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Lonestar
08-11-2010, 09:15 PM
Krieger: Does risk of injury trump camp?
By Dave Krieger
The Denver Post
POSTED: 08/11/2010 01:00:00 AM MDT


Broncos safety Brian Dawkins, left, and linebacker D.J. Williams wear the orange jerseys of injured players. But given the team's rash of injuries, what is the purpose of a watered-down training camp minus key players? (John Leyba, The Denver Post )
As you may have heard, there's still a month until the NFL regular season, so there's no reason to worry about all these injuries in Broncos camp.

No reason to worry, for example, that the guy now lining up at left tackle isn't on the depth chart at left tackle at all.

No reason to worry that neither of the wide receivers the Broncos selected in the NFL draft are on the practice field.

No reason to worry that the top three running backs are on the shelf.

No reason to worry that starting inside linebacker and former captain D.J. Williams made his second cameo of camp Tuesday wearing one of those orange jerseys that keeps people from hitting him.

And certainly no reason to worry that Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer" is constantly blasting from the loudspeaker.

The Broncos keep reminding us there's plenty of time for all these guys to get healthy before the games begin to count. In fact, coach Josh McDaniels, looking for the bright side, suggested it may actually be a good thing that all these injuries came so early.

"Just looking at last year, we had seven or eight guys that got injured real late in camp and were kind of in an indefinite term in terms of their recovery and rehab," McDaniels said. "As a coach, it might be better for us to have it happen now."

Certainly it's better to have injuries before the games start to count than after, but the urge to shrug them off does raise a question:

What is the point of all these exhausting two-a-days under the hot summer sun if the guys missing them aren't really missing that much?

Either training camp is important or it isn't. If it is, having important pieces out for extended periods is likely to hurt the team's execution. If it isn't, there's a whole bunch of guys who would just as soon skip it.

Perhaps the most important unknown for now is whether left tackle Ryan Clady will recover from surgery to repair his patella tendon quickly enough to start the opener. Generally speaking, patella tendon surgery requires a considerably longer recovery period than Clady has had since tearing his in a pickup basketball game in April. Because his was only a partial tear, the Broncos say he might be back sooner than normal.

"We don't have a guarantee one way or the other," McDaniels said. "I'm hopeful but I don't want to . . . put any unnecessary pressure on him to be ready before he really is ready. I know he's working as hard as he possibly can to be ready for that game. So we'll see how it goes."

Until a week ago, if he wasn't ready, Tyler Polumbus would have been his replacement. But while Polumbus was listed as his backup on the Broncos' first official depth chart this week, reserve guard D'Anthony Batiste is actually taking most of the first-team snaps there.

With rookies starting at center and left guard and backups at left tackle and right guard, the offensive line looks like it's going to be a work in progress for quite some time.

"It's definitely an adjustment going from guard to tackle," Batiste said. "You're kind of out there on an island. You do have to block longer on the left side. But I'm glad that I'm out there. I'm glad that I can help any type of way."

McDaniels won't say that Batiste is out there because Polumbus hasn't impressed, but it's pretty hard to avoid that conclusion.

"We just feel like with where we're at, waiting for Ryan to rehab and get healthy, that he could be a competitive player out there," the coach said of Batiste.

Nevertheless, Batiste is on his fifth organization in as many NFL seasons — Dallas, Carolina, Atlanta and Washington preceded Denver — so you can pretty well count on McDaniels attaching tight end Daniel Graham to Batiste's left hip if he has to play Clady's spot in a game that counts.

"It's big shoes to fill," Graham said. "Ryan Clady is a force over there on that side. But right now, since he's not out here, we need the other guys to step up, and they're doing their best to do that."

Saying they will make the best of the situation is not the same as saying all these injuries are having no effect on the Broncos' preparation for the season. Know-shon Moreno missed most of camp as a rookie and never seemed to get on track. Moreno is just one of the players to have missed most of camp so far this year. The Broncos can only hope he and his injured mates catch up faster this time around.

Dave Krieger: 303-954-5297, dkrieger@denverpost.com or twitter.com/DaveKrieger

http://www.denverpost.com/broncos/ci_15737448