Broncos part of a new trend in offseason work: fewer days on the field

The Broncos are working smarter — not longer and harder in the offseason.

Two years after Sean Payton overhauled the Broncos’ offseason by curtailing their work in the first two phases of offseason work to weights and conditioning only — ditching the tape-study and coaching meetings that are permitted at that time — he further altered the offseason program by trimming the number of days the team will have practices in the offseason.

Denver will have six OTA sessions, per the dates released by the NFL on Thursday.

Teams are allowed 10, plus three mandatory minicamp practices.

So, why trim back the work? One would think that any session would have value, right?

Well, rest — mental and physical — does, too. And in Year Three of Payton’s operation, much of the groundwork has long since been laid.

It’s not like the Broncos won’t be around for the week of voluntary work that will not see practices, but it will now be spent with a further focus on conditioning and strength training.

And given that the Broncos have gone from being one of the most-injured teams in football to among the least injured in the last two years, that, too has value.

Further, the Broncos probably are on the leading edge of a trend that could well be mandated. Ten voluntary OTAs might soon become a thing of the past.

BRONCOS ARE NOT ALONE IN THIS

Sixteen teams — half the league — will hold six or fewer OTAs this offseason. None of those teams have first-year head coaches, and that almost certainly isn’t a coincidence.

Of the eight teams that will use their full 10-OTA allotment, four — Chicago, Jacksonville, Las Vegas and the New York Jets — will break in new head coaches.

But two of the teams using all 10 days have two of the longest-tenured head coaches in the NFL — Baltimore with John Harbaugh (18 seasons) and Kansas City with Andy Reid (13 seasons).

These changes come in the wake of the NFLPA making noise about pushing for changes in the offseason calendar.

One notion floated involves entirely abandoning the offseason team-organized workout schedule in favor of having players report in June for a six-week ramp-up to training camp, thus creating a full four months of player downtime from the Super Bowl through any team-organized work.

Under the current calendar, teams resume club-directed offseason work on a voluntary basis roughly two months after the Super Bowl, with a three-phase offseason that culminates with up 10 on-field OTAs and three mandatory minicamp sessions.

It would come as no surprise if the numbers for both drop, and the offseason soon looks different. It doesn’t mean the NFL will go into hibernation during the months without games; the league has succeeded in turning the draft and free agency into seasons of their own.

Consuming the sport is a nearly-year-round exercise that doesn’t require the players being on hand.

And while the NFL’s game schedule could grow longer in the coming years with rumblings of an 18th regular-season game continuing to grow, the Broncos might be ahead of schedule by trimming their offseason work.