ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- The Denver Broncos carried a mandate from their chief football decision maker -- John Elway -- into the offseason that they would "stay great on defense." That mandate has fallen to Joe Woods, who was Vance Joseph's pick as the defensive coordinator to replace Wade Phillips. While the Broncos players have now seen Woods work in that new role up close and personal in the offseason program, they may not know all there is to know until a game situation.

"I don't know exactly what I'm getting with him at D-coordinator, but we have a good idea," is how safety T.J. Ward put it earlier in the offseason. " ... We were going to determine how we play defense and make offenses play based on how we feel like we should play. That hasn't changed with Joe. It may even have gotten turned up a little more, because I know Joe is real fiery."

Woods, who had been the Broncos' secondary coach the past two seasons, has installed the new defense. And for the players, the framework of the scheme will be much the same as it was the previous two seasons under Phillips.

To keep to the "stay-great" mandate, however, the Broncos must fix their run defense -- they were 28th in the league last season. They also must have their best players stay healthy, and Woods has to keep this veteran group pointed in the right direction.

Though he has largely stayed true to what the Broncos have done in each of the past two seasons -- a prudent move since the team has been No. 1 in both pass defense and sacks in '15 and '16 -- Woods has made some adjustments. Most players have used words like "freedom" and "flexibility" when describing those tweaks, especially on the defensive line.

"[He's] changing a lot of things up from last year," said defensive end Jared Crick Wednesday. "It will give us a little more freedom up front, move around, do some different things. ... As long as it's kind of a different thing, we're not sitting there as sitting targets, get us moving around a little bit, keep them guessing really."

"Our first two years, we played a high-level defense, we did a good job," Woods said. "There's a few things that we definitely need to improve on. But my big deal is, I don't want to come in and change the fingerprints or the foundation of our defense. All I said is I want to sprinkle a little sugar on it. It's something that will give us a little changeup, make offenses work at the line of scrimmage."

The Broncos also expended plenty of their offseason resources on the defensive front, signing defensive lineman Zach Kerr and nose tackle Domata Peko in free agency before then using a second-round draft pick on defensive end DeMarcus Walker.

But the proof, on defense and especially in line play, will always be in what happens when the pads go on and the Broncos start really defending. For now, they will simply have to hope a bigger defensive front with a little more passion after last season's playoff miss bode well.

"He just wants to get back to playing relentlessly," Ward said. "Wherever the ball is, everybody has to get to it regardless of where you are on the field."

"I want our guys to be smart and tough and play fast," Woods said. "The biggest thing when you play defense ... it's about what you do. It's not about what the other team does. You have to do what you do schematically better than what they do."