The Denver Broncos wrapped up day one of their two day joint practice with the Chicago Bears, who are in Denver to play the Broncos at Mile High Saturday night.
As joint practices kicked off, the teams went at each other on the offensive and defensive lines. The intensity was picked up, but the respect also was very much shown between the two teams.
Takeaways from Wednesday’s joint practice with the Bears.
- Secondary depth remains a concern
The Broncos secondary is fragile and very weak after spots one and two. Tramaine Brock has been up and down and Brendan Langley may be fighting just for a spot on the roster. Rookie Isaac Yiadom is still growing into his role and into the speed of the NFL, so almost by instinct on the field, grabbing tends to be exposed by rookies caught out of place.
If the Broncos continue to have nagging injuries here and there (Brock — Su’h Cravens) their depth is exceptionally weak and as head coach Vance Joseph put Wednesday, the Broncos are just ‘beat up’ at their positions on the No. 2 team defense and could be easily exposed early.
Vance Joseph said the 2nd-team defense is "just beat up."
"We're down to five safeties — guys who have played in our system. We're down to only six corners, so that's the main issue with our second-team defense. We're beat up."
— Nicki Jhabvala (@NickiJhabvala) August 15, 2018
But while the secondary has looked iffy, the defensive line continues to impress.
- Winning the trenches on defense
The Denver Broncos defensive line absolutely mauled the Bears offensive line in all tiers of the depth chart Wednesday. While the Bears offensive line sits just above-average for the league (13th according to Pro Football Focus) it was extremely impressive to watch the Denver defense have their way in drills.
- Bradley Chubb’s way
It’s just training camp, right? Chubb absolutely put on a show in drills, demonstrating his pass rush ability that convinced Denver to make the no-brained selection at No. 5 overall.
I know it’s just practice…but the #Broncos defensive line is out here absolutely ABUSING the #Bears offensive line.
Chubb looks great. Just blowing by their 2’s – pushing around their 1’s.
— Ron (@RonnieKRadio) August 15, 2018
The Bears were clearly having trouble blocking Chubb’s first step, which was lethal against most of the Bears offensive lineman and his power rush also was effective against Bears projected starting left-tackle and highest graded offensive lineman on the team according to PFF, Charles Leno Jr.
- Sanders shines.
While the rookie Courtland Sutton has stolen most of the headlines from training camp, Emmanuel Sanders continues to put together a strong camp, schooling Bears top cornerback Kyle Fuller on multiple plays.
#Bears CB Kyle Fuller really struggling against Emmanuel Sanders.
Sanders quickness off the LOS will be a problem for many opponents this year. It’s borderline explosive. #Broncos
— Ron (@RonnieKRadio) August 15, 2018
Sanders first step off the line of scrimmage has gone through some what of a rebirth. Sanders injured ankle that hampered him last year, seems to be 110% as his routes are crisp, he looks rejuvenated and his cuts are sharp.
- Injuries to note
The main goal for many teams in training camp is to simply stay healthy and in general, Denver has been. However Wednesday, Denver did see Courtland Sutton limp off the field with a knee injury, however Sutton did return to practice and appeared fine.
Meanwhile Chris Harris Jr. missed practice with a strained oblique, along with Shaq Barrett, Su’a Cravens, Sam Jones, Dymonte Thomas, Troy Fumagalli, JJ Dielman and Michael Hunter. No injuries are serious and most individually are expected back within the next few days.