Quick Hits: Denver Broncos Defeat San Francisco 49ers 10-6 in Week 1

(Screengrab courtesy of Matt Miller on Twitter)

The Denver Broncos defeated the San Francisco 49ers 10-6 in Candlestick Park on Thursday night, moving to 1-0 in preseason play.  Quarterback Peyton Manning played for one series, going 2-of-4 for 13 yards (one pass competed to Julius Thomas and another to Demaryius Thomas).

A few quick hits from tonight's game:

• No injuries.  After the game, head coach John Fox had no injuries to report.

• Pistol formation.  Back in May, we caught wind of the Broncos running pistol formations at Dove Valley.  On Tuesday, ESPN's Cecil Lammey asked Manning about the pistol and about the possibility of ever running it in Denver.  Manning sidestepped the question, but Denver came out in a pistol look on Thursday.

• New collars.  It's official now.  The Broncos are returning to solid collars.

Denver Broncos Create $3.3M in Cap Space, Cut Linebacker Joe Mays

A day after losing star outside linebacker Von Miller to a pending four-game suspension, the Denver Broncos said goodbye to another linebacker—Joe Mays.

The team announced on Tuesday morning that Mays has been released, which will erase his $4 million base salaries in 2013 and 2014, creating approximately $3,333,332 in cap room this season.

In 2012, Mays signed a three-year deal with the team that included a $500,000 signing bonus.  That bonus is counted against the cap in three increments of $166,667 over a three-year period.

That means the team now has $833,334 in dead money over the next two seasons, which is a relatively low number, especially considering how much they saved by parting ways with Mays (nearly $6.7 million over the next two seasons).