The Denver Broncos have cut their roster down to 80 players and are only days away from having to cut the roster down to 53. There are many moves yet to be made but the Broncos have more than 53 players that will be on NFL rosters in September right now, which means general manager George Paton needs to work his magic to reload the 2023 and 2024 NFL Draft war chest of picks after the Russell Wilson blockbuster.
Trades are going to go down. We’ve already seen George Paton make a wide variety of trades in his time as general manager of the team, both big and small, and this is the perfect time of year to go out and look for some potential bargains (like the team got in 2021 with Jonas Griffith) as well as trade players who may not be in your present or future plans in exchange for something of value you can use down the road.
There are plenty of potential trades to be made all over this Broncos roster. Although the prevailing thinking right now is that the Broncos would be more “sellers” than buyers on the trade market, don’t be so sure. I’ve yet to see George Paton make a trade in which he didn’t have a selection coming back his way, so even if he wants to go out and get a player, he should be able to at least get a late-round pick back as some type of insurance.
Let’s take a look through five potential trades that could make sense for this Denver Broncos team as roster cuts approach and decisions have to be made.
Denver Broncos trade idea no. 1: Punter Sam Martin to the Colts
Broncos get:
- 2023 6th-round pick
Colts get:
- P Sam Martin
The Indianapolis Colts did just add a new punter to their roster after losing Rigoberto Sanchez for the entire season to injury. That punter is Matt Haack, who just “lost” the punter competition to Matt Araiza with the Buffalo Bills. Although the Colts may actually really like Haack, there’s a decent chance they probably would like Sam Martin a little better.
The Broncos could save over $2 million on the salary cap if they can find a trade partner for Martin, although, at this point, they’re probably going to need the leverage of another team being interested in acquiring him in order to get a pick off the Colts’ hands for him.
It appears as though Corliss Waitman has done enough to keep the punter competition going for the Broncos through two preseason games, which sort of tells us all we need to know. If the Broncos are confident in Waitman, and there are suitors for Martin, they could recoup a late-round pick in next year’s draft and save some cap space along the way.