Spencer Larsen made history Sunday as the first-ever Broncos player to start on both offense and defense, and the rest of the league noticed.
Larsen has been nominated for Diet Pepsi Rookie of the Week honors for Week 11.
He notched seven tackles in his first start at middle linebacker, and he helped pave the way for Broncos running backs to gain 124 yards on 25 carries with two touchdowns.
But it doesn’t end there — he also played on special teams.
Click here to vote for Larsen and see who else has been nominated for the award.
– Adam Zinser, DenverBroncos.com
Tags: Adam Zinser, Spencer Larsen, Week 11
is this guy really a rookie?
certainly doesn’t play like one!
I hope he keeps playing at MLB while Hillis does the FB job. If Larsen focus only on defense he will be fresh to make even more plays.
Very deserving- does anyone know where i can get a Larsen jersey?
Could Larsen be an option at safety when the linebackers return? The defense is lacking a solid safety. Larsen showed he is a gamer, I’m sure he’d do better then what we’ve got out there now.
I THINK LARSEN WILL BE MIDDLELINEBACKER FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR HE PICKED UP THE EFFORT IT WAS AWESOME . GO BRONCOS
larsen has earned the middlelinebacker job he and the rest of the guys played great sunday mr. larsen rocks.
What a great effort and an inspiration to the team. This kid deserves to play as much as he wants.
Outstanding Performance Denver,
From our coaching preparedness to our rookies, we stepped up.
To: My Team, and little do you know, America’s Team!!
Your Playoff Journey has now begun, and you must beat the Jets, Bills and Chargers in your “string of victories” to come.
To: the Strength and Conditioning Staff responsible for the Poorest excuse in the training of Agility Reads, and Plyometrics in the NFL:
Your training or ‘lack thereof’ of in such plyometrics and “agilities conditioning” has led to the ‘poorest performance’ in Sound Tackling Techniques, the absence of Courage, and above all, INJURIES that have compounded almost an entire Depth Chart.
On behalf of the World of Bronco Fans I ask,
What do you have to say for yourself?
To: the Head Coach, and Operations Staff:
I would relish in the Opportunity to train and revitalize your warriors to a Performance level worthy of our Marines. As one who helped train and kept Marines performance ready, I welcome this Challenge and Task and would do it for .33 % Less than his Salary. I will do it gladly for it would be my Honor as a Denver Native to Illustrate through Passion what some are calling “Your Identity”. I have followed the heartbeat of Our Organization since 95, therefore I Remember ‘Your Identity’ and will help your Warriors,
“See it to Fruition”.
I’ve served Country Honorably, now it would be My Honor to serve your Denver Bronco Organization.
Confidently Yours,
c/o Sir Jeshua Jackson, Esq.
LB & DB Strength and Agilities Coach
former USN
prince.jackson2@ymail.com
p.s.
In ’08 the Giants benefited from a post IraqVeteran’s vision, and the result: Superbowl!!
What do you have to Lose, SUPERBOWL!!
It’s Your Move.
Go Broncos!
orang_Crush I was thinking that as well. lets face it, lowry cant cover and misses tackles. we know larsen can tackle at least so he mgiht be able to do the job but when mccree comes back he is gonna be the safety so we dont gotta deal with lowry for long.
Larsen played well don’t get me wrong but nate has played well the whole season. He has tackled and forced and recovered fumbles and scored a defensive touchdown. We are back to where we are at the beginning of the season when we new we had a lot of promising linebackers and tried the 3-4 that didn’t work. I say Nate gets his Job back, DJ clearly gets his job back….and woodyard takes boss baileys spot since he is out for season. We can use larsen and winborn on special teams.
Spencer…I just saw your live interview on 1st and 10. You are a MLB, not a FB. I saw where Shanahan moved Koutivides to WLB position as a backup to DJ/WW. This seems to open the door for you to compete w/Webster. This moves also allows Hillis to be starting FB. This finally brings normalcy to this whole FB/MLB circus. With continued reps @MLB, you’ll be delivering the same bone crushing hits to RBs that you were to opposing KR/PR. Shanahan was beaming with great things to say about you, your character, and your play in his presser yesterday. Welcome to the NFL, and hopefully to making a home @ MLB for years to come! This is an exciting transformation, and my hats off to you and all of the great draft picks in 2008. Best ever for Denver. Go get’em Spencer…Be the man!
To those suggesting Larsen could be a SS. Forget about it! The only current LB, who’s a possibility would be Woodyard. He’s faster, and had played safety in college and HS. Larsen is a LB, pure and simple. Personally, I’d love to see Josh Barrett get a chance to do the samething these other rookies are doing. At the worst, we should give Woodyard a try? He’s about 230, hits hard, and attacks the ball. His transformation would be a possibility…Otherwise, we need to go after a top safety in the draft.
Sorry Crush, Webster’s missed more than he’s made. Overpursues, can’t hold his position, too anxious. I dont believe he gets his job back! I believe he becomes 2nd team, maybe 3rd if Haggans works out. Webster might be a better safety than MLB. He’s fast, and his speed would be a better fit in the def backfield than in gap control behind the line. He has high tackle #’s but we could put you @ MLB and your #’s would be high as well. It’s positional, not as much skillful.
been saying this since preseason…..and woodyard…both are great…..another undersized linebacker from arizona that was said to be too small is Antonio Pierce from NYG…he is pretty good..hopefully we found a gem..
Uh Oh!!!!Looks like Nate Webster has some competition looking over his shoulder.Way to play Larsen,hopefully you will bring that defensive spark we fans have been waiting for all season….Keep it up!
Dont get me wrong I love this dude Larsen ive noticed his play since the beggining of the season how hard he worked on special teams but i wish we could of just kept him under the radar a little bit more you know what i mean. dont get me wrong he did alright at middle line backer but hes not quite polished yet. im just saying its great to have players like him thats why i love the Broncos system u have to prove yourself on special teams but i just dont want him getting exposed with limited skills to fight back, remember hes just Rookie mans got a couple years with us right.
The rookies are doing great!!! Shanahan has a tem that will go far in the next 2 years! They stepped up when the injuries started coming! Give them kudo’s! Come on team get well! Dre misses you Champ and so do we!
Very impressive for a rookie!!! Congrats Larsen… I hope you win. I’ll be voting for you!!
He deserved a chance and he took full advantage of that and I’m proud of him. He deserves to win this award too – to take on that much responsibility in such brutal contact sport is just mind-blowing. That took guts, it was risky but it paid off and it just goes to show how much confidence Shanahan has in this team. I’m glad he does – he sees the same thing I do – that these younger guys like Larsen deserve a fair shot at playing the game, getting experience and getting used to our system. You know, if we never gave guys like Larsen a chance he wouldn’t get any experience – that’s how they get to be GREAT players like Champ. He’s given an equal chance per our injury situation and that’s all a rookie can really ask for.
What is really sad about all this though is that throughout his entire career like everyone else he is going to make is fair share of mistakes and when he does some people that just don’t have patience or refuse to see that it was a mistake and stuff like that happens to everybody… so these half-hearted “fans” will be saying he should be let go or traded after one mistake. I’m dreading that day b/c based off one mistake some people around here will just automatically jump on the “trade Larsen” bandwagon. That kind of thinking does do anyone any good. Its just nonsense to think that way. You can’t make a career judgment about a player based off of one mistake. Yet people do it anyway… just baffles me.
GO BRONCOS!!!!!!!
Sorry, correction – That kind of thinking DOESN’T do anyone any good.
GO BRONCOS!!!!!
Outstanding contribution Mr. Larsen! Thanks, my son, 22, back from Iraq, and a Raider fan, is looking forward to you knocking burgess on his (something).
2 rookie of the week for Eddie, 1 for Peyton, and soon to be 1 for Spencer…….anyone else care to talk trash about Shanny’s drafting ability? Let’s not forget that Aldridge and Torain were impressive early also. And our boy Clady? Gonna be a pro-bowler in a year or two. Best draft class EVER in the history of this team as far as I am concerned…..lets hope they aren’t one year wonders and continue to contribute for years to come…..
I think the Broncos just found the linebacker we have been looking for to replace Al Wilson. It was great to see the position played the way it is supposed to be!
47rocksurworld…well said! I definitely think Larsen is going to be the next Al Wilson for this team. The coaches need to find a way to get DJ back on the field when he is healthy, but without a doubt I think Jamie, Wesley and Spencer deserve the start until they prove otherwise. Great performance on Sunday.
All of the rookies on this team have played fantastic! I agree, this draft class has been the best I’ve ever seen. With all the picks we have stacked up in 09, look out!
GO BRONCOS!!!!!!!!!
As a student at Arizona, I’ve had the privilege of watching Spencer Larsen play here for a few years now. He was always all over the field, making plays everywhere. I was ecstatic when I found out he went to Denver, especially after hearing about how San Diego got our other star defender, CB Antione Cason. I am very excited to see that his level of play here at Arizona has translated well into the NFL. Keep up the good work! GO BRONCOS!!!!!
Larsen is an uncommon rookie primarily because of the maturity he gained on his LDS mission to Chile. He is reliable, smart and a hard worker. With all of those things going for him, he’s swiftly becoming one of my favorite Broncos. It’s nice to see UofA Wildcats excelling for my favorite team! Keep it up Spencer!
Not once have I seen anyone use the term, “Ironman,” for Spencer. He has earned that designation in every way. I thought from the moment I saw him in preseason he would start at MLB eventually. But two-ways? The Broncos have themselves a football player.
Spencer deserves Rookie of the Week in every way. Don’t expect other teams and players to emulate him. On the other hand, after all, the NFL is a copycat league.