ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- The Denver Broncos will open the regular season Sept. 12 at the New York Giants in MetLife Stadium. The Broncos finished last season at 5-11, last place in the AFC West and it was their fifth consecutive playoff miss.
Teddy Bridgewater won the team's quarterback competition over Drew Lock and there's potential for some big-play pop at wide receiver to go with plenty of upgrades on defense from first-year general manager George Paton.
As linebacker Von Miller put it: "We have a great team and it's hard not to get excited about these guys."
The roster will be cut to 53 players by 4 p.m. ET Tuesday, Aug. 31. Here is a projection:
QUARTERBACK (2): Drew Lock, Teddy Bridgewater
Lock and Bridgewater were put through months of comparison shopping for the starting job -- a competition coach Vic Fangio took all the way into the final week of the preseason in August before he named Bridgewater the starter. Brett Rypien showed enough to be developmental No. 3 QB on the roster, but the Broncos need that roster spot elsewhere. The Vikings, when Paton was assistant GM, kept just two quarterbacks at the cut to 53 in both '19 and '20.