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You’re not going to tune in to the Hall of Fame Game this Thursday night expecting stellar football, and you’re especially not going to tune into the Hall of Fame Game expecting stellar play after you learn that the Broncos are planning to sit virtually all their starters.
Broncos coach Vic Fangio said Kevin Hogan will start at quarterback in the preseason game against the Falcons with Drew Lock set to go into the game second and Brett Rypien third. Fangio said “most of the starters” won’t play in the game.
— Jeff Legwold (@Jeff_Legwold) July 29, 2019
This is, of course, the right move. The Falcons haven’t yet indicated whether they’ll play most or any of their starters, but Dan Quinn did suggest that this game will be a prime opportunity to look at some of the young roster hopefuls, which leads me to believe it won’t be a long day for Matt Ryan, to pull one name out of a hat. Ryan himself suggested he won’t play Thursday earlier today.
Ryan says that even though he's not playing Thurs., he'll be helping out where he can with the younger guys, whether it's things he sees. It'll also be a special week -- one of his good friends is being inducted into HoF (Tony G, obvi) so he's excited about that.
— Jeañña (@jeannathomas) July 29, 2019
When you essentially have five preseason games instead of four and all the incentive in the world to get your best players to September in prime health, there’s really no better move than to have them sit out a game on a neutral field that could not possibly matter less.
The upshot for both the Broncos and (hopefully) the Falcons is that this will be one additional opportunity to evaluate the 40-plus guys fighting over a handful of roster spots, and a great opportunity for Kurt Benkert and his luxurious hair to shine. Let’s hope both teams get out of this one healthy, and that the resulting game isn’t an assault on our eyes.