Last week against the Chiefs, the linebacker corps contributed four sacks, a forced fumble and a touchdown to the winning effort. On Wednesday, the unit potentially became even deeper.
For the first time in more than a month, Robert Ayers stepped onto the practice field. Before suffering a foot injury in Week 5 at Baltimore, the second-year linebacker had tallied 1.5 sacks and earned a game ball from Head Coach Josh McDaniels after the win at Tennessee for his run-stuffing performance against Chris Johnson.
McDaniels said the team will take their time evaluating Ayers as the week goes on.
“We have a lot of different things we are going to consider,” McDaniels said. “Not only is he just starting back to practice, but his stamina, his overall ability to play, how many snaps is the big question for us, and how he does and how he reacts once he is back on the field.”
While Ayers works his way back into game shape, the linebackers will continue their game of musical chairs within the front seven.
When the coaching staff decided to bump Mario Haggan to the outside last week, Joe Mays started on the inside and notched seven tackles.
Haggan sacked Chiefs quarterback Matt Cassel three times, raising his career sack total to six. Haggan’s bookend, Jason Hunter, picked up a sack of his own and scored a touchdown when he scooped a fumble forced by Haggan and sprinted 75 yards untouched.
“We have some flexibility there,” McDaniels said. “We are probably going to see more than one combination of that in the game I would imagine because I don’t anticipate staying with one grouping for 70 plays.”
Even if Ayers is able to play on Monday night in San Diego, his level of stamina is unknown. After such a productive game, Haggan could see more time for Ayers on the edge, where he spent the majority of his time last year.
Learning two positions comes with the territory for the veteran, and it’s just one way he’s earned his head coach’s respect.
“It’s not easy, and it’s a credit to him because we have made him learn that basically all year,” McDaniels said. “He is very unselfish. He still played a huge role in the kicking game on Sunday, but that is Mario and that’s why he is such a valuable person and a valuable player for our team.”
On Monday Night Football, Haggan might not be the only one pulling double duty.
“We are probably going to put a few guys in different spots, make them double learn this week because we have to,” McDaniels said.
ONE MORE ‘BACKER
David Veikune’s resolve landed him in Denver. The linebacker found a team after tryouts with the Dolphins, Eagles, Texans and Titans.
On Wednesday the team added a new dimension to the front seven by signing Veikune and releasing Jarvis Moss. A second-year player, Veikune played in 10 games for the Browns last season. After being waived by Cleveland, he never lost hope that he would find a new club.
“I always had a good outlook,” he said. “I think a big part of this game is being able to fight through adversity, and I definitely pushed through everything and stayed motivated and it helped me out.”
He said he played inside linebacker in Cleveland, but he doesn’t know what plans Defensive Coordinator Don Martindale has for him. At his first practice on Wednesday, he did his best to keep up.
“They’re throwing as much as they can at me, and I’m just trying to learn it as fast as I can,” he said.
McDaniels expressed gratitude for Moss’ work while he was with the organization and wished him the best of luck down the road.
“He has been a great kid for us. He has done everything we have asked him to do,” McDaniels said. “It just hasn’t been a perfect fit.”
-Gabe Hiatt, DenverBroncos.com
Below are pictures from Wednesday’s practice:
Tags: 2010, David Veikune, Denver Broncos, Head Coach Josh McDaniels, Jason Hunter, Joe Mays, Mario Haggan, Robert Ayers
YESSSSSSS! we missed you!!!
Due to injury and in effect lack of motivation moss has been some what of a flop. The LB is strong and can only get strong with Doom ready to return next season (Assuming he is not brought back in to early)
Would be great to have Ayers back but it would only do more harm than good to rush him back. I would think he’d be ready for at least the Rams game but surely the next KC match. We need our guys strong & healthy… don’t push it Ayers. Whatever our defense did against KC, it worked like a charm… we need to double the pressure though. Rivers will be no easy test. Will be interesting to see what our new addition adds to the defense. For once I hope they’ve acquired someone who can actually help this team. Only time will tell if acquiring Veikune was better than keeping Moss on board. Moss had his fair share of good & bad moments. He was more like a come ‘n go player… looked good at times and then others, not so much.
Defense will need to be at their very best against SD. Pressure Rivers till he’s blue in the face. haha No mercy boys, NO mercy!!! I say 28-20, Broncos all the way.
Have faith Bronco Country…
GO BRONCOS in 2010!!!!
Great to know Ayers will be back soon. I`ve noticed that each and every game that his production has increased. Don`t rush back to fast Robert. We need ya bro.
I am very excited about our 3…4… defense…I think we got it now… Our LB’s look awesome… I still believe… Go Broncos
Hunter producing, Ayers on the way back, Moss became expendable, only makes sense.
Yeah LB is definitely our strength on defense this year. Imagine how good they would be with Doom in the lineup. They’d be unstoppable. But oh well. At least we get Ayers back. He’s still developing as a pass rusher, but he showed early in the year that he’s a beast against the run.
Things are looking up, atleast for now. Glad to see good news rollin in for once. Wish Moss the best, but he definitely was not doing enough for us to justify being a 1st round pick. Hope the new guy shows us something.
As for the Chargers, I hate them with a passion. I think they have a lot of bandwagon fans, and I get tired of them talking about going to the Super Bowl every stinkin year even though they can barely win in the playoffs.
Broncos win 28-24. As long as we play like we did against the Chiefs and tighten up the secondary we got a shot. Let’s push the Sparklers to the bottom of the division.
Loved to hear this after my post before the game last week!! McD could be learning something from more coaches then his mentor in NE. I still do not like McD and what he has done to our proud team, but it shows he is learning. Maybe he called Walsh!! LOL
DP wrote:
Also at McDaniels’ press conference today, much was made about how he scripted 18 plays for the victory over the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday. McDaniels has scripted plays before this season, but this was the first time the Broncos scored 21 points in the first quarter. In their previous eight games, the Broncos had scored just 7 points in the first quarter. I posted this before the game:
I think scripted Plays are the key for a Broncos victory this Sunday vs. the Chiefs I know we all know how well it worked for Shanahan and a another great coach named Walsh. Who invented it!! A Walsh innovation was scripting the first 15 offensive plays of the game. Walsh went as far as to script the first 25 plays but most teams stop at 15. Since the offensive team knew that the first 15 plays would be run as scripted no matter what, they could practice those plays to perfection, minimizing mistakes and penalties. By ignoring situational play-calling and increasing the game tempo, scripted plays also served to confuse the defense and induce early penalties. Executing these plays successfully could establish momentum and dictate the flow of the game. It also gave the coaching staff an opportunity to run test plays against the defense to gauge their reactions in game situations. Later in the game, an observed tendency in a certain situation by the opposing defense could be exploited. Our offense MUST Jump on top and score as many points in the 1st Q will be the key as I and others have posted before know for a fact it will slow down this running KC team!!—-Just me! GO BRONCOS!! ILMSDB
Had to do the repost thing sorry!!
Bolts are going down!!
FTR
Maybe just maybe Elway had some input?
FTR
Well, it looks like baylin is still making friends! What was the point of that rant anyway?
I have always supported Orton. Never cared for the pompous and aloof Cutler. Stronger arm then Elway? C’mon guy! Have a winning season first! Ugh. I hope he chokes tomorrow night. Lol. That’s all I have to say about that.
Marshall. Different story. He is a BEAST. His talent is rare. Would have loved for him to stay. I guess that makes Lloyd a FREAK. Because some of those grabs of his are circus freaky! He has been the biggest surprise by far this season. Well, either him or Orton. But y’all know my stance on Orton. Lol.
But yeah, Lloyd has definitely exceeded expectations. Made most of us forget the BEAST. Well, most of us… Sorry TRB!
Good riddance to Moss. Always thought it was a mistake for Shanny to move up to get him. That chapter is closed. Hope it doesn’t come back to ‘bite’ McD in da reer!
So, we get our first and only Primetime game of the year?!? Hopefully the team that played Sunday shows up. Not the one that forgot to show up a few weeks back. Something tells me it’s gonna be somewhere in between! IDK what to expect, tho chances are cry me a rivers will pout at some point in the game. Hopefully it’s at the end of the game. I hold him in regard with the QB here in the Chi. Not very high!
I’m not drinking any Kool-Aid. We beat Mandiego, I may be tempted to take a sip.
31-30 Broncos
It was obviously a McD spiked kool aid rant, pretty powerful stuff!!!
Glad to hear Ayers may be able to go Sunday,I think he showed us a little bit of what he can do before he got hurt,I hope he comes back with a vengeance,but not too soon tho!….I want him back out there,but only if he is healthy.
With Ayers coming back soon will make us all the better on D.
Lloyd is a freak,I like him,but I would like to see our #1 pick(Thomas) get more touches,not to mention Royal and Decker.Orton is doing good,but like he did with Marshall last year,he seems to be eying Lloyd too much,he needs to spread the wealth,but as long as we win I ain’t gonna gripe too much,but would like to see us get our moneys worth outta our #1 pick,just saying.
BFE
Agreed.
I wouldn`t be surpries if Lloyd got another Extention. Of course I wouldn`t make a move until a CBA is reached.
If we start spreading the ball around, that will make our offence all the more dangerous.
Yeah,Lloyd is definitely working out good for us,we need to keep him signed.
I`d love to see Decker get more involved. His hands are made of gold.
It seems the “Four Horsemen” have vanished,and there is only one left.
Maybe in the distance of time they will start to form and take color of there positions.
who is out there tonight? Some have said that the hope Goodman is ready to go opposite champ. I am thinking we will need more youth to step up. Like Sydquan and Cox. I noticed a lot of weariness in the secondary in the fourth quarter of the KC game. Don’t give Rivers an inch, he’ll take a mile.
Hahaha, SNDVL, now you know ill never get over the Marshall trade. Love the guy. Pure Beast. No one else does what he does like he does. But yes, Lloyd has exceeded all expectations. He has made alot of nice Grabs. Im a fan of the Beast because I LOVE the WR position and i liked how he played it. In the same breath, its the same reason I can appreciate what lloyd does and Thomas potential but forget or ever be over it… NEVER!!!! Tommorow I will be screaming FEED THE BEAST!!!!
lol
Side note: Glad Tyler Thigpen is getting another shot. Thought he was good as a cheif. Nice passes and mobility. Henne sucks. Not using the beast right lol
ps: Guess i missed the rant … Baylins always making friends lol
Put em all out there. Whomevers ready! Hopefully Champ sets the tone with an early pick… Wouldn’t that be nice!
BFE, gotta disagree with you about Orton locking in on Lloyd. I think it’s more a testament about how well Lloyd is performing. He has very few drops on the season. Which makes him a lock!
Dont think Orton is locking in either, back in the Marshall days, yes. Clearly, cuz Marshall could move mountains even when double teamed, ask Indy
lol
On sunday, they said they asked brandon lloyd “how come this is the first time we are seeing u perform at this level?”. Lloyd says “Because there has never been a offense built around getting me the ball. Even this offense isn’t built around getting me the ball. Its built to get the open man the ball, so I make sure I am open” He works his tail off. He aint no beast, but he a freak in his own way.
FTR, well done about bringing up the benefits of starting a game out with scripted plays just a couple days before McD actually came out with a bunch.
Anyhow, this week you guys have through Sunday to make your score predictions since the game is on a Monday, however still no picks on game day.
wats a scripted play?
Some of the good things I’m hearing about this upcoming game:
-McD is saying that because of the extra day they will be working on pre scripting plays for the offense again.
-Only one guy did not practice so far this week, Goodman.
-Moreno says the game has now slowed down enough for him so he can see blocks and where holes develop way better than he used to and once in a hole hit it 200 mph, his word not mine.
-Gates says he is really frustrated by his foot injury.
- Ayers back on the practice field, not that it means he’ll be ready to go this week but great to hear nonetheless.
It’s still going to be as tough a game to win as any, but it seems as if everything is falling in line for us so we won’t have any excuses if we don’t win. Meanwhile it looks as if SD will be most likely less than full strength with TE Gates and RB Matthews possibly out, so they would have some excuses if they lose.
What does that mean? That he pressure is clearly on us is the way I see it, at 3-6 we can hardly afford another loss in the division, at 4-5 and only one game down the Chargers can.
Clearly another huge hurdle to conquer for an unlikely run at the division title but the funny thing is we are playing the team that has done what we need to do many times in the last few years, like in 2008 they started 4-8 and won the last 4 to steal the division title from us with 8-8. Not saying history will repeat itself, but it sure would be nice to give the Chargers their money back on that season where we lost the title as much as they won it, all we had to do to win the division is to win one of our last 4 games… But first thing first, let’s beat the Chargers Monday night, the division title will take care of itself as long as we keep winning.
Pressure, what pressure? haha. That’s why you all get paid the big bucks.
Scripted plays is something that Shanahan has been famous for: At the beginning of each game he has a sheet that tells him the first 15 to 20 plays to call offensively, pretty much regardless of the situation on the field, therefore there is a script for the bigger part of the first half and that is mainly how Shanny succeeded in the NFL, building large first half leads and runing the clock out with the run in the second half. And that’s pretty much the first time we saw McD soing something even remotely similar to that against KC, and it worked.
running… doing, gee.
Hey bay, I wanted to send my prediction in early this week! I think we put another W on the column and continue the streak we need. 31-27 is the final on Monday.
Pura Vida!
Go Broncos!
Hey Guys/Gals,
Allot of great things to be optimistic about! Great to hear!
Here’s my quick take. I blogged a little bit ago on a previous blog about how I wasn’t quite ready to give up on JMac.
Now, I don’t know what the collaboration efforts were around putting that OL package together finally, but THAT’S THE ONE YOU GO WITH!
Strandoftds,
I agree with you. The days of spreading the ball around like previous and early weeks are coming back! Mark my words! This OL package is what was missing. Moreno is 100%, he’s feeling good about the game speed as Bay mentioned and I just think that this offense is now ready!
Just a thought. The OL package was in a sense like a door knob. Until it turns correctly it’s going to be hard to open up that door. To me, we might have found the right door knob! NOW, GUYS…GRAB THE KNOB, TURN IT, OPEN THE DOOR AND WALK THROUGH IT!
YOU CAN DO THIS!!!
GO GET EM’ BOYS!
Baylin talking about a divisional title now! Wow what a difference a week can make, glad to hear it though.
I think it is going to be a dog fight monday night
Broncos 17
Chargers 13
good to hear the team is healthy going into monday night, this is one game I really want to see us win, cannot stand rivers and look forward to seeing him smashed repeatedly by a strong Denver D to wipe that smirk off his face. I understand McD is reading our blogs and starting to realize his job is on the line, it would be great to see him actually motivate the team to a big win. Have not heard if he will be playing TT, something we all enjoy seeing since it really confuses the opposition to have a lefty qb who can run the ball. All in all REALLY looking forward to this game and kicking some bolt butt
GO BRONCOS
Pressure? The pressure is on? They say time and pressure is how diamonds are created!
If memory serves me correct, a key to our win last year in SD was because of…Pressure! We sacked rivers 4 times in that game, hurried him, hit him, disrupted his flow. Didn’t let him get comfortable or in a rhythm (of couse a couple of Royal specials aided in that victory). We need to recreate that pressure Monday night. Pressure cry me a rivers and we can control the tempo. I’m looking for the D to come up with 3 sacks. With Champ setting the tone early with a pick.
That will put a tremendous amount of pressure on SD, cuz Orton and CO will put up some points. As long as we limit the penalties, of course!
Go Broncos!!!
As long as the team actually walks the walk instead of just talking the talk, I see no reason not to be hopeful, and this is about the only week this year they have truly done that so I use it up for all it’s worth, but as soon as we are kicked back down to Earth there will be plenty of time for me to discuss what is wrong over here again, just making the best of what we got right now.Hey I’m a fan first and foremost, I earned the right to have a good week here and there too, but clearly no risk of overdosing on fun so far, LOL.
Yeah Rivers doesn’t like pressure, that’s how they lost the first game against the Chiefs, that and ST. So obviously I am looking forward to having Haggan on the outside again with Hunter to apply that pressure, and praying that they didn’t fix their ST woes during the bye week.
Does everyone here support the Broncos changing back to their alternate Orange jerseys permanently? I am all for it personally. If you are for it also, go sign the petition!
Okay, here goes my prediction:
Chargers 27, Broncos 23.
Now before anyone gets upset about me picking the Chargers hear me out. Every time in my life I have picked against the Broncos on this blog or in the picking contest I have with my family, they ended up winning. I know that’s beyond superstitious, but hey it’s worked so far. So I’m basically sacrificing my Broncos faith in hopes that it has the reverse effect as usual.
I just really hope they don’t lose because then I would feel like I jinxed them, and I’m not sure I’d be able to face you guys again haha.
And yes, r8r, many of us do. There was a link posted so people could go sign a petition to bring the orange jerseys back on one of the blog entries a few days ago. You should sign it as well if you haven’t already.
Oh wait, I didn’t read your post right. Scratch what I just said haha.
I signed the petition not because I feel the team will play better with the Orange jersey than any other color. Heck we beat SD on Monday night with the ugly white on brown uniform and then the patriots with the really disgusting yellow jerseys.
I signed the petition because I’ve always felt we are more Orange than we are blue. Orange sets us apart and make us almost unique. Orange Sunday is not Blue Sunday. It was the Orange Crush defense and not the Blue Crush defense.
I agree with bay, however that this orange tone is NOT the right one. It needs some “going back” to the original orange. The one we could paint a man cave with and it would look AWESOME! Bring back the Orange jerseys because it is much more our identity than the blue one, but fix it to be more the original Orange.
88, no prob with me since the purpose of a contest is to win it, not to be acting as a fan sounding board, it’s working well for me so far since I got a two point lead overall over UKBroncos, but he is very good at it too, I believe it may go down to the wire for the score prediction champ of the year. And I’m in it to try to repeat as champion as I won it last year, but it’s going to be tough as nails I can tell.
Check this out. I though it was funny:
http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/Weekly-expert-NFL-picks
So I think it’s safe to say that the winner in most matchups this week is an obvious choice (according to the experts). I’ll be interested to see how accurate they are.
Just a side note about the conversation yesterday about whether or not Orton locks on to Brandon Lloyd. Take a look at our top 3 receivers:
Lloyd- 48 catches
Gaffney- 48 catches
Royal- 43 catches
That’s spreading the wealth about as well as you can. The Broncos are the only team in the NFL with 3 receivers with at least 40 catches.
Ya, when you spread the ball around the D can get confused or double team one reciever. There`s alot of pressure on the D when you have so many options on the offense.
O&B glad to see someone who likes the pure bright old orange too, this one is bleeding too much with some light brownish tint not unlike the Longhorns color, even if not quite as bad, and I should know I’m in Austin. It is in no way as flamboyant, if we are going to change it we might as well go all the way.