Broncoman's Thursday night recap

Notes and observations from Mile High Practice on 08/06/09 by Broncoman.

First, I must say being back in Denver is great and taking my daughter to Mile High for the first time to see the Broncos was a special treat.  I am writing this not knowing what the other MHR members saw and I apologize for the tardiness, but my access to the internet is limited right now.  I thought I would detail things as pro and con.

Pro – Driving up Santa Fe and having Uncle Nasty on the radio jamming some Ramstein was very cool, seeing Mile High coming onto I-25 and explaining the Bronco Statue to my daughter was very cool.

Con – Being stupid enough not to take the light rail and sit in traffic on Colfax for 25 minutes waiting to get to the stadium.  Also the jerks in the GMC and other vehiles that tried to cut ahead of people on the off ramp from Colfax.

Pro- Great seats starting out on the northern side of the west bleachers, I got to watch the defense warm up and run through some drills.  Things that I noted were that the defensive lineman definitely are not the most nimble, nor are the majority of the LB’s.  Spencer Larsen seemed small to me compared to the other guys, but more athletic than most of the other LB’s except DJ Williams and Woodyard.  I really think DJ would be better suited outside with Larsen and Woodyard in the middle, but they may be too small for that role on a full time basis.

Con – Getting up to take my daughter to the bathroom and having our seats swiped, people next to us were jerks. 

Pro- Moving to the north end zone once they opened that section and getting better seats.

Con – I tried to focus on the front seven for most of the time, they had some decent plays, but as a whole, were not that inspiring.  I did note that Ayers looked very tentative, seemed to be trying to think more than react, which is probably to be expected at this point.   But he was easily handled most of the time he was in there.

Pro- DJ Williams has tremendous speed and quickness, he was always around the play or making the tackle, seems like he should have a good year. The 1st team CB’s also looked very good.

Con- QB play, Orton definitely does not have a strong arm, he hung up far too many passes deep and he has difficulty being accurate to his weakside.  And of course he threw three picks and probably had three more that should of been pciked.  He made some decent plays on some short throws, but I think that was more of a function of the defense not putting any pressure on him and him having guys like Stokely open up later in the play.  He definately seems locked into Stokes and Eddie, I hope that he will be able to get some chemeistry with BM.  I was also hoping to see some more use of the TE's, I think they had one play that they ran for Scheff, but otherwise, they seemed to be a non-factor.  Simms has a better arm, but he held onto the ball way too long and was not as accurate as you would like, he does not seem like that much of an upgrade from Patrick Ramsey when you look at them in similar situations.  I was seriously disappointed with the QB’s.

Pro- Offensive line played very well, look very quick and protected the QB well, handled most of the blitzes very well, again should be a strength of the team, which is always a good thing.  It was interesting how many sweeps they ran with Buckhalter in the game, I am guessing that will be a staple of the running game this year with Moreno.

Con- Prater, guy shanks two FG attempts and finally makes a third.  I am not for booing guys, especially in practice, so con to the crowd who booed him.  But he definitely needs to do better.

Pro – My daughter getting her first autograph from Darecl McBath, number 31.  He is now a new favorite of mine.  My daughter is kind of shy and he made sure to say hi and said it was cool she had an old broncos helmet (mine from when I was 6) to sign.  He signed a lot of autographs and seemed like a very nice man, I hope he has a great career.

Con- The jackass who was telling his 18-year old sister to get in front of my daughter and another little girl so he could get an autograph.  The dude had to be at least 30, I told him to chill out and shut up and then he called me a jerk and ran away.  Freaking coward.  I am sure that thing will go on ebay shortly.

Pro – Having a very fun night with my daughter, seeing the hope of a new season, being able to hang out in prime seats at Mile High, great weather.