DENVER BRONCOS TRAINING CAMP QUOTES (8/9/15)
HEAD COACH GARY KUBIAK
On an injury update
“[ILB] Brandon Marshall's fine. We pulled him out of practice. He just got a little sore, so we [were] just precautionary because we’ve been bringing him along. [WR Demaryius Thomas] D.T. made that great play in the end zone. [He] kind of banged the goalpost back there, but he’s okay. We’ll get him checked out. [TE/FB] Joe Don’s [Duncan] the one, right? He’s got a neck and we’re taking a look at him. He seemed to be doing pretty good when he went off the field, so I’ll let you guys know more. That’s where we’re at, other than all the guys that have been out and the guys I held out. We practiced with 68, 69 guys today, so we didn’t have many players, but they pushed through it. We got some good work done. [We] need a break tomorrow, and then we’ll get back to work.”
On how the quarterbacks looked to him today
“I though [QB] Brock [Osweiler] did a good job. He missed a few plays. I know he missed a skinny there at the end on a little mock situation we had on third-and-7, but he made a lot of plays, too. I just think he’s gaining a little confidence running the football team when it’s his. You can see when he comes out here on those days it’s not a shock. It’s ‘let’s go.’ I think it’s important for the group, and obviously, it’s important for his career. I thought he did a good job.”
On if he likes what he has seen from the team leading up to the first preseason game
“Yeah, I think we have because we’re looking at a ton of reps with our young players. I told the players a while ago, one of my concerns right now—as we’ve been bringing some guys along slowly and we’ve got a few nicks and stuff—is that we haven’t had everybody working together. But that’s part of the deal. It’s part of camp, but we ought to be pretty close come Tuesday to where we all start working together and have everybody on the same page—where it’s not this guy’s working an hour or this guy’s doing—we ought to be pretty close to having everybody on the same page.”
On WR Cody Latimer’s improvement
“Yeah, I think I have. He’s worn down. We kind of monitor how much our players run and stuff. [Strength and Conditioning Coach] Luke’s [Richesson] got a little program. That kid’s run more than anybody on this football team for the last—how long have we been here now—year. He runs a lot, so he’s worn down. When he freshens up, you can watch him. When he’s fresh in practice, things are good. Things are sharp. He’s a vastly improved player from OTAs to now, and that’s what we need.”
On DE Kenny Anunike’s progress
“He’s really doing well. The concern with Kenny is hanging on to weight, bulk and those types of things. You know what, if you’re 15 pounds lighter than everybody but you play harder than everybody else, it doesn’t matter. [Defensive Line Coach] Bill [Kollar] is getting everything out of him. He’s an effort player, chase guy and makes a lot of plays because of his effort as a player. [I’ve] been impressed with Kenny. He’s making a big push to help this football team.”
On what he saw from RBs C.J. Anderson and Ronnie Hillman today
“First off, C.J. comes off with a little banged shoulder yesterday, wakes up this morning and says, ‘I’m going. I feel great.’ As a coach, right away, that’s a great sign, and he had a really good practice. We put a few balls on the ground. I don’t know who it was, but we put a few balls on the ground today. I think Ronnie Hillman has been a consistent performer throughout camp so far, so we’ll see. We’ll see how it happens.”
On if Hillman can be a power back
“Oh, I think so. I think so. He’s a big-play player. There’s a difference when some guys are back there, and they’re that five-and-six yard player and they have the ability to maybe make a big play. Every time he touches it, he has a chance for a home run. He runs with confidence between the tackles and maybe we get to the point where I’m doing these things with him, I don’t know, but I don’t see a reason for that right now. I see him doing everything we do.”
On the evaluations the staff will make with the off day tomorrow
“Yeah, we’re evaluating every day. We’ll sit down tomorrow, but tomorrow is going to be more about depth charts because that’s where we are heading into Seattle. Probably talking about play time and how we get guys ready. We’ve obviously got some things going on with some various veteran guys that we have to make some decisions on play time in this first game. I think we’ll be more in that mode as we prepare for Tuesday.”
On how much to read into depth chart when released tomorrow
“I would say not very much. I mean, we’ll put one out there, but nobody—I’m sure that there are a few guys on this team that you all know are going to be okay. They’re going to play, but don’t read too much into what’s going on up-front or anywhere. It’s going to be very competitive. They’re going to win and lose jobs in these preseason games and going against good players. I shouldn’t say lose jobs, but they’re going to win jobs playing against good players. We’ll put one out, but like I said, everybody needs to keep their antennas up and keep going.”
On the progress of TE Virgil Green
“I think Virgil has benefited from O.D. [TE Owen Daniels], too. I think that Owen is an excellent teacher. Owen’s a pro and I think that Virgil has kind of taken it on. Virgil had a hard time holding up through the course of practice with me initially when we got him in OTAs. He’s held up, he’s been really good and he makes plays at the end of the day, so that’s what you like to see. I think that Virgil has benefited from his work and being around a big-time pro.”
On whether Demaryius Thomas is ready to play in preseason games
“I think that he could. We’ll make that decision probably Wednesday or Thursday. I think he very well could from what I have seen him do the last couple days, but if we’re going to err on that decision, it’s probably going to be on the other side. I’ll let you guys know, but I think that he’s pretty darn close to being ready to go.”
On the feeling of the team nine days into camp
“I don’t know if guys ever enjoy training camp. First off, I think that we have done a good job—I shouldn’t say ‘we,’—I should [say] Greek [Head Athletic Trainer Steve Antonopulos] and Luke. We had some interesting situations with players. I think that our progress with them has been good. I made the comment that I think that we should all be pretty close on the same page come Tuesday. I think that our work has been good, I think defensively we’ve really been good the last couple of days. Offensively we play young certain days up front and I think that’s going to happen right now, but we need to settle down and get D.T., [WR] Emmanuel [Sanders] and [QB] Peyton [Manning] working together on a regular basis. I think that our special teams could be a real strength of our team because we can run. We have a lot of linebackers that can run, so I don’t know. Those are some observations and we’ll find out a lot more when we hit the field on Friday.”
On how important it is to work on situational work like free kicks and missed field goals
“The season’s about recall. You can’t stand out here every day and keep your guys out here doing those things every day, but you’ve got to throw it to them and talk about how you handle situations. There has to be great recall during the course of the season. We’re going to hit it all. We’ve got what we call ‘mock situations’ all the time where we’re putting players through mind games, in a lot of ways, and coaches. So I don’t know if you noticed, but I’ve got [Director of Football Analytics] Mitch [Tanney] out there with me. If we’re moving the ball or we’re doing formatting, I’ve got Mitch with me because he’s going to be on the headset, so we’re trying to practice. Everything’s going to happen on game day.”
On Osweiler’s performance today
“I just said earlier, I thought he practiced well. He missed a play at the end of practice that he needs to make, but I think he continues to get more comfortable in his role when he gets the football team. I think he’s had a good, what has it been, eight or nine days? [He] needs to play a lot in the preseason.”
On what he needs to see out of C.J. Anderson
“I think C.J. needs to play. He’s a young player. I think that’s the fine line in this business. When you get into preseason you can’t sit here and say, ‘Oh, we’re going to play our ones for 12 plays.’ Our ones, you might be talking about three or four guys on offense right now, so we’re going to separate it by player, but I see C.J. as a guy that needs to play more than [QB] Peyton Manning does. You know what I mean? He’s a very young player, so we’ll see. I’ll put play counts on him.”
On which coaches will be in the press box
“[Quarterbacks/Passing Game Coordinator Greg] Knapp will be on the field with me. Rico [Offensive Coordinator Rick Dennison] will be the upstairs guy. [Defensive Coordinator] Wade’s [Phillips] a downstairs guy. I don’t have it with me, but it’s no big deal. We know exactly how we’re working and we’ve done it before for the most part also.”
On the second running back on the depth chart being more of 1B rather than a second-teamer
“I would agree with that. I think C.J.’s having a good camp. [He is] doing his job. But I think after that, I think on any given day, I think it’s been deep as far as watching all of them—not just Ronnie and [RB] Montee [Ball]. I think the other guys have worked extremely well, too. We’re going to play them all. They’re all a little bit different in how they do things and I’ve got to watch them on game day. I’ve watched them enough out here. I’ve got to watch them against good people and we’ll see good people on Friday.”
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