Tom Jackson Receives Pete Rozelle Award

Although no Broncos were inducted into the Hall of Fame last night, one Bronco was recognized for his contributions to radio and television.

More than 30 years after beginning his career in sports broadcasting, Broncos Ring of Famer Tom Jackson saw his hard work receive its due recognition with the 2015 Pete Rozelle Award given to him on Saturday night during the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s enshrinement ceremony.

Congratulations to Jackson, the man who inspired a site we all loved.

Meanwhile, let’s cross our fingers that Terrell Davis making it as a HOF finalist last year leads to an induction soon.

Midweek Musings: Five Days of Training Camp Done

Here we are, Bronco fans. Five days of training camp already finished and we are a little more than a week away from the preseason opener against Seattle.

As somebody stuck in Kansas, I’m unable to actually go to training camp in person and will have to find other ways to watch Broncos games on certain weeks. But based on what I’ve read coming out of training camp thus far, there are a few observations I can make on what one might expect from the preseason opener.
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Britton Colquitt Takes Pay Cut

Broncos punter Britton Colquitt agreed to take a salary reduction to $1.4M for this season.

Jeff Legwold first reported the move.

Colquitt was set to make $3M in base salary this year, but the move will free up $1.6M in cap space, assuming Colquitt makes the roster.

He is still competing with Karl Schmitz for the punting job, but now that he has taken a pay cut, his chances of making the final roster may have increased.

Midweek Musings: Last Thoughts Before Training Camp

Hey, Bronco fans. Training camp is just around the corner and I’m sure everyone is excited. I’ll keep my thoughts brief this week because most of the items that everyone is talking about are subjects we’ve gone over several times.

1. As I mentioned earlier, it doesn’t hurt to bring in Jake Long to see if he’s healthy and can contribute, but I would be careful not to get my hopes up. I can’t see the Broncos offering anything more than a $2M deal loaded with incentives, likely based on how many games he starts, and who knows what another team might offer if they think he can help. Ideally, he’d be healthy, willing to sign and can fill in at left tackle for a year while Ty Sambrailo develops. But I’m not counting heavily on that.
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Jake Long to Visit With Broncos

Former Dolphins and Rams offensive tackle Jake Long is set to visit the Broncos this week.

The report first came from Ralph Vacchiano of the New York Daily News, after Long finished a visit with the New York Giants. Vacchiano reported that Long was also set to visit Atlanta.

Why didn’t the Broncos do this earlier? Based on Vacchiano’s report, it was because teams weren’t convinced Long had fully recovered from his latest injury last October. Keep in mind that Long has twice torn the ACL in his right knee in the past two seasons, so it isn’t a sure thing that he’d be an upgrade over current Bronco linemen.

ETA: Andrew Mason has a friendly reminder.

It certainly doesn’t hurt to have Long visit, though.

Pro Football HOF Needs To Change A Bad Policy

Earlier today, I shared the news that the family of Junior Seau will not get to speak at the Pro Football Hall of Fame cermonies that take place in about two weeks.

I did mention that this would not be the first time a player inducted posthumously will not have anyone speak on his behalf, as this applied to Los Angeles Rams guard Les Richter in 2011.

However, as Mike Florio notes, this policy about players who are inducted posthumously not having anyone give a speech on their behalf was first implemented in 2010, so it hasn’t been around for long. The policy came about after Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Derrick Thomas was inducted posthumously, and both former Chiefs general manager Carl Peterson and Derrick’s son Derrion Thomas spoke on Derrick’s behalf.
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Seau’s Family Won’t Get to Speak at His HOF Induction

The New York Times reported that Junior Seau’s family will not be allowed to speak during his Hall of Fame induction ceremony Aug. 8.

According to the Times, Seau had told others that he wanted his daughter Sydney to introduce him. Now she won’t get that opportunity, even though she told the Times she doesn’t plan to talk about the traumatic brain injuries he suffered.

“It’s frustrating because the induction is for my father and for the other players, but then to not be able to speak, it’s painful,” Sydney said. “I just want to give the speech he would have given. It wasn’t going to be about this mess. My speech was solely about him.”

It’s not the first time a deceased inductee didn’t have somebody speak for him (the Times story mentions nobody spoke for 2011 inductee Les Richter).

But in this instance, it sure comes off as the NFL trying to avoid drawing attention to what happened to Seau, especially with the family filing a lawsuit against the league.

Well, That Goes Without Saying…

Drew Magary has started his annual series at Deadspin about “Why Your Team Sucks.” Today’s focus is on the Oakland Raiders.

In other words, it’s Drew playing Captain Obvious, ladies and gentlemen.

Drew will do such a writeup on every team, as he has done most past seasons. He’s already covered the Buccaneers, Jaguars and Titans.

Trust me on this: The Bucs writeup is worth it for the Jameis Winston animated gif alone.

Midweek Musings: The Roster Spot Battles As Training Camp Nears

Here we are, a little more than a week away from the start of Denver Broncos training camp. I figured a good topic for this week’s Midweek Musings would be to examine the Broncos’ roster entering training camp and a few things everyone can keep in mind as camp gets underway.

All roster information was taken from the Broncos’ website. I’ll get special teams out of the way first, because we’ve discussed most of them several times before, and then get into the offense and defense.
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Barnwell’s Top 100 Players: The First Part

Grantland’s Bill Barnwell did a good job breaking down why players tend to fall into the same traps that other people do when ranking the best in the NFL, as evidenced by the recent NFL Top 100 Players special.

In the same article linked above, Barnwell has started his own ranking of the best 100 players in the NFL, and has four current Broncos, and one former Bronco in 2014, ranked in the start of his list, including three who were not in the player rankings: Louis Vasquez (81), Chris Harris (62) and Aqib Talib (61).

What he has to say about the Broncos’ cornerbacks is pretty telling about why players can’t always be counted on to effectively evaluate their peers.

I’m not sure how neither of Denver’s Pro Bowl–caliber cornerbacks made it onto the players’ collective ballot, given that this is the best 1-2 combination in the league. The only other corner combo to knock away 15 passes each last year was Cleveland’s duo of Haden and Buster Skrine. The Broncos also ranked among the top five in DVOA against both no. 1 and no. 2 receivers, a group in which they were joined only by the Bengals. While Talib got a mammoth deal from the Broncos in free agency last year, Harris took a deal that had other teams grumbling from the day it was signed.

His ranking of DeMarcus Ware (87) was the same as the players’ vote, and he ranked former Broncos TE Julius Thomas much lower (Barnwell’s ranking is 92, players ranked him 45).

One is free to debate where any player should be ranked on a list, but Barnwell’s criteria seems a bit more on the right track, than player perceptions that tend to be similar to the common fan or media pundit.