Over the past two seasons, the Broncos’ brass haven’t had a lot of trouble getting home to catch some shut-eye the night before the NFL’s roster cutdown deadline.
This year? The caffeine intake probably jumped considerably at Broncos Park on Tuesday morning.
Denver head coach Sean Payton said the club’s coaches and front office spent somewhere in the neighborhood of six hours Monday night poring over final 53-man roster decisions.
For a team that considers itself a Super Bowl contender, the long night of work signified progress, even if the decisions at hand were difficult to make.
“There was a lot of discussion and film, and it was very evident that we’re deeper,” Payton said Tuesday after the initial roster was set. “Just based on the meeting and the process, that was very clear. And I think it was clear in the preseason games as you watched them. When the second wave and third wave went in, it was good football.”
In the end, the Broncos ended up with a no-nonsense 53-man roster that leans into their strengths, builds on the talented 2024 group that ended the club’s playoff drought, and leaves what few weaknesses or question marks remain to be sorted out in the coming days as the practice squad fills up.
After years of turnover, this is a group that boasts real continuity.
The 53-man roster is only a snapshot in time, but comparing the 2024 and 2025 initial groups shows just how far the club has come under Payton and general manager George Paton.
A whopping 39 players from 2024’s initial roster are back on the 2025 53-man.
That includes what might be the envy of the league: 15 of 16 combined defensive and offensive linemen are back. The Broncos have the same nine offensive linemen as they did a year ago. The only change on the defensive line of scrimmage is that Denver traded up to select Sai’vion Jones in the third round of April’s draft and opted to keep seven this year rather than six.
“It’s a testament to the work that’s been done here over the last three years of identifying players and putting them in position to be successful and developing the talent that we have here,” right tackle Mike McGlinchey said. “Certainly, in my position group, we’ve had a lot of continuity. … (We’re) returning everybody from the two-deep plus to our roster, and I’ve very rarely seen that. And I think that’s what we’re doing at a lot of position groups.”
Of the 14 newcomers from last year’s initial roster, seven are rookies and four are marquee free agent signings. Half of the changes come at the positions Denver committed to fortifying this offseason: Running back (three new), inside linebacker (two new), tight end (one new) and safety (one new). In each of those instances, the Broncos even kept the same number of players this year compared to last year, but they swapped in newcomers like J.K. Dobbins and RJ Harvey in the backfield, Evan Engram at tight end, Dre Greenlaw at inside linebacker and Talanoa Hufanga at safety.
“I mentioned earlier that I think there will be some players that play on other teams’ rosters and one of them was (receiver Devaughn Vele) in the trade, but that’s part of the deal,” Payton said. “That’s why the meeting last night was long.”
There are always tactical decisions to be made, and this year the Broncos skewed toward their status as a contender.
The Broncos were willing to risk losing athletic-but-raw seventh-round tight end Caleb Lohner on the waiver wire but not undrafted inside linebacker Karene Reid.
Lohner’s a worthy development project, and perhaps that arc will continue in Denver if he clears waivers and makes it back to the practice squad. But they see Reid as a functional backup and potential special teams contributor right away. So they kept him over Lohner and also over fellow inside linebacker Levelle Bailey. Denver has gambled with Bailey on the waiver wire before and now will try it again.
There are players whose developmental arcs were worth protecting on the active roster — Payton said the team fielded calls from three other teams asking if second-year tackle Frank Crum was available — but for the most part, the active roster is full of guys who have played and contributed before, plus a set of young players the Broncos are likely to count on this year. Maybe early in the season.
Case in point: Payton said the club had a clear enough idea about its roster decisions that the preseason finale at New Orleans meant more for players on the wrong side of the 53-man roster bubble than anybody else.
“The last game helped us in a number of different ways and maybe even more relative to the practice squad than the active roster,” Payton said.
There are still questions to be answered. Fullback Mike Burton is out for the season with a hamstring injury that required surgery, so the team must find one for its practice squad. The tight end and inside linebacker groups are a bit in flux.
Payton acknowledged the team now doesn’t have any control over whether young, former draft picks who have talent and potential, like running back Audric Estime and cornerback Damarri Mathis, make it through waivers. But when push came to shove in recent days and through that Monday night meeting, Payton and the Broncos kept coming back to areas of strength.
The defensive line? So good, Denver decided it didn’t have room to keep a third quarterback in Sam Ehlinger, whom they hope to get back to the practice squad.
“A lot of it varies when you look at the other components of your roster,” Payton said.
The offensive line? Deep enough that no newcomer was able to force his way onto the roster.
Cornerback? Denver deploys a quintet strong enough to push players who might make a lot of rosters, like Mathis and Reese Taylor, onto the waiver wire.
None of this guarantees the Broncos get off to a faster start in 2025 than they have the past two years — a goal Payton believes is critical to this group’s aspirations.
What it shows, though, is why the last round of decisions got so tough for the Broncos as Monday night got late.
For maybe the first time in Payton’s tenure, Denver had more players he wanted to keep than the club is allowed to.
“We believe in the people that are in this building and we believe in the coaches that are developing the talent,” McGlinchey said. “That definitely makes it tougher on the guys upstairs to figure out what happens over that last three days.”
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