After wading in and out of the lineup because of injuries, two Broncos could return to the defensive backfield this week.
In his Friday press conference, Interim Head Coach Eric Studesville said Andre’ Goodman and Darcel McBath had two good days of practice this week, and the team has another chance to judge the players’ health in Friday’s practice.
“We are going to get another one today and we are still evaluating that,” Studesville said. “We feel good where we are right now and we are going to just keep going forward from there.”
Goodman has started all four games he’s played in this season, totaling three tackles the last time he saw game action in Week 8 against the 49ers in London. In 2009, the cornerback started all 16 games, notched a career-high 43 tackles and led the club with 5 interceptions and 17 passes-defensed.
McBath has played in five games this year, posting 6 tackles against Indianapolis in his season-debut. The second-year safety last saw action in Week 11 at San Diego for Monday Night Football. As a rookie last season, he led the club with 11 special-teams tackles in before being placed on injured reserve in December.
Goodman (quadricep) and McBath (quadricep/ankle) were limited in practice all week and listed as questionable for Sunday on the injury report. Matt Prater (right groin) is also questionable after being limited in practice all week.
Perrish Cox (non-injury) did not practice on Friday and is questionable, while Brian Dawkins (knee), Spencer Larsen (hamstring) and Demaryius Thomas (ankle) have been declared out since Monday.
STUDESVILLE ON COX
In his Friday press session, Studesville addressed Cox’s Thursday arrest.
“We are in the process of reviewing all the facts, gathering all the information that we can related to this,” the coach said. “It is a situation we take very, very seriously within the organization. We are going to cooperate fully in the whole process of whatever needs to take place as we gather this information.”
Studesville said the team would consider a number of factors before making a final decision on Cox’s playing status.
“We are going to make the best organizational decision for us as to what we need to do, look at all the facts, consider everything, and the policies that we have set forth within the organization,” he said.
The coach stressed that the incident has no relation to the football field. He said he would rely on a the senior members of the squad to keep the team focused as they prepare to face Arizona on Sunday.
“We are not downplaying the seriousness of this event and how it affects our organization,” Studesville said. “We have tremendous leadership from our veteran players. We are going to rely on them to continue to prepare for the game of football.”
A SKELTON CREW
Arizona Cardinals Head Coach Ken Whisenhunt announced on Friday that John Skelton will start at quarterback for his team this Sunday against the Broncos.
Skelton is a 6-foot-5, 244-pound rookie from Fordham University. The fifth-round pick set school career records with 9,923 passing yards, 69 TD passes, 802 completions and 1,363 attempts. He had at least one TD pass in 30 of the team’s 34 games over the last three seasons and ranked in the top 10 nationally in pass efficiency rating in both ‘08 and ’09.
Last week against Rams, he completed three of six passes for 45 yards and threw one interception.
As far as injuries go, QB Derek Anderson (head) is doubtful after not practicing all week. WR Larry Fitzgerald is probable after not practicing on Friday for non-injury reasons.
LB Clark Haggans (groin) and LB Joey Porter (knee) were limited all week and are questionable. DE Calais Campbell (ankle) and K Jay Feeley are probable after being limited in practice all week. CB Michael Adams (shoulder), WR Steve Breaston (knee), DT Darnell Dockett (shoulder) and CB Greg Toler (foot) all fully participated in Friday practice and are probable.
VALUABLE VOTE
For the past three years, Tim Tebow could count on a plane ticket to New York City for the Heisman Memorial Trophy presentation.
Winning the prestigious award in 2007 provided Tebow with a vote in the contest for every year since, and a spot as a finalist in 2008 and 2009 opened up a front row seat from the Big Apple. This year, his seat will stay empty.
Tebow will spend the night in Arizona on the eve of the Broncos’ matchup against the Cardials when the Heisman Trust announces this year’s winner.
“I am supposed to be on a flight to New York is what my body is telling me, but it is very exciting for all those nominees who are there, and they are going to have a great time,” Tebow said. “It will be surreal for all of them and definitely overwhelming for one.”
Oregon running back LaMichael James, Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck, Boise State quarterback Kellen Moore and Auburn quarterback Cam Newton are all nominated for the award.
Tebow chose not to reveal his choice for the winner of the bronze trophy, but he did share what goes into the decision.
“I look at what their team would be like without that player,” he said. “I look at how valuable that player is to their team — a lot of different things like that. So, I try to take into account and make a great decision.”
When he won the trophy three years ago, Tebow became the first sophomore in the history of the award to earn the honor. That year, he also became the first player in NCAA history to rush and throw for 20 touchdowns.
“I think the Heisman Trophy is one of the most prestigious awards out there, especially in the U.S.,” Tebow said. “I took it seriously. I looked all around at all the different athletes and I thought there were some definitely qualified players and I felt like I voted for the best player.”
-Gabe Hiatt, DenverBroncos.com
Below are pictures from Friday’s practice:
Tags: 2010, Andre' Goodman, Arizona Cardinals, Darcel McBath, Denver Broncos, Eric Studesville, John Skelton, Perrish Cox, Week 14
LMAO @ OC.
Champ is still the best CB in the game and has 3-4 good years left,and already said he would take a pay cut to remain here,we don’t need him getting mad and walking at the end of the year,he’s one of my all time favorite players,and I want him to retire as the best CB we ever had.
I tell you guys, it has been the front 7 we should of addressed for years now in the draft and sad to say it will still be the front 7 next year. If you don’t have that to start building from, why bother with anything else, it all starts up front. D line and LB’s. Trade as many expendables players as possible elsewhere and build the front 7 thru the draft, that’s the only way to me. Trade one or two of our receivers, Brady Quinn, Maroney and Bailey if they don’t want to pay him, we need draft picks since we only got 6 now.
Bay I agree 100% about rebuilding the front 7,seems like we been screaming that for years now,but haven’t seen much results,except for the Bandaids.
We’ve sit back and watched the rest of the teams draft great LBs and DLS the past few years,it’s time we did it,no excuses next year.
I hate to see Champ go,but I wouldn’t be upset if we traded Quinn and Maroney Baloney.
I have to get this off my chest. I will let professionals sum up my sentiments towards the firing of McDaniels. Mainly due to the fact, that like I always do, i have been evaluating my recent comments and see something i dont like. I let my panties get in a bunch when i read statements that I didn’t agree with and was disrespectful towards some good people, who didn’t deserve it. So here is something i am sure many have read.
http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d81cba03b/article/mcdaniels-paid-price-for-broncos-lack-of-commitment-to-change
With that said, from today moving forward, I will use a lot more restraint before I start spouting off like a disgruntled teenager. It truly is not my style. And I hope I can prove that from this point forward and earn some ounce of credibility.
*an ounce… not some ounce.. lol
steve, you are right this Lombardi article has been posted here multiple times by “McD nostalgics” over the last week.
steve,I agree with the article,McD had more power than he knew how to handle,and the front office was to blame,a lot of us fans posted that we thought McD should be demoted to just being the HC,but after the spygate 2 incident McD didn’t have a snowballs chance in Hell of staying here,and after I found out he had a big blowup with DJ and Champ,it wasn’t like the Marshall and Sheff incident,those 2 are veterans,I knew he had one foot out the door then.I don’t feel sorry for McD,even tho he was in over his head,I didn’t like the way he handled himself in the media,and trash talking with players on the opposing teams,and spygate 2 was the last straw.jomho.
I thought so, unfortunately the tool bar only goes back so far. And to be honest, I have not kept up as much as I should have. And even though I am not on board with the move yet, it has been done.
About the front seven. I am in total agreeance with you Bay. It seems that the last two coaches have attempted bringing in FA’s to beef it up to no avail. We should be able to acquire a true 2nd round caliber DL next draft.
And glad to hear your newly acquired vision on the blogging thing, one thing I have learned over my lifetime is that the more agressive one is towards others when making points, the less likely he is to carry any weight, it’s not so much the message that can be powerful as much as it is how it is delivered. Tough, no b.s, straight forward is all fine, but agressive, impolite and disrepectful of others will never fly. It’s one of those live and learn thing, the important thing is to eventually get there, I still have to work hard at it myself, and I have lived and learned plenty, haha.
BFE, he did show in multiple ways that he was not equipped mentally to handle the position. I would like to believe though, that if someone were able to mentor him as some do immature super star players, he will be alright. I don’t think his career is over by any means. I also am inclined to believe it was the right person (McD), wrong time.
Chilly’s big dome. Lmao
I agree somewhat with what you are saying,and think McD will be a HC in the NFL again,but if he is to be successful,he will have to be limited to his role,and cut out the immature little things he does,like trash talking wth players.
Ultimately, his lack of maturity led to our lack of success. My opinion of course
sndvl,I heard the game will be postponed,IDK??
I had a pretty funny dream last night. McD was hired on as OC for the Browns. Hillis demanded a trade.
Which game?
The Chilly Dome………ha
The huge bummer with McD is that Mr. Bowlen allowed him to get his HC training ground here, monumental waste of time for our franchise, great training grounds experience for McD. I wish people quit feeling sorry for this arrogant young man, he got the best of all worlds, the full control he wanted, the full 4 million dollar contract and two years of training with one of the best franchise in the league and what we got is the shaft and Tebow. And that’s the truth of the matter, lucky McD, sorry son of a gun us, Tebow better work out is all I’ll say about that.!
Baylin full of wisdom! I couldn’t agree any more.
meant to say the full 4 year contract money wise.
Tebow will work out. Especially if we can get Elway on board. I have this gut feeling that drafting TT wasn’t McD’s decision…???? maybe?
BTW,I think we need to change back to a 4-3 Defense and maybe keep Bannon at DT,Vickerson at DE and draft the DT outta Auburn and a DE and maybe 2 LBs.Depends on if Champ stays or not if we will need another CB.McBath,Thompson,and Vaughn should be enough depth along with Dawk and Hill at Safety.If Champ does leave Cox and Goody can get the job done if we can get some front seven help in the draft,getting pressure on the QB helps out the DBs a LOT.But we still need solid depth at CB,Jones ain’t that good and Goody is getting a little long in the tooth.
The Viking/Giants game,they are looking for an alternative place to play.
It sucks about the metrodome roof collapse.
@sndvl that is a good one.
@Bay. you and sndvl have made your cases clear. The contract situation is a little tough to take. At this point, I would prefer to get the truth about the video taping and if it is as it appears to be, Mr. Bowlen can get out of paying that contract.
Remember when I got lambasted not even a year ago for my beliefs (opinions). It’s come full circle.
My glass is again full of koolaid. Got my orange colored glasses on and am full of optimism. Looks like my calls for Elway shall come to fruition!
My sunsets are Orange and Blue again. GO BRONCOS!!!
OC,Mr.B wanted Tebow too,that leads me to believe he will hire a HC that will be committed to TT,so I’m hopig that it’s Chucky,he loves TT.
McD was in love with Tebow all along and Ellis clearly said he had personnel final decision power over everybody. Tebow was McD’s man first and Bowlen jumped on the financial aspect of it, which made those three draft day trades to get Tebow a reality in my opinion.
I just hope we find a good QB coach to mentor Tebow.Even if we find a HC that is committed to him,we still have to have a QB coach that is smart enough to bring him along the right way,I hope Elway will have a big influence on Tebows future.
And here I thought, I was about the only person wanting to go back to the 4-3. With Doom, at DE we have the diversity to draw up some interesting D-line moves with D-linemen capable of droping into coverage. With 4 on the line, you can still get 3 blitzing. I like that better than the 4 line backers, one possibly blitzing.
The Broncos have already said they would pay McD in full, partly because Ellis said earlier that the McD incident was not a fireable offense publicly so it would be too complicatted to fight and as Ellis said that is their problem, they made the mistakes and if they have to pay 8 coaches to correct them they would and that us fans should not concern ourselves over that, so I won’t.
I heard the game may be moved to Tuesday night. Lol
Stevecan, to be fair, I initially was inboard with the hiring. The Cutler trade. Loved it. The Dallas win. Cloud nine. But soon after!!! It wasn’t a slow decline. It was like a mile high drop off a cliff.
It will be a hard pill to swallow if Tebow dosen’t pan out,3 draft picks wasted,that’s why I think we have to build around Tebow,we know Orton isn’t the future,even tho he has had a great year,Tebow is the future,we have to much invested in the kid to not give him the chance to be the Franchise QB we drafted him to be.IMO.
Yeah, Steve, that’s the thing with some of us here, we really don’t give a rat’s rear end what the masses think, if we think 4-3 might be a better way to go, we come right out and say it, LOL.
I said the same about the 4-3 when we lost both dumerville and Ayers… but now we have also lost Mays who was the only solid secodn ILB we have had in a while. We still have Hunter, Haggan, DJ, Ayers but I would like us to go 4-3 the rest of the year and return to 3-4 when doom comes back.
Yea we saw the article. I said the same thing about him getting his practice here. In the past two years we have been the Denver Giving Trees not the broncos. Everyone benefited from the hire except the broncos organization. Like Baylin said, all we got is Tebow and if he doesnt work out, there goes the only bright side of McD being here but im sure it will work out.
Correct, Jamaal Williams plays NT and Bannan DE. I want us to go DE more than anything. We havent had a young dominant one since trevor pryce. We seem to be over flowing with LBs now a days and next year we will have Mays back on the inside…he has played like a stud. Sure tackler like DJ. So I think line is currently more important than LB. But if we lose champ…we have alot more to worry about. We will possibly need a High ranked CB in the draft not unless we trust Cox, Goodman, and syd and draft a CB late. We also need a strong safety. McBath has FS on luck…like him a lot (when healthy) good coverage and tackling.
Oh yea the reason I came here to begin with…Not only is Cox traveling…he is “100% playing” … This should be good. First time we have had champ, goody, and cox in a long time. Assuming goody goes.
Start Tebow. Sign champ. Put Cox at KR. And lets play some young guys so we see where we stand for next year. Not playign the young guys (especially tebow) is just plain negligent….
And if I think Stud is just a bridge from here to there with no shot at the HC job whatsoever, gotta say that too.
SO PLAY TEBOW ALREADY!!!
steve,Doom,Ayers,and Hunter all 3 played DE in college,so we can come up with some kid of package to get the 4-3 back working again along with a few good draft picks at LB,we need some speedy young smashmouth LBs,like Matthews,Cushings,and Orakpo,which we passed on all 3.
That was the one and only thing I think he did right. In my humble opinion. He drafted the QB that I wanted.
I got the feeling right away though that he would never get to coach him in a game, and then he seemed completely disinterested in even giving the kid a chance. Hence my idea that maybe he wasn’t the main pusher in drafting Tebow…??
I sure hope this kid turns out to be what we hope…But at least we have hope now…
FS on LOCK*
OC, I will always maintain that McD kept Tebow on the sidelines because he was his last joker card, if he used him and it failed, sure dismissal of McD, but obviously he played the wrong hand since he got let go early. Very surprised no one here has ever had the same thought as I on the matter. It wouldn’t be the first time, LOL.
Ford Field. Double Monday nighter. Too bad. Tuesday football would have been terrific!
I’m still lobbying for Nick Fairley DT Auburn with our 1st pick,he’s a Beast against the run,unless Champ walks then I might like Peterson if he’s still on the board,if not Prince Amukamara outta Nebraska is a shutdown Corner that is a 1st rounder too.
Bay I agreed with you on the McD saving Tebow for a wildcard.
Ok BFE must of missed it, obvioulsy you and I agree on a great many things…
I could live with prince amukamara … after all … thats my people lol … just like asomugah .. maybe he will be as good lol
I was leaning towards McDaniels sitting Tebow, because the current system was not ready for him. It seems like Orton was formed into the system, where as Tebow is worth having a system formed around him.
Hey great minds think a like.LOL
Or buzzing minds think a like.LMAO.
It’s nice to see everybody up and chatting to no end on this Sunday morning, very unusual to say the least, amazing how a breath of fresh air from the Rockies can revigorate the fan base, and a possible win on the horizon??? Wow, we won’t know how to act tonight, LOL.
Talking about that, it’s about sports bar time for the game for me, the best of both worlds: Sports, bar, haha.