When it comes to preseason games, the ultimate goal is to make sure you get to the right 53-man roster and potentially determine the pecking order of your depth chart. As of right now, the young Denver Broncos roster has a handful of key starting position battles to be determined before the start of the season, and we have some front-runners after watching the team play against the Colts.
Which players are seemingly in the lead right now in their respective position battles? Let's break down what we saw against Indianapolis.
Quarterback: Bo Nix
The Denver Broncos got an excellent debut from rookie quarterback Bo Nix, and if it didn't already feel like he had locked up the starting job before this game, it certainly feels like he's locked it up after watching all three guys play.
Nix orchestrated four scoring drives for the Broncos' offense and showed the full arsenal of his skill set. He had a handful of negative plays and mistakes that will need to be cleaned up, but he's also a rookie. The mistakes are to be expected. It was the way Nix commanded the offense and bounced back after errors that was so impressive. He made some big-time throws, operated the offense, and looked like he belonged out there.
Cornerback: Riley Moss
One of the more critical position battles happening right now that's gotten a bit overshadowed by the quarterback position is the cornerback position battle. The Broncos have the best cornerback in football in Pat Surtain II, and they have a stud in the slot with Ja'Quan McMillian. But the other outside cornerback job is up for grabs and 2023 third-round pick Riley Moss did a good job of making his case to win the job against the Colts.
Moss had a near-interception among his snaps and it was the first time we've seen him playing the outside cornerback position since he was at Iowa in 2022. He missed most of training camp last year with an injury and missed all of the preseason before playing primarily special teams for the Broncos.
Moss did a good job in his first preseason action of 2024 and there's at least one report that he's "running away" with the job.
Center: Luke Wattenberg
The center position battle hasn't received much fanfare this offseason, but it's still an ongoing battle between Luke Wattenberg and Alex Forsyth. The Broncos have given the majority of first-team reps at training camp to Wattenberg, a fifth-round pick in the 2022 NFL Draft.
Wattenberg was out there with the first-team offense against the Colts as well, and while Alex Forsyth played well behind him, there might be two key things to read into with this battle. First of all, Forsyth was the #2 center in this game, and second, he also played multiple positions in this game. Typically when a guy plays multiple positions in the preseason it's indicative that he's going to be a backup.
But, we'll see what happens in Week 2 of the preseason and perhaps Wattenberg and Forsyth will trade places. Until that happens, it seems Wattenberg is in the driver's seat.