Orlando Franklin is healthy after procedures

Let's review the four ailments suffered by Orlando Franklin this offseason.

The Broncos offensive tackle had corrective eye surgery. Worked like a charm.

He had surgery on his toe.

"My toe is great," Franklin said. "It's 100 percent."

He had shoulder surgery.

"My shoulder feels about 85 percent," he said. "My shoulder was a little bit worse than my toe. My toe wasn't really a big deal. So I'm looking forward to getting after it. I'm pretty sure that I'll be able to go full go here in about two weeks when we start up (with organized team activities)."

Finally, Franklin suffered a bout of good-natured embarrassment. With both courage and kindness, Franklin agreed to step in front of roughly 30 teammates and a live television audience to conduct an interview. As he was speaking, Franklin received baseball's tried-and-true prank of a shaving cream pie to the face.

It was wide receiver Eric Decker who delivered the pie and quarterback Peyton Manning who was behind it. Manning also organized the Broncos' players-only outing at Coors Field for the Rockies-Yankees game Tuesday night. The players were given the suite that Rockies owners Dick and Charlie Monfort use.

"I'm definitely looking forward to revenge," Franklin said. More footballs needed. Joel Dreessen was going through the projected reception stats now that the Broncos have added slot man Wes Welker to what already was a prolific, Manning-led passing game.

"We have a lot of weapons, and a lot of people to get the ball to, and that's a good problem to have," said Dreessen, a starting tight end, but "everybody wants their piece of the pie.

"The great thing about this team is we don't care. Whatever it takes to win. If Demaryius (Thomas) catches 100 again and Decker has 85 and Jacob (Tamme) and I combine for another 90 and Wes throws in his 100 ... You see, we're running out of balls, but who cares? We're just out to win ballgames."


(denverpost.com)