After last night’s physical practice at INVESCO Field at Mile High, the team’s workload was a little lighter Friday afternoon. The players wore shorts — though some wore sweat pants — and most didn’t have pads on.
Here are some quick hits from the session, which lasted a little longer than two hours.
ROLL CALL: Nic Clemons was no longer wearing an orange jersey, back to his normal blue defensive jersey.
Rulon Davis, Brian Dawkins, Vernon Fox, Brandon Marshall and J’Vonne Parker did not participate in the session.
Wesley Woodyard walked off the practice field after a set of drills and did not return.
POSITIONING: The first offensive unit consisted of Brandon Stokley, Eddie Royal and Jabar Gaffney at receiver, Daniel Graham at tight end, Kyle Orton at quarterback, LaMont Jordan at running back, and the same five starters on the offensive line — Ryan Clady, Ben Hamilton, Casey Wiegmann, Chris Kuper and Ryan Harris.
The first defensive unit saw Ryan McBean, Ronald Fields and Kenny Peterson on the line, Darrell Reid, D.J. Williams, Andra Davis and Elvis Dumervil at linebacker, Champ Bailey and Andre’ Goodman at cornerback and David Bruton and Renaldo Hill at safety.Several other players cracked that lineup depending on the formation, including Robert Ayers, Josh Barrett, Jack Williams and Alphonso Smith.
Joshua Bell looked to be lined up at safety during a couple plays in one package, but also stepped up to play cornerback when an extra receiver came into the game.
DRILLS: Brett Kern worked one-on-one with special teams coordinator Mike Priefer on what looked like footwork and drops before punts. Priefer threw him the ball under-handed like a snap, and Kern caught it, took a few steps and dropped it as if he were punting.
Almost every day, linebackers coach Don Martindale and assistant linebackers coach Roman Phifer have run their unit through a drill that has them run side to side before the coaches throw them the ball to practice catching interceptions. During the drill today, Woodyard sprinted left, then right, then straight back, catching a pass over his shoulder left with one hand.
When the team worked on kickoff returns, the usual names came up — Royal, Smith and Kenny McKinley. But another player fielded a kick today who fans might not expect — Spencer Larsen. No, the inside linebacker/fullback isn’t making a run at the returner gig, he just practiced fielding kicks because he’s the “up” man, and short kicks might fall into his arms.
PLAYMAKERS: The slow tempo of practice meant there weren’t too many spectacular plays, but a few names stuck out.
Jordan broke up a potential interception by Hill early in what seemed to be an 11-on-11 walkthrough session, getting his hand on the ball in Hill’s arms to make sure the pass fell incomplete.
Nate Swift caught a long pass from Orton down the sideline, drawing some cheers from the crowd.
It was just walkthrough speed, so no plays were called dead, but on one play, Jarvis Moss broke through the offensive line to get to Simms. Instead of going for the hypothetical sack, he let the play continue, simply standing in front of him, jumping and waiving his arms.
QUICK HITS: Orton spent a lot of time under center this afternoon. Chris Simms and Tom Brandstater still got some snaps, but it seemed like today Orton got even more reps than usual, often staying at quarterback no matter who else was in on offense or defense.
The team seemed to be using the scoreboard placed on the side of the building at Dove Valley to help set up different situational plays. It displayed time left in the game and the score.
The players got to have a little fun at the end of practice. Harkening back to the first days of minicamps, two defensive linemen dropped back to field punts to earn a privilege for the team. This time it wasn’t to get out of meetings, however — it was the right to have no curfew tonight, the day before the team gets a day off from practice — a “mental health day,” as McDaniels put it. Peterson stepped back first, and as teammates reminded him to take the wind into account, tossing grass into the air and watching the wind take it, the veteran lineman calmly hauled in the punt before being mobbed by his teammates.
But the fun wasn’t quite over, as Chris Baker stepped back to field a punt to earn the same privilege for the rookies. The first punt sailed over his head and he tried to run back and catch it over his shoulder, but it fell to the ground as he and his teammates laughed. McDaniels gave him another chance, however, and this time he called for a fair catch, stepped forward and let the ball fly over his head into the end zone, earning more laughs and high fives. On the third attempt, he found the ball in the air, backed up and fielded it perfectly in the end zone before throwing his arms in the air as his fellow rookies congratulated him.
DAILY JUKEBOX: Just a few tunes today, but they were some goodies.
Practice opened up with a little Michael Jackson – “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough”
Stone Temple Pilots – “Plush”
Arrested Development – “Tennessee”
Metallica – “Enter Sandman”
During the last song, Ayers threw down some serious air guitar skills as the team finished up stretching, and Woodyard did a little head-banging as he started to run through linebacker drills.
QUOTABLE:
“I don’t have to see these guys. I can actually lay in my own bed and watch my own TV and cook my own food. Well, I won’t really be cooking. Eat my own food.”
-Kenny Peterson, joking on why tomorrow’s day off will be nice
The team has a day off from practice tomorrow, and will be back on the field at 2:30 p.m. MDT on Sunday, Aug. 9.
Below are the pictures from the morning session.
-Gray Caldwell, DenverBroncos.com
Tags: Training Camp
This entry was posted
on Friday, August 7th, 2009 at 4:39 pm and is filed under DenverBroncos.com.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
broncofannsd, agreed. The team is not the DB of old. Like the phoenix from the ashes…..
The last thing now is seeing what happens with Brandon’s court date and whether there will be anymore suspensions forthcoming? I hope not. need you out there Brandon. Get healthy and get ready.
hey dave,
hows it going?
The infusion of new blood and new ideas at Dove Creek has resuscitated the franchise and while I love Shanny dearly and was saddened that he had to go, I realize the expediency of such a move with every passing day. I really like this Chris Baker kid. He will be a great asset to us on the defensive line. It’s great having Knowshon Moreno here and all will go well for the Broncos. As is customary, GO BRONCOS!!!
I wonder how carlton powell will do. He is a big DT too. He never got a chance due to injury. On the other hand, I havent heard anything about him at all during TC. What do you guys think?
Do you guys think Dawkins will play at all in the preseason? I just want him to play one game…and thats against Chicago. I think you can guess why.
Ditto, although I think larsen could do the dirty work just as good, if not better.
dawkins needs his broken hand to heal.
and Woodyard. I just want his jersey to be green from the grass when he leaves mile high stadium.
Good point, what did happen to Carlton Powell? I haven’t heard anything about him either.
I don’t think B Dawk needs to play in any preseason games. If he does, it needs to be minimal. The team needs he leadership on the field.
Hey, JaZzy. Alright. I was at the DP for a bit. Just got back.
As for Powell, he has been quiet. I still think he will stick as a BU to Fields and as a BU to Peterson or McBean.
As for Dawkins, I feel they may play him sparingly in the 3rd and 4th preseason games. Knock any rust off. My only question is for how long he will play with a cast?
hey dave,
what is the website you are getting paid to write for?
here is the story on McBean. for those who asked about him.
http://www.denverpost.com/broncos/ci_13011652
Fan Huddle. It will start up this fall. The site is only a page saying “Coming this fall”. They haven’t even told us when it will start for sure. I know I have to do a minimum of 4 articles a week. It will be mtself and another guy named Chris, running the Broncos blogs. We have been talking about different ways to approuch it, etc. Who will do what. Use each others strengths, etc.. Throw me an email and I’ll keep you updated. dynamicdave8 at the Y.
Meant “myself” and “approach.” Need to use my spell checker, lol.
Yeah, ATV, I remember reading about McBean in an earlier article and they said McBean is playing like an animal. Let the media run with their doubts and negatism. Crow is aplenty and I somehow think that I will be serving it, rather than eating it.
http://broncosarebest.blogspot.com/
Ryan McBean played his college ball at Oklahoma State. At 6′ 5″, 297 lbs, this kid is ideal for the 3-4 defense. He was drafted by the Steelers in the 4th round in 2007. Broncos signed him to practice squad last September. McBean has been playing with first defense since OTA’s. He definitely is the most unlikely starter we have this year.
Wish him the best with his new opportunity here in Bronco Country !!
Get Brady Quinn he’ll fit and has a bigger arm than Orton although I think Kyle will suceed
I hear you DynamicDAVE,
I think that they are waiting on the results of Brandons court date to decide whether they want to give him a better contract or not because nobodys going to give someone a new and improved contract and they could possibly be getting suspended for 5-8 games!!
said this before and will say it again. we are fine at wr so we should trade bradon to a team like baltimore for haloti ngata
broncosnugsfan, I would rather have Brandon on our side. His fighting for extra yardage is needed. He adds another dimension to the Broncos O when he plays. Yes, we have other players that bring their own unique gifts/talents to the field, but Brandon is extra unique in his ability to get extra yardage after the catch.
cutlersucks8, Quinn isn’t happening. McD is satisfied with what he has. Get used to the idea of Kyle being our QB for the next couple of years at least. Brandstater is being groomed as our future QB.
I know this is a bit off topic, but does anyone else get the sense that Moreno is overrated? I don’t really have a reason- other than his holdout- but I just can’t shake the feeling that Moreno is going to turn out as a bust. I don’t have anything against the guy, it is just a gut feeling.
All denizens of Bronco Country who are able to attend the preseason game against the Bears need to pelt Cutler with garbage. No one talks about Broncos fans that way and gets away with it!