Broncos Press ~ Friday edition

[Needa Pass Rush]

Some good stuff below the half way mark on the linked page.

http://www.denverbroncos.com/resources/custom/mediaroom/clippings/October%206,%202006.pdf

[Rock Chalk]

Type it all out for me ;D

[Rock Chalk]

Man that article about Plummer hanging out with the defense rocked.

[Needa Pass Rush]

Man that article about Plummer hanging out with the defense rocked. This one? I typed it out for ya. ;)

Plummer Stays On an Even Keel
Bronco Has 'Perfect Mentality' for QB

By Les Carpenter
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 6, 2006; E03



ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- Every Thursday night, the men who make up the Denver Broncos' defense gather at a local restaurant, cut into gigantic slabs of meat and talk about football. It has become a popular outing, a bonding session, something they believe has made them better.

And lately, the dinners have been marked by the presence of a bearded man who has nothing to do with the Broncos' defense. Yet no one seems to mind. In fact, most of the Denver defensive players are thrilled that their quarterback, Jake Plummer, thinks enough of them to stop by.

"He really cares about his teammates," Broncos safety John Lynch says.

It seems like a small thing, stopping by a dinner one evening a week. But the NFL is loaded with weekly defensive outings and few, if any of them, are attended by the team's quarterback. Spending time with the defense is not something most NFL quarterbacks do.

And it presents an interesting contrast. Because the Broncos, who play the Ravens on Monday night, are 2-1 but have done little offensively. And a significant reason they have not put up much of an attack is because Plummer has been intercepted four times. This has not endeared him to a local populace still smarting over the two interceptions he threw in the AFC championship game in January, and many are convinced he is the only thing standing in the way of another NFL title.

But inside the team's locker room, Plummer is beloved as a normal guy who thinks nothing of giving up his evenings to hang out with his teammates, a quarterback without pretensions. And because of this they stand firmly behind him, united in support of their besieged leader.

"I think a lot of it is his demeanor," says former Redskins tight end Stephen Alexander, who now plays for the Broncos. "He doesn't let the other stuff bother him. He doesn't care what people say. He doesn't care what people think. He's going to do what Jake thinks is best."

There is a certain respect that fills an NFL locker room for the man who hears the boos but seems oblivious to their poisoned darts.

"He has a perfect mentality for a quarterback," Alexander says. "I've seen quarterbacks go in the tank or start playing scared. He just lets it go and forgets about it."

Plummer carries an indifference his teammates love. He doesn't strut, he doesn't preen. He shrugs and does his own thing, no matter how odd his own thing might seem in the buttoned-up world of the NFL.

After all, how many professional quarterbacks drive a Honda Element? Or wear a thrift-store corduroy suit on the team plane for road trips? If any of these things seem staged, to create for effect some Wild West image for the player who grew up in Boise, Idaho, it would probably fall flat. But because Plummer pulls everything off so naturally, he only builds the respect of his teammates even more.

"He's just a little different," Alexander says. "I think it's awesome. I've never been a guy who has been consumed by what you wear and what you drive. I love that about him. He doesn't let money affect him."

Asked about this on a recent day outside the Broncos' locker room, Plummer nods. He is sitting on a table in a hallway, wearing his practice jersey over a tattered, white long-sleeved shirt and he looks around surveying the title contender under his charge. Like many athletes who have never won a championship, he has become consumed with a title, he says. Everything now is about that.

"If you're lucky enough like me to have had a good first couple of [contract] deals, I'm not playing this game to make another $20 million," Plummer says. "I can live off what I made in, shoot, my first three years. I have a decent outlook on my life. Financially I am set. What do I do now? I'm playing to win a Super Bowl."

At 31, with 10 years in the league, he can probably see the end coming. At least in Denver, where the quarterback of the future already has been identified as Jay Cutler, who has startled everybody around the team with rocket-like throws that have perfect accuracy. That the Broncos used a first-round pick in this year's draft to take Cutler only accentuates the obvious notion that he will be the starter very soon.

Yet as much as the fans clamor for him, there is also a sense around the Broncos that Cutler is a year or two away. The team, for now, is Plummer's.

For the first six years of his career, he was something of a novelty act. A lanky quarterback, seemingly too thin to be on a professional football field, loping around the Arizona Cardinals' backfield trying to bring perpetually wretched teams back from another impossible chasm. He was "Jake the Snake" and he gained a reputation for being intercepted as much as he made the unfathomable happen.

But when the Broncos were in the market for a quarterback before the 2003 season, their coach, Mike Shanahan, became infatuated with the way Plummer seemed to make magic out of nothing. He watched tapes of every pass the player threw in his career and became convinced that Plummer's biggest mistakes came when the Cardinals were losing and he had to do something, anything. All he needed was to learn the system that John Elway used to win two championships here and he would be fine.

"It took a couple of years," Shanahan says.

Still, there was the old Plummer with three interceptions in a season-opening loss to the Rams and then another interception in a near-loss to Kansas City. The hum for Cutler grew louder around town. And while it died somewhat after he threw his first two touchdowns of the year in a win at New England, the criticism -- including some for a summertime road rage fender bender -- is never far away.

"Obviously it bothers you," he says. "The only way it won't is if you don't have a pulse."

The admission is brief. These are things he does not wish to dwell upon. If fans boo, then they boo. He's used to it by now.

"Fame doesn't define me," he says. "If it did, I would be miserable."

So instead he basks in the embrace of his coaches and teammates. "You kind of respect a quarterback who likes to shake it up every once in awhile like a defensive guy," Lynch says.

In the end, this is what matters to Plummer the most. If the people around the Broncos love him, he can deal with whatever churns outside. After all, this is the land of Elway and no Bronco quarterback, no matter what he does, seems able to live up to Elway around here.

This, he says, he understands. But Denver was his great chance at winning big. And if he has to deal with the howl of the fans who think he will never be Elway, it's worth it to still have that chance at winning.

"I'll take that trade," he says.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/05/AR2006100501820_pf.html

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"If you look at skill position players around the league there aren't a whole lot of guys making huge impacts outside of (Green
Bay's receiver Greg) Jennings," Denver assistant head coach Mike Heimerdinger said. "Our guys are making good progress.
Nobody is unhappy with them. They are going to be fine."

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Coyer commenting on Pryce talking crap -

“I can’t say — I mean, I love the guy,” Coyer said. “I truly do. I like his personality, love the
kid, think he’s a great guy. If that were to be the truth, I’d be very sorry for having wasted a
talent like that."

[Rock Chalk]

This one? I typed it out for ya. ;)


Geez, hope your fingers arent tired :notworthy Yeah, that article. Great read.

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Since 2003, Denver and Baltimore are the only two teams in the NFL to rank among the leagues top five defenses
in all five of the following categories:

Fewest rushing yards allowed
2. Denver 4,651
4. Baltimore 5,061

Fewest total yards allowed
1. Baltimore, 14,569
4. Denver, 14,864

Lowest opponent third down percentage
1. Denver 32.1
2. Baltimore 32.6

Fewest points allowed
1. Baltimore, 881
5. Denver, 894

Fewest first downs allowed
2. Denver, 825
3. Baltimore, 850

[listopencil]

Check out the ESPN Insider Match-Up:

[Rock Chalk]

Check out the ESPN Insider Match-Up:

Yeah I posted that in my scouting report. Like I said there, thats crazy they called our LB corps even what with Murderer Ray on the loose and getting all the ESPiN love as per usual.

Still think DBs at worst is even and more than likely a plus to us. JMO.

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Maybe they figure he's unarmed so he's not as effective? I swear if he does that stupid dance I hope somebody nails the crap out of him. I hate that piece of ****.