Last year at this time, the Broncos were preparing to play the Giants in a primetime Thanksgiving night clash.
This season, Head Coach Josh McDaniels had the opportunity to give his players and coaches the most conventional holiday possible by NFL standards.
McDaniels moved up Thursday morning’s practice to ensure the players had the afternoon off to spend with their families. The coaches worked late on Tuesday night to get ahead on gameplanning normally reserved for Thursday, so they’ll have a little extra time away from the Dove Valley training facility, too.
“We talked about it this morning in the squad meeting that we’re fortunate to be practicing and/or playing on Thanksgiving Day, because it means we’re doing something we enjoy doing,” McDaniels said. “There are a lot of people that I know football is a big deal (for) on Thanksgiving, and we’re happy to have one another to celebrate it with and when we leave, I’m sure everybody will spend the day with their families, as I will.”
Building in time in the schedule away from the football field fit into the plans during an already short week after Monday night’s loss in San Diego. The team returns to action Sunday against St. Louis at INVESCO Field at Mile High.
Denver benefitted from an extra day to get ready each of the last two weeks with a bye week preceeding a Week 10 win against Kansas City before playing the Chargers until the following Monday.
The team, which had off Tuesday as usual, has not practiced in full pads either of the last two days and McDaniels said the team would not hit in practice this week because of the shorter recovery time for players.
“I think we all like a shorter week better than a longer week,” Spencer Larsen said. “It’s nicer just having things real focused and having to get dialed in real early.”
Like most around the country, the holiday gave several Broncos a chance to reflect on the most important aspects of their lives and remember Thanksgivings past. Robert Ayers told reporters about his attempts in the kitchen during the holiday, trying to make Jell-o as his mother, grandmother and aunts took care of the more important parts of the meal, while Knowshon Moreno made sure to praise his mother’s culinary skills.
Denver has played on Thanksgiving four of the past 10 years, so it’s no surprise players and coaches especially appreciated the chance to be with their families today.
“I’m thankful for family, life, the opportunity to be in this locker room and the opportunity to display my talents on Sundays,” Mario Haggan said.
The injury report for Sunday’s game did not change on Thanksgiving with each player listed maintaining the same practice status.
For the Broncos, D.J. Williams (concussion) practiced with limited participation, and Robert Ayers (foot) had full participation for the second straight day.
Andre Goodman (hip), Darcel McBath (quadricep) and Demaryius Thomas(ankle) have already been ruled out of Sunday’s game by McDaniels and have not practiced this week.
For the Rams, P Donnie Jones (left calf) and WR Danario Alexander (knee) had limited participation in Thursday’s practice, while WR Laurent Robinson (toe) and T Rodger Saffold (shoulder) had full participation.
-Eric Detweiler, DenverBroncos.com
Below are some photos from Thursday’s workout:
Tags: 2010, Denver Broncos, Head Coach Josh McDaniels, Thanksgiving, Week 12
Will be nice to get Ayers back and hopefully Decker will get some action on offense this week. I know this team can win & play well… just wish they wouldn’t give up. Fight for the season boys!! C’mon!!!!!
Happy Thanksgiving Bronco Country & God bless…
GO BRONCOS!!!!
07
I also would like to see Decker get more playing time. This team is hard to get a feel for who they are. We will see who gives up or who already have. Always have enjoyed your postive attitude! Hope it rubs off on the team. Hope you had a Happy Turkey Day!
FTR
The last two weeks McD said he was so happy because we had longer weeks to get ready for the opposition, this week Larsen steps up and says he is glad we are having a short week so he can get it dialed in early !?!?!?!, no one has any idea what the heck is going on or what ‘s the best way to go at it, this is like total chaos, there is nothing coming out of the team that actually makes any sense, no one is on the same page, this is like diving into oblivion, just paying attention…
Bay I know what you mean. I have tried all season to understand what our “Scheme” is supposed to be on Offense and Defense. I do know that so far it’s chaos from a fans perspective! And like you have posted before the team does not seem to quite “Get what McD is trying to coach” Something is really wrong in the coaching department. And the upper management of this Broncos team! Players do not just give up for any reason! I would like to see some more constancy moving forward. We all know the Broncos are not going to pay for three coaches. So we have what we have in Mcd. And this coaching dilemma and management problem comes from the top. Bad choices all around upstairs at Dove Valley! So it looks like we must depend on our players to get us through the season and cheer for our Broncos during the rest of the season. I have not heard of a player only meeting this year. Odd don’t you think that not one Bronco Captain has called a player only meeting? Every year after a blow out or a losing streak in years past someone has stepped up! Just Saying!!
ILMSDB
FTR
Maybe player only meetings are not allowed under McD??
FTR
FTR, that was when we had Al Wilson among us, he was a real leader and always took it upon himself to righten the ship whenever things were going bad taking all the D out for dinner on his tab, unfortunately we don’t have any real leader any more, Dawkins but he can’t back it up, DJ but he could never voice it and now he’s blown it, Bailey but he never was a voiceful leader, and there is nothing else, let’s face it, part of it is no one truly believes all the way in McD’s message so they don’t go out on a ledge for him. I wish I could sugar coat it for the optimists like you out there but I just don’t see it, we are plain flat and not buying into what McD is selling is where we are at, period.
Coach Chaos! I love it!!!!
Ohio?!?- FTR, that ones for you!
FTR & Bay ~ Im with you guys on this one. Confusion is rife within the camp. THis reminds me when Bates was DC and the players were at 6′s & 7′s in regards to the scheme, and that showed on the field. McD is out of depth as a HC and the transition has gone south. How long does PB hold on to him?? Bailey & Dawkins show it on the field where Al Wilson was a bothe the field player and the BIG talker… Damn the Bronco D had a golden year on the road to the AFCC game.. William, Wilson and Gold the best LB core we had in ages… This year bothsides of the ball are in complete oblivion!!
Alright lads have been reading the posts all season and thought I would join in now. I am from Ireland and have been a broncos fan since 1988. I was there for the blow out defeats in the superbowl and also the sweet successes.
Just like to say, and I know this will be contrary to what most of you think, I like the coach. I think the offense is taking shape and I think next year we will be putting up massive numbers against teams. I understand the defence has not been firing but still feel we are 1 or 2 players from being strong in this area. Ayers will improve further and Dumervill will be back. The rookie cornerbacks are showing great potential.
Josh reminds me off a soccer coach over in england who came in and got rid of alot of what were thought quality players but who had character issues. For the first two years he brought in his own players (sound familiar) .The pressure was on in the third year and only for a win one saturday were the heat was on he would have been fired. This coach was Alex Ferguson now rightly recongnised as the greatest soccer manager in England the team was Manchester United.
Be patient lads. You all see disaster I see a project worthy off time.
Keep the faith broncos friends this will end with a team that will be dominant for years to come. Rome wasnt built in a day.
Too bad the Broncos don’t play soccer, haha.
Listening to McD we play one of the best someone at something in the league every single Sunday, this week is no different, here is what McD says about Spagnuolo, who actually was dying for the opportunity to coach the Broncos as everyone knows, but we decided to go Offense instead!?!?!?:
“Getting ready for Steve’s defense is not fun. It’s a huge challenge,” McDaniels said. “In that regard, you embrace the opportunity to try to against somebody that I consider one of the very best, if not the best, game planners, strategists, defensive scheme coaches there are in the league. We’ve had some very interesting games in the past, and I would expect Sunday to be no different in that regard.”
Since I have been asking to play Syd’Quan extensively all year, I hope McD shows the confidence playing Thompson Sunday like he is giving him this week in practice, that may not be Tebow playing but at least it would be a start giving our young stars a shot, and if Syd’Quan does play and excels maybe next week it will be Tebow?:
With safety Darcel McBath (thigh) already ruled out of Sunday’s game, rookie Syd’Quan Thompson figures to have plenty to do.
Thompson has worked on most of the special-teams units this week, including as a returner, in all of the defense’s specialty packages, worked at safety in the base defense as well as at cornerback.
“Right now he’s jack-of-all- trades and trying to master some of them,” McDaniels said. “I love the attitude he has because he never gives you the feeling like it’s too much, which for a young kid, a young player, to put that kind of burden on him is pretty remarkable.”
“I’m ready to do whatever they want me to do,” Thompson said. “It’s kind of like as soon as I get going, I have to stay going. It’s not bad.”
And if we can believe Legwold, Decker will get some snaps Sunday because of Demaryius’ injury (out). It’s obvious that if it wasn’t for injuries to McBath and Thomas we would have no shot at seeing what Syd’Quan and Decker can really do. I hope they both make the best of it and force McD’s hand for the future.
By the way, both McBath and Demaryius are starting to show a propensity for injuries, I would even go as far as saying they may be injury prone and this is a real bad development.
And Legwold has this to say about Tebow:
As far as Tebow’s development overall, McDaniels has said he hasn’t considered yet whether he would start Tebow in a game this season if the Broncos were to be mathematically eliminated from the playoffs in the coming weeks.
Ok, if I were a betting man I would venture to say that McD will not start Tebow this year, and here is my reasoning why:
If McD plays Tebow this year and Tebow is a flop, McD will have played his last card and only accelerate his departure from Denver, so by not playing him this year, he would keep that joker card in his hand and Bowlen would absolutely have to give McD another season to give him a shot at using Tebow next year. And that my friends is, I am afraid, what we are up against wanting to see Tebow play this year….. Heck I wouldn’t put it past McD to do the same next year and sit Tebow out all of 2011 to buy himself a 2012 season. McD thinks about himself just as much as he does the team and probably more, just saying.
Anyway I hope I’m all wrong and Tebow plays next week.
With Ayers supposedly back in the line up for Sunday, my guess is Jackson will run hard at him all day to take advantage of the rustyness there. Jackson will be a load at 236lbs.
Well you guys can see there is no Black Friday for this guy, haha. Your turn.
How about those Patriots burning Alfonso Smith repetedely last night?? lol..
Yeah, my Phonzy must go campaign had some merit.
I don’t think Tebow has any kind of remote chance to start this season, does he?…
It seems that he is running the scout team and doesn’t get to learn much of the Broncos playbook..?
Maybe he gets to learn a swamp play or two just so he can come into the game once in a while and enhance the NFL Jersey products bottom line..? lol
Is Tebow really the third string QB? If anything happened to KO, I wonder if we would see BQ playing the rest of the season..?
I’m just saying maybe all of this Tebow hype might be just that, “hype”.
Did we get misled a bit when someone said “we are not rebuilding, we are going to win now”…..? humm??
Maybe he meant “we are not winning we are rebuilding now” or “we are not rebuilding, we are winning later” or “the rebuilding and winning will now happen later…?? idk? Did anyone hear exactly what he said??? lol
Maybe he’s been watching too much Nikelodeon (Destroy-Build-Destroy)… lol
I guess I’m just trying to find some kind of sense (and sense of humor) in our direction.. I don’t think I am alone in this feeling of aimlessness, lack of identity, lack of emotion, focus and direction…
Maybe it’s just a fact that there wont be football next year and all of us diehard fans are not understanding how that would effect us if it were our last six weeks on the job before a walkout…??
Well, I’ve asked more question than I can answer…. haha
Happy Holidays Broncos!!!
ILMSDB!!!
well, I believe in Tebow, I felt he played well in preseason, with the exception of a few rookie mistakes of course. McDs arrogance is the only thing that will keep Tebow from starting at the end of this season. I dont care if its only the last two games, but unless McD wants Orton to be our future, then I say when we are mathematically eliminated from the playoffs then play Tebow.
I BELIEVE IN THE TEBOW ERA! GO BRONCOS!
I believe in Tebow too Yovi21….
Too bad the coach that drafted him doesn’t…..
Good positive comments Collies 10!
Bailey and McD just came out wording their worries about Jackson just like I did this morning, good to see we are all on the same page:
“He’s a beast. If there’s one guy that we definitely have to know where he is at all times, that’s him,” Bailey said today. “We can’t let him get going. If we let him get going, we’re in for a long day.”
Broncos coach Josh McDaniels said he and his defensive coaches are stressing this week how important it is for the Broncos to get hits on Jackson at the line of scrimmage and before he gets into the secondary.
“I definitely don’t want to see (Jackson) come my way,” Bailey said. “If I have to get him, I’ll get him. But it’s not one of those things you have good dreams about.”
I just hope we finish with a strong push… I live in houston and my wife’s a texan fan and I’ll be happy if we can at least beat houston?? Any thoughts on that game?
If there’s one guy I trust to get Jackson, it’s Champ!
After Houstons fast start, they’ve kinda tanked it! Kube’s and company just missed out on the playoffs last year at 9-7. They had a huge win at the end of the year, beating the Pats. And we lost as we all remember, but would rather forget. If Indy or Cincy would have knocked off the Jets, the Texans were in. Last year.
This year, Shaub is not producing at the same level. Arian Foster has emerged outta nowhere! (got him on my fantasy team). Where do I remember when no name running backs used to come out of nowhere? Anyway, a huge win to open the season against Indy. A huge loss to Jacksonville on a hail Mary. Haha! That division is pretty competitive. Wins will be a premium.
When we play him, I’m sure McD will sing praises for Andre Johnson, Foster and Schaub. Mario Williams on the other side. With so much inconsistency on our team, not to mention the chance (however small) Tebow might be the QB!
So many questions on our team… Possible Kubiak is on the hot seat in Houston?!
jose, that’s a game in my season record prediction I picked us to lose because I thought the Texans had finally arrived, but that was a long time ago, and since I have now found out that they don’t have a D backfield worth anything I now think Orton might be able to exploit it so I would say that it is now one of the two or possibly three games we could win, this one against the Rams, the Houston one and the one at Arizona. I live in Austin so I see a lot of Houston games and I like Kubiak but with the debacle they are finding themselves in could be gone at season end. I went to the Denver Houston game in Houston a couple years ago when we got manhandled by Mario and it was no fun, Orton will have problems with him again for sure and we will need Moreno to have a big game if we indeed win that game.
I remember at that game I met a Texans fan who asked me if I thought they could still make the playoffs and I told him since they were no longer in control of their destiny at that time, that unfortunately no I didn’t think so because more often than not when you lose control of your destiny in this league usually bad things happen, and they didn’t make it…. The reason I brought this up is we are no longer in control of our destiny, we have to hope for all three division foes to lose even if we win all remaining games, so for the same reason as back then I don’t believe we will make the playoffs, and Houston just had to win one more game, just like we did in 2008, this is much worse, haha, not funny, but you get the meaning.
Plus you notice I didn’t mention I thought we could win any of our remaining division games, that pretty much seals it for me….
OC, I was thinking the same thing last night on Phonzy. He got reemed by a few of the coaches and not just the HC.
Yeah you outta see the highlights, the media is reaming him today too, they like have his name on the screen showing all his horrible plays with an arrow pointing at him, LOL.
I wouldn`t want to be in his shoe`s right now.
My favorite is when the N-E RB is plowing into him at like the six yard line and he carries him all the way into the end zone for a TD, haha, and the one where he goes back and forth for thirty yards trying to catch up with a receiver who is trying to elude him and runs in for a TD is pretty funny too.
sndvl,bay thanks for the input… I know the houston game was a bummer I got alot of crap here last year I think we will pull off and I get my revenge.
That’s were he got yelled at. I remember Phonzy saying how happy he was to be in Detroit, that was another day, this is now!
BTW, he looked as small as ever in that game.
Bay, that was a funky. I was thinking, Phonzy what are you. No effert at all.
oooops. Phonzy, what are you doig?
Man, I can`t spell today. haha. Anyway, New blog with prediction.
good to see decker out there…