By Tues­day at 2 p.m., the Bron­cos must have their ros­ter cut down from 80 to 53 players.

In our final 53-man pro­jec­tion, the ros­ter includes 14 play­ers who weren’t a mem­ber of the orga­ni­za­tion at the end of last year.

This pre­dic­tion has 25 play­ers apiece on offense and defense, and three spe­cial­ists. It includes six of their 10 draft picks and one undraft­ed rookie.

Offense (25)

Quarterbacks (2)

In: Ted­dy Bridge­wa­ter and Drew Lock.

Out: Brett Rypien.

Analy­sis: Pret­ty clear cut here if the Bron­cos opt to go with two quar­ter­backs. Fan­gio tabbed Bridge­wa­ter on Wednes­day to be his Week 1 starter and Lock as the back­up. Ryp­i­en is an ide­al prac­tice squad can­di­date if he clears waivers.

Running backs (4)

In: Javonte Williams, Melvin Gor­don, Mike Boone and Royce Freeman

Out: Damarea Crock­ett, Ste­vie Smith, Adam Pren­tice (FB).

Analy­sis: Boone’s quad injury could send him to injured reserve after the ini­tial ros­ter is set, which allows him to return after a min­i­mum of three weeks. Williams, the sec­ond-round rook­ie from North Car­oli­na, has been as adver­tised, a pow­er­ful and run-through-arm-tack­les rush­er who will chal­lenge Gor­don for play­ing time and car­ries. Free­man is a valu­able spe­cial teams play­er and run­ning back who can play on third down because of his receiv­ing and pass-pro­tec­tion abilities.

Tight ends (4)

In: Noah Fant, Albert Okwueg­bunam, Eric Saubert, Andrew Beck (TE/FB).

Out: Shaun Bey­er and Austin Fort.

Analy­sis: Saubert has been a bright spot because he knows how to use his 253-pound frame as an in-line block­er, can also threat­en teams down­field (as shown by his 21-yard catch against Seat­tle) and has earned praise for his spe­cial teams play. Fant (leg) was expect­ed to miss Saturday’s pre­sea­son finale and Okwueg­bunam has had a rel­a­tive­ly qui­et camp com­ing off last November’s ACL injury. Beck worked exclu­sive­ly at tight end in camp prac­tices so he could fine tune his tech­nique at that posi­tion, but will be count­ed on to also play full­back and spe­cial teams.

Receivers (6)

In: Court­land Sut­ton, Jer­ry Jeudy, KJ Ham­ler, Tim Patrick, Dion­tae Spencer (KR/PR) and Trin­i­ty Benson.

Out: Tyrie Cleve­land, Kendall Hin­ton, Seth Williams and De’Mornay Pierson-El.

Analy­sis: The only change from late June is includ­ing Ben­son and remov­ing Cleve­land. Ben­son had two touch­down catch­es against Min­neso­ta and Cleve­land had no catch­es in the first two games. Spencer pro­vides enough val­ue as a return spe­cial­ist to stick. An inter­est­ing sub­plot is Patrick, who fought knee and groin injuries dur­ing train­ing camp and didn’t do any­thing mem­o­rable when he was healthy. Can he turn it on for the reg­u­lar sea­son? Over­all, we dis­agree with the notion this is a loaded posi­tion group. Sut­ton is com­ing off an ACL injury, Ham­ler hasn’t proven he can be con­sis­tent­ly avail­able and the afore­men­tioned Patrick has been nicked up.

Offensive linemen (9)

In: Garett Bolles (LT), Dal­ton Ris­ner (LG), Lloyd Cushen­ber­ry ©, Gra­ham Glas­gow (RG), Bob­by Massie (RT), Netane Muti (G), Austin Schlottmann (G/C), Quinn Mein­erz (C/G) and Calvin Ander­son (RT/LT).

Out: Cam Flem­ing (RT), Quinn Bai­ley (LT) and Adam Him­mel­man (LT).

Analy­sis: No changes from late June. The cen­ter com­pe­ti­tion nev­er start­ed because Cushen­ber­ry was that improved and Mein­erz found the sled­ding that dif­fi­cult, par­tic­u­lar­ly as a snap­per. Massie has the inside track at right tack­le after rotat­ing on a dai­ly basis against Ander­son, who has val­ue as a swing back­up. We have Schlottmann on the ros­ter to be the back­up cen­ter instead of throw­ing Mein­erz in deep waters or mov­ing Glas­gow from right guard to center.

Defense (25)

Defensive linemen (6)

In: Shel­by Har­ris (DE), Mike Pur­cell (NT), Dre’Mont Jones (DE), Shamar Stephen (DL), DeShawn Williams (DE) and McTelvin Agim (DL).

Out: Jonathan Har­ris, Isa­iah Mack and Mar­quiss Spencer.

Analy­sis: No changes from late June. Spencer, a sev­enth-round rook­ie, wasn’t able to chal­lenge Agim for the sixth spot, part­ly because of an ankle injury. Agim gen­er­at­ed buzz ear­ly in camp because of his inter­cep­tion and bat­ted-down pass­es, but his mid-August groin injury was a road block. Williams (inter­cep­tion against Seat­tle) and Stephen are two valu­able rota­tion­al players.

Outside linebackers (4)

In: Von Miller, Bradley Chubb, Malik Reed and Jonathon Cooper.

Out: Der­rek Tusz­ka and Andre Mintze.

Analy­sis: The Bron­cos kept five out­side line­back­ers to start last year. Coop­er has been one of the sur­pris­es of camp (two sacks against Seat­tle) con­sid­er­ing he missed the entire off­sea­son pro­gram fol­low­ing a heart pro­ce­dure. Tusz­ka will head to the prac­tice squad.

Inside linebackers (5)

In: Josey Jew­ell, Alexan­der John­son, Justin Str­nad, Baron Brown­ing and Cur­tis Robinson.

Out: Bar­ring­ton Wade.

Analy­sis: Josh Wat­son was cut last week, more of a nod to Robin­son (or Wade) than Str­nad or Brown­ing, who were going to make the team any­way. Robin­son makes the ini­tial ros­ter as undraft­ed rook­ie. It will be inter­est­ing to see how the Bron­cos uti­lize Str­nad in sub-pack­age sit­u­a­tions and if Brown­ing pro­vides ver­sa­til­i­ty as an edge rusher.

Cornerbacks (6)

In: Pat Sur­tain II, Ronald Dar­by, Kyle Fuller, Bryce Calla­han, Michael Oje­mu­dia and Nate Hairston.

Phys­i­cal­ly unable to per­form list: Essang Bassey and Duke Dawson.

Out: Mac McCain III, Savion Smith, Par­nell Mot­ley and Kary Vincent.

Analy­sis: Bassey and Daw­son are still reha­bil­i­tat­ing ACL injuries and they will get anoth­er six weeks if they are placed on the phys­i­cal­ly unable to per­form list. If Oje­mu­dia was healthy, we could see the Bron­cos stick­ing with five cor­ners, but he sus­tained a ham­string injury against Seat­tle and will miss the begin­ning of the reg­u­lar sea­son. He must be on the ini­tial 53-man ros­ter to be placed on injured reserve-eli­gi­ble to return. Don’t be sur­prised if only five cor­ners are on the ini­tial list and Hair­ston is added after clear­ing waivers. The top four of Dar­by, Fuller, Sur­tain and Calla­han is the best quar­tet in the league.

Safeties (4)

In: Justin Sim­mons, Kareem Jack­son, Caden Sterns and P.J. Locke.

Out: Trey Mar­shall and Jamar Johnson.

Analy­sis: Mar­shall was get­ting sec­ond-team reps until his ankle injury while cov­er­ing a kick­off at Min­neso­ta and he hasn’t prac­ticed since. If the Bron­cos like his spe­cial teams abil­i­ty enough to put him on the ini­tial 53-man ros­ter, he could be anoth­er injured reserve-eli­gi­ble to return can­di­date. Sterns, a fifth-round rook­ie, has played well in the pre­sea­son but missed two prac­tices last week with a leg injury. John­son, also a fifth-round rook­ie, nev­er got out of the blocks dur­ing camp.

Specialists (3)

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

Analy­sis: McManus, Mar­tin and Boben­moy­er went through train­ing camp unchallenged.