Training Camp Takeaways — Day 15: Russell Wilson stacks another good day of practice

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — The final week of training camp is underway…

The Denver Broncos took the field on Tuesday for their 15th of 17 training camp practices. They’ll be back in action on Wednesday and Thursday to close out camp, before heading to Santa Clara to take on the San Francisco 49ers in their second preseason game Saturday night.

The Broncos will keep practicing until their regular-season opener on Sept. 10 against the Las Vegas Raiders, but they’ll hold those practices without fans. That includes a pair of practices with the Los Angeles Rams next week before their preseason game. The next four weeks of practices will slowly transition from camp-style to game-prep practices, which will mean more work for the starters.

“When we get into the season, it changes completely,” head coach Sean Payton said. “Right now, the rotations of the quarterbacks match the rotations of the units. A 12-play script would be four, four, and four, with the ones, twos, and threes. That will gradually change after the preseason.”

The Broncos still aren’t done installing their offense. Payton said tight end Greg Dulcich, for example, will have a package for games that hasn’t been put in place yet, as the Broncos work through their base offense.

“We’re not into specific gameplan plays that would involve certain players,” Payton said. “He’s one of those guys that we’ll have packages that are designed [for him]. [That] doesn’t mean he gets it, but he’d certainly be a primary. We’re still in installation. Today, we’re installing another group of third-down plays and another group of red zone plays.”

The work keeps coming for the Broncos, and so do our Training Camp Takeaways…

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Participation report

• S PJ Locke left practice on a cart after trainers looked at his left leg, but Sean Payton said after practice that Locke was “fine.”
• S Kareem Jackson did not participate in practice. He has receiver rest days throughout camp.
• CB Riley Moss, OLB Nik Bonitto, TE Chris Manhertz, WR Brandon Johnson, S Caden Sterns, S Justin Simmons and RT Mike McGlinchey worked on the side field.
• CB Pat Surtain, WR Courtland Sutton and DL DJ Jones participated in individual portions of practice but not team drills.
• TE Tommy Hudson and NT Forrest Merrill did not attend practice.

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Russell Wilson keeps it going

After a tough first week of practice, Russell Wilson has had good day after good day in the nearly two weeks since.

He hit Greg Dulcich up the seam for a gain of at least 20 yards in the first team session but also missed Marvin Mims on a deep crosser. In red-zone work, he found Mims in the flat with room to run and Dulcich for a short gain on a drag. Albert Okwuegbunam caught a ball in the flat for a five-yard gain. Wilson capped the series off with a touchdown to Samaje Perine in the flat off of play action for a touchdown.

In the final team period, Wilson’s offense got the ball at their own 25-yard line with 1:52 on the clock, facing a three-point deficit with one timeout. Wilson hit Javonte Williams for a short gain. Then Ja’Quan McMillian broke up the second-down pass. Wilson scrambled for a few yards on third down to set up a 4th & 3, but Zach Allen probably would have sacked him in a game situation. Wilson whipped a ball to the flat to convert the fourth down.

Now the Broncos were at their own 36 with just over a minute left. He missed Dulcich on the sideline, then hit Kendall Hinton on a hitch. Pressure forced him to throw the ball away on 3rd & 6. Wilson went to Jeudy on a slot slant to convert the fourth down against a blitz, just like we saw Friday night in the first preseason game. All of a sudden, the Broncos were across midfield at the 41-yard line.

But the offense wouldn’t move any further. Wilson threw the ball away twice, and Josey Jewell made a nice play in the middle of the field to force the third incompletion. It was a far-from-perfect outing from Wilson, but he did enough to set Brett Maher up with a 59-yard field goal attempt to send the game into overtime as time expired…

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Brett Maher is the kicker… for now

Brett Maher shined in two-minute drills. He drilled the 59-yarder the starters set him up with and followed it up by hitting the 51-yarder the second team left him with.

Maher was the only kicker on the field for the first time in camp. The Broncos waived Elliott Fry with an injury designation Tuesday morning. Sean Payton said the injury was minor and added that the job isn’t Maher’s yet.

“We’ll go day-to-day with where we’re at with the kickers,” Payton said. “I’ve said this to you guys before. Brett had a good day today. He’s competing. He’s competing with himself because he’s got 31 other teams. There are probably seven teams that have a real kicking battle, so he’s competing with those guys that come out of those clubs. That doesn’t discount us, possibly, if we wanted to bring in another player.”

The pressure kicks were the most important of the day, and Maher drilled both, but he didn’t fare as well in the field goal period. He hit five of seven of those kicks, missing from 45 yards and 53 yards out.

For the day, Maher was seven of nine, a 78% hit rate. NFL kickers made 85% of their kicks last season.

The Broncos used the roster spot opened up by Fry to add long-snapper Jack Landherr IV. He’ll compete with Mitchell Fraboni for the Broncos’ long-snapping job.

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9-on-7s, 7-on-7s, 2-on-2s and 1-on-1s

• FB Michael Burton was the star of nine-on-sevens, throwing several key blocks. TE Nate Adkins played well—especially with Burton—and caught a “keep the defense honest” pass in the running-game drill.
• Randy Gregory beat Albert Okwuegbunam to stuff a run. Gregory was one of the stars of the day. He split his two reps against Garett Bolles.
• Quinn Meinerz struggled in one-on-ones. Jonathan Harris beat him. Jordan Jackson threw him to the ground on one rep. Meinerz and Alex Palczewski stuffed Jonathon Harris and Jonathon Cooper in two-on-twos.
• Lloyd Cushenberry pancaked PJ Mustipher.
• Ben Powers beat Zach Allen, but Jonathan Harris beat him later on in the drill.
• Chris Allen beat Alex Palczewski.
• Will Sherman and Elijah Garcia split their reps.
• Matt Henningsen beat Henry Byrd. Later on, he dipped inside Demontrey Jacobs.
• Haggai Ndubuisi beat Henry Byrd up the middle.
• Drew Sanders jumped a pass in the flat from Jarrett Stidham during seven-on-sevens but couldn’t hold on. Stidham connected with Greg Dulcich for a 25-yard gain.

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Other notes

• Cornerbacks Ja’Quan McMillian and Damarri Mathis got into it during end-of-practice conditioning. A few swings were thrown. Pat Surtain II held them apart from each other.
• Thomas Incoom was in the middle of some pushing and shoving during 9-on-7s.
• The Broncos’ top four safeties didn’t participate in team drills. The youngsters earned some extra reps.
• Quinn Meinerz had a great trap block against Randy Gregory during team drills to open a running lane on the edge.
• Matt Henningsen batted a Jarrett Stidham pass in team drills.
• Ben DiNucci tried to throw away a pass by lobbing it into the middle of the field about 15 yards from the line of scrimmage. He was lucky it wasn’t intercepted.
• Javonte Williams had a nice run to the right during red-zone work.
• Jalen Virgil caught a seven-yard pass from Jarrett Stidham in the red zone.
• Marquez Callaway caught a touchdown from Stidham in front of the goal post, but JL Skinner probably would have walloped him in the chest in a game situation.
• Nick Williams had an ugly drop on a slant that probably would have been a touchdown.
• PJ Mustipher and Jonathon Cooper were part of a group that would have sacked Jarrett Stidham. Justin Strnad was nearby.