A look at the Denver Broncos 2020 53-man roster

The Denver Broncos trimmed their roster down from 80 players to 53 players on Saturday. Cut-down day is always a tough day around the NFL as many dreams are dashed with a cold bucket of reality. The Broncos have worked diligently during training camp – without the benefit of preseason – in order to find what they feel is the best collection of players to attack the regular season with.

Who are some of the biggest surprises? Which one of these moves could be a mistake? Let’s take a look at the team’s transactions on Saturday.

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Dangerous Game

Every year, teams around the NFL play a dangerous game when trimming the roster to 53 players. There are multiple players who these teams want to get through to the practice squad, but they must expose each one of these guys to the waiver process. When doing this, other teams can pluck those players away to sign to the active roster.

The Broncos are taking a risk by exposing rookie running back LeVante Bellamy and rookie pass-rusher Derek Tuszka to the waiver process.

Bellamy has been a standout player from day one of training camp. He has a skill set that reminds me of Phillip Lindsay as he’s a smaller back who is not afraid to run inside. Like Lindsay, Bellamy has great burst with the ball and has great footwork to avoid trash at the line of scrimmage. Teams out there are going to have interest in Bellamy as evidenced by the Broncos making him a premium-paid undrafted free agent ($25,000 signing bonus).

Tuszka started off camp a little rough. He looked good in one-on-one drills at the start of camp where he could use his burst and length to get around his blocker. However, when team drills started, we didn’t see him make as many plays. That did change as the 16 days of camp went on and on Friday night’s scrimmage, I saw Tuszka get pressure often – including one play that would’ve been a sack on starting quarterback Drew Lock. He does need time to develop, which means he’s a great option for the practice squad – but other teams are going to be looking for potential pass-rushers who get released and the Broncos will consider themselves fortunate if Tuszka makes it back to them.

There were no preseason games this year and that is going to help the Broncos (and every other team) in this dangerous game. Without preseason games, other teams aren’t going to have much intel on how players are developing or performing. This could be good news for the Broncos as both Bellamy and Tuszka are players with intriguing upside for the future.

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He Made It!

It has been a tough road for tight end Jake Butt. He looked like a sure-fire first-round pick during his college career at Michigan but a devastating knee injury in his final collegiate game caused him to fall in the draft. The Broncos were able to add him in the fifth round of the 2017 NFL draft in what was considered by most in the scouting community as a value pick.

He missed his entire rookie season but was able to see the field in 2018. Butt caught eight passes for 85 yards that season in three games before getting hurt again. He was on his way back (again) last year when another knee injury knocked him out for the entire 2019 season.

During this training camp, Butt was back to making plays like we saw him make at Michigan. He was showcasing his strong hands, concentration, movement ability and consistency. Butt most importantly stayed healthy and he’s made the final roster for the 2020 season even though he had to be considered a longshot to do that at the start of camp.

After roster cuts were made, Broncos general manager John Elway sounded excited when talking about the oft-injured tight end.

“I’m excited about Jake. It’s something he really wanted. Hopefully it continues to be even better.” Elway said.

The Broncos have a jam-packed tight end room, but there’s always room for a guy with the heart, determination and natural skill set of Butt. I’m happy to see him fight and win this spot on the roster.

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Making Mistakes

The Broncos are not perfect, and they have made mistakes with player in the past. I think the team has made a similar mistake with linebacker Justin Hollins. Just like with DeMarcus Walker, a player who moved from his natural position of defensive end to outside linebacker as a rookie, Hollins has been moved from EDGE (his primary position in college at Oregon) to inside linebacker back to EDGE but back to inside linebacker for about a week when Todd Davis was hurt and then back to EDGE for Friday night’s scrimmage.

Hollins was a fifth-round pick for the Broncos out of Oregon in the 2019 NFL draft. I had him graded as a late third-round EDGE player with length and burst to get after the quarterback. Hollins did not have a bag of tricks as a pass-rusher but the natural tools were there for him to learn how to stack moves and be dangerous for opposing quarterbacks. I watched him during the week of practice for the East-West Shrine Game that year and he was a standout player. When the game rolled around, Hollins won Defensive Player of the Game, due to his sacks and pressures in the All-Star game.

I was shocked when I learned the Broncos wanted him to play inside linebacker as a rookie. Hollins is tall and has good burst but his coverage skill leaves a lot to be desired. He has good tools for the outside but other than height/length he doesn’t really possess the natural ability to play on the inside.

He played 268 snaps on defense for the Broncos (14 games) and looked unnatural on the inside which was not a surprise to me. That’s why I was so happy when it was revealed that Hollins would be back on the outside as an EDGE player in 2020. That excitement turned to discouragement when Hollins had to practice again on the inside due to injuries at the position which caused the team to move him again. That versatility is great in theory but it’s not great in practice if a player cannot perform at the desired level.

Hollins is an EDGE guy and he’s got potential. Hopefully, the Broncos can get him on the practice squad and then KEEP him on the outside. Walker took two years back at defensive end to make plays and now he’s a good rotational player up front. The team needs to give Hollins a similar opportunity as they don’t have as much depth on the EDGE as they used to.

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And Another One

The Broncos have a long and rich history of finding talented players from the ranks of the college free agents who did not get selected in the draft. Whether it was players like Chris Harris Jr, Shaq Barrett, C.J. Anderson or Phillip Lindsay, the Broncos know how to find talent from the ranks of the undrafted. They may have found another gem in Wake Forest cornerback Essang  Bassey.

Undrafted out of Wake Forest in 2020, Bassey started making plays in training camp from day one. There is no defensive back who has played more snaps (2,806) or batted away more passes (35) than Bassey during the last two years. He is an instinctive player who is feisty on the field. His aggression can be used against him as he will overrun plays and bite too hard on play fakes at times.

We still saw Bassey play with similar aggression during camp. There’s no live tackling to the ground, so one cannot tell if Bassey is going to find himself out of position to make a tackle due to his sometimes-over-aggressive mindset. What you did see at Broncos practice was a young player who could stay with receivers down the field and had no problem harassing them as the pass comes in.

Will he be as good as Chris Harris Jr? It’s unlikely but only time will tell. I’ll trust the Broncos to find a high level of talent from undrafted free agents, and we could see Bassey play a larger role as a rookie than some thought when he was picked up after the draft.

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