Even with a quick turnaround before Thursday’s preseason finale in Minnesota, Head Coach Josh McDaniels hopes to bring a sense of normalcy to preparations for the last tune-up before the Sept. 12 regular season opener in Jacksonville.
In his final press conference before the game on Tuesday, the head coach compared the short week to getting ready to play a game on Thanksgiving, which the Broncos did in 2009.
According to McDaniels, part of that normalcy means getting the starters some time in Thursday’s contest.
“We don’t put a play limit on them,” McDaniels said. “There are some players that we want to see — if they can play this week then they’re going to play and they’re going to play more than three or four plays.”
McDaniels said the Broncos spent Tuesday morning going through a two-hour “crash course” on the Vikings that included preparing to stop the defending NFC North champs’ first-unit offense led by Brett Favre.
McDaniels said most of the starters played almost a full quarter in last season’s preseason-closing win against Arizona in a similar situation. He said players such as running backs Knowshon Moreno and Correll Buckhalter and offensive lineman Ryan Clady could be ready to make their preseason debuts on Thursday, giving the Broncos a potential chance to build some chemistry with the offense closer to full strength than it has been at any point this preseason.
No matter who is able to take the field on Thursday, McDaniels said it’s an important opportunity to continue the progress they’ve built through the preseason. With more than a week between the close of preseason and start of the regular season, the head coach hopes to strike the right balance of resting players, while keeping them sharp going forward.
“If you don’t play them at all, you’re talking about two weeks without playing football, which you don’t really do much of since you start training camp,” McDaniels said. “We’re interested in trying to stay in some type of a rhythm.”
Below are a few pictures from Tuesday’s practice.
- Eric Detweiler, DenverBroncos.com
Tags: 2010, Denver Broncos, Josh McDaniels
I don’t kow if we cut Phonzy and keep Vaughn I think McD is willing to give Phonzy one more year to see what he can do. With that being said we don’t have long to wait to find out
About tonight’s game, one major philosophy difference between Shanahan and McD as reported by Legwold:
The Broncos close out the preseason tonight, trying to walk the line between staying healthy and being ready. Unlike Mike Shanahan, who often kept his starters and top backups out of the preseason finale, Broncos coach Josh McDaniels figures to play some of his starters well into the first quarter against the Minnesota Vikings. “Last year we played them a decent chunk in the first quarter,” McDaniels said. “We don’t put a play limit on them. There are some players that we want to see — if they can play this week. They’re going to play and they’re going to play more than three or four plays.”
I’ll say one thing, this hard approach to this offseason will be a key barometer as to how well the team does at the end of games and more importantly towards the end of the season. Will this tough off season grind work to that effect, or will it have the opposite effect of wearing them down quicker? I guess that’s another million dollar question for me. Obviously McD thinks it will make them stronger longer since one of his main goal is to finish games and the season strong this year, and I hope that’s the right strategy, because if not that would kind of be falling flat on your face.
And don’t get me wrong, I thought the spa style of off season that Shanahan ran had grown stale and was not producing any longer, so I welcomed the toughening up the off season schedule when McD came in, but if it doesn’t produce this year, McD should look for something in between next year. I personally don’t hold my hopes up too high for us finishing strong this year under this regimen, but I hope I’m dead wrong.
Speaking of staying healthy with the injuries this season and some last season, do we look into hiring a new strength and conditioning coach? I know ultimately it is up to the player and how well he takes care of himself but just seems lately we’ve been having injuries and the last couple of seasons we’ve feel off late in the season. Not sure if that comes from the conditioning or what? Just a thought.
Go Broncos!!!!
Not long at all, this is what Legwold says about that:
The Broncos likely will make the majority of their roster moves Friday. Teams have to be at 53 players by Saturday.
So by tomorrow night we shall see who are the 20 cuts.
Brian, probably for two weeks straight we argued that point here over and over, one side says injuries are pure bad luck, conditioning has nothing to do with it, the other side says fire Tuten the bum. I can’t re-visit that, it was nasty. As usual both sides made good points, I tend to lean to the “Houston we have a problem” with the conditioning theory, specially all the pulled this pulled that, groin, hammy, etc…
Didn’t Reid have knee surgury in the offseason has anyone heard anything on that? Sorry, this may be old news too, but I was just trying to select my 53 man roster and I saw him at the bottom. Never really thought too much of it.
Klis sees playing Clady tonight as some of us do, but he is very diplomatic about it, so he can still have access to Dove Valley, haha:
Keep LT Ryan Clady healthy
If the all-pro makes his first competitive appearance since blowing out his knee in April, how he plays isn’t as important as that he plays another day.
Darrell Reid had surgery in January, he still hasn’t recovered, will be put on PUP which will give him another six weeks into the season for a chance to be re-activated. All this info free of charge, LL.
meant LOL, that’s a first.
Woody has a piecce about a potential 18 regular season games with only 2 preseason games, which made me wonder how in the world McD would be able to function with only two preseason games since his 4th one is so important for his starters today!!!! Food for thought…
Don’t like the idea of playing Clady but in order for him to do so, he must have fully recovered from his offseason surgery. That’s the only way I see it.
Hey Bay!
I was reading an article today that suggested that the drafting of Tebow was in part a strategy move as it was a talent assesed move.
The article went on to say that it was “suggested” that the owners were going to move towards an 18 game season. So with that said, the Broncos were speculated in taking Tebow for a couple of reasons.
1. They believed the player had the “intangibles” as Mr. Elway stated to
2. They obviously saw the $ his status brings to the organization
and lastly
3. With the revamped 18 game schedule, it would give McDaniels the flexibility to start Orton who would be entering in now what we know will be his 3rd year (per the recent contract extension). However, Tebow would be entering his second year with what will be very limited action while learning behind Orton and McDaniels. Take points 1 and 2 and then look to Tebow as a security out that an 18 game schedule could bring with wear and tear and Pat, Brian and Josh could look like it was a fantastic move.
In closing the article eluded that the 18 game season played a part in drafting Tebow to protect Orton in his 3rd year in the system. That gives the Broncos 1 year to sit Tebow, teach him when Orton may need that “break”
It was a pretty good article.
GO GET EM’ BOYS!
Fair enough baylin!
Nice article broncofalls. That should serve notice to the powers that be in the Broncos organization. With that Tebow logic, the same should hold true for a shutdown/lockdown/HoF CB. Lol.
Get Healthy/Stay Healthy, BRONCOS 2K10!!!!!!!!!! Especially in a meaningless 4th preseason game
Just saw an article on ESPN by Bill Williamson regarding the breakdown of how teams will finish in the AFC west. THE BRONCOS WERE PICKED TO FINISH LAST. HERE ARE THE RANKINGS; 1 CHARGERS, 2 RAIDERS, 3 CHEIFS, AND LAST 4 BRONCOS. Not that my life depends on how the Broncos do, but this will make me depressed if that is how the season plays out.
Come on fellas. Kick some butt and shut the haters up.
I LOVE ME SOME BRONCOS..
Thanks for sharing that Broncfalls.
As far as #1, it seems obvious to most of us, including Elway and McD, that Tebow has got “it”, intangibles and all, just a matter of time to be able to put it together efficiently.
As far as #2, I claimed the smart financial move made by Bowlen acquiring Tebow here loudly and often ever since we got him, it is an undeniable gold mine for the value of the franchise.
About #3, not really sure what their point is, I mean wear and tear is also there in a 16 game schedule and remember we most likely would get two less preseason games, and the way McD plays them hard, it will negate that argument some.
But getting Tebow was a masterful business move no matter how you slice it, and if it does half as much on the field when he is ready to go as it already has done recognition wise for the franchise, we will be in great shape for years to come, but Bowlen is the one who truly could benefit big time from this move if and when he ever decides to sell. A great stock purchase is what Tebow really could mean to this franchise, look at the kind of stock Elway represented to the franchise, worth 78 millions in 1984 during Elway’s second year when Bowlen bought the team, worth over a billion now by Forbes estimates! Elway brought Bowlen a lot more than just two superbowl wins is what I’m saying and it seems as if he decided to bank on Tebow now. Pretty savvy businessman Mr. Bowlen…
Business as usual may not be the best approach. Our business as of late has been mediocre football. It is past time to shake things up. step up to playing a more aggressive more complete game. Complete meaning balanced running and passing attack. I am super excited to see if we can keep improving the run game. I am not sure if tonight will show us much on the end though.
By the way: Bronco Fans only Fantasy Football League (repeat from last year):
http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com/f1/register/tos?league_id=678722&password=orangecrush
And to think Williamson was a DP writer for the Broncos, good thing we booted him out of town.
I say good riddance as well. That is just mind boggling to me, blasphemy if you will. Can we please just get the season started already (as long as we get our players back healthy).
Good luck to the broncos tonight and those young men playing for a future. If i had my way no starters would play and these question marks would battle it out.
I question tuten as well, since we had like 9 rbs go down in one year. Clearly shanahan didnt see tuten as a problem and neither does Josh so there must be something we don know. Clady was basketball. Decker and Bay Bay already injured. Doom has never been really injured under tuten so maybe this was just unfortunate. Bucky is injury prone. and Moreno tweaked a hamstring which is quite a common thing. As far as Mckinley and Barrett, dunno lol.
Go Broncos.
Yea last seems like an ok place to start, at least we can imagine no one takes us seriously, I am truly surprised by that though, I really feel Denver is much better than last years team. in my honest and unbiased view I think Denver will finish number 2 in the division (I HATE saying that though). The Chiefs have yet to show anything special and Jason Campbell will NOT walk in and turn the Raiders organization around. But if teams want to pass us off as an easy win go for it, we will prove you wrong.
bay i see your really popular here lol
ha
tonights game is gonna be a good game!
I’m not popular, I’m just here more than most, some like it some don’t.
Anyway, yeah there is a game on tonight and it’s not on TV outside the Bronco viewing area, good thing it’s the 4th game, just an exercise to finalize the roster, so what I’ll do is wait to see the replay tomorrow 2pm central on the NFLN. I really don’t care about the score of this game or whether we do well or don’t, in fact I think we could get beat pretty soundly considering the back ups of a team as good as the Vikings are bound to be much better than ours. The reason I don’t care is we did what we had to do in the only preseason game that really counts, sort of, the 3rd preseason game and we did well in many respects then and we are as ready as we are going to be, no matter what the heck goes on tonight. Obviously here is to hoping McD knows what he is doing starting the starters tonight, including ones who haven’t played because of injuries, and hopefully we don’t come out of this game with any more setbacks which could be crippling going to Jacksonville.
How far we’ve come as a team and as fans.
Back in the dark ages the Broncs finished the season in Houston and were
flying back to Denver. The booze was flowin and everybody was happy and
cheerful.
A stewardess you’re so happy, you must have made the playoffs.
Oh no,nreplied a player…”We made a first down.”
We’ve got a great dedicated owner.
We’ve got a good strong coach.
And a team that wants to win.
We’re getting rid of the snivelling whiners.
This team will not lay down.
Can’t ask for more.
They will plat hard nosed ball.
Be patient they will win.