Denver Broncos: Players to keep an eye on against 49ers

The quarterbacks (obviously)

Joe Flacco

I want to see a couple of things from Joe Flacco in this game. We’ve already seen him operate the offense in game manager style. Among his four throws against the Seahawks, we had two screens, a swing pass to the running back, and a fade in the corner of the end zone.

Interestingly enough, on his first drive as a Bronco we saw really no downfield throwing, going through progressions, or yucking the ball deep downfield. I want to see a little bit more of an expanded look at the offense in this one, and see how much Flacco can (or has) elevate the offense based on what we saw last year.

Drew Lock

Will Lock continue to show progression? He showed tremendous growth from game one to game two, and now we need to see more of it.

The Broncos seem poised to put Lock in as the number two quarterback over Kevin Hogan. It would be great to see the rookie get some work with the second unit on offense.

Kevin Hogan

Drops by receivers have made Hogan’s two preseason games look worse than they actually have been. Can the Hogan-led offense find some rhythm? He’s fighting for his roster spot.

Brett Rypien

Rypien didn’t play against the Seahawks after throwing a touchdown to win the game against the Falcons, but we may see him a bit in this one. The Broncos know what Hogan is at this point. They need more reps from Rypien, a system player who requires some flow to the game to show off his best traits, which are timing, accuracy, and beating coverage before the snap.