Denver Broncos Training Camp: Day 7 news and notes

Day 7 of Broncos camp is now and the books and we now have a full week of Broncos Training Camp in the books. Today we have Courtland Sutton doing Courtland Sutton things, Vance calling out his team, some information on tomorrow’s scrimmage, Von Miller the practice wrecker, news and notes, updates on the injuries, and more!

Another day, another impressive day from Courtland Sutton:

Same story, different day. Rookie wide receiver Courtland Sutton has been stacking impressive day on top of impressive days and today he did it against the Broncos best.

Sutton at least for the vast majority of practice was only receiving first-team reps during today’s practice according to The Denver Posts Ryan O’Halloran. This shows Sutton may have(at least for now) locked himself in as the Broncos number three wide receiver.

He has made big play after big player during Training Camp and today, he may have had his most impressive moment yet. During team drills, Sutton was matched up against number two corner Bradley Roby and ran a go route. Quarterback Case Keenum tossed it up and Sutton hauled in on Roby who was called for defensive pass interference and took it 95-yards for a touchdown.

Veteran nose tackle Domata Peko compared Sutton to A.J. Green earlier in the week and the comparisons continued after practice today. Head Coach Vance Joseph compared Sutton to Texans All-Pro wide receiver, DeAndre Hopkins.

Like the Green comp, this is another big-time compliment for the rookie Sutton.

“He’s pretty good. I was in camp in Houston with [Texans WR DeAndre] Hopkins as a rookie—very comparable—great ball skills, huge catch radius. For rookies, it’s tough because it’s different levels. Obviously our camp, [and then] it’s a different level next Saturday versus the Vikings, the following week against Chicago. We’ll see. As camp goes on, obviously the intensity goes up. As the season goes on, the intensity goes up. We’ll see how he continues to develop.”

I know we haven’t played any games yet, but Sutton is really getting me excited. He beat up on Bradley Roby who is an established corner with a Super Bowl ring and a starting corner in this league. I understand if you were cautious about him when he was beating Langley and Yiadom, but now he’s beating the Broncos best.

(Note: The Sutton play is the first one shown here. Watch it.)

Hell, Roby even committed defensive pass interference and still couldn’t stop him. This performance led to All-Pro Von Miller to called Sutton “cold” when asked about the rookie after practice today.

“Who’s that? (Laughs) No. 14? Hey, that guy’s cold. Courtland’s cold. We really did a great job with the draft this year. We do a great job every year, but we did great a great job getting ‘14’ (Sutton), ‘55’ (OLB Bradley Chubb), all of those guys. The rookies that we have this year are phenomenal. Courtland, he just brings a whole new dynamic. We’ve got [WR] D.T. [Demaryius Thomas] and [WR] Emmanuel [Sanders] off the top. They give defenses hell already, and then you’ve got Courtland right here. It’s going to be fun. Then we’ve got a great quarterback. Offensive line has gotten a whole lot better, too. Courtland is great, I sit right by him in the team meeting room. He just has that fire in him. He’s going to be great”.

Sutton seems uncoverable and I cannot wait to see him beat up on opposing defenses this year. It is quite possible the Broncos could have the Offensive and Defensive rookie of the year this year.

Joseph challenges the team to start practice faster:

Head Coach Vance Joseph challenged his team after practice today after he wasn’t thrilled about how they started today’s practice. He says the offense didn’t come out focused today and said the defense did the same yesterday and that, that needs to change going forward.

Here is Joseph’s full comments on the effort level from his team.

“We’re doing OK. We’ve got to start faster, in my opinion. Today wasn’t good enough at the start, offensively. Yesterday it was defense, so we can’t pick and choose our times to come out and be focused. That’s a problem. We don’t want to start games down 14-0 and claw our way back into the game. That starts out here and that hasn’t been good enough the last two days.”

When asked on how this can change, Joseph put the onus on his players to make that change going forward.

“The players have to change it. They have to come out of the locker room ready to play. Obviously, coaches, we’re ready to go. I’m ready to go every day. That’s on the players to come out here with an attitude of, ‘Let’s start fast today.’ That’s a mindset.”

To me, this seems like Joseph is just challenging his prior to the all-important scrimmage tomorrow. The defense started slow yesterday and gave up some big plays to the offense. Today, the offense started slow and the defense capitalized on that. So I view this as lighting a fire under his team a week into camp.

Casey Barrett - Mile High Report

Joseph noted this by this saying they basically try to keep camp fresh for the players so it doesn’t feel like “groundhog day” for them.

“That’s tough. As a coach, you try to structure your practice to keep it exciting. We do a lot of things. Like today we started out 3rd-and-10+, we went to a pressure period and we went back to an all-empty period. You want to keep them on their toes. That’s my job. It can’t be the same old thing every day, and it’s not. It can’t be Groundhog Day for players. If it is, they’re going to get bored and not work for you. It’s my job to keep it exciting and keep it moving.”

So again, I like this move by Joseph. You’re entering your second week of camp, you have a scrimmage tomorrow, and you’re simply trying to light a spark under his team.

Let’s see how it pays off tomorrow.

Tomorrow’s practice will be a scrimmage:

About this time last year, Vance Joseph and his team held a scrimmage before having the next day off. Well, that will continue this year as the Broncos will hold a full scrimmage tomorrow before having Monday off.

Joseph notes that it will be 1’s vs. 1’s, 2’s vs. 2’s, and 3’s vs. 3’s and that it will be an intense practice.

“Yes, the scrimmage is tomorrow. Ones versus ones, twos-twos and threes-threes with kicking in between. It won’t be long, but it’ll be intense.”

It will be about 40 to 50 snaps total but it will be the first taste of game-like action this 2018 Broncos will see.

Casey Barrett- Mile High Report

Joseph was asked what he would like to see from his team during this short but intense practice and he said he just wants to see improvements from everyone.

“Just improvement. You want guys to improve. We’ve got some young guys who are doing some good things, but still making a lot of mental mistakes. We want to see improvement tomorrow.”

So if you’re going to go to one practice this year, this seems like the one to go to.

Von Miller the practice wrecker:

There haven’t been many updates on the edge rushers throughout camp for a couple reasons. 1. They cannot actually get “sacks” and these plays continue even if the player gets there 2. Case Keenum has been getting rid of the ball fairly quickly throughout camp.

However, there is one more reason why we haven’t heard Von Miller’s name mentioned much specifically.

The Broncos and Vance Joseph don’t want to go all out because he simply would ruin practice for the offense.

“Von is a special player. When Von is on, he can totally wreck practice. I get it with Von. Von goes hard, but he understands if he goes really, really hard, he can wreck practice. I’m being honest. He had a couple plays today where he got upset and it looked like game day. We know what Von can do. I’m not worried about Von. Von is in great shape and Von loves to play, and so he’s right where he has to be for the season.”

Inside linebacker backed up Joseph’s comments about Von and said sometimes they take him out so he doesn’t ruin things.

“I’m not going to say he’s unblockable, but he’s near unblockable. We did all of these passing drills, these throwing drills, even in the run game, Von is a monster. Sometimes they take him out. He’s not always in because he could definitely wreck practice.”

So if you’re worried about the lack of Von Miller mentions, don’t sweat it. He’s still a freak and just waiting to wreck the Seahawks game plan come week one.

News and Notes:

• Vance Joseph said wide receiver Jordan Taylor is getting better but not close to returning to the field yet
• Punter Marquette King showed off his leg today booming punts all over the field today. He was even doing some impressive coffin corner punts. He’ll be a weapon for this team and defense.
• Running back Phillip Lindsay muffed a punt or two today. This isn’t great for the rookie back who is looking to crack the roster as a returner.
• The Broncos defense who has been beat by the offense a lot this camp had their best overall day as an unit which is nice to see.

Injury Report:

• Tight end Jeff Heuerman missed his third straight practice with knee soreness.
• Safety Su’a Cravens sat out practice with knee soreness as well.
• Cornerback Tramaine Brock sat out practice with a hamstring issue.

Tweets from camp:

Quotables:

Vance Joseph on if he is comfortable with the teams cornerback depth:

“I am. Right now, we’ve got a couple injuries so it looks thin out there, but obviously Chris [Harris Jr.] is playing at a high level for a long time, [Bradley] Roby is having a really good camp, Isaac Yiadom, as a rookie, has been impressive. [Tramaine] Brock is hurt right now and that makes it look thin. He’s a veteran player and he’s been a starter on playoff teams. I’m not worried about our depth when we’re healthy. It’s the first week and a half of camp and obviously hamstrings happen. We’ll get him back and it should look better for us at the back end.”

Vance Joseph on rookie inside linebacker Josey Jewell:

“He’s been good. Obviously, the hamstring slowed him down the first week, week and a half of camp, but he’s back. He had a good day today. How does he fit? He’s competing to be one of our backups. He has to be a core guy on special teams and he’s pushing to get playing time in our certain packages. I’ve been impressed with him from a mental standpoint. He doesn’t make mistakes and that’s a nice sign for a young player.”

Vance Joseph on the decision to rearrange players’ locker locations:

“It’s more about building the team. We want to be the best team and that’s important for us right now to kind of mix the guys up a little bit and have different conversations between different guys. If you keep offensive line and d-line separate and receivers and DBs (defensive backs) separate, those guys never talk and interact. We want more interaction from our team, just to be better teammates and be good people. That’s all, very simple.”

Defensive end Shelby Harris on the offensive line improvement:

“It makes you work because the D-line, we’re not getting as many clean wins off the ball as we did before, which is good because in most NFL games you’re not going to get clean wins off the ball to get to the quarterback. It’s just working, and especially with how experienced our D-line is—and I feel like we have a lot of depth—so it’s good that our O-line is keeping up because it’s making us work harder and making us better at the end of the day.”

LInebacker Brandon Marshall on the Broncos offense:

“It’s a lot more swag on the offense, a lot more confidence. [QB] Case [Keenum] gets back there and everybody else is doing their thing. Obviously, we always knew the receivers had talent. They were great, but now I feel like the whole unit is feeling it. The o-line is feeling it, the running backs are feeling it, the tight end group. There’s a lot more swagger and I think they’re going to light up the scoreboard a little bit.”

Von MIller on rookie linebacker Josey Jewell returning to practice:

“You’re talking about Red Beard (laughs)? That’s one of my favorite rookies. I just love the way he plays. He may be a rookie, but when you talk to him, it really doesn’t feel like he’s a rookie. When you see him play, it doesn’t look like he’s a rookie. He’s going to play in this league for a long time. I just like his intensity, I like having conversations with him. He’s going to be great for us.”