‘Broncos coach Fox: ‘Definitely a tough day’
Broncos head coach John Fox. Aug. 14, 2012
Denver Broncos head coach John Fox assessed the state of his football team following the first day of significant roster cuts of the new season. He spoke to reporters during a conference call Monday:
“Well as I mentioned last week in preparation for this, this Monday and next Friday are probably two of the harder days that you deal with as the head coach. It’s never easy trying to figure out what these guys are all about, getting to know them and having to let them go is not easy. Definitely a tough day.”
“I think [LS] Aaron Brewer … We brought him in with the idea that we liked his ability. He’s an exceptional athlete. A lot of times with a snapper one of the things you look at is the protection element. He is like a center on the offensive line. He picked that up very, very quickly. He’s very athletic so he’s a really good cover guy for a center. A lot of times, people on punt returns don’t count that guy. We just felt great about his upside and his performance in the preseason games.”
“Again, that’s the athleticism that I made reference to. I don’t know that we’ll have him at R- or L-5 covering kicks but as far as on the actual playing, it does create a little bit more problems for the opponent.”
“I think as we get rolling as far as the starters and whatnot, I think you have a little bit of an idea there. The bottom part of the roster, as far as backups, special-teams guys that can be core contributors, there’ll be a lot of those questions answered or this will be the last opportunity to have those questions answered Thursday night [at] Arizona.”
“I think they [the offesnsive line] had their best outing last week, especially the first unit. I think like any coach, I think in the NFL right now there’s still plenty of room for improvement for everybody but I don’t see that as a deficiency.
“I think Knowshon’s made steady progress in each one of his games. Coming back from an ACL [injury], especially as a running back, but actually at any position, it takes a little bit of time to get back in the groove of things. I think he’s done a super job.”
“We liked our other backs just a little bit better. [than Xavier Oman] As you go through the list, we ended up keeping one fullback thus far in Chris Gronkowski, who we traded for with Indianapolis. You look at [RB] Lance Ball, [RB] Willis McGahee, Knowshon, [and RB] Ronnie Hillman. Unfortunately, you can’t keep 10 of them. I like Xavier. He’s a great kid, gave great effort. This game changes constantly anyway, so you never know. But at this point, we’re happy with the guys we kept.”
“I think everybody that’s still on our roster of our 75, we’ll evaluate both tomorrow and Wednesday. We’ll get on the plane to Arizona, [and] hopefully we’ll have a better idea then. Obviously they’re guys [safety’s Jim Leonhard & Quinton Carter] we like because they’re on our 75, and we’ll see how they work out this week, and we’ll make those decisions then.”
“I think [he looked] good. [Ronnie Hillman] Like everybody, [there was] some good [and] some bad, but I thought overall he did a good job. He found a couple creases there, and he does have good explosion and athleticism. So all in all, I thought he did pretty [well].”
On the status of RB Lance Ball and CB Omar Bolden
“I think Omar’s [Bolden] got a knee bruise, and I think Lance [Ball] has a rib bruise. We’ll have a better idea tomorrow with practice.”
