SENDING A MESSAGE: YOU TOO CAN MAKE IT!**

So much of the attention in the coming months will focus on the first- and second-day picks: Ray, Sambrailo and tight end Jeff Heuerman. When players selected on the first two days of the draft make the team and become standouts, it's not a story.

But most of the Broncos on hand were picked late on the third day of the draft, or not at all. They might be lightly regarded now, but Kubiak knows that there are future pro stalwarts among that group.

"Actually, I told them there is going to be a story coming out of this room. Somebody is going to jump up and become a player that maybe not that many people know about," Kubiak said.

Kubiak knows from experience -- both his own, as an eighth-round pick in 1983, and from what he's witnessed with other players.

During Kubiak's first training camp as a player, 12th-round pick Karl Mecklenburg made the 53-man roster, and the No. 310 overall pick in the 1983 NFL Draft eventually became one of just 27 players on the Broncos' Ring of Fame. Twelve years later, in Kubiak's first training camp as a Broncos assistant coach, sixth-round running back Terrell Davis used a crushing hit on kickoff coverage in the preseason to make an impression; he eventually became a Ring of Famer, a league MVP, a Super Bowl MVP and the Broncos' all-time leading rusher.

"I actually told them a little about T.D. this morning," Kubiak said, adding that he showed the video of Davis' preseason hit.

"They can't go out there today and cover a kick and hit somebody, but you are just trying to prove who you are and how you can take the thing from the meeting room to the practice field. That's important," Kubiak added later. "What can a guy handle? Then when he goes out there today, most guys are flying around this morning, which everybody was. It will be interesting to see who is still flying around this afternoon. It's about consistency and what they do, and seeing if we can give them an opportunity."