{"id":34480,"date":"2026-08-09T12:03:30","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T07:03:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=34480"},"modified":"2026-08-09T12:03:30","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T07:03:30","slug":"broncos-safety-brandon-jones-shines-as-an-emergency-kicker-going-3-for-4-in-a-scrimmage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=34480","title":{"rendered":"Broncos safety Brandon Jones shines as an emergency kicker, going 3 for 4 in a scrimmage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/twt-thumbs.washtimes.com\/media\/image\/2026\/08\/08\/Broncos_Jones_Kicks_Football_55193_s1440x960.jpg?f72536d07237fdd262042ae8f5e6e6de3b865f3c\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>ENGLEWOOD, Colo. \u2014 The highlight of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/denver-broncos\/\">Denver Broncos<\/a>\u2019 scrimmage Saturday wasn\u2019t another sack by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/jonah-ellis\/\">Jonah Ellis<\/a> or pinpoint pass from quarterback <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/bo-nix\/\">Bo Nix<\/a>. It was a solid kicking performance by safety <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/brandon-jones\/\">Brandon Jones<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The seventh-year pro made three of four field goal attempts with starting kicker Wil Lutz in New Orleans along with coach Sean Payton for Drew Brees\u2019 Hall of Fame induction ceremony.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou have to have a contingency. We\u2019ve seen it happen in other games across the league,\u201d special teams coach Darren Rizzi said.<\/p>\n<p>Jones nailed two kicks straight on from about 35 yards, although the process was slow, then moved to the left hash from about 40 and missed one wide left before making his final kick to the roars of teammates and the 1,200 fans in the stands.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYeah, so I didn\u2019t kick in high school or college,\u201d Jones said. \u201cI just have some history in playing soccer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One day he jokingly told Rizzi if he ever needed an emergency kicker, he was his guy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThen he called my bluff and put me to the test one day, I think it was last year,\u201d Jones said. \u201cAnd I made an extra point and apparently there is a lot of guys on the team that can also kick, but I got the opportunity today and went 3 for 4, so that\u2019s not bad.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Not only did Jones never kick a football until the NFL, but he hardly kicked a soccer ball in high school.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI played some club soccer. I stopped in high school because I\u2019m like, \u2018Let\u2019s be real. I\u2019m a football player,\u2019\u201d Jones said. \u201cBut I\u2019ve always told people, whenever I get done player, I\u2019d like to go through a tryout with an MLS team. I think I need to be humbled. I need them to be like, \u2018You\u2019re not that good.\u2019 But yeah, once we get there, we\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jones said he\u2019s made a 50-yarder in practice before.<\/p>\n<p>That was off a contraption that holds the ball in place. On Saturday, punter Jeremy Crawshaw was his holder.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat caught me off guard. And Will usually holds for me, so everything was new today,\u201d Jones said. \u201cSo, I didn\u2019t know what to expect.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jones hasn\u2019t gone so far as to get a special kicking cleat.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo, no and they were surprised that I spat before practice,\u201d Jones said. \u201cAnd they were like, \u2018You\u2019re going to kick spatted?\u2019 and I was like, \u2018Yeah, why not?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Spatting up in football means wrapping athletic tape around the ankles and over the top of the cleats to lock the shoe and ankle together for extra stability.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was all good, but I will say, when the crowd started chatting my name, I got really nervous and I was like, \u2018Yeah, I\u2019m about to shank this,\u2019\u201d Jones said. \u201cBut thankfully it went in.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Does he think he\u2019d get butterflies if he had to kick in a game?<\/p>\n<p>                        <a name=\"pagebreak\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it depends on the situation,\u201d Jones said. \u201cIf we\u2019re winning by a lot, no big deal. Hopefully, I don\u2019t think it would ever come down to like a game-time thing where I would need to make it in. If it comes down to that, man, y\u2019all just pray for me.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"permission\" style=\"padding-top: 25px;\">\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2026 The Washington Times, LLC.\n                        <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ENGLEWOOD, Colo. \u2014 The highlight of the Denver Broncos\u2019 scrimmage Saturday wasn\u2019t another sack by Jonah Ellis or pinpoint pass from quarterback Bo Nix. It was a solid kicking performance by safety Brandon Jones. The seventh-year pro made three of four field goal attempts with starting kicker Wil Lutz in New Orleans along with coach&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34481,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/twt-thumbs.washtimes.com\/media\/image\/2026\/08\/08\/Broncos_Jones_Kicks_Football_55193_c0-207-4970-3106_s1200x700.jpg?1c9145358cde4c09e5a7e63ed41dbb81056a3e9f","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}