ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- The plans for the Denver Broncos' defense spent a great deal of time on the drawing board, iPad, desktop monitor or anywhere else plans are constructed these days.
How it would look, who would fill out the depth chart, was at the forefront of what the team's top football decision-maker, John Elway, wanted to get done. And Sunday, when the Broncos face the Arizona Cardinals, the Broncos are expected to have the defense they built on the field for the first time this season.
Linebacker Danny Trevathan, who suffered a fracture at the top of his tibia in an Aug. 12 training camp practice, is on track to return to the lineup against the Cardinals. His return will give the Broncos, for the first time this season, the personnel groupings in the game they hoped to have after their offseason makeover.
"When the season started we had guys coming back (from injuries) like me, Von (Miller), Chris (Harris Jr.), we had some new guys," said safety Rahim Moore. "We've played well, we want to be better, but we've shown what we can do. When we get more consistent in all situations I think people will see what we're about."
Before the season began, Broncos players and defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio said they believed the team could field a top-five defense before all was said and done this season. Then Trevathan was injured while linebacker Miller and cornerback Harris Jr., who are both coming off ACL surgeries, were on a pitch-count of sorts in the early going.
The Broncos also faced Andrew Luck, Alex Smith and Russell Wilson in their first three games. As a result, the Broncos returned from their bye some distance from the league's top five.
The Broncos are 27th in yards allowed per game -- what the NFL uses to statistically rank its defenses -- at 390.7 yards per game while Denver is tied for 13th in points allowed per game, allowing 22.3 per game.
"I think when you have as many new starts as we have it's going to take a little time to build that in-game chemistry it takes," said Broncos head coach John Fox following Monday's practice. "I thought in the first two games, you know, the situations at the end of the game were good learning experiences and character building type of situations, game is on the line. We didn't fare quite as well in Seattle in that same type of situation, in overtime, but I saw growth and I saw us get better."
Rookie cornerback Bradley Roby knocked away a Luck pass on fourth down to close out the Broncos' season-opening win against the Colts while defensive tackle Terrance Knighton knocked down a fourth-down pass attempt by Smith in Week 2 to preserve the win against the Chiefs.
The Broncos, after a hearty defensive effort against the Seahawks, couldn't close the deal in overtime, so while they still have liked much of what they've seen, the team's defense has not been the lock-down group all involved hope it will be.
In Trevathan's absence Brandon Marshall, a third-year player, played in the weak-side linebacker spot. Marshall is tied for the team lead in tackles (29) after three games. And the Broncos, in the loss to the Seahawks, also used their two rookies at the position -- Lamin Barrow and Corey Nelson -- in some situational work on defense.
"I thought Brandon Marshall stepped in and did a real good job," Fox said. "We've got some youth at that position, there were errors made, but all in all, just like our record, I think, two of the situations better than the third. We'll welcome back Danny because he was one of one of our better players and it's good to have him back."
Trevathan, though he was the team's leading tackler last season, hasn't played in a game since the Broncos' loss in Super Bowl XLVIII. He has said he thinks he will "be ready to go, 100 percent, when I get back out there," but the Broncos may work him back up to his usual snap counts as they have with some of the other players returning from injuries. Broncos middle linebacker Nate Irving said Trevathan's return is something "we've all been waiting for."
"He's got tremendous speed and explosion, and those things all ring pretty well when you're getting more experience as he is as a young player," Fox said. "I've just seen him progress every season, really every game."
http://espn.go.com/blog/denver-broncos/post/_/id/8987/broncos-ready-for-first-look-at-full-defense
