Mile High Report
One of the big developments to come out of Thursday’s joint practice vs. the Cardinals was Sean Payton announcing after the practice that both the Broncos and Cardinals will be resting their starters during their preseason matchup on Saturday night.
Payton historically always plays his starters during the preseason, and made a point to say this would happen when he was hired, so this is a slight change in philosophy for the veteran Head Coach.
Payton notes that he has never had two joint practices during camp, and neither has Jonathan Gannon and that due to the uniqueness of having two of these in a week, they are going to be sitting their key players. He does add that these starters will see 8 to 10 snaps in the preseason finale vs. the Saints, so they will get some action in next weekend.
“I haven’t done this before. I haven’t had two joint practices before. So neither [Cardinals Head Coach] Jonathan Gannon or myself are going to play the ones. There’ll be a few, there are five, six players that are on an eight-play pitch count that we consider ones, but maybe lack of reps or for whatever reason. So we’re going to feature really two phases. The twos, and when I say the twos don’t read into, basically there’s going to be a group in the first half and a group in the second half. Your frontline, O-line, D-line, quarterback, corner, I’m going to sit those guys only because of the uniqueness of two of these in a week’s timeframe. And then next week I’m going to play those guys eight to 10 plays and get them out. So I kind of have a plan as to how they’ll play in New Orleans, but that’s what you can expect going into this game.”
So, we will not see Bo Nix, Courtland Sutton, Evan Engram, J.K. Dobbins, the starting offensive and defensive line, likely both edge rushers, PS2, and probably both safeties on Saturday. He does note that we’ll see 5-6 starters play in the game and be on an 8-play pitch count, so we’ll have to see who those players are.
Overall, I have no issue with this. These joint practices mean just as much, if not more than, the preseason, and both teams have had two of them in a week. On top of that, they both played a preseason game last week, so giving their key starters some rest makes a lot of sense. They had a 2+ hour joint practice on Thursday that featured a ton of team/move the ball periods, and both squads put in some good work. This was essentially their preseason game for their starters, and now the second and third string players will have their moment to shine on Saturday Night.
With roster cuts only a little over a week away, this will be a big opportunity for a lot of young Broncos players to prove they belong on the roster...
