3 Broncos who cannot afford another preseason dud against 49ers

The Denver Broncos will go on the road to face the San Francisco 49ers on Saturday night in preseason action. There are still several things the Broncos need to show before the preseason concludes and Saturday night will be a key game for multiple players on this roster.

The Broncos lost their preseason opener to the Arizona Cardinals and though that loss doesn't count in the standings for the coming season, the team did not look good in many aspects of the game.

As a result, there are a handful of players that will not be able to afford a repeat poor performance against the Niners. If that occurs, these players will be in jeopardy of looking for a new team to play for or, at the very least, their position with the team could be considered shaky going forward.

Broncos players who can't afford a preseason dud against the 49ers: Brett Maher, Kicker

Obviously.

Brett Maher missed both of the field goals he tried against Arizona (one was blocked) but he didn't come into Denver on a hot streak. He will always be remembered as the guy missing all of those extra points in a playoff game last year unless he does things consistently well.

He didn't start his Denver run in a good direction.

The Broncos parted ways with their other kicker, Elliott Fry, earlier in the week, and reports out of camp this week suggested that Maher was kicking the ball well. But none of that is going to matter until it translates to the field in an actual game.

I don't think Maher is going to be the team's Week 1 kicker no matter what as the team will have other options when other teams around the league make cuts to get down to their 53-player rosters. But if he misses more kicks in this game, the Broncos might not even wait that long.