Offense garners the headlines and defense gets the love, but the all-too-forgotten third phase — special teams — is equally crucial.

To that point, the Denver Broncos' coordinator, Tom McMahon, doesn't receive the punchy conjecture like his fellow coaches, though he's just as adept at his job as Vic Fangio and equally demanding from his players.

Made available to the media Thursday, the first time since Denver began its offseason workout program, McMahon was asked which area of kicker Brandon McManus' craft can be sharpened.

“Everything," he responded. "Field goals—we had two field goal periods that we had indoors. Those two field goal periods, kickoffs, all of that stuff, every single thing in his toolbox you can work on during a camp like this.”

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McManus was more reliable last year than he was during his disastrous 2017 campaign in which he missed eight kicks. The 27-year-old went 20-of-25 on attempts in 2018, with a long field goal of 53 yards. He was perfect on extra points (75/75), but his touchbacks (42) were down and kick returns (28) up.

Certainly not what you'd expect from a kicker who was guaranteed $8.25 million to best execute his job, which includes drilling attempts under pressure. In that department, McManus struggled last season to McMahon's chagrin.

“I think Brandon McManus does have that," he said in January. "There are ways to work it within practice. We have to do a great job of getting them in situations at the end of games. To answer your question, deep down inside, I think Brandon can make those kicks. I think he will improve.”

But it's unfair to vilify McManus without holding his partner-in-crime, punter Colby Wadman, accountable. McMahon lobbied for the Broncos to scoop Wadman off the scrap heap midseason, after the club mercifully ended its Marquette King experiment, and he re-paid him with a 44.7-yard average on 65 punts. Definitely not bad, but not great, either.

Wadman, too, could stand to improve ... well, everything.

“No question," McMahon said. "Directional punting to the right, that’s one thing he has to work on. He worked the heck out of it this week. He’ll continue to do that. Then just consistency—I want the same ball all of the time. We would love to have 33 percent of the balls that we cover—67 percent of the time, we want [our guy] to make the tackle. Force a fair catch, kick it out of bounds, that’s what the great punters in this league do. He’s going to be a great punter.”

While Fangio has been credited with turning around the franchise — as much as possible at this point, anyway — his Vance Joseph-holdover assistant deserves props for whipping his unit into shape, and taking a direct route through the media to do so.