• Vince Young is struggling this season, and isn’t taking it well.  [Denver Post]
• The Denver Broncos are on the upswing.  [CBS4 Denver]
• Denver has been busy signing and releasing guys left and right, even midseason.  [Rocky Mountain News]
• Looking at red zone efficiency around the league.  [Rocky Mountain News]
• That guy taking warmup snaps on the sideline two Sundays ago did some charity hospital work Tuesday.  [CBS4 Denver]

Would you like to see some new footage of Elway scrambling out of the pocket and passing deep down the field for a TD? Well, look no further! You can now check out video highlights from Cherry Creek High School where Jack Elway (wearing #7 of course) has been playing QB on the varsity team. On that first video, he has a nice deep pass at around 0:55 and a great scramble and pass at around 1:23.

At 6-foot-3 and 215 pounds, Jack Elway already is as big as his father was when he entered the NFL. Jack will be heading to Arizona State on a scholarship and I’d imagine much of Bronco Nation will be watching those games closely. :)

The Broncos cut DT Antwon Burton today and signed Kenny Peterson – who was cut last month. Burton was strictly a tackle while Peterson can play both inside and outside on the defensive line.

We’ve seen several major changes along the D-line recently, and I don’t think we’ve seen the last of them.

Win a game, get nominated. Pretty simple, right? Three Broncos are nominated for four awards this week after the Broncos took care of business. Selvin Young is nominated for both the Diet Pepsie Rookie of the Week Award, as well as the FedEx Ground Player of the Week. Young scored his first career touchdown and was the MVP of the Broncos’ 27-11 win in Kansas City.

Vote for #35 here (Rookie) and here (Ground).

Nate Webster is nominated for the GMC Defensive Player of the Week Award. On top of his 5 tackles, Webster broke the game open with his fumble recovery for a touchdown, gaining a two-possession lead the Broncos never let go.

Vote for#58 here.

Finally, Head Coach Mike Shanahan is nominated for the Motorola Coach of the Week Award after winning in Arrowhead for the first time since 2002.

Vote for Shanny here.

H/T Mason’s Morsels

The appeal hearing for Broncos running back Travis Henry is scheduled for this Friday, November 16. As we all know, Henry is appealing a potential one-year suspension from the NFL for testing positive for marijuana for a third time in his NFL career. News broke yesterday that Henry passed team-administered polygraph and hair follicle tests. Coach Mike Shanahan has even given Henry his full support. The problem with these tests is that they aren’t admissible as evidence for Henry’s case. To put it bluntly (no pun intended), and to the dismay of fantasy footballers everywhere, this looks like the end of the Travis Henry era in Denver.

The signing of Henry was among the biggest of many Broncos offseason moves. Many, including yours truly, anticipated a performance of over 1,500 rushing yards for Henry, the fifth running back in as many years to be declared “The Guy” heading into a Broncos season. While his character issues were well-documented at the time, Henry had stayed clean for nearly two years, and excitedly described “goosebumps” at the thought of the opportunity to run behind the Broncos vaunted offensive line. To say no one saw this coming would be hyperbole, but it had certainly seemed that Henry’s toking days were behind him.

When news broke, now over one month ago, that Henry had tested positive and was suing the NFL to withhold his B Sample, the cries for Henry’s release were deafening. Since the news broke, Henry has missed two games due to injury and has not played at the same level he did weeks 1-4. Will he ever play a Broncos snap again? The bigger question — do the Broncos need him to?

Selvin Young‘s dominant performance Sunday in Kansas City had a lot of Denver fans reminiscing about the young Terrell Davis in the years before the Super Bowls. Young put this Broncos offense on his shoulders and carried them to victory. A victory, in Arrowhead, that these Denver Broncos had only enjoyed twice in nine seasons. This against a very much improving Chiefs defense, which at the time ranked 14th in the league against the run.

Fans are quick to forget that Travis Henry was looking like a dominant runner at the beginning of the season too, averaging at least 4.9 yards per carry in 3 of his first 4 games. Injuries have slowed him and sidelined him; he’s rarely finished an entire NFL year healthy in his career, and since his knee and ankle injuries he’s been averaging closer to 3 yards per carry. To say that we can move on without Henry wouldn’t be fair – he is a talented runner, a perfect fit in our system, and in my mind there is absolutely nothing wrong with having two high-caliber runners on your roster.

All that being said, it’s time to bid farewell to Henry. As a fan of the team, I’m tired of feeling embarrassment over Henry’s poor decisions – whether it involves illegal drugs (secondhand smoke or not, it makes no difference to me) or failing in child support or anything else, it’s time for these Broncos to move on without this distraction. The club will wait for the league to rule on Henry’s case; Henry is still entitled to several million dollars in bonus money from his contract if he were to win his appeal. It is almost certain that he won’t, but until then it is financially prudent that the Broncos keep him on the roster.

Although Shanahan has publicly given Henry his support, I doubt this means he would keep Henry on the team after a one-year suspension. When a player is suspended from the NFL, they are usually banned from team facilities and meetings. Will the coaching staff be patient enough to wait until Week 11 or 12 of next year, trusting that Henry is keeping up on his conditioning? It’s not entirely unlikely, since Shanahan has already given Henry his support, but it’s still very improbable.

If things go as expected, and Henry loses his appeal, his suspension would begin immediately following the ruling (anticipated some time next week). I expect it wouldn’t be long before the Broncos release Henry. It’s a shame and a disappointment that he went down that road, but I won’t be shedding any tears. I’m more than willing to embrace our future with Selvin Young, Andre Hall, and whomever else the coaching staff sees fit. I’m ready to close the door on the Travis Henry Era in Denver.

• Shanahan Belives Henry Will Win Appeal [BroncoTalk]
• Henry Gives Denver a New Dimension [Fox Sports]
• Young Brings Back Memories of Davis [Rocky Mountain News]
• Travis Henry is the New Shawn Kemp [The Big Lead]

• The Colts claimed DE Simeon Rice off waivers, reuniting Coach Dungy with his old player from the Bucs.  Rice claims he’s gained a newfound “humbleness.”  Is humbleness a word?  I thought it was humility.  [Denver Post]
• If Henry had failed either the lie detector or hair follicle tests, he wouldn’t be on this football team.  [Denver Post]
• Breakdown of Elvis Dumervil making really, really good things happen.  [Denver Post]
• Quick look at the Titans.  [Denver Post]
• A bit more detailed look at the club as the Broncos aim for redemption on the national stage.  Nugget: Titans have run the ball at least 32 times in 8 of 9 games.  I hope these Broncos keep letting their pads do the talking.  [Rocky Mountain News]
• Giving Selvin Young some more love.  [Denver Post]
• Brodie Croyle is now the guy over in Kansas City.  Something about Broncos in Arrowhead makes these coaches wanna switch quarterbacks or something… [USA Today]

News in regular type, my slant in italics (haha… slant in italics… get it?).

• John Lynch is still suffering from numbness and tingling. He won’t play or practice until those symptoms subside. This doesn’t sound good… will we be seeing ANOTHER veteran captain on Injured Reserve this year?
• Javon Walker is a “long shot” to play this Monday, but Shanahan‘s keeping his fingers crossed. Me too!
• Shanahan wasn’t surprised at Selvin Young‘s breakout performance, and said it was typical of what he’s seen in practice. I haven’t been this excited about a Broncos running back in a long time.
• Hamza Abdullah is reportedly our new starter, but Shanny said everyone needs to wait and see on Monday. At least Nick Ferguson isn’t bitter if that’s the case – saw him giving Shanny a lot of love on the sidelines after our big win.
• Apparently newly signed DE Josh Mallard played 46 snaps yesterday, and Shanahan simply said this showed that we needed some help. Other teams’ trash can be our treasure. First Jordan Beck making special teams tackles, now Mallard stepping up on defense. Everyone is on notice – do your job or they’ll find someone to do it for you!
• When asked if he had seen Adam Vinatieri‘s missed field goal, he responded, “Which one?” Classic.

Shanahan Fireside: Week 10 [Mason’s Morsels]

Denver Broncos running back Travis Henry has a good chance to win his appeal, Broncos coach Mike Shanahan said Monday. Henry has taken multiple hair follicle tests and lie detector tests, all of which show Henry had no marijuana in his system.

Henry’s hearing is scheduled for this Friday, November 16, in Phoenix, Arizona. A ruling is not expected until early Tuesday, November 20, meaning Henry could play in Monday night’s contest if needed.

Shanahan backs Henry in appeal [Denver Post]

Your final score is Broncos 27, Chiefs 11. Great bounce back win – let’s get a winning streak going, eh? It’s game ball time, who ya got!

Earl – Selvin Young. They said that as a backup at Texas, Young had a severe case of fumblitis. And indeed, the ball sure came loose a lot as he was going to the ground, but he also kept getting it back; or the ball came loose after he was already down. That it a little worrisome. On the other hand, he runs hard, he hits the hole, and he’s fast! He looks, to me, like Tatum Bell if only Tatum Bell had been who we wanted him to be. Breaking a hundred yards on his first start is good, but doing it against the Chiefs in Arrowhead coached by Herm Edwards is astounding.

I need to give an honorable game ball to Elvis Dumervil. Seriously. Our d-line seems to have only one guy who can seriously get on a pass rush right now, and he’s the guy. I sincerely hope our rookies will be able to pick it up so that when Dumervil is doubled up, one of them will start doing more, but even so. He has 8 sacks on the season in 9 games!  That puts him on pace for 14 if he keeps it up, and here I thought he was just being a young player with a chip on his shoulder when he predicted a 15 sack season. While Young gets the nod for me for this game, Dumervil can’t go without mention.

Jonathan – I’d have to say that my game ball would go to the linebacker unit. As a group, they had the best game of the season in my opinion. D.J. Williams was solid, Nate Webster made a great heads-up play where he scored a TD on the forced fumble and Ian Gold actually had a fantastic game with several speedy moves in coverage, a couple of powerful hits and a sack. Together the unit racked up 17.5 tackles – which is exactly what the Jim Bates Defense needs from this position.

Kyle – Excellent choices, guys. Young was definitely our MVP; Dumervil had another outstanding game (besides the three last-drive penalties); the linebackers definitely stepped it up a notch. I almost went with Cutler – he showed tremendous courage under fire, although he did look inaccurate at times. He always seems to get a game ball, though, and I gotta spread the love. This may be a total homer pick here, but I’ve gotta go with my boy T-Crow. He registered his first two sacks of the season, one of which ended the Chiefs’ desperate comeback hopes. Talk about stepping up in the absence of Jarvis Moss and Simeon Rice. Both Chiefs QBs were hassled all game long, and while Dumervil definitely got the better of them more than once, it was thrilling to see our rookie make an impact on big plays, too.

Funny how all those newspapers are now praising these Denver Broncos. Don’t worry, fellas, we never left your side here.

• The Broncos are back, baby! (By the way, Mike Klis, you are far and away the best local Broncos writer.) [Denver Post]
• Player’s only meeting last Wednesday. First one since 1997, according to Jason Elam. That was a pretty good year. [Denver Post]
• How about D.J. Williams, stepping up and becoming a leader on this defense. He told everyone to stop jabbering, and let their pads do the talking. [Denver Post]
• The man of the hour is Selvin Young. Exploring the young man that is #35, off the field. [Denver Post]
• And on the field. [Rocky Mountain News]
• A lot of fans have been calling for S Hamza Abdullah. Once John Lynch returns to the lineup, the athletic young pup will be starting instead of Nick Ferguson. New defensive lineman Josh Mallard played extensively yesterday, too. [Denver Post]
• Matt Lepsis stood up to the coach’s call and criticism. [Denver Post]
• The Chiefs are a mess, and are hoping Brodie Croyle gets the nod. The team and their fans need to know who they have in Croyle for next season and beyond. [Kansas City Star]
• I was the only person to pick the Jags in the office pool. Jaguars 28, Titans 13. Woo hoo! We’ll have more on the Titans all week. [Denver Post]