Broncos news: Spencer Lanning joins team on waivers
By Tylor Walden
Aug 23, 2014; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Browns punter Spencer Lanning (5) punts against the St. Louis Rams at FirstEnergy Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports
The Denver Broncos special teams added another punter to the roster to bring the team to 90 players. While it seems like it will not be too much competition, Britton Colquitt has another punter to compete with during the preseason.
Spencer Lanning was awarded to the Denver Broncos just hours before the start of the preseason tilt against the Seattle Seahawks. Last week, the team waived Karl Schmitz after Britton Colquitt took a salary reduction. The punting competition returns to Denver.
#Broncos were awarded punter Spencer Lanning off waivers from Tampa Bay. Roster stands at 90 players.
— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) August 14, 2015
Spencer Lanning was waived by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers just two days ago. Tampa Bay added Karl Schmitz to their roster when the Denver Broncos waived him. So looking at this, it was basically two teams swapping punters with each other.
Last year with the Cleveland Browns, Spencer Lanning ranked 17th in net punting average with 39.2 yards. Not a solid time for the punter, but the Broncos could bring him in to compete for the punting and kickoff job. Might not be such a bad idea since Brandon McManus and Connor Barth did not perform well on the kickoff.
In all honesty, unless Spencer Lanning can really wow the Denver Broncos coaching staff with his punting and kickoffs, then there may not be a whole lot of competition since the Broncos seemed set on allowing Britton Colquitt his shot to prove to the team that he can improve from his two seasons of mediocrity.
This move is quite interesting. It makes me wonder if they were just looking to go in a different direction and decided that Spencer Lanning would be better competition for Britton Colquitt then Karl Schmitz was.
Either way, the Denver Broncos have welcomed more competition on special teams once again. It will be an interesting squad to watch as the preseason continues. With the performance of some of the special team players, they have a long way to go.