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Broncos Training Camp recap: Siemian shines, Bolles a lock to start?, Mckenzie dominates, and more

Here is your day three recap of Denver Broncos day three Training Camp practice.

By Scotty Payne
Casey Barrett Photography

Day three of Denver Broncos Training Camp was Trevor Siemian’s day to shine. We also have updates on Garett Bolles(again), rookie Isaiah McKenzie, Kasim Edebali replacing Ray? news and notes, injury updates, and more!

Siemian has his best day:

After having a less than stellar start to his Training Camp, Trevor Siemian showed why he shouldn’t be discounted in this quarterback battle. He had multiple deep balls to Emmanuel Sanders and others and was much crisper than he was the past two days.

With Paxton Lynch getting off to a hot start, Siemian needed a day like this to make sure Lynch didn’t create too much separation between the two. This was a much needed good day for Siemian and he was the better quarterback today.

Vance Joseph downplayed Siemian’s big day a bit and said it will be a collective effort and not just be a day by day thing.

“They both made plays and they both didn’t make plays. It’s tough to ride the rollercoaster with those guys. Who won today? Who didn’t win today? I’m not going to do that, guys. It’s going to be a collective evaluation over the weeks. I have a hard time watching each day of what they’re doing instead of watching the film and making a collective evaluation at the end.”

Siemian took some chances today which is something he needs to do more going forward. Coaches want to see if he will attack downfield more, especially the middle of the field. Last season he showed he can throw the go-route well at times, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that he had success there today, especially with wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders.

Siemian will have to carry this momentum going forward if he wants to win this job. Lynch has clearly improved so this puts the pressure on him to grow as a player as well. The pads come on tomorrow so things will get very interesting for both quarterbacks.

Lynch not as sharp but still good and has the play of the day:

After having one good and one great day, today was a slight step back for Paxton Lynch. From all the reports he didn’t have a bad day(Outside of Mike Klis) but lacked the big plays that stuck out for him in the prior practices.

He was a little more inaccurate than he was the days prior and had a few near interceptions, but overall still seemed like a decent day for Lynch. Trevor was just better on this day.

While he didn’t flash nearly as much Trevor today, he may have had the play/pass of the day near the end of practice.

In what has become a trademark play for Lynch, he threw a deep play and split two defenders to hit tight end A.J. Derby for a big play.

It will be Lynch’s day tomorrow with the first-team offense and it will be the first full padded practice with contact, so it will be a huge test for Lynch. If he has a big day, the momentum once again swings back toward him, if not, the Siemian hype may start heating up once again.

Rookie Isaiah Mckenzie dominates:

The Broncos explosive returner/receiver was rather impressive today, especially in the punt drills.

McKenzie is basically penciled in as the Broncos starting punt returner and today showed why. This led to Denver Broncos Head Coach Vance Joseph to say that McKenzie has dominated every challenge given to him.

“Isaiah has been the same guy since he’s gotten here. He is a very mature rookie. Every challenge that we’ve given Isaiah, he has taken it and dominated it. He is obviously a fabulous returner. He’s a big time slot player. He’s tough. He has not changed. What we saw on tape and what he’s given us since he’s been here, been the same.”

Now as I said, he’s penciled in as the starting punt returner, but what about kick return? It doesn’t sound like we will see him out there much.

“He’s more of a punt returner,’’ said Broncos head coach Vance Joseph. “Your kick returner is a bigger guy in my opinion. That’s a physical, violent play. I wouldn’t expose him to that if we didn’t have to. Cody Latimer and Carlos Henderson -- that’s the body type you want for that position. I wouldn’t put Isaiah in that role if we didn’t have to. That’s a physical role. A physically contacted role.”

We all know that McKenzie is explosive and quick, especially without pads/shells, but how he holds up when the pads come on will be something to watch tomorrow. He’s not a very big guy and struggled with fumbles in college, so hopefully, he will be able to overcome his size and those issues.

Bolles a “lock” to start at left tackle?:

After three days, Cecil Lammey has called the left tackle battle. He has seen enough from the first-round pick Garett Bolles to anoint him the starting left tackle for the Denver Broncos.

The rookie has earned some rave reviews from onlookers at camp so this shouldn’t come as a surprise. Especially considering how his competition, former second round pick Ty Sambrailo, has struggled badly so far.

Joseph was asked about his assessment of Bolles and he said that the first round pick has done a “fine job”.

“Garett Bolles has done a fine job. He’s blocked his guy for the most part. He’s still a rookie. He’s making small mistakes, but as far as blocking his guy, he’s good at that. As far as knowing everything to do right now, he’s getting there. But blocking his guy, he can do that.”

Those small mistakes will happen with a young guy but he has been playing well and it sounds like he is running away with the left tackle job.

Vance Joseph names Kasim Edebali as Ray’s replacement:

It was reported yesterday that Shane Ray would miss 6 to 8 weeks with a torn ligament in his wrist and the search for his replacement began. The Broncos signed Danny Mason as depth, but Vance Joseph indicated that Edebali will be the guy to replace Ray.

He also said that the reason they signed Edebali was because that he was a relentless pass rusher, and that is something he has shown in camp thus far.

“We signed Edebali because he is a relentless rusher. So far, he’s showed that. He’s a hard worker and he’s a hard body. Until Shane and Shaq are back, he’ll be fine. He was signed because he could rush the passer. So that’s what those guys do for a living. We feel good about him.”

Joseph wasn’t the only one raving about Joseph. Right tackle Menelik Watson called Edebali is a “monster”.

“Kasim can be a monster. I think he can be whatever he puts his mind to. The kid has got incredible girth and he's got incredible intelligence, great hands, great feet. He's putting it together and he's only going to get better. Everyone out here is just making everybody better and everyone is pushing each other. You just can't ask for more than that and I think we're off to a great start and we've got to keep stacking these days up.”

“Incredible girth”. Yup, he just said that.

Injury report:

  • Running back Bernard Pierce did not practice today because of a hamstring injury he suffered on Friday.
  • Shane Ray also held out because of his wrist injury. Linebacker Shaquil Barrett, nose tackle Kyle Peko, tight end Jake Butt, and quarterback Chad Kelly continue to sit out practice because they’re on the NFI or PUP list.

News and notes:

Tweets from practice:

Notable quotes:

Vance Joseph on tight end A.J Derby

“Derby is a guy that can win one-on-ones. You watched one-on-ones with the safeties, he can really separate. He’s a great route runner. He’s got great ball skills. He made a great play in the corner over there. With our tight end group, he’s the guy that can win one-on-ones as far as match ups. When you’re game planning and you want to get a guy on a certain linebacker, he would be that guy for us.”

C.J. Anderson on quarterback Paxton Lynch

“He’s doing way better compared to last year. You can see the jump. A lot of it is he’s more comfortable. He’s putting a lot more time into it, too. It’s a little different when you’re having a quarterback battle and then you don’t do what you want to do to win the battle. But then you might get out of the playbook and never realize that you might be up anytime like he was last year. This year he understands that it’s still the battle but win or lose, he has to still in the playbook and be ready. The questions, just like De’Angelo, the questions that he is asking me, because we’re familiar with the system, myself, [WR] Emmanuel [Sanders] and D.T., we can help him out a lot more.”

Ronald Leary on tackle Garett Bolles

“I’m still trying to figure him out myself. He’s a good kid, he loves the game and he’s always happy. You need that little juice sometimes especially when you get into the dog days at camp. He’s still learning. We have to real him in sometimes a little bit but I love him. He brings energy to the group and I’m glad he’s here.”

Tackle Menelik Watson on going against Von Miller every day

“I love it. I was in Oakland and going against [Raiders DE] Khalil Mack for three years and then coming here and getting the chance to go against a guy like Von every day only makes you better. [OLB] Shane [Ray] too man, I wish Shane a speedy recover. You can't ask for two better edge rushers in this league. It's only going to make the guys better. It's great work for everybody. We've just got to use it to our advantage and get better every day—watch the film, make corrections and continue to strive to get better.”

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