Broncos Training Camp Observations: A blossoming connection

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — As Broncos players began to make their way onto the field for Monday afternoon’s practice, the sound of a loud weather horn filled the air at the UC Health Training Center.

With lightning in the area, the team was forced to move the beginning of practice into the Pat Bowlen Field house, meaning fans hoping to catch the practice were turned away.

The good news for you, though, if you were one of those fans, or if you just want to know what happened, is that BSN Denver was on hand for the entirety of the practice—most of which took place outside.

Here’s what went down.

A Blossoming Connection

If there was ever a reason to find a silver lining in the fact that Emmanuel Sanders wasn’t going to be a full participant in camp, it was the added experience for second-year receiver Courtland Sutton.

It’s been highly publicized that Sutton did not excel last season when he was forced to be the team’s No. 1 option, and this would be a chance for him to get more work in that area.

While it wasn’t pretty early, as we have now reached double-digit training camp practices, the connection between Sutton and starting quarterback Joe Flacco has become evident.

It started on Friday, when Flacco and Sutton finally connected on a play-action deep post, a play they had been just missing up until that point. On Saturday, they went back to it again, and Sutton drew a pass interference call on Chris Harris Jr. after Flacco tossed the rock 60 yards off of his back foot.

After a day off on Sunday, the budding connection was back on the field on Monday, and they went back to their bread and butter.

On what turned out to be the play of the day, Flacco faked a handoff and saw Sutton with a step deep down the field. The quarterback uncorked it and hit his man perfectly in stride, right before safety Kareem Jackson could get there to break it up. As Sutton and Jackson collided, the receiver fell into the endzone for a 55-yard touchdown.

While the big touchdowns are encouraging, what’s equally nice to see is the two connecting in the intermediate areas, something that has been a focus for Sutton this offseason. Early on, in 7-on-7 drills, Flacco hit Sutton on three consecutive attempts in those areas, including a perfectly thrown ball over the linebacker and under the corner on the sideline.

Later, Flacco found his current top receiver on a crossing route, and even though he left the ball a bit behind him, Sutton reached back while floating through the air and snagged the ball one-handed, making him the owner of the top two plays of the day.

With Emmanuel Sanders slowly but surely working back, the chemistry built between Flacco and Sutton should prove to be extremely valuable throughout the season.

Another Step for Sanders

At the beginning of camp, it was only individual work for the Broncos projected No. 1 receiver, Emmanuel Sanders. Last week, he took the step up to 7-on-7 work. On Monday, he took the biggest step of all, joining the team in 11-on-11 for the first time all camp.

On the very first pass of the day in the scrimmage-style setting, Sanders lined up inside and ran a bit of a wheel route up the right sideline, getting in behind the coverage of one Chris Harris Jr. Unfortunately—as a contrast to the chemistry with Sutton—Flacco just barely overthrew the ball, resulting in an incompletion.

The good news for the two is that there are still nine practices remaining in camp, just about as many as it took for Flacco and Sutton to get rolling, and the plan is only to get Sanders more and more work.

“Hopefully you’re going to see him do a little bit more each and every day,” head coach Vic Fangio said after practice. “These next two practices are going to be altered because of the game, but when we come back and get back in the training-camp mode, hopefully, you’ll see him play three to five more plays than you saw today. He’s not going to go from what you saw today to, ‘Alright, he’s ready to go take it all.’ It’s just going to be a progression.”

Sanders’ progression has been one of the most positive signs of camp.

Mixing it Up

While we’ve seen it quite a bit thus far in training camp, Monday’s practice featured the most unbalanced 11-on-11 work that we’ve seen.

We saw the second and third-team offense go up against the first-team defense, and vice versa, and even saw fourth-string QB Brett Rypien get a chance against Fangio’s vaunted first unit.

Earlier in camp, Vic Fangio explained why he likes to do that.

“Just to mix it up, so they’re going against different guys,” he explained. “It challenges the twos and the ones.”

As you might imagine, when matched up against a line full of backups, Bradley Chubb and Von Miller absolutely dominated. What makes it impressive, though, is that Miller admitted after practice that he’s not even showing those guys his “A” moves.

“I just try to work on stuff that I don’t normally do,” he explained. “I just try to go to the B move and the C move. I try to work on things that I wouldn’t say that I’m not necessarily good at, but I try to work on my game that I don’t normally play at. So, that’s when I work on my moves, and that’s when I really just work on cross-chop.”

Also of note, working with the second team while going up against the first-team offense, Jeff Holland had a rush where he absolutely blew by Elijah Wilkinson at right tackle and “sacked” Joe Flacco.

Other Notes

• DaeSean Hamilton, Bryce Callahan, Todd Davis, Jake Rodgers, Ja’Wuan James, Jake Butt and Bug Howard did not partake in the practice.
• The offense continued to stay on a steady pace of solid practices after struggling for the entirety of the first week of camp.
• Vic Fangio said Kevin Hogan will start the Hall of Fame game on Thursday, followed by Drew Lock and then Brett Rypien.
• While he says “most” of the starters will not play in the game, Fangio said, “There might be a couple of guys that get a handful of plays.”
• After a solid outing on Saturday, Connor McGovern had another bad snap on the day, resulting in more frustrated body language from Joe Flacco.
  • Fangio said McGovern may be one of the starters who will play on Thursday.
• After practice, Fangio admitted there is concern with Jake Butt.
  • “You get concerned obviously,” he said. “Jake keeps having these little potholes. He starts feeling good, moves a little, does something and then it doesn’t feel so good… The important thing is keeping his spirits up and just see where it develops and where it goes. It’s unpredictable.”
• Phillip Lindsay was back at practice after missing Saturday due to an “overdone” chiropractic treatment. Of the chiropractor, Fangio said he “will not be going anymore.”