Denver Broncos have made a ton of practice squad call-ups in 2017
The Denver Broncos have shown a lot of faith in their scouting department and player development with a good number of practice squad call-ups in 2017…
The Denver Broncos have never been shy about giving opportunities to guys who work hard and earn their way to more playing time. Perhaps no better examples of that are two key members of the defense, cornerback Chris Harris Jr. and linebacker Brandon Marshall.
Harris Jr. was an undrafted player out of Kansas, and was given a very low signing bonus when he initially was brought to Denver back in 2011.
Marshall was a practice squad cast-off of the Jacksonville Jaguars, who was signed to Denver’s practice squad and later promoted to the active roster.
The moral of the story is this: If you are good, you will play. Your draft status in Denver does not matter.
There are a ton of examples of how the Broncos have spit in the face of draft status or free agent status being the reason why someone makes or plays on this team, but here we’re going to look at the (crazy) number of practice squad call-ups this team has made in 2017.
I’m not sure what the league average is, but when you look at the Broncos’ original practice squad and where we are today, it’s pretty crazy how many of these guys have contributed to the active roster this year.
Here’s the initial practice squad list:
Dymonte Thomas (safety)
Tyrique Jarrett (defensive tackle)
Kyle Peko (defensive tackle)
Marcus Rios (cornerback)
Elijah Wilkinson (offensive tackle)
Deiontrez Mount (outside linebacker)
Jerrol Garcia-Williams (linebacker)
Dillon Day (center)
Hunter Sharp (wide receiver)
Austin Traylor (tight end)
So far this season, all but two of those players have been called up to the active roster (Dymonte Thomas, Marcus Rios) and everyone except Sharp, Day, and Jarrett (soon to change) remain on the active roster or have been called up and down.
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The Broncos also signed linebacker Joseph Jones off of the Seattle practice squad to their active roster, giving them six current players on the 53-man roster (roughly 1/9 of the team) that are players originally signed to a practice squad this season.
That number will soon change to seven if Tyrique Jarrett is called up, and could be even more depending on what the Broncos decide at the cornerback position with Aqib Talib suspended for the Miami Dolphins game.
The Broncos have made some additional practice squad call-ups this year, namely guys like Kevin Snyder who was briefly with the team, but for the guys that have stuck around, it is really an impressive showing by the team’s scouting department.
So far, the guy that looks like the best player of the bunch is tight end Austin Traylor, who was called up just recently but has made an instant impact on the offense both as a pass catcher and run blocker.
This team’s willingness to utilize players on the practice squad in actual games is not a new thing, but it seems especially prominent this season. One player that is a former undrafted free agent and practice squad call-up that is really showing out is outside linebacker Shaquil Barrett.
By now, I’m sure, you all know that Strip-sack-Shaq deserves a pay raise ASAP.