Projecting the Broncos’ 53-man roster before Saturday’s final cut

The bad thing about not hav­ing pre­sea­son games is it robs observers the evi­dence to make conclusions.

Which play­ers have slipped to third-team and about to have their bub­ble burst? Which back­ups have showed the abil­i­ty to learn mul­ti­ple posi­tions, thus increas­ing their worth? And which play­ers “start” on 2 or 3 spe­cial teams units to earn a back-of-the-ros­ter spot?

With­out games, there’s just not as many clues to work with.

The Bron­cos have been in train­ing camp for less than three weeks, but when they return to prac­tice Mon­day morn­ing, the final cut will be five days away (Sat­ur­day at 2 p.m.).

Even with no games, the 12 prac­tices have been telling to the point where I can bust out the dart­board and attempt a 53-man projection:

Quarterbacks (2)

Drew Lock and Jeff Driskel.

It will be inter­est­ing if teams around the NFL keep a third quar­ter­back on the active ros­ter — thus not putting them through waivers — because of COVID-19. Brett Ryp­i­en should clear waivers and be signed to the prac­tice squad. What do I make of Lock in camp? He is get­ting his work in and clear­ly has a rhythm with most of the skill-posi­tion players.

Running backs (4)

Melvin Gor­don, Phillip Lind­say, Royce Free­man and Andrew Beck (FB/TE).

This sum­mer, I had undraft­ed rook­ie LeV­ante Bel­lamy beat­ing out Free­man. But Gordon’s rib injury com­bined with Freeman’s low salary cap charge ($1,081,255) and abil­i­ty to play on third down makes him too valu­able to cut. Free­man has been the work­horse of camp, work­ing with all three quar­ter­backs and if there had been pre­sea­son games, he might have had trade value.

Tight ends (4)

Noah Fant, Nick Van­nett, Albert Okwueg­bunam and Jake Butt.

Fant, Van­nett and Okwueg­bunam are locks. Enter­ing Saturday’s sta­di­um prac­tice, I had it as a coin flip between Butt and Troy Fuma­gal­li. But Fuma­gal­li missed prac­tice and if he can’t work this week, it could sway the coach­es toward Butt. If Fuma­gal­li clears waivers, he should be a can­di­date for the prac­tice squad, which can have up to six vet­er­ans this year. Okwueg­bunam has made a ton of plays as a receiv­er, so many that I would find a way to get him involved against Tennessee.

Receivers (6)

Court­land Sut­ton, Jer­ry Jeudy, KJ Ham­ler, Dae­Sean Hamil­ton, Tim Patrick and Dion­tae Spencer.

Hamler’s ham­string injury could land him on injured reserve, which this year allows for unlim­it­ed reac­ti­va­tions (the pre­vi­ous rule was two) and a min­i­mum of three weeks out (the pre­vi­ous rule was eight). Hamler’s injury will cre­ate a ros­ter spot for Spencer, who should be in line to han­dle returns. Rook­ie Tyrie Cleve­land has had a great camp and makes sense to take Hamler’s spot.

Offensive linemen  (9)

Garett Bolles (LT), Dal­ton Ris­ner (LG), Gra­ham Glas­gow (RG), Eli­ji­ah Wilkin­son (RT), Lloyd Cushen­ber­ry ©, Austin Schlottmann ©, Netane Muti (G), Demar Dot­son (RT) and Patrick Mor­ris (G/C).

When Glas­gow left Saturday’s prac­tice (ankle), Schlottmann replaced him, which gives him the nod as the top back­up guard/center if he los­es the cen­ter job to Cushen­ber­ry. Signed before camp, Dot­son will be Wilkinson’s back­up. What’s stood out about Cushen­ber­ry, aside from being praised for his foot­ball smarts, is his pow­er in the 1‑on‑1 drills. He’s going against vet­er­an starters and doing well. The main ques­tion: Is the Bron­cos’ ninth or even 10th line­men cur­rent­ly on anoth­er team? Some­thing to for next Sunday.

Defensive linemen (6)

Shel­by Har­ris (DE), Jur­rell Casey (DE), Mike Pur­cell (NT), Dre’Mont Jones (DE), McTelvin Agim (DE/NT) and DeMar­cus Walk­er (DE).

The starters are set with Har­ris, Casey and Pur­cell. Agim, a third-round rook­ie, is an intrigu­ing rota­tion­al play­er if he’s active on game-day. Jones is the top reserve at end. Casey and Har­ris being able to play nose tack­le in a pinch gives the Bron­cos flex­i­bil­i­ty. Walk­er will again sur­vive the final ros­ter cut, get­ting the nod over Chris­t­ian Covington.

Outside linebackers (4)

Bradley Chubb, Von Miller, Jere­mi­ah Attaochu and Malik Reed.

This sum­mer, I had sev­enth-round rook­ie Der­rek Tusz­ka mak­ing the ros­ter instead of Reed. It didn’t appear that was even a bat­tle dur­ing camp as Reed was get­ting first- and sec­ond-team reps and Tusz­ka third-team. Attaochu is a sol­id back­up who can rush the pass­er and stop the run.

Inside linebackers (5)

Todd Davis, Alexan­der John­son, Josey Jew­ell, Joe Jones and Mark Barron.

Pick­ing Jones over Josh Wat­son was among the hard­est deci­sions, but Jones gets the edge because of his spe­cial teams expe­ri­ence and because Wat­son is like­ly to clear waivers. Bar­ron, who has 119 games of reg­u­lar sea­son expe­ri­ence, agreed to terms Sun­day and I put him on the ros­ter instead of Justin Hollins, who will go to the prac­tice squad.

Cornerbacks (6)

A.J. Bouye, Bryce Calla­han, Michael Oje­mu­dia, De’Vante Baus­by, Davon­tae Har­ris and Duke Dawson.

Bouye and Calla­han as the top two cor­ners are set and I thought enter­ing camp that Oje­mu­dia would rise up to be the No. 3 cor­ner. But even before his quad injury, he couldn’t join the No. 3  bat­tle. I chose Daw­son over Isaac Yiadom because Daw­son has the abil­i­ty to cov­er the slot receiv­er and play some safe­ty if required.

Safeties (4)

Justin Sim­mons, Kareem Jack­son, Trey Mar­shall and Ali­jah Holder.

Mar­shall is a phys­i­cal play­er who should mer­it con­sid­er­a­tion for sub-pack­age duty and when a third safe­ty is on the field. Hold­er is cur­rent­ly out with an injury; if that keeps him off the 53-man ros­ter, P.J. Locke could be the choice or the Bron­cos may view Bar­ron, who start­ed his career as a safe­ty, has insurance.

Special teams (3)

Bran­don McManus (K), Sam Mar­tin ℗ and Jacob Boben­moy­er (LS).

Boben­moy­er won the long snap­per com­pe­ti­tion over Wes Farnsworth, who was waived last week. Mar­tin has been impres­sive in camp with his direc­tion­al punt­ing and McManus drilled a 60-yard field goal on Saturday.

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