I always thought it was because in a zone blocking scheme the linemen need to get down the field fast. You have to be at a specific place at a scecific time, really fast. It never crossed my mind that it was because of the altitude. But good question.

even Elway had fit linemen running around blocking for him during his entire career. I think that was why we were blown up in the Super Bowls too…

That all changed with Alex Gibbs whose system worked to perfection with smaller, fitter olinemen. Zone block scheme is what a small line must run in the NFL in order to be successful 100% of the time.

If you look at some of the schools that win cross country national championships, you will see that Western State (Gunnison, CO: Elev. 7800 ft) and Adams State (Alamosa, CO: Elev. 7500 ft) have many championships.

As for football, you have players that come in from other cities that have a much lower elevation and they will need more breaks and hydration to cope with Denver’s environment. Having lighter people may be coincidental, but conditioning is crucial.

dont buy into it that much, for example when I use to golf in Denver I could/can hit an 8 iron 165 yards. Down here in SD i can still my 8 165. I have been back to Colorado may times. I have been living at sealevel since 1987, I dont notice any difference. Sure running you may need more O2 after a sustained run. BTW when I was at Northglenn HS we had one of the best CC teams in the state.We won state 2 of 3 my 3 years there. Ya when I went to HS it was for 3 years. but i honestly believe its physcological. I am all for it.

The idea that we have geared ourteam due to altitude is interesting, I would say that you have to look at who we play versus the idea of high altitude, the problem is that many of the teams we now play have gone with our scheme and our scheme was really developed at the 49ers who play at sea level. I think it is more predicated on Shannan philosphy of creating mismatches in the running game by being able to have his line man move and making the defense adjust and play diciplined than anything.

I doubt we considered that as a factor, but it’s an interesting thought.

However, I want to stress what a huge advantage training at altitude has. After all, the US Olympic Training Center is in Colorado Springs for a reason.

There are bio-chemical changes tha happen when a person moves up and down in altitude. Some take place over the course of a few hours, and some over the course of a few weeks or months. The military even adjust training scheduals for troops assigned to Ft. Carson for this reason. Denver’s players not only process oxygen and release carbon dioxide more effectively at high altitude, but they also have a late game advantage at low altitudes (if they arrive near game day). There’s a reason you see more opponents sucking on oxygen at Invesco Mile High than Denver players.

It is a pronounced advantage. For anyone who has studied medicine and looked at some of the circumstances that surrounded the Mexico City Olympics (way up there) many years ago, the issue becomes profoundly clear. Perhaps our resident Doc (Bear) can let us in on some altitude medicine.

There are physical adaptations to altitude like the increase in red blood cells that allow the body to carry more oxygen in the blood stream (and thus a popular form of blood doping is self transfusion), but the crux of problem is whether those adaptations put a team at a disadvantage when competing at sea level. As HT ably says above, the fitness level increases because of altitude, which aids those who train at altitude and is one reason why the Olympic training center was placed in Colorado Springs, which is at an altitude of ~7000 ft. Therefore, athletes who train at altitude have a general stamina advantage (see HT’s post).

Last year’s immovable objects tired noticeably during games, and this was one of their failings along with others. If you’re "thinking outside the box’ you would want to have a trade-off that didn’t disadvantage you in some ways while still giving you an advantage in other ways. In other words, you don’t want to play a ‘zero-sum’ game.

What the Broncos really need to do is control the ball on offense, and the zone blocking scheme does this as does the high percentage passing of the West Coast Offense. The point is to tire the defense out by lengthening the Time of Possession. Scoring too fast can actually be a problem if it puts your defense on the field too often or too soon after they’ve stopped the opponent’s offense.

The flip side of this idea is in how you play defense. A high risk defense either stops the opponent or doesn’t, but in either case it’s not on the field for long. The idea is to avoid having your opponent do to you what you are trying to do to him.

Viewing the problem as a simple trade-off between size and stamina is somewhat misleading, however, since proficiency is more important than size alone. Denver lost Super Bowls because, for instance, Dave Studdard wasn’t as good as Gary Zimmerman, not because one was the wrong size. The Bronco offense of the 90s was simply more talented than the 80s ones.

I like the idea of zone blocking but not simply because of a size/stamina trade-off. One advantage Denver has is that they’re not competing for the big OLs that everyone else wants. That could change if more teams adopt zone blocking and Denver’s ideal OL body type becomes more in demand. I also like the idea of a defense that creates more decision making problems for opposing offensive players, because I think it tires them out. It can also tire us out, too, however. I also think having more speed is generally indicated. I think the idea here is very much like that behind the Tampa-2 schemes.

I used to share a clinic with an expert on high altitude conditioning and nutrition. Heck of an interesting field – I’m not that expert, but I can add a few things.

HT’s point regarding changes that occur when moving up and down in altitude is well taken. Babies who are born at altitude (In the cases I studied this meant at or above 9000 ft) have a slightly but mearsurably larger heart and lungs, they process oxygen better and are physiologically designed to live at those altitudes. Those individuals who are born at lower altitude and move upward are at a slight disadvantage against them in cardiovascular based sports. Four quarters of a football game would qualify, certainly.

But most people who go up to a mile high adapt in a few hours to a few weeks, and that spectrum seems to be mostly genetic, although propler training does also play an important role. One study showed that the vast majority of athletes adapt in about 3 days – but I believe that most football teams come in the day before a game, so they are at a constant disadvantage in our house.

The degree of that disadvantage is individual. There is one statement that you hear a lot that I’ll disagree with a bit – being larger doesn’t mean that you necessarily have poor cardiovascular conditioning. It means that you have to train differently from a smaller person to achieve it.

The wrestlers of India are among the best conditioned people in the world. In a heavyweight match of an unlimited time limit, an American heavyweight wrestler was heartened to hear a audible huh-huh-huh from his opponent thinking that it meant that he was tiring. Not so – it’s how they breath normally during exercise. The match went on for 6 hours, and the American nearly died. It wasn’t an unusually long match for the Indian, though. It’s all in the conditioning. Yes, it’s tiring to push arond an extra 50 or so lbs throughout workouts, and a lot of pro athletes do dog it at times, but if you do it long enough and properly, you get in enviable condition. A large individual with great strength and cardio conditioning who has ‘Sweet Feet’ for example can be the best of both worlds and can be a heck of an advantage for his team (Train, Ryan train!).

The big guys often get distracted by the power end of the equation. Holland was an example of this – he is more powerful from a strength perspective than at any time in his career, but was in poor cardio condition and overweight – no help to us, nor to himself. He could have been at his strongest AND in great cardio shape – he just needed to train for it.

Nutrition is also a big key – I won’t bore you all with it, but as you ascend in altitude, the importance of nutrition beccomes even more essential. The body can process energy, for example, via certain ‘good’ fats (think EVOO) and the B vitamins (I’m oversimplifying). Without them, or if too many foods that consume them are eaten, the conditioning will inevitably suffer.

General as this is, I hope it helps. Sorry if it’s a bit long.