Eddie Royal gets some love from Pro Football Weekly
Early bloomer
Undersized Royal makes instant impact in WR role
By Seth Gruen
Sept. 13, 2008
Starting in late July, rookie WR Eddie Royal faced Broncos CBs Champ Bailey and Dré Bly — two corners who could make any receiver look like they were back in high school, let alone a rookie.
Each play, each day and each week of training camp, the 22-year-old Royal repeatedly stood across from one of the more feared cornerback tandems in football.
Lucky for Royal, come his NFL debut on “Monday Night Football” against the Raiders, he stood on the same sideline with Bly and Bailey.
“It’s great going against Champ and Dré every day in practice just because that’s the best you’re going to see,” Royal said of his Denver teammates. “They’re two of the best in the league, so you know that you’re going to be well-prepared going into the game.”
So, in Week One when Royal faced Raiders CB DeAngelo Hall, also regarded as one of the league’s best cover men, he was prepared, making Hall look like the rookie — exploding for 146 yards on nine catches.
However, Royal is far from punching his ticket to Honolulu, having played in only one NFL game. Still, he leads the league in receiving yards and has already gotten more attention than most rookie receivers see in an entire season.
Royal’s performance marks only the third time in the last 13 years that a player has topped 100 yards receiving in his debut. Royal joined fellow rookie DeSean Jackson, who racked up 106 yards in his debut with the Eagles, and Anquan Boldin, who holds the NFL record with 217 receiving yards in his first NFL game.
Rookie wide receivers typically get the most attention on Draft Day, when potential is talked about but never realized until after their rookie season.
Yet, Royal isn’t even much to look at.
At all of 5 feet 10 inches, 182 pounds, Royal was largely considered by most teams as a career return specialist. Few thought that he would be able to impact an offense as a third or fourth receiver, and he wasn’t even discussed as a starter.
But the Broncos’ coaching staff saw something different in Royal.
“One of the things we saw is that we loved his personality,” Broncos WR coach Jedd Fisch said. “We loved his demeanor and we loved how he played on the field — how he produced, whether it be in the all-star games, whether it be on his college tape, or whether it be in practice every single day against Champ Bailey and Dré Bly.”
Royal became the first rookie to start at wide receiver for the Broncos since Vance Johnson started the 1985 opener.
Anyone can start a game and rack up big yardage off one catch, though. But Royal’s nine catches showed an involvement in the offense that was clearly part of Denver’s game plan.
“We felt that he gave us the best chance to win the game and produce on offense with what we were doing route-wise, and we were able to start feeding him the ball early,” Fisch said.
Leave it to the Broncos to challenge the norm offensively. Head coach Mike Shanahan is widely known as one of the greatest offensive minds in football, having turned aspiring third-string players into NFL stars.
Giving Shanahan Royal, a second-round pick who holds Virginia Tech’s record for all-purpose yards, was like giving Rambo a rocket launcher or Bill Gates a computer.
Easy for Shanahan, who immediately corrected some of Royal’s techniques in detail dating back to OTAs.
“He just noticed some little things about my routes that I could do better,” Royal said. “It was real detailed stuff, so I paid close attention to what he was saying that fixed those things. It really helped me out a lot. It meant a lot to me that he actually spent the time to pull me aside and talk to me and he was actually paying attention to my routes.”
Little may Royal have known that Shanahan and the coaching staff had big plans for the rookie receiver.
They had anticipated on Draft Day that Royal would be put in a situation to mature into a professional right away, learning from a group of seasoned receivers possessing experiences that Royal could draw upon.
“The guys here, they’ve brought me along so well and just really broke down the playbook with me, taught me little things about being a receiver that have helped me go from being a good receiver to a great receiver,” he said of the Broncos’ receiving corps.
While the Broncos’ veterans have taken a liking to Royal, he can be credited with his attentiveness.
He gets to meetings on time, stays late when asked and produces in practice. In the early stages of his career, he’s seemingly the consummate professional, realizing after last Monday night that he’s reaping the benefits.
“The best part about it is how receptive he is to coaching,” Fisch said. “Anything that anybody on the offensive staff has asked him to do, he’s done it. I can say for me, seven years being in the NFL, I know great players make great coaches, and he’s a great player.”
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Originally Posted by Benetto
