ENGLEWOOD — Chad Kelly will be the Broncos’ starting quarterback and play the first half in the final preseason game Thursday night in Arizona.
Paxton Lynch will quarterback the second half.
Not playing are first-stringer Case Keenum and the possibility of an Unknown Quarterback. You know, a quarterback with NFL playing experience who is not currently on the Broncos’ roster.
Kelly, the current No. 2 QB behind Keenum, has zero NFL experience. He wasn’t allowed to practice as a rookie last season because of injuries and injured reserved rules. Then again, Kelly has earned the No. 2 role through his terrific preseason to date. The Unknown QB has not.
Among the possible veteran QBs who might be available: Mike Glennon, Landry Jones, Brett Hundley, Matt Moore, Matt Cassel and Teddy Bridgewater.
Don’t discount Lynch as the No. 3 quarterback, though. He has $1.3 million guaranteed this year and $600,000 next year. If the Broncos stay with Kelly at No. 2, how good will the Unknown QB be the No. 3?
Su’a, Shamarko return
For the first time since the Broncos’ put on pads for the first time on July 31, safety Su’a Cravens participated in practice Monday.
Cravens may or may not play Thursday at Arizona. Regardless, he says he’ll be ready for the season opener September 9 against Seattle.
“I know this defense like the back of my hand,’’ Cravens said. “I’ve been in meetings, being active and making sure I comment on everything I see. The guys know that, the DBs know that, so they know I’m ready to go.”
Another safety, Shamarko Thomas, returned to practice Monday even though he spent Friday night in a Landover, Md.-area hospital with a left eye ailment. Initially, there was fear Thomas had a detached retina but that didn’t turn out to be the case.
"It's definitely scary, getting a little blurred in the left eye and not both eyes,’’ he said. “With both eyes you could say it's a different situation, but just one eye, it definitely was scary."
Preseason workload
The Broncos have a list of 22 players – all starters – who won’t play Thursday at Arizona. That list may grow to closer to 40 or 45 by game time.
More and more teams are having their star players play less and less in the preseason. The Los Angeles Rams made a mockery of the preseason this year by not playing the likes of quarterback Jared Goff and running back Todd Gurley at all and several other starters got less than 10 snaps.
Joseph used a more traditional play scale where the No. 1s played two series in the opener, a quarter and a series in the second game, and the first half in game 3.
A growing trend of less play by the good guys?
“I think the more teams have those (joint) practices, I think guys will play less,’’ Joseph said. “I think that’s becoming a trend, getting your reps versus a different opponent during the week and not playing your guys on gameday.
“Everyone is going to be different. My philosophy is that they’ve got to play some live bullets to get ready for Week 1. I would be uncomfortable not playing our guys at all going into an NFL game. Everyone’s playing fast, it’s contact, it’s tackling. Football is a different sport. It’s hard to scrimmage and practice without playing full speed.’’
