Broncos Camp Day 4 report: Juwann Winfree turns heads

[Miles]

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- Rookie wide receiver Juwann Winfree made catch after catch during the first three days of training camp, and that continued Sunday morning, as he punctuated his day with a grab of a short pass from Drew Lock that saw the quarterback fling the football under a pass rush and set Winfree up perfectly for plenty of yardage after the catch.


Denver's quarterbacks can trust Winfree -- and Denver's cornerbacks can trust him to be a difficult matchup. He's already caught the eyes of the secondary's resident Pro Bowler.


"Fifteen [Winfree] is nice," cornerback Chris Harris Jr. said. "I see him every day catching a lot of balls, having great routes. He's stronger than a lot of people would think as a young receiver. I like 15's game."


When Winfree learned of the praise, he beamed.


"That's huge to me, man," he said. "That made me smile, just because I've grown up watching these guys. When I got here, I always thought I could succeed at this level, but actually finally doing it, working and being able to compete against these top guys, going against the ones, it's providing a lot of confidence for me, and it's improving my game just going against him."


Winfree has already learned an important lesson: You can't get away with shortcuts at this level.


"When I come to the line, I've got to slow the game down so much more now, because there's little things that you could get away with at the college level, but now I can't," he said. "So when I'm here, I've got to be patient at the line, take my time and scan the whole field."


So far, so good.


TAKEAWAY TOUCH CONTINUES


The tip drill was in play for the defense Sunday. It intercepted rookie quarterback Drew Lock twice -- with the picks for Will Parks and Dymonte Thomas both coming off of deflected passes.


Parks' seven-on-seven interception of a pass intended for rookie tight end Noah Fant gave him two consecutive practices with a pick.


"He's out here going crazy. I can't say anybody who's having a better camp than him right now in the backfield -- other than Justin [Simmons], Justin's having a good [camp]," Harris said. "But 'Philly' has been amazing every day.


"It's going to be hard to keep these boys off the field. I feel like we're loaded at safety."


That ample depth includes second-year veteran Trey Marshall, who forced a fumble from tight end Austin Fort. Linebacker Joe Jones recovered.


"After he caught the ball, he didn't really tuck it," Marshall said. "He was holding it loose, so I just came in and punched it out."


Marshall's strong day did not end with the forced fumble. He delivered one of the strongest hits of the day, rushing forward through the gap to stop running back Khalfani Muhammad in the backfield during a team period.