The Denver Broncos are coming off a big loss and the news and rumors are ramping up as the team prepares for the next game.
Check out the latest buzz below.
Dolphins Trying to Prepare for Manning
Peyton Manning may have had a bad game against the St. Louis Rams but the Miami Dolphins aren’t making the mistake of underestimating the star quarterback.
Team meetings have already focused on how to stop Manning, and the Broncos offense in general.
Defensive players were told that Manning is the best quarterback in the world and that the Broncos are basically unbeatable at home.
“It’s just going to be a great challenge for the defense, getting them off the field,” cornerback Jamar Taylor told the Miami Herald.
“It was serious,” safety Reshad Jones added about the coaches’ message to the team.
“Peyton Manning is Peyton Manning,” Dolphins cornerback Cortland Finnegan told ESPN.
“He’s going to move the football. The biggest thing for us is points. He could have 500 yards passing. As long as we limit the points, that’s big for us.”
Defensive coordinator Kevin Coyle is also changing things up because he knows Manning will be studying the Dolphins defense.
“I don’t know how many things Peyton hasn’t seen in the years he’s been playing. He is remarkable,” Coyle said. “Talking with people who have been around him, he’s got almost a photogenic memory. When he sees something, he locks it in and can retrieve it a year later or two years later.”
If any team can stop the Broncos and Manning, it’s the Dolphins. Their defense is ranked No. 2 in yards per game and pass defense, and they haven’t allowed a touchdown in two of the past three games.
The Dolphins offense is also focusing on pointing points on the board to relieve some of the pressure on the defense, with receiver Mike Wallace noting that “We have to put up some points.”
Broncos to Sign Incognito?
A big weakness on the team has been the offensive line, and some fans and analysts are wondering whether the team would consider picking up Richie Incognito.
The call for the signing got louder after the offensive line’s struggles against the Rams.
“He will NOT be signed this week for several reasons. Timing is one. The Broncos play the Miami Dolphins this week. The Dolphins were Incognito’s team during the infamous bullying incident last year. What a madhouse Dove Valley would be if Incognito stepped in the building this week, of all weeks,” said the Denver Post.
“But that’s just one reason. Another reason is the Broncos want to give this offensive line a chance with a few more running plays than nine to work with. Another reason may be whether or not Incognito can still play at a high level. During his eight starts at left guard last season, Pro Football Focus graded him as the 25th best guard. He has better marks in pass blocking over the years than run blocking, and what the Broncos really need is better run blocking.
“Still another reason is what the Broncos really need is a right tackle so Louis Vasquez can return to right guard, where he was an All-Pro last year. Incognito as a guard doesn’t solve that problem.”
But if the offensive line struggles again, then signing Incognito could very well happen.
Jay Glazer, who reported that Incognito was brought in for a workout, said that the Broncos would revist the possibility of signing him after the Dolphins game.
Latimer Should be Activated
One sports analyst believes that Cody Latimer should be activated for the Dolphins game and given a chance to make an impact.
“The Broncos need to realize that it’s time to pull out all of the stops. Activating Cody Latimer is one way to do that. Latimer showed flashes of being great in preseason play, but Denver has yet to utilize him in a game that counts. That will change on Sunday,” wrote Travis Wakeman of Bleacher Report.
“After losing two of their top receiving threats last week in Emmanuel Sanders and Julius Thomas, the Broncos had problems. A team known for their strong receiving corps suddenly became very limited. The Broncos shouldn’t be relying on guys like Jacob Tamme and Andre Caldwell to play extended time and make big plays. Instead, they should turn to the player they selected in the second round of this year’s draft.
“Denver has made Latimer inactive for nearly every game this season. It’s time to reverse that trend and give Peyton Manning another big, young target to throw the ball to. There isn’t much film for teams to look at and prepare for, so it would be a perfect time to unveil the rookie and hopefully gain a big boost because of it.”
CBS noted that with the injuries, Tamme and Wes Welker will likely see more action.
In its fantasy advice column, it also said that Juwan Thompson could get some carries while, yes, Latimer could get into the action.
“You will have to watch all week for injury updates on Julius Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders. As evidenced by Ball’s performance against the Rams, just because players are active, doesn’t mean they will be 100 percent,” it added. “But you would be hard-pressed to sit either Thomas or Sanders under any circumstances.”
Bailey Retires After Stellar Career
ENGLEWOOD, Colo.—Champ Bailey said goodbye to the NFL on Tuesday after signing a ceremonial one-day contract with his beloved Denver Broncos.
Bailey retired at age 36 with a cornerback-record dozen Pro Bowl selections, more interceptions (52) than any active player and no regrets.
“Until my last snap I tried to be the best on the field,” Bailey said. “We all get old in this game.”
In addition to John Elway, John Fox and Joe Ellis, dozens of current players joined former teammates including John Lynch, Brian Dawkins and Jake Plummer in celebrating Bailey’s unparalleled career that ended because of a left foot injury.
“I need my feet,” Bailey said afterward. “It’s like a quarterback and his arm.”
Bailey’s last NFL season was a bittersweet one. He missed 11 games last year with the Lisfranc sprain before returning to action down the stretch. His performance in the AFC championship game finally got him to a Super Bowl, which proved both the apex and nadir of his 15-year career.
Yet, Bailey said hoisting the Lamar Hunt trophy was special even though he never got his hands on the Lombardi trophy.
“Regardless of what happened after that, that moment was special for me and I‘ll never forget it,” he said. “The biggest game you can play on your own field. Hopefully, this year they don’t come up short — I would say ’we' because I feel like I’m still a part of this. I hope WE don’t come up short this year.”
Bailey said his foot no longer aches with every step — unless he runs a lot.
That’s why he didn’t make the cut for the first time in his life this summer, released by the New Orleans Saints in August. He had some tryouts after that but he knew his time was up.
“I never thought this day would come,” he said. “Just like all NFL athletes don’t think it’s going to end, I’m one of those guys. Reality hits. It’s here.”
Bailey wants to stay in football, maybe do some broadcasting. For now, he’s just catching up on missed family time, playing fantasy football and enjoying waking up without being stiff and sore.
Bailey thanked the Washington Redskins and Charley Casserly for drafting him with the seventh overall pick in 1999 and Mike Shanahan and the Broncos for bringing him to Denver in the 2004 trade for Clinton Portis.
When Elway returned to the Broncos in 2011, his first order of business was signing Bailey to an extension that former coach Josh McDaniels had pulled off the table.
“We needed a pillar to build around,” Elway said. “And Champ was that guy.”
Peyton Manning paid him the ultimate compliment, saying Bailey, in addition to being a shutdown cornerback, had “as good of hands as any top-flight receiver in the NFL.”
His versatility befuddled opponents.
“One of the things that made him so good was his ability to match up on so many different types of receivers,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said. “He could handle speed guys, he could handle size guys. He could match up on tight ends. ... It didn’t really matter who he was on, he had a way to match up with them.”
Plummer called Bailey the ultimate teammate.
“He just made you want to be a better player every day,” Plummer said. “And you really couldn’t help it. If you came out there soft, he'd expose all your weaknesses on the field.”
Bailey took many a young player under his wing, from cornerbacks like Chris Harris Jr. — whom he said is “playing better than anybody in this league right now” — to receivers like Demaryius Thomas.
Bailey said his 100-yard interception return that saddled Tom Brady with his first career playoff loss in 2005 was among his career highlights. So was playing the 2008 season with his brother, Boss.
He said he doesn’t waste his time thinking about what might have been had he not gotten hurt last year.
“Football has done too much good for me to worry about the bad,” Bailey said.
Oakland’s Charles Woodson said he was certain Bailey could have morphed into a safety as he himself had done. But Bailey was never asked to do that and his foot injury ended any thoughts of that transition.
“I was a corner,” Bailey said, “and everybody looked at me as a corner.”
One of the greatest ever.
Broncos Vow to Get Better
ENGLEWOOD, Colo.—Suddenly, the Denver Broncos have a whole lot more to worry about than their spongy offensive line, and testy coach John Fox said Monday he wants frustrated fans to know he feels their pain.
“We’re not too happy with the results, either,” Fox said in the wake of Denver’s second double-digit road loss in three weeks. But, he added: “There’s no panic inside the building.”
And he stressed that Denver’s latest loss can’t just be pinned on his scuffling, shuffling O-line, either.
“Offensively we didn’t execute enough,” Fox said. “It’s not all on the O-line. I want to make that point.”
The Broncos’ latest loss, a 22-7 stunner at St. Louis, proved extra costly. They not only fell into a tie atop the AFC West with Kansas City, but they lost Julius Thomas, Emmanuel Sanders and Montee Ball to injuries.
Thomas’ sprained left ankle was deemed less serious than feared, and he is day to day. Sanders is in the league’s concussion protocol and a long shot to play in Sunday’s showdown against Miami (6-4). And Ball appears headed for more time off after aggravating a strained right groin in his first action since Oct. 5.
The three were injured when the Broncos (7-3) lost to a sub-.500 team on the road for the first time since Tim Tebow was their quarterback in 2011.
Just as he had after a big loss at New England three weeks ago, Peyton Manning took the blame. “I’ve got to play better,” Manning said three times after Sunday’s loss.
On Monday, Fox said he and his staff have to coach better.
This marked just the sixth time in Manning’s 250 career regular-season games that his team scored seven points of less. Two of those came in the first month of his rookie season in 1998, two came in meaningless regular-season finales (1999 and 2009), and another came in 2001, at Miami.
Manning was sacked twice, knocked down four times and watched a dozen of his passes get batted down. He threw 54 passes and handed off just nine times, a formula Fox admitted wasn’t a good recipe.
“There’s no doubt that to be the kind of team we want to be we have to run the ball more,” Fox said.
Center Will Montgomery smiled at the thought.
“Yeah, I think we definitely prefer running the ball versus trying to backpedal with those athletes for that many snaps,” he said. “We'd like to take the fight to them.”
C.J. Anderson said offensive coordinator Adam Gase apologized for the run-pass disparity, but the running back noted it was the players who didn’t make it work, and “whether it’s 90 passes and one run, whatever’s called, you’ve just got to go out there and execute.”
In addition to the run-pass ratio that was off-kilter, Fox lamented his offense failing to reach the red zone after entering the game with the league’s second-highest scoring average (31.8).
Fox defended his decisions to forgo long field goal tries, saying Brandon McManus’ range was only 50 yards inside the dome. He stressed, “It has nothing to do with confidence level of anybody.”
McManus has been dealing with a strained groin and that might have been a factor in Fox’s thinking.
But the Broncos went 0 for 3 on fourth downs in Rams territory.
“We did what I would consider being aggressive,” said Fox, who’s been labeled as a coach who’s too conservative. “You could punt for field position. You know, going for it on fourth down is in my mind more aggressive than kicking a field goal.”
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