On the first day of Broncos training camp, in late July, Joe Woods dug into his “bag of tricks” and pulled out the No Fly Zone’s latest accessory. Weeks later the defensive backs would don custom blue-and-orange tights that served as colorful reminders of their place among the NFL’s best secondaries. But first, Woods made them wear something a little more functional: blinders.
To Woods, the Denver defensive backs coach since 2015, the blinders were a common tool, one he had used since he was a coach at Hofstra in 1998 trying to turn a group of raw athletes into refined defensive backs.