Will the Rookies continue making a big impact?
The preseason is the time for young guys to make a name for themselves. The playing time and exposure to game-action provides the front office a glimpse into their potential without any real negative repercussions.
After years of lowly rated draft classes by Elway, he seemingly hit the jackpot in 2018.
As last year’s New Orleans Saints showed, a good draft class can elevate a season. Despite a 5-11 record last year, Denver is stocked with talent and the potential of this class could turn this season into a deep playoff run.
It didn’t take long for us to see the impact these rookies could make, and shockingly, one of the game one impact rookies wasn’t Courtland Sutton. This isn’t to say the rookies were perfect by any means, but there was a lot of promise even within their mistakes that gives hope for the future.
Four, in particular, stand out: Isaac Yiadom, Josey Jewell, Philip Lindsay and Royce Freeman.
Despite allowing a few catches, many failed to realize the beauty in Yiadom’s play. Matched up against a very good Stefon Diggs, it took perfect throws by Kirk Cousins to get a catch because Yiadom was attached to Diggs’ hip during each play.
Diggs and Cousins did the same thing to elite corner Bradley Roby as well.
Josey Jewell showed the instincts that made him one of the most decorated players in Iowa’s history. As Mason Yellico wrote about in his post-game analysis, Jewell made a few plays that would have been impressive for anyone, let alone a rookie fourth-round draft pick.
Local boy Philip Lindsay has been more than impressive throughout camp and his first preseason game was no different. Cody Roark alluded to as much in his article highlighting players that stood out against Minnesota. The back out of Colorado hauled in three passes for 40 yards and a touchdown.
Lastly, Predominantly Orange writer Cameron Parker dedicated an article to analyzing the strong performance by Royce Freeman on Saturday night. Again, there were a few instances where Freeman looked like a rookie. However, strong pass protection and a fantastic touchdown scamper left little doubt in my mind that he has what it takes to play a big role on this team.
Heading into preseason week two, I am excited to see the steps these guys and the other rookies take in their development. Not only were there first game jitters in the mix, but they were playing defending the NFC North champions, which is not a small task.
With those jitters out-of-the-way and a weaker Bears team coming to town, I expect we see more of those rookie highlights we saw from week one.
Furthermore, after an up and down first game, I look forward to seeing the Denver Broncos capitalize on the positives and minimize the negatives from the Vikings loss. In addition to seeing how the Denver Broncos perform as a whole, I will be monitoring these four storylines throughout the game.