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Broncos have 2 players on ESPN’s All-Backup Team
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- Broncos have 2 players on ESPN’s All-Backup Team
As the NFL summer creeps into preseason games, teams will soon be forced to trim their rosters down to the 53-man limit. They will then place the talented players they don't have room for on a 16-player practice squad.
In today's NFL, there is a good chance you will need to use nearly every single one of those players to get to the Super Bowl and win the Lombardi Trophy. Injuries happen regularly, and the best teams are prepared to deal with them.
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The Denver Broncos have what is considered one of the most complete rosters in the league, so if it comes down to it, coach Sean Payton and his staff will be confident in the players they have to turn to in the event of an unfortunate injury.
Recently, Bill Barnwell of ESPN took a fun approach to creating a 53-man roster made up of nothing but current backup players around the league.
Barnwell gave himself a few rules in forming this team. First, each of the 32 teams in the league had to be represented with at least one player, but no team had more than two. Players who play on special teams were added to make things more realistic and a rookie from each round of the 2026 NFL draft was selected, so long as that player is not expected to be a starter this season.
The Broncos were one of the teams with two representatives, one on either side of the ball. Alex Palczewski , who earned a contract extension this offseason as the team's top rotational offensive lineman, was chosen as one of the starting guards.
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The Broncos also got a defensive lineman on the team, as Barnwell went with fifth-year pro Eyioma Uwazurike in one of those spots.
"Palczewski will start for us at guard, where he filled in for the injured Ben Powers and played well across 10 starts last season," Barnwell wrote for ESPN . "Good guards are hard to find. Uwazurike's role will expand after the departure of John Franklin-Myers, but the 2022 fourth-round pick was another unheralded defensive tackle who had his best year as a pro in 2025, generating 3.5 sacks across a career-high 409 snaps. While he's already 28, Uwazurike's best football could still be ahead."
There are also several former Broncos who made the squad as well, including Joe Flacco , who was selected as one of the quarterbacks, even at 41 years of age. Flacco is currently the backup to Joe Burrow in Cincinnati .
Also on the list is former Broncos fourth-round pick, Lloyd Cushenberry , who left as a free agent to join the Tennessee Titans ahead of the 2024 season, then signed as a free agent with the Buffalo Bills this offseason. He is expected to be the backup center to Connor McGovern in Buffalo.
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Finally, P.J. Locke , who just joined the Dallas Cowboys as a free agent this offseason after spending seven seasons in Denver, was placed on the team as a safety.
This article originally appeared on Broncos Wire: Broncos have 2 players on ESPN's All-Backup Team
