Mile High Report
The Denver Broncos wrapped up their joint practice sessions with the San Francisco 49ers today ahead of each team’s first preseason game on Saturday. By all accounts, Denver’s first team offense and defense mostly dominated — the defense especially. The 49ers woke up late and got some positive plays in against both units just before the practice period ended.
Afterwards, one question stood out among all of them. While, head coach Sean Payton’s response was a bit of word salad, I though it would be a good topic to review here as the competition heats up on the roster.
“There is a lot of competition for spots,” Payton said when asked about the defensive line battles. “We discussed the other night how we’re going to play the game. Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3. Our starters will play. There’ll be a point at which we get into Phase 2. When you’re in these phases, there’s still a rotation. If you’re looking at three interior defensive linemen in Phase 2, there might be four or five ready to play in that Phase 2. Then the same way, when you get into Phase 3. We will rotate that around. So it’s a body of work thing in evaluating it all.”
From that comment, I can gather there are starters that will start and then a lot of guys who might rotate in and out through the second and third teams. That seems to be where the real roster battle is going to be.
The starters are likely going to be Zach Allen, John Franklin-Myers, and D.J. Jones. For Phase 2, I’d say Malcolm Roach is pretty safe as a veteran there. I think Sai’vion Jones is also a guy that should make the team though he might be Phase 3 to start this first preseason game. The other guys would be Matt Henningsen, Jordan Jackson, Eyioma Uwazurike, and Kristian Williams.
Last year, they started the season with six defensive linemen: Allen, Franklin-Myers, Jones, Jackson, Roach, and Uwazurike. I could see them keeping seven from this group, but if they go with six again then my prediction here before the first preseason game would be: Allen, Franklin-Myers, D.J. Jones, Roach, Sai’vion Jones, and either Jordan Jackson or Eyioma Uwazurike.
Who do you think is going to miss making the final-53 for Week 1?
