Friday, July 18, 2008

Camp Battles- 2nd Wide Receiver: Keary Colbert vs. Darrell Jackson

Keary Colbert seems to be the favorite according to several NFL sources. Entering his fifth season he is an NFL veteran, yet only 25 (two-years older than Brandon Marshall). Colbert has yet to match his rookie season mark, in which he shadowed Carolina Panther's receiver Steve Smith, he had 47 receptions for 754 yards and 5 touchdowns.

The upside: Colbert is young, he has time to develop and has been able to stay relatively healthy throughout his four previous seasons. Mike Shanahan has compared him multiple times to former Broncos' receiver Ed McCaffrey, stating that McCaffrey wasn't heavily sought after when he came to Denver. He's still fast and he's had Steve Smith as a mentor for the previous four-years. Partner that with the time he's been spending with Rod Smith and Denver may have something special.

The downside: Colbert's expensive, with the exception of his rookie season he hasn't done much. Not even a touchdown catch in his last two seasons. He may not have what it takes to be the "other" receiver in Denver.

Darrell Jackson, the man's an icon and we don't even really know it yet. It's pathetic that a player who has done consistently well throughout his entire career, has one bad year and all of a sudden people are calling out that he's not going to be the number 2 in Denver. Let me just get this out there, Jackson could be the number 1 in Denver. Comments out of Seattle go like this, "yadda, yadda, yadda, he drops passes." Everyone drops passes in the rain! Even God, last time I played flag football with him, he dropped every third pass! Seriously though, Colbert's a rising star, but Jackson's been doing it for years.

The Upside: Colbert's been in the league since 2000, he's compiled four 1,000 yard years (three if you want to be a tight-ass). He had ten touchdowns two years ago. Jackson played in the tumultuous San Francisco offense last year and still squeaked by with 10.6 yards a catch. He's entering his 9th year and has at least two 1,000 yard seasons left in him (if not a lot more).

The Downside: He hurts... Sometimes, in the last three seasons he has missed 14 games, prior to that in his first five seasons he missed three games. He drops catches he probably should have caught sometimes and his age will be a factor a year or two from now.

Broncos Denver Broncos Training Camp Battle Winner:
Darrell Jackson

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