no-nonsense 53-man roster<\/a> that leans into their strengths, builds on the talented 2024 group that ended the club\u2019s 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.<\/p>\nAfter years of turnover, this is a group that boasts real continuity.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
A whopping 39 players from 2024\u2019s initial roster are back on the 2025 53-man.<\/p>\n
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\u2019vion Jones in the third round of April\u2019s draft and opted to keep seven this year rather than six.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a testament to the work that\u2019s 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,\u201d right tackle Mike McGlinchey said. \u201cCertainly, in my position group, we\u2019ve had a lot of continuity. \u2026 (We\u2019re) returning everybody from the two-deep plus to our roster, and I\u2019ve very rarely seen that. And I think that\u2019s what we\u2019re doing at a lot of position groups.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of the 14 newcomers from last year\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mentioned earlier that I think there will be some players that play on other teams\u2019 rosters and one of them was (receiver Devaughn Vele) in the trade, but that\u2019s part of the deal,\u201d Payton said. \u201cThat\u2019s why the meeting last night was long.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are always tactical decisions to be made, and this year the Broncos skewed toward their status as a contender.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Lohner\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
There are players whose developmental arcs were worth protecting on the active roster \u2014 Payton said the team fielded calls from three other teams asking if second-year tackle Frank Crum was available \u2014 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last game helped us in a number of different ways and maybe even more relative to the practice squad than the active roster,\u201d Payton said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Payton acknowledged the team now doesn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
The defensive line? So good, Denver decided it didn\u2019t have room to keep a third quarterback in Sam Ehlinger, whom they hope to get back to the practice squad.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of it varies when you look at the other components of your roster,\u201d Payton said.<\/p>\n
The offensive line? Deep enough that no newcomer was able to force his way onto the roster.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
None of this guarantees the Broncos get off to a faster start in 2025 than they have the past two years \u2014 a goal Payton believes is critical to this group\u2019s aspirations.<\/p>\n
What it shows, though, is why the last round of decisions got so tough for the Broncos as Monday night got late.<\/p>\n
For maybe the first time in Payton\u2019s tenure, Denver had more players he wanted to keep than the club is allowed to.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe in the people that are in this building and we believe in the coaches that are developing the talent,\u201d McGlinchey said. \u201cThat definitely makes it tougher on the guys upstairs to figure out what happens over that last three days.\u201d<\/p>\n
Want more Broncos news? Sign up for the Broncos Insider to get all our NFL analysis.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over the past two seasons, the Broncos\u2019 brass haven\u2019t had a lot of trouble getting home to catch…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320328,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2062],"tags":[1268,232,2894,3893,231,258,2426,1271,1160,2826,7,3898,1272,601,929,3884,926,896,6,1813,9,3319],"class_list":{"0":"post-320327","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-denver-broncos","8":"tag-audric-estime","9":"tag-broncos","10":"tag-caleb-lohner","11":"tag-damarri-mathis","12":"tag-denver","13":"tag-denver-broncos","14":"tag-denverbroncos","15":"tag-devaughn-vele","16":"tag-dre-greenlaw","17":"tag-evan-engram","18":"tag-football","19":"tag-frank-crum","20":"tag-george-paton","21":"tag-j-k-dobbins","22":"tag-latest-headlines","23":"tag-mike-mcglinchey","24":"tag-more-broncos-news","25":"tag-new-orleans","26":"tag-nfl","27":"tag-sean-payton","28":"tag-sports","29":"tag-talanoa-hufanga"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115097929436078162","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}