With the season drawing near, the team is now following their regular season schedule, meaning only the first 10 minutes of practice are open to the media. But following the morning walk-through, we spoke with a few players as they left the field.
Marlon McCree talked about how the starting defense has been performing thus far, and he was impressed with their outing against Green Bay.
“I think the first team did pretty well,” McCree said. “I think we held them to 30 yards rushing, and they got some passes on us. But when you’re putting so many guys down in the box you’re kind of inviting them to throw it on us. We have to understand that teams are going to make some completions. We just have to rally and make the tackle.”
McCree and the rest of the defense have really aimed at stopping the run, and through three preseason games, they have been successful. In the first half of each of the first three games, when starters on both teams have played the most, the Broncos defense have held their opponents 31, 34 and 31 rushing yards, respectively.
“If you can stop the run, you can control the game,” McCree said. “We can control their playmaking ability.”
A welcome sight for the defense — Boss Bailey returned to practice. The sixth-year player and first-year Bronco has been out since the opening drive in Houston when he suffered a high ankle sprain.
“It feels good to be out there running around on (the ankle,)” Bailey said. “I’m not afraid or anything. It’s just fighting through the pain right now. As many practices as we’ve been through, mentally I’m fine.”
But it was Marquand Manuel that drew the biggest crowd of reporters, having broken his finger in the team’s preseason game against the Packers on Friday. He has since had surgery on that finger.
“I’m just going one day at a time and trying to get ready,” Manuel said.
When asked about what the doctors did during surgery, such as placing a pin in his finger, Manuel had a simple reply: “I’m not sure.”
“I woke up, and they told me I broke it,” Manuel said. “A broken bone is six weeks, but with regards to what I can and can’t do, depends on what kind of cast I’ll be in.”
Manuel said he will be fine and ready for the season opener at Oakland, and he is participating in today’s practice.
Elvis Dumervil also injured a hand against the Packers, and he too is participating in practice today. Check back here or DenverBroncos.com to see if there are any more updates when Head Coach Mike Shanahan and more players speak after practice.
– Adam Zinser, DenverBroncos.com
Tags: Adam Zinser, Boss Bailey, Marlon McCree, Marquand Manuel
Green Bay Film
Before I get critical, the team looks good, both sides of the ball. I like what Slowik is doing with Manuel, Reminds me of an aggressive defense when they had Romo.
I think Robertson and Thomas can be something special.
I noticed that Webster fills the holes faster than Niko, even though he doesn’t break down and missed a lot of tackles. If he improves that, he could have a great year.
Winborn fills nicely too.
I think they might get more play making ability out of Crowder compared to Engleberger at the Strong DE spot.
Is Moss going to show anything?
Offense
Hamilton looks ready for a great year. If Nalen doesn’t happen to make it back, Wiegs is doing well.
Scheffler blocks like a WR. If he improves that, then the running game will boom. Selvin Young is a more aggressive run/pass blocker than Scheff at this point.
Kuper needs to work his feet and reaction time.
Tackles need to work on edge blitzes/edge zone blitzes.
Harris handled Kampman really well, looks like he is on his way.
Hillis made a nice catch and run, but boy he is not ready for blocking at this level. He got thumped!
Alright coach anything else?
No seriously, Hillis is going to need time to adjust to lead blocking in a zone blocking scheme he and the ball carrier are seeing two different things and it is evident when Hillis goes one way and the runner another. I agree with the Crowder statement, I think he has more strength and he is a better athlete which coupled with a smaller pass rusher in Dumervil we should really look at.
Moss is absolutely a waste right now. How can a guy who wasn’t known for his strength in college, only put up 15 reps at the combine insist on trying to bullrush 300++ lbs? It really is rediculous, all we heard about was his speed when we drafted him last year and he doesn’t really use it. His reaction time off the snap is poor, he has bad balance and he absolutely insists on trying to bull rush the tackle blocking him and usually ends up watching the play when it gets behind him. Mike needs to have some logic and coaching smacked into him if he can’t realize his talent comes from the speed game.
Ive vented enough… GO BRONCOS
corrections to my faulty typing ^
300 ++ lbs OT’s
ridiculous
The defense has been excellent against the run, which isn’t necessarily something the Broncos have been able to claim the last couple of seasons. Nevertheless, they have been fairly impenetrable thus far this preseason. I think that Scheffler will be a dangerous weapon for Cutler, even more so than in his first couple of seasons, so the weaponry is impressive. Lorne Sam probably could have helped in numerous ways, but if he was cut, apparently there’s talent still on the team much better than him, so that’s cause for me to rejoice. Go Broncos!
I agree with the statement about Nate filliing the hole but not making the play. If you watch him tackle he puts his head down to deliver big hits far too often. That’s why his helmet often flies off. Twice in the GB game he filled the hole perfectly, put his head down to deliver a monster blow and the RB spun harmlessly away – both plays led to large gains. He will have to improve his tackling immediately at the point of attack. It’s not how hard the runner goes down it’s if he goes down. Great reaction time right now Nate, just focus on wrapping when you get there and you’ll have a great season.
ooooohhhh its nice to see boss back! If we stay healthy this year we are bound to have a great season!
Go Broncos!
Gentlemen,
Some good stuff! Nice to see intelligent bloggers on our site (anyone who’s been on espn.com knows what I’m talking about). No doubt this team will have serious issues putting constant pressure on opposing quarterbacks. Until we do (which likely will have to wait until next year’s draft), we simply will not be a title contender (see Giants, N.Y., 07-08). Having said that, we have shown that our run defense will be vastly improved and that alone will probably put us in playoff contention. A little luck doesn’t hurt either, specifically the news out of San Diego regarding Merriman’s injury, not that I root for players to be injured, but that guy has Champ Bailey impact. All you have to do is look at how our defense was affected when Al Wilson went down to get an idea of what will happen to the Chargers D if Merriman misses significant time. Offensive line looks great! I’m really looking forward to seeing the Hillis/Torain combination in the backfield, I think that combo will serve us well for years to come.
Hopefully Scheff gets his butt to a blocking clinic soon, we could really use all the weapons we can get on the field and he has some of the best hands on the team. Obviously there has been a message sent by Shanahan and it clearly says that if you don’t block well, you don’t play. I seriously don’t think anyone believes that Nate Jackson is a better pass catching tight end than Scheff, but Nate busts his behind every opportunity he gets, and that’s why he plays with the first stringers.
I think the Broncos will have a good redzone defense. If they can continue to stop the run it will force opponents offenses to pass the ball in the redzone where there is limited space. Since quarterbacks don’t throw at Champ that makes the makes the area for quarterbacks to throw at even smaller. This would give our defense an advantage and the opponents would be kicking a lot of field goals. I believe that our offense will be scoring a lot of touchdowns. We give up field goals and score touchdowns. That is a recipe for winning.
GO BRONCOS!!!!