DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR ANTHONY CAMPANILE
MEDIA AVAILABILITY
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2025
(On the Broncos offense) “I see a good football team, just really well-rounded as an
offense. Run the ball well, physical in the front, they finish blocks and they’ve done a great
in pass protection too. The quarterback is playing at an elite level in my opinion. Hard to
bring down but making good decisions too. Made some incredible throws, especially the
other day. The receiving core is super talented, you don’t see a whole lot of flaws there.”
(On the challenge of covering Broncos WR Courtland Sutton) “Just such a big physical guy
and really wins, I would say, the lion share of 50-50 balls. Just a big competitive guy at the
catchpoint. It’s a challenge. When he’s isolated, he does a great job, and they do a great job
of getting him the ball so there’s a lot of challenge there.”
(On if there was a turning point for S Antonio Johnson) “I think Antonio, a lot of that, is
repetition. It really is. He’s gotten so many reps now at doing what we’re doing, and I think
he’s very comfortable but he’s also, like I said last week, he’s playing a lot of roles for us.
He’s playing nickel, he’s playing safety, he’s playing some dime, move him around a lot and
I think he’s doing a lot of the things that he does well. He’s got, I think, a ton of confidence
right now. That’s a big difference for him as well. But he’s put in the work, he’s in here
working, doing extra every day so he deserves it and I’m happy for him.”
(On how S Eric Murray and CB Jourdan Lewis have helped the defense) “They were huge.
From a leadership perspective, one.) they’re total pros but I think they really have driven the
culture in the defensive back room, especially. They’re just highly accountable guys.
They’re tough guys. Honestly, they value what I value and what we value on the defensive
side of the ball here and just as an organization. They value toughness and accountability.
They’re guys that before you ever correct a mistake, they’re aware of it, they’re correcting it
themselves and fixing it before you can even get to them. So from that perspective, to have
guys that are in those roles and are super accountable, for the younger guys to see that,
that’s been huge for us as a defense.”
(On how the weekly DB only meetings helps the team) “Huge. I think it’s huge and I think the
best groups or units do that. It’s great to be a coach-led unit and you can drive guys to a
certain extent, but the best teams are player-led and I think when your peers are holding
you accountable and you have that culture of being able to tell the truth to each other, to
push each other, that’s when you’re heading in a great direction and that’s because of
those guys.”
(On how gratifying it is as a coach to see CB Montaric “Buster” Brown succeed) “Super
gratifying. I’m happy for him whenever something good happens to him because I know
how much he’s put into this. And I feel that way about most of the guys on our side of the
ball. You’re just happy for them, genuinely I love these guys, I love coaching these guys.
They have a great relationship with one another and they’re genuinely happy for each other.
We don’t have any divas or guys that are whining about this guy or that guy. It’s just a
culture of guys that love playing together. They’re genuinely happy for each other when they
do well and we, as coaches, feel the same way about them and that was awesome the
other day for Buster too. To see that was great. It was a hell of a play.”
(On Brown’s playmaking ability this season) “He’s aggressive. That’s one of his best
qualities. He’s aggressive at the line of scrimmage, he’s aggressive at the catchpoint, he’s a
tough physical kid. So, you love that. You love that with defensive backs. Buster will come
up, he’ll tackle you, he’ll hit you. You guys have seen that, and he’ll challenge you on the
line of scrimmage. So that’s what I love about the guy. He just keeps competing. Something
bad happens, he just keeps playing and you really need to have that kind of mentality as a
defensive back. You’ve got to have amnesia. If ever that’s the case, if he doesn’t make a
play, he comes right back and plays as hard as he possibly can. So, I have so much respect
for that, for him as a player.”
(On if the different looks the defense has shown pose an advantage later in the season)
“Yeah, one.) in all honesty, you find out a lot too. Two.) you find out who does what well and
you also find out who’s ready. And to your point, it develops your depth. There’s nothing like
experience. There’s nothing like repetition. I used to coach for Coach [Jim] Harbaugh at
Michigan and he used to say, ‘There’s only one way to get better at football and that’s
playing more football.’ So, when guys get to play a lot of football, that’s a great thing for
them. That’s how you get better. In this league, I think people think ‘Well, oh, the guy’s a pro.
How much better is he going to get?’ Everybody gets better and we have a lot of young guys
who I feel like have developed and gotten better. And they’ve gotten that opportunity
through getting a shot to play on the field when the lights go on.”
(On where his player-led coaching style comes from) “Probably growing up, to be honest
with you. I grew up around that. My father was a high school coach, so I saw that a lot, one.)
challenging players, but loving the guys you coach. Caring about them, caring about
people. If you love people, you love being around people, this is a great business because
it’s a proactive business to be in. But I kind of saw that in his process, putting it in the hands
of the players. Developing a culture first and then letting them take that and run with it. And
I’ve been around some other guys who I felt did a lot of the same and that had a huge effect
on me, developing the culture of the team because I really believe that that’s more
important than the scheme and everything else. The scheme’s great, everybody’s got great
plays, you could line up in empty every play on offense or you could be in the wishbone in
every play. It all works, it’s all good, but it’s who’s doing it? How hard are they doing it? How
hard are they playing? And I think at the end of the day, it’s hard to give up on guys that you
care about. So it’s like the harder you work, the harder it is to surrender. Coach [Vince]
Lombardi said that and I think that’s true. That’s 100 percent true. So, make it hard for
them. Make it competitive every day and you’re going to find out a lot about the guys you’re
playing with.”
(On how to balance disguising coverage pre-snap with wanting players to play fast) “Yeah,
you want to try and always be in the realm of simple us, complex them. If you know what
you’re doing and what you’re creating, the response you’re trying to create offensively, I
think that helps the players so much more. So, I think it’s so much about learning offense
and learning what the response is to that disguise and then the players can kind of take that
and run with it. And they take ownership and leadership of that, so hopefully I’m answering
your question the right way. But that I think is a huge part of it because as guys learn more
and more about what the offense is doing, what the response is, they’re actually a little bit
more creative. I think Liam’s [Head Coach Liam Coen] done a great job. He says this so
much, we don’t want robots, we want you to be creative, we don’t want to take away your
creativity as a player and that’s exactly right in football. You can get it down, you can have
paralysis by analysis, but once they understand what to do, we want to let them go and play
fast and the guys have done a pretty good job of that so far.”
(On what he wants to see out of LB Jalen McLeod in practice) “Yeah, I was just talking to
him downstairs in the hallway about the same thing. I just want to see him play hard as hell.
I want to see him go out and play like he did in the summer, do what got you here. Play hard
as hell and represent the people who raised you, the people you love the right way, and go
out there and kick in practice. We always watch that and that always jumps out. I know I
talked about [DL] Matt Dickerson a couple weeks ago. A lot of Matt’s opportunity came
from one.) we knew of him and watching him before he got here, but when he got here and
he got out there in the practice field, to me it was undeniable. This guy’s doing a really good
job and he deserves an opportunity. So, I think Liam does a great job with that. It’s real. It’s
not like hey, you’re just going out there. If you’re out there, you’re competing and you’re
doing a great job and you’re playing the way we want you to with your hair on fire. Yeah,
you’re going to get an opportunity because that’s always going to be able to help us win, so
that’s what I want to see for him too.”
(On if defenses look forward to playing in a loud environment like Mile High) “A lot of these
are obviously crazy environments. I’ve played there before and it is. It’s an intense place. I
just think the opportunity to go up against a great team and play a high level of football,
everybody’s fired up about that. We said earlier in this media session, they’ve got a great
offense and they’re going to challenge us and we’re excited to go out and compete against
those guys and we’ve got to do a great job of stopping the run. We’ve got to do a great job in
coverage, so I don’t know man, I think everybody’s just fired up about it. I’m fired up to get
out there and play against a great football team too.”
OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR GRANT UDINSKI
MEDIA AVAILABILITY
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2025
(On QB Trevor Lawrence winning Offensive Player of the Week and how he has progressed
throughout the season) “Well, it’s been a lot of work to get there from the beginning of the
spring, learning the system, trying to master all the different things we do. But you see it in
his play speed, his play style, how fast he’s able to play, the decision making he’s out there
playing with, and really his ability to run the show in terms of managing checks, shifts,
motions, formations, a bunch of different looks that defenses are throwing at him. And he
knows what to get to, where he’s going with his eyes, what his footwork is, where he’s going
with the football. So, it’s just been really a constant improvement throughout the season,
it’s never that straight line of improvement that you’re searching for, but you see some of
that work start to bear its fruit where he’s able to go out there and execute at a really high
level on a more consistent basis and really you saw that and the game resulted in the six
touchdowns. But there’s so many great plays even beyond those touchdowns. Just proud of
the work he’s put in and great to see that success come in return.”
(On his and the team’s mentality on pure progression reads vs. coverage reads) “Yeah, it’s
been certainly an evolution for us and probably a lot of teams across the league over the
years. And I think a lot of it is probably in response to what defenses are doing. They
present a lot of challenges. So, we’re constantly searching for solutions to those
challenges. So, we will use a mix of both coverage reads, progression reads, depending on
the play, depending on the situation. You’re trying to find what’s best fit for the quarterback
to let him go out there and play fast. There are certainly advantages to those coverage
reads that have probably been discussed at length with giving guys simplified looks where
they only have to go to one guy and then the second guy, then a third guy. But then there are
tradeoffs to that where now there’s a lot for them to see and can they get through those
progressions in the proper timing? Can the receivers get to the spacing that they’re getting
to in the proper timing? Where coverage read presents you advantages where now I only
have to look at one, two, or maybe three guys on a certain side of the field, or I only have to
read off of one defender that could present an issue in this coverage in this look, but now
it’s putting extra pressure on me to be right. So as defenses continue to kind of present little
problems here and there with disguises, fronts, different coverages, we continue to look for
solutions, but there’s not really ever a perfect solution. There are only tradeoffs. So, every
time you find a new solution or a new answer, you’re trading off something else. So, it ends
up being a mix of both. You’re trying to balance all those different things, and each play will
be unique. You bucket the reads in different aspects for the quarterbacks, different ways to
look at certain plays. But it’s certainly been interesting to see how offenses like ours and
probably everyone else across the league have tried to evolve it to create answers for the
problems that those defenses present.”
(On what he sees from the Broncos’ defense) “You see really, really, really tough, physical
play, fundamentally sound, good at all three levels of defense. First level, second level,
third level, the sacks, the run game. That success kind of speaks for itself in the stats, but
you see guys in the back end, Surtain [CB Pat Surtain II] and really all of the defensive backs
able to go out there and make plays on the ball, make plays in the run game. So, it’s just a
really well-rounded unit. You can search all day for weak spots, but you’re going to be
searching for a long time, you don’t put up that type of production, you don’t have that
disruption on the ball, you don’t stop the run, you don’t affect the pass the way they do
without being good really in all areas of the game. You add on top of that the scheme,
they’re creative, they’re multiple, they do a bunch of different things to challenge you. So,
it’s a great challenge for our guys and we’re looking forward to it.”
(On if you have to know where Surtain II is at on every play) “Absolutely. Unfortunately,
they’ve got a lot of guys that are like that really. But he definitely is, not just because of his
ball skills, but the way he can disrupt passing concepts and cover different guys in different
ways. There’s not a lot of routes where—like I said, with the defense as a whole, there’s not
a lot of things that he has a weakness in his game. So, he can play inside, he can play
outside. He is great in the deep part of the field, great upfront, great up in press, so you’ve
got to be aware of where he is. Not just because of the ball skills but how he can disrupt a
read or a timing or intent of a play.”
(On if he is excited to see how RB LeQuint Allen Jr. performs as a rusher) “Absolutely. Yeah,
we’ve gotten glimpses of it here and there. You see him on third down, he’s had some
carries, when he’s gone into spell TJ [RB Travis Etienne Jr.] at times, he’s had some carries.
But I think when you see the physicality that he plays with in pass protection or even as a
receiver out of the backfield, translating that into the run game will be exciting to see.
Really, his play style, his effort, his demeanor is kind of attacking in every single thing he
does. So, I’m excited to see what he does with that opportunity.”
(On if he knew about the threat that Etienne Jr. posed receiving) “I think we knew he had
that ability certainly for a while. It’s frustrating when you don’t have the opportunity to get in
and show that ability out there on a Sunday. It’s one of those things we talked about Tuten
[RB Bhayshul Tuten] a couple weeks ago and some of the other backs, they have a lot of
skills and different skill sets that we don’t get to show on Sunday just because of the way
the defense is defending you or the flow of the game. There are a lot of play calls and
different things that you don’t get to. You’re preparing for all these different things and
there’s so many great options to attack defenses, but they may play a certain way, you don’t
get to that stuff. So, it’s awesome to have all that work that TJ’s done in the pass game and
really all the backs have done in the pass game finally pay off. It just happened to be all of it
in the same game, where usually we would to get that kind of spread out a little bit more,
but they took advantage of their opportunity, so it was no surprise to me. It was kind of one
of those things, you look up at the end of the game, you’re like, oh man, really, we did all
those in the same game and you still felt you had more opportunities out there. So, it was
great to see all the work they put in with the quarterbacks and all the work they do on their
own pay off.”
(On what has been the challenge for the screen game) “It’s a couple different things. Each
screen is unique and in each instance, we’re trying to run a screen could be totally
different. Where some of them, we’re screening and we’re facing different fronts or facing
different pressures. Some of them receiver screens, some of them play action screens,
some of them drop back screens. So, there are a lot of facets to the screen game where
we’ve tried to improve. I think as we’ve had some turnover in the personnel and who’s out
there playing with each other, we’ve needed to continue to find ways to improve on playing
together because there is so much feel in the screen game. So, guys have to play off on
each other. So, when one guy gets out and fits a block a certain way, the next guy has to
know that that first guy fit that block that way and I have to adjust my block accordingly.
And if I’m the back and an offensive lineman out in front of me is now kicking out on a block
because of the way the defense played or because of the front and now a guard got out
first, now I’ve got to adjust the way I’m running that differently. Same thing would be if I’m in
pressure, there’s a blitzer off of a side getting used to, okay, now the timing of the screen
might be a little bit different than it would be if there’s no pressure and it’s just a four-man
rush. So, there’s a lot of little nuances that takes time and takes time on task and really
takes time on task working together that we just need to continue to work on and try to
improve to get the screen game to where we want it to get to.”
(On how to prepare for a hostile environment like Mile High) “There’s a lot of different
things. You hope that your work throughout the entire offseason, throughout the entire
season will provide some semblance of confidence and ability to execute under adverse
conditions where there’s going to be crowd noise. It’s like when there’s games and weather,
you’re banking on all those reps, wet ball drill and doing different things in the rain. Well, it’s
kind of the same thing here where you’re out there and we’ve been walking through and you
practice with crowd noise and loud music and you have other away games. Now it’s tough
to simulate that type of environment. They have an awesome home field and crowd there.
So, we’ll do everything we can to try to simulate putting the guys under pressure, putting
them in pressure situations, creating that crowd noise, putting them up against the clock.
We try to simulate all those things the best you can, but you can only really come so close.
So, there’s a bunch of different ways, substitutions, make the communication difficult, but
it’ll absolutely be a point of emphasis for us going into the game.”
