Louis Vasquez speaks to the media following his free agent signing at the teams training facility. (Ron Chenoy-US PRESSWIRE)

The Denver Broncos absolutely had to beef up their offensive line in the off season. With J.D Walton, Chris Kuper, Orlando Franklin, and Ryan Clady all having surgery on varying body parts over the last year, the line had to be addressed in free agency.

That’s why the team signed former San Diego Chargers guard Louis Vasquez to a four-year deal.

“Personality-wise, I think he fits in great with our offense,” offensive coordinator Adam Gase said. “I really like ‘Lou.’ He’s a big dude. He gets his hands on you and can slow you down real quick. I think he’s picking up the offense as quickly as he can and we’re seeing a big improvement from that group.”

During OTA’s, Manny Rameriez has played center with the first team at certain times, and Chris Clark has filled in for Clady at left tackle. Vasquez has been in at right guard. Once Kuper is ready to go, the Broncos will look to move him to left guard so that Vasquez can remain next to Franklin.

“Getting to work alongside Orlando [Franklin] and as of now, Manny [Ramirez], a former college teammate, it’s been real good and comforting as far as having played next to him before and having that previous chemistry,” Vasquez said.

Vasquez has that chemistry with Franklin because he lived with the tackle for a couple of weeks when he first moved to Denver.

“I called him because I knew Manny [Ramirez] was married and he has two kids now, so I didn’t want to just [infringe] on that and with Orlando being a young guy still, I called him and I asked him, ‘Hey, do you have any room and if so, do you mind me staying with you?’ That way I can learn my way around Denver and because I’ll be playing next to him predominantly, so it’s always good to get to know who you’re playing next to.”

Vasquez went on to say that building chemistry off the field is just as important as constructing it on the field.

“They both go hand-in-hand. Once you get both of those down, it’s kind of like you give each other a look and you know what each other is thinking. It’s just one of those deals where you can’t build it overnight.”

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Orlando Franklin (74) during the third quarter against the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium. (Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports)

Who would have thought that Denver Broncos right tackle Orlando Franklin would be making headlines in early May? He was the prime target for Peyton Manning’s latest prank on Tuesday night when he took a pie to the face at the Rockies game.

Pies aside, Franklin along with the rest of the offensive line has been using the off season to rest and rehab surgically repaired shoulders, toes, and ankles.

“My toe is great,” Franklin said Wednesday. “It’s 100 percent. My shoulder feels about 85 percent. My shoulder was a little bit worse than my toe. My toe wasn’t really a big deal. So I’m looking forward to getting after it. I’m pretty sure that I’ll be able to go full-go here in about two weeks when we start up.”

Franklin has also used the off season to drop some pounds so that the Broncos can play much faster on offense, which is Adam Gase and Manning’s idea.

“I know I for one want to play a little bit lighter this year than I’ve played in the past,” Franklin said. “I want to actually go down to about 315 [pounds]. I haven’t played in the NFL lighter than 320 in the past two years…I know a lot of guys want to be in better shape because last year definitely was an eye-opener with Peyton. You definitely got a little bit tired at times in the game. You don’t want that to happen again this year.”

Franklin said that he hired a nutritionist, and he’s feeling much better about himself. Those bags of potato chips at midnight or 6:00 a.m. are long gone, but entering Franklin’s house was something entirely new.

New guard Louis Vasquez lived with Franklin for over two weeks when he first arrived in Denver. That’s because the 6-5, 335-pound four-year veteran wasn’t closing on his house until the 19th.

“He just reached out to me and I said, ‘Yes, of course.’ Especially if this is a guy that I’m getting ready to play beside, potentially. Need to have some kind of chemistry there,” Franklin said.

The only downside to having Vasquez in his house goes back to food.

“He came in one night, the first night he got there, he ate my meals,” Vasquez said of the meals that the nutritionist recommended for him. “He woke up, ate my meals. I had to talk to him about that. Just a bad houseguest, I think. No, I’m playing. He was actually a good roommate. But he did eat my meals, and I wasn’t happy about that.”

It’s great to see Broncos players hanging out with each other off the field. Building chemistry and cultivating trust now will go a long ways, perhaps even all the way to February.

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December 30, 2012; Denver, CO, USA; Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning reacts on the sidelines during the second half against the Kansas City Chiefs at Sports Authority Field at Mile High. The Broncos won 38-3. Mandatory Credit: Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports

On Tuesday night, the Colorado Rockies hosted some very special dignitaries during their 2-0 win over the New York Yankees at Coors Field: the Denver Broncos. Well many of them anyway. Peyton Manning, Orlando Franklin, Eric Decker, Champ Bailey, Von Miller, and Wes Welker were among the lot of Broncos who occupied a suite for the game. While they were probably there to watch the game and engage in a team-building adventure, Manning and Decker had ulterior motives. It seems that quarterback sent his favorite possession receiver on a post pattern to perpetrate a prank on the mountainous Franklin.

The plan, as described by Root Sports’ Jenny Cavnar on the Evans and Klatt Show on FM 104.3 The Fan Wednesday morning was to interview Franklin, creating a distraction (and trust me, the lovely Ms. Cavnar is quite the distraction). So during this interview, Decker was to come up from behind the big man and give him the whipped cream pie in the face. The prank was pulled off without a hitch. What is even more intriguing about, this per Cavnar is that Decker approached her ahead of time and simply asked where she would be doing the interview so he could plan out his route to Franklin. However that was too simplistic for Manning. True to form, the future hall of fame QB and world class prankster practically took over the production of the interview segment. According to Cavnar, he started to talk about the placement of her and the “mark”, which direction they should face, and all sorts of seemingly miniscule details.

There are two parts this story which are encouraging as a Broncos fan. First of all the camaraderie of the team, including the newly acquired Welker. The fun, close-knit environment that I picked up on while watching this prank play out appeared to be similar to the vibe that we felt around that team in the late 1990′s when the Broncos hoisted the Lombardi Trophy twice. Secondly, the precision in which Manning directed the prank clearly showed that this is in fact his team. In addition, there is the vigilance which he approaches aspects outside of football. We  knew this already about Manning, but he seems as determined to create the harmony within the team off the field as the game plan on it. I am guarded about crowning the Broncos anything before the first weekend in February but I am getting THAT feeling again. I just hope it is an omen instead of indigestion.

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