Posts Tagged ‘Mike Bell’

Broncos Waive Bell and Hartley; Sign Lichtensteiger

July 21st, 2008 - 2:22pm by Jake GrilleyOther posts by Jake Grilley

With just days remaining until the start of training camp the Broncos have waived two players and signed another. It was announced on Monday that the team has released running back Mike Bell and kicker Garrett Hartley and agreed to terms with 2008 fourth-round draft choice Kory Lichtensteiger.

Bell amassed 677 yards and eight touchdowns in his rookie campaign with the Broncos. His rookie stats accounted for the fourth-most yards and second-most touchdowns by an undrafted rookie since the inception of the modern draft in 1967. Last season Bell saw little time at the running back position totaling three yards on six carries in five games played.

Hartley was signed to the Broncos as a college free agent this offseason. The rookie out of the University of Oklahoma received some reps at kicker during OTAs.

Lichtensteiger was a four-year starter at Bowling Green State. He started all 13 games for the Falcons last season and was a a finalist for the Rimington Trophy awarded to the nation’s top center in addition to being named first team all conference.

With the addition of Lichtensteiger the Broncos have signed six of their nine selections from the 2008 NFL Draft.

Discuss below…

-Jake Grilley, DenverBroncos.com

‘A Little Jealous’

February 12th, 2008 - 4:51pm by domonique_foxworthOther posts by domonique_foxworth

Well I guess the Super Bowl is a good place to start. It was an extremely entertaining game. I enjoyed it and it was fun to watch, although the commercials were a bit of a let down this year. I think the stain talking on the shirt was my favorite; I got a real good laugh out of it.

But the game was very entertaining which was more important. I hate seeing a blowout in the Super Bowl so it was a fun game to watch and great to see that amazing play by David Tyree and Eli Manning that everyone has been talking about. I honestly felt a little sorry for the Patriots afterwards. Just seeing them get so close to a major mark in history and falling short. But then again I am no position to feel sorry for the Patriots. They had a great season despite falling short of history.

It was great to see two former teammates Domenik Hixon and Jeff Shoate be a part of the Giants. Anytime you spend that much time with guys — Hixon a year-and-a-half and Shoate was here as long as I was before leaving mid-season — you are happy to see them succeed. There is a little bit of jealousy to be honest. I definitely want to get a ring and those guys got sent off and landed into a great situation and are able to get a Super Bowl ring. I would say an extremely large percentage of players in this league never play in a Super Bowl, so I am proud of them and happy for them but a little jealous at the same time to be honest.

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Through the Roster: Mike Bell

February 6th, 2008 - 5:39pm by AndrewOther posts by Andrew

Mike Bell

When you’ve waited over two months to carry the football, and when you’ve been in a sweatsuit during six of the previous seven games, the one thing you can’t do is fumble. when you finally get the football.

Lamentably for Mike Bell, that’s precisely what happened in Week 12 at Chicago’s Soldier Field, and the bobble confirmed what was apparent — that a dream season as a rookie had morphed into a nightmare in Year Two.

The feel-good story that defined his 2006 success as an undrafted rookie belonged to Selvin Young a year later — that of the undrafted, overlooked draft prospect who played like a first-day selection.

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Looking Back on the Packers Game

October 30th, 2007 - 12:28pm by domonique_foxworthOther posts by domonique_foxworth

Pretty frustrating way to lose, in overtime, having played as well as we did, for the most part, defensively. We had a rough first half on defense, but still managed to hold them to 13 points, because we played well in the red zone. We didn’t give up any red zone touchdowns, which is something that we focused on throughout the course of the week– just improving in the red zone and on key third downs. I don’t know that our third down percentage was all that great, but the important third downs when we really needed to get off the field, we were able to do that.

So defensively, I think we played outstanding overall, especially against a really good 6-1 football team. With the exception of a few plays here and there on both sides of the ball, I think we played pretty well. The red zone fumble from our offense was a tough one, and the two big touchdowns, the two deep touchdown passes were pretty big plays that hurt our team. I guess the most frustrating part is that I think we’ve been improving since Day 1, which is something that all teams want to do, just get better week after week. I think that’s something we’ve done, and I even include this last week, even though we lost. We showed major improvements defensively. You look at this defense compared to the defense that played against Jacksonville or even some other teams earlier than that, and we’re a better defense. We’re a better defense now, we just gave up some big plays, which is uncharacteristic of us.

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An Emotional Game, but a Great Win

October 23rd, 2007 - 12:31pm by domonique_foxworthOther posts by domonique_foxworth

Alright, time for another fun and exciting blog with everybody’s favorite Bronco, Domonique Foxworth.

Well, this is probably going to be the most fun blog that I’ve done in quite some time — at least four weeks — because we got a win. I played a large role in the game, which is always a good feeling, especially coming off a couple weeks missed by injuries and several losses in a row, which We as Broncos players and you as Broncos fans are not accustomed to. But it made the win feel that much better, I guess.

It’s something to be proud of, because the Pittsburgh Steelers are one of the top teams and are respected for being one of the toughest and most talented teams in the AFC. To be able to get a win against them and play well is great. We played probably as well as we have so far on special teams and played pretty well on defense. I think we did great on special teams, which is one of the most underrated things about football, how important field position is. That’s all decided through special teams. We had some great coverage in kickoffs this year for the first time this season. We also had some pretty good returns, and had an all-around solid special teams game.

On offense we were able to score touchdowns, which has been something that’s been difficult for us this year. We were able to score touchdowns, which are a lot better than field goals. We made some turnovers and even scored on defense this week, so I think we played just about as well as we’ve played, as far as a complete game is concerned, this year.

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Walker Update; Mike Bell Out for Sunday

September 27th, 2007 - 4:10pm by AndrewOther posts by Andrew

On a balmy 72-degree Thursday afternoon at Dove Valley, Javon Walker was dressed for temperatures at least 20 degrees cooler, walking about the practice field in sweats as he sat out for a second consecutive day.

But Walker emphasized that his two-day absence from the practice field — which came about because of inflammation in his right knee — was precautionary in nature.

“It’s nothing to be concerned about,” he said. “It’s not the ACL. It’s nothing that got repaired. This is just something that is football.”

Walker underwent an MRI examination earlier this week which revealed the knee inflammation.

Head Coach Mike Shanahan said that both Walker and safety John Lynch will give it a go at Friday afternoon’s session, and that would help determine whether they play in spite of their injuries.

“They’ll both try to practice (Friday) and we’ll evaluate them at that time,” he said. “I would guess even after (Friday) it will be a game-time decision. We’ll see how much they recover over the next couple of days.”

Lynch said he has improved throughout the week, and doesn’t feel like sitting out the last two days will leave him at a disadvantage.

“Practice is always big, but if I don’t practice, I spend extra time preparing mentally,” he said. “I’ve done it many times in my career, and I’ve had some of my best games doing it.”

In other injury news, the Broncos ruled fullback/running back Mike Bell out for Sunday’s game. He did not practice on Wednesday or Thursday because of the lingering effects from a concussion. Bell joins guard Ben Hamilton and safety Hamza Abdullah as players ruled out for Sunday.

Defensive tackle Sam Adams, who did not practice Wednesday, had the words “not listed” shown by his name on the Broncos’ injury report and went through the full practice Thursday, as he has for each of the Thursday sessions in the regular season.

The Darrent Williams Teen Center Fundraiser and other Random Thoughts

September 18th, 2007 - 3:12pm by domonique_foxworthOther posts by domonique_foxworth

Let’s blog…

Another great win, a heart-stopping win. It was a really exciting game, but it was tough for me because I was not allowed to play, unfortunately. It’s really difficult because I just felt like a glorified fan, because I was right on the sideline. I was signaling in the defenses for the secondary and trying to give tips to the players on what I saw and advise the referees as politely as possible whenever they missed calls or made what I thought were mistakes on flags. So I was really into the game, and when it got down to crunch time, it was really hard to be on the sideline watching when you’re used to playing.

Like I said last week, I’d never missed a game in my entire life. It was uncomfortable, to say the least. But it was a great win. It was really exciting. It was a great way to start this coming week.

Tuesday we all went down to the site of the Darrent Williams Teen Center, which is currently the Denver Broncos Boys and Girls Club in Montbello, and we had a little fundraiser. There were a lot of TV stations there, and the radio station 850 KOA broadcasted live from the location from 5-9:30 a.m. for the morning show, if anybody caught that. We were on a lot of the morning TV shows trying to raise money and point people in the direction of PositivePlaceDenver.org, which is a Web site where there are some items we are auctioning. If you want to make any type of donation you can go there, so if anybody wants to be a part of building the Darrent Williams Teen Center, we’re only a few thousand dollars away and we’d appreciate any help that you guys are willing to offer.

You can bid on some really cool items, like a few sideline passes for this coming game, go in the locker room before and after the game with us, and some Darrent Williams signed footballs. I know Rod Smith is going after those footballs, so you might have some competition there, but there’s a few of them, so we’ll see.

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Injuries, Poetry, and my YouTube Addiction

September 11th, 2007 - 4:10pm by domonique_foxworthOther posts by domonique_foxworth

I guess we’ll start with the most pressing issue over the weekend, the injury of Kevin Everett and how severe that was. To be honest with you, I was really worried. I prayed, but I didn’t expect it to be nearly as bad as it is now. I’ve heard different reports, some say that he’s going to have trouble breathing and he needs to fight for his life and that he won’t ever walk again.

Those things are upsetting. I didn’t expect it to be too bad, mainly because we’ve had a lot of stretchers the past few months around here. Which is not a good thing, but fortunately our guys came out OK, going all the way back to Al Wilson. Considering how long it took him to get off the field and they took him to the hospital, it was terrifying.

Just a week ago, Karl Paymah was in the same scenario. He wasn’t moving, and his hit seemed so much worse because it was right on top of the head. But I guess you can’t really tell by how hard it is, it’s more about the placement. We had Warrick Holdman in training camp get taken off on a stretcher, and it’s just too much.

We’ve obviously had a few really major tragedies, losing our players, so it’s a lot to deal with. Those are off-the-field things, which are a little different, but there’s nothing you can do to really protect yourself from those sort of things. They teach you to tackle properly, and sometimes with the speed of the game and the strength that the players have, those collisions happen. They happen all the time, and if it’s at that particular angle, it could be pretty dangerous. Like I said, we prayed and are continuing to pray for him, and you never want to see anything like that happen.

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My Week as a Minor Celebrity

September 4th, 2007 - 12:30pm by domonique_foxworthOther posts by domonique_foxworth

I had a really, really busy week. It was really positive for the most part. We got a win, which is always good. I was able to stand on the side during the game and do some coaching, and I was really into the game as kind of a half-fan, half-coach, just to try to help out the young guys.

A lot of people got a chance to play, and a lot of people who aren’t here any more got a chance to put their talents on film, which was really good. Hopefully some other people around the league will pick them up based on what they saw us do on Thursday. Sadly, we lost a lot more players again. But the good thing about it is we’re done cutting. So the people who are here now are your 2007 Denver Broncos, which is great.

One of the big surprises was us cutting Kyle Johnson. You can’t say enough about him as a person and we’re all sad to see him go. He’s one of the brightest guys on this team and he’s one of the hardest working. I really haven’t read the paper, but I assume that everything the coaches have said about him has been positive. I’m sure they’re not happy to have to get rid of him, but it’s a complicated game with the salary cap, and you can only keep a certain amount of players.

I think one of the things that keeps me around here is that I can fill a lot of roles on the team, and I think that one of the things that hurt Kyle was that he’s a fullback. A lot of the other guys we have playing fullback like Cecil Sapp, he’s a fullback/halfback, and now they’re making Mike Bell kind of a fullback/halfback. Versatility is the way to go, and it’s the way this league has been going. Kyle is definitely one of the top five fullbacks in the league, and unfortunately fullbacks are kind of going out of style. A lot of people are using tight ends and what they call an “H-back” system. I expect him to get picked up pretty soon and I wish him luck with the rest of his career, and I’m sure the Broncos fans will miss him and his little touchdown dance that we’ve grown accustomed to seeing.

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Henry, Hall, Bell Back in Uniform

August 27th, 2007 - 2:40pm by AndrewOther posts by Andrew


Easily the most encouraging sign for the Broncos at their practice Monday afternoon was the presence of a full corps at running back, with Travis Henry, Mike Bell and Andre Hall each returning to uniform.

None of the tailbacks practiced last week, and Hall has missed the last two weeks — plus the final two sessions of training camp — with a right-hamstring injury. While all three were on the field Monday, Henry will not play Thursday night, as Head Coach Mike Shanahan confirmed Monday that he will hold the starters out of the preseason finale with Arizona, just as he has in other preseason-closing games the last six years.

Henry, however, doesn’t believe he needs another game to work back into speed.

“I think this week alone should get me ready for the opener,” he said. “I think this is a big week for me. I’ll get a chance to run with the scout team and get my legs under me and by next week I should be ready to go.”

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