Keeler: Preach, Shelby Harris! With Giants, Jets, Jaguars up first, Broncos due for September to remember.

If the Broncos played similar Shelby Harris preached, we’d beryllium gathering statues for Drew Lock alternatively of excuses.

“It’s not a secret, you know? We (stink) successful September,” Harris, the Broncos’ straight-shooting antiaircraft end, said Wednesday, utilizing a somewhat, um, stronger word than stink. “We’ve got to bash better.”

Amen. So however bash you not (ahem) stink successful September?

“Starting accelerated … and we’ve got to spell retired there, we’ve got to chopped down connected mistakes,” Harris continued. “I retrieve (over) the past mates seasons, it’s been the large play. The large play ever (expletived) america implicit a small bit.

“So it’s each astir cutting down the large plays. But past it’s besides (about) creating large plays for ourselves. Getting turnovers. They speech astir the hidden yardage. An interception return, you mightiness get 20 yards (on it) and enactment america backmost connected our ain 30 oregon thing similar that. And it makes it easier, truthful you automatically get points.”

Harris didn’t constituent fingers specifically astatine Lock, the much turnover-prone of the Broncos’ 2 apical quarterbacks. But helium made nary concealed astir the corporate scar insubstantial he’s picked up from having to support each those abbreviated fields instantly aft his signal-caller surrenders the rock.

Since 2019, the Broncos are 0-7 successful September. In those 7 contests, Denver’s turned it implicit 10 times portion taking it distant from the absorption conscionable twice.

“All the small things, they adhd up to beryllium thing big,” Harris stressed. “And truthful if we conscionable bash each the small things right, past we’ll beryllium successful.”

So portion you mightiness scratch your caput astatine moving backmost Royce Freeman being shown the door, it’s different motion that caller wide manager George Paton is superior astir those — well, small things.

Third-team tailbacks person to lend connected peculiar teams, 1 mode oregon another. Aside from kicker Brandon McManus and the field-goal operation, the Broncos person resembled a blistery mess, much often than not, connected that broadside of the equation. And not conscionable implicit the past month.

“Hidden yardage connected peculiar teams, yeah,” Harris continued. “There’s ever hidden yardage connected peculiar teams. You instrumentality the shot retired of the extremity zone, you extremity up astatine the 12, you know, you acceptable the squad back. If you instrumentality the shot retired of the extremity portion and extremity up astatine the 35, that’s the hidden yardage, the affirmative hidden yardage, I’m talking about.”

Which explains, successful part, wherefore the Broncos connected Wednesday waived a productive extent portion successful Freeman and claimed cornerback Mike Ford and moving backmost Nate McCrary.

Ford was a special-teams ace for the Lions, a gunner connected Detroit’s punt-coverage units. A feline who excels, purportedly, astatine the small things.

“We’ll bring (Ford) successful here,” manager Vic Fangio said, “and spot if we tin get him rolling speedy capable (for the opener).”

There’s a consciousness of urgency now, and justifiably. The Broncos’ September opponents posted a combined grounds of 9-39 past fall.

Two of those bittersweet sacks, the Jags and Jets, are expected to rotation retired rookie quarterbacks against a Fangio defense. The NFL is practically begging the Broncos to beryllium 3-0, to beryllium relevant, close retired of the gate.

Most of Fangio’s antiaircraft starters should vie for Pro Bowl invites. A half-dozen, health-permitting, ought to onshore them. The Broncos are loaded successful the secondary and successful the receiving corps. There’s proven extent crossed the board.

But what this roster doesn’t have, still, is overmuch of a borderline for mistake — a inclination that hasn’t changed overmuch since 2019.

And erstwhile it comes to dilatory starts, Broncos sum units haven’t done overmuch to halt the bleeding. In September 2019 and 2020, the mean starting tract presumption disconnected a kickoff for a Broncos hostile was their ain 28. The Raiders during Week 1 of 2019 started drives disconnected kickoffs astatine their ain 35, connected average. The Steelers’ mean thrust disconnected kickoffs during Week 2 of 2020 began astatine their ain 33.

Only erstwhile successful those 7 September games nether Fangio has the Broncos’ mean violative thrust started beyond their ain 27-yard enactment (at Pittsburgh, 2020). Meanwhile, 4 of Denver’s September opponents pulled that disconnected successful the past 2 seasons — Oakland, 2019 (the Raiders 29); Green Bay, 2019 (the Packers’ 36); Pittsburgh, 2020 (the Steelers’ 35); and Tampa Bay, 2020 (the Bucs’ 37).

“We’re 0-7 successful September, and that’s unacceptable,” Harris stressed. “If we privation to beryllium the best, past we can’t support kicking ourselves and stumbling retired of the blocks.”

Because that hidden yardage, near unchecked, tin perfectly hide you. Jobs are mislaid betwixt the uprights. Divisions are won betwixt the ears.