Who Will Make the 2009 Denver Broncos' Final Roster?

This past week's cuts started me thinking about what the Denver Broncos active roster will look like and the gauntlet of competition that a football player will have to endure to make an NFL team.

The Broncos released five players Thursday including linebackers Boss Bailey and Louis Green, safety Herana-Dave Jones, running back Kestahn Moore and cornerback Rashod Moulton.

Though none of these cuts may have come as much of a surprise to any Broncos fan, they are nonetheless interesting because they begin to shape the 2009 Roster.

It was necessary to bring the roster size down to 80 because that is the maximum number of players an NFL team is allowed to bring to training camp. more cuts will follow in the coming months as each NFL team continues to whittle down their rosters as the dawn of a new season creeps ever closer.

Cuts can happen at any time during training camp when it becomes apparent to the coaches that a player is simply not able to keep up and compete with the others at his position.  There are also some set times where teams will be required to dump players from their rosters.

After the third preseason weekend the rosters are required to drop to 65 players or below and after the fourth and final preseason weekend all NFL teams are required to have an active roster of no more than 53 players as they head into the regular season. 

Each team is also allowed to form a practice squad, which may consist of no more than eight players.

That means that there are 19 more broncos on the current roster who will not even make Denver's practice squad. 

After that there are eight more players who are on the bubble and will fall just short of making the roster and will have to settle for serving time with the team on the practice squad in hopes of improving their skills for another shot somewhere down the line.

53 of the current 80 players will make the active roster, but even then they will have to compete each week in order to make the 45 man game-day roster, which will no doubt change each week depending on the team's game plan.

All of this does not even mention the competition between the players who make the roster to gain playing time on Sundays, let alone to secure a position as one of the 22 starting Denver Broncos.

With so much turnover in the off-season between coaches and players alike, there are few players who can rest assured that they will be one of those starters.  Even a Champ Bailey needs to work and both mentally and physically to adapt to scheme changes and prove his worthiness to his new set of coaches.

With all of this in mind, here are my predictions on where the current 80 players on the roster will end up going into the 2009 season.

Cut List

#   Name                Pos. Ht. Wt.  Age  Exp. College

60  Matt McChesney  G  6'4"  307   27  3rd  Colorado

72  Pat Murray          G  6'3"  310   24  1st  Truman State

61  Mitch Erickson     G  6'6"  290   23  2nd  S.Dakota St.

76  Tyler Polumbus    T  6'8"  310   23  2nd  Colorado

68  Stanley Bryant    T  6'5"  282   23   R    East Carolina

77  Brandon Gorin     T  6'6"  308   30   7th  Purdue

87  Jeb Putzier        TE 6'4"  256   30   7th  Boise State

82  David Grimes     WR 5'10" 177  22    R    Notre Dame

84  Brandon Lloyd   WR  6'0"  194  27  7th   Illinois

12  Matthew Willis  WR  6'0"  195  24   3rd   UCLA

11  Kenny McKinley  WR 6'0"  189  22    R    S. Carolina

17  Lucas Taylor      WR 6'0"  185   22   R    Tennessee

42  Ryan Torain        RB  6'1"  225  22  2nd  Arizona State

99  Mathias Askew    DT  6'5"  302 26  2nd  Michigan State

57  Mario Haggan     LB  6'3"  263  29   7th  Mississippi State

51  Lee Robinson      LB  6'3"  245  22    R   Alcorn State

37  Tony Carter       CB  5'9"  177  22    R   Florida State

39  Vernon Fox        S   5'10"  203  29  8th  Fresno State

4   Britton Colquitt    P   6'3"   205  24   R  Tennessee

Active Roster

Offense

#   Name                 Pos. Ht. Wt.  Age  Exp. College

62  Casey Wiegmann   C   6'2"  285  35  14th  Iowa

67  Kory Lichtensteiger  C  6'3" 295  23  2nd  Bowling Green St.

73  Chris Kuper           G  6'4"  302  26  4th  North Dakota

50  Ben Hamilton       G/C 6'4"  290  31  9th  Minnesota

78  Ryan Clady          T  6'6"   325  22  2nd  Boise State

74  Ryan Harris         T  6'5"   300   24  3rd  Notre Dame

71  Clint Oldenburg   T  6'5"   300  25  2nd  Colorado State

89  Daniel Graham    TE  6'3"  257  30  8th  Colorado

88  Tony Scheffler   TE  6'5"  250  26  4th  Western Michigan

81 Richard Quinn     TE  6'4"  260  22   R   North Carolina

15 Brandon Marshall WR 6'4"  230  24  4th  Central Florida

19 Eddie Royal         WR 5'10" 182 22 2nd Virginia Tech

14 Brandon Stokley  WR  5'11" 192 32 11th S. Western-Louisiana

10 Jabar Gaffney     WR  6'1"  200  28  8th  Florida

16 Chad Jackson     WR  6'1"  215  24  4th  Florida

8   Kyle Orton          QB  6'4"  216  26 5th Purdue

2  Chris Simms         QB  6'4"  220  28 7th  Texas

3  Tom Bradstater    QB  6'5"  222  24  R  Fresno State

27 Knowshon Moreno RB  5'11" 205 21  R  Georgia

28 Correll Buckhalter  RB  6'0"  217  30 9th Nebraska

32 Lamont Jordan      RB 5'10" 230  30  9th Maryland

22 Peyton Hillis         FB 6'1"  250  23  2nd Arkansas

Active Roster

Defense

#   Name                 Pos.  Ht.  Wt.  Age  Exp. College

91 Ronnie Fields        DT  6'2"  315  27  5th  Mississippi State

79 Marcus Thomas    DT  6'3"  305  23  3rd  Florida

71 Chris Baker          DT  6'2"  326  21   R  Hampton

69 J'Vonne Parker      DT  6'4"  325  26  5th  Rutgers

90 Kenny Peterson     DL  6'3"  300  30  7th  Ohio State

98 Ryan McBean        DE  6'5"  290  24  3rd  Oklahoma State

65 Rulon Davis          DE  6'5"  281  25   R   California

64 Everette Pedescleaux  DE 6'6"  305  23  R   Northern Iowa

75 Carlton Powell       DT  6'3"  300  23  2nd  Virginia Tech

92 Elvis Dumerville    DE  5'11"  260  25  4th  Louisville

96 Tim Crowder        DE  6'4"  275  23  3rd  Texas

56  Robert Ayers    DE/LB 6'3" 272 23    R   Tennessee

95 Darrell Reid       DL/LB 6'2" 288 26   5th  Minnesota

55 D.J. Williams       LB   6'1"  240 26   6th  Miami (Fla.)

54 Andra Davis       LB   6'1"  250 30   8th  Florida

59 Wesley Woodyard LB 6'1"  230 22  2nd  Kentucky

46 Spencer Larsen  FB/LB 6'2" 240 25 2nd Arizona

58 Nick Greisen       LB  6'1" 250 29  8th  Wisconsin

24 Champ Bailey    CB  6'0"  192  30  11th  Georgia

21 Andre Goodman  CB 5'10" 190  30  8th  South Carolina

33 Alphonso Smith  CB  5'9"  193  23  R  Wake Forest

25 Joshua Bell        CB 5"11" 177 24 2nd Baylor

26 Jack Williams      CB 5'9"  185 23  2nd Kent State

20 Brian Dawkins     S 6'0"  210  35  14th Clemson

23 Renaldo Hill        S  5'11" 205 30  9th Michigan State

31 Darcel McBath    S  6'0"  198  23  R  Texas Tech

36 Josh Barrett        S  6'2"  225 24  2nd Arizona State

30 Davis Bruton      S  6'2"  219 21    R   Notre Dame

Special Teams

#   Name                Pos.  Ht.  Wt.  Age  Exp. College

5 Matt Prater           K    5'10"  188  24   3rd  Central Florida

1 Brett Kern            P     6'3"    205  22  2nd  Toledo

66 Lonnie Paxton     LS    6'2"   260  31  10th  Sacramento State

Practice Squad

#   Name                 Pos.  Ht.  Wt.  Age  Exp. College

63  Blake Schlueter    C   6'3"   284   23    R     TCU

35 D.J. Johnson         CB  6'2"  200  23     R   Jackson State

94 Jarvis Moss           DE  6'6" 265  24    3rd  Florida

93  Nic Clemons         DT  6'6"  300  29  3rd   Georgia

70  Seth Olsen           G  6'4"   306  23   R   Iowa

34 Darius Walker       RB  5'11"  205  23  3rd  Notre Dame

85 Marquez Branson   TE  6'3"  248  22   R    Central Arkansas

83 Nate Swift           WR  6'2"  195  23  R  Nebraska

I am sure that there will be plenty of disagreement on these predictions.  I made my picks based on my personal opinions of the player's abilities and the experience these players have had in McDaniels system.  The list is open to debate, so let me know what you think.