ENGLEWOOD, Colo. --Emmanuel Sanders knew as soon as he stepped in the building that Denver was the right spot for him.
"Like I said when they acquired me, this is kind of like wide receivers heaven here," he smiled. "As a receiver, to say that you're going to the No. 1 offense in the National Football League last year, why wouldn't you want to be a part of that?"
He also recognized that he had some work ahead of him in a tough atmosphere.
"The biggest difference is the altitude," he noted. "Being a mile high, just working out, running all these routes -- I've definitely got to get my conditioning up."
Now in the fourth week of the team's voluntary offseason conditioning program, Sanders and his teammates have had plenty of time to get aquainted to those conditions.
And the Broncos' newest receiver had a little extra time to get to know his fellow offensive weapons before the program even began. He was part of a group of Broncos that went to Duke University with Peyton Manning for a training session.
"It was my first time actually meeting all the guys," Sanders said. "I enjoyed it, gaining chemistry with Peyton. You can't miss out on those opportunities -- especially before OTAs, because I had an opportunity to come in and not be the new guy, kind of get a feel for the guys out there at Duke."
Sanders said that chemistry has "continuously" grown as the team works through the training program put together by Strength and Conditioning Coach Luke Richesson and his staff.
At the team's A Night with the Coaches event at Sports Authority Field at Mile High Tuesday evening, Head Coach John Fox said he has noticed a heightened level of intensity this offseason.
"I think our team is even more hungry than it was the previous two years," Fox said. "Luke Richesson, our strength coach, has told me, 'Coach, I've never in my years as as strength and conditioning coach seen a team work this hard.'"
It's that hard work -- and the extra time even after the hours in the weight room and on the field are finished -- that Sanders expects will make the difference when the 2014 season arrives.
"That's what it's about, so when we get out there on the field, it's just playing football," he said. "Peyton is a special guy, and I see why he's probably, if not the greatest, one of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play the game, and that's because he doesn't change. He's all about winning; he's all about the team atmosphere. I mean, today, this guy, he's been in the National Football League for so long, but he walks up to me and asks me to run extra routes after an OTA practice. And that's what it takes. You know, the little extra stuff that you do, that's what's going to determine a win or a loss or a completion or incompletion on Sunday nights."
