Sean Payton, Broncos should be all over recently released Rams playmaker

The benefit of having a 90-man roster during the NFL offseason is that you can load up your team with players and take some calculated risks. You never know when one team's "trash" could be another team's "treasure". With that in mind, the Los Angeles Rams recently released former 7th-round pick Ben Skowronek, who could draw the interest of the Denver Broncos and head coach Sean Payton.

Update: Ben Skowronek was traded to the Houston Texans after this post was published

Skowronek was drafted by the Rams in 2021 out of Notre Dame, but he spent the majority of his college career with the Northwestern program where he has ties to current Denver Broncos running backs coach Lou Ayeni (Ayeni was RBs coach at Northwestern from 2018-2022).

What makes Skowronek an interesting potential fit for Sean Payton, specifically, is his versatility.

We have seen the Los Angeles Rams move Skowronek around the offensive formation quite a bit, and he did the same thing at the collegiate level. He had a rushing touchdown at Notre Dame and got his first NFL rushing touchdown with the Rams in 2022. The 2022 season -- Skowronek's second in the NFL -- was also where he played the most offensively for Sean McVay and got pretty heavily involved as a receiver, catching 39 passes for 376 yards.

In addition to being a versatile threat offensively, Skowronek is also a core special teams player. He played 327 total special teams snaps last year for the Rams and has the type of size and speed teams covet in that phase of the game (6-foot-3, 225 pounds).

Skowronek's impressive combination of size and athleticism could rev up the "joker" engines for Sean Payton in terms of the overall vision for the player. He's obviously not proven to be a dominant dynamic weapon and has perhaps been maximized in Los Angeles by Sean McVay, but this is exactly the type of player that Sean Payton covets.

The Broncos have done a good job revamping their wide receiver room this offseason, but Skowronek could be viewed as more of a hybrid player with the team lacking depth at the tight end position. He's certainly not a traditional tight end, but Skowronek will stick his facemask in there and block.

He could be a nice depth piece for the offseason and someone whose talent Sean Payton could maximize.