Denver Broncos Training Camp Review
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Back Together Saturday is the only ticketed day of training camp, as it is often the most attended day of camp during the summer. I was able to attend this years event thanks to my friend Derek, he reminded me about the ticket sales and we got in virtual line and attended today event together! To start things off, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and it was a strong 80 degrees Fahrenheit by the time practice was in full swing. To say it was hot, feels like an understatement. Colorado sun, unobstructed, just pounding down on the players and the fans for three straight hours.
As an attendee since about 2015, I’ve learned over the years that sunglasses, a sun hat, sunscreen, a water bottle (they allow plastic water bottles in the gates), and a blanket are all necessities for Broncos Training Camp. The blanket is requirement because the hill we all sit on is typically still damp/wet from the night before.
Some of the festivities before practice even started, the Denver Broncos three Lombardi Trophies were on a table you could get a photo with. Mark Schlereth, Karl Mecklenburg, Ed McCaffrey, Nick Ferguson, and Steve Atwater were in attendance above the practice facility signing autographs. The Broncos Cheerleaders were at the entrance to the facilities. Finally, the Denver Broncos marching band, the Stampede were playing to entertain the fans waiting to enter Dove Valley.
Before practice kicked off, players were filing onto the field and we saw a bunch of special teamers take the field to start fielding punts and warming up their hands for what would end up being a special teams heavy practice. Wide Receivers Kaden Davis and Montrell Washington were both on the field early and were active on the day. Brandon McManus and punter Sam Martin went up and down the fan lines throwing footballs with people in the crowd and engaging in conversations. Then, to officially kick off practice, Russell Wilson and Justin Simmons picked up microphones and had little speeches for the fans. Russell Wilson threw out the work Super Bowl many times, indicating that this team is in a “Super Bowl or Bust” mode.
After the players were all out on the field and going through their own personal warmups, practice kicked off with about 10 minutes of full blown special teams punt and punt coverage practice. After special teams they broke into tackling drills, which still seemed to be special teams related, as the non-teamer players were off on the side fields doing position specific drills. Then, after these tackling and other special teams specific position drills, the whole team came back together for some live special teams repetitions. The first 30-45 minutes of practice seemed to be heavily focused on punting, punt coverage and punt return specifically.
One observation, and minor annoyance, was that this practice was marketed as a “all systems go”, full-speed, padded, practice as far as I was made aware, but players were only wearing helmets today. I think that this was only annoying to me because I was expecting pads, since they did a “jog through” practice yesterday in preparation for todays “fan day”, which to me indicated that they were going to be thumping today. I will be attending the next Saturday practice as well, so I will see a padded practice eventually, but feels weird to not do that for the fan specific training camp day.
Notes:
- Seth Williams had a good out breaking route catch that was caught in traffic
- Russell Wilson broke the pocket and has a good 25 yard touchdown run, didn’t seem like one of those “Defense cant touch the QB, otherwise he would have been sacked” runs, seemed like a good read and play.
- PS2 vs Courtland training camp battle has been magical so far, Surtain bats another ball away on a deep ball attempt to Courtland down the sideline!
- Jerry Jeudy had an absolutely solid day catching 4 or 5 total balls with no drops
- Good out breaking route catch on first team O versus first team D followed by another catch and run on back to back plays
- Had a third good catch in the same team drill
- Offensive line first team was Bolles, Risner, Cushenberry, Netane Muti and Calvin Anderson
- Special teams session again, with kicking, punting and more coverage drills.
- Courtland Sutton had a good sliding catch in the flat he turned into a good get up and run down the side line for 15-20 yards.
- Russell Wilson throws deep to Tim Patrick should have been picked off by PS2, he under threw the ball, PS2 read the under throw and undercut the route and straight up dropped the interception, he was disappointed in himself.
- Albert O had a nice over the middle catch on 1v1s team period, this ball was placed between defensive linemen’s hands, over good linebacker coverage, and an over the top safety, and Albert O snared it and ran a little with the ball.
- WR #17 Jalen Virgil was standout to me today. I called his number about 4x and he had an amazing second effort catch on the sideline for a catch and run TD, he first attempt to catch the ball was herculean, but popped the ball up and gave himself a chance to catch it again, which he did.
- They let Brandon McManus kick about 20 field goals in a live session, where the balls were going right over our heads and Broncos staffer Kenny was supposed to be fielding them.
- Ronald Darby got a pick 6 off Russ on 1s v 1s on what seemed to be another deep shot that was under thrown a bit
- Montrell Washington got a 60 yard td from Russ on 1s v1s on the very next play after the interception.
- I never really know how to grade offensive lineman, defensive linemen, or running backs in training camp days without pads… practicing running plays on these days seems silly… but I get it.
- Nik Bonito made Quinn Bailey look absolutely silly on a 2s vs 2s segment, he took a hard step outside, got Bailey to set his feet in a deep set, then took another strong step inside and was completely untouched on his was to harass the quarterback,
- After the team huddled and broke for the end of practice, Russ took the Receivers we expect to make the roster (Jeudy, Sutton, Patrick, KJ, Hinton, and Seth Williams) to the fan side end zone and practiced fades, corners, curls, and back shoulder throws for about 20 minutes. Eric Saubert came by about half way through and worked in, and ended up being the last mad working with Russ in the session.
I was super close to getting Russell Wilson to sign my #3 Wilson jersey, then realized that there was a small child next to me that had a birthday and then I realized I’m not going to get a chance, but Happy Birthday Noah!
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