Though the sun broke through for most of the afternoon practice, it was definitely much cooler than this morning’s session, and thankfully, the dark clouds heading this way held off just long enough for the team to wrap things up and head inside.
ATTENDANCE REPORT: Hamza Abdullah, Champ Bailey, Peyton Hillis, Chad Mustard, Tom Nalen and Dewayne Robertson all watched from the sidelines with their various injuries/soreness. Abdullah was doing some calisthenics with out on the field to help rehab his groin before practice began. One end of a large elastic band was wrapped around his waist with the other end tied to one of the goal posts. He high-stepped sideways until the band became fully extended and taught, then would move back towards the goal post.
As has often been the case, various veterans took the afternoon off. Today this included Dre’ Bly, Ebenezer Ekuban, Darrell Jackson, Erik Pears and Brandon Stokley.
Montrae Holland donned his jersey, as is often the case in the afternoon sessions, to participate in the jog-through.
POSTURING FOR POSITION: With the starting corners and one starting safety out, Domonique Foxworth, Marquand Manuel and Karl Paymah ran with the first-team defense. As a result, rookies Jack Williams and Josh Barrett got additional reps with the second-team.
Alvin McKinley subbed for Dewayne Robertson on the D-line.
After the injury to Ryan Torain this morning, Andre Hall and Anthony Alridge got more reps at running back. Cecil Sapp continued to work exclusively at fullback, and Michael Pittman ran more reps at fullback as well. Pittman worked into the RB rotation more as well.
Nate Webster continued to play with the starting defense while Niko Koutouvides worked as his backup.
FOCAL POINTS: Since yesterday was a special teams practice, the team performed a light jog-through today, lasting for around an hour and twenty minutes.
The defense worked entirely out of their base package for the jog through, focusing on individual assignments and man-to-man coverage.
The offense worked out of a lot of single-back, three wide receiver sets.
Brett Kern and Sam Paulescu took turns trying to pin punts inside the 10-yard line, with both men succeeding at various points throughout the afternoon.
TAKE AWAYS: With the plays performed at a jogging pace, the action never compares to that of the morning session, but both offense and defense seemed to be working towards fine tuning the minor aspects of the game.
- On one field, the offense went through mostly short passing plays, focusing on the routes of the receivers or backs. Cutler looked to Pittman several times as he came out of the backfield. The offensive lineman moved slowly to work on positioning as the scout defense advanced on the quarterback.
- On the other field, the defense did much the same with their individual assignments.
- The biggest and most impressive news came from the punting period. Trying to land punts inside the 10-yard line without going into the endzone is difficult for the most veteran punters, but both Paulescu and Kern made good progress in that area today. Kern launched a 5.4-second hang-time punt that landed at the 1-yard line, bounced back up high in the air and finally landed at about the 10.
- I spoke with Torain briefly in the locker room as I was passing through, and he told me he was doing alright.
- The general buzz among the players is that they can’t wait to finally hit someone in a different uniform. Elvis Dumervil mentioned that in his most recent blog, and Hall told me the same thing after practice.
- Now we’re all just looking forward to an especially good dinner waiting for us downstairs…
– Adam Zinser, DenverBroncos.com
Tags: Adam Zinser, Alvin McKinley, Andre Hall, Anthony Alridge, Brett Kern, Cecil Sapp, Chad Mustard, Champ Bailey, Darrell Jackson, Dewayne Robertson, Domonique Foxworth, Dre Bly, Hamza Abdullah, Jack Williams, Jog-Through, Josh Barrett, Michael Pittman, Montrae Holland, Nate Webster, Peyton Hillis, Rookies, Ryan Torain, Sam Paulescu, Special Teams, Tom Nalen, Uncategorized
That Sucks! Ryan Torain was a steal but injury prone. I was hoping he left that back in college. Thats why his first round talent dropped to the 4th round. I was excited to see him in action. Thats awesome Shanny said he is like TD, what a compliment! Well hopefully everyone else holds up. It seems like we draft a lot of injury prone guys that have a lot of talent, but sometime it seems like such a risk. CMON BRONCOS LETS GO BABY NO MORE SETBACKS!!!
he actually dropped to the 5th round maceano….
i think this also opens up the door for aldridge. we hear about this guys blazing speed on the field, im curious to see how affective he can be out there on sundays. seems like a very exciting player
I’ll be optimistic. While Torain’s injury and Marshall’s suspension really suck, thankfully there is depth at both tailback and receiver. Aldridge is a world-class speedster and Andre Hall is really good as well. My only concern is all of these tailbacks are small, so perhaps Pittman can get more opportunites as a power back, as Peyton Hillis potentially could be part of more short-yardage situation packages as well. In any case, bad things happen but the Broncos have to overcome these things. I have complete confidence they will. GO BRONCOS!!!
Gray, I have to disagree about the PUP list. Yes, he would have to miss the first 6 games, that’s a given, but he won’t be ready before then anyway? He’ll at LEAST miss all of September, meaning the earliest he’d be ready is early to mid October. The PUP list would allow the team to carry someone like Pittman for short yardage until the rookie is ready. Yes, Pittmans contract would be guaranteed, but at least they would let the rookie heal completely. Bones are not ligaments, you can’t rush the recovery.
Ok I think it is official we put Torain on the IR and save him from going somewhere and free up a roster spot for someone else and increase our overall depth