Denver Broncos 53-man roster predictions and analysis
The Denver Broncos are set to play their final preseason game on Thursday against the Arizona Cardinals. Here’s a 53-man roster prediction ahead of it…
Predicting the Denver Broncos’ 53-man roster before the final preseason game is never an exact science, because you never know what will happen with injuries. That being said, the Broncos are set to put together one of the deepest, strongest rosters in the NFL from top to bottom, and John Elway has some difficult decisions to make, injuries or not.
Let’s break it down position by position, and start with the quarterbacks…
QUARTERBACKS: 2 (2) — Trevor Siemian, Paxton Lynch
IR: Chad Kelly
Practice Squad: Kyle Sloter
This is, of course, in an ideal world.
The Broncos’ top two quarterbacks appear to be set, unless Paxton Lynch’s injury is worse than we’re being led to believe. After that, some believe that Kyle Sloter is deserving of a roster spot. It’s hard to argue that he has not played his way onto an NFL roster this preseason, but this is a numbers game and the Broncos are probably going to have to see if Sloter can slip through waivers.
The situation with Chad Kelly is also very interesting, as putting him on IR doesn’t do him much good in terms of getting practice reps but it does keep him on the Broncos’ roster for the time being, and I think they would obviously prefer that.
I don’t think any other NFL team is going to poach Kyle Sloter and keep him on their 53-man roster, unless they are absolutely desperate. Other teams are getting into numbers games as well, and the Broncos have been able to sneak quarterbacks with much higher draft grades onto the practice squad in years past.
What’s interesting here is if Lynch’s injury is worse than anticipated or if Siemian gets hurt, or whatever the case may be, they don’t have to put the ‘designation to return’ status on Chad Kelly, and could bring him off IR whenever they want.
Injuries pile up during the season, and perhaps the best way to get Kelly in-season reps is to wait and see if injuries happen at other positions, bring him onto the active roster, and make him a gameday inactive with Sloter on the practice squad.
I don’t know what the Broncos will do, exactly, but that could be the best case scenario for Kelly and Sloter remaining on the team through 2017.