One of the practical utilities of Saturday’s training camp session at Broncos Stadium at Mile High was the opportunity for the coaches to test out their play-calling processes.

Offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello is calling plays in the NFL for the first time. He’s called plays at the college level and is a 24-year coaching veteran, but as a first-time play-caller in the NFL, it was unclear whether he planned to do so from the sideline — like Gary Kubiak and Mike Shanahan — or from the booth.

Saturday’s practice gave us our answer, however. Scangarello was perched on high in the booth during team drills, calling plays.

“It was good for the offensive coaches, in particular, to experience that and go through it,” head coach Vic Fangio said following practice. “We’ve still got five games to have Rich up there and have those guys operate”

It’s been a while since the Broncos had an offensive coordinator calling plays from the booth. However, the utility of doing so from that vantage is obvious. It gives the play-caller a full, all-22 view of the field. The same way the coach studies film, he’ll call plays, in terms of the view.

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The seamlessness of that as an operation is attractive, which is why Coach Fangio spent 19 of his 20 years as a defensive coordinator in the booth.

But being up high does come with some drawbacks, the biggest being communication. The OC in the booth is cut off from his assistant coaches and quarterback, though there is such a thing as head-set communication, and Joe Flacco will have a radio in his helmet.

Flacco won’t be able to talk back to Scangarello, however, unless he’s on the sideline on the phone. That’s where QBs Coach T.C. McCartney becomes especially crucial.

Scangarello will have to rely on McCartney to be his voice and eyes from the sideline, working directly with the signal-callers. In a perfect world, you’d want that OC/QBs Coach duo to have some exerience under their respective belts operating in that way.

However, the Broncos will only get five preseason games to hone that chemistry between Scangarello and McCartney — sideline to booth.

The offensive play-calling process is a work in progress but it’s one that hopefully the Broncos will have streamlined come September. Meanwhile, Coach Fangio is still figuring out how the same process will work for the defensive coaches.

“We didn’t completely do it the way we’ll do it on defense,” Fangio said Saturday, “but I think it was good to do that.”

Fangio will have to be on the sideline to manage the game as head coach, interact with assistants and players, a well as the officiating crew. My educated guess is that DC Ed Donatell will be perched in the booth to give Fangio (who’s going to continue calling defensive plays) all the intelligence he can based on his view from on high.

Fangio and Donatello will also get five preseason games to iron out those kinks.