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ENGLEWOOD, Colo. —** The special teams forces want to have a different feel about them this season. They want to make a bigger impression, not only on their opponents but on their teammates, as David Bruton Jr. detailed on Wednesday.
"We're going to be attacking. We're going to be downhill all the time, and a lot more enthusiastic on special team," he said.
That enthusiasm is something they're trying to build now in the meeting rooms to make a more cohesive passionate group that helps set a tone for the team.
"If we make a big play, last year there's like three or four guys celebrating," he lamented. "We're getting down to a point where everybody's echoing like one band, one sound-type deal. We're all in it together. We know that."
With the coaching change in the offseason, the Broncos also have a new Special Teams Coordinator in Joe DeCamillis, and Bruton said he's been working to implement a new way of thinking for the group.
"He instilled this philosophy 'tip of the spear'," Bruton said. "Every game, you know, we're the first people out there, kickoff or kickoff return. We set the tone the whole game, so that's what we want to do for our team. We set the tone and our team reverberates."
DeCamillis said as much about the changes he wants to instill in the team when he spoke to media back in February.
"We want to play faster than our opponents. When they look at it on tape I want them to know that we're going to be a fast team and a physical team," DeCamillis said on February 10. "The other thing about it is you want to be very fundamentally sound. Any time a coach turns on the film I want them to say, 'Wow, that guy—technique-wise—they're excellent at what they do.'"
Bruton, with his veteran captain role, identified himself as one of the players who will have a crucial role in helping set that tone for the team.
"It's a role that you take on as you get older, and especially since I've been in that role for so long, special teams have really given the young guys their opportunity to play. It's their first crack at it. So I just try to bring them along, teach them things that I know, what I've seen," Bruton said. "[I'm] just trying teach those guys how to play smart, play fast but overall, just play free. You've got to play free; you can't let anything hold you back. Be fearless."
