Echos of the Past?

The Denver Post, my paper of choice through most of my childhood, posted an article in Sunday's paper on the history of Denver's running backs under Coach Shanahan.

Up until now we've assumed that Travis Henry, even with the injuries, was number one on the depth chart at tailback for the Broncos. Not true according to the DP's Jim Armstrong. Selvin Young is the number 1 going into training camp. No wonder he's calling 2,000 yards four months before the season begins.

Taking a page from the Willie Beaman art of addressing the media:

"I feel totally different," Young said. "I feel like more of a, if I can use the word, beast. I feel I can do a lot more than last year. Now I know I can do it. It's not, 'Wow, I really did it.' I knew I could do it before. Now I expect to do it."

Let's go Denver... or better yet, in honor of Darrent Williams, "Already!" As in, you already know. However, I've been kind of mumbling it to myself throughout conversations, posts and blogs ::cough:: Andre Hall ::cough:: He may not be the starter at the beginning of the season, but if anyone on the Broncos is going to come out of the depths of this chart, it's going to be him. Go back and look at the Chicago game or the Titans game, this is the man that was in "beast" mode, as Selvin Young would say it.

Hall only played in the two games, with the exception of a hand off or two in three other games. He averaged 12.7 yards against the Titans on seven rushes... SEVEN! Against a team that was 4th in stopping the run, who at the time was allowing 77 yards a game and 2nd in the league overall in Defense. Andre Hall ran so well, some of us even thought that we might make the playoffs after winning that game and tying San Diego for first place in the AFC West.

"We've got first-, second- and third-teamers, but just because you're first team doesn't mean you're going to stay first team," Shanahan said. "You just never know. We just know somebody is going to do it."

I'm going to love watching this play out throughout training camp and preseason...

As I will say in a future article, though Denver may not have a back that will run for 2,000 yards this season, it's not absurd to say that Denver as a team will run for 2,500+ in 2008.