Went to camp today. This is year 33 of going for me. I wanted to get something posted real quick while I wrote it up. I can tell you this. This was the strangest Broncos practice that I have ever been to. It was all there- The good, the bad, and the ugly. More to come........
Practice was different. Way different. It started with special teams work. While the special teams were out, the other players were together in their groups around the field. For the most part, there were no coaches around. It was just the players talking, doing some light stretching, and working on things together. For instance, the defensive line was in a group talking with DJ Jones going over pass rush moves with Chubb and another player. Jones was in street clothes. I'm not sure if it was do to injury or just a vet day off. Other groups were pretty much doing the same thing.
After stretching was some group drills. Most of the offensive line and the defensive line were on the rehab field doing work. The offensive lineman get into their stance and pretty much come off the snap sprinting to an assigned point. It was reminiscent of the Joe Gibbs era, without the screaming and swearing. The 3rd and 4th string Line was working with the tight ends in another area of the field. The Dlineman were hitting the blocking dummies. Pass rushers were working on pass rush drills, etc. etc.
I had heard that there were no 7 on 7's with this regime. True. There were also no WR's vs. defensive backs in receiving/coverage drills, no Oline vs. Line pass rush drills, and no Lbers and safeties vs. TE's and RB's in pass catching/coverage drills. In other words....the only time the offense went against the defense at all was in 11 on 11's. That took up about 40-50% of the practice. There was also another special teams session later in practice.
What also struck me as odd was the amount of time that players were doing nothing at all. During 11 on 11's, one unit was working. The other 68 players or so were watching or talking. This might simply be the new way to teach. See one, do one, teach one. It may also be the coaches way of reducing wear and tear on the team's bodies to get them to the season with fresh legs.
11 on 11's-
The reps were split up pretty well. It was the ones, then the 2 and threes would alternate for the most part. I never saw Russ and the ones get more than 2 consecutive plays before giving way to the backups. I'm not sure if they do that every day or it was just today. It's got to be hard to get into a rhythm on offense that way.
The defense was absolutely dominant the entire practice. The offense had no time or room all morning. The outside pass rush was relentless. Starting lineup was:
Offense-
QB- Wilson
RB- Williams
TE- Albert O
WR- Patrick
WR- Sutton
WR- Jeudy
LT- Bolles
LG- Risner
C- Cush
RG- Meiner
RT- Anderson
Defense-
NT- Purcell
LE- McTelvin Agim
RE- Dremont
ILB- Jewell
ILB- Jonas Griffith
OLB- Chubb
OLB- Malik Reed (later Baron Browning)
CB- Surtain
CB- Darby
S- Simmons
S- Kareem
Standouts-
Montrell Washington- Made a couple of nice catches, and took one to the house.
Baron Browning- He's a monster. Great power/speed combo. Got some time with the 1's later in practice.
Darby- Broke up a couple of passes thrown his way.
Caden Sterns- Flashed a couple of times with the second team.
PS2- He just erased whoever he was lined up on.
Disappointments-
Calvin Anderson- He was getting beat like a drum. He completely whiffed at least twice on blocks. I was keeping a close eye on him simply because we either need him to be good, or Billy Turner to get back healthy. He was bad today.
Courtland Sutton- He dropped 2 passes today. One in drills and one in 11 on 11's.
Boone- Also had 2 drops today.
The backup punter. He was so bad I refuse to mention his name here. I was hoping that they brought in a legit challenge for Martin, but this guy simply isn't.
The offense as a whole. I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt and say that they are learning a new system, so they just need more time. The 1's had 3 nice plays the entire practice, and 2 of them would have never happened due to QB sacks.
Both Damarea Crockett and Courtland Sutton went down with non contact injuries. Both looked like ACL's. I hope I'm wrong.
Overall the practice was nothing like what I expected to see, or anything I've seen before in a Broncos practice. That doesn't make it bad... or good. It was different.