The Broncos picked up the pace in Saturday’s walkthrough practice.
The team worked on its hurry-up offense, forcing the players to jog to the line of scrimmage during the the early portion of the session.
Offensive Coordinator Mike McCoy was giving constant instruction to his offense, repeating the amount of timeouts left and a particular down-and-distance he wanted his unit to work through.
Defensive Coordinator Dennis Allen emphasized communication as he sent various packages onto the field. The energetic coordinator was the only one on the field who got some actual running in as he sprinted to the huddle to give instructions.
The team later settled back into its normal routine as they walked through the playbook and finished the practice with some special teams work, as players participated in a punt-block drill and worked on blocking assignments during kick returns.
Here are some other notes and observations from the session:
Eddie Royal participated in the walkthrough with the first-team offense after sitting out the morning practice.
Brodrick Bunkley — who also missed the morning practice — watched the walkthrough from the sidelines.
Head Coach John Fox stopped by for a brief chat with media and revealed that team captains will be voted on a game-by-game basis as opposed to naming season-long captains.
Matt Willis brought down a nice one-handed catch on a sharply thrown ball.
Brandon Lloyd spent some time working on his batting stance when he was off to the sideline, and Knowshon Moreno had some fun showing fellow running back LenDale White dance moves during a break in the action.
A candidate for best throw of the session came from none other than left tackle Ryan Clady, who took part in a contest with quarterbacks Kyle Orton and Brady Quinn to hit the crossbar from 25 yards out. Orton and Quinn failed to hit the target, but Clady stepped up, drilled the crossbar and made sure to celebrate. Afterwards, he got some congratulatory high-fives from both Orton and Quinn.
The players have the day off tomorrow, and Coach Fox apparently told the players they have the rest of the evening off as well, as there was an audible cheer as they broke the huddle.
The Broncos are back on the practice fields at Dove Valley in a session open to the public Monday afternoon from 2:20 to 5 p.m.
-Max Henson
Tags: Training Camp
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GO BRONCOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Definitely!
Later Bro. It’s about my bedtime, too
Hasta la pasta
is it just me or did kyle mccarthy totally deliver for our the first preseason game. i think he stopped two drives forcing punts and has a sack or two. kinda starting to remind me of john lynch. i’m liking what i see with mccarthy.
I saw that too, Marty. I have a feeling he might be another casualty of the numbers game, though.
I think McCarthy made the team with his performance. If anybody gets cut it’s McBath. He has the potential, bur way too injury prone.
I guess we will see if McCarthy can produce the next 3 weeks. But I definitely appreciated his effort. More than Nate Jones’s effort for sure!
sndvl…Mccarthy has my vote too bro,he’s looked good in practice!!!!
Eating some BBQ ribs(I grilled earlier) and finishing off my beer…..Bronc you all later!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
First good to see you T-Bird, been here all off season feeding my constantly ever flowing feelings about our Broncos and their organization and there was plenty to talk about after our 4-12 season and with the challenges ahead.
Now, to the present, martyball, no you are not the only one, I reserved one of the top paragraphs of my game analysis to McCarthy the other day effusively praising the guy and going as far as calling him the stand out player of that game.
Which brings me to this T-Bird, McCarthy another casualty of the numbers game??? What on earth are you talking about???? Starting off with the depth chart; he is only second to Dawk at SS!! Plus they are only three deep at SS with Carter being third and no way that guy is ready no matter how hard he puts a lick on, and Dawk can’t carry any of the pass coverage skills needed due to his loss of speed, bottom line McCarthy is right now the best back up and complimentary player that Dawk needs, cutting him we would be down to Carter and nothing, that will not happen, McCarthy is being played as much as Vaughn is simply because they need to get those two guys to be ready for regular season action as much as possible to be a huge part of the rotation, NOT because they are wondering whether they should cut them or not, like they are doing with Nate but talked about that in an earlier post so I’ll leave it at that. And if I’m wrong about all that I know nothing about football, or how this organization operates.
And Mikey, about tipping my hand about our season record prediction, of course I have a number in mind, but the reason I won’t take predictions until two weeks before the first regular season game is because bloggers will keep adjusting their number because of what happens in the next three presesaon games, injuries, cuts, acquisitions, final starting roster, all kinds of things have still yet to be established before I can put my pen on paper about that, but it won’t really be on the pretty side, I can say that much.
Julius Thomas is very far from being TE ready for this NFL game and what Fox asks of his TEs which is mainly blocking:
The Broncos’ rookie tight end from Portland State missed a block on a blitz in the second quarter of the preseason opener, giving a Dallas defender a clear shot at Tim Tebow.
“I learned my lesson on the blitz, and we’ll work on that this week,” Thomas said. “Sometimes it’s good to have plays you didn’t do good on so you can learn from it now, so that you don’t get hit with it Week 1. I’d rather get hit with it in the first preseason game.”
Thomas, who played only one year of college football, had several snaps with Denver’s starting offense at Dallas and remained in the game to play with the backup quarterbacks. Thomas said he felt like he was “thinking too much,” and that led to him playing slow early in Thursday’s game.
“I think that shows up on the film,” he said. “Overall it needs to be better, no question, if I want to be what this team needs me to be and I want to be what I want to be for myself.”
I’d say he’s got a lot further to go to secure a spot than McCarthy does, and most everyone seem to think Julius is a shoe in to make the team….
Too bad Brian is never in on weekends since this is exactly what he was talking about the other day, players are in it for the money, and definitely not for the fans (see cba mess), at least 90% of them, including Orton of course since he publicly said so. This is a question and answer on Kiszla’s mail box:
Orton for Colorado governor?
“Football is not a democracy; it’s a dictatorship. So why do fans think they would be able to elect the starting quarterback for the Broncos? Kyle Orton is absolutely right. He only has to prove his worth on the field, not in the realm of cult fanaticism. If more politicians had this notion, our country would be better off. I hope Orton remains here after his playing days and runs for office.”
Joe, Aurora
Kiz: Can you handle the truth? Orton is playing for the money, not love of the Broncos or fans. No matter how well Orton performs this season, do you see Denver giving him a new contract for three years and $30 million? I don’t think so. So let’s be brutally honest: Orton is a mercenary looking for his next NFL job. There’s nothing wrong with that. But it might be tough to get elected Colorado governor when Orton is a resident of Arizona or Florida.
This is funny:
Hey, lighten up, man.
“Tebow needs to be Tebow, not the pretty yard flamingo that is Orton.”
Mark, Windsor
Kiz: Hey, that’s not fair. I’d say Orton is at least as mobile as a garden gnome.
Here is a quick recap about our rookies and how they are faring, nothing eye opening that we didn’t know before but nicely condensed into one place by the DP:
No. 2 LB Von Miller
A starter since Day One. Had one solo tackle and one assist against Dallas.
No. 45 S Rahim Moore
Starting at free safety next to veteran Brian Dawkins. No stats recorded against Dallas.
No. 46 RT Orlando Franklin
As the starting right tackle, he’s proving his skill as a run blocker, though he has plenty of room to improve in pass protection.
No. 67 LB Nate Irving
Suffered a sprained ankle early last week and missed the preseason opener. He is third on the depth chart at MLB behind Joe Mays and Mario Haggan.
No. 108 S Quinton Carter
Playing with the second- and third-team defense as a strong safety, as well as on several special-teams units.
No. 129 TE Julius Thomas
Played with the first-team offense against Dallas. Showing natural ability as a pass catcher but must work on his blocking to earn more playing time.
No. 189 LB Mike Mohamed
Received plenty of work at weakside linebacker with the second and third defense against Dallas, and made two tackles.
No. 204 TE Virgil Green
He caught a touchdown in the scrimmage last week, but is behind at least four other tight ends on the depth chart.
No. 247 DE Jeremy Beal
His best play in the preseason opener came on special teams when he made a potentially touchdown- saving open-field tackle on a kick return.
My biggest concern from watching the game is with the OLine. After the 1st team, the fall-off is dramatic. Any injuries on the OLine may be impossible to overcome during the season and there will be injuries, there always is. With an injury on the OLine, whoever plays QB better have his track shoes on or he may have a very short season!
Henryac, we just might pick up one or two back-up O-Linemen off of the waiver wire come September 3rd. We are #2 on claiming players just behind Carolina as we know. it`s not the most ideal situation, but we got to plug in a hole or two where need be. There just could very well be a qaulity back-up for us. We know we`re going to get a few players from the wire and not just the O-line. We`ll see eventually.
henryac,
I agree with you that our 2nd string o-line lacked. Let’s remmeber we will probably get some guys off waivers, once some good players are cut.
Couldn’t agree with you more, the second unit O line is awful, just ask Tebow. And Orton and track shoes is like an oxymoron so lots to be concerned about there for sure. I’ll repeat what I said before, I would love to see how Orton would perform behind the second team O line and how Tebow would perform behind the first team O line and then I can make a much more intelligent assesment of our QBs, not that it’s really necessary for me, but I’m more talking about the coaches, just for the sake of fairness in them making their decision over who is truly the best bet for starter considering our current predicament, just saying.. It’s like now is the time to use all those various combos to enable them to make the smart decisions, come regular season it will be too late.
58, with all due respect, it won’t make any difference at all, the O line is not one you address whenever the need arises, it is always the unit that requires the most time to gel, what rotations you’ve got now is about as good as you’re gonna get for the season.
Heck, put Tebow in with the first stringers this next game against Buffalo and see how he doe`s. Thats what I`d do to make a fare assessment.
Rumor mill has it here in south FL that Miami may make a play for Tebow. They are saying that they will build their game around him instead of trying to change everything about him like Denver is doing. I don’t know about this though. I can’t find this in writing anyplace. Just came up after their 1st pre-season game on a local sportscast I was watching.
Depth may be the biggest problem this year. Seems like they have it in some places but not in others. Depth only comes from smart drafting and it takes awhile to build. Denver may need a couple of years to try and build up the depth to really compete consistently at the top levels.
There just the Florida fans jibber jabbering. I`m not concerned.
One player who comes to mind on the second teams of our O-line who plays G and T thats a quality player is Russ Hochstein. After him I`m not sure. I`m sure if a player went down on the O-line that Hochstein would be the guy to come in and play.
Having depth is exactly why the Packers won the SB even with more injuries to starters than basically any other team, depth is something bad teams like ours just don’t have, and I can’t keep smiling at this blogger a while back who came on here and said, why are you all saying we are rebuilding, we are not rebuilding we are just a new coaching staff and a couple of new players away is all. And I have this beautiful Grand Canyon wonder of the world I would like to sell you…
keep from smiling
Stanley Daniels had some starting time last season as well. Seth Olsen, while not flashy, is a solid backup as well. So there is 3 quality backups. It would have been nice to get Ryan Harris resigned. But no big deal. If we can add one more lineman through the waiver wire, we should be ok. As far as the depth goes… Which leaves CB as the last area of depth concerns!!!!
Did you see how ok the second unit O line was, the revolving door bunch for the opposing D, LOL.
CB and perhaps a FB too.
Well, unless all 5 of our starters go out, that’s a problem we won’t have to worry much about. Lol
Spencer Larsen is our FB. No need to get another one. Especially if we keep Lendale. And Fells can be an emergency fill in. I think.
sndvl, I have to say I find it very interesting how you used to be the ultimate “realist”, or pessimist some said, fan under McD but you have completely turned around to a full fledge “optimist” since EFX took over. I must say I admire that kind of trust in the new system, not saying I don’t feel better about things, but for me to go from realist to optimist overnight before we have even played a regular season game is way outside of my football thinking range, cautiously optimistic for now is by far the best I can do, very,very cautiously.
Not to mention, our second unit is better than anything the Bears put together as a starting unit. Lmao. I’m not concerned at all about our O-line. D-line either. With McBean and Hunter at 3rd string…..we are deep there as well!
Deep at QB. Deep at RB. Deep at TE. Deep at WR. Deep at LB. Deep at S.
So far (QQ not withstanding) EFX have done a tremendous job “rebuilding” this teams depth!
I’ll say that I’m more optimist long term than I am for this year, to me this season is nothing but a bridge to go from darkness to sunny days again, but there will be many gray days ahead this year, and a tempest here and there, like the QQ, haha.
That’s what I mean, you sound like a man in love, there is no other way to explain your depth analysis…
I’m glad you brought that up baylin!
To explain my stance, I’ll keep it short and sweet.
McD was a NE product with no real emotional attachment to Broncos Country. (among a slew of other things ie- experience, personal relationship skills, and super ego issues).
With Elway, he is Broncos Country. Fox has the experience and superb player/personal relationship skills. Xanders, no super ego issues there. I’m sure he is chomping at the bit to make amends and distance himself from the McD era (pronounced error).
The depth term does not mean body depth, it is meant for me to be viewed as quality depth, and if we have quality depth everywhere then by golly it’s playoff time for sure, at least it should be, right?
We are headed in the right direction. After the failed hoodie experiment. Watching our teams foundation get demolished piece by piece, injury by injury, and player doghouse deeper than our depth chart- you tell me baylin! What’s there not to be optimistic about concerning our Orange & Blue?
Of course I meant to say you implied we have quality depth, because I don’t think we do, not for this season anyway because our depth is mainly made of inexperienced players and it will show all year, next year different story, and that’s the whole reasoning behind rebuilding, it doesn’t happen overnight like many seem to hope for now, EFX or not, just my point.
I agree, I’m just not ready to climb on my roof and claiming to the world we have great depth and will be up to great things this season. I remember once upon a time here in the off season everyone was saying we must have patience, this will take time, but now like every other year at this time of the year the excitement flows over and out the window goes the patience thing, because of what we’ve done in the off season we are already ready to be great, and we haven’t even played a game yet, that’s all I’m saying, you just sound like a different man is all.
I completely agree. I’m not ready to say we will be competing for a championship this year. That’s not to say out team won’t be competitive this season. I am confident that we will compete. Every game. Bringing out best. Players respond to a coach in certain ways. Fox is a positive influence.
Hey, we see cases of worst to first every year. There’s no harm in being optimistic that can be the Broncos this season.
*our* not out. Lol
There were 5-6 games last season that could have went into our W column. But I’ll tell you, a head coach has to inspire his team to reach deep down and give that extra.
Not only did hoodie not have his players inspired, apparently some of assistants weren’t in the same page.
This is a completely DIFFERENT environment. That’s the source of my new found optimism!
Well, nice chattin baylin. I gotta honey-do list that needs some attention!
Well, I’ll leave that for another day, worse to first has always been done with a full off season to prepare for the reversal of fortune, so on a two week off season plus 4 preseason games that will be a different beast all together, but I do love your new found optimism, just hope it won’t let you down too hard if we don’t end up competing like you expect.
You can’t really blame E and F you can blame X though somewhat, In the end the person to truly blame is in St. Louis and we all know who that is. Elway and Fox did not draft Tebow, Moreno, Ayers, Alphonso Smith, Quinn the TE, with a bunch of high first rounders and a bunch of high second rounders that we got in trades for cutler and for brandon marshall, who had proven they could play in the NFL. Mcdaniels is the only person to blame, getting rid of Hillis, everyone says that what are we complaining about if he was never that good in Denver, i say bs we saw flashes of his greatness before mcfags got here. I will say this much of our defeats last season were not ortons fault, sure he could of driven us for last second drives were he messed up but the defense is what really let us down. I do not think this is a give up season, I truly believe that our defense is going to be better and quite possibly be a top 15 defense. Orton can take us to the playoffs and not sure much after that but I believe we can with the AFC west. That being said I also have faith that Tebow can lead us to the playoffs as he has played well every time I have seen him putting up great numbers. We as fans need to support our team with whatever decision they make in the end both Orton and Tebow are Broncos and as such they need our support. As for quinn the hell with releasing him to get a starting job somewhere, he is an asset and one that we should keep, solid qb backup.
Gary Caldwell: Is there any way you can include which Broncos are on the field at the start of each series (Offensive and defensive) as a part of your blogcast during the preseason? Those of us who have to wait for the NFLN rebroadcast of the preseason games sure find it confusing as to who is or isn’t on the field. Especailly the away games when all you hear is the home team rambling on about uninmortant matters ands don’t bother showing all the plays.
45YEARBRONCOFANSATILLONSTRIKE!!!
But thrilled to see some young guns strutting their stuff to impress one and all.
I think we need to bring in a WR
I like the wr’s we have if only Thomas was healthy th
Julius Thomas is a shoe in for making the team and as shown by his first team reps, will be on the field a good bit during his rookie season. Fox is going to run multiple tight end sets and Thomas will not have to block DE’s on a regular basis. More like blitzing safeties or speed rushing OLB’s. His role will clearly be on passing down’s and situations. He will need to improve his blocking as the year progresses but his athleticism will get him on the field from day 1.
McCarthy had one good game. He was horrible last season so I’m going to reserve my optimism on him. He had a free run at the QB on his sack, that was more a good play call then a good individual play. Glad to see him play well don’t get me wrong, but I’m not ready to annoint him a solid backup just yet. I’m still a fan of Bruton and McBath (when healthy)
Depth chart safeties:
SS Brian Dawkins Kyle McCarthy Quinton Carter
FS Rahim Moore Darcel McBath David Bruton
As far as I’m concerned McCarthy is one who worked real hard this off season to be where he is at and obvioulsy Fox agrees.
Depth chart TEs:
TE Daniel Fells Richard Quinn Dan Gronkowski Dante Rosario
Julius Thomas Virgil Green
So maybe I shouldn’t go so much by Fox’s depth chart and pay more attention to you guys? For now the depth chart is as good as barometer as any for me, to each his own.
Well Julius Thomas gets first team reps and got them in the first preseason game so maybe you should just use that as a barometer?
And when the depth chart came out you made a comment about not taking it too seriously… interesting