The Denver Broncos have announced they will be holding their annual rookie minicamp May 6-8. Gary Kubiak will be available to media on Friday and a few select rookies will also be made available.
You may recall that during the 2015 rookie minicamp, Jeff Heuerman blew out his knee, which has prompted some teams like the Miami Dolphins to simply do away with the minicamp entirely and focus on classroom study.
Kubiak addressed this concern immediately after the draft when he responded to a question about adjusting the minicamp protocol for 2016 saying, "That’s a real good point. John and I have had this conversation. There’s a fine line there because you’ve obviously gone and drafted these young men. They work hard to get ready for the Combine. What have they been doing since then? You run them in here this weekend and all of the sudden, you go full-speed for four practices. Probably not the smartest thing to do. So we’re adjusting. We want to do a lot of teaching. We’d like to come out of the weekend knowing exactly where our guys are and then put them with our football team on Monday and start to acclimate them with the guys. That’s a great point. I think everybody has taken a hard look at that, and I think we have too."
While he didn't rule out some on-the-field work like the Dolphins have, they may do away with full-speed drills and put more emphasis on classroom work.
The Broncos offseason schedule is now roughly half finished. Here are the remaining important dates before training camp.
May 6-8: Rookie Minicamp.
May 9: Rookie Football Development Program Begins.
May 19-22: NFLPA Rookie Premiere. Invited rookies (typically, first- and/or second-round selections) must be permitted by their respective clubs to attend. Such players are unavailable for offseason workouts, OTA days and minicamps during this period.
May 23-25: NFL spring league meeting, Charlotte, North Carolina.
May 24-26, May 31, June 1-2, June 13-16: OTA Offseason Workouts.
June 7-9: Mandatory Minicamp.
June 19-25: Rookie Symposium, Aurora, Ohio.
July 15: Deadline (4 p.m. ET) for any club that designated a franchise player to sign such player to a multiyear contract or extension. After this date, the player may sign only a one-year contract with his prior club for the 2016 season, and such contract cannot be extended until after the club's last regular-season game.