1) Injury Updates

 

Defensive tackle Kawann Short returned to work after missing three practices last week with a sore foot. Short, who said he’s “feeling pretty good,” admitted he was “a little winded.”

Safety Dean Marlowe was in pads for the first time since he strained his hamstring four weeks ago. He went through individual drills before walking over to head trainer Ryan Vermillion.

“I started to do the little breakdown drills and I kind of felt it grab on me a little bit as I was doing it,” said Marlowe, who spent the rest of practice working on the side. “To be precautionary, I didn’t want to keep doing it.”

Linebacker A.J. Klein, who missed all of last week with an undisclosed injury, was the only player on the active roster who wasn’t in pads.

 

2) Brown Vs. Talib

 

Philly Brown wasn’t backing down in June.

“I guess he thinks he can bully, but that ain’t happening. Nobody’s going to bully me,” the wideout said when asked about Broncos cornerback Aqib Talib.

It had been four months, yet the memory of Talib’s two personal fouls against Brown in the Super Bowl was still fresh. But In the two months since, Brown’s avoided stoking the fire. He brushed off questions about Talib at training camp, and on Sunday, there was a curious explanation for this tweet:

All this talk I can’t wait till Thursday. Don’t think I forgot‼️

— corey brown (@phillybrown10) September 3, 2016

 

“It was about my fiancé,” Brown claimed. “That had nothing to do with him.”

Even if we take his word for it, Brown and Talib could make for an interesting subplot come Thursday night.

“Aqib Talib doesn’t run my life. I don’t walk around thinking about him 24/7. That’s not what I’m thinking about right now. I’m more focused on getting the victory.”

 

3) Thursday Night’s Not All Right?

 

Were you excited when this year’s schedule came out featuring the Panthers on opening night?

Rivera wasn’t.

“If I had my druthers I’d have liked to start the season differently,” he said.

While 30 other teams have a week and a half between their preseason finales and Week 1 kickoffs, the Panthers and Broncos have a week. And this weekend wasn’t just about getting ready for the game. They also had to make nearly a couple dozen cuts, sift through waivers and put together a practice squad.

“The biggest challenge for me is just working through the preseason,” Denver coach Gary Kubiak said, “making a ton of decisions and yet, we got home from Arizona at three o’clock in the morning Thursday night and had to cut players and get ready to play (the Panthers).”

And while both coaches are dealing with the same issues, only one of them has a travel day on his long to-do list.

“Being defending NFC champs, it’d have been nice to open up the regular season at home. But it didn’t work that way,” Rivera said. “I don’t set the schedule. We just go out and play the game. So we’re going to play the game to the best of our ability and hopefully do things the right way.”