ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Jalen Virgil was sitting in his hotel room when he learned he was still a Denver Bronco.
Tuesdays deadline for NFL teams to cut their roster to 53 players passed at 2 p.m. and he still hadn’t heard from the coaching staff. Then, 25 minutes after the deadline, the team tweeted a link to its official roster. Virgil clicked and saw his name.
“I found out just like you guys,” Virgil told reporters on Wednesday.
The rookie wide receiver joined the Broncos on draft night after he wasn’t selected. He was a four-time member of The Athletic’s “Freaks List” at Appalachian State, which the highlights the most athletically-gifted college football players in the country. He was the top offensive skill player on the list as a junior and then the No. 1 overall offensive player in his final season.
But the production didn’t follow. He surpassed the 300-receiving-yard mark twice, most recently in 2019, but never hit 400. He finished fifth on the team in receiving yards last season.
Most of Virgil’s contributions came in the return game, where he was a two-time All-Sun Belt performer. He returned three kicks for touchdowns over the past two seasons, which tied him for the most ever at App State.
Still, the production wasn’t enough to warrant a draft pick, despite his 4.37 40-time at his pro day. The Broncos gave him a call 15 minutes after the draft ended, and Virgil jumped at the opportunity.
“I knew they had a pretty good culture of giving undrafted free agents a chance,” he said. “I knew that it was the kind of offense that I could potentially step into with the West Coast-style passing.”
Virgil was one of the biggest standouts of camp and then stood out again in the preseason. He broke off a pair of 30-yard kick returns. More importantly, he caught 9 passes for 180 yards, blowing the rest of the receivers out of the water.
“Every time I went out, I just tried to do as much as I could so it would put them in a bind up there (in the front office),” Virgil said. “I think I proved that I can make plays and that my speed translates over to the NFL.
When cut day came around, friends and former teammates reached out to wish Virgil luck, but there was nothing he could do but wait and refresh Twitter.
“It’s like the opposite of draft day,” Virgil said. “You just don’t want your phone to ring.”
Virgil’s phone didn’t ring but he FaceTimed his family as soon as the news was official.
“We just had a really good moment,” he said.
Now, Virgil needs to turn the page and get ready to play football.
He’s picking up on the bigger playbook, though it was a challenge early on. A West Coast playbook is thick and the receivers have to know all of the roles, instead of just the slot job or one of the boundary positions. He says he’s close to having it down.
When Virgil sees the field, he’ll likely be playing special teams. He was a dominant returner at the collegiate level but he played sparingly on special teams outside of when the ball is in his hands.
“It’s not tough to learn,” he said. “Coach Stukes does a really good job of explaining to us what we need to do in our rules.”
Regardless of his role, Virgil is happy to be a Bronco.
“Something I always worked for my entire life was to get an opportunity like this,” Virgil said. “It’s definitely surreal and a blessing.”
