TRAVIS HENRY RELEASED!

Ryan Torain (Bruiser Back) Drafted
Michael Pittman (Bruiser Back) Signed to Veteran Minimum
Selvin Young (Speed Back) Bulks Up to 215-220
Andre Hall (Speed Back) has a specific role outside of Backfield!

As GURU said earlier, the writing is on the wall for Henry whonever managed to make it into OTA’s. That doesn’t say a lot about his motivation for the team. While I think he is still a viable threat and the team who signs him will have a good player “IF” he can stay healthy, I think he and Denver parted ways at the begining of OTA’s. I’m not happy about the release (Cap Hit # Matt?) but it happened. Zappa shoudl be a little pleased here!

...this was on the way as of a couple of days ago. Press reports had Mike commenting on Scheffler getting back from injury in the near future, but little to no comment when asked about Henry. Mike also made a comment recently about Henry needing to prove himself, and I thought the comment was a little harsh if Henry was already a lock for the team. The writing was on the wall (as Jon says above).

I like the idea of pairing up Pittman and Young, and using Young as either a change of pace or rotating both players every four or five downs. If Torain is doing as well as we’ve heard, perhaps he could rotate with Young. Either way, I like Young in a major role, just not as a primary.

He may have kept his job had he not been injured. Sadly, he couldn’t stay healthy to save his life.

BTW, how come he represents no tradevalue?

Wow. Shocks me. Thought Shanny would at least keep him through camp.

Does this mean that Torain doesn’t go on IR (as others hypothesized)?

Could anybody really think something was not up, when they signed Pittman. You would think Henry would have showed a little more dedication to Denver after Shanahan stuck up for him last year and was even fined for him. Good riddance I say. He could be good but come on. Maybe he was also a locker room problem also. I want dedicated and good character guys on the Broncos. I want a team who wants to win the Super Bowl. Maybe Henry just wanted checks.

From all accounts, including the suit that Henry filed against the NFL, the issue that was at the heart of the drug test reversal was purely a technicality. The test was positive, and while Henry may have denied actually lighting up there certainly was something in his system(whether it was second hand, laced brownies, whatever….)

I have even heard rumors that the technicality was even more far-fetched then simply the "I didn’t have my own representative at the test" argument that was first reported. Reportedly, it is a requirement that an ID is given during the test, even though everyone knows who is who. Allegedly, Henry was not required to show his ID, thus rendering the test invalid.

To me, all this is splitting hairs. AS HT said, Shanny stuck by his huge investment during the initial proceedings. It seems to me, however, that once Shanny convinced Henry take a huge paycut, much of the financial liability was removed from the team. This gave the Broncos all the power, and Shanny took advantage by cutting Henry at the first sign of transgression. I’m not saying it was a devious plan, but all this events aren’t purely coincidental, either.

Now I could see Andre Hall’s stock rise a bit, as he has a good chance to make the roster.

There’s a little more hope for Mike Bell if Pittman plays the RB now which is something that’s even more likely now that Henry is gone. Unfortunately, there’s not THAT much more hope for the guy.

A lot of the posts we’ve seen here at MHR seemed to bring up the points about Henry and got me to start thinking that it was only a matter of time. Denver has a lot of decent backs and I guess the team didn’t want to deal with Henry’s lingering injury issue anymore. What this does is immediately make Selvin Young the starting back. The guy “seems” ready and is certainly not hesitant to express that readiness. However, us Bronco fans have to see it on the field from the undrafted free agent out of Texas.

When Travis Henry signed his deal, it was widely reported as a 5 year/$22.5 million deal with $12 million guaranteed. Well, after one year, Travis Henry was released and the total amount paid to him was $6,695,000. The moral is that not all money that is reported as guaranteed is actually guaranteed. Sometimes the guarantee is real (ie. it is written into the contract). But a lot of times, agents call money guaranteed because it is virtually guaranteed in their mind (ie. they think there is no way the team will take the cap hit to cut the player instead of paying an option bonus or a second year’s salary)

The claims of marijuana abuse are common, but you’re dead on – the technicality here is that false positives are not unheard of and accidently mixed samples do occur, like the patient of a colleague of mine who had her tests for cancer mixed up with anothers and was told wrongly that she had the disease. That possiblity would make the 2nd sample, which the court literally threw out, equally unacceptable. The hair analysis and lie detector were pretty conclusive.

You’re right that this was a lot more than a technicality. I’m happy that they cut him, but some criticism seems unwarranted. He’ll catch on somewhere else and drive them crazy

I saw this comming after Broncos signed Pittman. Henry was no were to be found. I hope he gets signed by someone fast though. He deserves another chance somewhere else. (Dallas). Hopefully this gives our younger guys a boost of confidence. Good riddance Travis!

I never liked this signing from the beginning. I know he is a good back when healthy, but other than a couple years in Buffalo and 1 year in Tennesee, he’s never been healthy. His injuries have always been the nagging kind and he doesn’t seem willing to play through them which spells WIMP in my book. I just don’t think the guy is all that tough. I don’t want to unjustly criticize him for the character issues so I won’t say anything, but you can put me in the camp that never liked this signing from the beginning. With the depth we have, I think this is the right move.

First I think this is more to do with our new direction this year, we brought in character and heart guys during this reloading season. Travis looked like he was trying to turn around the character part, but if what Shanahan says is true, then Travis wasn’t putting his heart into it. I think that’s worse (in Shanahan’s eyes) than being of poor character.

Second, Do you think that Shanahan read about Torrain and his new “Train” nickname and decided that was the difference :)

Of course, the acquisition of Pittman likely correlates to Henry’s release.

Nonetheless, Pittman hasn’t been around long enough to really show what he’s got, Torain is still an unproven rookie, and Hall is out of the question as a starter. Could it be, then, that Young has shown the coaches something this year that they hadn’t seen previously in him?

Just a thought.

I had an idea this would happen when I saw Henry was allready injured at the start of mini-camps… oh well I would rather have R. Dayne back then Henry

Put slightly differently than before… I think the release of Henry has a lot to do with our long term plans for the team as well. Pittman is a on a one year contract, and I don’t expect him to stay beyound that. He is nothing more than a backup RB/FB/HB that will serve as an insurance policy for 08.

Ahead of Pittman, we have 3 (actually 4 if you count Aldridge) young running backs. Young can play football, and Hall showed what he too can play (he did well against the Bears and as a backup).

So Torain is the real question mark for us fans, and by cutting Henry we are more or less locked into a Young/Torain backfield for the next couple of years.

There was no room for Henry and the 4 years remaining on his contract. His presence would either take away the time we need to develop the younger guys. If we did sit him in favor of the kids, then he would start to become discontent and …

You get the idea.

Do we play our best players for 08 (some of whom might not be on the team for 09 or 2010) or do we go with the re-build? If we aren’t going to win the super bowl in 08, might as well re-build.

Dig this here. Travis out, in. It’s that simple. One of these days we’ll find that all purpose back to go along with the world’s greatest zone blocking system. Call me cocky but, am I lying?

Also I want to ask is there a nickname for the world’s best running system? if not, im thinking Orange Rush? ya kno, to go along with tha Crushhhhhh. lmao

The combination of the zone block + the one cut makes it unique to us. expecially when we’er rotation mulitple fresh Rbacks. it really does look like a rush when you concider it.

Anybody have any other sugestions for a nickname for our run system.

1. Orange Crush. -simple, to the point.

whoa. ok, let the henry-bashing begin, i guess. can’t say i like this move in any way. anyway, i will post my top-ten list for why this may have happened now. let me know what you guys think.

1- henry and shanny had a serious disagreement about the extent and severity of the injured hamstring, and also henry’s dedication to getting back on the practice field

2- shanny became impatient and overstated the importance of early camps for a veteran. while “planning” to rest d-rob and not rush other players, he had no such patience for travis, even saying he was out of “chances”. that must include his health

3- torain looks healthy enough to play this season, and young also has impressed him enough to make henry expendable. he decided to move on now, and give the other backs the reps, being fair to their competition while not ‘holding” a top spot for him

4- shanny thinks pittman is alot better than we do. i like him, but not starter like him

5- one of either bell, sapp, hillis, hall, or alridge have convinced him to go with the younger stable of backs, too. a surprise candidate?

6- henry has become a locker room cancer/bad example, something i have to doubt as a former team mvp

7- someone else is on the radar, somewhere

8- the unknown, to be known at a later time

9- conduct detrimental to the team, perhaps in the promiscuity department, or drugs

10- and finally, shanny has finally gone loco bananas

personally, i think it may be a combination of #’s 1, 2, 3, and 8. i still think he was a low-risk, low-pay, high reward option, but something apparently seriously pissed mike off, and it appears to be mostly #1. from the horse’s mouth-"We did not feel his commitment to the Broncos was enough to warrant a spot on this football team." his committment to getting healthy, i would presume. very unfortunate, but now we move on. if this doesn’t get mike bell going, nothing ever will. things just got a little more interesting, didn’t they?

zappa, broncfanstuckinsd, i await the i-told-you-so’s. the door has just swung wide open for young, let’s see what he can do. i don’t see pittman in a starter role, so i’m narrowing this down to young, torain, and yes, bell. torain hasn’t done it, and bell is in the doghouse, so it’s selvin’s job to lose, it appears. indeed, the change of pace back looks to be the bruiser, now. maybe young and a pittman/torain split? i just don’t see the other backs getting most of the carries in this situation, now. major turn of events, i would say. i honestly thought this post was a joke from zappa, and then i saw sportrguru as the poster, and the first thing that came to my mind was a bunch of ? wow

keep in mind, it was lepsis who accidentally ended td’s career on the griese pick, falling on top of him at the end of the play. this was when matt was at rt, and i hated the guy at the time. he had 4 false starts in a row against sd, and was beaten quite a bit early on in his career . growing pains, i guess, and he made up for it later in his career, and was a very good left tackle for us. it was a freak injury, but td did have serious knee injuries in college to both of them, i recall. that rarely seems to be mentioned, or has been forgotten, but it was a major reason, along with little playing time as a backup and being undersized, that td slid in the draft. i just wonder if he was more susceptible to something like that, with previous knee problems and perhaps overruse, which may have increased the severity of that injury. i knew i always had in the back of my mind that he was an injury risk coming out of college, and he may not have a long career. i don’t know, it may not have mattered the way it went down, i’m not a doctor, but we didn’t take a chance on him until the 6th round, remember