Denver's playoff heartbreak crashes into Atlanta's fresh start Friday, with two shaky quarterback situations getting their first live look of the summer.
Bush’s Picks
DENATL
DENATL
OverUnder
Best BetBroncos
Denver enters with more continuity at the top — Nix, Payton, and a roster that made an AFC title game are a known quantity, even with backups mixed in. Atlanta is still sorting out WHO plays quarterback, let alone how a brand-new staff wants to attack. Until that competition resolves, the safer outright lean is Denver.
Broncos
+Made the AFC Championship Game last season
+Won 3 of last 5 to close 2025
+Nix and Payton continuity, no staff turnover
−Nix still working back from fractured ankle
−Backup QB play cratered in title game loss
−Franklin (hamstring), Mims future both up in air
Falcons
+Won 4 of last 5 to finish 2025
+Hired 2x Coach of the Year Kevin Stefanski
+Signed Tua Tagovailoa to push Penix at QB
−Brand-new coaching staff installing scheme from scratch
−Penix not yet cleared for full team drills
−No settled starting quarterback entering camp
Friday's preseason opener doubles as the first real look at two unsettled quarterback rooms. Bo Nix heads into camp off the broken ankle that ended his season in the AFC Championship, and while he and Sean Payton have insisted he'll be full go for camp, Denver has kept his reps limited all offseason. Atlanta's situation is murkier still — Michael Penix Jr. is still working back from a torn ACL and wasn't cleared for full team drills in June, which is a big reason the Falcons went out and brought in Tua Tagovailoa to push him for the job.
Denver's receiver room carries its own questions: Troy Franklin was managing a hamstring at minicamp and Marvin Mims has openly mused about this being his final year in Denver, so this is as much an audition for the depth chart as it is a tune-up. Atlanta, meanwhile, is installing Kevin Stefanski's staff cold — offensive coordinator Tommy Rees and o-line coach Bill Callahan are both new hires — and eased Drake London and Jawaan Taylor through minicamp as precautions rather than push them.
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DEN Broncos
ATL Falcons
None of that screams appointment viewing for a mid-August exhibition, but there's real substance buried in it — a Super Bowl runner-up testing its franchise quarterback's ankle for the first time in live action, and a franchise-altering QB competition getting its first outside evaluation. Just don't expect either team's presumptive QB1 logging heavy snaps.
Denver Broncos
Atlanta Falcons
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Denver closed 2025 on a legitimate run — road wins over the Chiefs and Bills sandwiched a near-shutout of the Chargers — before the ankle injury and a shorthanded loss to New England ended the season in the AFC title game. Atlanta's finish looks similar on paper, four wins in its last five capped by a one-score survival over the Saints, but it arrives at 2026 with an entirely new coaching staff trying to make that momentum stick.
Denver Broncos
(0)
Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Atlanta Falcons
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Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Injury report — info via ESPN.
Preseason results rarely mean much by September, but how each team handles this night — Nix's snap count, whether Tagovailoa or Penix takes the start — will tell you plenty about where both franchises actually stand heading into the real thing.
