Broncos' tall quarterback enjoys rolling out and throwing on the run.

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — I explained to Joe Flacco why the spring training schedule is more necessary for Major League Baseball than the preseason is for the NFL.

Pitchers need the six weeks to get their arms in shape. Hitters need a couple weeks of batting practice and roughly 30 spring-training at-bats to get their timing down.

Football players need preseason games, too, for the sake of game conditioning and 11-man coordination and execution. But that is offset by the risk of injury – cancelling out the advantage up to 100 percent in the minds of some coaches like the Los Angeles Rams’ Sean McVay.

Flacco considered my theory and shot half of it down – to no doubt the delight of veteran big leaguers.

“Four preseason games, five in our case, is the equivalent to about 30 spring training games,’’ Flacco, the Broncos’ starting quarterback, said during an exclusive conversation Thursday with 9NEWS. See the full interview on our Broncos Pregame Show from 6 to 7 p.m. Saturday on Channel 20. “And I don’t know if those (baseball players) need it as much as you think they do. They can take two months or a month by themselves and get their arms ready. They just have to use the first 15 games to get ready.

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“But you’ve got to realize we’re doing this year round. Obviously, we have a couple months here and there but we’re staying in shape and ready to go year-round. So it’s not like we need training camp to get ourselves in shape. It’s really to clean up a couple things and get ready to go.’’

As the Broncos’ starting quarterback, Flacco won’t play in the preseason game Saturday night against McVay’s Rams at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. McVay doesn’t play his front-liners and Broncos head coach Vic Fangio won’t either for the final two preseason games.

Flacco’s total preseason work: One, 12-play drive that resulted in a field goal against Seattle, and one quarter that resulted in two nice completions each to Emmanuel Sanders (including the 45-yard gain brought back by penalty) and Courtland Sutton in a preseason game Monday night against the San Francisco 49ers.

Flacco completed 10 of 15 for 78 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions and said that’s enough to get ready for the season opener on Monday, September 9 against the Oakland Raiders in the Black Hole – even if the quarterback-receiver chemistry with Sanders may continue to develop into the season.

“With Emmanuel it hasn’t been a ton of time but I think he’s a very crafty guy that you can read pretty well from my standpoint,’’ Flacco said. “So that makes it easy on me as opposed to getting a ton of work with a guy and really needing that. I think we can get it to a higher level and that might take a couple weeks but I would say where we are right now is pretty good for the amount of time we’ve had together.’’

There are times when watching Flacco operate the Rich Scangarello offense is a bit like watching highlights of Scottie Pippen play point guard on a basketball court. At 6-foot-6, there’s a whole lot of Flacco executing those roll out passes.

Put it this way: Flacco has 8 more inches on Kyler Murray, another quarterback who figures to throw on the run.

“Do I like rolling out? I honestly do,’’ Flacco said. “I really like moving. I think it’s something I can do well but it also slows up that rush. It’s just another way to keep those guys off point a little bit and keep the upper hand.’’

Joe and Team Flacco (wife Dana, five children) have settled into their new city of Denver just fine. They’ve only been here five months but Broncos fans didn’t need that long to recognize their city’s quarterback.

“I honestly haven’t been out too much,’’ Flacco said. “Obviously, (recognized) a little bit. That’s to be expected but we’ve been living in this building (Broncos headquarters) for the last month-and-a-half.’’

Flacco cemented his Easy-Going Joe reputation in March 2013 after signing his then-NFL-record, six-year, $120.6 million contract a month after he was the Super Bowl 47 MVP for the Baltimore Ravens. On his way back from signing his contract that was worthy of a press conference, Humble Joe stopped at a McDonald’s drive thru and ordered a chicken nuggets meal.

The drive-thru cashier recognized him, took a cellphone photo and posted it on social media. The term “viral” was applied.

“You’ve got to realize I drove from New Jersey that day down to Baltimore,’’ Flacco said. “It was in the offseason and I spent way more time in Baltimore than I thought I was going to. I didn’t know what it was going to entail and I was just starving and that’s just where I stopped at because that was the only thing. It was kind of funny how all that blows up.’’

Luckily for the Flacco clan, there are McDonald's in the Denver-area, too.