Dortoh
06-16-2009, 11:36 AM
http://blogs.denverpost.com/broncos/2009/06/15/minicamp-wrap-up-winners-and-losers-and-of-course-more-marshall-talk/
Well, it’s been a heck of an offseason, wouldn’t you say? And Brandon Marshall seems to be doing his best to make sure the Broncos stay in the news in upcoming days and weeks, when the rest of the NFL world starts to shut down for a much-needed vacation.
I’ll touch a bit on the Marshall situation below … but first, to borrow a line from Josh McDaniels, let’s talk about the players that were actually at Dove Valley for the team’s mandatory minicamp.
WINNERS
- WRs Jabar Gaffney, Eddie Royal, Brandon Stokely and Chad Jackson: So maybe none of these guys presents quite the intimidating physical presence that No. 15 does, but these four receivers got plenty of reps with the first-team offense through the weekend. Gaffney at this point appears to be the most versatile and comfortable in the offense, no surprise since he followed McDaniels here from New England. Eddie Royal frequently looked like the very best skill position player on the field — fantasy alert! he’s going to make A LOT of catches this year — and Stokely is his same old reliable self Broncos fans are used to. Chad Jackson might have found himself in the best position through all this offseason turmoil. A guy who signed late last season and played little for Mike Shanahan, he’s getting a lot of work now and is familiar with the offense from his time in New England. I don’t expect him to be a starter, but he could find himself a role here, especially if Marshall protests his way out of town.
- QB Kyle Orton: He’s The Man heading into training camp. This is good for him from a leadership perspective and it will help him continue to build rapport with his receivers. He wasn’t always sharp in minicamp, but it surely is a confidence boost for Orton to know his coach has enough faith in him to anoint him as the No. 1 right now.
- TE Tony Scheffler: Kudos to Scheffler for making it through an entire offseason program healthy. After spending the last two Mays and Junes in the training room or on the sidelines, it was nice to see Scheffler working at full speed. He is playing behind Daniel Graham, but did get first-team reps in 2 tight end sets.
- OLB/DE Robert Ayers: Yes, Knowshon Moreno was impressive and I expect Moreno to make a major impact this season. But Ayers got more work with the first team of any rookie. He also showed tremendous work ethic by staying late after every practice to practicing catching balls from the Jugs machine. He was on the field for a solid 15 minutes, at least, longer than all of his defensive teammates each day.
- ILB D.J. Williams: Williams is still wearing the orange “no contact” jersey as he continues to recover from offseason shoulder surgery, but it didn’t look like Williams was limited at all. In fact, he appeared to get more work than just about any defensive player because of his starting spot in the base, nickel and dime packages. He is even on the first-team field goal block unit.
- RB Ryan Torain: He didn’t take any reps, but the fact that he was on the field practicing at all makes Torain a winner for sure. He showed good mobility and the grace we all remember from last summer as he worked through individual drills.
- OLB/DE Tim Crowder: The 2007 second-round pick was basically Mr. Irrelevant last season, but he was in with the first-team base defense at outside linebacker all weekend. He came out on passing downs, though he was on the second-team nickel unit. I talked to Crowder on Friday, and he said that all he can ask for is a chance to compete, and clearly he’s been given a clean slate by the new coaching regime.
- OL Seth Olsen: The rookie draft pick took all of the first-team reps at right guard while starter Chris Kuper was excused to attend his own wedding. There is very little chance Kuper’s absence hurts his standing — all the praise for the Ryans aside, I’ve heard talk that Kuper was the line’s MVP last season — but any time a young guy like Olsen can get that much early work with the starters, it is a good thing.
LOSERS (and we mean this in the nicest way possible)
- WR Brandon Marshall: You can’t win if you don’t (or won’t) play.
- P Brett Kern: Rookie Britton Colquitt looks like he’ll be more than just a camp leg. Kern, who had a solid rookie year in 2008, could find himself in another heated battle throughout training camp.
- DE/OLB Elvis Dumervil and Darrell Reid: I was hesitant to list these guys here, but the fact is, they were both relegated to the second-team through much of the weekend. Dumervil, did, however take a number of first-team reps on Sunday, swapping in and out with Ayers. This position battle is far from over and is shaping up to be possibly the most interesting competition of training camp.
- QB Chris Simms: Now officially the No. 2, which makes him the “loser” in the QB competition. But he handled the news well, praised Orton as a teammate and player and said he will continue to work hard, which makes him a “winner” in my book.
And now, onto Brandon Marshall, who just keeps finding ways to keep himself in the news and on the airwaves.
Here’s what we know: He wants a new, big-money contract that would pay him on par with what similarly productive receivers in the league make. He wants to rehab with his own doctors and trainers in Florida instead of at Dove Valley. And he seems to be OK with forking over thousands of dollars to do so.
My partner Mike Klis reported in today’s edition that the Broncos do not want to trade Marshall and that McDaniels has been in touch with Marshall’s agent. The fact that Marshall did show up for a face-to-face meeting with Pat Bowlen, and that communication remains open between him, his reps and the team is a good sign. We’ve all seen what can happen when there’s no communication …
That said … I don’t see this as a situation where either side is ready to compromise. It makes perfect sense that the team wants to wait to give Marshall a major deal until they see how he recovers from the hip surgery (not to mention the forearm and hand troubles that continued to bother him in 2008) and if he can stay completely out of trouble for a full calendar year. At this point, Marshall is a risk, and it seems everyone but him knows it. At a time when you would think Marshall would be doing everything to take the spotlight off of himself (in light of the ESPN piece a couple of weeks ago), he’s doing even more damage to his reputation.
I asked Broncos fans via twitter to chime in on what they think and hope should happen. Here’s a sample of the responses:
From @KMA55 “He needs to show up period, he’s under contract. Until that happens the Broncos should just keep the front office quiet.”
From @esmagnus “Brandon Marshall and Jay Cutler were our best players last year. I don’t understand the sense in trading them!”
From @nickstratton “B. Marsh has no leverage with his legal and health concerns and pending CBA restrictions. Make him play.”
From @jaredstill “Bowlen should trade #15 to the Cards for Boldin; both WR’s get paid, Cards take risk of 8/16 game suspension w/ nxt BM arrest.”
From @SteveOReilly “Pay Brandon!”
From @seangui “Won’t get equal in return from trade; injury, arrest issues. Give new contract-same $ this yr, addt’l yrs as top wr w/clauses”
Keep the twitter replies coming and follow us at twitter.com/denverbroncos.
Well, it’s been a heck of an offseason, wouldn’t you say? And Brandon Marshall seems to be doing his best to make sure the Broncos stay in the news in upcoming days and weeks, when the rest of the NFL world starts to shut down for a much-needed vacation.
I’ll touch a bit on the Marshall situation below … but first, to borrow a line from Josh McDaniels, let’s talk about the players that were actually at Dove Valley for the team’s mandatory minicamp.
WINNERS
- WRs Jabar Gaffney, Eddie Royal, Brandon Stokely and Chad Jackson: So maybe none of these guys presents quite the intimidating physical presence that No. 15 does, but these four receivers got plenty of reps with the first-team offense through the weekend. Gaffney at this point appears to be the most versatile and comfortable in the offense, no surprise since he followed McDaniels here from New England. Eddie Royal frequently looked like the very best skill position player on the field — fantasy alert! he’s going to make A LOT of catches this year — and Stokely is his same old reliable self Broncos fans are used to. Chad Jackson might have found himself in the best position through all this offseason turmoil. A guy who signed late last season and played little for Mike Shanahan, he’s getting a lot of work now and is familiar with the offense from his time in New England. I don’t expect him to be a starter, but he could find himself a role here, especially if Marshall protests his way out of town.
- QB Kyle Orton: He’s The Man heading into training camp. This is good for him from a leadership perspective and it will help him continue to build rapport with his receivers. He wasn’t always sharp in minicamp, but it surely is a confidence boost for Orton to know his coach has enough faith in him to anoint him as the No. 1 right now.
- TE Tony Scheffler: Kudos to Scheffler for making it through an entire offseason program healthy. After spending the last two Mays and Junes in the training room or on the sidelines, it was nice to see Scheffler working at full speed. He is playing behind Daniel Graham, but did get first-team reps in 2 tight end sets.
- OLB/DE Robert Ayers: Yes, Knowshon Moreno was impressive and I expect Moreno to make a major impact this season. But Ayers got more work with the first team of any rookie. He also showed tremendous work ethic by staying late after every practice to practicing catching balls from the Jugs machine. He was on the field for a solid 15 minutes, at least, longer than all of his defensive teammates each day.
- ILB D.J. Williams: Williams is still wearing the orange “no contact” jersey as he continues to recover from offseason shoulder surgery, but it didn’t look like Williams was limited at all. In fact, he appeared to get more work than just about any defensive player because of his starting spot in the base, nickel and dime packages. He is even on the first-team field goal block unit.
- RB Ryan Torain: He didn’t take any reps, but the fact that he was on the field practicing at all makes Torain a winner for sure. He showed good mobility and the grace we all remember from last summer as he worked through individual drills.
- OLB/DE Tim Crowder: The 2007 second-round pick was basically Mr. Irrelevant last season, but he was in with the first-team base defense at outside linebacker all weekend. He came out on passing downs, though he was on the second-team nickel unit. I talked to Crowder on Friday, and he said that all he can ask for is a chance to compete, and clearly he’s been given a clean slate by the new coaching regime.
- OL Seth Olsen: The rookie draft pick took all of the first-team reps at right guard while starter Chris Kuper was excused to attend his own wedding. There is very little chance Kuper’s absence hurts his standing — all the praise for the Ryans aside, I’ve heard talk that Kuper was the line’s MVP last season — but any time a young guy like Olsen can get that much early work with the starters, it is a good thing.
LOSERS (and we mean this in the nicest way possible)
- WR Brandon Marshall: You can’t win if you don’t (or won’t) play.
- P Brett Kern: Rookie Britton Colquitt looks like he’ll be more than just a camp leg. Kern, who had a solid rookie year in 2008, could find himself in another heated battle throughout training camp.
- DE/OLB Elvis Dumervil and Darrell Reid: I was hesitant to list these guys here, but the fact is, they were both relegated to the second-team through much of the weekend. Dumervil, did, however take a number of first-team reps on Sunday, swapping in and out with Ayers. This position battle is far from over and is shaping up to be possibly the most interesting competition of training camp.
- QB Chris Simms: Now officially the No. 2, which makes him the “loser” in the QB competition. But he handled the news well, praised Orton as a teammate and player and said he will continue to work hard, which makes him a “winner” in my book.
And now, onto Brandon Marshall, who just keeps finding ways to keep himself in the news and on the airwaves.
Here’s what we know: He wants a new, big-money contract that would pay him on par with what similarly productive receivers in the league make. He wants to rehab with his own doctors and trainers in Florida instead of at Dove Valley. And he seems to be OK with forking over thousands of dollars to do so.
My partner Mike Klis reported in today’s edition that the Broncos do not want to trade Marshall and that McDaniels has been in touch with Marshall’s agent. The fact that Marshall did show up for a face-to-face meeting with Pat Bowlen, and that communication remains open between him, his reps and the team is a good sign. We’ve all seen what can happen when there’s no communication …
That said … I don’t see this as a situation where either side is ready to compromise. It makes perfect sense that the team wants to wait to give Marshall a major deal until they see how he recovers from the hip surgery (not to mention the forearm and hand troubles that continued to bother him in 2008) and if he can stay completely out of trouble for a full calendar year. At this point, Marshall is a risk, and it seems everyone but him knows it. At a time when you would think Marshall would be doing everything to take the spotlight off of himself (in light of the ESPN piece a couple of weeks ago), he’s doing even more damage to his reputation.
I asked Broncos fans via twitter to chime in on what they think and hope should happen. Here’s a sample of the responses:
From @KMA55 “He needs to show up period, he’s under contract. Until that happens the Broncos should just keep the front office quiet.”
From @esmagnus “Brandon Marshall and Jay Cutler were our best players last year. I don’t understand the sense in trading them!”
From @nickstratton “B. Marsh has no leverage with his legal and health concerns and pending CBA restrictions. Make him play.”
From @jaredstill “Bowlen should trade #15 to the Cards for Boldin; both WR’s get paid, Cards take risk of 8/16 game suspension w/ nxt BM arrest.”
From @SteveOReilly “Pay Brandon!”
From @seangui “Won’t get equal in return from trade; injury, arrest issues. Give new contract-same $ this yr, addt’l yrs as top wr w/clauses”
Keep the twitter replies coming and follow us at twitter.com/denverbroncos.