Attendance
Did not practice: Injured reserve — OLB Johnny Walker Jr., DE Matt Henningsen. Out — ILB Drew Sanders (foot), OLB Nik Bonitto (foot), CB Reese Taylor (unknown), TE Nate Adkins (unknown). Departed — CB Damarri Mathis (unknown).
Same contingent as Tuesday, except Mathis was also spotted heading to the locker room with a trainer at Wednesday’s practice and didn’t return. If it’s any sort of longer-term injury, that’d be a blow to his hopes of making Denver’s 53-man roster.
Bonitto, meanwhile, was present but inactive for a second straight day, even after Payton indicated Tuesday he’d be back. Taylor was seen walking out to the field with a slight limp a short time into practice.
Newcomer impact
Not much happened Wednesday, to be perfectly honest. Payton indicated, “You have to be smart,” the day before a joint practice. Thus, with the Broncos hosting the Arizona Cardinals on Thursday, the workload was minimal. There was some early run-game team focus. There was a two-point conversion period that lasted two plays. There was a red-zone walkthrough that lasted so long that a group of receivers simply started playing catch on the other field.
Through it all, however, rookie Pat Bryant made plays, continuing a trend that began back in May. He has made plays catching the ball from Bo Nix, Jarrett Stidham and Sam Ehlinger. He has made plays on out routes, over the middle and deep. On Wednesday, he caught a drag from Stidham in one team period — Bryant’s favorite route — and later broke off a pretty deep corner to catch a back-shoulder ball from Stidham for a touchdown.
There’s a horde of hands to feed on the depth chart above Bryant. But Payton said this week he wants to create some looks for the rookie third-rounder this preseason. Bryant’s already embraced a dirty-work role, run-blocking on 12 of his 34 snaps against San Francisco on Saturday while playing a few special-teams reps.
“I love the toughness he brings,” special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi said. “He came in here with a great attitude … kinda like, ‘Hey, I’m ready to do anything, I’m ready to block, I’m ready to go tackle.’”
Top Plays
One can look at Bo Nix’s second-year camp in Denver through a series of prisms. He’s made some dynamic throws, carried himself with franchise-face-level moxie, and also thrown a few picks and sometimes not moved the first-team offense much.
His standout skills, though, have been resilience and ball placement. Both popped Wednesday, as Nix was much more accurate after perhaps his worst day of camp Tuesday. After top receiver Courtland Sutton dropped a dime from Nix on a fade route in Saturday’s preseason game, the two re-lit their connection Wednesday, with Nix scrambling to his right in one red-zone period and zipping a ball past a diving Ja’Quan McMillian to Sutton in the end zone.
Thumbs Up
About six different Bronco defensive reserves boosted their stock Wednesday. Dondrea Tillman might have the most unofficial would-be sacks of any defensive lineman in camp, and he got another on Nix. Rookie Que Robinson, just getting back up to speed after missing time with a bone bruise, showed lightning-quick speed off the edge on another sack. Jordan Jackson, who’s making it increasingly difficult for the Broncos to cut him, flashed good pressure from the interior. Defensive backs Quinton Newsome and Joshua Pickett both had pass break-ups. This roster bubble gets no easier to penetrate.
Thumbs Down
On Saturday, Payton said the Broncos’ staff was trying to “build cases” for each Denver running back to crack the roster. Each back in the Jaleel McLaughlin-Audric Estime-Tyler Badie-Blake Watson pileup has gotten their share of opportunities. Opportunities, however, also create the unsavory proposition of negative reps that could make the staff’s decision for them.
Watson has shown as much burst as anyone in the backfield through camp and the Broncos’ first preseason game. But on Wednesday, he fumbled on one toss in team period. The very next play, he and quarterback Sam Ehlinger botched a handoff for another fumble. In a competition as tight as this one, it wasn’t an encouraging sequence.
Odds and Ends
• The Broncos, as both Sean Payton and special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi have referenced, are looking to ST play as a possible determining factor in battles for roster spots. JL Skinner, then, might have a leg up in a crowded safety room. Rizzi, who was in New Orleans when Skinner was coming out of college, has liked the 6-foot-4 safety since he first watched his tape at Boise State.
“I’m really excited that we have him,” Rizzi said. “He’s another guy that I think can really be a difference-maker for us in the core part of it.”
• Two weeks after Dre Greenlaw exited practice with quad discomfort, he still has yet to participate in a team period in camp. He’s dressed this week after sitting out of Saturday’s reunion with San Francisco. Still, he hasn’t flanked starting linebacker Alex Singleton in any 11-on-11 work. The Broncos have still yet to see the fully healthy, free-flowing version of Greenlaw they signed to a three-year deal in free agency. They could elect to play it safe with him until Week 1 against Tennessee.
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