ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) \u2014 The sight of newly signed 41-year-old tight end Marcedes Lewis on the practice field Wednesday brought sighs of relief and moments of awe to the Denver Broncos.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was pretty cool,\u201d quarterback Bo Nix said. \u201cHe didn\u2019t look like he was playing as that old of a veteran. But he\u2019s going to, I\u2019m sure, help us out in different ways. I remember watching him growing up so I\u2019m excited to be teammates with him.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Broncos signed Lewis to their practice squad, and he\u2019s a candidate for a game-day elevation, possibly as soon as Sunday\u2019s game in Houston against the Texans (3-4) as the Broncos (6-2) try to extend their winning streak to six.<\/p>\n
Evan Engram and Adam Trautman are the Broncos\u2019 only healthy tight ends with Lucas Krull (foot) on IR and Nate Adkins suffering a knee injury last weekend in Denver\u2019s 44-24 win over the Dallas Cowboys. Adkins also routinely lined up at fullback and H-back, and Lewis has long been one of the best blocking tight ends in the NFL.<\/p>\n
Once a terrific pass-catcher, \u201cnow I\u2019m a point-of-contact blocker,\u201d Lewis said. \u201cI take that very seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lewis\u2019 locker is next to Nix\u2019s, \u201cso I\u2019m sure we\u2019ll get to know each other and then eventually, when we\u2019re on the field together, it\u2019ll be nice knowing he\u2019s got our back,\u201d Nix said.<\/p>\n
Lewis was a first-round pick (28th overall) by the Jacksonville Jaguars out of UCLA in 2006, the same year that Broncos coach Sean Payton got his first head coaching gig in New Orleans. Lewis played 12 seasons in Jacksonville, five in Green Bay and the last two in Chicago, where he appeared in all 17 games last season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019s obsessed with taking care of himself,\u201d Payton said. \u201cThat has a lot to do with it. … He\u2019s been training two times a day, and then in the workout, you can see that he\u2019s in shape.\u201d<\/p>\n
And right away, he\u2019s the best blocking tight end on the Broncos\u2019 roster.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think when he\u2019s 55 he\u2019s going to be able to block the D gap,\u201d Payton cracked.<\/p>\n
In which case, the Broncos are getting him at a relatively young age.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe used to say that about Vinny Testaverde, like when he\u2019s 60 he\u2019s still going to throw a pretty ball,\u201d Payton said. \u201cAnd I just think all the other things that come with him are assets for our team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lewis said he was at peace without football this fall but stayed in shape in case a team would come calling with the chance at a 20th NFL season, and he was thrilled it was the Broncos, who lead the AFC West.<\/p>\n
He almost missed the opportunity, though. He initially ignored general manager George Paton\u2019s call. <\/p>\n
\u201cI saw a number pop up on my phone and it was a Denver number. Obviously, I don\u2019t have it saved so I didn\u2019t answer it at first. I thought it was spam,\u201d Lewis said. \u201cAnd then I got another call and then the GM left a message. I called him back and he was like, \u2018Can you hop on a plane tonight?\u2019 And I\u2019m like, \u2018Of course, I\u2019m there.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Lewis wasted no time impressing the Broncos\u2019 brass in his workout Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew he\u2019d been training, I know he\u2019s in great shape,\u201d Payton said. \u201cHe\u2019s a tremendous blocker. I think you don\u2019t want to get caught where, man, it\u2019s got to be \u2018Jumbo,\u2019\u201d where an extra offensive lineman is declared eligible, which tips off defenses about what play is coming. \u201cSo, we brought him in for a workout, brought him onto our practice squad. I\u2019m glad he\u2019s here.\u201d He\u2019s a tremendous leader.\u201d<\/p>\n
And very much unlike most midseason practice squad additions.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of conversations were being had on the field,\u201d wide receiver Courtland Sutton said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot of young guys on the team. Some guys were very, very, very young when he first got into the league and the amount of knowledge that he probably has, I\u2019ve gotten to talk to him a little bit but I can\u2019t wait to just pick his brain on just the stuff that he knows, the stuff that he\u2019s seen, the stuff that he\u2019s experienced.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP NFL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nfl<\/p>\n
Arnie Stapleton, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) \u2014 The sight of newly signed 41-year-old tight end Marcedes Lewis on the practice field…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248937,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,514,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-248936","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}