Denver Broncos: 5 players who could be crushed by short preseason

3. Austin Fort, TE

One of the Broncos’ top offseason Cinderella stories in 2019 was that of undrafted tight end Austin Fort.

Many felt like Fort had done good enough work in training camp to get extra looks in the preseason as a legitimate roster candidate.

Fort ended up getting injured on a long pass play against Seattle in the preseason and landed on IR for his rookie season in the NFL.

With his size and athleticism, Fort could be a really good fit for the new offense Pat Shurmur is bringing in, perhaps a bit more so than some of the other tight ends on the back of the roster, but he really needs on-field reps and game reps to prove he’s 100 percent back from that injury.

Even with a deep tight end group and plenty of other guys who either played last year or have more experience overall than Fort, it would have been great to see him with a full offseason’s worth of work to make his case for the squad again in 2020.

Fort represents any number of players on the Broncos’ roster whose return off of injured reserve from last year requires a lot of on-field proof that they can be active roster contributors.