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Broncos Training Camp day 5 recap: Lynch inconsistent, Charles getting closer, Henderson impresses again, and more

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

By Scotty Payne
NFL: Denver Broncos-Training Camp Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

Day five of Denver Broncos Training Camp has come and gone and it was an interesting practice. Paxton Lynch looked great before laying a gigantic goose egg, Trevor was Trevor, Janovich isn’t going anywhere, De’Angelo Henderson returns and impresses, FIGHT!!!, and more.

Lynch starts out strong, but has back to back interceptions:

Lynch started out the practice on fire and on his way to potentially having that game-changing practice where he takes the reigns of the quarterback battle.

Lynch threw two touchdowns during 11-on-11 drills. One to tight end Virgil Green and the other to running back C.J. Anderson. Everything was going great for Lynch and the bounce back day was happening.

Then the 7-on-7 drills happened.

Lynch tossed back to back interceptions to safety Justin Simmons and linebacker Corey Nelson. Both were in the end zone, and he nearly had a third interception apparently. The wheels came off on a potentially big day for Lynch.

Turnovers in the end zone are never good, and that led Head Coach Vance Joseph to have some strong comments on these mistakes.

“I’m looking for decision making. That’s why I was so disappointed with yesterday’s results. Making critical errors in the scoring zones, we can’t have. You make an error out or in your first-and-10, second-and-100, we can overcome those. If we’re going into score and we’ve already put up big points, and we give them seven from 10 points, we can’t have that. That costs you games. More games in this league are lost by one and we can’t go out and lose the game. That’s my point to the quarterbacks.”

Both quarterbacks made those errors yesterday, but Lynch’s two today probably led to these comments from Joseph.

This is something Lynch needs to clean up if he wants to win the starting quarterback job. Like I said all offseason, this is Lynch’s job to lose. If he cuts down on these bonehead plays he should be set. Siemian isn’t running away with the job despite these errors so it’s on him to learn and grow as the summer goes on.

Now if you are #TeamLynch and want to know where he stands in this quarterback battle, you may like what former Broncos receiver Brandon Stokley had to say.

Stokley is someone who has been in Trevor’s corner since last year, so this is somewhat noteworthy. However, we still have long ways to go and this battle remains tight.

Trevor being Trevor:

While Lynch’s day was all over the place, Trevor’s was well...boring. He didn’t make any big mistakes but didn’t make any eye opening plays either. He was exactly who we saw for the most part last season. Steady and safe Trevor.

His lone big play of the day came from an excellent catch by veteran receiver Marlon Brown.

Outside of that, Siemian had 0 touchdowns(receivers had a few drops) and 0 interceptions. A typical Trevor Siemian day. Unspectacular, but not awful.

If you’re tallying the wins and losses for each quarterback, today probably depends on who you favor more. Lynch apparently was the better quarterback today, but wheels came off and costly turnovers happened. Trevor wasn’t as good, but not bad either. Steady and mistake free ball, but nothing game changing.

BSN’s Ryan Koenigsberg summed it up perfectly in his recap piece.

On Monday, for the first time all camp, the quarterback competition looked exactly the way we expected it to all offseason. Lynch made the plays that raise your eyebrows as well as the ones that furrow your eyebrows, and all the while, Trevor Siemian didn’t do much of either.

Sounds like this quarterback battle will continue for a bit longer with neither quarterback really pulling away.

Jamaal Charles returning to 7 to 7’s on Wednesday:

Probably the biggest non-quarterback news today was about veteran running back Jamaal Charles. Vance Joseph indicated that Charles would take part in some 7-on-7 drills on Wednesday and then take part in team drills next week.

“The plan for all three guys after Tuesdays break is to get them more team reps—Gotsis, especially. Matt, we’re going to go slow, but probably give him two per period. Jamaal, we’re going to sprinkle him in seven-on-seven and keep him out of the team drills because we don’t want to get him tangled. We’re going to start him seven-on-seven, more ending, then add team probably in the next week.”

As we know, the former Chiefs running back is returning from a major knee injury that has basically sidelined him for two seasons, so the fact he’s nearing a return is huge. If Charles can make it through these next few weeks without any setbacks, the Broncos have themselves a major steal.

Janovich roster spot is NOT in danger

Some(myself included) have speculated about second-year fullback’s Andy Janovich’s roster spot may be in danger. However, comments from Head Coach Vance Joseph and Special Teams Coach Brock Olivio quieted any concerns we had.

Joseph said that fullback Andy Janovich is “very valuable to our football team from a physical standpoint”.

“He is very valuable to our football team from a physical standpoint. He is an old school fullback that can also carry the ball. That’s going to be great for [Special Teams Coordinator] Brock [Olivo]. He’s a big part of what we do offensively, special teams wise.”

That really doesn’t sound like a player on the roster bubble, does it?

Now if you need more proof, the animated Olivio had this to say about Janovich.

“Jano—love Jano. Jano to me, if we had 22 Jano's we would be alright. He's tough, he never says a word and never complains. He just does his job. He's the first one in the meeting every day. He's on it X's and O’s wise. He knows what to do, he's tough and he finishes. I love the guy if you could tell. He's going to be a four-phaser for us. He's a really good football player.”

Again, doesn’t sound like someone who is on the roster bubble.

Look for Andy Janovich to start at fullback and open up running lanes for the Broncos tailbacks. The run game looks to be a priority so I expect to see a lot of Janovich this year. You will also see him on Special Teams as well.

My only concerns with Janovich is his durability. He doesn’t have the biggest frame but plays at 110% every single down. So injuries likely will pop up. Hopefully, they do not and Janovich becomes a key contributor to the Broncos this season.

De’Angelo Henderson returns and impresses:

Probably the early star from Training Camp thus far has been rookie running back De’Angelo Henderson.

C.J. Anderson went down early in practice with a minor knick, but did return to practice soon after that. However, while Anderson was down, rookie De’Angelo Henderson took some first-team reps and made the best of them.

Vance Joseph had some nice things to say about Henderson after today’s practice.

“He obviously came back today and he flashed. He’s a quick, explosive, marks out runner. For a shorter, stockier guy, he can get narrow through holes. He’s quick through holes. As a defender, it’s hard to see the guy. He’s behind [T] Menelik Watson, and he makes a cut, that’s a surprise for a linebacker. You watched today. It’s a surprise when he’s in the A, B, and C gap, but you can’t see the little guy. He’s fast through the hole.”

Henderson will likely get a bunch of carries this preseason so hopefully, he continues this strong performance. If he impresses this preseason he may very well earn himself a role in the starting offense come the regular season.

FIGHT!!!

The first little brawl of Training Camp happened today.

Linebacker Zaire Anderson shoved recently signed running back Stevan Ridley out of bounds. Well, tackle Ty Sambrailo of all people did not like this and shoved Anderson. This started a bit of a brawl were both tangled, but nothing serious really came of it.

Afterward, Joseph called the team together and basically told them to cut the nonsense and get back to practice.

“The message was, ‘Stop the nonsense. Let’s finish practice.’”

This is the most fight Sambrailo has shown all of camp.

News and Notes:

  • Joseph indicated that Saturday’s practice will be the Broncos first scrimmage.
  • Vance Joseph and his team will meet with Elway tomorrow to discuss potential roster changes and how to move forward with practice after the break. So expect some changes!

Injury report:

Tweets from camp:

Notable quotes:

Joseph on the fight between Ty and Zaire Anderson

“I think when you see your offense line defend your running back, right, wrong, or indifferent, you kind of enjoy seeing that. You want to build toughness. You want to build guys tight to carry your teammates. Obviously, you can’t fight in games. That’s the part, from my chair, that you can’t allow. You can’t build habits of fighting when adversity strikes because in football games, it’s going to be a bad result. I don’t mind some of it, but I understand you can’t do it in a football game. So, we can’t have it.”

Joseph on the challenges these young quarterback have facing the Broncos defense

“That defense is tough. We put them in tough spots today again. You would think red zone is easy for a quarterback, but it’s not. Those DBs are not back there. There is no threat of a deep ball, so every ball you throw that’s an air throw, it may be intercepted. That’s tough for a quarterback. Most of our practices are structured for the quarterback as far as situational football, backed up, red zone, no huddle and two minute. It’s for our quarterback to get better as a football together, being a smart football player.”

Brock Olivio on Isaiah McKenzie’s return ability

“I'll tell you where it starts, it's with the confidence. He wants the ball in his hands and he likes the fact that there is a [Kansas City WR] Tyreek Hill in our division, a guy that he can strive to be as good as or better someday. That's the kind of kid he is. I know he's thinking that in his head because he's very confident and I love that about him. You see that, the quickness, the lateral movement, the burst, the toughness to stand in there. Again, we'll see coming up in the first preseason game and throughout preseason just how much guts the kid has when gunners are running down in front of his face. I have confidence he's going to be just fine.”

Garett Bolles on his first Training Camp

“This isn’t college anymore; I’ll tell you guys that right now. We have great leaders out here. I get to go against Von [Miller], who is a dear friend to me like you all know. He’s the best and I’m so grateful to have him (Miller) and the people around me. Like I said, we’re a family and the fans come out here and cheer us on. You see Von getting them riled up and we have the greatest fans in the country. Now we get to come out here and put it to work every single day. We’re in meetings all day long and when we wake up the next day, we’ve got to get ready to go and that’s how we are. We have great leaders on this team. Not only that, we have great support around us with fans, our coaching staff and this great organization that (Owner Pat Bowlen) Mr. Bowlen created. We’ll be ready to go.”

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