The Broncos returned to the Dove Valley practice field Tuesday morning for their first workout since Sunday’s preseason opening loss in Cincinnati.
The team opened their final week of training camp in shorts and shells on a sunny, but cool morning.
BACK IN ACTION
Several players made their return to the practice field Tuesday, including Chris Kuper and D.J. Williams, both of whom jumped right back into the first-unit offense and defense, respectively. Perrish Cox and Joe Mays practiced as well, despite getting shaken up during Sunday’s exhibition in Cincinnati.
Demaryius Thomas and Eric Decker trotted out to the field and worked away from the rest of practice with Strength and Conditioning Coach Rich Tuten, running routes and catching passes.
Several veterans including Champ Bailey, Brian Dawkins and Daniel Graham sat out the session.
PLAYMAKERS
On back-to-back plays during 11-on-11s, Justin Fargas broke through a hole in the offensive line for a big gain, earning praise from Head Coach Josh McDaniels, then Lance Ball followed that up by finding the right place to break upfield through the line, earning a “Good read, Lance!” from the head coach.
During 7-on-7s, Orton dropped back from the line of scrimmage and lofted a deep pass toward Eddie Royal, who was sprinting toward the end zone with Wesley Woodyard in tight coverage. Royal made a quick adjustment, however, running under the pass and away from the linebacker for a touchdown.
Woodyard got his revenge later in practice, however. To close out the session, the offense and defense trotted out for a red zone drill. McDaniels shouted that it was fourth down, and either the offense or defense would win the drill. Orton took the snap, bought time in the pocket and fired to Royal in the back of the end zone, but Woodyard was there to make sure the receiver didn’t come down in bounds.
Defensive Coordinator Wink Martindale loved Woodyard’s play, shouting toward the offense, “Wanna go again?” So the units lined up against each other for one final fourth-down play. The defenders on the sideline chanted “De-fense!” and got loud as the ball was about to be snapped. This time, Orton hung back in the pocket and fired a ball between defenders to Jabar Gaffney in the middle of the end zone. The receiver appeared to get both feet in bounds for the touchdown, sending the entire offense sprinting into the end zone for a celebration while the defense argued that he was out of bounds.
During an earlier red-zone drill, Orton pump faked to help get Brandon Lloyd open in the end zone, but just as the receiver was about to haul it in, Renaldo Hill leaped in front of the pass to slap it away.
In 7-on-7s, Tim Tebow lofted a deep pass down the sideline to Alric Arnett, who adjusted to catch the back-shoulder throw in front of Alphonso Smith. On the very next play, the rookie quarterback fired a pass to Britt Davis in the middle of the field.
QUICK HITS
Spencer Larsen traveled with the team to Cincinnati, but headed back to Denver before the game — just in time to welcome a new baby girl to the family.
McDaniels spent a lot of time coaching different position drills Tuesday morning. Early in practice he held a pad during tight end drills, running toward the tight ends as they caught a pass, either banging into them or throwing the pad at them to simulate a closing linebacker.
Eddie Royal took some reps returning kicks in a drill where two “gunners” try to squeeze the returner toward the middle of the field and make the tackle. McDaniels watched the drill closely, as well, getting right in the thick of things to shout encouragement to the players.
Defensive linemen worked on a drill where they pushed their blocker backward and leaped to bat away balls launched from a JUGS Machine.
TRAINING CAMP JUKEBOX
“Tell Me Baby,” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers kicked off the morning’s workouts. “Audience of One” by Rise Against and “Citizen Solider” by 3 Doors Down closed out the set.
Below are some photos from the session. The squad returns to the field for another practice tonight at 5:30 p.m., which is also open to the public.
-Gray Caldwell, DenverBroncos.com
Tags: 2010, Denver Broncos, Matt Prater, Spencer Larsen, Training Camp
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We are going to get ourselves a pm blog for this pm practice, I wonder when they will go back to practicing in pads full speed, it has been a long while, running a little scared with the injuries. Talking about injuries, that is mainly why our team showed no depth against the Bengals, we are so injury depleted, we lost all our depth, that’s why McD is taking it easy on them, we lose a few more and our starters will be backed up mainly by practice squad type players, scary proposition.
posting to see!!!!!!!!!!!
The only think negative about Tebow was that he went back to his old mechanics but I’m sure that Mcd will try and fix that and Tebow still had a good game.
For those who think Elway knows what he is talking about, the problem would not be that Tebow reverted to his old throwing mechanics, but that McD is making him change it.
He has to though or he is going to get stripped alot because the speed at the NFL level is faster than the college game. I’m a Tebow fan and hope that he succeeds but the delivery has to get quicker.
Just saying Elway himself said that Tebow has enough speed and strength in his throws for his mechanics to work in this league, and that the coaches are making too big a deal of it, apparently you do to, or you just buy into whatever McD is saying, I’m taking Elway’s side on this one, that’s all.
BFE, FTR wants to help you with your blog problems, here is what he posted last night:
FTR says:
August 16, 2010 at 6:56 pm
BFE92
Give me a number at paulhilliard@live.com that I can call you. I think I can help your blogging woos
Who said Tebow won’t run over players in the NFL???He Damn sure did 2 at a time.LOL
Orton looked a LOT better,and Quinn,well he’s still got a long way to go,don’t know if he’ll make it or not.looks like Tebow just passed him for 2nd on the depth chart.
#1 Defense looked great,considering we were missing Doom,Dawk,DJ,and Moss.
#1 Offense looked great too,considering we were missing Moreno,Buck,White,Clady,Kuper,Thomas,Decker,Hell they were awesome scoring 14 points with half the Offensive players missing!!!
Disappointed in the #2 Defense,the line played awful against the run,and as bad as I have to admit it,Phonzie proved he is a flop,I’ve been holding up for him for over a year now.
Woodyard on the other hand showed he is a starting LB,has toughness and speed.Haggan looked pretty good too.
Cox didn’t impress me in coverage or kicks,Vaugn returned kicks better than him.
Champ is still the best CB in the NFL.Whoever said Cox could replace Goody,needs to watch more football.
I just hope we get healthy and stay healthy,because our backups are pretty sad.
Elway as QB, 5 superbowls, McD as HC, 0 and no playoffs, haha.
No I’m not taking anyones side but I also think that it might have to change I’m not saying that it will but last game could have been a fumble but just got it out, and if you have three or four of those a game then thats not good, but if it works then do not fix it but it does not then he will have to in order to succeed in the league, and elways release was quicker so he does not know if tebow’s is good enough or not and the speed of the game is quicker than when elway played and also more of a passing league.
Thanks Baylin.
its Mcd’s first year give him a break elway didnt go to a superbowl in his first year either, haha
BFE, love the Goodman/Cox reference, LOL. How can you compare a proven vet with a guy who has yet to play a down in this league is beyond me.
The speed of the game is quicker than when Elway played????
Elway does not know, funny stuff, LOL.
Nah he just played 16 years.LOL
I dont mean a lot but its been ten years and the college players are getting better nutrition technology advancements are allowing better training programs most of the players today are built better than ten years ago, now 300 plus d lineman can run 4.5 fortys and linebackers are quick to. Elway would still be great today especially with our recieving core and o line, but the game is fast and Tebows delivery will cost him a few passes but I think that he will be great to.
I don’t know,but Tebow looked pretty Damn good to me for his 1st time on the field,and his accuracy looked ok to me.If he has to work on his release a little,that’s ok.Elway can teach him everything he needs to know and then some.
Yeah, watching Tebow in that game was enough to make me understand what McD has always said about the kid: He has IT!
Thats exactly what I was trying to say bfe92 that tebow is still good and that his mechanics now will get him by but if he is going to be great then they will need to be tweaked a little bit but we have mcgenius and elway to help but even with all of the so called muscle memory game time brings out the old habits which the florida coaches should have taken care of when he first arrived, but then he would of been a top five pick and we would not of gotten a steal, although given the circumstances we probably could of gotten him in the second round or lower.
Watched him kick Tenn’s a** for 4 years,so I already knew he had it.You can watch him play and already tell he is going to be a special player,I haven’t had 2 many good things to say about McD but picking Tebow was a good pick,and I’ll stand by him on that one.
And you don’t teach that, you either got it or you don’t, Elway had it, Tebow has it, Simms did not have it, Quinn does not have it and Orton is doing it the old fashion way, through a lot of hard work. I have a lot of respect for that guy even so I know you have not liked him very much to say the least BFE, you have to agree that he seemed to have made big strides.
unstoppable, good handle for you, LoL, we get your point about Tebow you got ours, and the blog moves on, after a while it’s just repetitive to keep arguing the same points, just saying, I enjoyed your point of view though.
I’ll agree with you on that one Baylin,Orton did look like a totally different QB in the pocket,even his footwork looked much better,and his long ball accuracy was much improved.
BFE, you have it rough, you don’t like McD, you don’t like Orton, Doom is out and Marshall is a Dolphin, hang in there, buddy, haha.
What I was most impressed by Orton was his pocket presence, he had absolutely none last year, like a dear in a headlight, but he just was comfortable there moving around where he had to, very different.
LMAO
Where do you guys think that Demaryius is going to play this year at number two or what, and also do predict Decker to be a slot guy or eventually Thomas one and Decker two.
I look for Thomas to be a backup if he dosen’t get healthy very soon,because Gaffney,Lloyd,Willis,Stokely and Royal all have experience running routes over him.
Decker,if he gets healthy,I think will rotate with Royal in the slot maybe since he is more of a posession type WR.
I don’t know about how ya’ll feel with the new website but i’m finding it hard to locate all the latest news and notes from each day of camp. In addition I’d like to know more on where Lendale is at and how Moreno is doing. I know it’s only preseason but i’m a little concerned with our running game. However i do like the addition of Fargas, that dude runs hard almost reckless adandon for his body! I really enjoyed the way Orton threw the ball against the Bengals, man he looked good and we may have a new #1 wideout in Gaffney, i mean he did put up close to 800 yards receiving last year. Again i’m reminded it’s only preseason but it was fun to watch the 1st team offense move the ball and nice to see eddie find the endzone!
If Royal can return to his form,he could definitely be our #1 WR.IMO
I personally think that due to the fact that both of them sat out the entire OTA’s and most of TC, and they are nowhere ready to come back yet, I find it very difficult to believe McD would make them anything but 4th or 5th at best, Decker could relieve Royal in the slot, but if Stokley makes the cut, that’s even less likely, and Thomas will be playing behind Gaffney, Lloyd and maybe even Willis if he is kept. Bottom line I think that it looks now that this year will be a breaking into the NFL slowly type of year for both, nothing more.
ohio, BFE can tell you a choice word or two about the new website, LMAO!
I liked the old website better. It was much easier to distinguish between what was what, and my computer has trouble shifting through the slides. I liked it better when blogs were under the blogs tab, articles under news, videos under videos, and pictures under pictures. Can we start a petition or something to change back? LOL.
No mater how much you b*tch about it,it’ll get fixed when it gets fixed!!!!!!!!!!!LOL.
Maniac, yeah the old one made too much sense, lol.
Hopefully the team gets fixed before the blog, or we could be in for a heck of a long season.
Haha bay, I think we’re in for a long season one way or another, whether when watching them play or when trying to use the website.
Yeah, about the season, I’m hoping for the best, ready for the worst, and we will probably end up somewhere in between, once again, that would be the fifth year in a row, time flies even when you’re not having fun.
My cousin predicted us at 5-11. He says that we don’t have a pass rush, a good QB, or a running game, which are the three most important things you can have. I see us closer to 8-8.
I would agree with your cousin that we don’t have a legitimate pass rush anymore with Doom out, I would disagree that we don’t have a good QB, we don’t have a great QB, but last year Orton was already rated in the top half of the league, and he is much improved now, and I would agree that we don’t have a solid running game, first because McD’s scheme doesn’t make it a priority, second all the injuries, and third but most important of all the inside of our O line is basically brand new other tha Kuper and will be a work in progress, so I can see where you cousin comes from, but I like your record better, even Vegas has us winning 7 games.
Definitely no playoffs though. Those hopes died along with Doom’s pectoral. Not to mention all the other injuries that have plagued us.
To tell you the truth I never saw playoffs this year, next year should be our year, but even if we go 9-7 this year I don’t see us winning the division and that won’t be good enough to get us one of two wildcard spot. San Diego is the champion 4 years running and to get to the playoffs we have to change that, I just don’t see that we can do it this year, but it will be a fun season nevertheless, we will get answers to many questions, and if we can compete late in games and in the season it would be a great improvement. I enjoy every season regardless of records as long as they give it their all for 60 minutes each game, like I like to say, it’s not the goal but the journey that counts, at least for me.
footballmaniac, your cousin can say alot of things. But as much as I hate the chargers the best thing they have is a good qb, No running game and not much of a pass rush at all. So his theory is true but those chargers are always in the playoffs giving teams hell. Just wait until we get healthy and god help us stay healthy. We will surprise every critic in the nfl and have them jumping in the bronco wagon. Everyone is always putting my broncos down but I back them up. Think about it my father in law is a charger fan and my brother in law a raider fan. So my point is, let him say what he wants. last year we were suppose to win 2 to 4 games look at what happened!!!
60 MINUTES OF FOOTBALL GO BRONCOS!!!
The only way we make playoffs is if the Chargers have fallen off so much, and raiders and chiefs have improved enough, to split with the broncos. In other words, the only way we make playoffs this year is if its a really close race in the AFW west meaning that everyone has the same or close to the same average record and we somehow come out on top. ONLY way. But I doubt it. WRs arent where we need them to be, our Marshall replacement is constantly hurt not to mention the rookie learning curve (This is why u dont draft injured players. Skilled players at that). Run game is stagnant and liek I said last year, its not just Oline or RB play, It is mainly because of the run plays in McDs play book. THey lack imagination. HE needs to crack it open but he is a QB guy so thats why the pass and spread game works but we need some ground game. Defense is good but I dont think it will be as good as last year in Winks first year. I say 7-9 but we may get lucky, have momentum on our side, or have great chemistry. I doubt th eluck aspect seeing as how weve been droppign liek flies, too early for great chemistry. So all we can hope for is momentum and any given sunday. TRB out…
ANY GIVEN SUNDAY!!! GO BRONCOS!!!