![]() ![]() ![]() Every year except for the past two years I’ve been in the playoffs. My focus is to come back, be All-Pro-level this year and get this team winning. “I didn’t get the goals I wanted last year, so I’m angry. “This whole offseason I’ve been mad,” Harris says. His streak of Pro Bowl honors was snapped, and his hope to be All-Pro was quashed as the Broncos crashed to 5-11. His targets in coverage plummeted as opposing offenses found ways to avoid him and Talib in the backfield. He listens.”īut the weight of last season - and perhaps the one before that too - took its toll on Harris, who didn’t hide his frustration or disappointment. Truthfully, it was a match made in heaven. “Chris is one of them dudes who doesn’t take no for an answer,” Braxton says. Over the years, Harris has invested in himself by recruiting a team of trainers and specialists to keep him on the field some 1,000 snaps per season. Braxton is among the regulars. The three-time Pro Bowl selection is still trying to climb the NFL ladder. Denver’s fall from Super Bowl 50 was steep and swift, and amid the spiral came the dismantling of its star-studded secondary.ĭespite the changes, Harris, the No Fly Zone’s proud founder, has maintained the same approach since he was an undrafted kid looking up from the bottom of the Broncos’ depth chart. Ward was the first to go, and Talib’s exit was shortly after. “Offensive players have their passing camps with the quarterbacks,” Langley says. Sandwiched between OTAs and continuing into the weeks before training camp, the four Broncos have gone through Braxton’s gauntlet to get better, get faster, get stronger and get on the same page. This year, as the Broncos try to leave two playoff-less seasons in the past and look ahead to a future without Talib, Harris added two more clients to Braxton’s list in safety Will Parks and cornerback Brendan Langley. “He can look at us and know our body, and how we need it to move.” “You never know what you’re going to do,” Harris says. And Harris? Well, he has a home in Texas now and keeps coming back year after year to run through “The Maze,” a regimen Braxton has designed to improve not just conditioning and football technique, but also mental stamina. New York Jets cornerback Morris Claiborne credited Braxton for his career turnaround in 2016. Since 2012, after his rookie season with the Broncos, he has entrusted his career and his body to Ronnie Braxton, a former University of Houston captain who has trained dozens of NFL defensive backs and linebackers, including former Broncos Aqib Talib, Kayvon Webster and Steven Johnson. And to cap their week, they’ll set up shop, bright and early, at a local stadium for an array of timed track workouts to push their bodies to their limits. In a couple hours, they’ll both be in a nearby gym for their usual post-hills weight lifting. The evening before, Harris and Roby were on a high school field in Frisco in 100-degree heat running through pass-coverage and footwork drills. ![]() “We got lucky,” Harris says, grinning while trying to catch his breath. The temperature has yet to peak, but already the thermometer reads 97 degrees - with 47 percent humidity. ![]()
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