One of my favorite bronco quarterback club meetings each year is the one in May or June when the highlight film of the previous season is premiered. Tonight I saw the premiere of the 2009 highlight film titled "A Team From The Start"
Patrick Smyth, the executive director of media relations for the Broncos, introduced the film and answered questions from the crowd afterwards. Patrick said NFL films came to the Broncos after the season asking what the team wanted featured in the film. The two features the broncos wanted emphasized were a "team over the individual" attitude and Josh McDaniel's passion.
The film highlighted the Broncos victories, especially the 6-0 start and the Thanksgiving night NY Giants win. I liked that many sideline and locker room comments were included. One that stood out for me was McDaniels yelling at Kyle Orton during a game "if you are fired up, they will be. The rest of the team feeds off of you!" I thought "yep, that's why he drafted Tebow". McDaniels wants a passionate leader as his qb.
Some accomplishments mentioned: McDaniels had the 3rd best start in the history of the NFL for a rookie coach, Elvis was the first bronco to lead the nfl in sacks, the defense had 8 new starters and finished 7th overall in defense, the win at KC was the largest margin of victory ever for the Broncos at Arrowhead, and Matt Prater made 19 of his last 20 field goal attempts.
While the 2-8 finish still leaves a bad taste in my mouth, the highlight film did remind me of that there were alot of positives to last season. Towards the end of the film a fan is shown holding a sign "In McDaniels We Trust"
The highlight film will probably show up on NFL Network in the future. It's worth seeing, especially for all the player and coach comments featured.
After the film Patrick answered questions. I asked him how Tim Tebow was doing. Patrick joked, "Tim who?" Then he went on to say that Tebow is one of the hardest workers at camp. Tim is the last one to leave the building each day and he's always looking for a coach to quiz him on the offense. In his flight out after the draft Tebow wanted to do pushups during the flight to work out, and he brought a gym bag with him. Josh McDaniels says that Tebow is "ahead of schedule" in his development.
McDaniels wants players that are "tough, smart, and physical" The recent bronco draft class featured players with 4 of the top 10 wonderlic scores.
Will Eddie Royal be more involved in the offense? Kyle Orton says he didn't get Eddie the ball as much as he should have last year. McDaniels is trying to have four #1 receivers instead of focusing so much on just 1 receiver like last year (Marshall)
Rod Smith was at practice yesterday and talked to Eddie. Champ saw Rod and teased him about gray hair. "It would be gray if we had won that 2006 afc championship game," said Rod.
Elvis contract? It's being worked on. Elvis has a real good attitude and is confident it will be worked out.
Ryan Clady? He's a real quiet guy. He feels bad about his offseason basketball injury. Not as bad as it could have been and he's recovering well. Clady is a huge Lakers fan and he opens up when teammates tease him about the Lakers.
Xanders and McDaniels relationship? It is really a partnership, they work closely together and come to a decision jointly. They are in each other's offices 15 to 20 times a day. Xanders first job in the NFL was cleaning pools for the Atlanta Falcons. He rose through the ranks and was a defensive assistant on the Falcons super bowl team that played the broncos.
John Elway watched practice yesterday - the first time Elway has been at a Bronco practice in years. The recent bronco quarterbacks, while good guys, didn't want anything to do with Elway. Tebow is different - he wanted to have dinner with Elway when he flew out after the draft.
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I always find the qb club meetings interesting and this one was no exception. There was a small but loyal group of fans attending tonight - many long time season ticket holders. The club is planning more Monday night meetings this year and hope to have more current players as guests.
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