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What do you expect from Brendan Langley this week?
-- T.C. Masters
A better performance than last Sunday in Oakland. You learn by doing. Every day, every repetition in practice and every game snap will help Langley get better. Remember, he's still relatively new to cornerback, having made the transition from wide receiver in college.
One positive attribute of Langley is that he wants to confront and correct the areas in which he fell short, as he explained this week.
"I think that's real important, to know what you do bad, because a lot of people want to just overlook it, like, 'I do this good, I do this good,'" he said. "You have to know your weaknesses so you can build on top of those so you can get better. Knowing my weaknesses, knowing my positives, and fixing my weaknesses so I can build on top of my positives."
Seven years ago, that was how Chris Harris Jr. responded to challenges he faced when he was thrown into extensive, unexpected action as a rookie, and look how he turned out. Langley has his mind in the right place.
Other players who have come through the rookie fire can attest to the value of game experience -- even when it doesn't always go your way.
"It's going to be everything," safety Justin Simmons said. "All last year, Will [Parks] and I were playing sporadically here and there, and now T.J. [Ward] goes down [late in the season] and now we're full-time men. The first game we were full-time men was against [Kansas City] at K.C., and we were still in the playoff hunt.
"There were a lot of mistakes made, a lot of plays we made, but a lot of mistakes that we made as well -- mistakes that will only be corrected in due time, of playing football and recognizing plays and things of that nature. All that comes with reps."
Langley should reap the same long-term rewards from his play in Oakland last week and in Miami this Sunday.
I was wondering why the Broncos called up Austin Traylor instead of TE Jake Butt? Any chance of calling up QB Chad Kelly to give him a look?
-- Martin White
In the cases of Butt and Kelly, both were not activated to the 53-man roster during the three-week window in which the Broncos could have done so, which meant that they would not play this season. Players that start the physically-unable-to-perform or non-football-injury lists must be activated at some point during a 21-day period after they begin practicing or they cannot play that year.
Butt encountered knee soreness during his practice time, while Kelly was still completing his recovery from a torn ACL suffered during the 2016 season and a wrist injury he suffered while preparing for his pre-draft Pro Day workout.
The analysis, opinion and speculation in this story represents that of the author, gathered through research and reporting, and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Denver Broncos organization.
