Editor’s note: In addition to our overarching observations every day, throughout Broncos’ training camp, we will be picking at least one position battle each practice to focus in on. We’ll give an in-depth look at how the battle looked that day, and where each of the competitors stand in the race.

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — While Tramaine Brock sat on the shelf for a handful of practices, the Denver Broncos got a good, long look at young corners Issac Yiadom and Brendan Langley.

In that time, it was clear that—despite only being a rookie—Yiadom was the more polished player.

That was reflected in Saturday’s game, as Yiadom actually got the start with the Broncos’ first-team defense, drawing Vikings’ star Stephon Diggs on the very first play. Diggs got Yiadom a couple of times, but the rookie stayed right there with him.

“I tell you what, I’m excited,” said defensive coordinator Joe Woods. “He went against one of the better receivers in the league, Diggs, and he was all over him. At the line of scrimmage, he was getting hands on him. On the back-shoulder fade, it’s just a reaction play. Our whole mindset is we want to eliminate ‘9 routes’ and react to everything else. I’d rather him learn how to play a back-shoulder than learn how to defend a ‘9.’ Very promising first game for him and he’ll continue to get better.”

On Monday, though, Brock was back at practice and ready to reclaim the spot that has appeared to be his since he was brought on as a free agent this offseason. On Tuesday, we keyed in on Brock and his challengers to see how things are shaping up.

What we saw today

Big Brock

Ealy on this offseason, it became clear that big wide receivers were not the best matchup for the six-foot-tall, 188-pound cornerback, as Demaryius Thomas had his way with him on multiple days in OTAs.

On Tuesday, though, Brock looked to have improved in that area.

Matched up with Courtland Sutton on the left side of the field, Brock ran with the training-camp star stride for stride, and when the ball arrived about 20 yards down the field, Brock was there to knock it away.

Later, while matched up with Thomas, Brock had sticky coverage two plays in a row—one in which Thomas appeared to be the primary receiver but the coverage forced Case Keenum to go elsewhere with the ball.

Finally, in coverage of Tim Patrick—the tallest Broncos’ receiver—Brock forced a throw to go out of bounds in the end zone as he gave Chad Kelly nowhere safe to put it.

“He looks good. They’ve been rehabbing him hard,” said Woods. “He’s not all the way back, but he is taking some reps in practice. It’ll be good to get him back out there. He adds a veteran guy to our secondary. Yiadom has stepped in and done a good job so far, but he gives us a lot more depth.”

Overall it was a really strong day for Brock, who made his presence felt in his second day back with the defense. It will be interesting to see how he does against the Bears over the next few days.

Yiadom Staying Strong

It feels like Issac Yiadom is on the precipice of breaking through.

Yiadom knows what to do on the majority of plays, and it’s beginning to come to him naturally, but it’s still a process of getting techniques down to perfectly that they become second nature.

On the day, Yiadom was beat by Tim Patrick for a 20-yard gain, but as he almost always is, No. 41 was in position to stop the play from going any further.

Throughout the rest of the day, the rookie had nice coverage and wasn’t targeted much.

Don’t Give up on Langley

While he has certainly struggled in camp, the second-year corner may have been ignited by a strong special teams performance in Saturday’s game that included a big tackle on a punt and a big block on Isaiah Mckenzie’s punt return touchdown.

“He’s a big corner that can run,” special teams coordinator Tom McMahon said of Langley. “He’s built like a safety, so you know he’s one of those guys you can play on at “five” on kick cover and at gunner, he should dominate with his strength.”

On Tuesday, though, Langley also had a very nice practice at corner.

After getting beat by DaeSean Hamilton early in practice, Langley locked in.

In coverage of Demaryius Thomas in the end zone, Langley forced a throw to go wide of the boundary as Case Keenum attempted to keep the ball away from him.

Later, while covering Courtland Sutton, Langley stuck to 14’s hip as Chad Kelly looked to the opposite side fo the field. Kelly found nothing on the right side, so he scrambled back to the left. As Sutton broke back toward the quarterback, Langley continued to stay right with him, and when Kelly delivered the ball, No. 27 stuck his hand in there and knocked it away.

Monday may have been the best practice of training camp thus far for Langley. Let’s see if the kid can keep building on it.

Roby Update

Even though this has nothing to do with the competition for the third cornerback spot, I wanted to clear something up as it relates to Bradley Roby and how he’s been looking in camp so far.

Just because you’ve seen multiple tweets about Roby giving up a big play here or there in practice does not mean that he’s struggling or having a bad camp.

First of all, some of these plays being made are unreal. Let’s take today for example, as Roby got “beat” for two big plays. On the first play, Roby had perfect coverage on Courtland Sutton up the right sideline, but as they say, “there’s no coverage for a perfect throw.” Chad Kelly dopped the ball into a place that only Courtland Sutton could get to the ball. It would have taken a miraculous play by Roby to break it up.

On a later play, it was DaeSean Hamilton who hauled in the big catch. This time, Roby and much of the defense thought offensive pass interference should have been called on top of the fact that Hamilton simply made a spectacular catch to get it away from Roby.

Sometimes the offense just happens to make the better play. That’s okay. I wouldn’t worry too much about Roby.

How it Stands Now

While Yiadom made a nice push in Brock’s absence, it seems clear right now that—when healthy—Tramaine Brock is this team’s third cornerback. On Monday he took most, if not all, of the first-team reps when there were three corners on the field.

Brock brings a veteran presence that the other two guys just can’t offer and Chris Harris Jr. has made it clear that the veteran presence is something that’s important to him to have out there on the field with him.

Beyond that, Yiadom appears to be net in line, but Langley has a chance to close that gap if he continues to string good practices together.

What They’re Saying

Vance Joseph on how CB Tramaine Brock has looked since returning to practice

“He’s been back in practice two days. So far so good. He looks healthy; he looks quick again.”