Editor’s note: Welcome into one of many, many BSN Denver observation pieces to come this offseason. A fan favorite in the past, these stories will be posted after each and every training camp practice. Who is standing out, who is lagging behind and who is looking like the favorite in each of the position battles? Those questions and many more will be answered right here.

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — For the first time all camp, Vance Joseph called out his team after practice. The head coach wasn’t happy with the energy levels the offense brought to the field in the morning.

Afterward, he made it clear that it’s their responsibility to fix it.

“We have to start faster, in my opinion,” he explained. “We can’t pick and choose our times to be focused. So that’s a problem… The players have to change it. They have to come out of the locker room ready to play. Obviously, as coaches, we’re ready to go. I’m ready to go every day. So that’s on the players to come out here with an attitude of, ‘Let’s start fast today.’ It’s a mindset.”

The sluggishness appeared to impact the offense most, as they came out somewhat flat, getting stuffed by the defense for most of the early parts of practice. With that being said, though, they definitely still had their bright spots.

BSN Denver was on hand for the entirety of the seventh practice of camp, here’s what we saw.

DT’s Reminder

When you’ve been in the league as long as Demaryius Thomas has, training camp becomes a little different.

As a nine-year vet, camp is about getting into football shape, getting on the same page with your quarterback, and way up at the top of the list, staying healthy.

In just watching a few practices, you can see the differences between the seasoned guys—the Von Millers, the Domata Pekos, the Darian Stewarts—and the rookies and/or guys who are trying to make the roster.

With that in mind, Demaryius Thomas hasn’t been blowing anyone away this camp, especially in the shadows of Courtland Sutton and Emmanuel Sanders. In fact, some had wondered out loud if Thomas had fallen out of Case Keenum’s favor.

Between that and all of the times Thomas has been asked about the rookie, it appeared he came out to practice on Saturday with a purpose. On the first play of the team period, DT made a nice play on a ball that was thrown a little bit high and behind him from Case Keenum, hauling it in for a seven-yard gain.

On the next play, Thomas caught a short pass in the flat heading towards the sideline, then slammed on the breaks, sending Justin Simons sliding out of the play and turned the ball upfield for what would have been a first down and potentially more if the play had been truly live.

It may seem like nothing, but that play and the explosiveness from Thomas within it, was enough to confirm to me that he hasn’t been going 100 percent during camp, and that’s fine, all you need coming out of this camp is the knowledge that he can still hit 100 percent that he needs to.

Throughout the day, Thomas appeared to be the favorite target of Keenum as they went on to hook up three or four more times during the practice.

Pressure —> Diamonds

For the first time all camp, the defense consistently created pressure in the face of Keenum.

Even though Clinton McDonald was the only player to register a clean sack of the starting QB, the pass rush moved him off of his spot all day.

Shane Ray had a nice practice rushing the passer, especially in the early going, when he had multiple pressures on No. 4 and may have had a chance to strip the ball from Keenum as he loaded up to pass on one play. In the spirit of the quarterback’s health, Ray elected not to try.

There was one play where both Ray and Chubb teamed up on the same side, with Chubb’s hands in the ground and Ray standing up just to his right. As the ball was snapped, the offensive tackle, thinking he had inside help, decided to bounce outside to block Ray. Unfortunately for the offense, the inside help wasn’t there, and Chubb busted through the line with a clear path to Keenum.

As was the case for most of the day, though, even when the defense got pressure on Keenum, he remained poised. Even on that play, with Chubb bearing down on him, the quarterback quickly delivered a strike into the hands of Thomas, who caught the ball in full stride over the middle.

Later, in the red zone, Keenum once again saw his pocket collapse on him. As he meticulously stepped up and began to scramble to the right side, his eyes were locked on the receivers. He looked, looked and looked, having now evaded the pressure entirely. Finally, he gave up on throwing a TD and begrudgingly settled for running it in himself, untouched.

Saturday was a great example as to why Keenum is the offensive line’s best friend. Even when under immense pressure, he didn’t crumble, and he didn’t make any big mistakes. He simply got rid of the ball more quickly and was a bit more scramble happy.

Play of the Day

Guess who?

Yep.

Courtland “The Stallion” Sutton.

Just when you thought he couldn’t outdo himself, he did it again, pulling off the longest play of camp thus far.

With the offense backed up inside their own five-yard line, they decided to go to their new safety valve. Quarterback Case Keenum dropped back, hit his back foot, waited for half a second and unleashed a bomb down the right sideline, where Sutton was covered by Bradley Roby, the same guy who drew a flag the day before for popping Sutton in the facemask.

With the ball coming up a bit short, some 50 yards down the field, the rookie wide receiver gently tapped on the brakes, aligning himslef perfectly underneath the ball and forcing Roby to proverbially rear-end him. As the referee reached for his flag, the ball dropped right into Sutton’s breadbasket.

No. 14 then hit the accelerator, getting past the last line of defense in Darian Stewart for the 95-yard touchdown.

Revenge.

In what is just another feather in the cap of the young wideout, his ability to adjust to the ball while it’s in the air has been superb.

Injury and Availability Notes

• Su’a Cravens (knee), Jeff Heuerman (knee) and Tramaine Brock (hamstring) all missed practice with lingering injuries.
  • Brock was on the field for warmups and spent the practice on the sidelines working with the trainers.
• Philly Brown (concussion) did not practice, but was on the field doing conditioning work, and had a helmet on for the first time since suffering the head injury.
• Josey Jewell got his first 11-on-11 action of camp.
  • “He was a little anxious to get his first hitting action in the NFL,” Brandon Marshall said after practice. “Of course, as a rookie, you would. You want to show what you can do, kind of test the waters a little bit, but I thought he did well. Josey is an extremely smart, picks up the playbook fast, and I think he going to be able to contribute for us. Honestly, he just has to kind of get his legs back. He had that hamstring. Once he gets his leg back and he kind of gets more experienced, I think he’ll be fine.”

Additional Notes

• The third unit battery of Chad Kelly and Sam Jones has had far to many mishaps on the snap. Throughout camp, the ball has been on the ground nearly double-digit times due to a misplaced or mishandled snap.
• On the practice, I counted at least three instances when a player would have received a 15-yard penalty under the new “illegal use of the helmet” penalty.
• Adam Gotsis has quietly had a strong camp defending the run. On one play, it looked as if Royce Freeman was going to gain the edge but, before you could blink, Gotsis cut off the lane and gobbled him up in the backfield.
• During the one of accuracy drill on the net, the quarterbacks had to utilize a pump fake. Chad Kelly was the only QB to hit his target; he went 3-for-4.
• Bradley Chubb has been impressive when dropped into coverage. By our unofficial count, he’s been in coverage in live action three times and has two pass breakups. Today, he displayed perfect coverage on TE Brian Parker, forcing a no-throw from Paton Lynch.
• After getting cooked on the first day of practice, Brandon Marshall got revenge on Phillip Lindsay today with a nice pass breakup.