As I stated yesterday, veteran center Tom Nalen's MRI came back negative, but he still sat out today. Nalen was joined on the sideline by: Chad Mustard (hamstring), Boss Bailey (knee), Hamza Abdullah (groin) and Montrae Holland was once again conditioning with Rich Tuten. Rookie linebacker Spencer Larsen was excused from practice, as his wife is having a baby. So congratulations to Spencer Larsen. More good news is that rookie fullback Peyton Hillis and running back Michael Pittman were both in pads and participating in practice today, Cecil Sapp can rest up a bit finally and Brett Pierce can return to only playing tight end.
Now onto training camp notes:
Jack Williams breaks up Keary Colbert's reception
Rookie corner back Jack Williams and Domonique Foxworth continue to make the best of every opportunity that they get. Foxworth is making a legitimate case for becoming Denver's number two option at corner back. He's said earlier this week that he believes that there are 32 teams in the league that he could start for, which includes Denver. Foxworth and Dre Bly actually both caught the wrath of a peaked Brandon Marshall who shared one of his best days in camp with the extremely accurate Jay Cutler.
- Rookie safety Josh Barrett has also stepped up significantly this week, particularly in the last two days (in the absence of Hamza Abdullah). Having broken passes up, thumping running backs in the backfield and blitzing the quarterback, he's kind of making it look easy. Barrett's jarring hits while performing for the second-team defense didn't prove to be enough to cause tight end Nate Jackson to drop a pass, as he was leveled by Barrett, but managed to hold on to the pass. The young Barrett got his revenge in a goal line situation, preventing Jackson from scoring on a short pass at the three yard line.
- Position battle wise: Niko Koutouvides suited at middle linebacker with the first-team defense and the two day rotation between Koutouvides and Nate Webster became evident. I'm not sure anymore where Tony Scheffler stands, obviously Daniel Graham is the number one tight end, but did Nate Jackson become the number two for Denver and then lose it? Scheffler played more with the first-team today and Jackson played more with the second-team offense today. Patrick Ramsey's successes continue to pale in comparison to that of third-stringer Darrel Hackney. And as far as the offensive line goes, calls for heads rolling may have been a bit premature... Today Jay Cutler succeeded because the emphasis was on passing and the offensive line looks great in pass protection. However, when Cutler has a bad day it's normally because of the amount of time he has to pass the ball. One last position battle is the number four receiver, Eddie Royal and Keary Colbert, it's too tough to tell.
The crowd collectively asked, "Jason who?"
- Matt Prater went ten for ten in field goal kicks, including one for 68 yards. That's not a typo.
- Here's the deal on Denver's rookie running backs Anthony Aldridge and Ryan Torain. Bronco fans have every reason to be excited about these two, for many years ahead there will be success, but when they look the best, they're playing against second and third-team defensive players. That being said, I don't believe that anyone should be lobbying for Torain to start immediately, not that anyone is. Selvin Young and Andre Hall are still the guys in Denver and as I've said before, I wouldn't be surprised to see movement at the top of the chart sometime during preseason.
- The receivers, you've no doubt heard that this was Brandon Marshall's best day of camp, possibly anyone in Denver's best day of camp. The rest of the first-team receivers, Darrell Jackson and Brandon Stokley, both looked great as well. I mentioned the number four spot battle earlier and I think that Keary Colbert might have the edge over rookie Eddie Royal, because of blocking ability. That's just what my instincts are telling me.
- Jay Cutler's good day was directly due to the strength of the offensive line, who seemed to have finally come together as a unit, despite having their leader replaced by center Casey Wiegmann. That's the first-team offensive line, the second-team offensive line was a mess and the first-team defensive line, led by DeWayne Robertson, made them flat out look bad.
- Speaking of the defensive line, Jarvis Moss is making it look easy, adding several sacks, pressures and knock downs to his training camp total. Fans can look forward to a very strong interior rotation on the defensive line, consisting of: Ebenezer Ekuban, DeWayne Robertson, Josh Mallard, Marcus Thomas and Alvin McKinley.
No comments:
Post a Comment