Denver Broncos Roster Cuts Candidates: Odds For Top Names

The longest NFL era playoff drought in Denver Broncos history has stretched across eight seasons now, with the team last reaching the postseason when Peyton Manning led the club to a Super Bowl title in 2015.

In Year Two of the Sean Payton era in Denver, the team’s front office has opted to start anew with rookie quarterback Bo Nix coming in to compete for the starting quarterback job after the club jettisoned Russell Wilson to Pittsburgh. Keeps tabs on the Broncos Starting QB odds here.

That youthful leadership is part of the reason why oddsmakers aren’t buying into Denver’s chances in 2024, with oddsmakers from Bet365 Colorado pinning the team’s preseason win total over/under at 5.5.

That number means the Broncos playoff chances pretty much speak for themselves, for now.

Between now and then, Payton and his staff have to trim the team’s roster down to 53 players, which means several veterans are about to find themselves out of a job as the summer gives way to fall.

With the post-June 1st deadline allowing teams to cut players and save more salary, BetColorado.com developed hypothetical odds of players to be cut from the Broncos roster prior to the 2024 NFL season. Only players over $1 million in cap hit were included.

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Most Likely Denver Broncos to be Cut in 2024

Player	Cap Hit	Savings (If Cut)	Odds To Be Cut	Percent Chance To Be Cut
DT D.J. Jones	$12.9M	$9.9M	+125	44.4%
WR Tim Patrick	$7.1M	$1.1M	-300	75.0%
QB Jarrett Stidham	$7.0M	$5.0M	+700	12.5%
RB Samaje Perine	$4.5M	$3.0M	+800	11.1%
CB Tremon Smith	$3.2M	$2.5M	+200	33.3%

Jarrett Stidham Among Those In Trouble?

When broken down solely by potential salary cap hit, eighth-year defensive tackle D.J. Jones would be the biggest name on our list of Broncos players to be cut, with the sixth round pick out of Ole Miss having a $12.9 million hit, providing Denver savings of $9.9 million if he’s jettisoned before the league’s deadline. When you look at it from the viewpoint of the Broncos players most likely to be cut, injury-prone veterans like wide receiver Tim Patrick (who has missed the last two seasons with an ACL and an Achilles tendon tear) ranks ahead of Jones, with the former coming in at -300 while the latter is listed at +125.

Cutting Patrick would save Denver $1.1 million on a salary cap hit of $7.1 million for 2024, which is much lower than the potential savings from moving on from Jones on the defensive line, but speaks to the veteran wideout from Utah’s ongoing health issues.

Other names that could be on the firing line this year include cornerback Tremon Smith (+200), quarterback Jarrett Stidham (+700) and running back Samaje Perine (+800), with the final three having a combined salary cap hit of $13.7 million and a total savings of $10.5 million if they aren’t included on the team’s final 53-man roster in 2024.

Regardless of which Broncos players are cut from that final roster, there’s bound to be several well-known players that find themselves out of a job this summer, speaking to the brutal nature of the NFL’s win-now culture and the relative scarcity of roster spots for a contact sport like American football.

USA Today photo by Isaiah J. Downing.

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Author

Christopher Boan

@cgboan

Christopher Boan has been covering sports and sports betting for more than seven years, including stops at ArizonaSports.com, the Tucson Weekly and the Green Valley News.