Broncos Camp Coverage: Brandon Marshall Returns To Some Extent

Some notes and clips from this morning’s practice:

This guy is back:

“The Beast” was back physically, but he’s still not quite there mentally. Brandon Marshall ran a few reps with the second string offense making an occasional appearance with the first stringers. However, he didn’t get into as many plays as I thought he would. He wasn’t the same guy that I saw during the first day at training camp when he was laughing with teammates, chatting it up with the fans, and making spectacular catches. Case in point – this clip:

Brian Dawkins also made his return to camp yesterday after surgery on his broken hand. He was sporting an orange “no contact” jersey as well as a large cast on his hand. If you thought our defense played well against the 49ers without him, then wait until he’s back in action. He gets his teammates so fired up during practice, and you can feel a different sort of energy when he’s out there – even when he’s not able to hit. It’s possible that he’ll play in the next preseason game against Seattle.

With some mistakes by Kyle Orton and some hard work by Chris Simms, Simms is making a great case for himself to be the Broncos starting QB . Today Orton dropped a snap and then followed it up with an incomplete pass inside the 20.

Meanwhile, Simms made some very impressive throws despite being intercepted by Tony Carter after the ball was tipped. He’s got some real zip on the ball and his accuracy is impressive. Most impressive however, was watching Simms run sprints at the end of practice. He beat all the defensive ends and other QBs across the line every time. It was actually quite disappointing to see Orton run his sprints. To give Orton some credit though, he threw a great pass to Jabar Gaffney for a touchdown.

All I’m saying is that there could be a QB battle brewing. Some other observations from practice:

– The media was out in full force with Marshall taking the field again. It kind of died down last week.

– LaMont Jordan and Peyton Hillis were throwing a few passes to other backs. Their arms were quite good, and I can see them throwing a pass or two this season.

– Receiver Kenny McKinley dropped a pass going across the middle, and was so upset with himself that he dropped to the ground to knock out 10 pushups.

– Alphonso Smith dropped another punt  in practice. All the rookie needs is time and experience.

– Kenny Peterson tries to keep things light during practice. You can always find him dancing or talking with teammates.

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