So, Mike Shanahan finally just ordered 2nd year WR Brandon Marshall on the practice field today, despite the ailing quadriceps that has kept him out of camp for nearly two weeks.

“(Shanahan) said it to challenge me – to see if I was mentally strong. He knew that I was in pain, and that it hurt, but he also knows it’s one of those things where you have to get out there, push yourself and be mentally tough.”

— Brandon Marshall 8/10/07

And it definitely hurts, as scar tissue normally builds up as the muscle heals. But Shanahan was convinced that team physicians were correct and it was time for Marshall to return.

“I told him this morning that he had to work through it. You have to fight through a little pain and scar tissue but that is just part of it.”

— Mike Shanahan 8/10/07

Marshall wasn’t at all sure, but as this injury is one of his first in years he listened to the coach. And as Shanahan expected, after some warming up, Marshall was able to not only participate in 1-on-1 drills, but stayed out on the field for some full team work. Marshall even made a ‘play of the day’ by snagging a pass in front of Champ Bailey late in the morning session.

“I was kind of hesitant at first, but as you can see… I’ve got a smile on my face.” — Brandon Marshall 8/10/07

As it turns out… coach knows best.

** photo taken by Andrew Mason **

When it comes to coaching staffs in the AFC West, there is one team that is far and away the best of the group. The importance of a great coaching staff cannot be overstated – while I’m a fan of the theory that a coach is only as good as his quarterback, I still believe the vice versa is true. Without Tom Brady, would the league be in love with Bill Bellichick? Without Brady, would Bill have won a single Super Bowl?

This chicken-or-the-egg game makes it difficult for fans to determine who’s really responsible for the most credit for a team’s success. In the end the QB is the one executing the offense, but there wouldn’t be an offense without a head coach and his staff to implement it in practices… wow, I’m getting a headache already. Let’s just say both are pretty damn important and RANK EM!

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On Mike Shanahan‘s order, injured wide receiver Brandon Marshall took the field for the first time since mini camp today. Full Story – Andrew Mason.

He played well and was all smiles – good news as the Broncos regain some much needed depth on the receiving corps.

I think it’s safe to say that the Broncos coaches are pretty pleased with the moves they made over the past few months. Whether by trade, draft, or free agent acquisition, the Broncos are happy with the guys they’ve grabbed. Noteworthy notes today:

• Andrew Mason’s afternoon report has a great “unofficial” nugget – of the 35 defensive takeaways so far in camp, 8 have come by the hands of Dre Bly, far and away the leading turnover guru at camp so far. Great news for any Bly doubters out there.
• While Dre Bly was our biggest trade this offseason, our four rookie draft picks are still impressing everyone, especially defensive line coach Bill Johnson.
• The recent depth chart has been especially surprising for two players – Mike Bell and John Engelberger.
• The Chiefs aren’t sure which QB is going to pull ahead.
• The NFL refs are going High-Def for 2007.

Training Camp is in full swing and we’ll have a collection of news, articles, photos and video links to provide you with, so you can get all the latest Denver Broncos info.

***CHECK OUT THE TRAINING CAMP VIDEO CLIPS HERE***

***CHECK OUT THE FIRST DEPTH CHART OF 2007***

For a collection of news, reviews and other insights from around the blog-o-sphere here are my posts for Training Camp 2007: Pre-Camp Roster Changes, DAY 1, DAY 2, DAY 3, DAY 4, DAY 5, DAY 6, DAY 7, DAY 8, DAY 9, DAY 10, DAY 11,

Andrew Mason is covering all things Broncos with his two-a-day blog posts. Mason’s Morsels provides breaking news, inside info and great photos from camp twice daily. Links to each day’s posts will be listed here: DAY 1, DAY 1.5, DAY 2, DAY 2.5, DAY 3, DAY 3.5, DAY 4, DAY 4.5, DAY 5, DAY 6, DAY 7, DAY 8, DAY 8.5, DAY 9, DAY 9.5, DAY 10, DAY 10.5, DAY 11, DAY 11.5, DAY 12,

Andrew also runs the official team website over at Denverbroncos.com. It’s got pictures, articles and VIDEO!

The Denver Post has several stories related to Training Camp: Denver Post

Rocky Mountain News has a few Camp related stories: Rocky Mountain News

There are also some other great blogs around the web. If you haven’t been over to BroncoTalk — do yourself a favor and check it out — it’s one of the best. Right now Kmonty is running a GREAT series on Broncos that deserve to be in the HoF. He’s started with Floyd Little.

Also around the web, you’ll find The Beat. Very good info and interesting insight. In fact, he just did a great interview with Training Camp super-fan Kaylore: HERE

If you want a good laugh, make sure to stay up to date with the Orange Bucksnorts, and if you need a ‘fix’ in the form of a football podcast, check out The Audible (they are at the Bronco’s Camp this week, so their podcasts should be REALLY good).

NOTES AND NEWS FROM DAY ELEVEN OF TRAINING CAMP:

“I’m bringing it back. Today’s an old-school day.” — Javon Walker 8/9/07

And with that, Javon Walker broke into another dance in front of Brian Clark who was admirably trying to keep a straight face while covering #84 during 1-on-1 drills.

Today marked a cheerful day for our #1 wide out, as Javon joke and smile all morning. He danced, he high-stepped, he laughed and he even spent the end of practice impersonating a sideline judge — holding the down marker and even whistling the play dead as Cutler worked on spiking the ball to stop the clock.

Shanahan didn’t have to talk about how important Javon Walker’s much improved emotional state was, instead he commented on Walker’s sideline referee work.

“Just like coaches, you never know for sure how long you’re going to be here. The more you can do – the better off you are.” — Mike Shanahan (kiddingly commenting on Javon Walker’s morning reps working the down markers) 8/9/07

All kidding aside, this is very good news for all of Bronco Nation. All Bronco fans have been watching Javon closely to see how he is handling the tragic events of 1/1/07. Javon has been silent on the issue of Darrent’s death all off-season (and who can blame him). He has also been withdrawn and reserved during Denver’s other OTA days. And he has rarely flashed his trademark grin as training camp started.

But today it was Javon “old school” Walker… and we can only hope this marks another step in his emotional healing process.

ATTENDANCE:

Nate Jackson and John Lynch were both out of town today for the funeral of Bill Walsh. Jackson credits Walsh with guiding him from Menlo college to the NFL, and Lynch played under Walsh at Stanford.

Wide Recievers Brandon Stokley (left thigh), Brandon Marshall (quadriceps), Glenn Martinez (right thigh), Marquay McDaniel (left hamstring), Rod Smith (left hip) were all held out today.

OT rookie Ryan Harris was sidelined today due to ‘tweaking his back.’ It’s theoretically not serious. Unfortunately that makes our O-linemen group thin, as Lepsis (groin) and Ben Hamilton (concussion) are stil both out. We are told that both of our veteran injuries are mild and their being held out is a precautionary action.

Backup safety Hamza Abdullah (right Hamstring) and Quentin Harris (right knee) both sat out. LB’s Louis Green (knee) and Warrick Holdman (spinal cord concussion) also did not practice. OT Jacob Rogers (left knee) also was sidelined, but DE Jarvis Moss (knee) actually participated in some position drills today.

Tony Scheffler was back on the field again today — and looking good!

On the Other hand, WR David Kircus and FB Kyle Johnson had on-field treatments during the practice. They both were limited to less reps for the rest of practice.

OFFENSIVE LINE UPS: THURSDAY

Quarterbacks:
Behind Jay Cutler and Patrick Ramsey, Darrell Hackney and Preston Parsons have been in a heated battle for a final PS spot.

Wide Outs:
No real changes here… The WR’s we have get reps.

Tight Ends:
No real change from the last few days.

Running Backs:
No change: Travis Henry, Cecil Sapp running second. Mike Bell, Andre Hall and Young following behind.

RUMOR MILL: The Denver Post is reporting that Mike Bell has passed Cecil Sapp on the depth chart and is now running #2.
O-line:
1st Team O-line was unchanged from yesterday with LT Adam Meadows (filling in for Lepsis), LG Chris Myers (filling in for Ben Hamilton), C Tom Nalen, RG Montrae Holland and RT Erik Pears.

DEFENSIVE LINE UPS: THURSDAY

D-line:
* 1st Team D-line stayed the same as the last couple of days: DE’s Ebenezer Ekuban and John Engelberger, DT’s Gerard Warren and Sam Adams (Jimmy Kennedy filled in for Adams this morning).
Linebackers:
* 1st Team LB’s were: continuing the SAM rotation, Nate Webster took his turn with the starters today, D.J. Williams at MIKE and Ian Gold at WILL.

Secondary:
No changes here, but Domonique Foxworth filled in for Lynch (out at Bill Walsh’s funeral).

SPECIAL TEAMS LINE UPS: THURSDAY

Kick-Off Return Team:
Scott O’Brien had another very productive Special Teams practice in the afternoon. Check out Andrew Mason’s blog entry covering this: HERE

Photo Courtesy

Again, not enough hours in the day to get my Hall of Fame posts out… sorry for the inconvenience. I will have all 3 in the next 2 days though, seeing as I have Friday off work completely. I pushed back the Zimmerman post because I felt this was worth posting. Straight from the past few days of camp reports courtesy Andrew Mason, including today’s morning report.

I reported in this morning’s Quick Hits that the Broncos were reeling from 27 absentees yesterday during either the morning or afternoon practice – that’s quite a lot of rehab being done by the Denver doctors (although many of these absences were simple afternoon breaks for our deserving veterans). Combined with the heavy level of competition, the depth chart has seen some surprising changes so far.

Offensive Line – With injuries to both Matt Lepsis and Ben Hamilton (groin pull and concussion, respectively), the left side of our offensive line hasn’t been the source of stability lately that Broncos fans would like. Neither will play in San Francisco on Monday Night. Yesterday, Erik Pears resumed his duties as Lepsis’ main backup, with center/guard hybrid Chris Myers moving up to LG from the second team. Today, Adam Meadows gave the left tackle spot a try, and Ryan Harris saw himself sidelined with an unspecified back injury. Pears moved back over to right tackle, where he is slated to start.

While those moves were a product of injury, the moves at right guard are a result of competition. When RG Chris Kuper gave up 3 sacks in a short period of time on Tuesday, Montrae Holland moved up to take his place. I thought this move would be temporary, but it seems that the coaches like Holland’s performance thus far. Just prior to this, the club signed Holland to a two-year contract extension, and it seems the move is already paying them dividends. Holland could be a surprise starter week 1 against the Bills, but anything’s still possible as competition will decide who earns the job on Nalen‘s right.

Defensive Line – Jimmy Kennedy has been seeing a lot of first team snaps with Sam Adams suffering from various nicks thus far in training camp (mostly his sore knee). Amon Gordon has been impressive at DT as well, and filled in for Gerard Warren in afternoon practices yesterday (Warren had the afternoon off as a veteran).

Wide Receiver – The Broncos had to go 5 deep into their receiving corps. to practice this morning, with Brandon Stokley being the most noticeable absence with his right thigh injury. Rod Smith and Brandon Marshall have still yet to practice this training camp, and young newcomers Glenn Martinez and Marquay McDaniel were both out as well. Meanwhile, Hixon, Kircus and Clark took turns fielding punts from likely backup Paul Ernster yesterday afternoon. Ernester had several nice snags of high snaps.

Tight End – Tony Scheffler got back onto the field for some significant work today. Great news there.

Linebacker – With Warrick Holdman still playing the wait-and-see game with his spinal cord concussion, and Louis Green out with a knee, the injuries are causing more competition. New Bronco Wesley Mallard has been seeing snaps behind Ian Gold when he was allowed off for the afternoon yesterday, and D.D. Lewis seems to be taking advantage of the Green and Holdman absences at SAM. I still expect Lewis will be our starter on the strong side through most of the year.

Running back – Mike Bell needs to fight for his job, and lucky enough for him he was feeling better and able to run the ball today. Cecil Sapp is still holding him off for the 2nd RB spot, but he has also been seeing a bit more work at fullback as Bell’s lead blocker. It REALLY looks like I was wrong regarding Selvin Young – Andre Hall is the true stud out of the two. Hey, if either of them end up being a star I’ll be happy either way!

Safety – Both starters John Lynch and Nick Ferguson were excused to pay respects to the late Bill Walsh today. This opened up room for Curome Cox and Domonique Foxworth to start at safety, with Hamzah Abdullah looking impressive thus far in camp as well, but sitting out due to injuries of his own. People are impressed with Foxy’s play – I’ve heard about his hard hits despite his lack of ideal size from several camp reports. These, and the way our other backups have been playing have many believing that we won’t be seeing Greg Wesley in the orange and blue any time soon.

A lot of these injuries are just the common kinks you could expect – Shanahan even said if the Lepsis and Hamilton injuries were during a real game week, he would anticipate both being able to start that Sunday. Playing it cautious with our veterans only gives our young guys more opportunities to show their worth and fight for a roster spot in the weeks ahead.

The Denver Broncos wide receivers have been decimated with injuries as of late. But so many of our new guys have been impressing both the coaches and the fans, it seems we may have more depth at WR than what first meets the eye. In my last installment of Training Camp Breakdown, I look at the names who are fighting to catch footballs from Jay Cutler. Of course, no discussion on the Broncos wide receivers can start without mentioning this guy…

Rod Smith

Rod Smith measures in at 6-0, 200 lbs., and is widely considered to be “on the bubble” for the Hall of Fame. I’m definitely on the “induct him” side of the debate, but more on that later… Smith being out with hip surgery is the catalyst to this entire wide receiver competition – without our long time number 1 target, the Broncos are relying on competition to find their starters. I’m optimistic that Smith will be seeing the field by mid-October, and helping us as we push for the playoffs and beyond.

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Noteworthy notes today…

• Here’s my nominee for Broncos Article of the Year… The Gazette has a fun piece on the constant struggle between Travis Henry and John Lynch – and the train wreck that results each and every practice (pictured, above). “In running back Travis Henry’s first six NFL seasons, he never played against safety John Lynch. They’ve made up for lost time as Denver Broncos teammates.” — Priceless! I love the stat this article throws out too – “In each of Henry’s past five seasons, he has averaged more yards per carry from his 11th to 20th carries of games than he did in his first 10 carries.“
• Jake Plummer must be saying to himself: “What does a guy gotta do to get a little peace and quiet around here?!” In the case of the joint-grievance filed on behalf of both the Buccaneers and the Broncos – the answer might just be The Snake’s checkbook.
• Matt Mosley over at Hashmarks – ESPN football blog has released his preseason Power Rankings. Making up for the injustice of leaving the Broncos out of his Top 10 teams a month or so ago, Mosley has us justifiably 5th overall. I’ll take it.
• The Chiefs’ RB situation has gotten interesting. Priest Holmes to Larry Johnson: “If you don’t want the job, I’ll take it.“
• THE most trusted source in fantasy football – John Hansen, whom I discovered via Sirius NFL Radio a year ago – has been among the experts proclaiming the endless potential of Travis Henry, as he discusses in this post a few weeks ago.
• Sirius NFL Radio just went through Broncos training camp this week, and they’ve posted their live interview with Mike Shanahan. I haven’t had a chance to listen yet, but planning on it soon…
• Of course, Andrew Mason has got you hooked up with Broncos Training Camp reports from yesterday – Morning; Afternoon. Check out the afternoon report for the list of 27 players who missed one of the two practices due to injury. Ouch.
• Adam Schien agrees with me regarding the NFC West – it was the most improved division in the NFL this offseason, but despite that, the Seahawks will still reign king.

I know I missed the boat on the Zimmerman article yesterday… not enough hours in the day, and my trip to the auto shop took only 2 hours longer than the one hour I expected. Hopefully I’ll have Zimm and Atwater up today, as well as the Training Camp Breakdown – Wide Receiver, but we’ll see…

NOTES AND NEWS FROM DAY TEN OF TRAINING CAMP:

The sidelines at today’s practices were full and overflowing. Including veterans who are on one-a-days, the Broncos had 27 players watching rather than playing this afternoon. That’s over a fourth of our roster!

I am certainly not being craven about the situation. This is normal for training camp, and our list isn’t much longer than most of the other teams currently at camp. I know you won’t hear much more than who isn’t at practice from most of the mainstream media, but that’s because of the old “if it bleeds, it leads” mentality.

Actually, all of the media’s focus on the team’s injuries may be a good thing. Jay Cutler has probably experienced reduced media attention as they instead have beaten to death the subject of our depth at wide receiver for example. And D.J. Williams has also likely been less harassed by the media hounds in recent days as they have prefered to talk endlessly about rookie injuries (like Jarvis Moss’s knee injury scare).

All this media coverage of our injuries, also keeps expectations low leading into the season (or at least the preseason). I’d much rather let the media discuss how great the Colt, Patriots and Chargers are going to be this season, while ignoring our strong points and chatting about our camp injury report.

In the end, all these injuries and one-a-day sessions are completely normal. Nothing we’ve heard so far should have fans concerns. We’ll have a great team when the season starts and the roster is down to 53 players. For now, we just have to humor the media’s coverage of the latest bruise on John Lynch’s shin, David Kircus’s stubbed toe and Travis Henry’s new hangnail.

ATTENDANCE:

The following players were held out of practice today due to injury: Louis Green (left knee), Ben Hamilton (concussion), Quentin Harris (right knee), Warrick Holdman (spinal cord concussion), Matt Lepsis (groin), Brandon Marshall (quadriceps), Glenn Martinez (right thigh), Marquay McDaniel (left hamstring), Rod Smith (left hip), Brandon Stokley (left thigh), Lamont Reid and Doug Nienhuis (both injured in NFL Europa).

And the following players participated in the morning session, but were held out of the afternoon work: Travis Henry, Champ Bailey, Nick Ferguson, Dre’ Bly, John Lynch, Ian Gold, Gerard Warren, Tom Nalen, Jacob Rogers, Stephen Alexander, Daniel Graham, Ebenezer Ekuban, Sam Adams, Jarvis Moss.

Hamza Abdullah also sat out of the afternoon practice, but he was held out due to a slight injury in the morning session.

Tony Scheffler practiced again today, although he still split off after a while to continue his rehab.