First Raiders wide receiver Antonio Brown was set to play in Week 1. Then he got into an argument with Oakland GM Mike Mayock and was expected to be suspended. Brown then apologized to the team and is now expected to play on Monday.
Through it all, the Broncos were preparing as if Brown would play.
“We’ve just been assuming that he was going to play all along,” coach Vic Fangio said Friday. “Obviously, that’s the way it looks right now.”
Denver outside linebacker Von Miller eoched Fangio’s remarks.
“For me, you can’t have a good team and let one player being down or one player being up change your whole gameplan or change what you feel about the game,” Miller said. “We always assumed that he was playing and that’s just the way we attacked it from the very first day.”
Brown will be a tough test for Denver’s secondary but it’s a test that defensive coordinator Ed Donatell has been preparing them for.
“He’s a pretty dynamic guy that can get to full speed in an instant,” Donatell said Friday. “He’s got an excellent catch radius and a very good competitor. One of the top guys in our league for sure.”
Monday’s game (8:20 p.m. MT) will be nationally televised on ESPN.
