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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.

The Utter Non-Parity of the AFC’s Past Two Decades

Occasionally, there may be some fun football facts that cross my mind that I feel deserve a quick mention somewhere.  Here are some that have been in my head for a while, and that I finally took the time to investigate further.

That, as the title suggests, is how top heavy the AFC has been for the past 20 seasons.  During that time, just five teams (about one third of the conference) have dominated.  Good news, the Broncos are one of those teams!  The other four are the Steelers, Patriots, Ravens, and Colts.

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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.

PFF: Tap The Brakes On The Derek Carr Hype

There seems to be a growing consensus among league observers that the Raiders have finally found a quarterback in Derek Carr, recently furthered by an article by Mike Sando in which he culled league observer opinions to place Carr as the league’s 20th best QB. However, PFF says, not so fast, my friend:

There were certainly things to like about Carr’s rookie season, including his performance in Oakland’s 24-13 win over the 49ers, and his effectiveness on intermediate throws throughout the year. But overall, his body of work lagged well behind the rest of the league, and he ranked No. 38 out of 39 qualifying QBs in our grading system (only the Jaguars’ Blake Bortles graded out lower).

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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.