Just because the NFL has locked out its players doesn’t mean NFL players have shut it down.
Less than a mile away from the Dove Valley headquarters they are now forbidden to enter, several Broncos like Chris Kuper, J.D. Walton, Zane Beadles and Ryan Harris have been participating in morning workouts with Loren Landow, the director of sports performance for the Steadman-Hawkins Clinic.
“I wish we had an agreement by now,” said Walton, who started all 16 games as a rookie center for the Broncos last year. “But whenever they do tell us to go back we have to be ready to go.”
Other regular participants of Landow’s workouts are former Broncos like Tyler Polumbus and Justin Bannan, locally raised NFL players like Bo Scaife, John Matthews and Kasey Studdard and future rookies like Nate Solder, Mark Schiechl and Blaine Sumner.
There has been talk that Broncos quarterback Kyle Orton and former Broncos receiver Brandon Stokley will soon be joining the Landow workouts. Should the lockout linger into July, it may reach a point where 20 or so Bronco players gather for football-oriented workouts under Landow’s supervision.
“From my network of guys I don’t know anybody that’s taking time off,” Polumbus said. “Everybody I know is working hard and preparing just like we were at the facility.”
Instead of organized full-team workouts at the Broncos” headquarters where there’s soft green grass, state-of-the-art weight room and comfortable locker rooms, the players have been gathering individually at Sports Xcel, a warehouse structure with far more quality athletic training than space.
Landow trains one group of 15 to 20 players at 8 a.m. and the second at 9:30 a.m. There’s something about an early morning schedule that helps instill discipline.
“What we work on here is movement, agility, hip flexibility, ankle flexibility,” said Beadles, who was a 14-game rookie starter at right tackle and left guard last season. “I really like it. It helps a lot for what we do as linemen.”
Mike Klis: 303-954-1055 or mklis@denverpost.com.
