For the first time since last season’s AFC Championship game, the Denver Broncos will play football this Friday night in Atlanta against the Falcons. While just a meaningless exhibition game, it’s one of the necessary steps toward shocking the football heart back into a beating rhythm for the upcoming season. Speaking of ‘rhythm,’ Broncos play-caller Davis Webb had this to say:
I think I’m looking forward to everyone getting the rhythm — our staff, our players, in and out of the huddle. We’ll learn something every game, every drive. Then we’ll kind of review it as the game goes and especially postgame and try to get three good opportunities before Kansas City on ‘Monday Night.’ It will be rocking, and I know they’ll be a good team. So, it’ll be a good opportunity for us to kind of feel that out because most of these practices are scripted, and we kind of know what we’re going to run and they kind of know what they’re going to run.
Not that you need me to tell you, but don’t expect to see many, if any, starters on the field on Friday. If they do find their way onto the field, it won’t be more than a series. Instead, get ready, Broncos Country, to fall in love with that fourth string fullback that flashed against a group of guys with no prayer of making Falcons (or any other team’s) roster – or as I call it, the Joe Don Duncan effect.
The gameplans on both sides of the ball will be simplified versions of a limited playbook. Expectations will be focused around execution at every position around every opportunity. Who will rise to the occasion and who shrinks? Are points of emphasis from training camp registering with the players in a way that translates on the field or is there difficulty grasping those core concepts?
Expectations in Denver remain high after a disappointing end to an almost-stellar 2025 season. Last season’s excitement won’t return in totality on Friday night, but it’s an important step along the way to getting there. Watch these games to evaluate the position battles. Watch these games to see how Davis Webb and Sean Payton work together (or don’t) to manage the game. Watch these games to root on the Denver Broncos.
It ain’t real football yet, but at least it’s football-ish.
