The Broncos’ six consecutive losses since their bye week created a strange 10 days at Dove Valley with a trio of players cut, a coach fired, another quarterback benched, dust-ups at practice and a message, sent loud and clear that jobs are on the line. No one is safe, not on a team described by its own general manager as “soft.”
The first domino fell November 14, when veteran linebacker Kasim Edebali was waived and replaced by Deiontrez Mount.
“It was more about Mount earning the opportunity to be on the roster,” Coach Vance Joseph said.
Three days later, said he believed the Broncos’ problems started after the bye, in part, because “we got a little bit soft.”
“To be dead honest with you, I think we exhaled,” Elway said “Itap hard to recover from that. It will be a lesson that hopefully we all learn and prevent from happening in the future.”
Elway later clarified that he included himself in the assessment, but his words had already struck a chord with locker room frustrated by the losses.
The following morning, the team waived veteran tight end , whom the Broncos gave up a fifth-round pick to acquire in a 2016 trade with the Patriots.
The Broncos hoped to hit the reset button with a home victory against the Bengals, but another loss spelled the end for offensive coordinator .
“We have to find ways to have a pass game where itap more completion passes and we can call them with more confidence,” Joseph said hours after firing McCoy. “We can call them in hard parts of the game and execute. That hasn’t happened, so thatap why the change was ultimately made.”
It didn’t stop there.
Tuesday, was told he would start Sunday at Oakland, setting in motion the second quarterback change of the season.
The morning of Thanksgiving, cornerback and former fifth-round pick became the third player released. He was waived in part, according to a source, because he was always late to meetings.
And hours later, the team took to the field for what turned into a heated holiday practice.
“That was my first time experiencing that kind of practice on Thanksgiving, but that speaks to our guys wanting to win and how hard they worked,” Joseph said Friday. “It was fun to see, in my opinion. Guys competing for the ball and trying to make plays, it gets heated sometimes. But thatap OK.”
Scuffles occurred between defensive end Zach Kerr and offensive lineman , and cornerback and rookie receiver Isaiah McKenzie ensued. In the locker room after, running back consoled a visibly upset McKenzie.
“Thatap football, man,” Harris said Friday.
When asked if he and McKenzie were on OK terms, he said curtly: “Yeah. … I just come to play football, and just respect that. Always respect the vets.”
Chris Harris on dust-ups in practice yesterday
— Nicki Jhabvala (@NickiJhabvala)
Joseph said the skirmishes were nothing out of the ordinary, not for a team mired in a six-game losing streak and sitting at 3-7 less than two years after winning 50.
The fire, he said, was a sign of life. For others, it was just another day at work.
“What happened yesterday?” said Friday when asked about the dust-ups. “I don’t even remember, man. So into my play, so into my job, just a normal practice for me yesterday.”
