Denver Broncos roster cuts tracker from 80 to 53 players
The Denver Broncos are already in the process of getting the roster down from 80 players to 53 and moves will be trickling in all throughout Monday and Tuesday. Will we see any huge surprises among the final roster cuts? Will George Paton make a trade or two (or more)?
Although everyone’s got an idea of what the 53-man roster could or should look like, George Paton stated during the broadcast of the team’s final preseason game that most of those spots were already spoken for. There could be some players that made a huge statement against the Vikings and earned roster spots, but there was already a much bigger body of work before that game for the Broncos to base their decisions on.
Denver Broncos roster cuts tracker for 2022
- P Sam Martin (released) – 79
- CB Donnie Lewis Jr. (waived/injured) – 78
- CB Bless Austin (waived) – 77
- RB JaQuan Hardy (waived) – 76
- LB Jeremiah Gemmel (waived) – 75
- OT Sebastian Gutierrez (waived) – 74
- DL McTelvin Agim (reportedly waived) – 73
- OL Zack Johnson (waived) – 72
- OL Quinn Bailey (waived) – 71
- TE Dylan Parham (waived) – 70
- EDGE Malik Reed (traded to Steelers) – 69
- QB Josh Johnson (released) – 68
- WR Darrius Shepherd (waived) – 67
- DL Jonathan Harris (waived) – 66
- OL Michael Niese (waived) – 65
- WR Kendall Hinton (waived) – 64
- RB Devine Ozigbo (waived) – 63
- DB JR Reed (waived) – 62
- LB Kana’i Mauga (waived) – 61
- WR Brandon Johnson (waived/injured) – 60
- OG Netane Muti (waived) – 59
- WR Seth Williams (waived) – 58
- CB Faion Hicks (waived) – 57
- EDGE Jonathan Kongbo – 56
- CB Ja’Quan McMillian – 55
- TE Eric Tomlinson – 54
- DL Mike Purcell – 53
As of Tuesday morning, Tom Pelissero of NFL Network reported that McTelvin Agim had been waived. With hours remaining before the moves are processed by the league, there’s still a chance as of the time of this writing that Agim could be traded instead of cut. But for now, it looks like the Broncos are letting the former third-round pick loose one way or the other.
There was one point during the offseason that the Broncos seemingly really liked Bless Austin as outside cornerback depth, but ultimately, he and most every cornerback failed to impress during the 2022 preseason. Out of the players among the initial wave of cuts here for the Broncos, I would say Austin is probably the likeliest candidate to come back on the practice squad.
The “surprise” release early on is probably veteran punter Sam Martin. Martin was the team’s punter in 2020 and 2021 and was very good in 2021 after a rocky 2020 campaign. According to a couple of reports, the Broncos approached Martin about a pay reduction, which he predictably declined, before deciding to go with Corliss Waitman as the full-time punter and holder in 2022.
As of Monday afternoon, the Broncos still have over 20 roster moves to make to get down to 53 players. There will almost undoubtedly be surprises so stay tuned to find out all of what George Paton will do as he assembles what many believe could be a championship team in 2022.