For Broncos edge rusher Drew Sanders, it’s now or never

For Broncos edge rusher Drew Sanders, the first step is to be healthy. This offseason he was, giving him extensive snaps that the 2023 third-round pick desperately needed as he enters his contract year.

“He’s doing well out here playing an edge position. He’s instinctive,” Broncos coach Sean Payton said in June.

“There’s a young player that, knock on wood, we feel like is really talented. … This is one of the offseasons he’s coming into this portion of training camp healthy, so I’m encouraged with that.”

But that’s a long way from where Sanders stood after the 2024 season, when general manager George Paton described Sanders as a potential starter in the NFL.

A torn Achilles in the 2024 offseason and a subsequent season-ending foot injury suffered in training camp last year will do that. Now Sanders is in the fight of his football life, and doing so at arguably the Broncos’ deepest defensive position.

DOES EDGE RUSHER GIVE SANDERS HIS BEST BRONCOS SHOT?

On the one hand, it’s the position that could play best to his instincts. Down the stretch of his 2023 rookie season, he’s where he played his best football after struggling early in the campaign when asked to work at off-ball linebacker.

But it’s a position at which the Broncos are stacked — even with the legal entanglements revolving around starter Jonathon Cooper, who was excused from minicamp due to that situation, which resulted in a subsequent arrest and additional charges filed following his initial arrest. The Broncos already didn’t have enough roster spots for what they had in young reserves Jonah Elliss, Dondrea Tillman and Que Robinson, with Elliss and Robinson being third- and fourth-round choices in the 2024 and 2025 drafts, respectively.

Even if Cooper is out of the equation, the Broncos still have four spots locked up, with Nik Bonitto leading the edge room. There might be room for a fifth to make the team, but be inactive most games, as was the case for Robinson last year.

That said, inside linebacker — where he worked late in the 2024 campaign as a reserve, drawing most of his snaps on special teams — offers its own share of issues, too, as the Broncos have two undrafted rookies from last year’s class returning behind starters Alex Ferguson and Justin Strnad: Karene Reid and Jordan Turner. Rookies Red Murdock and Taurean York could be grappling for a single 53-player roster spot. And Levelle Bailey remains in the mix in his third camp.

Ideally, the Broncos would find two contributors from the five-player mix of Bailey, Murdock, Reid, Turner and York. But there is little room for Sanders to squeeze in there, either.

Sanders finds himself in the position of having a viable chance to make the team if he flourishes in training camp, but also being outside of the Broncos’ likely plan for the season. If the Arkansas product fares well next month, then the team has a good problem: Finding a spot for him and seeing if the flashes of talent can finally become meaningful snaps.

`

Related

Do the Broncos have room for two rookie tight ends on their 53-player roster?Broncos will begin training camp with two players on reserve listsMahomes cleared for training camp, remains on course for Broncos-Chiefs season openerMaking the case for trading Troy Franklin instead of Marvin MimsJonathon Cooper now has arraignment date set for end of AugustBroncos set to play the long game with developing fourth-round pick Kage Casey