Denver Broncos training camp is underway. I have gleaned a few notes from the pressers John ElwayGary Kubiak, Von Miller and Demaryius Thomas had today. All notes are gleaned from Twitter feeds of Andrew Mason, Mike Klis, Troy Renck, Jeff Legwold, Nicki Jhabvala and Cameron Wolfe.
• John Elway said that the competition for the QB starting job is “wide open.” Mark Sanchez, Paxton Lynch and Trevor Siemian are all in the mix.
• Elway had a good meeting with Von Miller and told him he has higher expectations with his new deal.
• Aqib Talib is on the non-football injury list because he is not yet healthy enough to practice. Elway has talked to Talib and doesn’t know if there will be any NFL discipline.
• Elway believes the team will be better offensively this year and that CJ Anderson has the potential to be a top NFL running back, but needs to stay healthy.
• Elway said that re-signing Emmanuel Sanders remains a priority and he hopes to get him extended before the start of the regular season.
• DeMarcus Ware is also on the non-football injury list and his status will be carefully managed.
• Gary Kubiak said that the three QBs will get equal reps. Sanchez will get reps first, followed by Siemian, then Lynch. The order will change in the first few days of camp. Kubiak said he has seen improvement from Lynch from the first couple of days of rookie practice. There is no timetable for naming a starting QB.
• Kubiak said they will work with Miller to get him up to speed after missing offseason workouts, but acknowledged Miller has worked out on his own.
• Kubiak said the offensive line has taken steps toward improving. Ty Sambrailo is cleared and will start out at right guard. Russell Okung will be brought along progressively.
• Kubiak said Kenny Anunike is closer to recovering from a knee injury.
• Virgil Green and Jeff Heuerman will practice but will have their special teams reps limited. Brandon Marshall is good to go and will have no limitations in practice.
• Kubiak said the main thing with Ware is getting him in the right direction so he’ll be good to go for the regular season.
• Miller said things are good between him and Elway and he aims to be with the Broncos for the rest of his career. He said the extension he and the Broncos agreed to relieved a lot of stress, knowing he’ll be with the team for a while.
• When asked if he believes he is the face of the franchise, Miller responded that “the locker room should be the face of the franchise.” He said everyone in the locker room needs to step up to fill the leadership void left when Peyton Manning retired.
• Miller’s expectation is to continue to beat the standards he has set. He said he feels he is in great shape and ready to go.
• Demaryius Thomas said the drops he had last year were a concentration issue and he has worked to address that.
• He said there isn’t much difference among the quarterbacks the Broncos have so he doesn’t expect to adjust much from one QB to the next.
• He is hopeful that Sanders will get an extension done, saying he deserves it.
• He believes he can still have a 100-catch season in the offense. Andrew Mason brought up a good point: Rod Smith and Ed McCaffrey each had 100 catches in 2000, and that was after John Elway retired, so it’s not out of the question that DT and Sanders could each catch 100 passes in this offense, too.
• DT spoke for a couple of minutes about his conversation with President Barack Obama. He said it was great that the president gave his mother clemency and DT is working to get the same for his grandmother.
I won’t be able to do this every day, but hopefully this whets everyone’s appetite for the upcoming season and gets people excited for what’s to come in training camp.
