Linebacker Joe Mays returned to Dove Valley Monday after serving a one-week suspension for a helmet-to-helmet hit on Houston quarterback Matt Schaub.
The week away from football gave Mays a rare midseason opportunity for some family time, which he enjoyed while it lasted.
“I spent a lot of time with my family,” Mays said. “Normally you don’t really get a chance to spend too much time at home during the season. I spent a lot of time with them, as much time as I could. We’re tired of each other now so it’s time for me to get back to work.”
The suspension made gameday a uniquely challenging Sunday afternoon for a player typically in the middle of the action.
“It was tough,” Mays said. “Tough sitting at home, not used to being at home. I turned into a true fan. I was at home yelling and screaming at the TV. It was cool, but I wanted to play. I wanted to be out there with the guys, going out there and making plays with them. It was tough, but at the end of the day, those were the cards that I was dealt. I just had to sit at home and watch it.”
Now that Mays is back with the team and ready for football, the middle linebacker said he plans to continue to play the game the way he always has.
“No holding back,” Mays said. “I’m going to keep playing the way I’ve been playing, the way that I was taught to play the game. … Hard to the whistle, from the beginning of the whistle to the end of the whistle, I’m playing. That’s how I approach the game, that’s how I’m going to continue to approach the game. I just try to make sure that I stay out of these situations that I just put myself in.”
Taking on quarterback Tom Brady and a New England Patriots offense coming off a 52-point outing against the Buffalo Bills, Mays knows that he and his teammates face a tall task that will require them to be at their best.
“He’s dangerous,” Mays said of Brady. “We all know that he’s one of the best quarterbacks in the game. He’s a dangerous guy. He can put up points with the best of them. We know that. We knew that last year when we played them twice. We have to be ready. We’re going to have to step our game up. We played good this week, we’re going to have to play better because this guy can definitely can capitalize on our mistakes. We made a couple this week, they didn’t affect us too much. But playing Brady, he’ll definitely take advantage of them.”
AB – that’s good to hear about Pagano. Where did you get that info?
Don’t get me wrong folks – I wouldn’t trade McG for ten MJD’s….Ray Rice maybe….LOL I’m just wondering how much farther McG is good for. He finished last week with bruised ribs – (maybe he just needed a slow week of practice – didn’t seem to hurt him none – I’ll give him a slow week of practice every week if it translates into 100 plus of production on the ground.)
Welcome back Mr.Mays….
Oh how I would love to beat the Patriots badly this year!!!! Somebody needs to lay out Gronk. He was abusing our DBs last season..
DB – I think you’re misdirecting your frustrations.. It’s not free agency signings or lack there of, but rather the DRAFT, that should be getting you up in arms…..
Maybe Koppen might give our defense some hints about Brady’s snap count.. aha
DB watching the pregame show and they talked about it as well as NFLN all day. They had a presser about it.
who is better, Koppen or Walton? I know in the beginning of the year people were saying that Walton was the weakest player in our line.
OT – you may be right…my misdirect could be out of frustration at having Manning as our QB.
I like winning, but Manning is not endearing himself to me much yet.
Ah yes…the draft….hmmm….who have we drafted that has been productive and stayed in Denver???
Von Miller. Orlando Franklin. Rahim Moore.
Derek Wolfe.
Beadles, Walton, Decker, D. Thomas, Bruton
Ayers & Moreno (though their production can be argued… Lol)
Dumervil, Clady, Kuper & DJ Williams
All drafted by us…
I feel I should mention even though Woodyard & Harris weren’t drafted they got their first chance with us! And the drafting of Portis lead to the eventual trade of a certain Corner (and a draft pick of Tatum Bell, who had some decent production in Orange & Blue!!!) lol
I think we have a pretty solid group of drafted guys.
Broncos Country Strong 2012!
We only have two draft classes to judge the current regime, and it’s too early to form a proper judgement yet. There is no doubt we need to get better at drafting impact players, and player personnel evaluation has been an issue in the past. The draft has never been more important than it is today with the rookie wage scale in place. The draft is the teams lifeblood, and free agency signings are band-aids.
DB, I don’t know what its going to take to get you in the fold. I guess your love for a certain other qb won’t let you see the positives. Do you think we would have been in the game against Atlanta with Tebow at qb? As they say on Monday nigh Football “Come On Man”.
Sndvl – I hope that wasn’t too much work….now you can produce the other list… while I take on this one.
I’d say we’ve been average in terms of drafting players, could be better, could be worse. But I’d like to see us be at the top of the league in terms of drafting quality players.
Miller – arguably the best drafted player on the list – Kudos and I think he will be getting a good contract from the Broncos in the future.
OF – was impressed with his leap over Ball after the TD. OF does his job and is getting to where he is looking like a veteran. He still makes errors.
Moore – I like Moore but he won’t likely be resigned after his rookie contract.
Wolfe – has he paid up as well as he was billed? Yet to be determined.
Decker – I don’t like Decker very well. He drops a lot of catchable balls and his YAC are non existent. I’ll give you the ballerina thing into the endzone….but has any tackler ever been made to miss?
Dumerville – has got to be be one of my favorite picks. (I did not know he had been drafted by us and I actually had to go check.) I hope we gave him a great contract. Now that’s what we are talking about!!!
DB…you’re just a PFM basher looking for excuses dude,why can’t you just enjoy the pounding we just gave the Faders and have optimism for this season,instead you let your hate for PFM ruin the wins for you,but don’t try to ruin it for us man,I for one am STOKED for this season,…I’m lovin’ it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If our Defense keeps playing like they did yesterday,we will be contenders this year!!!
sndvl…I think we have some great draft picks also,looks pretty solid to me,Ayers and Moreno may not pan out,but hey nobody’s perfect,besides we have Wolfe and Jackson to take over for Ayers,and Hillman for Moreno!
All in all,we are starting to look a lot better….
ILMSDB!!!!!!!!!!
DB you conveniently left out,Clady,Beadles,Thomas,and Kuper..arguably 4 of the best players on our team!
Talk about hillman. Wasn’t that great watching him break out?
I’ll make a bold statement…When healthy we have one of the best Olines in the NFL….whether it’s pass or run blocking,imo!!!!!!!!!!!!
Clady-Beadles-Walton-Kuper-Franklin
And there are young,I think Kuper is like 28,and he’s the oldest,we will have a great Oline for years to come!!!
Ummm….
It’s Dumervil #92…… Not Dumerville…..just sayin, gotta know your own players….
I know we got a lot of talent on our team,and a lot of players made big plays Sunday,but I was impressed by Miller,Woodyard,and Brooking.I think that was the best I’ve seen our LBs play in a long time!
B.F.E I was impressed with the whole dang shabang!!!! We’re on our way to the promise land brother!!!!!
OC……I’m stoked my brother,we’re finally on the right track….riding the PFM neck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Haha! All from memory DB. The hardest part was typing it out…
What’s up sBeFcE?! Great game yesterday. Ya boy… OC, we got our retribution from 2 years ago. My dad still hasn’t responded back. Lmao. Typical fan behavior, as he’d be the first to talk smack… Lol
I’d rather ride the PFM neck,that the TT train wreck…lol.
OC – Ville is a city. And when I see Elvis in pursuit….who cares what I see?….when the QB sees DoomerVille crashing in upon him…LOL
Um…I haven’t checked the spelling of any players name. Do you do that? ICNCL
Great here sndvl………IT’S ALL GOOD IN BRONCOS COUNTRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes sndvl we got our dues back on the Evil Pirates!!!! Haha, my dad is acting just like the rest of the Black Slag and hiding in quiet denial!!!!hahahaha….
ILMSDB!
We should have been at that game bro!!!
I bet that place was rockin!!!
I feel sorry for those guys having to crawl back into the sludge of the black hole…..NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!LOL.
As for this years draft class… With the exception of Wolfe, they are all development type players for our future.
Brock, Bolden, Blake for sure. Hillman & Jackson can play impactful roles this season. In limited action of course.
I also forgot to include Quinton Carter on our draft board. Being placed on IR, forgot about him. He had two playoff INTs, that’s no slouch…!
SEC – no way on the Oline thing. They might get there someday. Adding a veteran center won’t hurt. Without Kuper we lost a bunch of our up front push that opens up the holes. The defenses that are getting to Manning have used very basic delays and cross overs, and have been successful at getting pressure on Manning. Not impressive.
How about it OC! My aunt told me the victory walk after the game, had that certain 2 word chant that I’m sure was just as much fun as the game!
SEC – I enjoyed thoroughly the pounding the Faders received yesterday. I’m looking for a rerun of the game so I can enjoy it again!!! LOL
new blog
DB,we just added a veteran Center,lol.
Give the Mohamad kid a break. Set him free once and for good so he can look elsewhere. Hopefully he will come back and haunt the Broncos.