BROADER VISION FOR SPECIAL TEAMS
ALA.» Tom McMahon, MOBILE, the Broncos’ new special-teams coordinator who drew high praise from former Indianapolis Colts kicker Pat McAfee, said he has a broad vision for correcting Denver’s myriad issues in that phase.
“The biggest philosophy I have is half-court offense and fullcourt defense,” he said Tuesday following the North team’s practice at the Senior Bowl. “Offensively, from a return standpoint, we want to give our offense a half court to work with. We want to give our defense a full court. In essence, what we’re really trying to do is field position. If we get a turnover, for example, we don’t call it a turnover on our special teams. We’ll call it points. Any turnover on special teams, because of the ball being punted 50 yards or kicked 60 yards, when you get a turnover, it’s already in field-goal range.”
The Broncos dealt with a string of problems under firstyear special-teams coordinator Brock Olivo.
Olivo was fired at season’s end, and McMahon was brought on to right the ship.
“I’ll be upfront with you. I don’t get into the past,” McMahon said. “I’m a big fix guy. I’m not going to be a fault guy. Anything that happens, which you’ll find out with me in the media, anything that goes down there that goes bad on special teams, it’s on me. I’m going to fix it, though — I guarantee that.”
Receiver moves?
As the Broncos retool their offense, they could part with veteran wide receivers Demaryius Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders. Thomas has a $4 million option that will trigger the final two years of his contract. If it’s declined, those two years are voided, the team eats about $3.1 million in “dead” money and Thomas becomes a free agent. Sanders has two years remaining on his contract with base salaries of about $8.2 million and $10.2 million, and there’s a chance the team could test his trade value. When asked about those two specifically Wednesday, general manager John Elway declined to divulge details about the Broncos’ offseason plans.
“As we get closer and as we get into free agency and get back to the offices and start looking at the availability of what’s out there and kind of ranking the free agents that are available and also looking at ourselves and look at where we are budgetwise and cap-wise — as we gather information once we get back, we’ll start putting a plan together with all those considerations,” Elway said.
Ballage turns heads.
Most of the Senior Bowl conversation has revolved around the quarterbacks, but other players have turned heads — especially Kalen Ballage. The Falcon High School graduate and Arizona State running back, 6-foot-2, 222 pounds, has used every bit of his size in the first two days of practice with the North team.
“Boy, he is impressive. He’s big, he’s fluid, he’s catching well,” Broncos coach Vance Joseph said. “He’s got great feet. He’s been impressive.” Headed to N.Y. Tyke Tolbert was hired as the New York Giants’ receivers coach, an NFL source confirmed, a month after he was let go from his position with the Broncos.