My Week at Summer Camp – Day Two

Note: This week, after realizing that planned (and desperately needed) vacation time coincided with the opening week of Bronco training camp, I decided to head down to Dove Valley for several days this week. I will be providing nightly updates on what we have learned about your 2008 Denver Broncos. Note #2: Given that I recently celebrated a 33^rd birthday and have been ‘with’ the Broncos longer than some of these players have been alive (Ryan Clady, born: September 6, 1986) I have accepted Mike Shanahan’s offer to long time veterans to only participate in one of the two-a-day practices each day.

Monday, July 28, 2008

• Back for morning number two and it is just as hot and crowded as Sunday morning. What is with that? Don’t these people have anything better to do with their Mondays? Huh? What’s that? Why I am sacrificing for you dear reader that’s why. I am a giver.
• Let’s go back to the running backs
  • I said yesterday that Ryan Torain wasn’t overly impressive; however I will say that today he looked much better. He was quicker to the line, made a single cut and hit the hole. In fact, after Ryan broke off a long run, a starry-eyed optimist could even imagine him as a taller Terrell Davis. Thankfully, I am not a starry-eyed optimist so I saw it as a nice run on the 4^th day of training camp…by a guy with skills to make us forget Travis Henry, Mike Bell, Tatum Bell, Quentin Griffin, Reuben Droughns and Olandis Gary. Damn, that kool-aid tasted really good after a hot day in the sun.
  • My boy A.A., Anthony Alridge, looked good again, cutting back against the grain and busting down the sideline for another long run.
• There was one overriding story in my mind today and that was the match-up of the offense and defense, and the defense’s domination.
  • Let’s start with two interceptions – one for each of Domonique Foxworth and Champ Bailey when they were both able to jump curl routes (which in fairness was practically all the offense ran).
  • When he wasn’t throwing picks, Cutler was running for his life. He would have been on his back on almost every drop back if the defense was allowed to hit the quarterback. The only entertainment was the half of the crowd that thought he had successfully avoided the rush and cheered wildly when he chucked it down field. These poor fans are going to be in for serious disappointment in that first game “How is Jay not getting away from this rush like in training camp? This Raider defense must be really good!”
  • Beside the two long runs above, there was only one highlight for the offense – a long pass to Brandon Marshall on the first play of a #1 offense vs. #2 defense scrimmage. Just a little glimpse of what we can look forward to after Marshall returns from his suspension to begin the season for all of his off-season fun. Sorry fantasy players, I forgot to mention that little fact when telling you how good Marshall looked yesterday. A clever ploy to get you to draft Marshall three rounds too early, or mere stupidity? Guess you will never know.
  • So the real question is: what does the defense’s domination tell us? My guess, not much. We all thought the Broncos had a great defense last year, until they got lit up in the first two pre-season games. So, all we know is that right now the Bronco defense is better than the Bronco offense. Who knows how they stack up against actual other teams.
• That’s it for today. Tomorrow we will be joined by Turner and will actually be sucking it up and sweating through both ends of the two-a-days.

My Week at Summer Camp – Day One

Note: This week, after realizing that planned (and desperately needed) vacation time coincided with the opening week of Bronco training camp, I decided to head down to Dove Valley for several days this week. I will be providing nightly updates on what we have learned about your 2008 Denver Broncos. Note #2: Given that I recently celebrated a 33^rd birthday and have been ‘with’ the Broncos longer than some of these players have been alive (Ryan Clady, born: September 6, 1986) I have accepted Mike Shanahan’s offer to long time veterans to only participate in one of the two-a-day practices each day.

Sunday, July 27th

o       I arrive at Dove Valley 30 minutes early with my Denver Post sports section and a Propel and find a spot high on the tree-lined berm lining the side of the practice field. Despite, expectations that temperatures will reach nearly 100 today, the place is packed. Clearly, I am not the only one that is already over baseball and looking forward to football.

o       As the first drops of sweat say hello, I realize that morning workouts may be a tactical error. I am facing due east into the rising sun and there is nowhere to hide.

o       I am about to begin whining about the folly of drowning in my own pool of sweat while watching 80 enormous humans sort-of, kind-of stretch when a Bronco official comes over and asks a young girl sitting in front of me wearing a Jay Cutler jersey (one of the Jessica Simpson pink ones for the record) if she would like to receive a ball from Jay. She agrees and to a round of applause from the crowd she walks across the field, meets Jay, shakes hands with him and while handing her the ball in his hands, he introduces her to Patrick Ramsey. A Vandy guy and a Tulane guy? There is about a 97.6% chance that girl is marrying a guy who wears a ratty old ball cap, khakis and a polo some day.

o        For the record, big props to the Broncos for making training camp as fan friendly as possible. They now allow you to bring in a personal drink, hand you a roster as you walk in so you know who you are looking at, open up for autographs (not to mention the above little girl). They also sell drinks right on the premises and a bottle of water only costs a buck! If this was Rockies training camp there is no way that water costs anything less than $4.

o       On to the actual play on the field. I have decided to pick a few positions and focus on them each day. Today: running backs, wide receivers and secondary

o       The Running back battle is probably the most interesting position battle in Bronco camp this year.

o        Selvin Young enters as the favorite and didn’t do anything to dissuade that opinion. He played well if not spectacularly. Outside of one move that absolutely embarrassed some poor second string DB and even elicited hoots and hollers from teammates. Those are always fun.

o        Further down the list of possible starters is Ryan Torain, probably the most anticipated 5^th round pick in Bronco history. Ryan looks very impressive in person – he is big and tall (6’1”, 225 lbs) and looks like he should be a star. I have to admit, after hearing about him since mini-camps he was a little underwhelming

§         I’m not sure whether it is his size but he doesn’t look like he is running real hard a lot of the time. He did put one ankle-breaker on a DB but for the most part he seemed to jog up into the line and get swallowed up by the linebackers and linemen.

o        On the other hand, my first sleeper of camp is Anthony Alridge, an undrafted free agent signed out of Houston. He is small (5’8”, 185 lbs) but extremely quick (reportedly a 4.3 40-yard dash). Not only did he look like he was going full speed, there were several times they sent him on a sweep around the corner and he flew past the defense.

§         One of the guys sitting near me, hopes that they can use him as a Glyn Milburn type, a third down specialist, too small to play every down. I have two problems with this. First, clearly this guy is not familiar with a man named Warrick Dunn (5’9”, 180 lbs, 10,181 career rushing yards). Second, while I appreciate the Milburn comparison (if for no other reason than its relative obscurity), can’t we aim a little higher for Alridge? Milburn accounted for less than 700 yards rushing and 1,050 yards receiving in his three years with the Broncos (2 of which occurred in the Wade Philips, so we can’t hold that against him). If we are going to compare him to smaller guys who are much more valuable in point-per-reception leagues….umm…I mean who are dual threats, let’s hope Alridge can play more like W.D. or Brian Westbrook (5’8”, 200 lbs.)

§         Not only was A.A. (as I call him) showing game when he was handed the ball he also got up in front during stretches and got both the crowd and players to start a rhythmic clap and boo the Chargers. Clearly, this guy is ready to play the role of Tulo in an unlikely Bronco up-rising in 2008!

·         Before Turner pulls a groin jumping to write a comment mocking my homerism, I don’t actually expect an unlikely Bronco uprising in 2008.

·         However a few more days in the sun with these guys and I may be convinced/sun stroked into believing it.

o       At the wide receiver position, there were two big off season storylines: the Jerry Springer-esque life of Brandon Marshall and the endless line of re-treads brought in by Shanahan to complement B-Marsh (as someone who I bludgeoned repeatedly calls Marshall).

o        First, just in time for all of those fantasy football drafts, I am happy to report that Marshall showed no signs of any lingering effects from the cut he took to his arm. He looked great today, catching everything and using his size to absolutely abuse Champ Bailey in one-on-one goal line battles.

o        On to the second question, I can tell you who I think will be the one left standing in this game of wide receiver musical chairs. That would be one Keary Colbert formerly of the Carolina Panthers and USC Trojans. Colbert did not have his best day today. He couldn’t get open, seemed to be tentative on where to go and when the ball got to him, he couldn’t catch it.

§         Besides the bad play, he wore long pants during practice, showing a remarkable lack of common sense.

o        One of the other receivers in is Darrell Jackson (or D-Jack to those that despise his underachieving ways in Seattle and San Francisco). I can’t say whether he will become that other receiver, but I will say he has the kickingest beard in camp.

o        I am also withholding opinion on second round pick Eddie Royal. At a minimum I will say he could be a great addition as a slot receiver replacing Brandon Stokley after his inevitable injury.

o        In the secondary much of the focus has been on whether John Lynch’s role will be reduced to mostly running downs with the arrival of Marlon McCree from the Chargers. Well, they may have forgotten about someone as Roderick Rogers was the defensive star today with two tipped ball interceptions.

§         My other sleeper of the draft also made his presence known in the secondary today. Free Agent Christian Morton, looked great both in the one-on-one goal line drills and in the broader seven-on-seven and full team drills.

o        Of course all of these opinions were based on one 2 hour practice. I am sure that by the time the regular season starts these will look almost as bad as that whole ‘the-Giants-are-a-joke thing’ from last year.