Jerry Rice walked into the Broncos’ locker room around 8 Wednesday morning and Rod Smith brought him over to several of the younger receivers for introductions.
Three of them – Triandos Luke, B.J. Johnson and Romar Crenshaw – joined the Broncos last year. Luke was a sixth-round draft pick who played in 11 games. Johnson and Crenshaw were free-agent finds. Johnson spent last year on injured reserve. Crenshaw was on the practice squad.
Luke is 23, Johnson 22, Crenshaw 24.
Rice will be 43 on Oct. 13.
His reputation in their shared craft, of course, made the initial get-to-know-you a one-way exercise.
So, Luke, Johnson and Crenshaw were later asked, what did they do when Jerry Rice asked for their autographs?
It was a gag. Each got it. Each doubled over in laughter. Each answered with wholesome merriment.
“I don’t think he needs my autograph,” Luke said. “Not yet, anyway.”
Johnson said: “I’m pretty sure he didn’t know me and he doesn’t remember me.”
Crenshaw, from Broken Bow, Okla., earned the blue ribbon.
“Let’s put it this way: My mom back home in Oklahoma told me to make sure I go over and shake Jerry Rice’s hand. She loves her some Jerry Rice. He is her favorite player. She told me, ‘Make sure you do it because that will be the closest I will come to meeting him.”‘
Thanks, Mom.
You are in a battle to turn some heads, get entrenched, make the squad, and Mom is rooting for Jerry Rice. In ambles the superstar through one door and eventually one of the Broncos’ young receivers will be exiting out another.
What a compelling situation, to line up with and learn from the greatest receiver in football history only to watch him cost you your Broncos chance. It is inevitable. Somebody is going to get cut at the expense of the legend of Jerry Rice.
Last season the Broncos kept six receivers on their opening-day roster: Rod Smith, Ashley Lelie, Darius Watts, Nate Jackson, Charlie Adams and Luke. By season’s end it was five, with Jackson and Johnson on injured reserve and Crenshaw and Grant Mattos on the practice squad.
Currently the Broncos have 10 receivers in camp. We know Smith, Lelie and Watts will be on the opening-day roster. Rice and Luke are favorites to make it five. Once the competition intensifies, who knows the final breakdown. But as legend is likely to be served, youth will be axed.
This is not a mistake. NFL rosters should be a blend of veterans and youth, of playmakers and understudies. If anything, the competition among the Broncos’ receivers could be the best ever. Rice brings that, a level of scrappiness that produces healthy, passionate sparring.
“It was only his first day of this camp, but you bet that all eyes were on him because he brings something to our team that nobody else in the entire league could have brought,” linebacker Ian Gold said. “And the receivers, the defensive backs, they have to be soaking it up. I don’t play offense, and I was watching trying to learn from him. For my position, it would be like having Dick Butkus in here.”
The younger receivers said that when they heard Rice was going to be a Bronco, they all thought, “How am I going to compete against Jerry Rice?”
“My phone was ringing with friends calling asking me, ‘What’s up with that?”‘ Johnson said. They were wondering if he was shaken.
“I mean, this is a guy,” said Johnson, “I watched in elementary school, middle school and high school. He is going to make the young receivers here stay on top of their game. We are all going to do the things we need to do to try to make this team.”
Crenshaw said when he shook Rice’s hand it seemed big enough to wrap around his forearm. Luke said it was “weird” seeing Rice wearing No. 19 instead of No. 80.
“You never know what the coaching staff is thinking,” Luke said. “We will let the people upstairs handle their business and we as young receivers will handle our business.”
They watch Jerry Rice and he watches them.
“I could feel the eyes on me,” Rice said after practice. “I’m looking around me. I felt a little leery going into a different environment, but I got a great reception.”
Smith and Lelie look over their shoulders and do not discount Rice’s magnitude. The younger Broncos receivers look upward and see a teammate yet a target.
The shakedown has just begun.
So, too, has the fun.
Staff writer Thomas George can be reached at 303-820-1994 or tgeorge@denverpost.com.
