Final Day of Minicamp
On October 31, the Broncos travel across the Atlantic Ocean to take on the San Francisco 49ers in London. During today’s final minicamp practice, they got a taste of what the weather may be like in six months.
Much like yesterday, temperatures were in the 40s with a steady rain falling throughout the session. Dicky Lyons readied himself for the weather by wearing long sleeves, gloves and a hand warmer.
Minicamp Underway
The final Broncos camp until training camp got underway on Friday under overcast skies and cooler temperatures. As the session wore on, more and more playmakers entered the fray in an action-packed practice.
LINEUP
The rest of the defensive lineup featured Justin Bannan, Jamal Williams and Ryan McBean on the line and Brian Dawkins and Renaldo Hill at safety.
Tebow, Quinn and OrtonHave to give the guys credit where credit is due….true professionals and I appreciate seeing it. Each has a role to play and a role to compete for, and may the best man win. Don’t bother reading the papers as they’re on a roll to create as much controversy as they can between the players and it’s almost comical.
Big news of the day came out of Miami, with our buddy Brandon and another hip surgery….wow, interesting?? and I mean in the way we all know Brandon. I stopped by his site and it said he’d been overseas in Thailand and the islands over there…hmmmmm.
O.K. back to the fellas:
Tebow Talk–Part 2The Broncos’ passing camp is underway. Clearly, there is much attention on the Broncos’ four quarterbacks: Kyle Orton, Brady Quinn, Tom Brandstater and Tim Tebow.
Shortly after the NFL draft, 850 KOA had the chance to talk with Tebow (TT) one two occasions. Here is part two of our interview.
850 KOA: You’ve obviously been blessed with great skills. But it’s apparent you have a broader perspective on things. Where does that come from?
TT: It’s having that relationship with Jesus Christ and knowing that football is just a game. It’s passionate, I love it. I care about it, I want to be the best I can be at football. But at the end of the day, it’s just a game. There are things that are more important. Football gives me a platform. It gives me an opportunity to walk into a hospital and make a kid smile. It gives me the opportunity to talk at a youth ranch and inspire young boys. It gives me an opportunity to talk to a team and tell them you can go reach your dreams if you believe in yourself and outwork your opponent. That’s what I believe football gives me. It gives me the opportunity to share my faith and that’s what I love about it. I believe it’s an obligation to make a difference in people’s lives because you are blessed with a platform. If you go out there and win games and try to win championships, at the end of the day, what does your life really mean? You won some games. But those trophies, they’re going to rust and they’re not going to mean much one day. If you make a difference in people’s lives, that’s going to make an impact and that’s going to last forever.
QB Trade Always Brings Excitement
The trade bringing quarterback Brady Quinn to the Denver Broncos has seriously ramped up Broncomania talk in the Mile High City, even allowing for the high level always present among our fans.
Any time a quarterback is involved, everyone gets very excited, and in this case, the credential portfolio which Brady Quinn carries to the Broncos includes that of being the all time winningest quarterback at Notre Dame. While with the Irish, Quinn set 36 school records while playing for the coach who stands as one of the mentors in the career of Josh McDaniels.
Click to continue reading “QB Trade Always Brings Excitement”
The Plot ThickensFor the second straight offseason, the Broncos have made a big trade involving a quarterback. The team’s acquisition of Brady Quinn certainly isn’t as big as the Jay Cutler deal a year ago, but any time a big-name quarterback is involved, it’s news.
As far as the trade itself, the Broncos were in a low-risk, high-reward situation. It was clear that Peyton Hillis was not going to factor in as one of the top two running backs for the Broncos. Head coach Josh McDaniels said on more than one occasion last year that he does not believe in getting three running backs regular reps because he believes that adversely affects the ability for any of these running backs to get into a rhythm.
Even though many fans have clamored for Hillis to get more playing time, it didn’t happen and never was going to happen (barring injury or some unforeseen situation) with Josh McDaniels as the Broncos’ head coach. Whether or not one agrees or disagrees with that makes for a good sports talk show topic or newspaper column, but it doesn’t change the fact that McDaniels did not see Hillis as one of the top couple of running backs. Thus, Hillis was not going to get meaningful playing time on a regular basis.
Gearing UpThe time is drawing close. The several weeks of calm that hits the NFL after the Super Bowl is about to give way to a flurry of activity with free agency, the draft and mini-camps.
While the Broncos gear up, let’s take a look at what has happened to this point and what might come.
First, the Broncos have solidified their coaching staff. The biggest change came at defensive coordinator. Out is Mike Nolan; in is Don Martindale, the team’s linebackers coach a year ago.
On the one hand, I was sorry to see Coach Nolan go. Clearly there were some issues between head coach Josh McDaniels and Nolan. While some people like to read into such a parting, to me this is a merely routine occurrence in the ever-changing world of the NFL. Sometimes two people see things differently. Such seems to be the case here.
A Final Look BackI must admit, it has been a little strange to watch the playoffs without the Broncos taking part. Before the season began, I remember people asking me how I thought the Broncos would do. My response was I thought they would have a record in the 7-9 to 9-7 range and thought they would have a chance to make the playoffs.
In the big picture, the Broncos ended up pretty much where I thought they would. There are so many uncertainties when a new head coach and a new coaching staff take over. The fact the Broncos went 8-8 and missed the playoffs wasn’t discouraging to me. I thought they took some good steps, and I’ll talk about those in a moment.
What made the season so tough was how the Broncos arrived at their final record. When any team starts 6-0, one expects more than a final record of 8-8 and missing out on the postseason.
But in stepping back a little, which is always tough in light of a 2-8 finish, I still believe the Broncos did some really good things this year.
Here are a few of them.
Can’t Miss Play of the Year
Five plays have been nominated for the 2009 Sprint Can’t Miss Play of the Year. One of them comes from the Broncos. Any idea which play it might be?
Yes, it’s Brandon Stokley’s “Immaculate Deflection” from the team’s Week 1 victory against the eventual NFC North-champion Cincinnati Bengals. In case you don’t remember, after the Bengals took the lead with 28 seconds remaining in the game, Kyle Orton let loose a pass from the Denver 13-yard line. The pass was intended for Brandon Marshall, but a crowd of Bengals closed in, and cornerback Leon Hall tipped the ball into the air. Stokley swooped in and snared the pass, sprinting 87 yards into the end zone for the go-ahead score that cemented a 12-7, season-opening victory.
Still need a refresher? Here’s the video:
Do-Your-Job Mentality
In Head Coach Josh McDaniels’ first season at the helm of the Broncos, he has instilled a simple, yet focused motto upon his team: “Do your job.”
In every phase of the game, McDaniels asks players to handle their specific assignments to the best of their ability — and let their teammates take care of their respective roles, too.
Come this Sunday, the Broncos plan on bringing that same “do-your-job” attitude to their Week 17 matchup with AFC West rival Kansas City. There are 10 different scenarios that could play out on Sunday that would propel the Broncos into the playoffs. But the team fully realizes it needs to take care of business against its opponent at INVESCO Field at Mile High, the Chiefs, instead of worrying about how the six other teams fighting for an AFC Wild Card berth are performing on Sunday.
“I just hope we’re focused on (our) game,” McDaniels said. “I know there are a lot of other factors that are at play, and there are so many different scenarios that if you’re sitting there trying to calculate all those you might miss the first quarter. I think we should just focus on the Chiefs, get ready to play and go out there and coach and play as hard as we can on Sunday, and then whatever happens, whatever they tell us to do on Monday morning, that’s what we’re going to do. We’ll see how it all unfolds.”