Jeff Legwold, ESPN Senior Writer 8y

Broncos' Thursday night season opener could impact some roster decisions

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- The Denver Broncos closed out practice on Thursday exactly two weeks from their first regular-season game: A prime-time rematch of Super Bowl L against the Carolina Panthers on Sept. 8.

The early start has forced coach Gary Kubiak to take the slightly more compressed timetable into consideration as he plans practices and the Broncos' rotations in their final two preseason games -- Saturday against the Los Angeles Rams and Sept. 1 against the Arizona Cardinals in Arizona. Rosters around the league must be cut from 90 players to 75 players by Tuesday afternoon and rosters then go to 53 players by 2 p.m. mountain time on Sept. 3.

"You normally don't try to look too far ahead, but we almost have to as an organization because two weeks from today, we play our opener. We have two games to play and I think 14 players to let go. There are just so many things going on. We've got issues going on with some injuries and some things like that. It is a grind right now."

Because of injuries in the offensive line where guard Ty Sambrailo hasn't practiced in almost a month with a right elbow injury and guard Darrion Weems is currently in the league's concussion protocol, as well as tight end where both Garrett Graham and Jeff Heuerman are not currently practicing because of injuries, the Broncos may have to initially structure the roster a little differently than they would if they opened the season with the usual Sunday game.

It could mean the Broncos keep an extra player at those two spots in the initial roster cut-downs until the team has a better idea on the players' recovery time. Offensive line backup center James Ferentz recently had knee surgery and Kubiak said he will miss "several weeks."

"I know you guys are getting frustrated with me from the quarterback questions, but I've got a lot of things going on," Kubiak said. "I'm trying to get this team to opening day here in two weeks. We have a lot of questions to answer and things to get done."

Kubiak said he adjusted the team's practice schedule too, given the Broncos will have just seven days between the final preseason game and the opener while 30 of the other teams in the league will have at 10 days between the final preseason game and the regular-season opener.

"We went through our normal week, but we didn't work our [starters] like they would work if they were playing Carolina," Kubiak said. "They were taking a little bit less. Obviously we'll work the heck out of them next week because of how we play the last game. There are a lot of hoops to jump through right now to get to the season."

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