There’s no reason to worry about the Broncos depth
Aug 26, 2019, 5:55 AM
The past 10 days or so, a new prevailing wisdom has developed when it comes to the 2019 edition of the Broncos. Seemingly everyone now believes that the team has terrible depth; the narrative suggests that outside of Denver’s starters, there isn’t much talent on the roster.
This notion hasn’t emerged out of thin air. There are a few reasons for the line of thinking.
Last Monday night in a preseason game against the 49ers, the Broncos backups got pretty well manhandled in the second half. A 9-3 lead at halftime turned into a 24-15 loss, as San Francisco’s reserves outscored Denver’s twos, threes and fours by a 21-6 count.
That was certainly troubling. The Niners aren’t exactly an elite NFL franchise, so the second-half meltdown was cause for concern.
In addition, The Broncos special teams units have struggled throughout the preseason. They’ve had issues covering kickoffs and punts, as well as generating anything of substance in the return game. Given that those groups are almost exclusively populated by reserve players, that’s been cited as another piece of evidence against Denver’s backups not being up to par.
And it’s certainly a valid point. In almost every instance during the team’s four exhibition games, the other team’s special teams have looked better than the Broncos, an indication that there could be a talent discrepancy when Denver’s non-starters match up with other backups.
But in reality, it’s all a bunch of balderdash.
Are the Broncos reserves lacking in talent? Probably. But so is every other team in the league.
In Denver, especially this time of year, everyone is paying attention to the third-string cornerbacks, backup middle linebacker and seventh wide receiver. That’s what happens during training camp and the preseason; those are the players worth tracking, as everyone already knows the storylines surrounding Von Miller, Joe Flacco, Chris Harris Jr. and the team’s other stars. It’s more interesting to talk about the unknowns, to project the new names who might make an impact.
But nobody knows anything about the players filling those positions in other NFL cities. How’s Kansas City’s third-string cornerback looking in the preseason? Does the Chargers backup middle linebacker look like a future Pro Bowl player? Is that seventh wide receiver going to rocket up the depth chart in Oakland?
Nobody outside of those markets could even make an educated guess at answering those questions with specifics. Nor should they; there’s no reason to know the details.
From a general standpoint, however, almost anyone could throw out an answer that is pretty close to accurate. Just assume that the reserve players are struggling.
Why? Because that’s the nature of the beast in the salary-cap era of the NFL.
Almost every team spends a vast majority of their allotted money for each season on a few stars, leaving little money to go around (relatively speaking) for the rest of the roster. As a result, the second-stringers are typically young and cheap.
Gone are the days of keeping around veterans to provide depth. That’s a luxury that few teams can afford.
The Broncos are no different. One look at the way their roster is constructed in 2019 makes that painfully obvious.
After adding in more than $8 million of rollover cap for this season, Denver had a little more than $194 million to work with when assembling players. More than $102 million, roughly 53 percent, is wrapped up in just eight players.
That means after the Broncos get done paying Miller, Flacco, Emmanuel Sanders, Harris, Derek Wolfe, Ron Leary, Ja’Wuan James and Bradley Chubb, they have less than half of their available payroll to fill out the rest of their roster. That’s less than $2 million per player, meaning John Elway and Company have to find some bargains not only as backups, but to fill out the rest of the starting offense and defense.
Where do they discover them? Some come via the draft, as players still on their rookie contracts, especially if their day two or three picks, can be relative bargains. Or they find them on the street, as free agents looking for work tend to come cheap.
A couple of bad drafts, namely the 2017 debacle, have certainly left the cupboard bearer than the Broncos would like in terms of draft picks still on the roster. But they’ve more than made up for that with classes in 2016 (6), ’18 (10) and ’19 (6) that have produced multiple players still vying for a spot on the final 53.
This type of top-heavy team building isn’t unique to the Broncos. It’s the norm around the league.
Case in point, take a look at Denver’s opponent in their most-recent preseason game. The Rams have allocated their dollars in a very similar fashion. They have $99 million of their available $189 million (52 percent) tied up in their eight highest-paid players.
So Los Angeles is relying on young, inexperienced and inexpensive players to round out their roster, as well. Judging by the way things went on Saturday night when the Broncos and Rams faced off in a glorified JV game, their reserves aren’t any better than Denver’s backups.
Is anyone panicking in L.A. about this development? Of course not. Their team went all the way to the Super Bowl last year, despite not having a talent-rich group of twos and threes, so it’s not much of an issue.
For the Rams, as well as the Broncos and every other team, the key to success is getting the most bang for their buck out of the expensive players. With such a big percentage of the available cap space tied up in so few, it’s imperative that those stars stay healthy and produce.
If they don’t, it’s going to be a long season because there aren’t quality backups ready to step in. Teams are left to scramble for solutions, like Los Angeles did last year when they signed C.J. Anderson late in the season when Todd Gurley got banged up.
Granted, the Broncos backups aren’t anything to get overly excited about. Watching them in preseason games is less than inspiring. But that shouldn’t be a huge concern, as nobody in the NFL has reserves who would start for most other teams.
The biggest worry is whether or not Denver has their big dollars tied up in the right guys. If so, 2019 could be a surprisingly good season. If not, there won’t be anyone around to pick up the slack when those high-priced players flame out.
