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Broncos Training Camp recap: Defense dominates, pick 6’s, big hits, and more

Here is your day four Training Camp recap for the Denver Broncos.

By Scotty Payne
Casey Barrett Photography

The pads came on today and as Vance Joseph put it, today was a “man’s practice”. The defense really dominated this practice, there were two pick six’s, lots of sacks, bad quarterback play, and some big hits.

Defense dominates the first padded practice:

After a day where the secondary gave up some big plays to the receivers and quarterback Trevor Siemian, they came back today with some vengeance.

Both quarterback’s had terrible days, multiple interceptions and many dropped INTs that make certain QB’s stat lines look a little better than it should have been. A few big hits, notably on wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders, and well Von Miller is just a freak.

It was an ugly effort by the offense but an outstanding effort by the defense. They were covering well, pressuring the quarterback, stuffing the run, and got to the quarterback consistently.

Harris had some strong words about what he and the Broncos defense wanted to do to the quarterbacks today.

“That's what we're trying to do. We're trying to drown them deep in the water every day and that's our motivation. We were upset with yesterday's performance and we wanted to come back today and show them who we are.”

After drowning the offense and the quarterbacks today, it will be interesting to see how they fare tomorrow with the offense motivated to make up for today’s performance.

One Broncos defender who helped drown the quarterbacks was cornerback Lorenzo Doss. He had two Int’s today including a pick six. This makes for a second straight Training Camp that Doss has done this. Defensive Coordinator Joe Woods told the media he tells Doss he has a four-leaf clover on him.

“Lorenzo, I always tell him he's a four-leaf clover. For whatever reasons, when he's in the game he's always around the football. He’s a very instinctive player. Coming out of Tulane he had 16 picks. When you see him, he's always around the ball. He makes plays. Sometimes he cheats a little too much and that's what gets him in trouble. He had the double move over there in (a drill) and I just told him to stay top down, but it's just his natural instincts. He just has it. The biggest thing for him is continue to improve the other areas of this game.”

Doss is fighting for a roster spot, but days like this will only help his cause for making the Denver Broncos once again.

Both quarterbacks stunk today:

For those of you who are tallying up each day as a win or loss for a certain quarterback, make sure to note neither won day four for the Broncos. Hell, you can probably place an L in the column for both after today’s performance.

Head Coach Vance Joseph was not pleased whatsoever about their performance today and didn’t mince words about it after practice.

“Did I like what I saw? Not really. Both guys had issues today. I didn’t like what I saw today. Honest. They both struggled today.”

One of the bigger excuses for this that were being thrown around is that this is a damn good defense and days like this will happen, but don’t let Joseph catch you saying that. The Broncos Head Coach wants nothing to do with your excuses and says there’s enough talent on the offensive side of the ball to have success.

“No. It’s NFL football. Make your reads—we have good receivers. They win against anybody. When you say that, it’s not about the overall secondary, it’s about the match up. No. 88 (Demaryius Thomas) and No. 10 (Emmanuel Sanders) can win. Find them and throw the ball to them.”

Today was a rough day for both quarterbacks. Paxton Lynch had a pick six to cornerback Bradley Roby in a red zone drill and had another unlucky INT when receiver Marlon Brown dropped a pass and Lorenzo Doss came away with it.

Lynch did end practice on a positive note, but overall it wasn’t a great day for him. Let's see if he can carry that momentum into tomorrow’s practice.

As for Siemian, he was just as awful(if not worse depending who you ask) than Lynch today. He was also wildly inaccurate, missing open reads, and just not playing great.

Siemian ended the day with “only” one INT that would have been a pick six in the final play of practice, but during a team drill, Siemian was nearly picked twice by the Broncos defense.

There was another instance noted by DenverBroncos.com’s Andrew Mason where Siemian completely missed an open Andy Janovich in the middle of the end zone during one drill.

It was just an ugly day for both quarterbacks. Neither came away from practice the winner, all the momentum is gone, and we wait until tomorrow to see how each rebound.

Von ruining practice:

One thing has been consistent so far during Training Camp and that has been Super Bowl 50 MVP Von Miller just dominating.

It doesn’t matter who tries to block him, Bolles, Watson, Ty(haha!) and so on, Von dominates. Miller showed up to camp in incredible shape and that hard work has paid off so far as he is basically ruining practice for the Broncos offense.

You can’t accurately evaluate the tackles because Von is a freak. He’s blowing by them to rush the passer, stuff the run, or get a sack. It’s getting to the point now where it’s hard for the offense to do anything without Von ruining their day.

I am not sure how serious I am here, but it might be time for the Broncos coaches to tell Von to play nice and stop disrupting their offensive practices.

He’s a freak and that bodes well for the Broncos during the season, but right now it’s actually an issue.

Vance Joseph names a few standout players today:

Denver Broncos Head Coach Vance Joseph was asked to name some standout players from today’s practice and he named wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders, the two starting inside linebacker, nose tackle Domata Peko, Derek Wolfe, and center Connor McGovern.

Joseph said that Sander went “all day at full speed”. Probably the only player on offense at the skill positions who played well today.

“Who stood out to me? I would say Sanders. He went all day at full speed. The inside linebackers were excellent today. The two guys have both been very consistent from the spring until now. We’re looking at big years from those guys. [NT Domata] Peko and [DE Derek] Wolfe, inside, they’re really stout. [G/C Connor] McGovern has played well. He’s played really well at the center position. A bunch of guys, but those guys hit my mind.”

Emmanuel Sanders has had a great few practices. Yesterday he was burning the Broncos secondary left and right and helped give Trevor Siemian his best day of practice. That motivated the Broncos secondary today, but Sanders has been a stud as usual.

The Broncos inside linebackers(Marshall and Davis) were singled out by Joseph today which is great to hear. If the Broncos want to be better in run defense, they will need both to continue.

Cornerback Chris Harris Jr. noted how both seem more confident this year, and Marshall being healthy is helping as well.

“I think they're more confident this year. I think they're in way better shape. ‘B’ was struggling with a lot of injuries last year so I think he's healthier. We kind of tweaked some things with their drops and how they fit the run and I think it's really helped them out a lot.”

Defensive Coordinator Joe Woods singled out Todd Davis today and called the linebacker “unbelievable”.

“He's unbelievable. Todd Davis is the type of guy you want to coach on defense. He's playing 100 miles per hour on every snap. Even walk throughs you have to tell him, ‘Hey, slow down, it's a walk through.’ But that's his mindset. He's hungry and he's out there to prove a point that he can play at a high level in this league. He's doing a great job so far in this camp.”

Joseph also singled out Wolfe and Peko on how they’re going to improve the run defense that really struggled last season.

“We knew what Wolfe can do. He’s a stout a guy, but Peko has been in the four-three system his entire career, so I knew bringing him here, being a 34 nose, it was less penetration, but more being stout on blocks. He’s a big man, he can do it. He’s very, very, very intelligent when it comes to formations and run game. He’s going to help us big time.”

Finally, second-year lineman Connor McGovern also earned some praise for Joseph for his play today. He’s in there for the rehabbing Matt Paradis but has been playing well. It will be interesting to see if McGovern gets any chances at guard once Paradis does return.

Tyrique Jarrett a name to watch:

CBS Sports’s Pete Prisco was at Broncos practice today and made sure to single out the massive rookie nose tackle Tyrique Jarrett.

The massive nose tackle who has to be pushing 350 pounds has earned praise from coaches and players reportedly and has been playing well.

With second-year nose tackle Kyle Peko on the PUP list, this is an opportunity for Jarrett to push for a roster spot. With the Broncos having an emphasis on run defense, someone like Jarrett would be just the man to clog up some run lanes for the Broncos defense.

Injury report:

News and notes:

Tweets from practice:

Notable quotes:

Vance Joseph on the Broncos first padded practice:

“That was a mans practice. We added a couple team periods in there. Putting the pads on—you talk about conditioning, but that really starts when the pads come on. You play football in pads, and those pads make a difference. Even those pants they wear, it makes a difference. Adding some team periods, adding some more ‘move the ball periods’, it’s going to allow us to get in football shape.”

Joe Woods on linebackers Kasim Edebali and Vontarrius Dora:

“Right now, they're quality backups. We're in the process of evaluating what each of those guys can do. Kasim plays hard and gives a lot of effort. He's a good edge rusher. We're continuing to work with him in terms of his coverage because it's something he hasn't done in the past. Dora, the same thing. He's been here for a couple of years. He knows what we expect out of him and he's doing a good job on getting better every day as well.”

Mike McCoy on what he learned about the offense today:

“I think we're getting the feel for it. We just started playing in pads today. We're going to learn a lot in the next couple of weeks in pads, the way it's supposed to be played. Up until this point, you have a double team block and we're a little friendly—you're not doing certain things. Now we want to see who can move guys and stay within the rules the way you can practice. Now that we're into full pads, now we can go which is great. We're going to learn a lot in the next couple of weeks. When we get into preseason games, we'll really see. When you have no idea what they're doing, and we're going to have a gameplan going in of what we think they're going to do, but just go play football.”

Vance Joseph on rookie DeMarcus Walker practicing at outside linebacker:

“When we drafted DeMarcus, our vision for DeMarcus was to be a sub-rusher on third downs and be an inside rusher. On first and second downs, have the ability to play inside and outside. Obviously with our outside linebacker’s numbers down, he’s working outside with Coach Pug (Outside Linebackers Coach Fred Pagac) for the next couple weeks so we can have some depth there. On third downs, he can go inside and do his job that we drafted him for.”

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