Top 5 Broncos players to watch against Bills in preseason Week 2

The Denver Broncos travel to Buffalo this weekend to take on the Bills in Week 2 of preseason action, and it seems like the Bills are going to be playing their starters while the Broncos will be keeping their starters on ice. Although it hasn’t been officially stated by head coach Nathaniel Hackett, the Broncos appear content with the practice reps their starters are getting without subjecting them to the unpredictable outcome of a preseason game.

So, don’t expect to see Russell Wilson and company, but you also never know. More likely, it’s going to be the Josh Johnson and Brett Rypien show, and there’s plenty of reason to tune in regardless of what’s decided with the starting lineup. The Broncos have a variety of roster spots yet to be decided along with some really fascinating position battles on both sides of the ball.

Which wide receivers will the team be keeping? How many will they keep? What about tight end? Who is going to step up on special teams? Which pass rushers are going to show out against the Bills’ top offensive line unit?

With all of these questions — and more — in mind, what players are we keeping the closest eyes on in this preseason matchup?

Denver Broncos player to watch vs. Bills: JR Reed, safety

Alright, the fifth safety spot is maybe not the most enticing roster battle going on right now, but JR Reed is coming off of a really solid game in the first week of the preseason and has been impressive so far for the Broncos at training camp. This coaching staff has familiarity with Reed from his time in Los Angeles with the Rams, and Reed came through with one of the highest PFF grades of any Broncos defender against the Cowboys last week.

Reed’s ability to contribute as a dime linebacker and deep safety will certainly help him in his quest to make the team over fifth-round pick Delarrin Turner-Yell, who might be destined for the practice squad if we see more from Reed what we saw against the Cowboys.

He had a pair of tackles and a pass broken up on fourth down, showing some nice range and closing speed as well as just a very clean hit to break up the pass.

Reed will be a fun player to watch against the Bills, especially if he gets some action out there when the Bills’ starting lineup is on the field offensively.

Denver Broncos player to watch vs. Bills: Jalen Virgil, WR/KR

How could you not be absolutely giddy about the chance to see this Denver Broncos wide receiver group in action again? The Broncos’ young receivers stepped up in a big way against the Dallas Cowboys, pretty much throughout the entire game.

• Jalen Virgil: 3 catches, 83 yards
• Brandon Johnson: 4 catches, 64 yards
• Kendall Hinton: 3 catches, 53 yards, 1 TD
• Seth Williams: 4 catches, 29 yards, 1 TD

It was a truly stellar performance from the young receivers, who made plays all throughout the game, and Jalen Virgil was someone who kind of started to steal the show as the game wore along.

He showed off his outstanding deep speed, which could end up being a huge factor in his overall roster evaluation. Not only is this kind of speed useful offensively, but it can be a huge asset for the Broncos on special teams, where Virgil is already a proven return specialist.

Hopefully against Buffalo, Virgil is able to get some chances in the kickoff return game, where he was sensational at the college level. He returned three kickoffs for touchdowns at Appalachian State and averaged over 30 yards per return for his career. Considering he only got 38 opportunities to return kickoffs, that’s not bad at all.

The Broncos wide receiver room situation is not yet solidified, in my opinion. I think you’ve got five players that are locks for the roster in Courtland Sutton, Jerry Jeudy, KJ Hamler, Montrell Washington, and I’ll include Kendall Hinton in there as well. Beyond those five guys, who is making the team? Can the Broncos justify keeping only six with this kind of talent on the roster?

The team made a tough decision last year to trade away Trinity Benson, but that was after going into the regular season with a healthy top four of Sutton, Tim Patrick, Jeudy, and Hamler. That’s not the case in 2022. It’s not the same situation as a year ago and you’ve got to go about replacing Patrick with a “committee” approach.

Virgil has a great chance of latching on if the Broncos keep seven guys thanks to his outstanding speed and overall traits, along with special teams abilities.

Denver Broncos player to watch vs. Bills: Nik Bonitto, EDGE

Of course, we’ll be keeping a close eye on every player coming off the edge in this game, but given the fact the Bills are apparently going to trot their starters out there for a decent amount of time — maybe even the majority of the first half — you can’t help but wonder how Nik Bonitto and Baron Browning are going to fare with some extended looks against the Bills’ top offense.

The fact that Browning and Bonitto will be coming off the edge should be reason enough if you’re the Bills to keep Josh Allen on the sideline. Allen is a legitimate MVP candidate and has literally nothing to prove in the preseason. You also have one of the best backups in the NFL in Case Keenum, who could very easily give your offense a good enough look in preseason play.

Why would you risk Allen getting hurt against this duo of edge rushers that are likely going to give even your starting tackles some fits out there during preseason play? It just doesn’t seem wise to me, but the Bills are obviously confident that Allen is going to be bulletproof out there regardless of what kinds of hits he might take.

Nik Bonitto showed some nice things in the team’s preseason debut and obviously plenty of room for growth. We didn’t really see enough of him out there to make any sort of determinations about what his role is going to be this season beyond just rushing the quarterback, but at the very least, we expect Bonitto to do that well. He did it better than most at the college level the past couple of years.

Perhaps this game we’ll get some extended looks at Bonitto, not just in tandem with Baron Browning but also Malik Reed, Aaron Patrick, and Jonathan Kongbo. At this point, who knows what the status is of 2021 seventh-round pick Jonathon Cooper? He hasn’t done much in camp after having surgery on his finger this offseason.

For Bonitto, it’s a chance to go out there against one of the best offenses in the NFL and prove you can get to one of the best QBs in the league. That’s must-see TV.

Denver Broncos player to watch vs. Bills: Eric Saubert, TE

One position group that was really a letdown overall in the Broncos’ first preseason game was the tight end position.

Obviously, Greg Dulcich didn’t play due to his ongoing battle with a hamstring issue that dates back to June and OTAs at this point. At what point should we be a little more concerned about that than we currently are?

Albert Okwuegbunam played really deep into a preseason game for a TE1 and it seemed like the focus was certainly not on getting him the ball. He wasn’t targeted a single time in the passing game. Neither was Eric Saubert, a guy who was making all of the headlines early on in training camp and looking like he might be a TE1 candidate for this team. Lately? We haven’t heard much if anything regarding Saubert.

As a matter of fact, the most recent we heard about Saubert was that he was listed fifth on the depth chart at tight end behind Okwuegbunam, Dulcich, Andrew Beck, and Eric Tomlinson. Does that really mean anything at this point? No, not really. The Broncos could just be pumping fluff, trying to inflate the trade value of someone like Beck, or really just randomizing those guys’ names behind Dulcich.

At this point, though, we’ve got to see some of Saubert making plays on the field in preseason action. I’m sure the team values what he’s done in practices quite a bit more but there’s also no doubt that these game reps matter. We’ve got to see Saubert go out there against the Bills, maybe with the “starting” offense, and see him get some opportunities to prove his worth as an all-around weapon at the position.

Denver Broncos player to watch vs. Bills: Brandon Johnson, WR

We’ve already touched a bit on the wide receiver position but it’s worth bringing up again (and again, and again…). One of the top players to watch in this game is going to be undrafted rookie Brandon Johnson, who seems right now to be the favorite for the WR6 position on this roster.

And that could end up being the final receiver position on the roster if the Broncos don’t decide to keep seven guys, which I think would be the right move at this time. You just never know. Johnson did enough in the first preseason game to show that he’s more than just someone who can win on go routes or rack up yards after the catch on a screen play.

He was very good in the team’s two-minute drill, getting positioning on the Cowboys’ defensive backs, showing off his strong hands, and showing even some veteran poise by jumping up quickly to help the officials spot the ball as well as getting out of bounds on one of his receptions to help set up the Brandon McManus field goal.

Johnson has plenty of advocates in Denver, it seems, and at this point, it’s just hard to see the team letting him go barring an extremely disappointing performance over these last two weeks of the preseason.

Some things to look out for:

• Is Johnson out there with the top special teams units?
• Is he out there (again) with the top offensive unit?
• How does he look in the running game as a blocker?

3 takeaways from Broncos initial wave of five roster cuts

The Denver Broncos made their initial wave of five roster cuts from 90 to 85 players. What surprises did we see among the cuts?

It’s not just about whether or not this guy can catch passes. We’ve seen what he can do there. At this point, it’s now about the details of how he can impact the regular season roster. If he’s out there playing special teams early in the game, you can probably bet that the Broncos are doing everything in their power to convince themselves that he’s worthy of a roster spot.