'Seasoned' corners ready to compete

Last year Domonique Foxworth and Darrent Williams came to their first Denver Broncos camp as a pair of rookies hoping to make the final roster. This year, the two are competing for the starting cornerback opposite of all-pro Champ Bailey.

"Most definitely, we talked about it," Foxworth said on Tuesday. "We're best of friends and we root for each other. It's easy to lose focus on the team's main goal and just focus on your personal goals. Obviously I want to be the starter and obviously he wants to be the starter. The important thing is to keep our focus on the main goal, which is to win a Super Bowl.

"I'll take a Super Bowl on the bench rather than another loss in the conference title game any day of the week."

Foxworth started seven games last season. Williams, who earned a starting job with an impressive showing in training camp, had nine starts before being sidelined late in the season with a torn groin.

"We both go out there and handle our business," Williams said. "I really don't get too caught up in it. We're still good friends. When he makes a good play I'm the first one to congratulate him. When I make a good play he's right there. It's like last year when we came in, we're pushing each other."

Foxworth reflected on his experience in the AFC Championship Game -- a game in which Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger picked on the rookie cornerback repeatedly with success.

"I think a lot of what I took from that game is that, sometimes you have to be a little more independent as a player," Foxworth said. "Throughout the course of the game I was playing the technique that we were traijned on. A lot of the times it left certain things open . . . In the course of the game, when it's a championship game and there's no tomorrow if you don't win, one of the things that I think I should have done is gambled a little more and anticipated. That's pretty much what I've been thinking about during the off-season."

Williams said he is fully healed from the torn groin injury that brought a strong rookie season to a crawl. He played in the postseason, but Williams was nowhere near the player who dazzled the Broncos and surprised fans with his speed and cover ability.

"I was probably about 60 percent," Williams said. "It got to the point where I could run pretty good, but I couldn't do anything laterally. I watched film of the first playoff game against the (New England) Patriots. Troy Brown was running away from me. In the first game (against New England in October) I was all over him.

"I've been working hard the past two-and-a-half months. All my quickness is there. I think I'm a little faster now. I'm been studying a lot of film. I'm going at 100 percent right now."

So now that Foxworth has analyzed his breakdowns in the AFC title game, and Williams has overcome his physical ailments, which of the two second-year players will wind up as a starter in 2006?

"Well, you're asking a biased party," Foxworth said. "It's a long way before the season comes. So it really doesn't matter who's got the lead now, but who they decide to go with when the season gets here."

NOTEWORTHY

Tight end Wesley Duke was in camp on Tuesday, having returned from his assignment playing in the NFL Europe league. Duke wore No. 84 as a rookie last season, but he gave up the number to new teammate Javon Walker. Now Duke will wear jersey No. 48. Why No. 48? "Eighty-four backwards, I guess," he said.

I saw New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and New York Jets owner Woody Johnson leaving a cab Monday night. The two were in town for the NFL owners' meetings held at the Westin Hotel-Tabor Center. Kraft joked that the two had been out getting tattoos. Actually, they had been out seeking Mexican food for dinner. Later in the evening Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and a number of NFL execs were spotted dining at The Palm.

Count Williams in the group that is impressed with the throwing arm of Broncos rookie quarterback Jay Cutler. "He's got a rocket -- he throws the ball hard. Last week Rod (Smith) had to tell him to turn it down a little bit . . . He's got a good, strong arm."

I am sooooo ready for some football. Baseball and basketball? Puh-leeze. What a nice change of pace having a strong group of guys at the corner position. That has long been a glaring weekness for the Broncos. No matter who starts, both will get a ton of playing time in the nickel D. In years passed, when they brought in that 3rd corner, it was an immediate "uh-oh". Not a problem with Bailey, Foxworth, and Williams. The worst thing about it is, when they're at their prime, in a few years, we'll be breaking in a new Q.B., going through a very difficult nfl learning curve.

POST A COMMENT