Go to the mobile version of this Web site.

Login | Contact Us | Site Map | Paid archives | Electronic edition | Subscription Questions | Extras

Surgery puts Broncos' pick Torain back in running

By Lee Rasizer, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published April 28, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

Text size  
Ryan Torain ran for 1,229 yards in his junior season at Arizona State, including 82 yards against Colorado at Folsom Field.

Photo by Doug Pensinger / Getty Images/2006

Ryan Torain ran for 1,229 yards in his junior season at Arizona State, including 82 yards against Colorado at Folsom Field.

Related Stories

More Denver Broncos

More stories »

Hard work, perseverance and skill allowed Ryan Torain to become a fifth-round pick.

But give an assist to modern medicine.

Torain, an Arizona State running back, suffered a Lisfranc sprain in his left foot that ended his senior season after six games.

Yet a new surgical procedure sped his recovery and allowed him to participate in February's scouting combine.

"They put buttons in my foot, where they kind of tied it together," Torain said, adding the procedure was done by an orthopedist affiliated with the NBA's Phoenix Suns. "In the past, they used to have screws and it required two surgeries and an extra four months. But because I had the new surgery, it healed up way faster."

Torain was off to another fast start when he was hurt, with three 100-yard games on the heels of a 1,229-yard junior season that had him near the top of prospect lists at his position.

After the injury, he spent two months in a wheelchairlike device that propped up his left leg and spent another month on a single crutch before he could resume workouts.

He's now exercising daily.

"I'm working out on agility and quick twitch," he said.

Denver has had only mixed results at running back in the draft in recent seasons but has struck gold with second-day picks such as Terrell Davis and Mike Anderson.

"I feel like I can do great things for this team," Torain said.

Broncos coach Mike Shanahan said he felt very confident Torain would be ready to go in the short term and praised Torain's running instincts.

"I think he's got first-round ability, so I really just put the whammy on him," Shanahan added.

Through thick and thin

Dieting didn't appeal to Ryan Clady, so he opted to quit football.

He was 10 years old, after all.

Jenny Craig might as well have been a playground pal.

"I had to make weight every week and it was a challenge for me," he said, recalling his Pop Warner experiences. "I didn't really want to do that year in and year out."

The rules back then required he weigh under 130 pounds. He was in the 140-145-pound range.

A couple of years later, he returned to the game - as a way to get in shape and lose weight.

Clady said Sunday it was the best decision he's ever made.

"His mom got him involved in the first place," Clady's father, Ross, remembered. "He wanted to give it a shot. But he had to make weight and he was big for his age already. He was playing against 12-year-olds and he was 10. But he just quit for a couple years. He got into high school and on the freshman team, he started blowing up."

On the field.

Not a one-trick pony

The immediate impact from second-round pick Eddie Royal should come as both a kickoff and punt returner.

It's bound to prompt first-year comparisons, too, to California's DeSean Jackson, another top special-teams prospect Denver bypassed who instead went seven picks later to the Philadelphia Eagles.

But Royal, a wide receiver at Virginia Tech, is thinking bigger in the long term.

"I don't want people to just look at me as a return man. I'm more than that. And I plan to show that to people."

Shouldering the load

It's going to be a while before Kory Lichtensteiger, Denver's first fourth-round pick, can show his abilities on the field.

The center from Bowling Green tore his right labrum last season and had surgery after the scouting combine Feb. 28. He'll sit out all the minicamps, except possibly the last, leading up to training camp.

His recovery time is four to five months.

Lichtensteiger also had a torn labrum repaired in his left shoulder in January 2007.

"I'm even now," he joked.

But his health issues were no laughing matter the past few months, when his potential draft stock was at stake.

"I was a little concerned about it," he said. "I didn't know if teams would be scared away. But it actually worked in my favor because I played half the season with it this year and teams saw I could play through pain and still play well."

Numbers game

4scholarship offers to Clady coming out of high school in Rialto, Calif. None were BCS powerhouses, as Boise State, Idaho State, San Diego State and Texas-El Paso were the teams that came calling.

Beauty before age

It's been a long road to the pros for sixth-round pick Spencer Larsen, a linebacker out of Arizona.

He first enrolled in school in 2002 but went on a Mormon mission for two years in Chile. When he returned to college in 2005, he tore his anterior cruciate ligament in just his second spring practice but played in a game just 4 1/2 months later.

Larsen finished with 312 career tackles before leaving school at age 24.

"Most of the guys I met at the combine were 23, 22. I'm a very young 24 years old," he said. "I don't think that hurts me at all in my eyes. Some teams may have felt that I was too old to start out with, but I'm glad Denver didn't."

He said it

"Don Nehlen?"

Lichtensteiger, asked what he thought of Broncos five-time Pro Bowler Tom Nalen, who figures to be his immediate mentor. In Lichtensteiger's defense: He played at Bowling Green, where Nehlen once was head coach before making his mark at West Virginia. Just try to get Nalen to buy that one at camp.

Going deep

The Broncos have taken 19 wide receivers in the draft during Mike Shanahan's tenure, the most of any other position.

Year Rd. Overall Player School

2008 2 42 Eddie Royal Virginia Tech

2006 4a 119 Brandon Marshall Central Florida

2006 4c 130 Domenik Hixon Akron

2004 2b 54 Darius Watts Marshall

2004 6a 171 Triandos Luke Alabama

2003 5b 158 Adrian Madise Texas Christian

2002 1 19 Ashley Lelie Hawaii

2002 5 144 Herb Haygood Michigan State

2001 6 190 Kevin Kasper Iowa

2000 3 70 Chris Cole Texas A&M

2000 5 154 Muneer Moore Richmond

2000 7b 246 Leroy Fields Jackson State

1999 3b 93 Travis McGriff Florida

1999 6a 179 Desmond Clark Wake Forest

1999 6b 204 Chad Plummer Cincinnati

1999 7a 218 Billy Miller Southern Cal

1998 1 30 Marcus Nash Tennessee

1996 5 149 Patrick Jeffers Virginia

1995 7b 222 Byron Chamberlain Wayne State

Comments

  • April 28, 2008

    9:11 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    bassman writes:

    1 for 19 is not good. Royal looks like a good returner but we've already got a slot receiver in stokely

  • April 28, 2008

    9:59 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    refguy writes:

    It's bad but not 1-19 bad. At least 3 of those guys were brought in to play tight end. Two of them were pretty good too. Royal hasn't played yet and Marshall is a beast. Let's hope he returns to form.

    You'd like to see a little more out of your day 1 picks I'm sure, but most of those guys were 5 round or later including all three tight ends. Take out Nash and Lelie(who wasn't bad just malcontent) and it's probably only slightly below average. You can't expect every 6th and 7th round pick to play 13 years.

  • April 28, 2008

    2:29 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Denver2050 writes:

    Let's hope Eddie Royal isn't a typical Broncos receiver selection.

    For decades, WR has been the most difficult position to pick in the draft. In the first round, there have been more WR busts than QB busts. People just remember the QB busts more often. OL has the highest degree of 1st round success (Ryan Clady anyone?).

    That list of of 19 receivers might seem terrible, but most other teams have a list that looks almost as bad. No team has blown more resources on failed wide receivers than Detroit.

    At least the Broncos aren't the Lions.