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Italianmobstr7
07-29-2008, 02:00 PM
Another hot day, and it showed. On three occasions, Shanahan stopped practice to bring the team together and I assume – chew them out. The defense dominated early, but the offense continues actually one on the day - scoring a few times. D-Jack was made the victum of camp’s hardest hit yet, being de-helmeted by a group (I couldn’t see very well on this play) that included Green, Paymah and Thomas. One final note before getting to the report, parents: please, pleaseeeeee don’t bring your kids to camp. If I hear one more baby crying non-stop of toddler saying “Daddy, can we go yet?” after minutes, I’m going to crack. With that…

QB: Jay looked sharp today as the OL had its best practice pass protecting. Following a naked boot, he put a great spin move on a blitzing Bly that left Bly on the ground and Jay to pickup a huge chunk of yardage – but since you can’t hit QB’s it was ruled a sack. Jay was efficient all practice and is getting very better checking down to his RB’s and TE’s. He connected with Nate Jackson on a pair of beautiful bootlegs and Scheffler on a seam pattern – their favorite route together. Cutler led the 1st offense to a TD on the end-of-practice drive with several nice passes to Graham, Nate Jackson, D-Jack and the eventual TD to BMarsh on a bootleg. Ramsey looked god awful again throwing a terrible pick to Marlon McCree on a bootleg and later overthrowing Alridge in the flat. He looks very uncomfortable, to the point where the Broncos should seriously consider giving BVP a call. Hackney was solid again although he didn’t get many reps throwing the football.

RB: Hall was the best back on the field today, showing great vision and elusiveness. The offense is beginning to incorporate a lot of passes to the HB to take advantage of his pass-receiving skills. Young looked good too, making nice cuts and helping the 1st offense move the chains at the conclusion of practice. Young and Hall are the clear #1 and #2 RB’s right now. Torain continues to look solid as well, his balance is very impressive and it generally takes two defenders just to slow him down. In a good sign, he also put Dumervil on his butt pass-blocking, so he’s rounding out in skill set. Alridge fell back to Earth a bit, dropping a few passes but his speed is so impressive, the defense has to always know where he is – same with Eddie Royal. Hillis missed practice again so Sapp and Pittman worked at fullback. Sapp had a bad day with several dropped passes and a few missed blocks, one of which caused the 1st offense to go three and out after Webster destroyed Sapp to blow up a drive. Sapp got chewed out by Shanahan once and Bobby Turner later. Pittman looked okay, although he’s clearly not a natural run-blocker. He caught a swing pass for a big gain to go with some other catches, but at this point neither have shown anything compared to what Hillis brought before his injury.

WR: BMarsh was solid again, scoring a TD and also taking a bubble screen across the entire field for a big gain. His only drop was on a deep pass when JMFW had near perfect coverage and BMarsh tried to go over him like he did Bly earlier in the week but just couldn’t haul the pass in. Steve Watson was saying “Come’on BMarsh you gotta get that. There’s only 5 players in the world who can make that catch and you’re one of them.” D-Jack was solid, only had one drop and that was a very tough catch – but he did fumble a reverse exchange with Jay. He also went into crowd after making a tough catch. Stokley was mostly quiet but made a nice reception along the sideline against Morton. Bly had very good coverage on him all practice – Stokley appears to be the type of player once you play against him a lot – you catch on to his tendencies. Martinez dropped what would’ve been a big play on a beautiful pass from Cutler. Royal was pretty quiet with a few short catches. Colbert made a nice catch in front of Abdullah but had the play been live, Hamza would’ve lit him up and very likely broke up the pass. Martinez appears to have moved in front of Colbert as he was working more with the 2nd team while Colbert was working with the 3’s.

TE: This was a good day for the group, very active. Graham looked great and is beginning to get more and more involved in the short passing game. He didn’t drop a ball today and caught some individual praise from Shanahan for doing a great job. Nate Jackson has clearly moved ahead of Scheffler on the depth chart although Tony is getting plenty of work as well. Nate caught two nice bootleg passes to beat Niko and Lynch and made several nice grabs against zone coverage. He clearly has the team’s best hands, I’ve yet to see him drop a pass. Scheffler got a lot of work but didn’t see as many passes as Graham or Jackson. He made a nice turn-around grab in front of Manual. Pierce continues to work in with the 2’s and occasionally the 1’s as a blocking TE but I’ve yet to see him do much of anything in the passing game and he’s only average in blocking.

OL: Nalen didn’t practice and was replaced by Wiegmann while Holland was pushing the sled. The group is getting better, especially in the run game where by the end of practice they were opening a lot of holes for Young and Hall against the 1st and 2nd D’s. Hamilton’s rounding back into form and appears to be a nice compliment to Clady. Kuper had a nice practice, holding his own in some battles against Robertson whose mostly had his way the Broncos interior OL. Wiegmann was solid, but did get beat by Peterson and Mallard a few times. Polumbus continues to impress, he manhandled Engelberger on back-to-back plays while Pears had his best practice – shutting down Dumervil. Lichtensteiger got in some work on the 2nd unit and while he’s making a lot of mental mistakes, he clearly has a nice combo of speed and strength that could make him a future starter. The entire group had their best day pass-blocking, I didn’t see them give up one sack although the defense did not blitz as much today. Harris had his best practice of camp, although he still has a hard time with Moss he did very well against Crowder.

DL: Moss and Crowder are beginning to work in reps with the 1st unit. Moss can be simply unblockable at times, and he’s constantly catching the praise (and occasionally ire) of Barney Chavous. Other than Clady, no one can really block Moss consistently in the run game or pass-protection. Dumervil and Engerlberger were quiet while Crowder was in a spirited battle with Harris that went back and forth. Ekuban isn’t getting many reps at all but when he does get them, they’re with the 1st unit at DT – so go figure. Robertson continues to be dominant and times and stout at the least, he’s going to give Wiegmann and Gandy nightmares about going to practice all season. Thomas continues to get better and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s starting by mid-season. I continue to be impressed by the effort of Peterson and Mallard – those two guys play the heart out every down. McKinley is an enigma to me, I think he’s got talent as it shows from time to time, but he just disappears for stretches and can’t seem to get much movement against Hamilton or Kuper.

LB: Whoever lines up with the #2’s at MLB appears to get motivated. For the first few days of camp, Niko worked with the #1’s and Webster was more impressive on the 2nd unit. Then they flipped and Niko was more impressive with the #2’s. Today they flipped back and again Webster was more impressive working with the 2nd group. Webster destroyed, I mean destroyed Sapp on an iso play and introduced himself to Torain and Hall on a few occasions. He also laid the wood on Alridge in space – Webster was everywhere today. Niko wasn’t bad today, though he was beat badly by Nate Jackson on a bootleg. Otherwise, he’s very consistent and reading his keys and is a very fundamental tackler with good pop. I’d imagine he registers 8-10 tackles every practice, but he’s not as flashy as Webster can be. While he didn’t look good in coverage, the defense introduced an interesting 4-3-3-1 look with only Abdullah at the deep safety, Bly cover the slot, Foxy and Champ outside and the 3 starting LB’s in. DJ and Boss were everywhere today, as usual. Boss was getting some praise from Shanahan. I heard “Atta way Nine, Seven; that’s why we brought you here. You must’ve been picked on by your big brother when you were little. You’re playing mean.” Winborn and Green both laid some serious licks on RB’s coming out of the backfield. I didn’t see much of Larsen or Beck to comment.

DB: Foxworth continues his very impressive camp by shutting down WR after WR not named Marshall. He made a great jump on a ball intended for Colbert and could’ve picked it had he not ran into his own man. Bly had a great day as well, picking off a Ramsey pass and completely shutting down Stokley on the day. Champ wasn’t even tested as far as I could tell. Lynch got beat by Nate Jackson on one play but played solid otherwise, laying a lick on Alridge that made the crowd ooh. McCree’s interception of Ramsey brought some praise from Shanahan while Abdullah continues to look great as the team’s #1 safety. He broke up a few passes intended for TE’s and Royal. Didn’t see much of Barrett or Manual although I recall one play where Barrett blew up the play in the backfield. JMFW had his best practice as a Bronco, working with the #2's in front of Paymah. He looked D-Will-esque in flying up to take out Young and Sapp on two plays. He had great coverage on BMarsh on the deep pass, then two plays later, BMarsh put a great move on him and JMFW was right there to break up the pass. Following the play, JMFW could be heard – “That’s right, I’m here.” I was so pumped, Jack “Mother ****ing” Williams just talked sh*t to Brandon Marshall. Wow.

ST: Paulescu was booming them. I mean booming them today as they worked on coverage teams. I didn’t see Kern kick any.

I’m not sure if I’ll make the evening practice, they’re generally walkthrough’s anyhow. If I do make it, I’ll be sure to post a report.

Ziggy
07-29-2008, 02:07 PM
Montrose, thanks again. Your reports are fantastic.

shank
07-29-2008, 02:09 PM
did i totally miss baugher getting cut?

hamrob
07-29-2008, 11:59 PM
Great report! Thanks tons!

frenchfan
07-30-2008, 03:23 AM
Thank you for giving us (people who can't follow too much camp & football at home) the opportunity to know a lot of things about our team...

Your reports are very good !

:beer:

Tned
07-30-2008, 06:55 AM
Works been crazy the last few days, so I haven't had a chance to keep up with the camp reports/news.

What happened to Hillis? I see an injury mentioned in this camp report. Anything serious?

kmonty
07-30-2008, 07:17 AM
Works been crazy the last few days, so I haven't had a chance to keep up with the camp reports/news.

What happened to Hillis? I see an injury mentioned in this camp report. Anything serious?

He tweaked his hamstring. Those can be nagging little suckers. He's missed Monday and Tuesday. I heard from a few fans that Denver radio said he would only miss Monday when it first happened. Hopefully he's good to go today...

Tned
07-30-2008, 07:19 AM
He tweaked his hamstring. Those can be nagging little suckers. He's missed Monday and Tuesday. I heard from a few fans that Denver radio said he would only miss Monday when it first happened. Hopefully he's good to go today...

Great, thanks for the update. Considering it sounds like he has shown promise in camp, I sure would hate to have him miss any extended time, and miss the chance to be ready, and possibly win the starting job, when the season starts.