Postgame Cold Snacks: Correcting a Broncos misconception

DENVER — The Denver Broncos ended their preseason on a high note on Thursday night, besting the Arizona Cardinals by a score of 20-7.

The 20-point output was the Broncos’ highest point total of the preseason, and overall the best the team’s reserves looked during the exhibition schedule.

Mercifully, the preseason is now over, so crack open a cold one to that. Here are our takeaways from the game.

WRONG ABOUT WADMAN

There’s a weird narrative going around in Broncos country that the team needs to upgrade at the punter position, and that Colby Wadman, well, sucks.

Incorrect on both accounts.

In fact, aside from a couple shanks—which he does need to eliminate—Wadman has been very good this preseason, ranking seventh in the entire NFL in net punting average coming into Thursday’s game.

On Thursday, Wadman dropped in another very solid performance, hitting four punts for an average of 47.3 yards, including two punts inside the 20 and one that should have been downed inside the three but was bobbled into the end zone.

“I felt like I was a little bit inconsistent in the beginning, at least for my liking, I wished I could have hit a few balls better,” Wadman told BSN Denver after the game. “But I feel like I performed pretty well today. It’s nice to have that confidence booster going into the regular season.”

Don’t be fooled, Wadman’s preseason was not a concern. In fact, it was quite encouraging.

THE DREAM KILLER LIVING HIS DREAM

Every time Von Miller sees Malik Reed, he acknowledges him by his nickname: “The Dream Killer.”

“It’s cool. I’ve never been called that before. But to be dubbed that by Von Miller, I guess that’s pretty special,” he said with a smile on Thursday, after another beastly preseason game.

Reed lived up to that nickname and more on Thursday night as he killed the dreams of the Cardinals’ quarterbacks.

In less than a full game, Reed powerfully collected two sacks for a loss of 17 yards, adding to his team-high sack total in the preseason.

But there was one dream he didn’t kill—his own.

“Any time an undrafted college free agent comes in and makes your team and plays good, it’s always nice to see,” the head coach said after the game, giving Reed a roster spot. “And it is a surprise no matter what anybody else would tell you. Happy for him and happy for us.”

“That’s amazing to hear that,” Reed said, responding to the news full of emotion.

RUN KHALFANI RUN

The path to a roster spot for Khalfani Muhammad became very blurry the day the Broncos signed Theo Riddick, but the speedy back gave the Broncos—and 31 other teams—something to think about on Thursday night.

Muhammad pieced together 70 yards rushing on just 11 carries, good enough for an average of 6.4 yards per carry.

“I just wanted to go out there and just play and have fun,” he said when asked if he felt like he made the Broncos decision tougher. “I just love running, so any opportunity I have—no matter what the circumstances are—to just run and do me is always a privilege.”

In the end, the math suggests that Muhammad’s best chance to stay in Denver is on the practice squad, but he says he’s not concerned about that.

“This isn’t my first rodeo, so [I don’t think about that] anymore,” he explained. “You really can’t focus on that. There are a lot of things that go on around the league, and you never know what can happen or where you can end up. That’s something I don’t want to focus too much on; I just want to go out there and play and let the pieces fall where they fall.”

The Broncos will likely try to keep him around in some fashion, but Muhammad put together a pretty nice audition tape for the rest of the league on Thursday.