UPDATED 1:39 P.M. MDT

Never before have I heard a coach excoriate his players for not celebrating enough. But never before today had I watched assistant head coach/defense Jim Bates conduct a training camp session.

It was midway through nine-on-seven drills, and I was standing about 75 yards away from the action, manning the east practice field where the cornerbacks and wide receivers were concurrently going through one-on-one work. But even from that far away, the still was shattered by a gunnery sergeant-like voice bellowing from the opposite field. Bates was angry — not at a missed play, but at a lack of enthusiasm from his defense after Sam Adams forced a fumble.

The crowd of 1,904 — a Dove Valley-camp-opening record — responded with its loudest roar of the day.

“They did react, huh?” Bates said. He was so focused on the moment that he barely noticed.

“This is a different individual that we’re dealing with,” safety Nick Ferguson deadpanned. “People always say to play this game you have to be a little insane, but sometimes it starts at the top. We’re all insane. It starts with Coach Bates, though.”

Bates’ charges had a good morning, punctuated when his first-team defense notched a pair of sacks of Patrick Ramsey during the “move-the-ball” drill at the end of practice. Safety Curome Cox nearly had two interceptions, while Champ Bailey jumped a pass and grabbed it after Quincy Morgan faked in one direction during one-on-one drills.

But what Bates liked most from his defense was its performance against the run.

“I like the way we played against the run — we played with a lot of muscle,” he said. “This is the first day. There’s so much room for improvement, but just coming out here, the biggest improvement from minicamp was how we fit blocks and how strong we were at the point of attack.”

“It was a good first day overall,” Head Coach Mike Shanahan added.

UP WITH THE FIRST TEAM: The Broncos’ first-team base offensive line was unchanged from minicamp; it consisted of left tackle Matt Lepsis, left guard Ben Hamilton, center Tom Nalen, right guard Chris Kuper and right tackle Erik Pears. Jay Cutler lined up behind them.

Matters were more murky at the skill positions. While Javon Walker and Travis Henry were with the first team exclusively, other skill position players shuttled between units.

For example:

Daniel Graham remained the primary No. 1 tight end, but Stephen Alexander and Nate Jackson took some first-team repetitions in team drills, as well …

… Teyo Johnson worked with the second and third teams …

… Tailback Andre Hall saw some brief action behind the No. 1 offensive line.

Defensively, the Broncos’ base first unit included ends Ebenezer Ekuban and John Engelberger, tackles Gerard Warren and Sam Adams, strongside linebacker Warrick Holdman, weakside linebacker Ian Gold, middle linebacker D.J. Williams, cornerbacks Champ Bailey and Dre’ Bly and safeties Nick Ferguson and John Lynch.

NOTES ON OTHER GROUPINGS: The No. 2 offensive line consisted of left tackle Ryan Harris, left guard Chris Myers, center Greg Eslinger, right guard Montrae Holland and right tackle Adam Meadows. The No. 3 offensive line included left tackle Cliff Washburn, left guard Emmanuel Akah, center Mark Fenton, right guard Kevin McAlmont and right tackle Jacob Rogers.

The base No. 2 defense consisted of ends Jarvis Moss and Tim Crowder, tackles Jimmy Kennedy and Alvin McKinley, outside linebackers Louis Green and D.D. Lewis, middle linebacker Nate Webster, cornerbacks Domonique Foxworth and Karl Paymah and safeties Curome Cox and Hamza Abdullah. The base third-team defense consisted of ends Kenard Lang and Elvis Dumervil, tackles Marcus Thomas and Amon Gordon, middle linebacker Cameron Vaughn, outside ‘backers Wesly Mallard and T.J. Hollowell, cornerbacks Jeff Shoate and Kevin House and safeties Steve Cargile and Quentin Harris. Demetrin Veal rotated in at one of the tackle spots, while Roderick Rogers did the same for Harris at safety.

Things looked a little different when the Broncos worked on their dime package; the first unit of that scheme included Moss and Dumervil at the ends, with Ekuban sliding inside to one of the tackle slots. Foxworth and Cox joined the starting quartet in the secondary.

INJURY REPORT: The only players to miss the morning session — besides those on the physically-unable-to-perform list — were tackle Doug Nienhuis and cornerback Lamont Reid, both of whom were injured in NFL Europa.

WEATHER REPORT: In a word, gorgeous. Comfortable 66-degree temperatures and sunny skies greeted the Broncos as they began the day’s work. By practice’s end, it was a pleasant 73 degrees, with the day’s high only expected to reach about 80 degrees.
>
FLIPPING FOR CAMP: When D.J. Williams called “the Doublemint Twins” — a.k.a. rookie defensive tackles Marcus Thomas and Steven Harris — forward to begin the practice, not many Broncos knew what Thomas had in store … a handstand and a somersault that wowed the fans and delighted his teammates. “When you’re 300, 315, that’s exceptional,” Ferguson said. But the little bit of gymnastics didn’t catch Shanahan off guard. “I saw it in college,” Shanahan said. “When he did his workout in front of the pro scouts, he started his workout by doing that, so when he took off his pads, I kind of anticipated him doing that. Most of the players never see that, so they were a little bit surprised.”

OTHER QUICK NOTES: Javon Walker and Nate Webster rose slowly from a collision late in the session, but both should be fine. Walker turned in the catch of the day a few plays later, grabbing a pass from Jay Cutler that Karl Paymah had tipped skyward. Walker lunged for the ball, snared it and finished off a 14-yard gain ..

… David Kircus turned in the catch of the day, snagging a deep past from Jay Cutler after getting past Alford and Quentin Harris …

… The Broncos concluded the day with two-minute drill work, giving the offense a scenario with two minutes on the clock, three timeouts and a four-point deficit. The first-team offense drove into scoring range via Cutler passes to Daniel Graham (10 yards) and Domenik Hixon (23 yards), and the afore-mentioned juggling catch by Walker, but the coaches called off the series at the defense’s 11-yard-line with the offense in first-and-10. The second-team offense, meanwhile, saw its drive squashed thanks to a pair of sacks, although a Patrick Ramsey-to-Brian Clark connection did yield a first down.

… Photos from the morning:







More to come after the second practice … until then, vaya con Dios.

Tags: Jim Bates, Mike Shanahan, Training Camp

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 29th, 2007 at 1:39 pm and is filed under Archives. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.