ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — When Broncos Owner & CEO Greg Penner sat down in front of media on Wednesday to close the book on the 2024 season, he began with an expression of gratitude.
He thanked the players, coaches and the staff, and then spoke further about the contributions of three individuals: Head Coach Sean Payton, General Manager George Paton and, lastly, Beau Lowery, a man who is certainly less well known to Broncos Country.
Lowery, the Broncos’ Vice President of Player Health & Performance, played a key role during the team’s march to its first playoff appearance in nearly a decade, and Penner made sure his contributions did not go unnoticed.
“We were top five in terms of health, and that’s a big turnaround from where we were a couple of years ago,” Penner said. “Beau Lowery and his whole group are doing a terrific job.”
Lowery joined the Broncos in 2023 in a newly created role that oversees the different elements of the player-performance puzzle. He and the organization placed an emphasis on personnel, structure and data while fusing that knowledge with the day-to-day planning on the practice fields, in the training room and in the weight room.
“Two things that I would primarily attribute it to: One was bringing in someone like Beau Lowery, who sits above the training room, strength and conditioning, nutrition, sport science and sees all those verticals but looks at it on a horizontal basis by athlete,” Penner said. “That was a big change for us.
“[The] second thing was then marrying that up and the data they’re seeing and all that with how the coaches are structuring practice. So, you want enough of that physical practice where players get calloused at the right points in the season, and then you’ve got to make sure to give them the rest when they need the rest. If you can get that right and look at it on an athlete-by-athlete basis, to me, … those two things have been the biggest contributors to our success.”
PASSPORTS AT THE READY
Nearly three years after notching the organization’s first international regular-season win, the Broncos could potentially be heading back overseas in 2025.
Two of Denver’s 2025 opponents have been designated as host teams for games in Europe, with the Jets set to play in London’s Tottenham Hostpur Stadium and the Colts set to play at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium.
“It’s very possible we end up playing in a game in London or Berlin,” Penner said. “I think Sean has a great approach to these things, which is, ‘Hey, that’s an opportunity for the team to have some time to bond in a different way.’ You saw that with the team this year at The Greenbrier, which I think was helpful for the team building a young group and a culture. We welcome that, if we have the opportunity to do it.”
In September, the Broncos spent nearly a week at The Greenbrier resort in West Virginia between two East Coast games. After beating the Buccaneers in Tampa, the team traveled to White Sulphur Springs, practiced at The Greenbrier’s facility (which has hosted other teams for training camps in recent years) and then made a short flight to New York, capping the trip with a win over the Jets. The stretch appeared to be a galvanizing one for the Broncos, as the team overcame a 0-2 start and went on a 9-3 run.
If the Broncos are selected for one of the games, it would represent the team’s third international regular-season game in franchise history. Prior to a win over the Jaguars in 2022 at Wembley Stadium, the team played the 49ers in 2010. Should the Broncos play against the Colts in Germany, they will appear in the NFL’s first-ever regular-season game played in Berlin. Denver also previously played a preseason game at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium in a 1992 American Bowl game against the Dolphins.
