Miller on Ward rumor: “fake news”

As preseason winds down and NFL teams near the deadline to finalize their rosters, most are accepting and/or initiating trade calls. In a surprise to many, T.J. Ward’s name has come up in discussions. The veteran safety is entering the final season on his four-year deal, and the Broncos have depth to envy on their No Fly Zone secondary.

Some of Ward’s teammates shook their heads in disbelief at the notion of losing him, a respected leader in the locker room and on defense.

Von Miller was one. “I thought it was fake news,” he said. “I mean, I didn’t think — it’s serious like that? It can’t be that serious. T.J.’s been a great player for us, but it’s the National Football League. You always get blindsided by stuff. T.J.’s been great for us so I don’t see any reason to (trade). Mr. (John) Elway and the guys upstairs, they push this organization in a great direction and I’m going to go continue to make championship moves for us. I don’t really — it has to be fake news. I really can’t believe in that too much.”

Others have taken to so- cial media to express their disbelief. Inside linebacker Brandon Marshall tweeted Tuesday evening: “We better not trade the homie,” and followed with the hashtag #NobodyIsSafe.

Miller sack goals:

Miller endured a hellacious offseason training regimen with a specific goal: to stay on the field longer. His thinking was that if he can achieve 13½ sacks and fall one vote shy of winning defensive player of the year while playing 81.2 percent of the team’s defensive snaps, imagine what he could do if he played more and was able to rush the more.

So he trained to improve his agility, to improve his strength, to change his mind-set and to push himself to levels he had never before reached.

This year, as first floated by Oakland’s Khalil Mack, Miller has pondered the unthinkable in getting 30 sacks. He has methodically thought out just how he’ll do this:

“You’ve got to get 10 in that first month, which is doable,” he said in early August. “You get two and a half, two and half the next game, two and a half the next game after that. You might miss one game but then you get two and a half, so we’ve got ten in five games right there. It’s definitely doable.”

And on Wednesday, at the Broncos’ annual kickoff luncheon, he jokingly reaffirmed his goal.

“Coach (Joe) Woods and Coach Pug (outside linebackers coach Fred Pagac) telling me I can get 30 sacks. Appreciate you guys,” he said while waving to them in the crowd. “They said they’ll call plays for me to get single blocks, call plays for me to come free on the outside.”

TE delight:

Count Virgil Green among the many on offense excited by the poquarterback tential of Mike McCoy’s new system. The Broncos tight end has seen what Antonio Gates and Hunter Henry achieved last season — the two combined for 89 catches, 1,026 yards receiving and 15 touchdowns — when McCoy was head coach of the Chargers. Green believes he’ll get to do the same.

Green also believes he can do it better.

“I do get excited because I feel that I am way more athletic than Antonio Gates and Henry,” he said. “I just think if I get in the open field, get the ball, I can do a lot of things still, even six, seven years in the league.”