The battle for starting center could be as interesting as the one for QB

Alex Forsyth, Luke Wattenberg and even Sam Mustipher are vying for the starting job, as Sean Payton is rotating all at center to find his guy by Week 1.

Good morning, Broncos Country!

With the departure of Lloyd Cushenberry at center, head coach Sean Payton has to find a new starter for his new quarterback this season.

And the battle for starting center may be as important as starting QB. Or at least close.

Because a smart center can be a quarterback’s best friend on the field. Especially a rookie quarterback.

The battle seems to be between Luke Wattenberg, a fifth-round pick in 2022 who played 23 games over the past two seasons, and Alex Forsyth, a seventh-round pick in 2023 who was a healthy scratch his entire rookie season.

Two months ago the Broncos also added veteran center Sam Mustipher, who has 40 career starts under his belt at the Bears and Ravens, giving the room an experienced option to lean on if neither of the two younger players can win the job.

And as of now, Payton says not to read anything into the rotations as each of the candidates is getting a lot of reps with all the potential quarterbacks.

“I’ve told the coaches, and I think it’s important for you all to know: don’t read into any type of rotation now. I’m trying to get combinations of players,” Payton said, adding that all the QBs are rotating with ones, twos and threes. “It’s just so happened that we’ve gone every third day, and you guys have seen [QB Bo] Nix running with the ones. So that’s a little bit of a coincidence. The centers are doing the same thing.”

But it does seem that Forsyth has been getting some love the past few days from Payton.

“We knew when we drafted him [that] he was extremely intelligent,” Payton said. “We knew we were drafting a highly intelligent player, and you could see that in his film. I think it’s a trait certainly that helps at center.”

Earlier this spring, Payton praised the intelligence of both the young centers.

“Well, there is a grit element to them,” Payton said at the NFL owners meeting. “They’re both athletic and they’re both extremely smart, just as Lloyd is. It’s a position that requires not only a certain skill set, but a certain cerebral mindset. I think that both of those guys have that temperament, but they also have that understanding of what we’re doing.”

An added bonus for Forsyth is that he also came from the University of Oregon, and used to snap the ball to Nix. He was even on the Oregon OL that allowed just five sacks Forsyth’s senior season. In fact, the coaches reached out to Forsyth before this year’s draft to get a little extra insight on the guy who became their No. 12 pick.

According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Forsyth “raved” about Nix to the coaching staff.

The center “told the Broncos coaches that Nix is smart, knows every protection, handles it all at the line of scrimmage, and had the universal respect of the entire team.”

Will that get him the starting center job? C’mon. You know better than that with Payton.

But Forsyth’s intelligence and familiarity with Nix aren’t going to hurt his chances.

In fact, Payton alluded to the conversation he had with Forsyth about Nix at last week’s OTAs.

“To answer your question specifically, I think that it’s one of his strong suits. It’s one of the reasons why I sat down with him a little bit to discuss Nix. I knew that I’d get a pretty intelligent answer, a responsible answer, a thoughtful answer,” Payton added. “He has high, high football IQ.”

But still Payton is doing his due diligence on the centers. He wants to see them in all sorts of different rotations.

“I want to see the centers with the different guards. I want to see the quarterbacks with the different offensive lines. There is a lot ahead of us,” he said, adding that’s why his message to the coaches is to ‘rotate them in there’ and not worry about a set pattern. “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.’ I want to see the rotations, and they don’t have to follow a set pattern. It’s important to tell the players that, too.”

So remember that, Broncos Country.

But still keep an eye on Forsyth.

Broncos/NFL News

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