Five storylines to watch in Broncos’ preseason opener vs. San Francisco

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The Broncos and 49ers came away from their two-plus hours on the practice field Thursday with good vibes and plenty of film to evaluate.

As useful as those joint practices are, there’s something about putting on the game uniform, turning on the lights and playing a real game.

Of course, real on Saturday night is mostly from an evaluation standpoint as Denver opens its three-game preseason slate.

The tape counts. Injuries count. Heck, after preseason games the past two years, head coach Sean Payton contended the scoreboard does, too, despite the final score having zero bearing on the team’s bigger goals.

Payton, as usual, will play most of his starters for at least a little while Saturday. Then he’ll transition into phases two and three and get a lot of players a lot of work.

Here are five storylines to watch when kickoff arrives at 6:30 p.m.

CB Jahdae Barron’s usage

Barron’s played inside and outside so far in camp and is one of several players the Broncos are cross-training. Eventually, Payton and defensive coordinator Vance Joseph will settle on A) whether the first-round pick should start at nickel over Ja’Quan McMillian, and B) if not, what his initial role is.

For now, it’ll be interesting to see both where and when Barron plays on Saturday. In the slot with the top group? Outside in Phase 2? A little of both? Denver loves Barron’s football intelligence, and the coaching staff has pushed him in camp to learn a lot and prepare to play in any number of positions and scenarios.

A good interior DL battle

The Broncos have a good battle going for maybe one 53-man roster spot on the defensive line between Jordan Jackson and Eyioma Uwazurike. They both made the cut last year, but Denver returned all of its top guys — Zach Allen, D.J. Jones, John Franklin-Myers and Malcolm Roach — and then drafted Sai’Vion Jones in the third round of April’s draft.

That puts Jackson and Uwazurike squarely on the bubble. It’d be tough but not impossible to take all seven. More likely, somebody’s getting pinched.

Jackson made the roster comfortably last year, Payton and general manager George Paton said. Uwazurike, though, has looked good in training camp so far. He might be getting close to fully back up to speed after missing all of the 2023 season due to a gambling suspension.

Can an RB separate from the pack?

It’s clear that veteran J.K. Dobbins and second-round rookie RJ Harvey are going to be in the picture for the Broncos at running back. At this point, Jaleel McLaughlin’s the most experienced and has been the most consistent over time as the next man up.

Over the past week or so, however, all of Audric Estime, Tyler Badie and Blake Watson have done good things in practice. None of them, however, are putting together the kind of string of “wow” performances that McLaughlin ripped off to stamp his roster spot as an undrafted rookie in 2023.

Basically, the next two preseason games and next week’s joint practice against Arizona are going to be critical to determining if anybody can pull away from the rest of the pack.