Broncos Elevate Two Practice Squad Players for Jaguars Game

The Denver Broncos have promoted a pair of players for their Week 2 home opener versus the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Per media reports, the Broncos on Saturday elevated fullback Adam Prentice and long snapper Mitch Fraboni from the practice squad to the active roster ahead of Sunday's game.

These are the second such moves in as many weeks as both Prentice and Fraboni appeared in Monday's loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. The former played 25 total snaps (six offensive, 19 on special teams), while Fraboni saw the field for nine snaps.

Prentice did not receive a carry and wasn't targeted in the passing game, but did reprise his familiar role as the lead blocker for Denver's ground attack, which logged 54 yards across 11 carries by running backs J.K. Dobbins and RJ Harvey.

The Broncos are one of few NFL teams whose offenses still rely on a traditional fullback.

"As long as you know what you’re wanting to do, there are some oddball personnel groupings we’ll get in even on third down, maybe to reduce the menu of defenses you might see," head coach Sean Payton explained Friday. "All of that works on third down, 2-3, 4-6 [yards]. The minute you get north of where you want to be, then it becomes a little bit more challenging.

"On first and second down, yes, it’s still that commitment to a balanced run game, play-action passing game. Then are you facing an over front, an under front? These guys will play in base, they’ll play under, they’ll play over and they’ll mix the personnel too. So it’s really putting your gameplan together, ‘A’, based on your people and then also what they’re doing.”

Prentice and Fraboni should see a similar workload when Denver welcomes the Jaguars to Empower Field at Mile High in an early-season test of wills between a pair of AFC contenders.

No Outside Mims Replacement?

Considering these were the only reported elevations, the Broncos appear confident enough in surviving the absence of All-Pro returnman Marvin Mims, who's been declared out due to a foot injury.

Mims is expected to be replaced by reserve cornerback Kris Abrams-Draine, with Harvey and rookie RB Jonah Coleman perhaps serving as the kick-returners as they did in Week 1.

Some believed the Broncos could promote wide receivers Michael Bandy or Kolbe Katsis from the practice squad to fill in for Mims, though the club evidently is opting to handle the situation with who's already on the 53.

"Adjust, adapt and improvise," special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi told reporters on Friday. "Our phase always has the most moving parts as you guys know with injuries and whatnot. So I think we talked about a little bit about this in training camp, having a lot of options. I felt like last year we had limited options in the return game specifically. I thought we’ve done a great job overhauling that part of the roster this year with some more options.

"So the conversations are who’s going. Every week, ‘Who are the two guys back on kick return? Who’s going to be the punt returner?’ Last year there wasn’t a lot of guys in that conversation. I think this year, having more options there is a big deal. There are always going to be moving parts with injuries and whatnot, and that’s our job to make sure that obviously we handle that part.”

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