Courtney Brown is as quiet and soft-spoken as he is huge and powerful. So, when he howled in pain after dislocating his left elbow in Broncos practice Thursday morning, his teammates were understandably stunned, as well as disturbed.
That is the most they have heard from Brown since he joined them.
The good news is there are no broken bones and Brown should be back by the final preseason game against Arizona. Back to complete the Cleveland foursome that joined the Broncos during the offseason and the subject of so much fodder that nearly always is ridicule.
The Browncos, they have been called.
Castoffs. Give us your tired, your worn, your useless. That has become the Broncos’ new motto, critics offer.
That is not what the Broncos have seen in their mini-camps and in the first few days of training camp from this quartet of defensive linemen. Three – Brown, Gerard Warren and Michael Myers – had risen to starting status early in camp. The fourth, Ebenezer Ekuban, has shown promise.
Myers said he has paid little attention to the pessimistic clamor. He was on the field, in the play where Brown was injured.
“I didn’t see it, but it was on an outside running play,” Myers said of the Tatum Bell run in which safety Nick Ferguson was making the tackle and Brown got involved, tangling his left arm between the two players. “Courtney really let it out. It was the first time I’ve ever heard anybody holler like that over an injury. I thought he had torn up his knee. I saw his elbow was dislocated. I saw them put it back in.
“Individually, we’ve got something to prove. As a group all coming to one team, we’ve got something to prove. If we stay together, play together and we win, the joke will be on Cleveland.”
And the naysayers, he said.
It is untrue that the Browns gave up on all four of these players and considered all four worthless. People inside the Browns organization say that the coaching staff wanted to keep most of them, but management decided to discard them. Brown reportedly declined a chance to stay with the Browns this year, citing a change of scenery was best for his career along with the need to rid himself of the burden of being the No. 1 pick on whose shoulders the struggling franchise would be built.
The Browns were 4-12 last year. All the 4-12 teams I have been around often find every faction of the team playing down to a 4-12 level. Broncos coach Mike Shanahan said he saw in the four a group ready to rise.
Shanahan at the start of the afternoon practice was twirling a football, back away from his team while he watched them stretch, alone in his thoughts. He might have been wondering, “Who’s going down next?” That is a coach’s chief fright.
You build it, you coach it and on any given play it can blow up. Ever since Terrell Davis was sent flying and his legs were whipped violently and his knee ruined running down the sideline back in 2001, Shanahan’s Broncos have had their share of injuries that dashed big dreams.
Last season it was a slew of running backs and defensive backs that went down and two defensive starters on the line – Luther Elliss and Trevor Pryce – that helped send the Broncos reeling. Shanahan fortified all three areas this season. Three defensive backs were drafted early, and five running backs are in camp. There are 18 defensive linemen.
Brown offers a reminder that a coach can never have too much depth. The hope is that this injury to the oft-injured Brown will be the biggest among the Broncos this season. The Broncos can dream. Chances are it is not.
“Courtney is 285 pounds, cut up, as fast as a linebacker and as strong as a big nose tackle,” Myers said. “Maybe by getting hurt early, he got it all out early. Maybe he can come back and come back for good.”
How the Broncos shape their defensive front and how it performs is an integral key to their season. Courtney Brown needs to be a part of that.
This is a player who knows more than most the difference between a setback and having to sit down. For good. The Broncos have been there. This, they can handle.
Staff writer Thomas George can be reached at 303-820-1994 or tgeorge@denverpost.com.
