Highlights of Peyton Manning's thoughts watching the Broncos' training camp practice

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How Fangio's defense will help Lock become a better player​

One thing Manning and Lock have in common is that they both have practiced against Fangio's defense during their careers. Manning did so in Indianapolis, while Drew is doing it now. With that experience, Manning said he was able to learn valuable lessons that translated to games.


"Coach Fangio is a defensive guru," Manning said. "He's been doing it for a long time. Vic Fangio, people maybe don't realize, he was the defensive coordinator for the Colts in my second, third and fourth seasons. So I competed against him in practice every day. Competitive guy. … Vic liked to win the practice. He liked to compete, so we had some good battles. I always felt like that competition in practice kind of helped us play better in games. He used to give you a lot. He had basic defenses, but we had what we called exotic blitzes where they would kind of bring multiple defenders. When you see a lot of that in practice every day, it kind of helps you when you get to the games. I think Drew Lock will benefit from competing against this Vic Fangio-style of defense every day in practice. Even though you may not complete every pass and you may have some ugly practices from time to time, you just sort of file it all away. And the idea is to get reps and get ready to play the Chiefs and the Chargers and the Raiders."


Certain players can also make Lock better, Manning noted. He highlighted two from his time with the Broncos as examples: Aqib Talib and Von Miller.


"I though Aqib Talib was a tough guy to go against in practice every single day," Manning said. "He was a smart corner who had seen a lot and would not guess, but I think he would know that, 'Hey, I think this going to be a three-step drop,' and so he would be flat-footed and would intercept a slant or a hitch. Is it an irritant to the quarterback? Yeah, but he deserves it. He's earned it in film study, and his knowledge, I think it made me better because it made you be more disciplined. … So when you played against guys that you put into that category, you sort of use that information. … Von always went pretty easy on me. Von used to always kind of — he would beat our tackle and rush right by me and just kind of make a little noise, just a little, 'Hey, just so you know, I was here. I really could have hurt you there, but you're my quarterback and so I'm not going to do it.'"

Why fans should be patient with the new offense​

Having watched one practice, Manning was loathe to make any assessment on who was playing well, and he hesitated to make any evaluation of the team, too, especially with how the novel coronavirus pandemic has affected how teams could develop over the offseason.


One thing he did want to emphasize, though, was that fans should not expect the offense to fire on all cylinders immediately, though it should progress throughout the year.


"It's hard to know with all that's been going on, zero offseason program," Manning said. "I think everybody, I'm sure — I was with Coach Fangio a couple weeks ago — and you're really just for the first time seeing what kind of shape these guys are in. Coach Fangio hadn't met Jerry Jeudy until a few weeks ago, right? It was all virtual and Zooms. So I think it's still early to make some bold prediction or somebody who says they know. But I think every team obviously is at that type of juncture in getting to know their team.


"Certainly with a new offensive coordinator in Pat Shurmur with Drew as a quarterback, It's going to take a little time for them to kind of get on the same page. That doesn't just happen overnight. That's why you have offseason programs, that's why you have the April and the May and June minicamps. That's why those are important, I think. So you take all that out and now we're trying to cram for a test which is coming against the Titans in just a couple of weeks. That's not easy. Look, I'm a quarterback defender. I would say let's understand that it's not going to be perfect early on, but I think things will get better as the season goes on. Count on our defense to keep us in as our offense kind of finds their rhythm and understands all the nuances of this new offense. I still think you can win games as you're still kind of finding your way and finding your rhythm."