Broncos won’t play starters in preseason home game Saturday night vs. Arizona, Sean Payton says

Sean Payton’s new-look training camp continues to feature changes.

The Broncos head coach is deviating from his normal August routine and said Thursday he plans to sit nearly all of his starters in Saturday’s home preseason game against Arizona.

Most of them, however, will get 8-10 snaps or so in Denver’s Aug. 23 preseason finale at New Orleans.

The rationale: Most of the Broncos’ top-line players have seen big workloads already over the past week. They played in a grueling joint practice against San Francisco, then saw three drives (offense) and two drives (defense), respectively, against the 49ers in the actual game. Then came Thursday’s joint practice here against the Cardinals.

“Neither (Cardinals coach Jonathan Gannon) or myself are going to play the No. 1s,” Payton said Thursday. “Now, there will be a few — there’s 5-6 players that are on an eight-play pitch count that we consider No. 1s, but maybe have a lack of reps or for whatever reason.

“So we’re really going to feature two phases (instead of three). When I say the No. 2s, don’t read into that. Basically, we’re going to have a first half and a second half, but the front line, o-line, d-line, quarterback, corners, receivers, I’m going to sit those guys because of the uniqueness of two (joint practices) in a week’s time.”

In the preseason finale against the Saints, though, the starters will get a little bit of tune-up work. Generally, Payton’s avoided playing nearly all starters in the final preseason game.

He sees next week as a big one, given they get essentially a full week of work in before going to the Bayou late in the day Friday.

“We’ll practice Sunday,” Payton said. “When you think about it, you say ‘you’re practicing after a game,’ well, 40 guys didn’t play in the game. They got work today, yesterday we were in and out, on and off. You’ll see practice Sunday, Monday they’ll be off, and then Tuesday pads, Wednesday pads, Thursday pads. I don’t want to hear any complaining. Friday, we fly to New Orleans and get ready to get good work in with the (Saints).