Broncoman13
08-12-2005, 02:10 PM
Denver has backfield optionsBy Len Pasquarelli
ESPN.com
Archive Related Video:
Maurice Clarett tries to win a roster spot
HOUSTON -- Here are five observations on the Denver Broncos, based on their Aug. 10-11 practices:
Fantasy focus: Mike Anderson
This was supposed to be the year when Tatum Bell broke through and became Denver's newest standout RB. But Anderson, who rushed for 1,487 yards and 15 TDs in 2000, is out to recapture that ol' starting job. Anderson's career has been plagued by injuries since his superstar rookie season, yet he has come to camp in terrific shape and is running very well. He has drawn praise from QB Jake Plummer and head coach Mike Shanahan.
Bell has fallen behind Anderson to the No. 2 spot on the depth chart. How long can Anderson keep this possible illusion up? No one knows for sure, but suddenly the veteran RB now looks like a quality fifth or sixth-round fantasy selection.
-- Scott Engel, associate editor of Fantasy Games
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More fantasy football
1. As usual, the Broncos have their cast of thousands -- or, more accurately, potential 1,000-yard rushers -- at tailback. And, per the norm, no one seems certain who the starter will be when Denver opens the season at Miami on Sept. 11. One guy it won't be is surprise third-round draft choice Maurice Clarett, who didn't travel here for the mixed practices or Saturday night's preseason game because of a groin injury. According to sources, even before the injury, the erstwhile Ohio State back was struggling in several aspects of the game, and likely will not be much of a factor in 2005.
That leaves Mike Anderson, who is currently working with the first unit, and challengers Tatum Bell and Quentin Griffin. Here's one for all you trivia buffs: Anderson had more rushing yards and touchdowns as a rookie in 2000, when his 1,487 yards ranked as the sixth-most in history by a first-year player and he scored 15 times, than he has posted in the four years since then. Since that terrific 2000 campaign, in which he was named rookie of the year in many polls, Anderson has only 1,321 yards and nine rushing touchdowns.
Some physical setbacks, like the groin injury that cost him the entire '04 season, and the annual revolving door at tailback in Denver, all but relegated Anderson to afterthought status for a while. But by all accounts, Anderson, who will turn 32 a few weeks into the season, has enjoyed a superb camp. And there is no denying that he is a talented runner between the tackles, a guy who will get the tough yards inside, and one who gives the Broncos an attitude.
Although Anderson will get what's there on the run, his 4.5-career average might be a little misleading since he will leave some yards on the table. He doesn't often get to the second level of the defense and, despite four career gains of 40-plus yards, isn't a burner in the secondary. Arguably the most talented back, and the player Denver coaches seem to want to win the job at some point is Bell, but the Broncos aren't going to simply anoint the second-year veteran. The coaches want Bell to work for the No. 1 perch -- which is not to say that Anderson's spot atop the depth chart is meant merely as a motivational ploy -- but Bell hasn't demonstrated yet the consistency of effort that they're looking for.
Bell is explosive, and both he and Griffin are more typical of the slashing-type, one-cut runners who have had so much success working behind the NFL's most detested and devastating blocking scheme. Griffin is still recovering from knee surgery, but Bell did flash nice vision, and the ability to get to the perimeter on some plays during the two days of workouts. At this point, the guess is that the proven Anderson opens the year as the starter. But that rarely means anything with Denver, where head coach Mike Shanahan has never been shy about making changes or playing talented young runners.
One pretty safe bet, especially after 2004, is that some Denver back will rush for 1,000 yards in '05. Out of desperation last season, Shanahan turned to career fullback Reuben Droughns, who had just 40 rushes for 97 yards total in the previous four years. Because of injuries, Droughns started 15 games, carried 275 times and registered 1,240 yards. In Shanahan's 10 years as the Denver coach, the team has had a 1,000-yard rusher nine times, with five different tailbacks (Terrell Davis, Olandis Gary, Mike Anderson, Clinton Portis and Droughns) accomplishing that benchmark.
2. Accused at times of being a little rough on quarterback Jake Plummer, we plead guilty as charged. No doubt, the Broncos' playoff collapses in the past two seasons aren't on him, although he didn't play especially well. But the Broncos aren't paying Plummer all that money just to win a wild-card spot, which is what he has accomplished in each of his first two seasons with the franchise.
We've always felt that if you watch Plummer long enough, you will see the cracks. Sure enough, while he looked very good at times in the two days here, there were a lot of shaky moments as well. Many of those came in "red zone" seven-on-seven drills, in which he was forced to throw the ball too often. Two particularly bad throws came when Plummer was on the run, which is supposed to be one of his strong suits. Until he proves the critics wrong, Plummer looks like a guy who can get you 10 wins, but not a Super Bowl trophy. And for a franchise whose goal every season is a championship, that isn't quite good enough.
3. Yow, do these guys have a ton of defensive linemen -- 17 of them, in fact. And here's a scoop: Not all of them played for the Cleveland Browns last season. OK, so maybe we have beaten that dead horse, and the fact the Broncos have enjoyed so little success with homegrown D-linemen. But there is no way a regular-season roster can keep all these bodies around. So there are going to be several veterans out on the street in the next month.
Say good-bye (just guessing here) to the likes of Raylee Johnson, Chukie Nwokorie, Demetrin Veal, Dorsett Davis and others. At some point in the preseason, Denver will certainly try to peddle a few of these guys to line-needy teams, hoping to get something in return, and the oft-injured Davis might well be an intriguing guy to someone. But you just can't keep that many codgers around, and the Broncos have old guys in spades.
Tackle Luther Elliss, who is actually starting some in the nickel package and having a pretty good camp, might not make it at age 32. On the other hand, end Marco Coleman, 35, looks like a lock to have a job. All right, so how are all those Cleveland expatriates doing, that's what you want to know, isn't it? Well, we hope that you're seated for this shocker, but end Courtney Brown is injured, with a bad elbow. Yep, new city, same ol' problem. The rest of the guys imported from a team that had the NFL's worst statistical defense against the rush in 2004 aren't fairing nearly so badly.
That's especially true of the two tackles, Michael Myers and Gerard Warren, both of whom might be steals, given their modest price tags. Warren is one of our favorite guys and, if he ever figures out he doesn't have to make every play, he may yet reach his potential. The coaches really like my man "Big Money," and, hey, why not? Sure, he's been an underachiever, but as Warren displayed in flashes here, he is an active big man with disruptive (in too many ways, sometimes) qualities.
Keep an eye on sixth-year veteran end John Engelberger, acquired from San Francisco a few weeks ago in a trade for first-round flop cornerback Willie Middlebrooks. With the 49ers, Engelberger no longer fit, because coach Mike Nolan is transitioning to a 3-4 front. But Engelberger has some edge to him, is a player who really uses leverage well to compensate for lack of bulk, and is capable of stirring things up. Unlike a lot of the guys the Broncos have imported the past two years to make up for their defensive line draft failures, he will make the roster.
Jake Plummer must prove he is can take the Broncos to the next level.
4. When we last saw the remains of the Denver secondary, following a second straight playoff scorching by Peyton Manning (835 yards, nine touchdowns passes and just one interception in the two wild-card contests), they were, well, remains. The suggestion that someone bring in a coroner to identify the members of the unit would not have been considered in poor taste by anyone who saw those two debacles. So how is the Broncos secondary now? Let's be honest, it can't help but be better, can it?
There have been two changes, with Lenny Walls reclaiming his starting cornerback spot after he lost last season to shoulder surgery, and Nick Ferguson replacing departed strong safety Kenoy Kennedy (signed with Detroit) in the lineup. They join free safety John Lynch, who is nearing the end of the road, and corner Champ Bailey, who remains a premier defender despite a tough 2004 performance at times.
Walls is an interesting guy -- he is the NFL's tallest corner (6-foot-4) and is blessed with a huge playmaking radius. There were a few times in the practices when he got beat, especially on double moves, but he is a pretty solid player. For one thing, Walls' footwork is much better than we anticipated from such a gangly and upright guy. That's because he bends pretty nicely at the knees, providing surprising fluidity, and keeping him from being just a long-strider. And he is much tougher, particularly on slants and balls generally thrown inside of him, than we expected. He's going to get a lot of balls thrown at him, playing opposite Bailey, but Walls, if healthy, might be up to the challenge.
Ferguson has been a journeyman and special teams-type player most of his career and has just 12 starts in five seasons. But he looks like a pretty aware defender, a guy who isn't often out of position, and who might actually be steadier than his predecessor. Kennedy was the master of the jaw-dropping, and sometimes jaw-breaking, big hit. It was a reputation he relished. But he made a ton more big hits than he did big plays, could be a liability in coverage, and took chances when they weren't necessary. The Broncos feel they'll be OK with Ferguson.
In an effort to address their secondary meltdowns of the past two postseasons, the Broncos selected defensive backs with each of their first three choices in the draft. The flashiest of the trio looks like Darrent Williams (No. 2), but he is a tiny guy, just 5-foot-8, and often gets burned when he takes risks. The rookie who might emerge quickest as a contributor is Domonique Foxworth (No. 3b), a pretty nice looking player. Corner Jeremy LeSueur, a second-year veteran who didn't play a snap in 2004, got taken to school a few times by Houston star wideout Andre Johnson, but has some size, and it's too early for the team to give up on him.
5. Even in combined camp sessions, in which teams might go at each other harder than they might in the standard intramural stuff during the summer, it's difficult to assess an offensive line play. But just watching the Broncos work for two days here, it sure looked like the tackle tandem of Matt Lepsis (left side) and George Foster (right) might emerge as one of the top duos in the NFL in 2005. The two are active guys, mobile like most of the starters who have played on the Denver line the past 15 years or so, and proficient in getting defenders onto the ground.
In his second season as a starter, Foster isn't quite as technically sound as Lepsis, but for such a mammoth guy (6-5, 338 pounds), he's got surprisingly good bend to him. Foster played every single snap in 2004 and that really accelerated his arrival. Lepsis made a fairly seamless transition to the left side after being on the right side most of his first seven seasons. Like Foster, he played every snap in '04, and was a terrific pass protector, a primary reason Denver didn't surrender a sack in eight of 16 games.
The rest of the line, which still uses the chop-blocking scheme defenders so detest, is solid. Center Tom Nalen, now 34 and in his 12th season, is nearing the end of the line and this could be his final go-round. Left guard Ben Hamilton is good enough to win with and the heir apparent to Nalen's spot. If there is a question mark, it is probably at right guard, where Cooper Carlisle, with only six career starts in five seasons, is lining up with the first unit. Notable about the line unit is that there is very little depth and one key injury could be very disruptive.
ESPN.com
Archive Related Video:
Maurice Clarett tries to win a roster spot
HOUSTON -- Here are five observations on the Denver Broncos, based on their Aug. 10-11 practices:
Fantasy focus: Mike Anderson
This was supposed to be the year when Tatum Bell broke through and became Denver's newest standout RB. But Anderson, who rushed for 1,487 yards and 15 TDs in 2000, is out to recapture that ol' starting job. Anderson's career has been plagued by injuries since his superstar rookie season, yet he has come to camp in terrific shape and is running very well. He has drawn praise from QB Jake Plummer and head coach Mike Shanahan.
Bell has fallen behind Anderson to the No. 2 spot on the depth chart. How long can Anderson keep this possible illusion up? No one knows for sure, but suddenly the veteran RB now looks like a quality fifth or sixth-round fantasy selection.
-- Scott Engel, associate editor of Fantasy Games
Sign up for free FFL
More fantasy football
1. As usual, the Broncos have their cast of thousands -- or, more accurately, potential 1,000-yard rushers -- at tailback. And, per the norm, no one seems certain who the starter will be when Denver opens the season at Miami on Sept. 11. One guy it won't be is surprise third-round draft choice Maurice Clarett, who didn't travel here for the mixed practices or Saturday night's preseason game because of a groin injury. According to sources, even before the injury, the erstwhile Ohio State back was struggling in several aspects of the game, and likely will not be much of a factor in 2005.
That leaves Mike Anderson, who is currently working with the first unit, and challengers Tatum Bell and Quentin Griffin. Here's one for all you trivia buffs: Anderson had more rushing yards and touchdowns as a rookie in 2000, when his 1,487 yards ranked as the sixth-most in history by a first-year player and he scored 15 times, than he has posted in the four years since then. Since that terrific 2000 campaign, in which he was named rookie of the year in many polls, Anderson has only 1,321 yards and nine rushing touchdowns.
Some physical setbacks, like the groin injury that cost him the entire '04 season, and the annual revolving door at tailback in Denver, all but relegated Anderson to afterthought status for a while. But by all accounts, Anderson, who will turn 32 a few weeks into the season, has enjoyed a superb camp. And there is no denying that he is a talented runner between the tackles, a guy who will get the tough yards inside, and one who gives the Broncos an attitude.
Although Anderson will get what's there on the run, his 4.5-career average might be a little misleading since he will leave some yards on the table. He doesn't often get to the second level of the defense and, despite four career gains of 40-plus yards, isn't a burner in the secondary. Arguably the most talented back, and the player Denver coaches seem to want to win the job at some point is Bell, but the Broncos aren't going to simply anoint the second-year veteran. The coaches want Bell to work for the No. 1 perch -- which is not to say that Anderson's spot atop the depth chart is meant merely as a motivational ploy -- but Bell hasn't demonstrated yet the consistency of effort that they're looking for.
Bell is explosive, and both he and Griffin are more typical of the slashing-type, one-cut runners who have had so much success working behind the NFL's most detested and devastating blocking scheme. Griffin is still recovering from knee surgery, but Bell did flash nice vision, and the ability to get to the perimeter on some plays during the two days of workouts. At this point, the guess is that the proven Anderson opens the year as the starter. But that rarely means anything with Denver, where head coach Mike Shanahan has never been shy about making changes or playing talented young runners.
One pretty safe bet, especially after 2004, is that some Denver back will rush for 1,000 yards in '05. Out of desperation last season, Shanahan turned to career fullback Reuben Droughns, who had just 40 rushes for 97 yards total in the previous four years. Because of injuries, Droughns started 15 games, carried 275 times and registered 1,240 yards. In Shanahan's 10 years as the Denver coach, the team has had a 1,000-yard rusher nine times, with five different tailbacks (Terrell Davis, Olandis Gary, Mike Anderson, Clinton Portis and Droughns) accomplishing that benchmark.
2. Accused at times of being a little rough on quarterback Jake Plummer, we plead guilty as charged. No doubt, the Broncos' playoff collapses in the past two seasons aren't on him, although he didn't play especially well. But the Broncos aren't paying Plummer all that money just to win a wild-card spot, which is what he has accomplished in each of his first two seasons with the franchise.
We've always felt that if you watch Plummer long enough, you will see the cracks. Sure enough, while he looked very good at times in the two days here, there were a lot of shaky moments as well. Many of those came in "red zone" seven-on-seven drills, in which he was forced to throw the ball too often. Two particularly bad throws came when Plummer was on the run, which is supposed to be one of his strong suits. Until he proves the critics wrong, Plummer looks like a guy who can get you 10 wins, but not a Super Bowl trophy. And for a franchise whose goal every season is a championship, that isn't quite good enough.
3. Yow, do these guys have a ton of defensive linemen -- 17 of them, in fact. And here's a scoop: Not all of them played for the Cleveland Browns last season. OK, so maybe we have beaten that dead horse, and the fact the Broncos have enjoyed so little success with homegrown D-linemen. But there is no way a regular-season roster can keep all these bodies around. So there are going to be several veterans out on the street in the next month.
Say good-bye (just guessing here) to the likes of Raylee Johnson, Chukie Nwokorie, Demetrin Veal, Dorsett Davis and others. At some point in the preseason, Denver will certainly try to peddle a few of these guys to line-needy teams, hoping to get something in return, and the oft-injured Davis might well be an intriguing guy to someone. But you just can't keep that many codgers around, and the Broncos have old guys in spades.
Tackle Luther Elliss, who is actually starting some in the nickel package and having a pretty good camp, might not make it at age 32. On the other hand, end Marco Coleman, 35, looks like a lock to have a job. All right, so how are all those Cleveland expatriates doing, that's what you want to know, isn't it? Well, we hope that you're seated for this shocker, but end Courtney Brown is injured, with a bad elbow. Yep, new city, same ol' problem. The rest of the guys imported from a team that had the NFL's worst statistical defense against the rush in 2004 aren't fairing nearly so badly.
That's especially true of the two tackles, Michael Myers and Gerard Warren, both of whom might be steals, given their modest price tags. Warren is one of our favorite guys and, if he ever figures out he doesn't have to make every play, he may yet reach his potential. The coaches really like my man "Big Money," and, hey, why not? Sure, he's been an underachiever, but as Warren displayed in flashes here, he is an active big man with disruptive (in too many ways, sometimes) qualities.
Keep an eye on sixth-year veteran end John Engelberger, acquired from San Francisco a few weeks ago in a trade for first-round flop cornerback Willie Middlebrooks. With the 49ers, Engelberger no longer fit, because coach Mike Nolan is transitioning to a 3-4 front. But Engelberger has some edge to him, is a player who really uses leverage well to compensate for lack of bulk, and is capable of stirring things up. Unlike a lot of the guys the Broncos have imported the past two years to make up for their defensive line draft failures, he will make the roster.
Jake Plummer must prove he is can take the Broncos to the next level.
4. When we last saw the remains of the Denver secondary, following a second straight playoff scorching by Peyton Manning (835 yards, nine touchdowns passes and just one interception in the two wild-card contests), they were, well, remains. The suggestion that someone bring in a coroner to identify the members of the unit would not have been considered in poor taste by anyone who saw those two debacles. So how is the Broncos secondary now? Let's be honest, it can't help but be better, can it?
There have been two changes, with Lenny Walls reclaiming his starting cornerback spot after he lost last season to shoulder surgery, and Nick Ferguson replacing departed strong safety Kenoy Kennedy (signed with Detroit) in the lineup. They join free safety John Lynch, who is nearing the end of the road, and corner Champ Bailey, who remains a premier defender despite a tough 2004 performance at times.
Walls is an interesting guy -- he is the NFL's tallest corner (6-foot-4) and is blessed with a huge playmaking radius. There were a few times in the practices when he got beat, especially on double moves, but he is a pretty solid player. For one thing, Walls' footwork is much better than we anticipated from such a gangly and upright guy. That's because he bends pretty nicely at the knees, providing surprising fluidity, and keeping him from being just a long-strider. And he is much tougher, particularly on slants and balls generally thrown inside of him, than we expected. He's going to get a lot of balls thrown at him, playing opposite Bailey, but Walls, if healthy, might be up to the challenge.
Ferguson has been a journeyman and special teams-type player most of his career and has just 12 starts in five seasons. But he looks like a pretty aware defender, a guy who isn't often out of position, and who might actually be steadier than his predecessor. Kennedy was the master of the jaw-dropping, and sometimes jaw-breaking, big hit. It was a reputation he relished. But he made a ton more big hits than he did big plays, could be a liability in coverage, and took chances when they weren't necessary. The Broncos feel they'll be OK with Ferguson.
In an effort to address their secondary meltdowns of the past two postseasons, the Broncos selected defensive backs with each of their first three choices in the draft. The flashiest of the trio looks like Darrent Williams (No. 2), but he is a tiny guy, just 5-foot-8, and often gets burned when he takes risks. The rookie who might emerge quickest as a contributor is Domonique Foxworth (No. 3b), a pretty nice looking player. Corner Jeremy LeSueur, a second-year veteran who didn't play a snap in 2004, got taken to school a few times by Houston star wideout Andre Johnson, but has some size, and it's too early for the team to give up on him.
5. Even in combined camp sessions, in which teams might go at each other harder than they might in the standard intramural stuff during the summer, it's difficult to assess an offensive line play. But just watching the Broncos work for two days here, it sure looked like the tackle tandem of Matt Lepsis (left side) and George Foster (right) might emerge as one of the top duos in the NFL in 2005. The two are active guys, mobile like most of the starters who have played on the Denver line the past 15 years or so, and proficient in getting defenders onto the ground.
In his second season as a starter, Foster isn't quite as technically sound as Lepsis, but for such a mammoth guy (6-5, 338 pounds), he's got surprisingly good bend to him. Foster played every single snap in 2004 and that really accelerated his arrival. Lepsis made a fairly seamless transition to the left side after being on the right side most of his first seven seasons. Like Foster, he played every snap in '04, and was a terrific pass protector, a primary reason Denver didn't surrender a sack in eight of 16 games.
The rest of the line, which still uses the chop-blocking scheme defenders so detest, is solid. Center Tom Nalen, now 34 and in his 12th season, is nearing the end of the line and this could be his final go-round. Left guard Ben Hamilton is good enough to win with and the heir apparent to Nalen's spot. If there is a question mark, it is probably at right guard, where Cooper Carlisle, with only six career starts in five seasons, is lining up with the first unit. Notable about the line unit is that there is very little depth and one key injury could be very disruptive.