5 players that would be shocking cuts for the Denver Broncos

Denver Broncos potentially shocking cut no. 4: Brandon Johnson, WR

At this point, you can really just take this one to the bank. It would be a massive upset at this point, a massive shock, if Brandon Johnson was not among the final 53 players the Denver Broncos keep on their active roster to open the 2022 regular season.

The wide receiver position has obviously been shuffled around a little bit with Tim Patrick’s injury. I would even say that injury has paved the way for this to happen, otherwise, it might not have. Because Patrick was hurt, you now have a unique situation where three or four guys are not going to be dominating all your snaps at the position.

With a healthy Tim Patrick, it was more likely than anything that you were going to see a healthy dose of him, Courtland Sutton, and Jerry Jeudy with KJ Hamler sprinkled in throughout the season. Not much room for rotation. Without Patrick, the door has opened for a rotation at the receiver position with guys like Kendall Hinton, Montrell Washington, and now Brandon Johnson becoming factors.

Johnson was a modest undrafted free agent pickup who received a pretty light signing bonus compared to some of his peers. Lucky for him, none of that matters when you go out and take care of your business day in and day out.

Johnson has longstanding ties to Broncos wide receivers coach Zach Azzanni, who once recruited him to play at Tennessee when Azzanni was an assistant with the Vols program. Now, he’s getting the chance to coach Johnson in the NFL, and Johnson has made good on his opportunities. He is so entrenched on this roster that the Broncos don’t even have him playing in the second half of their preseason games.

At this point, I’m using this article as a platform to really highlight how solid Johnson’s standing on this roster is rather than speculate that he might be cut. He’s not getting cut barring anything truly shocking.