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Hello, Bronco fans! As expected, the chatter at Thin Air has increased now that the first preseason game is in the books. I’ve read a lot of thoughts about who looked good and who didn’t, which is expected. But I wanted to take those thoughts and give everyone some perspective on how difficult it’s going to be to keep everyone you happen to like.

As you know, every NFL team will have a 53-man roster and a 10-member practice squad. I will keep the focus on the 53-man roster so that people understand why there may be some decisions made that you may not like or want to make.
Continue reading Midweek Musings: Final Roster Cuts Won’t Be That Easy

Jeff Legwold had a good writeup about the Denver Broncos’ offensive line today. Based on what Legwold wrote, it looks like the starters for the foreseeable future will be Ty Sambrailo, Max Garcia, Matt Paradis, Louis Vasquez and Ryan Harris.

Head coach Gary Kubiak particularly praised Paradis.
Continue reading Starting O-Line May Be Here To Stay

My Broncos preseason opener thoughts will be shared during my Midweek Musings later this week, but today, I wanted to briefly discuss a move made by an AFC West rival that may have an impact on what the Broncos do during the offseason.

That move was the San Diego Chargers signing Phillip Rivers to a four-year extension.

Philip Rivers will sign his four-year contract extension with the #Chargers on Monday. Locked up through 2019.

— UTKevinAcee (@UTKevinAcee) August 16, 2015

Rivers numbers: new money is four years, $84 million … $65 million guaranteed.

— UTKevinAcee (@UTKevinAcee) August 16, 2015

Continue reading How Rivers’ Extension Really Affects The Broncos

Preseason is more interesting than the regular season to me, but that doesn’t mean I enjoy the preseason more. The fascination of the preseason is simply figuring out who should belong on the 53-man roster. The score may not matter at the end of the day, but the entire’s team roster is heavily dependent on who shows up when they’re called upon. With that, I begin this year with my list of things I did and didn’t like. Continue reading Broncos at Seahawks: The 10 Things I Liked and the 10 Things I Didn’t

Continue reading Quick Takes: Broncos at Seahawks, 2015 Preseason Week 1, 22-20 Win

Via ESPN:

Jacksonville Jaguars tight end Julius Thomas is likely to miss the rest of the preseason after suffering a broken left hand in the team’s 23-21 preseason win against Pittsburgh on Friday night, head coach Gus Bradley said.

Amazingly, this happened the first time Thomas touched the ball.  Broncos fans may sigh at how familiar this script looks, but remember that it’s in the Broncos’ best interest for Thomas to have a big year.  If Thomas doesn’t play enough snaps in the 2015 regular season the Broncos may only get a 4th round compensatory pick for him instead of a 3rd.  So let’s hope he gets his injuries out of the way in the preseason.

Nonetheless, Thomas get injured in some of the oddest ways.  If you watch the video of the hit in the ESPN link, you’d think that, if anything, if Thomas got hurt, it would have been a lower body injury.

…that Drew Magary is continuing his Why Your Team Sucks series at Deadspin.

Today, he discusses the San Diego Chargers and tosses in this little gem about Phillip Rivers.

This could very well be Marmalard’s swan song for the Chargers. He’s in the last year of his contract and doesn’t want to play in Los Angeles, presumably because Los Angeles is an unholy dungeon of secular Hollywood wickedness. In the Rivers household, you watch VeggieTales, or you watch nothing at all. Now everyone gather ‘round the hearth for a good ol’ hymnal!

Let the jokes commence starting… NOW!

Osweiler will start Friday against the Seahawks and operate the Broncos’ first-team offense. Running back C.J. Anderson and the Broncos’ first-team offensive line is expected to play. But number one receiver Demaryius Thomas is expected to sit along with several other veterans, including tight end Owen Daniels, outside linebacker DeMarcus Ware and inside linebackers Danny Trevathan and Brandon Marshall.

According to 9News, Manning and Demaryius Thomas will not be playing in tomorrow’s game against the Seattle Seahawks.

Personally, I think this a fantastic move. As Bob mentioned yesterday, one of the biggest questions we have is regarding the offensive line with two starting rookies. We wouldn’t want to risk Manning getting injured against arguably one of the best defensive lines in the league.

Several other veterans will be sitting out as well, including DeMarcus Ware, Owen Daniels, and some players who have light injuries such as Chris Harris Jr. and Emmanuel Sanders.

It appears the focus of this game for Head Coach Kubiak is seeing who shines under the light when they haven’t had the opportunity to shine before.

Here we are, two days away from the preseason opener, Bronco fans! We’ve talked a lot about what we might expect, and now that’s it almost here, we can talk specifically about what interests us the most. Let’s begin.

1. Of course, the offensive line has drawn the most interest. It started with Ben Garland, Gino Gradowski and Chris Clark in the starting lineup near the end of OTAs, and after a week of training camp, Max Garcia, Matt Paradis and Ryan Harris have moved to the first team. True, that means a younger offensive line, but I’m excited to see the likes of Garcia and Paradis work their way up the depth chart. I know some of you had high hopes about Paradis and what I read about Garcia told me he could be a starter one day, even if it took a little time to adjust to the NFL.

The preseason opener against Seattle will certainly be a good test for these young linemen, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them stay in the game a bit longer than some of the veterans, so the coaches get a better idea about how they measure up. That’s not to say they’ll play an entire first half, but more like, if Peyton Manning plays just one series, we could see Garcia and Paradis play two or three.
Continue reading Midweek Musings: What We All Want To Know After The Preseason Opener