ENGLEWOOD — A year ago, when a USAA-sponsored event took place at Broncos Park, Jake Plummer felt left out.

The former Broncos quarterback was invited to a luncheon but didn’t get to take the field with military members who went through football drills.

“They said (after last year’s luncheon), ‘You’re done,’” Plummer said. “And I said, ‘That’s strange. I kind of want to go throw the football and run around.”’

On Wednesday at Broncos Park, Plummer got that chance. At the USAA Salute to Service NFL Boot Camp, he helped lead about 50 Denver-area military members through drills similar to how NFL teams evaluate players.

There was a 40-yard dash, a broad jump, a three-cone shuttle, a receiving gantlet and a quarterback arm challenge. Working with the military members, Plummer, 51, got to test out his arm and running skills.

“We got a bunch of military personnel out there having some fun running the 40-yard dash,” Plummer said. “I ran the 40. I won’t tell you what my time was, but it probably wouldn’t have gotten me drafted.”

Plummer, a second-round pick in 1997 out of Arizona State, played for the Arizona Cardinals from 1997-2002 and the Broncos from 2003-06. He helped lead Denver to the 2005 AFC Championship Game.

Plummer was teammates with safety Pat Tillman at Arizona State and with the Cardinals, and the two became good friends. Tillman left the NFL to join the U.S. Army in 2002, a year after the Sept. 11 attacks, and was killed in action in Afghanistan in 2004.

“Knowing Pat and when he was killed, it put a person to the faces that you saw in the paper,” Plummer said. “I said, ‘Woah, that’s Pat, my buddy,’ and now I’m looking at the soldiers that we’re losing back then in the war and all of a sudden it was hitting much harder.”

Influenced by his friend’s death, Plummer has long done work with the Pat Tillman Foundation and been a willing participant in events involving the military.

Plummer continues to live in Colorado and follows the Broncos closely. At Wednesday’s event, he wore a Broncos cap backward.

Plummer is a big fan of quarterback Bo Nix. He is glad to see him having recovered from a broken right ankle suffered in a divisional playoff game last January against Buffalo, which forced Nix to miss the Broncos’ 10-7 loss to New England in the AFC Championship Game.

“Just knowing him and what he’s made of and who he is, he did everything possible to come back and be ready,” Plummer said. “It hurt me just watching him have to go through what he went through last year, to get all the way there and then to lose that opportunity to make the final big dance (at the Super Bowl).”

While Plummer admires what Nix has done in his first two seasons, he would like him to make one adjustment to his game.

“I hope he stays in the pocket a little bit more, but not be forced to stay there, but stay there and let some plays develop,’’ Plummer said. “Go through and anticipate a little bit because we know he can do it when the play breaks down. That’s his gift. You can’t coach that. Not even I could coach what he does outside the scripted play.”

Plummer, known as “Jake the Snake,” was a solid running quarterback when he played. At least he could do some coaching Wednesday of military members.