Broncos Make Several Roster Moves

by John Bena on Feb 12, 2008 4:05 PM MST in Denver Broncos Roster Moves

The Denver Broncos on Tuesday made several roster transactions, Head Coach Mike Shanahan announced.

Denver claimed linebacker Brandon Archer off waivers from Indianapolis and signed free-agent linebacker William Kershaw. The club also waived wide receiver Carlton Brewster and placed tackle Matt Lepsis on its reserve/retired list.

Archer (6-foot-0, 239 pounds) is a second-year linebacker who enters his first season with the Broncos after totaling 10 defensive tackles (8 solo) and four special-teams stops in six regular-season games as a rookie with the Colts in 2007. He entered the NFL with Indianapolis on May 7 as a college free agent from Kansas State University and had stints on the Vikings and Colts' practice squads before he was signed to Indianapolis' active roster late in the year.

At Kansas State, Archer was a first-team All-Big 12 Conference selection (Associated Press) as a senior and finished his career with 268 tackles in 50 games (34 starts). His three career interceptions returned for touchdowns tied a school record.

Archer, who attended Cretin-Derham High School in St. Paul, Minn., was born on Oct. 30, 1983.

Kershaw (6-foot-3, 240 pounds) is a third-year linebacker who enters his first season with the Broncos after seeing time with Philadelphia (practice squad), Houston (active roster) and Kansas City (active roster) in 2007. He entered the NFL with Kansas City on May 12, 2006, as a college free agent from the University of Maryland and spent his rookie year with the Chiefs.

Kershaw has played three regular-season games for his career, appearing in two contests with Kansas City (2006 and '07) and one game with Houston (2007). He also saw time in the Chiefs' AFC Wild Card Game at Indianapolis on Jan. 6, 2007, and led the club with three special-teams tackles against the Colts.

The linebacker played 42 games (20 starts) at Maryland, totaling 204 career tackles (103 solo) and 12.5 tackles for losses. A two-year starter at Hoke County High School in Raeford, N.C., Kershaw was born on Dec. 15, 1983.

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Archer

Archer is an ILB who should probably be playing on the weakside in a Tampa-2. He doesn't have the kind of size needed to go up on the strongside for Denver so I suspect that this move is all about getting Gold traded or cut and having some competition at WLB with Winborn. He has experience calling defensive signals, so he doubles as a backup to DJ.

Hopefully he learned something while in Indy, as he couldn't cover TEs in college (no leaping ability whatsoever) and his tackling needed work.

Coming out of college Kershaw needed to learn how to use the weight room properly. He was asked to bulk up coming into the NFL but the result was a lopsided specimen without much "sand in his pants."

Kershaw has a knack for zone coverage, but like Archer has trouble fighting off blockers, and is a likely guy for the weakside competition. Also, like Archer, he has experience at both ILB and OLB, so he is probably just being added to mix things up come training camp.

A strength of his in college was coverage on TEs, but not due to good coverage skills...what he ahd was an uncanny ability to disrupt the TE at the line, fast TEs, strong TEs, it didn't matter...

...a lot like these two signings...

by Jeremy Bolander on Feb 12, 2008 8:30 PM MST reply actions