Stokley: Broncos should ban Parks until camp for practice film posts

OTAs can be a place for young NFL players to make their presence known. But the waves Denver Broncos second-year safety Will Parks aren’t necessarily the type you want to make.

This week, Parks shared two video clips to his personal Snapchat account showing practice film of two less-than-stellar passes from fellow 2016 draft class member Paxton Lynch — already a widely-accepted no-no.

But the intent behind sharing the film publicly has former Broncos wide receiver Brandon Stokley calling for new head coach Vance Joseph to lay down the law: hand Parks the most severe punishment short of out-and-out cutting him.

“You have to get that locker room’s attention,” the “Stokley & Zach” co-host said Wednesday. “… And that is so unacceptable.”

Stokley said he wouldn’t cut the up-and-coming defensive back, whom the Broncos selected in Round 6 of the 2016 NFL Draft, but Joseph needs to show the rest of the team, especially the defense, he has the team’s 2016 first-round pick’s back.

“This is the first big test for Vance Joseph. How are you going to handle this?” Stokley said. “You have to send a message to the defense and to the offense. ‘Hey, offense, I’ve got your back.”

Stokley’s co-host Zach Bye said Parks’ post might be an indication of something more insidious going on within the Broncos locker room, perhaps carry over from strife felt last year between the offensive and defensive units.

“If this is what is being said and done publicly — publicly — what’s being said behind closed doors in that locker room? What is being said? Is this the tip of the iceberg?” Bye asked.

Bye said that Parks’ video, along with some other observations from the last two weeks of OTAs, are indicators that players aren’t “riding and dying with Paxton Lynch, at least on the defensive side of the ball.”

“I just don’t think it’s a good look for the team,” Bye said. “I don’t think it’s a good look for the oneness that you’re trying to promote, and it’s also a carryover from a season before, which is never good with the way that the Broncos struggled last year.”

And, if Joseph was brought in to help mend a team that fractured a bit in 2016, Stokley said, “a slap on the wrist isn’t good enough.”

“He’s talking about this being a team. Well, he needs to send a message to the defense that it’s going to be different this year,” Stokley said. “And it can’t be a slap on the wrist. It can’t be a little fine, but whatever the maximum you can do besides cutting him, I would do.”

Follow digital content producer Johnny Hart on Twitter: @JohnnyHart7.