The Broncos were short on cornerbacks at this week’s voluntary minicamp.Chris Harris is absent while trying to land a new contract Womens Noah Fant Jersey , Bryce Callahan is recovering from foot surgery and Isaac Yiadom is recovering from shoulder surgery, but practicing without those players didn’t lead Denver to put free agent acquisition Kareem Jackson at cornerback for this week’s workouts.Jackson worked at safety, which was something that head coach Vic Fangio suggested could be the case when Jackson signed with the team in March. Fangio said on Thursday that the decision to use Jackson there was because he’s spent almost all of his career as a cornerback.“For the reason that there’s more to learn at safety than there is at corner,” Fangio said, via KUSA. “He’s played much more corner in his career, so I wanted him to get more work in this camp — all of his work — at the safety position, to feel comfortable there.”Jackson’s spot in the secondary once all hands are on deck will likely be more telling about the team’s overall plans for how to make the best use of a new piece on their defense. The Broncos have had consecutive losing seasons for the first time since 1971-72. They also had a losing season in 1970, which means that they’re currently one losing season away from matching that three straight years of sub-.500 football.But the days of zero-and-zero are a time for optimism and hope, even if it’s unreasonable and/or implausible. It’s the time for puffing out the chest and calling a shot. Broncos G.M. John Elway declined to do that on Wednesday.“I’ll let you guys set that,” Elway told reporters on the question of expectations. “We know what our goals are. The bottom line is I never went into a season saying, ‘We’re going to be 10-6.’ I think we walk into every game with the idea that we can win it. The bottom line is we’ve got to go out and execute and play well. Obviously Womens John Elway Jersey , you’ve got to get a little bit lucky and stay healthy, but our expectations are to take it a day at a time. Get through preseason, see what we have and then look forward to the opener in Oakland. Really take it one week at a time. Obviously, there are a lot of unknowns because it’s a new staff and a lot of new players. We put that all together. We’re hopeful to have a good year.”Hope really is the key word. And all playoff teams eventually have hope that they can climb the playoff tree.“I think this is always the exciting time of year because you get to see what you have,” Elway said regarding the degree of hope in Denver. “Once we get the pads on, we get a better feel for everybody. Then we get into the preseason, get a feel for the young guys and the players that we haven’t seen play. It’s an exciting time of year, but we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us. I think that we always have high expectations of ourselves, but we just know that the position that we’re in, and the last two seasons that we’ve had, we’ve got to take it one day at a time. That’s what we’re going to do. I think we’re in good shape Bradley Chubb Broncos Jersey , too. I think being in early, having the extra week playing in the Hall of Fame Game, I think is going to help us with a new staff. I think that’s a positive for us being in early.”That’s an underrated aspect of playing a fifth preseason game. This year, the Broncos and Falcons get that advantage of extra work in practices and in practice games. The key for the Broncos could be new coach Vic Fangio, an old-school, defensive specialist who for whatever reason previously didn’t get a shot to run a team of his own. If he can do for the Broncos what he’s done for multiple defenses, the Broncos could make things very interesting in the AFC West, where the Chiefs and Chargers are believed to have separated from the Broncos and Raiders.