Nate Jackson rose from an unsigned free agent to the starting lineup of the Denver Broncos. Here he provides an unvarnished look at the daily grind of practices, including about his time as a Denver practice squad player.
鈥淢y job is to run the opposing teams鈥� plays during the week leading up to the game. An assistant coach pores through our opponent鈥檚 game film and draws up every one of their plays on large cards. He color-codes each skill position and writes the jersey number of each player inside the colored dot that indicates where he lines up. There鈥檚 no memorizing of plays, no learning of concepts. Just find your colored dot and copy it, shmuck. All week I鈥檓 the same dot.
鈥淧ractice squad players don鈥檛 travel with the team. It鈥檚 a strange feeling watching the games on television after the week of practice. I鈥檓 a part of the team all week. An important part of the team, too. I prepare our defense to dominate. The better I play, the better they play. I want to make it harder on them in practice than it will be on Sundays. When our DBs play well, I pat myself on the back. When they don鈥檛, I take it personally.鈥�
