This will be shorter than the usual Camp reports, so let's get started.
The afternoon practice started out with a Punt Blocking and Coverage.The players are in Shorts and Shirts this evening and with injuries mounting up, who can blame them for resorting to what will amount to "Touch" football for this session of Camp. The Coverage Unit has Syd'quan Thompson and Matthew Willis as the Gunners. Eric Decker and David Bruton rotate as the Personal Protector. Lance Ball, Marquez Branson, Lonie Paxton, Robert Ayers, Akin Ayodele, Richard Quinn and Kyle McCarthy make up the rest. Perrish Cox is back to receive the punt. This segment lasts for about 8 minutes. HORN.
The clock is set at 5 minutes. I see Brandon Stokely, Brian Dawkins, Jabar Gaffney and Champ Bailey are back. I do not see Justin Bannan, Ryan Harris, Jamal Williams or D.J. Williams. The referees are here again too. The Offense does a walk through of new plays that are part of the installation package for today. The O-Line is set up like this: LT D'Anthony Batiste, LG Zane Beadles, C J.D.Walton, RG, Stanley Daniels, and RT Tyler Polumbus. HORN.
The clock rolls back to 13 minutes and another round of music starts. The players line up to do their jogging and Hop, Skip and Jumps to Guns and Roses butcher job of "Live and Let Die." The players spread out to stretch for Coach Tuten and Ron Fields, Jarvis Green and Ryan McBean are directly in front of me. Ryan is beckoning someone to come out onto the field and get some close-up pictures. He even says the players will pose. Of course he is doing this with a big smile on his face. Ronald Fields sees what's going on and chuckles. Jarvis Green enjoys the moment as well. They break ranks with 2 minutes left on the segment clock and the ball carriers run through their hurdles drill. HORN.
The segment clock is set for 4 minutes and the players continue warming up in their individual position drills. Rain is imminent and a few scattered drops fall intermittently. HORN.
Four minutes are put on the clock. Brady Quinn is working with some of the Wide Receivers, who are going up against Defensive Backs on one end of the field. Kyle Orton and Tim Tebow are passing to other receivers in the opposite end zone. Nathan Overbay isn't helping himself. He has been showing stone hands most of the time, which is uncharacteristic of him. I have seen him make some good catches over the middle and on seam routes, but the short passes are either fired too hard for him to handle or else he is not ready for them. Newcomer Britt Davis is catching more, after having some drops in the AM practice. Maybe it was 1st day jitters, we shall see. At midfield, the Running Backs are being instructed on their short routes. HORN.
A 5 minute segment followed by a 7 minute segment goes by with nothing much to report on. There is no hitting, so it's pretty much drills going on. I see a new passing drill though. Two Wide Receivers going against two Defensive Backs. This is set up on each side (at the hash marks) of the field. So picture one line of scrimmage, four wideouts and 2 Quarterbacks. One left and one right. Now add a DB for each WR and you have the visual. Another twist to this, is the Receivers are crossing routes (just the pair running together, not disrupting the other side). The Defensive Backs must coordinate, communicate and cover. Sometimes they switch players and other times they keep their man. This looks like a very good drill to me. Britt Davis makes a couple of catches. Richard Quinn makes a catch. Kyle hits Jabar Gaffney deep for a nice reception. Nathan Overbay shows some more stone hands. He is not having a good camp. On another note, I haven't seen too much of Riar Geer either. I've seen him catch one ball so far in camp. Otherwise I just haven't noticed him. Alric Arnett makes a nice sideline grab and gets both feet inbounds. A pass gets through Eric Decker's hands on a post pattern and Andre' Goodman is there for the pick. HORN.
The Quarterbacks are passing deep balls again while being hampered hard by staff assistants with hand pads. Tebow is sailing his passes again. On the opposite field, the Defensive Backs are running long coverage drills against each other. Horn. That segment was 3 minutes.
The clock resets to 6 minutes. The Quarterbacks work with the Running Backs, Tight Ends and Wide Receivers on Red Zone passing drills using multiple receiver sets. Horn.
7 on 7's. First Team Offense vs. first Team Nickel. Champ Bailey, Brian Dawkins, Renaldo Hill, Nate Jones, Akin Ayodele, Wesley Woodyard, Andre' Goodman are playing on the unit. The Chain Gang and referees are taking part in this session. Bruce Hall takes a pass underneath and Woodyard covers him. They take a few more reps before the 2nd Nickel comes in. Darcel McBath, Kyle McCarthy Alphonso Smith, Cassius Vaughn, Nick Greisen, Joe Mays, and Perrish Cox are running with this unit. Brady Quinn fires a pass to Eddie Royal. Cassius Vaughn has a late break up of another pass. The two units rotate personnel, move to the Red Zone area and drill some more. Orton connects with Richard Quinn for a touchdown. Then Kyle fires one to Jabar Gaffney in the back of the end zone and its Tebow's turn. Champ Bailey breaks up his first attempt and then Tebow hits DeMaryius Thomas up high for a touchdown. The crowd roars. HORN.
Eight minutes of Punt Coverage drills are next. Perrish Cox and Alphonso Smith are back as returners. David Bruton is calling signals as the Personal Protector. Syd'Quan Thompson, Spencer Larsen, Lance Ball, Marquez Branson, Matthew Willis, Kyle McCarthy, Akin Ayodele, Robert Ayers and Wesley Woodyard make up the rest of the Unit. Matthew Willis downs a punt inside the 10 yard line, and then another inside the 5. Britton Colquitt generates some nice high punts with back spin on them. HORN.
Another 8 minute interval begins with 11 on 11's. Orton hits Lance Ball on a short pass. Then Kyle smokes one over the middle to Richard Quinn, who is looking much better catching passes in both practices today. The Defense has a coverage sack, but Kyle throws it to Gaffney at the sideline anyway. The next play is a deep pass that somehow eludes Alphonso Smith. As he is tumbling to the ground, the ball pops up without hitting the ground and Brandon Stokely reenacts the Miracle catch from Week 1 last season in Cincinnati, and runs it in for the score. AMAZING! After that, I am convinced the rest of the practice will be disenchanting. Brady Quinn hits Eddie Royal and Joe Mays is in on the tackle. D'Anthony Batiste, Zane Beadles, J.D.Walton, Russ Hochstein and Tyler Polumbus are manning the O-Line. Kyle passes complete to DeMaryius Thomas. Tim Tebow hits Matthew Willis after his previous pass is a floater. Orton throws a pass that tips off of Jabar Gaffney and Matthew Willis nearly catches it. Kyle then completes one to DeMaryius Thomas and Bay Bay grabs it over Cassius Vaughn. Vaughn is there, he just got beat by the big man. HORN.
The clock resets to 6 minutes and the Units switch sides. Stanley Daniels is taking reps at Right Guard. Richard Quinn drops a pass due to a lapse in concentration. DeMaryius Thomas beats champ Bailey for a completion. The Rookie may want to save that memory. On the next play, the Defense records a coverage sack. The D-Line consists of Marcus Thomas, Jeff Stehle (NT) and Jarvis Green. Ryan McBean and LeKevin Smith are in the rotation. Kyle Orton passes to DeMaryius Thomas who is wide open, and the young receiver drops it. During the next play, all is forgiven, as Bay Bay gets past Andre' Goodman for a long completion. The defense comes back with a coverage sack and on that play at least, I felt the receivers didn't do enough to get open. I mean no disrespect to the DB's here. It's just that this may happen regularly during the season and they should be working on it. Tebow takes a bad snap and something I was afraid of happened. He got the ball away quickly, but the pass was a bad one. What's worse is that he reverted to a sidearm delivery. This is the first occurrence I have seen, but a few of us were wondering if Timmy's old bad habits would arise in a hurry up or panic situation. I hope it does not happen very often and it gets deleted from memory. HORN.
The clock reds 9 minutes now. (LT) D'Anthony Batiste, (LG) Zane Beadles, (C) Eric Olsen, (RG) Stanley Daniels and (RT) Kirk Barton are taking reps on the O-Line now. The 1st Nickel Unit comes in and I see Kyle connect with Richard Quinn and then Matthew Willis. Then he makes a pass behind Demaryius Thomas. (LT)Paul Duncan, (LG) Seth Olsen, (C) Eric Olsen, (RG) Stanley Daniels and (RT) Kirk Barton man the O-Line. Brady Quinn passes to Brandon Stokely and then Matthew Willis, who goes up and makes the grab. Champ Bailey schools DeMaryius Thomas as he breaks up a Kyle Orton pass. Bay Bay couldn't come down with it. On the next play Kyle way overthrows Jabar Gaffney and I'll bet that ball went 65 plus yards. Orton throws a deep out to Brandon Stokely that burns Darcel McBath. Eric Decker misses a deep post pass from Orton. Richard Quinn makes a catch on a Tim Tebow pass with Kyle McCarthy in his hip pocket. Kyle completes an inside screen pass to Stokely. HORN.
Five minutes on the clock and the Units switch sides. The Referees and Chains return. Lance Ball runs on the 1st play. Then Kyle Orton completes a deep pass to Royal that Champ would have had. He was standing right there and didn't take it out on Eddie. Kyle makes another pass complete to Royal, and then you wouldn't believe it. An Ice Cream Truck turns on it's music and drives out on the field! Josh McDaniels says, "Ice Cream for Everyone!" I am laughing my Butt off at this maneuver. Talk about a treat. the players assail the Truck and about 5 of them ham it up for a cameraman. Especially Ryan McBean. Then "Wink" Martindale comes over to the sideline and wings a few ice cream bars to the crowd. LMAO! Children in attendance are then allowed out on the field to join the celebration.
Autograph time. Seth Olsen, J.D.Walton, Stanley Daniels, Paul Duncan and Matt Prater are signing. I get D'Anthony Batiste, Kirk Barton, Eric Olsen and Zane Beadles to sign my hat. I ask Zane how he likes going up against Jamal Williams and he replies, "He is a Beast!" I reply "So are You," and he grins happily.
Well, I apologize for the lateness in this, but my body had hit the wall and needed to recover. I won't be attending this evening's events at Invesco. I don't have ESPN either. I really wanted to watch the induction ceremony and the Jumbo tron or Diamond vision or whatever they call it at the stadium would have been joyous to behold with the Home field crowd. I guess there's always next year. Congratulation to Floyd and a hearty Thanks to the committee that helped his cause.
Go Broncos!