ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — There was a red zone period during minicamp this week when several Russell Wilson throws soared just a tad high.
We’re talking consistently an inch or two over the fingertips of various receivers in the end zone. Wilson is ordinarily so precise with his passing, it was as if he was purposely drilling his passes, say, 9 feet, 4 inches off the ground just to see if the likes of Courtland Sutton and Tim Patrick could stretch their usual catch radius of, say, 9 feet, 2 inches.
As they say, a guy never knows how far he can go unless he first goes a tad too far.
As it turns out, Wilson’s pursuit of perfection has included making a few throws in the offseason that he ordinarily wouldn’t try in the regular season. If he throws into coverage in June and gets picked off, so what? It’s June. By taking a slight risk now – the Broncos’ offseason ended Wednesday with a day of fun and games set up inside the Pat Bowlen Fieldhouse -- the boundaries are more established come September.
“No doubt. We try to be aggressive as heck down here,’’ Broncos offensive coordinator Justin Outten said Tuesday. “There is a lot of throwing the ball down the field, just to see the landmark of the receivers and just to see the timing of the quarterback. We encourage those tight-window throws. The experimentation with this offense throughout these OTAs and this minicamp has been something that we have been looking forward to. Once the installations are done, you can start to settle down a little bit and be creative as far as the formations and motions and shifts.
“With Russell, he’s a pro’s pro. You’ll give him some information and it will be a little bit outside of the box. He’ll look at you funny and he’ll see it work and then it comes to fruition. He’s a really good guy to work with. He gives you feedback, and we also give him feedback. He’s very coachable and in the position that he’s in, he could easily tell us, ‘It’s my way or the highway.’ He’s been very good about just getting around the system and learning it all and asking questions every single day. It’s been great.”
It didn’t always go smoothly for Wilson and head coach Nathaniel Hackett’s offense during the 15 OTA and minicamp practices – eight of which were observed by the media. They looked good during the first day of voluntary minicamp before the draft in late-April. They looked good again on what turned out to be the final mandatory practice Tuesday.
In between, the defense had its moments – six of the top 10 paid Broncos are defensive players -- as the offensive players sometimes struggled with the complexities of Hackett’s wide zone-running concepts -- and passes off the fake wide zone-running concepts.
Then again, a good offense is not supposed to be mastered in a day or a week or a month. If that were the case, it would be a simple offense. Not a sophisticated offense that keeps a defense off balance. After operating the new offense the past nine weeks, Wilson likes it. And he believes the offense is far enough along that it’s going to be productive when it counts on Sundays.
“I feel extremely confident in what we’re doing,’’ Wilson said earlier in the week. “We look really good. We’re going against a great defense every day. That’s the challenge we want every day—to go against the best. Our defense is the best of the best, and we’re getting better every day. We’re making touchdown plays, and guys are making key stops on defense. We’re making key plays on key third downs. It feels great.’’
Wilson then went about making sure to compliment all offensive positions, naming as many players as possible. The offensive line was first. Then all the tight ends and receivers and running backs. He finished by circling back to praise his offensive line.
“We’re going to have a really good football team,’’ Wilson said. “The running backs we have, the tight ends, the receivers, and the line. I think we have a chance.”
Yes, Wilson is relentlessly positive. If the sky is dark, he might see it as, hey, at least the sun won’t burn the grass.
Still, when a quarterback who has earned 9 Pro Bowls in 10 seasons and averaged 11 wins a year through his first 9 healthy seasons believes the Broncos are going to have a real good team, that means something.
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