Broncos Clips
It sounds like most of Denver’s starters will not be on the field for the club’s preseason finale.
Head coach Sean Payton told reporters in his Wednesday press conference that quarterback Bo Nix “probably” will not play against Minnesota on Friday.
Payton then noted, tongue in cheek, that he didn’t want to go through the rest of the roster. But it stands to reason that if Nix is not playing, most starters won’t be out there either.
While Nix did not play in Denver’s first preseason game, he did get 14 snaps last week against the Packers. Nix led the offense to two scoring drives, tossing a 21-yard touchdown to RJ Harvey before leading the club to a field goal on his second possession.
Nix ended that contest 6-of-9 passing for 76 yards with a TD, displaying his health after suffering a fractured ankle toward the end of the Broncos’ divisional-round victory over the Bills in January.
Entering his third season, Nix has started all 17 games in each of his first two seasons. In 2025, he completed 63.4 percent of his league-leading 612 passes for 3,931 yards with 25 touchdowns and 11 interceptions.
Kickoff between the Vikings and Broncos this week is slated for 9 p.m. ET on Friday night.
The Broncos are making several moves on Wednesday.
Per Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, Denver is signing defensive tackle Israel Antwine and offensive tackle Foster Sarell.
As corresponding moves, the club is releasing safety Taylor Rapp and waiving receiver Kyre Duplessis.
Antwine originally entered the league with the Jaguars as an undrafted free agent in 2022. But since then, he’s spent time in the CFL, the IFL, and the UFL.
Sarell had been with the Commanders in the offseason and training camp but was released on Tuesday.
Rapp had just joined the team last week. Duplessis signed with the Broncos earlier this month after spending some time with the Lions and Seahawks after going undrafted in the spring.
The Broncos agreed to terms with outside linebacker Ron Stone Jr., Parker Gabriel of The Denver Post reports.
In a corresponding move, the Broncos released wide receiver Hakeem Butler.
Both Stone and Butler played in the UFL this spring.
With the Columbus Aviators, Stone recorded 5.5 sacks and five tackles for loss. In the spring of 2025, he played for the Michigan Panthers and totaled 3.5 sacks and four tackles for loss.
Stone, 26, signed with the Raiders as an undrafted free agent in 2024. Las Vegas waived him with an injury designation at the roster cutdowns.
On Friday night, Broncos cornerback Riley Moss made an early exit with a rib injury. After the game, coach Sean Payton didn’t have much to say about Moss’s condition.
On Monday, Payton didn’t have much to add.
“He’s doing fine,” Payton told reporters regarding Moss. “I would say it’s nothing serious. We’re being smart. We’ll see as the week progresses where he’s at.”
Teams don’t have the same level of injury-reporting obligations during training camp and the preseason. It’s possible not much more will be known about Moss until the Broncos’ first Week 1 injury report is released, in advance of their Monday night game against the Chiefs.
Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes avoided the physically unable to perform list to open training camp and he’s been practicing without issue all summer, but head coach Andy Reid stopped short of making any pronouncements about his status for Week 1 on Monday.
Mahomes did not play in either of the team’s first two preseason games, but said during Saturday’s game that he wanted to play against the Buccaneers. Reid confirmed that was the case on Monday, but said Mahomes was “probably not cleared enough” for that contest and said he would not look ahead to September 14 against the Broncos at this point.
“He’s doing great,” Reid said, via Pete Sweeney of the Kansas City Star. “We’ll just see. I’m literally taking it day by day. There are no predictions here on anything. But if the doctors and the trainers and everybody that are involved with this give him an OK — and then most of all, if he feels like he can, then we’ll address that when we get there. But other than that, these other guys are playing quarterback and doing a nice job with it.”
Barring any news of a medical setback for Mahomes in the coming days, it is hard to imagine anyone else taking the first snaps of the season for the Chiefs but Reid isn’t counting any chickens before they’ve hatched.
The best outcome of any preseason game is to emerge with as few injuries as possible. Broncos cornerback Riley Moss left Friday night’s game against the Packers with a rib injury.
It happened early in the first quarter, in a play that ended with Moss making a fumble recovery. (The ruling on the field was overturned by replay review.) Dubbed questionable to return, Moss’s night was over.
After a visit to the sideline medical tent, Moss went to the locker room. He was reportedly “in a lot of pain.”
After the game, coach Sean Payton was asked how Moss is doing. Payton didn’t say much: “Good. We’ll see.”
We’ll see what “we’ll see” means. Teams usually don’t say much about injuries before the first official injury reports in advance of the regular-season opener.
Moss started all 19 games for the Broncos last year, his third NFL season. He’s entering the final year of his rookie contract, at a salary of $3.674 million.
The Broncos had a rough outing in their preseason home opener against the Packers. And even though the 33-13 loss doesn’t matter, coach Sean Payton wasn’t happy with the performance.
“Obviously that wasn’t good enough,” Payton told reporters after the game. “There weren’t a lot of things — I said this after the game. Just pick a topic. Pick penalties, we lose there, kickoff, kickoff return, we lose that battle. Rushing numbers, we lose that. We can’t just say, ‘Hey, this is preseason [game] two.’ Each phase saw their share of what ended up being the final score. So tomorrow we’ve got to be able to come in, coaches the same way, and look closely at what we’re doing and get the corrections made. You can’t not pay attention to these games, these scrimmages, these important steps towards the start of the regular season.”
Although he said quarterback Bo Nix’s first game action since breaking an ankle in the divisional round was “solid” (he led a six-play 65-yard touchdown drive in in his only snaps of the game), Payton generally wasn’t thrilled with the offensive output.
“We’ll look at the tape, but we had too many minus plays, too many penalties offensively.” Payton said. “I don’t know how many third-and-10 or more we had, but quite a bit, right?”
Asked about whether Nix will play in the preseason finale, Payton revisited his frustration with the first-teamers.
“I’m not getting into next week,” Payton said. “I want to play them all until the third quarter next week. So let’s figure out the tape tomorrow, see where we’re at and let’s do what’s best for us as we prepare for the Chiefs.”
That game, on the first Monday night of the season, is only 24 days away. To the extent the Broncos have things they need to clean up, the clock is ticking.
Bo Nix played in a football game for the first time in 216 days.
Nix, who broke his right ankle in the divisional playoff game against the Bills, played in the second quarter. The Broncos got a touchdown and a field goal on his two drives, gaining 95 yards on 14 plays.
Nix went 6-of-9 for 76 yards and a touchdown. He had a 35-yard throw to his new wide receiver, Jaylen Waddle, and hit RJ Harvey for a 21-yard touchdown.
It was the first time Nix had offensive coordinator Davis Webb in his ear calling plays. In his two previous seasons, head coach Sean Payton called the plays.
The Packers and Broncos are tied 10-10 with 12:04 remaining in the second quarter.
Packers coach Matt LaFleur’s plan was to play his starting offense more than one drive in Denver. After a 12-play scoring drive, LaFleur saw all he needed to see and perhaps until the season opener.
Jordan Love went 5-of-7 for 56 yards and a touchdown.
He threw an 11-yard touchdown to MarShawn Lloyd on third down to complete the 63-yard drive.
The Packers had a fourth-down conversion on the drive, with Love hitting Matthew Golden for a 19-yard gain on fourth-and-1 from the Denver 40.
Love was 3-for-5 for 18 yards on one series in the team’s first preseason game last week. The Packers kicked a field goal to complete the 10-play, 46-yard drive.
He is unlikely to play next week in the preseason finale.
The Broncos are adding some depth at safety.
According to multiple reports, Denver has signed veteran Taylor Rapp on Thursday.
Rapp, 28, spent the last three seasons with the Bills. He appeared in just six games last year due to a knee injury before being released in March.
A Rams second-round pick in 2019, Rapp has played 93 games in his career with 72 starts. He’s recorded 12 interceptions with 31 passes defensed in his career.
Denver will host Green Bay for the second week of preseason play on Friday.
