ENGLEWOOD, Colo. --For the second consecutive season, Demaryius Thomas was the NFL's fourth-leading receiver in 2013.
His 14 touchdowns were tops among all wide receivers in the league.
But he's not resting on his laurels.
"I think he's competing with himself right now and trying to make sure that he tries to have a better year than he did the year before," Offensive Coordinator Adam Gase said.
In the past two years, Thomas has accumulated 186 catches for 2,864 yards and 24 touchdowns, and he's proud of that accomplishment.
"I worked hard enough to try to put myself (in position) to say I'm one of the best in the game," said Thomas, who noted that he's back to 100 percent.
But he's still striving to improve going into his fifth NFL campaign.
"I try to get better at something every year," he said. "You know, I have my coach, (Wide Receivers) Coach Tyke (Tolbert), tell me, 'You know, there's some stuff you can work on,' and I work on that, and then I go outside of what stuff he tells me. I just try to be more explosive, be quicker, just the little things, just trying to get better and better and pushing myself, and if I mess up on something, I just make sure that I try not to do it again."
He said he's getting to know his new teammate, Emmanuel Sanders, who he called "too fast; he's quick and fast at the same time." And meanwhile he has continued building his rapport with quarterback Peyton Manning throughout the offseason, including a trip to Duke University prior to the start of the Broncos' offseason conditioning program.
And he feels Manning may look even better this offseason than he did before the 2013 campaign that resulted in the quarterback's fifth league MVP award.
"Well, I think he's picked up where he left off last year," Thomas said. "I know I had a pass today that I dropped. I really don't drop a lot. But it came up on me quicker than usual. So I feel like he's getting stronger, and stronger still. He's just amazed me with some of the things that you see every day on the field."
It might seem hard to top a season that culminated in a Super Bowl record for receptions, but Thomas knows one way to do it -- win the final game.
"Not winning the game is the main part for me, because all I want to do is win," he said. "Hopefully we can put ourselves in the same situation and try to go out and play better, because I think we're capable as a team of putting up more than eight points a game and not letting anybody score that many points on us, especially in that game."
In the mean time, the Broncos know they have a lot of work ahead of them to get back to the Super Bowl.
"Anything is possible, but I know for sure it's not going to be easy," Thomas said. "There's a lot of good teams out there. We've got a tough schedule, and I think the only thing we can do is worry about ourself and try to get better and better every day."
