Denver Broncos wide receiver Demaryius Thomas would love to know sooner than later who will be throwing him passes in Week 1. While he knows that head coach Vance Joseph won’t jump to any snap decisions, he does believe deciding early can make a big difference.
As Broncos Country anxiously awaits the start of training camp, Thomas was at Mullen High School, putting on a camp of his own for area youth. There, he shared with the media that in his ideal world, the Broncos QB competition would be decided before the team plays its second preseason game.
“I think [I want a quarterback decision] about a week and a half into training camp, before we go to San Francisco. [Head coach Vance Joseph] is going to make the right decision. We trust in coach, and he’s going to make the right decision for the team. It does make a big difference [deciding early].”
Thomas hosted his Demaryius Thomas Football ProCamp at Mullen High School Thursday and Friday. More than 250 kids from grades 1-8 joined DT and Denver area prep coaches for the fundamental skills camp.
With training camp just around the corner, Thomas told reporters that the skill players on offense were planning on getting together to get some unofficial reps in before reporting.
“Yeah we’re going to [get together as a team]. I’m not going to tell you where we’re going to do it at, but we’re going to do it two weeks before training camp starts,” Thomas revealed. “So actually that’s next week. We’ll be in L.A. throwing. Paxton [Lynch], Trevor [Siemian], me, Emmanuel [Sanders]. We invited all the tight ends and running backs too so it should be good.”
As far as who he believes is the leader in the competition, Thomas had positive things to say about both quarterbacks.
“You know they both had their up and down days. I remember Trevor’s been pretty cool the whole time, everyone has their days. The first couple weeks you have Paxton, and people were talking about him [negatively], then the last couple of weeks he comes out and he’s lighting it up and it’s like ‘whoa where did that come from’, so you know it’s going to be a good competition. I’m excited about it,” Thomas noted.
Thomas was also very candid when speaking about the differences between playing with future Hall of Famer Peyton Manning and the young quarterbacks currently on the Broncos’ roster.
“It’s totally different. In meeting rooms it’s different. Peyton [Manning] is the master of timing, and these younger guys are still learning.They haven’t been around us [for a long time]. Peyton could just go out and be with any receiver and I think that’s the advantage he had,” Thomas explained. “The younger guys we have – Paxton and Trevor – they’ve got their own thing; they’ve both been throwing great in camp. I’m excited to see who’s going to start, because if you ask me any one of them could. Both have the potential to go out every week and get a win for this team. So I’m excited about it, and whoever it’s going to be I’m going to go out and do my job.”
Broncos training camp starts on July 27th, with 12 practices open to the public.