Gary Kubiak likes what he sees so far from the Denver Broncos.
Especially on offense, where the newly hired coach conducted classroom sessions this week to begin mixing elements of his boot-heavy, play-action attack with last year's playbook. So far, so good.
"Crossing the schemes, so to speak, was very, very easy. It was really more about verbiage than anything else," Kubiak said Friday, per the team's official website. "What I tried to do is the things that were very close, I tried to hang on to the verbiage that they had been talking here in the past, because I think that made it easier for the players.
"The things that were new, we hung on to the verbiage that I used throughout my career ... Peyton and the guys have adjusted to that very well. But I don't see that being very difficult," Kubiak said. "Ball is ball, and scheme -- how you go about it -- a lot of it's the same. ... We've made a lot of progress, especially this first week."
Kubiak was adamant at last month's NFL Annual Meeting that he wouldn't force Manning into a playbook that didn't suit his gifts. Bottom line: We won't see Peyton rolling out 35 times a game like some 22-year-old fleet-footed newbie.
What we can expect, according to Kubiak, is plenty of no-huddle work, making the most of Manning's gifts to unpack a defense before the snap. Manning's ability to diagnose the opponent will only improve, but it's his arm strength that lingers as a concern after last year's late-season swoon.
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