In Head Coach Josh McDaniels’ first season at the helm of the Broncos, he has instilled a simple, yet focused motto upon his team: “Do your job.”
In every phase of the game, McDaniels asks players to handle their specific assignments to the best of their ability — and let their teammates take care of their respective roles, too.
Come this Sunday, the Broncos plan on bringing that same “do-your-job” attitude to their Week 17 matchup with AFC West rival Kansas City. There are 10 different scenarios that could play out on Sunday that would propel the Broncos into the playoffs. But the team fully realizes it needs to take care of business against its opponent at INVESCO Field at Mile High, the Chiefs, instead of worrying about how the six other teams fighting for an AFC Wild Card berth are performing on Sunday.
“I just hope we’re focused on (our) game,” McDaniels said. “I know there are a lot of other factors that are at play, and there are so many different scenarios that if you’re sitting there trying to calculate all those you might miss the first quarter. I think we should just focus on the Chiefs, get ready to play and go out there and coach and play as hard as we can on Sunday, and then whatever happens, whatever they tell us to do on Monday morning, that’s what we’re going to do. We’ll see how it all unfolds.”
As he prepares for Denver’s regular-season rematch with the Chiefs, Champ Bailey isn’t paying much attention to the surrounding circumstances. He hears what people tell him, but he sure isn’t asking any questions about postseason scenarios. He is much more concerned with a Kansas City receiving corps that will have Dwayne Bowe opposite Chris Chambers this time around.
“We’ve just got to prepare to win and everything will take care of itself,” Bailey said. “We’ve just got to make sure we go out and take care what is in front of us and not look past that.”
Offensive players, such as Kyle Orton and Brandon Marshall, echoed those sentiments.
“We’ve got to win,” Orton said. “Everything else doesn’t matter. Nothing else matters but winning.”
Marshall said he won’t watch the earlier games or pay attention to the scores around the league. While he is dedicated to playing his part on Sunday, he admitted he will be rooting for a handful of teams, including the Bengals.
“Deep down — yes I am,” Marshall said. “I am a fan of a lot of teams this week.”
And rightfully so. If the Broncos can qualify for the playoffs, they don’t have to look to far back to find a team that made a successful postseason run after being counted out entering Week 17. Just last season, the Arizona Cardinals were 8-7 entering the final week of the regular season after losing four of five games, and they advanced to Super Bowl XLIII.
“In this business, the key is to get in,” said Chiefs head coach Todd Haley, who was Arizona’s offensive coordinator last season. “It’s not how you get in or how you look getting in, but to get in. Anytime you have a chance to get in, you need to do everything possible to execute — whatever game it is that gets you in — so you can be playing when most everybody else is sitting at home.”
– Zach Eisendrath, DenverBroncos.com
There were six changes to the Broncos’ Week 17 Injury Report on Thursday. After sitting out Wednesday’s practice session, Daniel Graham (knee) and Eddie Royal (head/neck) were limited participants on Thursday. Limited participants on Wednesday, Spencer Larsen (hamstring), Ty Law (hamstring) and Darrell Reid (knee), were all full participants on Thursday. Brandon Marshall (hamstring) did not participate in Thursday’s practice session after being a limited participant on Wednesday.
There were two changes to the Chiefs’ Week 17 Injury Report on Thursday. A limited participant in Wednesday’s practice session, C/G Andy Alleman (back) did not practice on Thursday. CB Brandon Flowers (shoulder) practiced in full one day after being listed as a limited participant.
Below are a few pictures from the start of the team’s final practice of 2009. Happy New Year!
– Zach Eisendrath, DenverBroncos.com
Tags: Brandon Marshall, Champ Bailey, Head Coach Josh McDaniels, Kansas City Chiefs, Kyle Orton, Week 17
I am still sticking with my prediction my the keys to victory are as follows:
Solid run game.
Minimize mistakes (penalties and turnovers).
Converting red zone opportunities into TDs
Stop the opposing run game.
Healthy Marshall.
Actually these probably are keys to ever game but oh well.
How cool would it be for Dumervil to get 6 sacks to break the single season record? (I know, I know…not going to happen)
Well I guess I am the only left suring the internet right how. Looking forward to the draft, here are a few names I want to throw out there…
Suh from Nebraska but that should be a top 2 pick so I wont go any further.
Terrence Cody – This guy is just plain out huge…he is so big he can actually take on 2 blockers (being an LSU fan and he from Alabama I have seen him alot). He can block kicks too. A true definition of a nose tackle.
And for the later rounds…how about Toby Gerhart? A good runner that is durable but I do not know how his running style is? Anybody know?
A lot of the mock drafts have us take Rolando McClain in the 10th round, but I learned last year these mock drafts don’t mean anything when they had us taking Cushing or Malauga(sp) and then we surprise everyone and take Moreno.
Right now I’m torn, I know we need some big DL men, but at the same time there’s some big name quarterbacks coming out.
Baylin
BRONCOS 33
chiefs- 13
I will be rooting for the texans bengals and raiders this weekend….I honestly believe if we make the playoffs we could make a run to the superbowl…We know we can beat the colts ( we had the opportunity just couldnt finish) we beat the bengals patriots and chargers..we can beat the ravens…In all of the loses we suffered they were not by big margins …we make the simple corrections and limit the penalties n mistakes the sky is the limit for us…
I think we ought to look at both the QB position and the DL position and see what is the best pick we can get at our pick whatever # we get,just be smart about it and don’t waste our #1 pick.
BABYCHAMP-BRONCOS DA RAVENS MURDERED US UP N B-MORE AFTA DA BYE WEEK BUT I AGREE WIT U WE BEAT OURSELVES 2 MUCH.
I AGREE WE NEED 2 GET DAT CODY BOY 4RM ALABAMA IT TAKES 2 TO BLOCK HIM N DATS PERFECT FOT DUMERVEIL
We are going to decimate the Chiefs. Otherwise, GO DOLPHINS, GO BENGALS and GO BRONCOS!
Another way to look at the playoff scenarios which doesn’t involve 10 to 26 possibilities, LOL, is, if both the Ravens and the Jets win, we are out. Other than KC, we know who our real enemies are! LOL.
Scheffler was demoted to the scouting team yesterday in what is viewed as McD’s doghouse, fueling questions whether it might be Scheffler last game as a Bronco. Other players entered into that discussions are Marshall, Hamilton and Holliday.
With that in mind, here is the list of free agents for this year, courtesy of the DP:
Unrestricted free agents
LG/C Ben Hamilton
DE Vonnie Holliday
G/C Russ Hochstein
CB Ty Law
WR Brandon Lloyd
P Mitch Berger
Restricted free agents
QB Kyle Orton
OLB Elvis Dumervil
WR Brandon Marshall
RG Chris Kuper
TE Tony Scheffler
DE Le Kevin Smith
CodybleedsO&B: I love Toby Gerhart! He’s my 2010 man crush
, but there’s no way McD would ever draft this guy. But I like Gerharts work ethics and his style of football. He reminds me of John Rathman. A bruising down hill runner.
Suh would be another awesome pick! But he’ll be gone in a heart beat! Rolando McClain would also be an interesting pick as well…
Bay, is there any truth to Scheff? I’ve looked around, and so far it’s just a rumor on the message boards IMO. Do you have any info that would put some credibilty to this story?
Happy New Year too. It’s an even numbered year, so hopefully Denver can get started on a positive note!
Rocky, it’s true that Scheffler was on the scouting team in practice as reported by Mike Klis, anything else I don’t know, but I do know that: Scheff has not played particularly well of late, he has had difficulty getting separation, has made none of the tough catches and didn’t come back to the ball in The Eagles game to fight off the interception by Assante Samuel on the long pass on the right sideline. That would be enough in my eye to get into McD’s doghouse, seeing how McD operates. Just my opinion.
It’s too bad. I like Scheff. Granted he did’nt play well in the Eagles game, but he has come up with some other big plays in the early part of the season.
I just don’t like how McD chooses to dole out his punishment on certain players, while others get a free pass…
Correction, he made the long tough catch down the middle at the end of the Raider game, but the D wouldn’t let him get up and the game clock expired.
Agreed, the Hillis thing is unbearable.
RockyMts69 -
After my post I was looking at some scouting on him and they pretty much all said the same thing…great power, great vision, and great receiver out of the back field….sounds like the perfect compliment to Moreno to me
ESPN just reported that Denver Broncos wide receiver Brandon Marshall is out for Sunday’s game against the Kansas City Chiefs.
Just a lil forward thinking because thats all we have right about now so i was thinking draft like many have….really want to hear peoples thoughts on it because while i watch NFL like a fiend i barely watch college football so don’t know more than the popular names i hear
http://www.draftcountdown.com/sub/Mock-Draft-A.php
mock draft i found interesting….has us selecting a LB that seems like he could be an assett in all phases of the game….mostly the run. So wanna know thoughts. Especially about the QB thing. With Jake Locker out, one less QB talent so the other talents are gonna be swallowed up fast and the bears pick is currently at 9 i believe. so draft a QB sometime this year….wait till next year…maybe try to get colt mccoy late (some liked him on the boards) either way…we gonna have to do it sometime soon. Just wanna know your thoughts….
Josh McDaniels just said Brandon Marshall will be benched for Sunday’s game against the Chiefs. Coach’s decision. McDaniels indicated Marshall doesn’t want to play with slight hamstring pull.
TRB, that to me sounds like the end of the honeymoon.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=4788055
wow you are right RSH….Can we really win without Marshall…especially if royal is out as well?!?!?! But its looking like Royal will be back, still have gaff, stokely in the slot and brandon lloyd could get some touches. But we have seriously lost a big physical presence….All im saying is this is a easy win if we can amass over 200+ yards on the ground like we did the first time we played em. They are 31st against the run for goodness sakes. A LEGIT GROUND GAME PLEASE. And we will only pass when we need to. Keep Royal out of KR cuz we need him as a receiver now more than ever. Let Bucky do it or USE PHONZY FOR SOMETHING!!! Lord knows he aint lived up to that first round pick trade…..maybe he is a slow developer/adjuster….
Sure does Baylin…Marshall will be missed….I know its wrong to only root for one player on a team but i am glad he broke 100 catches before he went down…never gonna forget Colts game…12 first downs…he was moving the chains like an RB…..For all those who said we could survive without him i wanna hear em now…altho i agreed we might survive without him but we would regret it. Let him heal up for pro bowl and so that we can sign him long without “injury” being a factor like they did him going into this year.
Let’s see, no running game, we can’t stop the run, Marshall is out, we haven’t won a game at home in our division yet, KC has been playing great on the road of late, please somebody come on here and make me feel better about things like you did yesterday. LOL. Where are the cheerleader fans when you need them? Probably still working on a hangover…LOL.
Ok, correction, KC hasen’t played great on the road, but two out of their three wins are on the road.
What are the positives, Royal might be back, Stockley will be on the field, Lloyd did well, Hillis might just have to play with Bucky not full strength and Moreno wearing out, great secondary, Doom, DJ, is that enough?
um well…we have do or die on our side Baylin lmao….and myabe without Marshall Royal will get a sudden surge of greatness that he once had in 2008…I tell ya, I was watching highlights of Brandon Marshall and Eddie Cutler connectionsl 2008 on youtube and man was it a beuatiful thing. Was a product of Shanahans playbok, offensive genius and sync that royal and brandon had with cutler. I miss that. Some people are just born to play better with each other. Too bad cutler wanted to be a Dung. Just liek Culpepper and Moss…Culpeper and Moss fell off when they split up but Moss got brady and Culpeper is dung lol
I don’t see what will happen at TE’s if the report is correct that Scheff is in McD’s doghouse. Graham is hurt, so that leaves Quinn. Man, it might be a good thing this might be the last game, we are finishing the season on crutches of late, brutal.
Thats more than enough in my book Baylin especially if we get a ground game going not to mention I dont think Their O can match our D…. Peopel were so sure Eagles O would torture us and they didn’t. If it wasnt for 27 yard scramble on 3 and 25 we woulda won that game and KC doesnt have a scrambler. I think we are giving KC too much credit and our D not enough. The only way we lose this game…ONLY WAY…is if our team underestimates them and looks past them….lucky for us…its the last game of the season and we need the win to make the playoff push so…theres no looking past now…its do or die. Peopel will be playing for Jobs as well. I say we win cuz underestimation will not be a factor cuz its the last game of the season that we need.
Quinn could be a talent but i cant understand why sheff is in the dog house. What did he do. Last i saw him he was making a spectacular catch on Oakland. Sheffler could even line up as a wide receiver….he could be the big presence we are missing altho he is slower than most WRs but faster than most TEs…always thoguht of him as a hybrid TE/WR we could use him to fill the void.
TRB, I know you are still missing the aerials of the Cutler time, but I honestly can’t look back, same as I don’t want to look forward to next year’s draft right now, there will be plenty of time for that, starting maybe as soon as Monday, LOL, for now we have a game to win and I’m trying to see under what kind of circumstances we might be able to pull this one out, other than the obvious, run the ball, stop the run, etc… This is a mighty task McD is facing for Sunday, I guess that’s why he gets the big bucks and we get diddly. He better find a way, I want to eat crow by finishing 9-7, I don’t want to be right with my 500 prediction.
Re: Scheff, see my 8:36 am post (and my follow up 8:48am post addressing the catch you are talking about).
Hope you are right about the motivation factor, but games like the Oakland game make me wonder, if you couldn’t get motivated for that, why for this one? Also, their O might not match our D, but I’m not sure I buy that with their running game, that Jamaal Charles is more than capable and we are more than capable up front to let him have his way, as we have proven since the Baltimore game.
Thanks for trying to pick up my spirits, but I’m not responding as well as yesterday morning, LOL.
Baylin
oh i see. Well by how McD opperates asante thing might be enough…but the pass was bad in my book and he is a TE post of the time they dont do man to man deep ball they usually have body placement and good pass placement to get their catches…WRs on the other hand must be ever vigilant…Thats not an excuse but yea he shoulda done more…hell even offensive pass interference woulda been better than a INT. He had some key catches earlier this season and was main reason we beat SD the first game (and Royals returns) he had that nice enzone sideline grab and that short pass where he broke a tackle and scampered down the field for like 60 more yards…anyway, it is what it is. Beggars cant be choosers and we begging now so McD better lose that ego and use him cuz we already down at receiver…….
Aww crap forgot about Charles….thats a nice young RB…he suffers from fumblelitis WAY more than Moreno (and technically Moreno has only fumbed 4 times and 1 of them was fluke endzone oline knee fumble)…so we could get some forced…..we just need to focus all our plays on the run lmao….this really inst helping in picking up your spirits but….thats our beatiful team that we love and cheer for…stopping the run will def be a problem….we may have to outscore them like last time
I like that , beggars can’t be choosers, pretty well sums up our situation.
Or going up the creek without a paddle sort of thing, LOL.
Guess my point is…I dont see us losing..we will definitely win. Now whether we make it to the playoffs is another question…but we will end on a good note and handle our end of the deal…Im sure of it!
haha yea man…we gotta work with what we got…which was why we saw hillis in there agaisnt the eagles on a couple of plays lol
Good chatting, I gotta go eat, hopefuly when I get back all the cheerleaders will be out in force, we need them!
The list of Unrestricted free agents and restricted free agents is interesting. My guess as to their future with the Broncos:
Unrestricted:
Ben Hamilton. Has never fully recovered from concussion suffered two years ago. Gone from Broncos, probably retires.
Vonnie Holiday. Part time player. On the bubble with Broncos. Probably won’t get picked up by another team.
Russ Hochstein. Current starting guard that McD gave a 7th round draft pick for. Resigned by Broncos.
Ty Law. Late fill in. Gone.
Brandon Lloyd. Bubble Bronco. Doubtful another team will pick him up.
Mitch Berger. Signing of Colquitt says it all.
Restricted free agent (If signed by another team Broncos can match offer or get excellent draft picks in return.):
Kyle Orton. Highly unlikely any other team will be willing to pay the money Kyle would want. Broncos continue current bargain contract.
Elvis Dumerville. Will take major sized contract for another team to sign him. If it happens and the contract size isn’t more that Doom is really worth, Broncos will match offer. If they don’t match the offer they’ll get, at worst, a 1st round draft pick. Possible franchise tab.
Brandon Marshall. See Elvis and add an additional 1st rounder. Most likely Bronco to get franchise tag.
Chris Kuper. Not a premier Guard. Higly unlikely a team other than the Broncos will sign him. Cheap extention of his current contract.
Tony Scheffler. Probably gone. Can’t block the way McD wants and recent poor performance hasn’t helped.
LeKelvin Smith. Bubble Bronco. Always hurt. Nobody else will want him.
How about some other opinions on this?
I think that the Broncos should resign all the restricted free agents, except Scheffler, who they should trade since they don’t use him. I also think they should keep Holliday. He has been a big help to them in my opinion.
I also think that the Broncos should draft a good linebacker or nose tackle. I read in an earlier post about a linebacker named McClain. Is he a inside or outside linebacker? If he’s an outside, they should draft him. If he’s an inside, they don’t need him. They have DJ and Davis. They should go for Terence Cody.
McClain is an ILB so he would be taking Andra Davis spot, a lot of the mock drafts say Davis intensity gone down since the season started. I was thinking McClain or NT Terrance Cody would be a good fit for us. Though Cody does tire down in the 2nd half plus his huge frame (6’5 354lbs) may impose some health risk.
Thank you, Deify_you. I think that we should get Cody then. Although, mabye it would be better to try and get an outside linebacker. I don’t know. All I know is that the Broncos need to stop the run up the middle a lot better.
We need ILB more than OLB. Davis HAS slowed down and woodyard doesnt cut it…he is undersized so not a run stopper….fast but SUCKS in coverage….He is just special teams expert (along with bruton and Barret)…Doom has OLB and I dont know if yall have noticed but Ayers has been stepping up of late and Haggan aint bad either…We so shoulda gotten Cushings or Orakpo tho…anyway I say Mcclain is a good fit
Just watched mcd’s press conference on marshall, basically called marshall a wimp and that he do’es not want to be acountable to help team win. sounds like this relationship is over and so is marshall’s bronco career. lets see one year as coach and gets rid of two pro bowlers and continues to be a smug arrogant self righteous coach who supposedly knows it all but repeatedly said in conference i don’t know sounds a little confused to me and for a fact does’nt know squat
Well it looks like Marshall really does want out of Denver. He really is only accountable to himself and is not a team player. McD said we field the team that give us the best chance to win on Sunday and get into the playoffs and that there are players that will play with worse injuries than he has. It looks like Marshall is not the kind of player that will be able to stay in Denver at least while McD is the head coach. He does not fit the philosophy of being accountable to team first. I hope we do get a 1st round pick for him. I heard a rumor that the 49ers are interested in him. This is just the kind of BS we didn’t need when there is a chance at getting into the playoffs. Thanks a lot BM!!! You really let everyone down.
STOKLEY (not Stockley), Gaffney and Graham will play for sure, and I guess Scheffler (though this is not a certainty at this time) and Lloyd will be the receiving corp with Quinn and Willis ready to go in if needed.
TRB, the question is, do we need to replace Davis, or Fields at NT? I don’t know which would be better, but we NEED to stop the run.
I feel I must voice my opinion about whatever the mock drafts say about Andra Davis as reported by Deify above. Regardless of how they think Davis’ intensity has gone down since the start of the season, heck on the front 7, everyone’s intensity has gone down since the Baltimore game, I think that statement is a mockery, no pun intended, Andra has been one of the brightest spot on the front 7 all year along with Doom and DJ, he brought tremendous leadership to the team in what was one of the best free agent pick up in the off-season along with Hill, Dawkins and Goodman. He now is third on the team in tackles with 65, only behind DJ and Dawk, he is also tied for the lead in assists (21) with DJ and has the same sack total as DJ (3.5). Those mock draft people, whoever they are are out of their minds, I think it’s garbage, Andra is going nowhere (I hope), we need help at outside LB (Doom only plays one side, Haggan may need replaced, Woodyard definitely doesn’t cut it) and on the D line (all three of them are struggling), we are solid at ILB, IMO, at least way more solid there than anywhere else on the front 7 with the exception of Doom.
Forgot Ayers who is a keeper at OLB, but still a project.
I have to give McD a lot of credit. He sticks to his guns. Cutler was a whinny self-centered cry-baby who could not put the team first either, just like Marshall. That is why they are (well BM soon will be) out of Denver.
IMO, the only reason Marshall doesn’t fit the mold here is because of the money, no way in the team concept we have are you ever going to spend the kind of money Marshall wants on one player. He played all out this year only to shop his services to the highest bidder, we should get some good draft picks out of that trade, we have probably seen the last of Marshall in a Bronco uniform as I see it.
Well, I was calling for cheerleaders, and all we are getting is gloom and doom, dang… LOL.