Last year's Roster: Only 7 Ex-Broncos are still in the NFL

Of 63 players drafted between 2000 through 2005, only 2 remain on the team. Don’t count 06 on because those guys are still in rookie contracts.

Exactly were we doing? Were we trying to aim for the record of most players that don’t have nfl talent.

Well, if anyone wanted a single article that best defined why we needed to make the changes that we did, this is that article. Rec’d! My hat is off to you for the research: Thank you. Now I’m going to go take some nausea medication…

I can’t believe webster did not land on a team…… :)

combined with a few key “super stars” (i.e. Cutler, Marhsall, Royal, Clady…) looks an awful lot like the raiders, doesn’t it.

We really need to see the normal turnover for a team to know for sure. Some of those guys listed above were even scrubs on our bad team and some were at the end and ready to retire (Ramsey, Robertson) to name a few. The turnover is very high in the NFL and the career expectancy is very low…but I have a feeling these numbers may still be terrifying even if somebody can do the research.

what happened to them?

Think he is on one of the UFL rosters

There are 9 or 10 names that I don’t even recognize. No wonder they aren’t employed.

This is the kind of in-depth stuff I love. Interesting (if depressing) to see just how far we’d fallen without realizing it.

Easily rec’d.

Wow, that is pathetic. This is more proof we were a really, really bad team.

The only ex-Bronco that I have heard a lot of is Mike Bell. I know he is injured for the Saints, however he was doing quite well over there before he got hurt.

We won 8 games last season with these guys :-/

Thank you for taking the time to research this.

The MSM has nothing on the writers of this website.

Patrick Ramsey was just released by the Titans…

(just to make room for a CB from the practice squad, he’ll probably be signed again once Finnegan is healthy again, but still ;) )

The results are just as sobering. Since player rosters are fluid, and the online databases are not always accurate (I used ESPN), take this with a grain of salt. Players not included on nativeson’s excellent post: Hamza Abdulla, Tatum Bell, Corey Boyd, Nic Clemons, Vernon Fox, Herana-Daze Jones, Niko Koutavides – Tampa Bay, Mike Leach – Arizona, Kory Lichtensteiger – Minnesota, Calvin Lowry – Detroit, Marquand Manuel – Detroit, Marlon McCree – Jacksonville, Chad Mustard, Karl Paymah – Minnesota, P.J. Pope, Jeb Putzier, and Roderick Rogers. Overall, 38 players from the end of 2008 are not on the roster in 2009. 20 from the defense, 17 from the offense and 1 special teamer. When I looked, of these 38, 13 were on the rosters of other teams.

I heard Lichtensteiger was just cut a couple days ago by Minnesota………..

http://www.nationalfootballpost.com/Wilson-Titans-cut-Ramsey-promote-Williams.html

Lichtensteiger was also cut recently (I just now saw someone else’s comment to this effect).

I posted a comment previously on this idea — of the poor success of our ex-players — so I obviously agree with this argument.

I also noticed that Dre’ Bly’s position on the Niners was partly the result of a rule that cuts the cap hit for a veteran, and this rule was instituted to help veteran players whose minimum salary is a disincentive for teams. Contrast his current $845,000 salary (which counts at about half for cap purposes) with his $3.250,000 salary (not including substantial bonus money already earned) and you get an idea of how little other teams valued our former players.

We can argue about the degree to which our former players have failed to succeed but the overall message is clear. Other than Leach, whose leaving was controversial, I can’t think of a single former player we cut who has become a starter anywhere — which is significant.

Many people have focused on our lack of success in the draft, particularly earlier in this decade, but our failings seemed to occur more in our evaluations of pro talent, which is less a product of luck. Our success in the draft wasn’t that anomalous even though there were a few years that stand out as glaring failures. This alone did not account for our decline, but it was obviously part of it. Our failure to mitigate our decline through free agency at the same time that we were failing in our drafts was a critical failing. And it’s likely that Shanahan bore responsibility for this failure.

One statistic that few people seem to be aware of is the number of UFAs in recent years who were no longer wanted by their previous teams. The 2009 Broncos Media Guide (How the Broncos were built) shows how few UFAs in recent years were still being pursued by their previous team once they became UFAs. A few players who were relinquished found success — such as Stokley or Haggan — but this year’s crop of UFAs stands out in sharp contrast to the last few. Added to that, we often overpaid for that talent — such as Travis Henry.

The point is — poor evaluation of pro talent combined lax restraints on salary led to failure, and this was exacerbated by failures in the draft. Our recent success in the draft (starting in 2006) provided a nucleus of talent that the current team enjoys. And added to that group, we now have a new group of UFAs who were evaluated by the new staff and they don’t appear to be like their castoff predecessors.

This is the story of this team, and it’s invariably missed by the MSM. It’s a tale of feast and famine.