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Kaylore's Final Camp Review
By Kaylore
Aug 11, 2007, 11:36
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Well training camp at Dove Valley is officially over. The Broncos will resume their camp in Dallas following the preseason game on Monday night, but future practices in Colorado will be closed to the public. For this final day, the offense stepped up and you began to see the glimmer of things to come with Scheffler, Graham, Henry, Walker and Cutler all making big plays and really challenging the defense together for the first time.
Given this is my last report, I’ll briefly mention some things that I noticed today and then do a final review of the team as a whole and my predictions here on out. I’ll try and wrap up where the team has grown and where I think they’ll need to get better.
The most noticeable thing of this last day for me was seeing the injured guys that have come back. It was fun to watch them start to get up to speed again. It was exciting to watch their confidence grow and seem them start to re-emerge as playmakers. Scheffler is steadily becoming faster and quicker and coming back to football shape. He still has some drops but is doing much better at catching and his separation is improving.
Marshall doesn’t look like he was hurt at all and is once again making the big plays that made him the star of camp last year. His size and power really are too much for some of the defensive backs to deal with. Some of the quarterbacks just try and throw in his area and he is able to box out the defenders and bring the ball down. Both he and Scheffler are much more built in their core and arms than they were last season
Jarvis Moss finished practice and had no knee protection on. Shanahan mentioned that if everything checks out he’ll be good to go in the Niners game. He is also showing the burst and speed that impressed me last week and he’s not favoring his leg during practice. Tim Crowder was very physical today. He is playing with more tenacity and really uses his hands well. I’m excited to see both he and Moss in action.
Marcus Thomas is probably the rookie that has progressed the least since camp began. Defensive tackle takes a long time to learn and adjust to the speed of the game from college to the pros. He has played well enough to be on the second team. I do think that his biggest growth will happen throughout the season.
Jay Cutler had some great throws today. He was throwing well and really doing a great job of finding the coverage he wants and scrambling when nothing was there. He needs to work on checking down more and being more patient with his reads. There are some he checks down too quickly and the guy will break open. Other times he tries to force balls into places he shouldn’t.
Brian Clark and Domenik Hixon also had great practices. Both of them made some fantastic catches and have really grown in the past weeks as players. Javon Walker is vocal and supportive when he’s out on the field. He really pushes Marshall and vocally challenges him to make big plays for the team. It’s definitely got a big-brother feel to it. Walker did have one drop where Jay through a perfect ball down the sideline. I was right over Walker’s shoulder and would have been a touchdown, except he dropped it. There were some great plays overall this last time, but especially on the offensive side of the ball. It was nice to see them win one for once.
So where are the Broncos now? Watching them in practice is hard because one player’s success is another’s failure. Strength in one area could mean weakness in another, so it’s tough to gauge. I’ll make an attempt though.
The defensive line is talented but the mix of very old and very young could be a concern. There are a lot of new pieces, and if just a couple pan out as regular starters, the defense could be set for some time. Can that be expected right away? It’s hard to say. There is a huge adjustment from preseason to the regular season. It’s one of the reasons that training camp hero rookies vanish in the regular season. The speed of the game is too fast for them to be able read and react. Sam Adams and Warren both look great and have played well. Kennedy is good against the pass, so there is a lot of depth and talent on the line. To expect the defensive line to be working as a cohesive unit right out the gates is a bit of reach, though.
The linebackers are in better shape than I thought they’d be. On paper it looks much weaker than last year’s group. However last year’s group didn’t play very well as they missed a lot of tackles and struggled against tight ends. I don’t think the linebacking corps is perfect, but I don’t see the huge drop-off I was expecting and they are playing much better than I anticipated.
The secondary is the best I’ve seen. The starters speak for themselves. Ferguson and Lynch look great despite the age and injury problems. The depth is where I’m really impressed. Between Foxworth, Shoate and Paymah, we have a secondary that will shut you down if you go three or four wide. Our personnel alone will probably dictate more runs than passes this year.
The offensive line is a bit of concern. They are still moving pieces around. Kuper gets work at tackle and guard now. Meadows is under whelming. Holland takes plays off. Hamilton and Lepsis are hurt, and so is Ryan Harris. It will be tough if one of them should not be able to come back from injury.
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