You would think with all the time spent on the RZ drills in years passed, our offense would have it locked down. Not so much the case. I’m really glad to see McDaniels is going back to the fundamentals of the game because in my opinion, it was our biggest downfall last year.

- D.J. Johnson got torn apart today.

- I really like Kenny McKinley. His route-running could use some work, but working in a grouping with Royal and Stokley will overshadow whatever positives he might have had in that area.

- I thought Simms was the worst QB out there until they started doing drills with a defense, and Brandstater looked very much like the rookie he is. Great arm on the kid, though.

-Orton had a pretty uneven second practice. He made some great throws (his deep outs were picture perfect) and threw two passes that should have been picked. Also, his decision making felt slow to me. It seemed like he was holding the ball for 5 seconds every snap. Not positive that was the case, just how it felt.

-Watching Polumbus run was kind of sad. He trudged by us with his head down. Not the kind of body language you want to see.

- As Guru mentioned, Smith got taken to school a bit in 1-on-1 drills, but his talent is definitely there. He’s got potential to be something special.

- Jack Williams got his helmet knocked off in one 11-on-11 drill. It happened right it front of where I was sitting and it made a pretty loud pop. Wish I could have seen who got him.

- Carlton Powell got knocked flat on his backside immediately after he got out of his stance in OL v. DL drills. I was at a bad angle to see who pancaked him, but it wasn’t very impressive.

- Jarvis Moss just doesn’t look very good. He got stood up repeatedly on his rushes and allowed the left tackles to get their hands locked on him.

…I think that’s all I remember from this evening’s session. Great stuff. Can’t wait for tomorrow.

Nothing like practicing the fundamentals. As a baseball guy, I love this. That’s what wins baseball games, and I can only believe that it is what wins football games as well.

Thanks Guru!!!

I will make another The Sky Isn’t Falling post a little later With some of my observations.

Hopefully Ayers and Moreno will be in the mix soon and than the fun really will start!

Keep the information coming, each of your time and insight is very much appreciated.

A few questions if anybody wants to answer them:

How were the free agent vets like Dawk and Goodman? Anything worth reporting there? Has anybody on the team voiced up in a leadership role yet, or have they left it to the coaches thus far? What is the overall attitude like on the practice field? Is there a noticeable energy change vs last year? Does Coach hang out with the QB’s mostly, or is he getting around quite a bit?

Did they have Elvis dropping back against a defense? If so, how did he do? And who was he up against?

Great stuff here! Keep it coming.

It’s almost like I’m there — except I’m not!

Got caught from behind by a tight end (Watson). Somehow, I get the feeling that won’t happen this year.

Thanks, Guru. Good stuff . . .

Are there any out there besides me? I have a friend selling up to three tickets for the pre-season game in SF on 8/14. Selling them for less than face value, for $50 ea. I’m going to buy one but don’t know any other Broncos fans (and most of the Niners fans I know are obnoxious, hah) here anymore. The two I knew moved ages ago! Anyway if anyone else was interested let me know and I can see if I can get the other two tix from him. Again they’d be $50 each. And preferably you won’t be a crazy person, too. ;-)

cheers

I will see you tomorrow. If you don’t recognize me by my avatar, I’m wearing an oxygen bottle in a backpack. That should make it easy.

with a notepad in hand. I’ll be posting a Points of View article with my observations later this evening as well. Assuming its not so exciting that I forget about making notes, lol. So if you don’t see an article from me later tonight, then start getting excited, because it was a very, very, good practice.

Your analysis makes sense. The last few years with Shanny, it was always perplexing how after one of the games where the Broncs gave up 200+ rushing yards, and they were humiliated, to the next day in the media hear how they are going to be working on “fundamentals” now. Working on tackling….putting the pads on….etc. Which gave the impression, ok, they’re going to fix these issues. But with McD going through these fundamentals from the onset of camp now, to me it’s becoming apparent how Shanny’s way of “two minute drills”, etc. of doing things didn’t make an initially sound football team. It seems like Shanny really didn’t work on fundamentals, or was missing some ingredients. I never could figure it out.

I REALLY like now McD is implementing all these things in his practices! It just makes sense. There’s a quote out there (can’t remember it verbatim….gonna try to find it) that says, to paraphrase: The best practice isn’t working on advanced techniques, it’s working on the basics over and over and over again. Something like that. Whether it’s martial arts, football, whatever.

Finally a team that will have the coaching staff that instills an attitude of physicality. I remember hearing McDaniels say that in an interview recently and I am glad to see that the practices are like that. Fundamentals. They are the most important things in any sport and without executing them you really aren’t going to be successfull.

Good to hear Smith is doing well for his first camp and since he looks good returning, maybe now Royal can get a rest from that a little bit.

Keep it coming Guru, Thanks.

Thanks to John (guru) and all the posts. We out-of-towners love it!!!

13-3!

Stokley learned from the best (Marvin Harrison) but Stokley isnt the leagues best route runner. That honor belongs to Reggie Wayne ;)