With no preseason games this summer, the Broncos will try to simulate a game-like atmosphere during Saturday’s practice at Empower Field at Mile High. The practice session will include pumped-in crowd noise.
With many teams not allowing fans this season, the NFL is considering allowing fake crowd noise. The details still have to be ironed out but Denver will start the process on Saturday.
“We’re going to have — I’m not sure what the crowd noise rules are,” Broncos coach Vic Fangio said after practice Friday. “I’m hearing different things, but whatever they are, we’re going to have the crowd noise in there that I think you’re going to be allowed to use for stadiums that have no fans.
“Obviously, we’re doing it so our offense will experience it in the stadiums that we’re playing in with no fans. Then the defense will be able to experience the noise we’ll use at home games.”
Denver will not have a “scrimmage” on Saturday but the team will try to make the practice feel like a game as much as possible. Players will go through pregame warmups and run through kickoffs. The ball will be spotting at different parts of the field to start drives and the team will practice punts and field goals.
The Broncos will even simulate halftime, sending players into the locker room for a 10-minute break before coming back out to warm up.
“We’ll be in there for 10 minutes, come back out, let them get loose like they would have to in a real game, kick if off for the second half and repeat that same sequence,” Fangio said.
“[We’ll] put the ball in different spots to try and hit all the situations. I’ll control the down and distance a lot just to try and make sure we hit some situations that way. We’re going to try and make it as game-like as we can.”
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