| Travis Heath. 15th August, 2005 - 3:10 am
 The Broncos were victorious Saturday night in Houston in their preseason debut. Who cares, right? Let’s get to the important things in the preseason, which include backup quarterbacks and season ending injuries. Luckily, there is no news to report concerning the latter. However, the backup quarterback situation in Denver is intriguing for perhaps the first time since Brian Griese took Bubby Brister’s job in 1999.
The aforementioned backup quarterback of interest this year, goes by the name of Bradlee Van Pelt. Even though he was raised in Southern California, he has become one of Colorado’s favorite adopted sons--or maybe I should say one of Colroado State’s favorite adopted sons. Van Pelt starred at Colorado State University before being drafted by the Broncos last season. His reckless style and cocky attitude made him a fan favorite in Ft. Collins, and public number enemy number one in Boulder at The University of Colorado.
It seems that every step of the way on his football journey, coaches have been trying to persuade the 6-foot-2 223 pounder to give up the quarterback position in favor of the position his father played in the NFL, linebacker. Van Pelt has persistently, and sometimes maybe even stubbornly, refused a position switch of any kind. Based on Van Pelt’s track record thus far, he may have very well made the right decision.
Last year, Van Pelt was on the practice squad after playing only one series the entire preseason in 2004. The Denver coaching staff made it clear to Van Pelt that he would have to increase his commitment to football, and his commitment to learning the ins and outs of the playbook, if he ever wanted to secure a long-term future with the team. Van Pelt listened to the advice of his coaches, and he moved out of his loft in downtown Denver to focus more on football.
The results have capitulated BVP, as he is known to his teammates, from number four on the depth chart to number two in just the first couple of weeks of training camp. As a result, Van Pelt saw the majority of the playing time at the quarterback position in Saturday night’s game against the Texans.
The results were not earth shattering, but still very solid. While Van Pelt didn’t throw for a touchdown in the game, he also didn’t throw an interception. This is a big deal for a player who was prone to making dumb mistakes throughout his college career. Van Pelt also broke off a stunning 40 yard run on a designed play in the second quarter. This was not all that surprising considering Van Pelt carries the football as well as most NFL running backs do. What was surprising though, was the great touch Van Pelt put on a number of his passes. He also seemed to have a solid grasp of Mike Shanahan’s complicated offense, which is no small feat for a second year player with no regular season experience to date. His leadership skills were evident throughout the game last night as well.
It’s hard to say for sure whether or not Van Pelt will make it in the NFL. He certainly brings a unique set of skills to the quarterback position that few current quarterbacks posses. He is also a guy who has a certain charisma about him, which causes fans to stop what they are doing and take notice. Most experts seem to agree on one thing though--Van Pelt will probably not have an impact this year, barring an injury of course to current starter Jake Plummer.
I guess I’m not an expert, because I couldn’t disagree more with the above assertion. In fact, I would argue that Van Pelt is already making an impact. You see, Van Pelt is playing just well enough to make Plummer nervous. During Plummer’s first two seasons as a Bronco, he never felt any real pressure from career backup Danny Kannell. Plummer knew that the job was his, and barring injury, it would be his no matter how he performed. We haven’t seen how Plummer will respond when he is being pushed from behind for his job, and no one can predict for sure how a player will respond to such a scenario having not been through a similar situation previously.
However, if the early returns are indicative of the final results, it appears that this pressure might very well have a positive impact on Plummer. Last season, it took the Broncos offense the better part of three preseason games to score a touchdown. Last night, it took the Broncos offense the better part of a quarter to achieve the same feat.
If Plummer can allude the pressure applied by Van Pelt in much the same fashion that he alludes the pressure of blitzing linebackers, it might just be enough to push the Broncos deep into the playoffs for the first time in six seasons. If not, BVP maybe the future QB in Denver for many seasons to come.
Travis can be reached at travismheath@msn.com |
