Tag: Training Camp

NFL announces Broncos’ offseason schedule

The Broncos will begin their offseason program on April 15, followed by OTAs in May-June and a mandatory minicamp in mid-June.

The work will soon begin for the 2024 Denver Broncos.

The NFL announced offseason workout dates for all 32 teams on Friday. Denver’s offseason program is set to begin on April 15, just over two weeks away.

After that, the Broncos will hold organized team activities beginning in late May and running into early June. Denver will then have a mandatory minicamp in mid-June followed by a summer break.

Here’s a look at the Broncos’ offseason schedule so far:

  • First Day: April 15
  • OTAs: May 21-23, May 28-30, June 3-6
  • Mandatory Minicamp: June 11-13

Still to-be-announced are the dates for the team’s rookie minicamp, which was held from May 12-14 last year. Denver is also still finalizing a training camp schedule.

Last year, the Broncos announced their training camp schedule in late June. The 2023 training camp schedule began on July 28 and wrapped up on Aug. 17. With potential construction at the facility, Denver is still finalizing plans for fans attending practices this summer.

After training camp, the Broncos will begin preseason in August followed by the regular season kicking off in September.

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Saints announce 2024 training camp will be held at UC-Irvine

Zot! The New Orleans Saints announced their 2024 training camp will be held at UC-Irvine in Southern California:

As had been previously reported, the New Orleans Saints will take their 2024 training camp on the road this summer. Construction on a new team cafeteria at their headquarters in Metairie will make it difficult for 90 players and a full coaching staff to work at the facility — not to mention all of the athletic trainers and support staff.

So, the Saints announced Friday, they’ll be holding training camp at UC-Irvine in Southern California through July and August. Here’s what general manager Mickey Loomis shared in a team statement:

Currently, Mrs. Benson and our organization have invested in the construction of a new cafeteria, that when completed, will be among the finest in the National Football League. The scope of this project makes it difficult to host training camp on-site in 2024, given the extensive needs for our team to prepare for the regular season. We appreciate the outstanding support we have received from our great fans at training camp. We are thankful to be able to come to an agreement with the University of California, Irvine to host training camp, providing us with exceptional fields and facilities that are critical to our football team receiving the necessary work in preparation for the 2024 season.

UC-Irvine has hosted the Los Angeles Rams for their training camp from 2016 to 2023 (except for the COVID-19 pandemic-afflicted 2020 offseason), so this is nothing new to the university’s athletics department. Their 12-acre facilities and practice fields are well-suited to hosting NFL teams.

Still, it’s disappointing to see the Saints moving so far away from their fanbase in Louisiana and the Gulf Coast at large. At a time when Loomis is facing increasing scrutiny for his decisions in hiring Dennis Allen and recruiting Derek Carr while playing fast and loose with important draft picks, choosing to move the largest free-to-attend event for fans across the country doesn’t send a positive message (intended or not).

Hopefully the Saints can make up for it with some open practices at the team facility once construction wraps up or inside the Caesars Superdome upon their return. The team’s training camp schedule will be announced at a later date, but it remains to be seen whether fans in California will be allowed to attend practices. The Rams welcomed their supporters when conducting camp at this same campus, so hopefully the Saints will do the same.

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Broncos facility updates: New indoor turf + fans at training camp

The Broncos are replacing the turf at their indoor facility, and fans are expected at training camp this year despite facility construction.

The Denver Broncos announced two notable training facility updates during the NFL’s annual meetings in Orlando earlier this week.

The first update was an announcement from team owner/CEO Greg Penner that the team will replace the turf at their indoor Pat Bowlen Fieldhouse. The existing turf still had roughly 10 years left in its estimated lifespan, but the Broncos have decided to replace it with a “state-of-the-art” upgrade.

Better indoor turf could, in theory, reduce injuries for Denver, but changing the turf does not directly impact the fans. The second bit of news does.

The Broncos will soon begin construction on a new facility at their current Dove Valley location, and it remains to be seen how many fans will be able to attend training camp while the new facility is being built.

Denver coach Sean Payton said Monday that the team has not discussed the possibility of holding training camp practices at a different location during construction. The Broncos have not yet decided if construction will begin before or after training camp this summer.

Plans are still being finalized, but the team is currently planning to have fans at training camp despite the construction. Denver had a capacity limit of 3,000 fans at practices last summer, and it wouldn’t be surprising if the limit is even lower during construction.

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Saints re-sign Adam Prentice for a training camp fullback competition

Big news at the official start of free agency. The Saints re-signed Adam Prentice for a training camp fullback competition:

Here’s some big news at the formal start of free agency. The New Orleans Saints announced they have re-signed fullback Adam Prentice, who is returning for a training camp competition with Zander Horvath — who was recently signed as a veteran respected by members of Klint Kubiak’s new offensive coaching staff.

So it’ll be Prentice versus Horvath over the summer. It makes sense to bring Prentice back so he can compete for his roster spot because he knows the other players inn the locker room well, but he’ll have to prove he can execute the blocking assignments and responsibilities asked off fullbacks in Kubiak’s system. He had a rough year with the Saints last season that included dropped passes and a very unfortunate fumble deep inside New Orleans territory.

Now that the NFL calendar has officially turned over into 2024, the Saints have a number of vulnerabilities to address with their roster. Kubiak wants to run the football often and effectively and improved blocking up front will do a lot to achieve that. His system asks a lot of the fullback so Prentice will need to show a wider set of skills than we’ve seen from him before. It’s just one more subplot to watch in the months ahead.

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Report: Saints tender Rashid Shaheed for the 2024 season

OTC’s Jason Fitzgerald reports the New Orleans Saints have tendered Rashid Shaheed for the 2024 season. But when can he sign a real extension?

There it is: The New Orleans Saints have tendered wide receiver Rashid Shaheed for the 2024 season, per Over The Cap’s Jason Fitzgerald. Shaheed was an exclusive rights free agent whose only options were to play for the Saints on a qualifying offer (the NFL minimum salary) or sit out a year.

Obviously, he was going to be coming back, but it’s good to have that confirmed so focus can turn to his fit in Klint Kubiak’s offense. Shaheed finished the 2023 season with the 10th-most all-purpose yards in the NFL and earned a Pro Bowl Games appearance for his work on special teams (as well as a spot on the All-Pro team).

Shaheed was one of just two players to gain more than 300 yards from scrimmage as well as 300-plus yards on both kick returns and punt returns, and he vastly outplayed his competitor. Denver Broncos rookie Marvin Mims, the AFC Pro Bowler kick returns specialist, totaled 22 receptions for 377 yards with a touchdown catch. Shaheed caught 46 passes for 719 yards, scoring five times.

He’s a special player. But after signing this tender he’ll only be under contract through 2024. What’s with that? Why didn’t the Saints sign him to a longer extension?

It’s an easy explanation: the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement doesn’t allow it. Players must accrue three years’ experience (at least six games per season) before they are eligible to sign a multiyear contract. Shaheed will play on the minimum salary of $985,000 in 2024 and go into 2025 as a restricted free agent, when he’s finally eligible to sign a real extension.

But the Saints can drag this out longer if they choose. Shaheed could be forced to play on a restricted free agent tender in 2025, which would be another one-year deal, before finally reaching unrestricted status in 2026. Hopefully both sides can work out an arrangement to keep him in New Orleans long-term without any frustrating negotiations or off-field drama with his contract. However, as we said, that’s still at least a year away.

In the meantime: Shaheed figures to play a key role in the new-look Saints offense as their No. 2 wideout behind Chris Olave. It’s going to  be fascinating to see how Kubiak restocks the receiving corps with just Olave, Shaheed, and second-year pro A.T. Perry under contract for 2024. Last summer the Saints took 13 wide receivers into training camp, maintaining a group of seven during the season (usually rostering five or six, with one or two on the practice squad). With such thin depth we should expect plenty of new additions throughout the offseason, both in free agency and the 2024 NFL draft.

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Moving 2024 training camp makes sense for the Saints, but it’s bad for fans

Moving 2024 training camp makes sense for the Saints, but it’s bad news for fans in New Orleans. They’re going to California this summer:

The New Orleans Saints are planning to move their 2024 training camp to Irvine, Calif. this summer while construction continues on the team practice facility, as first reported by Jeff Duncan for the Times-Picayune | Advocate and confirmed by NewOrleans.Football’s Nick Underhill. This was something we’ve been expecting after it was suggested last year.

It’s a move that makes sense for the team. The Los Angeles Rams have held training camp at UC-Irvine’s campus before, and the Saints know the area well after traveling for joint practices with the L.A. Chargers four times in the last seven years. From a pure logistics perspective, this looks like an ideal match.

And the Saints are only moving training camp this year because of ongoing renovations to their headquarters in Metairie, specifically the cafeteria. It’s unclear whether this work is being done in response to an NFL Players Association survey that graded the Saints’ food service and nutrition programs among the worst in the league, but it would appear team owner Gayle Benson is responding positively to that kind of feedback by paying for upgrades.

But there’s one other factor to consider: the weather. Last summer, multiple open-to-public practices were moved to the indoor facility due to extreme heat. The changing climate impacted players on the field and led to health emergencies for some fans in attendance. Southern California is notably cooler in August than New Orleans and the Gulf South. There are clearly several benefits to moving training camp for a year.

With all that said: this is bad news for hometown fans. Training camp is the biggest free event (tickets must be reserved in advance, but at no charge) on the team’s calendar and for many fans it’s the only opportunity they’ll have to see their favorite players in person, much less get autographs or photos and create lasting memories. The Saints are probably going to have some event to close out the preseason with fans in New Orleans, either at the Caesars Superdome or Tulane’s Yulman Stadium, as they’ve done often; but that isn’t the same as giving locals day-to-day access.

And it creates an awful optics situation in light of comments from general manager Mickey Loomis over the last year. Loomis has been condescending to fans and local media during his recent public appearances — suggesting game tickets are too expensive for the home crowd, offering bogus stats to excuse Dennis Allen’s poor performance, revising Saints history to try and make Derek Carr look better, and ignoring obvious vulnerabilities that lost the team games. He’s ignored public criticism to run it back with an unpopular and unsuccessful head coach and double down on an underachieving quarterback.

Take that with the annual increase in season-ticket prices and the Saints moving training camp and it characterizes an antagonistic relationship between team leadership and the team’s fanbase. As we’ve seen there are plenty of reasons for the Saints to move training camp away from New Orleans this year. Choosing to go all the way to California instead of using some of the many closer-to-home facilities available in football-centric Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas (or anywhere else between New Orleans and Irvine) is a disappointing decision.

Hopefully the Saints can make up for it. Something that would help: working with the league office to schedule their preseason games on the road earlier on, then playing the final exhibition game (or two) at home, coinciding with any open practices and fan events to reconnect with the community that’s supporting them. We shouldn’t overlook the opportunities for West Coast Saints fans to see the team in person, but ultimately Loomis and other decision-makers need to remember that this team is based out of New Orleans.

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With Saints likely to hold training camp at UC Irvine, where will Rams hold theirs?

The Saints are expected to hold training camp at UC Irvine this summer, so where will the Rams hold theirs?

The Los Angeles Rams will most likely have a new site for training camp this summer. After holding training camp at UC Irvine every year since 2016 (except 2020, due to COVID-19), the Rams appear headed to a new location for 2024.

That’s because the New Orleans Saints are expected to move their training camp setup to Irvine this summer, specifically UC Irvine. That news was reported by Nola.com on Thursday, with Jeff Duncan writing the following on the subject:

After weeks of exploration, Saints officials have targeted a site at the University of California-Irvine in suburban Los Angeles, where the Los Angeles Rams have conducted their training camps in recent years.

So if the Saints are holding their camp at UC Irvine, where will the Rams go for theirs this year? The logical answer would seem to be their new under-construction facility in Woodland Hills, but that’s not meant to be a training camp location for the team.

When the Rams revealed their plans for the Woodland Hills headquarters in November, COO Kevin Demoff said the expectation is not to hold training camp there. As a result, they’re going to look at different locations around Southern California.

“Our vision has always been, and not just because it would be a little hot to hold training camp here in Woodland Hills, but we’ve always liked the idea of going away a little bit for training camp,” Demoff said. “UC Irvine’s been a great partner. We’ve looked in and around other places within Southern California. When we started at UC Irvine, it was always with the idea of being in Orange County, with the idea to move it, so we’re going to explore that moving forward, but it is not our current plan to hold training camp here. That could change at some point, but we would probably need an indoor facility, or certainly some shade, to make that happen.”

The Rams have yet to announce where camp will be held this offseason so fans will have to wait for that news to be revealed, but it’s safe to say they won’t be going back to UC Irvine this year.

Chiefs LB Nick Bolton on Chiefs’ boundless defensive potential

#Chiefs LB Nick Bolton told reporters about the boundless potential of Kansas City’s defense during comments to reporters.

The Kansas City Chiefs would not be set to compete in a second-consecutive Super Bowl without the stellar performance of their defense throughout the season.

Star linebacker Nick Bolton is one of the key players on Kansas City’s defense, and he has always felt that the unit had great potential, even back in the 2023 offseason.

While speaking with the media on Thursday, Bolton told reporters about the high expectations he had for the Chiefs defense, and when he noticed that it could be one of the NFL’s top units.

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“In training camp, I mentioned that we had the opportunity to be a top defense,” Bolton explained. “I meant that. I could tell from the guys and how we were able to recall from last year, adding new guys to the system, and how fast they were able to pick up stuff.

“We have the core guys that played last year. I think the experience and building where we left off from last year, everyone is a year older and a little more comfortable playing around each other. I feel like that helped us get to where we are now.”

Kansas City’s defense has overperformed all season and is widely regarded as one of the league’s best units despite being one of the youngest in the NFL.

Key NFL offseason dates Broncos fans should know in 2024

Here are the key NFL dates that Broncos fans should know this offseason, from the combine to free agency to the draft and training camp.

The NFL still has one more game to be played — the biggest game of the season — but for the Denver Broncos and 30 other teams, the 2024 offseason has already begun.

Here are the upcoming key dates that Broncos fans should have circled on their calendars going into the 2024 NFL offseason.

Broncos among 3 teams who could be forced into Hard Knocks in 2024

The Broncos, Bears and Saints can’t say no if the NFL asks them to be featured on ‘Hard Knocks’ this summer.

Each summer, NFL Films cameras follow a team through training camp and preseason for Hard Knocks, HBO’s behind-the-scenes look at an NFL team.

Any team can volunteer for the show, but they rarely do, so the NFL has a mandate that teams that meet certain requirements can be forced into the show.

If a team (1) does not have a new head coach, (2) has not made the playoffs within the last three years and (3) has not been featured on Hard Knocks within the last 10 years, they can’t say no if asked to be featured on the show.

The Denver Broncos are one of three teams that match all of those criteria, joining the Chicago Bears and New Orleans Saints. If they stick with Derek Carr, the Saints seem to be the least intriguing option. The Bears might be the top choice if they use the No. 1 pick in the 2024 NFL draft on a quarterback. The Broncos might have a new rookie QB this summer as well.

The NFL announced the 2023 Hard Knocks team (the New York Jets) last July. Two years ago, the 2022 team (the Detroit Lions) was announced in March. It’s unclear when the 2024 team will be announced.

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