The Denver Broncos’ special-teams competitions are over before they had a chance to begin.
To make room for the 15 undrafted rookies the team officially signed Friday, the club released two players — the veteran specialists signed during the last two months, punter Matt Haack and long snapper Zach Triner.
Haack, signed in March after the Broncos failed to re-sign Riley Dixon and came up short on a bid to procure free-agent punter Bryan Anger from the Dallas Cowboys, was on his eighth team since New Year’s Day 2021.
The move leaves rookie sixth-rounder Jeremy Crawshaw as the Broncos’ only punter.
Triner, who spent most of his career with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, wasn’t realistically going to be in the mix for the long snapper role unless Mitchell Fraboni was injured.
The contract Fraboni signed to keep him from hitting the free-agent market in March ensured that the Broncos would have a $1.3 million dead-money hit if they cut Fraboni, which effectively meant his roster spot was written in Sharpie.
