Denver ? He plays both sides of the ball, is considered one of the best cornerbacks in the game and is among the league’s most talented players. But Champ Bailey’s advice to his teammates has little to do with football this week.

“Drink lots of water,” he said.

The Broncos should listen to Bailey. He grew up in Folkston, Ga., just a few miles away from steaming-hot Jacksonville, Fla., which is where the Broncos play the Jaguars on Sunday.

So concerned about the weather is coach Mike Shanahan that he’s diverting from his strict regimen today and traveling to Florida a day early so the team can work out one day in the sweltering heat.

“You really don’t know how hot is or how humid it is until you get down there,” Shanahan said. “Sometimes you are little bit luckier than other times.”

It doesn’t look like the Broncos (1-0) will get lucky Sunday. The forecast calls for a high of 85 and a 20-percent chance of thunderstorms. With humidity expected to reach 80 percent, it will probably feel like about 110 at gametime. Thursday in Denver, it was 84, but humidity was only 20 percent.

This is not a great sign for a team that had no fewer than five players — including Bailey — go down because of cramps for at least a portion of the season opener against Kansas City on a cool evening in Denver.

“People don’t really realize it until they go down there,” said Shanahan, who recalled his time as an assistant at Florida in the 1980s. “We were on the turf in Tampa, the temperature was 120 degrees. It was over at halftime. They weren’t used to that type of heat. We have a little bit more heat here but we don’t have the humidity. But we’ll deal with it. We have no choice.”

Bailey said he would have about 25 or 30 friends and family at Alltel Stadium, which is where his alma mater, Georgia, plays Florida in the annual game known as “The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party.”

“I have one good memory from there,” said Bailey, who was there in 1997, the only time Georgia has won in the last 14 games of the series.

The way he’s playing now, though, there’s a chance he could add to the good memories Sunday.

In the opener last week against Kansas City, Bailey caught a pass on both sides of the ball — an 11-yard reception from Jake Plummer, and an interception off Trent Green on one of the few times Green was willing to throw his way.

To some in Denver who still are getting used to watching Bailey, the offense-defense hybrid is something of an oddity. To Bailey, it’s the way things have always been, ever since he was in pee-wee ball. Although playing offense wasn’t a contingency to his trade from Washington to Denver, he definitely checked it out with Shanahan before he signed off.

“I just wanted to hear I had a chance, and he said I would,” Bailey said.

Still, it’s defense where he makes his mark. The Broncos traded 1,591-yard runner Clinton Portis to get a corner who essentially could take one side of the field away from the offense.

Last week, Denver put Bailey on Kansas City’s best pass catcher — who happened to be tight end Tony Gonzalez. Gonzalez caught only two passes. This week, in a more traditional matchup, Bailey likely will spend much of the day against Jimmy Smith, one of the most prolific receivers in the league during the past decade.

Smith still wants to see the ball.

“I would be very frustrated and very upset if we avoid Champ Bailey,” he said. “You’ve got to take chances. I don’t care how good they are.”

Bailey, meanwhile, says he has grown used to seeing little or no action come his way during games.

“Yeah, it gets a little boring sometimes,” he said. “But you’ve got to try to help in other ways.”

Surely, all the Broncos would drink to that.