Deciding which players will board the plane to Jacksonville for the first week of the regular season evokes a conditional enthusiasm. The Broncos can look forward to a clean slate of football, but only after saying goodbye to the players that didn’t make the final cut.
“There’s a little more elbow room in the locker room — and this is a hard time for everybody because in training camp you forge relationships, and it’s hard to see some guys go,” Spencer Larsen said. “You just get used to the guys you are around and as the season goes, you just kind of jell.”
Head Coach Josh McDaniels said the process wasn’t easy.
“Certainly the last few days have been filled with some tough decisions on the roster that we felt like were in the best interest of our football team,” McDaniels said. “Now we’re excited to move forward with the football team that we do have.”
That means game planning without last year’s NFL sack leader in mind.
“One of the tougher decisions that we had to make was to put Elvis Dumervil on the injured reserve,” McDaniels said.
Dumervil stopped by Dove Valley on Tuesday, sitting in on the squad meeting before visiting with teammates in the locker room, maintaining his presence while he recovers from surgery.
“Even though he can’t play, we’ll look forward to his leadership and his help with some of the younger players as we go through the season,” McDaniels said.
One young player soaking up advice in the locker room is first-year man Stanley Daniels. By his count he’s been cut four times, but he earned himself a spot as one of 10 offensive linemen on the team after starting at guard in the last two preseason games.
“It’s unbelievable,” he said. “My journey has been long. I’ve gone through a lot to get here, get an opportunity to play and get on the team — and that’s all you can ask for, so it’s a dream come true.”
Daniels spent time with the Rams, the Jets and the Packers before catching on in Denver. He said McDaniels told him he’d have the opportunity to create a role for himself, so he played himself to the top of the depth chart when the team decided to try out Zane Beadles – who also started two games at left guard – at tackle.
“You have to be ready to switch sides, and everybody has to be on the same page at any point in time,” Daniels said. “That’s kind of what being on the offensive line is about. That’s just the nature of our business and the nature of our position.”
McDaniels said the guard’s size and ability inside factored into the team’s decision to keep him out front.
“He’s earned the right to be in a situation where he has a chance to start and play at left guard,” McDaniels said. “There’s no question about it.”
- Gabe Hiatt, DenverBroncos.com
*Below are photos from today’s practice.
Tags: 2010, Brady Quinn, Chris Clark, Demaryius Thomas, Denver Broncos, Head Coach Josh McDaniels, J.D. Walton, Russ Hochstein, Stanley Daniels, Tim Tebow
the o line and d line are our weakest points but i think we will make it through this season getting better as we go along
I can only say I wish my Denver Broncos the best of luck! I stand bye all of you to the MAX. Let the media say what ever– I say we stand as Denver Broncos, Win as a Team !!! Lose as aTeam!! But always A tEAM!!
Cuz — I LOVE ME SOME DENVER BRONCOS!!!! Lets KIck some ass and play the game of FOOTBALL.
Just me –Ohh Rahh
FTR
My first.
gahhh i wish we still had ryan torain.
Torian was a bust, I’m better off with having Knowshon as our starter. and yes FTR I agree with you, I Love me some Denver Broncos too!! This is the season where life gets a lil better (when the broncos are up of course). Let’s see what week 1 looks like!
GO BRONCOS!!!
Up or down, it’s the best time of the year regardless for me, the sleigh is clean, we are 0-0, GO BRONCOS!!!
I LOVE the shot of Tebow “REARING” back to throw!!!!!
Now, we are embracing his throwing motion as part of his game…. I like it!
He only rears back to Arkansas when he throws long….
I hope we get to see him play a little in Jax….?
ILMSDB!!!
bay, I like the way you talked about McD overthinking the game in the last thread.. I left you a joke there…
Yeah, I bet we’d have a shot in the INTER-GALLACTICA league, LOL.
A closer look at the Jags:
QB – David Garrard is now entering his 8th year in the league. Garrard has been known to run the ball if no reciever is open. Backup is Luke McCown.
RB- At 5’7″ 208lbs, MJD is one of the best in the business. He’s hard to find at times due to his elusiveness and will break out of pack to pick up big chunks of real estate. He ran well in the last two meetings in Denver in ’07 & ’08. (Shanny Defense). A major contributor to MJD ‘s success is is RB coach, former Cleveland Brown – Earnest Byner.
WR – Mike Sims-Walker – former teammate of B-Marsh at CF is their #1 wideout. At 6-2, Walker has great acceleration and runs precise routes. Former Charger Kassim Osgood was offseason addition.
O-line – Jags had two rookie Offensive Tackles last year who had their baptism under fire. (Monroe and Britton). Jags do alot of cross training with the O-lineman, much like we’ve begun to do here in Denver. QB David Garrard was sacked or knocked down more than 100 times last season, most in the league. Strength: run blocking.
D-line – Jags recorded the 5th worst sack total in league history last year. Jags drafted 4 D-lineman with first four picks out of 6 selections in last April’s college draft. Former Packer Aaron Kampman is coming off ACL surgery. #1 pick – Tyson Alualu will start at DT. Former Bronco – Reggie Hayward was released this Summer.
LB’s – An upgrade with the addition of former Raider, Kirk Morrison. Overall a young unit with size and speed. Justin Durant will now move to the outside with the addition of Morrison. Jags employ a 4-3 defense and throw in different looks.
DB’s – Jags employ two of the taller CB’s in the AFC, with Derek Cox and Rashean Mathis. Mathis will usually cover opposing Teams #1 reciever.
(oh that’s right – we don’t have #1 anymore…lol).
ST – Josh Scobee has hit a little more than 75% of his FG attempts as he begins his 7th yr in the league.
“Keep your friends close and your enemies closer”
GO BRONCOS!!!!
Hey Baylin
Just to answer your question in the previous thread.
“On Christmas 1987, Demaryius was born and quickly nicknamed “Bay-Bay,” a take on Bobby’s nickname of “Boo-Boo.”"
Glad to see Thomas is healthy. Hope he stays that way. Looking forward to next year when tebow starts but for now Go Orton, Go Broncos. TRB out….
TRB, thanks but it was broncofan_in_ak who asked the question, I’m obviously on here waaayyy too often, haha.
You know why sometimes I’m called bay? It’s because bloggers are sometimes too lazy to type baylinorcrush, LMAO!!!
Call him Bay or Crush or Baylin or B-Crush….but call him right most of the time.
I can’t wait for Sunday! One at a time….prove ‘em wrong boys!
yup lol definitely wasnt u. i saw a b name and automatically thought baylin. plus i thought u were saying it cuz u go by bay too lol
When did Bay Bay get back on the field? I thought he was still hurt, does this mean we might see him on the field on Sunday? GO BRONCOS!
One of the pictures on this blog we are posting on is a picture of Bay Bay catching a ball. I don’t know if he is participating at full speed but maybe someone else has more information.
I can’t wait for sunday!! it’s going to be interesting to know where we stand at as a team. Look at last season, so anything can still happen. We can loose the first game and still have a great season!! But I feel we stil win!!
60 MINUTES OF FOOTBALL GO BRONCOS!!!
I just wanna know who the starting Dline is ??????????
Bannon-Williams-Fields ????
And the starting Oline
Daniels-Beadles-Walton-Hoschtein-Harris ?????
I wanna know why in Hell we signed Jarvis Green,and gave him 3 mil up front,then cut him,when we knew they cut him in NE cause he couldn’t stop the run there ?? dumb move not to mention loss of $$$$$.
And why in the Hell did we cut Darrell Reid,I know he’s hurt,but he had 5 sacks last year?? McDumb has a lot of growing up to do,man he makes me mad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Like I said previously every step he takes forward,he takes 2 steps back !!!
Look at ALLLLLL the Defensive Linemen,powerBacks,and OLBs we passed on in the draft..
lol I see you venting BFE, calm down before the McD faithfuls come from you but I here ya. Its frustrating and I agree with the one step forward too steps back. My biggest problem with McD (minus the fact that he traded away my hero lol) is that him and his front office arent very efficient. Efficient in the fact that after they do stuff u look at it and say was not the smartest thing to do, and usually it ends up that way. We still have a team that can compete but McD sure is a head scratcher at times. All we can do is go with the flow
PS: Daniels-Beadles-Walton-Hoschtein-Harris ????? nope. Clady should be good to go so its definitely not Daniels.
Guess we see the first of Bay Bay and Dez Bryant in the first week. Neither played preseason due to injuries.
If you go the the main page. On the orange bar is a TEAM link. If you go on it a list of choices pop down. Chose depth chart and you can check it out.
The starting O line in Clady-Daniels-Walton-Kuper-Harris.
The starting D line Bannon-Williams-McBean.
Hopefully Clady and Harris are ready to go? But that is what is listed. And Quinn is still listed as the 2nd string QB and Tebow is listed 3rd.
And I totally hear ya on the venting BFE. I have been baffled a few times myself. Hopefully most of the guys are healthy and the organization is being secretive so it is harder for the Jags to prepare. Thats a big hopefully. LOL
I LOVE ME SOME DENVER BRONCOS…
TRB, is Bay Bay ready for this sunday? I did not know that. Would be cool if he did. Heard good things from the practice sessions but I want to see him play in a live game. Of course, only if he is ready to go. I’ve had my fill with people getting injured and then reinjured.
Had a feeling that Daniels would be above beadles. Beadles did well, but when i watched the games, i liked what I saw from Daniels and I dont pay attention to Oline that much so he must have been blocking his butt off for me to notice. Beadles another headscratcher when drafted. He was projected as a 3rd/4th rounder and we took him in the second. Many people wondered about that. But then again projections dont mean much but sometimes they do. Im sure he will improve. Daniels will probably alternate with beadles alot, roles players like this blog says.
Big D
Dunno if Bay Bay will play, but barring any reinjury he should play. Plus he is not wearing a no contact orange Jersey and thats always good.
BeastFromEast92,
Darrell Reid was owed a bunch of money for a roster bonus. His knee is obviously not healing as well or quickly as the Broncos’ anticipated, so he was cut to not have to shell out money to a guy that probably won’t play this season. I have read from Andrew Mason that the Broncos will consider bringing Reid back if his knee improves. Unfortunately, the old cliche sometimes hurts, but it is true, the NFL is a business.
Regarding, Jarvis Green. Yes, that was a bad gamble by the Broncos, but it is better to cut your losses early rather than hold on to a player hoping to save face, a la some past Broncos’ mistakes such as Dale Carter, Sam Adams, etc., etc. The Broncos aren’t the only ones who made a free agent signing gaffe this summer. Just be glad, you aren’t a Bengals’ fan and paid what they did to land Antonio Bryant, to only cut him a few months later.
I think McDaniels has hit more than he has missed in his signings this offseason and last season. Look at the secondary the Broncos have amassed. I think everyone, myself included would be even more optimistic about the roster, if the Broncos were fully healthy. Nevertheless, the Broncos are not as healthy as they or the fans would like. This is a time for everyone to step up their game to offset any absences.
yeah, I think
starting OL : Clady, Beadles, Walton, Kuper, Harris….thats a pretty stoud line..all eclipse 305, with beast Clady at 325. Moreno might see his numbers go up in the middle…..
I fear the health of the D-L..if Jamaal goes down itll be tough, though Fields did ok last year, that new acqusition (forgot name) looks pretty big…might take up double blocks…
glad to see Demaryius back on the field..dont rush him..let him go 100%..
If RT Ryan Harris is not ready, look for Zane Beadles to fill in on Sunday.
Demaryius Thomas status is uncertain for Sundays game per DP.
GO BRONCOS
Its Knowshon’s turn to bust out this year i feel that will be the key to the season god bless the BRONCOS