Seattle — The Denver Broncos cut Lil’Jordan Humphrey at the roster deadline last week, despite playing all 17 games last year. The same was true of Michael Burton. The next day, both were added to the practice squad.
However, when the Broncos released their first — albeit “unofficial” — depth chart this week, both of their names appeared, despite the fact that practice-squad players are normally not mentioned on public depth charts. Furthermore, Burton was named the first-team fullback, which could be the first time a practice squad player has been ranked first on an NFL team’s depth chart.
“Those two guys have been with us,” Broncos head coach Sean Payton said Friday. I’m not sure whether there’s a law about putting practice squad players on, but they’ll be valuable to our team during the season.”
It may not have made sense in an earlier period of the sport. However, with three promotions from the practice squad to the 53-player roster allowed per player per season, it makes perfect sense as Sean Payton and the Broncos try to balance current needs with the development of younger players who could have been poached off the waiver wire if they had been exposed.
So it came as little surprise when the Broncos confirmed Saturday that Burton and Humphrey would be added to the game-day roster, despite Payton’s ambiguous statement on Friday.
“We’ll see, but I would definitely say they’ll both be playing this season,” Payton told reporters at the time. “Relative to this game, I’d rather just not comment on it.”
Payton received all of the necessary feedback with the official announcement on Saturday. Both should have considerable responsibilities. Denver will have a roster quandary in three weeks if it continues to use altitudes on both players, but for the time being, the Broncos have the guys they require for Week 1.
Leave a Reply