Preparing for the 2009 NFL Draft; pars decima.

In the effort to wrap up this series which developed an out-of-control life of its own, I am affected by what has transpired at Dove Valley since training camp began yesterday morning. After having scouted Carlton Powell in a couple of his Senior year/VA Tech games and concluding he is a special run-stopping DT, boom, he's out for the year with a ruptured Achilles (something Hector wished for sooner rather than later).

That has ramifications for the 2009 draft. Montrae Holland is running around trying to lose some weight. I hope that and the inevitable dogging/nicknaming that will follow puts him in a suitably nasty mood to do some hitting. If so, then Carlton may not be the only DL casualty especially if that group engages in some intra-squad smack. What? One group of fat guys calling another fat guy fat? Never!

Having observed high school football programs up close and personally for many years, I wonder about the way Shanahan and Co. orchestrate the off-season especially leading into TC. The Broncos are a group of mature athletes, not the squirrel-boy teenagers I've been around. The former have years of training and should have developed some sense of discipline, even the rookies (with the jury still out on Brandon Marshall). The latter must be guided with a carefully planned program with much strengthening, conditioning, stretching and gradually increasing running in which they have absolutely no input and very little time in which to develop bad habits.

High School football players who try to invent their very own (no adult supervision) off-season workouts often end up hurting themselves and/or each other (it's what they do). We expect more from NFL Players with the possible exception of Marshall who seems capable of hurting himself with the most innocuous items (hamburger wrappers?!?!). Please! Keep the pens and pencils away from him! Too sharp! Question is, "Is Shanahan trying to create an environment in which injuries are bound to occur, thus establishing a Darwinian weeding out process to produce the least injury-prone group?" If so, that didn't go very well last season, did it? Just wonderin' ...

If you read "pars nona", you may have noticed the introduction of a postion not mentioned in the previous partes: Punter/Plackicker and Placekicker/Punter. In the event you think a redundancy is apparent, it's just a matter of emphasis: one guy who does both with his strength lying in one of the two. Back in round six speculation we listed Sam Swank from Wake Forest who does all the punting, placekicing AND kicking off. I admit to being obsessed with one guy doing all of those in the interest of saving a roster spot with the contingency of injury dealt with by constantly carrying a kicker or two on the PS. All of the PS kicker guys would be kicker-multi-taskers, too. Staying with the same line of reasoning, how about a LS who isn't just a specialist but is another position guy (e.g., TE, LB, OL, DL with several on the depth chart)? That's why I'll be very interested to see if Josh Mallard can unseat Mike Leach as LS.

Here are some possible seventh rounders to consider in '09:

• Ryan Succop, K/P, South Carolina, 6-2, 224, 37/37 XPA, 13/17 FGA, 49 long, 56 P, 2330 yds, 41.6 avg (34.4 net), 3 blk, 15 in +20 in '07.
  
  
• Demonte' Bolden, DT, Tennessee, 6-5, 292, 26 tkl, 2 sk, 3 tfl, 2 pbu in '07.
  
  
• Brandon Hughes, CB, Oregon State, 5-10, 184, 57 tkl, 7 tfl, 12 pbu, 2 int in '07.
  
  
• Thomas Morstead, P/K, SMU, 6-4, 232, 43/43 XPA, 13/20 FGA, 53 long, 57 P, 2545 yds, 44.6 avg (39.3 net), 1 blk, 21 in +20 in '07.

You may have noticed that all the kickers listed are larger guys, not the teeny-tiny field goal kickers you often see on college teams that suit up eighty players for a home game and still manage to take several specialists on the road. That is because if one guy is doing ALL the kicking, he must be able to cover and tackle on his own punts and kickoffs.

It would be nice if the loss of Powell for the '08 season is the last season ending injury sustained by the Broncos in '08. Some other nice things might be: solidification of MLB w/Niko Koutouvides and Spencer Larsen; a strong RB committee which stays healthy; quality depth at most positions; and, the return of all five CBs in '09. These would facilitate a more planned and predictable draft without the necessity of acquiring too many UFAs. I still feel that the position needs of FS, G and TE will definitely be there in '09 and that they can be dealt with via the draft. I hope I didn't jinx Carlton by saying nice things about him and then listing some '09 DTs. We all wish him a good rehab from this injury, but even if he returns at full strength in '09 it appears a DT or two should be added.

The draft could be utilized for this as well as FA or both. The short life-span of NFL (especially Bronco) RBs may necessitate the addition of one via the draft. Kickers will probably be needed, but it's possible to get some without drafting at that position.

The Denver Broncos may only have six draft choices in '09 due to the DeWayne Robertson trade. FS + G + TE + RB + DT + ? = 6. That would be a very efficient usage of picks if the Broncos could get six guys at those positions who would make the team. It seems as if UFAs will be inevitable along with a trade or two. NO ONE will be more surprised than me if Denver actually drafts any of the players listed in this series. The purpose of the exercise was more to inventory, evaluate and speculate rather than predict. That is why each round had several "players of interest". This is what we football junkies do. We watch college football and wonder which players our NFL team will draft.

Welcome Back (self)!

Okay, a little sunburned, but relaxed four-hundred plus pages later I'm back home and sorry that I have been away so long loyal readers. A lot to catch up on, let me get that out of the way:

• Rookie defensive tackle Carlton Powell is out for the season with a torn achilles, this happened several weeks ago, but Mike Shanahan just announced it.
• Starting right tackle hopeful Chris Kuper has broken his hand (unofficial, but official). This is from his father's mouth, who posts on the Orange Mane message board.
• Right guard Montrae Holland was held out of morning practice for being eight pounds overweight. He did return for afternoon practice, when coaches realized that it was hot as hell and he would most likely lose those pounds shortly after the second practice of the day.
• Glenn Martinez looked impressive to Predominantly Orange.
• Brandon Marshall didn't look so good, but Jay Cutler did.

Here's the function of reporters at training camp, not very much. Aside from the quotes, they're only there to see whether someone gets hurt or who's playing with which team (first team, second team, et cetera).

That being said here's a great picture care of Barry Gutierrez © The Rocky:
My money's still on #23 Andre Hall, don't think that Selvin Young has it in the bag, as Kevin Jones said, he was looking forward to his trip to Denver... Just before he was signed.

Scraping the Summer Football Bucket

Before continuing with the 6th & 7th rounds and conclusion to "Preparing for the 2009 NFL Draft", thought I'd share a few observations gleaned from the slim pickings of football before TC. There are a few NFL replays that are enjoyable, but none have anything to do with the Broncos. Recuperating from surgery has made me more sedentary than I would prefer, so the many channels via satellite dish have been perused and reperused for anything, and I mean ANYTHING interesting. CBS-College and ESPNU to the rescue, especially the former. Three of their rebroadcasts caught my eye recently: Arkansas at LSU, 11/23/07; Boston College at Virginia Tech, 10/25/07; and, the ACC Championship Game, BC vs. VaTech, 12/1/07. Besides the attraction of games with so many players recently drafted, here was an opportunity to observe three Denver draft choices in action and all of them in big games.

Peyton Hillis was obviously the focus of my attention in the Arkansas/LSU game. Several future opponents were there as well (Jacob Hester-Chargers, Glenn Dorsey-Chiefs, Darren McFadden-Raiders, Felix Jones-Cowboys, Nate Garner-Jets, Marcuses Harrison & Monk + Craig Steltz-Bears, Chevis Jackson & Keith Zinger-Falcons, Matt Flynn-Packers and Early Doucet-Cardinals). All of these will be opponents during pre/regular season '08 (except the Bears) and will give many draftniks the opportunity to confirm or deny their previous thoughts about these players.

Peyton Hillis is a good blocker and receiver. He did some lead blocking, mostly for Felix Jones, and seemed effective. His best block, however, was the kickout and he took his guy to the sideline every time. His pass protection also seemed more than adequate, all of this against a pretty good defense. His route running is very exact for a back and he has good hands for catching passes. His best route, as expected for a back, was the wheel route and he scored on one of those. It was cool to see him play and it gave me a good feeling all over again about the Broncos picking him. His chances of making the roster seem very good because of his special set of skills perfect for a FB/H-Back.

Watching the two VaTech/BC games consecutively was very cool, too. Once again, there were a number of players soon to be drafted (Matt Ryan-Falcons, Gosder Cherilus-Lions, DeJuan Tribble-Chargers, Duane Brown & Xavier Adibi-Texans, Brandon Flowers-Chiefs, Chris Ellis-Bills and Josh Morgan-49ers). The focus of my attention was, of course, Eddie Royal and Carlton Powell. Virginia Tech lost the regular season game at home by four points due to: failing to cover an onsides kick after BC finally scored in the 4th quarter; and, a come from behind scoring drive led by Matt Ryan after BC covered their KO. In the ACC Championship game, ST kept VaTech in it (two blocked kicks) at first, followed by the D, until the offense finally scored the go-ahead TD in the 4th quarter on a stunning catch at the GL by Eddie Royal. In both games he caught a number of passes, many for first downs, but Eddie was one of four good VaTech WRs BC had to cover. He was lined up as a Z, off the LOS, sometimes in motion. He is a dangerous P/K returner BC worked very hard to contain.

Carlton Powell started at RDT, but VaTech rotated their whole D-Line regularly, so that's something he's used to. In the regular season game he was often lined up as a 1 tech (inside shade of the G) and, consequently, was often doubled. In spite of that, he was able to split the double on a number of occasions. BC didn't run the ball right at him very often and when they did they didn't gain much. VaTech slanted and stunted their DL often. A couple of times the call had Carlton slanting away from the side the run went to, but that's not his fault, it's the call. He seems to have a motor. On pass plays he gets a big push off the ball and has a spin move which I didn't expect. Sometimes the call had him looping outside where he shows quickness. Carlton had a tfl on a running play (5 tech in 3-man line prevent D) to force BC to punt from their - 8 or so, but they got a first down on a roughing the kicker penalty. He always pursues and never stops going for the ball until the whistle ends the play.

In the ACC Championship Game, Powell played mostly 3 tech although he got kicked to 0/NT a couple of times. His play was very consistently similar to the previous BC game. He is very strong at the point-of-attack and knows how to split a double. On passing plays, he always gets a big push off the ball and that kind of penetration is important because it can create gaps in pass pro. In the 4th quarter, I believe, BC had a 3rd & short situation where they tried to convert by a power running play. They came out in tight wing left, split backs w/FB left. Carlton was in a 3 tech. BC had their LT (Gosder Cherilus) block down on Carlton so their LG could pull and kick out the DE. BC's C and LT were supposed to double Powell out of the hole. BC's playside TE & Wing/H were supposed to block down/across the hole and clear out the backers while the FB was supposed to lead the TB through the 5/6 hole for a first down. When the G in front of Carlton pulled, he was able to get a little penetration before Cherilus and the C doubled him. Isn't the DVR feature great? I watched that play ten times in a row, at least. First to understand the blocking assignments and then to see what happened because the play lost almost a yard. When he got hit with the double, Carlton got stood up a little, but he SPLIT THE DOUBLE and ended up standing in the hole which allowed his teammates to flow to the ball and stuff the play for a loss. I should also add that the pulling G's kickout didn't go well either because the DE got low and didn't get moved.

Carlton Powell, JR. is a very hard DT to block, even with two OL. It must be a combination of strength, technique and tenacity. When BC tried to block him on a running play and Carlton wasn't slanting or pinching, he didn't get moved out of the way. In other words, at his level of competition, Powell is an OC's play calling red flag. BC actually ran mostly to the other side. But, on that crucial 3rd & short in the 4th quarter, Steve Logan (OC) must have thought they could double team Carlton out of the hole and get enough for a first down on a power running play. That's a classic case of the D lining up on the O. With a TE, H and a FB to that side, Tech correctly read run to the D's right. Maybe BC should have run PAP ... ? Carlton will be a rookie in the NFL probably rotating with DeWayne Robertson. It's a whole new game for him, but he seems to have what it takes, especially against the run.

It was nice to scout these Bronco rookies and focus on them exclusively since I already knew the outcome of the game. There probably won't be too many other rebroadcasts with Bronco rookies, although I did get to see Wesley Woodyard recently in the LSU at Kentucky game from 10/13/07. Like all Bronco fans, I hope most of their rookies make the team (one CFA, Hartley, was cut yeterday) and especially all the draftees. These recent rebroadcasts have given me cause for optimism.

Four down...

Well, you didn't hear it here first, but Denver signed three draft picks and also released contract information on a fourth. Defensive tackle Carlton Powell, (rookie of the year hopeful, just kidding) running back Ryan Torain and (former Bronco fullback, current Linebacker/badass) Spencer Larsen all signed four-year contracts last evening. In the words of a former employer, "They'll be sorry..." The Rocky Mountain News reports that seventh=round draft pick (safety) Josh Barret "got a four-year, $1.76 million deal that included a $56,300 signing bonus."

However, in the meantime, we've "added depth" in "positions of need" and we can now "look forward" to the "season ahead" and the "superbowl" or at least "Madden 2009".

It's interesting talking about Ryan Torain, here's a running back that the Broncos actually drafted, you would think that he'd be over hyped by now... Especially by fans and bloggers, hmm. I guess maybe during the season people will finally start to talk about him, considering he's the next Terrell Davis. Spencer Larsen as I've stated in this very blog and I think Sam will agree, is someone who was brought in to have an immediate impact on Special Teams. As fans are very well aware by now, a lot of the rookies and UDFA's were picked up because of their diversity and potential to provide a little more wow. Hoping that maybe next year our hardest hit on Special Teams won't come from our (former) kick returner (Dominik Hixon).

Now Carlton Powell, I don't know seemed like fans were screaming for a DT in the first, second and third-rounds this year, but in their short sightedness forgot that we drafted like that last season (and it worked out well right?). I for one am glad that we took care of everything else, prior to picking up Powell, was he the best "value" when we picked him up? Who knows, get back to me in three years and maybe I'll have an opinion.