Broncos roster 2015: Bennie Fowler

A day-by-day Broncos player breakdown is something we've been doing since our days at BroncoTalk nearly a decade ago. This year the tradition continues as we look at the Denver Broncos roster heading into the 2015 season in our 90-in-90 series.

Name: Bennie Fowler
Position: Wide Receiver
Height: 6' 1" Weight: 212
Age: 24   Experience: 2nd Season
College: Michigan State

{Much of this information was taken directly from a comment written by Anon76returns - much thanks for the information, the GIF links and use of your work.}

We picked up Fowler as a UDCFA after to the 2013 draft. Bennie played his college ball in East Lansing where he missed most of this sophomore year with an injury after playing sparingly (mostly on special teams) as a freshman. He caught 93 passes for 1341 yards and 11 TDs during his college career.  Fowler is slightly shorter but heavier than Latimer (or he was at the combine when he weighed in at 217 lbs). He ran a sub 4.4 40 at his Pro Day (nfldraftscout.com had him at a 4.35s 40), and can really jump (36" vertical, 126" broad). Also, for a big WR he has good change of direction (4.18 shuttle and 7.06 3-cone). He gets a quickness score of 102 using my metric which is above average (Odell Beckham scored a 116, Darick Rogers scored a 123). Fowler spent all of last season on our practice squad after making some nice plays during preseason.

The Good:

He can contribute in several ways on the team. he’s a strong and willing blocker (again, he weighs nearly as much as some of our ILBs, he did 18 reps on the BP, and last year he finished the preseason with positive PFF grades in run and screen blocking). He also has good ST ability. He was quite impressive on kickoff coverage and as a gunner on punt team for us in the preseason last year, and actually had the highest preseason ST grade on the team from PFF. In college he returned KOs, and he also managed to recover a blocked punt for a TD. In terms of what he can do catching the ball, he was the leading WR in terms of yards and TDs in each of his junior & senior seasons in college, including 2013 when Michigan State finished the season #3 in the BCS. He also caught the game-winning TD in OT vs. Wisconsin in an important 2012 game (sorry Montee), and caught a huge 60 yard pass in their Rose Bowl victory over Stanford in 2013, so he played big at the highest level in college competition. When he’s on he makes highlight reel catches, and he likes to high-point the catch. He is very good after the catch- sometimes outrunning the DBs, sometimes juking the DBs, and sometimes just plain outmuscling the DBs.

Here’s some of his stuff:

(showing the ability to highpoint for us in the preseason, though the play was called back on a bogus OPI call)

(extending away from his body to make the catch, though he needs to show more of this)

(showing moves after the catch as well as speed to pull away)

(takes 5 Buckeyes to bring him down. Where you at, Roby?)

The Bad:

He does have some concentration drops in college. He has a bad tendency to let the ball get to his body and make "body-catches" which you are not supposed to do as a receiver (you are taught to catch with your hands mainly and not your body). He also apparently had some route-running issues in college, but considering Demaryius Thomas’ career arc I look at the Broncos w/Manning to be an ideal situation for such a WR.

Quotes:

From Fowler:

"I'm definitely more comfortable this offseason, going into my second season with the team. I'm confident, I've made the adjustments the coaches wanted me to make, I've improved in a lot of areas, and I'm excited and more comfortable. I know I'm going to make the roster."

Roster Status:

There are currently 12WRs listed on the 90 man roster. There are only 3 locks to make the roster: DT, Emmanuel Sanders and Cody Latimer. That leaves 9 guys fighting for two spots (assuming we keep 5 WRs)