Training camp is over, but practices continue at Dove Valley, with several Broncos veterans returning to the practice field on Monday.

Center Tom Nalen, who sat out most of training camp with knee pain, finally returned to practice. After undergoing knee surgery in June, Nalen started training camp before sidelined with pain in his bursa sac. Veteran free agent acquisition Casey Wiegmann performed well in his absence.

All Pro cornerback Champ Bailey returned to the practice field as well, having sat since Aug. 5 with a hamstring injury. Fourth year CB Domonique Foxworth started in two preseason games while Bailey was sidelined.

Finally, backup strong side linebacker and special teams ace Louis Green returned to practice after suffering a scary concussion and neck injury in the Week One preseason game at Houston. Nice to see #52 back on the field, fighting for his roster spot.

The Broncos will face the Green Bay Packers in the ever-important third preseason game on Friday.

Good to see these guys back… hopefully they’re able to stay that way. I’m most concerned about Nalen being ready for the opener, but this is definitely a good sign.

By popular demand, create-a-captions are now their own post.  Enjoy!

Today’s Create-A-Caption:

Dallas DB Orlando Scandrick lays out Glenn Martinez. (Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)

Your wittiest, most cleverest captions in the comments…

Friday’s winner after the jump – CLICK HERE »

• Broncos punters had to make unexpected big plays over the weekend – both stepped up nicely.  [Denver Post]
• Eddie Royal is one helluva rookie.  [Rocky Mountain News]
• Woody Page goes alliteration-crazy after the Denver defense stepped up.  [DPO]
• Dewayne Robertson was stoked to get out there on the field.  [RMN]
• Backup QB Patrick Ramsey dealt with a range of emotions as his life and death week ended in the Broncos victory.  [DPO]
• How does $100 in Denver Broncos tickets sound to you?  [BroncoTalk]
• AFC WEST PRESEASON BLITZ:
• Chargers sat just about everybody in a 7-6 loss to the Rams.  [Yahoo!]
• The Chiefs struggled on offense against the Cardinals, losing 27-17.  [Y!]
• Both teams ran the ball well on the other as the Titans edged out a 17-16 win against the Raiders.  [Y!]
• Create-A-Caption is getting its own post… check back soon…

It has been suggested that our little fan blog is a bit too optimistic about the Broncos… no kidding?

Well, we are a FAN blog for goodness sake. :)

As most of you know, for the last two preseason games I’ve been making (mostly humorous) predictions. One ‘fan’ actually accused me last week of being very unrealistic when making my predictions. In fact, it was suggested that most of my predictions were wishful thinking and a product of overestimating our 2008 team. However, even though I’m far from perfect, this week I got pretty close to nailing these predictions.

Luckily I’m not above ‘rubbing it in’, so let’s take a look…

*****

O-line Prediction: I think we see improvement from both Ryans, but not perfection. There are going to mistakes but I think we’ll see fewer penalties from Harris and more confidence from Clady. The middle of the line did well last week and I think we’ll see some running lanes tomorrow for Young and our stable of backs as well as decent pass protection. That said… I think Cutler gets sacked for the first time tomorrow – the Dallas defense is pretty good folks.

REALITY: I’ll leave the offical O-line breakdown to Kyle, but from my perspective both Ryan’s did do better this week. We had no penalties from Harris (the only one’s from the O-line were from Kuper and Scheffler). We did have running lanes (some really HUGE ones in fact), but I was wrong on Cutler’s first sack. I guess I was a little pesimistic, myself.

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BroncoTalk – your source for Denver Broncos football – is very happy to announce a contest that will land one lucky Denver Broncos fan a $100 gift certificate from VividSeats.com!  Vivid Seats has always been your source for Denver Broncos tickets, and now they’ve agreed to give some away to our readers for free.

Entering is easy – just leave a comment on this post. That’s it! We’ll randomly selected among the comments section and will announce a winner on Wednesday, September 3rd – the day before the NFL kicks off its 2008 season in New York!

The winner will receive a special email code that can be used right away at their online store! So don’t worry – you won’t have to wait for the certificate to come in the mail.

Using a valid email address is a must for us to contact the winner.  Your email address won’t be published and won’t be shared with anyone.

New to the site?  Check out our comments policy. Please be aware that first-time comments will be moderated and may not appear on the site right away.

Again, just leave a comment below to enter.  One entry per person.  Good luck and go Broncos!

If there’s one reason why the Denver Broncos are playoff bound in 2008, it’s Jay Cutler. The third-year quarterback out of Vanderbilt has looked simply outstanding in the preseason thus far. While normally I try to taper my excitement when it comes to the preseason, Cutler looked so damn good it’s impossible not to get jacked up.

Just check out the highlights of Cutler’s game against the Cowboys above – a game in which Cutler completed his first twelve passes, finishing 16 for 20 for 174 yards, 1 touchdown, 0 interceptions (120.4 QB rating). The guy is a man on a mission – and that mission is rising to the level among elite quarterbacks in the National Football League.

Of course, success at the quarterback position means success for the offense, and the team, in general. The level of Cutler’s fast start Saturday night was a surprise even to him, but the Broncos hope they can sustain that burst for a season of explosive offense.

“I had no idea I started that hot,” Cutler said. “The guys were getting open, the offensive line did a great job.”

“We are doing a lot of stuff, we got a lot of offense in,” he said. “We are trying to figure out what direction we really want to go with — kind of picking and choosing different plays. We are just trying things out right now. It is amazing that we can line up in any formation, throw it at them and they know what to do. It is really encouraging.”

Look for Cutler to continue his development this season. His third season looks to be his breakout one, where a Pro Bowl, even in the stacked AFC, looks like a real possibility.

Jay Cutler completed 12 straight passes to start the game, the defense held the Cowboys starters scoreless, and rookie WR Eddie Royal caught two passes for 67 yards en route to a Denver Broncos 23-13 trouncing of the Dallas Cowboys Saturday night in preseason action.

Cutler was undeniably the star of the show, finishing with 16 of 20 for 178 yards and one touchdown. He finished with an impressive 120.4 passer rating.

Cutler led the Broncos on an opening 65-yard drive that finished on an Andre Hall touchdown run, putting the Broncos up 7-0. Early in the 2nd quarter, Cutler delivered a 3 yard pass over Adam Jones to Brandon Marshall for a 14-0 lead.

The number of scoring drives would have been three had Broncos kicker Matt Prater connected on a 49-yard field goal attempt. His performance mirrored that of week one, missing his first field goal attempt but nailing his subsequent three. The missed FG signaled the end of the second half after Cutler orchestrated a beautiful two-minute drive that led the Broncos 47 yards down field in 1:37.

The Cowboys, on the other hand, struggled offensively, committing three penalties for 25 yards on an early drive. In a vanilla offensive game plan, Dallas QB Tony Romo finished 6 of 9 for 33 yards and 0 TDs. WR Terrell Owens, who was the subject of comparisons with Marshall throughout practices during the week, caught 3 passes for 20 yards in his first preseason action.

With Romo, Owens, and starting RB Marion Barber done for the night, the rest of the Dallas starters rallied around backup QB Brad Johnson in the 2nd quarter, who targeted Broncos CB Domonique Foxworth and found success. A 37 yard bomb to WR Miles Austin over Foxworth set up another connection of 5 yards moments later, resulting in Dallas’ lone touchdown of the night.

The Cowboys rushing game found mixed success, with rookie RB Felix Jones carrying three times for 17 yards (5.7 ypc) against the first team defense. The Broncos allowed 3 runs of 11 yards, but overall, Cowboys rushers ran 20 times for only 70 yards, being held to 3.5 yards per carry.

We’ll have so much more in the next day or two, stay tuned for more detailed analysis after the NFL Network replay at 2PM MT Sunday. Leave your thoughts on the game here. GO BRONCOS!

Photo credit – AP/David Zalubowski

Denver Broncos wide receiver Brandon Marshall has officially filed an appeal to NFL offices regarding his recent 2-3 game suspension, the Denver Post reports. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is expected to hear the appeal and make a ruling before the start of the regular season.

Marshall’s lawyer Harvey Steinberg had some very strong words for the Commish and the Personal Conduct Policy in general after the immediate announcement of the suspension. I’m interested to see how far he is going to take this appeal – if he wants to, he could question the very policy itself. To me, that’s a good thing.

The good news is that it sound like Goodell might be willing to drop the suspension from 2-3 games to 1-2, based on the wording of the DPO report. Let’s cross our fingers that that’s the case.

@

For your info, the game versus Dallas will be on the NFL Network on Sunday (4pm EST). We were going to be able to watch it live on Saturday, but some schmuck named Favre is playing QB for the Jets and our Denver game got bumped – jerks!

So, here are my thoughts and predictions for this weekend…

*****

Small Quick O-line meets Giant Immovable Objects-
Yes, our smaller O-linemen got beat in one-on-one drills with Dallas this week… so what. We run a zone blocking scheme and that has less to do with one-on-one match ups than it has to do with coordinated effort. Casey Wiegmann will be starting at center again and Holland will finally get onto the field by getting some reps with the second team. Most eyes will be one our new tackles Ryan & Ryan (they should start a law firm). The big deal is for our guys not to be surprised or destroyed by a possible blitzing Dallas defense. Last year they got one over on us… this year, we’d better not hear those excuses – you know it’s coming.

Prediction: I think we see improvement from both Ryans, but not perfection. There are going to mistakes but I think we’ll see fewer penalties from Harris and more confidence from Clady. The middle of the line did well last week and I think we’ll see some running lanes tomorrow for Young and our stable of backs as well as decent pass protection. That said… I think Cutler gets sacked for the first time tomorrow – the Dallas defense is pretty good folks.

*****

The Marshall-Royal Show –
I think we’ve witnessed Brandon Marshall’s extra incentive this week. I think he’s going to be performing his best tomorrow. But I also think that’s going to help rookie Eddie Royal. With Jackson sidelined with an ankle sprain, I think we’ll get more Eddie and maybe some Brandon Stokley (who had a good practice yesterday).

Prediction: Marshall burns Adam ‘no-longer-Pacman’ Jones all night long. Look for Royal to make some fantastic move which enables him to gain big yardage and a nice highlight reel moment. Later in the game, I hope to see Glenn make some good catches and I’d love to see Stokley grab one for a critical 3rd down conversion.

And I want to also mention our TE’s here. I think you’re going to see these guys block a lot more than catch this game. With Dallas’ lineman being such giants among men, I would assume that the need for extra protection and blocking will override the need for an extra receiver.

*****

Young Leads the Ground Campaign –

I think we’ll see some good running from our backs tomorrow. Selvin Young will be the starter and with Alridge likely out with a pulled hammy, Andre Hall will get plenty of chances. Michael Pittman will likely play on short yardage plays. But most exciting for me will be to finally see FB Peyton Hillis. I’m really looking forward to seeing what he can bring to our FB position (even on the second team offense).

Prediction: This is Hall’s best, last chance to prove he should be the starting RB. It would take an unbelievable game for Hall to jump past Young, but it’s possible. In unbiased fairness, I think Young is positioned to have great game tomorrow. I think he’ll be locking up that starting job tomorrow evening.

*****

DB Testing –
Fact: Romo IS going to throw the ball to T.O. — and we had better be ready.
With Champ sitting out of this game, that means Bly and Foxy will have the first team slots tomorrow. This will be an interesting match up to compare with the Marshall vs Jones match up. In both cases I think the WR’s have the talent advantage; however, Bly has been able to pick off Romo when he aims for T.O. in practice, not because of T.O.’s lack of skills, but because of Romo’s dependence on his star wideout. Romo is often locked on T.O. and will return multiple times in his reads to the dominate receiver. So, if we can use that inclination, our CB’s might be able to detect the pass coming and jump it.

Also of note is the apparent position battle at Safety. Marquand Manuel has been taking first team snaps over last year’s starter Hamza Abdullah.

Prediction: I’ll give our defensive backs at least one INT on the night. I would also give the Dallas receivers a TD or two, but that’s hardly a surprising prediction.

*****

Linebacker Battles –
Nate Webster is still listed as the starting MIKE linebacker and this week he seemed to be doing even more of the defensive leading on the field (with and without his helmet). But Shanahan has been splitting his first team reps with Niko Koutouvides and Niko has had some good practices. I would look for Niko to start the game tomorrow. I think that’s necessary to evaluate these two in gameday situations.

Also, Jamie Winborn (another of my personal favorites) is doing well filling in for Boss Bailey on the strong side. He’s also been pretty vocal this week…

To T.O. after Owens complained about not getting a pass interference call: “Quit cryin’!”
To an unnamed Dallas O-lineman after flattening him on a pass rush: “The giant has fallen!”

I love me some Jamie Winborn attitude!

Prediction: I expect Niko to have a more visible performance this time out; however, I have to suggest that Webster remains more dominate in the Middle even on the second team defense. I’m also looking forward to see Wesley Woodyard again. That guy has made my preseason game 4th quarters actually entertaining!

*****

D-Rob on the D-line –

We get to see Dewayne Robertson start with Marcus Thomas tomorrow! Hopefully this means we’ll maintain our run defense dominance we established last week. I know it will be harder to stack the line with the deep WR threat Dallas has, so I will be very interested in how our line does in run defense.

Also in play is our lack of pass rushing last game. This has been addressed this week and I would look for our DE’s to get their motors turning early in an attempt to pressure Romo and give our CB’s an opportunity to pick off a pass or two.

Prediction: Elvis Dumervil gets his first sack of the preseason. And, what the heck, Nic Clemons gets one too!

*****

Battle of the Backup QB’s –
Brad Johnson versus Patrick Ramsey. I just plain wonder who will have a better night and how that might effect their respective team’s plan at backup QB.

Prediction: I honestly think both guys will have average games and that will just prolong the media and fan driven discussions about both backups.

*****

Finding Something Special on ST –
Matt Prater was less than perfect this week in practice when Dallas was providing their defensive rush. This will hopefully provide valuable experience for his game tomorrow.
On return coverage, we’ve been doing pretty well. Let’s keep that up, guys!
I’m also ready to see one of our returners break off a HUGE return. Don’t get me wrong, I like +20 yard return averages, but I think a nice TD would be make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Prediction: Prater nails 100% of his field goal attempts under 45 yards. If he attempts one near 50 yards out, he misses it to right or left but has plenty of distance. Eddie Royal, Glenn Martinez and Marquay McDaniel all do well… no TD return though. :(

And finally, I’ll mention the number one thing we need to take away from this game… our health. We need to play smart and keep our guys from getting injured before the season even starts.

P.S. On a completely unrelated note, I now have DirectTV with Sunday Ticket! It took three techs, 5 hours and a dish in the middle of my front yard, but it’s working! WOOT!

GO BRONCOS!

(Photo Courtesy: Ronald Martinez/Getty Images, David Zalubowski/AP)

After a four-year hiatus, the Denver Broncos will be wearing their orange alternate jerseys in 2008 – not once, but twice. The Denver Post reports that the jerseys will be worn during home games against the New Orleans Saints in Week 3 (Sept. 21) and against the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 14 (Dec. 7).

The last time the Broncos wore the jerseys was in 2004, in the game you see pictured left. That’s perhaps my favorite Broncos photo of the post-Elway era, even though the game ended up in a heartbreaking loss. (Darius Watts, just catch the damn ball!) The Broncos have never won a game in the jerseys since switching uniforms in 1997.

I’ve been dying to see these in action again. This just made my day. But what do you think? Let us know in the poll and comments.

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