Denver Broncos training camp in Englewood, Colorado officially opens on July 23. That’s when Sean Payton and company will start pairing down the current Broncos roster to get down to 53 players for Week 1 against the Seattle Seahawks. While some of the team’s depth chart is already set, there are a few big names that might not make it to Denver’s 2024 opener. Here are three Broncos cut candidates, starting with the No. 2 overall pick from just three years ago, Zach Wilson.
QB Zach Wilson
Denver Broncos quarterback Zach Wilson (4) and quarterback Jarrett Stidham (8) during organized team activities at Centura Health Training Center. Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports
In 2018, the New York Jets took USC quarterback Sam Darnold third overall in the draft (over QBs Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson). After three seasons, the team gave up on him and picked Zach Wilson second overall in the 2021 NFL Draft.
Three years later, Wilson is out in New York and the Jets are on to 40-year-old Aaron Rogers. That’s how the Broncos got a still-young, once-highly-touted quarterback in the building on a cheap deal.
The thought process here is that if anyone can take Wilson and get the best out of him —the talent evaluators saw at BYU —it’s Sean Payton. The only problem is there are two things working against the QB as the Broncos start training camp.
First, there is the Bo Nix factor.
Denver became the sixth and final team to take a QB in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft when they selected Bo Nix out of Oregon. Nix, 24, was a second-round pick on a lot of draft pundit’s boards, but Payton apparently fell in love with the older prospect and, after just one season of the failed Russell Wilson experiment, the coach wanted to get his own young signal-caller in the building.
Drafting a QB in the first round often determines the success or failure of a head coach’s tenure. While Payton has a lot of security thanks to his big contract, Nix’s career trajectory will go a long way in making at least the first half of Payton’s years in Denver positive or negative.
All this is to say that Payton will be spending the majority of his time and energy on Nix in Broncos training camp and less on the other QBs. If Wilson is going to resurrect his career, it will be more by osmosis than with lots of one-on-one time with Payton.
This also leads to the other factor in Wilson’s tenuous place on the Broncos roster: Jarrett Stidham.
Stidham has a couple of advantages heading into Broncos training camp that could earn him the backup QB spot on the roster over Wilson. First, he was with Payton and the Broncos in 2023, which makes him more familiar with the offense than the former Jets QB. Also, Stidham is three years older than Wilson and Nix, so he can operate as the adult in the QB room for the rookie. And as a fourth-round pick and career backup, he may be a better mentor for Nix than Wilson.
Wilson was a nice pickup by the Broncos but unless he shows some serious improvement right out of the gates, he could be the QB cut candidate who doesn’t make the team.
RB Samaje Perine
The running back room is also getting pretty crowded in Denver. Javonte Williams should be fully healthy, a year-plus removed from his knee injury, and the Broncos drafted former Notre Dame RB Audric Estime in the fifth round of the 2024 NFL Draft to add to last year’s free agent signing, Samaje Perine.
General manager George Paton also brought in undrafted free agent Blake Watson from Memphis to go along with young veterans Jaleel McLaughlin and Tyler Badie.
Of these six players, only three or maybe four will make the final Broncos 53-man roster coming out of training camp. Williams is in. So is Estime. That leaves just one or two spots for the other four.
Perine was fine last season, carrying the ball 53 times for 238 yards and a touchdown in 17 games. He also made 50 catches for 455 yards, both career highs. As a backup RB and passing game threat, Perine is not bad at all, but he is who he is at this point. A decent, but by no means game-changing back.
With Williams and Estime now likely taking the majority of the carries, Sean Payton may see more promise in the passing games skills of Watson, McLaughlin, or Badie. Plus, these players will be younger, cheaper, and may contribute more to special teams, too, which Perine used to do but didn’t as much last season in Denver.
Playing running back in the NFL is a young man’s game, and with Perine turning 29 in Week 2, he may be getting past his expiration date.
WR Tim Patrick
As long as we’re talking Broncos quarterbacks and running backs, we might as well talk wide receivers, too.
There will likely be six WRs on the Broncos final 53-man roster coming out of training camp, and Courtland Sutton, Josh Reynolds, Marvin Mims Jr., and rookie fourth-round pick Troy Franklin will take up four of those six slots on the depth chart.
After that, there are eight players competing for the final two places on the Broncos roster at WR. These players are Tim Patrick, Devaughn Vele, Brandon Johnson, Phillip Dorsett, Michael Bandy, Lil’Jordan Humphrey, Jalen Virgil, and David Sills V.
Patrick is the tenured Broncos vet here, playing all four of his NFL seasons in the Mile High City, and put up a career-high 53 catches last season to go with 734 yards and five touchdowns. However, Denver only signed Patrick to a one-year deal this offseason, which hints at the fact the team is likely looking to upgrade its WR4/5/6 spots.
Humphrey is a player who spent time with Payton in New Orleans, so it stands to reason that the head coach is a fan. Dorsett is a longtime NFL vet who is likely just a camp number, but Johnson, Bandy, Virgil, and Sills are all intriguing young WRs with one to three years of pro experience who could still develop given more time.
Vele is a 2024 draftee who is probably the most likely of this second group to make the team. The former Utah Ute is 6-foot-4, 203 pounds with 4.47-40 speed. He will be a 26-year-old rookie, which hurt his draft stock a bit, but that also may make him a rookie ready to contribute right away.
All this is to say that if the Broncos’ receiving corps can get younger and more dynamic on the back end, that could spell trouble for Patrick.
