Broncos linebacker and leading tackler Brandon Marshall was again limited in practice Thursday, a day after saying he’s still not fully recovered from his sprained foot.
“I feel all right. I’ve just got to work through the kinks, just keep working out there, and it’ll be better,” he said Wednesday.
“I’m not going to say it’s 100 percent, but it’s getting there. It feels pretty decent.”
Defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio refused to expand on Marshall’s status but said it was “certainly good to get him back out at practice.”
But with the Broncos’ playoff opener against Indianapolis coming Sunday, their defense is hoping Marshall will be good, or at least good enough, to suit up.
“It’ll be pretty big,” defensive end DeMarcus Ware said Thursday. “He’s that big playmaker that we need.”
Third anniversary. Thursday marked three years since Tim Tebow’s 80-yard touchdown pass to Demaryius Thomas in overtime of the Broncos’ wild-card playoff game against Pittsburgh in 2012.
It’s a play few Broncos will ever forget, and one that Thomas certainly won’t.
“For me, it was like a coming-out party,” he said. “First time in the playoffs, it was big.
“I couldn’t believe it. I scored the touchdown.”
Film study. The Broncos’ defense watched not one but two animal-attacking films this week.
“Playoff edition,” Del Rio said. “It was pretty spectacular. I kind of want to hold it in. It’s good stuff. It was very strong. We added in clips of a great player and then got a couple of different animals in and they were attacking things, and so it was a very, very good film. That’s all I’m going to give you.”
To outsiders, it may seem all for laughs. But Terrance Knighton, who admitted it’s the part of game planning that he and the rest of the defense look forward to most, believes it has an impact on their play.
“The good thing is, when they show the animal and then they show previous plays we made during the week, it looks similar — how we attack the ball, how physical we are,” Knighton said. “We just want to have that animal instinct when we’re on the field.
“They’re just hunting and being ferocious, and that’s what defense is about.”
