“I expect more”: Quinn Meinerz explains what’s on the line in the Denver Broncos’ final preseason game

The spotlight will be on the Denver Broncos for the first 8-10 plays on Saturday. That’s about how long head coach Sean Payton plans to play his starters in the season’s final preseason game, against the New Orleans Saints.

“I think it’s always a privilege to play in a game,” All-Pro guard Quinn Meinerz said after Thursday’s practice. “Everyone has their own systems and beliefs in playing starters or not playing starters.”

Meinerz thinks the Broncos chose the right strategy. While the Tennessee Titans, the Broncos’ Week 1 opponent, figure to be one of the weaker opponents on Denver’s schedule, Meinerz will have a particularly tricky matchup.

“If my first actual game rep is against Jeffery Simmons, I don’t want that,” Meinerz said. “So I’m glad that I get to play in these games, take the techniques that I’m learning and working on every single day and putting them into a game because it doesn’t necessarily matter if you’re executing in practice.”

So the starters will go out there for a series or two as a dress rehearsal. Then the excitement dies, right? Maybe not.

“There’s still some real important decisions to be made,” Payton said.

The Broncos must cut their roster from 91 players to 53 players by Tuesday afternoon. About 48 of the spots are probably spoken for. The last handful are probably still up for grabs. A big performance on Saturday, could change a player’s future.

Payton has seen plenty of players make a team with a big performance late in the preseason. On Thursday he told one such story from a final preseason game when he was on the New York Giants’ staff.

“We were down to a couple players and Bashir Levingston was a returner and returned a kickoff for a touchdown in that game,” Payton said. “Two days later, three days later, next week we’re in that final cutdown meeting, front office, coaches, the late [Former Giants Owner/President] Wellington Mara, I’ll never forget it, he was very quiet. We were discussing a defensive lineman or Bashir Levingston. We were down to this last decision, and Wellington said, ‘It’d be hard to take points off the board.’ His kick return was the reason he made the team that year.”

Decision day will be particularly tough this year. Payton believes the third iteration of his Denver Broncos hold the deepest roster yet.

“It started a year ago with young players, developing young players, bringing in a few free agents, having another good draft,” Payton said. “It’s a young team, and so it’s built differently. I would say it’s a very good problem to have.”

Safety Brandon Jones sees what Payton sees.

“I’ve never been a part of a secondary this deep,” Jones said. “Especially the biggest thing I’ve noticed is when the ones are down, the twos go in, the threes go in, rarely is there ever any drop off. I think that’s super unique, super rare, especially in the league. It’s going to be tough for the roster cuts that are coming up. I’m glad I’m not put in that position, because it would be really, really challenging for me to do so.”

The process started earlier this week, when the Broncos traded wide receiver Devaughn Vele to the New Orleans Saints for fourth- and seventh-round picks. Vele figured to be a key piece of the Broncos’ offense—he finished third on the team in catches, receiving yards and receiving touchdowns as a rookie—but the volume of exciting young receivers made divvying up playing time difficult.

By trading Vele, the Broncos reduced the logjam, allowing the rest of the room more opportunities. Creating evaluations of Marvin Mims Jr., Troy Franklin and Pat Bryant will be easier.

The trade also opened a spot on the 53-man roster. Not only did the Broncos receive draft capital, they also get to keep a talented young player who otherwise would have been cut and subject to waivers.

Meinerz believes the reason for the depth is twofold.

“We have a great coaching staff that, I mean, they coach the hell out of everybody,” he said. “I think as now an older player and also some of the people that we’ve brought into this team, it’s not only the coaches, it’s the players as well. As an older player, I expect more out of the younger people who are on this team, and we’re trying to form and build something here. When you’re a young person coming into a well-established system, you really have to quickly learn. So part of the job in some way as an older player is to help bring them along because the coaches are trying to get us ready as the starters, but they’re also trying to make sure that the other people are getting ready as well.”

While the young guys have the most on the line on Saturday, the starters want to prove themselves, too.

“I know that I’m physically ready,” Meinerz said. “There’s the big mental side of it too, like, ‘Are you mentally ready to get ready for this season? Are you mentally strong enough to be ready for those moments of truth, of playing your best when it matters the most?’ That’s really the point I think, as a starter, to play in these preseason games is to really see how ready-ready you are for this season.”