The Denver Broncos have opened training camp in preparation for the 2022 NFL season and now will begin to evaluate their 90-player roster.
Between now and August 30, the team will have to reduce its roster to the league-mandated number of 53 players. The team then has the ability to add up to 16 players to its practice squad.
There will be three preseason games and a handful of practices to help determine that but there are also creative ways that a team can get down to 53 players while still getting the maximum in return. Consider George Paton to be a creative general manager.
Heading into this season, the Broncos have what appears to be a solid roster. But a good, creative general manager is always looking ahead and one fact that is often lost in the shuffle of the season ahead is that the Broncos only have a small number (5) of draft picks for next season.
Paton is going to want more. To get more, he is going to trade away some of his current assets and those may be players who won’t make the team anyway or don’t fit into the future plans of head coach Nathaniel Hackett.
Last season, Paton shipped Trinity Benson to the Detroit Lions after a strong preseason and in return, he got a fifth-round pick and a seventh-round pick while also trading away his own sixth-round choice. That’s a great return for an undrafted player.
During the season, Paton worked trades for Kenny Young and Stephen Weatherly while also moving legendary Bronco Von Miller. He’s an active GM so it’s not at all out of the realm of possibilities that he will also move these guys.
Players Broncos could trade before the season starts
Broncos trade Tyrie Cleveland
At most, the Broncos are going to keep six wide receivers and four of those are going to be Jerry Jeudy, Courtland Sutton, Tim Patrick and K.J. Hamler. That leaves room for two more and fifth-round pick Montrell Washington should have the inside track if he can land the team’s kick returner job.
The last spot, if there even is one, would come down to the likes of Travis Fulgham, Kendall Hinton, Tyrie Cleveland and a handful of unknowns and undrafted players.
Cleveland will be entering his third season with the team and a strong preseason could make him this year’s Benson in terms of acquiring at least one future draft pick. The Broncos took him with a seventh-round choice in 2020 and that’s probably about all they would get in return, but Paton will take an extra pick for a guy who will be waived or placed on the practice squad.