From the Weight Room to Mile High Glory
Dan Dalrymple on Building the Broncos' Unbreakable Identity

When the Denver Broncos punched their ticket to the 2025 AFC Championship Game, it wasn't just about Bo Nix's laser-guided throws or the defense's suffocating swagger. It was about the foundation laid in the shadows—where iron clangs, sweat drips, and character is forged one rep at a time.

At the heart of it all stands Dan Dalrymple, the Broncos' veteran Head Strength & Conditioning Coach. With over 40 years in the game (19 in college, 21-plus in the NFL with the Saints & Broncos), Dalrymple has seen cycles come and go. But in 2025, alongside Director of Strength & Conditioning Shaun Snee, he helped orchestrate a season that redefined resilience for a franchise hungry for its next chapter.

"I kind of took a step back this year. Everything that's old is new again. Cycles in training… you see it come back around."

— Dan Dalrymple

After a heart attack the year prior, he leaned into his role on the floor—spotting, programming, and mentoring—while Snee handled the heavy administrative lift. Their philosophies aligned seamlessly.

The Broncos didn't chase generic "game-day readiness." They trained for Sean Payton's relentless practices—the perfectionist repetitions, the high-volume accelerations, the demands that separate contenders from also-rans.

"Coach is a perfectionist. One of the reasons he's had so much success for so long is he's very demanding. We'll run stuff over and over again until it's perfect."

— Dan Dalrymple

"You look at the volume that our wide receiver group has during a week of practice… most people look at it like, 'What are you doing to these guys?' But that's just how he conducts practice. If something's not right, they want to keep doing it until it's perfect. And so you have to prepare the player to be able to do that."

That's where the data meets the dirt. "We have two sports science full-time people who do all of our assessments, manage our data, and give us feedback—especially on the on-the-field stuff with our running programs—to make sure the guys are hitting exactly what we need," Dalrymple said. "The massive amount of data… it can become overwhelming. But we're not telling coaches to cut practice. We look at the expected load and train for that."

When Dalrymple started in the NFL in 2006, "the iPhone had not been invented yet." Today the Broncos harness force plates, Nord boards, Catapult systems, velocity tracking, and video on every rack. "The technology that's available… has just changed how everything's done."

In-season programming stayed consistent in structure but fresh in execution: heavy, slow lower-body emphasis the day after games (when players are neurologically fatigued), shifting to upper-body or reactive work mid-week, then high-neural, low-damage stimulus late in the week. Eccentrics, isometrics, tempo work, safety-bar squats, belt squats—adaptations galore to keep bruised bodies moving.

"You're basically getting in 17 car wrecks and having a week to recover for the next one. You've got to be creative."

— Dan Dalrymple

Want the exact blueprint? Here's how the Broncos built their championship engine—straight from Dalrymple:

"We train the majority of our players weight-room wise, three times a week. We have a big workout that's predominantly lower body on the day after the game."

— Dan Dalrymple

"One of the reasons we do maximum-effort, heavy, slow work early in the week is because after the game they're fatigued. They can handle slower, heavier things. They're neurologically a little worn out, so they can't necessarily fire as fast."

Tuesday or Wednesday becomes the second lift—often upper-body focused or a balanced session, with variations to keep things fresh across the 29-week grind. "You've got to keep things fresh for the player… we manipulate and change things up. It might look like chaos, but it's a plan."

As the week progresses and game day nears, the focus shifts: "It turns into more reactive-type training… late in the week we want high-neural stimulus, fire-ready-to-go for the game. We really want to hit the central nervous system, but we don't want any kind of muscle damage."

The toolbox is massive: barbell back squats, safety-bar squats, Hatfield squats, transformer bars, machine squats, belt squats, leg press, tempo work, eccentrics, isometrics, shortened ranges of motion for banged-up bodies. "Sean does a really masterful job of switching that up and having… it looks like chaos, but it's a plan."

The result? Players who could handle Payton's perfectionist volume and deliver on Sundays.

Ask about that lockdown defense, and Dalrymple lights up—not with schemes, but with people.

"The profile Coach Payton and George Paton want is talent plus character—length, speed, size, but humble, hard-working, team-first guys."

— Dan Dalrymple

The weight room became a proving ground. "We have guys that you kind of have to kick them out of the weight room. A lot of them are kind of mad now because we said you need to take two weeks off, get away… And there's guys who are like, 'What do I do? What do I do?' So it's like, well, we want you to miss something… to really value it."

Competitions erupted daily. Coaches held players back: "Dude, that's great—but let's be smart." On defense, stars cheered louder for a teammate's sack than their own. "You see Nick Bonito excited that Q Robinson got a sack… they're each other's biggest fans. Unselfish."

That brotherhood translated to the field.

No story from this magical 2025 run is complete without Bo Nix—the dual-threat maestro who embodied "football player who happens to play quarterback."

"You don't run the way Bo Nix runs without being really strong in your lower body. He turns into a running back sometimes. He can't be frail."

— Dan Dalrymple

Dalrymple's voice warms when talking about his QBs. "Bo and all of our quarterbacks, they're in, you know, a minimum of three days a week. Sometimes they come in and… they may do some things in the morning. They may do some things post practice… they're here at 5:30 a.m. before a lot of coaches and walking out with us late."

Nix's program is hyper-individualized—mobility, core rotation, arm health (working hand-in-hand with VP of Performance/PT Beau Lowery and throwing specialists), but always heavy on lower-body strength.

Resiliency is the thread. When Nix took a hit late in the Buffalo game, no panic. "We're pretty confident in our ability to help our players get back to top form."

Nix's work ethic? Relentless. "The great ones put in the hours. It's the character piece."

Dalrymple boils resiliency down to resistance to injury through balance and consistent high-intensity work.

"Resiliency… is just resistance to injury. I don't know that we can prevent any injury… but basically, what you're trying to do is build a stable body first of all. Strength is the underlying performance factor for everything."

— Dan Dalrymple

No cherry-picking exercises. IDNTY athletes: don't just bench—pull just as hard. Hit 90% of top speed regularly (yes, go run!). Train heavy, then maintain that intensity.

"Your body adapts to where you are. If you're not in the high-intensity bands, you're adapting to low intensity."

The veteran wisdom hits hardest here: "If you're going to train hard in the offseason, you better train once you achieve things—you're going to have to fight just as hard to keep it."

As Dalrymple nears what might be his final lap ("I'm hoping to get one more year"), his perspective has shifted from X's and O's to legacy.

"The weight room has been everything for me. Everything I have is because I walked into a weight room in 1978 as an eighth grader… It got me a scholarship, the first in my family to go to college, a different life for my kids."

— Dan Dalrymple

For the Broncos in 2025, that machine produced more than a deep playoff run. It forged an identity: tough, smart, unselfish, resilient.

Bo Nix sliding, scrambling, slinging under pressure. The defense swarming. The entire roster grinding through 29 weeks of car-wreck football to stand among the final four teams.

That's IDNTY in orange and blue.

Your game never ends—especially when the weight room never quits. Dan Dalrymple made sure of it. Follow his lead.