The Denver Broncos have some important battles taking place in training camp in 2020.
There won’t be a ton of mystery about the Denver Broncos heading into training camp in 2020, and that’s a good thing for all involved.
For the first time since Peyton Manning’s final season in Denver (2015), there is no question about the starting quarterback in Denver. The team spent the 2020 offseason building around young Drew Lock, who was clearly a catalyst for the team in a 4-1 finish to the 2020 season.
With Lock’s emergence at the end of the 2019 season, the Broncos have morphed into one of the NFL’s most exciting young teams, loaded with potential on offense and established with more of a veteran presence on defense.
With such a talented and young roster, there are bound to be some really fun training camp battles, even though most of the Broncos’ starting lineup appears to be in place.
What will happen for Denver at the right tackle position with Ja’Wuan James opting out?
Which tight ends are making this team?
Who is going to be the number three cornerback?
Let’s take a look at the five most important battles for the Broncos at training camp in 2020.
Honorable mention: Long snapper
Long snappers are people too.
The Denver Broncos parted ways with former Pro Bowl long snapper Casey Kreiter during the 2020 offseason, and he landed on his feet with the New York Giants.
It’s not as though long snappers are a dime a dozen or anything, but rarely do you hear about NFL teams having a hard time finding good help in that regard.
The Broncos brought on two players to compete for the lone long snapper job on the team. They are Wes Farnsworth and Jacob Bobenmoyer.
Farnsworth, a former undrafted free agent out of Nevada, has some really intriguing athleticism for the position, which could give him an edge when it comes to performance on punt coverage and possibly even on kickoffs.
At 6-foot-1, 232 pounds, he ran a respectable 4.79 in the 40-yard dash and had a 39-inch vertical jump along with 17 bench press reps at 225 pounds.
Jacob Bobenmoyer is nearly the same size as Farnsworth, checking in at 6-foot-1, 238 pounds, and doesn’t have nearly the same type of athletic traits. Still, the Northern Colorado product was with the Broncos last year for a cup of coffee with the team, and that history with special teams coordinator Tom McMahon could be an important edge for him.
What are you looking for in a long snapper? Well, ideally, you don’t want to hear much about them. If they are accurate with their snaps and consistent, they aren’t going to make headlines.
It would be fun to see a snapper become known for maybe some big hits or big plays in punt coverage, but accurate snapping will do just fine.
5. Backup edge
Bradley Chubb is back after tearing his ACL in the fourth game of the 2019 season, giving the Denver Broncos maybe the most enviable duo of edge players in the entire NFL between he and Von Miller.
Both players have superstar qualities, and because of Chubb’s 2019 injury, the Broncos have plenty of capable and intriguing depth at the position.
The question heading into 2020 training camp is — who makes the team?
The Broncos’ returning leader in snaps (besides Von Miller) is 2019 undrafted free agent star Malik Reed, a player with great versatility and pass rush potential who should not be in danger of losing his roster spot barring a complete collapse or another couple of players looking other-worldly on the practice field.
Behind Reed in snaps last season was Jeremiah Attaochu, a former second-round pick of the San Diego Chargers who was a street free agent pickup after Chubb’s injury. Attaochu finished the season as Denver’s starting edge and earned the trust of head coach Vic Fangio. He was re-signed to a one-year deal this past offseason as a reward for his strong performance in the final quarter or so of the 2019 season.
The Broncos also have 2019 fifth-round pick Justin Hollins, a very talented athlete who cut his teeth on special teams while learning every linebacker position in Fangio’s defense. He didn’t get too many pass-rush opportunities compared to the other guys in 2019, but Hollins has big upside with his athletic makeup.
Behind those guys, you have 2020 seventh-round pick Derrek Tuszka, an FCS All-American for North Dakota State who probably needs to wreak havoc daily in training camp to make his way onto the 53-man roster to open 2020.
The Broncos also have Malik Carney, who spent some time last year on the practice squad, returning to compete for the 2020 season. Carney could be a wild card off the edge for Denver.
If there are only two available spots, who do the Broncos keep here? Tough choices will have to be made.
4. Backup tight ends
Everybody knows that Noah Fant is the unquestioned TE1 for Denver heading into the 2020 season. But how will the snaps be divvied up behind him?
The Broncos brought in veteran Nick Vannett — the former Seahawk and Steeler — to essentially replace Jeff Heuerman, the guy he once replaced at Ohio State when Heuerman was selected by the Broncos in the 2015 NFL Draft.
Vannett is a solid all-around tight end and the Broncos brought in Drew Lock’s college pal — Albert Okwuegbunam — with a fourth-round pick in the 2020 NFL Draft to be yet another athletic mismatch at the tight end position.
The question heading into camp is really, how many tight ends will the Broncos keep?
Andrew Beck is listed on the Broncos’ roster as a TE/FB hybrid, and for Pat Shurmur, he could end up playing the Rhett Ellison role.
If the Broncos keep Beck in that role, would they also keep four additional tight ends? It’s going to be up to Jake Butt, Troy Fumagalli, and Austin Fort to make that a very difficult decision.
Fumagalli and Butt are recent fifth-round picks for the Broncos who both missed at least one full season due to injury. Butt has been with the Broncos for three years and has only appeared in three games. Still, he once had possible TE1 upside and the team clearly believes he can be a factor when healthy. Otherwise, he wouldn’t still be around.
One of the most interesting aspects of 2020 training camp for the Denver Broncos will be Jake Butt’s roster campaign now that he is apparently healthy and running with no limitations and no knee braces.
3. Third wide receiver
At some point, everyone expects the Broncos’ top three receivers on the depth chart to be Courtland Sutton, Jerry Jeudy, and KJ Hamler.
How quickly will they arrive there? No one knows.
The Broncos, as of right now, don’t really have a clear pecking order on the wide receiver depth chart. If you play the seniority card, Courtland Sutton and Tim Patrick would probably be your WR1 and WR2 with top pick Jerry Jeudy opening the season as your slot.
What’s going to be really interesting is seeing which receivers make their presence felt in camp early on. Will DaeSean Hamilton, one of Drew Lock’s favorite targets in his five starts, be the starting slot receiver with Jeudy on the outside?
How will Juwann Winfree factor in?
Does return specialist Diontae Spencer have an expanded offensive role on the horizon?
How much of an impact can seventh-round pick Tyrie Cleveland make early on?
Other holdovers like Trinity Benson and Fred Brown aren’t going down without a fight either, and the lone 2020 undrafted rookie on the team — former Wake Forest QB Kendall Hinton — will be interesting to monitor as well.
It should be no surprise if Tim Patrick opens camp as the other ‘starting’ receiver on the depth chart, even ahead of Jerry Jeudy, but there’s no question the top three receivers will play substantial snaps in 2020.
Even if Patrick opens camp as the no. 2, it wouldn’t be shocking if DaeSean Hamilton or KJ Hamler were to take his spot eventually.
There’s also an aspect of future planning here for the Broncos. Do they want to cut a younger player like Tyrie Cleveland in favor of keeping Patrick, who is on the final year of his deal and maybe not likely to return to Denver after this season?
Time will tell, but how the Broncos sort out their wide receiver position will be very interesting to watch.
2. Third cornerback
Even with just a couple of days leading up to 2020 training camp, I don’t think anyone has a clue who the Broncos’ number three cornerback is going to be.
Which is bizarre.
The team acquired AJ Bouye, a natural outside corner, to replace Chris Harris Jr. as the elder of the cornerback group. Harris was more suited to a nickel role, and struggled last season in Denver having to play more outside.
The Broncos also have a healthy Bryce Callahan back for the 2020 season, and he will be expected to play a huge role on the field this year after being a liaison for learning Vic Fangio’s defense to other players in 2019.
With Bouye and Callahan the expected top two at cornerback to open the season, the player who emerges as the CB3 in Denver will be one of a number of young players, likely someone who is capable of playing more outside corner.
Either that, or it will be a tremendous inside player who will cause the Broncos to keep Callahan outside in nickel situations.
Isaac Yiadom is the guy who finished the 2019 season as the starting outside corner with Harris on the other side and Will Parks in the nickel.
Even with that, it’s hard to consider Yiadom the ‘favorite’ at this point.
Davontae Harris also saw time as a starter for the Broncos last year after being picked up just before the start of the 2019 season. He had some moments of brilliance, and some tough learning moments as well.
De’Vante Bausby is back after suffering a scary spinal injury against the Chargers last season. Bausby showed maybe the most consistency in a smaller sample size of any of the corners who took outside reps for the Broncos in 2019.
The Broncos also acquired 2018 second-round pick Duke Dawson in a trade with the New England Patriots before the 2019 season, and Dawson had some really nice reps as a nickel corner in 2019. He is one guy who might be good enough as an inside player to keep Callahan outside in nickel packages. He may also have the versatility to be a backup to Kareem Jackson at strong safety in 2020.
You can’t forget about or count out 2020 third-round pick Michael Ojemudia, either. Ojemudia was impressive to the coaching staff during the remote learning portion of OTAs, and he has outside starter upside as a rookie as well.
Then there’s 2020 undrafted free agent Essang Bassey, who is built like an NFL veteran and projects as one of the top nickel defenders from the 2020 class despite being an undrafted player.
There are so many young, talented players at this position for Denver, and no one immediately stands out as the clear top option to be CB3 to open the season. That player will basically be a starter for the defense, so this is one of the most important battles on the roster overall.
1. Right tackle
Right now, there’s no more important ‘battle’ on the Denver Broncos’ 2020 roster than the right tackle position.
As of the time of this writing, there’s not much of a battle going on.
Elijah Wilkinson was expected to compete with Garett Bolles for the starting left tackle position, but when starting right tackle Ja’Wuan James decided to opt-out of the 2020 season, it opened up the starting role for Wilkinson again on the right side.
If the season started this Sunday, Wilkinson would unquestionably be the Broncos’ starting right tackle.
With some time and a ‘full’ training camp still to go, there’s a chance he could be pushed by a veteran.
Specifically, the Broncos have a deal in place with veteran Demar Dotson, formerly of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Dotson, 34, was an 11-year starter for the Bucs, who replaced him this offseason with rookie Tristan Wirfs out of Iowa.
If or when Dotson is signed, the Broncos will have to take a look in camp and consider their one-year options with either Wilkinson or Dotson starting at right tackle.
Dotson’s track record leads me to believe he would be the guy in the starting lineup opening day, especially after some of the struggles we saw from Wilkinson in 2019.
The Broncos also have a very confident young developmental player in Calvin Anderson, who has been fun to watch on Twitter this offseason as he subtly campaigned for himself amidst all of the change happening with the Broncos’ tackle positions.
It’s clear at this point that the Broncos don’t want to resort to a player like Jake Rodgers playing significant snaps again in the 2020 season, so it’s going to be Bolles at left tackle with Wilkinson and likely Dotson battling it out for right tackle.
Dotson would have to be the favorite there with Wilkinson available as the swing tackle in the event that either Bolles or Dotson would become unavailable.