Free Picks and Service Plays for Saturday, August 20th, 2016. These include free plays, comp plays and newsletter selections.
Dave Cokin
Denver -4
Normally, Super Bowl champs are not teams I want to play in meaningless pre-season games. But this not the typical camp for a reigning kingpin. That's because there's a real QB battle taking place on this Denver team with the Manning retirement. I love QB battles as the coaches will usually try to do what they can to give each guy an equal playing field, and it also means more chances for them to try and impress.
The 49ers also have a QB battle, but it's basically the polar opposite of what is happening with the Broncos. Colin Kaepernick has what is being called arm fatigue, and hasn't even throw a practice pass for the last week. Gabbert was pretty bad in the exhibition opener, and the Tuesday practice was pretty much a disaster. It's so bad the 49ers have signed Christian Ponder off the scrap heap and it sounds like he might be seeing action on Saturday night.
Weird setup for sure, as I would typically be looking to take the bad team with perhaps a little extra incentive against the elite entry that is just working to get ready for the real games. But this one has the opposite feel to it, and off that read, I'm willing to spot a handful of points here with the Broncos.