ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — No Justin Simmons, no Kareem Jackson, no problem for Sean Payton and the Denver Broncos.
One year ago, the Broncos’ safety room was one of the most experienced, and arguably the best, in the NFL. A year later, it’s young, much less experienced and hungry.
“If you’re just watching the competition and the practices, it’s much different right now in my opinion than a year ago when I watched the film,” Payton said during the first week of training camp, talking about the Broncos’ safeties. “I think young and hungry can be very dangerous, and I’ve told them that. I think that can be very successful. Just focus on the day and improvement that day. I think they’ve done a good job of that right now.”
Led by presumptive starters Brandon Jones (26) and P.J. Locke (27), the rest of the Broncos’ safety room is full of rookies and second-year players.
That is, of course, after the Broncos released fourth-year safety Caden Sterns on Monday. Believed to be part of the young safety group Payton is so optimistic about, the release came as a surprise to many. But it was partly due to the even younger safeties in the room that forced the Broncos’ hand.
“The depth,” Payton said Monday after practice, when asked why the Broncos released the former fifth-round pick. “I visited with Caden this morning and just told him that right now we felt like it was in the best interest of our team. Especially this early where he’ll have a chance to either possibly sign with another team or possibly be traded.”
The Broncos were not able to find a trade partner for Sterns, so he was officially released on Monday afternoon.
When healthy, Sterns flashed significant potential. His rookie season, while playing in just 32 percent of the defensive snaps, Sterns was all over the stat sheet, racking up two interceptions, five pass breakups, two sacks, 28 tackles, two tackles for a loss and two quarterback hits.
Staying healthy, however, was an issue. After playing 15 games as a rookie, significant injuries limited him to five games in 2022 and just one game in 2023.
But the reason Denver moved on from Sterns wasn’t all about him.
“Part of it is the byproduct of some of these other guys that are playing ahead of him right now,” Payton added about the reasons the team released the 24-year-old safety.
One of the players who was taking the field above Sterns in training camp was former sixth-round pick JL Skinner.
“He’s one of—not just the only one, but he’s one of a handful of these guys—He’s smart. He really came on in the second half of last season,” Payton said on Monday, when asked what Skinner has shown on the field recently. “He came on in the kicking game and we started seeing him on scout team offensively. So he’s playing with confidence and he’s one of the younger guys that will be pushing. He just has to keep progressing.”
Early on in camp, it’s clear the 6-foot-4, 220-pound safety has taken a significant jump from his rookie season to his second year in the NFL.
“We just felt like this was one area where we wanted to be younger, and we wanted more competition,” Payton said about the safety position during the first week of camp on July 26.
For the significant portion of Broncos Country that wants to see Simmons return to the team, Payton’s comments aren’t encouraging. In fact, there is a youth movement happening in the secondary that even a fourth-year player couldn’t even survive.
It’s up to Jones, Locke and the youth to prove Payton right.
