The Denver Broncos had a mostly positive preseason opening win over the Atlanta Falcons on Friday night. The team committed too many penalties and the special teams had some gaffes, but the team still earned a 27-7 road win over the Atlanta Falcons. Bo Nix sat this one out while Jarrett Stidham and Sam Ehlinger took their quarterback competition to the next stage. But the team used many of its rookies in this game, looking to get a further look at some of the new blood in orange and blue. Here, we will grade the performance of many of those first-year players. Broncos' rookie grades following win over Falcons Jonah Coleman, RB Jonah Coleman is the rookie Broncos fans are going to be talking about the most following this win, mostly wondering if the team can afford to give him a small role in 2026. While that may not even be in the plans, Coleman made the most of his four carries on Friday night, gaining 24 yards and making an early case for a bigger role than most would have initially thought. Check out this run:
Jonah Coleman is a BEAST💪🏼 He’s going to be the RB1 for this team before we know it. Buy while you still can💰 pic.twitter.com/KZsm7EaU1r — TheFantasyFormula (@AFantasyFormula) August 15, 2026 Grade: A Red Murdock, LB The Broncos' "Mr. Irrelevant" pick got off to a strong start, leading the team with eight tackles in this game. The Broncos are looking for depth to back up Justin Strnad and Alex Singleton at inside linebacker, and this performance will only help Murdock's chances. Grade: A Cam Ross, WR Undrafted out of Virginia, Cam Ross got three touches in this game in limited action, but it did seem like it was a priority for playcaller Davis Webb to give him some chances. Ross caught two passes for one yard, but his biggest impact came on an end-around, where he was given the ball and he turned the corner for 28 yards, nearly scoring a touchdown. He also got his chance to return punts and kicks. He didn't do much with three punt returns (7 yards) but he had 21 yards on one kick return. Grade: B+ Joseph Manjack, WR Another undrafted player, Joseph Manjack snagged all three of his targets and gained 40 yards in this game. He still faces long odds to make the team, but this was a great way to start his professional career. Grade: B+ Kolbe Katsis, WR Kolbe Katsis had two balls thrown his way by Sam Ehlinger and he came down with one of them for a 15-yard gain. However, his best path to being a factor on this team, at least initially, might be as a return man. He returned one kickoff for 22 yards in this one. Grade: B- Dane Key, WR The last of the team's four undrafted free agents, Dane Key didn't look as good as the other three. He had a false start called against him and he caught just one pass for two yards in the game. Grade: C Justin Joly, TE Justin Joly is a promising prospect, but like Key, he had a penalty (holding) called against him and the one pass he caught went for no gain. Grade: C- Brent Austin, CB Brent Austin was named one of the top "wild card" players in Broncos camp this summer and he had an up-and-down performance in this game, getting beat on one pass play but showing good coverage on another later in the game. He finished with two tackles. Grade: C+ Taurean York, LB Taurean York has been named by some as the Broncos' most likely undrafted free agent to make the 53-man roster this year and he flashed his talent in this game with a tackle for loss on a 1st-and-goal play from the 5-yard line for the Falcons. Grade: B Luke Basso, LS The Broncos signed Luke Basso as an undrafted free agent out of Oregon to see if he could push Mitchell Fraboni for the team's long snapper job. After this game, the odds of that happening have to be close to zero. Basso had at least one bad snap that resulted in a missed field goal for Wil Lutz and the operation was off on another field-goal attempt later in the game, though Matt Peart being slow to report had more to do with that miss. Still, a rough night for Basso when you only have one job. Grade: D This article originally appeared on Broncos Wire: Grading each rookie’s performance in Broncos’ 1st preseason game