Broncos WR Brandon Marshall won’t say he’s happy to still be with the Denver Broncos, but he did report for training camp Monday, the mandated day for the team’s rookies and players who had offseason surgeries. Asked Monday if he was happy to be with the team.
“I’m happy to be playing football. That’s what I’ve done since I was a little boy and hopefully that’s what I can continue to do.” Later asked why he elected to show up Monday he said: “Fifteen thousand. I mean, it’s got to stop eventually. I definitely didn’t want to get that fine, so I’m here.” — “I’m under contract, it’s my obligation to be here and I’m here.”
The league rule calls for a $15,888 per day fine for players who do not report.
After practicing on Monday and passing the conditioning test, Marshall did not practice on Tuesday. Why you ask? Because HC Josh Mcdaniels says he was “sore”. Sore? Really? OK, I’ll bite, he did have hip surgery on March 31st. Here’s what coach had to say:
“Precautionary measures, nothing more than that. It was a coaching decision, and when they’re ready and healthy and we feel good about where they’re at they will be out on the practice field.”
Commissioner Roger Goodellsays he is beginning to focus on evaluatingMichael Vick’s future in the NFL. But Goodell said Thursday his decision on the former Atlanta Falcons star quarterback will come “in due time” and not necessarily before the season begins. “I haven’t given a timeline,” on a decision about reinstatement, Goodell told The Associated Press during a telephone interview.
Talking for the first time since he fired general manager Matt Millen, Detroit Lions owner William Clay Fordadmitted that Millen probably didn’t have the experience to be a successful general manager — and also said that former head coach Rod Marinelli probably wasn’t ready either. Millen didn’t have any front office experience before arriving in Detroit and Marinelli was a first-time head coach. “That’s a friend of mine and always will be,” Ford said of Millen. “He has a lot of wonderful qualities, it didn’t work out and we parted ways. It’s history.” On why it didn’t work out, Ford said, “You can answer that probably as well as I can. It just wasn’t going right.”
The Jacksonville Jaguarsare looking to trade veteran receiver Dennis Northcutt, the most productive receiver they have left from last year’s team, Northcutt’s agent confirmed. “They have indicated that they intend to trade him and are trying to do so,” agent Jerome Stanley said in an email exchange with ESPN.com. Northcutt joined the Jaguars as a free agent in 2007 and in 29 games caught 88 passes for 1,146 yards and six touchdowns. He also did some work as a return man.
Josh McDaniels said the Broncos staff targeted RB Correll Buckhalter in free agency because coaches felt he had “multidimensional” skills that would allow him to succeed in the role of a traditional running back and also in the passing game as a blocker or receiver. “His body is young,” McDaniels said. “He just might be, as a matter of fact, I think he is, our fastest back. He’s got a great burst and he’s got great long speed.” – “To add a guy to our offense that is very unselfish and is going to accept whatever role he earns is great, and he’s going to play his butt off.”
Richard Denthas received a Hall of Fame endorsement from an unlikely source. In the latest issue of ESPN The Magazine, Indianapolis Colts Pro Bowl defensive end Dwight Freeney expresses his belief that the Bears‘ all-time sack leader deserves to be enshrined in Canton.
“I grew up a Giants fan, but Richard Dent made me respect the Bears,” Freeney wrote. “He was a dominant force on one of the most dominant defenses in the history of the NFL. When you think of the 1985 Bears defense, you think of two men: Mike Singletary and Richard Dent. “And his stats speak for themselves. He had 137.5 sacks as a defensive end. The benchmark is 100. That’s like hitting 500 home runs in baseball. And everyone knows it’s not easy to play for a long time in this physical league, but he played for 15 seasons at a very high level.”
In the middle of one of the most trying offseasons of his entire tenure as an NFL owner, Pat Bowlen of the Broncos opened up for an interview with Woody Paige of the Denver Post where he acknowledged that coach Josh McDaniels has made some “rookie mistakes.” Bowlen also said that he is experiencing some “short-term memory loss,” which might shed further light on whether Jay Cutler’s version of the meeting is accurate where he claims that Bowlen said the offensive coaching staff would be kept intact. “I don’t want to throw him under the bus,” Bowlen said, “but I made two phone calls (and there is proof, Broncos executives claim) and left voice mails with my cell number and asked him to call me, and he didn’t. . . . Pick up the phone! That’s where we got off the rails. We had no other choice but to trade him. If (the trade talk) was the reason Jay left, he should have left.”
Bowlen is pleased with the quarterback, Kyle Orton, and the draft picks the Broncos got in return from Chicago, but when told many were puzzled why McDaniels didn’t choose more defensive players in the recent draft, Bowlen replied: “Me, too.” But, he backed the draft plan of his coach and general manager Brian Xanders. “I hired them to do their jobs,” he said. “I believe in them. It’s not my role to evaluate players and make those draft decisions. I’m not qualified to do it.”
McDaniels has thoroughly revamped his team’s RB corps and commenced dumping some holdovers from the Mike Shanahan era, releasing Selvin Young on April 30. The next to go is likely to be Ryan Torain, an oft-injured favorite of Shanahan’s. Torain, a fifth-round pick last year, was able to play in just two games last season between an elbow injury and a torn ACL.
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