Isaiah McKenzie knows he let a big opportunity slip right through his fingers last season.

Six muffed punts .

The Denver Broncos returner knows he can’t hide from that glaring figure. All he can do is learn Zack Martin Jersey , which is why McKenzie went back and watched every mistake again and again. He’s hoping to win back trust and receive another chance after fumbling it away.

”Unacceptable,” the 5-foot-8, 173-pound McKenzie said of his rookie season as two of his muffs led to turnovers and another to a safety. ”I say that because I know the things I can do. I can catch the ball. I can make plays. I made bad decisions. I understand that and I’m building off that. I’ve come back this year with a better mindset.”

Over the offseason, he focused on little things: Getting more sleep. Eating better. Lifting more in the weight room.

”It was about getting my mind right, my body right,” McKenzie said.

He also scrutinized those muffed punts and the decisions that led to them.

”It’s like, `Why did I do that? I shouldn’t have done that,”’ said McKenzie, whose long return last season was 44 yards at Philadelphia. ”The first four games, I was catching everything and making big plays. I kind of got greedy.”

He’s got even more competition this time around. There’s receiver Jordan Taylor and rookie wideout DaeSean Hamilton, along with rookie running backs David Williams, Phillip Lindsay and Royce Freeman. The team also has a new special teams coordinator in Tom McMahon, who doesn’t have any sort of hierarchy in place yet.

Or preconceived notions.

”I want them to earn it Courtland Sutton Jersey ,” McMahon said. ”Naturally, Isaiah and Jordan, in my opinion, they’re doing a great job right now. … We’re going to have a great returner, whoever it is.”

McKenzie just hopes he can win back the confidence in him – from head coach Vance Joseph, who kept running him out there. From his teammates. From the fans.

”People don’t understand, you’re sitting in the stands, but punt return is hard. It’s a tough job,” receiver Emmanuel Sanders said. ”He has to reset. He doesn’t have a choice. He has to take a step back and say, `OK, how can I break down the film and get better?’ That’s what he’s been doing. We’re going to see if it paid off when the season comes.”

McKenzie also hopes there’s room for him as a receiver. The team spent draft picks on Courtland Sutton (second round) and Hamilton (fourth).

”We got two of the best receivers in the draft,” said McKenzie, who caught four passes for 29 yards. ”It’s a job competition every day. That’s what I come here to do Cheap Derrius Guice Jersey , compete every day.”

A fifth-round pick out of Georgia, McKenzie started out with a 31-yard punt return against the Los Angeles Chargers in the opener.

Soon after, the muffs began to happen. Two against Oakland, which didn’t result in turnovers. Another mishandling against the New York Giants – again recovered and no real harm done, except perhaps to the psyche.

McKenzie’s bobble cost him at Kansas City , with his turnover leading to a field goal. And another against New England after the defense forced a three-and-out to open the game. Tom Brady converted that into a TD during a 41-16 rout on Nov. 12.

McKenzie was inactive the following week in a season going sideways. At practice on Thanksgiving Day, McKenzie and defensive back Chris Harris Jr. got into a tussle.

The following week, inactive again before he returned Dec. 3 at Miami. He fumbled a punt in the fourth quarter that led to him being tackled in the end zone for a safety. He didn’t return a punt over the last four contests.

”Last year was a roller coaster,” McKenzie said. ”But it’s a fresh start. I’m catching the ball well on punts. I’m keeping it rolling.”

NOTES: Sanders is hoping to help set up a quarterback/receiver camp this summer. ”Go out there for two or three days and throw the football around and hang out and gain team chemistry,” Sanders said. … S Justin Simmons is trying to balance workouts with being a father after the birth of his daughter last month. ”No sleep,” he said. ”But it’s good.”

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>The bar was set high for Brian Urlacher when he joined the Chicago Bears as a first-round middle linebacker back in 2000.Few teams are as closely identified with one position as the Bears are at middle linebacker with players like Bill George, Dick Butkus and Mike Singletary personifying the Monsters of the Midway on the way to Hall of Fame careers.Urlacher lived up to that lofty standard and will join that talented trio in Canton when he is inducted into the hall on Saturday.“It wasn’t even on my mind when I played,” Urlacher said after getting voted into the hall on his first try in February. “I didn’t think this would ever be a possibility. So many things have to go right. You have to stay healthy P.J. Hall Youth Jersey , you have to play well, you’ve got to win some games, do some things. This is the summit of playing football right here.”Urlacher did not make himself available for interviews leading up to inductions.Urlacher was a different type of middle linebacker than his predecessors in Chicago, the perfect piece in the NFL of the 2000s with the speed and coverage skills that allowed him to play safety in college. That helped him match up against running backs and tight ends and roam sideline to sideline.He also had the ability to drop deep into coverage, making him the perfect middle linebacker on coach Lovie Smith’s Tampa 2 defense that Urlacher helped make so stout in Chicago on the way to a Super Bowl appearance following the 2006 season.“I’ve had an opportunity to be around so many great linebackers, but some of them are just made for the position,” Smith said. “Derrick Brooks is made to be a Will linebacker, an outside guy in our system. Brian Urlacher, you can’t draw it up any better. Everybody knew that he looked the part and he played the part.”Smith knew about Urlacher’s physical talents when he arrived as the new coach in Chicago in 2004 after Urlacher had made the Pro Bowl in each of his first four seasons, and was a two-time All-Pro. An early team meeting taught him about Urlacher’s mentality when he told the defense he expected the unit to lead the league in turnovers. Urlacher stayed after and set the tone for those dominant Bears defenses.“He said: ‘Coach, let me get this right. In order for us to lead the league we have to wait for the offense to turn the ball over?'” Smith recalled. “That was the first time I’d looked at it that way. Brian called it a takeaway on the defensive side of the ball. The offense turns the ball over. Defensively, your job is to take the ball away every time. No one bought into us taking the ball away as much as Brian did.”No defense took the ball away more than the Bears in the nine seasons Smith and Urlacher were together, with 292 takeaways. No linebacker other than fellow 2018 Hall of Fame inductee Ray Lewis took the ball away more than Urlacher during his 13-year career: 22 interceptions and 16 fumble recoveries.Urlacher also had 41陆 sacks and finished his career as the Bears’ all-time leading tackler. He won awards as the top defensive rookie in 2000 Dallas Goedert Youth Jersey , Defensive Player of the Year in 2005, earned five All-Pro selections, eight Pro Bowl bids and helped the Bears win four division titles.“Brian was the best,” said Packers quarterback and longtime NFC North rival Aaron Rodgers. “He was probably one of the smartest players I ever played against. Just a great feel for the scheme, the game, reading his keys. Just incredibly instinctual player. Great hands. Average elusiveness, I can say that, because I tackled him one time. But one of the best to ever do it at that position in an era where some of the louder guys maybe got the attention 鈥?expecting the middle linebacker to be a loud yeller or rah-rah guy. Brian went about it in a very classy way. Played the game the right way and was an incredible player.”Urlacher was not always destined for greatness. He was lightly recruited out of high school and ended up at New Mexico after Texas Tech didn’t offer him a scholarship.But he thrived with the Lobos and made himself a first-round pick.“I’ve had some great freshmen, but from the minute he arrived, every coach stood up and took notice,” former New Mexico coach Dennis Franchione said. “I remember sometime in the first 10 days of two-a-days, six of the nine assistant coaches came in 鈥?although independently, I didn’t think they talked about it 鈥?they said Cheap Vita Vea Jersey , ‘Coach, when are you going to play Urlacher.’ And I said, ‘I’m not sure yet.’ They said, ‘I’ll take him at my position.’ I think that was everybody except the quarterback coach, the line coach and the receivers coach. That’s how versatile he was. …“He was a heat-seeking missile from the time he arrived on campus. Not only that, he was a really coachable, bright young man. Made other people better. You can just go on and on about him.”AP Sports Writer Andrew Seligman contributed to this report..