What will the Denver Broncos’ 53-man roster look like at the start of the regular season? What difficult cuts will have to be made?
The Denver Broncos have a very strong roster as a whole heading into the 2021 NFL season. As crazy as it sounds, we are barely three weeks away from being in the thick of another NFL season. Football is about to be in the air for the foreseeable future, and the excitement is really ramping up.
Will the Denver Broncos’ roster eventually include league MVP Aaron Rodgers? Time will tell.
For now, the Broncos have plenty of difficult decisions to make and plenty of players in-house who, if they don’t make the Denver Broncos, will almost certainly be on other teams around the league.
How will first-year general manager George Paton assemble his roster?
We’re going to try to take another crack at it with training camp looming.
Denver Broncos 53-man roster, depth chart predictions
Specialists (3, 3/53)
- Brandon McManus, K
- Sam Martin, P
- Jacob Bobenmoyer, LS
Although it seemed briefly that the Denver Broncos might seriously consider cutting Sam Martin in favor of rookie punter Max Duffy, Duffy didn’t make it out of OTAs.
For the time being, there are no other specialists even on the roster to compete with these three players. The Broncos have wisely allocated their other 87 roster spots to non-specialists.
Quarterbacks (2, 5/53)
- Drew Lock
- Teddy Bridgewater
This would mean that Brett Rypien is on the chopping block.
Let me explain.
Heading into the 2020 season, there was a clear need for teams to roster more quarterbacks, and the Denver Broncos became the exhibit of that in the worst way when practice squad receiver Kendall Hinton was forced to start a game at the position.
The 2021 season is going to be pretty different, and with teams allowed to protect practice squad players, it makes much more sense to try and stash your third QB there, if at all possible.
Rypien would not have a role on gameday. He would likely be a healthy scratch every week if Bridgewater and Lock are both available.
Unless the Broncos see a future starting QB there or unless Rypien goes out and dominates in preseason play, this is the wiser route to take.