One of the most difficult jobs in football surely has to be wide receivers coach. Part coach, part manager, part psychologist, part developmental specialist, the receivers coach has tasks that expand beyond the game and certainly beyond his title.



Just ask Zach Azzanni, the Broncos’ receivers coach who was a receiver himself at Central Michigan University before coaching the position in college for 18 years. In 2017, after a year of working alongside Vic Fangio in Chicago, he made the trek to Denver, walking into a room that featured top receivers Demaryius Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders, only to finish the season without either. Thomas was traded, Sanders was injured and by season’s end, Azzanni was left with an all-rookie group.



NFL receivers are known to often be the “divas” of a team — acknowledged even by Fangio recently — and at the start of Azzanni’s tenure, Sanders admitted to “butting heads” with the new...