Second-round pick Montee Ball made a lot of fans in Denver happy when he chose Mike Anderson’s old number 38, as an homage to ‘Sarge’. The Broncos are hoping that he can also recreate the kind of tough-nosed performances that made Anderson such a fan favorite during his time in Denver.
As a young man who started off his life as a Broncos fan, he’s already taken the right first steps.
One thing you can count on - any team of John Fox’s will try and use a committee approach to the game. Said OC Adam Gase,
Coach Fox has always been great mixing in the multiple backfields and using different guys. He did it in Carolina. We'll do the same thing here.
Happy Friday, Broncos fans! Denver heads into the six-week lull between minicamp and training camp (which starts July 25) with all but two of their players signed - Sylvester Williams and Ryan Clady.
According to Mike Klis, Montee Ball's four-year deal is worth $3.53M, while Kayvon Webster's has a value of $2.72M.
Klis suggests that getting Williams signed "won't be a problem" due to the league's slotting system, and he's probably correct.
However, there is one factor to consider - offset language.
The Broncos have signed second-rounder Montee Ball and third-rounder Kayvon Webster; only first-rounder Sylvester Williams remains unsigned.
Oh for Christ's sake, here we go again. Just when I thought the Patriot Way meant I wasn't going to have to continue to cover the NFL's own version of America's culture war, Robert Kraft brings us right back to the beginning.
Regarding the signing of Tim Tebow, Kraft had the following to say:
“He’s a winner, and the fact that spirituality is so important to him is very appealing to me,” Kraft continued.
Kraft also labeled Tebow’s openly religious nature “an added dimension” that helped convince the Patriots to sign him to a two-year deal (with no guaranteed money) after five weeks on the NFL unemployment line.
Denver released veteran running back Willis McGahee on Thursday, as the team continues to go younger (and cheaper) at the position.
The 31-year-old back had been due a $2.5M salary this season and would have counted for $3M against the cap. According to Spotrac, McGahee's release will leave $500K in dead money on the books for each of the 2013 and 2014 seasons, while freeing up $2.5M in cap space in 2013 and $2M in 2014.
McGahee had not attended the team's voluntary OTAs, instead choosing to work out in Miami, before this week claiming "family obligations" were the cause.
Good Morning, Broncos fans! Just a year and a half ago, Quinton Carter was seen by many as being more ready to start in the NFL than Rahim Moore, whom Denver had taken 63 slots ahead of him in 2011.
But two injuries and operations on his left knee have derailed his career, and he's still not been cleared to practice after last fall's microfracture procedure.
Carter has been running during practice, and performing individual drills, and it's expected that he'll be ready to go for training camp.
For his own sake, he'd better be, because he's competing with Moore, Mike Adams, David Bruton, and Quentin Jammer for what figure to be four spots. And if Jammer and Kayvon Webster are seen as players who can shift all over the secondary and ease the glut at cornerback, then Quinton's spot becomes that much more tenuous.
Backup safety and special teams ace David Bruton continued to work with the first-team defense at Wednesday's minicamp practices. Afterward, Jack Del Rio praised Bruton's measurables, intelligence, and on-field leadership, while Champ Bailey said Bruton "looks like a different player" as he starts his second contract with the team.
Also seeing reps with the starting defense was recent signee Quentin Jammer, who says he's adjusting to the increased vocalness required of the position as compared to his more familiar corner spot. Although Jammer had played safety at Texas, his entire NFL career was spent as a corner in San Diego.
Continue reading "Bruton, Jammer seeing first-team reps; Gradishar attends practice"
While going through some of last year’s film, I found a play that demonstrates so precisely how to stop the run, that I wanted to share it with you.
It’s from the first quarter of the Broncos' 30-23 victory over San Diego in Week 11 - the first play of the first possession. It exhibits two versions of classic shed techniques, and in doing so, the Broncos turn a potentially good gain by San Diego into a one-yard play.
In the first shot, fullback Le’Ron McClain (33) is split out to the side and pretends to go in motion, then settles back into the wing slot. Jackie Battle (44) is the ballcarrier. They’re in a two-tight end package, sometimes called a max, max-protect or, depending on personnel, jumbo package.
San Diego ran it a lot due to their odious offensive line - it gave Philip Rivers some degree of cover. Denver lines up with their defensive ends flipped - Elvis Dumervil (92) is on the defensive left, across from the outside shoulder of tight end Randy McMichael (81).
Good Morning, Broncos fans! Largely due to his absence during OTAs, most of the talk at Dove Valley on Tuesday was about the return of Willis McGahee.
Besides, during padless and mostly non-contact practices, how much is there really to discuss?
For his part, Willis says he's been at 100% health for a while now, and has even lost an undisclosed amount of weight along the way. However much he's lost, he's still surely the heaviest back on Denver's roster, with his listed 235 only neighbored by undrafted rookie C.J. Anderson's 224.
Mark Kiszla declares McGahee to be Denver's toughest back, but it remains to be seen what Montee Ball has to say about that.
Willis McGahee was back at Dove Valley on Tuesday, as expected, although he cited "family obligations" as the cause for his having missed all of Denver's (non-mandatory) OTAs.
Like they had during his absence, second-year back Ronnie Hillman and 2013 second-rounder Montee Ball received the bulk of the day's reps, with the veteran only seeing the field for what he called "a couple" of snaps.
Still, McGahee says he expects to be the starter come Week 1, even while acknowledging his place "on the bubble."
Continue reading "McGahee largely an observer as minicamp opens"
