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arrownoyesMile High Report homepageHorizontal - WhiteMile High Reporta Denver Broncos communityFollow Mile High Report online:Follow Mile High Report on TwitterFollow Mile High Report on FacebookLog in or sign upLog InSign UpSite searchSearchSearchMile High Report main menuFanpostsFanshotsSectionsBroncosOddsShopAboutMastheadCommunity GuidelinesStubHubMoreAll 321 blogs on Horizontal - WhiteFanposts Fanshots Sections Broncos NewsBroncos ScheduleBroncos PodcastsBroncos Film RoomBroncos RosterBroncos Injury UpdatesFull ArchiveBroncos StoriesScheduleRosterStatsOdds Shop About Masthead Community Guidelines StubHub ✕3 things I think I think: Training Camp BattlesNew Jake Butt Jersey ,39commentsThree battles to watch.MDTShare this storyShare this on FacebookShare this on TwitterShareAll sharing optionsShareAll sharing options for:3 things I think I think: Training Camp BattlesTwitterFacebookRedditPocketFlipboardEmailWe’re less than two weeks away from Broncos football! That means it’s time to take another look at my Way-Too-Early Final 53 and share some thoughts on the battles that will have the most impact on the Broncos game day roster.Tight end - Will Noah Fant win the 1?Laurie touched on this one yesterday, but I wanted to share a couple thoughts on it. It seems notable that Von Miller said Noah Fant has been the most impressive rookie so far, and his athleticism should do wonders for the offense. If he doesn’t win the starting job outright, I’d bet he’s logging the majority of snaps at the position by the Broncos’ week 10 bye at the very latest.DBs - Is Kareem Jackson a corner or safety?If you’ve followed OTAs and Minicamp, you’ll know the former Texan has gotten significant work at both positions. Early on, I believed he’d be a corner for sure, especially when the Chris Harris contract impasse looked like it was at its ugliest. Now I’m not so sure. I took a deep dive into Justin Simmons’ 2018 film last week and saw a player who is at his best and playing robber coverage. He has the mentality to bang in the box against the run and the range to play deep, but I’m not sure a former corner wouldn’t be an upgrade in the deep parts of the field.I’ve yet to look at more than bits and pieces of Will Parks as I’ve studied other players. As of now, I consider him the wildcard in all of this. In 2018 he played a lot of the Dimebacker role Sua Cravens was supposed to fill, and he looked darn good doing it. There’s a chasm between those responsibilities and a safety’s assignment in Fangio’s D. Then of course, there’s Isaac Yiadom. If Kareem Jackson plays the majority of his snaps at safety, Yiadom’s playing time sees a significant uptick. Coming out of Boston College in 2018, the rub on Yiadom was that he’d need time to adjust to the league. When he entered the fray week 3 to play 31 snaps against Baltimore, he was as green as grass. How much will an off-season to prepare and tutelage from Defensive Coordinator Ed Donatell help?Will Parks showed serious flashes down the stretch. Will it carry over to a new role?Quarterback - Is the rookie a Lock for #2?Every training camp since Peyton Manning retired has been breathless speculation about every pass by the media. 2019 won’t break the trend. Joe Flacco is the day 1 starter, but all eyes will be on Drew Lock’s performance. Back in 2016, it was pretty clear from the jump that Paxton Lynch was in over his head, and nothing out of the Spring suggests the former Missouri Tiger is about to follow suit. But this is Broncos Country, where the bar for every quarterback is insanely high. It speaks volumes about what the front office (and the rest of the league) think of Kevin Hogan when he resigned for 1-year and 1.29 million. If Lock is meant to be a future starting quarterback in the league, he should make mincemeat of a guy who’s completed all of 60 passes for 641 yards, 4 touchdowns Brendan Langley Jersey , and 7 picks in his NFL career. If Lock beats out Hogan, he’s all of one bad fall from Flacco come playing time. I’ve gone on record since before the draft about how he’s best served with a redshirt year. At the same time, Flacco’s got a pretty lengthy injury history. Everyone who bleeds orange and blue knows who they want to come in if ol’ Joe goes down. Your Broncos LinksAn exciting camp battle will be shaping up at tight end - Mile High Report2019 Denver Broncos roster review: Center Connor McGovern - Mile High Report2019 Denver Broncos roster review: Linebacker Todd Davis - Mile High Report2019 Denver Broncos roster review: Tight End Jeff Heuerman - Mile High ReportWhich skill player is most critical for Denver’s offensive success? - Mile High ReportDenver Broncos: Emmanuel Sanders hopes to be ready Week 1 - Mile High ReportThe Denver Broncos Top 100 included an all-time Raider legend - Mile High ReportHall of Fame door could open for Denver Broncos Randy Gradishar - Mile High ReportNFL analyst ranks the 25 best quarterbacks of all-time - Mile High ReportNFL LinksIs Adrian Amos a free safety or a strong safety? - Chicago TribuneWill Josh Jacobs be a training-camp holdout? – ProFootballTalkJohn Ross changing numbers to “start everything over” – ProFootballTalkPFT 2019 storyline No. 20: Can the young QBs in the AFC East compete with the Patriots? – ProFootballTalkPFT 2019 storyline No. 19: Which young offensive coach will live up to the hype? – ProFootballTalkIs this the year age catches up with Drew Brees? – ProFootballTalkThe Case for the Zero Blitz | Football OutsidersBuilding the Perfect NFL Safety | The Draft Network Andrew Mason tagged the mood in the Broncos locker room after the 30-23 loss to the Chiefs as somewhere between “frustration” and “exasperation.”Frustrated by losing, exasperated by losing a game they could have won.Because if you out-gain the opponent 411 yards to 340, including nearly 200 on the ground, win the time of possession, have more first downs and hold the opponents to under 50 yards rushing, it would be fair to think you win that game.But if you can’t keep yourself from giving up 83 yards in penalties, 40 yards in sacks and two turnovers while allowing the opposing quarterback to spread 300 yards passing around six offensive weapons, you’re not winning the game.And that sentiment was obvious.“Critical moments in the game, we let them score touchdowns - and so many penalties, penalties all over the place,” said Von Miller, who finally got a sack on Mahomes this season. “You can’t beat a good football team like that with those types of penalties. Unfortunate situation 鈥?extremely tough loss.”Case Keenum, who was 23 of 34 for 262 yards on the day plus one fumble lost and one interception, noted that when playing a team like the Chiefs, the Broncos offense needed to take advantage of every scoring opportunity to win - and it couldn’t do it.“There were sometimes where we had some good momentum and good starts to drives and (we had) self-inflicted wounds,” said “That is near impossible to beat a team like the Chiefs when you are hurting yourself like that.”Chris Harris Jr. called the loss one of the toughest regular season losses in his career.“You fight so hard and do whatever you can to win and it’s really upsetting,” he said, adding he’s really tired of the self-inflicted wounds. “I’m getting fed up with it Carlos Henderson Jersey , really.We’re beating ourselves every week. I can’t count how many penalties we had on ourselves. You can’t do that if you’re going to come in here and beat the Chiefs.”The cornerback was equally critical of his team’s offense and defense for inflicting those wounds.“Man, that just kills us. We get a good defensive stop, and then a penalty. We get them in a good situation, and then a penalty. We just kill ourselves,” he said. “Offense, they got a nice drive going, a 20-yard play, then a penalty. Every time. We got to figure it out.”Several Broncos voiced the same frustration Broncos Country did online over the ticky-tackness of several penalties - including Shaquil Barrett’s “roughing the passer” call and Connor McGovern’s block in the back penalty.But at the end of the day, it can’t be about the refs.“I don’t know what it is, but we knew coming into this game that [this group of refs] call the most penalties in the league,” Harris Jr. said. “I understood coming into the game that I can’t hold. So everybody else got to understand that. Especially, when we got these types of refs that will call everything.”Phillip Lindsay, who was the victim of several penalties, having 62 rushing yards and good field position negated because of them, said “it is what it is.”“It’s football. This is the problem with the game. You can’t dictate what happens. At the end of the day, sometimes it’s put in the refs hands,” he said, noting that with a lot going on, anything wrong could draw the flag. “It’s on us. We’re doing things that’s hurting us.”Brandon Marshall said the Broncos can get away with mistakes against teams like Arizona but not against teams like Kansas City.“We’ve got to clean that up. I know it’s tough. We keep saying the same thing week in and week out,” said Marshall Demarcus Walker Jersey , who had one tackle all game. He added that the breakdown in play technique is really the same thing as a mental error.“If you’ve got a technique breakdown, it’s really mental and you didn’t do what you needed to do,” he said. “But that’s one thing we have to stop. ...You know, we really match up well with this team – two close games. Unfortunately, we didn’t come out on the right side of either one.”Barrett added that being close doesn’t count.“We’re close every week, but we’re not getting closer. We’ve just got to work on our fundamentals and get back to clean football,” Barrett said, asking reporters what the team W-L record was. “What’s our record, 3-5? We’ve been close a lot. But it don’t mean anything.”Miller felt the same.“That’s the frustrating part about it. Kansas City has a great team, a great team. But I feel like we have a great team, too,” he said. “Whenever we don’t play up to our potential, it’s frustrating, especially in moments like this.”As usual, Derek Wolfe really summed it up the most succinctly for everyone.“If you lose it doesn’t count for shit. All that matters is wins in this league,” he said. It’s a production league. If you’re not winning, shit, it doesn’t matter what you did.”