As the Denver Broncos will take the field for their first official scrimmage of training camp on Saturday, there are quite a few things that people will be keeping an eye on.
Everyone will be keeping an eye on is the quarterback competition, but if you’re tired of engaging in that, the battle that’s brewing between the offense and the defense when it comes to the running game might be more up your alley.
As the Broncos continue to work to improve their run game, there is a bit of a friendly disagreement between which side of the ball is getting the better of the other.
“The defense is definitely winning,” safety Darian Stewart said on Friday. “They’ve broke some good runs and they have great vision amongst all four of them. I definitely consider us winning since we started camp.”
While running back C.J. Anderson may not fully agree with Stewart’s statement, he does believe that the defense – which ranked 28th against the run last season – is improving at stopping the ground game as camp goes on.
“They’re doing a really good job,” Anderson said on Friday. “Their linebackers are running completely different than what they did last year. That’s something I said in the very beginning of camp. But, we’re running the ball effectively. We’re finding the right spots. We’re picking the right spots. I guess we’ll see tomorrow if that holds up to be true.”
While Saturday’s scrimmage will provide a better look at the progress that each side has made, the fact that it will not be full contact – for good reason – won’t tell the whole story.
As defensive end Derek Wolfe pointed out on Friday, he’s not going to hurt his teammates to stop a run play in practice. While it may look like the offense is breaking a big run, looks can sometimes be deceiving in training camp.
“It’s a little harder because, if C.J. [Anderson] comes through, I’m not going to hit him from the side, knock him over and he trips over somebody,” Wolfe explained. “It’s a little bit different. It looks like they’re breaking runs but really it’s just a side tackle. You’ve got to be smart out there on the field. You can’t be hurting your own players.”
While the defense will wisely stay off them, one thing that fans can certainly look forward to is the many different styles of running the diverse running backs will bring to the table.
Aside from Jamaal Charles, all other healthy running backs will compete on Saturday.
“There are things that people can do that others can’t do,” Anderson said on Friday. “It’s up to you as a player individually to hold your pride. Speed kills. That ain’t my game. So, No. 28 (Charles) or No. 33 (De’Angelo Henderson) can go out there and they’re fast. If it’s time to bulk some muscle and hit somebody in the mouth, call No. 22 (Anderson). We’ll be in there. Everybody has different styles. We can all do some do the same things, but we all have different styles and that’s what makes our room so unique.”
Featured Image Credit: Ryan Greene, 5280 Sports Network