Saturday’s preseason contest against the Green Bay Packers will be the closest new head coach Vance Joseph and the Denver Broncos get to the real thing before they kick off the 2017 season on Sept. 11 against the Chargers. But don’t expect Joseph and the coaching staff to empty their bag of tricks just to get a win in what Joseph is calling a “huge” game.

“We won’t expose a lot, but we are game planning,” Joseph told the media earlier this week. “We want to give our players the best chance of playing well. As far as what we’re exposing, not a lot. But, enough to have our guys play well.”

Translation: The Broncos want to win. They want to put up yards and points. But they aren’t about to put anyone in danger, and they don’t want to reveal too much about their game plan for the regular season and the opener against Los Angeles.

The Chargers will already present enough of a problem for the Broncos, as their old head coach (and offensive architect), Mike McCoy, is now the offensive coordinator in Denver. They’ll have a good idea what’s coming, so any new tricks up McCoy’s sleeve will be saved until their date on “Monday Night Football” to open the season.

One thing the Packers can expect? A heavy dose of running back Jamaal Charles.

“He’s going to be involved early. Probably during the first 15 [plays],” Joseph said.

It will be Charles’ first game action of the year as he’s continued to heal from a knee injury that cost him all but eight games over the past two seasons. Charles has gradually been testing out his knee and is ready to show what he can contribute to the Denver offense.

It’s a revamped Denver offense under McCoy, one fellow running back C.J. Anderson says is a scheme better suited for the personnel than in years past.

“I think the scheme is better for the group that we have, no disrespect to other schemes,” Anderson said earlier this week. “I think what we brought in for the scheme that we brought in is a lot better. We have to give it up to the front offices for understanding what they wanted to get accomplished and grabbing the right players; then us as players buying all the way completely into the scheme.”

It’s an easy buy-in for Anderson, who is expected to be the feature back in a scheme that will allow him to shine, but won’t necessarily put all the responsibility on his shoulders.

“We’re going to change week to week,” Anderson said. “We might win with 60 runs or we might win with 60 passes. We just want to keep it that way.”

Joseph considers this a ‘huge’ game, so expect the Broncos to show plenty against the Packers.

“I think it’s huge for us because of who we’re playing. It’s a playoff-type team,” he said. “It’s a top-five offense. It’s an aggressive defense that turns the ball over. For us, it’s going to be a real test. Obviously, being the third game, it’s our first real game plan of the season. So, it’s important who we’re playing and how we’re going to play. It’s huge for us.”

Just don’t expect them to show everything.