Despite the oppressive heat, the Broncos jogged out to the practice field at Dove Valley in a festive mood for their only practice of the day.
Marcus Thomas crooned along when Bon Jovi’s “Living on a Prayer” blasted out of the speakers before the session, and Ryan Harris played catch with a group of 70 soldiers from Fort Carson who attended practice in their uniforms.
“I think it’s just an incredible sacrifice they make for our country, so I just wanted to play some catch with them. Let them know that we knew they were here, we appreciate what they do,” Harris said. “It’s cool for us because it puts the drudgery of camp in perspective for us. It’s really nice to have them here.”
Champ Bailey and Daniel Graham were two of the veterans sitting out the session, but Eric Decker and Jarvis Moss returned to practice. Both players fully participated in position and team drills and sprung up quickly whenever they were taken to the ground. Moss sported white cast on his left arm.
RUSH DRILLS
HIGHLIGHTS
TWO-MINUTE DRILL
The offense has had its fair share of success during the two-minute drill, but Wednesday, the defense took control.
The first-team offense started in a situation from its own 20-yard line down 24-21 with 1:45 left on the clock. On first down, Jarvis Moss sacked Orton as he rolled out to pass, setting the tone for the rest of the drill. Lance Ball couldn’t make a short catch over the middle on second down, and the offense could convert long passes on third or fourth down.
The second-team offense had the opportunity to start under the same conditions against the second-team defense.
The drive started with promise when Quinn launched a 20-yard pass to a leaping Nathan Overbay in the middle of the field, but came to an abrupt end on the second play. Tony Carter deflected a deep Quinn pass right into the hands of Kyle McCarthy for the pick.
QUICK HITS
CATCHES FOR A CAUSE
Head Coach Josh McDaniels designated one offensive player and one defensive player to try and successfully field a punt a piece with a significant prize on the line.
If Russ Hochstein and Justin Bannan both caught the punts, they’d give their teams a night without curfew to spend with their families. Each man came through and made the catch, earning a raucous celebration from their teammates.
Bannan celebrated by taking the ball and rolling it down one arm, over his chest, and off the other arm before punting it high in the air.
“Shows you how much time I have on my hands – I can do all that stuff with a football,” Bannan said. ““I went back to my high school days as a tight end. I can catch a little bit.”
ONE DAY LEFT
Tomorrow is your last chance to come to Dove Valley and watch the Broncos practice for free. The final practice of training camp will start at 8:45 and run for about two hours.
Below are photos from today’s practice.
-Gabe Hiatt, DenverBroncos.com
Tags: Eric Decker, Jarvis Moss, Training Camp
I think being mentaly prepared to avoid injury is basically teaching a player how to use evasive actions like dodging, rolling, sliding and blocking or even jumping abilities to avoid big hits….
Maybe teaching a player how to gauge his physical limitations and take his body to the limit but not exceed it and blow out his peck or hammy..
Also, it is teaching a player when it is, and is not, necessary to self sacrafice to make the play…
Hey!
If I just came up with a new concept? I want the Broncos to give me a little love…
Just Kiddn.. You can learn that stuff at any good martial arts studio…
KEEP THE DRIVE ALIVE BRONCOS!!!!!!!!!!!
on the tebow topic. In a earlier blog I mention that tebow needs to learn how to play as a pocket qb or he can get hurt. I guess I spoked to soon!!
Yeah, you jinxed him!/kidding. You are correct to a certain extent, yes he does have to primarly become a pocket passer, but you cannot take away the running, improvisation from Tebow or otherwise he will just become an average good QB. What has the potential to make him extra special is his running and scrambling abilities, just like Elway. Rather what needs to be done is for him to do those running plays within reason, like sliding before going head first into two tacklers would be a good start. However I see this play as a good thing because right off the bat he learned something that he would of learned from no one just telling him about it, that is that you don’t get away with messing around in this league like you do in college, this league demands ultimate respect, or you will get killed, he gave the TD situation no respect and paid the price, now he is a better man for it.
Well, tomorrow is the final day of training camp, and that’s probably a good thing, here is to hoping it will signal the end of the carnage.
Just read on another site from someone who went to practice today that Kuper re-injured his ankle and left the field, that would be a bummer, are they coming back to quick from their injuries? Decker, Thomas, Kuper…
Good to see some of the guys back on the field.
Heheh….OC, I know you dont like when I respond to your posts, but glad you were able to come to a reasonable conclusion! Let’s all just hope Orton continues his progression. Tebow has a lot to learn, but he does have tremendous upside. If anybody can develop him into what we feel he can become, it’s McD. In that regard, I am glad McD is our coach.
Glad to see a few of our guys back. Tough to see the injuries are still rampant.
I heard phonzy is on the bubble. Can’t say it disappoints me. Can we put Quinn on notice too. Both of them! Lol more the TE version tho. That’s all I got for now.
GO BRONCOS 2K10!!!!!!!!!! Destroy Detroit (even if it’s still pretend)
Wait- sndvl just said he was glad that McD is our coach? Is the world ending? Are you really sndvl?
Doesn’t Tebow remind you of a left handed Big Ben? And is Thomas ever gonna get healthy? I hate how injuries always find us. What was it? 7 RB’s on IR in 2008?
Like that Jarvis Moss is back and made a sack. Hopefully he lives up to his original potential this year. Both him and Ayers on the corners. Gonna miss doom tho. If we coudlnt do it last year with doom, its hard to imagine this year without him. His pressure increased picks and forced fumbles, and turnovers win games.
I see cox didnt return kicks this practice. Hope they dont give up on him. He has alot of promise. Just requires a crash course. Reminds me of Darrent (RIP). Was thrown in there and learned the hard and interesting way.
Hope Tebow is fine but good thing he is not the starter. besides he went out under his own strength. And he is built like a rock lol.
wow… guess i kinda jinxed tebow huh? i had a feeling he was hurt more than he let on! you dont take a shot like that in the side from an NFL safety! they hit kinda hard. thought he looked tender afterwards. i think he prob just bruised them ribs good. hopefully nothing worse than that!
Go Broncos
“THE BATTLE IS WON IN THE TRENCHES”
sndvl and OC are like good politicians, they go where the wind blows, haha/jk.
Here is my early take on Saturday’s game against the Lions, and it’s a big one, the take not the game, lol, Tebow will watch it from the side lines if he even makes the trip, which makes for a very interesting decisive game for Quinn who will play at least the entire second half, and an opportunity to maybe see Orton run his first two minute preseason O. Unless they bring Quinn in the middle of the second, but I think we would stand to help ourselves more having Orton finish a half, since Quinn would finish the game anyway. I know all this is based on Tebow not playing, but honestly with the way he looked getting off that field after the TD, I know the guy is tough, but what’s the point putting him out in harm’s way for a game that means nothing, it may be as if Decker, Thomas and maybe now Kuper have been brought back too early, I definitely doubt they would even take a chance with Tebow, plus they truly need to evaluate Quinn a lot more than Tebow at this point, this will be the perfect opportunity for that.
And for the ones who can’t wait to see what the running game will do Saturday, I’ll say it again like last week, they are still way too many RB’s down to even think about evaluating the running game now. We need to be patient on that, Hall and Ball are not going to light it up, neither is Fargas with less than two weeks with the team, not to mention if Kuper is out again, the rookies will man the middle and no matter how brave they are, yards will be very hard to come by.
And not only that, the running game is a much bigger concern than just for this game, don’t take my word for it, just read Lindsay Jones thoughts about it after the last practices:
The Broncos ran the ball little in their preseason opener last week, and the mechanics of the running game didn’t seem to be much improved Wednesday as the team began its preparations for Saturday’s game against Detroit. Coach Josh McDaniels was visibly frustrated with the offense during the early full team drills, which included much of the ground-game work. The Broncos running backs have consistently struggled to run in practice against the team’s defensive line.
Basically, during all of TC, I don’t recall the O being able to punch the ball on the ground from the one yard line just about ever, on this one drill they failed 5 times in a row with 3 different runners!!! Does it ring any bell? Like all last year type of bell! I know, I know, we will have some guys back and White after the fourth game, but we couldn’t get that yard when Bucky and Moreno were healthy, I know , I know, we now have bigger O lineman, but bigger for now is offset by inexperience and so far different folks, same results, long gone are the days for plugging any back in to get results, now it’s like please plug someone in to get results.
Hopefully White will be that man and maybe Fargas by game one, but as I’ve said all off season, this season will ride on the performance of the O line, the running game certainly rides on the performance of the O line. So far it has been bleak at best in that regard and I am not looking to any great improvements there this week. Maybe we can get more than 31 yards on the ground, I believe that was our total output against the Bengals, maybe not, your guess is as good as mine on this one, I think if Vegas set a line on this it wouldn’t be higher than 50 yards, right down embarrassing either way you slice it.
Tebow, I know you wouldn’t listen to any of us out here, but maybe you can listen to our Wisdom Captain Dawkins (as reporetd by Klis):
“He has a warrior’s mentality,” Broncos safety Brian Dawkins said of Tebow. “Which is good, but at the same time, being able to decipher when and when not to. Hopefully he won’t have to learn the hard, hard way.”
Got It? I got it loud and clear, very few words, huge meaning, that’s wisdom. I got a long ways to go to get to wisdom, LMAO.
Ok, I’m done, I’m taking my first step to wisdom, haha.
Bay is right, our running game is in really bad shape. All of our early draft picks are not going to be able to contribute for a while..
Sndvl..
Thanks for the nice words.. We should still respond to each other because even though we see things with a different view sometimes we are still Bronco family after all.. Maybe we can just agree to try and be somewhat respectful to each other with plenty of exception for humor and sarcasm…
Bronc On Sndvl!!
KEEP THE DRIVE ALIVE BRONCOS!!!!
Posting to see the comments
If we didn’t have 7 RBs on the IR in 2008, we’d still have Shannahan as a coach.
For all the ones who said we oughta give a second chance to Legarette Blount, the power back who punched a player in college, I was totally against it, well, the Titans gave him a second shot and guess what, he punched one of his teammates in practice!!!!!! You gotta see the footage on that, after he punches the guy he goes into a joe Frazier type of boxing move, it’s just too freaking weird, thanks to McD for not falling for talent alone, even if I wanted a power back worse than anyone, this was an absolute negative.
Negative, if Shanahan had agreed to get rid of his Defensive coach like Bowlen had asked him to at season end, he would still be the coach.
Just watched the first pre-season game on Tivo (was on vacation and missed the live game). I was impressed by Kyle Orton’s new found passing skills. Orton’s arm strength looks as though it’s improved and I liked that he was taking shots downfield. More than taking the shots down field, Orton was pretty accurate with his throws. Quinn, uggh!!!! I think he was to pumped up and was trying way too hard. Tebow, for a rookie, I liked what I saw. He was not perfect, but you cannot discount his arm strength and ability to improvise when needed. Sure he must acclimate to the speed at the NFL level, however I think with more development he will be fine.
The nay sayers who talk about Tebows throwing motion should stop. Tebow has his style, Favre has his style, Rivers has his and on and on!!! The point is each one of these guys does not have a perfect throwing motion, however 2 of the above mentioned guys have had success and get it done, Tebow will adapt to the speed of the competition around him at this level and have success. Tebow will be fine and I am looking forward to the day he is leading the Denver Broncos to Victory. Hated to see him get hurt, but thats the chance you take in the NFL.
GO Broncos!!!!!
56, couldn’t agree with you more about Tebow’s throwing motion, argue this point here to no end, thing is someone needs to make that argument to coach McD, he is the one set on changing it, not even what Elway has to say about it has changed his mind so far, but as always McD is slow to catch on to things, the motto I always use with him is better late than never, so let’s hope eventually he let’s Tebow worry less about his throwing motion so he can concentrate on football.
Well I think my scenario of Tebow not playing Sunday is becoming a reality, here is what Klis says about today’s practice:
Rookie quarterback Tim Tebow is not participating in the team workout this morning, the final full practice of training camp. Tebow suffered bruised ribs while running for a touchdown on the final play of the Broncos’ preseason game Sunday at Cincinnati.
And a little bit of humor about the end of training camp by Klis also:
For so many battered Broncos, the end of camp couldn’t have come soon enough. Among those who suffered significant injuries during camp were linebacker Elvis Dumervil (out indefinitely with a pectoral injury), running backs Knowshon Moreno (hamstring), Correll Buckhalter (back), LenDale White (undisclosed), guard Chris Kuper (ankle), linebacker Jarvis Moss (broken left hand), rookie receivers Eric Decker (ankle) and Demaryius Thomas (left foot) and nosetackle Chris Baker (virus).
And then injuries suffered from the preseason opener in Cincinnati were Tim Tebow (ribs) and reporter Lindsay Jones (blisters from jogging without socks).
BTW, this morning was the final practice open to the public and they will have one tonight but it won’t even be opened to the media, so all we’ll have to go by is what they’ll feed us here. We are entering the off limits period of the year, the secretive nature of football machiavelic plans is back in the forefront… It must mean we are about ready to get back down to business!
for me, its not tebow’s throwing motion that sometimes worries me. its where he carries the ball. he carries it down below his waist! thats prime pickins for somebody. i read somewhere that he learned that because he got used to tucking it and running. i think he can unlearn that habbit. but i agree with you bay (and therefore Elway) that his throwing motion is not worth getting worked up over!
Go Broncos
“THE BATTLE IS WON IN THE TRENCHES”