The 2010 season came one step closer Sunday morning with the first practice of training camp. A Dove Valley training camp record crowd of 3,103 arrived early for opening day, with some folks lining up to see the orange and blue as early as 4:45 a.m. Mind you, that’s four hours prior to the start of the session.
The first player on the field? Kyle Orton, to a loud applause from the crowd. He was followed by Matt Prater, then Tim Tebow and Daniel Graham walked out together.
U2′s “Where the Streets Have No Name” marked the official start of camp, as the air horn blew and players headed to individual drills.
With music blaring and cheers of “TEE-BOW!” “CHAMP!” and “ED-DEE!” ringing out, the team kicked things off.
The first day was dampened a bit, however, when Knowshon Moreno was carted off the field and Correll Buckhalter walked inside the facility accompanied by a trainer.
Head Coach Josh McDaniels said he didn’t have any updates on either back’s status yet.
“Certainly you don’t want to see two of your guys that you really count on at the same position come off the field on the first day of training camp,” McDaniels said. “We know that’s part of the game and that’s why you have to have people behind them. We’ll see what the timetable may be or the diagnosis. I’m not sure where that’s at or how severe any of that is. Hopefully we’ll get them out there at some point, whenever they’re healthy.”
LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION
During 11 on 11 drills, the first unit defense had Ronald Fields in the middle of the defensive line, flanked by Ryan McBean and Justin Bannan. Elvis Dumervil, D.J. Williams, Mario Haggan and Robert Ayers lined up at linebacker, and Champ Bailey, Andre’ Goodman, Brian Dawkins and Renaldo Hill made up the secondary.
On offense, Tyler Polumbus was at left tackle, with Zane Beadles at left guard, J.D. Walton at center, Chris Kuper at right guard and Ryan Harris a welcome sight back at right tackle. Kyle Orton was at quarterback and Daniel Graham was at tight end, with Kolby Smith at running back with Moreno and Buckhalter out of practice. The receivers switched in and out, but Eddie Royal, Brandon Lloyd and Jabar Gaffney got the most work. Marquez Branson also subbed in as a second tight end on several plays.
DRILLS
Throughout individual drills for tight ends, Daniel Graham reiterated why he’s the leader of the pack. In one drill, the tight ends were supposed to lift a blocking sled in the air before pushing it forward. Graham pushed it so hard that at the end of his rep, the sled flipped upside down. After seeing that display, Branson took his turn, flipping the sled at the end before letting loose a “Woooo!”
The running backs practiced getting physical during their drills, attacking blocking dummies to work on initiating contact.
Typically players run through drills the exact same way, one after the other, to make sure they get the technique just right. The defensive linemen ran a drill where the only goal was to get past the blocking dummy — no matter the technique. Each lineman used a move they’ve been successful with in the past, whether it was a swim move, spin or bull rush.
PLAYMAKERS
During wide receiver versus defensive back 1-on-1s, the first matchup belonged to Eddie Royal and Champ Bailey. Bailey tipped Orton’s throw, which Royal nearly caught, but the pass fell incomplete. Later in the drill, the two faced off again. This time Royal cut his route in front of Bailey, hauling in the sharp pass from Orton. That drew a “Nice, Eddie Royal!” from the quarterback.
On the first play of 7-on-7s, Brian Dawkins tipped a pass and nearly hauled it in before it hit the ground. Immediately he dropped to the ground for 10 pushups, as he didn’t snare the interception. Afterward he jumped up with a huge fist pump to the sky, drawing a reaction from the already amped-up crowd.
Toward the end of the final offense versus defense drill, Eric Decker ran deep down the sideline with Perrish Cox in tight coverage. As the ball came toward the receiver, Cox seemed to grab a little jersey to ensure the ball fell incomplete. On the adjacent field, special teams players and coaches signaled for a flag as the two jogged back toward the huddle.
QUICK HITS
The defensive backs sported a new look — personalized towels tucked in their waist. Two of the more notable towels belonged to Dawkins — inscribed with “Weapon X,” of course — and Nate Jones, or as his towel says, “Nasty Nate.”
To say fans were excited to see the team’s newest first-round picks would be an understatement. Every catch Demaryius Thomas made and every throw Tebow made were met with raucus applause throughout practice. So when Tebow took off running during a couple offense versus defense drills, you can imagine the crowd lost it a little.
After a deep Tebow completion to a leaping Matthew Willis, the crowd gave a long ovation marked by the waving of a couple University of Florida flags. When the noise died down, however, a lone “Roll Tide!” echoed from an apparent Alabama fan in the end zone. It seems even as a Bronco his Florida fans — and rivals — will follow.
Early in practice, the three quarterbacks threw to four receivers — Gaffney, Lloyd, Royal and Brandon Stokley — while the rest of the group worked on special teams drills.
Off to the side, Lonie Paxton, Britton Colquitt and Matt Prater practiced snapping, holding and kicking field goals, respectively, through a much skinnier set of uprights.
TRAINING CAMP JUKEBOX
After U2 kicked things off, Club Bronco got hyped with Eminem’s “Not Afraid,” Jay-Z’s “Can I Get A…” and Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger.”
Below are more pictures from Sunday’s morning session. The team is back on the field this evening at 5:30 p.m. MDT.
-Gray Caldwell, DenverBroncos.com
Tags: 2010, Training Camp
Thats Stay positive. sorry.
Why isn’t there a link to see the older comments posted? Excited for the upcoming season but the running back injuries are terrible. I sincerely hope they are not serious. If not, we better have a “diamond in the rough” amongst the other six running backs.
LOL. Now the link appeared after I submitted my comment.
Big D 44
I have been running fine but alot of people have had problems today.
I’m happy we are on the way.
Hope the best for RB1 and RB2 and a quick recovery. This is the opportunity every player in the NFL wants, A CHANCE…..
RB3, RB4 and RB5 the stage is yours. If any of them are worth the uniform they wear, they better step up and never look back.
Whomever it is hope they have the ability to break tackles. I hope they have breakaway speed( better than 4.6). Hope they can pass protect and catch the ball. I’m excited to see a back get this chance.
I hope we see someone who McGenius will never take off the field. A player who takes this CHANCE and actually does something GREAT with it.
Go Broncos!!!
And then we all woke up and realized we better bring in some reinforcement to the rescue, LOL. However very catchy your approach, totally looking for the best in the worst type of situation with what we got, I respect that, but it is now obvious that regardless of how many hidden gems we have we need more and better bodies, McD will come through, he will bring some players in, there is no choice in my opinion, in 2008 we went through 7 RB’s and when he came here last year and picked Moreno as his first round pick, he explained it as you can never have too many RB’s in the NFL nowadays. I don’t know what the heck happened to that philosophy, because he sure dropped the ball about the RB’s this year….
McGenius in many things he did, like rebuilding the D line in free agency and rebuilding the O line in the draft, probably has a shot at being a genius doing all that trading around in the draft to get Tebow, but Genius he was not when he totally ignored the RB position this off season, BIG MISTAKE, not any clearer than today. And I’m allowed to say that because I asked for not one but two power backs in either free agency or the draft ever since the end of last year since I never thought the combo of Bucky and Moreno was durable enough to get the job done in this system. I am excited about so many things this year but this is not one of them and considering the O line is my biggest concern, if we don’t address this running game thing pronto, we are looking at a real challenge for whoever will be QB, just saying.
I recall your request for a big back Bay. But he did answer my “WEAPONS”. Maybe, McGenius sees in what he has at the RB position to feel comfortable and not feel the need. Remember the big back is TEBOW. Tebow will be the answer in short yardage. But being conventional, we would need a big back but we are not conventional. We are in the shotgun and not under center. Thats why Tebow was perfect QB for us. He ran the spread offense in college for years better than everyone did. If we need a back its one who can chip the DE or pick up the inside blitz. The back in this system needs to be more like P Harvin. Know I understand the need for a big back but thats who Tebow was for Florida and we run that Florida offense or as close to it as a NFL team can.
Go Broncos!!!
Anyhow, from what KFS says on the pm practice blog, Moreno should be out only three weeks and Bucky one, that’s excellent news, now if they can only stay healthy after that, I don’t know, I don’t feel good about it, I don’t buy it, we need help, Tebow will only be in in special situations, we still need some tough talented big dude to last the season carrying the majority of the load and I just don’t see that we got it, I see a lot of uncertainty at the position and it’s a tough thing to have because we are nowhere set up for the air game with the new/hurt O line and the QQ, just my opinion. Time will tell if McD is really a genius about this RB thing or if he just missed the boat, you make a good argument but you are not convincing me, hopefully McD will. This is freaking me out, LOL.
Hopefully both Buck and Moreno will be back soon.
I still wish we’d drafted Charles Scott. Or that we still had Hillis. Maybe by now he’d be out of the doghouse.