ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — One week into training camp — featuring six practices and five walkthroughs — the Broncos roster appears as open, if not more, than it was before training camp started.
With the offensive line changing series after series, running backs emerging rapidly and the quarterback battle of the decade in a near dead heat, there are plenty of decisions that Vance Joseph and his coaching staff must make before opening night, Sept. 11.
Those decisions, however, will receive clarity even before the first preseason game Thursday, Aug. 10 against the Chicago Bears. The ninth practice of camp on Saturday won’t actually be a practice; it’ll be a scrimmage.
“That’s going to be a big deal for our roster as far as who’s doing things the right way,” Joseph said about the scrimmage on Saturday. “Who’s making plays? Who’s making less errors? That’s going to be a big part of what we’re doing. When you say scrimmage, it should tweak a player to say, ‘Hey, my best is needed.’ That’s why you say scrimmage for these guys so you can get their best.”
Not only will the scrimmage carry more weight than a typical practice, it comes one day before the staff will meet to reevaluate where the team’s personnel stands. With the first preseason game less than one week after the scrimmage, the true dog days of training camp are coming to an end, putting more urgency on roster decisions and positional battles.
As far as how the all-important scrimmage will play out, Joseph will look to give each unit approximately 12 plays, equating to “about 36 to 40 total plays” with “a little” special teams. For vets, the scrimmage won’t be completely live football, but more of a “thud,” as the coach described it, presumably for the safety of the star players.
Naturally, all eyes will be on quarterbacks Trevor Siemian and Paxton Lynch as this will be their biggest test yet. Joseph hasn’t yet declared which quarterback will get the first rep with the ones — although if the Broncos continue the same rotation they are on now, Siemian will get the first shot — but he did acknowledge that they will each get six reps with the ones and six with the twos.
For Lynch, Joseph laid out a path on what he needs to do to gain an advantage over Siemian: be consistent.
“His deal right now is to put good plays together back to back to back. That’s what we want from Paxton right now,” he said. “You can see his play making ability. He can put a ball into the field. He can scramble with it. We want more plays being made back to back to back. We’ll put him in the place for it.”
On the other hand, for Siemian, Joseph laid out what type of quarterback he’s been, not lending any direction in what he needs to do in the scrimmage to gain an advantage.
“I think Trevor has been solid. He hasn’t done a lot of huge error stuff I should say. He’s been solid. He’s been Trevor. He’s been consistent,” he said. “He calls the plays, makes the read, the ball should go there and that’s where the ball goes.”
With a decision on the position battles, most notably the quarterback, potentially weeks or days away, the first major test will come against their own team on Saturday.
