The Denver Broncos will likely have a rookie starting center this season. Lloyd Cushenberry, who was selected by the team in the third round of this year’s draft, drew praise from offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur during the team’s virtual offseason program.
“He’s been doing an outstanding job,” Shurmur said during a Zoom conference call with reporters on June 11. “He’s very smart. He’s very intuitive. You can tell talking to a player — you can see why he plays center because obviously they handle a lot mentally up front.
“He did a great job last year at LSU. He’s really impressed us with how smart he is and his football awareness. That’s the starting point.”
Mentally, Cushenberry has done a great job. But the team’s coaching staff won’t know if he can start in Week 1 until they see him on the field. Cushenberry will have to perform well during training camp.
“He’s impressed us,” Shurmur said. “We feel like we’ve got to see him. We’ve got to see him compete. We’ve got to see him work. Once they get out there and start doing it, we’ll see how quickly he can master it.”
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