According to the daily edition of The Sporting News, the QB battle at the Broncos mini-camp is in full swing. Mike McCoy and head coach Josh McDaniels were watching the QBs like a couple of hawks, and giving them a constant stream of information.
Orton, currently considered the front-runner in the race, said, "We run an up-tempo mini camp, a lot of teaching going on. Coach McDaniels and Coach McCoy are very good teachers. They've had a lot of success coaching quarterbacks in this league. I know Chris and I are trying to be like a sponge, and absorb everything they're giving us."
In just a few sentences, Orton showed why he's given the Broncos' fans a lot to look forward to. He showed his respect for the team and coaches, his own coachability and his solidarity with Simms, his erstwhile competitor. TSN says that other than Orton having more arm strength, the battle looks even and both QBs look good.
Meanwhile, DenverBroncos.com has added coverage:
Coach McDaniels has certainly taken a hands-on approach for the first three practices. Not only has he rotated from position group to position group, he's also gotten involved in some of the drills. He lined up as a defensive back to make sure the receivers were running crisp routes, and even tried to slap the ball away from running backs to stress ball control as they finished up a drill."It was great," McDaniels said. "You could see the energy that's out here - the players are practicing hard, the coaches are coaching hard and everybody has the same goal in mind, which is to get better every day. We're going to pay the price right now to try to win in September."
"He's had some good offenses over the last few years in New England, and you don't get that way by just sitting back in your chair and watching TV," Chris Simms said. "I think he's a pretty hands-on guy."
Orton and Simms split the repetitions evenly throughout Sunday's practice, and afterward the two were asked separately how to describe the process of learning McDaniels' offensive system."Whatever you put into it is what you get out," Orton said. "There are plenty of teams implementing new systems and plenty of quarterbacks that have to learn new systems, so it's nothing overly challenging. Just come in and put the work in - it's not rocket science."
Simms agreed that it might not be rocket science, but he had another metaphor ready.
"It's a new language," he said. "Any time you're learning a new language things are going to be hard, just trying to get everybody on the same page. There are some new routes for receivers that they haven't run before, and there are routes that I haven't thrown before, so it's a matter of us all getting on the same page."
New routes for the QBs and the receivers? Sounds like it's going to be fun to watch! Take a look here for a great photo gallery on the mini-camp, which was moved indoors due to the recent snowstorm in Denver. By the way, interested in the battle at linebacker? Word is that they have Wesley Woodyard taking snaps at ILB - he says that it's not much different from what he did last year. Inside or out, you have to fly around and make tackles.
A few new faces took some snaps with the linebackers during 7-on-7 drills as well, including Elvis Dumervil and Tim Crowder.
"It was kind of shocking at first, but to see (Dumervil) drop out of there, him and Tim Crowder, to be able to drop back, they look like linebackers out there like they've been doing it for years," Woodyard said. "So it's been a pretty good fit for those guys."