The Broncos closed out the fourth day of camp with a quick, hour-long special teams practice. As always, here are some quick hits:
ATTENDANCE REPORT: Domonique Foxworth did not participate in today’s practice — he ran with the special teams on Saturday.
POSTURING FOR POSITION: In the team’s first drill, six returners took turns fielding kickoffs — Anthony Alridge, Andre Hall, Glenn Martinez, Michael Pittman, Eddie Royal and Clifford Russell. In the second drill, only five returners rotated in: Taylor Jacobs and Marquay McDaniel joined the group of Martinez, Royal and Alridge.
FOCAL POINTS: The team focused on kick and punt returns for the duration of the practice. The attention was less on the actual returns but rather the blocking and pursuit.
TAKE AWAYS: It was a pretty straight-forward practice, just running through different return formations with Special Teams Coordinator Scott O’Brien making sure the players are exactly where they should be. That is until Matt Prater started kicking off.
First, let me say that yes, he was kicking from the 35-yard line (teams kick from the 30 in actual games), and yes, there was a significant breeze blowing in his favor, but nevertheless Prater’s foot was a wrecking ball out there, blasting kicks way past the endzone.
On his first kick, the ball hit the right field goal post. His second kick sailed into the trees behind the endzone and would have made it into the employee parking lot if it hadn’t gotten caught in some branches. The return drill went on as if the ball had been caught, but Prater kept drilling the ball almost out of the fenced-in fields. Hey, nobody’s arguing with a few touchbacks this season.
Speaking of Prater, before he stepped into the kickoff drill, he was practicing kickoffs off a tee from the 35-yard line on the opposite field. I’m not sure if he was actively trying to make it into the uprights, but he had enough distance that each one was close. Yes, that would be a 75-yard field goal, but the wind was a little too much and the kicks never actually sailed through. Watching in person it was still pretty impressive.
RANDOM THOUGHTS: We appreciate all the comments we’ve been getting lately, and we’re glad we’re gaining your readership. Hopefully our comments back have been helpful, and sorry if we haven’t gotten to every one — we’ve tried so far. If you want to know about specific players, keep checking back. We’ll try to put as much information about as many players as we can in these blogs, but keep in mind we’re also trying to let you know specifically about who had the standout performances of the day. Keep the questions and requests coming and we’ll keep attempting to accomodate.
Back with another full day of practices tomorrow…
-Gray Caldwell, DenverBroncos.com
Tags: Gray Caldwell, Special Teams, Training Camp
I’m interested to hear if Royal is a standout compared to all the other returners. Isn’t Anthony Aldridge a fullback?
all of us out of state broncos fans really appreciate all you guys put on here. it’s really all we get to see until the season starts up again, since NFL Network is fixated on the Brett Favre saga.
glad to see we have a decent kicker in place for the season. I was sad to see Elam go
and I was wondering if Eddie Royal has made any major plays for special teams so far?
Thanks, Ian. The compliment’s always appreciated!
jmatty:
Kickoff returns, as you know, are pretty violent entities when performed at full speed. The team hasn’t really gone full throttle on a return yet, but it’s still obvious just how quick Royal is. Everyone is excited to see what he can bring to the table when we get to real game speed.
As far as Anthony Alridge, he’s slotted at running back on the team’s official roster. Alridge is a speedy guy, listed at 185 pounds. The team’s rookie fullback, Peyton Hillis, is listed at 250 pounds. Just for comparison’s sake.
As always, thanks for commenting.
-Gray
Congratulations on a great series!
Very glad to see that the coverage continues on Broncos camp with all the down sizing that took place. You guys are doing a GREAT job and all of us die hard Broncomaniacs appreciate the hard work. I’d like to know what’s going on with Jarvis Moss though? I’m reading a lot of negative comments about his play so far through the practices and it’s really concerning considering his ability. Also, is Pittman in danger of being cut as I see he’s now running back kicks and it’s highly unlike Coach Shanahan to keep 4 running backs on the roster?
Thanks guys for all of your hard work. You are doing a great job! I know I really appreciate your coverage and how hard you are trying to accomidate the fans. We can be a demanding crowd. Keep up the great work.
I was suprised sammie parker wasn’t returning kicks, isn’t he the fastest guy on the team?
Ian, thanks, I appreciate your input, but I was reading where he was getting SCREAMED at after getting blown up again by Polumbus. I also read he had to stay after again to work again. Pittman moving to fullback doesn’t make sense to me, it’s almost like they’re trying to FIND a place for him on the roster right now. With the injury history of Hall and Young I think it’s a bad idea to let a power back like that walk when the team struggled so much inside the 20 the past 2 years.
you guys are doing a great job…keep up the good work of keeping us informed…
Hi Gray,
Who is making the biggest splash in camp so far? What are th chances Tyler Polumbus makes this team? Any surprise players/efforts?
Keep up the great work.
-joe h
GO BRONCOS!
I would like to know how anthony aldrige is returning the guy has alot of speed and he could also be a stand out player on special teams.
I think our team is better than the one we put on the field the past two seasons:
We have improved almost everywhere:
QB: Cutler will be better in his 3rd year.
RB: This is likely a push but I am a Young fan.
TE: Healthy Sheffler and Graham with another year in the system.
WR: Pending Marshall’s possible suspension I think we are better.
OL: Nalen back and Clady at LT…we’ve improved.
DL: Rookies with another year and healthy Moss.
LB: All 3 positions upgraded.
DB: Push till I see the Safety line-up 1st week.
Special Teams will be good but our kicking game will be a question.
Still, a lot to be excited about in my opinion.
Being from NY this is a great way to follow training camp….espn and the nfl network are obessed with favre and the cowboys.
Can’t wait to get out there for opening day….How has Samie parker and Darrel Jackson look at WR?
From what I’ve read they say that Jackson has a strangle hold on the #2 spot thus far. I don’t like Parkers chances of making the squad. I don’t recall Shanahan keeping 6 wideouts more than a handful of times. Marshall, Stokes, Royal, Colbert and Jackson will make the team, if they only keep 4 TE’s then I think they’ll keep a sixth wideout.
Is Josh Mallard long-snapping?
Thanks guys for all the work. All of us Bronco fans in So Cal are very thankful. I have a question for you. Do you think its possible we will see Peyton Hillis as running back in goal line situations like Allstot did in Tampa Bay? His is a beast and should be able to power it in the endzone. Lord knows we sucked the last couple of years in goal line situations.
Glad to have the blogs coming at us fast and furious!
I wouldn’t be suprised to see shanny keep 4 RB’s this year. I think the major reason they let Elam move on was his inability to kick off any more. We need the roster spot and after the attrition at the RB position last year we could use another guy on the roster. I could see having Young, Hall, Torian and Aldridge as RB’s with Hillis & maybe Pittman if he can play the position sliding into Fullback. I think Hrdnokd has the receiving corp right. Shanny will probably keep 5 tight ends counting and 5 receivers. Nothing against mike leach but it would be nice if the long snapper could actually play a position , we could use the roster spot.
Who’s gonna be the guy this year that comes out of no where to impress the coaches???
It’s nice to hear that Eddie Royal is still progressing nicely. Furthermore, I like to see Andre Hall taking an active role. Hall is explosive, I hope we find as many ways as possible to get the ball in his hands.
You guys are doing a great job. If you get a chance, give us the 411 on the punting situation and who, if anyone, has the edge there. Same thing for the return situation. A good trick is to watch who is holding first.
GREAT JOB!
First and quickly let me say that you guys are doing an amazing reporting job. Not only with updates and information but interaction as well. And for the record let me say I loved Mason too, BUT interaction via response’s was not this consistent this early. Gentlemen, nice work. NFL best staff to fan reporting by far.
Jack Williams,
I saw he had a nice break up with Stokely, how’s he doing? I need to know if I should sew his name on my Portis/Bell/ ? Jersey. A $210 dollar investement turned into an open roster spot in my closet after we let Paul Smith go.
GO GET EM’ BOYS
Thanks for the hard work guys.
Mr. Caldwell,
Thanks! This is one of the most interesting blogs i have read on this website. They should let you write more often!
Haha thanks broncos14441. Just trying to make a quick special teams practice blog at least a little fun to read.
-Gray