Fangio Updates Rookie Center Lloyd Cushenberry's Stock After Expanded Reps with First-Team Offense

When the Denver Broncos selected LSU's Lloyd Cushenberry in the third round of the 2020 NFL Draft, fans rightly viewed the pick as the team's center of the future. But as training camp kicked off, the rookie didn't even sniff the first-team offense.

However, as the first week of camp marched on, Cushenberry began to earn a limited number of reps with the ones, starting with an 80/20 split favoring incumbents Austin Schlottmann and Patrick Morris. But over the last few days, that balance has shifted toward the rookie.

Some of that has to do with the doghouse Morris found himself in after incurring the ire of head coach Vic Fangio on Sunday. As rookie defensive lineman McTelvin Agim jumped up to attempt batting down a pass, Morris pushed him while in the air, causing the big fella to fall hard and awkwardly.

Like Homie the Clown might say, Fangio don't play that.

Perhaps that was all the daylight Cushenberry needed to get his foot in the door and maybe even blow it down. On Tuesday, the 10th practice of training camp, Cushenberry commanded 100 percent of the first-team center reps.

Is it fair to say that the rookie has begun to separate himself from the vets?

“I wouldn’t necessarily say that, but we are giving him more snaps this week with the ones," Fangio said following Tuesday's practice. "That was the plan all the way to give those guys kind of equal opportunities as much as we could with the ones."

Cushenberry has the opportunity. The Broncos have liked what they've seen so far. Now he has to put a stranglehold on the job and truly create separation. But the onus is on him to do it.

"Like I said, he’s got the opportunity, the license and the permit to go win the job, but he has to do it on the practice field,” Fangio said.

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What has the rookie done thus far? Draft pedigree is one thing but under the discerning eye of grizzled and venerated O-line coach Mike Munchak, the rookie wouldn't even sniff the first-team if he hadn't done enough on the practice field to justify it.

Fangio provided a progress report on Cushenberry with a disclaimer; he hadn't watched the film of Tuesday's practice quite yet.

“He’s done fine," Fangio said. "Yesterday’s practice was a shells practice, so it was a little harder to decipher. I haven’t seen today’s practice on tape, but I think he shows progress and hope all the time even when he has bad plays or negative plays. I think they’re fixable versus ‘Well this guy just can’t do it,’ or ‘We’re hoping into the wind there.’ I think he’ll eventually be able to do what we want him to do."

Fangio concluded by laying down the bottom line.

"It’s just whether he can do it better than Pat and Austin at this point,” Fangio said.

Of the two, Schlottmann has been the more consistent but that's posturing it politely. In the early stages of camp when both Schlottmann and Morris were receiving all the snaps with the ones, the interior pressure from Fangio's defense was consistent and so disruptive as to nearly nullify the utility of Drew Lock and company even repping the offense.

That might be a tad hyperbolic, but it was approaching the levels back in the Trevor Siemian days when the offense would literally have to ask the defense to dial it back so that they could actually get meaningful reps without being obliterated at the snap.

That hasn't been the case with Cushenberry manning the pivot. That's not to say that it's been all sunshine and rainbows but in a word, the Broncos' blocking with Cushenberry at the fore as been smooth[er].

The Broncos are getting a day off on Wednesday so it'll be interesting to see if Cushenberry maintains his momentum and sticks with the ones. Again, the Broncos drafted him to be the future at center and without a bonafide, experienced incumbent to stand in the way, there's really no excuse to avoid doing today what you know you're going to do tomorrow.

Bite the bullet. Give the kid all the reps. With less than three weeks until the Broncos take on the Tennessee Titans in the regular-season opener, give the kid as much rope as possible to build chemistry with left guard Dalton Risner and right guard Graham Glasgow, and get on the same page with Lock.

Follow Chad on Twitter @ChadNJensen and @MileHighHudde.