ENGLEWOOD, Colo. --For the entire offseason, the offense and defense have been largely separated.

Different meeting times. Different shifts in the weight room. Different practice times.

On Wednesday, they finally took the field together. And it took a little adjusting.

"It was really funny, actually," defensive end DeMarcus Ware said. "The first time the offense and defense were working out at the same time, you could sort of see the intensity in each other's eyes. We had to really let our guards down and be like, 'OK, OK, we're on the same team.'"

With that out of the way, the Broncos could get to work.

Wednesday marked the first practice of OTAs, when the full team could don helmets and hit the field at the same time.

"I just call it real football," Head Coach John Fox said. "Back on the grass. I think they get excited and I know all the coaches get excited about it."

Quarterback Peyton Manning echoed that sentiment, noting that the whole team was excited to "finally get to put on jerseys and helmets."

"Phase One, Phase Two (of offseason conditioning), you're working more individual," Manning said. "Now that you can put it together in team work with guys like Emmanuel (Sanders), with guys like (Cody) Latimer when he gets out there, it's beneficial. You really couldn't have enough OTAs because the season opener will be here before you know it."

For independent analyst Andrew Mason's four biggest takeaways from the practice session, click here.