3 Broncos players plummeting down the depth chart in training camp
Denver Broncos depth chart: Jonathon Cooper, EDGE
I really don’t want the Denver Broncos to mess around with this one.
Jonathon Cooper was good enough as a rookie that there should be zero chance he will be cut before the 2022 regular season.
Even though he was a seventh-round pick last year, he would be scooped up off of waivers almost instantaneously.
Cooper has been working his way back from an offseason finger surgery and although he was expected to be ready for training camp, he must have suffered a setback.
Will Cooper be given the benefit of the doubt regarding his absence at practice?
It’s tough to say at this point.
The Broncos have a wide variety of players coming off the edge this year and while I think they could certainly keep more than they normally would in recent years, you can’t help but wonder about where Cooper is fitting in right now with this group:
- Randy Gregory
- Bradley Chubb
- Malik Reed
- Baron Browning
- Nik Bonitto
- Aaron Patrick
It’s hard to see any of those guys getting flat-out cut at this point. I don’t think George Paton would do that.
Teams around the league definitely need edge help and Paton could probably get something decent in return for a player like Malik Reed, which could pave the way for Cooper to get back on the roster if the Broncos keep six edge players.
And yes, Aaron Patrick seems to be working his way to an active roster spot, especially after being called a core special teams player by coordinator Dwayne Stukes.
Cooper needs to start stringing together some good practices and he needs to go out against the Dallas Cowboys in week one of the preseason and do what he did to them last year in the regular season: dominate.