Byline: Lee Rasizer
ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS
When you already live in a Hawaiian paradise during the off-season, getting away to another tropical locale for solitude might seem peculiar.
But there was wide receiver Ashley Lelie on the weekend before Denver Broncos training camp, embarking anyway on a Caribbean getaway.
The second-year receiver left his cell phone, friends and family behind in Honolulu. And Lelie brought with him to this new sandy locale only one item of consequence: tunnel vision.
Convinced that getting stronger and faster wasn't the end all, as he previously had believed, Lelie swapped islands to focus his mind, minus distractions.
Having an alternate, cloud-nine setting as a backdrop was a bonus, not a necessity. Umbrella drinks and calming surf were merely window dressing. Yet so, too, were the thoughts in Lelie's head unrelated to football, and the reason he took the trip in the first place.
While the sport took precedence in his life, he felt his profession wasn't completely ingrained and wanted that to change.
``Last year and all the years before that, I put football first, but I never wanted to focus all my energy into football,'' said Lelie, the AFC's leader in receptions as a rookie with 35. ``I wanted to do that this year to see what happened.''
So far, the results have been dramatic.
No Broncos player has stood out more in terms of play-making and by applying classroom concepts on the field during the first nine days of practice than Lelie. He already had the size (6-foot-3), speed (4.3 seconds in the 40) and athleticism before Denver made him its 2002 No. 1 pick. Now, with dedication to match, the organization believes the receiver might be one of the league's breakout players, barring injury to himself and other key figures in the offense.
``The kid definitely has his head on straight,'' Broncos offensive coordinator Gary Kubiak said. ``And he's a lot better football player right now than he was a year ago because of his work habits.''
It wasn't as if Lelie was a slacker as a rookie. He steadily adapted to the Broncos' system, in large part because of the prodding and teaching of former Broncos receivers coach Karl Dorrell, now UCLA's head coach. And in Lelie's case, much deprogramming was needed.
At the University of Hawaii, the receiver lined up on the right side of the field exclusively and ran mainly ``in'' routes. He rarely faced man-to-man coverage; rather, he was sent into the pattern to find a hole in zone coverage and was called on to outrace or outleap defenders.
Making an impact
Simply lining up in the slot or on the left side of the formation - where Lelie had to drive off his opposite foot - represented a huge transition once he got to Denver. But Dorrell kept on him, often in a brusque, demanding manner that called to mind Lelie's military father. And as the season progressed, the receiver began to make an impact, especially once he began worrying less about his own knowledge of the offense and more about the coverages he was facing.
``The first couple of games of the season I was unsure of myself, because I was actually going against great DBs,'' he said. ``In college, I was able to beat anybody, anytime, and it wasn't a problem. But coming in here, people are locking me up, jamming me and I couldn't get open, so I was getting pretty frustrated, and I was starting to think like, 'Man, maybe I'm not that good a receiver.' But I kept working at it.''
The turning point, Lelie said, came Oct. 27 at New England. The Broncos faced a third-and-8 and were attempting to run out the clock, when then-quarterback Brian Griese entered the huddle and told Lelie the ball was coming to him, no questions asked. The receiver ended up hauling in the longest reception of his career to that date - 40 yards - and the Broncos held on for a 24-16 victory.
``At the beginning of the season I'd get one bomb down the field, I'd drop it and I wouldn't see another ball until the end of the fourth quarter, so I'm just sitting there thinking about that drop and my confidence is getting lower and lower,'' Lelie said. ``But towards the end of the season, they'd put me in and I might drop a ball and the next play, it's coming right back to me, so I don't have time to think about the drop. And when I actually got more playing time and got into the swing and flow of the game, I was able to make more plays.''
Lelie finished the season with three catches of 40 yards or longer, four exceeding 30 yards and nine others surpassing 20 yards. He posted his first 100-yard game Dec. 22 against Oakland, and finished the season by leading all Broncos receivers with a 15.0-yard average per catch.
``It doesn't matter who it is,'' coach Mike Shanahan said. ``You can take Jerry Rice, and he had more drops than anybody his first year and his second year, and the third year, obviously, is history.''
The latter alluded to a jump by Rice that saw the NFL great go from three to 15 to 22 touchdowns over his first three seasons.
``With most wide receivers, there are some growing pains,'' Shanahan added. ``There's going to be some dropped balls. But you see the potential, and we saw the potential in Ashley. That's why he played so much. And he's looked good in this camp.''
Lelie, 23, used the off-season to work on his chemistry with free-agent quarterback Jake Plummer. He also began developing another symbiotic relationship with new position coach Steve Watson, who already had studied Lelie's Hawaii performances with Dorrell and was amazed that his new pupil ``could catch the ball coming or going as easily as anyone I've ever seen,'' while operating at full speed.
Lelie, though, according to many in the Broncos organization, has used down time to improve his ability to fight through physical bump coverage.
Teammate Rod Smith has been helpful in that regard, preaching to Lelie the importance of being violent in his break off the line of scrimmage.
``He's taking that approach every time he runs a route,'' Smith said.
Added Kubiak, ``Last year, if you wanted to cover Ashley and you lined up off him, you wouldn't cover him. But if you got up and bumped the hell out of him and got physical with him, you had a chance. And he knew that. He knew that if he had to get to the next level, he's got to master that, and that's what he's after right now. He's got a long ways to go, but boy, he's had a great week.''
Human highlight reel
Almost every training camp practice has included at least one highlight-reel catch from Lelie. Every jump ball thrown his way has seemingly gone in his favor. And he's made difficult catches look easy, like the one he caught Friday on a ball thrown behind him while running a crossing route at full speed, then twisting his body around in split-second fashion to snare the ball out of the air. Or take the acrobatic diving grab in the end zone he'd later make during that practice. On Saturday, Lelie showed off his speed, beating cornerback Willie Middlebrooks and effortlessly catching a 50-yard spiral from a scrambling Plummer.
``Catches nobody thinks he can make, he's making,'' Broncos strong safety Kenoy Kennedy said. ``Even sometimes DBs are getting their hands on the ball, right there covering the ball, and he's finding somehow, some way to hang onto it.''
Now, it's Ed McCaffrey who's doing the hanging on, too. The battle for the veteran receiver's starting job started as one of the top story lines going into camp, but that angle seems too shortsighted, given Lelie's head-turning performance. Besides, it's a given that both will be among the top three receivers.
Lelie humbly says that, to him, starting is important only because it would mean he beat out McCaffrey, whom he considers a Broncos legend, and it would demonstrate that he was being viewed by coaches as the best man for the job.
``I just want to be consistent, starting or not starting - I'm not dropping any balls, running my routes and making sure I'm in the places I'm supposed to be,'' Lelie said. ``If I can do that, everything else will come. I'll get more balls, and I might start.''
Truth is, Lelie already has started something, namely visions of what he might become in the future, given his current work ethic and performance.
``There is no ceiling,'' Smith observed. ``He'll get as great as he wants to be.''
Lelie might even someday be able to go back to the islands for a more relaxing trip than the one he recently took. Should he continue his current progression, a Pro Bowl berth back in Hawaii isn't out the question. That distinction could even happen sooner rather than later, if his current tunnel vision lasts the next six months.
``Can he be? Yeah,'' Kubiak said. ``Will he be? We'll see. If he keeps working the way he's working, I think the sky's the limit. But there's a lot of ball to be played, a lot of preparation to do between now and then. But is the capability there? Damn right it is.''
INFOBOX
Rainbow warrior
* Hawaii product Ashley Lelie posted the fourth-highest receptions total in Broncos history for a rookie receiver. The top five:
Player, year..............Rec..Yards...Avg....TD
1. Vance Johnson, 1985....51....721....14.1....3
2. Al Frazier, 1961.......47....799....17.0....6
3. Mark Jackson, 1986.....38....738....19.4....1
4. Ashley Lelie, 2002.....35....525....15.0....2
5. Ricky Nattiel, 1987....31....630....20.3....2
CAPTION(S):
Color Photo (2)
Ashley Lelie grabs a pass during a morning practice session last week at Dove Valley. The second-year receiver from Hawaii has made it a habit of contributing at least one sensational catch at each practice so far, and could possibly get the starting nod over veteran Ed McCaffrey. AHMAD TERRY / ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS
CAPTION: Broncos safety Kenoy Kennedy defends as wide receiver Ashley Lelie cradles a pass during an early training camp practice. Lelie says that, for the first time, he is focusing all his energies on football, and Broncos coaches are saying such sustained effort can lead him to true greatness. JACK DEMPSEY / ASSOCIATED PRESS
