Andrew Mason's Broncos RBs Preview

[SoCalBronco]

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Training Camp Preview: Running Backs
By Andrew Mason
DenverBroncos.com

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- There is but one irrefutable truth of the Broncos' running game over the last decade -- that someone will emerge as a force. So for the Broncos, it's hard to justify fretting over Reuben Droughns' departure, nor is it worthy of panic when offering the caveats for each competitor in the running-back derby.

But just to refresh ...

... Mike Anderson is the only rusher on the Broncos to post a 1,000-yard season in the NFL, BUT he's coming off a torn groin that kept him out for the entire regular season last year ...

... Tatum Bell is speedy and showed flashes of brilliance last December, BUT a series of injuries kept him from contributing greatly until the season's last month ...

[SoCalBronco]

... Quentin Griffin was the starter to open last year, BUT only time will tell how well the darting runner will be able to stop and start following surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament ...

... Ron Dayne is a former Heisman Trophy winner who is now in a running system that mirrors the one that brought him stratospheric success at the University of Wisconsin, BUT he's never gained as much as 800 yards in a single NFL season ...

... Maurice Clarett was arguably the most clutch running back in Division I-A at Ohio State, BUT he hasn't played in a game since early January 2003.



COUNTDOWN TO CAMP
As the quiet summer days before training camp dwindle down to a precious few, we'll count them down by focusing on a different area of the team every weekday between now and the start of camp.
JULY 18: QUARTERBACKS
JULY 19: TIGHT ENDS
WEDNESDAY, JULY 20: RUNNING BACKS
THURSDAY, JULY 21: WIDE RECEIVERS
FRIDAY, JULY 22: OFFENSIVE LINE
MONDAY, JULY 25: SPECIAL TEAMS
TUESDAY, JULY 26: DEFENSIVE LINE
WEDNESDAY, JULY 27: LINEBACKERS
THURSDAY, JULY 28: DEFENSIVE BACKS

All good points. But the ultimate "yes, but ..." is this: In 2000, 2002 and 2004, the Broncos went into training camp without a clearly defined starter at the position thanks either to injuries or trades, BUT the team still managed to find an effective runner who burst forth for at least 1,200 yards, and did so by veering south on the depth chart to do it.

[SoCalBronco]

Five seasons ago, it was Anderson breaking through after injuries held back Terrell Davis and later Olandis Gary. All he did was set a franchise rookie rushing record. Three seasons ago, Clinton Portis broke that mark, stepping in after injuries hindered Davis and Gary, seizing the job one-fourth of the way through the year and ending as the league's Offensive Rookie of the Year.

Droughns' performance was perhaps the most unlikely of all, since he wasn't even lining up at running back; he'd become the team's starting fullback and was faring well there. But with Anderson sidelined for the season, Griffin hobbling with a sprained ankle and Bell still in the midst of a series of injuries, he gained 193 yards against the Carolina Panthers and pounded his way to the Broncos' ninth 1,000-yard rushing season in the last 10 years.

So recent history is on the side of the Broncos, their system and the teachings of running backs coach Bobby Turner. They've groomed runners before from the lower regions of the depth chart, and with the rest of the first-team offense returning intact from the end of last season, there's scant reason to feel they can't do so again.

Anderson believes that he can be that once and future bellwether back.

"I've got it in me," Anderson said. "And I know, too, that for me to have a season such as that, I've got to go out and compete my tail off for the starting position."

What helps matters is that Anderson is back to 100 percent -- and has been for a while.

"Right after the injury, we did two months straight of rehabbing every day with the trainers and after that I was back in the weight room," Anderson said. "By Christmastime I was back to being myself again.

"Ever since Halloween, I felt like I could get back out there and play."

In the eyes of one fellow running back, Anderson is the man to beat.

"If I was to choose, it would probably be Mike," Dayne said. "Mike knows everything and he's the guy up front. We're all going to compete for it and just play hard."

It's worth noting that before Anderson's injury last year, he was effective at tailback in his first full-time work there in two years, even bursting for a rare preseason feat -- a 100-yard rushing game, which he turned in at Seattle in Denver's third August contest last year.

[SoCalBronco]

Preseason work wasn't as plentiful for Bell, who didn't finally see extensive game action until the last game of the preseason after suffering a finger injury. He then fought through injuries through the first half of the season.

In Bell's eyes, it was a disappointing rookie season; he arrived in Denver on draft weekend proclaiming his intention to lead the league in rushing, but could only muster one 100-yard game -- an effort against the Miami Dolphins that saw him leave in the third quarter with a shoulder injury.

"It's easier said than done," Bell said. "You've got to go out and pay the price in the offseason, and the cards have got to fall down the right way for you to be one of the top backs."

To Bell's credit, he fought through the shoulder injury and didn't miss a game from that point forward. And after changing his diet, improving his study habits and growing more comfortable in the Broncos' scheme the past few months, he is as confident as Anderson that the No. 1 job can be his.

"I feel like I'm the man," Bell said. "It hasn't been said; I just feel that deep inside."

When the 2004 season started, Griffin was the man. He opened as the No. 1 back and electrified the Broncos with a 158-yard, three-touchdown performance (one score was on a pass) in the season-opening, nationally televised win over the Kansas City Chiefs. At that juncture, Griffin had posted 100-yard games in two of the four contests in which he'd been the Broncos' primary back, and appeared to have limitless potential.

The next week changed all that. Griffin muscled and burrowed through the Jacksonville Jaguars' massive defensive tackles for 66 yards, but a lost fumble on a handoff from Jake Plummer cost the Broncos a chance to attempt a game-winning field goal in the final minute. Seven days later, the Broncos won, but Griffin and the team's runners struggled to the club's lowest ground output in a decade.

Two weeks later, he was on the sidelines with an ankle injury. Droughns stepped in, gained 193 yards and seized the job. Griffin's primary work became as a kickoff returner, and that didn't last long after he tore his anterior cruciate ligament running back the second-half kickoff at Cincinnati.

Griffin finally got back to full work at the mini-camp earlier in July, but still feels as though he has some road yet to traverse in completing his recovery.

"I don't think I've got over that hurdle necessarily. I haven't taken a hit in forever," he said. "That'll unfold in a little bit."


So, too, will the progress of Dayne, the former first-round pick of the New York Giants who never achieved numbers commensurate with his draft status, or with the pressure placed on him by Giants fans who wanted the New Jersey-bred back to have a triumphant homecoming in blue and gray.

Dayne doesn't have the familiarity with the Broncos' specific scheme like Anderson, Bell and Griffin do. What he does possess is a knowledge of the Broncos' general style of one-cut, gap running. It's the same style he was allowed to use at Wisconsin, and he shredded Big 10 defenses for four years practicing it.

"I know how to run to the gaps; that's what I did in college," Dayne said. "It's just getting back used to it. I didn't do this type of running in New York."

Dayne also didn't have a younger former Big 10 back he could look after like he has the past three months.

"Ron Dayne really has been like a big brother to me," said Clarett, the junior member of the Broncos' running consortium. "We come to meetings together, we eat together. He's just schooling me, telling me what I'm doing."

[SoCalBronco]

Clarett said he's also tried to learn from another member of the rookie class of 2000 -- but one with significantly more Denver experience.

"Mike Anderson, being a veteran who's been here the longest, he helps everybody," Clarett said. "He'd help you even if he wasn't competing for the position, he tells you what's right, what's wrong, which way to go, what you did wrong. The group of guys I've got around me is supportive."

Clarett will need that kind of support as he attempts to develop. It has been two and a half years since he played in an organized football time, and at times, the rust can show.

"Like all rookies it takes a while to get back in football shape," Head Coach Mike Shanahan said. "He looks pretty good. Like all rookies, it's a learning curve. It doesn't happen overnight, but he's making progress."

"At first, when I was running the ball, I was being patient, more like I was at Ohio State," Clarett said. "Coach (Gary) Kubiak told me, 'The hell with that. You'll never get into trouble for running downhill here.' I've pretty much got that under control, so it's cool."

Rounding out the running backs is Kris Briggs, who has bounced around a trio of practice squads since joining the league following a four-year career at SMU.

FULLBACK

The 2004 injuries to Griffin and Anderson not only allowed Droughns to emerge, but gave Kyle Johnson the opportunity for which he'd pined in his first two-plus NFL seasons. The persistent Johnson hadn't played a regular-season down prior to last fall, and only lined up at fullback when Droughns moved over to tailback against Carolina.

What the Broncos found was their first true fullback since Howard Griffith, a bruising blocker who was surprisingly light on his feet, as he showed in averaging 14.0 yards per reception last year with two touchdowns. An ankle injury ended his season three weeks early, but he still had enough chances to show what he could contribute.

So the offseason focus for Johnson was different. Instead of scratching for a roster spot, he now looks to become entrenched -- and also to recover from the battering that goes with blocking for a power back like Droughns.

"You beat your body up; you played 16 games for 17 weeks. I even got a little banged up in the K.C. game and didn't finish the season as strongly as I would have liked," Johnson said. "But it's positive in the aspect of you know a little more, you know the speed of the game, you know what you didn't do as well that you might like to improve upon for the next year."

Cecil Sapp is also in the mix at the position; he's carried the ball just 16 times over his two years with the Broncos, during which he played in six games. Second-year player Brandon Miree will also jockey for playing time; he spent the spring in NFL Europe, enduring a peripatetic existence on the league's practice squad before finding a home on the Rhein Fire, where he turned in one of the team's highlights by sprinting 55 yards with a short pass for a touchdown

[Cito Pelon]

Originally Posted by SoCalBronco

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Training Camp Preview: Running Backs
By Andrew Mason
DenverBroncos.com

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- There is but one irrefutable truth of the Broncos' running game over the last decade -- that someone will emerge as a force. So for the Broncos, it's hard to justify fretting over Reuben Droughns' departure, nor is it worthy of panic when offering the caveats for each competitor in the running-back derby.

But just to refresh ...

... Mike Anderson is the only rusher on the Broncos to post a 1,000-yard season in the NFL, BUT he's coming off a torn groin that kept him out for the entire regular season last year ...

... Tatum Bell is speedy and showed flashes of brilliance last December, BUT a series of injuries kept him from contributing greatly until the season's last month ...

Was going to repost that, but I figured somebody had done so. Good article.

Anderson is a stud, great team guy.

http://www.denverbroncos.com/page.ph...4&storyID=4306