Wednesday proved to be a tough day for the Broncos, now in Day 20 of the 2015 edition of training camp, as there sere several players who had significant health scares and the team as a whole wasn’t sharp, prompting head coach Gary Kubiak to restart practice at one point.
Antonio Smith left the practice field without explanation; Kubiak later revealed it was because of a personal situation, not health-related.
Kenny Anunike, who shined in the opening preseason game against Seattle, will have his knee scoped on Thursday, a precautionary measure Kubiak said. Still, it’s disconcerting for a guy who looked to have locked up a roster spot based on his play through camp and in the first preseason game. He dealt with a knee injury at Duke, though it’s unclear if it is the same knee. Additionally, Anunike missed 2014 due do an elbow injury, so a second injury that causes him to miss NFL time would be most unwelcome.
The big scare of the day came when linebacker Danny Trevathan finished a hit on running back C.J. Anderson, sending the Pro Bowler to the turf. Anderson was visibly shaken and attended to by team training staff. The hit, by several accounts, was far too aggressive considering the team was not in full pads. After sitting out a few plays, Anderson was back into rotation.
Practice as a whole was not as sharp as in days past, something that angered Kubiak to the point that he stopped practice at one point and restarted drills.
Following practice, Kubiak addressed each of these issues with the gathered media.
Here are the highlights…
Gary Kubiak: “As far as the guys not out there today, just to update you guys on some of these guys, there is no change in anybody. Antonio Smith’s not here this morning. (He) had a death in his family this morning. (He) really tried to come out to practice. I sent him back in—some personal issues he’s dealing with. That’s where we’re at. The only other thing I’d mention to you all that it would come up tomorrow is Kenny Anunike. We’re going to scope Kenny tomorrow. That’s why he is not out here. We’re going to scope him tomorrow and take a look and see how his knee is.”
Kubiak: “I don’t even know (if Anunike injured the same knee as he injured while at Duke). I couldn’t tell you. I just know it swelled up on him. They took a look at it yesterday. They made a decision to scope it tomorrow to see where they’re at. That’s all I can tell you. I’ll let you guys know more. It’ll probably be tomorrow afternoon before I’ll know more.”
Kubiak: “(C.J. Anderson) just got hit, but he popped up. I think he was back in there two plays later. We started slow this morning. Once we got going, we practiced really well. (We) had some guys out and we continued to get better with some younger players. I thought we got physical and got after each other. We got better once the day was all said and done.”
Kubiak: “You’re asking the wrong guy (about concussion protocol). You need to ask Greek (head athletic trainer Steve Antonopulos) about that. Once they make a decision that they’re going in and going through the protocol, that’s the way it works. That’s all up to the trainers.”
Kubiak: “The message today (by restarting restarting practice) was I don’t want to see things selfish on the football field. When you go out to work, it’s going to be good, there’s going to be mistakes—that’s part of football—but we can never get selfish as a team and do things that will cost us games. I felt like we were that way a little bit early in practice, but we regrouped and practiced hard. Hopefully we learned some things. You have to learn some things. Hopefully you learn those things on the practice field and they don’t bite you during the game.”
