Broncos wideout a Royal pain as rookie torches Raiders DBs

He caught nine passes for 146 yards Monday as Denver won 41-14.

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Patience is not one of Eddie Royal’s virtues.

He earned a bachelor’s degree from Virginia Tech in 31‚Ñ2 years, and he darted up the depth chart after the Denver Broncos selected him in the second round of the NFL draft.

In minicamp, he started out in the slot position but quickly learned to play flanker and split end, too. A week into training camp he surpassed free agents Darrell Jackson and Keary Colbert to earn a starting job opposite playmaker Brandon Marshall.

Starting is one thing for a rookie. Starring is quite another.

Royal caught nine passes for 146 yards in his dramatic debut, the best introduction by a Broncos rookie receiver since Rick Upchurch’s 153-yard performance against Kansas City in 1975.

With Marshall serving his one-game suspension for violating the NFL’s code of conduct, Royal was featured in the offense from the start and capped the Broncos’ opening drive by slipping behind the Oakland secondary for a 26-yard TD catch, igniting Denver’s 41-14 rout of their AFC West rival.

“I’m surprised they did this much without Marshall, being their guy,” Raiders cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha said after a 41-14 loss. “I’d be scared to see what they can do with him now.”

The San Diego Chargers will be the first to find out when they visit Invesco Field Sunday, and quarterback Jay Cutler, for one, is eager to see what his new dynamic duo can accomplish together.

Marshall caught 102 passes for 1,325 yards last season.

“This just opens up a lot of possibilities for us,” Cutler said. “We anticipated B-Marsh getting a lot of double coverage up top, and now you can’t, because Eddie is on the other side. I’ve had a good feel for Eddie, and I’ve been throwing it his way more and more.”

Royal did most of his damage against DeAngelo Hall, who grew so flustered by the rookie that he committed two 15-yard personal fouls against Royal on a second-quarter drive.

The Raiders’ vaunted secondary had no answer for Royal.

“We knew he was a quick guy because of the tapes, but we didn’t know exactly how they were going to use him,” Asomugha said. “In the preseason they didn’t do that much with him. They ran a couple double moves, some short routes, a deep one here and there.

“But with [Denver coach Mike] Shanahan, you never know what you’re preparing for, you never know what he might do. And he came out with this guy, and he was their trick-play guy. He was doing routes with him that we really hadn’t seen before.”