The Denver Broncos wrapped up their mandatory minicamp on Thursday afternoon with a fairly laid back practice that included no helmets and ended with the coaches talking about their favorite rappers, Drake and T.I.

BSN Denver was on hand once again to bring you our observations from the day, here’s what we saw:

Lynch struggling on short throws

I didn’t want to jump the gun on this observation after seeing it the last two days—guys have off days—but now having seen this issue three days in a row it seems worth mentioning.

Paxton Lynch is having a hard time with throws between four and seven yards from the line of scrimmage, especially those over the middle and parallel to the line. It’s a touch pass and, to me, it looks as if Paxton is trying to put too much touch on it, babying the throw if you will. When he does that it’s messing up the timing on the route and causing him to throw behind or short of his receivers.

In talking with our Andre Simone, who went extremely in-depth on Paxton film at Memphis last week (Pt. 2 coming tomorrow), it sounds as if the Memphis offense didn’t call for too much of that short drag route.

“Short stuff at Memphis was, primarily, screens, check downs to the flats, posts and quick slants,” he told me of what he saw on film. “More slants and his timing was great on those early in the year.”

For a guy with a big arm like Lynch, this throw usually just comes down to repetition. Given the fact that he wasn’t asked to make that throw much in college, it makes sense that he isn’t quite used to it yet. Another transition for the rookie but yet another thing that is extremely coachable.

Another linebacker missing

With Von Miller out while he works on inking a long-term deal, it raised a few eyebrows this morning when another guy who is hoping for a bigger deal, Brandon Marshall, wasn’t on the practice field today.

Don’t worry, though, Broncos fans, BMarsh had a good excuse.

“Brandon is speaking at his high school’s graduation,” head coach Gary Kubiak explained after practice. “I told him to go do that. Good for him.”

Marshall has been present for all of OTAs and minicamp despite not having signed his tender, it seems quite fair to give him a day off for a cool moment when most guys in his position wouldn’t be around in the first place.

Marshall is expected to be back with the team when they take the field for their last session of OTAs next week.

Punt return

Last week, special team’s coordinator Joe DeCamillis mentioned Mose Frazier as someone who has surprised in the punt return game along with Jordan Norwood and fellow undrafted rookie Kalif Raymond. This week, though, it seems as if Norwood and Raymond have taken the upper hand as they’ve been the only two back when the team worked on punts.

Raymond, a relative ant on the field at 5-foot-9, 160 pounds, has some serious shake in him and was even one of just two specific players named by Kubiak when he was asked about undrafted free agents that have stood out so far (the other was OLB Kyle Kragan).

The Broncos could just be seeing what Frazier can do in other facets as they had him on punt coverage a bit this week but, for now, those are the two guys back there.

Plays of the day

Throughout the offseason program, the biggest plays have come from the wide receivers. Until yesterday, when it was the running backs and today it was the defensive backs.

T.J. Ward had the biggest highlight of them all when he picked off Mark Sanchez and took the ball 90 yards the other way for a touchdown, despite a late effort to chase him down by C.J. Anderson. The two had a good laugh about the footrace afterward.

Filling in for Aqib Talib, cornerback Kayvon Webster made a great play coming back on a Demaryius Thomas stop-route to break up the pass. It wasn’t the big eye-popping play but it had his teammates fired up. Demaryius will likely get a talking to from his coaches about not coming back to the ball as much as he should have.

The true play of the day, though, came when a Mark Sanchez pass was tipped high into the Colorado sky. Interception? Nope, the ball fell right into the hands of offensive lineman Ty Sambrailo who, despite being downed, gracefully galloped into the end zone as his entire team erupted in laughter.

The Broncos will break for the weekend and return at the beginning of next week to wrap up OTAs before they get their “summer break.” A month to themselves before they come back for training camp.