Broncos’ Mini Camp Observations: Welcome to the Bradley Chubb show

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 anytime we get a view of the Broncos on the field between now and the end of training camp. 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. — Summer is in the air and training camp is right around the corner.

But before the boys in Orange & Blue duke it out in the July heat, they have one final stepping stone that precludes their summer break: Mini camp.

Unlike the other eight weeks of the offseason conditioning program, the mini camp taking place this week (Tuesday-Thursday) is the only mandatory part of the offseason. Fortunately, the Denver Broncos have nothing to worry about in that respect as they had full attendance on Tuesday’s practice.

The final, and most important, part of the offseason program began with a bang on Tuesday. Here’s what BSN Denver observed and took away from the most important practice of the year to date.

AS COOL AS THE OTHER SIDE OF THE PILLOW

Last year, the Broncos’ offense struggled mightily when the quarterback was under pressure. On Tuesday, defensive coordinator Joe Woods wanted to see how Case Keenum would do in that situation.

The results were drastically different than last year.

During the first half of practice, Woods and his defense consistently brought pressure with many different looks, successfully flooding Keenum with pressure. However, the waves of bodies in Case’s face didn’t phase him or his play.

Instead of scrambling or trying to escape out of the pocket in the face of pressure, Keenum consistently stepped up and shuffled around the pocket until he was able to find an outlet man. While most of the passes under pressure weren’t big hitters, they weren’t sacks, incompletions or, most importantly, turnovers.

“I always thought that it was my job to get the ball out of my hands and get it into the fast guy’s hands and let them to something with it,” Keenum said after Tuesday’s practice. “If I’m stuck with the ball, usually it’s not a good result. I try to get it out of my hands and into those guys that can do something with it and we have a lot of those guys.”

On the day, Keenum’s favorite group on the field was the running backs as he turned to an array of them early and often in the passing game, from Phillip Lindsay to Andy Janovich.

Of note: Keenum did have one interception on the day when he looked for Isaiah McKenzie 20 yards down the field, and Chris Harris Jr. came away with the ball.

THE CHUBB SHOW

Out of all 89 players on the field on Tuesday, one stood out above the rest. That one was John Elway’s prized No. 5 overall pick, Bradley Chubb.

Less than two months into his career, “The Astronaut” has taken off with his sole mission of destroying quarterback’s hopes and dreams. So far, so good.

Lining up against the first-team offensive line, Chubb was too much to handle for Bill Musgrave’s unit. After taking both Menelik Watson and Billy Turner to town individually, Musgrave assigned both linemen to double-team the rookie. What ensued next earned play of the day honors (read below).

From both sides of the line, and both standing up and with his hand in the dirt, Chubb continued to show an array of pass rush moves that can’t be slowed down.

On the day, his most dominant position was when he had his hand in the dirt, but instead of lining up between the tackles, he was a body and a half outside the tackle. From there, he exploded into either the tackle or guard, measuring them up on his get off.

Even with the great Von Miller on the field, Chubb stole the show.

INJURY UPDATE

For the fourth-straight week, five players did not practice: Ron Leary (knee soreness), Jordan Taylor (hips), Jared Veldheer (foot), Troy Fumagalli (sports hernia) and Clinton McDonald (shoulder).

After practice, head coach Vance Joseph again reinforced he’s not concerned with any of the injuries, specifically to Veldheer and Leary, adding that he’s optimistic those two will be ready for training camp. Joseph added that neither Veldheer nor Leary have suffered any setbacks.

Demaryius Thomas “tweaked” his ankle, according to Joseph, and did not participate in the team portion of practice. As he walked off the field, he told BSN Denver he “was good” and didn’t appear to have any noticeable pain.

After sitting out practice last Monday, both Austin Traylor and Billy Turner were back at practice on Tuesday.

The biggest injury update came in regards to Shane Ray. The fourth-year pass rusher is scheduled to undergo surgery on Thursday to clean up a procedure he had last year. Ray stated his timetable is “two to three months” and believes he’ll be back by the season opener on Sept. 9.

After practice, Joseph said he wanted to wait until the surgery was over to make a timetable, but added, “He’ll be back early part of the season… He’ll be back to help us.”

Looking at Ray’s fourth surgery in 10 months on the bright side, Joseph said, “We know what it is and we can finally fix it the right way.”

OTHER TIDBITS

• Paxton Lynch was very accurate during all of Tuesday’s practice. During team periods, Brendan Langley knocked down one of Lynch’s passes, but outside of that, the third-year quarterback was consistent in connecting with his intended target. An important note is most of his completions were within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage.
• During team and individual portions of practice, punter Marquette King was consistently booming punts, not only down the field, but high in the air for a long hang time.
• As mentioned earlier, Joe Woods used an array of sub-packages and blitz combinations to confuse the offensive line. From the way practice unfolded, Woods could have brought pressure on every play, and it could have been a different look every single time.
  • One notable play had Josey Jewell in Lynch’s face within a second of the ball being snapped. In a game, Jewell would have had Paxton on the ground before he could have made a single read.
• Defensive end DeShawn Williams was impressive on the day, consistently making it into the backfield.
• The Broncos brought in six players for minicamp tryouts: (P) Colby Wadman, (LB) T.J. McCollum, (LB) Bo Bower, (DE) Antonio Simmons, (DE) Nordly Capi and (DT) Caushaud Lyons.

PLAY OF THE DAY

It would only be fitting for the player of the day to receive play of the day honors. And boy did Chubb deserve it.

After beating both Turner and Watson early in practice, the offense changed their protections so that both players were double-teaming Chubb.

That, however, didn’t fix the Bradley Chubb issue for the offense.

Coming off the right side of the line with his hand in the dirt, Chubb attacked Turner and Watson, pushing both of them back into Case’s pocket. Keenum was able to get the ball away before more damage occurred, but when he tried to throw a dump-off pass, No. 55 threw his hands up, rejecting the pass like a volleyball player at the net.

MOMENT OF THE DAY

Immediately after warmups, and right before individual drills, the entire offense all got in a line and quickly went through an array of quick-hitting drills — from stepping over bags to punching dummies.

Offensive lineman performed drills typically only done skill position players and quarterbacks hit the sleds typically only touched by the big men up front.

“It was a grind today. It was a long practice. It was a lot of reps,” the head coach said after the team went 15 minutes longer than scheduled. “We challenged our guys to go six plays in a row just to get in great shape. Everyone is very engaged. Everyone is happy to be here and excited about the season.”