With the Broncos recent injury woes the team has had to rely on first-year players and free agent acquisitions to step in and contribute. Both the rookies and the free agents have ran with their opportunities.
A CLASS ABOVE
The members of Broncos 2008 draft class knew that they were talented — they just didn’t think the team would be utilizing their talents so soon.
Spencer Larsen for one thought he would have to cut his teeth on special teams and that eventually down the road his chance would come. But the heart and drive demonstrated by Larsen and his peers coupled with the recent wave of injuries has been enough for the Broncos coaching staff to give the rookies a shot at serious minutes. They have responded by playing key roles at various times during the season.
Brandon Stokley said the rookies have been thrown into the fire and have held up well.
“It is hard to do for a young guy coming straight out of college (to adjust to) 16 games,” he said. “Usually they are winding down right about now and we are just getting cranked up. It is hard, but that is the business that we are in so they have had to grow up quick.”
Larsen said he wasn’t surprised with the way that the draft class has been able to chip in so quickly.
“I don’t know if I am amazed by (the performance),” he said. “We have a real good class — we have always known that. We have a solid rookie class with a bunch of mature kids. We came in with a tremendous confidence in ourselves and have been able to contribute.”
Head Coach Mike Shanahan said that their hard work in practice has translated well to game time.
“These guys aren’t only excellent athletes, but they are very sharp football players,” he said “Some guys got their opportunity because of injuries and some guys got their opportunity because they proved in practice that they can make plays.”
PICK-UPS PITCHING IN
The team’s first-year players aren’t the only Broncos that have seen significant minutes in the wake of injuries. The Broncos have had several free agent signees that have contributed to the team’s recent successes.
“They can play,” he said. “You have seen what they have done. All the running backs that have stepped up have done a great job. Defensively the linebackers and cornerbacks that have had to fill in have had to step their game up. That is what it is all about. You come into training camp knowing that no matter what position you are at or what you are on the depth chart you have to be ready to play because injuries are part of the game. Our guys have done a great job at that.”
Several free agents, including Josh Bell, Tatum Bell and P.J. Pope, had a big game against the Falcons on Sunday.
Pope and Tatum Bell each contributed on the ground. Pope had 35 yard on four carries good for an 8.8 yard average. Tatum Bell had seven rushes for 34 yards. Josh Bell started his first game at cornerback.
Daniel Graham said the team has done good job of stockpiling itself with talented players.
“It is and the coaches and staff here have done a great job with the personnel,” he said. “They have brought guys in when guys have gotten hurt. These guys have stepped into their shoes and they are taking advantage of their opportunities right now.”
Stokley said it has taken some time to get used to all the new faces in the locker room.
I am still trying to get some of their names. That is just the way it goes in this business. The good teams keep truckin’ and the bad teams feel sorry for themselves and there goes their season. For us we aren’t going to do that. We are going to keep going and whoever is in there is going to go in and play good football.”
-Jake Grilley, DenverBroncos.com
Tags: Brandon Stokley, Jake Grilley, Mike Shanahan, P.J. Pope, Rookies, Spencer Larsen, Tatum Bell
I’m gonna make this a short one believe it or not.
The rookies have done awesome for the situation they’ve been put in. Like Stokley said, these guys have been thrown into a fire and have handled it very well and have really stepped up to the plate. Hillis and Royal have been the most impressive so far. That first week no one really knew much about Royal and then BOOM everyone starts to wonder “where did that come from”. I know that’s what I was thinking. Kudos to the rookies for stepping up into a situation that still has the potential to hurt us. I know they won’t let that happen. With players like Hillis, Royal and Larsen fresh to this team I know they won’t let us down. The 3 of them are making quite a name for themselves. Congrats guys!!
And the ones like Tatum and Pope – not too shabby for the little carries they’ve gotten so far. Personally, I’m gonna have to see them play quite a bit in the next couple of games to really give an honest opinion about them. I mean for the fact that Tatum was selling phones for the past 3 months and wasn’t getting really active like this game requires, his couple of carries made it look like he didn’t go anywhere. He’s got talent in him that we could use – and just like the rookies we have to utilize it in the right way. Pope – can’t really say much either till he plays a bit more and gets more opportunities. Just give these guys a chance.
GO BRONCOS!!!!!!!
Denver is the future of football we have 5 players on this team whos been in the league for 10 plus years, if we can play at a high level like weve showed we can there is no reason for failure in this organization. our line has one real “veteran” left on it (not including Nalen). Honestly i dont think Nalen will be in the league to much longer. if we can develop a couple safeties we are super bowl elligable
sounds like your mad about matt lepsis not being on that line lol. what do you call wiegman and hamilton thats two vets on the line the a rookie a 2nd year guy and a third year guy. i like our second string rookie lineman too polumbus and kory they are good quality players as well. what did you guys think about that roderick rodgers? he made some big hits on special teams i saw we need to give him a chance and quit crying about no josh barret, id say rogers is better look at his films from wisconsin i like what i see in this guy. say goodbye to your spot marquand manuel this guy can hit
nah lepsis had 1 of his worst years last year but i dont look at hamilton as a vet wiegman is. i love our line dont get me wrong i think we have the best line in the league im impressed how were doing so good without a experienced team it makes me think the futures bright. rogers looks a lot better than lowry i wanna see barret on the active roster we drafted him put him in over lowry he cant tackle n e worse then him. but i wanna see rogers or fox in that spot. at least till marlin gets back
The more I learn about this latest installment of the Broncos, the more I love them. The youthful exuberance and talent will net a couple of Lombardis within the decade I’m sure. Jay Cutler is not Brett Favre, thank heaven for that. He makes mistakes like all quarterbacks do, but more often than not he plays at a high level and that’s good enough for me.
I have to say Defense was amazing and is growing and will only get better with time and the re-activation of Champ and DJ and even Mccree (not feeling lowry).
Still think our safeties suck and I hold safeties to a High standard cuz they are our supposed last line of defense. Manuel is just average as usual but Lowry is horrible. He isn’t a cover safety or a speed safety and he might be a hard hitting safety but his tackling skills are sub par. I think there’s a bad tackling/defense epidemic in the nfl cuz almost everyone seems like they got explosive offenses and its all illusions with the exception of the broncos of course
. Everyone needs to learn from PIT and Titans.
As for our running backs they did awesome and I am sure there shall be no starter for a while or the rest of the year. We might as well drop haynes. Off season will be brutal, we got like 8 running backs counting the ones on IR. quick six and pope will prolly go to PS. Pittman will be dropped along with hall. Torain, bell and selvin will be on roster with hillis as fullback.
side note: Eddie Royal is as versatile as they come. ROY in my book.
I think that our team is finally stepping up to play ball. To beat a good team like the Falcons…lets face it they’ve been having a good season, really boosts our confidence. The last two games have shown that a little of that Mile High Magic is starting to IV drip into Cutler’s veins. Two great comebacks in the 4th Qtr. That’s vintage Elway playing right there. Anyway I look forward to playing well again against the Raiders. Lets keep the ball rolling and we’ll come out on top.
I haven’t been much of a fan of Bly’s this year as I thought his play was less than sub-par…..but give props where props are due. These past two weeks he has stepped up and made 2 game changing plays…..games where if those plays didn’t happen, the Broncos lose. Keep it up Bly, cause with Champ out, we need you more than ever!
I’m also extremely pleased with Cutler. Here’s a guy who’s had a few bad starts to games, but has such a short memory he just goes out there and keeps slinging! I love his poise on the field and on the sidelines. He made no bad decisions last game….was efficient, and led the Broncos to victory.
I told my buddy that if they won that game against the Browns, the O would get some of that moxie back, the D would get a boost of confidence, and the Broncos could easily go on a tear to finish the season. There’s still a lot of work to do, but these last two weeks have been encouraging.
The Raiders are the perfect opponent to boost the Broncos confidence even more……let’s just hope they don’t think they have the game won already and come out with a poor effort. Here is a chance to make a real statement in the division, and the league, that the Broncos will be playing in January!
GO BRONCOS!
First of all is it just me? But it seems like the rookies and free agent LB’s we have in the game is playing better than the starters. Woodyard had 10 tackles in his 1st game aginst clev plus he played great aginst the falcons. I think there better aginst the run hopefully the coaches notice that plus they should because thats how shanahan is anyway he plays his best player but lets keep DJ in lol.
I’d like to see Larsen give it a try at safety.. its the biggest weakness on D when DJ OR Nate return. Lowry has been awful and McCree wasnt much better when he was playing!! Larsen showed his athletic ability, he’s a gamer!!
Lowry is horrible on angles….he is really no good…..why are all of the s’s cast offs from other teams…..not good enough in GB, TENN, and SD…means not good enough for DENVER…
guy wrote into the dpost suggesting paymah as fs. i think that’s a great idea. not a fan of demoting paymah behind bell as the nickel (when champ gets back), but if that’s a done deal, why not replace lowry (awful) with paymah? paymah has better coverage skills, better speed, and has shown he’s a willing tackler this year. paymah is a little light but isn’t far from ideal size for the position either.
LOWRY IS NOT AWFUL YOU FOOLS. He just looks bad cause he gets to defenders he cant tackle did you guys want him to be john lynch or what? HE IS GOOD GIVE HIM TIME, hard playing behind a great safety in hope. hint put him in his normal position he plays strong side best. Paymah is a nfl player so i cant rip on him but he is at best a 4th corner not a 3rd. Jack will have his spot at number 3 and bell at number 4 but when champ or bly gets hurt its bell that starts because of his size. i like these rookie corners much better then i like paymah but i like neither as much as fox. too bad out of the three corners we got that year we only have the worst one left i miss darrent, cant even imagine how good he’s be if he was still with us.
that’s beautiful logic baileythebronco: lowry isn’t an awful player; he just can’t tackle.
it’s not like he missed a couple; the only ones he’s made have been ones where the ballcarrier bulldozed him and tripped over him. he’s whiffed on the rest so badly that you start to wonder whether he actually WANTS to make contact. and fyi he’s HAD time (he started due to injuries in front of him in tennessee). no one is asking for a lynch replacement (no idea why you consider him the standard, versus say, atwater), but i don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask for someone who can tackle.
you from ssc ne? lowry is 10 times better in coverage then any other safety we got and if you want a hitter wait for roderick rodgers to develop cause i think we should give him a try to be honest
what’s ssc ne? just my initials. don’t disagree with you on coverage — lowry’s definitely the most physically gifted safety we have active. but on the coverage point, that’s why i think it makes sense to try paymah out there. he’ll be better on coverage, he has more speed, plus he’ll actually tackle. i know it’s not easy to translate position skills, but CB to FS is probably one of the easier ones, esp when the broncs play cover one or cover two, both of which require the FS to focus on deep pass coverage.
one of the blogs (i think MHR) invited their titans affiliate members to comment on lowry when the broncs picked him up. the comments were that lowry just couldn’t tackle. i thought it was just sour grapes and maybe he would whiff a few but get in a few pops like abdullah or kenoy kennedy. but he REALLY can’t tackle. i mean it’s stunning how bad he is. and i’m the kind of crazy fan who rewinds the plays to focus on what specific players are doing, who’s missing/making blocks, etc. i’m honestly suspicious that he deliberately arrives a second too late to every play.