QB isn’t the only position the Broncos are rotating

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — It’s not just quarterback at which the Denver Broncos are using a rotation. They’re moving around their centers, too.

During the first OTA open to media observation last week, third-year veteran Luke Wattenberg anchored the first-team offensive line. Seven days later, that job went to Alex Forsyth, a 2023 seventh-round pick who never got a game-day jersey during his rookie season.

Just as Sean Payton opened up the competition at quarterback to replace Russell Wilson, he’s doing the same to audition for the successor to free-agent departure Lloyd Cushenberry.

“I want to see the centers with the different guards. I want to see the quarterbacks with the different offensive lines,” Payton said Thursday.

“So, that’s why, you know, my message to the coaches is rotate them in there.”

In the eyes of Payton, the team-wide practices that comprise phase three of OTAs are the time to do this. This reflects his overall view of the offseason, which is actually more patient than most coaches.

Payton doesn’t have his players spending hours in the classroom learning plays during the first two phases of OTAs, when organized meetings can take place. Instead, he believes in focusing on only weight training and conditioning during Phases 1 and 2.

The Broncos then commence full-scale installation of schemes and work on football concepts in Phase 3, which began May 21.

And even then, he’s not sweating the alignments.

Sean Payton is mixing his personnel groupings at Broncos OTAs, including at QB & center: “This is the time of the season where you can do that & not worry about, ‘Oh, the quarterback's getting hit because you have a younger offensive lineman maybe at 1 position or so,’” he said. pic.twitter.com/004vwDVCBE

— Andrew Mason (@MaseDenver) May 31, 2024

“I’m not going to look at a practice snap and get upset because Billy’s in with this group. I’m not,” he said. “And so this is the time of the season where you can do that and not worry about, ‘Oh, the quarterback’s getting hit because you have a younger offensive lineman maybe at one position or so.

“I want to see the rotations, and they don’t have to follow a set pattern. And it’s important to tell the players that, too.”

At the moment, Forsyth is a beneficiary.

And this is why Payton often says that one shouldn’t make too much of the Broncos’ personnel groupings.

“I think it’s important for you all to know, man, don’t read into any type of rotation,” Payton said.

PAYTON LIKES FORSYTH’S “FOOTBALL I.Q.”

An Oregon product, Alex Forsyth was actually involved — slightly, to be certain — in the Broncos’ selection of fellow Ducks product Bo Nix. Payton asked Forsyth about Nix during the pre-draft process, and he wanted the lineman’s counsel because of his intelligence.

“I think it’s one of his strong suits and it’s one of the reasons why I sat down with him a little bit to discuss Nix,” Payton said. “I knew I’d get a pretty intelligent answer, a responsible answer, a thoughtful answer, and he’s got high, high football I.Q.”

And that is essential at center.

“I think we knew we were drafting a highly intelligent player and you could see that in his film,” Payton said.

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