After a day off, the Broncos were back on the practice field on Tuesday. Last week, dark clouds and rain greeted most of the afternoon practices, but today the sun was shining with very few clouds in sight. A crowd of 1,593 gathered to soak in the sun and watch the Broncos return to work with the preseason opener less than a week away.
In a pre-practice media session, Head Coach Josh McDaniels said he and his staff were productive during the two-day break, while it gave players a chance to rest and get treatment. It also gave the rookies, whose new and ridiculous haircuts created quite a stir at Saturday’s INVESCO Field workout, time to fix their veteran teammates’ clipping mistakes. Tim Tebow was among the freshly shaven rookies.
HAPPY RETURNS
After missing varying amounts of time last week, Chris Baker, D.J. Williams, Dustin Fry, Spencer Larsen and Justin Bannan all returned to action this afternoon. Williams and Dawkins sported non-contact orange jerseys but still worked through some 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 drills with the first team. When they sat for portions, Darcel McBath and Wesley Woodyard saw time with the first-unit defense.
Early in the practice, several other players walked to the team’s weight facility for individual workouts. The list included Chris Kuper, Eric Decker, Demaryius Thomas, Knowshon Moreno and Correll Buckhalter.
FINAL DRIVE FIREWORKS
The final drives of the day put the top two quarterbacks into a situation where they started at the 50-yard line with a minute left and no timeouts, needing a touchdown to win.
Kyle Orton led the first drive against the first team defense. He hit Brandon Stokley for a 19-yard gain to begin the drive. After an incompletion, Orton found Stokley down the seam for a 31-yard touchdown catch, setting off a celebration by the first-team offense. Stokley proceeded to toss the ball to a young fan on the far sideline.
Then, Brady Quinn stepped under center with the same stakes. This time, the defense came up with the big play. After an incompletion, Quinn found Jabar Gaffney for a short completion. On the next play, Alphonso Smith jumped Quinn’s quick out pass, snagging a finger tip interception that likely would’ve gone back the other way for a touchdown if played all the way through.
PLAYMAKERS
QUICK HITS
TRAINING CAMP JUKE BOX
Brady Quinn’s offseason champion status gave him the right to pick today’s warm-up playlist, and the quarterback brought a distinctive sound to the stretches and warm-up exercises.
Quinn’s mix began with a pair of Bon Jovi offerings, “Wanted Dead or Alive” and “Livin’ on a Prayer,” before finishing with Tupac’s “All Eyez on Me.”
- Eric Detweiler, DenverBroncos.com
Below are some photos of the workout:
The NFL and Gatorade encourage you to “Beat the Heat” this summer with proper hydration and nutrition before, during and after practices and games. For more, click here.
Tags: Brady Quinn, Day 10, Kyle Orton, Lonie Paxton, Perrish Cox, Training Camp
Cannot wait for Sunday – never really watched pre-season before as we don’t get the games in the UK, but I’ll have do do some streaming this year!
Legwold’s view of the offense early in the season:
The Broncos will need Prater to be at his best because the offensive line, even when healthy, figures to have two rookies in it when the regular season opens Sept. 12 at Jacksonville.
Also, the Broncos have three running backs on the shelf and two drafted rookie wide receivers hobbled because of injuries. That’s plenty of work for the Broncos’ trainers and doctors over the next four weeks.
Even if some of the injured players work their way back into the lineup before the Broncos open against the Jaguars, there’s still the matter of getting everybody in sync when so much practice time was missed in so many spots by so many people.
That could bring a lot of the offense early in the season back to Prater’s powerful right leg.
Yaaawwnnn……..
Ok, I ‘m not a big Krieger fan, but I thought his view of the injuries was worth posting:
As you may have heard, there’s still a month until the NFL regular season, so there’s no reason to worry about all these injuries in Broncos camp.
No reason to worry, for example, that the guy now lining up at left tackle isn’t on the depth chart at left tackle at all.
No reason to worry that neither of the wide receivers the Broncos selected in the NFL draft are on the practice field.
No reason to worry that the top three running backs are on the shelf.
No reason to worry that starting inside linebacker and former captain D.J. Williams made his second cameo of camp Tuesday wearing one of those orange jerseys that keeps people from hitting him.
The Broncos keep reminding us there’s plenty of time for all these guys to get healthy before the games begin to count. In fact, coach Josh McDaniels, looking for the bright side, suggested it may actually be a good thing that all these injuries came so early. “Just looking at last year, we had seven or eight guys that got injured real late in camp and were kind of in an indefinite term in terms of their recovery and rehab,” McDaniels said. “As a coach, it might be better for us to have it happen now.”
Certainly it’s better to have injuries before the games start to count than after, but the urge to shrug them off does raise a question:
What is the point of all these exhausting two-a-days under the hot summer sun if the guys missing them aren’t really missing that much?
Either training camp is important or it isn’t. If it is, having important pieces out for extended periods is likely to hurt the team’s execution. If it isn’t, there’s a whole bunch of guys who would just as soon skip it.
Valid points.
Wow Baylin,
Did McDaniels actually say that training camp is not important? Wow. Or did he say he rather have injuries in the pre-season instead of the regular season?
Here’s the full breakdown of Broncos first-stringers, according to the official depth chart:
OFFENSE — QB Kyle Orton; LT Ryan Clady; LG Zane Beadles; C J.D. Walton; RG Chris Kuper; RT Ryan Harris; WRs Brandon Lloyd, Eddie Royal and Jabar Gaffney; FB Spencer Larsen; RB Knowshon Moreno.
DEFENSE — DE Ryan McBean; NT Jamal Williams; DE Justin Bannan; OLBs Robert Ayers and Mario Haggan; ILBs D.J. Williams and Akin Ayodele; LCB Champ Bailey; RCB Andre Goodman; Ss Brian Dawkins and Renaldo Hill.
I guess they are just going by what they are wishing (Clady, Kuper, Moreno and DJ). So it looks as a sure thing Haggan has been moved back outside for good. For the ones would expect Lloyd to be cut, well, he is listed as a starter, so forget that. Jarvis Green cannot unseat McBean, so I don’t have my brand new D line. I’ll be anxious to see what Ayodele can do inside and Spencer Larsen at fullback, sndvl prayers have been answered.
KFS, the defender of all defenders, like I said up top Krieger is not my favorite but overall he touched on some good issues I felt were worth posting, of course he extrapolates a little, but don’t we all, McD does..
Since Fargas is reporting to camp this morning, I am not really sure what to make of this unless it’s just a body for TC. I mean the guy is released by the Raiders, tries to hook up with the Chiefs, the Browns and the Saints this off season but no one bites, plus having been a Raider it just brings back Lamont Jordan to mind, and that was awful. Whatever comes out of this I can only hope it will be more positive than Jordan. Bailey says he is a power back, even so listed at 220 lbs, I guess I got my two power backs now, three counting Baker, amazing what turn around McD has done about that, other than Toney, the other two were just after thoughts forced onto him by injuries, and he didn’t go for the smaller type back he is bringing in some beef this time, probably thinking they might have a better shot at remaining healthy in this crazy tough position that the RB has become. Better late than never, once again.
And Toney was kind of an after thought also since he went undrafted…
This is what Bailey said about Fargas:
“Power,” Broncos cornerback Champ Bailey said. “He’s a good power back.”
So, if we hold to schedule, two practices today, one 8:45 to 10:30 am, the other 5:30 to 7: 30 pm. Plenty of news and blogs to look forward to.
BTW, in the starting chart I just posted above I’m just now realizing they have no TE??? Three WR’s, no TE, interesting.
A fullback for a TE, kind of like reverse from last year.
hey good morning Bay,
How long do you think starters will play this 1st pre-season game? That question for everybody. Are you guys anticipating it as much as me? All I want is for us to have the lead when the starters leave? And have our 2nd team beat their 2nd team. I am so excited we finally can say both the D and O did good. or they both did bad. Or 1 of them did good the other bad. When you practice against each other one always looses, now we get to see where we stand against an other team, even if it is pre-season.
I would imagine the experienced starters will be in a couple of drives at the most while the inexperienced starters should stay on maybe the whole first quarter, at least they should I would think. Anyhow, it was interesting when I watched the HOF game between the Bengals and the Cowboys, because the Cinci O was dreadful other than 3 catches by TO, and the commentator was wondering if it was because of the Cinci O or the Dallas D. I guess we will learn more Sunday. If we do poorly, we can always blame it on it was the second pre season game for Cinci, LOL.
Re: Depth chart, sure hope Clady will be ready to go.
No doubt Daniel Graham will be our starting TE. Marquez Branson and Richard Quinn will also see action. Branson also at H-Back. Quinn in two TE set formations & special teams.
On Defense, Jarvis Green will see action in nickel packages.
Curious to see some of the new formations/ packages Coach McD will install this year.
Good to hear about Brandon Lloyd. Speaking of Brandon’s, great write up at Denver Post yesterday re: Brandon Stokley.
LOL, it was their 2nd game.
Well Stokely may not be washed up after all!
I think with injury to decker, if he dont return soon Stokely will make final roster for sure.
From rotoworld
Broncos WR Eric Decker’s latest injury is being called a sprained left ankle after all.
Injury updates out of Denver have been hard to come by, as predicted. At this point, it appears that Decker is rehabbing the pre-existing high ankle sprain that was aggravated in last Saturday’s practice. The MRI apparently did not reveal an aggravation of his Lisfranc fracture. There’s no timetable for his return to practice.
also from rotoworld
ESPN’s Chris Mortensen confirms that the Broncos fully expect Knowshon Moreno (hamstring) back for Week 1.
Mort visited Broncos camp on Tuesday. Moreno isn’t practicing and may miss the remainder of preseason, but there’s little doubt he’ll be ready for Opening Day. He remains a top-20 back in both PPR and non-PPR fantasy leagues.
Source: ESPN.com
I remember when talking about Decker a couple months back saying the guy could very well be a force like Eddie Mac, but it all hinges on how he can stay injury free, Eddie took more vicious hits than most but all and all remained fairly healthy, it is clearly not the case with Decker the last couple of years, tough to make a mark in the NFL that way, a high ankle sprain is not an easy injury to recover from. Stokley could benefit from that, but I don’t know what you would do with Decker since I think Willis also makes the cut, you can’t put him on the PS, somebody would grab him, probably the Pats, LOL.
Like always,thanks guys for all the info and updates on the players and games,Denver Broncos.com,the best place to get info on the Broncos,without all the negativity from all the sports writers,thanks guys!
And a great big Mile High Salute to McD for finally bringing in powerbacks to run power scheme! Hey looks like the guy is learning a thing or 2 himself.
I don’t really know about the Fargus situation,but he’s gotta be better than Jordan.
If McBean is beating out Green,does that mean Green is not as good as advertised,or McBean is getting better??
BFE
The Moreno thing concerns me greatly, last year he had camp and early season injury set backs and he could never really fully get it going, now same exact thing, I think that has a lot to do with McD bringing in RB’s, that and the fact that we all know Bucky has no shot at remaining healthy troughout, I love the guy, even think that when healthy he is better than Moreno, but McD just cannot afford to keep such dead weight players on the roster, sorry, I disagree with it, Bucky should be cut before the beginning of the season in my opinion.
I honestly believe that Fargas is going to be a very good addition for the
Broncos and their depleted core of RB’s. The guy has a lot of talent. He’s physical, he’s a bruiser, and an overall punishing back. Earlier, Baylin made the point that he was let go by the Raiders, and couldn’t even get picked up by the Chiefs, the Browns, or the Saints. But you have to look at the system he was playing in while with the Raiders. That O-line for Oakland is downright bad, and even the greatest running backs in the league would have trouble gaining yards behind that line. I think Fargas will surprise a lot of people this season, and I for one am really glad the Broncos took a chance on him.
BFE, I think its McBean stepping up. he was actually a 3rd round pick from Pittsburgh, but he got hurt then on to practice squad before we picked him up I believe. But Pitt does know how to draft defensive players, so maybe he is what they thought he was. here is to hoping he is gonna big for us.
Baylin…I agree bro! Buck seems to be injury proned big time,as much as I love the guy,he is dead weight as you say.With the additions of White(suspended for the first 4 games),Fargus,and Baker,I think we will be alright when Moreno gets healthy and White gets to return,Fargus and Baker can carry the load till then.
KFS…I agree bro,I think McBean has a lot of potential.
About Fargas, let’s not forget he had a knee injury late in the year last year, and he has a history of trouble with the knee. When he was drafted, one of the thing going against him was that his knee never healed right, and could be an issue during his career, and it sort of has been, specially the last knee injury, and he failed his physical with many teams this year. Let’s be honest about this, we are seriously running short on options and that’s where we’re at, getting players rejected by others. I’m all for Fargas being a great addition, but I have many reserves about it.
Agreed about Mc Bean, he was the best of the three last year.
Jarvis Green also had knee surgery last November, but I don’t think it was that big a deal for him, not like Fargas, so he is probably losing the battle to McBean on merit alone, but there is a month to go, that could change in pre season, specially if the D line doesn’t perform well.
I agree fargas is a risk also, but he only missed very little games with injuries. In 7 years he played in 92 games. So he is at least capable of playing through pain.
Bucky gets injured every year. Although I really love Bucky as our #2, if he cant stay healthy what good will he do on the bench. Hopefully he can be healthy for us the whole year, because I believe he is our best 2nd option to Moreno when healthy.
Good point, but in 7 years he only had 827 carries for 3,369 yards, or 118 carries for 481 yards per season average, not a heavy load by any means, like a little over 7 carries per game.
Fargas was a hard runner for the Raiders. He was currently playing with a semi-pro Team before being called up.
He had knee surgery sometime back, but but did pass the physical.
Sorry for repetative post as I see you mentioned Fargas knee surgery already.
Yeah we addressed all that, welcome to Bronco land Raider man, LOL.
Yeah Bay your right on fargas, but for the last 2 years he was behind McFadden and Bush. When you waste high picks on RBs, they usually try to play them. So his carries dropped the last 2 years. He also averaged 4.1 ypc. Also we dont expect him to be our #1 back, Moreno will do that. he could be a good 2nd back if Bucky gets injured. or good as 3rd back. Just a change of pace back. Dont get me wrong I rather Bucky stay healthy and plays all year, I just dont think the signing of Fargas is bad.
Hey, with Fargas in for 7 plays, Bucky for 5, Moreno for 12, and LenDale for another 6 in short yardage, we will have a complete running game, haha.
I will add though I dont believe he makes the team if our 3 backs are healthy. I doubt McD would carry 4 backs. And we can put Toney baker on PS just in case.
Any word on how Lendale White is doing ?
Branson carted off the field.
Lendale white has been cramping up alot according to Josina Anderson.
info from the post
Broncos tight end Marquez Branson, the heir apparent to Tony Scheffler, was carted off the practice field Wednesday morning with what appears to be a right ankle injury.
Branson suffered the injury while the Broncos’ were practicing 11-on-11 running plays. As he left the cart near the locker room, Branson had to helped in by medical personnel.
Nothing serious about White that I know and since he can’t play for the first four games, at this point he is about the last one I worry about.
Now, I don’t like hearing that, after losing Scheff, Marquez was the guy as far as catching abilities and could play at full back too, worthless even me saying anything about injuries any longer, it is what it is….
Soooo many ankle injuries, in 2008 it was mainly groin pulls, now it’s ankle injuries….
I think when White is able to return,he will be our #2 Back,and will beat out Buck anyway,if White can return to his form of 2 years ago he can be a very effective RB,especially on 3rd and 4th and short,I look forward to seeing him on the field(always been a big fan of him).
Yeah BFE, we know, ex-Tennessee Titans player, haha.
Sounds like White’s out of out of shape. Yeah- he’s not available but just curious to see if it’s not something more serious than originally reported. You know how it is around here with injury reports.
If LenDale has been cramping up alot, that means he is practicing I take it, so his leg injury is definitely not bad.
Im not sure he’s practicing, but Josina anderson postewd the cramping news