ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — It was mid-May, fear of the COVID pandemic was near its worst, and the Broncos were conducting Zoom team meetings for all points of the country.
Newcomer Nick Vannett couldn’t believe all the tight ends on his Zoom screen. At the time there was Jeff Heuerman, Noah Fant, Andrew Beck, Jake Butt, Austin Fort, Troy Fumagalli, Albert Okwuegbunam and himself.
"You look at the gallery it looks like the Brady Bunch," Vannett said during an interview with 9NEWS on May 19. "We’ve got 9 guys including the coach (Wade Harmon) in there right now. I’ve never been in a meeting room that big before."
From that crowded room, attrition left the Broncos with just two active tight ends for all but one series Sunday at Carolina – Vannett and Fumagalli. And Fumagalli had to be called up from the practice squad to fill a roster spot the day before the game.
"Yes, it's 2020 in a nutshell," Vannett said Tuesday in a Zoom press conference with members of the Denver media. "At this point it's like, can you really be surprised as to what's going to happen or what has happened?
"Like you said, starting the year off, we were flooded with talent in our room, and that's the thing, throughout the year every team goes through it. Every team goes through injuries and, obviously, this year we've had to factor in the COVID stuff, and all that stuff that it brought.
"It just goes back to what I said earlier about, you just have to stay ready. You never know when your opportunity is going to be presented, and when it is, you have to be ready to take it fully on."
From the original eight, Heuerman was cut and Beck quickly became primarily a fullback. Fort and Okwuegbunam went down with season-ending knee injuries. Butt has been down with a strained hamstring and Fant left the game early Sunday with an illness and COVID-19 test.
"I just saw Noah by the trash can and knew that it probably wasn’t something good," Vannett said about when he walked into the visitor’s locker room before the game. "He does kind of puke a lot, he kind of has a weak stomach (laughing), so I didn’t know if it was because of that or what."
That left only Vannett and Fumagalli, which as it turned out, was more than enough. They combined for 73 yards receiving and a touchdown off 8 catches.
Pregame ritual
And so it’s not uncommon for Fant to throw up before a game. It has happened to the biggest, baddest, brutest players in the game. Vannett’s now been with three times in five NFL seasons. How common would he say the blowing cookies exercise is before a game?
"You don't see it too often, anymore," Vannett said with a chuckle (but not an upchuck). "I think it was more prevalent during the high school days. I remember I had a couple teammates at Ohio State it seemed like every single morning workout or every single day it was … you could hear them in the back—you'd be in the locker room and they'd be in the bathroom, you could just hear them from a mile away.
"You don't see it too often, but it happens. Guys get nervous and guys can't keep their food down—like you said, they lose their cookies, or whatever you said. That's how it goes, sometimes. Sometimes guys can rally from it, sometimes it just affects you the whole day. He (Fant) probably had something a little more to it."
Rookie rally
After he was schooled by Atlanta quarterback Matt Ryan in the Broncos’ eighth game of the season on November 8, Broncos rookie cornerback Michael Ojemudia was benched without playing one defensive snap in the next two games against the Raiders and Dolphins, or through the first 2 ½ quarters of game 11 against the New Orleans Saints.
But then the Broncos’ top corner Bryce Callahan suffered a recurrence of his left foot injury and Ojemudia got a chance to play again. When another top corner, A.J. Bouye, was suspended for violating the league’s performance enhancement policy, and fellow rookie Essang Bassey suffered a season-ending ACL injury, Ojemudia went from benched to No. 1 corner in a week’s time.
"Whether I was either playing or not, I was always learning every week," Ojemudia said via Zoom press conference Tuesday. "I went to Vic's office and he just talked to me and said, 'Your opportunity is going to come faster than you think, so just be ready.'"
Fangio sure called that one.
Bronco Bits
Running back Jeremy Cox was signed back to the practice squad Tuesday. …
The Broncos practice squad protected list this week includes kicker Taylor Russolino. The team’s regular kicker Brandon McManus is in a 5-day isolation at a local hotel after he was deemed a high-risk, close contact with someone outside the building who has COVID. Also protected from the practice squad are running back LeVante Bellamy, defensive back Chris Cooper (with Duke Dawson and Kevin Toliver finished for the season with torn ACLs) and special teams linebacker Josh Watson, who has been called up to play in 7 games this season, only to be sent back to the practice squad the next day all seven times. …
The Broncos are in the process of signing cornerback Parnell Motley off the 49ers practice squad. Motley is an undrafted rookie out of Oklahoma, who has spent time with Tampa Bay and San Francisco this year. The Broncos have lost five cornerbacks in two weeks. …
The Broncos, a 4-point home underdog to the Bills this Saturday, are an early 2.5-point underdog the following week at the Los Angeles Chargers. The Broncos have been underdogs through their first 15 games this season, which means they’ve pulled off five upsets.
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