Mike McCoy said earlier this offseason that he wants the offense to get back to its bruising roots — pounding the ball with the ground game.
But that’s not to say he’s not excited about the explosive options the team has in the passing game — particularly the two new tight ends the club picked up through the draft.
“These were two players that were very explosive — there are some things we want to do in the passing game with them,” McCoy told Broncos TV. “Julius (Thomas) obviously doesn’t have a whole lot of experience playing football, so there’s going to be a little bit of a learning curve for him. We’ll gradually work him into things and kind of find out what he can do. Then Virgil (Green) made a lot of plays up there in Nevada. Those are two explosive players that we’re looking forward to working with and kind of just molding them into our system. Gradually work them in, give them as much as they can handle and then as they pick up things, the more we’ll give them.”
Two players who didn’t have the luxury of gradually easing into the NFL are Zane Beadles and J.D. Walton, who started on the offensive line right away.
McCoy said he was impressed with their performances last season, and they’re only going to get better.
“You saw that last year — each week they got better and better as time went on,” he said. “Every game you play, you’re going to be that much better. They did a heck of a job for us last year, stepping into a tough situation as rookies, just jumping in there and playing right away.”
With the young talent the club has acquired in addition to talented veterans like Brandon Lloyd, Eddie Royal and Jabar Gaffney, McCoy said he expects “a fun, exciting offense for us” in 2011.
-Gray Caldwell, DenverBroncos.com
MINNEAPOLIS — The federal magistrate judge who is mediating the labor dispute between NFL owners and players has scheduled another session for July 19 in Minneapolis.
Judge Arthur J. Boylan set the meeting on Saturday, just before starting his vacation. But he also made clear that both sides should continue their own sessions in the interim as they work toward a new collective bargaining agreement.
After putting in two days in New York this week, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and NFL Players’ Association chief DeMaurice Smith announced that they were taking the weekend off. They plan to resume negotiations on Monday in what will be the first mediation sessions with owners and players present that does not include Boylan.
Wasn’t the “hard” deadline the 15th? I guess time off is becoming the key element of these negotiations, LOL, how ironic is that….
Legwold is telling us what Xanders, the Broncos and the league are looking at depending when the new cba is signed:
“We’re totally ready,” Broncos general manager Brian Xanders said. “On the pro side, in terms of unrestricted free agents, and with potential college free agents, the undrafted rookies, we’re more ready than ever before for whenever we hear a deal is done, and I would think every team feels that way.”
The Broncos already have converted the room they use for the draft to one they’ll use to acquire talent once a new collective bargaining agreement is reached, right down to seven available phone lines and detailed rankings of the players they believe will be available in free agency.
If a new collective bargaining agreement is finalized in the next 7 to 10 days, several personnel executives around the league said they expect a two-week free-agency period.
If a deal came in the coming week, teams would likely be afforded the opportunity to have one short minicamp before opening training camp. If a deal comes in late July or early August, teams would then be expected to simply open training camps and the league would try to salvage a full preseason schedule to go with a full regular-season schedule.
Xanders tells us more about where he is heading and what he thinks of his new LBs:
“Post-draft, we’ve had time to refine our post-draft roster,” Xanders said. “We could reassess our needs after the draft. For example we drafted three linebackers — Von Miller is going to start, Nate Irving has a good chance to compete to start and (Mike) Mohamed can play all three spots. So it doesn’t make any sense to sign (an unrestricted free agent) linebacker.
“For the first time, free agency is going to come after the draft. So we’re in a position where we can attack specifically who we want to target. When we get the word, we can move very quickly and we will.”
Here is some good Bronco news:
Chiefs’ Mike Vrabel will retire from the NFL and be announced as an assistant football coach at Ohio State on Monday.
The Washington Post is offering us a new “hard” deadline:
The league has no firm deadline to cancel preseason games and has not communicated any negotiating deadlines for a full preseason to the players’ side, people familiar with the talks said. But they said it would take 10 to 12 days to turn an agreement in principle into a formal written pact, and owners might give serious consideration to canceling the preseason opener if they don’t have a formal agreement completed by their July 21 meeting.
Now something of great importance I was completely unaware of:
Players do not receive paychecks during the preseason. But the revenue generated goes into the pool on which the salary cap — and thus, players’ pay — is based.
Forget my post yesterday about the players having leverage on the preseason issue… Something new pops up every day.
Top that new fact with the lockout now being legal for good and the ball is clearly in the players court. What are they gonna do with it?
File an injunction, that’s what! LMAO….
If the Owners lose money on the first preason games, that could be a big setback on the negotiations. Blame that on the players.
Bay, maybe, herhaps the July 15 date is a target date they have there sightes set on, but there could be a small window frame of time there after 15-21 of July is more accurate. Like I said it will get done just before midnight hour. It`s really crunch time. The players better not mess this up because of they make one false move the season could be in ruins.
I believe it`ll get done sometime in July, but my God is it getting close.
I read a comment that the owners might lift the lock-out and open the training camps if they can get an agreement in principal and they can finish the paperwork at a later time. That would make a lot of sense in this situation but sense has never been in much use during the process so far so I kind of wonder if it will apply this time. Did you see the article where Steve Wyche considered Kyle Orton a “gamer”? Did he see something we didn’t see or is he trying to see something that may or may not be there? Orton has survived the NFL and is probably as tough as anybody but gamers show up for the game. They all have one thing in common, the It Factor whatever that it. They make everyone around them better just by being on the filed. Orton is a game manager but he has never been able to carry a team consistently by himself. He throws for a bazillion yards but he never seems to get the TD’s that should go with all that yardage. Running back and forth in the middle of the field doesn’t win many games unless you are trying to protect a lead and getting the lead requires scoring TD’s.
It’s impossible to fairly gauge Otron’s potential based on his past here or in Chicago in my opinion. Chicago’s offense sucked by design and lack of talent. Under McDaniels , no running game. One demensional offenses are seldom high in productivity for obvious reasons. That is why mosts teams are always talking about having a balanced offense. Maybe if teams had to protect against the run as well as the pass in crucial situations Orton would look a lot better in many people eyes, including mine. There are a lot of pluses to Kyle Orton and it wouldn’t suprise me if he won a superbowl some day. He may not be the natural born leader that Tebow is, that doesn’t make him completely inadequate as many of you think. Tough as nails, a leadership quality for which many here don’t give him the credit he deserves.
Big article in the paper about ex-Bronco Peyton Hillis today. I got more mad by the paragraph , wishing I could castrate McDaniels for dealing my favorite Bronco .Glad Hillis is getting his just do in Cleveland.
Imready, I wouldn’t be suprised if that goes down as the single most boneheaded trade in the history of the NFL!…absolutly an aweful decision by McDaniels fueled by pride rather than common sense….even before that trade I bet you couldn’t find 10 Denver fans that didn’t believe in Hillis!
Henryac, that would be huge on lifting the lockout and opening training camps with the agreement in principal you mentioned earlier. Heck ya!
I don’t see how that would work out for the players since they don’t like off seasons to start with including training camp, sounds like wishful thinking on the owners part.
We won`t know until it happens, or if it happens. If not then we`ll all be left hanging.
The players keep taking all these matters to court, but all of a sudden they become nice boys and go ahead and go to training camp without a cba signed and filed the way it’s supposed to, just because they agree in “principal”? I don’t buy that, and if the players do they are stupider than the bag of hammers I thought they were, LOL.
Well, then they better have a deal done, signed, sealed and delivered by no later than July 21 if they want to have a preseason on time. Even that date may be to late.
When the game is on the line Orton chokes,we all seen what a Rookie could do in the same situations Orton was in,he has a Helluva lot more experience than Tebow,but not the IT factor!!!
If a Rookie beats you out of your starting spot,when you are considered a Vet,you’re not that good,sorry,just me!!!
Orton is a choke artist,and if he ever wins a SB,he better be on one Helluva great team!…look at the Jets..great Defense great Offense,Sanchez isn’t good enough,IMO
A team is only as good as it’s leader!
I’m not saying you have to have a GREAT QB to win a SB,but he can’t be a guy that just….don’t have to win it,just don’t lose it for us kinda QB.
Even though progress has undeniably been made big issues remain for a new cba:
NEW YORK — A rookie wage scale and free agency for veterans appear to be the biggest stumbling blocks to ending the NFL lockout.
Several people with knowledge of the talks told The Associated Press that such key issues as splitting total revenues — the major reason for the dispute — the salary cap, fewer offseason workouts and the length of a new collective bargaining agreement are close to being completed.
The people spoke anonymously because details are supposed to remain private.
Owners and players are to meet again, beginning Tuesday, after two days of long negotiations last week. Lawyers from both sides are to meet today.
The sticky topics include limits on rookie salaries and signing bonuses. Another is the number of transition tags for free agents, with right of first refusal.
No doubt that these rookie issues require a stern stand from the owners since those salary and bonuses awarded to rookies are essentially at the root of the financial problems the league feels they have, and of course I can see why owners are very troubled letting their best players go UFAs after four years so they would like to have a chance at retaining some key players with a first right of refusal/transition tag sort of thing. Which would instantly cut down the pool of players we so badly need to look at, which brings us back down to the reality of the matter that this is much more than a one year rebuilding process we are going through, no matter how hard that maybe to stomach. This season for us is just to get us back on the right track since we have long been on the train to nowhere. Next year on the other hand, if we complete the rebuild and find out that Tebow is indeed the man, has the potential to be the biggest year we’ve had since 2005.
Mortensen and Shefter also reporting that the new ‘hard” deadline of the 21st might be the one that produces a new cba:
There is a growing belief inside league circles that the NFL and NFL Players Association will have an agreement in place that can be ratified during the July 21 league meetings in Atlanta, according to sources familiar with the state of negotiations.
The level of overall confidence in reaching an agreement is evident in a document known as “The Transition Rules” that NFL teams would follow if and when both players and owners ratify a new labor agreement.
The Transition Rules spell out an actual timeline for roster transactions under the July 21 deal scenario, including the start of the new league year during which free agents would become eligible for the open market on July 28.
With the tight timeline, teams will be scrambling to fill rosters that must be set at 90 players on roughly Aug. 3 — but all training camps would be able to open on time.
If the deal were to be ratified July 21, it would assure that almost all preseason games would be played, according to sources.
The one game in danger would be the Aug. 7 Hall of Fame matchup between the Bears and Rams. There are still mixed opinions and thoughts as to whether that game could or would be played.
The Transition Rules also would include a designated period for teams to sign undrafted free agent rookies, a pool that routinely provides productive and even star players.
With an agreement reached by the 21st this is what the schedule would most likely look like:
• (July 21): Educate the clubs on the news league rules and allow voluntary training for teams and agents.
• (July 25): Sign undrafted rookies, as well as give free agents a chance to re-sign with their teams.
• (July 28) — League year starts and free agency begins.
• (Aug. 2) — Rosters must be set at 90 players.
• (Aug. 3) — Deadline for restricted free agents to sign offer sheets.
• (Aug. 7 ) — A four-day match period for teams to match restricted free-agent offer sheets.
• (Aug 12) — Deadline for rookies to sign contracts (not yet agreed upon).
• (Aug. 16) — Signing period for restricted free agents ends, as does the signing period for franchise and transition tenders.
• (Aug. 29) — Deadline for players to report to earned credit for an accrued season toward free agency.
CRAZY!!!! A whirlwind of activities that is bound to drive all involved nuts, but heck if that’s what it will take to have a whole season have at it! With all that agenda on the docket it’s easy to see why if it goes past the 21st it will be nearly impossible to implement all of the above without the need to have a re-organized season if one at all. I mean that’s a lot of stuff needing to fall into place, and that list certainly doesn’t even address all of the issues that will neeed to be addressed I’m sure, CRAZY!!!
One person close to the talks said this weekend, “We’re at the 10, maybe the 15 yard line, and we’re marching down the field, and both sides want to score and I think we will.”
Yet the disagreement over a rookie wage system for those who were drafted in late April is now the darkest cloud hanging over negotiations that are nearly complete on most major issues.
“The rookie wage scale is the only part I’m worried about,” one source involved in the talks said this weekend. “They’ve finished the other important parts. The only issue left that can cause a problem is the rookie wage scale.”
HUGE issue right there since it’s what basically sets the barometer for all future contracts for the vet players. The owners have to have a scale since it’s totally out of hand and the players don’t want to give an inch. Obviously a ways to go in these negotiations and since I feel the ball is in the players’ court now, it will be up to them to do most of the cave in on that front, the owners have to stand firm on that scale issue, the future of the league rides on that.
I think that a rookie wage scale would be a positive thing. The top rookies will always get a decent contract but it will help them not be so outrageous. I think it will help the owners out by not dishing out big dough for bust players. After they play out their rookie contract of are in the last year of it, then if they have proven themselves worthy, they’ll get an extension or whatever.
I agree, the owners need to stand firm on this issue. Giving into the players demand for more money is what they’ve been doing. Which is why the players loved the old CBA and the owners wanted out.
This whole thing has really kind of turned into a mess. (Like we didn’t already know that) I have some friends who thought this thing would be solved overnight and everthing would be fine. When it comes to money matters…nothing…nothing is settled that easily. Especially when two sides are wanting the same thing. That’d be like having two Cookie Monsters on Seaseme Street and only one cookie…two Oscar the Grouchs and only one trash can…well you get my point. Anyway, I’ve kind of have become numb on the whole situation. I’ll be more surprised when they get a deal struck than I am that it has taken this long to come to an agreement.
Harry Potter in 5 days!!! I know, nothing to do with football, but I finally have something to look forward to.
I think a Rookie wage scale should be implemented,depending on how a player performs,like incentives,yards,TDs,performancethings like that.Then they will have to earn the big bucks!
They underachieve,then they make an average salary! jomho!