Denver Broncos make first wave of roster cuts, Corliss Waitman wins punter job

the denver broncos have made their first round of roster cuts ahead of tuesday's two o'clock p.m mountain time deadline including one surprise with a veteran that solved one of the ongoing position battles what does that all mean you get that much more in today's brand new episode lock on broncos you are locked on broncos your daily denver broncos podcast part of the locked on podcast network your team every day what's up broncos country welcome into a brand new episode lockdown broncos your daily denver broncos podcast part of the lockdown podcast network your team every day thank you so much to everybody in broncos country for taking time out of the day to make lockdown broncos your first listen of the day every single day free and available everywhere you get your podcast in audio format or whether you watch us on youtube do us favor hit that subscribe or that follow button so you never miss out on a day's worth of devil broncos news content coverage and more from the south stands to the end zone i'm your host as always cody rourke broncos beat reporter for mile high sports joined alongside by my co-host sarah benger sciexpert predominantlyorange.com sarah my friend monday was an interesting day for the broncos they introduced new team president damani leech i had a chance to go down and hear his message as to some of the goals that he has for this broncos football team but they also made some roster moves ahead of tuesday's 2pm mountain time deadline to get to the 53-man roster in totality denver broncos general manager george payton and head coach nathaniel hackett will meet with the media at three o'clock p.m on tuesday to discuss the entirety of the roster so we'll see what other moves are in store here sir but you know what george payton and company they got started on monday officially with the first set of roster moves one of them being a veteran punter which now has solved the broncos punter competition that's right sam martin no longer part of this denver broncos team and like you tweeted out cody just a true pro in every sense obviously sam martin was a free agent acquisition back in 2020 and he really did a great job last year for the denver broncos i think a large reason why this move was made and what people should know is that the broncos and these financially right i mean they're able to save 2.25 million against the salary cap by releasing sam martin also by releasing him on monday they allowed him to get his name out there for some teams that obviously need some punter help and he's going to be able to land on his feet with a really good team i think everybody kind of sees the writing on the wall maybe the buffalo bill's an option for him but what this also means is that corliss waitman won the punter job obviously the broncos felt comfortable enough with both guys after their competition to say hey if the if the money is not right with sam martin we will go with cordless weightman and that's exactly what they did so now the broncos have a big leg left-footed punter who can obviously go out there and do some really nice things he was really impressive to me cody in terms of hang time and he obviously also does other things like holder he's the holder for the field goals and extra points so corliss weightman a really nice offseason the broncos remember they claimed him on that last day of the season last year and and had to wait a couple of a couple of weeks to get him on the roster but he impressed this off season and now he's gonna be punting in the mile high city for uh on a full-time basis well i think that now you actually add kind of the element for this broncos football team that is seemingly every other team that travels to empower fill the mile high they seemingly have right because it seems like any team that plays the broncos in the last couple of years their punters have been able to boom it at altitude and it just seems like the broncos haven't been able to consistently boom punts down field with hang time and one thing that cordless white man really excelled in all throughout the off season ota's training camp in the preseason booming punts that involved hang time now i do think a lot of fans look at stat boxes and they get a little confused as to like okay well this guy had this average but he had this average how come they went with him you are right it did come down to money in some sense the broncos were okay with either option cordless weightman or sam martin sam martin told the team he would not restructure his pay and they said you know what we appreciate you good luck and you know martin's going to land on his feet probably maybe with a team like the buffalo bills or some other teams out there that will need a punter at some point he will not be a free agent very long he'll land on another nfl team but for weightman he gives him the element especially you have to but fans need to understand there's a methodology to what dwayne stoops is trying to do so if the broncos are at their own 50 yard line or at their own you know back up to their own 40 or 45 yard line he's gonna high punt it in hopes that his coverage team can get down there and force you know the the returner to fair catch it here's an interesting nugget from the preseason okay cordless weightman had six punt attempts all throughout the preseason he had a really good average he had two punts that were pinned inside the 20-yard line and he had five punts in total that were fair caught that right there is huge only one of those punts out of the six went for a touch back so i think that's a very good sign for the broncos one thing that has stood out his hang time and he had a best hang time of 5.30 against the buffalo bills including a 63 yard punt so i do think that cordless weightman gives him a little bit more of an advantage when we talk about booming and actually changing and flipping field position now are there some areas where he needs to be a little more consistent absolutely but this is something that dwayne stoops will work on specifically with him and the special teams unit stux believes that the broncos can turn things around with that unit and he demands kind of perfection from them so i'm very excited to see how cordless weightman does at altitude with this denver broncos football team i think it brings an important element back and you know what it'll be nice for the defense not to have to start some drives on the 45-yard line or the 35-yard line because the thing with sam martin sometimes he didn't have the best hang time on his punt so you're allowing returners to return the ball and make moves and maybe beat some of your coverage and that was i think a trend that was too consistent in the last couple years for this broncos football team on the special team side of the ball whether it be kick coverage whether it be punt coverage and now weightman maybe adds a little bit of a dynamic there to give them a solution and some reprieve there and you know what it's good for the defense that plans to unload a lot of different stunts at opposing offenses this upcoming season but broncos country coming up here in just a moment we're going to talk about some of monday's five other roster transactions that the broncos made to trim down their roster as they have to get to 53 by tuesday at two o'clock p.m mountain time we'll get to that coming up here in just a moment but before we do that let me tell you about prize picks the sponsor of today's episode locked on broncos and for week one of the nfl season i've already told you i'm gonna take russell wilson to throw for more than 300 yards passing against the seattle seahawks i'm going to take derek henry to rush for more than 85 yards i'm going to take cooper cup to score more than one touchdown and tyree kill to catch less than five total passes in the week one opener and with price picks you pick two to five players and if they go and score more or less than their prize picks projections you can run out through 10 times your money on any entry there's no competing against other people it's just you versus the projections that are available so download the price picks app or go to pricepix.com to sign up and play daily fantasy sports first time users can receive a 100 instant deposit match up to a hundred dollars with promo code locked on that's one word locked on so if you deposit one hundred dollars prize picks will give you 100 if you deposit 50 they will also give you 50 so don't forget to enter promo code locked on at sign up for an instant deposit match of up to 100 [Music] the denver broncos will be making more roster moves on tuesday as they must become compliant to get to the 53-man roster by 2 p.m mountain time we'll have all the coverage here the lockdown broncos podcast for all the roster moves plus practice squad additions that will be formulated throughout this week here ahead of the regular season thank you so much broncos country for tuning in and making lockdown broncos your first listen of the day every single day on your favorite audio podcasting platform or whether you watch us on youtube thank you so much make sure you hit that subscribe or that follow button so you never miss out on a days worth of broncos news content coverage and more all right sarah you know monday was one of those days we weren't quite sure what the team was going to do how many roster moves would they have made well they made several early on which means to show the coaching staff george payton they're all still collaborating on who they believe are some good fits there now no surprises necessarily in day one of the roster cuts so let's get to another guy there one guy i don't think we were surprised that was released by the broncos was running back jaquan hardy who came in as a pre-season camp body he was released and i'm not sure he's necessarily going to be a guy that they eye for the practice squad i think so too i think it's divine zigbee is the guy that's going to be the practice squad back and then you'll kind of look around at other backs that maybe don't get claimed around the league to kind of see if there's somebody that you scouted that you liked enough to bring onto the practice squad that you think could contribute down the line i think absolutely you take take a look at that but you added jaquan hardy when there was every team had a 90-man roster right so it was just really a matter of getting somebody out there after de marie crockett got injured and jaquan hardy came in and he did a little something so definitely wishing the best for him as well but offensively as well sebastian gutierrez cody the rookie offensive tackle he was waived as well potential practice squad addition there we'll see i mean typically when you when you have guys that are let go on monday and you have roster cuts that are still forthcoming on tuesday you kind of anticipate that your preferred practice quiet squad guys are coming on the tuesday cuts right so we'll kind of see with gutierrez he was he was kind of a unsung undrafted player so we'll see what happens with him and then the the rest of the cuts the rest of the roster moves came all defensively starting with i think the most notable name would be cornerback bless austin who at one point he was impressing enough during you know the off-season work at training camp things like that that maybe we thought well could he be that cornerback four could he be that guy that comes in and is your top outside depth along with michael ogiemudia but even with oj moody's injury the broncos are letting bless austin go so kind of an interesting twist here and maybe leading into something that we've talked about before and we have an episode that we talked about this of some corners the broncos could try to target to maybe add some depth to that outside corner back position i think that's very much in play here as the rosters are getting cut down and and players are getting added to injury list but bless austin another one of those guys let go by the broncos on monday well not only him at quarterback donnie lewis number 39 was also waived on monday by the broncos which you know i think goes to an interesting point there right so when you factor in michael umi's injury there's three cornerbacks right there that won't be able to you know more than likely participate week one obviously those two guys got released michael ajamudi has status up in the air we know mike kliss was caught on nine news during the broadcast of the president game saying something he was a roster bubble guy not sure if that was just his own opinion or whether that was something that as you mentioned in our post game report was kind of floated to him there but it's definitely worth monitoring because i don't see if if he's not ready to play week one i think the broncos the smart move for them would be to add him after the roster cut deadline two injured reserve designated to return which means he has to miss at least a mandatory three weeks of the nfl regular season it's three or four if i'm not mistaken so that still puts the broncos so in dire need for cornerback help so i can imagine george payton uh you know even uh izziro evil they're monitoring and eyeing specific guys potentially on the waiver wire this week from other nfl roster cuts because there are some teams out there that are loaded at various positions i mean look at the miami dolphins at running back they have so many guys there they released sony michelle who's now a free agent so i think this is kind of like the part two of the nfl free agency but it's a little crazier because there's so many players that are available and there's so many guys that can make an impact so we're going to continue to figure out what that may look like but kind of going to your point as well looking at some of these other roster cuts that have happened jeremiah gemma was another guy who was released by the broncos now for him he came in last thursday and he played in saturday's preseason game part of me is believing that they're hoping that he can clear waivers so that they can bring him back to the practice squad he's fast he does have some instincts and in going back and watching the game against the minnesota vikings i thought he did a really good job for just being thrown into this defense and going out there and making the plays that he did i think they showed a little bit more nuance than what we had seen from joe schobert but the broncos have a ton of options at this point you know for i think right now sitting in the position that they're in with george payton monitoring other waivers and maybe even some veteran free agents that could be out there i mean we're going to see some surprise releases as well so some teams don't have to pay some guaranteed contracts that's coming up i think in this in this week for some nfl teams so you know your thoughts on linebacker because i know you and i had it projected we had four uh total linebackers on the off ball inside linebacker position in our roster prediction episode that we did on yesterday's episode lockdown broncos that's right yeah i think you have to add at least two to your practice squad for sure and where the broncos can really benefit here in terms of roster construction is remember back in i believe it was the first year that vic fangio was you know the head coach of the team in 2019 i'm pretty sure they kept six inside linebackers on the active roster which just feels like way too much you know but at that time you know that's just kind of the way things were and that's kind of how vic fangio approached his team building and and things have changed dramatically like i think four linebackers on the active roster is like a maximum when you're planning on being in the nickel so much planning on being in the dime so much i think you have to have at least though a couple on your practice squad including i would say somebody that's relatively proven right i mean you want to have some solid depth out there but you have that option now to call those guys up three times before you have to subject them to waivers and in a lot of those cases if you have a veteran i mean who knows if they're even going to get claimed after that third time anyway so it'll be interesting to see what the broncos do there but there's some new ways that you can really build your roster by utilizing that practice squad six spots available on the practice squad to veterans and then you have 16 spots total so you really i mean you're really sitting nicely in that regard to be able to say okay we want to only do three or four on their active roster and then we can do three or you know two or three on our practice squad and still have depth there still be able to call those guys up because you can have a roster of up to 55 players for game day you still have to have eight inactives but you could call those guys up so there's ways the broncos could manipulate that i think they absolutely need to do that at the linebacker position because we just didn't see i think gemmell was honestly like the best linebacker they had in the preseason which is kind of crazy to say no i agree with you there and i also like the flexibility too that once you have these guys on the practice squad and you call them up for game day you don't have to release them they can go back to your practice squad and i like the fact that you can now protect certain players which gives the broncos complete flexibility all throughout the entire season for guys that they really like i know there's only a certain amount of times they can actually be designated protected but it does give them the opportunity on a week-to-week basis based on you know injuries based on maybe match-ups what kind of looks that they can get but broncos country coming up here in just a moment we're going to take a look at some players who we feel like could be on the trade block for this broncos team ahead of tuesday's deadline of 2 p.m mountain time where the broncos must go from 80 players to 53 officially for the new league gear we get to that coming up here in just a moment but first let me tell you about a very important message are you one of those people who think it's okay to drive stone what's the worst that can happen you end up driving below the speed limit it's no big deal right wrong the truth is your reaction time slows way down when you're high you not only put yourself in danger but everyone around you talk about a buzzkill stop kidding yourself it's not okay to drive high and if you've been using marijuana in any form do not get behind the wheel and if you feel different you drive different drive high get a dui [Music] which players that still remain on the denver broncos roster could be on the trade block garnering some interest from some other teams around the nfl thank you so much broncos country for tuning in and making lockdown broncos your first listen of the day every single day free novel everywhere you get your podcast or whether you watch us on youtube we appreciate you so much mile high salute to you all right sarah you know there's several players that still are on this broncos roster at the time of recording this show here that could have some trade value as we have all known george payton has said that with five picks going into the 2023 nfl draft he said we're not going to have this many picks we're going to have more by the time we get here next year and in order to do that you have to make some trades in season potentially after the season but you know you can get some capital now before the season even begins so let's start things off who are some players that you feel like could be on the trade block ahead of roster cuts here later on by tuesday's 2 p.m mountain time deadline i think the most obvious name that the broncos should be shopping in trade talks is outside linebacker malik reed and that's not a slight to malik reed he's done some great things as essentially you know a full-time starter since he be he became part of the team in 2019 as an undrafted free agent started a few games that year and has started the majority of the games in the years following so malik reed has done a good job for the broncos but at the same time you know with the transition of baron browning to outside linebacker you use your top pick in the draft on nick benito then you've got talented guys like jonathan cooper and aaron patrick as well on the roster it just doesn't seem like there's going to be snaps there for malik reid i know that they've kind of talked him up all off season as well he's the starter if one of bradley chubber randy gregory is out but i just don't necessarily see that being the case at this point i don't think either of those guys are gonna be out first of all second of all i think that you could easily throw browning and bonito and the other guys in the mix so i think malik reed is that number one guy to me cody that i would say he's got the most trade value and he's got the ability to go and get into a better situation somewhere keeping in mind you know the we talk a lot about the general managers around the league wanting to do right by the player right well malik reed is in a contract year and he has an opportunity this coming off season to get a big contract so put him in a great position to succeed get a pick back in return like you said building that war chest and adding to your 2023 capital and i think that helps everybody in involved so i think malik reid is kind of that number one guy but i also don't know if he's the only guy at the outside linebacker position there could be a multitude of guys we talked about jonathan cooper as another name he had a really good preseason finale against the minnesota vikings and really kind of his first full-time action back after he had the finger surgery that really held him out of otas and limited him all throughout training camp he could be another option and look i think about some teams that right now could use some password show tj watt for the pittsburgh steelers got hurt in the preseason in a meaningless game just a few days ago and they could have some more depth you know i think that they you know a lot of pittsburgh beat reporters have said the depth of outside linebacker for pittsburgh is not that great so you know what george payne you'd be like hey we saw what happened to tjy we know your depth is finn how about you give us a six round pick here for jonathan cooper a seventh round pick for jonathan cooper or you know maybe a fifth or a six for a malik read you know malik reid i think for the undrafted rookie freedom status path that he took his value i think could garner that i mean if trinity benson who hasn't done anything in the nfl could garner a seventh-round pick or a six-round pick i think that malik reid could garner a lot of attention as well so there's those names there defensively there's another player though sir who had a pretty big game against the minnesota vikings obviously in saturday's win who is he and why might he be on the trade block yeah mctelvin aguim the defensive lineman a former third round pick out of arkansas he had a huge game against the vikings he's kind of involved in almost every play there whether he was batting down passes forcing fumbles getting a sack those different type of things and he showed really that's that's where his potential has been and we've seen mckelvin again out there on the field i feel like that's you know those and not in that to that degree right but in a certain way we've kind of seen him do a lot of those things on the different occasions where he has played so it kind of makes you wonder well do you want to keep him on the 53 if you don't have you know plans of keeping him on the 53 then could you trade him because after what he showed in that game i feel like man it would be tough to tough to cut him i think a lot of broncos fans are kind of back on the mktelvin a game train at this point but we'll see i mean i don't know if the broncos are going to keep more than five defensive linemen and if they do keep six do you cut one of your 2022 draft picks that's the big question right there because that's exactly what would happen so mctilvin aguim i think he's kind of on that bubble right now if he earned a raster spot with denver that's great but if not i would much rather see them be able to trade him for something rather than just let him hit waivers and see another team you know cash in on his upside well there's another player too that we'll talk about you know has been reliable for denver ever since being called in to play quarterback on one sunday during this season obviously the covet stricken season for the broncos but that's kendall hinton who's really emerged as a wide receiver in my opinion is a very good route runner has emerged he's become a very consistent blocker as a wide receiver and has showcased the ability to go up and go get the football he's been a reliable target and if the broncos really see a you know something like more value in a guy like a jalen virgil on top of brandon johnson you know if they decide to go six wide receivers they're gonna have to make some tough decisions ultimately because there's still tyree cleveland there's still seth williams i mean denver has a lot of options there could kendall hinton garner any trade interest from around the nfl we just saw the jacksonville jaguars trade away love visca chanel to the carolina panthers so i mean i think there are some teams open for business right now wide receiver denzel mims could be on the trade block could you do a player for player swap that's a big question right there yeah and i i'm all for these wide receiver trades of course we all love kendall hinton the hall of famer right and we would hate to see him go but the same could have been said last year of trinity benson i think we all kind of tend to fall and i'm lumping myself in there as well and maybe it's not everybody but i think a lot of fans we love to fall in love with the off-season storylines right and we love to fall in love with while this player was such an underdog and he went from undrafted to being a contributor and those stories are great but like you said you get a fifth and a seventh for trinity benson last year i mean that's that value is hard to pass up on and there's teams out there that need they need receiver help and the broncos i i think are kind of in that weird area where maybe they're one of them like you said there's a lot of question marks at the bottom of that position but maybe you could do some kind of a player for player swap or maybe you could do like a a player plus a pick for a pick or something like that but kendall hinton to me is another is one of those guys that the flashes in the preseason were outstanding and it's interesting to me that he was kind of treated like a starter almost you know a preseason starter with those twos and threes out there playing the majority of the first half and sitting in the second half and then he played the second half cody against the minnesota vikings very interesting for the denver broncos to do that why they would do that no i'm not sure i'm not i'm not exactly sure the strategy behind it but a lot of times you see that kind of stuff if a guy is on the trade block so you never know and we again we would love to see kendall hinton catching passes from russell wilson but george payton is going to be building that nfl draft war chest and it's going to require some sacrifices so we'll see what happens well broncos country we are eager for your thoughts down below in the youtube comments section in the next 24 to 40 hours we will have clarity on the 53-man roster we will have clarity on who the backup quarterback for russell wilson will be and we'll have you covered for all the roster cut news and once the broncos get to the 53-man roster you can expect a brand new episode of lockdown broncos right here on the lockdown broncos podcast on your favorite audio podcasting platform or whether you're watching on youtube speaking from my co-host sarah bettinger i'm cody rorke we'll see you tomorrow for a brand new episode locked on broncos