Broncos set their dates and times for preseason schedule

Six days after the public announcement of the Broncos’ regular-season and preseason schedule, the exact dates of the three August warm-up games became official.

• Preseason Week 1: Friday, Aug. 11 at Arizona, 8 p.m. MDT
• Preseason Week 2: Saturday, Aug. 19 at San Francisco, 6:30 p.m. MDT
• Preseason Week 3: Saturday, Aug. 26 vs. L.A. Rams, 7 p.m. MDT

The preseason finale against the Rams will also serve as the home opener, giving fans their first glimpse at the massive new video board currently under construction atop the south end-zone stands.

NFC West foes are familiar opponents for the Broncos in the preseason. More than half of their preseason games since 2015 — 15 out of 27 through last season – took place against teams from that division. Last year, the Broncos didn’t play an NFC West team in August, but that was due to having the entire division on their regular-season slate.

Arizona, in particular, is a preseason partner Denver knows well. Although they haven’t met in the preseason since 2019, they dueled in eight of the nine previous preseasons.

All three August games will be broadcast on KTVD-Ch. 20 in the Denver area. Other markets in the region are also expected to have stations airing the preseason slate.

This preseason promises to be more eventful and worthy of viewers time than last year’s. New coach Sean Payton promised to give the starting lineup snaps. Citing injury risk, previous head coach Nathaniel Hackett eschewed that last year.

Sean Payton, on whether he’ll play starters in the preseason: “Absolutely, we are.”

— Andrew Mason (@MaseDenver) March 27, 2023

Payton also announced May 13 that he has had conversations with Rams coach Sean Payton about staging joint practice prior to the preseason finale.

Per the collective bargaining agreement, the Broncos can have players report for training camp 47 days before their Week 1 game against the Las Vegas Raiders. That places the reporting day at July 25.

***

Follow @MaseDenver