4 Sunday Morning Quick Hits — Camp Captains

1. The Denver Broncos will kickoff training camp on Thursday (full schedule) and three of their five 2011 team captains will be returning this summer.

Head Coach John Fox is expected to announce the 2012 captains shortly before the regular season.

The team’s Week 1 captains last season were Kyle Orton, Champ Bailey, Wesley Woodyard, Chris Kuper, Brian Dawkins and Elvis Dumervil*.  When Orton was traded mid-way through the 2011 season, Willis McGahee replaced him.

*The Broncos had five main team captains last season in addition to a weekly captain named by Fox.  Last year, Dumervil was the Week 1 co-captain.

Heading into camp, Bailey, Kuper and Woodyard appear to be among the top candidates for 2012, with Peyton Manning being an obvious addition. That leaves one captain position open and with Dawkins gone and Dumervil facing a possible suspension, Von Miller seems to be a worthy suggestion.

2. Speaking of Dumervil’s possible suspension, the veteran defensive end has a preliminary hearing on his aggravated assault charge set for Aug. 16.  According to those close to Elvis, he was not wearing a gun and the vehicle that a pistol was removed from by police did not belong to him.

An image released by TMZ however shows Dumervil being arrested by police with his t-shirt un-tucked on his right side.  Did the cops remove a weapon from under his shirt, or was no weapon found?  That remains unclear.  But that hasn’t stopped fans from putting up a billboard that reads, “Dumervil: Stick to the Guns that mad you a Star!”

3. Over at ProFootballTalk, the PFT grew is releasing their 2012 Preseason Power Rankings.  Denver came in 10th overall, ranking them the highest among AFC West teams.  The Chargers (16th), Chiefs (21st) and Raiders (23rd) all finished behind the Broncos.

While preseason powering rankings are completely meaningless, it’s still nice to say San Diego, Kansas City and Oakland all finished behind Denver.

4. Quarterbacks Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III have signed contracts with their respective teams — Denver’s Brock Osweiler is now on deck.  The team is also exploring extending Ryan Clady‘s contract, but are not expected to get a deal done before training camp.  The team also has yet to get running back Ronnie Hillman under contract.

As of Sunday morning, there are no indications as to how soon Osweiler and Hillman will be signed.  That could however change at any moment.