ers                    Dove Valley

2016      49ers                    Dove Valley

2017      49ers                    Santa Clara

2018      Bears                    Dove Valley

2019      49ers                    Dove Valley

2020??  Bears                   Dove Valley

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