With approximately one week of training camp under their belts the Denver Broncos, or rather a collection of new players and coaches that now call themselves the Broncos are set to have a public practice at Invesco Field at Mile High. While still just technically a training camp practice, it promises to be the closest thing to real game that most fans have seen in a while. Coach McDaniels plans to use this practice as a trial run for the new offense, defense, and new coaches. McDaniels has said there will be multiple “live periods” for the team in addition to having the coaches in headsets and in the booth.
This trial run is sure to help the team gel a little considering most of the teammates and coaches met for the first time a few months ago at OTA’s. The Broncos enter the season a relative unknown, one great offensive line away from an expansion team. As with most teams the new season brings with it new coaches, new players and new schemes, but the Broncos took that to a whole new level. Almost nothing remains the same from last year and no one is sure what to expect from this new unit.
The offense will surely be without two of its largest weapons at this live practice as Brandon Marshall is still hampered by an unknown leg injury and rookie first round pick Knowshon Moreno remains unsigned. It won’t be surprising if the Broncos go into their first preseason game at San Francisco on August 14th without either player as well. Marshall may be recovered enough from his leg injury to play by then, but his scheduled court appearance the day before almost surely rules him out for the game. With the bevy of running backs that the Denver Broncos currently have on the roster and the large amount of time rookie Knowshon Moreno has missed, it would be a long shot for him to see much game time even if he signs within the next few days.
The defense also heads into the practice shorthanded with veteran pro bowl safety Brian Dawkins nursing an “above the ground” injury. Seems Coach McDaniels is just as descriptive with his injury reports as his mentor Bill Belichick. The defense will however have their first round pick Robert Ayers, who has already been taking first team reps since signing just days ago, ready to play. With a majority of the defense made up of new faces and old faces in new places, this live practice will be a chance for most of the defensive players to try out their new positions in a game situation for the first time. No doubt there will be multiple mistakes and blown assignments, but that is what practices are for. As long as the defense continues to improve practice after practice defensive coordinator Mike Nolan will be pleased. The defense cannot afford a repeat performance of 2008 which seemed to be a perpetual preseason scrimmage.
2009 is sure to be an interesting year for the Broncos and no one is sure just what to expect. The practice at Invesco Field will surely answer some questions about the new Broncos team while creating some new ones as well. Who will the starting nose tackle be? What about the starting Running Back? Will Kyle Orton flourish in Denver with a wide array of weapons? We’ll have to wait for the regular season to answer those ones. How about for the practice at Invesco we stick with; it gets better than this, right?
August 6th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
I predict McDaniels will be run out of Denver by the end of the season. I also predict Orton will have a chin implant, or at least hope he will because he looks ridiculous trying to wear a helmet with the chin strap going somewhere between his lower lip and adams apple.